Lameness prevention: it's all in the head

An understanding of how cows think, how they see the world and how they move is essential for lameness prevention.An Instagram poet who counts Emma Roberts, Alicia Keys, and Karlie Kloss among his fans has revealed he's decided to keep his identity secret because he's 'not into fame'.

Atticus  who is in his late 20s and lives between British Columbia, Canada, and LA has amassed more than 800,000 followers on Instagram thanks to his pithy takes on the modern world.

His new poetry book, entitled The Dark Between Stars, looks at the struggles of dating, with one extract shared online reading: 'A soul mate would be great,/ but at some point I would settle/ for someone who gets back to text messages'.

Anonymous: Instagram poet Atticus , who counts Emma Roberts (above, in an Instagram snap she shared last July) among his fans, has kept his identity a mystery

Accessory: Atticus (pictured with his new book entitled The Dark Between Stars) often wears a distinctive mask in his Instagram posts

Atticus says he 'never expected' his poems to take off and only first started to write them five years ago following a trip to Paris.

'Three years ago, I was in France,' he told Teen Vogue last year. 'I happened to meet a gentleman [who] told me, "You have an opportunity to do a lot of good with words." I thought that was interesting, and he just left that with me.'

The poet  like the street artist Banksy  is determined to keep his identity a secret, wearing a distinctive mask in the majority of his Instagram posts.

Speaking to the Times, Atticus explained why he decided to write under a pseudonym, choosing the name of the ancient philosopher for his pen name.

'I have been surrounded by fame all of my life and I'm not into it,' he said. 'The world is obsessed with fame right now. I think it is better to send love from the shadows.'

In fact, he said that he never thought he would achieve fame in the first place, commenting: 'I never expected it to take off. I'm still so surprised.'

Atticus would only share a few details about his identity, including the fact that he's from Canada, that his mother is British, and that he has three sisters, two of whom are younger than him.

The writer also has a day job, but has so far declined to reveal what it is.

'People start to put pieces of the jigsaw together,' he said.

Since launching his Instagram page, Atticus has written two books, including his debut published last year and entitled Love Her Wild.

Philosophy: The poet revealed he's decided to keep his identity secret because he's 'not into fame', and says it's 'better to send love from the shadows'

Work: Atticus shares his poetry with his followers on Instagram almost daily, including this pithy take on modern dating (above)

Writing: Atticus also shared an extract from his new book The Dark Between Stars (above) in a recent Instagram post

Longtime fan: In December 2015, Karlie Kloss shared this quote by Atticus on Instagram

His first book, he said, was mainly inspired by one woman, and his relationship with her has now ended.

'I've been through many, many breakups,' he told Teen Vogue last year. 'The fact of the matter is that relationships have constant ups and downs. I draw on that; I use my imagination within that. How would I feel if I lost someone, and what would that make me feel?'

Despite the mystery over his identity, he enjoys a close relationship with his followers  with some even getting tattoos of lines of his poetry.

Atticus also has a whole host of celebrity fans, including Karlie Kloss, who shared a quote by poet to mark fiance Joshua Kushner's birthday last year.

Posting on Instagram, the model wrote: 'My atoms love your atoms, It's chemistry. - @atticuspoetry.'

Back in December 2015, she also shared a quote by Atticus, which reads: 'Give like the sun and the whole world grows tall.'

Describing Atticus' work, Karlie, 26, said: 'In the simplest way, Atticus captures those little things that make life magic.'

Meanwhile, actress Emma Roberts, 27, has featured the poet as part of her book club Belletrist, posting on Twitter: 'Congrats to @atticuspoetry on #LoveHerWild so excited for our first belletrist poetry contest'

While he has earned the attention of famous fans, Atticus has no intention of joining them in the spotlight.

'No fame is the new fame,' he told the Times. 'Being recognized everywhere is a beautiful thing, but its also very limiting.'A woman has written a touching open letter to a fellow mother she witnessed breaking down in Primark over her toddler's tantrum, to reassure her that she's a 'bloody good mum'.

The woman, who goes by the name of Sirlee66, took to the British parenting forum Mumsnet to share her support after she saw her sitting on the floor of the shop in tears.

Explaining to other users that the mother was with her young son who was about two-years-old, the woman reassured her that she was not alone and should not feel judged.

Saying she's proved how good a parent she is by showing how much she cared, she added: 'This is the toughest job in the world and we all have moments where it all gets too much and you just have to sit on the floor in Primark and have a good cry.'

And other mothers quickly flooded the letter with support, with one user writing: 'Thank you for posting this. I hope she sees it!', and others commenting that the mother was brave to take her toddler shopping in the first place.

A British woman has posted an open letter to a fellow mother she witnessed having a breakdown in Primark, reassuring her that she is not alone and shouldn't feel judged (Mumsnet post seen)

The user, known only by the name of Sirlee66, took to Mumsnet to share her support for the unknown woman, whom she says she saw crying on the shop floor of the high street store (stock image used)

Sharing her own experience, another added: 'My two-year-old was a little menace last night. Thankfully it was in the house but I had a good wee cry (and a cup of tea.) We have definitely all been there.'

Praising the woman's support, one wrote: 'Good for you. Your post doesn't just appeal to the woman you saw (although I do hope she sees it).

'It's positive reinforcement for all us mothers out there who sometimes crumble in public and come away from it wondering if everyone's worrisome glances in our direction were pure scorn and judgement.

'How nice to be reminded that there are indeed people out there who will have looked on with sympathy and understanding.'

Other mothers quickly flooded the letter with support, with one user writing: 'Thank you for posting this. I hope she sees it!' while others praised the mum for taking her child to the busy store

Sharing her own experience, another mother admitted she had a cry and a cup of tea after her 2-year-old was being 'a little menace', praising the woman's supportive message

But not everyone was as positive, with some accusing the woman of 'shaming' her on the public forum and accusing the woman of being an attention-seeker

Agreeing, another woman wrote: 'I think that this post is not just about the lady that the OP saw today in Primark but to every other mum who may be struggling and has perhaps felt like having a melt down themselves.'

Another added: 'Depression and shame are closely linked a lot of the time. This woman had a very public tearful moment - she's already probably feeling not great about that.

'So anything that offers reassurance that she's still a perfectly normal human being, just having a sh** day, is a positive thing.'

But not everyone was as positive, with some accusing the woman of 'shaming' her on the public forum.

'When I was in the throes of PND (post-natal depression) I would have felt utterly humiliated to read a thread about myself on such a busy forum, especially if I had already politely declined any further contact with the woman involved,' one said.

Many defended the woman's open letter against accusations she was 'shaming' the mother, arguing that shame and depression are closely linked and should be made less taboo

'Why did you post this on the internet instead of saying something to her when you were actually there?' one mother questioned.

Replying, the woman explained that she had approached her, adding: 'After giving her a cuddle and reassuring her. Then asking if she wants to swap numbers and go for a coffee sometime. She said she works most of the time so declined.

'Been thinking about her all day and hoping she's been alright. She was so upset. Really felt for her.'

Many flooded the thread with their own experiences of public breakdowns with their toddlers going through the terrible twos, arguing that it was great to give the mother something to relate toThe 'devastating' depiction of the moment the parents of an IRA bomb victim were forced to switch off their 12-year-old son's life support in the BBC drama Mother's Day left viewers in tears.

The 'powerful' drama, which aired on Monday night, recreated the tragic fall-out from the 1993 Warrington bombings, which claimed the lives of two children; Tim Parry, 12, and Johnathan Ball, three.

A heart-wrenching scene in which Tim's parents, Colin and Wendy - played by Daniel Mays and Anna Maxwell Martin - said goodbye to their son as his life support machines were switched off in hospital prompted scores of viewers to tweet that they were 'sobbing' and struggling to watch.

The boys were fatally injured when IRA bombs planted in litter bins in Warrington's main shopping area were detonated shortly after midday on a Saturday afternoon.

One viewer said: 'Heart breaking and very emotional, and hard watch at times, being a mum.'

Another tweeted: '20 minutes in and I'm in absolute pieces.'

Colin and Wendy Parry were faced with the agonising deicison to turn off their son's life support when he didn't respond to any tests done by doctors. Pictured: Maxwell Martin (right) with Daniel Mays (left), who plays Colin

Wendy Parry - played by Anna Maxwell Martin - turned off her son Tim's life support five days after he was caught up in the Warrington bombings of 1993. Pictured: The actress in Mother's Day

The bombings occurred on the eve of Mother's Day that year on March 20, 1993.

'Very hard to watch knowing this absolute horror actually happened. Crying here. Thinking of the Parry family as they must have found this incredibly hard to relive,' one viewer wrote online.

'Mother's Day, so sad, sobbing,' another posted with crying emojis.

A third wrote: 'Wow, this is a tough tough watch.'

Viewer's also heaped praise on the 'compelling' performances from a stellar cast that also included Vicky McClure as Sue McHugh, who became a peace campaigner as a result of the devastating events that unfolded that day.

Daniel Mays in particular, who played Tim's father, Colin, was singled out for praise by viewers who called his performance 'incredible'.

In the drama, which aired on Monday night, viewers saw Tim happily shopping with friends on Warrington high street, when a bomb exploded in a shop just seconds after they left.

Tim looked around in horror as people lay injured in the street and it seemed as though he'd miraculously escaped, only for him to be caught in the devastation caused by a second explosion.

His parents were arriving at their home when they learned of the bomb on the high street, and Wendy was seen rushing inside the house to find her son, only to discover he wasn't there.

The scene left viewers in tears on Twitter (pictured), with many saying they were 'sobbing' just seconds in.

In moving scenes the couple rushed to the hospital to find Tim bandaged from head to toe, as Wendy gently whispered 'mummy's here' to her son while stroking his leg.

Tim remained on life support but days later the couple were given the devastating news that he was not responding to tests.

The fictional Wendy wept onto her son's stomach and told him she loved him, but could not be in the room as life support machines were turned off.

Colin lay on his son's hospital bed with him, weeping as doctors turned the machines off.

Viewers glued to the dramatic depiction of the 1993 Warrington bombings heaped praise on the 'superb' acting from the stellar cast, which included Anna Maxwell-Martin and Daniel Mays as Tim Parry's parents, Colin and Wendy

The real Colin and Wendy (pictured) collaborated with producers on the heartwrenching new drama

In the opening scenes viewers saw Tim leaving a shop just seconds before the first bomb hit the high street (pictured)

Devastatingly, Tim was struck by the second bomb just seconds later as he looked around in horror at the injured before attempting to run away (pictured)

Wendy had to go out of the room while Colin on the hospital bed sobbed as their son's life support was turned off (pictured)

To make the show even more emotional viewers saw home video footage of Maxwell Martin as Wendy cradling Tim as a newborn (pictured)

The BBC programme also tells the story of Sue McHugh, played by Vicky McClure (left, in the drama), who organised one of Ireland's largest peace rallies following the bombing. Sue's husband Arthur is played by David Wilmot (right)

Mother's Day also features the story of Sue McHugh, played by Vicky McClure, who organised one of Ireland's largest peace rallies following the bombing.

Following the death of their son, Colin and Wendy, 61, now run the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace in the memory of his son, and toddler Johnathan.

Three-year-old Johnathan Ball (above) was also killed in the Warrington bombings

Speaking earlier this year on the 25th anniversary of his son's death, Wendy said: 'It was really difficult, we were a family of five and then suddenly one's been taken away and it's really hard to get into being a family of four.

'After we lost him, we couldn't find any organisations that helped families or children.

'One of the programmes we wanted to do was helping the victims of terrorism.

'I think people come to us because our organisation has been set up by victims and they know that we know exactly how they feel.'

Colin, who works as an outpatient consultant, added: 'In those early days and weeks, months, it was all about surviving ourselves.'Bride Rachel Ward wore five luxurious wedding dresses worth $90,000 to her two ceremonies and as a result has been slammed for being 'indecisive', 'vain' and 'everything that is wrong with the modern world'.

The 27-year-old from Cheshire, in north-west England, wed Thomas Cottrell in the Maldives last year before having a church ceremony in the Lake District in June 2018.

Three of the gowns she wore were from Australian brand Jadore Evening, as the bride has Australian family.

Rachel Ward (second from right), 27, from Cheshire on her wedding day in the Lake District in June 2018, wearing her 'dream' wedding dress, one of five different gowns shre wore for the celebrations

After the ceremony and meal, Rachel changed into a second outfit change for drinks and mingling with her guests at her Lake District wedding in June this year

But some people online weren't thrilled by her lavish nuptials, suggesting her new husband should 'run for the hills'.

'High maintenance and vain! The marriage won't last. Guarantee it,' one particularly vocal person said.

'The dresses were clearly more important than the actual getting married part,' another added.

Some went so far as to label her a 'narcissist' and wrongly suggested Thomas had slept with another woman.

You may now kiss the bride! Rachel and her new husband Thomas with the bride wearing her third outfit of the day - a fishtail feathered dress she showcased for her first dance

For her wedding ceremony in The Maldives in November 2017, Rachel wore a floaty dress by Virgos Lounge that was perfect for the warm temperatures

The fallout has undoubtedly upset the stunning woman, particularly as she has grand plans for the unique gowns.

'I left two of the wedding dresses I wore in the Maldives there for future Maldivian brides to wear, should they not be able to afford a gown themselves,' she told FEMAIL.

As for the two she swapped into during the church ceremony early this year, Rachel donated them to Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust - a charity close to her heart.

For her evening celebrations in The Maldives in November 2017, Rachel wore a glamorous embellished fishtail gown

Rachel was the only bride in the UK with her dress as she imported it from Milan after spending months searching for her dream gown with her mother

The 27-year-old has had high-grade 'abnormal' smear tests in the past and is always encouraging her female followers to schedule in their routine pap smears.

Previously, FEMAIL reported the Instagram star, who has more than 250,000 followers, couldn't decide on which wedding dress to choose for her big day.

'I'm really not a bridezilla I just simply love fashion which is what I studied, for my degree,' she explained.

'I think I got a little carried away and just kept seeing more and more that I liked, only looking back now do I realise how many I had.'

Rachel and Thomas on their first wedding day in The Maldives. The couple wanted to celebrate in one of their favourite places with close family and friends but had a bigger second wedding in the UK this summer

The happy couple on their second wedding day in June 2018: Rachel admitted she's received some negative reaction over her five wedding dresses on Instagram, but says the vast majority of people have been supportive

Rachel bought one of the dresses herself, costing more than $17,800 and her parents bought a second dress, while others were sent to her by brands.

She met Thomas five years ago through mutual friends and spent months searching for her perfect dress with her mother.

'I then went to Eternity Bridal wear in Warrington, England, and spotted my dream dress in a look book on the table. The dress was by Nicole Spose and was only available in Milan.

'The lovely owner of the shop was able to pull some strings for me and have one shipped over, so I was the only one in the UK with that dress.'

The stunning bride: Rachel also found that brands were eager to dress her for her big day and eventually had a ' lightbulb moment'

Many of her loyal followers understood why she made the decision to change into various dresses - but she understands that being in the public eye brings negativity

However, Rachel also found that brands were eager to dress her for her big day and eventually had a 'lightbulb moment'.

'It clicked that I could change throughout the day and truly feel like a princess on the most magical day of my life,' she explained.

For the UK wedding, Rachel wore her Nicole Spose dream dress for the ceremony and meal, an evening dress by Jadore Evening Australia for drinks and mingling and a 'fun feather fishtail dress' for her first dance.

'Changing was easy as I had my mum and three bridesmaids on hand,' she said.

'My husband and I went on holiday to the island of Kurumba in the Maldives the year before our wedding and instantly fell in love with the place and wanted to get married there with 20 close friends and family members.

Feeling hot, hot, hot! For her Maldives ceremony, Rachel found that having multiple dresses was ideal due to the temperatures

'I then wanted to stun my guests in the evening when the sun wasn't so hot in a lovely corseted glam lacy number,' she said

'However the marriage would not be legally recognised in the UK and not everyone who we wanted to celebrate with us was able to go to the Maldives, so that was a perfect excuse for a second wedding.'

For her Maldives ceremony, Rachel found that having multiple dresses was ideal due to the temperatures.

'My day dress from Virgos Lounge was cool, floaty and comfortable. The weather was also very hot so it definitely served its purpose as you want to feel comfortable on your big day.

'I then wanted to stun my guests in the evening when the sun wasn't so hot in a lovely corseted glam lacy number.'

'I am very lucky because I have a number of celebrity friends who support my images and we all support each other through the negativity which just comes with the job,' she said (this was not one of the wedding dresses)

Many of her loyal followers understood why she made the decision to change into various dresses - but she understands that being in the public eye brings negativity.

'The first images of my Nicole Spose dress went viral, reaching over one million views,' she said.

'I am very lucky because I have a number of celebrity friends who support my images and we all support each other through the negativity which just comes with the job.

'I also have a lot of good friends and family who support me and know how hard I work to achieve the things I do and that's all I can ask for. I love sharing my story online and I love following and sharing other Instagrammers.'If you've been hit with an unexpected bill and don't have the cash handy to cover it, there's a quick way to rustle up the funds without turning to your credit card.

Australian financial expert Canna Campbell has revealed how it's possible to generate more than $1,000 in a hurry - and without having to leave the house.

The single mother and money guru is famous for having saved a staggering $36,000 in just 13 months - all in addition to her regular salary.

In a recent YouTube video, the Sugar Mamma TV founder shared eight easy tips for turning unwanted household goods into a small fortune.

Scroll down for video

Australian financial expert Canna Campbell (pictured) has revealed how its possible to generate $1,000 in a hurry

'One of the best and most effective ways in the past that have worked for me to hustle up some extra cash is by selling unwanted things,' Canna said on the clip.

Canna explained one of the simplest things she did to make money is she took stock of what she had in her home which she no longer wanted or needed before turning to an online site to list these.

The expert said research from Gumtree (an online resale site) shows Australian families have over 25 items per household of unwanted goods worth over $4,200 each.

'$4,200 is a lot of money to have just sitting around your home,' she said.

'One of the best and most effective ways in the past that have worked for me to hustle up some extra cash is by selling unwanted things,' Canna said

After you've made a decision regarding what you want to sell, Canna advises listing your things as quickly as possible.

'Think about the money and what you could do with that money and how much it could help you and how much it could alleviate financial stress in your life,' she said.

The financial expert recommended downloading an secondhand resale site app (pictured right) in order to make listing goods as easy as possible

Her recommendation is to download the Gumtree app - something she said is the 'secret to my success'.

'I listed over seven items in one hour on a Sunday afternoon and I was going at a really slow relaxed pace,' Canna revealed.

Another of Canna's top tips is to research the cost of what other similar items are selling for to give you a base from which to price your own goods.

The single mother and money guru is famous for having saved a staggering $36,000 in just 13 months - all in addition to her regular salary

'The purpose of this is to raise some cash so you do not want to price yourself out of the market,' she said.

Another tip she shared that will help ensure sales is to take lots of photos from different angles showing the items in the best possible light.

'Also if you have the boxes and the receipts and the warranty cards of that item, make sure you take a photograph of those as well,' Canna explained.

Canna also extolls the virtue of meeting sellers face-to-face to collect the cash because she believes this is a great way to potentially forge a new friendship over a shared interest

What are Canna's eight tips for successful selling online? 1. Stop procrastinating and think about the money you could make selling your goods online 2. Download the free Gumtree app to make listing items easier 3. Research market prices so you can price your goods accordingly 4. Ask for help if you're finding the exercise of decluttering and selling your goods difficult 5. Take lots of photos in good lighting and from lots of different angels 6. Be as descriptive in your listing as you can 7. Manage your listing and always respond to questions quickly 8. Meet people face-to-face and bank the cash as soon as you have it Advertisement

Canna said when listing items it's worth also spending a little time writing a detailed description.

Explain when an item was bought, where you bought it from and the reason why you are selling it.

'Also, make sure you quickly reply back to people who have questions about the items you are selling,' she said.

'And I also recommend being flexible with pickups. For the items I am selling that aren't bulky I actually take these into the office so people who can't pick these up from my home after hours can pop into my office and pick up from there.'

Canna also extolls the virtue of meeting sellers face-to-face to collect the cash.

She said this is a great way to connect with your community as well as potentially forging friendship over a shared interest.

Once you have the money, the expert recommends quickly heading to the bank and putting this into a separate savings account.

Once you have the cash in your hands, Canna said head to the bank immediately and put this is a separate savings account

Lastly, Canna said you should keep items you are selling out of the house to avoid your space becoming full again with unwanted possessions.

'This will remind you that you want to get rid of these items and you want to sell them. Keep them out until they are sold,' she said.

'And after a certain period, you could look at donating them to charity,' she concluded.In today's digital world, a promotional Instagram post from an influential celebrity is worth more than its weight in likes.

Australian fashion designer Jessica Johansen Bell understood this and experienced the raw power of astute public relations when billionaire cosmetics mogul Kylie Jenner shared not one but four photographs to her 114 million followers wearing a dress from the eponymous label Johansen.

Speaking to FEMAIL, the 23-year-old Byron-based brand owner detailed the meteoric rise of her business, her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and exactly how things have changed as the dust settles from the Kylie effect.

As Ms Johansen Bell said herself, 'it's not about the clothes, it's about who's wearing them'.

Jessica Johansen Bell (pictured) is the 23-year-old founder and designer of Johansen

Kylie wore The Corset Jumper dress in white which is currently sold out in size Small/Medium

The sartorial achievements of Ms Johansen Bell are all the more impressive given the young creative is entirely self-taught.

'I started unofficially designing when I was 16, always cutting up my own clothes and altering them.

'I always knew I wanted to start a brand, but when I finished high school I started working at Island Luxe,' she told FEMAIL.

Islad Luxe is a high-end homeware, fashion and accessory boutique in Bangalow which was featured in Australian Vogue's 'Guide to Shopping in Byron Bay'.

'I worked there for about three years and that's where I learned everything I know about fashion and fabric,' she continued.

'During my final six months there, I launched Johansen and they agreed to stock my pieces.

'It blew up from there and I had my first small pop up store in the back alley behind Island Luxe.'

'I started unofficially designing when I was 16, always cutting up my own clothes and altering them' - Ms Johansen Bell

Ms Johansen Bell has always had her finger firmly on the pop culture pulse, with her early collections selling out in a matter of days.

'I opened my dream store on Bangalow's main street eight months after starting the label,' she said.

After previously sending a package of Johansen looks to Jenner's glam squad, Kylie's personal stylist Dani Michele contacted the Australian label requesting a selection of outfits to consider for the Instagram queen's 21st birthday celebrations.

'I knew it wouldn't make the cut for her party - she was always going to wear something incredibly expensive and over the top, but she wore our pieces a few days later,' she said.

'It actually worked out better for us because she posted four photos, which I think was more than she shared of her birthday outfits!'.

Kylie wore The Corset Jumper dress in white which is currently sold out in size Small/Medium, as well as The Silk Cha Dress in shade latte which she wore while testing out a new lip shade from her latest collection of Kylie Cosmetics.

'It actually worked out better for us because she posted four photos, which I think was more than she shared of her birthday outfits!'

One Instagram ad from Kylie Jenner is worth an estimate $1 million (pictured wearing the Cha dress in latte by Johansen)

Since Jenner's endorsement on August 22, Ms Johansen Bell admitted things have been 'pretty crazy' for the locally manufactured company.

'Online has blown up and we've sold out a number of times in the past two weeks.

'We're considering closing our physical store and moving to purely e-commerce and wholesale avenues.

'I looked into it and one Instagram ad from Kylie is worth about $1 million, so we've essentially received more than $4 million in free endorsement.'

'Send your garments to celebrities - it's not about the clothes, it's about who's wearing them'

Asked what advice she would give to aspiring brand owners and fashion entrepreneurs, Ms Johansen Bell said her personal success is down to old fashioned hard work.

'You have to work really hard, but you also have to work smart - you can't waste time,' she advised.

'I've made so many mistakes in my career so far, but I've always been a big believer in manifesting achievements and working towards them.

'If I could go back and tell my younger self what I know now, I would say be cautious about throwing money around - be discerning as to where you spend significant cash.

'Be aware of effective ways of working, and send your garments to celebrities - it's not about the clothes, it's about who's wearing them.'Excitement levels for Charlotte Tilbury's new makeup range have reached fever pitch with a staggering 25,000 women signing up to the waiting list.

The British beauty guru's Pillow Talk collection - consisting of an eye shadow and cheek palette inspired by her cult lipstick of the same name - launches on Thursday.

But thousands of women across the country desperate to get their hands on a set have already signed up with the products expected to gain cult status.

The new makeup range was inspired by the brand's cult Pillow Talk lipstick, beloved by A-listers and royals alike.

Charlotte Tilbury's new Cheek to Chic will cost 30 (left) and the Luxury Palette for eyes is priced at 39 (right), both available exclusively on Charlotte Tilbury's official website

The Cheek to Chic is priced at 30 and the Luxury Palette at 39, both available exclusively on Charlotte Tilbury's official website where they are now available exclusively to MailOnline readers ahead of the official launch through the above link.

The shade  a universally flattering nude colour loved by everyone from Alexa Chung to Mariah Carey  has proved so popular it is set to be extended into eye and cheek products.

The bestselling lippie was worn by Kitty Spencer at the 2018 royal wedding and is a firm red carpet favourite among stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Celine Dion and JK Rowling.

It comprises a matte lipstick in barely-there pink and a matching lip liner, costing 24 and 16 respectively, with the pencil selling every six seconds globally.

Pillow Talk: Thousands of women across the country desperate to get their hands on a set have already signed up with the products expected to gain cult status

The Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk lipstick and liner boasts a host of celebrity fans including Gwyneth Paltrow (left) and Alexa Chung (right) - many highlight that it looks slightly different on different people

Describing it as her 'backstage secret weapon', Charlotte Tilbury (pictured with Nicole Kidman) said the product has 'everything you need for fuller, re-defined pout

The lip liner is such a global success that one of the products sells every six seconds around the world.

Describing it as her 'backstage secret weapon', Charlotte Tilbury has previously described it as 'everything you need for fuller, re-defined pout'.

'This nude beige lip liner is perfect for pairing with your everyday nude lip,' she writes on the brand's website.

The lipstick is designed to glide seamlessly onto the lips, is waterproof to ensure no feathering or transferring all day - and lasts up to six hours without smudging or fading.

'I've purchased this before so it speaks for itself, the creamiest long lasting lip liner, great because it never breaks in the middle of use,' another reviewer said (pictured: Emma Roberts)

Lady Kitty Spencer (left) wore the liner from Charlotte Tilbury (right) to the recent British Royal wedding, where her look won her plaudits

Charlotte Tilbury's lip liner product in universally flattering Pillow Talk nude (pictured on Olivia Culpo) is one of the best-selling beauty products in the world

And despite looking one colour in the packaging, Pillow Talk gives a soft, subtle wash of colour that varies according to the wearer.

For instance, last year three women wore it to the Met Ball, and Pillow Talk looked completely different on Emma Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Alexa Chung.

Reviews online of Charlotte's Pillow Talk product are almost universally positive.

'Just enough pink with a sprinkle of brown keeping it the perfect nude [sic],' one reviewer posted, alongside a five star rating.

Recently, Charlotte Tilbury (pictured with Natasha Oakley) revealed the best-selling beauty products in Australia, which is the brand's third largest market

'I've purchased this before so it speaks for itself, the creamiest long lasting lip liner, great because it never breaks in the middle of use unlike other brands [sic],' another posted.

'I inherited my grandmother's very thin lips and light complexion. Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat allows me to extend my lips just enough to be visible without looking like seven year old me drew them on. Life changing!,' one further reviewer added.

Elsewhere, Amal Clooney, Olivia Palermo, Salma Hayek, Olivia Culpo, Nicole Kidman and Lady Emma Roberts are all fans of Pillow Talk.

But if you want to invest in the liner, you'll have to be quick - as the product and its lipstick counterpart often have to be re-stocked regularly, due to the speed at which they sell out.He was responsible for the most iconic makeup of the year with women across the globe desperate to emulate Meghan's wedding look.

But while you may expect only the most premium brands to be used by the Duchess of Sussex's makeup artist, Daniel Martin admits that he relies on a few bargains.

In a new interview the expert has revealed that he uses a bargain drugstore product in place of a highlighter to achieve a glowing complexion.

Speaking to E! News Daniel explained: 'A lot of my highlighting is done with skin-care.

Daniel Martin, the makeup artist behind Meghan's wedding day beauty look (pictured), has revealed the surprising product he uses to achieve a glowing complexion

'Before highlighters, you would do highlighting with Aquaphor (a petrolium jelly based product).

'Aquaphor will give you that same texture, especially in a photo [when applied] on the high points of the face.'

And far from a pricey highlighter palette which retail at an average of $40 (30) Aquaphor - which is almost identical to Vaseline - costs as little as $5 (8) making it a surprisingly affordable way to emulate the duchess.

And highlighter is not the only thing the brand's incredibly popular Healing Ointment is used for.

The product has long been recognized as one of the market's most loved lip balms, and is also recommended for use on chapped, dry skin, as well as an array of other minor irritations, including scrapes, cuts, burns - and even as a means of caring for new tattoos.

It can even be used to protect babies from diaper rash.

And although US-based Daniel opts to use the brand's original Healing Ointment - which isn't currently available in the UK - there is a near-identical alternative that can be picked up by Meghan's British fans, the Eucerin Aquaphor Soothing Skin Balm, which has an incredibly similar formula, and a great wallet-friendly price tag.

Options! Daniel revealed that he uses the $5 Aquaphor Healing Ointment (left), which is not available in the UK. A near-identical alternative, however, is the Eucerin Aquaphor Soothing Skin Balm, which retails for 8

Daniel, who works a Dior Brand Ambassador, has not been tight lipped when it comes to his techniques, previously sharing various secrets behind Meghan's beauty routine.

The makeup artist, who is also creative color consultant for Jessica Alba's Honest Beauty (pictured together in 2017) recently revealed how he enhances Meghan's freckles

Last week he explained how he uses a 'selective placement of foundation', applying the base like a spot treatment to make her freckles stand out before using a blending brush to even it out.

He also revealed how he likes to use water-based foundations, along with Tatcha's The Silk Canvas primer, priced at $52 (40), in order for the makeup to stay on for longer.

Speaking to E! News, Daniel explained: 'People with freckles tend to have a really balanced palette.

'If they have any redness, it's in the T-zone, around the nose, maybe some discoloration the eyes.

'It's about evening out those specific areas to blend in with the rest of the face. I tend to use a blending brush and I'll go in and buff out the undertone that I don't want.'

It comes after Daniel revealed Meghan has been doing her own makeup for high profile events, rather than enlisting professional help.

But even when she is doing her own makeup, Meghan opts for the same freckle-enhancing coverage that Daniel creates for her.

The expert revealed how he uses a 'selective placement of foundation' to ensure the Duchess's freckles stand out. Meghan is pictured at last week's Hamilton Gala performance in London

During her time on Suits, the Duchess revealed to Beauty Banter that she preferred not to wear heavy foundation away from the cameras, and instead used the $38 (30) Laura Mercier Radiance Primer to 'give her skin a dewy glow'.

On days when she felt she needed more coverage, one of her go-to foundation choices was the Chanel Sublimage Le Teint Cream Foundation - a rather pricey choice at $138 (100) per pot.

He recently also revealed how Prince Harry kept saying 'thank you' to him following the ceremony.

Daniel told InStyle: 'I know exactly what [Meghan] does and doesnt like. After the ceremony Harry kept saying thank you. He was thanking me for making her look like herself.'

Explaining the inspiration behind Meghan's classic bridal look, he added: 'The last thing you want [is] to look at your wedding pictures and go, "Remember when highlighting was the rage?"

'At the end of the day, you want to look like your best self.'Advertisement

After months of being plagued by divorce rumours, the message conveyed by their Vogue shoot could not have been clearer: after 19 years of marriage, the Beckhams are stronger than ever.

Victoria and David put on a united front to join their four children on the front of the British fashion bible this week where they spoke about their marriage and the importance of being a 'family unit'.

And according to body language expert Judi James, the couple paint a picture of domestic bliss with Victoria positioning herself as the 'maternal leader' who delegates the 'playful side' of family life to her husband.

Here Judi, author of The Body Language Bible, reveals what the Beckhams' body language really tells us about their family dynamics.

1. Victoria the 'maternal leader'

The Beckhams united: Harper, Romeo, Victoria, Cruz and Brooklyn Beckham - along with their spaniel Olive - appear on the cover of this month's British Vogue where they discuss family life and how they dealt with divorce rumours this summer. Body language expert Judi James notes that Victoria appears to have assumed the role of 'maternal leader' in this shot

David is not pictured on the magazine cover, which features just Victoria children Brooklyn, 19, Romeo, 16, Cruz, 13, Harper, seven, and their beloved spaniel, Olive, sitting underneath a tree.

Casually dressed in a baggy white shirt, the matriarch wraps a protective arm around Romeo, who in turn is cuddling his little sister.

'Victoria presents herself as a strong, happy and relaxed but determined-looking maternal leader of her gorgeous family group,' notes Judi.

'Sitting central to the children and with an arm slung round them, Victoria's facial expression looks protective and loving as though she would challenge anyone trying to come between her and the kids.'

2. Victoria goes solo in 'open and authentic' shot

'Open and authentic': Beckham matriarch Victoria exudes 'emphatic' confidence in this sultry solo shot, according to body language expert Judi James, who adds: 'She is technically stripped back bare looking strong, fit and happy for the camera'

The second image sees Victoria posing solo, gazing at the camera in a sultry black and white shot. And according to Judi, the mother-of-four here exudes 'emphatic' confidence in her most stripped-back portrait yet.

'In her solo shot, this new air of individual confidence is emphatic,' says Judi. 'With her hair covered she is technically stripped back bare looking strong, fit and happy for the camera.

'The pose is relaxed and more giving emotionally than her usual poses suggesting that this open and authentic version of her is more comfortable and sexual that we normally see.'

3. 'Reflective' Victoria leaves the playful stuff to David

Family portrait: Victoria assumes a reflective pose as a soaked David laughs, while the children play with water pistols. According to Judi James, it suggests the 'maternal leader' is happy to delegate the 'playful stuff' to her husband

The only portrait that sees all six Beckhams together in one frame, here Victoria and David are seen relaxing on the grass as their children enjoy a water gun fight.

While a soaked David cracks a smile as he watches the kids, Victoria looks into the distance serenely.

Judi says: 'The shot with David shows a change of dynamic. With him in the playful family group she disconnects slightly, reverting to a more distant and reflective gaze while David does the fun stuff.'

See the full feature in the October issue of Vogue, available on digital download and newsstands on Friday 7th SeptemberTourists and exhausted new parents are spending 18 an hour to visit 'nap pods' and catch up on sleep during the working day.

The customers, who mainly come from nearby office buildings, are going to Pop & Rest near Old Street in London to get some sleep and relaxation.

Pop & Rest has four 7ft by 6ft rooms, which hold a single bed, a desk and some plants, and co-founder Mauricio Villamizar told the Evening Standard that many customers are new parents desperate to catch some shut-eye during the working day.

He said that one male customer, who had just become a father, said that he could barely sleep at night and so comes to the pods once a week.

The scheme originally opened up as a pop-up in Monument last year, but because of its huge popularity, Pop & Rest decided to set up a permanent base.

Pop & Rest in Old Street, London is popular with office workers because of their 'nap pods' which contain a single bed, a desk and some plants, making them perfect for a quick half an hour to two hour nap during the working day (pictured)

Mr Villamizar said that the sleep pods get more busy after 4.30pm, towards the end of the working day.

He also explained how tourists visit them by searching on Google before travelling to the UK.

He said: 'A lot of travellers from the US or Asia Google us and book a pod for when they land in London. It's good for relaxing, charging your devices and thinking what you're going to do next in the city.'

The minimum booking time is half an hour but you're allowed to reserve the pods for up to two hours overall.

According to Mauricio Villamizar, co-founder of Pop & Rest, the sleep pods are becoming more and more popular and attract tourists from abroad, as well as new parents who struggle to sleep during the night. Pictured is a woman trying out the sleep pods

Customers who use the pods can use their own alarms to wake themselves up after their nap, or have a staff member knock on the door.

The company said that the number of customers has increased dramatically and they have to cater for dozens every week.

To make the room as relaxing as possible, they worked together with an interior designer from France, who added soundproof panels that help make the pods portable.

The company is planning on expanding by introducing their nap pods to local libraries and even shopping centres.

They hope to have around a dozen pods set up all around London by next year.Advertisement

A Miss England contestant made history today by becoming the first ever finalist to wear a hijab - but lost out to another beauty queen whose mother stormed the stage to embrace her victorious daughter.

After months of preparation, the Miss England 2018 hopefuls took to the stage this evening to compete to win the title and represent the country in the Miss World pageant in Chinese city of Sanya this November.

All 50 finalists showed off their good looks and unique talents in tonight's show, with rounds including a fashion show, talent showcase and an evening wear catwalk.

Contestant Sara Iftekhar, 20, from Huddersfield was the first ever hijab-wearing beauty queen to make it to the final, but ultimately she lost out to Miss Newcastle.

Alisha Cowie's mother jumped on stage to hug her daughter after she received her crown and trophy before being dragged off for security.

The glamorous event took place in at Kelham Hall and Country Park in Kelham, Nottinghamshire, and is the second round in the final, with the first taking place back in July.

Miss Huddersfield 2018 Sara Iftikhar is the first ever hijabi-wearing woman to make it to the finals of the competition, although she appeared not to wearing one on the catwalk (pictured)

Miss Huddersfield 2018 Sara Iftikhar wore a turban-style headscarf on the catwalk, as she joined Miss Staffordshire 2018 Megan Fenwick (right) during the Miss England 2018 finals

The mother of Miss Newcastle stormed the stage after her daughter Alisha Cowe was crowned Miss England. Security staff then pulled her off stage

Mrs Crowe cried tears of joy after seeing her daughter Alisha take the crown at the 68th Miss England competition

Emotions ran high for both mother and daughter as Alisha was crowned Miss England 2018/19. The winner of the Miss England title will eventually join Miss Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to compete for the Miss World crown, with its impressive first prize award of $100,000 (78,000)

Prior to her win this evening, Alisha posted a snap on Instagram with the caption: 'Anyone for yoga? The Miss England finals have been a blast so far and I cant believe today is the day a new Miss England will be crowned!'

This is the second round of the finale, with the first occurring back in July. Pictured: Miss Norfolk Natasha Adams, 24, performed CPR on a dummy live on stage in her paramedic's uniform

Tonight is the final of Miss England 2018 at Kelham Hall and Country Park in Kelham, Nottinghamshire in which 50 hopefuls will compete to win the title. Pictured: A lilac-haired Miss Stoke-on-Trent Annabella Stanyer, 21, performing a dance routine with a flame-coloured floor length gown

Prior to her win this evening, Alisha posted a snap on Instagram with the caption: 'Anyone for yoga? The Miss England finals have been a blast so far and I cant believe today is the day a new Miss England will be crowned!'

The Muslim student, who often shares pictures of herself wearing Pakistani fashion to her thousands of followers on Instagram, said she 'can't even comprehend' how 'amazing it is' to have reached the competition's finals.

She said on Instagram: 'My Miss England journey has been so so amazing and an experience which I never thought i would be part of.

'I still feel honoured to be one of the amazing girls in the top 50 chosen out of 22,000 women. I just cant wait to see where this journey takes me.'

The winner of the Miss England title will eventually join Miss Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to compete for the Miss World crown, with its impressive first prize award of $100,000 (78,000).

Miss Stoke-on-Trent Annabella Stanyer, 21, donned a stunning floor length gowned that she swished around the catwalk as part of her talent showcase.

The lilac-haired beauty commanded attention in the bright red number as other hopefuls danced behind her.

Another hopeful's gift was refreshingly down-to-earth, as Miss Norfolk Natasha Adams, 24, performed CPR on a dummy live on stage in her paramedic's uniform.

Miss Kent Neha Dull, 23, honoured her Asian heritage by performing Bollywood dance moves on the runway while wearing a breathtaking gold and turquoise costume.

Ultimately Alisha Cowie took the crown and trophy of Miss England 2018/19 this evening

However wins the compete for the Miss World crown in Chinese city of Sanya this November. Pictured: Miss Kent Neha Dull, 23, (centre) performs a Bollywood dance in traditional dress

Miss England will join Miss Scotland, Miss Wales and Miss Northern Ireland in the Miss World final later this year. Pictured: Nervous hopefuls were snapped getting their hair and makeup done in preparation for this year's finalePrince Haakon and Princess Mette Marit of Norway appeared in excellent spirits as they arrived in Svelvik on Tuesday.

The couple enjoyed a whirlwind visit of the town as they kicked off a three-day visit to the south-eastern country of Vestfold.

The royals were snapped taking a cycle tour and sampling apples as they took in the sights of the coastal town.

Away they go! Prince Haakon and Princess Mette Marit of Norway appeared in excellent spirits as they arrived in Svelvik to kick-off a three-day visit to the south-eastern country of Vestfold

Time for a bite: The royals stopped to sample fresh apples as they took in the sights of the town

Ahoy there! Prince Haakon donned a sailor's hat as they arrived in the coastal town by boat

Prince Haakon, 45, heir apparent to the Norwegian throne, donned a sailor's hat as the couple arrived in the town by boat.

They were greeted by local officials and school children, who presented the couple with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

Mette Marit, 45, who has two children with Haakon and a son from a previous relationship, looked elegant in a soft powder pink coat for the appearance.

Warm welcome: The couple were greeted by schoolchildren and local officials on arrival

Floral gift: A smartly dressed boy presented Princess Mette Marit with a bouquet of flowers

Festive spirit: Schoolchildren turned out with Norwegian flags as the royals arrived in town

She wore the stylish piece over a navy and pink knee-length dress and brought a touch of colour with a berry-coloured bag and suede pumps.

The princess finished the look with a pair of oversized black sunglasses which she wore to keep out the glare.

Mette Marit held onto her husband's arm affectionately as they set off on a cycle tour of the city, sitting in a front trailer as a man pedaled behind.

Affectionate: Mette Marit put her hand on her husband's arm as they went out on a cycle tour

Playful: Haakon leaned into whisper something in his wife's ear ahead of the Svelvik tour

Radiant: Princess Mette Marit beamed as she waved to Svelvik residents at the start of the tour

On a roll! The Norwegian royals took in the sights of Svelvik on these front-trailer cycles

Haakon appeared to be in an equally tactile mood, leaning in at one point to whisper tenderly in his wife's ear.

The couple were joined on the light-hearted tour by local officials, who followed behind on their own cycle trailers.

Haakon and Mette Marti also stopped for a bite to eat and were snapped nibbling at a display display of freshly chopped apples and preserves.

The couple were recently joined by their children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 14, and Prince Sverre Magnus, 12, in celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of Haakon's parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja.

Seeing the sights: The Norwegian royals waved as they made their way through the streetsLast week she showcased her most daring look yet, wearing a thigh-skimming dress for a charity performance of Hamilton.

But tonight, the Duchess of Sussex showcased a much more demure look in a black trouser suit by Altuzarra, teamed with a satin blouse from edgy Swedish brand Deitas.

She kept her look simple, teaming the smart ensemble with towering stilettos and carrying a small black clutch.

The demure look was perfectly suited to tonight's engagement which will see Meghan and Harry celebrate the courage shown by seriously ill youngsters at the annual WellChild Awards in London.

But it was in stark contrast to the 327 Judith and Charles tuxedo dress, which showed off her toned legs to the max.

Celebrity stylist and PR Rochelle White told Femail: 'Megan has been mindful this evening in regards to her outfit.

'She has been a bit more risque with her fashion choices lately, but I feel she knew that this evening was about the awards and wouldnt have wanted to take the attention away from that with her outfit.

The Duchess of Sussex showcased a much more demure look in a black trouser suit by Altuzarra, teamed with a satin blouse from edgy Swedish brand Deitas as she attended her first Wellchild Awards ceremony in London

Last week Meghan wore a thigh-skimming 327 Judith and Charles tuxedo dress, which showed off her toned legs to the max for a charity performance of the musical Hamilton in London in aid of Sentebale

'I think she is aware that wearing a sexy dress, wouldnt have been appropriate for the audience and ceremony.

'Also, knowing that the world's media would be there to capture her as well as the event, I think she was mindful of that.

'She still has kept her look and style with the suit, but it has been tailored to be more flattering so she can still embrace her signature style without taking the attention away from the cause.

Tonight, the couple are joining children, parents, carers and celebrity supporters at the glittering ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in central London.

Harry and Meghan are pictured meeting McKenzie Brackley who McKenzie Brackle, one of the seriously ill children the charity help

The Duchess of Sussex attended the annual WellChild Awards at The Royal Lancaster Hotel in London this evening. Meghan sported a black suit by Altuzarra and a blouse by Deitas

The duke has been patron of WellChild - the national charity for seriously ill children and their families - since 2007.

Tonight marks former Suits star Meghan's first time at the moving event, which celebrates the inspiring qualities of some of the country's seriously ill young people and those who care for them.

The duke and duchess will attend a pre-ceremony reception and meet the young winners of each award category and their families, and the nominated healthcare professionals.

Meghan and Harry met with the organisers at the event for the charity WellChild this evening

Harry will present an award during the ceremony and also deliver a speech.

Winners this year include seven-year-old Matilda Booth, from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire, who has spina bifida, is paralysed from the chest down and has had more more than 40 operations.

She has been praised for her 'great zest for life' and her 'courage, strength and determination'.

Mckenzie Brackley, from Fife, has also been hailed as inspirational.

The four-year-old, who had to learn to speak, swallow, eat and drink and move again due to acute flaccid paralysis, was praised for being there for other children when they are scared or sad.

'Despite his own problems Mckenzie cheers up everyone when they are low, and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face', WellChild said.Lili Reinhart isn't afraid to joke about her relationship with Cole Sprouse  even if that means sending fans into a tailspin about their potential split.

The actress, 21, had a sardonic response after her Riverdale co-star Camila Mendes, 24, posted a group shot on her Instagram account on Monday, saying it was taken during a 'Labor Day getaway'.

Camila tagged Cole, 26, as well as Riverdale's Charles Melton, 27, in the photo, but not Lili, who doesn't appear in it.

In jest: Lili Reinhart joked that she and Cole Sprouse 'must've broken up' after Camila Mendes posted this group snap that features Cole but not his co-star and girlfriend

How it began: After Camila posted the group shot, her co-star KJ apa, 21, joked in a comment: 'Omg... Coles not sitting next to lili.... [sic]', implying that something must have been wrong

Nice try: Lili told KJ she and Cole must have split, prompting Madchen Amick, who plays her mother on Riverdale, to ask her and KJ to 'stop trying to break the internet'

That detail wasn't lost on their co-star KJ Apa, 21, who plays Archie Andrews in the CW drama.

He joked in a comment: 'Omg... Coles not sitting next to lili.... [sic]', implying that something must have been wrong between the two lovebirds.

Lili played along and replied: 'They must've broken up' next to a string of emoji featuring a distressed face, a magnifying glass, and a pair of curious eyes.

Her comment, which has been liked more than 70,000 times, didn't quite convince actress Madchen Amick, 47, who plays Betty's mother Alice Cooper on Riverdale.

'Oh stop trying to break the internet,' she told Lili and KJ.

Fans of the couple, however, seemed rather distressed as they couldn't quite tell for sure whether Lili was joking or not.

She and Cole are believed to have been dating since early 2017, although they have remained private about their relationship.

Couple: Lili and Cole are notoriously private about their relationship but have acknowledged it on social media. The actress posted this photo of the two of them last week

Meanwhile: Cole posted this photo of his Labor Day outing on his Instagram Story

Still, they have shared photos of each other on social media, have been spotted kissing in public, and last month, Lili posted a loving message on her Instagram account to mark Cole's birthday, calling him 'my love'.

After Lili posted her comment below Camila's post, some fans expressed their dismay and asked the actress to confirm that her comment was made in jest.

'WTH? ARE YOU SERIOUS????' one person wrote, not long after another Instagram user poste: 'Wait what yu're kidding right.'

'NO THIS CANT HAPPENNNN' another person wrote in response to Lili.

'DON'T EVEN JOKE LIKE THAT,' someone else begged, while another fan declared: I'm just gonna pray that you are lying.'

Lili appears to have spent Labor Day Weekend with her loved ones, and on Sunday posted a photo of herself with her toddler goddaughter Adeline.

She later said on her Instagram Story that she didn't get any rest during the long weekend and indicated that she's currently feeling sick, posting a photo of a cup of soup along with a piece of bread, a box of crackers and a bottle of Gatorade.The stars of 2001's The Princess Diaries have certainly grown and changed in the 17 years since the movie was released  but it's not Anne Hathaway or Mandy Moore's transformations that are currently transfixing the internet.

In the teen movie based on books by Meg Cabot, Anne Hathway's character, Mia, is friends with an awkward kid named Jeremiah, who has dyed red hair.

While he was meant to look weird and unpopular in the flick, in real life the actor is anything but  and has grown up to be quite the hunk.

Flashback: Patrick John Flueger played nerdy Jeremiah in The Princess Diaries

Time flies: Now 34, he's earning admirers for how hunky he's become as he stars on Chicago, P.D.

17 years later: A close look reveals he was really quite good looking all along, but the red hair didn't do him any favors

Jeremiah was played by Patrick John Flueger, 34. Just 17 when he appeared in the film, Flueger was made to look nerdier than he was.

But pictures of him today show he's pretty studly, and he's earned plenty of admirers.

He has also continued to act. After the Princess Diaries  his first-ever on-screen role  he went on to appear in episodes of Judging Amy, CSI: Miami, Boston Public, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

From 2004 to 2007, he starred as Shawn Farrell in the show The 4400, and he also had a recurring roll on Scoundrels.

He also made a big-screen break away from the nerdy role of Jeremiah by playing bad boy Chuck Cranston in the 2011 remake of popular musical Footloose, proving himself to be more than capable of taking on the role of hunky heartthrob instead of a high school nerd.

And it seems he hasn't looked back, continuing to move a world away from his days as a red-headed magician in the hit Disney movie with every new role.

Now, Patrick stars as undercover cop Adam Ruzeck in Chicago P.D., after originating the roll in Chicago Fire.

On screen stud: Patrick landed the role of bad boy Chuck Cranston in the 2011 remake of Footloose (right) and now plays undercover cop Adam Ruzeck in Chicago P.D. (left)

Iconic: The movie, based on books by Meg Cabot, came out in 2001

So cute! Recently, stars Anne Hathaway and Mandy Moore reflected on the film's premiere

And he's also racked up a slew of new fans since his Disney days, earning more than 273,000 fans on Instagram - many of whom delight in leaving flirty compliments on his posts.

While fans have gone wild over discovering how much Adam has changed, the stars of the movie have also been remarking over their transformations.

On August 23, Mandy Moore  who played mean girl Lana  shared a throwback snap of herself posing with Anne Hathaway on the red carpet for the movie.

'I guess this film came out just over 17 years ago??' she wrote. '@annehathaway was already a movie star and I showed up to my first premiere in a casual denim suit. Hey, it was 2001! #tbt #theprincessdiaries.'

Anne herself clearly got a kick out of it, too, replying: 'That's the face I make when I'm trying not to flop sweat on a terrifically famous pop star. So happy for all that you have going on! Let's get together and throw ice cream at each other soon.'

At the time of the film's release, Mandy already had three hit albums under her belt, while Anne had been on the series Get Real.It's hard to stop at just one Pocky stick  but certainly most people stop before scarfing down 1,512 of them.

Not Raina Huang, though. Raina, a 23-year-old competitive eater who lives in California, makes a sport of snacking, and has stuffed her face with impressive amounts of food over the past year, recording her binge sessions for her YouTube channel.

For her latest video, Raina filled a bowl with 1,512 individual sticks of chocolate Pocky, and ate every last one in 50 minutes.

Wowza: Raina Huang ate 1,512 individual sticks in a single sitting

Mixing 'em up: The 23-year-old competitive eater bought both the strawberry and chocolate varieties of the candy sticks

Nom nom: She then timed herself as she stuffed them into her mouth, several sticks at a time

Pocky  a Japanese snack made up of chocolate-dipped biscuit sticks  comes with several to a pack.

Raina clearly loaded up on boxes to make her latest video, which she shared on YouTube on August 29.

The young woman was inspired by Matt Stonie, another competitive eater who had earlier posted his own video in which he stuffed his face with Pocky.

But whereas Matt started with a platter of 1,620 Pocky and ate about half before stopping, Raina ate all 1,512 she set out for herself.

In her video, she shows herself opening all of her Pocky and laying it out in the bowl, taking a half hour for the task of setting up. She picked two flavors, chocolate and strawberry, to give herself a bit of variety.

Yikes: At a certain point that started to melt, and she was clearly struggling

'Oh my goodness, that is a lot of Pocky,' she remarked in the video

'This challenge seemed fun at first... until I realized the amount of chewing I needed,' she said

Nearly done! Eventually, after 50 minutes, she polished them all off

'Oh my goodness, that is a lot of Pocky,' she remarks, before pulling her hair back to begin.

She quickly begins stuffing them in her mouth, several at a time. She chews, putting more in her mouth before swallowing.

'This challenge seemed fun at first... until I realized the amount of chewing I needed,' she remarked in a comment written at the bottom of the video.

She helps herself along the way by drinking water, but it is still clearly a challenge.

Around the 18-minute mark, she groans, and points out that the sun is coming out behind her, and the heat is melting the Pocky sticks in her bowl.

Fasting first? The American competitive eater can eat quite a lot

Stuffed: She posts pictures of herself with all of her food on Instagram

Recorded: She also posts videos of herself scarfing things down

As the chocolate and strawberry melted more off the biscuits, the task looks far from enjoyable, and Raina is clearly struggling. A half hour in, the pile is a melted mess, and she grabs at it with messy fists to eat.

Though the last few bites were 'painful,' she manages to polish off every last piece after 50 minutes.

'Well, that took absolutely forever to do. But I got through it,' she says after she finishes. 'And I'm in a sugar coma right now.'

Sounding a bit drunk and in pain, she looks at the camera with her mouth covered in chocolate.

'I won't be having Pocky for a while,' she adds.

Inspo: The young woman was inspired by Matt Stonie, another competitive eater who had earlier posted his own video in which he stuffed his face with Pocky

Although impressive, it is certainly not the first time that Raina has wowed the world with her ability to wolf down large amounts of food.

The YouTube star first rose to foodie fame in November 2017 when she completed the In-N-Out 50x50 Challenge, an incredible task that requires a person to eat a cheeseburger from the fast food chain that has 50 beef patties in it, each of which is topped with cheese.

Having been tried, tested and even completed by just a few other competitive eaters, the challenge was seen as being one of the trickiest viral trials in the food industry.

That is, until Raina came along and completed the challenge in just 40 minutes, earning herself a spot in the competitive eating hall of fame.Apprentice winner Alana Spencer is seeking budding entrepreneurs to help expand her cake business.

The reality star, who won the 2016 series of the BBC show, today launched a new scheme that will see wannabe business owners sell her tray bakes to independent retailers across the UK.

For a 150 fee, the so-called 'Cakepreneurs' will receive 'all the cake and promotional materials they need to get started,' as well as access to a training video by Miss Spencer. Members make money through commission on their sales.

Apprentice winner Alana Spencer was joined by Lord Sugar as she unveiled a new partnership scheme at an event in London on Tuesday, pictured. She is is looking to sign-up a team of so-called 'Cakepreneurs' to sell her tray bakes to independent retailers across the UK

Miss Spencer won The Apprentice - and the 250,000 investment - aged 24 after impressing Lord Sugar and his advisers, Karren Brady and Claude Littner, with her idea for a business delivering fresh baking goods across the UK. Pictured, Miss Spencer on the show

Miss Spencer, originally from the small village of Llanrhystud in West Wales, was joined by Lord Sugar as she unveiled the scheme at an event in London.

She also launched two grab and go bars, a peanut butter fudge slice and millionaire brownie, at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair in Olympia.

Miss Spencer started her first business making greeting cards aged 14 before moving onto selling homemade chocolates.

After juggling her AS levels alongside her business, Alana left school at age 16 and pursue her career.

She won The Apprentice - and the 250,000 investment - aged 24 after impressing Lord Sugar and his advisors, Karren Brady and Claude Littner, with her idea for a business delivering fresh baking goods across the UK.

Miss Spencer and Lord Sugar also launched two grab and go bars, a peanut butter fudge slice and millionaire brownie, pictured, at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair in Olympia on Tuesday

Miss Spencer relaunched the Deliciously Rich by Alana brand months after winning the show and turned over 500,000 in the first 12 months. Pictured, Miss Spencer with Lord Sugar

Miss Spencer relaunched the brand last year, months after winning the show, and turned over 500,000 in the first 12 months.

She later expanded the business with an Ambassador scheme, in which people could pay 1,000 in exchange for selling products at events across the UK.

The latest 150 'Cakepreneurs' scheme is billed as a lower level, less time-intensive option.

Sign-up is done via the website, from there on they will receive products to sell each month.

The reality star said she is now aiming to make the business more accessible to future budding business owners.

Miss Spencer made it to the final of the BBC reality show with runner-up Courtney Wood

Speaking about the idea today, Miss Spencer said: 'It was my childhood dream to be able to bake cakes for a living and with Lord Sugar's investment I've been able to make this a reality.

'The "Cakepreneurs" initiative is allowing me to share this dream with many more people like myself and I can't wait to see all their successes.'

Lord Sugar added: 'Over the last 18 months, I've watched Alana work incredibly hard to build her Ridiculously Rich by Alana empire, and now other budding enthusiasts are going to have the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge she's acquired.

'I'm looking forward to the launch of the "Cakepreneurs" initiative and to continue to see the business grow into one with a very exciting future.'Macie Greening has undergone four rounds of chemo to treat her rare mesothelioma

A 14-year-old girl has reportedly become one of the youngest people in the world to be diagnosed with an asbestos-related cancer.

Macie Greening has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy to tackle her rare form of mesothelioma - but to no avail.

Her parents say she is one of only nine cases of her type of peritoneal mesothelioma - most often caused by exposure to asbestos - in children in the UK and 20 in the world.

Asbestos.com claims roughly 300 cases of the aggressive cancer have been recorded in young adults, children and even infants.

Doctors reportedly have 'no idea' what caused her cancer, as mesothelioma usually takes decades to appear. However, it can occur in children, in rare cases.

Macie's loved ones are now pinning all their hopes on getting her on a clinical drug trial, to boost her chances of survival.

Close friends and family are hoping to raise 15,000 to allow Macie, who loves being a 'princess', to go on her dream trip to Disney World.

This includes her parents Tracey and Nellie, twin sister Madison and sister, Saskia, 17, who are all from Cullompton in Devon.

Writing on her fundraising page, her family said: 'We are not sure what will happen from here but Macie is such a strong, beautiful young lady.

'She is continuing to make everyone laugh and smile like she usually would.

'She has already been through enough and is taking the whole situation in her stride, a true inspiration to all.'

Figures show around 2,500 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year in the UK. Only 10 per cent start in the peritoneum.

It is usually caused through exposure to asbestos, a group of minerals made of tiny fibres that used to be widely used in construction.

Her parents say she is one of only nine cases of her type of peritoneal mesothelioma - caused by exposure to asbestos - in children anywhere in the world (pictured with her mother Tracey)

Macie's loved ones are now pinning all their hopes on getting her on a clinical drug trial, to boost her chances of survival (pictured in hospital)

The microscopic fibres can easily get in the lungs, where they get stuck, damaging them over time. As a result, mesothelioma often starts in the lungs.

Asbestos use was completely banned in 1999 in the UK. But materials containing asbestos can still be found in many older buildings.

It is unsure how many children get diagnosed with mesothelioma, but figures show none were given the devastating news in the UK between 2013 and 2015.

But Sonia Hurst, Macie's aunt, claims doctors told the family Macie is one of just nine children with peritoneal mesothelioma in the UK and 20 in the world.

Ms Hurst said: 'Shes been through four rounds of chemotherapy and it was hoped she could have surgery but weve since learnt that is not an option.

'Were now waiting for new trials to become available.

'Macie loves being a princess and is obsessed with unicorns so she would love to go to Disney World.

'Shes such an amazing girl and an inspiration to us all. Macie has been so strong through all of this and we so incredibly proud of her.'

Medics describe peritoneal mesothelioma as a cancer that forms in the tissue lining of the abdomen that is caused by inhaling or swallowing asbestos fibres.

Despite suffering from the asbestos-related cancer, Macie's family don't believe she was exposed to the fibres herself and say doctors are reportedly dumbfounded about how she has caught it.

Her mother Tracey, 43, said: 'There's only nine in the UK and only about 20 in the whole world, we found it out by googling about her condition looking for treatment.

'They have no idea how she got it, her biopsy is travelling around the world.

'The doctors told us it takes 30 years for asbestos to get into your system so they knew it couldn't be that, she's not old enough. It's a bit of a tricky one.

'There's a new trial drug that she's been approved to start, we're going to see our consultant in Bristol on Thursday to see what it entails.'

Close friends and family are hoping to raise 15,000 to allow Macie, who loves being a 'princess', to go on her dream trip to Disney World (pictured in hospital eating a KFC)

Writing on her fundraising page, her family said: 'We are not sure what will happen from here but Macie is such a strong, beautiful young lady' (Macie is pictured in hospital)

Macie was diagnosed with the aggressive cancer, which the NHS admits is 'rarely possible to cure', in March earlier this year

Macie was diagnosed with the aggressive cancer, which the NHS admits is 'rarely possible to cure', in March earlier this year.

A JustGiving page has now been raised in order to send Macie on her dream holiday to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Wristbands with the words Macies Army are also being sold to help raise money for the teenager, who is 'obsessed with unicorns'.

On the fundraising page, it was revealed that Macie's consultant decided to stop her chemotherapy because it wasn't working.

Her family wrote: 'Macies consultant was exploring other options that are available to her, surgery being the main one.'

But their hopes were dashed in August when Macie had a laparoscopy to find out that surgery was not an option.

Anyone willing to donate to Macie's cause can do so here.Even though we're still technically in summer, experts say it's time to start thinking about getting your flu shot.

On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released its flu vaccine recommendations for the 2018-19 season saying all children under six months old should be vaccinated before the end of October.

It comes after a particularly fatal flu season for children last year that saw almost 180 die of the virus.

Dr Jean Moorjani, a pediatrician at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Florida, reveals why it's important to get your vaccine no later than Halloween, why the nasal spray is a good alternative and how the myth that you can get the flu from the vaccine got started.

On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics released its flu vaccine recommendations for the 2018-19 season saying all children under six months old be vaccinated before the end of October (file image)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 2017-18 season was one of the most severe on record.

During the last full week of January, the agency reported that one of every 14 visits to doctors and clinics nationwide that week was for symptoms of the flu.

That made it the highest level since the deadly swine flu pandemic in 2009.

Across the US, 179 children died and thousands were hospitalized. The CDC said 80 percent of the children who died were not vaccinated.

During a good year, the effectiveness of the shot can range between 50 and 70 percent.

However, when the strain known as the H3N2 virus spreads, it falls to as low as 30 percent.

In response, the AAP published a statement on Tuesday stating that parents should make sure all children six months or older get a flu shot by the end of October.

WHAT SHOTS CAN I GET?

The CDC recommends getting the vaccine either in the form of a shot or a nasal spray. For those who choose to go with the injectable, there are two options.

The first is a trivalent vaccine, which protects against two influenza A strains, H1N1 and H3N2, and one influenza B strain.

The second option, the quadrivalent flu vaccine, protects against the same strains as the trivalent vaccine, as well as an extra influenza B virus.

'It takes two weeks for your body to build up the antibodies, so I use Halloween as a marker of when to get it for my patients,' Dr Moorjani said.

'If you get it by then, then you'll be protected when the flu season is full swing.'

SHOULD I GET THE NASAL SPRAY?

The AAP recommends getting an injection over the nasal mist option because the shot has provided more consistent protection against strains of the virus.

'Long ago we used to say just get the vaccine whether it's the shot or the spray,' said Dr Moorjani.

'We actually found that the shot was a lot better ar protecting against thevirus.'

For the first time in two years, the CDC updated its recommendations to include the nasal spray, known as FluMist.

The nasal spray uses live, weakened viruses which are meant to teach the body to recognize and ward off flu strains if you become infected.

The shot works similarly but uses dead strains of the virus.

First introduced in 2003, it was presented as an alternative to children who are fearful of needles or if a doctor runs out of shots.

However, data showed that between 2013 and 2016, the spray was not as effective as the flu shot, particularly against the H1N1 virus.

WHAT IS IN THIS YEAR'S FLU SHOT? Strains of the flu virus are constantly changing, so a new vaccine is made each year. Scientists make the vaccine before the flu season starts by predicting which strains are likely to be the most common during the upcoming season. For the 2018-2019 season, flu shots protect against three or four strains of the flu virus. Trivalent vaccines protect against two influenza A strains, H1N1 and H3N2, and one influenza B strain. The quadrivalent flu vaccines protect against the same strains as the trivalent vaccine, as well as an extra influenza B virus. This season will be the first time in two yeas that the flu nasal spray is available. Advertisement

This is the influenza A strain that was responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic.

The maker of the spray, AstraZeneca, says it has developed a new formula to better target H1N1.

After the CDC reviewed a study that showed US children were producing a better immune response, the agency decided it could be added to its list of recommendation options.

'While it's better than nothing, especially if your doctor runs out of shots, there are kids out there who can't get the nasal spray because it's a live virus,' said Dr Moorjani.

'For kids who have conditions like asthma or are immunocompromised, we would not recommend for you to get the nasal spray.'

CAN THE FLU VACCINE MAKE ME SICK?

Dr Moorjani says that it's 'a complete, 100 percent myth' that you can get sick from the vaccine.

'If I get the flu vaccine and a kid sneezes in my face that same day, I'm going to get sick because the kid sneezed in my face, not from the shot,' she said.

She did note, however, that it it is still possible to get the virus even if you get the flu vaccine.

'Getting the vaccine doesn't mean you won't get flu that year - it does lower your chances - but if you get it, it helps your body fight it off sooner,' she said.

'So instead of being sick for five to six days, you'll be sick for two to three days. Or if you have a fever, it could be 101F as opposed to 104F.'

WHO SHOULD NOT GET THE VACCINE?

Dr Moorjani says the only group of people who are ineligible for the vaccine are babies under six months old.

'Babies under six months old are too young to get the vaccine so they rely on the cocoon effect,' she said.

'So when you get the vaccine you're not only protecting yourself, you're protecting babies who don't have strong immune systems.'

Contrary to popular belief, she says you can get the vaccine if you have a headache or mild cold. It is only if you are seriously ill that she recommends you avoid the vaccine.

IS IT SAFE FOR PREGNANT WOMEN?

The CDC says that pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy can receive the shot.

Dr Moorjani says there are several reasons for pregnant women to get vaccinated.

'Pregnant women who get sick with the flu can get many more complications, especially with respiratory issues,' she explained, which makes pregnant women more likely to require hospitalization.

She added that the shot's protectiveness gets passed on to the unborn baby and help can protect him or her during the first six months of life when they can't receive the vaccine.

'The antibodies are not only protecting the mothers but also protecting the baby, which is vital especially if they're born at the height of the flu season,' said Dr Moorjani.US health officials are urging doctors to screen pregnant women for syphilis early and often in order to stop the disease's sudden upsurge.

Despite previous declines in infants born with syphilis due to exposure from their mothers, rates of this congenital form of the sexually transmitted disease (STD) actually increased from 2012 to 2016.

When passed from a pregnant woman to her infant, syphilis can cause birth defects, brain damage and even death.

The suggestion to screen all pregnant women for the STD is not a new one, but the USPSTF is reasserting its recommendation to head off these dangerous increases.

US health officials are urging doctors to screen pregnant women for syphilis as soon as they find out they are pregnant amid a 40 percent surge in babies infected with the STD

The invention and introduction of penicillin - which is still the first-line treatment for syphilis - to American health care more than 80 years ago drastically reduced the number of syphilis cases in the US.

Perhaps most importantly, the drug's unprecedented effectiveness at treating syphilis meant that pregnant women could get treated, protecting their babies from inheriting the infection and perhaps saving their lives.

Yet in 2016, there were still over 88,000 new cases of syphilis in the US, and about 630 of those were in infants who had gotten the disease from their mothers.

Syphilis is unpleasant and, after lying dormant for many years, can do serious harm to the health of people of all ages.

But the disease is especially dangerous to developing babies.

Two out of every five babies born to women who have untreated syphilis will die as a result of the infection.

The bacteria that causes syphilis, preponema pallidum, can cross through a mother's placenta into her baby's blood stream during pregnancy, or infect the baby through vaginal contact during delivery.

Infection badly impairs the baby's delicate process of development, as well as interfering with the changes the mother's body has to go through to support a growing fetus.

Women with untreated syphilis may develop an overly large placenta, they may lose the baby during pregnancy, deliver early or have underdeveloped babies.

The infection can also lead to a whole host of birth defects, including anemia, blindness, deafness, abnormal teeth and noses and an enlarged liver or spleen.

At the very least, these babies are often born with rashes and develop fevers that are more dangerous to them than to adult syphilis-sufferers.

If a mother's syphilis is treated early in pregnancy, however, all of this may be avoidable.

Since 2009, the USPSTF has recommended that women should get screened early on in their pregnancies.

That isn't changing, but with a sharp, nearly 40 percent rise in cases of syphilis in babies, the agency is restating its advice with new urgency.

It recommends that women get screened for the infection - via a pelvic exam and blood test - during their first visit to the doctor after they know they are pregnant.

Echoing the sentiments of other health associations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the USPSTF also suggests that women that fall into the 'high-risk' category get tested again when they are 28 weeks pregnant.

This group includes women in communities where the infection is common, those who have HIV or have been in jail.

Previous studies have shown women who get diagnosed and treated are less likely to have infected babies, but that those reductions are far more dramatic when treatment is administered early.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr Kenneth Katz, a dermatologist at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco, said that the USPSTF's warning needs to be heeded by public health officials, OBGYNs, dermatologists and general practitioners alike.

On the whole, Dr Katz hints that women need better access to health care in general: 'Clearly, then, gaps in public health and clinical practice remain, as reported in a study of 458 mothers of infants with congenital syphilis in 2014.6 Of those mothers, approximately 20% received no prenatal care.'

Of those women, '43% received no treatment because (1) they were not tested during pregnancy; (2) they tested negative early in pregnancy but acquired syphilis later; or (3) they tested positive but were not treated,' he writes.

'Early in the 21st century, syphilisincluding congenital syphilisstill casts a shadow on the land.'Carlos Heras-Palou has worked as an orthopaedic surgeon for 20 years

A leading British surgeon whose hands were going to be rendered useless claims a pioneering gene-silencing drug has saved his career.

Carlos Heras-Palou has knitted together delicate bones, tendons and nerves during a glittering 20-year career as an orthopaedic surgeon.

But a rare hereditary condition that was destroying nerves in his hands threatened to end his career within the next six months.

In a desperate attempt to salvage his job, the 53-year-old who works at a specialist unit at the Royal Derby Hospital signed up to an 18 month trial.

And now, not only has the relentless march of the often fatal condition been halted by patisiran, it also appears to have gone into reverse. And he claims his peripheral nerves have started to recover and heal.

Mr Heras-Palou, considered one of the leaders in his highly niche field after 20 years as a consultant, has praised the drug, branded a 'silver bullet'.

Speaking for the first time about his recovery, he said: 'The treatment has saved my career, and my life.

'I'm left with some numbness in my feet and weakness, and I still can't run, but I can walk. I'm functioning very well.

'I haven't got the pain and can eat normally so I'm not losing weight. I can sleep at night. I've been given hope and I'm seeing life in a different way.

'It is a ground-breaking advance, and it's so selective there are practically no side-effects. It's like the proverbial silver bullet.'

Mr Heras-Palou added: 'My whole career depends on my hands and having a good hand function.

'Without this treatment the disease would have progressed and that would have been the end of my career.

He suffers from a rare hereditary condition that was destroying nerves in his hands that threatened to end his career within the next six months

In a desperate attempt to salvage his job, the 53-year-old signed up to an 18 month trial. And now, not only has the relentless march of the often fatal condition been halted by patisiran (pictured), it also appears to have gone into reverse

'Typically your legs get very weak and you lose the ability to walk. Your hands stop working - you can't grip or pinch or control what you're doing.

'I'm very well known in my field and have been practising a long time so my patients were perfectly safe. But in another six months my career would have been finished.'

Patisiran, made by the US company Alnylam, is the first treatment of its type in the world to be approved for use in patients with hATTR amyloidosis.

It has now been licensed by European and UK regulators after being given the green light by the Food and Drugs Administration in the US.

The cutting-edge drug, branded as Onpattro, employs a principle known as RNA interference to block activity of a rogue gene.

It targets a gene in the liver responsible that is for hereditary transthyretin-mediated (hATTR) amyloidosis, which strikes 100 people in the UK.

The rare disease, which can be inherited from either parent, causes sticky amyloid protein to build up in organs and around nerves.

This affects vital functions such as limb movement, swallowing, vision and heartbeat. It also triggers chronic burning neuropathic pain.

In a handful of patients, hATTR amyloidosis can shorten life expectancy to no more than five to seven years.

Mr Heras-Palou was one of only two UK patients taking part in the Apollo Phase III trial, which recruited 225 sufferers from 19 countries.

Mr Heras-Palou was one of only two UK patients taking part in the Apollo Phase III trial, which recruited 225 sufferers from 19 countries

After a few months of therapy, the Spanish-born surgeon noticed that he felt better. Gradually the almost constant pain disappeared, and the prickly sensations in his hands began to fade. He could once again walk without difficulty

WHAT IS PATISIRAN? Patisiran, made by the US company Alnylam, is the first treatment of its type in the world to be approved for use in patients with hATTR amyloidosis. It has now been licensed by European and UK regulators after being given the green light by the Food and Drugs Administration in the US. The cutting-edge drug, branded as Onpattro, employs a principle known as RNA interference to block activity of a rogue gene. It targets a gene in the liver responsible that is for hereditary transthyretin-mediated (hATTR) amyloidosis, which strikes 100 people in the UK. The rare disease, which can be inherited from either parent, causes sticky amyloid protein to build up in organs and around nerves. This affects vital functions such as limb movement, swallowing, vision and heartbeat. It also triggers chronic burning neuropathic pain. In a handful of patients, hATTR amyloidosis can shorten life expectancy to no more than five to seven years. Advertisement

During the trial he had patisiran infused into his bloodstream every three weeks at the National Amyloidosis Centre, based at London's Royal Free Hospital.

After a few months of therapy, the Spanish-born surgeon noticed that he felt better.

Gradually the almost constant pain disappeared, and the prickly sensations in his hands began to fade. He could once again walk without difficulty.

Over the course of the trial 148 patients were treated with patisiran and 77 with a dummy placebo.

A report on the research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, said disease progression was 'halted or reversed' in patients who received the drug.

As a trial participant, Mr Heras-Palou has been allowed to continue the very costly treatment, currently priced at around $400,000 (308,618) per patient per year.

His sister, Isabel, who also suffers from the disease, was put on the drug as part of an earlier trial and is still improving.

Their mother, Catalina, another victim of hATTR amyloidosis, died four years ago from complications related to the disease.

Professor Philip Hawkins, director of the National Amyloidosis Centre, who was one of the trial scientists, praised the drug.

He said: 'I was surprised that there was improvement in nerve function over the course of this 18-month study.

'It was wonderfully encouraging. I think this is a really important drug.'

Patisiran is now under review by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the body that approves or rejects new treatments on the NHS in England.

Final Nice guidance on the drug is expected next year.An off-duty Georgia nurse is being hailed as a hero after she saved the life of a woman who was choking.

Valencia Jones was eating lunch with her friend at a LongHorn Steakhouse in Warner Robins on Sunday when she heard a waitress crying out for help after a customer began choking on a piece of steak.

Jones, who works at Navient Health in Macon, quickly sprang into action and performed the Heimlich maneuver.

Now, the mother-of-one is calling on others to become certified in CPR in case of a medical emergency when there isn't a health professional around to save someone's life.

Valencia Jones (left and right), a nurse at Navient Health in Macon, Georgia, was eating lunch with a friend at a LongHorn Steakhouse on Sunday. She heard a waitress crying out for help after a woman began choking on a piece of steak

Jones sprang into action and began performing the Heimlich maneuver and managed to dislodge the piece of steak. Pictured: Jones with her husband and daughter

Choking occurs when food or an object becomes stuck in the throat or windpipe and blocks airflow.

Oxygen is cut off to the brain, which can cause damage and death to brain cells in as little as 10 minutes.

According to the National Safety Council, choking is the fourth leading cause of unintentional injury death - with a death occurring every two hours.

In 2015, the most recent year for which figures are available, more than 5,000 people died of choking.

The Heimlich maneuver was developed in the 1970s by thoracic surgeon Dr Henry Heimlich.

He was looking for a more effective method to respond to choking because, at the time, most people would just slap the victim's back, causing the object to move further down the airway.

During this period, choking was the sixth most common cause of death in the US, according to CPR Certified. It is currently not even in the top 10.

HOW TO PERFORM THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER 1) Stand behind the person if they are an adult or kneel behind them if they are a child 2) Tip the choking victim slightly forward and wrap your arms around their waist 3) Make a fist with one hand and place it just above the belly button, then grab your fist with the other hand 4) Push hard on the abdomen in a quick, upward motion 5) Perform the thrusts until the object becomes dislodged Advertisement

By performing experiments, first on dogs, Dr Heimlich learned that by putting pressure on the diaphragm, the chest cavity becomes compressed.

This creates a sudden force of air out of the lungs, which dislodges the object that has become stuck.

To perform the Heimlich maneuver, stand behind the person if the victim is an adult or kneel behind if it is a child.

Tilt the person forward and wrap your arms around them, making a fist with one hand and positioning it right above the belly button. With the other hand, grab the fist.

Then give a hard press, thrusting upward and quickly as if trying to pick up the person.

Repeat the motion as many times as needed until the object becomes dislodged.

According to a report from the American Heart Association, between 70 and 86 percent of choking victims recover after receiving the Heimlich maneuver.

Waitress Brooke Shugart said she was waiting on customers when she saw a woman choking on a piece of steak.

'I was like: "Oh my goodness, what am I going to do?"' Shugart told 13 WMAZ.

Shugart said she was unsure how to aid the choking woman so she called out for help.

The mother-of-one (left) said she believes she was just in the right place at the right time but her frien,. Jentre Reed (right), who was there when the event occurred, said Jones is a hero

Jones is now calling on more people to become CPR-certified in case of a medical emergency. Pictured: the LongHorn Steakhouse where the choking incident occurred

Jones, a registered nurse, quickly ran over to the woman and began performing the Heimlich, and managed to successfully expel the piece of steak from the woman's throat.

'[My friend and I] ended up in that booth at that moment for that purpose. I feel like it was all God,' she told 13 WMAZ.

Her friend, Jentre Reed, who was with Jones at the restaurant when the event occurred, said Jones is a hero.

'I don't think she realized how amazing her actions were. She moved so quickly, so professional she didn't think twice,' Reed told the station.

Jones says she believes more people should become CPR-certified in case of a medical emergency.

'Just go through that training. It doesn't have to be a hard course,' she said.

According to a survey published by the Cleveland Clinic in February, only about half of Americans - 54 percent - know how to perform CPR.Men with aggressive drug-resistant prostate cancer could see their tumours eradicated by a new treatment.

The 'ultra-mutant' tumours that lead to terminal prognoses could be killed off by a drug that unleashes the body's immune system, research suggests.

Usually, men with this form of the disease  called mismatch DNA repair  live half as long as other men with advanced prostate cancer.

Their tumours cannot correct mistakes in DNA and rapidly mutate to resist most treatments.

But now a study offers them hope, after it found that mismatch repair tumours could respond exceptionally well to a breakthrough drug.

Usually, men with this form of the disease  called mismatch DNA repair  live half as long as other men with advanced prostate cancer

Some 47,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK each year but the severity of the disease varies hugely.

The Daily Mail is campaigning to end needless prostate deaths through better diagnosis and improved treatments.

Around eight per cent of men with advanced prostate cancer  one in 12  have mismatched DNA repair.

They can expect to live only 3.8 years after they start treatment, compared to seven years for others with advanced prostate cancer.

But the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation by scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, suggests these men will respond well to an immunotherapy drug called pembrolizumab.

The drug is already used by the NHS for lung cancer.

Study leader Professor Johann de Bono of the Institute of Cancer Research said: 'We made an exciting step forward in working out how to treat men with such aggressive, unstable tumours.'

He said that these tumours have higher levels of a protein that hides tumour cells from the immune system.

Pembrolizumab works by making cancer cells visible to the immune system, telling our body's attack cells where to target their assaults.

In a previous trial of 258 men with advanced prostate cancer, pembrolizumab stopped tumours growing in 11 per cent of patients, and some saw their cancer disappear.

But the latest study suggests a far higher success rate will be seen in men with mismatch repair tumours  thanks to the protein.

The researchers found that half of men with these tumours had high levels of the PD-L1 protein on their tumours, compared to 10 per cent of most advanced prostate cancers. They are now working on clinical trial to test the theory.

Professor Paul Workman, of The Institute of Cancer Research in London, said: 'This new study is exciting in providing a way to pick out those men with prostate cancer who have the most aggressive, unstable disease and the worst survival.

'But who conversely might be the best responders to immunotherapy. It will be fascinating to see whether we can translate the theory into practice.'

Dr Matthew Hobbs, director of research at Prostate Cancer UK said: 'This research brings together two of the most important emerging areas in prostate cancer research: immunotherapy and precision medicine.

'Immunotherapy, which uses the body's own immune system to help fight disease, has been shown to be effective in other cancers and in small numbers of men with advanced prostate cancer.

'This important study has identified a group of men with aggressive prostate cancer who are most likely to benefit from this treatment approach.

'Although it's still early days, the results provide another piece of the jigsaw which will eventually help doctors decide on the best treatment for each individual man.'Researchers of the new study say it should only be available for prescription globally

Diclofenac was banned over-the-counter in the UK over heart concerns

People who took this drug also had a higher risk of gastrointestinal bleeding

An over-the-counter and prescribed painkiller is associated with 50% increased risk of heart attack and stroke

An over-the-counter painkiller may increase your risk of heart attack or stroke by 50 percent, a new study has found.

The large-scale study of more than 6.3 million adults found that diclofenac, sold in America as Voltaren and Solaraze among others, also put patients at higher risks of gastrointestinal bleeding than those on other painkillers.

Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), used to relieve fever or toothache in adults, or severe joint pain in children.

Heart concerns led to British regulators banning the drug over-the-counter in 2015, but the authors of the new study, published today in the British Medical Journal, are now calling for global action to protect patients.

Heart concerns led to British regulators banning the drug over-the-counter in 2015, but authors of the study, published today in the British Medical Journal, are calling for global action

'It is time to acknowledge the potential health risk of diclofenac and reduce its use,' the research team from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark said.

'Dicofenac should not be available over the counter, and when prescribed should be accompanied by an appropriate front package warning about its potential risks.'

For the study, the team, led by Morten Schmidt, PhD, analyzed national registry data for over 6.3 million Danish adults.

All of these patients had been taking prescription medications for at least a year before the study began in January 1996.

The average age of participants taking NSAIDs ranged from 46 years old to 49, and the average age of patients starting paracetamol, another painkiller, was 56.

To analyze the data, the researchers divided the patients into groups depending on their risk of suffering heart woes - low, moderate, and high.

They found that diclofenac was overwhelmingly associated with an increased rate of major heart problems and complications such as irregular heart beat, ischemic stroke, heart failure, and heart attack within 30 days of starting treatment, compared with ibuprofen, naproxen or paracetamol.

With each year they stayed on diclofenac, their risk increased - markedly compared to those on other drugs, and those on no drugs at all.

Patients who started the study with a low risk, then took diclofenac, had on average one more heart attack or stroke compared to those who took ibufrofen.

It was the same compared to those taking naproxen.

Compared to those taking paracetamol, diclofenac takers had three more heart attacks or strokes.

Those who took no drugs at all fared the best: they had four fewer heart attacks or strokes, on average, compared to those on diclofenac.

This increased risk affected men and women of all ages alike. Even patients on a low doses of had an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Although some patients may need NSAIDs to improve their quality of life, 'despite potential side effects,' diclofenac may not be the best option.

In fact, researchers said the health concerns associated with this drug must be addressed now.A Florida mother is suing three bars, alleging that they served her daughter a tea made from an herbal opioid substitute that left her with brain damage.

Mary Tabar says her 19-year-old daughter, Brette, was a regular at three bars that served tea made from the kratom leaf, marketed to treat anxiety and pain, for more than four years.

However, in March, Brette began suffering 'psychotic episodes and hallucinations so severe that she was confined pursuant' to the Florida Mental Health Act, according to the lawsuit.

Doctors soon discovered that Brette had damage to the frontal lobe of her brain, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Now, Mary is suing Bula on the Beach, Bula Kafe and Mad Hatter's Ethnobotanical Tea Bar, all in Pinellas County, for negligence with claims they failed to warn her daughter of the dangerous side effects.

The mother of Brette Tabar, 19 (left and right), is suing three bars in Pinellas County, Florida, claiming that the kratom tea they served her over four years left her with brain damage. In March, Brette allegedly began suffering from 'psychotic episodes and hallucinations'

The bars - Bula on the Beach, Bula Kafe and Mad Hatter's Ethnobotanical Tea Bar (pictured) - are being sued for negligence, with claims they failed to warn Brette of the dangerous side effects

Kratom is a type of tree that is found in Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand.

The leaves contain compounds that can have psychotropic, or mind-altering, effects, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The leaves can be crushed or powdered and taken in capsule or tablet form, as well as brewed into teas.

It's often used to treat anxiety and chronic pain as well as opioid dependency.

However, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, mitragynine - which is the main, active ingredient in kratom - interacts with the brain's opioid receptors, and carries a potential risk for dependence.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration announced in August 2016 that it would be classifying kratom as a Schedule I drug, the same category ecstasy, heroin and LSD fall into - but was met with pushback.

However, the drug has been banned in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Supporters, such as the American Kratom Agency, say the plant is harmless and that any harmful effects only occur when abused or mixed with other drugs.

But the FDA has linked kratom to 44 deaths between 2011 and 2017.

'Our complaint lays out our allegations pretty clearly. The complaint stems from the sale of this dangerous product, kratom,' Mary Tabar's attorney, Chase Carpenter, told the Times.

'It is a dangerous product that has certainly caused injury to people, and it has certainly caused injury to our client.'

Carpenter told the newspaper that a physician treating Brette was the one who made the connection between kratom and her brain damage, but he said he was not able to explain how to due to the lawsuit.

However, Carpenter's complaint states that the bars failed to warn customers of the potentially dangerous side effects.

Family lawyer Chase Carpenter told the newspaper that a physician treated Brette (left and right) was the one who made the connection between kratom and her brain damage. The lawsuit also states that the tea aggravated a pre-existing condition, but it is unclear what the condition was

Kratom is a type of tree that is found in Southeast Asian countries whose leaves contain compounds that can have psychotropic effects (file image of kratom tablets)

The bars are being held liable for 'bodily injury and resulting pain and suffering, aggravation of a pre-existing condition, mental anguish, loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, past and future medical and nursing care expenses and treatment'.

Carpenter would not tell the newspaper what pre-existing condition Brette had or if she took any medications for it.

'[T]his has been a traumatic experience for our entire family. We feel that Kratom should be labeled for dosage and possible side effects especially in young brains that aren't completely developed yet,' Mary Tabar wrote to DailyMail.com.

'I also am disappointed at the many in the Kratom community who are insensitive to the stories of those who have not only suffered serious side effects, but also the family members of the lives that have been taken due to either defective Kratom products or little to no labeling.'

Levi Love, who owns Mad Hatter's, told the Times he's never hear of someone suing a tea bar for brain damage before.

He says his bartenders explain to every customer what the tea is made from and even warns them not to drink it if they're taking medication.

'I think it's completely unfounded. Being around people who drink kratom and use it regularly, I've never seen these symptoms or heard of them,' Love said.

'Never a psychotic episode and certainly not hallucinating or brain damage.'

Love says he doesn't know Brette, despite the lawsuit's claim that she was a regular customer.

Additionally, he says that if she was a regular over four years, she would have started drinking the tea when she was 15 - but he says his bar has a strict 18-and-over policy.

He adds that most people who use kratom are responsible users and says it is likely Brette abused it.

'That would be terrible for all of the people that are using it responsibly,' he said. 'It's gonna take away our freedom to do what we want with our bodies. Whatever you're gonna do, just do it responsibility.'

Attorney Rohom Khonsari, who is representing Bula on the Beach, Bula Kafe and Mad Hatter's Ethnobotanical Tea Bar, released a statement to DailyMail.com.

'It's unfortunate that the attorneys for Ms Tabar have chosen to go to the media to litigate and publicize this case,' the statement read.

'Without knowing anything more about the connection Ms Tabar's doctor made between her injuries and kratom, we cannot comment further about this case.

'However, regarding the 44 death cases the FDA cited, many, if not all of them, deal with people who had ingested other controlled substances and/or drugs along with kratom. We will be aggressively defending this case.'Over the past six years, several US chain pharmacies have been caught numerous times by the Food and Drug Administration selling tobacco products to minors, a new study finds.

The biggest offender: Walgreens, according to the report published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Between 2012 and 2017, Walgreens was caught selling tobacco products to minors 1,296 times, representing about once in every 10 inspections.

During inspections, an adult undercover inspector goes into the store with a minor, who then tries to purchase tobacco products, explained the study's lead author, Joseph Lee, an assistant professor of health education and promotion at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

'If the product is sold to the minor, then nothing happens right away,' Lee said. 'If tobacco products are sold, then a warning letter is sent by the FDA.' Things can escalate after that if the company continues to break the law, Lee said. There can be big fines and eventually the company can be banned from selling tobacco altogether.

Lee suspects that the numbers provided by the FDA inspection records underestimate how many times chain pharmacies have actually made tobacco sales to minors.

Arnold Levinson of the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, who wasn't involved in the research, agrees that the problem is probably bigger than the FDA numbers suggest.

'The FDA data are the best we have available, but they only measure how often the pharmacies got caught selling tobacco to minors during undercover enforcement tests,' Levinson said in an email. 'The problem is much bigger than these results suggest. If pharmacies are serious about being in the health business, they need to stop selling this deadly product - and not just to kids.'

While Walgreens was racking up a total of 1,296 violations during 12,587 inspections (a rate of 10.3 percent), Rite Aid was caught 314 times during 7,483 inspections (a rate of 4.2 percent), and other chains were caught 51 out of 667 inspections (a rate of 7.6 percent). CVS, which stopped selling tobacco products altogether in September 2014, was caught 172 times in 3,126 inspections (a rate of 5.5 percent).

A Walgreens spokesman told Reuters Health in an emailed statement:

'The health and wellbeing of our customers is our top priority and core mission. We take this matter very seriously and have taken a number of steps over the past several years to help address the important issue of tobacco sales to minors.

'To further strengthen our practices, going forward, we will be requiring identification for anyone purchasing tobacco products regardless of age in all of our stores nationwide by early October. As part of this measure, we also will be training all our store team members on the new requirements and install signs in our stores to help explain the change to our customers.'

While the numbers from the FDA may be an underestimate, the comparison between companies is probably accurate, Lee noted.

Why the focus on pharmacies?

'What concerns me about pharmacies selling tobacco in the first place is the horrible irony of their selling these products to minors,' Lee said. 'Secondly, pharmacies tend to have slightly cheaper prices, which is worrisome because youth are particularly sensitive to prices and are always looking for places that are more affordable.'

Things may be changing, Lee said. 'There's a big move nationally to stop pharmacies from selling tobacco products. You shouldn't be able to buy cigarettes at the same time as you're buying drugs to treat tobacco-related disease.'

'The study strengthens the case even further for banning sales in pharmacies,' said Daniel Giovenco of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York, who wasn't involved in the study. 'It shows that chain pharmacies often violate the law against selling tobacco to minors.'

Giovenco has studied the impact of New York City's law banning tobacco sales in pharmacies and found that the legislation helped reduce the 'density' of retail stores where tobacco could be purchased.

It makes sense to start with pharmacies, Giovenco added. 'They are centers of health and wellness,' he explained. 'So they shouldn't be selling the most dangerous consumer product on the market.'With seven months to go until B-day, tensions are ramping up with politicians across parliament questioning the likelihood of reaching a satisfactory deal on Brexit.

While negotiators continue to battle it out, the British Government has also admitted it is preparing for the possibility that the UK crashes out of the EU next March with little or no agreement on trade with the rest of Europe.

As part of this preparation, last month saw the publication of 25 positioning papers outlining the no-deal Brexit effect on a range of sectors from nuclear research funding and the treatment of organically produced food to stockpiling medicines.

Among these papers - the first of many set to be released over the coming weeks - was a guidance note for all financial services companies operating in the UK and British firms operating in the European Economic Area.

No deal on Brexit means Britain gets back control of its financial services - but is there a cost?

It's dense and full of jargon but that doesn't mean it isn't also full of vital information for every single person with a mortgage, pension or savings in the UK.

To help you work out how you could be affected, This is Money has pulled together the basics on what no-deal Brexit would mean for your personal finances.

Who would be affected by no-deal?

The Government has said that European companies offering UK-based customers a service can keep doing that after 29 March 2019. UK companies offering services to UK customers will carry on as normal under UK law.

Most of the laws affecting UK financial services will stay pretty much the same as European laws are at the moment. Where a UK company provides services to EU-based customers  whether British expats or not  they may be able to keep doing this after Brexit.

Their ability to do this will depend on two things.

1. If the EU agrees to let them, then nothing will change. Currently, the EU hasn't agreed this.

2. If they establish an EU-based subsidiary, they could potentially keep providing these services to EU-based customers under European law through that.

But this could be complicated if EU countries decide they don't like this approach.

If neither of these things is agreed by 29 March, then customers based in the EU won't be able to access the services of UK-based firms.

Customers in the UK who use financial services provided by a European firm may also have problems if there's no deal, but not immediately.

There's a three-year grace period starting on 29 March 2019 during which EU providers of financial services to UK customers can keep providing these legally without direct authorisation from the UK regulators.

During this time, the idea is that they'll apply for UK authorisation and get it (they hope). So for these customers, there shouldn't be any change.

The Bank of England: Philip Hammond has warned no deal could mean Treasury needing to borrow an extra 80 billion to shore up the British economy after Brexit

Following the publication of these papers Chancellor Philip Hammond immediately warned that no-deal on Brexit could wipe up to 10 per cent off the UK's national income.

He also said it would have 'large fiscal consequences' for Britain and could mean an extra 80billion of borrowing. Theresa May quickly dismissed his forecasts, insisting no-deal would not be the 'end of the world'.

The official analysis notes: 'The UK is a major centre for investment banking in Europe, with UK investment banks providing investment services and funding through capital markets to business clients across the EU.

'In the absence of EU action to agree a deal, EEA clients will no longer be able to use the services of UK-based investment banks, and UK-based investment banks may be unable to service existing cross-border contracts.'

This is not just the case for investment banks. Pension providers, insurance companies and personal banking services will all be in the same position.

Britain is clearly keen to avoid a halt in offering its banking services in Europe but the Government still needs European negotiators to agree to allow UK operators to trade with European firms in the way they do now for that to be achieved.

Companies are already preparing for no deal

As a result - and regardless of a deal - many UK financial services firms which currently operate in Europe are already taking independent steps to ensure that they could continue after exit.

The most obvious way is to establish a new EU-authorised subsidiary.

This would allow the UK firm to offer new services after exit through this subsidiary, and in some cases existing contracts could be transferred to the new entity.

What does no deal mean for investors?

It's technically possible that some European companies and investors might not legally be allowed to trade on UK markets

At the moment European customers and firms can trade equities and derivatives at any EU designated market 'venue'.

But in a no-deal scenario, UK-based trading venues will stop being EU approved.

This means it's technically possible that some European companies and investors might not legally be allowed to trade on UK markets such as the London Stock Exchange.

This is because individual European countries have their own laws which prescribe where their citizens and firms can trade.

It's important for both the UK and Europe as the UK is currently home to many markets that don't exist anywhere else in the EU. So if there's no deal, both European and UK markets may be disrupted.

No deal could also have implications for individual investors.

UK firms providing investment services in the European Economic Area may have to stop on 29 March, causing obvious problems for EU-based investors who might lose access to their accounts until a solution is agreed.

But it could also pose difficulties for UK-based investors. This is because under EU legislation, it is possible for UK fund managers to delegate portfolio management services to a third party in another country.

If your fund manager delegates to an EU-based servicer then your account could be affected by a no-deal. In extremis, this could mean UK investors might lose access to their accounts until a solution is found.

Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic Raab announced the Government's planning position in the event that no deal is reached over Brexit last month

The Government has warned that unless Europe agrees a deal, Britain's hands are tied when it comes to funds and managers that are authorised under certain EU legislation.

They've told asset managers to plan on the basis that there will be a deal, but they have also raised the possibility that the EU could confirm it does not intend to put in place the legislation needed to allow UK-based firms to operate in Europe in the same way other non-EU countries do.

What does no deal mean for pensions?

Britons living in the EU could struggle to receive their UK annuity payments if there's no deal

The Government has admitted that UK expats living in the EU might not be able to access financial services from UK providers that don't have an outpost in Europe if there's no deal by 29 March 2019.

It will depend on the country they live in. For example France, Spain and Luxembourg have already said independently that UK firms can to pay pensions to existing customers living there.

Britons living in EU countries where there's no independent agreement and collecting their annuity from a UK provider could potentially stop receiving it, because the company will be breaking European law to keep giving it to them.

They'll also be breaking UK law by not continuing to provide it.

This is the worst-case scenario and the British Government has said it's doing everything it can to work with EU negotiators to avoid this outcome.

But simply put, there is not yet any confirmation from Europe that it's prepared to allow UK financial services firms to continue to provide their services in the European Economic Area after Brexit unless they also have a subsidiary on the continent.

>> Read more on how expat pensioners could be affected in a no deal scenario

What does no deal mean for mortgages?

Most homeowners in the UK have mortgages with UK-based lenders.

So even if there's no deal, there wouldn't be a change for them. However, there might be knock-on effects on the price of mortgages in the future.

As explained above, if companies and individuals find it hard to trade in the way they do now because of restrictions after Brexit, this could put pressure on UK lenders' funding.

Banks and building societies borrow money in a variety of ways in order to be able to lend out mortgages.

They take savings deposits, they get funding from the Bank of England and they borrow money from each other on the 'money markets'.

The cost for banks of borrowing like this depends on various factors but how much money is available to be borrowed - liquidity - is one of the most important.

This is the bit of the Government paper that is relevant here: 'Without action from the EU, when the UK leaves the EU, UK trading venues would no longer qualify as EU trading venues.

'This means that, under their national law, firms may not be able to be members of UK venues. UK venues will also not be eligible venues for firms to execute certain equity and derivatives trades.

'This may prevent firms from being able to trade in certain derivatives, where there is no alternative venue available in the EU. This would reduce market liquidity in the UK and EU.'

Quite apart from this posing problems for investors, this means that the pool of money available to UK banks would shrink; they wouldn't be able to trade certain funding instruments with EU banks anymore.

Crudely put, that means the cost of money will go up and banks and building societies that rely on this form of funding will put their mortgage rates up.

This also goes for landlords with a buy-to-let mortgage. Their costs will go up and it is likely they'll charge more rent to cover them.

What does no deal mean for savings?

If your savings are in a UK bank or building society, you shouldn't see anything change. If they're with a provider based in the EU and that doesn't have a UK-based subsidiary, then you'll need to keep an eye on things.

Savers who have European accounts may find they are no longer protected by the FSCS

The UK's savings safety net, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, protects money held by customers of UK-authorised firms when firms go bust, including some products with EEA firms.

But for savings held in those EEA firms, protection rights under the FSCS aren't yet clear.

The Government has said regulators are due to consult this autumn on arrangements for coverage to continue.

What does no deal mean for spending in Europe?

The Government was most explicit about this in the papers.

If there's no deal on Brexit, then using your credit or debit cards in the EU will be more expensive.

This is because of the complex system of payments and clearing that sits behind us spending on plastic.

UK-based payments providers work with our banks, building societies and credit card providers to make payment transfers happen for a certain cost.

Currently, that cost is regulated by various laws in Europe.

If there's no deal, then these laws won't apply, so costs are likely to go up as there will be no law to prevent providers from charging more to UK customers.

The Government is very keen to avoid this but it's really up to Europe what happens next.

So should we be preparing for no deal?

The Government has been very keen to emphasise that we should assume there will be a deal. In fact, it signs off this paper by saying: 'This notice is meant for guidance only.

EU Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier (right) and Britain's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Brexit Minister) Dominic Raab (left) are still locked in talks to agree a deal

The Government has been very clear on its position on this. Act like there will be a deal.

'You should consider whether you need separate professional advice before making specific preparations.

'It is part of the Government's ongoing programme of planning for all possible outcomes.

'We expect to negotiate a successful deal with the EU.'

The reality is that with so little certainty about what any deal will end up looking like, it's very difficult to plan in advance.

But there are some basic steps that can keep any potential damage to a minimum. We've put together our top tips below:This week, This is Money columnist Steve Webb tackles a question about a tax quirk that deprives low earners of pension cash automatically handed to better paid workers.

The Government recently announced it plans to review how pension tax top-ups are paid to savers, following an outcry over what has been called a 'secret scandal' and 'indefensible' by critics.

Free pension top-ups: A reader whose wife earns around 7,000 a year working in a school asks for an explanation of a confusing technicality that could deprive her of pension cash

I've been reading the articles on This is Money about low paid people not receiving tax relief.

Some articles state people who earn 10,000-11,850 are affected. Other articles suggest anyone earning less than 11,850 does not qualify for this 20 per cent tax top up on pension contributions. So I am confused.

My wife is 56 and earns approximately 7,000 per annum working part time in a school.

We have savings and if possible would like to pay 3,000 per annum for a few years to then receive 20 per cent tax relief top-up for her.

This would represent an excellent savings plan for a few years until we retire.

Can my wife start a personal pension and receive a 20 per cent tax top up from our chosen pension provider.

Steve Webb replies: It is not surprising that you are confused!

Whether or not lower earners get tax relief on their pension contributions depends both on how much they earn and the sort of pension scheme of which they are a member.

Steve Webb: Find out how to ask the former Pensions Minister a question about your retirement savings in the box below

This issue has become a lot more important in recent years as automatic enrolment has brought millions more people on modest earnings into pension saving, so the need to sort out this mess is getting more pressing.

The first figure that you mention, 11,850, is the income tax personal allowance. This is the amount of money you can earn each year before you have to pay income tax.

The 10,000 figure is the earnings level above which firms are obliged by law to enrol their employees into a workplace pension.

Whilst auto-enrolment has brought lots of new people into pensions, there were already people earning below 10,000 per year who had pensions (for example, many part-time public sector workers) and the issue that you raise applies to people under 10,000 as well as those over 10,000.

You might assume that people earning above the tax allowance of 11,850 (and hence paying income tax) could benefit from tax relief on their pension contributions, whilst those earning less cannot.

Unfortunately it is not quite as straightforward as that.

The complication is that there are two ways in which pension schemes administer tax relief and one method only gives tax relief to taxpayers whilst the other gives tax relief to all scheme members. Let us consider each in turn.

A lot of traditional occupational pension schemes deliver tax relief on pension contributions through the paypacket, a method called the 'net pay arrangement'.

Low paid workers deprived of up to 720 a year in free pension cash Hundreds of thousands of the poorest workers are being denied free Government pension cash that is automatically handed to the better-paid due to a tax technicality. This is Money covered the story here, while pensions campaigner Ros Altmann has spearheaded efforts to persuade the Government to address the issue. A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman recently promised it would review how pension tax top-ups are paid to savers, following the outcry.

The way they do this is by deducting your pension contribution from your wage before the tax is worked out.

The effect of this is to cut your tax bill because your taxable income has been reduced.

For example, suppose that you earn 13,000 per year and want to put 100 into a pension. Your employer will deduct 100 from your pre-tax income and that money will go into your pension.

When HRMC comes along to work out your income tax, they only tax you as if you were earning 12,900. This reduces your taxable income by 100 and your tax bill by 20 per cent of this or 20.

This is fine if you are a taxpayer, but is a problem if you are not.

Consider a second worker at the same firm who earns 11,000 per year and also wants to put 100 into a pension. The employer will deduct the 100 from the worker's pre tax pay and this money will go into their pension.

But because the worker earns less than 11,850, they would not have been paying income tax in the first place. Whether they are taxed on earnings of 11,000 or 10,900 (the wage minus the pension contribution) makes no difference  their tax bill is still zero.

In short, in this arrangement, the non-taxpayer gets no tax benefit from saving in a pension.

There is however a different way of delivering tax relief which gives a tax bonus to everyone in the scheme, not just taxpayers.

This method is known as 'relief at source' or RAS and is often used by group personal pension arrangements and also some big workplace schemes such as the Government's NEST scheme.

Under the RAS arrangement, you pay your pension contributions out of your take-home pay and the scheme then claims tax relief on your behalf.

Did you receive Family Credit between 1995 and 2001? If you got either this benefit or Working Families Tax Credit at any time during those years, it counted towards your state pension and could give it a boost. Steve Webb would like to hear from anyone who got these credits back then, whether you are already drawing a state pension or are yet to do so. You can write to Steve at pensionquestions@thisismoney.co.uk and we will forward your messages. Please put FAMILY CREDIT in the subject line.

To take our earlier example, our two employees on 13,000 and 11,000 a year would each put 80 out of their take-home pay into their pension.

The pension scheme then contacts HMRC and asks them to top up that contribution with basic rate tax relief.

HMRC adds 20 to the pension pot of each worker, making a total of 100.

As you will see, in this case the non taxpayer is still benefiting from tax relief.

They put money in to their pension at a cost to them of 80 but 100 ends up in their pension.

It is, unfortunately, a bit of a lottery as to which method of delivering tax relief is used by your workplace scheme.

But anyone who is unsure should certainly ask their employer's personnel or HR department (if they have one) how things work with their scheme.

If you feel you are losing out you could ask your employer to consider whether to use a different pension arrangement so that you benefit from tax relief.

Regarding your wife's specific situation, in principle she should be able to take out a personal pension in the way you describe and receive tax relief, even though she is a non taxpayer.

This is assuming that she doesn't have the opportunity of joining the Teachers' Pension Scheme.

That operates a net pay system so she wouldn't get the tax relief, but she would benefit from the generous employer contribution.For many youngsters, the start of university is their first step towards financial freedom, as they take control of their spending, bills and budgets.

This can be a daunting prospect for students, already acclimatising to a new environment, worrying about making friends, and getting on top of their studies.

While freshers week is fast approaching, parents still have time to lay the foundations for good money management.

To help, we have come up with a list of the four essential lessons to teach your children before they fly the nest, from bank accounts to budgeting.

Financial foundations: Parents sending their youngsters to university this September should arm them with money lessons

Get a decent bank account

Banks know that once they get students through the door, thanks to inertia they are likely to be customers for a while - if not for life.

For years now, they have been dangling tempting 'freebies' to entice the new crop of customers in.

It's no longer free CDs or cinema tickets, banks reel in millennials with Amazon vouchers, tastecards for discounts on dining out and free railcards.

But a decent overdraft is worth far more, as the costs of a bad one will swiftly outweigh any freebies.

Despite the best intentions two thirds of youngsters live in their overdraft, according to new Nationwide Building Society data.

If that wasnt motivation enough to help them choose the right account  44 per cent of parents end up picking up the bill for borrowing, so point them in the right direction.

You can read our full round up for more top student accounts and the small print to be careful of when choosing.

But our favourites include Nationwide and HSBC for their bumper 3,000 overdraft and Santander for its four-year rail card.

The bigger the interest-free overdraft limit, the lower the likelihood students will turn to a credit card and clock up expensive debts.

Teach then about setting up a budget

A whopping 85 per cent of students rely on additional sources of income to their student loan - with 46 per cent coming from family and parents, according to research.

Get them off to a good start by sitting down and making a realistic budget.

This at least sets them up with the awareness of what their outgoings are before their student loan instalment drops and they head straight out the door and blow the whole lot.

We have a helpful student budget calculator to get you started.

The table below, of average student spends compiled by MoneySupermarket as part of its student spending report, may also be helpful starting point.

Source: Moneysupermarket

Check if they need insurance?

Once you take into account laptops, expensive smartphones, headphones, smart watches, games consoles and tablets, the value of youngsters' belongings quickly reaches into the thousands.

Thieves are wise to this and often target students during freshers week.

If their prized laptop, mobile, or any other belongings get stolen not only will they be very upset but their finances will be dented by having to replace the items.

Making sure their things are properly protected by insurance should they be lost or stolen is therefore a real long-term money-saver for parents, who are otherwise likely first in line to foot the bill.

Before you sprint to take out a new policy though, check your home insurance documents first.

Up to 80 per cent of students could be covered by their parents' insurance as their cover will extend to student digs during term time, but make sure you inform them first.

You may also want to check whether you need to add on accidental damage cover too.

If not insurers such as Endsleigh, recommended by NUS, specialise in student insurance. You could also consider a gadget insurance policy that protects the costliest items to replace - phones and laptops.

Help with budget-friendly recipes

And finally, take the time to teach them a few budget-friendly, simple recipes.

Each year student spending surveys reveal shocking figures for the amount students shell out on convenience food and takeaways.

Giving your child a few easy-to-follow recipes will help both their bank balance and their health.

Ideally, this will be a combination of things.

Firstly, teach them how to do your home-cooked favourites. They know these and are likely to be willing to try them out.

Secondly, teach them a few things to cook that are relatively easy and cheap but can be shared with friends or guests.

Finally, track down some easy and quick recipes that can be knocked up after a night out - avoiding prime takeaway temptation time.

For some inspiration BBC Goodfood's student section is a great starting point.

If healthy meals are something you want to make sure your child can always afford, you could also consider a student meal ticket.

Some supermarkets, such as Sainsbury's and Asda, offer parents special gift cards that can be given to kids and topped up regularly by them.Camilla Parker Bowles faces months of disruption with trucks and diggers passing close to her sleepy Wiltshire estate after her neighbour was granted planning permission for a huge overhaul of his property.

The Duchess' Grade-II listed property, Ray Mill House, in Lacock, Wiltshire, has only one close neighbour, The Old Mill, owned by Phil Clayton. The two estates share a private lane.

The council approved the plans last month, while stipulating that care should be taken with 'the use and routing of heavy plant and vehicles, and the control and removal of spoil and wastes.'

An aerial view of Ray Mill House, Camilla Parker Bowles' country estate in Wiltshire

A site plan of The Old Mill, set to undergo extensive building work in the coming months

The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince of Wales on a country walk, left, and the Duchess, right

But locals have expressed fears that the building work will cause 'widespread disruption' and will disturb the Dutchess at the rural haven that she relies on as an escape from the stresses of royal life.

The Duchess of Cornwall uses her historic property to get away from husband Prince Charles's Highgrove House estate, which is open to the public in the summer months and receives more than 30,000 visitors a year.

Mr Clayton has been granted permission to renovate the interior and exterior of his house, build an extension with a glass passageway, replace the garage with a two-storey gymnasium and hobby room, and construct a new sewage treatment plant.

He and the Duchess were recently involved in a planning spat when she successfully opposed his plans to renovate an outbuilding to create two accommodation residences, one for his elderly mother.

Ray Mill House in Wiltshire, the country retreat of Camilla Parker Bowles, is facing disruption

An ornamental pig appears to be rooting for truffles in the grounds of Ray Mill House

The apostrophe-shaped swimming pool belonging to Ray Mill House in Wiltshire

She expressed what was described as 'concern' with the neighbour's proposal, which involved the outbuilding's replacement with a new, timber-clad, slate-roofed structure for 'ancillary accommodation'.

While that planning proposal was subsequently turned down by Wiltshire Council, Mr Clayton has gained permission for a much bigger project.

Ms Parker-Bowles bought the property in 1996 for 850,000 with the proceeds of her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles. It is a welcome respite from the pressure cooker of Highgrove, which is only a 15-minute drive away.

One source said: 'At Ray Mill she can sit down with a big G&T, kick of her shoes and watch Coronation Street, which Charles loathes.

'She also doesn't have to bother about how the place looks  Charles is so fussy about tidiness, while she leaves her stuff all over the place. She doesn't need her cushions plumped all the time.'

This tranquility is sure to be spoilt by the building work going on next door.

A plan of the proposed ground floor of The Old Mill, belonging to Phil Clayton

A site plan of the proposed first floor building that will be erected on The Old Mill estate

The south side of The Old Mill, which is due to undergo extensive building work

The front of The Old Mill, which shares a private lane with Camilla Parker Bowles' estate

An outbuilding at The Old Mill which was knocked down in preparation for the renovations

The garage at The Old Mill which is due to be turned into a gym and a hobby room

The rear of The Old Mill, which is due to greatly expand in the coming months

The original plan to transform the property was withdrawn after the Duchess and other neighbours wrote to the council expressing concerns about the flood risk and that Clayton was trying to turn the garage into living quarters.

In a letter of complaint, the Duchess said the renovations could have a 'negative affect on the flow of water from the river during any periods of flooding this should therefore be subject to a detailed survey by the Environment Agency.'

She added: 'I am concerned about the proposed garage. The design is not conducive to a normal garage.'

When a new planning application was submitted in April and approved just over a month ago, the Duchess did not object, though other residents were still concerned about the flooding risk.

The building work includes transforming the main house on two floors, increasing the size of the bedrooms, lounge and dining room, as well as building a separate extension wing with a breakfast room and sun room.

The main house and extension will be linked by a glass passageway. It also means demolishing the current conservatory.

Mr Clayton bought The Old Mill from long-term owner Ralph Adams, who died last year. He was also involved in a spat with the Duchess over her overgrown hedge back in 2006.

The bush was so out of control that bin men refused to reverse down the narrow private lane to collect the rubbish, and residents were told to drag their bins to the main road, which infuriated some.

Mr Adams, a retired sand merchant, complained: 'Walking 400 yards is hard for me but she can get a flunky to do it.

'It might not be a problem for her, but I'm 83, with arthritis and collapsing discs. She needs to cut the hedge. It sticks out about three feet further than it should.'

In the same year, it was revealed that the taxpayer was footing a 1.8 million security bill at the house, with the area being dubbed by the Daily Mail as 'Camillashire'.Advertisement

Yes - it's top of everyone's list when visiting Peru - and it's not hard to see why Machu Picchu is so popular

1. On the top of the list is Machu Picchu

Yes - it's top of everyone's list when visiting Peru - and it's not hard to see why.

There's no more exhilarating a feeling than looking out onto the picturesque scenery as you pass by the surrounding mountains and valleys.

And the relief as you walk back down, passing the masses of tourists and knowing you have climbed Machu Picchu, really is something else.

For those who are a little more adventurous and thrive off a challenge, climbing to one of the peaks of Machu Picchu for a bird's eye view is worth the extra effort.

The Machu Picchu Montana trail is supposed to be moderately difficult  they lied  it's challenging and by the end you'll be finding it difficult to breathe!

Adjusting to the high altitude was a real struggle for myself and most of the other hikers, and it only gets harder as it goes on.

At the start of trail it is a slow but steady ascent of about 30-35 degrees for about an hour (but it feels like two).

Gradually the paths become narrower and the steps become steeper and steeper and narrower again, making it even more challenging. A good level of fitness is definitely required for this trek.

After trekking for what seems like an eternity (OK, it was roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes) reaching the top of the peak is nothing short of breath-taking.

The summit of Machu Picchu is absolutely stunning. Reaching an altitude of 10,000ft gives you a great sense of achievement - some would even say a feeling of being on cloud nine - however in this case you are looking down on the clouds.

Hot Tip  there are only 400 tickets sold per day, tickets book out months in advance, so get in early and don't miss out on once in a lifetime trek.

There's no more exhilarating a feeling than looking out onto the surrounding scenery as you pass by the surrounding mountains and valleys at Machu Picchu

The Machu Picchu Montana trail is supposed to be moderately difficult  they lied  it's challenging and by the end you'll be finding it difficult to breathe

The height of the climb from the base of the entrance to the trail is 652 metres. That might not sound to be bad, but don't be fooled. Take snacks and plenty of water and hiking poles if you feel you may need that extra support.

For ease I would recommended booking with a tour group such as Bamba Experience where everything is organised in advance, including: ticket entrance to Machu Picchu, train tickets, bus transfers and accommodation in the town Aguas Calientes.

Entering Machu Picchu is a military operation which starts at 5am, with hundreds of tourists lining up in the cold as they wait for buses to take them to the entrance to the site.

You can either wait for over an hour to get the bus or take the road less travelled and walk into the darkness to the base of the mountain and start the journey into the 'lost city'.

The tour guide advised us that those who are fit can get to the peak in 45 mins, and those who are slower take a little over an hour.

Needless to say, it took me a little over an hour - and then some.

2. Cusco full of culture

Cusco is the gateway to the history of the Inca Empire. The streets are filled with Peruvians in Inca outfits and alpacas striding through the streets, which are full of culture.

Cusco is 3,399 metres above sea level, meaning you need a couple of days to acclimatise, so remember to take it easy as you discover the vibrant city of Cusco.

Cusco is the gateway to the history of the Inca Empire. The streets are filled with Peruvians in Inca outfits and alpacas striding through the streets, which are full of culture

Cusco is 3,399 metres above sea level, meaning you need a couple of days to acclimatise, so remember to take it easy as you discover the vibrant city of Cusco

There is so much to see and do and the city is full of archaeological remains and Spanish colonial architecture.

Seeing the San Pedro Markets is a must, as are the Inca and the Machu Picchu museums.

The Plaza de Armas, in Cusco's city centre, boasts many shops, restaurants and bars making it a great place to spend the afternoon and night.

3. Palacio del Inka, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Cusco

My hotel pick for Cusco would be the Palacio Del Inka. The hotel is rustic with Inca influence, and is designed to showcase a centuries-old, magical blend of pre-Colombian, Incan, Spaniard, colonial, and modern cultures.

A hidden oasis in the city of Cusco - Palacio Del Inka presents a captivating variety of rare opportunities and state-of-the-art amenities. Dating back nearly five centuries, Palacio Del Inka stands in the historic centre of Cusco.

My hotel pick for Cusco would be the Palacio Del Inka . The hotel is rustic with Inca influence, and is designed to showcase a centuries-old, magical blend of pre-Colombian, Incan, Spaniard, colonial, and modern cultures

Directly across from the Koricancha temple, it is a five-minute walk from the main square and less than a mile from an array of museums, markets, and restaurants.

You feel like you have stepped back in time to the Inca Empire amd it was an enriching and memorable stay.

4. Festival of the sun in Cusco

Festival of the sun is a religious ceremony of the Inca Empire in honour of the god, which is held on June 24 and spans over a couple of days in the Cusco region.

This year the festival attracted record numbers of 50,000 people on the surrounding hills of Cusco in Peru. The festival takes place on 3 scenes staged in 3 different places in and around areas of Cusco.

The first ceremony was held at Qoricancha Temple, where the Inca escorted by his entourage sang to the Inti (Sun God).The second one took place at Cusco's main square, where the Inca re-enacted the famous Two Worlds Encounter scene.

Lastly, the main ceremony was performed at Sacsayhuaman Fortress, one of Cusco's emblematic attractions. The festival showcases Peruvian costumes and dances which is full of colour and excitement.

Festival of the sun is a religious ceremony of the Inca Empire in honour of the god, which is held on June 24 and spans over a couple of days in the Cusco region

5. Tambo del Inka, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa

The taste of luxury at its finest, Tambo del Inka is a lavish, unforgettable experience. From the moment you drive into the grounds of the hotel it is nothing short of spectacular.

The triple-height ceilings, with the most epic stone wall chimney and glammed up weavings, can be found in the reception and dining area.

The grounds are so beautiful that there is no reason to leave the hotel, which also offers a pool, sauna and jacuzzi.

The Euro-Peruvian food at Hawa - the fine-dining restaurant on-site - was by far one of the best meals I had in Peru and the service was absolutely perfect.

The taste of luxury at its finest, Tambo del Inka is a lavish, unforgettable experience. From the moment you drive into the grounds of the hotel it is nothing short of spectacular

The Euro-Peruvian food at Hawa - the fine-dining restaurant on-site - was by far one of the best meals I had in Peru and the service was absolutely perfect

There is no other way to experience the Peruvian Amazonian Jungle, than sleeping 20 feet above ground in a tree

6. A true jungle experience at the Treehouse Lodge

There is no other way to experience the Peruvian Amazonian Jungle, than sleeping 20 feet above ground in a tree.

The location provides an amazing backdrop as you discover the serene protected Yarapa and Cumaceba rivers near the Pacaya Samiria Reserve.

Every bungalow has its own aerial space in the jungle with its own views and privacy. Each of the rooms are well constructed and comfortable, considering you are living in a tree.

There is running cold water to shower, brush and flush and plenty of space to enjoy the views. The fish nets provide cover from the bugs and the height from the jungle floor provides relief from the heat and humidity.

Nothing could be more romantic than waking up to the tweeting of the birds, which is truly a magical experience.

Exploring the grounds of the tree lodge is one of the great features of the resort. Walking from one bridge to another is fun way to see the jungle and is like no other hotel stay.

The chill out common area has hammocks and games and is also a great space to mingle with other lodges to hear their experiences on their excursions.

The lodge is all inclusive with breakfast, lunch and dinner provided. Each meal draws on how the locals Peruvians in the jungle eat.

The location provides an amazing backdrop as you discover the serene protected Yarapa and Cumaceba rivers near the Pacaya Samiria Reserve

Every bungalow has its own aerial space in the jungle with its own views and privacy. Each of the rooms are well constructed and comfortable, considering you are living in a tree

7. Adventures in the Peruvian Amazon Jungle

The Treehouse Lodge package includes all excursions and from the moment you are picked up at the airport you are assigned your own personal tour guide, making for a very personalised experience.

Our tour guide was a local from the depths of a village in the Peruvian jungle, helping you design your own itinerary to suit what you would like to explore.

The experience will take you through denserainforest, above land and through the rivers, making every day a new adventure.

Every hour is different, with our guide taking us on night jungle walks, 6am bird watching trips, kayaking, swimming in the Amazon, sunset watching, village walkabouts, meeting sloths, caiman spotting, medicine walks through the jungle and - my favourite - feeding monkeys up close and personal.

One of the most touching experiences of all was visiting a local village and seeing how people live on the banks of the Amazon River.

Huacachina is surrounded by golden sand dunes and at the centre of it all is a lagoon, ringed by palm trees, restaurants and epic sunsets. Although it is a small town, don't be fooled, as there are plenty of adventures to be had

8. Huacachina a hidden oasis

Huacachina is a desert oasis and tiny village just west of the city of Ica in southwestern Peru.

Huacachina is surrounded by golden sand dunes and at the centre of it all is a lagoon, ringed by palm trees, restaurants and epic sunsets. Although it is a small town, don't be fooled, as there are plenty of adventures to be had.

By far the most fun thing to do is take to the sand dunes for the intense sunrise and sunset.

The tour includes a four-wheel drive through the sand dunes, followed by watching the most serene peaceful sunset.

Not many tourists know about Huacachina but this little magical spot within Peru should not be missed.

Huacachina is a desert oasis and tiny village just west of the city of Ica in southwestern Peru

Not many tourists know about Huacachina but this little magical spot within Peru should not be missed

9. Lima  the busy capital city

With a population of 10 million people that spans over 43 districts, Lima is the city that never ends. Luckily taxis are cheap, making it an easy, comfortable way to explore good handful of the districts in a small amount of time.

Key sights to explore would be the old town, main square, coastal beaches, Huaca Pucllana ruins, the impressive huge Jockey Shopping Mall, bohemian quarter and park reserve to watch the water fountains.

CONNIE'S TRAVEL TIPS Best time to go? June/ July  dry season The winter in Peru (May  September) is the driest season and therefore the best time of year to travel to see Machu Picchu. The rainfall and the humidity is lower during this time in the rainforest. Handy Hints:  Currency in Peru is Sol. It is rare to find currency exchanges places that do Sol, so either order in advance or change your currency into Chilean Peso or into US dollars and when you arrive in Peru you can exchange for Sol.  You will need to ensure you are up to date with your vaccinations before entering the jungle Advertisement

What I enjoyed most above all the sites was the ceviche and the Pisco sours. By far my favourite meal was at the La Viste Resturant, which is well worth a visit.

Depending what you prefer, I have two hotel recommendations for Lima.

Option one, JW Marriot Lima  located closer to the beach and offering ocean views, the hotel is opposite a shopping mall, has a casino and you can find La Viste Resturant on the foyer level.

Option two, Westin Lima - the hotel is more centrally located and offers views of the busy city skyline. The spa facilities are out of this world and probably the best and only way to end the long trip.

10. All about that eco life  experience Inkaterra

Established in 1975, Inkaterra has been at the forefront of ecotourism and sustainable development in Peru.

It offers boutique luxury hotels teamed up with eco-friendly excursions making for an all-round experience.

The Inkaterra properties are based in the heart of Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, Cusco and the Amazon Jungle. Excursions include bird watching, nature walks, Orchid Trails, Organic Tea Plantations, twilight walks, and native farms tours. Inkaterra has spent the past four decades dedicated to authentic travel experiences, aiming to preserve biodiversity and local cultures.

Its sustainability efforts have gained them membership with diverse alliances, such as Relais & Chateaux, Virtuoso and National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World. If you are looking for an eco-friendly luxury experience than Inkaterra has everything to offer and with the most high standard of service.An Afghan migrant who stabbed two US tourists in Amsterdam has said 'insults to Islam' and far-right politician Geert Wilders were the reasons for the attack, prosecutors have revealed.

The suspect, identified as Jawed S., 19, is accused of knifing the two 38-year-olds after he arrived at Amsterdam's Central Station on an international train having travelled from his home in Germany.

The Americans were not targeted because of their nationality, which the alleged attacker did not know, prosecutors said. Instead, his grievance was with the European country where the assault took place, they said.

An Afghan migrant who stabbed two US tourists in Amsterdam named Dutch far right politician Geert Wilders during police questioning over the attack, it has emerged. Police are pictured standing over the suspect after he was shot at the city's central station

Wilders (right) last week called off a planned contest for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad following death threats and concerns other people could be put at risk. Prosecutors said the suspect did not mention the contest in his statements

The alleged attacker is said to have told police he acted over what he called repeated insults to God, the Koran and Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

'It is apparent from his statements that he believes that in the Netherlands, the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, Islam and Allah are repeatedly insulted,' prosecutors said, noting that the young Afghan man specifically mentioned Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who is well known for his fierce anti-Islam rhetoric.

'From the suspect's statements so far, it is clear the man had a terrorist motive ... and that he travelled to the Netherlands for that reason,' the prosecutors' said.

Wilders last week called off a planned contest for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad following death threats and concerns other people could be put at risk. Prosecutors said the suspect did not mention the contest in his statements.

Wilders reacted with a tweet, writing: 'Muslim terrorists hate our way of life and our freedoms. They answer criticism of Islam with violence.'

The suspect, identified as Jawed S., 19, is accused of knifing two 38-year-old Americans after he arrived at Amsterdam's Central Station on an international train having travelled from his home in Germany

The prosecutors added that there was so far no indication the suspect, was working with anyone else.

Police shot him after the stabbings, and he remains in a hospital.

An investigating judge held a closed-door hearing there Monday and ordered him held for two more weeks on suspicion of assaulting the Americans 'with a terrorist motive.'

They suffered serious, but not life-threatening injuries in the attack.

The judge extended the suspect's custody because of fears he may flee, repeat the crime or violate the law, according to a statement by an Amsterdam court.Three people have been arrested and charged with murder in the death of a Missouri woman who retired to the coast of Belize.

Sherris Stringham, 68, a native of Blue Springs, Missouri, was found dead late Friday near a river in Pomona, Belize, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from where she lived in the Caribbean village of Hopkins, police spokeswoman Hortence Hernandez said in a statement Monday.

Police said that Stringham was reported missing August 27, and her vehicle was found abandoned on August 30, hundreds of miles away in the Orange Walk district in the northern part of Belize.

Sherris Stringham, 68, a native of Blue Springs, Missouri, was found dead late Friday near a river in Pomona, Belize. She had retired and moved to Hopkins, Belize, in 2017

Police said that Stringham was reported missing August 27, and her vehicle was found abandoned on August 30, hundreds of miles away from her Hopkins home

Authorities said that it appeared that her car had been taken for a joyride and that the people who stole her car attempted to set it on fire, 5News reported.

After locating the SUV, authorities said that the three suspects  two 18-year-old men and a 16-year-old minor, all from Hopkins  took police to Stann Creek Valley Road on Friday night, where Stringham's body was said to have been found beneath a bridge, according to Channel 5 Belize.

Authorities arrested and charged the teenagers in connection with Stringham's death. The suspects were arraigned on Monday and remanded to prison.

No motive has been confirmed, but robbery was suspected.

Stringham's friends in Belize said that when Stringham failed to show up for a planned outing on August 26, they went to her rental home and saw that it appeared to have been ransacked, her wallet was empty and her car was missing.

The Belize locations where Stringham disappeared and where her body and car were found

After locating her car, authorities said that three suspects took police to a road and a bride that Stringham's body was said to have been found beneath

Authorities arrested and charged Anthony Nunez (left) and Wilhem Nunez, both 18, in connection with Stringham's death. A 16-year-old has also been arrested and charged

Local news reported that the three suspects allegedly went to Stringham's home to rob it

The suspects allegedly found Stringham at home, took what they wanted and then killed her because she could identify them. They then allegedly took her car for a joy ride

Channel 5 Belize reported that the three suspects allegedly went to Stringham's home to rob it and discovered that she was inside. They then allegedly stole what they wanted and killed her because she could identify them.

The Kansas City Star reported that Stringham was a native of Blue Springs, Missouri, which is on the eastern outskirts of Kansas City.

Stringham's children said that she had moved to Hopkins, Belize, in 2017, following her retirement after two decades of driving a school bus and working at a grocery store.

In a GoFundMe page, set up to fundraise for a private investigator prior to the discovery of her death, Stringham's daughter, Jacey Boggs Faulkner, wrote that Stringham had not been seen or heard from since August 25, unusual since Stringham texted her two children daily.

Breaking Belize News reported that a post-mortem exam revealed Stringham's cause of death to be 'tramatic asphixia,' with multiple ribs and sterna punctures to the chest.

Authorities named two of the suspects as Anthony Nunez and Wilhem Clayton Nunez, both 18 years old. The 16-year-old suspect has not been named.A man who was impaled by a 10 foot metal railing while on the way to propose to his girlfriend has thanked the hero firefighters who saved his life - and even invited them to his wedding.

Phil Ewins, 31, was seriously injured in a car crash on Golden Hillock Road in Sparkbrook, Birmingham, last October.

A 10 foot (three metre) pole went through his chest and pinned him to the car seat requiring specialist teams to work for an hour to free him from the vehicle, reports BirminghamLive.

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Phil Ewins was impaled during a car crash in Birmingham last October. He'd been driving to meet his girlfriend Dikla Arad for the weekend and had planned to propose to her

A 10 foot (three metre) pole went through his chest and pinned him to the car seat requiring specialist teams to work for an hour to free him from the vehicle

Firefighters and a Technical Rescue Unit had to use specialist cutting equipment to free Mr Ewins from the mangled vehicle - with the railing still penetrating his body -so he could be rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

The civil engineer was placed in an induced coma at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and underwent two operations but incredibly he was discharged just three weeks later.

Mr Ewins, who married vet Dr Dikla Arad, has thanked the firefighters who saved his life.

In fact he was so grateful to the fire crew from Highgate Fire Station - he invited them to his wedding in July.

He said: 'They were all world class. Without them, I would have died. Instead, I've been able to get married and lift my wife for our wedding photos.'

Phil had planned a weekend of activities with his girlfriend, including a secret proposal treasure hunt that ended at the restaurant in Liverpool where they had their first date.

Remembering the traumatic event Mr Ewins said: 'I listened to the team talking through the options for cutting the bar.

The civil engineer was placed in an induced coma at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and underwent two operations but incredibly he was discharged just three weeks later

Mr Ewins has thanked the firefighters who saved him and even invited them to his wedding. He said: 'Having them at the wedding was one of the highlights of the day. They're our friends now'

'They were having to make decisions that might end my life, but which were the least worst options.

'They were amazing, so professional, calm, well-drilled and thorough. All of the emergency services worked together seamlessly.

'Having them at the wedding was one of the highlights of the day. They're our friends now.'

Firefighters who attended the horrific crash said 'they'd never seen anything like it before.'

Recording the extraordinary rescue on his head camera the firefighters can be seen working tirelessly to extract Mr Ewins from the car without causing further injuries.

Crew Commander Joe Poynton said although 'it looked like a relatively minor incident with one car into the railings and one casualty' when the crew first arrived, they soon realised it would be far from an ordinary job.

The firefighters who attended the horrific crash said 'they'd never seen anything like it before.' They recorded the dramatic rescue on camera for a documentary

Dr Arad and Mr Ewins both speak about their ordeal and praise the hard work of the rescue teams. She said 'It's their job but it's amazing what they've done. We can't say it enough - thank you'

He said: 'Were all very proud that we were able to give Phil the best chance of survival. The extrication went very well and he was taken away for some excellent hospital care.'

In episode two of documentary Into The Fire, Mr Ewins then-girlfriend Dr Arad recalls how her father-in-law called her and she feared the worst.

She said: 'I saw I had quite a few missed calls from Phil's dad so I understood somethings happened.'

The new bride also said she wanted to invite everyone who helped save Mr Ewins life to their wedding.

She said: 'It's their job but it's amazing what they've done. We can't say it enough - thank you.'Danny Boyle has given an insight into why he unexpectedly quit the new James Bond film.

The Oscar winner, who was due to direct the 25th instalment of the spy franchise, said it would be impossible for a Bond fan, like himself, to direct or write one of the films.

In an interview with Radio Times five days before it was announced Boyle had pulled out over creative differences, the director said Bond aficionados would be hampered by how much they knew about the plot.

Danny Boyle, pictured in Venice on Sunday, who was due to direct the 25th Bond film but has pulled out because of 'creative differences', has hinted at the reasons he quit the project

He said: The books were everything to me when I was a kid. I read them multiple times.

Like everyone else, I saw the films, but Id already read the books so I had a different relationship with the characters.

Although I think itd be impossible for a Bond aficionado to write or direct a Bond film.

Youd be hampered by how much you knew. They want you to bring a freshness to it.

Just weeks before shooting was due to begin, a statement on the official James Bond Twitter account, read: Michael G Wilson, Barbara Broccoli [producers] and Daniel Craig today announced that due to creative differences Danny Boyle has decided to no longer direct Bond 25.

Boyle, 61, is known for his work on films such as Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire, and was artistic director for the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony.

Some film insiders claimed it was a disagreement over the Bond script that saw him quit, while others claim it was a row over the films Russian villain that caused him to pull out, with hints of a direct clash with the films star, Daniel Craig.

Boyle said in an interview it would be 'impossible for a Bond aficionado to write or direct a Bond film'. Pictured: Daniel Craig as James Bond in the 2015 film Spectre

Producers are said to be in the final stages of casting and a row over whether to cast little-known Polish actor Tomasz Kot, 41, as the films primary villain is said to have emerged.

The plot is rumoured to involve political tensions with Russia, with producers keen to promote a modern Cold War feel.

A source told The Daily Telegraph: I have heard that they wanted to bring that Cold War element in but update it to the modern day.

Danny Boyle was in for that. That wasnt the problem. The problem came in when they were making the final decisions about casting pre-production.

Craig, 50, is known to have a hand in casting decisions made on the Bond films, and his name was included in the announcement that Boyle had quit.

The source explained: Craig has a big say in all the casting decisions. None of the Bond girls have been chosen without his say so.Shock jock Alan Jones has said female Liberal MPs who claimed they were bullied during their party's leadership spill should 'toughen up'.

Appearing on the ABC's Q&A on Monday night, the Sydney radio personality was in a combative mood as he fended off questions about his role in the leadership crisis.

Defence Industry Minister Steve Ciobo was also grilled about former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's ousting, and may have revealed the date of the next election.

Mr Jones was asked about the alleged bullying of female Liberal MPs, which led marginal seat-holder Julia Banks (pictured) to say she would not contest the next election

Shock jock Alan Jones (pictured) said female Liberal MPs who claimed they were bullied during their party's leadership spill should 'toughen up'

Mr Jones was asked about the alleged bullying of female Liberal MPs, which led marginal seat-holder Julia Banks to say she would not contest the next election.

The broadcaster said politicians in general know the nature of their line of work, which can be tough, antagonistic and confrontational.

'I would recommend some of them who are saying they're being bullied, they need to take a teaspoon full of cement and toughen up,' Mr Jones said.

Mr Ciobo disagreed, and said the party needed to address 'cultural issues' while stressing the adversarial nature of politics 'doesn't mean that anything goes'.

While urging a Young Liberal in the audience not to vote Labor despite his disappointment with the spill, Mr Ciobo made a revealing slip about the election.

'Ultimately, the choice Australians will make is a choice about the future, not about the past,' he said.

'I would recommend some of them who are saying they're being bullied, they need to take a teaspoon full of cement and toughen up,' Mr Jones said (pictured are Malcolm Turnbull and Julia Banks)

'If you're voting for something that was nine months ago, you're probably missing the bigger picture.'

Viewers following the panel discussion on social media interpreted that to mean the election date had already been decided, and is set for May 2019.

Host Tony Jones picked up on the possible clue, but Mr Ciobo denied having any knowledge of when the election would be called.

Another audience member asked Mr Jones how he could morally justify using his platform to 'manipulate and paralyse our parliament'.

'Very comfortably,' he replied, to laughs from the audience, before going on to tell the questioner she should have made a few phone calls herself.

Dressed in a dark suit with a salmon tie, Mr Jones took several shots at Mr Turnbull, saying he had no right to complain about being deposed in a spill

Mr Jones has admitted calling two MPs, including long-time friend John Alexander, to urge them to support challenger Peter Dutton, who then lost to Scott Morrison.

The name of the second MP contacted by Mr Jones has not been revealed.

Dressed in a dark suit with a salmon tie, Mr Jones took several shots at Mr Turnbull, saying he had no right to complain about being deposed in a spill.

He attacked the former prime minister for flying to New York right after his resignation, and said he should have stayed behind to help the Liberals retain his seat in an upcoming by-election.

Elsewhere on the panel, Labor's Anthony Albanese said Julie Bishop 'obviously' should have won the leadership, and ducked questions on the Adani coal mine.

Mr Albanese said Adani has been given approval, and Labor did not pick good and bad mines, but had an overall policy framework.A married teenager accused of plotting a terror attack with her husband told her 'Boo Boo' she would never give evidence against him and that Allah was her legislator, a Sydney jury has heard.

Alo-Bridget Namoa and husband Sameh Bayda, both now aged 21, are accused of preparing a terrorist attack and possessing multiple documents connected with terrorism.

Both were aged 18 when arrested in early 2016.

Alo-Bridget Namoa (right) and husband Sameh Bayda, both now aged 21, are accused of preparing a terrorist attack and possessing multiple documents connected with terrorism

On the first day of their trial in the NSW Supreme Court, crown prosecutor Nicholas Robinson said the pair had a large volume of extremist material including Islamic State and al-Qaeda magazines.

'They considered Islam under attack around the world and they had an obligation to respond,' the prosecutor told the jury on Monday.

Mr Robinson said a 'goodbye note' Namoa had written to her husband was found on one of the couple's phones, while Namoa authored a neatly handwritten and unsigned note found at Bayda's home.

Addressed to 'my Boo Boo', the handwritten note in effect told Bayda she'd never give evidence against him.

'Allah is my legislator, I don't follow their corrupt laws,' the note stated, according to the prosecutor.

Mr Robinson said the evidence included thousands of images, numerous graphic videos of executions and other deaths, and social media profiles that showed the pair had adopted alternate names or kunya.

Namoa also linked Bayda, whom she married in a 2015 Islamic ceremony, to a group on messaging platform Telegram that gave 'advice to those who cannot come to Sham' - the Syrian area of the Levant.

On the first day of their trial in the NSW Supreme Court, crown prosecutor Nicholas Robinson said the pair had a large volume of extremist material including Islamic State and al-Qaeda magazines. Pictured: Bayda (left), Namoa (right)

Mr Robinson said, when confronted by police at his home, Bayda told his wife to delete messages between the pair that were contained on her phone.

Police later retrieved more than 5,000 deleted messages from Namoa's phone.

The prosecutor said Bayda's phone contained several selfies with 'IS salutes' and extremist documents including one that advised the 'perfect place to kill' by stabbing.

The jury heard when police raided a home in early 2016, Namoa started trying to dress herself and asked the whereabouts of her skirt and gloves.

The prosecutor said Bayda's phone contained several selfies with 'IS salutes' and extremist documents including one that advised the 'perfect place to kill' by stabbing (Pictured: court sketch of Namoa)

She then attempted to get her handbag in which police later found a hunting knife and a folded black Shahada flag.

Namoa's lawyer, Christopher O'Donnell, told the jury it was important to note the gloves were found in the handbag.

'Context is very important,' Mr O'Donnell said.

Bayda's counsel said the intention of the young man was very much in dispute and asked the jury to consider the role the couple's age may have had in their conduct.

Bayda and Namoa, dressed in a red hijab, made handwritten notes while seated beside each other in court.A homeowner has been ordered to tear down parts of his new property or spend almost $10,000 obtaining new permits after buying the house at auction.

Hao Dong bought his Mill Park home, in the north-east of Melbourne, in March 2016 for $558,000 was hoping to move his parents into the neighbourhood.

However, in August this year Mr Hao received a letter from Whittlesea Council telling him to take action after complaints were filed against the property.

A new home owner has been ordered to tear down parts of his $558,000 home or spend almost $10,000 to gain new permits after buying the house at auction

The complaints claimed that the property was being used as an 'unregistered rooming house' and that many of its structures were illegal, ABC News reported.

It was revealed to Mr Hao that the previous owner had erected a bungalow, two sheds and a garage without getting the correct permits or approval almost two decades ago.

Unfortunately for Mr Hao, the cost of either tearing down the extra structures or obtaining the correct permits to keep them now falls on his shoulders as the owner of the home.

Mr Hao said he was left shocked when he was told of the property's issues and said because the real estate agent had not mentioned anything about illegal construction he thought everything was above board.

It was revealed to Mr Hao that the previous owner had erected a bungalow, two sheds and a garage without getting the correct permits or approval almost two decades ago

Mr Hao also did not hire a building inspector to look over the property prior to purchase, which prospective buyers are responsible for if they want to find any structural faults with a home.

The acting planning director at Whittlesea Council Julian Edwards told ABC News that the council has given Mr Hao the option of trying to gain permits to keep the structures or to have them all demolished, all at his own cost.

'Council's primary concern is safety to human life and to ensure the site is compliant with building regulations,' he said.

The acting planning director at Whittlesea Council Julian Edwards told ABC News council has given My Hao the options of trying to gain permits to keep the structures or to have them all demolished

He said council were not intending to level fines or legal action at Mr Hao - something they only ever do so as a last resort - and that they feel Mr Hao will work with them to solve the problem.

The total cost of all the required permits for Mr Hao is expected to be in the region of $8,500, but extra costs would be incurred for hiring tradesmen to oversee and inspect the structures.

The cost of demolishing them would also set Mr Hao back about $7,800.

The reason Mr Hao has no other options at his disposal is because in Victoria, 'caveat emptor' is in place, meaning it is the buyer's responsibility to check the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made.

The cost of demolishing the structures would also cost Mr Hao about $7,800

Ray White, the real estate which sold the property, also claimed it had no knowledge the almost 20-year-old structures were illegal.

Mr Edwards said that while Mr Hao's circumstance was unfortunate, it was a timely reminder to other prospective buyers to be aware of their obligations prior to purchasing a property.

'We appreciate that the current owner has inherited the current challenges but this is a timely reminder for anyone purchasing a new property to undertake careful due diligence and ensure they contact their local council as early as possible prior to purchasing a property,' he told ABC News.President Trump maintained that the special probe is a 'rigged witch hunt' on Monday after a report revealed that the investigation has its roots in the FBI's years-long effort to get Russian oligarchs to turn on Vladimir Putin and was not created to entrap associates of his campaign.

Trump made the charge after watching a CNN segment with New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg, a co-author of the report, in which the journalist explained how the operation to take down Russian organized crime was repurposed after the feds began suspecting that associates of Trump were colluding with the Kremlin to interfere in the election.

The president has said repeatedly that he doesn't watch CNN, yet was caught quoting directly from a New York Times reporter who appeared on the network on Monday afternoon in his latest assault on Robert Mueller's probe.

'According to the Failing New York Times, the FBI started a major effort to flip Putin loyalists in 2014-2016. It wasnt about Trump, he wasnt even close to a candidate yet. Rigged Witch Hunt!' he tweeted.

President Trump maintained that the special probe is a 'rigged witch hunt' on Monday after a report revealed that the investigation has its roots in the FBI's years-long effort to get Russian oligarchs to turn on Vladimir Putin and was not created to entrap associates of his campaign

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter quickly pointed out that Trump was parroting comments that Rosenberg had made less than an hour earlier to host Brooke Baldwin.

'When this began in 2014 it was about Russian organized crime and the relationship to Kremlin and Russian intelligence,' Rosenberg had said. 'It wasn't about Trump. He wasn't even close to a candidate yet. Nobody was thinking about Paul Manafort and people like that.'

Later, the FBI flipped the script and tried to get Russian Oleg V. Deripaska to turn on Paul Manafort, a former business partner with whom he'd had an acrimonious break-up, Rosenberg explained.

The FBI thought that it could perhaps convince Deripaska to turn on Trump's campaign chairman, whom the feds suspected of having served as a go-between for the Republican's campaign and the Kremlin.

Deripaska told FBI and the United States Justice Department that their claims were 'preposterous,' according to the report, and that there were no links between the Trump campaign

He was one of six wealth Russians targeted for eliciting information, Rosenberg reported alongside Ken Vogel in the New York Times.

Trump has incessantly called the Times and CNN 'fake news' and went so far as to brand their reporters as 'enemies of the people.'

Yet, he found himself relying on both on Monday to prove his point that there were no improper connections between his presidential campaign and the Kremlin, although the president still claims, despite the Times' reporting, that the Mueller probe is a witch hunt.

The Times journalists wrote that Deripaska, the 50-year-old owner of a massive aluminium empire stood strong, told the feds that as much as he'd love to provide incriminating evidence against Manafort, he could not help them pin anything on the former Trump campaign chairman.

He rejected pleas to 'give up Manafort,' the Times wrote, in spite of the FBI's pushing.

A lawyer for the Russian oligarch, Adam Waldman, told the Times that congressional committees also wanted his client to testify to that effect, but he couldn't. 'He doesnt know anything about that theory and actually doesnt believe it occurred,' Waldman asserted.

Manafort resigned from the campaign in August of 2016 after being pushed out to make way for new leadership.

He was convicted last month of eight crimes associated with old business dealings that did not involve the president.

FBI and the United States Justice reportedly tried to flip Russian oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska (pictured October 2015) but he told them they had their story wrong

Sources say in September 2016 Deripaska (pictured May 2018) labeled investigators' claims about the former business partner he was feuding with as 'preposterous'

Deripeska was reportedly urged to give up Paul Manafort (pictured), his business enemy

Set up by former British spy Christopher Steele in 2015, the publication reports that Deripaska met with American officials and told them they had gotten it wrong when pressed about activities of the Russian government.

The meeting was attended by Justice Department official, Bruce G. Ohr, who Trump has targeted over his alleged shuttling to the FBI of Steele's infamous dossier.

That meet-up marked the start of Deripaska's multiple visa approvals for the U.S., after previous ones had been denied in return for his cooperation.

While Deripaska certainly spoke to FBI agents, he's thought to have never given up anything incriminating and reported back on his contacts with the feds to the Kremlin.

The investigation involving Deripaska began before Donald Trump (pictured August 31, 2018) announced he was going for the presidency

Deripaska had previously helped the U.S. rescue an FBI agent detained in Iran, using $25 million from his own pocket, making him a prime target for cooperation.

Trump has argued that Ohr's contacts with Steele in the lead-up to the election must have been a concerted effort by the so-called deep-state within the FBI to bring him down.

The Times reports that the organized crime operation involved half a dozen influential Russians being targeted for information, however, and was part of a wider scheme between Steele and Ohr, who first met in 2007. They hatched it in 2014, months prior to Trump's Oval Office candidacy announcement.

The potential informants were all wealthy and relied on Putin to maintain their checking accounts.

Justice Department official, Bruce G. Ohr (pictured July 2016), worked with former British spy Christopher Steele (pictured March 2017)

Trump used leaked documents as evidence they were plotting against him to form a dossier in the Robert Mueller-led (pictured June 2017) investigation

Trump posted on Twitter, August 20, calling for Ohr to be fired. He labeled him 'a total joke'

Still, Trump has claimed that Justice officials, including Ohr, were plotting against him all along.

'Will Bruce Ohr, whose family received big money for helping to create the phony, dirty and discredited Dossier, ever be fired from the Jeff Sessions 'Justice' Department?' he tweeted last month.

Ohr's wife, Nellie, worked for the firm that hired Steele to put together the dossier of incendiary allegations against the president. The DOJ official has been accused by Trump repeatedly of having been on it.A dine-and-dash scammer who has allegedly conned restaurants and hotels out of thousands of dollars has been caught out again.

Lois Loder, 44, was identified as a serial dine-and-dasher earlier this year when dozens of images taken from security vision allegedly showed her skipping out on her bill.

Ms Loder was again caught allegedly doing a runner from a restaurant in West Perth on Monday after enjoying a croissant and mojito.

Lois Loder, 44, (pictured) was identified as a serial dine-and-dasher earlier this year when dozens of images taken from security vision showed her skipping out on her bill

Ms Loder was again caught doing a runner from Gordon St Garage (pictured) in West Perth, where she enjoyed a croissant and mojito about 2.55pm on Monday

Gordon St Garage manager Callum Jennings said he immediately realised something was amiss when Ms Loder entered the restaurant.

'When you work in hospitality you get a bit of a vibe for people and she was giving me those vibes where I needed to watch her pretty closely,' he told The West.

Mr Jennings said Ms Loder walked out of the cafe as soon as she finished her croissant and mojito.

When he followed the Perth woman outside to confront her, he said she gave a list of excuses before hurling insults.

'She said to me she had left the money on the counter. I then said "come inside and I will give you the change", just to try and get her inside because I understood what she was doing,' he said.

The restaurant manager snapped these photos of Ms Loder on Monday after she walked out of the cafe without paying for her mojito and croissant

Gordon St Garage manager Callum Jennings said he immediately recognised something was amiss when Ms Loder (pictured) entered the restaurant

Ms Loder (pictured right) allegedly got up and left without paying after enjoying a mojito and croissant on Monday

When she refused, Mr Jennings warned he would take her photograph.

'She walked off and called me a psycho,' he said.

Mr Jennings said he took a photo of Ms Loder as she left and posted it in a hospitality group to warn others.

Monday's ordeal follows a string of similar instances where Ms Loder has been pictured allegedly running out of restaurants without paying her bill.

Ms Loder is facing 33 charges of fraud and 16 charges of attempted fraud.

She is also facing charges related to drugs and stolen property.

The 44-year-old is due to appear in Perth's Magistrate's Court on October 9.

Ms Loder (pictured) is facing 33 charges of fraud and 16 charges of attempted fraud

Ms Loder first made news when her picture was posted online by Perth restaurant Elmar's in the Valley in April

Ms Loder first made news when her picture was posted online by Perth restaurant Elmar's in the Valley in April.

The restaurant posted her picture in the hope someone would recognise her after she and a man she was with allegedly walked out on a $250 dinner bill.

The post was the first of many, suggesting Ms Loder racked up thousands of dollars' worth of unpaid bills.

When it came to settling her debt with various establishments, Ms Loder allegedly resorted to blackmail.

Ms Loder is pictured at Terrazza Cafe Applecross where she and a man (pictured together) ordered a $48 bottle of white wine, four cocktails at a cosst of $18 each, a soup dish, an antipasti platter, barramundi, a pasta and dessert before allegedly leaving without paying

Ms Loder threatened to give restaurants one-star reviews if they did not remove her photo from online and leave her be.

'I strongly suggest you remove the posts from the website or I will give you that many bad reviews it will make your head spin,' she said.

True to her word, she left a review for one cafe saying 'awful. Really bad. Wouldn't go there unless you like pubic hair in your butter'.President Donald Trump has warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to 'recklessly attack' Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, saying hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.

Trump took to Twitter on Monday to caution Assad about attacking refugees in the Syrian province.

'The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy,' Trump tweeted.

'Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!'

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Monday to warn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against launching an attack on the country's last rebel stronghold saying it could trigger a 'human tragedy'

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict.

Earlier on Monday, Iran called for militants to be 'cleaned out' of Idlib, as it prepared for talks with Syria and Russia about confronting the last major enclave held by rebels opposed to Assad.

Syrian government forces are planning a phased offensive in Idlib and surrounding areas held by insurgents fighting Assad, who has been backed by both Russian and Iranian forces in the country's civil war.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Washington views any government assault on Idlib as an escalation of Syria's war, and the State Department warned that Washington would respond to any chemical attack by Damascus.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Damascus to discuss plans for an upcoming summit between the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey, which Tehran will host on September 7 to discuss Idlib, Iran's Fars news agency reported.

Turkey, which has long supported anti-Assad rebels, has cooperated with Russia and Iran on talks over Syria in recent years and has troops in the Idlib region on an observation mission.

Trump took to Twitter on Monday to caution Assad about attacking refugees in the Syrian province

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe. Pictured above are Syrians protesting against the regime and its ally Russia in the rebel-held town of Maarrat al-Numan in the north of Idlib province

Zarif met Assad, Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, who asked for Iran to continue its support, according to Iran's Fars News.

'All of Syrian territory must be preserved and all the sects and groups should start the round of reconstruction as one collective and the displaced should return to their families,' Zarif said, according to Fars News.

'And the remaining terrorists in the remaining parts of Idlib must be cleaned out and the region should be placed back under the control of the Syrian people.'

Assad's office said in a statement: 'The two sides asserted that the pressures from some Western states on Syria and Tehran will not deter the two countries from continuing to defend their principles.'

Last week, Iran's defence minister travelled to Damascus and signed an agreement for defence cooperation between the two countries with his Syrian counterpart.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Iran would continue its support for Syrian government forces in its battle in Idlib.

Zarif went to Sayeda Zeinab, a shrine south of Damascus revered by Shi'ites, as his first stop on the trip, according to Fars News.Officers were repeatedly warned of the potential for violence at a record launch party before the event ended in a brawl, a car rampage and a victim in a serious condition in hospital.

About 200 youths, many of African and Pacific Islander heritage, were involved in the melee which spilled out from the Gasometer Hotel in Collingwood in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Victoria Police reveal they held concerns for the event and were aware of several teens attending who had criminal convictions, The Australian reported.

A crowd of more than 200 people had spilled onto the streets following a record label launch party

Deputy police commissioner Bob Hill said: 'Certainly (66Records) is  a group we've been well and truly aware of and been monitoring.

'Victoria Police were aware that we were having people participating or attending the event that were known to us, that were known to have a criminal history that presented a risk.'

Wayne Gatt, the police association boss, raised questions regarding allegations police on the ground made requests for additional staff, but were rejected.

'It had all the hallmarks of a brawl waiting to happen. (Extra resources) certainly weren't dedicated to that venue, I understand that they were sharing another nine high-risk events that night,' Mr Gatt said.

Mr Hill disputed those claims and said police were monitoring the venue, and were on the scene within minutes of the car collision.

While he did concede arrests could have occurred, he commended the tactical commander and police for their work and risk assessment on a case-by-case basis.

'We have one main offender who was the driver of the car,' Commander Tim Hansen said

Laa Chol (left and right) died at a party she attended in Melbourne in late July. It is not known if Sunday's violence was a revenge attack over her death

The admission came as 18-year-old David Bilal was left in a serious condition after he was hit by a car during the brawl.

The man was allegedly with a teenager accused of the stabbing death of Laa Chol, 19, on the night she died.

Mr Hill said there is currently no information to indicate the two incidents are related, or that the brawl was the result of a revenge attack for the alleged murder.

The victim remains in The Alfred Hospital in a serious condition, as his father urges a stop to the violence.

'It's a parent's worst nightmare, you know what I mean. It was Father's Day and the last thing you want is to go and check out if your son is alive or not,' he told the Herald Sun.

'This madness has to stop.'

Blood is seen on a car at the scene after a vehicle smashed into parked cars in the early hours of Sunday

The admission of police awareness comes only a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison provided a scathing assessment of Melbourne's gang crisis in the wake of the street brawl.

The prime minister said there is a reason problems are occurring in Melbourne and not in Australia's other major cities.

'We have the highest proportion of Sudanese population in New South Wales. [But] we don't have these problems. Why is it happening in Melbourne?' he asked on 3AW Radio on Monday.

'There is a law and order problem, clearly, in Victoria, even though we have the same challenges in other cities in the country.'

Scott Morrison (with wife Jenny) has provided a scathing assessment of Melbourne's gang crisis in the wake of a violent street brawl

The prime minister recounted how former New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione changed the name of the NSW Police Service to NSW Police Force, bringing about a cultural change.

'Law and order means something in New South Wales and I feel for Victorians who are asking the big question, why is this happening in our city and it's not happening in other places?' he said.

'There's not the same issue, even though we have the same challenges in other cities in the country, including in my home city of Sydney, because we have a police force that's a force.'

'There is a law and order problem, clearly, in Victoria, even though we have the same challenges in other cities in the country,' Mr Morrison said

He said it was up to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to ensure 'there is a police force that is a force'.

'When you don't have that control and rule of law being imposed and forced in your community, people take advantage of it,' he said.

Mr Morrison did not accept there is a racial element to Melbourne's gang violence.

'There is a high proportion of Sudanese in New South Wales too, but we don't have that problem. This is a law and order problem,' he said.

The organiser of an event which sparked a wild brawl and left a teenager fighting for life warned revellers 'violence will not be tolerated'

'During the affray, a car has collided with a number of parked cars on Mater Street and pinned one person against the parked vehicle,' police Commander Tim Hansen told reporters.

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest the injured man had any involvement in any capacity with Ms Chol's death, or any wrongdoing on the night of her death.

Six other people were also injured in the brawl while three cars were damaged, and police are still searching for the instigators.

No arrests have been made as yet.

Three patrol cars were on duty to keep an eye on the 66 Records launch and police had flagged the venue for monitoring after recent crimes involving the Pacific Islander and African communities.

Event organiser J-Nelly told revellers to be on their best behaviour in a Facebook post on Friday, saying 'violence will not be tolerated'.

'A moment of anger isn't worth a lifetime of bad labeling (sic),' he wrote.The Qantas pilot that saved the lives of 469 people when his plane's engine exploded in mid-air has spoken of the terrifying moment.

Captain Richard de Crespigny had been flying for three and a half decades when he boarded flight QF32 at Singapores Changi Airport headed for Sydney, Australia, on November 4, 2010.

Eight years later, the Melbourne-based pilot has opened up about the experience and how he was forced to create his own novel solution to manage the crisis.

Captain Richard de Crespigny had been flying for three and a half decades when he boarded flight QF32 at Singapores Changi Airport headed for Sydney, Australia, on 4th Nov 2010

In an excerpt from his book FLY! Life Lessons From The Cockpit Of QF32  obtained by news.com  the captain said that after takeoff, it really was looking like a picture-book day as the plane climbed up through 7400 feet.

I was about to turn off the seat-belt sign when we heard a relatively small boom, followed one second later by a huge BOOM! which was like nothing Id ever heard before, he said.

The plane had been four minutes into its journey and there were 440 passengers on board as well as 29 crew members.

As alarm bells rang, the pilot assessed the situation and realised that a stub pipe had fractured, causing oil to leak into the engine and start a fire.

The plane had been four minutes into its journey - with 440 passengers on board as well as 29 crew members - when the captain 'heard a relatively small boom, followed one second later by a huge BOOM! which was like nothing Id ever heard before'

He explained that while an engine fire is always potentially dangerous, it is not uncommon and aircrafts have built-in systems to extinguish them.

The real problem was that the fire had caused more damage than usual, burning through seals, overheating the turbine disc and eventually wrenching the disc from the shaft holding it in place.

This was the first, smaller boom.

The engine was failing from the outside in, but for an unknown reason, the inner turbine and compressor kept operating, he said.

As alarm bells rang, the captain assessed the situation and realised that a stub pipe had fractured, causing oil to leak into the engine and start a fire - that was the first 'boom'

The second, louder boom was the result of a loose turbine disc exploding like a supernova as it was pumped with more and more fuel

The engines computers detected a thrust loss, and so did what they were programmed to do  increase the fuel flow. Thats when things went from bad to worse.

The second, louder boom was the result of the loose turbine disc exploding like a supernova as it was pumped with more and more fuel.

Mr de Crespigny explained how  now 12 minutes into the flight  the mounting and cascading failures overloaded his mind.

I figured there had to be another way out of this mess, he said.

'Sometimes we have to create our own novel solutions,' said Captain Richard de Crespigny

Sometimes we have to create our own novel solutions.

The captain and his crew spent the next two hours in the air working up a solution to save the lives of everyone on board and land safely back at Changi Airport.

Mr de Crespigny concluded that they had no option but to come in too fast (with brakes malfunctioning), too heavy (because we were loaded with excess fuel we could not jettison), with a broken wing, little roll control, no autopilot or auto-thrust.

Drawing on his many years of training and experience, the Captain actioned his plan and  despite computer warnings telling him SPEED! SPEED! and STALL! STALL  miraculously landed the plane back on the tarmac at Changi Airport.

Eight fire trucks immediately surrounded the plane and started hosing it down, but the nightmare wasnt over yet as he was unable to stop the engine.

I made the complex decision that our passengers and crew were safer inside the aircraft than out of it, he said.

Drawing on his many years of training and experience, the Captain actioned his plan and  despite computer warnings telling him SPEED! SPEED! and STALL! STALL  miraculously landed the plane back on the tarmac at Changi Airport

Two hours after landing, passengers were eventually escorted off the plane, and a further hour and a half later, the engine was finally stopped.

Despite the horror of that day, Mr de Crespigny remains as passionate a pilot as ever.

I loved my job and regarded it as a privilege to make my living doing something so challenging and satisfying, accompanied by skilled and dedicated colleagues at the top of their game, he wrote.

I feel exactly the same pride today.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) spent 966 days investigating what happened that day.

It was the largest investigation in the organisation's history.Millionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks has had his application to join the Conservative Party accepted by a local association, the Mail can reveal.

Mr Banks, who bankrolled Leave.EU, and his business partner Andy Wigmore, applied to join the North West Leicestershire association of Tory MP Andrew Bridgen.

He has also booked a table for a fundraising event in two weeks, which makes him a party donor.

Millionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks (pictured) has had his application to join the Conservative Party accepted by a local association, the Mail can reveal

Mr Banks, a former Ukip donor and close ally of Nigel Farage, has urged Brexit supporters to join the Conservatives to try to influence the direction of Brexit and any future leadership contest. But this has sparked accusations of 'entryism' from Remain-supporting MPs.

Last night Mr Bridgen, a prominent Brexiteer, said he welcomed them joining the Conservatives and said their applications had been accepted by his association chairman.

Addressing criticism of the move, he added: 'Are we saying that people who have been in other parties cannot join the Tories? Because that rules out members of the Cabinet.

'If no-one ever defects from one party to another we would never expand our support or take any new seats. Everybody and anybody who isn't a socialist, Marxist or Communist should be a member of the Conservative Party because the biggest threat to our country is not Brexit or leaving without a deal, it's Jeremy Corbyn.'

He pointed out that Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, Business Secretary Greg Clarke and former minister Anna Soubry were all members of the defunct SDP.

Mr Banks and Mr Wigmore tried to join the party last month through a central application process, but were rejected by the party HQ.

The new application is more difficult for Tory chairman Brandon Lewis, because powers over membership are largely devolved to associations.

A Conservative spokesman: 'Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore's applications for membership of the Conservative Party have not been accepted.'Labour was slammed for a new attempt to dilute the international definition of anti-Semitism today after it finally adopted the text in full but with a 'free speech' get out clause.

Dame Margaret Hodge led criticism of the party for taking 'two steps forward, one step back' by adding the rider to the full International Holocaust Remberance Alliance (IHRA) text.

The statement spells out that Labour will not kick out anyone who criticises Israel without being anti-Semitic - something critics say is already clear in the IHRA text.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was branded 'contemptible' for bringing a second personal statement to the meeting on anti-Semitism and Palestinian rights. He wanted to issue it alongside the IHRA but it was opposed during the committee meeting.

Mr Corbyn's document said it should not 'be regarded as anti-Semitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist'.

Labour sources said there was a difference between attacking the country of Israel that exists and any Jewish state as a theoretical concept. The IHRA makes the same distinction but it is poorly understood by non-experts.

But the Labour Friends of Israel group said the leaked document, which was not moved to a vote at Labour's ruling committee, showed Mr Corbyn was 'part of the problem not part of the solution'.

Despite the full adoption of the IHRA definition and its 11 examples after months of strife at today's meeting, questions about anti-Semitism and Labour's rulebook will emerge again later this month.

Jewish groups are to be consulted further on how the party's code of conduct is policed as part of a wider democracy review.

Rules on what can be considered under any complaint, and how far back in time investigators should go in a probe, are being considered.

It is seen as a statute of limitations by critics who fear the rulebook is being drafted to stop Mr Corbyn's past statements being used against him.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured leaving Labour's HQ with top aide Seumas Milne tonight) has been dogged by accusations that he has allowed anti-Semitism to go unchallenged in the party since he became leader

Mr Corbyn was branded 'contemptible' for bringing a second personal statement to the meeting on anti-Semitism and Palestinian rights.

Peter Willsman (pictured) was applauded by Momentum activists as he turned up for the NEC gathering at the party's HQ today. But Jewish protesters angrily chanted 'shame on you'

Mr Willsman, who was reelected to the NEC last night despite anger over his rant at Jewish 'Trump fanatics', was escorted past the protests by police today

Following the leak of Mr Corbyn's statement Labour Friends of Israel director Jennifer Gerber said: 'It is contemptible but utterly unsurprising that Jeremy Corbyn prioritised and fought for the right of anti-Semites to describe the world's only Jewish state as racist in a meeting supposedly about combating anti-Semitism.

'It is now even more clear that Jeremy Corbyn is part of the problem not the solution.'

The statement Labour did issue on protecting the right to criticise Israel was also widely condemned.

Leading Jewish MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who has branded Mr Corbyn an anti-Semite, condemned the new caveat.

She said: 'Two steps forward and one step back. Why dilute the welcome adoption in full of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism with an unnecessary qualification?'

Labour Against Anti-Semitism said: 'We are disappointed by the decision of Labour's governing body, the NEC, to diminish the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism via the attachment of a ''clarification'' that risks giving racists in the party a get out of jail card.

Corbyn ally Chris Williamson is berated by protesters A furious protester angrily confronted Chris Williamson and accused him of being a 'Labour fascist' in a tense showdown outside Labour headquarters. Mr Williamson - a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn - turned up at the rally to speak to applauding Momentum crowds in a speech criticising Israel. But as he spoke to reporters afterwards he was confronted by Damon Lenszner, 58, who shouted at him through a megaphone 'fascist, Labour fascist.' Speaking to MailOnline afterwards, Mr Lenszner, who is Jewish, said that Jeremy Corbyn has allowed his hatred of Israel to infect the party. He said: 'I'm here to try to persuade the Labour Party that I once voted for to adopt the IHRA in full.' Asked why he called Nr Williamson a fascist, he said: 'The guys that sit alongside Corbyn and on the NEC making up this legislation for the party have taken up Jeremy Corbyn's hatred of Israel to such an extent it is spilling over into anti-Semitism.' Earlier Mr Williamson had been greeted with a rapturous round of applause when he turned up at the momentum demonstration against the IHRA definition. He was greeted with high fives, handshakes and hugs as he arrived at the demonstration. And in a speech he railed against the current government in Israel and said that Labour members must be free to criticise it. Asked later by reporters about about Peter Willsman's re-election to the NEC, he said the activist's remarks about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' had been 'misrepresented'. 'I think his comments have been misrepresented. We heard a snippet of a longer conversation, obviously. 'I don't believe that that's his view. 'The Jewish community is not a homogeneous group, there are a range of different opinions.' He said many Jewish Labour members were 'here to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people' and their concerns with the IHRA examples. Advertisement

'The NEC has been told repeatedly that it needs to adopt the IHRA in full, without caveats or conditions, if it wants the Labour Party to begin the process of dealing with its anti-Semitism crisis.'

The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism dismissed Labour's get out clause.

A spokesman said: 'The definition already includes such a caveat, and any such addition is an attempt to undermine the definition's validity, despite its adoption around the world.

'We have also seen an amendment that Jeremy Corbyn attempted to add to the definition.'

The British Board of Deputies of British Jews said Labour's decision to adopt the definition in full with all its example was the 'right call'.

President Marie van der Zyl said: 'It is very long overdue and regrettable that Labour has wasted a whole summer trying to dictate to Jews what constitutes offence against us.

'However the adoption of the internationally-recognised definition by itself, can only be the beginning. Action is what matters.'

Following today's meeting a Labour spokesman said: 'The NEC has today adopted all of the IHRA examples of anti-Semitism, in addition to the IHRA definition which Labour adopted in 2016, alongside a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

'The NEC welcomed Jeremy Corbyn's statement to the meeting about action against antisemitism, solidarity with the Jewish community and protection of Palestinian rights, as an important contribution to the consultation on Labour's Code of Conduct.'

Earlier today, a Corbyn ally who ranted about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' was cheered as he arrived for a crunch meeting of Labour's ruling body today.

Peter Willsman was applauded by Momentum activists as he turned up for the NEC gathering at the party's HQ - with some hugging him and punching the air as he walked in.

But a group of Jewish protesters who had also gathered outside the offices angrily chanted 'shame on you' as he walked in.

The tense scenes came after Mr Willsman was re-elected to the NEC yesterday with more than 70,000 votes despite his diatribe in July, when he accused critics of 'making up' complaints about anti-Semitism.

The bitter showdown is the culmination of months of clashes between the leadership, moderate MPs and Jewish groups.

Mr Willsman refused to answer questions on his remarks or whether he would back adopting the IHRA definition, but smiled and thanked his 'comrades' for their support.

Mr Corbyn arrived later for the showdown - but avoided embarrassing questions from the media by using a backdoor to get into the building.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said he hopes the definition will be adopted, as he arrived at the offices in London Victoria today.

He said: 'I hope we can adopt the IHRA definition today, I hope that is the start of the journey in rebuilding trust with the Jewish community.'

The latest controversy was sparked over the summer when the party stopped short of including all examples from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct.

Left-wingers argued that the rules - which include banning jibes about the Israeli state being a racist endeavour - would hamper criticism of Israel.

But many MPs and Jewish groups view watering down the definition as totally unacceptable, and Mr Corbyn himself has been forced to deny being an anti-Semite.

Mr Corbyn is facing demands to show 'remorse' for his failure to tackle the wave of vile abuse that has been wracking the party since he took charge.

Protesters against the leadership's position on the anti-Semitism definition gathered outside the Labour NEC meeting today (pictured), but there were also supporters

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson (pictured arriving at the NEC meeting in London's Victoria today) said he hopes the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism could be the start of a journey to rebuild trust with the Jewish community

Senior backbencher John Mann warned today that British Jews are leaving as a result of the controversy.

'That is where we have got to, and it is a lack of leadership at the top of the Labour Party, not just, but including Jeremy Corbyn, and this appalling national executive who have... tried to mess around with a very humdrum, mundane definition of anti-Semitism that left (wing) parties across the world have been happy to accept along with everyone else,' he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

'We are now seeing the first British Jewish people leaving, that is the state we are in, that is the responsibility of the Labour Party.

'It's not a small problem, it's a big problem and it needs sorting now.'

MP Stephen Kinnock urged Mr Corbyn to show 'remorse' over the problems.

'We need to see Jeremy coming forward in his conference speech, particularly, which will be a real opportunity to show remorse for what has happened, to show understanding of the pain and hurt that has been suffered both by my colleagues - particularly Jewish colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party - and the wider Jewish community,' he said.

Mr Corbyn (pictured leaving his London home today) has been under massive pressure to resolve Labour's anti-Semitism crisis

There is speculation that three or more MPs could follow Frank Field in resigning the Labour whip if the NEC either refuses to adopt the definition in full, or tries to add caveats.

Backbencher Rosie Duffield has warned Labour politicians could go on strike.

The parliamentary Labour party will vote on the same definition tomorrow amid continuing pressure on Jeremy Corbyn over the party's anti-Semitism crisis.

Mr Willsman, who will now serve another two years on the NEC, said his job was to support his 'friend for 41 years' Mr Corbyn - who he called 'Jerry'.

He said critics were trying to undermine the Labour leader and 'some MPs, elected by Labour voters, seem willing to help the rich and powerful'.

Amanda Bowman, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Mr Willsman's election following his 'reprehensible comments' was 'deeply concerning'.

His success came despite the influential Momentum campaign group withdrawing its support for him following the 'deeply insensitive' comments about Jews.

In an angry rant at a meeting of Labour's ruling executive committee in July, he accused Jewish 'Trump fanatics' of 'making up duff information' to attack Mr Corbyn.

Mr Willsman won 70,321 votes to claim the ninth and last spot on the committee. Yasmine Dar was first in the election with 88,176 votes.

All nine winners are close supporters of Mr Corbyn. They all had the backing of Momentum, the Corbyn support group, at the start of the election campaign, before Mr Willsman was dropped from the slate.

Comedian Eddie Izzard was the best placed loser, finishing tenth with 67,819 votes.

Corbyn supporters took up positions outside the meeting this morning as tensions rose

Some of the demonstrations today were criticising the idea of adopting the IHRA definition

Critics with loudhailers condemned the failure by Mr Corbyn to agree to the international anti-Semitism definition

Former Cabinet minister Dame Margaret Beckett (pictured today) is on the NEC as a parliamentary representative

Labour MP Luciana Berger (left) has said she no longer feels comfortable in the party due to handling of anti-Semitic abuse. John Mann (right) has warned that British Jews are leaving

Mr Willsman won 70,321 votes to claim the ninth and last spot on the committee. Yasmine Dar was first in the election with 88,176 votes

Labour MP Wes Streeting revealed his despair at the re-election, warning Mr Willsman should have been 'booted off' the NEC during the election.

He said: 'Through his actions, Peter Willsman has shown he is unfit to serve on Labour's NEC.

'The results suggest that had his conduct come to light sooner - and Momentum taken swifter action - he would not have been elected.

'He should have been booted off the NEC already.'

A group of around 100 protesters from Momentum and Jewish Voice for Labour gathered outside Labour Party headquarters to urge the NEC not to adopt the anti-Semitism picket.

The noisy picket chanted and carried banners with slogans like 'IHRA no, BDS yes' and made a string of angry speeches tearing into Israel.

Who is controversial Labour NEC member Peter Willsman? Peter Willsman is a veteran of the Labour left and a trenchant supporter of Jeremy Corbyn. He has been a member of the ruling NEC on and off for decades, and is a well-known figure in party circles - although largely anonymous to the wider public. Mr Willsman was part of the Grassroots Alliance that defied Tony Blair at the peak of his powers in 1998 by securing one of four spots on the NEC. He has long been involved in the Bennite Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD). That group has been demanding more power for members and mandatory reselection of MPs since the 1970s. Mr Willsman was previously an ally of Momentum founder Jon Lansman, but they are thought to have fallen out. Advertisement

They included two activists dressed in witches hats who stood near a banner with Jeremy Corbyn's face across it.

They faced off against a small group of Jewish protesters who want the definition to be adopted.

The group - which carried Israeli flags - chanted 'Corbyn is an anti-Semite' and said that the Labour Party has no right to tell the Jewish community how to define anti-Semitism.

Mike Cushman, an activist with JVL, accused Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger of being 'on a continuum' with Margaret Thatcher.

He accused the Labour MP of defending an apartheid state in Israel which is like South Africa.

He said the anti-Semitism crisis has been over inflated by Blairites and Tories and supporters of the Israeli government .

He told the crowd: 'There are three groups responsible - there is the blairite group who never accepted the idea that you and me decide the direction of our party...

'They have used any weapon they can to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.

'There is the second group, the conservatives, they see this as a weapon to destabilise the Labour Party.

'And there is a third group - the Israeli government and those who support them.

'They do not want us to criticise the criminal actions of the Israeli regime.'

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi at JVL said: 'I think it's very unfortunate that the Labour Party has been so bludgeoned and beaten and bloodied by this whole episode in our political life that they feel they have to take on guidelines.'

On Israel she added: 'I know it's a racist state.'

Asked what they will do today if the party adopts the definition she said they will continue their campaign and help activists who are accused of Antisemitism.

Other speakers at the Momentum and JVL demonstration accused those like former chief rabbi Lord Sacks who have spoken out on anti-Semitism of 'shrieking' and 'crying wolf'.

Jon Lansman, founder of Momentum, did not talk to the press as he arrived at the party HQ this morning.

A furious protester angrily confronted Chris Williamson and accused him of being a 'Labour fascist' in a tense showdown outside Labour headquarters.

Mr Williamson - a close ally of Mr Corbyn - turned up at the rally to speak to applauding Momentum crowds in a speech criticising Israel.

But as he spoke to reporters afterwards he was confronted by Damon Lenszner, 58, who shouted at him through a megaphone 'fascist, Labour fascist.'

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone (pictured) waded into the spat, saying the IHRA was 'badly drafted'

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell (pictured) is the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism

Speaking to MailOnline afterwards, Mr Lenszner, who is Jewish, said that Jeremy Corbyn has allowed his hatred of Israel to infect the party.

He said: 'I'm here to try to persuade the Labour Party that I once voted for to adopt the IHRA in full.'

Asked why he called Nr Williamson a fascist, he said: 'The guys that sit alongside Corbyn and on the NEC making up this legislation for the party have taken up Jeremy Corbyn's hatred of Israel to such an extent it is spilling over into anti-Semitism.'

Earlier Mr Williamson had been greeted with a rapturous round of applause when he turned up at the momentum demonstration against the IHRA definition.

He was greeted with high fives, handshakes and hugs as he arrived at the demonstration.

And in a speech he railed against the current government in Israel and said that Labour members must be free to criticise it.

Asked later by reporters about about Peter Willsman's re-election to the NEC, he said the activist's remarks about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' had been 'misrepresented'.

'I think his comments have been misrepresented. We heard a snippet of a longer conversation, obviously.

'I don't believe that that's his view.

'The Jewish community is not a homogeneous group, there are a range of different opinions.'

He said many Jewish Labour members were 'here to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people' and their concerns with the IHRA examples.

Meanwhile, former London mayor Ken Livingstone waded into the spat, saying the IHRA was 'badly drafted'.

'The man who drafted this statement that defines antisemitism, the American lawyer who is Jewish himself, Kenneth Stern, says he now regrets that the wording of some of the examples he's included has restricted freedom of speech when you are discussing the state of Israel,' he told Sky News.

'So, if they do include all of those poorly-worded examples, we have got to make absolutely sure that people aren't then disciplined for simply stating historical facts, or having an honest and open debate.'

The row has escalated in recent days after MailOnline published a tape in which Mr Corbyn accused British Zionists of having 'no sense of English irony'.

In a speech at the Palestinian Return Centre in 2013, Mr Corbyn said: '[British Zionists] clearly have two problems. One is they don't want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don't understand English irony either.'

He added: 'They needed two lessons, which we could perhaps help them with.'

The revelation sparked furious condemnation, while the former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks accused Mr Corbyn of being an 'anti-Semite' who 'defiles our politics'.

He said the tape are the most offensive remark by a British politician since Enoch Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech in 1968.

When Mr Willsman's comments were exposed in late July, Mr Willsman apologised and said he was referring himself for equalities training.

He said: 'I am sorry for my behaviour in the last meeting of Labour's NEC. I am of course aware of appalling instances of anti-Semitism within our party, and am wholly determined to rooting it out.

'I do not believe anti-Semitism is 'widespread' in the party, and that was what my comments were trying to refer to, but we do have a problem which needs stamping out.

'In diminishing the experiences of those who face anti-Semitism, I showed a lack of sensitivity... I will be referring myself [for] equalities training so I can better understand how to approach discussions of such issues in a respectful way.'

Frank Field (pictured) resigned the Labour whip over the party's handling of anti-Semitism. At least three others are said to be poised to follow his lead if the NEC rejects the definitionA London tube train hurtled along at speeds of up to 40mph on Saturday morning - with its doors wide open.

Christiano Nops filmed as the Jubilee Line train travelled between Finchley Road and West Hampstead stations at around 9am on Saturday.

He later uploaded the clip, which shows a number of travellers seated in the carriage, on Instagram.

Rory Brown filmed the the Jubilee Line train hurtling along between Finchley Road and West Hampstead stations with its doors open

In a message to Transport for London, he wrote: 'Took the Jubilee line Saturday with @roryfergusbrown and the driver thought it was ok to leave the doors open...better than the air con but not particularly safe!?!'

His friend Rory Brown shared the clip on Twitter, adding another message to Transport for London.

'@TfL new way to keep tubes cool in the summer - leaving the doors open,' he wrote.

'Pretty bloody sketchy! #whatishealthandsafety?'

In response to a Twitter user who expressed shock that no one had pulled the emergency handle on the train, Mr Brown clarified that at least 10 doors on one side of the train were open.

He uploaded the clip, which shows a number of travellers seated in the carriage, on Twitter

TfL responded to the clip on Sunday, saying they were aware of the incident and that the faulty train had been taken out of service.

'Hi Rory, we were made aware of this yesterday and the train was taken out of service and currently under investigation so thanks for letting us know,' TfL tweeted in reply to Mr Brown's post.

'Sorry for any inconvenience caused and hope your journey was okay.'

A TfL spokesman confirmed to MailOnline that no passengers were injured during the incident.

Nigel Holness, Network Operations Director for London Underground, said: 'The safety of our customers and staff is our top priority.

'On Saturday at around 9am, we were alerted to some of the doors on a Jubilee train remaining open for one stop between Finchley Road and West Hampstead.

'The train was immediately taken out of service at West Hampstead and a full investigation is underway to understand how this occurred.'Houses are now $50,000 cheaper than they were a year ago across Australia as the property market slump continues.

Data published by CoreLogic showed house prices have fallen for the eleventh consecutive month since peaking in September 2017.

Property values across the country have dropped two per cent to the end of August - and are not expected to increase until well into next year.

Houses are now $50,000 cheaper than they were a year ago across Australia as the property market slump continues (pictured, houses in Sydney)

Sydney (pictured) house prices have been slashed 5.6 per cent from last year, and now have a median value of $855,287

CoreLogic's Cameron Kusher said the housing market decline was likely to continue for at least the rest of 2018.

'Values are going to continue to fall this year and well into next year,' he told the Australian Financial Review.

CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said the weak market is due to a 'tighter credit environment'.

'Fewer active buyers has led to higher inventory levels and reduced competition in the market,' he said.

'Collectively, these factors have been compounded by affordability challenges, reduced foreign investment and a rise in housing supply.'

The average national house price has dropped two per cent from this time a year ago to a median value of $552,141.

The weakest markets are in the country's two largest cities, with Sydney and Melbourne (pictured) both experiencing drops

The weakest markets are in the country's two largest cities, with Sydney and Melbourne both experiencing drops.

Sydney house prices have been slashed 5.6 per cent from last year, and now have a median value of $855,287.

Nine of the ten worst-performing regions over the past year were in Sydney, with Ryde in the city's north-western suburbs showing the sharpest decline.

Melbourne prices have fallen 1.7 per cent to a median of $703,183. Together with Sydney, the two cities make up about 60 per cent of Australia's housing market.

In Perth, the average value has dropped 2.1 per cent over the past year to now be $454,007.

Hobart (pictured) bucked the national trend as house prices soared 10.7 per cent for a median value of $437,254

Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra all experienced slight increases for the year, while Hobart bucked the national trend as house prices soared 10.7 per cent for a median value of $437,254.

Mr Kusher said Hobart's performance was due to its affordability over other capital cities, but trends showed that was about to change.

'It really doesn't have that any more. It's pretty much the same housing prices as Adelaide and not that much cheaper than Perth,' he said.Road signs and lights need to be placed on the floor to reduce injuries as that is where 'zombie pedestrians' are looking, says a government adviser.

Shaun Helman, chief transport scientist at the Transport Research Laboratory, said that changing the streets would help reduce accidents caused by people glued to their phones who are not looking where they're going.

Useful changes could include text walking lanes with arrows, similar to those already used in some Chinese cities.

Mr Helman also said it was a 'myth' that people could 'multi-task' - walk and use their phone - safely, reports the Telegraph.

Scroll down for video

Road signs and lights need to be placed on the floor to reduce injuries as that is where 'zombie pedestrians' are looking, says a government adviser

Shaun Helman, chief transport scientist at the Transport Research Laboratory, said that changing the streets would help reduce accidents

Mr Helman - who advices TfL and Highways England - said: 'If we are to provide information to people dependent to where they are looking.

'It is vital that this is placed at points where important decisions need to be made.

'If we are thinking about injury prevention ... there is actually a strong case for redesigning the infrastructure.'

Other countries have already successfully trialed a similar system that puts the texting pedestrian's needs first.

In Holland company HIG has successfully used LED lighting in kerbs to help pedestrians glued to their phone screens.

The lights flash red to stop people crossing the streets if it isn't safe.

The city of Xi'an in north-west China has already started using 'zombie pedestrian' texting lanes.

About a metre (3.3 feet) wide, words painted on the lane read 'designated pedestrian lane for the "head-down folks"', referring to the Chinese nickname for smartphone addicts.

The city of Xi'an in north-west China has already started using texting lanes for those glued to their phone screens

A large icon of a cellphone is also painted on the ground, along with arrows indicating the direction that people should walk in

The pathway was installed by a shopping centre to remind pedestrians to stay alert and focused while walking.

A large icon of a cellphone is also painted on the ground, along with arrows indicating the direction that people should walk in.

The 100-metre (328-feet) lane is painted red, green and blue at different stretches of the busy Yan Ta Road, as if to catch the attention of those who have their heads buried in their phones.

Mr Helman explained that even if there was an education program to help change peoples habit of walking while on their phone, there would still be those who kept the 'undesirable behavior.'

In fact research has shown that when walking on a phone, people are 18 per cent slower than usual.

An AA survey also found that more than two thirds of drivers had seen people walking and distracted by their phones or wearing headphones.

Edmund King, AA's president, said: 'People know drinking and driving is a problem ... We haven't had such campaigns about zombie pedestrians. Maybe we need to raise the profile of it.'A dog owner has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who can help her find her missing black Labrador.

Armani disappeared from the front yard of Belinda Cox's property in Connewarre, Geelong, 75km southwest of the Melbourne CBD, on August 29.

The breeder has not stopped looking for the beautiful dog, who only had a litter of nine puppies six weeks ago.

Ms Cox posted on her social media the day after Armani went missing: 'There are no words to express the love and light within this beautiful dog! She is my soulmate...

Armani (pictured) disappeared from the front yard of Belinda Cox's property in Connewarre, Geelong, on August 29

Ms Cox has offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads to her finding her beloved black Labrador

'Please, please keep a look out for her wherever you may live, she may have been picked up and taken and escaped, or she may just be wandering around lost.

'It is obvious to look at she has recently nursed puppies. If you see or hear anything any leads will be appreciated from the bottom of my heart and soul.'

Ms Cox said the $10,000 reward was a lot of money but she just wanted something powerful that would instantly grab people's attention.

She told Daily Mail Australia: 'It is just how much I love her. I was desperate and I thought, "What do I have?".

'I just want to bring her home.'

Ms Cox said that she currently has no leads, but is chasing up every piece of information given to her.

She said people are calling about black Labradors and when she or a group get there to have a look around the dog is usually gone.

However, Ms Cox has been left most emotional by the kindness of the Sohalispirit Labrador community, who are complete strangers who are doing all they can to help.

She told Daily Mail Australia that people were driving from Melbourne to help look for Armani.

Ms Cox (pictured) posted on her social media the day after Armani went missing: 'There are no words to express the love and light within this beautiful dog! She is my soulmate...'

Ms Cox said the days without Armani were hard and that not being with her 'hurts so much'

She has used a drone to look for the black Labrador and even posted a video of herself crying and begging people to ask questions.

'You might even see a beautiful black lab that looks like her on the end of a lead.

'It doesn't mean that she is owned by that person. So, ask some questions.

'I don't know, I just miss her so much,' she said in the video.

Ms Cox said: 'Today is not a good day. It has been almost a week.'

She said that she has to keep going but Armani not being with her 'hurts so much'.

Anyone with information is asked to call 0437 217 719 or 0411 774 360.The former head of the Army was quizzed by police over the killing of a paramilitary in Belfast more than 45 years ago, he revealed last night.

Lord Dannatt disclosed for the first time that on his last day as Chief of the General Staff before his retirement in 2009, he was visited by two Northern Ireland police investigators.

The 67-year-old, who earned a Military Cross for his service in Northern Ireland, called for an end to retrospective investigation into the conduct of British troops during the Troubles.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Lord Dannatt recalled his response to questions from the Police Service of Northern Irelands (PSNI) historical inquiries team over the killing of a young man in Belfast 36 years before.

Former head of the Army Lord Dannatt (pictured in 2015) was quizzed by police over the killing of a paramilitary in Belfast more than 45 years ago, he revealed last night

In as polite a way as possible, I explained that if the soldier standing next to you has just been shot dead, that might just explain a return of fire from my soldiers, he said.

Terrorists must accept the consequences of their actions  as the military and civil police concluded at the time.

The PSNI has sparked anger by re-examining every Army killing between 1968 and 1998, and the Daily Mail has led the calls to end the witch-hunt against former soldiers.

Lord Dannatt said there was now a suspicion among veterans of the conflict that the non-self-incriminatory basis on which they had given evidence in the 2010 Saville Inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killings in 1972 had been breached and there may be further investigation.

Lord Dannatt, who was awarded the Military Cross for his service in Ulster, highlighted troubling issues with the retrospective investigations into British troops.

Lord Dannatt (pictured in 2009) said there was a suspicion that the basis on which they had given evidence in the 2010 Saville Inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killings had been breached

First, while the Army kept extremely good operational records, the terrorists did not, he said. This makes a very uneven playing field on which to conduct these retrospective investigations.

All allegations were investigated at the time, he added, arguing that revisiting the evidence decades later was unlikely to provide any greater clarity.

Lord Dannatt also argued that only 10 per cent of the 2,547 cases referred to the new PSNI Legacy Investigation Board were deemed to be British Army or Royal Ulster Constabulary cases.

But the reality is that 90 per cent of killings by nationalist and loyalist terrorists were murder by any description of the word, while the 10 per cent attributable to the security forces were deaths brought about by troops and policemen doing their lawful duty, he said.This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.Farmers have been warned their livestock is being attacked by feral pigs, wild boars, foxes and dingoes as the wild animals are starved by the drought.

Central Tablelands Local Land Services (CTLLS) in is offering services for farmers in and around the NSW towns of Oberon, Mudgee and Cowra to tackle the predators as spring begins.

Senior biosecurity officer Alistair Gordon-Smith said it's important that farmers start planning their bait before the mating season kicks off.

Farmers have been warned they could suffer attack from feral pigs, wild boars, foxes and dingoes that are desperate for food because of the drought

NSW-based Central Tablelands Local Land Services (CTLLS) is offering services for farmers to tackle the wild animals as spring begins

'It's been a dry, hard winter and feral pigs and wild dogs are looking for food for spring litters of piglets and pups,' he said.

'Newborn calves and lambs are extremely vulnerable to pest predators, so it's timely for landholders to start planning their baiting regime now.'

Charges for the service have also been dropped to assist all farmers with accessing bait-handling certification.

It's recommended that farmers work with their neighbours to effectively tackle 'pest animals like feral pigs and wild dogs'.

CTLLS manager of biosecurity and emergency services Clare Hamilton told the Central West Daily that the drought has made the animals hungrier.

'Food is more scarce...people are lambing at the moment, foxes are about and lambs are an easy target,' she said.

'They've never been this hungry.'

It's recommended that farmers work with their neighbours to effectively tackle 'pest animals like feral pigs (pictured) and wild dogs'

The move comes as all of NSW has been declared drought affected.

The Bureau of Meteorology announced the odds of an El Nino system forming this year are now twice as high as normal.

El Nino events often result in severe droughts, bringing higher temperatures, lower than average rainfall and increased risk of bushfires, with the phenomenon lasting as long as two years.

If an El Nino does form in the latter half of 2018, it could prove catastrophic for parched Australian farmers.The BBC is offering a virtual-reality recreation of a Lancaster bomber raid over Berlin in which viewers will hear the words of a 1940s war reporter on virtual headsets.

The virtual experience, which is called 1943: Berlin Blitz, puts viewers in the shoes of war correspondent Wynford Vaughan-Thomas on a bombing raid at the height of World War II.

Viewers will see the cockpit of a Lancaster bomber high over Berlin, with Vaughan-Thomas's commentary - based on a genuine broadcast - narrating the experience.

Headsets will be made available on the high street and, once purchased, viewers will be able to access the immersive experience using the BBC VR app on tablets and smartphones, which act as a view screen slotted directly onto the gadget.

The original radio broadcast of Vaughan-Thomas' report went out over the airwaves on September 4, 1943, just hours after the plane landed at RAF Langar in Nottinghamshire.

The BBC is offering a virtual-reality recreation of a Lancaster bomber raid over Berlin in which viewers will hear the words of a 1940s war reporter on virtual headsets

As the plane flies over Berlin the German anti-aircraft guns attempt to bring it down in what the reporter called 'the biggest fireworks show in the world'.

Some 7,377 Lancasters had carried out more than 150,000 missions by the end of the war including the audacious Dambuster Raids of 1943.

They had also dropped more than 600,000 tons of bombs on the enemy, a feat unequalled by any other plane.

The seven-man Lancaster crew consisted of a pilot, bomb aimer or nose gunner, wireless operator, flight engineer, navigator and mid-upper and rear gunners.

Overall, of the 6,000 Lancasters which were made available for service in the war, 3,400 were lost.

About 55,000 out of the 125,000 aircrew who served in Bomber Command were killed, while 10,000 became prisoners of war.

Viewers will see the cockpit of a Lancaster bomber high over Berlin, with Vaughan-Thomas's commentary - based on a genuine broadcast in 1943 - narrating the experience

Zillah Watson, head of BBC VR Hub, said: '1943: Berlin Blitz uses VR to breathe new life into the BBC Archive, using an extraordinary piece of journalism to transport you to Berlin at the height of the Second World War.

'It really gives a sense of just how brave the RAF and the BBC's war correspondents were back then, and providing new context for the threats our colleagues face today when reporting from dangerous situations.'

Another VR experience is intended to put viewers in the shoes of the suffragettes.

'We hope to launch them both to the public later in the year,' Ms Watson said.Police are hunting a gunman following reports of a shooting in Birmingham.

One man found with gun shot wounds has been taken to hospital.

West Midland police officers were at the scene in Druids Heath after reports of a shooting.

West Midland police officers were at the scene in Druids Heath (pictured) after a report of a shooting

Their Force Response team tweeted: 'Officers are currently in Druids Heath following a report of a shooting.

'One male with gun shot wounds has been found and treated. He is now en-route to hospital.

'Enquiries are fast moving to trace the offenders.'

Officers from the West Midlands Police Firearms Operations Team and the Police Dog Unit were reportedly at the incident.The Philippines President has admitted he is wrong for calling former US president Barack Obama a 'son of a whore' in 2016, and is now asking the 57-year-old to forgive him.

Rodrigo Duterte caused outrage two years ago ahead of a regional summit in Laos, where he said: 'Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum.'

It prompted the US to cancel a meeting between the two leaders there.

Now the 73-year-old is eating his words and publicly extended an olive branch to Obama during a speech in Israel on Sunday while also revealing his strong friendship with US President Donald Trump, saying he 'speaks my language'.

VIDEO: Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte apologises to former US president Barack Obama for calling him a "son of a whore" in 2016, which sparked a new low in their nations' long alliance pic.twitter.com/kPP6xyoJqY  AFP News Agency (@AFP) September 3, 2018

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has apologized for offensive remarks in 2016 to former US President Barack Obama

Rodrigo Duterte compared Obama to a girlfriend when asking for forgiveness during his trip to Israel Sunday

'It would be appropriate also to say at this time to Mr Obama that you are now a civilian and I am sorry for uttering those words,' he said.

Duterte then went on to compare his marred relationship with the president to that of an old flame.

'If it is [in] your heart to forgive, you forgive. I have forgiven you, just like my girlfriends when I was still a bachelor... I have forgiven them also,' he continued.

The pair clashed when Obama criticized his violent handling of a drugs crackdown.

Law enforcement there say narcotics have only killed 4,410 alleged drug dealers or users however, rights groups say the number is triple that and could amount to crimes against humanity.

At the time, Obama simply responded saying the leader was 'a colorful guy' and urged him to conduct his anti-narcotics campaign 'the right way'

Duterte called US President Donald Trump (pictured November 2017) a 'good friend', adding he 'speaks my language'

Obama simply responded saying the leader was 'a colorful guy' and urged him to conduct his anti-narcotics campaign 'the right way'.

But Obama isn't the only one who has been in his firing line. After his election in mid-2016, he spewed vulgar language at other critics including Pope Francis and the then US ambassador to Manila, who he also referred to as 'sons of whores'.

Even the United Nations couldn't avoid his scathing tongue. And during a speech in the Philippines he raised his middle finger in defiance to the European parliament.

On Sunday, the leader had only good things to say about current US President Donald Trump, saying the 72-year-old is a 'good friend' before adding he 'speaks my language'.

Duterte credited Trump's leadership for improving his country's relationship with the United States.

His Israel visit has seen him meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The comments came just after he arrived at Filipinos in Israel - a four-day stay where the Philippines hopes to develop new sources of military hardware and nail down protections for its overseas workers.

His words came as he defended last week blaming beautiful women for high numbers of rape in his hometown.

'They say there are many rape cases in Davao,' he declared in a speech on Thursday. 'For as long as there are many beautiful women, there will be many rape cases, too.'

The latest comment was denounced by women's rights defenders, with Philippine lawmaker Risa Hontiveros saying: 'Beauty doesn't cause rape, rapists do.'

But it's not the first time he has expressed the sentiment.

Despite not apologizing for that, Duterte said his comments were misunderstood however he should be allowed to say how he feels.

'This is democracy. Freedom of expression,' he said.

There were 42 rapes there by the second quarter of this year.

Quezon City had 41, Manila 32, Cagayan de Oro City 24, and Zamboanga City had 21.

Davao Police Regional Director Chief Superintendent Marcelo Morales controversially responded by saying they are working with women, so they can avoid being a victim.

Reported by ABS-CBN, a translation roughly said that when it comes to rape cases they will intensify their information drive among women on how to avoid being a rape victim and will coordinate with the village officials.

He paid respects at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, saying he 'could not imagine a country obeying an insane leader' regarding Adolf Hitler's slaying of six million Jews

His Israel visit has seen him meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He also paid respects at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem alongside daughter Sraah, saying he 'could not imagine a country obeying an insane leader' regarding Adolf Hitler's slaying of six million Jews according to historians.

'And I could not ever fathom the spectacle of a human being going into a killing spree... I would like to say that we are one in saying that this will not happen again.'

However in 2016 he said: 'Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts [in the Philippines]. I'd be happy to slaughter them.'

He has since apologized.

On Wednesday, Duterte will inaugurate a memorial near Tel Aviv commemorating the Philippines' acceptance of 1,300 Jews fleeing the Holocaust.

Last month he faced protests in his country from those demanding a higher minimum wage, as he attended a National Heroes Day event.A former bishop has claimed Scott Morrison's beliefs are against the Bible, with the statement coming just after devout Christian Prime Minister revealed he sends his children to private school to avoid the 'values of others'.

Mr Morrison said he sends his daughters, aged nine and 11, to an independent Baptist school rather than the local public school to avoid sexual education classes requiring children to role-play bisexual teenagers with multiple partners.

Dr George Browning, a former bishop of the Anglican Church of Australia, said Christians have a right to be concerned that Mr Morrison will 'behave in a way that is out of step with true biblical values' due to his views on asylum seekers, climate change and social welfare.

Then Treasurer Scott Morrison kisses his daughter's hand after delivering the budget in 2017

Dr Browning said Mr Morrison's maiden speech to parliament in 2008 in which he quoted Bishop Desmond Tutu while detailing the values he derived from his faith were not reflected in his actions as a politician.

'Given these are clues to the values that Mr Morrison holds dear, we have the right to be somewhat surprised by the stand, or lack of it, that he has taken on several issues, the first and most obvious being refugees and asylum seekers,' he wrote in a column for The Melbourne Anglican.

Dr George Browning, a former bishop of the Anglican Church of Australia, said Christians have a right to be concerned that Mr Morrison will 'behave in a way that is out of step with true biblical values'

'On the matter of ''strangers and aliens'' the Bible is unequivocally clear - we are to welcome and embrace them.

'It is a matter of national shame that we have mistreated so terribly those who have come to our shores. Those still incarcerated on Manus and Nauru are prisoners of a political ideology that has very little to do with the ongoing security of Australian borders.'

Dr Browning said Mr Morrison's views on climate change showed he did not 'stand up for truth'.

'That the Australian government has abjectly failed to produce a policy to address this truth is quite shocking,' he said.

'Thirdly, in using the quote from Desmond Tutu, Mr Morrison nails his colours to the mast of a preferential bias towards the poor and needy. This of course is the bias of Jesus himself.

'Is this bias demonstrated in successive budgets over which Mr Morrison has had the responsibility of shaping? It is hard to see it.'

Scott Morrison has said he sends his daughters to private school to avoid having the 'values of others' imposed on them (pictured is the Morrison family)

Australians have a right to feel the values Mr Morrison 'espoused as a Christian' are 'being ignored', Dr Browning aruged.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Morrison's office for comment.

Mr Morrison told 2GB on Monday that he did not want the 'values of others being imposed on my children in my school'.

'I don't think that should be happening in a public school or a private school. It's not happening in the school I send my kids to, and that's one of the reasons I send them there.'

Mr Morrison said his objection to elements of the controversial Safe Schools program was why he wants to protect the religious freedoms of private schools.

The activities in question are part of the Building Respectful Relationships program, written by Deakin University associate professor Debbie Ollis, which is mapped to the curriculum in Victoria.

One exercise titled 'Different perspectives on sexual intimacy' requires students to use character cards to do 20-minute role-plays.

Characters include Megan, 17, a bisexual girl with 15 sexual partners, Grace in Year 10 who has been sexually active since age 13, and Kelly, 14, who thinks she might be a lesbian.

A CHARACTER CARD FROM THE BUILDING RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS PROGRAM FOR YEAR 8-10 STUDENTS IN VICTORIA MEGAN Megan is 17, lives in the city and works in a local cafe. She has had 15 sexual partners and describes herself as bisexual. She has had casual sex and some short-term partners, including two women. She rarely practises safe sex. She forgets to protect herself because she is often drunk when she has sex. 'I'm really bad with that, like you know as much as you know or what you learnt in high school. You know, um, safe sex, use condoms and all the precautions and AIDS and all that, and sometimes well when you're drunk you just don't really think about it. I've scared myself many times like I've probably had three pregnancy scares cause I wasn't careful but in the end luckily I wasn't pregnant. I try and be careful like maybe what I learnt hasn't really fully absorbed, it isn't until something bad happens that I actually fully learn from it and yeah it hasn't really happened.' Your character is aware of the risks but rarely does anything to protect herself or her partners. You need to play this up during the role play and just laugh off questions that suggest she is not being wise: 'I just go with the flow and anyway it really is about pleasing them, not me. You just want to know they like you'. Refer to the information in the quote to help you. Source: The State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training) Advertisement

The program also contains a case study about a transgender man who complains about not being recognised as male due to having female reproductive organs.

Dr Ollis told Daily Mail Australia Mr Morrison's comments 'indicate a real ignorance of what the RRE [Respectful Relationships Education] curriculum aims to do'.

'[The comments are] another illustration of how out of touch our politicians are with what young people want in their health education.

'I find it astounding that any parent would be opposed to their daughters or sons developing knowledge, understanding and skills to deal with the level of gender-based violence prevalent in Australia.'

She said the program was designed to keep students safe by educating them on making sense of relationships, learning health literacy skills, and 'help seeking behaviours'.

The classes in question are part of the Building Respectful Relationships program, which is mapped to the curriculum in Victoria

The teaching activities are part of the controversial Safe Schools program, which is aimed at stamping out bullying and discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Mr Morrison went on to tell Mr Jones he backed federal funding for public education, which is run by the states and territories.

'[But] how about we just have state schools that focus on things like learning maths and science,' he added.

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT oversee their own programs after federal funding for the nationally orientated Safe Schools Coalition Australia was withdrawn in 2017.

Mr Morrison is a devout Christian and attends the Hillsong Pentecostal mega church.

He met his wife Jenny at a Sydney church at the age of 12, and the pair were married by 21 after they started dating at 16.

They had their first child, Abbey, 18 years later after 14 years of IVF attempts, which Mr Morrison described as a miracle.

The couple had a second daughter, Lily, two years later. Both children were born naturally.The best suburbs for buying a rental investment property have been revealed - and it may not be as hard as previously thought to make back your money.

Propertyology, a buyer's agency and property research firm, has released the best five suburbs for rental cashflow in each capital city.

Managing director Simon Pressley said that the properties are not out of reach for the average investor, with rental income covering the costs of paying off the purchase.

The best suburbs to buy a rental investment property have been revealed and it may not be as hard as previously thought to make back your money (Pictured is a house in Rockbank, Victoria)

Propertyology, a buyer's agency and property research firm, has released the best five suburbs for rental cash flow in each capital city (pictured is a house in Lake Munmorah, NSW)

'Even in suburbs where you do need to contribute, the maximum an investor will be out-of-pocket is around $100 per week, or the cost of a decent date night,' Mr Pressley told The Daily Telegraph.

'In some locations, even with a low 10 per cent deposit, the typical property is putting money back into the owner's pocket each year,' he said.

The Darwin suburb of Karama tops the list with a median house price of $392,000 which would provide $3600 a year with a 20 per cent deposit.

According to the Propertyology data Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth are strong options that would provide substantial gains sooner.

In NSW, Victoria, and ACT you may need to look further afield to get the same gains as other states (pictured Mannering Park NSW)

According to the Propertyology data Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth are strong options that would provide substantial gains sooner (pictured Cooper Plains, QLD)

The strongest capital growth in the nation is found in Hobart , however, with houses available at much lower prices than the mainland, making it easier for them to provide positive cash flow.

In Brisbane, the suburb of Coopers Plains about 15 minutes south of the city has excellent-value property that can be purchased for about $400,000 and provide cashflow of $3600 every year.

In NSW, Victoria, and ACT you may need to look further afield to get the same gains.

'Suburbs offering both high cash flow and capital growth potential are not common, but they can be found in every state,' Mr Pressley said.Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will use a visit to Burma to call for the release of two journalists jailed after investigating a bloody crackdown against Rohingya Muslims.

A Burmese court yesterday sentenced Reuters workers Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, to seven years in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act.

The men, who are both Burmese citizens, were convicted of illegal possession of documents while reporting on violence by security forces against the Rohingya.

Both pleaded not guilty and insisted they had been framed by the police in Burma, which is also known as Myanmar.

Jeremy Hunt has insisted Burma must free journalists as he takes a tough stand over the jailing of Reuters journalists

Mr Hunt said on Twitter: Imprisoning journalists who write about inconvenient truths is an unconscionable blow to Press freedom  and indeed everyones freedom. Will be raising the extremely serious case of the two Reuters journalists on my forthcoming visit to Burma.

Downing Street said the UKs ambassador to Burma had already protested at the sentence after attending the mens court hearing. The Prime Ministers spokesman added: We call for the journalists to be released immediately.

Two reporters were jailed when investigating violence against the Rohingyas. Pictured: Rohingyas refugees gather near the fence at the 'no man's land' zone between the Bangladesh-Myanmar border

Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape the violence, which came after Rohingya militants attacked police in August 2017, killing several officers.

The Burmese military has been accused of genocide by the UN for its brutal response, which claimed almost 7,000 lives in the first month.The truth is out there - especially if youre in North Carolina.

For at least the second time this summer, a local resident says he saw a UFO in the skies above the Tar Heel State.

Javion Hill, 35, posted a photograph on his Facebook page showing a mysterious object in the sky during a rainstorm near Charlotte.

Hill, a resident of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, said he took several photos on the night of August 18 as he was driving along U.S. 74 southwest of Charlotte.

The object resembles a kind of rectangular aircraft with lights activated along the edges - which UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists claim is an advanced new spy plane known as 'TR-3B'.

However, some online have said the picture looks suspiciously like the reflection of a cell phone on the dash.

Javion Hill, 35, posted several photographs on his Facebook page showing a mysterious object in the sky during a rainstorm near Charlotte

I was on my way home with my wife on the speaker phone, and it looked like there was a tornado coming, so I was trying to take a picture of the clouds for my wife, Hill told the Charlotte Observer.

But then I saw something that wasnt normal and I was, like: Oh my god, what is that?

I started trying to take as many pictures of it as possible while I was driving.

Hill then pulled his car over at the next exit and tried to get video, but the aircraft disappeared.

Moments later, it began pouring rain.

Hill said he was so unnerved by what he saw that he could not fall asleep that night.

When asked to speculate, Hill said it was possible the aircraft he saw was a military plane of some sort.

UFO conspiracy theorists have claimed that the U.S. military is working on a secret anti-gravity spy plane that hovers - the TR-3B.

There is only anecdotal evidence that such a plane exists.

Some UFO observers claim to have seen an aircraft of this type over Antelope Valley in the southern California desert - not far from Edwards Air Force Base.

Hill (left), a resident of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, said he took the photos on the night of August 18 as he was driving along U.S. 74 southwest of Charlotte

'I was worried for my safety,' Hill said.

'I didnt believe in UFOs until that moment.'

The sighting of the unusual aircraft came just two weeks after a video emerged showing what appeared to be a strange object hovering over the Lake Norman area.

The footage recorded by Jason Swing on May 29, is extremely shaky but when the video isn't bouncing up and down it shows, clear as day, a large object that appears to be hovering in mid-air.

During the short clip Swing posted to YouTube he announces 'This is a spacecraft.' The clip is accompanied with a brief explainer of the video.

'It had been raining all morning. Rain finally stopped so we went (to) pick up a boat from Lake Norman,' Swing says in a post with the video. 'When (I) came around the corner I saw this thing sitting still very close.'

The sighting of the unusual aircraft came just two weeks after a video emerged showing what appeared to be a strange object hovering over the Lake Norman area. Though viewers thought it was a UFO, the tire company GoodYear said it was its blimp

The video garnered over 150,000 views and then it received an additional boost in viewers when on Thursday the YouTube video channel 'The Hidden Underbelly 2.0,' a site focused on UFO and creature videos picked it up.

While some people were excited about the possibility of the large object being a UFO, others wondered if the government was behind the large flying object.

GoodYear, the tire manufacturing company, saw the video, and claims, as much as some wish it were a UFO, that the object seen in the shaky footage, is its blimp that was in the the Charlotte area on May 29, for NASCAR's Coca Cola 600.

The GoodYear Blimp's account shared: 'We dont want to get in the way of a good story, but thats definitely us. We left the Charlotte area 5/29 after covering the Coke 600.'

North Carolina is also the home to multiple military bases, including Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base and Camp Lejeune Marine Corps facility.

The state is in the top 10 for 'UFO' sightings.The body of a Good Samaritan who was swept away in flash flooding three days ago while trying to save the life of another was found Monday after her boyfriend set out on a frantic search.

Melissa Lehew, 34, has been confirmed dead after her companion, Kyle Bowman, discovered her in a Harford County quarry lake while on a kayak, Maryland State Police said.

Lehew and Bowman had been driving in Bel Air Friday when they came across another driver, Daniel Samis, 67, who was stranded in high waters along Route 136.

Lehew and Bowman used a rope when they attempted to rescue the stranded man, but while doing so, the woman fell twice into the rushing waters. The second time, she was swept away.

Good Samaritan Melissa Lehew, 34, was found dead Monday by her boyfriend Kyle Bowman. The couple are pictured together on Facebook

Lehew was swept away Friday in flash flooding trying to save a stranded driver

Her boyfriend rushed to the nearby quarry to search for her, but could not locate her.

Bowman said in a statement to WJLA: 'I made my way over to (my girlfriend), and pulled her head up above the water so she could breathe.

'She got to a telephone pole, and was holding on to that... and I was holding on to a tree or a bush, trying to pull her up. I just couldnt - I couldnt hold on - and she just got swept away.'

Samis also died after his vehicle submerged. His body was found early Saturday.

Bowman discovered her body in a Harford County quarry lake while on a kayak, Maryland State Police said

Lehew and Bowman were driving in Bel Air Friday when they came across another driver, Daniel Samis, 67, stranded in high waters. They used a rope to try and rescue him, but his vehicle submerged

Lehew's body was swept away in the flood waters during the attempted rescue. Her boyfriend found her Monday in a quarry

Police and volunteers, several of whom were members of Lehew's church, were involved in a search for her over the weekend

Heavy rains in Maryland and Pennsylvania triggered flash flooding over the weekend, forcing authorities to rescue more than two dozen people in the areas.

Police and volunteers, several of whom were members of Lehew's church, took part in a search for her over the weekend, before her boyfriend found her Monday afternoon.

Mt. Zion Methodist pastor Brian Malcolm told the local news station Lehew recently found Christ and was a recovering drug addict.

Mt. Zion Methodist pastor Brian Malcolm told the local news station Lehew recently found Christ as a recovering drug addict

Bowman said in a statement to WJLA : 'She got to a telephone pole, and was holding on to that... and I was holding on to a tree or a bush, trying to pull her up. I just couldnt - I couldnt hold on - and she just got swept away'

Malcolm said in the statement: 'She became a believer in Jesus, and her life just completely changed.

'We saw her just absolutely turn a new leaf... he was so happy and full of life.'

Lehew's Facebook bio also states she is a 'sinner saved by the grace of God.'

Her bio adds she is from Baltimore and resided in Darlington at the time of her passing.

Evacuations were reported in Lancaster, York, Berks and Chester counties in Pennsylvania. No injuries have been reported

The heavy rainfall has been fueled by a tropical plume of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, forcing roads and highways closed and leaving many stranded. Pictured is a partially submerged car in Maryland

Heavy rains triggered flash flooding across both Maryland and Pennsylvania this weekend, forcing authorities to rescue more than two dozen people. Pictured is a van driving through the high water in Manheim, Pennsylvania on Friday

A man is rescued from an SUV on Bridge Valley Road at Chiques Creek on Friday in West Hempfield Township, PennsylvaniaAn Australian farmer has uploaded dramatic footage of a dust storm that swept through his property after five years of drought.

The 20 second clip shows a ferocious storm, with visibility difficult beyond a few metres from the window of his Hungerford home, in south-east Queensland.

'There was supposed to finally be some rain but instead all we got was a dust storm,'' the farmer said in the video.

'I've never seen one that bad before.'

The dust storm recently recorded from inside a Hungerford home, in south-east Queensland

Despite some welcome rain elsewhere, almost 60 per cent of Queensland is currently drought declared.

Other areas across the nation are also suffering through dry conditions.

In further bad news for farmers, the harsh climate is set to continue.

'Much of eastern and southern mainland Australia experienced a very dry winter and start to the year,' a Climate Outlook report from the Bureau of Meteorology said.

'So areas currently experiencing drought are less likely to see significant respite in the next three months.'

Ominously, with above average temperatures so far this year, combined with below average rainfall and dry vegetation, fire activity is also set to increase leading up to the start of summer.Australia has been accused of being weak towards China by President Donald Trump's former White House chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

The conservative political figure criticised Australia's approach to its highest-ranked trade partner, China, saying the nation was too 'appeasing'.

'Australia can show you when good and decent people kind of play by the rules and the next thing they look around and many of the economic resources and economic assets of a country are owned by another country,' he told Four Corners.

Steve Bannon (pictured) has warned of a working-class revolt in Australia on Four Corners

Mr Bannon also warned there will be an Australian working-class revolt if the government fails to stand up to China.

'I absolutely see Australia is going to be a hotbed of populism. Just knowing the cussedness and grit of the Australian people. This revolution is global  it's coming to Australia,' he said.

Australia has been accused of 'appeasing' China too much by Donald Trump's (pictured) former White House chief strategist

Discussing the current trade situation with China, he said Australia was on the 'front lines' of an economic confrontation.

'This is not a trade war, we're in an economic war with China,' he said.

In the interview, which was filmed before last month's leadership change in Canberra, he said the now former prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, had made 'backward' decisions.

Steve Bannon: 'This is not a trade war, we're in an economic war with China'

The 40-minute interview with Sarah Ferguson touched on accusations that Mr Bannon helped legitimise racism

'I think (Malcolm) Turnbull has been way too much of an appeaser, and I think that's not going to turn out well,' he stated.

The 40-minute interview with Sarah Ferguson touched on accusations that Mr Bannon helped legitimise racism at a rally for the French National Front party of Marine La Pen.

'Let them call you racist, let them call you xenophobes, wear it as a badge of honour,' he said at the rally.

He also said that by 2020, political candidates will be on the popular media sphere and Oprah Winfrey is his top choice for the job.

'And I think people like The Rock have real opportunities,' he added.Animal rights activists have targeted a gift shop after it was found to be selling a fur poncho believed to be made from rabbit hair.

Linda McCarthy from Logan, Queensland, saw the dark-brown, velvet-look poncho hanging in Ideas at the Hyperdome shopping centre last week.

The label stated it consisted of 100 per cent acrylic lining and 100 per cent fur.

Linda McCarthy from Logan, Queensland, saw the dark-brown, velvet-look poncho hanging in Ideas at the Hyperdome shopping centre last week

Jim Doyle, who owns the shop (pictured), said he wouldn't be stocking the garment, which he bought from Reed Exhibitions at a trade fair in Melbourne, next year

She asked a sales assistant what type of fur it was and was told it was likely rabbit fur from China, according to The Courier-Mail.

Jim Doyle, who owns the shop, told the publication that he wouldn't be stocking the garment again. He said he'd bought it from Reed Exhibitions at a trade fair in Melbourne last month.

He added: 'This has got nothing to do with us. We dont import [those products] and rabbits are vermin in some parts of the world anyway.

'You cant bring anything into this country unless it has been checked.'

Ms McCarthy, who is a member of the Coast to Coast Animal Friends community, said she was shocked that a store in her local shopping centre was selling such products.

Ms McCarthy said she was disgusted and her group had started a petition and planned a protest outside the shop.

Ms McCarthy, who is a member of Coast to Coast Animal Friends, said she was shocked that a store in her local shopping centre (pictured) was selling such products

She said: 'Many are killed by a probe inserted into their anus or vagina and electrocuted. Many are skinned alive, which is why I refuse to accept a local shop is profiting from the suffering of defenceless animals.'

Items such as leather, hides and furs that have been effectively and fully tanned are allowed into Australia, according to the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.

Some items may need to be inspected while others, such as raw hides, can only be brought in as a personal item, and if they don't meet standards they will be destroyed.

Furs and hides may be looked at as part of the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and anything that is believed to fit under and be in breach of the convention will be taken to the Department of Home Affairs.The Kushner family real estate firm has amassed over a half-million dollars in unpaid fines for various New York City sanitation and building violations, with much of that bill incurred while President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was running the company.

City figures compiled for The Associated Press by a tenant watchdog group show that most of the fines - $350,000 - stretched over the past five years. And just last month the company was fined $210,000 for filing false construction documents.

The hundreds of violations in dozens of its buildings ranged from the seemingly minor - 'loose rubbish' - to the serious, such as not getting permits for electrical work or failing to notify authorities of work that could disturb asbestos.

The Kushner family real estate firm has amassed over half a million dollars in unpaid fines for various New York City sanitation and building violations, much of that bill incurred while President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was running the company

Most of the fines were for a few hundred dollars apiece. But in many cases the company failed to show up for required court hearings, triggering additional penalty fines atop interest payments that allowed the bill to grow.

'This is a company that will cut corners at any cost, even if it comes at the expense of its residents and the rule of law,' said Aaron Carr, executive director of Housing Rights Initiative, which compiled the data.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said: 'No landlord with outstanding violations should get away with escaping the consequences - not even if they're related to the President' (Pictured: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump)

The Kushner Cos. said the tally is misleading because many of the fines are actually the fault of tenants illegally renting their apartments through Airbnb, and businesses in its buildings not cleaning up properly. It said the fines for illegal renting alone total $110,000.

'Every significant property owner in New York gets fined at some point for something and a snapshot at any point in time does not tell the whole story,' the Kushner Cos. said in a statement. It added that it has made good on hundreds of other fines totaling nearly $600,000 over the same five years.

The city's $210,000 penalty against the Kushner Cos. last month came after an AP report in March that the company filed dozens of applications for construction permits claiming it had no low-paying, rent-stabilized tenants when, in fact, it had hundreds. Those false filings allowed the company to avoid tougher city oversight to keep landlords from harassing tenants to get them to move out so they can raise rents.

The Kushner Cos. said it will fight this latest penalty in court. It doesn't have to be paid until that fight is settled.

The data on the company's unpaid, older bills show it was fined after not appearing at scheduled court hearings more than 450 times stretching back to early 2013, much of that for sanitation violations for dirty sidewalks and not disposing of trash properly. In these 'no-show' cases, the city typically doubles or triples the amount originally fined.

Any unpaid fines within 60 days of a judgment by a court or a 'no show' at a hearing is kicked to the city's Department of Finance, which then can tap private agencies to collect the debt. A department spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment from the AP.

Asked about the Kushner bill, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said: 'No landlord with outstanding violations should get away with escaping the consequences - not even if they're related to the President.'

Pictured above is 331-335 East 9th Street, a Kushner family property located in Manhattan's East Village, which was fined for multiple violations

City data suggest the Kushner Cos. is hardly alone among major landlords with big bills for unpaid fines. Landlord Steven Croman racked up $1 million in unpaid fines before his 2017 guilty plea for fraud, according a tenant advocacy group Cooper Square Committee.

In general, the city has had a tough time collecting from landlords, restaurant owners, stores and others. In July, unpaid fines of all types in the city reached $1.5 billion, much of that from building code and construction violations.

Aaron Carr, Executive Director of Housing Rights Initiative in New York, says that Kushner Cos. will 'cut corners at any cost'

And those landlords and others who are fined have a powerful incentive not to pay: If a fine isn't collected in eight years, it 'expires' and doesn't need to be paid. In the year through June 2017, $94 million in fines expired.

The Kushner Cos. figure for unpaid fines doesn't include those by contractors hired in its buildings, but that's a distinction that often means little to tenants.

At Kushner-owned 331-335 East 9th Street, Trident Structural Corp. was fined for several violations including one in 2013 for working without a permit. Trident still owes more than $10,000 from work at those buildings and the Kushner Cos. owes $4,000.

Sloppy work resulted in Uta Winkler's ceiling collapsing twice, the first time sending gallons of water into her apartment and spreading mold that made her sick.

'It was like out of a fire hydrant,' said Winkler, who withheld rent payments in protest. 'Nobody from the management company called me. Nothing. It was unreal.'

The Kushner Cos. said it 'immediately remediated' when it found out about the water damage, but couldn't comment any further because of litigation over Winkler's rent.Police stop-and-search powers could be extended to crack down on acid attacks, it was reported last night.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid wants officers to be able to carry out checks on anyone suspected of carrying corrosive substances without reason.

At the moment they need evidence a suspect is about to cause injury. Mr Javid is also pushing for officers to be able to search anyone carrying laser pointers or drones, it was reported.

Sajid Javid delivers speech on the scale of online child sexual exploitation at the NSPCC this week, shortly before increasing stop and search powers for police

Although limited in scope, the moves will be seen as a challenge to Theresa May, who dramatically reduced stop-and-search powers as Home Secretary.

It follows a sharp increase in violent crime in recent months, and demands from senior Tories including Boris Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith for greater use of search powers.

The number of recorded acid attacks increased from 228 in 2012 to 601 in 2016. In July a three-year-old boy was seriously injured when he was targeted with acid in the West Midlands.

In June, ministers announced changes to the law to create a new crime of holding a corrosive substance in a public place without good reason.

Last month Mr Duncan Smith said police should dramatically increase the use of stop and search to combat spiralling gang violence.

A report by the Torys Centre for Social Justice think-tank warned of a toxic cycle of serious violence fuelled by drug dealers who operate with impunity. Senior officers were accused of all but abandoning active policing  including stop and search  because they fear being accused of institutional racism.

As Home Secretary, Mrs May led moves to slash the use of police search powers, warning they were being misused and ethnic minorities were up to seven times more likely to be targeted.

The use of stop and search has declined across London in recent years. File photo.

In London, use of the powers has fallen in a decade from around 700,000 times a year in 2008 to 125,000. This year the number of murder probes in the capital has topped 100.

A Home Office spokesman said: As outlined in the serious violent crime strategy, we are looking at ways to strengthen police powers to identify individuals carrying corrosive substances.

The Police Federation welcomed the move but questioned whether police forces had the necessary resources. Andy Cooke, the Chief Constable of Merseyside, told The Times that stop and search was the single greatest power that police have to target and disrupt crime.A woman and her daughter who paid a would-be hitman $300 and a pack of cigarettes to 'get rid' of her husband's new girlfriend have been jailed.

Leanne Loughrey, 47, and her 22-year-old daughter Tiffany appeared at NSW District Court in Sydney on Monday.

Judge Dina Yehia told the court that Loughrey 'intended for the killing to be carried out' despite the lack of planning, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

She also pointed out that Tiffany was concerned about her mother and assisted in the 'misguided attempt'.

Leanne Loughrey, 47, (R) and her 22-year-old daughter Tiffany (L) paid a would-be hitman $300 and a pack of cigarettes to 'get rid' of her husband's new girlfriend

Stephen Loughrey (L) had run off with Leanne Keaton (R), an old school friend of his wife, who blamed her for breaking up their 22-year marriage

The pair ran into Chris McIlroy in the Singleton shopping centre car park in the NSW Hunter Valley.

'We've got a favour to ask, do you know anyone or would you get rid of someone for 300 bucks and a packet of smokes?' Tiffany asked last September.

'Tiffany's father has run off with this lady and we need her killed,' Leanne added, before her daughter continued: 'We want him back and the only way that's gonna happen is if she's gone.'

Stephen Loughrey had run off with Leanne Keaton, an old school friend of his wife, who blamed her for breaking up their 22-year marriage.

McIlroy called the pair back later saying he had a friend who was interested, but needed the cash up front, according to court documents seen by A Current Affair.

He met them two days later in the front yard of their home and took the money and a pack of Winfield Red cigarettes.

'We've got a favour to ask, do you know anyone or would you get rid of someone for 300 bucks and a packet of smokes?' Tiffany asked last September

Leanne told him she wanted proof Ms Keaton was dead, in the form of her phone and the ring off her finger

Loughrey told him she wanted proof Ms Keaton was dead, in the form of her phone and the ring off her finger.

But Mr McIlroy told police he never intended to kill her, and made up his hitman friend to rip off the jealous mother and daughter.

'Old mate said just for the f**k around you're not getting your money back and he reckons they know everything,' he told Tiffany via Facebook.

'You just got ripped off for asking to kill someone for 300 bucks and a pack of ciggies.'

Leanne devised a plan to have Ms Keaton killed at a darts night at the local pub, where Mr Loughrey was a keen social player

Instead he told the intended target's son, who contacted police and Loughrey and Tiffany were arrested and charged with soliciting murder.

McIlroy was the scorned woman's second attempt at knocking off her love rival, offering much more to an old friend to carry out the hit in April 2016.

'I love him, I want him back. I want her killed. I know where she lives, I can give you the address,' she told him, offering $10,000.

'I can tell ya what time me ex-husband leaves for work each morning.'

in Newcastle Local Court, Leanne pleaded guilty to two counts of solicited murder. Tiffany pleaded to one count. The women face up to 25 years in jail for each charge if convicted.

Leanne even devised a plan to have her killed at a darts night at the local pub, where Mr Loughrey was a keen social player.

However, Loughrey never got the money together and nothing eventuated from the plot.

Loughrey was sentenced to a maximum of four years and six months in prison. She will be eligible for parole after two years.

Tiffany was sentenced to three years and a non-parole period of 50 days.Our rolling hills and trimmed hedgerows are often presented as a quintessential image of Britain.

But it seems many of us are now unlikely to recognise this portrayal, with the average Briton spending the vast majority of their time inside.

We now spend 142 hours a week indoors, compared with just 26 outside, a survey has found. This works out at 53 years of a persons life, including time spent at work, shopping, watching television or in the car.

The unpredictable British weather was what put many off leaving the house. Picture shows horse riders enjoy the bridleways of the North Downs Way in Surrey

Yet we will only spend a decade of our lives outdoors enjoying fresh air or nature.

Nearly half of us (47 per cent) say we rarely have the time or opportunity to explore the great outdoors, while 15 per cent complained they dont have any picturesque sites nearby for them to visit. And 8 per cent struggled to recall the last time they even went for a walk and saw wildlife or greenery, the survey of 1,500 people by Jordans cereals found.

The unpredictable British weather was what put many off leaving the house, with the typical adult unsurprisingly spending twice as long outside in the summer as they do in the winter. Not having a companion to go with, mobility issues and having children were other reasons Britons gave for not venturing outside.

Jordans marketing manager Alex Murphy said: From the British weather to money woes, this new research reveals that there are a number of reasons as to why us Brits dont go outside as much as wed like to, resulting in a disconnection with nature.

Were passionate about helping the UK form a closer bond with nature. Whether its a five-minute stroll, trip to your local park, or somewhere further afield, we hope Brits are encouraged to get out there into the great outdoors as much as possible.

The weather, not having a companion to go with, mobility issues and having children were some reasons Britons gave for not venturing outside

Caroline Drummond, chief executive at environmental group LEAF, said: These results suggest that sadly many people are missing out on all that the countryside has to offer.

Spending time outdoors benefits our mental and physical health, and wellbeing  important for us all, including young people. Something as simple as going for a walk or visiting a farm can make a massive impact.Network Seven will appeal the television watchdog's decision on Sunrise's 'stolen generation' segment, after it was found to be in serious breach of broadcasting codes and regulations.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released findings on Tuesday stating the segment on the adoption of Indigenous children 'provoked serious contempt on the basis of race'.

They also referred to inaccuracies in the panel, led by Sunrise host Sam Armytage, who was joined by Prue MacSween and Ben Davis.

Protesters took to the streets to stand in solidarity against comments made on the segment

The television watchdog found Network Seven's Sunrise segment on the 'stolen generation' was in breach of broadcasting codes and regulations

In the 'hot topics' segment, Ms Armytage claimed at-risk Aboriginal children who were subjected to rape, assault or neglect were only being placed with family members of other Indigenous families.

The entire segment was deemed to contain 'strong negative generalisations about Indigenous people as a group,' in which MacSween called for a second stolen generation.

'Just like the first Stolen Generation where a lot of children were taken because it was for their well-being, we need to do it again,' she said in the segment.

The ACMA findings were based on how an everyday citizen would interpret the segment.

The ACMA referred to inaccuracies in the panel, led by Sunrise host Sam Armytage (centre), who was joined by Prue MacSween (left) and Ben Davis (right)

Network Seven defended Armytage and the segment as a whole, claiming they were referencing a misleading headline from the Courier Mail. However, the ACMA findings say due diligence to verify the accuracy of the reporting was not performed.

Craig McPherson, Seven's director of news, said the network would challenge the findings.

'We are extremely disappointed the ACMA has seen fit to cast a label on a segment that covered an important matter of public interest, child abuse, sparked by comments attributed to a government minister and widely circulated in the press on the morning of the broadcast.

Ms Armytage claimed at-risk Aboriginal children who were subjected to rape, assault and/or neglect were only being placed with family members or other Indigenous families

The entire segment was deemed to contain 'strong negative generalisations about indigenous people as a group,' in which MacSween called for a second stolen generation

'The irony is that the very issue the commentators were critical of, that is political correctness preventing meaningful discussion and action, has come to bear with this finding.

'The finding seeks to rule out issues and topics for discussion segments, as determined by ACMA. Its decision is a form of censorship; a direct assault on the workings of an independent media and the thousands of issue-based segments covered every year by Sunrise, other like programs, newspapers and talkback radio.'

ACMA Chairperson Nerida O'Loughlin said in a statement the topic of conversation was not the issue, rather the way the conversation was handled and framed.

A police presence was required outside the Sunrise studio after protesters flocked to the building

'Broadcasters can, of course, discuss matters of public interest, including extremely sensitive topics such as child abuse in indigenous communities. However, such matters should be discussed with care, with editorial framing to ensure compliance with the Code.

'The ACMA considers that the high threshold for this breach finding was met, given the strong negative generalisations about indigenous people as a group,' Ms O'Loughlin said.

The threshold has been met on a handful of previous occasions, including when 2GB's Alan Jones made scathing comments after the Cronulla Riots, and when A Current Affair's 'All Asian Mall' segment implied Asian shopkeepers were 'taking over' a shopping centre in Sydney.Savvy neighbours have banded together to add a combined $800,000 to the value of their homes.

The homeowners saw their profits skyrocket after the properties in Melbourne's east were put on the market together as a 1460sqm package.

'To be sold together as one,' read the listing, which invited developers to secure the 'rare and limited opportunity'.

The move proved a master stroke, with the Box Hill homes fetching a combined $6.8million at auction on Saturday.

Dennis Dellas from Lindellas Real Estate said teaming up for the sale earned the vendors an extra $400,000 each.

Savvy neighbours have banded together to suddenly add a combined $800,000 to the value of their homes (one pictured)

The vendors saw their profits skyrocket after the Melbourne properties (the other is above) were put on the market together as a 1460sqm package

'On their own, they would have gotten about $3million mark each,' Mr Dellas told realestate.com.au of the properties, which had both operated as medical clinics.

A local developer purchased the combined block and will build a mixed apartment and retail building, Mr Dellas said.

The red brick property at 718 Station Street sold for $370,000 in August 1990, the last time it was on the market, according to CoreLogic data.

Owners of the neighbouring home, which was snapped up for $1.5million in 2011, made nearly $2million profit in seven years following Saturday's sale.

'To be sold together as one,' read the listing, which invited developers to secure the 'rare and limited opportunity'

Pictured: The combined block is seen centre bottom, just metres from the centre of Box Hill and 14km east of the heart of Melbourne

Neighbours joining forces to maximise profits is a concept being increasingly utilised across Australia.

In one case, a group of 26 ambitious homeowners in the Sydney suburb of Baulkham Hills are hoping to sell their properties as one big 'super site'.

The plan is the result of a year-long deal among the neighbours, who are hoping to get fetch more than $60million for the combined homes.

Manager of investment services at Colliers International, Tom Appleby, said the residents were looking to make 'at least double' of what they'd make if the properties were sold individually.

In another case, a group of 26 ambitious homeowners in the Sydney suburb of Baulkham Hills are hoping to sell their properties as one big 'super site'

In Baulkham Hills, the plan is the result of a year-long deal among the neighbours, who are hoping to get fetch more than $60million for the combined homes

Mr Appleby said the sales process was expected to take between 12 and 24 months, and that residents were aware they would likely have to wait longer than that to sell.

'Collective sales generally take a considerable amount of time to formalise,' Mr Appleby told Daily Mail Australia.

Last year, eight homeowners sold their properties for combined $40 million in Castle Hill.Aretha Franklin's family has spoken out after her televised funeral last Friday got a negative response from the public, largely due to a controversial reverend who seemingly attacked the black community.

Vaughn Franklin, Aretha's nephew, admitted the speech 'caught the entire family off guard' and that Reverend Jasper Williams Jr handling of his role 'has been very, very distasteful'.

It's something they didn't expect as the Atlanta reverend had spoken at a memorial for Aretha's father, minister and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin, 34 years ago.

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Vaughn Franklin (pictured) said the speech was 'distasteful' but Williams, a fiery, old-school pastor who is under fire for saying black America is losing 'its soul' stands firm by his words

Reverend Jasper Williams, Jr (pictured August 31) delivered the eulogy during the funeral service for Aretha Franklin at Greater Grace Temple, in Detroit last month

Franklin said the family had not discussed what the pastor would say in advance and that the way it turned out was unfortunate because everyone else who participated in the ceremony was very respectful.

'He spoke for 50 minutes and at no time did he properly eulogize her,' he said in a statement on behalf of the family.

However the reverend stands by the content of his eulogy for Franklin, saying he was simply misunderstood when when he told people 'black America has lost its soul' and that single 'black women cannot raise a black boy to be a man'.

The Salem Bible Church pastor said to Associated Press: 'I think Stevie Wonder did not understand what I said.

'I said blacks do not matter, because black lives cannot matter, will not matter, should not matter, must not matter until black people begin to respect their own lives. Then and only then will black lives matter.'

The reverend was responding to Wonder's mention of 'black lives matter' on stage after he had spoken to the audience in Detroit, Michigan.

Aretha Franklin's (pictured December 2015) family say Reverend Jasper Williams, Jr did not properly eulogize her on Friday. She died August 16 aged 78

Referencing an Aretha song, Williams tried to soften the blow he received via social media after the comments about the African-American community.

It also came from people who opposed his views about single parenthood for black mothers raising their male children without the help of a father figure.

'What we need to do is create respect among ourselves. Aretha is the person with that song "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" that is laid out for us and what we need to be as a race within ourselves. We need to show each other that. We need to show each other respect. That was the reason why I did it,' he explained.

'Here's the root of what I've been talking about: In order to change America, we must change black America's culture. We must do it through parenting. In order for the parenting to go forth, it has to be done in the home. The home.'

He said he thinks Stevie Wonder did not understand what he said after the musician declared 'black lives matter' on stage after the pastor's speech

Williams thinks the church needs to play a big role in the changes he suggests, therefore his timing was right.

'I'm sure much of the negativity is due to the fact that they don't understand what I'm talking about,' he said. 'Anybody who thinks black America is all right as we are now is crazy. We're not all right. It's a lot of change that needs to occur. This change must come from within us. Nobody can give us things to eliminate where we are. We have to change from within ourselves.

'It is ludicrous for the church not to be involved. The church is the only viable institution we have in the African-American community. We must step up and turn our race around.'

Williams maintains that a turnaround of black-on-black crime would be the ultimate tribute to the Queen of Soul who sang about black female empowerment way ahead of the time it became trendy in mainstream music.

'I think if she's immortalized, she should be immortalized,' he said. 'If we can turn black America around, it would be the greatest and best immortalization we could properly give to her for what she did for black America and the world when she lived.'

Williams hasn't backtracked at all, he seemed to feel more sorry for how people chose to react rather than the content of his words.

He responded: 'I understand it. I regret it. But I'm sorry they feel that way.'A young woman who recently moved to Australia from New Zealand has revealed what it's like to live in a 13-person share house.

Jane Moughan moved into the house last year and says even though she enjoys the friendships she has made living with such a large group, there are some downsides.

'Moving from New Zealand, I didn't know anyone in Melbourne, so it was like moving into an instant friendship group. It was the easiest way to meet people,' Ms Moughan told Domain.

A young woman who recently moved from Wellington to Melbourne has revealed what it's like to live in a 13-person share house (pictured; the house residents)

Jane Moughan moved into the house last year and says even though she enjoys the friendships she has made living with such a large group, there are some downsides

The house in inner city Melbourne has 13 bedrooms, five bathrooms, three showers, a large kitchen, and large living and dining areas.

'We've all got our own rooms, shelves in the fridge and cupboards to pop our stuff in,' Ms Moughan says.

The 24-year-old also says that in the summer the group, whose ages range from 21 to 29, will often get together for family-style dinners or barbeques.

Only four of the residents in the house are from Australia and the rest are from all over the world  some are students, some are working, and others are working in hospitality shifts.

The house in inner city Melbourne has 13 bedrooms, five bathrooms, three showers, a large kitchen, and large living and dining areas

The 24-year-old also says that in the summer the group, whose ages range from 21 to 29, will often get together for family-style dinners or barbeques

She says it's important to learn the other housemates' schedules and she has learnt a few tricks to make day to day living smoother, such as not leaving her toothbrush in the bathroom because, if someone is in there, you can't brush your teeth.

There are currently 12 housemates, four men and eight woman, and they are looking for another.

'There was one time when one of my housemates started seeing a new girlfriend, and it took me two weeks to realise she wasn't just a new housemate and she didn't even live there.'

She says cleaning the dishes and choosing what to watch on Netflix are also regular sources for contention in the house.

She says even though there is a high turnover in the house, she hopes the friendships she has made in the house will last and she will be able to visit and catch up with her friends all around the world.Clair Wineland's last wish was granted about a week ago when she was approved to undergo a double lung transplant for her cystic fibrosis. The YouTube star's health took a sudden turn for the worse after surgery when she suffered a rare stroke caused by a blood clot.

The 21-year-old social media sensation died peacefully in her hospital bed Sunday at approximately 6pm. Her loving parents, Melissa Yeager and John Wineland, stood by her side, Laura McHolm, chairman of the nonprofit Claire's Place Foundation, said in a public statement Monday.

'They saw her into this world for her first breath and were with her for her last,' McHolm said in the touching statement announcing Wineland's death. 'Medical staff said it was the most peaceful passing they had ever witnessed.'

On August 26, Wineland tragically had a massive stroke caused by a blood clot that cut off blood circulation to the right side of her brain. She was then placed into a medically-induced coma.

On Sunday, heartbroken loved ones to the sassy and strong young woman made the final decision to take her off life support - following one week of intensive care and aggressive treatments that did not provide any progress to her health.

Claire Wineland is shown on April 4, 2016 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The social media sensation died Sunday, a week after she suffered a stroke following surgery for a double lung transplant

Wineland shared this photo to her Instagram page in May, showing herself in the hospital as she received CPT therapy

She posted this photo of herself and her mom just before her double lung transplant on August 26, writing: 'It's a GO!!! Surgeon said they are perfect! See ya'll on the other side'

Wineland, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth, was 18 when she told her parents she didn't wish to receive a lung transplant - a decision her parents initially had to accept, according to CNN.

But Wineland had a change of heart earlier this year, when her health took a drastic decline and any energy she once had to complete day-to-day activities had been lost.

CNN, who spoke with her family, said Wineland was required 'to be sick enough to need the double lung transplant, yet strong enough to withstand the surgery and recovery' in order to be placed on a transplant list by her hospital.

Late last month, she was finally approved for the transplant.

Wineland announced on Twitter the morning of the surgery: 'It's a GO!!! See y'all on [the] other side.'

When Wineland got out of the surgery, she unexpectedly suffered the stroke. Doctors went through 'Herculean efforts' to try and save her, Yeager told CNN.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, less than three percent of patients who undergo a lung transplant suffer a stroke from the time they wake from surgery until the time they are discharged.

The popular YouTuber had more than 250,006 subscribers on her channel

While the double lung transplant was said to be successful, Wineland suffered a rare stroke caused by a blood clot that cut off blood circulation to the right side of her brain

While Wineland's family had to come to terms with the fact doctor's could not save their daughter, they found comfort in knowing she could save the lives of two others - as she was listed as an organ donor.

Yeager told CNN: 'Her right kidney was transplanted to a 44-year-old woman in San Diego, and her left kidney was transplanted to a 55-year-old male in Northern California.'

The chairman of Wineman's charity foundation also said in the Monday statement: 'Claires remarkable family were so happy for the other families that were now getting the calls that the organ they had long been waiting for was now available for transplant.

'They had been on the receiving end of that call just one short week ago.'

Bernie Sanders paid tribute to the late Wineland on Twitter Monday, writing: 'You are in inspiration and brought joy to many. You'll be missed deeply.'

The Claire's Place Foundation founder is seen on November 18, 2017 in Goleta, California. Wineland was remembered by loved ones for her inspirational words and sass

Wineland's mother told CNN she has found comfort through her late daughter's words during this trying time.

Last year, Wineland and her mom had been talking about the topic of death, when Claire comforted her and said: 'After you die, you are closer to everyone you love... because you are part of everything.'

Yeager told CNN the words stuck with her - and reminded her that her baby will always be close to her heart and apart of everything she does.

McHolm further thanked the public for their overwhelming support, prayers and words of encouragement in her statement.

WHAT IS CYSTIC FIBROSIS? Cystic fibrosis is caused by a faulty gene that a child inherits from both carrier parents. The gene, known as the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), is responsible for controlling the movement of water in and out of cells. The fault leads to the mucus produced throughout the body becoming thick and building up in the lungs and digestive system. Classic complications of the condition, which tend to present in infancy, include chronic infections, breathlessness, digestive problems and even infertility. There are approximately 30,000 cases of CF in the US and nearly 11,000 people in the UK are known to suffer. No cure currently exists and figures suggest half of sufferers will die before they're 31. Source: The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Advertisement

'We know Claire was loved all over the world... thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your massive amazing out pouring of love.

'We are asking to please give the family privacy at this time. They have so generously shared their lovely Claires remarkable journey with us all, but now is the time to give them some peace from the public spotlight.

'In the words of our previous founder Claire Wineland: "Death is Inevitable. Living a life we can be proud of is something we can control."'

The popular YouTuber had more than 250,000 subscribers on her channel and was also a hit on social media. She served as the keynote speaker for a TEDx talk in July 2017, where she spoke about life with cystic fibrosis.A rare one-of-a-kind coin that is worth close to $2.5million has been released by The Perth Mint.

'Discovery' is the most exclusive and notable coin released by the mint to date.

The collectable coin, valued at $2.48million, was a collaboration with Argyle Pink Diamonds' partner, John Glajz, who is based in Singapore.

The coin tells the story of two of Australia's natural riches.

The coin, valued at $2.48million, was a collaboration with Argyle Pink Diamonds' partner, Singapore-based John Glajz

Western Australia's Minister for Mines and Petroleum unveiled the coin earlier today.

Bill Johnston said: 'It gives me great pleasure to unveil an Australian coin which showcases our country's prized treasures and the talents of our craftsmen and women who have transformed them to form a collectors' item of such significance.'

The coin was inspired by the holey dollar, which was Australia's first official currency in 1814, and tells the story of Australia's early prospectors search for gold and diamonds.

Discovery's outer-coin has a sailing ship and a rowboat being ferried to shore as well as a man panning for gold outside of a miner's tent.

The coin has two beautiful pink diamonds on it, along with the Kimberley region and a boab tree and kangaroos

While the inner coin, otherwise known as the heart, has two more pink diamonds which marks the location of Ophir, where gold was first found, and the Argyle Diamond Mine.

Discovery's outer-coin has a sailing ship and a rowboat being ferried to shore as well as a man panning for gold outside of a miners tent

Discovery is made of 99.99 per cent pure gold and weighs a whopping two kilograms.

The diamonds are worth $1.7million and two of the stones are from the Argyle Pink Diamond Signature Tender, the largest diamond is 1.02 carats.

There were seven versions of the coin before the Perth Mint settled on the current version.

Perth Mint chief executive Richard Hayes said that the coin was released in response to the demand for exclusive items.

The diamonds are worth $1.7million and two of the stones are from the Argyle Pink Diamond Signature Tender, the largest diamond is 1.02 carats (Pictured: Perth Mint)

He said: 'Discovery is just that, a collectors' item of distinction.

'The coin showcases rare pink stones handset in the most famed of precious metals, telling the inspirational rags to riches tales of mining for these prized resources.'

The coin has been issued as legal tender of Australia.

Discovery will remain at the Mint until September 28 - unless it is sold before then.

The coin is expected to go to a buyer in Asia or the Middle East, according to the ABC.With Republicans hoping to move the Supreme Court to the right for years to come, a Senate committee is beginning hearings for President Donald Trump's second nominee to the court.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, 53, has served for the past 12 years on the appeals court in Washington, D.C., which is considered the second most important court in the country after the Supreme Court.

He has a solidly conservative record, including a dissenting opinion last year that would have denied immediate access to an abortion for an immigrant teenager in federal custody.

Kavanaugh worked in key White House positions when George W. Bush was president and was a member of independent counsel Kenneth Starr's legal team that investigated President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, leading to Clinton's impeachment.

With Republicans hoping to move the Supreme Court to the right for years to come, a Senate committee is beginning hearings for President Donald Trump's second nominee to the court. Trump is seen above at the White House on Friday

As a young lawyer, Kavanaugh worked for Justice Anthony Kennedy, the man he would replace on the high court.

Kennedy retired at the end of July. Trump's first nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, also was a Kennedy law clerk the same year as Kavanaugh.

The first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Tuesday will feature opening statements from senators and Kavanaugh himself.

His remarks are not likely to be released in advance, but nominees often sing the praises of judicial independence.

When he was sworn in as an appellate judge in 2006, Kavanaugh called an independent judiciary 'the crown jewel of our constitutional democracy.'

Questioning will begin on Wednesday, and votes in committee and on the Senate floor could occur later in September.

If all goes as Republicans plan, Kavanaugh could be on the bench when the court begins its new term on Oct. 1.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is the committee chairman, has called Kavanaugh 'one of the most qualified nominees ever picked for the court.'

The American Bar Association has given Kavanaugh its highest rating, well qualified.

Rebuffed in their request to delay the hearing, Democrats are planning to shine a light on Kavanaugh's views on abortion, executive power and whether Trump could be forced to testify as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

'I remain troubled by your view of executive power,' Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, a committee member, wrote Friday in an open letter to Kavanaugh.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, 53, has served for the past 12 years on the appeals court in Washington, D.C., which is considered the second most important court in the country after the Supreme Court

'I am not satisfied with your responses to me during our private meeting, and I believe that you owe the Committee and the American people more thorough, candid answers during your hearing next week.'

Many Democratic senators already have announced their intention to vote against Kavanaugh and many Republicans have likewise signaled their support.

A handful of Democrats seeking re-election in states Trump carried in 2016 could vote for Kavanaugh.

If no Democrat ultimately supports the nomination, the Republicans have no margin for error in a Senate they control by 50-49.

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the only two Republicans even remotely open to voting against Kavanaugh, though neither has said she would do so.

Abortion rights supporters are trying to appeal to those senators by focusing on concerns that Kavanaugh could vote to limit abortion rights or even overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling from 1973 that first established a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.

Democrats have been under intense pressure from liberal voters to resist Trump, and many remain irate, even two years later, over the treatment of Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, who was denied so much as a hearing last year by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

But Democrats are powerless to delay a vote on Kavanaugh since McConnell led Republicans, during the Gorsuch nomination, in eliminating the 60-vote filibuster threshold that had been in place for Supreme Court nominations.

The filibuster rule required 60 of the 100 votes to advance a bill or nomination, in contrast to the simple 51-vote majority that applies in most cases.A shocking survey has found that one in four homeowners would fail mortgage tests if they applied for a home loan today.

Banks are cracking down on living expenses, which is making it hard for Australians to get approval for a home loan.

Australians' expenses are being examined under a microscope with banks trawling through everything from online shopping, Netflix habits and how often they use a tollway.

A shocking survey has found that one in four homeowners would fail mortgage tests if they applied for a home loan today (stock image)

A quarter of people who were approved for a home loan a year ago would not pass the tougher rules around living expenses now, according to realestate.com.au.

According to a recent HashChing broker survey, banks are choosing to review the expenses, rather than measuring their household expenditure.

HashChing's chief operating officer, Siobhan Hayden, said that it is becoming a lot harder to secure a new home loan or to refinance an existing one.

'Reviewing a loan applicant's living expenses is a rational metric to assess suitability for the loan, and doing so should provide more protections for both banks and borrowers,' Ms Hayden said.

Current homeowners are finding the new method rough, as existing homeowners are unable to refinance their loan and are stuck with an existing rate.

Banks are looking at everything from online shopping, Netflix habits and how often they use a tollway (stock image)

Australians that are stuck with their current loans are dubbed 'mortgage prisoners'.

Founding principal of Digital Finance Analytics (DFA), Martin North, has said that 40 per cent of people who have tried to refinance their loans have been unsuccessful.

This is happening because the bar to get a home loan has been raised and while applicants may have passed their initial test, they are falling short of ongoing criteria.

This follows years of banking reform and the fallout from the banking royal commission.Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters battled a blaze at a primary school in east London.

The inferno broke out in the early hours of the morning at Roding Primary School in Dagenham.

Around half of the single-storey building was set ablaze, with pupils set to return tomorrow following the summer holiday.

Emergency services were called at 4.50am and fire crews from Dagenham, Barking, Ilford and surrounding fire stations are attending the incident.

Firefighters examine the damage caused to the school as they continue to dampen down the flames this morning

Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters battled a raging blaze at a primary school in east London

The remnants of a classroom are visible as firefighters continue to quell the flames this morning

Emergency services were called at 4.50am and fire crews from Dagenham, Barking, Ilford and surrounding fire stations are attending the incident

The inferno broke out in the early hours of the morning at Roding Primary School in Dagenham

Around half of the single-storey building was set ablaze, with pupils set to return tomorrow following the summer holiday

The cause of the fire (pictured) is not known at this stage, the fire brigade told MailOnline

Nearby Saint Teresa Catholic Primary School was closed for the day as the surrounding roads were shut by emergency services

Crews were seen removing a large gas cylinder from the burning school and were later seen spraying it with water amid fears it might explode.

Nearby Saint Teresa Catholic Primary School was closed for the day as the surrounding roads were shut by emergency services.

A fire brigade spokesperson said: 'Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters have been called to a fire at a school on Hewett Road in Dagenham.

'Around half of the single-storey building is currently alight.

'Firefighters removed a gas cylinder and are cooling it to ambient temperature as cylinders can explode when exposed to heat.'

It is currently planned for students at the Hewett Road site to attend classes at the other school's site in Cannington Road tomorrow.

The cause of the fire is not known at this stage, the fire brigade told MailOnline.

It is currently planned for students at the Hewett Road site to attend classes at the other school's site in Cannington Road tomorrow

Nearby Saint Teresa Catholic Primary School was closed for the day as the surrounding roads were shut by emergency services0,500 loans should not have been approved

Banking giant Westpac will be forced to pay a record fine of $35 million for approving loans to people who were highly unlikely to be able to afford to pay them back.

Westpac, one of the 'big four' Australian banks alongside Commonwealth, NAB and ANZ, has admitted breaching their responsible lending obligations on the loans which were made between late 2011 and March 2015.

If the penalty is rubber stamped by the Federal Court, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said the penalty will be the largest ever awarded under the National Credit Act.

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Westpac is one of Australia's 'big four' banks with Commonwealth, ANZ and NAB

An estimated 260,000 home loans were approved by the bank's automated decision system during the time period under consideration.

According to the ABC, Westpac admitted using the Household Expenditure Measure (HEM)  a low estimate of basic living expenses  to calculate borrowers' living costs in an automated loan-assessment process.

The bank used HEM instead of the customers' own declarations of their living expenses, breaching the National Consumer Credit Protection Act.

This meant thousands of Westpac customers were approved for home loans whose repayment terms were beyond their capacity to pay, and stood to have suffered financial hardship.

ASIC chairman James Shipton said it was essential that lenders obtain information from individual borrowers rather than work off programmed modelling.

An image from outside the Westpac bank branch in Adelaide's popular King William St

Lenders must then verify the information to ensure that it is accurate and assess whether the loan is unsuitable for the borrower.

'Taken together, these responsible lending obligations are a cornerstone protection for both borrowers and lenders,' Mr Shipton said.

Westpac's consumer bank chief executive George Frazis said the bank took its responsible lending obligations 'very seriously' and the penalty did not relate to current lending practices.Primary school teacher Shane Matthews (top) was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in jail on Monday over child sex abuse charges

A paedophile primary school teacher who sexually abused students as young as 10 in the classroom would go home at night and send vile text messages about his victims to other men.

Shane Andrew Matthews, 31, was sentenced to a minimum 12 years in jail on Monday after pleading guilty to 33 charges of child sex abuse, possessing child pornography and grooming underage children between 2012 and 2015.

Court documents seen by Daily Mail Australia show how Matthews would approach parents at Wattle Grove Public School, in Sydney's south-west, and ask to give one-on-one tutoring to their children.

During these one-on-one sessions at lunch and recess he would abuse his victims.

But after he left the classroom that Matthews' would send shocking text messages about his 'child sex fantasies' to other paedophiles.

Matthews (pictured) pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 15 students during his time teaching at Wattle Grove Public School, in Sydney's west, between 2012 and 2015

During a raid on the school teacher's house in 2016, police uncovered text messages on his phone where Matthews discussed his fantasies with students in his own class.

Court documents said the text exchanges were between the teacher and another man, who he'd previously been involved in a sexual relationship with.

In some of the texts, Matthews discussed the children he had abused in his class.

In others he demanded his former lover to send through child pornography videos.

Matthews (after receiving the video) even asked: 'Got anything younger?'

During further text message exchanges, the other man told Matthews he believed he 'should stop looking at them (child pornography videos)'.

In response, the teacher said: 'Why... it's not hurting anyone?'

Matthews also boasted via text that his ideal age for young boys was 'probably 9/10'.

In sentencing at Campbelltown Local Court on Monday, Judge Jennifer English said that Matthews had acted like a 'predator'.

In total, he admitted to sexually abusing 15 students while teaching at the school between 2012 and 2015, he admitted pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 15 of his male students during his time at the school between 2012 and 2015.

During a raid on the school teacher's house in 2016, police uncovered text messages between Matthews and a former lover in which they discussed 'how far they would go' with young boys

During further exchanges, the man told Matthews he believed he 'should stop looking at them (child pornography videos)'. In response Matthews said: 'Why... it's not hurting anyone?'

Matthews asked his former lover to send him child pornography videos via text (pictured)

Judge English's comments were in contrast to the reputation Matthews developed in his three years working at the school.

During his trial, the court heard that he was 'considered by the students to be a "cool" teacher and was considered by parents to be a "good teacher"'.

He would regularly hold 'superhero days' where he and the children would dress up and he would play games with his class in the schoolyard.

But it was this person that Matthews used to target the children he wanted to groom.

SHANE MATTHEWS' TIMELINE OF ABUSE: 2012-2015: Shane Andrew Matthews abuses 15 male students at Sydney primary school 2015: A former student, now in Year 10, reveals a history of abuse by Matthews 2015: Police investigations uncover 14 other boys had been abused 2016: Matthews charged with 33 counts of child sex abuse May 2018: Matthews pleads guilty to all 33 charges August 2018: Matthews is sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in jail Advertisement

On several occasions the young teacher called parents in for private meetings about the progress of their child.

During these meetings he would often ask to provide additional private tutoring in an effort to help their child's development.

But when children stayed behind to go through their studies one-on-one, Matthews would prey on them.

Court documents reveal he would often 'kneel down next to the students... (and) put one of his hands on their upper thigh outside their shorts'.

'Are you all right with this?' the teacher would then ask.

But even when students replied that they found the behaviour 'distracting' or replied 'no', Matthews would often continue.

On several occasions Matthews had meetings with parents of students at Wattle Grove Public School (pictured). He told them their children needed tutoring. It was during these one-on-one sessions he would often abuse the children

Matthews was regarded as a 'cool' teacher by students and regularly held superhero dress-up days (pictured). He would also offer 'class money' which students could use to buy pencils and other stationery items. Matthews often offered this money to students after he abused them

Matthews would soon progress to touching the young boys' 'penis or testicles' both on the outside and inside of their school pants.

Some of his victims told police they 'froze' after being touched by their teacher.

One student told how Matthews' hand remained touching his leg and penis for up to 30 minutes.

On multiple occasions during private one-on-one tutoring with another student the teacher told the boy to 'stand up' and 'pull down his shorts'.

The ordeals left the boy so traumatised he lied to his mother about being 'bullied' at school in an attempt to be allowed to stay home.

Matthews got the young students to stay quiet about his sickening ways by offering them bribes in the form of 'class money'.

The 'class money' could then be used by students in Matthews' classes to buy prizes including 'pencil cases, pencils, rulers and rubbers'.

He also offered 'boy to boy' advice about how to masturbate and told students that they should to touch each other's penises.

Matthews was only caught when one of his former students, now in Year 10, told a different teacher to 'f*** off' after they put their hand on his leg years later.

In sentencing at Campbelltown Local Court (pictured) on Monday, Judge Jennifer English said that Matthews had acted like a 'predator'

At this point the teacher sent (the student) to the head teacher, with the student told a letter would be sent home to his parents'.

When the boy's parents asked him why he had reacted in this way the truth came out and police began to investigate Matthews' history of abuse.

Police then spoke with other students taught by Matthews who revealed more complaints.

Matthews refused to make eye contact with any of his 15 victims and their parents as they sat in court for his sentencing on Monday.

Outside court the boy who first broke his silence and told of Matthews' abuse said he believed their had been a 'power shift' between students and teacher.

'Weve saved a lot of kids locking him up,' the boy told The Daily Telegraph.

'It (thinking about the crimes Matthews committed) makes you vomit in your mouth.

'It was good to see him sh***ing himself.'Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has only stepped in on 14 occasions to grant tourist visas - and two of those were to help au pairs.

Mr Dutton's ministerial powers have been called in to question by Labor follwing the revelation that he allowed a French 27-year-old in to live with the cousin of AFL chief Gil McLachlan.

Since he stepped into the role in December 2014, Mr Dutton has only granted a small amount of visas.

Peter Dutton's (pictured) ministerial powers have been called in to question as it is revealed has intervened on just 14 tourist visas

He signed off the paperwork saying it was 'in the interests of Australia as a humane and generous society' to grant each of the 14 visas he approved.

Mr Dutton first signed off on a visa for former Queensland Police colleague, Russell Keag, whose Italian au pair had been detained at Brisbane airport in 2015.

Emails also showed the Home Affairs minister intervened in the case of AFL boss McLachlan's cousin, Callum, who appealed for his French au pair Alexandra Deuwel not to be deported.

Callum MacLachlan is a wealthy pastoralist whose family has donated some $150,000 to the Liberal Party.

In the case of AFL boss Gillon McLachlan's relative, Callum, who appealed for his French au pair Alexandra Deuwel (pictured)

Shayne Neumann, opposition immigration and border protection spokesman said his ministerial interventions to stop au pairs from being deported were 'anything but routine'.

'Australians are right in asking why there are repeated instances of people with connections to Dutton getting visas for their au pairs  it stinks.'

Me Neumann continued: 'Why did these interventions happen so quickly? Why did Dutton deny his connections to the employers  in one case a former colleague? Why did Dutton defy his Department's advice and grant visas to people who were 'high risk' and had previously breached visa conditions?'

Mr Dutton told reporters he had received 9000 requests for intervention on visa matters from MPs and senators alone, and 192 of those are from shadow treasurer Chris Bowen.

Callum MacLachlan is a wealthy pastoralist whose family has donated some $150,000 to the Liberal Party. He was the au pair for Alexandra Deuwel

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a spokeswoman for Mr Dutton said each case was considered on their merits

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a spokeswoman for Mr Dutton said each case was considered on their merits.

She said: 'Any suggestions cases are determined on any other basis, including whether he knew the individual who referred the matter, is completely false.'

As Immigration Minister, Mr Dutton had the power to overturn decisions and award visas if it was in the public interest.

The minister lost his immigration responsibility after he challenged former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the leadership and later lost to Scott Morrison.

Tourist visas and au pairs granted by Dutton up until June 30 June 17, 2015  His first circumstance intervening was his former police colleague's Italian au pair of who detained at Brisbane Airport September 17, 2015  unknown circumstances November 1, 2015  A French tourist detained at Adelaide Airport who was later revealed to be the the au pair wealthy who regularly donates to the Liberal Party March 24, 2016  Unknown circumstances June 17, 2016  Unknown circumstances April 8, 2017  Six-month tourist visa granted with no other details given May 11, 20-17  Three-year tourist visa granted, no other details August 10, 2017  A 12-month tourist visa granted, no other details September 21, 2017 Unknown circumstance September 21, 2017  18-month tourist visa granted, no other details April 21, 2018  Unknown circumstances May 10, 2018  An 18-month tourist visa granted, no other details May 24, 2018  A 12-month visa granted, no other details May 24, 2015  Three-month visa granted, no other details Advertisement



Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described as 'sickening' the sexual assault of another Tennant Creek toddler known to child protective services.

The child was allegedly assaulted by a 50-year-old man on Friday afternoon.

'What's happened there in Tennant Creek makes your heart just cry,' Mr Morrison told reporters in Townsville on Tuesday.

'It's important that the law enforcement authorities and the others dealing with that situation on the ground do just that.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) has described as 'sickening' the sexual assault of another Tennant Creek toddler known to child protective services.

The alleged perpetrator has faced court charged with indecently assaulting a child under 16, and has been remanded in custody.

'These are the outcomes we want to avoid. These are the outcomes we want to stop,' he said.

'There is no more important priority than the children of our country.'

The latest assaults comes after the rape of a two-year-old girl in the troubled NT town shocked Australia in February.

A parliamentary hearing earlier in the year was told at least one child is sexually exploited or abused in the Territory each week.

In June, it was revealed the NT government had removed 15 children from their families around the town

In June, it was revealed the NT government had removed 15 children from their families around the town

The child protection crisis prompted Malcolm Turnbull to make a two-day trip to Tennant Creek in July, making him the first prime minister since 1982 to visit the region.

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said it was important the federal government supported the Tennant Creek community and NT authorities to address the situation.

'It's just a shocking report, I read that, sick to my stomach again this morning,' Ms Plibersek told Sky News.

She said support could include policing, as well as measures to prevent alcohol abuse and improve parenting skills, but stressed the importance of local co-operation.Families filled sandbags, took patio furniture inside and stocked up on batteries and bottled water as the Gulf Coast prepared Tuesday for Tropical Storm Gordon, which was forecast to become the second hurricane to hit the region in less than a year.

Just hours before the storm was expected to come ashore, a few people remained on the beach, soaking in the sun before the tropical rain bands became more numerous.

Others did their familiar pre-storm preparation rituals, including the staff at The Hotel Whiskey in Pass Christian, Mississippi, only about a block away from the Gulf of Mexico. The hotel restaurant planned to stay open Tuesday evening as usual, fortified by sandbags to keep out torrential rains, the manager said

A hurricane warning is in effect for the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border.

Forecasters expect Gordon to turn into a hurricane before making a landfall somewhere along or near the Mississippi coast.

The National Hurricane Center is predicting a 'life-threatening' storm surge along parts of the central Gulf Coast, and as much as 8 inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday as the tropical weather moves over the lower Mississippi Valley.

Gordon's track has shifted, meaning Louisiana is currently just outside the area under the hurricane warning

Storm clouds loom over a beach as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Waveland, Mississippi, on Tuesday

A car drives through a road as it slowly begins to flood as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches on Tuesday in Dauphin Island, Alabama

Chris Stebly tries to catch some waves as Tropical Storm Gordon heads towards the coast on Tuesday in Dauphin Island, Alabama

Children play in the sand on Crystal Beach as waves from Tropical Storm Gordon churn the Gulf of Mexico in Destin, Florida, Tuesday

Mitchell Nugent paddles a board toward waves near Crystal Beach as Tropical Storm Gordon churns the Gulf of Mexico in Destub, Florida, Tuesday

Sheets of rain and heavy clouds move into the city ahead of the landfall of Tropical Storm Gordon in New Orleans, Louisiana, Tuesday

Residents fill bags with sand as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Inmates with the Hancock County Department of Corrections fill bags with sand as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency for Gordon, allowing them to quickly mobilize state resources and National Guard troops to help during and after the storm.

By Tuesday afternoon, the center of the storm was about 145 miles southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi, with top sustained winds of 65 mph, forecasters said. It was moving relatively quickly, at about 15 mph.

The storm is still forecast to go above the 74 mph threshold to be a hurricane before hitting land late Tuesday or on Wednesday.

The US Coast Guard has already closed Mississippi ports in Gulfport and Pascagoula and the port in Mobile, Alabama, in anticipation of hurricane force winds within 12 hours.

President Donald Trump said in a tweet the federal government is ready to help anyone in Tropical Storm Gordons path.

A storm surge warning has been issued for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama. The warning means there is danger of life-threatening inundation. The region could see rising waters of 3 to 5 feet.

'The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves,' the center said.

Senior Hurricane Specialist Stacy Stewart watches monitors at the National Hurricane Center, Tuesda in Miami

Evan Green, 8, gets out of the water as the first clouds from Tropical Storm Gordon come in on Tuesday in Dauphin Island

Sailors prepare the Sea Biscuit to leave Long Beach Harbor Tuesday in Long Beach, Mississippi, in advance of Tropical Storm Gordon

Kamdn Boose, 4, helps his family fill sandbags at Long Beach Harbor, Mississippi, Tuesday

Gordon is expected to become a hurricane late Tuesday when it hits the central US Gulf Coast, including coastal Mississippi

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said workers on at least 54 oil and gas production platforms in the Gulf have been evacuated in advance of Gordon. That is about 8 per cent of the staffed platforms in the Gulf and about 9 per cent of the regions oil and natural gas production.

In Mississippi, state officials are ordering 12 casinos along the Gulf Coast to close as Gordon approaches.

Mississippi Gaming Commission Executive Director Allen Godfrey says the commission has ordered gambling halls to close at 5pm Tuesday.

Such closures are typical in advance of tropical storms and hurricanes, because casinos are in waterfront locations. While casinos themselves typically dont flood, access roads and parking areas often do.

In Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Monday and said 200 National Guard troops will be deployed to southeastern Louisiana. In Mississippi, Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency as well, and said state resources are being mobilized.

Pat Landry, who owns the Landry House bed & breakfast on Louisianas Grand Isle, said late Monday night that he was trying to pick up everything low in the yard in preparation for the storm surge expected with Gordons arrival.

Grand Isle Mayor David Campardelle called for a voluntary evacuation of the barrier island. The mayor noted the ongoing construction on Highway 1, the lone road that connects Grand Isle to the rest of the state, and said it could cause 'severe problems' for people evacuating.

'If you leave, you have to leave before the road floods,' Landry said.

While New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell says the city has 'the pumps and the power' needed to protect residents, he has still advised them to prepare for the worst.

Gordon formed into a tropical storm near the Florida Keys early Monday, lashing the southern part of the state with heavy rains and high winds before moving into the Gulf of Mexico.

The storms predicted track had shifted slightly east as of Monday evening, meaning Louisiana is currently just outside the area under the hurricane warning.

Still, the southeastern part of the state remains under a tropical storm warning and residents need to be prepared for the storm to shift west, Edwards said.

'This storm has every possibility to track further in our direction,' Edwards said during a news conference Monday evening.

Forecasters expect Gordon to turn into a hurricane before making a landfall somewhere along or near the Mississippi coast Tuesday night

A map shows parts of the Gulf Coast that are under storm surge watch or warning Tuesday

The National Weather Service is warning residents in Gulf Coast states of the dangers of inland flooding from Tropical Storm Gordon

Miami Beach Police said via Twitter that the Labor Day holiday was 'NOT a beach day,' with rough surf and potential rip currents. Red flags flew over Pensacola-area beaches in Floridas Panhandle, where swimming and wading in the Gulf of Mexico was prohibited.

More than 4,000 Florida Power & Light customers lost power Monday due to weather conditions.

The National Weather Service said conditions were 'possible' for tornadoes in the affected parts of South Florida on Monday night.

The storm left many businesses on Floridas Gulf Coast feeling shortchanged by the holiday weekend. The area has already been heavily impacted by this summers so-called 'red tide' massive algae blooms that have caused waves of dead marine life to wash up along the coast.

Separately, Tropical Storm Florence continues to hold steady over the eastern Atlantic. Forecasters say little change in strength is expected in coming days and no coastal watches or warnings are in effect.

Storm Gordon has seen oil prices break past $70 per barrel, after two Gulf of Mexico oil platforms were evacuated as the hurricane rolls in.

A surfer enjoys the waves kicked up by Tropical Storm Gordon Monday in Miami as heavy rain and gusty winds are hitting the Keys and south Florida

Walter Augier (L) and Jhon M. fish as rain and wind are whipped up by Tropical Storm Gordon in Miami Monday

Southern Florida was expected to be hit with heavy rains and winds on Labor Day. Pictured are beachgoers seeking shelter on Sunday

Reuters quoted US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures at $70.05 per barrel which is an increase of 25 cents, or 0.4 percent.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico., and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities.

At the same time, International Brent crude futures were $78.07 per barrel, down 8 cents.

Meteorologists were also warning of high rip current risks due to the bad weather, advising beachgoers to swim near a lifeguard

Rick Scott urged Floridians and those visiting Florida to check the weather, as weather experts advise beachgoers to swim near a lifeguard due to high rip current risks. Pictured are beachgoers seeking shelter during a storm on Sunday in Florida

Last year, powerful hurricanes walloped Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing thousands of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage, massive power outages and devastation to hundreds of thousands of structures.

At the mouth of the Mississippi River, around the area of New Orleans, the storm could generate a surge of up to 4 feet and smaller surges could hit coastland along other parts of the Gulf Coast, Graham said.

The US Coast Guard also warned that the ports of New Orleans as well as Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, may have to close within 48 hours when gale force winds from Gordon are expected to arrive.A mother died after falling ill in a hot tub at a birthday bash thrown by the son of former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Steel, it was revealed today.

Claire MacCabe, 44, was a guest at the rural Scottish farmhouse owned by Graeme Steel when she became ill shortly before 9.10pm on Saturday.

Partygoers have described the event, thrown for Mr Steel's 52nd birthday, as a 'bit of a bender' and said Ms MacCabe's family are 'all in bits'.

Paramedics were called to the property near the village of Stow, Selkirkshire, and the mother of one was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Police confirmed yesterday that Mrs MacCabe, who has a young son, died a short time later. Her death is being treated as unexplained but a spokesman for Police Scotland said it is not believed to be suspicious.

Claire MacCabe, 44, was a guest at the rural Scottish farmhouse owned by Graeme Steel when she became ill shortly before 9.10pm on Saturday and later died in hospital

Claire was among people believed to be partying in this hot tub belonging to Graeme Steel

A force spokesman said: 'Police in the Scottish Borders are investigating after a 44-year-old woman took unwell at an address in Stow during the evening of Saturday, September 1, before passing away at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh later that night.

'The death is being treated as unexplained, but not suspicious, and inquiries are continuing.'

Mrs MacCabe, from Haddington, East Lothian, and her husband Matthew were friends of Mr Steel.

Mrs MacCabe, from Haddington, East Lothian, and her husband Matthew were friends of Mr Steel and the family are 'in bits'

Mr MacCabe, 45, did not wish to speak about the incident when approached at the family home last night.

Full details of the get-together are not known but reports last night said it was a hot-tub party.

A source said: 'Graeme has an extensive network of friends but Claire and her husband Matthew are very good friends.

'They're part of a group who socialise a lot together. Claire was known as the life and soul of the party and devoted to her husband and son.

'Everyone is just devastated and can't believe it.

'The party was going really well but then she suddenly took ill. It's such a shock.'

Mr Steel  whose father Lord David Steel is the former Presiding Officer of the Scottish parliament  had previously posted images of himself using the hot-tub on social media.

His isolated home on Mitchelston Farm in Stow, around a 15-minute drive north of Galashiels, is situated down a single track road in the Borders countryside.

When approached by the Scottish Daily Mail yesterday, Mr Steel, who was chopping wood outside, said: 'I don't want to comment, get off my land please.'

The party took place at the same address where Mr Steel, who celebrated his 52nd birthday last Friday, grew cannabis plants in the mid 1990s.

Mr Steel was jailed in 1995 for nine months after being convicted of growing the drug within the land of the farm over an 18-month period.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that police found 40 cannabis plants worth up to 30,000 when they raided the cottage following a tip-off.

They also found four pipes for smoking cannabis and booklets on how to grow it. Mr Steel admitted producing the drug but said that it was for his own use.

Lord Steel, 80, was a well respected MP and became one of the youngest party leaders when he won the Liberal Party leadership in 1976.

Lord David Steel, pictured with his wife Lady Judy, was leader of the Lib Dems for 12 years

He then played a pivotal role in the party's amalgamation with the Social Democratic Party in 1988, which formed the Liberal Democrats.

Lord Steel retired from the House of Commons at the 1997 election and was made a life peer, Baron Steel of Aikwood, of Ettrick Forest, Selkirkshire, on June 6, 1997.

He was later elected as an MSP before becoming Presiding Officer of the fledgling Scottish parliament in 1999, a role he held for four years.

In 1997, Lord Steel spoke about his son's court experience, telling The Mirror that he had felt a 'great sense of shock and surprise' when his boy was arrested.

He added that he had backed an independent Royal Commission that would examine the question of drugs.

He said: 'I don't think we should prejudge it.

'I am not a campaigner for decriminalisation but I certainly think it should be looked at. There's a good case for having an independent inquiry with more experts than exist around the Cabinet table.

'Perhaps we politicians are not the best people to make judgments on drugs.'

According to the paper, Lord Steel also spoke about how his son's plight made him take a hard look at himself.

He said: 'I was the classic absentee father.

'I've always felt guilty about that.

'I missed a great deal of my children's growing up, and that is the one regret I have about my political life.

'I missed out in their early years in a big way  even when I was here, I was often about in the constituency.

'That's something you can never repair.'Advertisement

Prince Harry praised the 'can-do' attitude of youngsters who have been 'dealt the toughest cards imaginable' in a heartfelt speech after he and Meghan met families at the WellChild Awards in London.

Delivering a speech in the hotel ballroom, the Duke paid tribute to the children, carers and nurses telling them: 'Every one of you is truly amazing.'

Saying their stories were 'without doubt incredibly moving and motivating', he hailed the young people who have been 'dealt the toughest cards imaginable' and are a 'constant reminder that we must look to the positive and never give up'.

He also paid a special tribute to Scarlett, a 10-year-old girl who helps with the care of her sister Freya.

Prince Harry said: 'Scarlett, who has been sitting next to me while we have been watching these remarkably inspirational stories this evening, is an absolutely perfect example of exactly that why training for families is so incredibly important.

'At 10 years old, she plays a key role in caring for her sister Freya  and I know that there have been occasions when she has taken the lead in managing Freyas feeding and oxygen when helping her Grandmother on the very rare occasions when her parents have taken a few much-needed hours for themselves.'

Gesturing to the Duchess, watching him from her seat around a table, he said he was 'especially grateful to be able to share the scope and magnitude of this work with my wife who joins me here this evening'.

In a touching moment, Meghan was handed a posy of white roses by seven-year-old Matilda Booth, who has spina bifida

Prince Harry and Meghan are pictured here with Matilda Booth, the little girl who gave the Duchess of Sussex a posy of white roses earlier in the evening

The Duchess of Sussex attended the annual WellChild Awards at The Royal Lancaster Hotel in London this evening. Meghan sported a black suit by Altuzarra and a blouse by Deitas

Harry and Meghan also met 13-year-old Poppy, who has Panenteric Crohn's Disease

During a speech Harry said their stories were 'without doubt incredibly moving and motivating', and hailed the young people who have been 'dealt the toughest cards imaginable'

Prince Harry, pictured here on stage with McKenzie Brackley and Matilda Booth, praised the 'can-do' attitude of youngsters who have been 'dealt the toughest cards imaginable' in a heartfelt speech

Matilda Booth handed the Duchess of Sussex the bouquet but Meghan quickly handed back a single rose, and told her to put it in her memory box. She was asked by Prince Harry to pinky promise him that she would never stop smiling'

Harry told Matilda to never hide that brilliant smile away'. After her chat with the Royal couple, Matilda was still clutching her rose and toy - with a beaming smile that went ear from ear

Meghan played around with a red balloon animal as she and Harry spoke with McKenzie Brackley, who was the joint winner of the Inspirational Child (four-six years) Award

The Royal couple also met with Jacob Granger, pictured with his sister, who won the Most Caring Young Person award

Prince Harry and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, arrived today for one of the most tear-jerking but inspirational events of their working year

Meghan is pictured arriving at the WellChild event at the Royal Lancaster Hotel this evening

Harry and Meghan pose for a photo with four-year-old McKenzie Brackley, one of the children the charity help, ahead of the ceremony this evening

Meghan was wearing what is fast becoming her trademark black trouser suit, this time by Altuzarra, and a blouse by Deitas

Harry, now the Duke of Sussex, became Patron of WellChild in 2007 and has described the youngsters he meets as amazingly brave

Prince Harry played with the Ruby Joslin-Smith from the Riverside School Choir and let the little girl pull on his tie

Earlier in the evening Prince Harry made a 'pinky promise' to an inspirational girl as she handed Meghan a posy of white roses.

The Duchess of Sussex pulled out a white rose from a posy given to her by a seriously-ill little girl and told her keep it in her memory box.

Adorable Matilda Booth, seven, who suffers from spina bifida and is paralysed from the chest downwards, was also asked by Prince Harry to pinky promise him that she would never stop smiling.

Never hide that brilliant smile away, he said.

The youngster, from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, met the Royal couple at the WellChild Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, which celebrates the unbelievable bravery of the nations most seriously ill children and the carers who selflessly look after them.

Matilda spent her early years in hospital and has had more than 40 operations, including brain surgery seven times.

Despite this, the beautiful little girl has a huge zest for life and impresses all she meets with her courage, strength and determination, never complaining or feeling sorry for herself. She even says she wants to be a nurse when she grows up.

Speaking after their meeting with Harry, who is patron of the charity, and his new wife, Matildas mother, Sharon, told MailOnline: They were just so lovely. It was very exciting. Matilda had watched the royal wedding and was very nervous about meeting them but they completely put us at ease.

They got down to Matildas level and she gave Meghan a posy. But she took one out and handed it back to Matilda and told her to keep it in her memory box. She made her feel so special.

Prince Harry also made her give him a pinky promise and told her to never stop smiling. He told her she had such a lovely smile. They also wanted to meet Simon, her toy dog. She is inseparable from him.

Prince Harry also joked to Matilda, Are those flowers for me?

Matilda was still clutching her rose and toy afterwards - with a beaming smile that went ear from ear.

Other inspirational children the Royal couple met include McKenzie Brackley, who was the joint winner of the Inspirational Child (four-six years) Award with Matilda.

His mother, Amy Brackley, said of their meeting with the royal couple: 'It was amazing.

'They were so lovely. They knew he [Mckenzie] was scared of the cameras and they said they didnt like the cameras either so they turned around.

'They said he was amazing and to keep going the way he is going and told him to look after me.

'Hes never going to forget this, even though hes only four.'

At the event, Prince Harry revealed he loves the Lion King, whereas Meghan has 'always loved the Little Mermaid'.

Meghan also recommended the 2016 Dreamworks film Ballerina and added: 'Harry likes it because she [the main character] has got red hair.'

The WellChild Awards celebrate the inspiring qualities of some of the countrys most seriously ill young people and the dedication of those who go the extra mile to keep children healthy and happy, including the outstanding health, social care and education professionals.

Harry, 33, and Meghan, 37, are attending a pre-ceremony reception where they will meet the young winners of each award category and their families, and the nominated healthcare professionals.

Meghan was wearing what is fast becoming her trademark black trouser suit, this time by Altuzarra, and a blouse by Deitas.

The pair are attending the event to highlight the courage of seriously ill children and their families, and thank those who care for and support them

The pair looked happy as they arrived at the event where they will meet inspirational youngsters

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared a joke ahead of the WellChild awards ceremony this evening

Meghan looked seriously chic as she stepped out in this all-black trouser suit for the glittering event in London

Harry is presenting an award during the ceremony and also delivering a speech

The couple also met with 12-year-old Jake Stacey, who has spinal muscular atrophy. Jake landed the lead role in Tom Fletchers The Christmasaurus last December, despite being told for years that he could not audition for roles because of his disability

Later on they will attend a ceremony where the prince will present the Award for Most Inspirational Child (aged four-six) and deliver a speech

The couple also met with Chloe Henderson and her sister Hana. Chloe was born 10 weeks early and has cerebral palsy

Harry and Meghan are pictured meeting McKenzie one of the seriously ill children the charity help

Harry, 33, and Meghan, 37, are attending a pre-ceremony reception where they will meet the young winners of each award category and their families

As they left, the Duke and Duchess met children from Riverside School, who are the WellChild choir of the year.

Ruby Joslin-Smith, aged seven, stole the show after delightedly grabbing the Dukes tie to play with as he talked.

Harry, now the Duke of Sussex, became Patron of WellChild in 2007 and has described the youngsters he meets as amazingly brave.

WellChild is a national charity for seriously ill children and their families. Across the UK, growing numbers of children remain in hospital simply because there is no support enabling them to leave.

Through a nationwide network of WellChild Childrens Nurses, home makeover projects and family support programmes, the charity works to give children and young people the best chance to thrive, properly supported at home, together with their families.

Other celebrities attending the event include Dynamo and Strictly Come Dancing star Katie Piper.

Magician Dynamo also attended the event. The 35-year-old recently shared that he was suffering from side effects from the treatment he is receiving for Crohn's disease

Katie Piper, who is set to star in Strictly Come Dancing this year, also attended the event in London this evening

Meghan and Harry met with the organisers at the event for the charity WellChild this evening

TV presenter Laura Hamilton (left) and actress Georgia May Foote also attended the event

Sky News presenter Sarah-Jane Mee (left) and singer Natalie Rushdie attended the event in London this evening

The Bill actor Scott Maslen attended the event with his wife Estelle Rubio

Actresses Lauren Drummond and Sarah Barrand also went to the glittering WellChild Awards

Prince Harry greets award winner Ollie Carroll at the WellChild Awards in October 2016

Director of Programmes, Linda Partridge, said: It is a tremendous challenge to select winners from the many, many truly amazing nominations we receive from all over the county.

'All the panel members are moved by the bravery of the children, the stories of selfless care and support and the dedication of the doctors, nurses, watchers, brothers and sisters who make a great difference.

Winners this year include seven-year-old Matilda Booth, from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire, who has spina bifida, is paralysed from the chest down and has had more more than 40 operations.

She has been praised for her 'great zest for life' and her 'courage, strength and determination'.

Mckenzie Brackley, from Fife, has also been hailed as inspirational.

The four-year-old, who had to learn to speak, swallow, eat and drink and move again due to acute flaccid paralysis, was praised for being there for other children when they are scared or sad.

'Despite his own problems Mckenzie cheers up everyone when they are low, and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face', WellChild said.A lion at a safari park in Ukraine climbed over tourists and even licked them in the face, just weeks after a woman was mauled at the same attraction.

Remarkable footage showed the untethered lion climbing into an open buggy with tourists - despite a recent attack when one of the predators bit a woman's arm at the Taigan Safari Park in Crimea.

The lion, called Filya, got up close and personal with tourists in the open-sided vehicle - cuddling and even licking one woman in the face.

Tourists played with the wild beast and got amazing selfies with the two-year-old big cat as he sat in the driver's seat and looked like he wanted to take the steering wheel and drive.

Scroll down for video.

As the big cat clambered all over the tourists he licked a woman in the face and rubbed his head over her body

Filya the lion gets up close and personal with a tourist at the Taigan Safari Park in Crimea

The lion jumped through the open-sided buggy and climbed over tourists as they videoed the close encounter

Owner of the park and 'lion whisperer' Oleg Zubkov, 50, was on hand to supervise the close encounter.

In the clip the lion approached the small stationary open-sided vehicle and is greeted with a stroke from Zubkov, as the big cat climbed over his back, pushing him into the foot-well to get to a woman sitting in the passenger seat.

He was forced to get out of the buggy as the huge animal put both his paws on the steering wheel before jumping out and barging into Zubkov's side.

The huge lion then lept into the back, between two tourists and nuzzled a woman on the back seat as all four occupants took videos on their phones.

Filya then licked a woman's face as Zubkov says, 'those who did not want to film closer can go out', to which the woman responded, 'no, we want to'.

Owner of the park and 'lion whisperer' Oleg Zubkov greeted Filya with a stoke as he approached the small buggy

The exuberant wild animal climbed behind the park owner before climbing across tourists

Filya was desperate to get as close as possible to the tourists, even pushing Zubkov out of the way to 'say hello' to woman in the passenger seat

But the playful meeting was only eight weeks after a woman was attacked by another lion - called Vitya - at the same park.

Olga Solomina, from Kirov, said the predator 'bit through my right arm and used it to drag me - it like a puppet'.

The 46-year-old added: 'When I got back to my senses, I was already in the hands of the park's staff who were helping me.

'When it happened, right at the moment of the incident, I actually said goodbye to my life.

'I thought I was to be torn apart. Oleg Zubkov was there helping me to bandage the wound.

'It was bleeding. Then he rushed me to the park's medical point.'

Zubkov refuses to halt his get-close-to-lions policy at the park in Crimea - the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

Olga Solomina was bitten on the arm by a lion just two months ago at the same safari park

Olga playing with lion Vitya just before she was bitten on the arm by the wild animal

Oleg Zubkov is well-known for his up close and personal approach to lion and tigers at his safari park in Ukraine

Zubkov affectionately kisses one of his big cats at the Taigan Safari Park in Crimea

Olga had drunk alcohol before going into the big cat enclosure, he said.

He added: 'It was my mistake not to realise that she has had cognac before entering- possibly because she was scared.

'She came inside and started ruffling the lions's mane. Vitya the lion came close to her and pulled her away by her arm.

'She wasn't pulled forcefully into the park. She knew this was a dangerous site.

'She was given health and safety instructions and entered voluntarily. I'm glad to say days after the incident Olga was feeling well.

Last year rare white lions were born at the safari park and in June a video was released of Zubkov breaking up a fight between two lions with just a slipper

Zubkov has a remarkable record of taming big cats and insists tourists are safe if they follow his advice

Olga Solomina threatened court action after she was bitten at Zubkov's safari park in July

'Still, I am ready to answer for my park before court.'

The bitten and shaken tourist had threatened court action over the incident, but details have not been reported.

Zubkov has a remarkable record of taming big cats and insists that tourists are safe if they follow his advice.

In June another video showed Zubkov broke up a fight between two lions at his park using just a slipper.

Last year rare white lions were born at the park.The Brexit Secretary insisted today Britain was ready for Brexit 'deal or no deal' today as he defended the Government's controversial Chequers plan.

Dominic Raab said the proposals had been received 'seriously' in Europe and hailed progress on the detail of his face to face talks with EU negotiator Michel Barnier.

Updating MPs on the summer-long diplomatic push on Brexit, Mr Raab said the British people could 'rest assured' the Government was working to deliver on the referendum.

Labour's Sir Keir Starmer dismissed Mr Raab's promises, warning the Government was in a 'real fix' promoting a Brexit plan rejected in Brussels and impossible to pass in the Commons.

Earlier Theresa May told Cabinet her controversial blueprint is the only plan on the table that delivers on the will of the British people.

But she also made clear to senior ministers that the government must be ready for a 'no deal' scenario if it is ultimately rejected.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab echoed the message to MPs this afternoon as the Government insisted Chequers had been responded to 'seriously' in Europe

Mr Raab (pictured addressing MPs tonight) said the proposals had been received 'seriously' in Europe and hailed progress on the detail of his face to face talks with EU negotiator.

Mr Raab admitted to MPs there were some 'risks' to leaving without a deal if Chequers fails.

But he said there were benefits, including immediate full control of law and regulations and an early to payments into Brussels' coffers.

But he was warned by Sir Keir the negotiations were in serious trouble ahead a crucial EU summit on October 18.

The shadow Brexit Secretary said: 'The government has got six weeks to get this right. More of the same will not do.'

But he was told by Mr Raab: 'You've got the leader of the Labour Party admitting that he'd accept any deal and the Shadow Chancellor saying he'd not set aside any money. The Labour Party would roll over in Brussels and fail to stand up for this country.'

Mrs May's defiant message - at the first Cabinet of what promises to be a stormy autumn - comes as all sides continue to criticise the blueprint agreed in July.

The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier has become increasingly bullish in his opposition to the plan, with claims that he is now pushing for a looser Canada-style deal.

The PM (pictured) has met ministers for the first time since the summer break after Tory Brexiteers, Remainers and the EU all heaped scorn on her Brexit blueprint

Downing Street has played down Mr Barnier's renewed criticism of the Chequers plan while Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson claimed he 'doesn't know an awful lot about British politics' today.

That could put him unexpectedly in line with Tory Brexiteers who are also backing a bare-bones trade agreement rather than Mrs May's vision for deeper ties.

The Cabinet meeting was held after a huge poll suggested widespread opposition to the Chequers proposals could consign the Conservatives to defeat in a general election.

Nearly half of those surveyed in the 44 most marginal Tory seats said they were against Mrs May's approach.

Following today's Cabinet, Mrs May's spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister began by thanking Cabinet ministers for their hard work over the summer explaining chequers plans to our partners across the EU.

'The Brexit Secretary (Dominic Raab) and Foreign Secretary (Jeremy Hunt) said proposals have received a warm and positive reception from European capitals

What is in Theresa May's Brexit blueprint? These are some of the key features of the Chequers plan being pushed by the UK government: A new free trade area in goods, based on a 'common rulebook' of EU regulations necessary. This will require the UK to commit by treaty to match EU rules

'Mobility' rules which will end automatic freedom of movement, but still allow UK and EU citizens to travel without visas for tourism and temporary work. It will also enable businesses to move staff between countries.

Continued UK participation in and funding of European agencies covering areas like chemicals, aviation safety and medicines

A 'facilitated customs arrangement', removing the need for customs checks at UK-EU ports. It would allow differing UK and EU tariffs on goods from elsewhere in the world to be paid at the border, removing the need for rebates in the vast majority of cases. This is designed to avoid the need for a hard Irish border. But in theory it still allows Britain to sign trade deals.

Keeping services - such as banking or legal support - outside of the common rule book, meaning the UK is completely free to set its own regulations. It accepts it will mean less trade in services between the UK and EU.

Continued co-operation on energy and transport, a 'common rulebook' on state aid and commitments to maintain high standards of environmental and workplace protections.

A security deal allowing continued UK participation in Europol and Eurojust, 'co-ordination' of UK and EU policies on foreign affairs, defence and development.

Continued use of the EHIC health insurance card. Advertisement

'The Prime Minister and ministers agreed on the importance of continuing engagement with member states as talks enter a crucial and intense phase.

'The Prime Minister said she remains confident of securing a good deal with the EU but the (no deal) notices show the UK will be ready for all scenarios.'

The depth of the problem the premier faces was underlined yesterday when Boris Johnson launched a searing attack on her plan - accusing her of going into negotiations with the 'white flag fluttering'.

Meanwhile, Remainer ex-Cabinet minister Justine Greening condemned the policy - which would involve accepting EU rules on goods and collecting some taxes on behalf of the bloc - as 'more unpopular than the poll tax'.

In a blunt rebuttal to Mr Johnson, who is believed to be plotting a leadership bid Downing Street said critics had 'no new ideas' for a deal with the EU.

The PM's spokesman also jibed at the former foreign secretary's joker image, saying the country needed 'serious leadership with a serious plan'.

The tensions are bound to escalate as MPs return to Westminster after recess.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will update the Commons on the latest developments following his talks with the European Union's chief negotiator Michel Barnier - who has openly stated he opposes the Chequers plan.

The prospects of an agreement being reached before the October deadline that had previously been set have dwindled.

Both Brussels and the UK government are now hoping to thrash out a compromise by November - or possibly the end of the year.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab (left) and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt were among the senior ministers at No10 today

Any later than that would make it almost impossible for the Withdrawal Agreement to pass through the necessary legal processes to be implemented in time for the end of March, when Britain is formally due to leave.

John Whittingdale, vice-chairman of the Exiting the EU Select Committee, said chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier had told its members in Brussels yesterday that the Chequers plan was 'not acceptable to the European Union'.

Mr Whittingdale, a Brexiteer and former culture secretary, told BBC Radio 4's Today that he had been 'encouraged' by the meeting, adding: 'I don't think Chequers can possibly work.

'I'm very unhappy with the proposal because it seems to me that it leaves us still under the control of the European Union but without any influence at all.

'But even if I supported Chequers it became very clear from Mr Barnier that the European Commission just cannot accept it. They see it as going against the fundamental principles of the Single Market and Customs Union.'

Mr Whittingdale added: 'What he (Barnier) did put forward was a proposal for a very deep and comprehensive free trade agreement, which had alongside it agreements to co-operate on security, in police and judicial co-operation.

'That is exactly the kind of relationship I would like to see.'

Heidi Allen acknowledged some of her fellow pro-EU Conservatives viewed Chequers as a 'complete non-starter' but others, like her, were prepared to give it a 'little bit longer'.

She told the BBC's Newsnight: 'The only way any of us are going to come through this is with a little bit of compromise on both sides.

'Nobody is going to get exactly what they want but you have to start somewhere.'

Asked what she would do if Mr Johnson succeeded in ousting Mrs May, she said: 'If Boris was leader I doubt very much that I would be in the Conservative Party and there are a lot of my fellow colleagues who feel the same.'

Home Secretary Sajid Javid was also at the Cabinet meeting in Downing Street today

Former party leader Lord Hague used his own Daily Telegraph column to warn Tories their civil war could result in the collapse of the Government and either a second referendum or a general election - and the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.

'Some say May's plan is too much of a compromise, a small number that it isn't enough of one, and still others now advocate a different compromise altogether,' he said.

'The likely result is so obvious it hardly needs stating, which is that the entire idea is put at risk, and all of them will lose out in the end.

'It is thus quite possible that a year from now, we could be contemplating why we are still in the EU after all, or why we left it with maximum damage all round with minimum notice, or how we came to have an even weaker minority government, or how a Marxist despised by his own MPs ended up as Prime Minister.'

MPs from the Commons Exiting the EU Committee were in Brussels yesterday for talks with Mr Barnier, who made clear his objections to the Chequers plan on customs and the common rulebook.

Committee chairman Hilary Benn told Newsnight the customs plan was 'not a runner and nor is the common rulebook'.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the influential European Research Group of Conservatives, told the programme he wanted to see a Canada-style trade deal, with issues around the Northern Ireland border dealt with away from the frontier.

Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey (left) and Treasury minister Liz Truss (right) were present for the discussions in Downing Street today

Boris Johnson (pictured left) launched a searing attack on the Chequers plan. Meanwhile, Remainer ex-Cabinet minister Justine Greening (pictured right) condemned the policy

'The issue is, for the 40 billion we are paying, is there an agreement that can be done that polices the border remotely from the border?' he said.

Meanwhile the pro-EU Best for Britain campaign group is launching a new 200,000 push for a second referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal.

The prospect of a Tory leadership election has seen Leave.EU founder Arron Banks - a former Ukip donor - pushing for Brexiteers to join the party to have a say over Mrs May's replacement.

But his own efforts to join - along with spin doctor Andy Wigmore - met resistance from Tory HQ.

In the latest bid, Tory Brexiteer Andrew Bridgen had tried to sign them up in his local North West Leicestershire association.

But a party spokeswoman said: 'Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore's applications for membership of the Conservative Party have not been accepted.'

The survey of 22,000 voters was carried out for pro-Brexit group Global Britain in 44 constituencies where the Tories have a majority of 6 per cent or lower.

The results of the phone poll were weighted to be representative of each seat.

It found 73 per cent were dissatisfied with the government's handling of negotiations so far. Some 48 per cent opposed the Chequers plan, with 26 per cent saying they were in favour.

Where do the main players and the key institutions stand on Theresa May's Brexit plan? OPPOSED Former Cabinet ministers Boris Johnson and David Davis, who both quit over the details of the plan. Tory Brexiteers, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, who insist it will leave Britain worse off than remaining a member. Tory Remainers, such as Justine Greening, who complain it means Britain leaves the single market and customs union, threatening jobs and trade. Labour, who say it fails their six tests to ensure the Brexit deal has the 'exact same benefits' of staying in the single market. The EU Commission, whose negotiator Michel Barnier has said the plan undermines the single market and would destroy the EU. French President Emmanuel Macron, who said while he wants a strong relationship with Brexit Britain, it cannot come at the cost of the EU unravelling. IN FAVOUR Prime Minister Theresa May, who says the Chequers plan delivers on the Brexit vote while offering a good deal for both Britain and the EU. Former Cabinet ministers Amber Rudd and Damian Green, who are Theresa May loyalists and desperate to prop her up against rampant Brexiteers. Tories in the Brexit Delivery Group of backbench MPs, which is determined to get to exit day without tearing the Conservative Party apart. AdvertisementAnti-terror police have arrested a 16-year-old girl and a 53-year-old woman on suspicion of funding terrorism.

Officers moved in two homes in west London and arrested two women, aged 53 and 26, and a schoolgirl.

Detectives are now scouring both properties as part of a terror investigation.

The Met Police have arrested two women and a 16-year-old girl on suspicion of funding terror

A Scotland Yard spokesman: 'Three people have been arrested today, 4 September, on suspicion of terrorism offences as part of an investigation by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

'A 53-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl were arrested at an address in west London. A 26-year-old woman was arrested at a separate address, also in west London. Officers are carrying out searches at both addresses.

'They were all arrested on suspicion of funding terrorism contrary to section 17 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

'All three were detained under PACE and taken to a south London police station where they remain in police custody. Enquiries ongoing.'Rachel Johnson has defended her call for a full ban on the burka in Britain as she explained why she 'has a problem' with Muslim woman wearing a full veil.

The sister of former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson argued there was 'no feminist argument' for wearing the garment during an appearance on Good Morning Britain.

The columnist said the UK should follow countries such as France in an outright ban on the burka, following comments by her brother in which he said Muslim women wearing the garment looked like 'letter boxes' and 'bank robbers'.

She argued that it was not freedom of choice for many Muslim women who were forced to wear the veil by male relatives or through fear of attacks in the street.

The sister of former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson argued there was 'no feminist argument' for wearing the garment during an appearance on Good Morning Britain

'It seems to me it's a regressive step,' she said. 'The notion of freedom of choice is debatable.

I think in the public realm it would help if there was an understanding that women did not cover their entire faces.

I respect completely the women and her right to do what she wants. But I have a problem with the full-face veil.

'I have a human reaction to seeing a family where the women is covered in cloth head to toe and the man is wearing shorts and flip flops.'

Ms Johnson faced opposition to her views from host Piers Morgan and fellow guest Sahar Al-Faifa, from the Muslim Council of Britain, who wore a niqab.

Ms Al-Faifa argued: 'For me it's an act of worship and devotion to God. My mum doesn't wear it, my sister doesn't wear it; it is totally my choice.

The columnist said the UK should follow countries such as France in an outright ban on the burka this morning

It comes after comments by her brother Boris (pictured) in which he said Muslim women wearing the garment looked like 'letter boxes' and 'bank robbers'

'I find it little bit patronising if someone who doesn't share my faith tells me what to wear or not.

'It's not about showing or not showing my beauty, it's about submission to God and being devoted to him and its part of my spiritual duty.

'The notion of white feminists saving the woman of colour from their own culture and faith and its very difficult to accept in a multi-cultural, liberal society.'

Boris Johnson is currently the subject of an Conservative Party investigation after he penned a controversial article in the Telegraph about burkas.

Prime Minister Theresa May called on Johnson to apologise over the article saying his comments 'obviously have offended'.

However, several of his supporters appealed to the former foreign secretary not to apologise and called the criticism of him a 'show trial' to stop him challenging Mrs May for the Tory leadership.

Mr Johnson has yet to comment publicly on the furore over his Telegraph article.

Ms Johnson faced opposition to her views from host Piers Morgan and fellow guest Sahar Al-Faifa (right), from the Muslim Council of Britain, who wore a niqab

His sister said: 'Sahar looks lovely and I very pleased to have the opportunity to sit with Sahar, who doesn't look remotely like a letterbox or bank robber, I'm happy to confirm.

'Women have the right to choose what they wear but my doubts are whether or not women are choosing this or submitting to a patriarchal model of modesty.

'I completely respect her decision to do it but I don't think there is a feminist argument for condoning it in our society.

'There are many examples, not including Sahar, who's own mother doesn't wear the veil, of women who are being forced to wear it by their brothers, and men in the street.'

Ms Al-Faifa said that since Brexit she has seen a dramatic increase in vile abuse, including two separate incidents in which people tried to pull off her veil.

'I must say that it's been really difficult after Brexit as there's a rise in hate crimes,' she said. 'It's difficult because I'm from Wales and I'm a proud Cardiffian.

'Statically speaking there's been an increase by 32 per cent and Muslim women are at the sharp end of racism and Islamophobia.

'People have been conditioned to think I'm oppressed and cant integrate in society, but when I've had the conversation with them and we can have a functional debate.'Radio host Nick Ferrari put on a spithood while questioning the Met Police commissioner over why frontline officers cannot use them.

Cressida Dick was answering call-in questions from Londoners when a former officer rang in and questioned her over why police cannot use the hoods on the capital's streets.

Mr Ferrari then pulled out one of the spithoods to show how they did not inhibit a suspects movements.

Radio host Nick Ferrari put on a spit hood today while asking Met Police chief Cressida Dick about why frontline officers aren't allowed to put them on spitting or abusive suspects

The LBC host said: 'I'm now going conduct this interview while wearing a spithood and I'm able to continue my duties, even read my documents, while we talk.

'Why, if I was spitting at you now, should your officers not be protected?'

Ms Dick said the difficulty of putting spithoods on suspects meant they often put officers at greater risk than simply arresting criminals and bringing them in.

She said: 'There are times and places in London where trying to use a spithood would put my officers in more danger than not.'

It comes after the Met ruled that the protective hoods should only be fitted to those in custody.

Their decision came despite the Home Secretary saying earlier this year it was 'ridiculous' that the masks were not in widespread use.

Sajid Javid said: 'I cannot understand why any chief constable would put public perception before protecting police officers.'

Ms Dick backed the decision not to let officers put the hoods on suspects on the streets, but to restrict their use to custody

Police officers in London are angry that they cannot use the hoods to protect themselves from being spat at by suspects

Spit guards are used by around half of all forces in England and Wales but have been labelled 'cruel and degrading' by campaigners.

Sussex Police came under fire when officers used a spit hood on a disabled 11-year-old girl.

Proposals to introduce the masks in London two years ago were suspended after they were criticised by the mayor, Sadiq Khan.

Ken Marsh, of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said officers are regularly spat at and deserve to be protected.

However, Gracie Bradley, of the human rights group Liberty, said the decision was a 'step in the right direction' and claimed that the guards were 'degrading and dangerous'.One of Harvey Weinstein's accusers has hit back at NBC News' claims that journalist Ronan Farrow had been unable to get any of the Hollywood mogul's victims to go on the record with their stories.

Farrow, who eventually published his Pulitzer Prize winning expose in the New Yorker, is accusing NBC News of dropping his story on Weinstein's sexual misconduct following pressures from network executives.

In response, NBC's chairman Andy Lack sent a memo to staff defending its decision to drop Farrows story, claiming that after eight months of reporting, Farrow 'still did not have a single victim or witness willing to go on the record' and that the story was therefore 'not fit to broadcast'.

However, Emily Nestor, a former Weinstein Company assistant who was named in Farrow's New Yorker piece has slammed NBC and Lack, saying she had offered to go on the record, but that NBC 'was not interested'.

Backing Farrow: Emily Nestor, a former Weinstein employee who was named in Ronan Farrow's New Yorker piece has slammed NBC's claims, saying she had offered to go on the record, but that NBC 'was not interested'.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Ms Nestor said that another fellow accuser, Ambra Gutierrez, had 'always been willing' to be identified on camera.

She said that once Rose McGowan had backed out, she had offered to 'attach my name to the interview in silhouette or potentially even reshoot the interview with my face visible.

'However, they were not interested in this interview.'

She added: 'To attempt to impugn [Farrow's] character or his conduct in his tireless work to publish this story is shameful.'

A spokesperson from NBC News accused Ms Nestor of lying in her statement, saying she 'was contacted during the editorial review process and at no time then or since did Nestor tell NBC News she was willing to be named.'

Speaking to Farrow for his piece in the New Yorker, Ms Nestor revealed how she had been subjected to 'textbook sexual harassment' by Mr Weinstein just one day after staring a temp job at the Weinstein Co.

NBC News chairman Andy Lack has defended his network's decision not to air Ronan Farrow's Harvey Weinstein expose, insisting that the story 'wasn't ready to air' at the time

Weinstein had invited Ms Nestor out for drinks after her first day on the job, which she declined and instead suggested a coffee the next day,

Upon meeting Weinstein at the hotel where he was saying, Ms Nestor claims: 'He said, "You know, we could have a lot of fun."

'"I could put you in my London office, and you could work there and you could be my girlfriend."'

She declined several times, but Weinstein refused to accept her 'no'.

According to Ms Nestor, Weinstein had told her 'Oh, the girls always say no. And then they have a beer or two and then they're throwing themselves at me.'

Lack's memo was sent out just days after one of its former news producers Rich McHugh, who worked with Farrow on the Weinstein investigation, claimed they were told to kill the reporting from the 'very highest levels at NBC'.

Specifically addressing the claims from the former producer published last week, Lack said: 'Contrary to recent allegations, at no point did NBC obstruct Farrow's reporting or 'kill' an interview.'

Lack labeled the claims that Weinstein influenced NBC's decision-making as 'baseless speculation'.

'The accompanying document recounts every interaction NBC News executives and editors had with Weinstein and his attorneys. It will surprise no one that they were dishonest in their dealings with us, often mischaracterizing our brief conversations.

'But in each instance, their calls were either completely ignored or met with a boilerplate commitment to allow them to comment if and when something was ready for broadcast.

Weinstein has been charged in New York (above) with sexually abusing several women. He has also been accused by dozens of other women of sexual harassment

'None of this was kept secret from Farrow. None of it was any different from the calls we receive on every other difficult story our investigative unit regularly breaks. And none of it played any role in our decision-making.'

Farrow spent eight months investigation the allegations against Weinstein for NBC. After a disagreement with his managers over whether he had enough material for a story about Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct, Farrow took it to the New Yorker magazine.

When Farrow's story was published in The New Yorker, he named several women, including Nestor - Asia Argento, Mira Sorvino, Rosanna Arquette, Lucia Evans, Emma de Caunes, Jessica Barth and Sophie Dix - who alleged they had been abused by Weinstein.

He later shared the Pulitzer Prize with New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey for their stories about Weinstein.

NBC's decision not to air a story was heavily scrutinized at the time, and returned to the news last week when Farrow's former producer, Rich McHugh, publicly criticized the network in a New York Times article

NBC's decision not to air a story was heavily scrutinized at the time, and returned to the news last week when Farrow's former producer, Rich McHugh, publicly criticized the network in a New York Times article.

McHugh said last week that he knew Weinstein was contacting NBC executives directly because he was once in the room when he called.

He quit on August 17 and has become the first person affiliated with NBC to say publicly that the network hampered his and Farrow's attempts to out the now-disgraced mogul.

Lack's memo this week did not address further allegations made by the Daily Beast that NBC News general counsel Susan Weiner repeatedly called Farrow and threatened him to cease his reporting on Weinstein or he would be smeared. NBC has denied making threats.

Lack noted in his memo that executives had 'watched with disappointment as unfounded intimations and accusations have traveled through media circles' ever since it emerged that NBC had passed on Farrow's reporting.

When Farrow hit back at NBC on Monday night, he said: 'Their list of sources is incomplete and omits women who were either identified in the NBC story or offered to be.

'The suggestion to take the story to another outlet was first raised by NBC, not me, and I took them up on it only after it became clear that I was being blocked from further reporting. The story was twice cleared and deemed 'reportable' by legal and standards only to be blocked by executives who refused to allow us to seek comment from Harvey Weinstein.'

Farrow's forthcoming book, 'Catch and Kill', is expected to explore in detail what Farrow will contend were NBC's efforts to claim ownership of his reporting and thereby prevent any publication.Advertisement

New pictures have for the first time revealed what the upcoming Star Wars theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida will look like.

The images taken at Lake Buena Vista show spaceships and alien architecture beginning to take shape alongside rocky landscapes.

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is due to open its doors in autumn 2019, with thousands of excited fans expected to flock to the attraction to immerse themselves in the Star Wars films of new and old.

New pictures have for the first time revealed what the upcoming Star Wars theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida will look like

The images taken at Lake Buena Vista show spaceships and transmitter masts beginning to take shape alongside rocky landscapes

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is due to open its doors in autumn 2019, with thousands of excited fans expected to flock to the attraction to immerse themselves in the Star Wars world

Big investment: The ambitious new attraction is part of a $2billion (1.43billion) investment by Disney in its theme parks

Walt Disney Imagineering executive Scott Trowbridge, who is overseeing the project, said in 2015: 'Our intent is to make it feel as if you just walked into one of the movies'

Mr Trowbridge added: 'Bringing to life in the physical world gives us the opportunity to play with a whole bunch of things we've never done before... to really engage all of the senses'

'Bringing to life in the physical world gives us the opportunity to play with a whole bunch of things we've never done before... to really engage all of the senses'

The eagerly anticipated Star Wars theme park 'Galaxy's Edge' is taking shape at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

Walt Disney Imagineering executive Scott Trowbridge, who is overseeing the project, said in 2015: 'Our intent is to make it feel as if you just walked into one of the movies.

'Bringing to life in the physical world gives us the opportunity to play with a whole bunch of things we've never done before... to really engage all of the senses.

'What does that street feel like? What does that animal smell like? What does blue milk taste like?'

Walt Disney Imagineering executive Scott Trowbridge said the questions designers are considering include: 'What does that street feel like? What does that animal smell like? What does blue milk taste like?'

Announced in August 2015, the lands are scheduled to open at both locations in 2019, with the Disneyland version opening first

In July 2017 at the D23 Expo, it was revealed that the themed lands would be called Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. It was also announced that the Disneyland version will open first

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge was first publicly announced by The Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Bob Iger at the D23 Expo on August 15, 2015

The ambitious new attraction is part of a $2billion (1.43billion) investment by Disney in its theme parks.

The same intergalactic land also is under construction at the Anheim park in southern California.

Once completed, it will include approximately 10,000 tons of structural steel and 200,000 square feet of hand-carved rock work.

Images of the Anaheim attraction were taken in March this year by mapping service Nearmap - an international provider of high resolution aerial imagery, usually for property developers and architecture firms.

MailOnline ran images of the site taken by the company in January, with the latest pictures showing that progress is clearly being made on the 14-acre site.

New images taken by Nearmap show the progress of the new Star Wars attraction at Disneyland in California

Disney has already released models, renderings and a limited number of pictures of what all of the attractions will look

Disney has released models, renderings and a limited number of pictures of what all of the attractions will look like when they open to the public.

These authentic lands will have two signature attractions, allowing guests to lead their own adventures.

The first will allow park-goers to take part an immersive battle between the Resistance and the First Order.

The second will let riders take control of one of the most recognizable ships in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon, on a customised secret mission.

A picture of the site taken by Nearmap back in January. Progress is clearly being made

The Disney Parks group is continually adapting and expanding to cater to customer demand.

In 2016, Shanghai Disneyland opened, while in May 2017 the new World of Avatar attraction at Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Florida was launched.

Elsewhere, Disney has announced a two billion euro (1.75billion) investment in its Paris theme park that will see an extension featuring Marvel, Frozen and Star Wars attractions.

The three new areas at the Walt Disney Studios Park will be rolled out in phases, starting in 2021.A senior member inside Barack Obama's White House has revealed the only Australian Prime Minister the former president didn't like.

Over the course of his eight-year term, Mr Obama met four different serving Prime Ministers - Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

Former national security adviser and foreign policy speechwriter Ben Rhodes revealed on Tuesday that Mr Abbott was the only one Mr Obama didn't warm to.

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A former staffer has revealed the only Australian Prime Minister Barack Obama (pictured) didn't like

In a revolving door of Prime Ministers, Mr Obama met four different leaders in his eight years in office, reportedly struggling to connect with Tony Abbott (pictured)

In an interview with The Australian, Mr Rhodes said their working relationship was 'very difficult'.

'Tony Abbott is just politically incredibly different to Barack Obama and a certain brand of right-wing politician, and that was a challenge to Obama,' he said.

The pair held different opinions on same-sex marriage and climate change.

Famously, Mr Obama was dubbed America's 'first gay President' by US magazine Newsweek in 2012, after he publicly supported gay marriage while in office.

Adversely, Mr Abbott was a figurehead for the 'No' vote in Australia in 2017, saying he would 'probably feel threatened' in an interview with Channel Nine's 60 Minutes.

Mr Abbott was also known to be against the carbon tax, which Mr Obama praised and reportedly envied Julia Gillard for being able to push the tax through Parliament.

The two held vastly different opinions on same-sex marriage and climate change, which could have put a strain on their working relationship

Adversely, Mr Obama reportedly got on extremely well with Julia Gillard (pictured together)

Mr Obama reportedly got on well with the other Prime Ministers he met, particularly Ms Gillard, Mr Rhodes said.

The two immediately developed a rapport when they first met in 2011, the President calling her a 'quick study'.

He said he admired her firm stance on climate change, while Mr Abbott had once said climate science was 'absolute crap'.

Mr Obama also took to recently outed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (left), a US magazine reporting the pair had the second best working relationship behind Germany's Angela Merkel

Kevin Rudd (pictured with Mr Obama) was also admired for his expertise in working with China

Recently resigned Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was also in Mr Obama's good books, the pair posing for a 'selfie' at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation in 2016.

In May 2016, US magazine The Atlantic, revealed the quality of Mr Obama's relationships with other world leaders.

At the time, Mr Turnbull came in second only behind Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Kevin Rudd was also one of Mr Obama's favourites, the Sydney Morning Herald reporting they connected on an 'intellectual level' and shared expertise on China.La Paz, Sep 4 (EFE).- Bolivian President Evo Morales on Tuesday swore-in Quechua Indian Diego Pary as the Andean nation's new foreign minister, replacing Fernando Huanacuni, a member of the Aymara ethnic group.

Since "the Foreign Ministry will always be the indigenous face" of this administration, the leadership has passed "from a brother Aymara foreign minister to a Quechua foreign minister," the president said during the swearing-in ceremony.

Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous head of state, said that the change at the top of the Foreign Ministry "responds to new times" and "new challenges."

"There will always be these types of urgent changes, necessary. Sometimes it'll be like castling because we have to conform to the times we're living in Bolivia," Morales said.

Pary, until now the ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), thanked Pachamama (Mother Earth) in Quechua and the mountain deities known as Apus, "which accompany our actions every second."

The new foreign minister also thanked Morales "for the great opportunity and honor" of being able to serve the country.

Pary, born in the Andean region of Potosi, is an indigenous leader, teacher, politician and diplomat.

In 2008, he was the deputy higher education minister, moving to the foreign service in 2011.

Huanacuni, who became foreign minister in January 2017, talked about the changes Bolivia has undergone since Morales took office in 2006.

"They say it's better to leave through the big door. I have the honor of going out through the Great House of the People," Huanacuni said, referring to the seat of government in La Paz.

Relacionados El indigena quechua Diego Pary es el nuevo canciller de BoliviaThe Chinese government has directed schools to limit the amount of homework given to students in order to counter worsening short-sightedness among minors.

The new measure, issued on Thursday by the Education Ministry, asked teachers to stop assigning written homework to first and second year primary school students. Third to sixth graders should be given assignments that can be completed within one hour and 90 minutes for junior secondary school students.

Other recommendations in the notice include extending physical education lessons to at least one hour every day and adjusting classroom chairs and desks each month in accordance to students' heights. Schools are also encouraged to create eye health records for each pupil.

The Chinese government has directed schools to limit the amount of homework given to students in order to counter worsening short-sightedness among minors

The authority justified the new curbs as a way to counter worsening visual impairment among minors, after President Xi Jinping last week called for greater national attention on optical health.

Chinese official studies and media reports have warned of growing rates of near-sightedness, or myopia, and among increasingly younger children. Excessive screen time and strict school study routines are often blamed.

A national vision report in 2015 said around 500 million Chinese - nearly half the population above five years old - suffer visual impairment, 450 million are near-sighted, and rates were rising.

It estimated visual impairment issues cost China around $100 billion in 2012.

Beijing is tightening government oversight of the country's booming video games industry

Chinese official studies and media reports have warned of growing rates of near-sightedness, or myopia, and among increasingly younger children

Media regulators are also directed to limit the number of new online games, restrict playing time and develop an age-restriction system in the industry.

Although no specifics or timeframe were given, the move adds to perceptions that there is a broader campaign to rein in China's fast-growing video game sub-culture after authorities already made clear their concerns over gaming addiction and the violent content of many shoot-em-up titles.

The government's online list of approved new titles has not been updated since May. Previously, the list had been updated regularly.

The world's largest gaming industry was rattled earlier this month when Tencent said it was ordered to pull the hit game 'Monster Hunter: World' from sale, just days after it debuted.A 26-year-old marketing manager has revealed how he almost died from a papercut.

Ryan Taylor, from Queensland's Gold Coast, developed an incredibly rare and deadly disease from a papercut he sustained at work in July.

He took himself to hospital the day after the cut, noticing swelling around his finger.

What he didn't notice was a flesh-eating bug had entered the wound.

Ryan Taylor, 26, is lucky to be alive after a tiny papercut developed into a flesh-eating disease

'At first they had no idea what they were treating,' he told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Grotesque peeling of the skin continued to move along his arm, spreading from his finger to elbow in as little as 12 hours.

The doctors rushed him into the operating theatre, warning him that they might have to amputate his arm.

He was told he could die.

Over the course of three weeks, Mr Taylor had 10 surgeries.

Doctors were forced to keep opening his forearm and flush out dead flesh the bug was leaving behind.

The marketing manager, who is still off work and recovering, was told he was lucky his arm wasn't amputated.

He is undergoing intensive physiotherapy three time a week to regain the full use of his hand.

He had contracted necrotizing faciitis, a flesh-eating bacteria which spread from his ring finger, all the way to his elbow in the span of 12 hours

The disease he had contracted was necrotizing fasciitis, a rapidly spreading, flesh-eating disease which enters through a break in the skin.

Worldwide, up to 40 per cent of victims die from the extremely deadly disease.

It's also rare, with only eight cases reported up to July by Gold Coast Health.

Gold Coast Medical Association president Dr Sonu Haikerwal said the disease was the last thing even a senior doctor would want to see.

'This is one of those nightmare diseases we hope as doctors we never see in our careers,' she said.The Commissioner of the Met Police has said Facebook should hand over potentially vital information to detectives 'within minutes' of being asked.

Cressida Dick spoke out after the social network refused to hand over a password which could aid the investigation into the killing of 13-year-old Lucy McHugh.

Hampshire Police has been forced to initiate a lengthy legal procedure in the US in a bid to get hold of messages sent and received by suspect Stephen Nicholson before Lucy's death.

Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said police should be able to get hold of information from Facebook and other social networks more easily

Met Police chief Ms Dick did not comment on the case specifically but said social networks must make it easier for police to get at potentially key evidence.

She told LBC: 'I absolutely think in certain instances - and it sounds like this is one - law enforcement in the UK ought to be able to have vital evidence which might bring someone to justice.'

She said social media giants are getting better at working with police, but added: 'It's not the first time that a police force in the UK or overseas has approached a social media company looking for evidence and had to go through a very protracted procedure or has found that it actually impossible to do so.'

Lucy's mother, Stacey White, said unlocking the account would 'certainly give police an idea of what was being said between Lucy and Stephen'.

'In situations like this, Facebook really should just release the information that is needed and I think that is the opinion that everybody has,' she told the Daily Mail.

'They should give over the account details. Lucy needs justice. It's so easy for them to do.'

Detectives investigating the murder of 13-year-old Lucy McHugh (left) are desperate to access Facebook accounts belonging to tattoo artist Stephen Nicholson (right)

Nicholson, a father-of-one, was staying at Lucy's family home in Southampton until several days before she was found stabbed to death in woodland on July 26.

According to prosecutors he had contact with the teenager as recently as the morning of her disappearance.

While being questioned on suspicion of murder and sexual activity with a child, he twice refused to give detectives his Facebook password.

The 24-year-old was jailed for 14 months on Friday over his refusal to hand over the password to his account.

Lucy's mother, Stacey White, has urged Facebook to hand over the password

The court heard his excuse for refusing access was to protect himself and his family as there was information relating to cannabis on the account.

Prosecutors said police were facing a 'lengthy procedure' in order to obtain access and the investigation into Lucy's death had been 'considerably obstructed' as a result.

Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, called on the Government and Facebook to create a fast legal procedure for such cases.

'This was an appalling murder, and Lucy McHugh's family need justice,' she told the Mail.

'For there to be such long delays and cumbersome international processes for getting crucial information in such a serious case is deeply disturbing.'.

Nicholson remains on bail for his arrest on suspicion of murder and sexual activity with a child.

A charging decision is anticipated on October 27.

A spokesman for Facebook said 'This is a terrible case and our hearts go out to the family of Lucy McHugh.

'We are working closely with law enforcement and there are well established legal mechanisms that the police follow to obtain information in criminal investigations like this.'Record heatwaves across the UK, drought conditions in some areas and sporadic rain have hampered this year's harvest, leaving farmers to count costs and consumers to count their coins.

Yields of key crops have fallen due to weather swings, particularly in the north and west, which recently saw wet conditions, which meant many farmers had struggled to bring in the wet crops.

Early indications from the harvest are that yields of wheat are likely to be down by about a quarter, and that staples such as potatoes, onions and carrots have plunged by as much as 20%.

According to the British Growers Association, the weather this autumn will be crucial for many vegetables

While the impact of lower yields is expected to be cushioned by higher farmgate prices for produce, many farmers are turning to the banks for increased loans to keep them ticking over as the costs of fuel, fertiliser and feed have all risen sharply.

Livestock farmers are one group that are feeling the heat, as feed prices have increased and long and hot dry spells have forced many to dig into their feed reserves, with straw being in short supply in some areas.

Milk yields were also depressed by the hot weather, as was the fertility of pigs.

Yield of staples such as potatoes, onions and carrots have plunged by as much as 20%

While food price rises have come as a shock to consumers  with prices to go up 5%, adding 7.15 to the monthly shopping bill, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Little of those increases will return to the farmer. For example, of the price of a loaf of bread, flour makes up only about a tenth.

According to the deputy president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU), Guy Smith, what farmers have gained due to unpredictable weather, they have lost elsewhere.

'What farmers gain on the market swing, they lose on the yield roundabout. Farmers are price takers, not price makers, and input prices have gone up under other pressures,' he told the Guardian.

The NFU estimates that fertiliser prices have gone up by 23% this year, while motor fuel is up by about a fifth and other energy costs by 16%. Feed such as barley has risen 12% in price, while soybeans and similar feed are up 16%.

Wheat in particular has been 'on a rollercoaster' in terms of price, according to Smith. Hikes of more than 30% over the summer, when milling wheat rose to 190 a tonne from about 140 a few months earlier, fell back on bullish news of US harvests.

Prices are now once again in flux following rumours that Russia may impose limits on its grain exports.

These swings have taken a toll on farmers. Borrowing was already up 300million on last year to nearly 19billion, according to the Bank of England, and expected to rise further.

The extreme weather conditions have meant that food prices have gone up due to poor harvests

'The financial impact of this year's weather is now evident,' said Anand Dossa, economist at the NFU. 'We are beginning to see farmers turn to their banks to get loans to tide them over.'

But it's not just UK farmers that are in dismay when it comes to the economic outlook. German harvests are forecast to be the lowest in 15 years, while Russia and Ukraine, the third and ninth biggest wheat producers globally, have suffered a combination of heavy rains and heatwaves which has lowered the quality.

German farmers are likely to face economic losses of 2.5billion from this year's weather, according to industry estimates, while the combined drought losses across Europe are estimated at $4billion.

Vegetables such as broccoli need cool weather through the autumn for optimal growth

Earlier this year, pig farmers were braced for the impact on feed prices, said Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association. She said the impact of the summer's heat on pig fertility would not be apparent for at least a month, though many farmers said their sows were well used to dealing with heat.

This is while, Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association, reported: 'The biggest issue we are concerned about will be the potential feed shortages in the winter.'

This is in part owing to sheep farmers having to put out feed saved for this winter much earlier than usual, but also the lack of grass growing over the dry summer and, according to Stocker, biomass burners competing with farmers.

The drought could be a smaller threat than Brexit negotiations, according to the National Farmers Union

The Met Office is forecasting a 40% chance that temperatures will be above average from September to the end of November.

According to Jack Ward, chief executive of the British Growers Association, the weather this autumn will be crucial for many vegetables.

'Brassicas such as cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts need cool weather through the autumn to slow their growth and provide greens for Christmas dinner tables.'

But Smith added that there is only one winner when it comes to the harvest.

'The weather always has the last laugh, for farmers,' he said.

However, the ever changing weather is no challenge for the biggest that the farmers are set to face, which is the final Brexit deal.

'We have a mountain to climb,' said Ward. 'It is scary, really scary.'

He said a no-deal Brexit next spring could wreak havoc on food imports, as Spain in particular is a key supplier of fresh vegetables to the UK, in the early part of the year.

'Life was easy under the EU when things moved seamlessly,' he said. 'If there is no deal, that comes to a shuddering halt.'

Dossa said long-term confidence among farmers was at an eight-year low, owing to uncertainties over Brexit, and at least a fifth of farmers are intending not to invest in their farms this year as a result.

Food price rises driven by the drought may turn out to be much smaller than those resulting from Brexit, depending on the deal reached with the EU.

Smith noted that UK food prices are still low in historic terms, as in the 1950s households spent about half their disposable income on food, but the variability should make the government take notice. 'What this year shows is that you can't take food production, and food supplies, for granted,' he said.Sir Richard Branson persuaded Radio 2 host Chris Evans to jump ship to Virgin Radio during an interview on his BBC breakfast show, he revealed today.

The billionaire entrepreneur said he suggested to the broadcaster a 'change of scenery' when he was a guest on the early morning programme.

Virgin founder Branson last appeared on Evans' breakfast show in October last year, when he was interviewed about his new autobiography.

Branson admitted today that it was a 'slight discourtesy to the Beeb' to 'steal on one of their people' on one of its shows, but he said he wanted to poach him because he thought it 'would be good for him.'

Evans, who saw his salary at the BBC dip from 2.2million to 1.6million last year, regularly attracts nine million weekly listeners - but has decided to move to a station that notches up just 400,000.

Virgin founder Branson last appeared on Evans' breakfast show in October last year (pictured) when he was interviewed about his new autobiography

Branson was being interviewed today from Sardinia, alongside his son Sam, left, as they take part in a charity challenge

Evans was first asked by Branson to join Virgin Radio in 1993, when he signed him up in a 13 week contract.

He returned to the station in 1997, when he was the breakfast show host until 2001.

Evans stunned fans yesterday be revealing he was leaving Radio 2 after 13 years - eight of those at the helm of the breakfast show - to go to Virgin.

The broadcaster, the BBC's second highest earner, told how he was expecting twins in the autumn with his wife, and was off to 'start a brand new adventure.'

Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain today, Branson said: 'Well 30 years ago I jumped on Concorde, British Airways Concorde much against my best wishes, because he was travelling to New York to try to persuade him to come and join Virgin Radio and we ended up being successful then.

Evans, pictured leaving Radio 2 today, saw his salary at the BBC dip from 2.2million to 1.6million

'Thirty years later, I was doing an interview with him on the Beeb and I know I shouldnt have, maybe it was a slight discourtesy to the Beeb to steal one of their people, but I did suggest that maybe a change of scenery would be good for him.

'Great to have him on board.'

It is not yet clear how much money his new contract with Virgin will be worth, but experts predict he could see his salary boosted to somewhere near the 2million mark.

Evans' 1.6million BBC pay packet makes him the second highest earner at the corporation after Gary Lineker.

But his salary this year was down on the 2.2million he was paid in the year to April 2017, because he had hosted the newly revamped Top Gear before quitting after one series because of plunging ratings.

The BBC has refused to be drawn on whether his salary was an issue over his decision to leave, which comes four months after the latest salary figures were published.

Branson, who was speaking from the Italian island of Sardinia during a charity challenge, insisted today that he had no idea how much money Evans would be paid.

He believed money wasn't an issue, but instead it was all about wanting a change, and having more 'freedom.'

He added: 'I have no idea what he earns at the BBC or even what hes earning at Virgin.

'I think he just wanted a change.

'Virgin Radio gives him a lot more freedom I suspect than he would have at the BBC.

'And Chris is somebody that I think would value freedom over salary.

Sir Richard Branson yesterday took to Twitter to say he was 'very excited' to have Evans back at Virgin Radio

'So I think its fantastic for Virgin Radio. Virgin Radios back in Britain and I think that this will put it firmly on the map.'

Despite the fact that Evans is quitting to join a rival, a Radio 2 insider insisted that he was going with the station's blessing, and they were aware of his plans before the announcement was made.

Chris Evans' new home: What is Virgin Radio? Chris Evans' new home, Virgin Radio, notches up just 413,000 listeners a week. It is only available on digital platforms. Evans hosted Virgin Radio's Breakfast Show from 1997 to 2001, when he was sacked for 'breach of contract'. He failed to turn up for work after several highly-publicised drinking sessions with his then wife Billie Piper. In 2003, he lost his battle for multimillion-pound damages against the radio station where he was once the star. Evans had claimed that Virgin Radio withheld 8.6 million of his share options after terminating his breakfast show contract. Evans' production company Ginger Media Group snapped up Virgin Radio for 85 million in 1997. He sold Virgin Radio to Scottish Media Group for 225 million in 2000. Virgin Radio became Absolute Radio in 2008. Virgin Radio returned to the UK airwaves in March 2016. It is owned by Wireless, which also comprises talkSPORT and talkRADIO as well as 30 local radio stations in the UK and Ireland. Sir Richard Branson owns the intellectual property on the Virgin brand, which is licensed to Wireless. Advertisement

The insider revealed: 'His decision to go to Virgin is not something we have just heard about. We were aware of it. It is very amicable.

'We support Chris 100%.

'As Chris stated, he wants to seek new challenges after 13 years at the BBC, and we wish him well.'

Nigel Currie, a sponsorship and marketing consultant, said: 'The fact that the BBC has to disclose salaries, is obviously not an ideal situation for him.

'A lot of talent at the BBC doesn't like that aspect, perhaps that has something to do with it.

'You have to expect it could be getting towards 2million.

'But I think this will be more about challenging himself, and moving on.

'He feels he has reached the stage where he has been at Radio 2 for 13 years, he has got to a point where he can't take it any further.

'He wants to do something different, and will try and work at shifting the ratings away from the BBC.'

Branson said in a tweet yesterday that he was 'very excited' he would be returning to Virgin Radio, having previously hosted its breakfast show from 1997 to 2001.

Evans took over the Breakfast Show from Sir Terry Wogan in 2010. He regularly attracts nine million listeners - more than any other breakfast show in the UK.

He told how he has 'loved every minute' working on the flagship show for the last eight years but has now revealed he is going back to his 'spiritual home.'

He told listeners that he had been thinking about leaving for a year. He said: 'The twins are on their way.

'I'm leaving. I'm leaving Radio 2.

'Some of us are mountain climbers and, if you get to the top of your favourite mountain, you become a mountain observer, so I've got to keep climbing.

'I'm going to go and go again and I'm going to start up on a brand new adventure.'

He added: 'It's been brilliant. It will continue to be brilliant.'

He revealed that he has been speaking to his 'nearest and dearest' about his decision.

He said: 'It's been quite big news in our house over the last few weeks and months. I'm going to leave.

Experts say a woman is likely to replace Chris Evans (left today) on Radio 2 with Sara Cox set to take over

'I first discussed it professionally last year and discussed it with my colleagues and bosses here a few months ago.

'A few weeks ago I made my mind up for sure.

'Since that conversation it's been pointed out to me that I have been for 13 years  which is a long time, it's a long time.'

In a statement then released by the BBC he said: 'I have absolutely loved every single moment of my time at Radio 2.

Chris Evans, pictured with his wife Natasha. The couple are expecting twins in the Autumn

'The last 13 years have flashed by in what seems like the blink of an eye. I have learnt so much from so many people to whom I will be eternally grateful.

'As Sir Terry said before me, there's never a right time to leave something you love but there might be a wrong time if you hang on too long.

'I honestly think The Breakfast Show is currently as positive, useful, sunny and inclusive as it has ever been. In fine shape for its next custodian.

Just over an hour and a half later Virgin Radio released an official statement and he said: 'In many ways Virgin Radio is my spiritual home.

'I see nothing but exciting and groundbreaking opportunities ahead.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS FROM CHRIS EVANS' CAREER 1983: Chris Evans began his professional career at Piccadilly Radio 1990: He became a presenter at BBC London radio station GLR on the Saturday afternoon show. 1992: He presented a Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio 1, replacing Phillip Schofield. 1993: Evans left GLR and joined the new Virgin Radio. Six weeks later he walked out 1995: He began presenting BBC Radio 1's flagship breakfast show. 1997: He quits the BBC Breakfast show 1997: He buys Virgin Radio and rejoins as breakfast show host 2000: He sells the station to Scottish Media Group 2001: Evans is sacked for failing to show up to work for six days 2005: He joins Radio 2 2010 The DJ replaces Sir Terry Wogan in the breakfast slot 2015: He takes over the helm of Top Gear, but quits after one series Advertisement

'In a medium that is changing so quickly on a daily basis, the potential for growth is unprecedented.

'Our plan is: to give it all we've got, see where we can get to and have the most possible fun along the way. It makes me smile every time I think about it.'

Sir Richard Branson said he was 'absolutely delighted' to have Evans back at Virgin Radio.

He said in a statement: 'Chris continues to be one of the most entertaining people on the airwaves today and we're very excited to have one of the world's greatest radio presenters hosting our flagship breakfast show on Virgin Radio.'

Sara Cox is being lined up to take over as Radio 2's breakfast show host and yesterday thanked fans urging BBC bosses to give her the top job.

The 43-year-old mother-of three would be the first woman to host the flagship morning programme full time since the station was launched in 1967.

The BBC have not named Evans' replacement but Ms Cox, who hosted the Radio 1 breakfast show between 2000 and 2003, is set to take over in December, MailOnline understands.

The broadcaster, who currently does Radio 2's 10pm to midnight show, has previously stepped in when Evans is on holiday and is hugely popular with listeners who took to Twitter to call for her appointment.

In response she confirmed she was interested in the job and wrote this afternoon: 'Shucks. You lot, honestly. Whatever happens, today on Twitter has felt like one massive hug. Thank you'.

Zoe Ball, Jo Whiley and Claudia Winkleman are also among the favourites to replace the broadcaster, 52, should Sara Cox not get it.

Fellow Radio 2 DJs Dermot O'Leary, Simon Mayo and Graham Norton have also been backed by fans but experts believe it will be a leading lady.

Alex Apati of Ladbrokes said: 'The latest betting suggests it's Sara Cox who'll get the Radio 2 gig, although our traders aren't ruling out Mayo just yet.'Advertisement

A 61-year-old former history teacher has spent 8,000 building a full-sized First World War trench network in a field in England - and is inviting the public to live as soldiers there.

Father-of-one Andy Robertshaw took 18 months to construct the British and German trenches at a farm near Canterbury in Kent with the help of a group of ten volunteers.

He now hopes the one-acre network - which features firing bays, an aid post, an engineer's store, a dugout, a kitchen and even a railway - can be a permanent exhibit which will teach people about the realities of trench life.

Andy Robertshaw has worked with a team of ten volunteers to build a replica First World War trench near Canterbury in Kent

The one-acre network on a farm features firing bays, an aid post, an engineer's store, a dugout, a kitchen and even a railway

The former history teacher has spent 8,000 building the trench network and is inviting the public to live as soldiers there

Mr Robertshaw now hopes the network can be a permanent exhibit which will teach people about the realities of trench life

Mr Robertshaw, who wants people to live on the front line for 48 hours to experience the reality of life as a Tommy, said: 'Our trench network shows what life was like 90 per cent of the time for World War One soldiers.

'They only spent five days at a time in trenches like mine before swapping with other soldiers - it wasn't always going 'over the top' like you see in films.

'My ambition is for it to become a permanent site for people who can't go to France and Belgium to go to. There are no well-constructed trenches in the UK, France and Belgium at all really, so we hope that this can fill the void.

'We're going to launch a 48-hour trench experience in the autumn, where people can arrive, get into uniform and have a 'bootcamp' style introduction in the experience of a Great War solider.

Mr Robertshaw based the design of his 'Hawthorn Trench' on an original British trench which was near to Hawthorn Ridge

Mr Robertshaw wants people to live on the front line for 48 hours to experience the reality of life as a Tommy

It's the third trench that Mr Robertshaw, the former curator of the Royal Logistic Corps Museum, has built in his lifetime

'They'd then go into a night-time routine of working, resting and guarding the trench before having an inspection and breakfast the following morning. It'd be an introduction to life in a trench done in real time.'

How Hawthorn Ridge marked the first action of the Battle of the Somme Andy Robertshaw based his 'Hawthorn Trench' on an original British trench known as Marlborough Street, which was near Hawthorn Ridge. The Ridge was a fortified German position which was spectacularly blown up by British tunnellers in July 1916. The explosion of the mine at Hawthorn Ridge was filmed in 1916 It was the first action of the Battle of the Somme (July  November 1916), in which around 1.3million people died - including nearly 20,000 British men on the first day. The explosion of the mine was famously filmed by Geoffrey Malins at 7.20am on July 1, 1916  and is one of the best-known recorded moments of the Great War. The mine was then blown up for a second time on November 13 that year when the ridge and village was captured by the 51st Highland Division. In March, the Hawthorn Ridge Crater Association said it would be leasing the site of the battlefield in France from the local council on a 99-year lease for 1. The organisation said it intends to 'improve the access for visitors, manage the upkeep, and protect the site for future generations whilst providing a detailed study of the area with partner organisations'. Advertisement

Mr Robertshaw based the design of his 'Hawthorn Trench' on an original British trench which was near to Hawthorn Ridge, a fortified German position which was spectacularly blown up by British tunnellers in July 1916.

The British trench, which spans 200ft (60m) and is 650ft (200m) deep, can sleep up to 30 people while the German trench, which is smaller, can sleep only ten.

It's the third trench that the former curator of the Royal Logistic Corps Museum, who has spent decades researching the conflict, has built in his lifetime.

Mr Robertshaw said: 'I've built three previous trenches, and this is by far the biggest and the best. I always wanted to have a really good replica trench.

'I wanted to do day-to-day life rather than combat to show the mundane, humdrum normality that was the experience for so many people's great grandfathers and other relatives.'

Mr Robertshaw estimates he has spent nearly 8,000 on the project. A stickler for detail, the historian led the building of the trench using maps and designs from the time.

Mr Robertshaw said: 'The design is based on the Marlborough Street trench which faced Hawthorne Ridge. We've ensured that the trench has been dug to the correct depth and size based on original documents.

'The geology of where we are in Kent is very similar to that of the Somme. The geology here and in the Somme is largely chalk-based, with a thin layer of top soil.'

Mr Robertshaw said the project has limitless possibilities, as he is always thinking of new features to add to the trench network.

He said he is keen to emphasise that the trench is not a war memorial to the soldiers who died in 'the war to end all wars' but is instead, a memorial of how they lived and the reality of life for them.

Mr Robertshaw said the trench is a deeply personal project for him, because his grandfather, John Andrew Robertshaw of the East Yorkshire Regiment, fought in the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Arras.

A stickler for detail, historian Mr Robertshaw led the building of the trench using maps and designs from the time

Mr Robertshaw's First World War trench network in a field in Kent, which has taken 18 months to build, even features a railway

Mr Robertshaw said the project has limitless possibilities, as he is always thinking of new features to add to the network

Mr Robertshaw based the design of his 'Hawthorn Trench' on the Marlborough Street trench which was near Hawthorn Ridge (both underlined), a fortified German position which was spectacularly blown up by British tunnellers in July 1916

He said: 'I don't think it'll ever finish. It'll always be a work in progress. It's not a memorial to those who fell, as this field in Kent was not a battlefield, but it's a memorial to the experience of living in a trench.

'It puts people in the boots of those who lived in places like this. My grandfather was a veteran, and when I asked him why he volunteered he said he did it so he could eventually take his uniform off and live in peace and freedom.

'Next year in July we're hosting an event to remember those soldiers who came home. They're the forgotten army.'

Mr Robertshaw is married to Janice, 61. He said: 'She's a historian and a history teacher so she can't complain too much but I suspect she's a bit of a trench widow. She has to put up with me going off to the trench in the weekends.'Tory MP Heidi Allen has threatened to quit the party if Boris Johnson becomes leader as the Brexit row rages today.

The backbencher said 'a lot' of Conservative Remainers could follow her out of the door if the former foreign secretary succeeded in ousting Theresa May.

Ms Allen is the latest MP to raise the prospect of an exodus if a hardline Brexiteer like Mr Johnson takes charge. Former ministers Dominic Grieve and Anna Soubry have also questioned whether they could stay in the Tories.

Tensions have been rising as Mrs May's Chequers plan for a 'soft' Brexit comes under attack from all sides.

The depth of the premier's woes were demonstrated yesterday when Boris Johnson launched a searing attack on her plan - accusing her of going into negotiations with the 'white flag fluttering'.

Heidi Allen (pictured on BBC Newsnight) said 'a lot' of Conservative Remainers could follow her out of the door if Boris Johnson succeeded in ousting Theresa May

Boris Johnson (pictured left) launched a searing attack on the Chequers plan. Meanwhile, Remainer ex-Cabinet minister Justine Greening (pictured right) condemned the policy

Meanwhile, Remainer ex-Cabinet minister Justine Greening condemned the policy - which would involve accepting EU rules on goods and collecting some taxes on behalf of the bloc - as 'more unpopular than the poll tax'.

In a blunt rebuttal to Mr Johnson, who is believed to be plotting a leadership bid Downing Street said critics had 'no new ideas' for a deal with the EU.

The PM's spokesman also jibed at the former foreign secretary's joker image, saying the country needed 'serious leadership with a serious plan'.

What is in Theresa May's Brexit blueprint? These are some of the key features of the Chequers plan being pushed by the UK government: A new free trade area in goods, based on a 'common rulebook' of EU regulations necessary. This will require the UK to commit by treaty to match EU rules

'Mobility' rules which will end automatic freedom of movement, but still allow UK and EU citizens to travel without visas for tourism and temporary work. It will also enable businesses to move staff between countries.

Continued UK participation in and funding of European agencies covering areas like chemicals, aviation safety and medicines

A 'facilitated customs arrangement', removing the need for customs checks at UK-EU ports. It would allow differing UK and EU tariffs on goods from elsewhere in the world to be paid at the border, removing the need for rebates in the vast majority of cases. This is designed to avoid the need for a hard Irish border. But in theory it still allows Britain to sign trade deals.

Keeping services - such as banking or legal support - outside of the common rule book, meaning the UK is completely free to set its own regulations. It accepts it will mean less trade in services between the UK and EU.

Continued co-operation on energy and transport, a 'common rulebook' on state aid and commitments to maintain high standards of environmental and workplace protections.

A security deal allowing continued UK participation in Europol and Eurojust, 'co-ordination' of UK and EU policies on foreign affairs, defence and development.

Continued use of the EHIC health insurance card. Advertisement

Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight, Ms Allen said many of her pro-EU colleagues viewed Chequers as a 'complete non-starter'.

But she said many others, like her, were prepared to give it a 'little bit longer'.

'The only way any of us are going to come through this is with a little bit of compromise on both sides,' Ms Allen said.

'Nobody is going to get exactly what they want but you have to start somewhere.'

Asked what she would do if Mr Johnson succeeded in ousting Mrs May, she said: 'If Boris was leader I doubt very much that I would be in the Conservative Party and there are a lot of my fellow colleagues who feel the same.'

The PM gathered her Cabinet today for the first time since the summer break as she seeks to find a way through the impasse.

The session comes as a huge poll suggested widespread opposition to the Chequers proposals could consign the Conservatives to defeat in a general election.

Nearly half of those surveyed in the 44 most marginal Tory seats said they were against Mrs May's approach.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will update the Commons on the latest developments following his talks with the European Union's chief negotiator Michel Barnier - who has openly stated he opposes the Chequers plan.

The prospects of an agreement being reached before the October deadline that had previously been set have dwindled.

Both Brussels and the UK government are now hoping to thrash out a compromise by November - or possibly the end of the year.

Any later than that would make it almost impossible for the Withdrawal Agreement to pass through the necessary legal processes to be implemented in time for the end of March, when Britain is formally due to leave.

Former party leader Lord Hague used his own Daily Telegraph column to warn Tories their civil war could result in the collapse of the Government and either a second referendum or a general election - and the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured left) is due to update MPs later on his negotiations with the EU's Michel Barnier (right)

'Some say May's plan is too much of a compromise, a small number that it isn't enough of one, and still others now advocate a different compromise altogether,' he said.

'The likely result is so obvious it hardly needs stating, which is that the entire idea is put at risk, and all of them will lose out in the end.

'It is thus quite possible that a year from now, we could be contemplating why we are still in the EU after all, or why we left it with maximum damage all round with minimum notice, or how we came to have an even weaker minority government, or how a Marxist despised by his own MPs ended up as Prime Minister.'

Campaigners for fresh Brexit referendum claim 1.6m have changed their minds Some 2.6 million voters who backed Leave in 2016 have switched to the Remain side, supporters of a referendum on the terms of Brexit have claimed. But, according to analysis for the Best for Britain campaign, another 1 million former Remain voters have moved in the opposite direction and now back Brexit. The findings suggest an overall shift of 1.6 million voters in favour of continued EU membership - enough to overturn the 2016 referendum in a new poll. Best for Britain and Hope not Hate commissioned analysis of two YouGov polls involving a total of more than 15,000 people, taken before and after the release of Theresa May's Chequers plan for Brexit. The results from data company Focaldata suggested that there has been a shift towards Remain in 93% of the 632 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales covered by the research, with 112 seats switching from majority Leave to Remain. Some 341 seats in Britain now have a majority to stay within the EU against 291 wanting to Leave, according to the analysis. Advertisement

MPs from the Commons Exiting the EU Committee were in Brussels yesterday for talks with Mr Barnier, who made clear his objections to the Chequers plan on customs and the common rulebook.

Committee chairman Hilary Benn told Newsnight the customs plan was 'not a runner and nor is the common rulebook'.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the influential European Research Group of Conservatives, told the programme he wanted to see a Canada-style trade deal, with issues around the Northern Ireland border dealt with away from the frontier.

'The issue is, for the 40 billion we are paying, is there an agreement that can be done that polices the border remotely from the border?' he said.

Meanwhile, supporters of a referendum on the terms of Brexit have stepped up their campaign by claiming some 2.6 million voters who backed Leave in 2016 have switched to the Remain side.

But according to analysis for the Best for Britain campaign, another 1 million former Remain voters have moved in the opposite direction and now back Brexit.

The findings suggest an overall shift of 1.6 million voters in favour of continued EU membership - enough to overturn the 2016 referendum in a new poll.

Best for Britain and Hope not Hate commissioned analysis of two YouGov polls involving a total of more than 15,000 people, taken before and after the release of Theresa May's Chequers plan for Brexit.

The results from data company Focaldata suggested that there has been a shift towards Remain in 93% of the 632 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales covered by the research, with 112 seats switching from majority Leave to Remain.

Some 341 seats in Britain now have a majority to stay within the EU against 291 wanting to Leave, according to the analysis.This is the incredible moment a brave diver puts a tiger shark into a trance by 'hypnotising' it.

The hypnosis, called 'tonic immobility', was performed by Leigh Cobb at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas.

Footage shows the 16ft tiger shark, nicknamed 'Emma', approach the diver after being fed a fish.

A brave diver 'hypnotised' a tiger shark at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas using the 'tonic immobility' method

Ms Cobb then begins stroking the predator's side before gently encouraging her to roll onto her back.

The diver keeps one hand on the shark's side and another on her head as she continues to move.

Smaller sharks stay nearby, swimming around the diver's knees as she continues the hypnosis.

Photographer and dive master Christian Torres, 41, from Ecuador, captured the fascinating footage.

He said: 'Diving with theses majestic creatures always brings new sensations.

The hypnosis, called 'tonic immobility', was performed by Leigh Cobb at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas

Emma the shark, who is 16ft long, rolls vertically onto her back after falling into the trace-like state

'In the video, my friend and mentor Leigh Cobb, is feeding and rolling the most famous Tiger shark from Tiger Beach, Bahamas named 'Emma' who is 16ft long.

'I usually like photographing big animals like sharks, mantas, whales or dolphins.'

Tonic immobility is a reflex that causes a state of immobility in animals - similar to that of hypnosis.

The trance-like state is triggered in sharks by stimulating the tiny sensory pores located on their snout, according to The Shark Trust.

It is often used by researchers to minimise struggling and possibility of injury when handling them.A Scots haggis maker has been slammed online for rebranding the iconic dish as the 'Great British Haggis' in a bid to broaden its appeal.

Stahly Quality Foods launched the new product earlier this year which they say is 'dressed to appeal to a wider audience'.

Describing it as the 'latest addition to the Stahly haggis family' the product - which is a mix of lamb, oatmeal and spices - comes in a tin donning the union flag.

The new product (pictured) has come under fire with some labelling it a 'betrayal' and others describing it as 'wrong, very wrong'

Ken Stahly, owner of Stahly Quality Foods, has spoken out following the public backlash saying he's 'confident the haggis will be enjoyed by new and existing customers alike'

Colleen's tweet of the new haggis product (pictured) sparked a fiery debate attracting more than 500 comments and around 1,200 retweets

The new colour scheme is mentioned on the Glenrothes' company website, which reads: 'In a smart new coat of red, white and blue with a subtle hint of tartan to retain its proud Scottish heritage.

'The new Great British Haggis is a very modern version of a very traditional product.'

Since the products launch however, a picture of it has been circulated on Twitter sparking a fiery debate.

Colleen, who shared the original image and describes Scottish independence as 'the dream', said: 'What the actual hell do they think they are doing? Haggis is Scottish'.

Commenting on the post, Susan Gow was similarly irritated, saying: 'Ridiculous. It's beyond words how much of a betrayal of the Scots tradition to 'Anglonise' the haggis. Shame on you.'

While Carrie said: 'I know, is nothing bloody sacred anymore'.

Eleanor voiced similar disapproving, saying: 'This is wrong, very wrong.'

While another, who goes by the name Nivelan, made fun of the rebrand saying: 'Imagine if it said European Haggis as that would also be technically correct, with an EU flag printed on it.

'Or imagine that on a bottle of London Dry Gin. You'd be outraged wouldn't you?'

The traditional haggis is made from a mix of lamb offal, oatmeal and spices. It is used eaten every year by thousands on Burns Night - a celebration of the Scots poet Robert Burns (stock image of haggis). Below, the response to a recent Great British Haggis launch

The Facebook page for the business has also been bombarded with comments following the rebrand.

Josie Alba said: 'How dare you. Haggis is British. Will never buy your products again.'

While another cited the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns, saying: 'Can you imagine Robert Burns writing an ode to a Great British haggis? He must be turning in his grave.'

Marlene Halliday, who hasn't even tasted the product, said: 'I haven't tasted your haggis Stahly. But I've seen your new Great British Haggis packaging.

'Look, face it, you've made a big mistake. Take it off your product line and apologise on your website.'

As a result of the recent comments the business has now been left with an overall rating of 1.2 stars out of five.

Not everyone has been offended by the new product however.

Paul Caple wrote on Twitter: 'Actually it has English origins, anyway Scotland is part of Britain so it is British technically speaking. If not in spirit.'

While Glenn Sallis said: 'Scotland is British. No contradiction there.'

Ken Stahly, owner of the company, has spoken out following the public backlash against his latest product.

He said: 'Stahly Quality Foods has been a proudly Scottish, family run butcher since 1923.

'Our haggis is created to our own special recipe and is loved in Scotland and across the world.

'The newest addition to our haggis range is of course essentially Scottish (made in Scotland with Scottish ingredients) but with packaging that aims to broaden the appeal of our classic national dish.

'We're confident this haggis will be enjoyed by new and existing customers alike.'

This is not the first time the union flag appearing on a Scottish product has sparked outrage.

Back in June the Royal Highland Show came under fire for the 'Union-Jacking' of Scottish produce and landmarks.

The Herald reported that images including the Queensferry crossing and Edinburgh military tattoo were stamped with 'Britain is Great'.

While an image of a whisky distillery featured the stamp 'Heritage is Great', emblazoned with the Union Jack and tagline 'Britain'.

Concerns over the loss of Scottish identity prompted the creation of a Keep Scotland the Brand campaign group.

Speaking to The Times, a spokeswoman said: 'Scotland's brand identity is crucial to our rapidly growing food and drink sector.

'We must stand up for our farmers, fishers, food and drink producers as we face the loss of protected geographic indicators, the system of protecting our iconic foods from identity theft.'

Ruth Watson, who is part of the campaign group, told Mail Online that she was worried about a loss of local identity.

She said: 'Local provenance is good for business. Consumer confidence comes from clearly defined geography on products.

'It would be extremely concerning if we did not know the true origins of a product'Gerald Mickelson's lawyer K.A. Ramu (pictured) addresses reporters outside court in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday after his client was sentenced to hanging

An American man has been sentenced to death by hanging in Malaysia for murdering his ex-wife so that he could be with his new Filipino bride.

Gerald Wayne Mickelson, 63, was convicted of strangling his wife Guilda in Kuala Lumpur in November 2016.

The couple, who were from Massachusetts, had been in Malaysia for Mickelson's job as a telecommunications consultant and had decided to separate after 30 years together.

His lawyer claims he was acting in self-defense when he hit 62-year-old Guilda on the head and strangled her after an argument in a serviced apartment where she was living on November 26.

On Tuesday, a judge rejected his claim of self-defense and sentenced him to death. His Filipino bride, who has not been named, wept in the public gallery.

Mickelson's lawyer said after the sentencing that he planned to file an appeal.

'The couple had been married for 30 years, but were still staying together after their divorce.

'During the investigation, the accused said he got into an argument his ex-wife who did not allow him to move to the Philippines.

'In their report, pathologists said that they found a fracture on the deceaseds head due to blunt force trauma.

'The deceaseds hyoid bone (located near the neck) was also broken, which proved that she was manually strangled by the accused,' prosecutor Azeezi Nordin told the court on Tuesday, according to local news outlet NST.

Instead of fleeing, Mickelson called for help after killing his wife.

The duty manager in the building where it took place said he recalled finding him sitting on a bed and telling him: 'I killed her,' when he arrived.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.

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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349A man in north-east China was shocked to discover that a spider had been living inside his ear.

The man in his 60s checked himself into hospital in Dalian city on Saturday after the pounding sound in his left ear wouldn't go away, according to local reports.

Horrified doctors discovered the eight-legged beast crawling among a small cluster of webs inside the pensioner's ear canal and immediately removed it.

A man in north-east China was shocked to discover that a spider had been living inside his ear

The man told the doctor that he suspected that insect might have crawled into his ear and reported some itchiness in his ear during his sleep the night before, according to Dalian Evening News.

Stomach churning footage of the patient's examination in Liaoning province shows a tiny creepy crawly - about a size of a bean - huddled behind its webs.

Doctor Cui Shulin, deputy chief physician at the department of otolaryngology at the Dalian Central Hospital, said the man complained of a tingling sensation and sounds like a drum beating in his ear.

The man in his 60s checked himself into hospital in Dalian city, north-east China on Saturday after the pounding sound in his ear wouldn't go away, according to local reports

Dr Cui and his nurses were shocked when the endoscope revealed the live spider having occupied the patient's ear canal about 5 centimetres (2 inches) deep.

The doctor eventually flushed the creature and its webs out by spraying the patient's ear canal with water, later confirming that the man's hearing and ear canal were not damaged.

The medic said he had seen numerous cases of flying insects such as ladybirds and most commonly cockroaches ending up in people's ears - but this is the first time he has found a living spider in a patient's ear.Supporters of the man accused of stealing a car from a mother while her baby lay sleeping in the back seat have hurled abuse at reporters out the front of a court.

Targeting a cameraman, one of the man's relatives launched an expletive-laden assault at Broadmeadows Court in Melbourne's north-west on Tuesday afternoon.

'F** off you dog, get the f**k out of here you little maggot,' the man, wearing a hooded jumper, spat as he lashed out at news crews filming outside the courthouse.

A relative of the man accused of stealing a car with an eight-year-old in the backseat has been filmed launching an expletive-laced tirade at reporters outside court (pictured)

'Get the f**k out of here you corrupt dogs,' he continued, before allegedly headbutting one of the cameras.

The family member appearing in court on Tuesday was the alleged driver charged on Monday with the theft of a car and driving while disqualified.

CCTV released last week showed the incident, where a white Hyundai SUV was allegedly stolen from outside a medical centre in Melbourne's north-east.

The mother who owned the car was seen standing only metres away, not paying attention until the car began speeding off.

She had to watch on in horror as the car, with her eight-week-old son in the back seat, drove away.

A mother (pictured) watches on in horror as a carjacker dries off in her white Hyundai Tucson, unaware an eight-week-old baby boy is sleeping in the back seat

Police say the car was dumped 20 minutes later, the baby boy still asleep and unharmed inside it.

The accused appeared in court on Tuesday via video-link, who will be remanded in custody in Thursday.

He told the Magistrate he wants to appear in person on Thursday, and will apply for bail.Japan is known for its abundance of centenarians and can now lay claim to having the world's oldest living married couple, with a combined age of 208 - a feat the wife credits to her patience during 80 years of marriage.

Masao Matsumoto, 108, and his 100-year-old wife, Miyako, have been confirmed as the oldest living spouses by aggregate age by Guinness World Records, having been married since October 1937.

'I am so glad. It's thanks to my patience, really,' said Miyako with a laugh, posing with Masao and other family members in front of a framed certificate at the nursing home where they live.

'I am so grateful that it brings me tears,' she told Reuters.

Masao Matsumoto and Miyako Matsumoto credit their longevity in marriage to Masao's patience

The couple have been married since 1937 and recently celebrated over 80 years of marriage

The Matsumotos never managed to have a wedding as Japan was heading into war and Masao was sent overseas as a soldier, but that was no obstacle to having a big family - including a 25th great-grandchild who was born last month.

'They've entered the last chapter of their life. It was a honour (for them) to receive this award. I would love them to continue living a peaceful life,' said daughter Hiromi.

Both born in Oita prefecture, Masao and Miyako were introduced to each other through an acquaintance.

The pair wed in 1937, but there was a chance that the marriage may not have taken place. With the intention to hold a wedding, Miyako and her family visited Masao's parents.

When they've arrived, however, Masao had not returned from another region in Japan, leaving Miyako disgruntled as the wedding had to be delayed.

Her soon-to-be husband had actually been paying off his brothers' debt and had no money to return home. Had this marriage got called off because of this incident, then there would not have been a new Guinness World Record title.

Masao Matsumoto (right) and Miyako Matsumoto pose with the Guinness World Record certificate at a nursing house in Takamatsu, Japan

Masao and Miyako were introduced to each other through an acquaintance after being born in the same area of Japan

Hardship hit the couple when Japan was involved in a series of wars.

Until the end of Second World War, Masao was called up for military service three times, having to leave Miyako and two young daughters behind. Miyako lived with a group of relatives and worked hard to raise her daughters.

Miyako was prepared for the worst, the possibility that Masao might not return. In fact, Masao was finally able to return to his family in 1946.

Having returned to his home 'with only skin and bone left' - according to Miyako - Masao was overjoyed to reunite with his family.

After Masao's return, the couple had three more daughters.

Japanese have among the longest life expectancies in the world, with data from Japan's health ministry showing they rank No.2 on average at around 84, just a smidgen behind people from Hong Kong.

The record for oldest married couple ever by aggregate age still belongs to Norwegians Karl and Gurdren Dolven, who had a combined age of 210 years, 1 month and 34 days when Gurdrun died in 2004, according to Guinness World Records.

The Second World War proved to be the only thing that came between them as Masao (center) was called away to serve JapanA terrified teenager caught on video the shocking moment migrants brazenly stowed away in the back of a lorry waiting in a long queue outside Calais.

The three African young men were caught on camera undoing the tarpaulin at the back of the vehicle before two clambered inside. As the lorry pulled away, the men ran to catch up and pulled themselves into the back of the vehicle.

Dance teacher Tilly Holliday-Morris was on her way back home to Herne Bay, Kent, after 10 days in the south of France when she filmed the migrants trying to smuggle themselves into Britain.

They were caught when holidaymakers alerted the lorry driver who told police before the van entered the port in Coquelles, Calais. After a cursory look inside, the police were reportedly about to give up until the driver insisted they do a proper check.

Scroll down for video.

Tilly Holliday-Morris was on her way back from France when she captured on video the three men getting inside the lorry during queuing traffic at Calais

The men were seen undoing the tarpaulin before climbing inside and hiding from police

Tilly, 19, was with her dad, step mum and step brother and sister when they were caught up in the sheer volume of holidaymakers returning before the start of the school year.

After a 12-hour drive, they were held in two lanes of traffic before they were able to check in at the port gates late on Saturday night.

Tilly said: 'We were before you actually get into the port, there was a massive queue for two hours before you get to security.

'It was hectic, we were not moving at all and were passing the time just talking to each other.

The migrants look advantage of the slow traffic, caused by the high numbers of holidaymakers returning for the start of the school year, to jump into the lorry

Despite hiding from police the African men were found and left sitting on the tarmac with their hands on their heads

'Then my dad said look over there, people are undoing the ropes at the back of the van.

'There were three people trying to get in, but only two actually got in. They just ignored us. They just carried on brazenly doing what they were doing.

'They were then doing up the ropes from the inside to make it look like no one was in there. They were black, in their mid 20s to early 30s.'

Tilly, who has worked at Disneyland in Paris, said the men scurried into the van when they noticed motorists were watching them.

The migrants were caught when holidaymakers alerted the driver who told police before the vehicle entered the port at Calais

Police only briefly looked inside the Britain-bound lorry before the driver told them to keep searching and the men were found

She added: 'As we pulled up to the van, they speeded up as if they thought we would tell the driver.

'We shouted to the driver 'you have got people in the back of your van' and he just said 'don't worry the police will sort it out'.

The third time the attempted stowaways saw police at the back of the van but were hiding to try and say inside the vehicle.

Tilly said: 'They could not find them because they were hiding and they closed it back up.

'But the driver got out and said no there were people inside. They opened it up again and then pulled one and then the other out and just put them by the side of the road.

'By this point we were about to go through check-in and they were just sat with their heads in their hands.

'We did not see what happened to them, we don't know if they carried on doing it or not.

'You hear about it all the time but I never witnessed it before. It is quite a scary thought really.

'When we got to passport control, the man said it was the busiest day of the year.

'Probably when there are so many people there are not so many checks. So they were probably trying their luck.'

Calais has often been a flash-point for the European migrant crisis, with many trying to get into the UK by getting into vehicles when they have stopped in traffic.

Although the Calais Jungle was demolished in 2016, hundreds of migrants still live rough in the nearby woods, hoping to reach the UK by hiding is passing vehicles.

In February this year at least five migrants were shot during a mass brawl between Afghans and Eritreans in the French port city at a queue for food handouts.

It is estimated around 800 migrants from Africa and the Middle East still live in Calais.Two teenagers are being dealt with under the Young Offenders Act after shocking footage emerged showing a 70-year-old man being shoved to the ground and kicked in the stomach.

The sickening attack was filmed at a bus stop in Castle Hill, in Sydney's north-west, about 8.50pm on August 18.

Footage of the appalling incident was uploaded to Instagram, but police say there is more to the attack than what the vision shows, The Hills Shire Times reported.

Two teenagers are being dealt with under the Young Offenders Act after appalling footage emerged online showing a 70-year-old man being pushed and kicked

A 15-year-old boy had been arrested at the scene by police and another was later identified by officers.

The two teenagers are currently being dealt with under the Young Offenders Act and reportedly could face assault charges.

Police say the elderly man may also be charged over the incident as they continue to investigate.

'Other CCTV gives a wider, more comprehensive view of all the lead up events and the incident itself,' The Hills police commander Superintendent Rob Critchlow said.

He added alcohol consumption by some of those involved appeared to be relevant in the attack which unfolded.

The footage posted online captured two teenagers kicking the elderly man after he was pushed to the ground.

One of the young teenage boys, who was wearing a grey hoodie, appeared to be in an argument with the 70-year-old.

'I'm not going to beat you,' the elderly man said before he approached the teenager, who continued to swear at the pensioner.

In the video, one of the young male teenagers wearing a grey hoodie appeared to be in an argument with the 70-year-old

Another teenage boy in a red beanie then pushed the man, causing him to fall and hit his head on the bus stop.

Both teenagers then kicked the man in the stomach as a female begged for them to stop.

'No!' she screamed.

Last month, a police spokesman had said 'A 70-year-old Cherrybrook man became involved in an argument with young people at a bus shelter on Old Castle Hill Road'.

'Female members of the group went to the assistance of the older man but he declined medical treatment.'

According to the NSW Police website, 'Police may divert eligible young offenders from court and detention through warnings, cautions or referral to a youth justice conference under the Young Offenders Act'.A plastic tunnel attached to the side of a Sainsbury's supermarket is the highest rated TripAdvisor attraction in a pretty seaside resort.

The 230ft structure has attracted more than 170 comments with visitors jokingly calling it 'one of the seven wonders' and likening it to the Taj Mahal.

The undercover walkway in Bude, Cornwall, has had people travelling from all over the UK to have their picture taken inside, who then leave glowing reviews.

One user said he was considering booking it for his Christmas dinner, but isn't sure about the 'dress code' and others compare it to the Sistine Chapel and the ruins of Pompeii.

The 230ft structure has attracted more than 170 comments with visitors visiting the tunnel from across the UK to have their picture taken inside

The plastic structure has become a haven for visitors to Bude, who visit so they can have selfies taken inside

Reviewers have inundated the TripAdvisor website, with 88 per cent giving it five stars

It is now ranked as the first of 51 attractions in the town, with 173 reviews and counting, with 88 per cent giving it the top 5 stars.

Reviewer Rachel L from Chelmsford, who gave the tunnel a four-star rating wrote on Trip Advisor: 'We recently visited the tunnel with our four children and found it was great for a wet day out in Bude.

'We also had their grandparents with us and even they had a good time looking around at a more leisurely pace and talking to the friendly locals. Just wish it had a gift shop!'

Paul S, who gave it top marks on TripAdvisor and said: 'We travelled four hours to see the tunnel after reading reviews and have to say it was everything we had hoped.

Others have jokingly called it 'one of the seven wonders' and likening it to the Taj Mahal

The reviews on Tripadvisor includes one that tells how the 'Cornish Perspex' has 'not suffered from the weather' and 'looks incredible with the sun reflecting on it

Visitors have come from across the UK to have pictures taken inside the tunnel next to a Sainsbury's supermarket in Bude, Cornwall

'It was the same sense of awe as I have felt visiting the Sistine Chapel, ruins in Pompei and the amphitheatre at Verona. Highly recommended.'

Ian T also gave a 100% rating and said: 'Arrived in Bude in the AM and had lunch in town ahead of our trip to the tunnel.

We arrived just after lunch and was pleasantly surprised to find parking was free for up to 2 hours.

'The likelihood is, 2 hours in the tunnel is sufficient for most families. My son enjoyed the tunnel as did my wife. We enjoyed the gift shop too and bought a few essentials before our trip home. An excellent day out.'

Shaun P wrote: Am hoping to book this for Xmas dinner after my last visit, only thing I'm not sure of is dress code and times if anyone could help with that information I would be more the grateful, thanks in advance.'

The outside of the tunnel, which the post on TripAdvisor says has 36 metal arches. It adds: 'Nowhere else in Bude can you walk this far undercover in a continuous straight line, all ages are welcome'

The 230ft structure has been described as the 'only tunnel Bude has to offer is open to the public free of charge'

The opening times of the tunnel are listed as being 00.00 to 23.59 and visitors, like the woman pictured above, are advised that visits should take less than one hour - two at the most.

The tunnel has been branded a 'gem in the rough' and a 'modern Taj Mahal'

Another described the tunnel as a 'must see' describing it as 'without doubt the crowning jewel in Bude towns magnificent buildings.'

The reviewer added: 'There is time to saunter through at a sedate pace and take in the magnificent views afforded by the perspex roof, on a good day you are able to view the beautiful beaches and the happy holiday makers.'

On Trip Advisor the tunnel is described as: 'The only tunnel Bude has to offer is open to the public free of charge, walk from the Sainsbury's car park to Crooklets Road completely undercover, protected from the elements whilst maintaining your view to the spectacular surroundings of Bude.

'Consisting of 36 metal arches and over 70m long, nowhere else in Bude can you walk this far undercover in a continuous straight line, all ages are welcome.'

The opening times of the tunnel are listed as being 00.00 to 23.59 and visitors are advised that visits should take less than one hour - two at the most.

A visitor pictured at the entrance to the tunnel, with the supermarket trolleys stored on the right

TripAdvisor reviewers have described the tunnel as a 'must see' saying it as 'without doubt the crowning jewel in Bude towns magnificent buildings.'

The person who originally listed the tunnel, who wishes to remain anonymous, said they did so because it was 'one I have admired for a while', and they 'never thought that it would become this popular'.

They have also been selling postcards depicting the tunnel in the town to raise money for the Bude Sea Pool, a popular attraction.

They said: 'It's been a great talking point in the town, and one that seems to have brought everyone together. That's fantastic.

'It's great that as well as being a bit of fun, it will raise a little bit of money for one of the town's real attractions.'

The tunnel links shoppers from the Sainsbury's supermarket to the car park, protecting them from the rain.

A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: 'It's clear that visitors to Bude have seen the light at the end of this tunnel.'

However, not everyone has welcomed the hilarious reviews.

Donna from Derby gives a three-star rating and states: 'I didn't realise that this was an attraction.

'As we only thought it was a under cover walk way to get to Sainsbury's. A bit confused that people find it to be an attraction rather than a walk way..'

And Melissa P adds: 'Folks I'm not even sure why this has been created as a place! It's a Perspex tunnel at the side of a supermarket - we did use it as the Sainsbury's car park is free for 90 mins so it came in handy but i wouldn't go out of your way to visit and I certainly don't think it's of any architectural importance.'

Mark Hibbard, from Bude Area Tourist Board, said reviews people read online were unregulated and the town 'has so much to offer visitors'.

He added: 'I hope that the Bude Tunnel being rated as the number one attraction in Bude does not become detrimental to the 'real' things to do and visit in our town.'An animal rescue group has been left 'absolutely heartbroken' after one of its dogs was killed while left in the care of inmates as part of a prisoner rehabilitation program.

Joseph's Legacy said its 'worst nightmare happened' after Evie, a four-year-old German Shepherd and Norwegian Elkhound cross, was found dead in a cell at Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio.

The institution, which houses 1,365 inmates, is a high security jail which contains adult mail prisoners  including murderers  aged over 18 on a 45-acre site.

Tragic Evie - who had been rescued while suffering from a broken hip - has now died after receiving a blunt force trauma to her stomach at Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio

Joseph's Legacy said: 'We are incredibly sad and its a rough time for us. We have lost one of our own animals who we feel needs justice and her story told'

Volunteers at Joseph's Legacy explained on Facebook: 'Our Evie died from blunt force trauma to her abdomen causing her liver to hemorrhage and her kidney was also damaged.

'Were all undeniably angered and overwhelmingly upset. We will have more [examination] results in about three-to-four weeks. We have to get justice for Evie.

'We have removed all our dogs from this program and will not return.'

Meg Melampy, president and founder of Josephs Legacy, and the groups secretary Lisa Cantrell, said they had never had any issues with the program before.

They said that at least two inmates have remained in solitary confinement since Evies body was found on Saturday morning  but those allegedly responsible for her brutal death have not as yet been identified.

'Our sweet Evie came to us in 2015 when she was suffering a broken hip. She had been hit by a car and for weeks was putting her own needs aside as she was taking care of and nursing her own puppies. She was a super mom. We had to help her, give her the life where she didnt have to worry about what the next meal was for her or her babies,' the group posted on Facebook

Joseph's Legacy wrote of their 'deep loss' in a lengthy and emotional Facebook post: 'We are incredibly sad and its a rough time for us. We have lost one of our own animals who we feel needs justice and her story told.'

The group explained that its 'sweet Evie came to us in 2015 when she was suffering a broken hip. She had been hit by a car and for weeks was putting her own needs aside as she was taking care of and nursing her own puppies.'

She underwent surgery on the fracture, and later revealed a cheeky side by opening doors at the group's base in Middletown, Ohio.

Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio, where Evie's body was found in a cell

Joseph's Legacy, like other rescue groups around the United States, partners with prisons which have programs set for trusted inmates to use their time and energy training rescue animals, preparing them for new lives with new skills.

'These programs are meant to be great for the dogs and the inmates [and are] supposed to be closely monitored by the prison staff,' the group explained on Facebook.

It added: 'We were invited to join this program at Warren Correctional institution. Like most, we were excited to have our troubled dogs get their training and excited to help the program.

'Our Evie died from blunt force trauma to her abdomen causing her liver to hemorrhage and her kidney was also damaged. Were all undeniably angered and overwhelmingly upset. We will have more results in about 3-4 weeks,' Joseph's Legacy added

'Many dogs came, got trained and headed out to their forever homes. It seemed to have little issues and worked smoothly. We had volunteers regularly on site and observing the dogs progress and how the handlers were working with them.

Until our worst nightmare happened.'

State authorities are investigating Evie's death, and the animal rescue group said that 'formal charges will be pressed... these programs are more risky than we had originally thought.'

It has advised fellow animal rescue organisations to 'think twice before considering these types of programs  keep Evie in mind.'

'Evie was an extremely sweet dog who had so much more life, happy moments and years ahead of her.

'Our volunteers are hurting so deeply. Confused how such an amazing happy dog can be intentionally harmed. How safety measures have failed her,' the group added.

There has been a mixed response to Evies death on Facebook, with some hitting out at the group for placing rescued animals with inmates.

Volunteers have vowed to fight for justice for Evie, after she was killed in the Ohio prison

One woman posted: Prisoners are prisoners for a reason. They dont deserve to be in the presence of a loving animal. This poor baby! [sic] My heart is broken thinking about what she went through. I dont agree with this program at all. No animals should be in the hands of evil.

However another woman said: I adopted a wild mustang through a prison program. These men worked miracles with these horses and I am so impressed with the training he had.

These men actually cried when we came to take him home. Do not insinuate that all prisoners are evil.

In an update posted on Facebook today, Josephs Legacy said: Its crazy how many rude and awful messages we have received since Evies story went national.

Despite the backlash from some people, the group has vowed to keep pushing for justice and asked people to understand the situation a little more before harshly attacking heartbroken volunteer rescuers.Stephen Dure, 34, was jailed yesterday after falsely claiming on Facebook that Paul Farhad was a 'violent psychopath' who 'grooms teenagers'

A paedophile hunter whose videos have been seen millions of times online has been jailed after he falsely accused a man of grooming teenagers on Facebook.

Self-styled vigilante Stephen Dure wrongly claimed on the social media site Paul Farhad was a 'violent psychopath' who 'grooms teenagers'.

Dure, 34, runs TRAP, an online group which uses sting operations to catch alleged paedophiles trying to meet up with underage children - and sometimes posed as kids on the internet in a bid to catch the sex offenders.

His Facebook page has around 230,000 followers and videos showing him confronting sex offenders have been watched millions of times.

A court heard Dure's post spuriously accusing Mr Farhad, 42, of being a paedophile had been viewed by 111,000 people.

Mr Farhad said the inaccurate post, which also claimed he was a 'massive danger' to society, caused him to lose his job and as a result he lost earnings.

Southampton Magistrates' Court, in Hampshire, also heard that after the outrageous claim he was threatened in the street, a brick was thrown through his window and paint was sprayed on his door.

Dure, of Southampton, initially denied the offence.

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Paul Fahred (pictured here outside Southampton Magistrates Court) suggested Dure may have posted the claim in retaliation for a remark he made online about the paedophile hunter's sister

Mr Dure also claimed Paul Farhad (pictured), 42, was a massive danger to society in a Facebook post in November 2017 which was seen by 110,000 people

However, he changed his plea and was then jailed for 15 weeks by District Judge Lorraine Morgan after the court heard that though he later edited the post it originally contained the phrase 'grooms teenagers'.

Outside court Mr Farhad, from Eastleigh, near Southampton, suggested Dure may have posted the claim in retaliation for a remark he made online about the paedophile hunter's sister.

Mr Farhad, who works in the scaffolding trade, said: 'Why did he have to call me the most offensive thing you can be called?

'It's the most disgusting crime and he's labelled me, 111,000 people saw that.'

After he was convicted Dure claimed his actions were an example of him protecting his family - and vowed to continue his crusade.

He said: 'I was being protective - we're a very close family.'

He added: 'I suppose it is a taste of my own medicine.

'I'm used to getting people to court, not being sat behind the glass.

'My name now will be muddied. I've had convictions before but only small things.

'This is why I have built a team so that TRAP can continue - nothing will stop.

'I said I was guilty in there because I don't have the evidence to prove my innocence.'

Dure had originally denied sending a false message by public electronic communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety but changed his plea halfway through his trial when new evidence came to light.

In court Mr Farhad produced a screenshot of the post on his phone, which showed the words 'grooms teenagers' had been deleted from the original.

After consulting with his lawyer, Alfred Underwood, Dure decided to admit the charge.

Judge Morgan said the fact Dure hadn't admitted changing the post would be investigated.

She told the court: 'The fact he [Dure] failed to notify anybody that he had changed the post, something he well knew, will certainly be looked at, but is a matter for another court on another day.

'I am not issuing compensation, because it is impossible to measure the damage he has done to Mr Farhad, who says his home has been attacked, he has lost earnings and his person been threatened in the street as a result of this claim.'

Prosecuting, Charles Nightingale argued that the post, which has been deleted, will always remain in the public eye.

He said: 'In the digital age, nothing is ever completely deleted. It will remain accessible forever.'

Dure was also ordered to pay 650 costs and ordered to pay a 115 victim surcharge and a restraining order was put in place preventing him from contacting Mr Farhad.Novichok victim Charlie Rowley has said he is 'feeling positive about the news' he's hearing from doctors and is 'hoping to get out of hospital in the next two or three weeks'.

This comes as his brother, 47-year old Matthew Rowley said he 'doesn't have long left to live' and is showing 'no signs of recovery'.

The Novichok victim who is currently being treated for meningitis and loss of eyesight in Salisbury District Hospital is pleased about his prognosis and hopeful of making a full recovery. He says his eyesight has 'improved' but is not yet fully restored and says there is still 'a bit of meningitis in the system'.

Novichok victim Charlie Rowley (pictured) was readmitted to hospital last month

Speaking to ITV News from the hospital ward he shares with six other patients, he says he's grateful for the support he's been given by staff and he is looking forward to the moment he's well enough to be discharged.

The 45-year-old was readmitted to Salisbury District Hospital last month - just weeks after he survived being poisoned by the nerve agent which killed partner Dawn Sturgess, 44.

Charlie phoned 999 complaining that he was going blind and had double vision.

But Matthew says Charlie is now 'totally blind and has lost use of his limbs' after being diagnosed with meningitis.

Matthew said: 'I spoke to doctors and nurses and they say it doesn't look good - he doesn't have long left to live I fear.

'Charlie has lost hope because there is no sign of recovery.

Charlie's family had grown increasingly worried for him after his girlfriend Dawn (pictured) died, an investigation into her death is still ongoing

'It's not pretty - I spoke to him on Saturday and he said he can't move his arms or legs.

'He is totally blind in a critical condition and has been diagnosed with meningitis. He has also lost use of all his limbs.

'His immune system was ruined by the novichok and it made him susceptible to disease and illness. Sadly this is why he contracted meningitis.

What is novichok and how does it affect the body? Novichok is a series of highly toxic nerve agents, each with a different potency. The name novichok means 'newcomer' in Russian, in a nod to the fact that it heralded a major breakthrough in the power of such chemical weapons. Novichoks were designed to be more toxic than other chemical weapons, so some versions would begin to take effect rapidly - in around 30 seconds to two minutes. The main route of exposure is likely to be through inhalation or ingestion, though they could also be absorbed through the skin. Novichok agents have similar effects to other nerve agents - they act by blocking messages from the nerves to the muscles, causing a collapse of many bodily functions. Death can occur by asphyxiation or cardiac arrest when a person has been exposed to the agent. It can also cause convulsions, a loss of conscious and comas. This is while pupils may become restricted and the person affected may experience wheezing, shortness of breath and excessive fluid secretion. When first exposed to the agent the heart rate will be high, as will the blood pressure and the person affected will have nausea, diarrhoea and profuse sweating. Nerve agents are chemicals that essentially short-circuit parts of the nervous system leading to constant stimulation of muscles, secretory glands and uncontrolled brain activity, which is similar to epilepsy. This can cause breathing difficulties by paralysing the muscles which help us to breathe. Advertisement

'Charlie is in an intensive care unit and his speech has changed completely - the tone of his voice is almost incoherent, he sounds like a child, like a 10-year-old boy.

'I can't get any sense out of him.'

Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess fell ill on June 30 in Amesbury, Wiltshire, just four months after the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned by novichok eight miles away in Salisbury.

Last month Charlie was admitted to the intensive care unit where he and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, 44, were treated for novichok poisoning. She died a week after exposure.

A murder investigation is under way into the death of Sturgess.

The nerve agent was used in the attempted assassination of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.Kim Jong-un has not been seen for a fortnight, prompting speculation the North Korean leader is holed away planning how to tackle Donald Trump's denuclearization demands.

The dictator was seen visiting 30 economic sites between June and August as he ordered officials to boost the country's output and improve infrastructure.

But observers say he has now not been seen in public for two weeks following the series of high profile engagements.

Propaganda outlets have halted reports on Kim's public activity ever since he inspected a medical equipment factory and attended the funeral of former defense chief Kim Yong-chun - both on August 21, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reports.

Kim Jong-un has not been seen for a fortnight, prompting speculation the North Korean leader is holed away planning how to tackle Donald Trump's denuclearization demands. Kim and Trump are pictured during their historic meeting in June

It has fueled speculation that he is now focusing on diplomatic strategy with North Korea and the US in a deadlock over denuclearization talks.

A landmark meeting between Kim and Donald Trump in June was touted by the US President as a historic breakthrough.

At the summit the pair reached a vague agreement to work towards the 'complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula', but there has been little movement since.

Pyongyang has slammed the US for its 'gangster-like' demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament, and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency reported there was no indication that the North had stopped its nuclear activities.

Propaganda outlets have halted reports on Kim's public activity ever since he inspected a medical equipment factory (pictured) and attended the funeral of former defense chief Kim Yong-chun - both on August 21, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reports

Last month Trump ordered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to abruptly cancel a planned trip to Pyongyang, citing lack of progress on denuclearization.

North Korea is set to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding this weekend and there is speculation that Kim will appear to make a speech.

Meanwhile, South Korea's presidential envoy said on Tuesday he will deliver a letter from President Moon Jae-in to North Korean counterpart Kim when he visits Pyongyang on Wednesday to discuss the leaders' third summit later this month, Yonhap reported.

Chung Eui-yong, chief of the national security office at the presidential Blue House, said he was seeking to discuss ways to achieve complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula as agreed by Moon and Kim during their first summit in April.

He did not elaborate further on the content of the letter.

Seoul would continue to push for a joint declaration of an end to the 1950-53 Korean War within this year with the United States, Chung told reporters.



The father of slain Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts has been targeted by white supremacists in recorded phone calls using her death to push their racist agenda.

Rob Tibbetts believes he was one of the first to receive the robocall, which have since been sent to residents across the state, just two days after his daughter's funeral in Brooklyn, Iowa.

The recorded voice called the Tibbetts family 'traitors to their race' and claimed that if the slain 20-year-old could be resurrected she would 'kill all immigrants'.

Horrifying: Rob Tibbetts received a robocall calling his family 'race traitors', claiming that if his daughter Mollie, pictured with him, could be resurrected she would 'kill all immigrants'

'It was unbelievably painful,' Mr Tibbetts told the Des Moines Register.

'It was everything that's dark and wrong in America right now,' adding that his daughter would have found the message 'profoundly racist'.

Iowa authorities have since confirmed that 'robocalls' citing Ms Tibbetts are being used to promote white supremacist views, but they said there's little they can do.

Prosecutors have no authority to step in because there's no apparent effort to deceive anyone for commercial purposes, said Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Iowa attorney general's office.

Hicks said Iowa law addressing robocalls, or autodialing, bars using the equipment for fraudulent purposes, 'but there are all kinds of exceptions for noncommercial purposes and for nonprofit organizations.'

Shocking: Mr Tibbetts called the robocall 'unbelievably painful' and said that that his daughter would have found the message 'profoundly racist'.

Iowa authorities have since confirmed that 'robocalls' citing Ms Tibbetts are being used to promote white supremacist views, but they said there's little they can do due to free speech

He called it a 'really tricky First Amendment issue.'

University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts was abducted while she was out for an evening run near her home in Brooklyn, Iowa on July 18.

The man charged in her death, 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera, is also suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. President Donald Trump and other politicians quickly noted that element of the case and called for changes to immigration law.

The robocalls reference comments Tibbetts' father made in defense of Hispanics 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 don't 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 didn't 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 it's unclear where the calls are coming from.

Nearly 100 people held a prayer vigil Thursday in Des Moines to support the Tibbetts family and urge Hispanic unity in the face of the robocalls.

In an opinion piece published online by The Des Moines Register on Saturday, Rob Tibbetts that while he supports debate on immigration, some politicians and pundits went too far in using his daughter's death to promote political agendas.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera, seen at the Poweshiek County Courthouse in Montezuma, Iowa, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Mollie Tibbetts

Mr Tibbetts, pictured with his daughter, has asked politicians and commentators to refrain from using his daughter's death to further their arguments

He argued that the suspected killer 'is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people.'

'Do not appropriate Mollie's soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist,' he wrote.

'The act grievously extends the crime that stole Mollie from our family and is, to quote Donald Trump Jr., 'heartless' and 'despicable.''

The quote comes from a Friday opinion piece by Trump Jr. that criticized the media and Democrats for not playing up the suspect's immigration status.

'Despite what some Democrats may wish in the depths of their hearts, Mollie was murdered by an illegal alien and her murder would never have happened if we policed our southern border properly,' the president's son wrote.

Rob Tibbetts wrote in his opinion piece that his daughter was 'nobody's victim. Nor is she a pawn in others' debate.'

'She may not be able to speak for herself, but I can and will,' he went on to say.

'Please leave us out of your debate. Allow us to grieve in privacy and with dignity. At long last, show some decency. On behalf of my family and Mollie's memory, I'm imploring you to stop.'Ed Sheeran's promoter is being sued for an alleged multi-million pound fraud by ticket reseller Viagogo

Ed Sheeran's promoter is being sued for an alleged multi-million pound fraud by ticket reseller Viagogo.

The website claims that Stuart Galbraith, the founder of Kilimanjaro Live, defrauded thousands of fans out of millions during Sheeran's 2017 tour of the UK.

Viagogo's suit filed today in Germany claims the promoter set up fake customer service booths to 'lure' in those with Viagogo-bought tickets, which were then confiscated.

In June, Kilimanjaro Live said it helped 10,000 people seek refunds from Viagogo after warning fans that tickets bought on reseller sites would be cancelled.

Fans arriving at the gigs with tickets bought on Viagogo were refused entry but allowed to buy another ticket at face value.

They were then given a letter stating the ticket had been rejected, which it claimed would allow them to get a full refund from Viagogo, which promises a '100 per cent guarantee' if the buyer is not allowed into the show.

However Viagogo claim Mr Galbraith made millions by not refunding the original sale, therefore being paid twice for each seat.

It also claims that the promoter set up fake Viagogo customer services booths at venues, 'luring fans' into declaring that they were Viagogo customers.

Viagogo said about 95 per cent of its customers were able to 'avoid the scam' by staying away from the fake booths.

A spokesman for Viagogo told MailOnline: 'All tickets on Viagogo are authentic.

'Stuart Galbraith set up fake Viagogo booths at venues and conned our customers into believing that their tickets wouldn't work.

'He confiscated their legitimate tickets and pocketed millions of pounds by forcing fans to buy new ones.'

The lawsuit is the latest in a long-running feud between Viagogo and artists and their promoters, with Ed Sheeran a vocal critic of reseller sites and touts.

Kilimanjaro Live had announced ahead of the live shows that it would not be accepting any tickets from resale sites.

Viagogo's suit filed today in Germany claims the promoter set up fake customer service booths to 'lure' in those with Viagogo-bought tickets, which were then confiscated

It claimed the move was aimed at helping fans to avoid marked up prices for tickets, with several sites agreeing not to list the shows as a result.

However Viagogo claimed such entry restrictions were 'unenforceable and illegal' and continued to sell tickets for 18 dates of the tour.

Earlier this year, a minister warned the public not to use Viagogo as a watchdog group referred the firm to the Trading Standards for misleading price information.

Digital Minister Margot James blasted the site, labelling it 'the worst' in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live.

Viagogo was accused of not being upfront and clear about additional booking fees and delivery charges added at the end of the booking process.

The Geneva-based firm was one of four who were subject to ASA action in March after a clampdown on 'misleading' pricing information.

StubHub, Seatwave and GetMeIn were the other three companies subject to the action against so-called 'drip pricing' - where VAT, booking and delivery fees were added at the end of the booking process.

A Kilimanjaro spokesman told us: 'The claims made today by Viagogo are ludicrous, laughable and most importantly totally false.

'This is a transparent attempt to deflect attention away from their upcoming appearance at the DCMS inquiry and the wide-ranging criticisms, multiple legal prosecutions in many territories (including by the Competitions and Markets Authority in the UK) and condemnation of their business practices.

'Kilimanjaro will defend against this action vigorously and look forward to doing so in court.'

Competition watchdog launches legal action against Viagogo over claims ticket-holders are being turned away at venue doors

By Terri-Ann Williams for MailOnline

The competition watchdog has launched legal action against 'rogue' concert ticket seller Viagogo, over concerns that it is breaking consumer protection law.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said the firm's customers are not being correctly informed when purchasing tickets and don't know that there is a risk that they could be turned away at the door.

The regulator began enforcement action against the secondary ticket website last year, but said that despite the threat of court action, Viagogo had failed to make necessary changes.

The CMA has said customers are not being correctly informed when purchasing tickets from Viagogo

The CMA has therefore begun legal proceedings in the High Court and it is seeking a court order to make Viagogo change its practices.

Commenting on the decision to begin legal proceedings, the CMA's chief executive officer, Andrea Coscelli said: 'People who buy tickets on websites like Viagogo must be given all the information they are entitled to. It's imperative they know key facts, including what seat they will get and whether there is a risk they might not actually get into the event, before parting with their hard-earned money.

'This applies to Viagogo as much as it does to any other secondary ticketing website. Unfortunately, while other businesses have agreed to overhaul their sites to ensure they respect the law, Viagogo has not. We will now be pursuing action through the courts to ensure that they comply with the law.'

Andrea Coscelli (pictured) said the CMA is pursuing action through the courts to ensure that Viagogo complies with the law.

This is while consumer champion Which? told the MailOnline that 'strong action' needs to be taken.

The charity's managing director of home and products and services, Alex Neil said: 'It's absolutely right that strong action is taken against Viagogo - a rogue operator we have repeatedly exposed for flouting consumer law and exploiting music and sports fans.

'What we want now is for the company to finally respect the law and their customers, and to overhaul their practices as some other secondary ticketing sites have already committed to doing.'

In a statement Viagogo said: 'Having worked closely with the CMA for some time, we are disappointed with the announcement of formal action today. However we respect the CMA's intentions and remain committed to reaching resolution through the legal process.'

The CMA has concerns that Viagogo is breaking consumer law - with the result that customers are not being told if there is a risk that they will be turned away at the door as well as not being informed which seat in the venue they will get.

As well as this, customers are not being told who is selling the ticket, so that they can benefit from enhanced legal rights when buying from a business and are being given misleading information about the availability and popularity of tickets  which has the potential to lead to them being rushed into making a buying decision or making the wrong choice.

Customers have also experienced difficulties in getting their money back under viagogo's guarantee when things go wrong and being offered tickets that a seller does not own and may not be able to supply.

Just last month, hundreds of fans missed out on the Brighton Pride festival after being sold 'invalid' Britney Spears performance tickets for up to 450 by secondary sellers.

Other ticket sites such as Ticketmaster UK, have recently shut its resale sites

Earlier this year UK Trading Standards launched an investigation into the company.

At the time, digital minister Margot James told BBC Radio 5 Live that viagogo was 'the worst' when it comes to buying tickets from secondary sites.

Viagogo has previously been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority for 'failing to make clear upfront all fees that can be calculated in advance when making price claims', putting it in breach of the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing, known as the CAP Code.

Ticketmaster UK recently shut its resale websites Get Me In and Seatwave, leaving Viagogo and StubHub as the only major players in the controversial secondary ticket market.New Zealand's Prime Minister has been slammed for forcing an air force Boeing 757 to make an extra trip to a meeting so she could spend more time with her baby.

Jacinda Ardern asked that the plane fly back from the Pacific Islands Forum on the island of Nauru to pick her up so she could minimise time away from her infant daughter - just a day after her deputy minster had flown the same route.

The cost to the taxpayer of the extra trip was estimated at between NZ$50,000 to NZ$100,000 (25,000 to 50,000).

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has returned to the top job just six weeks after giving birth to her daughter

Ardern is still breastfeeding her 11-week-old daughter, Neve, who is too young to have the immunisations required to come on the trip.

The prime minister decided that while she could not miss the meeting, she also could not leave Neve for the full three days.

'The other option was for me not to attend at all but, given the importance that we place on the relationships with the Pacific Islands in the reset, that equally didn't feel like an option,' Ardern said in defence of her decision.

'When weighing up the logistics I asked officials to check the extra costs I would be imposing on the Crown if I were travelling separately.

'On balance I decided it was worth me travelling for the full day on the Wednesday to fulfil my obligations as prime minister.'

The finance minister, Grant Robertson, said there was a special budget allocated for such trips: 'So actually there is no additional money at all being spent there, it's simply making use of that 757.'

Speaker Trevor Mallard has warned journalists they will be kicked out of parliament and stripped of their accreditation if they take photos of the baby

The 38-year-old Labour leader, who is returning to work six weeks after the birth of her baby girl Neve, said both duties were weighing on her mind

Ardern has previously admitted she is torn between running a country and being a new mother.

'I have a huge weight of responsibility,' she told Sky News.

'I've been elected to be prime minister: I need to make sure I fulfill the roles and functions that I have but I'm also desperate to prove to my family that I won't let them down.'

The New Zealand PM was the first world leader to have a baby in office since January 1990 when Benazir Bhutto gave birth to a girl Bakhtawar as the prime minister of Pakistan.

Ms Ardern announced the birth of her first child, weighing 3.31kg, on Instagram.A couple whose daughter was born with Down Syndrome adopted another toddler with the condition to be her big brother.

Allison and Andrew Sweatman, from Cabot, Arkansas, adopted three-year-old Beau to accompany their daughter Rosie once they no longer found special needs parenting 'scary'.

Beau was born to a couple who loved him dearly but felt his needs would be better met by a family who already had a child with Down Syndrome, the Sweatmans said, and so put him up for adoption.

Mr and Mrs Sweatman had been looking to adopt a child with the condition because there is a shortage of suitable homes for children with special needs - and they jumped at the chance to welcome Beau into their family.

Selfless: A couple whose daughter was born with Down Syndrome adopted another toddler with the condition to be her big brother. Pictured: Rosie and Beau sitting on their father Andrew's lap

Brave survivor: Allison with Rosie one year after the child had Cranial Remodeling surgery for craniosynostosis

Brotherly love: Beau was born to a couple who loved him dearly but felt his needs would be better met by a family who already had a child with Down Syndrome. Pictured: Adopted sibling Beau playing with Rosie

The couple said they were initially daunted when a 20-week scan revealed their first child Rosie had Down Syndrome and was suffering from a heart defect.

The diagnosis forced them move home to the US from China where they had been working as teachers.

Full-time blogger and podcaster Mrs Sweatman gave birth to Rosie via emergency C-section at 37 weeks. The youngster went on to spend the first year of her life in and out of hospital.

She underwent major heart surgery at three months, suffered seizures and was diagnosed with craniosynostosis, a condition where bones in the skull fuse together prematurely.

But gradually her health improved and her proud parents said they were finally able to 'enjoy and celebrate' their daughter, who began pre-school last September.

They said that watching Rosie, now three, overcome her battles and thrive with Down Syndrome made them realise that they were no longer intimidated by the disorder.

Mr and Mrs Sweatman said they were initially daunted when a 20-week scan revealed their first child Rosie had Down Syndrome and was suffering from a heart defect. Pictured: Andrew Sweatman and his daughter Rosie the day she was discharged from hospital

The Sweatmans They began looking in adopting another child with Down Syndrome because there is a shortage of suitable homes for kids with special needs. Pictured: Mrs and Mrs Sweatman with baby Rosie before her six month hospital stay

Then last November, a friend introduced them to Beau, now four, and Allison said the connection was instant.

The mother-of-two said: 'It was so hard with Rosie at first because we were not able to focus on really any of the things a typical parent gets to focus on.

'We weren't really able to relish the first year of life because we were completely focused on very very serious health issues.

'Since then there has been an improvement all around and for the first time we felt like we were really able to just enjoy her and celebrate her.

'The biggest thing was that we had seen our daughter overcome so many obstacles and so many great perils that we knew that something like Down Syndrome - this extra chromosome - was no longer scary to us.

'There was a time that the diagnosis was scary and hard for us to hear but after seeing everything Rosie had gone through in the first two years of her life, we opened ourselves up to it.

Last November, a friend introduced the couple (pictured) to Beau, now four, and Allison said the connection was instant

Allison with Rosie, the day Rosie was born. The mother-of-two said: 'It was so hard with Rosie at first because we were not able to focus on really any of the things a typical parent gets to focus on

Mrs Sweatman said: 'When I first held Beau there were so many emotions and I knew him becoming my son meant his birth mom sacrificing greatly for us to have him in our family'

'Then we heard about Beau.'

Mr and Mrs Sweatman chatted constantly with Beau's birth parents before meeting them at Legoland in November 2017.

Two months later, the adoption was finalized.

'When I first held Beau there were so many emotions and I knew him becoming my son meant his birth mom sacrificing greatly for us to have him in our family,' Mrs Sweatman said.

'We definitely had an instant connection with him, especially my husband.'

Watching Beau and Rosie - who are both non-verbal - hit milestones and develop a close bond with one another has been 'incredibly rewarding' for the couple.

Mrs Sweatman, who blogs at aliswholelife.com and hosts the podcast, Oh, So Extra, added: 'We are just like a lot of other families but I absolutely recognize that we are also incredibly different from the outside looking in.

'We do get people staring at us or asking questions, but it is just a part of our life.

Andrew meeting Beau for the first time at Legoland in 2017. The couple later finalized adoption

'Being a mom of two children with Down Syndrome is incredibly rewarding.

'It's most rewarding when I see our kids working so incredibly hard for milestones and to see them surpass our expectations of them.

'It makes all the really hard days worth it.

'It's not an easy journey, but it's certainly a privilege to be part of.'

Andrew, a web developer, said: 'When I first learned of Rosie's complications, I felt intense anxiety and fear.

'If I could send my former self a message in that moment, it would say: 'Take a deep breath. Your daughter is so much more than her diagnoses.'

'After we learned so much about Rosie and her medical complexities, we realized that heart and brain problems were scary to us, but Down Syndrome wasn't.

'We always knew we wanted to adopt, so when it came time to think seriously about it, it didn't make sense for us to rule out any potential matches based on their chromosomes, especially since there is such a need for special needs adoption.

'When we really thought about that, we realized we could and should actually seek out a child with Down Syndrome. I'm so glad we did.'Daniel Storr, 32, (pictured) outside Bournemouth Crown Court yesterday

A health insurance salesman bribed his former colleague to steal the personal details of almost 50 customers, a court heard.

Daniel Storr, 32, promised Aden Embling a cut of his commission for every sale he made from the stolen data which included names, addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers, it is alleged.

But no money ever changed hands as Storr failed to sell a single policy to any of the 48 people whose details he acquired.

The pair had worked together at Health Online, a subsidiary of insurance giant AXA, in Bournemouth, Dorset, before Storr went to work for another company called Parkway Financial Solutions.

Storr approached his former colleague and offered him a bribe to send him photos of personal health records, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.

Edward Elton, prosecuting, told the jury the alleged offence took place between September 2015 and April 2016.

Embling took photographs of the records of a number of clients of Health Online, saving them onto a laptop and then giving them to Storr.

He also said there was a single health record that Embling sent to Storr in a photo via WhatsApp that he then got a response from Storr saying he had tried but failed to sell an insurance policy.

Mr Elton said: 'The prosecution say Mr Storr entered into an agreement with another young man, Aden Embling, who he met when they both worked together at Health Online.

'Mr Embling stole the health insurance records of a number of Health Online clients, stored them on a laptop and then gave that to Mr Storr.

'Aden Embling behaved in that way because Daniel Storr had offered him ten per cent of any commission he got for selling a policy to any of those 48 people - that is a bribe.

'And it was that reward that convinced Mr Embling to steal the information from his employers.'

Storr (right) had worked with former colleague Aden Embling at Health Online (left) a subsidiary of insurance giant AXA, in Bournemouth, Dorset

The jury heard from Michael Bennett, AXA UK's group fraud risk manager, who investigated and found Embling had accessed more than 50 'old' records.

Their system allows them to track any access to the data and it showed Embling only had the image on the screen for about 15 seconds per record.

Mr Bennett said: 'The image was on the screen for probably 15 seconds, which would not have given any time to have done anything credible in terms of reviewing a lead or making a phone call.'

Embling later presented the laptop to his bosses and this was examined.

Mr Bennett told the jury the sales team have performance-related pay and would generally get about 15 per cent of the premium when a health insurance policy was sold.

He said the premium could run into thousands or more per year, and a premium of 1,000 would usually earn them about 150.

Storr, from Ferndown, Dorset, denies a charge of bribing with intent to obtain business or advantage.

The trial continues.Patrol boat based in nearby Cherbourg is said to be watching the area to see if clashes between British and French trawlers continue

France warned today its navy is standing by to step in if territorial clashes between French and British fishermen over scallops continue.

Tensions flared last week over access to the scallop-rich waters off the Normandy coast and yesterday Gallic trawlers grabbed a giant haul of bluefin tuna off Jersey that their UK rivals had to throw back.

Last week British fishermen called for the Royal Navy to help protect them dredge the lucrative Baie de Seine that stretches from Cherbourg to Dunkirk.

But today Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told CNews television the French navy was 'ready to intervene in case of clashes' after fishermen hurled stones, bottles and insults at each other in the latest episode of a long-running 'Scallops War'.

Footage from a week ago showed French crews throwing stones and smoke bombs onto British ships in a row over scallops

British and French fishermen are at loggerheads over scallops and have clashed off the coast of Normandy and Jersey over tuna

Captain Bertrand Dumoulin told AFP a patrol boat based in nearby Cherbourg is said to be watching the area as part of a routine mission 'to ensure the safety of people and ships at sea'.

Travert said he could not speak for the British navy, whose ships are reportedly headed toward the area, and that a new deal was needed to ensure 'a sustainable and efficient management of scallop stocks'.

But he also claimed most British fishermen were 'Brexiteers' who should not expect a separate deal with France as the UK prepares to leave the European Union in March next year.

French fishermen working off the south-west coast of Jersey caught 44 bluefin tuna (some of pictured above) as part of the long-running dispute. The fish, which are rarely seen in the Island's waters, weighed between 50 and 120 kg

He added: 'We're going to have to work on this, because this situation cannot continue, we can't have clashes like this.

'We want a global accord, and do not want to see fishing treated separately, because fishing should not be a variable for adjusting Brexit.'

Tensions boiled over last Tuesday when five British boats sparred with rocks hurled and dozens of French vessels in waters around 12 nautical miles off the French coast.

Some of the fishermen from both sides also rammed each other, video footage showed.

French fishermen throwing rocks at a British boat as the vessels try to ram each other off the coast of Normand last Tuesday

Members of the crew on board Honeybourne III, a Scottish scallop dredger, whilst in dock at Shoreham, West Sussex, following clashes with French fishermen in the English Channel during the early hours of last Tuesday morning

Devon fisherman Nathan Clark shows the damage done to his ship in the nighttime 'battle' last week when French and British boats clashed

The feud is over access to rich stocks of the pricey delicacy in waters near the mouth of the Seine River, with French boats allowed to fish there only between October to May to protect stocks.

But a deal struck years ago exempts British boats less than 50ft (15 metres) long from the restrictions - a loophole French fishermen want to see closed when representatives of the two sides meet for talks on Wednesday.

Yesterday two boats based in Normandy caught 44 of the valuable protected fish while hunting for bream off the Channel Islands - adding to already simmering tensions between the two nations.

The tuna, each weighing between 50kg and 120kg and worth more than 100,000 in total, were then brought ashore at Granville in France to be sold.

British fishermen caught in the 'Battle of the Scallops' last week say the new development proves their French foes are hypocrites.

Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks are managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

French fishermen are allowed to keep bluefin tuna while their British counterparts are banned from doing it.

Michael Gove tells the French to stop the fishermen terrorising British trawler-men in the scallop wars Michael Gove (pictured outside Downing Street in May) said that the French authorities must crack down on the terrorising behaviour Michael Gove has backed British fishermen in the scallop wars - and told the French to bring order to their waters. The Environment Secretary hit out at the 'terrible' scenes British fishermen have been subjected to in the Channel. And he said it is clear that the British fishermen have every right to fish there. He said: 'My heart goes out to the British fishermen who were caught up in the terrible scenes that we saw happen earlier this week. '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. 'These are French waters - it's the responsibility of the French to ensure that those who have a legal right to fish can continue to fish uninterrupted.' It is understood that British minsters are in contact with the French administration in an effort to prevent a repeat of the scenes. Advertisement

The bluefins are usually only found in the Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean but rising water temperatures are sending more into UK waters.

The UK has no quota to catch bluefin tuna but France, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus do.

The new row came as British boats pledged to return to the French coast a week after they fought a Trafalgar-style battle in the English Channel over alleged 'scallop pillaging'.

Derek Meredith, of Brixham, Devon, owner of two boats damaged in the scallop attack by the French last week, said the tuna rules are another example of how unfair the quota system was for British fishermen.

He said the crew members of his onboard the Golden Promise and Joanna C that were attacked with firebombs and various throwing objects by the French last week.

The heavily outnumbered British fleet of four boats was up against at least 40 from northern France before police finally intervened in the Seine Bay last Tuesday.

Rocks and bottles were thrown between vessels and emergency flares fired, as vessels rammed into each other, causing damage to hulls.

At one stage a small French craft was caught between the far larger Honeybourne III  which is based in Shoreham, Sussex  and La Rose des Vents (Rose of the Winds), from Normandy.

The French shouted, 'f***- off, f**** - off', during the videoed confrontation at sunrise.

Within EU waters, commercial or recreational vessels are banned from catching or targeting bluefin tuna unless authorised to do so by an EU member state.

Tensions have been high between both countries for at least 15 years, during what has been dubbed the 'Scallop Wars'.

The French want their 'Anglo-Saxon' counterparts to stay north of a line running from Barfleur to Cap d'Antifer, both of which are in Normandy, and to only use small vessels to avoid running supplies down.

This year there was no agreement is in place, and according to the French fishermen, the British have turned up en-masse, in 131 feet boats, to strip the scallop beds leaving nothing behind for when the French will eventually be allowed to join in.

The Royal Navy's entire fisheries protection fleet was unavailable when French trawlermen attacked their British rivals last week.Carlos Delacruz (pictured outside court at an earlier hearing) refused to allow the women to see him naked and always performed in bed with the lights out

A transgender man with no penis has been jailed for three years after tricking two women during sex by using an unknown object while the lights were out.

Carlos Delacruz, 35, was in a relationship with the women at separate times when he pretended to have sex with them by using a prosthetic penis.

Both victims, who cannot be identified due to legal reasons, were said to have suffered 'extreme pain' during intercourse and also suffered from thrush afterwards.

Delacruz, from Banknock, near Falkirk, pleaded guilty to penetrating both women with an unknown object without their consent at two addresses in Edinburgh between May 2013 and May 2017 when he appeared at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

He returned to the dock yesterday where he was jailed for three years and handed a five-year non-harassment order against both women. Sheriff Alison Stirling also placed Delacruz on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.

At the previous hearing, the gender of Delacruz had been withheld as he wanted to reserve his full mitigation to the sentencing in September.

Defending solicitor Cameron Tait told the court his client was a Spanish national and had been born female in Madrid in 1983.

Mr Tait said his client studied for a degree in Mississippi in the US before moving to Scotland in 2010 to look for employment.

Delacruz had developed 'a male appearance' when he was aged eight before officially changing his name to Carlos when he turned 16.

Delacruz's gender is now officially recognised as male and his gender is stated as male on his birth certificate, passport and Spanish identity card though he has not going through the full transition to male.

Mr Tait also told the court Delacruz had used a prosthetic penis during sex with the two women and that 'he considers it to be part of him'.

The lawyer added that Delacruz is currently in a long-term relationship with a woman and that she is fully aware and consenting to the use of the prosthetic penis he uses during sex.

Sheriff Stirling told Delacruz he had caused 'physical and psychological harm' to both women by repeatedly sexually assaulting them with 'a flesh and blood penis' over the length of their relationships.

The sheriff said the first victim was 'made to feel like it was her fault' she was not falling pregnant to Delacruz and that 'she now suffers flashbacks and panic attacks' due to the incidents.

Sheriff Stirling, who read the victim impact statements, said the woman 'now feels dirty and used' and that she was forced to move house to get away from him.

This is while the second victim was said to have 'bled for days' after having sex with Delacruz around ten times over an eight-month period and currently suffers from 'difficulty with sleeping and eating'.

The court was previously told how Delacruz had fooled the women after entering into long-term relationships with them by using the prosthetic when he had sex with them.

Both women said they believed Delacruz had a real penis, even though he refused to allow them to see him naked and always performed in bed with the lights out.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court (pictured) was told both women believed that Delacruz had a penis

Fiscal depute Kirsten Cockburn told the court Delacruz had been in a relationship with both women at separate times between May 27, 2013 and May 14 last year.

Ms Cockburn said: 'The accused was in a relationship with one of the women between May 2013 and January 2016 and they first had sex in May 2013.

'She believed she was being penetrated by his penis. The accused does not have a penis. She knew he was self-conscious about his body and always wore a t-shirt.

'[On one occasion] the accused turned his back [while in bed together] and she heard him with a [condom] wrapper. The accused turned around and inserted his penis into her.

'During intercourse he would hold on to the base of the penis with his hand.'

The fiscal added Delacruz and the woman would have sex around once a month despite her suffering 'extreme pain' and only being allowed to touch his body 'over his clothing'.

'During their relationship the woman continued to believe he had a penis', the fiscal added.

The couple split up in January 2016 and the woman informed the police in May that year after she learned Delacruz had been lying to her and did not have a penis.

Delacruz then began a second relationship with another woman in August 2016 after they met at work and after two months of dating they moved in together.

The second victim also 'believed Delacruz had a penis' and the couple always had the lights off during when they had sex.

She also suffered 'extreme pain from penetration' during lovemaking and on the first occasion had to tell Delacruz to stop as she was bleeding.

The couple then had sex around ten times over the course of their nine-month relationship.

The relationship failed in May 2017 due to 'financial matters' the couple were having and the court was told the woman discovered Delacruz's sordid secret the following month and decided to call in the police.

Ms Cockburn said during a subsequent police interview Delacruz made no comment and that he was medical examined while in custody and it was 'found he did not have a penis'.A Swedish far-right party is expected to soar in popularity on the back of a wave of anti-immigrant feeling ahead of this week's general election.

Sunday's vote will be the first since the nation of 10 million accepted 163,000 migrants in 2015 - the largest number relative to the total population of any European state during the massive migrant influx into Europe that year.



Support for the once-fringe Sweden Democrats party has swollen to around 20 per cent - up from the 13 per cent it won in 2014.

Part of that success reflects disillusionment with the governing coalition between the Social Democrats and the Green Party, which has run the country for the past four years.

The coalition's earlier open-door policies toward migrants are now widely denounced.

A young migrant from Africa talks to an old woman she is taking care of in the town of Flen, which has welcomed so many asylum seekers in recent years that they now make up about a fourth of the population

Migrant girls walk through a railway tunnel in Flen, some 100 km west of Stockholm, Sweden

Migrant pupils walk under a railway bridge In Flen, where asylum seekers make up about a fourth of the population

The election in the Scandinavian country is set to be the latest test for populist far-right forces as much of Europe shifts to the right amid a backlash to immigration.

Far-right parties have made gains in several countries that shouldered a large share of the migrant burden, including Germany, Italy and Austria.

The Sweden Democrats have their roots in a neo-Nazi movement.

Despite working for years to soften their image, many are not convinced, fearing the party's rise could erode the country's longstanding democratic and liberal traditions and identity as a 'humanitarian superpower'.

Others worry that the egalitarian ethos of Sweden - the first country to make gender equality a foreign policy priority - is threatened by the large number of Muslim newcomers.

While 20 per cent of the vote would not be enough for the Sweden Democrats to lead a government, a strong show of support will give the party greater power to pressure the next government and could deprive the Social Democrats or the centre-right Moderates - the country's other major party, of a clear mandate.

In the town of Flen, with just 6,000 residents, asylum-seekers now make up about a fourth of the population.

Far-right parties have made gains in several countries, including Germany, Italy and Austria following the migrant crisis in Europe

Young women listen to a party member of the far-right Sweden Democrats in Stockholm. Many voters feel disillusionment with the governing coalition between the Social Democrats and the Green Party

For residents Monica and Bengt Borg, a retired Swedish couple, Flen - just over 60 miles from Stockholm - doesn't feel like Sweden anymore.

As they sit on a bench on the town's main street, an Iraqi man nearby watches a Kurdish television program on his phone.

Arabic pop music pulses from a girl's mobile and a constant flow of Somalis, Ethiopians and Syrians pass by - the women all in headscarves.

Bengt Borg, 66, said: 'We don't recognize our country as it is today.'

His wife, 64, says she no longer feels safe walking alone at night due to reports of rapes by immigrants.

The Swedish parliament in Stockholm at night. Support for the once-fringe Sweden Democrats party has swollen to around 20 per cent - up from the 13 per cent it won in 2014

A migrant from Somalia walks through downtown Flen, which has come under the microscope ahead of the general election on Sunday due to the high number of migrants the town welcomed since 2015

Young women listen to a member from one of the Swedish parties in Stockholm ahead of the general election on Sunday

Both plan to join a growing number of Swedes voting for a nationalist and anti-immigrant party, the Sweden Democrats, in Sunday's general election.

The vote will be the first since the nation of 10 million accepted 163,000 migrants in 2015 - the largest number relative to the total population of any European state during the massive migrant influx into Europe that year.

The narrative of Sweden as a failing experiment of multiculturalism is spread by US President Donald Trump, who caused a stir in early 2017 when he suggested an extremist attack had happened overnight in Sweden.

The night in question had actually been quiet, but Trump had seen a Fox News report about crime by immigrants in Sweden generally.

A man watches a migrant woman walk by in Flen, where some residents say the town 'no longer feels like home' after the influx of migrants

A migrant woman stands in front of an oriental supermarket in Flen. Reports of Sweden being on the verge of social collapse is the product of a 'racist agenda'

Sweden, a nation of 10 million, accepted 163,000 migrants in 2015 - the largest number relative to the total population of any European state during the massive migrant influx into Europe that year

But he still insisted his overall picture of the country was correct - as one where large migration has brought crime and insecurity.

David Crouch, a British journalist and author of Bumblebee Nation: The Hidden Story of the Swedish Model, said Sweden's unique high-wage, high-welfare social model and emphasis on progressive policies had long given the country a wonderful reputation as 'a country which does things differently and gets things right'.

He said: 'That has changed dramatically in the past two years. Particularly with Donald Trump in power, a different, much darker, narrative has emerged of Sweden on the brink of some sort of social catastrophe, with talk about violence, shooting, rape, and so on.'

Crouch believes that view is 'not representative of the country as a whole', as Sweden's economy is booming and creating jobs, meaning there is potential to bring newcomers into the labour market.

He added that much of the message about a Sweden on the verge of apocalypse is a product of media with a racist agenda.

A woman walks by an advertising board for diversity and tolerance in the window of shopping mall in Stockholm, Sweden

Crouch said: 'If you are a racist and you hate immigrants, you don't want immigrants coming to your country.

So you take a country which has got a lot of immigrants and you say: that country is going down the toilet, this country is failing.

'Some with that agenda have reported downright lies, things that didn't happen.'

Voices supporting the Sweden Democrats have been amplified on social media.

The Swedish defence research agency said last week that automated Twitter accounts, or bots, were 40 per cent more likely to support the Sweden Democrats than genuine accounts.

Swedish officials had earlier warned of Russian interference in the elections, saying Russia is seeking to create divisions by stressing the problems of immigration and crime.

Marian Omar (left) and Anab Adan, both from Somalia, pose in front of the town hall in Flen

A police officer in a southern Stockholm suburb who supports the Sweden Democrats acknowledged that it is an exaggeration to portray Sweden as so overrun by crime that there are 'no-go zones' where police dare not enter, a common refrain by the European far-right.

Still, he sees real problems in migrant neighbourhoods and blames mainstream political parties for a climate of political correctness that long prevented Swedes from openly debating them.

The officer, who refused to be identified because people 'can lose friends and jobs' for supporting the party, told The Associated Press: 'If five years ago you had said that we should consider how many migrants we take in, you would have been considered a racist.'

The Sweden Democrats have benefited by distancing themselves from their origins as a white supremacist movement.

Young women listen to a party member of the right wing Sweden Democrats in Stockholm. Support for the once-fringe party is expected to soar in this weekend's general election

Years ago they changed their symbol, a flaming torch in the blue and yellow national colours, to a pretty blue-yellow flower.

Party leader Jimmie Akesson has also cracked down on open expressions of xenophobia, though some question how deep the changes are.

Last week the Expressen newspaper reported that nine people left the party for voicing pro-Nazi sentiments.

One had reportedly posted a manipulated image of Anne Frank in a sweatshirt saying 'Coolest Jew in the Shower Room'.

Many Swedes don't agree with the backlash against migrants.

Some Swedes volunteer to teach Swedish to the newcomers and believe as their population ages the country needs to see an increase of migrants

Some volunteer to teach Swedish to the newcomers, and some politicians even argue that as the national population ages and shrinks, the country needs even more to maintain what is one of the most generous welfare states in the world.

That's the position of Hakan Bergsten, head of the local government in Flen, where an ice-cream producer and a Volvo maintenance plant provide some of the only industrial jobs in a rural area 55 miles (90 kilometers) southwest of Stockholm.

For Bergsten, the election can be summed up by a choice between parties 'only focusing on the problems today, while others are trying to explain why we need to take this step' of welcoming migrants for the future.

Crouch, the author, said the nature of debate surrounding immigration in Sweden has changed so radically in the past years that 'it's hard to imagine how the issue of immigration was almost taboo.'Princess Latifa Maktoum (pictured) daughter of the ruler of Dubai, tried to escape the Arab Kingdom in March to start a new life abroad

New photos have emerged of the runaway daughter of the ruler of Dubai six months after she tried to flee from the country to start a new life.

Pictures were released of Princess Latifa - who has not been seen since her escape bid - as Amnesty International accused the Arab kingdom of 'torture and kidnap' over her disappearance.

The never-before-seen photos - released by a friend who helped her escape - show the Princess taking part in her favourite hobby of skydiving, while others show her playing with two of her dogs.

Princess Latifa has not been seen or heard from since March when MailOnline first revealed she had attempted to leave Dubai and the strict control of her life by her father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum.

The 32-year-old was forcibly taken back to Dubai after being tracked down by UAE forces to a yacht moored off the coast of India.

A former French secret service agent who also assisted the Princess and three members of his yacht's crew were beaten up after their vessel was seized.

Since her escape attempt the fate of Princess Latifa (pictured) is unknown as she has not been seen in public or made any statement since she was tracked down UAE forces to a yacht moored off the coast of India and taken back to Dubai

Dubai Government sources only confirmed she was back in the country and that she was 'with her family' and 'doing excellent' - but Amnesty International has accused the Arab kingdom of 'torture and kidnap' over her disappearance

New photos have just been released of Princess Latifa - taken before she tried to escape - that have been released by her friend Tiian Jauhiainen, whom she fled the country with in March

Amnesty has today called on the United Arab Emirates to respect Princess Latifa's right to be allowed to leave the country.

In a statement the human rights organisation called on the UAE's international allies to pressure the Government of Dubai to cease holding the Princess.

The United Nations are set to discuss the enforced disappearance of the Princess next week in Geneva where they are expected to heavily criticise the Dubai authorities for their silence on the Princess whereabouts.

A spokesman for Amnesty said: 'Today marks six months since Sheikha Latifa and five other people were detained at sea by Indian and UAE security forces while the boat they were aboard was seized.

'Sheikha Latifa has been held incommunicado in an undisclosed location by the UAE. Amnesty International considers this incident to have entailed multiple crimes under international law by both India and UAE, including arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearance.

The national Government of the UAE  a federal state of which Dubai is a constituent member  should act to ensure that Dubai respects its citizens' human rights.'

Since her escape attempt the fate of Princess Latifa is unknown as she has not been seen in public and her father refuses to say where she is.

Dubai Government sources only confirmed she was back in the country and that she was 'with her family' and 'doing excellent'.

But the NGO Detained in Dubai, who have led the campaign for her release, fear she might never be seen again unless international pressure can be brought on the Arab kingdom.

The Princess escaped with Ms Jauhiainen (right) and planned to start a new life in America but three weeks into her escape bid, their yacht Nostromo was surrounded by Indian forces

Princess Latifa would have been 'drugged and held against her will' after her failed escape attempt, her best friend Ms Jauhiainem (above) had later told a London press conference

Former French secret service agent Herve Jaubert, who mounted the bold rescue operation, posing at the wheel of the Nostromo, the boat the group used to help the Princess to flee

'It is six months since anyone outside of Dubai has seen or heard from Princess Latifa, said David Haigh from Detained in Dubai.

'We do not know if she is even alive still. We are pleased that Amnesty has taken up her case and we are confident that the United Nations working party on enforced disappearance will have something to say next week when they discuss the case.'

MailOnline told how the Princess left Dubai claiming she had been mistreated and had restrictions imposed on her by her father.

In a leaked video she said she was not allowed to leave the country and was accompanied by a minder whenever she went out.

She also expressed fears that she would be silenced, saying: 'I'm making this video because it could be the last video I make.'

After months of planning with her close friend Tiian Jauhiainen, who released the latest photos, she fled to Oman where she boarded a yacht owned by former French secret service agent Herve Jaubert.

The Princess had planned to start a new life in America but on March 5th, three weeks into her escape bid, their yacht Nostromo was surrounded by Indian forces.

Jaubert and three Fillipino crew members were beaten up.

Soldiers threatened to throw Jauhiainen overboard as they grabbed the Princess who screamed she was seeking asylum but was ignored.

Sources have dismissed the outrage over the Princess's treatment and the situation with her father Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum (pictured with Queen Elizabeth) as a 'soap opera' and insisted it was a 'family matter'

MailOnline told how the Princess left Dubai claiming she had been mistreated and had restrictions imposed on her by her father. Pictured: Her national identity card

In a leaked video Princess Latifa (pictured) told of her miserable time in Dubai where she was not allowed to leave the country and was accompanied by a minder whenever she went out

Jaubert and Jauhiainen, a Finish national, were held for two days and forced to sign a confession that they had kidnapped the Princess.

They were released after the story broke and the Dubai authorities knew they could no longer hold the pair in secret.

Jaubert said he had been contacted by the Princess after she read his book 'Escape from Dubai' where he detailed his own escape from the country after wrongly being accused of fraud.

He claimed during his imprisonment he was kept in solitary confinement and blindfolded before signing a confession that he 'kidnapped' the Princess.

The authorities in Dubai have remained mostly silent about the escape bid and her subsequent capture.

Sources have dismissed the outrage over her treatment as a 'soap opera' and insisted it was a 'family matter.'A holiday park owner's decision to respond to a negative review in the style of a Nazi guard has been labelled 'stupid and offensive' by a member of the Jewish community.

John Brookshaw, who owns Plassey Holiday Village in north Wales, has come under fire after responding to a review in German and under the guise of 'SS Camp Commandant of the Plassey'.

Mr Brookshaw was responding to a review which described his holiday village in Wrexham as a 'concentration camp'.

John Brookshaw, who owns Plassey Holiday Village in north Wales, has come under fire after responding to a negative TripAdvisor review in the style of a Nazi guard

The negative TripAdvisor review that prompted Mr Brookshaw to respond in the style of a Nazi guard. The review described 'rude staff' and a feeling of 'being watched' at the park

The review, written on TripAdvisor by a user from Lichfield with the name but2n2018, was entitled 'I thought concentration camps were a thing of the past but apparently not.'

It complained about the 'rudeness' of staff and a 'lack of privacy' at the park, also describing a feeling of 'being watched'.

The review also labelled the park's owner 'the rudest man [they] have ever encountered.'

Before going on to say: 'My kids were constantly watched and the warden shouted at my daughter and made her cry and when I complained I was introduced to the owner who was equally as rude and I am guessing he trains his staff.'

The scathing review, which gave the business its fourth one rating, soon caught the eye of Mr Brookshaw.

He responded in German and in the style of an SS commandant, as reported by the Daily Post.

Mr Brookshaw responded to the negative review in German and in the style of a Nazi guard, signing off his message with 'SS Camp Commandant of the Plassey'

The translated review reveals that Mr Brookshaw mentioned 'armed guards' in his mock response along with 'bad dogs'

Translated into English via Google, his response reads: 'I am very sad that you do not enjoy my concentration camp, but assure it is one of the best in North Wales.

'My camp commandants did not want to make you cry much, but it's inevitable with the hard work, you're locked up for hours, and the constant patrol of machine guns armed guards with bad dogs.

'I am disappointed that I did not meet you myself, but I assure you that you would not have been shot, as I am a very nice commander, better than the Gestapo commander of North Wales, who can be quite strict.

'Kind regards, John Brookshaw SS Camp Commandant of the Plassey.'

The response, which has now been deleted along with the corresponding review, drew fierce criticism from some of the Jewish community.

Professor Nathan Adams, who runs British Jewish Contemporary Cultures at Bangor University, spoke of the upset caused by the park owner's response.

He told the Daily Post: 'It is offensive and demeaning from a Jewish perspective and is insulting to the victims and the seriousness of the events that took place.

'It is a silly comment by the poster and it is a silly reply which is trying to be funny  although the original post is by far no means as bad for him to reply like this is just stupid and offensive.'

Plassey Holiday Village in north Wales, which despite the upset still has a five out of five rating on TripAdvisor. Almost 600 of these are 'excellent' while another 68 are 'very good'

Addressing the upset caused, Mr Brookshaw told the Daily Post that he 'did not mean to cause any offence'.

He said: 'The review left was clearly untrue and they are trying to slander my business. It is a jokey response to what is a ridiculous article  it may have been flippant but it is what it warrants.

'I have not meant to offend anyone and it should be taken as it was written  in a light-hearted manner.'

Mr Brookshaw also noted that he considered the negative review a 'false' one and that he found it 'frustrating' TripAdvisor allowed them.

Despite the recent furore the park has favourable reviews, with its current rating standing at five out of five on TripAdvisor from 697 responses.

Almost 600 of these are 'excellent' while another 68 are 'very good'.A friend has been left in shock after seeing his pal plunge to her death from his 11th floor apartment in New York City, when he switched on his pet camera.

The woman, Constance Tyler, 51, died at about 8.50am on Monday.

Law enforcement officials told the New York Post that she had been minding the mans Park Avenue apartment.

He became concerned when, while returning home from the airport, she failed to pick up the phone when he tried contacting her.

Constance Tyler plunged to her death from the 11th floor of an apartment building in New York

Tyler fell onto a courtyard at the back of the 19-story apartment building on Park Avenue in NYC (pictured above)

So the man, who has not been named, turned on his in-home pet cam as he was worried about her welfare, but ended up watching in horror as she opened the window and plummeted.

Police said that Tyler, who was dealing with money problems and had suffered a psychiatric disorder, fell onto a courtyard at the back of the 19-story apartment building. She was pronounced dead at the scene. No note was found but no criminality is suspected.

California court records revealed that Tyler had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last November  and that she was in debt to the tune of $141,519, mostly on credit cards.

Police said that Tyler was dealing with money problems and had suffered a psychiatric disorder. She is seen above in a Facebook photo

Tyler's love of dogs resulted in her walking the pets of several residents at the complex over the past few years. She is pictured center in a Facebook photo

One of her neighbors at the Murray Hill rental complex, Barbara Kane, 57, told the Post that Tyler was always happy: She never looked or seemed depressed to me.

I would see her in the elevator, and she was always smiling, always had something nice to say. I would see her with the dogs  she loved dogs.

Her love of dogs resulted in her walking the pets of several residents at the complex over the past few years.

 For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255

 In the UK, for confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch; see www.samaritans.org for details



The GMB union joined calls for a second Brexit vote on the final deal today in a major escalation of pressure on Jeremy Corbyn.

GMB leader Tim Roache said a Tory hard Brexit would be disastrous for workers and said the public deserved a vote on the facts.

Prime Minister Theresa May ruled out calling a second referendum at the weekend in a blow to campaigners who spent the summer calling for one.

But the GMB decision will add to pressure on Mr Corbyn to shift Labour's position to supporting a vote on the deal.

GMB leader Tim Roache said a Tory hard Brexit would be disastrous for workers and said the public deserved a vote on the facts

But the GMB decision will add to pressure on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to shift Labour's position to supporting a vote on the deal

Mrs May's fragile position in Parliament could in theory mean she is overruled despite the looming deadline of exit day on March 29 2019.

General secretary Mr Roache said in a message to members: 'Sitting on the sidelines watching the mess this Government is making of Brexit is infuriating, because there is so much at stake.

'GMB respects the result of the referendum, but how we leave the EU is as important as the decision to leave in the first place. That's why today, GMB is calling for a public vote on the final deal.

'As trade unionists, when we negotiate a pay deal with an employer, we go back to our members and ask them if they're happy with it. Whether they want to accept or reject it.

'That's what people deserve now, because the promises that were made during the referendum campaign are simply not the reality we are facing.'

Mr Roache said GMB members in manufacturing, ports, chemicals, energy, retail and public services were facing uncertainty and a Government more preoccupied with 'internal divisions' than working people's livelihoods.

He added: 'People voted for change - they voted to take back control. They did not vote for economic chaos or to put jobs and hard won rights on the line.'

He said a 'Tory hard Brexit' would be a disaster for GMB members, adding: 'The Government need to know they have to come back and face the music - they can't sell working people down the river.

'That's why GMB supports your right to decide what sort of Brexit is the right Brexit.'

Brandon Lewis MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party, said: 'Re-running the referendum would take us all back to square one.

'Jeremy Corbyn should stand up to his union paymasters and rule out a second referendum once and for all.

'While Labour are only interested in frustrating the process, the Conservatives have a plan for a deal which will deliver on the result of the referendum by taking back control of our laws, borders and money.'

Theresa May (pictured on Thursday in Kenya) on Sunday ruled out giving in to calls for a second EU referendum warning it would be a 'gross betrayal of our democracy'

Best for Britain champion and Labour MP Virendra Sharma said: 'With announcements like this you feel the tide is turning on Brexit.

'GMB have joined many trade unions in backing a People's Vote in the final deal.

'The public deserve a final say.'

On Sunday, the Prime Minister said voters made their decision in 2016 by 52 to 48 per cent and that must be the end of the debate of whether Britain will leave the European Union.

She said: 'I will not give in to those who want to reopen the whole question with a second 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.'A man who allegedly assaulted a paramedic as his sister-in-law lay unconscious outside a nightclub has claimed the ambulance worker was refusing to treat her.

Tyson Parker, 27, was charged after emergency services were called to the Pontoon Bar in Sydney's Darling Harbour late last month when the woman passed out.

Parker is alleged to have shoved the paramedic in the back but he claims he 'didn't do nothing' and just wanted to help his sister-in-law, A Current Affair reported.

Scroll down for video

Tyson Parker (pictured) is accused of assaulting a paramedic but he claims the ambulance worker was refusing to treat his sister-in-law who fell unconscious

Paramedics had been called to Sydney's Darling Harbour, in the early hours of August 26, where the alleged assault unfolded

'(The paramedic) goes, "I'm not going to touch, I'm not going to do anything until the police get here",' Parker told the television program.

"I didn't do nothing, all I just said (was) "Mate, mate, go, go, she's there, you have to help her", and security guards wrapped their arms around me.'

Parker said he was 'trying to save my sister-in-law's life' and claimed the paramedic at the scene 'was doing nothing' to help her.

It is understood Parker's 22-year-old sister-in-law was part of a group celebrating a birthday at the Pontoon Bar.

She became unconscious in the early hours of August 26 and paramedics were quick to arrive at the scene.

A Current Affair reported St John's Ambulance volunteers had been giving the woman CPR, with the paramedic allegedly assaulted when they went to take over.

At about 12.20am paramedics called police for urgent assistance and riot police were also called in to control the situation.

Parker was charged with common assault, obstruct or hinder ambulance officer by act of violence, possess prohibited drug, and supply prohibited drug.

He was granted conditional bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on September 19.

His sister-in-law was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital, where she died at the weekend.

A 42-year-old man was also arrested and he has been issued a Future Court Attendance Notice for hinder police.Mark Carney confirmed today he has held talks with Chancellor Philip Hammond about extending his stay as Bank of England Governor.

In a bid to halt speculation about his future, Mr Carney told MPs on the Treasury committee he was ready to do whatever was necessary to ensure a smooth Brexit.

The Governor said an announcement will be made 'soon' but his remarks will be taken as a clear signal he will stay beyond next summer.

Prime Minister Theresa May believes the Governor is doing a 'good job' but Downing Street declined to comment on the prospect of an extension today.

Mr Carney has already extended his five year stay in London by 12 months to June 2019. He made the first decision in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

A new extension has infuriated Brexiteers who warned today 'Project Fear wouldn't be the same without Carney's regular Grim Reaper pronouncements'.

Moments after signalling he would stay, the Governor risked angering Brexiteers further with a new warning a no deal Brexit will squeeze household budgets.

Mark Carney (pictured today in the Commons) confirmed he has held talks with Chancellor Philip Hammond about extending his stay as Bank of England Governor

The Governor said an announcement on the outcome of his talks with Philip Hammond (pictured yesterday at No 11 with the Turkish finance minister) will be made 'soon'

Confirming the talks with Mr Hammond, Mr Carney said: 'I fully recognise that during this critical period it's important that everyone does everything they can to help with the transition to exiting the EU.

'Even though I have already agreed to extend my time to support a smooth Brexit.

'I am willing to do whatever else I can in order to promote both a smooth Brexit and effective transition at the Bank of England. The Chancellor and I have discussed this. I would expect an announcement to be made in due course.'

Brexiteer Nigel Evans told MailOnline: 'Project Fear wouldn't be the same without Carney's regular Grim Reaper pronouncements.'

But Best for Britain spokesman Paul Butters said: 'It sounds like sour grapes from swivel eyed Brexiteers that a man who speaks common sense is despised.

'They used to throw brick bats at Mark Carney about Project Fear but now it's Project Near.'

Mr Carney said talks were underway on his future after Treasury Committee chairwoman Nicky Morgan (pictured at today's committee) challenged him to end speculation

Mr Carney said talks were underway on his future after Treasury Committee chairwoman Nicky Morgan challenged him to end speculation.

Mr Carney told the MPs: 'I would expect this to be resolved relatively soon, but as I say it's not for me to resolve it.

Brexiteer Nigel Evans told MailOnline: 'Project Fear wouldn't be the same without Carney's regular Grim Reaper pronouncements.'

'We (the Bank) have a very important supportive role to make sure whatever Brexit the government negotiates, that parliament decides, that that is as much of a success as possible.

'I made them aware of my willingness to do what I can to support the process.'

When questioned about the appointment process for his successor, Mr Carney said: 'There are some advantages for that process to be run in the context of full knowledge both of the Government of the day and the applicants on the exact form of Brexit that the country has decided to take.'

Following the hearing, Mrs Morgan said: 'Stability is vital during this important period. The sooner the Government provides clarity, the better.

'Any extension to Dr Carney's term should not be used to delay succession planning.'

Despite the political pressure, BBC Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed revealed yesterday Mr Carney was being pressured to delay his departure.

Ahmed said: 'I understand that the Treasury is concerned that trying to complete a process to find a new Governor now -- in the teeth of the Brexit negotiations -- would be difficult.

'However, it has been made clear to me that no deal has been agreed and the extension might be much less than a year, if it happens.'

In remarks that will remind Brexiteers why they find him so frustrating, Mr Carney warned that a no deal Brexit would send prices rising and hit real incomes.

In remarks that will remind Brexiteers why they find him so frustrating, Mr Carney warned that a no deal Brexit would send prices rising and hit real incomes

He added that there were 'limits' to what monetary policy could do to help ease the price shock for Britons.

He told MPs: 'It's likely that the real income squeeze will return for households across the country.'

'You can't avoid that medium-term impact on real incomes,' he added.

The front-runner to succeed Mr Carney is widely seen to be Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Britain's Financial Conduct Authority and a former deputy governor at the BoE.

However, earlier this year Chancellor Philip Hammond said he might look abroad again for a successor to Carney.

The announcement of Carney's appointment in 2012 came as a surprise, as Mr Carney had previously denied interest in the role.

The then-deputy governor, Paul Tucker, had been seen as the favourite for the role before then-Chancellor George Osborne stunned Westminster with the appointment.Scotland Yard is investigating a leaked dossier on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party which it is claimed contains 21 cases that should have been reported to the police.

The document which was made public today details allegations against councillors and members involving messages posted on social media.

The claims include on that a party member posted a message of Facebook saying 'we shall rid the Jews who are cancer on us all...'

Radio station LBC were handed the internal Labour document which details 45 cases in total.

Mr Corbyn (pictured leaving his London home today) has been under massive pressure to resolve Labour's anti-Semitism crisis

The broadcaster passed the leaked material to former senior police officer Mak Chishty, who said that 17 instances should have been reported to the police for investigation, and another four were potential race hate crimes.

These were the message detailed above, the sharing of a link to an allegedly anti-Semitic blog and an entry referring to 'a Zionist Extremist MP... who hater civilised people, about to get a good kicking'

The fourth related to a party member being accused of putting a child through 10 years of hell' using racial slurs against him and referring to him as 'Jew boy.'

It was also alleged that the member had chased a girl, aged six or seven, around with air freshener, saying she smelled of curry and calling her 'a chocolate monkey'.

Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, speaking on LBC today, said the allegations in the dossier will be investigated by Scotland Yard

It is believed the cases against unnamed party members and councillors are being handled by Labour's internal disciplinary committee.

Speaking during a call-in on LBC today, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said: 'Hate crime is something we take very, very seriously.

'If somebody makes an allegation to us which contains something like that, absolutely we will take it seriously, we will scope it, we will see whether a crime has taken place.'

A listener called Gideon said he would make a formal report of hate crime to the force.

Protesters against the leadership's position on the anti-Semitism definition gathered outside the Labour NEC meeting today (pictured), but there were also supporters

Ms Dick continued: 'I, of course, will pass this to my experts to deal with but the law is quite complicated, the bar is actually quite high.

'It's not just because I'm offended or you're insulted, it's got to be threatening, it's got to incite racial hatred, there are a number of offences.

'They are quite a high bar because freedom of speech is highly valued in this country.'

A Labour spokeswoman said: 'The Labour Party has a robust system for investigating complaints of alleged breaches of Labour Party rules by its members.

'Where someone feels they have been a victim of crime, they should report it to the police in the usual way.'

Labour's complaints procedures are confidential, but if someone feels they have been the victim of a crime the party would encourage them to go to the police.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell (pictured) is the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism

It comes as the party's ruling body will today decide whether to fully adopt an international definition of anti-Semitism as the row over the party's response to the problem continued to simmer.

Today a Corbyn ally who ranted about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' was cheered as he arrived for the crunch meeting of the National Executive Committee at the party's HQ.

Peter Willsman was applauded by Momentum activists, but a group of Jewish protesters angrily chanted shame on you.

Mr Willsman was re-elected to the NEC yesterday with more than 70,000 votes despite his diatribe in July, when he accused critics of 'making up' complaints about anti-Semitism.

Labour is on the verge of all-out civil war today with at least three more MPs believed to be ready to quit if the NEC refuses to adopt the full international definition of anti-Semitism - or tries to add caveats to water it down.

Frank Field (pictured) resigned the Labour whip over the party's handling of anti-Semitism. At least three others are said to be poised to follow his lead if the NEC rejects the definition

The bitter showdown is the culmination of months of clashes between the leadership, moderate MPs and Jewish groups.

Mr Willsman refused to answer questions on his remarks or whether he would back adopting the IHRA definition.

The latest controversy was sparked over the summer when the party stopped short of including all examples from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct.

Why is Labour's new code of conduct on anti-Semitism so controversial? The Labour anti-Semitism row erupted again after the party leadership refused to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition. The party's code explicitly endorses the IHRA definition, but it omits four examples from the IHRA list: - Accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than their home country; - Claiming that Israel's existence as a state is a racist endeavour; - Requiring higher standards of behaviour from Israel than other nations; and - Comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis. Labour insisted that while the examples are not reproduced word-for-word, they are covered in the new code. But critics say the decision allows anti-Semitism to continue to fester. Advertisement

Left-wingers argued that the rules - which include banning jibes about the Israeli state being a racist endeavour - would hamper criticism of Israel.

But many MPs and Jewish groups view watering down the definition as totally unacceptable, and Mr Corbyn himself has been forced to deny being an anti-Semite.

Mr Corbyn is facing demands to show 'remorse' for his failure to tackle the wave of vile abuse that has been wracking the party since he took charge.

Senior backbencher John Mann warned today that British Jews are leaving as a result of the controversy.

'That is where we have got to, and it is a lack of leadership at the top of the Labour Party, not just, but including Jeremy Corbyn, and this appalling national executive who have... tried to mess around with a very humdrum, mundane definition of anti-Semitism that left (wing) parties across the world have been happy to accept along with everyone else,' he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

'We are now seeing the first British Jewish people leaving, that is the state we are in, that is the responsibility of the Labour Party. 'It's not a small problem, it's a big problem and it needs sorting now.'

Stephen Kinnock urged Mr Corbyn to show 'remorse' over the problems.

'We need to see Jeremy coming forward in his conference speech, particularly, which will be a real opportunity to show remorse for what has happened, to show understanding of the pain and hurt that has been suffered both by my colleagues - particularly Jewish colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party - and the wider Jewish community,' he said.Christy Westerdale (left) went into labor two months early with twins after surviving a horror bus crash on Thursday afternoon

A California woman who survived a horror bus crash in New Mexico that killed everyone in front of her has given birth to twins two months early.

Christy Westerdale was with her partner, Joseph Chandler, and their four-year-old daughter Paityn, when the Greyhound bus they were travelling on collided with an out of control semi-trailer on Thursday afternoon, Fox 40 reported.

The crash killed eight of the roughly 50 people who were on board, and injured 25. Westerdale was left with a shattered knee, a broken leg and a separated pelvis, and her injuries forced her to go into labor at just seven months pregnant.

Westerdale and her partner will need to remain in New Mexico for the next few months as their premature twins are monitored, but Chandler says it's a small price to pay.

The new father-of-three says he was left unconscious following the crash, but woke up soon after and managed to save his family.

'I got my whole family off the bus and it's a miracle. I cannot believe it. Everybody that was sitting in front of my family is dead,' he said.

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Joseph Chandler, Westerdale's partner and father of her children, says he carried Westerdale and their four-year-old daughter Paityn off the bus after the crash

He is staying in New Mexico with Westerdale and their children while the trio recover in hospital

Though there was a happy ending, Chandler revealed his entire world was close to falling apart as he heroically carried his daughter, and then his partner, off the bus.

'I thought she was dead and I was gonna get her body off the bus when she woke up in my arms,' he said.

'I was like, "Oh my God! Come on baby, we're going to be OK, we're going to get off this bus".'

To help cover medical expenses and allow Chandler to take the time he needs to help his family, Westerdale's mother Nancy has launched a GoFundMe account.

Westerdale suffered a shattered knee and multiple broken bones in the crash on Thursday afternoon

'[Westerdale and Chandler] have lost all their possessions,' the page reads.

'They have no money, clothes or a place to go as the babies will be in the hospital for at least six to eight weeks. Christy will need extensive surgery and rehabilitation therapy.'

Donations have so far reached past $8,000, thousands more than the family asked for.

Eight people were killed when the Greyhound bus (pictured) collided with an out-of-control semi trailer travelling in the opposite directionA British woman has been found dead in a swimming pool in Bali while on a dream holiday with her boyfriend who was just about to propose.

Natalie Morris, 29, of Cardiff, South Wales, flew off with her boyfriend Andrew Samuel, 30, for a ten-day break to the Indonesian island.

Andrew was planning to ask Natalie to marry him on the holiday, her family said. But he woke one night to find his girlfriend unresponsive in a swimming pool, the family added.

British woman Natalie Morris (right) was found dead in swimming pool on a dream holiday in Bali - just before her boyfriend Andrew Samuel (left) was due to propose

Natalie Morris (pictured), 29, of Cardiff, South Wales, flew off with her boyfriend Andrew Samuel, 30, for a ten-day break

A post mortem examination is due to be held to discover the cause of her death on Sunday.

Natalie and Andrew spent many months planning the dream trip together before planning to go to Australia.

Her older sister Janine Lloyd described her as 'a lovely, vibrant person'.

She said: 'Natalie and her partner were on holiday in Bali - they had been planning it for ages.

'In the night she got up to have a cigarette or whatever and Andrew woke up a few hours later and saw she wasn't in bed.'

Andrew was planning to ask Natalie to marry him on the Indonesian island, her family said. But he woke one night to find his girlfriend unresponsive in a swimming pool, the family added. The couple are pictured together

A post mortem examination is due to be held to discover the cause of her death on Sunday

Janine said Andrew found her unresponsive in the pool of their hotel in Bali.

It is thought Natalie's body will be repatriated next week after the results of a post mortem examination in Indonesia.

Janine, 41, said: 'He was going to ask her to marry him. She was just a lovely, vibrant person and the life and soul of a party.

'She had so many friends, every single person who has heard about this is devastated. I just can't believe that this has happenedo someone so full of life.'

Natalie worked as a personal assistant at a Cardiff builder's yard.

But her family say Natalie had 'wanderlust' and hoped to travel and live in Australia.

Janine said: 'She wanted to see a lot of places. She moved to South Africa for work before and loved it and had planned to go to Australia.

'She was going to try and stay there.'

A spokesperson at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: 'We are supporting the family of a British national who died in Bali, and are in contact with the Indonesian authorities'.A 19-year-old has admitted making bomb threats to thousands of schools that led to more than 400 of them being evacuated.

George Duke-Cohan from Watford also sent mass emails to schools in the UK and US claiming pipe bombs were planted on their premises while he was under investigation.

At Luton Magistrates' Court yesterday he admitted making bomb threats to thousands of schools and a United Airlines flight travelling from the UK to San Francisco last month.

He was arrested in his bedroom at his family home in Watford.

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This is the moment George Duke-Cohan was arrested for the third time after making hoax calls and saying an aircraft had been taken over by gunmen

Audio released today features George Duke-Cohan posing as a concerned father whose daughter has told him her flight was hijacked by gunmen, one of whom has a bomb.

He can be heard complaining as he feigns frustration at not being given an update on the supposed hijacking.

The teenager, from Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to three counts of hoax bomb threats.

Duke-Cohan (pictured) made hoax threats while under investigation for another set of bomb threats

Hundreds of UK schools were evacuated following threats in March, with Duke-Cohan arrested days after the mass hoax.

But while under investigation in April, he claimed bombs has been placed at both American and British schools.

The fake bomb threats were revealed at the time to be part of a Minecraft gamer feud.

Threatening emails were spoofed to look like they had been sent by a gaming network known as VeltPvP - a Minecraft player-versus-player server.

Up to 24,000 emails were sent to schools across the UK, including in the North East, London, Bristol and Humberside.

While on bail for threats made to schools, Duke-Cohan phoned San Francisco Airport and their police officers to claim an explosive was on board.

Hacker group the Apophis Squad claimed flight UAL 949 was grounded due to their actions in a post on Twitter in August.

Duke-Cohan pretended to be a worried father when he rang the airport, claiming his daughter was on board the flight.

He told staff that his daughter had contacted him to say gunmen had hijacked the aircraft and that one had a bomb.

Bishopsalt School in Uxbridge was one of the 400 that was evacuated due to the bomb hoaxes this year

Selly Park Technology College for Girls in Birmingham (pictured) was one of the 400 schools evacuated after receiving a threat

Fairholme Primary School in Feltham, west London, told parents they would be closed due to the threat earlier this year

Walsall College (pictured) was also evacuated as a result of the bomb hoaxes earlier this year

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a third time at his home in Watford (pictured) following the mass bomb hoax

Once it landed in San Francisco, the plane was quarantined as security operatives descended and the 295 passengers were told to remain on board.

The investigation grounded the aircraft, disrupting other scheduled flights at the airport.

Feud that sparked hoax A row between Minecraft gamers is thought to have sparked thousands of bomb hoax emails. The threats were mocked up to look as though the gaming network VeltPvP had sent them. The sender hoped to get the domain suspended for abuse in a bid to discredit the network. VeltPvP allows Minecraft players to go head-to-head using their server. At the time, Sky News reported the hoaxer's accusation that the network was engaged in a campaign of shutting down rival Minecraft servers. Advertisement

The National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Duke-Cohan for the third time in his bedroom on August 31.

He was detained at his parents' home in a suburban street where property prices range from about 350,000 to 400,000, according Right Move.

Officers recovered electronic devices belonging to him, the use of which was in contravention of the pre-charge bail conditions imposed on him.

He has been remanded in custody and is set to appear for sentencing at Luton Crown Court on 21 September.

NCA Senior Investigating Officer Marc Horsfall said: 'George Duke-Cohan made a series of bomb threats that caused serious worry and inconvenience to thousands of people, not least an international airline.

'He carried out these threats hidden behind a computer screen for his own enjoyment, with no consideration for the effect he was having on others.

'Despite being arrested and having conditions imposed restricting his use of technology, he persistently broke those conditions to continue his wave of violent threats.

'Law enforcement take such offences extremely seriously. This investigation proves that operating online does not offer offenders anonymity. We will identify you and you will be brought before the courts.'Police have released the image of the man they believe is involved in the attack of two teenage girls at bus stops in Melbourne

Two teenage schoolgirls have been assaulted in separate attacks by an unshaven man lingering around bus stops in Melbourne.

Police have since launched a manhunt for the predator after the violent attacks, which happened on the same bus line last week.

A 17-year-old girl had a knife pulled on her after getting off a bus at Waverley Park Drive, Cranbourne North about 6pm last Tuesday.

The man, who had been waiting at the bus stop, followed her before grabbing her and kissing her.

When she fought back, the man verbally abused her, pulled out a knife and punched her before fleeing.

She had minor scratches, police say.

The next day, a 17-year-old girl was attacked while waiting with friends at a bus stop on the Princes Highway near Harmer Road, Hallam at 2.30pm.

The man crossed from the other side of the road towards the bus stop and began shouting abuse at the girl and her friends.

He grabbed the girl and pushed her into a bus stop before abruptly leaving.

She had minor bruising during the incident.

The man was seen walking along the Princes Highway and turning left onto Harmer Road.

A 17-year-old girl was attacked while waiting with friends at a bus stop on the Princes Highway near Harmer Road, Hallam, last week

Detectives believe the same person was involved in both incidents and have released a composite image of a man who they believe can assist with their inquiries.

He has been described as Caucasian, about 40 to 50 years-old and unshaven.

The man wore black pants, a grey top and black cap during the second incident and was carrying a black backpack.

Police are also hoping to speak to a woman with a pram, who came to the aid of the first victim at the time.This is the remarkable moment dozens of migrants are caught on camera celebrating in the streets of Spain after arriving from Africa.

The men were filmed last month by a passing motorcyclist shortly after they crossed the Staits of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain.

During the clip dozens of the men run down a hill celebrating and smiling at the camera.

Some of them are topless and waving their t-shirts in the air as they celebrate the crossing.

The footage was captured near the southern Spanish port of Algeciras which has seen regular migrant landings

The man filming then drives up the hill as more of the group wave their hands in the air and celebrate widely.

Others lie down in the road as the motorcyclist shouts inaudible words of encouragement.

The area of coastline where the men landed, between Algeciras and Gibraltar, has seen more than 23,000 migrants arrive this year alone.

At its narrowest only 8.6 miles separates Morocco with southern Spain - meaning many migrants risk crossing the sea in tiny boats that sometimes don't even have engines.

The cameraman captured the scenes as scores of migrants trudged along a Spanish highway while celebrating for the camera

The route has become increasingly poplar as other governments have shut off previous passages into Europe through Turkey and Libya.

A source who lives in the local area said she often see groups of newly arrived migrants in the area.

She said: 'I walk my dog early every morning and I see them having showers on the beach after they've just arrived.

'It's quite shocking how many people are arriving at the moment. It was never like this in years gone by.'A survivor of the horrifying crash on the Colorado River said it was complete chaos as she fought the current and gasped for air after two recreational boats collided.

Taylor Corbino was enjoying Labor Day Weekend with family friends when their Sleek Craft boat, which held six people, smashed into another boat with 10 passengers.

The body of Christine Lewis, 51, was found on Monday morning. Divers found 50-year-old Brian Grabowski's body around 9am on Tuesday.

Kirra Drury and Raegan Heitzig remain missing. They were on the Hallet boat with 10 passengers along with Lewis and Grabowski.

Corbino recalled the moment she was sitting at the back of the boat, chatting with friends, when she suddenly heard someone exclaim 'Oh, s**t'.

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Taylor Corbino was enjoying Labor Day Weekend with family friends when their Sleek Craft boat, which held six people, smashed into a boat with 10 passengers on the Colorado River

Corbino was chatting with friends, when she suddenly heard someone exclaim 'Oh, s**t' and they collided with another vessel. Pictured is one of the submerged boats

All 16 people were thrown off both boats when the two vessels collided on Saturday. Pictured is one of the recovered boats

'And I look up and next I see the boat, the other boat,' she told Good Morning America. 'And next thing you know, I'm in the water.'

Pat Kelly, Corbino's father, was in a nearby boat when he heard the horrific crash.

'We were just turning into Pirate's Cove and our buddy went by us and we were waving at him,' Kelly recalled.

'And we see his lights going on, and then a horrific crash. The river's all dark, it was totally dark.'

'Sounded like a freight train hitting the side of a building. It was horrible.'

Corbino said she was underwater for so long that she couldn't hold her breath anymore.

'The current was so strong it was moving me around and all I could think about was "get air"', she recalled.

Pat Kelly, Corbino's father, was in a nearby boat when he heard the horrific crash. He immediately jumped in the water to find his daughter

Meanwhile, Corbino was fighting for her life. She said she was underwater for so long she couldn't hold her breath anymore.

'I actually breathed in some water and all I told myself was. "Taylor, swim to the top to get some air in"'.

'I swam to the top and my friend that I was actually sitting next to on the boat, I felt him grab me.'

Meanwhile, Kelly jumped off his own boat - which was about 50 yards from the accident - as he desperately tried to find his daughter.

His friend Dave Dade, who was on the boat with Kelly and Kelly's wife Kathy Boelter, said the river turned into complete chaos.

'While we're going into the crash site, there was debris everywhere. And I was afraid to roll the boat up, cause I didn't wanna chop somebody up [with the propeller].'

The body of 51-year-old Christine Lewis, who went missing in the crash, was recovered on Monday morning

Kirra Drury (right) and Raegan Heitzig (left) have been identified by their loved ones as two of the missing

Drury (center) and Heitzig (left) posted pictures of themselves enjoying the boat on the weekend of the crash

Divers found the body of Brian Grabowski on Tuesday. His wife Tabby (pictured together) is recovering from her injuries at a Las Vegas hospital

Authorities announced on Tuesday afternoon that Grabowski's body had been recovered

'I couldn't find Pat. So his wife was hysterical. All she could say was. "Where's my baby? Where's my baby?"'

Kelly said it was 'pandemonium' as people began screaming and crying.

'When it crashed, we were just trying to find [Corbino], find anybody,' he said. 'We didn't even know it was another boat until we heard other people screaming.'

'It was total chaos - and then I heard her. Somebody said, "Taylor's okay". I'm screaming "Where's Taylor? Where's Taylor?"'

'And then we knew she was okay, so we got over to that side, actually seeing her before we calmed down. But everyone seemed to be all right.'

Corbino, who just recently graduated from college, said she feels lucky to be alive.

'I thought I was going to die,' she said. 'I thought I was going to drown.'

She remains sore from the crash and said the survivors have talked little about the accident.

Lewis was a nurse at Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, California for 22 years. She is credited with saving hundreds of lives

Grabowski, also of Visalia, was a board-certified ocularist who made ocular prosthetics with his company Grabowski and Associates

The Mohave County Sheriff's Office Division of Boating Safety will continue to search for Drury (pictured the weekend of the crash) and Heitzig

Passenger Lance Nelson (pictured with Drury) shared this photo after the crash and wrote: 'Please come back'

'I think we're all still in shock,' she said. 'It hasn't hit us yet completely. It's been a very crazy weekend.

'But when I do talk to them about it - we're all very thankful and blessed to be alive. We shouldn't be alive.'

Dade said he is still haunted by the sound of the boats crashing and the people screaming.

'It's just 24 hours a day,' he said. 'It's something that I would never want to see again. Never.'

Lewis was a nurse at Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, California for 22 years. She is credited with saving hundreds of lives.

'We are shocked and heartbroken to learn about the passing of one our own in this weekend's tragic Colorado River boat crash,' said Kaweah Delta CEO Gary Herbst.

More than 60 crew members from Arizona and California searched for the victims starting at sunrise on Monday

They tracked their route with a computer program that maps the riverbed during the search

Divers are pictured here entering the water as search efforts kicked off on Tuesday morning

'Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who knew Chrisi Lewis and to the family and friends still searching the river for their loved ones.'

Grabowski, also of Visalia, was a board-certified ocularist who made ocular prosthetics with his company Grabowski and Associates.

The Mohave County Sheriff's Office Division of Boating Safety will continue to search for Kirra and Raegan.

More than 60 crew members from Arizona and California resumed their search for the victims at sunrise on Monday, according to USA Today.

Meanwhile, two helicopters continued to search for the victims by air

They tracked their route with a computer program that maps the riverbed while two helicopters searched by air.

One detective with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department suffered minor injuries after participating in 10 dives in the last two days.

'This detective has been very tenacious with his involvement,' the department said in a statement.

'[He has been] trying to do his best to help the family members get some sort of closure.'

Divers called off the search when it became dark and will begin again on Tuesday morning.

The sheriff's office said it will continue patrolling the river until all the missing victims are located.

Mohave County Sheriff Doug Schuster said authorities are treating the search as a recovery effort.

'Technically, it's a dive mission looking for potential drowning victims,' he said.

'But I don't want to give them the interpretation that there isn't a remote possibility that they made it to shore.'

All 16 people were thrown off both boats when the two vessels collided on Saturday. Some were swept as far as 3 to 5 miles downstream from the crash site.

It is believed that none of the boaters were wearing life vests at the time, according to ABC News.

A team of divers is pictured on the water on the Colorado River following the crash

Divers called off the search when it became dark and will begin again on Tuesday morning

The force of the crash also caused both boats to sink, according to the San Bernardino County Fire District.

Nine victims, including two in critical condition, were transported to nearby hospitals by ambulance.

Grabowski's wife Tabby is currently recovering from her injuries in a Las Vegas hospital.

The sheriff's office has yet to determine whether speed or alcohol played a factor in the crash.

Officials have said the boat carrying six people was going around 50mph when it crashed into the other boat, a claim that Dade denies.

Dade and Kelly also said only their friend's boat had its lights on before the crash.Saudi Arabia will punish online satire with up to five years in prison and is seeking the death penalty for a prominent cleric.

The kingdom's public prosecutor said today satire that 'disrupts public order' would be punished, as the country cracks down on dissent.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's powerful ruler, has drawn harsh criticism from rights groups over the targeting of human rights activists and political dissidents across the spectrum since his appointment in June 2017.

Dozens of Saudi citizens have been convicted on charges linked to dissent under a previous sweeping law, particularly linked to posts on Twitter.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been criticised by rights groups over the targeting of activists and political dissidents

Billboard of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (right) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman hanging over a highway in Riyadh

In September 2017, authorities issued a public call for citizens to report on the social media activities of their fellow citizens, under a broad definition of 'terrorist' crimes.

Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor today also announced it was seeking the death penalty in the case against Sheikh Salman al-Awda, a prominent Islamist cleric arrested last year along with 20 others.

The preacher was arrested on terrorism-related charges, activists and his family said.

The kingdom's legislation on cybercrime has sparked concern among international rights groups in the past.

The public prosecution tweeted late last night: 'Producing and distributing content that ridicules, mocks, provokes and disrupts public order, religious values and public morals through social media... will be considered a cybercrime punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of three million riyals ($800,000).'

The 37 charges against the 61-year-old cleric in the Specialized Criminal Court include spreading discord and incitement against the ruler, according to London-based Saudi rights group ALQST and other activists.

Awdah's son, Abdullah, confirmed the court proceedings and said the accusations against his father included critical tweets and establishing an organisation in Kuwait for defending the Prophet Mohammad.

Why Islamist cleric is considered so dangerous by Saudi Arabia's ruling family The Al Saud family that rules the kingdom has always regarded Islamist groups as the biggest internal threat to its rule, in which an al Qaeda campaign a decade ago killed hundreds. In the 1990s, the Brotherhood-inspired Sahwa (Awakening) movement demanded political reforms that would have weakened the ruling family. Awdah, a Sahwa leader, was imprisoned from 1994 to 1999 for agitating for political change. Criticism of the ruling family earned him praise from Osama bin Laden, whom he eventually denounced. The Sahwa movement was later undermined by a mixture of repression and co-optation. Some clerics, however, maintained large followings through YouTube sermons and Awdah has 14 million Twitter followers. In 2011, he called for elections and separation of powers, principles antithetical to strict Islamist ideology. He has since been largely quiet on issues of domestic reform. The authorities recommended the death penalty last month for five human rights activists from the kingdom's Eastern Province, including Israa al-Ghomgham, the first woman to possibly face that punishment for rights-related work Advertisement

Amnesty International's Saudi Arabia campaigner Dana Ahmed called the reports 'a disturbing trend in the Kingdom (that) sends a horrifying message that peaceful dissent and expression may be met with the death penalty'.

A government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy where public protests and political parties are banned, has seen a crackdown on dissent, with dozens of clerics, intellectuals and activists arrested in the past year, even as the authorities enacted some high-profile social and economic reforms.

A roundup of senior royals, ministers and businessmen last November on charges of corruption sent shockwaves through the kingdom, stunning allies and foreign investors. Most of those detainees were released after reaching undisclosed financial settlements with the government.

Awdah, whom UN experts have described as a 'reformist' and an influential religious figure who has urged greater respect for human rights within Sharia, was arrested in September 2017.

He had previously criticised the government but more recently kept silent or failed to publicly back Saudi policies, including a rift with Qatar over supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Awdah is the assistant secretary-general of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, listed in Saudi Arabia as a terrorist organisation.

The organisation is based in Doha and is also listed as a terrorist entity in Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain, which together with Saudi Arabia have imposed a blockade on Qatar since June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Qatar denies the allegations and says the Saudi-led bloc is attacking its sovereignty over its independent foreign policy.An Afghan interpreter who risked his life to work for the British Army for three years is sleeping rough on the streets of Athens after his bid to live in the UK was rejected.

Mohammed Nabi Wardak, 30, worked as a British Army interpreter between 2008 and 2011 and fled his homeland in 2016 after being threatened by the Taliban.

But despite promises from the UK Government, the father-of-four has been told he and his family 'do not qualify' for relocation in the UK.

Mohammed Nabi Wardak, 30 (pictured) worked as a British Army interpreter between 2008 and 2011 but he has been denied residency in the UK by the Home Office

The Home Office claims it is because he left the Army on two occasions - once because his mother was seriously ill and the other because of heightened threats from Taliban forces.

Afghan translator killed himself after being refused UK residency An interpreter who worked for British troops in Afghanistan killed himself in 2016 after being told he did not qualify for asylum in the UK and would be deported. Nangyalai Dawoodzai, 29, was said to have been 'deeply depressed' about the threat of being thrown out of the country despite working with British forces in Helmand. Fellow interpreters said he had spoken of suicide in the weeks leading up to his death in April 2016. He hanged himself at a friend's flat in West Bromwich before he could leave. Mr Dawoodzai had paid people smugglers to reach the UK after receiving Taliban death threats. But he was told he could not stay in Britain because he had been fingerprinted in Italy and had to claim asylum there. It is believed he did not qualify for the 'relocation scheme' because of its strict rules about working for the British in December 2012 and serving for 12 months in Helmand. Advertisement

There has been outrage in the UK, after several translators were denied the right to settle on British shores, highlighted by the Daily Mail's Betrayal of the Brave campaign.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has been promising the introduction of new measures to ensure those who served with the Army in Afghanistan are given UK visas - but many are still fighting.

But now charity Faith Matters is trying to bring Mohammed to the UK with an online petition on Change.org that has already accumulated 7,500 signatures.

He told the Independent from Athens: 'The army said they liked me, that I did a good job. I saved lives in the battlefield, taking part in ambush operations. I did all I could, but they've left me behind.

'I feel betrayed. I worked for the UK. I am not a normal refugee. I sacrificed my life for them.

'They should protect my children. My children are in danger. I don't want them to be punished because of me. I left my house and my children for them, why are they forgetting that?'

During his three years as an interpreter, Mohammed worked in conflict zones including Helmand, Musa Kala and the heavily fought over district of Kajaki.

While working for the British Mohammed received several threats directed at him and his family, both in the form of letters and knocks on his door.

He informed the military of the threats and was assured they had been acknowledged - but nothing was done.

The threats later escalated and Mohammed was left fearing for his life after twice being contacted by senior Taliban operatives, who told him he was on their target list.

In 2016, the Taliban took over areas around Mohammed's village and, fearing for his life, he fled for Turkey.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (pictured outside Downing Street) has been promising the introduction of new measures to ensure those who served with the Army in Afghanistan are given UK visas - but many are still fighting

Mohammed is now pleading with the British government to reconsider his case, as he says his wife and children - aged eight, six, five and three - are in danger from Taliban insurgents.

Mohammed has been trying to contact the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees ever since - but to no avail.

In May 2018, Mohammed crossed from Turkey into Greece, and has been sleeping rough in Athens since, where he has been assaulted and robbed multiple times.

Hero translator fears for his life back in Afghanistan An Afghan translator credited with helping save the lives of dozens of British soldiers trapped for nearly two months by the Taliban has said that their fighters have been trying to hunt him down. Fardin, 37, said that twice in the past ten days a suspected Taliban fighter had been in his home neighbourhood of the Afghan capital Kabul asking neighbours and shopkeepers exactly where he lives with his wife and children. 'I am terrified,' he said. 'My wife is crying constantly. All the evidence is that they are searching for me and that can only be for one reason to kill me because I work for the British. They know what I look like, they know what I did for the British and they want revenge.' Fardin, who still works with British forces in Kabul, was one of three Afghan interpreters who were the 'eyes and ears' of 88 soldiers cut off and surrounded by 500 Taliban at the outpost of Musa Qala in Helmand for 56 days. He monitored Taliban radio signals, providing vital details of planned attacks. Despite his bravery and the fact he has worked with the British for more than a decade, he has been told he does not qualify for sanctuary in the UK because he did not spend a full year on the front line. The refusal to help Fardin and his family has outraged former soldiers. Sergeant Freddie Kruyer, 49, an ex-intelligence officer, said Fardin and his two colleagues were 'instrumental' in saving soldiers' lives a 'number of times' during the siege in autumn 2006. Advertisement

Now, faith community organisation Faith Matters are working with Mohammed and an organisation in Athens to help bring he and his family safely to the UK.

Fiyaz Mughal, founder of Faith Matters, wrote: 'We are disgusted that this brave man, who had to leave his country since he helped our military and became a target of the Taliban, is left to fend on the streets of Athens.

'Risking his life for us, he was told 'that he and his family do not qualify for relocation to the UK'. This simply cannot be right.

'This is an unacceptable situation where a man who helped our armed forces lives in a dire situation and has been left to fend for himself.'

A Home Office spokesman said they did not comment on individual cases, but the newspaper: 'We recognise the vital role interpreters and local staff played in operations in Afghanistan.

'We are the only nation with a permanent expert team based in Kabul to investigate claims of intimidation, offering tailored security advice and support to individuals and their families.

'Over 1,200 former Afghan staff and their families have been relocated to the UK through our redundancy scheme.

'Those who have been offered relocation are the ones who have faced the greatest danger working alongside British troops in Helmand province.

'The defence secretary recently announced an expansion of the scheme allowing for a further 200 visas to be issued.'

The Faith Matters petition reads: 'Please sign this petition to collectively send a message to the Government that this brave man who risked all for us, cannot be left to fend for himself, with his family also at risk.

'This Government talks much about tackling extremism and terrorism. The least we can do is to provide sanctuary to those who stood with us in the fight against it.'

One signatory comment reads: 'I strongly believe we owe people who helped our armed services in conflict a debt and if life in their home country has become unsafe because of the help they gave we are obliged to give them a home in the UK.'

Another wrote: 'I have signed this because this man has worked legally for the UK government in a dangerous situation which effectively continues for him, but can be removed by allowing him into the UK - the very country which he has helped.'Heartbreaking diary entries of a partially deaf girl who claims bullies hung her from a tree with a skipping rope have been revealed by her mother.

Amber Yoon, 10, was allegedly strung up by her neck in the playground of Queen of Apostles Catholic School in Perth late last month.

On Tuesday, taking a stand against the bullies, Amber's mother, Belinda, shared the diary entries that alerted her to her daughter's tormentors months ago.

Scroll down for video

The heartbreaking diary pages of a bullied 10-year-old girl have been revealed by her mother

10-year-old Amber (pictured) has been in and out of hospitals her entire life, but mother Belinda is worried that this is what could break her daughter's spirit

'I can't get off my mind why won't my 'friends' won't (sic) play with me,' the young girl wrote in a new diary after ripping out her previous entries, revealed by Nine News.

'And haven't been treating me not (sic) very nice.

'Pray for me please.'

On top of heart-wrenching messages, Amber would draw herself and label herself as the 'weird girl'.

She wrote that other children would not sit with her, claiming they would ignore her if she tried to interact with them in the playground.

Her nine-year-old brother, Hunter, who also attended the school, told his mother he had repeatedly seen Amber sit alone.

Amber was born with a rare heart defect and an oesophagus disconnected from her stomach, but Belinda is scared that the bullying will break her daughter.

'She's such a tough little cookie, I just really hope this has not broken her spirit,' Ms Yoon said.

'Because that for me is what would be unforgivable.'

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 school is accused of failing to get Amber checked by a medical professional - even though she had clear marks on her neck

The schoolgirl, who is half the size of her classmates, said she was worried about getting in trouble when a teacher came to her aid.

'I was feeling very scared. I thought I was going to die. And I was scared I was going to get into trouble,' a traumatised Amber told PerthNow.

The little girl was struggling to breathe and was reportedly cut loose by a teacher who gave her a stern warning before learning the near-death stunt was not her idea, her family said.

Ms Yoon told Channel 9 her daughter's toes were barely scraping the ground and that she could have died.

She claimed she only found out about the horrific incident when her daughter came home from school crying.

To make matters worse, the school is accused of failing to get Amber checked by a doctor - even though she had clear marks on her neck.

Her mother said the little girl had 'suffered more pain' in her life than most children ever would.

Amber's mother, Belinda (right), said 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.'

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 mother believes a harder stance needs to be taken against schoolyard bullies, with automatic suspensions and public apologies in front of their peers - a tactic she believes will be more embarrassing and more of a deterrent to children.

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'.

She has withdrawn both Amber and her brother from Queens of Apostles, and is currently in talks with CEWA to find a new school for the pair.

No-one has been arrested or charged.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the school for comment.Brycen Zerby (bottom left) was killed on Monday after he was hit by his church's float during local Labor Day parade in Windsor, Colorado pictured with his parents Jimmy and Melissa

An eight-year-old boy was killed after being hit by a church float in a local parade on Labor Day.

Brycen Zerby was taking part in the Windsor Harvest Festival parade in Colorado when he was hit by the float, made to promote the church he and his family attend.

Todd Vess of Windsor Severance Fire Rescue told the Denver Post it wasn't immediately clear whether he fell from the float or was walking beside the float when he was hit.

Brycen was rushed to hospital after he was struck, but died from his injuries with his parents, Jimmy and Melissa, by his side soon after arriving.

A GoFundMe account set up by Clear Water Products, the company his father Jimmy works for shows the tight-knit family standing near a mountain, and posts from a friend show the close bond Brycen shared with the man.

'Baby boy idolized his daddy,' wrote Danielle Mills.

'You guys have always been the example of what amazing parents are! Do not doubt your father's undying love! I pray he wraps you all up in his love to bring you peace!'

The parade was immediately cancelled after Brycen was hit, and the small town has come out in droves to comfort the grieving family.

A GoFundMe was set up by Clear Water products, who employ Brycen's father Jimmy, to help them deal with living expenses while they grieved

Brycen was hit by a float promoting his family's local church (pictured) and died from his injuries soon after. Authorities have not confirmed if he was riding on the float or walking beside it

'The whole Town of Windsor's faces just went from smiles to sad [when Brycen was hit],' local woman Dana Trimble told the Greeley Tribune.

'We were watching them, and the next thing you know, you just hear shrieking and screaming,' she said.

'The mom was just frantic, of course, just screaming and crying.'

Generations Church in nearby Greeley confirmed in a statement that the boy was part of its parade float and that his family attended its services.

'Our concentration, prayers and time are being given to the family, grieving their loss, and ours,' the statement said.

'Future outreach events are on hold, while we do that well, and until we can move forward with unity and wisdom.'

Jason Edwards, vice president of Clear Water Products, said regardless of how much their GoFundMe raised, the company would 'take care' of the Zerby family.

'We're going to be here,' he said, explaining he had told Jimmy, an employee of the company and Brycen's father, not to worry about work or finances until he was ready.

'That little boy was his life,' Edwards said.Shane Colombo, 25, was shot dead on Sunday night as he walked near campus in Chicago. He was caught in the cross fire of two men having a gunfight

A Northwestern graduate student is one of six people who were shot dead in Chicago over Labor Day weekend, bringing the total number of shootings in the city to a staggering 1,000 since Memorial Day.

Shane Colombo, 25, was caught in the crossfire of two men who were shooting at each other at 8:25 p.m. on Sunday night.

It happened in the in the 7600 block of North Clark Street, two miles from Northwestern's campus. He was due to join the school's psychology program this fall.

Police have not yet identified the two men whose deadly gunfight he found himself in the middle of.

Over the course of the weekend, five others were killed and 25 were wounded in at least seven different incidents.

Between May 27 and August 27, the number of people shot in the city rose from 1,005 to 2,006.

That number does not include the six additional people killed this weekend.

Among those injured were two girls aged 11 and 17 who were shot in a drive-by attack as they walked down the street. It is not clear if they were the gunmen's intended targets.

The number of shootings per year has decreased since 2016 but there has been a steady rise since the start of the year

Police respond to a shooting in Chicago on August 29. Since Memorial Day, 1,000 people have been shot in the city

Some, including Norris Anderson who died after being shot multiple times after a fight over a game of craps, were targeted.

Anderson, 41, was in a home playing the dice game when an argument broke out at around 4am on Sunday. He was shot multiple times in the chest and staggered out into the street where police found him unresponsive.

His killer fled the scene and police are yet to make an arrest.

In a separate shooting, 32-year-old Roley Johnson III, was killed by a bullet which struck him in the neck.

He was shot by a masked gunman who fled the scene after opening fire on Johnson and his group of friends in the street at 3:50am on Saturday.

Another man in the group was shot but survived.

Four others, whose names are yet to be revealed, were also killed.

They include a 31-year-old woman who was shot in the back of the head in an alleyway by a gunman who opened fire on a group, and a 21-year-old woman who died in hospital after being shot on Friday morning at 8:47 a.m.

Tensions flare at the scene of a shooting on July 14. The summer months saw a spike in the number of shootings in the city

An 18-year-old man was also killed after being shot as he stood on the sidewalk on Friday a 2:40pm. No one has been arrested in connection with that killing either.

Since Memorial Day weekend, Chicago has been plagued with 1,000 separate shootings.

August has seen the highest number of shootings with 369 people shot. In July, 298 were shot and 336 were shot in June.

The numbers rose over summer and most took place over the weekend either in the evening or during the night.

In 2017, 3,657 people were shot in Chicago. In 2018, 2,006 have been since January.

The number by the end of August last year was higher at 2,513. The year before was more severe, with 2,822.

The endless violence has prompted calls for Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago, to resign.

He has not yet addressed the weekend's shooting deaths and has been promoting education programs instead.This is the incredible moment a hyena set an impala free while trying to steal it from the jaws of a leopard at a South African waterhole.

Peet Van Schalkwyk captured the footage after hours watching the wildlife at the Delaporte waterhole in Kruger National Park.

The retired engineering professor had witnessed elephants, zebras, giraffes and impala drinking at the hole - before being told there was a leopard hiding in the bush.

A hyena unwittingly saved an impala from the jaws of a leopards after it spotted the predator beside a waterhole

The predator had spooked impala herds as it waited on the sidelines, and had been unsuccessful in his hunt throughout the morning.

But Mr Van Schalkwyk captured the heart-racing moment the leopard made a successful lunge for food - chasing down one impala who slipped in the water.

It dragged the animal by its neck towards a tree, forcing it onto the ground near the cemented dam.

But just as all looked bleak for the captured impala, a hyena stumbled over to the waterhole.

When it spotted the leopard in the bush to its side, the brazen beast chased the predator away, and the impala took the opportunity to make a dash for freedom.

Mr Van Schalkwyk told LatestSightings.com: 'We were watching elephants, zebras, giraffes and impala drinking water at the waterhole for two hours as many vehicles came and went.

Peet Van Schalkwyk captured the footage after hours watching the wildlife at the Delaporte waterhole in Kruger National Park

The leopard dragged the impala by its neck towards a tree, forcing it onto the ground near the cemented dam

'We were about to leave when a lady told us that there was a leopard hiding in the bush and he was spooking the impala herds every now and then but had so far been unsuccessful.

'We decided to wait and then he finally caught an impala. A number of impala were drinking in the shallow water of a cemented dam. The leopard chased and one slipped in the water.

'The leopard grabbed it by the neck and dragged it towards a tree but along came a hyena and when it saw the leopard with the impala it chased the leopard away.

'The impala was not dead and it got away in the confusion. The hyena rescued the impala by accident! We were extremely excited to have witnessed something so special.'

'This was a first for us as we have witnessed a cheetah kill before but never a leopard kill.

'The hyena rescued the impala by accident!'A British expat couple were gassed in their home by thieves who stole their car and went on a robbery rampage in Spain.

John and Jacqueline Armitage, 72 and 70, had their car stolen from outside their house in Mollina, after they were gassed at night by thieves.

The retired couple, from Portsmouth, who moved to Spain from Portsmouth were awoken by officers from the Guardia Civil who told them they had been robbed.

After banging on their doors, police told them their Toyota had been found torched having been involved in various robberies.

John and Jacqueline Armitage, 72 and 70, moved to Mollina, near Antequera 11 years ago

Police found the burnt out shell of their Toyota which the couple had brought with them from the UK

'We had no idea we had been robbed,' John told the Olive Press, 'I'm a light sleeper and our dog barks at the slightest noise so police are 100% sure we were gassed.'

According to the couple, their Gibraltar-based insurance firm is now refusing to pay out without the car's original documents, which were inside when it was burnt.

'It's a complete catch 22. Spanish law says you must keep all documents in the car, now we are having to spend hundreds to try and get them duplicated.'

John, a former Royal Navy employee, issued a stark warning to other expats telling them to keep their insurance documents at home.

'The system is stupid,' he added, 'In our case only the originals are accepted, so if your car is stolen or destroyed like ours then you're screwed.'

It is still unclear whether the insurance company Tradewise will pay out if they manage to obtain the duplicates.

According to police in the town, the couple were gassed as the thieves stole the car and carried out a robbery spree

The couple said they were now struggling to get the insurance money from the robbery because their documents were inside the burnt-out car

The couple, who moved to Mollina, near Antequera 11 years ago, have had to fork out hundreds to travel to Malaga to duplicate registration and the vehicle's ITV documents.

The car was bought in the UK but had been transferred to Spanish plates.

Tradewise Gibraltar told the Olive Press: 'It would be inappropriate for us to comment on individual cases, however Ley 50/1980, de 8 octubre, Contrato de Seguro, the law applicable to insurance contracts in Spain allows the insurer 40 days from when the claim is reported in order to complete their internal investigations, at which point they must make payment of the minimum amount of compensation due.

'Where Spanish Law has been applied to the contract we will endeavour to comply with the above practice and settle the matter accordingly.'

The couple were woken up by police who said it was most likely that they had been gassed to stop them waking upBrave shopworkers were sprayed with a noxious substance when they gave chase to a shoplifter in a suspected acid attack.

The shocking incident happened on busy Westbourne Grove in leafy Bayswater, west London, in front of horrified lunchtime shoppers.

Police say they were called just after 2pm today to reports of a noxious substance being sprayed.

Local residents said two members of staff at the Tool Lodge store were attacked after challenging the suspected thief.

Police collect evidence outside the Tool Lodge store in Westbourne Grove, west London

The manager of a property letting company next door said the two men attacked are in their 50's and 60's and were originally from Iraq.

The suspect is still at large.

He said: 'I think the two men that work there were the ones that were attacked and maybe one person who happened to be outside at the time.'

He added: 'I've never heard of anything like this happening here before - it's a nice area.'

Police collected paintbrushes in evidence bags, left, and police tape lies on the floor next to bottled chemicals, right

The Tool Lodge store was closed just after 4pm today. There was no sign of police or a cordon and the shop lights had been turned off.

There did not seem to be any obvious signs of a corrosive substance.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'Police were called at 2.09pm to reports of a noxious substance being sprayed.

'Staff at a shop in Westbourne Grove, near the junction with Garway Road, had apparently challenged a suspected shoplifter.

The Metropolitan Police said they were called to reports of an assault on Westbourne Grove, Westminster (pictured) with a 'noxious substance'

'The man had then sprayed the staff, with what police suspect to be, a noxious irritant.

'Officers attended along with the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade.

'Three men were treated for the effects of the substance, one man has been taken to a central London hospital.'

He added: 'At this early stage his injuries are not thought to be life threatening or changing.

'Others affected have been treated at the scene.'

He said no arrests have been made and enquiries continue.Brett Kavanaugh vows to be an 'umpire - a neutral and impartial arbiter' on the Supreme Court as the first day of his confirmation hearing was disrupted by protesters and Democrats alike.

'A good judge must be an umpirea neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy,' Kavanaugh told senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday afternoon, over two hours after he was originally scheduled to speak.

Day one of his time before the Senate committee was interrupted continuously by protesters expressing concerns about his record on abortion rights and Democratic senators demanding the hearing be postponed so they could have more time to read the documents from his time in the government.

Seventy protesters were arrested, according to a statement from U.S. Capitol Police.

The day grew dragged on and grew so contentious that Kavanaugh's two young daughters were escorted from the room although they returned in the afternoon to hear their father's opening statement.

'My judicial philosophy is straightforward. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written. A judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent. In deciding cases, a judge must always keep in mind what Alexander Hamilton said in Federalist 83: 'the rules of legal interpretation are rules of common sense,'' Kavanaugh said.

Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Brett Kavanaugh sits with his wife, Ashley, daughter Liza, and daughter Margaret as he is introduced to senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio and Attorney Lisa Blatt arrive to introduce Brett Kavanaugh

Senators will start questioning Kavanaugh on Wednesday

Kavanaugh, in his opening statement, vowed to be a 'neutral' presence on the Supreme Court

Martha Kavanaug wipes away tears at son Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing, she seated between husband Everett Edward Kavanaugh, Jr. and granddaughter Margaret Kavanaugh

Kavanaugh says he's proud of the more than 300 opinions he has written as an Appeals Court judge.

'I tell people, 'Don't read what others say about my judicial opinions. Read the opinions,' he said.

While his opening statement ended the day on a calm note, the hearing started off in a circus-like atmosphere as one by one, the protestors took turns shouting and being removed by U.S. Capitol Police with one even being carried out of the room.

And Democrats on the committee didn't even let Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley finish his opening statement before they demanded the hearing being adjourned so they had time to review 42,000 documents released to the committee Monday night.

A Republican senator described the hearing as 'mob rule' while another GOP senator complained about being shouted down during his remarks, asking for the 'loudmouth' to be removed.

It was so bad Grassley vowed Wednesday's hearing, when senators will get a chance to question Kavanaugh, would be different.

'I'm not going to let happen tomorrow what I let happen today,' he said. 'You guys have been very successful today at running the committee and I don't want that to happen tomorrow.'

Daughters Margaret and Liza had joined Kavanaugh and his wife Ashley at the hearing's start with younger daughter Liza holding Kavanaugh's hand as he entered the room.

Kavanaugh was supposed to introduce his family early on in the hearing but the interruptions from protestors and senators delayed that part of the proceedings.

So the girls left the room as Democrats expressed their concern about their father's stance on executive powers, abortion rights, and gun rights - topics that will likely come up over the next two days when Kavanaugh faces questions from the panel.

Brett Kavanaugh is greeted by committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley as Kavanaugh's family walks in with him before his confirmation hearing

Kavanaugh was supposed to introduce his family to the committee but protesters interrupted the proceedings

The family of Brett Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing

Later in the hearing the Kavanaugh daughters had left the hearing

Protesters dressed in The Handmaid's Tale costume, protest outside the hearing room where Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee

A Code Pink protester is removed from Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing

A protestor is carried out by security

Liza Kavanaugh with her head on mom Ashley Kavanaugh's head as sister Margaret sits next to her

Kavanaugh's daughters were removed from the hearing

Kavanaugh is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Martha Kavanaugh, mother of Brett Kavanaugh, wipes away tears in his confirmation hearing

President Donald Trump defended his nominee and slammed Democrats in a tweet sent while Kavanaugh was giving his opening statement.

'The Brett Kavanaugh hearings for the future Justice of the Supreme Court are truly a display of how mean, angry, and despicable the other side is. They will say anything, and are only....,' he wrote.

'....looking to inflict pain and embarrassment to one of the most highly renowned jurists to ever appear before Congress. So sad to see!'

Kavanaugh was introduced to the Senate panel by Condoleezza Rice and Sen. Rob Portman, both of whom he served with in the George W. Bush administration. Lisa Blatt, an appellate lawyer in Washington D.C. and self-described Democrat, rounded out the introductions.

Kavanaugh, a federal judge in Washington D.C., expressed gratitude for his friends as he goes through the confirmation process.

'This past May, I delivered the commencement address at Catholic University Law School. I gave the graduates this advice: Cherish your friends. Look out for your friends. Lift up your friends. Love your friends,' he said. 'Over the last 8 weeks, I have been strengthened by the love of my friends. I thank all my friends.'

He also expressed his love of his family, whom he first introduced to the nation in July when Trump officially nominated him to the Supreme Court.

He said of his wife Ashley: 'This has not exactly been the summer she had planned for our family. I am grateful for her love and inspiration. Ashley is a kind soul. She always sees the goodness in others. She has made me a better person and a better judge. I thank God every day for my family.'

He said his daughters Margaret and Liza will be around over the next few days.

'My daughters Margaret and Liza will be in and out of this hearing room over the next few days. In the time since you last saw them at the White House, I am pleased to report that Margaret has gotten her braces off and has turned 13. Margaret is the sweetest girl you'll ever know. As for Liza, well, I tell her every night that no one gives a better hug than Liza Kavanaugh,' he said.

He concluded his opening statement with an optimistic note and with reassurances for the committee members.

'I look forward to the rest of the hearing and to your questions. I am an optimist. I live on the sunrise side of the mountain, not the sunset side of the mountain. I see the day that is coming, not the day that is gone. I am optimistic about the future of America and the future of our independent Judiciary. I revere the Constitution. If confirmed to the Supreme Court, I will keep an open mind in every case. I will do equal right to the poor and to the rich. I will always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American Rule of Law,' he said.

Senators found themselves having to pause during their opening statements as screaming protesters disrupted the day.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin acknowledged the protestors in the room.

'What we heard was the noise of democracy. This is what we hear when free people stand up to speak,' he said. 'It's not mob rule.'

He went on to address the pressure on Kavanaugh and his family.

'There are times it is uncomfortable. I'mm sure it was for your children. I hope you can explain it to them,' he said.

And Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas apologized to Kavanaugh for his daughters having to experience the protests.

'I'm sorry your daughters had to endure the political circus this morning,' Cruz said. 'That is Washington, alas, in 2018.'

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse also apologized to the family and said he was happy the girls could leave.

'I'm glad your daughters could get out of the room and I hope they still get the free day from school,' he said. Tuesday marked the first day of Washington D.C. schools.

Circus was an appropriate description of the day as Tuesday's gathering was dominated by shouts from protestors, complaints from Democratic senators, waving signs, removal of disrupters by U.S. Capitol Police, and a committee chairman banging his gavel calling for 'regular order.'

'Please vote no!' one person in the hearing yelled to the Senate Judiciary Committee members.

Trump's presidency was also invoked.

'An illegitimate president cannot make an appointment to Supreme Court,' another shouted according to reports from the room.

'This should be an impeachment proceeding,' another yelled.

'If you vote for Brett Kavanaugh we will replace you,' one threatened the senators.

Another protester said: 'My daughter deserves the right to choose.'

'Stop the oppression of women,' roared one protester after the hearing resumed following a lunch break.

Family members of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, including his wife, Ashley, far right, and two daughters, listen to Democratic senators motion to adjourn the hearing

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said he was sure the protests were tough for Kavanaugh's kids

Protest after protest interrupted senators' opening statement

Women are concerned about Kavanaugh's record on abortion rights

Chairman Grassley had instructed police to remove protestors from the room

Sen. Orrin Hatch apologized to Kavanaugh for the interruptions

Protestors plan to interrupt the hearing all day

'This is a mockery and a travesty of justice,' another yelled.

'Be a hero,' one protestor implored senators.

'Vote for our children,' screamed another.

'Hell no Kavanaugh,' yelled a protestor.

'Roe - yes; Kavanaugh - nope,' read one sign held by a Code Pink protestor in reference to the landmark Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade that legalized abortion.

Outside the hearing, protestors dressed in costumes from 'The Handmaid's Tale,' greeted senators arriving for their first day with Kavanaugh.

The distinctive red robes and white hats were donned by the protestors as they stood in silent in the Hart Senate Office Building.

The women were portraying the characters in the popular dystopian drama 'The Handmaid's Tale' on Hulu, based on the 1985 book by Margaret Atwood, where women are forced into sexual servitude and denied basic rights.

The group said they were there to protest Kavanaugh's 'anti-abortion, anti-healthcare and anti-women' views.

'Brett Kavanaugh is an extremist ideologue who, if confirmed to the Supreme Court, will take away women's basic rights,' they said in a statement to The Hill newspaper.

Kavanaugh is replacing retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was often a swing vote on controversial cases. Kavanaugh, a more conservative federal judge, is expected to move the high court to the right.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn described the hearing as 'mob rule.'

'This is the first one for a Supreme Court justice hearing I have seen according to mob rule,' he said.

The shouts continued to ring out throughout the hearing, at least every 15 or 20 minutes, with senators pausing in their opening statements to allow police time to remove the disrupters.

Among the people arrested were actress Piper Perabo, UltraViolet co-founder Shaunna Thomas and Women's March co-founders Linda Sarsour and Bob Bland, The Huffington Post reported.

Code Pink protesters, who are a regular presence at Senate hearings, were arrested.

The Center for Popular Democracy Action and the Women's March said they have about 70 people planning to risk arrest.

The interruptions went on throughout the day.

'We're disrupting the Kavanaugh hearings every few minutes, with hundreds of women prepared to get arrested to prevent these hearings from moving forward,' read a tweet from the Women's March twitter account, which describes itself as 'leading the fight to #CancelKavanaugh because we can't stay silent as the rights women fought for generations to secure are take away.'

It got so loud one Republican senator complained about the protestors.

'Mr. Chairman, I think we should have this loudmouth removed. We shouldn't have to put up with this kind of stuff. I hope that she's not a law student!' Sen. Orrin Hatch asked of a protestor drowning out his opening statement.

'I expect the police to do their job and the committee to go on,' Grassley replied.

Hatch, who had to raise his voice at various points in order to be heard, complained again at the end of his remarks.

'Frankly these people are so out of line they shouldn't even be in the doggone room,' he said.

And he apologized to Kavanaugh.

'I'm sorry you have to go through this nonsense,' he told him.

Kavanaugh spent the majority of his day sitting there quietly as the chaos reigned around him. At time he scribbled notes on a pad.

Organizers planned more than 70 interruptions

The first 15 minutes of Kavanaugh's hearing was chaos

Multiple protestors were removed from the hearing room

Women stood up one after another to protest

U.S. Capitol Police take a protester away from Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing

Women - and many Democratic senators - are concerned Kavanaugh would be the deciding vote on a Supreme Court case that could overturn Roe vs. Wade and make abortion illegal.

During a lunch break in the hearing, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime Guttenberg was one of the high school students killed in the Parkland High School shootings in February, wrote on Twitter he tried to talk to Kavanaugh, who turned away from him.

'Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended. Put out my hand to introduce myself as Jaime Guttenberg's dad. He pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence,' he wrote.

But the White House pushed back, saying security had stopped Guttenberg from speaking to Kavanaugh.

'As Judge Kavanaugh left for his lunch break, an unidentified individual approached him. Before the Judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened,' White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah, who's handling Kavanaugh's confirmation, tweeted.

But Guttenberg snapped back at Shah, saying Sen. Diane Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced him.

'Incorrect. I was here all day and introduced by Senator Feinstein. No security involved. He turned and walked away,' he tweeted in reply.

The protestors in the hearing were aided by Democratic senators, who didn't even let Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley finish his opening statement before they demanded the hearing be adjourned.

'I would like to have this be a peaceful session,' Grassley said of what is the first day of a week's worth of hearings on Trump's nominee.

Grassleys said the hearings would go into Sunday if needed.

Democrats plotted a coordinated protest strategy over the holiday weekend and all agreed to disrupt and protest the hearing, NBC News reported.

Fred Guttenberg (L), father of Parkland, Florida, shooting victim Jaime Guttenberg, tries to speak with Judge Brett Kavanaugh as he leaves for a break during his confirmation hearing

Fred Guttenberg tweeted Kavanaugh turned away from him when he introduced himself

Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jamie Guttenberg who was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., left, speaks after attempting to shake hands with Brett Kavanaugh

Fred Guttenberg's daughter was killed in the Parkland shootings

The White House said security kept Kavanaugh from speaking to Fred Guttenberg

Guttenberg snapped back

Judge Brett Kavanaugh listens to Fred Guttenberg, a parent of a student who was a victim at the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland,Florida

Protestors also invoked Donald Trump's presidency

Brett Kavanaugh arrives for his confirmation hearing

Tuesday marks the first day of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing

Capitol Police removed protestors

Women were protesting Kavanaugh's stance on abortion

Women are concerned Brett Kavanaugh could be the deciding court vote in overturning Roe vs. Wade

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Grassley led the call.

'There was a phone conference yesterday' and 'many issues were raised,' said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Democrats were concerned about 42,000 documents given to the committee on Monday night and that they did not have time to read them.

'I move to adjourn this hearing,' Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut proposed with fellow Democratic Senators like Cory Booker supporting him.

Grassley refused to entertain such a motion.

'This is something I've never gone through before in 15 years of Supreme Court nominations,' Grassley said of the hearing's start.

A half-dozen Democrats interrupted committee proceedings in succession to ask for a delay.

'The committee received last night, less than 15 hours ago, 42,000 pages of documents that we have not had an opportunity to review or read or analyze,' Sen. Kamala Harris interjected. 'We cannot possibly move forward, Mr. Chairman, with this hearing. We have not been given an opportunity to have a meaningful hearing on this nominee.'

Grassley struggled to maintain order as Sens. Cory Booker, Patrick Leahy, Mazie Hirono, Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal jumped in on the action.

Kamala Harris interjected to say, 'We cannot possibly move forward, Mr. Chairman, with this hearing. We have not been given an opportunity to have a meaningful hearing on this nominee'

A half-dozen Democrats interrupted committee proceedings in succession to ask for a delay

Police take away protesters for processing

A steady drum beat of protesters interrupted Kavanaugh's hearing

U.S. Capitol Police were on hand to arrest all those who disrupted the hearing

'I move to adjourn,' Blumenthal said. 'Mr. Chairman, we have been denied real access to the documents we need.'

Blumenthal accused Grassley of turning the 'hearing into a charade and a mockery of our norms.'

Kavanaugh sat blank-faced as the spectacle unfolded. Grassley told his colleagues, 'We will continue as planned.'

It was committee Democrats, several of whom are rumored presidential candidates, who stole the show.

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch acknowledged the politics in the room.

'We have folks running for president, who want that moment in the spotlight, who want the TV clip. Frankly I wish we could drop all that nonsense,' he said.

Booker objected to keeping the hearing going.

'What is the rush? What are we trying to hide by not having the documents out front,' Booker demanded.

The New Jersey senator called into question Grassley's character, infuriating the the 84-year-old Iowa senator.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey was one of the Democrats interrupting the hearing

'This is something I've never gone through before in 15 years of Supreme Court nominations,' Chairman Chuck Grassley said of the hearing's start

Sen. Orrin Hatch complained about the protesters

'I respect a lot of things you do,' he told the senator with whom he's worked on criminal justice reform, 'but you spoke about my decency and integrity.'

He rebutted: 'I think that you are taking advantage of my decency and integrity.'

For more than an hour, lawmakers went back and forth as Kavanaugh

Democrats have been engaged in a full-court press to derail his nomination, framing it as a referendum on Trump and a motivation-builder in advance of the November congressional elections.

Cruz charged the party with trying to relive the 2016 election.

'This fight is nothing more and nothing less than an attempt by my Democratic colleagues to re-litigate the 2016 election,' the Texas Republican said during the hearing.

On Monday night the committee received 42,000 pages of documents about Kavanaugh's years with the Bush administration. That prompted complaints from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, saying that [n]ot a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow.'

Democrats also blasted an exertion of executive privilege on the Friday evening heading into Labor Day as eleventh-hour.

'We're witnessing a Friday night document massacre,' Schumer said Saturday, referring to a scandal involving disgraced President Richard Nixon. 'President Trump's decision to step in at the last moment and hide 100,000 pages of Judge Kavanaugh's 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 charged that Republicans in the Senate the current president are 'colluding to keep Judge Kavanaugh's 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?'

Democrats did some eleventh-hour heel dragging of their own on Monday, writing a letter to the White House counsel that claimed the Trump administration is trying to 'hide a significant portion of Judge Kavanaugh's White House record' an act it called 'deeply concerning.'

One by one protestors disrupted Kavanaugh's hearing

Another protestor is removed from the hearing

Women dressed as characters from the novel-turned-TV series 'The Handmaid's Tale' stand in an elevator at the Hart Senate Office Building as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh starts the first day of his confirmation hearing

'Be a hero' one protestor implored senators

Grassley wants Democrats to stop complaining about documents and get to work.

The Iowa Republican said Monday that the Kavanaugh nomination has produced more documents on Kavanaugh than on any other nominee in history.

Kavanaugh's spokesman, White House principle deputy press secretary Raj Shah, also fired back at Democrats on Monday morning, as both sides prepped for battle.

'The respect for constitutional privilege has been consistent with how every recent Supreme Court nominee had been reviewed by this committee,' he told DailyMail.com. 'This is pretty much a made-up controversy.'

Shah said that the White House has produced 'more documents than the last five Supreme Court nominees combined.'

He said that Democrats have had more time to consider Kavanaugh's nomination than last several, recent nominees by a week.

'They have ample time ample information to review his record,' the Kavanaugh spokesman said.

Taking a swipe at the other side, Shah noted that many Democrats said from the start that they weren't planning to consider Kavanaugh's qualifications at all.

Protesters continually interrupted Kavanaugh's hearing

Police removed protestors

Brett Kavanaugh smiles at his wife and daughters

'This is a charade. We have a hearing set up this week. They can review his record, ask questions,' just like they have past Supreme Court appointees, he said, 'And then weight his nomination fairly.'

Shah reflected on the hyper-partisan nature of the nomination and said, 'In any normal circumstance, he would have gotten a big broad bipartisan support.'

Democrats argue that it's Republicans who broke the nomination process, however, when they opposed a qualified judge who Barack Obama wanted to put on the bench on the grounds that decisions of such magnitude shouldn't be made in an election year.

Tuesday's opening committee session will be consumed entirely by opening statements  every senator on the panel will have time to stemwind and posture before a global TV audience  and the more aggressive question-and-answer session will get underway on Wednesday.Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (second, right) at the meeting (Photo: VNA)



The Government leader highlighted the growth of the special ties between the two countries over the past years, stressing that the two sides should work closely together to further develop the relationship and fight division plots of hostile forces.

He expressed his sympathies over the losses that Laos has suffered during the collapse of hydropower dam in Attapeu, underlining that Vietnam has made every effort to help Laos overcome the disasters consequences.

Amidst complicated and unexpected developments in the world and the region, he stressed the need for the two sides to effectively implement joint statements, high-level agreements as well as cooperation plans between the two Governments and agencies of both sides, including the collaboration deal between the Communist Party of Vietnams Mass Mobilisation Commission and the LFNC for the 2016-2020 period.

Noting that the LFNC will host the Laos-Vietnam-Cambodia Buddhism conference in late 2018, the PM underscored the significance of mass mobilization, as well as ethnic and religious affairs to the national construction and defence in both countries.

He asked for closer collaboration between the LFNC and the Vietnam Fatherland Front in popularising and promoting the tradition of the special ties of Vietnam and Laos, while combating wrongful arguments from hostile forces to divide the two nations, and continue supporting each other at multilateral forums.

PM Phuc affirmed his support to the strengthening of affiliation among agencies and sectors of Vietnam with the LFNC, as well as the policy of fostering partnership among localities of both sides, especially those along the border.

On the occasion, the PM asked the Lao side to continue backing the Vietnamese community in settling down in the country.

For his part, Saysomphone Phomvihane thanked the Party, State and people of Vietnam for giving a helping hand to Laos during the disaster of hydropower collapse in Attapeu.

Lauding the socio-economic development of Vietnam, he described the success as a motivation for Laos in completing socio-economic targets.

Briefing the host on the outcomes of his talks with representatives of the Mass Mobilisation Commission of Vietnam, he said that the two sides agreed to work harder together to educate the younger generations in both countries of the loyal solidarity and close ties between the two nations, while continue the exchange of delegations and the coordination in holding conferences and seeking measures to boost the growth of the Vietnam-Laos special friendship.

He said that the LFNC has maintained sound partnership with the Vietnamese side in issues related to ethnic and religious affairs, and asked for Vietnams support to the organisation of the Laos-Vietnam-Cambodia Buddhism conference.

On the occasion of the Vietnams 73rd National Day, he wished Vietnamese people further successes in the cause of national construction./.Put on your party clothes and get ready to celebrate ring in the New Year  the Jewish New Year, that is.

Traditionally, Rosh Hashanah is observed with candle lighting, family gatherings, trips to synagogue, the sounding of the shofar and festive meals.

Special foods, or simanim, are incorporated into meals during Rosh Hashanah to help ensure that each revellers year gets off to a good start. These traditional ingredients include honey, pomegranates, carrots, black-eyed peas, whole fish, leeks and more.

Jews blow the traditional "shofar" or ram's horn while in synagogues during religious holidays

Theyre incorporated into meals in a number of different ways.

Want to know more about Rosh Hashanah before its time to ring in the New Year? Heres what you need to know.

What is Rosh Hashanah?

Rosh Hashanah is the start of a new year on the Jewish calendar. Its celebrated as the head of the year in the month of Tishrei.

How is Rosh Hashanah celebrated?

Rosh Hashanah begins with a traditional candle lighting done by women in the household. After that, families and friends gather for large, festive meals, prayer services at synagogues and the sounding of the shofar, a rams horn that creates a unique sound when properly blown into.

During Rosh Hashanah, its customary to abstain from work or anything that may be viewed as work. This can include driving, handling money, carrying in public, writing, and more depending on how observant the person celebrating is.

WATCH: A Rabbi blows the Shofar ahead of Rosh HaShanah - Jewish New Year!  pic.twitter.com/foB0NN9cYL  Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) September 4, 2018

What day is Rosh Hashanah this year?

Rosh Hashanah begins in the evening on Sunday, September 9. It ends after nightfall on Tuesday, September 11.

Are schools open during Rosh Hashanah?

Public schools in New York City are closed Monday, September 10 and Tuesday, September 11 for Rosh Hashanah.

Check your Department of Education or school website to find out whether your school is closed for Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah greetings

The traditional Rosh Hashanah greeting is LShanah Tovah UMetukah. LShanah Tovah and Shanah Tovah will do as well.

Traditional foods for Rosh Hashanah

When most people think Rosh Hashanah foods, apples, honey, challah and brisket are the first things that come to mind. They are traditionally featured at each Rosh Hashanah Seder at some point, but there are many more traditional foods that may not immediately come to mind.

These foods are called simanim, or symbolic foods. They include ingredients like leeks, pomegranate, gourds, dates, black-eyed peas, green beans, apples, honey, beets, carrots, fish or rams head.

The symbolism of each food varies. Apples, for example, are said to be symbolic of the Jewish people. According to a blog post by Shimon Apisdorf, On most fruit trees the leaves appear before the fruit, thus providing a protective cover for the young fruit.

The apple, however, makes a pre-emptive move by appearing before the leaves. The Jewish people are compared to an apple because we are willing to live out our Jewish lives even if this seems to leave us unprotected.

Pomegranates are symbolic of the many accomplishments Jewish people will see through their mitzvot, or good deeds, throughout the coming year. Its also said to be symbolic of the Jewish population growing.

Fish or rams head is meant to symbolize the head of the year, which is what Rosh Hashanah is.

Each of the simanim is traditionally incorporated into every Rosh Hashanah meal in some way. Jewish people from different parts of the world have different ways of doing it.

A few traditional meals include tzimmes, a honey-glazed carrot dish; fish head soup; roasts incorporating apples, dates and other such ingredients; leeks with thyme; and more.

Apples dipped in honey, honey cakes and round challahs also grace Rosh Hashanah tables to world over.

Rosh Hashanah challah

During Rosh Hashanah, challah loaves are made round instead of their traditional straight braided style. This is mean to be reflective of the cyclical nature of years. It may also serve as a reminder that there is always an opportunity for teshuvah, or return.

Check out a no-fail challah recipe here and find braiding instructions in the video below.Jeremy Malim, 73, was today jailed for the sexual offences which took place at Brambletye Prep School in Sussex from 1975 to 2002

A retired prep school teacher who would touch boys 'in almost plain sight of other boys' has been sentenced to six years in jail for sex offences against three male pupils.

Jeremy Malim, aged 73 years, now retired and living in France, was convicted today after a nine-day trial.

He was convicted of four counts of indecent assault between 19 and 41 years ago following a police investigation.

Detective Constable Phil Cracknell, of the East Sussex Safeguarding Investigations Unit was one of the officers involved in the investigation.

Speaking after the conviction, he said: 'Our investigation found that Malim used his position of authority and trust to effectively 'groom' the boys he approached into a situation in which they felt unable to resist or report his advances.

'This consisted of touching them inside their clothing, often making light of it and often in almost plain sight of other boys.'

Malim's convictions included one involving a boy pupil then aged between 12 and 13 years between 1996 and 1999 and one count of indecent assault on a boy aged between 10 and 11 years at the school between 1977 and 1979.

They also consisted of one count of indecent assault on a boy aged nine years between 1978 and 1979.

All the offences were committed at Brambletye Prep School near East Grinstead, where Malim was employed as a senior master and French teacher between 1975 and 2002.

Malim was cleared of two counts of indecent assault on the 12 to 13-year-old boy between 1996 and 1999, but this was the second time he was tried on the six counts relating to the victim after a jury failed to agree on verdicts at the same court on September 4, 2017.

Det. Con. Cracknell said: 'The first two of these victims came to us, quite separately in 2014 and 2015, for the first time. Through one of them we then traced the third victim.

'They have all given evidence at the trial at Hove Crown Court and we admire their readiness to describe what happened to them, even after all these years, and the impact it has had on their lives.

'The victim of the 1996 to 1999 offences felt encouraged to come forward on seeing publicity about justice that had been done for so many other victims of similar non-recent offences, in Sussex and across the country.

'The victim of the 1977 to 1999 offences came forward separately and our enquiries then led us to the third victim.'

Malim will be on the Sex Offenders Register for life and had been living in Route Gare, Morteaux-Coliboeuf in Normandy before he was jailed.

Det. Con. Cracknell said: 'The young and vulnerable victims somehow accepted it at the time but it is quite clear that their distressing experiences stayed with them.'

A spokesman for Sussex Police emphasised that Malim left Brambletye School 16 years ago and that there were now no current safeguarding concerns in relation to pupils at the school.Celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman arrives at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court this afternoon

David Beckham was clocked driving nearly 20mph over the speed limit in a loaned Bentley - but denies speeding because legal papers were served late, his celebrity lawyer told a court today.

The ex-England captain will stand trial later this month after being allegedly caught driving a 200,000 Bentley at 59mph in a 40mph zone in January.

His celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman, who is known as 'Mr Loophole', told Wimbledon Magistrates' Court today that it was 'admitted' Beckham was behind the wheel and broke the limit.

But Mr Freeman indicated a not guilty plea on 43-year-old Beckham's behalf because he claimed legal papers about the offence were not served on time.

A trial date of September 27 was set during the case management hearing today, which Beckham did not attend.

District Judge Barbara Barnes asked Mr Freeman: 'That's admitted, the driver and the speed?' Mr Freeman said: 'Yes.'

He said the car was a 'loan vehicle' from Bentley so a notice of intended prosecution was sent to the manufacturer instead of Beckham after it was clocked speeding.

Mr Freeman arrives for the case management hearing at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court today

But the letter was not received until more than the legal time limit of two weeks after the alleged offence on January 23, Mr Freeman said.

The court heard the letter, which was dated February 2, was not received by Bentley until February 7. He said: 'I don't accept it was served on the 2nd.

'At the moment I don't have the chronology so I don't know. I accept the date on it is the 2nd. As I understand it that's the date it was printed. Not the date it was served.'

Mr Freeman added: 'What I'm saying is the notice is defective because it arrived out of time.' The court was told a stamp to indicate receipt was dated February 7.

David Beckham is pictured driving a Bentley car (not believed to be the one involved in the incident in January) through West London with his 19-year-old son Brooklyn last month

Simon Maughan, prosecuting, said: 'I'm accepting of the letter, I'm accepting of the date on the letter, I'm accepting that the seventh has been stamped on the letter.

Beckham (pictured in Monaco last Thursday) did not attend the court hearing today

'There can be no issue with the date on the letter.'

Beckham, of Holland Park, West London, allegedly broke the limit while driving on the A40 flyover in Paddington.

District Judge Barbara Barnes said: 'I will fix the trial date on September 27.'

Referring to the punishment if Beckham is found guilty, she said: 'I think we're in unlimited fines territory.'

She added: 'Service of the intended prosecution should be received within 14 days. The defence say it was outside 14 days.'

Asked whether Beckham would be present at the trial, Mr Freeman said: 'I don't anticipate it.'

He added: 'If the case goes against him and if the result is disqualification then I will make it absolutely clear.'

David Beckham, pictured with his wife Victoria before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in Windsor in May, denies the speeding charge which dates back to January

Beckham also did not attend an earlier hearing at Lavender Hill Magistrates' Court in Battersea on August 28.

According to the charge sheet on that date, he sent his not guilty plea by post on August 17.

Beckham made his name as a midfielder at Manchester United in the 1990s before going on to play for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain.

He also earned 115 caps for the national side. He retired from playing in 2013.The candidate who won the most votes for the Labour party's ruling National Executive Committee celebrated the Iranian revolution when hardline Ayatollahs took over the country, repressing freedom and human rights, MailOnline can reveal.

Yasmine Dar, who was elected top with 88,176 votes, has given speeches at an Islamist celebration of the Iranian revolution in Manchester for three years in a row.

In the most recent, in 2017, she said: 'We are here for a celebration, a happy time. Thirty-years of the Iranian Islamic revolution. So I'm absolutely happy, it's the third year I've been coming.'

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Yasmine Dar, who won the most votes for the Labour party's ruling National Executive Committee, celebrated the Iranian revolution when hardline Ayatollahs took over the country

The 52-year-old former social worker Ms Dar has given speeches at an Islamist celebration of the Iranian revolution in Manchester for three years in a row

The Iranian regime is known for its brutality. According to Amnesty International, torture is 'common', and 'floggings, amputations and other cruel punishments' are routinely carried out. Gay people are hanged from cranes.

The meeting took place at the Manchester Islamic Centre, in front of a huge portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini, still considered Iran's spiritual figurehead.

A video taken at the event suggests that women and children were sitting at the back of the room.

The Momentum-backed candidate was speaking on a platform in Manchester alongside the 9/11 conspiracy theorist Rodney Shakespeare, who has blamed Israel for the attack on the Twin Towers.

She later issued an apology and a condemnation of Mr Shakespeare's comments, after the matter was revealed in the press.

She has however also referred to Israel as 'the enemies of humanity' in a speech in 2014.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured today arriving at Labour party HQ in Victoria for the NEC meeting) has been dogged by accusations that he has allowed anti-Semitism to go unchallenged in the party since he became leader

Protesters against the leadership's position on the anti-Semitism definition gathered outside the Labour NEC meeting today (pictured), but there were also supporters

Ms Dar, 52, is a former social worker who represents Moston as a councillor on Manchester City's council and sits on Labour's North West Regional Board.

Despite supporting Andy Burnham in the 2015 leadership election, she was embraced by hardline Corbynites and is one of the candidates supported by Momentum.

It comes as Momentum members cheered Peter Willsman, who was elected to the NEC despite blaming concerns over Labour anti-Semitism on Jewish 'Trump fanatics'.

Labour is on the brink of civil war with at least three MPs understood to be poised to resign if the NEC fails to adopt the full international definition of anti-Semitism today, or tries to water it down.

The standoff is the culmination of months of clashes between Mr Corbyn's supporters, moderate Labour MPs and Jewish representatives.

The Labour party remains engulfed in an anti-Semitism crisis that has dominated headlines over the summer.

In August, the Daily Mail revealing that Mr Corbyn laid a wreath near the graves of the Munich terrorists, and MailOnline disclosing his comments that British Zionists 'don't understand English irony'.

We also exposed his links with Holocaust denier Paul Eisen and his group Deir Yassin Remembered (DYR), with whom he met in parliament in 2014.Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, will be welcomed by Muslims around the world with New Year celebrations following the end of Eid al-Adha 2018, considered the holiest of holidays in the faith.

After the Festival of Sacrifice, which is celebrated during the last month of the year Dhu al-Hijjah, Muslims will celebrate the arrival of 1440 AH (Anno Hegirae), known as the year of the Hijra when the Prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina, as reported in Express.

The start of the month also marks the anniversary of the battle of Karbala, when Muhammads grandson Imam Hussein ibn Ali was killed and now is widely commemorated by Shia Muslims. Heres everything you need to know about Muharram 2018, when it is and how Muslims celebrate it.

Muslim women gather in Hyde Park, before joining a march on the 10th day of Muharram

What is Muharram?

Muharram is the first month in the Islamic calendar and Muslims all over the world celebrate the new calendar cycle every year, after marking the end of fasting and sacrifice during the festival of Eid al-Adha.

The Independent reported that the Islamic New Year begins when the new moon is spotted at sunset and this sighting signals the start of the month of Muharram, one of the four holy months of the Islamic calendar.

While the month of Ramadan is considered the holiest, many followers of the faith choose to fast on the tenth day of Muharram, which is known as Ashura. This day is thought to be when Nuh, or Noah, left the Ark and Musa (Moses) was saved from the Pharaoh of Egypt by God, according to Al Jazeera.

Afghan Shiite Muslim flagellate themselves with knives during the Muharram procession

Muharram also marks the anniversary of the historic Battle of Karbala on October 10, 680 AD where the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, Imam Hussein ibn Ali, was killed during the siege of the Iraqi city and is now commemorated by Shia Muslims.

The start of the new year also honours Muhammads emigration from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijrah and is what gives the first day of the year its name.

Muharram 2018

Muharram will fall on the date of Tuesday, September 11 on the Gregorian calendar this year, because the last day of Dhu al-Hijjah falls on September 10. Express also writes that Muharram will end on October 9.

The Islamic New Year falls on a different day each year because the Gregorian calendar does not properly synchronise with the one of the faith, which means that each year, Muharram is pushed back by around 10 or 11 days.

How do Muslims celebrate Muharram?

Like with every new year celebration, for Muslims it represents new beginnings and an opportunity for self-reflection. As well as fasting on Ashura, the tenth day of Muharram, mourning congregations will gather to express grief.

At these events, Shia Muslim sects often practice chest beating, which is referred to as Latyma and some also self-flagellate and cut their foreheads. Sunni Muslims consider Ashura as a day of respect for the Prophet Moses, but do not take part in the ritual.Stephen Belafonte was spotted enjoying Labor Day with his young daughter Madison amid the bitter custody row over the seven-year-old with ex-wife Mel B.

In exclusive photos Belafonte is seen with Madison at the Malibu Chili Cook Off in Malibu, California enjoying the holiday weekend.

The doting dad was seen taking his daughter on the bumper cars, a slide and to a petting zoo at the annual festival and Madison lapped up her father's attention.

This year's celebrity laden cook-off drew the likes of Kourtney Kardashian, Larsa Pippen, Caitlyn Jenner, Andrew Garfield and Gerard Butler.

Belafonte, 43, won temporary custody of Madison last week after a bombshell declaration from Mel's former 'manny' Rusty Updegraff revealed how the star's battle with alcohol and drugs is allegedly putting her children at 'serious risk'.

Daddy duties: Stephen Belafonte and his seven-year-old daughter Madison were seen riding on bumper cars at the annual Malibu Chili Cook Off on Labor Day

The doting dad, 43, and his youngest daughter bonded over the weekend - just a couple days after Belafonte was granted temporary custody

Belafonte raised three daughters through his marriage with Mel B, but Madison, seven, is his only biological child with the former Spice Girl

Belafonte was given temporary custody after a bombshell declaration submitted by Mel's former nanny claimed she was an unfit mother to her two younger children

Belafonte was charged with caring for his daughter until a court hearing Tuesday.

His lawyer Grace Jamra asked Judge Mark Juhas on Friday for random drug and alcohol testing and a custody evaluation and an agreement is expected to be reached within hours.

Sources close to Belafonte have told DailyMail.com that despite the bitter divorce and custody battle with Mel, the film producer does not want his ex to lose custody of their daughter.

The source said: 'Stephen doesn't hate Melanie, she needs help and he realizes that's why she's made up all these lies about him.

'He knows there's a good person he married beneath all the problems.

'He wants her to get the help she needs and he wants assurances that she's not using alcohol or drugs around Madison.

'As the mother of his child he does not want her to lose custody because he knows Madison loves her, but at the same time he wants there to be proper precautions in place.'

Having a blast: Belafonte grasps his young daughter's hand as they go down the slide

The 43-year-old took out his cell phone to take a picture of them going down the slide

The daddy-daughter duo were later seen playing carnival games for prizes

On Friday Mel's ex-nanny Updegraff branded the America's Got Talent star the 'world's number one bad mother'.

The 59-year-old spoke to DailyMail.com after the damning declaration he signed was submitted at LA Superior Court accusing Mel, 43, of using cocaine, heavy drinking and seriously neglecting her children Angel 11, and Madison, seven.

In the filing Updegraff also claims Mel's ferocious appetite for sex means there's a procession of strangers at the family home.

He claims she's slept with dozens of men since divorcing Belafonte - including her children's piano teacher, a driver, a hairdresser, a 'surfer kid' and a guy she picked up at SoHo House, who the kids nicknamed 'smelly feet'.

Updegraff said he quit his job earlier this month because of Mel's 'erratic behavior' and her 'berating and abusive behavior' towards him.

He said she also disrespected him as the child's caretaker.

Adorable: Belafonte and Madison also made their way to the festival's petting zoo

The Malibu Chili Cook Off is a popular family event that also drew the likes of Kourtney Kardashian, Larsa Pippen, Caitlyn Jenner, Andrew Garfield and Gerard

But mainly he said he now fears for the 'safety' of Madison, adding that the sole motivation for him submitting his declaration is to protect the child and ensure her 'welfare, safety and well-being' is fully protected.

Updegraff ended his explosive testimony by claiming the former Spice Girl is not fit to have custody of the children - and he is afraid something 'bad' will happen if they are left in her care.

Mel B and Stephen Belafonte have been embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their three kids, months after their acrimonious divorce. The two exes are pictured above after a court hearing last week

'Aside from the obvious alcohol addiction and her addiction to multiple partners that she brings around the children, I truly believe that Melanie is mentally and/or psychologically unstable and is suffering from some form of mental health issue. I do not believe the children are safe in her custody without supervision or monitoring,' the statement ends.

The source close to Belafonte says Mel's recent behavior didn't come as a surprise, but he was shocked by Updegraff's declaration.

'Stephen's focus is the well-being of the children. He has had not any contact with Rusty in the 15 years he's known Mel, until this came up.

'So any suggestion Rusty is somehow colluding with Stephen is nonsense.'

Belafonte and Mel split in March last year and during a bitter and protracted divorce battle Mel accused her ex of physical and emotional abuse, claims he has vehemently denied.A 68-year-old-man has been charged with stalking offences dating back to 2014 after allegedly terrorising young women with handwritten letters and sexual voicemails.

The letters, some up to 10 pages long, were allegedly sent to women working at different businesses across Melbourne and along Victoria's coast.

The man is accused of making a number of inappropriate calls to female staff at the same businesses, a police statement said.

The day before the man's arrest, police released audio clips of the voicemail where a man could be heard saying he 'fantasised about you girls doing massages'.

A number of sexually explicit letters were sent out to businesses across Melbourne earlier this year. A 68-year-old man has been charged in relation to those incidents (stock)

In another message he asks one of the women if they would like to receive photographs from him.

He can be heard apologising for sending the explicit letters, which he said were 'terrible'.

'I sent a terrible letter to you people and I'm deeply ashamed I wrote it,' he said.

'I just fantasised about you girls doing massages. I just was stupid. I'm terribly sorry if I caused you any concern, you won't hear from me again. Have a nice day.'

Detectives arrested the Bellbrae man after receiving help from the public.

He has been charged with eight counts of stalking and has been bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on November 1.After being missing for 13 years in a case full of as many twists and turns as the movie itself, the classic pair of ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz are finally coming home.

Judy Garland's famous shoes - which were insured for $1million - were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in August 2005.

But on Tuesday the FBI revealed that the stolen slippers have finally been recovered. No suspects have been immediately announced.

It is a Hollywood happy ending for a scandal that one private investigator who worked on the case claimed had more conspiracy theories than Area 51.

Judy Garland's famous ruby slippers have been found 13 years after they were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in August 2005

One or more suspects broke through a back entrance into the museum and smashed the plexiglass box (pictured) where the shoes were on display

On Tuesday the FBI revealed that the stolen slippers from The Wizard of Oz have finally recovered. No suspects have been immediately announced

The ruby slippers, one of four pairs worn by Garland in the classic film, were stolen from the museum around 2am on the night of August 28, 2005.

One or more suspects broke through a back entrance into the museum and smashed the plexiglass box where the shoes were on display. Nothing else was taken.

No fingerprints were left behind and the museum's alarm system and video surveillance cameras were not operating at the time of the theft.

The only thing left behind was a lone red sequin, which detectives placed in an envelope that was locked up at the local police station.

Theories abounded over what could have happened to the shoes, with tips pouring in after authorities offered a $1million reward for their return.

One person claimed the shoes were nailed to a wall at a roadside diner. Another said they spotted them in a home in Minnesota. A psychic claimed they were cemented into a wall.

The ruby slippers, one of four pairs worn by Garland in the classic film, were stolen from the museum around 2am on the night of August 28, 2005

It is a Hollywood happy ending for a scandal that one private investigator who worked on the case claimed had more conspiracy theories than Area 51

Many believed a group of local teens had stolen the slippers, became scared, and threw them into the bottom of an iron ore pit.

Some claimed Michael Shaw was behind the theft, hoping to collect a hefty insurance check.

The Los Angeles collector had loaned the slippers to the museum during the city's annual festival celebrating Garland, who was from Grand Rapids.

It was the fifth time he had loaned the shoes to it, donating his fee to children's museums. He was supposed to retrieve them a week before the theft.

'I literally felt like I was hit in the stomach when I got the call,' Shaw recalled in 2015 to Newsweek of the moment he found out the shoes were stolen.

'I had taken care of those shoes for 35 years!'

Another pair that Garland wore in the film was eventually donated the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. They are pictured here

The Smithsonian's slippers were taken off display for restoration. The museum announced on Tuesday the public would be able to view them once again starting in October

Shaw had purchased the ruby slippers for $2,000 from costumer Kent Warner in 1970, along with Dorothy's dress, the witch's hat, and a Munchkin outfit.

Warner had found four pairs of the ruby slippers in storage on the MGM lot.

He kept one pair for himself, sold another to Shaw, gave one to an auctioneer, and sold Debbie Reynolds a test pair that were not worn in the film for $300.

The slippers Shaw purchased were size 5.5, in good condition, and hand-labeled with Judy Garland's name inside.

After the auctioneer announced the discovery of the shoes, it was also revealed that a Memphis woman owned another pair she had won in a contest in 1940.

The auctioned slippers sold for $15,000 and were donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 1979.

Another test pair (pictured), which never actually appeared in the film, were sold to Debbie Reynolds for $300 in 1970

Reynolds (pictured with the shoes in 2011) later auctioned her pair off for $627,300

They are kept in a locked case, under an alarm, with a guard watching them every hour.

The museum took the shoes off display in 2017 and launched a Kickstarter campaign to help restore them.

On Tuesday, after news of the stolen slippers was revealed, the museum announced the slippers would go on display once again starting October 19.

Warner sold his personal pair of the slippers for $12,000. They were later purchased by a collector, who sold them for $2million to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2012.

Reynolds auctioned her pair off for $627,300 in 2011, while the Memphis woman sold her pair in a 1988 auction for $165,000.

A Memphis woman who won the slippers in a contest in 1940 sold them to Christie's for $165,000 in 1988. They were purchased by a group of collectors for $666,000 in 2000

The recovered ruby shoes are now owned by Essex Insurance Company after it paid Shaw $800,000 following the theft

The latter pair, which was purchased by a group of collectors for $666,000 in 2000, are now kept in a bank vault.

After a court battle with Essex Insurance Company, Shaw was paid $800,000 after the slippers disappeared.

The recovered shoes, which some have valued at $2million, are now owned by Essex.

Despite the decades of care he put into the shoes, Shaw was happy to give up ownership.

'There's more to my life than a pair of pumps,' he said in 2015. 'I have no desire to have them again.'

But thanks to decades of detective work - and maybe a little Hollywood magic - the ruby slippers will soon discover that there's no place like home.The UN's Syria peace envoy called Tuesday on the Russian and Turkish presidents to urgently speak to each other to help avert a 'bloodbath' in rebel-held Idlib, as a military offensive appears imminent.

Staffan de Mistura appealed to 'President Putin and to President Erdogan, ... to make a telephone call,' even before they are set to meet with their Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Friday.

The news comes after the Kremlin on Tuesday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's warnings against an expected Syrian government offensive on the province.

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The UN has called on Russia and Turkey to speak to one another to avoid a 'bloodbath' in Idlib. Pictured: A protest in Idlib against Russia on Friday last week

Vladimir Putin hit out at US Donald Trump on Tuesday after he sent a tweet warning that Russia had plans to attack the Syrian rebel's last stronghold

Trump on Monday sent a tweet warning the Syrian government and its allies against a 'reckless attack' on the rebel-held Idlib province.

Towns and villages in the northern Idlib province, where Syria's rebels are holed up, came under intense airstrikes throughout Tuesday, killing at least eight people, according to a search and rescue group and a conflict monitoring group.

The Civil Defense rescue group said five children were killed in airstrikes on the town of Jisr al-Shughour and another three civilians were killed in strikes on the village of Mahambal. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 9 people killed.

The Observatory blamed the strikes on Russia, which has been waging an air campaign on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces since 2015.

Russia says militants in Idlib target its own facilities in Syria and pose a terrorist threat.

Smoke blows from buildings reportedly hit by Russian air strikes in the rebel-held town of Muhambal, Idlib province, on Tuesday

Syrian rebel fighters in Idlib (pictured) are currently preparing for an offensive by government forces

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russia's position, calling Idlib a 'hornets' nest of terrorists.'

Asked about Trump's tweet, Peskov said such warnings do not consider 'the dangerous and negative potential' of the rebel-held enclave and show that the White House does not have a 'comprehensive approach' to solving the Syria crisis.

Separately, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he was 'determined' to hold talks with high-level envoys from Turkey, Iran and Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, despite concerns that an offensive on Idlib may begin before then.

De Mistura also plans to meet with envoys from Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States on Sept. 14 to brief them on his efforts to launch a political process and help set up a committee that could revise Syria's constitution.

De Mistura has mediated several rounds of Syrian peace talks in recent years without making any apparent progress.

The UN has said that since escape routes to Turkey have been sealed, Idlib is poised for a humanitarian crisis if Russian bombing continues

The Russian government defended the bombing campaign by calling Idlib a 'hornet's nest of terrorists' [file photo]

Idlib is regarded as the rebel forces' last stronghold in Syria. Pictured: A girl carries a baby at a refugee camp in Idlib back in 2015Australian teachers are being trained to identify key phrases that could indicate children as young as five are showing transgender tendencies in the classroom.

Primary school teachers are encouraged to listen out for phrases such as 'I feel different', 'I'm born with two spirits,' or 'I'm androgynous' from their students.

The training, being conducted by gender identity experts, is contributing to what they claim is a 236 per cent surge in students wanting sex changes.

The claim comes as childrens' hospitals across NSW say there are increases in children believing they are the wrong sex, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Children as young as five-years-old are being referred to transition clinics by hospitals, with teachers being encouraged to listen for 'key phrases' of transgender tendencies (stock image)

As many as 74 children aged between 6 and 16 have been referred to gender transition clinics by hospitals this year, the publication reported.

These facilities are designed to help children transition to the other sex.

Five years ago, in 2013, there were only two referrals made.

Gender counsellor Dr Elizabeth Riley said one per cent of all students were transgender, regardless of whether they made the transition or not.

'I teach the school how to deal with these children with special needs and to treat them like any other child,' she said.

Dr Riley said she had given advice to 40 public, private and Catholic schools over the past three years.

She said it's important for a student to be given the right advice, otherwise they run the risk of being bullied or going into hiding.

Gender counsellor Dr Elizabeth Riley (pictured) says it's important for students to be given the right advice and embrace the way they're feeling

Adversely, Western Sydney University Professor of Paediatrics John Whitehall said the gender identity experts were promoting a 'sad, tragic and very dangerous fad'.

Medical treatments, which often involve hormones, can interfere with a child's brain and body development, he said.

He said mental illness such as ADHD and depression were often misdiagnosed for gender restlessness and should take precedent.Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)



Myanmar President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi cabled their messages of congratulations to Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

In their message, President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi expressed their delight at the rapid development of Vietnam-Myanmar friendship and multifaceted cooperation, both bilaterally and multilaterally, particularly within the ASEAN. The Myanmar leaders believed that the Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership between the two nations would be continuously consolidated and developed for mutual benefits.

Meanwhile, the Indian leaders said they were pleased to welcome President Quang and PM Phuc in India in March and January 2018, respectively. They thanked Vietnam for its significant contributions as coordinator of ASEAN-India relations. They affirmed that Vietnam is a key pillar in Indias Look East policy and expressed confidence in the growth of the Vietnam-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for mutual benefits and for peace and development in the region.

The Vietnamese President and PM also received similar messages from US President Donald Trump, who affirmed that 2018 is an outstanding year with milestones recorded in Vietnam-US relations.

President Trump said he was satisfied with his visits to Da Nang and Hanoi last year, and applauded the increasing connectivity between the two countries as reflected in their Comprehensive Partnership. He believed that 2019 would be a promising year for bilateral ties, and is looking forward to working with Vietnamese leaders in stepping up the realisation of priorities set for the Indo-Pacific region.

Governor-General of Australia Peter Cosgrove sent a congratulatory letter to President Tran Dai Quang. In the letter, he wrote Australia highly values its relations with Vietnam.

The Governor-General said he was delighted to find that the importance of bilateral ties was acknowledged by the Vietnamese and Australian PMs in the joint statement on establishing Vietnam-Australia Strategic Partnership in early 2018. Cosgrove said he expects the bilateral relationship to thrive on the basis of their freshly upgraded relations. He also stressed his belief that the two countries, as members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), will continue expanding their economic and trade cooperation.

President Moon Jae-in also delivered a congratulatory message to President Tran Dai Quang, in which he expressed his hope that based on agreements secured by both sides in his visit to Vietnam last March, more diverse cooperation activities will be held, thus bringing wealth and happiness to people of both nations and deepening their mutual understanding and friendship.

Meanwhile, in his letter to President Tran Dai Quang, Japanese Emperor Akihito conveyed his sincere congratulations and wish for prosperity to the Vietnamese people. The Emperor said he and Empress Michiko were happy to remember memories they shared with President Quang and his wife during the Vietnamese leaders visit to Japan.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko extended his greetings to General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang, while Belarusian PM Sergei Rumas cabled a message of congratulations to PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon also sent congratulatory messages to President Tran Dai Quang.

On this occasion, Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh received congratulations from Myanmar Vice Presidents Myint Swe and Henry Van Thio.

Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh received congratulatory messages from Myanmars Union Minister for International Cooperation Kyaw Tin, US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister for Judicial Reform and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva, and Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei./.Yasmin Ercan, 19, (pictured centre) has been granted bail after appearing before a Melbourne court on Tuesday charged with six offences including aggravated carjacking with a weapon

A teenage girl allegedly sent threatening messages to a former friend before she allegedly carjacked her and tasered her unconscious.

Yasmin Ercan, 19, faced a Melbourne court on Tuesday after being charged with six offences including aggravated carjacking with a weapon following an online spat.

She had allegedly told an 18-year-old girl through text messages she would 'stab her in the throat', 'put a bullet in her head' and 'smash her f***ing teeth in'.

Ercan had not been happy at Instagram comments made by the former friend, Seven News reported.

The 19-year-old and the younger girl agreed they would meet at 7.30pm on August 13 at the Braybrook shopping centre in the city's west.

It was there Ercan and a male friend allegedly got in the 18-year-old's car with a taser and forced her to drive for about 20 minutes.

Ercan is then accused of tasering her former friend and slapping and spitting on her outside the vehicle.

'What you have is a 19-year-old who is absolutely immature,' defence lawyer Mark Gumbleton told the court.

Ercan is alleged to have sent threatening text messages to her former friend prior to meeting her in a shopping centre car park

Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg said: 'Well, who is she? She's behaving here like a standover merchant.

'She's walking like one... and talking the talk.'

Ercan's lawyer had argued she should not have been charged with carjacking as the 18-year-old's car was not stolen and the alleged physical attack was outside the vehicle.

She could end up facing just a kidnapping charge.

Ercan has been granted bail after her parents put up a $50,000 surety and she will next face court in December.Pubs have slammed a real ale magazine after one of its columnists made a joke about a barmaid being '16 stone with bingo wings, multiple chins and a beer belly decorated with weird tattoos'.

The Derby Drinker, a magazine for members of Derby's Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), featured the offending phrase in a regular column called 'Dear Toper' this month.

But annoyed landlords have taken umbrage at the quip and are demanding editors return the advertising money they paid the magazine.

Pubs have complained after a columnist in Derby Drinker magazine wrote about a 'flabby' barmaid 'of sixteen stone, with bingo wings, multiple chins and a beer belly with tattoos'

It is the second time the magazine has got in hot water, after it used the term 'n****' to describe a black person in a crossword clue

The column stated: 'I can't imagine anyone wishing to buy a robot that resembles a flabby woman of sixteen stone, with bingo wings, multiple chins, and a beer belly decorated with weird tattoos - which reminds me of a barmaid I know, and brings me nicely back to the pub.'

The online version of the column was later edited to take out the offending material, but not before many landlords had chucked their copies away.

The Brunswick Inn's Facebook page complained: 'Due to a very unfavourable article in this month's Derby Drinker, we are not going to promote the issue.'

Their landlor added: 'I have binned mine. I advertise in it too and will demand my money back.'

Mark and Katie Howarth, who run the city's Dog and Moon in Derby, said they had also 'chucked all their copies'.

Derby's Brunswick Inn is among the pubs demanding advertising cash is returned

One landlady pointed out the magazine used a similar phrase in a previous issue.

Local Mark Raven added: 'It was a silly whimsical article, trying very hard to be funny and failing making stereotypical comments about bar maids which most intelligent people left behind in the 1970s. It was crass, c*** and CAMRA.'

Earlier this year the same CAMRA branch had to apologise when ta crossword clue in the magazine said 'US n**** could become an operational doctor (7)'.A former billionaire who was one of Britain's richest men has been unveiled as a violent rapist who kept his past secret for 20 years.

Property developer Simon Halabi, 60, who once owned a stake in The Shard skyscraper was convicted by a French court in 1998 of raping a woman at his home.

Police records reveal he 'slapped, punched and attempted to strangle' her, grabbing her by the hair and on to his bed.

He then raped the woman in her twenties after she tried to run away, and 'threatened her with death if she were to report' the attack.

Property developer Simon Halabi, 60, who was once worth 3billion with his estranged wife Urte

Halabi was once one of the original developers of the Shard (pictured) but pulled out after a disagreement with business partners

The businessman, who once had an estimated fortune of 3billion and had a Mayfair based empire, was sentenced to three years in jail, suspended for five years, at a court in Alpes-Maritimes, south east France.

He was put on the sex offenders register in France, but he was able to hide his criminal past as he made his fortune and travelled the world, Westminster magistrates' court heard yesterday.

The court was told he was convicted in France under the name Mohammed, but used his birth name of Simon on his passport in 2003, the Evening Standard reports.

It was not until November last year that the Met confirmed his identity.

The 25million stately home Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire

District judge Michael Snow approved an application by the Met Police for Halabi to be the subject of strict notification rules on convicted sex offenders, the publication reports.

In 2007, Halabi appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List and owned the city headquarters of JP Morgan, Aviva and Old Mutual.

His property portfolio included a 3million house in Mayfair, the Naval and Military Club in Piccadilly, 25million stately home Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire and chateaux in France.

He also owned a fleet of Bentleys and Rolls Royce Phantoms, a 130-ft yacht and a vineyard in France.

The Naval and Military Club in Piccadilly which was owned by Halabi

He was also one of the original developers of the Shard, but pulled out after a disagreement with business partners.

However, the Syrian-born tycoon fell on hard times during the credit crunch and was declared bankrupt in 2010.

He failed to pay back a 56million bank loan and was later sued for divorce by his Lithuanian born wife Urte.

DC Alan Morgan, from the Met Police, who brought the application to court yesterday, said: 'He has admitted frequent travel to the US, he has property in the Florida area, and from his own admission he lied on a number of occasions.

'He ticked 'no arrests' and 'no convictions' on the landing forms. I'm sure he has travelled to many different countries around the world where visa requirements may require disclosure.'

The judge rejected Halabi's claim that the application by the police to get Halabi to be the subject of notification rules on convicted sex offenders was made in 'bad faith' as it was two decades after his conviction,

Imposing notification requirements indefinitely, the judge said: 'I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Mr Halabi was convicted of a relevant offence.'

Mr Halabi's lawyer Gudrun Young said: 'He doesn't accept the legitimacy of the conviction in France and is seeking to have it struck out.'

Ms Young tried to stop the Evening Standard from reporting on the hearing by arguing that this would 'ruin Mr Halabi's life'. But Judge Snow refused the request.

After the case, Halabi said he was 'extremely saddened by the outcome' and vowed to 'appeal it to the highest court if necessary'.

In December 2016 Halabi was accused of repeatedly calling a binman a 'black c***' when a rubbish truck stopped in the middle of a road in London's Mayfair.

But was cleared of one count of racially aggravated assault and one count of assault after jurors deliberated for a day at Southwark Crown Court.An explosive book by journalist Bob Woodward has revealed new accounts of backbiting and insults among Donald Trump's senior staff  with some of the most cutting digs directed at the president and his intellect.

Woodward, relying on his usual methods of deeply sourced reporting with use of information provided on 'background'  presents White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis each deriding the president's mental capacity.

Kelly called Trump an 'idiot' and said in a meeting with a small group the president was 'unhinged,' according to the Washington Post, Woodward's longtime employer, which got a copy.

'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had,' Kelly said when he blew a fuse at a meeting, according to Woodward.

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Bob Woodward's new book has chief of staff John Kelly calling President Trump an 'idiot' who has 'gone off the rails'

Project fear: Extracts from veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodard's new book set off explosions across the political world. He had been welcomed to Trump Tower and asked the White House for an interview with Trump. Trump spoke to him on the phone last week and said 'you've always been fair' - then claimed Tuesday they had not spoken and Woodward had 'credibility' issues

In one episode, Trump questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.

When Trump asked about it, Mattis schooled him: 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III.

Mattis then told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'

But Trump also dished back at his subordinates.

He fumed at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and even reportedly mocked the region he came from, in addition to calling him a 'traitor' for his decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe.

'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner.  He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama,' Trump said.

Previous accounts during Trump's first year had former secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling Trump a 'moron,' and Tillerson did not explicitly deny it. This would mean three of Trump's most senior advisors have ridiculed his mental capacity.

The book, in an extract obtained by CNN, says that Tillerson called him 'a f***ing moron' after an 'intervention' when national security leaders tried to educate him on the need for diplomacy at the Pentagon's secure meeting room nicknamed 'The Tank'.

THE WOODWARD REPORT: WHAT THEY SAID ON TRUMP... JOHN KELLY, CHIEF OF STAFF: 'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.' JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: 'Fifth- or sixth-grader' REX TILLERSON, EX-SECRETARY OF STATE: 'He's a f***ing moron.' JOHN DOWN, EX-PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'F***ing liar.' JOHN DOWD, EX-PERSONAL ATTORNEY, ON HOW TRANSCRIPT OF A MUELLER INTERVIEW WOULD BE DESCRIBED BY FOREIGN LEADERS: 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?' GARY COHN, EX-CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: 'A professional liar' ROB PORTER, EX-STAFF SECRETARY WHO QUIT WHEN BOTH EX-WIVES ACCUSED HIM OF ABUSE: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.' Advertisement

But instead of what senior advisers called 'The Big Problem', the president's lack of grasp of diplomacy and alliances, he attacked them, telling senior generals about Afghanistan : 'You should be killing guys. You don't need a strategy to kill people.'

Then he questioned why the U.S. needed troops in South Korea.

He was asked by Gary Cohn, then his most senior economic adviser, what level of military commitment in South Korea would be needed for him to sleep at night.

'I wouldn't need a f***ing thing. And I'd sleep like a baby.'

It was at the end of the meeting that Tillerson gave his verdict - which he then refused to deny.

The book recounts another meeting of the National Security Council at which Trump was told about an intelligence operation which is part of the U.S. presence in South Korea and means a missile launch by the North can be detected in seven seconds, instead of 15 minutes using resource in Alaska.

He questioned why the money needed to be spent and Mattis told him: 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III.'

After the meeting Mattis told 'close associates' that Trump 'acted like - and had the understanding of - 'a fifth- or sixth-grader'.'

... AND WHAT DONALD TRUMP SAID ABOUT THEM... BARACK OBAMA: 'Weak d**k' RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?' WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: 'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime.' H.R MCMASTER, EX-NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 'Like a beer salesman.' REINCE PRIEBUS, EX-CHIEF OF STAFF: 'Like a little rat. He just scurries around. AFTER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT FATAH AL-SISSI ASKED IF HE WAS GOING TO BE AROUND: 'Like a kick in the nuts.' BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN DICTATOR: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them' Advertisement

... AND WHAT THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER STEVE BANNON TO IVANKA TRUMP: 'You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and act like you're on charge, and you're not. You're on staff!' IVANKA TRUMP TO STEVE BANNON: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter and I'm never going to be a staffer!' JOHN KELLY TO GARY COHN: 'If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.' JOHN DOWN TO ROBERT MUELLER: 'He just made something up. That's his nature.' Advertisement

Mattis was also to tell 'friends': 'Secretaries of defense don't always get to choose the president they work for.'

Woodward reports that Mattis ignored a direct order in April 2017 to kill Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them,' Trump said to Mattis a call made after the chemical attack on Khan Shaykun, which killed dozens and injured hundreds more.

Mattis told Trump he would 'get right on it', but then told a senior aide: 'We're not going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured.'

The book also recounts efforts by former chief economic advisor Gary Cohn to try to head-off what he considered rash or ill-advised policy moves by Trump - and compares them to a 'nervous breakdown' in the administration.

Cohn 'stole a letter off Trump's desk' to prevent the president from executing a letter of withdrawal from a South Korean trade deal. Cohn told others he did it 'to protect the country'.

He advocated doing the same when Rob Porter, the now disgraced staff secretary who quit after DailyMail.com revealed both his ex-wives accused him of physical abuse, was told to draft a letter pulling out of NAFTA.

The book identifies Porter as engaging in some of the same tactics, CNN reported.

'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas,' he said.

Also detailed is how Cohn threatened to quit in August 2017, believing the president to be a 'professional liar' and disgusted over his handling of the far-right violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

One of Cohn's daughters found a swastika in her college dorm room, Woodward reports, and the Jewish adviser met Trump to hand him a resignation letter.

But Trump told him: 'This is treason,' and Cohn stayed.

That prompted Kelly to tell Cohn: 'I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.'

The book even ventures into the advice Trump got from his former lead lawyer on the Russia investigation, John Dowd.

'Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit,' he advised Trump, according to the book.

Trump appeared unlikely to take his advice, telling him: 'I'll be a real good witness.'

Down told him outright: 'You are not a good witness. Mr. President, I'm afraid I just can't help you.' The attorney quit the next day.

The president was also seemingly oblivious to how he performed during a dry run practice interview.

Dowd is described as seeing the 'full nightmare' of how a Mueller interview might go, with Trump acting like an 'aggrieved Shakespearean king.'

But Trump was clueless about how he came off. 'You think I was struggling?' he reportedly asked his then-lawyer.

Earlier, Dowd had also explained to special counsel Robert Mueller face-to-face why he didn't want his client to testify.

Dowd told him: 'I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?''

According to Woodward, Mueller replied: 'John, I understand.'

Trump's reaction to Dowd is unrecorded - but Dowd's personal view of the president was simple: 'You're a f***ing liar.'

But Trump, who at the time was saying publicly he wanted to testify, maintained that failing to do so would not reflect well on the office.

'I think the President of the United States cannot be seen taking the fifth,' Trump reportedly said.

But his public flaying of Rudy Giuliani is, in an incident which took place when the notorious 'grab 'em by the p***y' Access Hollywood tape of Trump was released.

Giuliani was a rare public advocate for Trump but the-then candidate told him: 'Rudy, you're a baby.

'I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?'

Trump was more generous about himself, saying when Twitter doubled its character count: 'It's a good thing but it's a bit of a shame because I was the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters.'

And he was privately as scathing of Obama as might be expected, telling Lindsay Graham, the Republican senator, that the ex-president was a 'limp d***' for his foreign policy.

The White House pushed back with a statement that said the book contained 'fabricated stories' with Kelly directly denying the 'idiot' comment  but leaving other claims from the book unchallenged.

'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner,' Trump reportedly said of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe

Former director of the U.S. National Economic Council Gary Cohn snatched a letter off Trump's desk to keep him from precipitously moving to pull out of a trade deal

Defense Secretary Mattis said Trump acted like 'a fifth- or sixth-grader' after Trump failed to understand the importance of a warning system stationed in Alaska; Trump said his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, scurries around 'like a rat'

Legal trouble: Trump savaged Rudy Giuliani before the election, saying 'They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed.' But his ex-personal attorney John Dowd quit the day after telling him: 'You are not a good witness. Mr. President, I'm afraid I just can't help you.'

The long statement also listed 'Trump Administration Accomplishments' that weren't directly relevant to the initial reports about the book.

'This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad,' said Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

'While it is not always pretty, and rare that the press actually covers it, President Trump has broken through the bureaucratic process to deliver unprecedented successes for the American people.

'Sometimes it is unconventional, but he always gets results,' she said.

'Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President's policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020  not even close,' she added, addressing the president's reelection, rather than the upcoming mid-terms.

The White House released a statement from Kelly saying: 'The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true.

'As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: 'I spend more time with the President than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship.'

'He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS. I'm committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration's many successes.'

Trump also trashed the book in an interview with the Daily Caller.

INCONVENIENT: Trump defended Woodward in a 2013 tweet

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer pushed back against Trump's claim that perhaps Woodward made up disparaging material

'It's just another bad book. He's had a lot of credibility problems,' Trump said of Woodward.

'I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not. I think it probably wouldn't have made a difference in the book. He wanted to write the book a certain way.'

Trump continued: 'It's just nasty stuff. I never spoke to him. Maybe I wasn't given messages that he called. I probably would have spoken to him if he'd called, if he'd gotten through. For some reason I didn't get messages on it.'

According to another anecdote in the book, Trump told former staff secretary Rob Porter former chief of staff Reince Priebus was 'like a little rat. He just scurries around.'

In turn Priebus called the president's bedroom 'the devil's workshop' because that was where Trump was when he composed his most news-making tweets.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 80, a billionaire investor, wasn't spared Trump's criticism.

'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations.  You're past your prime,' Trump told him.

The release of yet another bombshell book sent the White House communications shop into immediate emergency mode.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was seen walking into the Oval Office Tuesday. She declined a request for comment.

The Washington Post released a recorded August 14 phone call between the famously well-sourced author and the president.

In the call, Trump sounds irked that he never was able to speak to Woodward for his book. 'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first.'

Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview. He also said he sent a request through press aide Raj Shah. He also said he sent a message through Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Trump allowed he did get a brief message from Graham. He put Conway on the call, who said she passed the request through channels, but did not say she spoke to Trump about it.

'Senator Graham actually mentioned it to me quickly on one meeting. And you know, that is true,' Trump said.

'It's really too bad because nobody told me about it and I would have loved to have spoken to you,' Trump said.

'Did you speak to Madeleine,' Trump asked Woodward. 'Madeleine is the key. She's the secret,' Trump said, in a reference to Madeleine Westerhout, his personal secretary. Woodward says he didn't.

'I broke my spear on it trying to get to you,' Woodward tells him later in the call, which Woodward told the president he was recording at the top.

'I talked to Raj. He was going to work it out,' Woodward said, referencing press aide Raj Shah.

Trump put Conway on the call. She told Woodward: 'I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names. 'It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.

He also diminished the access of his deputy press secretary. 'Rah, I hardly have - I don't speak to Raj.

'That's okay, I'll just end up with another bad book. What can I tell you.'

Also pushing back was Mattis, who issued his own statement.

'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence, Mattis said. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.

In serving in this administration, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our Department of Defense, is a product of someone's rich imagination,' Mattis said.

Trump took the unusual move of retweeting statements by his press secretary, chief of staff, and Mattis.Robin Wright has called for Kevin Spacey to be given a second chance following more than a dozen allegations of sexual assault

House of Cards star Robin Wright has come out in defense of her former co-star Kevin Spacey, saying everyone deserves a second chance.

Spacey, 59, has faced sexual assault allegations from more than a dozen men and teenage boys, with at least two police investigations launched in response.

Speaking to The Porter Edit, Wright, who has previously distanced herself from Spacey, claiming she only knew him as a colleague, never as a friend, said she believed all people could change.

'I dont know how to comment on that, I really dont,' she said when asked about Spacey.

'I believe every human being has the ability to reform In that sense, second chances, or whatever you are going to call it  absolutely, I believe in that. Its called growth.'

Wright also condemned the media for the attention focused on Spacey, saying she pitied the actor and anyone else whose lives were in the public arena.

Wright was Spacey's co-star on House of Cards before he was axed from the show after allegations began to surface he had assaulted men and teenage boys. Spacey responded publicly to the first allegation, claiming he had no memory of the incident and used the moment to publicly announce he was gay

'I believe everyones personal life should be personal. Positive, negative, neutral, whatever  I dont believe it should be anybodys business,' she said.

Wright was quick to clarify she was not referring to the #MeToo movement, and that she was not condoning Spacey's alleged behavior.

'Im talking about media,' she said. 'The exposure. Its an awful feeling. A stranger deciding they know who you are... I mean, its criminal, it really is.'

Wright fought furiously to save the show from cancellation, and ended up becoming the Netflix hit's sole star, as Spacey was turfed out

The 52-year-old actress fought bitterly against calls to axe the show when Spacey's accusers began to publicly come forward, and she told the Porter Edit: 'our show's not dirty'.

Wright said she felt there remained a commitment to finish the show for the fans and the thousands of people employed to make it all happen .

'They printed that it was only 600 people out of work, but if you include security, cops, shooting on location in Baltimore, everything, 2,500 people would have been out of a job,' she said.

'And thats not fair  to take that security away from those people They didnt do anything [wrong].'

At least 16 men have publicly come forward with allegations against Spacey in the last year, with the first emerging in October 2017.

Actor Anthony Rapp claimed Spacey made inappropriate sexual advances toward him when he was just 14.

In response, the House of Cards star made a statement on Twitter in which he said he was 'beyond horrified' to hear the allegations and did not remember the encounter.

He then used the moment to publicly announce he was gay, which drew criticisms from LGBTI groups who claimed he was trying to use his sexuality to skirt around the serious allegations.

Weeks later, Spacey entered a treatment facility in Arizona, and was not seen in public for several months.

Spacey is under at least two official investigations in regards to some of the allegations made against him, and is rarely seen in public

Since then 15 others have come forward making similar allegations against the actor, including Richard Dreyfuss's son Harry and eight people who worked with him on the set of House of Cards.

In April, one sexual assault case against the star involving a male adult that allegedly took place in West Hollywood in 1992 was turned over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for investigation.

Spacey is being investigated by London's Metropolitan Police for six separate male-on-male attacks that allegedly occurred in Westminster in 1996, in Lambeth in 2008 and in Gloucester in 2013.

Last month, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office confirmed a case was being investigated against Spacey.

'A sex assault case was presented yesterday to our office by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department involving Kevin Spacey. It remains under review,' they said.

Spacey has denied almost all of the allegations that were made against him.Shared workspace company WeWork is reportedly on the brink of becoming Manhattan's largest office space center.

The coworking company is said to be in the midst of negotiating a lease that would allow it to take over about 200,000 square feet in 1 World Trade Center, CNNMoney reported.

The eight-year-old startup is reported to be in second place as the largest renter of office space in Manhattan at the moment.

Coworking office space provider WeWork is said to be negotiating a lease allowing it to take over about 200,000 square feet of space in Manhattan's 1 World Trade Center

If the deal goes through, WeWork will become the biggest office space renter in Manhattan

Crain's reported that financial services company JPMorgan Chase is in the No. 1 spot, currently renting about 5.2million square feet of office space  about 74,000 square feet more than WeWork.

But, if the One World Trade Center lease deal goes through, WeWork will take the top spot to become the biggest office space renter in Manhattan.

One World Trade Center is a three million square foot building that is co-owned by the Port Authority and the Durst Organization. It is said to be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

WeWork has been on a tear leasing new spaces across the US in 2018, signing on the dotted line to move into eight times as much newly-leased space in the country as the next nine other companies on the list combined, a report by Cushman & Wakefield stated.

On August 8, WeWork announced it had launched a new service called HQ by WeWork. The service, which targets mid-sized tenants  companies with 11 to 250 employees  offers in-house brokerage services, leasing and office management, according to the Commercial Observer.

WeWork operates in more than 20 countries around the globe and was valued at $20billion in 2017. The coworking company has expanded into the education, coliving and health and fitness spheres with WeGrow, WeLive and WeRise.Four members of the notorious MS-13 gang have been arrested for murdering a gang member turned police informant.

Houston law enforcement officers said on Monday that Marlon A. Miranda, 19, Wilson J. Ventura-Mejia, 22, Miguel Aguilar-Ochoa, 33, and Carlos Elias Henriquez-Torres, 18, have all been charged in the vicious killing of Victor Castro Martinez at a park in June.

Prosecutors believe the four men, who entered the country illegally, are also involved in seven other killings. A judge demanded that all four be separated from each other in different holding areas at the Harris County Jail.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Henriquez-Torres's custody was transferred to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Castro Martinez, 25, had been working as an informant, looking to make right after years of running with the infamous criminal organization that has caused grave concerns throughout the United States in recent years.

Marlon Miranda (l) and Wilson J. Ventura-Mejia (r) are among the four MS-13 gang members accused of killing Victor Castro Martinez, who was cooperating with Houston cops

Carlos Elias Henriquez-Torres (left) and Miguel Aguilar-Ochoa (right) have been implicated in the machete hacking death

MS-13 gang member Victor Castro Martinez was working as an informant with Houston cops. He gave them the location of a meeting spot on June 6 but was hacked to death near a tree, above

On June 6, Castro Martinez went on a late night assignment with the MS-13 members, who picked him up at his home.

According to court documents obtained by KHOU, the MS-13 police informant provided the cops the location of his meeting spot, a local Houston public park and met the group with a recording device.

Court reports indicated the four members suspected he had allied himself with the police, according to ABC affiliate KTRK.

Miranda, Ventura-Mejia, Aguilar-Ochoa, and Henriquez-Torres each then took turns at hacking Castro Martinez with a machete. His body was found the next day near a tree.

Miguel Aguilar-Ochoa (front) and Marlon Miranda (back) were presented in a Houston court on Monday. Houston police is expected to reveal several more MS-13 arrests Tuesday

The notorious MS-13 gang has been in the national spotlight recently.

Authorities in El Salvador last week announced the results of an investigation that led to the dismantling on wide network of over 600 gang members, including a mayor and pastor.

An 18-year-old man from El Salvador, who is believed to be a member of MS-13, was arrested on Sunday for raping an 11-year-old girl in New York City. According to a police report, Julio Ayala is suspected of having a fake Green Card.

Victor Castro Martinez was picked up at his home by fellow Mara Salvatrucha gang members that night of June 6. Houston police discovered the informants lifeless body the next day

According to ABC7, Mark Stephens, a former HPD undercover officer, said: 'Machetes, that's one of their weapons of choice. Machetes and guns, and that's only if they want you to die quickly.

'The only way you leave MS-13 is in a body bag.'

President Donald Trump's has publicly made known his dislike for MS-13 as he continues to toughen immigration laws that have targeted the arrival of thousands of civilians wanting to escape the violence incited by the ruthless gang in Central America.

'We have people coming into the country or trying to come in, we're stopping a lot of them, but we're taking people out of the country. You wouldn't believe how bad these people are,' said President Trump during a White House meeting in May with California lawmakers that opposed sanctuary city policies.

'These aren't people. These are animals.'

In a February cabinet meeting, President Trump labeled the MS-13 as 'a very vicious threat to our communities. The savage gang'.'On my first day as Mayor of this great city, I promised to make tough choices and face the hard truths we had not confronted, even when it hurts. Every day for the past seven and a half years, that is what I have tried my best to do - to improve our schools, make our community colleges relevant, put our fiscal house on stable footing, confront violence and rebuild trust between police and community, modernize our transportation systems, invest in our neighborhood parks and libraries and grow our economy into an engine of jobs and opportunity for all. I'm not shy, and together we've never shied away from a challenge.

Today, the time has come to make another tough choice. As much as I love this job and will always love this city and its residents, I have decided not to seek re-election.

This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime. You hire us to get things done - and pass the torch when we've done our best to do what you hired us to do.

I have approached public service the only way I know how for the last 23 years - giving 100 percent, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for President Clinton, in Congress and in its leadership, as President Obama's Chief of Staff and finally as your Mayor.

For the last seven and a half years I've given my all every day and left everything on the field. This commitment has required significant sacrifice all around. Now, with our three kids in college, Amy and I have decided it is time for us to write a new chapter together.

In a few moments, I'll speak to my Cabinet, and tell them to get ready to sprint for the finish line in May. We have more to do, and from now until then, we'll do everything in our power to get it done and walk out the door hopefully leaving Chicago and Chicagoans in a stronger place. We will stand ready and eager to work with whoever is lucky enough to come next and ensure a smooth and positive transition. We owe our city nothing less.

But today I want to thank the people of Chicago for the opportunity to serve. It will fill my eyes with tears to leave a job I love, and already my heart is full with gratitude. We have worked together. We have celebrated progress together. We have grieved together. Amy and I made friendships across this city that will last a lifetime.

I want to thank Amy for being such a remarkable First Lady. We've been together for 27 years.

When we got married, I told her I would never run for office. Six elections later, she's the only reason I have made it this far.

We're blessed with three great children, and I owe them so much as well. Politicians always say they're leaving office to spend more time with their family. My kids were smart enough to see that coming and scattered to the two coasts, so as of the other day we are now empty nesters.

Amy and I are still young - and Amy still looks it. And we look forward to writing that next chapter in our journey together.

I'll always be here for the future of this city - not as mayor, but in the most important role anyone can play, as citizen. I hope I'll find ways to answer the call I've asked of every citizen: to do my part to stand up for the next generation, who deserve the doors of opportunity to be open and the spark of hope to light their eyes.

I'm grateful to my parents for lighting that spark in me. And I want to thank my grandfather, who at the age of 13, took an enormous chance a century ago by immigrating here from Eastern Europe, fleeing the pogroms, to meet a third cousin he did not know in a city whose name he could not pronounce.

In four congressional runs on the North and Northwest Sides - and in two races for Mayor - you cast aside old history and voted for a Jewish kid with the middle name Israel. I will always be profoundly grateful for that and what it means to my family.

This morning, as we start a new school year, I went to Bronzeville Classical to welcome students back for the start of a new school year and to Perez Elementary to mark the opening of universal full day pre-K in Chicago. The changes we have made to our school system - universal full day pre-K, universal kindergarten and a longer school day and year will add up to nearly four more years of class time for Chicago's students. In the end of the day what matters most in public life is four more years for our children, not four more years for me.

Together, since May of 2011, through thick and thin, we tried to do right by our city's future. No matter how difficult the path we never wavered or shrunk from our responsibilities. And I will never forget the honor it has been to serve alongside you the people of Chicago every step of the way.

From the bottom of my heart: Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the people of Chicago.'Employees at a Florida thrift store were shocked to discover four bags of marijuana while sorting through clothing donations.

Nearly five pounds of marijuana was found inside a white container that was left outside the drop-off area of the Pines Thrift Store in Sarasota between Wednesday and Friday last week.

Staff contacted police who said the four plastic bags contained 2,133.5 grams of marijuana - which weighed in at just under five pounds and had an estimated value of $5,400.

Workers found four bags of marijuana (pictured) inside a white tote bag at a donation drop-off point outside the store last week

Police say the four air-tight bags of cannabis weighed in at 2,133.5 grams - about 4.7 pounds -and is worth around $5,400

One employee cut a small hole in the bag and discovered one of the packages containing the marijuana (above)

Sarasota Police claimed that, as of Friday, the bags were sent for DNA, latent and drug processing, according to Fox 13.

They are also trying to locate surveillance video from the thrift store and nearby businesses, hoping they will find the individual who dropped it off.

According to a police report, one employee first noticed the white tote with the brown bag inside earlier in the week, but didn't open it and put it aside.

When he opened the bag again, he cut a small hole in it and discovered the marijuana.

The worker subsequently contacted police who launched an investigation into the incident.

The Pines Thrift Store is part of The Pines Retirement Community and routinely accepts clothing and furniture donations.

The drugs were discovered by staff inside a white storage container (above) at a drop-off point outside the store where the public are free to make donations at any time

The Pines Thrift Store (above) is located within a retirement community in Sarasota which routinely accepts clothing and furniture donations from individuals

Local residents expressed their shock at the thrift store discovery. Bles Mclean told Fox 13: 'Maybe someone is being vindictive.

'It doesn't sound like a prank. I wouldn't know, but it's very shocking.

'Somebody probably had a change of heart or something and wanted to turn it in, but didn't want to get themselves in trouble,' Mclean said.

'So they just probably thought they were doing a good deed in donating it. I guess. I don't know.'

So far, no arrests have been made and officers are investigating whether the drop-off was accidental or deliberate.

McClean added: 'Either someone lost track of a really big package or someone didn't calculate the numbers right or something.

'How it got in the donation box is definitely baffling.'Abdullahi Ahmed, 18, from Hayes, west London pleaded guilty to five counts of robbery and one count of theft at Harrow Crown Court

A teenager who used online marketplace Gumtree to arrange the purchase of designer goods before threatening the vendors at knifepoint has been jailed for eight years.

Abdullahi Ahmed, 18, from Hayes, west London pleaded guilty to five counts of robbery and one of theft at Harrow Crown Court.

The court heard Ahmed used Gumtree to make contact with his victims between April 1 and April 20. He struck six times over that three week period.

The first raid happened in Hounslow, west London, where Ahmed and a still unidentified man arranged to meet a man to buy two pairs of designer shoes. After the victim produced the shoes, Ahmed threatened him with his knife and escaped.

On April 8, Ahmed spotted a man getting out of his car when the thief stole his mobile phone. Ahmed later rang the victim to boast about stealing the phone.

On April 9, Ahmed arranged to meet a woman who was selling her phone in Bow, east London. Ahmed and a second man turned up to the house when he produced a knife and stole the phone.

On April 12, Ahmed bought a laptop from a man in Hayes, handing over 1,100 for the machine.

Having handed over the cash, Ahmed waited for the man to get back into his car when he forced his way into the passenger seat before threatening the man with his knife. Ahmed ordered the man to hand over the cash.

On April 14, Ahmed contacted a man in Uxbridge who advertised his phone on Gumtree. Ahmed told his victim that he was carrying a knife before stealing the phone.

Ahmed was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison by Harrow Crown Court

The final offence happened in Barnet on April 20. The female victim agreed to meet Ahmed who contacted her through Gumtree. Again, Ahmed produced a knife and ran off with her phone.

Police soon linked the crimes together based on the analysis of phone records and the testimony of victims.

Officers raided Ahmed's home on April 27 and recovered a number of stolen items as well as a phone the teenager had used to contact each of the victims.

Detective Constable Huss Ahmed of Barnet CID who headed the investigation said: 'Ahmed used threats of violence to intimidate and rob his victims of their property. His actions have had a devastating impact on some of his victims. I can only hope that this sentence provides some comfort to them.'

A spokesperson for Gumtree said: 'We take the safety of our users extremely seriously and we are pleased to see the perpetrator of these appalling crimes brought to justice.

'Our dedicated Safety Team works closely with the police to share information and support their investigations. We list prominent safety advice for users on every ad on our website, a summary of which can be found at help.gumtree.com.'General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong (Photo: VNA)



The Party leader revealed his plans for the trip during an interview with Russian news agency TASS ahead of the visit.

He said the visit will be made amidst developing bilateral relations and on the threshold of the 25th anniversary of the signing of a treaty on basic principles for Vietnam-Russia friendship in 2019 and 70 years of diplomatic ties in 2020.

It aims to intensify the countries comprehensive strategic partnership, connectivity and cooperation in all spheres, he noted, voicing his belief that the visit will create new momentum for this partnership and improve bilateral cooperation for the sake of the two peoples and for peace, stability and development in Asia-Pacific.

Reviewing the countries ties, General Secretary Trong affirmed that Russia is an important traditional partner of Vietnam. Their people have supported each other over the past seven decades. The Vietnamese people never forget the assistance, both materially and spiritually, that people of the former Soviet Union and Russia have given during the fight for national independence in the past and development efforts at present.

Russia is also one of the countries with the biggest numbers of Vietnamese people. Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian nation has become an attractive destination for Russian tourists. These are crucial factors helping enhance the friendship and mutual understanding between the two peoples, he added.

The leader told TASS that Vietnam respects and prioritises reinforcing the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia. Since this partnership was formed in 2012, political relations have been strengthened. The two sides have maintained exchange mechanisms while economic-trade, investment and security-defence ties have been solidified.

The partnership between Vietnam and Russia is developing in a substantive and sustainable fashion, he said.

However, he also pointed out that bilateral economic-trade connections remain modest. Since the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement took effect in October 2016, the two countries trade has grown by some 30 percent over the past two years to USD3.5 billion in 2017, which is still very low and not on par with their sound political ties, potential and expectations.

We want this field to develop more strongly and soon become a true pillar of the two countries relations in the time ahead, General Secretary Trong noted.

Regarding energy cooperation, he said there remains much room for them to boost ties in this area, adding that Vietnam always welcomes and creates the best conditions for Russian firms to modernise the power plants built with the help of the Soviet Union and take part in new energy projects.

Meanwhile, collaboration in the oil and gas industry has increased and is a strategic and long-term cooperation field in terms of both politics and economy.

The leader said an important direction of energy ties is using atomic energy for peaceful purposes. The countries agreed to build a centre for nuclear science and technology in Vietnam. It is a critical project for both sides, aiming to develop nuclear science and technology, train high-quality staff and step up the application of atomic energy in economic, social, scientific and technological areas.

In the interview, the Party chief also said bilateral cooperation in defence-security and military techniques has expanded, showing the countries mutual trust.

He noted: I highly value the very effective and dynamic cooperation between the two countries, especially in such cooperation fields as personnel training, United Nations peacekeeping, navy, military medicine, military technique, defence industry In the coming time, cooperation in defence-security between the two countries will continue playing an important role in the overall comprehensive strategic partnership.A self-proclaimed Hindu guru has admitted to sexually assaulting two females at his place of worship and in his home.

Rajani Mohanilal, a self-titled 76-year-old Hindu preacher, faces jail for his crimes and has been placed on the sex offenders register for an interim period pending sentencing.

He is well known in the Leicester local community and pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of sexually assaulting the females on more than ten occasions between 2008 and 2013.

The sickening campaign of abuse was targeted towards girls who were part of his congregation and took place at his place of worship in the Rushey Mead area of Leicester.

Rajani Mohanilal, a self-titled 76-year-old Hindu preacher, (pictured) has admitted to sexually assaulting two females at his place of worship and in his home

The Leicester Crown Court heard Mohanilal admitted to two further counts of sexual assault.

Mohanilal, of Silverdale Drive in Thurmaston, Leicester, pleaded guilty and was ordered to sign on the sex offenders on an interim basis.

The pensioner will be sentenced at the same court on Friday September 14.

Leicestershire Police said in a statement: 'Mohanial claimed he was a disciple of a guru in India and, following the leader's death, he was given authority to continue with the teachings.

Head bowed: Mohanial is well known in the Leicester local community and abused two females who were part of his congregation at his place of worship in the Rushey Mead area of Leicester

Detective Constable Shaheen Hovell of Leicestershire Police, said after the case: 'Mohanial abused his position of trust within the local community and had no regard for the effect his crimes would have on the victims, one of whom was just a teenager when the offences began.

'The victims have been extremely brave throughout the process, from the initial report all the way through to the court process.

'This was in no way easy for them; the defendant was well-known in their local community and speaking out about these offences was extremely difficult for them.

'We are pleased that he has been convicted and we hope this case gives other victims the courage to come forward and report crimes against them.

'It doesn't matter when the offences have taken place we can still investigate and prosecute individuals.

'We have specialist officers who can guide you through the process and put you in touch with support agencies. Please don't suffer in silence and contact 101.'The governor of Arizona announced Tuesday that he will appoint former Sen. Jon Kyl to fill the late Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate.

Gov. Doug Ducey made the announcement on Twitter minutes before a scheduled news conference.

Kyl, a Republican, is currently shepherding Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kyl's appointment may make it possible for him to vote for the nomination.

Ducey, also a Republican, added the hashtag #KavanaughConfirmation to his announcement.

Ducey says Kyl has committed to serve through the end of this year and the governor hopes he will serve longer.

Former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl will replace the late John McCain as a U.S. senator from Arizona, the state's governor announced Tuesday

Gov. Doug Ducey (left) convinced Kyl to return to Washington; Kyl was a longtime colleague and friend of McCain while he was alive

Kyl (right) is serving as White House 'sherpa' to Judge Brett Kavanaugh (2nd left) as he navigates the Senate confirmation process for his Supreme Court nomination

Either way, Kyle is expected to be a placeholder, not running in 2020, when voters will get to decide who fills the remainder of McCain's seat through 2022. Then the seat will be up again for a full six-year term.

Kyl, an experienced foreign policy hand, will be entering a narrowly divided Senate where Republicans could gain or lose seats in November.

The GOP is hoping he'll be a more reliable partisan vote than McCain, whose opposition to a partial repeal of President Obama's health care law pitched the party into turmoil last year.

Kyl is well-respected in Arizona and has been able to avoid many of the battles with activists that complicated McCain's career and that of the state's other senator, Jeff Flake, who is retiring because his feud with Trump made his re-election impossible.

McCain's widow, Cindy, tweeted: 'Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's. It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona.'

McCain's daughter Meghan, an outspoken co-host of 'The View,' said that she could 'think of no one better to keep fighting for the country and state he held so dear. He has always been a true statesman and a friend to my family.'

Both Mrs. McCains had themselves been floated as potential appointees.

The late Sen. John McCain (left) was close to Kyl when the two men served togteher in the U.S. Senate

Kyl's close work with Kavanaugh could prompt Democrats to demand he recuse himself from the judge's final Supreme Court confirmation vote on the Senate floor

Doug Cole, a veteran Republican consultant and former McCain aide, said Kyl was a good, safe pick.

'I think McCain would be very happy with the pick. Honors his legacy while putting some major horsepower for Arizona in the seat, at least for now,' he said.

Filling McCain's seat marks a turning point in Arizona political history. That seat in particular has been held by two men who were heralded as giants of the Senate: McCain took the seat once held by Sen. Barry Goldwater after he had served in the House of Representatives.

The choice will also have political consequences for Ducey. He's up for re-election this November against Democratic challenger David Garcia.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and McCain's widow Cindy weighed in Tuesday, with Ducey adding a pro-Kavanaugh hashtag to underscore Kyl's relationship to the confirmation process

For Republican voters who are on the fence about Ducey, a choice they dislike could cause them to withdraw their support for the incumbent or stay home on Election Day.

Arizona law requires the governor to appoint a member of the same political party to fill a seat opened by the departure of a senator.

McCain's office said an estimated 15,000 people came to see the late senator as he lay in state in the Arizona state Capitol for a public viewing several days after his death.

Nearly 3,500 people gathered at the North Phoenix Baptist Church the following day for a memorial service where former Vice President Joe Biden spoke.A Rotherham schoolgirl who was raped by multiple men was months later forced to have an abortion by her parents, a court has heard.

Nabeel Kurshid, 34, and Iqlak Yousaf, 33, along with a third man, are accused of taking the girl, 14 at the time, to Sherwood Forest and threatening to leave her there alone unless she had sex with them.

The pair are among a group of eight men from Rotherham and Sheffield who are said to have targeted girls who were 'easy to exploit because they wanted to be loved'.

The alleged incident happened some time between August 2002 and August 2003, prosecutors at Sheffield Crown Court said.

Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC said that the girl was given cannabis and was 'high as a kite'.

She said: 'Each defendant took turns in having sex with her.

'She was warned she had to do what she was told or she would be left there.'

Nabeel Kurshid, 34, arrives at Sheffield Crown Court where he denies raping a young girl in 2002 or 2003

Ms Colborne said the girl was bitten during the alleged attack, leaving marks on her neck.

She said: 'The defendants ensured her compliance by giving her drugs and threatening to abandon her in the forest.'

The prosecutor said: 'She became pregnant as a result of the group rape.

'Her parents forced her to have a termination. She suffered a great deal of psychological trauma as a result.'

Ms Colborne told the jury that the teenager, who is now in her thirties, was vulnerable and had a history of being exploited.

'She was passed from one group of Asian males to another and, over time, was very seriously abused.'

The prosecutor said the girl's parents found out about the alleged exploitation but were unsupportive - verbally abusing their daughter and locking her out when she arrived home late.

Kurshid and Yousaf both deny raping the girl.

The eight men on trial allegedly took their victims to parks, abandoned buildings and 'secluded locations' to carry out sexual abuse, prosecutors allege.

The men were arrested as part of Operation Stovewood - a police investigation into sexual abuse launched after the Rotherham grooming scandal.

Iqlak Yousaf, 33, also denied raping the teenager who says she was later forced to have an abortion by her parents

They face a total of 28 counts of sexual abuse of five girls over a five-year period from 1998 to 2003.

Charges include rape, aiding or abetting rape, indecent assault, supply of controlled drugs and false imprisonment.

Opening the case at Sheffield Crown Court, prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC, told the jury the girls were 'ostracised' from their lives by the defendants.

She said: 'This case concerns allegations of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham in the late 1990s and into the early 2000s.

'When [the girls] were in their teens they were targeted, sexualised and in some instances subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature at the hands of these men in dock.

'These were local girls with unsettled home lives.

'They were lured by the excitement of friendship of older Asian youths.

'None of them had the maturity to know they were being groomed and exploited.'

One of the men attempted to disguise himself at Sheffield Crown Court. Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, 36, of Rotherham, faces four counts of indecent assault, one of supplying a controlled drug, one of rape, one of procuring a girl under 21 for unlawful sexual intercourse with another, one of aiding and abetting a rape and one of sexual assault

The jury was told two of the victims, who were sisters, were 'vulnerable' after being 'effectively abandoned' by their parents when they were young.

The girls were 'enthralled' by 'older Asian men' and believed they were 'loved' because they were 'receiving attention', Miss Colborne told the jury.

They thought they were 'living the high life' at the time and were frequently in cars stopped by the police.

However, this 'did not deter the abusers', the court heard.

Miss Colborne added: 'These sisters, like so many others were easy to exploit because they needed to be loved.'

She told the jury that five of the men, led by Mohammed Imran Akhtar, were friends who were 'content to pass the girls around'.

Akhtar, 37, 'befriended young girls' and 'passed them to his friends', the court heard.

Akhtar, of Rotherham, faces four counts of indecent assault, one of supplying a controlled drug, one of rape, one of procuring a girl under 21 for unlawful sexual intercourse with another, one of aiding and abetting a rape and one of sexual assault.

Tanweer Ali, 37, of Rotherham, faces two counts of indecent assault, two counts of rape and one of false imprisonment.

Salah El-Hakam, 39, of Sheffield, faces one count of rape.

Nabeel Kurshid, 34, of Rotherham, faces two counts of rape and one of indecent assault.

Amjal Rafiq, 38, arrives at Sheffield Crown Court as one of a gang of eight men accused of rape and other sex offences. Ajmal faces one count of false imprisonment and one count of indecent assault

Iqlak Yousaf, 34 of Rotherham, faces two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault.

Ajmal Rafiq, 38, of Rotherham, faces one count of false imprisonment and one count of indecent assault.

Asif Ali, 33, of Rotherham, faces three counts of indecent assault.

An eighth defendant, who cannot be named, faces three counts of rape and one of abducting a child.

The accused deny the allegations against them.

The trial continues.

Tanweer Ali, 37, arrived at the court with his seven co-defendants. He is accused of two counts of indecent assault, two counts of rape and one of false imprisonmentThis is the 'fact sheet' Andy Lack sent out to NBC News employees about Ronan Farrow's reporting on Weinstein.

  

1. Executive Summary

No victims on the record

In August of 2017, after NBC News had assigned Ronan Farrow to investigate Weinstein and supported his reporting efforts for more than eight months, Farrow believed strongly his reporting was ready for air and had prepared a draft of a script. But unfortunately there was not a single victim of  or witness to  misconduct by Weinstein who was willing to be identified. The only victim willing to be interviewed on camera and name Weinstein was a woman who spoke anonymously in shadow and alleged he subjected her to verbal sexual harassment. Therefore, following widely accepted journalistic standards, Farrow's NBC News editors, including the head of the investigative unit, did not believe his work was ready for broadcast.

Veteran Investigative Journalists Reviewed Farrow's Reporting In an effort to find a way forward with Farrow, NBC News took an extra step  convening a separate team of three NBC News veteran journalists (two investigative reporters and one senior editor), each with decades of experience, which this document will refer to as the 'Editorial Review Team,' to examine Farrow's draft script and the underlying reporting. The Editorial Review Team was again unanimous that NBC News did not yet have a story that was ready for broadcast.

Farrow Expressed Serious Concern About Competitive Pressure from The New York Times

The same week Farrow's script was being reviewed, he expressed his deep concern that The New York Times would break the story first, as he believed they had interviewed Ashley Judd on the record. He and his editors discussed the additional burden he faced reporting the story for television and convincing women not only to lend their names, but also to appear on camera. Soon thereafter, Farrow notified NBC News that a magazine was interested in his story, and stated his desire to take his reporting there if NBC News would not agree to broadcast it immediately.

NBC News Allowed Farrow to Take His Reporting to The New Yorker

Given Farrow's insistence that his story run right away, and the fact that he was not a full time employee nor exclusive to the network, NBC News agreed to his request, allowing him to take his reporting and source material to the magazine. NBC News president Noah Oppenheim said in a text to Farrow on August 17, 2017: 'Given that we are still reviewing the reporting and given your desire to get this out soon/immediately, we don't want to stand in your way. You can go forth independently with the print outlet you've been talking to.'

The New York Times Story Had Two Victims on the Record

Throughout the eight months that NBC News had supported and guided his work, Farrow's editors repeatedly told him that the story needed at least one credible on-the-record accusation from someone willing to be identified  a standard he still had not met. When The New York Times broke the Weinstein story on October 5, 2017, it had two victims identifying themselves and speaking on the record, including Ashley Judd. They also had four employees named on the record and four other victims who are named in the piece but did not speak on the record, along with dozens of former and current employees who said they 'knew of inappropriate conduct.'

Farrow's New Yorker Article Bore Little Resemblance to His NBC News Reporting

Farrow's award-winning New Yorker article about Weinstein  published nearly two months after he left NBC News and five days after The New York Times piece  bore little resemblance to the draft script he produced at NBC News. In fact, The New Yorker piece cited the following victims by name: Asia Argento, Mira Sorvino, Rosanna Arquette, Lucia Evans, Emma de Caunes, Jessica Barth, and Sophie Dix. Not one of these seven women was included in the reporting Farrow presented while at NBC News. An eighth woman named in The New Yorker piece did engage with Farrow while he was at NBC News  but never gave NBC News permission to use her name.

  

2. What Farrow Produced While at NBC News

The only two individuals who were interviewed on camera and identified were Rose McGowan and Ken Auletta. McGowan later sent NBC a cease-and-desist and Auletta a journalist, not a victim, was reacting on camera to misleading information provided by Farrow.

1. Actress Rose McGowan. McGowan was interviewed on camera by Farrow, but refused to identify Weinstein.

She later entirely revoked her consent for NBC to use any part of her interview.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, McGowan said she blocked the story at NBC News: 'I started a cease and desist at NBC. It was me that spiked it. It wasn't the place for it.' She later told the Hollywood Reporter, 'NBC took a lot of heat for killing the story. But I actually served Ronan with a cease and desist  two of them.'

Farrow's editors encouraged him to try again to convince McGowan to name Weinstein on camera. Months later, when Farrow attempted to arrange another on-camera interview, in which he said she would name Weinstein, McGowan's attorney sent a cease and desist letter  rescinding her cooperation and insisting NBC not use any part of her original interview. NBC News honored this request, given that she was a victim of sexual abuse. And as a result, the draft script did not include any reference to her. It would be eleven months after her interview with Farrow  and three months after The New York Times broke the Weinstein story  before McGowan would first name Weinstein on television.

2. The New Yorker media writer Ken Auletta was interviewed on camera explaining that while working on his own story for The New Yorker in 2002, he had tried and failed to report on allegations against Weinstein, as no accusers were willing to be identified by name. Auletta told Farrow in their interview that he 'learned that Harvey has made payments to people, and they sign a non-disclosure agreement.' But The New Yorker decided not to include that in the 2002 article.

Auletta recently told PBS, 'The New Yorker is not The National Enquirer. You don't publish a story that has a profound impact on people and children when you don't have proof, and I didn't have proof I also think about journalism. As a journalist, I think the decision The New Yorker made was the right decision at the time, even though  do I have questions whether it would have had an impact? Yes. But our job is not means and end matter here. And using foul means to get to a good end is not the way to go in my judgment.'

In their interview, Farrow led Auletta to believe that, for the NBC News story, he had multiple women willing to be identified by name. But in fact, as this document reports, there was not a single victim of  or witness to  misconduct by Weinstein who was willing to be identified.

At another point in the interview:

AULETTA: I mean, unlike me, you have real evidence. You have people who are gonna come forward, and if you have the names and people willing to come forward by name  a lawyer should step aside, and applaud, and just say, 'You've done your job.'

In a recent interview with Recode, Auletta again showed the extent to which Farrow had unfortunately misrepresented the material he had while at NBC News:

In fact, as this document reports, there was not a single victim of  or witness to  misconduct by Weinstein who was willing to be identified. The only victim willing to be interviewed on camera and name Weinstein was a woman who spoke anonymously in shadow and alleged he subjected her to verbal sexual harassment.

On-Camera Interviews  anonymous, in shadow

Farrow interviewed, anonymously and in shadow, one woman who accused Weinstein of verbal sexual harassment. He also interviewed five former employees, anonymously and in shadow, who claimed they were aware of sexual misconduct or harassment by Weinstein. However, the editorial review revealed that several of these interviews relied only on second-hand knowledge and suspicion, rather than any direct observation. One described incidents she witnessed as 'more consensual,' and another interview subject would not name Weinstein when describing common behavior by Hollywood studio heads.

If Farrow had interviewed a victim (or victims) willing to be identified, some material from these anonymous interviews could have been useful for added context; but without that, on their own, they were not sufficient. The determination by NBC News on this point is consistent, we believe, with the journalistic standards practiced by major news organizations, including The New Yorker.

The details below are from the transcripts of interviews with these former executives and employees  none of whom were willing to be identified:

Victim of verbal harassment  anonymous, in shadow

1. Former Temp (female)  temporary employee who alleged Weinstein subjected her to verbal sexual

harassment during her first week on the job. The draft script included several excerpts from this in- shadow interview, as well as LinkedIn messages viewed by Farrow and his editors, from a top Weinstein executive, who acknowledged Weinstein had a problem with sexual misconduct. Because the woman did not want to be identified and also did not want the executive to know she had shared his identity, NBC News could not reach out to the executive to verify the messages, which, journalistically, was a necessary step. And most importantly, again, she was in shadow and anonymous, and therefore could not be the sole basis for a story on Weinstein.

Former Employees  anonymous, in shadow

1. Former Executive (male)  said he witnessed 'sexual harassment inappropriate touching' and 'sexually

suggestive remarks.' Farrow included an excerpt from this interview in the draft script  but after reviewing the full transcripts the Editorial Review Team discovered the script took his comments out of context, misrepresenting him as if he were willing to identify Weinstein when in fact he had only agreed to speak broadly of Hollywood executive behavior, and said on camera: 'I'm not comfortable' specifically naming Harvey Weinstein. Therefore NBC News could not use his account as a direct accusation against Weinstein.

2. Former Executive B (female)  said she witnessed Weinstein 'touching women, propositioning women

just lecherous come-on kind of behavior.' Farrow's draft script counted her as a witness to misconduct by Weinstein. But the Editorial Review Team found in the full transcript that when asked if she saw 'examples of sexual harassment,' the former executive said 'That's a hard question to answer in the s  in the s  in the sense that  that what I saw was more consensual. So I don't know how  that  I don't know how to  how to define that.' As a result, her account could not be used at that point in time to support a pattern of sexual harassment.

3. Former Assistant (female)  in an interview with contradictory statements, she said she was aware of

financial settlements with two female employees that she believed were the result of sexual misconduct. However, she also said 'I didn't know the exact nature of the allegations,' and that her information was 'little bits gleaned from catching fragments of conversations on the phone.' This was not reportable without additional details or sources.

4. Former Executive A (female)  said she was aware of late-night meetings Weinstein would have that she believed were really setups to lure in women for sex. Her account was based on suspicion alone, and therefore not reportable without additional details or sources.

5. Former Assistant (male)  said he would be asked to set up meetings in hotel rooms and would walk

women up to the room. He was suspicious of Weinstein but had no information about what happened between the women and Weinstein. He said he 'didn't know what happened behind those closed doors.'

Other Elements

 Farrow told NBC News that off-camera, two women  each speaking on condition of anonymity  had accused Harvey Weinstein of misconduct towards them, though, at the time, they made only general allegations and had yet to provide any specific details according to the notes Farrow presented to NBC News.

 He also had obtained a portion of a recording made during an undercover NYPD investigation into already

public allegations that Weinstein had groped Ambra Gutierrez. On the recording, Weinstein appeared to admit he touched her inappropriately but the Manhattan District Attorney had not deemed the recording to be sufficient evidence to prosecute Weinstein. Therefore, NBC News had two options with this material: 1) Pursue a separate story centered on the DA's decision not to prosecute Weinstein in that case, or 2) If Farrow could meet the editorial standard and get one Weinstein accuser fully on the record, the tape could be used to support the larger story we were pursuing to establish a pattern of sexual misconduct  which was Farrow's stated goal and the thesis of the only script he ever drafted or asked NBC News to broadcast. Notably, The New Yorker also had access to the same recording for nearly eight weeks, and did not report on it (or release it) until it was ultimately included in their larger piece with eight accusers on the record.

 Farrow also said he had seen a settlement agreement between Weinstein and Gutierrez but in order to protect his source he was unable to name Gutierrez as the party to the agreement. As later reported in The New Yorker, the agreement included an affidavit stating that the acts he referred to in the recording never happened.

  

Addendum A: Weinstein's Attempts to Influence NBC's Investigation

Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys repeatedly tried to contact multiple people at NBC News during the investigation and well after. They were aggressive and persistent. This is a dynamic NBC News is quite familiar with as a home to investigative journalism and had no impact on the editorial process.

Weinstein's concern focused primarily, but not exclusively, on Rose McGowan. What was unusual was that he and his lawyers repeatedly mischaracterized their interactions with NBC News  both in private emails to each other (one of which mistakenly copied an NBC News lawyer) and in phone calls and emails back to NBC News  presumably to try to gain advantage. Weinstein and his representatives were repeatedly told only that, if and when NBC News was prepared to run a story, they would be given an appropriate amount of time to respond. Because Farrow never had a victim or witness willing to be identified, that became moot. Here are descriptions of Weinstein's team's outreach to NBC News:

Andy Lack: Weinstein made numerous calls and emails to Lack between April and September of 2017. When Weinstein first called in April, Lack was unaware of the investigation as it had not yet been raised to his level. As a result he answered the call. Lack said he didn't know what Weinstein was talking about and suggested Weinstein ask MSNBC (where Farrow had worked previously). After that Weinstein made at least nine more calls and sent at least four emails to Lack. None were answered or returned. In September, Weinstein attempted to isolate Lack at an event both attended. Lack rebuffed him, said only 'hello,' and walked away. Later in September, weeks after Farrow left NBC News to work on the story for The New Yorker, attorney David Boies reached Lack, who told him that Farrow was no longer working on the story for NBC News and was pursuing it elsewhere.

Noah Oppenheim: Oppenheim had never met or spoken to Harvey Weinstein prior to April 2017. The following is an exhaustive list of their only interactions: 1) Oppenheim was assigned a seat at the same table as Weinstein during the TIME 100 Gala in April 2017, an event Farrow also attended. At the beginning of the meal, Weinstein introduced himself. Oppenheim replied with his name. Weinstein remarked, 'I didn't like your movie' and turned his attention elsewhere. They did not speak for the remainder of the evening. 2) Oppenheim answered his phone one afternoon in early August  not knowing it was Weinstein calling. Weinstein launched into a rambling assault on Rose McGowan's credibility. Oppenheim listened politely and told Weinstein that if and when a report was ready for air, he would have the opportunity to comment. 3) Shortly thereafter, Weinstein attorney Lanny Davis arrived, uninvited and without an appointment, in the lobby of Rockefeller Center. Oppenheim went to the lobby and asked him to leave. Davis launched into another attack on McGowan. In an interaction that lasted less than one minute, Oppenheim told Davis there was no McGowan story ready for air at that time, to stop targeting her, and repeated that Weinstein would have an opportunity to respond if/when NBC News was ready to broadcast allegations. Roughly two weeks after this brief interaction, Weinstein's attorney Charles Harder sent an email to NBC News' lawyer grossly mischaracterizing the assurances in this conversation. For instance, in their version 'no investigation ready for air' became 'the investigation has ended.' Agreeing to speak to Davis, 'off the record' in that one lobby conversation, became agreeing that every conversation with Weinstein's attorneys would be treated as such. The email was sent at 8:46 pm on August 15, 2017. At 5:30 am the next morning, NBC News' lawyer sent an email back explicitly rejecting that characterization. 4) Oppenheim received an unsolicited email from Weinstein in September, offering congratulations on the launch of Megyn Kelly's show. Oppenheim consulted with NBC News' attorney and replied with a one-line 'thank you.'

Others: Weinstein also called MSNBC president Phil Griffin numerous times, sometimes with David Boies on the phone and sometimes alone. On the first call, Griffin told Weinstein that he was unaware of the investigation. After that, Griffin told Weinstein repeatedly that Farrow was investigating him, that the executive editor of the investigative unit, Rich Greenberg, was overseeing the effort, and if NBC News decided to broadcast a story Weinstein would be contacted in advance and given an opportunity to respond to allegations. Greenberg fielded three calls in which Weinstein wanted to know what information NBC News had, and demanded a meeting with Farrow, which was not granted. Greenberg told Weinstein repeatedly during each conversation that when NBC News had a report ready for broadcast, he would be given sufficient time to respond. During their third conversation, Weinstein grew agitated. Greenberg told him he was being 'belligerent' and should be more respectful. Weinstein apologized. Subsequent to that conversation, attorney Lisa Bloom contacted Greenberg saying she was reaching out on behalf of Weinstein to ask about the status of the story. Greenberg reiterated that NBC News would reach out to Weinstein when there was a report ready for air with sufficient time for him to respond.Advertisement

These stunning photos show the thousands of handmade rugs laid out under the sizzling sun in Turkey to soften their colour and increase their value.

A drone captured the carpets that have been laid out in fields in the Dosemealti district of the tourist province of Antalya on Tuesday.

Around 25,000 rugs were laid out across almost 500 acres of land this summer, according to Reuters.

Record-breaking temperatures helped soften the vivid dyes used in the handwoven rugs into the more muted antique-style colours preferred by Western customers.

Merchants tell carpet layers how much they'd like the colours to fade and leave them to use this decades-old method to achieve the desired result.

The rugs are washed, dried and dusted before being laid out in the sun by workers who wait around a month before dusting the carpets again.

'The chemical dyes of the carpets that were woven 40 to 50 years ago were so bright that they exhaust your eyes,' Ibrahim Geyikoglu, deputy head of the Istanbul Carpet Exporters' Union, told the New York Times recently.

'The dye flies away. The colors get more in harmony with each other.'

Thousands of handmade rugs are seen laid out under the sizzling sun in Turkey to soften their colour and increase their value

A drone photo captured the colorful hand made carpets laid out in Dosemealti district of Turkey's Southern touristic province Antalya

Around 25,000 rugs were laid out under the scorching sun across almost 500 acres of land in Turkey this summer

Record-breaking temperatures helped soften the vivid dyes used in the handwoven rugs into the more muted antique-style colours preferred by Western customers

Merchants tell carpet layers how much they'd like the colours to fade and leave them to use this decades-old method to achieve the desired resultAn aspiring doctor died on Sunday after he fell off a rented electric scooter that broke in half.

Jacoby Stoneking, 24, was riding the scooter just before 4am Saturday morning near South Munger Boulevard.

Dallas police said they received an injured-person call after Stoneking managed to call someone to tell them he had fallen off a scooter.

Aspiring doctor, Jacoby Stoneking (pictured), 24, died over the weekend after he fell off a rented electric scooter that broke in half

According to Dallas News, Stoneking had asked the unidentified person for help ordering a ride from Lyft.

The Lyft driver arrived a short time later, but Stoneking was unresponsive.

He was taken to the Baylor University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead the next day.

Officers searched the area where Stoneking was found and discovered a Lime rental scooter (file image) that was broken in half

According to Dallas News, officers said Stoneking had scrapes and bruises on his hands and legs.

Police said when officers searched the area, where Stoneking was found, they discovered a Lime rental scooter that was broken in half.

The electric scooters were just legalized in June by the Dallas City Council. The scooters can travel up to 15mph.

Lime spokesperson, Mary Caroline Pruitt, told DailyMail.com: 'We are deeply saddened to hear the report of this incident in Dallas. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and loved ones.'

Pruitt also said that they are 'awaiting the results of the investigation, and we will cooperate fully with the authorities'.

The cause of death has not been determined yet.

His father, Jack Stoneking, told KXAS that his son wanted to be a doctor.

'He was outgoing, he ... cared for people. That's why we donated his organs, so that other people could have life,' he said.

'He was all about life.'

A GoFundMe account has also been set up to help the family with Stoneking's memorial service.

So far, the account has raised more than $7,000 toward its $10,000 goal.

Stoneking's father, Jack Stoneking, said his son wanted to be a doctor. A GoFundMe account has also been set up to help the family with Stoneking's memorial service

According to the GoFundMe, Jacoby Stoneking 'was a son, a brother, an uncle, and the best friend anyone could ever have'.

'His glowing nature was a beacon of love and joy for his family and friends. He was the most caring man anyone could ever meet,' the account read.

'A pet-loving, reptile enthusiast, he cared for many of his favorite cold-blooded creatures, and a pack of canine pals. He will be overwhelmingly missed by all that knew him,' the account added.Wild salmon returning to a river in the Hebrides are being killed by a plague of parasitic sea lice campaigners claim.

According to the Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland (S&TCS) wild fish infested with lice from local fish farms have been found dead or dying at the mouth of the Blackwater river at Loch Roag in the Isle of Lewis.

The organisation added it has extensive video and photographic evidence of lice-infected wild salmon to highlight the scale of the infestation and how the sea lice has eaten away at the skin of the fish.

The Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland (S&TCS) have said wild fish infested with lice from local fish farms have been found dead or dying at the mouth of the Blackwater river at Loch Roag, Scotland

On reaching coastal waters on their route back from the Atlantic, the fish pass several salmon farms in Loch Roag and the at the end of July many dead, dying or distressed adult wild salmon were found in the lower part of the river.

The S&TCS alleged the Scottish Salmon Company's seven fish farms in the sea loch were to blame for the parasite deaths.

Andrew Graham-Stewart, director of Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland, said: 'We believe that the explosion in lice numbers on the Loch Roag farms, spreading out into the wider sea loch environment, has had deadly implications for wild fish, as they were waiting to enter the Blackwater.

'Adult salmon are well adapted to coping with a few lice but, when plastered with hundreds, they simply do not have a chance.'

Andrew Graham-Stewart, director of Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland, said: 'Adult salmon are well adapted to coping with a few lice but, when plastered with hundreds, they simply do not have a chance'

The organisation added it has extensive video and photographic evidence of lice-infected wild salmon.Pictured: A scientist removing a specimen of sea-lice from a wild salmon captured at Strathy salmon netting station, Scotland

The Isle of Lewis (above) is located at the North west corner of the group of islands known as the Hebrides

The Scottish Salmon Company said fish health and welfare was 'central to responsible salmon farming'. Pictured: Rogie falls at Blackwater River near Garve Ross and Cromarty, Scotland

A spokesperson for the Scottish Salmon Company told the BBC: 'The Scottish Salmon Company have not had an opportunity to examine or authenticate this information, but openly facilitated the SSPCA visits and look forward to receiving their feedback.'

Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland are campaigning for industry reform after arguing the biggest problem for Scottish wild fish is open net salmon farming.

Animal charity Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is investigating the issue but the S&TCS says local wildlife and related businesses are at risk and legislation must now be changed.

Last week, animal campaigns charity OneKind launched a petition to the Scottish Parliament with partners Scottish Salmon Think-Tank, Save Seil Sound and the Salmon Aquaculture Reform Network Scotland (SARNS) calling for a moratorium on the growth of the salmon farming industry.The Metropolitan Police has been ordered to pay 3,000 to a suicidal woman they arrested for wasting their time after she dialled 999 threating to kill herself.

The mother-of-two with a Borderline Personality Disorder was held for abusing the emergency number when she phoned officers to say she felt suicidal.

She was arrested in the middle of the night and held in a cell for 'misuse of the 999 system' - after dialling the number 18 times in ten days.

The 42-year-old told MailOnline: 'I wanted to kill myself when an aggressive and unsympathetic police officer came to my house and said 'this stops now'.

'He arrested me in the middle of the night, leaving me in a cell in another borough with a violent drunk while he humiliated me by joking about me within earshot.

The Metropolitan Police has been ordered to pay 3,000 to a suicidal woman they arrested for wasting their time after she dialled 999 threating to kill herself

'I was so exhausted from my ordeal that I have no idea how I even managed the hour-long bus journey home the following afternoon.

'I'd attempted suicide four times - once nearly dying after being put into a medically-induced coma - by overdosing on medication and I self-harm by cutting myself.'

The woman said her mental health team advised her to call the police non-emergency number 101 when it happens.

'Officers would usually call me or come and have tea with me to hopefully talk me out of it or call 999 for an ambulance if they were too late.'

She added: 'I'm still awaiting an apology but I know that this is the closest that I'll ever get to the force admitting that they've even done anything wrong.'

The former nursery nurse from north London was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in 2011, triggered by five years of post-natal depression following the birth of her second son, the death of her mother and the breakdown of her marriage.

A team of mental health specialists devised a care plan, instructing her to call the police non-emergency number 101 to request help whenever she wants to kill herself or self-harm.

She said she called the police 'on many occasions' and usually found officers were 'comforting, understanding and supportive'.

However, when she called for help in May 2016, as she 'felt she might kill herself', she was arrested at her home, put in a police van and locked in a police cell for 12 hours.

The force faced allegations of unlawful arrest and false imprisonment and have now settled out of court.

The woman said: 'It was my son's birthday, which triggered the noise in my head. I cut my arms but I couldn't control it and I wanted to kill myself.

'By 6pm I was so desperate that I called for help twice and was told that the police were 'not there to deal with mental ill-health'.

'A sergeant rang back three hours later and yelled that they were 'fed up of sending officers to my address'.

The woman said her mental health team advised her to call the police non-emergency number 101 when it happens - but ended up calling them 18 times in ten days in April and May 2016

She said they were dealing with 'real emergencies' like people threatening to throw themselves off bridges. I asked if that was what I needed to do to get help.

'About six hours later  at around 2am - two officers were finally sent to see me.

'One understanding officer sat with me trying to calm me down while the other aggressively searched my house and rudely shouted at me asking where my weapon was while he smashed through doors.

'By then I was in a really bad way and I got even more upset as I'd never even as much as threatened to hurt anyone else and my boys have never been with me when I'm like that.

'Suddenly the aggressive officer said he'd had enough and that he was arresting me, adding 'this stops tonight'.

'I was put in the back of a police van and then left in a cell with an alcoholic who was threatening the two officers there. The officer who arrested me sat outside for several hours until his shift ended and I heard him say, 'Guess who I've got in here?'. It was like a joke to him and he was proud of himself, despite my obvious distress.'

The woman continued: 'The whole situation has had a massive impact on me. I feel like I'm classed as 'known to the police', a time-waster and a criminal, with no one to help and without any specialist-trained support in place.

Her lawyer Andrew Petherbridge of Hudgell Solicitors said: 'This was inconsiderate, inappropriate and also unlawful.'

A Met Police spokesman said: 'The Metropolitan Police Service settled a claim for damages brought by the claimant arising out of her arrest on 4 May, 2016. The settlement figure is confidential.

'Between April 25 and May 4 2016 the complainant called 18 times stating that part of her mental health care plan was to 'call if she needed someone to talk to'.

'On the day of her arrest, she called twice. When police arrived on the first occasion, the complainant stated that she did not require police.

'On the second occasion they established that there was no emergency. Upon considering the volume of calls that the complainant had made since 25 April 2016, the officer arrested her for 'misuse of the 999 system'. The complainant was detained and later released without charge.'An explosive tell-all book about Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, is in the works by his soon-to-be ex-wife.

Judith Nathan Giuliani says Rudy has become a 'different man' over the years and is reportedly currently writing the tome and in talks with at least three publishing houses.

She is expected to reveal details of Rudy's private life and the workings of him and his inner circle which she hails as his 'enablers'.

A source close to Judith tells Page Six: 'This isn't going to be a salacious 'In bed with Rudy'-type book, but that doesn't mean she isn't picking up the poison pen.

'Judith's book will talk about how 'America's Mayor' and his powerful friends operate, the secret deals and secret handshakes, what it is like being on the inside with Manhattan and DC's power brokers.

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Judith Giuliani (right) is penning a tell all book about her estranged husband, Rudy which is expected to reveal details about the president's obfuscating attorney

'There is also much to discuss about Rudy's relationship with President Trump, and how Rudy struggled after his own political ambitions to be president failed.'

In what was likely a warning shot to her obfuscating ex on just what she could expose, Judith sat down with New York Magazine, where she said she has noticed perceptible changes in her estranged husband that first emerged in 2008.

'It was an ongoing process, that began when he lost the presidential campaign.'

Judith would not go into specifics as to what has changed with Rudy, but she did allude, 'For a variety of reasons that I know as a spouse and a nurse, he has become a different man.'

'The man that he is now is absolutely not the man he was when I married him.'

She suggested he had changed through the years several times throughout the interview.

One source close to Rudy told New York Magazine that they've 'seen him drink more in the past two years than I'd seen him drink in the past twenty.'

Last August Rudy took a disastrous fall in the Hamptons during a barbecue they were hosting- however Judith decline to comment on if alcohol was a factor in that incident.

Rudy and Judith were married at Gracie Mansion in 2003- she filed for divorce in April and says he was having an affair with Maria Ryan (right)

Judith filed for divorce in April after 15 years of marriage. She says she learned that Rudy was cheating on her with hospital administrator Maria Ryan, a claim he has denied.

She released a statement at the time saying 'My husband's denial of the affair with the married Mrs. Ryan is as false as his claim that we were separated.'

The former New York power couple do not have a pre-nup in place and Rudy is worth an estimated $45million.Matt Lauer is continuing to enjoy his summer hiding out in the Hamptons by taking a spin on his $1.4million yacht named 'Resilient'.

The disgraced Today show anchor was spotted Sunday on his Hinckley jet boat, which he purchased in 2013, without any of his three children.

Lauer sported a navy blue polo shirt with the long sleeves rolled up, as well as sunglasses and a cap to shield his face.

The name of the yacht strikes an ironic chord, as Lauer has been unemployed since being fired from NBC in November after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced.

Matt Lauer is continuing to enjoy his summer hiding out in the Hamptons, most recently spotted on his $1.4million yacht dubbed Resilient

The name of the yacht strikes an ironic chord, as Lauer has been unemployed since being fired from NBC in November after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced

Lauer purchased the boat as news of his low ratings dominated media stories that year and his image continued to suffer from the controversial firing of his co-host Ann Curry.

'If you've been following the papers lately, you know it's been a bit rough for me,' Lauer said during a dinner gala he hosted a month before he purchased Resilient.

'These days, I only get asked to host dinners if polio is busy. I have a lower Q rating than polio right now.'

Lauer was spotted a week after he agreed to a $20million divorce settlement with wife Annette Roque. The pair will reportedly share custody of their children.

He reportedly felt so guilty about cheating on his Dutch model wife that he was 'bending over backwards' to give her everything she wanted in the divorce agreement, according to Page Six.

Although he's been unemployed and estranged from Roque for nearly a year, Lauer has not seemed down in the dumps.

The disgraced Today show anchor was spotted on his Hinckley jet boat, which he purchased in 2013, on Sunday

Lauer sported a navy blue polo shirt, with the long sleeves rolled up, as well as sunglasses and a cap to shield his face

Lauer purchased the boat while news of his low ratings dominated media stories as his image continued to suffer from the controversial firing of his co-host Ann Curry

Last week he was spotted at Donohue's Steak House in Manhattan when he was approached by fans who said they missed him on television.

'I've been busy being a dad. But don't worry, I'll be back on TV,' Lauer told the women, according to Page Six.

Lauer also recently attended the Hamptons Classic, one of the largest outdoor horse shows in the US, with Roque.

Although the pair didn't show physical affection, they seemed friendly as they walked their dog and met up with friends.

And earlier in August the former journalist was spotted grinning at the Paddle for Pink event at Havens Beach in Sag Harbor.

Lauer, who seems to be staying in shape with his newfound free time, beamed as he got into the sea with his board before crossing the finish line at the event.

'If you've been following the papers lately, you know it's been a bit rough for me,' Lauer said during a dinner gala he hosted a month before he purchased Resilient

He was then spotted giving a high-five and chatting to Larry Baum, a Wall Street consultant and fixture of the Hamptons social scene.

The former host fled for the Hamptons after he was booted from the Today show in November, putting up his Manhattan apartment on the market in March.

The sale of the $7.35million Upper East Side pad, which boasts four bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms, finally became official in August.

Lauer was fired from the Today show in 2017 after an unidentified NBC employee accused him of sexually harassing her during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Although he's been unemployed for nearly a year, Lauer has hardly seemed down in the dumps. Last month he beamed after participating in the Hamptons Paddle for Pink event

He was spotted giving a high-five and chatting to Larry Baum, a Wall Street consultant and fixture of the Hamptons social scene

He admitted to the sexual relationship with the unidentified colleague - denying that he was coercive - and NBC News chairman Andy Lack fired him that same night.

NBC released a statement the next day saying it was the first time it had ever received a complaint about Lauer during his 20-year career at the network.

The statement surprised insiders who had heard whispers of the Today show host's behavior for months as three major news outlets began working on stories regarding the allegations.

Variety would go on to report claims from three different women who said they were sexually harassed by Lauer and had all complained to management.

Lauer fled for the Hamptons after he was booted from the Today show in November. He is pictured here in his Hamptons neighborhood in December 2017 after the scandal brokeIsraeli President Reuven Rivlin receives Ambassador Cao Tran Quoc Hais letter of credentials in February 2016. (Photo: VGP)

According to Ambassador Hai, Vietnam and Israel have gained big cooperative results in politics, economics, security, defence, trade, science technology, training and tourism.

Of which, the political relationship has been reinforced and increased through regular exchanges of delegations, especially the visits of Israeli Presidents Reuven Rivlin and Shimon Peres to Vietnam in 2017 and 2011.

In terms of economic cooperation, Israel is currently one of Vietnams leading partners from the Middle East, with the two-way trade turnover of over USD1 billion each year on average over the past 3 years. Many of Vietnams key products such as phones, coffee, cashew nut, footwear and textile and garment account for some 10-20% of Israels market, while Vietnam is among the top 3 processed tuna exporters in Israel.

Each year, Vietnam sends over 700 trainees to study in Israel, the highest number among countries sending trainees to the country. It also grants hundreds of short-term scholarships to Vietnamese cadres and experts in start-up, hi-tech agriculture, education, leadership and gender equality. Many Vietnamese groups and companies have imported Israels high technologies for developing large-scale agricultural production projects in Vietnam.

The two countries have also reported positive cooperation results. In 2017 alone, some 25,000 Israeli visitors came to Vietnam, and Vietnam has become a favourite destination for more and more Israeli visitors with its beautiful scenery, delicious food and peoples hospitality.

Confirming that the two countries have many advantages to boost cooperation as they consider each other trusted partners and friends, they now strive to increase the two-way trade turn-over of USD3 billion in the years to come, and accelerate the negotiation of the Vietnam  Israel Free Trade Agreement by increasing investment and trade promotion activities, and creating favourable conditions for both countries businesses.

Additionally, while Israel has great need of foreign labourers, especially in agriculture, healthcare, construction and restaurants, Vietnam can provide plentiful and well trained human resources. Therefore, in the upcoming time, the two countries should promote negotiation of the labour cooperation agreement while considering opening direct flights, creating favourable conditions for businesspersons and tourists, according Ambassador Hai.

He added that during Israeli President Reuven Rivlins visit to Vietnam in March 2017, the two countries leaders agreed to give priority to economic and scientific and technological cooperation, especially in areas that Vietnam is in need and Israel is strong in, including hi-tech agriculture, water management, education and training, telecommunications, cyber security, smart cities, start-up and innovation./.President Donald Trump complained on a recorded phone call no one ever contacted him about veteran journalist Bob Woodward's interview request  then complained advisor Kellyanne Conway should have come to him directly.

The Washington Post released a recorded August 14 phone call between the famously well-sourced author and the president soon after the paper reported on a copy of 'Fear,' Woodward's forthcoming book on Trump.

Trump does admit at one point during the call that a senator had passed along Woodward's request for an interview, but at other times says he had no idea about it.

The call begins with Woodward, after alerting the president he was recording, regretting the two hadn't been able to connect and Trump saying he wished he had known about the book  which was already coming out at the time of the call.

'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?'

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'She didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said of Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, during a conversation with Bob Woodward about an interview request Trump claims he never was told about

Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview  prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room.

At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call.

'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her.

Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names.

The Washington Post released a phone call of Bob Woodward and President Trump where Trump claims he never got Woodward's interview request

'I never got a call. I never got a message,' Trump said. Here journalist Bob Woodward (L) arrives at Trump Tower, January 3, 2017 in New York City when then-President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team were in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration

'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on.

Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly.

'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.

Bob Woodward's 'Fear' hits shelves next week

'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said.

Woodward asked if Conway had 'access' to him.

'She does have access to me. Absolutely, she has direct access, but she didn't come to me. And you know what? That's okay. I'll just end up with another bad book, he said.

Trump both acknowledged knowing about Woodward's interview request and denied knowing about it during the interview.

'Its really too bad, because nobody told me about it, and I wouldve loved to have spoken to you,' Trump told the veteran Watergate reporter.

Woodward also said he sent a request through press aide Raj Shah and that he also sent a message through Sen. Lindsey Graham.

He said he had put in requests with 'about six people,' and with 'about six or seven people.'

Woodward neither confirmed or denied having gone to former communications director Hope Hicks when Conway suggested it.

'But you had talked to Hope, right, who said no?'

'Listen, I talked to anyone I could,' Woodward said.

Bob Woodward's new book has chief of staff John Kelly calling President Trump an 'idiot' who has 'gone off the rails'

'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner,' Trump reportedly said of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe

Defense Secretary Mattis said Trump acted like 'a fifth- or sixth-grader' after Trump failed to understand the importance of a warning system stationed in Alaska

Trump allowed during the call that he did get a brief message from Graham from Woodward's request.

'Senator Graham actually mentioned it to me quickly on one meeting. And you know, that is true,' Trump said.

'Did you speak to Madeleine,' Trump asked Woodward. 'Madeleine is the key. She's the secret,' Trump said, in a reference to Madeleine Westerhout, his personal secretary.

Woodward says he didn't, and didn't betray knowledge of the channel of reaching by contacting his personal secretary directly.

'I broke my spear on it trying to get to you,' Woodward tells him later in the call, which Woodward told the president he was recording at the top.

'I talked to Raj. He was going to work it out,' Woodward said at one point, referencing press aide Raj Shah.

Trump ended up diminishing the access of his principal deputy press secretary. 'Rah, I hardly have - I don't speak to Raj,' Trump said.

'That's okay, I'll just end up with another bad book. What can I tell you,' Trump says in defeat.

He also concludes, without having seen the book, that it would be inaccurate.

'So were going to have a very inaccurate book, and thats too bad. But I dont blame you entirely,' he told Woodward.

At the beginning of the call, he told Woodward, who he said he had a conversation with in Trump Tower 20 years ago: 'You know Im very open to you. I think youve always been fair. Well see what happens.'

Trump also trashed the book in an interview with the Daily Caller Tuesday.

'It's just another bad book. He's had a lot of credibility problems,' Trump said of Woodward, who along with Carl Bernstein and others helped unravel the Watergate scandal at the Washington Post.

'I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not. I think it probably wouldn't have made a difference in the book. He wanted to write the book a certain way,' Trump said.

Trump continued: 'It's just nasty stuff. I never spoke to him. Maybe I wasn't given messages that he called. I probably would have spoken to him if he'd called, if he'd gotten through. For some reason I didn't get messages on it.'

Trump said statements could have come from 'disgruntled employees,' and posited: 'It could be just made up by the author.' Woodward told Trump on the tape-recorded call he had hundreds of hours of tapes with his interview subjects.A mother and daughter distantly related to the Queen died from injuries sustained in a head-on car crash as they returned from a safari in South Africa, their inquests have heard.

Louise Sword, 53, and her 12-year-old daughter Tabitha, of Lurgashall, West Sussex, died after their SUV collided with a Mercedes near Zinkwazi during a holiday.

Her husband Alistair, 53, and son Benjamin, 11, were also in the car.

Louise Sword, 53, (left) and her 12-year-old daughter Tabitha, (right) of Lurgashall, West Sussex - both distantly related to the Queen - died after their SUV collided with a Mercedes

Post-mortem examinations found both died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, the coroner was told. Alistair, 53, and son Benjamin, 11, were cut free from their wrecked SUV (pictured) and were airlifted to a Durban hospital in a critical condition

Tabitha was pronounced dead at the scene and her mother died shortly after being taken to a Durban hospital, the court heard.

Post-mortem examinations found both died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, the coroner was told.

Alistair and Benjamin Sword were cut free from their wrecked SUV and were airlifted to a Durban hospital in a critical condition.

By Monday night, the pair were in a stable condition.

The inquests into the passengers' August 10 deaths were opened at West Sussex Coroner's Court in Crawley on Tuesday.

PSS Medical Rescue spokesperson, Paul Herbst, told South African news outlet IOL that the family had been travelling back to Durban when the accident took place on the N2, near Zinkwazi.

'It is believed that a driver of a H100 was travelling North on the N2 when it had a blowout,' Herbst said.

Mrs Sword's brother, Timothy Taylor, is married to a cousin of the Queen, Lady Helen Taylor, (left) who is 42nd in line to the throne

Cassius (left) is the 21-year-old son of the Duke of Kents daughter, Lady Helen, and her art dealer husband, Tim Taylor. It is unclear what Cassiuss 24-year-old brother Columbus (right) does, though his Facebook postings suggest an interest in politics and art

'The driver stopped in the fast lane. A driver of a Mercedes Benz was also travelling north and allegedly swerved to avoid the H100 and went into the oncoming lane.

'A Toyota Fortuner travelling south collided head-on with the Mercedes Benz'.

The female Mercedes driver, 60, said to have swerved across the road in the crash, died at the scene.

Mrs Sword's brother, Timothy Taylor, 55, is married to a cousin of the Queen, Lady Helen Taylor, who is 42nd in line to the throne.

Mr Taylor is an art dealer and runs a gallery opposite the exclusive Connaught Hotel near Hyde Park, one of the most expensive areas of London.

Lady Helen was a fashion ambassador to Giorgio Armani for 17 years and also worked alongside the art dealer Karsten Schubert between 1987 and 1991 on the front desk, Express reported.

They have two sons and two daughters. Columbus, 24, Cassius, 21, Eloise, 15, and Estella, 13.

Relatives are believed to have arrived in Durban yesterday.

Ms Sword formerly ran a trouser boutique from her home.

Coroner Joanne Andrews adjourned their inquests to resume at the same court on January 8.A Corbyn ally who ranted about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' was cheered as he arrived for a crunch meeting of Labour's ruling body today.

Peter Willsman was applauded by Momentum activists as he turned up for the NEC gathering at the party's HQ - with some hugging him and punching the air as he walked in.

But a group of Jewish protesters who had also gathered outside the offices angrily chanted 'shame on you' as he walked in.

The tense scenes came after Mr Willsman was re-elected to the NEC yesterday with more than 70,000 votes despite his diatribe in July, when he accused critics of 'making up' complaints about anti-Semitism.

Mr Willsman refused to answer questions on his remarks or whether he would back adopting the IHRA definition, but smiled and thanked his 'comrades' for their support.

Mr Corbyn arrived later for the showdown - but avoided embarrassing questions from the media by using a backdoor to get into the building.

The meeting eventually agreed to finally adopt the definition in full after months of strife.

Peter Willsman (pictured) was applauded by Momentum activists as he turned up for the NEC gathering at the party's HQ today. But Jewish protesters angrily chanted 'shame on you'

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured today arriving at Labour party HQ in Victoria for the NEC meeting) has been dogged by accusations that he has allowed anti-Semitism to go unchallenged in the party since he became leader

Mr Willsman, who was reelected to the NEC last night despite anger over his rant at Jewish 'Trump fanatics', was escorted past the protests by police today

Protesters against the leadership's position on the anti-Semitism definition gathered outside the Labour NEC meeting today (pictured), but there were also supporters

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson (pictured arriving at the NEC meeting in London's Victoria today) said he hopes the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism could be the start of a journey to rebuild trust with the Jewish community

The latest controversy was sparked over the summer when the party stopped short of including all examples from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct.

Left-wingers argued that the rules - which include banning jibes about the Israeli state being a racist endeavour - would hamper criticism of Israel.

But many MPs and Jewish groups view watering down the definition as totally unacceptable, and Mr Corbyn himself has been forced to deny being an anti-Semite.

Mr Willsman, who will now serve another two years on the NEC, said last night his job was to support his 'friend for 41 years' Mr Corbyn - who he called 'Jerry'.

He said critics were trying to undermine the Labour leader and 'some MPs, elected by Labour voters, seem willing to help the rich and powerful'.

Amanda Bowman, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Mr Willsman's election following his 'reprehensible comments' was 'deeply concerning'.

His success came despite the influential Momentum campaign group withdrawing its support for him following the 'deeply insensitive' comments about Jews.

In an angry rant at a meeting of Labour's ruling executive committee in July, he accused Jewish 'Trump fanatics' of 'making up duff information' to attack Mr Corbyn.

Mr Willsman won 70,321 votes to claim the ninth and last spot on the committee. Yasmine Dar was first in the election with 88,176 votes.

All nine winners are close supporters of Mr Corbyn. They all had the backing of Momentum, the Corbyn support group, at the start of the election campaign, before Mr Willsman was dropped from the slate.

Comedian Eddie Izzard was the best placed loser, finishing tenth with 67,819 votes.

Mr Corbyn (pictured leaving his London home today) has been under massive pressure to resolve Labour's anti-Semitism crisis

Corbyn supporters took up positions outside the meeting this morning as tensions rose

Some of the demonstrations today were criticising the idea of adopting the IHRA definition

Critics with loudhailers condemned the failure by Mr Corbyn to agree to the international anti-Semitism definition

Former Cabinet minister Dame Margaret Beckett (pictured today) is on the NEC as a parliamentary representative

Labour MP Luciana Berger (left) has said she no longer feels comfortable in the party due to handling of anti-Semitic abuse. John Mann (right) has warned that British Jews are leaving

Mr Willsman won 70,321 votes to claim the ninth and last spot on the committee. Yasmine Dar was first in the election with 88,176 votes

Labour MP Wes Streeting revealed his despair at the re-election, warning Mr Willsman should have been 'booted off' the NEC during the election.

He said: 'Through his actions, Peter Willsman has shown he is unfit to serve on Labour's NEC.

'The results suggest that had his conduct come to light sooner - and Momentum taken swifter action - he would not have been elected.

'He should have been booted off the NEC already.'

A group of around 100 protesters from Momentum and Jewish Voice for Labour gathered outside Labour Party headquarters to urge the NEC not to adopt the anti-Semitism picket.

The noisy picket chanted and carried banners with slogans like 'IHRA no, BDS yes' and made a string of angry speeches tearing into Israel.

Who is controversial Labour NEC member Peter Willsman? Peter Willsman is a veteran of the Labour left and a trenchant supporter of Jeremy Corbyn. He has been a member of the ruling NEC on and off for decades, and is a well-known figure in party circles - although largely anonymous to the wider public. Mr Willsman was part of the Grassroots Alliance that defied Tony Blair at the peak of his powers in 1998 by securing one of four spots on the NEC. He has long been involved in the Bennite Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD). That group has been demanding more power for members and mandatory reselection of MPs since the 1970s. Mr Willsman was previously an ally of Momentum founder Jon Lansman, but they are thought to have fallen out. Advertisement

They included two activists dressed in witches hats who stood near a banner with Jeremy Corbyn's face across it.

They faced off against a small group of Jewish protesters who want the definition to be adopted.

The group - which carried Israeli flags - chanted 'Corbyn is an anti-Semite' and said that the Labour Party has no right to tell the Jewish community how to define anti-Semitism.

Mike Cushman, an activist with JVL, accused Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger of being 'on a continuum' with Margaret Thatcher.

He accused the Labour MP of defending an apartheid state in Israel which is like South Africa.

He said the anti-Semitism crisis has been over inflated by Blairites and Tories and supporters of the Israeli government .

He told the crowd: 'There are three groups responsible - there is the blairite group who never accepted the idea that you and me decide the direction of our party...

'They have used any weapon they can to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.

'There is the second group, the conservatives, they see this as a weapon to destabilise the Labour Party.

'And there is a third group - the Israeli government and those who support them.

'They do not want us to criticise the criminal actions of the Israeli regime.'

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi at JVL said: 'I think it's very unfortunate that the Labour Party has been so bludgeoned and beaten and bloodied by this whole episode in our political life that they feel they have to take on guidelines.'

On Israel she added: 'I know it's a racist state.'

Asked what they will do today if the party adopts the definition she said they will continue their campaign and help activists who are accused of Antisemitism.

Other speakers at the Momentum and JVL demonstration accused those like former chief rabbi Lord Sacks who have spoken out on anti-Semitism of 'shrieking' and 'crying wolf'.

Jon Lansman, founder of Momentum, did not talk to the press as he arrived at the party HQ this morning.

A furious protester angrily confronted Chris Williamson and accused him of being a 'Labour fascist' in a tense showdown outside Labour headquarters.

Mr Williamson - a close ally of Mr Corbyn - turned up at the rally to speak to applauding Momentum crowds in a speech criticising Israel.

But as he spoke to reporters afterwards he was confronted by Damon Lenszner, 58, who shouted at him through a megaphone 'fascist, Labour fascist.'

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone (pictured) waded into the spat, saying the IHRA was 'badly drafted'

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell (pictured) is the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism

Speaking to MailOnline afterwards, Mr Lenszner, who is Jewish, said that Jeremy Corbyn has allowed his hatred of Israel to infect the party.

He said: 'I'm here to try to persuade the Labour Party that I once voted for to adopt the IHRA in full.'

Asked why he called Nr Williamson a fascist, he said: 'The guys that sit alongside Corbyn and on the NEC making up this legislation for the party have taken up Jeremy Corbyn's hatred of Israel to such an extent it is spilling over into anti-Semitism.'

Earlier Mr Williamson had been greeted with a rapturous round of applause when he turned up at the momentum demonstration against the IHRA definition.

He was greeted with high fives, handshakes and hugs as he arrived at the demonstration.

And in a speech he railed against the current government in Israel and said that Labour members must be free to criticise it.

Asked later by reporters about about Peter Willsman's re-election to the NEC, he said the activist's remarks about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' had been 'misrepresented'.

'I think his comments have been misrepresented. We heard a snippet of a longer conversation, obviously.

'I don't believe that that's his view.

'The Jewish community is not a homogeneous group, there are a range of different opinions.'

He said many Jewish Labour members were 'here to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people' and their concerns with the IHRA examples.

Corbyn ally Chris Williamson is berated by protesters A furious protester angrily confronted Chris Williamson and accused him of being a 'Labour fascist' in a tense showdown outside Labour headquarters. Mr Williamson - a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn - turned up at the rally to speak to applauding Momentum crowds in a speech criticising Israel. But as he spoke to reporters afterwards he was confronted by Damon Lenszner, 58, who shouted at him through a megaphone 'fascist, Labour fascist.' Speaking to MailOnline afterwards, Mr Lenszner, who is Jewish, said that Jeremy Corbyn has allowed his hatred of Israel to infect the party. He said: 'I'm here to try to persuade the Labour Party that I once voted for to adopt the IHRA in full.' Asked why he called Nr Williamson a fascist, he said: 'The guys that sit alongside Corbyn and on the NEC making up this legislation for the party have taken up Jeremy Corbyn's hatred of Israel to such an extent it is spilling over into anti-Semitism.' Earlier Mr Williamson had been greeted with a rapturous round of applause when he turned up at the momentum demonstration against the IHRA definition. He was greeted with high fives, handshakes and hugs as he arrived at the demonstration. And in a speech he railed against the current government in Israel and said that Labour members must be free to criticise it. Asked later by reporters about about Peter Willsman's re-election to the NEC, he said the activist's remarks about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' had been 'misrepresented'. 'I think his comments have been misrepresented. We heard a snippet of a longer conversation, obviously. 'I don't believe that that's his view. 'The Jewish community is not a homogeneous group, there are a range of different opinions.' He said many Jewish Labour members were 'here to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people' and their concerns with the IHRA examples. Advertisement

Meanwhile, former London mayor Ken Livingstone waded into the spat, saying the IHRA was 'badly drafted'.

'The man who drafted this statement that defines antisemitism, the American lawyer who is Jewish himself, Kenneth Stern, says he now regrets that the wording of some of the examples he's included has restricted freedom of speech when you are discussing the state of Israel,' he told Sky News.

'So, if they do include all of those poorly-worded examples, we have got to make absolutely sure that people aren't then disciplined for simply stating historical facts, or having an honest and open debate.'

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell became the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to fully adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.

Mr McDonnell acknowledged the party should have moved more quickly to resolve a row which has dominated headlines over the summer and sparked warnings of a deep rift with Britain's Jewish community.

The NEC will consider whether to reverse its decision to omit some examples of anti-Semitic behaviour in the definition from its code of conduct for party members.

Critics of the IHRA approach have claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli government's actions against Palestinians and protests are expected outside Labour's London HQ urging the NEC to reject the examples.

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, Mr McDonnell said he wanted 'an acceptance of the IHRA definition and examples' but also 'freedom of speech so people are free to criticise Israel and its policies, free to advocate the rights of the Palestinians, but at the same time make sure it's done in language that's acceptable'.

He acknowledged the row had 'dragged on and I think we should have addressed it much sooner'.

Ms Duffield had warned that Labour MPs will not take it 'lying down' if the Labour refused to take action at the NEC's crunch meeting.

The party leadership has so far refused to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism - defying demands from many MPs and Jewish groups.

After weeks of controversy they are expected to back down and take up the definition - but may apply caveats which threaten to water it down.

The row has escalated in recent days after MailOnline published a tape in which Mr Corbyn accused British Zionists of having 'no sense of English irony'.

In a speech at the Palestinian Return Centre in 2013, Mr Corbyn said: '[British Zionists] clearly have two problems. One is they don't want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don't understand English irony either.'

He added: 'They needed two lessons, which we could perhaps help them with.'

The revelation sparked furious condemnation, while the former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks accused Mr Corbyn of being an 'anti-Semite' who 'defiles our politics'.

He said the tape are the most offensive remark by a British politician since Enoch Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech in 1968.

When Mr Willsman's comments were exposed in late July, Mr Willsman apologised and said he was referring himself for equalities training.

He said: 'I am sorry for my behaviour in the last meeting of Labour's NEC. I am of course aware of appalling instances of anti-Semitism within our party, and am wholly determined to rooting it out.

'I do not believe anti-Semitism is 'widespread' in the party, and that was what my comments were trying to refer to, but we do have a problem which needs stamping out.

'In diminishing the experiences of those who face anti-Semitism, I showed a lack of sensitivity... I will be referring myself [for] equalities training so I can better understand how to approach discussions of such issues in a respectful way.'

Frank Field (pictured) resigned the Labour whip over the party's handling of anti-Semitism. At least three others are said to be poised to follow his lead if the NEC rejects the definitionTwitter said Tuesday that no one is exempt from the threat of being banned for violating its rules governing abusive behavior  not even President Donald Trump.

The social media giant has a sliding standard for heads of state and other controversy-attracting people because what they say is inherently newsworthy. But that's 'not a blanket exception for the president or anyone else,' Twitter legal and policy chief Vijaya Gadde told Politico.

About 54.2 million people follow Trump on Twitter, inviting equally his opinions about public policy and the people and nations he loves to hate.

'Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N.,' the president tweeted nearly a year ago. 'If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!'

That kind of direct threat could run afoul of Twitter's Terms of Service, even if Trump has nuclear launch codes and the legal authority to use them.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey insists that his social media platform isn't biased against Republicans, but the company now suggests it could ban Donald Trump in the future for violating its rules covering abusive messaging

Many of the president's tweets have caustic undertones, and some are outright vicious

This tweet from last month targeted former White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman, calling her 'a crazed, lying lowlife' and a 'dog'

Trump has 52.4 million followers on Twitter, among the largest numbers of any user

In July he pointed his keyboard at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and pressed Enter: 'NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.'

A month later he blasted former aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who penned a tell-all about her time working for him, as 'a crazed, crying lowlife' and a 'dog.'

Separately, he branded her 'wacky' and 'deranged.'

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey hinted to Politico that deciding whether to sanction the President of the United States for firing off abusive tweets would feature more art than science.

'We have to balance it with the context that it's in,' he said. 'So my role is to ask questions and make sure we're being impartial, and we're upholding consistently our terms of service, including public interest.'

Eight months ago Twitter explained on a corporate blog that blocking heads of state 'would hide important information people should be able to see and debate.'

Dorsey has attracted unwanted attention from Republicans who say Twitter has shown a bias against them, but insists the platform is working on ways to ensure debate is healthier.

In prepared testimony released ahead of a House hearing Wednesday, he says Twitter 'does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules.'

In July the president blasted his Iranian counterpart with a late-night tweet in allcaps that promised 'consquences' for threatening the United States

In September 2017 another Trump tweet suggested he might do away with North Korea's foreign minister

The testimony comes as some Republicans say conservatives have been censored on social media and have questioned the platform's algorithms. Dorsey will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday afternoon on that subject, following a morning hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee on Russian interference on social media.

Dorsey says in the House testimony that the company has continued to identify accounts that may be linked to a Russian internet agency that was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller earlier this year.

The indictment detailed an elaborate plot by Russian intelligence officers to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election, charging several people associated with the Internet Research Agency with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Dorsey says in the testimony that Twitter has so far suspended 3,843 accounts the company believes are linked to the agency and has seen recent activity.

'These accounts used false identities purporting to be Americans, and created personas focused on divisive social and political issues,' Dorsey said.

To address concerns about bias, Dorsey offered an explanation of how Twitter uses 'behavioral signals,' such as the way accounts interact and behave on the service. Those signals can help weed out spam and abuse.

He said such behavioral analysis 'does not consider in any way' political views or ideology.

Dorsey said the San Francisco-based company is also 'committed to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable towards progress.'The toxic chemical agent which left one person dead in Amesbury, Wiltshere in June was the same used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal, it has been confirmed.

Dawn Sturgess collapsed and died after being exposed to novichok with her friend Charlie Rowley, who continues to be treated in hospital following the incident.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons today announced the substance was the same that poisoned former Russian spy Sergei and his daughter.

Dawn Sturgess died after touching a bottle containing Novichok and her boyfriend Charlie Rowley is in hospital. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons today announced the substance was the same that poisoned former Russian spy Sergei and his daughter

'The toxic chemical compound displays the same toxic properties of a nerve agent.

'It is also the same toxic chemical that was found in the biomedical and environmental samples relating to the poisoning of Mr Sergei Skripal, Ms Yulia Skripal, and Mr Nicholas Bailey on 4 March 2018 in Salisbury,' the OPCW reported.

British scientists had already concluded that the chemicals Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley were exposed to was novichok, but the report independently confirms this.

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt slammed the 'recklessness of the Russian state' for its alleged involvement in the poisoning.

He said in a statement: 'The recklessness of the Russian state in bringing a nerve agent in to the UK, and total disregard for the safety of the public, is appalling and irresponsible.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons today announced the substance was the same that poisoned former Russian spy Sergei and his daughter

Foreign Secretary statement on the OPCW report into Amesbury The Foreign Secretary said: We are grateful to the OPCW for the independent, expert work in confirming the type of nerve agent used in Amesbury, and once again pay tribute to the high standards set by our world-leading scientists. The recklessness of the Russian state in bringing a nerve agent in to the UK, and total disregard for the safety of the public, is appalling and irresponsible. Our thoughts are with the family of Dawn Sturgess, and with Charlie Rowley. This is another reminder of the importance of the international community standing together to uphold the global ban on all use of chemical weapons, and ensure that the rules based international order is respected so we can all keep our citizens safe. Advertisement

'Our thoughts are with the family of Dawn Sturgess, and with Charlie Rowley. This is another reminder of the importance of the international community standing together to uphold the global ban on all use of chemical weapons, and ensure that the rules based international order is respected so we can all keep our citizens safe.'

Ms Sturgess died aged 44 on July 8 after she and Mr Rowley fell ill after coming into contact with Novichok at the end of June.

Mr Rowley has said the nerve agent took just 15 minutes to poison Ms Sturgess after she sprayed the 'oily' substance on to her wrists believing it was perfume he had given her as a gift.

The bottle was later found in Mr Sturgess's home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, and underwent examination.

Ms Sturgess died on 8 July. Mr Rowley told ITV he had the bottle in his home for a couple of days before giving it to Ms Sturgess as a present. 'I do have a memory of her spraying it on her wrists and rubbing them together,'

Mr Rowley said. 'I guess that's how she applied it and became ill. I guess how I got in contact with it is when I put the spray part to the bottle... I ended tipping some on my hands, but I washed it off under the tap.'Mel B has been ordered by a judge to submit to four months of drug and alcohol testing after an ex 'manny' to her two younger children accused her of heavy drinking, taking numerous men home for sex, and neglecting her kids.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas also ordered a 'full scale custody evaluation' of the ex Spice Girl during Tuesday's hearing to decide if she is fit enough as a parent to maintain joint custody of daughter Madison, seven, with ex-husband Stephen Belafonte.

The drug and alcohol testing on Mel - real name Melanie Brown - will be random and conducted at her LA home for four months by federal approved facility, the judge ruled.

The America's Got Talent judge showed up in court today in a cream-colored jacket, patterned silk blouse, beige pants and pink high heels, alongside her close friend Gary Madatyan, who was sporting a graphic tee with words 'Honest, Trust, Loyalty, Respect'

Custody battle continues: Mel B was seen arriving at court on Tuesday morning alongside close friend Gary Madatyan, who was sporting a graphic tee with words 'Honest, Trust, Loyalty, Respect'

The mother of three appeared to be in good spirits and was seen laughing with her supportive friend

A judge ruled that Mel is to be subjected to random drug and alcohol tests for the next four months - after a bombshell declaration claimed she has been abusing drugs and alcohol while in the custody of her young children

The judge also ordered that while they have custody of Madison, 'neither parent will consume drugs or alcohol during the custodial time or eight hours before the custodial time.'

Judge Juhas directed both Brown and Belafonte to 'meet and confer' over their joint custody agreement for Madison and he ordered a 'full scale custody evaluation of all the issues' by family experts.

Belafonte's lawyer Grace Jamra - who claimed in court today that Mel 'did not even call Madison on her (seventh) birthday' last Sunday - objected to the nanny who Mel has hired to look after Madison.

'We have no knowledge that this nanny is qualified,' Jamra told Judge Juhas. 'We are asking you to protect this child.'

Judge Juhas decided that Madison will stay with Belafonte until Thursday, when Mel B is throwing a belated birthday party for her youngest daughter.

The 43-year-old mother of three, landed back in court today after her former friend and male nanny, Rusty Updegraff, made a damning declaration on Friday claiming her drinking was out of control, she was 'incapable' of caring for Madison and her 11-year-old sister Angel (Brown's daughter by Eddie Murphy), and her ferocious appetite for sex made her bed a procession of random men.

Updedgraff's bombshell revelations prompted Belafonte, also 43, to go back to court to ask the judge for a 'modification' of their joint child custody agreement and to force his ex-wife to undergo drug and alcohol testing.

Belafonte (pictured on Tuesday) 43, was granted temporary custody of the couple's seven-year-old daughter Madison last week after the explosive claims were revealed in a bombshell declaration. The judge ruled he will maintain custody until Thursday

Updegraff, 59 - who told DailyMail.com that Mel B is 'the world's number one bad mother' - claimed Brown slept with dozens of men since divorcing Belafonte last December, including her children's piano teacher, a driver, a hairdresser, a 'surfer kid' and a guy she picked up at SoHo House, who the kids nicknamed 'smelly feet'.

He also accused Brown of sometimes leaving her children unsupervised with some of the men she brought home for sex.

Updegraff said he fears for the safety of Brown's children.

'I am filing this declaration to alert the court that the children need immediate help and protection as their safety and well-being is at serious risk,' he said.

'I do not believe it is in the children's best interests to be left in her care.'

He claimed that Brown's drinking got so bad that she would start with beer and wine at 10am, sometimes earlier, before progressing to harder liquor such as vodka, tequila or gin, until she 'completely passes out'.

Mel and Stephen divorced in December last year, but have continued to fight over custody of their two youngest children, Angel Murphy Brown (pictured left) 11, (Mel's daughter by Eddie Murphy) and Madison Belafonte. The doting dad was seen with Madison at a festival in Malibu on Monday (right)

Brown often dispatched him to the local market and demanded that he buy 12 bottles of wine, two bottles of vodka and one or two 12-packs of beer, he claimed.

'That would all be gone in 4-5 days,' added Updegraff who included with his declaration a photo of empty tequila boxes stacked to the ceiling of Brown's home.

'Melanie's behavior got so bad, that I begged her not to drink tequila anymore. I told her she became very mean and angry when she drank tequila.'

Brown - who announced recently that she plans to seek therapy for problems with alcohol and post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by her messy divorce from Belafonte - is reportedly denying Updegraff's sensational claims Updegraff, telling a friend that the allegations are 'nonsense.'

'It's a smear campaign. They want to bring me down. I am not an alcoholic and I am not a sex addict,' she told her pal, according to London's Mirror newspaper.

'I will prove to them that I love my children.'

And another friend reportedly added: 'Mel is fuming right now about what happened in court. She feels betrayed by her friend Rusty and is determined to show the judge and the world that these allegations are false.'

Mel's ex-nanny Rusty Updegraff signed a declaration last week in which she claimed she was an unfit mother

Belafonte and Brown - who split up in March last year - were divorced in December after a long-running battle in which lurid tales of kinky sex, drug and alcohol abuse and allegations of domestic violence made headlines.

Despite their divorce being finalized nine months ago, the battle over children's custody and finances have dragged on through this summer.

Brown estimated that she's spent more than $1 million in legal fees and owes another $800,000 to attorneys and accountants.

Brown - who has to pay Belafonte $15,000 a month in spousal support until 2020 - claims the long-drawn-out split with him has ruined her financially, she's more than $3 million in the red and the IRS has started garnishing her America's Got Talent salary to pay off hundreds of thousand of dollars in back taxes she owes.

On August 6, Judge Juhas ordered Brown to pay Belafonte $350,000 in legal fees and $5,000 a month child support for Madison.

The couple were also ordered to set aside $1.1 million - $550,000 each - when they sell their $8 million former marital home, to pay back taxes they owe for 2016.

The hearing was supposed to have finally brought their bitter breakup to a close and they were scheduled to appear at September 17 hearing to formally check that both parties were complying with the judge's orders, before Updegraff's bombshell claims.Father-of-four Daniel Frederick, 34, (above) was set upon by a group of youths who stabbed him repeatedly just yards from his front door on the afternoon of January 8

Five teenagers who stabbed a man to death as he returned home from a hospital appointment with his pregnant partner, will now face years behind bars.

Father-of-four Daniel Frederick, 34, was set upon by a group of youths who stabbed him repeatedly just yards from his front door on the afternoon of January 8.

It is believed Mr Frederick, who lived in Shakespeare Walk in Stoke Newington, north London, was the innocent victim of violence involving youths from nearby estates.

One of his attackers, aged 16, had sought revenge after his friend was attacked in prison by the local 'Shakespeare Boys', the Old Bailey heard.

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Kacper Karasinski, 19, (left) of Hackney, was found guilty of the murder of a man who was stabbed to death as he returned home from a hospital appointment with his pregnant partner. Yigiter Gok, 18, (right) of Stoke Newington, was found guilty of manslaughter

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded guilty to Mr Frederick's murder.

Following the trial, Kacper Karasinski, 19, of Hackney, and a 17-year-old boy were found guilty of murder.

Yigiter Gok, 18, of Stoke Newington, and another 17-year-old boy were found guilty of manslaughter by a majority of 11 to one.

All but one defendant - a 17-year-old boy - had previous convictions for carrying knives dating back to 2016.

Witnesses saw the 'sinister and intimidating' youths wielding knives as they walked purposefully towards Mr Frederick, wearing dark clothes, hoodies and masks (seen in CCTV)

CCTV shows the men walking close to the scene of the assault and running off towards Hill Court Estate in Hackney before Daniel Frederick was found dying by paramedics on a housing estate

Prosecutor Allison Hunter QC had told jurors that Mr Frederick was killed in a 'deliberate, ruthless, violent attack'.

Witnesses saw the 'sinister and intimidating' youths wielding knives as they walked purposefully towards Mr Frederick, wearing dark clothes, hoodies and masks.

Ms Hunter said: 'It lasted no more than a few seconds, during which Daniel Frederick received seven stab wounds to his back, buttocks and thighs.

'The fatal stab wound was to the left side of his back, approximately 11.5cm (4.5in) deep, passing between his sixth and seventh rib.'

His former partner, Keisha Rodney with whom he has a one-year-old son, appeared on ITV's The Voice just days after Mr Frederick died.

Ms Rodney, 34, wowed judges as part of the girl group Loaded Sista, having been chosen as part of will.i.am's team.

At the time, she told the Evening Standard: 'There was no bitterness in the split. I have nothing bad to say about him  he gave me the amazing gift that is Carter.'

Keisha Rodney, (left) the former partner of Daniel Frederick, and Salli Flaherty (right) perform as girl group Loaded Sista on ITV's The Voice

Keisha Rodney has a one-year-old son with Mr Frederick and appeared on ITV's The Voice just days after he died

The young men were picked up on CCTV cameras as they ran off towards the Hill Court Estate in Hackney, shedding clothes as they went.

Three knives were later retrieved by police, although the prosecution could not say which were used in the attack.

However, a pathologist confirmed that more than one knife would have been used to stab Mr Frederick.

Within an hour and a half of police issuing a public appeal, Karasinski booked a flight to Oslo, but was arrested at the airport.

Gok fled on a ferry to France and travelled on to Turkey before returning to the UK in March.

He later admitted being at the scene of the murder, but denied taking part.

Giving evidence, Gok said the 16-year-old boy had been angry that a friend of his had been beaten up in jail by one of the 'Shakespeare Boys'.

Officers believe the attack was a case of mistaken identity and that Mr Frederick was a 'completely innocent victim'.

None of the defendants reacted as the jury delivered its verdicts after nearly 15 hours of deliberations.

They were remanded in custody to be sentenced at the Old Bailey at a later date.The White House reminded Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday that the United States would retaliate if he used chemical weapons on his people again.

'Let us be clear, it remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately,' the president's press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said in a statement.

President Donald Trump warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Russia in a Monday evening tweet not to 'recklessly attack' Syria's rebel-held Idlib province.

His White House said Tuesday that the U.S. is 'closely monitoring the situation,' calling out Assad, Russia and Iran and repeating Trump's warning that a large-scale attack on rebel-held territory 'would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.'

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Monday to warn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against launching an attack on the country's last rebel stronghold saying it could trigger a 'human tragedy'

Sanders in a Tuesday afternoon statement said: 'The United States will continue to work tirelessly with its Allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria under the auspices of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254.'

The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed Trump's comments, describing Idlib, where jihadist insurgent factions dominate, as a 'nest of terrorism.' Spokesman Dmitry Peskov added: 'We know that Syria's armed forces are preparing to resolve this problem.'

Iran echoed that theme. 'Terrorist groups [in Idlib] have mixed with the people,' said Abbas Araqchi, deputy foreign minister, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. 'They are using people as human shields.'

Russian and Syrian jets hammered the rebel stronghold on Tuesday, a war monitor said, days before leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey were to meet to discuss the expected Syrian government offensive Trump warned against and international groups worried would spark a humanitarian disaster.

Since Russia's entry into the war on his side in 2015, Assad and his other close allies, Iran and a group of regional Shi'ite militias it backs, have forced the rebels from a succession of bastions including Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta and Deraa.

For Assad, the defeat of rebels in the northwestern province would mean breaking the last major stronghold of active military opposition to his rule, though other large areas also remain beyond his control.

Warplanes bombarded the countryside Tuesday around Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the rebel enclave of Idlib after weeks of lull, killing 13 civilians but no fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source.

A Syrian government minister said the siege of Idlib would probably be resolved by force. 'Until now, military action is more likely than reconciliations,' Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar told Russia's Arabic-language Sputnik news agency.

'Idlib is different from other regions because of the large numbers of fighters,' Haidar said. 'However we cannot say there is no gateway to reconciliation.'

Damascus uses the term 'reconciliation' for the negotiated rebel surrenders that have taken place in some areas.

Half of Idlib's 3 million people have already fled there from their homes in other parts of Syria, according to the United Nations, and any offensive there threatens new displacement and human misery.

It could also spark a wider confrontation with Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, whose army has set up observation posts along the Idlib front lines to deter fighting.

Turkey's Hurriyet daily reported that Turkish armed forces were reinforcing the Idlib border with M60 tanks, and Reuters television filmed a convoy heading towards the border.

Tuesday's air strikes came hours after Trump warned Assad and his allies not to 'recklessly attack' Idlib, saying that hundreds of thousands might die.

'The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy,' Trump tweeted. 'Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!'

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict.

A top U.S. general estimated there were 20,000-30,000 militants in Idlib, but said if there were major military operations, 'we can expect humanitarian catastrophe,' and urged operations that mitigated the risks to civilians.

Earlier on Monday, Iran called for militants to be 'cleaned out' of Idlib, as it prepared for talks with Syria and Russia about confronting the last major enclave held by rebels opposed to Assad.

Syrian government forces are planning a phased offensive in Idlib and surrounding areas held by insurgents fighting Assad, who has been backed by both Russian and Iranian forces in the country's civil war.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Washington views any government assault on Idlib as an escalation of Syria's war, and the State Department also warned that Washington would respond to any chemical attack by Damascus.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Damascus to discuss plans for an upcoming summit between the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey, which Tehran will host on September 7 to discuss Idlib, Iran's Fars news agency reported.

Zarif likewise told state television, 'Our efforts are for ... the exit of terrorists from Idlib to be carried out with the least human cost.'

He and Peskov said Idlib would be a major subject of discussion at the Sept. 7 summit meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Hassan Rouhani.

Turkey, which has long supported anti-Assad rebels, has cooperated with Russia and Iran on talks over Syria in recent years and has troops in the Idlib region on an bservation mission.

Trump took to Twitter on Monday to caution Assad about attacking refugees in the Syrian province

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe. Pictured above are Syrians protesting against the regime and its ally Russia in the rebel-held town of Maarrat al-Numan in the north of Idlib province

Zarif met Assad, Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, who asked for Iran to continue its support, according to Iran's Fars News.

'All of Syrian territory must be preserved and all the sects and groups should start the round of reconstruction as one collective and the displaced should return to their families,' Zarif said, according to Fars News.

'And the remaining terrorists in the remaining parts of Idlib must be cleaned out and the region should be placed back under the control of the Syrian people.'

Assad's office said in a statement: 'The two sides asserted that the pressures from some Western states on Syria and Tehran will not deter the two countries from continuing to defend their principles.'

Last week, Iran's defense minister traveled to Damascus and signed an agreement for defense cooperation between the two countries with his Syrian counterpart.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Iran would continue its support for Syrian government forces in its battle in Idlib.

Zarif went to Sayeda Zeinab, a shrine south of Damascus revered by Shi'ites, as his first stop on the trip, according to Fars News.A Wisconsin couple have been arrested after their 15-year-old son died in the midst of a 40-day fast, according to police.

Kehinde Omosebi, 49, walked into the Reedsburg Police Department to report the death of his son, Ayanfe Omosebi, according to police chief Timothy Becker.

Officers responded to the family's home on Alexander Avenue but found that they had to force themselves in because the doors were padlocked from the inside.

Kehinde Omosebi, 49, (left) walked into the Reedsburg Police Department to report the death of his 15-year-old son. The boy's mother, 48-year-old Titilayno Omosebi (right), was found in the home emaciated along with an 11-year-old child and the dead teen

Inside, police found Ayanfe Omosebi 'extremely emaciated and deceased,' Chippewa.com reports.

The boy's mother, 48-year-old Titilayno Omosebi, was also found in the home emaciated along with an 11-year-old child.

Kehinde shared with authorities that they had been on a fast since July 19 and that he was a 'religious minister affiliated with Cornerstone Reformation Ministries'.

The father told police that his son died on Friday which would have marked the 44th day since they started fasting.

No food was found at the residence. Both Titilayno and her 11-year-old child were taken to a hospital. The mother refused treatment, citing religious reasons.

Cornerstone Reformation Ministries does not appear to be a church in the community, according to Pastor Sonny Hyde with the Cornerstone Ministry Baptist Church (pictured)

Both parents were taken to the Sauk County Jail for charges of child neglect causing death and neglecting a child causing great bodily harm.

The 11-year-old was taken to child protective custody and the Children's Hospital in Madison.

Cornerstone Reformation Ministries does not appear to be a church in the community, according to Pastor Sonny Hyde with the Cornerstone Ministry Baptist Church.

He added that neither was a member of his congregation. 'We're certainly praying for the other child,' he added.

An autopsy is schedule by the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory on Monday.A mother-of-two who was inspired to become a nurse after a life-saving heart transplant aged ten has now been told she needs a new kidney.

Emma Standish, 27, from Bolton, was told her organs are failing due to the medication she takes in order to stop the body attacking the donor heart.

The immunosuppressants are a class of drugs used to suppress, or reduce the strength of the body's immune system, thereby helping to make the body less likely to reject a transplanted organ.

Emma Standish (above), 27, from Bolton, become a nurse after a life-saving heart transplant aged 10

The 27-year-old, who now works at Royal Bolton Hospital, said apart from her kidneys she is in good health.

She told the Mirror: 'My heart is fabulous  they found the perfect heart.

'People are shocked when they find out about my transplant as I'm just a normal girl.

'The doctors told my parents that if I didn't get a heart transplant I was going to die. I had no idea what was going to happen and I was so poorly I just wanted to give up fighting.'

Ms Standish was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart's ability to pump blood is decreased, at the age of nine.

The condition is caused by the main pumping chamber of the organ becoming enlarged and weakend and in Emma's case it left her muscle stretched and unable to beat properly.

After being given just 72 hours to live, she was rushed from the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital to Newcastle Freeman Hospital to be fitted with a mechanical heart.

The mother-of-two was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart's ability to pump blood is decreased, at the age of nine

However a suitable donor was found just in time and Emma was able to proceed with a heart-transplant.

Following her surgery nearly 20 years ago Ms Standish has had children  Ava, seven, and Harrison, three, with partner Wayne.

Emma's organs are failing due to damage caused by medication taken to stop the body attacking the donor heart. The drugs suppress, or reduce the strength of the body's immune system and are used to makes the body less likely to reject a transplanted organ

With figures now showing up to 500 lives a year could be saved from organ donation, Ms Standish has shared her support for the government's plans to change the rules regarding organ donation consent in England.

Earlier this year, MPs backed a bill requiring people to 'opt out' if they did not want their organs to be donated and announced the law will be changed by 2020.

This week campaigners are also continuing to raise awareness of the important need for organ donation as part of Organ Donation Week.Students talk to teacher at Yifu primary school in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sept. 3, 2018. Schools all over the country prepare various activities for students to greet the new semester. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

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[ Editor: zyq ]A woman is suing a Christian yoga group which she says ostracized her after she complained about a female instructor being sexually inappropriate towards her during a class.

Dallas mother Danette Galvis, 44, claims fellow mother and married Holy Yoga instructor Dianne Suozzo, 58, assaulted her by giving her a prolonged 'adjustment hug' and whispering in her ear at an Arizona retreat in October.

Galvis claims Suozzo, who refers to herself as a 'Soul Care Shepherd' for the yoga organization, held on to her and whispered to her: 'You are so beautiful...if I wasnt married.'

In a lawsuit obtained by DailyMail.com on Tuesday, Galvis alleged that Suozzo had openly discussed being attracted to women despite being married to a man who works as a minister and is on the board of Holy Yoga.

Danette Galvis (left), 44, claims fellow yoga instructor Dianne Suozzo (right), 58, made sexually inappropriate remarks to her and held her in a prolonged 'adjustment hug' in October 2017

She claimed that when she complained to organizers about what happened, she had her role in the organization reduced and lost out on money. She too had been working as an instructor and had climbed the ranks to become a regional director before the incident.

After reporting the incident to senior staff, Galvis said she was pushed out and then had lies spread about her.

Now, she is suing Holy Yoga for sex discrimination, defamation and damages.

In her lawsuit, she describes how she went from working as a volunteer for the spiritual yoga group to becoming a director for the southwest.

She then was appointed as the Retreat & Even Director.

In October 2017, she organized a retreat for 300 of Holy Yoga's followers in Arizona.

As is encouraged by the group, Galvis took part in a class that another woman was teaching at the start of the retreat. Suozzo was the instructor's assistant and it was her job to go around the room, correcting participants' form.

Suozzo is married to one of the yoga group's board members. He is also a minister. They are pictured together

Despite being married to a man (seen together) Suozzo allegedly told others openly in the group that she was sexually attracted to women

'Ms. Suozzo came up behind Ms. Galvis during the class and hugged Ms. Galvis from behind, in a yoga pose that had Ms. Suozzo pressing the front of her body, with her chest, against Ms. Galviss back and buttocks,' the lawsuit reads.

At first, Galvis thought it was 'normal'. She became suspicious and uncomfortable, the lawsuit says, when Suozzo would not let go of her.

'Ms. Suozzos adjustment hug continued through a series of 3 poses and took a completely abnormal turn, as soon as Ms. Suozzo simultaneously being whispering in an intimate manner to Ms. Galvis, very close to Ms. Galviss ear: You are so beautiful," and shhhhhh as Ms. Galvis asked her to stop.

'Ms. Galvis continued to a third pose as instructed and Ms. Suozzo went to the other side of Ms. Galviss body and continued to whisper: I mean, if I wasnt married."

'Ms. Suozzos behavior shocked Ms. Galvis. Ms. Suozzos conduct made Ms. Galvis believe that Ms. Suozzo was making sexual advances towards her in class, in front of several hundred people, at a Christian-based retreat.

'While this was the first time Ms. Suozzo made sexual advances to Ms. Galvis, Ms. Galvis was aware of Ms. Suozzos own admissions of being sexually attracted to women, despite the fact that Ms. Suozzo is married to a man who is a minister and a board member of Holy Yoga.'

Galvis (who is pictured with her husband) claims she was demoted and stripped of her salary when she reported the alleged harassment

Galvis said in her lawsuit that she immediately reported the incident to supervisors but was not allowed to address the situation with Suozzo at Arizona.

Suozzo did not respond to DailyMail.com's inquiries on Tuesday

Nothing was done about it until she got home to Texas and discovered her pay had been cut from $30,000 to $17,000, she said.

She was later stripped of her title and, when she eventually decided to leave the organization for good, claims its bosses disparaged her on social media.

She is now seeking unspecified damages.

Suozzo did not respond to DailyMail.com's inquiries on Tuesday.

Holy Yoga issued a statement on Friday which read: 'While we have not yet been served the complaint, Holy Yoga has a policy against retaliation, discrimination, and harassment based on sex or any other protected category.

As an organization, we are committed to providing our employees with a work environment that is free from discrimination and do not tolerate any wrongdoing against our employees.

'We are also committed to providing an environment for yoga to be practiced in a spiritual way to promote healing and restoration.

'We stand in steadfast solidarity with ensuring a safe place for the practice of yoga and fervently deny allegations of any wrongdoing against Ms. Galvis.'Brett Kavanaugh turned away from a father of a high school student murdered in the Parkland, Fla., mass shooting during a break in his Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

During a lunch break in the hearing, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime Guttenberg was one of the 17 high school students killed in the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February, wrote on Twitter he tried to talk to Kavanaugh, who turned away from him.

'Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended. Put out my hand to introduce myself as Jaime Guttenberg's dad. He pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence,' he wrote.

Brett Kavanaugh turns away from Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting

Judge Brett Kavanaugh listens to Fred Guttenberg, a parent of a student who was a victim at the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland,Florida

Fred Guttenberg tweeted Kavanaugh turned away from him when he introduced himself

Fred Guttenberg (L), father of Parkland, Florida, shooting victim Jaime Guttenberg, tries to speak with Judge Brett Kavanaugh as he leaves for a break during his confirmation hearing

Fred Guttenberg's 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg was one of the 17 high school students killed at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School

But the White House pushed back, saying security had stopped Guttenberg from speaking to Kavanaugh.

'As Judge Kavanaugh left for his lunch break, an unidentified individual approached him. Before the Judge was able to shake his hand, security had intervened,' White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah, who's handling Kavanaugh's confirmation, tweeted.

Then Guttenberg snapped back at Shah, saying Sen. Diane Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced him.

'Incorrect. I was here all day and introduced by Senator Feinstein. No security involved. He turned and walked away,' he tweeted in reply.

Guttenberg told The Washington Post he is certain Kavanaugh heard him and disputed that the presence of security had any role in the lack of interaction.

'There was no security intervention,' Guttenberg said. 'When he turned that way and started moving, they started following him. But he had every ability to engage me.'

After the lunch break, Guttenberg was questioned by U.S. Capitol Police for about 15 minutes, he said, before they let him return to the hearing.

Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing on Tuesday was interrupted multiple times by protesters, who were expressing concern about President Donald Trump's nominee's record on abortion rights.

Guttenberg has become a gun control advocate and fierce critic of the National Rifle Association since his 14-year-old daughter was one of the 17 students who on died on Valentine's Day in the mass shooting.

He became a national figure in February when he challenged Florida Sen. Marco Rubio about his gun rights position in a CNN town hall following the shooting.

'Sen. Rubio. My daughter, running down the hallway at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, was shot in the back with an assault weapon - the weapon of choice. OK?' he said.

'It is too easy to get,' Guttenberg added. 'It is a weapon of war. The fact that you can't stand with everybody in this building and say that, I'm sorry.'

Rubio, a Republican, has said he supports a law denying guns to those under the age of 18.

'I believe that someone like this individual and anyone like him shouldn't have any gun,' Rubio said. 'I absolutely believe that in this country if you are 18 years of age, you should not be able to buy a rifle, and I will support a law that takes that right away.'

Kavanaugh's hearing has been interrupted by protesters all day

Fred Guttenberg holds out his hand to Brett Kavanaugh

Fred Guttenberg's daughter was killed in the Parkland shootings

The White House said security kept Kavanaugh from speaking to Fred Guttenberg

Guttenberg snapped back

Guttenberg has become a national voice on gun control

Jamie Guttenberg was killed in the Parkland, Fla., massacre

March for Our Lives, the gun control group that sprang out of the Parkland shooting, has raised alarms about what Kavanaugh's vote could do for gun laws.

Aalayah Eastmond, a survivor of the Parkland shooting will testify against Kavanaugh. She is a representative for the Brady Campaign, an organization that aims to curtail gun violence, and led a march across the Brooklyn Bridge in June to protest gun violence.

Kavanaugh is replacing the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is often the swing vote on controversial issue before the court. Kavanaugh, a more conservative judge, is expected to move the bench to the right.

The high court has heard surprisingly few cases involving gun rights.

But, in 2008, the court for the first time declared that the right to bear arms was meant to protect an individual's right to own a gun for self-defense in his home.

The vote was 5-4, with Kennedy casting the decisive fifth vote.

On the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Kavanaugh has shown a position in favor of gun rights.

Kavanaugh has argued that the Second Amendment, like the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is a fundamental right that can be limited only in the narrowest of circumstances.Two Chicago priests have been arrested after they were allegedly caught performing oral sex on each other in a car parked on a Miami Beach street in broad daylight.

Diego Berrio, 39, and Edwin Cortez, 30, were both charged with lewd and lascivious behavior.

Cortez, whose unzipped pants exposed his genitalia, has also been charged with indecent exposure.

Diego Berrio, 39, (left) and Edwin Cortez, 30, (right) were both charged with lewd and lascivious behavior after they were allegedly caught performing oral sex in a car in Miami

A bystander called police after spotting the two men engaging in oral sex inside a rented black Volkswagen around 3.20pm on Monday.

The car was parked across the street from both a park and a children's playground.

The officer said he could see Berrio (pictured), who was sitting in the passenger seat, performing oral sex on Cortez, who was in the driver's seat

Authorities said the car's windows were not tinted, leaving both men in 'full view of the public' on the busy street.

Miami Beach Police said the sex act was still going on when an officer arrived on the scene, according to CBS Miami.

The officer said he could see Berrio, who was sitting in the passenger seat, performing oral sex on Cortez, who was in the driver's seat.

Both men were so engaged in the act that they did not immediately notice the officer when he arrived at the car.

'We observed the two males performing the sex act,' said Miami Beach Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez.

'The officer had to tap on the window to get their attention.'

Cortez and Berrio, who both reside at the San Juan Diego Mission in Chicago, were arrested without incident. They identified themselves as priests to police.

'Their profession is irrelevant,' Rodriguez said after the arrest.

A bystander called police after spotting the two men engaging in oral sex inside of a rented black Volkswagen around 3.20pm on a Miami Beach street (pictured in file photo)

'Our trouble with this is that this is broad daylight, for anyone to see including children.'

'There's a time and a place for everything and this certainly was not the time and place.'

Berrio is being held on $250 bond. Cortez is being held on $1,500 bond.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has declined to comment and said the matter was being investigated.Donald Trump slammed Bob Woodward's book as a 'fraud' and labeled him a 'Dem operative' after the famed Watergate journalist wrote that John Kelly called the president 'an idiot' and James Mattis compared him to a 'fifth grader'.

The president said in a tweet on Tuesday night: 'The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?'

Mattis and Kelly both dismissed claims they had questioned Trump's intellect.

The president personally denied a claim in the book that he used a slur to describe Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

'The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions mentally retarded and a dumb southerner". I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!'

Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday to accuse famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward of fabricating quotes and information in his new book, Fear: Trump in the White House

At 11pm [ET] Trump went on to deny another claim in the book regarding slurs he allegedly made against Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Trump (left) dismissed as 'made up frauds' quotes from James Mattis and John Kelly which were deeply critical of Trump. Woodward is pictured on the right

Trump has repeatedly ripped into Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe.

In addition to calling him a 'traitor,' the president allegedly said, 'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner.  He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.'

Woodward also said that Kelly castigated Trump as 'an idiot,' saying, 'It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails.

The White House chief of staff allegedly said, 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'

Kelly denied making the claims in a statement put out by the White House.

'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite,' he said. 'This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'

In another episode, Trump is said to have questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.

Mattis is said to have schooled him. 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III,' he reportedly said.

The Pentagon chief is said to have told colleagues after the incident that Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'

On Tuesday he denied the account, saying in a statement of his own: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence.

'While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.'

A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning, said Mattis was never interviewed by Woodward.

'Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis' or anyone within the Defense Department, Manning said.

Previous accounts during Trump's first year had former secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling Trump a 'moron,' and Tillerson did not explicitly deny it. This would mean three of Trump's most senior advisors have ridiculed his mental capacity.

Woodward also reported that after Syria's Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying: 'Kill him! Let's go in.'

Mattis assured Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they'd do nothing of the kind, Woodward wrote. National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley denied Tuesday that Trump had ever planned to assassinate Assad. She told reporters at U.N. headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, 'and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad.'

She said people should take what is written in books about the president with 'a grain of salt.'

Defense Secretary Mattis (left, at the Pentagon on August 28) and Kelly, White House chief of staff, (right, in the White House on August 27) both questioned quotes attributed to them

Trump also tweeted official statements from Kelly and Mattis as part of a barrage of posts on Tuesday evening

Highlights: The most searing quotes in Bob Woodward's book WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TRUMP: JOHN KELLY, CHIEF OF STAFF: 'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.' JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: 'Fifth- or sixth-grader' REX TILLERSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: 'He's a f***ing moron.' JOHN DOWN, FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'F***ing liar.' JOHN DOWD ON HOW TRANSCRIPT OF A MUELLER INTERVIEW WOULD BE DESCRIBED BY FOREIGN LEADERS: 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?' GARY COHN, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: 'A professional liar' ROB PORTER, FORMER STAFF SECRETARY WHO QUIT WHEN BOTH EX-WIVES ACCUSED HIM OF ABUSE: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.' WHAT THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER: STEVE BANNON TO IVANKA TRUMP: 'You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and act like you're on charge, and you're not. You're on staff!' IVANKA TRUMP TO STEVE BANNON: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter and I'm never going to be a staffer!' JOHN KELLY TO GARY COHN: 'If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.' DOWD TO ROBERT MUELLER: 'He just made something up. That's his nature.' WHAT TRUMP SAID ABOUT THEM: BARACK OBAMA: 'Weak d**k' RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?' WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: 'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime.' H.R McMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 'Dresses like a beer salesman.' REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF: 'Like a little rat. He just scurries around.' AFTER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT FATAH AL-SISSI ASKED IF HE WAS GOING TO BE AROUND: 'Like a kick in the nuts.' BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN DICTATOR: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them.' Advertisement

In a taped phone call with Trump that the journalist released hand-in-hand with excerpts from the forthcoming book on Tuesday, Woodward recounts how he tried to reach the president to fact-check claims he had made.

Trump says he wished he had known about the book  which was already coming out at the time of the call.

'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?'

Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview  prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room.

At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call.

'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her.

Conway then told Woodward, 'yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names.

'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he received no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump hopped back on.

Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly.

'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.

'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said.

The president noted that the book was almost certain to contain embarrassing information about his administration - and that it would probably be 'very inaccurate' as he geared up for the coming bloodbath.

Woodward assured him that it wouldn't, and the two ended the call that took place in August amicably.

MAYBE HE MADE IT UP: That was Trump's charge on Tuesday as he tried to get out from under Woodward's damaging allegations. Ari Fleisher, the former press secretary to George W. Bush, said in a tweet that the charge didn't add up

Trump was once a fan of Bob Woodward - but now the president says he might be a liar

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the work of the famed journalist as 'nothing more than fabricated stories'

The president was singing a different tune on Tuesday, hinting that Woodward could have 'made up' anecdotes in his book, including a story about Gary Cohn absconding with an order to end the United States' trade deal with South Korea to keep Trump from making an international mess.

'That's false. It's just made up,' Trump told The Daily Caller in a furious response to the book. 'There was nobody taking anything from me.'

Trump suggested that 'disgruntled employees' may have made the claims -- or that they could have been falsified Woodward in their entirety.

'It could just be made up by the author,' Trump said of the journalist he once defended on Twitter against slights levied against him by the Obama administration.

The damaging statement about the widely respected journalist had former President George W. Bush's White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher shaking his head.

Extracts from veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodard's new book set off explosions across the political world

'I've been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book. There were quotes in it I didn't like. But never once - never - did I think Woodward made it up,' Fleisher said. 'Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays is straight. Someone told it to him.'

Trump's press secretary piled on with a statement that said: 'This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.'

In the response to Woodward's book, Sanders argued that 'sometimes' Trump's approach to the office is 'unconventional' but it 'always gets results.'

'Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President's policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020  not even close.'

The White House did not hold a televised question and answer session with reporters again on Tuesday, choosing instead to respond to the explosive book that hits shelves on Sept. 11 through written statements.

Trump held off on eviscerating Woodward on Twitter, as well, responding to him in the interview with The Daily Caller before lashing out at him later on Twitter.

The book recounts efforts by Cohn to try to head-off what he considered rash or ill-advised policy moves by Trump.

Cohn 'stole a letter off Trump's desk' to prevent the president from executing a planned withdrawal from the United States-South Korea trade pact.

Mattis told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader', according to the book

It even ventures into the advice Trump received from his former lead lawyer on the Russia investigation, John Dowd.

'Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit,' he advised Trump, according to the book.

Dowd is also said to have explained to special counsel Robert Mueller face-to-face that he didn't want his client to testify, because he feared that Trump would be cast as an imbecile.

He reportedly told him: 'I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?''

According to Woodward, Mueller replied: 'John, I understand.'

Trump insists Bob Woodward's book interview request never made it to the Oval Office President Donald Trump complained on a recorded phone call no one ever contacted him about veteran journalist Bob Woodward's interview request  then complained advisor Kellyanne Conway should have come to him directly. The Washington Post released a recorded August 14 phone call between the famously well-sourced author and the president soon after the paper reported on a copy of 'Fear,' Woodward's forthcoming book on Trump. Trump does admit at one point during the call that a senator had passed along Woodward's request for an interview, but at other times says he had no idea about it. The call begins with Woodward, after alerting the president he was recording, regretting the two hadn't been able to connect and Trump saying he wished he had known about the book  which was already coming out at the time of the call. 'She should have come to me,' Trump said of Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, (seen at the White House on August 29) during a conversation with Bob Woodward about an interview request Trump claims he never was told about 'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?' Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview  prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room. At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call. 'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her. Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names. 'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on. Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly. 'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said. 'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said. Advertisement

Dowd said Tuesday in emails to the Washington Examiner that anecdotes and quotes attributed to him  including a claim that he called Trump a 'f**king liar' and that a mock session with Trump in advance of a potential interview with Mueller revealed the 'full nightmare' he was dealing with  are not true.

'I have not read Bob Woodward's book, which appears to be the most recent in an endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentations based on anonymous statements from unknown malcontents,' he told the outlet.

'I do not intend to address every inaccurate statement attributed to me  but I do want to make this clear: there was no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment' of a mock interview at the Special Counsel's office. Further, I did not refer to the President as a 'liar' and did not say that he was likely to end up in an 'orange jump suit.'

The email from Dowd concluded: 'It was a great honor and distinct privilege to serve President Trump.'

'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner,' Trump reportedly said of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe. He is pictured in DC on August 31

Trump said his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, (pictured in DC on February 7) scurries around 'like a rat'

Former director of the U.S. National Economic Council Gary Cohn snatched a letter off Trump's desk to keep him from precipitously moving to pull out of a trade deal. Cohn is seen on the right next to Jared Kushner on March 8

Woodward also described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.

'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'

Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.'

According to another anecdote, Trump told former staff secretary Rob Porter former chief of staff Reince Priebus was 'like a little rat. He just scurries around.'

Porter in turn allegedly said on Trump: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.'

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 80, a billionaire investor, wasn't spared Trump's criticism, either.

'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations.  You're past your prime,' Trump reportedly told him.

Trump also reportedly called his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani a 'baby', and compared former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster to a 'beer salesman'.

Ivanka Trump 'got into an expletive-laden screaming match with Steve Bannon' By Ariel Zilber Woodward described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon. 'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!' Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.' Ivanka Trump reportedly was offended when she was told by strategist Steve Bannon she was merely a White House 'staffer' by answering: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter,' it has been claimed. She is seen outside her Washington, D.C. home last month Bannon was said to have been upset with Ivanka's reported tendency to bypass the standard chain of command and take up issues directly with her father. Every other White House aide was required to report to the chief of staff at the time, Reince Priebus. But the reported exchange apparently highlighted the fact that Ivanka felt she was not bound by the same rules. Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are senior advisers to the president even though they have no previous experience in government. Advertisement

The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury,' which led to a rift between Trump and Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family. Wolff's book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.

Woodward's book follows former White House aide and 'Apprentice' contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman's expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Kelly's decision.

While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the latest book increased tensions in the West Wing, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Woodward appeared to have interviewed.

Some White House officials expressed surprise at the number of erstwhile Trump loyalists willing to offer embarrassing stories of the president and his inner circle.

White House aides on Tuesday coordinated with other officials quoted in the book to dispute troublesome passages. But insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than that from 'Fire and Fury,' given Woodward's storied reputation.

Woodward's book was already ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.

Trump has been increasingly critical of anonymous sources used by reporters covering his administration. Woodward's account relies on deep background conversations with sources, meaning their identities are not disclosed.A man who was talked out of ending his own life by a young police officer has captured hearts across Britain with a sweet thank you gesture.

The unnamed man from Warrington had reportedly reached a particularly dark day, on Saturday, and considered taking his own life.

But police in the town in north England, were notified.

At 12.24am, Cheshire Police received a concern for safety report of a man sat on a bridge on Folly Lane, not far from the town centre.

One of the officers called to the scene, PC Becky Millyard, launched into action and spoke with the man.

PC Millyard wowed the internet with her compassion in helping a man on his darkest day. They also praised the man for thanking her

She said: 'There were members of the public there. I ushered them away and started speaking with him. He was really upset and it took a lot to get him talking.

'After about 15 minutes I managed to persuade him that all the bad things that he was talking about to me were not unfixable and I got him down from the bridge and into the back of the car.'

The officer was stunned on Sunday, when the man brought a bunch of flowers to the police station - because she had saved his life.

An image posted by the force on Twitter was liked by tens of thousands of Britons.

Fellow officer John Apter praised Becky.

He said: 'This is what policing is about. Making a difference, taking time for those in crisis and ultimately saving a life. So nice that the man helped took the time to say thank you. Well done to the officer, a credit to the job.'

The bridge on Folly Lane in Warrington where PC Millyard was called on Saturday to help a man

Street dancer George Sampson also praised the officer and Gary Cormack said: 'Not all heroes wear capes.'

Ray Dawson added: 'People don't say thank you often enough. So here's a thank you from me to the wonderful, dedicated police and emergency services. It may mean little but I'm saying it anyway. It's the right thing to do.'

Another woman added: 'Please know that the empathy you have shown that person will never be forgotten.'

PC Millyard said she was grateful for the kind gesture.

She said: 'I thought the flowers were so lovely  and very thoughtful. I actually wasn't in the station when he came to drop them off. I spoke to him afterwards and he is ok and really grateful to the team for their help.

The general public and suicide prevention charities praised PC Millyard for her brave actions - and praised the man for thanking her

'Even though it was something that any police officer would have done it was so nice that I knew it had made such an impact on his life and he wanted to say thanks. It does help you get to work and it is nice to know that you are making a difference.

'A lot of people become police officers to make a difference and it is nice to know it actually happens. It can be hard sometimes with the challenges we face but it is nice to know we can make impacts in some people's lives.'

Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year. If you, or anyone you know, would like to speak to the Samaritans, you can call them for free at 116 123, or visit their website here.A retired Royal Navy officer caught trying to smuggle Vietnamese immigrants into the UK for 8000-a-head was among three Englishmen starting prison sentences today.

Ronald Scott, 70 described as a former naval Captain, was in charge of the clandestine operation foiled by maritime police last Thursday close to the Channel town of Wimereux, in the Pas-de-Calais.

The French authorities were tipped off that Scott, a highly experienced seaman who had served all over the world, had left the Kent coast in the early hours along with crewmen Toby Lake, 24.

Ronald Scott, 70 described as a former naval Captain, was in charge of the clandestine operation foiled by maritime police last Thursday close to the Channel town of Wimereux, in the Pas-de-Calais

Police boats equipped with surveillance equipment picked Scotts craft up by the Pointe aix Oies (Geese Point), a well-known beauty spot in Wimereux.

Stephen Chapman, another Englishman working with Scott, was seen making light signals from the beach at Wimereux, said a prosecuting source.

When the boat was around 100 meters [328 feet] from the beach, 12 people were seen jumping into the water, and swimming towards the boat.

Eleven of them got as far as a rope ladder lowered from the side of the boat, and then got on board, while the twelfth migrant remained in the sea, as he had trouble getting up the ladder.

When those on board became aware of the police, they attempted to steam away at speed, but were caught.

It was then that officers boarded, arresting everybody, including Chapman who was still on the beach, and the twelfth immigrant in the sea.

All turned out to be Vietnamese men and women who had been hoping to reach the UK, where they wanted to start a new life with relatives already in Britain.

They admitted paying the equivalent of 8000 a head in cash for a guaranteed passage to Britain, said the source.

The Englishmen were arrested and then fast tracked for trial at Boulogne-sur-Mer criminal court on Monday, where they faced the charge of people smuggling.

All admitted being involved in the operation, but insisted that a British national solely referred to as Fred was the mastermind.

Scott told the court that he thought he was picking up a fellow Englishman who was in trouble with the French police.

I quickly realised that I was in fact picking up migrants, but I could not go back, Scott told the court, according to Frances Voix du Nord newspaper.

Lake, 24, said that Fred threatened my family and my girlfriend so that I would take part in the mission.

Both Scott and Lake said they were very scared of Fred, and had not received a penny from him  a claim constantly questioned by prosecutors, who said there were no further details about Fred.

Chapman in turn admitted to the court that he had been paid, saying: Im alone and without work, so I asked Fred to send me some money, and that Id pay him back. He loaned me 2000 [1800] and then I asked for a refund if I helped out [with the mission]

Scott was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, starting immediately, while Chapman will serve two years.

Both men will be banned from France for 10 years when they are finally released.

Lake was sentenced to one year in prison, and banned from landing on Frances northern coast for a decade.

The Vietnamese are all currently in the care of the French authorities, as they wait for their futures to be decided.

Frances northern coast remains a magnet for illegal migrants from all over the world, all of whom want to get to Britain, where many will claim asylum.

Boat owners including fishermen and former merchant navy personal are often caught up in illegal operations, but it is highly unusual for former British military personnel to be involved.

Vietnamese immigration to the UK started following the Vietnam War in 1975, when the British accepted refugees known as boat people who were fleeing the victorious Communists.Mike Shereda was stabbed multiple times after asking alleged attacker to stop doing drugs where his family gathered to celebrate his granddaughter's first birthday party

A grandfather attending his granddaughter's birthday party has been stabbed to death after confronting a man allegedly doing drugs, according to witnesses.

Mike Shereda, 57, from Warren, Michigan, was stabbed at least 15 times at Utica's Grant Park on Saturday afternoon.

He was with his family celebrating the first birthday of his grandchild when he approached a man on a bench reportedly doing drugs and asked him to stop.

Shelby Township Police Department officers were called to the scene of the deadly stabbing at Grant Park in Utica at 2.50pm, Detroit station WXYZ reported.

It is understood that the suspect 'flew into a rage'' and stabbed the victim with a machete like weapon at least 15 times.

The horrific attack took place as young children played at the park for the birthday celebration.

Police and paramedics subsequently arrived at the park. However Shereda was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

The victim was described by friends on Saturday as a 'kind and good-hearted' family man

The alleged attacker, who remained at the scene following the incident, was then arrested and taken into custody.

Witness Amanda Pasho recalled how the attacker became 'enraged' during the confrontation and knocked the victim to the ground.

Pasho, who lives across from the park, told Macomb Daily: 'He seemed like he had the strength of the Tasmanian devil,' Pasho said.

'My heart goes out to the family of that poor man. I can't believe this happened in front of them.'

'(The victim) fell to the ground, he had blood all over him.

The park in Utica, Michigan, were Shereda's friends and family had gathered to celebrate his granddaughter's first birthday party

Police and paramedics quickly arrived at the scene of the stabbing and immediately arrested the alleged attacker at gunpoint

Pasho described how she saw the attacker plunge the weapon - which appeared to be eight to ten inches- into the grandfather's body and proceeded to stab him multiple times.

'He had his arms up to fend off the man from stabbing him.

'The man put his knee in the guy's abdomen to hold him down and then put his arm across his face and began stabbing him with a knife, like non-stop, just jabbing at him with the knife.'

Christopher Kalfas, who described himself as the victim's best friend, claimed the entire family- including his grandchildren- witness the fatal attack.

Kalfas described Shereda as a 'kind' and 'good-hearted' man, who reportedly leaves behind 17 grandchildren and six children.

Kalfas told WXYZ: 'His whole family and grandchildren saw all that in real life today which was a rotten thing do to.'

Shereda's best friend Christopher Kalfas (pictured) condemned his alleged killer for carrying out the brutal attack in front of his family and grandchildren

Witness Hunter Perks (pictured) approached the scene after hearing a lot of commotion, saying 'my heart dropped to my stomach' as the attack unfolded

Residents who saw the attack unfolding said it appeared the suspect had a box of 'whippets,' which are canisters with nitrous oxide.

The gas is known to cause hallucinations if it is inhaled.

Locals said that Shereda walked over to the suspect and asked him to remove the drugs from the area because children were playing at the park during the birthday party.

The pair subsequently began to scuffle, but it became quickly evident that the attacker was overpowering the grandfather.

Witness Hunter Perks said the man's family was 'just torn apart' as a crowd of people tried to get a look at the jarring scene

He told WXYZ: 'I came over here and I couldn't believe it. From how many cops were here to how many people just standing looking and the family just torn apart

'I've lived here for 20 years and I didn't think anything like that could ever happen here.'

Neighbors who heard the victim and other family members screaming called 911 about 2.50pm.

When officers from Utica and Shelby Township arrived, they found the suspect still at the scene.

The man, whose identity has not yet been released, was taken into custody at gunpoint by a Shelby Township police officer.

Area residents said Grant Park park wasn't very crowded when the stabbing took place.

Lorie Peterson said the park usually is congested on a summer afternoon, but wasn't on Saturday.Former child actress Daveigh Chase was arrested on a drug charge in Los Angeles in August, less than a year after her previous run-in with the law involving a joyride in a stolen car.

The 28-year-old actress, who played Samara in the 2002 horror film The Ring, and voiced Lilo in Disney's Lilo and Stitch, was arrested in Hollywood on August 6 on a misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance.

Chase was booked into jail and spent two hours behind bars before posting $1,000 and regaining her freedom, as The Blast first reported Tuesday.

All grown up: Actress Daveigh Chase. 28, was arrested in Hollywood in August on a misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance. She is best known for playing Samara in the 2002 horror flick The Ring (right)

In November 2017, around this time this photo was posted on Chase's Instagram, she was charged with a felony driving without the owner's consent stemming from a joyride

In November 2017, Chase ran afoul of the law after she was allegedly caught going on a joyride in a possibly stolen car. She was charged with a a felony driving without the owner's consent in that incident.

Ten months prior, Chase was detained by LAPD detectives after she left a dying man in a car outside a hospital.

Police ran her name and discovered an outstanding misdemeanor traffic warrant out for her, leading to her arrest.

The man in the car was pronounced dead of a suspected overdose. Chase was not named a suspect in his death.

The actress said she was only only trying to get the victim to the hospital after spending time with him in the hours leading up to his death.

Chase was booked into jail and spent two hours behind bars before posting $1,000 and regaining her freedom

In February 2017, Chase was detained by LAPD detectives after she left a dying man outside a hospital. She was arrested on an unrelated traffic warrant but never charged in the death

She had a recurring role in HBO's Mormon drama Big Love as child bride Rhonda Volmer.

Her breakout role was as Samantha Darko, younger sister of Donnie Darko in 2001 cult classic Donnie Darko starring Jake Gyllenhaal. She reprised the role in 2009 sequel S. Darko.

Her IMDB page indicates that Chase's latest credit was a small part in the new TV series the King of the Golden Sun earlier this year.Three times in my life I have experienced anti-Semitism. The first was in my second year at university.

It was a throwaway comment from a very close friend who told another friend to stop being such a Jew, when he was reluctant to part with some money.

I was devastated that someone I loved would say such an anti-Semitic phrase.

Journalist Natasha Pearlman, pictured with her two children, Thea, four weeks and Rose, four, right, said as a British Jew she has experienced anti-Semitism three times in her life

I explained how offensive it was and my friend was mortified. It was often used at his boarding school (at which there were no Jews) and through genuine ignorance had entered his common parlance.

The other incidents happened at work. I was a young journalist in London over a decade ago. One day a colleague came in, holding a leaflet on Judaism. Im going for lunch with so and so today (a Jewish celebrity), they announced, waving the pamphlet at me. Im going to read this beforehand so I can understand people like you. Shocked, I said nothing.

Later, the same colleague began referring to where I sat (opposite the only other Jewish person in our office) as Jew corner. To my shame, I said nothing, despite knowing my workplace would have been outraged by it. It was early in my career. I feared that by challenging it Id be labelled a troublemaker and never work in the industry again.

Ms Pearlman, said the first time she encountered anti-Semitism was in college

Perhaps it was the Britishness in me  but I believed the comments were not symptomatic of anti-Semitism in our society, just ignorance.

Now, for the first time in my 36-year lifetime, I have genuine concerns about the spread of vitriol and abuse against the Jewish community.

Because the hatred of us has become entwined with Israel  the Jewish homeland. And somehow the Britishness of Jews, our loyalty to the country we call home, the culture in which we exist and are part of, is being called into question.

Not by a bunch of ignorant idiots, but by the Labour Party and seemingly the Labour leader himself, Jeremy Corbyn.

Only yesterday, Labours National Executive Committee finally accepted the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of anti-Semitism  accepted around the world by organisations such as the United Nations  in my opinion, far too damagingly late.

Even then Corbyn wanted to add a statement permitting criticism of Israel, specifically that the circumstances around its foundation are racist. Yet again, provoking outcry. Why? Because Israel was only necessary due to the Nazis mass extermination of the Jews.

I am devastated that the party Ive supported my whole life bears so much responsibility for this.

Having been horribly slow to deal with party members accused of anti-Semitism, they had refused to accept the full IHRA definition of anti-Semitism  wanting to omit four clauses, including one of accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than the country they live in.

She said she is devastated by the Labour Party's handling of the anti-Semitism issue

Then Corbyn himself was accused of anti-Semitism by Britains former Chief Rabbi, Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, after a video from 2013 appeared to show him conflating Jews and Zionists and suggested that having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they [the Zionists, but many read Jews, because he was referring to a religious community defined by its immigrant status] dont understand English irony, either.

Last week, Labour MP Frank Field resigned the party whip, citing that the party was becoming a force for anti-Semitism in politics.

It is against this whole backdrop that a deeply moving documentary is airing on BBC2, with the second episode tonight, called We Are British Jews, exploring anti-Semitism in Britain today.

Eight British Jews, from across the political and religious spectrum, go from Manchester to Israel and the West Bank, where they are forced to confront and challenge their deeply felt views.

Jeremy Corbyn, pictured at the Labour Party headquarters yesterday, as the party agrees to adopt the international definition of anti-Semitism into the party's code of conduct

Its compelling, heart-warming and yet heartbreaking. And brilliantly done. Participants include articulate, nervous university graduate Lilly, who has reservations about the Israeli governments actions towards the Palestinians.

Then theres deeply religious, pro-Israel activist Joseph, who is surprisingly open to what Lilly has to say. And Damon, a 58-year-old atheist Jew  but fervent Zionist  whos never been to Israel.

It is significant that none of them wanted their surnames made public, for fear of reprisals.

Corbyn, pictured leaving the meeting, has been heavily criticised for his failure to address the problem of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party which has led to major rows

I understand that. Im writing this knowing it will open the floodgates to abuse of my family. Whenever I express concerns about anti-Semitism on social media Im hit with abuse about being part of the Zionist mafia or told to go home.

As the mother of Rose, four, and Thea, four weeks, Im speaking up because it is exactly this rhetoric  the questioning of Jews loyalty to the country in which they reside, the characterisation of them as other, as money-grabbing, as not part of general society  that mirrors how Nazis portrayed Jews in the run-up to World War II.

I dont write any of this lightly. I never believed I would write any of this at all. Im the granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors.

What happened to my granny and grandfather was so horrific I find it hard to believe anything so revolting could happen again.

Corbyn, pictured, wanted to allow criticism of the foundation of Israel claiming the circumstances of its foundation were racist - which caused outrage because the foundation of Israel was only necessary because of the Nazi mass extermination of Jews

My grandfather was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo on Kristallnacht and was one of the few men to escape. My granny lost her entire family, including her mother and two sisters who were exterminated at Maly-Trostenets concentration camp in Belarus.

In July it was revealed there are now 100 anti-Semitic incidents reported a month (with a 34 per cent rise in anti-Semitic assaults from 2016 to 2017). Ive often told my worried parents it wasnt possible it could get worse  with the Holocaust such a recent memory.

Now, Im certain that if we stay silent, theres a danger the poison seeping into our society will become unstoppable. I hope tonights programme will counteract this tide of anti-Semitism. Viewers will be able to see the breadth of the Jewish community, captured intelligently and sensitively. Still, do we really have to showcase the banality of our normal lives, just to prove we are British and normal, like you?

You may well warm to a number of the participants, no matter your own politics. Even though I am politically opposed to Right-wing Joseph, I agreed when he noted that Jews, wherever they live in the world, are expected to explain their stance on Israels government, when we wouldnt expect any Muslim to say ISIS has nothing to do with me.

Equally, I supported Lilly questioning the legitimacy of the Israeli government-backed settlements in the Palestinian West Bank  that theyre still building despite being declared illegal by the UN and the actions of the army against some of the Palestinian citizens.

The programme also highlighted the inflammatory way the non-Jewish community speak about Israel, Corbyn in particular.

The BBC will broadcast a documentary 'We Are British Jews' featuring eight people from various walks of life and different views about their experiences with anti-Semitism

When Corbyn opposes the Israeli government, he almost never uses those words. He takes on Israel and by extension its people, the Jews. He calls terrorist leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah his friends, yet doesnt engage with Israelis. He attacks Zionists, not the government. And given that the accepted definition of Zionism is simply the right of Jews to self-determination  i.e. the right to a Jewish homeland, just as there exist Islamic states and Christian states  its easy to see how easily Zionists and Zionism can be substituted for Jews and Judaism.

In a difficult and upsetting part of the programme, the group visit Manchester University during Israel Apartheid Week. They encounter streets plastered with posters from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Group (BDS) that specifically target Israel.

One of the cast, Alan, 77, observes: Theres never a Syrian Apartheid Week, theres never any demonstrations against the terrible deaths in Syria. Nothing about the horrible happenings in Yemen. Its always about Israel.

Eight Jews from Manchester, pictured, travel to Israel and the West Bank to confront their deeply held views as part of the documentary which is broadcast this evening on BBC 2

And as one Manchester Jewish Society member notes: When theres a pro-Palestinian or BDS event, we dont start a fuss. When theres an Israel event theres always protests and security issues. When we raise our opinion were shouted down. Were scared to do things in public.

That last sentence would break my late grandparents heart. Because the final few months of their lives in Austria were lived in enforced secrecy  even their Jewish wedding, on July 31, 1938, was conducted under cover of darkness in a friends house. By the end of their time in Vienna, they were banned from living publicly as Jews.

Having been rejected and expelled from their home country, they clung intensely  like many other Jewish refugees  to Britain, the land that welcomed them, and their newfound Britishness. Austria could never be home again.

This is why Im so disturbed at anti-Semitism in Britain today, where the hatred of us is so entwined with criticism of Israel and a questioning of loyalties.

While some comes from the Right, the Left has turned anti-Zionism into a trend. It has become de rigueur to typify us as a homogenous group. The Jews, make no mistake, have become a symbol of hatred.

This is why I can no longer stay silent. I am many things in my life  Jewish, a writer, a daughter, a sister, a mother, a wife. Im also British. All my life I presumed that was a given.

The fact we, as British Jews, need a programme to show our fellow Brits that we are one of them? Well, in a way, weve already lost. The weight of history is on all of us to rectify this.A Connecticut police officer has tragically died from injuries he sustained while trying to break up a bar fight in South Carolina.

Matthew Mainieri, 41, was attempting to break up a scuffle when he sustained a fatal blow to the head.

Mainieri was off duty at the time and died on Sunday from his injuries, according to the Hartford Courant.

Kelton Jess Todd (top left) was arrested on a charge of assault on Sergeant Mainieri (top right) who was off duty and was on vacation with friends at the time of the incident.

South Windsor police announced Sunday that Sergeant Mainieri was a 20-year veteran of the department.

Over his two-decade career, Mainieri received his departments Medal of Valor, the Chiefs Award and multiple certificates of commendation.

County sheriffs in South Carolina have charged 21-year-old Kelton Jess Todd with assault of a high and aggravated nature.

He was released on $35,000 bail at around noon on Monday.

The case remains under investigation and charges could be added, according to investigators in South Carolina.

Mainieri was vacationing with friends at the time. He was at Uncle Titos near Myrtle Beach when a fight broke out.

As he attempted to end the scuffle, he was hit in the head, officials said.

In July 2009, Mainieri and two other South Windsor officers received special recognition for their response to a 13-hour hostage standoff at a house, according to the Hartford Courant.

Over his two-decade career, Mainieri received several awards, including the departments Medal of Valor, the Chiefs Award, and certificates of commendation.

The standoff ended with Mainieri and Sgt. Peter Alix taking suspect, Richard Shenkman, into custody, according to the paper.

Shenkman had kidnapped his ex-wife and set fire to the house. He is currently serving a 70-year prison sentence.

In a Facebook post South Windsor Police Department said: It is with profound sadness that the members of SWPD mourn the death of Sergeant Matthew Mainieri.

We send our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends as well as his police family throughout Connecticut and beyond.

Final arrangements have not been made as of this writing and we will be assisting his family during this difficult time.

Mainieri was vacationing with friends at the time. He was at Uncle Titos near Myrtle Beach (above) when a fight broke out

Sound Windsor Police Department where Sgt. Mainieri served for 20 years issued a touching triubute to their fallen colleague , describing him as 'every police chief's dream'

Sargeant Manieri leaves behind his mother, sister and girlfriend, South Windsor Police Department said.

During his career, Manieri served as an Officer, Corporal and Sergeant. He served in the Traffic Division and Detective Division.

He was also an outstanding instructor in many areas including firearms and motorcycle instructor.

In recent months, Sgt. Mainieri became heavily involved in starting a Drone Program for the Police Department and obtaining the drone technology to find missing persons and suspects.

He was also the recipient of several awards including the department Medal of Valor, Chiefs Award, and Certificates of Commendation.

Sgt. Mainieri spent his off-duty time with friends riding motorcycles, traveling to Vermont and South Carolina.THE HAGUE, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The suspect of the stabbing of two U.S. citizens at Amsterdam's Central Station has named insults of Islam and anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders as reasons for committing his crimes in the Netherlands, the Dutch public prosecutor stated on Monday.

During the initial hearing, the 19-year-old Afghan with a German residence permit claimed that in the Netherlands "the prophet Muhammad, the Koran, the Islam and Allah are insulted frequently". He mentioned right-wing Party for Freedom PVV leader Wilders as one of the insulters.

According to the statement by the prosecutor, the man arrived at Amsterdam's Central Station just before noon local time on Friday with an international train from Germany. Just after noon he stabbed two 38-year-old men from the U.S. The man has declared he picked the victims at random.

Both victims are still in hospital, severely wounded, but not in life danger. The suspect was shot by the police. He is also in hospital, under police surveillance. He will be examined psychologically and psychiatrically.

[ Editor: WPY ]EXCLUSIVE: The Yorkshire cricketer accused of calling Azeem Rafiq (pictured right) a 'P**i' is former England star Gary Ballance (pictured left), MailOnline can exclusively reveal today. Mr Ballance, 31, was also accused by Mr Rafiq of telling other people 'don't talk to him (Rafiq), he's a P**i, asking 'is that your uncle?' when bearded Asian men were in view and saying in reference to corner shops: 'Does your Dad own those?'. The cricketer, who signed a new three-year contract with the Headingley club this year, has been approached by MailOnline about the allegations but is yet to respond. His wife Alex said he was not at home this afternoon and declined to comment. Yorkshire Cricket Club is today being urged to sack him amid allegations he repeatedly abused Mr Rafiq and reduced him to tears for calling him 'p*ki'. But last year's inquiry into Azeem Rafiq's accusations of alleged institutional racism at Yorkshire cleared a player they declined to name after concluding that regular use of the term 'P**i' came during 'banter' between the pair. After the story emerged last week, Yorkshire then reiterated that no disciplinary action would be taken by them in the wake of Rafiq's allegations. It is reported that the panel found Rafiq's reference to the former team-mate who is understood to be Mr Ballance, who is of Zimbabwean heritage, as 'Zimbo from Zimbabwe' as a 'racist, derogatory term' and said that if Rafiq were still at Yorkshire, he would have faced disciplinary action.Kevin Spacey and Steven Seagal won't face charges for alleged sexual assaults that took place more than 25 years ago, according to the Los Angeles County D.A.'s office on Tuesday.

Legal documents from the L.A. County District Attorney state that neither will be charged in cases that stem from allegations from the early 90s.

For both cases, the statutes of limitation expired in the late 1990s.

Legal documents from the L.A. County District Attorney state that neither Steven Seagal or Kevin Spacey will be charged in cases that stem from allegations from the early 90s

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had been investigation allegations made in 1992 against Spacey related to sex-crimes.

A man claimed that Spacey forced himself onto him in West Hollywood and raped him, according to the District Attorney's worksheet.

'The reporting party alleged that he was the victim of a sexual assault by the suspect in 1992,' the worksheet explained.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had been investigation allegations made in 1992 against Spacey related to sex-crimes. A man claimed that Spacey forced himself onto him in West Hollywood and raped him

'The allegation is outside the statute of limitations, therefore, an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence is not warranted and prosecutor is declined.'

Spacey is still under investigation for a case prosecutors brought forth last month.

In the Seagal case that was dropped, an alleged victim claimed that she was raped by the actor in 1993 when she was just 18

The Oscar winning actor was said to have sexually assaulted a man in Malibu two years ago, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

In the Seagal case that was dropped, an alleged victim claimed that she was raped by the actor in 1993 when she was just 18.

'The statute of limitations expired in 1999. Therefore, an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence is not warranted and the matter is declined,' the worksheet explained.

The D.A.'s office also has one more case to review that involves Seagal.

Most of the allegations brought forth by the plethora of Hollywood sexual abuse cases have been dropped by the specially created task force.

For most of the allegations, they fall outside of the statute of limitations.Water gun enthusiasts have officially made it possible for a company to offer the first major water gun technology innovation since the Super Soaker was invented in 1989.

In the month that its Kickstarter campaign has been active, the Sprya One water pistol received more than eight times the backing it originally set out to obtain, turning a German-based company's dream into a reality.

The Sprya One water pistol, which charges via USB-C and shoots 30ml water 'bullets,' received more than $532,000 in funding from more than 2,770 backers well before the campaign was set to end Tuesday afternoon.

Kickstarter backers have made it possible for German company Sprya to put its Spyra One water gun into production with an expected delivery date of August 2019

The Sprya One, which fires 'water bullets,' represents the first major water gun technology innovation since the Super Soaker was created by a NASA engineer in 1989

The Munich-based team initially set out to raise a modest $59,164 by offering a Sprya One to those pledging between $99 to $133.

Unlike its closest relative, the Super Soaker, the Sprya One claims that it will do away with the need to prime the water gun's pump before unleashing a steady stream of water.

Instead, Sprya One inventors claim to have reinvented the water gun, offering up a device that delivers 'harmless' shot glass-sized, 'water bullets' with precision at targets up to 7.5 meters (25 feet) away, which its makers claim is as far 'as the laws of physics allow!'

Innovating the water bullet technology, Spyra co-founder Rike Brand said, was 'really tricky' to develop.

'Technology-wise, shooting water bullets across long distances without letting the water break up is really, really tricky and requires a specifically designed nozzle-valve combination,' Brand told Slate.

Because the Sprya One's water reservoir is seamlessly integrated into the water gun's design, users will have to rely on a digital ammo counter to determine how many of its 25 water bullets are left before needing to refill the gun, which inventors postulate will add an extra layer of strategy to water fights.

Refilling the water gun when necessary, however, was made quick and easy.

The pump-action Super Soaker's last notable update was said to have occurred in 1996, with the development of a constant pressure system, allowing users to fire it from any angle

The Sprya One features a host of water gun technology upgrades, including USB-C charging, a digital 'bullet' display, an integrated pump and the ability to refill its tank in just 14 seconds

Sprya One makers said that the shot glass-sized, harmless 'water bullets' can hit precise targets of up to 7.5 meters away, which is as far 'as the laws of physics allow!'

All users will need to do is dunk the front end of the barrel into a clean water source and press a button. The reservoir tank then refills in 14 seconds, thanks to its integrated pump and rechargeable battery, which can provide at least 45 refills and 1125 shots on a single charge.

The Sprya One makers have set August 2019 as its ship date and already have an 11-person team working on it.

Among the people involved are engineers and a rocket scientist. Spyra founder, Sebastian Walter himself quit his day job as a product designer at a German car company to turn his water gun dream into reality.

The Sprya One's ancestor, the Super Soaker, was invented by a NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson in 1989 and is now owned by toymakers Hasbro.

The last big update to the water gun's design is believed to have occurred in 1996, when the Super Soaker evolved from its original air pressure system into one that uses a constant pressure system, allowing users to fire a stream of water while holding it at any angle.A father-of-two said he spent eight hours cutting up his wife's body after she died at a Missouri hotel because he feared authorities would take away his children.

Justin Rey, 36, told a judge on Tuesday that protecting his family was the reason he did not call for medical help after Jessica Rey delivered a baby at the hotel in October, or after when she killed herself.

Investigators later found Rey with his newborn and two-year-old daughter, along with bags of body parts, at a storage shed in Lenexa, Kansas.

A detective said he skinned his wife's corpse, had his children pose for photographs with it, and then flushed some body parts down the toilet.

Justin Rey, 36, (left, in a police mug shot) told a judge on Tuesday that protecting his family was the reason he did not call for medical help after Jessica Rey (right, undated pic) delivered a baby at the hotel in October, or after when she killed herself.

Rey is not charged in his wife's death, but faces child endangerment charges in Kansas and Missouri and is charged with abandonment of a corpse in Missouri, The Kansas City Star reported.

He took the unusual step of testifying at his preliminary hearing in Kansas, with defense attorney Zane Todd saying Rey wanted to correct some witness testimony.

After Tuesday's hearing, a not guilty plea was entered for Rey to Johnson County, Kansas, charges of two counts of aggravated child endangerment and two counts of contributing to a child's misconduct.

'It's something I had to do,' Rey testified. 'My family is very dear to me. It's something I had to do to protect my family.'

Rey took the unusual step of testifying at his preliminary hearing in Kansas, with defense attorney Zane Todd saying Rey wanted to correct some witness testimony

Rey, looks at crime scene photos during questioning by prosecutor Sarah Hill

One officer who met Rey at the storage unit said the 2-year-old appeared unhealthy and 'almost looked like she had cancer.'

The baby had a serious eye infection, according to several witnesses. The children were put in protective custody.

Rey has said in the past that his wife died in childbirth, but Lenexa police detective Shannon Murphy testified that Rey told her his wife had killed herself.

After having his children pose for photographs with her body, Rey said he 'skinned her like a fish,' Murphy testified. Murphy said Rey flushed body parts that would not fit in containers down the toilet.

Deputy Johnson County Coroner Charles Glenn testified that 'a number' of stab were wounds found on some parts of Jessica Rey's body but that it wasn't possible to tell whether the injuries were inflicted before or after she died.

Rey (left, and right, in court in 2017) has said in the past that his wife died in childbirth, but Lenexa police detective Shannon Murphy testified that Rey told her his wife had killed herself

Rey told the court that he and the children had not been living at the storage locker, as witnesses said, but had been there for only about 11 hours while preparing to travel to Arizona, where he said he intended to give his wife a proper burial.

He also said his children were well cared for. 'I didn't endanger my children,' he testified. 'My children were perfectly healthy.'

Rey also denied flushing anything but a placenta down the toilet. His trial on the Kansas charges was scheduled for November 5.

If you or anyone you know needs to talk, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).NBC's host, Megyn Kelly, took a swipe at her own network Tuesday for it not reporting rape allegations made by Rose McGowan during Ronan Farrow's investigation into Harvey Weinstein.

During 'Megyn Kelly Today,' the host reported that McGowan, as well as Farrow's now-former NBC producer Rich McHugh told Kelly late Monday night that she did give NBC an on the record and on camera interview in February of 2017 and that she did name Harvey Weinstein as her rapist.

Furthermore, Kelly reported, that NBC had sat on McGowan's on the record, off camera assertion of her allegations against Weinstein for eight months.

She also read a statement from NBC in which the peacock network said that they were never told of having McGowan on the record but off camera and that within days of Farrow submitting his final draft on July 23, and the actress' attorneys cancelled a follow up on camera interview and revoked all permission to use her first interview.

Megyn Kelly, reported on her NBC show about Rose McGowan and former NBC News producer Rich McHugh that they say the network sat on her on the record claim that Weinstein raped her for eight months

Embattled NBC News chairman Andy Lack (right) has come under fire by Rose McGowan, Ronan Farrow and former NBC News producer Rich McHugh who say the details in his 'fact sheet' were misleading and outright false. They say NBC News sat on McGowan's allegations for months , NBC News says they were unaware she was on the record with her claims and naming Weinstein specifically

DailyMail.com recieved a statement from an NBC spokesperson on the allegations that they sat on McGowans interview, saying: 'Regarding Rose McGowan, as the interview transcript clearly indicates, she did not name Weinstein as her attacker on camera in the February 2017 interview or any time after that.'

'The first time Farrow submitted a draft script on the Weinstein story was five months later, on July 23, 2017. If Farrow had McGowan naming Weinstein on the record but off-camera before that date, and wanted to proceed with airing a story, he did not submit one to his editors.'

Addtionally NBC News said: 'Contrary to Farrow's claims, his story was never cleared or approved for air by NBC News Legal or Standards. As is common practice, NBC lawyers met with him on several occasions to offer legal advice in connection with his reporting. But at no time did they render a judgment on the draft script's readiness for air. While he was told by his editors that several elements of the draft script were technically 'reportable,' he was consistently advised that  even taken together  they were not yet sufficient to air a story alleging serial sexual abuse by Harvey Weinstein without at least one victim or witness on the record. Precisely because the script was never ready for air, no one in the NBC News Standards department ever reviewed it.'

'There's a lot to unpack,' Kelly said. 'What were seeing here is it McHugh has now gone public with his accusations that NBC, he claims, blocked the story. NBC vehemently denying that, and saying they didn't have anybody, they didn't have anybody on the recordAnd Rose McGowan telling us that she was on the record for months and they didn't use her statement.'

Ronan Farrow's (pictured) explosive reporting on Weinstein ended up in the New Yorker which received a Pulitzer Prize

'NBC saying if that's true, it wasn't communicated up the line. That's a dispute between NBC and the reporters on the story, but this is getting really in the weeds and it's getting really uncomfortable,' Kelly said of the explosive allegations that NBC tried to keep the reporting, which won a Pulitzer Prize for the hallowed New Yorker with Farrow, from seeing the light of day.

Kelly did also give a nod to her network for allowing her to report on her statements from McGowan and McHugh saying 'NBC News knew we were going to do this. I had to reach out to them for a statement in response to our reporting and didn't say you can't. So to their credit, they are trying to talk about what happened. There is obviously a factual dispute, however, between the parties.'

Farrow also hit out at NBC after the network's embattled chairman Andy Lack sent out a lengthy memo to staff defending his decision to drop Farrow's explosive story that would reveal the Weinstein allegations.

Following months of scrutiny, Lack sent the memo and an 11-page 'fact sheet' to NBC staff on Labor Day that pushed back on claims it tried to kill Farrow's story.

In a unique move for a media outlet, the memo included excerpts of Farrow's draft story script, a timeline of his reporting and also descriptions of the network's interactions with Weinstein and his lawyers while the investigation was going on.

In a statement on Twitter late Monday, Farrow said the memo contained 'numerous false or misleading statements'.

He went on to say it became clear he was being 'blocked from further reporting, adding: 'The story was twice cleared and deemed 'reportable' by legal and standards only to be blocked by executives who refused to allow us to seek comment from Harvey Weinstein.'

Lack's memo was sent out just days after one of its former news producers Rich McHugh, who worked with Farrow on the Weinstein investigation, claimed they were told to kill the reporting from the 'very highest levels at NBC'.

Specifically addressing the claims from the former producer published last week, Lack said: 'Contrary to recent allegations, at no point did NBC obstruct Farrow's reporting or 'kill' an interview.'Every penny of the $400,000 raised by strangers to give a kind homeless veteran a new start after he spent his final $20 to buy a stranded woman gas has been spent by her and her boyfriend, according to the man's lawyer.

In a devastating outcome for Johnny Bobbitt after what seemed like an end to his strife with the couple, he and his lawyer discovered the fund was depleted on Tuesday after finally winning control of it nine months after it was set up to help him.

'There is no money left. Where the money went, I have no idea,' Bobbitt's lawyer Christopher C. Fallon Jr. told nj.com on Tuesday, adding Bobbitt was 'completely devastated' by the discovery.

It comes less than a week after Kate McLure and Mark D'Amico, the couple who set it up then withheld it from him, went on national television to claim there was still 'well over' $150,000 left.

They insist that they have not spent the money on themselves and that they spent $200,000 on care for Bobbitt. Whatever cash they did give him, they say he spent it on drugs.

Johnny Bobbitt, the homeless veteran who strangers donated $400,000 to last year, has learned there is nothing left of the money which was controlled by a couple who set up a GoFundMe page for him

After Bobbitt shared his story earlier this month, GoFundMe launched an investigation into the couple's handling of the fund.

It seemed Bobbitt had triumphed when a judge earlier this week ordered the couple to give him control of the account.

Now, Bobbitt and his lawyers have asked for a forensic accountant to examine the couple's records and determine if they misspent any of the money.

They met in November last year when McClure, a receptionist for the state department of transportation, ran out of gas in Philadelphia on her way home.

Bobbitt was sleeping in the street and he used his last $20 to buy her gas and get home safely.

She shared his good deed on social media and launched a GoFundMe page in the hope that strangers would return his kindness.

Within a month they had raised $400,000 for him and he was excitedly planning a new life. There were promises of trusts and retirement accounts, financial adviser and lawyers but Bobbitt now says none of what the pair told him he would receive panned out as planned.

Bobbitt, 35, met Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico last year after spending his last $20 buying her gas

Nearly 15,000 people donated $402,000 to get Bobbitt off the street after he used his last $20 to buy McClure gas in Philadelphia

Instead of turning over the money to him, they maintained control of it and only once gave him a lump of cash.

Rather than buy him a house, they bought him a trailer which was then kept on land owned by McLure's family. He did not get the pickup truck of his dreams and instead was given a second hand SUV which they have since sold.

McLure and D'Amico insist that he wanted the trailer and car and that when he blew through $25,000, allegedly on drugs, in just 13 days, they decided he could not be trusted with the rest of the money.

They say that an additional $30,000-$40,000 was eaten up by GoFundMe's fees and that another $135,000 were spent on lawyers, the trailer, an SUV, TVs, a laptop, a cell phone and a hotel where Bobbitt stayed when he first got off the street.

It is not clear what lawyers services were given before they fell into dispute.

During an interview with Megyn Kelly last week, they said they spent $200,000 on him in total and that $150,000 was left.

In that interview, D'Amico said GoFundMe took $50,000.

They insisted that they had done nothing wrong and had not spent a single dollar on themselves.

When asked for an exact figure of how much was left, they said they could not give one because the money was still being held in the account they used for themselves.

During an appearance on the Megyn Kelly Today show last Monday, McClure and her boyfriend said there was still 'well over $150,000 in the account'

McClure became emotional as she described receiving death threats from people claiming they had misspent the money on trips and shopping sprees.

Since they met Bobbitt, they went on luxurious trips to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. They also got a new car but say they paid for it with their salaries.

Bobbitt is back living on the streets. He is taking drugs again. His attorneys agreed to work for him for free.

In his response to Bobbitt's claims earlier this month, D'Amico told The Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Giving him all that money, it's never going to happen. I'll burn it in front of him.'

In April, they took Bobbitt to New York City from New Jersey. They were pictured there together smiling happily for photographs.

D'Amico has been arrested on traffic violations and he has also frequented casinos, once dipping into the GoFundMe money to take $500 which he claims he replaced afterwards.

In January, the couple went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon where they enjoyed a $500 per person helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. McClure said it was a gift from D'Amico

McClure also took her mother on a trip to Los Angeles where they were collected by a limousine at the airport

In April, they took Bobbitt to New York City for the first time. It is 80 miles from their home in New Jersey

Bobbitt is shown (left) before he became homeless and (right) after making the news for helping McClure. He said he believes the couple began wanting to help him but that they got carried away with the amount of money raised

In her final upload to the page, McClure said: 'Hopefully this will answer them while keeping his privacy and the privacy of the people he is helping also.

'The first thing on the list is a NEW Home which Johnny will own!! He will never have to worry about a roof over his head again!! Second will be the dream truck he's always wanted... a 1999 ford ranger (yes I'm serious).

'There will also be 2 trusts set up in his name, one essentially giving him the ability to collect a small "salary" each year and another retirement trust which will be wisely invested by a financial planner which he will have access to in a time frame he feels comfortable with so when the time comes he can live his retirement dream of owning a piece of land and a cabin in the country.

'A bank account will be set up for him with funds for every day needs that will get him through until he finds a job. And lastly, he will be donating to a few organizations and people who over the last couple of years have helped him get through this rough patch in his life.

'This is a well thought out plan that Johnny his lawyer and financial advisor came up with in order to give Johnny the means to acclimate back into a "normal" life and also to protect him and ensure he has a bright future.'

Bobbitt said he was never given a lawyer and met once with a financial adviser.Actress Piper Perabo says she was among a string of women who got arrested at the raucous first day of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday.

The 'Coyote Ugly' star posted video of herself being escorted out of the hearing room by Capitol Police while the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was underway.

Another woman held up a 'Be a Hero' shirt, while other women yelled about the hearing and demanded members vote no.

In video she posted, Perabo can be seen being taken out of the hearing room as an officer puts his hand on her arm.

Actress Piper Perabo says she was among a string of women who got arrested at the raucous first day of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday

I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings, wrote Perabo, also known for Covert Affairs.

Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I cant be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.

The protest came just as Democratic senators were staging their own opposition to Kavanaugh. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal was saying Democrats had been 'denied the documents we need' after the release of 42,000 documents from Kavanaugh's time in the Bush White House just hours before the hearing began.

Perabo said Kavanaugh would 'take our equal rights away'

The protest began as a women yelled ''This is a mockery and a travesty of justice,' while Perabo, in white t-shirt, remained seated

Actress Piper Perabo looks on as another protester holds up a banner shortly before both were ejected from the hearing

He said it turned the hearing into a 'charade.'

'This is a mockery and a travesty of justice,' yelled one unidentified protester.

'We need you to be a hero,' yelled another woman.

Peper gets removed before she had the chance to yell something audible. Her exit was followed by that of two other women, according to another video shared by another activist, Fox News reported.

It wasn't immediately clear how Capitol Police processed the protesters. After recent Hart building protests, those booked were quickly processed and required to return to pay a fine.

Perabo appeared in the 200 film 'Coyote Ugly' about a movie about a woman from New Jersey who moves to New York to become a song writer and works in a bar.The congregation looked a little sheepish... but the bride and groom were beaming.

Emma Gray, who once wrote a book about her life as Britains loneliest shepherdess, has tied the knot  with her flock as her guests.

The 32-year-old married fireman Ewan Irvine, 40, last week at Kelso Town House before holding a reception at her parents farm in Hawick in Roxburghshire, Scotland, where they celebrated with friends and family, sheepdogs and sheep.

Emma Gray, 32, married fireman Ewan Irvine, 40, last week at Kelso Town House before holding a reception at her parents farm in Hawick in Roxburghshire, Scotland

Emma Gray (left) became the first female to top the Northumberland Sheepdog Trials League and is now the wife of firefighter Ewan (right)

The new Mrs Irvine hit the headlines aged 23 when a split from her fiance prompted her to take sole tenancy of the National Trusts 150-acre Fallowlees Farm in Northumberland, making her Britains youngest solo shepherdess.

She later became the first woman to win the prestigious Northumberland Sheepdog Trials League in the contests four-decade history.

Emma Gray is pictured with her flock at Harwood near Rothbury, Northumbria, in the north-east of England

The 40-year-old firefighter married the shepherdess at Kelso Town House before a reception at a farm in Roxburghshire

The new Mrs Irvine hit the headlines aged 23 when a split from her fiance prompted her take sole tenancy of the National Trusts 150-acre Fallowlees Farm in Northumberland, making her Britains youngest solo shepherdess

The then Miss Gray hit the headlines aged 23 when a split from her fiance made her Britain's youngest female shepherdess

Ewan (pictured) gets stuck into farm life. The firefighter married his shepherdess partner in a ceremony at Kelso Town House

But rural life wasnt easy  she struggled to find a husband and penned a memoir of her lonely life on the farm in 2012, called One Girl and Her Dog.

Emma longed to find a match, but her search for love suffered a major setback when she broke her back in a near fatal quad bike accident in June 2016.

The shepherdess even appeared in The Sun that same year, revealing that she was looking for love in a photoshoot which encouraged potential suitors to contact her.

At the time she described her perfect date as a 'tall, rugged dog-lover who doesnt mind a bit of muck'.

But then Emma got lucky, finding her perfect match. After the wedding, Mrs Irvine said: Im very happy. Id just about settled for being single forever.

She added that for the honeymoon, naturally, she will be competing in an international sheepdog trial.

Miss Gray famously took over the Northumberland farm on her own when she split from her husband, becoming the youngest solo shepherdess in the country

Emma Irvine has announced that for her honeymoon she will be competing in a sheepdog trial

The shepherdess lives in a property that has no mains electric and relies on a windmill-powered hot water system

Mrs Gray is the third generation of her family to work in farming and began working with dogs at the age of 13.

She says that by the time she was 17 she knew it was her calling and so choose to study sheep management at college.

The property she lives in at Fallowlees Farm has no mains electricity or gas supply and uses a windmill-powered hot water system.

But the farmer - once dubbed 'Britain's loneliest shepherdess' - has run the site successfully ever since she took it over as a solo venture.A desperate Malcolm Turnbull offered leadership challenger Peter Dutton the job of one of his most loyal supporters in a last-ditch attempt to save his own position.

The former prime minister reportedly promised Mr Dutton the Liberal Party deputy leader position that had been occupied by Julie Bishop for almost a decade.

But the Home Affairs Minister turned down the offer because he believed he had the backing of Liberal MPs to become the leader.

The former prime minister reportedly promised Mr Dutton the Liberal Party deputy leader position that had been occupied by Julie Bishop (pictured) for almost a decade

A desperate Malcolm Turnbull (pictured in New York with wife Lucy) offered leadership challenger Peter Dutton the job of one of his most loyal supporters in a last-ditch attempt to save his own position

Mr Dutton also believed the move would be not be met with approval in the partyroom, The Courier Mail reported.

Mr Turnbull was forced to stand down last month after days of leadership turmoil. However, Scott Morrison went on to beat Mr Dutton in the final partyroom vote.

Ms Bishop also put her name forward in the spill, but was eliminated in the first round of voting despite polls showing she was the most popular candidate among voters.

Meanwhile, Fairfax Media has cited secret Liberal party polling that warned cabinet ministers against the leadership spill.

The Home Affairs Minister (pictured) turned down the offer because he believed he had the backing of Liberal MPs to become the leader

The internal report said the LNP by-election loss in the Queensland seat of Longman shouldn't be treated as a test case for a federal election.

Instead of Mr Turnbull costing the Coalition votes, the report said the scandal over Liberal National Party candidate Trevor Ruthenberg and his military medals had damaged the government's chances.

During the campaign for Longman, Mr Ruthenberg, a former minister in the Newman state government, had to apologise for wrongly claiming he earned a prestigious Australian Service Medal.

In fact, he only had an Australian Defence Medal awarded for service of more than four years.

The Longman result was used as justification for a leadership spill by Mr Dutton's backers, who were concerned about a general election wipeout in Queensland.Nancy Pelosi is slamming speculation she will not be the leader of her party if Democrats retake the House in the November election, a victory that could return her to the speaker's chair.

'It is the least important question you could ask,' she told National Public Radio, 'with all due respect to your list of questions there.'

Pelosi has long been a Republican boogey man in congressional elections, with her image and name being invoked in hundreds of campaign ads against Democrats.

Nancy Pelosi is slamming speculation she will not be the leader of her party if Democrats retake the House in the November election

Pelosi helped Republican Rep. Sam Johnson, who was John McCain's cell mate for 18 months while they were prisoners of war in Vietnam, mourn the senator in the Capitol

But several of those candidates are also refusing to say they'll vote for her for Democratic Leader, instead saying they'll wait and see who runs in the December election in which Democratic lawmakers select their party leadership.

At least 57 Democratic lawmakers and candidates have declined to pledge their support to her, according to NBC News.

Pelosi dismisses such talk as nonsense.

'You wake up each day thinking, what can I do to advance what I believe in, to make the future better. And then some reporter comes up and asks you: 'who are you going to vote for for leader?'' she told NPR.

'The most important thing is, what does this election mean for the American people?'

Pelosi, a fundraising power house, has raised over $100 million for the party. Democrats are keeping up a steady drum beat on healthcare and jobs in the run down to the November election.

In a 'Dear Colleague' letter sent to Democratic House members on Tuesday, their first day back at work after August recess, Pelosi implored her caucus to be ready to hit the ground running January as the majority party.

'As we approach the end of this Congress, we must Be Ready for the prospect that we will be in the Majority in January,' she wrote.

She outlined the agenda items the party should be ready to act on: lowering health care costs; increasing pay through strong economic growth; and cleaning up corruption in Washington D.C.

She also added protecting Dreamers, those illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children by their parents, and gun violence prevention.

'We must Be Ready to act on these measures that have bipartisan support in Congress and across the country,' she wrote.

Pelosi became the first female speaker of the House after the 2006 election

Independent political prognosticators are increasingly predicting Democrats could take control of the House of Representatives after November

Independent political prognosticators are increasingly predicting Democrats could take control of the House of Representatives after November.

Meanwhile, the campaign arm for House Republicans put out a memo arguing 'Republicans are well-positioned to maintain control of the House.'

Matt Gorman, the communications director for the National Congressional Campaign Committee, argues the party's strong fundraising, early preparations and the fact that 'Nancy Pelosi is the most unpopular politician in every competitive district in the country' will help them this fall.

'I have every confidence that we'll win,' Pelosi told NPR. 'Not because I'm taking anything for granted, but because we're not yielding one grain of sand. This is urgent.'

Pelosi became the first female speaker after Democrats won control of the House in the 2006 election.If nothing changes, Chung Seo Jun, export sales manager of the Republic of Korea (RoK)s S.K Vegetable and Fruit Trading Company, will visit Vietnam this November to seek opportunities to export Vietnamese rice to the Eastern Asian market.

We will meet with Vietnams Ministry of Industry and Trade to discuss our plan to cooperate with local firms to export rice to our nation, Jun told Nhandan Online. Currently, we are annually spending hundreds of millions of US dollars purchasing rice from Lao and Thailand. The rice will be used for both home use and industrial purposes.

In fact, Jun has visited Vietnam several times to seek rice export opportunities, but failed, due to existing tough conditions. However, Ive learned that the Vietnamese government has eased the conditions, and we will come to Vietnam again to seek opportunities.

On August 15, the government enacted Decree 107/2018/ND-CP on rice export businesses, which will take effect on October 1, 2018. This decree, which clearly defines that a foreign-direct investment firm shall be licensed and perform rice export business activities under this decree and other laws of Vietnam, has eased conditions for rice export business by stipulating that traders, both Vietnamese and foreign, are entitled to engage in rice export activities when they have at least one warehouse to store rice, and at least one mill to process the rice.

This warehouse and mill can be the assets of the traders or leased by the traders, with a lease contract covering at least five years.

Decree 107 will replace the existing Decree 109/2010/ND-CP on rice export business, which has, over the past eight years, come under fire by firms due to the tough conditions it imposes on the rice export business.

Specifically, under Decree 109, an eligible rice trader must be lawfully established and register their business under law and have special-use warehouses to store a minimum of 5,000 tonnes of rice and at least one rice mill to process at least 10 tonnes of rice per hour.

The rice warehouse and mill must be owned by the trader and located in a province or centrally run city which has export commodity rice or an international seaport with rice export activities at the time the trader applies for a certificate.

Rice exporters shall regularly maintain a circulation reserve equal to at least 10 per cent of their rice exports over the previous six months.

According to Nguyen Duc Thanh, head of the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research, all existing stringent conditions for exporting rice should have been removed long ago.

While many businesses want to engage in rice exports, they cannot due to the many conditions that they will never be able to meet under Decree 109, Thanh said.

At present, there only about 100 rice exporters allowed to export rice in Vietnam.

According to Dang Quang Vinh from the Central Institute for Economic Managements Department of Competitiveness and Business Environment, all these conditions under Decree 109 are very strict obstructions for many enterprises which want to export rice, and this prevents Vietnam from exporting high-quality rice and building its rice brand name on a global scale.

Dao The Anh, vice head of Food Crop Research Institute Vietnam, also said, Many local firms and cooperatives want to export high-quality rice, but they cannot meet all the conditions of Decree 109.

For example, Vien Phu Company in the southernmost province of Ca Mau has Hoa Sua rice brand-name, but it cannot export the products directly as it cannot meet all the said conditions. Thus the firm has indirectly exported rice via big companies that fully meet the conditions.

In another case, Phuoc Thanh Bay Map Production and Trade Company in Ho Chi Minh City said it will cost about VND500 billion (US$22.73 million) for the company to satisfy the conditions, and this job is almost impossible, which has many years experience in doing trade with the US market.

It is Decree 109 that has been partly responsible for Vietnams inability to develop a global rice brand name, because it prevents the rice sectors competitiveness, Anh said.

Meanwhile, Chung Seo Jun from S.K Vegetable and Fruit Trading Company expected that Decree 107 will make it more favourable to co-operate with these Vietnamese firms.

While many rice exporting nations have their own global rice brands, Vietnam  the worlds third largest rice exporter (after India and Thailand)  does not. Foreign firms like us will not be able to export rice in Vietnam if the existing conditions continue, Jun said.

Vietnam exported 5.79 million tonnes of rice, worth US$2.62 billion last year, and 4.4 million tonnes worth nearly US$2.2 billion in the first seven months of this year.Dame Barbara Windsor was rushed to hospital after a fall at home - resulting in her having a pacemaker fitted, it has been claimed.

The 81-year-old reportedly suffered health complications relating to her Alzheimer's medication.

The actress spent more than a week in hospital before her operation, sources told The Sun.

Husband Scott Mitchell, 55, said: 'She's looking forward to getting out on the town again soon.'

Dame Barbara Windsor and husband Scott Mitchell revealed that Barbara has been diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease earlier this year

Mr Mitchell said the hospital discharged his ex-Eastenders wife of 25 years last month.

Scott said: 'Barbara was suffering from a low heart rate which doctors thought was being caused by some of her medication.

Barbara Windsor in 'Carry on Girls': The legendary actress is hoping to be up and about again soon after an operation

'She was getting very dizzy and short of breath and fainted one day at home, so she had an eight-day hospital spell about four weeks ago and they've put in a pacemaker for her.

'But she's recovering really well and is looking forward to getting out on the town again soon.'

Close friend Christoper Biggins was hopeful she will be out soon.

He told The Sun: 'I spoke to her last week and I'm going to see her next week. We're going to go out. She likes to go out because she spends a lot of time indoors.

Television star Barbara Windsor with husband Scott Mitchell after she was made a Dame Commander of the order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II

'She loves The Ivy restaurant. She lives in Marylebone, so there's lots of lovely restaurants there.'

Dame Barbara was diagnosed with Alzheimer's four years ago but only revealed her battle with the illness earlier this year.

Mr Biggins added: 'I know so many people who are dying or leaving this world so you've just got to get out there and enjoy yourself, I think.

Dr Tim Beanland, Head of knowledge at Alzheimer's Society, said: 'Our best wishes go out to Dame Barbara. Alzheimer's Society is supporting her and her family through this time - we are here for anyone affected by dementia.

'Currently there are no treatments that can cure or prevent Alzheimer's disease or any other type of dementia. Many people living with the condition, like Barbara, rely on medication that helps to ease their symptoms and enables them to live well.

'Generally, drug treatments for Alzheimer's can be taken without people experiencing too many side effects. But we know from calls to our Helpline that side effects can be a worry for people with dementia and their carers. If you or someone you know is concerned about any side effects of Alzheimer's drugs then it's important to discuss this with a GP or pharmacist, and do talk to a GP before stopping any medication.'A man accused in the killing of a pregnant North Dakota woman has pleaded guilty to two of three charges against him.

William Hoehn pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of kidnapping and providing false information to law enforcement in the August 2017 death of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind of Fargo.

Hoehn is still scheduled for trial on September 18 on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

Hoehn's former girlfriend, Brooke Crews, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and two other charges in December and in February was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

William Hoehn (pictured for a hearing in December 2017) pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of kidnapping and providing false information to law enforcement in the August 2017 death of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind of Fargo

Greywind, 22, (seen) was gruesomely murdered by Hoehn's ex-girlfriend Crews, who sliced out her baby and left her to die

The baby (pictured left and right) was found alive in the apartment Crews shared with her 32-year-old boyfriend Hoehn

Greywind was eight months pregnant when she disappeared in August.

Kayakers found her body wrapped in plastic in a river.

The baby was found alive in the apartment Crews shared with her boyfriend Hoehn.

Authorities say she cut the baby from the mother's womb. The child was found healthy.

Brooke Crews, who killed the pregnant neighbor so she and her boyfriend could keep the baby, was sentenced to life without parole for the gruesome slaying (pictured during sentencing in February)

Crews initially claimed that Greywind gave up her newborn daughter, but later admitted she took advantage of the woman to get the child, according to court documents.

Hoehn told police he came home on August 19 to find Crews cleaning up blood in their bathroom.

Hoehn said Crews presented him with an infant girl and said: 'This is our baby. This is our family.'

Instead of reporting the kidnapping to police, Hoehn discarded the bloody towels his girlfriend used. He later lied to authorities and said he 'was under the impression we were having a baby.'

Cass County State's Attorney Birch Burdick declined to comment on the guilty pleas.

Hoehn's public defender, Daniel Borgen, did not immediately return a phone message.

Savanna's boyfriend Ashston Matheny holds their daughter, Haisley Jo, as victim impact statements are read during Crews' sentencing in February

Matheny now has full legal custody of their baby girl, Haisley Jo (pictured together)Dan DeFossey's couldn't have chosen a better caption for his Twitter profile: 'Living the dream'.

He is now reciprocating it, proving a second chance to deportees that have showed up at the entrance of his Mexico City restaurant after their own American dreams were snatched away.

The American business owner and his Mexican associate Roberto Luna employees seven workers that for a variety of reasons have been deported from the United States.

'So we find that those people have a really good experience,' DeFossey told ATTN. 'They understand our culture better and so when they would come in for interviews and [say] 'Oh yeah, I worked in the US for 10 years', that was something that was cool for us.'

This restaurant in Mexico hires people who've been deported from the U.S. pic.twitter.com/E0nICUz1oE  attn (@attn) August 26, 2018

Owners Dan DeFossey (left) and Roberto Luna (right) with one of their first customers after their venture Pinch Gringo BBQ [Darned Gringo] took off in December 2013

The staff at Pinch Gringo BBQ in Mexico City has given a second chance to deportees that have arrived from the United States looking for work. There are seven currently working there

'We learned over time their stories that were a lot deeper and a lot more painful than we knew. So when we mix that, I think it's a really interesting thing.'

In a sense, Pinche Gringo BBQ [Darned American] has served not just as a workplace for deportees that have arrive in their native land to nothing, but also as a home away from home due to the warm atmosphere its owners have offered.

Sometimes I speak to them in English and they kind of have nostalgia because they miss the United States and they miss their lives and they miss their families that still live in the United States, DeFossey told Univision.

So we have a sanctuary, they appreciate it and then they work hard.

'Definitely it is a win, win situation, right? They understand perfectly the American way to make things, and they are Mexicans, too,' Luna told ATTN.

Roberto Luna (left) and Dan DeFossey (right) in the earlier days running Pinch Gringo out of a food truck in Mexico

Hugo Hernandez accepted the opportunity to work at Pinche Gringo BBQ after he was deported from the United States after having spent 10 years as an undocumented immigrant

DeFossey and Luna decided on opening up a food truck as a way to introduce Mexicans to the American culture in December 2013.

Who doesn't like some good 'ole BBQ, right?

One of Pinche Gringos first workers to join its staff was Hugo Hernandez, who was quite skeptical about taking orders from an American superior after a drunk driving charge in Florida led to the Mexican nationals deportation.

Hernandez was put on probation but because he was holding down two jobs at the same time, he couldn't find the required time to attend alcoholic abuse program as mandated by the courts.

He was then deported and arrived broke in Mexico with just $100 in his pocket, no job to support his son and an American dream squashed after 10 years of living as an undocumented immigrant.

'They released me at the border in Matamoros,' Hernandez told ATTN. 'I had like 100 bucks in my pocket. I left all my stuff, like my car, all my furniture in the apartment, everything.'

Pinche Gringo BBQ has become a favorite destination for those wanting to immerse themselves in the American culture

The business owners saw their BBQ spot as the perfect place to quell any anti-American sentiments born out of the Donald Trump presidency.

As an American immigrant running a business south of the border, DeFosssey made it his due diligence to show the people that adopted him in his new country that all Americans weren't representative of President Trump's ideology.

'After the 2016 election, I was a little scared, DeFossey said.

'We just elected somebody that was having really strong rhetoric that I believe was incorrect about the country that I am an immigrant to.'Jeremy Corbyn was branded contemptible last night after he argued it is not anti-Semitic to describe Israel as racist.

The Labour leader wanted his partys ruling body to endorse a statement that it is not anti-Semitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist.

Describing Israel as a racist endeavour directly contravenes one of the key examples of the international definition of anti-Semitism.

At a combative meeting of the partys ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) yesterday, Mr Corbyn was forced to back down after it became clear he could not get his statement through.

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Mr Corbyn was branded 'contemptible' for bringing a second personal statement to the meeting on anti-Semitism and Palestinian rights.

The Labour leader wanted his partys ruling body to endorse a statement that it is not anti-Semitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist

At a combative meeting of the partys ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) yesterday, Mr Corbyn was forced to back down after it became clear he could not get his statement through

Instead the NEC adopted the full definition of anti-Semitism as laid down by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), including all 11 examples it lists.

But it also endorsed a get-out clause to make it clear that adopting the full definition will not undermine freedom of expression on Israel. Last night the Labour Friends of Israel group said the caveat would provide a safe space for anti-Semites.

Its director, Jennifer Gerber, said: It is contemptible but utterly unsurprising that Jeremy Corbyn prioritised and fought for the right of anti-Semites to describe the worlds only Jewish state as racist in a meeting supposedly about combating anti-Semitism.

It is now even more clear that Jeremy Corbyn is part of the problem not the solution.

After months of heated debate, the NEC agreed that Labours code of conduct  used to decide whether members should be expelled for anti-Semitic comments  should adopt all of the IHRAs 11 examples.

It emerged last night that Mr Corbyn urged the NEC to adopt all 11 definitions  but only alongside a statement he had drafted. It stated: It cannot be considered racist to treat Israel like any other state or assess its conduct against the standards of international law.

At a combative meeting of the partys ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) yesterday, Mr Corbyn was forced to back down after it became clear he could not get his statement through

After months of heated debate, the NEC agreed that Labours code of conduct  used to decide whether members should be expelled for anti-Semitic comments  should adopt all of the IHRAs 11 examples

Nor should it be regarded as anti-Semitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist because of their discriminatory impact, or to support another settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Instead, the NEC adopted a much shorter statement, saying the adoption of the full IHRA definition does not in any way undermine the freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

Labour Against Anti-Semitism added: The Labour Party says this issue is about free speech, but in reality, it appears to be about protecting the freedom of racists to present vile views which should have no place in any political party.

There can be no caveats, no conditions and no compromises with racism, and it is an ongoing disgrace that the Labour Party appears incapable of simply doing the right thing.

Momentum activist celebrated Iranian revolution anniversary The candidate who won the most votes in Mondays elections for Labours NEC has helped to mark Irans takeover by hardline Ayatollahs, MailOnline reported. Momentum activist Yasmine Dar has given speeches at an Islamist celebration of the 1979 Iranian revolution, which heralded widespread repression. At one event in Manchester in 2017, she said: We are here for a celebration, a happy time. Advertisement

Until it does, this crisis will continue to destroy the fundamental integrity of the whole Labour movement.

Last night a Labour Party spokesman said: The NEC welcomed Jeremy Corbyns statement to the meeting about action against anti-Semitism, solidarity with the Jewish community and protection of Palestinian rights, as an important contribution to the consultation on Labours Code of Conduct.

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the decision by the NEC to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism in full was very long overdue.

She added: However, the adoption of the internationally-recognised definition by itself, can only be the beginning. Action is what matters. We need to see firm action taken against anti-Semites and those who bring the party in to disrepute by denying the problem of anti-Semitism.

'Labour must resolve the outstanding cases, introduce greater transparency to the disciplinary process, tackle the culture of the problem of anti-Semitism and introduce education and training. In addition Jeremy Corbyn needs to apologise for past anti-Semitic comments and affiliations.

Dame Margaret Hodge was among others vocal in their criticism of the party for taking 'two steps forward, one step back' by adding the rider to the full IHRA text.

The statement spells out that Labour will not kick out anyone who criticises Israel without being anti-Semitic - something critics say is already clear in the IHRA text.

Dame Margaret Hodge (pictured) was among others vocal in their criticism of the party for taking 'two steps forward, one step back' by adding the rider to the full IHRA text

The leading Jewish MP who has branded Mr Corbyn an anti-Semite, condemned the new caveat.

She said: 'Two steps forward and one step back. Why dilute the welcome adoption in full of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism with an unnecessary qualification?'

Prior to the crunch meeting of Labour's ruling body yesterday morning, one of Corbyn's key allies who previously ranted about Jewish 'Trump fanatics' was cheered as he arrived at the party HQ.

Peter Willsman was applauded by Momentum activists as he turned up for the NEC gathering - with some hugging him and punching the air as he walked in.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson (pictured arriving at the NEC meeting in London's Victoria yesterday) said he hopes the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism could be the start of a journey to rebuild trust with the Jewish community

Peter Willsman (pictured) was applauded by Momentum activists as he turned up for the NEC gathering - with some hugging him and punching the air as he walked in

But a group of Jewish protesters who had also gathered outside the offices angrily chanted 'shame on you' as he walked in.

The tense scenes came after Mr Willsman was re-elected to the NEC yesterday with more than 70,000 votes despite his diatribe in July, when he accused critics of 'making up' complaints about anti-Semitism.

Mr Willsman refused to answer questions on his remarks or whether he would back adopting the IHRA definition, but smiled and thanked his 'comrades' for their support.

Mr Willsman, who will now serve another two years on the NEC, said his job was to support his 'friend for 41 years' Mr Corbyn - who he called 'Jerry'.

Mr Willsman, who was reelected to the NEC last night despite anger over his rant at Jewish 'Trump fanatics', was escorted past the protests by police yesterday

The tense scenes came after Mr Willsman was re-elected to the NEC yesterday with more than 70,000 votes despite his diatribe in July, when he accused critics of 'making up' complaints about anti-Semitism

He said critics were trying to undermine the Labour leader and 'some MPs, elected by Labour voters, seem willing to help the rich and powerful'.

Amanda Bowman, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Mr Willsman's election following his 'reprehensible comments' was 'deeply concerning'.

His success came despite the influential Momentum campaign group withdrawing its support for him following the 'deeply insensitive' comments about Jews.

In an angry rant at a meeting of Labour's ruling executive committee in July, he accused Jewish 'Trump fanatics' of 'making up duff information' to attack Mr Corbyn.

All nine winners are close supporters of Mr Corbyn. They all had the backing of Momentum, the Corbyn support group, at the start of the election campaign, before Mr Willsman was dropped from the slate

Mr Corbyn arrived later for the showdown - but avoided embarrassing questions from the media by using a backdoor to get into the building

Mr Willsman won 70,321 votes to claim the ninth and last spot on the committee. Yasmine Dar was first in the election with 88,176 votes.

All nine winners are close supporters of Mr Corbyn. They all had the backing of Momentum, the Corbyn support group, at the start of the election campaign, before Mr Willsman was dropped from the slate.

Comedian Eddie Izzard was the best placed loser, finishing tenth with 67,819 votes.

Labour MP Wes Streeting revealed his despair at the re-election, warning Mr Willsman should have been 'booted off' the NEC during the election.

He said: 'Through his actions, Peter Willsman has shown he is unfit to serve on Labour's NEC.

They included two activists dressed in witches hats who stood near a banner with Jeremy Corbyn's face across it. They faced off against a small group of Jewish protesters who want the definition to be adopted

A group of around 100 protesters from Momentum and Jewish Voice for Labour gathered outside Labour Party headquarters to urge the NEC not to adopt the anti-Semitism picket

'The results suggest that had his conduct come to light sooner - and Momentum taken swifter action - he would not have been elected.

'He should have been booted off the NEC already.'

Mr Corbyn arrived later for the showdown - but avoided embarrassing questions from the media by using a backdoor to get into the building.

A group of around 100 protesters from Momentum and Jewish Voice for Labour gathered outside Labour Party headquarters to urge the NEC not to adopt the anti-Semitism picket.

The noisy picket chanted and carried banners with slogans like 'IHRA no, BDS yes' and made a string of angry speeches tearing into Israel.

They included two activists dressed in witches hats who stood near a banner with Jeremy Corbyn's face across it.

They faced off against a small group of Jewish protesters who want the definition to be adopted.

The group - which carried Israeli flags - chanted 'Corbyn is an anti-Semite' and said that the Labour Party has no right to tell the Jewish community how to define anti-Semitism.

Mike Cushman, an activist with JVL, accused Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger of being 'on a continuum' with Margaret Thatcher.

He accused the Labour MP of defending an apartheid state in Israel which is like South Africa.

He said the anti-Semitism crisis has been over inflated by Blairites and Tories and supporters of the Israeli government .

He told the crowd: 'There are three groups responsible - there is the blairite group who never accepted the idea that you and me decide the direction of our party...

'They have used any weapon they can to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Corbyn is facing demands to show 'remorse' for his failure to tackle the wave of vile abuse that has been wracking the party since he took charge

'There is the second group, the conservatives, they see this as a weapon to destabilise the Labour Party.

'And there is a third group - the Israeli government and those who support them.

'They do not want us to criticise the criminal actions of the Israeli regime.'

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi at JVL said: 'I think it's very unfortunate that the Labour Party has been so bludgeoned and beaten and bloodied by this whole episode in our political life that they feel they have to take on guidelines.'

On Israel she added: 'I know it's a racist state.'

Asked what they will do if the party adopts the definition she said they will continue their campaign and help activists who are accused of Antisemitism.

Other speakers at the Momentum and JVL demonstration accused those like former chief rabbi Lord Sacks who have spoken out on anti-Semitism of 'shrieking' and 'crying wolf'.

Jon Lansman, founder of Momentum, did not talk to the press as he arrived at the party HQ this morning.

The latest controversy was sparked over the summer when the party stopped short of including all examples from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism in its code of conduct.

Left-wingers argued that the rules - which include banning jibes about the Israeli state being a racist endeavour - would hamper criticism of Israel.

But many MPs and Jewish groups view watering down the definition as totally unacceptable, and Mr Corbyn himself has been forced to deny being an anti-Semite.

It emerged last night that Mr Corbyn urged the NEC to adopt all 11 definitions  but only alongside a statement he had drafted. It stated: It cannot be considered racist to treat Israel like any other state or assess its conduct against the standards of international law

Mr Corbyn is facing demands to show 'remorse' for his failure to tackle the wave of vile abuse that has been wracking the party since he took charge.

Senior backbencher John Mann warned that British Jews are leaving as a result of the controversy.

'That is where we have got to, and it is a lack of leadership at the top of the Labour Party, not just, but including Jeremy Corbyn, and this appalling national executive who have... tried to mess around with a very humdrum, mundane definition of anti-Semitism that left (wing) parties across the world have been happy to accept along with everyone else,' he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

'We are now seeing the first British Jewish people leaving, that is the state we are in, that is the responsibility of the Labour Party.

'It's not a small problem, it's a big problem and it needs sorting now.'

MP Stephen Kinnock urged Mr Corbyn to show 'remorse' over the problems.

'We need to see Jeremy coming forward in his conference speech, particularly, which will be a real opportunity to show remorse for what has happened, to show understanding of the pain and hurt that has been suffered both by my colleagues - particularly Jewish colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party - and the wider Jewish community,' he said.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Scotland Yard is investigating a leaked dossier on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party which it is claimed contains 21 cases that should have been reported to the police.

The document which was made public yesterday details allegations against councillors and members involving messages posted on social media.

The claims include on that a party member posted a message of Facebook saying 'we shall rid the Jews who are cancer on us all...'

Radio station LBC were handed the internal Labour document which details 45 cases in total.

Meanwhile, the GMB union joined calls for a second Brexit vote on the final day of the dead in an attempt to ramp up pressure of Corbyn.

GMB leader Tim Roache said a hard Brexit would prove costly for workers and urged a second vote with a public voting on the facts.

Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly ruled out calling a second referendum despite calls from within her party and Labour alike.

But the GMB decision will add to pressure on Mr Corbyn to shift Labour's position to supporting a vote on the deal.

'How sickening that, as a British Jew, Im now being told to "go home" - and its Corbyn who must take the blame': One mother reveals her sickening experience of the rise in anti-Semitism on our street By Natasha Pearlman for the Daily Mail Three times in my life I have experienced anti-Semitism. The first was in my second year at university. It was a throwaway comment from a very close friend who told another friend to stop being such a Jew, when he was reluctant to part with some money. I was devastated that someone I loved would say such an anti-Semitic phrase. Journalist Natasha Pearlman, pictured with her two children, Thea, four weeks and Rose, four, right, said as a British Jew she has experienced anti-Semitism three times in her life I explained how offensive it was and my friend was mortified. It was often used at his boarding school (at which there were no Jews) and through genuine ignorance had entered his common parlance. The other incidents happened at work. I was a young journalist in London over a decade ago. One day a colleague came in, holding a leaflet on Judaism. Im going for lunch with so and so today (a Jewish celebrity), they announced, waving the pamphlet at me. Im going to read this beforehand so I can understand people like you. Shocked, I said nothing. Later, the same colleague began referring to where I sat (opposite the only other Jewish person in our office) as Jew corner. To my shame, I said nothing, despite knowing my workplace would have been outraged by it. It was early in my career. I feared that by challenging it Id be labelled a troublemaker and never work in the industry again. Ms Pearlman, said the first time she encountered anti-Semitism was in college Perhaps it was the Britishness in me  but I believed the comments were not symptomatic of anti-Semitism in our society, just ignorance. Now, for the first time in my 36-year lifetime, I have genuine concerns about the spread of vitriol and abuse against the Jewish community. Because the hatred of us has become entwined with Israel  the Jewish homeland. And somehow the Britishness of Jews, our loyalty to the country we call home, the culture in which we exist and are part of, is being called into question. Not by a bunch of ignorant idiots, but by the Labour Party and seemingly the Labour leader himself, Jeremy Corbyn. Only yesterday, Labours National Executive Committee finally accepted the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of anti-Semitism  accepted around the world by organisations such as the United Nations  in my opinion, far too damagingly late. Even then Corbyn wanted to add a statement permitting criticism of Israel, specifically that the circumstances around its foundation are racist. Yet again, provoking outcry. Why? Because Israel was only necessary due to the Nazis mass extermination of the Jews. I am devastated that the party Ive supported my whole life bears so much responsibility for this. Having been horribly slow to deal with party members accused of anti-Semitism, they had refused to accept the full IHRA definition of anti-Semitism  wanting to omit four clauses, including one of accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than the country they live in. She said she is devastated by the Labour Party's handling of the anti-Semitism issue Then Corbyn himself was accused of anti-Semitism by Britains former Chief Rabbi, Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, after a video from 2013 appeared to show him conflating Jews and Zionists and suggested that having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they [the Zionists, but many read Jews, because he was referring to a religious community defined by its immigrant status] dont understand English irony, either. Last week, Labour MP Frank Field resigned the party whip, citing that the party was becoming a force for anti-Semitism in politics. It is against this whole backdrop that a deeply moving documentary is airing on BBC2, with the second episode tonight, called We Are British Jews, exploring anti-Semitism in Britain today. Eight British Jews, from across the political and religious spectrum, go from Manchester to Israel and the West Bank, where they are forced to confront and challenge their deeply felt views. Ms Pearlman is appearing on a BBC documentary examining anti-Semitism in Britain Its compelling, heart-warming and yet heartbreaking. And brilliantly done. Participants include articulate, nervous university graduate Lilly, who has reservations about the Israeli governments actions towards the Palestinians. Then theres deeply religious, pro-Israel activist Joseph, who is surprisingly open to what Lilly has to say. And Damon, a 58-year-old atheist Jew  but fervent Zionist  whos never been to Israel. It is significant that none of them wanted their surnames made public, for fear of reprisals. I understand that. Im writing this knowing it will open the floodgates to abuse of my family. Whenever I express concerns about anti-Semitism on social media Im hit with abuse about being part of the Zionist mafia or told to go home. Ms Pearlman said as the mother of four-year-old Rose, right, and four-week-old Thea, she was speaking up as the granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors As the mother of Rose, four, and Thea, four weeks, Im speaking up because it is exactly this rhetoric  the questioning of Jews loyalty to the country in which they reside, the characterisation of them as other, as money-grabbing, as not part of general society  that mirrors how Nazis portrayed Jews in the run-up to World War II. I dont write any of this lightly. I never believed I would write any of this at all. Im the granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors. What happened to my granny and grandfather was so horrific I find it hard to believe anything so revolting could happen again. My grandfather was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo on Kristallnacht and was one of the few men to escape. My granny lost her entire family, including her mother and two sisters who were exterminated at Maly-Trostenets concentration camp in Belarus. In July it was revealed there are now 100 anti-Semitic incidents reported a month (with a 34 per cent rise in anti-Semitic assaults from 2016 to 2017). Ive often told my worried parents it wasnt possible it could get worse  with the Holocaust such a recent memory. Now, Im certain that if we stay silent, theres a danger the poison seeping into our society will become unstoppable. I hope tonights programme will counteract this tide of anti-Semitism. Viewers will be able to see the breadth of the Jewish community, captured intelligently and sensitively. Still, do we really have to showcase the banality of our normal lives, just to prove we are British and normal, like you? You may well warm to a number of the participants, no matter your own politics. Even though I am politically opposed to Right-wing Joseph, I agreed when he noted that Jews, wherever they live in the world, are expected to explain their stance on Israels government, when we wouldnt expect any Muslim to say ISIS has nothing to do with me. Equally, I supported Lilly questioning the legitimacy of the Israeli government-backed settlements in the Palestinian West Bank  that theyre still building despite being declared illegal by the UN and the actions of the army against some of the Palestinian citizens. The programme also highlighted the inflammatory way the non-Jewish community speak about Israel, Corbyn in particular. Ms Pearlman said Jeremy Corbyn often uses the terms Zionist and Zionism when criticising Israel, which can be substituted for Jews and Judaism When Corbyn opposes the Israeli government, he almost never uses those words. He takes on Israel and by extension its people, the Jews. He calls terrorist leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah his friends, yet doesnt engage with Israelis. He attacks Zionists, not the government. And given that the accepted definition of Zionism is simply the right of Jews to self-determination  i.e. the right to a Jewish homeland, just as there exist Islamic states and Christian states  its easy to see how easily Zionists and Zionism can be substituted for Jews and Judaism. In a difficult and upsetting part of the programme, the group visit Manchester University during Israel Apartheid Week. They encounter streets plastered with posters from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Group (BDS) that specifically target Israel. One of the cast, Alan, 77, observes: Theres never a Syrian Apartheid Week, theres never any demonstrations against the terrible deaths in Syria. Nothing about the horrible happenings in Yemen. Its always about Israel. And as one Manchester Jewish Society member notes: When theres a pro-Palestinian or BDS event, we dont start a fuss. When theres an Israel event theres always protests and security issues. When we raise our opinion were shouted down. Were scared to do things in public. That last sentence would break my late grandparents heart. Because the final few months of their lives in Austria were lived in enforced secrecy  even their Jewish wedding, on July 31, 1938, was conducted under cover of darkness in a friends house. By the end of their time in Vienna, they were banned from living publicly as Jews. Having been rejected and expelled from their home country, they clung intensely  like many other Jewish refugees  to Britain, the land that welcomed them, and their newfound Britishness. Austria could never be home again. This is why Im so disturbed at anti-Semitism in Britain today, where the hatred of us is so entwined with criticism of Israel and a questioning of loyalties. While some comes from the Right, the Left has turned anti-Zionism into a trend. It has become de rigueur to typify us as a homogenous group. The Jews, make no mistake, have become a symbol of hatred. This is why I can no longer stay silent. I am many things in my life  Jewish, a writer, a daughter, a sister, a mother, a wife. Im also British. All my life I presumed that was a given. The fact we, as British Jews, need a programme to show our fellow Brits that we are one of them? Well, in a way, weve already lost. The weight of history is on all of us to rectify this. AdvertisementDramatic police raids have resulted in the seizure of hundreds of cartons of allegedly stolen cigarettes worth $7million and $250,000 cash.

Detectives with Strike Force Pyrope arrested two men in their 40s after swooping on a number of properties across Sydney on Tuesday.

The taskforce was formed to investigate an alleged cigarette heist from a warehouse in the inner-city suburb of Alexandria in April.

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Dramatic police raids have resulted in the seizure of hundreds of cartons of allegedly stolen cigarettes (pictured) worth $7million, and $250,000 cash

Detectives with Strike Force Pyrope arrested two men in their 40s after swooping on a number of properties across Sydney on Tuesday (pictured is one of the arrests)

The taskforce was formed to investigate an alleged cigarette heist from a warehouse in the inner-city suburb of Alexandria in April (pictured is cash seized in the raids)

About 1,550 cartons of cigarettes were seized by police, along with $250,000 cash and two Toyota Hilux vehicles.

Footage from the police operation shows a huge haul of cigarettes and cash in various denominations.

The raids targeted properties in Prestons, Merrylands, Campbelltown, St Andrews and Abbotsbury.

A 46-year-old man was arrested in Prestons, in the city's south-west, and a 44-year-old man was arrested in the western Sydney suburb of Merrylands.

Both were granted conditional bail after being charged with multiple counts of receiving goods suspected of being stolen, and knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime.

The men will appear in court in October.

Footage from the police operation (pictured) shows a huge haul of cigarettes and cash in various denominations

A 46-year-old man was arrested in Prestons, in the city's south-west, and a 44-year-old man was arrested in the western Sydney suburb of Merrylands (pictured is one of the men)Martin Selmayr has developed a fearsome reputation in Brussels, casting an authoritarian reign as Mr Juncker's chief of staff despite remaining relatively unknown to the public.

But his brutal style of ruling - demanding that access to Mr Juncker for even the most senior EU officials is first channelled through him - has also led to a queue of enemies.

His style has led to a variety of nicknames by colleagues, including 'Darth Vader' and 'Rasputin'.

Former European Commission vice president Kristalina Georgieva blamed her resignation on his aggressive style, which she branded 'poisonous'.

British officials have accused Mr Selmayr, who has privately expressed his dislike of Brexit, of 'hating' the UK while describing him as a 'psychopath'.A school trip to a Thai prison turned into a heartbreaking reunion for one teenage boy when he recognised one of the inmates  his father, who burst into tears for embarrassing his son.

The emotional moment was revealed in a touching Facebook post yesterday, which said the pair tearily ran into each others arms at the unidentified prison in Rayong province.

Arom Khunmoung, team leader of Jam Banjeud Rayong, an organisation which arranges educational and recreational trips for schools and firms, said he saw one of the boys sadly standing and staring at a prisoner during the tour, held to teach moral values.

Big hug: the poignant moment when an incarcerated man came face-to-face with his teenage boy, who was visiting a Thai prison as part of a school trip

To show respect, using a traditional Thai gesture, the boy knelt on the floor to kowtow at his fathers feet

He then noticed tears streaming down the pupil's face, and what was strange to me was that the prisoner was staring and crying too.

So I went to ask the boy what had happened.

The pupil replied: Teacher, thats my dad. Im very shocked [to see him].

Arom, describing the prison as depressing, said on Facebook that when the boy asked to speak with his father, he initially thought: Im not sure if this is a good idea.

However, he asked the warden if he would permit the family members to approach one another, reports Coconuts Bangkok.

As those nearby started to cry at the touching scene, the pair tearily ran into each others arms'.

Arom added: 'The father kept on kissing the boy while murmuring Im so sorry, I miss you. When I leave this place Im going to be a good person. Please be a good boy, son.

The overwrought father then asked his boy: Are you ashamed of me? Are you embarrassed for your friends to see that Im in prison?

As those nearby started to cry at the touching scene, the pair tearily ran into each others arms'

His son replied: No, Im not ashamed at all.

Then, to show respect using a traditional Thai gesture, the boy knelt on the floor to kowtow at his fathers feet.

Arom described the boy as full of gratitude at being able to see his dad  whose crime and sentence were not revealed in the post.

He added that such prison trips were an important teaching style for people who still have many freedoms.Getting an extra pair of arms is now as easy as putting on a backpack.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo and Keio University created a telepresence robotic system called 'Fusion' that has a head and two arms that are controlled remotely.

The remote person not only sees what the wearer sees, but they can also control the robot's arms, or even use the robot to manipulate the wearer's arms.

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WHAT IS A TELEPRESENCE ROBOT? A telepresence robot is a remote-controlled device that typically moves around using a set of wheels. They've been adapted for a variety of uses, from communications tools for consumers or even for use by businesses. It uses a WiFi connection to allow a remote user to participate in a situation or communicate with others. A tablet is usually attached to the wheeled device to let the remote person 'see.' However, more and more telepresence robots are being built in hi-tech ways, such as wearable devices. Advertisement

Scientists describe the gadget as being a 'telecollaboration system' that enables 'full body surrogacy' and can help friends or family work together on different tasks.

The system uses a combination of stereo cameras, anthropomorphic arms and hands with 'force feedback sensors.'

Put simply, motion sensors are attached to the remote wearer's hands, which allow it to control the arms of the Fusion robot.

Remote users can control the arms using a pair of joysticks. They also wear an Oculus Rift headset to see through the device's eye-shaped cameras that peer over the wearer's shoulder.

It can be operated in 'three different modes: direct collaboration, enforced body guidance, and induced body motion, enabling effective communication,' the researchers explained.

The system uses a combination of stereo cameras, anthropomorphic arms and hands with 'force feedback sensors.' The remote user wears motion sensors that let it control the arms

It can be operated in 'three different modes: direct collaboration, enforced body guidance, and induced body motion, enabling effective communication,' the researchers explained.

Wearers can also attach the device to their hands using straps to give the remote user greater control.

'Fusion enables two people to share the same point of view with the capacity to reproduce body motion of an operator, into the surrogate,' they added.

'...All components for the surrogate are integrated within the backpack, which is a wearable and mobile robotic platform.'

Its developers say it could have a wide range of applications, from helping people with disabilities complete tasks they're otherwise incapable of participating in, to even teaching people how to play an instrument.

Remote users can control the arms using a pair of joysticks. They also wear an Oculus Rift headset to see through the device's eye-shaped cameras that peer over the wearer's shoulder

Fusion could have a many applications, from helping people with disabilities complete tasks they're otherwise incapable of participating in, to teaching people how to play an instrument

For now, it requires a human operator in order to function, but its creators believe that Fusion could one day use AI to work autonomously.

Yamen Saraji, a co-creator of the project, said it could help people learn martial arts.

'It can also be used in factories allowing employers to train new employees,' Saraji told the Telegraph.

He believes Fusion could be launched within the next three years if it gets enough funding.

For now, it requires a human operator in order to function, but its creators believe that Fusion could one day use AI to work autonomously. The system also needs to respond faster

Fusion's creators believes the system could be launched within the next three years if it gets enough funding. For now, the system is just a prototype version

'There are still some improvements to be made,' Saraji explained. 'For example, the speed of the robot itself must be increased to match human speed.

'The hand design of the robot could also be improved to replicate the hand of a human.'

Fusion isn't the only telepresence robot on the market that claims to help create shared experiences for remote users.

Earlier this year, researchers in Japan unveiled the 'Human Uber,' a telepresence system that allows someone to strap an iPad to their face, enabling a 'surrogate' to attend meetings and other events in their place.A Russian official has said the International Space Station (ISS) leak could have been caused deliberately by someone on the ground.

Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin revealed that the hole in a Russian space craft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill held with a 'wavering hand'.

A commission will seek to identify the culprit by name, Rogozin said, calling this a 'matter of honour' for Russia's Energia space manufacturing company that made the Soyuz space craft.

The 'micro fracture' believed to be around 2mm wide in the $150 billion (115 billion) space station was discovered after astronauts noticed a drop in pressure on 29 August.

It was initially believed to have been caused by a small meteorite and astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a minor loss of pressure.

However, as the investigation went on it began to look like the hole was made from someone inside as opposed to outside, either back on Earth or in space, the Russian space agency claimed.

A leading theory from an unnamed source at Energia has said that the hole was made on the ground  potentially caused by 'deliberate interference'  with suggestions the person responsible may have already been identified.

Sources suggest the question of how to fix the hole may have strained relations between Moscow and Houston.

A Russian official has said the International Space Station leak (pictured) could have been caused by deliberate sabotage. A leading theory from an unnamed source at Russia's Energia space manufacturing company has said that the hole was made on the ground

'There were several attempts at drilling,' Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments.

He added that the drill appeared to have been held by a 'wavering hand.'

'What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?' he asked.

'We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space.'

An unnamed source at Energia told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that '[t]he hole was made on the ground'.

According to the source, '[t]he person responsible for the act of negligence has been identified'.

Another anonymous source said the hole was not made intentionally but by a worker who hid their mistake with a seal instead of reporting it.

If it was made on the ground, it seems the patched hole held for two months before the seal began to break.

One source told RIS Novosti that 'the glue dried and was squeezed out, opening the hole'.

It was believed the ISS was one of the few areas of Russia-US cooperation that remained unaffected by the slump in relations between the countries and Washington's sanctions.

A commission will seek to identify the culprit by name, Rogozin said, calling this a 'matter of honour' for Russia's Energiya space manufacturing company that made the Soyuz space craft (pictured)

Crew inside the International Space Station (pictured) raced to patch a small 'leak' likely caused by a collision with a small meteorite last week. A top Russian official has now claimed the small hole was caused by sabotage

WHAT COULD HAVE CAUSED A HOLE IN THE ISS? Theory one - it was caused by a small meteorite A tiny hole appeared in a Russian space capsule locked to the ISS on 30th August. The 'micro fracture' believed to be around 2mm wide in the $150 billion (115 billion) space station was discovered after astronauts noticed a drop in pressure. European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst reportedly put his finger over the hole before crew patched it with tape. The hole was confirmed repaired by Friday (31 August) after cabin pressure returned to normal. It was initially believed to have been caused by a small meteorite and astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a minor loss of pressure. Theory two - it was made deliberately while in orbit However, as the investigation went on it began to look like the hole was made from someone inside as opposed to outside, either back on Earth or in space, the Russian space agency claimed. Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said in September that the hole could have been drilled during manufacturing or while in orbit with a 'wavering hand'. He didn't say if he suspected any of the US crew, but the statement has caused some bewilderment. Sources suggest the question of how to fix the hole may have strained relations between Moscow and Houston. Rogozin has since reneged on his statement blaming the media for twisting his words and said that he 'never pointed the finger at U.S. astronauts'. Theory three - it was caused by a worker at Energia A leading theory from an unnamed source at Energia said the hole was made on the ground  potentially caused by 'deliberate interference'  with suggestions the person responsible may have already been identified. Another anonymous source said the hole was drilled by a worker who hid their mistake with a seal instead of reporting it. An unnamed source at Energia told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that '[t]he hole was made on the ground'. According to the source, '[t]he person responsible for the act of negligence has been identified'. Another anonymous source said the hole was not made intentionally but by a worker who hid their mistake with a seal instead of reporting it. The patchwork repair lasted the trip up to the ISS but after three weeks in orbit gradually peeled away. Advertisement

However, it seems the two countries have disagreed on how to fix the hole.

The Russian space agency wanted to permanently seal the hole with special glue while Nasa astronauts were concerned the glue might have expanding properties, writes Science Alert.

Nasa astronaut Drew Feustel grew concerned about the Russian sealant plan and wanted it passed on to MCC-Moscow.

'We've got one shot at this and we don't want to screw it up,' he said, according to a livestream.

In the end astronauts sealed it with special glue as the cosmonauts wanted, added insulation and then medical gauze on top.

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, pictured, reportedly put his finger over the hole initially, before crew patched it with tape. They are now trying to work out a more permanent solution

A second patch was added the next day, and the pressure is currently stable.

In 2007, another leak occurred in the station's Harmony module in the US section but officials said at the time the leak was no cause for concern.

'The crew are healthy and safe with weeks of air left in the International Space Station reserves,' ESA officials said in the statement following this latest leak.

Previously Rogozin had said the hole in the side of the Soyuz ship used to ferry astronauts was most likely caused from outside by a tiny meteorite.

'This leak seems to have resulted from a micro meteoroid impact. Weve dodged a lot of bullets over the past 20 years', tweeted astronaut Scott Kelly at the time.

'Theres a lot of space junk up there, a serious issue which needs to be addressed', he said.

Russia launched checks Tuesday after its space chief said an air leak on the International Space Station last week could have been caused by deliberate sabotage

'We have already ruled out the meteorite version,' Rogozin said late Monday.

The hole is in a section of the Soyuz ship that will not be used to carry astronauts back to Earth.

The leak, which was detected by flight controllers as the Expedition 56 crew slept, resulted in a small loss of cabin pressure.

Flight controllers determined there was no immediate danger to the crew overnight, but alerted the crew as soon as they awoke.

'The leak has been isolated to a hole about two millimetres in diameter in the orbital compartment, or upper section, of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft attached to the Rassvet module of the Russian segment,' Nasa said on 30 August.

Energiya will check all its Soyuz and Progress cargo craft for possible defects, both at its production site outside Moscow and those awaiting launch at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, RIA Novosti state news agency reported Tuesday, citing a source in the space industry.

Currently on the ISS are two cosmonauts from Russia and three Nasa astronauts as well as one German astronaut from the European Space Agency.Amazon.com is in talks with Chile to house and mine massive amounts of data generated by the country's giant telescopes, which could prove fertile ground for the company to develop new artificial intelligence tools.

The talks, which have been little reported on so far and which were described to Reuters by Chilean officials and an astronomer, are aimed at fuelling growth in Amazon.com Inc's cloud computing business in Latin America and boosting its data processing capabilities.

President Sebastian Pinera's center-right government, which is seeking to wean Chile's $325 billion economy from reliance on copper mining, announced last week it plans to pool data from all its telescopes onto a virtual observatory stored in the cloud, without giving a timeframe.

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Amazon.com is in talks with Chile to house and mine massive amounts of data generated by the country's giant telescopes, which could prove fertile ground for the company to develop new artificial intelligence tools. File photo

The government talked of the potential for astrodata innovation, but did not give details.

The government did not comment on companies that might host astrodata in the computing cloud.

Amazon executives have been holding discussions with the Chilean government for two years about a possible data center to provide infrastructure for local firms and the government to store information on the cloud, an official at InvestChile, the government's investment body, told Reuters.

For at least some of that time, the talks have included discussion about the possibility of Amazon Web Services (AWS), hosting astrodata, astronomer Chris Smith said, based on email exchanges he was part of between AWS and Chilean Economy Ministry officials over the last six months.

Smith was at the time mission head of AURA observatory, which manages three of the U.S. federally-funded telescope projects in Chile.

Jeffrey Kratz, AWS's General Manager for Public Sector for Latin American, Caribbean and Canada, has visited Chile for talks with Pinera.

He confirmed the company's interest in astrodata but said Amazon had no announcements to make at present.

'Chile is a very important country for AWS,' he said in an email to Reuters.

'We kept being amazed about the incredible work on astronomy and the telescopes, as real proof points on innovation and technology working together.'

'The Chilean telescopes can benefit from the cloud by eliminating the heavy lifting of managing IT,' Kratz added.

AWS is a fast-growing part of Amazon's overall business. In July it reported second-quarter sales of $6.1 billion, up by 49 percent over the same period a year ago, accounting for 12 percent of Amazon's overall sales.

Chile is home to 70 percent of global astronomy investment, thanks to the cloudless skies above its northern Atacama desert, the driest on earth.

Within five years, the South American country will host three of the world's four next-generation, billion-dollar telescopes, according to Smith.

He and Economy Ministry officials leading the Chilean initiative to store astrodata in the cloud saw potential in more Earth-bound matters.

NOW THAT'S WIDESCREEN: MEET THE INCREDIBLE LSST Starting in 2022, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will take digital images of the entire visible southern sky every few nights from atop a mountain called Cerro Pachon in Chile. It will produce a wide, deep and fast survey of the night sky, cataloguing by far the largest number of stars and galaxies ever observed. The telescope will be equipped with a 3.2-gigapixel camera  a powerful instrument that would require 1500 high-definitions screens to display just one of its images. During a 10-year time frame, LSST will detect tens of billions of objectsthe first time a telescope will observe more galaxies than there are people on Earth  and will create movies of the sky with unprecedented details. The LSST's camera will include a filter-changing mechanism and shutter, which allows the camera to view different wavelengths; the camera is capable of viewing light from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared (0.3-1 m) wavelengths Advertisement

The particular tools developed for the astrodata project could be applicable for a wide variety of other uses, such as tracking potential shop-lifters, fare-evaders on public transport and endangered animals, Julio Pertuze, a ministry official, told Reuters at the event announcing Chile's aim to build a virtual observatory on the cloud.

Smith added that the same technology could also be applied to medicine and banking to spot anomalies in large datasets.

Amazon, whose founder and largest shareholder Jeff Bezos is well known for his interest in space, already provides a cloud platform for the Hubble Telescope's data and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia.

As Amazon explores the potential in Chile's astrodata, tech rival Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, is already a member of Chile's Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will be fully operational in Cerro Pachon in 2022.

Google also has a data center established in the country.

Justin Burr, senior PR associate for AI and Machine learning at Google, declined to comment on any Google plans around astrodata or its involvement in other telescope projects.

Amazon's role in the astrodata project would also give it an entry into a market where it is seeking to expand. File photo

Separately, a Google spokeswoman said last week that the company will announce expansion plans for its Chilean data center on Sept. 12.

Smith said that what the Chileans are calling the Astroinformatics Initiative - to harness the potential of astrodata - could enable Amazon Web Services access to the research that astronomers are doing on projects like the LSST.

'We are going to have to go through a huge database of billions of stars to find the three stars that an astronomer wants,' Smith said, adding that was not too different from searching a database of billions of people to find the right profile for a targeted advertisement.

'So a tool that might get developed in LSST or the astronomical world could be applicable for Amazon in their commercial world.'

Since speaking to Reuters, Smith has moved on from his job heading AURA to a new position at the U.S. National Science Foundation.

WHAT IS AMAZON WEB SERVICE? AWS is a cloud computing service that gives customers a way of accessing databases, storage and servers. AWS owns and operates the hardware that is required to provide these services. Customers access what they need from AWS through a web application. Amazon's cloud computing option allows users to pay for the resources they need as they go - meaning they do not have to purchase servers that might not even be used to be safe. Additionally, the service allows developers to access exactly the infrastructure capacity they need so they do not end up having purchased too much or too little. The 'AWS Secret Region' is a subset with the capability to allow the 17 intelligence agencies to host, analyze and run applications on government data classified at the secret level. The service is air-gappedor shut offfrom the rest of the internet. Advertisement

Amazon's role in the astrodata project would also give it an entry into a market where it is seeking to expand.

Amazon - which controls nearly one-third of the global cloud computing business, ahead of rivals Microsoft Corp and Google - has struggled to lure public institutions in Latin America, including research facilities, to store their data online instead of on physical machines.

AWS declined to provide any information on the size of its regional business in Latin America.

Economy Minister Jose Ramon Valente said at last week's announcement, 'Chile has enormous potential in its pristine skies not only in the observation of the universe but also in the amount of data that observation generates.'In August alone, the industry's exports were estimated at US$2.9 billion, up 1% over the previous month, raising the total export value in eight months to US$19.21 billion.

According to a report by VISecurities, the Vietnamese garment and textile industry has seen strong growth since 2002, with an annual growth rate of 20%.

Due to the economic recession in 2008, the industry's exports slowed down for a year before recovering and maintaining a steady annual growth rate of 15-20%.

The report stated that Vietnam's participation in free trade agreements and the large investments in the industry by FDI and domestic firms have helped to increase the localisation rate of the industry, leading it to become one of the industries with strongest increases in export values over the years.

The four markets of Japan, China, the US and the Republic of Korea account for 75% of total exports of garments and textiles which post an annual growth rate of more than 20%. The US remains the largest importer of Vietnamese garments and textiles, occupying nearly 40% of the total industry's export value.

According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), the industry's exports are forecast to reach US$34-35 billion this year.Soon Nasa astronauts could have their faces on cereal packets and their rockets branded with private company logos.

This is according to Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who says the space agency is considering getting corporations to buy the naming rights to missions in a bid to commercialise space activities.

In 1966 Nasa had 4.41 per cent of the US's total federal budget but now that figure is less than 0.5 per cent.

At the end of last year, President Donald Trump directed Nasa to send Americans to the Moon for the first time in decades, despite cutting his 2018 budget for it by around $200 million (156m).

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Soon Nasa astronauts could have their faces on cereal packets and their rockets branded with private company logos. This handout photo shows the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with the Parker Solar Probe on board launching last month

According to Mr Bridenstine , who was speaking before the Nasa Advisory Council, 'there is interest' in pushing through commercial endorsements.

'We're talking about, potentially  is it possible for NASA to offset some of its costs by selling the naming rights to its spacecraft, or the naming rights to its rockets?', he said at the Ames Research Centre in California's Silicon Valley, according to Space.com.

'The question is, is it possible? The answer is, I don't know. But we're looking to the committee to give us advice on whether or not it is.'

Mike Gold, who is vice president for government contracts at Colorado-based space-tech company Maxar Technologies said astronauts may also be able to film adverts on the International Space Station, something that is currently forbidden.

He said this could increase the agency's exposure, meaning there could be more people interested in becoming astronauts in the future.

'When new industrial substances are created, commercial experiments conducted, or even advertisements filmed, American astronauts should lead the way', he said.

'Speaking of astronauts, the committee will examine giving them the freedom to pursue endorsements and other media opportunities.

'Our astronauts are American heroes, and deserve to be treated as such', he said.

Mr Gold said that if the US did not lead the way, foreign competitors would get there first.

Last month Mr Bridenstine (pictured) revealed his hopes for long-term human settlement on the moon

Last month Mr Bridenstine revealed his hopes for long-term human settlement on the moon.

In a meeting with reporters at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston Mr Bridenstein elaborated on plans to build 'Gateway' modules that will orbit the moon and, ultimately, close the gaps in space exploration.

'We want lots of humans in space,' he said, according to Space.com.

The Gateway craft will initially support brief science missions of about 30-60 days, and will be key to exploring the moon in greater detail than ever before.

And, in the years to follow, a second module could be used to carry astronauts to Mars.Oskar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus artist and German ballet choreographer, has been honoured in the Google Doodle for September 4, 2018, on what would have been his 130th birthday.

Known to have influenced David Bowies Ziggy Stardust stage show, Oskar Schlemmer garnered fame for his different and thought-provoking approach to art, that was even progressive for the Bauhaus movement.

He also took this innovative approach to ballet, where he produced the iconic Triadic Ballet, which featured mechanical creatures wearing metallic masks, that premiered in Stuttgart in 1922.

Who was Oskar Schlemmer?

Born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1888, Oskar Schlemmer studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in the city before attending the Academy of Fine Arts and becoming a student of the abstract artist Adolf Holzel, according to The Mirror.

Schlemmer learnt how to produce art that went against the rules set in place by the Impressionists and instead, drew inspiration from the Cubists. However, Oskar was wounded in action during World War I and returned to Stuttgart in 1916.

In 1920, he became a teacher at the Bauhaus school in Weimar and worked there for nine years. Here, Schlemmer was one of the most influential teachers of his time because of his complex ideas, but under the rise of the Nazi regime, his work was perceived degenerate and he was dismissed.

The last ten years of his life were marred by defamation, but Schlemmer continued to exhibit his work where he could and where it was welcome. In 1938, he even participated in major exhibitions in London and New York.

Two years later, he was reunited with his peers such as Baumeister when he moved to Wuppertal and earned a living working at a factory before dying of a heart attack in 1943.

Give thanks to the #Bauhaus - most rational place on the planet. Oskar Schlemmer born today 4 September 1888. pic.twitter.com/ICNE1zbqGm  Andrew Wilson (@andrew_wilson_a) September 4, 2018

Bauhaus

Oskar Schlemmer was renowned for his innovative and progressive approach to art, even a little too-forward thinking for the avant-garde German art school that combined crafts with the fine arts, that the Nazi regime later denounced as degenerate.

His work was exhibited around the world and presented a rejection of abstraction, bodies as architectural form and played with convex, concave and flat surfaces in his work. It was clear that Schlemmer was interested in the movement of the body, which led to the development of The Triadic Ballet.

Oskar Schlemmer ballet

With Das Triadisches, or The Triadic Ballet, Schlemmer has been described as the artist to push dance into the 20th century after including bright colours and bizarre in his modern take on ballet. The Google Doodle for September 4 refers to this form of ballet.

Bulbous mechanical creatures wearing metallic masks are not the usual image that comes to mind when one thinks of ballet. With three dancers, 12 movements, and 18 costumes, Schlemmers innovative approach to ballet broke with all convention to explore the relationship between body and space in new and exciting ways.

He described the performance as artistic metaphysical mathematics, and a party in form and colour. The Triadic Ballet toured throughout Europe in the 1920s and visited cities such as Weimar, Frankfurt, Berlin and Paris.

In 1974, David Bowie appeared as Ziggy Stardust wearing a costume that was designed by Kansai Yamamoto, which resembled a costume from Das Triadisches.

What is a Google Doodle?

Google Doodles are changes to the Google logo on the website which celebrate a significant birthday, event, accomplishment or individual.

First introduced back in 1998 to celebrate Burning Man festival, Google Doodles were created by Google's co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Later, a group of outside contractors created them and eventually, a special in-house team called Doodlers was established to create them more consistently

Recent Google Doodles have commemorated notable individuals like Leonard Bernstein, Ismat Chughtai and Prayoon Yomyiam.September 4, 2018 marks the 20th birthday of the biggest search engine in the world, Google.

Twenty years ago, two Stanford students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed Google, Inc. for incorporation in the garage of their friend Susan Wojcicki, who would go on to become Googles employee No.16 and later YouTube CEO.

Over the subsequent two decades the search engine became the cornerstone of a digital empire that covers everything from images, maps, translation, video-streaming, tech accessories, smartphones, internet browser, and driverless cars.

Since incorporating in 1998, Google has become one of the world's biggest companies

Its parent company, Alphabet, is valued at over $800 billion and Google is the most popular search engine in most countries including India, Brazil, the US, the UK, and western European countries such as France, Spain and Italy.

To celebrate Googles 20th anniversary, here are ten things you didnt know about the search engine giant.

Google was meant to be Googol

Google was originally going to be called Googol, a mathematical term to describe a number that starts with 1 and is followed by 100 zeroes.

The rationale behind this was that Page and Brin wanted to create something that could organise vast amounts of data. However, after a misspelling resulted in Google, the new name stuck.

It could have been Yahoo's for $1m

Google was by no means the first internet search engine, with the likes of AskJeeves and Yahoo predating it.

In fact, Page and Brin tried to sell the company to Yahoo for $1 million in 1998. Yahoo turned them down. Yahoo turned them down again in 2002, when the asking price was $5 billion.

The Google Doodle

The Google Doodle is the companys way of celebrating culturally significant events and people.

A relevant image is incorporated into the Google logo on the homepage. Recent doodles include a tribute to the 20th century German artist, Oskar Schlemmer. The very first Google Doodle was of a stick man in 1998 to mark Page and Brins trip to that years Burning Man Festival.

20 years ago today, our very first #GoogleDoodle took our homepage on a trip to the Nevada desert for the Burning Man festival. #tbt pic.twitter.com/OPXdczUHXw  Google (@Google) August 30, 2018

Klingon Google

Klingon, the language featured in the Star Trek series, is one of the many Google language interfaces available.

Other interesting options include Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunnys nemesis who cant pronounce his Rs- this option turns phrases like Google Search into Google Seawch.

Google's IPO

Google went public in 2004, with shares selling at $85 apiece. The company ended up selling 22.5 million shares, raising over $1.9 billion.

Google owns YouTube

The search engine bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in October 2006.

In 2018, the video-streaming platform is valued at $75 billion, while Morgan Stanley worked out that the company would be worth $160 billion if it were a separate entity.

You can play a game on Google Images

Google Images was launched in July 2001 and as well as doing for images what it did for text search queries, Google Images also acts as a surprising gaming platform. Simply type Atari Breakout into Google Images and watch the screen turn the image tiles into the iconic retro computer game.

Ahhh, the great outdoors.  Walk on the wild side of #GoogleImages trends to find out what animals to see (...and some to maybe avoid) on your end-of-summer adventures  https://t.co/Z65DaBeWQb pic.twitter.com/8Aw5OeCAem  Google (@Google) August 30, 2018

Gooogle.com

To anticipate common typos when typing Google, the search engine owns the domain names like gooogle.com, gogle.com and googlr.com.

Employee benefits

If a Google employee in America dies while working for the company, their surviving partner is paid 50 percent of the employees salary for the next ten years.

NASA

In 2014, Google leased NASAs Moffett Airfield for the next 60 years, at a cost of around $1.6 billion. Back in 2007 the search engine giant used the airfield in exchange for NASA using Googles private planes.A new startup is aiming to change the interview process as we know it - by using robots to find the best candidates.

Canadian firm Knockri has built an AI that reads the facial expressions and eye movement of job seekers in videos they record during their applications.

It uses these subtle tells to analyse whether you have the necessary skills and rates you on how well you fit the job - such as confidence or collaboration.

With big firms like IBM already signed up for the service, Knockri claims its tool offers a more impartial judgement of job candidates than human recruiters.

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A new startup is aiming to change the interview process as we know it - by using robots to find the best candidates. It rates videos of candidates answering questions with desired personality traits to recommend people to interview (artist's impression)

Based in Toronto, the firm says companies that need to sift through thousands of applications could use the AI to shoulder most of the legwork.

'It's just not humanly possible for them to go through each and every one, [so] a lot of organisations resort to a lottery process,' CEO Jahanzaib Ansari told Cbc.

'A process that actually misses out great talent.'

The algorithm creates applicant shortlists for employers looking to fill jobs that require broad communication skills, such as client-facing roles like consultants.

It works by analysing footage of prospective candidates answering questions, for instance: 'Why do you want a career in this field?'

These questions are asked through pre-recorded clips of a manager shown through the job hunter's home computer.

The algorithm creates applicant shortlists for employers looking to fill jobs that require broad communication skills, such as client-facing roles like consultants. Questions are asked through pre-recorded clips of a manager shown through the job hunter's home computer (stock)

Reading subtle changes in facial expression, eye movement and speech tone, the AI highlights candidates that showed characteristics picked out by the hiring company.

It may give one candidate a 91 per cent confidence score and an 88 per cent enthusiasm score, rounded off with an overall 'fit' of 91 per cent.

Recruiters pick out people to interview from this shortlist, and ultimately make the decision on who is hired.

To boost the diversity, the shortlist is presented to employers with no names or faces attached, just scores.

Knockri says the lists its machine creates are more diverse than those produced by humans, with 17 per cent more people of colour and six per cent more women.

HOW DOES FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY WORK? Facial recognition software works by matching real time images to a previous photograph of a person. Each face has approximately 80 unique nodal points across the eyes, nose, cheeks and mouth which distinguish one person from another. A digital video camera measures the distance between various points on the human face, such as the width of the nose, depth of the eye sockets, distance between the eyes and shape of the jawline. A different smart surveillance system (pictured) can scan 2 billion faces within seconds has been revealed in China. The system connects to millions of CCTV cameras and uses artificial intelligence to pick out targets. The military is working on applying a similar version of this with AI to track people across the country This produces a unique numerical code that can then be linked with a matching code gleaned from a previous photograph. A facial recognition system used by officials in China connects to millions of CCTV cameras and uses artificial intelligence to pick out targets. Experts believe that facial recognition technology will soon overtake fingerprint technology as the most effective way to identify people. Advertisement

But some experts argued leaving recruitment decisions up to a machine sets a dangerous precedent.

'It seems very pernicious, 'to expect that the kind of signals we affect with our face [are] a reliable indicator of some fundamental human truth about our competencies and capabilities,' said Dr Solon Barocas, a tech researcher at Cornell University

He also expressed concern that the system could introduce bias where it was supposed to be removing it.

'Many of these systems are based on trying to learn patterns from historical examples.

'And because these examples are going to come from some previous process involving human discretion and human choices, [they] are going to probably feed forward many of the same kinds of biases that this system is ostensibly supposed to eliminate.'Scientists have developed a way to transform sunlight into fuel that could lead to an 'unlimited source of renewable energy'.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have reached this 'milestone' by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.

They did this through using a technique called semi-artificial photosynthesis that is based on the same process plants use to convert sunlight into energy.

Hydrogen, which is produced when the water is split, could potentially be a green and unlimited source of renewable energy.

Researchers did this by reactivating hydrogenase, an enzyme present in algae, that can reduce protons into hydrogen.

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Researchers converted sunlight to water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of photosynthesis and manmade technologies (pictured)

Oxygen is produced as a by-product of photosynthesis when the water absorbed by plants is 'split'.

It is one of the most important reactions on the planet because it is the source of nearly all of the world's oxygen.

Researchers used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of biological components and manmade technologies.

Academics at the Reisner Laboratory in Cambridge's Department of Chemistry developed the new technique of solar-driven water-splitting.

HOW CAN SCIENTISTS TURN SUNLIGHT INTO FUEL? Scientists have developed a way to transform sunlight into fuel that could lead to an 'unlimited source of renewable energy'. Researchers from the University of Cambridge have done this by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. They did this through using a technique called semi-artificial photosynthesis that is based on the same process plants use to convert sunlight into energy. Artificial photosynthesis has been around for decades but it has not yet been successfully used to create renewable energy. This is because it relies on the use of catalysts, which are often expensive and toxic. Researchers used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of biological components and manmade technologies. Researchers reactivated a process in algae that has been dormant for millennia. They did this using hydrogenase, an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen. 'During evolution, this process has been deactivated because it wasn't necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted  splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen', said Katarzyna Soko, first author and PhD student at St John's College. Ms Soko hopes the findings will enable new innovative model systems for solar energy conversion to be developed. Advertisement

Their method also managed to absorb more solar light than natural photosynthesis, according to the paper published in Nature Energy.

'Natural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed  around one to two per cent of what it could potentially convert and store', said Katarzyna Soko, first author and PhD student at St John's College.

Artificial photosynthesis has been around for decades but it has not yet been successfully used to create renewable energy.

This is because it relies on the use of catalysts, which are often expensive and toxic.

Scientists have developed a way to transform sunlight into fuel that could lead to an 'unlimited source of renewable energy' (stock image)

Dr Erwin Reisner, Head of the Reisner Laboratory, a Fellow of St John's College, University of Cambridge, and one of the paper's authors, described the research as a 'milestone'.

'This work overcomes many difficult challenges associated with the integration of biological and organic components into inorganic materials for the assembly of semi-artificial devices and opens up a toolbox for developing future systems for solar energy conversion', he said.

Researchers not only improved on the amount of energy produced and stored, they managed to reactivate a process in the algae that has been dormant for millennia.

'Hydrogenase is an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen', said Ms Soko.

'During evolution, this process has been deactivated because it wasn't necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted  splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen', she said.

Ms Soko hopes the findings will enable new innovative model systems for solar energy conversion to be developed.

'It's exciting that we can selectively choose the processes we want, and achieve the reaction we want which is inaccessible in nature.'

'The approach could be used to couple other reactions together to see what can be done, learn from these reactions and then build synthetic, more robust pieces of solar energy technology.'Two major lakes in the Colorado River Basin that operate as one huge reservoir to supply millions of people with water are drying up, scientists have warned.

Water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell have been steadily declining over the course of a two-decade drought affecting the region.

In addition to the extended dry spell hitting the Colorado River Basin, the water supply is suffering a severe 'structural deficit,' in which more water is being consumed each year than can be replenished.

Two major lakes in the Colorado River Basin that operate, essentially, as one huge reservoir to supply millions of people with water are drying up, scientists warn. Low level of the water line is shown on the banks of the Colorado River at the Hoover Dam

WHO RELIES ON LAKE MEAD FOR WATER? The Colorado River system - including the giant Lake Mead and Lake Powell reservoirs - serves about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles (16,300 square kilometers) of farmland. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming rely on the river, along with native American reservations and northwestern Mexico. The water is divided under international treaties, court rulings and interstate agreements. If there's not enough water to go around, Mexico, Arizona and Nevada would be the first to see their shares reduced. Advertisement

More than 40 million people and 7,800 square miles of farmland rely on the Colorado River and its tributaries.

According to a new report from the Colorado River Research Group, Lake Powell will have dropped by about 94 feet by the end of this year; back in 2000, the lake was nearly full.

Now, scientists estimate it is about 48 percent full, while Lake Mead is about 38 percent full, according to the Denver Post.

Both reservoirs are fed by the Colorado River Basin, and extra water releases flowing into Lake Mead are causing further drainage in Lake Powell.

While there have been several dry years over the last two decades, each of which has contributed to the phenomenon, the researchers say the problem ultimately boils down to the operational rules.

'Continuing this operational pattern will further drain Lake Powell and erode the benefits associated with its water storage, including Lower Basin water deliveries, Glen Canyon hydropower generation, and perhaps most importantly, the delicate interbasin truce brokered by the Law of the River and made operational by the two massive reservoirs,' the researchers wrote in the new report.

'The structural deficit is the true villain in this story, mixing with the operational rules to drain Lake Powell. The process is already well underway.'

The experts say the two huge lakes must be thought of as 'essentially one giant reservoir,' and managed accordingly to prevent storage in one from worsening drainage in the other.

'If storage in Lake Powell cannot rebound in an era where the Upper Basin consumes less than two-thirds of its legal apportionment, then the crisis is already real,' the researchers added in the report.

According to a new report from the Colorado River Research Group, Lake Powell will have dropped by about 94 feet by the end of this year; back in 2000, the lake was nearly full. Now, scientists estimate it is about 48 percent full. This will affect water deliveries, hydropower

At the end of last month, federal water managers warned that the drought-stressed Colorado River carried even less water than expected this summer, increasing the odds of a shortage in the vital river system in 2020.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the chances of a shortfall in Lake Mead, the river's biggest reservoir, are now 57 percent, up from the 52 percent projected in May.

If the surface of Lake Mead drops below 1,075 feet (330 meters) above sea level, some deliveries would be cut under agreements governing the system.

Arizona, Nevada and Mexico would have their shares reduced first in a shortage.

A shortage has never occurred in the river.

In addition to the extended dry spell hitting the Colorado River Basin, the water supply is suffering a severe 'structural deficit,' in which more water is being consumed each year than can be replenished. A view of the low water levels on the banks of the Colorado River is shown

'There is a real sense of urgency across the basin to protect the river's supply in the face of increasing demand and ongoing drought,' said Brenda Burman, chief of the Bureau of Reclamation.

The forecast worsened because Lake Powell, which is upstream from Lake Mead, collected about 500,000 acre-feet (600 million cubic meters) less water than expected between April and July, said Patti Aaron, a spokeswoman for the bureau.

One acre-foot (1,200 cubic meters) is enough to supply a typical U.S. family for a year.

That means Powell will be up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) lower than expected, with less water available to release into Lake Mead.

Powell gathers water from the upper parts of the river system, where it originates as mountain snow.Facebook is doubling down on its efforts to fight election meddling ahead of the 2018 midterms.

The social media giant is in the process of building a physical 'war room' at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's head of civic engagement, told NBC News.

There, employees from all across the company will work together to spot and stamp out any attempts to interfere with the US midterm elections.

Scroll down for video

Facebook is in the process of building a physical 'war room' at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, so that employees can spot and stamp out any attempts to interfere with elections

'We've been building this war room, a physical war room [with] people across the company, of all different disciplines, who are there,' Chakrabarti said.

'So, as we discover problems that may come up in the hours leading up to the election, we can take quick and decisive action.'

The room is expected to include a number of screens that keep track of certain Facebook metrics, watching for any unusual activity.

Alarms may sound off if there are any noticeable spikes or drop-offs in activity.

Employees will be sourced from all over Facebook, including engineering, data science and public policy, among other areas.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called upon other executives in the company to take up a more robust effort to quickly detect meddling from Facebook and Instagram users in elections.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) has called upon executives in the company to take up a more robust effort to quickly detect meddling from Facebook and Instagram users in elections

Chakrabarti said the company is already 'much more effective than [it] used to be' and that the entire firm is 'laser focused' on deploying the right strategies to prevent meddling.

'We've been at this for a while,' he told NBC News. '...We've been mobilizing a huge cross-company effort.

'Really every single corner of this company has mobilized to making sure that we're laser-focused and that we get it right.'

Chakrabarti said Facebook is focusing on four areas: Combating foreign interference, blocking and removing fake accounts from the site, decelerating the spread of misinformation and fake news, as well as increasing the level of transparency around political ads being shared on the platform.

He said efforts have been ramping up over the past several months and that the company has already seen some success in getting ahead of false information and fake accounts.

Facebook continues to double down on staving off efforts to meddle in the midterm elections. In a six month period, Facebook 'detected, blocked and removed' over a billion fake accounts before they could spread false information, Chakrabarti added

In a six month period, Facebook 'detected, blocked and removed' over a billion fake accounts before they could spread false information, Chakrabarti added.

Facebook has also followed through on its promise to double the size of its safety and security team from 10,000 people last year to 20,000 now.

However, Chakrabarti conceded that it has become more and more challenging to spot bad actors on the platform.

'The bad actors out there have gotten more sophisticated,' he said. 'They're better at hiding their location'

Others believe Facebook faces numerous hurdles in its efforts to stamp out bad actors and false information.

WHAT ARE THE CLAIMS ABOUT RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE ON FACEBOOK DURING THE US ELECTION? Google, Twitter and Facebook have come under fire for allowing the spread of bogus news - some of which was directed by Russia - ahead of the 2016 US election and in other countries. In a blog post in September 2017, Facebook said that more than 3,000 advertisements posted between June 2015 and May 2017 had Russian links. These ads came from a Russian company called Internet Research Agency. According to CNN, Russia-linked Facebook ads were targeted to reach people living in Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which were won narrowly by Trump. Facebook told Congress that the apparent political meddling included use of its image-sharing application Instagram. Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told a hearing that Instagram posts by suspect Russian accounts were seen by some 20 million Americans last year. 'I've expressed how upset I am that the Russians tried to use our tools to sow mistrust,' Zuckerberg said The data on Instagram is on top of the estimated 126 million Americans exposed to Facebook posts from Russian entities seeking to create divisions during the election campaign. 'I've expressed how upset I am that the Russians tried to use our tools to sow mistrust,' Zuckerberg said. 'What they did is wrong and we are not going to stand for it.' Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg addressed criticism over allowing disinformation and manipulation during the US presidential election, just hours after the company's top lawyer faced a grilling at a Washington congressional hearing at the end of last year. 'Our community continues to grow and our business is doing well,' Zuckerberg said. 'But none of that matters if our services are used in ways that don't bring people closer together. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.' Advertisement

Alex Stamos, Facebook's former security chief, warned in an essay for Lawfare, that it's 'too late to protect the 2018 elections' from bad actors trying to influence American politics.

He believes international meddling efforts from Iran and France are still going strong, as evidenced by continued information campaigns being staged on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.

Stamos acknowledged that he feels a 'personal responsibility for the failures of 2016,' having been the security leader at Facebook at the time.

'Social media platforms, including my former employer, made serious mistakes in 2016,' Stamos wrote.

'Tech companies were still using a definition of cyber-warfare focused on traditional hacking techniquessuch as spear-phishing or the spreading of malwareand were not prepared to detect and mitigate the propaganda campaigns that were subsequently found and stopped.'Your next smartphone could be worn on your wrist.

Chinese phone manufacturer Nubia has released a prototype device that's part smartwatch and part smartphone.

Called the Nubia Alpha, its creators are billing it as the 'world's most advanced wearable smartphone.'

Scroll down for video

Your next smartphone could be worn on your wrist. Chinese phone manufacturer Nubia has released a device that's part smartwatch and part smartphone, called the Nubia Alpha

WHAT CAN THE NUBIA WATCH DO? Makes and takes calls using 4G network connectivity

Plays music and videos

Can act as a fitness tracker

Takes photos or places video calls

Displays notifications

Can be used to pay for purchases

Includes a 'Find My Phone' function Advertisement

The gadget attempts to make the sci-fi dream of a screen that wraps around the user's wrist a reality.

Nubia Alpha, which was featured at the IFA 2018 conference in Berlin, uses the firm's proprietary 'Flex' screen, which is a large organic LED panel.

The screen is situated inside a plastic case and a metal wrist strap that features traditional watch links.

It runs on an Android operating system, Engadget noted, and has all 'essential functions of a smartphone to the user at their fingertips.'

So far, it has basic functions like the ability to make or take phone calls thanks to 4G network connectivity.

It also tracks health data, such as your steps, can be used to control music, pay for purchases and it has a Find My Phone function in case you've misplaced your iPhone.

Nubia Alpha also has an onboard camera that can take selfies or be used to make video calls.

Nubia Alpha, which was featured at the IFA 2018 conference in Berlin, uses the firm's proprietary 'Flex' screen, which is a large organic LED panel

Despite its somewhat clunky watch face, users have reported that the device still remains light and not too heavy when worn on a wrist.

Even though the Nubia Alpha was put on flashy display at IFA, the ZTE spinoff didn't release any details about the device's specifications.

It's not yet known what the screen's resolution is, what kind of processor it uses, or its memory and battery life.

The company says these things are likely to change in the next few weeks as it ramps up development of the Nubia Alpha.

Even though the Nubia Alpha was put on flashy display at IFA, the ZTE spinoff didn't release any specs. It's unclear what the screen's resolution is, or what processor it uses

Despite its somewhat clunky watch face, users have reported that the device still remains light and not too heavy when worn on a wrist. It's not yet known what the device's specs are

What's more, the device is still in the early stages of development, according to the company.

Still, it's aiming for the Alpha to be ready for launch before the end of the year in China.

It could also be ready for global release by the end of 2018.

Nubia noted that the Alpha would likely be priced in the same range as smartphones that are currently in the market, so in other words, it could cost as much as $1,000.

That could be a detractor for some consumers, as the device currently can't run Android apps without each developer formatting their application for the Alpha's elongated display.

Nubia noted that the Alpha would likely be priced in the same range as smartphones that are currently in the market, so in other words, it could cost as much as $1,000

It comes as Samsung and other smartphone makers have been teasing foldable phones.

This week, Samsung indicated that its foldable smartphone could go on sale as soon as November.

If Samsung does release a foldable phone, the event might serve as an indicator for whether or not consumers are on board with the flexible screen trend and, in turn, devices like the Nubia Alpha.Theory one - it was caused by a small meteorite

A tiny hole appeared in a Russian space capsule locked to the ISS on 30th August.

The 'micro fracture' believed to be around 2mm wide in the $150 billion (115 billion) space station was discovered after astronauts noticed a drop in pressure.

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst reportedly put his finger over the hole before crew patched it with tape.

The hole was confirmed repaired by Friday (31 August) after cabin pressure returned to normal.

It was initially believed to have been caused by a small meteorite and astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a minor loss of pressure.

Theory two - it was made deliberately while in orbit

However, as the investigation went on it began to look like the hole was made from someone inside as opposed to outside, either back on Earth or in space, the Russian space agency claimed.

Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said in September that the hole could have been drilled during manufacturing or while in orbit with a 'wavering hand'.

He didn't say if he suspected any of the US crew, but the statement has caused some bewilderment.

Sources suggest the question of how to fix the hole may have strained relations between Moscow and Houston.

Rogozin has since reneged on his statement blaming the media for twisting his words and said that he 'never pointed the finger at U.S. astronauts'.

Theory three - it was caused by a worker at Energia

A leading theory from an unnamed source at Energia said the hole was made on the ground  potentially caused by 'deliberate interference'  with suggestions the person responsible may have already been identified.

Another anonymous source said the hole was drilled by a worker who hid their mistake with a seal instead of reporting it.

An unnamed source at Energia told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that '[t]he hole was made on the ground'.

According to the source, '[t]he person responsible for the act of negligence has been identified'.

Another anonymous source said the hole was not made intentionally but by a worker who hid their mistake with a seal instead of reporting it.

The patchwork repair lasted the trip up to the ISS but after three weeks in orbit gradually peeled away.Cruises come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Whether it's discovering old Second World War sites, sailing around the Med or listening to talks by world-famous TV host Oprah Winfrey, cruising has something for everyone.

Here Caroline Hendrie recommends some of the best ocean cruises on offer...

Asian adventure

Discover the rich culture of four South-East Asian countries in one eye-opening journey. A stop at Ho Chi Minh City, pictured, is included

Discover the rich culture of four South-East Asian countries in one eye-opening journey.

Meet artisans in their workshops, mingle with monks in ancient temples and soak up the atmosphere in floating markets ashore on board new ship Viking Orion.

A 15-day cruise from Hong Kong to Bangkok departing on April 7, 2019, calls at China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Viking (vikingcruises.co.uk, 0800 298 9700).

D-Day remembrance

Mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day aboard classic British ship Marco Polo next year. A specialist lecturer will be on board to give insights into Operation Overlord and the sites youll visit.

These include the replica of Pegasus Bridge and the port of Arromanches. On June 6, the ship will be cruising off the Normandy beaches when a ceremony will honour those who lost their lives on D-Day.

The ship leaves Portsmouth on June 2, 2019, for six nights, calling at Antwerp, Honfleur and Rouen. Cruise & Maritime Voyages (cruiseandmaritime.com, 0844 998 3877).

Spot the birdie

Get close to the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands aboard new luxury ship Celebrity Flora, launching next May. The 100-passenger ship offers lectures and presentations, and has guided tours of the heavens.

On a Galapagos cruise, guests can discover giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies, albatrosses and sea lions

Ashore, youll be astonished by the fearlessness of giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies, albatrosses and sea lions.

Seven-night Quito and Galapagos Inner Loop fly-cruise holidays start on May 26, 2019. Celebrity Cruises (celebritycruises.co.uk, 0800 441 4054).

Go nuts in Brazil

Call at six ports in Brazil on board mid-size ship Marina. Between overnight stays in Rio de Janeiro and Argentinas capital, Buenos Aires, youll visit seaside resort Buzios, the wildlife haven of Ilha Grande, Parati filled with Portuguese colonial architecture, Santos, the gateway to Sao Paulo, Porto Belo famed for its beaches, and Rio Grande.

A 12-night cruise departs Rio on December 7, 2019. Oceania Cruises (oceaniacruises.com, 0345 505 1920).

Oprah Winfrey hosts a 'Girls' Getaway' cruise to the Caribbean

Fancy a chat with Oprah?

Join Oprah Winfrey for a Girls Getaway to the Caribbean aboard Holland America Lines Nieuw Statendam. Hear the talk show host in one of three Conversations With Oprah.

The three-night Girls Getaway cruise sails round trip from Fort Lauderdale on January 30, 2019. Holland America Line (hollandamerica.com/OprahMag, 0344 338 8605).

Find your family tree

Head for New York and spend a week at sea drawing up your family tree. A new Journey Of Genealogy cruise aboard Queen Mary 2 will have experts on ancestry on board.

Queen Mary 2 leaves Southampton for New York on November 4. Cunard (cunard.co.uk, 03453 550300).

New Years Eve

Welcome the New Year in by seeing the Madeira fireworks show. You can do your shopping in Lisbon on Christmas Eve and wake up on Christmas morning on the Atlantic Ocean ready for a festive dinner.

A no-fly, Christmas and New Year Canary Islands cruise aboard Ventura departs Southampton for 14 nights on December 21, 2019. P&O (pandocruises.com, 03453 555111).

Spanish Steps

Cadiz, pictured, is one of the stops on a seven-night trip on the Crystal Serenity

Catch the last rays of summer along the Costa del Sol on a seven-night trip aboard luxury ship Crystal Serenity. Sailing from Barcelona to Lisbon, the ship visits Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Cadiz and Gibraltar.

Departure is on October 7, 2018. Crystal Cruises (crystalcruises.co.uk, 020 7399 7601).

Scandinavian walks

Pack your walking shoes for a Scandinavian Islands tour. Your base will be British ship Boudicca, Youll explore the Danish island of Bornholm, the Swedish island of Gotland and Copenhagen.

The round trip cruise from Dover departs on September 15, 2019.Ramblers Cruise & Walk Holidays (cruiseandwalk.co.uk, 01707 386767).Myanmar President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sent messages of congratulations to Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

In their message, President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi expressed their delight at the rapid development of the Vietnam-Myanmar friendship and multifaceted cooperation, both bilaterally and multilaterally, particularly within ASEAN. The Myanmar leaders believe that the Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership between the two nations would be continuously consolidated and developed for mutual benefit.

Meanwhile, the Indian leaders said they were pleased to welcome President Quang and PM Phuc in India in March and January 2018, respectively. They thanked Vietnam for its significant contributions as the coordinator of the ASEAN-India relations. They affirmed that Vietnam is a key pillar in Indias Look East policy and expressed their confidence in the growth of the Vietnam-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for mutual benefit and for peace and development in the region.

The Vietnamese President and PM also received similar messages from US President Donald Trump, who affirmed that 2018 is an outstanding year with many milestones being recorded in Vietnam-US relations.

President Trump said he was satisfied with his visits to Da Nang and Hanoi last year, and applauded the increasing connectivity between the two countries as reflected in their Comprehensive Partnership. He believes that 2019 would be a promising year for the bilateral ties and is looking forward to working with the Vietnamese leaders in stepping up the realisation of the priorities that have been set for the Indo-Pacific region.

Governor-General of Australia Peter Cosgrove sent a congratulatory letter to President Tran Dai Quang. In the letter, he wrote that Australia highly values its relations with Vietnam.

The Governor-General said he was delighted to find that the importance of the bilateral ties was acknowledged by the Vietnamese and Australian PMs in their joint statement on establishing the Vietnam-Australia Strategic Partnership in early 2018. Cosgrove said he expects the bilateral relationship to thrive on the basis of their freshly upgraded relations. He also stressed his belief that the two countries, as members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), would continue expanding their economic and trade cooperation.

President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in also delivered a congratulatory message to President Tran Dai Quang, in which he expressed his hope that, based on agreements secured by both sides during his visit to Vietnam last March, more diverse cooperation activities would be held, thus bringing wealth and happiness to the people of both nations and deepening their mutual understanding and friendship.

Meanwhile, in his letter to President Tran Dai Quang, Japanese Emperor Akihito conveyed his sincere congratulations and wish for prosperity to the Vietnamese people. The Emperor said he and Empress Michiko were happy to recall the memories they shared with President Quang and his wife during the Vietnamese leaders visit to Japan.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko extended his greetings to General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang, while Belarusian PM Sergei Rumas sent a message of congratulations to PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon also sent congratulatory messages to President Tran Dai Quang.

On the occasion, Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh received congratulations from Myanmar Vice Presidents Myint Swe and Henry Van Thio.

Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh received congratulatory messages from Myanmars Union Minister for International Cooperation Kyaw Tin, US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister for Judicial Reform and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva, and Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei.Advertisement

Once prized objects of adoration and splendour, these forgotten buildings, cars, planes and ships are slowly crumbling - and there's something eerily fascinating about them.

Covered in rust, mosses and sprouting trees, the wreck of the SS Ayrfield wallows in the shallows of Homebush Bay, just west of Sydney.

The bay has become a graveyard of once illustrious boats that fell into disuse in the 1960s and 1970s and it is now a popular tourist attraction.

Meanwhile, the Namib desert in southern Africa is home to a whole host of forgotten goods, including vintage cars and even bathtubs from tumbledown shacks dumped in the sands.

Abandoned buildings also make for haunting sites, with some of the spookiest spots including the dishevelled New World shopping mall in Bangkok and the dormant mining stations dotted around Longyearbyen in Svalbard.

Scroll down to see MailOnline Travel's round-up of intriguing objects and buildings around the world left to rust and ruin...

The wreck of the the SS Ayrfield in Homebush sits in the shallows of Homebush Bay, just west of Sydney

The antique train cemetery, which is located about two miles outside the Bolivian city of Uyuni, has become a popular tourist attraction with the rusting carriages and locomotives and sparse landscape making for a surreal sight

The New World Mall in Bangkok was closed in 1997 after it was found to have breached building regulations, then a fire in 1999 left it without a roof. Rainwater slowly filled the building, causing a major mosquito problem. In an effort to rid themselves of the pests, the locals introduced freshwater talapia fish to eat the insects

This photograph of a rusting, moss-covered car was taken by French photographer Antoine Jacquiaux

The Namib desert in Namibia is home to a whole host of forgotten goods, including classic cars and even bathtubs from tumbledown shacks that have been dumped in the sands

Disused coal mining stations are dotted around the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway

The Keys Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park, with its water tank and wooden structures, has been abandoned since the 1950s

An abandoned building along a hiking path in the Amalfi Coast region of Italy is shrouded by trees

An old military fort slowly sinks into the sands along the Baltic Sea coast by the port city of Liepaja on Latvia's west coast

An abandoned rusty anti-aircraft gun points to the sky at the stunning Paklenica Canyon in Croatia

An abandoned car cooks in the desert heat in Namibia, with its paint slowly peeling away

The abandoned Tkvarcheli power plant in Abkhazia, Georgia, is overgrown with weeds and mosses

Once a closed city home to 5,000 Soviet soldiers, technicians and their families, Skrunda-1 in Latvia was abandoned in 1998 and is now being destroyed by nature

The abandoned Canfranc Railway Station in Spain was once the second biggest train station in Europe but now it is home to derelict carriages instead of paying passengers

An unknown shipwrecked boat sits in the golden sands on the coast of Vila Nova de Milfontes in Portugal

An abandoned Ford pick-up truck from the 1960s sits decaying in the middle of a forest in Olympic National Park, Washington

A drone view of the former restaurant on top of Mount Akhun in Sochi, Russia, as it sits crumbling amid the trees

Located on the south coast of Sydney, the old Helensburgh Tunnels are a popular sightseeing attraction. The railway station linking the tunnels was deserted more than 100 years ago and left to rot

This amazing picture was taken at a Swedish car cemetery near Lennartsfors. The photographer, Bjrn Eyvind Eilertson, said: 'It's a huge area of at least five square kilometers. You can easily get lost there. There are countless cars there. As far as I know it's only accessible by boat. I went there on one of my canoeing trips to take the pictures'

Old Antonov An-2 aircraft are here engulfed by plant life as they sit rusting at an abandoned airport in Russia

Two ships sunk 22 years apart are among the top tourist attractions at Bruce Peninsula in the Fathom Five National Marine Park in Ontario, Canada. Officials here seek to protect and display shipwrecks and lighthouses

A green abandoned van at an unknown spot blends into the scenery, entwined by weeds and trees

In 1973 a U.S. military plane ran out of fuel and crashed on the black beach at Solheimasandur, on the South Coast of Iceland. Fortunately, everyone survived the crash and the remains are still visible on the beach, with tours to the site available

The wreck of a World War II Japanese fighter airplane from the 1944 Battle of Peleliu, Palau, fought between the U.S. and Japan

A number of Iraqi Mil Mi-2 helicopters are abandoned at Camp Warhorse, a few miles to the northwest of BaqubahRyanair has accused the UK's air traffic control provider Nats of deliberately delaying its flights by not rostering enough staff at London Stansted airport.

The budget carrier claimed 52 per cent of all air traffic delays in the London area 'caused by' operator Nats during the first three months of the year affected flights at Stansted, which is its largest base.

This is compared with zero delays at Heathrow and 10 per cent of delays at Gatwick.

Budget airline Ryanair has said the failure of Nats to 'fairly supply' staffing and resources has led to delays at Stansted airport - its biggest base in the UK

According to Irish-based Ryanair, the failure of Nats to 'fairly supply' staffing and airspace resources at Stansted has 'wreaked havoc' on its schedules this summer.

The airline's analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data found that 2018 is on course to be the worst year on record for air traffic disruptions at the Essex airport.

Ryanair has now submitted a formal complaint to the European Commission and the CAA over the issue.

Nats is owned by a public private partnership including the government who have a 49 per cent stake and a group of UK airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, who own 42 per cent.

Ryanair chief operating officer Peter Bellew said the airline and airport are 'clearly being discriminated against', describing the delay figures as 'unjustifiable'.

He went on: 'The situation is particularly bad at weekends where Nats are hiding behind adverse weather and euphemisms such as "capacity restrictions" when the truth is they are not rostering enough ATC staff to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled to operate.

'Urgent action must now be taken by the UK Department for Transport and the EU Commission, otherwise thousands more flights and millions of passengers at Stansted will continue to suffer disproportionate delays while Nats protects its shareholder airlines' services in Heathrow and Gatwick.'

Nats says that Ryanair's figures coincide with the introduction of new technology that affected flight capacity at Stansted and other airports such as London Luton over a seven-month period

Nats insisted that it 'does not discriminate between airlines or airports' and declared that Ryanair's performance this summer 'cannot be blamed on UK air traffic control'.

It said in a statement that the figures quoted by Ryanair coincide with the introduction of new technology that affected flight capacity at Stansted and other airports such as London Luton over a seven-month period.

The statement went on: 'All airlines and airports were notified of the timetable in advance and understood the new technology will help us increase capacity safely in the future.

'Nats has a duty to ensure commercial aircraft can fly safely through UK airspace. Adding extra controllers to the Essex airspace will not make a difference.

'Additional aircraft cannot fly in that area safely without redesigning the airspace, which requires consultation with those affected on the ground.'

A spokesman for Manchester Airports Group, which owns Stansted, said: 'We are seeking answers from Nats on the root cause for these delays and considering the need for further action, including the possibility of making a formal complaint to the CAA in due course.'Advertisement

The best country in the world is Italy.

That's according to the annual Conde Nast Traveller UK Awards 2018, which honours 'the best that the travel world has to offer'. The categories also include hotels, airlines, ski resorts, islands and architecture.

Italy was picked as the best country for its fine food and scenery, while Norwegian was lauded as the best short-haul carrier, Emirates as the top long-haul airline and London's Heathrow pipped Changi to the post as the world's best airport.

Italy, pictured, was named as the best country in the world in the 21st Conde Nast Traveller UK Awards

Norwegian was lauded as the best short-haul carrier, beating easyJet into second place

Soaring to success: London's Heathrow pipped Changi to the post to win the best airport category

In the 'best UK city category', London ruled the roost, while Paris was voted as the best 'overseas' metropolis.

What's more, it's home to 'the best overseas hotel' - the ritzy 'palace-rated' Le Bristol Paris.

Hawaii was voted as the best island in the world for white sand beaches, while the Greek Islands took home the award for being the best island chain overall.

Holland America Line, meanwhile, claimed the bragging rights in the big ship cruise operator ranking, while Seabourn took home the award in the small ship category.

Emirates was voted as the best long-haul airline in the world in the awards. Pictured is one of the carrier's 777s

British Airways was runner-up in the long-haul carrier category, with travellers pleased with the in-flight experience

The luxurious Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire was voted as the best UK holiday hotel by Conde Nast Traveller readers

In the 'best UK city category', London ruled the roost, while Paris was voted as the best 'overseas' metropolis

CONDE NAST TRAVELLER 21ST ANNUAL READERS' TRAVEL AWARDS 2018 - THE RESULTS BEST COUNTRY Winner: Italy

Runner Up: Greece BEST ISLAND Winner: Greek Islands

Runner Up: Maldives BEST UK CITY Winner: London

Runner Up: Edinburgh BEST OVERSEAS CITY Winner: Paris

Runner Up: Rome BEST SKI RESORT Winner: Val-d'Isere, France

Runner Up: Whistler, Canada BEST UK HOLIDAY HOTEL Winner: The Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire

Runner Up: Soho Farmhouse, Oxfordshire BEST UK BUSINESS HOTEL Winner: Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

Runner Up: Rosewood, London BEST OVERSEAS BUSINESS HOTEL Winner: Le Bristol Paris, France

Runner Up: The Peninsula Hong Kong, Hong Kong BEST EUROPE, TURKEY & RUSSIA HOTEL Winner: Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, France

Runner Up: La Reserve Paris, France BEST AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN HOTEL Winner: One&Only Palmilla, Los Cabos, Mexico

Runner Up: Eden Rock - St Barths, St Barths BEST MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA & THE INDIAN OCEAN HOTEL Winner: Belmond Mount Nelson, Cape Town, South Africa

Runner Up: Singita Sabi Sand, Kruger, South Africa BEST ASIA & THE INDIAN SUBCONTIENT HOTEL Winner: The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India

Runner Up: The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai, India BEST AUSTRALASIA & THE SOUTH PACIFIC HOTEL Winner: The Brando, French Polynesia

Runner Up: Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora, French Polynesia BEST AIRLINE  SHORT-HAUL HOLIDAY Winner: Norwegian

Runner Up: EasyJet BEST AIRLINE  LONG-HAUL HOLIDAY Winner: Emirates

Runner Up: British Airways BEST BUSINESS AIRLINE Winner: Emirates

Runner Up: Singapore Airlines BEST AIRPORT Winner: Heathrow Airport, London

Runner Up: Changi Airport, Singapore BEST CRUISE LINES  LARGE SHIPS Winner: Holland America Line

Runner Up: Cunard Line BEST CRUISE LINES  SMALL SHIPS Winner: Seabourn Cruise Line

Runner Up: Silversea Cruises BEST TOUR OPERATORS Winner: The Turquoise Holiday Company

Runner Up: Kuoni BEST SPECIALIST TOUR OPERATORS Winner: Scott Dunn

Runner Up: Healing Holidays BEST VILLA RENTAL COMPANIES Winner: The Thinking Traveller

Runner Up: Tuscany Now & More BEST UK HOTEL SPAS Winner: The Spa, Chewton Glen Hotel & Spa, Hampshire

Runner Up: Spa Village Bath, The Gainsborough Bath Spa, Bath BEST OVERSEAS HOTEL SPAS Winner: Thalassa Spa, Anassa, Cyprus

Runner Up: Vair Spa, Borgo Egnazia, Puglia, Italy BEST DESTINATION SPA Winner: Lanserhof Tegernsee, Bavaria, Germany

Runner Up: The Original FX Mayr, Maria Worth, Austria BEST ISLAND FOR BEACHES Winner: Hawaii BEST CITY FOR CULTURE Winner: Rome BEST COUNTRY FOR PEOPLE Winner: Thailand BEST CITY FOR ARCHITECTURE Winner: York THE WORLD'S TOP SIX Winner: Greek Islands

Runners Up: Lanserhof Tegernsee in Germany, The Oberoi Udaivilas in India, The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India, Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc in France and One&Only Palmilla in Mexico Advertisement

Val-d'Isere in France was declared the best ski resort by readers. The spot offers sublime scenery, luxury accommodation and fun-fuelled apres-ski

The Brando, a white sand island resort in French Polynesia, was named as the best hotel in Australasia and the South Pacific

Helping holidaymakers flawlessly plan their vacations from start to finish, The Turquoise Holiday Company was named the best tour operator with Scott Dunn winning in the specialist category. It fixes unique luxury tours to spots including Mauritius and Madagascar.

If you're a culture vulture, then put a visit to Rome on your to-do list - it was declared the best city for culture.

It's Thailand that apparently has the 'best people', though.

Meanwhile, York in England was deemed the best city for architecture - and no wonder. It has a mammoth Gothic cathedral and stunning neoclassical buildings.

The results of the annual Conde Nast Traveller Readers' Travel Awards, now in its 21st year, were announced on Monday at the Ham Yard Hotel in London.

The full results will be revealed in the October issue of the magazine, on sale from September 6.

Visit www.mailtravel.co.uk for great travel deals.

The luxury Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London was revealed as the best business hotel in the UK

Paris, with its beautiful architecture, famous landmarks and fine food, was voted as the best overseas metropolisBritish Airways passengers heading to Cairo usually fly to the Egyptian capital on board a state-of-the art Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

But for several services this week, customers will find themselves travelling on an aircraft leased from a budget Belgian airline that is over 10 years old.

The British flag carrier has been forced to improvise because the 787s have been suffering issues with their Rolls-Royce engines and are being taken out of service to undergo additional inspections.

A British Airways 787 Dreamliner usually operates the Cairo route - but the model has been temporarily replaced

BA will 'borrow' (in industry terms it's called wet leasing) an Airbus A340 and its crew from low-cost carrier Air Belgium to run the services to Cairo until September 6.

The Dreamliner, introduced in 2011, is often regarded as the most comfortable passenger plane with a wide cabin, a 'hospital-grade' filtration system that provides cleaner air, luxury seats and sensor technology that can dampen turbulence.

In contrast, the Airbus A340 has been in service for 25 years and Air Belgium's aircraft were previously owned by Finnair.

Air Belgium only began operations earlier this year, meaning it has yet to be rated by Skytrax, the airline rating body.

Customers travelling with the airline usually have to pay 20 euros for a 'comfort kit' including a blanket, pillow and toothbrush and toothpaste.

But British Airways says leasing the aircraft means that it will allow its customers to travel on their intended date.

A spokesman for the airline told MailOnline Travel: 'We're doing everything we can to make sure our customers travel as planned, in light of continuing issues with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines which are affecting many airlines around the world.

For several services this week, BA customers travelling to Cairo will find themselves flying on an Airbus A340 aircraft leased from a budget Belgian airline

'In order to fly as many customers as possible on their original dates of travel, we have leased an aircraft from Air Belgium.

'We are in touch with customers who are affected to offer them a range of options if they don't wish to continue with their booking.'

On its website, British Airways states that there could be flight scheduling issues with Dreamliner services in the future as it continues to work with Rolls-Royce on the engine issues.

It is believed that up to 500 Trent 1000 engines  used on Boeing 787 planes owned by several airlines  are affected by the issues, which see components wear out earlier than expected.

Rolls-Royce warned in April that additional inspections on the power plants would result in some customer disruption.A ban on unlimited alcohol in all-inclusive resorts in Majorca and Ibiza won't come into force until at least 2020.

The Balearic government has been writing to travel agents and tour operators in Britain and Germany to give advance notice of the controversial changes which, it is claimed, will help cut out drunken tourism and 'uncivic behaviour' in the leading party resorts.

Tourism chiefs say they still intend to implement the new rules, which will see free alcohol served to guests only during mealtimes and then solely through waiter service.

A ban on unlimited alcohol in all-inclusive resorts in Majorca, pictured, and Ibiza won't come into force until at least 2020

But the only concession being offered is that the changes will not come into force for another two years, giving the tour operators and travel agents plenty of time to do new deals with the hotels and change their brochures and offers.

This is because the tourism department concedes that many tour operators have already signed deals with hotels for 2019, hence the extra year.

Letters have been sent out to the Association of British Travel Agencies and the German Travel Association (DRV).

In it, the Balearic Government announces its intention to 'prohibit the unlimited consumption of alcohol in all-inclusive hotels' because it is considered a public health issue.

The tourism department has told Abta and DRV: 'The Balearic Island Government has drafted a legislation to ban unlimited consumption of alcohol in all-inclusive hotels.

The Balearic government has been writing to travel agents and tour operators in Britain and Germany to give advance notice of the controversial changes. Pictured is a beach in Ibiza

'One of the articles concerns all-inclusive hotels in the Balearics.

'As we consider this a matter of public health, the new law will limit the consumption of free alcohol to meal times (lunch and dinner). In addition, the self service of alcohol will be eliminated: alcoholic beverages may only be served by hotel staff.

'Further changes concerning all-inclusive hotels are a future ban on disposable tableware in order to reduce plastic waste and to protect the environment.'

The Balearic government says the changes will need to be covered by new legislation and this will be carried out next year.

Hoteliers fear the crackdown on all-inclusive hotels will hit them hard in the pockets, reduce competitiveness and threaten jobs.The Bachelor couple, Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson and Laura Byrne have been at the centre of engagement rumours since they touched down in New Zealand for a romantic ski holiday recently.

And on Wednesday, the smitten pair sparked fresh speculation after the ToniMay jewellery designer, 32, shared a celebratory couple shot on Instagram last week.

Eager fans were sent into a frenzy as the ski bunnies posed in a proposal-esque shot which saw Matty J, 31, lifting his lady-love into the air as the pair kissed.

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'Put a ring on it already!' Fans speculate whether The Bachelor's Matty 'J' Johnson and Laura Byrne are ENGAGED as the loved-up pair posed in celebratory couple shot posted to Instagram last week

'Put a ring on it already,' one enthusiastic commenter wrote.

Meanwhile, another keen fan admitted:' Is it bad that every post I'm secretly hoping he proposed...gorgeous photos have a lovely time!'

One enthusiastic fan urged the reality TV lovebirds to get married and start a family pronto, gushing: 'PLEASE GET MARRIED AND HAVE BABIES!'

Another fan called upon Matty J to pop the question, sharing: 'Put a ring on it!'

Elsewhere, one follower appeared to express sympathy for the pair over the mounting engagement speculation.

The Bachelor couple, Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson (left) and Laura Byrne (right) have been at the centre of engagement rumours over the past couple of weeks during their romantic ski holiday in New Zealand

Laura seemingly couldn't contain her smitten state in the amorous photograph's caption, penning: 'Always sweeping me off my feet.'

The couple, who are enjoying their second ski holiday this month sent fans into another engagement frenzy recently.

Last Sunday the pair posed on the edge of the South Island's snowy Tasman Glacier in a picturesque selfie shared by Matty to the photo-sharing app.

The Bachelor star amusingly captioned the image of himself and his girlfriend: 'Climbing glaciers is all white'.

Underneath that image, fans speculated that Matty had whipped his accessories designer partner of one year away so he can propose.

Chasing powder: The couple also headed off for a romantic weekend in Thredbo in mid-August

Ready to wed? Fans previously speculated that Matty had whipped his accessories designer partner of one year away so he can propose

The pair do certainly looked loved-up in the images, and have recently taken their relationship to the next level.

A year after Matty and Laura met on the set of The Bachelor, the couple marked their first anniversary by moving in together.

In August, the couple were seen moving boxes out of their car and into a garage at Matty's abode in Sydney's Bondi.She's mere weeks away from tying the knot with her fiance Alex Bowen, two years after they met in the Love Island villa.

But Olivia Buckland has revealed she was 'never ready' for a relationship when she took part in the ITV2 show, as she spoke exclusively to MailOnline as part of her collaboration with Skin Republic for a brand new Prep + Glow sheet mask.

The 24-year-old Essex beauty teased her wedding to Alex by confessing she is still stressing about the little details, but thanks to a bit of motherly advice hopes she can just 'chill out' on the big day.

Excited: Olivia Buckland has revealed she was 'never ready' for a relationship when she took part in Love Island, as she teased her upcoming wedding in an exclusive MailOnline interview

Olivia and Alex's relationship has gone the distance after they first got together in 2016, and are one of the rare Love Island romances not to fizzle out.

When asked why she thinks her and Alex's relationship has worked so well, she said: 'Its such a hard one to answer because I was never ready for a relationship when I went in there and we tried to be friends for such a long time.

'We were sort of trying to make it really casual and not really looking at it as a relationship and I think thats partly the reason why. It happened so naturally in such an unnatural environment, we just clicked.

'I think it is really hard to find. I think as well we trust each other, we have fun together and we also have created a little bubble that we like to live in where we keep ourselves to ourselves.

'I think thats a really key thing in this industry to remember why youre with someone and to respect and trust them and thats all that matters.'

Gorgeous: The 24-year-old Essex beauty was speaking about collaboration with Skin Republic for the Olivia Buckland Prep + Glow Sheet face mask

Olivia also excitedly teased some of the details of her wedding to Alex which is set to take place later this month, adding: 'It feels like I have the whole thing left to plan but Im sure I dont!

'Its really hard when you get to the last sort of four or five weeks you start to think OMG, have I actually done everything? because everything starts to be ticked off and you start to feel like its actually all ready to go ahead.

'Youre so used to following up things and checking things are done that actually Ive got my wedding dress to pick up on Friday, the table plan has just arrived and the menus, all things like that so its all the final details now. I think, I think were nearly there!'

Loved-up: Olivia also revealed that just weeks ahead of her wedding to Alex the nerves have started to sink in, but she hopes to just 'chill out' on the big day

Olivia also said that the pre-wedding nerves were starting to sink in as she put the final touches in place, adding she worries she'll stress right until the 'minute' of the wedding.

'I think its weird because people get nervous for different reasons,' she said.

'I just want it to go perfectly and I know that it probably wont because things never go to plan  especially with me. I think theres always going to be something weve missed or something thats not in the right place.

'My Mum told me a great piece of advice, she just said that "on the day if theres something missing or something goes wrong, the only person that is going to know is you so dont care about what anyone else thinks, try and enjoy it because it goes so quickly". So hopefully Ill be able to chill out on the day.'

Sweet: Alex and Olivia were one of Love Island 2016's most long-lasting couples, announcing their engagement just five months after leaving the villa

Olivia also said she was planning to have her entire bridal party using her Prep + Glow sheet masks.

The star, who has launched her own face mask with Skin Republic, as she candidly spoke about her own skin struggles during her teenage years.

'On my face, my skin has never been really awful and Ive never suffered with that bad acne. Ive always had bad hormonal acne because I have an under-active thyroid,' she admitted.

'Thats something thats quite hard to get control of but obviously the more you use products and the more you look after your skin, the more it help the hormonal breakouts be controlled and stop quite quickly.

'So that was something that I learnt about when I came out and started working at Skin Republic. When I was 17, I had a huge breakout of psoriasis all over my body. I completely scaled over. I had to use steroid cream to get rid of it then I lost all the pigmentation in my skin.

Gorgeous: As she gushed about the Prep + Glow masked Olivia also spoke candidly about the struggles she suffered with her skin during her teenage years

'So for me to have this skin now is such a breakthrough and its so important to me and makes me feel really confident. I know that I needed it when I was younger.

'To be given the opportunity to create my own masks and have my own face on their packaging is just a dream come true  its crazy.

'Im going to have all my bridesmaids in the Prep + Glow, were going to be laying there with face masks on looking like aliens. I cant wait!'

And following reports last week that she had dropped her Love Island co-star and close friend Cara De La Hoyde as a bridesmaid, Olivia explained the decision was all in good jest, and the pair are still closer than ever.

She said: 'It was sort of blown out of proportion. It was a bit of a storm in a teacup really because we had the conversation together and it was a decision we made together. I certainly never said to her youre not being my bridesmaid! I would never say that.

'Were still the best of friends so it was just a mutual decision because shes so super busy its so hard for her to get down to Essex and go to dress try-ons and meet up for different chats. Its a lot of responsibility and I just wanted her to feel comfortable and she was really happy with the decision.'

Over the top: And following reports that she had dropped Cara De La Hoyde as a bridesmaid for her wedding, Olivia clarified it was done in good jest and they are still the best of friends

And after that wonderful moment when she and Alex become man and wife, Olivia admitted she is looking forward to just relaxing with her new husband on a double honeymoon.

She said: 'Were going to Sri Lanka for a week and the Maldives for a week. Which I actually cannot wait for, weve got one of those water villas that are right out in the sea with your own little pool. Thats been my dream for years and years, since Ive seen it on a computer screen background. So, I cant wait!

'It should be a relaxing time. Im hoping to relax, but I dont really relax very well because Im that sort of person that really wants to be on the go.

'Im going to find it hard being in the middle of nowhere, just lying there, but Im sure Ill get the hang of it.'

Olivia Bucklands Prep + Glow sheet mask with Skin Republic is available for 5.49 at www.theskinrepublic.com.The Kardashians' wardrobes are the envy of women across the world.

But Kylie Jenner, 21, faced some serious competition from Australian WAG Zoe Marshall, 33, this week.

The Celeb HQ host rocked the same $4,000 Steven Khalil jumpsuit made famous by the makeup entrepreneur, showing off her busty outfit on Instagram on Monday.

Who wore it better? On Monday night, footy WAG Zoe Marshall (right) put on a busty display in the $4,000 Steven Khalil jumpsuit made famous by Kylie Jenner (left)

In her post, Zoe joked how 'it takes a village' to get her ready for a night out.

'It takes a village - literally as many people that would live in a small village,' she wrote, tagging her makeup artist and spray tanner.

She added that her stylist for the evening was designer Steven Khalil himself, who happens to be one of her close friends.

Date night ensemble: Kylie wore the same outfit in December 2015 while on a date with ex-boyfriend Tyga at The Nice Guy bar in Los Angeles. Pictured: Kylie and Tyga in September 2016

Zoe teamed the plunging jumpsuit with a black and silver studded belt and pointed heels.

Her long locks were styled straight and into a centre parting, and she accessorised with a black clutch.

Meanwhile, Kylie wore the same outfit in December 2015 while on a date with her ex-boyfriend Tyga at The Nice Guy bar in Los Angeles.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star completed her look with a high-waisted belt that featured fringe detailing.

She was a fan! The jumpsuit was originally intended for Kylie's sister Kendall Jenner (pictured), now 22, to wear at her 20th birthday party

The jumpsuit was originally intended for Kylie's older sister Kendall Jenner, now 22, to wear at her 20th birthday party.

The Victoria's Secret model requested that Sydney-based designer Steven Khalil send one of his creations over to LA for her to wear.

But at the last minute she opted for a custom jumpsuit by Sergio Hudson instead.

Despite Kendall wearing a different outfit, Steven told Daily Mail Australia at the time that he was thrilled when anyone in the famous family wears one of his dresses.

Fashion's first family: The Kardashians' wardrobes are the envy of women across the world

'The girls have access to the world's greatest designers, so it's always special when they choose to wear Steven Khalil pieces,' he said.

Meanwhile, Zoe spoke about wearing the same jumpsuit as Kylie on her KIIS FM radio show Celeb HQ on Monday.

'Are you trying to say a 19-year-old is going to look better in a jumpsuit than an old mum?' Zoe asked one of her co-hosts.

Zoe went on to say to that Kylie wore it better as 'she's 12.'

She also joked that it 'still has her B.O in it.'

'I hope she wore undies with it though,' she added.It's Kaia Gerber's 17th birthday her parents spent the day together shopping in SoHo.

Cindy Crawford, 52, and Randy Gerber, 56, were spotted hitting up some stores together in SoHo on Labor Day.

The supermodel managed to look effortlessly chic in a casual weekend outfit with flat thong sandals.

the couple that shops together: Cindy Crawford, 52, and Randy Gerber, 56, were spotted shopping in SoHo Monday on their daughter Kaia's 17th birthday

Street art: The couple snatched up four pieces of street art drawn on a New York City subway map from a sidewalk vendor

Crawford and her hubby headed out in Manhattan without their stunning daughter anywhere in sight.

Earlier in the day Cindy took to social media to send her mini me some birthday love.

She posted a series of throwback photos of her daughter hamming it up for the camera.

The adoring momma also posted a precious picture holding baby Kaia and wrote, 'happy 17th! Cant believe how time flies! Im so proud of you and love you so so so much!'

Birthday love: Cindy took to social media to send her mini me some birthday love including this sweet photo of the pair when Kaia was a baby

Model in the making: The proud momma shared some fun throwback photos of a young Kaia showing off for the cameras

Smize: Kaia perfected Tyra Bank's iconic smize when she was barely old enough for school

Casual holiday: Crawford looked effortlessly chic in a casual outfit during her shopping trip on Labor Day

Couple goals: Rande and Cindy walked arm in arm together in New York. The pair have been married for the last two decades

During the birthday shopping trip the mother of two showed off her ultra toned arms in a loose leopard print tank top that was tucked into straight leg khaki green slacks.

The supermodel rolled the hem of the pants up to her shin and paired the look with a camel and gold pair of flat summer sandals.

She accessorized the ensemble with a matching leather belt and a large suede purse in a sandy tone. A long chain necklace hung down past her chest.

Cindy kept her enviable long brunette tresses with caramel highlights loose and breezy and topped the whole look off with a large pair of brown sunglasses.

The Pepsi girl strolled through Manhattan's swanky SoHo area and surprisingly picked up some street art from a sidewalk vendor.

The pair snatched up four artistic renderings of the New York City subway map at $20 a pop.

Model behavior: Both Gerber children have followed in their supermodel mother down the catwalk and into successful modeling careers

Apple of their eye: Spotted shopping at the Apple store in SoHo, the couple could be getting Kaia a techy 17th birthday present

The stunning husband and wife duo also ducked into the Apple store which could mean a fancy tech gift for Kaia's big 1-7.

Rande kept his look simple and handsome in a basic white T-shirt, jeans and blue trainers.

The 56-year-old businessman walked arm in arm with his wife of twenty years as they took in the sights.

Fab four: The Gerber family make up a stunning bunch. Kaia and Presley were recently tapped for a Calvin Klein campaign together; pictured February 2017 in NYC at the Marc Jacobs bash

The couple has two stunning children together.

The Gerber children, Kaia and her 19-year-old brother Presley, are the modeling world's newest 'it' family. Calvin Klein recently tapped the pair to star in a new campaign together.

Kaia, who is the spitting image of her model mother, is carving out an impressive place in the fashion world in her own right.

She made her NYFW debut with the CK label in 2017 in Raf Simons' highly anticipated debut collection following his shocking and short lived tenure with Dior.She is set to debut as an intruder on Wednesday's episode of The Bachelor.

But before filming the Network Ten dating show, Jamie-Lee Dayz was in a long-term relationship with a woman.

However, the 27-year-old model has no plans to reveal her sexuality to leading man Nick 'The Honey Badger' Cummins.

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'I like boys and girls!' Bisexual Bachelor intruder Jamie-Lee Dayz's last relationship was with a woman - but she doesn't want to tell Nick Cummins about her sexuality

'I don't think I need to tell Nick those details, that's just who I am as a person,' she told Woman's Day on Monday.

Despite other publications describing her as 'openly bisexual' after dating both men and women, Jamie-Lee insists her sexuality is much more fluid than that.

'I don't connect with people for their gender, I connect with people on a spiritual and soul level,' she admitted.

Looking for love: Before filming the Network Ten dating show, Jamie-Lee Dayz (pictured) was in a long-term relationship with a woman

Here come the girls! She is set to debut as an intruder on Wednesday's episode of The Bachelor alongside Brittney Weldon (centre) and Deanne Salvemini (right)

She continued: 'For me it comes down to connection and who I connect with on a deep level.

'I don't like to put myself into a category of bisexual, I don't put myself in any category.'

During an interview with New Idea this week, Jamie-Lee went into further detail about her relationship with her ex-girlfriend.

'I don't think I need to tell Nick those details, that's just who I am as a person': Jamie-Lee told Woman's Day on Monday that her bisexuality is none of the Bachelor's business

While discussing the most romantic thing anybody has ever done for her, she said: 'My ex-girlfriend cleaned my house and made me dinner after I worked a 16-hour shift, and left little notes about what she loved about me all around the house.'

Jamie-Lee also told the magazine that her dating deal-breakers were homophobia and intolerance.

'I could never date a racist or someone that did not support same-sex marriage,' she said.

'I don't connect with people for their gender, I connect with people on a spiritual and soul level': Jamie-Lee also told New Idea this week she doesn't like the label 'bisexual'

Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed Jamie-Lee was one of the Bachelor intruders last week.

The venue manager has a background in topless modelling and also runs an X-rated Tumblr blog full of graphic images of people engaging in sexual acts.

Meanwhile, it's understood her quest to find love on The Bachelor didn't exactly go smoothly.

After gatecrashing a group date, the brunette suffered an unfortunate injury which required 'urgent medical attention'.

The Bachelor continues Wednesday at 7:30pm on Network TenThe event was attended by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the State Commission for Overseas Vietnamese, Vu Hong Nam; Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand, Nguyen Hai Bang; and around 2,000 Vietnamese people who are working and studying in Thailand.

In his remarks, Ambassador Nguyen Hai Bang commemorated the legacy of President Ho Chi Minh who devoted his whole life to the people and nation of Vietnam.

He reviewed the establishment and development of the relations between Vietnam and Thailand, which are the first two ASEAN nations to establish a strategic partnership. Thailand is Vietnams largest trade partner in the ASEAN bloc, and bilateral trade turnover has performed strongly with an annual growth rate of 15.5%, he noted.

He expressed his firm belief that the bilateral friendship and cooperation will grow further for the mutual interest and prosperity of the two peoples, contributing to peace, cooperation, and development in the region and the world at large.

Earlier the same day, Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Hong Nam and Ambassador Nguyen Hai Bang joined representatives of Vietnamese agencies in Thailand and Overseas Vietnamese community to pay homage to President Ho Chi Minh at his memorial site in Udon Thani.The romance between Heidi Klum and Tom Kaulitz continues to grow.

The supermodel, 45, and her beau, 29, celebrated the holiday weekend - and his 29th birthday - among the 70,000 people at the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, an annual gathering celebrating art and fashion amid the backdrop of the desert.

The Germany-born beauty took to Instagram with a number of posts, including a pair of romantic shots showing her close with her boyfriend, a guitar player with the band Tokio Hotel.

Labor Day Love: Heidi Klum, 45, and her beau Tom Kaulitz, 29, were among the 70,000 people at the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, an annual gathering celebrating art and fashion amid the backdrop of the desert

In a shot the America's Got Talent star posted Monday, Kaulitz, who is from Leipzig, Germany, held her from behind and kissed her amid a breathtaking background.

The veteran fashionista, known for her amazing Halloween costumes, wore a colorful ensemble to the gathering. She had her long blonde locks down and flowing, and sequins affixed around her eyes, with an eccentric headpiece anchored by a pair of goggles.

Kaulitz kept warm in a red flannel blanket as he had his arms around the stunning supermodel.

In a later shot snapped from behind, Heidi and Kaulitz reclined while taking in a burning brush area, with Heidi wearing light blue fishnet leggings. Also along for the weekend was Tom's twin brother Bill, as Heidi posted a shot of the identical brothers with the caption 29, referencing their new age.

Canoodling: The couple reclined and took in the fiery scene at the annual gathering

Fun time: The pair rode bicycles through the desert at Burning Man

And many more: Tom (R) and his twin/bandmate Bill celebrated their 29th birthdays over the weekend

The mom-of-four - to daughters Leni, 14, and Lou, eight, and sons Henry, 12, and Johan, 11 - was previously in a years-long relationship with art dealer Vito Schnabel, 32, until a year ago. She's been dating the musician since March.

Since, then, the globetrotting lovers have been seen in passionate embraces in breathtaking locales from Cabo San Lucas Mexico to Ponza, Italy.

She told InStyle in July that people seemed to be fixated on the age difference in their relationship.

'My boyfriend is many years younger than me, and lots of people are questioning that and asking about it,' she said. 'That's really the only time when age seems to be shoved in my face and I have to give an answer for it.

'I don't really think about it that much otherwise. You have to just live a happy life without worrying too much about what people think because worrying is only going to give you more wrinkles.'

Other celebrities who were seen at Burning Man included Nina Dobrev and twin DJs Simi and Haze Khadra.Married At First Sight star Carly Bowyer has sensationally hit back at rumours her eight-month relationship with Troy Delmege was a publicity-seeking 'showmance'.

The 33-year-old announced her split with unemployed IT manager Troy, 36, last week and the former couple have faced scrutiny from fans ever since.

Responding to the gossip on Monday, Carly exclusively told Daily Mail Australia: 'I just want the hype and speculation to go away.'

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EXCLUSIVE: 'We're a real couple, it's a real break-up': Married At First Sight's Carly Bowyer has blasted rumours her relationship with Troy Delmege was a publicity-seeking 'showmance'

'We are a real couple going through a real break-up and it's tough,' she added.

The reality TV star explained the turmoil surrounding the split was made worse by other people weighing in on their relationship.

'We just want people to respect our privacy and understand that we've dealt with the best we could under the circumstances,' she said.

'We just want people to respect our privacy': The 33-year-old announced her split with Troy, 36, last week and the former couple have faced scrutiny from fans ever since

Meanwhile, Carly also responded to an article in NW magazine on Monday that suggested she could be dating MAFS season four star Nick Furphy.

The glamorous brunette has been spotted with Nick several times in recent months but there is no proof they are anything more than friends.

'These claims are completely false,' she said defiantly. 'The last person I'd be going for is anyone in the media.'

'It's completely false': Carly also responded to an article in NW magazine on Monday that suggested she could be dating MAFS season four star Nick Furphy (right)

On this year's Married At First Sight, Carly and Troy shocked viewers by leaving their respective partners - Justin Fischer and Ashley Irvin - and embarking on a romance.

It has previously been reported that one of the reasons for the couple's split was the fact Troy was unable to find a job in IT after filming wrapped.

Apparently, he was waiting for Channel Nine to offer him a TV presenting role - however, so far, no offers have been made.He is best known as a comedian and TV host, but earlier this year Joel Creasey turned his hand to acting.

Landing a cameo appearance on Neighbours, the 28-year-old briefly portrayed a self-described 'random hoe' on the Network Ten soap.

But speaking to Daily Mail Australia last week, Joel described the experience as surprisingly frustrating.

EXCLUSIVE 'They couldn't work out why I was so annoyed with them': Joel Creasey (pictured) revealed to Daily Mail Australia the real reason he found working on Neighbours so 'infuriating'

'Doing Neighbours was really infuriating,' said Joel, who currently hosts Channel Seven's new dating show Take Me Out.

'It was fun and normal. I did Neighbours because A) who doesn't want to put that on their CV? That's hilarious, but B) I thought I'm going to get so much comedy material because you hear [about] soap stars - they're all monsters!'

However, Joel admitted his expectations proved to be completely wrong and there were no 'diva' antics on Ramsay Street.



'I thought, "I'm going to get a great story about Olympia Valance,"' he joked.

'I went out there and they all could not have been nicer. It was so annoying because I got zero material out of doing Neighbours for my stand-up act. At least one of them could have been nasty to me!'

'I thought, "I'm going to get a great story about Olympia Valance"': Joel admitted he was hoping to see some diva antics from actress and lingerie model Olympia (pictured) that he could use in his stand-up but there was no such luck

'They were all so nice!' The comedian confessed he was 'annoyed' the actors were 'lovely' and explained Olympia made him coffee while Colette Mann (pictured) showed him around set

The former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! star explained there were no divas in sight, despite the negative stereotypes that often surrounds soap actors.

'They were all so nice. Like, Olympia made me coffee one time, Colette Mann was showing me around set...' he said.

'They couldn't work out why I was so annoyed with them!'

'I was trying to start the drama': Joel also admitted he was probably the 'most painful' to be around on set while filming Neighbours

'I was probably the most painful [person on set] to be honest. I was the one trying to start the drama,' he added.

'My character was there to start drama. I was some random hoe who is seen once sleeping with someone in a backpackers' shower block. So it really wasn't a stretch for me. But yeah it was fun.'

Take Me Out continues Tuesday 7.30pm on Channel SevenScott Thomas - brother of actor Ryan - has revealed how difficult it's been for his family to watch Celebrity Big Brother, in the wake of the Roxanne Pallett 'punch' scandal.

Appearing on sister show, CBB's Bit On The Side, the former Love Island contestant told Rylan Clark Neal: 'I was sat at home literally in tears, Mum was on the phone crying. She can't get her head round it, she is watching her baby boy crying on the TV. It's been a massive test.'

Lauding his brother - who was accused of hitting ex-Emmerdale star Roxanne after play-fighting with her in the house - Scott said: 'He handled it like a superstar!'

Speaking out: Scott Thomas - brother of actor Ryan - has revealed how difficult it's been for his family to watch Celebrity Big Brother, in the wake of the Roxanne Pallett 'punch' scandal

'He's like my dad, so to see him break down like that. It's his career, his whole life. I am just blown away by him and can't wait to give him a cuddle,' Scott added, affectionately.

He also hinted that his family - which includes soap actor Adam Thomas and TOWIE star Lucy Mecklenburgh - will find it difficult to forgive Roxanne for nearly ruining his career.

'As a family we want to forgive but so much has come out of the woodwork since - and there's no smoke without fire,' he said.

Scott was referring to the fact that, since the ordeal, dozens of former colleagues of Roxanne have flocked to Twitter with tales of similar instances in the past while they worked alongside her.

Heartbreaking: 'He's like my dad, so to see him break down like that. It's his career, his whole life. I am just blown away by him and can't wait to give him a cuddle,' Scott added, affectionately

'A massive test': Appearing on sister show, CBB's Bit On The Side, the former Love Island contestant told Rylan Clark Neal 'I was sat at home literally in tears, Mum was on the phone crying. She can't get her head round it, she is watching her baby boy crying on the TV'

'We've not had to do much because the nation - the whole nation - has been behind it. So we have been able to sit back and let the nation do the talking,' Scott added, of the support the family have received.

'The most amazing moment was when they chanted "Get Roxy Out",' he said, also pointing out that he has been overwhelmed by the social media reaction from fans.

'I can't deal with all the social media. He's top Thomas again now,' he quipped.

Proud: Lauding his brother - who was accused of hitting ex-Emmerdale star Roxanne after play-fighting with her in the house - Scott said 'He handled it like a superstar'

Scott also made sure to thank Emma Willis for the interview she did with Roxanne, which was shown on Monday night's main show.

'Thank you to Emma for not holding back,' he said.

Emma had been applauded by fans of the show for her hard-hitting interview with Roxanne - the second one to take place since she walked out of the show on Saturday morning, since her housemates realised Ryan had not 'punched' her.

'Seriously love Emma Willis after that interview, talk about grilling Roxanne!' one person tweeted.

Good one, Emma! Fans of the show were equally impressed with Emma's line of questioning, showering the presenter with praise over her interviewing technique

Glowing praise: 'Take a bow. Excellent job tonight  judged the public mood brilliantly with that interview,' someone else tweeted, as another posted 'Emma Willis is the queen of interviews. She is the new Paxman. In fact she would wipe the floor with Paxman'

Killing it: Emma has been showered with praise for her hard-hitting approach

'Thank f**k Emma didnt Molly coddle Roxanne like they did on Jeremy Vine this morning! Well done Emma! F**king spot on!' another posted.

'Take a bow. Excellent job tonight  judged the public mood brilliantly with that interview,' someone else tweeted, as another posted: 'Emma Willis is the queen of interviews. She is the new Paxman. In fact she would wipe the floor with Paxman.'

'Always admired Emma Willis as a presenter but she excelled herself tonight interviewing Roxanne. She didnt side step any questions to viewers wanted her to ask and she ensured Roxanne didnt get an easy ride and Emma was very much in control!' came more glowing praise.

CBB continues nightly on Channel 5 from 9PM.Tom Gleeson has roasted some of Australia's biggest stars as part of his tongue-in-cheek interview program Hard Chat.

And while the ABC comedian is known for maintaining his composure on screen, there was one particular celebrity that caught him completely off guard.

Appearing on Studio 10 on Tuesday, the funnyman revealed the identity of his most bizarre interview subject.

'It was just on another planet!' Tom Gleeson has revealed the most bizarre celebrity he's ever interviewed on ABC comedy show Hard Chat. Pictured on Studio 10 on Tuesday

The baffling guest was none other than former SBS World News presenter Lee Lin Chin, who Tom interviewed back in 2015.

'I think that chat went for 45 minutes, it just kept going and going and going,' he recalled. 'And I reckon half an hour of it was not usable, it was just on another planet.

'By the end of it, I feel like she had rearranged my whole psychology. And then we had to somehow assemble it into something entertaining.'

Tom went on to explain that he was surprised when the colourful media personality brought along a prop to the interview.

'By the end of it, I feel like she had rearranged my whole psychology': The funnyman revealed that his most bizarre guest was SBS World News presenter Lee Lin Chin (left) in 2015

'She was drinking a beer and all this stuff!' Tom explained he was surprised when the colourful media personality brought several unusual props to the interview

'She was drinking a beer and all this stuff, and was constantly calling me "Mr Gleeson". And I was like, "I don't know what's going on anymore!"'

During her appearance on Hard Chat, Lee Lin had viewers in stitches thanks to her hilarious and bizarre one-liners.

She also raised eyebrows with her quirky outfit, which included a pair of green checked trousers, white braces and round-framed sunglasses.

The queen of SBS! Lee Lin announced her retirement from SBS World News last month, almost 40 years after she started working at the network. Pictured at the 2015 Logies in Melbourne

Lee Lin announced her retirement from SBS World News last month, almost 40 years after she started working at the network.

The Jakarta-born journalist remained tight lipped on the reason behind her exit, but did release a statement explaining there were 'many small to medium-sized reasons' for her sudden departure.

She has also fuelled speculation of a possible move to Network Ten, telling Ten Daily she would be 'very happy to read the [Ten Eyewitness] news on a casual basis'.British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson appeared on Channel Nine's Today show via satellite on Tuesday morning looking stunningly youthful.

The voluptuous foodie, 58, wore a navy blue dress that contrasted well with her long, brunette locks.

Wearing minimal makeup, Nigella looked fresh faced and far younger than her years.

'Keep an open mind and an open mouth!' A youthful Nigella Lawson, 58, promoted her upcoming visit to Margaret River on the Today show on Tuesday morning

She had appeared on the breakfast show to promote her appearance at the Margaret River Gourmet Escape event, which takes place from November 16th to 18th.

Margaret River is a small town south of Perth in Western Australia and is famed for its craft breweries, boutique wines and coastal beauty.

During the interview, Nigella raved about the region, saying she loved the 'combination of incredible natural beauty, wonderful wine, and really gorgeous food.'

Table talk: She had appeared on the breakfast show to promote her appearance at the Margaret River Gourmet Escape event, which takes place from November 16th to 18th

Well red: A healthy looking Nigella revealed that she would be hosting a supper during the Gourmet Escape event, at Xanadu River Winery. Pictured on September 8, 2009 in London

She added: 'And I have to say, people like me who are obsessed with food, that to me is like a perfect recipe.

Nigella revealed that she would be hosting a supper during the Gourmet Escape event, at Xanadu River Winery.

'It's a Q&A,' she said. 'But there's food and drinks, great conversation. It's about talking to people and eating with people, sharing a glass of wine with people.'

Hostess with the mostess: 'It's a Q&A,' she explained. 'But there's food and drinks, great conversation. It's about talking to people and eating with people, sharing a glass of wine'

The author and TV personality was quick to point out that the event was not meant to be a gathering of pretentious foodies, however.

'What makes this whole thing at Margaret River so different from everywhere else is that it's got a much more laid-back vibe than those festivals can have. It's not pretentious,' she said.

'And everyone's there to enjoy themselves... It's not about people showing off, it's out people wanting to share.'

Simple tastes: When asked by Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic, 44, what her favourite food was, Nigella surprisingly said: 'The best meal in the world is bread and cheese'

She added: 'Keep an open mind and an open mouth!'

When asked by Today co-host Karl Stefanovic, 44, what her favourite food was, Nigella surprisingly said: 'The best meal in the world is bread and cheese.'

The Margaret River Gourmet Escape takes place on November 16-18She is expecting a baby girl with boyfriend Matthew Koma.

And on Monday, Hilary Duff shared a snap of herself sporting a gray dress to her Instagram stories.

The 30-year-old actress flaunted her growing baby bump in the photo, adding the caption: 'Lots of pillow options.'

Stunner: Hilary Duff shared a snap of herself sporting a gray dress to her Instagram stories on Tuesday

The gorgeous star was seen on Saturday sporting another button up number while heading to Alfred's Coffee in Studio City.

Hilary chose a light gray sleeveless frock; the number featured brown buttons down the center of her chest.

The mom of one styled the neutral piece with a gold necklace; opting to leave her tresses loose around her with just a touch of makeup.

The Younger star added extra comfort to her look with a set of white sneakers.

Looking good: The gorgeous star was seen on Saturday sporting another button up number while heading to Alfred's Coffee in Studio City

The Lizzie McGuire star kept her makeup minimal, allowing her natural glow to shine through.

Hilary accessorized with several items of layered jewelry, including bracelets and rings.

In June, Hilary announced that she was expecting her second child, a girl.

Stylish: The mother-of-two looked lovely in a sleeveless, denim dress, paired with a neutral-colored, 10-gallon hat

Gorgeous: The pretty blonde wore her medium length hair down and in waves

The Houston, Texas native is welcoming her little one with musician boyfriend Matthew Koma, 31.

The Younger star is already a mom to sun Luca Cruz, six, whom she shares with ex-husband, Mike Comrie, 37.

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." 'She has starred in several blockbuster movies and even earned herself an Oscar nomination for I, Tonya.

But Margot Robbie, 28, still made time to fine-tune her performance skills on Monday afternoon, as she was spotted leaving an acting class in Los Angeles.

Looking a little tired after a long day, the Wolf Of Wall Street star was later seen meeting up with her British husband Tom Ackerley, 28.

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All work and no play? Margot Robbie looked a little tired after an acting class in LA on Monday

Margot dressed comfortably for the outing in a loose-fitting polka dot dress.

She accompanied her look with minimal makeup, flat sandals, a pair of oversized sunglasses and gold pendant necklace.

The blonde was clearly in work mode as she carried a red handbag bursting with papers and files as she returned to her car.

Effortlessly chic: Margot dressed comfortably for the outing in a loose-fitting polka dot dress

Catch up: Looking a little drained after a long day, the Wolf Of Wall Street star was later seen meeting up with her British husband Tom Ackerley

While Margot went to acting class, Tom was working up a sweat nearby.

The film producer had just returned from a bicycle ride and appeared exhausted when he met up with his wife.

Going shirtless for the occasion, Tom showed off his muscular physique and clutched a water flask to keep hydrated.

Active lifestyle: While Margot went to acting class, Tom was working up a sweat nearby

Looking good, Tom! The British film producer had just returned from a bicycle ride and appeared exhausted when he met up with his wife

Although the couple have remained out of the spotlight recently, last week Margot urged fans to 'live sustainably'.

She posted the inspirational message beneath an Instagram photo that showed her frolicking in a field with her brother Cameron.

'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.

'Remember, it's the power of the many not the few that will make a difference.'

Margot was promoting Nissan cars, as she then added: 'That's just one of the reasons I went electric @nissaneurope #electrifytheworld #zeroemission #ad.'The Duggar women are often talking about the size of their many babies, noting that the heads in the family are particularly large at birth.

On Monday's episode of Counting On Joy-Anna gave birth to the biggest baby yet - at a whopping 10 pounds, three ounces and 22 inches long.

The baby, a boy named Gideon Martyn Forsyth, came after 20 hours of grueling agony and an emergency C-section.

Baby joy: On Monday's episode of Counting On Joy-Anna gave birth to the biggest baby yet - at a whopping 10 pounds, three ounces and 22 inches long

'His head circumference was 15 inches,' marveled the Duggar patriarch Jim Bob, 53.

'My biggest was 14 inches,' said his wife Michelle, 51, who has 19 children.

'Gideon is the biggest baby yet,' said Joy's sister Jessa Seewald, 25.

Joy, 20, and husband Austin Forsyth, 24, had been hoping for a home birth but Joy was rushed to hospital after complications arose.

Doting grandma: 'My biggest was 14 inches,' said his wife Michelle, 51, who has 19 children

Meet the newest family member: The baby, a boy named Gideon Martyn Forsyth, came after 20 hours of grueling agony and an emergency C-section

Painful: Joy, 20, and husband Austin Forsyth, 24, had been hoping for a home birth, but Joy ended up delivering after she rushed to hospital

'After about 19 hours of labor, the midwife realized that the baby was breech,' said Joy, who gave birth on February 23.

'When they say a baby is breech, that means its head is turned up and its kind of sitting up in your belly and it's supposed to be head down,' she explained.

'When the midwife came and told us that the baby was breach and that we had to go to the hospital, I was kind of discouraged because she had labored for so long and we were really hoping that we could just have a home birth,' admitted Austin.

Tough: 'After about 19 hours of labor, the midwife realized that the baby was breech,' said Joy, who gave birth on February 23

'I was kind of discouraged': Austin admitted they had their sights set on a home birth, and were discouraged when they learned they would have to move to a hospital

Newest addition! The procedure went well and the couple were soon celebrating their newborn

'But at the same time, I was ready to have this baby. Joy was tired and I'm just 'Let's just do whatever it takes to get the baby here',' he added.

'Before I went into labor, having a C-section was my greatest fear. That was one of the things that I was scared of. I didn't want to have to have a C-section,' said Joy.

'But by that point I was exhaustedjust ready to get the baby here.'

Just like his dad: 'He's got Austin's nostrils,' remarked Joy

Incomparable: 'There's nothing like it in the world,' agreed Austin

The procedure went well and the couple were soon celebrating their newborn.

'Austin and I were both crying, it was such a sweet moment,' recalled Joy.

'There's nothing like it in the world,' agreed Austin.

'He's got Austin's nostrils,' remarked Joy.

Proud parents: Austin cradled their child as Joy rested in bed

It's a boy! The family rejoiced after learning Joy and Austin had welcomed a son

Big news! The Duggars announced the gender by setting off blue confetti at their house

Back at the Duggar house they set off a blue confetti cannon to announce the gender.

The show had opened at Jessa's home, where she was hosting 'the three pregnant sisters: Jinger Joy and Kendra.

Jinger, 24, was four months along, Kendra, 20, was almost six months gone, while Joy was ready to pop.

Moms-to-be! The show had opened at Jessa's home, where she was hosting 'the three pregnant sisters: Jinger Joy and Kendra

'It's a support network': Said Jessa, who warned them of the huge 'Duggar heads' that can present issues in childbirth

'It's a support network,' said Jessa, who warned them of the huge 'Duggar heads' that can present issues in childbirth.

Jinger was experiencing a lot of 'emotions' during pregnancy.

'It's like 'why am I crying?' I have no connection to what I'm crying about,' she smiled.

The family were also celebrating Henry and Tyler's joint birthdays.

Happy birthday! The family were also celebrating Henry and Tyler's joint birthdays

Crazy: 'It's just crazy,' remarked Jessa, as the kids screamed with excitement

They made buckeye candies and played on a bounce house.

'It's just crazy,' remarked Jessa, as the kids screamed with excitement.

Meanwhile recently engaged lovebirds Josiah and Lauren were renovating a 9,000-square-foot house that was owned by Jim Bob.

Party time! The family celebrated the birthday over a lavish, balloon-filled bash

House to home: Meanwhile recently engaged lovebirds Josiah and Lauren were renovating a 9,000-square-foot house that was owned by Jim Bob

Showing it off: Bob toured the home with his son and future daughter-in-law

'There's so many different spots you could get lost in,' marveled Josiah, 22.

In the days before Joy's birth the Duggar women had rallied around to pre-prepare some meals for her.

Michelle predicted that the child would weigh around eight pounds.

Jump for joy! The kids jumped about the Bouncy House with Jim Bob

Showing their support: In the days before Joy's birth the Duggar women had rallied around to pre-prepare some meals for her

'I'm very uncomfortable,' said Joy, who was 'excited' to get the birth over with.

'I'm trying not to be scared,' she said.

She went into labor at 7pm on her due date.

The family rushed around to give their support and prayers.

Source of strength: Austin explained, 'I'm just trying to be that rock that she needs'

'I'm just trying to be that rock that she needs,' said Austin.

'I'd been preparing myself until that last moment and then I was like 'I'm in labor' and it set in,' said Joy.

'It was hard to see my wife in pain, that was probably about the hardest thing,' said Austin, who was an EMT for four years.

Counting On continues next week on TLC.Late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin was Australia's most iconic conservationist.

And on Tuesday, his daughter Bindi, 20, took to Instagram to remember the wildlife warrior on the 12th anniversary of his death.

Sharing a family photo of herself nestled into Steve as a youngster, and brother Bob sitting on mother Terri's lap, she added a heartbreaking caption.

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'Together forever': Bindi Irwin (3-L) shares emotional tribute to her late Crocodile Hunter father Steve (right) on the 12th anniversary of his death. Also pictured, Bindi's mum Terri and brother Bob

'Together forever,' she wrote, adding a love heart emoji.

Steve died in 2006 after his heart was pierced by a stingray barb.

In addition to The Crocodile Hunter, he also hosted other shows including Croc Files from 1999 to 2001 along with the Crocodile Hunter Diaries.

Grown up: Sharing a family photo of herself nestled into Steve as a youngster, and brother Bob sitting on mother Terri's lap, Bindi added a heartbreaking caption

The Crocodile Hunter: Steve died in 2006 after his heart was pierced by a stingray barb

A lover of wildlife early on, Steve and Terri also operated Australia Zoo, which was founded by Steve's parents, which first opened in 1970.

Known as a close-knit family, Steve's widow Terri revealed to comedian Anh Do that her husband's death rocked the entire family.

'He would sit in the bathtub and cry, 'I just want my dad,''' Terri told Anh's Brush With Fame earlier this year.

'I think Bindi grasped it, she understood.'

Terri also revealed she went to extreme lengths to protect her children in the wake of Steve's shock death.

'I've literally got them rolled up in blankets on the back seats of vehicles to keep them from being photographed at their most vulnerable,' she explained.

At the time of his death, the family held a public memorial service for Steve at Australia Zoo, with Bindi moving fans to tears when she addressed the crowd.

'My daddy was my hero - he was always there for me when I needed him': At his memorial, Bindi gave a moving speech which moved the crowd to tears

'My daddy was my hero - he was always there for me when I needed him,' Bindi said in the moving speech, at the tender age of eight.

Appearing on the US version of Dancing With The Stars in 2015, Bindi said she had struggled to come to terms with her father's death.

Speaking through the tears, she admitted: 'It took a really long time to understand what actually happened. For the rest of my life, I'll kind of feel like he's going to come home.'

She added: 'No matter where I go dad will always be with me. His spirit lives on. I wish he could fully understand just how much he's done for me. And that I miss him.'Q: Could you please tell us your expectations for your upcoming official visit to Russia and what issues you would like to discuss with President Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders?

A: At the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation and I are scheduled to visit the Russian Federation in the coming time. The visit takes place at a time when the relationship between the two countries is developing well; especially on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of a treaty on the basic principles for bilateral friendship in 2019, and the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between Vietnam and Russia in 2020.

My official visit to Russia aims to deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia, strengthen strategic ties and promote cooperation in all areas. I will hold comprehensive discussions with President Putin and Russian leaders on bilateral relations, on the major directions and measures to promote relations of the two countries in all areas, and on regional and international issues of mutual interest. I believe that the visit will create new impetus for the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia to further develop and further enhance the quality and efficiency of bilateral cooperation for the benefit of the two peoples, and for peace, stability and development of Asia-Pacific.

Q: Could you please give an assessment of the time-honoured friendship and the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia in the recent past?

A: The time-honoured friendly relationship between Vietnam and Russia has been tested over time and nurtured by generations of leaders and people of two countries. This is an invaluable common asset of the two nations, which should be preserved and promoted. Russia is a very important traditional partner of Vietnam. Over the past 70 years, the two peoples have stood shoulder to shoulder, and helped each other. I do not see any problem hindering the further development and deepening of bilateral relations between the two countries.

With the tradition of Drinking Water, But Remembering the Source, the Vietnamese people will never forget the great spiritual and material support from the people of the former Soviet Union, including the Russian people, for the people of Vietnam in the fight for national independence and the cause of construction and defence nowadays.

There are probably few countries in the world like Vietnam that has many generations of people, including leaders from central to local levels, who have been trained and studied in Russia. Currently, Russia is one of the few countries with the highest number of Vietnamese living and studying. Vietnam has become an attractive tourist destination for Russian tourists. These are important factors contributing to strengthening the friendship and mutual understanding between the peoples of the two countries.

Vietnam always attaches great importance to strengthening its comprehensive strategic partnership with the Russian Federation. Since the two countries lifted their relationship to the level of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2012, political relations have become increasingly credible; exchanges of delegations at all levels, especially high-ranking delegations have taken place on all channels of the Party, government, parliament and localities. The two sides maintain many effective and appropriate mechanisms of exchange. Economic, trade, investment, security and defence cooperation are strengthened. Vietnam is the first country to sign a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union.

However, the bilateral economic-trade cooperation remains modest. After the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the EAEU came into effect in October 2016, the trade revenue has grown by 30% in the past two years to about US$3.5 billion in 2017, which is considered very low and does not match with the good political relations, great potential and expectations of the two sides. We hope this sector will develop further and soon become a pillar of bilateral relations in the coming time. It can be said that the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia is developing in a deeper, more substantive and sustainable manner.

Q: Vietnam and Russia have experienced long-term cooperation and success in the field of energy. Could you assess the new tasks for this field in the future?

A: I totally agree with such a comment. The Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant is a symbol of cooperation in the field of energy. The project was built by the former Soviet Union, and has brought about economic efficiency as well as ensured energy security for Vietnam in the development process. Besides, Vietnamese-Russian joint ventures in oil and gas fields such as Vietsovpetro, Rusvietpetro, Gazpromviet and Vietgazprom are the symbols of cooperation between the two countries in the new era, bringing about positive economic efficiency for both Vietnam and Russia.

The potential for cooperation between the two countries in this field is still great. Vietnam is in the period of industrialisation and modernisation, the demand for investment, construction and development of infrastructure, energy and electricity is huge. The Party and State always welcome and create favourable conditions for Russian enterprises to participate in the modernisation projects of the former Soviet-built power plants, as well as new energy projects. This comes from the experience of long-term cooperation with the Russian Federation and because Russia has high technology and is a very reliable partner for Vietnam.

Cooperation in the field of oil and gas has been very active, one of the areas of long-term strategic cooperation, both politically and economically. The oil and gas industry has become a key economic sector of Vietnam. I appreciate the effectiveness of cooperation of Russian companies such as Gazprom, Zarubezneft, Rosneft with Vietnam in recent years. Vietnam encourages, supports and is ready to create the best conditions for Russian enterprises to continue investing and operating in Vietnam.

We cannot ignore an important direction, which is the cooperation of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation today have been training many leading scientists and experts in this field for Vietnam. The two countries have agreed to build a Centre for Nuclear Energy Science and Technology in Vietnam. This is a very important project for both countries to promote the research and development of national nuclear science and technology, to train highly qualified staff, and accelerate the application of nuclear energy to the socio-economic and scientific-technological fields.

Q: Could you assess the current situation and prospects of defence-security and military-technical cooperation between Vietnam and the Russian Federation?

A: Cooperation on defence and security between the two countries, including military-technical cooperation is a key and traditional field of cooperation. In recent years, this field of cooperation has been continuously expanded and strengthened, reflecting the high trust between the two countries in line with the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and the Russian Federation. I highly appreciate the very effective and dynamic cooperation between the two countries, especially in the areas of cooperation such as the training of officers, UN peacekeeping, navy, military medicine, and military technology, among others. In the coming time, defence and security cooperation between the two countries will continue to play an important role in the overall strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia.

Thank you very much!With a successful business under her belt, Sonya Mefaddi has had the last laugh after being portrayed as the 'villain' on this year's season of My Kitchen Rules.

And on Monday, Sonya Mefaddi arrived in NYC ahead of Fashion Week, where she will be showcasing several Australian labels as owner of the Fashion Palette agency.

In a photo shared to Instagram, the glamorous brunette posed next to a yellow taxi in a flirty, thigh-skimming mini dress and designer sneakers.

Taking a bite out of the Big Apple! My Kitchen Rules' Sonya Mefaddi stunned in a flirty mini dress after arriving in New York City for Fashion Week on Monday

'Its so good to be back in New York!' she captioned the snap. 'Looking forward to producing another @fashionpalette season with just three days to go.'

In July, the former MKR star shared several photos from her holiday in Las Vegas, following a successful showing at Miami Swim Week.

Taking to Instagram to document the trip, she posted a short clip of herself enjoying a gondola ride at The Venetian Hotel.

Big in America! In July, the former MKR star shared several photos from her holiday in Las Vegas , following a successful showing at Miami Swim Week. Pictured at The Venetian Hotel

She looked simply sensational in a plunging yellow Michael Kors dress while soaking up her surroundings at the five-star venue.

Sonya, who displayed a golden tan, also styled her dark hair loosely over her shoulders and opted for natural-look makeup.

She accessorised with white sunglasses and a chic, black and beige handbag.

Living it up! During her Vegas trip, Sonya shared this photo of herself by The Venetian's 'canal'

Later, she shared another photo of herself by The Venetian's 'canal', writing in the caption: 'First time in Vegas, strolling around The Grand Canal Shops'.

Before heading to Las Vegas, Sonya was in Florida for Fashion Palette's runway show at Miami Swim Week.

Launched by Sonya in 2009, Fashion Palette is an Australian fashion agency that helps designers grow their businesses across the world.

Mixing business and pleasure: Before heading to Las Vegas, Sonya was in Florida for Fashion Palette's runway show at Miami Swim Week. Launched by Sonya in 2009, Fashion Palette is an Australian fashion agency that helps designers grow their businesses across the world

Over it? Meanwhile, Sonya has been trying to distance herself from the controversy surrounding her departure from My Kitchen Rules. She recently claimed that she was 'never best friends' with partner Hadil Faiza, despite the fact they were billed as 'BFFs' on the program

Meanwhile, Sonya has been trying to distance herself from the controversy surrounding her departure from My Kitchen Rules.

She recently claimed that she was 'never best friends' with partner Hadil Faiza, despite the fact they were billed as 'BFFs' on the program.

'Firstly, Hadil and I were never best friends as the show suggested,' Sonya told her Instagram followers during a Q&A session earlier this year.

'We are in fact family friends. I have never cooked with her prior to the show and I have learned a lot about Hadil while filming.'In July he was cleared of sexual assault allegations made against him in the U.S.

But now it's claimed that the girlfriend who stood by Ed Westwick through his ordeal has moved out of the apartment they shared together.

The British actor's split from Jessica Serfaty was reported by The Sun newspaper on Monday.

Split: The Sun reported Monday that actor Ed Westwick and his girlfriend Jessica Serfaty, pictured in November 2017, have parted ways after more than a year of dating

A source close to the model and actress, 27, who has a 10-year-old son, told the Sun: 'Ed did not dump Jess, I think they still love each other  theyre just taking time apart to work on themselves and their careers.'

They had a flat together and remodelled and furnished it, but she is now living in her own apartment elsewhere,' the source added. 'They still talk, but Jess has booked a film and has been spending a lot of time away shooting recently.'

The two had been in a relationship since May 2017.

No charges: In July, the actor, 31, was cleared by prosecutors in LA after being accused of sexually assaulting four women. He's pictured at Craig's in West Hollywood on August 17

Stood by her man: In July, Serfaty shared this snap of Westwick along with a supportive message

In the past week, Serfaty has been posting photos to Instagram from the set of her new movie Wheels of Fortune.

Westwick was accused of sexual assault by four women and the district attorney's office decided to go forward with an investigation into three of the allegations in March. He vehemently denied all the accusations.

In a memo released in July, prosecutors said they were not able to collect enough evidence to pursue charges against the former Gossip Girl star.

At the time, Serfaty posted a supportive message and photos of Westwick on social media, writing: 'Very happy for this man. After everything, justice was served.'

Last month, the actor, 31, said he was 'delighted' at being cleared and vowed he would be 'back to work very soon.'

His lawyer Blair Berk told TMZ : 'The evidence was clear from the start that each of the allegations made by these three women were absolutely untrue.'

'It is a shame there are those who prejudged this case and that it took over eight months for Ed to be officially cleared of all of these charges.'Channel Seven's new dating game show Take Me Out premiered to rave reviews on Monday night, as viewers tuned in to see 30 single women attempt to find love.

However, an insider on set of the Joel Creasey fronted program has revealed things may not have been as fun or spontaneous as they seem on screen.

Daily Mail Australia can exclusively reveal that the stars of the show were required to follow a strict set of rules while filming in Sydney earlier this year.

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EXCLUSIVE: Take Me Out star reveals what REALLY happens behind the scenes of the dating show... from arguments over 'revealing' dresses to being fed one-liners by producers

The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said: 'The girls would each rehearse their lines and comments before arriving on set.'

'They weren't necessarily told what to say or following a script, but they were definitely fed flirty and witty remarks from producers.'

The insider continued: 'There was also a lot of telling them things they couldn't say as they wanted to avoid any controversy and keep things clean but cheeky - rather than vulgar.'

Discussing the reasoning behind this, the insider claims that Take Me Out is a 'family friendly show' and it doesn't want to come across too crass.

Show secrets: An insider on set revealed that the girls, including Erika Tsukita (pictured), would 'rehearse lines' before filming and were advised to 'cover up' for 'family friendly show'

Showing off: Daily Mail Australia previously revealed how contestant Erika, and several other stars, are far less reserved on their Instagram profiles

When it came to the fashion featured on the show, Daily Mail Australia's insider claimed that contestants were advised to cover up.

'They were each told to bring their own clothes which the styling team would help them with and it couldn't be anything too revealing,' the source said.

'Everyone was very conscious about keeping it family friendly.'

Following the launch on Monday, Daily Mail Australia revealed how several of the contestants have been sharing racy images online.

Time off: Talking about the logistics surrounding production, the insider claimed that the girls were each required to take one and a half weeks off work for the whole shoot

Hard work: During this time, they'd be required on set from approximately 7AM until 1AM, stayed in luxury apartments in Sydney and only had one day off

Talking about the logistics surrounding production, the insider claimed that the girls were each required to take one and a half weeks off work for the whole shoot.

Each day on set would be from approximately 7AM until 1AM, as man after man attempted to impress Joel's 'Flirty Thirty' single ladies.

The program, which sees 30 women standing behind podiums while a lineup of male suitors try to impress them, was first launched in Denmark in 2008.

No success: The insider also claimed that none of the couples, who are sent on dates to the Gold Coast, have stayed together since filming wrapped

When not filming, the girls were all staying together at Sydney's Meriton apartments in Waterloo - where they were allowed one day off while filming.

'The majority of the girls got along but there were some clashes,' the insider said.

'Some of them didn't appreciate how others had formed mini cliques and there were a couple of bitchy group chats going on.'

Once any of the girls had managed to bag themselves a date, the potential couple were then sent to the Gold Coast with a camera crew to capture everything.

However, the insider claimed there wasn't too much to actually capture.'

'A lot of the girls became frustrated that on their dates they barely spent any actual time together and the day was just spent doing different pieces to camera.'

'None of the couples from the series have stayed together.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Seven for comment.

Moderate success: Despite the strict rules behind the scenes, the show proved to be a slight hit in the ratings with 604,000 tuning in to see the girls - including Instagram's Shania Perrett

Despite the strict rules behind the scenes, the show proved to be a moderate success in the ratings.

Take Me Out ranked fourth in its timeslot at 7:30pm and drew a modest 604,000 metro viewers, Mumbrella reported on Tuesday.

The Block was the most-watched show of the night, with 1.068 million metro viewers.

Instagram star Shania Perrett, who boasts almost 600,000 followers, was one of the biggest scoops for the show while casting.He rose to fame as the curly-haired hunk on this year's Love Island.

But Eyal Booker got back to his modelling roots as he flashed his washboard abs in a steamy shirtless photoshoot.

The new-found reality star, 22, who is among the line-up for Celebs Go Dating, showcased his gym-honed physique as he posed in nothing but a pair of white Calvin Klein's.

Sets pulses racing: Eyal Booker got back to his modelling roots as he flashed his abs in a steamy shirtless photoshoot

Eyal worked all angles as he posed in the men's briefs, flexing his rippling biceps and showing off his impressive eight-pack.

The television personality, who recently sent fans wild when he straightened his hair on Instagram, modelled a collection of looks with the hairstyle.

Changing out of his briefs, Eyal donned a number of tailored suits, posing in restaurant doorways.

Shirtless: The new-found reality star, 22, who is among the line-up for Celebs Go Dating, showcased his gym-honed physique as he posed in nothing but a pair of white Calvin Klein's

Smouldering: Eyal worked all angles as he posed in the men's briefs, flexing his rippling biceps and showing off his impressive eight-pack

The unlucky-in-love Love Island star cut a dapper figure in a sharp grey suit and camel pea coat before changing into a teal blue two-piece suit and burgundy tie.

Eyal drew attention to his straightened locks styling his hair in a swept over side-parting.

The headline-grabbing model had previously pulled off the straight style for a photo shoot back in 2016 before his rise to fame on this year's Love Island.

And although he failed to find love with Hayley Hughes and later Megan, Eyal hasn't given up as he will join the star-studded cast of Celebs Go Dating.

Curly-haired hunk: He wore his soft brown hair in his signature curly style and wore an array of chained silver bracelets

Versatile: The television personality, who recently sent fans wild when he straightened his hair on Instagram, modelled a collection of looks with the hairstyle

Handsome: The unlucky-in-love Love Island star cut a dapper figure in a sharp grey suit and camel pea coat

Working the camera: Eyal also modelled a teal blue two-piece suit and burgundy tie

Different look: Eyal drew attention to his straightened locks styling his hair in a swept over side-parting

Sending fans wild: The headline-grabbing model had previously pulled off the straight style for a photoshoot back in 2016 before his rise to fame on this year's Love Island

The hunk is already popular with the ladies on the show, especially in the eyes of Gogglebox's Amy Tapper and she isn't the only one.

Eyal has bosses 'worried' that the celebs are falling for him instead of the people lined up for them by the agency, according to The Sun.

It's said Olivia Attwood and Chloe Sims have also taken a shine to the charmer but none more so than Amy, 18.

Romantic at heart: Although he failed to find love with Hayley Hughes and later Megan, Eyal hasn't given up as he will join the star-studded cast of Celebs Go Dating

A source told the publication: 'Everyone from Chloe to Olivia think hes so fit and such a nice guy. Amy is really taken with him. Hes the talk of the show  hes so intense when he speaks to you, its hard not to fall for him.

'Bosses are actually worried that the celebs will want to date him, not the people lined up by the dating agency.'

But it's claimed Eyal isn't on the show to play games and is very much on the lookout for love - something he failed to find during his time in the villa.

The insider added: 'If any of the girls do make a move, theyre set to have their heart broken. Eyals taking it very, very seriously and has his heart set on meeting someone special.'Their relationship has been going from strength-to-strength of late.

And Charlotte Crosby appeared to be taking a trip with her Ex On The Beach star boyfriend Joshua Ritchie on Monday, arriving at London's Euston station together hours before her car was towed away after suffering a flat tyre.

The former Geordie Shore beauty, 27, appeared to be having trouble with her hoodie, grappling with the grey garment as she struggled to pull it over her head.

Struggle: Charlotte Crosby appeared to be taking a trip with her Ex On The Beach star boyfriend Joshua Ritchie on Monday, arriving at London 's Euston station together hours before her car was towed after suffering a flat tyre

Charlotte flashed a hint of her flat stomach in a white crop top, paired with denim shorts and comfy trainers.

She carried her essentials in a Louis Vuitton tote bag, while Joshua, 24, slung a coordinating designer holdall over one shoulder. The pair enjoyed a bite to eat at the station before jetting out of London together.

And while delighted to be with her other half, Charlotte had a very different experience hours later as she captured her car being towed away on her Instagram story.

Suffering a flat tyre, the MTV darling recorded her car being lifted onto the truck and secured into place while a cameraman filmed the moment for her reality series.

Going: And while delighted to be with her other half, Charlotte had a very different experience hours later as she captured her car being towed away

Secure: Suffering a flat tyre, the MTV darling recorded her car being lifted onto the truck and secured into place while a cameraman filmed the moment for her reality series

Speaking on the short clip, Charlotte said: 'oh no, Houston we have a problem.'

Charlotte recently hinted that she's ready to take the next step with Joshua, revealing that she's ready to start preparing for their nuptials.

The MTV star wrote on Twitter: 'I think Im gunna start to the plan my wedding now.'

She added: 'I mean Im not engaged or haven't been asked but PREPARATION is KEY. HINT.'

Low-key: Charlotte flashed a hint of her flat stomach in a white crop top, paired with denim shorts and comfy trainers

He's The One! Charlotte recently hinted that she's ready to take the next step with Joshua, revealing that she's ready to start preparing for their nuptials

Moving quickly: The reality TV favourite even recently unveiled a new inking dedicated to her boyfriend

Josh seemed less than keen however, replying: 'Hahaha just seen this.. HINT.'

Charlotte has been dating Josh since February but previously dropped the bombshell that she was texting him long before their romance started, as far back as before her split with Stephen Bear in October last year.

The reality TV favourite even recently unveiled a new inking dedicated to her boyfriend - despite having undergone painful laser removal procedures to rid herself of tattoo tributes to her exes.

Last month, she showed off her new 'Joshua' tattoo in flowing script across the back of her neck, as a sweet tribute to her beau of six months.They have been in an off-off relationship since 2014 and are said to be looking for their very own love-nest.

And Gerard Butler and Morgan Brown looked close as they enjoyed a cruise in a vintage Ford Bronco on Malibu's Pacific Highway on Monday.

The Hollywood actor, 48, and his 41-year-old love were enjoying some quality time together as they chatted during the scenic drive, with 300 actor Gerard affectionately resting his arm on the back of Morgan's seat.

Cute couple: Gerard Butler and Morgan Brown looked close as they enjoyed a cruise in a vintage Ford Bronco on Malibu's Pacific Highway on Monday

The handsome star looked casually cool in a powder grey open-necked shirt and sported a distinguished beard for the casual day out.

His beautiful partner was stylish in a strappy top, while her caramel flecked brunette tresses were styled in loose waves.

Looking California chic, she accentuated her pretty features with a radiant dusting of make-up.

It was recently reported that Gerard was looking to move in with his on/off girlfriend.

Chatty: The Hollywood actor, 48, and his 41-year-old love were enjoying some quality time together as they chatted during the scenic drive, with 300 actor Gerard affectionately resting his arm on the back of Morgan's seat

The Bounty Hunter actor and the are believed to have been busy eyeing up potential properties in the Chelsea area of New York.

A source told the New York Post's Page Six: 'Things are looking serious. Gerry sold his $6 million Chelsea loft last year and is looking for a bigger space to share with Morgan.'

The couple are hoping to style the 4,100-square-foot apartment at 236 West 26th Street with a 'rustic' look.

'They have visited a sprawling loft in Chelsea twice and are trying to determine if the home can be decorated in a more "rustic" way compared to the sophisticated look that the current owners achieved.'

Last year, the 48-year-old actor sold his Chelsea loft apartment -which he described as 'bohemian old-world rustic chateau with a taste of baroque' - for a reported $5.99 million.

Cute couple: The handsome star looked casually cool in a powder grey open-necked shirt and sported a distinguished beard for the casual day out

The couple - who have been seeing each other on/off since 2014 - were believed to have split in August last year, after a 'make or break' holiday to Mexico.

But in October, the 300 star said he was ready to start a family and settle down within the next few years.

Gerard - who has previously been romantically linked to the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Biel - said: 'I have no personal life.

In five years I want to be in a relationship. I'd love to have one or two kids - it's about time.

'I want to be more run by my personal life than my career.'

Gerard's next film the action/thriller Hunter Killer due out October 2018. He also stars in the movie Keepers set for release later this year.Last month, she showcased her red carpet style at the premiere of her latest film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

And on Monday, Amanda Seyfried cut a casual figure as she headed out for lunch with friends at Joan's on Third in Studio City, Los Angeles.

The talented actress, 32, wore a heavily distressed pair of cropped indigo jeans with a high-necked box red T-shirt as she made her way to the restaurant.

Casual chic: Amanda Seyfried, 32, cut a casual figure as she took a break from her movie career to go for lunch with friends at Joan's on Third in Studio City, Los Angeles

Prepared for the potential of cooler weather, the movie star wrapped a simple navy sweater around her waist.

Amanda hit the pavement in black sliders which featured a pretty twist knot centre-point, and draped the short straps of a dusty pink velvet drawstring bag over her arm.

The Mean Girls actress shielded her eyes with a pair of vintage inspired sunglasses and accessorised wit large gold hoop earrings.

The mother of one added a subtle wave to her blonde locks and left them to drape around her shoulders, opting for a chic side parting.

Stylish: The talented actress looked fresh-faced and sported heavily distressed pair of cropped indigo jeans with a high-necked pillar box red T-shirt tucked into the waistband

She removed her stylish shades in order to see her mobile phone's screen more clearly, and flaunted her stunning make-up free face in the process.

Amanda is married to American stage, film, and television actor Thomas Sadoski; they wed last March.

The lovebirds are parents to a daughter, who they welcomed that same month, and have decided to keep her name private.

Talking about how motherhood has changed her career choices, Seyfried told PorterEdit: 'I feel more empowered.'

'Ill say no, I cant do that press trip, Im spending time with my daughter,' the actress said.

'Oh, you want my top off for that part? How about we scrap that sex scene altogether? And no, Im not wearing those thongs!'Last month, he was spotted getting to character as Reverend Will Davenport as he embarked on filming for his new role in the hit ITV drama Grantchester.

And on Monday, Tom Brittney looked even more the part as he donned a clerical collar while shooting scenes on the streets of Cambridge on Monday afternoon.

Taking over from James Norton, 33  whose role as Reverend Sidney Chambers is set to be seen for the last time during the upcoming fourth season  the 33-year-old actor commanded attention as he filmed with Tessa Peake-Jones and Al Weaver.

Getting into character: Tom Brittney was spotted shooting scenes for ITV drama Grantchester in Cambridge on Monday

Outlander and Call The Midwife star James was spotted going over his lines and scrolling through his mobile phone in between takes for the 1950s-set crime-drama.

He enjoyed a friendly chat with Tessa  who portrays vicarage housekeeper Mrs. Sylvia Maguire on the show  before sharing a warm hug with Al, who plays junior Anglican curate Leonard Finch.

While Tom is set to take over leading the show, he will be playing the new character of Reverend Will Davenport, with James Norton's Reverend Sidney Chambers leaving the show.

New: The actor portrays Reverend Will Davenport on the show, taking over from outgoing star James Norton (right), who won over legions of fans as Reverend Sidney Chambers

Upbeat: The 27-year-old actor appeared to be in an upbeat mood as he chatted with the crew

Robson Green, who plays the Reverend's crime-fighting partner DI Geordie Keating, has also been spotted returning to shoot scenes with the show's stars.

James has played the Reverend since the show's beginning in 2014, but confirmed earlier this year that season four will be his last.

Tom was announced as his replacement soon after, playing new lead role Reverend Will Davenport.

A spokesperson for ITV said: 'A man of the people, confident, caring and self-assured, Grantchesters young, new parish priest Will Davenport channels his boundless energy into a quest for social justice.

Friendly chat: He enjoyed a friendly chat with Tessa  who portrays vicarage housekeeper Mrs. Sylvia Maguire on the show

Stepping out in style: The actress cut a stylish figure in her ensemble, which included a tailored coat and green beret

'He is a man of God, but with the devil inside of him. As Geordie draws him into righting the wrongs of criminal Cambridge, Wills own troubled past is unearthed.'

James revealed he was 'heartbroken' to be leaving the show, but was looking forward to pursuing new roles.

He said: 'As excited as I am to be filming a new series of Grantchester, its also heartbreaking to be saying goodbye to Sidney Chambers.

'Ive loved this experience, and particularly working with such an extraordinary cast and crew. All the best to the fantastic Tom Brittney in his role as the new vicar. He is a wonderful addition to the Grantchester family.'

Co-stars: Kacey Ainsworth was also spotted chatting away with her handsome new co-starThey posed for an NW magazine photo shoot together this week, proclaiming that they'd ended their feud and become firm friends.

But not everyone is buying the girl-mance between former Love Island rivals Cassidy McGill and Tayla Damir.

On Tuesday, Cassidy took to her Instagram Stories to respond to a fan who pointed out that the women are not active on one another's social media accounts.

'Just because someone doesn't like my photo or post me on their Instagram doesn't define our relationship': Love Island Australia's Cassidy McGill insists she and Tayla Damir are best friends despite being absent from one another's social media

'Ever since they became 'friends' @tayla.damir doesn't comment on anything of Cassidy's posts so she clearly doesn't like her as much as Cassidy likes her,' the fan commented under a photo of the pair together.

Cassidy hit back, writing: 'Guys can I just remind you all that social media, and Instagram in particular is not always an accurate way to determine someone's relationships or lives.'

The former reality star added that there is more to her life than what appears on Instagram.

Behind the scenes: On Tuesday, Cassidy took to her Instagram Stories to respond to a fan who pointed out that the women are not active on one another's social media accounts despite claiming to be close friends

'Just because someone doesn't like my photo or post me on their Instagram doesn't define our relationship.

'Yes, social media does allow us to share our lives, but it's it basically one percent of what's going on - good and bad. Remember that,' the 23-year-old concluded.

At the end of August, the former love rivals first revealed they had mended fences when they both posted a friendly photo to social media.

Cassidy told her fans: 'Just because someone doesn't like my photo or post me on their Instagram doesn't define our relationship. Yes, social media does allow us to share our lives, but it's it basically one percent of what's going on - good and bad. Remember that'

Mates! At the end of August, the former love rivals first revealed they had mended fences when they both posted a similar friendly photo to social media

'Ran into this little possum!' Cassidy captioned her version of the photo, in which she is standing alongside Tayla.

The 21-year-old Tayla shared a similar photo, but captioned it with a cheeky reference to their feud on Love Island.

Writing, 'Hi Felicia' the 21-year-old was referencing her final words to Cassidy when she was evicted from the island, which were 'Bye Felicia'.

Warring: he feud between the blonde and the brunette began when Cassidy picked Tayla's love interest Grant Crapp during a recoupling ceremony

They then appeared in photo shoot for NW magazine this week, which Cassidy shared to Instagram adding the caption: 'When you realize [sic] you picked the wrong person in your last re-coupling'.

She added: 'The worlds [sic] always going to be a better place when women support each other.'

The feud between the blonde and the brunette began when Cassidy picked Tayla's love interest Grant Crapp during a recoupling ceremony, but Tayla and Grant have split since leaving the island.Ryan Thomas' mum has said she will 'never forgive' Roxanne Pallett after the actress falsely accused her son of punching her on Celebrity Big Brother.

Gail Waring appeared on This Morning on Tuesday following the ex-Emmerdale star's very public apology in which she stated she made a 'massive, horrible mistake'.

Gail revealed she has been unable to watch the Channel 5 because she was too 'distressed' at seeing her 34-year-old son break down in tears after the punch row and expressed her worry at how long it would take for Ryan to pick himself back up again.

Hitting back: Ryan Thomas' mum has said she will 'never forgive' Roxanne Pallett after the actress falsely accused her son of punching her on Celebrity Big Brother

Speaking of the incident where Roxanne called Ryan a 'woman beater' after he playfully jabbed her, she told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: 'I don't think Ill ever forgive her.

'I just want Ryan to feel good in his own state of mind, that will help me forgive Roxy more if he can be normal again. He needs to have a personal apology.

'I was almost giggling with them as they were play fighting. I was still thinking it was playful. Was smiling at it. I never dreamt of the response from Roxanne.'

Mistake: Gail Waring appeared on This Morning on Tuesday following the ex-Emmerdale star's very public apology in which she stated she made a 'massive, horrible mistake'

Devastated: Gail revealed she has been unable to watch the Channel 5 because she was too 'distressed' at seeing her 34-year-old son break down in tears after the punch row

Shocked: She said: 'I was almost giggling with them as they were play fighting. I was still thinking it was playful. Was smiling at it. I never dreamt of the response from Roxanne'

'Personal apology': Speaking about the soap star's apology, Gail said: 'It was a relief for me but at the end of the day she needs to apologise to Ryan personally'

On Monday night, Roxanne dubbed herself 'the most hated woman in Britain' after returning to the Celebrity Big Brother studio for a pre-recorded interview.

Speaking about the soap star's apology, Gail said: 'It was a relief for me but at the end of the day she needs to apologise to Ryan personally. He needs his warning taken off him.

Shes getting a lot of airtime and is the only one speaking out and I would like Ryan to use his voice.'

She added: 'Hes got an awful lot of support. The nation when he comes out thats going to help him, plus his girlfriend with Lucy will smother with him hugs and kisses.

National treasure: She added: 'Hes got an awful lot of support. The nation when he comes out thats going to help him, plus his girlfriend with Lucy will smother with him hugs and kisses'

Breaking down: Ryan has been in emotional turmoil during his time in the house as he worried that he could be 'finished' following the allegations

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

'But how long will it take for him to pick himself up?'

Gail said she is unable to watch the show after Ryan broke down in tears worrying his career was in tatters.

'I cant watch him cry and distressed it makes me very distressed, it really hurts.

'He's the godfather of the family, hes always looked after us. Now we want to look after him.

'He went in there for a challenge. He was in work on a long term show for 16 years. He did Bear Grylls and this was a challenge for him, he was looking forward to it. He loves people and joking, laughing.'

Gail also commented on the 25,257 complaints to Ofcom after Roxanne asked producers for Ryan to be kicked out of the show because of his play fight.

'I'm the most hated girl in Britain': Roxanne Pallett told Emma Willis on Celebrity Big Brother on Monday night that she made a 'massive, horrible mistake' over her Ryan Thomas punch claim

Second appearance: Roxanne's CBB interview was the second - appearing earlier on Monday on Jeremy Vine but Emma was praised for asking all the important questions

Viewers watched the actor receive a formal warning in the Diary Room, following her accusations.

She said: 'Lucys been speaking to the production on my behalf. Hes my baby, whatever age they are whenever they are in distress you want to reach out give them a hug I can't.'

Roxanne walked out of the Big Brother house in the early hours of Saturday morning after claiming Thomas punched her 'like a boxer would punch a bag' on Thursday night's episode.

Ryan had playfully 'punched' Roxanne in the dining area of the CBB house. She branded him a 'woman beater' before going to the Diary Room to demand Ryan be removed from the house.

Demanding answers: Responding to firm questioning by Emma, Roxanne said she was 'devastated and sorry' and that she was 'scared about her future'

He was issued with a formal warning, but Roxanne claimed to be afraid of him, asking to sleep in a separate room that evening and seen crying and shaking.

She then told her fellow housemates that he had 'repeatedly hit her in the ribs', which led them to confront him about it.

On eventually understanding what took place, the housemates backed Ryan, with Roxanne leaving the show in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Appearing on a pre-recorded interview for the show on Monday night, she told host Emma Willis: 'I needed to come and tell everyone that I got it wrong, I'm human, I made a massive, massive, horrible mistake.

When asked by Emma whether she felt she could be forgiven for the ordeal, the ex-Emmerdale star said: 'I would hope that I could be [forgiven].'

Echoing much of what she said earlier on Monday, when she appeared on current affairs show Jeremy Vine, Roxanne began her interview by saying: 'Watching [the clip of what happened] feels like a completely different scenario to how it felt at the time.

'How it felt when he did it - it hurt. I can't prove a feeling, it became heightened and I convinced myself that he meant it. It DID hurt.'The event was jointly held by the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) Central Committees Commission for External Relations, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples (ICAP), and the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR).

Speaking at the event, ICAP Vice President Jose Prieto Cintado recalled the visit, saying that Fidel Castro became the only foreign head of state passing through the 17th parallel to visit a liberated region in Quang Tri province when the war was ongoing.

While congratulating Vietnam on its achievements in national development, Cintado affirmed the late leaders statements and actions on Cubas solidarity with Vietnam have become a valuable asset in history of bilateral ties.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Nguyen Trung Thanh said that Fidel Castros revolutionary thoughts and ambitions always serve as a lodestar for those who have devoted to solidarity between the two nations.

The Vietnamese people will continue intensify the brotherhood with the Cuban people, he stressed.

On this occasion, the Vietnamese Embassy opened a photo exhibition featuring the historical visit by leader Fidel Castro as well as the two countries relations and Vietnams images during the Doi moi (Reform) process.

Activities to mark 45 years of the historical visit will be organised in almost all provinces and cities of Cuba, with the main one slated for September 12.She's been hard at work promoting her latest TV offering, The Cry.

And Jenna Coleman enjoyed some well-earned downtime as she puffed on a cigarette while taking a break outside London's Soho Hotel with author Helen FitzGerald on Monday night.

The actress, 32, looked retro chic as she displayed her unique sense of style in a long sleeved brown paisley print polo-neck top and coordinating flares.

Stepping out in style: Jenna Coleman enjoyed some downtime as she puffed on a cigarette while taking a break outside London's Soho Hotel with author Helen FitzGerald on Monday

The Victoria star drew attention to her petite frame as the long hem of her flares draped on the floor.

The former Emmerdale favourite wore her glossy brunette locks in loose waves and accentuated her stunning English rose features with natural make-up.

Jenna seemed in good spirits as she puffed away while chatting to Helen, who penned thriller The Cry, on which the forthcoming BBC drama is based on.

The actress wore delicate drop earrings and showed off a dark-coloured manicure as she clutched her cigarette between her fingers.

Elegant: The actress, 32, looked retro chic as she displayed her unique sense of style in a long sleeved brown paisley print polo-neck top and coordinating flares

The Cry was shot in Australia and Scotland and will be shown both in the UK and Down Under.

Jenna portrays Joanna, who is married to Alistair, and travels from Scotland to a town in Australia, to fight for custody of Alistair's daughter, Chloe, against his Australian ex-wife, Alexandra.

As they drive from Melbourne to Geelong, their baby son Noah goes missing suddenly from the side of the road.

Stylish: Jenna was at the Soho Hotel in London to promote her new BBC drama The Cry earlier in the evening

In good company: Jenna was joined for the photocall by the likes of [L-R] Glendyn Ivan, Claire Mundell, Helen Fitzgerald and Edith Bowman

In the aftermath of the tragedy, under public scrutiny, their marriage collapses and her psychology disintegrates.

In early June, Jenna was seen filming the third season of ITV period drama Victoria in Liverpool alongside her real-life boyfriend, actor Tom Hughes, 32.

The brand new series sees actress Jenna reprise her role as the young Queen, alongside Tom as Prince Albert.She recently admitted she 'hasn't started' planning her upcoming nuptials to fiance Joshua Ginnelly, seven months after he proposed.

And Alexandra Burke, 29, looked utterly delighted to be in her other half's company after a vigorous gym session in London on Monday.

The Bad Boys songstress opted to forgo make-up for the occasion as she flashed her taut abs in a vibrant red bardot crop top alongside her beau.

Delight: Alexandra Burke, 29, looked utterly delighted to be in her other half's company after a vigorous gym session in London on Monday

Showcasing her enviable figure, she teamed her wool jumper with a pair of high-waisted black distressed skinny jeans and chain-detailed sliders.

The fresh-faced beauty worked her glossy tresses into a sleek style behind her ears and flashed her ring-free hand while clutching a coffee cup.

Keeping her accessories to a minimum, she sported a pair of small silver hooped earrings and draped a black leather bag over her shoulder as she followed behind her other half.

Abs-olutely: The Bad Boys songstress opted to forgo make-up for the occasion as she flashed her taut abs in a vibrant red bardot crop top alongside her beau

Relaxed: Showcasing her enviable figure, she teamed her wool jumper with a pair of high-waisted black distressed skinny jeans and chain-detailed sliders

Ring-free: The fresh-faced beauty flashed her ring-free hand while clutching a coffee cup

Following Alexandra's stylish lead, Josh kept it casual in a grey T-shirt, jeans and trainers while he carried a number of bags.

Their casual sighting comes after she confessed 'hasn't even started' planning her wedding to fiance Joshua, seven months after announcing their engagement.

Appearing on This Morning recently, the star admitted she hasn't got past setting up a mood board for the big day, as both she and Joshua had been working non-stop.

Mane attraction: She worked her glossy tresses into a sleek style behind her ears

All in the details: Keeping her accessories to a minimum, she sported a pair of small silver hooped earrings

Bag it up: She draped a black leather bag over her shoulder as she followed behind her other half

Speaking to guest presenters Mollie King and Ben Shephard, Alexandra confessed that half a year after Joshua popped the question in Paris, she is yet to start planning her wedding.

She said: 'Pinterest has formed yes, got the mood board going I started that, we recently had our engagement party a couple of weeks ago.

'He's on tour for a year, so the main thing is to enjoy being engaged, calling him my fiance, I want to travel with him more, and then focus on the wedding.'

Following Alexandra's stylish lead, Josh kept it casual in a grey T-shirt, jeans and trainers while he carried a number of bags

All smiles: Alexandra was pictured leaving the Phoenix Theatre following her performance in Chicago

Chill: Their casual sighting comes after she confessed 'hasn't even started' planning her wedding to fiance Joshua, seven months after announcing their engagement

Alexandra also reflected on the moment Joshua popped the question as they drove around Paris, confessing he had to wake her up in the car as she was exhausted from the Strictly Come Dancing final just days earlier.

She added: 'We were driving around Paris and I was so knackered, but then he woke me up with the ring.

'It's just magical being engaged it's so amazing.'

Non-stop: Appearing on This Morning recently, the star admitted she hasn't got past setting up a mood board for the big day, as both she and Joshua had been working non-stopThey are the lead characters in the BBC drama that has gripped the nation with its dramatic plot-lines, romance and cliffhangers.

And Richard Madden, 32, shared an amusing snap with his co-star Keeley Hawes, 42, on Tuesday, where they couldn't help but smile despite filming episode three's explosive cliffhanger.

Covered in dust and fake blood, the stars were in high spirits in the behind the scenes snap despite the intense scenes.

High spirits: Bodyguard co-stars Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden giggled as they posed for a very bloody Twitter selfie after filming THAT bomb scene

Taking to Twitter to share the snap, Richard penned: 'Behind the scenes with the outstandingly talented @Misskeeleyhawes who kept me smiling even through the toughest of days!'

The actor also used an emoji of an explosion, in reference to the fact that a bomb went off during a speech given by the Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley).

Her character was announcing plans for new legislation that would give police more surveillance powers when an anonymous bomber detonated the explosive, and it is unclear whether or not she survived the attack.

Getting on well: Taking to Twitter, Richard wrote: 'Behind the scenes with the outstandingly talented @Misskeeleyhawes who kept me smiling even through the toughest of days!'

The scene ended with Richard's character David Budd searching through a sea of ambulance stretchers looking for his boss and lover, leaving viewers distraught over her fate.

Earlier in the episode, the bodyguard also attempted to strangle his ward after yet another steamy sex session when she crept up on him while he was sleeping.

The nail-biting series follows Budd's employment as the Home Secretary's personal bodyguard, as she attempts to implement authoritarian measures that would allow the government to view terrorism suspect's internet history.

Intense: The actor also used an emoji of an explosion, in reference to the fact that a bomb was detonated at a speech given by the Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley)

Dramatic: Her character was announcing plans for new legislation that would give police more surveillance powers when an anonymous bomber detonated the explosive

Last week the pair began an illicit affair, and this week there were several more sex scenes but in the new episode Montague told him to leave her service after he almost killed her.

She then headed to a college in London to give her speech on the new snooper's charter that gives the police more surveillance powers in an attempt to prevent more terrorist attacks.

But it seems Montague's efforts to change legislation came too late, as an unknown male detonated a bomb just metres away from her.

It was another violent instalment of Bodyguard as last week saw her drenched in her aide's blood after a sniper began shooting at her car.

Just minutes earlier a group of terrorists detonated a bomb in front of a school playground, killing themselves and two police officers.

Cliff-hanger: The scene ended with Richard's character David Budd searching through a sea of ambulance stretchers for her, and it is unclear whether or not she survived the attackShe is a doting mother to five children.

And Jools Oliver cut a stylish figure as she stepped out in Highgate, London on Tuesday.

The designer, 43, opted for a flowing, loose-fitted floral dress and trainers as she enjoyed a day out with her two-year-old son, River.

Day out: Jools Oliver cut a stylish figure as she stepped out with her two-year-old son River in Highgate, London on Tuesday

Jools embraced summer chic in the beige-coloured shirt-dress which fell at a stylish ankle-grazing length.

She opted for minimal make-up and kept it comfortable in a pair of trainers as she kept occupied on a phonecall.

Meanwhile, her other half Jamie recently discussed how he ploughed 12.7million of his own money into his struggling restaurant business last year after being given two hours to save the chain.

Earlier this year, the TV chef announced he was closing 12 of his 37 Jamie's Italian restaurants with 200 jobs affected.

Casual: The designer embraced summer chic in the beige-coloured shirt-dress which fell at a stylish ankle-grazing length

Woes: Her other half Jamie Oliver discussed how he ploughed 12.7million of his own money into his struggling restaurant business last year after being given two hours to save the chain

He also came under fire for failing to pay suppliers after his upmarket steak restaurant Barbecoa crashed into administration.

Speaking about the crisis in an interview released today, Oliver told the Financial Times Magazine: 'I had two hours to put money in and save it or the whole thing would go to s*** that day or the next day... It was as bad as that and as dramatic as that.'

He revealed he initially plunged 7.5million from his own savings into his Italian restaurant chain, followed by a further 5.2million. The firm also took out 37million in loans from HSBC and other companies.

Shutdown: Earlier this year, the TV chef announced he was closing 12 of his 37 Jamie's Italian restaurants with 200 jobs affected

Oliver told the financial newspaper that his firm 'simply run out of cash' and raged at 'people supposed to manage that stuff'.

He said Brexit was among the number to factors which caused a 'perfect storm' for the company, as well as rental costs, local government rates and the increase in the minimum wage.

Barbecoa was said have owed 6.7million owed to creditors in the wake of the problems, although the group now insists everyone has been paid.She's never been shy when it comes to discussing her bedroom antics.

And Nicki Minaj did just that when she detailed her 'exercising' requests on Ellen DeGeneres season 16 premiere episode on Tuesday.

Speaking to the host, the 35-year-old revealed she demanded sex three times a night with no cuddling after the deed was done.

Knows what she wants: Nicki Minaj revealed she demands sex three times a night on Tuesday's episode of the Ellen DeGeneres Show and added that when she had finished the deed, wanted to be left alone

'If you see them once or twice a week, then yeah, three times a night,' she said.

'When I see you, three times a night! And if you can't hang, goodbye. I'm not wasting my time.'

Nicki added that it also had to be more than half an hour 'between each thing'.

Busy woman: 'When I see you, three times a night! And if you can't hang, goodbye. I'm not wasting my time'

'I hate cuddling after,' she added regarding her intense regime.

'Once I get mine, if I feel really, really great, leave me alone! Go away. Go make me some food or a sandwich or something.'

A busy women with a hectic schedule, Nicki (real name: Onika Tanya Maraj) added she didn't have time to waste with too much foreplay.

Take note men: Go away. Go make me some food or a sandwich or something'

'I do end up getting men who like to kiss a lot, and I like kissing a lot, but it's like, "okay...definitely get to it",' she said.

'Do your foreplay stuff, do what you have to do, and hurry up. I don't got time for all that.'

Nicki progressed to encourage the females in the audience to follow her rules and live in 2018 rather than 1920.

'Do me a favor ladies. Realize that this is about you feeling good too. This is not about him only feeling good,' she said.

'And I've found that the worse you make them feel, the better after, that they know how to do it better.'

Nicki is currently single after being in a 12, six and two-year-relationship.

Advice: 'Do me a favor ladies. Realize that this is about you feeling good too. This is not about him only feeling good,' she said.

Didn't last: Nicki has a long list of ex-boyfriends including Meek Mill (pictured together MTV VMAs 2016)

The Queens, New York native's appearance also saw her dish on Travis Scott after she blasted him on her radio show for getting the number one spot on the Billboard 200 album charts while she debuted at number two last month.

'I felt like I wanted to punch him in his f**king face,' she confessed.

'It's not anger. It's just what's right and what's wrong, what's fair.'

Stage siren: Nicki performed a medley of her hits on the fall premiere of Ellen

Top artist: The Queens, New York native's appearance also saw her dish on Travis Scott after she blasted him on her radio show for getting the number one spot on the Billboard 200 album charts while she debuted at number two last month

'It's just when you have a number two album to someone who is selling shirts and merch and selling passes for a tour that's not even announced yet, it feels like you're being tricked,' she told Ellen.

'It feels like someone is playing a game and like beating you at a game opposed to just selling music.'

Nicki continued, 'He didn't have the number one album, Queen was the number one album and by the way, I lost out on 12 hours of sales in my first week because it was a secret album.'

The starlet said that she's 'the most grateful person in the world' in acknowledging that the dialogue over album sales was a good problem to have.

'I love being grateful and remembering that things can be worse. I started from nothing. I'm one of those people, I get it.'

She made clear she would be no one's pushover moving forward.

'I don't like being bullied and I don't like being taken advantage of, and sometimes people use scare tactics against you because especially as a black woman, people will call you angry or bitter,' she said. 'So now it's almost like we're not allowed to defend ourselves or stand up for ourselves, and I'm not going to have that.'Several outlets have claimed that Julia Roberts is on the rocks with her husband Danny Moder. The headlines have included, '$275m Divorce Explodes' and 'Her Divorce Bombshell.'

But on Monday the 50-year-old beauty put those rumors to rest as she shared a photo to Instagram where she was giving her spouse a warm embrace.

The Pretty Woman star's caption read, 'Oh Summer, thank you! You made us happy and brave. We embraced every moment of sun drenched JOY  #familytime.'

Happy pair: Several outlets have claimed that Julia Roberts is on the rocks with her husband Danny Moder. But on Monday the 50-year-old beauty put those rumors to rest as she shared a photo to Instagram where she was giving her spouse a warm embrace

They just click: The Runaway Bride star beamed as she posed with Modern in 2015

This comes two months after the two were seen on a beach in Malibu together.

He was helped her with her dress that dragged in the sand. She was being photographed for a magazine cover.

The reports of marital strife may have surface because the couple have not been photographed together at an event since October 2017 when they attended Oprah's Gospel Brunch in Montecito, California.

The Pelican Brief actress has been documenting her shoot on her Instagram page which she opened only earlier this year.

They like the A-list crowd: The power couple with Oprah Winfrey in 2014

Busy lady: The star, seen in 2017, has been working nonstop since age 20

Roberts previously called social media 'sticky like cotton candy' but that didn't stop her from opening her Instagram account in June.

She posted a simple photo of herself sitting outside wearing a sweater with 'Love' written on it.

'Hello,' she captioned the shot adding a sunshine emoji. Her bio simple read: 'human'.

And although amassing over 108,000 followers in less than 24 hours, Julia is yet to follow anyone back.

He holds onto her: The beauty held on to Danny's wrist at the 3rd annual Sean Penn & Friends HELP HAITI HOME Gala in 2014 in Beverly Hills

Partners: In 2002 he was on set with her for Mona Lisa Smile

Fans were also solely able to admire her from afar with her comments turned off.

Julia's social media debut comes after the actress notoriously lives an exceptionally private home life.

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar in November last year, Julia gushed over her husband Moder in a rare interview.

Recalling a time 15 years ago before meeting him, she confessed she was a 'selfish brat'. She added, 'I was my priority, a selfish little brat running around making films.' Julia said 'finding her person' in 2000 changed everything for her.

On TV: Her next project is the Amazon TV series Homecoming with Bobby Cannavale. I t's produced by Amazon and Universal Cable Productions and debuting this fall on Amazon Prime Video

'When I think about what makes my life my life, and make sense and just shine inside of me, it's him. Everything has come from that,' she told the magazine.

The pair first met when she was making The Mexican, in which she starred opposite Brad Pitt and Danny was working as a cinematographer. After dating for two years, they wed in July 2002 on her 50-acre ranch at Taos, New Mexico.

And since then, the pair have frequently found themselves working on films together with Julia in front of the camera and Danny behind it.

Together, the strong Hollywood couple have three children: twins Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus 'Finn' Walter, 13, and Henry Daniel, 11.

Her next project is the Amazon TV series Homecoming with Bobby Cannavale. It's produced by Amazon and Universal Cable Productions and debuting this fall on Amazon Prime Video.

Roberts is playing a Homecoming Transition Support Center caseworker named Heidi.

New look: The blonde was seen in a new Lancome add in August; she wore a pretty white dress

Still tops: The movie icon still looks ravishing even though she has passed the 50 marker

She is assigned to aid soldier Walter (Stephan James) who has recently returned from the field. She is there to guide him back to everyday life after deployment.

But then Heidi starts to believe the soldiers are doomed.

'To me, theres something about these old-school thrillers,' said creator Sam Esmail, who executive produces and directs all of Homecomings first 10 episodes, to EW.

'Im talking about the Hitchcock thrillers where it was just about people and not about CGI. It wasnt about spectacle, but about flawed people doing flawed things and going down a road you didnt think you were gonna go down, and being surprised at every turn. That is what we hope this show does.'Love Island Australia's Millie Fuller and Mark O'Dare have announced they're launching a fashion label.

The doggy day care worker, 24, and her lawyer beau, 26, will launch a label called Island Couture by the end of the year.

In an Instagram post shared on Tuesday, the brunette beauty told fans: 'Kissing the man that's not only my boyfriend and my bestie, but now my business partner.'

Scroll down for video

'My boyfriend and my bestie, and now my business partner!' Love Island Australia's Millie Fuller reveals she and Mark O'Dare are launching their own fashion label

She explained: 'Co-owners in @islandcouture18 cannot wait to launch our label before summer 2018,' adding a sneak peak would be 'coming soon.'

Meanwhile on the Island Couture Instagram, a 'coming soon' graphic was shared in anticipation of the launch.

Millie added: 'Excited for this next part of our adventure together.'





Their exciting news comes after their first holiday together to China.

Excited news: She explained: 'Co-owners in @islandcouture18 cannot wait to launch our label before summer 2018,' adding a sneak peak would be 'coming soon'

Stronger than ever: The couple made a stop over to Disneyland Hong Kong

The couple made a stop over to Disneyland Hong Kong, and the city of Guangzhou where Mark shared a photo of himself looking through racks of material.

He wrote in his caption: 'I've finally managed to find the time to head overseas and start my own business... I can't wait for this new adventure.'

Aside from Mark and Millie, Josh Moss and Amelia Marni are the only remaining couples from Love Island.

New material: Mark also shared a of himself looking through racks of material in the city of Guangzhou. He wrote in his caption: 'I've finally managed to find the time to head overseas and start my own business... I can't wait for this new adventure'

Their exciting announcement comes just days after fellow Love Islanders Erin and Eden announced they had quietly parted ways.

In a statement they said: 'We can't thank each and everyone of you enough, for the support and love you have shown us, but we have to be honest within ourselves as we realise that our forever as a couple, is no longer.'

'We look forward to supporting each other moving forward and remain best friends.'The Bachelor In Paradise star claimed it was with 'a very sad heart' to announce her split from boyfriend Jarrod Woodgate last week.

But Keira Maguire, 31, has reportedly been spotted getting cosy with a mystery hunk since her separation from Jarrod, 32.

An eagle-eyed Bachelor fan claims to have spotted the reality TV 'villain' with the unknown male at a frozen yogurt venue in Melbourne last week.

Moving on already? Keira Maguire (above) is spotted getting frozen yogurt with a mystery hunk in Melbourne after split from Bachelor In Paradise boyfriend Jarrod Woodgate

Over: The Bachelor In Paradise star claimed it was with 'a very sad heart' to announce her split from boyfriend Jarrod Woodgate (R) last week after nine months of dating

Despite previously sharing their hopes for marriage and children one day, Keira announced her shock split from Jarrod after nine months of dating last week.

'It is with a very sad heart but I have to let you all know that Jarrod and I have split up,' wrote the reality star.

The source told Daily Mail Australia the meeting appeared like a date, with the pair believed to be acting cosy with one another.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Keira Maguire and Jarrod Woodgate for comment.

Is there a new guy? An eagle-eyed Bachelor fan claims to have spotted the reality TV 'villain' with the unknown male at a frozen yogurt venue in Melbourne last week

Last week Keira denied claims made by OK! Magazine that suggested she flew to Sydney from Melbourne with a mystery man.

'She got off with him. If he wasn't her brother or agent, they were clearly very close,' a source told the publication.

Keira replied to the claims on Instagram writing, 'I was by myself... WTF?'

'I was by myself... WTF?' Keira denied being spotted with a mystery man last week when she hopped off an interstate flight

Split: Keira and Jarrod were last seen together on August 11 when Keira shared a photo of the couple at a local cafe

The reality TV twosome's romance went public in January when they were photographed canoodling on a beach together, months before Bachelor In Paradise had even aired.

Keira and Jarrod found love while filming Bachelor In Paradise last year and shortly after, they moved in together - which she now regrets.

The influencer relocated from Sydney to Jarrod's home in Brighton, Melbourne and they would often spend time together at his family vineyard, Toms Cap Vineyard Retreat in Gippsland.

They were last seen together on August 11 when Keira shared a photo of the couple at a local cafe.

Keira told Who magazine that Jarrod was the one who decided to end their relationship and said they would often have explosive arguments.

Alessandra Ambrosio treated herself to a child-fee vacation when she headed to the Burning Man festival in Nevada over the weekend.

The 37-year-old was dressed in white and showcased her enviable physique while posing in the dessert.

Gorgeous: Alessandra Ambrosio flaunted her enviable physique and long braids at the Burning Man festival in Nevada over the weekend

'Back at the magical plant #burningman,' she captioned the shot.

Alessandra sported a white ribbed singlet top with a matching bikini bottoms with tassels.

The Brazilian beauty accessorised with multiple bracelets, necklaces and a statement feathered headpiece.

Stunner: The 37-year-old was dressed in white and showcased her enviable physique while posing in the dessert

Still an angel: Alessandra sported a white ribbed singlet top with a matching bikini bottoms with tassels

Accessories: The Brazilian beauty accessorised with multiple bracelets, necklaces and a statement feathered headpiece

Alessandra's long brunette locks were tied into braids that effortlessly flowed effortlessly over her shoulders.

The Vogue model's makeup was kept bronzed and luminous with festival face paint above her eyebrows.

The beauty opted to go without shoes for the series of photos.

Stylish: Alessandra's long brunette locks were tied into braids that effortlessly flowed effortlessly over her shoulders

Nothing's stopping her: It's been a big year for Alessandra, both hanging up her angel wings and splitting from her long-term fiance and children's father Jamie Mazur

Her mini's! Friendly exes Alessandra and Jamie share Anja, ten, and Noah, six

It's been a big year for Alessandra, both hanging up her angel wings and splitting from her long-term fiance and children's father Jamie Mazur.

The pair were engaged for ten years and split back in March.

'They have been trying to keep their split on the down low...But Alessandra has been out and about ready to mingle and hasn't been taking Jamie to anything,' a source told Us Weekly at the time.

The friendly exes share Anja, ten, and Noah, six.

Alessandra is currently dating Italian fashion line founder Nicolo Oddi.Kourtney Kardashian appears to be back on with her Algerian model boyfriend Younes Bendjima.

The two were spotted side by side in her black Range Rover SUV on Monday evening as they headed to Bui sushi restaurant in Malibu.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, 39, and the cover boy, 25 - who had a romantic vacation in Italy earlier this summer - shocked fans when they reportedly split in early August. This is the first time they have been seen together since they parted ways.

Round two? Kourtney Kardashian appears to be back on with Younes Bendjima. The two were spotted side by side in her black Range Rover on Monday evening as they headed to a sushi restaurant in Malibu

A source later told TMZ that they were not dating again; he simply wanted to talk out the split.

The pair did not dine inside Bui restaurant but rather only picked up take out food, further confirming that they did not want to be noticed.

Younes was in the driver's seat while she rode in the passenger's seat. Both appeared to be in somber moods.

After he picked up their Japanese food, they drove along the Pacific Coast Highway where they found a parking spot.

They stayed in the car for several hours as they watched the sun set over the ocean.

He was in the driver's seat: Younes was at the wheel as Kourtney sat in the passenger's seat

On the go: The Algerian model, who lives in France, was driving her Range Rover car

Later they were seen in Calabasas getting In N Out Burger at the Drive-Thru.

After that they headed to the gated community in Calabasas where Kourtney owns a mega mansion.

The two have not been pictured together in over six weeks.

Their split was initiated by Kourtney, TMZ claimed.

Trouble seemed to brew after their trip to Italy when she posted a photo of her bottom. He posted a comment which read: 'Is that what you need to show to get likes?'

He got the dinner: Bendjima picked up sushi from a restaurant in Malibu

He later deleted the comments.

The racy picture was taken while they were travelling around Europe together with Kourtney's children Mason, eight, Penelope, six, and Reign, three.

He was said to be fuming with her for flashing the flesh and parading her body around in front of the world as he believes her saucy pictures should be for his eyes only.

So many avocado rolls: The Calvin Klein model carried two bags of healthy food

The pair started dating in October 2016 but they didn't make their relationship public until the following May out of respect for Kourtney's ex-boyfriend Scott Disick. (Disick had a history of cheating on Kourtney and was pictured with other women on numerous occasions during their long on-again off-again relationship.)

But in early August it seemed clear Kourt and Younes were over.

Younes was seen in Mexico with another woman on August 7. He was seen getting handsy with social media 'influencer' Jordan Ozuna.

Jordan has a history with the family - she was linked to Tyga following his split from Kylie Jenner last year.

High end: The catwalk master did not get any kind of average sushi, but headed into upscale Bui sushi

With 200,000 Instagram followers, Jordan, or according to her handle jiordyn, is what is termed a micro-influencer.

And she first found herself on the radar of plenty of those followers after being linked to Justin Bieber following his split from Selena Gomez in 2014.

Then an unknown Las Vegas cocktail waitress, she was spotted indulging in PDAs with the then 19-year-old around the city.

More eats: Several hours after they had sushi on the car while watching the sunset in Malibu, Younes pulled into In N Out in Calabasas

Back home: Then the model headed to her gated Calabasas community where she has a home

And the exposure drummed up a large number of Instagram followers for Jordan - the dream scenario for a social media obsessed Millennial.

When not waitressing - her last gig was at Vegas' Wet Republic - the brunette spends her time posting pictures of herself in various stages of undress, receiving hundreds of 'likes' and admiring comments.

Later in the day, Younes took to Instagram to deny he and Jordan were more than just friends, commenting: 'They really want me to be the bad guy... can't have fun with your friends no more' [SIC].

Busted: Younes was caught getting handsy with Tyga's ex Jordan Ozuna in August

On/off: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, 39, and the cover boy, 25 - who had a romantic vacation in Italy earlier this summer - shocked fans when they reportedly split the first week of August; seen in the spring

Better days: Younes had his hand on Kourtney's thigh in this image taken in Capri

However Kourtney's sister Khloe couldn't resist chiming in on his post, quipping 'Alexa play "heard it all before" by Sunshine Anderson'.

Kim Kardashian couldn't help but get in on the action as she wrote: 'Nice pics from your "boys trip."'

For her part, 24-year-old Ozuna also insisted the two are just friends, telling E! News after the photos surfaced that, 'we aren't romantically involved in any way, shape or form.'

The Government leader highlighted the growth of the special ties between the two countries over the past years, stressing that the two sides should work closely together to further develop the relationship and fight division plots of hostile forces.

He expressed his sympathies over the losses that Laos has suffered during the collapse of hydropower dam in Attapeu, underlining that Vietnam has made every effort to help Laos overcome the disasters consequences.

Amidst complicated and unexpected developments in the world and the region, he stressed the need for the two sides to effectively implement joint statements, high-level agreements as well as cooperation plans between the two Governments and agencies of both sides, including the collaboration deal between the Communist Party of Vietnams Mass Mobilisation Commission and the LFNC for the 2016-2020 period.

Noting that the LFNC will host the Laos-Vietnam-Cambodia Buddhism conference in late 2018, the PM underscored the significance of mass mobilization, as well as ethnic and religious affairs to the national construction and defence in both countries.

He asked for closer collaboration between the LFNC and the Vietnam Fatherland Front in popularising and promoting the tradition of the special ties of Vietnam and Laos, while combating wrongful arguments from hostile forces to divide the two nations, and continue supporting each other at multilateral forums.

PM Phuc affirmed his support to the strengthening of affiliation among agencies and sectors of Vietnam with the LFNC, as well as the policy of fostering partnership among localities of both sides, especially those along the border.

On the occasion, the PM asked the Lao side to continue backing the Vietnamese community in settling down in the country.

For his part, Saysomphone Phomvihane thanked the Party, State and people of Vietnam for giving a helping hand to Laos during the disaster of hydropower collapse in Attapeu.

Lauding the socio-economic development of Vietnam, he described the success as a motivation for Laos in completing socio-economic targets.

Briefing the host on the outcomes of his talks with representatives of the Mass Mobilisation Commission of Vietnam, he said that the two sides agreed to work harder together to educate the younger generations in both countries of the loyal solidarity and close ties between the two nations, while continue the exchange of delegations and the coordination in holding conferences and seeking measures to boost the growth of the Vietnam-Laos special friendship.

He said that the LFNC has maintained sound partnership with the Vietnamese side in issues related to ethnic and religious affairs, and asked for Vietnams support to the organisation of the Laos-Vietnam-Cambodia Buddhism conference.

On the occasion of the Vietnams 73rd National Day, he wished Vietnamese people further successes in the cause of national construction.As a social media influencer, she's a consistent presence at New York Fashion Week.

And Olivia Culpo looked ready to take on the style industry's biggest event, as she stepped out in the Big Apple on Tuesday.

The beauty queen has been living the jet-setter life, having been in Miami on Monday, and in Jamaica last week.

Ready for whatever comes! Olivia Culpo, 26, stepped out in New York on Tuesday

Olivia tucked in a blue, silk cami under a plaid, grey skirt.

The 26-year-old matched a pair of standout, over-the-knee boots with her evening blouse.

Olivia's look was complete with a small, snake-skin purse, mirrored shades and minimal jewelry.

Working: The beauty queen was promoting her new E! series, Model Squad

Her look: Olivia tucked in a blue, silk cami under a plaid, grey skirt

Fashion mistake? The brunette beauty matched a pair of standout, over-the-knee boots with her evening blouse

Chic: The Rhode Island native wore her shoulder-length hair down and pin straight

The former Miss Universe had an early morning start.

The Instagram specialist began her day at 5:43 am, as she had a full day of promo interviews.

The Rhode Island native is a star on E!'s new Fashion Week series, Model Squad, which premieres on Tuesday at 8 ET.

The reality show follows the lives of some of the most famous famous and beautiful faces of the digital age, including Shanina Shaik and Devon Windsor.

Camera-ready! For her day of interviews, Olivia wore a full face of make-up

#TheStruggle: The former Miss Universe had an early morning start. The Instagram specialist began her day at 5:43 am, as she had a full day of work commitments

Lucky lady: While she certainly had to be up early, Olivia was pampered as she did not have to do her own make-up

While the show will document the professional and personal lives of the models, it's no telling if Olivia's love life will appear on-screen.

The brunette beauty reunited with ex-boyfriend Danny Amendola over the summer, after breaking up in March.

On Monday, the L'Oreal model took to social media to share two snaps with her love, including one of them kissing.

'Sugar,' she wrote for the photo's caption.

Will it or won't it? While Model Squad will document the professional and personal lives of the ladies, it's no telling if Olivia's love life will appear on-screenIt is the hotly-anticipated period drama which is already generating Oscar buzz.

And fans got their first look at Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in new film The Favourite, where they come to blows in a royal love triangle.

The two-minute preview, released on Monday, sees tensions bubbling between Queen Anne's advisor and lover Sarah (Weisz) and her younger cousin Abigail (Stone) as she vies for the monarch's (Colman) affections.

Scroll down for video

Drama: Fans got their first look at Emma Stone (above), Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in new film The Favourite, where they come to blows in a royal love triangle.

Bloody: The two-minute preview, released on Monday, sees tensions bubbling between Queen Anne's advisor and lover Sarah (Weisz - above) and her younger cousin Abigail (Stone) as she vies for the monarch's (Colman) affections

The trailer begins with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who has been governing the country as the Queen battles ill health and a fiery temper, being presented with a model palace by her love.

She says: 'Dear Queen, you are mad, giving me a palace, this is a monstrous extravagance we are at war.'

Sarah then refers to the Queen as an 'extraordinary person' while a montage of scenes showing the monarch fainting in front of her subjects, wailing and gorging on food, plays.

Queen Anne says: 'They were all staring weren't they? I can tell even if I can't see. And I heard the word fat and ugly.'

Ill-health: The trailer begins with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who has been governing the country as the Queen battles ill health and a fiery temper, being presented with a model palace by her love

Sarah responds: 'No-one but me would dare and I did not.'

A depressed Queen Anne then laments: 'Everyone leaves me, everyone dies' while crying and laying on the floor.

Heralding a new chapter in the drama, Abigail makes quite the entrance to the palace, when she falls out of a horse-drawn carriage into the mud.

Stating she wishes to be employed, it's not long before the seductress begins sharing lusty looks with the Queen.

'You're so beautiful' she gushes as she pushes the Queen along in a wheelchair.

Anguish: Sarah then refers to the Queen as an 'extraordinary person' while a montage of scenes showing the monarch fainting in front of her subjects, wailing and gorging on food, plays

Lovers: Rachel plays the lover of the Queen - and political advisor

New dawn: Heralding a new chapter in the drama, Abigail makes quite the entrance to the palace, when she falls out of a horse-drawn carriage into the mud

A flattered Anne responds: 'Stop it, you mock me' before Abigail lustily counters: 'If I were a man I would ravish you.'

It isn't long before Sarah grows jealous, telling the Queen as they share a mud bath: 'You have become close to Abigail, she is a viper' and instructs the unconvinced leader to send her away.

Tensions grow between Abigail and Sarah, as they both compete to be the leader's 'favourite' with the former saying: 'Let's shoot something', before firing a pistol in Abigail's direction, narrowly missing her.

A defiant Abigail says: 'I must take control of my circumstance' as Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult) says of the fickle nature of the monarch's affections: 'The queen changes direction all the time, then in an instant you're back sleeping with a bunch of scabrous whores.'

Look of lust: Stating she wishes to be employed, it's not long before the seductress begins sharing lusty looks with the Queen

Muddy: It isn't long before Sarah grows jealous, telling the Queen as they share a mud bath: 'You have become close to Abigail, she is a viper' and instructs the unconvinced leader to send her away'

Ravishing: Abigail lustily tells the monarch: 'If I were a man I would ravish you.'

Growing colder, Abigail says: 'As it turns out I am capable of much unpleasantness.'

A man is seen kissing her in the woods before she knees him in the groin.

Sarah is seen throwing a wooden block at Abigail in the library, as Abigail mutters 'I could not let you stand by and destroy me.' She also hits herself across the face with a heavy tome, causing a bloody nose.

Emma has been a firm fixture at Venice Film Festival, where The Favourite, is competing in the main international competition.

The film is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and is 'a bawdy, acerbic tale of royal intrigue, passion, envy and betrayal' set in the court of Queen Anne in early 18th century England, according to Fox Searchlight Pictures.

The eight-week shoot took place last year in various locations in southern England including Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, a country mansion that has been the backdrop for features including My Week With Marilyn and Sherlock Holmes.

Outspoken: Tensions grow between Abigail and Sarah, as they both compete to be the leader's 'favourite' with the former saying: 'Let's shoot something', before firing a pistol in Abigail's direction, narrowly missing her

Hitting back: A defiant Abigail says: 'I must take control of my circumstance'

The Favourite - which also stars Nicholas Hoult and Joe Alwyn - is released in US cinemas on November 23 and hits UK screens on January 1, 2019.

The Favourite will have to impress this year's jury panel, the president of which is director, Guillermo Del Toro. The jury consists of Christoph Waltz, Taika Waititi, Malgorzata Szumowska, Trine Dyrholm, Nicole Garcia, Sylvia Chang and Paolo Genovese.

Naomi Watts was also appointed a juror on the panel, which consists of five women and four men in an effort to readdress the imbalance that has occurred in previous years.Ellen DeGeneres started her highly successful career as a stand-up comedian in her hometown of New Orleans.

On Tuesday, the 60-year-old made an announcement about her return to the stage in a Netflix special as she kicked off season 16 of her NBC chat show.

She revealed the name of the special, Relatable, adding that it will be available to stream on December 18.

'Do. Not. Miss. It': Ellen DeGeneres revealed the name of her new stand-up special, Relatable, and the date that Netflix will release it, December 18, on Tuesday

'I mentioned that I worked a lot over the summer,' Ellen said during her talk shows opening monologue. 'What I did was I went back to stand-up.

'I didnt do stand-up for 15 years and just all of a sudden I was, like, I miss stand-up, I want to do it.

'So I made a deal with Netflix. And I was working on stand-up all summer. I taped it in Seattle. This is the Benaroya Hall where I was.

Back to her roots: The 60-year-old made her announcement about her return to the stage as she kicked off season 16 of her NBC chat show, sharing a snap of herself at her Seattle gig

'It was so much fun. I loved it so much. The audiences were great, Seattle was great.'

And she also gave shoutouts to her fans in San Francisco and San Diego

All in all, Ellen played eight nights in the three cities starting in San Diego's Balboa Theater August 10-12, and San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall August 15-17.

She wrapped her tour in the Benaroya Hall on August 22 and 23, with one of those shows taped for Netflix.

The streaming service shelled out $20 million for the comedy showcase, according to Forbes.

Ellen's 2001 and 2003 HBO stand-up specials earned multiple Emmy nominations.

She joins comedy superstars Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Jerry Seinfeld at Netflix.As the Dancing With The Stars Season 27 premiere date draws nearer, the cast is beginning to take shape.

On Monday, Reality Steve reported that Joe Amabile, or Grocery Store Joe, would be making his ballroom debut. The spoiler blogger initially reported that the Chicago native would be partnered with professional dancer Sharna Burgess, however hes since gone back on that.

He shared a tweet from the Australian dancer in which she described her partner as someone whos in this for the right reasons & with a heart of gold, writing: Grocery Joe is on DWTS this season. Thats who Sharna is talking about in this tweet.

Joe Amabile, aka Grocery Store Joe, will reportedly appear on next season of Dancing With The Stars

Got emailed that Sharnas DWTS partner is Bobby Bones. Those people would know better than me. Regardless, Joe is definitely on DWTS, Reality Steve added.

Bobby Bones is a radio personality on The Bobby Bones Show.

He and Joe arent the only recently rumored additions to the Dancing With The Stars cast. Want the scoop on whos joining the cast and more?

Who is Joe Amabile?

Joe Amabile was first introduced to television audiences as part of the cast of The Bachelorette. He competed for Becca Kufrin's heart for just one night before being eliminated.

Although Joe, who owns and manages a grocery store in his native Chicago, Illinois, was only on the show for one night, fans quickly fell for him.

His massive following got him a spot on Bachelor in Paradise, where he formed a relationship with Kendall Long. Kendall also had feelings for Leo Dottavio, who appeared on the same season of The Bachelorette as Joe.

This created drama for Joe and Leo which nearly turned physical and resulted in Leo's elimination from the competition.

Joe is still on Bachelor in Paradise.

Outside the show, Joe is a big fan of fitness, family and having a good time. His Instagram is full of photos of him spending time with friends, enjoying beers in scenic locations or attending different events.

Dancing With The Stars cast 2018

Jonathan Scott of HGTVs Property Brothers has been receiving pressure from twin brother Drew Scott to compete on the upcoming season.

Drew, who competed on season 25, told Hollywood Life: Everyone wants to know. Im pushing him. I want him to do it.

He continued: I mean, our schedules are crazy, I dont think he will. He keeps saying, Well, you came in third. Wait, third? No, fourth, I came in fourth. And hes like, If you came in fourth, I would come in first. So I think he needs to put his feet in the mouth. He needs to do it.

According to Pure DWTS, the pros met with their celebrity partners for the first time days ago. None of them went public about their partners, however.

Lindsay Arnold was in Southlake, Texas, which led the site to speculate that she may be partnered with Terry Bradshaw or DeMarcus Ware.

Artem Chigvintsev was spotted in Park City, Utah, which has led some to believe hes partnered with either Scott Moir or Tessa Virtue.

Cheryl Burke is rumored to be partnered with Juan Pablo Di Pace. The actor, who plays Fernando on Netflixs Fuller House, followed the professional dancer and the official Dancing With The Stars Instagram account recently.

Witney Carsons partner was spotted leaving the studio with producers at his side and a black jacket carefully concealing his identity. Theres some speculation that Todd Chrisley, who was seen wearing a similar outfit, is the concealed contestant.

Danelle Umstead and Sarah Michelle Gellar are other rumored Dancing With The Stars contestants.

Dancing With The Stars pros 2018

ABC announced the professionals joining the cast of season 27 of ABCs Dancing With The Stars on August 28. The announcement was made on Good Morning America.

Emma Slater, Lindsay Arnold, Witney Carson, Sasha Farber, Gleb Savchenko, Artem Chigvintsev, Sharna Burgess, Cheryl Burke, Keo Motsepe and Alan Bersten will return to the show. Valentin Chmerkovskiy will be coming back after a season away from the show.

His brother Maksim Chmerkovskiy and sister-in-law Peta Murgatroyd wont be on the Dancing With The Stars pro roster this season, however.

Instead, Val will have fiancee Jenna Johnson to compete against.

Brandon Armstrong is the only new addition to the Dancing With The Stars pro cast.

The pros and their partners will be judges by Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli.

When does Dancing With The Stars start?

Dancing With The Stars returns to ABC on Monday, September 24 at 8pm ET.She's the dotting mom-of-two who's always embraced her Thai roots.

And Chrissy Teigen appears to be teaching her daughter Luna, two, about her heritage from a very early age, seen dressing up the tot in a traditional outfit.

With the help of her mom Vilailuck, the 32-year-old shared shots of Luna in a pink frilly ensemble.

So sweet: Chrissy Teigen shared a series of adorable shots of Luna dressed in a traditional Thai ensemble on Tuesday

Captioning the shots with the flag of Thailand, Luna was seen sitting on a chair and posing for the cameras.

Her outfit had a lace pattern with a satin sash over the top.

The daughter of John Legend completed her look with purple flip flops and a pink hair accessory.

Mom knows best: Another shot saw Chrissy's mom Vilailuck help tie the sash around Luna

Another shot saw Vilailuck help tie the sash around Luna.

Sharing a similar photo, a young Chrissy was also seen with her mom in a traditional ensemble.

She was dressed in a long blue dress and sported a fringe along with her big signature smile.

Like mother like daughter: Sharing a similar photo, a young Chrissy was also seen with her mom in a traditional ensemble

And it wasn't long before fans shared their love for the shots.

'How very traditional of you, Luna,' wrote one, with another commenting: 'Heritage. So important. Your mom looks so happy.'

The young family who just touched down in London, regularly take along Chrissy's mom - who also lives with them.

Grateful for her mom: 'She's the most incredible grandma. Luna is so close with her. "Yay" means grandmother in Thai, so she goes "Yay"! all day long, and it's just fun because my mom is a kid at heart. She just has so much energy, and I just lug myself at this point'

Talking to Popsugar about the arrangement, she said 'it's so helpful having her live with us'.

'She's the most incredible grandma. Luna is so close with her. "Yay" means grandmother in Thai, so she goes "Yay"! all day long, and it's just fun because my mom is a kid at heart. She just has so much energy, and I just lug myself at this point.'

And according to Chrissy, John loves having her around too.

The lovable duo married in Como, Italy, in Septmeber 2013.

Open about their struggles to conceive, Chrissy and John welcomed daughter Luna Simone into the world in April 2016 and son Miles Theodore in May 2018 - both via IVF.Viola Davis feels that there is still a lack of diversity in mainstream Hollywood movies.

The 53-year-old actress spoke with the September issue of Variety about why not much has changed in the past few years even though there have been cries for help.

'This kind of role isnt usually out there for a woman of color,' the Oscar winner told the magazine about her new part in the movie Widows. 'People try to be too nice with women. They keep them pretty. They keep them likable. They cater to male fantasies. They cater to the male gaze. This film didnt do that.'

Hot topic: Viola Davis wants answers for the lack of diversity in mainstream Hollywood movies, she told the September issue of Variety

Widows sees Davis play Veronica Rawlins. Her co-stars are Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo.

They find out that their criminally-driven deceased husbands left behind a debt that could consequently change their lives.

Viola explains that she felt emotionally attached to the script for its disapproval in focusing on the stereotypes when women are known to carry a leading role in a feature-length motion picture.

Beauty, sex appeal, and lust are not things which fans can expect to see of the How To Get Away With Murder star.

In fact, it's quite the opposite.

Playing a character that is left to fend for herself in a corrupted environment surrounded by domestic abuse isn't exactly far off from the upbringing that Viola experienced in her own hometown of Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Good role: Her next movie is Widows; here she is seen with co-star Cynthia Erivo

Another look: Here the star is seen with Elizabeth Debicki and Erivo

The mother-of-one also talked about how she grew up poor.

Happy couple: Davis with her husband Julius Tennon in April in New York City

'Its what am I going to eat today? Am I going to be thrown out of my house?' the Fences star shares before adding that it wasn't unusual for her to fall asleep to the sound of rats chattering in her bedroom.

It's this traumatic experience Davis thought about when playing the character of Veronica.

Viola's co-star Rodriguez says that witnessing Davis channel the role of a woman that's forced to survive on her own, following the death of her husband, became a performance she can only describe as 'gangster.'

'Shell be laughing one minute, and then shell go to this dark place when the camera rolls and shell be crying. Its that ability to snap in and out of her emotions that amazes me,' she said.

Despite having seen her career reach new heights in Hollywood, Davis says that she still feels as if studio executives still aren't opening up to the thought of introducing diversity, especially when it concerns actresses and the roles they tend to portray.

During her award-winning speech at the 2016 Oscars for best supporting actress in Fences, Viola explained that she felt inclined to develop and explore the stories of those usually found at a graveyard.

Widows hits theaters November 16.It was a 90s starlet reunion of epic proportions on Labor Day.

Best friends Sarah Michelle Gellar, 41, and Shannen Doherty, 47, had a fun-filled holiday at the fair together on Monday.

The pair were spotted heading to brunch in Los Angeles with Gellar's nine-year-old daughter, Charlotte Grace Prinze, in tow.

Besties! Sarah Michelle Gellar, 41, and Shannen Doherty, 47, had a fun-filled holiday at the fair together on Monday

What a ride: The actresses shared a giggle filled video on an amusement park ride

Mom's day out: The mother of two kept it casual in jeans and a tank top during her relaxing day out with the girls

The Cruel Intentions star cut a casual figure in ripped denim skinny jeans with a frayed hem and white sneakers.

Walking hand in had with her daughter, the mother of two sported a simple black tank top with a tan cardigan.

She kept her hair down and sunglasses on as she walked to brunch wearing a black leather cross body bag with some hardware embellished on the strap.

Charlotte, the actress' eldest child, appeared to be injured and was walking with the assistance of a medical boot.

The tween looked brunch ready in a black and white star printed ruffled dress.

With them, the 90210 star also kept it casual in straight leg ripped jeans and a white T-shirt.

Oh no! 9-year-old Charlotte, the daughter of Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr., walked with her foot in a medical boot while heading to brunch

'Oh my god!': Shannen couldn't contain herself while spinning in circles on a Tilt-a-Whirl

Gigglefest: Sarah took a selfie video of the pair laughing like little kids on the dizzying ride

Up high: The Buffy star shared a snap on Instagram of her sneakered feet dangling high in the air over the fair

Wearing a pair of dark aviator sunnies, Shannen had her raven hair pulled back with some side swept bangs.

She wore functional slip on shoes and carried a black zip up hoodie.

Gellar and Doherty also shared some silly social media videos from the day taking a dizzying turn on a Tilt-a-Whirl.

In the seflie video, the actresses screamed and giggled uncontrollably while spinning in what seemed like endless loops.

'Oh my god,' was all Doherty could muster through her laughter.

The 90s A-listers have been friends for decades and are frequently spotted hanging out.

The former teenage starlets both had hit supernatural shows on WB (now the CW) around the same time.

Bewitched: The best friends each starred on supernatural shows on the WB in the 90s. Shannen seen in the center in 1998 played Prue Halliwell for three seasons on charmed

Slay! Gellar played the title character in the vamp staking drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The star is seen here with a wooden stake in 1997 during the shows first season.

Doherty starred as one of the three witch sisters in Charmed, while Gellar staked vamps in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Both of their iconic shows still have devoted cult followings and each series has a reboot in the works.

Doherty is currently recovering from recent reconstructive surgery after battling cancer for years.

She underwent chemotherapy and radiation and announced that she was in remission as of April 2017.

Gellar, has two children, Charlotte and Rocky Prinze, 6, with her husband of 16 years 90s heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr.

The Ringer star is an avid baker with her children and created the company Foodstirs out of her passion.Lil Pump has bad news for fans.

The rapper is going to jail for a time following a parole violation in Miami, Florida. The 18-year-old was pulled over after police discovered that the licence plates on his Rolls-Royce were registered to a Mini Cooper.

In an Instagram story, Lil Pump said: Listen up yall, Im going to get straight to the point. You all saw what happened in Miami, I got arrested or whatever on some bulls***. Im on probation in LA, I violated my [parole] so Ive got to go in and do a couple months.

Lil Pump announced on Monday that he'll be heading to jail for a few months following a parole violation in Miami, Florida

Lil Pump was arrested for driving without a license after police pulled him over upon realizing his Rolls-Royce had a Mini Cooper's license plates on it

He added: Stay in school, dont f*** up like me.

According to Lil Pump, his team will be handling his social media accounts while hes incarcerated. He intends to put out crazy a** [music] while hes gone.

Who is Lil Pump?

Lil Pump, born Gazzy Garcia on August 17, 2000, is a rapper and record producer. He hails from South Florida.

He got his start in the music industry at 13 when his cousin introduced him to Omar Pineiro, known professionally as Smokepurpp.

Lil Pump found success in the music industry in 2017 when he released the songs D Rose and Boss on SoundCloud. Before long, his music was streamed more than 70 million times.

He signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records in June 2017. He was 16 at the time.

The contract, which is said to have been worth millions, was voided shortly after he signed it due to his age.

Lil Pump announced a new album, which he claimed would come out in August 2017. It was pushed back, but he did release the song Gucci Gang for fans.

The song was his first to land on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

His first studio album was finally released in October 2017. It was called Lil Pump and featured appearances from Smokepurpp, Gucci Mane, Lil Yachty and more.

Lil Pump signed a contract with Warner Bros for $8 million (6.2 million) in March 2018.

Since then, he's released the single Esskeetit and Drug Addicts.

Why did Lil Pump get arrested?

Lil Pump was arrested in Miami, Florida in late August. The incident occurred on a Wednesday afternoon while the rapper was driving a black Rolls-Royce, according to TMZ.

The outlet obtained his booking sheet from Miami-Dade County Jail, which lists the reason for his arrest as not having a valid license.

He was released from police custody the very same day.

Lil Pump going to jail

Lil Pump announced in a video posted to his social media accounts on Monday that he was going to jail for a parole violation. He said he would be gone for a couple of months, but didnt say exactly how long.

Listen up yall, Im going to get straight to the point. You all saw what happened in Miami, I got arrested or whatever on some bulls***. Im on probation in LA, I violated my [parole] so Ive got to go in and do a couple of months, he said in the video.

The rappers team will continue to run his social media accounts, according to his farewell video. He intends to put out music while hes gone.

Lil Pump probation

Lil Pump was on parole  not probation  due to a gun-related incident in Los Angeles, California. Lil Pump was accused of firing a gun inside his home.

He tried to blame the shooting on intruders, according to TMZ, but police were able to determine that the bullet was fired inside the home.

Lil Pump net worth

According to Net Worth Leaks, Lil Pump's worth $6.5 million (5m). He's made the majority of his fortune as a musician and record producer.She has yet to comment on her status as a mom-to-be.

But Diane Kruger's growing baby bump spoke for her when she was spotted out in the concrete jungle that is New York City on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old actress looked positively radiant on the beautiful day in the city.

No hiding that: She has yet to comment on her status as a mom-to-be. But Diane Kruger's growing baby bump spoke for her when she was spotted out in New York City on Tuesday

She donned a black sleeveless maxi-dress with large images of African animals and the sun in shades of orange and white.

The Inglorious Basterds star didn't appear to be wearing much in the way of make-up.

With her wavy blonde hair styled in a bob cut that grazed her shoulders, she strolled along carrying an orange purse and what looked like a small red pillow.

And she carried a healthy banana to snack on along the way

Step by step: The 42-year-old actress took the stairs outside a brownstone carefully

Fun frock: The Inglourious Basterds star donned a black sleeveless maxi-dress with large images of the sun beaming down on African animals in shades of orange and white

The German-born beauty is expecting her first child with her beau, 49-year-old actor Norman Reedus.

While the baby will be Diane's first, The Walking Dead already shares son Mingus, 18, with his supermodel ex Helena Christensen, 49.

Diane and Norman have been dating for just over two years after meeting on the set of 2015's Sky.

Stepping out: Her wavy blonde hair was styled in a bob cut that grazed her shoulders

Staying hydrated: She strolled along carrying a can of something to drink plus an orange purse and what looked like a small red pillow

The actress ended a decade long relationship with actor Joshua Jackson the same year

Meanwhile, Diane and Norman recently moved into an impressive new home in Manhattan that set them back $11.7 million.

The four-story, 3,800 square foot brownstone, built in the 1800s, will give the duo plenty of room for their newborn.She recently appeared to confirm her new relationship with Mamma Mia! actor Dominic Cooper, 40.

And Gemma Chan looked ever the leading lady as she flew solo to the Crazy Rich Asians screening in London on Tuesday.

The screen queen, 35, proved her sartorial elegance in a semi-sheer nude shirt dress adorned with striking red and blue floral accoutrement.

Gemma Chan, 35, looked sensational in a semi-sheer floral dress for the Crazy Rich Asians screening in London on Tuesday...after confirming her romance with Dominic Cooper

Gemma elongated her frame in ultra chic red velvet killer heels paired with a gold-embellished scarlet box clutch.

The Transformers beauty styled her glossy chocolate locks in elegant waves and highlighted her natural beauty with lashings of mascara and a bold red lip.

Letting her stunning sheer design get all the attention, Gemma left any glitzy accessories at home, with only one glittering ring to polish off the red carpet look.

Star: The Transformers beauty styled her glossy chocolate locks in elegant waves and highlighted her natural beauty with lashings of mascara and a bold red lip

Stunning style: Gemma elongated her frame in ultra chic red velvet killer heels paired with a gold-embellished scarlet box clutch

Glam girls: Gemma was joined by her equally stylish co-stars Constance Wu (L), Awkwafina (centre right) and Jing Lusi (R)

Her glamorous appearance comes just days after she appeared to confirmed her romance with Dominic Cooper during a beach day on the Spanish island of Formentera on Sunday.

The showbiz couple looked happy and relaxed as they cuddled on the shoreline while enjoying their first holiday as a couple.

Proudly flaunting their new relationship just weeks after they were first linked, the pair looked utterly enamored as they enjoyed their sun-soaked summer break.

The pair sparked romance rumours when they were spotted getting 'cosy' during a night out in Spain in August.

Red hot: Letting her stunning sheer design get all the attention, Gemma left any glitzy accessories at home while her sparkling ensemble glittered in the light

Loved up: Her glamorous appearance comes just days after she appeared to confirmed her romance with Dominic Cooper during a beach day on the Spanish island of Formentera

Smitten: The pair sparked romance rumours when they were spotted getting 'cosy' during a night out in Spain in August

A source told The Sun: 'They seemed to be having a great time. Dominic is very recognisable  especially with Mamma Mia 2 out at the minute  so it didnt take long for people to notice him.

'He and Gemma looked as though they were having a great time  laughing loudly and cuddling up while taking pictures.'

The duo both starred together in the film, Stratton, last year where Dominic played the main part of John Stratton.

Cute new couple: The duo both starred together in the film, Stratton, last year where Dominic played the main part of John Stratton

Last month, Dominic's ex, Ruth Negga, 36, insisted that they had left things on good terms and are still 'super-supportive' of each other.

Speaking to Marie Claire,the actress admitted it wasn't difficult to work with her former boyfriend on their recent TV series Preacher.

Gemma and her ex Jack Whitehall called time on their relationship after six years together last year.

The pair are said to have split in September because of their increasingly hectic schedules.

Giggles: Gemma larked around with her co-stars Constance, Henry Golding and AwkwafinaThe remark was made by Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung at a reception for Fukui Teru, Japanese Minister of State for Ocean Policy and head of the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Alliances Office, in Hanoi on September 4.

Deputy PM Dung spoke of his delight at the comprehensive and practical growth of the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership in all fields with high political trust that benefits the people of both countries.

Japan is now a leading economic partner of Vietnam, ranking first in terms of official development assistance (ODA) provision, second in terms of investment, third in terms of tourism and fourth in terms of trade, he noted.

The bilateral cooperation in agriculture and human resource training has become more effective, while exchanges in culture and between localities and the people of both countries have been promoted, helping to foster mutual understanding between the Vietnamese and Japanese people, the Deputy PM said.

He said that maritime cooperation between the two nations has also been strengthened over the past years, noting that Japan has assisted Vietnam in studying, exploiting and using its maritime resources and environment in a sustainable manner.

Japan has also shared experience with and transferred technology to Vietnam, while helping improve the capacity of Vietnamese officials in the fields of maritime science and technology, maritime economic development and environmental protection, while assisting Vietnam in enhancing its law enforcement capacity at sea, said Deputy PM Dung.

He proposed that in the future, Japan will continue to support and work closely with Vietnam in the area of environment, especially the marine environment. Vietnam hopes for Japans help in improving its capacity in forecasting, thus giving a timely response to natural disasters, climate change and sea level rise, along with the provision of equipment, technology and personnel training for maritime resources and environmental research, Deputy PM Dung said.

The Deputy PM also called for Japans collaboration in implementing Vietnams initiative to set up regional marine partnerships in plastic waste management on East Asia seas.

For his part, Fukui Teru said that the strategic partnership between the two countries is developing in a positive, diverse and practical manner in many spheres with different forms.

The Japanese Government pays special attention to fostering cooperation with Vietnam, especially in maritime research, he said, affirming that Japan is willing to share information and experience in ocean policy with Vietnam so that both countries can become sea-based rich nations.

He proposed that Vietnam, as coordinator of Japan-ASEAN relations, make more contributions to fostering collaboration among the nations in the management of plastic waste in the ocean.She married her former Made In Chelsea co-star, Hugo Taylor, over the summer in a quiet ceremony, before celebrating with a lavish formal ceremony.

But Millie Mackintosh was flying solo on Tuesday night, as she stepped out in London to attend an event thrown by Very.co.uk.

There to peruse their AW18 collection preview, the 29-year-old reality star showcased her slender frame in a shoulder-less, black leather dress.

Night out: Millie Mackintosh was flying solo on Tuesday night, as she stepped out in London to attend an event thrown by Very.co.uk

Sleek: There to peruse their AW18 collection preview, the 29-year-old reality star showcased her slender frame in a shoulder-less, black leather dress

The hem was adorned with a fringe detailing and and she added to the sleek look with deadly-straight locks, which cascaded down to her bare shoulders.

She wore killer black heels, with silver toe caps, and flashed her sparkling engagement ring as she posed hand-on-hip.

Her make-up was moody, with a dark smokey wisp to her eyes and a clay-pink slick on her pout.

She joined her former MIC co-star Rosie Fortescue at the soiree, who looked summery in a black and electric blue dress, with an off-the-shoulder lace design.

Slick: The hem was adorned with a fringe detailing and and she added to the sleek look with deadly-straight locks, which cascaded down to her bare shoulders

Catching up: She joined her former MIC co-star Rosie Fortescue at the soiree, who looked summery in a black and electric blue dress, with an off-the-shoulder lace design

Ye-ha! She also caught up with the likes of Ashley Roberts - who looked stylish in a denim dress and white cowgirl boots

She added sharp ankle heels to the ensemble and wore her honeyed locks in loose waves.

She also caught up with the likes of Ashley Roberts - who looked stylish in a denim dress and white cowgirl boots - as well as Amber Le Bon.

Millie broke down in tears when talking about her own experiences with school bullies as part of a new campaign last week.

The fashionista shared the emotional memories via Instagram for charity Anti-Bullying Pro, which also spoke to other celebrities about their school experiences.

Upset: Millie broke down in tears as she relived her own experiences with school bullies for a charity campaign

Gals night out: Rosie and Ashley wore blue ensembles for the event

Speaking directly to the camera, Millie said: 'I would um, you know laugh it off', as she spoke about her past.

Mille sat behind a desk in an empty classroom as she spoke, in a bid to help anyone else who might be going through the same thing.

It was clear she was struggling to get her words out at one point, but she persevered nonetheless.

Tearfully addressing the camera, she said: 'I'm sorry it's all coming back.'

Her post is part of a celebrity campaign against bullying as children across the country prepare to go back to school in September.She turned heads with her bikinis and skimpy poolside outfits in the Love Island villa over the summer.

And Kazimir Crossley proved she can nail red-carpet chic too, as she attended the KA & GRM Daily Rated Awards in London.

The 23-year-old make-up artist dazzled in plunging burnt-orange co-ords as she cosied up to her Islander boyfriend, Josh Denzel.

Cute couple: Love Island's Kazimir Crossley dazzled in plunging co-ords as she cosied up to boyfriend Josh Denzel at the KA & GRM Daily Rated in London on Tuesday

The brunette beauty certainly turned heads in her two-piece, which featured a perilously revealing bralette and high-waisted flared trousers.

Sticking to a metallic theme, the reality star injected a dose of sparkle to her glamorous look with a gold box clutch.

She styled her ombre-hued tresses in glossy waves and framed her striking features with false lashes and a slick of taupe lipgloss.

Looking good: The brunette beauty certainly turned heads in her two-piece, which featured a perilously revealing bralette and high-waisted flared trousers

Chic: Sticking to a metallic theme, the reality star injected a dose of sparkle to her glamorous look with a gold box clutch

Ready for her close-up: She styled her ombre-hued tresses in glossy waves

Josh, meanwhile, cut a suave figure in a poloneck, checked coat and tan leather monk shoes.

The couple's romance started to shaky ground after Josh chose to couple up with her - leaving his former partner Georgia Steel high and dry.

But eventually viewers warmed to the pairing - who finished third in the final earlier this month and exited the villa as official boyfriend and girlfriend.

Glamorous: She framed her striking features with false lashes and a slick of taupe lipgloss

Gorgeous exit: Kaz was still perfectly preened as she departed the bash in the wee hours

Girls' trip! The beauty left the bash with pal Nush Cope as the pair were planning to catch an early flight together on Wednesday morning

Flying solo: Josh still looked in high spirits as he departed the music ceremony on his lonesome

In demand! The star was on hand to host the event from the red carpet before presenting an award with his girlfriend

Coming out to see the reaction on social media, Josh said during an appearance on BBC Breakfast: 'A bit of criticism is an understatement, I think I was public enemy number one.'

Kaz added: 'I wasn't prepared, right now there's a lot of love though, it is a bad thing that you did essentially, but at the time people could see you have a real connection, and it all worked out in the end.

'When we meet fans on the street they're like ''are you and Josh still together''. They ask "are you in love with him? And is it real?" Luckily it was all real emotions, and stuff you're going to ask "is it fake?"'

Sartorially savvy: The make-up artist has adopted quite the fashionista reputation and is often commended on her fashion choices

In good company: Kaz, who added a leather jacket to her style when the temperatures plummeted, was flanked by pals as she left the star-studded bash

Gorgeous: Kaz looked as though she could have carried on the party as she laughed with pals after hopping into a taxi

Since leaving the villa, many fans have eagerly waiting to see what will happen next in Josh and Kaz's relationship, after officially saying their loved each other just days before the show's end.

Josh said: 'I watched a few of the big moments, from talking to people you understand that some stuff isn't shown. We probably see it slightly different.

Kaz added: 'Things are really crazy, it's important to know what the platform, we're going to make money from it, but it's really important you do that as well.'

Sweet: The couple's romance started to shaky ground after Josh chose to couple up with her - leaving his former partner Georgia Steel high and dryThe Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has declined to press charges against Anthony Anderson for an alleged 2017 assault.

The Los Angeles Police Department began the investigation when a woman approached the LAPD and claimed she'd been assaulted by the Black-ish star, according to TMZ.

But on Tuesday, the DA dropped the case against the 48-year-old 'because the woman refused to cooperate and there was not enough evidence to go forward,' the website claimed.

Off the hook: The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has declined to press charges against Anthony Anderson for an alleged 2017 assault. Seen here in May 2018

The woman who field the complaint first met the host of To Tell The Truth while she was working as a caterer at an event he threw over a year ago, a source close to the matter told The Blast in July.

She then met with him a second time to discuss a potential business opportunity, and alleges that the meeting is where the assault took place.

Further details on the nature of the alleged assault are not clear.

LAPD sources confirmed in multiple published reports that a police report had been filed naming Anderson as a suspect.

But the DA squashed the case on Tuesday.

The DA dropped the case against the 48-year-old 'because the woman refused to cooperate and there was not enough evidence to go forward.' Anthony seen here with Black-ish co-star Yara Shahidi

A spokesperson for Anderson told TMZ: 'Its unfortunate that anyone can file a police report whether it is true or false.'

They added: 'The authorities have not contacted Anthony or any of his representatives about this matter. Anthony unequivocally disputes the claim.'

Anderson has been married to wife Alvina Stewart since 1995.

The couple have two children, daughter Kyra, 22, and son Nathan, 18.She was infamously stretchered out of Kylie Jenner's 21st birthday party in West Hollywood last month after collapsing on the dancefloor.

But that embarrassing incident didn't stop Instagram model Tammy Hembrow from enjoying a whirlwind girls' trip to Los Angeles this week.

The mother-of-two spent around 24 hours in the City of Angels before jetting to NYC for Fashion Week via private plane on Tuesday.

Here comes trouble! On Tuesday, party girl Tammy Hembrow jetted to NYFW via private jet with her glamorous pals following a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles

In a series of posts to Instagram, Tammy shared a glimpse of her whistle-stop tour, including shopping trips and an impromptu dance party in her hotel.

But the busty model and her travel companions - Tal Graham and Sera Bagnall of fashion label Staple & Hue - didn't stay in LA for very long.

It was clearly an overnight stopover because just one day after arriving in the city, the 24-year-old flew across the country to the East Coast.

Just stopping by! The mother-of-two spent around 24 hours in the City of Angels before flying across the country to the East Coast. Pictured below her Good American billboard in LA

She is travelling to New York for Fashion Week, where her activewear brand Saski Collection is being showcased on the runway.

During her last visit to Los Angeles, Tammy found herself at the centre of a scandal.

While attending Kylie Jenner's birthday party on Thursday 9 August, Tammy became unwell at the Delilah nightclub on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Flying in style! Tammy is travelling to NYC for Fashion Week, where her activewear brand Saski Collection is being showcased on the runway. Pictured: Tammy and friends boarding the flight

Paramedics were called and the Gold Coast resident was pictured being carried out of the venue face down on a stretcher shortly before midnight.

She was transported to a nearby hospital but seemingly recovered quickly, as she was posting photos to Instagram of herself shopping on Rodeo Drive the next day.

Tammy later blamed the incident on tiredness, jet-lag and her recent split with the father of her two children, fashion designer Reece Hawkins.Emily Ratajkowsi and Lena Dunham were all about girl power at a swimsuit shoot for the Gone Girl star's Inamorata swimwear line.

Usual in the spotlight, the 27-year-old newlywed got behind the camera to act as photographer for the shoot while the Girls star posed in a sultry leopard print one-piece of Ratajkowski's design.

The photos were shared on Inamorata's Instagram page Tuesday to mark the coveted leopard print looks' return to their online store.

Pose! Emily Ratajkowsi acts as photographer for her swimwear line Inamorata while shooting model Lena Dunham in this Polaroid that was shared on social media Tuesday

Smize: The 32-year-old donned a high cut strapless swimsuit that secured around the waist with a built in belt

In a behind the scenes shot on social media, Emily looked all business while peering into the viewfinder at Lena.

EmRata photographed a handful of stunning models, who she calls her muses, in a range of body shapes for the label. It was a family affair too, her beloved pup was even spotted on set.

The starlet gushed on social media about acting as photographer: '@inamorataswim is my baby. Art directing and photographing such an incredible group of women was an honor and just SO MUCH FUN.'

In the shots, the 32-year-old Lenny Letter co-creator sat on her knees, leaning back in the shots showing off her impressive tattoo collection.

What's good for the goose: The Gone Girl star didn't just shoot models in her designs, EmRata also modeled one of her leopard bikini's in a boomerang post on Instagram

Sultry: Lena's Inamorata suit is made in the USA and retails for $160

In the leopard suit, statement earrings and an oversized woven beach hat, Lena looked every bit like a vintage pinup model in the photos.

Lena's strapless suit was cut ultra high at the hip, showcasing some ink and tied around the waist with a built in belt.

The suit, called 'swami's', retails for $160. All of Inamorata's collection is made in America.

For her part, the I Feel Pretty Star would have been remiss if she didn't also model one of her creations.

Back in stock! The photos were posted Tuesday because the line's leopard print is officially back in stock on the website

Hey there: Even Emily's beloved pup made it into a behind the scenes photo

Model moment: The 27-year-old made sure to show her love for the brand she calls her 'baby' by posted a sizzling video in a bikini

Look familiar? Emily was seen in this same swimsuit in a set of photos she posted last week during her beach vacation

The bombshell also shared a leopard bikini clad boomerang which showcased her cut physique.

Her suit, which is also part of the collection featured a string triangle top and itty bitty thong bottoms which can be mixed and matched with other piece from the line.

Ratajkowski was also wearing the same bikini top in a cozy picture with her new husband, Sebastian Bear-McClard, and their dog snuggled together on the beach. She swapped in a pair of black and white polka dot bottoms.

The photo was from their recent vacation together with pal, Instagram star The Fat Jewish.The Great British Bake Off

Rating:

Never mind your soggy bottom, what contestants on The Great British Bake Off (C4) must perfect now is the deep curtsey. Half the presenters appear to regard themselves as royalty.

Noel Fielding was parading around the marquee, on one of the hottest days of the year, in full fig as Queen Marie Antoinette, balancing a wig the size of a three-tier wedding cake on his bonce.

He looked about as comfortable as Frank Bruno in drag: I dont think well be seeing Noel as a panto dame any time soon.

It was Paul Hollywood who wore his regal pretensions with ease. After the final round, he summoned shy baker Rahul, with all the condescension of Louis XIV beckoning a terrified courtier.

Then he proffered a hand. Poor Rahul didnt know whether to shake it or fall to his knees and kiss it.

The return of the Great British Bake Off. (left to right) Noel Fielding, Sandi Toksvig, Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood are this year's presenters and judges

Ive never given a handshake for a showstopper before, Paul announced, as though he was inventing a new sort of honour. Arise, Sir Rahul, knight of the gateaux.

Paul was so pleased with the effect this achieved that he offered the fabled Hollywood Handshake to the next baker too.

Honestly, he has to be careful: if he keeps bestowing them so casually, the soulless cynics among us might start to suspect these handshakes are just meaningless flim-flam, and not royal benisons at all.

Despite the shows former reputation for filthy double entendres, the bakers have never been foul-mouthed. Thats one of the quiet joys of the Bake Off.

But French patissier Manon spoiled that, when she casually used a forbidden expletive while talking about her fondant figurines and had to be bleeped. As Breton-born Manon appears to speak no recognisable English, its hard to imagine what she said that upset the censor so. Zut alors! perhaps.

Ruby Bhoga is one of the nation's most loved bakers in this year's hugely popular GBBO

Continuing the French theme of the episode, Prue Leith asked the bakers to make a Claude Monet gateau vert for the Technical Challenge. This involved marzipan covered in liquid spinach. Continental arty-types often have peculiar tastes, of course, but that was disgusting.

Such silliness just adds to the pleasure. For all its archness, its ludicrous recipes and the pomposity of Paul Hollywood, Bake Off is a continual delight  and this years contest is already looking like one of the best ever. Pass another slice of that spinachy marzipan, I cant get enough!

The Horizon Guide to AI

Rating:

The pleasure of The Horizon Guide To AI (BBC4) lay in silliness too  not just the wild predictions about Artificial Intelligence by the scientists in Sixties and Seventies archive clips, but their outlandish hair styles. The bizarre beards and combovers were hypnotic. So was their dentistry. Once I had noticed how many robotics engineers from the pre-microchip era had black teeth, I couldnt stop seeing it. Lord knows what they were waffling on about  but crikey, those teeth.

Some of their pronouncements were outrageous enough to make you spit out your cocoa. One unnamed American explained that robots would never fully replace the working classes, or morons as he termed them, because even morons were really quite complex. It took a robot scientist to appreciate that, he added modestly.

Other insights were spot on. One sci-fi writer imagined an age when people would order their groceries by pushing a few buttons on a handheld computer, which would pay the supermarket electronically.

Whether this was real foresight or just a lucky guess, theres no knowing. Surely any scientist who could truly see into the future would never wear a combover like that.The federal government is being urged by its own backbench MPs to clearly define the circumstances under which the military can be deployed in response to domestic terrorist events.

Liberal and Labor members of a Senate committee have recommended the Commonwealth define in legislation the specific circumstances in which the Australian Defence Force can be called upon.

In a report tabled this week, the major parties still recommended that the draft laws be passed, but the Greens have provided a dissenting report demanding they be scrapped.At the end of Scott Morrison's first meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, he showed the foreign leader photos of his family and a dog.

As first dates go, there was a lot of pressure on this one.

But the prime minister was clearly determined to build a good relationship with the president, who had found a close friend and ally in Malcolm Turnbull.

If Mr Morrison's first overseas trip to Indonesia is a pointer to his other meetings with world leaders, he'll try to win them over with enthusiasm.

"President Widodo is a sign of hope to every young boy and girl in this country in what he has been able to achieve and it was indeed a privilege to meet such a wonderful man as him," Mr Morrison told a business breakfast in Jakarta.

Tony Abbott had a fractured relationship with President Widodo, threatened to shirtfront Vladimir Putin and complained to G20 leaders about his local struggles cutting the carbon tax.

In contrast, Mr Turnbull built strong relationships with Asian leaders, hosting them in a meeting in Sydney and having dinner with President Widodo and his wife at his Point Piper mansion.

Mr Morrison's house in the Shire might not be as alluring to foreign leaders, but so far he appears to be aiming closer to Mr Turnbull's approach, rather than Mr Abbott's.

"It is my absolute intention and priority to keep the momentum going and to take it to a new level ... the platform that has been built by Prime Minister Turnbull with President Widodo to get us to this point," Mr Morrison said of the two nations' relationship.

But he has prove he's not just keeping the seat warm for Bill Shorten.

An article in the Indonesia media called Mr Morrison a "revolving door" leader, and Australia's recent history of changing prime ministers is well known overseas.

Mr Morrison is due to go to Argentina in November for the G20 leaders meeting, where he will have a chance to sell himself as more than just a stop-gap leader.

His first formal meeting with US President Donald Trump, expected at that summit, will be closely watched.

It appears that while Mr Morrison is a bit more Cronulla Sharks than Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, he is taking his immediate predecessor's approach on the world stage.A New Zealand journalist has been detained by authorities in Nauru while covering the Pacific Islands Forum, according to her employer.

Television New Zealand reports its Pacific correspondent, Barbara Dreaver, was detained by police on Tuesday while interviewing a refugee at a camp.

The state broadcaster said an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was with her at a police station.

Comment has been requested from the ministry and TVNZ said it would provide more details as they came to hand.

Nauru's government has given limited media access to the forum, waiving its prohibitively large media visas fee, but only allowing small numbers of journalists to attend.

Its banning of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from the event prompted a boycott by media organisations in the Canberra parliamentary press gallery earlier this year.

Ms Dreaver was also banned from Fiji for eight years over a story about poverty in a village in 2008.A controversial plan to close a boarding school that caters for fewer than 30 students in regional Western Australia has been scrapped after the federal government offered $8.7 million to keep the facility open.

The state government had insisted it would not backflip on the plan to shut down Moora Residential College, despite protests and continued negative commentary about the decision.

But on Tuesday, the federal government revealed it would pay for a refurbishment under its community development grants program, and the state government agreed to provide ongoing recurrent funding to keep the facility open.Addressing the event, Huan reviewed Vietnams major achievements in socio-economic development as well as foreign relations and international integration over the past 73 years.

He underscored that the Vietnam-China relations have been reinforced and developed in recent years, with important progress in various fields. China has become the largest trade partner of Vietnam, while Vietnam is the biggest trade partner of China among ASEAN countries and the eighth largest in the world, Huan noted.

The diplomat lauded the efforts and contributions of the Vietnamese community in Macau to the countrys national construction, reminding them to continue promoting the traditional culture of Vietnam as well as mutual support, and joining hands to make their homeland more prosperous.

Meanwhile, head of the Mutual Support Fellow-Countrymen Association in Macau Tran Thi Thu said that the meeting was a chance for Overseas Vietnamese in Macau to remind themselves of the glorious tradition of the nation and the pride of the homeland as well as their responsibility to the motherland.

Also on September 2, a badminton tournament was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as part of the activities to celebrate the 73rd National Day, drawing a large number of Vietnamese people living and working in the country.

The annual event aimed to strengthen exchange and solidarity among the Vietnamese community in the country.

Players from the Vietnamese Embassy won the gold medal in the mens duo category, while winners of the womens duo were representatives from the Vietnamese community in Kuala Lumpur.Melbourne's pack leader Jesse Bromwich says the Storm need to shut down South Sydney's monster pack to nullify their dangerman Damien Cook in Friday night's NRL qualifying final at AAMI Park.

In their previous meeting, hooker Cook proved a major thorn in the Storm's side, scoring a 62nd minute-try which gave his team a match-winning lead.

With his probing runs from dummy-half the NSW Origin rake racked up 173 metres and made 39 tackles in his battle with Storm captain Cameron Smith.

"He's been playing really well this season and he really tore us up last time we played up there," Bromwich said of Cook.

"We've just got to do a good job on their forwards because if you try and limit that than hopefully you can limit his game."

Souths enforcer Sam Burgess is set to play despite suffering hamstring damage in their final round win over Wests Tigers, joining his younger brothers Tom and George in the Rabbitohs pack.

Bromwich, who will celebrate his 200th NRL game this week, said the Storm learned a valuable lesson in their 30-20 defeat to Souths.

"They're a big strong forward pack, we learnt last time how big they are so it's going to be a big challenge for us," he said.

"The three Burgess boys are going really well at the moment but also guys like Angus Crichton and Johnny Sutton are doing a good job as well so we've got our hands full."

Melbourne fullback Billy Slater, who missed their loss to Penrith last weekend when he flew to Cairns to be with a sick family member, is back on deck while injured five-eighth Cameron Munster has resumed training.

There's some doubt over prop Tim Glasby who suffered a head knock against the Panthers.

"Munster still needs to get through training but he's been bouncing around while it's good to get Bill (Slater) back as he gives the boys the boys a real boost," Bromwich said.

Bromwich, 29, will become just the sixth player in Storm history to reach the double-century milestone and the first Kiwi.THE MAIN POINTS IN THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BUDGET:

* The budget forecasts a modest $48 million surplus in 2018/19 growing to $105 million the following year and to $211 million by 2021/22.

* The SA economy is forecast to grow by 2.25 per cent each year over the next four years.

* Employment growth is expected to be 1.5 per cent in 2018/19 but fall to one per cent for each year of the forward estimates.

* The government is looking to save $863.9 million across all departments by 2021/22 and has taken the axe to more than 30 of the previous Labor government's programs and projects.

* It has quarantined health from some previous savings targets but has warned some services, including pathology and radiation, could be privatised if they don't meet future targets.

* The government will also move to privatise the Adelaide Remand Centre but will spend $169 million on 270 new beds at the Yatala prison and 40 at the Adelaide women's prison.

* $11.3 billion has been allocated to infrastructure projects over the next four years with funds going to road and rail projects, new schools, health services and residential housing.

* The government will hit some public housing residents with higher rents.

* Households will get cost of living relief thanks to lower emergency service levies while some property owners will get land tax breaks.

* Small businesses will benefit from payroll tax cuts worth $157 million over four years.

* The government will close eight TAFE campuses, including three in regional SA.

* It hopes to cut 2286 public sector jobs over the next four years but will also seek to have a further 1700 move into similar positions in the private sector.

* The government has blamed Labor for leaving the state's finances in a mess with the budget for 2017/18 ending with a $397 million deficit.Support for Tasmania's Liberal government and Premier Will Hodgman has nosedived six months after the state election, a new poll shows.

Figures released by EMRS on Tuesday show Liberal backing has slumped 11 points, from 47 per cent in May to 36 per cent.

The poll of 1000 voters, the second taken by EMRS after a March state election, has Labor opposition leader Rebecca White as preferred premier on 46 per cent, with Mr Hodgman slipping from 47 per cent to 38.UNIVERSITY FUNDING

Under the coalition:

- Universities are in the midst of a two-year funding freeze to save about $2 billion from the budget. Funding will be kept at 2017 levels until 2020.

- The freeze means universities will not get extra money if they enrol more students than last year and they also won't see any indexation to help with rising costs.

- Universities Australia says the freeze will affect 10,000 student places and has called for its reversal.

Labor's pledge:

- $174 million package over 10 years to increase university access for those in regional areas.

- $10 billion over 10 years to abolish limits on student numbers, which the party says will boost student numbers by 200,000 over 12 years.

- An inquiry into universities and TAFE within 100 days if successful at the next federal election.

- The Group of Eight universities, including ANU, Monash University and the universities of Sydney, NSW, Melbourne, Queensland, Western Australia and Adelaide, has praised the promise of funding being available for universities to partner with not-for-profit community groups to target students most in need.A teenage girl has been followed, kissed and punched by a knife-wielding man after getting off a bus in Melbourne's south east.

Police have released an image of the man, who they also believe assaulted a second teenage girl last week on the same bus line, the next day.

In the first incident, a 17-year-old girl got off the 893 bus at Waverley Park Drive, Cranbourne North, about 6pm last Tuesday.

A man waiting at the stop began following her, before grabbing her and kissing her.

The victim fought back and the man verbally abused her before producing a knife and punching her.

She sustained minor scratches and he fled.

The next day, a girl, 17, was waiting at a bus stop on the Princes Highway near Harmer Road, Hallam about 2.30pm.

A man crossed the road towards the bus stop and began shouting abuse at the victim and her friends.

He grabbed the victim and pushed her into a bus stop before abruptly leaving.

She sustained minor bruising and the man left on foot.

He is perceived as Caucasian, aged 40 to 50 and unshaven. He wore black pants, a grey top and black cap during the second incident and was carrying a black backpack.

Police also want to speak to a woman with a pram, who helped the first victim.The family of a Sydney man who died days after having the flu shot is reportedly considering taking legal action over his death but Australia's peak medical body insists the vaccination is "extremely safe".

Lindsey Day was 39 when he died in early May some four days after he was vaccinated for influenza.

The young and healthy "family man" was rushed to Nepean Hospital when he suddenly collapsed one morning but he was declared brain dead the next day and had his life support switched off.

Mr Day's sister-in-law, Sarah Amituanai, told the Nine Network the family is certain his death is linked to the flu vaccination.

"The bottom line is if he hadn't gotten the vaccine he would still be here," she said.

Nine says the autopsy reports reveals Mr Day developed cold and flu-like symptoms after getting the injections on April 28 and treated them with cold and flu tablets.

Australian Medical Association President Dr Tony Bartone did not wish to comment on the circumstances leading to the 39-year-old's death but insisted the safety of the vaccine was "without question".

"The flu vaccination is not without possible side effects but you've got to understand the majority of those are self-limiting and last less than 24 hours," he told AAP on Tuesday.

"So when you compare that with the effects of not having the vaccination they really pale in comparison."

Last year an estimated 250,000 cases of influenza were reported in Australia with more than 10,000 people admitted to hospital, Dr Bartone said. Of those people about 1100 died.

"We're not talking about a little cough or a tickle in the throat here, we are talking about something that has significant consequences in the level of illness and the level of complications that can lead to mortality," Dr Bartone said.2015

June 17 - Italian au pair of a former police colleague of Dutton's arrives in Brisbane where her visa is cancelled. She makes a phone call and a tourist visa is granted after ministerial intervention.

November 1 - A French au pair arrives in Adelaide and is granted a visitor visa after AFL boss Gillon McLachlan lobbies Dutton. The au pair worked for McLachlan's cousin.

2016

June - Immigration Department decides under a freedom of information request to exempt two documents in full regarding the au pair visa decisions.

September - The department makes a revised decision and offers partial access to documents but blacks out the rest of the information based on privacy provisions.

2017

May - The Office of Information Commissioner forces the department to release further documents, but exempts some information for privacy reasons.

2018

March 26 - Dutton confirms he used his ministerial discretion to grant visas to two young tourists after AAP breaks the story.

March 27 - Dutton says "the answer is yes" when asked in question time to rule out any personal connection or relationship between himself and the intended employer of the Italian au pair.

April 3 - A federal tribunal rules key details surrounding Dutton's decision to grant the nannies visas must be suppressed.

August 23 - The Senate refers the matter to a parliamentary inquiry.

August 28 - It emerges Dutton intervened in the second case following lobbying from Gillon McLachlan on behalf of his second cousin Callum MacLachlan whose father Hugh donated roughly $150,000 to the Liberal Party since 1999.

August 30 - Dutton says he saved the nanny because he thought it was a "bit rough" for a young woman with no criminal history to get kicked out of the country.

Sept 2 - Dutton suggests the re-emergence of the issue is political payback for his failed tilt at the Liberal leadership.

Sept 3 - Dutton says he has list of "quirky" immigration requests from Labor MPs. Points to a disaffected member of the Australian Border Force as the source of the stories. Greens MP Adam Bandt says he'll move a no-confidence motion in Dutton when parliament returns next week, a move the minister describes as desperate.

Sept 5 - A parliamentary inquiry into the issue is due to start hearings in Canberra.Military veterans will get an official promise for better care once they return from service if Labor wins the next election.

Labor leader Bill Shorten said he would sign Australia's first "military covenant", based on a United Kingdom agreement which provides an undertaking "that those who serve or have served, and their families, are treated fairly."

"Australians who serve in our armed forces often require specialised health and social services assistance - this is about making sure those needs don't slip through the cracks," Mr Shorten said in a statement on Wednesday.

Under the plan, the Veterans' Affairs Department will have to report on waiting times for pension payments and how often they're meeting targets.

Employment of veterans will also be tracked, with the unemployment rate of ex-service personnel sitting at twice the national average.

It will also require the government to report on measures to prevent suicide and improve mental health among ex-service men and women.

Data shows the average time taken to process permanent impairment claims for veterans was almost five months.

The suicide rate from 2002 to 2015 was also 14 per cent higher among ex-aerving men than all Australian men, after adjusting for age.

In a recent submission to a parliamentary inquiry on veterans, psychologist Dr Madeline Romaniuk said a big challenge for military personnel moving into civilian life was the lack of a handover from the military health system.

"At an organisational level, there is a gap in care for some of the most at-risk personnel," she told the committee.

"To then have to 'start over' once out of the military, can prove too difficult for many.

Labor said it would work with the Australian Defence Force, the department and ex-service organisations to draft the wording of the covenant and associated laws.

In addition, a Labor government would seek to introduce laws requiring future governments to report annually on how they are supporting serving and ex-service personnel.

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636The exact cause of the death of Australian model Sinead Mcnamara, who was found dead last week on a luxury yacht in Greece, will not be announced until the results of laboratory tests are known.

Greek coroner Ilias Bogiokas, who conducted the autopsy on Ms McNamara's body, told the Athens Macedonian News Agency that the Instagram model died from hanging and that the body did not have any injuries.

Ms McNamara, 20, was found hanging from rope at the rear of the superyacht Mayan Queen IV early last Friday local time while the vessel was moored in the port of Argostoli in Kefalonia. However, the final cause of death will not be announced until the lab tests are completed, which could take a month or more.

According to the Greek news agency, initial evidence gathered by the coast guard, who took statements from about 23 crew members and examined CCTV video footage from the yacht, seem to indicate Ms McNamara took her own life, but the investigation has not been completed.

Ms McNamara, from Port Macquarie, had been working for four months as a stewardess on the six-storey vessel owned by Mexican mining mogul and billionaire Alberto Bailleres.

She was on her last shift and was to have met up with her mother and sister who had been on their way to Greece at the time. They are expected to accompany her body back to Australia in the coming days.

The yacht was allowed to leave the port on Sunday night local time, according to media reports.Anti-Adani protesters plan to return to Queensland parliament for a more conventional demonstration after infiltrating the house and showering MPs with confetti the day before.

About a dozen protesters entered the public gallery on Tuesday where they dumped black confetti, meant to represent coal dust, on to the MPs sitting in the chamber below.

Proceedings were disrupted for several minutes before police arrived to escort them out.

Complaints against them have been made to police.

Queensland speaker Curtis Pitt said he was investigating potential criminal charges against the demonstrators and a review of parliamentary security was under way following the incident.

It highlighted the September 7 deadline for the government to prosecute Adani for an alleged breach of its environmental conditions during Cyclone Debbie.

Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch issued a statement condemning the protest but did not offer any clarity on whether the government would pursue the Indian mining giant.

"The alleged release of contaminants at Abbot Point in March last year has been the subject of formal investigation and remains under consideration by the regulator," the minister said.

Activist spokeswoman Bella Ridout declared further actions would follow.

"Minister Enoch must back up her statement that Adani will not get preferential treatment," she said.

"Queenslanders will continue to use their power as citizens and demand that Adani is prosecuted for illegally releasing coal sludge into the waters of the Great Barrier Reef."Like hundreds of thousands of other children and college students across Cuba, he arranged the notebooks, books, pencils and backpack that he will need to go to school.

"I am very excited because I want to see my friends and learn new things in this new school year," said Carlos, who starts sixth grade at Cesareo Fernandez Elementary School in the western Havana district of Miramar.

Officials have also been preparing for September 3, inspecting his school and the other 10,716 learning centers around the country, and putting together a curriculum that addresses contemporary issues.

"We are prepared to face a school year superior to the last, and with several challenges," including a shortage of teachers, Education Minister Ena Elsa Velazquez recently told local media.

"Providing a comprehensive education with high quality standards are the main guidelines," added Velazquez.

In the midst of great transformations, and new social and technological challenges, 1.7 million students will start elementary, middle and high school education, while at least 250,000 young pupils will study at national universities.

More than 156,000 teachers will teach preschools, primary and high schools, said the minister, adding that guaranteeing a teacher for each classroom continues to be a major concern.

"About 93 percent of teachers per classroom are guaranteed, while for the remaining 7 percent, there are alternatives such as retired teachers, specialists in production and services, and university students," Velazquez said.

Irene Rivera, deputy minister of education, said educators this year are set to tackle several sensitive subjects, including drug use.

"We are making an extraordinary effort with students to reject illegal conduct and socially disruptive behavior, with the stress on the illicit use of drugs," said Rivera.

This year, the Ministry of Education's goal is to turn schools into the cultural and social epicenters of each community, with the help and participation of parents, she said.

To update educational processes, the ministry's audiovisual services company CINESOFT has developed software to supplement traditional teaching methods with new technologies, such as mobile applications, according to Ivan Barreto, director of CINESOFT.

College enrollment could exceed a quarter of a million students, the minister of higher education, Jose Ramon Saborido, told the press this week.

"There is an increase of 14,000 students who passed their entrance exams to study five- and four-year careers," he said.

His agency wants to introduce a short-cycle higher education program for high school graduates who did not go on to earn a college degree.

"This initiative, which awaits the approval of its legal norms, was analyzed by the educational centers and authorities of each province and is in keeping with the economic and social development needs of each territory," the minister said.

So far, 25 specialties have been proposed for the short-cycle program, including administrator of computer networks.

"At the 22 Cuban universities, everything is ready to start the school period to contribute to graduating trained professional that work for the economic and social development of the country," Saborido said.

Cuba's government, in particular President Miguel Diaz-Canel, pays great attention to the educational sector and earmarks considerable material resources to ensure a quality education despite the economic hardships the Caribbean nation is facing, said Saborido.

Guaranteeing free, quality education is one of the main goals of Cuba's government, which each year allocates more than 20 percent of the island's gross domestic product (GDP) to the sector.The man charged with murder, following the Father's Day shooting death of a 35-year-old man north of Brisbane, has been remanded in custody.

Justin Meale, 26, of Rothwell did not apply for bail at the Redcliffe Magistrates Court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody following the death of Clinton Pollock on Sunday.

Mr Pollock was shot in the chest after getting into an argument with a group of men in the front yard of his Deception Bay home about 11.30pm on Sunday.

He was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

Neighbours reported hearing screaming at the Thompson Street home around the time of the shooting.

"I woke my husband up because my kids woke up from the noise and we just heard a lot of screaming," one woman told The Courier-Mail.

Meale was arrested on Monday afternoon over the shooting and also faces a string of drug-related charges.

A second man was also arrested overnight and is being interviewed by police.

He has not yet been charged.

Meale is due to reappear in Redcliffe Magistrates Court on November 6.

Police are still appealing for anyone with dashcam or CCTV footage of the area or incident to come forward.US Open giant-killer John Millman is relishing the chance to answer Lleyton Hewitt's SOS call and lead Australia into battle in next week's Davis Cup clash with Austria.

Millman was always going to figure in Hewitt's plans after reaching the second week of a grand slam for the first time in New York.

But Nick Kyrgios's late scratching and Millman's incredible fourth-round US Open triumph over Roger Federer has suddenly left the 29-year-old journeyman as Australia's singles spearhead for the clay-court tie in Graz.

Millman and teenage sensation Alex de Minaur will be Hewitt's two singles combatants, with the skipper to once again break from retirement to partner John Peers in the doubles.

Set to soar to a career-high No.37 in the world, or higher and even supplant Kyrgios as Australian No.1 if he continues his Flushing Meadows heroics with a quarter-final victory over Novak Djokovic on Wednesday, Millman will jump on the first plane to Austria when his captivating Open run comes to end.

Officially, the tie from September 14-16 is a World Group play-off.

In reality, given the radical overhaul of the competition, the only reward for the winners is world team ranking points ahead of next year's new end-of-season 18-team format.

"Any opportunity to play for my country, I take it," Millman said.

"I have always been a big admirer of Davis Cup, not just when I played it, but when I was a kid growing up.

"I was quite vocal about the changes that had been made and as all things are planned to go ahead, to be able to play with the whole format would be a massive honour."

Typically, despite his spectacular form, the humble Queenslander is refusing to take his position in the team for granted and doesn't expect to be a walk-up start for his country.

"The camps are normally quite competitive and we will go out there to try to best prepare for what will be a tough tie," Millman said.

"Every person who is going to be over there, they want to be there. That is the key.

"We want players who are there and ready to go and want to be there and really wanting to make the most of what could be one of the last ties in the proper format that it should be.

"Any opportunity that I have to represent my country and wear the green and gold, whether that be on the sideline, or picking up balls, or playing, I will take with both hands."

Jordan Thompson was also named in Hewitt's five-man Australian team, while Alex Bolt also travelled to Europe as a hitting partner.Labor MP Tony Burke lobbied for a controversial Islamic preacher to be granted a business visa in a letter to the Australian embassy in Jordan.

Mohammed Rateb Abdalah Ali al-Nabulsi was eventually denied entry to Australia, despite the opposition frontbencher's efforts in July last year, The Australian reported on Wednesday.

The Voice of Islam radio station had invited Mr Nabulsi to Australia for a series of public engagements and sought the help of Mr Burke to secure his visa.

The Islamic scholar has called for the execution and homosexuals and the subjugation of women, whom he labels the "devil's temptation".

The revelations come as Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton weathers a scandal over his ministerial decisions to overturn border authority decisions to deny entry to Australia to two European au pairs.

The Senate legal affairs committee will on Wednesday begin its inquiry into whether Mr Dutton misused his ministerial powers by intervening in cases.A man who has been linked to the corruption scandal at Western Australia's North metropolitan Health Service says he has "at all times" co-operated with authorities and will return home if required.

Grant Alexander has worked recently in London as a Corruption and Crime Commission investigation uncovered widespread bribery and corruption at the NMHS.

"At all times I have assisted as comprehensively as I have been able to. Throughout the investigation I have kept authorities fully aware of my location and my intention to return to WA if required," Mr Alexander told the West Australian through his lawyer on Wednesday.The federal government is backing a push for a 10 cent per litre levy on milk to help drought-hit farmers, saying it is working to get retailers and processors on board.

A Queensland dairy farmers collective is calling on Australians to shell out, with the levy to go directly to farmers in drought.

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said Woolworths had already indicated a willingness to back the idea, but Coles was more "circumspect".

"This is a whole of industry approach. We are working not only with the retailers, (but) the processors. We are hoping that Coles will now come on that journey with Woolworths (and) we are able to facilitate that as quickly as we can," he told the Nine Network.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pledged to continue his close relationship with Australia after the sudden departure of longtime Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop.

The US State Department announced on Tuesday Mr Pompeo spoke with Ms Bishop's successor, Marise Payne, by phone last week "and congratulated her on her recent appointment".

"The two reaffirmed the close alignment of the United States and Australia and pledged to continue our long history of co-operation on the basis of our shared interests and values," the State Department said in a statement.

Mr Pompeo and Ms Payne are not strangers.

Ms Payne, the former defence minister, joined Ms Bishop, Mr Pompeo and US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for two days at the Australia US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in California in July.

Ms Bishop, after five years as Australia's top diplomat, stepped down after the recent Liberal Party leadership spill that led to Scott Morrison replacing Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister.A teenage girl is still fighting for life and three others injured after not wearing seatbelts during a hit-run in Melbourne's southeast.

A 15-year-old passenger remains in a critical condition in hospital on Wednesday with head injuries after the stolen Nissan Maxima hit a pole when it lost control at a Hampton Park roundabout.

Two boys and a girl, aged between 13 and 15, and who were also in the car, suffered minor injuries and were taken to other hospitals on Tuesday.

Detective Sergeant Darryl Out told Nine Network "seatbelts may not have been worn by any of the occupants of the car".A series of nine books written in Kriol for indigenous children will help fight poor literacy standards in remote Australian communities.

As part of Indigenous Literacy Day a group of students from Katherine in the Northern Territory have been flown to the Sydney Opera House for Wednesday's launch of the series, written and illustrated by Binjari women in their first language Kriol.

Karen Williams, Executive Director of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, says indigenous children often start school with three languages but little knowledge of English.

"The kids are really talented ... but English is the fourth or fifth language. And many of these kids don't have books in their home," Ms Williams told AAP.

"The whole experience of going to school is very challenging, and it's very difficult for them to catch up."

By the time they reach year five, only 35 per cent of indigenous children in very remote parts of the Northern Territory meet the minimum standards for reading in writing compared to 90 per cent of non-indigenous students living in major cities, according to NAPLAN 2017.

The ILF has worked on closing the literacy gap by raising money to buy and distribute books to communities, from children to elders.

"If children don't see other members in community reading, they won't value it," Ms Williams said.

Nearly half (40 per cent) of the books sent out have been written by indigenous authors and illustrators, to provide topics children can relate to, she said.

On Wednesday, eight students from Katherine's St Joseph's Catholic College will listen to a reading of three new books in Kriol at the Sydney Opera House.

The series includes three board books, three picture books and three chapter books, including Moli det bigibigi (Molly the Pig) about a Weetbix-devouring pig.

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation has also called on Australians to join their new fundraising campaign, Fill a Bookshelf, in the hope 30,000 new books will be sent to remote indigenous communities.Out of the shadows: Naomi Osaka hits a return to Aryna Sabalenka

Becoming Japan's first Grand Slam singles champion is Naomi Osaka's number one priority but finding a friend or two is a close second.

The charismatic 20-year-old was part of a history-making double act at the US Open on Monday when she and Kei Nishikori became the first Japanese players to make the last-eight at the same Slam since Wimbledon in 1995.

But after seeing off Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to become the first Japanese woman in the US Open quarter-finals since Shinobu Asagoe in 2004, Osaka hoped that her social life might now pick up.

"What friends?" she responded when asked if she will celebrate her emotional victory with friends in New York, the city where her Haitian-born father attended university.

"Oh, my God, I literally only have, like, one friend that I'm actually completely myself with. I feel bad for her sometimes.

"And then the other person is my sister. I don't really count that as a friend.

"I guess I tell jokes a lot, but I'm not really that sure because sometimes they don't laugh and they just stare at me like I said something insulting."

On Monday, Osaka came back from a break down in the final set to take the tie on a fourth match point when Sabalenka served up an eighth double fault.

"I would never have forgiven myself if I had lost that match today," said a tearful Osaka.

"When I was a break down in the final set I thought I would even break a leg if needed so I could get to every ball."

Osaka, seeded 20 at the US Open, has been knocking on the door of the majors for the last three years.

Her previous two trips to New York had ended in third round losses to Madison Keys last year and Kaia Kanepi in 2016.

In both matches she had taken the first set.

At the Australian Open in January, she went to the fourth round where it took world number one Simona Halep to stop her.

She is enjoying a breakout season, winning the prestigious Indian Wells title in March before beating Serena Williams in the first round in Miami.

"Every time I play a Grand Slam, people ask me am I going to go further than the third round," she said.

"Then in Australia I went to the fourth round, then people were like, are you going to go further than that or is that where you're going to stop?

"I've always dreamed of playing here and going to the quarter-finals and further. So I'm just glad I could do one of my goals."

Next up for Osaka is a clash against Ukraine's 36th-ranked -- and fellow Grand Slam quarter-final debutant -- Lesia Tsurenko.

The 29-year-old had been on the brink of collapse due to heat exhaustion before seeing off Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-2.Italian Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta said that it was necessary to move forward "together" to secure peace in Libya

France is partly to blame for the crisis in Libya, Italy's Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta said Monday, ruling out Italian military intervention there.

"France, from my point of view, has a responsibility," the minister wrote on Facebook, evoking the military intervention in 2011 by France and other nations against the regime of Libya's then leader Moamer Kadhafi.

"It is clearly now undeniable that this country (Libya) finds itself in this situation because someone, in 2011, put their own interests ahead of those of the Libyan people and of Europe itself," the minister said.

"France, from this point of view, is partly to blame," Trenta added.

Earlier Italy's parliamentary speaker Roberto Fico called the situation in Libya "a serious problem which France has left us".

Trenta said that it was necessary to move forward "together" to secure peace in Libya.

The Italian press on Monday suggested that special Italian forces could be sent to intervene in Libya, a possibility which Trenta ruled out.

Fighting has been raging between rival militias in the southern suburbs of the Libyan capital Tripoli in recent days, following a failed ceasefire.

The Libyan capital has been at the centre of a battle for influence between armed groups since the ouster and killing of dictator Kadhafi in 2011.

The United Nations mission to Libya (UNSMIL) has invited the "various Libyan parties" to Tuesday talks for "urgent dialogue".Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech titled "Work Together for Common Development and a Shared Future" at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2018. The FOCAC Beijing Summit opened here on Monday. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping on Monday announced a raft of renewed measures to elevate China-Africa cooperation as more than 50 African leaders gathered in central Beijing for a major event.

"We are so delighted to have all of you with us," Xi said as he opened the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), an occasion he described as the reunion of the China-Africa big family.

Xi called for efforts to forge an even stronger China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.

With the next three years in sight, he put forward eight initiatives and backed it up with a pledge of financing amounting to 60 billion U.S. dollars.

Among the measures are the import of more non-resource products from Africa, increased corporate investment, more direct flights, an environmental cooperation center, an African studies institute, and security programs fighting pirates and terrorists.

Calling Africa a "land of great promise" and a continent "full of hope," Xi said no one can hold back the Chinese people or the African people as they march toward rejuvenation.

EIGHT INITIATIVES

The summit is the third of its kind since FOCAC was set up 18 years ago.

Liu Guijin, a veteran diplomat who once served as the first special representative of the Chinese government on African affairs, said the initiatives were a follow-up to the 10 cooperation plans announced at the last summit in 2015.

"Our policies have been very consistent. We build on past success and move ahead," Liu said.

On industrial promotion, Xi said a China-Africa economic and trade expo will be held in China. A number of economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa will be built or upgraded.

"We encourage Chinese companies to make at least 10 billion U.S. dollars of investment in Africa in the next three years," he said.

Zhu Gongshan, chairman of Chinese energy company GCL Group, said he would like to scale up investment in Africa, especially to tap into the huge market potential of solar-power generation. His company had already set foot in Ethiopia and Djibouti.

"The outlook is good. We as business people have high hopes and are more willing to invest," he said.

Observers said as a strength of Chinese support, infrastructure development in Africa will continue to benefit from concessional loans and credit lines.

Xi specifically pledged support for Chinese companies that adopt an investment-construction-operation model in infrastructure projects.

He said China will work with Africa to undertake a number of key connectivity projects. That will increase landmark infrastructure rising up across the continent over the past few years, such as the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya and the Maputo Cross-sea Bridge in Mozambique.

On trade, Xi said China has decided to increase imports, particularly non-resource products, from Africa, support the African Continental Free Trade Area, and hold free trade talks with interested countries and regions.

Xi's initiatives also cover capacity building, health care, people-to-people exchange, and peace and security.

Environmental protection also featured high on the agenda.

Xi said 50 aid projects will be undertaken on green development and ecological and environmental protection in Africa, with a focus on tackling climate change, marine cooperation, desertification prevention and control, and wildlife protection.

"The speech highlighted what we are all doing now," said Wang Qingfeng, director of the Nairobi-based Sino-African Joint Research Center with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Since 2013, the center has put forward more than 45 joint research programs including biodiversity investigation, pathogenic microorganism detection, geographic science, and remote sensing.

Kembabazi Barbara Gamukama, a Ugandan student in Beijing, said she was motivated by Xi's speech too.

"China will import more from Africa. That means Uganda can export more coffee, and there are opportunities for Uganda's young people looking for jobs," she said.

FIVE-NO APPROACH

Despite the geographical distance between them, China and Africa enjoy a friendship that has stood the test of time.

Profound friendships were first forged among the founding fathers of China and African countries in the middle of last century. Signature aid projects like the Tanzania-Zambia Railway in the 1970s brought the people closer.

Xi expounded at the summit that China follows a "five-no" approach in its relations with Africa: no interference in African countries' pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions; no interference in their internal affairs; no imposition of China's will on them; no attachment of political strings to assistance; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation.

"China follows the principle of giving more and taking less, giving before taking and giving without asking for return," Xi said.

A sign of the China-Africa family getting closer can be seen by the adding of new FOCAC members. All 53 African countries with diplomatic ties with China are now members.

Xi led a round of loud applause on Monday as he welcomed the Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, and Burkina Faso as the three new members.

"Africa has chosen China," Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore told Xinhua before he flew to Beijing. "It is our choice and we stick to that."

FROM AFRICA TO WORLD

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who serves as the rotating chairperson of the African Union for 2018, said the summit comes at the right time as globalization faces headwinds.

Talking to reporters before the summit, Kagame said there is a "need for cooperation more than ever" as some countries make clear their intentions to serve themselves first over other countries.

Xi reiterated China's stance to safeguard an open world economy and the multilateral trade system, rejecting protectionism and unilateralism.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said China's cooperation with Africa is fundamental for Africa's success, which underpins the success of the world in development and peace.

China and Africa are home to roughly 2.6 billion people, making up 35 percent of the world's population.

Xi said China and Africa have long formed a community with a shared future and will now turn it into a pacesetter for building such a community for humanity.

"Our goal is to make the world a place of peace and stability and life happier and more fulfilling for all," Xi said.Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is set to appear at two congressional hearings where he is likely to face questions on foreign influence campaigns and political bias by social media firms

After days of vitriol from President Donald Trump, big Silicon Valley firms face lawmakers in the coming week with a chance to burnish their image -- or face a fresh bashing.

Top executives from Twitter and Facebook were to appear in two hearings on Wednesday, with Google's participation a question mark.

The hearings come with online firms facing intense scrutiny for allowing the propagation of misinformation and hate speech, and amid allegations of political bias from the president and his allies.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg were set to appear at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Lawmakers were seeking a top executive from Google or its parent Alphabet, but it remained unclear if the search giant would be represented.

The tech giants are likely to face a cool reception at best from members of Congress, said Roslyn Layton, an American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar specializing in telecom and internet issues.

"The Democrats are upset about the spread of misinformation in the 2016 election, and the Republicans over the perception of bias," Layton said.

"They are equally angry, but for different reasons."

Layton, who was a member of the Trump transition team on telecom issues, said she did not view the president's comments as a threat to start regulation, but that Silicon Valley firms could nonetheless expect tougher scrutiny.

This could come in the form of tougher enforcement on consumer protection and deceptive practices by the Federal Trade Commission, or congressional action on privacy in response to a law passed in California.

Still, she said the tech firms have a chance to improve their public image if they emphasize what made them successful.

"They forget to emphasize how much people love their products, how people use them around the world, including dissidents," she said. "Now they are on the back foot."

Dorsey and Sandberg were to appear at a morning hearing in the Senate on "Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms," which could see an empty chair for Google.

Sources familiar with the matter said Google offered chief legal officer Kent Walker, who the company said is most knowledgeable on foreign interference, but that senators had asked for the participation of CEO Sundar Pichai or Alphabet CEO Larry Page.

Dorsey testifies later in the day at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on online "transparency and accountability."

- Questions of bias -

President Donald Trump recently warned Google, Facebook and Twitter to "be careful" with respect to political bias but stopped short of calling for regulation

Both hearings could offer lawmakers a chance to vent at the firms following claims from Trump and some Republicans that online firms have suppressed conservative voices.

In a series of tweets in recent days, Trump assailed Google for what he termed "rigged" results that hide news from conservative outlets and promote content from what he called "left-wing" media.

That followed similar comments from Republican lawmakers including House majority leader Kevin McCarthy who claimed that "conservatives are too often finding their voices silenced" on online platforms.

Technology and media analysts say there is little evidence to suggest Google is skewing results for political reasons. And if they did, the president would have little recourse under the constitution's free speech protections.

But public perception is another matter.

A Pew Research Center survey released in June found 43 percent of Americans think major technology firms support the views of liberals over conservatives, and 72 percent accepted the idea that social media platforms actively censor opposing political views.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a University of Pennsylvania professor and author of an upcoming book on Russia's role in election hacking, said the hearings could give the companies a platform to explain how they operate.

"Hearings are an opportunity as well as a liability," she said.

"These companies have put in place fixes (on foreign manipulation) but they have done it incrementally, and they have not communicated that to a national audience."

- 'An opportunity' -

Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, will represent the leading social network at a congressional hearing on foreign influence operations

Adam Chiara, a University of Harford professor who follows social media and politics, said the public hearings will offer an opportunity for Silicon Valley firms to deliver their message to the public.

"I think we'll see the tech companies much better prepared than (in hearings) in November 2017," Chiara said.

While Silicon Valley's image has been battered in recent months, Chiara said, "if they can come up with a concrete message that the lawmakers can understand and the public can understand, maybe they can gain control of the wheel."

Chiara said Google's likely absence could end up hurting the company.

"Google is missing an opportunity to craft a message for itself," he said.

Jeff Hemsley, a Syracuse University communications professor, said the hearings are likely to bring greater public scrutiny to concerns which may have only been raised by a small percentage of the population.

"Being in front of Congress, regardless of the outcome, elevates some of these data privacy and social media bias issues into the national conversation," Hemsley said.

To avoid a further deterioration of their image, the companies "need to be seen to answer the questions and show they are paying attention.. they have to do their best to show the bias they are accused of is not there."A Yemeni artist paints pro-peace graffiti on a wall in the capital Sanaa on August 16, 2018

Yemen's warring parties meet in Geneva Thursday for a new round of peace talks with little hope of a breakthrough in an "ugly war" between the Saudi-backed government and rebels linked to Iran.

They are the first public meetings between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen's powerful Huthi rebels since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing deal.

But the chance of face-to-face sitdowns between Hadi's delegation and the rebels in Geneva are slim to none, Yemeni foreign minister Khaled al-Yamani told AFP.

And while the two sides are backed by rival regional powers, their respective patrons will not be present in Geneva.

The talks, overseen by United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths, are aimed at charting a path towards reviving formal UN-backed negotiations.

They will likely focus on a prisoner exchange deal and the fate of embattled Hodeida, the rebel-held port city at the frontline of the war.

Hanging in the balance is the fate of 22 million civilians, in a country where famine looms and a cholera epidemic is threatening a comeback.

- Low bar -

"This war has been and remains an ugly war," said UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash, whose country is the senior partner in the Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi's government.

"We have seen civilians shot at, bombed, killed and unfortunately... this is part of any confrontation."

Yemeni pro-government forces fire a mortar round in Yemen's Hodeida province on June 15, 2018

Last month alone saw 66 children killed in air raids believed to have been conducted by the Saudi-led coalition.

Both camps have been accused by the UN and rights groups of failing to protect civilians.

Last month, UN-backed experts said all the warring parties have committed a "substantial number of violations of international humanitarian law", many potentially amounting to war crimes.

Diplomats and Yemeni officials have set a low bar for the Geneva meetings, the first attempt by Griffiths to bring the warring parties together.

One US diplomat described them as "low key" with "low expectations".

They "are really not intended to be talks or negotiations but consultations that demonstrate the capability of the UN to bring the sides together," along with "confidence building measures", the diplomat said.

- Eye on Hodeida -

All previous attempts to resolve the Yemen war have failed.

The UN's Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths disembarks from a plane on his arrival for talks in Sanaa on June 16, 2018

Griffiths is the UN's third Yemen envoy since 2014, when the Huthis overran the capital Sanaa and drove Hadi's government into exile.

Hailing from the Muslim Zaidi minority, the Huthis had complained of marginalisation in Yemen long before the conflict erupted in 2014.

Riyadh and its allies joined the government's fight against the rebels in 2015, but the Huthis have clung to northern and western Yemen.

They regularly fire missiles at Saudi Arabia, which accuses its arch-rival Iran of providing the munitions.

In June, the UAE launched a major offensive to retake rebel-held Hodeida, the Red Sea city home to the country's most valuable port.

Faced with escalating international criticism, the pro-government military alliance hit the brakes before reaching the densely-populated city.

Yemen's war has sparked what the United Nations labels the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with child malnutrition widespread

But UAE minister Gargash has said that "in order to shorten the war, pressure should be continued on Hodeida."

"We are not willing to accept that there will be a strategic shift towards Iran's favour by accepting also the Huthis' domination of Yemen," he said.

The Huthis have reportedly offered to let the UN supervise the port, but the government and its allies have refused anything short of a full rebel withdrawal from both city and port.

- Arms sales -

UN Security Council Resolution 2216 recognises Hadi as the president of Yemen, calling on the Huthis to withdraw from the capital and elsewhere and to hand in heavy weapons.

The UN has also blacklisted the Saudi-led coalition for the killing and maiming of children.

The Saudi-led coalition has admitted to "mistakes" in an August 9 strike on a crowded marketplace in rebel-held Yemen that killed 51 people, according to the Red Cross.

Supporters of Yemen's Huthi rebels attend a rally in Sanaa on March 26, 2018 to mark three years of war

International rights groups have frequently criticised the inaction of Washington, London and Paris against Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally and key arms customer for all three.

At least 6,660 civilians have been killed and 10,563 injured in Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition joined the conflict in March 2015, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN says the actual figure may be much higher.

strs-ras/ny/par/cebSaturday Mothers gather to demand information on the whereabouts of missing relatives

Hanife Yildiz, 66, says she last saw her only son, Murat, in 1995 -- when he was 19 and she handed him to Turkish police for questioning.

She had brought Murat to a police station in the western city of Izmir, where he was wanted for interrogation over a cafe brawl.

He never came back.

The police later told Yildiz that Murat, who had been six months from starting his military service -- fled during the night, jumping from a ferry while being transported to Istanbul.

Doubtful of this version of events, Yildiz joined a group of Turkish women with similar questions about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Calling themselves Saturday Mothers, the organisation moulded itself on those Argentinian women who protested for news of relatives who disappeared under the dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s.

Since May 1995, the Turkish group -- made up in large part of elderly women -- has met in an Istanbul square on Saturdays.

Police prevented the group from holding any protests for a decade from 1999 to 2009, but they then resumed without interference.

Until last month, that is.

Anti-riot police prevent a Saturday Mothers' gathering

On what would have been the women's 700th such protest, the police clamped down, using rubber bullets and water cannon to forcibly disperse them.

Almost 50 were briefly detained, including 82-year-old Emine Ocak, a Saturday Mothers leader whose arrest shocked observers.

The group has not been allowed to gather ever since, with the government accusing it of being exploited by a "terror organisation".

In the latest confrontation, police deployed in large numbers on Saturday and erected metal barricades to stop the women from protesting.

Defiant, Yildiz insists she will not back down.

"We will not give up on our cause until the authorities show us our sons' gravestones. That's how I will prove my motherhood," she told AFP at the offices of the Human Rights Association in Istanbul.

- 'Never-ending mourning' -

Yildiz' fellow Saturday Mothers are equally determined.

Members of the Saturday Mothers gather in Istanbul

"There is a never-ending mourning over disappearances under detention. It will never come to an end unless we have a grave," Ocak's daughter Maside told AFP.

The 1980s and 1990s were among the most turbulent periods in the history of modern Turkey, with the state fighting Kurdish rebels in the southeast, and left-wing extremists in urban centres.

Activists accuse the secular authorities of the time of abuses in the arrest and treatment of hundreds of detainees.

Saturday Mothers fear the current government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not enthusiastic about unearthing the truth.

The authorities have defended the clampdown on the group, which they claimed was being used by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"Should we have turned a blind eye to motherhood being abused by a terror organisation?" Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu asked a conference last month.

Istanbul's authorities have claimed that calls to attend Saturday Mothers rallies were made through social media channels linked to the PKK.

- 'Continue the search' -

Maside Ocak's brother, Hasan, has not been seen since March 21, 1995, when his family say he was detained by police in Istanbul.

Soylu said Hasan had belonged to a far-left extremist group, and that he was killed in a dispute between members.

Even if this is true, "we demand a fair trial and that the culprits be punished," insisted his sister.

"I saw pictures of Hasan's tortured body in forensic records. I was 19. (The image) has not left my eyes ever since," she said.

"As long as this crime remains unpunished, we will continue to be here."

Erdogan, when he was prime minister, met representatives of Saturday Mothers, including Yildiz, in 2011.

His government's current crackdown on the group, however, is seen as a sign that official attitudes have hardened.

Yildiz insisted she, too, would not give up.

"If a mother does not search for her child then that motherhood has no meaning," she said.

"He is my son."Willem Dafoe is an early favourite for best actor at the Venice film festival for his role in "At Eternity's Gate", which premiered on Monday

When Willem Dafoe was limbering up to play Vincent Van Gogh in a new film about the famously tormented painter, he did something that will give museum curators nightmares for years to come.

He was leafing through a "lost" sketchbook of the artist's from his time in Arles, when the film's director -- the flamboyant American painter Julian Schnabel -- looked at him like a man possessed.

"We had the white gloves on and everything," Dafoe told AFP, "and we were gently going through it looking at the drawings. Then at one point Julian grabbed my hand and slammed it down on one of the sketches.

"It was like something out of 'The Exorcist'," the actor said.

"He was forcing a transmission -- a connection between me and Van Gogh -- and I think it worked."

Critics at the Venice film festival agree, with Dafoe an early favourite for the best actor prize after "At Eternity's Gate" was premiered here on Monday.

While the authenticity of the sketchbook is disputed -- the Van Gogh Museum and two major experts on the artist are at war over the issue -- Dafoe believes it is genuine.

Both he and the mercurial Schnabel -- a famed neo-expressionist artist best known for his huge broken plate paintings -- are on familiar territory tackling the furies that drive and sometimes dog great artists.

Dafoe had to grapple with the demons of the great Italian director Paolo Pasolini in Abel Ferrara's 2014 film "Pasolini".

Schnabel also brought the tortured life of his old friend on the New York art scene, Jean Michel Basquiat, to the big screen in "Basquiat".

- 'It was a trip, man!' -

In that film, the painter -- who got four Oscar nods for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" -- did not pull back from the hell Basquiat endured before his early death from a heroin overdose.

But Dafoe said his Van Gogh film is more than a simple biopic.

"I hate to be a cheerleader for my own movie but this is quite radical and emotional, it is not conventional in any way.

"It is not an awards movie" made with one eye on the Oscars. "It is about painting, it is about being an artist, it is about nature and spirituality... because Van Gogh wanted to be a pastor before he became a painter. He thought the bible was the greatest book ever written," Dafoe added.

"Painting is something Julian really knows -- this is where his two loves come together: painting and film-making."

"I was painting, Julian was painting, Van Gogh was painting," declared Dafoe with a laugh -- "It was a trip, man!

"It is shocking how much I paint in it. Julian was teaching me how to paint and then we were painting together in Van Gogh's style.

"You think, 'How interesting can painting be?' But if you have been in the studio with someone like Julian it is beautiful to watch."

"I had a shift in my way of seeing and my relationship to nature through playing Van Gogh and reading what he wrote," he said.

- 'I felt close to Van Gogh' -

Dafoe, who first learned to paint three decades ago for "To Live and Die in L.A.", when he played an art forger, said shooting in the fields around Arles and in the asylum at Saint-Remy where Van Gogh wrote that "one continually hears shouts and terrible howls as of animals in a menagerie", gave him goosebumps.

"I felt close to him," said the actor, who looks spookily like the painter on screen.

Unlike other films about Van Gogh such as the 1956 classic "Lust for Life" starring Kirk Douglas, Defoe said the new movie avoids "the greatest hits" like the "Sunflowers" or depicting him hacking off his ear when he fell out with Gauguin.

"But for part of the movie he has no ear. We do not shy away from what he did to himself."

"It focuses on the end of Van Gogh's life and starts right before he meets Gauguin and he goes to Arles," he said.

"We shot there and in Paris and in Auvers-sur-Oise," where Van Gogh shot himself -- although the film goes with the controversial theory that he was killed after grappling with some local youths.

By filming in so many real locations like Saint-Remy, "part of which is still a hospital, we were flirting with his ghost," said Defoe, who missed out on a best actor Oscar for "Florida Project" last year.

"I never thought about any other person playing Van Gogh," Schnabel told reporters in Venice on Monday. "He has such inner depth. To have him with me on set was the best ally I could have."Delegates from China were angered by Naura's refusal to stamp their diplomatic passports at the Pacific Islands Forum

A visa row between China and host nation Nauru almost derailed the Pacific's largest annual diplomatic summit, it emerged Tuesday, exposing sensitivities about Beijing's rising influence in the region.

As formal discussions began at the 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum, leaked letters revealed some members threatened to boycott the meeting over Nauru's treatment of Chinese delegates.

Nauru does not have diplomatic relations with China, instead recognising self-ruled Taiwan, which has paid for much of the infrastructure being used to host the PIF summit.

Beijing and Taipei have vied for diplomatic influence in the Pacific for decades, with both sides offering aid and support to small island states in return for recognition.

In an apparent bid to tweak the nose of Chinese delegates, Nauru refused to stamp entry visas into their diplomatic passports, instead saying it would only process their personal passports.

While seemingly a minor detail, it provoked a furious response from other PIF members, many of whom receive development aid and concessional loans from Beijing.

China claims sovereignty over the democratic island and relations between the two have worsened since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, as her government refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China".

Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi sent a letter to Nauru President Baron Waqa threatening to withdraw from the summit and warning other leaders were likely to follow suit.

"Your unilateral action as President of Nauru is a dangerous precedent that I believe may not be accepted by forum leaders," he wrote in a letter obtained by AFP.

He added: "The decision taken by your government questions the integrity, credibility and foundation of our organisation."

Waqa eventually relented and proposed a compromise in which the Chinese delegation had their visa acceptance letters stamped, rather than their passports.

- 'Rock and a hard place' -

China does not belong to the PIF but is one of 18 countries that attends as a "dialogue partner" for discussions with member nations.

Australia's Lowy Institute think tank estimates China provided US$1.78 billion in aid, including concessional loans, to Pacific nations between 2006-16.

The "soft power" wielded by Beijing has alarmed Australia and New Zealand, with both countries boosting their own aid programmes in a bid to maintain influence in a region they regard as their backyard.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will attend the PIF for one day to rekindle relations with Pacific Island neighbours

New Zealand's desire to rekindle relations with its Pacific neighbours is so intense that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is leaving her newborn baby Neve at home in Auckland to attend the summit Wednesday for just one day.

Ardern in June became only the second world leader to give birth while in office after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto in 1990.

But her daughter has not had vaccinations and cannot yet travel.

Some political pundits criticised the extra NZ$80,000 ($53,000) Arden's flying visit would cost, on top of the travel expenses of New Zealand's official delegation.

"I was between a rock and a hard place, damned if I did and damned if I didn't," she told reporters.

"At the end of the day the option was go for a short time or don't go at all."

Ardern said New Zealand's offer to take 150 of the estimated 900 asylum seekers on Nauru was still on the table.

They are on the island as part of Australia's tough immigration policy, which sees asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat detained and processed in remote camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Concerns over the asylum seekers' welfare has dominated the lead up to the PIF summit, with rights groups alleging many are suffering mental health issues due to indefinite detention and systemic abuse.Advertisement

A powerful typhoon slammed into western Japan on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and injuring scores of people as more than a million people were told to evacuate amid the worst storm to hit the country in 25 years.

Typhoon Jebi, reportedly the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Japan since 1993, headed north across the main island of Honshu toward the Sea of Japan.

Giant waves and winds of up to 135mph lashed the country, inundating the region's main international airport and blowing a tanker into a bridge, disrupting land and air travel and leaving thousands stranded.

The storm hammered the west coast as it made landfall in the latest severe weather to hit the country this summer following rains, landslides, floods and record-breaking heat that killed hundreds of people.

It was off the northern coast of Fukui on Tuesday evening with sustained winds of 78mph and gusts up to 110 mph, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

More than 700 flights were canceled, according to Japanese media tallies. High-speed bullet train service was suspended from Tokyo west to Hiroshima, though service partially resumed later Tuesday when the typhoon left the region.

More than 1.6 million households remained without power in Osaka, Kyoto and four nearby prefectures late Tuesday, according to Kansai Electric Power Co.

More than 100 used cars at a storage site caught fire after the area was submerged due to high tide triggered by Typhoon Jebi in Nishinomiya

Giant waves and 135mph winds have lashed Japan today killing two and injuring dozens while more than a million people have been told to evacuate amid the worst storm to hit the country in 25 years. This was the scene as flood water covered Kansai International Airport

A 2,591-tonne tanker was sent crashing into a bridge connecting Kansai airport, built on a man-made island in a bay, to the mainland. The bridge was damaged but the tanker was empty and none of its crew was injured, the coast guard said

In Nishinomiya in Hyogo prefecture, about 100 cars at a seaside dealership were in flames after their electrical systems were shorted out by sea water, fire officials and news reports said.

Dramatic video emerged showing the roof of Kyoto train station crashing down into the concourse below sending commuters sprinting for safety amid powerful gusts. Separate images show massive waves cascading over sea walls, upturned boats and debris drifting in flood water and trucks flipped onto their sides on motorways.

Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961 with flooding covering the runways at Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

The strong winds sent a 2,591-tonne tanker crashing into a bridge connecting the airport, built on a man-made island in a bay, to the mainland. The bridge was damaged but the tanker was empty and none of its crew was injured, the coast guard said.

Japan's weather agency has issued warnings about possible landslides, flooding and violent winds, as well as high tides, lightning and tornadoes across western Japan including Osaka and Kyoto.

Evacuation advisories were issued for 1.19 million people in western and central Japan, with another 16,000 people issued with stronger but non-mandatory evacuation orders, the fire and disaster management agency said.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled across Japan after the typhoon struck. This was the scene at Kansai International Airport today

Huge waves crashed over a breakwater in Aki in Japan's Kochi prefecture while some coastal areas were flooded

A truck sits at an angle on a bridge after being blown over by strong winds caused by Typhoon Jebi in Sakade, Japan

Typhoon Jebi smashed the country's west coast as it made landfall today with violent winds sparking evacuations in the area. This was the scene as boats and debris drifted along in the storm today in Nishinomiya City

Destruction: The powerful winds ripped the side off this high rise building in the Japanese city of Osaka today. Emergency crews are pictured at the scene

Aftermath: The wind was so powerful it flipped cars and vans over in the street in Osaka. The typhoon also came with heavy rain

Local media reported up to six deaths in the storm, including a 71-year-old man killed in western Shiga prefecture after being trapped under a warehouse that collapsed in strong wind. Public broadcaster NHK said 97 people had been injured across the storm's path, none of them seriously.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged people to 'evacuate early' and ordered his government to take all necessary measures to protect residents. There were scattered reports of mild injuries as the typhoon made landfall.

Television footage showed waves pounding the coastline, sheet metal tumbling across a parking lot and a truck turned on its side. People in Kobe reported on Twitter that the wind was shaking their apartment buildings and ripping branches off trees.

Footage also showed a 328 ft tall ferris wheel in Osaka turning furiously in the strong wind despite being switched off.

Around 3.9 ins of rain drenched one part of the tourist city of Kyoto in an hour, with as much as 20 ins set to fall in some areas in the 24 hours to noon on Wednesday.

With winds of up to 100 mph at its centre, Jebi - whose name means 'swallow' in Korean - was briefly was briefly a super typhoon but it now being classed as a 'very strong' typhoon, the weather agency's chief forecaster Ryuta Kurora said.

'This is (the strongest) since 1993.'

In the hours before the storm made landfall, Shikoku, one of four Japanese main islands, was already experiencing 'violent storms and the storms will get stronger and stronger,' he added.

This was the view from a window at Kansai International airport in Japan after it was flooded during the typhoon today

Pile up: Cars were left in a crumpled heap after being blown over during the typhoon when it hit the city of Osaka today

Fierce winds toppled heavy containers stacked up near a port in the Japanese city of Osaka as the typhoon struck land today

Emergency response: Rescue teams walk past the remains of traffic lights which collapsed when the typhoon struck Osaka

A police car makes its way through a flooded road following a powerful typhoon in Osaka, western Japan

Scaffolding crumpled into the streets below when the typhoon lashed the city of Osaka in western Japan today

Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961 with flooding covering the runways at Kansai International Airport in Osaka. The strong winds sent a 2,591-tonne tanker crashing into a bridge (pictured) connecting the airport, built on a man-made island in a bay, to the mainland

Jebi was the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Japan since 1993. The storm was heading north across Japan's main island of Honshu towards the Sea of Japan

As the storm approached, Abe called a disaster response meeting and cancelled a trip to western Japan.

'I urge the Japanese people to take action to protect your lives, including preparing and evacuating early,' he said.

He instructed his cabinet to 'take all measures possible'.

Local media warned that the wind was strong enough to topple traditional-style wooden houses and power poles, and urged people in affected areas to avoid non-essential travel.

Primary and middle schools in affected areas were closed while regional businesses also reacted quickly, with a major railway firm and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka shutting down for Tuesday.

Some 177,000 customers across western Japan lost power, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. Toyota Motor Corp said it was cancelling the night shift at 14 plants.

The strong gusts ripped sheeting from rooftops, toppled trucks on bridges and swept a tanker anchored in Osaka bay into a nearby bridge running to the Kansai International Airport

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged people to 'evacuate early' and ordered his government to take all necessary measures to protect residents. This was the scene in Nishinomiya City today

In the hours before the storm made landfall, Shikoku (pictured), one of four Japanese main islands, was already experiencing 'violent storms and the storms will get stronger and stronger'

Japan's weather agency has issued warnings about possible landslides, flooding and violent winds, as well as high tides, lightning and tornadoes across of western Japan including the major cities of Osaka and Kyoto. Water crashes over a sea wall in Kochi Prefecture, western Japan

Local media warned that the wind speeds Jebi is packing are strong enough to bring down traditional-style wooden houses and power poles, and urged people in affected areas to avoid non-essential travel

Dash cam footage shows how lorries were blown over by the powerful winds as Japan suffered its worst storm in 25 years

The capital, Tokyo, will be far from the centre of the storm but was set for heavy rains and high winds by the end of Tuesday.

More than 700 flights were cancelled, including several international flights departing and arriving at Nagoya and Osaka, along with ferries.

Shinkansen bullet train services between Tokyo and Hiroshima were suspended and Universal Studios Japan, a popular amusement park near Osaka, was closed.

Jebi has a similar trajectory to Typhoon Cimaron, which made landfall on August 23, disrupting transport links but causing limited damage and few injuries.

Japan is currently in its annual typhoon season, and is regularly struck by major storm systems during the summer and autumn.

Powerful winds caused havoc in western parts of the country. Footage has emerged showing roofing panels being torn off buildings (left) and a ferris wheel being blown around by the force of the wind

A McDonald's sign was flipped upside down by the power of the typhoon when it made landfall in Japan today

With winds of up to 100 mph at its centre, Jebi is classed as a 'very strong' typhoon, the weather agency's chief forecaster Ryuta Kurora said

Japan issued evacuation advisories for more than 1 million people and cancelled hundreds of flights in the face of extremely strong winds and heavy rain as typhoon Jebi made landfall. Pictured: Foreign passengers sleep on benches as they wait for information at Osaka train station

Evacuation advisories have been issued for more than 300,000 people in western Japan - including 280,000 in the port city of Kobe - with local officials setting up some 1,500 shelters, the central and local governments said in statements. Tokyo residents are pictured battling through strong winds this morning

Nagoya port officers closed their breakwater gates as Typhoon Jebi smashed into western Japan, moving northward

Nearly 600 flights were cancelled, including several international flights departing and arriving at Nagoya and Osaka, along with ferries connecting ports in western Japan

Jebi has a similar trajectory to Typhoon Cimaron, which made landfall on August 23, disrupting transport links but causing limited damage and few injuries

Evacuation advisories were issued for more than 1 million people as the wind and rain began picking up, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said

Powerlines came down and trees were blown into the streets as 135mph winds ripped through parts of Japan. This was thr scene in central Osaka today

The country has been sweating through a record deadly heatwave that followed devastating rain in parts of central and western Japan that killed over 200 people.

The sustained rain caused widespread flooding and landslides in July, devastating entire villages and forcing thousands from their homes.

The flooding and landslides proved so deadly in part because many people did not heed evacuation advisories, which are not mandatory.

Since the disaster, authorities have urged people to take evacuation warnings more seriously and prepare to evacuate immediately when the warnings are issued.Jalaluddin Haqqani was one of the most famous militant commanders in Afghanistan

Jalaluddin Haqqani, a one-time CIA asset who went on to found a brutal militant group that is now a top US target in South Asia, has died after a long illness, the Afghan Taliban announced Tuesday.

Jalaluddin, whose eponymous Haqqani network is known for its heavy use of suicide bombers against Afghan civilians, security forces, and US-led NATO troops, was a key figure in entrenching jihad in the conflict-ridden region over the past 40 years.

His group is at the heart of regional tensions, with Washington and Kabul long suspecting the Haqqanis of having links to Pakistan's shadowy military establishment.

Jalaluddin, believed to have been born in Afghanistan before migrating to Pakistan's tribal areas, first came to prominence as an Afghan mujahideen commander fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s with the help of the United States and Pakistan.

Known for his organisation, courage and entrepreneurial skills, Jalaluddin was nicknamed "kabari", Pashto for scrap metal dealer, for reselling parts of tanks that had been destroyed on the battlefield.

He became a CIA asset and received a personal visit from US congressman Charlie Wilson, who helped secure arms for the mujahideen.

Over the following decades, the media-friendly Jalaluddin used his Arabic language skills to foster close ties with Arab jihadists, including Osama bin Laden, who flocked to the region during the war.

He became a minister in the Taliban regime which took power in Afghanistan in 1996 -- one of the only major mujahideen leaders to join the group -- and was close to its late founder Mullah Omar.

Jalaluddin Haqqani

But after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 toppled the regime, he pulled back from the public eye, making only a handful of appearances in later years as the fearsome reputation of the Haqqani network began to grow.

The group, designated a terrorist organisation by the US in 2012, has been blamed for spectacular attacks across Afghanistan since the Taliban, and is one of the most merciless and effective groups operating in the region.

Jalaluddin, thought to be in his 70s or 80s, once told AFP that eating honey was the secret to a long life.

He had been bedridden for years and had already passed the leadership to his son Sirajuddin, who is also the Taliban's deputy leader.

Jalaluddin "was from among the great distinguished Jihadi personalities of this era", the Taliban said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The Haqqani family confirmed the patriarch's death in a WhatsApp message to journalists. It was not clear where or when he died. Unverified reports have placed him in Pakistan in recent years.

There had been rumours of his death before, including widespread reports in 2015, though this is the first time the Taliban and his family have confirmed it.

- Devastating attacks -

Afghan and foreign analysts and diplomats played down the significance of Jalaluddin's death for the group's operations.

The Haqqanis have been blamed for devastating attacks across Afghanistan

Analyst Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center in Washington tweeted: "Given how long he'd been ill, his death won't have a big impact on the war."

The Haqqanis were described by US Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.

Washington has long pressured Islamabad to crack down on the group, and recently cancelled assistance worth hundreds of millions over Pakistan's lack of "decisive" action against militants.

Islamabad has repeatedly denied it is sheltering militants on its soil.

But Jalaluddin's son Sirajuddin was running the network "with major ISI involvement", a foreign diplomat in Kabul told AFP, referring to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency.

Apart from devastating bomb attacks, the Haqqanis have also been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Westerners for ransom.

They include the Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three children, who were released last year, as well as US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed in 2014.

In Kabul, the group is widely believed to have been behind many recent attacks on the capital that were claimed by the local wing of the Islamic State group.

Some analysts believe the Haqqanis work with IS -- which at the same time is involved in a bloody turf war with the Taliban -- to avoid blame and political blowback.

burs-amj/st/qanAfghanistan President Ashraf Ghani announced Tuesday that he will free Anas Haqqani, the brother of a feared militant leader whose eponymous group is considered one of the most dangerous factions fighting Afghan and US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The release of Haqqani and two other high-ranking Taliban prisoners appears to be part of a potential prisoner swap for American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, professors at the American University of Afghanistan who were dragged from vehicles in Kabul by gunmen in 2016.

- Who is Anas Haqqani? -

Anas Haqqani's older brother Sirajuddin heads the Haqqani Network, a Taliban affiliate founded by their father Jalaluddin and blamed for some of the most shocking and brutal attacks in Afghanistan since the US invasion of 2001.

He was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to death in 2016, with Afghan authorities accusing him of a being a high-level player in the network. The Taliban has long demanded his release, insisting he is a student.

Speculation he might be freed in return for Taliban concessions has swirled repeatedly since then -- especially since the US began holding direct talks with the insurgents last year.

His fate has also been seen as a bargaining chip in negotiations over various Western hostages -- as in 2016 when rumours swirled in Kabul that the government was planning to execute him.

Shortly after, the militants released a video showing Canadian Joshua Boyle and his American wife Caitlan Coleman, who were kidnapped in 2012, pleading for their release. They were freed the following year.

- Does his release affect talks? -

Over the past year Washington and the Taliban have been holding direct talks, seeking an agreement that many hoped would pave the way for US troops to begin leaving Afghanistan and for the militants to start negotiations with Kabul.

They were on the verge of a deal when US President Donald Trump scuttled the talks in September, citing Taliban violence.

Most observers agree that a political settlement is the only way towards lasting peace in Afghanistan, and both the US and the Taliban left the door open for talks to resume.

The release of Anas Haqqani could indicate a breakthrough of sorts.

The Taliban had included his name in a negotiating team unveiled in February, and the group's spokesman told AFP at the time that he had been captured by the Americans, and "should be released to better help with the talks".

On Tuesday Ghani said the decision to free him and the other prisoners had been taken in part to "pave the way for holding direct talks with the Taliban".

- Why are the Haqqanis so important? -

The group was founded by Jalaluddin, who gained notoriety during the mujahideen war against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. At first a valuable CIA asset, he also fostered close ties with foreign jihadists including Osama bin Laden.

He later became a minister in the Taliban regime before launching an insurgency against foreign forces after the US-led invasion of 2001.

A designated terror group long suspected of links to Pakistan's shadowy military establishment, the network was described by US Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.

Jalaluddin's death was announced last year and the network is now led by his son, Sirajuddin, who doubles as the Afghan Taliban's deputy leader.

The Haqqanis are known for their frequent use of suicide bombers and analysts suspect them of being behind some of the high-profile Kabul attacks claimed by the Islamic State group in recent years.

Among many grim assaults, they were accused of killing around 150 people in the heart of the capital with a truck bomb in May 2017, though Sirajuddin later denied responsibility in a rare audio message.

The network has also been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials, and kidnapping Westerners for ransom.

The Haqqanis long held US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was released in 2014 in exchange for five Afghan Guantanamo Bay detainees.

- Where are the Haqqanis now? -

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan, Taliban fighters including the Haqqanis flooded across the border into Pakistan, where they regrouped before launching an insurgency.

The US launched repeated drone attacks against the group, while Pakistan's military conducted successive clearing operations and now insists that there are no militant safe havens left on Pakistani soil.

Some militant sources say the pressure forced many of the Haqqanis underground or over the border, back into their Afghan strongholds, claims that AFP cannot confirm.

Unverified reports placed Jalaluddin in Pakistan in the years before he died. It is not yet clear where Anas will go once he is released.Pan Ei Mon (L) and Chit Su Win (R), wives of detained Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, attend a press conference

The wife of one of two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar made an emotional appeal Tuesday to Aung San Suu Kyi to free her husband for the sake of their young daughter, as the leader comes under increasing criticism for her silence on the case.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested while reporting on atrocities committed during the military's bloody expulsion of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims last year.

A Yangon court on Monday found them guilty under the Official Secrets Act and sentenced them to seven years in prison, sparking outrage from the UN, EU and US as well as media and rights groups.

Suu Kyi was herself subjected to house arrest for some 15 years, relying on foreign media to highlight a plight that kept her away from her own children as they grew up.

Kyaw Soe Oos wife Chit Su Win, 23, broke down in tears as she asked the Nobel Peace Prize laureate to release her husband, the father of their three-year-old daughter.

"I want my husband to come back," she said. "I cry when my daughter asks me why her father is not with us. She asks me, 'Does he not love me?'"

A UN report last week accused Suu Kyi of failing to use her moral authority to stem the violence last year and called for the generals to be prosecuted for "genocide".

Her silence on the case and the verdict -- the sternest test in recent years to free speech in the country -- has shredded her reputation even further.

But Aung Hla Tun, a former Reuters journalist who is now deputy Minister of Information, defended Suu Kyi's reticence.

"Criticising the judicial system would be tantamount to contempt of court," he told AFP. "I don't think she will do it."

A whistleblowing policeman had corroborated the defence argument that the reporters had been entrapped by police, who handed them documents over dinner shortly before their arrest.

But the judge chose to ignore the testimony.

Aung Sang Suu Kyi

- 'Sad Day for Myanmar' -

Lawyers for the pair will appeal the verdict although the lengthy process will take months, if not years.

The country's president, a close ally of Suu Kyi, could also pardon the reporters but experts say any immediate intervention is unlikely.

Erstwhile Suu Kyi advocates overseas have been left dismayed by her attitude to the journalists' ordeal.

Chit Su Win, wife of detained Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo, breaks down while speaking at a press conference

Her one public reference to the Reuters journalists during the court case -- telling Japanese broadcaster NHK that the pair had broken the Official Secrets Act -- was criticised by rights groups for potentially prejudicing the verdict.

Wa Lone's wife Pan Ei Mon described the families' sadness on seeing the interview, saying that was the moment they "realised that she didn't know about the case clearly".

US diplomat Bill Richardson, a former confidant and member of her advisory board on the Rohingya crisis, alleged she also denounced the two reporters as traitors during a heated exchange at the beginning of the year.

While the case horrified the West, domestically it garnered little public attention despite its implications for press freedom.

Response to the jailing was mixed.

State-backed media barely mentioned the verdict Tuesday although other papers stood in solidarity with the reporters.

A publication called 7Day News branded it a "sad day" for Myanmar and carried a large black rectangle on its front page.

The English version of the Myanmar Times ran a full front-page photo of Kyaw Soe Oo, calling the verdict "a blow to press freedom" although its Myanmar-language sister paper was more muted, simply urging the overhaul of obsolete laws.

On Facebook -- the prime source of news for many in a country that only recently came online -- comments were overwhelmingly stacked against the reporters, accusing them of bias and some even calling for a harsher sentence.

(COMBO) Reuters journalists Kyaw Soe Oo (L) and Wa Lone (R) were arrested while reporting on atrocities committed during the violent expulsion by the military of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims last year

Pan Ei Mon and Chit Su Win say they just try to ignore the negative opinions about their husbands.

"Some people say that I was wrong to marry a journalist but I never feel like that," Chit Su Win said. "He is not only a good journalist but a good husband. I'm proud of him and I will teach my daughter to be proud of her father."

burs-rs/smMembers of a US military honor guard display the Indian flag outside the Pentagon in 2016

Two of President Donald Trump's top officials are finally heading for talks in India this week, after Washington twice pulled the plug on the summit.

The so-called 2+2 dialogue will see Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis meet with their Indian counterparts on a range of key defense and trade issues.

Both sides are likely to herald Thursday's talks -- the first of their kind between the two nations -- as proof positive of their rapidly growing strategic partnership in the region.

But between the friendly photo calls and soundbites, the diplomats must smooth a slew of problems, exacerbated by Trump's testy relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The talks were first meant to be held in April and then in June but both were postponed, triggering speculation of a possible rift between the two countries amid disputes over trade.

Putting aside the interpersonal dynamics of their two bombastic leaders, the Indian and US officials must tackle two urgent issues -- America's demands for India to stop buying Iranian oil, and for it to think twice about making new Russian arms purchases.

"Creative thinking will be needed in the 2+2 dialogue to overcome these challenges, which should also ensure that there are no nasty surprises and difficult issues are settled through quiet diplomacy," Rakesh Sood, a distinguished fellow at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, wrote in an opinion piece for The Hindu newspaper.

In 2016, Washington designated India a "Major Defense Partner," capping years of efforts to improve India-US ties under president Barack Obama.

The aim was to improve military cooperation and cut red tape to ease defense deals.

It is having some success, with the two countries set to discuss expanding the scope and complexity of joint military exercises.

India and the US are also close to signing an agreement that would ensure communications between their two militaries are compatible and secure.

America desperately wants India on side to provide a regional bulwark against China's seemingly inexorable regional expansion that has already seen it secure a long-term lease on a Sri Lankan port.

And it wants India to distance itself from Russia, notably by stepping back from decades of purchases of Russian military equipment.

Proof of US outreach can be seen in the Pentagon's recent renaming of its massive Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific Command.

- Russian military deal -

But India, the world's top defense importer, wants to purchase new systems from Moscow, including its S-400 long-range, surface-to-air missile system.

Under current US rules against Russia, third countries could face sanctions if they transact with Russian defense or intelligence sectors.

The Press Trust of India recently quoted an unnamed official as saying the deal was almost done, and that Delhi would be asking for a special sanctions waiver from Trump.

However last week, Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, warned there are no guarantees.

"We would still have very significant concerns if India pursued major new platforms and systems (from Russia). I can't sit here and tell you that they would be exempt, that we would use that waiver," Schriver told a Washington think tank.

The US is open to helping India find an alternative for the S-400, he added.

India already has bought US Apache attack helicopters and other gear, and is negotiating to buy armed drones.

Schriver said he was overall "bullish" about the prospects for deepening US-India ties.

Pompeo and Mattis's counterparts are Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

In May, Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear deal with Iran and said other countries, including India, a key buyer of Iranian oil, must stop purchasing crude from the Tehran before November 4 or face US sanctions.

The diplomats will also discuss the endless conflict in nearby Afghanistan, where the US seeks Indian help in humanitarian projects.

Pompeo is also this week flying to Islamabad to meet new Prime Minister Imran Khan, just days after the Pentagon said it plans to cancel $300 million to Pakistan over its lack of "decisive actions" in support of American strategy in Afghanistan.China will extend a total of 60 billion U.S. dollars of financing to Africa, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Monday.

The financing will be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies, Xi said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

The financing includes 15 billion U.S. dollars of grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, 20 billion U.S. dollars of credit lines, the setting up of a 10-billion-U.S. dollars special fund for development financing and a 5-billion-U.S. dollars special fund for financing imports from Africa. Chinese companies are also encouraged to make at least 10 billion U.S. dollars of investment in Africa in the next three years.

China has honored its 2015 promise to provide Africa with funding support totaling 60 billion U.S. dollars, Xi said, adding that the financing has been either delivered or arranged.

China decided to provide the funding support at the FOCAC Johannesburg summit to ensure the successful implementation of ten China-Africa cooperation plans adopted at the summit.A headteacher in China has been sacked for bringing a pole dancer to a back to school ceremony

A kindergarten principal in China trying to liven up a formal back-to-school ceremony with a racy pole dancer was fired after angry parents lit up social media with complaints.

Like most schools across China, the Xinshahui Kindergarten in the southern city of Shenzhen marks the start of the school year with a ceremony, usually consisting of performances and speeches.

But Monday's edition, which included the risque pole dance, cost principal Lai Rong her job.

Videos circulating on social media showed a scantily-clad dancer in hot pants shimmying up and down a pole to thumping music as stunned children in marching band uniforms looked on.

Others tried to mimic the sultry moves, with several small boys gyrating their hips and dancing around each other. In the background, shocked parents could be heard commenting about the suitability of the performance.

Many took to social media to express their outrage, threatening to pull their children out of school and calling for Lai's resignation.

"Pole dancing at a school welcome ceremony? How can I trust my children with them? I'm going to pull my kid out and ask for a refund," one parent wrote on social media platform WeChat.

"Is the principal an idiot?" another commented on the Twitter-like site Weibo.

In a text message to parents, Lai apologised for the "horrific viewing experience" and for not checking the dancer's performance, adding that the dance was intended to liven up the atmosphere.

Hours later, local education authorities announced they had fired the principal and put Xinshahui under investigation.

"Other schools in the district should reflect on this incident and strictly uphold education standards," the Bao'an education bureau said in a statement.

"I may as well be dead. I already lost the hope to live," Lai told state-run tabloid the Global Times.

This was just one of several incidents in a shaky start to the Chinese school year.

Over the weekend, parents complained that a television programme deemed mandatory viewing by state educators on Saturday night included 12 minutes of advertisements, mostly promoting online tutoring courses and stationery sales.

Earlier the same day, police arrested 46 people in central Hunan province after hundreds gathered to express dissatisfaction with the local school system.

According to posts on social media, parents were incensed when they were told they would have to move their children into dormitories at a local private school, dramatically increasing tuition fees.European Parliament lawmakers are to debate a new copyright law that would force internet giants to pay more for creative content used on their platforms

Europe's biggest news agencies accused Google and Facebook of "plundering" news for free on Tuesday in a joint statement that called on the internet giants to share more of their revenues with the media.

In a column signed by the CEOs of around 20 agencies including France's Agence France-Presse, Britain's Press Association and Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur they called on the European Parliament to update copyright law in the EU to help address a "grotesque imbalance".

"The internet giants' plundering of the news media's content and of their advertising revenue poses a threat both to consumers and to democracy," the column said.

European Parliament lawmakers are to set to debate a new copyright law this month that would force the internet giants to pay more for creative content used on their platforms such as news, music or movies.

A first draft of the law was rejected in July and the plans have been firmly opposed by US tech firms, as well as advocates of internet freedom who fear that the regulations could lead to higher costs for consumers.

"Can the titans of the internet compensate the media without asking people to pay for access to the internet, as they claim they would be forced to? The answer is clearly 'yes'," the column said.

The joint statement from the agencies, which are major suppliers of news, photos and video, said Facebook reported revenues of $40 billion (34 billion euros) in 2017 and profits of $16 billion, while Google made $12.7 billion on sales of $110 billion.

"Who could reasonably argue that they are not in a position to make fair payment for the content they use?" the agencies asked.

"What we are really talking about is introducing a fair payment by those who have ripped off the news. For the sake of Europe's free press and democratic values, EU lawmakers should press ahead with copyright reform," they added.

- 'Neighbouring rights' -

The column marks a new lobbying effort by media groups, backed by artists such as Paul McCartney, to sway European lawmakers as they prepare for a second vote on September 12.

The fight is over two parts of the planned law.

The first is Article 13, which would make platforms like Google-owned YouTube legally liable for copyrighted material to prevent content producers from seeing their work posted without pay.

The second is Article 11, which would create a so-called "neighbouring right" meaning that newspapers, magazines and news agencies would have to be paid when Google or other websites link to their stories.

"Without paying for it, internet giants such as Google and Facebook use vast quantities of news that is produced at great cost by press publishers and news agencies," added the joint statement on Tuesday.

Critics argue that the reform would lead to blanket censorship by tech platforms because of copyright problems, reducing their role as a hub for creativity, especially YouTube.

They say it would also restrict the usage of memes and remixes by everyday internet users who often use content without securing the rights.

The column was signed by the heads of TT in Sweden, STT in Finland, Belgium's Belga and APA from Austria, as well as other media groups across the European continent.This year's Pacific Islands Forum continues to be one of the most ill-tempered since the organisation was created

The Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru began in dramatic fashion Tuesday, with Chinese diplomats storming out of a meeting and a New Zealand journalist detained for interviewing refugees held on the tiny island nation.

After a low-key opening ceremony late Monday, tensions erupted almost as soon as formal business commenced on Tuesday, when China's Du Qiwen attempted to address a meeting about climate change.

The meeting chairman, Nauru President Baron Waqa, stopped him from talking, prompting Du and the rest of the Chinese delegation to walk out.

The exchange highlighted sensitivities over Beijing's rising influence in the region, where Nauru backs Taiwan over arch-rival China in the battle for diplomatic recognition.

A few hours later, police took veteran TVNZ journalist Barbara Dreaver into custody as she was interviewing an asylum-seeker held on the island under Australia's hardline immigration policies.

The plight of the refugees, particularly children, has threatened to overshadow the summit, despite attempts by Nauru authorities to control visiting journalists.

Dreaver said she was held for three hours, her footage was confiscated and her PIF media accreditation was revoked.

She described herself as "fine and dandy" after her release but said she was now barred from attending PIF press conferences.

"I can do Forum stories but I'm not allowed to report on anything to do with the refugees," she told TVNZ.

Australia's Lowy Institute think-tank said earlier this year that Nauru's government "has recently lurched towards authoritarianism".

Opposition figures have been arrested and judges sacked for making decisions the government disagrees with.

Authorities have also muzzled the media, strictly controlling journalists' access to the tiny island.

- Boycott averted -

Few foreign reporters have made it into Nauru in recent years, with many hampered by a decision to charge Aus$8,000 (US$5,800) for media visa applications, non-refundable even if not granted.

Authorities in Nauru strictly control journalists' access to the tiny island

The fee was temporarily waived for the PIF but the government curbed the number of reporters allowed into the country to cover the region's biggest annual diplomatic meeting.

It also banned Australia's public broadcaster ABC after taking exception to its coverage.

Reporters who did make it in are subject to unprecedented restrictions at the usually media-friendly event, under threat of visa revocation.

"You are only authorised to report on, or take photos or videos of the PIF. Any other subjects must be approved by the RON (Republic of Nauru)," the media visa restrictions said.

After Dreaver's release, the Nauru government said the only restrictions it had placed on journalists were for safety reasons.

"No journalist on Nauru has been prevented from talking to any person, including refugees," it said.

"However, in order to protect the safety and security of all, journalists were required to follow procedures."

The controversies have left Nauru struggling to control the agenda at the 18-nation summit, where official business is focussed on climate change and regional security.

It was revealed Tuesday that the China issue almost derailed the entire event, when some member nations threatened to boycott it over Nauru's treatment of Beijing's delegation.

Nauru refused to stamp entry visas into Chinese diplomatic passports, instead saying it would only process their personal passports.

While seemingly a minor detail, it provoked a furious response from other PIF members, many of whom receive development aid and concessional loans from Beijing.

Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said Nauru's actions risked undermining "the integrity, credibility and foundation of our organisation".

"Your unilateral action as President of Nauru is a dangerous precedent that I believe may not be accepted by forum leaders," he wrote in a letter to Waqa obtained by AFP.

While a compromise was reached, this year's PIF continues to be one of the most ill-tempered since the organisation was established in 1971.A Japanese team working to develop a 'space elevator' will conduct a first trial this month, blasting off a miniature version on satellites to test the technology.

The test equipment, produced by researchers at Shizuoka University, will hitch a ride on an H-2B rocket being launched by Japan's space agency from southern island of Tanegashima next week.

The test involves a miniature elevator stand-in - a box just six centimetres (2.4 inches) long, three centimetres wide, and three centimetres high.

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A Japanese team working to develop a 'space elevator' will conduct a first trial this month, blasting off a miniature version on satellites to test the technology. Pictured, their vision for a future space elevator which climbs from the Earth Port as a departure port for people to Geostationary Earth Orbit Station at a height of 36,000 km is featured.

THE HISTORY OF THE SPACE ELEVATOR There is a long history of 'space elevator' dreams. The idea was first proposed in 1895 by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky after he saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and was revisited nearly a century later in a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. But technical barriers have always kept plans stuck at the conceptual stage. Advertisement

If all goes well, it will provide proof of concept by moving along a 10-metre cable suspended in space between two mini satellites that will keep it taut.

The mini-elevator will travel along the cable from a container in one of the satellites.

'It's going to be the world's first experiment to test elevator movement in space,' a university spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

The movement of the motorised 'elevator' box will be monitored with cameras in the satellites.

It is still a far cry from the ultimate beam-me-up goals of the project, which builds on a long history of 'space elevator' dreams.

The idea was first proposed in 1895 by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky after he saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and was revisited nearly a century later in a novel by Arthur C. Clarke.

But technical barriers have always kept plans stuck at the conceptual stage.

How it will work: The company has said it could use carbon nanotube technology, which is more than 20 times stronger than steel, to build a lift shaft 96,000 kilometres (roughly 60,000 miles) above the Earth.

Japanese construction firm Obayashi, which is collaborating with the Shizuoka university project, is also exploring other ways to build its own space elevator to put tourists in space in 2050.

The company has said it could use carbon nanotube technology, which is more than 20 times stronger than steel, to build a lift shaft 96,000 kilometres (roughly 60,000 miles) above the Earth.

The firm hopes it will transport people and shipment to a new space station.

It will also work as a port to transport astronauts to Mars and beyond.

The firm first revealed the plans in 2014, claiming 'construction will be technically feasible.'

It calculated it would take roughly 20 years to construct the cable, which would have one end fixed to the earth's surface, always applying pre-tension at the ground end.

According to the plan, a 20-ton cable is deployed initially, and is reinforced 510 times by climbers up to 7,000 tons, ascending in succession over roughly 18 years.

The facilities are then transported and constructed within one year.

The firm has also previously floated the idea of a 'space hotel' at the top of the elevator.

The company said it would carry up to 30 passengers at a time and travel at a speed of 200 kilometres per hour for a week, stopping off at a station at 36,000 kilometres.

The space-elevator test equipment will be launched on a Japanese H-2B rocket next week

Tokyo-based company Obayashi Corporation announced plans to build an operational space elevator by 2050, (concept image pictured). It uses similar technology proposed by Debney, and seen in supertall buildings

Vision: A rendering of a sea platform, which could be used at the Earth base for the elevator

Tourists would stay there, but researchers and specialists would be able to travel all the way to the end, said Satomi Katsuyama, the project's leader.

'Humans have long adored high towers,' she said.

'Rather than building it from the earth, we will construct it from the space.'

Japanese construction firm Obayashi, which is collaborating with the Shizuoka university project, is also exploring other ways to build its own space elevator to put tourists in space in 2050.Philippine Senator Antonio Trillanes (C) addresses a press conference at the Senate

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday ordered the arrest of a lawmaker fiercely critical of his deadly drug war, the second presidential critic from the Senate to be threatened with detention.

Senator Antonio Trillanes, who is holed up in the Senate to avoid arrest, has also in the past accused Duterte of corruption and his son of involvement in drug dealing, drawing a pledge of revenge from the president.

Opposition politicians immediately condemned the arrest order as political. They compared it with the arrest of senator and Duterte critic Leila de Lima, who is behind bars on what she says are false drug charges.

Trillanes' arrest order stems from an amnesty granted in 2010 over his involvement in a coup attempt against then-president Gloria Arroyo and another effort to overthrow her.

"The armed forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are ordered to employ all lawful means to apprehend... Trillanes," said the order printed solely in the Manila Times.

The government said Duterte has cancelled the pardon because Trillanes, a former navy officer, did not complete the requirements of filing an official application and admitting guilt.

Duterte is out of the country on an official visit to Israel.

Trillanes led scores of junior officers in taking over part of a main district of Manila in 2003 in protest against Arroyo's alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Duterte also wants Trillanes put on trial for his brief takeover of a Manila hotel in 2007 after he and several armed followers seized the hotel and demanded Arroyo's resignation.

Trillanes told reporters he has instructed his lawyers to study ways "to void this stupid executive order", adding it "has no basis whatsoever".

"This is a clear case of political persecution, but I will not cower. There's a time for reckoning for you and your minions," he added in a written statement.

The arrest order came a year after Trillanes had Duterte's eldest son Paolo brought before a Senate public inquiry to face allegations -- which he denied -- that he was involved in drug trafficking.

Trillanes also accused the president of hiding unexplained millions in his bank accounts.

Duterte vowed at the time to exact revenge. "I will destroy him or he will destroy me," he said in a speech.An elephant splashes in the waters of the Chobe river in Botswana, which has Africa's largest elephant population

Ninety elephant carcasses have been discovered in Botswana with their tusks hacked off, a charity said Tuesday, in what is believed to be one of Africa's worst mass poaching sprees.

Most of the animals killed were large bulls carrying heavy tusks, Elephants Without Borders said.

The grim discovery was made over several weeks during an aerial survey by Elephants Without Borders and Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks.

"We started flying the survey on July 10, and we have counted 90 elephant carcasses since the survey commenced," Mike Chase, the charity director, told AFP.

"Each day we are counting dead elephants," he added.

The animals were shot with heavy calibre rifles at watering spots near a popular wildlife sanctuary in the Okavango Delta.

"The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest I have seen or read about in Africa to date," Chase said.

The poaching coincided with the disarming earlier this year of Botswana's rangers, according to Chase.

The country has the largest elephant population in Africa at over 135,000.

The number of African elephants has fallen by around 111,000 to 415,000 in the past decade, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The killing continues at a dizzying pace of about 30,000 elephants a year to meet demand for ivory in Asia, where tusks sell for around $1,000 (864 euros) a kilo (2.2 pounds).

Chase said elephants in Zambia and Angola, north of Botswana, "have been poached to the verge of local extinction, and poachers have now turned to Botswana".

Botswana Tourism Minister Tshekedi Khama confirmed to AFP that dozens of elephants had been poached, but gave no further details.

The government was not immediately available to comment on rangers being apparently disarmed earlier this year.

Botswana previously had a zero-tolerance approach to poaching, with a "shoot-to-kill" policy against poachers.

Poachers have also targeted rhino, said Chase, after six white rhino carcasses were found in recent months.At least 1,500 people have been killed in central Nigeria since September in clashes between nomadic herders and farmers

Nineteen people have been killed and scores of homes burnt in fresh violence in central Nigeria, police said, after weeks of relative calm in a long-running resource conflict between farmers and herders.

Eleven people were shot dead in the Lopandet Dwei Du area of Plateau state on Monday. Eight others were killed last Tuesday in the state's Barakin Ladi district.

Twelve people were wounded in the first attack. Three were injured in the second, which also saw 95 houses burnt down and 310 cattle stolen, said police spokesman Typev Terna.

Plateau has for years suffered tit-for-tat violence between nomadic herders and farmers over land and water that has taken on a wider ethnic, political and religious dimension.

In June, herders were blamed for attacks on 11 villages in Barakin Ladi which killed more than 200 people from farming communities.

But Terna said only that "unknown gunmen" were blamed for both attacks and more security personnel had been deployed to the affected areas.

State governor Simon Lalong condemned both incidents and warned the affected communities not to mount reprisal attacks.

That "will be playing to the script of these perpetrators whose ultimate aim is to return the state to the dark era of bloodletting," he added.

The International Crisis Group think-tank in July warned the resource conflict was now an even greater security threat to Nigeria's national security than Boko Haram.

At least 1,500 people have been killed in central states since September last year, most of them in the first six months of 2018.

More than 300,000 had been made homeless, it added, warning that the violence had the potential to destabilise the country and disrupt elections scheduled for February 2019.Smoke blows from buildings reportedly hit by Russian air strikes in the rebel-held town of Muhambal, Idlib province, on September 4, 2018

Children were among at least nine civilians killed Tuesday in Russian strikes on Syria's Idlib, a monitor said, as expectations mount of a government offensive in the country's last major rebel stronghold.

Rebel-backer Turkey has held several rounds of talks with regime ally Russia aimed at averting an assault on Idlib, but government troops have been massing near the rebel zone.

A full-fledged assault would be devastating for the estimated 2.5 million people living in the northwestern province, many of them rebels and civilians bussed out of other areas that came back under regime control.

The United Nations on Tuesday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to hold new talks to avert a "bloodbath" in the northwestern province.

The appeal came after Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian warplanes resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.

The Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the raids, while 10 people were wounded.

The strikes targeted 24 areas and "came a day after rebel units in Idlib hit regime positions in neighbouring Latakia province, which killed three pro-regime fighters," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

Idlib province: The last insurgent stronghold in Syria

In the town of Muhambal, southwest of the provincial capital city Idlib, firefighters battled a huge blaze at a petrol station which was hit by an strike.

Warplanes continued to fly over the area throughout the afternoon, an AFP correspondent said.

- A 'dramatic situation' -

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month, and Russia has stepped up its rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism".

Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft based at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

A fire engine drives down a damaged road in the town of Muhambal, southwest of the city of Idlib, on September 4, 2018

It accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponised drones and insists jihadists in the province must be eliminated.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday warned against heading towards a "dramatic situation" for civilians in Idlib.

"It is important today that the path to negotiations be open and not that towards confrontation," he told AFP.

Analysts say there is still a window of opportunity to avoid the humanitarian impact of a full-scale offensive.

The presidents of Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran are to meet in Tehran on Friday for three-way talks that are expected to focus on Idlib.

The UN's Syria peace envoy, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday appealed to "President Putin and to President Erdogan... to make a telephone call," even before they meet.Syrian rebel fighters in Idlib are preparing for an offensive by government forces

The Kremlin said Tuesday the Syrian army is getting ready to solve the problem of "terrorism" in the rebel stronghold of Idlib, apparently referring to a looming regime offensive.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."

He did not release a timeframe however. He also could not comment on reports that Russian warplanes had carried out air strikes on Idlib earlier Tuesday. The Russian defence ministry did not immediately comment.

Peskov said numerous "terrorists" are holed up in the country's last rebel stronghold, leading to a "general destabilisation of the situation."

"This undermines attempts to push the situation towards a political and diplomatic settlement and most importantly presents a significant threat for our temporary facilities," he added.

"No doubt one needs to deal with this problem."

Idlib is held by a complex array of rebels and jihadists, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers.

Syrian government forces are now massing around the northwestern province in preparation for the assault.

US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syria against launching an attack on Idlib with the help of Russia and Iran, saying the offensive could trigger a "human tragedy."

Peskov took issue with Trump's warning, saying the situation could have "dangerous, negative" consequences for the entire country.South Korea's unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said Monday that Seoul was in talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on the opening date of the joint liaison office to increase communications between the two sides.

Unification Ministry Spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a press briefing that it was anticipated for special envoys to set the opening date of the liaison office when they visit the DPRK Wednesday.

The spokesman said South Korea and the DPRK had been in consultations on the issue though the date had yet to be finalized.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un agreed to launch the joint liaison office at the DPRK's border town of Kaesong following their first summit on April 27 at the border village of Panmunjom.

The liaison office was widely forecast to be opened last month, but it was delayed on a standoff between Pyongyang and Washington over the denuclearization process.

The South Korean president will send his five-member delegation as special envoys to Pyongyang Wednesday. The delegation will be led by Chung Eui-yong, Moon's top national security adviser and head of the National Security Office of the presidential Blue House.

The other four delegates include Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country's spy agency, Vice Unification Minister Chung Hae-sung, NIS deputy chief Kim Sang-gyun and Blue House official Yun Kun-young.

The special emissaries would set the date for the third summit between the current leaders of the two Koreas, while discussing dialogue agendas for the Moon-Kim summit such as the declaration of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The two Koreas agreed to hold the third Moon-Kim summit in the DPRK's capital city of Pyongyang before the end of September.

Moon's special envoys will take an air route over the inter-Korean western sea boundaries to Pyongyang Wednesday, and return home on the same day.Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (R) meets Rodrigo Duterte on September 4, 2018, and gives the Philippine leader a brief lecture on Adolf Hitler in light of his 2016 remarks comparing himself to the Nazi dictator who carried out the Holocaust

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin gave a brief lecture on Hitler to Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday after the Philippine leader's 2016 remarks comparing himself to the Nazi dictator who carried out the Holocaust.

"Hitler was actually representing the devil himself," Rivlin said when the two men met at his Jerusalem office. "He was the devil on earth."

Rivlin went on to say that Duterte's visit to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Monday must have illustrated to him the sensitivity surrounding any reference to Adolf Hitler.

"Probably you have realised yesterday the feelings when you have visited the museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, to really feel the atmosphere, to feel the feelings of all the people that were part of this disaster," said Rivlin, whose position is mainly ceremonial.

Duterte appeared to be listening attentively during Rivlin's brief comments. He later spoke about trade and cooperation with Israel.

The controversial Philippine president spoke of Hitler in 2016 when talking about his violent drug crackdown that has killed thousands.

"Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I'd be happy to slaughter them," Duterte said then.

The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on September 3, 2018

Historians say six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

Duterte later apologised and said the comments were aimed at critics who had likened him to the Nazi leader.

- 'Crimes taking place' -

Duterte also told Rivlin he had ordered his military to only buy military and intelligence equipment from Israel.

He said the United States was a "good friend," but buying such equipment from US firms meant the country would "also be listening", seemingly meaning gathering intelligence on the Philippines.

Duterte said the same would be true for countries such as China or Germany.

The comments seemed to contradict Duterte's previous remarks. In November, he said he planned to buy more weapons from Russia.

Israelis protest against Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to Israel as they stand outside the presidential compound in Jerusalem on September 4, 2018

A few dozen people opposed to arms sales to the Philippines protested outside the presidential compound in Jerusalem during the meeting.

"We're protesting against Israel's involvement in the crimes taking place there," lawyer and human rights activist Eitay Mack told AFP.

Further arms deals were expected to be part of Duterte's discussions in Israel.

The Philippine president met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

In comments before their working lunch, Duterte thanked Israel for supplying him with unspecified defence equipment that was "critical" in "winning the war" -- a reference to his government's battle against jihadists in the city of Marawi last year.

On Wednesday, he will lay a wreath at a memorial near Tel Aviv commemorating the Philippines' acceptance of 1,300 Jews fleeing the Holocaust. He will travel to Jordan later in the day.

Duterte's trip to Israel began on Sunday night with him apologising to former US president Barack Obama for having called him a "son of a whore" in 2016, one of several foul-mouthed remarks that have caused outrage.

He lobbed the insult in response to steady criticism from the United States at the time over his violent drug crackdown.

Fresh controversy awaits Duterte back home.

On Tuesday, he ordered the arrest of a lawmaker fiercely critical of his drug war, the second presidential critic from the Senate to be threatened with detention.Shahidul Alam, seen here soon after his arrest, says he has been beaten in custody

Award-winning photographer and rights activist Shahidul Alam, whose month-long detention has triggered an international outcry, failed to win bail on Tuesday after Bangladesh's high court refused to consider the request, his lawyer told AFP.

Alam was arrested on August 5 for making "false" and "provocative" statements on Al Jazeera and on Facebook Live during massive student protests in Dhaka.

Rights groups, UN rights experts, Nobel laureates and hundreds of academics have called for the immediate release of the 63-year-old, who says he has been beaten in custody.

After a lower court rejected a bail petition for Alam last month, his lawyers moved to the high court in Dhaka and a hearing was set for Tuesday.

But "the court did not hear the case because one of the judges (said he) felt embarrassed to hear the case," lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua told AFP.

Barua said the judge did not give any further explanation.

He said Alam's legal team was now trying to get the case heard by another bench of the high court.

Alam's arrest capped a turbulent month in Bangladesh as teenage students poured onto the streets for nine straight days after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

Alam had told Al Jazeera that the protests were the result of pent-up anger at corruption and an "unelected government... clinging on by brute force" that had looted banks and gagged media.

He is being investigated for allegedly violating Bangladesh's internet laws, enacted in 2006 and sharpened in 2013, which critics say are used to stifle dissent and harass journalists.

Alam -- whose work has appeared widely in Western media and who founded the renowned Pathshala South Asian Media Institute -- faces a maximum 14 years in jail if convicted, along with others detained during the protests.

The photographer told reporters outside court last month that he had been beaten so badly in police custody that his tunic needed washing to get the blood out.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has demanded his release, denouncing authorities for targeting activists and journalists instead of prosecuting those who attacked students when last month's protests were broken up.

Last week activists beamed images of Alam onto buildings in Kathmandu during a seven-nation Asian summit that included Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.Ramaphosa has promised a "new dawn" after Zuma's scandal-tainted reign

South Africa's economy tipped into recession as it shrunk 0.7 percent in the second quarter, official data showed Tuesday, dealing a blow to President Cyril Ramaphosa who came to office in February.

The downturn, which was the second consecutive quarter of negative growth, was driven by contractions in agriculture, transport, trade and manufacturing industries.

StatsSA said agriculture was hit by a fall in field crops, drought in the Western Cape and severe hailstorms in Mpumalanga province that damaged production.

After a revised 2.6 percent contraction in the first quarter, the latest data piled pressure on Ramaphosa who has promised a "new dawn" after his predecessor Jacob Zuma's scandal-tainted nine-year reign.

Micheal Power, an asset manager at Investec, said domestic and international events had combined to stall economic growth.

"We are getting no help from the outside with the strengthening dollar, the escalating trade war and issues that are now facing emerging markets," he told AFP.

"In some respects, this can be seen as a good thing if it means that we are now not drinking to avoid the hangover."

The recession is the first in South Africa since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, when South Africa experienced three consecutive quarters of economic decline.

Before Tuesday's data, Bloomberg said only one of 12 economists surveyed had predicted a contraction.

Independent analyst Daniel Silke said on Twitter that the figures reflected an "inability to create confidence-building measures to enhance work opportunities and uplift investor sentiment."

Ramaphosa, who faces elections in 2019, has been on an investment drive to attract foreign investment and tackle unemployment of about 28 percent.Li Zhanshu will visit Pyongyang

Chinese President Xi Jinping will send a close ally to North Korea's 70th anniversary celebrations, it was announced Tuesday, following speculation he would use the occasion to make his first official trip to Pyongyang.

Li Zhanshu, a member of the Communist Party's seven-member politburo standing committee or ruling council and the head of the legislature, was invited by the North Korean government and its ruling Workers Party, the official news agency Xinhua said.

North Korea's official KCNA news agency said Li's delegation would visit the country from Saturday. The anniversary of the nation's founding in 1948 falls on Sunday.

Xi has never travelled to Pyongyang since coming to power in 2012, as relations worsened over the North's missile and nuclear tests and China's subsequent backing of UN sanctions.

Hu Jintao in 2005 was the last Chinese president to visit North Korea, and the last top Chinese leader to go was the then-premier Wen Jiabao in 2009.

But relations between the Cold War-era allies have improved in recent months, with the North's leader Kim Jong-Un making three trips to China this year alone.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Pyongyang in April, the first such visit since 2007.

Singapore's Strait Times newspaper had reported last month that Xi would attend the anniversary.

But Li's attendance, instead of Xi, may suggest Beijing wants Kim to make more efforts to resolve international tensions before a presidential visit.

The North Korean leader pledged to work toward the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" during his historic meeting with US President Donald Trump in June.

Those efforts stalled several weeks ago and Trump ordered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel a planned trip to Pyongyang in August.

Trump has suggested that Beijing is using North Korea as a pawn in the US-China trade war by encouraging Kim to take a tough stance on denuclearisation.

Beijing is Pyongyang's sole major ally, and the main transit country for any goods entering the North. Trump said in late August that China was no longer being as tough as it could be on North Korea.

Beijing rejected Trump's accusations "as irresponsible and absurd logic".Rwanda President Paul Kagame was widely expected to win parliment elections

Rwanda's ruling party was set to win three-quarters of directly elected parliamentary seats in this week's poll, provisional results showed Tuesday.

Long-time ruler President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and its seven smaller allied parties, had 75 percent of the votes after Monday's election, with 70 percent of ballots counted.

Final results are not due until 16 September.

Parties were vying for 53 of the country's 80 directly elected parliamentary seats of which 24 are reserved for women, two for youth and one for the disabled, all chosen by special councils and national committees.

Instead of voting for individual lawmakers, Rwandans vote for a party which then decides the candidates to enter parliament.

To win at least one seat, a party has to get at least five percent of the total votes cast.

Once again the country's only critical opposition, the Green Party, appeared unlikely to win a single parliamentary seat after taking just 4.5 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

Green Party leader Frank Habineza won only 0.45 percent of the vote in last year's presidential election, won by Kagame with 99 percent.

Another opposition aspirant, Diane Rwigara, was blocked from contesting that presidential election before being arrested and charged with treason.

Nearly all of Rwanda's seven million registered voters took part in Monday's legislative vote, according to the National Election Commission.

The projected 75 percent for the RPF would represent a slight decline since the last parliamentary poll five years ago, but still guarantees the ruling party's dominance.

Despite winning widespread praise for the high level of female representation in Rwanda's parliament, the legislature does not challenge Kagame, preferring to act as a rubber stamp for his initiatives.

Three years ago parliament unanimously approved a plan to hold a constitutional referendum that changed presidential term limits, clearing the way for Kagame to stay in power until 2034.

The outgoing parliament has also approved harsh prison terms for journalists publishing cartoons deemed "embarrassing to government authorities".

Kagame has been the de-facto leader of Rwanda since 1994 when, as a 36-year-old, his rebel army routed extremist Hutu forces who slaughtered an estimated 800,000 people -- mainly minority Tutsis -- and seized Kigali.

Kagame is hailed for his role in halting the genocide and turning around Rwanda's economy but criticised for his iron-fisted rule with rights groups regularly accusing him of ruling through fear and crushing free speech.An Iranian military speedboat patrols Gulf waters as a tanker prepares to dock at the Kharg Island oil terminal on March 12, 2017

Iran is to move its main oil export terminal from the Gulf to the Oman Sea, President Hassan Rouhani announced on Tuesday, sparing its tankers from using the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Rouhani said exports were already being shifted from the Kharg Island terminal, deep in the Gulf, to Bandar-e-Jask in the Oman Sea and would be completed by the end of his term in 2021.

"This is very important for me, it is a very strategic issue for me. A major part of our oil sales must move from Kharg to Jask," Rouhani said in a televised speech as he inaugurated three new petrochemical plants in the southern energy hub of Asaluyeh.

To reach the oil terminal on Kharg Island, tankers must currently pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, slowing down deliveries.

Iran has in the past repeatedly threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz -- which is used by its Gulf rivals including Saudi Arabia -- when faced with sanctions on its oil exports and possible military action by the US.

The latest threat was in July when Rouhani said Iran has always guaranteed the security of the strait but warned the US "should not play with the lion's tail."

Moving its terminal to the Oman Sea would in theory allow Iran to continue exporting oil even if the strait was closed.

The US pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May and will reimpose sanctions on Iran's oil sector in November.

The last time there was a major disruption in the flow of oil through Hormuz was in 1984 during the Iran-Iraq war when both sides attacked each other's oil facilities and tankers.

The strait is the world's most important oil chokepoint with roughly 35 percent of all seaborne oil passing through it, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Bloomberg reported that Iran exported 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in August, but analysts say US sanctions could reduce sales to around 1 million bpd.Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (R) and Senegalese President Macky Sall (L) attend a joint press conference

Chinese and African officials on Tuesday rejected criticism of Beijing's debt-laden overseas development projects as they wrapped up a summit that included a new $60 billion assistance pledge for the continent.

President Xi Jinping hosted leaders from across Africa amid criticism that his country's Belt and Road global trade infrastructure project is worsening debt problems in some countries.

"Everything we do with China is perfectly under control, including on the financial and debt side," said Senegal's President Macky Sall, whose country took over the co-chairmanship of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) for the next three years.

"We shouldn't let our conscience be disturbed by criticism made regarding the nature of our relations with China," Sall said in remarks alongside Xi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to close the triannual FOCAC summit.

For his part, Xi said the summit "opened a new chapter in the history of China-Africa relations".

Ramaphosa, who handed over the co-chairmanship to Sall, said another achievement at the summit was an agreement to "work hard to increase Africa's value-added exports to China".

He had called on Monday for the two sides to work to "balance" trade relations, noting that Africa exports raw materials to China while Chinese factories send finished products back to the continent.

- 'Vanity projects' -

Xi opened the meeting on Monday with an offer of $60 billion in funding for projects over the next three years, saying there were "no political strings attached" but warning against spending on "vanity projects".

Xi also said China would write off the debt of some of the poorest African countries, without specifying which.

The money comes on top of $60 billion offered at the last summit in 2015.

China's special envoy for African affairs, Xu Jinghu, said Beijing would be "very conscientious" in its cooperation with Africa and conduct feasibility studies before choosing projects.

"China has not increased the debt burden of Africa," she told reporters.

"The reasons behind the African debt are quite complex. It has been accumulated for a long time," Xu said, adding that the prices of raw materials exported by Africa have fallen and reduced countries' revenues.

"There are many countries in Africa. Even for the countries that are heavily indebted, China is not the main creditor. So it doesn't make sense and it's groundless to put the blame on China for the African debt," she said.

The new financing includes $15 billion in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, $20 billion in credit lines, the creation of a $10 billion fund for development financing and a $5 billion special fund to pay for imports from Africa.

Chinese companies were encouraged to invest at least $10 billion on the continent.

Johan Burger, director of the NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said Xi's warning against vanity projects showed the "severity" of the issue.

"Should this money be spent on vanity projects, it will lend credence to the charges against China," Burger said.

"China itself does not have an never-ending source of funding, and would not want to see its financing be wasted, with no returns for itself and no real benefit for the countries involved."Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be in the spotlight on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 during his confirmation hearing to be a justice on the US Supreme Court

Senators will hear Tuesday from President Donald Trump's pick for the US Supreme Court, who pledged to be a neutral "umpire" who favors the law over personal preference.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh's high-profile hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee kick off Tuesday at 9:30 am (1330 GMT), with Republicans praising him as a principled and exacting jurist and Democrats furious over what they describe as a lack of transparency about his time in George W. Bush's White House.

Kavanaugh, who if confirmed would replace retired swing-vote justice Anthony Kennedy, said in excerpts of his opening remarks that he is a "pro-law judge" who would bring his impartiality to the nation's high court.

"A good judge must be an umpire -- a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy," he said in the excerpts released by the White House.

"I don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences."

US Court of Appeals Judge Kavanaugh, 53, is expected to face punishing questioning from Democrats over his endorsement of presidential immunity and his opposition to abortion.

Around two dozen witnesses are lined up to argue for and against confirming Kavanaugh, who could swing the nine-member high court decidedly in conservatives' favor for years to come.

Kavanaugh stressed that if confirmed, he would be "committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution," and would always strive to be "a team player on the Team of Nine."

Democrats have mobilized heavily to prevent his confirmation.

They have been fiercely critical of the Trump administration for not providing sufficient documentation about Kavanaugh's time in Bush's White House, where he may have played key roles in terrorism-related decisions, such as permitting the torture of detainees.

On Monday night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer complained that the administration provided senators an additional 42,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents on the evening before the confirmation hearing.

"This underscores just how absurd this process is. Not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow," Schumer tweeted.

The Judiciary Committee responded, saying "the majority staff has now completed its review of each and every one of these pages."

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, joined what she called a "silent protest" on the Supreme Court steps minutes before the hearing to draw attention to the lack of transparency.

"I've never had a hearing like this, where documents are so difficult to get," she said, pointing to what she said was the 93 percent of documents from Kavanaugh's time as a White House counsel and then staff secretary that have not been provided to the Senate.The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Gordon, which formed near the upper Florida Keys Monday, was 30 miles southeast of the coastal city of Biloxi, Mississippi

Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall Tuesday night on the US Gulf Coast, killing a child and leaving thousands without electricity as it rushed ashore with gusting winds and heavy rain, reports said.

The storm struck along the border of Alabama and Mississippi with winds blowing at up to 70 mph (112 kph), which later eased somewhat.

Authorities declared a state of emergency in both states and in New Orleans in Louisiana -- devastated in 2005 by mega hurricane Katrina.

Gordon knocked out power to about 24,000 customers across Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, news reports said.

The fatality came in Pensacola, Florida when a tree fell on a mobile home and killed a child, the National Weather Service said.

A vehicle drives along a flooded street caused by the approaching Tropical Storm Gordon on Dauphin Island, Alabama

Gordon was expected to flood coastal areas and dump heavy rains in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

A second Atlantic storm, Florence, meanwhile grew into a Category 2 Hurricane over open seas. Its maximum sustained winds have increased to 100 miles per hour but it was not presently threatening any inhabited land.BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) here on Monday.

The following is the full text of the speech:

Work Together for Common Development and a Shared Future

Keynote Speech by H.E. Xi Jinping

President of the People's Republic of China

At the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit

Of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation

Beijing, 3 September 2018

Your Excellency President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa,

Your Excellency President Paul Kagame, Chairperson of the African Union,

Distinguished Heads of State and Government,

Distinguished Heads of Delegation,

Your Excellency Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations,

Your Excellency Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AU Commission,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends,

September has just set in Beijing, bringing with it refreshing breeze and picturesque autumn scenery. And we are so delighted to have all of you with us, friends both old and new, in this lovely season for the reunion of the China-Africa big family at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

I wish to extend, on behalf of the Chinese government and people and in my own name, a very warm welcome to all of you, dear colleagues and guests. I also wish to extend, through you, the best regards and cordial greetings of the Chinese people to the brotherly people of Africa.

I wish to mention in particular that since the Johannesburg Summit, FOCAC has had three new members, namely, the Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe and Burkina Faso. Today, we are joined by President Barrow, Prime Minister Trovoada and President Kabore and their delegations. Let us welcome them with a warm round of applause!

Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over a month ago, I paid my fourth visit to Africa as the Chinese President, which was also my ninth visit to this land of great promise. During the last visit, I once again saw an Africa that is beautiful and richly endowed, that is full of dynamism in development, and I learned about first-hand the African people's ardent hope for a better future. I concluded the visit even more convinced that Africa's development has great potential, that this great continent is full of hope, that China-Africa friendship and cooperation have broad vistas, and that China and Africa can forge an even stronger comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership!

As an ancient Chinese scholar once observed, "Only with deep roots can a tree yield rich fruit; only filled with oil can a lamp burn brightly." History follows its own rules and logic. With similar fate in the past and a common mission, China and Africa have extended sympathy to and helped each other throughout all the years. Together, we have embarked on a distinctive path of win-win cooperation.

Marching on this path, China has followed the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and the principle of pursuing the greater good and shared interests. China has stood with African countries. Together, we have worked in unity and forged ahead.

-- China values sincerity, friendship and equality in pursuing cooperation. The over 1.3 billion Chinese people have been with the over 1.2 billion African people in pursuing a shared future. We respect Africa, love Africa and support Africa. We follow a "five-no" approach in our relations with Africa: no interference in African countries' pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions; no interference in African countries' internal affairs; no imposition of our will on African countries; no attachment of political strings to assistance to Africa; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation with Africa. We hope this "five-no" approach could apply to other countries as they deal with matters regarding Africa. For China, we are always Africa's good friend, good partner and good brother. No one could undermine the great unity between the Chinese people and the African people.

-- China pursues common interests and puts friendship first in pursuing cooperation. China believes that the sure way to boost China-Africa cooperation is for both sides to leverage its respective strength; it is for China to complement Africa's development through its own growth, and it is for both China and Africa to pursue win-win cooperation and common development. In doing so, China follows the principle of giving more and taking less, giving before taking and giving without asking for return. With open arms, we welcome African countries aboard the express train of China's development. No one could hold back the Chinese people or the African people as we march toward rejuvenation.

-- China takes a people-oriented approach in pursuing practical cooperation with efficiency. With top priority given to the interests of Chinese and African peoples, China advances its cooperation with Africa to improve the well-being of Chinese and African peoples and deliver more benefits to them. We will fully honor the promises we have made to our African brothers. Faced with new developments and challenges, China will continue to improve institution building, develop new ideas and expand areas of cooperation with Africa to bring our cooperation to greater heights. Ultimately, it is for the peoples of China and Africa to judge the performance of China-Africa cooperation. No one could deny the remarkable achievements made in China-Africa cooperation, not with their assumption or imagination.

-- China takes an open and inclusive approach to cooperation. China is fully aware that long-term stability, security, development and invigoration for Africa is not only the longing of the African people; it is also the responsibility of the international community. China stands ready to work with other international partners to support Africa in pursuing peace and development. China welcomes and supports all initiatives that meet Africa's interests, and believes that it should be the same with the wider international community. No one could stand in the way or obstruct international efforts to support Africa's development.

Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century: the surging trend toward multi-polarity, economic globalization, IT application and cultural diversity, accelerated transformation of the global governance system and international order, rapid rise of emerging markets and developing countries, and greater balance in global power configuration. The well-being of people in all countries has never been so closely intertwined as it is today.

On the other hand, we also face challenges unseen before. Hegemony and power politics persist; protectionism and unilateralism are mounting; war, conflicts, terrorism, famine and epidemics continue to plague us; security challenges, both traditional and non-traditional, remain as complex and interwoven as ever.

However, we are firm in our conviction that peace and development remain the underlying trend of our times. Indeed, they are the call of the times. The international community should take our historical responsibility and respond to the call of our times with solidarity, vision, courage and a sense of mission.

-- To respond to the call of the times, China takes it its mission to make new and even greater contribution to mankind. China will work with other countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind, forge partnerships across the world, enhance friendship and cooperation, and explore a new path of growing state-to-state relations based on mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation. Our goal is to make the world a place of peace and stability and life happier and more fulfilling for all.

-- To respond to the call of the times, China is ready to jointly promote the Belt and Road Initiative with international partners. We hope to create new drivers to power common development through this new platform of international cooperation; and we hope to turn it into a road of peace, prosperity, openness, green development and innovation and a road that brings together different civilizations.

-- To respond to the call of the times, China will get actively involved in global governance and stay committed to the vision of consultation, cooperation and benefit for all in global governance. China has all along played its part in promoting world peace and development and upholding the international order. We call for increasing the representation and voice of developing countries in international affairs and support efforts to strengthen the South, a weak link in the global governance system, as well as efforts to create synergy in South-South cooperation. We will continue the efforts to make the global governance system better represent the will and interests of the majority of countries, especially developing countries.

-- To respond to the call of the times, China will remain committed to opening-up. Facing uncertainty and unpredictability in global growth, China will continue to grow an open economy for win-win cooperation, and it will embrace an open world economy and the multilateral trading system and reject protectionism and unilateralism. No one who keeps himself in isolation on a single island will have a future.

Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

To quote a Chinese saying, "The ocean is vast because it rejects no rivers." China, the world's largest developing country, and Africa, the continent with the largest number of developing countries, have long formed a community with a shared future. Indeed, we share a common stake. China will work with Africa to achieve our shared goal of building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future and turn it into a pacesetter for building such a community for mankind.

First, let us build a China-Africa community with a shared future to assume our joint responsibility. We could increase political and policy dialogue at various levels, enhance mutual understanding and support on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns, and boost coordination on major international and regional issues. Such efforts will enable us to uphold the common interests of China and Africa as well as other developing countries.

Second, let us build a China-Africa community with a shared future that pursues win-win cooperation. We could both seize the opportunity created by the complementarity between our respective development strategies and the major opportunities presented by the Belt and Road Initiative. We need to see to it that the Belt and Road Initiative and the AU Agenda 2063, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the development programs of African countries better complement each other. With these efforts, we could expand areas of cooperation, unlock new cooperation potential, consolidate our traditional areas of cooperation, and foster new highlights of cooperation in the new economy.

Third, let us build a China-Africa community with a shared future that delivers happiness for all of us. Making lives better for our people is what we aim to achieve in growing China-Africa relations; so we need to make sure our cooperation delivers real benefits to us both in China and in Africa. Mutual help and solidarity is what has defined China-Africa relations over the years. Going forward, China will do more to help Africa alleviate poverty, pursue development, increase employment and income, and better the lives of its people.

Fourth, let us build a China-Africa community with a shared future that enjoys cultural prosperity. Both China and Africa are proud of our splendid civilizations, and we are both ready to make greater contributions to promoting cultural diversity in the world. By enhancing exchanges, mutual learning and harmonious co-existence of our civilizations, we will inject lasting impetus into invigorating our civilizations and cultures, enriching our artistic creations, and provide rich cultural nourishment for China-Africa cooperation. With more people-to-people exchanges in culture and art, education, sports, and between our think tanks, the media, and women and young people, we will strengthen the bond between the people of China and Africa.

Fifth, let us build a China-Africa community with a shared future that enjoys common security. People that have gone through adversity value peace most. China champions a new vision of security featuring common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. We firmly support African countries and the African Union as well as other regional organizations in Africa in solving African issues in the African way, and we support the African initiative of "Silence the Guns in Africa". China is ready to play a constructive role in promoting peace and stability in Africa and will support African countries to strengthen their independent capacity for safeguarding stability and peace.

Sixth, let us build a China-Africa community with a shared future that promotes harmony between man and nature. The Earth is the only place which we mankind call home. China will work with Africa to pursue green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable development and protect our lush mountains and lucid waters and all living beings on our planet. We will strengthen exchange and cooperation with Africa on climate change, clean energy, prevention and control of desertification and soil erosion, protection of wildlife and other areas of ecological and environmental preservation. Together, we could make China and Africa beautiful places for people to live in harmony with nature.

Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Since the 2015 FOCAC Johannesburg Summit, China has fully implemented the ten cooperation plans adopted at the Summit. A large number of railway, highway, airport, port and other infrastructure projects as well as a number of economic and trade cooperation zones have been built or are under construction. Our cooperation on peace and security, science, education, culture, health, poverty reduction, and people-to-people interactions has deepened. The US$60 billion financing pledged by China has been either delivered or arranged. These ten cooperation plans have brought huge benefits to the African and Chinese peoples. They have fully demonstrated the creativity, rallying power and efficiency of China-Africa cooperation, and lifted China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to new heights.

To build an even closer China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, China will, on the basis of the ten cooperation plans already adopted, launch eight major initiatives in close collaboration with African countries in the next three years and beyond.

First, China will launch an industrial promotion initiative. We have decided to open a China-Africa economic and trade expo in China; we encourage Chinese companies to increase investment in Africa, and will build and upgrade a number of economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa. We will support Africa in achieving general food security by 2030, work with Africa to formulate and implement a program of action to promote China-Africa cooperation on agricultural modernization. We will implement 50 agricultural assistance programs, provide RMB 1 billion of emergency humanitarian food assistance to African countries affected by natural disasters, send 500 senior agriculture experts to Africa, and train young researchers in agri-science and entrepreneurs in agri-business. We will support Chinese companies in Africa to forge alliance of corporate social responsibilities. We will continue to strengthen cooperation with African countries in local currency settlement and make good use of the China-Africa Development Fund, the China-Africa Fund for Industrial Cooperation and the Special Loan for the Development of African SMEs.

Second, China will launch an infrastructure connectivity initiative. We have decided to jointly formulate a China-Africa infrastructure cooperation plan with the African Union. We will support Chinese companies in participating in Africa's infrastructure development by way of investment-construction-operation or through other models, with focus on enhancing cooperation on energy, transport, information, telecommunications and cross-border water resources. We will work with Africa to undertake a number of key connectivity projects. We will support Africa in developing the Single African Air Transport Market and open more direct flights between China and Africa. We will facilitate bond issuance by African countries and their financial institutions in China. On the basis of following multilateral rules and procedures, we will support African countries in making better use of financing resources of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the New Development Bank, and the Silk Road Fund.

Third, China will launch a trade facilitation initiative. We have decided to increase imports, particularly non-resource products, from Africa. We support African countries in participating in the China International Import Expo. The least developed African countries participating in it will be exempted from paying exhibition stand fees. We will continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation on market regulation and between customs authorities, and implement 50 trade facilitation programs for Africa. We will hold, on a regular basis, marketing activities for Chinese and African brand products. We support the building of the African Continental Free Trade Area and will continue to hold free trade negotiations with interested African countries and regions. And we will set up relevant mechanisms to promote e-commerce cooperation with Africa.

Fourth, we will launch a green development initiative. We have decided to undertake 50 projects for green development and ecological and environmental protection in Africa to expand exchanges and cooperation with Africa on climate change, ocean, desertification prevention and control, and wildlife protection. A China-Africa environmental cooperation center will be set up, and more policy dialogue and joint research on environmental issues will be conducted. The China-Africa Green Envoys Program will be implemented to strengthen Africa's human capacity for environmental management, pollution prevention and control, and green development. A China-Africa bamboo center will be established to help Africa make bamboo and rattan products. China will also work with Africa to raise public awareness of environmental protection.

Fifth, we will launch a capacity building initiative. China will share more of its development practices with Africa and support cooperation with Africa on economic and social development planning. Ten Luban Workshops will be set up in Africa to provide vocational training for young Africans. China will support opening of a China-Africa innovation cooperation center to promote youth innovation and entrepreneurship. A tailor-made program will be carried out to train 1,000 high-caliber Africans. China will provide Africa with 50,000 government scholarships and 50,000 training opportunities for seminars and workshops, and will invite 2,000 young Africans to visit China for exchanges.

Sixth, we will launch a health care initiative. China has decided to upgrade 50 medical and health aid programs for Africa, particularly flagship projects such as the headquarters of the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention and China-Africa Friendship Hospitals. Exchange and information cooperation will be carried out on public health. Cooperation programs will be launched on the prevention and control of emerging and re-emerging communicable diseases, schistosomiasis, HIV/AIDS and malaria. China will train more medical specialists for Africa and continue to send medical teams that better meet Africa's needs. More mobile medical services will be provided to patients for the treatment of cataract, heart disease and dental defects. And targeted health care services will be provided to women and children of vulnerable groups in Africa.

Seventh, we will launch a people-to-people exchange initiative. China decided to establish an institute of African studies to enhance exchanges with Africa on civilization. The China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Plan will be upgraded. Fifty joint cultural, sports and tourism events will be organized. China welcomes Africa's participation in the Silk Road International League of Theaters, the Silk Road International Museum Alliance and the Network of Silk Road Art Festivals. A China-Africa media cooperation network will be established. More African culture centers will be opened in China and more Chinese culture centers in Africa. Qualified African educational institutes are welcome to host Confucius Institutes. More African countries are welcome to become destinations for Chinese tour groups.

Eighth, we will launch a peace and security initiative. China decided to set up a China-Africa peace and security fund to boost our cooperation on peace, security, peacekeeping, and law and order. China will continue to provide military aid to the AU, and will support countries in the Sahel region and those bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Guinea in upholding security and combating terrorism in their regions. A China-Africa peace and security forum will be established as a platform for conducting more exchanges in this area. Fifty security assistance programs will be launched to advance China-Africa cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and in areas of law and order, UN peacekeeping missions, fighting piracy and combating terrorism.

To make sure that these eight initiatives are implemented on the ground, China will extend US$60 billion of financing to Africa in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies. This will include US$15 billion of grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, US$20 billion of credit lines, the setting up of a US$10 billion special fund for development financing and a US$5 billion special fund for financing imports from Africa. We encourage Chinese companies to make at least US$10 billion of investment in Africa in the next three years. In addition, for those of Africa's least developed countries, heavily indebted and poor countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries that have diplomatic relations with China, the debt they have incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese government loans due to mature by the end of 2018 will be exempted.

Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The future of China-Africa relations lies in our young people. Many of the measures in the eight initiatives I just outlined are designed to help young people in Africa. These measures will provide young Africans with more training and job opportunities and open up more space for their development. Last October, I wrote back to the exchange students of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development. Most of them were from Africa. I encouraged them to make the best of what they have learned, aim high, and keep working hard to promote China-Africa cooperation and South-South cooperation. I believe they have new roles to play and new accomplishments to make in this regard.

"The red rising sun will light up the road ahead." I am confident that the baton of China-Africa friendship will be passed from one generation to the next and that China and Africa, working together, will build an even more vibrant community with a shared future. The day will surely come when the Chinese nation realizes its dream of national renewal and Africa realizes its dream of unity and invigoration!

Thank you.Keita main challenge is to ensure security in the country's restive north and centre

Re-elected Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita vowed Tuesday to restore peace to the troubled north of the Saharan country hours after a UN peacekeeper was injured there in a jihadist rocket attack.

"I will be implacable against all those who affront our values of freedom and tolerance," Keita, 73, said as he took the oath of office at a ceremony in the capital Bamako.

"Nothing will trample the will of a people united against terrorism," Keita said, adding that he would make "the return of peace and security an absolute priority".

The UN peacekeeper was injured in an attack in the northern town of Menaka, officials said, without giving his nationality.

Keita won 67 percent of the vote against runner-up Soumaila Cisse, a former finance minister, who scored nearly 33 percent in a hard-fought runoff on August 12.

His re-election came despite fierce criticism of failures to tackle jihadist violence and ethnic tensions that have rocked the poor Sahel state.

Keita's major challenge as he starts his second term will be to strengthen a 2015 peace accord between the government, government-allied groups and former Tuareg rebels that the government sees as a cornerstone of peace.

The implementation of the peace accord has suffered many setback and failed to prevent the violence from spreading from north to central Mali and to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

The Cisse camp on Tuesday held a rally of "thousands" of people in Bamako, according to organisers, to stress that they do not recognise Keita's presidency.

"I will never betray those thousands of people who have made the trip today," Cisse said at the end of the event.

"Fraudulent elections have never delivered a democratically elected president. We do not recognise the election of the person who took the oath today," he added.

His supporters brought cases to Mali's courts, including the supreme court, seeking to nullify the election results "due to violation of the law," according to a text seen by AFP.Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other allies intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after Shiite Huthi rebels linked to Iran ousted President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government from the capital Sanaa and seized swathes of the country

Spain said Tuesday it has cancelled a 2015 deal to sell 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition fighting rebels in Yemen.

A defence ministry spokesman confirmed a Cadena Ser radio report that said Spain's new Socialist government planned to return the 9.2 million euros ($10.6 million) already paid by the Saudis for the arms under a deal signed by the previous conservative administration.

The spokesman declined to elaborate but the announcement comes after an August air strike by the Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen that killed dozens of civilians, including 40 children.

The incident sparked a wave of international anger and calls by the United Nations Security Council for a "credible and transparent" investigation.

The coalition had claimed to have targeted a bus carrying rebels.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other allies intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after Shiite Huthi rebels linked to Iran ousted President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government from the capital Sanaa and seized swathes of the country.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then, 2,200 of them children, and sparked what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Amnesty International says Spain is one of biggest arms exporters to Saudi Arabia.

It and other rights groups, including Greenpeace and Oxfam, on Tuesday urged Spain to stop all arm sales to Saudi Arabia during a meeting with Spain's secretary of state for trade, Xiana Mendez.

The government did not make any commitment to limit other arms sales to Saudi Arabia during he meeting, Oxfam spokeswoman Lara Contreras told AFP.

While the 400 bombs which Spain will no longer send to Riyadh represent just "one percent of total arms sales to Saudi Arabia, it sends a clear message that it is important" to the Spanish government, she added.

Spain signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia in April to sell the Gulf Arab state five warships in a deal estimated to be worth around 1.8 billion euros.US President Donald Trump said he "sincerely hoped for the success" of the next Korean leader summit, according to a statement from the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in

US President Donald Trump expressed his hopes for the "success" of the next inter-Korean summit, Seoul said Tuesday, even as relations grow cooler between Washington and Pyongyang.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to travel to Pyongyang later this month for what will be his third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year.

A high-level delegation will fly to the North Korean capital on Wednesday to discuss the details of Moon's visit.

In a phone conversation on the eve of the delegation's trip, Trump and Moon agreed to continue "close cooperation" in their efforts to denuclearise the North, Moon's office said in a statement.

"President Trump said he sincerely hoped for the success of the South-North summit in September, not only for the improvement of inter-Korean ties but also the implementation of the June 12 US-North Korea summit agreement and future dialogue," it added.

The two leaders also discussed holding a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York later this month.

Moon and Kim have met face-to-face twice now, the first during a historic summit at the border truce village of Panmunjom in April.

They met a second time at the same location in May as they scrambled to salvage plans for a summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore, which eventually went ahead as scheduled.

The rapid rapprochement on the Korean peninsula led to a landmark meeting between Kim and Trump in June after months of trading threats of nuclear war amid heightened tensions.

At the summit the pair reached a vague agreement to work towards the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula", but there has been little movement since.

Pyongyang has slammed the US for its "gangster-like" demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament, and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency reported there was no indication the North had stopped its nuclear activities.

Last month Trump ordered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to abruptly cancel a planned trip to Pyongyang, citing lack of progress on denuclearisation.US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces a grilling on the second day of his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee

President Donald Trump's US Supreme Court nominee said Wednesday he would not let political pressure threaten his judicial independence, as he assured senators he respected the landmark legal precedent protecting abortion rights.

Through an at-times tense 12-hour session on Day 2 of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing, lawmakers grilled him over the administration's withholding of documents from his time in the Bush White House, gun legislation, the ongoing Russia investigation and whether a sitting president can be compelled to respond to a subpoena.

The 53-year-old conservative jurist was tapped by the president to succeed retired justice Anthony Kennedy -- often the swing vote on the country's highest court -- in a lifetime appointment.

Should he win confirmation, Kavanaugh would be Trump's second nominee on the nine-member bench, and could solidify a hard-right court majority and help shape key aspects of American society for a generation.

Kavanaugh -- a deeply controversial figure seen by progressives as a threat to women's health care rights -- was asked about Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that protects abortion rights.

He told the Senate Judiciary Committee he considered it "settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court."

"I don't live in a bubble, I live in the real world," the judge, who sits on the US Court of Appeals in Washington, assured Democrat Dianne Feinstein.

"I understand the importance of the issue."

Trump campaigned on a promise to nominate pro-life judges and justices, and Democrats worry that Kavanaugh will seek to roll back abortion rights if he wins the backing of a straight majority in the 100-member Senate.

"Yes, of course he will" seek to gut or overturn Roe v Wade, tweeted Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.

Protesters repeatedly interrupted proceedings through the day. Seventy-three people were arrested by police for unlawful demonstration activities, police said.

"If you love America, stop this travesty!" boomed one woman as she was ejected.

- 'Loyalty' to US Constitution -

For a second straight day, protesters interrupted the Senate confirmation hearing of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice on the US Supreme Court

Senate Democrat Dick Durbin pressed Kavanaugh over his dissenting opinion in a 2017 case involving a pregnant undocumented immigrant. He argued that the detained 17-year-old needed to be transferred to an "immigration sponsor" before being immediately allowed an abortion.

"I did my level best in an emergency posture," Kavanaugh said.

Democrats have also voiced concern about the nominee's views on the scope of presidential power.

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch bluntly asked Kavanaugh what loyalty he owes Trump.

"I owe my loyalty to the Constitution," Kavanaugh responded, holding up his tattered copy of the document.

"No one is above the law."

Some 11 hours into the proceedings, Senator Kamala Harris launched some of the day's toughest questioning, demanding to know whether Kavanaugh had ever spoken with anyone at the law firm of Marc Kasowitz, a personal lawyer to Trump in 2017, about the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Kavanaugh appeared caught off guard. "I'm not remembering," he said.

"I think you're thinking of someone and you don't want to tell us," Harris replied, as tensions soared.

In past comments, Kavanaugh has supported an expansion of presidential immunity from prosecution -- a dramatic shift from his recommendation for strong action against then-president Bill Clinton when Kavanaugh assisted in a 1990s investigation against him.

Asked Wednesday by Feinstein whether a sitting president can be forced to respond to a subpoena, he demurred: "I can't give you an answer on that hypothetical question."

Kavanaugh described himself as an "independent" federal judge whose decisions are founded on law and precedent -- "not based on policy, not based on political pressure."

- Presidential immunity -

Several of his remarks appeared aimed at assuaging Democratic concerns. He portrayed himself as a "civil" judge and an admirer of the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision that ended segregation laws, calling it "the greatest moment in Supreme Court history."

But his refusal to divulge his position on key legal questions vexed some lawmakers including Senator Cory Booker, who when asked about the judge's thinking on racial profiling or voter suppression was met with Kavanaugh's argument that he looks at such issues through the lens of court precedent.

Booker insisted he was not concerned about past cases: "I'm worried about what the law is going to be when you get on the court and change these precedents."

The hearing got off to a chaotic start Tuesday, when Democrats sought a postponement over thousands of withheld documents pertaining to Kavanaugh's time in the George W. Bush White House.

Republicans hold a one-vote Senate majority. Should a single Republican oppose Kavanaugh, it could throw his confirmation into jeopardy, although there has been little sign that any GOP senator was prepared to buck the president.

Questioning of Kavanaugh continues Thursday.Intelligence agencies from the United States and its allies have stepped up a call for better access to encrypted communications, prompting criticism from privacy and rights activists

Privacy and human rights organizations expressed concern Tuesday after a coalition of intelligence agencies renewed a call for technology companies to allow so-called "backdoor" access to encrypted content and devices.

The reaction came following a weekend statement from the "Five Eyes" intelligence agencies calling on "industry partners" to provide a way for law enforcement to access encrypted content that may not be available even with a search warrant.

The call by the agencies from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand threatens to reignite a long-simmering debate on encryption.

"Many of the same means of encryption that are being used to protect personal, commercial and government information are also being used by criminals, including child sex offenders, terrorists and organized crime groups to frustrate investigations and avoid detection and prosecution," said the statement from the five countries issued by Australia's Department of Home Affairs.

Without voluntary cooperation, the agencies said, "we may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions."

While some law enforcement agencies contend that encryption is being used to shield criminal activity, tech firms and privacy activists argue that any weakening of encryption would harm security for all users.

"The risk is that these countries will compel providers to build a backdoor that not only governments will exploit but hackers, criminals and other bad guys will use as well," said Greg Nojeim of the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology.

"It would weaken cybersecurity at the same time governments are preaching that cybersecurity needs to be addressed."

Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the latest effort "a short-sighted and counterproductive proposal" and added that "it has become clear that encryption is vital for both privacy and public safety."

Similar concerns were voiced by Amnesty International, which said in a tweet, "This won't make us safer -- it will just weaken security for everyone."

- Debate on 'going dark' -

Apple challenged a US government request in 2016 to weaken iPhone encryption, prompting a court showdown that rallied privacy activists

Encryption has been a hot-button issue in the United States for years, and came to a head in 2016 when Apple challenged the FBI's request to create software that would enable investigators to access an iPhone used by an attacker in a 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

The US government eventually dropped its demand after finding another means to access the device, but a number of law enforcement officials have complained that they are "going dark" with the use of encrypted apps and devices that cannot be accessed by traditional wiretaps.

Nojeim said the claim of "going dark" is vastly exaggerated.

"There has never been more electronic information available to assist criminal and intelligence investigations," he said.

"We leave a digital footprint with virtually everything we do online and most of those footprints can be collected without the hindrance of encryption."

But James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who supports better law enforcement access, said tech firms may face more pressure than in the past.

"It's part of the bigger public move to rein in the tech companies and make them more socially responsible," Lewis said.

"The old laissez-faire arguments are losing ground."Displaced Iraqis sit at the entrance of their tent in "Camp Seven" in Iraq's western Anbar province on April 24, 2018

Nearly four million Iraqis displaced by the war on the Islamic State group have returned to their homes, the UN migration agency said in a report released Tuesday.

When IS swept across Iraq in 2014, eventually seizing around one third of the country, it forced six million Iraqis to flee for safety, said the International Organization for Migration.

The IOM said the six million who were displaced represented around 15 percent of Iraq's total population.

"For the first time in nearly four years, the number of displaced Iraqis has fallen to below two million," the agency said. "Nearly four million have returned home."

According to the IOM, the displaced who have returned home cited several reasons for their decision, including "the improved security situation (and) availability of housing".

Others said they were encouraged to return by community leaders, friends and relatives, or simply had the financial means to do so.

But those who are still displaced -- 1,931,868 people -- complain of lack of means and job opportunities, as well as insecurity and of damaged homes and infrastructure, said the IOM.

It said most of those who had gone back were displaced from the northern province of Nineveh -- home to Iraq's second city Mosul and an IS bastion for three years before it was driven out in 2017.

Displaced Iraqis have also gone back in large numbers to the Sunni province of Anbar bordering Syria and scene of the last major battle against IS.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared "victory" in December in the fight against IS.

But sleeper cells still operate in the country from sparsely populated areas, including desert regions near the border with Syria.Muslim activists burn a mock US flag in support of Palestinian cause in Manila on May 17, 2018

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell and his Palestinian counterpart warned Tuesday that Washington was losing its traditional mediating role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by "aligning" with Israel.

"I regret that the United States, which for many years played a role in contributing to the peace process... are unfortunately disqualifying themselves from playing a mediator role that has the confidence of both parties," Borrell told a press briefing in Madrid with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki.

"The minister told me of his serious concern with regards to the situation... as a consequence of the alignment of the United States on Israeli positions," Borrell said.

US President Donald Trump has pledged to unveil a plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace saying he wants to reach the "ultimate deal".

But Maliki said the US administration had decided "to be part of the problem and not part of the solution".

"The United States see the conflict through Israel's eyes, they have adopted the Israeli position," he added, calling on the international community to "take measures to save the peace process".

Both ministers were reacting to the US announcement on Friday that it would end funding for the United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees UNWRA.

The United States also announced last month that it was cancelling more than $200 million in bilateral aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Borrell, who condemned the moves, said Spain would double its own, far smaller contribution to UNRWA, from one to two million euros.

He said he and Maliki had also talked about "recognition of a Palestinian state".

On Sunday, an Israeli peace activist said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had told her US officials working on a peace plan had asked him about forming a confederation with Jordan.

A confederation has been favoured by some on the Israeli right as a way to avoid granting full statehood to the Palestinians for now.

Borrell dismissed this as speculation, saying: "I'm not going to believe it until I see a tweet from President Trump."

The Spanish parliament voted unanimously in 2014 to recognise a Palestinian state, but that has remained symbolic.An image released by the Syrian Arab News Agency on May 10, 2018 shows what the official news agency said was air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace

An Israeli military official said Tuesday the army had carried out some 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months against mainly Iranian targets, a rare confirmation of such action.

A total of 202 strikes were carried out in neighbouring Syria, the official said, all of which involved "military targets, most of them belonging to the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards."

Around 800 missiles and bombs were used in the strikes, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the details first reported in various Israeli media.

Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran is backing President Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war.

A series of strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel in recent months, but the Israeli military rarely confirms them.

Israel has previously acknowledged carrying out dozens of strikes in Syria against what it describes as advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group.

Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, is another of Israel's enemies which is backing Assad in the Syrian conflict.

The rare confirmation of strikes comes after Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman signalled his country could hit Iranian targets in Iraq if they threatened Israel.

"We will face any Iranian threat, no matter where it comes from," Lieberman said Monday.

The defence minister was speaking following reports that Iran had provided ballistic missiles to allied Shiite militias in Iraq in recent months.

"Our freedom of action is total," Lieberman added.

The Israeli military official did not comment directly on those reports on Tuesday, but said the army was aware of missile transfers from Iran to Iraq and then on to Syria.Judge Brett Kavanaugh faces US Senators at a hearing on whether to confirm his appointment to a liftetime seat on the US Supreme Court

Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's choice to fill a crucial Supreme Court vacancy, is a conservative appellate court judge who has staunchly defended the executive power of the presidency and describes himself as a strict adherent to the US Constitution.

The huge stakes and fierce passions aroused by the lifetime appointment were on display Tuesday as shouts of protests and Democratic demands for a postponement greeted the start of his Senate confirmation hearing.

The 53-year-old Kavanaugh, no stranger to Washington politics, sat stone-faced throughout.

If confirmed as the Supreme Court's ninth justice, he is likely to tilt an already conservative high court even more reliably to the right.

Under intense scrutiny are his decisions over the past 11 years as a judge on the US Court of Appeals in Washington, as well as his previous roles as a legal adviser to former president George W. Bush and a participant in a special counsel probe that led to the impeachment of former president Bill Clinton.

Democrats have protested the White House's withholding of 100,000 pages of documents related to his years in the Bush White House. Republicans counter that they have already received more than 400,000 pages of Kavanaugh-related documents.

"There is no one in America more qualified for this position and no one more deserving," Trump said in announcing his nomination at the White House.

Kavanaugh began his career as a clerk to Anthony Kennedy, the justice long considered a critical swing vote on the Supreme Court, and will succeed him on the bench if confirmed.

"Justice Kennedy devoted his career to securing liberty. I am deeply honored to be nominated to fill his seat on the Supreme Court," Kavanaugh said as Trump announced his nomination at the White House July 9.

"My judicial philosophy is straightforward. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law," he said.

A Yale University graduate, in the 1990s he led an investigation into the suicide of Bill Clinton aide Vince Foster, who was linked to the Whitewater controversy that began as a probe into the presidential couple's real estate investments.

Kavanaugh later contributed to prosecutor Kenneth Starr's report into Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and which outlined several grounds for Clinton's impeachment.

Later he was part of George Bush's legal team in working on the 2000 Florida recount, which resulted in Bush winning the presidency.

- Ammunition for opponents -

After Bush moved into the White House in 2001, he recruited Kavanaugh as legal counsel before later naming him to the appellate court in 2003.

But Kavanaugh's nomination languished for three years, as Democrats fumed over his participation in Bush's recount team. He was eventually confirmed in 2006.

In 2012, Kavanaugh was part of a panel that scrapped an Environmental Protection Agency measure aimed at reducing air pollution in the United States.

He recently voiced disagreement with a court decision allowing a teenage unauthorized immigrant to get an abortion.

A practicing Catholic active in various religious organizations, Kavanaugh is a married father of two girls.

Some Republicans have expressed concern that Kavanaugh's extensive record on various critical cases could give ammunition for opponents to delay the confirmation process or scuttle the nomination.

Lawyers who had argued cases in front of Kavanaugh recalled him as an active questioner from the bench, and a very well prepared jurist who would fit in on a Supreme Court whose justices are largely not shy in oral arguments with advocates.

While Kavanaugh's record has antagonized conservatives at times, his position on executive authority may have endeared him to Trump.

With the president facing a sweeping investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, it may have appealed to him to nominate a justice who has argued that the commander in chief should be shielded from criminal prosecution while in office.

In the Minnesota Law Review, Kavanaugh argued that while the nation requires a check against "a bad-behaving or law-breaking president," that check is provided only by the US Constitution.

"If the President does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available," Kavanaugh wrote. "No single prosecutor, judge, or jury should be able to accomplish what the Constitution assigns to the Congress."A new book by White House chronicler Bob Woodward describes US President Donald Trump's staff as constantly trying to control their unpredictable boss

The White House under President Donald Trump is mired in a perpetual "nervous breakdown" with staff constantly seeking to control a leader whose anger and paranoia can paralyze operations for days, according to a new book by Bob Woodward.

The Washington Post, which obtained an advance copy of the book by the veteran chronicler of modern presidents, reported Tuesday that Woodward describes Trump manically pressing his staff for actions that could lead to major conflict -- leaving them little choice but to disregard his orders.

In one anecdote, Trump questioned his National Security Council on January 19 about why the United States maintained a costly presence on the Korean peninsula.

"We're doing this in order to prevent World War III," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis felt it necessary to inform him.

After that meeting, according to Woodward, Mattis said to colleagues that Trump had the understanding "a fifth- or sixth-grader" -- a 10- or 11-year-old child.

Woodward's much-awaited book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," shows aides routinely ignoring or acting to block orders by the US president.

Gary Cohn, who was the chief White House economic advisor, went so far last year as to steal an order from Trump's desk that, if the president had signed it, would have cancelled the US-South Korea trade agreement.

And in April 2017, after Syria's Bashar al-Assad attacked civilians with chemical weapons, Woodward reports, Trump demanded Mattis assassinate Assad.

"Let's fucking kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the fucking lot of them," Trump told the Pentagon chief.

Mattis agreed to take action, but after he got off the telephone, he told an aide that the United States would take "more measured" steps against Syria -- which eventually came as a punitive air strike.

- 'Crazytown' -

Bob Woodward, seen here arriving to meet Donald Trump at Trump Tower in January 2017, apparently had extensive access to White House insiders for his new book

Woodward, who does not name his sources but apparently had extensive access to many White House insiders, describes some of Trump's top aides and cabinet members as having deep disdain for him.

Chief of staff John Kelly told colleagues he saw Trump as "unhinged" and "an idiot."

"It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown," Kelly said, according to Woodward.

"I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had," Kelly added.

The looming release of Woodward's book, according to reports, has had the White House on edge for weeks.

The writer, one of a duo with Carl Bernstein whose reporting for the Post on the Watergate scandal brought down president Richard Nixon, has published powerful and often embarrassing insider books on presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

The book is scheduled for official launch on September 11.BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's top anti-graft body said Monday it has established a "guest supervisor system" to better regulate the country's anti-graft work.

Guest supervisors will be hired to oversee the work of anti-graft bodies at all levels and their staff, according to a plan issued by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission.

The guest supervisors will also submit opinions and suggestions to improve disciplinary inspection and supervision work, according to the plan, which was implemented on Aug. 24.

The National Supervisory Commission will select most of the supervisors from deputies to the National People's Congress, the plan said. They can also be selected from members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, personnel of central CPC and government organs, members of non-Communist parties, people without party affiliation, and community-level representatives from all walks of life.

The plan noted that the guest supervisors will work part-time.Emanuel has struggled with unpopularity in a city facing a stubborn gun violence epidemic

Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel, once a star of the Democratic party and chief of staff to former US President Barack Obama, will not seek a third term, he announced Tuesday.

In a tear-filled, surprise announcement, Emanuel told a hastily-arranged news conference that he would not run again for the highest office in the nation's third largest city, and the hometown of his former boss Obama.

"I've decided not to seek re-election," Emanuel said. "This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime."

Emanuel has struggled with unpopularity in a city facing a stubborn gun violence epidemic that has led to most murders of any US city.

His announcement also came a day before the start of the murder trial of a white police officer charged with the controversial fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager.

Emanuel is accused of mishandling the case and covering up details of the shooting for more than a year.

Still, the mayor's decision stunned the city's political establishment, as he had already raised millions in anticipation of a tough campaign ahead of the February 2019 election.

"(Emanuel) would have had a very hard race," University of Illinois political science professor Dick Simpson told WGN television.

"But, he certainly was the leading candidate."

Emanuel once was rumored to aspire to even higher office. The former Democratic operative had worked in both former president Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s and was the first chief of staff for Obama.

He also was a three-term congressman from Illinois, and served in leadership roles for the party in the legislative chamber.

"Rahm Emanuel has been a tireless and brilliant public servant," Obama said in a statement.

"Chicago is better and stronger for his leadership, and I was a better President for his wise counsel at a particularly perilous time for our country," he added.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians were killed in renewed Russian air raids in Idlib province

The UN urged Russia and Turkey Tuesday to help avert a "bloodbath" in Idlib, as renewed Russian airstrikes on the Syria's last major rebel stronghold killed least nine civilians, according to a monitor.

Rebel-backer Turkey has held several rounds of talks with regime ally Russia aimed at averting an major assault on Idlib, but Moscow on Tuesday dubbed the province a "pocket of terrorism" as Syrian troops massed near the region.

A full-fledged assault would be devastating for the nearly three million people living in the northwestern province, many of them rebels and civilians who were bussed out of other areas as they came back under regime control.

The UN's Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to urgently speak on the phone even before they are set to meet with their Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Friday.

The UN's Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura said there are around one million children in Idlib province

De Mistura pointed to press reports indicating that Syria has set a September 10 deadline for finding a solution before it begins an all-out offensive on the province.

"Let's try to avoid that the last probably major battle of the Syrian territorial conflict... ends in a bloodbath," he told reporters in Geneva, insisting Russia and Turkey held "the key for the soft solution to the Idlib issue".

His appeal came after Russian warplanes resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the raids, while 10 people were wounded.

- 'Human tragedy' -

US President Donald Trump late Monday joined a growing chorus of voices warning the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against a full scale assault, which he said could trigger a "human tragedy".

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.

Idlib: risk of a humanitarian crisis

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month, and Russia has stepped up its rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism".

Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft based at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

It accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponised drones and insists jihadists in the province must be eliminated.

- 'Appeal for sanity' -

De Mistura said there were an estimated 10,000 fighters with UN-recognised terrorist organisations currently in Idlib.

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still held by rebels, like these fighters

But he stressed that there are some 2.9 million civilians in the province, including around one million children, who "are not terrorists".

Jan Egeland, head of the UN's humanitarian taskforce for Syria, meanwhile stressed to reporters in Geneva that "there are many more babies than terrorists in Idlib".

"We appeal for sanity."

Amid a diplomatic frenzy to try to avoid a full-scale assault on Idlib French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told AFP Tuesday "it is important today that the path to negotiations be open and not that towards confrontation".

De Mistura, whose years of efforts to push forward a Syrian peace deal have achieved no breakthroughs, insisted Tuesday that he would push ahead with his efforts to set up a committee to write a new Syrian constitution.

Fears are growing that Syria could launch a full-scale assault, which would be devastating for the nearly three million people living in the northwestern province

He said he did not plan to postpone two rounds of consultations next week with high-level representatives of a range of countries with influence on different sides in the conflict.

"It is going to be a moment of truth," he said.

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.Iraqi protesters in Basra on September 4, 2018, carry the coffin of a man whose family say he was shot during a demonstration

Six people were killed Tuesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in ongoing unrest, as protesters rally against economic woes and the dire state of public services.

"Six demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded," said Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of the government's human rights council in Basra province.

Security forces "directly opened fire on protesters," he said.

Medical sources previously said two demonstrators were killed on Tuesday as thousands of people rallied outside the local government headquarters in Basra.

During the protests, some people in the crowd hurled Molotov cocktails and fireworks at the government building, while security forces responded with tear gas and by firing shots into the air.

Around 15 members of the security forces were injured in the clashes, the medical sources said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said an investigation had been launched into the death of another protester the day before.

Addressing his weekly press conference in the capital Baghdad, Abadi reasserted he had ordered "no real bullets are to be fired, in the direction of protesters or in the air".

Mekki Yasser Ashur died after being shot during protests, his family said Tuesday during his funeral march.

Protesters accompanied his coffin through the streets of Basra until the government building, before being dispersed by tear gas.

During the procession some armed civilians fired shots into the air and hailed Ashur as a "martyr".

- Promises from Baghdad -

Iraqis demonstrate against the government and the lack of basic services, on September 3, 2018 in the southern city of Basra

Police and military cordons had been put in place, blocking numerous roads, while Basra's hospitals were filled with protesters bringing in people wounded in the clashes.

Basra's human rights council chief said tension was high in the city and "the shops have shut a lot earlier than usual".

Tamimi warned of further escalation "if the government's doesn't respond to the demands of demonstrators".

The government has already announced an emergency plan in response to the protests, while promising billions of dollars in investment for southern Iraq.

But protesters are wary of such pledges from the outgoing administration, as Iraqi lawmakers are in the process of forming a new government after May's election.

Political corruption has also fuelled protests, which erupted in Basra on July 8 before spreading across southern Iraq and reaching the capital.

A litany of social problems -- from unemployment to electricity cuts -- have also been a central complaint of demonstrators.

Iraqis have also called on authorities to clean up the water supply, with pollution blamed for putting 20,000 people in hospital in Basra province alone.

Protests had died down recently but since Friday large numbers have taken to the streets again.

Since early July, 21 people have been killed in protests across Iraq. At least one of those was shot dead by security forces, while authorities have accused "vandals" of infiltrating the rallies.Riot police set up checkpoints outside the Interior ministry to restrict access before the rally began and later fired tear gas at protesters

Senegalese police fired tear gas at a banned opposition pro-democracy rally in the capital Dakar on Tuesday and arrested several protesters, according to AFP journalists, opposition figures and the local press.

The "peaceful rally" by the National Resistance Front (FRN), an opposition coalition, was broken up outside the Interior ministry -- an area in Dakar where protests have been "illegally" banned, according to the opposition.

Riot police set up checkpoints outside the ministry to restrict access before the rally began and later fired tear gas at protesters, AFP journalists said.

At least one opposition leader, MP Oumar Sarr, was arrested by police, his supporters said.

Other opposition leaders were also detained, according to local reports.

The rally was called after two prominent Senegalese opposition figures had their hopes of running for the presidency in 2019 elections blocked by the courts.

The court of appeal recently upheld a five-year jail term against leading politician Khalifa Sall for misuse of funds.

The Supreme Court has also dismissed an attempt by former minister Karim Wade to be reinstated on the electoral list, a prerequisite to standing in elections, which are due next February.

The two men have been seen as a growing challenge to incumbent President Macky Sall, who shares the same surname with Khalifa but is not a relation, and their lawyers have accused the government of using the judiciary to block them from contesting the polls.

At the rally, the FRN also called for "the establishment of an independent authority to organise elections" in 2019 instead of the Interior Minister Ali Ngouye Ndiaye, a member of the president's party.

About 100 contenders plan to take part in the 2019 presidential election, including President Sall, who was elected in 2012 for seven years.Libyans on August 30, 2018 take stock of damage caused by fighting in the capital Tripoli that has killed dozens and displaced hundreds

The UN mission in Libya said it brokered a ceasefire on Tuesday to end a week of clashes in the capital Tripoli that have killed dozens and forced thousands to flee their homes.

Fighting in and around Tripoli since August 27 has killed at least 50 people and wounded 138 others, most of them civilians, according to the Libyan health ministry.

The violence has also forced thousands of people to escape to nearby towns or seek shelter in other districts of the capital, while many more have remained trapped inside their homes.

"Under the auspices of (UN envoy Ghassan Salame), a ceasefire agreement was reached and signed today to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property," the UNSMIL mission said.

Following another day of violent clashes in the capital's southern suburbs, the fighting came to a pause in the early evening but it was unclear if all the groups involved would respect the agreement.

A ceasefire deal announced on Friday by officials from western cities only held for a few hours.

After that, UNSMIL invited the "various Libyan parties" to Tuesday talks for an "urgent dialogue on the current security situation in Tripoli".

The UN mission announced the ceasefire hours later on Twitter.

It said the agreement also provided for the reopening of Mitiga airport, the capital's only functioning airport that has been closed since August 31 due to the clashes.

The agreement "today does not aim to fix all the Libyan capital's security problems; it seeks to agree on a broader framework on the way to start addressing these issues," it added.

The UN mission said among those who took part in the closed-door talks were military officers and leaders of various armed groups present in and around the capital.

Representatives of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) including the interior minister also attended the talks.

- 'Very fragile' ceasefire -

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.

The fighting has pitted armed groups from Tarhuna and Misrata against other militias from Tripoli supposed to be under the GNA's control.

The GNA, which has been unable to form a functioning army or regular security forces, has been forced to rely in such militias to keep Tripoli safe.

Libyans stand where a mortar shell landed in the capital Tripoli on August 30, 2018

Most of the militias formed the backbone of the uprising that toppled Kadhafi.

Since then rival administrations, including one based in the remote east, and the militias have competed for authority and oil wealth in the North African country.

Mohamed Eljarh, an analyst who heads the Libya Outlook consultancy based in Tobruk, said the ceasefire agreement was "very fragile".

"Simple and straightforward points (were) agreed by factions, but no framework is in place to guarantee (a) sustainable agreement yet," he wrote on Twitter.

Eljarh urged UNSMIL and the authorities to implement previously agreed security arrangements or to come up with a new one as part of a broader political and reconciliation process.

- Civilians trapped -

Concerns had been growing about the impact of the fighting on civilians.

The UN-backed government said Tuesday the violence had forced 1,825 families to flee to nearby towns or seek shelter elsewhere in Tripoli.

But many more remained trapped inside their homes and some refused to leave, fearing their property could be looted, said the ministry for displaced people's affairs.

These families had an urgent need for food and water, it said, adding rescuers who had tried to assist them have come under attack from unidentified assailants who also stole ambulances.

The UN refugee agency urged the factions to "spare civilians and... allow safe passage for those seeking refuge in safer areas.

"Recent shelling of civilian neighbourhoods has caused death, destruction and displacement and is of great concern," said UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley.

The UN rights office expressed concern about the impact on vulnerable people, including migrants.

"Some of the nearly 8,000 arbitrarily detained migrants are trapped in detention centres in areas where fighting has been taking place, without access to food or medical treatment," said spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssel.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, seen here with US leader Donald Trump at the White House in October 2017, faces hard choices in the final stretch of talks to revamp NAFTA

On the eve of the resumption of talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces a dilemma.

He can either push back against US demands and risk being cut out of a continental trade deal, or give in and be accused by opposition parties of capitulating to Donald Trump.

"Trump's NAFTA threat leaves Trudeau locked in high-stakes game of poker," the Toronto Star headlined over the weekend.

With 13 months before the next general election, Trudeau has some "wiggle room" in the negotiations, University of Ottawa professor Patrick Leblond told AFP.

The Americans and Mexicans are in a hurry to sign a deal before US midterm elections in November and the transfer of power to Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador the following month.

But for Canada there is no urgency, Leblond said.

"The real question is whether or not we will accept an agreement that is worse than the one we have now, and have to live with it for the next 20 or 30 years," he added.

The last main obstacle to a trilateral deal is a dispute resolution mechanism from the 1994 pact that Canada insists on keeping and the United States wants nixed.

"There's political consensus in Canada to keep the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism, and if the government goes back on its position it will be bad for Mr. Trudeau and his government," said Antonia Maioni, a political scientist at McGill University in Montreal.

"It's a big risk for Mr. Trudeau and for the country's economy," she told AFP.

- 'It's rhetoric' -

Trudeau suffered a major setback last week when a court blocked a project to build a pipeline to the Pacific that his administration has said was in the national interest.

His Liberal party remains ahead of the opposition Conservatives and New Democrats, according to the latest polling.

But his woes were compounded by uncertainty over NAFTA after the United States concluded separate negotiations with Mexico.

Canada rejoined the talks with the aim of reaching a three-way pact, but Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland abruptly ended the last round of talks on Friday with no deal, after derogatory remarks by Trump about Canada were leaked.

Trump boasted about taking a hard line with Canada at the negotiating table, and has since threatened to cut America's northern neighbor out of a deal if it didn't cave to his demands.

Talks are scheduled to resume on Wednesday.

"Yes, Mr. Trump is going to say the worst things possible about Canada -- even yesterday, he announced that the rest of the world is profiting from the United States -- but that's rhetoric and we should not be too worried about it," said Leblond.

"You have to be careful about what he says and what he's actually doing."

If Trump follows through and excludes Canada from NAFTA 2.0, it would raise concerns in Canada, whose economy is heavily reliant on trade with its neighbor.

Canada and the United States last year traded US$673 billion in goods and services or US$1.3 million per minute, according to US official data.

More than two-thirds of Canadian exports go to the United States, equivalent to 20 percent of its GDP, while Canada is the largest export market for the United States.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians were killed in renewed Russian air raids in Idlib province

With the United Nations warning of a potential "bloodbath" in Syria's Idlib province, the United States warned President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday it would respond "swiftly and appropriately" if he uses chemical weapons against his own people.

As Syrian troops massed near the northwestern region of nearly three million people, the last major rebel stronghold, renewed Russian airstrikes killed at least nine civilians, according to a violence monitor.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the UN Security Council would meet on Friday to discuss the precarious situation in the province.

Rebel-backer Turkey has held several rounds of talks with regime ally Russia aimed at averting an assault on Idlib, but Moscow dubbed the region a "pocket of terrorism."

The UN's Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura said Russia and Turkey held "the key for (a) soft solution to the Idlib issue" and urged them to help avert a humanitarian disaster.

De Mistura pointed to press reports indicating that Syria has set a September 10 deadline for finding a solution before it begins an all-out offensive on the province.

A Syrian man rides a motorcycle past a destroyed building in an area that was reportedly hit by an air strike in the district of Jisr al-Shughur in Idlib province

"Let's try to avoid that the last probably major battle of the Syrian territorial conflict... ends in a bloodbath," De Mistura told reporters in Geneva.

US President Donald Trump warned Assad on Monday not to "recklessly attack" Idlib and the White House strongly cautioned him Tuesday against using chemical weapons.

"Such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, warning the US and its allies "will respond swiftly and appropriately."

Haley's own warning focused more explicitly on the prospect of a chemical attack.

"If they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that, but they cannot do it with chemical weapons," she said.

- 'Pocket of terrorism' -

De Mistura urged Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to urgently speak on the phone even before they are set to meet with their Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Friday.

His appeal came after Russian warplanes resumed airstrikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the raids, while 10 people were wounded.

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.

Many of the residents are rebels and civilians who were bussed out of other areas as they came back under Syrian regime control.

Territorial control and statistics on the risk of a humanitarian crisis in Idlid

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month, and Russia has stepped up its rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."

Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

It accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponized drones and insists jihadists in the province must be eliminated.

- 'Appeal for sanity' -

De Mistura said there were an estimated 10,000 fighters with UN-designated terror groups currently in Idlib.

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still held by rebels, like these fighters

But he stressed that there are some 2.9 million civilians in the province, including around one million children, who "are not terrorists."

"There are many more babies than terrorists in Idlib," said Jan Egeland, head of the UN's humanitarian taskforce for Syria. "We appeal for sanity."

Amid a diplomatic frenzy to try to avoid a full-scale assault on Idlib, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told AFP Tuesday "it is important today that the path to negotiations be open and not that toward confrontation."

De Mistura, whose years of efforts to push forward a Syrian peace deal have achieved no breakthroughs, insisted that he would pursue his efforts to set up a committee to write a new Syrian constitution.

Fears are growing that Syria could launch a full-scale assault, which would be devastating for the nearly three million people living in the northwestern province

The UN envoy said he did not plan to postpone two rounds of consultations next week with high-level representatives of a range of countries with influence on different sides in the conflict.

"It is going to be a moment of truth," he said.

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.

burs-oh/iaWith the United States now holding the presidency of the Security Council, Ambassador Nikki Haley said the aim is to put further pressure on Tehran over its alleged violations of council resolutions

US President Donald Trump plans to lead a meeting of the heads of state of the United Nations Security Council on Iran in late September, his envoy Nikki Haley announced Tuesday.

With the United States now holding the presidency of the Security Council, Haley said the aim is to put further pressure on Tehran over its alleged violations of council resolutions.

"President Trump is very adamant that we have to start making sure that Iran is falling in line with international order," Haley told reporters.

"If you continue to look at the spread Iran has had in supporting terrorism, if you continue to look at the ballistic missile testing that they are doing, if you continue to look at the sales of weapons we see with the Huthis in Yemen -- these are all violations of security council resolutions.

"These are all threats to the region, and these are all things that the international community needs to talk about," she added.

Washington has sought to build up international pressure on Iran after reimposing tough, unilateral sanctions on August 7 and setting a November 5 deadline for halting Iran's oil exports.

Those moves came after the United States decided in May to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying it failed to put enough pressure on the Tehran regime to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program.

In reaction to the reimposition of sanctions, Iran demanded in The Hague that the top UN court suspend the unilateral US sanctions.

Europe has resisted joining the US sanctions move, but earlier this week Japanese media said Tokyo had agreed to suspend crude imports from Iran.

Haley denied the United States was seeking regime change in Iran, saying the US effort is aimed at supporting the desires of the "Iranian people."

"We are going to stand with the Iranian people. They have every right to be heard in their government and they have every right to change it," she said.

But Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy pushed back, emphasizing that any meeting on Iran should also discuss the consequences of the US withdrawal from the deal.

Beyond Iran, the US presidency of the Security Council for the month of September is likely to generate numerous controversies for the body's 14 other members.

Among these is Washington's decision to hold a meeting Wednesday on the bloody anti-government protests in Nicaragua, drawing criticism from Russia, Bolivia and China, which said the unrest there does not threaten international security and peace.MILWAUKEE (AP) - Milwaukee authorities say a 3-year-old girl who was abducted at gunpoint from her home on the city's north side was found safe about seven hours later.

Police say Phoenix "Mariah" Dickens was found unharmed about 9:45 a.m. Monday. No arrests have been made.

Authorities say the child was taken around 2:30 a.m. from her home by two men who fled in a red van and a dark-colored sedan with tinted windows. Police issued an Amber Alert.

The child's father, Mario Dickens, told WITI-TV that police did a "great job" in finding his daughter and the family was "excited to get to her."

Police have not provided a motive in the abduction.The Latest on Tropical Storm Gordon on Monday (all times local):

7:10 p.m.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Volleyball courts on Lummus Park Beach, South Beach are empty as a tropical storm warning was issued for the Miami Beach, Fla., area on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

Edwards announced at a news conference Monday evening that 200 National Guard troops will be deployed to southeastern Louisiana, where heavy rains and strong winds are anticipated Tuesday.

The storm's predicted track had shifted slightly east as of Monday evening, meaning Louisiana is currently just outside the area under the hurricane warning. Still, southeastern Louisiana is under a tropical storm warning and Edwards says residents need to be prepared for the storm to shift west.

Edwards says much of southeastern Louisiana could see 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rain and storm surges of 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters).

___

5:20 p.m.

A hurricane warning has been issued for portions of the central U.S. Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 5 p.m. EDT advisory that it expects Gordon to be a hurricane when it reaches coastal Mississippi and Louisiana sometime late Tuesday.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border.

The storm is centered about 50 miles (85 kilometers) west-southwest of Fort Myers, Florida, and moving west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph). After making landfall, it is expected to move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.

Officials say maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph (85 kph) with higher gusts.

___

4:35 p.m.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell says the city has "the pumps and the power" needed to protect residents from Tropical Storm Gordon.

However authorities issued a voluntary evacuation order for residents outside the levee protection system, including the Venetian Isles, Lake Saint Catherine and Irish Bayou areas.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm is expected to move away from the southwestern Florida coast and reach coastal Mississippi and Louisiana by late Tuesday.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Cantrell urged residents within the levee protection area to stock up on supplies and shelter in place.

New Orleans director of emergency preparedness Collin Arnold says the storm has the potential to turn into a "low-level hurricane" with potential winds of up to 70 mph (113 kph).

The Louisiana coastal town of Grand Isle has also issued a voluntary evacuation order.

___

4 p.m.

Tropical Storm Gordon has left many businesses on Florida's Gulf Coast feeling shortchanged by the holiday weekend.

The Naples Daily News reports that Naples beachfront stores were getting hardly any foot traffic Monday as the storm approached.

The southern Gulf Coast has already been heavily impacted by this summer's so-called "red tide," in which massive algae blooms have caused waves of dead marine life to wash up along the coast, driving people from the water.

At Lowdermilk Park, the beach was nearly empty despite there being no signs of red tide.

Beach Cafe manager Fred Macolino tells the newspaper that business over the holiday weekend had been "horrible."

The storm is expected to move away from the southwestern Florida coast and reach coastal Mississippi and Louisiana by late Tuesday.

___

2:20 p.m.

A hurricane watch remains in effects for portions of the central U.S. Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches.

NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune reports that drivers around the metro New Orleans area are lining up to put sand bags in their trunks. In St. Tammany Parish, a line of cars reached between 20 and 25 vehicles long at times.

The storm was lashing South Florida on Monday with high winds and heavy rains as it moved west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph).

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 2 p.m. EDT advisory that the storm is expected to move away from the southwestern Florida coast and reach coastal Mississippi and Louisiana by late Tuesday and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.

A hurricane watch is in effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border. A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible.

___

12:30 p.m.

Rain has drenched the Miami area as Tropical Storm Gordon moved into the Gulf of Mexico on Monday.

In a tweet, Miami Beach Police advised residents and visitors that the Labor Day holiday was "NOT a beach day," with rough surf and potential rip currents.

Police advised beach-goers to stay indoors.

In Tallahassee, city officials offered sandbags to help homeowners prepare for potential flooding.

Red flags flew over Pensacola-area beaches in Florida's Panhandle, where swimming and wading in the Gulf of Mexico was prohibited.

The National Weather Service said Naples, Marco Island, and Everglades City also could expect hazardous weather on Monday.

___

11 a.m.

A hurricane watch has been issued for portions of the central U.S. Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches.

The storm was lashing South Florida on Monday with high winds and heavy rains as it moved west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph). The storm was expected to reach coastal Mississippi and Louisiana by late Tuesday and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 11 a.m. EDT advisory that the storm was centered 60 miles (95 kilometers) west-northwest of Key Largo and 50 miles (80 kilometers) south-southeast of Marco Island.

A hurricane watch - meaning that hurricane conditions are possible - was put into effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border.

A storm surge warning has been issued from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to the Mississippi-Alabama border.

___

9:30 a.m.

Residents in parts of South Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana are being warned to prepare for tropical storm-force winds with the onset of Tropical Storm Gordon. Isolated tornadoes are possible.

The National Weather Service said Monday that Naples, Marco Island, and Everglades City in Florida were among the locations that could expect hazardous weather over the next 36 hours.

The storm is expected to cross from southwest Florida into the Gulf Coast later Monday afternoon.

Flooding was also a high risk for the areas affected by the storm, including portions of southeast Louisiana north of Interstate 10 and southwest Mississippi west of Interstate 55.

___

Weather forecasters have issued storm warnings for portions of South Florida and the Florida Keys.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Monday that Tropical Storm Gordon is likely to batter the region with heavy rains. A Storm Surge Watch is in effect for a portion of the Mississippi-Alabama border.

The center said in its 8:30 a.m. EDT advisory that the storm was centered 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Key Largo and 85 miles (135 kilometers) southeast of Marco Island.

The storm was moving west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph). Maximum sustained winds were clocked at 45 mph (75 kph).

A view of the lifeguard tower while local resident Mike Squillace looking for metal at Dania Beach, Fla., as Tropical Storm Gordon pass by South Florida with wind gust and heavy rainfall for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)

A man walks off the nearly abandoned Lummus Park Beach as a tropical storm warning was issued for the Miami Beach, Fla., area on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

I-95 Northbound is bumper to bumper traffic as the Labor Day weekend Home Show clogs up the freeway on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. Weather forecasters said the storm could strengthen to near-hurricane force by the time it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast. (C.M. Guerrero/Miami Herald via AP)China lifted 740 million people in rural areas out of poverty from 1978 to 2017, roughly 19 million each year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

The poverty ratio in rural areas dropped 94.4 percentage points during the same time period with an average annual decrease of 2.4 percentage points, according to the NBS.

NBS data shows that China's poverty relief achievements have contributed more than 70 percent to global poverty alleviation work in the past 40 years.

The average annual income of rural residents in impoverished areas rose an average of 10.4 percent each year from 2012 to 2017, up 2.5 percentage points from the average for rural residents.

Over the past five years, over 68 million people were lifted out of poverty in China. The country aims to further lift 10 million people out of poverty this year and eradicate poverty by 2020.

China recently released guidelines on winning the battle against poverty in the next three years in order to prepare the nation for eradicating poverty by 2020.

According to the guidelines, the impoverished people should be guaranteed food and clothing, and children from poor families should be guaranteed a nine-year compulsory education. Basic medical needs and living conditions of the impoverished should also be guaranteed.

People whose annual income is lower than 2,300 yuan (337.3 US dollars) are defined as living below the poverty line in China.PHOENIX (AP) - The father of a pregnant woman who was killed in Phoenix and whose two young sons are missing said her partner had a history of domestic violence involving her.

Television stations KTVK-KPHO reported Sunday night that Joaquin Nunez-Calderon said during a telephone interview from Mexico that 47-year-old Dimas Coronado slapped and hit Oralia Nunez.

U.S. and Mexican authorities are seeking Coronado on a three-count homicide warrant in the shooting deaths Saturday of Nunez, her fetus and a housemate.

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)

An Amber Alert has been issued for the two young sons of Nunez and Coronado.

Police have said Nunez was at least seven months pregnant and the couple had a history of domestic issues. They were married but had been estranged for two months.

"Violent. He's always been violent. Never did I like him as my daughter's partner because from the very beginning I knew he treated her bad," Nunez-Calderon said.

He said he hopes the two boys are returned safely and then he would like justice.

He said his daughter never talked about what sparked the violence.

"There were times he hit her and slapped her," Nunez-Calderon said.

Police said Coronado should be considered armed and dangerous.

He is believed to be driving an aqua-colored Ford pickup with a white camper shell and a Mexico license plate.MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday and is expected to strengthen into a hurricane when it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast.

Gordon formed into a tropical storm near the Florida Keys early Monday as it moved west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph). The storm is expected to reach hurricane strength when it hits the Gulf Coast, including coastal Mississippi, by late Tuesday. From there, it is forecast to move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.

The National Hurricane Center said at 11 p.m. EDT that the storm was centered 330 miles (530 kilometers) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Maximum sustained winds were clocked at 60 mph (95 kph).

Local resident Mike Squillace looking for metal at Dania Beach, Fla., as Tropical Storm Gordon pass by South Florida with wind gust and heavy rainfall for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)

A hurricane warning was put into effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border. As much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday.

The Miami-based center said the storm is also expected to bring "life-threatening" storm surge to portions of the central Gulf Coast. A storm surge warning has been issued for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama. The warning means there is danger of life-threatening inundation. The region could see rising waters of 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters).

"The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves," the center said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Monday and said 200 National Guard troops will be deployed to southeastern Louisiana.

The storm's predicted track had shifted slightly east as of Monday evening, meaning Louisiana is currently just outside the area under the hurricane warning. Still, the southeastern part of the state remains under a tropical storm warning and residents need to be prepared for the storm to shift west, Edwards said.

"This storm has every possibility to track further in our direction," Edwards said during a news conference Monday evening.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell held an afternoon news conference and said the city has "the pumps and the power" needed to protect residents. But authorities issued a voluntary evacuation order for areas outside the city's levee protection system, including the Venetian Isles, Lake Saint Catherine and Irish Bayou areas.

Cantrell urged residents within the levee protection area to stock up on supplies and shelter in place.

Miami Beach Police said via Twitter that the Labor Day holiday was "NOT a beach day," with rough surf and potential rip currents. Red flags flew over Pensacola-area beaches in Florida's Panhandle, where swimming and wading in the Gulf of Mexico was prohibited. More than 4,000 Florida Power & Light customers lost power Monday due to weather conditions.

The National Weather Service said conditions were "possible" for tornadoes in the affected parts of South Florida on Monday night.

The storm left many businesses on Florida's Gulf Coast feeling shortchanged by the holiday weekend. The area has already been heavily impacted by this summer's so-called "red tide"- massive algae blooms that have caused waves of dead marine life to wash up along the coast.

Jenna Wright, owner of a coffee shop in Naples, Florida, told the Naples Daily News that she had expected higher numbers for the Labor Day weekend.

"This is normally a decent weekend, but the storm and red tide aren't helping," Wright said. "We're a beach coffee shop, and if people can't go to the beach, then we won't get any customers."

Separately, Tropical Storm Florence continues to hold steady over the eastern Atlantic. Forecasters say little change in strength is expected in coming days and no coastal watches or warnings are in effect.

___

Associated Press writer Ben Nadler in Atlanta contributed to this report.

A view of the lifeguard tower while local resident Mike Squillace looking for metal at Dania Beach, Fla., as Tropical Storm Gordon pass by South Florida with wind gust and heavy rainfall for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)

In this image released by NOAA's GOES-16 on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018, Tropical Storm Gordon appears south of Florida. The storm is expected to cross from southwest Florida into the Gulf Coast later Monday afternoon. (NOAA via AP)

I-95 Northbound is bumper to bumper traffic as the Labor Day weekend Home Show clogs up the freeway on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. Weather forecasters said the storm could strengthen to near-hurricane force by the time it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast. (C.M. Guerrero/Miami Herald via AP)

Rain fall upon the Miami skyline this Labor Day weekend on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. Weather forecasters said the storm could strengthen to near-hurricane force by the time it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast. (C.M. Guerrero/Miami Herald via AP)

South Beach tourists from Hungary brave the rain as a tropical storm warning was issued for coastal Miami-Dade, Fla., Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Weather forecasters said the storm could strengthen to near-hurricane force by the time it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

Volleyball courts on Lummus Park Beach, South Beach are empty as a tropical storm warning was issued for the Miami Beach, Fla., area on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

A South Beach tourist from Hungary braves the bad weather as she strolls down the empty sidewalks of Ocean Drive as a tropical storm warning was issued for coastal Miami-Dade, Fla., Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

CORRECTS TO SEPT. 3 FROM SEPT. 2- South Beach tourists brave the rain as a tropical storm warning was issued for the Miami Beach, Fla., area on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

A man walks off the nearly abandoned Lummus Park Beach as a tropical storm warning was issued for the Miami Beach, Fla., area on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon lashed South Florida with heavy rains and high winds on Monday, forcing holiday beachgoers to drier ground. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

Two woman covered from the rain with umbrellas as they walk in Miami as Tropical Storm Gordon pass by South Florida with wind gust and heavy rainfall for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)

Dania Beach, Fla., Ocean Rescue Alice Henley and Dillon Wise secure their surfboard as Tropical Storm Gordon pass by South Florida with wind gust and heavy rainfall for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)

A view of the waves at the Dania Beach, Fla., Pier as Tropical Storm Gordon pass by South Florida with wind gust and heavy rainfall for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)

Dania Beach, Fla., Ocean Rescue Alice Henley and Dillon Wise secure their surfboard as Tropical Storm Gordon pass by South Florida with wind gust and heavy rainfall for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine navy extricated one of its largest warships from the shoal where it ran aground last week near a hotly disputed region in the South China Sea.

Two Philippine security officials told The Associated Press early Tuesday that tugboats were used to pull the BRP Gregorio del Pilar from the shallow fringes of Half Moon Shoal, which the Philippines calls Hasa Hasa, before midnight. The military later confirmed the successful extrication.

The frigate, which was being towed back to a Philippine port, ran aground during a routine patrol Wednesday night, damaging some of its propellers. Its more than 100 crewmen were unhurt.

FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2018, file photo provided by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine Navy ship BRP Gregorio del Pilar is seen after it ran aground during a routine patrol in the vicinity of Half Moon Shoal, which is called Hasa Hasa in the Philippines, off the disputed Spratlys Group of islands in the South China Sea. Two Philippine security officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, that tugboats were used to pull the BRP Gregorio del Pilar from the shallow fringes of Half Moon Shoal before midnight. The frigate ran aground during a routine patrol Wednesday night, damaging some of its propellers. It's more than 100 crewmen were unhurt. (Armed Forces of the Philippines via AP, File)

The barren shoal is on the eastern edge of the disputed Spratly archipelago, where tensions have run high in recent years after China built seven disputed reefs into man-made islands and reportedly installed missile defense systems.

Philippine defense officials notified their Chinese counterparts after the accidental grounding of the Philippine Navy frigate at the shoal, which Beijing claims, to avoid any misunderstanding, said the two Philippine officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said last week that China offered to help but that the Philippines would handle it.

A Chinese frigate ran aground on the shoal in 2012 and was pulled away by Chinese military ships.

Half Moon Shoal lies about 110 kilometers (68 miles) from the southern tip of the western Philippine island of Palawan and south of the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, where a Philippine navy transport ship was intentionally grounded in 1999 and has since served as a Philippine military outpost.

China has repeatedly demanded the now-rusty BRP Sierra Madre be removed from Second Thomas Shoal, which is claimed by the Philippines and China.

A military report seen by the AP said the propellers of the BRP Gregorio del Pilar were damaged by the grounding. The crew reported, however, that the frigate was not taking in water.

At least four Philippine Navy and Coast Guard ships were deployed to secure the BRP Gregorio del Pilar and provide food and other supplies to its sailors. Tugboats were hired to extricate the ship and tow it to a Philippine port for repairs, military spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo said.

The frigate is one of three former U.S. Coast Guard cutters acquired by the Philippine military and now are the Philippines' largest warships.

The United States and Asian governments which have claims in the disputed sea, including the Philippines, have raised alarms over China's island building and militarization of the strategic territory.

The Philippines has been one of the most vocal critics of China's assertive moves in the disputed waters. In 2016, it largely won a complaint it lodged before an international tribunal, which invalidated Beijing's sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, however, took steps to revive once-frosty ties with China after he took office in 2016 as he sought infrastructure funding and more trade and investment from Beijing.MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican and international human rights groups on Monday told the families of 43 students missing since 2014 that they are not alone, just days after President Enrique Pena Nieto reaffirmed his belief in the government's initial widely discredited investigation into the case.

Pena Nieto released a video last week in which he conceded that he would not be leaving a peaceful and safe country when his term ends later this year. But he said he remained convinced that the students from the teachers college in the southern state of Guerrero were killed by a drug gang and incinerated in a massive fire.

His assertion came nearly four years after the Sept. 26, 2014 incident in the town of Iguala. Since then, multiple reports by international investigators have criticized and discredited parts of the government's original investigation.

FIE - In this Oct. 22, 2014 file photo, peopole protest the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico City. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has again on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018, defended the widely criticized original investigation of the disappearance of the 43 students, but concedes that his administration has failed to bring the country peace. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

Jan Jarab, representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico, alluded to Pena Nieto's comments Monday.

"There are signs that the authorities appear to be going back to the previous version," Jarab said. He called it "worrisome" because independent experts had discredited key parts of it.

"The case of the Ayotzinapa 43 has not eclipsed the other cases of disappearances in Mexico as it could have four years ago," Jarab said. "Rather it has highlighted the tragedy of disappearances that is lived in so many parts of the country and the lack of an adequate response by the state."

Jarab called on incoming President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to use the critical outside investigations as a starting point to pick up the work of finding out what happened to the students and identifying those responsible.

In June, a federal court ordered the government to create a truth commission to reinvestigate the case. Among the problems was the widespread use of torture to extract confessions, a problem highlighted by a U.N. report earlier this year and affirmed by the court. The government is appealing the court's decision.

Jarab joined the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights monitoring team, which presented its own report to the families, and Mexico's National Human Rights Commission at the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa near Tixtla, Guerrero on Monday.

Their rejection of Pena Nieto's recent comments came the same day the outgoing president gave his final state of the union speech in Mexico City. Lopez Obrador will take office Dec. 1.

Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez, the head of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, said it continues working on its own report. He said the series of human rights violations they would identify in their report would be "exhaustive."MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican authorities say four police officers have been killed in the western state of Jalisco.

The Guadalajara police say that four of their own - a police commissioner and his three bodyguards - were killed early Monday when the commissioner was leaving his home in the municipality of Tonala for work.

The police via Twitter said the officers managed to wound some of the attackers, but they escaped. They say the attack was in response to arrests of organized crime members in recent weeks.

The state is home to the Jalisco New Generation cartel.DEBLOIS, Maine (AP) - In the era of superfoods, Maine blueberries aren't so super.

The Maine wild blueberry industry harvests one of the most beloved fruit crops in New England, but it's locked in a downward skid in a time when other nutrition-packed foods, from acai to quinoa, dominate the conversation about how to eat. And questions linger about when, and if, the berry will be able to make a comeback.

The little blueberries are touted by health food bloggers and natural food stores because of their hefty dose of antioxidants. They're also deeply ingrained in the culture of New England, and they were the inspiration for the beloved 1948 children's book "Blueberries for Sal." But the industry that picks and sells them is dealing with a long-term price drop, drought, freezes, diseases and foreign competition, and farmers are looking at a second consecutive year of reduced crop size.

In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, photo, a worker pours wild blueberries into a tray at a farm in Union, Maine. The state's wild blueberry industry harvests one of the most beloved fruit crops in New England, but it's locked in a downward skid in a time when other nutrition-packed foods, from acai to quinoa, dominate the conversation about how to eat. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

At Beech Hill Blueberry Farm in Rockport, this year's harvest was off by about 50 percent, said Ian Stewart, who runs the land trust that manages the farm.

"Our year was a little underwhelming. There was a lot of drought. There was a freeze at a bad time," Stewart said. "We're hoping it's a blip. We'll see."

North America's wild blueberry industry exists only in Maine and Atlantic Canada, and an oversupply of berries in both places caused prices to harvesters to plummet around 2015. Recent years have brought new challenges, such as particularly bad spells of mummy berry disease, a fungal pathogen, and difficulty in opening up new markets.

The blueberries grow wild, as the name indicates, in fields called "blueberry barrens" that stretch to the horizon in Maine's rural Down East region. While the plumper cultivated blueberries harvested in states like New Jersey are planted and grown as crops, harvesters of wild blueberries tend to a naturally occurring fruit and pick it by hand and with machinery.

Woes in the industry have caused some growers to scale back operations in Maine. Harvesters collected a little less than 68 million pounds of wild blueberries in the state in 2017, which was the lowest total since 2005 and more than 33 million pounds less than 2016. Last year's price of 26 cents per pound to farmers was also the lowest since 1985, and was more in line with the kind of prices farmers saw in the early 1970s than in the modern era.

This year's harvest was mostly wrapped by late August, a little earlier than usual, and members of the industry said they believe it was another year of lower harvest. Exact totals aren't available yet, but signs point to a crop that's "similar to last year, or even smaller," said Nancy McBrady, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine.

The industry has tried to focus on growing the appeal of the health aspects of wild blueberries, which are richer in antioxidants than their cultivated cousins, but it has been a slow climb, McBrady said.

"For years, the health message and the taste message of wild blueberries has been successful," she said. "But it's frustrating when we find ourselves in periods of oversupply and competition."

Nearly 100 percent of the wild crop is frozen, and the berries are used in frozen and processed foods. Prices to consumers at farm stands and grocery stores have held about steady in the face of falling prices to harvesters.

The same berries are harvested in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, and the weakness of the Canadian dollar has also hurt the U.S. industry because Canadian berries sell for less. Some companies operate on both sides of the border, and an equal exchange rate is better for business.

Such financial stress played a role in growers harvesting 5,000 fewer acres in the U.S. last year, said David Yarborough, a horticulture professor at the University of Maine. He said he expects a similar drop this year.

Other factors, such as poor pollination last year, have also held the crop back, Yarborough said. He stopped short of describing the industry as in full-blown crisis, but he said some smaller growers are in crisis mode.

The industry at large is hoping it doesn't suffer too many more down years, said Homer Woodward, vice president of operations for Jasper Wyman & Son, a major industry player.

"I think the state of Maine is going to pick less pounds than last year. That's the product of economic downturn," said Woodward said. "And mother nature was cruel to us this year.

"

In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, photo, Sam Bentzinger, left, and Jake Bentzinger unload freshly picked wild blueberries at the Coastal Blueberry Service in Union, Maine. Selling nature's "super fruit" should be an easy sell for growers. But an oversupply has sent prices plummeting to the lowest point in 30 years, putting the industry on the ropes. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, photo, a tray of wild blueberries is unloaded at the Coastal Blueberry Service in Union, Maine. The Maine wild blueberry industry harvests one of the most beloved fruit crops in New England, but it's locked in a downward skid in a time when other nutrition-packed foods, from acai to quinoa, dominate the conversation about how to eat. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, photo, Ken Cox carries trays of wild blueberries to a tractor at a farm in Union, Maine. The blueberries grow wild, as the name implies, in fields called "blueberry barrens" that stretch to the horizon in Maine's rural Down East region and parts of the midcoast area. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, photo, a worker arrives to pick wild blueberries at a farm in Union, Maine. The industry has tried to focus on growing the appeal of the health aspects of wild blueberries, which are richer in antioxidants than their plumper cultivated cousins, but it has been slow going so far. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

In this Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, photo, a worker rakes wild blueberries at a farm in Union, Maine. Blueberries are touted by health food bloggers and natural food stores because of their hefty dose of antioxidants and ability to be used in smoothies and juices. But the industry that picks and sells them is dealing with a long-term price drop, drought, freezes, diseases and foreign competition, and farmers are looking at a second consecutive year of reduced crop size. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was 23 years old when she was tortured and fled her country's dictatorship into exile. Now, more than four decades later, she will face her past fighting such abuses worldwide as the new U.N. human rights chief.

Bachelet, 66, is often seen smiling, chatting easily or tossing unplanned comments or jokes into her speeches. But behind her good humor lie haunting memories of the brutal dictatorship that tore her family apart.

Her father, air force Gen. Alberto Bachelet, died in 1974 following months of torture in prison. Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military had convicted him of being a traitor for opposing the 1973 military coup that ousted President Salvador Allende.

FILE - In this July 20, 2017, file photo, Chile's then President Michelle Bachelet looks on during a visit to Memory Park which honors the victims of the country's dictatorship, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bachelet was 23 years old when she was tortured and fled her country's dictatorship into exile. Now in 2018, more than four decades later, she will have to face her painful past as the new U.N. human rights chief fighting such abuses worldwide. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)

Bachelet herself was arrested along with her mother in 1975. She was a young member of the Socialist Party, and her time in a secret prison was an ordeal that she prefers not to talk about, saying only in her autobiography that she suffered "physical hardships."

Using the family's political connections, she went into exile in Australia and the former East Germany. There she reunited with her then-partner, Jaime Lopez.

At age 25, Lopez became one of the leaders of the Socialist Party that had seen many of its members tortured, killed or forcibly disappeared by Chile's military dictatorship. He returned to Chile, but only briefly because he feared he would be captured by Pinochet's agents.

Back in Europe, Bachelet reminded him of the importance of committing to the cause and her father's sacrifice, according to "Bachelet. The Unofficial Story," by Javier Ortega and Andrea Insunza.

"My dad died because he was consistent. I expect nothing less from you," the book says Bachelet told her then-boyfriend.

When he followed her advice, Lopez was captured in Chile. Under torture, he gave Pinochet's secret police information on other members of the Socialist Party, before he became one of the about 1,000 people who were forcibly disappeared during the dictatorship.

Her father's death and her boyfriend's disappearance marked Bachelet's character. Despite this, she never held grudges - not even against the Chilean military, said Giorgio Agostini, a sociologist who has long-known Bachelet and has written about her life.

Bachelet returned to Chile in 1979 when she felt she could do so safely. She studied medicine, specializing in pediatrics, and began working at an organization that helped children with mental health problems whose parents had been victims of the 1973-90 dictatorship.

Bachelet rose through the ranks of the Socialist Party and became a key player in the center-left coalition that dominated Chile's government for almost 20 years after Pinochet lost power.

Putting her traumatic past behind, she helped the discredited military regain its status in the wake of Pinochet's dictatorship.

One of her emblematic moments came when she was named Latin America's first woman defense minister during the government of President Ricardo Lagos. She continued to break boundaries when she became Chile's first women president in 2006.

After her term, she was named the first head of U.N. Women, the world body's new women's agency. She left the post to return to Chile and won the presidency again, serving from 2014-18.

Bachelet is known as a caring single mother, a hard worker and an astute negotiator.

In her new post as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, she replaces Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, a diplomat and member of Jordan's royal family.

Diplomats from the U.N.'s 193-member states burst into applause in July when the General Assembly president gave official approval to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' selection of Bachelet.

But in Chile, some human rights groups criticize her record, saying that as president she failed to close a special prison for dictatorship-era criminals that provided them with comforts they wouldn't enjoy in regular confinement.

Guterres has said that Bachelet is taking office "at a time of grave consequence for human rights."

"Hatred and inequality are on the rise," he said. "Respect for international humanitarian and human rights law is on the decline. Space for civil society is shrinking. Press freedoms are under pressure."

On Monday, Bachelet's third day in her new job, a Myanmar court sentenced two journalists from Reuters news agency to seven years in prison on charges of illegal possession of official documents.

The ruling was met with international condemnation that will add to outrage over the military's human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims.

"On several issues related to different parts of the world," Bachelet told reporters in Geneva on Monday, "I need to gather more information and make a deep analysis. But I have to mention how shocked I am after finding out about their seven-year prison sentences."

She called on the Myanmar government to release the journalists and said that their trial breached international standards.

Bachelet will face many other challenges, chief among them, how to get dictators, autocrats, tyrants and demagogues to respect human rights.

She also comes to the job soon after President Donald Trump's national security adviser told the Associated Press that the United States will cut funding for the U.N. human rights chief's office.

Bachelet also faces a decision on how outspoken she will be on what she sees as human rights violations. Zeid told U.N. reporters last month that "silence does not earn you any respect - none."

Zeid said he will give his successor the same advice his predecessor, Navi Pillay, gave him - "be fair and don't discriminate against any country" and "just come out swinging."

Globally, Bachelet will also have to tackle the persecution of religious minorities and homosexuals in Africa and the Middle East, and the use of banned weapons on civilian populations.

In Latin America, she will face an economic and governance crisis that has forced more than two million Venezuelans to flee their country, as we well as violence under an official crackdown in Nicaragua.

"Those who defend human rights and the victims look up to the High Commissioner and hope that we are there to defend and support them," Bachelet said Monday. "And I'll do everything on my side to make sure that we do so."

Her deep resume will work in her favor, said Heraldo Munoz, who served as her foreign minister.

"She knows presidents and prime ministers who will pick up the phone (when she calls them)," Munoz said. "That can be a very important mechanism to try to resolve human rights problems through dialogue."

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Associated Press writers Edith Lederer in the United Nations, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2017 file photo, then President of Chile Michelle Bachelet speaks during the United Nations General Assembly, at the United Nations headquarters. Bachelet was 23 years old when she was tortured and fled her country's dictatorship into exile. Now in 2018, more than four decades later, she will have to face her painful past as the new U.N. human rights chief fighting such abuses worldwide. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Firefighters found bone fragments from a collection in the still-smoldering National Museum, an official said Tuesday, raising hopes that a famed skull might somehow have survived a massive blaze that turned historic and scientific artifacts to ashes.

Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. Aerial photos of the main building showed only heaps of rubble and ashes in the parts of the building where the roof collapsed.

The firefighters "found fragments of bones in a room where the museum kept many items, including skulls," said Cristiana Serejo, the museum's vice director. "We still have to collect them and take them to the lab to know exactly what they are."

The National Museum, seen from above, stands gutted after an overnight fire in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. A huge fire engulfed Brazil's 200-year-old museum, lighting up the night sky with towering flames as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics from the blaze. (AP Photo/Mario Lobao)

In its collection of about 20 million items, one of the most prized possessions is a skull called Luzia, which is among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas.

Museum spokesman Marcio Martins noted that the collection contains hundreds of skulls, and all material would first need to be examined by the Federal Police, who are investigating the still-unknown cause of the fire. Experts will then examine them to determine their identity.

Some objects were rescued from the flames on Sunday night by a professor who rushed into the blaze. Paulo Buckup, a professor of zoology at the museum, recounted Tuesday how he and a few other people pulled out mollusks and marine specimens, going into and out of the building several times until it became too dangerous. He said the group tried to identify in the dark the most irreplaceable objects, but said they only saved a "minuscule portion of the heritage that was lost."

Many have already said that regardless of what is salvaged, the loss will be immeasurable. Marina Silva, a candidate for president in upcoming elections, called it a "lobotomy of Brazilian history."

The Globo newspaper wrote in an editorial published Tuesday: "The size of the catastrophe is vast: It struck the national memory, through the loss of the important historical collection; it affected the sciences, interrupting research; and it represents a cultural loss impossible to quantify. We only know that it is enormous."

The disaster has led to a series of recriminations about who was to blamed, and it has raised concerns that other institutions might be at risk. The national development bank announced Tuesday that it would make $6 million available for museums looking to upgrade their security or fire-prevention plans.

Investigators were first allowed to enter the main building Monday, but it is still off-limits to researchers. Instead, some scientists were focusing attention on an annex on the site, where vertebrate specimens were housed. The fire didn't reach the area, but it caused the electricity to fail, threatening some artifacts, said Marcelo Wexler, a researcher in the vertebrate department.

"We have animals that need to be frozen, and they were rotting without electricity," Wexler said.

In a sign of the enormity of the task ahead, a man created a stir when he arrived on the scene carrying a document he said belonged to the institution that he had found across the street. A group of journalists crowded in to see the piece of paper, which was burned at the edges and contained printed text and was in a clear plastic folder. It was not clear what it was or if it was authentic.

"I came here to give it back. I am sure there is much more that flew around," said Felipe Silva, who said he was a guard at the museum.

Even as efforts turned to searching the rubble, firefighters were still occasionally directing water at the building, where some embers were still burning. Eduardo Rosse, a fire official, said that was normal for a blaze of this size.

Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, a museum official, said Monday that anything held in the main building was probably destroyed, and Serejo told the G1 news portal that 90 percent of the collection may have been destroyed.

But on Tuesday, she held out some hope, telling journalists that staff members were "reasonably optimistic about finding some more items inside."

She added that UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, had offered financial and technical assistance. French and Egyptian officials also have offered help. The museum was home to Egyptian artifacts, and Egypt's ministries of foreign affairs and antiquities have expressed concern over the fate of those objects.

With the cause still under investigation, many already have begun to fix blame, saying years of government neglect left the museum underfunded and unsafe.

Roberto Leher, rector of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, to which the museum was linked, said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repair. In fact, two years ago, federal prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro began investigating safety conditions in the building.

The institution had recently secured approval for nearly $5 million for a planned renovation, including an upgrade of the fire-prevention system, but the money had not yet been disbursed.

On Monday, government officials promised $2.4 million to shore up the building and promised to rebuild the museum.

___

Associated Press writers Sarah DiLorenzo in Sao Paulo and Hamza Hendawi in Cairo contributed to this report.

___

National Museum website: http://www.museunacional.ufrj.br/

This combination of two undated handout photos provided by Brazil's National Museum shows the skull of Luzia Woman, left, and a reconstruction of Luzia, right, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Discovered during an excavation in 1975 outside of the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, Luzia's fossilized remains sat in storage for two decades. In the mid-1990s, tests by scientists determined it was the oldest fossil in the Americas. It was given the name "Luzia," homage to "Lucy," the famous 3.2-million-year-old remains found in Africa. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)

Museum security guard Felipe Farias Silva shows the page of a book he found across the street from Brazil's National Museum, which he believes belongs to the institution in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Firefighters spray water on the facade of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Forensic investigators and researchers awaited for access into the museum's interior, gutted in a fire, to find out how the blaze began and what remains of the 20 million artifacts that made the museum one of the most important in Latin America. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Federal police prepare to enter the Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Forensic investigators and researchers awaited access to the museum, gutted in a fire on Sunday, to find out how the blaze began and what remains of the 20 million artifacts that made the museum one of the most important in Latin America. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Firefighters spray water on the facade of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Forensic investigators and researchers awaited for access into the museum's interior, gutted in a fire, to find out how the blaze began and what remains of the 20 million artifacts that made the museum one of the most important in Latin America. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Firefighters stand in front of the National Museum after an overnight fire in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Firefighters dug through the burned-out hulk of Brazil's National Museum on Monday, a day after fire gutted the building, as the country mourned the irreplaceable treasures lost and pointed fingers over who was to blame. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Museum security guard Felipe Farias Silva shows the page of a book he found across the street from Brazil's National Museum, that suffered a fire, which he believes belongs to the institution in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Federal police investigate the cause of the fire at Brazil's National Museum that tore through the structure in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Museum spokesman Marcio Martins said the museum's collection would first need to be examined by the federal police, who are investigating the still-unknown cause of the fire, and experts would then examine items to determine their identity. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

In this undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum a meteorite called Bendego sits at the entrance of the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Weighing more than five tons, the meteorite is the largest ever found in Brazil. It was found in the state of Bahia in the 18th century. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)

This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows the Egyptian wooden coffin of Sha-Amun-em-su, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Among the Egyptian relics is the mummy of Sha-Amun-In-Su, dating back to 750 B.C. It was given to Dom Pedro II by Egyptian Viceroy Ismail Pasha during a visit to the Middle East. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)

This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a Mesoamerican mortar at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The piece was found by workers at Ilha de Sao Joao, Rio Trombetas, in the service of engineer Joao Henrique Diniz and delivered to the Rondon Commission, who offered it to the National Museum in 1929.(Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)

This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a mummified individual at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, who was found in a cave in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais in the nineteenth century. Natural preservation is rare because of the tropical climate and acid soil, which accelerate the decomposition of the body. This discovery was donated to Emperor Dom Pedro II by the coffee grower Maria Jose de Santana, owner of the farm where the cave was located. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)

This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a skeletal replica of a dinosaur called Maxakalisaurus tapai, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. It is one of the museum's most popular displays. Found in Minas Gerais in 1998, the excavation and reconstruction of the dinosaur took 10 years. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)

Museum security guard Felipe Farias Silva shows the page of a book he found across the street from Brazil's National Museum, which he believes belongs to the institution in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

A girl stands in front the statue of Pedro II, in front of the Brazil's National Museum, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Forensic investigators and researchers awaited access Tuesday to the museum, gutted in a fire, to find out how the blaze began and what remains of the 20 million artifacts that made the museum one of the most important in Latin America. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Museum security guard Felipe Farias Silva shows the page of a book he found across the street from Brazil's National Museum, that suffered a fire, which he believes belongs to the institution in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a nocturnal bird known as the giant potoo, at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. These birds choose a trunk that resembles their body and spend the whole day absolutely still so that they go unnoticed by the daytime predators. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)

This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a Para ceramic piece of a sitting man circa 1,000 a 1,400 A.D., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)

This undated handout photo provided by Brazil's National Museum shows a tripod glass vase originating from Pompeii, circa 1 A.D., at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Flames tore through the museum Sunday night, Sept. 2, 2018, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of treasures might be lost. (Museu Nacional Brasil via AP)ISLAMABAD (AP) - The death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of Afghanistan's outlawed militant network that bears his name, is unlikely to weaken the group that is considered the most formidable of the Taliban's fighting forces.

The Taliban said Haqqani died Monday at age 71 after reports of years of ill health, including Parkinson's disease. Because of his infirmity, stewardship of the organization had been given to one of his 12 sons, Sirajuddin, whose military prowess is credited with plotting and carrying out some of more audacious attacks assigned to the network.

The younger Haqqani is also deputy head of the Taliban, who have waged increasingly sophisticated and coordinated attacks against Afghanistan's struggling security forces. Washington's own watchdog in a recent report said nearly half of Afghanistan is either under the control of the Taliban or influenced by the religious militia.

FILE- In this Aug. 22, 1998, file photo, Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the militant group the Haqqani network, speaks during an interview in Miram Shah, Pakistan. Taliban say the Afghan Haqqani network founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani, an ex- U.S. ally turned fierce enemy, has died. (AP Photo/Mohammed Riaz, File)

Jalaluddin Haqqani, once hailed as a freedom fighter by U.S. President Ronald Reagan for opposing the Soviet Union's presence in Afghanistan during the Cold War, had been paralyzed for the past 10 years, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Reports of his death were widespread in 2015, and he had not been heard from in several years.

In announcing his death, Mujahed called Haqqani a religious scholar and exemplary warrior. The United States declared the Haqqani network a terrorist organization in 2012, and it has been one of the fiercest opponents for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The elder Haqqani's death is not expected to affect the network's military might or strategy.

One of the most resilient of Afghanistan's insurgents, Haqqani joined the Taliban when they overran Kabul in September 1996, expelling feuding fighters whose battles left the capital in ruins.

Haqqani was among the Afghan mujahedeen, or holy warriors, that the United States backed to fight the former Soviet Union's invading army that entered Afghanistan in 1979 to prop up a pro-Moscow communist government. Haqqani was praised by the late U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson as "goodness personified." After 10 years in Afghanistan, Moscow negotiated an exit from the country in an agreement that eventually led to the collapse of Kabul's government and a takeover by the mujahedeen.

Declassified U.S. cables called Haqqani a "moderate socialist" who did not embrace the Taliban's strict rules that denied education to girls. "Haqqani functions more in the military area, and is not a force in setting Taliban political or social issues," the cables read.

Born in 1947 into the powerful Zardran tribe that dominates southeastern Afghanistan's Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces, Haqqani was a close friend of Osama bin Laden, who often took refuge in his camps outside Khost.

Haqqani's association with Pakistan dates back to his early years, when he studied a conservative form of Islam at the Darulaman Haqqania madrassa, or religious school, in northwestern Pakistan. The school's top cleric, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, once said in an AP interview that Haqqani was a serious student.

Haqqani's rigid interpretation of Islam launched him on the road to insurgency in the early 1970s when he returned to Afghanistan to open a madrassa and organized a movement against Afghanistan's monarch, King Zahir Shah, according to unclassified U.S. documents that tracked Haqqani's militant career.

Forced to leave Afghanistan because of his agitation against the monarchy, which was eventually overthrown, Haqqani set up a madrassa in Miran Shah, in Pakistan's North Waziristan.

During the 1980s, Haqqani's military prowess in Afghanistan brought him attention from the United States and Pakistan. He received both money and weapons from the U.S.

While the Soviet Union poured in men and money, weapons were sent to Pakistan by the U.S. and several Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Suitcases full of cash were delivered to the mujahedeen through Pakistan,

Fighters from the Muslim world were recruited to fight the Soviets, and bin Laden was among the first to sign up. Many of the Arab fighters were drawn toward Haqqani because he was an Arabic speaker and a ferocious warrior. Those who remain in Afghanistan, including the new head of al-Qaida, Ayman al Zawahri, are believed to be protected by the Haqqani network, and they are believed to help fund it.

Haqqani developed close ties with Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, as well as Pakistani militant groups, many of whom were being groomed by the ISI to fight neighbor India in the disputed Kashmir region.

After the Russians left and Afghanistan's communist government fell, Haqqani served briefly as justice minister. He soon abandoned the mujahedeen government, frustrated by relentless infighting, and returned to Khost where he maintained close contact with militants, including bin Laden.

After taking power in September 1996, the Taliban embraced Haqqani for his military skills, according to a declassified 1998 cable from the U.S. Embassy. That cable also said Haqqani "is close buddies with many Arab and Pakistani Islamists."

In August 1998, U.S. cruise missiles targeted Haqqani's base in a failed attempt to kill bin Laden. Several Pakistani militants affiliated with the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen group were killed in that attack.

Following 9/11 and the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001, the Taliban were routed from Kabul and Haqqani was ordered by Mullah Omar to move the Arab fighters to safety.

"It makes me sad that he is no longer among us," Fazlur Rehman Khalil, co-founder of the outlawed Harakat-ul Mujahedeen, said Tuesday. Khalil lives freely on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, currently promoting a fatwa, or religious edict, banning militant violence in Pakistan.

After his death was announced, the Haqqani family released a statement that said security issues prevented the holding of communal prayers for him and instead urged his followers to gather in mosques and "jihadi" centers around the country and offer prayers in his name.

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Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed.StarTimes Group Vice President Guo Ziqi, Malawi Gertrude Mutharika, and UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe.

UNAIDS and StarTimes discuss ways to increase HIV/AIDS awareness among young Africans with an online mobile video application, during a meeting held by First Lady of the Republic of Malawi Gertrude Mutharika, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe and StarTimes Group Vice President Guo Ziqi, with the theme of Value of New Media in African HIV/AIDS Prevention Campaign in Beijing on Monday, Sept 3, 2018.

Today, HIV and AIDS-related deaths are more likely to affect young people in Africa as they don't have efficient access to HIV/AIDS prevention information and knowledge. Engaging a greater number of young people in prevention methods has been an urgent issue for global HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns in recent years.

Michel Sidibe explained during the meeting, We have seen progress in most countries, but the biggest challenge that we face is complacency. The young people, they dont have information, they dont have knowledge, so they dont protect themselves. They need information, knowledge and education, and thats why StarTimes is very important for us.

Sharing information, bringing knowledge and making sure that we can change the way young people think are key for ending AIDS," he added.

Sidibe noted that in most African countries, 70 percent of the population are below the age of 35, and they are not getting relevant information. Our recent approach will completely change the situation and help us strive for a generation free of AIDS.

With smartphone and internet use soaring, Africa is set for a communication revolution. As has been seen across Europe, the U.S. and China, more and more young Africans are streaming content on their mobile phones.

Based on this trend, StarTimes launched its video streaming service in the African market with the StarTimes App in June. Within three months, the StarTimes App has had 8 million downloads and the figure is expected to reach 15 million by the end of this year, said Guo Ziqi, noting that the StarTimes App is currently streaming a Zero Discrimination public service announcement as a trial collaboration with UNAIDS through the online video platform.

Malawian First Lady and former president of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against AIDS, Gertrude Mutharika said, Malawi has seen significant and rapid growth in the number of mobile phones and subscribers over the last two decades. The majority of people who buy phones are using them for social media communication as well as a source of information. It is for this reason that we are revising our HIV prevention strategy and seek to explore social media technology and platforms to reach out to young people.

The launch of the StarTimes App for HIV prevention is very timely and appropriate. This will greatly enhance our national efforts to reduce HIV infection, particularly when it comes to young people. I am looking forward to working closely with StarTimes and UNAIDS in Malawi, she remarked.

During the meeting, Guo introduced the China-Africa Cooperation project, Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages, which will be undertaken by StarTimes, and proposed the exploration of possible ways to help popularize HIV/AIDS prevention information and knowledge in rural areas of Africa.

The project of Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages was first announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2015. Chinese government will aid 10,112 African villages with two StarTimes Projector TVs, one 32 inch Digital TV set and 20 DTH decoders and satellite dishes.

UNAIDS and StarTimes formally established partnership on May 12, 2017, signing a Memorandum of Understanding in Beijing "to reduce the impact of HIV across Africa by disseminating messages to the general public to increase awareness of HIV and UNAIDS and reduce stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV and populations affected by HIV.

As partners, StarTimes and UNAIDS are boosting their cooperation in different African countries, aiming to mobilize all available resources to enhance the awareness of HIV/AIDS on the continent.

Over the past two years, StarTimes has broadcasted several UNAIDS public service announcements to more than 10 million households using its free channel, Guide Channel.

Guo said: With more broadcasting platforms and a bigger and more diversified subscriber base and richer content, we will be able to make the best of all our resources to help end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump encountered bipartisan criticism on Tuesday for complaining that his own Justice Department's indictments against two Republican congressmen were endangering the GOP's midterm election prospects, with one Republican senator saying of Trump's attack, "We can't normalize that."

Trump's tweet was his latest effort to press the government's chief law enforcement agency to react to his personal and political views. Investigators are not supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate, and the department has a history of prosecuting lawmakers of both major political parties no matter which controls the White House.

"It was over and above what he's done before," Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told reporters. "To say the Justice Department ought to punish his enemies and protect his friends goes beyond what any president in my memory has ever said, and that we can't normalize that."

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, President Donald Trump gestures while speaking at the Harris Conference Center in Charlotte, N.C. President Donald Trump is escalating his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, suggesting the embattled official should have intervened in investigations of two GOP congressmen to help Republicans in the midterms. Trump tweeted Monday that "investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department." (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Flake has repeatedly criticized Trump for his performance as president and is not seeking re-election this fall.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in North Korea people might see a leader saying "who you prosecute."

"No president of the United States, Republican or Democrat, has ever, ever crossed the line and told people, 'Don't prosecute Republicans. Only prosecute Democrats,'" Leahy said.

Trump tweeted on Monday, "Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......"

Trump did not name the Republican congressmen, but he apparently was referring to the first two Republicans to endorse him in the GOP presidential primaries. Both were indicted on separate charges last month: Rep. Duncan Hunter of California on charges that included spending campaign funds for personal expenses and Rep. Chris Collins of New York on insider-trading charges. Both have proclaimed their innocence.

AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the Justice Department "should always remain apolitical, and the speaker has demonstrated he takes these charges seriously." Ryan has removed Collins and Hunter from their committee assignments.

The Hunter investigation began in June 2016, according to the indictment.

The indictment into Collins lays out behavior from 2017. He also was under investigation by congressional ethics officials.

Hunter has not exited his race, while Collins ended his re-election bid days after his indictment. Both seats appear likely to remain in GOP hands, but the charges have raised Democratic hopes.

A spokeswoman for Sessions declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump did not have any public events Monday. He briefly exited the White House to a waiting motorcade but then went back inside without going anywhere.

Trump's tweet drew a scolding Monday from Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice - one for the majority party and one for the minority party," Sasse said in a statement.

Trump has previously pressed Sessions to investigate his perceived enemies and has accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department. Trump also has repeatedly complained publicly and privately over Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the federal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia because he'd worked on Trump's campaign.

Some of the issues Trump has raised have already been examined or are being investigated.

The tension between Trump and Sessions boiled over recently with Sessions punching back, saying that he and his department "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations." Still, Sessions has made clear to associates that he has no intention of leaving his job voluntarily despite Trump's constant criticism.

Allies, including Republican members of Congress, have long advised Trump that firing Sessions, especially before the November midterm elections, would be deeply damaging to the party. But some have indicated that Trump may make a change after the elections.

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alan Fram and Padmananda Rama in Washington and Mike Balsamo in New York City contributed to this report.GRANT TOWN, W.Va. (AP) - It's coal people like miner Steve Knotts, 62, who make West Virginia Trump Country.

So it was no surprise that President Donald Trump picked the state to announce his plan rolling back Obama-era pollution controls on coal-fired power plants.

Trump left one thing out of his remarks, though: Northern West Virginia coal country will be ground zero for increased deaths and illnesses from the rollback on regulation of harmful emission from the nation's coal power plants.

Brian Weekly, a contractor at West Virginia's Grant Town coal-fired power plant, gestures toward the small facility's smokestack, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018 in Grant Town, W.Va. Weekly says opponents of the coal industry are behind warnings of health risks from smokestack emissions under the Trump administration's plan. President Donald Trump picked West Virginia where he announced rolling back pollution rules for coal-fired power plants. But he didn't mention that the northern two-thirds of West Virginia, with the neighboring part of Pennsylvania, would be hit hardest. (AP Photo/ Ellen Knickmeyer)

An analysis done by his own Environmental Protection Agency concludes that the plan would lead to a greater number of people here dying prematurely, and suffering health problems that they otherwise would not have, than elsewhere in the country, when compared to health impacts of the Obama administration plan.

Knotts, a coal miner for 35 years, isn't fazed when he hears that warning, a couple of days after Trump's West Virginia rally. He says the last thing people in coal country want is the government slapping down more controls on coal - and the air here in the remote West Virginia mountains seems fine to him.

"People here have had it with other people telling us what we need. We know what we need. We need a job," Knotts said at lunch hour at a Circle K in a tiny town between two coal mines, and 9 miles down the road from a coal power plant, the Grant Town plant.

The sky around Grant Town is bright blue. The mountains are a dazzling green. Paw Paw Creek gurgles past the town.

Clean-air controls since the 1980s largely turned off the columns of black soot that used to rise from coal smokestacks. The regulations slashed the national death rates from coal-fired power plants substantially.

These days pollutants rise from smoke stacks as gases, before solidifying into fine particles - still invisible - small enough to pass through lungs and into bloodstreams.

An EPA analysis says those pollutants would increase under Trump's plan, when compared to what would happen under the Obama plan. And that, it says, would lead to thousands more heart attacks, asthma problems and other illnesses that would not have occurred.

Nationally, the EPA says, 350 to 1,500 more people would die each year under Trump's plan. But it's the northern two-thirds of West Virginia and the neighboring part of Pennsylvania that would be hit hardest, by far, according to Trump's EPA.

Trump's rollback would kill an extra 1.4 to 2.4 people a year for every 100,000 people in those hardest-hit areas, compared to under the Obama plan, according to the EPA analysis. For West Virginia's 1.8 million people, that would be equal to at least a couple dozen additional deaths a year.

Trump's acting EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist whose grandfather worked in the coal camps of West Virginia, headed to coal states this week and last to promote Trump's rollback. The federal government's retreat on regulating pollution from coal power plants was "good news," Wheeler told crowds there.

In Washington, EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said Trump's plan still would result in "dramatic reductions" in emissions, deaths and illness compared to the status quo, instead of to the Obama plan. Obama's Clean Power Plan targeted climate-changing carbon dioxide, but since coal is the largest source of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, the Obama plan would have curbed other harmful emissions from the coal-fired power plants as well.

About 160 miles to the south of Grant Town, near the state capital of Charleston, shop owner Doris Keller figures that if Trump thinks something's for the best, that's good enough for her.

"I just know this. I like Donald Trump and I think that he's doing the right thing," said Keller, who turned out to support Trump Aug. 21 when he promoted his rollback proposal. She lives 5 miles from the 2,900-megawatt John Amos coal-fired power plant.

"I think he has the best interests of the regular common people at the forefront," Keller says.

Trump's Affordable Clean Energy program would dismantle President Barack Obama's 2015 Clean Power Plan, which has been caught up in court battles without yet being implemented.

The Obama plan targeted climate-changing emissions from power plants, especially coal. It would have increased federal regulation of emissions from the nation's electrical grid and broadly promoted natural gas, solar power and other cleaner energy.

Trump's plan would cede much of the federal oversight of existing coal-fired power plants and drop official promotion of cleaner energy. Individual states largely would decide how much to regulate coal power plants in their borders. The plan is open for public review, ahead of any final White House decision.

"I'm getting rid of some of these ridiculous rules and regulations, which are killing our companies ... and our jobs," Trump said at the rally.

There was no mention of the "small increases" in harmful emissions that would result, compared to the Obama plan, or the health risks.

EPA charts put numbers on just how many more people would die each year because of those increased coal emissions.

Abboud and spokeswoman Ashley Bourke of the National Mining Association, which supports Trump's proposed regulatory rollback on coal emissions, said other federal programs already regulate harmful emissions from coal power plants. Bourke also argued that the health studies the EPA used in its death projections date as far back as the 1970s, when coal plants burned dirtier.

In response, Conrad Schneider of the environmental nonprofit Clean Air Task Force said the EPA's mortality estimates had taken into account existing regulation of plant emissions.

Additionally, health studies used by the EPA looked at specific levels of exposure to pollutants and their impact on human health, so remain constant over time, said Schneider, whose group analyzes the EPA projections.

With competition from natural gas and other cleaner energy helping to kill off more than a third of coal jobs over the last decade, political leaders in coal states are in no position to be the ones charged with enforcing public-health protections on surviving coal-fired power plants, said Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

"Our state is beholden to coal. Our politicians are beholden to coal," Stockman said outside Trump's West Virginia rally, where she was protesting. "Meanwhile, our people are being poisoned."

And when it comes to coal power plants and harm, Schneider said, "when you're at Grant Town, you're at Ground Zero."

Retired coal miner Jim Haley, living 4 miles from the town's coal-fired power plant, has trouble telling from the smokestack when the plant is even operating.

"They've got steam coming out of the chimneys. That's all they have coming out of it," Haley said.

Parked near the Grant Town post office, where another resident was rolling down the quiet main street on a tractor, James Perkins listened to word of the EPA's health warnings. He cast a look into the rear-view mirror into the backseat of his pickup truck, at his 3-year-old grandson, sitting in the back.

"They need to make that safe," said Perkins, a health-care worker who had opted not to follow his father into the coal mines. "People got little kids."

___

Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia. AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

In this Aug. 23, 2018 photo, American Electric Power's John Amos coal-fired plant in Winfield, W.Va., is seen from the town of Poca across the Kanawha River. President Donald Trump picked West Virginia where he announced rolling back pollution rules for coal-fired power plants. But he didn't mention that the northern two-thirds of West Virginia, with the neighboring part of Pennsylvania, would be hit hardest. (AP Photo/John Raby)

In this Aug. 23, 2018 photo, Andrea Maxey of Poca, W.Va., speaks outside her home with the American Electric Power's John Amos coal-fired power plant is in the background across the Kanawha River in Winfield. Maxey says emissions from the plant aren't a nuisance. President Donald Trump picked West Virginia where he announced rolling back pollution rules for coal-fired power plants. But he didn't mention that the northern two-thirds of West Virginia, with the neighboring part of Pennsylvania, would be hit hardest. (AP Photo/John Raby)

American Electric Power's John Amos coal-fired plant in Winfield, W.Va, is seen Aug. 23, 2018, from an apartment complex in the town of Poca across the Kanawha River. President Donald Trump picked West Virginia where he announced rolling back pollution rules for coal-fired power plants. But he didn't mention that the northern two-thirds of West Virginia, with the neighboring part of Pennsylvania, would be hit hardest.(AP Photo/John Raby)WASHINGTON (AP) - Just two months before the midterm elections, bipartisan legislation to try to prevent foreign hacking into U.S. election systems is stalled in Congress as the White House and some Republicans worry it could exert too much federal control over the states.

Supporters of the bill say the delay could embolden Russia, which targeted election infrastructure in at least 21 states in 2016.

A committee vote on the bipartisan bill was abruptly canceled two weeks ago after objections from some Republican senators and the states they represent. And Republicans and Democrats who are supporting the bill say they don't know when - or if - it will be taken up again in the few remaining weeks Congress is in session before the midterms.

FILE - This March 5, 2018, file photo show the East Front of the U.S. Capitol at sunset in Washington. Just two months before the midterm elections, bipartisan legislation to try to prevent foreign hacking into U.S. election systems is stalled in Congress as the White House and some Republicans worry it could exert too much federal control over the states. Supporters of the bill say the delay could embolden Russia, which targeted election infrastructure in at least 21 states in 2016. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

The delay has some concerned that Congress could punt on the only piece of legislation that is designed to fix what went wrong in 2016 - and to prevent Russia or other countries from trying again. There is no evidence that the Russian targeting of state election systems was successful or changed any votes, but lawmakers, intelligence officials and elections experts say that they believe Russia will return in 2018 and beyond with more sophisticated tools.

It also demonstrates Congress' struggle to develop a cohesive response to the Russian interference - especially as President Donald Trump has at times questioned whether it even happened.

The White House issued a lukewarm statement on the election security bill, neither endorsing nor opposing it but saying that "if Congress should choose to continue to pursue" the legislation they want to ensure that it does not duplicate ongoing federal efforts to help states or violate the principles of federalism.

"We cannot support legislation with inappropriate mandates or that moves power or funding from the states to Washington for the planning and operation of elections," said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters.

The bill was negotiated over the last year by Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Lankford says the White House did not block the bill, but that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell "had concerns" after hearing from states and other interests that suddenly realized the bill was moving forward. Klobuchar similarly said concerns came from "leadership on the Republican side."

McConnell's office would not comment on his involvement with the bill, or whether he heard from states or other groups about concerns.

Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the House Rules and Administration Committee, the panel that canceled the vote, says Congress is sending the wrong message to Russia by delaying the bill.

By passing the legislation, "you send a message that we are beefing up going forward, as opposed to standing down, which is what this looks like," Klobuchar said of the delay.

Maine Sen. Angus King said he thought there had been a bipartisan desire to fix what went wrong in 2016.

"It is frustrating because, to me, this is low-hanging fruit," said King, an Independent who sits on both the Senate intelligence committee and the Rules Committee. The intelligence panel has been investigating Russia's intervention for almost two years, and improving election security has been one of its top priorities.

Some states have objected to the legislation because it would require all states to use paper ballots as a backup to electronic systems if they want to receive federal election money for voting equipment. While many states are already using paper ballots, a small number say it's too expensive or burdensome.

The legislation would also require that all 50 states conduct audits after elections and direct the Homeland Security Department to immediately notify any states if the federal government detects that they have been hacked. The last requirement came after Homeland Security took almost a year to notify some states that Russians had targeted them in 2016.

The bill has several prominent Republican supporters, including Lankford, Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt of Missouri and Senate intelligence committee chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina. But other Republicans, including some in states that don't have paper ballots, have objected to the cost and what they say would be added paperwork.

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts said he heard from Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer and Secretary of State Kris Kobach with concerns about the bill and he is not supporting it. He said county officials are already doing a good job and "don't want to be loaded down with paperwork."

Kansas only partially uses paper ballots currently.

Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said he too has problems with the bill.

"This is a big step, the federal government moving in there," Shelby said.

Roberts and Shelby both sit on the Senate Rules Committee, the panel that canceled the vote.

Several of the states that don't use paper ballots are now in the process of replacing their machines, including Louisiana, South Carolina and Delaware, among others. But others have said it is too expensive or have objected to the legislation setting a new federal mandate.

"Although there has been considerable debate regarding the pros and cons of various voting systems, we believe this is a decision that should be left to state legislatures," Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said in a statement. Tennessee only partially uses paper ballots now.

Texas has also objected to the bill, saying they would need more federal money if the federal government required new machines.

Lankford says that most states are already using paper ballots, so those who don't do it now should be able to figure it out as well.

"We're not trying to federalize elections," Lankford said. "That's the last thing we want to do."

Separately, the bill has also lost some support from some election integrity groups who said the final, compromised language did not include strong enough requirements for the state audits.

Blunt has not yet said if there will be another vote in the Rules Committee. In a statement, he pinned the bill's hopes on a classified election security briefing that happened Aug. 22, the same day the vote was canceled.

"If that changes enough minds to have significant bipartisan support for the bill, we will report it from the committee," Blunt said.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Bajak in Boston, Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta, Hannah Grabenstein in Little Rock, Ark., Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La., Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tenn., Will Weissert in Austin, Texas, and John Hannah in Topeka, Kan. contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Shelby is from Alabama, not Mississippi.SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A former judge running a longshot campaign to unseat California's attorney general is facing a judicial ethics tribunal two months before the November election.

Steven Bailey, a Republican who served as an El Dorado County judge from 2009 through August 2017, is accused of using the job to aid his political campaign, improperly accepting gifts and steering business to a firm where his son worked.

Three special masters from the Commission on Judicial Performance on Tuesday began considering the allegations.

In this photo taken Wednesday, May 23, 2018, is Republican Attorney General candidate Steven Bailey, in Sacramento, Calif. Bailey appeared before the Commission on Judicial Performance, Tuesday Sept. 4, 2018 which is considering whether the former El Dorado County judge used his office to further his statewide campaign, improperly accepted gifts and steered business to a firm where his son worked. Bailey denies wrongdoing and no decision is expected until after the election. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

The case against Bailey is "overly zealous" and "politically motivated," James Murphy, one of Bailey's attorneys, said during opening statements at the Tuesday hearing.

The ethics commission has a "mountain" of evidence Bailey's conduct was inappropriate for a judge, including testimony from more than 20 witnesses and over 200 exhibits, said Mark Lizarraga, the lawyer presenting the commission's case.

The hearing in Sacramento creates another hurdle in Bailey's uphill campaign against Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat appointed last year by Gov. Jerry Brown to fill a vacancy. Becerra is seeking his first full four-year term.

Becerra easily won the June primary with 46 percent of the votes. Bailey advanced to the runoff 21 points behind in second place.

No decision is expected from the commission until well after the Nov. 6 election. Bailey could be publicly admonished but he can't be disqualified from the attorney general's race.

Murphy denies Bailey's actions interfered with his judicial impartiality and blamed inadvertent errors for several of the allegations, including that Bailey provided a written testimonial for a political survey company.

The commission is deciding whether to discipline Bailey over claims of conduct "that brings the judicial office into disrepute" and of "willful misconduct in office" - the harshest charge and enough that it could have prompted his removal if he still were on the bench.

Bailey sat behind his lawyers as two women he worked with in El Dorado County described what they called shocking remarks he made about a gay person.

He denies that he was showing bias by telling another judge in response to a compliment about a shirt that he got it from a "gay guy" and that "gays really know how to dress."

He also faces allegations that he improperly used his judgeship to raise funds and promote his candidacy for attorney general. Bailey says he retired months before filing his formal declaration of candidacy in February.

He is also alleged to have repeatedly ordered defendants to use an electronic monitoring service without disclosing that his son worked at the company providing it or that the company's owner was a friend who worked on his 2008 judicial campaign. The commission also alleges he ordered a defendant to pay $140 in restitution in 2009 after a letter signed by the judge's son said the man owed that amount for electronic monitoring.

Bailey says he followed the ethics advice of other judges that he did not have to routinely disclose the relationship with his son, and that the owner was a "professional acquaintance" with no real involvement in his campaign. He says the monitoring company was approved by the county probation department, as required by law, and that he arranged to have a second, competing company also provide monitoring services.

Bailey also is accused of accepting hundreds of dollars in gifts between 2009 and 2012, including nearly $350 from a Placerville attorney. The commission says he appointed the same attorney to oversee a case in 2011 at the unusually high rate of $350 an hour to be paid by the defendant, without disclosing the attorney was a friend.

He denied failing to report or falsely reporting travel-related payments and reimbursements, saying he believed all the gifts were permitted.

The hearing before three judges appointed by the state Supreme Court is expected to last until Sept. 14. They then have about 60 days to report their findings to the commission.LONDON (AP) - British police have arrested three people including a teenage girl in connection with a counter-terrorism investigation.

London's Metropolitan Police said Tuesday a 16-year-old girl and two women aged 26 and 53 were arrested on suspicion of funding terrorism.

The arrests were made by the police Counter Terrorism Command.

The three suspects were taken into custody at two separate addresses in west London early Tuesday morning. Police searches were continuing.

Officials did not name the suspects, who have not been charged. They are being questioned at a south London police station.

Britain's official terrorist threat level is set at "severe", indicating an attack is judged highly likely.JUBA, South Sudan (AP) - Pushing filthy hands between the bars of his cell, Maluel Chol held up a small black plastic bag.

"This is where I go to the toilet," he said. The 28-year-old has been detained for six months in South Sudan's capital, accused of murder but not yet officially charged and with no access to a lawyer.

Hundreds of people detained in South Sudan face such treatment and far worse, a new Amnesty International report says, accusing authorities of torturing people to death and letting many others languish behind bars since civil war began in late 2013.

This undated photo shows prisoners sitting together at the central prison in the capital Juba, South Sudan. A new Amnesty International report accuses authorities in South Sudan of torturing people to death in detention and letting many others languish since civil war began in late 2013. The report based on interviews with victims and witnesses says at least two dozen people have died because of harsh conditions and inadequate medical care. The government calls the report "rubbish." The AP visited detention centers for itself. (AP Photo)

At least 20 people died in detention between 2014 and 2016 and four died last year because of harsh conditions and inadequate medical care, according to the report.

"It is extremely unconscionable that South Sudanese authorities arrest, torture and ill-treat people in total disregard for their human rights," said Seif Magango, Amnesty's deputy director for East Africa. He called on South Sudan's government to release political detainees or charge them.

Hundreds of people have been subject to prolonged and arbitrary detention without charge by the country's National Security Service and Military Intelligence Directorate, said the report, based on interviews with victims and witnesses. Suspected supporters of the armed opposition are increasingly targeted, it said.

One man suffered having his testicles pierced with sewing needles while being interrogated about the whereabouts of opposition leader Riek Machar, said the Amnesty report. Other detainees were made to drink water from the toilet and defecate and urinate in front of each other, while some were subjected to forced nudity and genital mutilation.

Last year one soldier died in detention while standing trial for a high-profile attack on a hotel in the capital, Juba, in 2016 in which foreigners said they were gang-raped and assaulted and a local journalist was shot dead.

South Sudan's government called the new Amnesty report "rubbish" and based on inaccurate information from social media.

"We don't have a culture of torturing people. We put you in prison to put you behind bars, not to beat you," government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told The Associated Press.

As part of a new peace deal, the government in August released more than 20 political prisoners.

Despite that act of good faith, South Sudan's political environment has become increasingly intolerant and any criticism of the government can lead to intimidation and detention, the new report says.

In July, academic and activist Peter Biar Ajak was arrested at Juba's international airport and accused of treason. He has been detained without charge since then without access to legal counsel or any communication with the outside world, a human rights lawyer involved with his case, Phillips Anyang Ngong, told AP.

"It's a situation that gives us fear for how the shrines of justice and the institutions concerned will be able to save us from this continued arbitrary arrest of people without charges," Ngong said.

According to South Sudan's Criminal Procedure Act, no one should be detained for longer than 24 hours while cases are investigated. The government has signed a U.N. convention against torture.

Even some prison officials acknowledge the system isn't working.

At the public prison in Juba more than half of the roughly 1,000 inmates have not been charged or have not had access to a lawyer, director-general Henry Kuany Aguar told the AP.

On a recent visit to a detention center on the outskirts of Juba, AP spoke with several inmates held for days and weeks in squalid conditions without being charged.

Two dozen men crammed into three cells lining a narrow, mud-spattered hallway in the county jail, which acts as a transition center before people are moved to prisons.

Hanging his head, inmate Maluel Chol said he had been transferred from cell to cell for months but had not appeared in court or seen a lawyer. Gripping the handle of an empty water jug in his cell, shared with six other men, he said he is discouraged: "I'll just keep being moved around until I die."

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_AfricaATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greek ferry crews have ended a strike that left tens of thousands of travelers and islanders stranded for more than a day.

The main seamen's union, PNO, decided Tuesday to return to work immediately, after ferry operators offered them a 2-percent pay increase after an eight-year freeze because of Greece's debt crisis.

That means that ferries will start sailing as soon as possible, instead of after 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) Wednesday when the strike had originally been due to end.

A ferry is docked during the second day of seamen's union's strike at a port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Greek ferry crews on Monday decided to extend for at least one more day a strike that has left tens of thousands of travelers stranded on the country's popular island destinations. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

PNO had initially been pressing for a 5-percent pay hike.

The strike, launched early Monday, caused considerable disruptions as most islands have no air link with the mainland.

A pedestrian walks in front of a docked ferry during the second day of the seamen's unions strike at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Greek ferry crews on Monday decided to extend for at least one more day a strike that has left tens of thousands of travelers stranded on the country's popular island destinations. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

A man fishes between a docked ferry and parked truck containers during the second day of seamen's union's strike at a port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Greek ferry crews on Monday decided to extend for at least one more day a strike that has left tens of thousands of travelers stranded on the country's popular island destinations. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)JERUSALEM (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been accused of widespread human rights abuses, on Tuesday praised his country's close security ties with Israel as dozens protested Israeli arms sales to his government.

At a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Duterte said he considers Israel a key strategic partner and weapons supplier.

"In terms of military equipment, particularly intelligence gathering, we only have one country to buy from them, that is my order specifically: Israel," he said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, left, walks along his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte as they meet in Jerusalem, Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Gali Tibbon/Pool Photo via AP)

He called the United States a "good friend," but suggested that the U.S., as well as potential suppliers China and Germany, might also be "listening." Duterte has said he suspects the U.S. and Chinese of carrying out surveillance against him, though he has offered no evidence.

Duterte, the first Philippine president to visit Israel, is known for his profane outbursts and has been accused of committing human rights abuses in his deadly campaign against illegal drugs.

In Israel, he has received a generally warm welcome from the government. But outside the Israeli presidential residence, dozens of people gathered to protest the visit. Waving Israeli flags and blowing whistles, they chanted "shame, shame, shame. We will not be silent and we will not agree to the selling of weapons."

Israel has sold assault rifles to the Philippines national police force in the past and Israeli media have reported that a new arms deal will be signed while Duterte is in town. Israel's Defense Ministry said it does not comment on arms sales.

Human rights lawyer Eitay Mack said he was protesting because he does not want Israeli weapons to be sold to "this kind of regime."

"I am sure that sooner or later the U.N. and the international community will announce that what Duterte is doing, is being responsible for crimes against humanity," he said.

A U.S. sale of thousands of assault rifles to the Philippines was canceled in 2016 due to objections in Congress to supplying weapons to Duterte's government.

In 2016, Duterte was forced to apologize after comparing himself favorably to Adolf Hitler. On Monday, he paid a solemn visit to Israel's national Holocaust memorial and branded the Nazi leader "insane" as he lamented the genocide of 6 million Jews.

At Tuesday's meeting, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called Hitler "the devil on earth."

"And probably you have realized yesterday the feelings, when you visited (the) museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, to really feel the atmosphere and to feel the feelings of all the people that were part of this disaster," Rivlin said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, right, stands next to his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte signing a guest book in Jerusalem, Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Gali Tibbon/Pool Photo via AP)

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, right, meets his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte in Jerusalem, Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Gali Tibbon /Pool Photo via AP)

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, right, shakes hands with his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte, in Jerusalem, Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Gali Tibbon/Pool Photo via AP)

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, right, meets his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte in Jerusalem, Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Gali Tibbon/Pool Photo via AP)

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, right, meets his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte in Jerusalem, Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Gali Tibbon/Pool Photo via AP)CHAMONIX, France (AP) - Since its maiden edition was held in rain, cold and hail back in 2003, the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc has gained legendary status in the runners' community.

Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, the 170-kilometer race with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters - a height greater than Mount Everest - is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. Just finishing it is considered a victory by the legion of amateurs competing alongside the elite runners.

"Each person manages the emotions of experiencing one of the most incredible adventures of their lives and, at the same time, the fear of knowing if they will be capable of getting to the end," three-time winner Kilian Jornet wrote in his book "Run or Die."

A competitor walks past Mont Blanc in background at La Flegere path as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Chamonix, French Alps, Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Starting and finishing in Chamonix, the annual high-altitude race takes a pack of about 2,300 runners through three different countries (France, Italy and Switzerland) and across rivers and glaciers. Last weekend, the weather was so cold and windy that runners had to deal with temperatures that felt like minus-10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees F).

This year's winner in the men's event was Xavier Thevenard, a Frenchman who covered the distance in 20 hours, 44 minutes, 16 seconds. The last finisher crossed the finish line more than 26 hours later.

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

A competitor approaches some goats as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Chamonix, French Alps, Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Abdennour Benmammar of France, the last finisher, is congratulated after crossing the finish line at the end of the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Chamonix, French Alps, Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Competitors run as they compete in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Chamonix, French Alps, Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Competitors run as they compete in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Chamonix, French Alps, Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor runs as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Chamonix, French Alps, Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Xavier Thevenard, of France, reacts as he crosses the finish line to win the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB), in the center of Chamonix, French Alps, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor runs in the night in Trient, Switzerland, as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Competitors take some rest in the night at a refreshment post in Trient, Switzerland, as they compete in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, Sunday, Sept 2, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Supporters wait for the arrival of Xavier Thevenard, the winner of the 170km Ultra-Trail Mont-Blanc (UTMB), in the center of Chamonix, French Alps, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor walks over a bridge on the Grand Col Ferret as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor runs up the Grand Col Ferret as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor runs up the Grand Col Ferret as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor runs at the Grand Col Ferret as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor runs at the Grand Col Ferret as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, near Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Competitors run next to the Combal lake as they compete in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, in Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Competitors warm themselves up in front of a fire at the Combal lake as they compete in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, in Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor takes some rest in the middle of the night at a refreshment post as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, in Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Competitors run in the night along the Balmes path as they compete in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, in Les Contamines Montjoie, French Alps, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A competitor runs in the night on the Balmes path as he competes in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, in Les Contamines Montjoie, French Alps, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. Since its maiden edition was held in dreadful conditions in rain, cold and hail back in 2003, the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc has gained a legendary status in the runners' community. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. It is so hard that finishing it is already considered winning by the legion of amateur runners competing alongside the elite. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Competitors take some rest in the middle of the night at a refreshment post as they compete in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, in Courmayeur, Italy, Saturday, Sept 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Competitors run along the Voza path as they compete in the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race, in Saint Gervais-les- Bains, French Alps, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer race (105-mile) with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Rishman Lauret of France prays at the Saint Michel church in Chamonix, French Alps, before taking the start of the 170km Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc (UTMB) race around the Mont-Blanc, crossing France, Italy and Switzerland, Friday, Aug. 31, 2018. Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, this 170-kilometer (105-mile) race with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (all times local):

9 p.m.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says the court "must never, never be viewed as a partisan institution." But his argument came at the end of a marathon day marked by rancorous exchanges between Democrats and Republicans.

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, to begin his testimony in his confirmation hearing to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearing began with a sense of inevitability that the 53-year-old appellate judge eventually will be confirmed.

However, the first of at least four days of hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee began with partisan quarreling over the nomination and persistent protests from members of the audience - followed by their arrests.

On Wednesday, Kavanaugh can expect to spend most of the day in the hot seat, sparring with Democratic senators over abortion, guns, executive power and other high-profile issues.

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5:05 p.m.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley says the Senate could confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in time for the new court term that begins Oct. 1.

The Iowa Republican said late Tuesday that the committee could vote on Kavanaugh's nomination on Sept. 13. Democrats could force a week's delay, which would result in a final committee vote Sept. 20. A final Senate vote to confirm Kavanaugh could happen later the following week.

For Supreme Court nominations, the Judiciary Committee has traditionally voted to recommend a nominee favorably or unfavorably, giving the full Senate the final say.

Kavanaugh's first day of confirmation hearings began Tuesday morning and adjourned just before 5 p.m.

The judge is scheduled to begin answering questions from lawmakers Wednesday.

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5 p.m.

President Donald Trump is accusing Senate critics of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of "looking to inflict pain and embarrassment."

In a Tuesday tweet sent after a day of opening statements by Kavanaugh and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Trump says Kavanaugh is "one of the most highly renowned jurists to ever appear before Congress."

Democratic senators tried unsuccessfully to delay Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing. They used their remarks to question the conservative judge's past decisions and legal reasoning. Protesters regularly interrupted the daylong proceedings.

Kavanaugh will begin answering questions from senators Wednesday.

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4:50 p.m.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh says it must "never, never be viewed as a partisan institution."

President Donald Trump's second nominee to the high court was speaking Tuesday on the first day of his Senate confirmation hearings. Kavanaugh says the "Supreme Court is the last line of defense for the separation of powers, and for the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution."

Kavanaugh promises that if confirmed he will "keep an open mind in every case."

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin questioning Kavanaugh on Wednesday.

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4:45 p.m.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is praising the man he would replace, Justice Anthony Kennedy.

President Donald Trump's second nominee to the high court was speaking Tuesday during the first day of his confirmation hearing.

Kavanaugh served as a law clerk to Kennedy from 1993 to 1994 and called him a "mentor, a friend, and a hero." He says Kennedy "fiercely defended the independence of the Judiciary" and "was a champion of liberty."

Kennedy was nominated by president Ronald Reagan and took his seat in 1988. He announced his retirement in June.

Kennedy has in recent years often cast the deciding vote in cases where the Supreme Court divided 5-4. Democrats are concerned that if Kavanaugh is confirmed, the Supreme Court will move to the right.

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4:25 p.m.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is praising Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying he "listens, especially to those with whom he disagrees."

Rice made the statement Tuesday in introducing Kavanaugh during the first day of his Senate confirmation hearings. Both Rice and Kavanaugh worked for President George W. Bush.

Rice describes Kavanaugh as "really, really smart" and "hardworking." She says he "makes those around him better."

Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and liberal lawyer Lisa Blatt are also making introductory remarks before Kavanaugh gives an opening statement. Lawmakers will begin questioning Kavanaugh Wednesday.

Rice served as secretary of state from 2005 to 2009.

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4:15 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Democrats are "running out of options" to block Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Speaking from the Senate floor, the Kentucky Republican decried what he called the "the hyperventilation and orchestrated antics" of Democrats.

McConnell says Democrats "can't find any substantive reasons" why Kavanaugh shouldn't be confirmed and are trying to distract from his "distinguished record."

Democrats earlier Tuesday sought to delay the confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's nominee to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Democrats said the hearings should not proceed until they have time to review the 42,000 pages from Kavanaugh's record that were released Monday evening.

Republicans refused and said the hearings will go forward as planned. They hope to confirm Kavanaugh by Oct. 1.

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2:45 p.m.

A man whose daughter died in the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., tried to shake the hand of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a break in Tuesday's confirmation hearing.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie died in the February 2018 attack, approached Kavanaugh after he rose from the witness table for a lunch break. He put out his hand to Kavanaugh, who paused for a moment before turning away as a security guard stepped in. Afterward, Guttenberg tweeted that Kavanaugh "did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence."

White House spokesman Raj Shah says security intervened before Kavanaugh could shake the hand of the "unidentified individual."

After the encounter, Capitol Police talked with Guttenberg. He was again sitting in the hearing room for the afternoon session.

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11:55 a.m.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont says that Brett Kavanaugh "may have intrigued" President Donald Trump because of his expansive view of "executive power and executive immunity."

Speaking at Tuesday's confirmation hearing, Leahy says Kavanaugh has espoused the view that presidents should not be burdened with a criminal or civil investigation while in office. He says those views likely haven't "escaped the attention of President Trump, who seems increasingly fixated on his own ballooning legal jeopardy."

The senator mentioned a tweet from Trump on Monday that criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the federal charges brought against two Republican members of the House before the November election, referring to Reps. Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of California.

Leahy says the president's tweet is "Alice in Wonderland."

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11:25 a.m.

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee says Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh fits the mold of the "anti-choice and pro-gun" nominee that President Donald Trump had promised to put forward.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein says Kavanaugh has been quoted as saying the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman's constitutional right to an abortion is "settled law." But she says the question is whether he believes it "is correct law."

Feinstein referenced an opinion of Kavanaugh's from last year involving an abortion question. That ruling, she says, shows Kavanaugh is willing to disregard precedent.

Democrats warn that Kavanaugh may be willing to overturn Roe v. Wade if he's confirmed to the Supreme Court. They plan to press Kavanaugh on the issue when questioning begins on Wednesday.

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10:55 a.m.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has begun giving his opening statements at a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after being delayed for over an hour by Democrats requesting a delay to review more documents.

Grassley denied that request Tuesday. In prepared remarks, Grassley says that Kavanaugh is "the kind of judge Americans want on the Supreme Court" and criticizes Democrats for trying "tactic after tactic to delay and obstruct" his confirmation.

Grassley says the confirmation process has been thorough and transparent and that lawmakers have received just under half a million pages of emails and other documents from Kavanaugh's time working in the White House.

Democrats have criticized Republicans for blocking access to documents from Kavanaugh's time as White House staff secretary to President George W. Bush.

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10:25 a.m.

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is describing "frustration" over the confirmation process for Brett Kavanaugh.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein says Democrats want to do a good job and are not trying to "create a disruption" by asking for more time to review Kavanaugh's documents. She says they're asking: "Majority, give us the time to do our work."

Feinstein says the hearing Tuesday is taking place under unique circumstances. She says that the man who nominated Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump, faces serious legal problems. She mentions the indictments, guilty pleas and criminal convictions from the Russia investigation.

Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley shut down the Democrats' request for a delay, vowing Kavanaugh's hearings will be finished this week.

Shouting protesters opposed to Kavanaugh have repeatedly interrupted the hearing.

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9:55 a.m.

Democrats are calling for a delay in the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh, objecting to the late release of documents the evening before.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California began a round of Democratic objections as Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley tried to open the hearings Tuesday morning. Harris said that Democrats received approximately 40,000 documents that they have not had time to review. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut also objected, as did Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey says, "We are rushing through this process in a way that is unnecessary."

Grassley responded: "You are taking advantage of my decency and integrity."

Protesters are also interrupting the hearing. One shouted, "an illegitimate president cannot make a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court."

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9:40 a.m.

Confirmation hearings are underway in the Senate for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's second nominee to the Supreme Court.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa gaveled in the first day of hearings on Tuesday morning. Kavanaugh, his wife, Ashley, and eldest daughter entered the committee room with Grassley just after 9:30 am.

In his opening statement, Kavanaugh vows to be a "pro-law judge" who will interpret the law impartially.

He will be introduced at the hearing by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and liberal lawyer Lisa Blatt.

Questioning of Kavanaugh will not begin until Wednesday.

Kavanaugh has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia since 2006.

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9:20 a.m.

Senate Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration release thousands of documents on Brett Kavanaugh's record in the White House.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the panel holding the Supreme Court confirmation hearings, said the White House was trying to "hide" Kavanaugh's records from the Senate and the public. She said more than 90 percent of his records are being withheld from the Senate and the public.

The California Democrat said senators in her party would participate in the hearings under a "silent protest" against the White House's conduct in the matter.

Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said earlier on Fox News that more documents on Kavanaugh have been released than on any other nominee.

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7:25 a.m.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wants Democrats to stop complaining about documents they've received pertaining to Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

Grassley is chairing the confirmation hearing later Tuesday for President Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme Court. The Iowa Republican tells Fox News that there are more documents on Kavanaugh than any other nominee in history. But Democrats say thousands were dumped out in public just hours before the hearing begins, making it impossible for thorough scrutiny.

Monday night, the committee received 42,000 pages of documents about Kavanaugh's years with the Bush administration, prompting complaints from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. Democrats have also complained that they have not received all relevant documents from Kavanaugh's work with previous administrations.

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6:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee says a good judge must be like a neutral and impartial umpire.

Brett Kavanaugh says in remarks prepared for his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing that "I don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences." He adds that he is "not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge." Kavanaugh says he's a "pro-law judge" dedicated to deciding cases according to the Constitution and U.S. laws.

He thanks Trump and his wife, Melania, for being gracious to the Kavanaugh family.

Kavanaugh has a solidly conservative record as an appeals court judge, including a dissenting opinion last year that would have denied immediate access to an abortion for an immigrant teenager in federal custody.

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12:05 a.m.

With Republicans hoping to move the Supreme Court to the right for years to come, a Senate committee is beginning hearings for President Donald Trump's second nominee to the court.

Brett Kavanaugh has a solidly conservative record as an appeals court judge, including a dissenting opinion last year that would have denied immediate access to an abortion for an immigrant teenager in federal custody.

The first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Tuesday will feature opening statements from senators and Kavanaugh himself. Questioning will begin on Wednesday, and votes in committee and on the Senate floor could occur later in September.

If all goes as Republicans plan, the 53-year-old Kavanaugh could be on the bench when the court begins its new term on Oct. 1.

White House counsel Don McGahn, second from right, watches as Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jamie Guttenberg who was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., left, attempts to shake hands with President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, right, as he leaves for a lunch break while appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, to begin his confirmation to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh did not shake his hand. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, flanked by Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, left, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, makes an opening statement at the confirmation hearing of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, from left, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and other minority members, appeal to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to delay the confirmation hearing of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, standing with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, arrives at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington, to begin his confirmation hearing to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A woman stands and voices her opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination for Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A woman stands and voices her opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination for Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington.(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Sierra Leonean Government representatives in Beijing.

Sierra Leones Minister of Transport and Aviation, Kabineh Kallon, has signed an agreement with Golden Dragon, a Chinese transportation company, for the supply of two hundred buses to Sierra Leone.

In his statement during the 2018 Beijing Summit for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which he referred to as an epoch making event, the Minister said the new government in Freetown is struggling to provide certain social amenities to its citizens, adding that President Julius Maada Bio is determined to change that.

He told his audience that he had come to China as a demonstration of the governments relentless commitment to the acquisition of two hundred commuter buses to ease transportation problems in the country.

The Minister said his ministry, the Commission for Privatization, Road Transport Corporation and the Procurement office were all actively involved in negotiations leading to the signing of the agreement.

Minister Kallon added that with himself as Minister of Transport under the leadership of President Julius Maada Bio, the transport sector will be revived to a wholesome and transparent state.CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A police report says a West Virginia TV anchor who was injured in a fight with a station meteorologist told authorities the fight was over her husband.

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reported Tuesday the Charleston police report says WSAZ-TV on-air forecaster Chelsea Ambriz and station anchor Erica Bivens were at a bar last week when the fight started.

The report says Bivens told police Ambriz was flirting with her husband, and a confrontation between the two women ended in a fight.

Ambriz is accused of shoving Bivens, causing the anchor to suffer a fractured skull and ruptured ear drum. The 26-year-old is charged with misdemeanor battery.

It's unclear if Ambriz has a lawyer to contact for comment. The station declined to comment due to an ongoing investigation into the fight.

___

Information from: The Herald-Dispatch, http://www.herald-dispatch.comWASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh declared fervently at his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday the court "must never, never be viewed as a partisan institution." But that was at the end of a marathon day marked by rancorous exchanges between Democrats and Republicans, including dire Democratic fears that he would be President Donald Trump's advocate on the high court.

The week of hearings on Kavanaugh's nomination began with a sense of inevitability that the 53-year-old appellate judge eventually will be confirmed, perhaps in time for the first day of the new term, Oct. 1, and little more than a month before congressional elections.

However, the first of at least four days of hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee began with partisan quarreling over the nomination and persistent protests from members of the audience, followed by their arrests.

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, to begin his confirmation to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Strong Democratic opposition to Trump's nominee reflects the political stakes for both parties in advance of the November elections, Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign and the potentially pivotal role Kavanaugh could play in moving the court to the right.

Democrats, including several senators poised for 2020 presidential bids, tried to block the proceedings in a dispute over Kavanaugh records withheld by the White House. Republicans in turn accused the Democrats of turning the hearing into a circus.

Trump jumped into the fray late in the day, saying on Twitter that Democrats were "looking to inflict pain and embarrassment" on Kavanaugh.

The president's comment followed the statements of Democratic senators who warned that Trump was, in the words of Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, "selecting a justice on the Supreme Court who potentially will cast a decisive vote in his own case."

In Kavanaugh's own statement at the end of more than seven hours of arguing, the federal appeals judge spoke repeatedly about the importance of an independent judiciary and the need to keep the court above partisan politics, common refrains among Supreme Court nominees that had added salience in the fraught political atmosphere of the moment.

With his wife, two children and parents sitting behind him, Kavanaugh called himself a judge with a straightforward judicial philosophy.

"A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written. A judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent," he said.

Kavanaugh also promised to be "a team player on the Team of Nine."

The Supreme Court is often thought of as nine separate judges, rather than a team. And on the most contentious cases, the court tends to split into conservative and liberal sides. But justices often do say they seek consensus, and they like to focus on how frequently they reach unanimous decisions.

Barring a major surprise over the next two days of questioning, the committee is expected to vote along party lines to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate.

Majority Republicans can confirm Kavanaugh without any Democratic votes, though they'll have little margin for error.

"There are battles worth fighting, regardless of the outcome," Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said in an unsparing opening statement that criticized Kavanaugh's judicial opinions and the Senate process that Democrats said had deprived them of access to records of important chunks of Kavanaugh's time as an aide to President George W. Bush.

Democrats raised objections from the moment Chairman Chuck Grassley gaveled the committee to order. One by one, Democrats, including Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, all potential presidential contenders, demanded that Republicans delay the hearing. They railed against the unusual vetting process by Republicans that failed to include documents from three years Kavanaugh worked in the Bush administration, and 100,000 more pages withheld by the Trump White House. Some 42,000 pages were released on the evening before of the hearing.

"We cannot possibly move forward, Mr. Chairman, with this hearing," said Harris at the top of proceedings. Grassley disagreed.

As protesters repeatedly interrupted the session, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who is fighting for his own re-election in Texas, apologized to Kavanaugh for the spectacle he said had less to do about the judge's legal record than Trump in the White House.

"It is about politics," said Cruz. "It is about Democratic senators re-litigating the 2016 election."

The Republicans' slim majority in the Senate was bolstered during the hearing by the announcement from Arizona that Gov. Doug Ducey was appointing Jon Kyl, the former senator, to fill the seat held by the late Sen. John McCain. When Kyl is sworn in, Republicans will hold 51 of the 100 seats.

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the only two Republicans even remotely open to voting against Kavanaugh, though neither has said she would do so. Abortion rights supporters are trying to appeal to those senators, who both favor abortion access.

Kavanaugh sat silently and impassively for most of the day, occasionally sipping water and taking notes on senators' points. Besides his family, he was accompanied by outgoing White House Counsel Don McGahn and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Several dozen protesters, shouting one by one, disrupted the hearing at several points and were removed by police. "This is a mockery and a travesty of justice," shouted one woman. "Cancel Brett Kavanaugh!" Others shouted against the president or to protect abortion access. "Senators, we need to stop this," called out one.

As patience thinned and tempers flared, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, denounced what he called the "mob rule." Struggling to speak over protesters, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, "These people are so out of line they shouldn't be in the doggone room."

U.S. Capitol Police reported that 61 people were removed from the committee room and charged with disorderly conduct. Nine more demonstrators were removed from another Senate office building and charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Kavanaugh the opposition being shown at the hearing reflected the concern many Americans have over Trump's "contempt of the rule of law" and the judge's own expansive views on executive power.

"It's that president who's decided you are his man," Durbin said. "Are people nervous about this concerned about this? Of course they are."

The panel's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, described the hearing's "very unique circumstances."

"Not only is the country deeply divided politically, we also find ourselves with a president who faces his own serious problems," she said referring to investigations surrounding Trump. "So it's this backdrop that this nominee comes into."

___

AP Writers Jessica Gresko and Ken Thomas contributed.

___

Read more on AP's coverage of Kavanaugh at https://apnews.com/tag/Kavanaughnomination

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, left, leaves followed by White House counsel Don McGahn, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington, at the end of the first day of his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A woman stands and voices her opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination for Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joined at left by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, speaks during the confirmation hearing of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, to begin his confirmation to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks during the confirmation hearing of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., asks a question of the chairman during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, flanked by Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, left, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, makes an opening statement at the confirmation hearing of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, with daughter Liza, departs his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. They are followed by his wife Ashley and older daughter Margaret. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, far right, smiles as he sits with his family, from left, daughter Margaret, daughter Liza, and wife Ashley, just before being sworn in at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Women protest the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, outside of a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, at the start of his confirmation hearing to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Danish police say prosecutors have given them permission to issue a nationwide ban on a criminal gang, even before a court case aimed at dissolving it.

Prosecutor Ida Soerensen said Tuesday the Constitution enables a ban on Loyal to Familia (LTF), because it has "such violent and criminal behavior that (authorities) must intervene right away with an administrative ban."

LTF has been behind gang feuds, violence, robberies, extortion and drug sales in Copenhagen.

Soerensen said the ban, effective immediately, would be upheld until an upcoming court case. That is expected to dissolve the group, if prosecutors can prove that the members of the gang work as an "association" and that it uses violence or urges its use.

Soerensen said anyone wearing an LTF logo could face prosecution.BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - The mayor of Bucharest claimed Tuesday party colleagues are trying to indirectly blame her for the police response to an anti-corruption protest that left 450 people injured.

Fallout over the Aug. 10 protest has led to tensions in Romania's ruling Social Democratic Party, after 750 people filed legal complaints against riot police alleging mistreatment.

Mayor Gabriela Firea, who appeared as a witness before prosecutors Tuesday over the protest, later claimed some Social Democrats are trying to make her former aide, Bucharest prefect Speranta Cliseru, a scapegoat for the violence. The prefect ordered police to break up the protest. Firea said the prefect merely signed off on an order initiated by riot police.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017 file photo, the Mayor of Bucharest, Gabriela Firea, attends the unveiling of a monument that celebrates circus arts, in Bucharest, Romania. Mayor Firea claims party colleagues are trying to indirectly blame her for the police response to an anti-corruption protest on Aug. 10, that left 450 people injured when police tried to break up the protest, and leading to public complaints of mistreatment by police. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, File)

In an apparent dig at party leader Liviu Dragnea, Firea said: "We won't always accept the truth being distorted, being manipulated and for manipulations to be put out there" about us. Firea has called for Dragnea aide Carmen Dan, the interior minister, to resign over the police violence, but the party has backed Dan.

Police fired tear gas and used water cannons and truncheons during the protest attended by tens of thousands. Some individuals lobbed rocks and bottles at police.

Firea was abroad on the day of the protest.GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) - The Latest on Tropical Storm Gordon (all times local):

7 p.m.

The National Hurricane Center says Gordon has begun hurling tropical storm-force winds onshore along the Alabama and western Florida Panhandle coastline.

Kamdn Boose, 4, helps his family fill sandbags at Long Beach Harbor, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Long Beach, Miss., in advance of Tropical Storm Gordon, which is continuing to strengthen and is expected to become a hurricane late Tuesday when it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast, including coastal Mississippi. (Amanda McCoy/The Sun Herald via AP)

The Miami-based forecasting center said the core of Tropical Storm Gordon was still about 75 miles (125 kilometers) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi as of 7 p.m. CDT Tuesday. That's also about 70 miles (115 kilometers) south of Mobile, Alabama.

Forecasters say the storm could become a hurricane before expected landfall sometime Tuesday night along the north-central Gulf Coast. Hurricane Nate was the last hurricane to strike the U.S., making landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, last October.

Forecasters say Gordon, after some strengthening late Tuesday, now packs top sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph). It's moving to the northwest toward the coast at 14 mph (22 kph).

___

6:05 p.m.

Gusty winds and heavy rains have started to buffet the Alabama coast as Tropical Storm Gordon nears.

Skies quickly turned from partly cloudy to dark gray as storms spread over the port city of Mobile on Tuesday evening. Radar showed the center of the storm was about 90 miles south in the Gulf of Mexico.

Metal chairs were lashed together atop tables outside a restaurant in what's normally a busy entertainment district in Mobile, and a street musician played to an empty sidewalk as rain fell.

A tornado warning was issued nearby in the Florida panhandle. No damage was immediately reported. The National Hurricane Center says tornados are possible as Gordon gets closer to shore.

Most area schools and businesses closed early as Gordon approached, and many planned to remain close or open late on Wednesday.

___

4:50 p.m.

Winds are beginning to kick up as Tropical Storm Gordon moves toward the central Gulf Coast.

Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida reported winds of 26 mph (42 kph) with gusts as high as 37 mph (60 kph) around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

An automated buoy south of Orange Beach, Alabama reported sustained winds of 40 mph (64 kph) with a gust up to 60 mph (97 kph), while a buoy south of Dauphin Island, Alabama, reported waves as high as 13 feet (nearly 4 meters).

Vacationers John and Robin Berry were visiting the barrier island from Nashville, Tennessee. A rental company moved them from their beachfront home across the street because the beach has no protective dunes.

Robin Berry says they accepted the offer to stay on the island.

___

4 p.m.

Forecasters say Tropical Storm Gordon has strengthened a little as it approaches the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the center of the storm is about 95 miles (155 kilometers) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi.

Gordon's top sustained winds have now reached 70 mph (110 kph). Forecasters say it could still reach the 74 mph (120 kph) threshold to become a hurricane before hitting land late Tuesday.

Heavy rain is already falling over western Florida and is expected to spread west along the coast to New Orleans.

A hurricane warning is in effect for all the Alabama and Mississippi coast. Forecasters say the region could see life-threatening, rising waters of 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters).

___

3:10 p.m.

Tropical Storm Gordon has disrupted some oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and closed casinos in Mississippi.

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says workers on at least 54 production platforms have been evacuated in advance of Gordon. That is about 8 percent of the staffed platforms in the Gulf and about 9 percent of the region's oil and natural gas production.

In Mississippi, state officials are ordering 12 casinos along the Gulf Coast to close as Gordon approaches.

Mississippi Gaming Commission Executive Director Allen Godfrey says the commission has ordered gambling halls to close at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Such closures are typical in advance of tropical storms and hurricanes, because casinos are in waterfront locations. While casinos themselves typically don't flood, access roads and parking areas often do.

___

2:55 p.m.

Workers are uprooting traffic signal boxes along a beachfront highway in Mississippi and lowering tall traffic lights in advance of the arrival of Tropical Storm Gordon.

Mississippi Department of Transportation spokesman Jason Scott says about 50 signal control boxes are being removed along U.S. 90, which parallels the Mississippi Sound and could go underwater in Gordon's storm surge.

Workers are also lowering dozens of lights from high masts along nearby Interstate 10.

The DOT is locking three drawbridges into place, meaning no more tall boats can move inland to safety. Workers will then remove long-armed warning gates to keep them from blowing away.

Crews are also on standby to remove sand and debris from U.S. 90 and other roadways after the storm.

Forecasters say Gordon should become a hurricane shortly before striking land along or near the Mississippi coast late Tuesday.

___

2:35 p.m.

A barrier island on Alabama's coast is virtually abandoned as Tropical Storm Gordon moves toward a landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Water was already over part of the main road on Dauphin Island south of Mobile on Tuesday afternoon, and big waves broke just yards from beachfront homes built on stilts.

But few people were around, partly because the Labor Day holiday ended the traditional beach season.

A few tourists stood on a public beach taking photos and a taco shop had a few customers at lunchtime. Most parking areas were empty, however.

Light winds on the island are forecast to strengthen during the evening hours.

Forecasters say Gordon should become a hurricane shortly before striking land along or near the Mississippi coast late Tuesday.

___

2:10 p.m.

President Donald Trump says the federal government is ready to help anyone in Tropical Storm Gordon's path.

The president said in a message on Twitter that anyone affected by the storm needs to follow the advice of state and local leaders and seek updates from the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Forecasters say Gordon should become a hurricane shortly before striking land along or near the Mississippi coast late Tuesday.

If Gordon becomes a hurricane, it would be the first hurricane to strike the U.S. since Nate came ashore in Biloxi, Mississippi, last October.

___

1:35 p.m.

The U.S. Coast Guard has closed three Gulf Coast ports as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches.

The Coast Guard says it closed Mississippi ports in Gulfport and Pascagoula and the port in Mobile, Alabama, because hurricane force winds are possible within 12 hours.

The National Hurricane Center expects Gordon to become a hurricane before making landfall along or near the Mississippi coast Tuesday night.

The Coast Guard also said in a statement it's moving ships and helicopters out of the path of the storm so rescues will be limited or unavailable during the height of the storm.

___

1 p.m.

Forecasters say Tropical Storm Gordon hasn't strengthened as its outer bands bring rain and wind to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the center of the storm is about 145 miles (235 kilometers) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi.

Gordon's top sustained winds remain at 65 mph (100 kph), but the storm is still forecast to go above the 74 mph (120 kph) threshold to be a hurricane before hitting land late Tuesday or on Wednesday.

Heavy rain is already falling over western Florida and is expected to spread west along the coast to New Orleans.

A hurricane warning is in effect for all the Alabama and Mississippi coast. Forecasters say the region could see life-threatening, rising waters of 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters).

___

12:50 p.m.

Louisiana's governor is urging his state's residents to remain vigilant for Tropical Storm Gordon, though the worst of the weather is forecast to hit east of the state.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday that Gordon remains a "very dangerous storm" and shouldn't be taken lightly.

The governor says he's authorized 350 National Guard troops stationed around Louisiana with high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters to respond to any storm threats as needed.

Latest forecasts show Gordon expected to skim part of southeast Louisiana and then move into northeast Louisiana, bringing high wind and heavy rain in areas already saturated from prior rainstorms.

A dozen school districts in southeast Louisiana closed Tuesday, along with several college campuses.

___

12:50 p.m.

In a neighborhood not protected by New Orleans' levees, L. J. Cazaux was getting ready for Tropical Storm Gordon.

Cazaux and others were moving boats and cars to a lot of elevated land and stocking up on food and water.

Cazaux planned to ride out the storm in his home in the Venetian Isles neighborhood. He elevated it after the massive floods during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Cazaux says living outside the levee just means it floods before anyone else, but the water also goes down faster.

New Orleans officials say their pumps are ready to get water out of the city.

___

11 a.m.

The head of the U.S. National Hurricane Center says he isn't just worried about flooding from the ocean but also flooding from heavy rain from Tropical Storm Gordon.

National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham says water will be the main story with the storm, currently forecast to make landfall in or near the Mississippi coast late Tuesday.

Graham says a life-threatening storm surge of 3 of 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters) is predicted along the western Alabama, Mississippi and extreme eastern Louisiana coasts.

Graham says heavy rain could also threaten lives. Up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain is expected on the storm's track into southern Arkansas, with some areas seeing up to 12 inches (30 centimeters).

Graham said Tuesday in a Facebook Live video that even if the storm doesn't reach its forecast of hurricane strength its effect would be about the same.

___

10:10 a.m.

Forecasters say they still expect Tropical Storm Gordon to become a hurricane before making landfall somewhere along or near the Mississippi coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the center of the storm is about 145 miles (235 kilometers) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Gordon's top sustained winds are 65 mph (100 kph), but the storm is forecast to go above the 74 mph (120 kph) threshold to be a hurricane before hitting land late Tuesday or on Wednesday.

Heavy rain is already falling over western Florida and is expected to spread west along the coast to New Orleans.

A storm surge warning is in effect from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama. Forecasters say the region could see life-threatening, rising waters of 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters).

A hurricane warning is in effect for all the Alabama and Mississippi coast.

___

9 a.m.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed a state of emergency ahead of the expected landfall of Tropical Storm Gordon.

Ivey's office says she signed the declaration Tuesday morning.

Gordon is expected to scrape the Alabama coast as it is makes landfall in Mississippi late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning.

The National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane warning from the mouth of the Pearl River to the Alabama-Florida border.

Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Hastings wrote on Twitter that coastal residents are urged to get to a safe location by Tuesday afternoon and stay there until Wednesday morning.

___

8:10 a.m.

Mississippi's governor has declared a state of emergency as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches the Gulf Coast.

Gov. Phil Bryant said Monday night that the declaration will make state resources and personnel available to areas affected by the storm.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency warned in a Tuesday update that tornadoes will be possible Tuesday afternoon through the evening. The agency says flash flooding, high winds and storm surge also threatened the southern part of the state.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border. The National Hurricane Center is predicting a "life-threatening" storm surge along parts of the central Gulf Coast.

___

7:40 a.m.

A number of schools near Pensacola in northwest Florida have called off classes as Tropical Storm Gordon spins through the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials along Pensacola Beach say the waves are picking up Tuesday morning and lifeguards are warning beachgoers of the danger.

Pensacola Water Safety Capt. Jake Wilson tells WEAR-TV the strong east wind is bringing a lateral current "where it's just going to push you down the beach."

Wilson says beachgoers shouldn't get into the Gulf of Mexico when red flags are flying along the beaches.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border. The National Hurricane Center is predicting a "life-threatening" storm surge along parts of the central Gulf Coast.

___

1:40 a.m.

Tropical Storm Gordon is expected to strengthen into a hurricane late Tuesday when it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast, including coastal Mississippi. From there, it is forecast to move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.

Gordon formed into a tropical storm near the Florida Keys early Monday as it lashed the southern part of the state with heavy rains and high winds.

The storm was centered 280 miles (450 kilometers) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, forecasters said early Tuesday morning. Maximum sustained winds were clocked at 65 mph (100 kph).

A hurricane warning was put into effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border.

Mitchell Nugent paddles a board toward waves near Crystal Beach as Tropical Storm Gordon churns the Gulf of Mexico in Destub, Fla., Tuesday Sept. 4, 2018, (Devon Ravine/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP)

A car drives through a road as it slowly begins to flood as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. Boaters are evacuating to safe harbors, and motorists are fleeing barrier islands as the Gulf Coast hustles to get ready for the storm. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

Charles Bungart gets his boat out of the water as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

Charles Bungart works to get his boat out of the water as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

John Cunningham, left, and Hunter Shows, right, watch the waves crash from Tropical Storm Gordon on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

Sheets of rain and heavy clouds move into the city ahead of the landfall of Tropical Storm Gordon in New Orleans, La. Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Matthew Hinton /The Advocate via AP)

Sheets of rain and heavy clouds move into the city ahead of the landfall of Tropical Storm Gordon in New Orleans, La. Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (Matthew Hinton /The Advocate via AP)

Children play in the sand on Crystal Beach as waves from Tropical Storm Gordon churn the Gulf of Mexico in Destin, Fla., Tuesday Sept. 4, 2018, (Devon Ravine/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP)

A woman uses a beach umbrella to stay dry as she crosses Scenic Highway 98 in Miramar Beach, Fla., Tuesday Sept. 4, 2018, as Tropical Storm Gordon makes its way past the Florida Panhandle. (Devon Ravine/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP)

Krystal Flanagan, left, of Biloxi, Miss., and her son, Desmond Dentley, walk on the beach in Biloxi on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, as Tropical Storm Gordon heads toward the Mississippi coast. The storm could strengthen to a category 1 hurricane before making landfall later on Tuesday. (John Fitzhugh/The Sun Herald via AP)

Beach vendors load beach chairs on the beach in Biloxi, Miss., on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, as Tropical Storm Gordon heads toward the Mississippi coast. The storm could strengthen to a category 1 hurricane before making landfall later on Tuesday. (John Fitzhugh/The Sun Herald via AP)

Ken Graham, center, director of the National Hurricane Center speaks during a broadcast, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, at the hurricane center in Miami. Boaters evacuated to safe harbors, and motorists fled barrier islands Tuesday as the Gulf Coast hustled to get ready for Tropical Storm Gordon, which was on track to hit Mississippi as a Category 1 hurricane sometime after nightfall. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Jamie Rhome, left, Storm Surge Specialist and Team Lead, chats with Ken Graham, right, director of the National Hurricane Center, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, at the hurricane center in Miami. Boaters evacuated to safe harbors, and motorists fled barrier islands Tuesday as the Gulf Coast hustled to get ready for Tropical Storm Gordon, which was on track to hit Mississippi as a Category 1 hurricane sometime after nightfall. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center speaks during a broadcast, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, at the hurricane center in Miami. Boaters evacuated to safe harbors, and motorists fled barrier islands Tuesday as the Gulf Coast hustled to get ready for Tropical Storm Gordon, which was on track to hit Mississippi as a Category 1 hurricane sometime after nightfall. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Senior Hurricane Specialist Stacy Stewart watches tracks Tropical Storm Gordon at the National Hurricane Center, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Miami. Boaters evacuated to safe harbors, and motorists fled barrier islands Tuesday as the Gulf Coast hustled to get ready for Tropical Storm Gordon, which was on track to hit Mississippi as a Category 1 hurricane sometime after nightfall. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Chris Stebly tries to catch some waves as Tropical Storm Gordon heads towards the coast on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

A car drives through a road as flood waters come in from Tropical Storm Gordon on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018 in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

Senior Hurricane Specialist Stacy Stewart watches monitors at the National Hurricane Center, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Miami. Boaters evacuated to safe harbors, and motorists fled barrier islands Tuesday as the Gulf Coast hustled to get ready for Tropical Storm Gordon, which was on track to hit Mississippi as a Category 1 hurricane sometime after nightfall. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Glen Arnsdorff, right, hands a piece of sheet metal to William McKinley, left, as they board up a beach house to prepare for Tropical Storm Gordon on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

Dan McLemore, right, and his wife Sally, left, clear out their beach to prepare for Tropical Storm Gordon on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018 in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

Evan Green, 8, gets out of the water as the first clouds from Tropical Storm Gordon come in on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

A family watches the first rains clouds from Tropical Storm Gordon roll in on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Dauphin Island, Ala. (AP Photo/Dan Anderson)

Sailors prepare the Sea Biscuit to leave Long Beach Harbor, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Long Beach, Miss., in advance of Tropical Storm Gordon, which is continuing to strengthen and is expected to become a hurricane late Tuesday when it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast, including coastal Mississippi. (Amanda McCoy/The Sun Herald via AP)

Manuel Arias walks with a guard dog, Toto, past boats that were dry-docked inland in preparation for Tropical Storm Gordon, expected to make landfall as a hurricane later in the evening, in Pass Christian, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Grass blows in the breeze in front of a boat that sunk from last year's Hurricane Nate, in advance of Tropical Storm Gordon, expected to make landfall as a hurricane this evening, in Pass Christian, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)BALTIMORE (AP) - At an inner-city stable in one of the grittiest areas of Baltimore, a vanishing breed of urban horsemen prepares for its weekly visit to Pennsylvania Dutch country, where Mennonite farmers are helping to carry on a merchant tradition handed down through generations of African-American families.

On this recent morning, a few of the remaining practitioners of an obscure trade and folk culture known as arabbing are taking ponies to get shod in New Holland, Pennsylvania, where horse-drawn buggies clip-clop along rural blacktops and craftsmen still make wooden wagon wheels, carriages and leather harnesses.

It's an unlikely cross-cultural bond: a tight community of African-American horsemen in impoverished West Baltimore and rural Old Order Mennonites who shun most modern conveniences. Their worlds come together via a dependence on horses and a determination to live proudly on the margins of modern society.

In this June 18, 2018 photo, James Chase, left, hands fresh strawberries to his wife Shawnta while visiting an Old Order Mennonite family's farm in New Holland, Pa. It's an obscure cross-cultural bond: a tight community of African-American horsemen in disenfranchised West Baltimore and Pennsylvania Mennonites who live by candlelight and scripture. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

"We rely on Mennonite know-how because we don't have the knowledge and the tools to do some of this stuff anymore. It's the way we found to keep this life going," said James "Fruit" Chase, the leader of a roughly 20-horse stable that's the strongest remnant of Baltimore's old arabbing tradition.

Selling fruit and vegetables from horse-drawn carts - which took root with black families in Baltimore after the Civil War - persists in this city not through nostalgia but through need. Baltimore's remaining arabbers - a name derived from an old term for peddlers of 19th century London and pronounced AY-rabbers - work out of three licensed stables tucked away in areas where healthful food is scarce among corner markets and greasy takeout joints.

In recent decades, the street peddlers managed to forge a sustaining link with Pennsylvania's tradition-bound Mennonites - generally less austere cousins to the Amish.

Daniel Van Allen, the head of Baltimore's Arabber Preservation Society, describes the little-known connection between the arabbers and Old Order Mennonites as "the meeting of two subcultures."

"They're not involved with the same big-budget, big-money economy that the modern people are," said Van Allen, adding that Baltimore is the last U.S. city to have functional horse-cart vending.

Chase, a charismatic man with an easy smile, has developed warm friendships with conservative Mennonites, young and old. What was once a culture clash for him has become a weekly visit full of common ground. Two Associated Press journalists accompanied Chase and two arabbing colleagues on a recent visit to an Old Order Mennonite family's 35-acre (14-hectare) farm, where water is pumped by hand and Scripture verses are read by candlelight.

The West Baltimore horseman - in a camouflage cap, jeans and sneakers - presented a striking contrast with patriarch Leon Hoover's family. The bearded farmer and his four boys dressed alike in straw hats and pants hitched up by suspenders. His wife and eldest daughter wore long dresses and bonnets.

"You can't really go a lot of places and not see people arguing, fighting and fussing. But up here, it's like a piece of heaven," said Chase, relaxing on the porch of the Hoovers' rambling farmhouse after picking strawberries with the Mennonite youngsters he's introduced to his own.

Hoover, whose family has farmed an electricity-free patch of New Holland for generations, said he valued Chase's friendship. His children break out into wide grins every time they see West Baltimore's arabbers coming.

"We trust James. We don't travel much and the children like to hear his stories from the city," Hoover said as he inspected tomato vines.

Pretty much every Monday, Chase also stops at a Mennonite auction that provides affordable horses, some for as little as $700. Mennonite men outside the auction did the hard work of shoeing the arabbers' ponies and filing their back teeth on a blazingly hot afternoon.

Like many old traditions, arabbing has greatly diminished in Baltimore due to development and urban renewal. At one time, stables were scattered across the city. But by the 1960s, their number had decreased to 25. Arabbers were pushed further toward the margins when the city's wholesale produce markets closed.

Now, Chase is one of a dozen people who still tenaciously cling to the trade, loading up bounties of wholesalers' produce on canopied red-and-yellow painted carts pulled by horses with bells and feather plumes. Harnesses are embellished with heart-shaped brass rivets.

Faithful customers, often elderly people, emerge on blocks marred by boarded-up properties to buy from arabbers' carts. It's the only option many citizens in Baltimore's poorest areas have to purchase fresh food that doesn't involve a lengthy bus trip or two.

Baltimore's arabber clans say they've got no choice but to put in the hard hours to sustain the life they love. They are "horse crazy," they say, and are deeply proud of family legacies stretching back over a century in some cases.

The highlight of their week? Traveling to Pennsylvania Dutch country.

"I let my city stress fade up there until I cross that Maryland line again," said Chase, as the sun rose over the Fremont Street stable decorated with colorful murals honoring his family's arabbing heritage.

___

Follow McFadden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmcfadd

In this June 18, 2018 photo, James Chase, back left, shares slices of melon with sons belonging to an Old Order Mennonite family at the family's farm in New Holland, Pa. Over time, black Baltimore street vendors fighting to keep their anachronistic trade alive managed to forge an unlikely alliance with rural Pennsylvania's Mennonites - generally less austere cousins to the Amish - who serve as a sustaining link. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 20, 2018 photo, a young boy pets a horse at an arabber stable in Baltimore. The city's remaining arabbers work out of three licensed stables tucked away in areas where healthful food is scarce among corner markets and greasy takeout joints. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 18, 2018 photo, a boy belonging to an Old Order Mennonite family walks in a field at his family's farm in New Holland, Pa. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 18, 2018 photo, James Chase, left, visits with children belonging to an Old Order Mennonite family inside a barn on their property in New Holland, Pa. What was once a culture clash has become an anticipated weekly visit full of personal interactions and common ground. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 20, 2018 photo, Bilal Yusuf Abdullah leads a horse-drawn arabber cart full of produce past abandoned houses in Baltimore. An arabber cart is the only option many citizens in Baltimore's poorest areas have to purchase fresh food that doesn't involve a lengthy bus trip or two. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 20, 2018 photo, Bilal Yusuf Abdullah, center, leads a horse to an arabber stable as neighborhood boys tag along in Baltimore. Baltimore has long been the last U.S. city to have functional horse-cart vending. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 18, 2018 photo, a message reading "Give thanks unto the Lord" is carved into the skin of a melon at an Old Order Mennonite family's farm in New Holland, Pa. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 18, 2018 photo, James Chase, left, the leader of a Baltimore arabber stable, visits with a member of an Old Order Mennonite family at the family's farm in New Holland, Pa. While arabbers' business ties with the old order craftsmen has stretched back decades, Chase, a charismatic man with an easy smile, has developed warm friendships with conservative Mennonites, young and old. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 18, 2018 photo, James Rich, a member of a Baltimore arabber stable, coaxes a horse into a trailer in New Holland, Pa., after it received a new set of horseshoes. It's an obscure cross-cultural bond: a tight community of African-American horsemen in disenfranchised West Baltimore and tradition-bound Old Order Mennonites who shun most modern conveniences. But their worlds come together via a dependence on horses and a determination to live proudly on the margins of modern-day society. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 18, 2018 photo, James Chase, left, the leader of a Baltimore arabber stable that's the strongest remnant of city's old merchant tradition, helps a daughter belonging to an Old Order Mennonite family carry produce boxes at her family's farm in New Holland, Pa. "We rely on Mennonite know-how because we don't have the knowledge and the tools to do some of this stuff anymore," said Chase of the arabbing tradition. "It's the way we can keep this life going." (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 20, 2018 photo, a broken window rests against a disused horse-drawn cart at an arabber stable in Baltimore. For decades, people have been forecasting that arabbing - a name deriving from an old term for peddlers of 19th century London - was on the cusp of disappearing, and preservationists have helped keep the urban horsemen going in recent decades. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this June 20, 2018 photo, boys gather around a horse-drawn cart full of produce outside an arabber stable in Baltimore. The vanishing tradition of urban horsemen known as "arabbers" took root with black families in Baltimore after the Civil War, and it persists in areas where healthful food is scarce among corner markets and greasy takeout joints. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)CHICAGO (AP) - New children's concussion guidelines from the U.S. government recommend against routine X-rays and blood tests for diagnosis and reassure parents that most kids' symptoms clear up within one to three months.

Signs of potentially more serious injuries that may warrant CT imaging scans include vomiting, unconsciousness and severe, worsening headaches, according to the guidelines released Tuesday.

The guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are the first broad evidence-based recommendations for diagnosing and treating children's concussions, the researchers say. They evaluated 25 years of scientific research on managing concussions in children and chose procedures with the strongest evidence of benefit.

FILE - This Aug. 12, 2014 file photo shows safety helmets in a container in a pre-K classroom at an elementary school in Oklahoma. Comprehensive new children's concussion guidelines from the U.S. government released on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, recommend against routine X-rays and blood tests for diagnosis and reassure parents that most kids' symptoms subside within one to three months. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

The American Academy of Neurology has similar evidence-based guidelines, but strictly for sports concussions in child and adult athletes and focused on restricting return to play. The American Academy of Pediatrics also has guidance for managing sports concussions, and for returning to school after a concussion.

The CDC's guidelines are for concussions from all causes, including falls, sports and car accidents. They recommend rest from physical and mental activity including school and sports immediately after a concussion, gradually resuming normal routines.

CDC brain injury specialist Matthew Breiding, a co-author of the guidelines, said parents should tell their kids to report any concussion symptoms right away - whether they occur at home or during sports activities.

"Some children and teens think concussions aren't serious or worry that if they report a concussion they will lose their position on the team or look weak. Remind them that it's better to miss one game than the whole season," he said.

By some estimates, at least 1 million U.S. children get concussions each year although the true frequency is unknown because there is no national effort to track them and many go untreated. The CDC has proposed developing a surveillance system to fill that gap and the new guidelines , published in JAMA Pediatrics, aim to improve detection and treatment.

The guidelines provide important advice for parents and doctors on managing kids' concussions and could contribute to a "personalized approach to state-of-the-art care," according to a journal editorial by brain injury experts at the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of California, San Francisco.

Concussions, also called mild traumatic brain injury, are caused by a bump or jolt to the head. The impact causes the brain to bounce or twist, potentially damaging brain cells. Repeated concussions have been linked with a debilitating brain disease found in autopsies on some retired football players.

Breiding said many people mistakenly believe that "you need to lose consciousness or be 'knocked out' in order to have a concussion."

Headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light or noise and sleep problems are among other possible symptoms that experts say warrant medical attention.

The guidelines' highlights include:

-X-rays and CT scans aren't effective at detecting concussions. They are sometimes done if doctors suspect a skull fracture or brain bleeding, but CT scans are preferred if a serious injury seems likely. Families should be told of potential risks from CT scans including radiation.

- Blood tests for detecting concussion haven't been proven to work and shouldn't be done outside of research.

-Most children's symptoms clear up within one to three months but recovery varies and can be delayed in kids who've had previous concussions.

-Teens, kids with learning difficulties and those with mental illness all tend to recover more slowly than young children.

-Rest, the main treatment, is recommended for the first three days but inactivity beyond that may worsen symptoms.

-Children with undiagnosed concussions are at risk for another one and longer recovery times.

___

Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @LindseyTanner. Her work can be found here .

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - IndyCar will make its debut at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas and return to Laguna Seca, California, as part of its 2019 schedule.

The 17-race schedule released Tuesday drops the oval track in Phoenix and the road course in Sonoma, California. Both COTA and Laguna Seca are road courses.

"IndyCar has worked to deliver a consistency and cadence to the schedule and that is reflected again in 2019," said Mark Miles, president and CEO of Hulman & Co., which owns IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Takuma Sato drives during the IndyCar auto race Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018, in Portland, Ore. Sato won the race. (Ben Ludeman/The Oregonian via AP)

"We've added races at a pair of tracks that know how to put on fantastic events, while returning to tracks where IndyCar has longstanding relationships on familiar race dates. The diversity of next year's schedule will continue to make what we believe is the most challenging and competitive championship in motorsports."

COTA, in Austin, replaces Phoenix in March as the second race on the schedule. The road course opened in 2011, hosts a Formula One race and, at 3.4 miles, becomes the second-longest circuit on IndyCar's schedule behind Road America in Wisconsin.

Circuit of the Americas founder and chairman Bobby Epstein said the track's fan base has been excited for an IndyCar "from Year 1." The permanent road course opened in 2011.

"It's going to be spectacular," he said.

The deal with COTA made for a brief hiccup with Texas Motor Speedway, an oval in Fort Worth that has hosted 30 IndyCar races since 1997. TMS general manager Eddie Gossage opposed a second race in Texas, but eventually agreed to a four-year contract extension and will host IndyCar in June.

Laguna Seca hosted 22 open-wheel races until 2004. The road course near Monterey was last the site for an Indy car season finale in 1996. It replaces Sonoma as the IndyCar season finale next season.

The only other changes to the schedule are a shift to two weeks earlier for the race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama and the race at Iowa Speedway returns to a nighttime start.

___

More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-AutoRacing and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsYANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The wives of two Myanmar reporters for the Reuters news agency said they were shocked by a sentence of seven years' imprisonment against them on charges of possessing state secrets.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced Monday in proceedings that were widely decried as unfair. They had reported about the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign that drove 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee to Bangladesh. The subject is sensitive in Myanmar because of worldwide condemnation of the military's human rights abuses, which it denies.

Wa Lone's wife, Pan Ei Mon, said at a news conference on Tuesday that she never expected such a harsh punishment "because everyone knows that they didn't do anything wrong."

Pan Ei Mon, wife of a Reuters journalist Wa Lone, talks to media during a press briefing at a hotel in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. A Myanmar court sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison Monday on charges of illegal possession of official documents, a ruling met with international condemnation that will add to outrage over the military's human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

The two men testified that they had been framed by the police.

Pan Ei Mon gave birth to the couple's first child in Yangon on Aug. 10, but her husband has not seen their daughter.

"After I gave birth, I continued to keep strong with the hope that my daughter and her father will meet soon. But I felt like my hope was broken after the verdict yesterday. I am hopeless now," she said.

Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su, also said she had expected her husband would be coming home. They have a 3-year-old daughter.

"I believed he would be free, he felt the same," she said. "But it didn't happen, I felt like I am a crazy person."

She said she still hopes for mercy from the state. At the same time, she remains proud that her husband did his duty as a journalist.

The lawyers for the journalists told the news conference that they would do whatever they could to get their clients freed. They can file an appeal or ask for a pardon, or hope the reporters could be freed under a general amnesty for prisoners.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged Myanmar authorities to review their decision, noting with concern the conviction and sentencing of the two.

"The right to freedom of expression and information is a cornerstone of any democracy. It is unacceptable that these journalists were prosecuted for reporting on major human rights violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine state," Guterres' spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

Pan Ei Mon said she was saddened and hurt that the country's leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, had taken a legalistic position in a June interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK by saying that the two reporters were arrested for breaking the Official Secret Act, not because they exposed the army's abuses.

"I am very sad about what she answered because she was the one whom we always admired and respected," she said.

"We loved and respected her so much," she said. "We feel very sad as our respected person has the wrong opinion about us."

The case drew worldwide attention as an example of how democratic reforms in long-isolated Myanmar have stalled under Suu Kyi's civilian government, which took power in 2016.

Although the military, which ruled the country for a half-century, maintains control of several key ministries, Suu Kyi's rise to government leader had raised hopes for an accelerated transition to full democracy, and her stance on the Rohingya crisis has disappointed many former admirers.

Than Zaw Aung, right, a lawyer of two Reuters journalists, talks to journalists during a press briefing together with Pan Ei Mon, second left, wife of Reuters journalist Wa Lone, Chit Su Win, second right, wife of Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo, and Khin Maung Zaw, left, a lawyer of two Reuters journalists, at a hotel Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Yangon, Myanmar. A Myanmar court sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison Monday on charges of illegal possession of official documents, a ruling met with international condemnation that will add to outrage over the military's human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Chit Su Win, wife of Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo, listens to questions during a press briefing at a hotel Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Yangon, Myanmar. A Myanmar court sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison Monday on charges of illegal possession of official documents, a ruling met with international condemnation that will add to outrage over the military's human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

Wives of two Reuters journalists, Pan Ei Mon, second right, and Chit Su Win, right, talks with Kevin Krolicki, second left, Reuters Regional Editor of Asia, and a Reuters official after a press briefing at a hotel Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Yangon, Myanmar. A Myanmar court sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison Monday on charges of illegal possession of official documents, a ruling met with international condemnation that will add to outrage over the military's human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)As China and Africa continue to deepen cooperation on public health, Chinese medical workers have saved hundreds of millions of African patients and trained tens of thousands of African medical staffs in recent three years.

Their actions well explain the profound connotation of the China-Africa community of shared future.

China and Ghana recently has signed a deal to co-produce a film titled Ebola. The cinematic project will tell the stories of Chinese medical teams assistance in western Africa after the Ebola virus burst in 2014.

Statistics indicates that China has sent a total of 21,000 medical workers to more than 50 countries and regions in Africa since the country sent its first medical mission group to Algeria in 1963, providing medical services to 220 million Africans and training 80,000 medical professionals.

Over the past half century, 51 Chinese medical workers sacrificed their lives in Africa for their noble humanitarian contribution.

In the recent three years, the China-led Brightness Action campaign which offers free treatment for cataract patients in Africa has left its footprints on 40 African countries, recovering eyesight for over 4,000 local citizens in 14 countries.

In addition, Chinese government has aided ophthalmology cooperation centers in 4 African countries, and trained more than 2,100 ophthalmo surgery doctors, nurses and management personnel.

Apart from such figures, China-Africa cooperation on public health is also shown by concrete facts.

Since the arrival of Chinese medical aid team, China-Republic of Congo Friendship Hospital in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, has gradually improved its medical capabilities.

The radio cephalic arteriovenous fistula surgery performed by Chinese doctors in Gaborone, capital of Botswana was hailed as a pioneering act by their local colleagues. Besides, Chinese medical staffs have completed the first painless gastroscopy for South Sudan in July 2017.

A local cardiovascular intervention team was established in Ghana during the stay of Lin Chunying, chief of the second batch of Chinese medical staffs sent to Ghana. Lin made a proposal after knowing the desire of the local doctors to study the technique.

The program officially started in 2015. Under the sponsorship of Chinas National Health Commission, 13 Ghanaian doctors and nurses were sent to China for training.

After a year of study, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital of Ghana finally had its first doctor that could perform percutaneous coronary interventions. So far, an excellent cardiologist team has been preliminarily established in Ghana.

Malaria and AIDS, which are among the biggest challenges for global health governance, also bring huge burden to African countries.

Chinese scientist and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine Tu Youyou has made huge contribution to the global undertakings of anti-malaria with the Artemisinin invented by her and her team. Artemisinin and its compound treatment have saved the lives of millions of Africans. Besides, China has also set up the first pilot malaria-control center in Tanzania.

By offering courses to African AIDS-control officials, China has trained batches of talents for the continent. Meanwhile, Chinese experts sent to Africa have saved considerable AIDS patients.

At present, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is planning to train 2 million community healthcare workers in Africa, said Michel Sidibe, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UNAIDS, adding that this idea is inspired by barefoot doctors in China.

Gao Qi, Member of World Health Organization Malaria Policy Advisory Committee, believes that China-Africa cooperation on public health is creating an innovative model that integrates and coordinates internationals rules, Chinese experiences, and local demand.

The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is about to be held in Beijing. African countries are expecting to see a continuously deepened China-Africa cooperation on public health.COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A judge has dismissed portions of a federal lawsuit filed by a deputy who was fired after he was videotaped tossing a South Carolina high school student across a classroom when she refused to give him her cellphone.

U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled late last month that Ben Fields' claims against the Richland County Sheriff's Department and Richland Two School District should be dismissed.

Sheriff Leon Lott said he wanted to "throw up" after viewing the video of Fields throwing the Spring Valley High School student in October 2015. The video, taken by another student, was posted online and quickly garnered widespread attention.

At a news conference announcing that Fields had been fired, Lott said while he felt some responsibility for the confrontation rested with the student who refused to comply with the deputy's demands, "the maneuver that he used was not based on the training nor acceptable."

"The action of our deputies, we take responsibility for that," he said.

State and federal prosecutors declined to bring charges against Fields, with the U.S. Justice Department saying last year investigators felt Fields did not intend to violate the student's civil rights.

Prosecutors did bring charges against the student who was thrown and the one who shot the video, however. Both were charged with disturbing schools, although the charges were later dropped.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued South Carolina over what it called the criminalization of normal adolescent misbehavior, challenging the state's "disturbing schools" and "disorderly conduct" charges as unconstitutionally vague.

Lott entered into an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that his agency would do its part in ending what federal authorities described as a "school-to-prison pipeline" by providing intensive annual training for deputies who work in schools on how to de-escalate situations, avoid bias and interact properly with disabled students.

The agreement also required the creation of an advisory group including students and parents and the hiring of outside consultants approved by the justice department to assist with compliance. The agreement also brought to a close a civil rights review that began five months before the confrontation between the deputy and the student.

In his lawsuit against the school district, sheriff's department and Lott, Fields said his reputation was ruined by the sheriff's comments and he alleged that Lott acted so swiftly to punish him because the student was black and Fields is white.

That portion of Fields' lawsuit continues. In court documents, attorneys for Lott have said Fields hasn't shown evidence that Lott discriminated against him.

___

Reach Kinnard at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. Read her work at https://apnews.com/search/meg%20kinnard .BASRA, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition on hundreds of protesters in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, killing three civilians and wounding at least four.

A government official told The Associated Press that two policemen were killed and seven wounded in clashes between the two sides, marking some of the worst violence in the city since similar protests broke out in July over poor public services.

The government official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.

Mourners carry the Iraqi flag-draped coffin of Mekki Yasser, a protester whose family and activists said he was killed when he participated in a protest last night, during his funeral on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Basra, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

The violence erupted during the funeral procession for 26-year-old Mekki Yasser, an activist who was killed during protests on Monday. As the mourners passed in front of the provincial government building, protesters threw stones, prompting security forces to fire tear gas at first, then live ammunition, killing another three protesters, according to activists.

The activists spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety. They said a fire was raging on the sixth floor of the provincial government building after protesters lobbed Molotov cocktails inside. A crowd of protesters tried to storm the building.

Iraqis in the south have been protesting against unemployment and poor public services since July. The demonstrations have often turned violent, with protesters attacking government offices and security forces.

Water shortages along with a lingering electricity crisis in the oil-rich region have contributed to protesters' rage, fueling the demonstrations in Basra.

Iraq's government has scrambled to meet the growing demands for public services and jobs, but has been hindered by years of endemic corruption and a financial crisis fueled by diminished oil revenues and the costly war against the Islamic State group.

Mourners chant anti government slogans while carrying the Iraqi flag-draped coffin of Mekki Yasser, a protester whose family and activists said he was killed when he participated in a protest last night, during his funeral on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Basra, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

Mourners throw stones at government security forces during the funeral of Mekki Yasser, a protester whose family and activists said he was killed when he participated in a protest last night, on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

Mourners chant anti government slogans while carrying the Iraqi flag-draped coffin of Mekki Yasser, seen in the poster, a protester whose family and activists said he was killed when he participated in a protest last night, during his funeral on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Basra, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

Mother of Mekki Yasser, a protester whose family and activists said he was killed when he participated in a protest last night, grieves during his funeral on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Basra, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)WASHINGTON (AP) - Spoiling for a fight, a trio of Democratic senators weighing 2020 presidential campaigns seized upon the opening moments of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearings Tuesday in a show of force aimed at countering President Donald Trump.

One by one, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey, demanded that Republicans delay Kavanaugh's hearing after a last-minute release of more than 40,000 pages of documents and the withholding of more than 100,000 others.

The Democrats' coordinated showdown with the committee's chairman, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, served as a theatrical preview of what is expected to be a wild, unpredictable 2020 campaign against Trump, who has stoked outrage among Democratic activists and is expected to fuel an unusually large field of challengers.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left, pause as protesters disrupt the confirmation hearing of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The hearing showed the degree to which the Senate could be the testing ground of resistance among Democrats who are prepared to fight the Republican president's agenda in a field without an obvious front-runner. And it harkened back to how Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democratic senators battled President George W. Bush's administration before launching presidential bids of their own in the 2008 contest.

Grassley hadn't even introduced Kavanaugh by name when Harris interjected, objecting to the late Monday night release of Kavanaugh's documents. Harris, who has created a number of viral moments with her tough questioning of witnesses during her first term, noted lawmakers hadn't had a chance to "review or read or analyze" the papers and said the hearing shouldn't move forward.

"You're out of order. I'll proceed," Grassley responded, banging his gavel.

As Grassley tried to introduce Kavanaugh, Klobuchar called for the hearing to be postponed as the two senators attempted to talk over each other. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., jumped in, asking that the hearing be adjourned, prompting loud cheers and applause in the room.

Kavanaugh, a veteran judge and a former aide to Bush, sat silently as the spectacle unfolded.

Booker then appealed to Grassley's "sense of decency and integrity," pushing for more transparency in the hearing.

"We are rushing through this process in a way that is unnecessary," Booker said.

Harris, Klobuchar and Booker are considering whether to enter the presidential campaign following the November midterm elections, along with other Senate Democrats who aren't on the Judiciary Committee, such as Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Warren on Tuesday joined with activists opposed to Kavanaugh's nomination who had gathered in a Senate office building.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who unsuccessfully battled Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, also is weighing another campaign.

The field could include a number of Democratic governors, members of Congress, mayors and political newcomers along with familiar faces such as former Vice President Joe Biden, who appeared at a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh on Monday.

"The first three issues that have to be addressed for any presidential candidate is can you beat Trump and can you beat Trump and can you beat Trump," said Jeff Link, an Iowa-based Democratic strategist. "If they can find a way to make that sort of argument in the context of the Kavanaugh hearing, I think they'll benefit."

Trump, even with his party facing a challenging midterm election, has relished the prospect of facing off against Democrats when the presidential campaign begins in earnest next year.

The president took to Twitter Tuesday to respond to the Democrats' opposition to Kavanaugh, saying the hearing was "truly a display of how mean, angry, and despicable the other side is." He added that Democrats are "only looking to inflict pain and embarrassment."

But Trump dismissed the possibility of another prospective candidate, former Secretary of State John Kerry, Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee.

"I should only be so lucky," Trump tweeted Monday, adding, "although the field that is currently assembling looks really good - FOR ME!"

None of the Democrats on the judiciary panel is expected to support Kavanaugh's nomination. While they won't be able to delay a vote, they are wary of appearing like they're capitulating to Republicans, mindful of calls from liberals to do everything possible to block the nomination.

Michael Avenatti, a potential 2020 candidate and a lawyer pursuing a civil case against Trump for actress Stormy Daniels, said Senate Democrats had acted too slowly and hadn't done enough to delay the hearing. "Outrage this morning is not enough," he tweeted.

Republicans accused Democrats of politicizing the hearing. "It is about Democratic senators trying to re-litigate the 2016 election and, just as importantly, working to begin litigating the 2020 presidential election," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a former 2016 contender.

During the hearing, the room was filled by demonstrators shouting at Kavanaugh, a reminder of the bitterness against Trump's presidency and Democrats' outrage over the treatment of Merrick Garland, Obama's last Supreme Court nominee, who was denied a hearing in 2016 by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before Trump's election.

While Senate Republicans have the votes to approve Kavanaugh on their own, Democrats can use the confirmation process to amplify their warnings that he could help overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established a woman's constitutional right to an abortion, or undermine health care or other Democratic priorities.

Democrats are expected to press Kavanaugh on those issues when questioning begins Wednesday.

___

On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDCPHOENIX (AP) - The Latest on former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl's appointment to replace John McCain (all times local):

4:40 p.m.

A spokesman for the Arizona governor says Jon Kyl could be sworn in as a U.S. senator as soon as Tuesday evening but it will likely occur Wednesday.

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., answers a question after Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., announced the appointment of Kyl to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Daniel Ruiz II, a spokesman for Gov. Doug Ducey, disclosed the timing hours after Ducey appointed Kyl to fill the seat left vacant by the death of John McCain.

Kyl has only committed to fill the seat until the end of the current congressional session on Jan. 3.

Kyl served three terms in the Senate before retiring in 2012.

Earlier Tuesday, he went from a news conference at the Arizona Capitol to the Phoenix airport to fly to Washington.

___

11:25 a.m.

Meghan McCain is praising former Sen. Jon Kyl's willingness to go back to the Senate and replace her father, who died of brain cancer last month.

She says she can "think of no one better to keep fighting for the country and state he held so dear."

The Republican Kyl served previously as one of Arizona's two senators, alongside McCain.

Meghan McCain on Tuesday tweeted that Kyl is "a true statesman and a friend to my family."

Kyl was appointed by Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey but agreed only to a brief appointment through January 2019.

___

10:50 a.m.

Former Sen Jon Kyl has only agreed to a brief appointment filling the late John McCain's senate seat.

That could help another Arizona Republican who is currently trying to join the U.S. Senate - Rep. Martha McSally.

McSally is running against Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema for an open senate seat in November.

Analysts rate the contest as a toss-up. If McSally loses, she'd be out of a job just in time for Kyl's appointment to end on Jan. 3.

Arizona's governor would be required by state law to appoint another Republican before the 2020 election.

She's a former Air Force colonel and the first female combat pilot.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said on Tuesday he wants Kyl to serve the entire stretch until 2020. Kyl was openly reluctant.

Notably, Kyl is close to McSally. She worked for Kyl as a national security adviser.

___

10:45 a.m.

Former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl is well-respected in Arizona and has been able to avoid many of the battles with activists that complicated the late John McCain's career and that of the state's other senator, Jeff Flake. Flake is retiring because his feud with Trump made his re-election impossible.

Kyl was appointed on Tuesday to serve as the replacement for McCain, who died of brain cancer.

McCain's widow, Cindy, tweeted: "Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's. It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."

Veteran Republican consultant and former McCain aide Doug Cole called Kyl a good, safe pick.

___

10:40 a.m.

The replacement for the late John McCain in the Senate is currently shepherding Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The appointment of the Republican Jon Kyl's on Tuesday by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey may make it possible for him to vote for the nomination.

Ducey, also a Republican, added the hashtag #KavanaughConfirmation to his announcement.

Kyl is an experienced foreign policy hand and will be entering a narrowly divided Senate where Republicans could gain or lose seats in November.

The GOP is hoping he'll be a more reliable partisan vote than McCain, whose opposition to a partial repeal of President Obama's health care law pitched the party into turmoil last year.

___

10:30 a.m.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake is praising the selection of former U.S. Sen Jon Kyl to replace the late John McCain in the Senate.

The Republican Flake says in a statement that "there is no one more qualified" than Kyl, a Republican.

He adds that Arizona "will be well-served by Jon's willingness to once again serve his country."

Arizona's Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday announced that Kyl would replace McCain and serve at least until January 2019.

McCain died Aug. 25 of brain cancer and served with Kyl in the Senate for years.

Flake decided not to run for re-election this year.

___

10:25 a.m.

Former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl says he's grateful for the confidence of the Arizona governor and that he will do his best to ensure the state continues to be well-represented as he takes over John McCain's Senate seat.

Kyl said Tuesday that he has committed to serving through the year and won't seek office in 2020. He said a "sense of duty" drove his decision to take the appointment.

Voters in 2020 will get to decide who fills the remainder of McCain's seat through 2022. Then the seat will be up again for a full six-year term.

Gov. Doug Ducey announced Kyl would replace McCain on Twitter minutes before a scheduled news conference.

McCain died Aug. 25 of brain cancer and served with Kyl in the Senate for years.

10:20 a.m.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl is ready to cast a vote for Brett Kavanaugh to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ducey says Kyl has already worked closely with the White House on the nomination for months.

Ducey also says he hopes Kyl will serve longer than his commitment to fill the seat until January 2019.

___

10:15 a.m.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl has only committed to fill the Senate seat of the late John McCain through January of 2019.

The Republican Ducey says he hopes that Kyl will serve longer.

Kyl says he did not want to commit for a longer period because when he left his Senate seat previously he had no intention of returning.

He says: "In that spirit I am certainly willing to serve through the end of this session."

Kyl says he doesn't want to make a commitment beyond that.

___

9:40 a.m.

Sen. John McCain's widow says former Sen. Jon Kyl will fill her late husband's seat.

Cindy McCain made the statement on Twitter minutes before Arizona's Republican Gov. Doug Ducey was due to make the formal announcement.

Kyl, a Republican, is currently shepherding Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. His appointment may make it possible for him to vote for the nomination.

He is expected to be a placeholder, not running in 2020, when voters will get to decide who fills the remainder of McCain's seat through 2022. Then the seat will be up again for a full six-year term.

Kyl will be entering a narrowly divided senate where Republicans could gain or lose seats in November.

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., right, answers a question after Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., announced the appointment of the former senator to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., right, answers a question after Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., announced the appointment of the former senator to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., left, pauses as he announces the appointment of the former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., right, to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., pauses at the podium as he announces the appointment of the former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., right, to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., pauses as he talks about his appointment by Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., talks about his appointment by Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., talks about his appointment by Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., right, answers a question after Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., announced the Kyl will fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A foster dog placed in a program that pairs Ohio inmates with dogs was found dead in a cell in a violent death, an animal rescue group said.

The State Highway Patrol is investigating the death last month of the dog at Warren Correctional Institution in southwestern Ohio.

A necropsy showed that the dog, a 4-year-old German Shepherd-Elkhound mix named Evie, died of "blunt force trauma to her abdomen," according to Joseph's Legacy, an animal rescue charity in Middletown.

The Ohio prison system has "zero tolerance" for animal abuse, a prisons spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The dog died Aug. 25 but the charity waited for results of the necropsy before publicizing the death, Meg Melampy, the charity president, said.

The charity said it obtained the dog in 2015 when it had a broken hip from a car accident. Joseph's Legacy had placed about 20 dogs with the prison system over the last year, with four or five currently being fostered until the incident, Melampy said. The charity has pulled all its dogs out.

"Confused how such an amazing happy dog can be intentionally harmed. How safety measures have failed her," the charity said in a Facebook post Sunday.

Following the patrol investigation, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction will conduct its own investigation at Warren Correctional as well as review animal programs at other prisons, Smith said.

"The animal training programs within our facilities have proven to be an effective and meaningful activity for over 20 years, and we have absolutely zero tolerance for any type of abuse of the animals who are part of these programs," Smith said in a statement.BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Argentina is not seeking other sources of financing outside the International Monetary Fund for help in curbing an economic crisis, the country's economy minister said Wednesday.

Argentina has asked the IMF for early disbursements in emergency funding from a $50 billion loan approved earlier this year. The country has been hit by one of the world's highest inflation rates and a currency crisis that has seen the peso depreciate by more than 50 percent so far this year.

Economy Minister Nicolas Dujovne has been meeting with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. He said they have made great progress and expect to reach a deal in late September.

Argentina's Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne speaks during a news conference after the private meeting with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde, at IMF headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

He declined to provide details, though he denied reports that Argentina is negotiating a credit line with the U.S. Treasury or searching for other sources of financing outside the IMF.

"I have enormous confidence in the progress that we've made these days," Dujovne said at a news conference in Washington after his second day of talks with the IMF.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he backs the Argentine government's handling of the crisis, which forced Argentine President Mauricio Macri earlier this week to announce austerity measures, calling it an emergency.

The tumbling peso has added to the country's inflation, which is expected to reach an annual rate of more than 40 percent. Economic analysts expect Argentina to plunge into a deeper recession and forecast even higher consumer prices and a weaker currency.

In a temporary relief to the embattled government, the peso strengthened Wednesday to close at about 39 pesos per U.S. dollar, compared to 39.5 a day earlier.

"The reformulation of the (IMF) program will help us leave behind these days of anguish and volatility and will slowly allow the opening of credit to Argentina," Dujovne said. "It will open the doors to private financing and that way we will be able to get back on the path of growth."THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The global chemical weapons watchdog on Tuesday confirmed findings by British authorities that the Novichok nerve agent killed one person and sickened another in the English town of Amesbury in June.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that its tests showed that the nerve agent "is also the same toxic chemical that was found in the biomedical and environmental samples relating to the poisoning" of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in nearby Salisbury in March.

While the OPCW did not publicly name the nerve agent, Britain earlier identified it as Novichok, a lethal substance produced in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Dawn Sturgess and her partner, Charlie Rowley, were sickened months after the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok. Sturgess later died.

The OPCW report said that it was not able to establish whether the Novichok used to poison the Skripals was from the same batch as that which later killed Sturgess and sickened Rowley.

Britain blames Russia for poisoning the Skripals, a charge Moscow denies.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt again hit out at Russia after the OPCW issued its report.

"The recklessness of the Russian state in bringing a nerve agent into the U.K., and total disregard for the safety of the public, is appalling and irresponsible," Hunt said. "Our thoughts are with the family of Dawn Sturgess, and with Charlie Rowley."MOABI REGIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) - The bodies of a man and woman killed in a weekend collision of two recreational boats on the Colorado River were found Tuesday and the search continued for one other missing person, authorities said.

The Mohave County Sheriff's Office in Kingman, Arizona, said the body of 24-year-old Kirra Drury of Ventura, California was located Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier Tuesday, sheriff's officials said the body of 50-year-old Brian Grabowski of Tulare, California, was found in the river along the California-Arizona border.

In this photo released by the San Bernardino County, Calif., Sheriff's Office, shows search and recovery operations Monday, Sept. 3, 2018, for three people missing after two boats collided Saturday evening on the Colorado River along the California-Arizona border near Topock, Ariz. The body of a California woman was found Monday, authorities said. A search continued for two other women and one man. (San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office via AP)

The body of 51-year-old Christine Lewis of Visalia, California, was pulled from the river Monday.

The three were among more than a dozen people ejected from two boats in the crash Saturday night. Both boats sank, and passing boaters pulled crash victims from the water.

Nine people were injured.

One boat carried 10 people and the other vessel had six aboard in a well-traveled stretch of the river, according to the sheriff's office.

None of the boaters were wearing life jackets, which aren't required but are recommended by authorities, Mohave County Sheriff Doug Shuster said.

The crash occurred between two popular marinas and near California's Moabi Regional Park.

The search included helicopters and divers.

In this photo released by Los Angeles Sheriff Department Special Enforcement Bureau their dive team assists San Bernardino County Sheriffs in the search for three missing persons in the Colorado river Monday, Sept. 3, 2018, north of Lake Havasu, near Topock, Ariz. The body of a California woman who was among four people missing after two boats collided on the river was found Monday, authorities said. Christine Lewis, 51, of Visalia, Calif., was discovered in a section of the river along the California-Arizona border, Mohave County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said. (Los Angeles Sheriff Department Special Enforcement Bureau via AP)PHOENIX (AP) - A former U.S. senator from Arizona who is now a lobbyist helping guide the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was named Tuesday to temporarily fill the Senate seat left open by the death of John McCain.

Republican Jon Kyl cited his sense of duty in accepting the appointment but said he's only committing to serve until the end of the congressional session next Jan. 3.

Despite the short window, Kyl will likely be able to vote for Kavanaugh as the Supreme Court nominee.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., right, answers a question after Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., announced the appointment of the former senator to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Kyl, 76, retired from the Senate after three terms in 2012 and became a lobbyist. He said he had wanted to spend more time with his family in Arizona but will reluctantly return to Washington to help finish the nation's business, including confirming the president's judicial nominees.

"I'm putting my country first, just as this seat's previous occupant did every single day for more than 30 years," Kyl said of McCain.

Kyl, an attorney, was appointed by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a fellow Republican who called him the best person for the job "regardless of politics" and said he hopes Kyl stays in the post longer.

President Donald Trump tweeted: "Jon Kyl will be an extraordinary senator representing an extraordinary state, Arizona. I look forward to working with him."

Kyl was a reliable Republican vote during his time in the Senate - in contrast to McCain's occasional defiance of party leaders - and his arrival will be welcome to a GOP that has struggled with a narrow, single-vote majority while McCain was treated for the brain cancer that killed him on Aug. 25.

Voters will decide who they want in the seat in 2020, when they elect someone to serve the rest of McCain's term. The seat will come up again for a six-year term in 2022.

If Kyl does leave the Senate in January, Arizona's governor can appoint another person for the remaining year.

In the coming months, Kyl will have the opportunity to vote on several issues that have been involved in his lobbying activities, from immigration to national security.

He has lobbied on behalf of young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, often called Dreamers, whose fate is in limbo after Trump tried to end an Obama-era program protecting them from deportation and Congress deadlocked on a solution.

Kyl will likely also vote on bills containing tens of billions of dollars for Defense Department programs after he represented defense giant Northrop Grumman.

His work there was primarily focused on tax issues affecting the company, but Kyl's firm, Covington & Burling, also lobbied the House and Senate to drum up support for the B-21 bomber, a stealth aircraft Northrop Grumman is building for the Air Force.

Kyl is well-respected in Arizona and has been able to avoid many of the battles with activists that complicated McCain's career and that of the state's other senator, Jeff Flake, who is retiring because his feud with Trump made his re-election impossible.

Kyl's entire career in Washington overlapped with McCain's, and he served with the state's senior senator for three terms before stepping down. Kyl carved out a profile as a foreign policy expert.

McCain's widow, Cindy, tweeted: "Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's. It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."

Doug Cole, a veteran Republican consultant and former McCain aide, said Kyl was a safe pick.

"I think McCain would be very happy with the pick. Honors his legacy while putting some major horsepower for Arizona in the seat, at least for now," he said.

Kyl speaks in a formal, reserved manner that is a sharp contrast to Trump, and he belongs to an older, less populist vanguard of the GOP. At a news conference where he was introduced as McCain's replacement, Kyl said he's only met Trump once, though he noted he is working for the White House by serving as Kavanaugh's so-called "sherpa."

With a nod toward McCain, Kyl said the president's "desire to jump into the middle of or be in the middle of a fight - and by the way that reminds me of somebody - can be detrimental in the end to what he's trying to achieve."

The unusual timing of Kyl's appointment could work out for another Arizona Republican who wants to become a U.S. senator - Rep. Martha McSally.

She's currently locked in a tough campaign against Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema for the Senate seat Flake is vacating. Should she lose, McSally - a former Air Force colonel who once worked on Kyl's staff - could be appointed to the McCain seat if Kyl leaves it in January.

___

AP reporter Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2012, file photo, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., walks between the Senate chamber and the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in Washington. Sen. John McCain's widow on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, said Kyl will fill her late husband's seat. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this July 11, 2018, file photo, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is escorted by former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sen. John McCain's widow on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, said Kyl will fill her late husband's seat. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 30, 2012, file photo, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., leave the chamber as the Senate rushes to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts that could kick in Jan. 1., at the Capitol in Washington. Sen. John McCain's widow on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, said Kyl will fill her late husband's seat. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., pauses as he talks about his appointment by Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., talks about his appointment by Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., pauses at the podium as he announces the appointment of the former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., right, to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., left, pauses as he announces the appointment of the former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., right, to fill Sen. John McCain's seat in the U.S. Senate at a news conference at the Arizona Capitol Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)SAN DIEGO (AP) - Republican U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California will likely go to trial on corruption charges after Election Day, with all sides agreeing Tuesday to allow more time to review the prosecution's evidence.

The Speedy Trial Act generally requires a defendant to go to trial within 70 days of an indictment, which would have been Nov. 1 in Hunter's case. But all sides agreed to extend the time frame, which is commonly done in complex or major cases because the defense typically needs more time to prepare.

No date was set for the trial, but it could begin in late November or later. Protesters outside the courthouse greeted Hunter with chants such as: "Hunter has to go!"

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter leaves court Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in San Diego. Hunter and his wife Margaret pleaded not guilty on Aug. 23 to charges they illegally used his campaign account for personal expenses. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Even with the charges, Hunter is considered to have a strong chance of winning his sixth term on Nov. 6 in the heavily Republican district near San Diego, where he is up against a first-time Democratic candidate.

Hunter's attorneys said in court that they were just beginning to review the evidence turned over last week by the U.S. attorney's office, and prosecutors were expected to provide more information in coming weeks.

Hunter and his wife have pleaded not guilty to spending more than $250,000 in campaign funds on lavish personal expenses including trips, theater tickets, hundreds of dollars in tequila shots and groceries.

They are accused of trying to conceal the spending by passing them off in federal records as donations to "wounded warriors" and other charities or for fundraising events.

President Donald Trump faced bipartisan criticism after tweeting Monday that his own Justice Department's indictments placed the GOP in jeopardy in the midterm election.

Trump referred to Hunter's indictment and an unrelated indictment also unsealed last month against New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins, who dropped his bid for re-election.

Hunter also has called the indictment by a grand jury a political witch hunt.

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter leaves court Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in San Diego. Hunter and his wife Margaret pleaded not guilty on Aug. 23 to charges they illegally used his campaign account for personal expenses. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)Eighty California lawmakers have unanimously passed a bill to declare their support for continued coordination and collaboration between the US, including the California state, and China.

In the bill, Assembly Joint Resolution No. 44, passed on August 30, members of the California State Assembly called on the state to increase mutually beneficial economic opportunities and strengthen the substantial, bilateral relationship in the areas of people-to-people exchange, trade, climate change, education, tourism, technology, innovation, and green development.

Besides support for intensified cooperation between the state and China, the 80 members also urged the US President and Congress to support actions that further strengthen economic links between the US and China.

Authored by Assembly member Evan Low, a congressman representing Silicon Valley, the bill expounded on economic relations between China and the US, and aroused the attention of the US society soon after it was passed.

Located on the west coast of the US, California topped other US states in terms of population and economic performance.

According to the US Department of Commerce, Californias GDP grew by $127 billion from 2016 to more than $2.7 trillion in 2017.

China is California's largest trading partner, as well as the biggest source of imports and an important export destination. In 2017, Californias trade volume with China reached $175.6 billion, accounting for about 28 percent of the US total trade volume with China and ranking the first among all states.

Globalization is here, and a trade war is stupid, Governor Jerry Brown of California warned this May at the China Week event held in Los Angeles, stressing that China and the US can learn from each other.LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Defense Department says the remains of a U.S. Marine killed in a World War II battle in the Pacific have been identified as an Arkansas man.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Tuesday that Marine Corps Sgt. Millard Odom from Batesville, Arkansas, was officially identified Aug. 20 through DNA, dental and anthropological analysis, and "circumstantial and material evidence."

Odom was 26 when he was killed in battle on a small island in Kiribati and was buried there with approximately 1,000 Marines and sailors.

The Defense Department said after the war the remains were recovered and unidentified bodies were interred in Honolulu. Odom's remains were sent in 2017 to a laboratory for identification.

Officials estimate more than 72,000 U.S. service members who fought during World War II are unaccounted for.ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Officials say a crane collapsed onto a house in a Florida neighborhood, tearing a large gash in its roof.

The Orlando Fire Department says the crane fell over Tuesday in the upscale Baldwin Park neighborhood. No injuries were reported.

Photos released by the fire department show the crane's base turned partially over in front of the home, while its arm rests on the damaged roof.

This photo released by the Orlando Fire Department shows a truck carrying a crane tipped over, damaging a house in the Baldwin Park neighborhood of Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Officials did not say what caused the crane to overturn. (Orlando Fire Department via AP)

Officials didn't immediately say what the crane was being used for or what caused it to topple.

This photo released by the Orlando Fire Department shows firefighters surveying the scene where a crane tipped over, damaging a house in the Baldwin Park neighborhood of Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. Officials did not say what caused the crane to overturn. (Orlando Fire Department via AP)SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Latest on an Idaho prison inmate accused of rape at a wildfire base camp (all times local):

3 p.m.

The Idaho Department of Corrections has sent inmates who help fight wildfires back to prison as it reviews an allegation that a prisoner working in Utah raped a woman at a camp for fire crews.

This photo taken Aug. 6, 2018, shows a helicopter heads out to dump water on the Coal Hollow Fire near U.S. Highway 6. An Idaho prisoner sent to help fight a wildfire in Utah raped a woman who also was working to support firefighters, prosecutors said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. The woman had rejected several advances from Ruben Hernandez, 27, in the days before the Aug. 29 assault at the base camp, Sanpete County attorney Kevin Daniels said. Hernandez has been charged with felony rape. (Evan Cobb/The Daily Herald via AP)

Corrections spokesman Jeff Ray said Tuesday that the agency is reviewing the way it selects, trains and deploys inmates who support firefighters.

Many states in the U.S. West have similar programs allowing low-level offenders to be temporarily released to aid in firefighting efforts.

Ruben Hernandez has been charged with rape after a woman also working to support firefighters reported that he assaulted her Aug. 29 at a base camp in a remote area south of Salt Lake City.

He was part of a 10-person crew who cooked and did janitorial work. They were supervised by two Idaho correctional officers.

___

11:25 a.m.

Prosecutors say an Idaho prison inmate sent to help fight a wildfire raped a woman who was also working to support firefighters in Utah.

Sanpete County Attorney Kevin Daniels said Tuesday the woman had rejected several advances from 27-year-old Ruben Hernandez before the Aug. 29 assault. Hernandez was charged with felony rape.

Prison inmates are also released to fight wildfires in other Western states like California.

Daniels says county authorities weren't aware inmates were working the fire about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City, but they are typically low-level offenders nearing parole dates who do work like cooking and cleaning.

Idaho prison records show Hernandez would have been eligible for parole on a drug charge in less than a year.

No attorney was immediately listed for him.

This photo taken Aug. 6, 2018, shows a helicopters returning from performing an air operation on the Coal Hollow Fire near U.S. Highway 6. An Idaho prisoner sent to help fight a wildfire in Utah raped a woman who also was working to support firefighters, prosecutors said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. The woman had rejected several advances from Ruben Hernandez, 27, in the days before the Aug. 29 assault at the base camp, Sanpete County attorney Kevin Daniels said. Hernandez has been charged with felony rape. (Evan Cobb/The Daily Herald via AP)WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says President Donald Trump will chair a Security Council meeting on Iran during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York this month.

Ambassador Nikki Haley said Tuesday that the meeting will address "violations of international law and general instability Iran sows throughout the entire Middle East region."

She accused Iran of supporting terrorism and destabilizing activities in Lebanon, Yemen and Syria. She says Iran's leader could speak at the council meeting if he chooses to.

Haley was speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters. She outlined the agenda for the United States' monthlong presidency of the council during September. The council is the top decision-making body at the U.N.REEDSBURG, Wis. (AP) - The Latest on a teenager who died during a religious fast in Wisconsin (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

Wisconsin prosecutors have charged a father and mother from Reedsburg who allegedly let their teenage son die during a religious fast.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports Sauk County prosecutors charged 49-year-old Kehinde Omosebi (OH'-moh-see-bee) and 48-year-old Titilayo Omosebi with child neglect causing death as well as child neglect causing great bodily harm.

Reedsburg Police Chief Timothy Becker says Kehinde Omosebi went to police on Sunday to report his 15-year-old son's death. When officers arrived at the family's home, they found the dead teen and an extremely emaciated 11-year-old boy. They also found Titilayo Omosebi emaciated.

Kehinde Omosebi told police he was a minister and the family had started a religious fast July 19. Becker says police don't believe he's a minister.

Kehinde Omosebi's attorney, Leonie Dolch, didn't immediately return a voicemail. Online court records did not list an attorney for Titilayo Omosebi.

___

10:57 a.m.

A father and mother have been arrested in southern Wisconsin after their teenage son died and another child was hospitalized following what the father described as a weekslong religious fast.

Reedsburg Police Chief Timothy Becker says the father went to the police station Sunday to report the death of his 15-year-old son. When police arrived at the family's home they found the dead teen and an extremely emaciated 11-year-old boy.

The mother was also found to be emaciated.

Becker says the father told police he was a minister and that the family had started a religious fast July 19.

Becker says police do not believe the father is a minister. He says the younger boy remains hospitalized in Madison.

___

Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsjWASHINGTON (AP) - A man whose teenage daughter was killed in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting tried to shake the hand of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a break in Tuesday's confirmation hearing.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie died in the February 2018 attack, approached Kavanaugh after he rose from the witness table for a lunch break. He put out his hand to Kavanaugh, who paused for a moment before turning away as a security guard stepped in.

Afterward, Guttenberg tweeted that Kavanaugh "pulled his hand back, turned his back to me and walked away. I guess he did not want to deal with the reality of gun violence."

Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jamie Guttenberg who was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., left, attempts to shake hands with President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, right, as he leaves for a lunch break while appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, to begin his confirmation to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh did not shake his hand. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

White House spokesman Raj Shah said security intervened before Kavanaugh could shake the hand of the "unidentified individual." He shared a video clip of the moment, saying it showed that "as the Judge was leaving and had already turned away and begun walking, security intervened and ushered the Judge away."

Guttenberg pushed back on Twitter, saying: "Incorrect. I was here all day and introduced by Senator Feinstein. No security involved. He turned and walked away."

After the encounter, Capitol Police talked with Guttenberg. He was again sitting in the hearing room for the afternoon session.

The Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left 17 people dead.

White House counsel Don McGahn, second from right, watches as Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jamie Guttenberg who was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., left, attempts to shake hands with President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, right, as he leaves for a lunch break while appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, to begin his confirmation to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh did not shake his hand. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Cities can't prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with six homeless people from Boise, Idaho, who sued the city in 2009 over a local ordinance that banned sleeping in public spaces. The ruling could affect several other cities across the U.S. West that have similar laws.

It comes as many places across the West Coast are struggling with homelessness brought on by rising housing costs and income inequality.

File-This undated file photo shows the entrance to an alley known as Cooper Court, a homeless camp in Boise, Idaho. A federal appellate court says cities can't prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go. In a ruling handed down Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with six homeless Boise, Idaho residents who sued the city in 2009 alleging that a local ordinance that bans sleeping on the streets amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling could impact several other cities across the western U.S.(Adam Cotterell/Boise State Public Radio via AP, File)

When the Boise lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the homeless residents said as many as 4,500 people didn't have a place to sleep in Idaho's capital city and homeless shelters only had about 700 available beds or mats. The case bounced back and forth in the courts for years, and Boise modified its rules in 2014 to say homeless people couldn't be prosecuted for sleeping outside when shelters were full.

But that didn't solve the problem, the attorneys said, because Boise's shelters limit the number of days that homeless residents can stay. Two of the city's three shelters also require some form of religious participation for some programs, making those shelters unsuitable for people with different beliefs, the homeless residents said.

The three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit found that the shelter rules meant homeless people would still be at risk of prosecution even on days when beds were open. The judges also said the religious programming woven into some shelter programs was a problem.

"A city cannot, via the threat of prosecution, coerce an individual to attend religion-based treatment programs consistently with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," Judge Marsha Berzon wrote.

The biggest issue was that the city's rule violated the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment, the court found. The amendment limits what the government can criminalize, it said.

"As a result, just as the state may not criminalize the state of being 'homeless in public places,' the state may not 'criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless - namely sitting, lying, or sleeping on the streets,'" Berzon wrote.

The ruling shows it's time for Boise officials to start proposing "real solutions," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, whose attorneys were among those representing the homeless residents.

"Criminally punishing homeless people for sleeping on the street when they have nowhere else to go is inhumane, and we applaud the court for holding that it is also unconstitutional," Foscarinis said in a statement.

Boise spokesman Mike Journee said city attorneys were considering their next steps, which could include asking the full 9th Circuit to reconsider the ruling or appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But city officials also believe the ruling validates the approach Boise officers have taken since 2014 - not ticketing homeless people when shelters are full, he said.

"If there are, as a result of the ruling, adjustments that need to be made, we'll consider those when the time comes," Journee said.

Other cities have faced similar lawsuits, with varying results.

In 2007, the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of homeless residents of Los Angeles, finding that as long as there are more homeless residents than there are shelter beds, a law outlawing sleeping outside was unconstitutional. Both sides later reached an agreement and the entire case was eventually thrown out.

In 2009, a federal judge said a Portland, Oregon, policy designed to prevent people from sitting or lying on public sidewalks was unconstitutional. Portland officials now must also give campers at least 24 hours' notice before cleaning up or moving unsanctioned camps.

A state judge rejected a similar anti-camping law in Everett, Washington.

Sara Rankin, a professor at the Seattle University School of Law and director of its Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, said the ruling will serve as a wake-up call to local governments, forcing them to invest in adequate supportive housing for the chronically homeless.

"I think it's finally common sense," Rankin said of the ruling. "There are certain life-sustaining activities that people can't survive without doing. It's a really important recognition that people have to be able to legally exist and survive somewhere."

___

Associated Press reporter Phuong Le contributed to this story from Seattle.

___

This story has been corrected to show the headline had a typo of "can" instead of "can't."LAS VEGAS (AP) - A convicted felon accused of killing two Vietnamese tour leaders at a Las Vegas Strip casino-hotel made multiple court appearances Tuesday following his return in custody to Nevada from California.

Julius Damiano Deangilo Trotter stood in shackles and sought time to hire a lawyer for his defense in the double-murder and robbery case.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Harmony Letizia gave him until Oct. 4 to do so.

FILE - This February 2017, file photo released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Julius Trotter, 31, accused of killing two Vietnamese tour leaders at a Las Vegas Strip casino-hotel. Trotter told a judge during a hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, that he's trying to hire a lawyer for the double-murder case, and the judge gave him until Oct. 4 to do so. Trotter is accused of stabbing Sang Boi Nghia and Khuong Le Ba Nguyen to death before their bodies were found June 1 in a room at the Circus Circus hotel. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP, File)

Trotter, 31, is accused of stabbing Sang Boi Nghia and Khuong Le Ba Nguyen to death before their bodies were found June 1 in a room at the Circus Circus hotel.

District Attorney Steve Wolfson has not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty if Trotter is convicted.

Deputy public defender Joseph Abood accompanied Trotter during three separate court appearances at which Trotter wasn't asked to enter pleas.

In separate cases, he is accused of armed robbery, burglary with a weapon and felony lewdness.

Abood and a prosecutor, Pamela Weckerly, declined to comment outside court.

Trotter remains jailed without bail.

Nghia owned a tour business in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Nguyen was a tour employee. Police said they arrived in Las Vegas with a tour group from Los Angeles a day before their bodies were found.

Hotel security went to their room on the 21st floor at the request of tour members worried that the two hadn't shown up for a trip to the Grand Canyon.

Trotter was arrested a week later in Chino, California, after a car chase.CHICAGO (AP) - A California man preparing to pursue a doctorate degree at Northwestern University has been killed while caught in gunfire between two men in Chicago.

Officials say 25-year-old Shane Colombo was shot Sunday night near a bus stop in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago's far north side. The Sun City, California, man was scheduled to join Northwestern's psychology program in fall.

Northwestern President Morton Schapiro calls it a "terrible loss for our community."

Students and staff were told that Colombo received a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University and was moving to Chicago from New York City. He had been performing research in the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab at Columbia University.

___

This story has been corrected to show Colombo was from California, not Arizona.ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A man traveling to California with his pregnant longtime girlfriend said it seemed like the world was ending after a semitruck smashed into their commercial passenger bus on a New Mexico highway.

Joseph Chandler told Albuquerque television station KOB-TV that he picked up his girlfriend, Christy Westerdale, who was seven months pregnant with twins, and carried her off the Greyhound bus after the crash that killed eight people Thursday.

"When I looked around the bus, everyone was bleeding, faces, ears, nose, mouth. I just snapped and said, 'Everybody, let's get off the bus one at a time, 'Let's go, let's go!'" Chandler said Monday.

This Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 photo from the New Mexico State Police shows the scene of a collision Thursday between a Greyhound passenger bus and a semitrailer on Interstate 40 near the town of Thoreau, N.M., near the Arizona border. A California-based trucking company and one of its drivers were accused of negligence Friday in a pair of lawsuits as investigators sorted through the wreckage from the deadly bus crash on a New Mexico highway. (New Mexico State Police via AP)

Westerdale had to deliver the couple's twins prematurely because of injuries she suffered in the crash. The newborns were listed in critical condition Tuesday at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.

Chandler told Albuquerque television station KRQE that it will be a tough road ahead, but he's thankful his family is alive.

"They're awesome. They're beautiful babies. They're doing so good," he said. "Everybody is complimenting on how they're just perfect babies for 29 weeks."

Westerdale said she didn't remember anything, only waking up in the ambulance and thinking about her babies: "I was just praying, hoping they were OK."

Westerdale broke bones and had numerous cuts, her 4-year-old daughter suffered minor injuries and Chandler had severe internal bruising.

Besides the twins, several people remained hospitalized Tuesday after authorities said the semi-trailer lost control when the tread on its front left tire separated and crashed head-on into the bus.

The crash killed eight people, including the bus driver, and about two dozen passengers were injured. Five adults were still being treated in Albuquerque, and another one was in good condition at a hospital in Gallup, New Mexico.

State police and federal authorities are investigating the crash, testing evidence collected from the wreckage and going through safety and other records.

"The investigators are still diligently going through all the details, a task that will take quite some time with a tragedy of this magnitude," State Police spokesman Officer Ray Wilson said in an email.

This Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018 photo shows a firefighter at the scene of the collision of a semitrailer that crossed the median of Interstate 40 and crashed head-on into a Greyhound bus near Thoreau, N.M. A California-based trucking company and one of its drivers were accused of negligence Friday in a pair of lawsuits as investigators sorted through the wreckage of the deadly bus crash along a New Mexico highway. (Brandon N. Sanchez/Gallup Independent via AP)

This Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018 photo shows investigators at the scene of the collision of a semitrailer that crossed the median of Interstate 40 and crashed head-on into a Greyhound bus near Thoreau, N.M. A California-based trucking company and one of its drivers were accused of negligence Friday in a pair of lawsuits as investigators sorted through the wreckage from the deadly bus crash on the New Mexico highway. (Brandon N. Sanchez/Gallup Independent via AP)China has played a constructive role in safeguarding and promoting peace and security of Africa in recent years, while sparing no effort to support the continents economic progress.

China has contributed to Africas peace and security affairs in an active and constructive way, and put into place its military aid plan for Africa, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on African Affairs Xu Jinghu said when elaborating on the four highlights of China-Africa cooperation on peace and security.

China has also mediated the hot-spot issues of Africa, promoted peace talks, and supported Africans to solve problems in their own way, she told a press conference of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 1, adding that what China did has been recognized and welcomed by countries involved.

China also made proactive contribution to Africas maritime security, Xu said, citing the fleets sent by China to Somalia waters and the escort mission under the UN framework.

Besides, China has dispatched the most peacekeepers to Africa among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, and it is also the second largest financial contributor to the UN peacekeeping missions, the representative said.

With the rising Sino-African political and economic relations, China has promoted win-win economic cooperation, mutual assistance in security matters, and solidarity in international affairs, said an article published on Quartz Africa.

The article gave a high recognition on Chinas efforts to find an effective solution to Africas security issues through promoting the latters development.

China appointed the Special Representative of the Chinese Government on African Affairs since May 2007 to mediate hop-spot issues of Africa. The practice has made unique and constructive contribution to the continents peace and security.

At each UN ministerial conference on African construction and peace, China has called on the international community to help the continent enhance the capability of peace and security, by firmly supporting Africa in counter-terrorism moves, helping Africa address the root causes of conflicts, and playing actively the role of regional organizations.

At present, around 2,000 Chinese peacemakers are deployed at 5 African mission zones, and Chinese Navy has sent a total of 30 batches of escort formation to conduct missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, protecting more than 6,000 Chinese and foreign vessels.

Sudan Tribune hailed China as a reliable friend and key cooperation partner of Africa, saying that Chinas moves are open and transparent without other intentions, and its proposals have been well accepted by all sides.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chinese medical units on UN peacekeeping operations have established friendship pairs with local SOS Children's Villages. Every batch of peacekeepers would have a handover at the villages when they finish their shift at the mission zone.

In Liberia, Chinese peacekeeping engineering unit stuck to their posts even during the Ebola burst, and finally completed the countrys first foreign-aided Ebola treatment center after working 28 days consecutively.

In Mali where the temperature goes up to nearly 50 degrees Celsius in dry season, Chinese peacekeepers constructed a second-level hospital in less than four months.

Besides, the anti-explosion, patrol and guarding courses offered by Chinese peacekeeping infantry battalion in South Sudan have been made into textbooks for the peacekeeping troops of each country.

China supports African countries' efforts in independently resolving their continent's issues in their own way, China pledged, adding that based on the principles of respecting the wills of African countries, not interfering in African countries' internal affairs and observing the basic norms governing international relations, China will play a constructive role in maintaining and promoting peace and security in Africa.

The solemn commitments made by China are transforming into practical actions to deepen the China-Africa cooperation on peace and security.SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Mormon church founder Joseph Smith insisted on introducing polygamy in the early 1800s despite knowing the societal risks and getting pushback from other leaders and his first wife, recounts a new church history book unveiled Tuesday.

A nearly 600-page book that covers early church history from 1815-1846 doesn't dwell on polygamy, but doesn't entirely skip over it either. That's noteworthy and marks The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' latest attempt to be more transparent about sensitive issues of its past.

Quentin L. Cook and Dale Renlund, high-ranking leaders with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the parts about plural marriage provide the full story within the context of what was happening at that time in history.

The angel Moroni statue sits atop the Salt Lake Temple, at Temple Square, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Mormon leaders unveiled a new narrative book about the faith's early history in the 1800s that follows a recent commitment to transparency by acknowledging the polygamous roots of the faith. Leaders with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said at a news conference they hope book helps young faith members learn about early church history. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

"There is discussion of how it began, how it was viewed by the individuals and its part of the history of the restored gospel," said Renlund, a member of a top governing panel called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. "It's taken in that context without shying away from it. So, a person can get a clear view of what was going on and when and why."

The book recounts founder Joseph Smith's introduction of plural marriage after he received what he believed was a revelation from the Lord. The book details how his wife, Emma Smith, and many leaders recoiled and questioned the direction.

At one point, the faith's polygamous practices led an excommunicated Mormon to publish an expose about the religion and give lectures titled, "The secret wife system at Nauvoo," the new book says. Some Mormon leaders denied the allegation because polygamy was being practiced secretly and they were unaware.

The book's recognition of polygamy - which the faith banned in 1890 and prohibits today - is the most recent example of the Utah-based faith acknowledging polygamous roots.

The faith published an online essay in 2014 that provided a detailed account of polygamous practices during the 1830s and 1840s in Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo, Illinois. That essay acknowledged that while most of Smith's wives were between 20 and 40 years old, he had one who was 14 years old.

That young bride isn't mentioned in the new book, but it does tell the story of his marriages to a pair of sisters who were older teens.

In 2015, the church included a small display about plural marriages when it opened its renovated history museum.

The book is a robust and honest version of early church history and while it doesn't dwell on polygamy, it's notable that it provides the history of plural marriages in a straight forward way, said Patrick Mason, a professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University in California who is the chair of Mormon Studies at the college.

Steven E. Snow, executive director of the church history department, said the book provides the whole story behind a difficult time and one that is not well understood.

"If people read this, they'll understand we've been pretty forthright in our telling of the story," Snow said.

The book is the first of four planned volumes that will retell the story of the faith. The first volume covers Joseph Smith's "first vision" in which he said he received a visit from God and Jesus in 1820 in the woods of upstate New York that led to the foundation of the religion. It also tells the story of when Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were fatally shot by a mob in 1844.

The last multi-volume history of the faith was published in 1930 - when church membership was less than 1 million with most members in the American West. Today, the faith counts 16 million members with more than half outside the U.S. The book is available in 14 different languages.

Snow said the book "draws on the power of narrative, but is not fiction," with every scene and dialogue backed by historical research.

Quentin L. Cook, right, a high-ranking leader with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, makes remarks during a news conference Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, in Salt Lake City. Mormon leaders unveiled a new narrative book about the faith's early history in the 1800s that follows a recent commitment to transparency by acknowledging the polygamous roots of the faith. Leaders with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said at a news conference they hope book helps young faith members learn about early church history. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula amid a growing standoff with the United States, his state-controlled media reported Thursday after a South Korean delegation met him to set up an inter-Korean summit.

The statement from the Korean Central News Agency wasn't new information - Kim has repeatedly declared similar intentions before - but allows hopes to rise that diplomacy can get back on track after the recriminations that followed Kim's meeting in June with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore. The impasse between North Korea and the United States, with neither side seemingly willing to make any substantive move, has generated widespread skepticism over Trump's claims that Kim is intent on dismantling his nuclear weapons program.

The South Korean envoys who met Kim on Wednesday finalized the dates for a summit later this month between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the driving force behind the current diplomacy. Moon is seen as eager to keep the nuclear talks alive in part so that he can advance his ambitious engagement with the North, which would need U.S. backing to succeed. The date of the talks, which will come on the eve of a gathering of world leaders at the U.N. at the end of September, was to be released later Thursday.

South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong, center left, National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon, center right, and other delegates return from North Korea at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. A South Korean delegation met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday during a visit to arrange an inter-Korean summit planned for this month and help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.(Yun Dong-jin/Yonhap via AP)

Kim was paraphrased in the statement by his propaganda specialists as saying that it was "his will to completely remove the danger of armed conflict and horror of war from the Korean peninsula and turn it into the cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat."

KCNA said Kim and the South Korean envoys reached a "satisfactory agreement" over his planned summit with Moon.

Moon, who discussed his plans with President Donald Trump by telephone on Tuesday, said his envoys had a crucial task that could determine the prospects for lasting peace.

While pushing ahead with summits and inter-Korean engagement, Seoul is trying to persuade Washington and Pyongyang to proceed with peace and denuclearization processes at the same time so they can overcome a growing dispute over the sequencing of the diplomacy.

Seoul also wants a trilateral summit among the countries, or a four-nation meeting that also includes Beijing, to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War. The U.N. General Assembly in late September would be an ideal date for Seoul, but many analysts see that possibility as low, considering the complications of the process and how far apart the parties currently are.

U.S. officials have insisted that a peace declaration, which many see as a precursor to the North eventually calling for the removal of all U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, cannot come before North Korea takes more concrete action toward abandoning its nuclear weapons. Such steps may include providing an account of the components of its nuclear program, allowing outside inspections and giving up a certain number of its nuclear weapons during the early stages of the negotiations.

While an end-of-war declaration wouldn't imply a legally binding peace treaty, experts say it could create political momentum that would make it easier for North Korea to steer the discussions toward a peace regime, diplomatic recognition, economic benefits and security concessions.

North Korea has accused the United States of making "unilateral and gangster-like" demands for denuclearization and holding back on the end-of-war declaration. North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday published a lengthy statement on its website saying that an end-of-war declaration would be a necessary trust-building step between the wartime foes that would "manifest the political will to establish the lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."

South Korean officials said an end-of-war declaration would be among the issues discussed in the meetings between the South Korean envoys and North Korean officials.

"Our government believes that an end-of-war declaration is very much needed while we enter a process toward stabilizing peace in the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization," said Chung Eui-yong, Moon's national security adviser and the head of the South Korean delegation to Pyongyang, in a news conference on Tuesday.

"We will continue to put in efforts so that an end-of-war declaration can be reached by the end of the year. We are always maintaining close communication with the United States."

After their June summit in Singapore, Trump and Kim issued a vague statement about a nuclear-free peninsula without describing when and how it would occur. Post-summit nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang were rocky and quickly settled into a stalemate.

While the United States maintains that efforts to improve relations between the Koreas should move in tandem with efforts to denuclearize North Korea, Moon has recently said inter-Korean engagement could take the lead.

"If needed, we should pull forward the negotiations for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with the development in relations between the South and North," Chung said.

Any progress could depend on whether Moon's envoys were able to coax a stronger verbal commitment from North Korea on denuclearization to help put the nuclear talks between the United States and Pyongyang back on track.

Trump called off a planned visit to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month, citing insufficient progress in denuclearization. The resumption of U.S.-North Korea talks sometime before the next inter-Korean summit, which will likely take place in mid-September, could give Moon more to work with when he arrives in Pyongyang.

The two past inter-Korean summits in April and May removed war fears and initiated a global diplomatic push that culminated with the meeting between Kim and Trump in June. But Moon faces tougher challenges heading into his third meeting with Kim with the stalemate in nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington raising fundamental questions about Kim's supposed willingness to abandon his nuclear weapons.

The Korean War ended with an armistice, leaving the peninsula technically still at war. Moon has made an end-of-war declaration an important premise of his peace agenda with North Korea.

___

AP writer Foster Klug contributed to this report.

South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong, bottom left, National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon, bottom second from left, and other delegates return from North Korea at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. A South Korean delegation met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday during a visit to arrange an inter-Korean summit planned for this month and help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.(Yun Dong-jin/Yonhap via AP)

Chung Eui-yong, head of the presidential National Security Office, walks to board an aircraft as he and others in a delegation leave for Pyongyang, North Korea, at a military airport in Seongnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. The high-level South Korean delegation left for North Korea to discuss arrangements for an inter-Korean summit there this month, as relations grow cooler between Washington and Pyongyang. (Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP)

A TV screen shows a photo of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong UN, right, to advertise upcoming Seoul Defense Dialogue in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. A South Korean presidential delegation met with North Korean officials Wednesday for talks to arrange a summit planned later this month and help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.The sign read: "Peace on the Korea peninsular." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, second from left, presides over a meeting with his security ministers, including National Security Advisor Chung Eui-yong, second from right, and National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon, third from right, one day before Chung and Suh make a one-day trip to North Korea at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. A South Korean presidential delegation on Wednesday, Sept. 5, plans to leave for North Korea for talks to arrange a summit planned later this month and rescue a faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang. (Hwang Gwang-mo/Yonhap via AP)Nicola Sturgeon will unveil her legislative plans for the coming year with a promise of the most ambitious investment in areas including schools, hospitals and transport.

The First Minister said her 2018/19 programme for government would also contain major announcements related to health, the economy and social security.

Major reforms of health, education and justice announced last year will also continue.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will set out her 2018/19 programme for government at Holyrood (Jane Barlow/PA)

The programme  which contains 12 new Bills  will be set out at Holyrood on Tuesday as MSPs return from summer recess.

Opposition parties called for action to tackle teacher shortages and NHS staffing issues, greater investment in mental health services and public transport improvements.

Ms Sturgeon said: Last years programme for government set out bold and ambitious plans to tackle some of the big challenges of our time  getting our economy fit for the future, preparing for demographic change and tackling inequality.

It spoke to the sort of Scotland we want to see  one that is innovative, welcoming, caring and productive.

In this programme for government I am committing to the most ambitious long-term level of infrastructure spend that Scotland has ever seen  that is investment in schools, hospitals and transport, and in digital connectivity and clean energy.

This programme for government continues the major reforms that are under way in our health, education and justice systems. And it builds on the progress we have made in tackling inequalities.

She added: Of course we cannot ignore the fact that Brexit puts all of our progress at risk, with uncertainty being made worse by the Tories blundering and the prospect of a no-deal outcome. But, equally, we must not let Brexit define us, curtail our ambitions or halt Scotlands progress.

As we look to the future, however, one thing is certain: our commitment  my commitment  to making sure that all of Scotland flourishes, and that we remain outward looking and confident.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said Ms Sturgeon was content to offer the people of Scotland nothing but austerity, while the economy continues to work for just the few.

The SNP is not standing up for Scotland when it cuts teacher numbers, oversees soaring waiting times and sits on its hands rather than tackle our housing crisis and broken economy, he said.

Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: It sounds like Nicola Sturgeon has already begun blaming Brexit for all her SNP governments inevitable failings, before its even happened.

She knows fine well the nationalists record of delivery on warm-worded pledges is derisory.

By getting these excuses in early, shes already accepted her programme for government is pie-in-the-sky.

Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Willie Rennie called for action on teacher recruitment and mental health as he criticised the governments record.

Under this government our health service is crippled and education is slipping, he said.

This year we need to see big moves from the SNP to improve teacher recruitment and retention.

Weve also reached the stage where all of the opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament are clear  P1 testing needs to go. Its distressing and a momentous waste of time.

The Liberal Democrats have the backing of the Parliament to demand a seismic shift in mental health service delivery. Now is the time for the SNP to finally get mental health services on par with physical illness.

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie said ministers wasted valuable time and energy on unwanted education reforms over the past year, and called for a commitment to invest in staff and resources to tackle the real issues in our schools.

He also called for an urgent focus on better buses and rail services run in the public interest.More new housing developments could be threatened by under-capacity in the sewerage network because of public expenditure cuts, Northern Ireland Water warned.

Around 55 million worth of infrastructure projects like upgraded wastewater treatment works and new water mains are not being delivered due to the spending squeeze, the company added.

Uncertainty over funding risks progress on making greater efficiencies and could result in tangible impacts on the delivery of services, the local economy and the environment, the company added.

Northern Ireland Water (NIW) chief executive Sara Venning has warned about the impact of spending cuts (Paul Faith/PA)

Chief executive officer Sara Venning said: These are projects such as new water mains or upgraded wastewater treatment plants needed to connect new houses and underpin wider economic growth.

This has been highlighted very recently by the fact that several areas of Northern Ireland face the prospect of curbs on development as the result of capacity issues in the sewerage networks.

New housing developments have been banned in Saintfield in County Down after its sewage system reached capacity.

Ms Venning said: NI Water is not immune from public expenditure cuts and uncertainty over funding.

This places progress on efficiencies at risk and could result in tangible impacts on service delivery, the local economy and the environment.

The companys business plan from 2015-2021 was already constrained with 990 million available against what it said was an investment requirement of 1.7 billion.

Ms Venning added: Further public expenditure cuts over PC15 (Price Control 2015-2021) mean that around 55 million of projects will not be delivered.

She said every aspect of life relied on the water and wastewater services provided.

Our business is essential to support a thriving population, a growing economy and a flourishing environment.

To continue to do so however, we must be adequately funded.

Ministers have not been in post at Stormont for more than a year and a half and civil servants have been prevented from making major decisions in the absence of a powersharing Executive following a recent court ruling.

An Infrastructure Department spokesman said: NI Waters 17/18 annual report and accounts report best ever levels of service to customers during the year working within the funding provided by the department.

The department works closely with NI Water and the Utility Regulator to determine the levels of funding required to deliver services.

Funding for NI Water has to be balanced against the needs of transport and other services within the overall allocation provided to the DfI by the Department of Finance.

The department accepts that it would be preferable for long-term funding certainty to be provided as this would assist the delivery of the necessary water and waste water infrastructure.Potentially deadly asthma attacks among children will rise sharply as they return to school after the summer holidays, a charity has warned.

Asthma UK said that after the summer break, it expects asthma attacks among youngsters to double.

Its analysis of health data from across the UK found that there was a 174% increase in emergency asthma admissions among youngsters in the month after they went back to school in 2016.

Potentially deadly asthma attacks set to rise (PA)

Figures from 2016 show that in the month before school there were 884 emergency admissions for asthma, compared to 2,421 in the month after schools returned for the autumn term.

There's a spike in #asthma attacks when children go back to school for the autumn term.

Learn to spot the signs & what to do: https://t.co/qyxvBAHl0b pic.twitter.com/k5lz3yFMqx  Asthma UK (@asthmauk) August 23, 2018

The charity has urged parents of children with the condition to be watchful of their children so they can spot symptoms before an attack.

Asthma UK said that the rise may be attributed to a lack of routine over the summer holidays which means parents might not always remember to give their child their preventer medicine.

It said the medication is vital as without it, children could potentially suffer an asthma attack triggered by cold and flu viruses  some of which they will be exposed to after returning to school.

Dr Andy Whittamore, clinical lead at Asthma UK, said: Going back to school should be an exciting time for children, but many could end up in hospital fighting for life after an asthma attack.

This is extremely distressing for a child and their parent. It could be avoided if parents know how to spot their childs asthma is getting worse and know what to do if their child is having an asthma attack.

Parents should not feel afraid to book an urgent appointment with the GP or asthma nurse if their child is using their reliever inhaler (usually blue) three or more times a week, coughing or wheezing at night or feeling out of breath and struggling to keep up with their friends.

They can find information and support at www.asthma.org.uk/back-to-school.Labours ruling body will decide whether to fully adopt an international definition of anti-Semitism as the row over the partys response to the problem continued to simmer.

Splits within Labour were further exposed by the re-election to the partys National Executive Committee of a controversial activist who called some members of the Jewish community Trump fanatics and accused them of making up allegations of anti-Semitism.

Peter Willsman was elected to serve another two-year term on the NEC on Monday and the body of senior party representatives will be in the spotlight again as it considers the issue of anti-Semitism on Tuesday.

John McDonnell has backed the full IHRA examples of anti-Semitism (Yui Mok/PA)

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell became the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

Mr McDonnell acknowledged the party should have moved more quickly to resolve a row which has dominated headlines over the summer and sparked warnings of a deep rift with Britains Jewish community.

The NEC will consider whether to reverse its decision to omit some examples of anti-Semitic behaviour in the definition from its code of conduct for party members.

Critics of the IHRA approach have claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli governments actions against Palestinians and protests are expected outside Labours London HQ urging the NEC to reject the examples.

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, Mr McDonnell said he wanted an acceptance of the IHRA definition and examples but also freedom of speech so people are free to criticise Israel and its policies, free to advocate the rights of the Palestinians, but at the same time make sure its done in language thats acceptable.

He acknowledged the row had dragged on and I think we should have addressed it much sooner.

Mr Willsmans election to the NEC  one of a slate of nine supporters of Jeremy Corbyn to win posts on the body  led to further unease about the partys response to anti-Semitism.

Amanda Bowman, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Mr Willsmans election following his reprehensible comments was deeply concerning.

She said the NEC must adopt the full IHRA definition and all its examples and then begin taking firm disciplinary action against all those who commit anti-Semitic acts and bring the party into disrepute by denying the problem.

Mr Willsman said his job on the NEC was to support his friend for 41 years Mr Corbyn  who he called Jerry.

He said critics were trying to undermine the Labour leader and some MPs, elected by Labour voters, seem willing to help the rich and powerful.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to celebrate the courage shown by seriously ill youngsters at the annual WellChild Awards.

Harry and Meghan will join children, parents, carers and celebrity supporters at the glittering ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in central London.

The duke has been patron of WellChild  the national charity for seriously ill children and their families  since 2007.

Harry with the WellChild award winners in 2017 (Matt Dunham/PA)

It will be former Suits star Meghans first time at the moving event, which celebrates the inspiring qualities of some of the countrys seriously ill young people and those who care for them.

The duke and duchess will attend a pre-ceremony reception and meet the young winners of each award category and their families, and the nominated healthcare professionals.

We are delighted to announce that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will attend the #WellChildAwards on 4th September.



The Duke of Sussex has been Patron of @WellChild for the past 10 years. pic.twitter.com/ACQMDlw91g  WellChild (@WellChild) August 20, 2018

Harry will present an award during the ceremony and also deliver a speech.

Winners this year include seven-year-old Matilda Booth, from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire, who has spina bifida, is paralysed from the chest down and has had more more than 40 operations.

She has been praised for her great zest for life and her courage, strength and determination.

 Meet the 2018 inspirational WellChild Award winners! The winners will receive their #WellChildAwards on Tuesday!



Find out more at https://t.co/qxxYXrKf4Q  pic.twitter.com/CzPVRMxYLk  WellChild (@WellChild) September 2, 2018

Mckenzie Brackley, from Fife, has also been hailed as inspirational.

The four-year-old, who had to learn to speak, swallow, eat and drink and move again due to acute flaccid paralysis, was praised for being there for other children when they are scared or sad.

Despite his own problems Mckenzie cheers up everyone when they are low, and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, WellChild said.Donald Trump has warned Syrian president Bashar Assad and his allies against a reckless attack on Idlib province.

It comes after Irans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the start of a visit to Damascus that terrorists must be purged from Syrias Idlib and the entire north-western province returned to government control.

But the US president said on Twitter that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province.

He added: The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!

Mr Zarifs comments in Damascus were reported by Irans semi-official Fars news agency and came as Syrian forces and their allies were preparing for an assault on Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in the country.

Syrias territorial integrity should be safeguarded and all tribes and groups, as one society, should start the reconstruction process, and the refugees should return to their homes, Mr Zarif said.

He met with Mr Assad and his foreign minister Walid al-Moallem, who is just back from a visit to Moscow.

The visit comes days before the leaders of Iran, Turkey, and Russia are expected to meet in Iran to discuss the situation in Idlib.

Fruitful meetings in Islamabad with PM @ImranKhanPTI, Army Chief, Speaker & Foreign & Finance Ministers. In my 8th trip to Pakistan, I was honored to be the first minister received by new govt. Emphasis on expanding bilateral, regional & global partnership. Neighbors our priority pic.twitter.com/4J69DVNGSc  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) August 31, 2018

During their meeting, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif discussed the agenda of the summit in Iran.

A statement from Mr Assads office said Iran and Syria had similar views on the different issues to be discussed. It provided no further details.

Mr Zarif said it was necessary to consult with our Syrian friends ahead of the September 7 summit, according to Fars.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russias stance and called Idlib a hornets nest of terrorists.

Asked about Mr Trumps tweet, Mr Peskov said such warnings do not take into account the dangerous and negative potential of the rebel-held enclave and show that the White House does not have a comprehensive approach to solving the Syria crisis.

Iran has lent crucial military and economic support to Mr Assad throughout the seven-year civil war and the discussions are expected to focus on the decisive battle for Idlib.

Mr Assad has vowed to defeat the opposition in its last refuge in the north-western province if the rebels do not surrender to government rule.

Syrian president Bashar Assad speaks with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Damascus (SANA via AP)

Idlib and the surrounding area is home to some three million people  nearly half of them already displaced more than once by the civil war.

Tens of thousands of people fled to Idlib after surrendering in government offensives elsewhere, choosing to relocate to an opposition-held area rather than risk reprisals or forced conscription at the hands of the government.

UN officials believe an offensive on Idlib would trigger a wave of displacement that could uproot an estimated 800,000 people and discourage refugees from returning home.

Thousands of government troops and allied fighters have been massing in areas surrounding the province.

In their meeting on Monday, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif also discussed what they called western pressure on their two countries, in apparent reference to the US sanctions on Iran and calls for limiting Irans role in Syria.

Israel has grown nervous of Irans growing presence in Syria and threatened to prevent a build-up of pro-Iranian forces near its frontiers with Syria.

Russia, another Syria ally, and Damascus have also said that western countries are preparing to carry out strikes against Syria ahead of the Idlib offensive. They claim such threats were part of the Wests attempt to undermine Syrias drive to restore control over all its territories.

The US and France have warned an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisis and warned that a chemical attack in Idlib would prompt a western retaliation.

In the statement from the Syrian presidents office, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif said that resorting to threats and pressure reflect the failure of those countries to realise their plans for the region after Syria and Iran confronted them.Maria Sharapovas long-unbeaten record in night session matches at Flushing Meadows was ended in the fourth round by Carla Suarez Navarro.

Sharapova, the champion in 2006, had won 23 straight matches under the lights, including her previous three contests this year, but Suarez Navarro, on her 30th birthday, clinched a 6-4 6-3 victory to reach her second quarter-final in New York.

It was well deserved for the Spanish 30th seed, who next plays Madison Keys, as she drew the errors from the Sharapova racket  38 unforced, including eight double faults  and used her flowing single-handed backhand to great effect.

Maria Sharapova fell in the fourth round for the second straight year (Jason DeCrow/AP)

A perfect 30th birthday !@CarlaSuarezNava ends Sharapova's unbeaten record at night, defeating her 6-4, 6-3...



She will play Madison Keys in her 1st #USOpen QF since 2013! pic.twitter.com/NFR7C9gLkx  US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 4, 2018

Sharapova matched her performance from last year but then, in her first slam since the end of her doping ban, the fourth round seemed a sign she could return to her best. Twelve months on, that seems significantly less likely.

The 31-year-old insisted she still had belief while putting her relative struggles into perspective.

She said: If I didnt have the belief to keep doing this and to keep having the motivation and the grind of doing this every day in order to get myself in these positions, I dont think I would be here. I think Ive done plenty in my career, established a lot for myself personally, professionally.

We've got our point of the night...



Sit back and enjoy this wild rally between @CarlaSuarezNava and Sharapova!#USOpen pic.twitter.com/lu9R57OeN3  US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 4, 2018

Whats challenging is when youre a teenager and you have a few hundred dollars and youve got no sense of the future, you dont know where youre going to end up. You just have a dream. I think thats a lot tougher than being 31 years old and having the opportunity to do whatever I want in my life.

Naomi Osaka reached her first grand slam quarter-final with victory over fellow 20-year-old Aryna Sabalenka.

In one of the most highly-anticipated womens matches of the tournament, between two players who are expected to face each other many more times on the big stage, it was Japanese-American Osaka who prevailed 6-3 2-6 6-4.

Sabalenka saved three match points in the final game and had a chance to hold for 5-5 only to double fault on Osakas fourth opportunity.

Tears of Joy:



An emotional win for @Naomi_Osaka_ as she outlasts Sabalenka in 3 sets to reach her first ever Grand Slam QF...#USOpen  pic.twitter.com/b6flq3WRyh  US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2018

A very emotional Osaka said: I was just thinking Id never forgive myself if I didnt win that one.

The tears were also a legacy of the most painful result of her career in New York two years ago when she lost to Keys from 5-1 up in the final set.

She said: I think its mainly because Ive had a bad memory here. Ive always dreamed of playing here and going to the quarter-finals and further. So Im just glad I could do one of my goals.

Sabalenka, who was not ranked high enough to get into the tournament 12 months ago, has been one of the form players of the summer and arrived in New York on the back of her first WTA Tour title in New Haven before beating Petra Kvitova in the third round.

With @Naomi_Osaka_s win, this is the first time since 1995 Wimbledon there will be a Japanese male and female in the QFs of a Slam (alongside Nishikori).



1995 Wimbledon was the only time in the Open Era, so this is only the second time its happened in the Open Era.#USOpen  WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) September 3, 2018

Osaka felt her extra history on the grand slam stage helped, saying: I was the player with more experience, which is very odd for me to say. I feel like there were moments that I kind of knew what to do. Maybe since shes so young, she was a little bit hesitant.

I feel like I learned a lot the match I played here two years ago. Im grateful that I had that experience.

Osaka next faces Ukraines Lesia Tsurenko, who struggled badly with the heat on the open Grandstand court against Marketa Vondrousova but battled from a set down to win 6-7 (3/7) 7-5 6-2.

.@Madison_Keys had her sight set on the 2018 US Open QFs today!



She awaits the winner of tonights Suarez Navarro/Sharapova match...#USOpen pic.twitter.com/zBnEyjczFi  US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2018

Vondrousova accused Tsurenko of putting on an act, but the Ukrainian insisted her struggles were real, saying: I dont know what to say. No, it wasnt, unfortunately. Ive never felt so bad on court. Today was one of the toughest matches in my life.

Keys, the runner-up last year, is the highest seed left in the bottom half of the draw at 14 and breezed through to the last eight again with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Dominika Cibulkova.A spacecraft operated by Nasa has captured incredible footage of a minor eruption on the surface of the sun.

The close-up, which was filmed on August 13 by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) during a two-hour period, shows the flare rising on the edge of the sun before falling back into it.

Minor eruptions can be hard to spot especially if they occur towards the middle part of the sun and are likely to be seen if they occur along the suns edge, also known as the limb.

(Solar Dynamics Observatory/Nasa)

The SDO captured the eruption in extreme ultraviolet light as the naked eye cannot perceive certain wavelengths of sunlight.

Dean Pesnell, the project scientist at SDO, said: Certain wavelengths either do not make it through Earths atmosphere or cannot be seen by our eyes, so we cannot use normal optical telescopes to look at the spectrum.

At its peak, the suns plasma  which is a hot ball of gas made up mostly of hydrogen and helium  rises several times the diameter of Earth at speeds of up to about 335,500 mph (540,000 km/h).

SDO was launched in February 2010, with the aim to understand the suns influence on Earth by studying the solar atmosphere.

By knowing more about what occurs in the sun, scientists hope to predict when powerful solar events such as coronal mass ejections  which involves a significant release of plasma from the suns corona  and solar flares  high energy particles and radiation emitted from the sun  may occur.Efy Technology, in China's northern port city of Tianjin, has vowed to become the worlds leading enterprise in the UAV industry by increasing investment and personnel for research development of commercial drones.

Michael Li, an official of Efy Technology, told journalists that the company focuses on the development and manufacture of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) flight control systems, providing a complete control system solution for the application of intelligent UAVs.

He added that adhering to the principle of Chinese should do well in China' business, Efy will invest funds and personnel to research and develop commercial drones, and strive to become a leading enterprise in the industry.

Li said that Efy had recently developed the MQ 300 drone. It can fly for four hours and can transport up to 80 kg in weight. The maximum speed of the MQ 300 drone is 120 kilometers per hour, and it can fly to the height of 3,000 meters. It provides safe and reliable services in the commercial sector, covering a range of areas such as agriculture and plant protection, low-altitude logistics, police monitoring, forest fire prevention, geological exploration, aerial surveying and mapping. He added that 400 drones were recently used to map the entire city of Tianjin.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the District Cyberspace Administration of Binhai New Area, Sun Bin, said that significant reform measures had created a Binhai Effect that has attracted worldwide attention. People's livelihood and welfare have continuously improved, and the Binhai spirit of "open innovation and leading the future" has been formed, and a road for the rise of Binhai has been built on the saline-alkali waste coast.

While addressing foreign media journalists during a tour with the theme of Intelligent Binhai - Livable Binhai New Area in China's northern port city of Tianjin, Sun said that the Tianjin Academy for Intelligent Recognition Technologies, Efy Technology Company Ltd and Tianjin Sublue Ocean Technology Company are synonymous with intelligent manufacturing in Binhai New Area and the innovative power of Binhai.

Tianjin Academy for Intelligent Recognition focuses on intelligent computing, Efy Technology company develops and manufactures UAV control systems, while Tianjin Sublue Ocean Technology Company is engaged in the research and development of a full range of underwater robots.

Sun said that initially, the single industrial base of Motorola and Master Kong were known as "one machine" and "one bowl of noodles," before they became international industry leaders. He went on to say that the implementation of the Binhai Kunpeng Plan will attract talent from all over the world and form a siphon effect of gathering high-caliber talents and the application of the 50 Binhai Measures will further create a good business environment.

The foreign media delegation visited Tianjin Academy for Intelligent Recognition Technologies, Efy Technology, Tianjin Sublue Ocean Science and Technology company, Binhai culture center, Novozymes company and Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area Warner Community to witness the boom in Tianjins intelligent manufacturing sector.

During another company visit, the journalists were also informed that Watrix Technology Limited is China's leading artificial intelligence company, focused on computer vision and big data video analysis. A company official said that Watrix Technology Limited has the world's most advanced gait recognition technology and leading industrial vision technology.

The company can provide leading AI solutions for security, transportation, manufacturing, home, retail, robotics and other industries, said an official. He added that the company has the world's largest gait database and the world's most advanced gait recognition technology. Concerning human detection, segmentation, recognition and tracking, the company is at the frontier of all these core technologies.

The journalists also had the opportunity to visit the cultural corridor of Binhai, which consists of Binhai Art Gallary, Binhai science and technology museum, Binhai Library and Binhai performance center. Binhai Library is famous due to its unique book mountain and Eye Binhai design. This modern library can shelve 1.2 million books and is renowned for its digital search and borrow service.Labours ruling body is meeting to decide whether to fully adopt an internationally-recognised definition of anti-Semitism later. Here are some key questions answered about the flashpoint issue:

Why would it not be adopted in full?

Critics of the IHRA approach have claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli governments actions against Palestinians.

A demonstrator holding a painting saying `For the many not the Jew, at a protest in London against anti-Semitism in the Labour Party (Yui Mok/PA)

What has the fallout been?

The NECs July decision fuelled a wider row over cases of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, with Jeremy Corbyn coming under fire for his handling of the issue.

The Labour leader has also seen intense scrutiny over some of his past comments and associations.

In August, Mr Corbyn apologised for appearing at a 2010 event at which a Holocaust survivor compared Israel to Nazism.

Last week he was condemned by former chief rabbi Lord Sacks for comments he made criticising British Zionists for not understanding English irony, although an ally said the Labour leaders words had been misinterpreted.

Has anyone quit over the row?

Veteran Labour MP Frank Field cited the partys handling of anti-Semitism when he resigned the party whip last week.

The MP for Birkenhead described Labour as a force for anti-Semitism in his resignation letter.

Reports have suggested MP Mike Gapes is ready to quit over anti-Semitism and Ms Berger has said comments made by the Labour leader left her feeling unwelcome in my own party.The unveiling of Leonardo da Vincis painting Salvator Mundi at the Louvre Abu Dhabi has been indefinitely postponed, authorities say.

Abu Dhabis Department of Culture and Tourism announced the delay on Twitter, saying more details will be announced soon.

The department declined to answer any questions from reporters, saying: At this stage, we do not have any further information.

An employee poses with Leonardo da Vincis Salvator Mundi (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP)

The Department of Culture and Tourism  Abu Dhabi announces the postponement of the unveiling of Leonardo da Vincis Salvator Mundi. More details will be announced soon pic.twitter.com/Xpu22n3W1G  Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (@dctabudhabi) September 3, 2018

The Renaissance oil painting of Christ, whose title in Latin means Saviour of the World, sold for a record-breaking $450 million (350 million) at an auction in New York at Christies in November.

The painting depicts a blue-robed Jesus holding a crystal orb and gazing directly at the viewer.

It was to be displayed from September 18. The National, a state-aligned English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi, wrote online on Monday that speculation suggests the museum might be waiting for its one-year anniversary on November 11 to unveil it.

Mystery has surrounded the museums acquisition of the painting.

Western diplomats say a Saudi royal acting as a proxy for Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is close to Abu Dhabis powerful Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was the buyer.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington and officials in Abu Dhabi say the Saudi royal purchased the painting on behalf of the museum in Abu Dhabi, which opened just days before the auction.

The display of the painting would be a major draw for the new museum, which has sought to distinguish itself from its namesake in Paris since opening after a decade of delays.

Abu Dhabi has agreed to pay France $525 million (409 million) for the use of the Louvre name for the next 30 years and six months, plus another $750 million (585 million) to hire French managers to oversee 300 loaned works of art.

Authorities have not said how much it cost to build the museum, located on Abu Dhabis Saadiyat Island.Senior police officers have spoken out to defend the use of stop-and-search powers amid Government plans to extend their use.

Young black men are around four times more likely to be stopped than their white counterparts, but Andy Cooke, chief constable of Merseyside Police, said it is wrong to think of the strategy as discriminatory  and that the drop in its use has fuelled a rise in a violent crime.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said officers are equally likely to find a weapon, drugs or stolen goods on a black or white suspect  and insisted that in tackling violence, the powers are used trying to protect the most vulnerable people and that is young black boys.

Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick (John Stillwell/PA)

THE TIMES: Police given more power to stop and search #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/3pIeQPUw0y  Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) September 3, 2018

Mr Cooke told The Times that gang members now feel they can carry weapons with impunity.

He said: This is about criminality not race.

It is about disruption and putting the fear back on criminals: that visible approach to stop-searching those individuals who our communities know are causing the most harm, damage or violence.

Those people should regularly be getting stopped and searched on our streets.

In the past three years, the use of stop and search has almost halved to 304,000  having peaked at 1.5 million in 2008 and 2009.

Mr Cooke, who is the National Police Chiefs Councils lead on organised crime, said: I think criminals feel safer carrying weapons to cause harm, or weapons to commit acquisitive offences.

They feel far safer carrying them now because they know there are less police officers, and even if there are police officers there is less chance they will be stopped and searched for them.

Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the @MetPoliceUK, is live in the LBC studio to answer your questions. Watch live: https://t.co/ESlDRLT0E7  LBC (@LBC) September 4, 2018

During a call-in on LBC on Tuesday, Ms Dick said her officers legitimately target suspects.

She told Nick Ferrari: When we do stop and search, if we stop a young black man we are equally likely to find something on the young black man as we are on the young white man  a knife or drugs or stolen property. There is no difference there in the likelihood of success.

If you are a young black man you are about four times more likely to be stopped than a white person, and that does upset people. But what I would say is actually the result, the success rate, is exactly the same, which shows to me that we are in fact using the power intelligently, we are targeting the right people.

About 30% of people stopped by Metropolitan Police officers are found to have a weapon, drugs or stolen goods on them.

The Scotland Yard chief went on: The really shocking thing is how violence is over affecting our young black men. The proportion of young black men who are likely to be stabbed or shot or subject to a GBH is so very, very, very high.

People who are likely to have been a victim are quite likely to go on to be a suspect and vice versa in stabbings. We are inevitably working in the highest crime areas trying to protect the most vulnerable people and that is young black boys.

The Home Secretary Sajid Javid is considering plans to extend stop and search to cover acid, drones and laser pointers, according to The Times.

He outlined the plans to consult on extending the powers to cover noxious substances in an interview with the BBC in April when he was still communities secretary.

Ms Dick said: An extension of the power to this would be very helpful to us and I would be all in favour of it.

We have to keep up with the times. Acid attacks in London have actually gone down recently, but it is a horrific thing and the more we can do to give the officers the powers they need to prevent people from carrying acid or to arrest people who do the better.A First World War U-Boat propeller has been handed back to the German Navy more than 100 years after its submarine was sunk by the Royal Navy.

The propeller was one of two recovered by police in Bangor, North Wales, last year and is believed to have been illegally recovered from the wreck of the submarine UC-75 by a diver.

The U-Boat was built and launched in 1916 and credited with sinking 58 ships, including two warships and damaging a further eight, either by torpedo or by mines laid.

The U-Boat was built and launched in 1916 (Maritime & Coastguard Agency/PA)

It was rammed and sunk by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Fairy in May 1918 and 17 German crew members died and 14 survived.

Today one of the propellers is starting its journey back to Germany, with the second one destined for display at the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth.

It was formally handed over on board FGS Bonn which is currently based in Plymouth for training following a joint operation between the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, Historic England and North Wales Police.

In November, two Remembrance ceremonies, one in Germany and one in the UK, will be held at the same time to honour the fallen of both sides.

The cleaning of the propellers was supervised by Paul Stevens, an Instructor at Southampton College Marine Skills School, who together with his students spent over 50 hours cleaning the first one in time for the handover today.

Vice Admiral Sir Alan Massey, chief executive of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, said: These propellers tell a story of bitter conflict and human loss, but also of bravery, selflessness and love.

It is fitting that they will now serve to remind citizens in both our countries of the realities of war and the personal sacrifices that inevitably follow.

We in the MCA are proud to play our part in honouring that remembrance.

Vice Admiral Sir Alan Massey, left, with Captain Matthias Schmidt and the propeller (Maritime & Coastguard Agency/PA)

Captain Matthias Schmidt, German Naval Attache, added: The propeller witnessed the struggle for life 100 years ago. It will come home.

It will be officially handed over to the Naval Museum in Laboe on the occasion of Armistice Day in November.

The story of UC-75 is ending in a message of reconciliation and hope  the fruit of the close partnership between our two nations that has brought us together here today.

North Wales Police said a man received a formal caution in relation to the discovery of the two propellers at a property in Bangor.Dutch bank ING has paid 775 million euros (698 million) to settle a huge money-laundering case in the Netherlands, prosecutors said.

The countrys financial prosecution service said in a statement that ING for years failed to adequately implement a law aimed at preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism by not carrying out adequate background checks on clients and not sufficiently investigating suspicious transactions.

The prosecution service said the bank didnt prevent accounts of ING clients in the Netherlands being used to launder hundreds of millions of euros between 2010 and 2016.

ING bank (Steve Parsons/PA)

ING chief executive Ralph Hamers conceded that the bank had failed to do enough to prevent money laundering.

As a bank we have the obligation to ensure that our operations meet the highest standards, especially where it comes to preventing criminals from misusing the financial system, Mr Hamers said in a written statement.

Not meeting those standards is unacceptable and ING takes full responsibility.

The settlement included a 675 million euro (608 million) fine and a disgorgement payment of 100 million euros (90 million) to the Dutch government that represented the amount ING did not spend on staff and procedures to implement anti-money laundering rules.

ING said the US Securities and Exchange Commission had also asked for information about the Dutch investigations.

The bank said that based on the settlement announced Tuesday and its co-operation with authorities, we expect that this matter will also be resolved with the SEC without further payment or the imposition of further conditions.

Among suspect transactions ING failed to prevent was the payment of tens of millions of euros in bribes by Amsterdam-based telecommunications multinational Vimpelcom, now known as VEON, to get a foothold in Uzbekistan, prosecutors said.

The bank reported the suspicious transactions to authorities too late and did not adequately investigate them, prosecutors said.

In 2016, Vimpelcom agreed in the US to pay 795 million dollars in penalties to resolve claims it paid 114 million dollars in bribes to a government official in Uzbekistan.A coroner in Northern Ireland has said he is seeking precise answers about a grave exhumed in the search for a missing schoolgirl.

Brian Sherrard has received confirmation that remains removed from the Co Sligo plot are not those of Arlene Arkinson.

Arlene, 15, from Castlederg in Co Tyrone, vanished after a night out in Co Donegal in the Irish Republic in 1994. She was last seen in the company of a convicted child killer, the late Robert Howard.

Howard was always the prime suspect.

Discussion about communication between the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Garda over the grave has been adjourned to another preliminary inquest hearing in Belfast later this month.

Mr Sherrard said: We will need to have a substantive discussion about issues surrounding the grave and in order to do that we will need some precise information as to what was in the grave or was found there.

Counsel to the coroner Ronan Daly said materials had been compiled following ongoing communication between the two forces, but last-minute legal issues had arisen.

He added: Rather than dealing with the matter in a piecemeal fashion it is agreed between counsel that a hearing on Friday morning 14 September at 9.30am [will] facilitate proper exploration of the issues.

Convicted child killer Robert Howard was the prime suspect (Kent Police/PA)

The Co Sligo grave was exhumed by gardai in March, almost 20 years after a priest received an anonymous tip-off that a body wrapped in plastic sheeting found buried just below the surface could have been Arlene.

Gravediggers found the body 2ft to 3ft down when opening the grave for another burial in 1996, but subsequently reburied it.

The phone call to the priest came in 1999. He informed gardai, but they did not pursue an exhumation at the time.

Around that time, a woman also wrote to a priest to say she had heard that, shortly after Arlenes 1994 disappearance, a man had persuaded some gravediggers to bury Arlenes body in a grave they were digging for a conventional burial.

At a previous hearing of the inquest, Mr Sherrard was told that the remains examined belonged to an adult male, not a young girl.

He said gardai needed to clarify whether there was an additional body in the grave, other than the four formally registered as being buried there.

The coroner said he also needed to know whether all of the remains found in the plot had been examined, or just one.

Highlighting that he has no authority to demand information from the Garda, he asked that PSNI officers ask counterparts south of the border for co-operation in filling in the blanks.

Howard died in prison in 2015.

He was acquitted of Arlenes murder by a jury that was unaware of his previous conviction for murdering 14-year-old Hannah Williams, whose body was found in an industrial area close to the Thames Estuary in 2002.Child mental health waiting times were the worst on record between April and June, according to new figures.

Only 67.8% of the 4,664 children and young people who started their treatment during the three month period did so within the Scottish Governments 18-week waiting time target.

The figure compares with 71.1% in the previous quarter and 80.7% for the same quarter in 2017, and is the worst on record since the target was set in 2014.

New figures show worst child mental health waiting times on record (NSPCC/PA)

The Scottish Liberal Democrats described the statistics as horrendous and heartbreaking.

Mental Health Minister Clare Haughey admitted they were completely unacceptable.

The government set a standard for the NHS to deliver a maximum wait of 18 weeks from a patients referral to treatment for specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) from December 2014.

Ministers said the standard should be delivered for at least 90% of patients.

However the latest figures show the 90% target was met by only three NHS Boards  NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles.

Only 34.4% of people were seen within 18 weeks in NHS Tayside, while Forth Valley and Grampian failed to achieve 50%.

Across Scotland, 27% of people waited 19-35 weeks, around 4% waited 36-52 weeks, and around 1% waited 53 weeks or longer.

Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: These statistics are horrendous and heartbreaking.

He added: There is no excuse for the worst child mental health waits on record.

They show more than 200 children and young people waiting over a year for treatment.

This SNP Government is failing a generation of young people who need help and it is having a devastating impact on them and their families.

Scottish Labours health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: To have nearly a third of young people waiting longer than 18-weeks for vital mental health treatment is a scandal  and, despite all the warm words from the SNP, this problem is actually getting worse.

Scottish Conservative mental health spokeswoman Annie Wells added: Care for children with mental health problems across the country is shocking.

These unacceptably long waits could be causing untold damage to extremely vulnerable people.

Separate statistics show 76.3% of patients waiting for psychological therapies were seen within 18 weeks between April and June  down slightly from 78.4% in the previous quarter.

Only NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS 24 met with 90% standard.

Ms Haughey said mental health services would be addressed in the First Ministers legislative programme for 2018/19, due to be announced on Tuesday afternoon.

A new taskforce was set up in June aimed at reshaping and improving CAMHS.

Ms Haughey said: Demand for services is increasing as people become more aware of mental health issues and seek support, and this is a welcome step.

But too many children and young people are experiencing waits that are too long, and this is completely unacceptable.

Many health boards are still not meeting the waiting times standard for CAMHS and we have met with a number of them to discuss performance and expectations for the coming year.

We are supporting health boards with 150 million of extra funding over five years, including 54 million to help improve their performance against waiting times targets.A Labour activist at the centre of a row over allegedly anti-Semitic comments was cheered as he arrived for a meeting of the partys ruling body.

Pete Willsman was re-elected to Labours National Executive Committee on Monday despite losing the support of the influential Momentum group after it emerged he had blamed Jewish Trump fanatics for the anti-Semitism row which has dogged Jeremy Corbyn through the summer.

The NEC is expected to approve the incorporation in full of an international definition of anti-Semitism into Labours code of conduct for members.

Protesters gathered at Labours head office in London ahead of the meeting, with some cheering Mr Willsmans arrival, while others shouted shame on you.

The meeting came as Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told LBC she would review a leaked internal Labour dossier obtained by the radio station detailing 45 cases of alleged anti-Semitism, amid claims that as many as 17 might require reporting to the police.

John McDonnell has backed the full IHRA examples of anti-Semitism (Yui Mok/PA)

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has become the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

Mr McDonnell acknowledged the party should have moved more quickly to resolve a row which has dominated headlines over the summer and sparked warnings of a deep rift with Britains Jewish community.

The NEC will consider whether to reverse its decision to omit some examples of anti-Semitic behaviour in the definition from its code of conduct for party members.

Critics of the IHRA approach have claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli governments actions against Palestinians and protests are expected outside Labours London HQ urging the NEC to reject the examples.

Mr Willsmans election to the NEC  one of a slate of nine supporters of Jeremy Corbyn to win posts on the body  led to further unease about the partys response to anti-Semitism.

Amanda Bowman, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Mr Willsmans election following his reprehensible comments was deeply concerning.

She said the NEC must adopt the full IHRA definition and all its examples and then begin taking firm disciplinary action against all those who commit anti-Semitic acts and bring the party into disrepute by denying the problem.

Mr Willsman said his job on the NEC was to support his friend for 41 years Mr Corbyn  who he called Jerry.

He said critics were trying to undermine the Labour leader and some MPs, elected by Labour voters, seem willing to help the rich and powerful.David Brooks says he never considered changing his mind like the Republic of Irelands Declan Rice after pledging his international allegiance to Wales.

Rice was omitted from the Republic squad for Thursdays UEFA Nations League opener against Wales in Cardiff with manager Martin ONeill revealing the West Ham defender is still deliberating over switching loyalties to England.

London-born Rice has three senior caps for the Republic but they all came in friendly matches, meaning the 19-year-old could yet decide to represent England instead.

 @DRBrooks15 on media duty ahead of the Nations League matches.



 The national anthem gives me goosebumps. I cant wait to play for Wales competitively. #TogetherStronger pic.twitter.com/lLS6DwzpJ9  Wales  (@Cymru) September 3, 2018

Warrington-born Brooks, like Rice, has appeared in three international friendlies, but the Bournemouth forward is set to end any doubts over his future by representing Wales in a competitive fixture against the Republic.

There is a decision to be made by younger players like Declan Rice and myself, said 21-year-old Brooks.

I dont know his situation and what he wants to do so I cant really comment on that. But for me it was always going to be Wales and thankfully I got that opportunity.

I wont be switching even if I dont get on against the Republic.

West Ham defender Declan Rice has won three Republic of Ireland caps but could still yet switch international allegiance to England (Dave Thompson/PA)

Brooks did represent England Under-20s at the Toulon Tournament in 2017 when he was named the competitions best player.

But Brooks, whose mother Cathryn is from Llangollen, joined the Wales set-up after that tournament and has won senior caps in friendlies against France, Panama and Mexico in the past 12 months.

You obviously listen to what your family have to say and theres other influences involved as well, Brooks said of his decision to play for Wales.

You can get all the advice in the world, but if you want to do something for yourself you have to (make a decision).

Theres no going back from that and I cant wait to get the Wales shirt on again.

Find out everything you need to know about the #NationsLeague ahead of Thursday's match against the Republic of Ireland in Cardiff.



 Ticket info: https://t.co/nokBo7gpZ1#WALIRL #TogetherStronger pic.twitter.com/Czq2edgk9p  FA WALES (@FAWales) September 4, 2018

Brooks previous international experience came when he was a Sheffield United player.

But an 11.5million switch to Bournemouth has turned him into a Premier League player and he feels he is already benefiting from his summer move.

Eddie Howe (the Bournemouth manager) has been great to work with, Brooks said.

The training has been spot on and I can see myself improving already, and hopefully it can continue.

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe signed David Brooks from Sheffield United this summer (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Its the same with Wales as the quality in our squad is there for all to see.

Im a big Manchester United fan and I grew up watching the gaffer (Ryan Giggs).

He was a fantastic player and won near enough every trophy under the sun, so Im delighted to work with him.

It was a bit strange meeting him at first, but Im used to it now and Ive just got to kick on and try and impress him.One of the countrys biggest trade unions is calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal, because it says promises made during the referendum are not the reality we are facing.

The GMB said it had consulted thousands of its members across the country, and there was widespread support for the public to have a say on the final outcome of negotiations.

The union, which has 620,000 members, backed remaining in the EU, although admitted its members were divided.

GMB general secretary Tim Roache (GMB/PA)

Today our General Secretary Tim Roache calls on the Prime Minister to give the British public the final say on the Brexit deal. pic.twitter.com/gA9kuj66we  GMB Union (@GMB_union) September 4, 2018

General secretary Tim Roache said in a message to members: Sitting on the sidelines watching the mess this Government is making of Brexit is infuriating, because there is so much at stake.

GMB respects the result of the referendum, but how we leave the EU is as important as the decision to leave in the first place. Thats why today, GMB is calling for a public vote on the final deal.

As trade unionists, when we negotiate a pay deal with an employer, we go back to our members and ask them if theyre happy with it. Whether they want to accept or reject it.

Thats what people deserve now, because the promises that were made during the referendum campaign are simply not the reality we are facing.

Mr Roache said GMB members in manufacturing, ports, chemicals, energy, retail and public services were facing uncertainty and a Government more preoccupied with internal divisions than working peoples livelihoods.

He added: People voted for change  they voted to take back control. They did not vote for economic chaos or to put jobs and hard won rights on the line.

He said a Tory hard Brexit would be a disaster for GMB members, adding: The Government need to know they have to come back and face the music  they cant sell working people down the river. Thats why GMB supports your right to decide what sort of Brexit is the right Brexit.Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of Sierra Leone Julius Maada Bio review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony in Beijing, Aug. 30, 2018.

Sierra Leone joined other African countries in the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which gathers friends and pools wisdom for bilateral and multilateral cooperation between African countries and China, held in Beijing on Sept 3-4, 2018.

The Government of Sierra Leone first established diplomatic relations with the Government of the Peoples Republic of China on July 29, 1971. 47 years on, this relationship has developed immensely based on mutual understanding, respect and friendly cooperation between the two countries. Respect for each others core political, social and economic interests have bound the two countries throughout the decades.

China is a genuine friend to Sierra Leone and has always responded positively when the government in Sierra Leone asks for help. For a long time, China has supported Sierra Leone in its development, and has also been on hand in moments of national or natural disaster. For example, China supported Sierra Leone through logistical, human and financial issues when the country fell victim to the Ebola outbreak, the mudslide and the more recent monthly national cleaning exercise.

Chinese intervention in such areas as agriculture, infrastructure, transport, education and health continues to serve as an embodiment of great economic prosperity that this country yearns for. For example, the Sierra Leone - China Friendship Hospital is one of the best in the country.

One of the main subjects discussed in regards to win-win cooperation between the two countries is the promotion of human resource development in Sierra Leone. Chinese companies have trained thousands of Sierra Leoneans in various fields, while compared with any other African country, Sierra Leone has received the largest number of Chinese government scholarships.

Sierra Leones Foreign Minister Dr. Alie Kabba and Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone Wu Peng discuss development issues in Freetown.

Hundreds of scholarships are provided annually so that Sierra Leoneans can pursue various courses in China, not to mention the short and long-term courses available for government officials, journalists and other professionals.

Tangible infrastructural support provided by China includes bridges, government buildings, stadiums (Bo Mini Stadium and Siaka Stevens Stadium) and roads, including the Regent to Kossoh road project, as well as ongoing electricity projects such as the Charlotte, Bankasoka and Makali hydro-power stations.

China has emerged as a trusted trade and investment partner in countless development areas.

Prior to the 2018 general election, the administration frowned upon the past governments relationship with the Chinese. During the election campaign, the then opposition referred to Sierra Leone as a Chinese state due to the numerous Chinese investments in the country. This led to President Bios promise to review major agreements signed between the past government and China. Many ongoing Chinese projects were stalled and the payments to Chinese suppliers such as road construction companies were ceased.

These decisions were perhaps influenced by Western media, who raised concerns regarding the past government's cooperation with the Chinese to construct the $300 million Mammamah Airport and further negotiations with a Chinese company to construct a bridge linking Freetown with the current international airport at Lungi.

Sierra Leoneans, despite their political affiliation, remain grateful to China. They cannot be easily twisted or influenced by the West to end ties with China. The current president, Julius Maada Bio, has realized that China provides more development opportunities to Africa compared with any Western nation.

His visit to China yields greater opportunities, as he has already signed development cooperations with the Chinese government in areas such as infrastructure, agriculture, education and health. He has also held discussions with a Chinese enterprise, PowerChina, to construct the Lungi Bridge. Some members of his delegation, including his Minister of Transport, have also spoken with a Chinese bus manufacturing company, Golden Dragon, which will supply Sierra Leone with 200 brand-new buses.

The Chinese government is ready and willing to engage with development-oriented governments like the current Bio Administration, to the highest state level at the earliest possible opportunity, to move the already comprehensive and strategic partnership between the two countries to greater heights.

This is the opportunity Sierra Leone needs to enable the country to catch up with others, and so it remains good news that ties between the two countries continue to grow.Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley is planning on leaving hospital in the next few weeks.

Mr Rowley is currently being treated at Salisbury District Hospital for meningitis and loss of eyesight two months after he and his partner Dawn Sturgess were poisoned by the nerve agent.

The pair fell ill at Mr Rowleys home in Amesbury, near Salisbury on June 30 and Ms Sturgess, a mother-of-three, died in hospital eight days later having never regained consciousness.

It is believed they were exposed to a military grade nerve agent from a perfume bottle discarded by those responsible for the attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The pair fell ill at Mr Rowleys home in Amesbury (Steve Parsons/PA)

The father and daughter were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury city centre in March having been poisoned by Novichok. They have since been released from hospital.

The attacks caused an international diplomatic incident, with Home Secretary Sajid Javid accusing the Russian state of using Britain as a dumping ground for poison.

Mr Rowley was originally released from hospital on July 20 but was readmitted two weeks ago suffering from meningitis.

He told ITV News he was feeling positive about the news he was hearing from doctors and is hoping to get out of hospital in the next two or three weeks.

Mr Rowley said his eyesight has improved but is not yet fully restored and said there was still a bit of meningitis in the system.A teenager has been convicted over bogus bomb threats that triggered the evacuation of more than 400 UK schools and an airport security scare.

George Duke-Cohan twice targeted schools in the UK and US with hoax messages  before phoning-in a fake report of a hijacked aircraft while under investigation.

The 19-year-old, of Mutchetts Close, Watford, pleaded guilty on Monday to three counts of making hoax bomb threats, during a hearing at Luton Magistrates Court, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

He had first created panic in March 2018 when he emailed thousands of schools in the UK warning about an explosive.

More than 400 schools were evacuated as a result, according to the NCA.

Police arrested him days later, but he was able to send another batch of emails to schools in the US and UK while under investigation in April.

More than 400 schools were evacuated due to the hoax (National Crime Agency/PA)

His messages claimed a pipe bomb had been planted on the premises.

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a second time and released on pre-charge bail with conditions that he did not use electronic devices.

Before long his name was in the frame for a third hoax  regarding a bogus tip-off that hijackers had taken over a United Airlines flight between UK and San Francisco.

A joint investigation between the NCA and the FBI was launched when a hacker group known as Apophis Squad claimed on social media that it had successfully grounded flight UAL 949 on August 9.

Duke-Cohan pleaded guilty on Monday (National Crime Agency/PA)

Detectives found that Duke-Cohan had made the calls to San Francisco Airport and their police force while he was on pre-charge bail for the two previous offences.

He posed as a worried father, claiming his daughter had contacted him from the flight to say her plane had been hijacked by gunmen with a bomb.

The plane was placed on lockdown when it arrived at San Francisco airport as the report was investigated, requiring all 295 passengers to remain on board.

This caused disruption to onward journeys and financial loss to the airline, the NCA said.

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a third time at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire, on Friday.

The teenager prompted a security scare in San Francisco (National Crime Agency/PA)

He was found to be in possession of numerous electronic devices, despite the restrictions in place .

The teenager was remanded in custody after his guilty plea and is due to appear at Luton Crown Court on September 21.

NCA senior investigating officer Marc Horsfall said: George Duke-Cohan made a series of bomb threats that caused serious worry and inconvenience to thousands of people, not least an international airline.

He carried out these threats hidden behind a computer screen for his own enjoyment, with no consideration for the effect he was having on others.

Despite being arrested and having conditions imposed restricting his use of technology, he persistently broke those conditions to continue his wave of violent threats.Justice Secretary David Gauke should rethink his departments approach to ill-health retirement, senior judges have suggested.

Two Court of Appeal judges said on Tuesday that the Ministry of Justices ill-health retirement processes were arcane and unwieldy and deficient.

Lord Justice Underhill and Lord Justice Holroyde said they should be reconsidered.

Court of Appeal judges have said Justice Secretary David Gauke should rethink his departments approach to ill-health retirement (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

They raised concern in a ruling in a case in which former prison inspector Dr Peter Dunn complained about the way he had been treated by bosses after suffering depression and a heart problem.

He had taken legal action and alleged disability discrimination and harassment.

The two appeal judges, who had analysed issues at a Court of Appeal hearing in London in May, ruled against him.

But Lord Justice Underhill said, in a written ruling: It is no credit whatever to the Ministry of Justice that its ill-health retirement processes, which by definition are applied to people who are to a greater or lesser extent vulnerable, are so  arcane and unwieldy.

He said they should be reviewed, but added: It does not follow from the fact that they are so deficient that they are also discriminatory.

Lord Justice Holroyde said he agreed.

Dr Dunn had won an initial round of his legal fight.

An employment tribunal had upheld some of his discrimination claims and awarded around 100,000 compensation.

Lawyers representing Home Office ministers had subsequently mounted an appeal.A local government watchdog hearing has risen to consider whether Belfast councillor Jolene Bunting should be suspended.

The Local Government Commissioner for Standards in Northern Ireland is investigating 14 complaints about Ms Buntings behaviour.

Acting Commissioner Ian Gordon chaired an interim hearing on Tuesday.

It follows an interim report by deputy commissioner Paul McFadden, which recommends that it is in the public interest for Ms Bunting to be suspended for six months.

Counsel for Ms Bunting argued against that, pointing out that none of the complainants were among Ms Buntings constituents, and that it was in the public interest to allow her voters to continue to be represented.

Mr Gordon told the hearing on Tuesday that an outcome would be delivered at a later date as he wished to consider what he had heard.

Earlier, counsel for the deputy commissioner outlined areas of the councillors code of conduct to which the complaints against Ms Bunting relate.

These include an onus to represent the whole community, to promote good relations and act as a positive example.

The complaints included one against Ms Buntings apparent endorsement of comments made by Britain First frontwoman Jayda Fransen about the Muslim faith during the Northern Ireland Against Terrorism rally at Belfast City Hall on August 6 2017.

Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of far-right group Britain First (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Ms Fransen is facing criminal charges over the comments.

Suzanne Wylie, chief executive of Belfast City Council, submitted a statement to the commissioner, which claimed Ms Buntings conduct has caused a level of reputational damage to Belfast City Council.

This was over an incident where Ms Bunting had shown Ms Fransen around City Hall, during which visit Ms Fransen had filmed a video for her supporters while sitting in the Lord Mayors chair in Belfast City Hall dressed in councillors robes.

Responding for her client, counsel for Ms Bunting said her client accepts in hindsight she probably should have run it by someone in the council.

Ms Buntings counsel also defended her client, saying she had been pigeon-holed in with more extreme views expressed by others.

She is not a member of Britain First and never has been, she said.

She wanted to encourage the more moderate elements within the organisation and wanted to assist them in their structure to become a more credible organisation.

However, Ms Buntings counsel added, she distanced herself from the group when she became aware that the more extreme elements of the group were becoming more influential.

The barrister also defended comments which Ms Bunting has made about Islam, saying she stated genuinely considered views, and had not stepped outside what was appropriate under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, which relates to freedom of speech.

Summing up, counsel for Ms Bunting compared her clients case with that of former Newry, Mourne and Down councillor Patrick Clarke, who was banned a year after he was criminally convicted of fraud and sexual assault.

It would simply be outrageous if she was suspended when there are comparable cases which I would argue were much worse where there was no interim suspension, she concluded.

A number of letters of support for Ms Bunting were submitted.

A number of members of Britain First, including leader Paul Golding, watched the morning session from the public gallery.

Ms Bunting had previously been associated with the far-right group, but earlier this year there was a falling-out.

The investigation into the complaints is continuing, with the full hearing set to take place at a later date.The Russian Embassy in London has once again demanded access to Novichok poisoning victims Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

Six months on from the nerve agent attack in Salisbury it has reiterated its belief that the UK is flouting international law by apparently keeping the pair from having contact with embassy officials.

A statement released by the Russian Embassy on Tuesday referred to the circumstances of the March attack as obscure and accused British authorities of keeping the Skripals in isolation ever since their release from hospital.

The Russian Embassy said it had sent more than 70 notes and letters to the Foreign Office, Home Office and police since the poisoning (Andrew Matthews/PA)

It said: They remain out of the public eye at an unknown location, unable to communicate freely with their relatives, friends, journalists or Russian officials, deprived of the freedom of movement.

Six months in isolation: Russia demands that UK stops violating intl law and human rights of Sergey and Yulia #Skripal. https://t.co/2g3WxGzFHS pic.twitter.com/T1DqrbEnUK  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) September 4, 2018

The statement claimed that authorities in the UK had refused to allow the embassy to have direct contact with the former spy and his daughter in order to verify their actual health situation, the conditions in which they are held and, most importantly, to ascertain to which extent their isolation is voluntary.

The embassy added that it had sent more than 70 notes and letters to the Foreign Office, Home Office and police since the poisoning but had had nearly all of its queries ignored.

Following her release from hospital Ms Skripal said she was grateful for the offers of assistance from the Russian Embassy but at the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services.

A small amount of Novichok is thought to have been used in liquid form to target the Skripals.

The attack sparked a wave of diplomatic expulsions by Britain and its allies, and retaliatory ones by Russia.

The UK Government said it is highly likely Russia was behind the attack but Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility.

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.Britains Simon Yates recovered from a puncture to retain the overall lead at the 2018 Vuelta a Espana as Italian Elia Viviani claimed a second stage victory.

Quick-Step rider Viviani, winner on stage three, edged out world champion Peter Sagan in a sprint finish over Tuesdays mostly flat 177km course from Salamanca to Bermillo de Sayago.

Viviani, overall runner-up to Chris Froome in last years event, pushed in front following a battle in the last 200 metres to cross almost two bike lengths clear, with countryman Giacomo Nizzolo taking third place.

Italian rider Elia Viviani, centre, claimed a second stage victory on Vuelta a Espana. (Alvaro Barrientos/AP)

#LaVuelta18 Despite a late scare with a puncture @SimonYatess finishes safely within the bunch to retain the red jersey pic.twitter.com/QLtnLzQETu  Team BikeExchange (@GreenEDGEteam) September 4, 2018

As the race resumed following a rest day, Jesus Ezquerra (Burgos) and Tiago Machado (Katusha-Alpecin) had at one stage formed a two-man breakaway, but were eventually reeled back into the peloton.

Yates maintained ownership of the red jersey after the Mitchelton-Scott rider was helped to get back on track into the bunch when his bike needed some mechanical repairs heading into the closing 14km.

Nairo Quintana and Wilco Kelderman were also among those to suffer punctures.

Yates is, though, just one second ahead of Alejandro Valverde in the general classifications, with the Spaniards Movistar team-mate Quintana some 14 seconds adrift.

Stage 11 will be over 208.8kms from Mombuey to Luintra, which will see one second and three third-category climbs.Independent investigators have confirmed the toxic chemical that killed Dawn Sturgess in Amesbury was the same nerve agent as that which poisoned Sergei and Yulia Skripal three months earlier.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said its team had confirmed the findings of the UK, which concluded in July that the substance used was Novichok.

Ms Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley fell ill at his home in Amesbury, near Salisbury, on June 30.

Mr Rowley is currently being treated at Salisbury District Hospital (Steve Parsons/PA)

Ms Sturgess, a mother-of-three, died in hospital eight days later having never regained consciousness.

It is believed they were exposed to a military grade nerve agent from a perfume bottle discarded by those responsible for the attack on former Russian double agent Mr Skripal and his daughter in March, which also saw Wiltshire police officer Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey caught up in the attack.

The OPCW on Tuesday evening said: The results of the analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories of environmental and biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that intoxicated two individuals in Amesbury and resulted in one fatality.

The toxic chemical compound displays the same toxic properties of a nerve agent.

It is also the same toxic chemical that was found in the biomedical and environmental samples relating to the poisoning of Mr Sergei Skripal, Ms Yulia Skripal, and Mr Nicholas Bailey on March 4 in Salisbury.

The OPCW said it was not possible to conclude whether the nerve agent used in the two incidents was from the same batch.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt welcomed the report and again levelled the blame for the attacks at Russia.

He said: We are grateful to the OPCW for the independent expert work in confirming the type of nerve agent used in Amesbury, and once again pay tribute to the high standards set by our world-leading scientists.

The recklessness of the Russian state in bringing a nerve agent into the UK, and total disregard for the safety of the public, is appalling and irresponsible. Our thoughts are with the family of Dawn Sturgess and with Charlie Rowley.

This is another reminder of the importance of the international community standing together to uphold the global ban on all use of chemical weapons and ensure that the rules-based international order is respected so we can all keep our citizens safe.

In July, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Neil Basu said test results from Porton Down on the Amesbury poisoning had showed the victims to have been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok.A former UBS trader jailed for fraud in 2012 has said he feels extremely anxious after being detained ahead of deportation.

Kweku Adoboli was found guilty of two counts of fraud that resulted in losses of 1.4 billion and was released after serving half of his seven-year sentence.

He was detained during a fortnightly check-in at Livingston Police Station, West Lothian, on Monday and taken to Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in South Lanarkshire.

Kweku Adoboli faces being deported to Ghana (Lewis Whyld/PA)

He has been told he will not be deported before September 10 and his lawyers are working on a fresh claim submission which will be put to the Home Office.

Speaking from Dungavel Mr Adoboli said he is feeling very worried as he faces deportation from the country he considers his home.

He said: Ive been here for such a long time, since I was a child, and I think deportation would be wrong considering what happened and what Ive been doing since.

Mr Adoboli, 38, left Ghana at the age of four and considered himself settled in the UK, having gone to boarding school here from the age of 12.

He has lived in Scotland since he was released from prison in the summer of 2015, and has been involved in teaching at several universities and working with the Forward Institute which aims to promote responsible leadership.

He said: Hopefully the government will see sense and recognise that theres nothing to gain from deportation.

Im hopeful but also extremely anxious.

I think Ive been doing good work, Ive been trying to, but whether or not that is recognised by the countrys leaders is another question.

Mr Adobolis parents live in Ghana but he considers the UK his home, having lived here from a young age.

He said: My family is this 21st century family where the people Ive grown up with are my family and I think thats whats really hard about deportation.

It destroys a large part of your identity and it just feels really violent.

A Home Office spokesman said: All foreign nationals who are given a custodial sentence will be considered for removal.

Foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them and we have removed more than 42,800 foreign offenders since 2010.Labour has been accused of giving racists a get out of jail card in a backlash over its latest move to deal with the anti-Semitism row engulfing the party.

The partys ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) adopted all of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA) examples of anti-Semitic behaviour.

But it has faced heavy criticism for issuing an accompanying statement that it says will ensure the move does not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

Labour Party-supporting Jews demonstrate outside a meeting of the Labour National Executive Committee (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also been attacked after reports he wanted the NEC to accept a clarification that said it should not be considered anti-Semitic to describe Israel as racist.

Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) said the party appears determined to provide a safe space for anti-Semites.

Critics had claimed that the wording of the IHRA examples could prevent criticism of the Israeli governments actions against Palestinians but the leadership faced intense pressure to accept them in full.

LFIs response to the NECs decision - A freedom of expression on Israel clause is unnecessary and totally undermines the other examples the party has supposedly just adopted. pic.twitter.com/TKV1jOgNpH  Labour Friends of Israel (@_LFI) September 4, 2018

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, deputy leader Tom Watson and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer were among the senior figures in the party to call for the move in recent weeks.

But the statement on freedom of expression has infuriated campaigners.

LFI director Jennifer Gerber said: It is appalling that the Labour Party has once again ignored the Jewish community: that it should adopt the full IHRA definition without additions, omissions or caveats.

She added: A freedom of expression on Israel clause is unnecessary and totally undermines the other examples the party has supposedly just adopted.

Labour Against Anti-Semitism said the move appears to be about protecting the freedom of racists to present vile views.

A spokesman said: There can be no caveats, no conditions and no compromises with racism.

We are disappointed by the decision of Labours governing body, the NEC, to diminish the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism via the attachment of a clarification that risks giving racists in the party a get out of jail card.

The NEC has been told repeatedly that it needs to adopt the IHRA in full, without caveats or conditions, if it wants the Labour Party to begin the process of dealing with its anti-Semitism crisis.

Marie van der Zyl, Board of Deputies of British Jews President, said accepting the examples had been long overdue.

.@BoDPres: 'The decision to adopt the IHRA definition is very long overdue. It can only be the beginning. Action is what matters.' pic.twitter.com/Q62qt2V3SB  Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) September 4, 2018

We need to see firm action taken against anti-Semites and those who bring the party in to disrepute by denying the problem of anti-Semitism, she said.

In addition, Jeremy Corbyn needs to apologise for past anti-Semitic comments and affiliations.

Rival groups engaged in noisy protests outside Labours HQ as the NEC met to discuss how to defuse the row that has simmered for months.

Shadow Cabinet minister and NEC member Rebecca Long-Bailey insisted the party was not trying to water them down when it agreed a statement alongside the examples.

We made that clarification today at the meeting to state quite clearly that the intention of IHRA isnt to limit discourse on the political situation between Israel and Palestine, she said.

Mr Corbyn told the meeting that Labour was committed to eradicating the social cancer of anti-Semitism and spoke of the deep concern and pain across the party over the loss of confidence among Jewish communities.

He said adopting the examples was part of the process of rebuilding trust and as an act of solidarity with Jewish communities.

The Labour leader said clarifications were needed to ensure the rights of Palestinians or their supporters were not undermined.

ITV political editor Robert Peston posted a copy of a statement he said Mr Corbyn wanted endorsed by the committee that said it should not be regarded as anti-Semitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist because of their discriminatory impact.

LFI said it showed that Mr Corbyn was part of the problem not the solution.

The full IHRA text with the 11 examples and an accompanying statement on the protection of freedom of speech and Palestinian rights was adopted by consensus.

The party will re-invite Jewish organisations to take part in its ongoing consultation on its code of conduct.

A Labour spokesman said: The NEC has today adopted all of the IHRA examples of anti-Semitism, in addition to the IHRA definition which Labour adopted in 2016, alongside a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

The NEC welcomed Jeremy Corbyns statement to the meeting about action against anti-Semitism, solidarity with the Jewish community and protection of Palestinian rights, as an important contribution to the consultation on Labours Code of Conduct.

Unite leader Len McCluskey said: There has been a great deal of work and discussion to get the party to this position, a position that reaffirms our partys complete determination to drive anti-Semitism from our ranks and protect the right to free speech.

The manner and outcome of todays debate is a credit to our party and Jeremy Corbyn. It puts Labour in the position now to continue its discussion with the communities at the heart of these matters, which I sincerely hope can now proceed on a positive and mutually respectful footing.The Duke of Sussex was left dangling by the end of his tie when he met an inquisitive youngster during an awards ceremony recognising children with severe illnesses.

Harrys tie was playfully pulled by Ruby Joslin-Smith when he and the Duchess of Sussex came over to say hello during the WellChild awards ceremony staged at a central London hotel.

The event honoured youngsters with severe illnesses and conditions who strive to live a full life despite the health problems they face.

At the end of the event, Harry and Meghan met the childrens choir from Riverside School, for pupils with special needs, based in St Mary Cray, Orpington, which won an award.

Harry with Ruby Joslin-Smith (Victoria Jones/PA)

The dukes dangling tie was tugged by the seven-year-old, who is wheelchair-bound with a genetic disorder.

Harry even crouched down and flopped the end of it in her face as he played up to her antics.

He has been patron of WellChild  the national charity for seriously ill children and their families  since 2007 and regularly attends the annual awards ceremony.

Jacqui Burrows, who works as an expressive arts specialist at Riverside School, said: Ruby was very excited to see Harry and Meghan.

She was attracted by the dangling tie, she does have some vision impairment but could see the tie and just wanted to play.Song Dongsheng, PowerChina Group President with President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone (photo credit: State House Communications Team Sierra Leone)

Sierra Leones President Julius Maada Bio held a meeting in Beijing recently with internationally renowned Chinese company, PowerChina International Group Ltd, to discuss the construction of Lungi Bridge.

Explaining the importance of the proposed Lungi Bridge, the passionate President Bio said that the bridge will open Sierra Leone up for business and attract more investors and tourists. The construction of Lungi Bridge is a project that the president has never promised but has always kept close to his heart, telling a foreign delegation at State House a number of weeks ago that he was actively looking for reputable companies to engage in the construction of the Lungi Bridge.

President Bio explained that Freetown is too congested and the construction of a bridge will not only reduce that congestion but also promote economic development. He encouraged PowerChina International to consider the construction of Lungi Bridge as a very important project that will bring huge relief to many Sierra Leoneans and make the country an enviable tourist destination.

The President of PowerChina International Group Ltd, Mr. Song Dongsheng, praised President Bio for his great leadership and passion in attracting investors to Sierra Leone. Song said that PowerChina International, which is already well-known for its investment in many African countries, is very interested in constructing the Lungi Bridge, adding that it will create employment opportunities for both countries.

Sierra Leone government and PowerChina Group officials, celebrating their partnership (Photo Credit: State House Communications Sierra Leone)

Updating the President on the proposed project, the Chief Minister, Professor David J. Francis, said that while the proposed construction of the Lungi Bridge is the key priority, the whole project package will also include the expansion of the local airport and creation of an economic zone. The Chief Minister said that constructing a bridge will mean increased passenger traffic, hence the airport expansion must fall in line with the construction of the bridge.

Following a successful meeting, President Bio invited PowerChina to visit Sierra Leone for a more detailed discussion with the relevant ministers and the Chairman of Presidential Infrastructure, Dr. John Tambi. The President of PowerChina International Group Ltd accepted the invitation and agreed that the company will visit Sierra Leone in October for discussions on detailed financing, feasibility studies and a technical meeting on the design with Dr. John Tambi.US President Donald Trump has described an incendiary tell-all book by a reporter who helped bring down Richard Nixon as nasty stuff, denying certain scenes occurred.

Fear: Trump In The White House by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward has angered the White House, with Trump aides quoted as calling him an idiot and admitting they snatched sensitive documents off his desk to keep him from taking rash actions.

It is the latest book to throw the Trump administration into damage-control mode with explosive anecdotes and concerns about the commander in chief.

On Tuesday, the Post published details from the book, the Watergate reporters forthcoming examination of Mr Trumps first 18 months in office.

The publication of Mr Woodwards book has been anticipated for weeks, and current and former White House officials estimate that nearly all their colleagues co-operated with the famed Watergate journalist.

This image released by Simon & Schuster shows "Fear: Trump in the White House," by Bob Woodward, available on Sept. 11. (Simon & Schuster via AP)

Mr Trump spoke to the conservative Daily Caller after details emerged about the book, calling it another bad book and saying Mr Woodward has a lot of credibility problems.

The president also denied that senior aides took sensitive documents from his desk, saying there was nobody taking anything from me.

The White House, in a statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, dismissed the book as nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad.

The book quotes chief of staff John Kelly as having doubts about Mr Trumps mental faculties, declaring during one meeting were in Crazytown.

It also says he called Mr Trump an idiot, an account that Mr Kelly denied.

The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true, he said in a statement.

The book says that Mr Trumps former lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, doubted the presidents ability to avoid perjuring himself should he be interviewed in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian election interference and potential co-ordination with Mr Trumps campaign.

Mr Dowd stepped down in January.

Dont testify. Its either that or an orange jumpsuit, he is quoted telling the president.

Mr Dowd, in a statement, said no so-called practice session or re-enactment' took place and denied saying that Mr Trump was likely to end up in an orange jumpsuit.

Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis is quoted explaining to Mr Trump why the US maintains troops on the Korean Peninsula to monitor North Koreas missile activities.

Were doing this in order to prevent World War III, Mr Mattis said, according to the book.

The book recounts that Mr Mattis told close associates that the president acted like  and had the understanding of  a fifth or sixth-grader'.

Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis is quoted explaining to Mr Trump why the US maintains troops on the Korean Peninsula (Rick Findler/PA)

Mr Woodward reported that after Syrias Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Mr Trump called Mr Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying kill him! Lets go in.

Mr Mattis assured Mr Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they would do nothing of the kind, Mr Woodward wrote.

National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Mr Trump ordered.

Mr Woodward also claims that Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council, boasted of removing papers from the presidents desk to prevent Mr Trump from signing them into law, including efforts to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The book also quotes Mr Trump as mocking his attorney general Jeff Sessions, who has been a target of the presidents wrath since recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

This guy is mentally retarded, Mr Trump said of Mr Sessions, according to the book.

He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.

Mr Trump did not speak to Mr Woodward until after the books manuscript was completed.

The Post released audio of Mr Trump expressing surprise about the book in an August conversation with Mr Woodward.

Mr Woodward tells Mr Trump he had contacted multiple officials to attempt to interview him and was rebuffed.

The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolffs Fire And Fury, which led to a rift between Mr Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Mr Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family.

Mr Wolffs book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.

Mr Woodwards work also comes weeks after former White House aide and Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman published an expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Mr Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Mr Kellys decision.

While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the book still increased tensions in the West Wing, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Mr Woodward appeared to have interviewed.

Some White House officials expressed surprise at the number of erstwhile Trump loyalists willing to offer embarrassing stories of the president and his inner circle.

No clear response strategy emerged immediately after the Post report, but insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than from Fire And Fury, given Mr Woodwards storied reputation.Lando Norris is a future Formula One world champion but should not be compared with Lewis Hamilton, according to McLaren chief executive Zak Brown.

Teenager Norris is set to become the youngest F1 driver in British history after being promoted ahead of the 2019 season.

The 18-year-olds rise to the pinnacle of the sport has drawn immediate comparisons to four-time champion Hamilton, who was 22 when he burst on to the scene for McLaren in 2007.

Lando Norris joins McLaren as new driver (McLaren F1/handout)

Brown has backed Norris for success but does not want him to be burdened by trying to emulate the achievements of one of the sports greats.

Hes unbelievably gifted, we just need to make sure we mature him into the sport the right way, Brown said of Norris.

What I think he is is a future world champion.

I think people ask about the Lewis comparison because hes British and McLaren, as opposed to is he the next Michael Schumacher, because whats the difference between Michael and Lewis? I think its the British world champion thing.

We dont want to draw comparisons to other drivers, thats part of what might put too much pressure on him too quickly.

We think hes a future world champion; Lewis is a unique individual who may go down as the most successful Formula One driver ever.

Norris, signed by Britains most successful team last year, has impressed in the McLaren car in recent practice sessions at the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix.

He will team up with Spaniard Carlos Sainz, replacing Stoffel Vandoorne.

American Brown broke the news to Norris at Sundays Italian Grand Prix in Monza and was pleased with his level-headed reaction.

I pulled him into my office and said, welcome to Formula One, added Brown.

Hes quite a relaxed character so he didnt jump up and down on the sofa like Tom Cruise on David Letterman, or whatever show that was.

Emotionally I dont see him get wound up, which is a good personality trait for Formula One because hell have some adversity at some point and you need to be able to power through that.

Englishman Norris, from Glastonbury in Somerset, is flattered with being likened to defending champion Hamilton.

He is a big admirer of his 33-year-old compatriot, but admits his childhood hero was motorcyclist Valentino Rossi.

I never idolised him; he was a driver who growing up I watched and admired, Norris said of Hamilton.

My idol and the guy Ive always looked up to is Rossi. He was the first guy I really started supporting when I was six-years-old.

I think being able to be compared in any way to Lewis is more good than bad.

Its a cool thing to think about but Im not in Formula One just yet so I still need to perform when I go into F1 to live up to the expectations.

Despite the imminent prospect of fame and fortune, Norris  who currently competes in Formula Two  intends to remain grounded and prioritise his career.

The position I am in now, instead of taking in all the glory, I think its better I focus on the job itself, he added.

Im not going to be going out buying fancy stuff. I dont normally live like that anyway, buying super nice clothes and whatever.

I dont think Ive ever spent over 1,000 on anything.KABUL, Sept 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. service member was killed and another wounded in an apparent insider attack in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement.

The service member, who has not been identified, was the sixth American to be killed in Afghanistan this year.

The incident came two months after a member of a U.S. army training unit was shot dead by an Afghan soldier in the southern province of Uruzgan.

"The sacrifice of our service member, who volunteered for a mission to Afghanistan to protect his country, is a tragic loss for all who knew and all who will now never know him," said Gen. Scott Miller, who assumed command of NATO forces in Afghanistan on Sunday.

Insider attacks, often known as "green on blue" attacks in which Afghan service members or attackers wearing Afghan uniforms fire on U.S. or coalition troops, have been a regular feature of the conflict in Afghanistan, although their frequency has diminished in recent years.

Coalition forces have also tightened security and added extra force protection measures including special "Guardian Angel" units to accompany training units.

The Resolute Support statement said the wounded service member was in a stable condition but gave no further details, saying their name would be withheld until after next of kin were notified. (Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Alison Williams)BAGHDAD, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament held its first session since May's national election on Monday but failed to elect a speaker, what should have been the first step towards forming a new government.

Lawmakers were supposed to elect the speaker and two deputies, at the start of a 90-day process outlined in the constitution.

But with competing political blocs each claiming to hold a parliamentary majority, no vote was held on the appointments. The temporary leader of the assembly said it would remain in session until Tuesday.

The new cohort of Iraqi lawmakers was sworn in after a formal handover ceremony attended by the leaders of the main electoral blocs, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi who addressed the gathered MPs of the 329-seat body.

On Sunday, lawmakers led by populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Abadi announced they had managed to form an alliance that would give them a majority bloc in parliament.

Hours later, a rival grouping led by militia commander Hadi al-Amiri and former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki responded by saying it had formed its own alliance that would be the largest bloc, after it persuaded some lawmakers to defect from the rival group.

Amiri and Maliki are Iran's two most prominent allies in Iraq. Abadi is seen as the preferred candidate of the United States, while Sadr portrays himself as a nationalist who rejects both American and Iranian influence.

Both groups continued to claim they held the majority on Monday, complicating the election of a speaker.

Iraqis voted in May in their first parliamentary election since the defeat of Islamic State's self-declared caliphate, but a contentious recount process delayed the announcement of final results until earlier this month. (Reporting by Raya Jalabi; Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Andrew Roche)By Noah Barkin

BERLIN, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The longer Donald Trump stays in office, the higher the risk that anti-American forces will gain the upper hand in Germany and push it into the arms of Russia and China, veteran German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger said in an interview.

The chairman of the Munich Security Conference and former ambassador to Washington was speaking to Reuters days before the publication of his book "World in Danger", in which he urges Germans not to giving up on the United States because of Trump, while also pressing them to accept more global responsibility.

"The longer Trump remains in office, the harder it will be to stand up to those in this country and elsewhere in Europe who have been arguing since the Vietnam war that we need to cut the cord with America the bully," Ischinger said.

"It would become much harder for the German government to stay the course and defend this relationship," he said. "And the forces calling for a closer relationship with countries like Russia or China might be emboldened."

Since entering the White House in January last year, Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, left the Iran nuclear deal and threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

He has repeatedly attacked Germany for its trade surplus and lack of defence spending, unsettling a country that has long viewed America as its closest ally outside of Europe and a bulwark of its security and defence.

A survey by the Pew Research Center last year indicated that only 35 percent of Germans have a favourable view of the United States under Trump. A poll by the Koerber Foundation suggested that Germans see Trump as a bigger foreign policy problem than authoritarian leaders in North Korea, Russia or Turkey.

"SERIOUS VIOLATION"

Against this backdrop, some German politicians are urging the government to seek closer ties with Moscow and Beijing - two authoritarian powers whose values diverge from the liberal democracy that Germany has built in the seven decades since it rose from the ashes of World War Two with American help. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a strong believer in the transatlantic relationship, has resisted.

Ischinger expressed particular concern about Trump's use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool, and his threat to punish German and other firms involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with Russia.

"If U.S. sanctions are applied to prevent Nord Stream 2, the repercussions will be poisonous for the transatlantic relationship," he said.

"Even if you have doubts about the wisdom of Nord Stream 2, it is hard not to see this as a serious violation, as an instance of the U.S. forcing its views on the Europeans."

Ischinger praised Merkel for spelling out the need for Germany to become more independent but said it was high time that her words were translated into action.

He estimated that the government would need to raise defence spending by 10-15 billion for the four-year legislative period, if it hopes to meet its most basic commitments.

"We're not where we should be. And you can even argue that we've taken a step backwards in recent years," Ischinger said.

"It's not enough to declare that we want to assume more responsibility. We need to show where the beef is, and that there is beef. There need to be budgetary consequences." (Reporting by Noah Barkin; Editing by Kevin Liffey)By Gabriel Stargardter

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Anger smoldered in Brazil on Monday after a fire destroyed the National Museum, a cherished historical repository that lacked a sprinkler system and which had suffered years of financial neglect, making its destruction a "tragedy foretold."

Outside the entrance to the elegant park housing the 200-year-old former Imperial Palace, police in riot gear shot tear gas into a small, angry crowd that tried to enter, live TV images showed. Later, police granted access to the site's perimeter, which protesters surrounded in a symbolic "embrace."

The rumbling tensions reflect anger over the destruction on Sunday of the much-loved yet dilapidated museum, which suffered from declining federal funding. It stirred emotions in Brazil, whose angry electorate is reeling from a frail economy, widespread graft and rising violence ahead of an unpredictable presidential election in October.

"Our community is very mobilized, and very indignant," said Roberto Leher, rector of the Rio de Janeiro federal university, which administers the museum. "We all knew the building was vulnerable."

Brazil's culture minister Sergio Leitao told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper the blaze was likely caused by either an electrical short-circuit or a homemade paper hot-air balloon that may have landed on the roof. Launching such balloons is a long-held tradition in Brazil and they routinely cause fires.

Both possibilities were being considered, Culture Ministry spokeswoman Roberta de Oliveira Ribeiro said in an email, but the cause would not be known until an investigation was completed. The Rio de Janeiro federal university did not immediately respond to a question on whether the museum was insured.

The museum's pastel-yellow facade remained standing after the blaze, but a peek inside its giant windows revealed a roofless interior of blackened hallways and charred beams. Every so often, firemen emerged with a pot or a painting they had managed to rescue.

The museum's vice director, Luiz Duarte, told Globo TV the institution had been neglected by successive federal governments. He said a 21.6 million-real ($5.23 million) financing plan with the state-run development bank BNDES announced in June included, ironically, a plan to install modern fire protection equipment.

The Rio fire department's commander, Roberto Robadey, said the hydrants outside the building were dry when firefighters arrived, forcing them to turn to a nearby lake and tanker trucks for water.

"Yesterday was one of the saddest days of my career," he said.

FRAGILE CULTURE

The museum is not the first to burn down in Brazil, where public money for cultural projects has been drying up after a deep recession. In 2015, for example, a blaze destroyed the prestigious Museum of the Portuguese Language in Sao Paulo.

In 2016, President Michel Temer was forced to reinstate the Culture Ministry after an outcry from some of the country's top artists over his policy to fold it into the Education Ministry to save money.

On Monday, his office said he had met with representatives from major Brazilian companies and banks to look into ways to help rebuild the museum "as soon as possible."

Education Minister Rossieli Soares told reporters outside the burned-out building on Monday that the federal government would spend an initial 15 million reais, in two separate installments, to restore the structure and rebuild its collection. He added that Brazil would seek international help, and was already in discussions with UNESCO.

The museum's decline did not happen overnight, said Renato Rodriguez Cabral, a teacher in the geology and paleontology department.

"This was a tragedy foretold," Cabral said, hugging distraught students and coworkers who poured into the site on Monday. "Successive governments would not provide funds, they would not invest in infrastructure."

Between 2013 and 2017, the National Museum in Rio's federal funding fell about a third, to 643,567 reais, according to official budget data. The funding cuts were particularly acute this year, with the museum receiving just 98,115 reais between January and August.

Late last year,, after a termite attack shuttered a room hosting the bones of the Maxakalisaurus dinosaur, the National Museum was forced to turn to a crowdfunding site to seek funds for reopening the exhibit.

It raised nearly 60,000 reais, almost double its goal.

The National Museum's collection ranged from archeological finds to historical memorabilia.

The museum, which is tied to the Rio de Janeiro federal university and the education ministry, was founded in 1818 and housed several landmark collections, including Egyptian artifacts and the oldest human fossil found in Brazil.

The destruction of the building, where emperors once lived, was an "incalculable loss for Brazil," Temer said in a statement.

His office did not respond to requests for comment on widespread allegations of neglect. ($1 = 4.1310 reais) (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter Additional reporting by Marcela Ayres Editing by Brad Brooks, James Dalgleish and Jonathan Oatis)SOFIA, Sept 4 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

-- The government will delay the vote on the resignations of the ministers of regional development, transport and interior affairs by a week after one of the parties of the junior coalition partner said it was not going to back them, triggering a coalition council meeting. (Standart, 24 Chasa, Trud, Monitor, Sega,)

-- An investor from South Korea has expressed interest to Belene nuclear power project, said Petar Iliev, head of Bulgarian state electricity utility NEK. (Standart, Monitor, Sega, Trud)

STANDART - Household deposits at banks exceeded 51 billion levs ($30.20 billion) at the end of July, some 48 million more than a yea ago, data from the central bank showed. ($1 = 1.6889 leva)Army Media Director Brigadier Sumith Atapattu assumed the mantle of command in the Mechanized Infantry Regiment (MIR) in Dambulla as its Colonel of the Regiment yesterday.He succeeded Major General Kumudu Perera who relinquished his office on Saturday (1). Brigadier Atapattu, one of the most senior and highly respected MIR Senior Officers, was warmly welcomed by MIR Centre Commandant Colonel Janaka Priyadarshana before he was greeted to the formal Guard Turnout in accordance with military traditions.Minister Faiszer Musthapha had been perplexed following the false media allegations of connection to a youth who was arrested in Sydney over a document that the Australian Police allege contained plans for terrorist attacks, Deputy Minister H. M. M. Harees said today.

Deputy Minister Harees said that he spoke to Minister Musthapha after several foreign reports highlighted the Ministers relationship to the accused.

The Minister was deeply shocked of the accusation as he was not a pro terrorist person, Harees said.

The accused was not directly related to the Minister but a relative of his wife. Faiszer is a character that strongly concern for the country more than the Muslims. Im disappointed about these reports. Just because the student is accused of a crime, it doesnt mean he is guilty. Just because a person is related to the Minister it doesnt mean the Minister too is involved, he said.

He said that the incident had tarnished the countrys image and could impact the bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Deputy Minister urged that the Foreign Affair Ministry should interfere to the matter as the accused was a PhD student with a sound background and according to his family he was framed to the incident.

I humbly request all local and foreign media to not to accuse the Minister based on false information. I can assure that Minister Musthapha is a gentlemen and a patriot, Deputy Minister Harees added.

25-year-old Kamar Nizamdeen, who was employed by a Sydney University has been charged over a document that Australian Police allege, contained plans for terrorist attacks. The 25-year-old was arrested by counter-terrorism officers at the University of NSW in Kensington on August 31.

However, Friends and family of the accused claimed that Nizamdeen was framed. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)Mervyn de Silva wrote a brief bio-data on the smaller-sized of the Lanka Guardian notepaper/ letterheads in the last years of his life. It was rearranged into a narrative and appeared on the back cover of Crisis Commentaries: Selected Political Writings of Mervyn de Silva published by the International Center for Ethnic studies, Colombo, 1999. It was Mervyns laconic look back at his life as he saw it in his late 60s. He never made it to 70. Here is his last CV just as he had typed it:

1949-53: Edited University Magazine. Founded News Sheet.

1954: Joined Associated Newspapers, largest publishing company as part-time Parliament reporter while studying Law.

1960: Joined Associated Newspapers permanently.

1965: Appointed Deputy Editor, Evening Observer.

1970: Editor, Daily News, Premier English daily.

1972: Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers.

1973: Newspapers nationalized by left-wing Bandaranaike regime.

1976: Dismissed.

1976: Joined privately-owned TIMES as editor-in-Chief.

1977: Times nationalized by right-wing UNP Jayewardene government.

1978: Dismissed. Founded Lanka Guardian.

Currently Colombo correspondent Financial Times, London, NEWSWEEK, and Times of India. Has worked for The Economist, London. Published in New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde Diplomatique, International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor and Far Eastern Economic Review.

Mervyn had so many dimensions and achievements he could have written a fuller CV. And yet his brief bio focused on his career as a print journalist. That was the axis and trajectory of his being. He wrote for publication in the print media, both mainstream newspapers and periodicals. He was a maestro of the printed word written for a general and regular reader.

He was more. He was a literary critic, a film reviewer, a commentator on international affairs, a radio broadcaster on subjects ranging from poetry to world affairs, and for a while a regular commentator on international affairs (interviewed by Eric Fernando) on TV.

He was a maestro of the printed word written for a general and regular reader

He was a brilliant world-class journalist and arguably Sri Lankas greatest journalist

What strikes one in his abbreviated CV is the strange symmetry of his dismissal by two (otherwise) contrasting Sri Lankan governments i.e. political Establishments.

Izeth Hussain, literary critic, intellectual and diplomat, pointed to this phenomenon:

perhaps it is not really surprising that he [Mervyn] was twice booted out of editorial positions. It is not surprising from a Sri Lankan perspective. It is more than surprising, stunning in fact, from an international perspective. For here was a journalist widely recognized as exceptionally brilliant, a world-class journalist as we say, arguably even Sri Lankas greatest journalist, and he of all people gets sacked not once but twice, on both occasions from state-owned newspapers.

Hussain, who was senior to Mervyn by two years at the university, understood the mans trajectory and existential choices:

He [Mervyn] would have rebelled against the constricted life-style expected in careers leading to one becoming a pillar of society. His brilliant performance at Law College showed that he could have become an outstanding lawyer, and minted money. Instead he chose journalism and, as his widow Lakshmi used to bemoan, he never made enough to buy his own house. It was his vocation. He was born for journalism.

By the time of his death he [Mervyn] had come to be recognized for several years as the doyen of Sri Lankan journalists. A non-conformist, someone always on the side of the underdog, without illusions about men of power and their world, and incapable of identifying himself with any political party, perhaps it is not really surprising that he was twice booted out of editorial positions. It is not surprising from a Sri Lankan perspective. It is more than surprising, stunning in fact, from an international perspective.

For here was a journalist widely recognized as exceptionally brilliant, a world-class journalist as we say, arguably even Sri Lankas greatest journalist, and he of all people gets sacked not once but twice, on both occasions from state-owned newspapers. That says a great deal about the vicissitudes of Sri Lankan journalism in our time. Mervyn experienced those vicissitudes at first hand and for a longer period than perhaps any other prominent journalist...

The point is that Mervyn experienced it all at first hand and that is why he was the quintessential Sri Lankan journalist of our time...

(First published under the title The Two Mervyns in The Weekend Express, Colombo, July 10-11, 1999)

I started writing this as I am about to emplane for Moscow and am now reviewing it from my desk at the ambassadorial residence above the Embassy. I visited Moscow many times as a boy, starting in the mid-1960s, running through the 1970s, in the company of my parents. On those occasions my father Mervyn was either a guest of the Russian Foreign Ministry or of the APN (Novosti) news agency headed in the 1970s by the formidable Latin Americanist, Kachaturov (whom I was privileged to meet).

In the early 1970s my father was the first foreign journalist to meet the iconic foreign affairs expert and leading Russian Americanist, the head of Moscows USA and Canada Institute, Georgi Arbatov, when he returned from the last round of talks in Helsinki before the signing of the SALT 1 agreement. I was with him and my mother in Moscow at the time.

As a young undergraduate I was fortunate to meet the finest Russian foreign policy thinker, Evgeny Primakov, who went on to be Russias Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, when he was still Academician Primakov, head of IMEMO, in 1976 in Colombo, when my father hosted him to dinner at the Capri Club. Academician Primakov invited me to study under him at IMEMO after I graduated from Peradeniya, but another destiny intervened.

The diplomat-intellectual Izeth Hussains greatest encomium to Mervyn de Silva made explicit reference to a Russian intellectual, critical and journalistic phenomenon as point of comparison and affinity:

But his greatest achievement, more than his writings, was surely the Lanka Guardian (LG). Through that small magazine, and against all the odds, he created democratic space in Sri Lanka. For some years I was perhaps the most frequent of all the contributors to the L.G. and some weeks before his death he reminded me that he had never hesitated to publish anything I wrote. After his death I recalled an LG article I wrote on the potential power of the mini-press. Alexander Herzens magazine, The Bell , I wrote, was the most potent instrument for forming Russian public opinion in the five or six years before the Russian Revolution. It has been written up as the most astonishing phenomenon in the history of Russian, and perhaps of world, journalism. At its height it circulation was 2,500. The LG s circulation was not much more, I believe. The LG is Mervyns claim to be regarded as Sri Lankas greatest journalist.

(https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/an-intellectual-of-the-highest-calibre-a-fine-moral-intelligence/)

In an important sense therefore, my road to Moscow has been in the footsteps of my father. In a three quarter page polemic against my appointment to Moscow, Prof. Sarath Wijesooriya termed me a political gunfighter whose hunting ground is politics. This made me recall The Gunslingers Prayer in Stephen Kings The Dark Tower, in which the abiding sin which is warned against and has to be avoided, is having forgotten the face of my father. As I attend the International military tattoo at the Spasskaya Tower, hear the rousing cheer reverberating through the Red Square at night for the Sri Lankan Armed Forces band and especially the young Lankan army man bearing the Lion flag and singing Katyusha (the Soviet era tribute to the legendary rocket); shake hands with the guest of honour, much-decorated WW II veteran General Gennady Zaitsev of the legendary Spetsnatz Alpha Group (one of the worlds topmost counter-terrorist special forces); receive an exact replica of the key to the Spasskaya tower of the Kremlin; sit as a member of the Sri Lanka delegation across the table from Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin at the Russian Ministry of Defence; and look across the Moscow river at night at the massive Stalin-eraHotel Ukraine (now the Radisson) where I stayed with my parents on our first visit in 1964, I have not forgotten the face of my father.Chinese and Nigerien peacekeepers evacuate an injured Nigerien peacekeeper with a stretcher during the joint defense drill in Menaka, Mali, on August 29, 2018. (Photo by Liu Xiaoshuai)

MENAKA, MALI, Sept. 3 (ChinaMil) -- To address the grim security situation in Mali's Menaka region, a contingent in Menaka assigned to the 6th Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to Mali carried out a joint defense drill with the Nigerien peacekeeping infantry battalion on Aug. 29, in a bid to jointly enhance the capabilities to deal with emergencies. Menaka has been on an "Orange Alert", a high-risk level, since the deployment of the Chinese peacekeeping contingent in early July this year. As of the end of August, there have been 21 terrorist attacks with more than 90 casualties in the area.

The joint defense drill was conducted against the backdrop of a terrorist attack on the UN camp.

During the drill, the Chinese contingent immediately judged the situation together with Nigerien peacekeepers after receiving a warning signal from the sentry post. The Chinese and Nigerien quick-response teams dispatched infantry fighting vehicles to support. The Chinese medical team rushed to the scene to conduct forward first aid and medical evacuation to the injured. In the meantime, the Nigerien peacekeeping infantry dispatched armored vehicles to the combat readiness areas of the UN camp for support.

Wang Yong, deputy head of the Chinese contingent, said: "In this joint drill, the Chinese and Nigerien peacekeeping forces successfully handled the sudden 'hostile situation' through intelligence sharing and joint operations. They also learned from each other's operational concepts. The emergency response capabilities of Chinese peacekeepers have been further strengthened."Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, who was appointed as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation, has assumed duties on Monday, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said today.

It said M.M. Jaffeer assumed duties as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Federative Republic of Brazil on August 31.

Mr. Jaffeer who is a career diplomat, has previously served as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Vietnam, Austria and Norway, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Ms. N.M.D.A. Gunasekera has been appointed as the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom.

Ms. Gunasekera, a career diplomat, presently serves as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Republic of Korea. She is expected to take up her assignment shortly.

Mr. C.A.H.M. Wijeratne has been appointed as the Ambassador to the Republic of Poland.

Mr. Wijeratne, a career diplomat, has previously served as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Kuwait.

Meanwhile, Ms. S.S. Premawardhane, a career diplomat, has been appointed as the Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.DPA, 03rd SEPTEMBER, 2018- The risk of dying in the central Mediterranean Sea has jumped to one in 18 for migrants this year as non-governmental rescue ships are facing difficulties on this key route to Europe, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Monday.



Last year, one in 42 migrants died or went missing while trying to sail to Italy on the central Mediterranean between January and July.



A major factor contributing to the increased death rate is the decreased search and rescue capacity off the Libyan coast this year, the Geneva-based UNHCR said, noting that two vessels of the Libyan coast guard have effectively taken over the rescue work that was handled by eight NGO vessels in 2017. While humanitarian rescue groups have reported harassment and threats from the Libyan coast guard, they have also faced landing blockades and legal punishment in Italy.



UNHCR noted that refugees and migrants are now travelling on overcrowded and unsafe vessels for long periods and over further distances prior to detection and rescue.. Among the more than 1,600 people who have died or gone missing while trying to reach Europe on various routes since January, 1,095 have perished in the central Mediterranean.Hilton Colombo won Sri Lankas Leading Business Hotel award for the second consecutive year at the World Travel Awards 2018 held in Hong Kong.

Described as the Oscars of the Travel & Tourism industry by the Wall Street Journal, it is one of the most sought after events in the Tourism calendar.

World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry. Today, the World Travel Awards brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others aspire. https://www.worldtravelawards.com/press-358

Commenting on the hotels great achievement, the proud General Manager Manesh Fernando said We are honored to have been chosen as Sri Lankas Leading Business Hotel once again, at one of the most prestigious events in the world. We sincerely take this opportunity to thank all our guests who have been supporting the Hilton Colombo over the past 31 years.

Hilton Colombo won this award in 2009 and 2017 and also Sri Lankas Leading Hotel award, consecutively from 2005  2008 and again in 2010, 2012 and 2014. https://www.worldtravelawards.com/profile-930-hilton-colomboThere is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.

- Montesquieu

As a columnist some of the news that hits you on a daily basis is good raw material to work upon. Specially for a column not exclusively dealing with the political, a news item which might not capture headlines could still ignite the spark to write. The harrowing tale of Hithumathe Jeewithe is one such story.

Batugahage Don Sumathipala alias Ranjith or Hithumathe Jeewithe, as he is popularly known, based on the tattoo across his chest, is not the ordinary criminal you come across these days. At the age of 17, he was made a criminal by the urge to avenge the gang rape and brutal murder of his school-going sister by the HQI of Kalutara Police, the Principal, a politician and a few others. He has been in prison for over 40 years, escaping seven times, sentenced to death a few times, receiving Presidential Pardon twice. Rarely would you come across a person who had borne the brunt of hard life to that extent, not due to his own fault in the first place.

Disturbing questions

I do not wish to justify the killing of five persons whatever the motives that were behind it. Yet the story of Sumathipala is unique in the sense that it poses so many questions regarding different aspects of life in Sri Lanka. Some years ago Sumathipala was interviewed by a private television station and the confession received the attention of the public, providing a lot of points to ponder about as various as an aspect starting from the Criminal Justice System, the leaders we have, Presidential Pardon, the life in prison , the gulf between law and justice, the good and bad sides of officialdom etc.

A justice system that pounces to punish men like Sumathipala while failing to reach those who commit gruesome crimes such as the one committed against his sister in 1972; an official hierarchy that abuses the power of office and uniform bestowed on them to serve the public such as the Senior Police Officer who actually took part in the gang rape and brutal murder of the innocent damsel; the Politician whose ego was pricked when Sumathipalas sister, being crowned Avurudu Kumari refused to allow him to hug her which consequently led him to order such heinous revenge on her, the corrupt officialdom exemplified by the so called Principal who betrayed the girl in to the hands of those vicious wolves in the first place; a self complacent justice system that ignores roots of delinquency but penalizes the symptoms- all are but a screenshot of a society accursed.

Many do not brand him as a criminal but a hero



It was certain elements of this society that made him a criminal

Sumathipala was left with no alternative but to avenge by claiming the lives of each and every monster who was responsible for his sisters fateful tragedy; according to him, the trial for the first murder he committed took less than one year, at a time when murder trials took years or even decades, the justice system resolved to punish a lawless murderer who beheaded a law enforcing officer and presented the SP with the severed head. Although decades have passed by, the logic remains the same; swift and resolute application of law to ordinary men likehithumathe jeewithe while being timorous, hesitant and deferential when confronted by those used to the silver spoon.

Sumathipalas testimony as recorded by media reveals so many disturbing facets of life inside prisons; corrupted officials, favourable treatment of those who are affluent, politically powerful and backed by black money, a culture that makes those who are incarcerated for minor offences in to hardened criminals, inhuman and debasing treatment of prisoners in violation of normative principles of conduct and fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Cell mates

The names of those who shared cells with Sumathipala during prison time spanning four decades includes Rohana Wijeweera, Vijeya Kumaranatunge, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithripala Sirisena and Sarath Fonseka; I am sure there are many more who shared prison bunk beds with him for political crimes. Those names suggest that despite being a representative democracy , we still have a system akin to that described by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in Gulag Archipelago, criminalizing political dissent in failing to make a distinction between those and ordinary crime. In a sense being incarcerated is better than disappearing in the first place, you

may argue!

Then we have the maru siras, podi wijes, cheenas and the like. They too, are an indictment against a social system that has failed; driving innocent young men to the fringes of decent and civilized society by condoning exploitation, harassment and victimization by the haves. Almost all such individuals share one common denominator; all of them were POOR!! So, the criminal justice system rolls on extra turbos!

One law for the Poor

A societal system that makes have nots criminals, murderers and prostitutes to be exploited by the haves for their enjoyment. A criminal justice system that sees it only fit to punish them severely without being aware of the possibility, nay , the imperative that they be restored and re introduced to civilization; turning a blind eye to the transgressions of the powerful and the mighty repeatedly.

Despite all these negatives, Sumathipala talks about some exemplary characters within a system that vilified him; the SP of Kalutara at that time, who told this young man when he went with the severed head of the HQI in the morning, to calm down, turn himself in and offered a cup of tea, being fully aware of the circumstances that turned a wide-eyed youngster to a possible serial killer. Then the Prison doctor, who, after Hithumathe slashed himself with the broken dinner plate served in prison, did the surgery and refused to release him to be hanged insisting that he was a patient needing medical assistance before he could become a condemned death row inmate and after failing to retain custody of the patient, telephoned the then President William Gopallawa obtaining Presidential Pardon in the nick of time. Well , the Presidential pardon has served worthy causes as well, for a change, hasnt it?

Convict or Victim?

We have a legal framework to ensure rights of accused and convicted individuals as well as victims and witnesses. One wonders why a person who suffered due to the utter failure of a criminal justice system by being forced to take the law unto his own hands should be viewed as a criminal and not a victim. The conduct of the Piliyandala Police in rounding up this human being who has borne the brunt of all social evils on himself like the crucified Jesus, is despicable and possibly done on the urge of a sinister move of an invisible hand that wants Hithumathe silenced!

Thousands of comments on social media do not call Hithumathe a Criminal; in fact many hail him as a brother who did justice on behalf of a wronged sister. There is a film to be released celebrating this remarkable human being.

All that seems to suggest that Hithumathe Jeewithe is a Hero; I do not beg to differ, either!

It is the Criminal Justice System that should brand itself with a tattoo saying Hithumathe Jeewitheon its hind side, not Sumathipala!Vociferous stalwart of the Joint Opposition Vasudeva Nanayakkara in an interview with the Daily Mirror said that President Maitripala Sirisenas mind is favouring a possible agreement with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

I can only say that I have found out his mind (the Presidents mind) to be favouring a possible agreement with Mahinda. I have read his mind, he said.

He further said: I may be wrong. I cannot be certain that I am correct. But, one has to arrive at some conclusion in politics in making the next move. You cannot keep everything in uncertainty. If this arrangement works out, there will be no presidential election.

It means that Mahinda as the Prime Minister will muster the support of two thirds with the concurrence of the President to amend the Constitution. That is to avoid a Presidential Election. That is to elect the President by an internal arrangement in Parliament.

We want to do away with the presidential system. We can take this opportunity for it.

Read Full ArticleWhile stating that the 16-member SLFP group will fully back the JO protest, former Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said if the government tries to sabotage the JO protest, the whole public sector will go on strike.

Addressing a news briefing, he said the public sector was at loggerheads with the Government due to its mismanagement in terms of economy.

Not only the public sector, the professionals, doctors and artists also are supporting this protest, the MP said.

Meanwhile, MP Dilan Perera added that they would use the JO protest as a helping tool to take the remaining Government supporting SLFP members out of the Government.

Our ambition is to unite the SLFP as per the wish of President Maithripala Sirisena, the MP said.

MP Susil Premajayantha claimed that a financial crisis was imminent because of the inefficiency of this Government. (Sheain Fernandopulle)

Video by D. RuwandiPanel discussion about prevailing Cyber Crimes and the importance of Cyber Security and Forensics and education. From left: Theekshana COO Harsha Wijayawardhana, WSO2 Vice President Research Dr. Srinath Perera, Moderator CERT CEO Lal Dias, CERT CC Director Operations Rohana Palliyaguru and IIT Senior Lecturer Saman Hettiarachchi

Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT), the pioneer in British higher education in Sri Lanka,has launched Sri Lankas first-ever Cyber Security and Forensics Masters programme from the University of Westminster, UK.

Students following the 2 year part time course will gain insights into the nature of the security threats faced by todays computer systems, the type of information that is stored on digital devices and how digital evidences can be traced and extracted from them. The course offers students the chance to learn about a variety of tools available todaywhich include forensic tools. It will also look into the analysis of professional and ethical issues relating to computer security and forensics, and the development of related professional competencies, such as report writing and presenting evidence in a court of law.

The course is structured in a way where all students cover five core modulesand choose a specialisation in Cyber Security or Digital Forensics. The core modules include Cyber Security Evidence and Procedure, Fundamentals of Security Technology, Internet Security, Research Methods and Professional Practice.Cyber Security focuses on analysis and assessment of risk plus how to minimise it. Digital Forensics addresses how to extract and use digital information from a wide range of systems and devices to detect crimes.

Commenting on the newest addition to the institutes portfolio, Naomi Krishnarajah  Dean of IIT stated, In todays high-tech world, computers play a vital role in all aspects of our daily lives. Numerous industries and institutions  from hospitals, banks, power plants, telecommunication companies and many more  rely heavily on them for virtually every aspect of their operations. Unfortunately, while the world is becoming increasingly inter-connected, there is not enough attention paid to the security aspects and therefore computer systems and the huge volumes of data onthem are vulnerableto attacks by malicious parties. Therefore, the need for improved computer security has never been greater and will only continue to increase into the future. Weare introducing this Masters programmeto increase the number of skilled professionals in the country to cope with this fast-changing field of IT.

Dean of IIT Naomi Krishnarajah addressing the gathering

The first intake for this programme commences in September 2018. All IIT courses are offered by friendly, highly-experienced staff, and benefit from the diverse specialist knowledge and skills within the institute. Teaching methodology at IIT includes lab-based sessions, student-led tutorials and lectures by internal staff and guest lectures from experts in the industry while assessments will be carried out primarily through practical or research-based course work.

Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) was established in 1990 as the first private higher education institute that awards reputed British degrees in the field of ICT and Business. IIT is an award-winning campus offering internal postgraduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Westminster, UK and Robert Gordon University, UK. IIT has played a pivotal role in strengthening the IT and Business sectors in Sri Lanka over the years by producing world-class graduates. These graduates have gone on to become successful entrepreneurs and IT/Business professionals in both local and international corporate and government entities. Since its inception, IIT has produced thousands of graduates who have excelled in over 250 organizations around the globe.The joint opposition is planning to sacrifice the lives of innocent people to satisfy its political agenda, the United National Party (UNP) said today.

UNP spokesman and minister Harin Fernando told a media briefing that the JO was planning to create a commotion tomorrow.

The plan is to create a clash and blame the government for any loss of life. The JO should take the full responsibility if someone is killed or public property is destroyed, he said.

The JO is also planning to give a wrong picture to the world that they are being attacked and prevented from holding peaceful protests. Therefore we will tell the police not to interrupt them.

The minister said the real objective of the protest is to pump up MP Namal Rajapaka as the leader of JO instead of allowing others such as former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa or any others to emerge as leaders.

The ultimate objective is to show that Namal Rajapaksa is more powerful than the others in the JO, he said.

The minister denied the JO claim that the main objective of the protest today is to oppose the Singapore-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement.

There is nothing to protest against the FTA as it is very much similar to the FTA signed with Pakistan when former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was the prime minister in 2005, he said. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)The junction next to Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Borella has the unique distinction of being a meeting place of some 15 road lanes. These include four lanes each from Kotte and Horton place, two lanes each from Pelpola Vipassi Mawatha, Borella Kanatte road and the road that connects junction with Cotta Road and one from Shady Grove Avenue.

Such is the complexity of the vehicular movement in this location, usually a team of policemen is stationed at various points of the junction to man the traffic during heavy traffic hours. The proximity to Castle Hospital only goes to enhance the need for a smooth flow of traffic in the location which is frequently used by politicians heading for parliament too.

Despite these factors the road condition of the junction is much to be desired. For the past few months it has been looking more like a patchwork art with its wide variety of layers of carpeting, with different heights and pot holes making it so uncomfortably bumpy.

The reason for this bizarre outlook, especially on to the left side when travelling from Colombo, is the excavations carried out by various government agencies in the site at regular intervals. While the motorists somehow bear up with the inconvenience caused by the regular obstructions in the junction by way of digging, what really gets on their nerves is the post-work outcome.

Post-excavation; the government agency responsible for the digging fill up the respective pits and put a patch of tar on them often making a mound or a valley in the junction. These mounds and valleys prompt the motorists to slow down thus affecting the smooth flow of traffic. Ideally the government agency responsible for the digging  be it the Water Board (NWSDB), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) or any other, should have sought the assistance of the Road Development Authority (RDA) to smoothen the mouth of the pit once their work is completed. Or else at least after three or four such excavations, the RDA should lay a new asphalt carpeting in and around the location. In the absence of such moves, the junction today looks more like a battered war-zone than a crucial entry point to the Colombo city.

A few weeks back, the media highlighted the state of the junction with photographs. Unfortunately no action has been taken so far by the authorities to improve it.

This junction, however, is not the only place in the city that needs some proper carpeting. Almost all the spots where excavations have been carried out are in need of smoothening. Even the roads in the heart of Colombo are in need of immediate repairs, no effort has been taken to attend to them for the past few years.

While the previous regime scored heavily on the management and construction of roads, its a fact that the UNP-led government is yet to make up its mind to maintain the roads properly. Some attribute this to lack of funds. Good roads are a crucial factor in the economic and social development of any country. They add up to economic growth and the living standards of the people. The public, while reeling under the heavy taxes slapped on them during the past few years, expects the returns in the form of development of infrastructure and transportation system. Driving or commuting down bumpy roads after paying those heavy taxes is certainly not something that the public deserve.YANGON AFP, Sept3, 2018 -Two Reuters journalists accused of breaching Myanmars state secrets law during their reporting of a massacre of Rohingya Muslims were jailed for seven years Monday, drawing outrage over the attack on media freedom and calls for their immediate release.



Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who have been held in Yangons Insein prison since their arrest in December, were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, a draconian British colonial-era law which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.



The case has sparked an outcry among the international community as an attempt to muzzle reporting on last years crackdown by Myanmars security forces on the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.



Army-led clearance operations drove 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, carrying with them widespread accounts of atrocities -- rape, murder and arson -- by Myanmar security forces.



The reporters denied the charges, insisting they were set up while exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine village of Inn Din in September last year.



They said they were arrested after being invited to dinner by police in Yangon who handed them documents. As they left the restaurant, the pair were detained for possessing classified material.Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall ((Photo: Du Mingming))

African journalists gave the thumbs-up to the results of Chinas construction during their visit to villages on the outskirts of Beijing on Sept. 1, ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled for Sept. 3-4.

The visit, which was co-hosted by the FOCAC media center and the Information Office of Beijing Municipal Government from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2, was organized for Chinese and foreign journalists to learn more about the citys efforts to promote win-win cooperation with Africa.

Nearly one hundred Chinese and foreign journalists working for 50 media outlets from over 20 countries, including Botswana, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, were invited to take part in the activity.

South Sudan reporter Edir Dauneto Stephen Omunu

It is amazing! Ive never seen such a long building before, South Sudan media reporter Edir Dauneto Stephen Omunu (Stephen) noted when visiting the Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall, saying that he hopes this kind of extraordinary building capacity is applied in Chinese construction projects throughout Africa.

He believes that the FOCAC, as a platform for China and Africa to summarize past experiences, will help the two sides better develop cooperation in the future.

Aside from the Great Wall's Mutianyu Section, the reporters also visited the International Culture Village of the Great Wall and the Xiaotangshan Modern Agricultural Science Demonstration Park, where they were introduced to Beijings charming villages and the advanced agricultural technologies currently being implemented in irrigation and vegetable production.

The Xiaotangshan Modern Agricultural Science Demonstration Park (Photo: Du Mingming)

Chinas advanced agricultural technologies are impressive, and I hope that China and Africa will strengthen agricultural cooperation through the forum, Stephen noted.

It is admirable that China is dramatically changing, said Omphitlhetse Vivian Mooki, a reporter from South African newspaper The Star, adding that the activity has enabled them to learn that Chinas beauty not only lies in its modern cities, but also in its rural villages.

Three African journalists pose for a photo (Photo: Du Mingming)Parliament sessions ended abruptly today after the joint opposition stormed the Well of the House claiming that the government was trying sabotage tomorrow's 'Jana Balaya Kolambata' protest rally.

However, the government rushed through two laws including one on the payment of remuneration to employees of the Office of Missing Persons. An adjournment debate which was to be moved by the JO was not taken up as a result of the commotion.

The trouble began after MP Dinesh Gunawardene asked why the government was trying to sabotage the protest by obtaining stay orders from Courts.

Welikada police had gone to courts to obtain a stay order against the protest saying it will risk the security of the parliamentary complex. The police have done this on orders from the top, he said.

The MP said the permits obtained by various people to hire private buses had also been cancelled.

JO MPs Dallas Allahapperuma and Prasanmna Ranatunga said the government had denied buses to the devotees who were visiting the church of Our Lady of Matara for the annual feast.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who responded said the police could always obtain a stay order on a protest under the Privileges Act to allow the MPs to come to Parliament without any hindrance.

The Police do not need orders to ensure the safety of MPs, he said and added that only one transport authority is under the purview of the government while the provincial authorities do not come under the central government and therefore the government does not have the power to stop the hiring of private buses.

Law and Order Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara said the government had not obtained any stay order to stop the protest but had taken steps to ensure the safety of the people.

Members on both sides were arguing for some time while House Leader Lakshman Kiriella moved the Bills and motions.

JVP MP Sunil Handunetti rose to speak as the debate was underway but suddenly the government decided to go for a vote and it was announced that the Bills and motions were duly passed.

Speaker then called for the adjournment debate but the House was adjourned moments later thus ending the sessions for the day. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)While saying that the Government was neither scared nor interested in the JO protest scheduled to be held tomorrow, Law & Order Deputy Minister Nalin Bandara challenged JO members to topple the Government.

Addressing a news briefing, he said that the JO members had emphasized on several occasions that they would topple the Government by means of this protest campaign.

They boast saying that a large crowd will accompany them in the endeavour to topple the Government. People are not that much stupid to join hands with them, the Deputy Minister said.

This is not the first time that these JO members are marching to Colombo. There have been protest marches prior to this one and none of them produced good results. Likewise, this also would become a dead duck, he added.

He said that although there was an allegation that the Government attempted to sabotage the protest, it had no such intention. (Sheain Fernandopulle)PROCESSIONS BEGAN NEAR GEMUNU CINEMA IN WATTALA, THORANA HANDIYA, NUGEGODA, AT PELIYAGODA, AND NEAR ODEON CINEMA AT MT LAVINIA



UNPS PROTEST AGAINST PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT AND DURING CHANDRIKA KUMARATUNGAS GOVT.

Police fired at me with rubber bullets after I went behind the blockade with their consent to calm the protesting masses, said UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. He accused the Presidential Security Division of trying to kill him. Later addressing the media he said that PSD men in civvies had allegedly fired rubber bullets at him while leading the demonstration against the actions of President CBK.

No Confidence and SLMC crossover

The UNP and three other parties TULF, TELO and ACTC jointly presented a No Confidence motion on the government of CBK in early July 2001. The motion handed over by Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya stated that it has no confidence in the government since it is unable to solve the burning issues of the people. The seven SLMC MPs led by Rauff Hakeem crossed over to the Opposition benches following the deprivation of his Ministry and removal from the government by the President. Hakeem in a surprise move got NUA leader Mrs Ferial Ashraff to follow suit.

Referendum to Introduce New Constitution?

The President continued discussion with Ranil Wickremesinghe on amendment and enactment, but after reaching accord she is blamed of breach of trust in that the draft presented in Parliament with transitional provisions which permitted her to retain all the powers of the Executive in her new capacity as PM when the accord was to put an end to the Executive Presidency, which had been jointly agreed upon. The mutual consensus was broke down.

President CBK argued that since no political party could obtain a two-thirds majority under the PR system of voting, it is impossible to amend or introduce a new constitution through the lawful process laid down in the Constitution itself. She failed to comprehend that Constitutional amendments or replacement with a new document are a matter that should be done with the consent of all parties.

Police fire at Nugegoda

At least ten people were wounded in Police fire at Nugegoda. The Leader of Opposition then visited Maradana and there again he was engulfed by smoke from tear gas. Army units were summoned in support of the police. I was informed by reliable sources that the PSD had followed me to Nugegoda and then to Maradana later in the day. I wish to tell Hitler Madam that her tactics will not succeed this time. We will continue our protests until democracy is re-established in this country, said Wickremesinghe.

The Government banned demonstrations, for the Opposition to defy the ban and organise protest campaign against the prorogation of Parliament and holding a referendum on the proposed constitutional change. Two deaths were reported and more than 50 Opposition activists were wounded, some of them seriously. Led by groups of UNP parliamentarians processions began around 9.30 am and were moving towards Maradana, where they were supposed to hold a rally.

Several processions began with protestors congregating at near Gemunu cinema in Wattala, Thorana Handiya, Nugegoda, at Peliyagoda, and near Odeon cinema at Mt Lavinia.

However, within minutes, they ran into trouble. Street encounters blocked main access roads to the city. Police headquarters said on Wednesday that processions were banned under section 45 of the Referendum Act no 7 of 1981.

However, the Opposition vowed to go ahead with the processions. As Police swung into action at several fronts and succeeded in forcing a number of protesters away, some managed to sneak through Police barriers while others entered the city in lorries and buses.

She failed to comprehend that Constitutional amendments or replacement with a new document are a matter that should be done with the consent of all parties.

Karu Jayasuriya, UNPs Deputy Leader also came under Police attack at Peliyagoda. Rubber bullets wounded a few persons, a young woman who was bleeding from her head was rushed to hospital by him. Parents who panicked in the city gathered at school gates. Education department authorities instructed principals to close up and hand the children over to their parents. The people who gathered at Dehiwala were attacked with tear gas, but protesters managed to find their way through by roads to Maradana. The worst attack took place when demonstrators clashed with Police at Maradana junction where they used tear gas and rubber bullets at unruly crowds. Clashes between the Police and the protesters continued for more than four hours.

Opposition leader Wickremesinghe and several UNP leaders assembled under the Punchi Borella bo-tree and addressed the crowd gathered there. He claimed that the protest was successful and appealed to the people to rise against the autocratic rule to protect their rights. Worst clashes took place at Nawaloka junction when Police tear-gassed and fired rubber bullets followed by baton charge to prevent the inward bound marchers to the city through Kelani bridge. Protesters attempted to force their way through barriers, but heavy tear gas forced them to run away. Opposition MPs John Amaratunga, Dr Jayalath Jayawardena, Navin Dissanayake and Joseph Michael Perera were among them. Rauff Hakeem, SLMC leader condemned the Police action to break up the peaceful procession of unarmed people. He said, they were demonstrating against the proposed referendum and the prorogation of parliament. Unprovoked use of force orchestrated by the rulers was barbaric. The Opposition reiterated that the governments strategy of proroguing Parliament when a motion of No-confidence against it was handed over, was a spineless act intended to buy time to engage in weakening the Opposition. The proposed referendum was described as a futile exercise calculated to divert the attention of the people from the burning issues and create chaos among the different sections of the society.

Amnesty International condemns killings

Amnesty International condemned excessive force by Police to break up a peaceful demonstration and killing two protestors and wounding over 80 by using live ammunition to suppress the anti-government protests. Accusing the government of trying to curb the freedoms it urged President CBK to ensure Police observed basic principles in the use of force.

At the inquests, the magistrate ordered the arrest of Police officers suspected in the killing of victims.

The Most Ven. Malwatte Mahanayake Thera expressed his annoyance over the high-handed use of force to crush the anti-government demonstration led by UNP in Colombo. They could have averted a bloodbath having resorted to other strategies, Sri Vipassi Mahanayake Thera observed. The Rev Thera said former Prime Minister Sirimavo resorted to civilised means at times of parallel circumstances, acting with intelligence.

The Peoples Alliance (PA) Government suppressed thousands of demonstrators attempted to congregate into the City of Colombo, in a joint protest.

What the final objective of the UNP led protest most people were not aware of but the numbers that turned out did suggest an upsurge of anger against the prorogation and referendum.

The harsh retaliatory measures set out by the Government pointed to that the Opposition towards the moves was a grave challenge to the rulers and the ruling parties.

The writer can be contacted at kksperera 1 @gmail.comOops....! We couldn't find that...

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Check the URL you entered for any mistakes and try again. Alternatively, search for whatever is missing or take a look around the rest of our site.Chinese President Xi Jinping and foreign leaders attending the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) head for the venue of the summit's opening ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation kicked off on Monday. At the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech that drew a warm round of applause from the audience.

Xi said China will implement eight major initiatives with African countries in the next three years and beyond, covering fields such as industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, and green development.

In his speech, President Xi said China values sincerity, friendship, and equality in pursuing cooperation, and said that China follows a five-no approach in its relations with Africa.

No interference in African countries pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions; no interference in African countries internal affairs; no imposition of our will on African countries; no attachment of political strings to assistance to Africa; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation with Africa, Xi said.

This is the fundamental difference between Chinas and the Wests policy toward Africa.

According to research by Dr. Shou Huisheng, a researcher at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University, the lethal aid of Western countries with strict political conditions makes African countries recipients of assistance, but not entities of development, forcing African countries to obey the wishes of their Western donors in terms of development and operation. These agendas of the West end up undermining the autonomy and stifling the voices of the African people.

It is precisely because China follows a five nos approach that China and Africa will have a bright future.

Why does China want to cooperate with Africa? According to Wang Hongyi, Director of the Information Research Office of the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China and Africa share a lot of complementarities, and the potential of Africas economies offers huge opportunities. China has capital, industrial capacity, and technology; Africa is in the beginning stages of industrialization, and need funds, employment, and to transform its economy.

The African continent is home to an abundance of natural resources that include crude oil, manganese, copper, and other resources. However, Africa is not fully exploiting its natural resources and many Western countries profit selfishly by exploiting its resources for their own selfish reasons.

In the eyes of the Western media, the West sees no hope in the African continent. But China spotted an opportunity to promote mutual benefits and win-win solutionstrade between Africa and China was only $10 billion in 2000; last year, two-way trade reached $170 billion. At the same time, China-Africa cooperation has promoted development and employment. A recent report by McKinsey & Company, which surveyed more than 1,000 Chinese companies in eight African countries, found that on average 89% of their employees were African.

Africans understand that China is free of the historical baggage of colonialism. The biggest difference between China and the West is that China treats Africa as an equal. Economically, trade between China and Africa is fair. As the saying goes, it is better to teach a man to fish than to give a man a fish. China wants the world see Made in China, but also more Made in Africa.

Nigerias Vanguard newspaper wrote: Unlike the West, China is not domineering and overbearing; it does not decree that its enemies must be our enemies; it does not ask its allies to join its turf battles. It continued to say that in contrast, when the Americans are fighting other countries, it insists that other countries join the call for sanctions or be punished. The Chinese have taught us that a candle does not lose its brightness by lighting other candles; rather, it makes the world brighter, it wrote.

Kenyas Daily Nation newspaper wrote that China is a worthy partner in its efforts to break the age-old poverty trap based on centuries of underdevelopment.

The evidence is clear that China is helping Africa develop. More than 6,500 kilometers of railways; more than 6,000 kilometers of highways; more than 200 schools; more than 80 stadiums; dozens of government offices and parliament buildings and a large number of airports and ports; modern communication technologies; and more than 2,000 Chinese peacekeepers deployed in Africa. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Chinas actions speak louder than a dozen or so programs and slogans.

As the theme of President Xis speech suggests, China and Africa are walking together toward prosperity.

Ultimately, it is for the peoples of China and Africa to judge the performance of China-Africa cooperation. No one could deny the remarkable achievements made in China-Africa cooperation, not with their assumption or imagination, Xi said.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.Its a year now since Georges Kern began travelling the world to spread the good news: Breitling is back. When he took up the position in August 2017 all we had was his word for it. But now were starting to see some results. And so the CEO took up his pilgrims staff once again, and went to meet the press, to present some conclusions from his first year. The reopening of the Zurich boutique on 28 August 2018 presented the perfect opportunity.

A self-assessment, by its very nature, opens one up to criticism, which may be more or less constructive. To Mr Kerns credit, he submitted willingly to the ensuing barrage of questions, despite not being obliged to do so  clear evidence of a desire to be transparent and open. On the other hand, because he had no hard figures to back up his claims, it remains unclear whether his statements about growth will withstand scrutiny.

Downsized distribution and taking back control

But that didnt stop the CEO claiming, in the absence of any financial data, that Breitling is a profitable company, as it has always been. Given that Breitling is less strong in Asia, we were spared the worst of the crises, particularly in China. The company restructuring plan continues with the stated aim, over three years (two of which are left), to reduce the 2000 points of sale down to 1400, with a clear desire to bring that number down even further. Distributors have also been given an ultimatum: 60% to 65% of sales continue to be made through agents, but over 80% of our distribution network will be integrated within the next 6 to 8 months.

At the same time, there will be more monobrand stores: We have around 70, 25 of which belong to us outright; the others are operated by agents. These own-brand stores are essential for controlling both our image and the grey market, Georges Kern explains. In addition to the Zurich store, which reopened on 28 August , the Paris boutique is due to be renovated, and the German market will see its first Breitling store very soon. Thats no accident: the company confirmed that France and Germany are its two most delicate European markets.

Reopening of the Zurich boutique  Breitling

Reconciling buyers and collectors

The CEO is keeping a very close eye on both the grey market and the collectors market. And with good reason. Breitling as a brand has never capitalised on its heritage (no museum, no publicly accessible archives, no certificate of authenticity, no Heritage Department). Over time, the two worlds  new watch buyers, and vintage collectors  have become diametrically opposed to each other.

Breitlings strategy is twofold: to find a way of getting these two worlds to talk to each other, and to gain greater control over its second-hand market. There have been off-the-record hints that the company is thinking about setting up its own CPO (Certified Pre-Owned) scheme, under which second-hand Breitlings would be serviced, authenticated, guaranteed and sold by Breitling itself. But wouldnt that risk harming new watch sales? I dont think so, explains Georges Kern. A BMW with 50,000 km on the clock isnt competing with a brand new model thats just arrived on the saleroom floor.

From the Navitimer 8 to the Premier

In terms of products, the ranges will continue to be rationalised. The Navitimer has been launched, and 70% of its buyers are new to Breitling, says Georges Kern, visibly pleased. A new Premier will be launched by year end, and the Superocean is still going strong in its Heritage incarnation. The partnership with Tudor is confirmed, because we all win: the client, Breitling and Tudor, stresses Georges Kern. The idea of a Breitling manufacture movement being granted to a brand other than Tudor is not on the cards, But were independent; were not going to remain reactive, restricted by dogma, notes the CEO.

Navitimer 8  Breitling

Baselworld and the Breitling Jet Team: reading the tea leaves

How the company deals with Baselworld and its Breitling Jet Team will be telling. As far as the Jet Team is concerned, the manufacture has been a partner of the civilian aerobatics team for 16 years. Their contract expires in 2019. Will it be renewed? Watch this space. Georges Kern professes to believe strongly in our Squads [Ed: the brands latest PR concept], in collective strength; I dont believe in individualisation any more.

On the face of it, it would seem that the Jet Team collective (seven jets in formation) is a good fit with the CEOs wishes. But on the other hand, it symbolises the historic Breitling of the Schneider family and, probably, too strong an association with aeronautics, from which Georges Kern is seeking to distance the brand somewhat, in favour of forging closer ties with land and sea. When youre pigeonholed in aviation its very difficult to do new things. After a time, you find youre always repeating the same ideas, from the 50s, 60s and 70s, when Breitling was very strong.

As far as Baselworld is concerned, relations have cooled. On 27 March 2018 the CEO stated: With some new ideas and the goodwill of everyone involved, the Baselworld fair has a fine future ahead of it. Six months later, Swatch Groups U-turn came like a bucket of cold water. Georges Kern echoed the general sentiment. Its absolutely unbelievable that they didnt see it coming, when it was all happening right before their eyes, he says today. With the rise of globalisation we have lost out on proximity. Could that be a parting shot across Baselworlds bows?Egypt's communication ministry contracted Samsung to supply one million educational tablets for the 2018-2019 academic year at a cost of EGP 2.4 billion, sources told Al Mal on Sunday.

According to the sources, the education ministry received offers from seven international technological companies to supply the required tablets before settling on Samsung, according to the Minister of Education Tarek Shawky.

The price per tablet is expected to not exceed $80 (EGP 1400).

Sources added that Samsung will deliver the educational tablets to the ministry of education in the coming days to be used in the upcoming academic year by first year secondary education students.

The introduction of tablets to the education process will incentivize students to not be absent from school, as teachers will be required to register the absence of each student electronically with a maximum number of missing days allowed for each student until they are prohibited from receiving the exam electronically on the tablet, according to Shawky.

Egypt's Minister of Communications, Amr Talaat, previously said that the ministry is willing to be more involved in the production of electronics in order to supply the tablets domestically next year, in cooperation with the ministry of military production, the Arab Organization for Industrialization, and other companies, according to Al Mal.

Egypt has been trying to modernize its teaching techniques through a new educational system that the country will be placing into test in the next academic year.

In an official statement by the ministry of education on Friday, kindergarten and first year primary teachers took part in constructive training to prepare them for the new educational system that will come into action in the upcoming academic year.

The minister of education explained that the new educational reforms passed last April are based on digital learning and removing curricula and test methods that depend mainly on memorization as a step to "build the Egyptian person".

Of the educational policies, thanaweya amma reform seems to be the focal point.

Thanaweya amma exams are going digital so that students will receive their exams electronically based at their schools without having one unique national exam, removing the significance of private lessons which target structured answers to their respective questions, according to the minister.

Tests will be sent to students' tablets to be answered electronically under an "open-book" style, and will be corrected electronically and anonymously, Shawky said.

In addition to that, the high school cumulative grade will depend not just on the last year, but on all three years of secondary education.

Students will be required to complete 12 exams during the three high school years, and 6 of them have to be passed successfully to proceed to university education.

Egypt received a $500 million loan last April from World Bank to support teacher training and a potential technology-based educational system in Egypt.

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When current Poway resident Julie Scardina decamped from Illinois to California when she was 8 years old, her family happened to move into a house near MoorPark College north of Thousand Oaks. As fate would have it, the school had begun offering an animal care and veterinary program just as she became of age.

This was way back in the late 70s, says Scardina, who later moved to San Diego. From there I got a job at SeaWorld.

In the subsequent 40 years (and periods residing in Escondido and Carmel Valley), Scardina has become one of the most well-known champions of animals in the nation. Shes Animal Ambassador and Corporate Curator for SeaWorld family of parks, a close associate of fellow animal lover and legend Jack Hanna, and enjoyed national prominence as the most frequent guest on Jay Lenos run as host of NBCs Tonight Show, just to name a few superlatives.

At first I didnt believe (I had been on more than anyone), but a couple times Jay mentioned it on air, says Scardina of her popular recurring segments where shed educate Leno about a parade of animals to comedic effect. I was like, Wow, thats pretty cool.

Along the way, shes cemented a reputation as a fierce protector and proponent of wildlife, regularly raising awareness and funds for creatures in most need. That includes an upcoming benefit dubbed Mission: Wildlife, which takes place Saturday, Sept. 8, 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. at the picturesque Casa de Glory (an event venue near San Diego International Airport), a fundraiser now celebrating its fifth year.

An Eastern Lowland male gorilla named Uhuru, who is a part of the Chimanuka group, stands near his cohort in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in South Kivu, D.R. Congo, Nov. 21, 2017. Allison Shelley

Ive been traveling to Africa for many years by myself and with Jack Hanna where wed visit conservation projects, says Scardina of the impetus for the event. I started bringing friends and family who were asking me about my trips. After planning a bevy of African excursions, Scardina wanted to do more. We thought we need to actually do something (to help).

With that, the first Mission: Wildlife event was born. There are so many imperiled species in Africa, says Scardina. We started planning these fundraisers by selecting imperiled species who had organizations that did exceptional work, big or small. For many of them, even $25,000 can go a long way.

This year, money raised will go to two beneficiaries: Grevys Zebra Trust (which supports field teams in pursuit of the protection of zebras in Kenya and Ethiopia) and gorilla projects with the help of Wild Earth Allies (which helps sustain the delicate gorilla population, under threat due to both poaching and habitat loss). Its worth noting that 100 percent of the funds raised go directly to projects on the ground.

The Mission: Wildlife benefit is designed for both kids and adults.

We basically said, Lets do it in the late afternoon, have fun, bring animals, invite kids, have conservationists do short talks, have some food and wine and just interact, says Scardina. Its really turned into a fantastic time, and everyone returns year after year because they get so much out of it.

Its an event that fits the theme of Scardinas life mission. Everyone who attends steps up again and again to help us support these organizations. Its just phenomenal.

For more on Mission: Wildlife and how to attend or donate, visit bit.ly/2Q4tg7VBy Alastair Leithead

3 September 2018

NAIROBI (BBC News)  Carcases of nearly 90 elephants have been found near a famous wildlife sanctuary in Botswana, conservationists say.

Elephants Without Borders, which is conducting an aerial survey, said the scale of poaching deaths is the largest seen in Africa.

The spike coincides with Botswanas anti-poaching unit being disarmed.

Botswana has the worlds largest elephant population, but poachers have been breaching its border.The scientist carrying out the extensive wildlife survey said many of the 87 dead elephants were killed for their tusks just weeks ago  and that five white rhinos have been poached in three months. Im shocked, Im completely astounded. The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest Ive seen or read about anywhere in Africa to date, said Dr Mike Chase from Elephants Without Borders.When I compare this to figures and data from the Great Elephant Census, which I conducted in 2015, we are recording double the number of fresh poached elephants than anywhere else in Africa.That census estimated a third of Africas elephants had been killed in the last decade and 60% of Tanzanias elephants had been lost in five years.Botswana has had a reputation for an unforgiving approach to poachers and had largely escaped the elephant losses seen elsewhere.Despite a lack of fences on the international border, data from tracking collars showed elephants retreating from Angola, Namibia and Zambia and deciding to stay within the boundaries of Botswana where it was thought to be safe.Incidents of poaching in the country were rare because of armed and well-managed anti-poaching units.With 130,000 elephants, Botswana has been described as their last sanctuary in Africa as poaching for ivory continues to wipe out herds across the rest of the continent. []These latest killings have been found deep in Botswana  close to the protected Okavango Delta wildlife sanctuary, which attracts tourists from around the world.People did warn us of an impending poaching problem and we thought we were prepared for it, said Mr Chase, who pointed to the disarmament of the countrys anti-poaching unit as a cause.The poachers are now turning their guns to Botswana. We have the worlds largest elephant population and its open season for poachers. [more]Subscriber content preview

SEATTLE  The new Link Studios, at 2939 S. Mt. Baker Blvd., have sold for almost $7.5 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Peregrine - 2939 LLC, associated with developer Build Urban, which acquired the land in 2014 for $585,000 and developed it.





. . .Country

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Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of ZimbabweEgypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and other African leaders attended early Tuesday roundtable session to discuss economic cooperation with China.

During the talks Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to allocate 60 billion dollars to support sustainable development in Africa.

The roundtable was held on the fringe of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) 2018 Beijing Summit, which kicked off Monday.

The meeting on Tuesday also focused on China's Belt and Road Initiative.

A second roundtable is expected to be held at 2.30 p.m., Beijing time, to discuss means to boost the strategic partnership between Africa and China in the political, economic and trade fields.

A press conference is scheduled for 4.30 p.m. to read out the final communique and announce resolutions made by participants.

The Egyptian President is expected to give his speech on Tuesday which will focus on means to enhance the Chino-African partenership, according to the Spokesperson to the Egyptian Presidency Bassam Rady.

Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the FOCAC summit Monday in the presence of Sisi and other African leaders.

On Monday, El-Sisi attended a top-profile forum grouping Chinese and African leaders, as well as representatives of the business and industry sectors, with the aim to open communication channels among investors and attract international investments to Africa.

The Egyptian president arrived in China on Saturday for a four day visit, where he will participate in the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Forum held on 3 and 4 September.

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Donald Trump is the Gods way of teaching us the importance of down-ballot races.

For about half a century, the right has been manufacturing an assault at every layer of government, from the lowest state house to the highest court. And the successes over the last few decades have largely gone unnoticed despite their raging successes. They were so successful that despite only winning the popular vote once since 1992, the Supreme Court is about to become more right-wing that has been since before World War II.

But it was on the local level they tested and prove their model of using every possible lever of power. Even before Michigan became a testing ground for using the Great Recession to liquidate and poison whole cities, the conservatives built a testing ground for many of their most radical ideas in Michigans State Supreme Court, Think Progress Ian Millhiser wrote.

The peril progress faces in this Trump era has brought Sam Bagenstos into the arena. Hes currently a law professor at the University of Michigan and one of the nations leading civil rights lawyers. Before that he was Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

Were thrilled to have a chance to vote for him November and to bring you this interview today.

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress: One of Americas top civil rights lawyers launches bid for state supreme court. Oh, and he clerked for Ginsburg too.

Sam Bagenstos online: BagenstosForJustice

Sam Bagenstos on Twitter: @Bagenstos4MI and @SBagen.

Support Sams campaign HERE:

The Good Michigan Republicans are now using OUR language and OUR framing

Last week we talked to Gil Duran from FrameLab who told us (a) not to use our opponents frames and language and (b) youll know youre winning when your opponents are using YOURS. Now we have evidence that, with regard to the Resistance movement, we ARE winning and our opponents are using OUR frame and language.

Michigan Republicans are using a new tagline: Results Not Resistance. What is likely intended to insult members of the Resistance movement invites us to have a look at what Republicans have achieved over the past 8 years of control:

The poisoning of an entire city through the Republican policy of austerity and displacement of local, democratic control.

The decimation of the school system in our states biggest city, Detroit.

The increased wealth of the already-wealthy while wages have remained stagnant. (Low unemployment rates dont fix unsustainable wage disparities.)

The collapse of our roads, bridges, and other infrastructure.

The repeated attempts to disenfranchise voters through voter suppression efforts.

The kneecapping of workers through the destruction of collective bargaining and the labor unions that fight for those workers.

The opposition to marriage equality using our tax dollars.

The endless attacks on affordable healthcare for our most vulnerable citizens.

The rampant corruption and self-dealing from members of the Republican administration of Rick Snyder.

Headlines like this one: More than half of Michigan students failed M-STEP literacy exam.

The Republicans used the tagline in a giant mainstage graphic at their recent statewide convention, Bill Schuette is touring the state in a giant bus with the tagline painted large on the side, and they are even selling t-shirts.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate for Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is crushing her opponent Bill Schuette. Real Clear Politics gives Whitmer a 9-point edge.

The Bad  Kavanaugh train is rolling and Democrats dont seem to know what to do.

Gorsuch was confirmed less than three weeks after his hearing started. We have three weeks to rise up. Three weeks to fight like hell for justice and equality. Three weeks to #StopKavanaugh and stop this from being our future: pic.twitter.com/2QenyZvCEI  Chris #StopKavanaugh Kang (@cdkang76) September 1, 2018

The Trump administration will hold back more than 100,000 pages of documents related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughs service because the White House and the Department of Justice have determined they are protected by constitutional privilege, according to a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

All we can do is whip the vote:

Democratic senators should be united to #StopKavanaugh, instead of letting Republican senators ram through Kavanaughs confirmation and 15 Trump judges. Take action now to help us #WhipTheVote  https://t.co/0i2QHIsglF  Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam) September 1, 2018

The Shrugly \_()_/  Republicans could lose the popular vote and still keep control of Congress

Imagine this:

Its almost midnight on November 6, 2018. California will still be counting ballots through December but the big result is already clear: Republican candidates won fewer votes than their Democratic opponents, but the GOP will keep control of the House of Representatives for two more years.

Donald Trump stays up tweeting until dawn. The American people have vindicated me! hell insist. Mueller must go! Investigations into Hillary Clintons collusion must begin now!

The GOP will agree. Much of the media will buy then sell the story. Losing the popular vote repeatedly yet holding unchecked power over all three branches of government is the new normal.

So how many fewer votes did GOP candidates receive?

Maybe its like 2012. Thats when the GOP kept its 33-seat majority in the House, though its candidates took in 1.5 million fewer votes. Or maybe its like 2016, when Trump lost the popular vote by 2.1 percent and became the biggest popular vote loser elected in 140 years. Or maybe their edge is two, three times or even five times Trumps losing popular vote margin of 2.1 percentage points. A report from the Brennan Center for Justice released in March of 2018 projected the GOP could lose the popular vote by 10 percenta far bigger deficit it lost by in 2006 when Democrats retook the House for the first time in twelve yearsand keep the majority. Retirements and a new Congressional map in Pennsylvania have made the situation for Democrats a little better. Data scientist G. Elliott Morris noted on August 30th that his model finds that to take the House Democratic candidates need to win the popular vote by a mere 5.5 to 6 percentage points to have a chance to take the majority  or at least 4.6 times of their margin in 2012, which would be their largest popular vote victory since the massive wave election of 2008.

The chances that Democrats win the popular vote and dont take the House are about 25 percent, about Trumps chances of winning in 2016. And as G. Elliott also noted:

Events which you wouldnt round a 25% probability down to 0: Your house burning down

Getting into a car wreck

Being fired from your job

Losing a $10,000 bet

Your airplane crashing into the pacific So  dont  do  it  with  election  forecasts   G. Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris) August 18, 2018

Progressives Everywheres Candidate of the Week (via @JordanZakarin): Lets win Win North Carolina! Support Anita Earls for State Supreme Court along with Natasha Marcus, Sam Searcy, and Mack Paul for state senate.

Make a donation to support senate Democrats in North Carolina HERE.

Flint Water Crisis

Nick Lyons is going stand trial for his role in the Flint Water Crisis. This is related to the spread of Legionnaires Disease, NOT the lead poisoning. From The Detroit Free Press:

The highest-ranking official to stand trial as a result of the scandal, Nick Lyon is accused of failing to issue a timely alert to the public about the outbreak. Judge David Goggins said deaths likely could have been prevented if the outbreak had been publicly known and keeping the public in the dark was corrupt.

Also, we learned this week at the legal bills for defending government officials from lawsuits surrounding the Flint Water Crisis now tops $26.5 million and could go over $34 million. From Crains Detroit:

That number is only a small part of amount the state has spent on Flint water crisis-related legal bills. Through mid-August, the state had spent $26.5 million, while three state departments have current capacity in contracts to make that total top $34.5 million, according to public records compiled by Crains. Lyons legal bills alone over three fiscal years exceed what Genesee County spends annually for defense attorneys who represent indigent residents.

The show notes for Episode 11 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/09/the-most-important-place-for-democracy-with-special-guest-michigan-supreme-court-candidate-civil-rights-lawyer-sam-bagenstos.html

Give us a five-star review at iTunes!

The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!

Music clips

Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s

Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: Theyre Everywhere by Jims Big Ego

Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers

Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim RobbinsEgyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi concluded his visit to China on Tuesday and flew to Uzbekistan, the first official visit by an Egyptian President to the Central Asian country.

According to a statement by Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Rady, El-Sisi will visit the capital of Tashkent where he will meet his counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

El-Sisi will also meet a number of ministers and top Uzbekistani officials, where both sides will hold talks to boost relations between the two countries.

El-Sisi and Mirziyoyev are also set to witness the signing of a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding over strengthening joint cooperation between both sides in a number of industries.

Uzbekistan is the third leg of a foreign visit by the Egyptian President since the weekend where he visited Bahrain and China for talks as well as to participate in the Beijing-hosted Forum for Africa-China Cooperation.

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Australia and Indonesia boost economic ties

In strengthening economic ties and creating new business opportunities in both countries, Australia and Indonesia have confirmed an economic agreement on Monday, known as the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA), receiving widespread industry support.



"Under this agreement, over 99% of Australian goods exported to Indonesia will either be duty-free or enter under significantly improved preferential arrangements by 2020," Karen Andrews, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, shared. "It is a win-win outcome  with Australia also providing Indonesia with improved arrangements that will allow Australia producers easier access to Indonesian goods."



Terry Richardson, President of Australia Dairy Industry Council revealed that, in addition to Indonesia being Australia's third-largest dairy export market, its dairy demand is also consistently increasing alongside a population of 260 million. In 2017, the two countries' two-way trade valued at a total of $16.4 billion.



In a joint media release from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Simon Birmingham, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment explained how the collaboration will benefit farmers:



"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. 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."



Richardson concluded, "As Australia's nearest neighbour with strong existing ties with our dairy industry, the conclusion of IA-CEPA will enhance the naturally emerging opportunities that are presenting themselves in that key market."

Source: Food Processing



Oman bans import of fish from Estonia



Oman's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has banned Estonia fish imports with no official reasoning given.



According to a local newspaper, the decision was made based on the law of veterinary quarantine in the country. "The decision also included that import of fish and fish products from Estonia are forbidden, unless thermally treated, until future notice," the newspaper stated.



Elen Kurvits, spokesperson for the Veterinary and Food Board (VTA), said that Oman has not officially notified Estonian authorities of the ban.



However, the ban is not forecasted to have significant impacts on Estonian fish exporters as their primary export partners are the neighbouring EU nations, including, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Russia, Germany and Lithuania, which makes up for 60% of the total Estonian export markets in 2017.



In 2014, Estonia's total fish catch rounded up to 67,964 tonnes, with majority of its fish supplies originating from the Baltic Sea catch.



It added that there were 83 fish processing plants producing for both domestic and international markets. Edible fish found in the waters off Estonia include Atlantic herring and Atlantic salmon.Egypt's Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki inspected security units from the armed forces in North Sinai governorate on Tuesday, to follow up on developments in the Operation Sinai 2018, a counter-terrorism operation underway since February.

As part of the completion of the planned stages of Operation Sinai 2018, Zaki inspected the implementation and development stages at the Armed Forces Operations Center.

Zaki listened to a detailed presentation by the commanders of the Second and Third Field Armies, which included the size and composition of the forces participating in the operation and the measures taken to develop combat areas to combat terrorist activity.

Details concerning the elimination of terrorist elements and the full control of the army areas to ensure that terrorist elements would not infiltrate again were presented.

The commanders also discussed security plans in central Sinai and North Sinai, the plans and the implementation of different phases of the operation, and the process to complete the destruction of the resources and grassroots of terrorism.

The commanders and Zaki also discussed the control of security within cities and residential communities in North Sinai with police.

Zaki also discussed the procedures of control of and re-combing of roads, mountainous areas, lanes and valleys, and also the qualitative outcome of the operation, which resulted in the elimination of many takfiri elements, and the seizure of weaponry and logistical supplies in central Sinai.

The meetings reviewed the latest developmental projects implemented in the Sinai Peninsula from the eastern bank, starting from the Suez Canal to Egypt's borders, in cooperation with the Second and Third Field Army.

The projects were in fields of infrastructure, housing, roads, public services, agriculture, land reclamation and the establishment of residential and Bedouin communities.

The meeting was attended by Mohamed Farid, chief of staff of the armed forces, and a number of armed forces commanders

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By NY Post , Sep. 1, 2018





Social media may be too new to know this, but you need to tread lightly when Washington, DC, is looking.





While President Trump has expanded his vocabulary to include fake social and fake search, last week we had Facebook employees come out against the company for its political monoculture.

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



PKK is annoyed from Turkey-Russia relations

PKK terror organizations ringleader Mustafa Karasu stated that it would be a false step targeting YPG if and to the extent, there is an agreement between Putin and Erdogan.

It is just a matter of time Turkey to launch an operation to PKK-linked terror organization YPG in Syria.

"TURKEY-RUSSIA RELATIONS ARE BECOMING DEEPER"

Last week, Russian President Putin met in Moscow with Turkish foreign and defense ministers, intelligence chief. Turkish-Russian ties are growing stronger and deeper, had said Putin on Friday at the meeting in Moscow. "Our relations with Turkey are becoming deeper and more meaningful, becoming deeper in the field of economic cooperation, in addressing a number of issues related to regional issues," Putin had stated during his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Hakan Fidan, chief of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT).

The meetings between two countries have caused a panic among PKKs so-called leaders. The terror organizations ringleader Mustafa Karasu said that Turkey is making the army ready for war by agreeing with Russia but it would be a false step.The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency has been awarded an Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) prize, becoming the only government body to win acclaim in this regard after the Netherlands.

Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad, in a press conference Tuesday, spoke highly of efforts exerted by the nature protection sector to sort and detect waterbirds across Egypt, including in Lake Nasser, Lake Borlos, Red Sea islands and the Nile River.

The minister also honored the working team at the nature protection sector for their efforts in sorting and detecting waterbirds from Aswan all the way up to Sinai.

AEWA is an intergovernmental treaty dedicated to the conservation of migratory waterbirds and their habitats across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, Greenland and the Canadian Archipelago.

Egypt is one of 114 countries signatory to AEWA, Fouad said.

Developed under the framework of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and administered by the UN Environment Program (UNEP), AEWA brings together countries and the wider international conservation community in an effort to establish coordinated conservation and management of migratory waterbirds throughout their entire migratory range.

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This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon!

Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page?Four suspected criminals were killed in a shootout today with security forces in New Cairo's Fifth Settlement.

Security forces targeted a gang of masked men who opened fire on a man driving his private car on Tesein Road in the Fifth Settlement in an attempt to force him to pull over, but he managed to escape.

They also fired on a truck driver, shooting him in the leg and stealing all of his money.

Security forces followed the masked men to Egypt's Ain Sokhna road, where both sides exchanged fire, killing the criminals.

Authorities found two automatic rifles, live ammunition, and empty bullet casings by the bodies.

The prosecutors have been brought in to investigate the incident.

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Dutch bank ING Group NV said Tuesday that it agreed to pay a fine of 675 million ($782 million) and disgorge 100 million ($115 million) to resolve criminal investigations into lax business practices.

The Amsterdam-based bank said its resolution with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service related to requirements for client on-boarding, the prevention of money laundering, and corrupt practices.

ING said in a disclosure filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the investigations established serious shortcomings in the execution of policies to prevent financial economic crime from 2010 to 2016.

Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING, said the bank sincerely regrets that it didnt adequately fulfill its role as gatekeeper to the financial system, helping fight financial crime.

Not meeting those standards is unacceptable and ING takes full responsibility, Hamers said.

ING said it has also received information requests from the SEC and has been cooperating with the requests.

The bank said it expects that this matter will also be resolved with the SEC without further payment or the imposition of further conditions.

ING first disclosed the criminal investigations in an SEC filing in March 2017, according to FCPA Tracker.

Last year ING Group served 37.4 million clients in more than 40 countries, generating revenues of about $20 billion. The bank has about 54,000 employees worldwide.

____

Heres the disclosure from ING Groep N.V.s Form 6-K filed with the SEC on September 4, 2018:

ING reaches settlement agreement with Dutch authorities on regulatory issues in the ING Netherlands business

Settlement agreement with Dutch Public Prosecution Service; ING agrees to pay a fine of 675 million and 100 million for disgorgement;

ING acknowledges serious shortcomings in the execution of customer due diligence policies to prevent financial economic crime at ING Netherlands in the period investigated (2010-2016);

ING sincerely regrets that these shortcomings enabled customers to misuse accounts of ING Netherlands;

ING has initiated measures against a number of (former) senior employees with broader responsibility for the safeguarding and execution of FEC CDD policies and procedures in ING Netherlands, including holdbacks of variable remuneration and suspension of duties;

ING Netherlands has taken various steps to enhance its compliance risk management and will further strengthen its compliance culture and awareness;

ING is committed to conducting its business with integrity, which includes compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards in each of the markets and jurisdictions in which it operates;

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission expected not to take further actions.

ING announced today that it has entered into a settlement agreement with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (DPPS) relating to previously disclosed investigations regarding various requirements for client on-boarding and the prevention of money laundering and corrupt practices. Under the terms of the agreement ING has agreed to pay a fine of 675 million and 100 million for disgorgement.

ING has fully cooperated with the DPPS investigation. It has also undertaken an internal investigation, the results of which have been shared with the Dutch Central Bank (DNB). The investigations established serious shortcomings in the execution of policies to prevent financial economic crime (FEC) at ING Netherlands in the period investigated (2010-2016). The identified broader shortcomings include: CDD files missing or being incomplete, assignment of incorrect risk classifications, the failure to have the (periodic) CDD review process in order, failure to exit business relationships in a timely manner, insufficient functioning of the post-transaction monitoring system, classifying clients in the wrong segments and insufficient availability of qualitative and quantitative human resources.

During the period investigated the execution of ING Netherlands FEC policies resulted in the termination of INGs relationship with thousands of clients. Nevertheless the shortcomings identified resulted in clients having been able to use their bank accounts for, inter alia, money laundering practices for a number of years.

ING sincerely regrets that as a result of the above shortcomings ING Netherlands did not adequately fulfil its role as gatekeeper to the financial system, helping fight financial crime. As a bank we have the obligation to ensure that our operations meet the highest standards, especially where it comes to preventing criminals from misusing the financial system. Not meeting those standards is unacceptable and ING takes full responsibility, said Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING.

We take this very seriously. We are taking a number of robust measures to strengthen our compliance risk management and support a strong risk culture and will be making further improvements to ensure we can play a full role in contributing to protecting the integrity of the financial system, said Vincent van den Boogert, CEO of ING in the Netherlands.

In the investigations no evidence or indications were found of (former) employees having actively cooperated with clients who used or may have used banking services for potential criminal activities nor indications of (former) employees having received personal gains. The identified shortcomings that occurred in the period investigated are not attributable to some individual persons but rather collective shortcomings at all responsible management levels, i.e. business, compliance and control functions.

ING has initiated measures against a number of (former) employees in senior management positions who had a broader responsibility for the safeguarding and execution of FEC CDD policies and procedures in the Netherlands. These measures include holdbacks of variable remuneration and suspension of duties. In the context of todays announcement the members of the Executive Board of ING Group, in consultation with the Supervisory Board, find it appropriate to forego their variable remuneration over 2018.

ING is committed to conducting its business with integrity, which includes compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards in each of the markets and jurisdictions in which it operates. Meeting the highest standards wherever we do business is an ongoing effort. ING has started various initiatives at ING Netherlands to further strengthen its compliance risk management:

An enhancement program to ensure compliance with know your customer (KYC) and client activity monitoring requirements. This includes enhancing management of customer information and improving effectiveness of the control framework applicable to the FEC domain, especially with respect to client activity monitoring capabilities.

Centralizing and simplifying operational KYC activities into one KYC Centre across divisions, introducing standard processes and tooling, allowing ING Netherlands to manage these activities more effectively.

Set-up Client Risk Committees across business units, deciding on client on-boarding and exit escalations to ensure KYC risk mitigation.

An engagement program to strengthen the internal compliance culture and awareness by better enabling employees to act in both the letter and the spirit of the law, empowered by their organisation and supported (and enforced) by compliance departments.

Active involvement in and contribution to the taskforce FEC-RAAD, where Dutch authorities that have supervisory, control, prosecution or investigation tasks cooperate with financial sector actors to strengthen the integrity of the sector. It does this by taking preventive action to identify and combat threats to this integrity.

ING also joined forces with DNB and the Dutch Banking Association (NVB) to harmonize efforts and knowledge in the fight against financial crime and actively participates in various taskforces and project teams in this field.

As part of the settlement announced today, ING has agreed to pay a fine of 675 million and 100 million for disgorgement. In determining the amount of the fine, the DPPS has taken into account the financial strength of ING (ability to pay). Next to that, the amount reflects the seriousness, extent and duration of the identified shortcomings but also expresses the fact that it was not possible to determine to which extent and for what amounts bank accounts at ING Netherlands were actually misused. The disgorgement amount represents the underspend by ING Netherlands over the period in scope on staffing for implementation and execution of FEC CDD policies and procedures. These amounts will have a combined impact on ING Groups third quarter 2018 net result of 775 million, to be recorded as a special item. The settlement announced today does not affect the strength of ING, the execution of our strategy nor our commitment to our customers, shareholders and other stakeholders.

As previously noted, in connection with the investigations ING has also received information requests from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). ING has been cooperating with these requests. Based on the settlement agreement announced today, ING expects that this matter will also be resolved with the SEC without further payment or the imposition of further conditions.

___

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.Mejuri, a Toronto, Canada-based direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand, closed a $5m Series A financing.

The round was led by Felix Capital, with participation from Real Ventures, Incite Ventures, BDC Capital Women in Technology Fund, and Dash Ventures.

The company, which has raised $6m in total funding to date, intends to use the funds to accelerate growth digitally and through physical stores.

Founded in 2015 by Noura Sakkijha and Maj Masad, Mejuri is a digitally native brand that works with top jewelers, who commit to exceptional craftsmanship and ethical practices to produce quality pieces made of solid gold, sterling silver, diamonds, and semi precious stones. The company, which sells directly to customers, refreshes its collections regularly by introducing new products contextualized with a new narrative every Monday.

Since launching, Mejuri has grown 400% year-over-year through organic marketing and a social strategy.

The company recently opened its first location in Toronto, with the next one being planned in New York City.

FinSMEs

04/09/2018.   ,        ,    .     ,    ,             .      ,     ,  COVID-19   ,   ,    .   .    ...In a sign that Egyptian-Italian relations are improving, the secretary-general of Egypts parliament, Ahmed Saadeddin, and Italy's ambassador to Egypt, Giampaolo Cantini, met on Monday evening to discuss preparations for the expected visit of Roberto Fico, the speaker of Italy's Chamber of Deputies, to Egypt this month.

Fico, a member of the opposition 5 Star Movement, was elected speaker of Italy's lower house of parliament (the Camera Dei Deputati) following general elections in March.

A press statement said Saadeddin and Cantini had discussed the preparations for Fico's visit to Cairo, scheduled for this month.

Fico chose Egypt to be the first country outside Europe to visit following the conclusion of Italian parliamentary elections held last March," read the statement.

The speakers visit will be the third such by a high-ranking Italian official to Egypt in a month.

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi visited Cairo in August, the first such trip by a senior Italian official since the death of Italian student Guilio Regeni in January 2016. At the end of August, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio came to Cairo to hold intensive economic talks with Egyptian officials.

Tarek Radwan, the head of parliament's foreign relations committee, told Ahram Online that the expected visit by the parliamentary speaker coming so soon after Di Maio sends a new signal that the relations between Egypt and Italy are fast improving.

The visits "show that the ties between the two Mediterranean countries are quickly recovering from a period of strain that was caused by Regeni's death and that they are now back on a sound track," said Radwan.

In a statement following his meeting with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Di Maio told the media on 29 August that "Egyptian-Italian relations are deep and historic, and that Italy has sincere intentions to boost ties with Egypt in all fields."

For his part, Madbouly said Italy is Egypt's most important economic partner at both the international and European levels, and that Egypt is looking forward to cooperating more and more with Italy in all economic sectors.

Di Maio, however, said Italy hopes for a breakthrough by the end of this year in the investigation into the tragic murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo in January 2016.

Regeni disappeared on 25 January while conducting postgraduate research on trade unions in Egypt. His body was discovered on 3 February, and Egyptian investigators found signs of extensive torture.

"I hope by the end of the year we can get a breakthrough, and that the meeting of the judicial authorities investigating Regeni's death will take place as soon as possible," said Di Maio.

Egypt's presidential spokesman said in a statement on 29 August that El-Sisi affirmed during the meeting that he is confident that Egypt and Italy will reach the final results into the investigation into the killing [of Regeni] in light of the strong will on the two sides to find the murderers and bring them to justice."

After his meeting with El-Sisi, Di Maio said both El-Sisi and members of the government present were more than willing and in agreement that the truth about Regeni's death should be established as soon as possible."

Radwan said the flurry of visits of senior Italian officials to Cairo and the recent boost in economic relations between the two countries come to reflect a growing recognition by Italy that Egypt is doing its best to uncover the truth about Regeni's murder.

"I think that Italian officials also are aware of the importance of Egypt as an active business centre for Italian companies and tourism, a main partner in fighting terrorism and illegal migration, and of its vital role in security and stability in neighbouring Libya," said Radwan.

Radwan expects that talks between parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal and his Italian counterpart will focus on economic relations and legislation necessary to stem the tide of illegal migration across the Mediterranean.

Abdel-Aal met with Fico in Rome in July, and invited him to visit Egypt to discuss mutual Mediterranean issues between Egypt and Italy in the fields of terrorism, illegal migration, investment and trade," said Radwan.

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Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in Uzbekistan on Tuesday from China, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported, in the first official visit by an Egyptian president to the central Asian country, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

El-Sisi is expected to hold talks with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and a number of Uzbek officials in the capital Tashkent, with the aim of boosting bilateral relations.

El-Sisi and Mirziyoyev will attend the signing ceremonies for a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding between the two countries.

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NBC News let a Pulitzer Prize-winning story slip away because honchos at the Peacock network didn't want it to see the light of day, a former NBC News producer told the Daily Beast.

In the website's bombshell report Thursday, NBC News producer Rich McHugh, who was working with Ronan Farrow on the reporter's investigation of alleged sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, claimed that an order to stop pursuing the scathing story came from "the very highest levels at NBC."

McHugh, who left the network's investigative unit earlier this month, told Fox News the order came as he and Farrow were preparing to travel to Los Angeles to interview a woman "with a credible allegation of rape" against the now-disgraced movie producer.

"I was told not to do the interview and ordered to stand down, thus effectively killing the story," McHugh said. "That was unethical, and a massive breach of journalistic integrity.

"Is there anyone in the journalistic community who actually believes NBC didnt breach its journalistic duty to continue reporting this story?" McHugh added. "Something else must have been going on."

The network told Fox News in a statement Thursday, "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."

But according to The Daily Beast, it was NBC News president Noah Oppenheim who made the decision to nix Farrow's piece. The exec reportedly didnt want to upset a Hollywood powerhouse such as Weinstein when he had ambitions of returning to the movie industry.

Farrow and McHugh reportedly pitched the story investigating Hollywood's notorious "casting couch" practices in January 2017. The story originally was meant to air around that year's Oscars, which wouldn't have been good for the Hollywood-friendly Oppenheim, the screenwriter of several films including "Jackie," "The Maze Runner," and the first installment of the "Divergent" series.

Insiders told Fox News at the time that NBC executives may have been wary of ruining relationships in Hollywood, and brittle from years of bad publicity and tabloid covers about its own stars behavior and personal lives.

NBC denies these issues had anything to do with their decision to kill the Weinstein story. But the network has been scrambling to give a credible explanation for why they sat on an explosive audiotape of a powerful man behaving badly.

It's not just Oppenheim who has connections to the disgraced accused rapist. Back in 2013, Weinstein attended an Obama event at the Marthas Vineyard home of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. The Weinstein Company has had TV programs on NBC Universal stations, and Weinstein reportedly begged NBC Universal executive Ron Meyer for support when the harassment allegations began to surface.

Additionally, Oppenheims boss, powerful NBC News Chairman Andy Lack, has allowed his subordinate to take heat for quashing the Weinstein story. Oppenheims role at NBC is far smaller than that of his counterparts at other networks since so much of NBCs news operation reports directly to Lack. He doesnt do much other than spiking stories, said an NBC News insider of Oppenheim.

Farrow ultimately won a Pulitzer Prize for his reports on sexual misconduct by Weinstein and other powerful men, which ultimately saw the light of day as a series of articles in The New Yorker. Ironically, Farrow would not have won journalism's most coveted prize had NBC run his expose, as broadcast networks are not eligible for the Pulitzer.

Farrow left NBC months ago.

Fox News' Brian Flood and Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report.NBC News chairman Andy Lack defended his networks handling of Ronan Farrows Harvey Weinstein reporting in a lengthy memo to staff on Labor Day.

The 10-page memo provided to Fox News, which came with a cover letter and table of contents, was sent out after a former NBC News producer who was working with Farrow on the Weinstein probe said they were ordered to kill the report on direction from "the very highest levels at NBC."

But Lack fought back against the allegation in his memo, labeling talk about the networks handling of the report "an unusual situation for a news division."

"We spent eight months pursuing the story but at the end of that time, NBC News  like many others before us  still did not have a single victim or witness willing to go on the record. (Rose McGowan  the only woman Farrow interviewed who was willing to be identified  had refused to name Weinstein and then her lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter.)," Lack wrote. "So we had nothing yet fit to broadcast. But Farrow did not agree with that standard. Thats where we parted ways  agreeing to his request to take his reporting to a print outlet that he said was ready to move forward immediately."

We spent eight months pursuing the story but at the end of that time, NBC News  like many others before us  still did not have a single victim or witness willing to go on the record.  NBC News Chairman Andy Lack

Farrow did not immediately respond to Lack's statements. Farrow's report ultimately was published in The New Yorker in the fall of 2017 and he won the Pulitzer Prize for his work earlier this year.

The memo detailed what NBC claimed was the timeline of Farrows reporting as well as the interactions between network executives and Weinstein.

The details represented a sharp contrast from the claims of other people who worked on the report, including the producer who said he planned to accompany Farrow to Los Angeles to interview a woman with a credible allegation of rape.

"I was told not to do the interview and ordered to stand down, thus effectively killing the story," Rich McHugh, who left the network's investigative unit last month, told Fox News in a statement. "That was unethical, and a massive breach of journalistic integrity.

"Is there anyone in the journalistic community who actually believes NBC didnt breach its journalistic duty to continue reporting this story?" McHugh added. "Something else must have been going on.

Following the memo's release McHugh slammed Lack on Twitter.

"I'm not clear how NBC's report can be considered objective and thorough given I was never interviewed for the report and only learned about it when asked for comment by reporters late last week," McHugh wrote.

But Lack said there were no ulterior motives to punting the story and that it simply was "not ready to air."

"We regret the deterioration of NBCs relationship with Ronan, and genuinely wish we had found a path to move forward together," Lack wrote. "That is why, in August of 2017, when Farrow objected to his editors conclusion we convened an independent group of the most experienced investigative journalists in our organization to review his material with fresh eyes. We asked them  tell us what, if anything, we can broadcast. But their conclusion was unequivocal  this story is not ready for air. (Further, they found several elements in Farrows draft script which did not hold up to scrutiny  described in the accompanying document.) It was Farrows decision, in the midst of this process, to pursue the story elsewhere."

Lack also hit back against the recent Daily Beast report suggesting that NBC may have canned the story due to back channel communications between Weinstein and NBC News President Noah Oppenheim. Lack labeled the claim "baseless speculation."

According to the Daily Beast, it was Oppenheim who made the decision to nix Farrow's piece. The exec reportedly didnt want to upset a Hollywood powerhouse such as Weinstein when he had ambitions of returning to the movie industry.

Farrow and McHugh reportedly pitched the story investigating Hollywood's notorious "casting couch" practices in January 2017. The story originally was meant to air around that year's Oscars, which wouldn't have been good for the Hollywood-friendly Oppenheim, the screenwriter of several films including "Jackie," "The Maze Runner," and the first installment of the "Divergent" series. Insiders told Fox News at the time that NBC executives may have been wary of ruining relationships in Hollywood, and brittle from years of bad publicity and tabloid covers about its own stars behavior and personal lives.

NBC fought back Monday against the speculation by detailing interactions between executives and Weinstein. "Oppenheim had never met or spoken to Harvey Weinstein prior to April 2017," the memo stated.

"The accompanying document recounts every interaction NBC News executives and editors had with Weinstein and his attorneys," Lack wrote. "It will surprise no one that they were dishonest in their dealings with us, often mischaracterizing our brief conversations. But in each instance, their calls were either completely ignored or met with a boilerplate commitment to allow them to comment if and when something was ready for broadcast. None of this was kept secret from Farrow. None of it was different from the calls we receive on every other difficult investigative story our unit regularly breaks. And none of it played any roles in our decision making."

Lack continued, "As we get back to work this week, we will continue to pursue the toughest stories, in the most challenging circumstances, involving the most powerful people."

The memo came amid speculation that Lack could be fired from his position and that Comcast executives may be searching for a replacement. ABC News President James Goldston has been eyed for the NBC job, according to the New York Post.

Fox News Brian Flood, Samuel Chamberlain and Sasha Savitsky contributed to this report.Bill Cosbys star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been vandalized for the second time in four years  this time with someone branding the disgraced comedian a serial rapist.

The Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday theyve scrubbed the missive, scrawled in black marker, off Cosbys plaque and are looking into the incident.

Its unclear when the message was written, but cops heard about it at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Officer Mike Lopez told the Los Angeles Times.

The word rapist also was written on Cosbys eponymous pink star in marker in 2014, as multiple women accused him of sexually assaulting them over the years. Since then, 60 women have accused him of sexual abuse.

Cosby, 81, was found guilty at an April retrial of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University staffer Andrea Constand in his Pennsylvania home in 2004. He is expected to be sentenced Sept. 24.

This article originally appeared in Page Six.The death toll from a Boko Haram attack on a Nigerian army post on the border with Niger has risen to 48, military sources said on Monday.

Scores of Boko Haram fighters in trucks stormed the base on Thursday in Zari village in northern Borno state and briefly seized it after a fierce battle.

Boko Haram, which has been waging a deadly insurgency in Nigeria since 2009, has intensified attacks on military targets in recent months.

At least 30 Nigerian soldiers were intially said to have been killed in Thursday's raid.

"The casualty toll now stands at 48 with the recovery of 17 more bodies of soldiers in surrounding bushes in Zari by search and rescue teams," a military source who did not want to be named told AFP.

"Search operations are still ongoing and more bodies are likely to be recovered."

Another military source confirmed the new death toll.

"So far (the) bodies of 48 troops have been recovered. Yesterday rescue teams found 17 bodies of fallen soldiers," he said, adding that they included two officers and 46 soldiers.

"When the troops were overwhelmed by the terrorists they withdrew in different directions."

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Bindi Irwin is honoring her dad Steve Irwin on the 12th anniversary of his death.

On Monday, the 20-year-old paid tribute to her late father in a touching post on Instagram.

"Together Forever ," Bindi captioned a photo, which featured Irwin holding his daughter in his lap as he sat alongside his wife Terri and their son, Robert.

On Sept. 4, 2006, Irwin, more commonly known as the 'Crocodile Hunter,' was killed by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Earlier this year, Terri opened up about her husband's death.

No matter the circumstances are that you lose someone, nobodys truly prepared, she told People Magazine in January.

Steves accident was so unexpected, it was extremely challenging."Victorias Secret model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, who spoke out against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2015, said she hopes to use her upcoming podcast to prevent people from using the #MeToo movement in the wrong way.

Gutierrez said the movement that has empowered women to speak out about the sexual misconduct theyve experienced has two different faces  one that could end a persons career, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday. Gutierrez, who will launch her new podcast In Our Words on Thursday, said she wants to give men who feel they were wrongly accused a chance to provide their side of the story.

"Some people use #MeToo in the wrong way," Gutierrez, 26, said. "I feel that #MeToo is for the collective benefit. Somebody speaking bad about someone else to ruin their careers is not good."

"I've had so many of my other friends or movie directors or whatever and they came onto these lists and they lost so much work," the model added. "The #MeToo movement has two different faces. You can really ruin somebody if it's not real."

Gutierrez made headlines in 2015 when she accused Weinstein of attempting to force himself on her in his New York City office. She previously told The New York Post that she was forced into exile because no one believed her story. The model said she suffered from depression and struggled to find work until last year, when explosive reports detailed other womens disturbing encounters with Weinstein.

She said she feels vindicated since the sexual misconduct accusations were made against Weinstein, who has previously denied any wrongdoing.

Despite suffering from a barrage of negative reports for two years, Gutierrez said she was never a #MeToo.

"I was never a #MeToo, I was a 'fight back,''' Gutierrez said. "I went to the police and everything. It's not that I sat down 'til it was safe for me to speak."

Gutierrez worked with the New York City Police Department shortly after reporting the 2015 encounter. She met with Weinstein again while wearing a hidden microphone and caught the Hollywood producer admitting and apologizing for groping her. The audio was published by the New Yorker in October 2017.

The model said she knows several people whove been damaged by accusations stemming from #MeToo.

"You have to be very careful of these things you publish," Gutierrez said. "I lived it in my skin."Julia Louis-Dreyfus is back at work on Veep and said it feels fantastic.

The star of the HBO comedy series revealed last September that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The news came soon after her sixth consecutive Emmy win for the role of Selina Meyer.

As work began recently on the shows seventh and final season, Louis-Dreyfus told The Associated Press: I feel good. I feel strong. Ive got energy and, yeah, back to my old tricks. It feels like I never left.

The Seinfeld alum has signed on to her first cancer awareness initiative, helping Carolina Herrera designer Wes Gordon design a flower-adorned T-shirt as part of Saks Fifth Avenues 20th year raising money through its Key to the Cure program.

The limited-edition shirt will sell for $35 at Saks stores Oct. 1-31, with 100 percent of proceeds passed to the AiRS Foundation, a nonprofit Louis-Dreyfus supports for its work in helping women with the costs of breast reconstruction after mastectomy.

Up to 70 percent of breast cancer survivors who have had a mastectomy are really unsure or unaware of their reconstruction options, and many of those women who desire to have surgery dont have sufficient insurance or other resources to cover it, Louis-Dreyfus said by phone on a recent location day for Veep.

As a survivor, she said shes often asked to help out. This is the first time she has said yes.

Its hard to say no but Ive just had to be very careful about managing my time and conserving my energy, so you know Im putting my whole self into Key to the Cure, Louis-Dreyfus said. You cant spread yourself too thin. Thats why I wanted to choose the organization wisely and carefully.

As this years ambassador for the program, Louis-Dreyfus said she wanted a bold statement for the annual T-shirt. It features three poppies and the slogan: We are fighters & we are fighting for a cure.

Over 20 years, Key to the Cure has donated nearly $40 million to cancer research and treatment organizations.

It was a super-fun endeavor, Louis-Dreyfus said of the T-shirt design process. She has often worn Herrera designs on red carpets. The shirt features blooms in jewel-tone red and pink.

I wanted it to have a sort of femininity and a powerful message at the same time because I believe the two can go hand in hand, she said. I liked the idea of talking about fighting.The Los Angeles County District Attorney on Tuesday declined to file sexual assault charges against actors Kevin Spacey, Anthony Anderson, and Steven Seagal.

The office had received investigations on each of the actors from various local police agencies. In the case of Spacey and Seagal, the charges were not filed due to the statute of limitations. In Andersons case, the victim refused to cooperate with investigators, according to the D.A.s office.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department investigated a claim that Spacey committed forcible sodomy in October of 1992. The allegation was too old to bring charges, according to a D.A. worksheet.

In the Seagal case, a woman alleged that the actor had sexually assaulted her in 1993. The Beverly Hills Police Department took a report and forwarded it to the D.A., though the statute of limitations had expired in 1999.

The LAPD investigated an allegation that Black-ish star Anderson had sexually assaulted a woman earlier this spring.

The reporting party has declined to be interviewed by the investigating officer, a prosecutor wrote. The interview is a necessary piece of the investigation. Prosecution is declined due to lack of sufficient evidence to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the allegations.

The D.A.s office has one more case to review involving Seagal, as well as another about Spacey.

The office formed a task force last year to handle an influx of Hollywood sexual abuse cases, but so far most allegations have been dismissed because they fall outside the statute of limitations.Famed sitcom creator Norman Lear  All in the Family, The Jeffersons  penned an explosive Op-Ed calling on Americans to reject President Trumps federal court picks and to rethink what theyre hearing from right-leaning political pundits.

Lear, 96, penned the article in The Hollywood Reporter in conjunction with People for the American Way senior fellow, Peter Montgomery, in an effort to implore liberals and conservatives alike to take what he perceives to be a threat to the First Amendment seriously.

Its bad enough that the Religious Right has spent decades claiming ownership over faith, family and freedom. But now we have to watch conservative preachers and political activists wrap themselves in the First Amendment and the Constitution that their beloved President Trump takes a dump on every day, the Op-Ed begins. To our fellow liberals and progressives, and to other fair-minded, reason-respecting Americans, we say we cant let them get away with it.

Lear is also responsible for creating the original and the remake of One Day at a Time  and none of his shows was ever shy to tackle the political issues of the day.

He continued his article imploring Americans not to be fooled by political rhetoric that invokes things like pride in the American flag, love for family and community, religious freedom or gratitude for the freedoms citizens enjoy.

Theres something about these symbols and documents, about the values of individual liberty and equality that they proclaim, that speak to the core of what it means to be American, he wrote.

Lear then went after the real target of his opinion piece, the federal judges picked by Trump.

Its striking that President Trumps rhetorical longing for some unspecified past when America was greater than it is now parallels his nomination of judges hand-picked by right-wing ideological groups committed to promoting originalism and conservative constitutionalism, Lear said.

He went on to describe the various court cases and First Amendment rights that he believes will be undone if the American right is left unchecked.

In their hands, the First Amendment is no longer a shield to protect everyones free exercise of religion; it is a sword to wield against legal and lived equality for disfavored people, he wrote.

For many of these 'constitutional conservatives,' programs created by the New Deal and Great Society to tackle national problems like widespread poverty and lack of access to health care are illegitimate. They want us, as a country, to go back to an understanding of the Constitution grounded in states rights and radically restricted federal authority.Daveigh Chase, known for playing Samara in The Ring and Samantha Darko in Donnie Darko, was arrested last month and held in jail for two hours.

The 28-year-old actress was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance, according to a report from The Blast on Tuesday.

Chase was released on a $1,000 bail after two hours in a Hollywood jail.

In 2017, Chase, who was also in Big Love and voiced Lilo in the Lilo & Stitch TV series, was arrested on a felony charge for riding in a car that was reported stolen.

A rep for Chase did not immediately return our request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Page Six.According to Victorias Secret model Devon Windsor, theres more to strutting down the catwalk than wearing wings and not much else.

The 24-year-old was compelled to participate in the E! docu-series Model Squad, which explores how nine supermodels prepare for the fall runway season, all while maintaining their personal lives and fiercely competitive careers.

The blonde beauty, who was discovered in Missouri at age 14 at a bar mitzvah party for her striking features and towering height, told Fox News cover girl hopefuls need to look past the glossy issues and realize it takes more than a pretty face to survive the industry.

You definitely have to grow that thick skin because otherwise youll just get chewed up and spit out, warned Windsor. Its a harsh world out there.

Windsor  who didnt pursue modeling full time until age 18, after she finished school  has become one of the most sought-after faces in the industry. She has appeared in over 20 international collections, including Prada and Christian Dior.

She has also walked the runway for countless couture brands, including Chanel and Balmain, among others. Her famous figure has also appeared on the pages of Maxim and Vogue Germany, just to name a few.

However, Windsor is best recognized for being a regular in the annual Victorias Secret Fashion Show since 2014.

While the brand is known for its racy lingerie, Windsor insisted shes received plenty of support from her family to participate in the televised show. She insisted its the secret behind her lasting success.

Ive been lucky enough to be surrounded by people that were always supporting me, and I never felt pressure, she explained. Ive always been comfortable and confident in my own body, and I see wearing lingerie kind of like wearing a bikini.

"Obviously, its different, but at the time youre showing the same amount. My bikinis are very skimpy, so maybe not for everyone Not everyones going to love you or what you do. Someones always going to complain about something.

The St. Louis native admitted that being a top model is far from simply striking a pose. In addition to constantly working out to stay in camera-ready shape all year long and making sure your features are flawless, theres also the overwhelming scrutiny from both the public, as well as those doing the hiring.

The biggest challenge for me, and I think for most girls, is just the criticism, the amount of criticism that we take, honestly, every day, said Windsor. Were being critiqued every day, whether you hear them critiquing you or its behind your back, whether its the client, casting, friends, agents  youre constantly being judged and youre constantly being denied.

Were denied more opportunities than we get Dealing with that rejection has definitely been difficult for me But I learned to just get over it and realize that its not personal It can also just be exhausting, and youre lonely. All of that comes with the territory, but the rejection is something that stabs you every time.

Windsor acknowledged that modeling offers plenty of perks, including getaways to some of the most beautiful and exclusive locations in the world, plenty of couture, as well as non-stop invites to celebrity hot spots and parties.

However, models will get heavily scrutinized frequently whether they like it or not.

We get put down a lot in this industry, and I think when youre really young and youre not used to it, it really hurts you, she said.

Because a lot of girls become depressed or anxious and they just cant handle the rejection. They take it very personally. And I think as you get older, as you become more comfortable in this industry, that you understand its not really about just you. There are so many factors involved in picking a model for a shoot or show. If they want a brunette then theyre not going to go with me.

Windsor recalled being sent straight to Milan alone and far away from her family in Missouri after she graduated from high school to work  an experience she described as really hard to cope.

But there was one thing that comforted Windsor  country music.

Personally, I grew up around it, she said. Ive had a ranch house my whole life, so wed go down there, be in nature and just listen to country music. For me, its very relaxing. When I hear it while Im traveling or wherever I am, even working, it just mellows me out and brings me back home Its comforting.

And her perseverance paid off. In 2014, Windsor got the call that she was going to appear in Victorias Secret for the very first time.

It was absolutely insane, said Windsor about landing the heavenly gig. I was shopping and screamed on the phone I remember calling my mom and she was crying. She couldnt believe it. And neither could I honestly. I never thought I would get it.

Windsor hopes her participation in Model Squad will show other young girls the little-known, less glamorous side to modeling. It takes plenty of hard work and guts to make it successfully  but it can be done.

I wanted to show people what it was really like to be in this industry, she said. Because they only really see one side, whether its social media or wherever, they only see that glamorous side, the life that we live, and theres so much more to it.

"Model Squad" airs premieres Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 8 p.m. on E!A seafood market in Kuwait was reportedly closed after it was discovered staff had been putting plastic googly eyes on fish to make them appear fresher than they actually were.

Footage of the odd-eyed fish began making the rounds on WhatsApp last week, according to the BBC, and photos were later shared online by the Al-Bayan news outlet.

MAINE OFFICIALS DENY PETA'S REQUEST FOR GRAVESTONE COMMEMORATING LOBSTER DEATHS

In one of the photos, the googly eye is seen slipping off the fishs face after a customer had taken it home and began cleaning it, Al-Bayan reported, per Al Aribaya.

The countrys ministry of commerce shut down the fishmonger on Saturday after identifying the seller, the outlet added.

Since news of the shops closure, a rival Kuwaiti fish market trolled the shop, and announced that they only sold fish without cosmetic surgery.

MONKEY ESCAPES ZOO, FLEES TO MCDONALDS

Twitter users, too, reacted as they usually do to news of this nature: with jokes.

It remains unclear if the shop will be allowed to reopen in the near future.A Maryland crab restaurant responded to a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) Go Vegan billboard by putting up one of its own.

Jimmys Famous Seafood in Baltimore, Md., erected its own billboard, reading: SteaMEd crabs. Here to stay. Get famous.

PETA WANTS MAINE OFFICIALS TO BUILD GRAVESTONE IN MEMORY OF LOBSTERS WHO DIED IN TRUCK CRASH

The capitalized ME references billboards put up by PETA near several Baltimore seafood restaurants, telling Maryland residents Im ME, Not MEAT. See the individual. Go vegan," next to a picture of a blue crab.

John Minadakis of Jimmys Famous Seafood took particular offense to the billboard, which was put up right before the Baltimore Seafood Festival happening later this month.

As small business owners, we felt compelled to defend our history and livelihood from this unprovoked attack, he told Fox News. My father built this landmark with his bare hands. Our family was raised in this business, and literally grew up on the second floor of the building.

MAINE OFFICIALS DENY PETA REQUEST TO ERECT GRAVESTONE IN MEMORY OF LOBSTERS WHO DIED IN TRUCK CRASH

Minadakis told Fox News he was moved to put a stop to what he considers PETAs blank checkbook that is responsible for putting countless Americans out of work and targeting industries from coast to coast.

In a statement to Fox News, PETA defended their marketing tactics.

No compassionate person would boil an animal alive. Just like humans, crabs feel pain and experience fear, have unique personalities, and value their own lives, but a PETA investigation has shown that they endure agonizing deaths in order to be used for dinner  so if PETA's billboard encouraged even one Baltimorean to view these complex crustaceans as individuals and go vegan, then it worked like a charm in our mind, said PETA's executive vice president, Tracy Reiman.

PETA BILLBOARD IN MARYLAND ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO 'GO VEGAN,' STOP EATING CRABS

But Minadakis and other Baltimore refuse to let PETA have the final say on an industry that they say defines Maryland.

Marylands backbone is the crab industry, and we were not going to sit idly on the sidelines while they attempted to cripple the local economy. We rolled up our sleeves, got to work, saved up our money, and erected the billboard. We will not be bullied into submission by PETA, Minadakis said.

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This is not the first time Minadakis has taken a stab at PETA. On Twitter, the business owner poked fun at the vegan organization, replacing the groups initials to mean People Eating Tasty Animals.The United Arab Emirates has selected its first two astronauts to go on a mission to the International Space Station, Dubai's ruler said Monday.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum named the new astronauts as Hazza al-Mansouri, 34, and 37-year-old Sultan al-Neyadi.

Writing on Twitter, he said the duo "raise the bar of ambitions for future Emirati generations".

Sheikh Mohammed, the UAE's vice president and prime minister, last year vowed to send four Emirati astronauts to the space station within five years.

The UAE has its sights set on space with a programme worth 20 billion dirhams ($5.4 billion), according to Sheikh Mohammed.

The oil-rich Gulf nation has already announced plans to become the first Arab country to send an unmanned probe to orbit Mars by 2021, naming it "Hope".

The astronaut programme would make the UAE one of only a handful of states in the Middle East to have sent a person into space, as it looks to make good on a pledge to become a global leader in space exploration.

The first Arab in outer space was Saudi Arabia's Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud, who flew on a US shuttle mission in 1985. Two years later, Syrian air force pilot Muhammed Faris spent a week aboard the ex-Soviet Union's Mir space station.

Mansouri and Neyadi, who were among more than 4,000 Emiratis to apply for the programme, were chosen after a rigorous six-stage vetting procedure.

In the long-term, the UAE says it is planning to build a "Science City" to replicate life on Mars and aims to create the first human settlement on the red planet by 2117.

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Two McDonalds customers in Texas pulled off a viral prank when they decided to turn themselves into the subjects of an ad and hang it inside the fast-food restaurant they often eat at.

Jehv Maravilla, 21, and his friend Christian Toledo, 25, noticed a lack of representation in the marketing materials at a McDonalds in Pearland, near Houston.

KUWAIT FISH MARKET SHUT DOWN FOR PUTTING GOOGLY EYES ON LESS-THAN-FRESH FISH: REPORT

We were eating McDonalds one day and we looked around and saw there were posters around that didnt have any Asians, Maravilla told KHOU 11. They had other races but no Asians so we felt like it was our duty to put ourselves up there.

So Maravilla and Toledo, both Filipino-American, decided to create their own ad for a blank space on the wall. Asian representation in media is not as prevalent as it should be, Maravilla told KPRC Click2Houston. What motivated me was Crazy Rich Asians, the movie that came out, that boosted my confidence into thinking maybe one day I could be just like that, and if I take a step and do something small like this, it could make a difference.

In June, Maravilla and Toledo went to work on their poster. They modeled for the photo, holding a McDonalds burger and fries, then edited it to look like the other images hanging inside the restaurant.

SPEED UP WEIGHT LOSS WITH THESE 12 EXPERT TIPS

After the finished product arrived, they created a cover in order to hang it on the wall. Maravilla found a McDonalds uniform at a goodwill store and created a fake badge and title of Regional Interior Coordinator. Then, with the help of their friends, Maravilla and Toledo hung the poster on July 13.

The fake ad remained at the restaurant unnoticed for 51 days, but when Maravilla tweeted about it on Sunday, the prank went viral, receiving over 175,000 retweets and 705,000 likes.

McDonalds did not immediately respond to Fox News request for comment as to whether or not the poster will be kept up. However, the local franchisee released the following statement.

We take pride in highlighting diversity in every aspect of our restaurants. We applaud these students creativity and hope to see them in our restaurants again soon.

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Maravilla hopes maybe hell have a future in modeling for McDonalds campaigns. I kind of hope they will ask us to be representative models for them, like for Asian men. That would be insane if they did that! It would be, like, a dream come true, Maravilla told KHOU 11.A doctor found a spider living inside a mans ear - and even spinning webs to make itself at home.

Ear, nose and throat specialist Cui Shulin shared images showing the bean-sized spider he found during an endoscope into the patients ear canal.

The medic from Dalian Central Hospital, north-east China, saw the pensioner in his 60s after he came in complaining of a possible insect in his head.

The unnamed patient described the discomfort as being like something "beating a drum" in his ear.

DAD STRUCK BY GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME UNABLE TO SPEAK, MOVE 3 MONTHS LATER

He said: "I felt discomfort in my ear while sleeping last night but I tried to ignore it.

"This morning the discomfort was still there. There were noises like something was beating a drum."

Doctor Cui and his nurses were stunned when the endoscope revealed a live spider had occupied the patients ear canal about two inches deep.

It had also spun elaborate webs to shield itself, the footage shows.

The experienced doctor eventually flushed the spider out by spraying the patients ear canal with water, later confirming that the man suffered no injuries during the arachnid occupation.

NEBRASKA MAN CLAIMS MISSED WEST NILE DIAGNOSIS LEFT HIM PARALYZED

In a social media post, Cui wrote: "This old man showed up at our outpatient clinic today saying he thought there was insect in his ear.

"I performed an endoscopy and found a spider. The thing had spun webs," adding a laughing emoji.

The medic said he had seen numerous cases of flying insects such as ladybirds and most commonly cockroaches ending up in peoples ears.

But he noted he rarely sees spiders spinning webs and living in a persons ear.

Read more at The Sun.A Nebraska man claims that his doctors quick dismissal of his symptoms four years ago have left him paralyzed and with damaged hearing after later tests confirmed that he was suffering from West Nile virus.

Dave Shemek, who said that he had applied bug spray before mowing his lawn but still managed to get bit on his leg, believes quick treatment would have helped him avoid his fate, KETV.com reported.

There is a cure for West Nile if youre sharp enough and fast enough to get it tested and get put on enough high doses of antibiotics, Shemek told the news outlet.

WHAT IS WEST NILE VIRUS? 3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MOSQUITO-SPREAD AILMENT

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment to treat or prevent the virus, which in rare cases can develop into a serious illness such as inflammation of the spinal cord or brain. The CDC said those who are infected can take over-the-counter pain medication or fever reducers, with the severest of patients requiring hospitalization and supportive care.

If youve got a mosquito bite and start feeling those symptoms, get it tested, Shemek told the news outlet.

Shemek said he went to his doctor after his neighbor was diagnosed with West Nile, but that his doctor said Oh God no, 8,000 to 1 you dont have West Nile. He claims his blood was never tested for the virus.

However, 10 days later Shemek landed in the hospital with a 102-degree fever, and was later transferred to another hospital where a diagnosis of West Nile was confirmed.

GIRL, 4, CONTRACTS LIFE-THREATENING INFECTION AFTER TRYING ON SHOES WITHOUT SOCKS, MOM CLAIMS

I think about that every day, he told KETV, of the missed opportunity for early diagnosis. Not only in lost wages, but being able to walk, hear normally.

He said the ordeal has left him penniless, and that he has been forced to dip into his 401K to pay for his medical bills. He has been raising money on a GoFundMe page and said that he is determined to walk again.

All I have is my house, he told KETV. And Ill be darn if theyre going to take that.A young firefighter in Oregon was taken off life support after suffering irreversible damage to his organs while battling wildfires, his family says.

Eric Aarseth, 20, suffered from pneumonia that turned septic, KATU reported. He died early Tuesday morning, according to a memorial page created by a family friend on his behalf.

"He was so giving and always wanted to help people. That's the biggest thing. He wanted to help people however he could," Chris, Aarseths father, told the news station.

GIRL, 4, CONTRACTS LIFE-THREATENING INFECTION AFTER TRYING ON SHOES WITHOUT SOCKS, MOM CLAIMS

The 20-year-old was working for Miller Timber Service at the time of his death. A spokesperson for the company told KATU Aarseth was part of a hand crew who dug fire containment lines and help with fire mop-up duties.

In July, he worked to battle the Garner Complex Fire in the southern part of the state before battling the Horns Mountain Fire in south Washington  the most recent fire he worked to contain.

But little did Aarseth know it would be his last.

The day after he returned home last week, Aarseths roommates found him unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors determined he had developed pneumonia which had turned septic.

"He thought he was OK, and kids at that age tend to be tougher. They don't want to admit they're sick, they don't want to go to the doctor," Cheryl, Aarseths stepmother, told the news station.

The firefighter was taken off life support on Monday before dying early the next morning.

Our hearts are heavy today mourning the loss of our firefighter, Eric Aarseth, who passed away. We stand with his family and friends who are saddened by this loss, Miller Timber Service said in an online statement. It's devastating to lose any member of our team and Eric seemed to have found his passion and purpose on the fire line. Well share memorial information as its available.

Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Columbia University health professor, told USA Today in 2013 inhaling smoke, which contains fine-particle air pollution can cause serious issues such as asthma attacks and pneumonia.

NEBRASKA MAN CLAIMS MISSED WEST NILE DIAGNOSIS LEFT HIM PARALYZED

In fact, respiratory morbidity predominates, but cardiovascular, ophthalmic and psychiatric problems can also result. In addition severe burns resulting from direct contact with the fire require care in special units and carry a risk of multiorgan complications, the National Center for Biotechnology Information said in a 2012 report.

Octavia Nightingale, who created the memorial page for Aarseth, said funds will be used for a good cause in making sure that in the future such tragedies can be avoided," adding she wants to make sure doctors thoroughly examine  and clear  firefighters after they come off the line.

If Eric had been checked out prior to leaving, the doctor would most likely have sent him directly to the hospital, she wrote.

"He may not have died out there in the fire, [but] he's still a hero," Cheryl said. "He lived the way he wanted to live and he was very determined to do what he wanted to do and help people no matter what the cost was."A Tennessee man died roughly a month after a surgeon at Tristar Centennial hospital in Nashville allegedly left a needle inside of him after performing open heart surgery, a lawsuit filed by the mans family claims.

The needle was reportedly lost inside the body of 73-year-old John Burns Johnson while he underwent heart surgery in May 2017. According to the lawsuit reviewed by The Tennessean, the surgeon, identified as Dr. Sreekumar Subramanian, realized he was missing a surgical needle after closing Johnsons chest upon completion of the nine-hour procedure.

GIRL, 4, CONTRACTS LIFE-THREATENING INFECTION AFTER TRYING ON SHOES WITHOUT SOCKS, MOM CLAIMS

An X-ray later confirmed the needle was inside the mans body. A second surgery was performed to remove the needle, but the surgeon was unable to remove it, the newspaper reported, noting it wasnt clear if the device was unable to be found or if it was not in a position to be removed.

Johnson died about a month later, the lawsuit claims.

Mr. Johnsons condition continued to deteriorate over the next thirty days, the lawsuit reads, according to The Tennessean. He was critically ill and never saw his home again.

The needle was eventually removed during the mans autopsy. His death was reportedly "painful, unnecessary and wrongful, the lawsuit says.

In a statement, Tristar said it takes the responsibility of properly caring for our patients very seriously and empathize with the understandable grief being felt by the family," but declined to comment further on the claims.

NEBRASKA MAN CLAIMS MISSED WEST NILE DIAGNOSIS LEFT HIM PARALYZED

A spokesperson for the hospital did not immediately return Fox News request for comment on Tuesday. It wasn't immediately clear if the hospital was served with the lawsuit.

Medical objects left inside a patients body are rare, occurring in about 1 of every 5,500 to 7,000 surgeries, according to the Journal of American College of Surgeons. Surgical needles and sponges are the two most common items that are left behind.The male Texas physician, who was criticized after he was quoted saying that women doctors get paid less because they do not work as hard as their male counterparts, said he was sorry on Monday and never thought the quote would be published.

Dr. Gary Tigges, 53, a Plano internist, was quoted in a special Women in Medicine issue of the Dallas Medical Journal, 6 ABC reported.

The journal asked doctors various questions about the gap in doctor pay and asked for ideas to narrow the gap.

Tigges, who later told The Dallas Morning News that he was unaware the quote was going to be published, told the journal in response to the question: "This is because they choose to, or they simply don't want to be rushed, or they don't want to work the long hours. Most of the time, their priority is something else.... Family, social, whatever. Nothing needs to be 'done' about this unless female physicians actually want to work harder and put in the hours. If not, they should be paid less. That is fair."

Tigges posted his apology on his practices website, reports said. He said he was contacted by female colleagues who were deeply hurt and offended by his remarks.

USA Today, citing a survey by Doximity, reported that female doctors in the U.S. earn an average 27.7 percent less than their male colleagues.

I have worked closely with numerous female physicians for nearly three decades and have witnessed nothing but compassion, diligence and professionalism, he posted.

He told the paper that he had recently read data that showed women saw fewer patients.

"My response sounds terrible and horrible and doesn't reflect what I was really trying to say," Tigges told the paper. "I'm not saying female physicians should be paid less, but they earn less because of other factors."A bride-to-be is making a desperate plea over social media after losing her engagement ring on a recent vacation in New Zealand.

Ruth Bamber shared a photo of her and her fiance, Justin Sutcliffe, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, explaining how she left the ring on the shelf above the sink in the upstairs ladies toilets at a ski resort the end of last month.

WOMAN DIPPING CHICKEN FINGER IN SODA SPARKS OUTRAGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

As per their posted photos, the England-based couple appear to have been traveling around Queenstown, including a day on the slopes at The Remarkables Ski Resort, 40 minutes away.

Bamber wrote that the ring isnt worth a lot of money and the value is purely sentimental. It isnt a traditional diamond but rather a stone called Rutilated Quartz on a rose gold band with tape wrapped around it to make it fit.

Hundreds of people have responded to Bambers post, offering well wishes and tagging others in hopes of locating the missing piece of jewelry.

MCDONALD'S CUSTOMERS CREATE FAKE POSTER, HANG IT IN RESTAURANT TO PROMOTE RACIAL DIVERSITY

A few curious individuals asked Bamber why she took the ring off in the first place, but she explained the tape she was using to make it fit until she could get it resized was scratchy when she washed her hands.

Apparently Bamber isnt the only one to do this.

This is quite common according to my [jeweler], one commenter wrote. Trick is to put the ring in your mouth while washing your hands then its impossible to leave behind. No consolation I know, but might help someone.

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So far, Bamber has reached out to local media outlets and other contacts in the area. Others have shared her info with people they know, helping to spread the word in hopes the power of social media can help her locate the special item.

Thanks for everyones support  it means a lot that so many people can try to help another human in a positive way, Bamber wrote in response to all the comments on Twitter.Stefano Gabbana is being blasted on social media for calling Instagram influencer Chiara Ferragni cheap on her wedding day. The news comes just months after the Italian designer similarly described Selena Gomez as so ugly on social media.

On Sept. 1, Italian fashionista and style star Ferragni wed Italian rapper and X-Fact Italia judge Fedez in a glamorous ceremony in Sicily, People reports. The Blonde Salad blogger sported three custom Dior gowns for the big day, and the Dolce & Gabbana co-founder quickly berated her first ensemble.

MEGHAN MARKLES WEDDING DRESS MAY BE DISPLAYED AT WINDSOR CASTLE

Soon after the 31-year-old new mom said I do, the Instagram account @commentsbycelebs sounded the alarm that 55-year-old Gabbana wrote cheap on a Harpers Bazaar UK Instagram post of Ferragni in a voluminous, lace-detailed, long-sleeved Dior ensemble, reminiscent of Grace Kellys iconic bridal gown.

The move evidently struck a nerve with many, and the designer was soon slammed online.

Are you just mad that this beautiful girl didn't wear a dress designed by you? Fact: A woman can put on a dress she finds in a thrift store, David's Bridal, or one of yours and if she feels lovely in it than she is! Do everyone a favor and keep your negativity to yourself! one Instagram critic clapped.

Thats really shocking to read that kind of comment from the great designer that you are Stefano. I dont know the level of professional relationship that you have (or not) with @chiaraferragni, but thats pity from you to act like that, another agreed.

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Not as cheap as those rhinestone D&G t-shirts you sell for $400, one Ferragni fan mercilessly quipped.

Though Ferragni has yet to publicly comment on the matter, shes no stranger to standing up to online bullies.

In July, she blasted a major Italian newspaper for reportedly fat-shaming her friends during her bachelorette party in Ibiza, Spain.

Back in June, Gabbana caught similar heat for describing Selena Gomez as so ugly on Instagram.

As noted by People, Gabbana and his business partner, Domenico Dolce, have been previously criticized for their vocal opposition to gay adoptions and IVF.

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As Judge Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearing on his nomination to the Supreme Court began Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, senators were ready to probe his views on issues ranging from abortion to the scope of federal regulation. He will also be asked about issues that have attracted far less attention, but will nonetheless have a profound impact on our legal system.

One of these issues is the influential role of the American Law Institute, a 95-year-old body of 3,000 judges, academics and practicing lawyers. While unknown to the general public, the ALI plays a key role in distilling what the law is on key topics.

The institutes publication Restatements of the Law lays down the principles or "black letter law" that judges use as guidance in decisions. The Supreme Court cites the ALI every few weeks, on average, in its decisions.

But in recent years many critics have accused the ALI of creating new law rather than restating it. Among those expressing concern have been two Supreme Court justices.

Just before his death in 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia warned about the ALIs drift. In the Supreme Courts Kansas v. Nebraska decision he wrote: Modern Restatements  are of questionable value, and must be used with caution. Over time, the Restatements authors have abandoned the mission of describing the law, and have chosen instead to set forth their aspirations for what the law ought to be.

Scalia  joined by Justice Clarence Thomas  warned that the ALIs effort to restate restitution law was highly flawed. Scalia wrote that such novel views of the law should have no more weight regarding what the law ought to be than the recommendations of any respected lawyer or scholar. The justice wrote that no longer can one assume that a Restatement provision describes rather than revises current law.

That skepticism about the ALIs work product has spread to the states. Earlier this year, six governors  from Texas, Maine, South Carolina, Nebraska, Utah and Iowa  sent the ALI a letter warning that the proposed draft Restatement article on the law of liability insurance was a usurpation of the lawmaking authority of their state legislatures.

The governors argued that the Restatement article could also retard economic development by creating uncertainty and instability in the liability insurance market. The governors urged ALI members to revise or rescind the draft Restatement article.

One state has gone even further. In July, Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, signed a bill that says ALIs Restatement of the Law on liability insurance does not constitute the public policy of Ohio.

Ohio courts were directed to ignore the ALIs Restatement article. No state had ever passed legislation against an ALI Restatement in its entirety before.

There are also warning signals that the ALI is imprudently trying to redefine social policy by adopting novel legal rules.

At its annual convention two years ago, ALI leaders proposed adopting a model penal code that would make affirmative consent the ALIs official policy in sexual relations. The move was stymied when key ALI members noted that such a definition would shift the burden of proof to the accused  something at odds with our basic judicial system.

As Ashe Schow wrote in The Washington Examiner in 2016: The accused would have to prove they had received communicated willingness. This would mean that any time someone engages in sexual activity, they not only have to make sure they obtain this specific form of consent, but also proof of this consent.

Jonathan Macey, a professor at Yale Law School, has long argued that the ALI is structured in such a way as to give a minority of legal activists excessive say in its final work product and to exclude broader views.

Macey argues that without taking seriously input from elected officials, regulators, the business community and consumers, the ALI will drift towards bureaucratic turf-grabbing.

Throughout his dozen years a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Brett Kavanaugh has been a staunch opponent of the excessive power wielded by unelected federal regulatory agencies.

Kavanaugh should be asked during his confirmation hearing whether he shares the view of the late Justice Scalia that the ALI has been overstepping its mandate to clarify the law and is trying to reinvent it instead.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus went out of business last year, but it found a successor Tuesday on Capitol Hill as Democrats and demonstrators performed at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, commenting on repeated outbursts by demonstrators and steady string of complaints by Democratic senators, said that "this is something I've never gone through before in 15 Supreme Court nominations."

The political theatrics kicked into high gear right out of the gate. Grassley wasnt more than three lines into his opening statement when, one by one, Democrats attempted to hijack the hearing with calls for more of Kavanaughs documents, and even a motion to adjourn the hearing altogether.

The Democratic objections were absurd. Judge Kavanaugh  currently serving on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia  is the most transparent Supreme Court nominee in recent history.

As Grassley stated Tuesday, an astounding 488,000 pages of documents relating to Kavanaugh have been released.

For comparison, Justice Elena Kagan  who served in the Obama administration as solicitor general before she joined the high court  only had about 70,000 pages of documents released when she went through her confirmation hearing in 2010. About 182,000 pages of documents were released when the Senate confirmed President Trumps nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court last year.

Kavanaugh also submitted the most comprehensive bipartisan questionnaire in Senate Judiciary Committee history.

Also, as Grassley pointed out in the hearing, Kavanaugh has written 307 opinions as an appellate court judge and he was nominated on July 9. Democrats have plenty of reading material, and theyve had plenty of time to read it.

Many Democrats read enough within the first few days of Kavanaughs nomination to go on record opposing his nomination. And you can bet they would have opposed whoever President Trump nominated for the Supreme Court opening created by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Democrats are engaged in nothing more than a desperate effort to delay a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh until next year, when they hope to control the Senate by winning a majority in the November midterm elections. Their stalling tactics have nothing to do with Kavanaughs qualifications  they have everything to do with the anti-Trump resistance and turning out the Democratic base to vote in November.

But Democrats up for re-election in November in states carried by President Trump in the 2016 election  and where he remains popular today  are under pressure to support Kavanaughs nomination to keep their jobs. Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota could wind up supporting Kavanaughs confirmation for this reason.

All three senators voted to confirm Gorsuch when President Trump nominated him. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whose top goal is to elect a Democratic majority in the chamber, would be foolish to pressure them to vote against Kavanaugh if it led to their electoral defeat two months from now.

Depending on Kavanaughs performance this week, pressure could also build on Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Bill Nelson of Florida to vote to confirm Kavanaugh, since both are in tight re-election races.

For other Senate Democrats, this week will be less about defeating Kavanaugh and more about raising their profile for the 2020 presidential election.

Among the pool of likely Senate Democratic presidential hopefuls are Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, who both serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Look for them to use the hearings as a launching pad for their possible presidential campaigns.

Its widely speculated that Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will also run for president in 2020. Shell likely be headed for a TV camera every time theres a break in the hearing. Its guaranteed the media will be happy to give her the free ad time.

Call it fearmongering or desperation, but the outrage among Senate Democrats began months ago. In the case of Harris, it was before Kavanaugh was even chosen as the nominee. On MSNBCs Hardball she said of whoever President Trump would pick: Were looking at a destruction of the Constitution of the United States.

No need to know the nominees name or look at his record. Harris knew enough. Yet, she was the first one to obstruct the hearing and feign outrage Tuesday morning because 488,000 documents werent enough reading material for her. No irony to see here.

In a July press conference Booker said of those supporting Judge Kavanaugh: You are either complicit in the evil, you are either contributing to the wrong, or you are fighting against it. He then had a kumbaya moment and instead called for everyone to love one another.

Still, barring anything unforeseen happening at his confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh is likely to be confirmed by the end of the month and seated when the Supreme Court reconvenes in October.

So get the popcorn ready and expect to see more political theater throughout this week. Democrats will move on to Act II with their political posturing and outrage on full display.

Who needs the Ringling Bros. circus when we have the Senate circus?Spain has halted the sale of a shipment of bombs to Saudi Arabia amid concerns about their use in the conflict in Yemen, the Spanish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups have denounced Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its allies in a war which the United Nations says has killed more than 10,000 people and left 8.4 million on the brink of famine.

Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser reported the Defence Ministry had started a process to cancel a contract signed between Spain's former government and the Gulf Arab state in 2015 to sell 400 laser-guided bombs.

The broadcaster said the bombs would have been used in Yemen, where UN human rights experts have said air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition have caused heavy civilian casualties and some may amount to war crimes.

"We confirm the news," a Defence Ministry spokeswoman said, declining to give any further details. There was no immediate response from Saudi authorities.

Cadena Ser said the Socialist administration of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who took over in Madrid in June after toppling his conservative predecessor, would pay back 9.2 million euros already paid for the material.

The ministry said last month it had never sold arms that could be used against a civilian population, condemned the killing of non-combatants in Yemen, and said it would review any possible sales that had not yet been closed and could be involved in attacks on civilians.

In April, Spain signed a framework agreement to sell warships to Saudi Arabia in a deal estimated to be worth around 1.8 billion euros.

The United States and Britain are amongst the main foreign arms suppliers to the Saudi-led coalition fighting to reinstate the internationally-recognised government that was ousted from the capital Sanaa by Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels in 2015.

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When the Senate Judiciary Committee begins its confirmation hearing Tuesday on Judge Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court we can expect to see Democrats wage an all-out battle to keep the extraordinarily qualified judge off the nations highest court.

Long before the hearing, Democrats launched a scorched-earth campaign against President Trumps nomination of the judge, who currently serves on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Hillary Shelton of the NAACP declared that Kavanaugh is a dangerous criminal. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., warned that Kavanaugh wants to pave the path to tyranny. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N. J., called the judges nomination alarming.

This wildly inaccurate and hysterical rhetoric is little more than political grandstanding.

I dont think any Democrat is going to go along with a Trump appointee to the Supreme Court, said Democratic strategist Paul Begala. Not if he or she wants to raise any money or have any volunteers.

Notwithstanding the partisan pressure to grandstand, it is unconscionable to demonize this father of two who serves meals at Catholic charities and tutors at a local elementary school.

Kavanaugh is eminently qualified when we evaluate him on his legal credentials, judicial philosophy and personal character. These are the three criteria by which Americans have traditionally assessed Supreme Court nominees.

First, Kavanaughs legal credentials are impeccable.

Kavanaugh earned his law degree from Yale University and was a law clerk for recently retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose seat he will fill if confirmed.

The Supreme Court nominee was an attorney on the staff of Independent Counsel Ken Starr and played a key role in writing the report that called for impeaching President Clinton. He worked in the White House Counsels Office and was later White House staff secretary for President George W. Bush. He was a partner in a law firm. He has served on the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington since 2006.

Within days of his nomination to the Supreme Court in July by President Trump, statements of support came pouring in from lawyers and others around the country describing Kavanaugh as impeccably qualified.

As Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has made clear, the bizarre request by Democrats for millions of pages of presidential documents from Kavanaughs tenure in the White House proves that Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are desperate.

Second, Kavanaughs judicial philosophy is faithful to the Founding Fathers vision.

As numerous legal scholars have noted, Kavanaughs legal opinions and occasional writings coalesce to provide a clear picture of his judicial philosophy, especially his view that a judges role is to be an umpire rather than a player.

As Chief Justice John Roberts once put it: Judges are like umpires. Umpires dont make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire.

This aspect of Kavanaughs judicial philosophy is so important because, sadly, in recent years many federal judges have embraced a living document view of the Constitution. This progressive view encourages judges to view themselves as players rather than umpires.

The living document view contends that judges have the right to reinterpret the Constitution in light of the times. Its overall effect is that a Supreme Court majority can remove things from the Constitution that justices do not like and insert things they do.

The living document view enabled the Supreme Court to issue its Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 legalizing abortion nationwide and its Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015 that said same-sex couples have the right to marry.

In response to the living document view, the conservative view is that members of the Supreme Court do not have the right to revise the Constitution. Although the Constitution may need to be revised from time to time, Americas Founding Fathers made clear that an amendment to the Constitution must reflect the will of the people. An amendment requires an overwhelming congressional majority and ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures.

Kavanaugh  like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia before him  rejects the living document view. He would refrain from the type of judicial activism that bypasses the American people.

Third, Kavanaughs personal character meets the high standard necessary for serving on the high court.

Any number of character attributes are desirable in Supreme Court justices. We want them to be conscientious because we know that it takes hard work and perseverance to adjudicate complex legal issues. Similarly, we want our justices to be wise and discerning rather than simplistic or superficial.

Perhaps most importantly, we want our justices to be trustworthy, to be the type of people who cant be bought off by corporations or unduly influenced by partisan politicians.

By all serious accounts, Kavanaugh is just such a person.

In Washington, Kavanaugh is known not only for his legal prowess, but also for serving meals to the homeless and tutoring underprivileged children.

He has received vigorous bipartisan support from more than 160 members of the Yale community, who wrote that Kavanaugh is a person of deep conviction and integrity.

Kavanaugh has even garnered support from prominent liberals such as Lisa Blatt, a feminist lawyer who worked in the Clinton and Obama administrations but declared that Kavanaugh is supremely qualified.

In light of Kavanaughs impeccable legal credentials, judicial philosophy, and personal character  along with the robust bipartisan support hes received from legal experts around the nation  lets hope that good-thinking Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia will find a way to extricate themselves from the grandstanding so prevalent in their party and support Kavanaughs nomination.

Any Democrat who votes to confirm Kavanaugh will have an opportunity to eschew partisan grandstanding and send a message to the nation that Supreme Court justices should be evaluated on their merits.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

When 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came from nowhere to defeat Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary for New Yorks 14th Congressional District, she became a media darling overnight. Time magazine called her win the biggest upset of the 2018 elections so far. Within days Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The View.

Now Republicans looking for their own Ocasio-Cortez think they may have found her. Meet Elizabeth Henga Republican running in Californias 16th Congressional District. Like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Heng is young (33). Like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, shes a racial minority (Cambodian). And like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, shes a millennial female running against an established male politician.

What makes her race interesting is Californias jungle primary system, in which candidates of all parties run against one another. The top two finishers then face off in Novembers general election. Californias 16th is a reliably blue district in a state practically synonymous with the term blue. But a funny thing happened on the way to this years primary: The virtually unknown Republican woman came within 6% of beating incumbent Democrat Jim Costa in a head-to-head matchup.

In the June primary Ms. Heng received 35,080 votes to Mr. Costas 39,527. To put this in perspective, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez received 16,898 votes to Mr. Crowleys 12,880. And again, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez had an easier task, trying to prove shes the best Democrat in a Democratic district. By contrast, Ms. Heng must persuade Democratic voters to give a Republican a chance.

Keep reading William McGurn's column in the Wall Street Journal.The Senate Judiciary Committee launched confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Tuesday, kicking off what is expected to be a bitterly partisan gauntlet as Democrats vow to scrutinize his lengthy record as an appellate judge and lawyer in the Bush administration.

In excerpts of his opening statement released by the White House Tuesday morning, Kavanaugh vowed to be an objective "pro-law judge."

"A good judge must be an umpirea neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy," he plans to say. "I dont decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge. ... If confirmed to the Court, I would be part of a Team of Nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States."

Kavanaugh's elevation from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy would mark a generational rightward shift on the Supreme Court, raising the stakes beyond those of last year's nomination of Neil Gorsuch and leading Democrats to ratchet up their rhetoric.

Last month, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., accused anyone who supports Kavanaugh of being "complicit in evil." After ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohens guilty plea  which was used by Democrats to push for Kavanaugh delays  Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, even nixed a one-on-one meeting with the nominee, claiming Trump had picked him "purposely ... to protect, as we say in Hawaii, his own okole" from possible criminal charges. Some Democrats, including Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., had rejected Trump's selection before they even knew who it was, predicting the nomination process would be a "corrupt bargain with the far Right, big corporations, and Washington special interests."

WATCH: 'OUTNUMBERED' CALLS OUT CORY BOOKER'S DOOMSDAY RHETORIC ON KAVANAUGH

But Kavanaugh steadily has gathered support from legal circles, former colleagues and Republican lawmakers. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called him "perhaps the most qualified person ever nominated to the Supreme Court."

The judge's nomination, though, will ultimately succeed or fail depending on a handful of swing-vote senators, including vulnerable red-state Democrats and moderate pro-choice Republicans who have all said that they would withhold judgment on the nominee.

Republicans command a narrow 50-49 Senate majority, which would return to 51-49 once a Republican successor to the late Sen. John McCain is appointed. Republicans have little margin for error, though Vice President Pence can break a tie.

Who are the senators to watch?

Among the key votes on the Democratic side are Indiana's Joe Donnelly, West Virginia's Joe Manchin and North Dakota's Heidi Heitkamp. All three voted to confirm Gorsuch to the Supreme Court last year, and all are up for re-election in November in states that went for Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Each has also met with Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill, and has promised to carefully weigh the upcoming hearings before making a final call.

Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who recently won a special election and will be up for election in 2020, is also considered a potential yes vote on the nominee. But he recently said he wanted to delay Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, citing the "cloud" of suspicion around Trump and his desire to see more documents from his time in the Bush White House. Jones claimed his view was shared by everybody else around here on the Democratic side of the aisle" -- but some Democrats, including Manchin, dismissed those last-minute concerns, saying there was no basis to delay the hearings.

Even before former Trump attorney Cohen pleaded guilty last month to several federal charges, Democrats had already called for Kavanaugh's hearings to be postponed until after the November midterms, in retaliation for Senate Republicans' decision to deny a vote on then-President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in 2016.

DEMS CALL COHEN GUILTY PLEA 'GAME CHANGER,' CALL FOR POSTPONING KAVANAUGH HEARINGS

Meanwhile, outside groups have been pressuring moderate Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Both have promised to remain independent and carefully consider the results of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, but have given some clues on their leanings.

Last month, Murkowski vowed to take a "similar, if not identical  approach I took for Justices Gorsuch, Kagan, Sotomayor, Alito and Roberts" in vetting the nomination. Murkowski voted to confirm Kavanaugh to a seat on the influential D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006.

And Collins, who also voted to confirm Kavanaugh in 2006, acknowledged shortly after Trump nominated him to the Supreme Court that he has "impressive credentials and extensive experience, having served more than a decade on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals."

Notably, Collins has rejected calls from Democrats to delay Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, saying there was "no basis" for the move. After meeting with Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill, Collins said Kavanaugh had reassured her that Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that established a constitutional right to an abortion, was "settled law."

NARAL Pro-Choice America and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars targeting Murkowski and Collins specifically, Politico reported, in an effort to sway them against Kavanaugh.

Another influential liberal group opposing Kavanaugh, the Alliance for Justice (AFJ), told Fox News that both Collins and Murkowski would jeopardize their reputations by failing to vote down his confirmation.

"For someone like Collins or Murkowski, their legacy is really on the line here," AFJ Legal Director Dan Goldberg said. "Whatever votes they had in the past to protect women, to protect health care, would long be forgotten -- they would have to own every decision Brett Kavanaugh makes."

Goldberg added that Kavanaugh's national poll numbers are "consistent with Robert Bork and Harriet Miers" when they were under consideration for Supreme Court posts they ultimately didn't receive. A Fox News poll last month showed voters evenly divided on Kavanaugh.

After his sit-down with Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also made his case to Murkowski and Collins.

SCHUMER SUGGESTS KAVANAUGH LYING ABOUT HIS TIME IN THE BUSH WHITE HOUSE: 'THIS IS A BRIGHT MAN'

"He would not give me any reassurance that he believed Roe or [Planned Parenthood v. Casey] were correctly decided or should be left alone," Schumer claimed. "That should send shivers down the spine of any American who believes in reproductive freedom."

Sen. Booker echoed that line of attack after his own meeting with Kavanaugh, telling reporters, "A lot of folks were wondering that he might not overturn Roe v. Wade. ... He confirmed with me that that door was still wide open."

Still, Schumer, who also implied Kavanaugh was lying about the details of his time in the Bush White House, acknowledged that Kavanaugh had told Collins that Roe was settled law.

"I understand that the judge told other members today that he considered Roe v. Wade settled law," Schumer said, before adding, "He did not say that to me."

Kavanaugh's paper trail -- asset or liability?

Kavanaugh has left one of the longest paper trails of any recent Supreme Court nominee, having served for more than a decade on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and, before that, for five years as a lawyer in the White House Counsel's office in the George W. Bush administration. Kavanaugh also worked for independent counsel Ken Starr for three years during the probe that led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.

In looking at Kavanaugh's jurisprudence, Democrats will likely focus on Kavanaugh's decisions in cases like Priests for Life v. HHS, in which Kavanaugh wrote a dissent arguing that ObamaCare's contraceptive coverage requirements put undue burdens on some religious beliefs.

Both parties are also likely to grill Kavanaugh on his 2011 dissent in an ObamaCare case, Sevensky v. Holder, which Republican critics have claimed effectively provided the Supreme Court with a roadmap to uphold the law's contentious individual mandate provision. In his dissent, Kavanaugh wrote that only a "minor tweak" to the text of ObamaCare -- which required individuals to purchase health coverage or pay a monetary cost -- would bring it within the ambit of Congress' established power under the Constitution's Taxing Clause.

Chief Justice John Roberts would later provide the swing vote to uphold to ObamaCare's individual mandate by citing Congress' power under the Taxing Clause, instead of adopting the Obama administration's arguments that the law was justified broadly under the Constitution's expansive authority to generally regulate interstate commerce.

But others, including a former Kavanuagh law clerk, called that interpretation "nonsense" and argued that Kavanaugh, in fact, was outlining why Congress' Taxing Clause could not save ObamaCare from unconstitutionality.

TRUMP IMPEACHMENT EMERGES AS NEXT DEM LITMUS TEST

Democrats are also expected to question Kavanaugh about Garza v. Hargan, a recent case in which Kavanaugh dissented from a ruling that the Trump administration should permit an illegal immigrant in federal custody to have an abortion. Kavanaugh's dissent managed to anger both sides of the abortion debate, because while Kavanaugh did not endorse the immigrant's right to an abortion, his dissent also did not specifically deny her that right in all cases.

In the wake of several high-profile school shootings, Democrats may further zero in on Kavanaugh's position on gun rights. Kavanaugh dissented in the landmark Heller case when it was before the D.C. Circuit, arguing that a D.C. ordinance unconstitutionally infringed on residents' right to own semi-automatic weapons by requiring them to keep them unloaded and unassembled, or bound by a trigger lock.

Additionally, liberal groups have highlighted Kavanaugh's record on the environment, saying that he has overzealously struck down Environmental Protection Agency regulations. In a case last year, Mexichem Flour v. EPA, Kavanaugh wrote a majority opinion that struck down a 2015 EPA rule regulating hydrofluorocarbons, which analysts say led to substantially increased greenhouse gasses. Kavanaugh reviewed the text of the Clean Air Act and the legislative history before writing that the EPA's rule had exceeded the agency's statutory authority under the Clean Air Act -- although he sounded a note of regret in the process.

"However much we might sympathize or agree with EPA's policy objectives, EPA may act only within the boundaries of its statutory authority," Kavanaugh wrote. "Here, EPA exceeded that authority."

MEDIA'S BIGGEST MISSES: ASPIRING KAVANAUGH HIT PIECES DRAW MOCKERY

But Supreme Court nominees are typically unwilling to offer much insight into their legal philosophies during confirmation hearings, which carries a major political risk and could prejudice future cases before the Supreme Court. There was also a greater potential for Democrats to score points by questioning Kavanaugh on his record as a Bush administration lawyer and adviser to Kenneth Starr, especially given that his writings in those capacities were less guarded than a typical judicial opinion.

During the Clinton investigation, for example, Kavanaugh unloaded on Clinton, telling Starr that the president should be impeached, citing his "revolting" behavior in the Oval Office and "sheer number of wrongful acts." But since his time in the Bush White House, Kavanaugh has argued that presidents should not have to endure lengthy probes during their time in office, saying in 2009 that indicting sitting presidents would "ill serve the public interest," especially in times of financial or national security crisis.

He wrote in an article that year: [T]he nation certainly would have been better off if President Clinton could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its criminal investigation offshoots.

That language has alarmed top Democrats, who have voiced concerns that Kavanaugh would vote to shoot down a subpoena or even indictment of President Trump if one were filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller or other federal prosecutors.

Meanwhile, Democratic concerns that Kavanaugh may have misled the Senate Judiciary Committee during his 2006 confirmation hearings for his D.C. Circuit post have fizzled in recent weeks. A document dump last month from Kavanaugh's time in the Bush White House suggested that he had, in fact, offered legal advice on attorney-client privilege issues surrounding terror detainees, even though he said under oath that he had no involvement in "rules governing the detention of combatants." The White House has maintained Kavanaugh's statements were truthful, and the controversy died down.

Nevertheless, Goldberg, the AFJ legal director, said he anticipates that Democrats will hammer the issue during this week's hearings.

"There are certainly questions about his candor and veracity in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was first confirmed --- issues that I know Sen. [Patrick] Leahy will press him on in the hearing," Goldberg told Fox News, referring to the long-time Vermont Democratic senator who serves on the Judiciary Committee. Leahy has opposed Kavanaugh dating back to his 2003 nomination to the D.C. Circuit, saying he had "failed to demonstrate his capacity for independence." Democrats stalled Kavanaugh's appellate court nomination until 2006.

In recent days, Democrats, including Leahy, have cried foul that the Kavanaugh paper trail is actually not long enough, saying they have been denied access to all the documents they need to vet his nomination. Schumer has threatened to sue the National Archives, which is handling their requests for documents from Kavanaugh's public service. He has also sharply criticized the procedure for the ongoing document production, saying it's inappropriate that a Republican lawyer is vetting all documents before their release.

Despite Kavanaugh's voluminous record -- and the all-out contentious rhetoric surrounding it -- Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, has said Republicans hope to have Kavanaugh confirmed by a floor vote by early October, when the next Supreme Court term begins.

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Tuesday vowed to be a neutral and impartial arbiter if confirmed to the Supreme Court, after a chaotic first day of hearings on Capitol Hill amid political theatrics and protests from Democrats.

If confirmed to the Supreme Court, I will keep an open mind in every case, Kavanaugh said. I will do equal right to the poor and to the rich. I will always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American rule of law.

Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings started Tuesday and are set to continue through the week.

Before he spoke, Kavanaugh was introduced by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman and attorney Lisa Blatt  a liberal Democrat who said she voted for Hillary Clinton for president but supports Kavanaughs nomination.

Democrats, in their opening remarks Tuesday, sounded the alarm about Kavanaughs past work in Republican politics, including as a lawyer in George W. Bushs White House.

But Kavanaugh said Tuesday, I dont decide cases based on personal or policy preferences.

Earlier Tuesday, protests from Democratic lawmakers and demonstrators delayed the formal start of proceedings by more than an hour. Within moments of Tuesday's confirmation hearing kickoff, top Democrats tried to sideline the session with a rapid-fire string of objections concerning access to the nominee's records.

The spectacle underscored the political nature of the confirmation hearings, coming two months before the midterms and as some senators gear up for a possible 2020 presidential run against President Trump. Several of those senators led the charge Tuesday in objecting to Kavanaugh.

When Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley first tried to deliver opening remarks, Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris raised objections to the committee just receiving a batch of 42,000 documents relating to the nominee's work with past administrations.

We cannot possibly move forward," Harris, a potential 2020 Democratic presidential contender, said.

Grassley told her she was "out of order," but other Democrats chimed in to back up Harris, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who moved to adjourn.

This prompted applause from some in the audience, and touched off protests and shouting. Then, after New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker added his voice complaining of a "rush," Grassley countered: I think you are taking advantage of my decency and my integrity.

The chaos led Republican Sen. John Cornyn to remark, "This is the first confirmation hearing subject to mob rule." The Texas senator suggested Democrats would be held in contempt of court if they behaved that way in a court of law.

More than an hour and 15 minutes after the hearing began, Grassley moved past Democratic attempts to delay and finally delivered his opening statement, over the sustained shouts of protesters who were being escorted out of the room.

"Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most qualified nominees  if not the most qualified nominee  I have seen," Grassley said.

The disruptions continued as lawmakers attempted to make opening statements. There were 63 interruptions before the break for lunch.

Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch struggled to deliver his prepared remarks, as protesters audibly shouted over him.

I think we ought to have this loudmouth removed," a frustrated Hatch said. "We shouldn't have to put up with this kind of stuff."

Grassley acknowledged it was one of the most unruly openings of any Supreme Court hearing, saying "this is something I've never gone through before in 15 Supreme Court nominations."

The Capitol Police said they arrested 70 people on Tuesday.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin defended the outbursts.

What we've heard is the noise of democracy, Durbin said. This is what happens in a free country when people can stand up and speak and not be jailed, imprisoned, tortured or killed because of it.

Kavanaugh has left one of the longest paper trails of any recent Supreme Court nominee, having served for more than a decade on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and, before that, for five years as a lawyer in the White House Counsel's office in the George W. Bush administration.

Kavanaugh also worked for independent counsel Ken Starr for three years during the probe that led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.

Booker, another possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, acknowledged he already decided to vote against Kavanaughs confirmation. But he pleaded to delay the vote until more documents are released.

We should not vote now, Booker said. We should wait. And if we're not waiting, we should object to your nomination.

Democrats have seen thousands of those documents, but say they want time to review and seek more.

If you will trust the American people, they will trust you," Durbin told Kavanaugh. "But if your effort today continues to conceal and hide documents, it raises a suspicion.

Democrats have specifically raised objections over how the Senate received 42,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents the night before the confirmation hearing began.

This is the most incomplete, most partisan, least transparent vetting for any Supreme Court nominee I have ever seen, Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said.

KAVANAUGH HEARINGS LAUNCH AMID PARTISAN FIREWORKS

Grassley, in a written statement submitted for the record, on Tuesday accused Democrats of trying to bury this committee in millions of pages of irrelevant paperwork. He called out California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees ranking member, for wanting to search the emails of every Bush White House aide for Kavanaugh documents.

This would have taken months and months to complete, Grassley said. As I have repeatedly stated, I am not going to put the American taxpayers on the hook for the Democratic leaders fishing expedition.

As the hearing kicked off, Democrats zeroed in on the controversy over the production of documents from Kavanaughs past work. But as the hearing went on, the Democrats began emphasizing their concern over how Kavanaugh would rule on cases involving abortion and guns.

You are being nominated for a pivotal seat," Feinstein said. "It would likely be the deciding vote on fundamental issues.

Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told Kavanaugh the NRA has poured millions into your confirmation, saying they clearly have big expectations on how you will vote on guns. He also expressed fear that Kavanaugh would rule to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling regarding abortion.

Despite confirmation etiquette, your own words make clear you don't really believe Roe vs. Wade is settled law, since the court, as you said, can always overrule its precedent, Whitehouse said.

Republicans, though, argued Kavanaugh is highly qualified, saying Democrats arent making a case that he doesnt have the experience to sit on the high court.

If it's not about his judicial record, what is this fight about? Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said. I believe this fight is nothing more and nothing less than an attempt by our Democratic colleagues to relitigate the 2016 presidential election.

Harris, the California Democratic senator, took issue with Kavanaughs past work, saying has a history of carrying out deeply conservative partisan agendas.

If we look at his record on the D.C. Circuit, and in his recent writings and statements, it is clear that the nominee has brought his political bias to the bench, Harris said.

But Republicans argued some records sought by Democrats, from Kavanaughs time in the White House, are irrelevant to how he'd serve as a justice.

The question before us today is not what does Brett Kavanaugh think 11 years ago on a policy matter, Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said. The question is whether or not he has the temperament and character to take his policy views and political preferences and put them in a box marked irrelevant and set it aside every morning when he puts on the black robe.

Kavanaugh's elevation from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy would mark a generational rightward shift on the Supreme Court, raising the stakes beyond those of last year's nomination of Neil Gorsuch.

My judicial philosophy is straightforward, Kavanaugh said Tuesday. A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written. A judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.

The judge's nomination, though, will ultimately succeed or fail depending on a handful of swing-vote senators, including vulnerable red-state Democrats and moderate pro-choice Republicans who have all said that they would withhold judgment on the nominee.

Republicans command a narrow 50-49 Senate majority, which would return to 51-49 once a Republican successor to the late Sen. John McCain is seated. While the hearing was ongoing, former Sen. Jon Kyl was named to that seat.

Republicans have little margin for error, though Vice President Pence can break a tie.

Republicans have said they hope to have Kavanaugh confirmed by a floor vote by early October, when the next Supreme Court term begins.

Fox News Judson Berger, Bill Mears, Chad Pergram, Edward Lawrence and Gregg Re contributed to this report.Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuels critics have blamed him for an understaffed police force and a lack of investment in Chicagos economically downtrodden neighborhoods, leading to extraordinarily deadly gun violence in the city.

But the violence also raised questions, however, about the impact of gun laws. The city does not have the toughest gun laws in the country, as some have claimed. Illinois is ranked eighth among states with the strongest gun laws by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Read on for a look at some of the gun laws in Illinois and Chicago specifically.

Licensing

To purchase a firearm in Illinois, one must obtain a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card.

To obtain a FOID card, one must be a legal citizen of the U.S. and have a valid drivers license. The cards cost $10.

TWO MORE KILLED IN CHICAGO SHOOTINGS FOLLOWING BLOODY WEEKEND OF GUN VIOLENCE

FOID cards will not be issued to anyone who has been convicted of domestic battery, aggravated domestic battery or a similar offense. They also wont be issued to anyone who has been a patient at a mental institution or treated for a mental illness in the past 5 years.

Minimum age to purchase

Illinois residents must be 21 to obtain a FOID card. However, individuals who are at least 18 years old can legally possess a firearm and ammunition with the written consent of an eligible parent or legal guardian.

Concealed carry

Individuals at least 21 years of age  who have not been treated for alcohol or drug abuse or been convicted of a misdemeanor related to the use of physical force in the past five years  can apply for a concealed carry license.

MORE CHICAGO OFFICERS DEPLOYED TO AREAS AFFECTED BY GUN VIOLENCE

In order to apply, one must have at least 16 hours of concealed carry firearms training by a certified instructor with valid certification. The application fee is $150 for residents and $300 for non-residents.

Waiting periods

The state of Illinois has waiting periods for the sale of guns. According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the waiting period is 24 hours for long guns and 72 hours for handguns.

However, non-Illinois residents do not have to adhere to the waiting period when purchasing long guns at gun shows, according to the nonprofit.

The waiting periods give the Illinois Department of State Police the time to approve or deny the purchase of guns at licensed dealers and gun shows, according to the law center.

Open carry

Open carry is prohibited in the state of Illinois within city, village or incorporated town limits, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. This does not apply to a persons own land, home or business.

There are some exemptions to this ban, including for concealed carry holders who might have a partially exposed handgun, according to the nonprofit.

Red flag law

Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed the states red flag law in July 2018. The law allows for police to temporarily seize firearms from someone deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

HEATS ON IN RAHMS RE-ELECTION RACE AFTER BLOODY WEEKEND OF GUN VIOLENCE

Family members or other individuals, such as a roommate, can seek a court order of protection for the confiscation of firearms.

Firearms ban

The city of Chicago has banned more than 150 types of guns. This ban includes: semiautomatic handguns or rifles with a detachable magazine, semiautomatic rifles with a magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds and shotguns with a revolving cylinder.

Gun stores

In Chicago, gun stores, which are only allowed in designated areas in the city, must record on video the sales of firearms.

Individuals can also only purchase guns once every month.

Gun store employees also have to pass background checks and be trained on how to spot individuals who might be purchasing a gun for someone else.

Silencers

Its illegal to possess a silencer, according to the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association.

Fox News Terace Garnier, Andrew OReilly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Republican Sen. John Cornyn suggested his Democratic colleagues' behavior at the start of Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation hearing would render them held in contempt of court in a regular court proceeding.

Fireworks erupted at the hearing as soon as Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley began his opening statements. Democrats continuously interrupted and spoke over the 84-year-old Republican to ask for more time to review some 42,000 documents the committee received last minute.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., specifically moved to adjourn the hearing. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., accused the committee of rushing through this process in a way that is unnecessary.

But Sen. Cornyn admonished his Democratic colleagues, saying if the hearing was handled like a court of law  as one Democrat had suggested  then virtually every member of the Democratic side would be held in contempt of court.

KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARING LIKELY TO FOCUS ON ABORTION, GUN RIGHTS AND MORE

Because this whole process is supposed to be a civil one where people get to ask questions and we get to get answers, and thats the basis were to exercise our constitutional responsibilities of advice and consent so I would just suggest we got on with the hearing, Cornyn said.

He later said Democrats were trying to run the hearing according to mob rule and said they were being unfair as they had already made up their minds prior to the hearing.

Kavanaugh has left one of the longest paper trails of any recent Supreme Court nominee, having served for more than a decade on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and, before that, for five years as a lawyer in the White House Counsel's office during the George W. Bush administration.

Democrats have seen thousands of those documents but have want time to review more. They have also said theyve been denied access to certain documents they say is needed to properly vet Kavanaugh.

BRETT KAVANAUGH HEARING INTERRUPTED BY DEMOCRATIC SENATORS, PROTESTS

Aside from Senate Democrats interruptions, at least 22 protesters who interrupted the hearing were arrested at its opening, according to the United States Capitol Police.

Fox News Alex Pappas and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.An upstart progressive candidate backed by democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is seeking to unseat a longtime incumbent in a major upset in Massachusetts, as voters there head to the polls Tuesday in some of the last key House, Senate and gubernatorial primaries of the year.

But polls have consistently shown that Ayanna Pressley, 44, Boston's first black female city councilor, faces long odds in her contest with 10-term incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano in the 7th Congressional District, which includes the majority of Cambridge and Boston.

A WBUR-FM survey in August showed Capuano leading Pressley by 13 points, and an Emerson College poll in July showed him with a nine-percentage-point edge.

If Pressley fails to take the district, which is widely considered one of the most liberal in the country, Tuesday will mark yet another setback for Ocasio-Cortez's efforts to send more democratic socialists to Congress -- an effort she has undertaken in recent months with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Candidates backed by Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have faltered in several major races, including Michigan's gubernatorial and House primaries, and congressional contests in Missouri, Kansas and Hawaii.

Nevertheless, Ocasio Cortez's surprise win earlier this year in a primary that unseated longtime Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., rocked the Democratic establishment and has contributed to some wins by far-left progressives. In Minnesota, for example, State Rep. Ilhan Omar -- with Ocasio-Cortez's backing -- won the House primary to succeed Rep. Keith Ellison.

There are several key differences, though, between Ocasio-Cortez's run and Pressley's. For one, Pressley's opponent has attended debates and fiercely contested her candidacy, where Crowley was criticized for mostly ignoring Ocasio-Cortez. And Pressley, far from a little-known political outsider, has served for years on Boston's city council. Pressley's politics are also mostly similar to Capuano in the far-left district, where Ocasio-Cortez ran decidedly to the left of Crowley.

SOCIALIST TORCHBEARERS FLAME OUT DESPITE KEY ENDORSEMENTS BY SANDERS, OCASIO-CORTEZ

Meanwhile, Republicans in Massachusetts on Tuesday are choosing between three candidates to take on Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a favorite in November and a potential presidential contender in 2020. Among the GOP contenders are State Rep. Geoff Diehl, who worked for President Trump's campaign, attorney John Kingston, and Beth Lindstrom, an aide to former Gov. Mitt Romney.

Another candidate running as an independent, Shiva Ayyadurai, has described himself as a "real Indian," highlighting claims that Warren has not been candid about her heritage. He sued city officials on First Amendment grounds earlier this year after they demanded he take down his signs calling her a "fake Indian."

Fox News has ranked the Senate race as likely Democrat.

'REAL INDIAN' RUNNING AGAINST WARREN SUES AFTER CITY TELLS HIM TO STOP CALLING HER 'FAKE INDIAN'

In July, a Warren supporter was arrested for allegedly assaulting Ayyadurai on camera by shoving his megaphone into his face.

Voters in Massachusetts are also heading to the polls to pick nominees for several other House seats and the governorship.

The state's Republican governor, Charlie Baker, is facing a primary challenge from the right by Scott Lively. And two Democrats are vying to take him on in November. But Baker is overwhelmingly popular in Massachusetts and nationally, and is expected to prevail regardless of whom he faces.

Republicans currently hold the governorships of four out of six states in deep-blue New England, including Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and are looking to grow that number in November. Baker has maintained his appeal in the liberal state by distancing himself from President Trump; his Republican challenger, Lively, has criticized him for being too moderate.

RACES TO WATCH IN MASSACHUSETTS ON TUESDAY

Additionally, a whopping ten Democrats are seeking to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Niki Tsongas in the state's 3rd Congressional District. The winner of the primary is favored to prevail in November over Republican Rick Green.

A handful of other House races in Massachusetts also had the potential to surprise on Tuesday. Longtime Rep. Richard Neal, a Democrat who has served in Congress since 1989, is facing a challenge from Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a black civil rights attorney.A Democratic socialist candidate for New York state Senate whose biography was challenged in a recent expose is facing even more questions about her background -- as her family calls out claims about her supposedly hardscrabble upbringing.

Julia Salazar, a progressive Democrat affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, has been touted as the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- who won a primary race against New York Rep. Joe Crowley. But her campaign was thrown into turmoil last month after an article in Tablet took issue with certain parts of her biography.

She had previously told multiple outlets shes an immigrant from Colombia, saying her family came to the U.S. when she was young.

My family immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia when I was a baby, and my mom ended up raising my brother and me as a single mom, without a college degree and from a working-class background, Julia Salazar said in an interview with Jacobin Magazine.

SOCIALIST NY SENATE CANDIDATE CHALLENGED OVER CLAIMS OF BEING AN IMMIGRANT, JEWISH



But Tablet found she was actually born in Miami. She later said she had made it clear she was born in Miami. In that article, it also quoted her brother Alex as disputing her claims that she was Jewish. There was nobody in our immediate family who was Jewish  we were not raised Jewish, he said.

Since then, her brother and her mother have pushed back further against her claims, particularly her assertion that she was born into a "working-class" family and that her mother had no college degree.

In an interview with City & State, Alex Salazar said they were financially comfortable and living in a big house, with her father earning enough to set aside college funds of $6,000 per child.

We were very much middle class. We had a house in Jupiter along the river, it was in a beautiful neighborhood, Alex Salazar told the outlet. I feel very strongly about my family and I want to tell the truth.

He also disputed claims Salazar made that Colombia is where my family was and where I was in the first years of my life. He said that while there were a handful of trips to Colombia to visit family, they were raised entirely in Florida.

The candidate told City & State that the confusion stems from the expectation from others that all immigration stories fit into the same box.

I understand now why this would be confusing, but I mentioned before I felt that we had a home in Colombia, she said in the interview.

But it is far from the only biographical claim being disputed -- particularly, the claim by Salazar that I was raised by a single mom who didnt have a college degree.

According to City & State, Christine Salazar, Julias mother, did graduate college when Julia was 8. The outlet noted that since her parents separated when she was 6, there were only two years she lived only with her mother before Christine graduated college.

Christine Salazar said that while there were lean times, such as when her ex-husband was laid off work, she also disputed a claim on her daughters campaign website that Julias job at a grocery store during high school was to help make ends meet.

My kids always worked, from the time they were 14. I encouraged that because I thought there was a lot of value in that in terms of learning and responsibility so that was the purpose behind them having part-time jobs.  not the light bill, she said.

Salazar is also facing questions about her progressive credentials after revelations that she was actually a conservative Christian activist on campus who worked on pro-Israel and pro-life initiatives.

In 2012, Salazar appeared on conservative personality Glenn Becks show, claiming there are probably several professors at the Columbia University who are using the classroom as their podium to spread lies about the State of Israel, to delegitimize the State of Israel, and to spread propaganda to Columbia students.

She has since come out against the Jewish state and supported organizations that campaign for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions against Israel.

Fox News Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this report.Syria could be spared its bloodiest battle yet if the Russian and Turkish presidents talk to each other urgently about resolving the situation in the rebel-held region of Idlib, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday.

De Mistura told reporters that ongoing talks between Russia and Turkey held the key to averting an assault on the region, but six reported air strikes on Tuesday suggested the Ankara talks were not going well.

Media reports had said Syria's government might wait until Sept 10 before launching an assault, making a summit in Tehran on Friday "crucial". But he called on Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyep Erdogan to talk by phone before then, saying "time is of the essence".

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Political figures were quick to weigh in on Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's announcement Tuesday that former Republican senator Jon Kyl will be filling the Senate seat of late Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain's widow, Cindy, was one of the first people to comment on the news.

"Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's," she tweeted. "It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."

Minutes later, Ducey congratulated Kyl on the appointment.

"I am deeply grateful to Senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years," he wrote on Twitter. "Every single day that Jon Kyl represents #Arizona in the U.S. Senate is a day our state is well-served. #KylforAZ #KavanaughConfirmation."

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., also reacted to the development.

"Governor Ducey has selected Senator Jon Kyl as Senator McCains replacement. What an excellent choice!" he said. "There is no one more qualified and Arizona is well served. Kudos to Senator Kyl for his willingness to serve once again."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called Kyl's appointment a "great choice."

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, applauded Kyl's willingness to return to office.

"I look forward to welcoming Jon Kyl back to the Senate," he said. "He is a good friend, and I know hell serve the state of Arizona admirably once again."

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kans., said he was looking forward to the return of his pal.

"I'm glad to see my friend Jon Kyl is coming back to the Senate!" he said. "He has a track record of success and will be an excellent voice in Washington for the people of Arizona."

Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., called Kyle "a brilliant man of integrity and a proven leader for Arizona and the entire country" in a statement posted on Twitter.

McSally also praised the governor for his pick.

"I commend Governor Ducey for his wise decision and look forward to working with Senator John Kyl for Arizona," she shared.

David Garcia, a Democrat who is running for govenor of Arizona, slammed the choice, saying it "puts womens reproductive rights, civil rights, voting rights, environmental rights and workers rights at risk."

"We need to elect a governor who will oppose the Trump Admin. and not appease it," Garcia added.

However, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he was "very pleased" to learn of the appointment.

"Over his many years of public service, he has established himself as a solid conservative who will do his best to solve hard problems and he will always have the back of the men and women in uniform  much like his dear friend, John McCain," he said in a follow-up tweet.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., called Kyl an "outstanding senator."

"Just as John McCain did, Jon Kyl understands and respects the institutional role of the United States Senate in uniting our country and securing its future," he added.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted a statement in support of the move.

"Governor Ducey made an excellent choice to bring Jon Kyl back to the Senate," he said.Former Republican senator Jon Kyl was named Tuesday to succeed the late Sen. John McCain, with the announcement coming at the start of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh -- which could be the new senator's first big vote.

Arizona GOP Gov. Doug Ducey announced the selection via Twitter, while saying during a subsequent news conference that Arizonans needed a person who would be able to "hit the ground running."

"I am deeply grateful to Senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years. Every single day that Jon Kyl represents #Arizona in the U.S. Senate is a day our state is well-served," he tweeted.

Kyl, 76, may be a short-term pick. He only committed Tuesday to fill the Senate seat until early next year out of a "sense of duty."

"I haven't been able to get that assurance from Kyl yet, what I have gotten is a commitment to serve Arizona through at least this session of Congress," Ducey told reporters, adding that he hoped that Kyl "serves longer."

Kyl told reporters he did not want to commit for a longer period because when he left his Senate seat previously he had no intention of returning.

"In that spirit I am certainly willing to serve through the end of this session," he said.

Voters in 2020 will get to decide who fills the remainder of McCain's term through 2022. Then the seat will be up again for a full six-year term.

McCain's widow Cindy McCain had revealed the choice in an earlier tweet, saying, "Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."

Kyl was the GOP whip for a number of years, and also served as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughs escort or sherpa, as the Senate sometimes calls it, taking Kavanaugh around to meet with senators.

He was absent at Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing on Tuesday, but Ducey told reporters that Kyl is ready to cast a vote after working with the White House for months on the Kavanaugh nomination.

The political stakes are high since Kyl could participate in the vote on whether to confirm Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, and will be rejoining the Senate at a time when Democrats are eager to take control of the chamber in this year's midterms.

A representative for Ducey told the Arizona Republic that if Kyl opted to step down at the end of the session, the Republican governor would have to appoint another replacement.

JOHN MCCAIN BURIED AT NAVAL ACADEMY NEXT TO LIFELONG FRIEND

Kyl retired in 2013 after becoming the No. 2 ranking Republican senator, and served alongside McCain during his 18 years in the Senate.

Filling McCain's seat marks a turning point in Arizona political history. That seat in particular has been held by two men who were heralded as giants of the Senate: McCain took the seat once held by Sen. Barry Goldwater after he had served in the House of Representatives.

Outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called Kyl a "great pick" as McCain's replacement, and that it was Ducey's selection entirely.

They worked together for eighteen years they served together so you know I think hell fit right in and he obviously shared Senator McCains view on most things and [is the] perfect, perfect guy to succeed him," Flake told Fox News.

McCain was buried on Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy in a private ceremony, as per the wishes the Arizona Republican and 2008 presidential nominee who died Aug. 25 from brain cancer at age 81.

Fox News' Chad Pergram, Jason Donner, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Former Arizona senator Jon Kyl was tapped to replace Sen. John McCain, who recently lost his battle to an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced the news Tuesday, writing on Twitter that he is deeply grateful to Senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years.

Kyl will serve as a placeholder and is not expected to run in 2020  the year voters will decide who will fill McCains seat for the following two years. After that, the seat will be open for a full six-year term.

McCain's widow, Cindy, tweeted: "Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's. It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."

ARIZONA PRIMARIES FOCUS ON EDUCATION, IMMIGRATION: RACES TO WATCH

Kyl was a longtime Republican senator in Arizona, serving from 1995 to 2012 before retiring from Congress in 2013. He left as the second highest-ranking Republican senator.

Kyl, a longtime friend and colleague of McCain, wrote in The Weekly Standard following McCains death that the former Vietnam war hero faced his inevitable end with courage and grace.

In light of the news, here are three things to know about Kyl.

Hes a practicing attorney

After retiring from Congress in 2013, Kyl, 76, joined the law firm Covington & Burling as part of its expansion of its public policy and government affairs practice, Politico reported that same year.

According to his biography on the firms website, Kyl advises companies on domestic and international policies that influence U.S. and multinational businesses and assists corporate clients on tax, health care, defense, national security and intellectual property matters among others.

The same year he joined the firm, he told Politico he received several offers but had [his] eye on Covington from day one.

"I think McCain would be very happy with the pick. Honors his legacy while putting some major horsepower for Arizona in the seat, at least for now."  Doug Cole, long-time Republican consultant and former McCain aide

I had a serious law practice, and with the experience I gained in Congress, I think I have acquired the knowledge and judgment to help clients that reflects my legal training and experience in Congress, he told the publication.

Rather recently, in March, Kyl was one of the leading attorneys from the firm who helped scrap Broadcom Limiteds hostile takeover of Qualcomm, Inc. The firm secured the deal after Trump blocked the proposed acquisition, citing national security reasons, the firm said in a statement.

Republicans are hopeful that hell vote along party lines

Unlike McCain  who opposed a partial repeal of former President Obamas health care law before he died, for example  Republicans are hopeful Kyl will be a reliable partisan vote, The Associated Press reported.

"I think McCain would be very happy with the pick. Honors his legacy while putting some major horsepower for Arizona in the seat, at least for now," Doug Cole, a longtime Republican consultant and former McCain aide, told The Associated Press.

Hes serving as Brett Kavanaughs sherpa

In July, the former senator agreed to serve as President Trumps Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughs sherpa during his confirmation process.

TRUMP'S SUPREME COURT PICK NEEDS SENATE APPROVAL: A LOOK AT THE CONFIRMATION PROCESS

As sherpa, or escort, Kyl will be tasked with shepherding Trumps pick through the Senate, much in the same way former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte helped to pave a path for Justice Neil Gorsuch last year, The National Law Journal previously reported.

This isnt the first time Kyl has served in this role. The National Law Journal also reported the former senator, who has a deep knowledge of the Senate Judiciary Committee, previously served on the committee during four of the last five Supreme Court justices confirmation hearings.

In fact, The Arizona Republic reported Kyl also served as Attorney General Jeff Sessions sherpa ahead of his confirmation hearing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.From protecting access to abortion in the U.S., to his relationship with a beleaguered judge accused of sexual misconduct, Brett Kavanaugh can expect a grueling confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

Kavanaugh, President Trumps pick for the Supreme Court, will be questioned about his views on a bevy of legal issues, including executive power, reproductive rights, gun violence and privacy.

The White House assembled a team of attorneys from the counsels office, Kavanaughs roster of former clerks and other Republican lawyers to document his record and meticulously help the 53-year-old prepare for questions expected from senators.

Read on for a look at five topics senators could bring up during the confirmation hearing that begins on Sept. 4.

Abortion rights

Although he has not expressed outright opposition to abortion, liberals and womens rights groups have already warned of the end of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, should Kavanaugh be confirmed. Trump has said he has not spoken with Kavanaugh about abortion.

At a rally in front of the Supreme Court in August, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said senators need to stand up and vote no against this judge [because] he is going to harm this country and he is going to harm women.

In 2017, Kavanaugh issued a dissent in a case involving an undocumented immigrant who wished to be released from custody in order to have an abortion. While the court eventually allowed her to have the procedure, Kavanaugh said the majority opinion was radically inconsistent with 40 years of Supreme Court precedent.

KAVANAUGH'S STAUNCH GUN-RIGHTS DEFENSE AMONG HUNDREDS OF DECISIONS IN SPOTLIGHT

He argued if the government helped the 17-year-old obtain an abortion, then it ignores its "permissible interest in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor and refraining from facilitating abortion.

Rochelle Garza, an immigration attorney who represented the teenager, is expected to testify on behalf of Senate Democrats during Kavanaughs confirmation hearing.

Presidential authority

Kavanaugh worked with Kenneth Starr in the 1990s, co-writing the independent counsels report laying out the legal framework supporting then-President Bill Clintons impeachment. He said Clinton should be impeached because he misled the public and lied to his staff, according to The New York Times.

But in 2009, citing his role with the investigation into Clinton, Kavanaugh expressed his opinion that presidents should not have to deal with criminal investigations or civil lawsuits while in office.

Writing for the Minnesota Law Review, Kavanaugh said, I think we grossly underestimate how difficult the job [of U.S. president] is. Because of that, he said he believes [it's] vital that the President be able to focus on his never-ending tasks with as few distractions as possible.

TRUMP'S SUPREME COURT PICK NEEDS SENATE APPROVAL: A LOOK AT THE CONFIRMATION PROCESS

Ahead of his confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh submitted a completed 110-page questionnaire in which he said neither Trump nor anyone else associated with him approached him about any currently pending or specific case, legal issue or question in a manner that could reasonably be interpreted as seeking any express or implied assurances concerning your position on such case, issue or question before he was asked to be the nominee, Politico reported.

Relationship with Kozinski

Once upon a time, Kavanaugh was able to turn to Judge Alex Kozinski, of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, for advice. But Kozinski has since retired from the court after he was accused by several female former law clerks and colleagues of sexual misconduct, including inappropriate comments, touching and forced viewings of pornography.

Kozinski said in a statement through an attorney many of the allegations weren't true, though deeply regretted his "unusual sense of humor caused offense or made anyone uncomfortable."

"I have always tried to treat my male and female clerks the same," he said.

While no evidence thus far has surfaced that would suggest Kavanaugh had any knowledge of Kozinskis alleged wrongdoings, Kavanaugh is sure to be asked about his relationship to the former judge.

KAVANAUGH SUPREME COURT HEARING WITNESSES INCLUDE FORMER LAW CLERKS, SCHOOL SHOOTING SURVIVOR: A FULL LIST

Alex Kozinskis relationship with Judge Kavanaugh is a legitimate area of inquiry, and I plan to question Judge Kavanaugh on this topic, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, told The Associated Press.

White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec has said Kavanaugh had never heard any allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment by Judge Kozinski prior to media reports.

Privacy rights

Kavanaugh has often supported giving the U.S. government wide berth in the name of national security  including when it comes to the secret collection of personal data from Americans. This support is expected to be a topic of consternation among Democrats ready to grill the judge.

Sens. Dick Durbin and Pat Leahy are among Democrats who want to see more records from Kavanaugh's White House days. Durbin, in particular, has said Kavanaugh acknowledged that he was involved in conversations involving enemy combatants during a private meeting with the senator.

But Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio maintained that Kavanaugh is incredibly well-qualified.

JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY ON THE SUPREME COURT: HIS LEGACY AND THE FUTURE OF HIS SEAT

I think hes in the mainstream with regard to these issues, and frankly, I dont think its a difference with any meaning between where he is and where the court is currently, Portman said.

And Kavanaugh has already earned the support of libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul. The Kentucky Republican said, after meeting with Kavanaugh, he will carefully adhere to the Constitution and will take his job to protect individual liberty seriously.

Gun control

Kavanaughs position on gun control is expected to come under scrutiny during his confirmation hearings  particularly as a Parkland school shooting survivor is slated to testify on behalf of Senate Democrats.

Among one of Kavanaughs decisions in the spotlight is a 2001 dissenting opinion he authored on a pivotal gun ban.

In Heller v. District of Columbia, the D.C. Circuit Court upheld the Districts ordinance banning most semi-automatic rifles. But in that case, Kavanaugh wrote the dissenting opinion, arguing the Supreme Court had already decided handguns  the vast majority of which today are semi-automatic  are constitutionally protected under the Second Amendment.

He said despite gun violence in the area, our task is to apply the Constitution and the precedents of the Supreme Court, regardless of whether the result is one we agree with as a matter of first principles or policy.

The Supreme Court eventually took the case and struck down the ordinance; it held that the Second Amendment protects the possession of semi-automatic weapons for purposes unrelated to militia use.

The National Rifle Association has applauded Kavanaughs nomination to the bench.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation hearing got off to a rocky start as multiple Democrats interjected and called for a delay  citing complaints that they haven't seen all his records and only just received some of them.

Kavanaugh, 53, has served for the past 12 years on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. He was involved with the independent counsels report in laying out the legal framework supporting then-President Bill Clintons impeachment and served in key positions in the White House when George W. Bush was president.

He faces questions about his opinions on presidential authority, particularly as Special Counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation continues.

The contentious hearing has repeatedly been interrupted and fallen behind schedule as Democrats have called to pause the hearing due to document requests.

Sen. Kamala Harris, considered a potential 2020 Democratic presidential contender, raised objections to the recent release of some 42,000 documents just before the hearing kicked off; others called for a delay until the White House reverses course on its withholding of more than 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh's record related to his time in the Bush administration.

Read on for a look at what lawmakers have had access to  and what Democrats want.

What documents does the committee have?

In all, about 267,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents from his Bush years have been made public with more than 147,000 pages given just to the committee.

Former President George W. Bushs attorneys told the Senate Judiciary Committee Bush requested they err as much as appropriate on the side of transparency and disclosure in releasing documents to the committee. It said it withheld more than 46,000 documents  from both the public and the committee  because they were State Department records Kavanaugh possessed for consultation, did not fall within the time frame requested by the committee or were marked protected by constitutional privilege by the White House or Justice Department.

CORNYN SAYS DEMOCRATS INTERRUPTING KAVANAUGH SUPREME COURT HEARING WOULD BE IN CONTEMPT OF COURT

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said the panel had been given access to more than 480,000 pages of emails and other documents from his service as an executive branch lawyer, more than 10,000 pages of judicial writings and 17,000 pages of speeches, articles, teaching materials and other items Kavanaugh attached to his 120-page questionnaire response.

Grassley, a Republican, also said the committee was able to review some 307 opinions he authored as well as hundreds more he joined.

This is a half million pages of paper  more than the last five confirmed Supreme Court nominees combined, Grassley, who has defended the document production as the most open in history, said.

Additionally, some 42,000 documents were made available to the committee relating to Kavanaughs work with past administrations just before the hearings start on Sept. 4.

KAVANAUGH SUPREME COURT HEARING KICKS OFF WITH NUMEROUS ARRESTS AS PROTESTERS SHOUT DOWN LAWMAKERS

Democrats vociferously argued for a delay in the hearing in order to have more time to review the documents. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, in particular, said it was impossible to go through them all in time for a fair hearing.

What do Democrats want?

The White House blocked about 100,000 documents pertaining to Kavanaughs records from the Bush White House on the basis of presidential privilege  a point of contention for Democrats.

We dont know what is being hidden, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said during the hearing.

Schumer blasted President Trump ahead of the hearing for the withholding of certain documents.

KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARING LIKELY TO FOCUS ON ABORTION, GUN RIGHTS AND MORE

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 nominees], it has all the makings of a cover up, Schumer said in a tweet.

Democrats have also blasted Republicans for not requesting certain records, such as those pertaining to Kavanaughs time as a staff secretary.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., claimed Senate Democrats were not able to see records pertaining to 35 months of public service as they cannot even be considered.

But Grassley, who has repeatedly rebuffed demands to postpone the hearing, said those documents are the least useful in understanding his legal views and [are] the most sensitive to the executive branch.

What is being hidden and why? Leahy asked Tuesday.

Fox News Jennifer Earl and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Dozens of people were arrested during the first day of Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court hearing as they interrupted the proceedings with shouts of protest against the judge.

United States Capitol Police said 70 people were arrested Tuesday during the contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Police said 61 people were removed from the committee room and charged with disorderly conduct; an additional nine people were arrested in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and charged with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding, police said.

Among those arrested was UltraViolet executive director Shaunna Thomas, the women's organization told Fox News. Thomas, who co-founded the group focused on reproductive rights and combating sexism, said, Senators, on behalf of the millions of women across the country whose rights will be stripped by a Kavanaugh court, I demand you reject this nomination, according to an UltraViolet spokesperson.

Actress Piper Perabo also said she was arrested while protesting Kavanaugh Tuesday.

I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings, Perabo, known for Covert Affairs and Coyote Ugly said on social media. Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I cant be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.

Interjections  from those in the audience and Democratic senators  peppered the hearing from its very start, even before Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, could make it through his opening statements. One by one, protesters stood and disrupted the hearing before being removed by police.

KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARING LIKELY TO FOCUS ON ABORTION, GUN RIGHTS AND MORE

This is a mockery and a travesty of justice, one woman shouted. Cancel Brett Kavanaugh.

Democrats also vociferously called for a delay in the hearing, citing some 42,000 documents regarding Kavanaughs work with past administrations that was made available to the committee last minute.

Kavanaughs opinions on presidential authority were called into question by Senate Democrats before the hearing began. Kavanaugh worked with Kenneth Starr in the 1990s, co-writing the independent counsels report laying out the legal framework supporting then-President Bill Clintons impeachment. He said Clinton should be impeached because he misled the public and lied to his staff.

But in 2009, citing his role with the investigation into Clinton, Kavanaugh expressed his opinion that presidents should not have to deal with criminal investigations or civil lawsuits while in office.

KAVANAUGH'S STAUNCH GUN-RIGHTS DEFENSE AMONG HUNDREDS OF DECISIONS IN SPOTLIGHT

Writing for the Minnesota Law Review, Kavanaugh said, I think we grossly underestimate how difficult the job [of U.S. president] is. Because of that, he said he believed [it's] vital that the President be able to focus on his never-ending tasks with as few distractions as possible.

Questioning of Kavanaugh is to begin Wednesday, and votes in the committee and on the Senate floor could occur later in September.

Republicans command a narrow 50-49 Senate majority, which would return to 51-49 once a Republican successor to the late Sen. John McCain is appointed. Republicans have little margin for error, though Vice President Pence can break a tie.

If all goes to Republicans plans, Kavanaugh could be sitting on the bench when the Supreme Court begins its new term on Oct. 1.

Fox News Tyler McCarthy, Alex Pappas, Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Hundreds of Brett Kavanaughs decisions were thrust into the spotlight after President Trump formally selected him to fill former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat. Kavanaugh was confirmed to the nation's highest court with a 50-48 vote on Oct. 6  weeks after sexual misconduct allegations against the judge took center stage in the Senate chambers.

Kavanaugh, 53, formerly clerked for Kennedy and was elevated to the powerful federal appeals court in the District of Columbia by former President George W. Bush, under whom he had also served as a White House lawyer and staff secretary.

Here's a look at some of Kavanaugh's decisions that were examined and discussed throughout the confirmation process.

Gun rights

In his 12 years as a judge, Kavanaugh has issued approximately 300 opinions and delivered numerous speeches and legal arguments. Among them is his dissenting opinion on a pivotal gun ban in 2001.

In Heller v. District of Columbia, the D.C. Circuit Court upheld the Districts ordinance banning most semi-automatic rifles. But in that case, Kavanaugh wrote the dissenting opinion, arguing the Supreme Court had already decided handguns  the vast majority of which today are semi-automatic  are constitutionally protected under the Second Amendment.

He said despite gun violence in the area, our task is to apply the Constitution and the precedents of the Supreme Court, regardless of whether the result is one we agree with as a matter of first principles or policy.

The Supreme Court eventually took the case and struck down the ordinance; it held that the Second Amendment protects the possession of semi-automatic weapons for purposes unrelated to militia use.

The National Rifle Association applauded Kavanaughs nomination as its president, Chris W. Cox, cited his impressive record that demonstrates his strong support for the Second Amendment.

On the other side, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence derided the pick, saying he has issued prior rulings that are ideologically aligned with the gun lobby and reflect a radical interpretation of the Constitution under which public safety justifications play no role in Second Amendment jurisprudence.

But aside from gun-related legislation, lawmakers will have to sift through Kavanaughs rulings on countless other issues as they decide whether to confirm him to the nations highest court. Read on for a look at other opinions or decisions Kavanaugh is sure to be asked about as he goes before the Senate for his confirmation hearing.

Abortion

Although he has not expressed outright opposition to abortion, liberals have warned of the end of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, with Kavanaugh's confirmation.

Kavanaugh did, however, issue a dissent in a 2017 case involving an illegal immigrant who wished to be released from custody in order to obtain an abortion. While the court eventually allowed her to have the procedure, Kavanaugh said the majority opinion was radically inconsistent with 40 years of Supreme Court precedent.

A LOOK AT THE SUPREME COURT CONFIRMATION PROCESS

He argued if the government helped the 17-year-old obtain an abortion, then it ignores its "permissible interest in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor and refraining from facilitating abortion.

Despite his dissent, Kavanaughs words irked some anti-abortion conservatives who felt as though he did not go far enough. During oral arguments, Kavanaugh suggested releasing the teen to a sponsor which would solve the governments objection and allow her to get an abortion.

Phillip Jauregui, president of the Judicial Action Group, said the case exemplifies why Kavanaugh is not the best available Supreme Court prospect in a memo last month.

Trump has said he did not discuss abortion with Kavanaugh.

The Womens March called the choice of Kavanaugh a death sentence for thousands of women in the United States.

Stripping a womans ability to make decisions about her own body is state violence, the group said. We cannot let this stand. We will raise our voices and take to the streets.

ObamaCare

Kavanaughs role in an ObamaCare decision had some conservatives on edge prior to his official nomination. As Fox News previously reported, Kavanaugh ultimately dissented in Seven-Sky v. Holder, a challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

However, in his dissent, Kavanaugh did acknowledge the Affordable Care Acts individual mandate provision could fit comfortably within Congress Taxing Clause power.

Conservative health care expert Christopher Jacobs argued Kavanaugh cultivated a theory that paved the way for Chief Justice John Roberts to uphold the individual mandate requiring people to purchase health insurance in 2012.

WHO IS BRETT KAVANAUGH?

Even as he avoided a definitive ruling on the merits of the case, Kavanaugh revealed himself as favorably disposed to the mandate, Jacobs wrote for The Federalist.

Religious liberty

In 2015, Kavanaugh sided with organizations that argued ObamaCares contraceptive coverage mandate infringed upon their religious rights.

When the Government forces someone to take an action contrary to his or her sincere religious belief (here, submitting the form) or else suffer a financial penalty (which here is huge), the Government has substantially burdened the individuals exercise of religion, Kavanaugh wrote in the dissenting opinion in Priests for Life v. HHS.

At issue here was the form organizations were required to provide to the insurer or federal government in order to be exempt from a monetary penalty levied if they did not wish to include contraceptives in their insurance coverage. After a form is filed, then the insurer will still offer contraceptive coverage for employees through separate funds provided by the government or insurer. But religious organizations argued it made them complicit in providing coverage for contraceptives, thus violating their religious beliefs.

KAVANAUGH NOD TOUCHES OFF SUPREME COURT CONFIRMATION BATTLE; DEMS WARN OF DEATHS OF COUNTLESS WOMEN

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said he is confident Kavanaugh will be a strong defender of the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, especially our First Freedom of religious liberty.

Presidential protections

Kavanaugh worked with Kenneth Starr in the 1990s, co-writing the independent counsels report laying out the legal framework supporting then-President Bill Clintons impeachment. He said Clinton should be impeached because he misled the public and lied to his staff, according to The New York Times.

But in 2009, citing his role with the investigation into Clinton, Kavanaugh expressed his opinion that presidents should not have to deal with criminal investigations or civil lawsuits while in office.

WHO ARE THE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES?

Writing for the Minnesota Law Review, Kavanaugh said, I think we grossly underestimate how difficult the job [of U.S. president] is. Because of that, he said he believes [it's] vital that the President be able to focus on his never-ending tasks with as few distractions as possible.

"The nation certainly would have been better off if President Clinton could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its criminal investigation offshoots."  Brett Kavanaugh

Looking back to the late 1990s, for example, the nation certainly would have been better off if President Clinton could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its criminal investigation offshoots, Kavanaugh said.

Kavanaugh said criminal investigations and civil lawsuits should simply be deferred  not eliminated  until he is out of office.

Even the lesser burdens of a criminal investigation  including preparing for questioning by criminal investigators  are time-consuming and distracting. Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the Presidents focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people, he said. And a President who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as President.

Fox News Alex Pappas, Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Its primary day in Massachusetts, and several races have the potential for upsets and fresh faces.

Several members of the states all-Democratic U.S. House delegation faces spirited challengers, including those within their own party. Theres also a battle to unseat popular Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and a move to replace Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Read on for a look at key races to watch on Sept. 4.

Governor

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is running for re-election in the typically deep-blue Massachusetts. Often considered to be one of the most popular governors in the U.S., Baker faces Scott Lively in the GOP primary.

Baker has distanced himself from President Trump and hasnt been afraid to criticize the administration. Hes signed laws to protect abortion rights and has supported more gun control and a minimum wage increase.

Lively, on the other hand, is a pastor well known for his anti-gay sentiments. He said he is anti-abortion and is running against Baker to bring Biblical values back into the political arena here on his campaign website.

MASSACHUSETTS GOP GOVERNOR AVOIDS LIBERAL BACKLASH TO TRUMP, EYES RE-ELECTION

For the Democrats, environmentalist and activist Bob Massie and Jay Gonzalez, the former secretary of administration and finance under Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, are going head-to-head in Tuesdays primary. But neither candidate has much name recognition outside Democratic activist circles.

Fox News has ranked the gubernatorial election as leaning Republican.

Senate

Sen. Elizabeth Warren doesnt have any Democratic challengers, but there are a handful of Republicans hoping for a chance to unseat the longtime liberal lawmaker including: state Rep. Geoff Diehl, businessman John Kingston and Beth Lindstrom, a former official under Gov. Mitt Romneys administration.

All three have accused Warren of focusing too much on fighting with Trump and not enough on the state.

People know that shes done nothing for Massachusetts, Kingston told The Associated Press. God bless her if she wants to run for president  then go run for president and dont pretend that youre not.

Lindstrom, too, criticized Warren when she was endorsed by the New England Benevolent Police Association, saying the Democrat is out of touch with the people shes supposed to represent.

Its time for us to tell our politicians to stop disrespecting our points of view and start reflecting our values, Lindstrom said. These values include respecting the work of people in our criminal justice system.

FOX NEWS MIDTERM ELECTIONS HEADQUARTERS

Warren is one of several Democrats who have called for the abolishment of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency  a federal group that has come under fire particularly under the Trump administration.

Of the three Republicans, its Diehl who has been quick to embrace Trump as opposed to his opponents. Diehl co-chaired Trumps 2016 Massachusetts campaign  something hes quick to bring up to voters.

Lindstrom has said shell support Trump when its right for the people of Massachusetts. And Kingston has promised to work with the administration when its actually doing good things for Massachusetts.

Fox News has ranked the Senate race as likely Democrat.

House

All eyes are on Ayanna Pressley, a Democratic candidate for House who could become the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

Pressley  who has drawn comparisons to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young, progressive New Yorker who unseated longtime Democratic incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley earlier this year  is challenging Rep. Michael Capuano in the 7th congressional district.

Capuano, a 66-year-old Democrat, has served in his seat since 2013.

Pressley is a Boston city council member  and was the first woman of color to be elected to that legislative body, according to her campaign website.

I know our  campaign is one that is disruptive and makes a lot of people uncomfortable in a dark blue district where we dont primary Democrats, but I think we are in different times, Pressley told Elle magazine. These are times that require bold activist leadership and a reliable vote.

Whoever wins the primary will likely win the general election. No Republicans are running in this district.

MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRAT CALLS TO IMPEACH JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS IN PLAN TO COMBAT SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

Another congressional race worth watching is the 3rd district, where 10 Democrats are fighting to take over the seat being vacated by incumbent Rep. Niki Tsongas. A Democrat, Tsongas has held the seat  once also held by her late husband  since 2013.

Running are Jeff Ballinger, a global workers rights activist; Alexandra Chandler, a former U.S. Naval intelligence officer and the state's first transgender congressional candidate; Beej Das, a constitutional lawyer and hotel developer; Rufus Gifford, a former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark; Leonard Golder, a former Stow selectman; Dan Koh, former chief of staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh; Barbara L'Italien, a state senator; Bopha Malone, a former bank executive; Juana Matias, a state representative; and Lori Trahan, who served as chief of staff to former Democratic Rep. Martin Meehan.

L'Italien made headlines during her campaign when she released a comprehensive plan to combat sexual misconduct in public office  which included a plan to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to open a congressional hearing into allegations against Trump.

She also accused Koh of not helping a former city employee who accused her boss of sexual harassment. Kohs campaign brushed off her accusations as false personal attacks.

There is only one Republican gunning for the seat: business owner and founder of the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Rick Green.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., used his speech at a Vermont rally to take parting shots at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos while discussing the wage gap in the U.S.

Sanders was in Vermont and New Hampshire to give a keynote speech at an AFL-CIO Labor Day breakfast event before holding two rallies, according to MyChamplainValley.com.

We have one person whose wealth is increasing by $250 million every single day, while he pays thousands of his workers wages that are so low that they are forced to go on food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing, Sanders said, referencing Bezos.

BERNIE SANDERS TEES OFF ON TRUMP IN LABOR DAY VISIT TO KEY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY STATE

Sanders also used his events to address Vermont workers.

The reality is that the average American worker is still seeing a decline in his and her wages, he said. People continue to work longer hours for low wages. Here in Vermont, folks are working two or three jobs to put food on the table and pay bills.

The senators shots at Amazon come days after he claimed the company doesnt pay its employees enough and voiced concerns over conditions at fulfillment centers.

Bottom line: the taxpayers of this country should not have to subsidize employees at a company owned by Mr. Bezos who is worth $155 billion. That is absurd, Sanders wrote in a post Saturday.

Sanders also claimed Amazon had been less than forthcoming with information about their employment practices. He said the companys average pay was about 9 percent less than industry average and well below a living wage.

Amazon refuted Sanders claims that it doesnt pay employees a livable wage and therefore they have to rely on government programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

"We have one person whose wealth is increasing by $250 million every single day, while he pays thousands of his workers wages that are so low that they are forced to go on food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing."  Sen. Sanders on Jeff Bezos

Senator Sanders continues to spread misleading statements about pay and benefits, a company blog post read. Amazon is proud to have created over 130,000 new jobs last year alone. In the U.S., the average hourly wage for a full-time associate in our fulfillment centers, including cash, stock, and incentive bonuses, is over $15/hour before overtime. We encourage anyone to compare our pay and benefits to other retailers.

Sanders is expected to unveil a bill this week that would require large employers to cover the cost of federal assistance received by their employees by imposing a 100 percent tax on those benefits.Syrian state news agency SANA said Syrian air defences confronted and downed several rockets fired by Israeli planes near the city of Hama on Tuesday.

"Air defences downed a number of rockets fired by the Israeli enemy in the Wadi al-Uyoun area in the Hama countryside," SANA said.

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In an off-the-cuff moment caught on video during a Labor Day parade in Brooklyn Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told a bystander who asked when President Trump would be impeached, "The sooner the better."

Schumer's comment appeared to be a sharp break from his own previous rhetoric and that of other party leaders, who have avoided discussing impeachment proceedings for fear of alienating moderate voters ahead of November's midterm elections.

"When are y'all going to impeach Trump?" someone calls out in the footage from behind a barricade as Schumer, carrying a megaphone, walks past with his security detail in the West Indian-American Day parade.

"The sooner the better," Schumer quickly replies. The same bystander apparently counters: "'The sooner the better?' That's not answering the question."

"We gotta get a few Republicans," Schumer responds. "Democrats are on your side." Impeaching the president requires a majority of votes in the House of Representatives, which Democrats do not currently have; removing the president would then require a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

TRUMP IMPEACHMENT PUSH EMERGES AS NEXT MAJOR DEMOCRATIC LITMUS TEST

But Schumer's office, reached by Fox News, claimed that Schumer had simply misheard the bystander's question.

After a number of questions along the parade route about the fate of President Trumps Supreme Court nominee, the Senator believed he was being asked, when will you defeat Trump, and responded, the sooner the better, noting that we need Republicans to defeat the nomination," Schumer spokesman Matt House said. "As he has said many times and continues to believe, talk of impeachment is premature, and Special Counsel Muellers investigation should be allowed to continue without any interference."

Previously, Schumer and other top Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have demurred when asked whether they support impeaching Trump ahead of the midterm elections.

Asked just last month what the consequences would be if Trump pardoned his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, after his conviction on several federal charges, Schumer told reporters only, "Ive said what Im gonna say.

Pelosi, for her part, has said impeachment is "not a priority." In an interview with the Associated Press, she said impeachment has to spring from something else," and not any issues surrounding Manafort or former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

However, some Democrats have broken rank to support Trump's impeachment. In perhaps the most dramatic sign that the impeachment fight may go mainstream, Texas Rep. Beto ORourke -- who is running to unseat GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in November in the deep-red, pro-Trump state -- has both advocated impeaching Trump and downplayed the Democratic consequences of such an effort.

Impeachment, much like an indictment, shows that there is enough there for the case to proceed, ORourke said earlier this year, and at this point there is certainly enough there for the case to proceed.Republican Sen. Ben Sasse tore into his own branch of government Tuesday as he slammed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's hearing process as an overblown, politicized circus.

At the Judiciary Committee hearing, the Nebraska senator blamed a dysfunctional Congress for the overheated drama surrounding high court nominations. As the opening day devolved into a spectacle of protests and objections, Sasse explained there's so much "hysteria" and pressure with regard to the court because "Congress has decided to self-neuter."

He lamented that the Supreme Court justices, in turn, are expected to be "super legislators." This "misunderstanding of the role of the Supreme Court, he argued, accounts for the vitriolic rhetoric aimed at Kavanaugh.

At least two dozen people were arrested on the first day of the confirmation hearing, as they disrupted the proceedings with protests of Kavanaugh. Senate Democrats, too, continuously interrupted the opening statements of the hearing with calls to delay the proceedings.

However, Sasse said the rhetoric isnt new to just Kavanaughs confirmation hearing. Instead, he said the hearings havent worked for 31 years in America and said screaming protesters saying women are going to die have been present at these hearings for decades. He criticized the legislature for giving away its power to make the Supreme Court a substitute political battleground.

The hysteria around Supreme Court nomination confirmation hearings is coming from the fact that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the Supreme Court in American life now, Sasse said. Our political commentary talks about the Supreme Court like they are people wearing red and blue jerseys; thats a really dangerous thing.

KAVANAUGH DOCUMENTS TAKE CENTER STAGE IN CONFIRMATION HEARING: WHAT DO DEMS WANT?

Its predictable that every confirmation hearing now is going to be [an] overblown, politicized circus. Its because weve accepted a new theory about how our three branches of government should work, and in particular, how the judiciary should work, Sasse continued.

Sasse said the Supreme Court has become a substitute political battleground because Congress has decided to self-neuter and continues to pass more authority to the executive branch.

Most people here want their jobs more than they really want to do legislative work and so they punt most of the work to the next branch, Sasse charged.

We badly need to restore the proper duties and the balance of power from our constitutional system, he continued.

KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARING LIKELY TO FOCUS ON ABORTION, GUN RIGHTS AND MORE

The lawmaker doubled down on his remarks during an interview Tuesday night on Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier," saying that "Congress seems to have forgotten the three branches" of government, which each need to carry out their intended duties.

"We need a Congress that passes laws and suffers the consequences that people get to hire and fire the Congress," Sasse said. "We need an executive branch that tries to execute the laws thatve been passed and we need judges who judge and not try to be super legislators. And most people in the Congress seem to have forgotten."

He went on to say that he believes "the left started this fight," however he blamed both sides of the political aisle.

"I do think that the left started this fight but I think both of these parties are really, really lame in teaching basic civics to our kids right now. People on both sides of the aisle regularly talk about the Supreme Court like there are Republican justices and Democratic justices," Sasse said.

Democrats have been under intense pressure from liberal voters to resist Trump, and many remain irate, even two years later, over the treatment of Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court. Garland was denied so much as a hearing by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Kavanaugh worked for Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired at the end of July. Questioning of Kavanaugh will begin Wednesday, and votes on the Senate floor could occur this month. Kavanaugh could be on the bench when the court begins its new term on Oct. 1.

Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Most Republican governors support Brett Kavanaugh, President Trumps pick for the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh has met privately with many senators on Capitol Hill, but he has not yet gone through a confirmation hearing. Ahead of the Senates decision on the federal appeals judge, more than 30 governors signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh, 53.

The governors said Kavanaugh's impeccable credentials demonstrate he is worthy of this nomination.

However, three Republican governors did not sign the letter. The three are from blue states and all are facing re-election this year.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner initially indicated that he would not sign the letter, but eventually did so.

Read on for a look at who did not sign the letter.

Charlie Baker, Massachusetts

Baker has stressed he believes a Supreme Court nominee should rule in favor of pro-choice issues.

Im a big believer in a womans right to choose, and I think that needs to be a fundamental part of the vetting process, Baker has said. I hope that is a fundamental part of the vetting process as they move forward here.

Larry Hogan, Maryland

Ben Jealous, the Democratic nominee for governor, has publicly called on Hogan to condemn Kavanaughs nomination to the nations highest court.

Phil Scott, Vermont

Scott told WCAX-TV he had not yet learned enough about Kavanaugh to sign onto the letter when asked by the Republican Governor's Association.

"I don't want to rubber stamp anyone. I don't know much about the nominee," he said. "If there had been a letter asking for a fair and open hearing on the confirmation, I would have signed it, but to blindly rubber stamp someone that I don't know a lot about -- I didn't think it would do great justice to anyone."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.President Trump on Tuesday continued his attack on NBC, this time over its decision not to run a bombshell Harvey Weinstein story, as he called the network's decision "highly unethical conduct" and suggested its broadcast license be reviewed.

NBC FAKE NEWS, which is under intense scrutiny over their killing the Harvey Weinstein story, is now fumbling around making excuses for their probably highly unethical conduct, Trump tweeted. I have long criticized NBC and their journalistic standards-worse than even CNN. Look at their license?

The presidents tweet came the morning after NBC News boss Andy Lack sent a long letter to his staff on Monday night, saying any speculation the disgraced Hollywood mogul had a role in the network's rejection of the story by reporter Ronan Farrow was baseless.

Lack's letter sought to rebut charges Weinstein and his lawyers had undue influence over the network, and outlined several examples where NBC stood up to the mogul. In each case, they were ignored or told that they would have a chance to comment if there was a story ready for broadcast, Lack claimed.

Lack said he wasn't even aware the story was in the works the first time Weinstein called him. Weinstein subsequently called Lack nine times and sent four emails, "none of which were returned," the letter said.

Lack repeated the contention Farrow and NBC disagreed over whether the story -- which was published instead by the New Yorker magazine -- was ready for broadcast. NBC contends Farrow had no one willing to be named in the story. Seven women were eventually identified when the the New Yorker story was published.

NBC has been a frequent target of Trumps media criticism, both by name and as part of his attack on so-called fake news.

During a July press conference alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump attacked CNN, NBC and the British tabloid The Sun after they questioned him about a reportedly contentious meeting of NATO representatives, and Trumps then-upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin

And Trump last week suggested in a tweet that Lack would soon be fired for "incompetence - and much worse." Trump also alleged the network "fudged" the tape of an interview with Lester Holt in May 2017, where the president said he fired ex-FBI Director James Comey over the bureau's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

NBC News' Twitter account shared a link to Holt's extended interview with Trump shortly after the president tweeted.

Trumps continued suggestion that NBC should have its broadcast license reviewed or revoked was rebuked last year by Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai, who said the agency does not have the legal authority to revoke a broadcaster's license over speech with which the president disagrees.

"The FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content," Pai said, during a panel at George Washington University. "The FCC under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment."

He added: "On Twitter, for example, seemingly on a daily basis, people regularly demand that the FCC yank the licenses of MSNBC or Fox News or CNN or any other number of news outlets because they disagree with the opinions they may have seen on one of those cable news networks.

"Setting aside the fact that the FCC doesn't license those cable channels  kind of an important technicality when one is thinking about these things  these demands are fundamentally at odds with America's cultural and legal traditions," Pai said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.President Trump late Monday warned Syrias Bashar al-Assad and his allies in the region not to attack rebels in the countrys Idlib province, warning that hundreds of thousands could be killed.

Trumps tweet came shortly after Irans foreign minister said terrorists must be purged from Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in the country.

Mohammad Javad Zarifs comments in Damascus came as Syrian forces and their allies are preparing for an assault.

Syrias territorial integrity should be safeguarded and all tribes and groups, as one society, should start the reconstruction process, and the refugees should return to their homes, Zarif said, according to Iran's Fars news agency.

The BBC reported that Assad is planning a huge offensive.

Reuters reported that three million live there.

Syria has been fighting in a seven-year civil war, and Russia and Iran have backed Assad.

JOHN KERRY: US PAID PRICE FOR NOT ENFORCING OBAMA'S RED LINE

U.N. officials believe an offensive on Idlib would trigger a wave of displacement that could uproot an estimated 800,000 people and discourage refugees from returning home.

The U.S. and France have warned an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisis and warned that a chemical attack in Idlib would prompt a western retaliation.

All eyes on the actions of Assad, Russia, and Iran in Idlib, #NoChemicalWeapons, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, posted on Twitter.

The Associated Press contributed to this reportThe White House hit back Tuesday after excerpts were released from a forthcoming book by veteran reporter Bob Woodward detailing a White House beset by infighting and facing an "administrative coup d'etat" in the ranks.

This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Meanwhile, President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani blasted those officials talking trash to Woodward.

"If they said it, they should be questioning why they are there. Why don't they go get another job? That's the kind of disloyalty that leads to you leaving, not staying and undermining the president," Giuliani told CNBC.

An early copy of The Washington Post associate editors book was obtained by The Washington Post. According to the Post, it portrays a chaotic Trump White House filled with second-guessing by members of Trumps staff, who repeatedly bad-mouth him behind closed doors.

The book is to be released on Sept. 11.

According to The Post, the book alleges that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told associates of the president that he had the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader. After Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on Syrians in April 2017, Trump is said to have demanded Mattis launch an assassination attempt.

Lets f---ing kill him! Lets go in. Lets kill the f---ing lot of them, Trump reportedly said. But Mattis told an aide: Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured.

Mattis responded Tuesday: The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodwards book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.

He continued: In serving in this administration, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief president Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within out Department of Defense, is a product of someones rich imagination.

Former White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, meanwhile, is alleged to have stolen a letter from Trumps desk that would have withdrawn the U.S. from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn is reported to have said that he did it to protect national security and that Trump didn't notice that it was missing.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is reported to have frequently lost his temper, and described Trump as an idiot.

Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown, Kelly said, according to Woodward. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.

On Tuesday, Kelly said that the account was false.

The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true," he said in a statement. "As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: 'I spend more time with the President than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS. I'm committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administrations many successes."

Former Trump attorney John Dowd, meanwhile, denied claims that he held a practice session of a potential interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, called Trump a liar, and told Trump he could end up in an "orange jumpsuit" if he interviewed with Mueller.

He also said Woodward's book appears to be "the most recent in an endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentations based on anonymous statements from unknown malcontents."

Trump is reported not to have held back from criticism of members of his Cabinet. He allegedly called Attorney General Jeff Sessions a traitor for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia probe.

This guy is mentally retarded. Hes this dumb Southerner.  He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama, Trump reportedly said.

Trump was not interviewed for the book, despite what Woodward said were repeated attempts to contact him. Trump called Woodward in August and told him that his staff hadnt informed him of the request and expressed concern that the book would be inaccurate.

So I have another bad book coming out, Trump says, according to a tape of that conversation published by The Post. Big deal."

Fox News' Kristin Brown, Jennifer Griffin and John Roberts contributed to this report.The biggest meteorite and a few other notable artifacts survived the catastrophic fire that destroyed the National Museum of Brazil on Sunday.

The Bendego meteorite, the largest ever found in Brazil, survived the fire, Space.com reported. It is one of approximately a dozen meteorites that were part of the museum's collection, prior to the fire.

The space rock was found near the town of Monte Santo in the Brazilian state of Bahia in 1784, Space.com added. It weighs approximately 11,600 pounds and is made up iron and nickel.

BRAZIL FIREFIGHTERS TRY SAVING RELICES AT 200-YEAR-OLD NATIONAL MUSEUM AFTER MASSIVE BLAZE

According to the museum's description of the meteorite, it was originally supposed to be transported to Brazil's capital, but wound up falling out of the wooden cart which was used to transport it and crashed into a stream. It stayed in the stream for another century, when Brazil Emperor Pedro II had the meteorite relocated to the museum. It has been on display since 1888.

Other items have been recovered, officials said, including bone fragments from a collection, raising hopes that a famed skull might somehow have survived a massive blaze that turned historic and scientific artifacts to ashes.

The firefighters "found fragments of bones in a room where the museum kept many items, including skulls," said Cristiana Serejo, the museum's vice director. "We still have to collect them and take them to the lab to know exactly what they are."

In its collection of about 20 million items, one of the most prized possessions is a skull called Luzia, which is among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas.

Museum spokesman Marcio Martins noted that the collection contains hundreds of skulls, and all material would first need to be examined by the Federal Police, who are investigating the still-unknown cause of the fire. Experts will then examine them to determine their identity.

Investigators were first allowed to enter the main building Monday, but it is still off-limits to researchers. Instead, some scientists were focusing attention on an annex on the site, where vertebrate specimens were housed. The fire didn't reach the area, but it caused the electricity to fail, threatening some artifacts.

THE LATEST: BRAZIL MUSEUM OFFICIAL SAYS RISKS WERE KNOWN

"We have animals that need to be frozen, and they were rotting without electricity," said Marcelo Wexler, a researcher in the vertebrate department.

Even as efforts turned to searching the rubble, firefighters were still occasionally directing water at the building, where some embers were still burning. Eduardo Rosse, a fire official, said that was normal for a blaze of this size.

Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, a museum official, said Monday that anything held in the main building was probably destroyed, and Serejo told the G1 news portal that 90 percent of the collection may have been destroyed.

BRAZIL'S NATIONAL MUSEUM, 200 YEARS OLD, GOES UP IN FLAMES

But on Tuesday, she held out some hope, telling journalists that staff members were "reasonably optimistic about finding some more items inside."

She added that UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency, had offered financial and technical assistance. French and Egyptian officials also have offered help. The museum was home to Egyptian artifacts, and Egypt's ministries of foreign affairs and antiquities have expressed concern over the fate of those objects.

With the cause still under investigation, many already have begun to fix blame, saying years of government neglect left the museum underfunded and unsafe.

Roberto Leher, rector of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, to which the museum was linked, said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repair. In fact, the institution had recently secured approval for nearly $5 million for a planned renovation, including an upgrade of the fire-prevention system, but the money had not yet been disbursed.

On Monday, government officials promised $2.4 million to shore up the building and promised to rebuild the museum.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier, weighed in on the controversy surrounding the upcoming Neil Armstrong biopic "First Man" and filmmakers' decision not to show the planting of the American flag on the Moon during the historic 1969 lunar landing.



The record-breaking test pilot tweeted that the U.S. was the first to get to the Moon, among other historic achievements. Yeager, a World War II fighter pilot who also served in the Vietnam war, broke the sound barrier in 1947.



"I was the 1st Commandant of ARPS 1st school for training 1st astronauts," Yeager wrote. "I am fully aware of US goals: Presidents Eisenhower, JFK, Johnson & Nixon: US will get to the moon 1st. & we did. 1st step was getting above MACH 1. We did that 1st, too."

RYAN GOSLING DEFENDS NEIL ARMSTRONG BIOPIC FIRST MAN LEAVING OUT AMERICAN FLAG IN MOON LANDING SCENE

Yeager, 95, previously weighed in on the film, responding to a Twitter user about Armstrong.

"That's not the Neil Armstrong I knew," Yeager wrote.

Director Damian Chazelle released a statement last week explaining why he did not include the moment when the flag was planted in the lunar surface.

The flag being physically planted into the surface is one of several moments of the Apollo 11 lunar EVA [extravehicular activity] that I chose not to focus upon, he said on Friday.

To address the question of whether this was a political statement, the answer is no. My goal with this movie was to share with audiences the unseen, unknown aspects of America's mission to the moon  particularly Neil Armstrong's personal saga and what he may have been thinking and feeling during those famous few hours, the director added.

"First Man" is set to be released Oct. 12 and stars Ryan Gosling as Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong's sons, Rick and Mark Armstrong, denounced the criticism of the film, saying it is "quite the opposite" of being "anti-American."

"This story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement 'for all mankind.'"  Rick and Mark Armstrong, sons of Neil Armstrong

This story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement 'for all mankind,' the statement said, adding that 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.

PLANET NINE MAY EXIST, BUT IT MIGHT BE HIDING BEHIND NEPTUNE

On Sunday, astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted that he is "proud to be an American," seemingly criticizing the upcoming movie's decision not to show the flag planting.

Aldrin, 88, was the second man to step on the moon, behind Armstrong, who passed away in 2012 at age 82.

Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL.) said the decision not to include the iconic footage was "total lunacy," adding that it is a "disservice at a time when our people need reminders of what we can achieve when we work together."

Fox News' Amy Lieu and Lukas Mikelionis contributed to this story. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_CiacciaIn 1976, NASA's twin Viking landers touched down on Mars in an attempt to answer a weighty question: Is there life on the Red Planet?

Gilbert Levin was the principal investigator of the Vikings' Labeled Release (LR) life-detection experiment. The instrument got positive responses at both landing locales. However, scientists did not reach a consensus on whether his results were proof of life.

In 1997, Levin concluded that the experiment had, indeed, detected life on Mars  and he has championed that viewpoint ever since. [The Search for Life on Mars: A Photo Timeline]

Call for follow-up

Now, more than four decades after the Viking landings  and with a lot more information about Mars in hand  Levin believes that NASA hasn't properly followed up on the Viking landers' results.

"I am certain that NASA knows there is life on Mars," he said this past July on David Livingston's popular online program "The Space Show."

Levin called for a re-examination of Viking LR data by an objective panel. But there's more.

Over the past 40 years, a succession of orbiters, landers and rovers has gathered evidence that life exists on Mars today, Levin said.

There is "substantial and circumstantial evidence for extant microbial life on Mars," he said on "The Space Show."

Methane spikes

As an example, Levin noted that NASA's Curiosity rover has found cyclical and seasonal spikes in Mars methane. More than 90 percent of the methane in Earth's atmosphere is generated by microbes and other organisms.

"This is really hard to ignore as evidence for life," Levin said.

However, water-rock chemistry can also produce methane, so it's not persuasive evidence of life, Curiosity mission team members and other scientists have said.

Curiosity has also discovered organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface. Organics are the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it. But again, they're not convincing evidence of life by themselves; naturally occurring organics have also been spotted on asteroids, for example.

Water, water and more water

Then there's the July 2018 news from the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission: The orbiter apparently spotted an underground lake beneath a mile of ice near the Red Planet's south pole.

Various spacecraft have found evidence of water on Mars over the years, Levin said, and now "we are deluged with an underground lake  so water is no longer the problem."

Levin also pointed to Curiosity imagery that can be interpreted as depicting fossilized stromatolites, structures that are built by colonial microbes here on Earth. There are intriguing similarities between ancient sedimentary rocks on Mars and structures shaped by microbes on Earth, he said.

Everything that we have learned about environmental conditions on Mars, Levin said, would permit terrestrial microorganisms to survive  and that includes the harsh radiation, the low pressure and the frigid temperatures.

As for present-day life on the Red Planet, "it's getting to the point where the shoe is on the other foot," Levin said. "It's very hard to image a sterile Mars." [Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Life (Photos)]

More knowledge

Viking veteran Ben Clark, now a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said "it's about time to start earnestly searching for signs of [Mars] life again."

Clark developed a Viking-carried instrument that measured the composition of Martian soils.

"From what we have learned since Viking about the past history of Mars, it was even more eminently suited for the origin of life than we knew when the search began," Clark said. "A Viking lesson learned is that you had better understand the environment well before designing tests for biological activity."

Astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a professor at the Technical University Berliny, also said the Viking life-detection experiments were conducted before scientists really understood the Red Planet.

"Life is intrinsically linked to its environment," Schulze-Makuch told Space.com. Not having that information in hand, we cannot home in on optimal search and life-detection strategies, and "that, of course, also applies to the icy moons," he added, referring to ocean-harboring worlds such as the Jupiter moon Europa and the Saturn satellite Enceladus.

"If it would have been known at the time of the Viking mission about Mars what is known today, they probably would have come up with the conclusion that microbial life likely exists on Mars," Schulze-Makuch said.

"I think the consensus is shifting more into the direction that the extraordinary claim would be that 'Mars is and was always lifeless,'" he added, referring to astronomer Carl Sagan's famous saying that "extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence."

Nevertheless, Schulze-Makuch said that any declaration of life on Mars still requires overwhelming evidence before being scientifically saluted. "Just think about how long it took before it was accepted that there was and still is liquid water on Mars!" he said.

Better-informed instruments

John Rummel is familiar with Levin's steadfast life-on-Mars position.

"The Mars science community would have benefited greatly if Gil Levin had aspired to a leadership position in science after the Viking lander missions had completed their life-detection experiments," said Rummel, who twice served as NASA's planetary protection officer and is a former chair on planetary protection for the agency's Committee on Space Research.

New missions with better-informed instruments looking for life were possible then, Rummel said, but they needed a strong advocate who had the sort of data that Levin possessed.

"Fundamentally, there is nothing new about Mars that wasn't possible with Viking, but it is a long way from Chryse or Utopia [the two Viking landing spots on Mars in 1976] to the sub-polar-cap lake now claimed by the Italians," Rummel, who's now based at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, told Space.com. "If Levin had stayed fully engaged, we might have already tried to go there."

Beyond the science debate

Astrobiologist Chris McKay, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, is a longtime Mars investigator.

The science community is in general agreement, McKay said, that the Viking LR experiment did not detect life. The reactions noted by that instrument and the other results from Viking can be explained by reactive chemicals called perchlorates, he said.

Perchlorates were first detected in Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix lander in 2008, nearth the Red Planet's north pole. Further observations by other spacecraft strongly suggest that perchlorates are widespread throughout Mars.

That perchlorate explanation, however, is tentative, McKay said. "We cannot rule out that Gil Levin is correct and that there are dormant life-forms in the Martian soil," he said.

If so, that finding has implications beyond the science debated. "Are we confident enough that the Martian soil is lifeless to send astronauts  and then to bring those astronauts back to Earth? I say no," McKay said. "It seems to me that the standard of proof must be higher for these activities, and we have not reached that standard yet."

But McKay thinks Levin is right in continuing to insist that the possibility of life be considered.

"Life may not be the scientifically preferred explanation, but it cannot yet be disproven," McKay concluded.

This version of the story published on Space.com.A ceasefire has been reached between armed factions fighting over the Libyan capital for more than a week, the United Nations said on Tuesday, but it was unclear how it would be implemented.

Dozens of people have been killed in fighting engulfing Tripoli as rival armed groups vie for power and money in the chaos persisting in the oil producer since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

"A ceasefire agreement was reached + signed today to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property," the U.N. mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Twitter.

The Tripoli Matiga airport - closed since Friday - would also be reopened under the deal, the United Nations said, showing pictures of the meeting hosted by U.N. Special Envoy Ghassan Salame but giving no immediate details.

It was not clear how the ceasefire would be implemented as militias have ignored previous calls to lay down arms by the U.N.-backed government which is largely powerless.

There is no police or army or functioning state to enforce peace in a country ruled by armed groups who defy authority and form flexible alliances.

"Today does not aim to fix all the Libyan capital's security problems; it seeks to agree on a broader framework on the way to start addressing the issues," UNSMIL quoted Salame as saying.

In a sign of the chaos, hundreds of African migrants escaped from a detention centre in Tripoli as the fighting between rival groups raged nearby, an aid official said.

A video posted on social media on Tuesday purportedly showed hundreds of Africans, some carrying plastic bags, walking in a long line away from the detention centre. It is located on the road to the former Tripoli International Airport, which was destroyed in a battle between rival militias in 2014.

Libya is a major departure point in North Africa for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, mainly from other parts of Africa.

The aid official, who works for an international organisation, said as many as 1,800 migrants might have escaped the facility on Tuesday. It was unclear where they had gone.

If confirmed, this would mean that almost a quarter of Libya's jailed migrants, mostly Africans, are on the run. Most had been jailed after the Libyan coastguard intercepted their makeshift boats bound for Italy.

Tripoli is formally controlled by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord, but armed groups working with it act with autonomy. Eastern Libya is controlled by a rival administration.

Last Thursday U.N. agencies and authorities relocated hundreds of migrants from government-run detention centres in southern Tripoli to safer locations.

In a further sign of chaos, some 400 prisoners also escaped on Sunday from a jail in southern Tripoli, forcing open the doors as the guards retreated.

More than 1,800 families have been displaced from their homes since the start of the fighting, a report by the Tripoli-based ministry for displaced people said.

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A group of leading British broadcasters have called for tighter regulation and independent oversight of big technology firms in a letter published Sunday.

The letter, printed in the Telegraph and signed by the heads of BBC, Sky, ITV, Channel 4, BT and TalkTalk, demands a watchdog for tech companies that the broadcasters claim have increasingly taken on the role of publisher. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of 21st Century Fox, owns a 39.1 percent stake in Sky.

We do not think it is realistic or appropriate to expect internet and social media companies to make all the judgment calls about what content is and is not acceptable, without any independent oversight, the letter said according to Business Insider.

The U.K. broadcasters continued: There is an urgent need for independent scrutiny of the decisions taken, and greater transparency. This is not about censoring the internet, it is about making the most popular internet platforms safer, by ensuring there is accountability and transparency over the decisions these private companies are already taking.

MILITARY MANUFACTURER SWAMPED WITH ORDERS FOR BULLETPROOT BACKPACKS AS SCHOOL YEAR BEGINS

Big technology companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google have come under increasing fire for how they do or dont police content, combat hate speech, stop disinformation and protect privacy.

Lawmakers in the U.S. and the U.K. have already held hearings to grill top executives and Twitters CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebooks COO Sheryl Sandberg are set to appear before the Senate on Tuesday.

Commenting on the groups letter, a government spokesperson told the Telegraph: We have been clear that more needs to be done to tackle online harms. We are committed to further legislation.

Facebook did not have a comment on the letter and Google did not return a comment request from Fox News. A source familiar with the issue at Twitter confirmed that the social platform will continue to partake in discussions about regulation and that any new rules should respect the Internet as a source for openness and innovation.Some conservatives are ditching Facebook and many dont trust the social media platform, citing perceived political censorship and fears of liberal bias, according to a new study.

The Media Research Center last week released the results of a poll that aimed to measure self-described conservatives attitudes toward tech giants such as Facebook. Among the most significant findings: 32 percent of conservatives have either left Facebook or considered getting off the platform. A whopping 66 percent said they do not trust Facebook to treat its users equally regardless of political beliefs.

The study also indicated that 65 percent of conservatives believe Facebook and other tech giants, such as Twitter and YouTube, are purposely censoring conservatives and conservative ideas.

Nearly 70 percent of participants said they have lost trust in Facebook over the past year alone.

MRC President Brent Bozell issued a statement after the watchdog group published its findings. These numbers are devastating to any CEO responsible for addressing the concerns of his customer base, Bozell said.

Bozell noted that 7 percent of conservatives have already left Facebook, while 25 percent are considering doing so, resulting in "potentially tens of millions of lost users.

To make matters worse, two-thirds of conservative Facebook users trust Facebook less than they did a year ago," he said. "These trends should set off alarm bells at Facebook headquarters."

He added, The question Facebook and other social media companies need to ask themselves is this: Do you want to be seen as an open platform for all political beliefs, or would you rather be considered a left-wing public interest group that censors free speech worldwide?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's company has, of late, been accused of helping spread fake news and hate speech, and of breaching user privacy.

Back in 2016 Zuckerberg hosted prominent conservatives at the companys headquarters amid allegations that the trending topics section was playing down news from right-leaning outlets.

President Trump recently attacked tech giants including Twitter and Facebook, accusing them of silencing voices that come from other than the left. He said too many voices are being destroyed, and pledged to address the problem. And he has previously pointed to the problem of so-called shadow banning on social media platforms. In shadow bans, entities have found their posts invisible to most users, even without a technical ban in place.

Facebooks Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has confirmed participation in Senate intel hearings in Washington on Wednesday.

Fox News Andrew OReilly contributed to this report.The Air Force F-22 has been refining its dog-fighting skills, assessing technical upgrades and testing air-to-air combat tactics during a Red Flag exercise in Nevada earlier this year  designed to improve attack maneuvers and solidify emerging communications technologies and sensors, service officials said.

The aircraft, from the 27th Fighter Squadron, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, performed air interdiction, combat search and rescue, close air support, dynamic targeting and defensive counter air operations in mock combat scenarios.

Red Flag incorporates all spectrums of warfare to include command and control, real-time intelligence, analysis and exploitation, and electronic warfare, MSgt. Sanjay Allen, 57th Wing Public Affairs, Nellis Air Force Base, told Warrior Maven earlier this year.

While Allen said the F-22s in particular are performing primarily air-to-air support, the aircraft is also shown to be effective as a close air support platform; it has performed close air support in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Confronting simulated Red force ground and air threats, F-22s attacked targets such as mock airfields, vehicle convoys, tanks, parked aircraft, bunkered defensive positions and missile sites, added.

Although modern weapons such as long-range air-to-air missiles, and the lack of near-peer warfare in recent years, means dogfighting itself is less likely these days -- as the service prepares for future contingencies against technologically advanced adversaries, maintaining a need to dogfight is of great significance. For instance, the emerging Chinese J-10 and Russian 5th Gen PAK-50 clearly underscore the importance of this.

Advanced dogfighting ability can greatly expedite completion of the Air Forces long-discussed OODA-loop phenomenon, wherein pilots seek to quickly complete a decision-making cycle - Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action  faster than an enemy fighter. The concept, dating back decades to former Air Force pilot and theorist John Boyd, has long informed fighter-pilot training and combat preparation.

If pilots can complete the OODA loop more quickly than an enemy during an air-to-air combat engagement, described as getting inside an enemys decision-making process, they can destroy an enemy and prevail. Faster processing of information, empowering better pilot decisions, it naturally stands to reason, makes a big difference when it comes to the OODA loop.

Connectivity with air and ground combat assets, drawing upon emerging data-link technology, has been a key part of the exercise as the Air Force strengthens efforts to work with other services on cross-domain fires operations.

The Air Force plans to actualize key aspects of this with, for instance, LINK 16 upgrades to the F-22 that enable it to improve data-sharing with the F-35 and 4th-generation aircraft in real-time in combat.

The F-22 program is developing enhanced 5th-to-5th generation and 5th-to-4th generation aircraft communications via the TACLink 16 program, Capt. Emily Grabowski, Air Force Spokeswoman, told Warrior Maven.

Grabowski added that this program includes hardware and software modifications to field LINK 16 transmit on the F-22. While not eliminating the need for voice communication, transmitting and receiving via LINK 16 datalinks can expedite data- and video-sharing, target coordination and more secure non-voice connectivity.

If somebody broke our encryption they could listen to our conversation. LINK 16 transit allows us to share our screen without having any voice pass, Ken Merchant, Vice President, F-22 Programs, Lockheed, told Warrior Maven in an interview earlier this year.

Merchant added that F-35-F-22 LINK 16 connectivity should be operational by 2020.

This new philosophy will allow us to set an aggressive target for ourselves. Pilots will be better able to see an enemy or air-to-air asset coming their way, Merchant said.

Once fielded, the F-22 TACLink 16 will enable the F-22 to receive and transmit with other platforms, such as the F-35, F-16, F-15 and others, Grabowski said.

Additional F-35-F-22 LINK 16 tests are planned for 2019 and 2020.

First operational in 2005, the F-22 is a multi-role fighter designed with stealth technology to evade enemy radar detection and speeds able to reach Mach 2 with what is called "super-cruise" capability. Supercruise is the ability to cruise at supersonic airspeeds such as 1.5 Mach without needing afterburner, a capability attributed to the engine thrust and aerodynamic configuration of the F-22.

The F-22 is built with two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines with afterburners, Air Force statements said.

The aircraft has a 44-foot wingspan and a maximum take-off weight of more than 83,000 pounds.

-- F-22 Mini-Series PART I: Rapid Raptor Program Sends F-22s to War in 24 Hours CLICK HERE ---

--- F-22 Mini-Series PART II: Air Force Maps Future F-22 Weapons Strategy CLICK HERE ---

--- F-22 Mini-Series Part III: F-22 & AI Through 2060 CLICK HERE

More Weapons and Technology - WARRIOR MAVEN (CLICK HERE)Americas growing number of school shootings has been good for the bottom line of a company that makes bulletproof backpacks.

The Israeli company Masada Armour, which designs military-grade vests, helmets and uniforms, developed a bulletproof backpack that costs about $493.

The backpack, which is designed for normal things like books, notebooks and a laptop, can easily be converted into a bulletproof vest that would stop handgun bullets and, according to the Independent, those from high-velocity rifles like AK-47s. Ballistic hard plates could be added for higher levels of protection.

FACEBOOK CONTINUES TO GET HIT, AS TEENS LEAVE IN DROVES

The company is reportedly scaling up production to keep up with demand from parents in the U.S. who are worried about their childrens safety as the new school year begins.

In two months we have sold hundreds and are gearing up to increase production rates to 500 units per month, chief executive Snir Koren told the AFP news agency.

The backpack is suitable for older teenagers, according to the Independent, due to its weight. But the Israeli firm is looking into developing a backpack for younger students.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has recently said that any decisions about arming teachers should be made by states and local districts.

Compared to most countries, Americans are much more likely to die from gun violence. According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, there have been 238 mass shootings so far in 2018 and a total of 9,837 gun deaths.

According to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which compiles data on lives lost globally each year, the U.S. had 3.85 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2016, the 31st highest rate in the world; in the U.K., that figure was 0.07, in Japan, it was 0.04, and in Germany it was 0.12.

EX-SILICON VALLEY WORKERS PLEAD FOR HELP IN BATTLE AGAINST 'ADDICTIVE' TECHNOLOGY

In February, Nikolas Cruz gunned down 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, while three months later, Dimitrios Pagourtzis killed eight students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School.The U.S. Navy and Huntington Ingalls Industries have begun integrating new radar, weapons and steel structures into its now 50-percent complete second new Ford-Class carrier, the USS Kennedy.

Builders report the massive progress is due, in large measure, to the integration of one of the largest planned steel structures, the "superlifts," HII reports.

"Weighing approximately 905 metric tons, the unit is one of the heaviest of the planned steel structures, known as superlifts, that will be joined together to make up the second ship in the Gerald R. Ford class. The superlift of the aft section of the ship between the hangar bay and flight deck is 80 feet long, about 110 feet wide and four decks in height," a statement from Huntington Ingalls said.

Combining 19 smaller units into one superlift allowed Newport News to install a majority of the outfitting equipmentgrating, pumps, valves, pipe, electrical panels, mounting studs, lighting, ventilation and other components, developers added.

Earlier this year, the Navy completed the addition of the lower stern, Huntington Ingalls Industries announced.

HII ship developers have been employing a newer construction strategy for the Kennedy, involving a handful of techniques intended to lower costs and call upon lessons learned from the building of the first Ford-class carrier in recent years, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78).

With so much of the ship built, hundreds of structural units have been completed on items such as pipe assemblies, cabling, shafts, rudders and struts for the ship, HII reported in an Aug. 31 statement.

Ford Class Serves into the Next Century

The USS Kennedy will replace the USS Nimitz which is due to retire by 2027; the Ford-class carriers are slated to replace the existing Nimitz-class carriers on a one-to-one basis in an incremental fashion over the next fifty years or so.

One of the construction techniques for Kennedy construction has included efforts to assemble compartments and parts of the ship together before moving them to the dock  this expedites construction by allowing builders to integrate larger parts of the ship more quickly.

This technique, referred to by Huntington Ingalls developers as modular construction, was also used when building the Ford; the process welds smaller sections of the ship together into larger structural superlift units before being lifted into the dry dock, HII statements explained.

Construction begins with the bottom of the ship and works up with inner-bottoms and side shells before moving to box units, he explained. The bottom third of the ship gets built first. Also, some of the design methods now used for the Kennedy include efforts to fabricate or forge some parts of the ship - instead of casting them because it makes the process less expensive, builders explained.

HII ship developers have been making an aggressive effort to lower costs of the USS Kennedy. Officials have said that the cost of the USS Kennedy will be well over $1.5 billion less than the costs to build the first Ford-Class ship.

The Navy received substantial criticism in recent years from lawmakers and government watchdog groups during the construction of the USS Ford for rising costs. Construction costs for the USS Ford wound up being several billion above early cost estimates. Cost overruns with the construction wound up leading Congress to impose a $12.9 billion cost-cap on the ship.

At the time, Navy officials pointed out that integrating new technologies brings challenges and that at least $3 billion of the Fords costs were due to whats described as non-recurring engineering costs for a first-in-class ship such as this. Nonetheless, service leaders have consistently said that the Navy is making substantial progress with efforts to lower costs for the Kennedy.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Video of USS Kennedy construction

Also, Newport News Shipbuilding  a division of HII - was able to buy larger quantities of parts earlier in the construction process with the Kennedy because, unlike the circumstance during the building of the USS Ford, the Kennedys ship design was complete before construction begins.

As for the design, the Kennedy will be largely similar to the design of the USS Ford, with a few minor alterations. The Kennedy will receive a new radar and its aircraft elevators will use electric motors instead of a hydraulic system to lower costs.

New Radar for USS Kennedy

The Navy plans to test and operate a new, highly-sensitive ship-defense radar technology for its 2nd Ford-Class aircraft carrier -- to detect incoming enemy fire, anti-ship cruise missiles and airborne threats such as attacking drones, fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters.

The new radar, called the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar, or EASR, is slated to go on the now-under-construction USS Kennedy (CVN 79), as well as several of the service's amphibs such as the LX(R) and its third big-deck America-class amphib, LHA 8.

Testing is slated for next year and technical development of EASR is now underway, Navy officials said.

EASR uses gallium nitride (GaN) semi-conductor technology and builds upon common hardware, software and processing elements of the Navys next-generation AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense Radar slated for the services Flight III DDG 51 destroyers.

EASR is a SPY-6 variant, using identical hardware, signal processing and data processing. EASR will have the additional capability of air-traffic control radar, which ADMR does not have, a senior Navy official told reporters last year.

Much like SPY-6, EASR is engineered to be cyber-hardened and reliable, according to Raytheon statements.

EASR has cost and reliability benefits of gallium nitride. It uses digital beam forming and advanced algorithms for operations in high-clutter, near-land electromagnetic interference environments, a Raytheon statement said.

The AN/SPY-6 is described by radar engineers as being 35-times more powerful than most-current ship-based radar systems; developers say it enables detection of objects twice as far away and half the size compared with existing radars.

In radar terminology, a 15-decibel increase with AMDR translates into roughly 35 times more power and sensitivity compared to the existing AN/SPY-1D radar.

AMDR (AN/SPY-6) consists of S-band and X-band radars and a radar suite controller. Together, the technologies are able to scan, track and search the horizon and surrounding area for threats by sending an electromagnetic signal into the atmosphere, then analyzing the return signal of what it hits. The information can provide dimensions of a missile or other incoming threat by identifying its size, shape, location and trajectory.

Similar to its predecessor, the Aegis AN/SPY-1D radar, the AMDR includes a phased-array radar, Navy officials said. The S-band radar is engineered for long-range detection, whereas the X-band radar performs the over-the-horizon search capability, according to the service.

AMDR is optimized for anti-air and ballistic missile defense missions but is also capable in the anti-surface and counter-battery arenas.

Much like todays AN/SPY-1D radar, the AMDR will be able to scan the surface as well, assisting with the fire-control technology needed to identify where an incoming threat can be intercepted.

Ship Defenses

There is much discussion about how the USS Ford and USS Kennedy's massively-increased onboard power technology, driven by four 26-megawatt generators, will potentially enable emerging weapons, such as defensive lasers and railguns.

Besides carrying over 75 warplanes, the USS Ford (and the USS Kennedy as well) have some serious destructive capability. Engineers and designers included ESSM (Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile), RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile), and a Mk-15 Phalanx CIWS, a report from Engineering.com writes.

Fast moving modern threats are inspiring a new generation of ship-defense technologies for Navy carriers, to include interceptor missiles, torpedo defenses, electronic warfare and even lasers. These systems are being stepped up on the USS Ford and USS Kennedy due to emerging weapons from potential adversaries such as hypersonic missiles, long-range anti-ship weapons and electronic warfare attacks.

This is particularly true in light of the often discussed threats of Chinese DF-21D carrier killer, a long range anti-ship guided missile reported to reach ranges greater than 900 miles. The Chinese DF-26 is also cited in a Pentagon report on China's military as being a source of considerable concern.

There is much discussion about how the USS Ford and USS Kennedy's massively-increased onboard power technology, driven by four 26-megawatt generators, will potentially enable emerging weapons, such as defensive lasers and railguns.

Upgraded Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile

The USS Ford is expected to deploy with the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Block 2, or ESSM, a weapon designed to track and destroy incoming enemy supersonic missiles and anti-ship missiles, among other threats.

The ESSM Block 2 is engineered with whats called an active guidance system, meaning the missile itself can achieve improved flight or guidance to its target by both receiving and actively sending electromagnetic signals, Navy and industry ESSM developers told Warrior Maven in previous interviews.

The current ESSM missiles use whats called a semi-active guidance system, meaning the missile itself can receive electromagnetic signals bounced off the target by an illuminator; the ESSM Block 2s active guidance includes illuminator technology built onto the missile itself such that it can both receive and send important electromagnetic signals, Navy and Raytheon officials explained.

A shipboard illuminator is an RF signal that bounces off a target. The antenna in the nose in the guidance section [of the missile] sees the reflected energy and then corrects to intercept that reflective energy, Raytheon officials told Warrior.

The emerging missile has an active front end, meaning it can send an electromagnetic signal forward to track a maneuvering target, at times without needing a ship-based illuminator for guidance.

Also, the missile is able to intercept threats that are close to the surface by sea-skimming or diving in onto a target from a higher altitude, Navy officials explained.

Phalanx Close in Weapons System

The Phalanx Close in Weapons System, or CIWS, is an area weapon engineered to use a high rate of fire and ammunition to blanket a given area, destroying or knocking enemy fire out of the sky before it can reach a ship. The Phalanx CIWS, which can fire up to 4,500 rounds per minute, has been protecting ship platforms for decades.

CWIS firs a 20 mm Vulcan cannon mounted on a swiveling base. An essay in Naval Forces magazine called "CIWS - the Last Ditch Defense," further specifics that the weapon fires "armor piercing tungsten penetrator rounds with discarding sabots." CIWS fires a M61A1 Gatling gun out to ranges of 3 km (1.9 miles).

In previous interviews, Navy officials have told Warrior Maven that the latest CIWS Block IB provides ships the additional capability for defense against asymmetric threats such as small, high speed, maneuvering surface craft, slow-flying fixed and rotary-winged aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

A CIWS overhaul in recent years has consisted of numerous upgrades to the weapon itself, converting the existing systems into what's called the Phalanx 1B configuration. At the same time, the CIWS overhaul also includes the development and ongoing integration of a new, next-generation radar for the system called the CIWS Phalanx Block IB Baseline 2, Navy officials explained.

The Phalanx Block IB configuration incorporates a stabilized Forward-Looking Infra-Red sensor, an automatic acquisition video tracker, optimized gun barrels (OBG) and the Enhanced Lethality Cartridges (ELC),

The FLIR also improves performance against anti-ship cruise missiles by providing more accurate angle tracking information to the fire control computer.

The OGB/ELC combine to provide tighter dispersion and increased first hit range, a Navy official added. The Phalanx 1B fires Mk 244 ammunition, using the Enhanced Lethality Cartridge specifically designed to penetrate anti-ship cruise missiles.

The Mk 244 ammunition is engineered with a 48 percent heavier tungsten penetrator and an aluminum nose piece, according to information from General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems.

The Phalanx Block IB Baseline 2 radar upgrade is a new digital radar that provides improved detection performance, increased reliability and reduction in sailor man-hours for system maintenance, developers said.

The Baseline 2 upgrade mitigates obsolete components inherent in the existing analog radar by introducing COTS-based (commercial off-the-shelf) signal processing coupled with a new signal source and mixer.

CIWS uses "Ku-band radar featuring closed-loop spotting technology capable of autonomously performing its own search, detect, evaluation, track, engage and kill assessment functions," a Naval Forces essay writes.

The Baseline 2 radar also provides the Phalanx CIWS with "surface mode," meaning it adds the ability to track, detect and then destroy threats closer to the surface of the water compared with previous models of the weapon, developers explained.

More Weapons and Technology - WARRIOR MAVEN (CLICK HERE)--Airports can be difficult. Delays, unexpected weather, and oversold flights can easily leave passengers in limbo. But limbo is exactly what this Guinness World Record holder does best.

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Shemika Charles is an internationally recognized limbo dancer who lives in Buffalo, New York. Charles earned her first Guinness World Record in 2010 for Lowest Female Limbo by reaching 8.5 inches off the ground.

She claimed her second in 2016 by limboing for over 10 feet at a height of less than a foot, claiming the record for The Farthest Distance to Limbo under 12 Inches. Charles can also be seen defying gravity on seasons 6 and 12 of "Americas Got Talent."

Now, as a limbo superstar, Charles is regularly flying around the world to showcase her talents. We all know that waiting for flights can be dull, but for Charles, airports are the perfect place to spend a few hours practicing her craft. In a now viral video originally recorded in January, Charles can be seen limboing to dangerously low levels underneath chairs at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Airports are notoriously good spots for people watching, but to believe this wild airport trick, youll have to watch the video for yourself.

This article originally appeared on Travel + Leisure.Its a job that promises six-figure salaries, access to the worlds glitziest destinations and endless parties with celebrities and royalty.

Working on a multimillion-dollar superyacht is an increasingly popular job option for young people keen to work as deckhands, stewardesses and captains on the luxury vessels as they cruise through the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas.

But the mysterious life of workers below the deck on these opulent superyachts has been thrown in the spotlight after the sudden death of Sydney model Sinead McNamara, who was found dead on the Mayan Queen IV in Greece.

The 20-year-old had been working for just four months on the $140 million superyacht before her body was found on Friday at the back of the boat that was anchored off the island of Kefalonia.

McNamara, who was originally from Port Macquarie in New South Wales, Australia, had been working on yachts while traveling through Europe  not unlike many young travelers hoping to make extra money by taking up work on the boats.

VIKING CRUISES BANS CHILDREN, SAYS CLIENTS WANT KID-FREE VACATIONS

Recruitment agencies promote the jobs as opportunities to experience great adventures and possibly earn up to $140,000 a year tax-free, depending on their role and the size of the vessel.

But no matter how glamorous a gleaming superyacht may seem, for the crew, the reality of life on board is a stark contrast to what the A-list guests enjoy above deck.

An Australian woman named Sarah Begbie was expecting days of champagne brunches and all-night parties when she started work as a hostess on the multimillion-dollar yacht Trinity, based in South-East Asia, when she was 23.

Its not quite what she got.

My daily tasks included but were not limited to, all food and beverages services, all housekeeping including making up the guest rooms, guest and crew laundry, linen and turndown service, accounts, stock control and provisioning, she said.

Basically imagine a 165-foot yacht which contains six crew bedrooms, crew mess, galley, seven guest bedrooms, eight guest bathrooms, main saloon, dining room, front lounge and bridge  all of which myself and two stewardesses are responsible for keeping clean 24/7 while doing all of the food and beverage services and at times containing as much as 11 crew and 16 guests. It was intense.

Begbie worked between 16 and 18 hours a day, and the little time she had in her room had its own challenges  she said her quarters were smaller than a jail cell.

I earned probably just over $3,200 per month. This was, however, tax-free money and I, of course, had no living expenses, she said.

Other boats, however, offer chief stewardesses anywhere between $4,000 to $6,000 per month.

CHARTER SHIP CONFESSIONS: 'STRIPPER' SHOWS, ALCOHOL, AND OTHER SAUCY SECRETS FROM BELOW DECK

Our boat was privately owned which meant we didnt receive tips. However, having mixed and worked with a lot of different crew, I heard a lot of stories of amazing tips  of people working in the Mediterranean receiving as much as $10,000 for a week-long charter.

The job wasnt without some perks. One birthday, Begbie received an Armani watch and was treated to a lavish dinner by the yachts owners.

And she did get an insight into how the very wealthy lived.

There were always plenty of young female guests on board to keep any single men occupied and these were women that looked like they had just come from the Victorias Secret runway, she said.

Our backyard was literally crystal clear waters and deserted white beaches for as far as the eye could see. Although while on charter it was difficult to appreciate this, during time off and breaks it was amazing.

Among the benefits of working on superyachts were tax-free salaries and the opportunity for tips from high-rolling guests. And if they can put up with the cramped quarters, staff got accommodation and utilities for free.

But the salary ranged wildly, depending on the size of the boat and the role, former yacht workers told News.com.au.

While captains could earn anything from $55,000 to $140,000 a year, deckhands fetched between $17,000 and $36,000.

And the work was hard. As well as catering to every diva demand of the owner and their guests  who were often protected by nondisclosure agreements signed by staff  workers had to keep the multimillion-dollar vessels in tip-top condition.

Former deckhand Alex, who worked for six months on a new 120-foot superyacht, described his job as a glorified cleaner.

He had to clean the boat every morning, remove condensation and polish everything to a high sheen.

When you do varnishing its not just one or two coats, its 10-12 coats, he told News.com.au. Thats what it needs to keep it in the immaculate stage. Its worth millions and millions of dollars so thats whats expected here.

Bethany Silcox worked as a superyacht stewardess for three years on various vessels, owned by wealthy businessmen and Middle Eastern royalty, and often had Russian oligarchs as charter guests.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Two of those were charter yachts. One cost $1 million per week to charter and the other $40,000 per week, before provisioning and fuel, she told the Daily Mail.

But there was limited opportunity to indulge in the decadent setting.

The longest day I had was 25 hours continuously on my feet and the longest stint I did at sea was 40 consecutive days without stepping foot on land, Silcox said.

Another former yacht staff member named Sarah, who worked in the industry for five years, said it could be like a pressure cooker below deck.

She started on a family-owned private yacht in Valencia, Spain before moving to a larger boat with 15 crew based in Italy.

The extreme wealth on some of these massive boats is something you would never dream of, Sarah told News.com.au.

You cant contemplate how much money these people have, its crazy.

Everything depends on whos coming on board and the owners. Youre far from family and friends. Youre working with 15 crew that you live and sleep and play with.

Its a really intensive situation. It can be fabulous in one sense but youre working 12 to 16 hours a day, every day. It can become like a pressure cooker situation.

This story was originally published by News.com.au.A dozen anti-violence protesters were arrested in Chicago on Monday after they tried and failed to block an expressway that leads to OHare International Airport, police said.

Organizer Rev. Gregory Livingston said that the purpose of the march was to bring attention to the lack of investment in neighborhoods where the bulk of Chicago shootings have unfolded.

State troopers blocked the ramp leading to Kennedy Expressway and warned protesters that they would be arrested if they didnt turn around. Police arrested Livingston in the midst of all the chaos after he refused to turn back. Arrest me, he told police.

The arrested were issued citations for being pedestrians on a highway and released.

The violence in Chicago has continued with little relief.

Since Memorial Day, 1,026 people have been shot in Chicago  down just 15 percent from this time last year. Overall, there have been 162 homicides since May 26.

Some critics have called for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is facing reelection next year, to resign.

"Our souls are burdened," Emanuel said of the deadly wave of shootings earlier this summer. "It is unacceptable to happen in any neighborhood of Chicago. We are a better city."

Fox News' Madeline Farber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.A woman in California allegedly lied about being kidnapped on Saturday because she was unable to pay her employees, and now police are reportedly preparing a warrant for her arrest.

Maria Gonzalez, 33, reported around 2:30 p.m. that she had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two masked men at an intersection in Fresno, KFSN-TV reported.

Fresno Police confirmed local media reports to Fox News, but didn't provide further details on the incident.

STOLEN RUBY SLIPPERS FROM 'WIZARD OF OZ' RECOVERED, FBI SAYS

The woman allegedly claimed she was ordered by the men to drive. She reportedly claimed she lost consciousness and woke up in a home in Caruthers, roughly 20 miles south, with her hands tied and a rag in her mouth.

Gonzalez also reportedly claimed she was missing $9,000 she intended to use to pay the employees of her family trucking business.

Investigators, however, determined Gonzalez made up the reported kidnapping because she didn't have the money to pay two of the employees.

"The truth is Maria Gonzalez made up this entire story for the purpose of letting someone know that $9,000 had been stolen from her  $9,000 she was supposed to pay to subcontractors," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer told The Fresno Bee. "The reality is she didnt have the $9,000 to pay the subcontractors, and thats why she made up the entire story."

Dyer said that Gonzalez "at times appeared to be credible, and then at times there were certain things that were said that caused detectives to believe that perhaps she was not credible."

Police are reportedly working on a warrant for Gonzalez's arrest for filing a false police report.Police have identified the woman who was caught on video crashing her car in a high-speed chase and attempting to carjack someone  all with a baby in tow.

Caitlyn Rodriguez has been locked up on child endangerment, possession of a controlled substance and evading arrest charges since her June 15 arrest in San Antonio, local network KSAT reported.

A Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter caught the 29-year-old zooming 100 mph down Route 90  with the kid strapped in the back seat of her Mercedes SUV  after cops tried to pull her over on outstanding warrants.

She crashed into the back of a pickup truck, jumped out and retrieved the baby, car seat and all, before fleeing on foot.

With the car seat on her arm, Rodriguez dashed across several lanes of the busy highway and hopped into a Nissan Xterra that she tried carjacking.

Cops were able to thwart her escape by blocking the SUV and yanking her out of the vehicle.

The baby, who was not injured, was taken by Child Protective Services.

Click for more from The New York PostKuwaits Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah said on Tuesday that the visit of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to the USA comes within the framework of the historical ties between the two countries for more than 100 years.

Al-Jarallah made his remarks to KUNA, stressing the keenness of the two friendly countries in strengthening their strategic partnership.

He underlined the importance of the visit in light of the accelerating regional and international developments, especially those related to the situation in the Gulf region, the developments in the Middle East peace process, and the challenges within the framework of the international coalition against terrorism.

Moreover, the emir's visit to Washington provides an opportunity to review aspects of cooperation between the two countries, especially those related to the economic, investment, trade, security and defence fields, he said.

Al-Jarallah added that the visit will witness the signing of a number of bilateral agreements aims to boost cooperation between the two countries.

The emir arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington D.C. on Monday for summit talks with US President Donald Trump.

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A young couple -- who were expecting their first child in October -- were among the four killed in a street-racing crash on Friday in California.

Airyana Luna, 20, who was pregnant at the time of the wreck, and her fiance Valentino Miguel Ramos, 21, were killed on the 60 Freeway in Moreno Valley.

Three cars were racing on the freeway when the accident occurred. One of the vehicles lost control and hit a dirt median, banged into a guardrail and then a concrete median before flipping over, CBS News reported.

MAN PLOWS CAR INTO GROUP OF PEOPLE OUTSIDE INDIANA BAR, SOUGHT BY POLICE

The driver of the car, Polo Najera Perez, 21, and another passenger, Rafael Ramirez Espinoza, were also killed in the crash, ABC 7 reported. The four people killed were all from San Bernardino. The couple was sitting in the backseat at the time of the crash. One passenger, a 19-year-old woman, who was not named, was taken to the hospital with injuries.

The young couple had just held their baby shower before the car accident, ABC 7 reported. Their unborn son was due on Oct. 12. It wasn't clear whether the unborn child would be counted as a victim.

She was excited for the baby. She was the kindest person, she had no bad intentions, very sweet and in love with Valentino, Katrina Garcia, Lunas aunt, told the Press-Enterprise. They were a young couple in love.

"She was just so full of life. She was ready to have her baby. She wanted to be a mom so bad and with the smile on her face, you could just see that she was ready," Lunas father, Aaron Luna, told ABC 7.

LONG ISLAND POLICE DOG KILLED IN CRASH AFTER CHASE

The California Highway Patrol said they were searching for the drivers of the two other cars involved in the crash.

Alcohol is suspected to have been a factor in this collision, CHP Officer B. Johs said.

Ramos and Lunas families both set up GoFundMe campaigns to raise money for funeral expenses.A former Philadelphia police officer was charged with criminal homicide Tuesday in connection with the fatal shooting of a black man during a confrontation following a traffic stop last year.

The officer, Ryan Pownall, is also charged with reckless endangerment in the June 2017 shooting, according to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Pownall, who was fired from the force pending an appeal, turned himself in Tuesday morning and was scheduled for arraignment later in the day.

According to a grand jury report, Pownall was transporting a father and his two children to the police department's Special Victim's Unit on June 8 of last year to be interviewed about a crime committed against one of the children when he saw 30-year-old David Jones riding a dirt bike on a city street. Jones' bike had stalled and he pulled into the parking lot of a night club.

The report said that instead of following police protocol and continuing to SVU, Pownall cut across oncoming traffic and approached Jones.

Pownall frisked Jones and felt a firearm, which lead to a physical altercation. Pownall then attempted to shoot Jones, but his gun jammed. Jones threw his gun away from the confrontation, according to what Pownall told his fellow officer immediately following the shooting.

Jones broke free and ran away from Pownall before being fatally shot in the back. The moment was captured on surveillance video.

Authorities recovered Jones' firearm about 25 feet away from the altercation.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross has previously indicated that Pownall violated protocol when he initially stopped Jones with a victim and witnesses in the back of his patrol car. Ross says he also failed to notify police radio of the traffic stop and did not call for backup.

"In order to fire at a fleeing suspect, there must be an imminent threat of death of serious physical injury to the officer or another person," Ross said, adding that because Jones never looked back and his hands were empty, he "posed no imminent or immediate threat to Pownall."

Police union officials called the charge "absurd," pointing out that the general homicide charge means Pownall will not be eligible for bail under state law.

"Today's meritless indictment clearly illustrates a district attorney that has an anti-law enforcement agenda," said police union President John McNesby. "We will have a vigorous defense ... and we expect him to be cleared of all charges and to get his job back protecting this community."

Krasner said his office had done a separate investigation to that done by the grand jury, resulting in the charges Tuesday. The city's previous district attorney had asked the state attorney general to investigate the shooting because of a conflict of interest, but the investigation was given back to the district attorney's office when Krasner took over.

"We are also doing something that is regrettably unusual in the history of the city of Philadelphia," Krasner said. "Because this is a city like many other American cities, where there has not been accountability for activity by police officers in uniform especially when that activity involved violence against civilians."

Click for more from Fox29.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A Florida restaurateur is accused of shooting into the home of a perturbed diner who took a shot at the restaurant in an online review.

Norman Auvil, 42, of Orlando was arrested Thursday and charged with "shooting into a dwelling and abuse of a disabled adult." Orange County Sheriffs Office said Auvil was drinking beer with the restaurant owners son, Michael Johnson, who was upset about the review.

The men found reviewer Monica Walleys address and drove to the home. WFTV reported Auvil was in an SUV with Johnson at the time of the incident before Auvil allegedly shot into the home three times.

Walley and her father, Ken Walley, were at their Holden Heights home when they were shot at Aug. 20.

"I actually could feel the air from the bullet as it passed by me, Ken Walley told FOX 35 Orlando. He said he was sitting on the couch when the bullet flew by his head, narrowly missing him.

The Orange County Sheriffs Office said the shots were fired in retaliation for a negative review Monica Walley wrote about the Daybreak Diner. The gunfire happened on the same night her review was posted.

COPS ID MOM WHO THEY SAY BROUGHT BABY ON HIGH-SPEED CHASE



"When this all happened, I thought, 'No way!' I mean like, after a bad restaurant review? This doesn't seem right, she said.

Monica Walley said she wrote the review after the restaurant refused her disabled mother service. Walley said the restaurant told her mother she needed to be accompanied by another person if she wanted to dine there. She said the restaurant told her mother she could order and wait for her food in her vehicle.

Walley said her mother had a fall at the restaurant in the past and had gone to the restaurant after that with a companion.

"It was my mother's birthday, and all she wanted was her favorite Greek omelet. She arrived back home in tears, Walley wrote in the review.

Following the post, the diner received angry phone calls and negative comments from online users. The owner of the diner said her business was ruined following the post.

IN-N-OUT BOYCOTT NOT HAPPENING, CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT NOW SAYS AFTER CALLING FOR BOYCOTT

"The social media campaign resulted in negative online reviews, negative social media posts and harassing and angry phone calls to the restaurant," the arrest report said. "The restaurant's owner, Lizabeth Johnson, later stated she felt that day that her business was ruined as a result of the negative social media campaign."Two Florida siblings driving along Interstate-75 did not hesitate to jump out of their delivery truck to help a couple and their 11-day-old baby whose car had overturned into a watery ditch after they were sideswiped by another vehicle.

Aaron Allen and his sister, Jolisa Jones, were driving their Ashley Furniture delivery truck  two hours late for work  just north of Tampa when they saw a white Chrysler hit the couples Toyota RAV4 nearby.

The car pretty much just blind-sided them, and Im pretty sure they were just as scared, and I was shocked, Allen told FOX 13 News. The first thing I could do was to spring into action.

The siblings quickly rushed to the RAV4 and worked together to help flip over the vehicle to get the occupants out.

I saw that the water was seeping into the car, where it was turned upside down, Allen recalled. We tried to break the windows, but that didnt work.

He continued: So the only thing I could think of was to flip the car over So what happened is after we flipped it over to the side, I took my shirt off and wrapped it around my fist and I used my fist to break the windshield off.

They were able to pull Thomas and Diana Windsor and their daughter out of the flooded vehicle.

Some angels, Diana Windsor told ABC Action News, to which her husband added: Yeah, angels. Guardians. Heaven sent.

The couple said they were headed home after a doctors appointment when the Chrysler smashed into their vehicle.

I saw the water coming and I didnt know how deep it was and I started freaking out, Thomas Windsor recalled.

When Allen and Jones were able to flip over the car and break the windshield, the Windsors handed the siblings their 11-day-old daughter Azara first, before they climbed out.

The siblings will have scars to remember their heroic actions  Allen got 14 stiches in his arm, while Jones suffered injuries to her fingers.

They are being called heroes  a title Allen seeks to downplay, saying anyone else would also have jumped into action.

"If I was in that situation, I would want someone to come to my rescue, honestly. I would want someone to help me, he told FOX 13 News.

Neither of the Windsors nor their daughter was injured but the baby was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Florida Highway Patrol are looking for the driver of the white Chrysler, who witnesses said fled the scene after the crash.Inmates sent to help fight wildfires are back behind bars in Idaho after one inmate was charged with raping a woman working at a base camp in Utah, authorities said Tuesday.

The Idaho Department of Correction is reviewing the way they select, train and deploy those inmates, spokesman Jeff Ray said.

Most Western states have similar programs that allow low-level offenders to be temporarily released to help fight wildfires. In California, hundreds of minimum-security inmates fought on the front lines of the state's largest-ever blaze this year.

Idaho inmate Ruben Hernandez, 27, was charged with felony rape in Utah after a woman reported that he assaulted her Aug. 29 when she rejected his advances in the remote area about 80 miles (129 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.

He was part of a 10-person crew who did janitorial and cooking duties at base camp, supervised by two Idaho correctional officers.

Inmates are typically allowed to move about fairly freely, said Sanpete County attorney Kevin Daniels. Hernandez doesn't have a history of assault or similar crimes, and was less than a year from a parole date on a drug charge.

"Historically, there's not been a whole lot of problems. This is very, very atypical," the prosecutor said.

No attorney was immediately listed for Hernandez in Utah court records, and a message left for one of his previous attorneys was not immediately returned. He is being held without bail in Utah.

The woman told police Hernandez had been flirting with her and asked for her number. She gave him a friend's husband's contact information to get him to leave her alone, according to charging documents filed Friday.

One morning as she was sitting in a wash trailer watching a movie, Hernandez entered, exposed himself and asked for oral sex, authorities said. He assaulted her after she again rejected him, according to charging documents.

She froze, afraid to scream or stop him because she knew he was a prisoner and didn't want to get hurt, the charges say. She told a friend, who reported the assault to base-camp security guards.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted.

Utah authorities stopped bringing state prisoners to work on wildfires a decade ago after men got injured, Daniels said.

Like many wildfires, the so-called Coal Hollow Fire was managed by a special team of federal and state agencies, so county authorities weren't aware that Idaho inmates were part of the force of about 200 at the time of the assault.

The lightning-sparked blaze started Aug. 4 and torched about 47 square miles (122 square kilometers). It's now about 80 percent contained.A store owner in Pennsylvania remains hospitalized with a bullet lodged in his neck after narrowly escaping a confrontation with an illegal immigrant who used the man's own gun against him on Saturday, according to police.

The Upper Darby Police Department told FOX29 the shooting happened at 9 p.m. at Aaron's Beer Distributor, located just outside of Philadelphia. Earlier in the day, police said 24-year-old Pablo Quintanilla entered the store and stole three beers then left and returned at 9 p.m.  when he was confronted by the store owner, who punched him.

Quintanilla can then be seen on surveillance video knocking the owner down.

The owner's legally owned handgun then fell to the ground and Quintanilla grabbed it and pointed the weapon at its owner, police said. He fired at least four shots, according to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.

"The gun is grabbed by the bad guy, bad guy shoots him, fires at least four shots at him," Chitwood said during a news conference. "I don't know how he didn't kill him. He shot him point-blank."

Chitwood said that Quintanilla is an illegal immigrant from Honduras who was deported by federal border patrol agents in March 2015. Federal immigration officials have been notified about the arrest, and the 24-year-old is being held at the Delaware County prison.

"Some bad guy, some thug who's in here illegally, winds up shooting and almost killing you," Chitwood said at a news conference.

TEXAS WONT USE TAXPAYER FUNDS TO EDUCATE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HELD AT THE BORDER

Police arrested Quintanilla on Monday after officials put out his picture from surveillance video and charged him with attempted murder.

"Some bad guy, some thug who's in here illegally, winds up shooting and almost killing you."  Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood

The son of the store owner, who asked to not be identified, told FOX29 his father is in stable condition, but still has a bullet lodged in his neck.

"Right now [my dad is] doing wellhe's recovering," the son said. "Every day, you hope family comes home to you safely and unfortunately on Saturday that was not the case but he's recovering."Authorities in Indiana are searching for a driver who plowed into a group of people outside a bar early Saturday in a dramatic moment captured on video.

The Muncie Police Department told FOX59 they're looking for 29-year-old Keith Childress after some type of disturbance that escalated.

It was definitely intentional, witness Joe Hardwick told the television station.

In video released by police, tires can be heard squealing as people scream in the background and the Dodge Charger slams into the crowd. People can also been seen being thrown on the hood of the car and knocked on the ground.

[It] got out of hand way too quick, Det. Kyle Monroe with the Muncie Police Department told FOX59. He was obviously backing out and couldve left the parking lot but decided to stop and turn left 45 degrees or so into a group."

COPS ID MOM WHO THEY SAY BROUGHT BABY ON HIGH-SPEED CHASE

Hardwick said he was thrown into a wall by the vehicle, but was "very thankful" to walk away without any serious injuries.

Police found the Charger damaged and abandoned on a nearby street. Childress could face multiple charges, including battery, leaving the scene of an accident and criminal recklessness, according to police.A mother and father in Wisconsin were charged on Tuesday after their 15-year-old son reportedly died during a 40-day religious fast.

Kehinde Omosebi, 49, and Titilayo Omosebi, 48, of Reedsburg, face charges of child neglect causing death and child neglect causing great bodily harm, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

MOTHER'S BOYFRIEND ARRESTED IN DEATH OF 10-YEAR-OLD BOY WHO COMPLAINED ABOUT ABUSE: POLICE

On Sunday, Kehinde allegedly walked to the Reedburg police station to report his son had died on Friday, Chief Timothy Becker said. Friday wouldve been the 44th day of the fast.

Investigators who went to the Omosebi home reportedly had to force their way in, as the doors was padlocked on the inside. No food was discovered in the home. They found the extremely emaciated and deceased teenager, and also found a gaunt 11-year-old child, along with his mother, Titilayo, who was also undernourished, according to the report.

The father, Kehinde, told authorities that the family began fasting on July 19, and that he was a religious minister affiliated with Cornerstone Reformation Ministries, which is believed by police to have been made up.

MOTHER ARRESTED, CHARGED WITH MURDER OF FLORIDA BOY JORDAN BELLIVEAU

The mother and 11-year-old were transported to a hospital. The mother reportedly refused medical treatment due to religious reasons, and was taken to the Sauk County Jail.

The child remains in protective custody at Childrens Hospital in Madison, while, according to Becker, the parents are eating while in jail.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Even as San Francisco bans plastic straws in an effort to clean up the city, the streets are now reportedly littered with plastic caps from free syringes.

The orange plastic caps come from the free hypodermic needles that officials hand out to prevent diseases spreading among drug users. The city hands out an estimated 400,000 syringes each month for drug users, but has little control on how these needles are disposed of. The San Francisco Chronicle previously reported more than 154,000 needles end up in the streets, sidewalks, parks and playgrounds.

Meanwhile, leaders in the California city are hoping to prevent plastic straws from washing up in the San Francisco Bay. The city unanimously approved in July a plan to ban plastic straws and stirrers, as well as food containers made with fluorinated chemicals. Items such as condiment packets and napkins will be given out at bars and restaurants upon request.

OPINION: IN SILLY SAN FRANCISCO DISEASE-RIDDEN NEEDLES ARE A-OK BUT A PLASTIC COCKTAIL STIRRER WILL SOON BE ILLEGAL

But these days, the orange plastic syringe caps are freely found scattered on streets and sidewalks, the Washington Post reported.

Napkins, straws, and bags are available upon request, sandwich shop Sentinel write on a menu footnote. You can still get needles for free though. Welcome to SF.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed told the newspaper that she wants residents and visitors to feel the city is so clean.

I want people to walk around this city and think, Wow, its so clean here, Breed said. I want people just hanging out in front of where they live and enjoying the weather, people of all races, able to live in dignity because they have a home and are able to make ends meet.

Breed said implementing the plastic straw ban is addressing a future problem, while working to clean the streets of items such as human feces, a Public Works crew dubbed the poop patrol, is addressing a current issue.

There are things that matter now, and there are things that matter for the future of our planet and the next generation of people growing up in this city, she said. We cant just think about what we need to do now.Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall west of the Alabama-Mississippi border late Tuesday night spawning multiple possible tornadoes from powerful winds that have already claimed one life in Florida, FOX 10 reported, citing officials.

The National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings in south Alabama and Northwest Florida after radar indicated possible twisters associated with Gordon. The storm reportedly downed trees and flooded highways as it moved inland but no damage was immediately reported.

Around 8:40 p.m. in Floridas Escambia County, emergency responders received a call of a downed tree that slammed into a mobile home in Pensacola. The Escambia County Sheriffs office said its deputies found a deceased child, whose name and age was not released.

No others were injured. The Escambia County Sheriffs Office is investigating.

Gordon struck land around 10 p.m. and is expected to lose strength as it makes its way inland across the lower Mississippi Valley through Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. It did not reach hurricane status.

The National Weather Service in Mobile cautioned that the Styx River near Elsanor could reach a flood stage later Wednesday.

Gordon had moved from 70 miles south of Mobile, Ala., and roughly 75 miles southeast of Biloxi, garnering maximum sustained winds of 70 mph "with higher gusts" before moving northwest toward the north-central Gulf Coast at 14 mph, where it was forecasted to hit land, the NHC said in a 8 p.m. ET update.

The NHC said Gordons tight core was about 30 miles southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi, or 35 miles south of Mobile, Ala. where heavy rains and winds picked up shortly before nightfall.

The storm quickly blasted Alabama's Dauphin Island with powerful winds and storm surge, as photos and video from the area showed.

On the forecast track, the center of Gordon will make landfall along the north-central Gulf Coast within the hurricane warning area this evening or tonight, and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley through Wednesday, the NHC update said. Gordon could still become a hurricane before landfall occurs along the north-central Gulf Coast.

TROPICAL STORM GORDON THREATENS GULF COAST, HURRICANE WARNING IN PLACE

The hurricane warning remained in effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border, the NHC said. As much as 8 inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday, which could trigger flash flooding in some areas.

A storm surge warning also remained for Shell Beach, Louisiana to Dauphin Island, which could see water levels reach up to five feet, the NHC said. The warning indicates a danger of life-threatening inundations, from rising water moving inland from the coastline.

This is a life-threatening situation, the update warned. Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions.

A storm surge watch also was in place for areas located west of Shell Beach to the mouth of the Mississippi River, as well as areas east of Dauphin Island to Navarre, the NHC said.

President Trump on Tuesday urged residents to adhere to guidance from officials, adding that the government stands ready to assist.

Everyone in the path of #Gordon please heed the advice of State and local officials and follow @NHC_Atlantic for updates, Trump tweeted. The Federal Government stands ready to assist. Be safe!

TROPICAL STORM GORDON DRENCHES SOUTHERN FLORIDA

Governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all declared states of emergency, allowing them to quickly mobilize state resources and National Guard troops to help during and after the storm.

Roughly 200 members of the Louisiana National Guard were activated for the storm, the National Guard tweeted Tuesday.

Fox News Paulina Dedaj, Travis Fedschun, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The U.N. Security Council will hold a meeting on Friday on the situation in Syria's Idlib province, where an expected government offensive could cause a humanitarian disaster, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday.

In a news conference, Haley also said U.S. President Donald Trump plans to host a high-level meeting of the Security Council about Iran during September, when the United States holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation body.

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Tropical Storm Gordon continued to gain strength Tuesday morning and is expected to become a hurricane by the time it hits the central U.S. Gulf Coast, including coastal Mississippi -- just as the hurricane season reaches its peak period.

Voluntary evacuation orders were issued Monday for parts of Louisiana for residents in areas outside the levee protection system. Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Monday and said 200 National Guard troops will be deployed to southeastern Louisiana.

The National Hurricane Center said at 2 p.m. ET that the storm was centered 130 miles south-southeast of Mobile, Alabama. Maximum sustained winds were clocked at 65 mph. After making landfall, it is expected to charge inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.

"Tropical Storm Gordon is forecast to intensify to a minimal hurricane before making landfall near Mississippi tonight before midnight," Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean said Tuesday. "Luckily the storm will be a quick mover lessening impacts from being a prolonged event."

The hurricane warning was placed into effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border. As much as 8 inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through late Thursday.

"Heavy rain will accompany Gordon along its track, spreading an extensive swath of 3 to 6 inches will locally higher amounts," Dean said. "Severe thunderstorms will also be likely over parts of the Gulf Coast with damaging winds and isolated tornadoes."

2018 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON NOW TO BE 'LESS ACTIVE' APPROACHING PEAK MONTHS, NOAA SAYS

The National Hurricane Center reported the storm could unleash "life-threatening" storm surge to portions of the central Gulf Coast. A storm surge warning has been issued for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama. The warning means there is danger of life-threatening inundation. The region could see rising waters of 3 to 5 feet.

"The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves," the center said.

In New Orleans, city officials issued a voluntary evacuation order for all those living outside of the levee protection system, FOX8 reported. That includes the areas of Venetian Isles, Irish Bayou and Lake Catherine.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the main threat to New Orleans stems from rain, with 3 to 6 inches expected. Gordon is expected to dissipate by Saturday somewhere in the central U.S.

In Alabama, retailers did not report a rush of customers preparing to stock up for the upcoming storm.

Not so far today, but I expect traffic will pick up tonight and obviously tomorrow as the storm system gets closer, James Basler, a manager at Academy Sports + Outdoors, told FOX10.

Alabama Power said it was preparing for the worst from Gordon, bringing in crew members from throughout the state to Mobile to make sure in case of an outage, power gets turned back on quickly.

High winds can cause power outages even during the regular thunderstorm so certainly anytime we have weather of this nature we could expect power to go out, Beth Thomas, spokesperson for Alabama Power, told FOX10.

Everyone should make sure they have a plan and make sure that plan is ready just as people would normally do at this time of the year when were at the height of hurricane season," Thomas added.

After periods of heavy rainfall, flood advisories were in effect for parts of South Florida late Monday.

Tropical Storm Gordon is the Atlantic basins seventh named storm of the year. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the Atlantic hurricane season is now expected to be "less active" as it enters its peak months due a combination of conditions in the ocean and atmosphere helping to limit storm development.

NOAA forecasters are now calling for 9 to 13 named storms with winds of 39 mph or higher, of which 4 to 7 will strengthen into hurricanes. Of those storms, there may be up to 2 major hurricanes, which are classified as Category 3, 4 and 5 with winds of 111 mph or higher.

Fox News Caleb Parke and The Associated Press contributed to this report.They say you cant get water from a stone, but one man says he can solve Californias water crisis with water from the desert.

Scott Slater is the CEO of Cadiz, a California company that owns 45,000 acres in the Mojave, one of the driest places on earth. He says that a few hundred feet beneath the ground surface lies an enormous watershed the size of Rhode Island, about 1300 square miles.

He is proposing taking hundreds of trillions of gallons of desert ground water a year and piping it over a hundred miles to the populated suburbs around Los Angeles.

The key to the project is an old railroad line, the Arizona And California Railroad, which runs right through Cadiz property.

The problem has been it's regulated by the federal government. Slater wants to build his pipe near the line to connect to the Southern California aqueduct system. The Obama administration denied him the right of way access.

But then, the Trump administration reversed that decision. Trump even appointed David Bernhardt, Slater's former partner to be number two at the Department of the Interior, which would oversee the project.

But local environmentalists aren't happy.

David Lamfrom from the California Desert and Wildlife Director for National Parks Conservation Association told Fox News Douglas Kennedy that theyre very disappointed by the Trump administrations decision, and that the massive infrastructure project will actually raise water rates and damage the delicate desert ecosystem.

We're looking at harm to our economies, we're looking at harm to our wildlife and we're looking at harm to our communities that have built businesses around people visiting these places, Lamfrom explained.

Slater defended against his critics, arguing, that's completely untrue. We've been through 12 court opinions. Four judges. All of them concluding that this project is environmentally benign and will cause no harm to the environment.

Just this week, a bill that could have stopped the companys plans to pump water out of the Mojave, died in the California Senate.

Once up and running, Slater says the water can and will be used to fight the devastating wildfires plaguing California.A U.S. service member was killed and another was wounded during an apparent "insider attack" in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, according to a statement from U.S. Forces Afghanistan.

It's the second time in two months that a U.S. service member was killed apparently by the very same Afghan forces he was there to train. Six U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

"The sacrifice of our service member, who volunteered for a mission to Afghanistan to protect his country, is a tragic loss for all who knew and all who will now never know him," Resolute Support and U.S. Forces Afghanistan Commanding General Scott Miller said in a statement. "Our duty now is to honor him, care for his family and continue our mission."

The service member who was wounded in the attack is in stable condition, U.S. Forces Afghanistan said. The name of the fallen service member will be released "24 hours after next of kin notification," officials added.

The death came one day after a new U.S. commander for all American and allied forces in Afghanistan took over. The commander, Gen. Scott Miller, is the former head of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), responsible for leading elite commando units such as the Armys Delta Force, SEAL Team Six and the 75th Ranger Regiment.

"The world recognizes Afghanistan cannot be a safe haven for terrorism. The world recognizes we cannot fail. I know this has been a long fight, and it has been generations for us, for the Afghan people. I understand the reason we are fighting, and I know why we are here, and I know terrorists seek safe haven to export murder," Miller said as he assumed command.

Britain's defense minister echoed that point on a recent visit to Afghanistan -- as he warned of the ever-growing threat from the Islamic State. "We are seeing that terrorist groups operating here in Afghanistan, evidence of their links back not just to the United Kingdom but to the whole of continental Europe," British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said during the recent visit.

Some 15,000 American troops remain in Afghanistan, down from a high over 100,000 during the Obama administration.

Last week, the U.S. military's top officer said the reduction marked a new strategy put in place by President Trump a year ago.

"I certainly don't expect that the current forces that we have in Afghanistan represents an enduring large military commitment," Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week during a briefing with reporters at the Pentagon.

The Pentagon said Sunday it killed the head of ISIS in Afghanistan in a drone strike late last month.

This year, the U.S. military has dropped more than 3,500 bombs across Afghanistan, about double the number for the same period a year ago, and more than five times the number from the first half of 2016.Close to 90 elephants have been found dead near a wildlife sanctuary in Botswana, according to conservationists, as the gentle giants are increasingly being threatened by poachers.

Non-profit group Elephants Without Borders, which is conducting a national elephant census, has found the fresh and recent carcasses of 87 poached elephants near the Okavango Delta wildlife sanctuary, director Mike Chase told the BBC. He said he was shocked at the findings in Botswana, which has long been viewed as a refuge for elephants.

OPINION: ELEPHANT TROPHIES? SERIOUSLY? THIS IS WHAT WASHINGTON IS SPENDING ITS TIME ON?

Im shocked, Im completely astounded, Chase said. The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest Ive seen or read anywhere in Africa to date.

Chase added that, compared to his 2015 census, we are recording double the number of fresh poached elephants than anywhere else in Africa.

The government of Botswana, home to an estimated 130,000 elephants, told The Associated Press that the non-profits information was inaccurate, and that some of the elephant carcasses found were not poached but rather died from natural causes and retaliatory killings as a result of human and wildlife conflicts.

The country, with a population of more than 2 million, suffers from some human-wildlife conflict but has more space than many other countries for animals to roam. Kenya, for example, has a population 25 times larger and is almost as big as Botswana in geographical size.

Security in Botswana has often been known to quickly open fire on poaching suspects, including Namibians and Zimbabweans who were killed after illegally crossing the border.

Chase told the news station that the group was warning of an impending problem and we thought we were prepared for it.

ELEPHANTS RARELY GET CANCER BECAUSE THEIR BODIES HAVE A RARE 'ZOMBIE GENE'

After poachers wiped out large numbers of elephants in neighboring Zambia and Angola, theyre now turning their guns to Botswana, Chase said. We have the worlds largest elephant population and its open season for poachers, he told The AP, adding that poachers have targeted old bull elephants that presumably have the heaviest tusks.

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who took office in April, has reportedly taken steps to reduce the use of military weapons against poachers, which some conservationists speculate could be emboldening ivory traffickers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The dispute between British and French fishermen who angrily bumped boats over access to scallop fisheries continues to escalate  and France now says its ready to deploy its navy.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert expressed hope on Tuesday that British and French fishermen would strike a deal to resolve the dispute when they meet Wednesday. He said the navy is ready to intervene to prevent further clashes.

We cant continue like this, we cant carry on having clashes like this, he told broadcast CNEWS.

The skirmish began last Tuesday when a fleet of more than 30 French vessels rammed into a group of six British scallop dredgers in international waters off the coast of northern France.

Flares, rocks and even petrol bombs were flung at the British ships, with one shocked fisherman calling it a scene out of Vietnam.

A British fisherman called on the navy to be deployed to protect them.

BRITISH FISHERMAN CALL ON NAVY TO PROTECT THEM FROM AGGRESSIVE FRENCH RIVALS IN 'SCALLOP WARS'

The root of the conflict lies in the Baie de la Siene  a stretch just north of the Normandy coast famed for scallops. British fishermen are allowed to dredge for scallops in the bay under European Union law, but French law bans the practice for locals between May 15 and October 1, when they reproduce.

French fishermen are furious that British ships are allowed to pillage while they are forced to miss out on the valuable haul.

Another similar skirmish between the two nations happened 15 miles off the coast of Le Havre in October 2012, when 40 French boats tried to ram the Brits and attempted to tangle their propellers using nets.

Since then, both nations have observed a tense armistice of sorts after the U.K. agreed to keep larger boats away.

Britains plan to leave the European Union has muddied the already murky waters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.next Image 1 of 2

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One of Germany's most prominent left-wing politicians is leading a new movement launched Tuesday with the aim of reviving the fortunes of the country's ailing left by attracting like-minded people across party lines.

Lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht, whose Left Party grew out of the former East Germany's communist party, and two members of the Greens and the Social Democrats said more than 100,000 people have pledged online to support their initiative.

"We are witnessing a crisis of democracy in Germany," and the new group  called Stand Up ("Aufstehen" in German)  wants to reach citizens who "no longer feel represented" by mainstream politics, Wagenknecht, the Left Party's parliamentary leader, told reporters in Berlin.

The Left Party and the Social Democrats have lost disaffected voters to the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD. The nationalist party won enough votes to enter national parliament for the first time in September and continues to show well in polls, particularly in states that were part of East Germany.

The growing visibility of the far right in Germany was seen last week after two migrants were arrested in the killing of German man. The Aug. 26 slaying gave rise to street protests that brought together neo-Nazi groups, AfD supporters and Germans opposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming immigration policies.

Ludger Vollmer, a founding member of the Greens, and Simone Lange, a Social Democrat who is mayor of Flensburg in northern Germany, are founding members with Wagenknecht of the Stand Up group.

Nationally, the center-left Social Democratic Party is a junior coalition partner to Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats, while both the Left Party and Greens are in opposition.

The three said Tuesday they neither want to create a new party nor break away from their own parties. Instead, they said Stand Up would pressure the political establishment to deal with the worries and concerns of average Germans, such as housing costs, bad schools, a nursing shortage and low salaries.

Other members of the country's three left-leaning parties have expressed skepticism.

Thuringia state Gov. Bodo Ramelow, a Left Party member, said "a movement needs to develop from the bottom" and not be initiated by party members.An Australian Instagram model who died after she was found unconscious on a Mexican billionaires super yacht in Greece hanged herself, the Greek coroners office said Monday.

The coroner told Britains The Sunday Times that Sinead McNamara had killed herself using a thick rope. The 20-year-old model was found hanging from an upper deck on the Mayan Queen IV just before 2 a.m. Friday in the Greek port of Argostoli in Kefalonia.

A captain on a neighboring boat had discovered McNamara and yelled for help, news.com.au reported.

A doctor on the yacht, as well as other crewmembers, attempted to revive McNamara before authorities arrived at the scene. She died in the helicopter on the way to the hospital.

The coroner said McNamara was unconscious, but not dead when she was found on the 300-foot yacht owned by billionaire businessman Alberto Bailleres. The mining magnate was not on the $140 million yacht during the incident.

A toxicology test is being conducted. No suicide note was found at the scene.

INSTAGRAM MODEL FOUND DEAD ON MEXICAN BILLIONAIRE'S YACHT IN GREECE; MYSTERIOUS DEATH INVESTIGATED

Several details about McNamaras death remain unclear, including what led to her suicide. The model had been working on the yacht as a stewardess for the last four months and had worked her final shift before she was set to reunite with her mother and sister, news.com.au reported. She posted on Instagram days before her death saying she was excited to see her sister.

Happy birthday to the most amazing big sister I could ever ask for, 5 days till I get to see you!! Excitement is an understatement, she wrote.

Earlier in the month, the model shared a cryptic post, writing: "My head is all over the shop today...take me back to this where my only worry was not cracking my skull open."

WORKING ON A SUPERYACHT IS A 'PRESSURE COOKER,' STAFFERS SAY

Authorities are also searching McNamaras text messages and reviewing security footage that captured her last moments.

The super yacht was initially ordered to remain at the port during the investigation into McNamaras death. Police allowed the yacht to sail on Sunday after all the crewmembers were interviewed by police.

McNamaras body is expected to return to her family in Australia on Tuesday.Jalaluddin Haqqani, an ex-U.S. ally who founded the militant Haqqani network in Afghanistan in the 1970s, has died after a long illness, the Taliban said, according to reports.

The Haqqani network is affiliated with both the Taliban and Al Qaeda and has been described as the top security threat in Afghanistan.

The elderly founder of Afghanistan's outlawed Haqqani network had been paralyzed for the past 10 years. The network was declared a terrorist organization by the United States in 2012.

Haqqani had not been heard from in several years, and reports of his death had been widespread in 2015. This is the first time the militant network has confirmed his death.

The BBC reported that in the 1980s, Haqqani was a major guerrilla leader against Soviet troops in Afghanistan and was considered a prized CIA asset. He later took sides with the Taliban in 1996, the report said.

Zabihullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday that Haqqani died on Monday inside Afghanistan.

In announcing Haqqani's death Tuesday, the Taliban called him a religious scholar and exemplary warrior.

The Associated Press contributed to this reportThe death toll from fighting between rival armed groups in Libya's capital Tripoli has climbed to at least 50 people including civilians, authorities said Tuesday, as the U.N. mission stepped up efforts to broker a cease-fire.

Fighting erupted last week when the Seventh Brigade, militias which hail from Tarhouna, a town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Tripoli, attacked southern neighborhoods of the capital. The Tripoli Revolutionaries' Brigades and the Nawasi Brigade  militias which support the Tripoli-based U.N.-backed government  have come to the city's defense.

At least 138 people, including civilians, have since been wounded, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew ruler Moammar Gadhafi and led to his death. The country is currently governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the country's east, each of which are backed by an array of militias. Other armed groups have carved out fiefdoms across the country, with many profiting from smuggling and extortion.

The U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has voiced concern about the impact of the fighting on migrants and internally displaced people. Spokeswoman Liz Throssell said Tuesday that some of the nearly 8,000 arbitrarily detained migrants are trapped in detention centers in areas where fighting has taken place, without access to food or medical treatment.

She said at least 21 civilians have been killed, including two women and two children since Aug. 26.

Also on Tuesday, the U.N. Refugee Agency called on parties to the fighting to "spare civilians and civilian infrastructure and allow safe passage for those seeking refuge in safer areas."

The clashes have forced the U.N.-backed government to declare a state of emergency in and around Tripoli, saying the fighting is "an attempt to derail peaceful political transition" in the country. The government said it "could not remain silent over the attacks on Tripoli and its suburbs, which is a violation of security in the capital and of citizens' safety."

Mohamed Buisier, a political analyst, said the fighting was expected as the armed groups protecting the government in Tripoli were getting "larger portions of financial incentives."

"This is a normal thing after years of failure. ... We are in a new phase where nobody can strip the militias from their arms. Libya needs an international peace-keeping force," he said.

The U.N. mission in Libya has been preparing for a meeting between the warring parties in an effort to put an end to the fighting. It called on "the various concerned parties" to meet on Tuesday for an "urgent dialogue on the security situation" in Tripoli.

______________

Magdy reported from Cairo.A trial begins next week for a man charged with trafficking thousands of protected turtles captured in New Jersey, an unlikely hotbed of wildlife poaching that has helped supply China with a culinary delicacy that is hard to find in Asia.

David Sommers, 64, of Levittown, Pennsylvania is accused of plucking some 3,500 diamondback terrapins and their eggs from the coastal marshes of southern New Jersey and selling them in violation of the Lacey Act, a federal statute that prohibits the trafficking of wildlife captured or killed in jurisdictions where it is illegal.

Asia, where native populations of turtles have been depleted, is fueling a surge in turtle poaching across the United States, wildlife advocates say.

"Rare species are being stolen from our own backyard for the illegal trade," said Rachel Kramer, manager at the Washington-based World Wildlife Foundation and Traffic, a non-profit that monitors global wildlife trade.

Capturing or killing many of the species in highest demand is illegal in states where they range.

Many Asian consumers love the taste of their meat or covet turtles with dramatic-looking shells as pets. The turtles' flashy shells actually evolved as protection from predators in nature.

Poaching devastates wild turtle populations because the reptiles are slow to mature to reproductive age, said biologist Brian Williamson of The Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

Most diamondback terrapins, a particularly prized species, must survive to age 8 before they can lay eggs, which means evading predators including raccoons, skunks, seagulls and humans.

"All kinds of animals - including humans - love to eat them. They're the potato chip of the salt marsh," Williamson said.

GROWING PROBLEM

The New Jersey case is not an isolated incident.

Two China Eastern Airlines flight attendants were fined in July in federal court in California for attempting to smuggle dozens of spotted turtles in their luggage from Los Angeles to China.

Five men were indicted in March for trafficking diamondback terrapins and spotted turtles captured in North Carolina waters and hidden in packages of noodles and candy being shipped to Hong Kong.

Among the U.S. species in high demand are the spotted turtle, a tiny animal with yellow dots on its shell that sells on the black market in Asia for up to $2,000 each, said Ed Grace, head of law enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Smugglers also get top dollar for the alligator snapping turtle, an imposing species from the U.S. Southeast with spikes on its shell that resemble a dragon, said Collette Adkins, an attorney with the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity.

Diamondback terrapins, such as those Sommers is accused of trafficking, are prized as pets for their unique markings, which are different for each turtle. Their capture is illegal in New Jersey, where their habitat is dwindling.

Selling for up to $3,000 each, the creatures are considered particularly healthful to eat because turtles symbolize longevity in some Asian cultures, said Williamson. A diamondback can live more than 30 years.

The institute, built on a marsh about 12 miles (19 km) north of Cape May, New Jersey, helps return confiscated turtles to the wild, including the 3,500 reptiles that Sommers is accused of snatching.

Sommers, who goes on trial in Philadelphia next week, is also charged with smuggling turtles to Canada in 2014 in a package falsely labeled as a book.

Attempts by Reuters to reach Sommers' attorney for comment were unsuccessful.

To be sure, the full extent of the underground turtle trade is unknown. But wildlife advocates says buyers in Hong Kong and China accounted for 55 percent of legal exports of U.S. live, wild turtles from 2011 to 2015, the most recent data available. That trade was worth $31 million.

Legal exports have declined in recent years as states tighten protections. In August Texas became the latest to ban commercial turtle hunts, with only six states still allowing unlimited turtle trapping.

Short link:

Pushing filthy hands between the bars of his cell, Maluel Chol held up a small black plastic bag.

"This is where I go to the toilet," he said. The 28-year-old has been detained for six months in South Sudan's capital, accused of murder but not yet officially charged and with no access to a lawyer.

Hundreds of people detained in South Sudan face such treatment and far worse, a new Amnesty International report says, accusing authorities of torturing people to death and letting many others languish behind bars since civil war began in late 2013.

At least 20 people died in detention between 2014 and 2016 and four died last year because of harsh conditions and inadequate medical care, according to the report.

"It is extremely unconscionable that South Sudanese authorities arrest, torture and ill-treat people in total disregard for their human rights," said Seif Magango, Amnesty's deputy director for East Africa. He called on South Sudan's government to release political detainees or charge them.

Hundreds of people have been subject to prolonged and arbitrary detention without charge by the country's National Security Service and Military Intelligence Directorate, said the report, based on interviews with victims and witnesses. Suspected supporters of the armed opposition are increasingly targeted, it said.

One man suffered having his testicles pierced with sewing needles while being interrogated about the whereabouts of opposition leader Riek Machar, said the Amnesty report. Other detainees were made to drink water from the toilet and defecate and urinate in front of each other, while some were subjected to forced nudity and genital mutilation.

Last year one soldier died in detention while standing trial for a high-profile attack on a hotel in the capital, Juba, in 2016 in which foreigners said they were gang-raped and assaulted and a local journalist was shot dead.

South Sudan's government called the new Amnesty report "rubbish" and based on inaccurate information from social media.

"We don't have a culture of torturing people. We put you in prison to put you behind bars, not to beat you," government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told The Associated Press.

As part of a new peace deal, the government in August released more than 20 political prisoners.

Despite that act of good faith, South Sudan's political environment has become increasingly intolerant and any criticism of the government can lead to intimidation and detention, the new report says.

In July, academic and activist Peter Biar Ajak was arrested at Juba's international airport and accused of treason. He has been detained without charge since then without access to legal counsel or any communication with the outside world, a human rights lawyer involved with his case, Phillips Anyang Ngong, told AP.

"It's a situation that gives us fear for how the shrines of justice and the institutions concerned will be able to save us from this continued arbitrary arrest of people without charges," Ngong said.

According to South Sudan's Criminal Procedure Act, no one should be detained for longer than 24 hours while cases are investigated. The government has signed a U.N. convention against torture.

Even some prison officials acknowledge the system isn't working.

At the public prison in Juba more than half of the roughly 1,000 inmates have not been charged or have not had access to a lawyer, director-general Henry Kuany Aguar told the AP.

On a recent visit to a detention center on the outskirts of Juba, AP spoke with several inmates held for days and weeks in squalid conditions without being charged.

Two dozen men crammed into three cells lining a narrow, mud-spattered hallway in the county jail, which acts as a transition center before people are moved to prisons.

Hanging his head, inmate Maluel Chol said he had been transferred from cell to cell for months but had not appeared in court or seen a lawyer. Gripping the handle of an empty water jug in his cell, shared with six other men, he said he is discouraged: "I'll just keep being moved around until I die."

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_AfricaA UK man poisoned by Novichok nerve agent in June was hospitalized for meningitis and the prognosis "doesn't sound good at all," his brother said.

Charlie Rowley, 45, of Amesbury and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, 44, were poisoned by the nerve agent on June 29. The couple collapsed within a few hours of each other the next day. Sturgess died in the hospital about a week after being exposed, but Rowley managed to recover enough to be released from the hospital a few weeks later.

The two were poisoned four months after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked with the nerve agent. Sergei and Yulia Skripal both survived the attack.

Matthew Rowley said his brother was very sick and couldnt move his arms or legs. He also said his brother lost his sight.

"I spoke to the nurse and asked what's the problem - they said its not looking good at the moment... reading between the lines it doesn't sound good at all," Rowley told Sky News.

UK COUPLE WERE POISONED BY SAME NERVE AGENT AS EX-RUSSIAN SPY, POLICE SAY

"I spoke to him last night, every day I try to but it's like talking to a 10-year-old kid...it's really upsetting, he said. "I can't get really much sense out of him.

"It might be the medication but he just doesn't sound right."

Rowley said he didnt believe his brother was the same after being poisoned and thought the hospital discharged him too soon.

"I said this all along  they released him from [the] hospital too early," he said. "He went from intensive care to being released. I don't think they gave him a chance to recover his system, to pick up again.

UK COUPLE POISONED BY NOVICHOK WERE CONTAMINATED AFTER HANDLING PERFUME BOTTLE THAT BROKE, FAMILY MEMBER SAYS

Britain accused Russia of poisoning the Skripals, a claim Moscow strongly denied. The case sparked a diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West, including the expulsion of hundreds of diplomats from both sides.

In July, Rowley said he believed his brother and Sturgess were sickened after a container disguised as a perfume bottle broke in his hands, contaminating both of them.

Fox News Katherine Lam and the Associated Press contributed to this report.



[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]

Nintendo Switch Trailer: https://youtu.be/TNCF3aF0n5U Multi-format Trailer: https://youtu.be/V5eL5yKc0Q4 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/838110/HyperParasite/ Official Discord: https://discord.gg/HoundPicked 4th September 2018, UK - HoundPicked Games, a progressive and supportive one stop UK indie publisher, is pleased to add a new and exciting title, HyperParasite, to its growing release schedule, developed by small and experienced Spanish studio Troglobytes Games. Development has recently begun on the Nintendo Switch version of HyperParasite, which is marked with a brand new trailer, whilst work continues on the PC Steam platform to be complemented with an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release in 2019! HyperParasite is a relentless twin-stick shooter/brawler with rogue-lite mechanics and is set in the roaring 80s, offering cool looks, fast action and great controls. The onscreen cast of characters, 60 different classes, all of which you can control, exploiting their own attributes weapons and moves, present a game of outrageous action, rip roaring brawling at is very best, laced with a comical slant which adds spice and fun! So no more looking for weapons, it's the dude you control that is packed with the surprises! Every Breath You Take A dystopian world presents an ambience of dislocation, menace and tough love which is set around World War III. The unseen aggressor marauding and consuming its way through the population is a parasitic organism capable of making hosts of unsuspecting human beings, consuming whats left of their souls and wreaking unfathomable havoc. Game On Players will traverse a total of 13 game levels: 5 main levels and 8 sub-levels, plus the customary crazy boss fight at the end of each main level and several mini-bosses . With martial law having been declared to make way for a global hunt, battle-hardened law enforcers have made allies of the most degenerate of criminals, while the rest of the world is paralysed with paranoia. So who can be trusted? Who can see it, let alone destroy it? Thats for them to worry about. For YOU are the enemy. YOU are the organism with a mission. YOU are HyperParasite Hound Picked Games is happy to be working with Troglobytes Games, a small but very accomplished team who have already worked on a number of titles. Their vision for HyperParasite is commendable and we believe there is a huge collective of gamers who will find this title one that they will enjoy immensely. We have great faith in this title and Hound Picked Games will support it throughout until release in 2019! Dan Muir, CEO Hound Picked Games. Exciting Features Include: A fresh twist on the genre: hop from one host body to another

60 Playable Characters to Body-Snatch and utilise their attributes

Unique retro 3D-pixelated visual style

Original retro inspired synth-wave soundtrack

Cast+weapon includes - cops+guns, Werewolves+claws, robots+lasers, aliens and so much more

Procedurally generated levels that will play differently each time, challenging even the most seasoned of players

Extremely fun co-op mode: will the humans handle TWO HyperParasites? About Troglobytes Games A small independent video game development studio based in Barcelona, Spain, founded by both industry veterans and young talents. We love playing and creating video games. Our mission is to create innovatively high quality games on various platforms using the latest in technology, while primarily focusing on storytelling and aesthetics. About Hound Picked Games Brought to you by the award winning team at PR Hound  Hound Picked Games specialise in, teaming up with, and co-publishing the quintessential indie game releases.Everyone under the age of 18 will need a consent from a parent or guardian to receive the shot.kacylee at 4-09-2018 07:05 AM (3 years ago) (f)

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has better health than 80 per cent of Nigerians.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has better health than 80 per cent of Nigerians.

He added that a combination of the presidents age, health and experience stands him in good stead to lead the country until 2023.



The former Anambra state governor made this known in the state capital, Awka in a chat with newsmen on Monday.



Read Also: You will not get automatic ticket  Kogi PDP aspirants tell Dino Melaye, others



While downplaying concerns over the presidents age, he said that Malaysians elected Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, a 93-year-old politician, to pilot the nations affairs as prime minister and rescue it from political and economic doldrums.



When reporters pressed him further on Buharis fatigued look due to apparent age and illness, Ngige said, That man (Buhari ) you see there is healthier than 80 per cent of Nigerians.



 I m a medical doctor ; I can tell you authoritatively that he is healthier than most people who see his health as an issue.



 He sits for over eight hours during our executive meetings . While some of us would be going for tea break to stretch our legs, Mr President would sit on his seat continuously, drinking only water.



 I can tell you authoritatively as a medical doctor of over three decades standing that Mr President is physically and mentally healthy. He is healthier than 80 per cent of Nigerians.



Meanwhile, the minister also challenged Ndigbo to overcome their grievances due to primordial sentiments in order to improve their political fortunes.



He condemned the constant cries by Igbos of marginalisation from Buharis government, insisting that the present administration has equitably distributed resources and projects.



He said,  There s nothing that is being shared by the Buhari government that is not equitably done. Buhari has five flagship projects ; Lagos  Ibadan to Ilorin Mambila Power Plants; Abuja  Kaduna  Kano Highway ; Second Niger Bridge and East West roads .



 You can see how it was shared . So , how are you (Igbo ) left out, why are you crying marginalisation , why are you crying wolf when there is none and it is this mentality that I m telling you people that you have to come out from .



 So , all I m saying in effect is that you (Igbo ) must do political engineering ; that  s the Igbo of the South  East and the step to take forward is to support a Buhari presidency for 2019 /2023 and vote for it with all their strengths . By so doing , they will not be left out in the power- sharing that will come thereafter like was done at this period .  He added that a combination of the presidents age, health and experience stands him in good stead to lead the country until 2023.The former Anambra state governor made this known in the state capital, Awka in a chat with newsmen on Monday.Read Also: You will not get automatic ticket  Kogi PDP aspirants tell Dino Melaye, othersWhile downplaying concerns over the presidents age, he said that Malaysians elected Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, a 93-year-old politician, to pilot the nations affairs as prime minister and rescue it from political and economic doldrums.When reporters pressed him further on Buharis fatigued look due to apparent age and illness, Ngige said, That man (Buhari ) you see there is healthier than 80 per cent of Nigerians. I m a medical doctor ; I can tell you authoritatively that he is healthier than most people who see his health as an issue. He sits for over eight hours during our executive meetings . While some of us would be going for tea break to stretch our legs, Mr President would sit on his seat continuously, drinking only water. I can tell you authoritatively as a medical doctor of over three decades standing that Mr President is physically and mentally healthy. He is healthier than 80 per cent of Nigerians.Meanwhile, the minister also challenged Ndigbo to overcome their grievances due to primordial sentiments in order to improve their political fortunes.He condemned the constant cries by Igbos of marginalisation from Buharis government, insisting that the present administration has equitably distributed resources and projects.He said,

Post Reply I have been reporting for several years now and I am very interested in visual news reportage with strong inclusion of photos and video multimedia. Posted: at 4-09-2018 07:05 AM (3 years ago) | Addicted HeroElbit Systems of Australia to Help Train ADF Cyber Warriors

September 2018 by Marc Jacob

Elbit Systems of Australia has been selected by the Australian Defence Force to boost Australias Cyber Security capability.

Speaking at Land Forces 2018 in Adelaide, Commonwealth Minister for Defence, the Honourable Christopher Pyne, announced that Elbit Systems of Australia will deliver a Cyber Range training platform including infrastructure, network design and build, train the trainer, training and teaching materials and support.

Managing Director of Elbit Systems of Australia, Dan Webster said, The Company is delighted to be providing cyber expertise to the ADF. We will be supporting Defence in training their Cyber Warriors who will defend against the real cyber threats we are faced with every day. Trainees will learn to identify, track, investigate, respond to and remediate a cyber-attack.

The Cyber Security technology has been developed by global Cyber specialist Cyberbit, a subsidiary of defence and high technology company Elbit Systems Ltd. Cyber Training Ranges will be installed at ADF facilities in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra. The fully self-contained Cyber Security training network will be capable of training 50 students concurrently.

In addition, Elbit Systems of Australia has commenced providing Cyber Security training for Queensland Government departmental IT staff. Training is being conducted at Elbit Systems Brisbane facility.

Elbit Systems of Australia introduced the Companys world-leading Cyber Security capability to Australia in late 2017. In addition to providing bespoke Cyber Security Training Ranges and offering training via a permanent facility in Brisbane, the Company also has a mobile Cyber Range for training of IT professionals around the nation.Blockbonds has achieved a partnership with UN Women after winning a procurement, targeting the empowerment of women through financial education.

The Norwegian Fintech company Blockbonds will launch the services of their product SPENN through a pilot in Kakuma refugee camp, together with UN Women.

The product SPENN will be tested with a target to empower the women in the camp and to contribute to financial independence and empowerment.

The project in the Kakuma camp will be the first deployment for SPENN in partnership with a humanitarian organization such as UN Women. Through structured education, Blockbonds will demonstrate the products usability and convenience, and how it empowers the women involved in the program.

We are honoured to receive this endorsement from UN Women, and we are highly motivated to ensure success in the camps through a close partnership, CEO of Blockbonds, Mr Jens Glaso said.

Through SPENN, users instantly get a bank account and can perform P2P transactions and store payments. Blockbonds is also pleased to see that UN Women in Kakuma refugee camp can take advantage of Blockbonds experience from operations in African and Asian countries.

Business owners can through the app access a point of sale solution, in which they have a complete overview of their sales, and money handling becomes more convenient for both the business and the consumer.

SPENN is free to download and all services are cost-free.

About Blockbonds AS:

Blockbonds is a Norwegian fintech company with a clear mission to contribute to global financial inclusion for vulnerable and marginalized populations, through its product called SPENN.

The team consists of over 100 people who are working in the field on a daily basis, and through advocacy and awareness raising, aim to help the 2 billion people who have limited or no access to financial services.

Today, the company has a presence in 11 markets. The product SPENN is live in Rwanda and the Philippines, and the company is preparing to launch in Tanzania in October this year.

Blockbonds has created a global model, with which everyone in the world can access financial services equal to those in more developed markets, completely free, by utilizing the security and transparency of blockchain technology.Lithuanian English

Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB (hereinafter referred to as Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB or the Company) company code 302648707, registered office placed at Elektrines st. 21, Elektrenai. The total number of registered ordinary shares issued by company is 648 002 629; ISIN code LT0000128571.

On 4 September 4 2018 Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB received a request from the Companys shareholder - Lietuvos energija, UAB, holding 96,82 percent of votes in the Companys General Shareholders Meeting  to convene the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB. Lietuvos energija, UAB states that the purpose of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB is to pay dividends for the period shorter than the usual financial year.

An Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB is to be convened on the initiative of Lietuvos energija, UAB, and by the decision of the Board of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB on 4 September 2018.

The date, time and place of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders: The Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB will be held on 27 September 2018, at 10.00 a.m., on the premises of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB (Elektrines str. 21, Elektrenai).

The shareholder registration will start at 9.30 a.m. and will end at 9.55 a.m.

The record date of the Extraordinary General Meeting is 20 September 2018. Only persons who are shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB at the end of the record date of the General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company shall have the right to attend and vote at the General Meeting of Shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB.





The agenda was approved by the decision of the Board of the Company on 4 September 2018 and the following draft decisions are proposed for the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB:

1. Regarding the response of the Supervisory board of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB concerning the set of interim Financial Statements of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, interim Report and the draft decision to pay dividends to the shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB for the period shorter than the financial year.

[Presented for Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB shareholders information].

2. Regarding the consideration of interim Report of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB for the six-month period ended 30 June 2018.

Approve the interim Report of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB for the six-month period ended 30 June 2018 (enclosed).

3. Regarding the approval of the set of interim Financial Statements of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB for the six-month period ended 30 June 2018.

Approve the set of interim Financial Statements of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB for the six-month period ended 30 June 2018, audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers UAB, the Companys auditor (enclosed).

4. Regarding the allocation of dividends for shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB for the period shorter than financial year.

In accordance with Article 601 Item 5 of the Company Law of the Republic of Lithuania, approve the allocation of dividends in the amount of 0.023 EUR per Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB share for shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB for the six-month period ended 30 June 2018.

The right to receive dividends will only apply to those, who are shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB on 11 October 2018.

Shareholders participating in the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company shall produce an identity document. Shareholders shall be granted pecuniary and non-pecuniary rights provided for by laws and other legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania. Shareholders entitled to participate in the aforementioned shareholder meeting shall have the right to authorise, in writing, a natural or legal person to participate and vote on their behalf at the General Meetings of Shareholders indicated in this notice. Such a written authorisation shall be approved in accordance with the procedure laid down in legal acts and shall be delivered to Elektrines str. 21, Elektrenai no later than by the end of shareholder registration for a relevant General Meeting. Shareholders entitled to participate in the General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company shall also have the right to authorise, by electronic means of communication, a natural or legal person to participate and vote on their behalf at the General Meeting of Shareholders. An authorisation issued by electronic means of communication shall be recognised as valid provided that the security of the information transferred is ensured and it is possible to identify the shareholder. Shareholders shall report the issuance of an authorisation by electronic means of communication by sending it by e-mail to info@le.lt not later than by the end of the working day on 26 September 2018 (16:30 p.m.). The authorised person shall have an identity document and shall enjoy the same rights at the Extraordinary General Meeting as the shareholder represented by him would enjoy (unless the issued authorisation or laws provide for narrower rights of the authorised person). The shareholders right to participate in the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders shall also include the right to ask. The Company has not approved any special authorisation form of the abovementioned General Meeting of Shareholders.

The agenda of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company may be supplemented on the initiative of shareholders of company whose shares held in company carry at least 1/20 of all votes at the General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company. The proposal to supplement the agenda of the respective Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders shall be accompanied by draft decisions or, where no decisions have to be taken, by explanations on each proposed agenda item of the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders. The agenda shall be supplemented if the proposal is received no later than 14 before the respective General Meeting of Shareholders. Shareholders whose shares held in the Company carry at least 1/20 of all votes at the General Meeting of Shareholders of company shall have the right to propose, at any time before the General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, new draft decisions on issues that are included or will be included in the agendas of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company. Proposals on the supplementation of the respective agenda or relevant draft decisions shall be submitted in writing to the Company, Elektrines str. 21, Elektrenai, or by e-mail to info@le.lt.

Shareholders of the Company shall have the right to present questions related to the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders of company. Questions may be presented by e-mail to info@le.lt or delivered to the Company to Elektrines str. 21, Elektrenai, no later than 3 working days before the General Meeting of Shareholders.

Shareholders will be able to vote on the agenda items of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company in writing by filling in ballot papers. At the request of a shareholder, the Company shall send, free of charge, a ballot paper to the shareholder by registered post or deliver it by hand against signature no later than 10 days before the General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company. A completed ballot paper shall be signed by the shareholder or a person authorised by the shareholder. Where a person authorised by the shareholder casts a vote, a document certifying the right to vote shall be attached to the completed ballot paper. Filled and signed general ballot paper and the document confirming the voting right can be sent to the company by registered mail or delivered at Elektrines str. 21, Elektrenai, no later before the General Meeting of Shareholders. The company retains the right not to recognize the advance vote of the shareholder or his/her authorised representative, if his/her submitted general ballot paper does not meet the requirements of Paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 30 of the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania, was received to late or is filled so that the true will of the shareholder on an individual matter cannot be determined. Electronic means of communication shall not be used for participation and voting at either of the abovementioned General Meeting of Shareholders.

Shareholders can familiarise themselves with documents related to the agenda of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, draft decisions on the agenda, documents to be submitted to Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders and other information related to the implementation of the rights of shareholders specified in this notice on the website of the Company at http://www.gamyba.le.lt from the date of this notice as well as on the premises of the Company (Elektrines str. 21, Elektrenai) during working hours (7.3011.30 a.m. and 12.154.30 p.m.; 7.3011.30 a.m. and 12.153.15 p.m. on Fridays).









Ausra Macerauske, Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, Organization Development Coordinator of Communication Division, mobile +370 655 70309, e-mail ausra.macerauske@le.lt



AttachmentHindu extremists in India have forced Christian families to stop attending church, threatening them with physical harm. Yet, despite such persecution, the Christians have vowed to continue worshiping Christ -- in secret.



Shankar Damor, a 37-year-old from Kardubadi village near Jhabua, told persecution watchdog International Christian Concern his family stopped attending church because Hindu radicals threatened to harm his family should they continue to worship Jesus.



"In a meeting last May in the village of Kardubadi, the Christians were told that we should not attend any church and should not even pray in our homes," Shankar explained. "When we complained to the village diktat, the entire village stopped associating with us. No one attended our weddings and we were totally cut off from the people of the village."



"In that same month, when my family was praying in our house, someone from the village called the police and I was taken to the police station on false charges of forced conversions," Shankar said. "The police beat me brutally and harassed me while in custody."



Yet, Shankar said his family will continue to worship Jesus -- even though their lives are constantly at risk due to ongoing persecution: "[We] might stop attending the church, but we will not leave Jesus," he said.



Babu Singh Damor, another Christian from Kardubadi village, told ICC that Hindu radicals may prevent Christians from attending church, their faith will remain unshakable.



"We Christians are closely monitored as to where we are going and whom are we meeting," Babu explained. "It's quite a pathetic life we are living. However, we are not going to leave Jesus, no one is going snatch Jesus from our hearts."



While Christians comprise some 64 million of India's 1.3 billion residents, the country ranks as the 11th worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's 2018 World Watch List. The group said that in 2016, there was a weekly average of 10 instances in which a church was burned down or a cleric was assaulted in India.



"Religious nationalism is on the rise," said Daniel Mark, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan independent federal group created by Congress in 1998. "Some state and local governments in India have tried to address attacks on [religious] minorities, but others turn a blind eye. That creates a climate of impunity that allows radicals to function more freely."



In August, members of the US Congress sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to oppose the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities by members of his own party.



"Our hope is to apply significant pressure on Prime Minister Modi regarding the persecution of Christians and religious minorities in India. We hope that this letter, alongside other efforts, will pressure the Indian government to move beyond the recognition of the fact that persecution of religious minorities in India exists, and take concrete steps to end the persecution of religious minorities," ICC Advocacy Director Matias Perttula told The Christian Post.



"Prime Minister Modi must publicly condemn the attacks on religious minorities and implement proper legal procedures to hold the perpetrators of these crimes accountable. The bottom line is that India must take tangible steps to deal with the issue at hand."

We may never know exactly how many people lost their lives in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, but it's clear that the human toll was catastrophic: According to a new assessment of "excess mortality," nearly 3,000 individuals perished in last year's storm and its aftermath, and the cost for rehabilitating the U.S. territory's infrastructure will be measured in the tens of billions. In Houston, the cost of recovery from Hurricane Harvey is approaching $125 billion.Hurricanes, of course, are hardly the only threat American communities face. Flooding, wildfires, hackers, terrorism and mass shootings all have exacted large human and economic costs while straining public resources to the breaking point. In response, cities and states are struggling to become more resilient, but it's not easy being a mayor or governor in this environment. There's plenty of outside advice and sales pitches for "solutions" to their jurisdictions' vulnerabilities.Where should an elected official focus limited resources? Making the right decisions requires a deep understanding of acquisitions, policy, technology and systems. There are many options out there for localities to get advice and gather the facts to help with decision-making, including universities, think tanks and industry. Yet what's missing, in my experience, are outside entities with some essential qualities: a broad view of the threats communities face, deep technical expertise in tackling complex problems, an understanding of the need for integrating state and federal resources, and, critically, the mandate to offer unbiased advice with no investment in the answers, financial or otherwise.In fact, such entities have been around for decades, and their technical experience has, in essence, already been paid for by the American public. Beginning in the late 1940s the federal government began working with specially created nonprofits through the federally funded research and development center model. FFRDCs address long-term problems of considerable complexity, striving to approach technical questions with a high degree of objectivity and provide cost-effective solutions.Anyone who has ever flown in a jet or used GPS has benefited from technology with roots in an FFRDC. They've helped the federal government make spaceflight safer , develop and deploy renewable energy solutions , apply nuclear energy for non-military purposes and reduce air traffic accidents . Today, they're working in the fields of aviation, defense, energy, health care, space, federal agency modernization, homeland security and more. It would be a natural fit for them to take on the challenges of risk and resilience.Importantly, FFRDCs are free from conflicts of interest. By law, they can't manufacture products, compete with industry or work for commercial companies. These restrictions mean government, industry and academia can provide them with sensitive or proprietary information without fear of improper use or disclosure. That information - when combined with technical know-how - creates a powerful tool to help governments acquire the right technology, objectively assess business processes and integrate complex systems.What's missing, however, is the additional federal support and funding mechanisms needed to help mayors and governors access this objective technical expertise to build resilience. Providing those resources should be on the agenda of federal policymakers.As we've seen from recent disasters, weak planning, outdated technology and insecure systems can have costly and deadly real-world consequences. That's why broader sharing of FFRDC expertise makes good sense. It could help localities become smart buyers and users of resilient systems and technologies. And it could spark new and repeatable innovations by piloting new ideas and sharing them nationwide, so that, for example, a cybersecurity solution devised in Chicago could apply to Los Angeles.We should see the FFRDC legacy for what it is: a major opportunity to leverage an overlooked public asset to solve tomorrow's biggest problems. We'll do a disservice to the American public if we fail to share this deep well of applied knowledge and experience in new ways that can mitigate the next generation of risks our communities face.Texas top education officials told school district administrators Friday that they cannot use state funding to provide schooling for children housed in migrant shelters.The announcement  issued in a letter sent to all school superintendents statewide  has raised concerns for both shelters and school districts, whose leaders say it highlights a broader pattern of push-and-pull between the state and federal government over regulating shelters.Leo Lopez, the Texas Education Agencys associate administrator for school funding, said in the letter that according to state law, Texas public schools can only fund education in shelters  where children are held by federal agencies  through external sources like tuition.DeEtta Culbertson, a spokesperson for the agency, said in a statement that the responsibility of educating children in shelters remains solely with the federal government.These services are generally provided to students in its custody through its contractors, Culbertson said in the statement. Local school districts may choose to voluntarily provide services. However, such an arrangement would have to be worked out directly with federal officials.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandates that migrant shelters must provide children with six hours of schooling on weekdays as well as special education services. HHS did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.Sal Cavazos, the vice president of educational services at Southwest Key, one of the companies that operates shelters for migrant children, said that partnerships with local school districts are needed in order to enhance the resources that it provides to children.Its just disappointing that we cannot come together all hands on deck to work with and support these young people that find themselves in a very difficult situation, he said.Although Southwest Key receives funding from the Office of Refugee Resettlement for the purposes of meeting the education requirement, its centers often rely on local school districts for additional benefits like special education and ESL classes, he said.One of the company's shelters in Harlingen, holding 50 students, had received one teacher, one paraprofessional and a building with two classrooms from the local school district. Southwest Key had only provided one additional paraprofessional, Cavazos said.Shane Strubhart, a spokesperson for the Harlingen district, said that it will now have to "reevaluate" its presence in the Southwest Key shelter, which it had supported with about $5,000 per student annually.The TEA letter also said that school districts cannot count children in Texas shelters as their students in applications for state education funding.The school district in San Benito had previously applied for an additional $2.8 million in funding from Texas by counting its students inside shelters, the Associated Press reported. But following the TEA letter, San Benito administrators said that they will be forced to end their partnership with a local Southwest Key shelter too."As educators, we were simply trying to do the right thing for these children," Nate Carman, the San Benito superintendent, said in a statement. Unfortunately, the education of these students in our San Benito district, is now out of our hands."The broader conflict about whether state funding can be used highlights this muddled political issue with few clear lines about where federal and state responsibilities begin and end.Brownsville ISD Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas said that if the state is unable to provide funding, the federal government should take a more hands-on approach."The best thing to do is obviously to make sure that we address the needs of our children here and support the shelters in whatever way we can," Zendejas said. I feel bad for all these kids in these shelters that could use help, but I respect the dynamics of whats going on with funding.After Zendejas reached out to TEA seeking guidance on a potential partnership with a Southwest Key shelter in her district, she received a letter from the agency informing her that education within migrant shelters must be handled by HHS.In June, the Texas State Teachers Association had penned a letter to Texas officials calling on the government to develop and fund a plan to educate the growing number of detained migrant children.The fate of Medicaid expansion, a central tenet of President Obama's signature health-care legislation, is in the hands of the people in several states.In Idaho, Nebraska and Utah, voters will decide whether to make more low-income people, those up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line, eligible for Medicaid, the government-run health insurance program. In most of the other states, who voters elect as governor and to the legislature will influence the direction of this health-care policy for years to come.Since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, 33 states have expanded Medicaid, largely along partisan lines, with Republicans leading the holdout movement. But in some cases, Republican governors tried for years to convince their GOP legislatures to expand.Health policy experts say that, generally, a state's status of expansion guides which races are most important to watch in the midterms."For a state that hasnt yet expanded, the governor cant do it all, so you have to watch what happens with the legislature," says David Jones, associate professor of health law at Boston University who recently examined where Medicaid expansion appears more vulnerable. "But for states that have already expanded, the legislature doesnt matter as much" because the governor has authority to tweak the current law or to end expansion in some cases.The midterms come at a crucial time for health care. The Trump administration gave states the greenlight to adopt new rules for Medicaid that the Obama administration rejected. For instance, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana and New Hampshire have been approved to add work requirements, and several other states have applied. In July, a federal judge struck down Kentucky's work requirements plan, putting the rest of the states' policies into legal jeopardy. Despite the ruling, the Trump administration has signaled that it plans to proceed with work requirements.Michigan is one expansion state where health policy could veer far to the right if the Republican nominee for governor, Bill Schuette, wins what is considered a tossup race. Schuette, the states attorney general, leans more conservative than term-limited Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. On the campaign trail, Schuette has supported repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act."He talks a lot about what he doesnt like [about the ACA], but he has yet to say what hed do thats positive," says Marianne Udow-Phillips, executive director of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation based in Ann Arbor, Mich. "I see him being in the mold of Scott Pruitt at the Environmental Protection Agency, doing a lot of rolling back of regulations."680,000 people gained coverage under Medicaid expansion, and 350,000 could lose it if work requirements are put in place. Snyder signed a bill in June to submit a waiver to the federal government that, if approved, would require Medicaid recipients in the state to have a job."Weve gotten used to thinking that Michigan is a moderate state because they have Democratic senators and sometimes go blue in presidential elections," says Jones, "but ... it's a pretty conservative group of senators in the statehouse," and a more conservative governor might be able to drum up support for far-right Medicaid changes.Schuette's Democratic opponent, Gretchen Whitmer, supports Medicaid expansion and opposes the work requirements waiver, according to a spokesperson in her campaign office.In Ohio, another expansion state, GOP Gov. John Kasich is term-limited. While he is one of the staunchest defenders of Medicaid expansion, he did pass off a waiver request for work requirements to the feds. Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine and Democrat Richard Cordray, the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, are in a tossup race to succeed him.DeWine leans more pragmatic in general, so John Corlette, executive director of the Center for Community Solutions based in Cleveland, says "I would expect his approach would be closer to Kasich."DeWine has said he supports expansion with a work component, while Cordray supports expansion with no work requirements.In Ohio, work requirements threaten coverage for 36,000 adults. If any states elect governors who are more conservative than their predecessors, "Kentucky is a good example of what a change in leadership can mean for Medicaid expansion," says Jones. There, a Democratic governor expanded Medicaid to 500,000 Kentuckians . When Republican Matt Bevin was elected in 2015, he added work requirements, along with premiums and reporting income changes.A governor's authority, however, isn't limitless. Since residents in Maine voted in favor of expansion last year, GOP Gov. Paul LePage has refused to enact the policy. The state's Supreme Court last week ordered him to move forward with expansion.Implementation of it, though, will likely fall to his successor. LePage is term-limited. Running to take his place is Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills, who supports expansion. Republican challenger Shawn Moody, a business owner, is following LePage's lead and opposing it. If the state expands Medicaid per the court's orders, 70,000 people would gain coverage.Among states that havent expanded Medicaid, Jones says the state to watch is Kansas. In 2017, the legislature passed a Medicaid expansion bill, but then-GOP Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed it. The legislature narrowly missed getting enough votes to override him.While its unlikely that the legislature in a state that deep red would flip Democrat, "the state seems to be trending more moderate," says Jones. On a recent trip to Topeka, he says "many Republicans were willing to say they would support Medicaid expansion. They saw it as a way to save their rural hospitals."The governor's race in the state is a matchup between hardline conservative Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly. Kobach has a slight edge. Kelly has vowed to expand Medicaid, and Kobach is opposed to it.While it's a wild card, the political landscape in Florida has the potiential to completely shift in November, laying the groundwork for the state to expand Medicaid. Despite support from GOP Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for U.S. Senate, the GOP-controlled legislature has rebuffed all expansion efforts over the years.Now, Democrats have a real shot at taking control in the Senate. While it's unlikely they'll take control of the House, they are expected to gain ground. The governor's race is between Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who supports the Democratic Socialist platform of "Medicare for all." His opponent, Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis, is against expanding Medicaid."Supporters of the ACA think of Florida as the holy grail in terms of expansion," says Jones.The Internal Revenue Service could hand Texas more than $300 million, after a federal court in North Texas ruled that the federal government improperly charged a handful of states millions in state Medicaid program fees that help fund the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a group of states in a 2015 lawsuit to recover money the federal government collected from the Health Insurance Providers Fee.Under the ruling, issued Aug. 21, Texas stands to be repaid $304.7 million. Other states due to get payouts are Louisiana ($172.5 million), Kansas ($142.1 million), Indiana ($94.8 million), Wisconsin ($88.9 million) and Nebraska ($36.2 million), according to the attorney general's office."Obamacare is unconstitutional, plain and simple," Paxton said in a statement. "We all know that the feds cannot tax the state, and we're proud to return this illegally collected money to the people of Texas."Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry heralded the ruling as a "money laundering scheme foiled." Many of the attorneys general used language similar to Paxton's.Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said in a statement: "The federal government is not able to tax the states because of the unconstitutional constructs of Obamacare,"But the case might not be over."We are reviewing the decision and considering our next steps," a U.S. Justice Department spokesman told the American-Statesman."Kansas budgeters should not bank on this money just yet," Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a statement. But the ruling is "well-reasoned and puts us in a much stronger position as our case goes up on appeal."States shouldn't count on a victory just yet, said William Sage, the James R. Dougherty Chair for Faculty Excellence at the University of Texas School of Law and professor of surgery and perioperative care at Dell Medical School."It's really important to point out the irony of winning $300 million back from the federal government for Medicaid, when Texas turned down $100 billion from the federal government for Medicaid," he said.Meanwhile, Texas and Wisconsin lawyers are set to argue in court Wednesday that Obamacare should be declared unconstitutional, according to Paxton's office.States opposed to the health care law point to three aspects of the policy's history in arguing for its full dismantling.The Affordable Care Act doesn't have a severability component to it, meaning it doesn't have language that says if any provision of it is held unconstitutional, the remaining provisions will remain intact. Generally, major legislation has such language, Sage said. Not having it opened "the entire law to invalidation if a central provision such as the individual mandate is invalidated," he said.Also, when the Democratic-controlled Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act, it expected the individual mandate to be upheld under the legislative branch's power to regulate interstate commerce "and gave the mandate prominence to emphasize its connection to commerce," Sage said.That didn't happen.In the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the court wouldn't accept the commerce clause argument, but Chief Justice John Roberts, along with the court's liberal wing, upheld the mandate under Congress' power to tax. That decision meant the Affordable Care Act went from creating a legal obligation to have health coverage to having a legal obligation to pay a penalty (tax) for not having health coverage, Sage said. In the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Congress didn't repeal the individual mandate, but it eliminated the tax penalty beginning next year.Taken together, Sage said, some Republican states are arguing that if the only thing upholding the mandate was the tax, and now there's no tax, and there's no severability provision in the health care law, then not just the mandate but also the rest of the law is invalid."It's bold but misguided," Sage said of the argument. "Many people, and much of the health care industry, rely on other parts of the ACA -- including the Medicaid expansion. I don't think these are legal arguments against the ACA. They're political arguments."Sage called what's become of the Affordable Care Act a "great tragedy.""This law has been litigated to death," he said. "This is not something that's happened to major social legislation in the past."Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday the choice of former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl to fill the seat of the late John McCain _ but only for the next few months.In a surprise wrinkle, Kyl said he would commit to serving only until the end of the current session of Congress, which concludes in January. Ducey, standing alongside Kyl, said he hoped to persuade the former three-term senator to continue in the job and spare the need for another appointment."There is no one in Arizona with the stature of Sen. Kyl," Ducey said in a sober appearance announcing his selection. "He is a man without comparable peer. With nearly two decades spent in the Senate, serving alongside John McCain, Sen. Kyl is prepared to hit the ground running."Kyl was already working with the White House to help shepherd the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh through the Senate. Now, Ducey noted, he will be able to cast a vote in favor, as McCain was expected to do.Moments before Ducey was scheduled to make his announcement, McCain's widow, Cindy, revealed Ducey's likely choice and offered her support. Cindy McCain has been among those mentioned as a possible successor to her husband."Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's. It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona," she wrote on Twitter.The death of U.S. Sen. McCain at age 81 presented Ducey, a fellow Republican, with both an opportunity and a dilemma. Under state law, he was obliged to appoint a Republican.But the Arizona GOP is one of the most deeply divided in the country, torn between pragmatists who supported McCain and the state's other GOP senator, Jeff Flake, and fiercely conservative activists who loathed both men, especially for their criticisms of President Donald Trump.Caught in the middle was Ducey, who is for up re-election in November and can ill afford to antagonize either side of his party, much less the state's sizable number of independent voters turned off by both extremes in either party.Kyl, 76, was seen as his safest choice. Before stepping down in January 2013, he was well regarded within the GOP and respected by Democrats on Capitol Hill, where he served in a number of leadership positions.Kyl appeared grave at Tuesday's announcement and made clear he was not taking up the position with great eagerness. "I'm putting my country first," he said, "just as this seat's previous occupant did every single day for more than 30 years."Kyl said he would not seek the office in 2020, which could make for a lively and competitive contest to fill the seat for the remainder of McCain's term ending in January 2023.Arizona is currently home to one of the hardest-fought Senate races this November, pitting GOP Rep. Martha McSally of Tucson against Phoenix's Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. The two are vying for the open seat of Flake, who succeeded Kyl and opted to step aside rather than risk losing the Republican primary.Ducey's announcement came two days after McCain was laid to rest at the U.S. Naval Academy cemetery following nearly a week of commemorations, including services that drew thousands of mourners in Arizona and Washington, D.C.The American Legislative Exchange Council couldnt be more excited about Brett Kavanaugh.The conservative group sent a letter from more than 300 state legislators to the United States Senate last month, urging the swift confirmation of President Donald Trumps latest Supreme Court nominee, currently a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Citing their own fidelity to limited government, free markets and federalism, the lawmakers wrote, State legislators dedicated to small government and freedom believe Judge Kavanaugh is the single most qualified person in the country to serve on the Supreme Court.This enthusiasm is understandable.Kavanaugh, whose Senate confirmation hearings begantoday, is expected to move the Supreme Court's majority to the right for at least a generation. His skepticism of federal authority could empower state and local governments -- except when their policies violate his interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.Kavanaugh is viewed by many legal experts as a "textualist," applying the law narrowly "as written," or as an "originalist," applying the law consistent with its original intent.If we get a textualist, originalist justice, then we're likely to get a judge who thinks federalism is important, and that means someone who thinks diversity among the 50 states is a part of our constitutional structure," says Randy Barnett, a Georgetown Law professor. This could mean "an increased reigning in of one-size-fits-all federal policies," he adds.President Trump nominated Kavanaugh in July to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, a moderate conservative and pivotal swing vote for whom Kavanaugh once clerked. On the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh has rarely heard cases pertaining to state and local issues, according to a recent analysis by Max Hamilton and Lisa Soronen of the State and Local Legal Center. But Hamilton and Soronen did find potential clues about how Kavanaugh might rule.His Fourth Amendment cases -- those involving searches and seizures by the government -- indicate that he would give law enforcement leeway, they wrote.On the First Amendment, he may be willing to strike down state laws and local ordinances which restrict speech. But his interpretation of speech is controversial. He believes, for instance, that net neutrality violates the free speechrights of internet service providers.The State and Local Legal Center also notes that Kavanaugh typically sides with employers, and conservative Justices tend to be skeptical of state and local government regulation of private property.Kavanaughs record shows he is skeptical of the so-called administrative state , which might make him more likely to strike down federal environmental regulations that the Trump administration is seeking to undo.One issuewhere Kavanaugh might be less likely than Kennedy to defer to states is gun rights. He dissented from a number of D.C. Circuit rulings that upheld state or local gun restrictions. The Supreme Court has declined to address gun control cases in recent years, exercising the Reagan-era tradition of judicial restraint. But Kavanaugh, as part of a more conservative majority, might vote to take up cases that could strike down bans on semiautomatic weapons -- and on carrying concealed guns -- in liberal states.This weeks confirmation hearings will undoubtedly address another hot-button issue with implications for states: abortion. As a candidate, President Trump said he would appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court opinion that legalized the practice."If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that will happen, he said during a 2016 debate with his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. And that will happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court."Kavanaugh reportedly said Roe v. Wade is "settled law" but has dissented in rulings that eased abortion access.Barring a disastrous performance at his hearings or damaging new revelations about his past, Kavanaugh is expected to be confirmed and would mark Trump's second appointment to the Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed his first appointment, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, last year following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. President Barack Obama initially nominated Merrick Garland to replace Scalia, but Republicans blocked him from even having a hearing on Capitol Hill.Rahm Emanuel walked into a job that turned out to be much more complicated than he may have thought.He became mayor of Chicago in 2011, riding a wave of national political celebrity after serving as President Barack Obama's first chief of staff. After failing to solve persistent problems in basic functions of the city, such as law enforcement and education, he stunned Chicago on Tuesday by announcing he will not seek a third term."It's certainly a shock to the political system here," says Chuck Bernardini, a former alderman.Emanuel had already drawn a dozen opponents for the election, which will be held in February. His departure from the race may draw new entrants, with the city's business community -- which had backed the incumbent strongly -- left looking for a champion.Given less than six months remains before the election, any new candidate would have to raise money and build an organization quickly. Part of the surprise of Emanuel's announcement was due to the fact that he'd already raised more than $10 million toward his campaign.Ive decided not to seek re-election, Emanuel said in a press conference. This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime. He also stated that spending more time with his family was now his priority.Despite his stumbles and policy shortfalls, most pundits believed Emanuel was on his way to a third term. "The serious observers thought he could have won if he'd stayed in," says Bernardini.Four years ago, Emanuel became the first Chicago mayor forced into a runoff. The complaint then was that Chicago represented a "tale of two cities," with the Loop and the North Side attracting development and jobs, while the South and West sides were mired in poverty and crime and draining population.To a large extent, that narrative has not changed."Early Christmas miracle!" tweeted Republican consultant Gianno Caldwell on Tuesday. "Rahm Emmanuel not running is the best news Chicago has received all year. Now we need a mayor that gives a damn about the people -- all the city residents."The center of the city has thrived under Emanuel. Major corporations, such as Motorola and McDonald's, have moved their headquarters out of the suburbs and into the city. But Chicago as a whole has not shared in the largesse."The city has lagged in recovery," says Dick Simpson, a former alderman and political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "It's only now back to the kind of development and tax base it had before the Great Recession."Simpson, and others, say Emanuel deserves credit as a financial manager, raising taxes to bring down the city's "incredible" pension debt."He's paid close attention to the details of governing," says Avis LaVelle, a communications consultant who served as press secretary for Mayor Richard M. Daley, Emanuel's predecessor. "He's trying to get our financial house in order."It's not in order yet.Chicago's financial balance sheet may still be the worst of any major city. Despite increases in taxes and real cuts to expenses, the city ran $1 billion short last year. The pension funds, in particular, were $28 billion short at the end of last year. That represented a decrease of nearly $8 billion from 2016, but may be based on rosy assumptions about how much the city will be able to contribute in the coming years.Already, Emanuel raised pension contributions by $800 million annually through property tax increases and other fees and taxes. Making matters more difficult, an attempt by the city and the state of Illinois to lower pension burdens by cutting promised benefits was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2014.Emanuel's handling of crime and schools has drawn even more heated criticism than the city's fiscal mess. The murder rate in Chicago has become synonymous with urban crime, at least in political circles. It's actually come down the last two years, but Chicago remains a dangerous city. Over the first weekend in August, 63 people were shot, and 10 people were killed. Anti-violence protesters have shut down freeways as recently as Labor Day.In a scathing report issued at the end of the Obama administration, the Justice Department found that the Chicago Police Department "engages in a pattern or practice of using force, including deadly force," in violation of the Constitution. The lengthy report described frequent police aggressions aimed overwhelmingly at black and Hispanic residents.Emanuel was accused of suppressing the release ahead of his election in 2015 of a dash-cam video of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old. Protesters marched for weeks, and Emanuel fired Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who is now a candidate for mayor. Jury selection is scheduled to start Wednesday in the trial of Jason Van Dyke, the officer involved in the shooting.Emanuel got out into the neighborhoods more often than his critics contended, but he was not always able to convey to residents in neglected areas of the city that he had a high regard for them or was attuned to their concerns.That came up on various matters, notably the closure of dozens of schools. Emanuel advocated for change when it came to education, noting when he ran that Chicago had shorter school days and years than any other big city. But he never fully articulated his vision of the balance between charters and traditional neighborhood schools. That led to an ongoing war over resources between advocates from those two camps, most dramatically in the 2012 teachers' strike."Why he opted to immediately become confrontational with the most important institution, attacking the Chicago Teachers Union, remains a bit of a mystery," says Robert Bruno, director of the labor education program at the University of Illinois at Chicago and coauthor of"It just made it impossible ultimately to make a deal without a pretty unprecedented and shocking labor walkout that went way beyond [what] he could have anticipated."A Stanford University study released last year found that, between 2009 and 2014, standardized test scores rose in the city faster than in 96 percent of districts nationwide. "All the arrows are pointing up," Emanuel said last week.But people have been voting with their feet. Enrollment has declined by more than 10,000 students over the past two years. (Figures are not yet available for the current term.) A district that had 438,589 students back in 2002 was down to 371,382 last fall.This summer, the reported on sexual abuse in the schools in a series of articles, with the district failing to protect students in more than 100 cases, with educators failing to report suspected cases of abuse and employees with records of sex crimes passing background checks. The newspaper's investigation led to a report last month from a former federal prosecutor finding that there were "systemic deficiencies" in the district's handling of sexual misconduct in schools.Problems with police, schools and inequality have all been central to the mayor's race. The leading candidates are McCarthy, the fired police superintendent; former Chicago Schools Chief Paul Vallas, and former police board president and prosecutor Lori Lightfoot. But it's likely Emanuel's announcement will draw in others."My guess is that we'll see some more candidates now," says Bernardini.The vision that Daley laid out for the city and Emanuel brought to greater fruition -- for Chicago to be a node in the global economy -- has been at least partially fulfilled. But whoever wins will also inherit all the problems that Emanuel was unable to solve.There's at least one thing Republicans, Libertarians, independents and even some Democrats seem to agree on.They do not want voters to cast straight-party ballots in the November election.And they are asking the state Supreme Court to stop Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver from putting an option for straight-party voting back on the ballot after a Republican predecessor scrapped it about six years ago.In an emergency petition filed late Thursday, an unlikely assortment of political leaders and advocates argued straight-party voting is no longer allowed under New Mexico law. Moreover, they contend it violates the idea of equal protection under the Constitution for some political parties and independent candidates.At the very least, they contend, Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, should have held hearings and collected public input before announcing Wednesday -- 69 days before the election -- that she would put a straight-party option back on the ballot.Toulouse Oliver's office called the lawsuit "unfounded" and cited a state law that says ballots shall "be in the form prescribed by the secretary of state," contending that leaves it to her to decide whether voters should have a straight-ticket option.But the petition revives an argument around legislation from 2001 that changed state election laws to allow electronic balloting while also repealing a section that provided for straight-party voting.Lawmakers did not ban straight-party voting outright. In fact, straight-party voting continued until Republican Secretary of State Dianna Duran scrapped it ahead of the 2012 election. But the petition contends the 2001 law was meant to end the practice altogether and removes any legal basis for straight-party voting in New Mexico. And, the petition notes, three separate bills to reinstate straight-party voting have failed in the Legislature in recent years."The Secretary of State is mistaken that she possesses the authority to place something on the ballot that the Legislature has not only not authorized, but has explicitly repealed," the petition said.The petition asked the state's highest court to declare that the secretary of state's decision to put straight-party voting back on the ballot for the 2018 election is inconsistent with that 2001 law. In turn, the petition asks the court to keep a straight-party option off the ballot.Though Republicans had lambasted the move as an underhanded, last-minute bit of political maneuvering, Toulouse Oliver never made a secret of her support for a straight-party voting option. While campaigning in 2016, Toulouse Oliver, who is up for re-election this year, said she would bring it back. And her office had floated the idea throughout this year.Under straight-party voting, voters could still fill out their ballots completely or select a party and then select candidates from other parties in particular races. A voter could choose to vote a straight Democratic ticket but still vote for a Republican for sheriff, for example.And it proved popular in the past. The Santa Fe Reporter reported that 41 percent of New Mexico voters chose a straight-party option in 2010, with 23 percent of voters picking the Democratic Party and 18 percent selecting the Republican Party.The straight-party option might make a difference in some less prominent down-ballot races that voters are more likely to skip."The straight-party voting option isn't a partisan issue, it's an access issue," Toulouse Oliver said in a statement Friday.Many states have moved away from straight-party voting, however. New Mexico would be among about 10 states to use it this year.And Republicans in particular have bristled at the practice, along with independents and minor parties, which argue straight-party voting favors Democrats. More voters in New Mexico are registered as Democrats than with any other party.The petition contends a straight-party option violates the idea of equal protection under law. Independent and minor-party candidates already face unique hurdles to even get on the ballot, the petition states."Her action cannot be allowed to stand and cripple -- without legal authorization or even publicly tested justification -- the electoral odds of an entire class of candidates," the petition says.At the very least, Toulouse Oliver should have gathered public comment before reinstating the option, the petition argues. The petition notes that a spokesman for Toulouse Oliver told the Albuquerque Journal that she would hold hearings and gather public comment before making the change.Toulouse Oliver never held any such hearings. And the petition contends that violates state rule-making laws that govern many other aspects of putting together a ballot. Her office said it ultimately decided a formal rule-making process was not necessary under state law.The legal challenge includes some parties and candidates who may be at the biggest disadvantage under straight-party voting. The state Libertarian Party and Elect Liberty PAC, a group backing former Gov. Gary Johnson's run for U.S. Senate on the Libertarian ticket, signed on to the petition. Petitioners also include Unite New Mexico, a group backing independent candidates, and Heather Nordquist, a Democrat running as a write-in candidate for state House District 46 in Santa Fe County. But it isn't all low-key groups. The Republican Party of New Mexico signed on as well.The court directed the secretary of state to respond by 5 p.m., Sept. 7. In an order issued Friday afternoon, the court said it would schedule oral arguments at a later date.Justice Gary Clingman, a Republican who is on the ballot this year, recused himself from the case.A legal challenge may have to move quickly, though.The Secretary of State's Office is expected to finalize the ballot next week and begin sending mail-in ballots to overseas voters 45 days before Election Day.Gov. Roy Cooper lost his lawsuit against the General Assembly on Friday, which means two controversial constitutional amendments will appear on the ballot this November -- unless an appeals court rules for Cooper.Cooper's lawyers said after the loss that they plan to appeal straight to the N.C. Supreme Court, possibly as soon as today.At issue are two proposed changes to the state constitution, which the Republican-led legislature wants voters to approve in the November election. Both would transfer power away from the governor's office and give it to the General Assembly. One deals with the power to appoint new judges to vacant judicial seats, and the other deals with the makeup of the N.C. Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement.In addition to lessening Cooper's influence over the elections board, the amendment would also remove the board's ninth member, who holds a seat reserved for a politically unaffiliated person intended to serve as a tiebreaker on controversial issues. If voters pass the amendment, the elections board would have eight members, split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.Legislators previously tried to pass a law doing the same thing, but earlier this year the N.C. Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional. So the legislators responded with this proposal to change the constitution.Cooper's lawyers argued Friday that voters won't know about that important history, since the ballot language approved by legislators won't mention anything about it. But lawyers for Republican legislative leaders Rep. Tim Moore and Sen. Phil Berger said they're not required to inform voters about the politics behind amendments, just what the amendments would do if passed."Everything about this process is right here in the ballot question," Martin Warf, one of the Legislature's attorneys, told the three-judge panel that later ruled in his favor on Friday. "The people of North Carolina can decide for themselves whether they want this change."However, the North Carolina solicitor general, Matt Sawchak, said in court Friday that the state elections board is opposed to the amendments -- not because it would be affected itself, but because its leaders believe the ballot questions remain misleading."Having studied these new ballot questions I must say that the board remains concerned ... that these ballot questions fail the standards," Sawchak said.However, the judges said they could not find enough proof to back up the arguments that the ballot questions remained misleading, so they ruled in favor of the legislators.This was the second trial in this case. Cooper won the first trial, which forced the Legislature to come back to Raleigh and re-write the two amendments and their descriptions on the ballot, which they finished on Monday.If the Supreme Court backs up the trial court and rules in the Legislature's favor, the amendments will go before voters on Nov. 6.Moore said in a written statement after his court win that he thinks the amendments have popular support, and that Cooper should "immediately stop trying to use litigation to block the people from being heard."But if the Supreme Court rules in Cooper's favor, it's unclear what might happen. The state has already missed one deadline to begin the lengthy process of printing all the ballots for the upcoming election, and another federally required deadline is fast approaching.Ford Porter, a Cooper spokesman, said Friday that they appreciate the court's swift action and still believe the Legislature has proposed "deceptive ballot questions."However, no matter what happens next, this lawsuit is not the only one holding up the ballots.Porter was referring to a ruling in a federal lawsuit Monday. In that case a panel of trial judges ruled that the state's 13 districts used to elect members of the U.S. House of Representatives are unconstitutional, due to partisan gerrymandering. The judges in that case ruled that the state couldn't have those 13 elections in November without new maps, although the case isn't over yet and that could change in the future.And in state court, two other amendments are also facing a separate legal challenge. The North Carolina NAACP and local environmental groups have sued over an amendment that would institute voter ID laws -- after the state's last attempt to create voter ID was struck down as racially motivated and unconstitutional in federal court -- and another amendment that would lower the state's maximum possible income tax rate. The case against those two amendments is currently before the N.C. Court of Appeals.Depending on what happens with those two lawsuits in the coming days, voters will be able to decide on anywhere from two to six proposed changes to the state constitution when they head to the polls in November. The two amendments that aren't facing legal challenges would re-affirm that people have the right to hunt and fish, and would give additional rights to victims of crimes.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 Tampa Bay Times/Miami 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."This is reprehensible _ and could only have come from someone with intentions to fuel hatred and seek attention," Geoff Burgan, spokesman for Gillum's campaign, said in a statement. "Please don't give it undeserved attention."DeSantis did not apologize for his comment on Fox News. On Wednesday, DeSantis' campaign spokesman, Stephen Lawson, said in a statement that DeSantis "was obviously talking about Florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses. To characterize it as anything else is absurd."On Friday, Lawson released a statement that denounced the robocall."This is absolutely appalling and disgusting _ and hopefully whoever is behind this has to answer for this despicable action," he wrote. "Our campaign has and will continue to focus solely on the issues that Floridians care about and uniting our state as we continue to build on our success."Republican Gov. Rick Scott also condemned the call on Twitter.At the end of the robocall, there is a "paid for by" disclaimer listing a neo-Nazi web site and podcast, The Road to Power, as the source. A phone number listed on the call is a non-working number with a Tallahassee area code. According to numerous news stories about the web site, it is run by a man named Scott Rhodes, who lives in Idaho.Local news reports reveal that The Road to Power has a history of distributing racist robocalls across the country, usually targeting areas right after they were in the headlines for racial controversy or violence.For example, the site paid for a robocall that called for "ethnically cleansing the country by expelling nonwhites to other countries" following the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., according to The Richmond Times Dispatch.In the San Francisco Bay Area, anti-Semitic robocalls promoting fringe Republican candidates for Congress that were disavowed by the GOP also came from The Road to Power, according to The San Jose Mercury News.And residents of Pittsburgh received a call paid for by The Road to Power that praised the police shootings of blacks shortly after a high-profile police killing of 17-year-old Antwon Rose II earlier this year, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.Some inmates in Pennsylvania prisons will be part of a four-state pilot program that will track and monitor them upon their release with the goal of keeping them from ending up back behind bars.The Safe Streets and Second Chances (S3C) program will include inmates from Florida, Kentucky, Texas and Pennsylvania and relies on interviews with each inmate to develop healthy thinking and coping mechanisms and find employment opportunities.The program is funded by Koch Industries and based on research at Florida State University. Criminal justice overhaul has been on the agenda of the Koch organization in recent years, and it have used its influence to lobby for changes such as lower penalties for non-violent inmates."Our whole vision is that the planning for the reentry back into society for incarcerated people needs to begin day one of incarceration," said Mark Holden, chairman of the S3C program and general counsel for Koch Industries. "Not 60 days out, not a year out -- day one."Koch Industries had been run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch until June when David Koch retired. The brothers have funded many conservative and Republican campaigns and initiatives.The program was announced Thursday by Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel and Michael Smith, president of Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Researchers will be embedded in Goodwill's offices."If we're just incarcerating people and not trying to add value to their life, not trying to rebuild them or give the opportunity to rebuild, they're just going to continue to come back, and we're going to spend money over and over again," Wetzel said.The inmates include some who will return home to Allegheny, Washington and Fayette counties. The $4 million program already has 1,300 volunteers, according to lead researcher Carrie Pettus-Davis, with the aim of recruiting 2,200 in total.Program officials will meet with the volunteer inmates and create an individual reentry plan based on their education and treatment programs that they have already completed. Researchers will then track the former inmates for 15 months."Folks need education to live a successful life," Wetzel said. "Why can't some of that education start right when individuals are in prison? Why wouldn't we do that?"Description

GIS - 04 September, 2018: Sir Anerood Jugnauth GCSK , KCMG, QC Minister Mentor , Minister of Defence, Minister for Rodrigues, opened the oral hearings before the International Court of Justice yesterday in The Hague, Netherlands on the request for an Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965.

In his opening statement, Minister Mentor underlined that Mauritius is a peaceful and stable democratic State which has maintained excellent relations with all States concerned with the questions referred to the Court. However, he recalled participating in the 1965 Constitutional Conference at the Lancaster House England during which the British Government threatened Mauritian representatives that they would not be granted independence unless they agreed to the dismemberment of Mauritius.

He underscored that during the conference, several small private meetings on defence matters were organised by the Colonial Secretary in London to which only five representatives were invited, including Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam.

He added that the then British Prime Minister Harold Wilson met the latter in private to persuade him for the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius. The object of the meeting was to frighten him with hope: hope that he might get independence: Fright lest he might not unless he is sensible about the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago, emphasised the Minister Mentor.

Moreover, the Minister Mentor underpinned that the officials of the colonial power devised a strategy by which Mauritian representatives were given no opportunity to retain the Chagos Archipelago. It was independence on condition of agreement to detachment or no independence with the detachment any way, he pointed out.

Sir Anerood Jugnauth stated that the United Kingdom had illegally excised the Chagos Archipelago from the territory of Mauritius prior to its accession to independence due to which Chagossians were forcibly evicted from their home in total disregard of their basic human rights. Government, he emphasised, fully supports the right of return of Chagossians to their native place and reaffirms its determination to complete the decolonisation process.

The Minister Mentor reiterated that the request for an advisory opinion is not intended to question the presence of the military base on Diego Garcia in any way as Mauritius is also committed to the protection of the environment and has been a responsible guardian of other areas of great environmental significance within its territory.Description

GIS  04 September, 2018: A country can only become better through innovation. The mission of Government is to create a culture of innovation and thus a Digital Economy Council will be set up to better equip citizens with knowledge and skills they will need in the future.

The Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Yogida Sawmynaden made this statement yesterday at the opening ceremony of a conference on Disruptive Digital Transformation held at the Hennessy Park Hotel in Ebene. The Ambassador of Japan to Mauritius, Mr Yoshiharu Kato, was also present.

The conference, an initiative of NEC Asia Pacific, brought together international and local speakers to discuss the different facets pertaining to digital transformation and the disruption it is causing in the world. Issues regarding industry 4.0 and how it is bound to change the way businesses and governments operate were discussed. The Smart enterprise solution platform by NEC Asia Pacific was also presented.

In his address, Minister Sawmynaden highlighted that the ICT industry contributes up to 6% to Mauritiuss GDP and has become the third pillar of the economy. He spoke of Governments vision of transforming Mauritius into a digital country, which implies moving towards innovation, Blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence.

Referring to statistics, the Minister pointed out that according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, Mauritius is ranked 57th in the world and 3rd in Africa in its Global Innovation Index 2018. This clearly indicates that Mauritius has embarked on a digital transformation to become a cyber-country, he stated.

Mauritius, Minister Sawmynaden emphasised, is committed to collaborate with other countries and is already cooperating with some of them to act as a bridge with the African continent. To that end, important Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with countries such as China and India, and, Japan is a strategic partner, he said.

Speaking about the ICT sector, the Minister pointed out that it is represented by more than 750 enterprises employing more than 23 000 professionals. One of the main objective is to double the number of IT professionals in the coming years by creating the ideal environment where enterprises can flourish, he indicated. Government has implemented the New Data Protection Act, making Mauritius the first country in the world to meet the new requirements of European General Data Protection Regulation, with the aim of enabling companies in the ICT sector to continue to provide quality services to their clients, he recalled .

Moreover, the Minister elaborated on initiatives regarding Cyber security. These include: implementation of a Cyber Threat Monitoring System by the Computer Emergency Response Team of the National Computer Board to better monitor and respond to cyber threats at national level and to detect potentially devastating cyber-attacks; setting up of a Certification Authority and a Capacity Building Centre for cybercrime to cater for the harmonisation of legal framework; and, capacity building and international cooperation.

Furthermore, Mr Sawmynaden dwelt on Governmental measures to leverage the country as a digital hub, namely: training of 2 000 additional students in primary schools and 2 500 students in secondary schools in coding; providing support to the University of Mauritius to double its intake of students in Computer Science and Software Engineering to 240; setting up of a Mauritius Artificial Intelligence Council; introducing the Work@Home scheme and a new scholarship scheme for 50 students annually who wish to specialise in digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain.

As for Ambassador Kato, he indicated that NEC Asia Pacific is an organisation that proposes innovative solutions and is intent on collaborating with African countries to assist them in fighting against cybercrime. T he NEC Asia Pacific conference is a testimony of how foreign expertise can meet with local skills to bring further success, he stated.

The Japanese Ambassador congratulated the Mauritian Government on its ambitious National Cyber Crime Strategy, and reiterated Japans commitment in strengthening bilateral relations with the country. Mauritius is making progress in the field of digitisation and innovation and is keeping up with the most technologically advanced countries, he added.Introduction

Structural Considerations

Create diverse teams.

Teach ethical development.

Policy Considerations

Encourage transparency.

Engage those affected by an algorithm.

Technical Considerations

Navigating Disparate Impact

Conclusion

As data-driven algorithms have come to play an increasingly important role in the ways governments make decisions, concern over what goes into these algorithms and what comes out has become more urgent. Using data to inform government decisions promises to improve efficiency and impartiality, but many fear that in reality, these tools fail to deliver on their potential. Many advocates argue that by using data tainted by historically prejudiced practices or by reflecting the (often unconscious) biases of mostly-white, mostly-male developers, algorithms will spit out results that discriminate against people of color, religious minorities, women, and other groups. These concerns gained significant traction following a 2016 article by ProPublica that analyzed racial disparities in the predictions made by COMPAS, a tool that creates risk scores to help assign bond amounts in Broward County, FL.By comparing risk scores to actual criminal activity, the analysis concluded that the software was twice as likely to falsely label black defendants as future criminals than white defendants, and more likely to falsely label white defendants as low risk. In other words, more supposedly high-risk black defendants did not commit crimes, while more supposedly low-risk white defendants did commit crimes. A number of other investigations and analyses have surfaced on social media monitoring efforts that target racially and religiously-loaded language,facial recognition software that has lower accuracy when evaluating black female faces,and child neglect prediction software that disproportionately targets poor black families,among many other examples of bias.Overlapping with these concerns about prejudice are questions about the accuracy of algorithmic decisions. The common and intuitive narrative is that algorithm-informed decisions must be better because they are based on data rather than instinct, and that this improved accuracy also ensures less bias. However, two Dartmouth computer science researchers recently questioned these assumptions in a highly-publicized analysis of Northpointes COMPAS tool, the same software that ProPublica had investigated two years prior.Using data on 1,000 real defendants from Broward County that ProPublica had made public, their analysis showed that COMPAS predicts recidivism no better than a random online poll of people who have no criminal justice training at all (65 percent accuracy for COMPAS and 67 percent for the random sample), and that there was the same degree of bias in both sets of predictions. The researchers also created their own algorithm and found that it only takes two data points to achieve the 65 percent accuracy achieved by COMPAS: the person's age and the number of prior convictions. While of course this is only one test of one algorithmic tool, the research undermines the common assumption that data-driven predictions inevitably improve the accuracy and impartiality of government decisions.With this information on potential bias and the suspect accuracy of certain algorithms, what are policymakers to do? Should cities abandon data-driven tools and defer to the instincts of police officers and caseworkers, as governments have done for hundreds of years? Certainly not. It is important to remember what governments hope to replace with data-driven work, namely the practices that have led to biased datasets, that have perpetuated these biases, that have unfairly targeted members of certain racial, religious, or socio-economic groups or excluded them from certain benefits.The answer to bias in algorithms is not to abandon data-driven decision-making, but to improve it. Cities need to put in place strategies for ensuring the automated tools they rely on to make critical decisionslike whether or not someone receives bail, whether or not a teacher gets fired, or whether to take a child away from her parentsare fair. This paper will seek to outline structural, policy, and technical strategies that governments should implement to reduce bias in algorithms. The paper will also consider a thornier question: what governments should do with an algorithm that disproportionately affects some protected class, but that does so based on accurate predictions that are grounded in prejudiced practices.The foundation for ensuring fairness in the algorithms created by an organization is a set of structural conditions that promote a culture committed to reducing bias. Without this, the policy and technical strategies that follow are irrelevant, because they will never become a priority for analysts.Building a culture of fairness starts with hiring a diverse group of engineers. Black, Latinx, and Native American people are underrepresented in tech by 16 to 18 percentage points compared with their presence in the U.S. labor force overall. To be sure, part of the process is improving tech education for individuals in these groups. Some have proposed integrating computer science into curricula at an earlier stageas early as kindergartenand actively encouraging traditionally underrepresented racial groups as well as women to pursue education in STEM fields. However, improving education is not enough. Black and Latinx people in the U.S. earn nearly 18 percent of computer science degrees, but hold barely five percent of tech jobs.This means tech-driven organizations in the public, private, and non-profit sectors also need to put more emphasis on hiring women and people of color. A 2016 White House report on artificial intelligence highlighted the critical value of a diverse workforce in the tech sector. According to the report, Research has shown that diverse groups are more effective at problem solving than homogeneous groups, and policies that promote diversity and inclusion will enhance our ability to draw from the broadest possible pool of talent [and] solve our toughest challenges.Hiring a diverse cast of employees is particularly valuable in the effort to reduce bias in algorithms, offering an array of perspectives that can fill in the blind spots of a traditionally white and male field. A diverse group of coders will be more likely to notice disparities in training datalike the one that led a Google facial recognition algorithm to label black people as gorillas.They will also be more likely to notice and account for cultural differences. A famous illustration of the often-unexpected appearance of cultural myopia is the ketchup question.While most white Americans keep their ketchup in the fridge, black Americans in the south as well as many British people keep their ketchup in the cupboard. Now, its unlikely that this particular cultural difference would matter much to a team of coders, though there are certainly situations in which it might. For example, a team creating some kind of logic test might ask a question like Ice cream is to the freezer as ketchup is to the ______, expecting an answer like fridge. However, this example exhibits an important larger point, that cultural diversity on a team offers perspectives that can challenge the pre-conceived notions and remedy the cultural myopia of more homogenous groups. In the case of algorithms for policing and sentencing, these perspectives can provide critical insights that shape the ways the tools work. A black coder, for example, may be more likely to know that police are more than three times more likely to arrest black people for marijuana possession than white people, even though the two groups use drugs at roughly the same rate.With this information, an agency may choose to normalize or altogether exclude drug arrests from the factors under consideration.And its not only racial diversity that these organizations should strive for, but also intellectual diversity driven by differences in background. An article from Fast Company argues, Currently AI is a rarefied field, exclusive to Ph.D. technologists and mathematicians. Teams of more diverse backgrounds will by nature raise the questions, illuminate the blind spots, check assumptions to ensure such powerful tools are built upon a spectrum of perspectives.Hiring experienced technologists is obviously essential for creating advanced analytical tools, but hiring people with backgrounds in public policy, sociology, and even philosophy can help uncover and resolve many of the ethical dilemmas at the heart of data-driven government. The Berkman Klein Centers Mason Kortz had a similar perspective, saying of predictive criminal justice projects, You might want someone who studied critical race theory on your team.Its important that engineering teams not only have a diverse group of coders, but also that these coders are trained in creating ethical algorithms. We need to think about changing the way the field is taught, said Kira Hessekiel, also of the Berkman Klein Center.This starts in the classroom, with integrating considerations of fairness into computer science courses. Some professors have already begun offering this type of training in class. For example, computer science professor Fei Fang of Carnegie Mellon University has designed a course titled Artificial Intelligence for Social Good that seeks to teach students how to use AI in order to solve problems like poverty, hunger, and healthcare. The course emphasizes the need to zoom out, analyze problems from the perspective of those who will be affected, and consider many potential solutions that leverage different tools, rather than jumping straight into technical problem solving. As a part of the class, students will choose a social problem to solve with AI and investigate it, as a journalist, designer, or anthropological researcher would.This emphasis on thoughtful cross-disciplinary analysis must not be reserved for the classroom, but must also seep into the culture of professional teams. DJ Patil, former Chief Data Scientist of the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy, has argued that there needs to be a code of ethics for data scientists, similar to the Hippocratic Oath that governs medical practice. Patil has called for data scientists to collaborate in order to create a set of principles that guide and hold data scientists accountable as professionals.Data for Democracy (D4D)a community of volunteers that collaborates on a variety of government data science projectshas also sought to create such a code of ethics. The organization has partnered with Bloomberg and BrightHive to develop this code that will guide professionals in becoming a thoughtful, responsible agent of change. D4D has used GitHub to collect ideas and suggestions from the data science community, and is now in the process of developing more targeted discussion questions that will frame the code.A representative and thoughtful team of analysts and data leaders will be more likely to put in place policies that help to reduce bias and inaccuracy in algorithmic tools. These policies prioritize openness and rigorous deliberation over algorithmic decision-making.New York City recently made headlines with its efforts to make the algorithms used by city agencies more transparent to the public. The premise behind these efforts is that the public not only has a right to know what goes into the algorithms that profoundly affect their lives, but that this public can also improve these tools by scrutinizing them for bias and inaccuracies. In addition to creating a task force on algorithmic transparency, New York recentlyand less visiblybegan publishing detailed project descriptions and source code for projects initiated by the Mayors Office of Data Analytics (MODA).Amen Mashariki, urban analytics lead for Esri and former chief analytics officer for MODA, explained the value of this transparency in rooting out bias.Mashariki pointed to one MODA project in particular, an effort to predict instances of tenant harassment by landlords across the city. What if the tenant harassment analysis pointed only to landlords from one racial, religious, or other group? Mashariki asked. If the city publishes information about its algorithmic process, residents can audit that process to make sure it aligns with the citys public policieslike non-discrimination. Anyone can step up and say, wait a minute, thats unfair, he explained. Therefore, according to Mashariki, cities need to make enough information available such that residents can trust that public policy is being adhered to.One of the principal challenges is accessibilityalgorithms often involve analytics techniques that are not familiar to most residents, and source code is even less comprehensible to laypeople. Vendor agreements erect another barrier to transparency, as many cities contract development to private companies, which own the tools they create and often demand secrecy for their proprietary products.In response to these challenges, researchers, technologists, and policymakers have proposed a number of strategies for making automated tools transparent. Some have called for releasing information that will allow residents to meaningfully audit automated tools, while holding onto companies secret sauce. These strategies tend to highlight a few key elements to disclose: what data went into the algorithm and why, the analytics techniques used to analyze the data, and data on the performance of the algorithm pre- and post-implementation.Other researchers have introduced innovative ways of explaining complex algorithms, either by creating surrogate models that approximate machine learning tools,or by creating data visualizations that represent these tools.Still others argue that cities should only employ tools that are easily comprehensible to the public. Its better just to build a simple model, said Berk Ustun, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Computation and Society at Harvard.You can create something you can explain to a policymaker that works just as well as this other stuff.Theres also significant debate over the merits of publishing source code. While some vendors are hesitant to reveal this information, this type of radical transparency could in fact benefit vendors. Not only would transparency be a selling point for interested cities, but releasing source code also allows experts to analyze a vendors product and improve it for free. This can help avoid PR disasters like the ProPublica piece on COMPAS and create a better product for clients.And, while many seem to think that source code wouldnt be particularly useful to residents, some members of the computer science community disagree. Ustun told an anecdote about a different ProPublica investigation that unsealed the source code of a DNA analysis tool used by New York Citys crime lab. Within a day of the release, there was a thread on popular computer science blog Hacker News examining flaws in the model and proposing solutions. While source code might not be useful to every resident, it certainly would be useful to those with expertise.Regardless of the method of disclosure they mandate, cities will want to ensure that they dont put such an onerous requirement on agencies that they revert back to unscientific conjecture-driven approaches. As a result, any effective effort towards algorithmic transparency must engage stakeholders within city government.Human-centered designthe process of engaging users in the development processis becoming more and more prominent in the public sector. Examples include an effort to observe public works employees in Pittsburgh to understand their paperwork-laden process for filling potholes and develop a platform that fit their needs, [22] a civic engagement campaign in Chicago in which the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) led demonstrations and solicited feedback on the citys new open data platform, [23] and engagement with local business owners in Gainesville, FL to map all 13 steps of the permitting process and launch a web platform to provide guidance on the most difficult steps. [24] Human-centered design is not only relevant to developing technological tools residents will use, but also for creating policies and tools that will affect residentslike an algorithm. Creating a representative and thoughtful team of developers certainly helps reflect the needs and wants of citizens, but engaging those actually affected goes one step furtherHuman-centered design aligns closely with many of the accessibility challenges that surround transparency. If residents are to meaningfully engage in the algorithmic design process, the automated tools at hand need to be accessible to people with varying backgrounds and levels of expertise. Holding user-centered design sessions that leverage tools like surrogate algorithms and visualizationsas well as simply using simpler algorithmscan help bring citizen voices into the fray, and allow them to ensure that automated tools work for them.As the issue of bias in algorithms has gained prominence, a budding group of researchers at the intersection of law, ethics, and computer science has proposed technical solutions for ensuring algorithms dont encode bias. These processes leverage insights into the analytics techniques and data used in creating automated tools in order to analyze and change algorithms to improve fairness.While sometimes a source of bias, the tools of computer and data science also offer a number of potential techniques for resolving bias and inaccuracy. A 2015 paper from Feldman et. al. proposed strategies for identifying and removing disparate impact in algorithms, ensuring that they do not discriminate against any particular group. In order to pinpoint algorithms with a disparate impact, the authors created a classifier algorithm that attempts to guess members of two different classes based on outputs. For example, this algorithm would attempt to guess the race of individuals based on the recidivism risk scores offered. When these classifier algorithms have a higher error ratemeaning theyre less capable of guessing race based on outputsthey are less biased. The paper also introduces a method for transforming the input dataset so that the predictability of the protected attribute is impossible, while preserving much of the predictive power of the unprotected attributes. Without going into too much detail, the authors outline a number of potential repair algorithms that change the input dataset, with various degrees of effect on the predictive power of the algorithm. They also test this algorithm on a number of datasets, arguing that their fairness procedure retains more utilityor predictive powerthan any other procedures for removing disparate impact.Their work shows that while data-driven technology may have the potential to perpetuate bias, it may also contain the solutions to the problem.Another important contribution to the research on technical strategies for bias mitigation comes from Dwork et al. Dwork focuses less on group fairnessi.e., ensuring different groups have proportionate outcomesand more on individual fairnessi.e., treating similar individuals similarly. More technically, the authors outline a framework for fairness such that the distributions over outcomes observed byand y are indistinguishable up to their distance, y)where differences in outputs are proportional to differences in relevant inputs. As in Feldman et al., the paper seeks to create fairness with minimum effect on utility. The authors approach this goal as an optimization problem, outlining an algorithm for maximizing utility subject to the fairness constraint they set out initially.Calders and Verwer take a similar approach to reducing bias, proposing a method whereby developers subtract the conditional probability of a positive classification based on a sensitive valuesuch as membership in a protected classfrom that of a non-sensitive value.In other words, holding all other variables constant, what the difference is in the probability of positive classification (e.g., high risk score) for a member of a protected class versus another individual. The closer this difference gets to zero, the less biased the algorithm.On a less academic note, as a technique to reduce bias, some private companies have begun thinking carefully about the data their algorithms digest. Algorithmic policing company Azavea has considered potential sources of bias in the data on which it trains its algorithm, and on which the algorithm makes predictions. Azaveas HunchLab platform predicts crime risk in neighborhoods across cities in order to determine police deployments, and uses historical crime as a key indicator. However, Azavea has acknowledged the potential for enforcement biaspolice tendencies to arrest more people of color based on prejudiceto slip into this crime data. There is little doubt that historical crime data will reflect past police bias, and that an algorithm trained on this data will disproportionately affect communities of color. However, this type of bias is much less present in major crimes such as homicides, robberies, assaults, or burglaries than in drug-related or nuisance crimes. As a result, HunchLab has de-emphasized arrest data for the latter, minor types of crime.Even after technologists and policymakers have pursued all the structural, policy, and technical strategies to root out bias from bad data or an unrepresentative group of analysts, they may still face a trickier question. What do you do if your modelwithout explicitly considering membership in a protected class in its inputsstill has a disparate impact on a certain group, but one that accurately reflects current conditions? The most controversial example of this pertains to race in predictive policing or recidivism risk analysis: what if its actually true that people of color in a city commit violent crimes at a higher rate, and your algorithm reflects this?This is not an unrealistic situation. According to U.S. Department of Justice Data from 1980-2008, black residents committed homicides at a higher rate than white residents.Based on this data, is disparate impact justified? Is it acceptable for black residents to receive longer sentences for the same crimes because people of their race have historically committed more crimes?This perspective overlooks the systemic structures that have created disproportionate crime rates among black and white residents. A history of redlining, mass incarceration, employment and educational discrimination, hate crimes, and systematic robbery of black property, power, and opportunity that dates back to slavery has ensured that the statistics are as they are. Historic practices ensuring black residents cannot get a good education, job, or house have all but guaranteed people of color will commit more violent crimes. It is patently true that black communities, home to a class of people regularly discriminated against and impoverished, have long suffered higher crime rates, explains Ta-Nehisi Coates.And, relying on the suggestions of algorithms that encourage incarcerating more black people for longer sentences will only perpetuate these structures and enhance inequity.However, the alternative may also be unsatisfying. In some cases, radical equity would require ensuring your algorithm does not have a disparate impact, even if doing so hampers its accuracy. In adjusting your algorithm, you would fail to identify people at high risk of committing a violent crime, leaving them out on the street and endangering other residents. As Coates also acknowledges, The argument that high crime is the predictable result of a series of oppressive racist policies does not render the victims of those policies bulletproof.Acknowledging the systemic factors that have led to higher crime rates in underrepresented groups does not make those crimes any less real or harmful to their victims.And, even if you are willing to sacrifice some accuracy to avoid disparate impact, it is unclear how far these tradeoffs should go. What qualifies as disparate impact and to which groups does it apply? For example, is an algorithm that predicts more men will commit spousal abuse the same as one predicting more black people will commit crimes? Are there some situations in which disparate impact might be justified? Are there other ways of addressing structural bias besides eliminating inequalities in algorithmic outcomes or ignoring these algorithms altogether? Id like to offer a couple ways of navigating these and other difficult questions.In order to understand the implications of disparate impact on algorithmic decision-making, its first important to understand the origins of the concept. Disparate impact comes originally from the Supreme Courts 1971 decision in, which addressed whether Dukes employment requirements were constitutional. In its hiring process, the company required that employees possess a high-school diploma and take an IQ testevaluations that disqualified many more black applicants than white. The Court ruled that criteria with a disproportionate effect on protected classeseven if neutral on their face, and even neutral in terms of intentcould be unconstitutional. However, if these criteria have "a manifest relationship to the employment in question" or support some business necessity, they may still be allowable.Ensuing cases have addressed what degree of disproportionality qualifies as disparate impact. It would of course be silly to require that each group have the exact same number of people in each outcome poolif one more black person than white is hired out of a pool of 1,000, this hardly seems like disparate impact. While the Court has not adopted any rigid mathematical formula for disparate impact, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has adopted an 80 percent rule, and many researchers have followed suit.This rule prescribes that if the probability of a positive outcome for members of a protected class is less than or equal to 80 percent than for a non-protected class, theres a disparate impact. In the criminal justice context for example, if the probability of a black resident receiving a low risk score is less than 80 percent that of a white resident, theres good reason to argue for disparate impact.These legal structures set out a few important rules. For one, disparate impact commonly only applies to protected classesnamely sex, race, age, disability, color, creed, national origin, religion, or genetic information. It would be illogical to disallow disparate impact on any class of people, as there are an infinite number of potential classifications, many of which a city would want to single out with an algorithm. For example, a predictive policing algorithm that disproportionately identifies murderers as opposed to non-murderers is desirable, while one that disproportionately affects black residents is more fraught. Another important principle is that only a certain degree of inequity qualifies as disproportionate impact, as minute differences among outcomes are inevitable. And, the legal basis for disproportionate impact also allows for exceptions in cases where the process behind disparate impact supports a business necessity, which may be applicable to government cases that serve particularly important purposes.With these legal principles in mind, Id like to develop a few recommendations for cities that come upon algorithms with disparate impact. The first is the need to compare the algorithmic process with current practices. According to Mason Kortz of Harvard Law Schools Berkman Klein Center, cities need to ask How good are we at this now? Is the algorithm less biased than the baseline? With respect to algorithmic sentencing, for example, cities can analyze existing disparities in sentence lengths for white and black residents who have committed the same crimes. Cities can compare these measures to the performance of an algorithm on a set of test data, and see which produces less biased results. If an algorithm is less biasedeven if not totally free of biasa city has good reason to deploy it. Amen Mashariki explained this philosophy: With MODAif we were able to create a one percent improvement in an agency, that was a win. Likewise, if an algorithm can reduce bias in some practice, it should be used.The problem, according to Kortz and Hessekiel, is that often cities dont have baselines by which to compare algorithms, nor good evidence on the performance of algorithms themselves. We often dont know, for example, how well judges predict recidivism, nor how well the algorithms that are intended to improve judges decisions perform. This means that cities need to invest more resources into testing automated tools against existing systems. The aforementioned research in the Dartmouth computer science department was one of the first rigorous analyses of this kind, comparing the recidivism predictions of Northpointes COMPAS tool in Broward County, FL against predictions by a random sample of online users. That their analysis showed COMPAS was no more accurate and no less biased than this random sample is a sign that more research is necessary.Regardless of whether or not an automated tool outperforms existing systems, cities should think carefully about the repercussions of disparate impact. Its not enough that an algorithm improves on existing processes if those processes were never particularly good in the first place.If an automated tool produces disparate impact, cities should think about whether or not they were optimizing for the right thing in the first place. For example, it may be more likely that residents of color than white residents will commit a misdemeanor crime within two years of committing an initial crime. In this case, a sentencing algorithm may recommend on average longer sentences for black residents. Yet why should whether or not a resident commits another minor crime within two years be the relevant outcome? Kortz and Hessekiel suggested that another outcomelike whether or not a resident will maintain a steady job seven to ten years after the initial crimemight be a more relevant metric, and its plausible that a longer sentence would in fact decrease the chances of this happening.Of course, there are certain outcomes on which governments would not be willing to compromise. For example, few would argue that governments should adjust the goals of an algorithm that predicts the probability of a resident committing a violent crime within two years. This interest seems to fall in a similar vein as the business necessity identified in Griggs, which allows for disparate impact in cases that serve a compelling goal. Whether or not this person retains employment ten years down the line, cities will want to ensure he or she doesnt commit the crime.In this case, it may be less about whether an algorithm makes disparate predictions about different groups, and more about what cities do with this information. If an algorithm predicts, for example, that someone is likely to commit a crime, theres a menu of options available other than surveilling that person and waiting for him or her to engage in criminal behavior. As Kortz explained, If a predictive policing algorithm over-identifies black people who are at risk of committing a crime, and you use the output to direct police on who to surveil and arrest, there are huge problems. If you take the same algorithm, but use it to send people mailings about social services, its still biased, but has a way different effect.An example of a crime prediction project in Johnson County, KS illustrates the importance of data use. The county partnered with researchers from the University of Chicago to develop an early intervention system for individuals who cycle through the criminal justice, mental health, social services, and emergency services systems. The researchers generated approximately 250 features and developed a machine-learning model that output risk scores of people at risk of re-entering jail in the near future. However, instead of sending this data to the police so they can keep their eyes on certain residents, the County will send the list of people with high risk scores to the mental health centers emergency services so these individuals can be connected to care and decrease the likelihood of future police interactions.Cities can pursue similar interventions to act ethically on other controversial algorithms. Instead of pinning an interminable sentence on those with a high recidivism risk, criminal justice agencies may wish to experiment with programs that have a proven track record in reducing recidivism. A program in Los Angeles has sought to reduce recidivism for juveniles in particular, creating a probation camp that offers individual, family, and group counseling services to kids who have committed a crime. While the typical one-year rearrest rate for juveniles is almost 75 percent, only one in three kids who attended a probation camp was arrested within a year, and only 20 percent were convicted of a crime.More broadly, these examples underscore the need for cities to be much more thoughtful about whether their policy goals match the optimizations their algorithms work towards. If people have a higher recidivism risk, why should they be detained for longer? Does a longer sentence reduce their chance of recidivating? The reality is that the outcomes cities try to predict often have nothing to do with the policy actions they take in response to those outcomes. In the case of recidivism prediction, cities should really attempt to predict which people, if given a longer sentence, will be less likely to recidivate. It also may be that a longer sentence is not the most effective intervention, and that really they should try to understand which residents, if given social services like nutrition assistance and job training, will be less likely to recidivate. We need more research from governments, non-profits, and academic institutions into what really works in these situations, and by extension what outcomes algorithms should attempt to predict.By pursuing these kinds of people-centric and proven policies, cities can act on predictive insights without perpetuating bias and inequality. In fact, this rehabilitative focus can help reverse some of the damage done in underserved communities.Of course, not all communities that rely on criminal justice algorithms have these types of programs in place, nor the resources nor political capital to implement them. The criminal justice examples are thorny, because we know there are all these problems, but we dont have a good way of fixing them, Hessekiel explained. Its easy to say Just fix the criminal justice system, but accomplishing this requires a radical shift that goes well beyond algorithms, and this advice doesnt provide much insight as to what to do in the meantime. What are jurisdictions to do with predictive algorithms in the absence of a system that prioritizes rehabilitation over retribution?One potential course is analyzing causality in the disparate impact of algorithms. Cities should accept disparate impact only if theres a causal relationship between the group affected and the outcome predicteda strategy that can help distinguish between a true business necessity and prejudiced conjecture. Prioritizing causality ensures that disparate impact reflects real predictive differences between individuals, rather than sociological structures. As a study by Osonde Osoba and William Welser IV of the Rand Corporation argues, Accurate causal justifications for algorithmic decisions are the most reliable audit trails for algorithms.If an algorithm that predicts child abuse has a disparate impact on people whove committed assault, this seems perfectly reasonable. Prior convictions of assault are indicative of violent tendencies, which certainly have a causal relationship with likelihood of abuse. Admittedly, cases that involve protected or quasi-protected classes like gender, race, or national origin are more difficult. For example, is there a causal relationship between gender and a crime like spousal abuse, which men are disproportionately likely to commit? One could argue that biological differences have a causal relationship to the outcome, but these arguments are somewhat fraught, and the line between inherent and socialized differences is difficult to identify. There do exist some technical strategies for identifying causal relationships, as researchers have begun equipping machine learning algorithms with causal and counterfactual reasoning.While it doesnt always offer a clear answer, considering and attempting to isolate causality as a requirement for disparate impact can help root out practices that will perpetuate bias, while still using useful predictors. Having these conversations is an important step towards preventing the perpetuation of oppressive structures.Another proposed solution to disparate impact involves creating different algorithms for different groups. What Kortz and Hessekiel referred to as affirmative action for algorithms, this strategy calls for analyzing data on separate classes separately. So, for example, instead of predicting recidivism risk for all people at once, analysts might train algorithms on men and women, or black and white residents separately. These algorithms would then produce risk scores for people relative to their classfor example, black women, or white men. This practice has a strategic advantage over class-neutral analytics techniques because predictors for one class may not work for another. Harvards Berk Ustun explained this phenomenon in an analysis of Census data he had done to predict whether people will earn $50,000 or more.When he analyzed data for everyone regardless of gender or race, the error rate was around 25 percent. He then decoupled the model, analyzing data for different groups separately. While the overall accuracy didnt improve much because the majority group was so large, the accuracy for smaller groupsfor example, black female immigrantsskyrocketed.The issue with this strategy of decoupling is the same that has plagued other examples of affirmative action. Is it fair? In a sentencing context, its likely that a white woman and black man with similar criminal histories and ages would receive very different risk scores via decoupling. This might solve the issue of disparate impact, but would raise the issue of disparate treatment, whereby two people are treated differently because they belong to different classes. Historically, the Courts have not looked fondly upon examples of disparate treatment, and so implementing this kind of technique would likely require a strong legal justification, especially in the context of criminal justice. However, the increases in accuracy that Ustun found in his analysis may provide enough evidence to justify decoupling in many areas.Before deploying algorithmic toolsespecially those that can have a profound effect on citizen livescities should do everything they can to mitigate the risk of bias, and even then take a cautious approach to data use. At the same time, there is serious need for more research on the part of cities and academic institutions alike to understand how to involve citizens in development and to determine whether algorithms actually predict what they claim to predict and whether these optimizations align with policy goals. It is tempting for policymakers to view automated tools as a finished product, fine-tuned by the vendors that peddle them. Yet in reality, many algorithms are more like first drafts that introduce a number of unanswered questions and require more rigorous examination.As many tech evangelists have argued, the answer to the problem of bias is not to abandon technology, but to improve it. The motivation for moving away from old systems of criminal sentencing or teacher evaluation was that these processes were flawed, and that data-driven practices offered a solution. If tech and data leaders approach algorithmic decision-making with consideration of the potential for bias, this is already a step in the right direction. The result may still be imperfect, but recognition of those imperfections will allow for consistent momentum towards algorithmic fairness.Angwin, Julia, Jeff Larson, Lauren Kirchner, and Surya Mattu. "Machine Bias." ProPublica. May 23, 2016. https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing.Boston polices social media surveillance unfairly targeted Muslims, ACLU says- https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/07/boston-police-social-media-surveillance-unfairly-targeted-muslims-aclu-says/9JUpzPmy8Tsr5RLxvCm61M/story.htmlTlumacki, John. "Boston Police's Social Media Surveillance Unfairly Targeted Muslims, ACLU Says - The Boston Globe." BostonGlobe.com. February 07, 2018. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/07/boston-police-social-media-surveillance-unfairly-targeted-muslims-aclu-says/9JUpzPmy8Tsr5RLxvCm61M/story.html.Misra, Tanvi. "When Criminalizing the Poor Goes High-Tech." CityLab. February 15, 2018. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/02/the-rise-of-digital-poorhouses/552161/?platform=hootsuite.Lapowsky, Issie. "Crime-Predicting Algorithms May Not Beat Untrained Humans." Wired. January 17, 2018. https://www.wired.com/story/crime-predicting-algorithms-may-not-outperform-untrained-humans/.Connor, Michael. "Tech Still Doesn't Get Diversity. Here's How to Fix It." Wired. June 03, 2017. https://www.wired.com/2017/02/tech-still-doesnt-get-diversity-heres-fix/.United States. Executive Office of the President.By Jason Furman, John P. Holdren, Cecilia Munoz, Megan Smith, and Jeffrey Zients. December 20, 2016. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/EMBARGOED AI Economy Report.pdf.Zhang, Maggie. "Google Photos Tags Two African-Americans As Gorillas Through Facial Recognition Software." Forbes. July 01, 2015. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mzhang/2015/07/01/google-photos-tags-two-african-americans-as-gorillas-through-facial-recognition-software/#4fb41ea6713d.Thomas, Dexter. "A Solution to Tech's Lingering Diversity Problem? Try Thinking about Ketchup." Los Angeles Times. March 16, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-diversity-right-thing-snap-story.html.Report. June 2013. https://www.aclu.org/report/report-war-marijuana-black-and-white?redirect=criminal-law-reform/war-marijuana-black-and-white.Clendaniel, Morgan. "Now Is The Time To Act To End Bias In AI." Fast Company. April 23, 2018. https://www.fastcompany.com/40536485/now-is-the-time-to-act-to-stop-bias-in-ai.Interview with author.Interview with author.Wilson, Mark. "You Can Now Take A Class On How To Make AI That Isn't Evil." Co.Design. January 18, 2018. https://www.fastcodesign.com/90157255/you-can-now-take-a-class-on-how-to-make-ai-that-isnt-evil.Patil, DJ. "A Code of Ethics for Data Science." Medium. February 01, 2018. https://medium.com/@dpatil/a-code-of-ethics-for-data-science-cda27d1fac1.Code of Ethics. http://datafordemocracy.org/projects/ethics.htmlInterview with author.Goldsmith, Stephen, and Chris Bousquet. "Behind the Curtain of Code: The Algorithms Controlling Your Life." CityLab. April 05, 2018. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/03/the-right-way-to-regulate-algorithms/555998/.Ribeiro, Marco T., Sameer Singh, and Carlos Guestrin. Why Should I Trust You?: Explaining the Predictions of Any Classifier.February 16, 2016. doi:10.18653/v1/n16-3020Hall, Patrick, Wen Phan, and SriSatish Ambati. "Ideas on Interpreting Machine Learning." O'Reilly Media, Inc. March 15, 2017. https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/ideas-on-interpreting-machine-learning.Interview with author. [22] Burack, Robert. "Putting Users First: Human-Centered Approaches in the Data-Smart City." Data-Smart City Solutions. December 5, 2017. https://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/putting-users-first-human-centered-approaches-in-the-data-smart-city-1176. [23] Thornton, Sean. "User-Friendliness Defines Chicago's New Data Portal." Data-Smart City Solutions. April 20, 2017. https://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/user-friendliness-defines-chicagos-new-data-portal-1026. [24] Goldsmith, Stephen. "Three Tips for Designing Municipal Tools with Employees in Mind." Data-Smart City Solutions. June 7, 2017. https://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/3-tips-for-designing-municipal-tools-with-employees-in-mind-1059.Feldman, Michael, Sorelle A. Friedler, John Moeller, Carlos Scheidegger, and Suresh Venkatasubramanian. "Certifying and Removing Disparate Impact.", July 16, 2015. doi:10.1145/2783258.2783311.Dwork, Cynthia, Moritz Hardt, Toniann Pitassi, Omer Reingold, and Richard Zemel. "Fairness Through Awareness.", November 29, 2011. doi:10.1145/2090236.2090255.Calders, Toon, and Sicco Verwer. "Three Naive Bayes Approaches for Discrimination-free Classification."21, no. 2 (September 27, 2010): 277-92. doi:10.1007/s10618-010-0190-x.Report. July 1, 2017. http://robertbrauneis.net/algorithms/HunchLabACitizensGuide.pdf.United States. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs.By Alexia Cooper and Erica L. Smith. November 2011. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf.Coates, Ta-Nehisi. "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration." The Atlantic. March 19, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/#Chapter II.Ibid."Griggs v. Duke Power Company." Oyez. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970/124.Feldman et al.Bousquet, Chris. "Mining Social Media Data for Policing, the Ethical Way." Data-Smart City Solutions. April 26, 2018. https://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/mining-social-media-data-policing-ethical-way.Herz, Denise C., Kristine Chan, Susan K. Lee, Melissa N. Ross, Jacquelyn McCroskey, Michelle Newell, and Caneel Fraser.April 2015. http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/92794.pdf.Osoba, Osonde, and William Welser, IV.Report. 2017. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1700/RR1744/RAND_RR1744.pdf.See https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.05859.pdf );(https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.02744)Interview with author.(TNS)  COLUMBUS  Speaker of the Ohio House Ryan Smith (R-Bidwell) recently joined with members of the House Leadership Team and Majority Caucus to discuss the future of blockchain in Ohio, in both the public and private sector.Joined by chief experts on the issue from around the state, legislators conveyed interest in connecting the legislature with more information on the benefits of blockchain technology.As the utilization of blockchain increases, a press conference shed light on the state of blockchain technology and its potential to drive economic and workforce development, as well as the opportunity to increase government efficiency and strengthen cybersecurity measures.The technology allows for the creation of secure lists of records linked to one another. This includes electronic medical records, smart contracts, online voting, logistics management materials, government benefit transfers and title transfers. Essentially, in a blockchain transaction, a block is created that contains the details of the transaction. The information is visible to only those within the network but they are encrypted in a way to prevent them from being altered.Joined by fellow legislators Reps. Bill Reineke (R-Tiffin), Rick Carfagna (R-Genoa Township), Laura Lanese (R-Grove City), Scott Ryan (R-Newark) and Gary Scherer (R-Circleville), Smith highlighted the need for the legislature to look at the issue of blockchain more closely and possibly develop legislation on the issue in the future. Other states, including Arizona, Illinois and Nevada have already taken legislative action related to blockchain.Ohio continues to lead on various technological fronts, and blockchain technology is a great opportunity for our state to prevent brain-drain and keep talent in Ohio to make us a leader in technological advancement and economic and workforce development, Smith said. The underlying use of blockchain technology can be utilized for a multitude of purposes and has the potential to innovate state government, making it more efficient, secure and transparent.Legislators were joined by Matt Wald, President and CEO of the Columbus Collaboratory, which is a company that specializes in advanced analytics and cybersecurity.Blockchain and related internet technologies will help to create the next level of process efficiency opportunities and drive new innovative applications, said Wald. Ohio has become a technology leader in a number of critical and growing industries, thanks in large part to our states embrace of advanced technologies such as blockchain.Jim Korcykoski, Chief Technology & Information Security Officer at Nationwide Insurance, also participated in the press conference to talk about the use of blockchain at major insurance and finance companies, such as Nationwide.Nationwide is committed to advancing blockchain technology and the potential for disruption across several industries, including insurance and financial services, Korcykoski said. We applaud Speaker Smith for bringing together a diverse group of leaders from business, government, academia, and technology to help position Ohio as a leader in this new, exciting arena, and we look forward to working with the legislature and the business community to help build on the momentum thats been established so far.Efforts on this issue have been led in northeast Ohio by Bernie Moreno, President of the Bernie Moreno Companies and President of Ownum.If Ohio is to become a leader in blockchain technology, then it is critical that state leaders recognize and take advantage of this incredible opportunity, Moreno said. It is clear that Speaker Smith sees blockchains potential. My hope is that other statewide officials can do the same. By embracing blockchain, Ohio can reposition itself as a national leader in digital transformation and innovation. That will attract hundreds of start-ups to Ohio and create lots of high paying jobs.Workforce development was a major part of the discussion as this field continues to grow. Professor Hesham El Gamal, Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The Ohio State University, shared his experience on this front.It is commendable that the state legislature has recognized the importance of blockchain as a potential transformational technology, El Gamal said. OSU is in a perfect position to assist the legislature with a state-wide effort to leverage this technology for economic development and workforce education and training.(TNS) - As part of National Preparedness Month, West Virginians are encouraged to become prepared in case of an emergency.The American Red Cross West Virginia Region urges everyone not to wait until an emergency occurs and its too late.We strongly encourage you to take steps now to prepare, said Courtney Clark, Executive Director for Southeast West Virginia. We see disasters often this time of year, so it is vital for you and every member of your household to have a plan.Whether the emergency is a home fire or a hurricane, the situation may force you to leave your home. The Red Cross offers the following 10 steps to be prepared if the emergency makes it unsafe to remain at home: Follow the instructions of officials and evacuate if told to do so. Leave early enough to avoid being trapped by severe weather. Remember you may have to get out on foot depending on the type of disaster. If you dont have a car, or cant use your vehicle, plan on how you will leave the area. If you have a car, keep the gas tank full if an evacuation order is possible. Dont let the tank go below half full in case gas stations are unable to pump gas. Decide where you would go and what route you would take to get there. This could be a motel, the home of a friend or relative a safe distance away, or an evacuation shelter. Download the free Red Cross Emergency App to find shelter information and weather and emergency alerts for more than 35 different situations. If you have time, let someone out of the region know you are evacuating and where you are going. Leave a note saying when you left and where you plan to go. Wear sturdy shoes and clothing that provides some protection. Be alert for road hazards such as downed trees, flooding, etc. Do not drive onto a flooded road. Practice evacuating your home twice a year. Grab your emergency kit and drive your planned evacuation route. Include an alternate route in a different direction in case one is impassible. Make sure you have locations and maps saved on devices such as cell phones and GPS units and on paper. Dont forget your pets. If its not safe for you to stay home, its not safe for them either. Prepare a phone list of pet-friendly motels and animal shelters located along your evacuation route. Keep in mind only service animals are usually allowed in shelters.The Red Cross also encourages residents to follow three steps  get a kit; make a plan; be informed. Get a kit. Pack the following items in an easy-to-carry container  a gallon of water per person, per day; non-perishable food; flashlight and hand-crank or battery-powered radio; extra batteries; sanitation and personal hygiene items; copies of important papers; extra cash and any medical or baby supplies family members may need. See full details here. Make a plan. Have all members of your household help devise your emergency plan. Consider what emergencies could happen where you live; what to do if you are separated and how will you let loved ones know you are safe. Find full details and easy-to-use plan templates here. Be informed. Learn what disasters are common to your area. Find out how local authorities will let you know an emergency is happening. Make sure at least one household member is trained in first aid and CPR in case help is delayed during a disaster. You can also download the Red Cross First Aid App at redcross.org/apps to have instant access on how to handle common first aid emergencies. Learn how to get fully informed about emergencies here.Gov. Jim Justice has also recognized September as National Preparedness Month in the Mountain State.Investing in the preparedness of ourselves, our families, businesses, and communities can reduce fatalities and economic devastation in our communities and in our nation, Justice said in his proclamation, adding that emergency preparedness is the responsibility of every citizen of West Virginia and all citizens are urged to make preparedness a priority and work together, as a team.In addition to the Red Cross tips, the W.Va. Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management offer the following: take time to learn lifesaving skills, such as CPR and first aid; check insurance policies and coverage for such hazards as flood, earthquakes, and tornadoes; consider the costs associated with disasters, and save for an emergency; and know how to take such practical safety steps as shutting off water and gas.For more information, visit ready.wv.gov. Email: wholdren@register-herald.com and follow on Twitter @WendyHoldren2018 The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.)Visit The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.) at www.register-herald.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Carrie Parikh, the former senior counsel for global privacy and data security for the Wyndham Hotel Group, now serves as both chief data and privacy officer and chief operating officer within the New Jersey Office of Information Technology.Parikh was originally hired as the chief data and privacy officer, but only two days before she began work, was offered the role of COO as well. She began her new roles in the public sector July 9.Im coming up on my two-month mark  and the good news, Im still here, Parikh joked. They still want me to come in every day.The new chief data and privacy position is one that focuses not only on the importance of data security, but transparency, said Parikh.This governor is very keen to start telling people what it is the government is doing, she added, referring to Gov. Phil Murphy, who took office in January 2018. And I think thats unique, compared to some past administrations.One of the first initiatives will be to focus on the privacy notices that run across all of New Jerseys state websites.We want to ask ourselves some critical questions: What are we telling New Jersey residents about? What it is that were collecting their data for? What are we using their data for? What are we doing to protect their data? And where can they go to get information about what is happening with their data? she said.So thats a huge initiative. Its that giant transparency piece, Parikh remarked.Raising awareness in New Jersey about data is coming at an opportune time, said Parikh, as Internet privacy concerns have cropped up around the world through large-scale public policies like the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Developing a full-scale privacy program in the state will involve collaborating with other agencies and departments like the attorney generals office, the New Jersey State Police and New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell , an organization within the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness.Were really looking at building the first privacy program from the ground up. So, its exciting, yet challenging times, said Parikh.The COO and chief data and privacy officer positions have some natural overlap, said Parikh.When you think about things like privacy-by-design, and building and weaving privacy into every element of, particularly an IT organization, I do think that they fit hand-in-glove, she explained. The chief operating officer is responsible for all of the operations within the IT world that we live in. To be able to have that birds-eye view from the COO role, to see where we need to build critical privacy infrastructure is really helpful.Transitioning from the privacy concerns of an international hotel conglomerate to those held by New Jersey state government was not the wide leap it may appear, said Parikh.Building a privacy program is not really that different, in terms of substance, from the private world to the public world. Its different in breadth and scope, she explained. So, more data, different types of data, different purposes for use of the data. But the actual allocation of resources toward building a privacy program are pretty much the same.Mercedes-Benz has unveiled the first member of its EQ electric vehicle line-up: the new Mercedes-Benz EQC crossover SUV. The EQC marks the start of a new mobility era at Daimler.

Featuring two asynchronous electric motors at the front and rear axles with a combined output of 300 kW, an 80 kWh Li-ion battery pack and combined power consumption of 22.2 kWh/ 100km, the EQC delivers an electric range of more than 450 km according to the NEDC. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h takes 5.1 seconds, and the top speed is 180 km/h (112 mph).





(Figures for power consumption are provisional and were determined by the German Technical Service corporation. The range figures are also provisional. EC type approval and conformity certification with official figures are not yet available. There may be differences between the stated figures and the official figures.)





The EQC is classed as a crossover SUV. The extended roofline and window layout with a low waistline and the coupe-like roof recess at the rear visually position it between an SUV and an SUV coupe.

As the first Mercedes-Benz model to be launched under the new product and technology brand EQ, the EQC features an all-new drive system development with compact electric drivetrains at each axle. These give the EQC the driving characteristics of an all-wheel drive.

To reduce power consumption and increase dynamism, the electric drivetrains are configured differently: the front electric motor is optimized for best possible efficiency in the low- to medium-load range, while the rear one determines dynamism. Together, they generate the output of 300 kW and a maximum torque of 765 Nm (564 lb-ft).





Mercedes-Benz engineers have enhanced noise comfort with a number of measures. In the EQC the powerpacks are isolated by rubber mounts at two points: where the powerpack connects to its subframe and where the subframe connects to the body. This effective isolation is supplemented with insulation measures. As a result, the interior of the EQC is extremely quiet.

The EQC supports its driver with five driving programs, each with different characteristics: COMFORT, ECO, MAX RANGE, SPORT and an individually adaptable program. In the more economical driving modes, the haptic accelerator pedal that prompts the driver to conserve power plays an important role. The driver is also able to influence the recuperation level using so-called paddles behind the steering wheel.

The ECO Assist system gives the driver comprehensive support when driving predictively: by prompting the driver when it is appropriate to come off the accelerator, e.g. because the vehicle is approaching a speed limit, and by functions such as coasting and specific control of recuperation. For this purpose, navigation data, traffic sign recognition and information from the intelligent safety assistants (radar and stereo camera) are linked and processed.

The EQC is equipped with a water-cooled onboard charger (OBC) with a capacity of 7.4 kW, making it suitable for AC charging at home or at public charging stations.





Charging at a Mercedes-Benz Wallbox is up to three times faster than at a domestic power socket. It is faster still with DC chargingwhich is standard for the EQCfor example via CCS (Combined Charging Systems) in Europe and the USA, CHAdeMO in Japan or GB/T in China. Depending on the SoC (state of charge), the EQC can be charged with a maximum output of up to 110 kW at an appropriate charging station. In around 40 minutes, the battery can be charged from 10 - 80 percent SoC (provisional data).

The EQC features the multimedia system MBUXMercedes-Benz User Experience which has numerous EQ specific functions such as the display of range, charge status and energy flow. EQ optimized navigation, driving modes, charging current and departure time can also be controlled and set via MBUX.

The MBUX display has a special EQ tile where numerous EQ features are grouped. Alternatively the user can access the EQ menu of the MBUX system directly using a key in the lower left control panel. Thanks to natural language recognition, the EQ specific voice control helps the driver to operate the EQC.





The EQC will offer intelligent services and functions focused on electromobility; those planned for market launch include:

Pre-entry climate control. This ensures that the vehicle interior is already at the desired temperature on departure. It can be programmed directly via MBUX or via the Mercedes me App. A sophisticated system with a heat pump and electric heater boosters pre-climatises the interior.

The EQ optimized navigation always bases its calculation on the fastest route taking into account the shortest charging time. The route planning also responds dynamically to changes, and can take place both off-board and onboard, i.e. externally (via the Mercedes me App) and within the vehicle. With EQ optimized navigation, Mercedes-Benz customers can easily find charging stations, and Mercedes me Charge gives them convenient access to the charging stations of numerous providers, also beyond national borders. In this case customers benefit from an integrated payment function with simple accounting.

The EQC is equipped with the latest generation of Mercedes-Benz driving assistance systems. In the Driving Assistance package, these include new functions such as predictive speed adjustment when approaching the end of a tailback: when a tailback is detected, Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC reduces the speed to around 100 km/h as a precaution. In a tailback on the motorway, the lane guidance system keeps the vehicle off-center to leave space for the emergency services.

The vehicle structure of the EQC has been adapted to suit the special requirements of the electrical components and battery, and is configured to achieve the usual high safety level. For example, a new subframe surrounds the drive components located in the front section, and this unit is supported by the usual mounting points.

The high-safety design begins with the installation position of the high-voltage battery beneath the vehicle floor. The energy storage unit is surrounded by a stable frame that can absorb energy. Deformation elements are installed between the frame and the battery, and these are able to absorb additional forces in the event of a severe side impact. A battery guard in the front area of the battery is able to prevent the energy storage unit from being pierced by foreign objects.

The extensive experience of Mercedes-Benz with high-voltage drive systems has led to a multi-stage safety concept that deploys in the event of an accident. The high-voltage system automatically shuts down, reversibly or irreversibly, according to the severity of the accident. There are also shutdown points where emergency teams can deactivate the high-voltage system manually.

By market launch, 200 prototypes and pre-production vehicles of the EQC will have absolved tests covering several million kilometers across four continents (Europe, North America, Asia and Africa). The test program comprises more than 500 individual tests. In addition to the demanding standard test program. There are also special tests for the electric powertrain, the fuel cell, and the interplay of all powertrain components.

In the process the test experts are able to build upon the extensive findings from their digital testing work, used to ensure both the buildability of the vehicle and for the simulation of e.g. crash behaviour, aerodynamics and NVH: noise, vibration, harshness. In addition, there are intensive tests on numerous test rigs at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center in Sindelfingen. The ratio between digital and real testing is roughly 35 to 65 percent.

Series production of the EQC will start in 2019 at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen. The preparations for this are already fully under way. The new EQC will be integrated into ongoing series production as a fully electric vehicle.

One decisive innovation is the battery-joining center where the EQC undergoes a second marriage following installation of the two electric powerpacks in the bodyshell. This is where the EQCs are recognized as electric models with the help of data tags attached to the body, and equipped with a battery. The body is suspended from a C-carrier and deposited on a frame. Support arms raise the battery to the vehicles floor from below. An employee monitors the automatic bolting in place.

In parallel with this, production of batteries for the EQC is coming on stream at the expanded battery plant in Kamenz (near Dresden).

Alongside Bremen, the Sino-German production joint venture Beijing Benz Automotive Co. Ltd. (BBAC) is also preparing for the production start-up of the EQC for the local market.Shopsin, and his legendarily epic menu. Photo: Dana Edelson/NBC via Getty Images

Kenny Shopsin was the philosopher king of short-order cooks, a master of eggs, and a man for whom the word opinionated does not quite cut it. Over Labor Day Weekend, word circulated through social media (among fans, fellow travelers in the industry, and others who shared personal stories) that Shopsin had passed away, and his daughter Tamara Shopsin confirmed the news on her Instagram, saying the restaurant will be open tomorrow. Its a big loss for the city, since Shopsin was vulgar and gruff, with a boiling anger that was easily let loose  and one of the most admired chefs in New York.

Kenny and his late wife, Eve, opened the original incarnation of Shopsins  his eponymous, eccentric diner  in 1982, when they converted their corner store on Bedford Street into a cafe. (The general store was purchased in 1973; Shopsin says he was going through Freudian psychoanalysis at the time.) The charmingly ramshackle space was decorated with childrens toys and knickknacks, and had leftover shelving from the store. Shopsin ruled over it all less like a king than a dictator: enforcing strict, often arbitrary rules (no parties of five, no phone calls, youd probably get yelled at for taking photos), while cultivating an environment for only the kind of customer he wanted, kicking out whomever he liked, and prohibiting press. (When I asked our resident restaurant critic, Adam Platt, about Shopsin, he replied, I didnt know him because I was too afraid to approach him.)

That media blackout lasted until the restaurant was booted from its original home in 2002. That year, New Yorker writer and Shopsins regular Calvin Trillin wrote a lengthy profile that added to the legend of the place. In it, Trillin laid out what the Shopsins experience was really like:

Not all the rules at Shopsins are based on the number of meals that the kitchen has to put out. For years, a rule against copying your neighbors order was observed fairly strictly. Customers who had just arrived might ask someone at the next table the name of the scrumptious-looking dish he was eating. Having learned that it was Burmese Hummus  one of my favorites, as it happens, even though it is not hummus and would not cause pangs of nostalgia in the most homesick Burmese  they might order Burmese Hummus, only to have Eve shake her head wearily. No copying. That rule eventually got downgraded into what Ken called a strong tradition, and has now pretty much gone by the wayside. I realized that the problem was not that they were trying to imitate the other person but that they werent capable of ordering anything themselves, and it was just unnecessary cruelty to point that out to them, Kenny told me not long ago. He said he was getting more and more people of that sort.

For newcomers, a meal at Shopsins could be about as calming as a subway ride during rush hour. Shopsin did relax some of the rules over the years, but he never softened his hot temper and knack for cutting, creative insults. (All this said, he was also a man who seemed to care deeply about his family, all of whom worked at the restaurant.) Shopsin was exactly who he wanted to be, which is why people gravitated to him. The Serious Eats founder and Shopsins regular Ed Levine wrote in 2008 that Shopsin can make me laugh, even while insulting me.

The actual menu at Shopsins was, like Shopsin himself, quirky to the extreme and inscrutably vast. The number of dishes on the downtown restaurants legendarily voluminous menu reached Himalayan heights of, at one point, 900 items. There are standards like the famous mac-and-cheese pancakes; numerous varieties of egg sandwiches (scrapple, anyone?), and loose interpretations of other cuisines dishes. Sometimes entirely imagined, as in the invented country of Indomalekia. Many are (not infrequently kooky) creations rooted in no traditions but Shopsins  taco fried eggs? Cheeseburger soup?  but one of his best-regarded dishes is nothing more than scrambled eggs and toast. Shopsin liked to make them with clarified butter, and was not shy about describing them as perfect  most notably in his 2008 book, co-written with Carolynn Carreno, Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin.

I think his book is actually one of my favorite food books of all time, Platt says. Its idiosyncratic, and its filled with all sorts of knowledge about cooking  especially about eggs and breakfast  which I actually still follow, unlike most of the cookbooks I still collect. As Platt adds, Its this Iliad of the short-order-cook oeuvre, which doesnt really exist. But he really was the great crazed poet of that genre.Fall Preview The most exciting openings of the season ahead. Golden Diners wontonini en brodo with Parmesan. Photo: Hannah Whitaker

While many sit back and bemoan the decline of the diner, Sam Yoo is rolling up his sleeves and doing something about it. Hes opening one. Its called Golden Diner, and hes building it on the percolating fringes of Chinatown. And why not? Although the 32-year-old chef has done time in some of the swankiest kitchens around, including Momofuku Ko and Torrisi Italian Specialties (not to mention, as practically required by law, a stage at Noma), he naturally gravitates to the greasy spoon. To me, theres no place more comfortable than a diner, says Yoo, a Queens native whose local bean wagon was Little Necks late Scobee Grill.

In a way, the move is a homecoming of sorts. Yoos Korean-born father ran 24/7 restaurants in Flushing and Manhattans Koreatown, and visiting those places as a boy instilled in Yoo a fascination with the bustling pace and balletic precision required to run a successful restaurant. After college, he decamped to Seattle with vague notions of a food cart; two years later, with valuable line-cook experience under his belt, he returned to New York, working his way up the ladder at the Major Food Group before he took the helm at one of his fathers restaurants.

But when it came time to strike out on his own, he knew he wanted to do something at once universal and personal  to infuse an iconic urban archetype with techniques hed mastered and flavors hed grown up with. Hed also solve what he considers the restaurant categorys biggest problem. Diners have these impossibly long menus, and you cant do good food that way, he says. His simple solution: shrink the damn menu. Thus, although Golden Diners bill of fare will be covered in plastic, as per tradition, it will also be relatively brief, built on comfort food that appeals to both short-order purists and 21st-century gastronomes. Along with Greek salads and grilled cheese, in other words, theres saganaki tempura, chicken katsu BLTs, and wontonini en brodo. Youll find smoked kimchee in the chicken-mozzarella tamale, Buffalo dipping sauce for the Korean-fried-chicken wings, and a spiced terrine of lamb and pork in the Xian-style gyro. The grass-fed burger comes on a squishy sesame-scallion milk bun. And for dessert, think buttermilk-green-tea pie a la mode. This may not sound like diner food to some, and at first it didnt necessarily strike Yoo as such either. Initially, I set out to create a restaurant that paid homage to the communities of the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and Little Italy, where I live, he says. Then, it clicked: Hey, this is a diner. 

The Xian-style gyro sandwich is made with lamb-and-pork terrine, and comes with hot sauce, white sauce, tingly cucumbers, and pickle. Photo: Hannah Whitaker

French fries tucked inside your Xian-style gyro are optional. Photo: Hannah Whitaker

123 Madison St.; Nov.

*This article appears in the September 3, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!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 - Education : President Moise officially launches the start of the school year 2018-2019





Monday at the Celie Lillavois National School (Street Capois), President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by his wife Martine, in the presence of Deputy Ketel Jean-Philippe, President of the Education Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, resigning Ministers Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet (Education) Pierre Simon Georges (Environment), Reynaldo Brunet (Interior), Meniol Young Director General of the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Phanese R. Laguerre Coordinator of the National Program of School Canteens (PNCS), Maria Luisa Fornara, UNICEF Representative in Haiti, other government officials and civil service executives and hundreds of schoolchildren, launched the 2018-2019 Back to School theme on "An Inclusive School for a solidarity Nation".



Focusing on the scope of the theme chosen this year, Cadet stressed that inclusion will be at the center of his concerns and actions this year. He wants to see, he says, "all Haitian children benefit from one and only education, overcoming inequalities of birth or origin and offering everyone the opportunity to access the same scientific, historical and moral education, break the language barrier and create the necessary seating for all children who are still outside the system."



In his speech, the Head of State recalled that the country needed an inclusive Government and an inclusive and socially inclusive society. In order to achieve a better society in 25 years, President Moise insists that the State provide young schoolchildren today with the necessary guidance. "These children, once trained, will not need sponsors to enter the university," adding "with the Office of Management and Human Resources, we allow young technicians to enter Public Administration on competitions, so that they have the same opportunities [...] We must succeed in universal access to school for all our children [...] I wish a successful 2018-2019 school year to all Haitian students as well as teachers. I take this opportunity to congratulate the parents for their sense of sacrifice and the efforts made to allow their offspring to go to school."



In the perspective of this Republican school open to all, especially children with special needs, the Minister stressed that actions will be undertaken to facilitate access and provide adequate conditions for teaching and learning and thus promote more social justice and more national solidarity. He took the time to greet the parents for all the sacrifices made for the education of their child, stressing that it was the best investment in the future. He also asked students to take their studies seriously because it is the best way, he says, to take charge and become a responsible citizen, useful to society.



Following the ceremony, President Moise, accompanied by his wife, the ministerial delegation and the UNICEF representative, distributed school kits and uniforms to students in the basic class of Celie Lilavois schools and the Republic of Brazil. Accompanied by Mrs Phanese R. Laguerre he also participated in the school canteen where the children had their first hot meal of the school year in a friendly atmosphere.



Note that beyond the political enthusiasm, students were few Monday in the streets of the capital and provincial cities for this new back to school. In provincial towns including Petit-Goave, Les Cayes, Port-de-Paix, parents sought help from the authorities. The difficult economic situation seems to be the main cause of the reported rate of high absence in public and private schools, some of which have not given courses, due to a sufficient number of pupils.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - FLASH : The Haitian State ignores the requests of the Haitian Caneros, but cash their money





Monday several dozens of "Caneros" (sugar cane workers) of Haitian origin, demonstrated in front of the Embassy of Haiti in Santo Domingo to ask the Haitian authorities for the umpteenth time to give them passports and certificates of birth promised for years...



The demonstrators pointed out that only the Dominican Republic collaborates in their migratory regularization deploring that the Government of Haiti does not care to come to the aid of its diaspora in neighboring country.



A week ago, cane workers also protested peacefully in front of the Ministry of the Interior and Police (MIP) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25371-haiti-dr-haitian-cane-cutters-demand-an-extension-of-pnre.html in the context of applications for residence, because they could not apply to the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners (PNRE), faults of the requested Haitian identification documents, essential for their registration.



Recall that since January 2015, 4,608 sugar cane workers of Haitian descent have each paid 1,000 pesos claimed by Haiti, to obtain: a birth certificate, a passport and a National Identification Card (CIN) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19107-haiti-dr-the-caneros-sent-4-608-copies-of-document-requests-to-privert.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14523-haiti-social-angry-cane-cutters-asking-4-6-million-gourdes-to-haiti.html without ever getting them despite many demonstrations in front of the Haitian diplomatic representations in the Dominican Republic including a meeting with the Prime Minister of the time Evans Paul https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16076-haiti-politic-the-prime-minister-receives-delegation-of-sugarcane-cutters-from-dr.html



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25371-haiti-dr-haitian-cane-cutters-demand-an-extension-of-pnre.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19107-haiti-dr-the-caneros-sent-4-608-copies-of-document-requests-to-privert.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16076-haiti-politic-the-prime-minister-receives-delegation-of-sugarcane-cutters-from-dr.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14832-haiti-politic-haiti-has-managed-to-identify-only-1-351-caneros-in-dr.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14662-haiti-social-demonstration-of-caneros-front-the-embassy-of-haiti-in-dr.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14523-haiti-social-angry-cane-cutters-asking-4-6-million-gourdes-to-haiti.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-14448-icihaiti-dominican-republic-already-734-haitians-have-obtained-their-permanent-residence.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14179-haiti-social-the-dominican-authorities-are-assisting-cane-cutters.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14074-haiti-social-sugarcane-cutters-angry-against-haiti.html



S/ iciHaiti





















Haiti - New York : Diaspora celebrates 50 years of Tabou Combo's career





Sunday, September 2nd at Eisenhower Park (New York) as part of the Labor Day weekend, several thousand festival-goers gathered with Haitian musical groups such as Sweet Micky, VAYB, Kai, Nu Look, Djakout #1, Zenglen among others, to celebrate the 50 years of Tabou Combo's career and to be together with compatriots.



In addition, the Ministry of Tourism also honored Tabou Combo and Richard Urbain for their contribution to the Haitian music industry and took advantage of this great meeting of the diaspora to spread the message of the campaign "Zafe Touris se Zafe Tout Moun", and sensitize them to return to the country, choose the destination Haiti for their holidays or for investments because "Lakay se Lakay" ; but also and above all, to make them understand that the cause of Haitian tourism is the business of every child in the country.



A message that was greeted in New York with great enthusiasm.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - News : Zapping...





2/3 of students fed by the international

During the 2018-2019 school year, 350,000 children are expected to benefit from the public school meals service financed by Tresor Public and over 700,000 additional children financed from funds from international donors, including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank et UNICEF, which also financed the purchase of school kits in several departments.



Teachers and tear gas

Monday, the day of the new school year, a few dozen teachers demonstrated in the streets of Port-au-Prince to denounce corruption in the management of public funds. Protesters were repeatedly dispersed by police with tear gas.



The Senate invites the PM for the statement of his GP

On Monday, Joseph Lambert confirmed that the report of the Special Commission to analyze Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant's documents is ready and that he sent a letter to the PM inviting him to present his General Policy statement on Thursday and to table in Parliament the document of his general policy statement, 48 hours before the presentation, in accordance with rule 78 of the Rules of Procedure of the Senate.



Mystery around the ministerial cabinet

Gary Bodeau, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, regrets that the Chamber of Deputies is still not officially informed of the composition of the cabinet ...



Petion-ville : Operation "Lari blanch"

Monday, the the Municipal Council of Petion-ville proceeded to the resumption of the operation "Lari blanch". Mayor Dominique Saint-Roc called on all the merchants to regain their place in the 7 public markets of the commune while informing them that about thirty municipal agents are deployed in order to make trespect the rule.



Nomination of members of the curia

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Monsignor Max Leroy Mesidor proceeded to the nomination of the members of the archdiocesan curia of the capital. These include Mgr. Marie Erick Glandas Toussaint, Auxiliary Bishop, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia and Mgr. Ducange Sylvain, Vicar General for Consecrated Life and Pastoral Care.



HL/ HaitiLibre

















Environmentalists protest over planned Israeli offshore gas plant

Thousands of people attended a rally in Tel Aviv on September 1 to oppose plans for a gas processing facility to be built 10 kilometres from the Israeli coast. Environmentalists, local authorities and NGOs are waging a campaign to have the platform moved 125 kilometres off the coast, citing environmental and public health concerns.

Stock image

The protesters say the platform, to be located off Dor Beach near Caesarea, could cause major air pollution, and a malfunction at the site could leak toxic byproducts, harming beaches, marine life and residents living near the coast south of Haifa.



The platform is planned to process gas from the Leviathan offshore field which is estimated to hold 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making it the countrys richest gas find. After extraction, raw natural gas must be processed to separate the dry gas used by power plants to run their turbines from two other main components  condensate (or wet gas) and waste water, both of which contain carcinogenic by-products.



The Energy Ministry said the close-to-shore platform was chosen after many tests, an environmental impact assessment and the considerations of the security establishment.

According to the Times of Israel, activists have pointed to a processing plant for the Tamar gas field, located 14 kilometers off the coast of Ashkelon, as a harbinger of what the new platform may bring.



Data for 2016, published by the ministry in November 2017, shows that emissions from Tamar that are known or suspected to be carcinogenic equalled the total of such emissions from 570 large industrial plants across the country.



Activists have been holding near daily protests to draw attention to the cause, but the plan may be too far advanced to be reversed. Built in the United States, the processing platform is due to arrive off-shore in December, and its legs are to be lowered into the sea the following month 9.7 kilometres off the coast.



Haaretz quoted a statement from the Leviathan partners saying experts agreed the rig would not pollute the air or water, and that gas from the field would replace polluting coal.

SAK on Monday announced its executive board has decided to introduce protest measures if the government refuses not to suspend preparatory work on a bill that would allow businesses with no more than 20 staff to lay off staff on personal grounds.

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) has confirmed it will take organisation-wide action in protest of the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre).

We continue to hope that the government comes to its senses regarding the so-called face-based lay-offs. But if that does not happen, we will take organisation-wide action, stated Jarkko Eloranta, the chairperson at SAK.

Related posts: SAK mulling its response after government sticks by controversial proposal (30 August, 2018)

No details about the timetable, extent and location of the actions were disclosed on Monday.

Eloranta revealed that all member unions of the central organisation have announced their readiness to participate in the protest measures, a fact he considers proof of the widespread discontent stirred up by the bill.

The unions have decided on the measures in a site-specific fashion, but their timetable, extent or exact location will not be disclosed in advance, he said.

SAK also expressed its delight that dissatisfaction about the bill is not limited to its member unions but that protest measures are under consideration also at Trade Union Pro, the Trade Union of Education (OAJ) and the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy).

The government now has an opportunity to demonstrate that wage earners have already compromised on their well-being enough for the common good. You cannot and must not ask for more concessions, underscored Eloranta.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Source: Uusi SuomiU.S. forces effectively used armor for mutual support, not only with infantry but also with the different forms of mechanized ordnance themselves. During this operation by members of 1st Battalion, 10th Cavalry Regiment, an M48 Patton tank, left, joins an M106 mortar carrier with an M30 4.2-inch mortar on a rotating turntable in the rear bed, and an M113 armored cavalry assault vehicle, as all three advance into Viet Cong-held territory. (Kenneth Hornfield Collection)

Among the numerous variations of the M113 armored personnel carrier was the M132, known to its crews as the Zippo (after the cigarette lighter). The crew consisted of a driver and an operator for a rotating M10-8 flamethrower and M10 fuel and pressure unit, capable of shooting flames from four 50-gallon tanks to a range of 200 yards for 32 seconds before needing to refuel. Handfuls of them were usually assigned to headquarters units for use as needed, like these M132s of 1st Battalion, 4th Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 1st Infantry Division. ( Dick Swanson/The Life Images Collection/Getty Images)

The M113 entered Army service in 1961, featuring light aluminum armor that could protect its crew against small arms fire and shrapnel. In April 1962 the South Vietnamese, right, began receiving M113s, which the shocked Viet Cong dubbed Green Dragons. However, the VC quickly learned the M113s vulnerabilities to mines, rocket propelled grenades and recoilless rifles. Even so, the versatile M113 was used throughout the war. About 85,000 were built and served in more than 50 armies. (History/Granger, NYC)

Rushed to Vietnam in January 1969, the 16-ton M551 Sheridan armored recon-naissance/airborne assault vehicle was designed so that it could be parachuted from aircraft and swim rivers. Its M81 gun/launcher fired conventional ammunition or an MGM-51 Shillelagh guided anti-tank missile. Although the M81 had problems and the M551 was vulnerable to RPGs and mines, the vehicle soldiered on with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, left. (AP Photo)

The M48 Patton was the workhorse tank of the U.S. Army and Marines and the South Vietnamese. Its 90 mm gun could deal with any armored opposition or fire beehive rounds to destroy enemy infantry. Carrying troops into VC country in 1965, the M48A3, left, was with 1st Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment. On the night of March 3, 1969, this unit was involved in one of the few clashes between U.S. and North Vietnamese tanks, when the NVA 202nd Armored Regiment, trying to attack the Ben Het Special Forces camp, lost two PT-76 tanks. (Getty Images)

The M48s chassis was adapted to a variety of more specialized vehicles, all of which saw use in Vietnam. It could carry bulldozer blades and mine exploders. The M67 shot flames from its barrel. The M88 was an armored recovery vehicle capable of towing disabled M48s. And when an armored column encountered a river it could not ford, the M48A2 AVLB (armored vehicle-launched bridge) was called into action. Carrying a mechanically extended scissors-type bridge totaling 63 feet on its hull, the AVLB could span bodies of water up to 60 feet. (U.S. Army)

The M48 was one of the few vehicles in Vietnam whose armor afforded its crew members reasonable protection from their principal enemy: land mines. Therefore American M48s with front-mounted mine rollers, like the one at right in 1966, made daily runs along the oft-mined, two-lane Highway 19 between An Khe and Pleiku. This was much faster than using handheld minesweepers, preventing traffic pileups and reducing the opportunities for enemy ambushes. (History/Granger, NYC)

Developed by the Soviet Union as an amphibious scout tank, the PT-76 first saw NVA use against Laotian government troops at Ban Houei Sane on Jan. 23, 1968, after which it supported the Feb. 7 attack on the Lang Vei Special Forces camp. Highly mobile, the thinly armored PT-76 was no match for the M48 in combat and was vulnerable to air attack. The PT-76 at left, knocked out on the Plaine des Jarres in Laos, is being examined by a Thai forward air guide. (Michael Ingham Collection, The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University)Henry Burdens state-of-the-art horseshoes gave the Union cavalry a critical edge during the war

For want of a nail the shoe was lost

For want of a shoe a horse was lost

For want of a horse the rider was lost

For want of a rider the battle was lost

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost

And all for want of a horseshoe-nail

How this well-known proverb, dating back several centuries in several variations, applied during the Civil War is enlightening. By one estimate, the Union Army purchased 650,000 horses during the war and seized or otherwise acquired another 75,000 in the field. The number of mules supplied brought total purchases to more than 1 million animals, at an estimated cost of $95 million. Horseshoes and horseshoe nails were two additional expenses, and when one considers the durability of shoes and nailsor lack thereofthe importance of a reliable supplier of quality shoes and nails should also be obvious. Enter Henry Burden.

Burden, born in 1791 in Dunblane, Scotland, was fascinated by math, drawing, and the science of how tools and farm implements worked. He earned a degree in engineering from the University of Edinburgh, and after arriving in America in 1819, designed or improved several farm implements, including a plow. He accepted a position at the Troy Iron and Nail Factory in upstate New York, where he invented a machine to mass-produce railroad spikes and another machine to produce horseshoes. By 1849, Henry Burden owned the entire company. The Troy Iron and Nail Factory became the Burden Iron Works, and Henry soon established the corporate empire Henry Burden & Sons.

Burden began working with the Army in 1857, proclaiming to Quartermaster General Thomas Jesup, The horse shoes we are making for you as a whole are, we are confident, far superior to any ever used in the service. At the outset of the Civil War, Burden told new Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs, Wehave a capacity for making 50,000 perfect shoes per day, and now have on hand over 1,000 tons of assorted sizes of the most approved form and made from a very superior quality of iron. Any one of our shoes can be bent double cold without cracking.

As the war continued, cavalry commanders and regimental quartermasters struggled to keep their animals shod and healthy. In February 1862, Major Alfred Duffie of the 2nd New York Cavalry badgered his colonel for shoes or my horses will be lame and unfit for service. By the end of the year, with new mounted regiments still entering the service, Colonel Josiah Kellogg of the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry begged for forges so his farriers could shoe his animals before they went lame.

Demand for horseshoes continued to rise as commanders such as Colonel Benjamin Grimes Davis recognized the benefit of troopers carrying additional horseshoes while in the field. Each man will be supplied with two fitted horse shoes and a proportionate amount of nails, which will be carried in the shoe pouches, Davis ordered. In April 1862, as the Cavalry Corps prepared for its spring campaign, Davis ordered his blacksmiths [to] work day & night to have their horses shod up and a sufficient amount of extra shoes fitted [to be] carried in the saddle bags. The Stoneman Raid that spring cost the Union Cavalry 6,000 horses, many lamed by a lack of shoes. Quartermasters in Alexandria, Va., loaded a supply of replacement shoes aboard a train bound for Brig. Gen. John Bufords Reserve Brigade, but on May 30, Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby derailed the train near Warrenton Junction and burned the cars. When the Army of the Potomac began pursuit of Lee in mid-June, more than 1,000 horses waited for shoes at three remount corrals near Falmouth, Va. In the rush to evacuate those facilities, quartermasters sent all of the horses north to Alexandria to be shod, costing cavalry commander Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton the equivalent of an entire brigade during furious fighting in Virginias Loudoun Valley.

Few official Southern sources survive for the same period, but in his report of the Gettysburg Campaign, Colonel R. Lindsay WalkerLt. Gen. A.P. Hills artillery chiefnoted: The horses of the command suffered severelyfor the want of shoes.I am satisfied that most of the horses lost on the march were lostbecause of their lameness in traveling over turnpikeswithout shoes. Walker believed the lack of replacement shoes cost his command alone $150,000 worth of animals.

It must be noted that horses threw even the best shoes regularly. Mounts were shod about every six weeks, according to cavalry expert Andy German, but hooves grew and wore, especially under harsh conditions, and nails would loosen. A poorly nourished horse might have brittle hoof walls that could crack, but the inherent weakness of soft iron shoe nails was probably more significant in the loss of shoes, German says.

Henry Burden, whose company became known as H. Burden & Sons in 1864, died on January 19, 1871. In January 1876, a company representative (possibly sons James or Townsend) wrote the following letter to a quartermaster in Philadelphia: Our ample facilities for supplying shoes promptly were found to be of great service to the governmentduring the War of the Rebellion, when the supplies of this article were required almost at a moments notice.We have since been informed by army officers, high in position, that many important movements would have been seriously retarded had not our ample capacity for making & shipping horse shoes insured a prompt supply

Though likely written to help secure a new contract, the missive serves as a reminder of the impact Henry Burden had on the military in general, and the Union cavalry in particular, during the war. Eight years after their fathers death, James and Townsend began to sell off some of their facilities in Vermont in the face of a declining market. The business, last known as the Burden Iron Company, closed its doors for good in 1940.

This post appeared originally January 20, 2018, in Bob ONeills blog, Small but Important Riots (smallbutimportantriots.com).WHEN YOU BOIL IT DOWN to its essentials, the reason you form, train, and equip an army is to beat your enemy in battle.

But if you happened to be a soldier or sailor in the Imperial Japanese military during World War II, you might think differently. Given your daily experiencefrom induction through training camp and finally to operations in the fieldsometimes it might have seemed as if the real purpose of the countrys fighting force was not so much to beat the enemy as to beat you.

This was a military that raised corporal punishmentphysical beatingsto the status of a doctrine. You could be pummeled nearly to death for almost any reason: failing to salute smartly enough, missing a button on your shirt, a lackadaisical attitude. Failure to snap to attention at the mention of the emperors name was a serious offense in this world, and some particularly sadistic officers seemed to delight in mentioning the emperor solely to catch their men napping.

Whatever your offense, the result was the same: fists or clubs, or any good, solid piece of wood within your superiors reach, would start to fly. The aftermath was a grisly parade of smashed teeth, broken noses, and shattered ribsalong with all the predictable internal injuries.

It was all hierarchical, of course: noncommissioned officers and lieutenants beat their men, captains struck their lieutenants, generals clobbered their colonels, and onward up the line. Even warlord Hideki Tojo himself, the prime minister and minister of war, was known to cuff around his subordinates during staff meetings. Sometimes the men beat each other. One sergeant famously disliked bruising his own hands by punching offenders, so he had his men do it. When they failed to show the proper devotion to their task, he screamed at them: You are soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army! When you hit a man, do it as if you mean it!

Private Shigeru Mizuki was a young man during World War II, and he wasnt in the army two days before the beatings began. Wandering into the officers bath (off-limits to enlisted men), accidentally standing on a newspaper bearing a photo of the emperor, failing to brace himself as he addressed a superior officer: each incident ended with Mizuki dazed and bleeding. He was a bit of a sad sack, not really cut out for soldiering, and so he usually bore the brunt. Looking back, he remembers getting beaten up every day. Some days were worse than others. When his rifle sight failed inspection, for example, he got it bad from his company commander: The worst beating I had ever received, he recalled later. I thought it would never end. Mizuki went on to become a world-famous artist and author of several Japanese manga graphic novels, along with Showa: A History of Japan (four volumes, 20132015), an unforgettable epic of Japan during the war and a meticulous record of life in the enlisted ranks.

Its hard to make a case for any of this. Men have been training for war since the beginning of time, and it does require a certain process of toughening the recruit to let him know hes not at home with his mother anymore, that hes entered a new and dangerous world. In the Soviet army, for example, beating new recruits was a long-standing tradition. But the Japanese example is so extreme, so pervasive, that its difficult to see the point of it, particularly the severe beatings to veteran soldiers in the field.

During the Asia-Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Army gained a reputation for atrocious behavior, especially toward helpless victims: comfort women, Allied POWs, Chinese civilians. Studying the way it treated its own men gives us a pretty good explanation for these horrors. As so often in life, cruelty begins in the home. 

This column was originally published in the October 2018 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here.Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.

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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.SAN JOSE, Costa RicaA recent workshop to develop strategies to protect dolphins and whales in and around Costa Rica resulted in agreements to pursue efforts to increase protections for these animals at this months meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Brazil.

Humane Society International/Latin America met with the Vice Ministry of Water and Oceans, other government agencies, marine mammal experts, non-governmental organizations, and the academic sector on August 10 at a workshop on the conservation of these majestic animals.

Take action now to help whales.

Participants discussed the status of scientific research, threats to cetacean populations, and policies, education and funding to assist government agencies in decision making about cetacean protection in Costa Rica.

We seek to maintain Costa Ricas leadership on these issues, drawing the line in the conservation of whales and dolphins and their important role in marine ecosystems, and highlighting the guidelines for how activities such as whale and dolphin watching can be conducted responsibly, said Grettel Delgadillo, deputy director of HSI/Latin America.

The Vice Ministry of Water and Oceans and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) of the Ministry of Environment work to establish public policies for the conservation of cetaceans. They also coordinate with the tourism industry in coastal areas on activities such as the Whales and Dolphins Festival, which takes place every year in September when high sighting season coincides with migration season at Marino Ballena National Park, one of Costa Ricas most visited beaches.

The health of our oceans is a priority, thats why we are committed to the conservation of species that are fundamental to the marine ecosystems, such as whales. It is key to create a link between the government and the scientific experts in this issue in order to promote actions and public policies that allow us to achieve this goal, said Haydee Rodriguez Romero, Vice Minister of Water and Oceans.

Commercial hunting, climate change, and ocean pollution threaten the future survival of whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

If you wish to support the work of HSI/Latin America in favor of animals, visit our Facebook profile facebook.com/HSILatinAmerica or search for HSI on the Yo me Uno platform of BAC Credomatic.

Media Contact: Grettel Delgadillo, deputy director of HSI/Latin America, (506) 7018-4437, gdelgadillo@hsi.orgMount Greylock senior Karen McComish, left, and her fellow Massachusetts 'Senator' Elizabeth Carroll of Dedham High School at Girls Nation. The 2018 Girls Nation participants gather on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The Massachusetts Senators at Girls Nation visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Karen McComish, third from left, dines with her fellow participants at Girls Nation. The Girls Nation senators pose with Vice President Michael Pence. PreviousNext

Q&A: Girls Nation Gives Mount Greylock Senior New Sense of Patriotism



McComish out registering voters in Arizona earlier this summer. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Mount Greylock Regional School senior Karen Magnusdottir McComish spent her summer learning about America and gaining an appreciation for those, like her, who one day will help lead it.

McComish, a politically active teen who helped organize her school's response to gun violence last winter, represented Massachusetts at the 72nd American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation, a program that brings together 100 of the nation's best and brightest for a week of study and debate in Washington, D.C.

"Before this program, I was hopeful for a compassionate, forward-thinking and inclusive future, but after meeting these girls and being exposed to their power and intellect, I felt like I could envision one," McComish said. "This program really redefined patriotism for me."

Patriotism is a major component of the decades-old civics program, whose alumnae include journalist Jane Pauley, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, and former Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson.

"I'm thankful for the local American Legion Auxiliary and Mount Greylock and Girls State for sending me to Girls Nation," McComish said. "It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it was only possible because of them.

"If anyone wants to help a program that helps vets and also helps empower women, they should contact their local auxiliary."

McComish shared with iBerkshires.com some of her reflections on a busy summer, which also included a trip to the Southwest to volunteer for a state Democratic Party.

Question: What was the process that got you to Girls Nation? When were you selected?

McComish: It started off at Mount Greylock. A few of us got to go to Girls State. The local [American Legion] Auxiliary unit sponsored a couple of the girls, and the American Legion sponsored a couple of the boys to go to Girls State and Boys State at the end of the school year.

It was a completely free program.

Q: And what was it like?

McComish: That was an amazing experience, one of the best experiences in my entire life. Girls came from across the state. It was a weeklong program where we learned about civic engagement and government and getting along with different leadership types.

At Girls State, we were divided into counties and towns. They're pretty much trying to replicate what a state would be like. In the towns, we had a police chief and a mayor and people serving different roles. I was a state senator.

They were trying to create an atmosphere to learn about state government.

My town, the city of Tolerance, had a vote to decide who would be interviewed to go to Girls Nation because two girls from each state go to Girls Nation.

In Massachusetts, the process was our cities elected the person who we thought should go to interviews. That was good because the decision was being made by the girls who know us best. I got elected to that and was interviewed with a bunch of Auxiliary members.

Q: And this was all out in Boston?

McComish: This was at Stonehill College on their campus.

Q: What was your reaction when you found out you were chosen for Girls Nation?

McComish: I had no idea this was going to happen. In no way did I think that going to Girls State, I'd end up at Girls Nation.

Q: And what were you able to do to get ready for the trip to Washington?

McComish: We had a meeting in the morning after we were named with an Auxiliary member, and she handed us a folder with information about Girls Nation. I didn't know anything about Girls Nation, but the packet explained everything. They were really organized.

I only spoke to my co-senator, Elizabeth, briefly, because she was in a different county. I thought it was cool because she's from eastern Mass and I'm from Western Mass. In gearing up for Girls Nation, we had to email back and forth because each state has to have a bill prepared. At Girls Nation we're supposed to be senators from our state.

Q: What was your bill?

McComish: Our bill was pretty much about reducing waste. Right away, we both knew we wanted to do an environmental bill. We did a lot of research, and it ended up being the ' Our bill was pretty much about reducing waste. Right away, we both knew we wanted to do an environmental bill. We did a lot of research, and it ended up being the ' Packaging and Waste Reduction Act .' It was an act to eliminate unsustainable packaging. Pretty much the point of it is to make the packaging be the minimum amount it needs to be.

Q: And did your bill come up for a vote at Girls Nation? Did it pass?

McComish: What happens is once we got to Girls Nation, we were divided into two parties, Nationalists and Federalists. It's not chosen by who is a Democrat and who is a Republican, they were completely random. We had to create a party platform ... what we want to achieve.

I ended up working on the environmental platform and presenting it at Girls Nation. I'm really into environmental law. I want to be an environmental lawyer when I grow up. It was cool to go there and meet people from around the country who are passionate about that.

One bill might take two hours to go over. I think we only got to 18, but that's still quicker than normal government.

Q: So your bill didn't come up for a vote?

McComish: We didn't get to our bill, unfortunately, but I think it would have passed. We did pass a lot of other bills.

Q: Other than the legislative work, how was the rest of the experience in Washington?

McComish: I was really, really impressed. We had a lot of great opportunities. For example, we went down to Capitol Hill, and all of us met with our senators or representatives of our senators. My co-senator and I went to Sen. Markey's office and Sen. Warren's office. We got to talk to them about what we were doing that week and in general what teens are thinking about.

Q: So you didn't have a chance to meet the senators themselves?

McComish: A lot of other people got to meet our senators. We, unfortunately, didn't. But it's OK. They're working really hard. We got to talk for 40 minutes about a lot of issues -- gun control, mental illness in schools, we talked a lot about the environment. Sen. Markey's office took our environmental platform and gave it to their environment person. They really took it seriously. That was amazing.

I mentioned Greylock Together to both of their offices and talked about how active we are in the Berkshires.

Q: Did you have a chance to go to the monuments and things like that?

McComish: We had a pass at the Capitol and went down onto the floor. We had the afternoon to explore Capitol Hill, which was amazing.

We went to the White House compound, which was very, very cool. It's amazing the Auxiliary does all this. This was only the third time in 74 years the president couldn't meet with us. He, unfortunately, had an appointment, so he couldn't meet with us. We met the vice president, who said we were going to make America great again and to work hard and pray harder.

Q: How did you find your fellow senators at Girls Nation?

McComish: The girls I met at Girls State and Girls Nation were so amazing -- the passion and open-mindedness of everyone impressed me. Those are the people I hope are in the White House of the future.

If the people I met at this program are representative of the leadership of our nation, I'm optimistic that our nation is headed to a progressive place with an emphasis on inclusion.

My roommates from Alaska and California. Just meeting everyone was so eye-opening and opened my mind to a picture of what America is like. Another thing that struck me was it didn't matter if you were Republican or Democrat. We didn't talk about that. We did talk about government and what we believe.

Everyone was super respectful. I had discussions with people with political opinions I never encountered before, but everyone was very intelligent and so open.

Q: Girls State wrapped up with the selection of the senators for Girls Nation. How does Girls Nation wrap up?

McComish: We also had election for vice president and president. they were pretty competitive. The girls there were amazing. Some had given TED Talks, the majority were state champions in speech and debate. People would get up and talk for five minutes, and it would sound like an essay. It was amazing.

I think the president and vice president we elected were from Florida and Virginia. I think it was interesting because all four of our candidates were all pretty progressive. All of our discussion were pretty open, but we ended up electing pretty progressive people. The president opened with a speech talking about how her parents are immigrants from Sudan and in Virginia she goes to a school where there are Confederate flags in the hallway. The vice president lives a half hour from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Q: I can imagine that the gun issue was very much on the minds of a group of politically aware high schoolers.

McComish: A lot of the girls there were really active. One of my really good friends spoke at the March for Our Lives event in Kentucky. A lot of people who were there were really involved that issue which was cool for me to see.

We're all staying in contact. We're going to work together in the future to work for a couple of different things. A couple of us talked about how we'll do things in our community, but with this bigger network we're hoping to have more of an impact.

Q: And then after you left Girls Nation, you went down to Arizona to campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema?

McComish: Last year, I campaigned for her. I was planning on interning [with her] again, but with Girls Nation I wasn't able to be there long enough for Sinema, which is why I volunteered instead for the Arizona Democratic Party. Working for Sinema, who at the time was a representative and only considering running for Senate, showed me the necessity of being able to finance a statewide campaign, and this summer, my work for the party unveiled the hours and energy needed to expand the base to turn a state blue.

I still worked on some of [Sinema's] things, but I did things like register voters. I did phone banking. I went canvassing, which I always wanted to do. I feel like in Arizona is an important place to do it.

It was a really good learning experience because I'd stand out in 108-degree heat trying to register people in front of the library and I'd maybe get one person, but it would be worth it for that.

Right now, it's especially essential wherever you are politically to be working for that, especially for Democrats right now. If I can stand outside in Arizona in 108-degree heat, anyone can do it in 70-degree weather here in Massachusetts.

Q: I imagine in a place like Arizona, you ran into people who were indifferent to the message you were delivering, if not even hostile, when you went out canvassing.

McComish: We had some interesting responses, but a lot of it was positive. I think people do want to make a difference. It was encouraging and it was really good to do right after Girls Nation because it brought it into the real world, going from this program that's encouraging us to go after whatever we believe.

Q: How did you end up volunteering for the candidate and later the party all the way out in Arizona?

McComish: My grandparents live in Arizona. I was on vacation visiting them last year.

Massachusetts is really important, but Massachusetts is already blue. Arizona is a different political climate, and I wanted to learn more about it. I just really wanted to find out what it was like and try to make a difference in a state that's more purple than blue.

I like to talk to people about politics from different parts of the country. Where you grew up forms your ideas and ideals. It's interesting to have conversations with people from across the country. At Girls Nation, I was with people with completely different ideas and completely different upbringings.



iciHaiti - Back to School : Messages of the PNH to the students





As part of the school year Michel-Ange Gedeon, the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) delivered a message to students.



"Another school year has begun and I ask students not to be swayed by people with bad intentions. Your books should be your best weapon because your future depends on it.



Do not do anything wrong such as smoking, drinking, missing school days for no good reason to please your friends, so that they find you 'nice'.



If today you do not give importance to your studies, tomorrow you will pay the consequences.



Many people think that if your parents do not have a fortune or considerable material assets or if you live in a disadvantaged neighborhood, you are doomed to fail automatically.



On the contrary, I tell you, from today you have to work harder to show society that what they think of you is wrong. Stay positive, make your books your compass.



I wish you all a happy new school year 2018-2019 in peace and discipline, stay tuned to your parents and respect your teachers."



IH/ iciHaiti





















iciHaiti - Jamaica : 3 Haitian smugglers arrested off Norwich





On Saturday, just after 1:30 pm, 3 Haitians and 3 Jamaicans were arrested at sea by the maritime police off Norwich in Portland, Jamaica, aboard a 33-foot fiberglass boat with two outboard motors.



Police investigators revealed that a significant amount of Haitian brand fuel and water was also recovered. The 6 individuals were placed in custody at the Castle Police Station and should be charged on Tuesday charged with immigration offenses (human trafficking)



TB/ iciHaiti

















Iran Smuggling Weapons to Hezbollah on Civilian Flights

The Fellowship | September 4, 2018 Iran Smuggling Weapons to Hezbollah on Civilian Flights

While Iran continues to deny its sneaky and dastardly methods of skirting international watchdogs, a new report has caught the Islamic Republic doing what it has always done  supporting terror. Israel Hayom reports that Iran has been using a shell company to send weapons from Tehran to Hezbollahs base in Beirut:

According to the report, The first flight, on July 9, involved a Boeing 747 that departed from an air force base in Tehran, stopped for a short layover at the international airport in Damascus, Syria, and then continued with a rather uncharacteristic flight path to Beirut.

Flight data showed that the route passed over northern Lebanon, straying from any commonly used commercial flight path. 

The second flight took place on Aug. 2, and while it did not stop in Damascus, it followed an irregular route north of Syria rarely used by commercial airliners.

The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to their allies in the Middle East, testing and defying the Wests abilities to track them down, one intelligence official told the news network. 

Western intelligence officials believe Qeshm Fars flights carried materials necessary to produce precision weapons in Iranian factories inside Lebanon.

Fox noted that Qeshm Fars Air is believed to be one of the various pseudo-civilian airlines used for arms-smuggling by the Revolutionary Guards and its elite black-ops arm, the Quds Force.Israel Can Hit Iranian Targets in Iraq, Elsewhere

The Fellowship | September 4, 2018 Embed from Getty Images

Late last week, Stand for Israel told you about reports of Iranian missiles  with the range to reach Israel  being provided to terrorist groups in Iraq. Now, The Times of Israel reports that Israel has responded by warning, We will handle any Iranian threat, no matter where:

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman appeared to imply Monday that Israel could hit Iranian targets in Iraq, days after the Reuters news agency reported that Tehran was providing ballistic missiles and training to loyalist militias there.

As for the threat from Iran, we are not limiting ourselves to Syria. That should be clear, Liberman told a conference organized by Hadashot TV news.

Asked specifically if this included Iraq, the defense minister answered: Im saying we will handle any Iranian threat, no matter where it comes from. We are maintaining the right to act and any threat or anything else that comes up is dealt with.

The Friday report, citing several unnamed Iranian, Iraqi and Western officials, stated that several dozen rockets capable of hitting Israel and Tehrans Sunni rival Saudi Arabia had been deployed with Irans Shiite proxies in Iraq.

It added that Iran was working to provide its allies with missile manufacturing facilities, and has been training militia members in operating the new weaponsFourteen years after the launch of the Mainland and Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in 2004, the economic and trade cooperation between mainland China and Macau continues to be strengthened and enriched. Since 2016, a series of amendments have been introduced to CEPA to improve and update the existing provisions, in particular in the fields of trade services, trading of goods, investment and economic and technical cooperation.

As part of these efforts, two agreements were signed in December 2017: the Investment Agreement (Notice of Chief Executive 35/2018, announced in the Official Gazette); and the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation (Notice of Chief Executive 36/2018, also announced in the Official Gazette), introducing a new phase in the economic and trade cooperation between the PRC and Macau. The Investment Agreement covers the matters of admission of investments and investment protection and facilitation, whereas liberalisation of access to the market for investment is now extended to non-services sectors. Investors from Macau benefit from national treatment and most-favoured nation treatment. This means that, on the one hand, investors from Macau enjoy the same treatment as PRC investors and are subject to the same laws and regulations that apply to investors from the PRC (except for those related to certain listed sectors, such as investment in the areas of exclusive economic zones). On the other hand, it also means that any preferential treatment given by the PRC to investments and investors from other countries or regions will be extended to Macau should that treatment be more beneficial to the Macau investors and investments than that offered under CEPA.

The Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation reinforces the unique status of Macau as the platform for commercial and trade cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs). This agreement extends the cooperation to two new major cooperation areas: legal and dispute resolution, and accounting. The aim of creating and promoting arbitration centres in Macau for the resolution of commercial disputes between China and PSCs is expressly provided in this agreement. The Macau Legislative Assembly is now considering reforming the local arbitration framework.



Joao

Nuno Riquito Valeria Wong

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Share this articleBharatiya Janata Party official SS Ahluwalia (center) along with Indian BJP supporters pours an urn of ashes of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee into the Mahananda River in Siliguri on Aug. 31, 2018. (Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formKamini Shankar, an Indian American entrepreneur and mom from New Jersey, was named the winner of the 2019 International Ms. pageant Aug. 26 in New York. (Bret Josephs Photography and Videography/Facebook photo)We now offer lithium prices and coverage free for reference. Click here to read all about it. Join our growing community of participants who want to learn more about electrification and how this market is developing.September 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The Trump administrations decision to scrap all future aid payments to the main agency helping Palestinian refugees marks a new  and most likely disastrous  chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The US State Department said on Friday that it would no longer continue its $360 million annual contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), depriving it of a third of its budget. US officials described the organisation as irredeemably flawed.

The move follows an announcement last week that Washington had slashed $200 million from other aid programmes for the Palestinians.

About five million Palestinians  many languishing for decades in refugee camps across the Middle East  rely on the agency for essential food, healthcare and education.

Other states in the Middle East have reason to be fearful. Jordans foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, warned on Saturday that the denial of aid would only consolidate an environment of despair that would ultimately create fertile grounds for further tension.

Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

Jordan, which hosts two million Palestinian refugees, has called a meeting at the UN later this month, along with Japan, the European Union, Sweden and Turkey, to rally political and financial support for UNRWA.

Traditional American and European backing for the UN agency could be viewed as reparations for their complicity in helping to create a Jewish state on the ruins of the Palestinians homeland. That act of dispossession turned the Palestinians into the worlds largest stateless population.

Except there are few signs of guilt.

The handouts provided via the UN have served more like hush money, designed to keep the Palestinians dependent and quiet as western states manage a crisis they apparently have no intention of solving.

That was why the European Union hurriedly promised to seek alternative funds for UNRWA. It noted that the agency was vital for stability and security in the region  a stability that has enabled Israel to disappear the Palestinians, uninterrupted, for seven decades.

The Trump administration, by contrast, is more brazen about the new way it wishes to weaponise aid.

US officials have not concealed the fact that they want leverage over the Palestinians to force them to submit to Donald Trumps long-promised deal of the century peace plan.

But there is a deeper and darker agenda afoot than simply reviving failed negotiations or pandering to the Trump administrations well-known antipathy towards international institutions.

Over the past 25 years, peace talks have provided cover for Israels incremental takeover of what was supposed to be a future Palestinian state. In the words of Palestinian lawyer Michael Tarazi, while Israel and the Palestinians were discussing how to divide the pizza, Israel ate it all.

So Mr Trumps team has, in effect, reverse-engineered a peace process based on the reality on the ground that Israel has created.

If Israel wont compromise, Mr Trump will settle the final status issues  borders, Jerusalem and the refugees  in the stronger partys favour. The only hurdle is finding a way to bully the Palestinians into acceptance.

In an indication of how sychronised Washington and Israels approaches now are, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, made almost identical speeches last week.

In an address to American Jewish leaders, Mr Friedman noted that a different way of thinking prevailed in the Middle East. You cant talk your way, you just have to be strong, he said.

The next day, Mr Netanyahu reiterated that message. He tweeted: The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive.

That sounded uncomfortably like a prescription for the Palestinians future.

Israel has already carved out its borders through the ethnic cleansing campaigns of 1948 and 1967. Since then, it has mobilised the settlers and its military to take over almost all of the remnants of historic Palestine. A few slivers of territory in the West Bank and the tiny coastal ghetto of Gaza are all that is left for the Palestinians.

A nod from the White House and Israel will formalise this arrangement by gradually annexing the West Bank.

As far as Jerusalem is concerned, Mr Trump recognised it as Israels capital by moving the US embassy there in May. Now, even if it can be born, a Palestinian state will lack a meaningful capital and a viable economy.

The final loose end are the refugees.

Some time ago, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas surrendered their right  sanctioned in international law  to return to their former lands in what is now Israel.

Instead, the question was whether Israel would allow the refugees encamped in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to move to the West Bank and Gaza and become citizens of a Palestinian state.

But if Israel refuses to concede a Palestinian state, even that minimal ambition is doomed.

Israel and the US have an alternative solution. They prefer to dismantle UNRWA and disappear the Palestinians in the swelling tide of refugees spawned by recent western interventions in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Aghanistan. On Sunday Mr Netanyahu welcomed what he called a US move to "abolish the refugee institution, to take the funds and really help rehabilitate the refugees".

Then, Palestinian refugees would fall under the responsibility of the UNHCR, the UNs umbrella refugee agency  or better still, their host countries.

In a leaked email reported by Foreign Policy magazine this month, Jared Kushner, Mr Trumps son-in-law and adviser, wrote that it was time to disrupt UNRWA. He added that sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there".

Central to that disruption is stripping millions of Palestinians of their status as refugees. The Trump administration is due to publish a report later this month, according to Israeli media, that will propose capping the Palestinian refugee population at 500,000  a tenth of the current number.

Mr Kushner has reportedly been leaning on Jordan to revoke the status of its two million Palestinian refugees, presumably in return for US compensation.

When UNRWAs mandate comes up for renewal in two years time, it seems assured Washington will block it.

If there is no UNRWA, there is no Palestinian refugee problem. And if there are no refugees, then there is no need for a right of return  and even less pressure for a Palestinian state.

Israel and the US are close to their goal: transforming a political conflict governed by international law that favours the Palestinians into an economic problem overseen by an array of donors that favours Israel.

Jonathan Cook is a freelance journalist based in NazarethBy Sheldon Richman

September 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - I and others have warned that enactment of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act now before Congress would threaten free speech and free inquiry on Americas college campuses and beyond. As Ive explained, this bill incorporates a conception  a definition plus potential examples  of anti-Semitism that conflates criticism of Israels founding and continuing abuse of the Palestinians with anti-Semitism for the purpose inoculating Israel from such criticism. Anti-Zionist Jews and others have objected to this conflation for over 70 years.

What makes us so confident in predicting a threat to free speech?

We are confident in part because Donald Trumps assistant secretary of education for civil rights, who would enforce the legislation, is Kenneth L. Marcus, whose record makes him the poster boy for the invidious conflation.

Dima Khalidi, founder and director of Palestine Legal, writes in The Nation:

If this definition [of anti-Semitism] were adopted and implemented as Marcus would like, the DOE would be empowered to conclude that universities nurture hostile, anti-Semitic environments by allowing the screening of a documentary critical of Israels 50-year military occupation of Palestinian lands such as Occupation 101, a talk critical of Israeli policy by a Holocaust survivor, a mock checkpoint enacted by students to show their peers what Palestinian life under a military occupation is like, a talk on BDS [boycott-divestment-sanctions] campaigns for Palestinian rights, or student resolutions to divest from companies complicit in Israels human-rights abuses.

These arent hypotheticals. These speech activities were the subject of real legal complaints, filed or promoted by Marcus and his Brandeis Center against Brooklyn College (2013), University of California Berkeley (2012), and University of California Santa Cruz (2009). The complaints were filed to the same DOE office which Marcus has been nominated to head [and to which he has since been confirmed].

Crucially, all of these complaints were dismissed. Both a federal court and the DOE made clear that the activities at issue were not harassment against a protected group but constituted speech on matters of public concern, and therefore were protected by the First Amendment.

Marcus founded and ran the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (not affiliated with Brandeis University), which declares on its website, In the Twenty-first Century, the leading civil and human rights challenge facing North American Jewry is the resurgent problem of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism on university campuses. This social problem requires an immediate, effective, and coordinated legal response (emphasis added).

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Note the conflation. How could anti-Israelism on campus or anywhere else pose a civil and human rights challenge to North American Jewry? If Judaism values universal justice, which the great prophets admonished the ancient Hebrews to honor, attention to the systematic injustice that Israel inflicts on the Palestinians qua non-Jews should be welcomed rather than feared by all, including Jews. As Ive argued, there is no reason to view even foundational criticism of Israel through a presumption of anti-Semitism. Indeed, the Center itself claims that the civil and human rights of the Jewish people are inextricably bound to the pursuit of justice for all peoples. Unfortunately, that sentiment turns out to be mere lip service; it is not reflected in its actions  unless Palestinians are to be regarded as non-people. Alas, that seems to be the case.

The Center is not alone in this belief or activity. Similar programs are carried out by the Canary Mission (an until recently anonymous website; also see this), which documents people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses, and the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the self-identified school of political warfare, which through its Israel Security Center headed by Caroline Glick stigmatizes criticism of Israel as the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism and smears professors who are Palestinian or who express sympathy for the Palestinians plight. An assortment of other individuals, such as former student activist Bari Weiss, now a New York Times writer and editor feted for her courageous advocacy of free speech on campus, have also made it their mission to smear Palestinian sympathizers as Jew-haters.

Marcus previously worked in the George W. Bush administrations Education Department, Office of Civil Rights (OCR), and the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

As assistant secretary of education, he would have the power to move against colleges and universities that in his view failed to discipline pro-Palestinian student activists and professors on grounds that their statements and activities create a hostile climate for Jewish students and thereby violate their rights under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

However, even the lead author of the notion of anti-Semitism embodied in the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act has bridled at its use to police debate on campus. Kenneth Stern has written articles and given testimony in Congress warning against such use. As Stern wrote to the House Judiciary Committee in 2016, when a similar bill was under consideration and was eventually killed because of First Amendment concerns:

I write as the lead author of the  Working Definition on Antisemitism, to encourage you not to move The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2016, which essentially incorporates that definition into law for a purpose that is both unconstitutional and unwise. If the definition is so enshrined, it will actually harm Jewish students and have a toxic effect on the academy.

Antisemitism  like all forms of bigotry  has an impact on some campuses. The worst way to address it is to create a de facto hate speech code, which is what this bill proposes to do.

In years past various Title VI cases were brought asserting that a hostile environment was created in substantial part by anti-Israel speech. All of them lost.

Students should not be harassed and intimidated and threatened. But a campus must be a place where students are challenged by difficult  and yes, disturbing and even hateful  ideas.

In testimony before the committee, Stern said it is not true that antisemitism on campus is an epidemic. Far from it. There are thousands of campuses in the United States, and in very few is antisemitism  or anti-Israel animus  an issue.

At the Mondoweiss website, civil-rights advocates Abed A. Ayoub, Phillip Agnew, and Harper Jean Tobin write that, while at the Brandeis Center, Marcus abused the OCR complaint process by pushing frivolous protests that only serve to harass and stifle the speech of students he disagrees with.

Losing cases did not deter him, however. As he wrote in the Jerusalem Post in 2013, These cases  even when rejected  expose administrators to bad publicity.

Harassment is a nice word for that kind of behavior. Why arent such activities called racism? (Marcus suggests that his complaints were exclusively against assault, physical intimidation, and the like, but the OCR dismissals say otherwise.)

Marcus continued, Just last week, I heard from a university chancellor who is eager to work with the Schusterman Center for Israel studies at Brandeis University to avert the possibility of a civil rights complaint. In light of the threat from the Brandeis Center, I doubt the chancellor was likely to err on the side of free speech and free inquiry. What one perceives as a hostile environment is highly subjective, but some believe that the mere perception of something as anti-Semitic is sufficient to make it anti-Semitic. Intentions and truth are irrelevant.

As Assistant Secretary, Ayoub, Agnew, and Tobin write, Marcus will be able to wield the threat of bad publicity in an attempt to force universities to restrict the rights of groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine.

Thats a good reason to favor defeat of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act: it would enable Marcus, in Khalidis words, to try to do from the inside of the DOE what he has failed to do from the outside.

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute, senior fellow and chair of the trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society, and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies, former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest book is Americas Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited.

This article was originally published by " Libertarian Institute " -

==See Also==By Ron Paul

September 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Assad was supposed to be gone already. President Obama thought it would be just another regime change operation and perhaps Assad would end up like Saddam Hussein or Yanukovych. Or maybe even Gaddafi. But he was supposed to be gone. The US spent billions to get rid of him and even provided weapons and training to the kinds of radicals that attacked the United States on 9/11.



But with the help of his allies, Assad has nearly defeated this foreign-sponsored insurgency.



The US fought him every step of the way. Each time the Syrian military approached another occupied city or province, Washington and its obedient allies issued the usual warnings that Assad was not liberating territory but was actually seeking to kill more of his own people.



Remember Aleppo, where the US claimed Assad was planning mass slaughter once he regained control? As usual the neocons and the media were completely wrong. Even the UN has admitted that with Aleppo back in the hands of the Syrian government hundreds of thousands of Syrians have actually moved back. We are supposed to believe they willingly returned so that Assad could kill them?

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The truth is Aleppo is being rebuilt. Christians celebrated Easter there this spring for the first time in years. There has been no slaughter once al-Qaeda and ISIS hold was broken. Believe me, if there was a slaughter we would have heard about it in the media!



So now, with the Syrian military and its allies prepare to liberate the final Syrian province of Idlib, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again warns the Syrian government against re-taking its own territory. He Tweeted on Friday that: The three 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.



President Trumps National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has also warned the Syrian government that the US will attack if it uses gas in Idlib. Of course, that warning serves as an open invitation to rebels currently holding Idlib to set off another false flag and enjoy US air support.



Bolton and Pompeo are painting Idlib as a peaceful province resisting the violence of an Assad who they claim just enjoys killing his own people. But who controls Idlib province? President Trumps own Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, Brett McGurk, said in Washington just last year that, Idlib province is the largest al-Qaeda safe-haven since 9/11, tied to directly to Ayman al Zawahiri, this is a huge problem.



Could someone please remind Pompeo and Bolton that al-Qaeda are the bad guys?



After six years of a foreign-backed regime-change operation in Syria, where hundreds of thousands have been killed and the country nearly fell into the hands of ISIS and al-Qaeda, the Syrian government is on the verge of victory. Assad is hardly a saint, but does anyone really think al-Qaeda and ISIS are preferable? After all, how many Syrians fled the country when Assad was in charge versus when the US-backed rebels started taking over?



Americans should be outraged that Pompeo and Bolton are defending al-Qaeda in Idlib. Its time for the neocons to admit they lost. It is time to give Syria back to the Syrians. It is time to pull the US troops from Syria. It is time to just leave Syria alone!

This article was originally published by " Ron Paul Institute " -

Copyright  2018 by RonPaul Institute.

==See Also==The Syrian Army seeks to protect the civilians via safe corridors to evacuate them from the terror-controlled areas, Black told journalists following his tour to a number of areas liberated by the Syrian army from terrorism in Aleppo.

He indicated that the US has been carrying on a war against terrorism for 17 years, but there were no results.

The American senator affirmed that terrorists destroyed all civilized sites in Syria; mosques and churches, killed civilians.

He added that the Syrian army carries on a war against barbarism, reiterating that Syria will rise with the efforts of its people.

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US Senator Richard Black stressed that the Syrian people are defending the historical heritage of all humanity.

Visiting Homs City on Monday and inspecting the restoration process of the ancient markets in the city, Black indicated that terrorists have sought to destroy the historical identity of Syria.

He considered that restoration works at Homs City have shown the determination of the Syrian people who have been able to defeat terrorism.

After Senator Black visited Um al- Zennar archeological church, Homs and Hama Archbishop for Syriac Orthodox Selwanos Boutros Al-Nemeh said that the visit of Black to Syria conveys a message to the world that Syria is recovering.

For his part, Homs Governor, Talal Brazi said that Black visited Homs in 2016 and he inspected the destruction in it at the hands of terrorists, indicating that the city today restored its natural life with the return of more than 60 percent of its locals who were displaced.

Barazi added that the reconstruction in Homs is carried out on stages, affirming keenness on preserving the cultural aspect of the archeological city.

This article was originally published by " SANA " -

==See Also==

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Peace and joyBy Eric Margolis

September 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - As the genocidal horrors in Myanmar unfold, I am kicking myself for having risked my skin to go see then sainted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

This event occurred in Rangoon (now Yangon) in 1996 when Suu Kyi was the revered democratic opposition leader resisting the nations brutal military regime. The western media loved her, as it always does third world female politicians fighting dictatorships and thugs. The saintly Suu Kyi was even given a Nobel Prize by Swedens always giddy liberals.

To get to Suu Kyis compound in suburban Rangoon, I rented a car and a terrific driver named Mr. Alexander, and we wove our way through many police checkpoints, risking arrest at each one. Somehow we managed to get to her compound to hear the famous lady speak. She looked very lovely and fragile.

Like my fellow journalists, I felt great sympathy for her. Unlike them, I wondered how, if she ever came to power, this frail, bird-like creature could hold together wild and crazy Burma, a turbulent nation of 43 million that is a stew of scores of angry ethnic groups and religions  a sort of Asian Yugoslavia. As I feared back then, she was proven unfit for this heavy task.

Once rich Burma was bankrupted and dirt poor after many years of dictatorial rule by eccentric army general Ne Win who terrorized his people and practiced necromancy, other black arts and socialism. Gen. Win used the large Burmese Army to battle the nations many ethnic secessionists: Shan, Karen, Mon, Wa, Chinese. He persecuted the Rohingya Muslims of Rakhine state.

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Ne Win was finally kicked upstairs by younger army generals. They continued the brutal dictatorship and repression of Rakhines Muslims, 4% of the population, who were ethnically linked to the Bengalis of neighboring Bangladesh. In fact, Burma has been oppressing and dispossessing the Rakhine Muslims for decades  its just that no one outside Burma paid any attention. Burmas majority Buddhists, 87% of the population, and their powerful monkish clergy, wanted a state without Muslims.

The western powers imposed heavy economic sanctions on Burma that left it isolated and stuck in a time warp of the 1940s. Finally, Burmas ruling military junta wised up and put Suu Kyi in de facto power, backed by then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This was Clintons biggest mistake before the murder of Libyas Col. Khadaffi.

The western critics of Burma fell silent and the punishing western economic boycott ended. Foreign cash flowed in. Nobel Prize winner Suu Kyi made nice speeches and won accolades abroad.

But the military still ruled. Burmas dour, unsmiling generals remained in charge of everything important, including the lucrative timber and emerald trade, while Suu Kyi was left to make nice speeches about democracy. She, apparently, agreed to this Faustian deal.

Meanwhile, Burmas army struck the Muslim Rohingya of Rakhine. In a long-planned offensive, their villages were burned to the ground and their women gang raped by Burmese soldiers. Ten thousand Muslims are reported killed, and 710,000 fled into neighboring Bangladesh where they now subsist in primitive camps. UN observers have reported this was a textbook example of ethnic cleansing  the 2017 version.

Rakhines Muslims where among the most wretched people on earth even before ethnic terrorism began. No one had helped them except UN aid agencies. Suu Kyi has done next to nothing to protect them or stop the genocide. She simply cant admit that she is a powerless figurehead run by the generals. The saintly lady has been revealed to be a sock puppet.

China, which has great strategic interest in Burma as a gateway to the Indian Ocean from its western region, is a long-time backer of the Burmese military junta. It can thwart any action thanks to its seat on the UN Security  the same way the US protects Israel at the UN from censure and war crimes charges.

The nation that could have helped the Rohingyas, Saudi Arabia, self-proclaimed Defender of Islam, was too busy killing Yemeni Muslims and destroying Syria to take any notice. The Koran enjoins Muslims to help their co-religionists in distress or peril, but the obscenely rich Saudis ignored pleas to help the oppressed Rohingyas, just as they shunned pleas of help from the Muslims of Bosnia whose women were being raped and murdered.

China, which is busy trying to crush the life and religion out of its own Uighur Muslims, is encouraging ally Burma. The generals in Rangoon know they have carte blanche to commit more crimes.

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation  Pakistan, Hurriyet,  Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia. ericmargolis.com

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2018

==See Also==

How Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village; On Sept. 2, Buddhist villagers and Myanmar troops killed 10 Rohingya men in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state. Reuters uncovered the massacre and has pieced together how it unfolded.

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Peace and joyFalse-flag Failure US Cuts to the Chase to Defend its Terrorists in Syria By Finian Cunningham September 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Last week the US warned of military strikes on Syria "if" government forces use chemical weapons (CW). This week, Trump comes clean by dropping any mention of a CW pretext  simply warning Syria not to attack terrorists. Trump tweeted his warning to Syria, as well as its allied Russian and Iranian forces, to not launch a military offensive to retake control of the northwest province of Idlib. The area is the last remaining stronghold of illegally armed militant groups in Syria. It's potentially the endgame to the nearly eight-year war. On Monday, Trump said: "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy." The US top general, Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also reiterated seeming anxiety for humanitarian casualties, calling for a tailored operation.

So, alleged chemical weapons are no longer part of the US rationale. It's basically: don't make any military move. The American president added that "hundreds of thousands of lives" could be lost if Syria and its allies move to rid the province of an estimated 10,000 militants among a civilian population of three million.

Trump's apparent "humanitarian" concern seems alarmist, if not cynical. When did he articulate similar misgivings when US air forces were pounding Raqqa to bits last year, causing thousands of civilian deaths?

This week, Russian and Iranian officials are working with Syria to set up humanitarian corridors in Idlib to remove civilians from harm.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is also due to arrive in the Iranian capital, Tehran this weekend to give impetus for a final peace settlement. Clearing Syria's last bastion of terrorist groups in Idlib is crucial to restoring peace for the entire country. Why are Washington and its allies trying to obstruct that end result?

Trump's dire-sounding reproach of a final military offensive in Idlib marked a significant shift from earlier warnings issued by the US and its NATO allies, Britain and France. All three powers had last week vowed to take military action if chemical weapons were used by the Syrian Army in the anticipated offensive.

Those admonitions were widely seen as an attempt by the Western powers to set up a false-flag provocation to blame the Syrian government forces and thereby give themselves a pretext to launch military strikes against President Assad. For a start, the Syrian government no longer possesses such weapons, having deleted its arsenal under verified UN supervision.

READ MORE: Russia submitted proof of false-flag chemical-weapons plot to OPCW & UN  Lavrov

The Western chemical-weapons alarm was a transparent ruse. The same dramatic formula was deployed earlier this year in April when an alleged toxic incident in Douma near Damascus was attributed in Western media to the Syrian Army, resulting in a barrage of over 100 missile attacks by the US, Britain, and France on Syria. It turned out, however, that the incident was a propaganda stunt orchestrated by the Western-backed White Helmets, which have time and again liaised with terrorist groups for information warfare.

Warm & fuzzy side of Al-Qaeda in Idlib, according to NYT https://t.co/dlgF1dx0lU  RT (@RT_com) September 3, 2018

This time around, numerous reports cited Russian military intelligence that chemical weapon materials were being transported in Idlib by the terrorist groups and White Helmets for a repeat of the false-flag ruse. Those reports exposed the lie behind warnings from the US, Britain, and France of impending air strikes as being nothing other than coordinated efforts to justify military intervention.

Further, it was widely commented that the US and its NATO allies were in effect shown to be actively in league with the terrorist groups in preparing a false flag with chemical weapons.

It seems that having been caught out in orchestrating a propaganda stunt, the Western powers have simply gone for broke. That is, going for an openly direct line of attack.

As Trump's latest warning admits, any offensive operation by the Syrian Army and its allies to defeat the residual militants in Idlib is, in the American view, "unacceptable."

Forgot about alleged use of chemical weapons  for Washington, the mere action of military offensive by the Syrian government is illegitimate.

Fortunately, Syrian, Russian, and Iranian leaders are immune to such ridiculous suppression of sovereign rights and international law. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has pointed out, Syria is legally mandated to eradicate terrorist groups occupying its territory and to assert full authority over the country.

Would the American, British, or French government accept the occupation of their territory by illegally armed groups which have been covertly sponsored by Syria, Russia, or Iran?

The shifting rationale by the US and its NATO allies is telling. It's no longer hiding behind rhetoric about chemical weapons or "protecting moderate rebels," or even "protecting civilians."

It is abundantly evident that the militants who have gravitated to Idlib are the assorted Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups, primarily Hayat Tahrir al Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front). This organization is designated as a terrorist entity by the US State Department, as well as by Moscow and many other governments.

There is no longer even a wistful mention in Western media about "moderate rebels" or the so-called "Free Syrian Army," which the US and its NATO allies previously claimed to be supporting as distinct from the extremist head-choppers. That apparent distinction has evaporated into thin air like the manufactured illusion it always was.

What we have in Idlib are the vile dregs of the proxy terrorist army that the Western governments have been covertly sponsoring and arming all along for their criminal objective of regime change in Syria.

Trump's warning against a military campaign to finally smash the terrorist army in Syria amounts to an astounding admission. The endgame of protagonists is now exposed for the whole world to see.

The United States, Britain, and France are admitting that their real problem isn't alleged violations with chemical weapons. Their real problem is that the last stand of the terrorist groups is about to be vanquished. All those years of Western scheming and plotting against the Syrian government and sponsoring bloody mayhem with terrorist proxies are facing a spectacular defeat.

READ MORE: Russia gives US intel on planned chemical weapons provocation in Syria

And not only that, these Western powers are demonstrably, from their words, on the side of the terrorists who have ransacked and brutalized Syria into a charnel house.

Trump's appeals regarding Idlib about a "grave humanitarian mistake" are nauseating. The "hundreds of thousands of lives" he seems concerned about have already been lost due to the covert war sponsored by the US and its allies using terrorist proxies.

These terrorist groups are supposed to be the enemy against which the US and its NATO partners had launched a global war over the past two decades, during which these self-proclaimed defenders of civilized values devastated whole countries from Central Asia, the Middle East to North Africa. Millions of lives have been destroyed by the US and its Western allies supposedly on a crusade against terrorist groups which these same powers are evidently now trying to protect in Syria. Trillions of dollars wasted, and Western societies saddled with austerity to pay for these wars.

Informed critics always suspected the US-led 'War on Terror' to be a giant fraud to cover for criminal imperialist objectives of conquest.

In Syria, the endgame of the war on that country is proving the case that the US and its NATO allies are pursuing interests that have nothing to do with fighting terrorism. Their interests are embedded with the terrorists.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

==See Also==

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Peace and joyBy Andre Vltchek

September 04, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - My friend, a senior UN official based in Amman, Jordan, recently received a newsletter from an Israeli institution  IMPACT-se. Their report was called, modestly, Reformulating School Textbooks During the Civil War.

It is full of analyses of the Syrian curriculum.

Interesting stuff, without any doubt: Manipulative, negative, but interesting. It made it to many other places in the Middle East; to Lebanon, for instance, where even the word Israel is hardly ever pronounced.

Predictably, being compiled in Israel, the report trashes Syria, its ideology, and the determined anti-imperialist stand of President al-Assad.

However, that may backfire. Excerpts that are quoted from the Syrian curriculum would impress both education experts, as well as the general public, if they were to get their hands and eyes on them. And I am trying to facilitate precisely that, in this essay.

What the report found outrageous and deplorable, others could find very reasonable and positive. Lets read, here is what the IMPACT-se is quoting, while ringing alarm bells:

Saddam Hussein took power, and his period witnessed a number of wars in the Arab Gulf area. The first was with Iran, called the First Gulf War (198088), which occurred through incitement by the US, in order to weaken both countries. History, Grade 12, 201718, p. 105.

Well put, isnt it? But it gets much better, philosophically. Imagine, this brilliant intellectual stuff is actually served to all Syrian children in their public schools, while in Europe and North America; kids are fed with neo-colonialist mainstream propaganda. No wonder that Syrian children are much better versed in what is happening in the world. No wonder that millions of Syrian refugees are now ready to return home, after the abuse they received abroad, and after realizing how indoctrinated and brainwashed by Western propaganda, the people all over the world are.

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IMPACT-se continues quoting the Syrian curriculum, naively thinking that the words engraved there, will terrify the entire world:

This competition and struggle worsened as the capitalist system developed and new occupying forces such as the US, took control over international politics. It exploited its scientific, technological, economic and military supremacy in order to expand its influence and [gain] control over the capabilities of the peoples of the world. This was done in cooperation with its allies, to increase its presence in the international arena as the only undisputed superpower. National Education, Grade 8, 201718, p. 81.(The US) strives to maintain its supremacy by monopolizing developing technology, controlling wealth and energy sources in the world, most importantly oil, and forcing its hegemony on the international community. National Education, Grade 8, 201718, p. 82.

This could be easily written by the progressive economist Peter Koenig, by the international lawyer Christopher Black, or, why not, by myself.

The people, who worked on the Syrian curriculum, combined two things brilliantly: 1) indisputable facts, 2) elegant simplicity! Actually, this curriculum should be offered not only to the Middle East kids, but all over the world.

Look how skillfully and honestly it summarizes modern history:

After the disappearance of international balance and unipolar hegemony took control of the world, the US began searching for excuses to justify its intervention in other countries. It occupied Afghanistan in 2002, under the pretext of fighting against "terrorism" in order to realize its political and economic goals. One of the goals was to build an advanced military base close to countries which the US considers to be dangerous (Russia, China, India, Iran and North Korea). In addition, Afghanistan had many assets (such as iron ore and gas). In 2003, the UShelped by a group of countriesdeclared war on Iraq under the pretext that Iraq was holding weapons of mass destruction and aiding terrorism. The occupation came after an unjust siege and air strikes over Iraqi cities and institutions, without authorization from the UN general assembly and the Security Council. National Education, Grade 8, 201718, p. 82

Making the world become one form, one structure and one model, which is the most powerful model now controlling the world, economically and militarilythe American model. The hegemony of the capitalist system . . . turning the world into a consumer market for Western products and ideas, while stripping the nation of its principles, customs and traditions, abolishing its personality and identity, first diluting and then gradually eliminating nations and cultures. National Education, Grade 12, 201718, p. 31.

According to IMPACT-se, this is supposed to scare random readers, providing proof how evil the regime in Damascus is!

The opposite is true.

An international (non-Western) educator, who is presently based in the Middle East, explained to me over a cup of coffee. I think that this statement is actually a good summary of what many others that are studying the Syrian curriculum really feel:

Education reflects the vision of a given society. The heart of what a society expects from its citizens is in the curriculum. Having carefully read the analysis of the new Syrian curriculum and textbooks reinforces my strong conviction of how great a society Syria really is.

Let us see the other side; those who are critical of Syrian education, those who are making a living from such criticism and from antagonizing the system.

ESCWA (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia), based in Beirut, Lebanon, has an initiative defined as 'the future of Syria for the peace-building phase'. This process involves Syrian experts from all walks of life.

But who are these experts? In 2018, during the experts meeting on education, the list included these specialists:

- Former professors (education and law) of Aleppo University

- Former professor of Damascus University

- Head of an education NGO in Lebanon

- Academics and researchers now based in Turkey and Germany

- Independent consultants

Clearly, if at this meeting any participants were Syrians, they were former some things. Meaning exiles, anti-government cadres, and mostly pegged to some Western organization (predominantly the organizations based in France or Germany). Not one person from the legitimate government of Syria was invited! A typical Western approach: about them, without them.

And these people who are serving Western interests, are supposed to help to define a component on education which is considered vital to reconciliation and social cohesion in post-war Syria.

Predictably, instead of promoting reconciliation, the speeches were full of hate, bitter and aggressive, anti-Syrian and pro-Western. Experts used terminology such as: 'Hegemony of the Syrian regime', 'The Ba'ath Party is only concerned about ideology, never giving Syrians an identity' (they were actually demanding that religions would serve as identity, replacing the presently secular Syrian state), 'We need to talk about the truth of what happened in 2011, what led to the war in 2011. Without that nothing makes sense' (but the truth about 2011 in their minds has definitely nothing to do with the fact that the West encouraged the anti-government rebellion, injected jihadi cadres and triggered the brutal civil war aimed at overthrowing a social state).

Their main point seems to be: 'The war has strengthened the culture of hatred'.

Correct, but not because of the Syrian state, but, because of people like those experts!

What do they really want? Religion instead of secularism, capitalism instead of socialism, and of course, the Western perception of democracy, instead of a patriotic and pan-Arab independent vision of the state.

No matter how one turns it, the Syrian education system, including its curriculum, appears to be greatly superior to those in the neighboring countries. Perhaps that is why it is being placed under scrutiny and under attack.

After all, wasnt the main goal of the West, in 2011 and after, to destroy yet another socialist, internationalist state that was primarily serving its people?

And the state of Israel? What is IMPACT-se mainly complaining about? What is irking it most, in the Syrian curriculum? Perhaps this, in its own words and analyses:

The Syrian curriculum bases Syrian national identity on the principles of a continued struggle to realize one Arab Nation that includes all Arab states, constituting one country, the "Arab Homeland." The textbooks present the borders dividing the Arab states as artificial, having been imposed by European colonialism.

For most of us, this is actually, not bad, is it?

Or possibly this:

The current borders are political ones, drawn through the policy of the colonial powers that had controlled the region, especially France and Britain. They do not overlap the natural borders that used to separate the Arab Homeland from the neighboring countries. So, important changes took place in these borders to the benefit of those countries and to the detriment of the Arab land. Geography of the Arab Homeland and the World, Grade 12, 20172018, p. 13.

What is incredibly impressive, is, how the Syrian curriculum addresses the Soviet period of its close ally  Russia:

We shall become acquainted with the reality of Russia prior to the Communist Revolution, and the causes which led to its political, economic, social and intellectual renaissance, from World War I until the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Russian Federation in 1991. History, Grade 8, 201718, p. 98.

The Socialist Revolution in Russia broke out in order to confront the imperial regime. It declared the establishment of the first socialist country in 1917. [The Revolution] was based on the rule of the workers and the peasants, and it had a global impact, as it supported national liberation movements. History of the Modern and Contemporary World, Grade 11, 201718, p. 168.

Gorbachev took over the leadership of the state and party in 1988, and aspired to implement a plan of economic, social and ideological reconstruction. However, the imperialistic countries conspired against the destiny of the Soviet Union and took advantage of the administrative corruption and the circumstances of multiple nationalities, leading to its dissolution in 1991 and the establishment of the Russian Federation in its place. History, Grade 8, 201718, pp. 99100

Actually, if I could, if I were to be allowed to, Id love my publishing house ( Badak Merah ) to publish the Syrian curriculum, or at least its part on history and politics, for everyone outside Syria to read.

What the Israeli IMPACT-se sees as alarming or negative, most of people all over the world and particularly in the Arab region, would definitely perceive as truthful, optimistic and worth fighting for.

Are the experts from IMPACT-se so naive that they do not realize it? Or is there something else going on? Perhaps we will never find out.

No matter what: thank you for reminding us of the great Syrian curriculum! It clearly shows how great a nation Syria is!

[First published by NEO  New Eastern Outlook]

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Three of his latest books are Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism , a revolutionary novel Aurora and a bestselling work of political non-fiction:  Exposing Lies Of The Empire . View his other books here . Watch Rwanda Gambit , his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky On Western Terrorism . Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter .

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Peace and joyTwo-term governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) for the Social Democratic Party(SDP).

The former governor who is also on the 2019 presidential race made this known today as he was received by the National Secretary of the party, Sheri Gabam and others.

Mr Duke had earlier revealed in an interview, that he would make the party on whose platform, he wishes to run for president.

Donald Duke, who sailed to victory on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, during the two times, he ran as governorship candidate was expected to contest on the partys platform now that he is running for president.

More details to come. Leaders of African nations are currently in China for the Beijing Summit of the Forum on Africa-China Cooperation.

The Summit, which kicked off today, had the leaders of the 54 African countries in attendance.

A former presidential aide, Reno Omokri has criticised the venue of the summit. According to Omokri, leaders of African nations had to leave their continent to meet just one nation(China)  asking why the summit couldnt have been held in one of the African countries.

Taking to his twitter handle on Monday, Omokri mocked African leaders for not respecting themselves.

He wrote:

China and Africa are having a conference involving all African nations and one nation (China). Yet, it is African leaders who have to go to China. There are 54 nations in Africa. Why could the conference not hold in Africa? African leaders do not respect themselves? #RenosDarts  Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) September 3, 2018

Meanwhile, president Muhammadu Buhari being the chairman of the ECOWAS, gave a speech at the high-level dialogue at the opening ceremony of the summit earlier, says presidency.Femi Fani-Kayode on Tuesday, honoured police invitation to appear at the Force headquarters in Abuja. Fani-Kayode, who was invited by the Inspector-General of police, Mr Ibrahim Idris over publications inciting the public to violence upon return, said he wont stop.

Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation took to twitter to inform his followers that he has returned from the office of the IGP after a cordial interview.

-He explained that the police were courteous and professional and revealed that he was invited because of an article he wrote in March, 2018 titled: Five useful idiots and the spirit of the accursed slave. 

The former minister said he has no regrets and no plan to stop writing as he promised to hit harder.

He wrote:

Left the IGP's office after a cordial interview.Police were courteous and professional.I was invited because of my essay titled "Five Useful Idiots and The Spirit Of The Accursed Slave" which was about Fulani hegemony and terrorism. No regrets.I will hit harder and write more.  Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) September 4, 2018

The article was about the activities of some Fulani herdsmen and how some governors(Samuel Ortom of Benue state, Plateau states Solomon Lalong, Yahaya Bello of Kogi state) have handled the crisis.President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigerians should calm down as loans borrowed by the country can be repaid.

The president, whos far away in China for the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on Africa-China Cooperation, where he signed a new loan of $328m, has said the loans are necessary for infrastructural development.

President Buhari in a few tweets on Tuesday said,

https://twitter.com/MBuhari/status/103659079737028608?s=19

https://twitter.com/MBuhari/status/1036959348264787968s=19

Meanwhile Mr Reno Omokri, self acclaimed official ruffler of president Buharis feathers said under Buharis government, N13trillion out of the overall N20 trillion owed by the country was borrowed.Dangote Group, MTN Nigeria, and Globacom have emerged as the top three brands in Nigeria.

The Chief Executive Officer of Top 50 Brands Nigeria, Mr Taiwo Oluboyede, revealed this at an event organised recently in Lagos to herald the formal award presentation ceremony.

We evaluate a brands ability to deliver on those promises. We do it from the consumers point of view, he said while explaining the selection process.

When we have the aggregate of it, the ones that are on the top (of the chart) are what we called the Top 50 Brands in Nigeria.

According to Oluboyede, there are seven variables considered during the process and each brand is assigned with points based on the aggregate.

He disclosed that the list as a result of points gathered from its online engagements to become a celebrated brand in the country.

We have the popularity survey, we have online engagement, and we try to test how the platform is. Channels, for example, the online is part of the things that gave them a very good rating, he said.

Some of the other brands that also made the list are GTBank, Coca-Cola, First Bank of Nigeria, Unilever, UBA, Zenith, Airtel and Channels Media Group.

The formal award presentation ceremony has been scheduled to hold in October.Senator Godswill Akpabio says the recent gale of defections that hit the All Progressives Congress (APC) was an attempt to frustrate the efforts of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The lawmaker took a swipe at those who defected from the party during an interview on ChannelsTVs Roadmap 2019.

For me, I saw a situation where the ruling party was not only being distracted but the movements were capable of bringing down the government, he said on the special political programme which aired on Monday.

We need to have Nigeria before we can have the election. These things are as a result of continuous conspiracies against government and all sorts of things.

The former Senate Minority leader who had recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC recently himself, however, attributed his own decision to the national interest.

I dont think that the movements that we saw from the APC to my then party were prompted by national interest, I think most of those things were based on the personal interest of individuals.

I just assessed the situation and I said I needed to contribute my quota towards stabilising the situation; towards ensuring that people realise that it wasnt all about a conspiracy to bring down a government but to conspire to resolve the security situation.

He also advised the critics of President Buharis administration to support the government to tackle insecurity and other challenges of the nation rather than coming together to take over power at the centre.

Akpabio said, We need to have Nigeria before we can have an election.

We should conspire to bring food to the table of Nigerians; not to conspire to just take government for the sake of taking government.Former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has said he will honour last weeks invitation extended to him by the police by 12noon today.

He disclosed this in a tweet via his verified Twitter handle on Tuesday morning.

He tweeted, I will report to the Inspector General of Polices office at Force Headquarters in Abuja at 12.00 noon today in response to the invitation that they sent to me last week. The invitation indicated that they want to question me about one of my essays. The Lord is with us!

I will report to the Inspector General of Police's office at Force Headquarters in Abuja at 12.00 noon today in response to the invitation that they sent to me last week. The invitation indicated that they want to question me about one of my essays. The Lord is with us!  Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) September 4, 2018

Recall that last week we reported that the former Culture Minister was invited by the police for inciting the public and publishing allegedly defamatory materials.

According to a letter signed by Commissioner of Police, IGP Monitoring Unit, Force Headquarters, CP Habu A Sani and dated August 20, 2018, police authorities said Fani-Kayode was invited for alleged conspiracy, criminal defamation, inciting publication, injurious falsehood, and conduct likely to cause breach of peace.Popular comedian, Basketmouth has been nominated among the top 5 comedians in Africa for the Annual South African Savanna Comics Choice Awards (SCCA).

Basketmouth, who won the maiden edition of the Savanna Pan-African Comic of the Year award last year, has once again been nominated in 2018.

The Annual South African Savanna Comics Choice Awards (SCCA) which used to be for only South African comedians has since 2017 extended one of its categories to other parts of Africa and the competition is very tough as there are so many strong acts from various countries, it is called the Savanna Pan-African Comic of the Year.

This category features 54 comedians from 53 countries, and this comedians are later cut to just 5 nominees.

This years event will take place on Saturday 8th of September, at The Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City. And it is themed theRhythm of Funny.

Gistreel had a sit down with Basketmouth to talk on life as a comedian and his expectations from his fans, comedy industry, Nigeria and from himself.

First of all, I know you are a very busy man and I consider it quite a privilege that you granted us this interview.

As a young man, Basket did you aspire to be a comedian or is it something that you stumbled along the way?

Basketmouth: Ive always wanted to be a comedian since I coincidentally bumped into I think it was Eddie Murphys delirious performance, this was in I think 1994, yeah 94.

I saw the tape the VHS tape so I was like thrilling some of my friends, just making fun, cracking jokes and my elder brothers friend was watching me and called me and was like dude have you seen Eddie Murphys performance? Then, I did not know Eddie Murphy was a standup comedian I thought he was just an actor cause the only thing I had seen then was coming to America.

I knew this is what I wanted to do and everything then just started you know, The path just opened, and I just started the journey.

Thats wonderful, that means you were doing comedy when you were in Uniben yes?

Basketmouth: Way before I started before I even got to Uniben

How was it like performing then at a time when comedy wasnt really as big as it now in Nigeria?

Basketmouth: it was the same thing, comedy gives you that same feeling of satisfaction the fact that you create an idea or a story in your head and you bring it to life and you tell people

You know whether its from your experience or stories youve heard, and you make it a joke and you tell them and they actually you know laugh.

Its that satisfaction that youve delivered the goods but the only difference between then and now is the fact that then it was a little bit tougher because it was a new act and people were just beginning to accept so unlike now thats it is now like a life style everyone wants to be funny everyone is now making skits.

The difference was, it wasnt really embraced by that many people support wasnt that much so the hustle was different, yeah the hustle was different but its still the same satisfactory feeling you get whenever you drop that joke or get that laughter.

So last year you had a sold out concert at the famous wembley arena, would you term that as the biggest highlight in your career?

Basketmouth: Err. no not necessarily there were other things that had happened that were major highlights like when I hosted the This Day music festival hosting the gig with Busta Rhymes, Beyonce and all of that [laughs] that was a different kind of feeling you know because these were guys I was looking up to uno, guys that I grew up watching so being backstage you know [laughs] it was just amazing so that one, there are so many things, small gigs that I did..

I just dont really talk much about it. Like when I did the Montreuxs comedy festival in Switzerland, that was big major but we just you know try to keep all these things low key until we strike that big one.

It was a different thing that happened the Wembley one was different because it wasnt the fact that I was listed to perform on someone elses bill whether it was the montreux festival or just for laughs comedy festival, those are peoples bills, so the feeling the happiness you know that accomplishment you feel is beyond your delivery on stage is the fact they came out to see your own product unlike you going to perform at someone elses stuff.

They were going to be there anyways, they didnt come out for you know so those were highlights as well but this one the wembley one is different because it was all attributed to me and my team when I say my team Im talking about the crew and the comedians that blessed the stage with me so yeah wembley was massive but trust me there were other things [laughs]

So many things, like there was one time I did a gig in L.A at the comedy store which was the same place Richard Prior used to perform so I was headlining and I walked backstage and they pointed to me thats the same seat that Richard Prior used to sit down on when he was performing so I sat down there but you know all those things to take picture and put it on instagram those things cause this is me a young man born in ajegunle sitting down on Richard Prior seat do you understand? [Laughs] so those are things that I see and I go like mehn God has really blessed me on my hustle.

How has your career aspiration been shaped since your debut cause obviously now youre into acting so what has really shaped your career decision since you came out?

Basketmouth: Err the thing is comedy is my career but I dont want to be career based I want to be not even an entrepreneur, I want to be an investor. Because we have different categories you understand there are the apprentice, the jobs 30days -one pay, the career based one, youre still doing something you like but youre still an employee and you get to the point when youre now an entrepreneur and from entrepreneur you become an investor

So since Im still on that career level where my growth is dependent on the acceptance of people the acceptance of a client agreeing to book me for an event when they have about three hundred other options Im not the one controlling that market per say cause I do well in my own field and so does all these guys they all do very well so I dont want to be in that space whereby I have to be an option, I dont want to be an option

So what Im trying to do for myself is not just shaping my career, I should be beyond that point of trying to shaping my career because the career doesnt go beyond what I have done because by the books I think I have down well the only thing that has restricted not just my growth but the growth of every other entertainer in Nigeria is the system and the structure yeah the country itself it down plays your talent because the structure doesnt give you the opportunity to have a management company, a marketing company to have a country that is fighting for your own interest as an artist and protect your talent, The copyright laws and make it exist and its just unfortunate.

For as long as people control the career of some people because you do things according to what they want, not what you want you want so youre not actually shaping your career youre letting the consumer shape it for you because there are some people that sing a certain kind of song but they have to bend because the market does not accept that kind of music and once you want to stick to that music that you love, that youre comfortable with, that God has blessed you with, that you are supposed to shine with, and nobody is taking it because the consumers would say[ ehn make him dey sing rubbish] cause they want to listen to something they can dance to most times.

So back to your question what Ive done.. Ive done what needs to be done so right now since nothing can help me beyond this point I have to now help myself by becoming an investor so I can invest back in my brand instead of shapening the brand Ill create opportunity that the already sharpened brand can now ride on.

To get to where you are, what is the major thing that you had to give up to get here?

Basketmouth: Everything, when I say everything its err for you to become a comedian, comedy is not something that is a choice, its your life it becomes you everything you do is primarily targeted to creating materials, contents, working on your brand being relevant, everything, youre just constantly redefining yourself

So when I started doing comedy I did not know I was going to be popular or famous, this is new to me Im a very shy person, I was just doing it because I enjoy making people laugh, I was doing it for free, the first time I charged for a performance is because I was hungry and someone said that the people that brought would pay you. In my mind I was like oh them dey pay? {laughs} so when you enter into that space you realize that there are some things that you have to let go off you cant start a full time comedy career and be doing other things on the side so you have to let go of everything and you have to just step in, if you fail you fail, if you win you win.

Some people can be doing some side jobs or other things but it will distract you, comedy should be the only thing youd be doing. Now you have to sacrifice your privacy, your privacy is gone you now have to live the way people want you to live and the unfortunate thing is Im more or less like a deep person I look at people go like oh why did he do this? Or why did he do that?, the consumers your audience they judge us whatever you do whether its your jokes, theyll judge your type of joke, theyll judge your type of dressing, theyll judge the way you talk, your family, your kids, your lifestyle, your religion, they just judge people cause thats what they do and that doesnt take out the fact that they are the ones who love you genuinely for what you are and who you are you understand, those are the ones that keep the brand fresh.

Now, if an artist is feeding off these things you wont grow. Now you have to be able to understand what the people want from you and give them that without losing who you are, so its a bit. I wont lie to you the work hard { Laughs }.

I had to sacrifice my privacy, my other dreams that I had trust me comedy wasnt the first thing I wanted to do, I thought I was going to be a rap artist, drummer, I thought I was going to be so many things uno so I was like you know what do this one so sacrificed everything and said its comedy next I was like okay Bright youre sacrificing everything else which means you will not a have a life anymore, you cannot do anything anymore like and you will not be frowned upon you know when you have people giving you pass mark and failure mark constantly, sometimes I envy those people that can just do whatever they like and get away with it.

But beyond that the truth of the matter is yes Ive been talking about the negatives but beyond all these things theres no better feeling than that feeling of being appreciated if its not you as a person, your work being appreciated, some people might hate you as a person but theyll love your song, theyll dance to your song also some people may love you as a person but they cant stand your song so we bless God and thank the people that love us for the people that we are and love our craft and support us because the truth of the matter is, without no consumer there is no artist.

If youre leading and theres no follower youre only going for your walk na stroll you dey stroll so the bottom line is in as much as the negatives are there we cant really run away from the fact that thess same people still made us to become who we are these are the things that we also appreciate so in as much as we sacrificed some of ourselves to these guys we got them too.

As one of the nominees for the savannahs comics choice awards, what is the awards importance in lifting the comedy industry in Africa?

Basketmouth: Err there was a time that we didnt know that there were comedians in Ghana, in Kenya until instagram, you tube and all those things popped out {social media}, we never knew that we were so many even down to music, acting.

Back then you will not see a Ghanaian actor in a Nigerian movie, it was unheard of you will not hear a Ghanaian musician featuring a Nigerian musician so the thing whether its the internet the fact that weve started seeing ourselves as one, there was a time that the Grammy awards was just something wed just sit at home and watch but right now Femi kuti is packing nominations these are things that you cant help but appreciate.

Then when it comes to the point whereby the comedy platform based in South Africa coming towards the world, theyve be doing it for a very long time for them to have come up with the idea that they want to do something since Africa is now one, let us do something that will recognize not just the South African comedians but comedians across Africa, number one it creates that bridge apart from the fact that these comedians are coming together in the pool and we get to meet ourselves, the opportunities because you dont know what these guys are coming with so it makes the industry.

And there is nothing better than a thank you like when you do a job and youre supposed to be paid Ten thousand naira and you finished the job and youre paid Ten thousand naira you feel yes I earned it but once you get paid and youre leaving and theyre like guy guy you did very well you know what o boy take this watch you try, that is the one that you appreciate the most. So now my job specification is to crack jokes so people can laugh, I have executed that, they pay me I crack the joke Im done, that trade is done so its done I worked for it but when Im leaving and you say hello Bright for what youve done for this industry take this award you have tried, that is the one I appreciate the most and thats what it does, it makes you work harder, makes you feel better about what youre doing, it makes you feel that theres something more for us as comedians not just about the booking but when theres a comedy festival coming or comedy award, theres this excitement, theres this competition inside and theres nothing better than a healthy competition in a market like ours.

This years theme of savannah comics choice award is the rhythm of funny as a comedian how important is it to have you there?

Basketmouth: When you say rhythm it depends on the angle youre coming with but thing is this, with rhythm it doesnt necessarily mean the sound for me I think its just how because a music without rhythm is noise and to a large extent music is like poetry, rap music is like poetry, its even writing everything is just linked for me you need rhythm in everything even down to your car engine so its important you have a rhythm in everything you do

So again congratulations on your award as the savannah pan African comic of the year, so when you got news how did you feel?

Baskethmouth: Its the second time {laughs}. So the first was good it was a good feeling, when I won it I didnt expect to win to be honest, so when they announced me the winner I wont lie to you my heart for the first time in my life I was really like you know it would not be a bad one if I win this stuff, you know that kind of stuff, of all the awards Ive nominated for apart from the Mtv Base, the MAMAs, the comedian of the year that I lost to Trevor Noah that was there, I knew I was going to lose that one { Laughs }.

Then this one the competition was there it was stiff because we here in Nigeria, we think the whole Africa but there are things happening outside. So when I went out there and saw other gifted comedians I knew it was a stiff category and I was excited when I won it, so when I was nominated the second time I was like oh which means Im still busy, Im still doing something good when you know that something is wrong is when youre not nominated at all {laughs} when youve been nominated before and youre not nominated the second time so for me it feels Im still relevant so I feel humble and I appreciate what theyre doing

So is the nomination sort of like a further push for you to solidify your place in Africa?

Basketmouth: Err not necessarily, like if you win the academy awards, the Oscars, it gives you that na level like a bragging right to some, but for me its not a bragging right, if I was that kind of person that believes it helps solidifies my position in the industry I would have been making noise with it but what it does it helps solidifies my own drive and my passion, it helps me as a person know and understand the fact that I am doing something good it gives me that energy to want to do more cause I dont want this to stop. So its not the position publicly, its the position internally.

Lastly how different is the South African comedy industry to the one we have in Nigeria here?

Basketmouth: Ah its different, most people would say oh we have to be patriotic, I dont believe in that crap, Im not going to say what is not there, they are way ahead of us in terms of structure, ask yourself this question where is comedy central based? Then when Kevin Hart came where did he perform? South Africa, but we have more number here, but its not about the numbers its the structure, its the system, we dont have any comedy club in Nigeria all we have are bars that they run a comedy night at certain and there some people wouldnt even know that this night is for comedy because they know the place as a bar or lounge

So if a guy and his date or a group of friends want to chill out and they dont want to listen to any comedian, they just want to listen to music and have drinks, these guys are not there for comedy so you dont expect to get that laughter and that attention from those kind of people because theyre not there for comedy so were supposed to have a comedy club specifically for comedy thats how you get the real fans so south Africa they have that, they have The Packers, they used to have the Blues room, I can count.

The Goliath and Goliath comedy club is there very nice place, theres one they do Fire and Ice all in santin, there are so many like the blues room Trevor Noah used to there was a time I performed he was hosting, myself Bovi, Buchi we all went there Bovi and I performed, and that place was just for comedy no music the DJ didnt even play music apart from the intro song, I wont lie when it comes to the comedy industry in Nigeria is the biggest, in terms of structure its nowhere and that is the truth, in terms of earnings we earn more but in terms of structure were nowhere, its not the money, its not numbers, we need to enjoy what were doing, okay how many theaters do we have in Lagos?

We are in a country of over one twenty million people where we have some of the wealthiest people and investing in comedy is not a bad investment because right now comedy is one thing that even in horror movies theres comedy even some pastors they try to crack jokes if they cant they invite some comedians to perform, these are things we cant just over look.

-GISTREELThe governor of Ebonyi state, Engr. David Umahi has stated that many looted funds in Nigeria were trapped in foreign banks, some buried at various cemeteries, and others buried underground.

Umahi made the disclosure while declaring open anti-corruption, ethics and integrity training for Ebonyi State local government officials, held in the capital Abakaliki on Monday.

The governor, who promised to establish an ICPC office in the state, advocated for amnesty for alleged looters saying such approach would help in arresting corruption and commit offenders in returning over 70 percent of looted public funds.

We have so much of the looted funds trapped in foreign banks, some buried at the cemetery while many were buried underground where they were destroyed by termites. But if there is a a negotiation like committing the looters into subtly surrendering at least 70 percent of the looted funds and keeping the rest or investing all the funds in the country; by so doing, we would have recovered the money and made use of it, he said.

Earlier in her address, representative of the Acting Chairman of ICPC, Mrs Rose Okoduwa, said the training was to bring the anti-corruption crusade closer to the grassroots using local government officials as vehicles of social re-engineering.It is common for companies to organize various informal events where workers can come with their partners. One of those...On Monday, Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, an ex-aide to former president Goodluck Jonathan, told a federal judge in Lagos that the N1.6 billion traced to him by EFCC was money donated for a church building project in Otuoke, Jonathans hometown. .

Premiumtimes reports that Dudafa, said the money was part of a N6 billion realised from a launching for the building of St. Stephens Youth Development Centre. .The launching, which held in Lagos on March 16, 2013, was organised by Jonathan as the grand patron of the Anglican Communion. .

About N6 billion was realised from the event. Several persons made various donations in cash and in pledges at the event while the chief launcher, Prince Arthur Eze, donated $10 million (about N1.8 billion).

When Prince Eze started redeeming his pledge in piece-meal, the former president directed that I should get somebody in the private sector that will be able to keep the fund. .

I then brought in a friend, Somprie Omiebi, who later opened an account with a bank in Bayelsa. The naira denominated account was opened to receive Prince Ezes money. .

Anytime Prince Eze brought any money, the former president will direct that I link up with a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator who will remit the money directly to the account opened by Somprie Omiebi.

Dudafa, alongside Joseph Iwejuo, is facing a 23-count charge of conspiracy to conceal proceeds of crime amounting to N1.6 billion. .

The EFCC alleged that the accused persons between June 2013 and June 2015, used different companies to fraudulently launder the said money. The accused and about five other companies are also facing a N5.1 billion fraud charge.Vanguard



Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen, yesterday, described the rule of law as an essential element in any democratic society, maintaining that justice could not be effectively delivered when the supremacy of law was not respected.

The Nation

The All Progressives Congress (APC) adopted the direct primary for the selection of its candidates for next year elections to boost internal democracy, National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole said yesterday.He told The Nation that the party decided to liberalise its shadow polls by making all registered members automatic delegates.

ThisDay



With few weeks to the commencement of the primaries to elect candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for 2019 general election, critical stakeholders in the Kano State branch of the party have expressed thoughtful concerns over the recent dissolution of the state partys structures by Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee

Guardian



Edo State looks set to secure the Chinese President Xi Jinpings $60 billion financial support for Africa, which was announced at the 2018 Beijing Summit under the Forum onChina-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in China.

Daily Times



The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has said that the 2019 general elections would not affect the boards 2019/2020

Leadership



Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has been described as an honest man, who does not lie. Making this declaration, yesterday, was the Oluwo of Iwo Kingdom, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi. The royal father said this while hosting Osinbajo for the inauguration of a credit loan on Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, MSMSEs

Daily Trust

A former Kano State Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau has finally defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressive Congress (APC).

Tribune

In the past few weeks, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been involved in a face-off with the Rivers State government over its intention to commence a probe into the alleged over-the-counter withdrawalA former senate president, David Mark would pick up the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) presidential nomination form on Tuesday.

This decision has made the battle for who would represent the PDP in the 2019 presidential election tougher than it already was.

The race already has current senate president, Bukola Saraki, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Abubakar Atiku, Ibrahim Dankwanbo, and many other strong contenders.

However, news of Mark picking up the presidential nomination form has sparked public debate on social media. While some have said that David Mark, is one candidate to oust president Buhari out of office, others doubt he would he even become the PDP candidate, let alone contest the 2019 election against Buhari.

See reactions below

When you see Former Vice president for 8 years (Atiku Abubakar), former Senate President for 16 years (Senator David Mark) and the present Senate President (Bukola Saraki) all aspiring for the position of the President under a single Party. Be sincere, What comes to your mind?  Kennyblac (@Blac_meek) September 3, 2018

So David Mark is going for the ticket too, this race will be a very tight one. It can do two things to the winner. Weaken his Arsenal after a strong battle, or prep him up for the War ahead. But you know what they say, "what dosen't kill you"  Chuks .Chinyere(jj) (@chukschinyere47) September 3, 2018

It's obvious David Mark,Suawan and Ortom were all in accord with those in @OfficialPDPNig pushing the Herdsmen narrative with their "boys" in the media because of 2019.

Politicians are terrible people & will do anything to grab power. Even sacrifice those they swore to protect  Eguando (@teguando1) September 3, 2018

All of them are you using style to fund the party with stolen funds by way of buying nomination form. Do you think David Mark in his sleep truly thinks he can defeat PMB, even in Benue on a good day. They are all laundering stolen funds through the party.  #IamNorth *Drama show (@Emperorzack) September 3, 2018

I think among the PDP aspirant David Mark remain the most qualified candidate to me carry on my vote is u  patrick ojotule davi (@davi_ojotule) September 3, 2018

David Mark joining the presidential race is basically his way of saying "Since you people are mad, let us all be mad"  the Morris Monye factor (@Morris_Monye) September 4, 2018

David Mark was the president of the most organized,peaceful and uncontroversial Senate for years.

I would pick him over a Saraki any day.  The Usual Suspect (@_Hanselem) September 3, 2018

Saraki, Atiku, Kwawanso, David Mark or any other candidate contesting is actually very qualified to be Nigeria's next President. People saying they all have nothing to offer should be please tell us what Lifeless have offered within the last 3 and half years. Una Mumu Never do?  Uncle Ray (@Raynergy) September 3, 2018Its common to find conspiracy theories on Twitter, and they often are easy to dismiss. But one surrounding celebrities Drake, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian is oddly convincing.

Twitter user @tmorrison24 is convinced the feud between Kanye and Drake runs deeper than the surface, and Drake may actually be having an affair with Kanyes wife, Kim.

Drakes been telling us for months now he slept with Kim K, we just havent been listening  a thread, the Twitter user started.

The evidence includes lyrics from his feature on Travis Scotts Sicko Mode I crept down the block, made a right, cut the lights, paid the price which when the distance from his house to Kanyes is considered, puts things in a different light. The lyrics from his hit In My Feelings Kiki, do you love me? Kiki, the fan said, is Kims nickname.

Check out the thread:

Drakes been telling us for months now he slept with Kim K, we just havent been listening

 a thread pic.twitter.com/YVCehJI5fQ

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Couple weeks ago before the Drake concert, one of my buddies @SpenceyyB made this claim and I  probably like you  disregarded it at first.

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

He referenced verses like these from Scorpion. I already knew the disses were aimed at Kanye, but he claimed every girl line was about Kim. Your wifey felt too generic at first, and I figured Drake was referring to any man that leaves his girl long enough/for good. pic.twitter.com/NpyymtcRFl

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

He also spoke about how Drake and Ye have been beefing since they were together in Wyoming. Which prompted the whole Push-Drake feud pic.twitter.com/vWsBPaPTSG

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Then the concert took place and I pretty much forgot about the theory until a few days ago when another friend sent me these (s/o @JakeSpinny) pic.twitter.com/UvcaUhKVtk

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Now Im like, okay, there is no way this is random. So I sat down and decided to take a closer look. pic.twitter.com/0qqxwSclhz

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

I started listening to Scorpion and put it on shuffle. In My Feelings is the first song that comes on.

Ever wonder who Kiki is exactly? pic.twitter.com/CurJeGjS8o

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Thought to myself, Kiki is pretty damn close to Kim. Quick twitter search and I find these. pic.twitter.com/4cZkS7Rrs5

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Then I learn about Kims lipstick pic.twitter.com/tM1OxFlv1J

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

First verse of the album Drake comes directly at Kanye. With a Kim reference at the end? But why would Ye question his love with Kim pic.twitter.com/hMRXHF9pwj

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Fast forward to the end of the song.

Started feelin myself.

In My Feelings. Kiki.

Now hes got drama over Kim and the tie between him and Kanye is done because of it. Except whats the drama about? pic.twitter.com/x082tyzRqB

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Everyone questioned why Drake never responded to Pusha after the 2nd diss. At first I thought the claim it would be Bad for Kanye was just a weak excuse and Drake took an L pic.twitter.com/vKMyTM5vPv

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

But hold on, maybe Drake does have something on Ye

(G.O.O.D is the name of Kanyes record label  I think Drake is saying in 8 Out of 10 Kanye is lucky he never responded with the 2nd diss) pic.twitter.com/SQDcdo8Fcz

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

1st photo is in reference to an interview b/w DJ Akademiks and Drake. 2nd photo is J Prince explaining Drake has info that would end Kanyes career and ruin his livelihood. Drake hints at this on Mob Ties, and confirms it on Behind Barz. pic.twitter.com/rFZdug8IdO

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 20

Rap fans grilled Drake about not responding to Push. Except we dont know the half of it he says. And whatever it is, he can only tell us about it in pieces.

WHAT DONT WE KNOW DRAKE pic.twitter.com/bs3Gg7oXEP

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Lets look at Is There More and Behind Barz since Drake is talking about Kanye in both.

In Is There More, Drake tells us hes ready to come clean about something. Now focus on the word goof in both songs.

Also, in Behind Barz, he seems to speak directly to Kim. pic.twitter.com/sna9IZ9kT7

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Your wifey doesnt seem so generic anymore pic.twitter.com/uSZnqtlFDT

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Drake has a good relationship with the Kardashians.

And we know they both live in Hidden Hills. pic.twitter.com/QCnDOJQMbU

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

So just how close do Drake and Kimye live from each other? Sounds like pretty damn close.

If youre not convinced by now, let me go ahead and erase all doubt.

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Kimyes house #1. Drakes house #2 pic.twitter.com/ohXCcoAoP3

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

I crept down the block,

Made a right,

Cut the lights,

Paid the price. pic.twitter.com/2D91btFg4T

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

You can infer what went down. Even if you cant, Drake might just tell us anyway later in this verse.

Drake hopped on a track with essentially Yes brother in law to flex how he smashed his wife. Beyond savage. pic.twitter.com/Dhm8iNSHOL

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

I think Scorpion was originally mostly Side B until Ye snitched to Push about Drakes kid. Once that got exposed, Drake made Side A to not only go after Kanye, but subtly tell us about the history with Kim. pic.twitter.com/3x6Y1OY8oA

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

I could keep going with more lyrics, but its gotta end somewhere.

Ima just end that there, thats that. pic.twitter.com/6xajbLYaep

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

People been asking bout other verses I thought may be in reference to Kim or were important. Here ya go:

The verses in Talk Up and Nonstop Im certain on.

The verse on Blue Tint and Lil Wayne sample on In My Feelings could be debatable, but are definitely suspect. pic.twitter.com/Z3nDb3GsBG

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) August 31, 2018

Heres an obvious one I definitely shouldve used. S/o to @93kmw93 in the comments. Telling you tho theres so many pic.twitter.com/CJtWEu8z6W

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) September 1, 2018

Heres an obvious one I definitely shouldve used. S/o to @93kmw93 in the comments. Telling you tho theres so many pic.twitter.com/CJtWEu8z6W

 Tyler Morrison (@tmorrison24) September 1, 2018Vice president Yemi Osinbajo on Monday launched empowerment programme for 30,000 petty traders in Osun state.

Prof Osinbajo, yesterday arrived Iwo, to launch empower programme, TraderMoni.

According to him, TraderMoni scheme, is targeted at petty traders, market women, artisans and small scale business enterprises to cater for ultra-micro enterprises.

The policy of the Federal Government is to support businesses, not just big business but particularly small, medium-sized businesses and micro businesses. The whole idea is that we want to ensure that we give whatever support to people to alleviate their businesses.

For instance, if we give you N10,000 and refund within six months then you are qualified to collect N15,000. If you pay back the sum of N15,000 you are qualified to get N20,000, he said.

The TraderMoni, which is expected to empower 30,000 petty traders in the state has been identified as low-key vote buying by the vice president.

The Osun state gubernatorial election is set to take place later this month and some Nigerians are of the opinion that the scheme is a way of buying votes from the electorates.

See reactions here

https://twitter.com/solomonapenja/status/1036833765992083457?s=19

https://twitter.com/Kelvin_Odanz/status/1036873964533022720?s=19

Pastor Osinbajo has taken it upon himself to go and share money in Osun State few days to the Governorship election. What a shame https://t.co/b0jRGjEvRl  Akintomide (@MrTomide) September 3, 2018

So Pastor Osinbajo is a high profile election crook? This whole tradermoni scheme is a format for election theft.  Ernest (@TheRealErnest_) September 4, 2018

https://twitter.com/BBlaQBobby/status/1036879937259626497?s=19

This is an act of vote buying, I can't imagine having Pastor Osinbajo spearheading fairy tale, Pastor Osinbajo should've shamefully started he vote buying from others states instead of Osun whose election comes up in less than 3weeks from today.@inecnigeria  Tamaraodeinemi (@chriscyton) September 4, 2018

Osun state governor, Abdulrauf Aregbesola, refused to pay Osun state workers their salaries for several months Yemi Osinbajo is in Osun state to give out 10,000 Trader Moni to bribe voters Nigeria has one of the most despicable politicians in the world  nafiiu (@nafeezi) September 4, 2018

https://twitter.com/SKSolaKuti/status/1036875181292175360?s=19Sompo International chair and CEO John Charman believes it is critical to have an established local presence in the key continental European markets as additional underwriting teams and innovative products are introduced to the region.

The latest entity will issue insurance policies and reinsurance treaties for new and renewal business in Continental Europe, while European Economic Area policy issuance for multi-national insurance clients will continue to be serviced from London through the UK branch of SI Insurance (Europe).

Our clients and brokers across Continental Europe are reacting very positively to Sompo Internationals commitment to the European market, commented Takashi Kurumisawa, the subsidiarys chief executive. With SI Insurance (Europe) beginning to operate well ahead of Brexit, we have a long-term solution in place to deliver consistently high-quality service and uninterrupted capacity for clients across the European Economic Area.

Meanwhile Graham Evans, CEO of London Market & Europe Insurance, described the launch as an exciting milestone which provides a clear and timely definition of Sompo Internationals post-Brexit capabilities for clients worldwide.

Our broker network can rest assured that they will have continued access to our full suite of Sompo International products and capabilities through their chosen channel of distribution, he said.Hawaii-based lawyer Molly Ward told Washington Times that some residents have been assured by their insurance agents that while lava is an exclusion in their policies, the resulting fire from the lava will be covered.

I cannot count how many homeowners told me that their insurance agents told them to not worry about their lava exclusion, because everyone knows that fires burn houses during an eruption, Ward said.

Pacific Island Insurance agent Amber Lopez explained that there is typically no coverage for cases when the lava directly causes property damage, even if a fire breaks out as a result.

So in that circumstance, there would be no coverage, Lopez said. Because the carrier considers direct [damage] the lava flow and indirect the fire. So that is pretty clean-cut in the way theyre reading the policy.

In response, Ward says that such exclusions should not be allowed since insurance policies do not block coverage for damage caused by both lava and fire at the same time.

And we all know that if you come too close to the sun or anything very hot, including lava, youre going to burn, [and] in our case here, a considerable time before the lava comes, she pointed out.

To date, Kilaueas recent eruption has caused at least $5.1 million in damage. More than 700 homes have been ravaged by the eruption, while 20 have been damaged but can still be salvaged, the Hawaii County Office of Housing and Community Development confirmed.A Texas insurance company is causing a buzz by turning down a $1.8 million government incentive package.

Fairly Group, which specializes in risk management, commercial insurance and employee benefits, has announced it will opt out of the package offered by the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation (AEDC). According to an agreement reached in 2017, the AEDC offered the Fairly Group the package if it met annual performance requirements, including adding 100 employees and $5.7 million in payroll over the next 15 years.

However, at the AEDCs board meeting this month, Fairly Group CEO Alex Fairly announced that the company wanted to end the agreement and was going to return the $27,000 it had already received from the AEDC.

Were thankful for what the AEDC has meant to us, but were doing fantastic, and the reality is we are able to continue growing and employing new people without assistance, he said.

Fairly said he felt it was unfair to other businesses to accept unnecessary assistance.

I honestly felt an obligation to my neighbors and my fellow taxpayers to not be taking money we just dont need, he said. That money needs to go to a company that might not be able to grow without assistance.

AEDC board chair Laura Street commended Fairly for the decision.

I think this is an extremely positive gesture, she said. Its wonderful that you are allowing the taxpayers to reinvest that money into future projects, so I commend you for your business.

The Fairly Group currently employs between 135 and 140 people, with all but 30 based in its Amarillo, Texas, headquarters. The company hired about 20 people in 2017 and another 20 so far this year. It expects to double that in the next two years.Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Opinion Policies

Editorials are longer opinion pieces that are written by a group of community members recruited across campus who address relevant issues on a local, national and international level. Editorials are research-based. The purpose of the Editorial Board is to promote discussion concerning relevant issues in the community while advising on possible solutions. Topics are chosen via relevancy and interests of the members, which are then discussed by the Editorial Board in order to reach a general consensus concerning the topic or issue.

Feedback policy

If you have a grievance concerning the content or argument of the Editorial Board, please contact either Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or the Editorial Board as a whole (editorialboard@iowastatedaily.com). Those wanting to respond to editorials can also submit a letter to the editor through the Iowa State Daily website or by emailing the letter to Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or Editor-in-Chief Sage Smith (sage.smith@iowastatedaily.com).

Column Policy

Columns are hyper-specific to opinion and are written by only columnists employed by the Iowa State Daily. Columnists are unique because they have a specific writing day and only publish on those writing days. Each column undergoes a thorough editing process ensuring the integrity of the writer, and their claim is maintained while remaining research-based and respectful. Columns may be submitted from community members. These are labelled as Guest Columns. These contain similar research-based content and need to be at least 400 words in length. The following requirements should be met: first and last name, email and relation or position to Iowa State. Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions.

Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020With the iPhone X last year, Apple debuted its TrueDepth camera system which also paved the way for Animojis. The latter, in a nutshell, are animated emojis which one can create based on their own expression. Since Animoji requires the iPhone Xs TrueDepth camera to work, it was not available for older iPhones. However, a team of Russian engineers have developed a messaging app Chudo which brings Animoji-like functionality to older iPhones.

As the founder of the company Ashot Gabrelyanov explains, Chudo uses machine learning technology to turn you into live animated characters that look like you, move like you, and emote like you. He further claims that his companys Russian engineering team have been working on this project for the last two years and have developed a proprietary technology to mix human face with characters designed by the team.

A user will have to take their photo with the Chudo app which will then proceed to generate over 30 personalized characters called Chumoji. Every character will have a unique look based on how the user itself looks like. The company uses AI, machine learning and its dataset of over 15,000 face scans to make this possible.

Essentially, Chudo brings Animoji-like feature to older iPhones starting from the iPhone 5s and up. And it is due to this very reason that Apple is refusing to make the app live on the App Store. The App Store review team took over a month to arrive at their decision after the Chudo team submitted their app.

In his medium post, Ashot Gabrelyanov explains some of the differences between Animoji and Chudo. Unlike Animoji, Chudo is available for Android devices and it does not rely on 3D facial depth information to create animated characters. He also highlights that many other apps on the App Store are very similar to Animoji including Facehub whose characters look very similar to Apples own Animoji set.

The Chudo team is now trying to create some noise about Apples unfair decision on the internet in hopes that the company ends up approving their app on the App Store. Whether this method works or not is something that only time will tell.

Whatever the case might be, theres no denying that the Chudo app does seem impressive especially since it brings Animoji-like feature to older iPhones lacking the required hardware solely using machine learning prowess.Weather Alert

...FREEZE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING... * WHAT...Sub-freezing temperatures as low as 30 possible. * WHERE...In Virginia, Patrick, Henry, Pittsylvania and Halifax Counties. In North Carolina, Surry, Stokes, Rockingham, Caswell, Wilkes and Yadkin Counties. * WHEN...From late Thursday night through Friday morning. * IMPACTS...Frost and freeze conditions could kill crops, other sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. To prevent freezing and possible bursting of outdoor water pipes they should be wrapped, drained, or allowed to drip slowly. Those that have in-ground sprinkler systems should drain them and cover above- ground pipes to protect them from freezing. &&Springfield, Ore. -- A Eugene wildland firefighter has died after he suffered irreversible brain damage after contracting pneumonia, which became septic.

The family of 20-year-old Eric Aarseth tells ABC News just a day after he came home last Monday he was found unconscious in his apartment. Eric was taken to PeaceHealth Riverbend Hospital in Springfield. Eric's family said they've made the difficult choice to take him off life support.

Kellie Mathews, a spokesperson for Miller Timber services, tells KEZI 9 Eric passed away Monday afternoon.

Eric worked for Miller Timber Service. Mathews said this was Erics first year as a firefighter and he battled the Garner Complex Fire in southern Oregon and the Horns Mountain Fire in Washington.

Octavia Nightingale, a family friend, set up a memorial fund on Facebook. She and Erics family said they want the money raised to go to help other firefighters who come off the line to make sure they see a doctor before returning home.

They should be checked. They fight for us, for our land and that should be mandatory, said Nightingale.

Erics family said they dont blame Miller Timber Service but said having the resources would have saved Erics life.

Were heartbroken for the family and friends of our firefighter, Eric Aarseth, said Lee Miller, President of Miller Timber Services in a statement. Its devastating to lose any member of our team and Eric seemed to have found his passion and purpose on the fire line.

We take our responsibility to our firefighters seriously and Im confident we did our best for Eric, Miller said. In order to ensure we continue to take good care of our employees, we plan to review our training and support materials, fire line resources and protocols.ST. PAUL, Minn.  The 100 deadliest days on Minnesota roads were a little less deadly this year.

The Department of Public Safety says 116 people were killed in traffic accidents between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day. Thats down from 121 road deaths in 2017. August was also the first time in four months there were fewer than 30 auto fatalities in Minnesota.

Preliminary monthly fatalities in 2018 include:

- January  22

- February  19

- March  18

- April  25

- May  35

- June  34

- July  38

- August  29

Of the 116 deaths, authorities say 32 were speed-related, 30 were alcohol-related, and 40 were motorcyclists. Minnesota law enforcement also made 408 DWI arrests over Labor Day weekend, bringing the year-to-date total to 18,130.

The Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day period traditionally sees more traffic deaths in Minnesota than any other time of the year.DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Three people are dead and two others are injured after a three-vehicle crash on Interstate Highway 29 in western Iowa.

The Des Moines Register reports the Iowa State Patrol is investigating the cause of the Sunday crash in Harrison County north of Omaha, Nebraska.

According to the Iowa State Patrol, 80-year-old Rock Valley resident Richard Van Zee drove off the road, across the median and hit two vehicles traveling south near Little Sioux.

His car sideswiped one vehicle and then hit a pickup truck.

Van Zee and 77-year-old Mary Ann Van Zee were killed in the crash. Knightstown, Indiana resident Elizabeth Cobbs, 65, was in the back seat of the pickup and also died. The driver of the pickup and another passenger were injured.AUSTIN, Minn.  Law enforcement says a 10-year-old boy survived a near-drowning at a Mower County campground on Saturday.

The Sheriffs Office says the child from Chatfield was found floating face-down in a pool at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp-Resort at Beaver Trails. The boy was reportedly not breathing and his face was purple.

People at the pool provided first aid while deputies rushed to the scene. Among those who helped were two firefighters, one from Blooming Prairie and another from Winnebago, as well as a nurse. Witnesses say that after receiving CPR, the boy vomited and began breathing again on his own.

The boy was taken to Mayo Clinic Health Systems in Rochester after reportedly being able to answer basic questions. There is no word on his condition.

The Mower County Sheriffs Office says signs posted around the pool indicated there were no lifeguards on duty.

Authorities say the boy was saying at the campground with his family.Weather links

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Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Floyd

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

.Recent rain and additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 5 inches area wide late this afternoon into tonight will cause significant rises along the Cedar and Root rivers. Therefore...Flood Warnings have been issued along these rivers. River forecasts take into account both observed and forecast precipitation. The National Weather Service in La Crosse WI has issued a

* Flood Warning for The Cedar River at Charles City.

* from Wednesday evening to Friday afternoon.

* At 10:30 AM Tuesday the stage was 3.3 feet.

* Flood stage is 12.0 feet.

* Minor flooding is forecast.

* Forecast...Rise above flood stage Wednesday evening and continue to rise to near 14.6 feet Thursday morning.

* Impact...At 14.0 feet...Bracket Street is closed. &&

If you live in a threatened area, be alert for high or rising water, and be ready to move to higher ground if necessary. Do not drive cars into flooded areas. Remember, it only takes two feet of water to float most automobiles, including sport utility vehicles. Turn Around, Don't Drown! Stay tuned to your favorite source of weather information, including NOAA Weather Radio, for later statements. Additional river and weather information is available at... http://www.weather.gov/lacrosse .

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Mower

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

.Recent rain and additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 5 inches area wide late this afternoon into tonight will cause significant rises along the Cedar and Root rivers. Therefore...Flood Warnings have been issued along these rivers. River forecasts take into account both observed and forecast precipitation. The National Weather Service in La Crosse WI has issued a

* Flood Warning for The Turtle Creek Near Austin 3NW.

* from Wednesday afternoon to late Thursday night.

* At 10:30 AM Tuesday the stage was 1.9 feet.

* Flood stage is 10.5 feet.

* Minor flooding is forecast.

* Forecast...Rise above flood stage Wednesday and continue to rise to near 10.9 feet Wednesday evening.

* Impact...At 10.5 feet...Minor flooding begins along the creek in Austin. &&

If you live in a threatened area, be alert for high or rising water, and be ready to move to higher ground if necessary. Do not drive cars into flooded areas. Remember, it only takes two feet of water to float most automobiles, including sport utility vehicles. Turn Around, Don't Drown! Stay tuned to your favorite source of weather information, including NOAA Weather Radio, for later statements. Additional river and weather information is available at... http://www.weather.gov/lacrosse .CHARLES CITY, Iowa  Sexually abusing a woman is sending a Floyd County man to state prison.

Robert Ray Mannetter, 29 of Charles City, has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars. He must also pay $412 in restitution to the Crime Victim Compensation Program and sign up with the Iowa Sex Offender Registry.

Mannetter was found guilty after a two-day trial of one count of 3rd degree sexual abuse.

Law enforcement said Mannetter performed a sex act on a 33-year-old woman against her will on July 3, 2017, in Charles City.LEHIGH, Iowa (AP)  Authorities say north-central Iowa man has been shot while squirrel hunting at Brushy Creek State Recreation Area near Lehigh.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the incident happened Saturday when 55-year-old Sao Bunpan was shot in the upper chest by his brother, 50-year-old Khor Bunpan. Both men live in Webster City.

Authorities say the two brothers were hunting together with a party of four for the opening day of squirrel hunting in Iowa.

Sao Bunpan was taken to a Webster City hospital and then to a Des Moines hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

Conservation officers are investigating, but preliminary efforts have led officials to believe the shooting was an accident. No charges have been filed.FREEBORN COUNTY, Minn. - Authorities say an armed robbery suspect told a worker at the Gopher Stop in Clarks Grove that Im going to shoot you, give me your money.

The Freeborn County Sheriffs Office is investigating the armed robbery that occurred 9:32 p.m. Monday at the gas station/convenience store.

Courtesy Freeborn Co. Sheriff's Office - This is the image of a man authorities say was involved in an armed robbery Monday night. Courtesy Freeborn Co. Sheriff's Office - This is the image of a man authorities say was involved in an armed robbery Monday night.

Freeborn County deputies, the Albert Lea Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol responded and were told the suspect left on foot in a westerly direction. The K-9 team was able to track the scent along Highway 251 where it abruptly ended.

After the suspect demanded money and threatened to shoot the employee with a gun, the employee told the suspect, No, youre not  shoot me then. Im not giving you money.

During the verbal exchange, the suspect pulled a handgun from his pocket.

The suspect also walked toward the kitchen before approaching the same employee again. The employee again told the suspect that money would not be handed over.

Im not giving you s***, the employee said, according to the Sheriffs Office. Theyre (the deputies) are on their way.

That is when the suspect left the store.

Three male employees were working at the time of the incident.

The suspect is described as a white male in his 20s with a skinny build around 6-feet tall.

The suspect was wearing a plastic mask with black markings, a gray hoodie with Abercrombie on the front and gray sweatpants.

Anyone with information is asked to call 507-377-5200, ext. 5.

Law enforcement says it is investigating whether this crime is related to another armed robbery in Albert Lea on Saturday.JERUSALEM, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli government approved on Monday the development and construction of the Amos 8 communications satellite, two years after the previous Amos 6 satellite exploded on the launching pad in Florida.

The Israeli space industry suffered a serious crisis following the explosion of Amos 6 and the loss of contact with Amos 5 in November 2015.

In March, Israeli satellite operator Spacecom announced that its next satellite would be manufactured by California-based Loral company.

Israel Aerospace Industries, the producer of most of the satellites in the Amos series, also warned against a serious blow to the country's space industry.ROCHESTER, Minn. - A man is facing multiple charges, including terroristic threats and second-degree assault, after an incident Monday night at the North Star Bar parking lot.

Authorities say 37-year-old Joseph Hollins, of Rochester, got into an argument with a an off-duty bar employee about parking.

The incident began around 11 p.m. Monday and continued 30 minutes later when Hollins returned to the bar.

The victim saw Hollins with a gun inside the car and reached for it before being hit in the head with the gun. Authorities say Hollins threatened to shoot the victim before the car moved and hit another vehicle in the parking lot.

The handgun fell out of the car during the struggle before Hollins left the scene. He was arrested a short time later in the 2300 block of Valley High Dr. NW.

He is facing the following charges:

Second-degree assault, terroristic threats, possession of a handgun without a permit, hit and run, fourth-degree DUI, third-degree DUI refusal and no insurance.OSAGE, Iowa  A Scarville teen is facing multiple burglary and drug charges.

Spencer Alex Bryan, 18, is charged with 3rd degree burglary, possession of burglars tools, possession of marijuana, and three counts of unlawful possession of prescription drugs. Authorities say he broke into a home on May 27 and stole cash, three bottles of prescription pills, 18 grams of marijuana, a marijuana pipe, and a marijuana grinder that was inside a lockbox.

The resident reported the burglary the next day.

Bryan was arrested in Forest City on an outstanding warrant on August 23.Tornado Watch

Areas Affected: Allamakee; Chickasaw; Howard; Winneshiek

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

TORNADO WATCH 368 REMAINS VALID UNTIL 10 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS IN IOWA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 4 COUNTIES IN NORTHEAST IOWA ALLAMAKEE CHICKASAW HOWARD WINNESHIEK IN MINNESOTA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 3 COUNTIES IN SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA FILLMORE HOUSTON WINONA IN WISCONSIN THIS WATCH INCLUDES 7 COUNTIES IN CENTRAL WISCONSIN CLARK IN NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN TAYLOR IN SOUTHWEST WISCONSIN VERNON IN WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN JACKSON LA CROSSE MONROE TREMPEALEAU THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF ARCADIA, BLACK RIVER FALLS, CALEDONIA, CRESCO, DECORAH, LA CROSSE, MEDFORD, NEILLSVILLE, NEW HAMPTON, PRESTON, SPARTA, TOMAH, VIROQUA, WAUKON, WHITEHALL, AND WINONA.

Flash Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Dodge; Mower; Olmsted; Wabasha

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

...THE FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 915 PM CDT FOR OLMSTED...MOWER...WABASHA AND DODGE COUNTIES... At 837 PM CDT, spotters, law enforcement, broadcast media and public have reported flooding mainly in urban areas across the warned area. Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches have been reported.

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Excessive runoff from heavy rainfall will cause flooding of small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses as well as other drainage areas and low lying spots. In hilly terrain there are hundreds of low water crossings which are potentially dangerous in heavy rain. Do not attempt to cross flooded roads. Find an alternate route.

Tornado Watch

Areas Affected: Fillmore; Houston; Winona

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

TORNADO WATCH 368 REMAINS VALID UNTIL 10 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS IN IOWA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 4 COUNTIES IN NORTHEAST IOWA ALLAMAKEE CHICKASAW HOWARD WINNESHIEK IN MINNESOTA THIS WATCH INCLUDES 3 COUNTIES IN SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA FILLMORE HOUSTON WINONA IN WISCONSIN THIS WATCH INCLUDES 7 COUNTIES IN CENTRAL WISCONSIN CLARK IN NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN TAYLOR IN SOUTHWEST WISCONSIN VERNON IN WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN JACKSON LA CROSSE MONROE TREMPEALEAU THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF ARCADIA, BLACK RIVER FALLS, CALEDONIA, CRESCO, DECORAH, LA CROSSE, MEDFORD, NEILLSVILLE, NEW HAMPTON, PRESTON, SPARTA, TOMAH, VIROQUA, WAUKON, WHITEHALL, AND WINONA.

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Floyd

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

.Recent rain and additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 5 inches area wide this evening into tonight will cause significant rises along the Cedar...Turkey and Root rivers. River forecasts take into account both observed and forecast precipitation. The Flood Warning continues for The Cedar River at Charles City.

* from Wednesday evening to Friday afternoon...Or until the warning is cancelled.

* At 4:30 PM Tuesday the stage was 3.2 feet.

* Flood stage is 12.0 feet.

* Minor flooding is forecast.

* Forecast...Rise above flood stage by Wednesday evening and continue to rise to near 14.6 feet Thursday morning.

* Impact...At 14.0 feet...Bracket Street is closed. &&

Do not drive cars into flooded areas. Remember, it only takes two feet of water to float most automobiles, including sport utility vehicles. Turn Around, Don't Drown! Additional river and weather information is available at... http://www.weather.gov/lacrosse .

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Freeborn

NWS Minneapolis (Southern Minnesota)

The National Weather Service in The Twin Cities has issued a

* Flood Warning for... Freeborn County in south central Minnesota... Eastern Faribault County in south central Minnesota... Steele County in south central Minnesota... Eastern Waseca County in south central Minnesota...

* Until 200 AM CDT Wednesday.

* At 759 PM CDT, Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated that up to three inches of rain have already fallen, and an additional 1 to 2 inches are possible which could cause flooding.

* Some locations that will experience flooding include... Owatonna, Albert Lea, Waseca, Wells, Blooming Prairie, Medford, New Richland, Clarks Grove, Ellendale, Alden, Glenville and Geneva.

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding.

Flash Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Hancock; Kossuth; Winnebago

NWS DesMoines (Central Iowa)

...THE FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1115 PM CDT FOR KOSSUTH...NORTHWESTERN HANCOCK AND WESTERN WINNEBAGO COUNTIES... At 800 PM CDT, Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated that heavy rain was falling over the area. Three to five inches of rain have fallen. Some locations that will experience flooding include... Algona, Union Slogh, Buffalo Center, West Bend, Bancroft, Burt, Whittemore, Thompson, Titonka, Wesley, Lakota, Woden, Rake, Lone Rock, Ledyard, Scarville, St. Joseph, St. Benedict, Irvington and Sexton.

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Mower

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

.Recent rain and additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 5 inches area wide this evening into tonight will cause significant rises along the Cedar...Turkey and Root rivers. River forecasts take into account both observed and forecast precipitation. The Flood Warning continues for The Turtle Creek Near Austin 3NW.

* from Wednesday afternoon to late Thursday night...Or until the warning is cancelled.

* At 4:30 PM Tuesday the stage was 2.4 feet.

* Flood stage is 10.5 feet.

* Minor flooding is forecast.

* Forecast...Rise above flood stage by Wednesday and continue to rise to near 10.9 feet Wednesday evening.

* Impact...At 10.5 feet...Minor flooding begins along the creek in Austin. &&

Do not drive cars into flooded areas. Remember, it only takes two feet of water to float most automobiles, including sport utility vehicles. Turn Around, Don't Drown! Additional river and weather information is available at... http://www.weather.gov/lacrosse .** Shares of Hazer Group Ltd rise as much as 16.95 pct to A$0.345, their highest since April 5

** The graphite and hydrogen technology developer plans to relocate its FBR pilot plant from Sydney to Kwinana in Perth, next to the proposed Mineral Resources Ltd's PTR plant

** Relocation an important step in commercialisation of the Hazer process because "we see great synergies, cost savings and benefits in locating the two plants together at MRL's site," says Hazer acting CEO Mark Edwards

** Stock posts its biggest intra-day percentage since Aug. 9

** More than 620,000 shares have changed hands, almost three times 30-day average of 223,111 shares

** Up to last close, stock had fallen about 45 pct this year

(Reuters Messaging: abyjose.koilparambil.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)Recent USD/JPY heaviness above 111 looks to be linked not only to a pick-up in institutional investor, corporate and speculative activity, but also to Bank of Japan expectations and the broader risk-off tone stemming from global trade frictions. The Nikkei has headed south since peaking at 23,032 on August 30, just after news of the U.S. and Mexico reaching a trade agreement. Risk-on sentiment has faded since with the U.S. looking set to impose tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese imports and no trade agreement with Canada. Emerging market woes are continuing with Argentina and Turkey at the forefront. On BOJ expectations, some in the market are looking for more tweaks to policy in the form of "stealth" tapering or tightening. This is despite dovish talk from BOJ Governor Kuroda over the weekend . That said, Kuroda did not rule out further tapering tweaks, and this seems to be what some in the market are expecting. JGB yields have moved up another notch this week with a tweak to JGB buys eyed as early as this week . <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Nikkei 225: Yield on JGB 10s: USD/JPY: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

Sept 3 (Reuters) - * Cepsa shut down a 100,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) crude processing unit at its Huelva oil refinery in Spain following a fire, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

* The fire was extinguished immediately, she said, adding that the company has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the event.

* "For this reason, the CDU-1 unit has been shut down. We don't know yet how long it will stay off line," the spokeswoman said in an email.

* The refinery has the capacity to process 190,000 bpd of crude. (Reporting by Ron Bousso, writing by Swati Verma in Bengaluru Editing by James Dalgleish) outside U.S. +91 80 6749 6356/1298 ; Reuters Messaging: swati.verma.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) outside U.S. +91 80 6749 6356/1298 ; Reuters Messaging: swati.verma.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.By Fabian Cambero and Aislinn Laing

Sept 3 (Reuters) - Chilean state miner Codelco halted the operations of three out of four furnaces at its Ventanas copper foundry on Monday morning after high levels of sulphur dioxide were detected, it said in a statement.

Codelco said levels of the gas went 20 percent over the accepted limit for five minutes, prompting it to shut down the furnaces as a "voluntary and preventative measure" in the industrial area of Ventanas, 90 miles (145 kilometers) northeast of Santiago.

The company's action comes just over a week after more than a hundred local residents sought medical treatment for nausea and vomiting following another gas leak in the same industrial zone.

Amid protests by local residents, the government claimed state-run energy firm ENAP was to blame but the company has denied the claim. Codelco was cleared of any involvement in that leak at another facility.

The state-owned copper miner, the largest in the world, has paid fines for previous excess emissions in area.

It said in its statement that on this occasion there had been no infringement of environmental regulations, while the government confirmed separately that no injury or illness had been reported.

A company spokesman confirmed to Reuters that there would be a "minor impact" on production.

(Reporting by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Sandra Maler)* PREVIOUS TRADING SESSION MOVES:* SSEC -0.2 pct, CSI300 -0.4 pct, HSI -0.6 pct* HK->Shenzhen Connect daily quota used 1.1 pct, Shenzhen->HK daily quota used 0.3 pct* CNY official close 6.8235 per dollar* FTSE China A50 -0.4 pct, BNY Mellon ADR China Select Index +1.2 pct SHANGHAI, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Following is a list of recent corporate and policy announcements, as well as other news that might affect Chinese financial markets. Policy, government, sector news:* China's Xi offers another $60 bln to Africa, but says no to "vanity" projects* Trade war could force heavier hand from China on yuan* China bans pig shipments from areas hit by African swine fever as disease spreads* China discusses ways to stabilise market expectations-c. bank Data:

* China August manufacturing growth slows to 14-month low-Caixin PMI Company moves:

In focus

* JD.com CEO returns to China after arrest in U.S. sexual misconduct case

* Sinopec to increase LNG spot cargoes purchase, expand terminal capacity Earnings/Performance

* Guangzhou Automobile Group's Aug vehicle sales up 10.1 pct y/y

* Zhengzhou Yutong Bus's Aug bus sales down 26.1 percent y/y Equity changes/IPOs

* Ningbo Joyson Electronic buys back 1.4 billion yuan worth of company shares

* Jiangsu Hongdou Industrial buys back 252.1 mln yuan worth of company shares

* Huapont Life Sciences buys back 155.4 mln yuan worth of company shares

* Jiangxi Ganyue Expressway's controlling shareholder plans to increase company shares

* Henan Senyuan Electric's controlling shareholder cuts stake

* Lock-up for Huadian Power International's 211.1 million a-shares to end

* Sichuan Road & Bridge says lock-up period for 437.3 mln shares to end M&A

* Ningbo Jifeng Auto Parts to buy project firm in order to own stake in Germany's auto part firm

* Northcom Group scraps acquisition plan as concerning parties failed to reach agreement Other moves (spin-offs, divestitures, deals)

* China State Construction has signed contracts worth a combined $9.6 billion with some Egyptian entities (Compiled by Luoyan Liu)MOSCOW, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Production at Russia's offshore Arctic Prirazlomnoye oil field, which is operated by Gazpromneft , has been suspended due to planned maintenance, the company told Reuters. Gazpromneft did not provide further details, but said the maintenance at Prirazlomnoye, which is located in the Pechora Sea, would not hit its production forecast.

Three industry sources familiar with the production plan told Reuters the work had begun in early September and was scheduled to last 30 days. "The maintenance has started, should end by the start of October," one of the sources told Reuters, adding that loadings of Arco crude oil, an export grade produced at Prirazlomnoye, are suspended for the maintenance period. Gazpromneft produces about 300,000 tonnes of crude oil from the Prirazlomnoye oil field each month, data from Russia's Energy Ministry shows. (Reporting by Olga Yagova Editing by Alexander Smith)SYDNEY, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Australia's balance of payments data for the June quarter, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.(in A$ billion, current prices) Seasonally adjusted Q2 Current account balance -13.472 Goods, services balance +2.812

The bureau said net exports could add 0.1 percentage points to/from the June-quarter gross domestic product, which is due on Wednesday.

Forecasts centred on a deficit of A$11.5 billion, and net exports to add 0.1 percentage points to June-quarter growth, a Reuters poll showed. Australia's net foreign debt stood at A$1.04 trillion.

For details, see the Australian Bureau of Statistics Web site at .

Soldiers attend a parade of "Quick Response 2018" in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Sept. 3, 2018. EUFOR-led peace support operation exercise "Quick Response 2018" officially started with a parade on Monday afternoon at EUFOR Headquarters located in Sarajevo. (Xinhua/Haris Memija)

SARAJEVO, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- EUFOR-led peace support operation exercise "Quick Response 2018" officially started with a parade on Monday afternoon at EUFOR Headquarters located in Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) capital Sarajevo.

At the opening ceremony in Camp "Butmir", COMEUFOR Major General Martin Dorfer emphasized that this year's exercise will be the largest one so far, taking place at several locations throughout BiH.

In a situation of a potential threat to the safe and secure environment, Quick Response Exercises test the complex mechanisms that can be activated and integrated with reserve troops already arranged, Dorfer explained.

"Together, we will demonstrate that the citizens of BiH can be assured of our joint and combined commitment to ensuring the safe and secure environment," Dorfer said.

Taking place from Sept. 3-7, "Quick Response 2018" practices EUFOR's capability to call in parts of their reserve forces and engage them in an international exercise. This annual international exercise involves EUFOR's Multinational Battalion, the elements of the reserve forces from Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, the United Kingdom and the NATO Kosovo Force Tactical Reserve Battalion.

"Including forces from BiH, a total of eight nations and over 1,000 troops will actively participate in Quick Response 2018, demonstrating that we are collectively unified in the primary aim of being prepared to ensure a safe and secure environment," Dorfer concluded.

BiH Minister of Defense Marina Pendes pointed out that the current security challenges threatening BiH and the region necessitate a better and closer cooperation of all relevant stakeholders in security and defense sectors, including BiH Armed Forces and EUFOR.

Pendes said that the exercise will provide the necessary tools to support BiH aspirations towards full membership in the European Union (EU) and NATO.

EUFOR is governed by the UN Security Council's executive mandate for this exercise and is required to regularly rehearse this reinforcement. This year's exercise will bring together BiH Law Enforcement Agencies, BiH Armed Forces and EUFOR, in order to test the respective contingency plans and the capability to be mutually supporting.* For more technical analyses, click* For this report in Chinese, click SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Spot gold may fall to $1,190 per ounce, as suggested by its wave pattern and a projection analysis.

For a chart: The metal is riding on a wave c from $1,208.79. This wave was disrupted by a bounce triggered by the support at $1,195, the 76.4 percent projection level. However, the wave c looks incomplete. It may unfold to $1,190, which is suggested by a falling channel. Wave pattern on the daily chart also indicates a downside bias.

For a chart: The metal is riding on wave 5, the fifth wave of a bigger wave C from $1,309.30. This wave is capable of travelling to $1,162. A break above $1,204 (first chart) may lead to a gain to $1,214.



* Use EIKON news "Alerts" to get reports sent to your email box automatically. For guidance, click

** Wang Tao is a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals. The views expressed are his own. No information in this analysis should be considered as being business, financial or legal advice. Each reader should consult his or her own professional or other advisers for business, financial or legal advice regarding the products mentioned in the analyses. (Reporting by Wang Tao; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

Messaging: Reuters messaging: wang.tao.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net;  TASSTAO))BANGKOK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - An auction of 40 billion baht ($1.2 billion) of 91-day central bank bonds fetched an average accepted yield of 1.33918 percent on Tuesday, the Bank of Thailand said.

The accepted yield range was 1.3350-1.3530 percent and the bid-to-cover ratio was 1.86. The average accepted yield on 40 billion baht 182-day central bank bonds was 1.49790 percent. The accepted yield range was 1.4800-1.5010 percent and the bid-to-cover ratio was 2.42. The average accepted yield on 40 billion baht 364-day central bank bonds was 1.69353 percent. The accepted yield range was 1.6650-1.7040 percent and the bid-to-cover ratio was 2.36. For auction results: For benchmark Thai bonds ............... For Thai debt data by contributors....... ($1=32.72 Baht) Reporting by Bangkok Newsroom; (+662 6489729) Keywords: THAILAND BONDS/



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.** Shares of JD.com dip 2.9 pct in premarket trading** CEO of China's second-largest e-commerce co, Richard Liu, was briefly arrested by U.S. police on suspicion of sexual misconduct in what police said was an ongoing investigation** Case has raised concerns that loss-making JD.com could face difficulties making decisions due to its unusual governance structure** JD.com's rules require Liu, who holds nearly 80 pct of the co's voting rights, to be present at board meetings for the board to make decisions** Although it was not immediately clear if he has to be physically present or could participate by teleconference** Co says CEO Liu has returned to China

** Stock most actively traded in U.S. before the bell

** YTD, JD.com has shed nearly a quarter of its value (Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru)

* EUR/USD breaks base Asia's 1.1594-1.1694 range at Europe's open

* 1.1580 low (EBS) Pressure from rates one factor behind heavy tone

* U.S./German 10-year yield spread widening. Only 7bp to see widest since 1990

* If met forecasts for U.S. jobs data Friday will support USD and U.S. rates

* Fresh short selling likely, current net short is only USD 1bln eqv

* 1.1550-1.1650 range likely. Below 21-DMA 1.1542 to spark more bearish phase

*

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ UST/German yields spread ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

** Electric carmaker's shares down 1.8 pct at $296.25 in premarket trading

** Electric carmaker's shares down 1.8 pct at $296.25 in premarket trading ** GS reinstates coverage with sell rating; PT $210

** GS had earlier moved to "not rated" on TSLA as it acted as a financial adviser for CEO Elon Musk's take-private plans

** GS analyst David Tamberrino earlier had a "sell" rating on TSLA, with a PT of $195

** Automotive news website Electrek's report on Sunday said Tesla missed its weekly production rate of 6k Model 3 sedans but was on track to achieve the overall rate of 55,000 Model 3s by the end of Q3

** 9 of 28 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher, 10 "hold" and 9 "sell" or lower; median PT is $316

** Up to Monday's close, stock had fallen ~3 pct YTD (Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.BEIJING, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The city of Binzhou in eastern China's Shandong province, home to top aluminium producer China Hongqiao Group , is planning five new projects to support development of a high-end aluminium industry, according to a local government document.

The projects include a 10,000 tonne-per-year (tpy) aluminium alloy plant to be built by Huachuang Metal, according to the document dated Aug. 30 on the Binzhou city government website.

A second aluminium alloy project, with unspecified capacity, is to be built by Hangqiao Technology to target the automotive and aerospace industries. A third, built by Yangxin Taihe New Material, will make aluminium formwork used in construction.

The document calls for public feedback on the plans to be submitted by Sept. 5.

The move towards added-value products in Binzhou comes amid increased competition in the aluminium sector from other parts of China, where new smelters are pushing the country's output to record levels. The southern autonomous region of Guangxi, which has an abundance of aluminium raw material alumina, last month unveiled a plan to establish its own high-end aluminium production base in Nanning. Another project planned by Binzhou is a plant that will make 1.88 million tonnes per year of carbon materials for the

aluminium sector, according to the government document.

Carbon anodes are used to conduct electricity in the aluminium smelting process.

(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Tom Hogue)SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Workers with two state-owned Chinese oil developers fought with sticks, shovels and Molotov cocktails in a dispute over prospecting rights in the northwest province of Shaanxi, the state-run tabloid Global Times reported late on Monday.

Local police have begun an investigation into an "escalating dispute" between PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Company, a subsidiary of China's biggest oil and gas producer PetroChina , and Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group , which is owned by the provincial government, the paper reported.

Five people were hurt at the weekend in what was the third violent showdown this year between the two companies, the paper said. The dispute concerns development rights for the Zizhou gas field, which are claimed by both sides, the Global Times said. The gas field is run by PetroChina Changqing but the local government also granted drilling rights in the area to Yanchang Petroleum earlier this year, the Chongqing Morning Post newspaper reported on Sunday.

The local government and public security bureau declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday. Yanchang Petroleum, PetroChina and the state giant's subsidiary also all declined to comment. The case highlights the tensions between central government-run firms and regional authorities desperate to retain control over lucrative energy and mineral resources.

China has long kept a tight grip over its energy reserves, and normally allows only major central government-run companies like PetroChina or its rival Sinopec to develop oil and gas.

In the 1990s, Shaanxi allowed private citizens around the city of Yulin to drill for oil in a bid to alleviate crippling poverty, but Beijing ordered the province to stop the practice amid concerns about safety and pollution, and as PetroChina

complained about infringement of its exploration rights.

As a compromise, Shaanxi was given special dispensation in 2007 to amalgamate several private oil and gas projects under its own local state enterprise, allowing it to receive more tax revenues from local oil and gas production.



(Reporting by Meng Meng, Aizhu Chen and David Stanway; Editing by Tom Hogue)

Messaging: david.stanway.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))* Chairman Paul Brough steers company from near-death* Noble to hand over 70 pct equity to creditors* Market value plunges to $120 mln from $6 bln in 2015* Downsized Noble faces big challenge to stay relevant* The rise & fall of Noble Group: (Updates with Rabobank comment in 13th paragraph) By Anshuman Daga SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - In May 2017, Paul Brough had just assumed the chairmanship of Noble Group and immediately faced a room full of angry bankers demanding their money back from the struggling commodity trader.

Mustering all his 25-plus years of experience as a restructuring specialist, Brough needed their support to keep the credit lines open that underpinned the operations of what had once been Asia's biggest commodity trading house. At the meeting in Amsterdam in late May, banks were shocked by a recently reported quarterly loss and were in no mood to keep supporting the company. "The atmosphere in the room was highly charged," Brough told Reuters in an interview last week. "A number of them were already taking the decision that they wanted to exit the relationship," said Brough, a former senior regional partner at KPMG in Hong Kong who helped wind up the Asian business of Lehman Brothers. The following week's meeting with U.S. banks did not go much better, with Brough, 61, saying the banks "made it very clear that they wanted their secure debt repaid very, very quickly." However, Brough, who managed China's Sino-Forest after its $4 billion collapse in 2011, convinced the U.S. banks to give Noble a 120-day debt reprieve to sell its assets in the United States. From there, Brough, who took over from company founder Richard Elman, brought Noble back from among the biggest near-death corporate experiences in Asia. The company last week secured shareholder support for a $3.5 billion debt restructuring. In the 15 months between Brough's appointment and last week's deal, Noble dramatically downsized and reported a $4.9 billion loss for 2017, including a $2.1 billion valuation adjustment of its controversial derivatives contracts. By the time Brough became chairman, Noble had fended off two years of accusations by Iceberg Research that it had inflated its assets. Noble, which has stood by its accounts, later revealed Iceberg to be led by ex-Noble credit analyst Arnaud Vagner. When Brough took charge, Noble had lost 80 percent, or nearly $5 billion in market value, since Iceberg issued its first report in February 2015. Brough reckons he travelled 500,000 miles negotiating with hundreds of creditors and shareholders from Hong Kong and Singapore to New York, London and Amsterdam. Noble then hired investment bank Moelis & Company and lawyers Kirkland & Ellis, specialists in debt restructurings,

the first sign of a possible wholesale restructure. PJT Partners and Comprador Ltd joined as financial advisors as Brough unveiled a strategic review of Noble. He brought together seven of its core trade finance banks at the Amsterdam meeting. Those banks included MUFG Bank, ING Bank and Rabobank. MUFG and ING declined to comment, while Rabobank said it does not comment on individual clients as a policy.

"It was really one of those meetings that served as a kick-off meeting where everybody was put on alert," said a person who participated in the talks.

COMPLEX RESTRUCTURING Noble's rescue is viewed as one of the most complex debt restructurings due to its global trading business and the mix of creditors, from banks to different strata of bondholders and shareholders. "The dual needs of keeping Noble adequately capitalised with trade finance at a time when bankers were very nervous about relationships and when customers are also very nervous, meant that it was very, very challenging," said Neil McDonald, a partner at Kirkland Ellis. When Noble won an extension for its credit facilities in June 2017, its shares surged 50 percent, but bond prices slid after it skipped an interest payment. "We had to call banks morning, noon and night to make sure they were comfortable with the restructuring," said one advisor. For Brough, those summer months were the lowest point in the salvage operation, with "banks making aggressive requests" and there were times Noble could have run out of cash. "We found ourselves having to increase the margin that we were giving banks for our trade finance facilities and for our brokerage facilities," he said.

GLIMMER OF HOPE Noble agreed to sell its U.S. gas and power business to Mercuria for $248 million last July, a deal that also increased its trade finance access. Then in October, it announced the sale of its most capital-intensive business, oil trading, to Vitol for $1.2 billion. "The first glimmer of hope was when we announced the sale of the oil business," said Brough, who will step down after the restructured company, focusing on coal and freight trading in Asia, kicks off later this year. In November, Noble formally announced the debt restructure and then agreed to a deal to give creditors 80 percent of the new company equity. Resistance from big shareholders such as Elman, and Goldilocks Investment Co, an Abu Dhabi-based fund, put it at risk. But in March, Noble's creditors agreed to give existing shareholders a 20 percent equity share, up from a previous 10 percent, with an ultimatum - back the proposal or face insolvency. However, Iceberg's Vagner says the new Noble will still be debt-heavy. "Most importantly, interest skyrockets. So, it will incur almost the same interest costs," he told Reuters by email. Noble will also gain $800 million in trade financing and hedging facilities from ING and Deutsche Bank, the last two banks supporting the company, down from 70 banks five years ago. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ GRAPHIC: Rise & fall of Noble Group png ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

anshuman.daga.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))Algae biomass is a versatile feedstock for food, feed, and industrial bioproducts.

Climate change is creating an urgent need to lower greenhouse gas emissions

Pond Technologies has developed an algae-based carbon capture and utilization solution

Algae biomass is a versatile feedstock for food, feed, and industrial bioproducts

With wildfires scorching the western U.S. and Canada and record-breaking heat waves in normally temperate climates like Europe, the impact of climate change is very much in the news these days. Heatwaves and droughts across large parts of Europe and Australia are causing massive reductions in crop yields this year.



A divided political climate, particularly in the U.S., has inhibited collective solutions to the problems of climate change and the greenhouse gases that are causing it. Still, most countries are signatories to the Paris Climate Accord and an ever-increasing number of investors and business leaders are actively looking for solutions to the problems that climate change is causing.



The key is to find commercially scalable solutions that provide healthy returns to investors. Without a financial incentive to reduce emissions, businesses stuck in a quarterly reporting cycle find it challenging to justify the investments needed to address these.

Pond grows algae for various lucrative uses, using its industry-leading, made-in-Canada technology.

Converting Emissions into Algae



Pond Technologies Holdings Inc. (TSX.V: POND) believes it has found a way to make emissions reduction financially viable by connecting its photobioreactors  large tanks equipped with sensors and specialty lighting  to emission-producing industrial plants.



The companys modular, scalable bioreactors grow algae  a carbon dioxide (CO2) gobbling organism that serves as a surprisingly lucrative product. Pond has one pilot plant in operation, two commercial facilities under development with Ontario-based industry partners, and is laser-focused on ramping up algae production at commercial scale. One facility is Markham District Energys Warden Energy Centre, while the other facility is an add-on to Stelcos Lake Erie Works steel mill.



Pond CEO Steve Martin comments, We are actively trying to accelerate the rollout of our technology and have begun the detailed engineering work and construction at Stelco. We have support from the provincial government and should have the first phase up and running over the next 12 months.



Success at these facilities should help Pond attract more capital. Indeed, this is already happening as Connecticut-based private equity firm Inventiv Capital Management recently signed a letter of intent to fund up to US$100 million of Ponds projects across North America.

As the oceans get fished to the brink, our technology portfolio will provide a commercially scalable growth platform that can farm any microalgae as a sustainable source of marine protein.  Steve Martin, CEO, Pond Technologies

Algae as a Feedstock for Fish and Meat Production



In providing this level of backing, Inventiv no doubt looked at the myriad of potential applications for industrially produced algae.



Chief among those uses is as a feedstock for the worlds fish farms. Its projected that the global population will require 70 per cent more food calories by 2050. Current pressure on the worlds fisheries will make commercial protein production essential for the survival of wild fish stocks. Certain types of algae are rich in omega fatty acids and other ocean-borne nutrients, thus providing excellent feed for commercial fish farms.



As the oceans get fished to the brink, our technology portfolio will provide a commercially scalable growth platform that can farm any microalgae as a as a sustainable source of marine protein, says Martin. One in-demand algae product is Astaxanthin, extracted from a naturally occurring microalgae that give salmon and shrimp their signature red colour. This extract can fetch prices in excess of $50,000 per tonne. Due to its modular, highly efficient design, Ponds technology can potentially deliver thousands of tonnes of algae to global feed producers without competing for scarce agricultural land or water. In fact, a small Pond bioreactor contained in one shipping container can yield more feed than 10 acres planted with corn.



Nutraceuticals Market Forecasted to Grow



Pond is also pursuing the nutraceutical, health supplement, and natural food colouring verticals. Thanks to a production system that allows it to grow clean, premium-quality nutraceutical algae, the company has the ability to tap this burgeoning market.



Spirulina algae, in particular, is well-established as one of the most protein-dense and nutrient-rich supplements available. And, while Ponds bioreactors can and will be hooked up to carbon dioxide emitting plants to reduce emissions, its technology works equally well using bottled, beverage-grade carbon dioxide, if desired by Ponds downstream partners.



Ponds patented bioreactors can grow algae 20 times faster than conventional producers. The companys closed-loop system avoids the bacterial contamination issues that legacy operators must contend with in conventional open pond systems  bird fouling or pollutants from flash floods and rain.

Scientists point to the long-term health benefits of Spirulina and other algae-based supplements.

A Surprising Diversity of Uses



As the company works to construct its first commercial-scale operations, it will continue to seek new markets for its products.



Other uses for algae become evident when one considers that the worlds oil reserves consist mainly of ancient algae. Just like oil, algae can be converted into fuels or fibers for plastic. There is a growing demand for green cosmetics, green cleaning products, and green fertilizer. Further, algae can be mixed with traditional polymers to make a biofoam for use in products from running shoes to mattresses.



The next step for Pond (TSXV: POND) is to prove the viability of its bioreactors at scale. Martin says his team is up to the task. Our R&D team is dominated by ex-automotive engineering people who know how to take experimental science out of the lab and turn it into a commercialized system.

Forward-Looking Information

This article was prepared with contribution from Pond Technologies Holdings Inc. ("Pond") and contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "will" or similar expressions and includes suggestions of future outcomes. These forward-looking statements are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Pond concerning the ramping up of algae production, the commercially scalable growth platform, the rate of growth within Pond's bioreactors and the availability of new markets for its products. Although Pond believes that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, Pond gives no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.

Additional information about risks, assumptions, uncertainties and other factors that could cause Ponds actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by its forward-looking statements is contained under "Risk Factors" in Pond's MD&A for the period ended June 30, 2018, available at pondtech.com. Pond undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information except as required by law.SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Middle East crude benchmarks were mixed on Tuesday with DME Oman's premium to Dubai swaps extending gains while cash Dubai edged lower. Peak fuel demand in the northern hemisphere during winter and impending sanctions on Iran that could reduce oil supply are factors that are supporting the market, traders said. A wider Brent-Dubai price spread is also expected to reduce arbitrage flows from the Atlantic Basin to Asia while traders eyed supplies from the United States. Saudi Aramco and ADNOC are expected to announce official selling prices soon. Saudi Aramco may keep prices for the light crude grades it sells to Asia largely unchanged in October from the previous month to keep its oil competitive against other suppliers, several trade sources had said. QATAR: Qatar has set the August retroactive OSPs for its Marine crude at $72.90 per barrel, down from $73.55 a barrel for the previous month, a document issued by the company and reviewed by Reuters late on Monday showed.

That set the August OSP differential for Qatar Marine at 41 cents a barrel above Dubai quotes, 2 cents lower than a month ago. Qatar also set its August Qatar Land crude OSP at $74.00 a barrel, down from $75.25 for the previous month. That put August Qatar Land crude OSP's differential at $1.51 above Dubai quotes, down 62 cents. A trader said the price adjustment for Qatar Marine was in line with market expectations but that for Qatar Land could have been lower as the light grade traded at discounts of up to 75 cents a barrel last month.

WINDOW: Cash Dubai's premium to swaps fell 20 cents to $1.21 a barrel amid thin trading. Seller-Buyer Price Totsa-Mercuria 76.86 Reliance-BP 76.90

PRICES ($/BBL) CURRENT PREV SESSION DME OMAN 77.29 76.29 DME OMAN DIFF TO DUBAI 1.60 1.45 CASH DUBAI 76.90 76.25 ARBITRAGE: China's Unipec has provisionally booked two very large crude carriers (VLCC) to ship crude oil from U.S. Gulf coast to Asia, shipping fixtures showed on Tuesday. "New Courage" has been tentatively booked to load crude oil from U.S. Gulf coast on Sept. 22 while "Awtad" has been booked to load oil from U.S. Gulf coast over Sept. 23 to 26, according to the fixtures. The destination for both tankers has been provisionally set for Singapore, though this could potentially change.

REFINERY Varo Energy has declared force majeure on fuel deliveries to its customers after a fire on Saturday at its Bayernoil refining complex in Germany, a spokeswoman said on Monday. NEWS Anadarko Petroleum Corp said on Monday that it had evacuated workers and shut production at two oil platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico ahead of the approach of Gordon, which is expected to come ashore as a hurricane. The Buzzard oilfield in the UK North Sea is undergoing planned maintenance that was originally scheduled for August, industry sources said. India is allowing state refiners to import Iranian oil with Tehran arranging tankers and insurance after firms including the country's top shipper Shipping Corp of India (SCI) halted voyages to Iran due to U.S. sanctions, sources said. Workers with two state-owned Chinese oil developers fought with sticks, shovels and Molotov cocktails in a dispute over prospecting rights in the northwest province of Shaanxi, the state-run tabloid Global Times reported late on Monday. ExxonMobil said on Monday that a blockade by former employees threatens crude production at oil facilities in Nigeria, adding that "disruptions to these operations have the potential to significantly impact revenues." For crude prices, oil product cracks and refining margins, please click on the RICs below.

Brent Dubai DME Oman Brent/Dubai EFS PRODUCT CRACKS

Fuel oil crack Gasoil crack Naphtha crack Complex refining margins (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)

Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))Asia Europe Americas CRUDE OIL MARKET NEWSCrude oil tenders in Asia Crude oil supply outages in Asia Refinery outages in Asia Global arbitrage news and flows W.African crude imports to Asia, monthly REFINERY MAINTENANCE DIARIESAsia Middle East Europe NATIONAL CRUDE IMPORT DATAJapan China India S.Korea Indonesia CRUDE OIL INVENTORY DATAJapan US Europe CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION/OILFIELD NEWSOPEC output survey New Africa fields New projects New Americas fields CRUDE OIL MARKET REPORTSMiddle East Asia-Pacific West Africa North Sea Asia outlook Europe outlook Global futures report Technicals report PRICESFor all Official Selling Prices For a POLL on oil prices NYMEX and ICE oil futures TOCOM crude oil futures Dubai, Oman swaps and spread Middle East physical crude diffs Australia physical crude, Tapis swaps Asia-Pacific physical crude All Asian crude oil differentials All Asian crude oil outright prices ))DUBAI, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States agreed Monday to enhance cooperation in defense and military, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

The UAE Armed Forces Deputy Supreme Commander Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with U.S. Central Command Commander Joseph Votel, and discussed bilateral issues and ways of "further solidifying friendly bilateral ties."

Both sides reviewed an array of issues of mutual interest in the meeting, attended by other ministers and senior army officers.

The UAE also vowed support of the U.S. administration's more hawkish stance on Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced in May withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting anti-government Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015, and the coalition blames Iran of arming them.

SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Qatar has set the August retroactive official selling price (OSP) for its Marine crude at $72.90 per barrel, down from $73.55 a barrel for the previous month, a document issued by the company and reviewed by Reuters late on Monday showed. That set the August OSP differential for Qatar Marine at 41 cents a barrel above Dubai quotes, 2 cents lower than a month ago. Qatar also set its August Qatar Land crude OSP at $74.00 a barrel, down from $75.25 for the previous month. That put August Qatar Land crude OSP's differential at $1.51 above Dubai quotes, down 62 cents. A trader said the price adjustment for Qatar Marine was in line with market expectations but that for Qatar Land could have been lower as the light grade traded at discounts of up to 75 cents a barrel last month. The following table shows the latest OSPs and their differentials to Dubai in brackets. Aug July Change Qatar Marine $72.90 (+$0.41) $73.55 (+$0.43) -$0.65 (-$0.02) Qatar Land $74.00 (+$1.51) $75.25 (+$2.13) -$1.25 (-$0.62)

(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.BERLIN, Sept 04 (Reuters) - The euro zone rescue fund, the

European Stability Mechanism, sold 1.93 billion euros of a new 3-month bills on Tuesday, with a bid to cover

ratio of 2.1, Bundesbank data showed. AUCTION DATE 04/09/18 07/08/18

AVG YIELD -0.528 pct -0.538 pct

LOWEST ACCEPTED PRICE 100.127 100.127

TOTAL BIDS 4.043 bln euros 4.623 bln euros

NON-COMPETITIVE BIDS 3.148 bln euros 3.563 bln euros

ALLOTTED 1.93 bln euros 2 bln euros

BID COVER RATIO 2.1 2.3

The auction details can be found at Keywords: ESM AUCTION/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.Sept 4 (Reuters) - Holdings data for both the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund (ETF), New York's SPDR Gold Trust , and the largest silver-backed ETF, New York's iShares Silver Trust ,

were not reported on the respective websites. Exchange-traded funds, the most widely recognized type of ETP, back each security issued with physical stocks of a given commodity, creating a product they say is free from counterparty risk. Name New Holdings Date Prev Holdings Prev Abs Change % chg YTD Abs GOLD (OZ) (OZ) (OZ) Change (OZ) SPDR Gold Trust 24,279,094.7 Aug 31 24,279,094.7 Aug 31 -- -- -2,647,245.5 COMEX Gold Trust 8,472,341.2 Aug 31 8,472,341.2 Aug 31 -- -- 643,876.5 ETF Securities gold (ex-US) 8,193,065.6 Aug 16 8,193,065.6 Aug 16 -- -- -450,036.7 ZKB Physical Gold

** 4,666,688.7 Aug 03 4,666,688.7 Aug 03 -- -- -48,048.3 Sprott Physical Gold Trust 1,700,214.0 Aug 31 1,700,214.0 Aug 31 -- -- -32,948.0 GAM Physical Gold

*** 1,383,169.0 Aug 30 1,383,169.0 Aug 30 -- -- -51,310.0 ETFS Physical Swiss Gold 661,560.7 Aug 31 661,560.7 Aug 31 -- -- -146,938.9 ABSA - NewGold ETF 658,239.1 Aug 31 658,246.3 Aug 30 -7.2 0.00% -321,449.9 Total 50,014,373.0 50,014,380.2 -7.2 0.00% -3,054,100.8 SILVER iShares Silver Trust 329,856,161.3 Aug 31 329,856,161.3 Aug 31 -- -- 9,226,499.3 ZKB Physical Silver 78,031,736.2 Aug 03 78,031,736.2 Aug 03 -- -- -1,624,191.4 ETF Securities silver ex-US 57,705,284.4 Aug 16 57,705,284.4 Aug 16 -- -- -4,523,714.2 Sprott Physical Silver 56,287,351.0 Aug 31 56,287,351.0 Aug 31 -- -- -63,742.0 ETFS Physical Silver Shares 20,507,511.7 Aug 31 20,507,511.7 Aug 31 -- -- -312,860.9 GAM Physical Silver 13,400,990.0 Aug 30 13,400,990.0 Aug 30 -- -- -293,000.0 Total 555,789,034.6 555,789,034.6 0.0 0.00% 2,408,990.8 PLATINUM ABSA - NewPlat ETF 751,696.8 Aug 31 751,705.1 Aug 30 -8.3 0.00% -31,467.3 ETFS Physical Platinum Shares 617,238.7 Aug 31 617,238.7 Aug 31 -- -- 7,086.8 ETF Securities platinum ex-US 348,192.5 Aug 16 348,192.5 Aug 16 -- -- -52,429.7 ZKB Physical Platinum 272,378.1 Aug 03 272,378.1 Aug 03 -- -- -8,693.6 GAM Physical Platinum 69,245.0 Aug 30 69,245.0 Aug 30 -- -- -19,330.0 Total 2,058,751.1 2,058,759.4 -8.3 0.00% -104,833.8 PALLADIUM Standard Bank AfricaPalladium # 204,526.7 Sep 03 204,542.5 Aug 31 -15.8 -0.01% -102,969.7 ABSA - NewPalladium ETF

**** 204,184.5 Aug 31 196,327.6 Aug 30 7,856.9 4.00% -48,816.3 ZKB Physical Palladium 135,535.5 Aug 03 135,535.5 Aug 03 -- -- -19,589.5 ETFS Physical Palladium Shares 132,799.9 Aug 31 132,799.9 Aug 31 -- -- -95,965.6 ETF Securities palladium ex-US 118,121.8 Aug 16 118,121.8 Aug 16 -- -- -32,995.5 GAM Physical Palladium 77,513.0 Aug 30 77,513.0 Aug 30 -- -- -1,440.0 Total 872,681.4 864,840.3 7,841.1 0.91% -301,776.6 The figures above are those reported to Reuters by the organizations involved by telephone or email on the date shown, or those that are publicly available on their websites. ** ZKB physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium funds are fully backed by physical precious metal and investors are entitled to physical delivery of them. *** Shareholders in the GAM Gold fund can elect to hold "A class" shares, which are fully backed by physical gold. Investors in that class are entitled to physical delivery of the precious metal.

Investors may also elect to hold "AX" class shares, which are fully backed by physical gold. Investors in that class are not entitled to physical delivery of the precious metal. **** Absa Capital's NewPalladium Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) was listed on March 27, 2014 and is fully backed with South African palladium. # Standard Bank's AfricaPalladium ETF, South Africa's first listed palladium exchange traded fund, debuted on March 24, 2014.

(Bengaluru Commodities desk) Keywords: PRECIOUS ETFS/



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

BUDAPEST, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The Hungarian Government Debt Management Agency (AKK) sold 40 billion forints ($141.19 million) worth of three-month Treasury bills at an auction on Tuesday, it said. Series: D181212 Issue status: Auction data: AUCTION DATE 04/09/2018 28/08/2018 TOTAL BIDS (bln HUF) 88.04 84.28 ALLOTTED (bln HUF) 40.00 40.00 AVERAGE YIELD (pct) 0.09 0.09

($1 = 283.3 forints) (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs) gergely.szakacs.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) gergely.szakacs.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Paul Pester, the embattled chief executive of Britain's crisis-hit TSB Bank, is stepping down from his position, the lender said on Tuesday, paving the way for a new leader to reinvigorate the bank's shattered brand. Pester served seven years in charge of the challenger lender, but was heavily criticised for his role in a botched IT migration earlier this year that caused widespread disruption for thousands of its customers. Richard Meddings, current Non Executive Chairman of TSB, will take on the role of Executive Chairman with immediate effect in order to enable a full public search to commence for a new chief executive, TSB said. "Although there is more to do to achieve full stability for customers, the bank's IT systems and services are much improved since the IT migration," Meddings said in a statement. "Paul and the Board have therefore agreed that this is the right time to appoint a new CEO for TSB. Our goal is therefore to allow a full search to commence, without any distractions, enabling TSB to build for the future." The lender was sold by Lloyds Banking Group to Spain's Banco Sabadell in 2015. (Reporting By Sinead Cruise, editing by Maiya Keidan) Messaging: sinead.cruise.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.(Adds details, comment)

TOKYO, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Two global aluminium producers have offered Japanese buyers lower premiums for primary metal shipments for the October to December quarter, two sources directly involved in the pricing talks said on Tuesday.

The producers offered shipments at premiums of $112 and $115 per tonne above the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price , the sources said. That is down 13 percent to 15 percent from the current quarter.

The offers reflect the weak supply and demand fundamentals in Asia and low spot premiums of below $100 per tonne, the sources said.

The latest quarterly pricing negotiations began last week and are expected to progress during an international industry conference in Berlin next week, the sources said.

"One producer revealed its offer of $112 today," one of the sources said.

A third major producer is likely to reveal its offer next week, the sources said.

Japan is Asia's biggest aluminium importer and the premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to pay each quarter over LME price set the benchmark for the region.

For the quarter ending in September, Japanese buyers agreed to pay a premium of $132 , up 2 percent from the prior quarter on rising spot premiums in the United States. At least one of the sources said he believes that none of Japanese buyers would accept the offers given a wide disparity between the current spot premiums.

Major producers include Rio Tinto Ltd, South32 Ltd and Alcoa Corp.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; editing by Richard Pullin and Christian Schmollinger)

Messaging: osamu.tsukimori.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net;))* STOXX down 0.3 pct* Margin outlook cut hits WPP* Italian banks rise as budget worries ease (For a live blog on European stocks, type LIVE/ in an Eikon news window) By Danilo Masoni MILAN, Sept 4 (Reuters) - European shares fell slightly in late morning trade on Tuesday, reversing a positive open as investors remained cautious due to worries the U.S. could slap new tariffs on imports from China. Losses in British advertising group WPP after a margin outlook cut and weakness among telecoms also weighed, dragging the STOXX 600 index 0.27 percent lower by 0902 GMT. Washington is expected to decide whether to implement a plan to tax an extra $200 billion of Chinese imports following a public comment period that expires on Thursday.

WPP was the biggest faller on the pan-European index, down 7.3 percent, after the company said profitability would decline this year, although a rise in sales helped it nudge its full-year net sales outlook higher. "WPP is weak because there is a margin outlook cut for 2018 and the message is that turning around this behemoth is going to take time and be costly," said Neil Campling, Co-Head Global Thematic Group at Mirabaud Securities. "There was also some hope that we might see quick progress on asset sales or merging of units but the message from the new CEO is not to expect wholesale changes," he added. Telecoms were the biggest sectoral fallers, down 1 percent, and led lower by Telecom Italia which fell 5.5 percent after Exane BNP Paribas downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral, saying the market underestimated the threat from fiber competition. In France, telecoms operator Iliad cut its mid-term profitability targets after suffering in the first half its first loss of mobile subscribers since the launch of its mobile business in 2012. However, its shares, which have already fallen more than 40 percent this year, rose 4 percent.

Financials were the biggest gainers, supported by strength among some Italian banks as government bond yields fell following soothing comments from Italian ministers on forthcoming budget proposals. Among Italian banks, which are seen as a proxy for political risk due to their large sovereign debt holdings, UBI Banca led the way, up 4.3 percent, while Banco BPM and BPER Banca rose more than 2 percent.

"We guess the ruling coalition doesn't want to (commit) suicide by presenting 2019 deficit targets near 3 percent compared to the 0.8 percent planned. We guess they will present something acceptable and incorporated in BTP and Stock market prices," said Fidentiis in a note to clients.

Danske Bank's woes weighed on its shares, which were down more than 4 percent following a report suggesting its Estonian branch handled $30 billion of non-residents' money in 2013. ING Groep also fell, down 2.8 percent, after news the Dutch bank will pay 775 million euros in a settlement with prosecutors, who accused its financial controls of being so poor that customers were able to easily launder money. Elsewhere, Scor rose 8.7 percent after the French re-insurer rejected a friendly takeover offer by Covea. (Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Kirsten Donovan)

danilo.masoni.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; On TwitterHuang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attends a symposium to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday held a symposium to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, joined about 200 representatives from various circles at the event in Beijing.

Senior scholars, Party officials and military officers, World War II veterans and student representatives spoke at the symposium and discussed the significance of the victory.

They stressed that the historical event should be remembered and the heroes should be honored, expressing confidence and determination to safeguard peace and development.

Families of war heroes, representatives of non-Communist parties and foreigners who contributed to China's war against Japanese aggression also attended the symposium.A 99-year-old man from Rochester, New York, may restore your faith that true, lasting love does exist. His name is Luther Younger, and after 55 years of marriage, he is still deeply devoted to his wife, Waverlee, whom he calls the sweetest cup of tea he ever had.

Luther walks six miles round-trip every day  in the heat, rain and snow  to visit Waverlee in the hospital. He has become a local celebrity in Rochester and many people recognize him from his daily pilgrimage. Spectrum News Rochester first reported the loyal husband's story earlier this month and it gained widespread media attention.

After hearing about Luther, I decided to go up to Rochester so I could take the three-mile walk with him to Strong Memorial Hospital. It was a hot August day  over 90 degrees  but that didn't faze him. When I arrived at his home on Tuesday, just a few days shy of his 99th birthday, he proved he was in tip-top shape and ready for the trek. He dropped to the floor and started doing perfect pushups. Then he popped up, slung a backpack over his shoulder and said, "Let's go." He told me his daughter thinks he's too hyper, and acknowledged that he probably is.

He warned me I would have to keep up with him, and I was sure that I could. I wasn't prepared for a man in his 90s to start running, but he did  several times. I started running behind him, trying to keep up as he led the way through the suburban streets.

He prefaced our walk with one thing: "I don't want to talk about nothing except my wife."

Waverlee Younger was diagnosed with a brain tumor nearly nine years ago and doctors thought she'd have just five years to live, the couple's daughter, Lutheta, told me. Lutheta says both of her parents have remained extremely strong. Over the past nine years, Waverlee has been in and out of the hospital, sometimes for months at a time. Luther stayed by her side, walking to the hospital to visit every day and often sleeping there, sometimes on the floor.

untitled-collage-27.jpg

99-year-old Luther Younger of Rochester, New York, walks six miles round-trip, no matter the weather, to visit his wife Waverlee in the hospital. CBS NEWS

With Waverlee in the hospital with pneumonia for the past three weeks, Luther has again made it a part of his daily routine to walk to her. He told me he could wait for Lutheta to give him a ride, or take the bus, but he doesn't want to.

"I got a wife. I don't want to wait on the bus. I want to go up there to see my wife," he said during our walk.

Several people recognized Luther during our journey and stopped to chat. He said people often offer him rides, but he declines. I was curious about why, and quite honestly, how a 99-year-old man walked six miles every day.

During the trek he reiterated his answer to this question several times. He likes to walk because it clears his mind and he says he's always done hard labor for work. He told me he grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, so he's used to the heat. Luther is also a former Marine who fought in the Korean War, and he prides himself on his physical strength.

"People tell me to act my age  yeah, right. 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]," he said.

But his daily walk isn't about proving how strong he is. It's about proving his love for Waverlee. "She is a beautiful lady and she treats me as a person is supposed to be ... she made a man out of me," he said. "That's why I love her, because she's tough. She's not weak ... That's the kind of woman I want."

On the walk he reminisced about his marriage. He said they met in a laundromat and got married at their home, adding that Waverlee looked beautiful on their wedding day. Lutheta is the couple's only child together, but Luther praised Waverlee for helping raise his kids from a previous relationship.

"She wasn't easy. She was the type of person, if you didn't work, you got to go. And I had to work," he told me. "That's why I'm sticking with her, because if it hadn't been for my wife, I wouldn't have made it."

luther1.jpg

Luther and Waverlee Younger have been married for over 55 years. LUTHETA YOUNGER

We walked through the University of Rochester campus, and Luther started running again when he spotted the hospital building. I told him to be careful, that it was hot out, but he just said, "Come on, we have to get there." He refused water, and it seemed that the only thing on his mind was Waverlee.

As he made his way through the hospital hallways, Luther said hello to the staff members as he passed by, but didn't stop walking.

When he walked in the door of her hospital room, he said to me, "Watch this ... baby, give me a kiss." He kissed Waverlee, and her eyes fluttered. He is proud his kiss can still make his wife happy after all these years.

"That's my cup of tea, and she's sweet too," Luther said, sitting next to Waverlee's bed.

"He's always called her that," Lutheta told me. "He's always cared about her the way he does [now]. He loves my mom, He'll do anything for her."

Lutheta says she tries to find a ride home for her dad as often as possible, especially when it's hot out. She doesn't like that he walks six miles alone every day, but her dad is adamant and she lets him do it.

"My dad says it keeps him alive, it keeps him going," his daughter said. Lutheta also started a GoFundMe campaign for her parents, to help raise money for Waverlee's hospital expenses.

At the end of the day, Luther leaves the hospital to let Waverlee rest. He gave me a big hug goodbye and told me I was like a granddaughter to him. We just spent the afternoon together, but in Luther's big heart, that practically made me part of his family.

His six-mile round-trip journey would be too much for many people half his age. But when you've walked through life with someone for over 55 years, what's another six miles? Luther is sad to leave his love, but he knows that tomorrow, rain or shine, he will be walking to see his "sweet cup of tea" again.The file photo shows members of the 4th Chinese peacekeeping medical detachment to Mali rescue and transfer the wounded to a hospital in Gao, northern Mali by taking a UN military helicopter after a terrorist gun attack in a barracks of Mali government troops in Menaka on Feb. 4, 2017, local time.(81.cn/ Zhao Ziquan)

By Luo Zheng

BEIJING, Sep. 4 (ChinaMil) -- "Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that China is willing to play a constructive role in promoting peace and stability in Africa and support African countries to strengthen their own capability to maintain peace and stability when he gave his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on ChinaAfrica Cooperation (FOCAC)," said the head of the Peacekeeping Affairs Center of China's Ministry of National Defense during an exclusive interview with the PLA Daily reporter amid FOCAC.

During the 28 years' participation in UN peacekeeping operations, the Chinese military has actively fulfilled its responsibility as a major power, firmly promoted peacekeeping capacity building, and made great contributions to maintaining world peace, especially peace in Africa, the head added.

"Chinese President Xi pointed out that China would increase assistance to Africa during the UN Peacekeeping Summit in New York in September 2015. In recent years, the Chinese military has actively participated in UN peacekeeping operations in Africa and sent various types of peacekeeping troops to Africa," said the head.

The head added that China sent its first batch of peacekeeping troops to Mali in 2013, and the peacekeeping force consisted of engineer, medical and guard detachments, among which the guard detachment was the first peacekeeping guard detachment dispatched by China. In 2015, China sent a 700-person peacekeeping infantry battalion to South Sudan, which was the first time for China to send an institutionalized peacekeeping infantry battalion to participate in UN peacekeeping operations. In 2017, China sent its first peacekeeping helicopter detachment to Darfur, Sudan to provide important support for UN peacekeeping operations in the region.

Since 1990, the Chinese military has sent troops to participate in 24 UN peacekeeping operations successively and 16 of them were in Africa. During 28 years' participation in the UN peacekeeping operations, 13 Chinese service members lost their lives on the peacekeeping frontline and 8 of them died in Africa. At present, 2,081 Chinese service members are carrying out peacekeeping missions in Africa, accounting for 82.9 percent of the total number of overseas Chinese peacekeepers.

According to data provided by the Peacekeeping Affairs Center of China's Ministry of National Defense, since its participation in UN peacekeeping operations 28 years ago, China's peacekeepers have built and repaired more than 14,000 kilometers of roads, and removed more than 9,800 landmines and various types of unexploded ordnance. Chinese peacekeepers also have treated more than 200,000 patients and transported 1.35 million tons of various materials and equipment, with the total transportation mileage reaching 13 million kilometers. A large part of these achievements were made in Africa.

At present, China has the largest number of peacekeepers among the permanent members of the UN Security Council. China is also the second largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations and has been hailed as a "key factor and force of peacekeeping missions by the UN.

The head of the Peacekeeping Affairs Center of China's Ministry of National Defense said that China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order. In the future, more Chinese service members will join the great peacekeeping cause to contribute to maintaining world peace especially in Africa, and to set an example for building a closer community of shared future for China and Africa and promoting to build a community of shared future for mankind.Lee Bo-young / Courtesy of SIDA



By Park Jin-hai



Actress Lee Bo-young received the Best Actress Award for her role in tvN drama "Mother," at this year's Seoul International Drama Awards, the only such awards held in the country. This year saw 268 works from 56 countries submitted, the largest number in the history of the awards.



"Mother," the only Korean drama nominated for the competition category, received the Top Excellence Award for a miniseries.



The adaptation of the same-named Japanese drama, which aired its final episode in mid March, tells the story of an elementary school teacher, played by Lee, who finds one of her students is being abused by her birth mother and decides to kidnap the child and become her mother.



The 16-part drama was recognized for its unique interpretation of motherhood and emotional conflicts between birth mother and adopted mother.



"I'm grateful since I joined this drama, not expecting to get this award. I heard from many fans that they received comfort and felt their pains healed by watching this drama. So did I," the 39-year-old actress said during the award giving ceremony at KBS Hall in Seoul, Monday.



The Grand Prize went to German drama "Babylon Berlin," a crime period drama set in the chaotic Berlin of 1929. The Top Excellence Award for Short Drama was given to Germany's non-fiction drama "54 Hours," with its director Kilian Riedhoff taking the Best Director award.



In the hallyu drama category, for K-dramas recognized overseas, SBS drama "While You Were Sleeping" took the Top Excellence Award, while KBS' "Fight My Way" and JTBC's "Something in the Rain" received Excellence Awards. Actor Park Seo-joon of "Fight My Way" won the best actor award and actress Son Ye-jin of "Something in the Rain," was named best actress in the category.



A fund managed by Macquarie invested in Yongin-Seoul Expressway, which opened in 2009. Courtesy of Yongin-Seoul Expressway



By Park Hyong-ki



Macquarie Korea Asset Management and Platform Partners Asset Management are extending their fight over the management of an infrastructure fund into a court battle, according to both companies.



Macquarie has recently filed a court injunction, requesting it to suspend trading of the fund listed on the stock market by investors who borrowed the stocks from their lender.



The Australian asset manager suspects the lender is Platform Partners, claiming it is lending its shares to "buy votes irregularly" ahead of the fund's shareholders meeting on Sept. 19.



Securities lending, the act of loaning shares of a stock to an investor or firm, requires the borrower to put up collateral. When a security is loaned, the title and the ownership are also transferred to the borrower.



Platform is seeking to change the fund's asset manager to KORAMCO REITS Management & Trust, which agreed to manage the fund at one-eighth of Macquarie's management fees. This is because Macquarie refused to lower its fund management fee toward a level demanded by Platform.



Macquarie said its injunction filing came as it had detected a volume increase in the trading of the fund by borrowers, citing data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.



They are not borrowing and trading for the sake of "short selling the fund," but possibly to act as Platform's "white knights," or its friends who would vote in favor of Platform.



"The borrowers' trading volume increased, accounting for nearly 8 percent of the total," said a Macquarie official.



A local daily identified two of the borrowers allegedly partnering with Platform as Bookook Securities and Hankook Tire.



There is speculation that Elliot Tcha, Platform's managing director, has reached out to his brother-in-law Cho Hyun-sik, the president of Hankook Tire Worldwide, a listed tire and rubber holding company, for help. Cho Hyun-sik is the son of Hankook Tire Worldwide Chairman Cho Yang-rai.



Platform has denied such accusations prompted by Macquarie, saying they are "groundless and untrue," and that it will fight Macquarie in court.



Hankook Tire also denied it had borrowed shares of the fund from Platform to trade for the asset management company. Bookook Securities could not be reached for comments. The brokerage has denied investing in the fund for Platform in the local press.



Macquarie has been managing the Macquarie Korea Infrastructure Fund's (MKIF) since the early 2000s. The MKIF has 12 infrastructure assets including the Yongin-Seoul Expressway, Seoul-Chuncheon Highway and Incheon Airport Expressway.



Platform holds a 4.99 percent stake in the fund, with a 3.2 percent voting right. Macquarie Group has a 3.6 percent percent stake in the fund.



The fund's major investors include London-based Newton Investment Management, a global investment management company of BNY Mellon, and Hanwha Life Insurance.



Last month, Macquarie filed a disclosure, indicating the Sept. 19 general meeting will discuss topics concerning a change of the fund's corporate director and investment manager.



KORAMCO REITS Management & Trust has been listed as a "candidate" to replace Macquarie Korea Asset Management. KORAMCO has also been identified as Platform's proxy solicitor.



Macquarie's board passed a resolution to adopt an electronic voting system, enabling the fund's shareholders, who will not be able to attend the meeting, to cast a vote online, the company said.





By Kim Yoo-chul



South Korea is considering removing the phrase "main enemy," referring to North Korea, from a biannual white paper to be released by the defense ministry in December, military sources said Wednesday.



"After a thorough review, the defense ministry will soon decide whether to delete its reference to North Korea as the main enemy in the 2018 Defense White Paper, which will be released in December," the ministry said.



South Korea designated North Korea as its "main enemy" in 1995. Back in 1994, North Korea threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire" if war broke out. The labeling continued until 2000. But the South deleted the designation in 2004 and replaced it with "direct military threat."



The label was applied again in 2010 after North Korean artillery killed two soldiers and two civilians on Yeonpyeong Island, and has been used ever since.



The ministry declined to comment on whether the upcoming paper will give updated details on the North's military capabilities.



The possible removal represents Seoul's continued efforts to apply follow-up measures to ease military tension between the two Koreas after the April 27 Panmunjeom Declaration in which President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to suspend hostilities to foster permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. The two Koreas are technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice not a peace treaty.



The defense ministry's statement came a day after it decided to close 10 guard posts along the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. It expects reciprocal behavior from the North over the wording change.



Whether the ministry's plan will materialize is yet to be seen, as the deletion is subject to public consensus based on the progress of denuclearization of the North.



The Panmunjeom Declaration didn't include details about how and when the North might begin "actual denuclearization." The historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim in Singapore also resulted in a vague agreement to denuclearize the peninsula, something there has since been little movement towards.



Analysts say the labeling change is debatable considering the complexity and difficulty of the issue.



Seoul is pushing forward with its initiatives to improve relations with Pyongyang even as nuclear talks between North Korea and the United States have stalled.



"This would be a reasonable risk for the South for the time being in terms of trust-building between the two Koreas," a defense ministry observer said.



Previous white papers included details of North Korea's military capabilities.



Details about the North's deployment of heavy artillery, in addition to more advanced tanks near the North-South border were included. Earlier papers also mentioned elite forces trained to infiltrate the South and disrupt critical facilities as other threatening factors.



"We have to keep an eye on upcoming updated assessments of North Korea's military specifically this year as the two Koreas are seeing reduced tension that hasn't been seen in the past," the observer said.

By Kim Bo-eun



Attention is focused on North Korea's next possible offer in the denuclearization process, with President Moon Jae-in's envoys set to visit Pyongyang on Wednesday.



Cheong Wa Dae said denuclearization is on the agenda, along with discussions about the summit between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this month, means to develop inter-Korean relations and ways to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.



The envoys' visit comes at a time when denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S. appear to have stalled, after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang was canceled citing a lack of denuclearization action on the part of North Korea.



In March, a team of presidential envoys visited Pyongyang and met with Kim Jong-un. After meeting with the South Korean envoys, the North Korean leader stated the regime was willing to give up its nuclear program if its safety was ensured, and that it had intentions to hold denuclearization talks with the U.S.



In light of the progress elicited after the envoys' visit, there is some anticipation that North Korea may pledge to take tangible denuclearization steps.



"If North Korea were to promise to report its nuclear facilities, it would be greatly meaningful," said Shin Beom-chul, senior fellow at The Asan Institute for Policy Studies.





'No signs of ICBM launches ahead of NK founding day' Moon to send envoys to Pyongyang on Sept. 5 Inter-Korean liaison office to open this week US tells its citizens not to visit North Korea "While signs show that progress in denuclearization is stalled, the North's acceptance of South Korean envoys shows there is some possibility of progress," he said. "North Korea may offer a gift, considering what the meeting in March generated."



By gift, he was referring to a pledge to take tangible denuclearization measures. Shin added, however, it does not appear likely that North Korea would take a major step.



The outcome of the envoys' visit may also depend on other factors, such as whether they will meet with the North Korean leader. Cheong Wa Dae said this has not yet been decided.



"The main agenda for the envoys' meeting with the North is the upcoming summit, but South Korea will also have to play a facilitating role for denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S., as a stalemate in the talks will negatively affect the inter-Korean summit," Dongguk University professor Koh Yu-hwan said.



"If things go well, there may be a meeting between Pyongyang and Washington after North Korea's Sept. 9 founding day, and the inter-Korean summit held afterward," Ko said.



He said "the envoys will need to hold talks with North Korea with a roadmap for declaring the end of the Korean War in mind."



The delegation of envoys is composed of the same members who went to Pyongyang in March _ National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, National Intelligence Service director (NIS) Suh Hoon, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, NIS deputy director Kim Sang-gyun and senior Cheong Wa Dae official Yun Kun-young.



Cheong Wa Dae said it "considered the continuity in inter-Korean dialogue and the effective achievement of the trip's objective" in its decision to send the same officials.



The envoys' visit to Pyongyang in March is seen to have led to the inter-Korean summit in April and the summit between Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump in June, where Kim pledged to achieve complete denuclearization.





A Russian state-owned television channel has a new weekly current affairs program devoted to President Vladimir Putin.

The first episode of "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin." aired on Sunday night, stressing the Russian president's work to address various crises and stay in touch with ordinary Russians.

The Kremlin has consolidated its control over television stations since Putin came into office in 2000, and Putin's activities traditionally receive wide coverage on news programs on state television. Still, a weekly show devoted to news events as seen through the work of Putin is something new for Russia.

The hour-long program on Rossiya 1 featured interviews with Putin's spokesman and the Kremlin pool reporter who covered the president's activities last week, as well as a segment about Putin's break in the mountains last month.

In this April 27, 2018 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in cross the military demarcation line to the South side at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea. Korea Times file



By Ko Dong-hwan



The South Korean presidential office plans to hold the next inter-Korean summit on Sept. 18-20 to confirm the road toward denuclearization, according to Hankook Ilbo.



The report said Cheong Wa Dae will propose the date to North Korea. The presidential office also has started clearing part of Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jongno-gu in central Seoul and hotels in the area to set up a main press center for journalists.



Cheong Wa Dae, however, denied Tuesday that it has signed a rental contract with DDP. An official from the presidential office told News1 that "main press center is usually set up after dates have been finally confirmed" and the office was "currently searching venues for the media center." He said DDP and KINTEX in Paju were "among the options."



Regarding the summit's date and place, Cheong Wa Dae has so far said only that the meeting might take place in Pyongyang in September.









By Jung Da-min







North Korea's party mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun Tuesday slammed the U.S. for interfering in inter-Korean relations, a day before a South Korean delegation led by national security adviser Chung Eui-yong heads to the North to discuss an inter-Korean summit expected later this month.







In an editorial titled "Blocking North-South relations," the newspaper said U.S. intervention had hampered inter-Korean projects in various sectors.







"(The U.S.) is pulling (the two Koreas') hind legs to prevent every (inter-Korean) project, including the opening of the North-South joint liaison office, North-South railway projects, North-South road modernization projects, the reactivation of Kaesong Industrial Complex and resumption of Mount Kumgang tourism," it said. "(The U.S.) is also dissatisfied with the already planned inter-Korean summit, saying dissonance in U.S.-South Korean relations has been growing."







Criticizing the U.S. for not supporting the April 27 Panmunjeom Declaration, the newspaper said the declaration was not a "pledge" the North would follow the "sanctions that the U.S. forces" on the regime.







It also mentioned the North's repatriation of U.S. remains, calling the U.S. impeding of inter-Korean relations "a crime against humanity."







The newspaper called on South Korea's commitment to implement inter-Korean projects, while also highlighting the unified Korean canoeing team's gold medal in the women's 500-meter dragon boat race at the Jakarta Palembang 2018 Asian Games. It was the first time the party mouthpiece has reported on a unified Korean team at the Asian Games.

National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, right, and National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon talk to each other ahead of a special security meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. President Moon Jae-in hosted the meeting a day before the five-member delegation  led by Chung  departs for Pyongyang on Wednesday to prepare for the upcoming inter-Korean summit. / YonhapBy Kim Hyun-bin



Opposition is growing over a government plan to slap public health promotion taxes on alcoholic products in an effort to expand national health insurance funds as alcohol-related diseases are covered by insurance.



More people appear skeptical about whether the tax will help enhance public health and increase insurance funds, believing the measure will only raise the price of alcoholic beverages.



Last month, the National Health Insurance Corp. (NHIC) brainstormed ideas to better expand the insurance fund to minimize insurance premium hikes.



Placing public health promotion taxes on alcoholic products was one of the ideas raised at the meeting. Currently, cigarettes are taxed 841 won ($.75) for each pack as a public health promotion fee. The fee is a kind of "sin tax" because national health insurance covers treatments of patients with smoking-related diseases.



Some experts say alcohol, just like cigarettes, needs to be subject to public health promotion taxes because alcohol is a source of many diseases that should be covered by the insurance and the taxes will be able to reduce the premium burden on non-drinkers.



"Alcohol damages public health more than cigarettes, so we need to hurry and discuss measures to place public health promotion taxes on alcohol," NHIC President Kim Yong-ik said.



According to a report released by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in 2016, over 6.17 trillion won has been spent each year in alcohol-related social expenses.



However, many are against the taxes on alcoholic beverages.



"I don't know how much the government spent on public health after raising cigarette prices," said Choi, a Seoul resident in his 40s. "This is the government's trick to empty out commoners' pockets."



A blogger also said, "The government doesn't need to worry about my health; I'll take care of my health myself."



Currently, alcohol prices include alcohol tax, educational taxes and value added taxes (VAT). Experts believe when the public health promotion fee is added, prices of alcoholic products could surge up to 30 percent.



"After a hard day's work, meeting friends and colleagues for a drink is my only delight, but the taxes will make it more difficult for commoners to enjoy this as the price of alcohol will go up," Lee Yong-jin in his 30s said.



In recent years, the National Assembly has tried to slap health promotion taxes on alcoholic goods, but the attempts have fallen through due to strong public opposition.



Many experts believe the government will push for taxes on alcohol because the Moon Jae-in administration seeks to have most medical treatments, excluding plastic surgery for beauty purposes, covered by the national health insurance by 2022. The cost to finance the insurance is estimated at 30 trillion won by that time.



Last year, the NHIC saw a surplus, but many experts expect a deficit of 1.1 trillion won for this year and 3.7 trillion won for next year.

Open stage at Southside Parlor







Southside Parlor in Itaewon hosts Wordsmiths, an open stage event for spoken word, poetry and music.







Open mic performers get five minutes, and featured performers can have up to 10 minutes or three songs or poems.







The monthly event begins this Sunday at 6 p.m. Performers who need a sound check should come at 5:30 p.m. The organizers ask for any prospective performers to register in advance.







"Whether you're a performer or appreciator, come join the growing community, where spoken word and live music collide!" organizers said in an online message. "We are looking forward to what you will share with all of us!"







Visit fb.com/SouthsideParlor for more information about the venue.







Conference for Korean adoptees







Next Monday, Seoul National University hosts the Omma Poom conference, offering a day of talks on the culture surrounding "camptowns" outside U.S. military bases and international adoptions.







Talks include "Camptown Mothers: The Secrecy and Stigma of Transnational Adoption" and "Camptown: Mixed Race Koreans."







On Wednesday, attendees will take a bus to Paju, to attend a dedication ceremony for Omma Poom Park, a new park set up at Camp Howze, a closed U.S. military base.







Attendance is free of charge for the Monday talks and Wednesday ceremony, but registration is requested. Visit pajuommapoom.com for more information and to register.













By Jung Hae-myoung







A man has been arrested for allegedly extorting money from a prostitute after showing her a severed finger, Busan police said on Monday.







According to police, the suspect, 49, took 890,000 won from the woman.







The man also is suspected of vandalizing 23 premises and extorting 330,000 won from sex traffickers in the red-light district.







He reportedly confessed after police persuaded the victim to report him.







Police say the man used the same method to extort money from other sex-related businesses in Seoul and Masan.













By Jung Min-ho







A high school student has been found dead at Jechon in North Chungcheong Province in an apparent suicide, police said Monday.





According to police, the student, 16, whose identity is being withheld, jumped to her death from the top of a four-story building at around 2:50 p.m. on Sunday.





She recently had an argument with schoolmates and told her parents she was afraid of being bullied in school after the summer vacation, police said.





She told at least one friend that she would commit suicide before the end of the summer vacation, but the friend could not stop her.

By Kim Bo-eun



North Korea stated the U.S. is obstructing inter-Korean projects from making progress, in its state media, Tuesday.



"We are hearing statements of disapproval over various inter-Korean projects daily," the North's ruling Workers' Party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, said.



The newspaper said the U.S. is preventing the opening of an inter-Korean liaison office in the North, a project connecting the rail networks of the two Koreas, and the resumption of operations at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex and tours to Mount Geumgang.



"The U.S. is even disapproving of a planned summit between leaders of the North and South," it said.





National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, right, and National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon talk ahead of a special security meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



The head of the President Moon Jae-in's five-member special delegation said late Tuesday the envoys will discuss plans to establish a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, the development of inter-Korean relations and the complete denuclearization of the peninsula when they meet with North Korean representatives today.



"The special envoys will discuss advancing inter-Korean ties, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and setting up a permanent peace. We need the backing of the public," Chung Eui-yong, the chief of the South's delegation said in a media briefing at Cheong Wa Dae, a few hours before the delegations departure to the North.



The envoys will fly to Pyongyang at 7:40 a.m., using the West Sea direct air route on a "one day mission," as the effects of the historic June 12 summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong-un appear to be dissipating.



Chung said the delegation expects to meet the North Korean leader during their stay in Pyongyang; however, details regarding a possible face-to-face meeting with Kim have yet to be fixed.



"I am carrying President Moon's handwritten letter," Chung, who is also the presidential national security advisor, told reporters, adding the peninsula is at a critical stage in moving toward a permanent peace.



"As the President said, setting up a permanent peace will only be possible when the peninsula is completely denuclearized. The delegation should bear this in mind," said Chung.



The comments came after President Moon convened a meeting on security and foreign affairs ahead of the delegations departure. The presidential chief of staff and ministers of defense, foreign affairs and unification attended the meeting.



The envoys may offer a comprehensive development plan for the North Korean economy if Pyongyang presents a concrete and detailed action timeline for the dismantlement of its nuclear weapons programs, said sources.



"The envoys will offer a package deal that includes more specifics of the South's economic assistance programs if the North presents a detailed plan on denuclearization," one source told The Korea Times.



The South's offer includes large-scale investment in the North aimed at helping the impoverished state to have better telecommunications, electricity and water supplies, railways and logistics _ industries considered as the backbone of an economy.



Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DKP) leader Lee Hae-chan delivers a speech as the leader of a negotiating bloc at the National Assembly, Tuesday. During his speech, Lee highlighted his role to support the Moon Jae-in administration's income-led growth policy amid criticism over the policy's direction. / Yonhap



By Park Ji-won



Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) chief Rep. Lee Hae-chan vowed to support the Moon Jae-in administration's income-led growth policy in a National Assembly speech, Tuesday.



Lee said he wants to share economic visions with President Moon.



"I guarantee the Moon Jae-in administration's comprehensive growth model comprised of income-led growth, innovative growth and a fair economy will lead to make a new paradigm in the South Korean economy opening the era of $40,000 in gross national income (GNI)," Lee said.



"In order to achieve continuous economic growth, we need to create innovative welfare and labor growth models that fit our reality. Beyond economic prosperity, the country should become a nation where people want to live."



His remarks came amid criticism about the Moon government's key economic policy to spur the sluggish economy by increasing people's incomes. Opposition parties have condemned the policy saying "it is not helping to boost the job market or growth."



Emphasizing the ruling party will do its utmost to persuade and establish a social consensus, Lee urged the Assembly to pass the Panmunjeom Declaration to carry out denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and economic cooperation between the two Koreas.



Citing the Wassenaar Agreement made between employers and labor unions in the Netherlands, Lee also pledged to run a joint meeting participated in by ordinary people, party members and experts to come up with economic policies, as well as forming an umbrella special committee for the self-employed and small business people.



He also pledged to decentralize the government offices from Seoul to local provinces by legislating related laws.



Meanwhile, the main opposition parties criticized Lee's speech especially about the economic policies.



The Liberty Korea Party (LKP) criticized the government's economic policy right after Lee's speech saying it was endangering the nation's economy.



"Today's speech by DPK leader Lee Hae-chan was a unilateral push for resolving the nation's tasks by Cheong Wa Dae and the DPK that is separated from ordinary lives and hopes," said floor spokeswoman Shin Bo-ra in a comment.



"The bad side effects of the income-driven growth policy, made by massive taxes, started to emerge," senior spokesman Yoon Young-seok said.



"Because of the wrong policy of the government, the economy is falling into an abyss. The economic indexes of investment, employment, distribution and consumer sentiment are getting worse."



The minor opposition Bareunmirae Party also condemned Lee's remarks saying that "people are walking in the streets without jobs and small firms and self-employed workers are closing their operations."



"The aim of reaching $40,000 in GNI is giving false hopes to people," floor spokeswoman Kim Su-min said.



Members of the Justice Party, meanwhile, were mostly positive about Lee's speech saying "declaring the willingness to seek income-led growth by both the President and the ruling party leader is a positive sign."



"If the income-driven policy faced a deadlock, the polarization of incomes might be the biggest reason. It is highly possible that the policies made by the ruling party presently cannot fully bear fruit."

President Moon Jae-in will meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo next week during his three-day state visit to Seoul.

Cheong Wa Dae said Monday that the two leaders will likely discuss ways to boost bilateral relations.

Widodo met Moon during his state visit to Jakarta in September last year, and the two leaders agreed to improve their countries' relations into a special strategic partnership.South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday reaffirmed their joint efforts to establish peace and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The pledge for joint efforts came in a telephone conversation.

"The two leaders exchanged their honest views on the development of South-North Korean relations and conditions surrounding the Korean Peninsula, including the denuclearization negotiations between North Korea and the United States following the North Korea-U.S. summit on June 12 and the upcoming third South-North Korea summit, and agreed that South Korea and the U.S. will continue their close consultations and cooperation at various levels," Moon's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said of the telephone conversation.

The call was made on the eve of a trip to Pyongyang by Moon's special envoy, Chung Eui-yong, head of the presidential National Security Office. The top security adviser to the South Korean president will be accompanied by four other high-level delegates, including the chief of the National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon.

The South Korean delegates are widely expected to set a specific date for what would be Moon's third bilateral summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The two first met on April 27 and again on May 26.

Moon explained the reasons for sending a special envoy and the need to hold a fresh round of inter-Korean summit talks.

"President Moon thoroughly explained that he planned to send a special delegation to North Korea to prepare for the South-North Korea summit and discuss ways to establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a press release.

By Lee Kyung-min



Groups of underrepresented workers including women and non-regular workers, will be able to have a greater say in a new tripartite labor council, following a revision of the law that expanded the scope of the body's member organization.



The Cabinet approved the revision, Tuesday, establishing legal ground to guarantee the participation of the long-neglected groups in the Economic, Social and Labor Council, which will replace the previous tripartite committee for dialogue among the laborers, management and the government.



The council, with new members, will be launched as early as next month.



Under the revision, the definition of representatives participating in the dialogue is more clearly defined to include women, young people aged between 19 to 29, irregular workers, small- to medium-sized enterprises, and mom and pop store owners, increasing the number of council members to 18 from 10 at the previous tripartite committee.



The 10 members in the previous organizations included: one each from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) from the labor sector; one each from the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Korea Employers Federation (KEF) for management; and the finance and employment ministers representing the government.



The remaining four were two members representing the public interest, usually scholars, and the committee head and a standing adviser.



The council will have four subcommittees, and their agenda items will include strengthening the social safety net, improving relations between the business and labor, and boosting industrial safety and welfare.



The activity of the committee had remained deadlocked since April after the two umbrella unions left the body protesting the passage of a set of bills on the state-set hourly minimum wage.



While next year's minimum wage was set at 8,350 won ($7.40), up 10.9 percent from this year's 7,530 won, the bill also recognized regular bonuses as part of monthly pay. The labor groups claimed this is a "regression," and would make their income even lower despite the hike.



While the FKTU decided to return to the dialogue table in June, the hard-liner KCTU had refused to do so, but only recently changed its stance.



By Baek Byung-yeul



Dongwha Enterprise, Korea's top wood materials manufacturer has extended its reach by acquiring a manufacturing unit in Thailand.



Dongwha announced Thursday it acquired Agro Fiber's medium-density fiberboard (MDF) manufacturing unit for 23 billion won ($20.5 million). MDF is an engineered wood product used for making furniture.



Established in 1998, Agro Fiber is a subsidiary of Thai-based copy paper maker Double A. Its MDF manufacturing facility is located in Prachiburi, about 100 kilometers northeast of Bangkok. The company produced around 100,000 cubic meters of MDF annually at the 88,000-square-meter facility.



Half of its MDF products have been sold to the domestic market in Thailand while the other half goes to overseas markets such as Japan, Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka.



With the acquisition, Dongwha now has five overseas production facilities. It already has MDF manufacturing facilities in Malaysia and Vietnam while its Finland facility produces tego film, an adhesive sheet used for concrete shuttering. Its Australia facility produces lumber products and versatile wood materials for industrial use.



The Thai company's MDF manufacturing unit can use up to 2 million tons of timber forested next to the facility so Dongwha can secure raw materials for producing the fiberboard easily. The deal gives Dongwha access to the local business networks of Agro Fiber as well.



Dongwha said the acquisition of the Thai company will help boost its profitability.



"In terms of raw material prices, Thailand has been stable with less fluctuation, compared with Vietnam and Malaysia," said Lee Si-joon, senior vice president of Dongwha. "We expect the acquisition can create synergy with our branches in Malaysia and Vietnam so we can raise our profitability."



The Southeast Asian fiberboard market is expected to continue its growth. Among Southeast Asian countries, Thailand is a core country of the fiberboard market as its market share in the region is around 50 percent.



Dongwha said the acquisition will help the company secure a favorable position in the Southeast Asian market as the company plans to explore more business opportunities in Thailand in addition to particle board (PB) and MDF businesses.



Thanks to increased demand for MDF and PB in Korea, Dongwha posted 383.1 billion won in sales in the first half of this year, a 5.6 percent increase from the same period of last year. Its operating profit was 48.4 billion won, a 7.2 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Foreign tourists stand in queue to enter Lotte Duty Free store in Jung-gu, Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap



By Nam Hyun-woo



Duty free shops are enjoying a major business turnaround on a buying spree by private Chinese vendors.



The outlook for their future performance is even rosier, with the Chinese government moving to allow tour groups to visit Korea again.



According to the Korea Duty Free Shops Association, Friday, sales of domestic duty free shops reached $1.34 billion for July, up 36.7 percent from $983 million a year earlier. Among the July sales, $1.03 billion were by foreigners.



The data also showed that the average amount of spending per foreign shopper was $694, which is 5.6 times more than that for Koreans with $124.



Duty free shop operators attributed the surge to Chinese private vendors, who are buying up Korean goods to have margins by reselling them in China, whose market shows a great demand on Korean goods.



"Domestic duty free stores sales increased in the first half, due to the Chinese vendors' contribution," KB Securities analyst Park Shin-ay said. "However, we need to confirm whether these demands could be maintained for a while, and the visibility of domestic duty free sales in the second half should be recovered first."



Sales at duty free shops have been declining for four consecutive months. After setting a record high in March with $1.57 billion, the number stood at $1.52 billion in April, $1.49 billion in May and $1.42 billion last month.



"However, we don't believe that is a worrisome situation," a duty free shop official said. "Outlook is rather rosy that the number of inbound Chinese tourists is growing, while the Chinese government is gradually lifting its regulation on Korea tours."



According to the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of inbound Chinese tourist in July stood at 410,337, up from 379,891 from a month earlier.



Though the number is still below that of 2016 and early 2017, when China's economic retaliation against Korea's decision to deploy a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery on its soil took effect, but inbound tourists have been steadily increasing so far this year.



Also in the second half, China's National Day holiday week and Mid-Autumn Festival is scheduled, which are expected to raise the number of Chinese tourists here.



Also raising the hope is the Chinese government's move to partially lift the unofficial boycott on group tours to Korea.



According to local news reports, the city of Shanghai informed three to four travel agencies that they can resume selling package tour programs to Korea, after halting them for longer than a year. With the move, Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and two other Chinese regions now allow group tours to Korea.



While some duty free officials say it is an optimistic move because Shanghai accounts for nearly 25 percent of China's outbound travelers, others say it will not necessarily raise the number of Chinese tourists in the short term.



This is because their business is still affected by China's unofficial policy of prohibiting advertisements, chartered airplanes or cruise ships and using Lotte affiliates, including Lotte Duty Free and Lotte Hotel.



"Though it remains to be seen, if the group travel boycott is lifted, it will help duty free shops to gain momentum in recovering their earnings," the official said.



In the first half of this year, the big three duty free shops of Lotte, Shilla and Shinsegae each logged improved numbers. Lotte posted 155 billion won in operating profit in the first six months of this year, up a whopping 1,995 percent from a year earlier when it was hit hardest by the China's boycott.



Shilla also logged 111.6 billion won in operating profit during the same period, up 347.6 percent from a year earlier. Shinsegae in the first half recorded 45.8 billion won.





Chinese President Xi Jinping offered another $60 billion in financing for Africa and wrote off some debt for poorer African nations.

The money will fund projects including infrastructure like railways and roads. Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged the same amount three years ago, and says this new investment must give both countries tangible benefits.

CHINESE PRESIDENT, XI JINPING, SAYING:

"Government debt from China's interest free loans due by the end of 2018 will be written off for indebted poor African countries, as well as for developing nations in the continent's interior and small island nations."

25 percent of the money will be aid, but there'll also be interest-free loans and concessional loans.

Chinese companies are also being encouraged to invest at least $10 billion into the continent over the next 3 years. South Africa's President believes it will improve the quality of African lives.

SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT, CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SAYING:

"In the values that it promotes, in the manner that it operates and in the impact that it has on African countries - FOCAC refutes the view that a new colonialism is taking hold in Africa.

China's influence in Africa is huge. One company, PowerChina, is currently working on 844 project contracts worth $35 billion in 46 African countries. Beijing has faced criticism it's only interested in resource extraction, to feed its booming economy and that projects funded have poor environmental safeguards,.

But, China is promising more sustainability. It says it'll carry out 50 projects on green development and environmental protection. (Reuters)





A general view of the opening ceremony of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) as Chinese President Xi Jinping (front, podium) delivers his speech, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, 03 September 2018. African leaders are gathering in Beijing to attend the FOCAC from 03 to 04 September, with the aim to build closer China-Africa relationships. EPA







Foreign leaders and their spouses attending the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) are greeted by young performers on their way to a welcoming banquet held by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2018. Xinhua







South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. AP





By Gwynne Dyer





On Sunday, Brazil's top electoral court ruled that "Lula," former President Luiz Inacio da Silva, cannot run in the presidential election this October.



He served two terms as president (2003-2011), he dutifully waited out the following two terms, and his Workers' Party (PT) has nominated him for the presidency again.



Opinion polls give him 39 percent support, more than twice as much as any other candidate. However, Lula is in jail in the southern city of Curitiba, serving a 12-year sentence for corruption, and he is not getting out any time soon.



The bad news is that he is probably guilty  perhaps not of the specific offense he has already been convicted for, but of four other charges of money laundering, influence peddling and obstruction of justice that are still pending.



Lula's current conviction rests on little more than the word of an executive of a giant construction company who claims he gave Lula a penthouse apartment at a seaside resort town in return for a lucrative contract with the state-owned oil company Petrobras. The executive was facing corruption charges himself, and made the accusation as part of a plea bargain.



There are no documents linking Lula or his late wife to the house, nor is there any evidence that they ever spent any time there. This case went to trial first only because it suggested that Lula had sold out for personal advantage. He probably didn't.



But there is plenty of evidence that Lula engaged in other kinds of dodgy fund-raising, not to benefit himself, but to buy the cooperation of other parties in Brazil's Congress, where there was a plethora of small parties and his PT never had a majority. This was illegal, but it was perfectly normal political practice when he became president in 2003.



So Lula appointed PT members to senior executive roles in Petrobras and other state-owned companies. They demanded kickbacks from companies that sought contracts with Petrobras and the others, and handed the money over to the PT  which handed much of it on to smaller parties in Congress in return for their votes.



That's how Lula pushed through radical measures like the "bolsa familial," a regular payment to poor Brazilians (provided that their children had an 85 percent attendance record at school and had received all their vaccinations) that lifted 35 million people out of poverty.



Brazil's economy boomed, and when he left office in 2011 with an 83 percent approval rating, Brazilians were both richer and more equal than ever before.



His chosen successor Dilma Rousseff won the election, but then world commodity prices collapsed, the Brazilian economy tanked, and unemployment soared.



She squeaked back into office in the 2015 election, but was impeached in 2016 for misrepresenting the scale of the deficit. It was a trivial offense, but she was so unpopular by then that nobody much missed her.



Her vice-president, Michel Temer, a deeply corrupt politician from another political party, has served out the rest of her term, but he will surely be arrested too if he loses the protection of holding a high political office.



In fact, half the current members of Congress would be arrested if they lost their seats. The reason for that is a political cleansing operation called Lava Jato (Car Wash).



The past eight years have been miserable for Brazilians both economically and politically, but Operation Car Wash has offered real hope for the future.



It's a huge police and judicial operation, run out of the city of Curitiba, (called the "London of Brazil" because it is seen as incorruptible), which targets both corrupt politicians and the businessmen who buy them up.



The irony, for Lula, is that Car Wash owes its success to two key reforms of Dilma Rousseff's government. One was to make evidence obtained through plea bargaining acceptable in the courts. The other was to appoint a truly independent attorney-general and independent judges and prosecutors  who duly sent Lula to jail even though they may share his politics.



"She always underestimated Car Wash," said Delcidio do Amaral, the PT's former leader in the Federal Senate, now under house arrest and plea-bargaining hard, "because she thought it would reach everyone but her. She thought it would make her stronger." Instead, it has destroyed Lula.



So what happens now? The PT has 10 days to substitute Fernando Haddad, Lula's choice and a former mayor of Sao Paulo, as the Workers' Party candidate for the presidency in the election on Oct. 7, but it's unlikely that he can win all the votes that would have gone to Lula.



Which may leave the road open for a dark-horse candidate like Jair Bolsonaro, a born-again would-be Trump who disparages women, blacks and gays. The road to hell (or at least somewhere quite unpleasant) is often paved with good intentions.





Gwynne Dyer (gwynne763121476@aol.com) has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years. His new book is "Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work)."



The government has launched investigations into "counterfeit smartphones" that use forged parts and components. Taking part in the joint inspection are five related agencies  the Korea Communications Commission, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Korea Customs Service and the Korea Intellectual Property Office.



Officials have concluded the manufacture and distribution of bogus phones are indisputable violations of the law, vowing a massive crackdown and harsh punishment.



The counterfeit phones have long been an open secret on the market. Vendors used to bring in cheap parts and components from China and make phones without permission or smuggle and sell Chinese phones made of parts with unknown origins.



Some distributors have known these were counterfeit goods and deceived consumers touting low prices. The precise size of the bogus goods market has yet to be known, but considerable shares of secondhand phones are reportedly imitations. Some say the transactions of fake goods may even be easier in Korea than in Huaqiangbei Electronics Market in Shenzhen, China, often dubbed the "paradise of phony phones."



The biggest damage of bogus phones is the disruption to the industry. It's a typical case of bad money driving out good money as authentic goods losing their footing to unauthentic ones. They deal critical blows to all honest players  manufacturers, parts suppliers and distributors. Consumers cannot avoid suffering enormous damages, either.



These fake phones may show a close performance to genuine products for the time being as they use similar parts. However, customers cannot get after-sales service at formal service centers because of the forged parts and components.



Bogus phones are illegal. Their distribution is fraud that cheats consumers, and harms the industry. Now that the government has rolled up its sleeves, it should root out the evil practice. Half-baked steps could end up enhancing violators' resistance. Officials may have to put a priority on finding precise facts first, but punish any violators severely as a warning to others.



Already, the domestic smartphone market has entered into a stagnant phase. If the distribution market also collapses, the smartphone's entire ecosystem is sure to fall.



Kim should make more concrete steps for denuclearization



The world will be eyeing how North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will respond to President Moon Jae-in's special envoy who is visiting Pyongyang today.



A lot is riding on the trip by presidential envoy Chung Eui-yong, Moon's national security adviser, who is making his second visit to the North Korean capital carrying the President's message for further discussions on issues regarding inter-Korean relations and peace on the Korean Peninsula.



The last time Chung was in Pyongyang in March, Kim hosted a dinner for the delegation and their encounter seemed smooth, coming on the heels of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in which North Korea participated at the last minute. While meeting with Chung, Kim showed his willingness to talk with U.S. President Donald Trump and stop testing missiles.



After returning to Seoul, Chung announced that the two leaders were set to hold a summit at the end of April at the truce village of Panmunjeom. This time, however, the mood is much more serious as Chung's visit comes amid a deadlock in U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks. It is unclear whether Kim will meet with Moon's envoys this time. Kim did not meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his last visit to Pyongyang in July.



Following the June 12 summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore, North Korea has been slow to take concrete steps to halt its missile and nuclear weapons development, even after the U.S. suspended joint military exercises with South Korea. Instead, it has focused more on pressing the U.S for a declaration ending the 1950-53 Korean War, and sanctions relief.



It is difficult for the U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks to make significant progress unless Pyongyang starts to show its sincerity in delivering on its part of the agreement reached between Trump and Kim during their historic meeting in Singapore.



It has been reported that the third summit between Moon and Kim could take place between Sept. 18 and 20 and that Moon will convey his intention to improve inter-Korean relations through initiatives such as a basic inter-Korean treaty and a roadmap for economic cooperation. But none of this will be possible without a breakthrough in North Korea's denuclearization.



Kim should tell Moon's envoy he will take preliminary steps to abandon his missile and nuclear programs. Only then can the two leaders' next summit be a fruitful one that establishes a positive mood for a declaration to end the war within the year, the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice, as stated in the Panmunjeom Declaration.

By Lee Seong-hyon





Chinese leader Jiang Zemin (term: 1993-2003) was aghast when his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il told him, "I have to inspect northeastern China." Jiang said the word "inspect" (shicha) means making a checkup of one's own country. Since you're visiting another country, you're paying a "visit" (fangwen) to that region." Kim nonchalantly responded: "My father said northeastern China is ours."



This is one of the many intrigues in China-North Korea relations. Why did Kim Jong-il (Kim Jong-un's father) claim that China's northeastern region belongs to North Korea?



China's northeastern region refers to the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. It is commonly called "Dongbei."



To understand North Korea's sense of "ownership" of Dongbei, we should go back to the time of the late 1950s and the early 1960s when Mao Zedong and Kim Il-sung (Kim Jong-un's grandfather) were friends. It was also a time of the Sino-Soviet split (19561966), the breakdown of political relations between Moscow and Beijing. China also had a hostile relationship with the U.S.



Against the backdrop, China needed the support of North Korea, a socialist country, more than ever. Mao told Kim, "If North Korea were to fight the U.S., then the Dongbei region would serve as North Korea's rear base. If China were to fight the Soviet Union, the Dongbei region would be the front base, and North Korea would be the rear base."



Mao told Kim, "You can manage the Dongbei region. It's yours." Kim was very pleased to hear that.



Interestingly, Mao often said during the Communist Party of China (CPC) meetings that the Dongbei region belonged to North Korea. Chinese premier Zhou Enlai also said so during his internal remarks in the CPC.



In 1963, Kim told Mao, "Then I have to make an inspection of the Dongbei region. Mao agreed. Mao also told Kim that Kim can order the Chinese military in Dongbei."



Mao also told Deng Xiaoping, his lieutenant at that time, to go to Dongbei to greet Kim. Deng said he was busy with other matters and dispatched another ranking CPC official. Kim toured around the major Dongbei cities of Shenyang, Changchun and Harbin. During Kim's inspections, senior Chinese military officials in the region all showed up.



Fitting to this incredible story, at that time in North Korea there was a special resort for military officials from Dongbei to come and rest. It corroborates the view that North Korea really treated Dongbei as "one of us" at that time.



Mao died and Hua Guofeng became the Chinese leader. Hua's attitude about Dongbei was starkly different from that of Mao. When he presided over a meeting of the Central Committee of the CPC, he made two comments regarding North Korea: First, do not mention Dongbei with the North Koreans. Second, If Kim Il-sung says his son, Kim Jong-il, will become his successor, do not respond or make any comments.



During the Chinese internal turmoil of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), there was little interaction between North Korea and China. When the Cultural Revolution was over, North Korean officials often asked their Chinese counterparts: "Why did you not notify us of the changes in the military personnel in Dongbei?" This greatly embarrassed the Chinese. They then began to worry about meetings with the North Koreans for fear of bringing up the matter.



Later, Deng Xiaoping became the Chinese leader. On North Korea, Deng instructed two things. One, China will accept Kim Jong-il as North Korea's successor. Two, [but still] do not bring up the Dongbei issue.



This intriguing episode in the Sino-North Korea relations was conveyed by a renowned Chinese historian who had studied the diplomatic documents of that time. It's not clear whether the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un brought up the Dongbei issue during his meetings with Xi Jinping. Kim could say he heard of it from his father, who heard of it from his father, who heard it from Mao Zedong.



It is also debatable whether Mao really meant that Dongbei belonged to North Korea. Probably not. Mao was famous for his linguistic use of irony, contradiction, and overstatement. It may, however, reflect Mao's socialism bloc worldview. Mao believed that he was in charge of socialism in Asia. And Mao was good at giving the appearance of empowering other Communist leaders such as Kim Il-sung in North Korea or Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam for that matter.





Lee Seong-hyon (sunnybbsfs@gmail.com), Ph.D., is the director, Center for Chinese Studies; and also the director, Department of Unification Strategy at Sejong Institute.



By Jun Ji-hye



BERLIN _ Samsung Electronics' new clothes refresher is not a simple home appliance but will play a role as furniture that harmonizes with people's living spaces, the company said Saturday.





Models promote Samsung Electronics' new clothes refresher, the Air Dresser. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Kim Hyun-sook, vice president of the sales and marketing team of the digital appliances business at Samsung Electronics, said the company has focused its efforts on creating modern design and reducing noise when developing the Air Dresser, the clothing care appliance.



She made the remarks during a meeting with a group of Korean journalists on the sidelines of the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA), Europe's largest trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, which began on Friday for a six-day run.



Unveiling the new product that allows users to remove dust and odor at home on Aug. 21 in Korea, the tech giant said the Air Dresser uses air and steam, which are sprayed from the top and the bottom. The product provides a four-level garment care program _ air, steam, dryer and purifier.



"When developing the Air Dresser, we thought a lot about its design to make it blend in with people's living spaces," Kim said. "We changed the design many times after conducting surveys with hundreds of consumers."



She said the firm has also given efforts on making the LED display on the product as simple as possible so that anyone can understand the diverse functions and operate them easily.





Kim Hyun-sook, vice president of the sales and marketing team of the digital appliances business at Samsung Electronics, explains strengths of the firm's cloths refresher, the Air Dresser, on the sidelines of the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) Berlin, Saturday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics.A 92-year-old woman held a solo protest on Monday in front of the Foreign Ministry in Seoul over the way it handled the dispute with Japan over victims of wartime sex slavery.

Kim Bok-dong, a victim of the wartime atrocity, demanded the government get rid of a foundation set up based on a murky 2015 deal between Seoul and Tokyo to help the survivors without committing Japan to admitting guilt. Kim said the foundation, funded by 1 billion yen Tokyo paid, misses the point.

By Jung Min-ho







China has blocked access to the website of ABC, Australia's public broadcaster, claiming it violated China's internet laws and regulations.





But many see Beijing's move as "revenge" against the Australian government's decision to bar two Chinese companies  Huawei and ZTE  from supplying equipment to Australia's 5G network.





According to an ABC report on Monday, access to its website stopped a day after the Australian government announced rules that would block the telecoms giants on Aug. 23,





Officials at two Chinese government departments have declined to specify how the ABC violated Chinese laws or cite any content as an example.





But in a statement to ABC, an official from the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission said: "China's internet is fully open. We welcome internet enterprises from all over the world to provide good information to the netizens of China.





"However, state cyber sovereignty rights shall be maintained toward some overseas websites violating China's laws and regulations, spreading rumors, pornographic information, gambling, violent terrorism and some other illegal harmful information that will endanger state security and damage national pride."





Although it is unclear whether the Australian government's decision triggered the move, it is no secret that the Chinese government often uses the power of its vast markets and big companies to cow and co-opt foreign governments and companies.





Not long ago, Beijing "retaliated" against Seoul by throttling its tourism industry over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in Korea.

Samsung Electronics plant in Giheung



By Park Si-soo



A worker is dead and two injured after toxic gas leaked at the Samsung Electronics plant in Giheung, south of Seoul, police said Tuesday.



The accident happened at 3:40 p.m. in a section of the first basement packed with fire extinguishing equipment. Leaked Co2 from the equipment is said to have caused the accident.



A worker, 24, surnamed Lee, was found dead and two others were unconscious when rescue workers reached the scene. The dead and injured workers were from an outside contractor and not on Samsung's payroll, according to reports.



The injured workers were taken to hospital, but their condition was not immediately known.



An investigation is under way.



Samsung had a similar accident in March 2014. Then a man in his 50s, also a dispatched worker, died at Samsung's R&D center in Suwon, after inhaling toxic CO2.MAN Truck & Bus Korea CEO Max Burger





The MAN TGS dump truck / Courtesy of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport



By Baek Byung-yeul







LS Cable & System said Tuesday it will lay extra-high-voltage submarine cables in Malaysia after winning a contract worth 40 billion won ($36 million).







In the deal with Malaysia's state-run electricity company Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), the Korean wire and cable maker will lay extra-high-voltage submarine cables that will Malaysia's northern state of Perlis with the island of Langkawi.







The company said the distance between them is about 28 kilometers and the installation will be finished by September, next year.







LS Cable & System said the project is expected to double the power supply to Langkawi. There have been growing demands for power cables in the region as more Southeast Asian countries are seeking economic development.







The company said the Malaysia contract is meaningful as a means to enter the Southeast Asian market for extra-high-voltage cable. Japanese firms have dominated the market with medium-voltage cables.







"As we have successfully completed submarine cable projects in North America, Europe and the Middle East, we won the contract after a fierce competition with other cable makers," an LS Cable & System spokesman said.







LS Cable & System has been extending its reach into Southeast Asia. Last year, the company secured a contract worth 62 billion won with Singapore Power Grid. The contract is for 1.5 kilometers of extra-high-voltage submarine cables to connect Singapore's northern new town of Woodlands with Malaysia's southern resort city of Johor Bahru.







LS Cable & System CEO Myung Roe-hyun said the company predicts there will be increased demand for extra-high-voltage cables in Southeast Asia and has accelerated its marketing efforts there.

Cars line up to enter a Costco Wholesale Korea's store in Sejong in this Aug. 31 file photo. The U.S. warehouse club's local subsidiary has been accused of having poor working conditions. / Yonhap



U.S. retail giant likened to notorious Carrefour



By Park Jae-hyuk



Costco Wholesale Korea is facing growing criticism for allegedly violating the country's Labor Standards Act, according to company employees, Tuesday.



In August, a petitioner, who claimed to be the wife of a Costco manager, posted a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website detailing the U.S. retailer's "unlawful" working conditions, saying that "My husband has not been paid for his extra work, although he works over 70 hours a week."



She insisted the U.S. warehouse club's local subsidiary has forced store managers and other senior employees to work overtime because they are not subject to an electronic time card system that checks employees' working hours. Only rank-and-file workers are required to use the system.



"The company has been uncertain about my husband's working hours, and it has not compensated him for his overtime," she said. "He has not been paid for his night shifts and has had to work without a break."



If her claim turns out to be true, Costco will be punished for breaching the Labor Standards Act. The law states that management must pay a worker's overtime.



It has also limited the maximum workweek to 52 hours since July, following the Moon Jae-in administration's labor-friendly policy.



As of Tuesday, more than 1,780 people signed in and supported her petition.



Some of the supporters, who appear to be Costco employees, posted messages criticizing the company's hierarchical corporate culture which is more like the organizational structure of the military.



They even likened the global retail giant to Carrefour, the French discount chain which left Korea in 2006 after a severe conflict with its union over poor working conditions.



The Korea Times asked Costco about this issue, but Koo Seon-mi, head of the company's marketing team, said, "You should contact our call center for the company's official comment." The call center did not answer the phone.



This is not the first time that Costco has been criticized for its negligent attitude toward Korean law.



Earlier last year, the company was fined 50 million won ($44,850) for not following the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' recommendation to postpone the opening of its Songdo store in Incheon to protect local merchants.



In 2016, it was rated "poor" in the Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership's index measuring the degree of large firms' growth-sharing with small business partners, because it did not participate in the evaluation on whether it fulfilled agreements for fair trade and promoted mutual growth with its smaller suppliers.



Costco Korea was also fined 10 million won in 2012 for violating the Seoul Metropolitan Government's order to close its stores twice a month.



In addition, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety issued four corrective orders to the retailer within this year, because of foreign substances detected in the food it sells.



However, Costco Korea's country manager Cho Min-soo stated that his company's mission is "observance of the law," during a National Assembly audit last year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has disappeared from public view again amid a stalemate in denuclearization talks with the U.S. and just as senior South Korean officials prepare to visit the North.

State media have been silent about Kim's activities since Aug. 20, when he attended the funeral of former People's Armed Forces Minister Kim Yong-chun.

Until then he had conducted a flurry of very public activities, giving on-the-spot guidance, as it is called, at factories and farms all through the provinces. That makes it feel as if he has gone into hiding as the international community tightens the screws again, though he may simply be taking a break.

Five senior officials led by national security adviser Chung Eui-yong are to go to Pyongyang on a flying visit Wednesday. Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said Monday, "At this moment we cannot say for sure that the officials will be able to meet with Kim."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.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy posted the outcome of negotiations to revise the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement on its website on Wednesday.

The two countries agreed in principle on March 24 after three rounds of revision talks since January. One change is that a 25 percent tariff on Korean pickup trucks will now only be scrapped by 2041, 20 years later than originally envisaged, to protect the American auto industry.

More controversially, American carmakers will now each be allowed to export up to 50,000 vehicles per year to Korea as long as they meet U.S. safety standards, even if they fail to meet Korean ones. The quota has been increased from 25,000.

Seoul in turn asked for improvements to the investor-state dispute settlement clause, which in principle allows businesses to sue the government of the other country if they feel in some ways disadvantaged by policy or legislation.

The two sides agreed to include clauses preventing the overuse of investor suits and protecting governments' authority to make reasonable policy.

The U.S. has already completed the process of signing the revised FTA into law. But the Korean government will gather public input on its website until Sept. 10. The bill will then be reviewed by the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Government Legislation, relevant vice ministers, and a Cabinet meeting, and approved and signed by the president before being submitted to the National Assembly for ratification.

Kathmandu, September 4

Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ishwor Pokhrel, who is currently in official visit to Lebanon, met Lebanese Defense Minister Yacoub Riad Sarraf on Tuesday.

During the meeting, they discussed friendly relations between the two countries, mutual interests and Nepal Armys contribution to Lebanons peace process, said DPMs press coordinator Lokendra KC, adding that DPM Pokhrel assured the Lebanese Minister that Nepal was always ready to assist the Lebanese people for the cause of its peace.

Similarly, Pokhrel wished peace and political stability in Lebanon, while informing the Minister about Nepals headway to peace after a decade of insurgency. Lebanon was also informed that Nepal Army could provide various training to Lebanese forces.

DPM Pokhrel also invited Lebanese Defense Minister Sarraf to visit Nepal.

On the occasion, Minister Sarraf praised the role of Nepal Army reminding that Nepal Army was contributing to Lebanese peace and security since 1958.

RSSKathmandu, September 4

The Chinese government has rejected Nepals proposal to build the Galchhi-Kiyrong cross-border transmission line with a grant from China. Beijing has also told Nepali officials that Kathmandu most also invest in the project.

According to a government source, Chinese officials have proposed that the transmission line be built along with the Kathmandu-Kyiron railway line so that power from the line can also be used to run the railway.

The proposal comes two years after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his Chinese counterpart agreed to build the cross-border transmission line. Both sides started negotiating the terms for the project after Prime Minister returned to Kathmandu. A five-member delegation led by Nepal Electricity Authoritys Transmission Line Directorate Acting chief Bajra Bhusan Chaudhary recently visited China to continue the talks.

According to a source, Chinese officials, during the course of the meeting, insisted that the financing modality of the prospective project be settled before a feasibility study can be carried out. The source said that the Chinese delegation also wanted to know how much electricity Nepal expects to buy from China in the next decade.

The proposed 400 KVA transmission line is expected to connect Ratomate in Nuwakot, where another 400 KVA substation is being built with US funding, to Kyirong. Around 70 km of the 800 km transmission line is expected to fall on Nepali territory.

The Chinese delegation is to come to Nepal soon to take stock of the Nepali stance on the proposals.Almost all newspapers published in Kathmandu on Tuesday have prioritised reports related to the agitation by doctors demanding amendments to the new civil code. The papers report that the doctors have agreed to call off protests after the government assured them an amendment will be tabled in Parliament by Monday. Other social and economic issues have also been covered in the press on Tuesday. Heres a summary of important, ignored and interesting reports that made it to the press on Tuesday:

Important

Doctors call off protests

The Himalayan Times reports that doctors have called off nationwide protests after the government agreed to revise the new penal code as per the demand of the medical professionals. The paper says that the Ministry of Health and Population has agreed to amend contentious provisions of the new law. The Kathmandu Post quotes NMA president Dr Mukti Ram Shrestha to say that the association is positive about the agreement. At the health ministrys request, we have postponed our protests until Monday, Dr Shrestha told the Post. Kantipur says that the doctors and the government inked a three-point agreement on Monday night. As per the agreement, the government has agreed to scrap section 230 (2) and to authorise Nepal Medical Council to investigate cases of malpractice. Similarly, the two sides have agreed to make provisions for a six-month statute of limitation and take into custody members of the public who assault doctors.

Ignored

Police yet to crack Jha murder case

Naya Patrika reports that police are yet to get a lead in the Keshavraj Jha murder case, two weeks after the former ambassador was murdered in his home in Kathmandu. The report says that police have taken into custody the housekeeper and interrogated people working for Jha. However, police are yet to crack the case.

Nepali rupee tumbles further

The Himalayan Times reports that the Nepali rupee has tumbled to an all-time low of 114.24 vis-a-vis the US dollar on Tuesday. Nepali currency has been setting a new record every day since August 30, when it breached the 113 mark for the first time in history.

Govt unlikely to revise retirement age to 60

Nepal Samacharpatra says that the draft of the new Civil Service Act has set 58 as the age of retirement for civil servants amid speculations that the limit will be raised to 60. The paper says that the government decided not to tamper with the retirement age after officials suggested that the bureaucracy needed fresh blood and that was possible only after the old members retired.

Interesting

Farmers turn to tea farming to repel elephants

Kantipur reports that farmers in Bahundangi in eastern Nepal, who have been suffering from wild elephant menace are turning to tea plantation to repel the animals. The paper reports that elephants do not like the smell of tea and that prevents them from entering into the village.Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today.

Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe

Happy birthday, Los Angeles! 237 looks good on you.

Sept. 4 is the commonly accepted anniversary of when original settlers founded El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles in 1781. We're paying tribute by writing a collective love letter to the city.

When was the first moment you felt like you belonged in L.A.? Whether you're an immigrant, transplant or lived here your whole life, there may have been a moment you looked around and realized this city was truly your home.

If you need a little inspiration, here are some moments that other Angelenos have shared with us:

MELISSA AFABLE, PASADENA:

I was mostly raised in San Bernardino. Even though I was raised in Southern California, I never really felt much like an Angeleno.



In 2013, I was over a year into my job in downtown L.A. I would take public transportation to get in from San Bernardino County.



This one time I was crossing 7th and Figueroa right there in downtown LA, right there in front of the Metro station.



I had seven seconds to spare in the crosswalk countdown timer.



I book it, and I make it. No big deal. I've done it plenty of other times.



But this time, there happened to be an LAPD officer.



He waived me over, and he told me that what I did was just illegal. That it was a pedestrian jaywalking ticket he'd have to issue me.



It was over $250! There was no way to fight it. It was incredible.



I had never really felt like an Angeleno until then.



All of the stereotypes that people have of L.A. with the crazy traffic and crazy tickets, I mean, yeah, it finally happened to me -- I got a pedestrian ticket, and it was this outrageous amount.



It was one of those "Only in L.A." moments, and now I wear it like a badge of honor!





I moved here in 2002 for my first job. Where I come from, [southern India] the colors, the sights and the sounds are very bright.



The gulmohars, also known as the flame trees, they have these bright red canopies.



When I first interviewed here for my job, I had some extra time, so I was walking on Lake Avenue in Pasadena.



I suddenly looked up, and I saw the purple of the jacaranda trees in Pasadena. They sort of reminded me of those trees back home. They had these bright, light purple canopies.



Also, the bright orange-yellow of the bird-of-paradise flowers and the red roof tiles, the citrus scent in the air -- just these bright colors reminded me of home.



It just came to me that this was home.





I'm from Topeka, Kansas.



In a small place like Kansas, I didn't really fit in too well. I was always a little "artistic," I'd like to say. I think most folks would say I was a little headstrong.



I started playing music in bands and people would say, "Oh, he's a musician," and they'd all nod their heads like, "Yeah, that meant something different."



I was 28 when I got this little apartment down toward Long Beach, and the first morning I was living there, I wake up, make my coffee and look out the window.



My next door neighbor is in his slippers and his bathrobe walking down the street with a cigarette. And he goes down to the corner and buys his newspaper.



I thought, "Oh my god! If this was Kansas, there'd be a riot! People would be calling the police, like, 'There's this guy in his bathrobe on the street!'"



I just smiled! I thought, oh my god, I'm home. Nobody's going to bother me at all for being different.





Have your own story to tell? Let us know below.

Take Two reporter/producer Leo Duran contributed to this report.

You made it! Congrats, you read the entire story, you gorgeous human. This story was made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism costs $$$$$. And now that LAist is part of KPCC, we rely on that support. So if you aren't already, be one of us! Help us help you live your best life in Southern California. Donate now.Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe

THIS STORY IS PART OF HOW TO L.A., OUR ONGOING SERIES OF PRACTICAL GUIDES FOR DAY-TO-DAY LIVING IN LOS ANGELES.

Fried chicken is having its moment in Los Angeles. New joints dedicated to battered, deep-fried versions of the bird seem like they're springing up all over the place. Although the practice of breading fowl and submerging it in hot oil might have come from the Scots, the dish became an American tradition when African slaves incorporated spices like paprika and chili pepper into the process. Chefs with Japanese, Singaporean, Korean, Indian and other culinary backgrounds have put their spin on the dish, turning a staple of Southern plantations into a multicultural culinary exchange.

The beauty lies in the differences between every method. Even Johnny Ray Zone, the chef-owner of Howlin' Rays, the hottest (literally and metaphorically) fried chicken restaurant in town, has trouble ranking them. "Every bird and every chicken shack does things differently," he says. "It's hard for me to say one is better. It's all a celebration of fried bird." Fortunately, we've got our pick. From SoCal classics to nouveau options, they could only come together in a place like L.A.

A diner eats at Tokyo Fried Chicken Co. (Photo by Jennifer Chong for Tokyo Fried Chicken Co.)

Tokyo Fried Chicken Co.

In a green, Monterey Park strip mall with a faux-Chinese glazed tile roof, you'll find Tokyo Fried Chicken's flavorful hybrid of Japanese karaage and Southern fried chicken. Each bird is marinated overnight in soy, garlic and ginger before it's dredged, fried to a delicate crisp in rice bran oil then dusted with the house seasoning. Prepare to feast with a plastic glove on one hand and chopsticks in the other -- it's just what you do here. Sweet, spicy ponzu sauce (in adorable honey bear bottles) makes a great dipping sauce. Curry creamed corn, tempura-battered potato chips and fried brussels sprouts with goat cheese round out the meal.

122 S. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park. 626-282-9829.

Honey's Kettle

Vincent William offers casual Southern comfort at Honey's Kettle, a Culver City staple since 2005. Fried in peanut oil, his technique produces drumsticks, wings and thighs with a supremely crunchy exterior and supple meat. Hot sauce and, of course, honey are available for drizzling and dipping. The buttery biscuits are a must. They're so good, you can buy the batter and bake them at home.

9537 Culver Blvd., Culver City. 310-202-5453.

A meal of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and collard greens at Gus's Fried Chicken. (Photo via Gus's Fried Chicken/Facebook)

Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken

A top contender for Best Memphis Import To Los Angeles, Gus's chicken has just enough cayenne to pack a tingle in every bite. The golden breading is the perfect thickness and the birds are always succulent. Plus, the prices are great and there's no wait time to get seated -- something that almost never happens at the non-L.A. locations. Fried okra is the only standout side. That's fine because it leaves room for a slice of the fine chess pie.

1262 Crenshaw Blvd., Crenshaw. 323-402-0232.

509 S. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank. 747-231-3990.

Howlin' Rays

It's hard to know what Howlin' Rays is more famous for: Their insanely long lines or their insanely delicious fried chicken. This is one of the very few places where the former is worth the latter. (Stay abreast of the wait times via Twitter.) That's because they serve the best version of Nashville hot chicken in Los Angeles. Heed the descriptions of their six levels of heat. The hottest, Howlin', comes with a pair of rubber gloves to prevent the spices from seeping into your skin. The chicken isn't just hot, it's damn tasty with the perfect, just-oily-enough crunch protecting the ultra juicy, brined flesh. No matter the level of heat, don't accidentally rub your eyes or spread any of that garlicky, peppery seasoning on your extremities because the only place where it hurts so good is your mouth.

727 N. Broadway #128, Chinatown. 213-935-8399.

Jim Dandy Fried Chicken

The birds at Jim Dandy's are beyond crisp and and served from behind a bulletproof glass window -- and they're absolutely worth it. Each bite into a crisp, spicy piece reveals tender insides with a no-nonsense flavor. No secret brine or hyped up batter here. Just simple, flavorful fried chicken. We recommend the spicy, which is manageable, and a side of fried corn fritters dusted in powdered sugar. Make sure you bring cash to this stand, one of the last two remnants of a popular 1970s chain.

11328 Vermont Ave., Westmont. 323-779-5567.

The Prince

It's easy to see why this vintage bar, with its circular, red leather booths and fading glamour, still attracts crowds. Located in the base of a Tudor Revival-style apartment building in Koreatown, The Prince has been around since the 1920s, when it was a French restaurant. You might've seen it as a backdrop in Mad Men, Chinatown, Thank You For Smoking or a number of other productions. It's also home to Heo Ja-hwa's twice-fried, salt-and-pepper seasoned chicken. Juicy on the inside and with a heat that expands the more you eat it, the chicken comes with coleslaw, pickled radish and hot sauce. Order a plate of kimchi fried rice or dukbokki (spicy rice cakes) to go with it. Half-price drinks during happy hour (from 4 to 8 p.m.) are the perfect liquid pairing.

3198 7th St., Koreatown. 213-389-1586.

Chicken karaage at Karayama. (Photo courtesy of Karayama)

Karayama

The Japanese chain has more than 50 outposts around Asia but the first United States location just landed, in Little Tokyo, two weeks ago. That's a reason to celebrate. Why? Chicken karaage, those nuggets of fried, boneless glory. The menu offers distractions, like the chicken sandwich, but it's all about the karaage at Karayama. You can thank the secret, fermented marinade and potato starch batter for the flavor and texture. If you don't want it straight, try a donburi bowl with egg, onion and a light soy broth. Dipping options include goku-dare with garlic and sesame, sweet and salty shio-goku-dare, wasabi mayo, sweet chili and a red hot sauce.

136 S. Central Ave., downtown L.A. 213-265-7358.

Lucky Bird

Chef-owner Chris Dane, a Providence and Connie & Ted's alumn, has opened a small, 12-seat fried chicken stand in Grand Central Market. The outside layer of his fried bird is fluffy yet crunchy, giving way to a tender, citrus-brined center. Saddle up with savory sweet and sour coleslaw, fried chicken skins and buttermilk biscuits served with whipped honey butter. The best way to start a meal at Lucky Bird? Order one of the craft beers on tap.

317 S. Broadway, downtown L.A.

The Crack Shack

Westfield Mall in Century City just welcomed the fourth location of chef Richard Blais's San Diego fried chicken chain. The menu features no less than eight fried chicken sandwiches as well as five and ten-piece chicken dinners, for the purists. The chicken, always Jidori, yields succulent meat with a crunchy coating. The twist comes courtesy of eight dippers including Baja hot sauce and curry mustard. Craft beer taps and a lots of patio space make this a great gathering spot for groups. Another Crack Shack will opens this fall, in Pasadena.

10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City. 424-320-0046.

A.O.C.

Suzanne Goin has effectively made her Spanish fried chicken an L.A. icon, which is no small feat -- but neither is a 16-year run of successful restaurants. Dusted with aleppo pepper, paprika, coriander and cumin, her garlic-marinated masterpieces are available for brunches, power lunches and candle-lit dinners on A.O.C's patio. Romesco aioli adds a creamy touch and a bit more spice to the butter-basted fried chicken, which is served on a cast iron skillet. Pair it with one of the restaurants wines, chosen by Caroline Styne, for a perfect meal.

8700 W. 3rd St., Beverly Grove. 310-859-9859.

You made it! Congrats, you read the entire story, you gorgeous human. This story was made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism costs $$$$$. And now that LAist is part of KPCC, we rely on that support. So if you aren't already, be one of us! Help us help you live your best life in Southern California. Donate now.Addressing the Eighth Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munition today, Ambassador A.L.A Azeez, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka reaffirmed Sri Lanka's commitment to working towards achieving universalisation and to advancement of the objectives of the Convention. The Meeting of States Parties welcomed Sri Lanka as the 103rd State Party, and looked forward to Sri Lanka's leadership in humanitarian disarming.

The Statement delivered by Ambassador Abdul Azeez

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to UN in Geneva

03rd September 2018Doctor of optometry Priti Patel knows how quickly and profoundly a simple pair of glasses can transform a childs life. Shes seen it firsthand.

I once examined a 6-year-old boy, Patel recalled. He walked into the exam lane very quiet and timid  One eye was clearer than the other and he was having a hard time interpreting what he was actually seeing. At the follow-up exam, [he] ran into the exam lane, jumped into the chair and had a huge smile on his face  he had just tried on his new glasses. The improved vision ... made a huge positive impact on this childs ability to interact and learn.

According to the American Optometric Association, a large nonprofit organization of optometric doctors and professionals, academic and behavioral problems in young people are often linked to vision issues. Additionally, childhood myopia is on the rise. So a charitable partnership between Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) and retail eyewear brand Americas Best Contacts & Eyeglasses is especially timely, as is the programs arrival in Los Angeles as a new school year begins.

One of the keys to preventing learning and behavioral issues is early detection and intervention for any sort of uncorrected vision, said Patel, who is also vice president of physician practice management at National Vision, the company that operates Americas Best. The symptoms [of] Attention Deficit Disorder and uncorrected vision can sometimes be similar. To distinguish between the two, its important to have a comprehensive eye exam.

Thats why the BGCA-Americas Best partnership offers free vision screenings to Club members and then, based on screening results, a complimentary eye exam by a licensed optometrist at a nearby Americas Best location. If a child needs prescription glasses, Americas Best also provides them  free of charge.

Through the partnership, more than 11,000 children have received vision screenings in cities including Atlanta, Portland and Dallas since 2015. The program made its Southern California Debut in Anaheim in February and in L.A. at the end of last month. One of the first Boys & Girls Clubs where screenings are available this school year is in Whittier.

Sometimes kids dont understand whats going on, and not being able to see well definitely has an impact both on their confidence or them feeling a little bit different, said Oscar Hernandez, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Whittier. Giving them the opportunity to see well, I think, enhances their ability to focus.

Good vision is crucial to children as they work their way through school, where reading, writing, computer and chalkboard work are daily requirements. According to optometrists, kids who unknowingly struggle from uncorrected vision may avoid visual work, muddle through with lower levels of comprehension or ability, or suffer discomfort and fatigue.

According to recent research by the American Optometric Association, one in four children has a visual problem that affects their learning and may exhibit behaviors associated with distractibility and hyperactivity, or even be labeled as having ADD, when all they really need is a simple pair of glasses.

So how do eye exams actually work?

The optometrist performs a series of tests to measure where and how the light focuses in the eye, Patel said. If the light focuses in front of the retina, it is called nearsightedness or myopia. If the focus is behind the eye, it is called farsightedness or hyperopia.

Whats been widely described by researchers as a myopia epidemic among young people has been linked to spending more time reading on smartphones and spending less time outdoors. This phenomenon is most apparent where poverty is highest, but often goes undiagnosed due to children not receiving annual eye exams.

To date, 94% of the children provided eye exams under the BGCA-Americas Best partnership had trouble seeing and received a free pair of prescription glasses, according to Americas Best.. With more than 4,300 Clubs nationwide  and Americas Best operating 630 locations across the U.S., including many in the L.A. area  the programs impact on the countrys youth has profound and far-reaching potential.

Free vision testing is just one of an array of benefits associated with a Boys & Girls Club membership. While fees vary by Club, it is always affordable  even as low as $5 per year.

Our main focus is youth development: academic achievement, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles, Hernandez said.

Partnerships such as these help Clubs work toward their mission to enable all young people to reach their full potential.

If your child isnt yet involved with your local Boys & Girls Club, you can find a location nearest to you and apply for membership here.

Paul Rogers for Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Americas Best Contacts & EyeglassesThe decision by NBC News not to air Ronan Farrows investigation of alleged sexual misdeeds by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is turning into a public spat with the journalist.

NBC News Chairman Andy Lack issued a memo to staff on Monday defending the divisions actions and disputing assertions by Farrow and his former producer that the network suppressed the story, which was published by the New Yorker in October and earned a Pulitzer Prize. Farrow fought back in a late-night tweet that disputed a document NBC News released that detailed its handling of the story.

Lack said in a memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times that weve watched with disappointment as unfounded intimations and accusations have traveled through media circles over NBC News decision to pass on the story.

NBC News has been adamant in stating why it did not air Farrows investigation, which helped launch the #MeToo movement. The network said Farrow did not have a single Weinstein accuser speaking on the record or on camera, with the exception of actress Rose McGowan, who withdrew her cooperation through her lawyer. McGowan had never mentioned Weinstein by name in her February 2017 interview with Farrow, who was working under a freelance contract for NBC News at the time.

Advertisement

The news divisions decision to not air Farrows work on TV and to allow him to take it elsewhere has become a source of embarrassment for the network, which over the last year had to deal with its own sexual harassment scandal involving fired Today co-anchor Matt Lauer.

Lacks memo led to an exchange of barbs between Farrow and NBC News. It also elicited a call by NBC News host Megyn Kelly for an outside investigation into how the story was handled.

The squabble over the networks handling of Farrows reporting became public Thursday, when his former producer, Rich McHugh, said in a statement that at a critical juncture in our reporting on Harvey Weinstein, as we were about to interview a woman with a credible allegation of rape against him, I was told not to do the interview and ordered to stand down, thus effectively killing the story.

McHugh added that those orders came to me from the highest levels of NBC.

In his memo, Lack disputed the allegation that the crew had been canceled as a way to obstruct Farrows reporting.

Immediately after Farrow had parted ways with us, he asked for NBC cameras to record another anonymous Weinstein victim, he said. Farrow conducted the interview, but we declined the request for a crew because we believed filming another anonymous interview would not get us any closer to clearing the threshold to broadcast, and because he had already informed us he was pursuing the story for another outlet.

Lack also said his interactions with Weinstein or his attorneys during Farrows reporting had no effect on the decision by NBC News not to run the story.

Repeated attempts by Weinstein and his legal counsel to contact Lack, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim, or other network executives from April to October 2017 were either completely ignored or met with a boilerplate commitment to allow them to comment if and when something was ready for broadcast, Lack said. None of this was kept secret from Farrow. None of it was any different from the calls we receive on every other difficult story our investigative unit regularly breaks. And none of it played any role in our decision-making.

An internal report from NBC News that details its handling of the story said the division took an extra step in trying to vet Farrows work so that it could get on the air. In August 2017, a team of three NBC News veteran journalists examined Farrows draft script and the underlying reporting.

They are ultimately unanimous in their view that NBC News does not have a story that is ready for broadcast, the report said. Their review also reveals that some of Farrows claims and sourcing throughout the draft script are not consistent with his reporting.

None of the seven women named in Farrows story for the New Yorker  including Asia Argento, Mira Sorvino and Rosanna Arquette  were willing to speak on camera for NBC News.

Farrow responded on Twitter to Lacks memo and the news divisions internal report on his work, saying the document contains numerous false or misleading statements.

Farrow said the reports list of sources he spoke to for the story is incomplete and omits women who were either identified in the NBC story or offered to be.

Emily Nestor, a temporary assistant for Weinstein who was allegedly told by the executive that she could advance her career by having sex with him, issued a statement to the Hollywood Reporter that she was willing to have her name used in Farrows story, but NBC was not interested. She had done a previous interview with Farrow in silhouette.

An NBC News representative said Tuesday that Nestor is referred to in the document and was contacted during the editorial review process by an investigative producer. At no time then or since did Nestor tell NBC News she was willing to be named, the representative said.

Farrow maintained his story was reportable by legal and professional standards and that he was blocked by executives who refused to allow us to seek comment from Harvey Weinstein.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio

UPDATES:

7:33 a.m. Sept. 4: This article was updated with a statement from NBC News.

10:15 p.m. Sept. 3: This article was updated with a statement from Emily Nestor, who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment.

9:15 p.m. Sept. 3: This article was updated with Ronan Farrows response to the NBC News account of his reporting on Harvey Weinstein.

This article was originally published at 7:25 p.m. Sept. 3.With a new deal to collaborate on an inhalable hypertension drug, the executives at Southern California drugmaker MannKind Corp. can breathe a little easier about the companys finances.

The agreement with biotechnology firm United Therapeutics Corp. could provide MannKind  founded by Los Angeles entrepreneur and philanthropist Alfred E. Mann  with as much as $105 million.

The money from the deal and other initiatives will give the Westlake Village company positive cash flow and help advance the marketing of its signature drug, Afrezza, an inhalable insulin powder for diabetics, said Chief Executive Michael Castagna.

Were very excited about our future and where things are going, he said in an interview.

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Castagna left his job as a vice president at Amgen Inc. to become CEO of MannKind in May 2017. He brought in a new management team that he said has sought to reduce debt and help the company break even.

Tuesdays announcement sent MannKinds struggling stock soaring. It jumped 89% to close at $2.08. Shares of United Therapeutics, based in Silver Spring, Md., were down about 3%.

The agreement provides MannKind with an upfront payment of $45 million and the potential for $50 million more if the company meets certain milestones in the development of an inhalable form of treprostinil, which is used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, the two companies said.

The dry powder drug, which uses similar technology to Afrezza, is being evaluated in clinical trials.

MannKind also will receive low double-digit royalties on net sales of the hypertension drug, the firms said.

And MannKind will receive an immediate payment of $10 million to help develop another drug, which Castagna declined to detail, using the companys inhalable technology.

We are pleased with this new opportunity to demonstrate the value of our drug and device combination platform for delivering therapeutic products, Castagna said in a news release announcing the deal.

MannKind was founded in 2001 by Mann, who pumped $1 billion of his own money into the company to help develop Afrezza before his death in 2016 at age 90.

Afrezza, which uses a technology based on a carrier molecule that delivers drugs normally taken by injection into the bloodstream through the lungs, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2014. But the drug has not met early expectations that it would be a blockbuster treatment for diabetes, amid lingering concerns over its effects on lung function and advances in pump technology.

Despite Tuesdays gains, shares of MannKind still are down about 10% so far this year.

Castagna said the stock price has been hurt by the companys negative cash flow. He said that Afrezza sales have improved each quarter since the start of 2017 and that the United Therapeutics deal will help MannKind expand TV advertising for the diabetes treatment.

The more we invest in Afrezza, the faster it grows.  Ninety-nine percent of people with diabetes dont know inhalable is an option for them, he said.

Ahmed A. Enany, president of the Southern California Biomedical Council, a regional trade group that includes MannKind, said the company has had problems getting market traction for Afrezza.

Tuesdays deal will be a boost for MannKind and the regions biotech industry, he said.

It shows the viability of the platform and the ability to do different things with it, Enany said of MannKinds technology.

Under the deal, United Therapeutics will be responsible for global development, commercialization and regulatory approvals for the inhalable version of treprostinil and receive exclusive worldwide licensing rights.

There is an inhalable version of treprostinil now, but it requires use of an electronic nebulizer that must be plugged in. MannKinds version is delivered through a portable inhaler that can be used anywhere.

MannKind will manufacture the supplies of the drug for clinical trials and initial commercialization at its Danbury, Conn., facility. United Therapeutics will manufacture the long-term commercial supplies.

United Therapeutics also has the option to expand the exclusive licensing deal to other MannKind treatments for pulmonary hypertension.

MannKind is competing with another company, Liquidia Technologies in North Carolina, to develop an inhalable and portable dry-powder version of treprostinil. Liquidia raised $50 million in an initial public stock offering in July.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera

UPDATES:

3:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Ahmed A. Enany, president of the Southern California Biomedical Council.

2:25 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from MannKind Chief Executive Michael Castagna and additional details.

This article originally was published at 9:35 a.m.In Nepal, INGOs and NGOs are notorious for their projects that they launch for a period of time. They carry out the projects effectively till the deadline, but after they are done, what is left is the dependency of people.

But, that was not the case with Helvetas, a Swiss development organisation, when it ran the Safer Migration (SaMi) project with White Lotus Craft Private Limited in Kathmandu. After completing the assignment of its donor, this sewing training institute transformed into a lifestyle brand by drawing from the idea of the project.

This is the story of The Mint Studio, which is competing with international brands in Kathmandu with its locally crafted products. Among mushrooming startups in the city, it stands out not only because it started off as a donor-funded project, but also because of its tall promise about doing social business.

Inspiration and inception

Under the SaMi project, White Lotus Craft provided sewing training to unemployed women and Helvetas assisted them in getting jobs in Jordan. According to Richa Rajbhandari, Managing Director of The Mint Studio, Jordan is home to a number of big garment manufacturing companies and they are always in need of more staff in order to meet demands they receive from global lifestyle brands like Adidas and Nike.

Under the contract with Helvetas, we had to train 40 women for three months. However, we worked with more than one group simultaneously and in one year and eight months, we trained 600 women in total, which was the quota we had to meet for the project, the young entrepreneur continues, But, we liked the idea behind the project. Hence, we wanted to continue. And, The Mint Studio was born.

The SaMi projects objective was to empower women going abroad for jobs, but the training institute wanted to have a slight modification. While conducting the training, we also learned why they had to leave the country for such jobs. Then, we wanted to do something which would help women stop thinking about going abroad, and get income generation opportunities by utilising their skills here.

For that, we had to start our own project because Helvetas was not going to fund it.

The team, however, still hoped that other national and international development agencies would help it achieve its objective of women empowerment.

Trainers associated with the SaMi projectnamely Ritu Rajbhandari, Ankita Joshi, Avant Shrestha and Bishal Rana Magarworked together to establish the new company in March 2017. Richa Rajbhandari, who was working with another startup company after completing her Bachelors from Bangalore University, joined the team after months. After her sister Ritu left for Australia to pursue her further studies, Richa Rajbhandari has been leading the company for the last one year.

Frustration and modification

The younger Rajbhandari says that it is not as easy as people think to empower women effectively. After the project was over, we tried to continue with the training. But, it was really challenging.

The biggest challenge, according to Rajbhandari, is funding. Whereas the company cannot provide training to the women free of cost because it has to pay for the machinery, trainers as well as the venue; it cannot make the women pay the price for training either. Rajbhandari says she knows her beneficiaries cannot solely shoulder the heavy cost.

Therefore, after the company failed to establish a partnership with an NGO working for women who suffered various forms of violence, it has now stopped thinking about continuing the training programme for now.

Our mission is to do a social business, she expresses her frustration, But you know it is quite difficult in Nepal. You have to be either social or business.

We have sufficient resources but nominal revenue, she succinctly puts it, Therefore, we have to modify our focus temporarily. Accordingly, for the next two years, the company wants to concentrate on manufacturing and establishing itself as a popular lifestyle brand.

Perhaps the best model to continue the training programme could be letting women learn the skills free of cost at first, and making them pay back the cost later with their labour contribution. But, this model is also not free of problems.

We realised that some women were ready to attend training sessions; but after the completion of the course, they would questionwhy should I work for you when I already have the skills?

This problem is related to peoples mindset. They always want security to their investment of time and money, she explains, Of course, there are some people who are ready to pay for the training; but they ultimately want to go abroad.

Determination and continuation

Despite the challenges, the company ultimately wants to compete with internationally established lifestyle brands, at least in the Kathmandu market.

Rajbhandari is confident that her company is capable of achieving it. We are special; we are exclusive. We are one out of 100, her tone sounds much like an advertisement, You cannot find products like ours in the market. Ours is essentially different.

Being different is not enough to sell the products. The companys sincere efforts made to give its products a feel of Nepali branding makes its products a bit expensive in comparison to other brands. She encounters questions about the price from her companys fans and general customers almost every day. But our products are more user-friendly, more durable and more artistic than what you can find in the market. Besides, we are also providing after-sales service.

After coping with challenges related to pricing and branding, the company is determined to continue with the primary mission of women empowerment.

Whereas the company is primarily focused on expanding its market with its own retail shop and more visibility on social media these days, it has also continued efforts to take back the object of supporting women to go independent in their life.

Recently, we have found a unique school in Byas of Tanahun district, which collects revenues in the form of labour contribution from parents. We are in conversation with the school team on if we can train these parents and lead them to more lucrative employment opportunities.

Some NGOs and community organisations working with local women in various parts of the country are also being consulted. The company, however, does not have any concrete plan to resume the training programme anytime soon.

Rajbhandari says the Mint Studio will go back to its original mission one day as the idea of empowering women can also be helpful in promoting its products in the market.We know that our social side, helping women empower financially, can be an additional unique selling point for us because everyone else is running after money. We will surely do it, but we have to be capable first.For Jon Pylypchuk, scraps of wood, expanding foam insulation, some quick spray paint and a handful of found objects have been constructive materials for making sculpture over the years. Five new works show him running at top form.

Of course, in Pylypchuks eccentric universe, top form is low down. The suite of DIY-style sculptures in Lost in Your Eyes at Nino Mier Gallery is no different. Conceptually, David Smiths tony Tanktotem sculptures from Abstract Expressionisms glory days meet tattered troll dolls; their hybrid parentage is a bracing amalgam. Joyfully silly, the anthropomorphic figures are also unexpectedly poignant.

Each is made from a vertical bundle of scrap wood, the shortest nearly seven feet tall, and the largest towers overhead at 12 feet. Sprayed with foam and painted white, the bubbly, scabbed surface looks like some itchy skin disease has overtaken them.

Jon Pylypchuk, Business in the front, party in the back, despair in the middle, 2018, mixed media (Nino Mier Gallery)

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Two rubber tires bolted onto either side of the bundle make for an oversized pair of big, banjo eyes; skinny bicycle tires stretched horizontally beneath them seem to make the sculptures grin. If these creatures have ancestors, theyre perhaps the hostile fighting trees in The Wizard of Oz  fantastic trees of arcane knowledge whose role was to keep intruders out of the enchanted forest.

A couple of sticks protrude as outstretched arms, a pair of work gloves speared on each. Rather than a proffered embrace, however, these hands push back. The gloves middle fingers stand erect, impaled on the sticks, jauntily flipping the bird at approaching admirers.

Lost in Your Eyes is collectively titled after a 1989 Debbie Gibson make-out record. Its an exhibition as lovestruck symphony, cuddly characters deftly destabilized by that sassy finger-detail, at once open-hearted and self-protective. Theres no coherent reason in the world why gussied-up piles of trash should be moving, but  weirdly  they are.

Jon Pylypchuk, I command all the forces of nature!, 2018, mixed media (Nino Mier Gallery)

Nino Mier Gallery, 1107 Greenacre Ave., West Hollywood, (323) 498-5957, through Sept. 15. Closed Sun. and Mon. www.miergallery.com

christopher.knight@latimes.com

@KnightLATTamales in Los Angeles are typically of the Mexican variety, and a single one doesnt go very far. Best to order two, possibly three, for a full meal.

In Colombia, you could make a whole meal out of one tamal. Unlike its slender Mexican counterpart dressed neatly in pale yellow corn husks, the grapefruit-sized tamal tolimense at Pasteleria Florida in Bogota is formidable and foreboding, encased in layers upon layers of waxy banana leaves that have been steamed until they turn the murky color of seaweed.

It was first thing in the morning when my two traveling companions and I arrived at the 82-year-old restaurant halfway between the Museo Nacional and the Museo del Oro, and the prospect of facing a goliath tamal right before boarding an international flight seemed daunting. I ordered one anyway.

The classic Colombian accompaniment to a tamal tolimense is hot chocolate, so I also got a mug of chocolate santafereno and, when it arrived alongside a plate of cheese, dunked the triangles into the frothy drink as the locals did. We rounded out our breakfast with an omelet, pan de chocolate, apple tart, cookies, truffles and a croissant breakfast sandwich with ham and eggs  because as Americans on vacation, we didnt understand the concept of portion control.

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The tamal arrived last, landing in front of me like a bulging present on Christmas morning. Loosening the bundle from the top and unfurling the thick leaves revealed a sticky, steaming, vegetable-studded mass of masa. Somewhere below lurked a chicken leg.

Colombias large tamal tolimense typically contains a chicken leg, pork, carrots, peas, onions, egg and rice and are more moist and grainy and less crumbly than Mexican tamales. (Andrea Chang / Los Angeles Times)

Rustic tolimense-style tamales are a regional specialty from Colombias Tolima department. They are traditionally made with a chicken leg, pork, carrots, peas, onions, egg and rice and are more moist and grainy and less crumbly than Mexican tamales.

There was something pleasantly tactile about the experience of working through the hefty tamal tolimense, of peeling a leaf back and using the edge of the fork to scrape up the bits smeared onto the banana leaves. The clingy consistency and the dark green wrapping reminded me a bit of the large Chinese sticky rice dumpling, zongzi, I ate at home growing up.

Bogota, like many South American cities, is home to extraordinary street food  my favorite: piping-hot arepas that cost the equivalent of one U.S. dollar  and inventive tasting menu establishments such as Leonor Espinosas Leo. Opened in 1936, Pasteleria Florida is neither.

The long and narrow dining room is homey and no frills, the kind of place where thin burnt-orange seat cushions are tied to the backs of knobby wooden chairs and a menu might not appear for a long while. The other diners are mainly locals, the waitresses are frazzled but friendly and the jam comes in tiny plastic cartridges. The hulking tamales are the centerpiece on practically every table.

In short, it was exactly the type of traditional, no-frills breakfast spot Id hoped to find near the city center of this bustling metropolis.

On the way out, the restaurants impressive oval-shaped pastry case beckoned with pastel-colored cakes, soft bread rolls and chocolates, perfect for taking home.

Cra. 7 No. 21-46, Bogota, Cundinamarca, Colombia. +57 1 3410340

This is an occasional feature that highlights a recent meal outside Los Angeles.The women planted their bodies and kicked one foot forward, imitating the self-defense move displayed on a projector screen: La patada hacia los testiculos. The kick to the testicles.

Some of the students were sexual assault survivors. Others had dealt with harassment at work. Some were in the country without legal documentation.

With law enforcement nationwide seeing a drop in sexual assault and domestic violence reports by Latinos  some fearing possible deportation  amid President Trumps immigration crackdown, the Ya Basta self-defense group is filling a void.

When you look at the #MeToo movement ... theyre not taking on poverty and theyre not taking on immigration. And those are the two main issues that these women face every day, said Lilia Garcia-Brower, executive director of the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund and founder of the group that focuses on training female janitors. Roughly translated, Ya Basta means Enough is enough.

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We have to figure out how to bring their voices together and speak explicitly about the abuse of power  and how it plays out in the workplace, Garcia-Brower said.

Some of the women who help teach the classes, which began in December, said their status in the United States sometimes has felt like an invitation for men who expect that abuse wont be reported.

Anabella Aguirre is a janitor who was sexually assaulted while at her job. She now teaches self-defense to other janitors. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Anabella Aguirre fled Guatemala in 2000, leaving three children with her mother, to escape poverty and gang violence. Once in Los Angeles, she worked as a nanny for nearly a year before her cousin helped her apply for a job as a janitor. She told a supervisor about her desperation to make enough money to pay for her children to come to the U.S.

You make the big mistake of telling them you just got here, you dont have papers, you have kids, Aguirre said. I thought that in sharing my situation, Ill receive a little help. To the contrary, they use it as a way to abuse us.

While working a night shift, Aguirre said, she was raped by her supervisor. The next year, she was sexually assaulted at a different work site.

The threat was: If you want to keep your job, youre going to keep working under my rules. If not, youre out of a job  and I can deport you. I have papers, I just have to call immigration, and youll go back to your country, Aguirre said.

A 2015 Frontline report on PBS, Rape on the Night Shift, spotlighted the widespread sexual abuse that female janitors face and led to sweeping changes  including a California law passed a year later that requires janitors and their supervisors to complete sexual harassment training starting next year.

Soon after the PBS investigation, the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West asked its members about sexual harassment. Of the more than 5,000 responses, about half said they had experienced sexual violence or harassment.

As a result, Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a statewide watchdog organization that supports non-unionized janitors, and SEIU-USWW partnered with the East L.A. Womens Center to train women as promotoras, or community educators, committed to ending sexual violence in the industry.

Various organizations formed the Ya Basta Coalition to help meet that goal.

Veronica Lagunas, who emigrated from El Salvador in 2001, received self-defense training last summer. She said the East L.A. Womens Center opened her eyes to the abuse she has suffered during her 14 years as a janitor.

You think its normal or that you should just let it happen, Lagunas said.

After Trump took office, the Los Angeles Police Department grappled with a drop in crimes being reported by Latinos. From January to April 2017, there was a decline of more than 23% in sexual assault reports, although the department in a memo this year said there had since been a significant improvement in reporting in the Latino community.

Immigration status is irrelevant when we do our investigations, but we know for sure people are very much afraid of being deported and the repercussions of that, said Anna Park, regional attorney for the Los Angeles district office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thats not unique just to this industry, but that fear is heightened.

Isabel Martinez, 50, second from right, holds hands with Blanca Flores, 58, right, and other women while they close their eyes in a positive affirmation during a self-defense training session for janitors. (Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Lilia Garcia-Brower, 45, right, executive director of the Maintenance Cooperation Trust, leads self-defense training for janitors. (Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

On a recent Saturday morning, nearly a dozen women filtered into a drab room in South Los Angeles and sat in a circle around a wooden table. Some brought their daughters.

They meditated for about 20 minutes before Garcia-Brower asked them to think about the root of violence against women  and the mind-set that encourages it.

That the woman is less, that she cant defend herself, that she needs to rely on a man, Garcia-Brower said. Were completely opposed to that idea. Its a lie.

The instructors, some of them janitors themselves, had the women close their eyes and visualize how many windows were in the room, as well as the color of the walls and the carpet. They asked them to describe the clothing of the woman seated to their right. Many of them could not remember every detail.

It was a way to remind them to be alert.

In a skit, Lagunas pretended to be a supervisor showing employees a pornographic video while the women were on their lunch break.

This is abuse, Aguirre, who played one of the employees in the scene, told Lagunas in a firm tone. This isnt a place to be watching pornography  Im going to report you.

Maria Angeles said that when she started working as a janitor 20 years ago, co-workers would offer rides but expected sexual favors in return. She stuck to the bus, having to walk home alone in the early morning darkness.

That always happens, another woman replied. I had to sacrifice to buy a car.

The women later moved into a room where they discussed a mans physical weak spots, including the nose and the testicles. They practiced their self-defense moves on a dummy with a scowling face.

Veronica Orellana struck the target forcefully. The 54-year-old has been a janitor in L.A. for 25 years and continues working the night shift.

In 2005, a foreman who had been harassing her showed up drunk. Orellana said she was taking out the trash in an office just after midnight when he stepped inside and closed the door.

The foreman grabbed her, but Orellana was able to defend herself until co-workers found them and intervened. The company fired him.

Eight years ago, Angeles said, she was forced to physically fight back at work because a co-worker would not stop making sexual remarks to her.

I get angry knowing how many injustices happen on the night shift, the 50-year-old said, her voice cracking. If the buildings could talk, they would tell the stories of every one of us who have suffered.

brittny.mejia@latimes.com

For more California news, follow @brittny_mejiaThe Federation for American Immigration Reform, better known as FAIR, has long been one of the most influential organizations advocating for a crackdown on illegal immigration and strict limits on the legal variety.

One of its public faces was Joe Gomez, a Mexican American and African American who served as its press secretary from November to July.

We need to protect Americans, hed often say in interviews.

But after seven months of contending with what he described as racist slurs, discrimination and harassment from the groups management, Gomez has filed a discrimination complaint with the Office of Human Rights in Washington, a local governmental agency that enforce human rights and anti-discrimination laws in the district.

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Gomez, a 32-year-old independent and former NBC News Radio journalist who voted for President Trump, said that when he applied for the job the organizations leaders assured him they simply believed in the rule of law and were not racist.

The way they sold themselves was were against anyone who comes to the country illegally. We do not discriminate against blacks, whites, Latinos, Gomez said he was told. What I found was something utterly different.

In the complaint, which he filed late last month, he alleged discrimination based on both his race and severe anxiety that he developed on the job.

He said he was denied a bonus promised to him after a glowing six-month review. He also said that one colleague repeatedly used a derogatory term to refer to Latinos and that he was ridiculed for not being able to speak Spanish despite his heritage.

On one occasion, he alleged, another employee offered to pretend to be an illegal alien from Mexico and smear herself with mud for a film in which Gomez would play the lead role. Gomez declined to participate.

Gomez said hes asking for monetary compensation but wouldnt say how much. He pledged to donate most of any financial settlement he receives to immigrant charities.

FAIR President Dan Stein said in a statement that Joe was treated like a prince at FAIR and was respected by all.

Joe was never denied any benefit, opportunity or promotion on account of any impermissible basis, the statement said. Joe has furnished zero, not one shred of documented evidence to support his claims.

It also said the nonprofit has a diverse staff, including immigrants, people of color and  at the moment  at least two other Latino employees. With a budget of $11.2 million, the group has a total of 40 employees, according to its 2016 tax filing.

Gomez said in an interview that the derogatory comments were not directed only at him. Staff would also mock anti-immigration supporters who left messages on the groups Facebook page. He described a typical comment: Those are just people who are living in trailers who figured out the internet.

His job eventually became so stressful that he developed anxiety and would at times shake uncontrollably. That brought more ridicule, the complaint said.

Part of the stress came from friends and members of his own family.

His grandmother, who is Mexican American, didnt like the work he did and refused to accept the $200 hed send to her each month.

Its blood money, she would tell him.

cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

Follow Cindy Carcamo on Twitter @thecindycarcamoThe on-and-off boycott of In-N-Out Burger is officially off.

Eric Bauman, the chairman of the California Democratic Party who last week called for a boycott of the popular fast-food chain, on Monday declared there is no boycott, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Bauman attracted nationwide attention when he tweeted Aug. 29 that it was time to #BoycottInNOut because the chain had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the California Republican Party.

But even in deep-blue California, the call was greeted by a collective shrug by In-N-Outs many devotees.

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The state Democratic Party said the boycott was not official policy. And In-N-Out executives pointed out that the company has made political donations to Democrats as well.

Bauman was in Fresno on Monday for Labor Day festivities when he was asked about his tweet.

I put one tweet out at 10:30 at night and it turned into a whole thing, he said, according to the Bee. Weve raised so much money in small donations as a result of that one tweet and so many people have engaged with that tweet, almost a million people, so its amazing how it became this big boycott.

He added that he was planning to treat his staff to some burgers  at In-N-Out.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

Twitter: @boxallA Los Angeles police commander and a sergeant have been charged in connection with an alcohol-related incident in April in which Glendale police said they found the two intoxicated inside an unmarked police cruiser.

The Los Angeles County district attorneys office charged Cmdr. Nicole Mehringer with a single misdemeanor count of public intoxication and Sgt. James Kelly with one count of driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and one count of driving with a 0.08% blood-alcohol content.

The commander and sergeant were relieved of duty without pay since July 11, 2018, pending a disciplinary investigation, LAPD Capt. Patricia Sandoval said.

Prosecutors in the Aug. 31 criminal filings said Kelly, who was behind the wheel of the police Dodge Charger, had a blood-alcohol level that was 0.20% or more  more than twice the legal limit under California law. The two are expected to make their first court appearances Wednesday.

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Mehringer and Kelly were taken into custody about 1:45 a.m. April 27 near Lomita Avenue and Brand Boulevard in Glendale after officers saw their car had come to rest against another vehicle, Glendale police said. No one was hurt, but officers suspected the two had been drinking, Glendale Police Sgt. Dan Suttles said.

According to two law enforcement sources who were not authorized to discuss the incident, Mehringer and Kelly were passed out inside the vehicle when officers arrived. Officers determined that Kelly was under the influence, while Mehringer, who also showed signs of intoxication, became belligerent. It took officers about 20 minutes to get them out of the police cruiser, which had rolled into a silver Mercedes-Benz.

A video of the incident obtained by KTTV Channel 11 showed Mehringer being pulled from the car with her hands behind her back and her shirt pulled up. The video also showed Kelly, dressed in a blue dress shirt, struggling to stand and walk a straight line. At one point, Glendale officers have to keep him from falling.

Mehringer, who is identified on the Los Angeles Police Department website as Nicole Alberca, and Kelly had been assigned to the departments employee relations group at the time of their arrest.

Mehringer, 47, and Kelly, 46, spent a little over three hours in custody before they were released, according to jail records. Mehringer was promoted to commander in 2017 by then-Chief Charlie Beck and was considered a rising star inside the department.

Beck confirmed that an internal investigation was underway and said he was extremely concerned about the allegations.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes

UPDATES:

3 p.m.: This story was updated with details about the commander and sergeant being placed on unpaid leave in July.

This article was originally published at 12:35 p.m.Attorneys for the family of a woman who was killed by a police officers bullet during a shootout and hostage standoff at a Trader Joes in Silver Lake called on the Los Angeles Police Department to release more video of the incident and criticized the officers for firing their guns into a crowded store.

Melyda Corado, a 27-year-old store manager, came out of the store as a man who had led the officers on a vehicle pursuit exchanged gunfire with them.

The attorneys statements were a reaction to the LAPDs release on Tuesday of 911 calls, as well as videos of the pursuit and negotiations with the gunman that provide a fuller picture of the dramatic events that unfolded July 21 at a store that is a popular gathering place for locals.

The department had released some dashboard and body camera videos of the pursuit and shootout within days of the incident, with Chief Michel Moore announcing that Corado had been hit by an officers bullet.

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At a news conference Tuesday, Corado family attorneys called the latest video release a slickly produced public relations piece designed to shine a favorable light on the officers who fired their guns. The department has refused to give them the raw video of the shooting and the events leading up to it, they said.

One of the attorneys, John C. Taylor, said the shooting violated department policy because the officers had no tactical plan and shot when there were people on the sidewalk and in the store.

They got out of the vehicle already having made up their minds to fire their weapons, Taylor said. Without assessing the background, they shot towards the direction of the Trader Joes.

The family needs to see all the evidence before deciding whether to file a lawsuit, Taylor said.

The second batch of audio and video was released Tuesday as part of a new LAPD policy requiring recordings to be made public within 45 days of shootings by police officers. It does not contain new footage and does not shed further light on how Corado died.

Like other videos released under the new policy, the Trader Joes video was edited and narrated by department officials and doesnt contain all of the recordings related to the incident.

In a written statement, LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein said that the department demonstrated its commitment to transparency by releasing some video within days of the shooting.

The release of additional video was an effort to provide more context surrounding what happened on July 21, 2018, Rubenstein said. However, he said, there is both a criminal and administrative investigation that precludes us from providing any more video evidence at this time.

Investigators said the suspect, Gene Evin Atkins, ended up at the Trader Joes after shooting his grandmother several times at their South Los Angeles home. He is accused of forcing a young woman into his grandmothers car and driving with her to Hollywood, Cmdr. Alan Hamilton, who leads the LAPDs Force Investigations Division, said in the video released Tuesday.

In a 911 call about 1:30 p.m., a woman said to the dispatcher: The front house in front of me, I think its my aunts grandson just shot her.

She described the car used by the suspect to leave the scene  a dark blue 2017 Toyota Camry, heading west on East 32nd Street.

Another 911 caller said she heard multiple gunshots and screams.

Theres a guy who has a little girl. She has blood everywhere, the caller said before reciting the Camrys license plate number.

I seen him get out the house carrying a lady with blood, she added.

Police used a vehicle anti-theft system to track the Camry to Hollywood, Hamilton said.

Tuesdays video shows a police car pursuing the suspect on Vine Street near Hollywood Boulevard, passing the Capitol Records building.

At one point, the driver pulled into a gas station, where Hamilton said he attempted to carjack a customer. As the driver headed toward Silver Lake, the right front tire fell off, but he continued fleeing at high speeds.

The video then segues to previously released video of two police officers, identified by the LAPD as Sinlen Tse and Sarah Winans, pursuing the Camry on Rowena Avenue in Silver Lake. It includes a slow-motion replay of shots being fired through the Camrys back window.

Shots fired! Tse shouted to his partner as he swerved into oncoming lanes.

All right, partner, I got my gun out, Winans said after calling on the radio for help.

Do not, do not shoot, Tse told her. Get distance. We are getting distance.

Forty-five seconds later, the Camry veered into a utility pole in front of Trader Joes. The driver bolted for the entrance, shooting wildly from his hip, and the officers returned fire.

Corado is not visible in the video. According to Moore, an officers bullet passed through her arm before entering her body. Another bullet hit the suspect in the arm, but he made it into the store, Moore said.

After the initial exchange of gunfire, the video shows the officers taking cover behind a low wall. The gunman shot at them three more times from inside the store. One round landed with a loud ping.

Get your head down, an officer yelled.

Inside the store, the drama continued, with the gunman holding a group of shoppers and employees hostage for three hours. Several hostages tried to help Corado and carried her out of the store, but she was pronounced dead in an ambulance, Hamilton said.

The woman with Atkins during the police pursuit was treated for a gunshot wound to the head and taken to the hospital.

Tuesdays release contains an audio recording of a police officer speaking to the gunman by phone as the standoff neared an end.

OK, OK, that works for me, the officer said. Just OK, just do me a favor, just hang tight. Im gonna  Im gonna hang up right for you for one second. Ill call you right back, OK?

The officer then told colleagues to provide the gunman with handcuffs.

He says if you guys would throw a set of handcuffs in, hell have somebody handcuff him, the officer said.

Atkins faces 51 felony counts, including murder, kidnapping, premeditated attempted murder and attempted murder of a peace officer.

Though Atkins, 28, did not fire the round that killed Corado, prosecutors charged him under the provocative act murder doctrine because they say he set off the events that led to her death.

Moore has said that he will wait until the investigation is completed before determining what consequences, if any, the officers involved in the gun battle will face internally. But on its face, he said, their decision to shoot at Atkins appeared justified.

Investigators still have additional body camera recordings to analyze and many witnesses to interview, Rubenstein said on the video released Tuesday.

Corados father, Albert Corado Sr., said that working at Trader Joes was a dream come true for his daughter.

We have many questions about how Mely died, but we dont have any answers, Corado told reporters Tuesday. We are here to ask the Los Angeles Police Department to turn over all evidence so we can move on with our lives.

cindy.chang@latimes.com

For more news on the Los Angeles Police Department, follow me on Twitter: @cindychangLA

UPDATES:

7:50 p.m.: This article was updated with details from a news conference with the Corado family and their attorneys and was rewritten throughout.

This article was originally published at 12:45 p.m.An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer fatally shot his wife before killing himself after an altercation in a strip mall in Martell, Calif., the Amador County Sheriffs Office reported Tuesday.

Sheriffs deputies received a call about 10:45 p.m. Monday from the owner of Get Ripped Nutrition, a vitamin and supplement store, who said a man he knew to be a CHP officer and later identified as Brad Wheat was banging on the door, demanding to be let in, authorities said. The owner of the business was inside the store with Mary Wheat, 42, the mans wife.

Brad Wheat, 45, shot through the window to get inside the business, and an altercation between the Wheats and the shop owner began, sheriffs officials said. During the struggle, the business owner was shot in the shoulder.

The Wheats continued arguing and moved into the parking lot, where Brad Wheat shot his wife multiple times before turning the gun on himself, the sheriffs office reported.

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The shop owner was airlifted to a hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound.

We believe there was a relationship between the victim, the husband and his wife, said sheriffs spokesman Gary Redman, who did not provide further details.

Brad Wheat had been a CHP officer in Amador County for two years, Redman said.

Mary Wheat was the partial owner of a gym in the Martell area, Redman said. He could not confirm whether her husband also had ownership of the facility. The Sutter Creek couple had four children.Long Beach and Los Angeles County officials plan to offer up to $20,000 in reward money in the hope of solving the July killing of a Long Beach man whose family believes he was the victim of a hate crime.

Police have yet to identify a suspect or motive in the July 21 shooting death of Frederick Taft, 57, who was gunned down inside a bathroom at Pan American Park during a family reunion, authorities and relatives said.

A family friend previously told the Los Angeles Times that she saw a white man armed with a rifle fleeing the area shortly after Taft was shot, and his family contends Taft was targeted because of his race.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said she would ask the Board of Supervisors to post a $10,000 reward for information that would lead to an arrest in Tafts slaying. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said he plans to ask the City Council to match that figure at Tuesday nights council meeting.

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Fred Tafts life mattered, Hahn said, as dozens of his loved ones lined a room at Long Beach police headquarters. Some wore shirts that read Justice for Brother Taft or Black Lives Matter.

Investigators have offered little new information about the slaying since late July. Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna described the shooter as a white man in his 50s, approximately 6 feet tall with a medium build.

The man may have been wearing a dark shirt, light shorts and a hat on the day of the shooting, Luna said.

Luna would not comment on the type of weapon used.

There are no surveillance cameras in the park that could have captured images of the shooter, according to Luna, who would not say if investigators believed Taft was targeted.

We are not ruling out any possibility for this case, Luna said, while discussing the possibility that Taft was the victim of a hate crime. Every option is absolutely on the table.

Luna said there were hundreds of people in the park that day, and any one of them could have accidentally caught the killer in the background of a picture.

Taft was a truck driver and devoted family man who loved spending time with his grandchildren, relatives have said. More than 100 people visited the park in late July to hold a vigil in Tafts honor.

Corie Stewart, Tafts daughter, recounted a witness description of the slaying Tuesday morning. Her father, she said, was shot in the back of the head while using the restroom.

While the family have concerns over the way the case has been handled, Stewart said they ultimately just need to know why their loved one was killed.

We are all devastated and heartbroken, she said. We need answers.

james.queally@latimes.com

Twitter: @JamesQueallyLATIn July of last year, volunteers mounted 375 green-and-black bicycles and pedaled them across Pasadena to celebrate the citys enrollment in the fledgling Los Angeles County bike-share program.

Fourteen months later, the bicycles are gone.

Pasadena was the second city to join the Metropolitan Transportation Authority program, which allows riders to check out bikes for short trips and drop them off near their destinations.

Pasadena officials hoped bike-sharing would help commuters make connections between work, home and the Metro Gold Line without getting behind the wheel. Instead, the bicycles saw an average of less than one ride a day, according to city data.

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The bikes were not used as anticipated, said Pasadena spokeswoman Lisa Derderian, who noted that the citys average monthly bill was $100,000. The last bike-sharing kiosks, at the Rose Bowl and the Pasadena Museum of California Art, were removed last week.

Trips taken on Pasadenas portion of the bike-share system have dropped 36% over 10 months. (City of Pasadena)

Pasadenas quick exit from the bike-share program is a blow for Metro, which has struggled to attract riders since 1,100 bikes were put into use two years ago in downtown Los Angeles.

Metro has added bicycles and rental kiosks in Venice, at the Port of Los Angeles and at Echo Park Lake. But most of the city has no rental bikes, which experts say limits ridership.

The downtown bicycles see an average of 0.7 rides a day, and those in Venice are ridden about 1.2 times a day, according to the city. The figures are dramatically lower than systems in other major cities, including New York, Mexico City, Chicago and San Francisco.

In an effort to invigorate sluggish ridership, Metro halved its fares in July, reducing the cost of a 30-minute ride to $1.75 from $3.50. Income rose 2% during the first month of lower fares, suggesting that customers have responded to the price cut by riding more, said Metro Deputy Executive Officer Frank Ching.

But the agency continues to face stiff competition from other operators, including CycleHop, which runs the bike-share systems in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and on the UCLA campus. Those networks use a dockless model that allows users to leave bikes anywhere, rather than at a kiosk or a dock.

Metro is considering similar technology, which would add more flexibility to the system, Ching said.

The more unexpected competition has come in the form of electric scooters. Companies such as Bird and Lime have flooded the Westside and Mid-City with the small, battery-powered devices that cost $1 to rent and 15 cents a minute to ride, and can be left just about anywhere.

They compete for the same users  and often, much more successfully, said Juan Matute, deputy director of UCLAs Institute of Transportation Studies. Youre not walking an extra two or three blocks from where the dock is to where you want to go.

Still, privately funded systems have their drawbacks, Ching said, including the possibility that the company will leave with no warning and no alternative.

Our focus is on longevity. Frank Ching, Metro deputy executive officer

Two bike-share companies left Seattle this summer after the City Council approved a $250,000 annual permit fee for dockless bicycle companies. In August, Bird and Lime shut down their operations in Santa Monica for a day to protest the citys proposal to award permits to their rivals.

Santa Monica backtracked on those recommendations last week, proposing a permit process that would allow four companies  including Bird and Lime  to operate up to 750 scooters and dockless bicycles each.

Our focus is on longevity, Ching said. Were not just going to bring in a bunch of bicycles and leave them on the street, and were not going to decide one day to no longer service the location.

He added: Does that mean our program is for every city of different sizes, with different resources? Maybe not.

Choosing Metros system, which requires that cities cover 65% of the operating costs, is a difficult proposition for local officials when private companies offer similar services for free.

Pasadena spent more than $2.7 million on the bike-share program over 14 months, according to city reports. User fees and memberships paid for less than 7% of the operating costs, meaning the 31 stations were nearly 94% subsidized.

By comparison, Monrovia launched a bike-share program in March funded by LimeBike at no cost to the city. A half-hour ride on one of the 200 lime-green bicycles costs $1.

Metro bikes rest at a station outside City Hall in Pasadena in July. The city is terminating its contract with Metro one year after the bike racks and black-and-green bicycles popped up on streets across the city. (Gabriel S. Scarlett / Los Angeles Times)

Most bike-sharing systems do not begin to cover their costs through memberships and user fees. In New York, San Francisco and other U.S. cities, corporate sponsors underwrite some or all of the operational costs in exchange for advertising on bicycles and station kiosks.

Advertising could have raised up to $750,000 a year for Pasadena, city officials estimated. But more than two years after the launch of the bike-share system, Metro has not secured a sponsor.

We never stopped looking, said Ching, who took over the bike-share program at the start of the year. Metro had been approached by two national companies, he said, but he declined to name them.

Ching said there was some limitation in how sponsorship could work in the city of Los Angeles, where most of the system is based. Exclusive advertising rights for street furniture, including bus stops and advertising kiosks, belong to the firm Outfront JCDecaux through 2021.

But Elena Stern, a spokeswoman for the citys Bureau of Street Services, said Outfront JCDecaux had already committed to allowing sponsor labels and advertisements on the bicycles and kiosks.

The statement about the citys contract  preventing the bike-share vendor from obtaining a corporate sponsor seems to be inaccurate, she said in an email.

A similar issue with on-street advertising scuttled a 2012 bike-share plan proposed by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had envisioned up to 4,000 bicycles at 400 kiosks across L.A., at no cost to the city.

For the time being, Metro is pursuing more modest advertising and revenue strategies, including allowing local businesses to sponsor ads on as few as a dozen bicycles, Ching said.

In October, Metro will begin offering free transfers from trains and buses to shared bicycles, meaning passengers will be able to step off a transit vehicle and get on a bicycle without paying again, Ching said.

The hope, he said, is that free transfers will help passengers think of bike sharing as part of the transit network and spur ridership among commuters who currently walk, carry their own bikes or call an Uber or Lyft for the last legs of their trips.

Metro also plans to expand the system to Culver City, Marina del Rey, Palms, Westlake, Koreatown and Silver Lake later this year, at a cost of $35 million over five years. The expansion will add more stations near transit stops and create bigger contiguous areas for picking up and dropping off bicycles.

As the system expands, Ching said, Metro expects ridership to rise: It takes time for the public to adapt.

laura.nelson@latimes.com

For more transportation news, follow @laura_nelson on Twitter.A 60-year old man was fatally injured and a boy was critically hurt when their small plane struck a building after taking off from a Pacoima airport Monday.

The pilot radioed an unspecified problem before the Cessna 150L clipped a building and landed upside down shortly after 5 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

L.A. County Fire Department personnel based at Whiteman Airport doused flames and rendered emergency aid to the man, who was in cardiac arrest, and a 12-year-old boy.

The two were transported to an area trauma center, where the man died, according to City News Service.

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bettina.boxall@latimes.comPolice are investigating a fatal shooting on a boat at a National City marina early Tuesday that occurred after a man called 911 to report an intruder.

A man aboard a 70-foot catamaran docked at the Pier 32 Marina on Marina Way called police around 4 a.m. to report an intruder on his boat, said police Sgt. Damian Ballardo.

The man, his wife and a dog had been sleeping on the boat when they were awakened by someone coming onto the vessel.

By time police arrived, the intruder had been shot and killed. His body was found by police on the boat.

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It is not known if the intruder had a weapon. Investigators havent yet moved the body, Ballardo said.

No one else was injured. Investigators are talking with the man involved in the shooting, he said.

Kucher writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.For Randy Weston, Africa was the wellspring of music  the spiritual and rhythmic source of blues, African American spirituals, samba, bossa nova and, above all, jazz.

Weston, who was 92 when he died Sept. 1 at his home in Brooklyn, was among the most prominent ambassadors for traditional African music in the United States. A revered jazz pianist and composer, he incorporated that continents complicated rhythms, tonalities and call-and-response patterns in records that ushered in a new era of transatlantic fusion.

More than any other musician, composer, or bandleader of his generation, Weston is responsible for fusing modern jazz and African music, giving birth to an entirely new musical genre, said historian Robin D.G. Kelley , who charted Westons musical development in the book Africa Speaks, America Answers.

Musically restless, with a sound that continually evolved over his more than six-decade career, Weston claimed the entire African continent as inspiration and also drew from Caribbean and Indian musical traditions, the field hollers of American slaves and the Broadway show tunes of Cole Porter.

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Even as a young man in Brooklyn, where he lived across the street from pianist Eddie Heywood, hung out with drummer Max Roach and befriended trumpeter Miles Davis, Westons musical interests ranged far beyond modern jazz.

Introduced to Middle Eastern and North African instruments by bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Weston said he sought to play the notes between the cracks, microtones that arent found in Western music. In his 2010 autobiography African Rhythms, written with Willard Jenkins, he wrote that he soon discovered pianist Thelonious Monk was already playing that way  and began spending hours at Monks home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, learning from the master pianist and composer.

Im convinced Monk came out of the ancient times because when he played the piano it was no longer a piano, it became for me another instrument entirely, Weston said. When I heard Monk play the piano it stretched my imagination for what I could do on the instrument; suddenly the possibilities seemed endless.

Weston went on to distinguish himself in the 1950s with original compositions such as Saucer Eyes, Pams Waltz and Little Niles, a waltzing number with a title that referenced his young son Niles, who later played percussion under the name Azzedin Weston.

His breakout song was Hi-Fly, which the 6-foot-7 Weston described as a tale of being my height and looking down at the ground. It has since become a jazz standard, recorded by artists including Jon Hendricks, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughan, Art Blakey and Cannonball Adderley.

Weston surprised some critics, and many of his listeners, when he turned toward a more African-inflected sound, beginning with his 1960 album Uhuru Afrika (Swahili for Freedom Africa). Recorded with a 24-piece band, the record featured lyrics and an opening poem by his friend Langston Hughes, who wrote of freedom from colonial rule and empowerment for African women  leading South Africas apartheid government to ban the record.

Weston had not yet visited Africa at the time of the albums release, but he went on to travel widely on the continent and spend five years living in Morocco, where he ran a music venue in Tangier called the African Rhythms Club, lectured on jazz and learned from local musicians.

I went on a spiritual trip back home, Weston explained to DownBeat magazine in 1998. I wanted to hear where I came from, why I play like I play, why we play music like we do. We went to about 18 countries, and wherever we went we asked to experience the traditional music of the people. Hearing the traditional music was like hearing jazz and blues and the black church all at the same time.

Randolph Edward Weston was born in Brooklyn on April 6, 1926, to parents who separated when he was a boy and required him to take piano lessons at a young age. His father was Panamanian with Jamaican ancestry and was a supporter of the Pan-African message of Marcus Garvey.

Weston served in the Army during World War II and returned home to work in his fathers restaurant, Trios, which served Caribbean food and became a favorite of musicians.

He released his debut album in 1954, Cole Porter in a Modern Mood,  and his final one, The African Nubian Suite, in 2016. It was Westons 50th album.

In 2001, he was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Weston is survived by his wife, three daughters, seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. The cause of death was not immediately known.Two months ago, the long-awaited release of the Trump administrations ambitious plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, what the president has called the ultimate deal, seemed imminent.

President Trumps two top envoys to the peace process  Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and advisor, and Jason Greenblatt, a former senior Trump Organization lawyer  had prepared and begun to circulate a 40-page draft.



For the record: An earlier version of this article misspelled Nimrod Noviks last name as Novick.

But the proposal hit a wall. Persian Gulf Arab states, which have courted and been courted by Trump, flatly rejected terms they saw as radical, pro-Israel and out of line with traditional U.S. policy and international law, according to officials familiar with the peace-seeking process.

Jordan and Egypt, which had similarly promising beginnings with Trump, also scotched the terms.

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As a result of that opposition, the administration backed away from publicly revealing its plan and has switched to a different approach: increasing pressure on the Palestinians in hopes of pushing them to the negotiating table.

The Palestinian leadership has refused to talk to the U.S. team since Trump decided in December to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, upending decades of U.S. policy because the holy city is also claimed by the Palestinians.

Kushner and Greenblatt, who have supported right-wing Israeli causes such as the expansion of Jewish settlements in land claimed by the Palestinians, have backed a strategy of punishing the Palestinians as part of an effort  so far unsuccessful  to change their stance. The two men have been joined in their approach by David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and Trumps former bankruptcy lawyer, who has also supported the Israeli right wing.

The administration has largely kept its plan under wraps. But based on what officials have presented to other countries and comments by current and former American officials, some details have become known.

The plan would not grant any part of Jerusalem proper to the Palestinians. It would leave in place nearly all current Jewish settlements in the West Bank. And it would allow Israel to retain control of airspace over the entire region as well as the border along the Jordan River on the eastern edge of the West Bank and Israel.

Finally, the plan would eliminate the so-called right of return: the idea that some Palestinians whose families lived in what is now Israel before the nations independence would have the right to regain land.

Those terms would require the Palestinians to give up much of their long-standing demands. In the most recent example of the administrations effort to pressure them into acceptance, the State Department announced Friday that the United States will no longer contribute to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, calling the it an irredeemably flawed operation.

Until the Palestinians stop bashing the United States and agree to return to negotiations, they can expect to lose U.S. aid, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said last week at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative think tank in Washington.

Arab countries should aid the Palestinians more themselves, rather than expect the U.S. to pay for it, Haley and other U.S. officials say.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration cut in half its contribution to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides schools, medical care and other assistance to 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Jordan.

The decision announced Friday will end the U.S. contribution entirely, cutting off about $315 million  or about one-third of the U.N. agencys total annual budget. Critics say that will exacerbate humanitarian problems and foment instability that could threaten Israel.

The Trump administration has several complaints about the U.N. agency, but the one that potentially has the most far-reaching impact is that UNWRA vastly overcounts the number of eligible refugees. The U.N. counts as refugees not just the 700,000 Arabs driven from their homes by Israels 1948 independence war, but also millions of their descendants, Haley noted.

She spurred headlines in the Middle East when she added that the right of return -- must be reexamined.

The refugee issue is a fundamental cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most experts agree a right of return has become more an abstract idea than a real possibility; under most peace proposals in recent decades, a small number of Palestinians might be allowed to return to land in Israel while most would receive compensation. Still, successive U.S. administrations declined to jettison the concept altogether, saying that the status of refugees should be one of the final issues resolved in a peace agreement.

Veteran Mideast diplomats say the administrations attack on UNWRA represents an effort to undercut the Palestinians by denying one of their chief demands even before negotiations restart.

The U.S. drive to change the long-established principles of a deal have been more than music to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Nimrod Novik, former advisor to the late Israeli prime minister and peacemaker Shimon Peres.

I suspect that he has been the driving force behind it: Take Jerusalem off the table, then take refugees off too, said Novik, a fellow at the New York-based Israel Policy Forum, which advocates for Israeli and Palestinian states coexisting side by side. All before we change attitudes on security and eventually on borders as well.

The Palestinian leadership blasted Haleys comments and the cutoff in UNRWA funds as an affront to international law that demonstrated hostility to Palestinians and their rights.

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank, said Trumps envoys were proposing that Palestinians form a confederation with Jordan, already home to millions of Palestinian refugees.

Abbas and his supporters saw the U.S. proposal as a thinly veiled attempt to subvert the goal of Palestinian statehood.

Kushner and Greenblatt, unable to gain traction on their broader plan, have also sought to turn attention to the impoverished Gaza Strip, a seafront enclave hemmed in by Israel and Egypt. Theyve proposed investment and an influx of aid to Gaza, primarily to be paid for by Arab countries.

That seemed to contradict the U.S. goal of seeing the Palestinian Authority displace Gazas militant Hamas rulers.

Kushner has said he was uninterested in the history or background of the generations-old and seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But diplomats, experts and even the Israeli military caution that siding so heavily with Israel, and taking from Palestinians any hope for eventual independence, could lead to more violence in the region.

David Harden, a former assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, who led operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Obama administration, agrees that UNRWA currently subsidizes dysfunction and must be reformed. But he said the Trump administrations approach is likely to backfire.

You cant go from 100% to zero [funding] overnight, Harden said. It will create a vacuum. And who will step in to fill it? The Palestinian Authority? Israel? No one will pay. And that creates a big opening for Hamas, the Islamist organization that controls Gaza and is considered a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S.

David D. Pearce, who served as U.S. consul general in Jerusalem in the George W. Bush administration, echoed that warning.

It will not create diplomatic leverage to take away funding for schools and health services, he said on Twitter. It will create hatred.

The administration sees this as an opportunity to realign American policy in a way not seen in 25 years, veteran Mideast negotiator Aaron David Miller said, and to make it more difficult for successive administrations to reset.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on TwitterThere is an old bazooka resting on the white ventilation system just above Lynn Pangs head.

We dont have ammunition for that, she says cheerily.

But the Waikiki Gun Club seems to have most everything else. There are AR-15s, AK-47s and a Beowulf .50-caliber beast that comes equipped with a monopod beneath the barrel to support its heavy frame.

The place is tucked in a sliver of property on bustling Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. Sandwiched between Electric Paradise Tattoo and Laulea (which sells flip-flops, handbags and suitcases), the club could be passed easily. Nearby is an upscale ramen restaurant, a Prada store and plate-glass windows highlighting expensive jewelry.

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Its low-profile is one reason manager Eric Yang has people handing out fliers to the herds of tourists wandering the sidewalks  their arms loaded with name-brand shopping bags and clutching smartphones to take pictures of paradise.

Yang said most of his customers come from Australia, China and Japan  places with much stricter gun laws than the United States. He said his gun range is a chance for these visitors to shoot weapons they couldnt even see, let alone touch, in their home countries.

For 13 hours a day, six days a week, and 12 hours on Sunday, the door is open. A sign reads, Experience Live Firearms! Feel the Power! Above, a neon outline of a gun glows red, promising a tantalizing, titillating moment of adrenaline fueled by Hollywood action heroes. Right by the front desk, a squinting John Wayne is pictured, bracketed by his famous line, A mans got to do what a mans got to do.

A leaflet distributor for the Waikiki Gun Club works the sidewalk outside a shopping complex in Honolulu. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

A group of eight Chinese visitors arrives on a Sunday afternoon. They speak no English, but Pang collects their payments, looks at their passports and has them sign the paperwork. Each of them is given a pen with a bright yellow plastic flower attached to the end. As they all sign, it looks like a row of flowers waving in a light breeze. Catchy pop music plays in the background.

Behind Pang are bright screens that display what resembles a menu from a fast-food restaurant.

Theres the A Course, which is a basic package of three handguns and 36 shots for $79. The C Course is the most popular, Pang said. Its like a combo meal for gun enthusiasts: three handguns, three rifles and 55 rounds for $149. The super-sized option features more exotic fare, including a 9-millimeter Uzi.

After shooting packages and targets are chosen, the customers walk past printed images featuring the U.S. Marine Corps, a Sept. 11 memorial poster and another showing shooting champion Todd Jarrett.

A black door is buzzed and they walk through and wait in a small holding area before another door opens to the shooting range.

A Chinese tour group waits to fill out paperwork before entering the shooting range at the Waikiki Gun Club. The place is well equipped with firearms, including AR-15s and AK-47s. Many of the stores visitors cant shoot, or even see, these weapons in their home countries. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Only those who pay to shoot are allowed in the indoor range. But observers can watch the action on a black-and-white monitor in the narrow waiting area lined with two benches.

One of the older women holds a rifle uncomfortably while an instructor helps her. In the lane next to her, a man levels a handgun and squeezes off a few rounds. In the waiting area, the sounds of the shots can be heard  deep, low thuds that sound like a hammer hitting a wall.

Pang stands behind the counter doing paperwork and doesnt look up while the guns fire from the other side of the wall. Shes worked here about a year and said shed never fired a gun until taking the job at the front desk. Pang said that its a way to make some extra money and that shes since learned to fire a pistol. Shotguns scare her, though. Too big, she says with a laugh.

When the Chinese tourists are done  less than 30 minutes  the older woman in flared pants and flip-flops holds her target in front of her and smiles while her picture is taken with a smartphone. The others compare their zombie-themed targets. Several of the zombies appeared to have survived the onslaught.

Gun restrictions in China are among the toughest in the world, and for most citizens, possession is a criminal offense that can lead to jail time. Pang said most of the Chinese and Japanese customers who come to the Waikiki Gun Club have never fired a gun. She said visitors from Japan and China account for more than 70% of their customers.

Marcus Axisa of Australia, left, gestures as if holding a firearm while talking with Oliver Girard of Canada while waiting for their turn in at the Waikiki Gun Club in Honolulu. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

While waiting to pay for a shooting session, Oliver Girard, left, from Canada and Marcus Axisa, center, from Australia look at firearms on display in the lobby of the Waikiki Gun Club in Honolulu. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Australians tend to account for the rest of the visitors.

Marcus Axisa, 28, showed up to shoot guns that are impossible to fire in Sydney. According to Philip Alpers, adjunct associate professor at the University of Sydneys School of Public Health, many of the guns at the Waikiki Gun Club  such as the AR-15  are rarely used in Australia.

Under the countrys most restrictive Category D firearm license, a very small number of professional shooters of vertebrate pests are permitted to possess semi-auto rifles such as the AR-15, Alpers said in an email to The Times. These are the real Croc Dundees.

The AR-15 is the one Axisa, a gun owner, liked best and one he couldnt get his hands on in Sydney. He shot six guns at the Waikiki range and proved to be most accurate with the gun he had fired the least, the AR-15.

It felt good, he said. Easy to handle.

Yang said the range has been around since 1988 and has a second location a few miles away. They work with touring companies in Japan and China to bring in visitors, offering discounts through prepaid vouchers that are redeemed at the counter.

Exotic guns are a draw, but Dave Kopel, a prolific author on firearms laws and a Cato Institute associate policy analyst, said almost all the guns at the range would be considered exotic to most of the customers  even a 9-millimeter Glock handgun.

For the Japanese visitor, its like doing something youve never done before at all, Kopel said. For the Australian, its like doing something you might be familiar with, but with different tools you havent used before.

david.montero@latimes.com | Twitter: @davemonteroThe U.S.-China trade war escalated again in late August, with each side imposing duties on an additional $16 billion of imports from the other. That brings the total value of exports exposed to duties to more than $50 billion each way, with billions more in the crosshairs. Despite assurances from President Trump, this may be a long and costly conflict with economic casualties mounting on both sides of the Pacific.

Trumps trade team argues that the duties are needed to force China to improve its protection of intellectual property and reform its trade policies more generally. So far, however, the brinksmanship has yielded nothing positive. No formal talks are scheduled to resolve differences. If the stalemate continues, the Trump administration has plans to slap duties on another $200 billion in imports.

In pressing the conflict, Trump makes the simple calculation that the United States is guaranteed to win because we buy a lot more goods from China ($505 billion in 2017) than they buy from us ($130 billion). That should mean that they will run out of U.S. products to target long before we do. But this ignores the fact that our commercial ties with China are about more than exporting goods.

Trump is dead wrong to believe that we can easily win a trade war with China or any of our major trading partners.

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Beyond tariffs, China could also retaliate by turning the screws on U.S. service exports. The people of China buy close to $60 billion a year in services from suppliers in the United States, more than half of that spent on freight and passenger transportation and on business and personal travel. The Chinese government is already discouraging Chinese citizens from visiting the United States, which will impose a significant hit on the U.S. hospitality industry.

In addition to cross-border trade, China is a huge market for U.S. direct investment and sales through affiliates. According to the most recent figures from the Department of Commerce, in 2015 U.S. multinationals operating in China sold $294 billion in U.S.-branded goods and $59 billion in services. In contrast, Chinese-owned affiliates in the United States sold only $22 billion that year to U.S. customers.

If we add up what Americans sell to the people of China each year through exports of goods and services and sales through affiliates, the total is more than $500 billion. That is almost exactly the same grand total that Americans spend on goods and services imported from China and supplied by its affiliates in the United States.

Clearly, both sides have a lot  almost exactly the same amount  to lose from commercial warfare.

A recent World Bank study confirms that neither side will win a protracted trade war. At the current level of tariff retaliation, the World Bank estimates that each country will suffer a drop in annual exports of about $40 billion. If retaliation escalates to include all two-way trade in goods and services, Chinese exports to the United States would fall by $190 billion and U.S. exports to China by $166 billion.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

If the trade war results in a half-percentage point drop in investment as a share of gross domestic product, as the World Bank quite reasonably assumes it could, the damage would be multiplied. Such a worst-case scenario would result in a $426-billion loss to the Chinese economy and a $313-billion loss to the U.S. economy. The biggest losers in the United States will be agriculture, chemicals and transport equipment. It will be cold comfort to Americans who lose their jobs and their businesses that our loss is somewhat smaller than what our government inflicts on China.

Trump is dead wrong to believe that we can easily win a trade war with China or any of our major trading partners. The record on his kind of trade confrontation is not encouraging. Dating back to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, American politicians have tended to underestimate or ignore the readiness of foreigners to retaliate and their reluctance to surrender.

We seem to be condemned to learning the lesson all over again that trade wars are for losers.

Daniel Griswold is a senior research fellow and co-director of the Trade and Immigration Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookTo the editor: Abolishing the electoral college is not an issue as flippant as flag burning, as Michael Kinsley implies, and it is well worth our time.

If the idea is akin to opening a Pandoras box, here are some of the awful consequences I foresee: increased voter participation and an understanding that everyones vote is equal to another. A vote in Wyoming would no longer be worth exponentially more than one in California. There would still be attention on smaller states and rural issues during the primaries. Finally, a president would be elected by the majority vote of the people  how terrifying!

Amending the Constitution is not the only way to fix this. Right now, 11 states and the District of Columbia are signed on to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which awards states electoral votes to the candidate with the most votes nationwide. Right now, these states account for 172 electoral votes; once that number reaches 271, the electoral college would become obsolete, like it should be.

Jonah Glickman, Sherman Oaks

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..

To the editor: I agree with Kinsley that trying to tamper with the Constitution is a waste of time. Yet some states disperse their electoral votes based on the popular vote distribution; that is, the votes are divvied up proportionally and not based on winner takes all.

This is totally apolitical. If every state had adopted this distribution in 2016, we may have a different president now. There would be no dispute about the popular will of the people versus the electoral college vote.

In California alone, millions of Trump votes would not have simply been thrown in the trash. Similarly, the 2000 election might not have been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dave Cronkey, El Cajon

..

To the editor: Kinsleys op-ed article was first-rate.

So long as we are the United States of America and not the United Cities, there is a need for the electoral college. Since much of the so-called flyover country is where our food supply originates, tilting policies completely toward the urban centers, the inevitable result of running things strictly on the popular vote, is self-defeating.

Kinsley points to a more pressing issue: We live in an age of vitriol. The right finds villains everywhere, and the left searches ceaselessly for victims. They bloody the waters of discourse trying to prove which side is more virtuous.

Michael Jenning, Van Nuys

..

To the editor: Kinsley accurately describes the devastatingly undemocratic effects of the perversion of democracy that is the electoral college (and in passing, the disproportionate representation of small-state residents in the Senate).

Finally, in the last paragraph, he presents his solitary argument against a constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college: It might encourage others to suggest additional amendments.

Kinsleys is a pretty weak argument.

Brian Masson, Harbor City

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookTo the editor: Boycott In-N-Out? Over a $25,000 contribution to the California Republican Party? When the company was an equal opportunity offender, also donating to a group that supports moderate Democrats?

Thoughtful Democrats should take this as their cue to head for the exits and join the ranks of decline to state voters in California.

The intransigence on both sides of our reigning political duopoly is no better illustrated  and begging for corrective action  than in California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Baumans petty and petulant call to arms.

Ged Kenslea, North Hollywood

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Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookBrett M. Kavanaugh, President Trumps Supreme Court nominee, is a well-regarded judge with strongly conservative views on presidential power, gun rights and environmental protection. He will almost surely tip the court to the right on abortion, affirmative action and religion.

But the most important fact as Kavanaugh goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday is a number: It is made up of 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

This weeks four-day hearing promises to be contentious at times when disgruntled Democrats press the nominee to answer their questions, and dry and dull at other times when Republicans offer praise and lob him softballs. Tuesdays hearing will feature only opening statements from senators and Kavanaugh, with questioning  and the real fireworks  to begin Wednesday.

But barring a major surprise, it will end with him winning approval on a straight party-line vote. His nomination will then move to the Senate floor, where Republicans hold a 51-49 edge.

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I think the handwriting is on the wall. I think he will be confirmed pretty handily and probably by the end of September, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sits on the Judiciary Committee and is the majority whip.

Veteran Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who is retiring at the end of this year, said he expects to play defense for Kavanaugh, and to rehabilitate or to help him if he needs it. I know the man. Hes a very good choice.

The partisan divide is sharp and clear in the Judiciary Committee. Since Trump took office last year, the White House and the committee have worked in tandem to swiftly approve conservative nominees for the courts, including Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and 26 new appellate judges. While a few nominees opted to withdraw after encountering criticism, none has been blocked by the committee, despite the slim GOP margin.

But Democrats are determined to put up a fight over Kavanaugh, believing his conservative views would not be popular if they were widely understood.

Im going to be asking about his view of privacy rights, womens healthcare and healthcare generally, whether the president is immune from the legal process if he is subpoenaed by a grand jury, whether the president is above the law, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said. The audience is the American people and our colleagues, and the two are closely related, because the American people need to know whats at stake and the impacts on their everyday lives.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is expected to pose questions on abortion and the fate of the Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling.

Trump promised to appoint justices who would vote to overturn the right to abortion, and this fall, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch could join a court where three conservatives have already voted to cut back on or repeal the abortion right. And a direct challenge to Roe vs. Wade could come to the court within a year since several Republican-controlled states have recently adopted laws that, if upheld, would all but end legal abortions.

Still, Kavanaugh is not likely to reveal his views on abortion or the Roe decision. In the past, nominees steered around the question by saying they agree the Constitution protects a right to privacy, but then refusing to say whether this privacy right extends to abortion. Two senators who met with Kavanaugh in mid-August came away with quite different understandings of his views.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate who supports abortion rights, said she had an excellent meeting with Kavanaugh in which he described the Roe decision as settled law. She said she was reassured and signaled she is likely to vote to confirm him.

Later the same day, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he was troubled because Kavanaugh in a meeting with him refused to say whether the abortion ruling was correctly decided or whether a woman had a right to end an early pregnancy.

I asked Judge Kavanaugh about certain restrictions on a womans right to choose, such as banning abortion after four weeks or six weeks, he told reporters afterward. He would not say that any of those constituted an undue burden on a womans right. Even four weeks, he would not say it was an undue burden.

The issue of presidential power is likely to be the focus of many questions, both because of Kavanaughs views and President Trumps legal troubles. In speeches and court opinions, Kavanaugh has espoused versions of the unitary executive theory, which is sometimes said to mean the president has the constitutional power to hire, fire and control all the officers of the U.S. government. If so, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III could be fired directly by the president, and the status of many of the so-called independent agencies could be in doubt.

Kavanaugh also wrote law review articles in 1998 and 2009 that questioned whether a president can be investigated while in office, except by Congress under its impeachment power. In the weeks ahead, Mueller could subpoena Trump and insist he answer questions under oath. If the president refused  or fired Mueller  the Supreme Court could be called upon to decide whether the Constitution shields the president from a criminal subpoena or from a special counsels investigation.

In 1974, the high court unanimously rejected President Nixons claims of executive privilege and ruled he must turn over the Watergate tapes to the special prosecutor. But the justices have not ruled directly on whether the president can be compelled, like any citizen, to honor a grand jurys order to answer questions.

This hearing could be a national seminar on whether the president is above the law. And the timing couldnt be better, said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

Kavanaugh may be pressed to explain the stark contrast between his call for shielding presidents from investigations and his role in the aggressive investigation of President Clinton during the 1990s. He was a leading player, working under independent counsel Kenneth Starr, in pushing for the impeachment of Clinton for lying about his affair with a White House intern.

Much depends on whether the senators can ask questions and demand answers. Most nominees are cautious and say as little as possible.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has tripped up nominees in the past by pressing them on legal questions, and he says he will press Kavanaugh as well.

I take it very seriously. These jobs are for life, he said. The nominee has to answer my questions straight up and convince me that he is qualified to be appointed to the most powerful, unelected position in the most powerful country in all human history.

But Kennedy acknowledged the hearings are politically charged, and said the Democrats may try to use it to score points against the nominee. Im hoping for a reasoned discussion, he said, but it could as well turn into a junior high school cafeteria food fight. Im hoping it doesnt, but it could.

Times staff writers Jennifer Haberkorn and Sarah D. Wire contributed to this report.

The latest from Washington 

More stories from David G. Savage 

david.savage@latimes.com

Twitter: DavidGSavageJon Kyl, a retired three-term U.S. senator, was chosen Tuesday to fill the vacant seat of the late John McCain, delivering Republicans a reliably conservative vote and less irascible workmate to bolster their thin majority on Capitol Hill.

But Kyl, 76, complicated matters for Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who made the choice, by committing to serve only through the current session of Congress ending in January. Ducey or his successor may then have to pick yet another interim senator to replace Kyl and serve until a candidate chosen in the next general election, in November 2020, is seated.

There is no one in Arizona with the stature of Sen. Jon Kyl, Ducey said in a sober appearance announcing his selection at the state Capitol in Phoenix. He is a man without comparable peer. With nearly two decades experience in the Senate, serving alongside John McCain, Sen. Kyl is prepared to hit the ground running.

His swearing-in was expected as soon as Wednesday.

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Kyl, who has worked as a Washington lobbyist since leaving office in 2013, was already helping the White House shepherd the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh through the Senate. Now, Ducey noted, he will be able to cast a vote in Kavanaughs favor, as McCain had been expected to do.

The appointment was praised by the late senators widow, Cindy, and the couples daughter, Meghan, each of whom was touted as a possible successor  though both were scorned by the far right wing of the Arizona GOP, which feuded with McCain for years.

Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona.  Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 4, 2018

Meghan McCain weighed in with her own Twitter commendation. I can think of no one better to keep fighting for the country and state he held so dear, she wrote. He has always been a true statesman and a friend to my family.

The death of McCain last month at age 81 presented Ducey with both an opportunity and a dilemma.

Under state law, he was obliged to appoint a Republican. But the Arizona GOP is one of the most deeply divided in the country, torn between pragmatists who supported McCain and the states other GOP senator, Jeff Flake, and hard-line conservative activists who loathed both men, especially for their criticisms of President Trump.

Caught in the middle was Ducey, who is up for reelection in November against Democrat David Garcia. Although he is favored to win the contest, Ducey could ill afford to antagonize his Republican base or the states sizable number of independent voters, who are turned off by extremes in both parties.

Kyl was seen as his safest choice. Before stepping down in January 2013, he was well regarded within the GOP and respected by Democrats on Capitol Hill, where he served in a number of leadership positions in a distinctly low-key manner.

Very reliable. Very safe, Chuck Coughlin, a longtime Republican strategist who was close to McCain, said of Kyls selection. Hes a workhorse. He doesnt pick unnecessary fights.

Moreover, Coughlin noted, he got the blessing of the McCain family right out of the gate.

The announcement bolsters the GOP ranks on Capitol Hill, where the Republicans 51-49 majority dwindled to a single vote during McCains prolonged retreat to Arizona for medical care.

Kyl is expected to be a far more reliable partisan vote than his predecessor, who occasionally broke with his party, including, most notably, casting a decisive vote last summer against GOP efforts to kill Obamacare.

Still, Kyl has been critical of the president, if not his policies. In a February interview with radio station KJZZ in Phoenix, Kyl called Trump boorish, a phenomenon that has to be dealt with and sometimes his own worst enemy.

Asked about those comments Tuesday, Kyl did not back away. Sometimes his desire to jump in the middle of a fight, or create a fight, sometimes can be detrimental to what hes trying to achieve, he said of the president. That is what I said and I stand by that comment.

Kyl appeared grave as he spoke and made clear he was not returning to Capitol Hill with great eagerness. Im putting my country first, he said, just as this seats previous occupant did every single day for more than 30 years.

Kyl ruled out running in 2020  even if he stays in the Senate beyond next January  making way for a lively and competitive contest to fill the seat for the remainder of McCains term, which ends in January 2023.

Arizona is currently witnessing one of the hardest-fought Senate races in the country, pitting Republican Rep. Martha McSally of Tucson against Phoenixs Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. The two are vying for the open seat of Flake, who succeeded Kyl and opted to step aside rather than risk losing the Republican primary.

On Tuesday, Flake praised the selection of Kyl as an excellent choice.

Duceys announcement came two days after McCain was laid to rest at the U.S. Naval Academy cemetery following nearly a week of commemorations, including services that drew thousands of mourners in Arizona and Washington.

Im very grateful to Jon Kyl for his willingness to return to public service to take my fathers seat in the Senate. I can think of no one better to keep fighting for the country and state he held so dear. He has always been a true statesman and a friend to my family. https://t.co/ukYYQrhekI  Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) September 4, 2018

mark.barabak@latimes.com

Twitter: @markzbarabak

UPDATES:

5:15 p.m.: This article was updated to note that Kyl could be sworn is as soon as Wednesday.

4:50 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with details on Kyl and his appointment.

1:15 p.m.: This article was updated with Jon Kyl addressing his earlier criticisms of President Trump and further details on the appointment process.

10:35 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with analysis and details of Arizona Gov. Doug Duceys appointment of Jon Kyl to replace Sen. John McCain.

This article was originally published at 9:25 a.m.Who do you trust?

As President Trump stokes the fires of doubt with attacks on much of the media as fake news and enemies of the people, the nature of the news bubbles into which Americans have sorted themselves has taken on increased importance.

Trumps attacks on the media cause some to worry about violence: An Encino man was arrested last week, for example, and charged with threatening to shoot employees at the Boston Globe after that newspaper published a widely publicized editorial critical of the presidents press-bashing.

So far, however, the more consequential impact has been on politics, as Trump seeks to undermine the credibility of those he sees as critics and erode agreement over whats factual, even as his own credibility has suffered.

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New data from a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll this summer show how far the erosion of trust has gone: Of nine major sources of news, none were mostly or completely trusted by more than one-third of voters. The trust that does exist was heavily polarized along party lines, with Trump trailing the pack.

For media organizations that hold themselves out as nonpartisan, having trust sink below 50% is concerning, said Margaret Gatz, a psychology professor at USC and a senior scientist at its Center for Economic and Social Research, which conducted the study.

It is difficult to project how trust can be recovered, she said.

Not all of that  or even most  is Trumps doing: Trust in the news media, and most other U.S. institutions, has declined slowly and steadily for decades. But levels of trust in the media nosedived during the 2016 campaign year, according to surveys by Gallup and other nonpartisan polling organizations. That was especially true among Republicans, likely reflecting Trumps attacks on the press.

What Trumps attacks havent done is improve the administrations own credibility.

Just 1 in 5 voters said they mostly or completely trusted information from the Trump administration, the USC poll found. That rating was significantly worse than voters gave some of Trumps frequent targets, including CNN, MSNBC and national newspapers.

Thats also only about half as many voters as the share that approves of Trumps job performance, evidence that many of those who support him do so even though they dont believe much of what he says. Independent fact-checkers have cataloged thousands of false statements that Trump has made since taking office, some of which may stem from ignorance or wishful thinking, others of which appear to be intentional lies.

The trust number for the president is beyond belief, said Robert M. Shrum, the longtime Democratic political consultant who directs USCs Unruh Institute of Politics, which cosponsored the poll. I dont think any other American president would ever have had that number.

The poll gave people a list of nine sources of information  MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, public television, National Public Radio, national newspapers, regional and local newspapers, the Trump administration and the respondents member of Congress. For each, the poll asked respondents to say how much they trust that source to give you unbiased and truthful information.

The poll also asked people what emotions they frequently feel when they follow news about Trump and his administration.

Of the nine news sources, the Trump administration was by far the least trusted. It was the only source in which a majority, 55%, said they had no trust.

Those who do mostly or completely trust Trump get at least one big emotional benefit, however. They were the least likely to report that they felt confused by the welter of news stories about the administration.

The administration has sought to give supporters a consistent, and relatively simple, narrative  that all the many investigations and news events of the last 19 months reflect a deep state conspiracy to bring down Trump. The poll results suggest that approach works, but only with Trumps relatively small hard core.

The poll provides a portrait of that core support: Mostly men (56%), overwhelmingly white (80%), they tend to be older than average and are more likely to live in the Midwest or South, least likely in the West.

They also, not surprisingly, overlap heavily with those who strongly trust Fox News. Of the people who say they mostly or completely trust Trump, about 3 in 5 give that same level of trust to Fox.

The reverse holds true to a lesser extent  among those who trust Fox, about half trust Trump, too. Those who trust Fox, but not Trump, include a significant number of nonwhite voters without college educations.

Local newspapers receive the most widespread trust, reflecting the lower level of polarization around local news. Only about 1 in 7 voters said they had no trust in their local or regional newspaper.

But the endorsement was fairly tepid. About half of those polled said they somewhat trust their local newspapers while a third said they mostly or completely trusted them.

Among nationally oriented media, the results showed strong amounts of polarization. About 25% of voters said they mostly or completely trusted MSNBC or Fox, for example, with only a fairly small number trusting both. About 60% declined to give strong levels of trust to either of those outlets.

CNN, NPR, public television and national newspapers got strong levels of trust from a slightly larger share of the public  about 3 in 10  with trust much higher among Democratic voters than Republicans. Almost 1 in 5 people who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 said they had complete trust in NPR, with another third saying they mostly trust the radio network  one of the most positive ratings the poll found.

The ratings for each of the news sources show slightly different patterns in who trusts whom. Mostly, though, the poll shows voters divided into two broad groups  those who trust Trump and Fox and those who trust what conservatives deride as the mainstream media.

Individual members of Congress scored highest as a source that people trust somewhat, with 54% giving that rating.

Asked what emotions they feel when they hear news about Trump from their most trusted or preferred source of news, those who mostly trusted Trump or Fox were more likely to say that the news made them feel positive about the administration  hopeful, satisfied or pleased.

Those who mostly trusted one of the other media sources tended to say the news from their most trusted sources made them feel disgusted, worried or outraged.

Seven in ten of those who have high levels of trust in either MSNBC or CNN, for example, said they frequently felt disgusted when hearing news about Trump.

Political strategists have long said that anger and other negative emotions motivate people to vote, and the survey bore that out. People who said they were likely to vote for a Democrat for Congress this year were significantly more likely than Republican voters to say that the news they heard made them more likely to vote.

The poll also provided evidence of a continuing paradox in U.S. politics: Even as voters increasingly sort themselves into opposing camps with separate news sources, they profess to not like it. Almost 6 in 10 Republican voters and just under half of Democratic voters said they were tired of partisan coverage.

This USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll was conducted July 16 to Aug. 16, using the probability-based Understanding America Study panel of the USC Center for Economic and Social Research. The poll surveyed 5,044 adults, including 2,459 likely to vote in Novembers midterm elections. It was overseen by the centers survey director, Jill Darling, and conducted along with USCs Jesse Unruh Institute. Results were weighted to reflect the known demographics of the American population. The margin of error for all likely midterm voters is 2 percentage points in either direction.

Get the latest news from the nations capital on Essential Washington >> 

David.Lauter@latimes.com

For more on Politics and Policy, follow me @DavidLauterPresident Trump intensified his criticism of Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions on Monday, this time suggesting that the Justice Department should not have brought indictments against two Republican members of Congress, one of them from California, before the midterm elections in November.

The congressmen he referred to in two combative tweets were Reps. Duncan Hunter of Alpine, who was charged last month with spending campaign funds on personal expenses and falsifying federal reports on his political finances, and Chris Collins of New York, who two weeks earlier was accused of insider trading and lying to the FBI. The two were the first members of Congress to endorse Trump after he announced his bid for president in 2015, at a time when few others did.

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department, the president tweeted from the White House on the Labor Day holiday.

Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time, Trump wrote, adding sarcastically: Good job Jeff.

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He amplified that sentiment in a subsequent tweet, saying: The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now.

Critics of the president saw the pair of tweets as a brazen call for Justice to intervene in criminal cases for political reasons, reflecting a new benchmark in his long-running campaign to undermine the independence of law enforcement and the judiciary.

Trump also falsely referred to the investigations of the two congressmen as being long running, Obama era matters.

Collins was indicted for alleged insider trading that he conducted in 2017, including a phone call from the White House lawn while he was attending a social function with Trump. The investigation into Hunters campaign spending began in 2016 with inquiries by the Federal Election Commission. The FBI first conducted a search of Hunters office in February 2017, shortly after Trump was inaugurated.

Trumps tweets  denouncing Sessions for in effect failing to use his official authority to try to tip the electoral scales in favor of Republicans  came even as he is under investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III for possibly seeking to obstruct justice in the Russia probe, including by his past attacks on Sessions for not ending it.

The presidents outburst came toward the end of a holiday weekend marked by his reported frustration over five days of televised commemorations for the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a frequent target of Trumps derision. He was not invited to any of the memorial events, culminating in a funeral Saturday in Washingtons National Cathedral where Trumps predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, gave the eulogies.

Trump has inveighed against Sessions for months, repeatedly expressing frustration that the attorney general recused himself in the administrations earliest days from matters pertaining to the wide-ranging Russia probe. Sessions did so because hed been a top advisor in the Trump campaign. Mueller is looking into matters including potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, as well as possible obstruction of justice.

In other tweets, Trump mocked former Secretary of State John Kerry for reports that he might run again for president in 2020, and issued a Labor Day gibe at Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, the countrys largest labor union federation.

Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, a former prosecutor and frequent critic of the president as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, took to Twitter himself. He called the presidents tweets about Sessions a sign of not only Trumps authoritarian impulses but also his conviction that law enforcement should simply be an extension of his political self-interest.

Schiff, who has called repeatedly for Congress to protect the Mueller probe and investigate possible improprieties by Trump, his aides and family members, added, The only question is whether Congressional Republicans will continue to look the other way.

Republicans, too, joined the criticism.

The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice  one for the majority party and one for the minority party, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a statement. These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence.

Sessions has remained in his post despite Trumps periodic outbursts of public ire over more than a year, attacks that have been widely interpreted as the presidents bid to goad him into quitting.

Privately, Trump has talked of firing Sessions but his lawyers and allies have warned of a heavy backlash, perhaps including legal repercussions, if he does so to curtail the Mueller investigation.

Hunter, facing a 60-count federal indictment on corruption charges, has expressly embraced Trumps arguments in the presidents own case, contending that just like the president he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt by the Justice Department.

While denying wrongdoing, Hunter has publicly sought to shift blame to his wife, Margaret, who was also charged. The pair stand accused of spending a quarter-million dollars in campaign contributions to cover personal expenses including luxury vacations in Italy and Hawaii and gourmet meals.

Hunter caused a stir when he told Fox News that his wife had always handled his finances, including for his campaign.

laura.king@latimes.com

Twitter: @laurakingLATPresident Trump sought to blunt the impact of a forthcoming book by longtime Washington journalist Bob Woodward, calling it possibly made up or the product of embittered aides, after a number of sensational excerpts emerged on Tuesday.

Among those published by the Washington Post were reports that his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, called Trump an idiot and unhinged, that Defense Secretary James N. Mattis told associates Trump acts like a fifth- or sixth-grader, and that the president mocked Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions Southern accent and called him mentally retarded and a dumb Southerner.

In an interview with the conservative website the Daily Caller, Trump speculated that the revelations and harsh criticism in the book from some of his most senior aides and Cabinet officials could have come from disgruntled employees. Or, he said, it could be just made up by the author.

Woodwards book, Fear: Trump in the White House, is to be published on Sept. 11 but was already the top-selling book on Amazons listing based on pre-publication orders.

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The president criticized Woodward  who became famous at the Post for revealing the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixons impeachment and resignation, and who has chronicled every president since  as a journalist with credibility problems.

Its just another bad book. Hes had a lot of credibility problems, Trump said of an author he once regarded as unimpeachable.

Five years earlier, as the Obama White House was disputing aspects of Woodwards inside account of that administration, Trump tweeted: Only the Obama WH can get away with attacking Bob Woodward.

In his interview with the Daily Caller, the president seemed to lament that he hadnt cooperated with Woodward by giving interviews. I probably would have preferred to speak to him, he said, but maybe not. I think it probably wouldnt have made a difference in the book. He wanted to write the book a certain way.

Earlier Tuesday, the Post also posted online a transcript and audio recording of Trumps 11-minute conversation with Woodward three weeks ago, in which the president claims that he never knew the author wanted to speak to him for the book. Woodward told Trump that hed placed his request with about six people, including senior advisor Kellyanne Conway. Trump put Conway on the phone, and she confirmed that Woodward had asked her over lunch for an interview with the president.

Its just nasty stuff, Trump told the Daily Caller about the books reported contents. I never spoke to him. Maybe I wasnt given messages that he called. I probably would have spoken to him if hed called, if hed gotten through. For some reason I didnt get messages on it.

Trumps interview remarks with the conservative website followed a White House statement in which Kelly denied that he called Trump an idiot, and the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, dismissed the book altogether as fabricated stories.

In a comment that Trump would subsequently echo, Sanders said, This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad.

Mattis also issued a statement disputing his reported comments, saying they were never uttered by me or in my presence. He called Woodwards book a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.

Mattis did not expressly deny the books contention that Trump told Mattis in a phone call that he wanted Syrias Bashar Assad assassinated, a directive that Mattis disregarded.

Sanders statement was similar to the White House response to two previous tell-all books about the Trump White House and came four hours after the Post published the Woodward excerpts.

The revelations, which Woodward said came in hundreds of hours of recorded interviews with Trump associates, quickly overshadowed the first day of Senate confirmation hearings for the presidents Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Also among the disclosures was one describing how former top economic advisor Gary Cohn stole a letter off the presidents desk to prevent Trump from withdrawing the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea.

Kellys reported comments got the most attention, however.

Hes an idiot, Kelly reportedly said of Trump. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.

Kelly has privately expressed similar frustrations to friends and officials in past administrations over the last year; in issuing his denial, he noted that he was quoting from his response last spring to an NBC News report that hed called Trump an idiot.

The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true, Kelly said in the statement.

As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: I spend more time with the president than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS. Im committed to the president, his agenda and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administrations many successes.

Brought in as Trumps second chief of staff to stabilize a chaotic West Wing in the summer of 2017, Kelly has been widely reported to be on the outs with Trump. But in late July, the president announced that Kelly would be staying in the job through the 2020 presidential election.

The latest from Washington 

eli.stokols@latimes.com

@EliStokolsJohn Dowd was convinced that President Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. So on Jan. 27 the presidents then-personal attorney staged a practice session to make his point.

In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the president eventually lost his cool.

This things a goddamn hoax, Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying, I dont really want to testify.

The dramatic and previously untold scene is recounted in Fear, a forthcoming book by Bob Woodward that paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration officials and other principals.

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Woodward writes that his book draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses that were conducted on deep background, meaning the information could be used but he would not reveal who provided it. His account is also based on meeting notes, personal diaries and government documents.

Woodward depicts Trumps anger and paranoia about the Russia inquiry as unrelenting, at times paralyzing the West Wing for days. Learning of the appointment of Mueller in May 2017, Trump groused, Everybodys trying to get me  part of a venting period that shellshocked aides compared to Richard Nixons final days as president.

Trumps everybody does it view of politics comes to color his conduct, and that of his aides 

A copy of the 448-page book was obtained by the Washington Post. Woodward, an associate editor at the Post, sought an interview with Trump through several intermediaries to no avail. The president called Woodward in early August, after the manuscript had been completed, to say he wanted to participate. The president complained that it would be a bad book, according to an audio recording of the conversation. Woodward replied that his work would be tough, but factual and based on his reporting.

A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trumps inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.

Woodward describes an administrative coup detat and a nervous breakdown of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the presidents desk so he couldnt see or sign them.

Again and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trumps national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs and his contempt for the mainstream perspectives of military and intelligence leaders.

At a National Security Council meeting on Jan. 19, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds (versus 15 minutes from Alaska), according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all.

Were doing this in order to prevent World War III, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.

After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like  and had the understanding of  a fifth- or sixth-grader. 

In Woodwards telling, many top advisors were repeatedly unnerved by Trumps actions and expressed dim views of him. Secretaries of defense dont always get to choose the president they work for, Mattis told friends at one point, prompting laughter as he explained Trumps tendency to go off on tangents about subjects such as immigration and the news media.

Inside the White House, Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis.

Translating Trump: Even aides wonder, is he serious or just venting? 

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was unhinged, Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: Hes an idiot. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.

Reince Priebus, Kellys predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, the devils workshop, and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were the witching hour.

Trump apparently had little regard for Priebus. He once instructed then-staff secretary Rob Porter to ignore Priebus, even though Porter reported to the chief of staff, saying that Priebus was  like a little rat. He just scurries around. 

Few in Trumps orbit were protected from the presidents insults. He often mocked former national security advisor H.R. McMaster behind his back, puffing up his chest and exaggerating his breathing as he impersonated the retired Army general, and once said McMaster dresses in cheap suits, like a beer salesman.

Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a wealthy investor eight years his senior: I dont trust you. I dont want you doing any more negotiations.... Youre past your prime.

A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a traitor for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions accent, Trump added, This guy is mentally retarded. Hes this dumb Southerner. . . . He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.

At a dinner with Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He falsely suggested that the former Navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his fathers military rank and leaving others behind.

Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: No, Mr. President, I think youve got it reversed. The Defense secretary explained that McCain, who died Aug. 25, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the Hanoi Hilton.

Oh, okay, Trump replied, according to Woodwards account.

With Trumps rage and defiance impossible to contain, Cabinet members and other senior officials learned to act discreetly. Woodward describes an alliance among Trumps traditionalists  including Mattis and Gary Cohn, the presidents former top economic advisor  to stymie what they considered dangerous acts.

It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually, Porter is quoted as saying. Other times, we would fall over the edge, and an action would be taken.

After Syrian leader Bashar Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. Lets ... kill him! Lets go in. Lets kill the  lot of them, Trump said using an expletive, according to Woodward.

Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured. The national security team developed options for the more conventional air strike that Trump ultimately ordered.

Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trumps strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn stole a letter off Trumps desk that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he had removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice it was missing.

Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the president has long threatened to do. In spring 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter, Why arent we getting this done? Do your job. Its tap, tap, tap. Youre just tapping me along. I want to do this.

Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisors worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: I can stop this. Ill just take the paper off his desk.

Despite repeated threats by Trump, the United States has remained in both pacts. The administration continues to negotiate new terms with South Korea as well as with its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico.

Trump has threatened to cut Canada out of the new NAFTA deal. Thats basically impossible 

Cohn came to regard the president as a professional liar and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trumps handling of a deadly white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika on her college dorm room.

Trump was sharply criticized for initially saying that both sides were to blame. At the urging of advisors, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, That was the biggest  mistake Ive made and the worst speech Ive ever given, according to Woodwards account.

When Cohn met with Trump to deliver his resignation letter after Charlottesville, the president told him, This is treason, and persuaded his economic advisor to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohns horror at Trumps handling of the tragedy  and shared Cohns fury with Trump.

I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times, Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward. Kelly himself has threatened to quit several times, but has not done so.

Woodward illustrates how the dread in Trumps orbit became all-encompassing over the course of Trumps first year in office, leaving some staff members and Cabinet members confounded by the presidents lack of understanding about how government functions and his inability and unwillingness to learn.

At one point, Porter, who departed in February amid domestic-abuse allegations, is quoted as saying, This was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is.

Such moments of panic are a routine feature, but not the thrust of Woodwards book, which mostly focuses on substantive decisions and internal disagreements, including tensions with North Korea as well as the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trumps handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a preemptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.

In the fall of 2017, as Trump intensified a war of words with Kim Jong Un, nicknaming North Koreas dictator Little Rocket Man in a speech at the United Nations, aides worried the president might be provoking Kim. But, Woodward writes, Trump told Porter that he saw the situation as a contest of wills: This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim.

The book also details Trumps impatience with the war in Afghanistan, which had become Americas longest conflict. At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisors for 25 minutes, complaining that the United States was losing, according to Woodward.

The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you, Trump told them. They could do a much better job. I dont know what the hell were doing. He went on to ask, How many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?

The presidents family members, while sometimes touted as his key advisors by other Trump chroniclers, are minor players in Woodwards account, popping up occasionally in the West Wing and vexing adversaries.

Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the presidents eldest daughter and senior advisor, and Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist.

Youre a goddamn staffer! Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. You walk around this place and act like youre in charge, and youre not. Youre on staff!

Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: Im not a staffer! Ill never be a staffer. Im the first daughter.

Such tensions boiled among many of Trumps core advisors. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as natural predators.

When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody, Priebus says.

Hovering over the White House was Muellers inquiry, which deeply embarrassed the president. Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: Donald, Im worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?

Trump relayed the conversation to Dowd and said it was like a kick in the nuts, according to Woodward.

The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Muellers office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trumps January practice session.

Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: Im not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for? 

John, I understand, Mueller replied, according to Woodward.

Later that month, Dowd told Trump: Dont testify. Its either that or an orange jumpsuit.

But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Muellers questions, had by then decided otherwise.

Ill be a real good witness, Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.

You are not a good witness, Dowd replied. Mr. President, Im afraid I just cant help you.

The next morning, Dowd resigned.A survey of more than 2,000 British adults suggests that while few people think of religions as inherently violent, 47% of those surveyed believe the world would be a more peaceful place if no one was religious.

The survey report, detailed on the Church Times website, points out that a majority of respondents believe political ideologies and socioeconomic issues have more to do with religious violence than faith.

This is emphatically not to say that religion in itself  its practices, loyalties, scriptures and even ethics  has nothing to do with violence, the report states, arguing that specific religious texts are hijacked to legitimize violence.

Q. Does religious belief contribute to violence in the world? What could be done to counter texts that appear to advocate violence in the name of religion?

Not to be rude, but this is hardly a new observation. People have been accusing religions of violence and destruction since religions began  probably because religions have been guilty of it, or misused for it, ever since they began.

No one can deny that ancient religions reflect the barbarism common in their founding eras. But they often improved upon it; and in any case, the violence is certainly not the end of what can and should be said about religion.

Those fond of making these accusations regularly fail to point out the even more massive waves of goodness which religions have accomplished in the world  all the schools, hospitals, orphanages, clinics, shelters and help centers of every stripe that would never have existed without religious impetus to found them. Religions have been at the forefront of peace efforts, racial reconciliation, fair wages and labor laws, immigrants rights, womens rights, childrens rights (and yes, gay rights, some of us)  pretty much every human rights or social justice movement on the planet.

And of course there are the good works done every single day by ordinary folk: countless billions of random acts of kindness, all done in the name of religion, by good earnest people whose names and faces will never make it onto the evening news or into the history books.

So, yeah, religion has a pretty long history, and in the millennia of its existence, its done some infamously bad stuff, and even more bad stuff has been done in its name, without its consent. It has also been quietly responsible for immense good, perhaps for the majority of the goodness and human progress that has happened on earth to date.

Religion should play and is playing its part in the end of violence; it also continues to do good. Lets keep helping it do that.

The Rev. Amy Pringle

St. Georges Episcopal Church

La Canada Flintridge

Belief in God, religious belief, does not itself contribute to violence in the world. How people interpret scripture contributes to violence. Leviticus 19:18, Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself, has been interpreted by fellow clergy as being ethnocentric on the grounds that people of the same religion live together in the same neighborhoods.

Hence, you are only mandated to love people of your same religio/ethnic belief.

Religio/political leaders also choose to ignore scripture in favor of political goals. Those who believe (in the Quran), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians, (Zoroastrians)  any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord: on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve Quran, Sura 2:62.

How can a true believer make Jihad given the restrictions listed above?

What we can do to counter texts that are incorrectly interpreted to advocate violence? Establish open dialogues between religious leaders who are knowledgeable about scripture, theirs and others, and make available to the general public speakers to discuss what in Hebrew is called PShat (simple linguistic) translations of formerly misinterpreted texts.

As the Talmud says, The righteous of all nations have a portion in the World to Come (Tosefta, Sanhedrin13.2).

So, let us do the right things to earn a deserved portion now and in the World To Come!

Rabbi Mark Sobel

Temple Beth Emet

Burbank

As the article from Church Times states the connection between violence and religion is complex and I agree. What makes this connection complex is the various religious traditions, cultures and political realities that are hard to measure into the equation Religion plus belief equals violence. I observe many people mistakenly assume that when acts of violence are done by those who claim they are doing it in the name of whatever religion, will point and say, You see? ___ promotes violence not peace. If you took the time to understand the core teachings of the religion, you would find there is more to it than that. I speak from the Christian perspective and in Christianity there is much debate upon when violence is appropriate and when it is not. Is there such a thing as a just war or violence that prevents further violence? There are Christian chaplains who serve in the military, who address the spiritual health of those who are serving their country. Jesus teaches us to love our enemy, so how can we apply that ethically to our military personnel that often have to be protective of our countrys freedom using violence? For some there is never justification of violence and we do others and ourselves much harm when we use violence. Others find that self-defense is a legitimate use of violence, still others feel when others are being harmed violence is necessary to restore order.

As to what can be done to counter texts that appear to advocate violence in the name of religion, perhaps we need to put more weight in the other texts that are contrary to violence. For example: in Christianity, there are plenty of texts in the Bible used to justify violence. However, I believe Jesus calls us to love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves. This is the key text that opens the door on all the other texts. Jesus teaches us that God created the world, and we are called to be caretakers of all creation, to love all of it, not to subdue it, abuse it and commit violence against it.

Our neighbors may be those who live next door to us or live across the ocean, but their welfare and our welfare are dependent on one another. Acting out in violent ways hurts all of us. Many times we do violence to ourselves, through drug addiction or committing a crime that lands us in jail, cutting ourselves off from others or suicide. These are not loving acts but acts of violence contrary to what God calls us to do and be.

We need to do the hard work of transforming the world from addiction to violence by starting with ourselves. By turning inward and listening to God we can find ways to heal what causes the violence to reign in our lives. Then we can work on bringing what we have learned to the outer world and resist the tendency to give into being violent. This is not easy work, nor will it always be clear what to do right away, but if we start with loving God, our neighbors and ourselves, we will find the way forward.

Rev. Steve Poteete-Marshall

Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church

Montrose

Regarding the poll about how the world would be a better place without religion, we mustnt forget that most of the worlds violence has been a result of not having religion to intervene or have any input. Remember the genocidal massacres of Chairman Mao numbering in the millions, the reigns of Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev, numbering the same, and who can forget the Cambodian communist, Pol Pot, responsible for the infamous Killing Fields and the decimation of one-third his population? These were all godless, irreligious monstrosities that murdered wholesale for their own agendas. Communists are religionless, so its not religion, per se, thats responsible for Earths plenteous violence, its our myriad belief systems.

Beliefs are what move believers to action. Does state-avowed godlessness, as in all communist regimes, result in world peace or death and destruction? I would argue the latter, and I would say that without the religion of Christianity, we wouldnt have the many hospitals, care facilities and charitable institutions we have, nor would evils such as slavery be essentially done away as it is now in the Western world. The whole notion of personal rights is stated in our nations Declaration of Independence wherein God grants these unalienable privileges, and without believing that we would be far more violent and untethered because there would be no reliable lawgiver.

Many will try to make religion guilty of sin, by pointing to such as the KKK with their fiery crosses or the Nazis hailing from the birthplace of Protestantism, or one of the Crusades (though they originated to stop the Islamic invasion of Bible lands). It is one thing to commit violence in the name of some religion or to be wrongly associated with pure religion, and it is quite another to actually commit violence for religious purposes. There is no Christian injunction to do violence in this day for religious aims. The Bible says, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Rom 12:18). There are other religions today that implore their disciples to do violence, and there are political ideologies that do the same without any divine mandate, but its up to the world to sort these out and fight against them. There will never be a day without violence before the return of Christ because all of mankind is rife with sin and violence is in us all. But if not for godly religious restraint, we would all be murderous pirates and justifiably so.

Rev. Bryan A. Griem

Tujunga

In a commentary on the survey report mentioned in our question, religious leaders describe what can be done to counter violence-inspiring texts, and I am happy to defer to these experts. They recommend providing historical context about real-life conflicts which may have given rise to violent language in writings from the time. These theologians also counsel readers of scripture to downplay or even ignore a rare violent phrase or two as not representing the overall message of the faith.

We need not rely on subjective opinion because we actually have a good indication of how much violence is inspired by religion: Most violence has nothing to do with Islam or with any other faith. A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. on firearm deaths worldwide pointed out that 90% of all violent deaths, whether by firearms or by any other means, happen in the absence of any conflicts, whether political, economic, territorial or religious in origin.

Violence is overwhelmingly an interpersonal problem, and all humans have a personal responsibility to counter it in ourselves and around us in any ways we can no matter what beliefs inspire us.

Roberta Medford

Atheist

MontroseA Newport Beach activist has asked the state to investigate the possibility that Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield quietly employs City Councilman Scott Peotter at his boat manufacturing company, potentially resulting in undeclared conflicts of interest.

In a complaint filed this week with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, Susan Skinner zeroed in on the City Councils recent approval of a bundle of contracts for on-call harbor maintenance services as a cause for concern.

Duffield recused himself from the Aug. 14 item because he has a source of income conflict of interest at the harbor, presumably his boat company.

The rest of the council, with no discussion, voted 6-0 to award $350,000 in two new contracts and $60,000 in amendments to two existing contracts for maintenance and repair of public infrastructure such as mooring buoys, docks, piers and sewage pump-outs.

Skinner said Duffields recusal was legally deficient because it was vague. In addition, she argued, if Duffield is a source of income for Peotter, Duffields conflicts are also Peotters conflicts.

On behalf of the residents of Newport Beach, I would appreciate having the commission expedite its investigation of this complaint, Skinner wrote. Citizens of Newport Beach deserve to know the truth of this matter prior to the November election where both Mr. Peotter and Mr. Duffield are seeking reelection. In fairness, Mr. Duffield and Mr. Peotter deserve to have this matter resolved expeditiously.

Duffield declined to comment Tuesday.

Peotter did not comment other than to affirm what he has said previously about the matter. Its still a rumor, he said. I wont respond.

On Aug. 19, Skinner started an email exchange with City Attorney Aaron Harp broaching the possibility that Peotter works for Duffy Electric Boat Co. After Harp asked her for details, she suggested he ask around the City Council.

Based on the information I have been provided by you, it appears your concern is based upon a rumor, Harp wrote in an Aug. 24 reply. While I understand you would like answers from our office and the other governmental agencies responsible for looking into these types of issues, this is not possible given the ethical rules related to the performance of our duties.

Councilman Jeff Herdman, who openly supports the candidates challenging Duffield and Peotter in this years council races, chimed in when he sent an Aug. 25 email newsletter to constituents, refining the allegations with the question of whether or not Mayor Duffield has actually hired Councilman Peotter to help out with the relocation of the Duffy boat manufacturing facilities to the state of Utah. The Duffy manufacturing plant is currently in Adelanto in San Bernardino County.

Duffield would not answer his City Council challenger, Tim Stoaks, when Stoaks asked him at an Aug. 29 council candidate forum whether he employs Peotter.

Skinner suggested to the FPPC that Harp was avoiding an investigation.

The city attorney, who works at the pleasure of the City Council, has refused to investigate this matter, asserting that he has no evidence that Mr. Peotter works for Mr. Duffield, she wrote. The ethics and conflict of interest enforcement policy of his office appears to be dont ask, dont tell. 

This is the third resident-initiated FPPC complaint against Duffield and Peotter in less than six months, and it uses some elements that are similar to its predecessors.

In June, Lauri Preedge alleged Duffield has participated in or used his official position to influence harbor-related decisions in violation of state and local laws by using Peotter as his surrogate when he recused himself from council votes and presentations.

In April, Martha Peyton alleged Peotter accepted noncash donations from Duffield and others that either pushed the donors over the contribution limit or were misreported, if they were reported at all, and that Harp didnt do anything about it because his employment is dependent on council approval. She filed her complaint with the state simultaneously with a lawsuit against the city outlining the same complaints.

The Peyton case is an open investigation, but the FPPC enforcement division has not decided whether to pursue an investigation into the Preedge complaint, an agency spokesman said Tuesday.

Peyton dropped her lawsuit against Newport Beach in July after an Orange County Superior Court judge tentatively sided with the city.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDHes sometimes referred to as the Mayor of Balboa Island, and if theres an event there, chances are Jack Callahan is involved.

And if you want something done on the famed Newport Beach island, you call Callahan. Hes a perpetual volunteer.

Callahan, who is serving for the sixth time as president of the Balboa Island Improvement Assn., has become the face of the annual Balboa Island Parade. Hes the one scurrying up and down Marine Avenue working the crowd in a coconut bra and grass skirt while making sure all goes off without a glitch.

The 24-year veteran of the parade committee says the parade, the granddaddy of Balboa Island events, wouldnt be possible without the other, smaller local events.

The pancake breakfasts, barbecues, carnival, home tour and concerts act as fundraisers for the parade, Callahan said. The costs of putting on the parade add up quickly, with police and fire security, city permits, street cleaning, advertising, independent music and, in some cases, participant fees.

Jack Callahan dons his traditional coconut bra and grass skirt for the Balboa Island Parade on Marine Avenue. (Photo by Susan Hoffman)

Callahan first called Balboa Island home in the late 1960s before he moved to pursue a career in marketing and advertising. His first job was with Levi Strauss in its Los Angeles office. From there, he traveled to San Francisco to work for Ford Motor Co. and later moved on to advertising agencies in Chicago, Detroit, New York City and Jacksonville, Fla.

After 25 years, Callahan returned to Balboa Island with his then-wife and two daughters. He partnered with a colleague to open an advertising agency in Irvine before striking out on his own, creating a home-based consulting business for start-up companies.

When his business slowed in 2010, Callahan volunteered as a classroom aide at Lincoln Elementary School in Corona del Mar. Two years later, his volunteer gig turned into a paying job and a new career in education. He was hired by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District as a special-education teachers aide.

His classroom assignments currently require him to float among different schools as well as take on occasional long-term assignments and summer school commitments. But with his workday ending at 3 p.m. and with weekends off, his schedule allows for plenty of volunteer time.

Fellow volunteer and longtime Balboa Island resident Tom Houston has become friends with Callahan through their service on the Balboa Island Improvement Assn. board. Having known Jack for many decades, I can attest that Jack certainly meets the definition of one of my parents favorite mantras: Remember to be a positive contributor to society, community and neighborhood,  Houston said.

Jack Callahan dances with guests at a Neil Diamond tribute concert on Balboa Island. (Photo by Susan Hoffman)

Lee Pearl, Balboa Island concert coordinator and vice president of the association, said: Its really a team effort, but Jack works harder than anybody else. Jack is a high-energy person who is dedicated to Balboa Island.

Pearl said Callahan can be seen putting up No parking signs and cleaning up after events.

Everybody thinks somebody else is gonna do it. People take for granted that someone else will do the work, and its not gonna happen, Callahan said. In an effort to help keep Balboa Island clean and maintain its image  it takes a village.

His latest campaign is to encourage residents to adopt a trash can or a beach to keep their island beautiful.

The beaches, particularly on South Bay Front, are a constant struggle to keep clean, he said, not just because of everyday debris such as food trash and dog feces but also garbage that washes up from the ocean with the tide, such as bottles and various plastic items.

Callahans posts on Nextdoor.com are a call to action for residents to volunteer to help clean up.

We have more island folks coming forward to help with all of our projects to keep the beaches, sidewalks, trash cans, etc., clean, Callahan said. The city helps every few weeks, but its not enough, so we use Nextdoor, Constant Contact and our newsletter to reach out for help. We use the tide charts and just plain old walking around the island to check things out.

When Callahan isnt tending to the island, he spends time in the Los Angeles area with his daughters and five grandchildren.

Susan Hoffman is a contributor to Times Community News.Last week, the head of the California Democratic Party, Eric Bauman, became an example of exactly what is wrong with some in the Democratic Party today. The knee-jerk reaction was because In-N-Out made the unconscionable mistake of donating to the GOP.

Had Mr. Bauman done his homework, he would have learned that this food chain has donated to many good causes, both conservative and liberal. His behavior, however, is a perfect snapshot of todays new Democratic Party: intolerance, zero free speech, zero debate, tearing down statues, vandalizing college campuses. The list goes on, yet many of the progressives today, who accuse conservatives of hate, might take a look in the mirror.

Juli Hayden

Newport Beach

A better solution than DUI enforcement

In reference to a recent article in the Daily Pilot ($550,000 grant awarded to police department, Aug. 31) about funding to increase policing drunk drivers in Huntington Beach, wouldnt it make far more sense to significantly limit the number of establishments serving alcoholic beverages?

The Main Street area in Huntington is a drinkers delight, with too many bars.

Lynn Copeland

Huntington Beach

Rouda offers reasonable solutions to homeless crisis

I found the commentary by Harley Rouda (O.C. cannot tackle homelessness without help, Aug. 24) to be thoughtful, well-reasoned and focused on a topic that affects us at all levels. Rouda rightly criticizes the current administration for playing politics with HUD funding and for not providing solutions as our federal partner in addressing this calamity.

While he does not call out his opponent by name for doing nothing, I will. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) is a disgrace to the 48th Congressional District. He has failed to effectively represent his constituents and refuses to meet with them in constructive dialogue. He would ignore the problem of homelessness if he could.

We need a representative that can get things done on our behalf in Washington, D.C. It is clear from the commentary that Harley Rouda can be who we need.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length.Las Candelas, a womens philanthropic organization, has installed its officers and will reconvene this month in preparation for its major fundraiser.

Organized in 1953 and incorporated in 1955, the mission of Las Candelas is to give volunteer service and financial assistance to help improve the lives of children and youth in vulnerable situations and to support awareness of their mental health needs.

President Nancy Stone is joined on the board by Joan Campbell, first vice president; Karen Swan and Rosina Maize, second vice presidents; Ann Jones and Lynne Naeve, third vice presidents; Monica Sierra and Suzonne Slaughter, fourth vice presidents; Jeri Clark and Teresa Nall, fifth vice presidents; and JC Byer and Pattie McCormick, sixth vice presidents.

Nall is also serving as recording secretary and Diane Russell will continue as corresponding secretary. Business Treasurer is Ginny Simpson and Philanthropic Treasurer is Patti Baker. Past president Ellyn Semler is parliamentarian.

Before the summer break, members gathered at the Oakmont Country Club to celebrate the groups 65th anniversary with a beautiful cake.

Life member Diane Johnson talked about the organizations history. In the early years, members would drive to the state mental health facility in Camarillo to support the children who resided there. Members adopted a boys ward and hosted barbecues and pine-box derby competitions.

Las Candelas Life Member Diane Johnson gives a history lesson on the group during the installation luncheon. (Courtesy of Richard Williams)

Las Candelas was a partner in the founding of Verdugo Mental Health in Glendale because it saw a need for pediatric mental-health services in the local area. Today, the group continues to offer financial and hands-on support to that program, now known as Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services.

The organization is also celebrating raising a total of $21,500 in grants over the years 2017-18 given to organizations that work to improve the lives of children.

Hillsides in Pasadena will put the donation into its Youth Moving On Program, which provides help for former students of Hillsides who are 18 or older and need assistance with job searches, living quarters and higher education.

Ascencia will use the grant for its program for art therapy for children. Ascencia is a transitional homeless shelter for families and normally houses 10 to 15 children who, with their parents, have been displaced from their homes.

Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services of Glendale will use the funds for its child therapy programs.

Las Candelas also awarded a grant in November to the YWCA Glendale for its summer camp programs for children in the domestic violence shelter.

Las Candelas provides more than $25,000 annually in speakers, field trips and parties for the children at Hathaway-Sycamores and Hillsides Education Center.

The organization raises funds through its biennial luncheon fashion show. The next benefit will be held on March 4 at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel.

For more information, visit lascandelas.org.

Committee supports Los Angeles Philharmonic

The Glendale Committee for the Los Angeles Philharmonic celebrated another successful year during a luncheon at the Oakmont Country Club.

The highlight was a performance by the 16-piece Glendale High Jazz Band led by Grammy-nominated Amy Rangel, who is completing her 17th year as director of instrumental music.

The group played big-band tunes, as well as jazz classics and contemporary selections. The musicians have opened for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Arturo Sandoval and performed at the Reno Jazz Festival.

Glendale Philharmonic co-president Stella Balesh presents raffle prize winner Kay Hostetler with box seats for four at the Hollywood Bowl. (Courtesy of the Glendale Philharmonic)

More than 60 guests, including associate members who support the group through their attendance at this annual event, enjoyed the music and lunch.

Event coordinator Trudy McGraw selected a menu of refreshing gazpacho, Chinese chicken salad topped with Mandarin oranges and colorful paper umbrellas, and, for the finale, warm mixed seasonal berry cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream and served in individual ramekins.

Led by co-presidents Bonnie Hall and Stella Balesh, the group supports the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music education in Glendale schools.

The Music Mobile presentation introduces local third-graders to the orchestra and provides them with a hands-on experience with several instruments.

For many years, members have been docents at the Pasadena Showcase House of Design. This years house, The Overlook, was a Mediterranean masterpiece in Altadena designed by architect Reginald Davis Johnson and built in 1915.

Docents included Stella Balesh, Charlene Byers, Bonnie Hall, Darlene Hubanks, Trudy McGraw and Mary OConnor.

Funds raised from this activity help the committee support the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra.

JOYCE RUDOLPH can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.One day after a shooting turned this posh seaside track into a major police staging area, racing returned to say goodbye to Del Mars popular summer meeting.

Seven weeks after the start, the meet will be remembered for creating new stars in jockey Drayden Van Dyke and Game Winner, the winner of Mondays closing day Del Mar Futurity. It also had good news in regards to hosting another Breeders Cup and the track showed gains in mutuel handle.

It also had its problems, but few were on display Monday. Instead all eyes were to the future and how good the next Bob Baffert-trained colt  Game Winner  is going to be.

Rowayton went to a long lead in the seven-furlong race and even midstretch it looked like he might pull off the win. But Game Winner started to get his stride and reeled in Rowayton, who never changed leads. It appeared as if Game Winner will adapt to the longer distances well. The winning margin was 1 lengths.

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Game Winner was actually the other Baffert as stablemate Roadster was installed as the post-time favorite. Roadster finished third. Game Winner paid $5.20, $3.20 and $2.10.

Mario Gutierrez was the jockey and he rarely rides for Baffert. But Baffert had a plan.

I thought if I could get another race in him, then I wouldnt have to train him too hard for a two-turn race, Baffert said of Game Winner. But I needed a rider, and everybody I use was gone. So I thought of Mario. I think Mario fits this kind of horse. Hes a good rider. Hes won a couple Kentucky Derbies [on Ill Have Another and Nyquist].

Baffert is looking to the American Pharoah at Santa Anita as Game Winners next race.

Hell probably be there, he said. I dont know why he has to leave town.

The race lost some of its star power when Instagrand, who won his first two races by a combined 20 lengths, was pulled from the race. Owner Larry Best wanted him fresh for the American Pharoah (formerly FrontRunner) on Sept. 29 at Santa Anita.

The Futurity, Del Mars signature event on closing day, is the first serious challenge for 2-year-olds on the West Coast hoping to make it to the Kentucky Derby trail.

Game Winner flies on the outside to steal the Grade I Del Mar Futurity pic.twitter.com/OsSaJaL194  Del Mar Racetrack (@DelMarRacing) September 4, 2018

In the days other major stakes, Summering, with Van Dyke aboard, won the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf over a mile. She was the prohibitive favorite, paying $2.60 to win for trainer Tom Proctor.

While the trainers, owners and fans were looking to the future, Joe Harper, the tracks longtime president and chief executive, was content to look back at the meet.

I hope big fields, big handle and a lot of fun, he said when asked how the meeting would be remembered.

One of Del Mars big victories this meeting was that the fall meet in 2021 will host the Breeders Cup. The track hosted a very successful Breeders Cup in 2017, and it appears as if it has found a spot in the events rotation.

The announcement of the Breeders Cup certainly helped, Harper said. And I think having the Breeders Cup last year helped this year. I think more people thought, Oh, Del Mar, thats a pretty good spot to put a horse. We saw a few ship in who we wouldnt have seen without it.

This meeting also showed gains in mutuel handle, which was up about 7% and 14.5% over two years. Del Mar no doubt benefited from a very rainy season at the tracks main East Coast competitor, Saratoga.

Another positive was the emergence of Van Dyke as the new go to jockey, winning 42 races. Peter Miller won the training title with 31 victories. It was 10 more wins than the second-place trainer, Doug ONeill.

The meeting did have its downsides, too. Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza suffered a broken vertebrae when his mount, Bobby Abu Dhabi, collapsed and died on the track during a workout. Espinoza faces a long rehabilitation with the hopes of returning to the track. Jockey Corey Nakatani also suffered a back injury in a two-horse spill that killed one of the horses. He has been off the track for a month and is still recovering.

And on Sunday, there was an officer-involved shooting when Daniel Elizarraras, 22, of nearby Escondido became upset when he couldnt buy a ticket to the sold-out Ice Cube concert following the last race of the day. Elizarraras then pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and fired several shots into a crowded area, according to a sheriffs office statement. Police responded by shooting Elizarraras. He was taken to the hospital, where he is in stable condition and expected to survive.

Harper saw the incident as isolated and said he would have Ice Cube back again.

It was the biggest crowd weve ever had for a concert, Harper said of the 18,000. I dont see any connection between what happened at the front gate and him. He plays all over the country and theres been no problems.

Racing will move to Los Alamitos for three weeks, Santa Anita for five and then return to Del Mar on Nov. 9 for its fall meeting.

Click here (or type in this url: lat.ms/2wVt90g) to sign up for our free horse racing newsletter.

sports@latimes.com

Click here (or type in this url: lat.ms/2wVt90g) to sign up for our free horse racing newsletter.

sports@latimes.comCarla Suarez Navarro celebrated her 30th birthday in style, pulling off a solid 6-4, 6-3 victory over Maria Sharapova on Monday and advancing to a quarterfinal matchup against Madison Keys.

Sharapova, 31, has been inconsistent since her return from a 15-month drug suspension in April 2017. She had eight double faults and committed 38 unforced errors in ending her 23-match winning streak under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Its just a little too up and down, Sharapova said of the state of her game. It was much too erratic to beat a tactically smart Suarez Navarro

I try to play aggressive, try to be solid sometimes because she hit fast the ball. I have to run and fight, the Spanish veteran said. But I think I made a really complete match from the beginning until the end.

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Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine appeared in distress because of the heat during her first set against Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic but regrouped to claw out a 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-2 victory. I was really dizzy and I was just asking nature  I dont know the god  to move the shade faster, Tsurenko said after reaching the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career. I feel like I want an ice bath. Actually I hate it, but I need it.

Keys holds her own

Keys was the runner-up at last years U.S. Open but generally has been overlooked this year. If her powerful 6-1, 6-3 victory over Dominika Cibulkova doesnt change that, Keys doesnt mind. Its kind of nice to be under the radar, said Keys, who joined Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens and John Isner among the Americans who have reached the quarterfinals.

Keys has a theory about why she has been overshadowed. There is a bunch of big stories, obviously, Keys said. Serena is back. Sloane is playing really well. There is just a lot going on this year.

Keys is becoming one of those big stories. Its always nice to see a bunch of Americans doing well at the home slam. Im just really happy to be a part of it, she said. And to have back-to-back years is really special.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter @helenenothelenJalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the militant group that has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, was unofficially reported dead in 2014 and hadnt been seen publicly since well before that.

Meanwhile, his son had risen into the top ranks of the Taliban.

The Talibans announcement Tuesday that Haqqani had died after a long illness confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets of the Afghan war, raising speculation about why the insurgent group decided to go public now.

One explanation could be Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeos expected arrival on Wednesday in Pakistan, where he will discuss the Trump administrations efforts to begin direct talks with the Taliban for the first time in the 17-year conflict.

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The Haqqani network, as Haqqanis group is known, is widely believed to enjoy sanctuary in the tribal belt of Pakistan, whose security establishment has long been accused of nurturing the Taliban and other militant groups that wage attacks across the border in Afghanistan.

The Trump administration has withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in security funding in an effort to increase pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militancy and help bring Taliban leaders to the negotiating table.

Pakistan denies that it supports such groups. But analysts said the Taliban could have announced Haqqanis death at the behest of Pakistan, which has been stung by Trumps criticism and the loss of U.S. funds.

Rahmatullah Nabil, Afghanistans former spy chief, tweeted that the Talibans timing suggested Pakistan was playing as usual. Many Afghans believe Pakistan is trying to buy time while Taliban insurgents continue to inflict casualties on Afghan forces.

While Jalaludin Haqqani died earlier, perhaps the disclosure of his death at this point is directly linked to Mr. Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State visit of Islamabad. @StateDept, Pakistan is playing as usual.  Rahmatullah Nabil (@RahmatullahN) September 4, 2018

One reason this announcement has been made now could be to hint to the American public that [the] Haqqanis could possibly be more open to negotiations with U.S. and ending the war in Afghanistan, now that Jalaluddin is officially dead, said Faran Jeffery, deputy director of Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism, a British think tank that launches this month.

It is unlikely that this will prove to be true, but Taliban and their allies probably intended to send that message.

The news was unlikely to alter the fighting in Afghanistan, which has grown deadlier during Haqqanis long absence. His son Sirajuddin has risen to become the Talibans deputy commander, helping to lead a resurgent militant group that now controls more Afghan territory than at any point since 2001.

In recent months, the insurgents have continued to threaten major cities even as the Trump administration tries for the first time to begin direct talks with the group to end the conflict in Afghanistan.

Haqqani was a former ally of the CIA who had close ties to the Pakistani military establishment and his opposition to U.S. forces since their 2001 invasion of Afghanistan would be seen as golden chapters of history which future Islamic generations shall forever be proud of, the Taliban said in a statement.

The statement gave no details of when or where he died, but a source close to the insurgent group  who was not authorized to speak to the media  said he died and was buried in Afghanistan.

Haqqani long enjoyed the support of Pakistani military intelligence, which saw him as an ally in the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The CIA is widely reported to have financed Haqqani during this period as the U.S. deepened its covert Cold War activities in Afghanistan.

A friend of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden when he was hiding in Afghanistan, Haqqani allied with the Taliban government that took over the country in 1996, serving as its minister for tribal affairs until the 2001 U.S.-led invasion drove the group from power.

His followers quickly became some of the Taliban insurgencys most effective fighters. They are widely believed to have been behind the 2009 suicide bombing at a U.S. military base in Khost province that killed seven CIA officers and a daylong siege of the U.S. Embassy and North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Kabul in 2011.

In 2011, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the Haqqani network a veritable arm of Pakistani military intelligence. Western officials have long accused Pakistan of supporting Islamist proxies to undermine its neighbors, Afghanistan and India.

After the Talibans founding leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, died in 2013, the Haqqanis became the only group with the cohesion, influence and geographic reach to help Pakistan achieve this aim in Afghanistan, according to Stanford Universitys Mapping Militants Project.

Two of Haqqanis sons were killed fighting, one in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, according to Mushtaq Yusufzai, a journalist in the Pakistani city of Peshawar who has covered the militant group.

Although Haqqanis death had been rumored for years, the Taliban might also have waited to confirm it in order to give Sirajuddin a chance to emerge from his fathers shadow, Yusufzai said.

He might have been termed as inexperienced and might not have been taken that seriously, Yusufzai said. But now nobody can question his credentials as a commander and leader.

Special correspondent Sahi reported from Islamabad and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Shashank Bengali is South Asia correspondent for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @SBengaliThe losses could be incalculable, an entire chapter of a countrys culture and history gone up in flames.

Brazils Museu Nacional, the largest natural history museum in Latin America, was consumed by fire Sunday night, a jarring sight in this prideful nation. Founded by Joao VI 200 years ago, the museum was the countrys oldest and one of its most important, housing an archive of 20 million scientific and historical items, most of which are believed to have been consumed in the blaze.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but funding cuts and inadequate maintenance already are being blamed. Upkeep at the museum had long been neglected, evident by peeling walls and exposed electrical wires. In 2015, the museum was briefly closed to the public because of what it called problems with security and cleaning services. Salaries hadnt been paid in months.

The federal government has been accused of ignoring pleas for help from Museu Nacional for years, and thousands of protesters turned up outside the museum Monday, blaming President Michel Temers austerity measures for the loss of so much history. The president has described the damage as a sad day for all Brazilians.

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Here are some gems of the Museu Nacional that may be lost:

Luzia Woman

At about 11,500 years old, Luzia Woman is believed to be the oldest human skeleton ever found in the Americas. Discovered in a cave in Brazil in 1975 by French archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire, the origins of the upper Paleolithic period skeleton caused great debate. Some anthropologists thought her skull suggested her ancestors were from Southeast Asia.

Scientists in 2010 created a reconstruction of her face, which was also on display at the museum. Neither the Luzia Woman fossil nor the replica have been found, though remnants may be hidden in the still-unexplored rubble at the base of the museum.

The skull of Luzia Woman, left, and a reconstruction of Luzia, right. (Associated Press)

Fish-eating dinosaur

The Angaturama limai dinosaur had a long cranium and a jaw line similar to that of the modern-day crocodile, which led paleontologists to believe it spent most of its time in the water searching for food. A fish-eating carnivore known for what looked like a sail on its back, its genus name, Angaturama, was derived from the indigenous Brazilian Tupi language, meaning noble, while its species, limai, was chosen in honor of the late researcher and paleontologist Murilo Rodolfo de Lima. Fossils of its closest relatives have been found both in Brazils Maranhao state and in Africa, supporting the theory that South America and Africa were once one continent.

The museums expansive fossil collection also included a replica of a Maxakalisaurus topai dinosaur skeleton, the largest scientifically identified sauropod found in the country, and fossilized turtles from 110 million years ago. Fossils of brachipods, invertebrate animals abundant in the Paleozoic era, were also housed at the Museu Nacional. They were the first fossils of the Devonian period, about 390 million years ago, and were collected and studied in Brazil in 1870.

Francisca Keller Library

The Francisca Keller Library belongs to the postgraduate program in social anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, which has ties to the Museu Nacional. Founded in 1975, it had the most complete collection of anthropological literature in Brazil and one of the most important in Latin America, including more than 37,000 books, leaflets, periodicals, maps, theses, dissertations and other rare works.

The museum also had its own separate library, which specialized in natural sciences and anthropology. Its collection of rare items was digitized in 2008 and now can be accessed online. The actual material, though, is now probably gone.

Memory and Archive

The Memory and Archive section of the Museu Nacional had a collection of documents that recorded the beginnings of scientific work in Brazil and the changes that occurred in the world of international science. It also housed the private personal collections of several noted scientists and professors.

Among the documents that were probably destroyed in the fire is the original creation decree of the Museum Library from July 11, 1863, signed by then-Minister of the Empire Pedro de Araujo Lima, the marquis of Olinda.

Indigenous languages center

Formally created in 2004, the center specialized in indigenous languages and the various dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, with a collection of text, sound and visual materials.

Books on linguistic theory, indigenous education, anthropology, archaeology, literature and philosophy are already available online. But the tapes, CDs, photos, negatives and videos that gave researchers direct access to primary data on these languages, including narrative discourse, songs and vocabularies, were all probably destroyed in the fire.

Indigenous art and artifacts

Irreplaceable art and objects from Brazils many indigenous peoples were also housed in the Museu Nacional were probably destroyed.

Feather art and ceramics from the Karaja people, of which there are only about 3,000 left in central Brazil, were displayed in the museum. A collection of about 1,800 items from the Columbian era, including artifacts from the Inca and Nazca civilizations, were were probably burned too, as was the mummy of a Chilean man estimated to be at least 3,500 years old.

Egyptian collection

The coffin of Sha-Amun-em-su, dated around 750 BC, was given to former Brazilian monarch Dom Pedro II on his second visit to Egypt, and remained in his possession until Brazil became a republic in 1889. Since then, it was displayed in the Museu Nacional. It has never been opened, but X-rays show that, along with the body, there are amulets still intact inside the painted wooden coffin.

The museum held about 700 other Egyptian items, including a mummified cat and the coffin of the priest Hori, said to be 3,000 years old.

Frescoes from Pompeii

Frescoes that were originally part of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii were probably consumed in the fire, including one with two peacocks perched on stylized chandeliers and two others depicting seahorses and a dragon with a snakes body, both flanked by dolphins.

The museums Mediterranean collection contained 750 items, making it one of the largest in Latin America.

Jill Langlois is a special correspondent.Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto delivered his final state of the union address Monday, conceding that he had not achieved his goal of bringing peace to the violence-racked nation.

We did not realize the objective of recovering peace and security for Mexicans in all corners of the country, Pena Nieto told lawmakers, ministers and others gathered in downtown Mexico City at the ceremonial National Palace.

Public opinion surveys have shown that rising crime is a near-ubiquitous concern among Mexicans, and contributed to Pena Nietos dismal approval ratings and the overwhelming defeat of his party in elections on July 1. The vote was widely seen here as a referendum on his administration, which has also struggled to deliver economic growth and combat corruption.

Pena Nieto, a telegenic former governor of Mexico state, took office in 2012 vowing to bring peace to Mexico. He is leaving office with crime on the rise and a broad perception that his administration was a failure.

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The country recorded more than 25,000 homicides last year  the highest number since officials began publishing such data two decades ago.

In his almost 90-minute address, the president declared that initial success during his term in battling organized crime had prompted a resurgence of smaller gangs that overwhelmed police efforts.

Authorities here have long conceded that well-armed, powerful organized crime syndicates  which control lucrative drug-trafficking routes to the United States and other illicit activities  faced little pushback from low-paid, ill-trained and corruption-ridden police forces.

The strengthening of local police is indispensable for the promulgation of a genuine state of law, the president said, adding that such an effort would require a sustained, long-term investment of public resources.

Like the last several leaders who preceded him, Pena Nieto did little to shift power from the criminals to the police.

In the absence of effective police forces, Mexico has instead deployed the military to fight cartels and other criminal syndicates during the last decade. It has been an extremely controversial strategy, and one of questionable effectiveness.

Though the military deployment has aided in the arrests or killings of many organized crime kingpins, the presence of troops on the streets has not substantially reduced crime or violence. Military units have also been implicated in alleged massacres and other human rights abuses. And the removal of capos has fractured criminal gangs into smaller groups but not eliminated them.

Nonetheless, President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has signaled that he plans to continue deploying the Mexican military in an anti-crime role. It would be irresponsible to send soldiers and marines back to their barracks at a time when police were not prepared to deal with the threat, Lopez Obrador told reporters last month.

While acknowledging a failure to achieve peace, Pena Nieto, who leaves office on Dec. 1, also detailed what he termed his administrations successes in a number of realms, including the renegotiation of a new bilateral trade pact last week with the United States, the destination of almost 80% of Mexicos exports.

The president voiced the hope that Canada would eventually join in a revised version of the current North American Free Trade Agreement, which governs more than $1 trillion in annual trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Pena Nieto also also extolled Mexicos stability during his almost six years in office, its holding of national elections, what he termed a moderate national debt and what he called the countrys commitment to human rights, both at home and in countries such as Venezuela.

His comments amounted to a kind of farewell to public life after almost six years in office, though Pena Nieto vowed to work hard in his final weeks. He thanked his supporters, his family and others before walking off stage to prolonged applause.

But history may not treat Pena Nieto kindly.

The presidential candidate of his Institutional Revolutionary Party  which dominated Mexican politics for much of the 20th century  finished a distant third. The party known as the PRI also suffered historic setbacks in congressional, gubernatorial and local voting.

Mexican presidents are restricted to one term, so Pena Nieto was not a candidate in the July contest. But the outcome was still mortifying for him. His election in 2012 had raised hopes of a revival for the PRI, which had been out of presidential power since the 2000 elections.

His successor, Lopez Obrador, has already pledged to cancel or review some of Pena Nietos major initiatives, including education and energy reforms and a multibillion-dollar plan for a new international airport outside the capital.

But the relationship between the two appears to have warmed considerably since 2012, when Lopez Obrador was defeated by Pena Nieto in presidential balloting and refused to acknowledge the result, alleging fraud.

Pena Nieto has extended a hand to the incoming administration and said Monday that he wished great success for the president-elect.

And Lopez Obrador, a leftist populist and former PRI stalwart who has vowed a broad transformation of Mexican society, has publicly thanked Pena Nieto for his cooperation during the transition period.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLATStock Market News

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UK Market Close - Paradise Queensway closed - the alternative routes you must know to find the city's big attractions 04-09-2018 02:41



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Lycoming College today announced the appointment of Kacy Hagan as its director of Human Resources and Risk Management, where she will serve a key role as a senior officer on the administrative cabinet for President Kent C. Trachte, Ph.D.

Hagan brings a wealth of experience in higher education human resources to Lycoming College from a previous position at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, where she served as director of Human Resources, as well as Social Equity Officer and Title IX Coordinator. She oversaw Mansfields employee relations, benefits, compensation and searches for the 400+ employees on the campus. As Title IX coordinator, Hagan served as the universitys primary Title IX investigator and Title IX trainer for faculty, staff, and students.

In this new role, Hagan will lead the department of Human Resources, including all recruitment and staffing, benefits and compensation administration, payroll, database management (HRIS), recordkeeping retention and file maintenance, performance management, legal and regulatory compliance, policy and procedure development, employee training and development, and employee relations.

I am thrilled to join the Lycoming College team and look forward to supporting the schools efforts to be an employer of choice and provide excellent services to its faculty, staff, and students.

Prior to joining Lycoming College, Hagan was the manager of Human Resources for Truck-Lite Co., LLCs three Pennsylvania facilities in Wellsboro, Pa. She also held human resources positions at Able2 Enhancing Potential Inc., the National Associate of Insurance & Financial Advisors, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

Hagan has a Masters of Business Administration from Strayer University, and earned a Bachelor of Arts from University of Mary Washington.

We were very impressed with Kacys credentials, and have no doubt that she is up to the task of tackling the challenges that lie ahead, said Jeff Bennett, vice president and Chief Financial Officer for Lycoming College.Toward America First NAFTA

Despite the Trump administrations frantic last-minute efforts to hammer the NAFTA agreement, the attempt failed within the US timeline, so the talks continue. Why is the revised deal so important to the White House?



Last Friday, the trade talks between the United States and Canada broke off without an agreement.



The negotiations on the revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are not over, however. The talks continue and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will meet again Canadas foreign minister Chrystia Freeland.





Trumps art of the deal



In the past year, the US and Mexican negotiators have been able to agree on a tentative outline for a new pact. The two also claim progress in the so-called rules of origins for automobiles, which govern how much of a car must be made within the NAFTA countries to avoid tariffs.



According to current rules, any car sold in North America that includes 62% of parts made within the region are exempt. However, the Trump administration wants to raise the figure to 75% hoping that more parts would be made in the U.S.



The current talks remain focused on agricultural issues, particularly the dairy industry. President Trump has called Canadas dairy regulations protectionist and harmful to U.S. dairy farmers. In reality, both countries have their subsidy systems. Canadas dairy sector operates under a regulated supply management system, whereas the U.S. government supports dairy farmers directly. Reportedly, U.S. support equaled 73% of U.S. dairy market returns in 2015.



In the dairy industry, the subsidies will artificially maintain lower prices, which effectively deter more competitive dairy industries, particularly from emerging and developing markets. In the automobile industry, the new NAFTA will increase the costs of cars sold in North America, which, in turn, will reduce offshoring, disrupt the ecosystems of car producers and translate to higher prices to consumers.



Under the revised NAFTA, a share of the car parts would have to be built by workers making at least $16 an hour. Adding vacation weeks and assuming 40 hours a week that ends up being an estimated $33,300 per year in salary. In the U.S., thats only 55% of average per capita income; in Canada, almost 75%; but in Mexico, a whopping 360%, or 3.5 times higher than average per capita income. Under such rules, Mexico would gain the most, America still the least



The other implication is even more important. If the Trump administration will seek to project its revised NAFTA as a blueprint elsewhere in the world (as the Clinton administration tried with its NAFTA deal in the 90s), it would mean a war against all offshored production capacity outside the U.S  which in the past four decades have sustained relatively low prices for consumers in North America, while boosting living standards in less-prosperous economies.



If Canada will not agree to a revised NAFTA, Trump has vowed to sign a trade deal with just Mexico. He expects Canadian concessions because he thinks that the country has no choice but to make a deal. However, Freeland said on Friday that Canada will only sign a deal which is good deal for Canada.



Nevertheless, President Trump has informed Congress that he anticipates a signed trade deal with Mexico and possibly Canada in 90 days, according to U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizers statement.

From North American NAFTA to America First NAFTA



In the past year, Canada and Mexico have been hedging their bets against a potential NAFTA collapse by pushing for deals with new partners, particularly with China and other Asian countries.



NAFTAs record has proven mixed since its inception in 1994. While the agreement has broadly benefited consumers, critics complain that it has contributed to investment outflows, unemployment, and offshoring. Nevertheless, most Americans support NAFTA, as does the majority of Canadians. However, NAFTA has not boosted consumer welfare significantly in Mexico, where per capita incomes have been lagging behind those in the U.S. and Canada.



In the U.S., the ongoing tariff wars and increasing friction with U.S. trade partners in the Americas, Europe, and Asia has added to uncertainty in the mid-term elections. In turn, Mexico is heading toward a dramatic transformation, which is precisely why Trump wants a signed deal before December when Mexicos president will change.



Last July, the center-left Lopez Obrador won a landslide victory in Mexicos presidential election. While Obrador has long been a critic of NAFTA, his center-left election platform was more moderate. Unlike the incumbent center-right President Enrique Pena Nieto, he would not see the failure of the NAFTA renegotiation as fatal for Mexicans.



In Canada, conservatives have mocked Justin Trudeau's government, posturing for the 2019 elections. Nevertheless, liberals have been rising in recent polls as Canadians rally behind Trudeau against Trump tariffs. As the three-way talks with Canada and Mexico fell apart in June, the U.S. has been conducting one-on-one talks with Mexico, ignoring Canada.



The separate bilateral trade deal with Mexico became possible only after the U.S. dropped its sunset clause; a trade mechanism to force a renegotiation of NAFTA every five years if the new terms failed to foster more balanced trade between the three member countries.



Relying on his imperial rule-and-divide strategy, Trump wanted U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer to force an agreement, even a diluted one, with Mexico, so that Canadas Trudeau would have to sign the final America-First-NAFTA deal.



Nevertheless, if and when the final treaty is signed, it will not be the one that Trump initially wanted. Moreover, due to general distrust on the Nieto government, Obrador is likely to monitor both the fine print and the execution of the treaty.



While Trudeau does need a deal, he is trapped between an unwillingness to settle for a bad NAFTA and an inability to reject a revised NAFTA treaty if both the U.S. and Mexico agree on final terms.

The take-it-or-leave-it stance



The goal of the NAFTA talks  and other FTA talks by the Trump administration - is not to achieve multilateral compromise. To the White House, that is bad history.



Instead, the strategic objective of the Trump White House is either to redefine the terms on the basis of U.S. economic leverage and unipolar geopolitics or  if that is not acceptable to other parties  to withdraw the U.S. from such FTAs.



Thats the strategy that Trump will soon try to force on the proposed new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Asia Pacific, the new transatlantic TTIP with Europe, and other FTAs elsewhere.



In the Bush era, the White House defined loyalty in terms of security partnerships. As President Bush put it, Either you are with us or you are against us.



In the Trump era, the definition has changed, as evidenced by President Trumps rhetoric. Now the assumption is, Either you accept our redefined terms, or you get nothing.

Dr Steinbock is the founder of the Difference Group and has served as the research director at the India, China, and America Institute (USA) and a visiting fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For more information, see http://www.differencegroup.net/

 2018 Copyright Dan Steinbock - 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.

Dan Steinbock Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.



All you Need to Know About the Bitcoin Market

If youre one of those people wondering what bitcoin is all about, then youve come to the right place. Today well be looking at more information about bitcoin, including the overall bitcoin market. Heres all you need to know about the bitcoin market.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a kind of digital currency, also known as a cryptocurrency. That means that there are no physical bitcoins out there. It is created, handled, and transferred electronically. It is also decentralized, meaning that no one controls or supervises how it is used.



Bitcoin are commonly used for anonymous online transactions. The bitcoin market has also made it easier to purchase things overseas. Given that users have complete anonymity, the market isnt tied down to a particular country or regulation. Transactions with bitcoin are also cheap, as there are often little or no fees attached.

Its easy enough to get some bitcoin. You can purchase your own using an exchange such as Xcoins.io. These exchanges facilitate the buying and selling of bitcoin. You can also use your computer to mine them, if you so prefer. As is the case with just about anything digital, its possible to store and trade bitcoins across the internet with mobile apps too.



Why is Bitcoin so Popular?

The main reason bitcoin has become so popular is the wealth of features. Lets look at some of these features and how they have contributed to the enormous popularity of bitcoin.

Its Easy to Get Started

One of the greatest things about bitcoin  and all cryptocurrencies  is just how easy it is to get started. It only takes a few minutes to get a wallet and buy your first bitcoins. Theres never any fees involved or questions to be answered either, so everyone can easily start their bitcoin adventure whenever they want. You dont even have to be all that tech-savvy to get involved.

No Central Authority

The bitcoin market is free from any kind of central authority. This means that theres no risk that someone else on the market can seize your coins. You also dont need to get permission from anyone to own and use an account. Given that there are no gatekeepers involved, youre free to send and receive bitcoin whenever and however you want. Think of it as a kind of software that anyone can use freely.

Its Fast

Another key reason behind the popularity of the bitcoin market is that transactions happen quickly. The amount is transferred by a network as soon as they process the payment. Transactions are completed in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.

Its Irreversible

Payments cannot be reversed once they are made. As there isnt a central authority, there is no one that can overturn and undo a transaction. Only the person that makes the transaction has any kind of control over how much they want to send.

Its Anonymous

You are able to make any kind of transaction with anyone, without having to worry about someone discovering your real identity. The bitcoins are transferred to the digital wallet of another person. It is not connected at all to their real-world identity. Do keep in mind, however, that the flow of a transaction can still be tracked.

Security

The bitcoin market operates on a secure platform. The money put into the market is kept in a secure system known as public key cryptography system. Individuals are only able to exchange money if they have the private key they need. It is impossible to breach the system due to the strong cryptography.

Demand for Cryptocurrency in the Asian Market

Anyone watching bitcoin has seen how the price has increased recently. A big factor in this is legislation concerning the currency in the Asian market. The Japanese government gave cryptocurrency the green light to be used, and Chinese investors are also interested in the potential of bitcoin.

Final Thoughts

Theres a bright future ahead for cryptocurrency. The popularity for bitcoin is expected to only increase because of the extensive features associated with it. There are some downsides however, including that several people have been scammed through bitcoin. As mentioned before, there is no way to undo a fraudulent transaction. Be as careful with your bitcoins as you would with any other kind of money, if not more so.

By Dylan M.

 2018 Copyright Dylan M. - 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.



UK Mortgage Market Split on Base Rate Hike

A base rate rise can cause an element of uncertainty in the mortgage market, as it can often be difficult to predict how providers are likely to react to the news. Now, a month on from the Bank of Englands decision to increase the base rate to 0.75%, Moneyfacts.co.uk assesses the impact this rise has had on the mortgage market.

Charlotte Nelson, Finance Expert at Moneyfacts.co.uk, said:



A base rate rise can be an anxious time for borrowers, particularly if they are on a variable rate deal. Many would have assumed that a 0.25% increase to base rate would mean they would have automatically seen the full 0.25% passed on straightaway. However, data from Moneyfacts.co.uk shows that while all variable rates have risen one month on, none of them have increased by the full 0.25% as many would have expected.



After Novembers rate rise last year, the full 0.25% was seen in the average two-year tracker just 16 days later. However, this time providers have been a lot slower to react, which may become the norm for future borrowers.



Now, 60% of providers have increased their standard variable rate (SVR), with only two providers (Bath Building Society and Principality Building Society) passing on less than the 0.25% increase. Yet more rises could be to come, as so far only Yorkshire Building Society has announced that it will not be increasing its SVR this time around.



With this knowledge, borrowers sitting on an SVR may feel they are as yet getting a break from the full effects of the base rate rise. However, this is not the case, particularly as the highest SVR currently stands at 6.33%.



The two-year fixed rate mortgage market is a completely different story, with the average rate remaining the same over the course of the month. Many providers had already priced the rate rise into their fixed rate mortgages in the lead up to the announcement, as they are aware that a rate rise causes many borrowers to reassess their deal. Therefore, lenders have held off from increasing rates further in a bid to attract these borrowers who are now considering remortgaging away from their SVR.



Any borrower who is sitting on their SVR should do just that, as they could save 250.35* a month or 3,004.20* a year by simply switching from the average SVR (4.84%) to the average two-year fixed rate (2.53%). The ball is now rolling for base rate rises, with at least a quarter-point rise expected in the foreseeable future. Borrowers now shouldnt rest on their laurels and should opt for a fixed deal to protect themselves against any future rate rises.



*Based on a 200,000 mortgage over a 25-year term on a capital and interest repayment basis.

moneyfacts.co.uk is a financial product price comparison site, launched in 2000, which helps consumers compare thousands of financial products, including credit cards, savings, mortgages and many more. Unlike other comparison sites, there is no commercial influence on the way moneyfacts.co.uk ranks products, showing consumers a true picture of the best products based on the criteria they select. The site also provides informative guides and covers the latest consumer finance news, as well as offering a weekly newsletter.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.



Alun Morgan, an IMT member from Bridgend in the UK, sadly died on Friday 24 August at the age of 68 after suffering a fall followed by a cardiac arrest. Alun was a very loyal supporter of our British section, Socialist Appeal. He did a lot of work in collecting material from various archives in preparation for the first two volumes of the collected works of Ted Grant. Recently, Alun was helping with material for the third volume.

Before he died Alun was building a database for cataloguing and publishing online digitised material from the Ted Grant archives. He wrote to me in June saying, I have set a plan which for the first phase  building the database  should be finished by January, if I do about 6 hours a day on this project, 7 days a week.

In the recent period Alun was unable to be active as he was suffering from Parkinsons. Instead, he used his skills  as a former IT teacher  as best he could to contribute to the strengthening of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) in Britain.

He also made regular financial contributions to the Socialist Appeal  his last being 500 towards the recent office move appeal.

Alun Morgan (1949-2018)

Alun was very modest with no pretensions. He just wanted to do what he could to defend the ideas of Ted Grant, embodied today in the IMT.

When asked a few years ago by Warwick University, How would you like to be remembered?, Alun replied, As someone who got things done and didn't put himself first. That really sums up who Alun was.

He was also very active in Parkinsons UK, serving as a trustee of the charity and travelling around attending conferences  both in Britain and abroad  giving talks on the condition. He was very proud of having organised a very successful young Parkinson's conference.

Anyone who met Alun would be struck by his sharp sense of humour. You could not spend more than a minute with him before he had you laughing. He was always seeing the funny side of things, including his own Parkinsons. He even joked about how he would like to be remembered: Aluns funeral service was uplifting and humorous, bordering on the tasteless.

Comrades from Socialist Appeal and the International Marxist Tendency express their condolences to Aluns wife Catherine, his daughter Laura, son-in-law Phil, and grandson Leon, his son David, and daughter-in-law Kadeeya.

He will remain in the hearts of all the comrades who knew him and his work will not be forgotten.

Alun's family have asked that any donations in his memory should be made to Parkinsons UK.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.[September 04, 2018] Hanergy clinches contracts worth USD 4.3million with 15 Latin American companies Intends to promote and implement thin film solar energy in Latin America SAO PAULO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hanergy Thin Film Power Group (00566.HK), a pioneering multinational clean energy company, announced last Thursday (Aug. 30) its entry into the Latin America region by venturing into Brazil at the onset. The company also revealed during the 'Hanergy Latin America Night', on the concluding day of a 3-day long Intersolar South America Exhibition 2018, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that it has inked cooperation contracts worth USD 4.3 million with 15 companies from Brazil, Chile, and other Latin American countries. Under the aegis of these contracts, Hanergy will cooperate with local partners in several aspects, including building-integrated photovoltaics products, the construction of thin film solar chip production lines, distribution of Hanergy mobile energy products like HanPack, Humbrella, and HanPaper, and localization of R&D for solar energy solutions. Hanergy signed a distribution contract with Brazil's largest umbrella dealer, Greenhouse, for distribution of Humbrella, Hanergy's solar umbrella product. Similarly Hanergy also signed with the Information Technology Center Renato Archer, a research unit of Brazil Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications, to develop the BIPV technology application in Brazil. Hanergy also reached an MOU agreement with Queiroz Galvao, a giant Latin American real estate and engineering conglomerate. Under the MOU, Hanergy will work with QGDI to explore Brazil and a greater Latin America BIPV market. Hanergy's mobile energy products are so popular that at the first day of the Intersolar America Exhibition, within 30 minutes, all stock products for the exhibition, includig 250 HanPacks (solar backpack) and 550 HanPapers (solar power bank), were sold out. For enthusiastic buyers, Hanergy says they can also buy at www.dx.com or www.techenergy.cl Mr. Lv Yuan, Vice president of Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, said, "We're extremely delighted to make in-roads in the Latin America region, more so, in Brazil. At Hanergy, we've accorded priority to the Latin America region as one of the key strategic markets for our global business. Further, having already signed contracts with 15 partners in two months after the team arrived in Brazil is just the beginning of Hanergy's successful innings in the region. We welcome more local partners to join us for an exciting mission of changing the world with thin-film solar energy, and together build the era of mobile energy." Hanergy is underway with its robust expansion plan in Latin America, and its decision to venture into Brazil is a testimony to the company's commitment to contributing immensely towards Latin America's thin film solar market. Lv added, "Since Latin America is a vast region, the high electricity load areas are mostly far from the traditional power stations, therefore, high-voltage lines are required for electricity transmission. Many remote areas in the region face the problems pertaining to lack of electricity and high-priced electricity owing to challenging reach of the power-grid. To deal with these problems, Hanergy's wide range of mobile energy products will undoubtedly be instrumental. I believe our distributors would find Hanergy's solar products could be a great benefit to locals' daily life." Mr. Han Rui, CEO of Hanergy Brazil, said, "Hanergy intends to promote the local research and development, to understand the varied geographies of the Latin America region and manufacture products that meet local needs. Hanergy, already has a full-fledged plan to establish an R&D base in Brazil to make Hanergy's path-breaking technology to take roots in the region." Rodrigo Lopes Sauaia, president of ABSolar, said, "Hanergy is steadfast in bringing economic benefits and jobs to Brazil. And the company has a more mature mobile energy solution, which can help resolve the problem of uneven energy distribution in Latin America." Hanergy holds the record for world's most efficient GaAs single-junction solar module with 28.9% conversion efficiency and the CIGS module with a world's record 18.72% efficiency. Relying on these advanced technologies, Hanergy manufactures flexible, light-weight and thin-film solar panels. Hanergy's latest innovations include HanPaper and HanPack. HanPaper is an on-the-go wireless electricity generator and storage device that takes only 9 minutes to charge 10% power of iPhone X. Equally efficient, HanPack, is a well-designed backpack equipped with Hanergy's core technology, thin film solar cells. Since 2009, Hanergy has painstakingly worked to integrate worldwide solar technology and made robust investment for the research and innovation in the field of thin-film solar power. Up to the present, Hanergy Thin Film Power Group has filed over 3,700 patents, among which 900 have been granted. Hanergy is all set to revolutionize the global mobile energy industry through its varied offerings equipped with advanced technologies. SOURCE Hanergy

[ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ]The off-year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey tend to receive outsize attention, and the results are mined for deeper meaning about what they portend for the midterm elections the following year that determine which party controls Congress.September 04, 2018 Syria - UN, U.S. Try To Delay Idlib's Liberation The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura and his Special Advisor, Jan Egeland, held a press conference (vid) today. They appealed to the Russian President Putin and President Erdogan of Turkey to find a solution for Idleb province that would avoid the upcoming Syrian army attack on the province ruled by al-Qaeda. De Mistura claimed that there are 2.9 million civilians in the area. That number is nonsense. In 2011 Idleb governorate had a population of 1.5 million. Several hundred thousands of those, Christians, Alawites, government employees, soldiers and their families, fled when in 2015 al-Qaeda and its Free Syrian Army allies attacked and occupied it. Some new people, 10-20,000 Chinese Uyghurs as well as other foreign Jihadis, arrived. But their total numbers were in the ten thousands, not in the hundred thousands. When in 2017 the Syrian army liberated Aleppo and then east-Ghouta and other areas, about 50,000 people in total asked to be put on buses and to be shipped off to Idleb. The total number of people in the province and the attached areas held by the Jihadis must be well under 2 million. As for the number of terrorists in Idleb de Mistura only spoke of some 10,000 of the al-Qaeda aligned Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Jabhat Al-Nusra Front. But the total number of radical Jihadists in the governorate is much larger. There are two large groups of "rebels" in Idleb. Turkeys favourite is the NLF, which is led by Fadlallah al-Hajji, a Muslim Brotherhood ally. The NLF includes Turkey-friendly Islamists like Ahrar al-Sham, the Noureddine al-Zengi Brigades, Failaq al-Sham, Jaish al-Ahrar, and groups that fought under the Free Syrian Army banner, like the Victory Army and the 2nd Coastal Division. Big but brittle, the NLF is held together by Turkish sponsorship and shared enemies: al-Assads government, Syrian Kurdish groups, and hardline jihadists. These ain't your friendly neighbors but brutal Islamists. Ahrar al Sham is a recognized terrorist group founded by a senior al-Qaeda veteran. The al-Zengi brigades became famous when they published a video which showed them beheading a wounded 12 year old boy. The second, larger, and even more brutal group is the alliance around HTS under its leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani. It includes several thousand Uyghur and Chechen fighters: Some of al-Golanis jihadist critics, many of whom are Jordanians and Palestinians, have gathered in a pro-al-Qaeda splinter faction known as Hurras al-Deen.

...

Hurras al-Deen is accompanied by a number of small foreign-led factions close to Tahrir al-Sham, including the Chechens of Junoud al-Sham. The so-called Islamic State also operates clandestine cells in the area, hunted by both the NLF and Tahrir al-Sham. Jaish al-Ezzah, a Free Syrian Army-flagged faction based near Hama, has not joined the Turkish-backed NLF like many of its former comrades. Some see the group as a covert Tahrir al-Sham ally ..

...

In the western part of the enclave, Jisr al-Shughour has emerged as a stronghold of the Turkestan Islamic Party, TIP, a group of Uyghur Chinese jihadists. HTS and other Jihadis have rejected Turkish requests to dissolve themselves. When the liberation of Idleb starts the Turkish influenced NLF will join HTS and other Jihadis in the fight: [T]o the Syrian government, Idlibs rebels are all terrorists pure and simple  and the Idlib fighters themselves also see al-Assad as their primary enemy, transcending factional divides. Aba-Zeid insisted that if Russia green-lights a Syrian government offensive on Idlib, no matter how the various groups view Turkey or each other, they would all prioritise repelling the attack. Mustafa Sejari, a leader in the Ankara-backed Moutassem Brigade, agreed. This is the last fortress of the Syrian opposition and preserving it is everyones obligation, he said. HTS and its allies must have some 15-25,000 fighters, the groups aligned with Turkey may have a slightly lower number, some are locals and they are probably less willing to fight. In total the Syrian army is likely to face a force of some 30-45,000 capable and willing fighters. What these groups currently lack is the supply of weapons and ammunition. In August 2018 not one anti-tank guided missiles was used against the Syrian army. The U.S. officially ended its supplies for the "rebels". The Gulf states have washed their hands over Idelb. It is no longer their fight. Turkey also seems to have stopped weapon supplies. Without constant resupply of anti-tank weapons and especially artillery ammunition the "rebel" groups will soon run out of the basic necessities for waging war. But their are still voiced who call for further arming the Jihadis. The "eminent scholar" and warmonger Anthony Cordesman of CSIS just advised to re-up such supplies: If anything, the U.S. should begin now to evaluate the kind of aid it might give any renewed Sunni or other rebels faction both now in Idlib or later. This is in line with the idea of U.S. administration officials who want to "create quagmires" for Syria and Russia. The New York Times did its best to push for that with an op-ed of some "democratic" Jihadi fan-girl and a propagandistic "news" piece on Idleb that took the reader to the 21st paragraphs to learn that the province is ruled by al-Qaeda: H.T.S. has controlled much of Idlib since 2015, acting as de facto governmental authority, facilitating trade across the long border with Turkey and organizing aid deliveries. The "de-facto governmental authority" HTS is known to publicly execute women accused of adultery. It "facilitates trade" by taxing it to finance its terrorist activities. It "organizing aid deliveries" by talking half of any aid that is brought in. That is the reason why the Inspector General of USAID recently shut down its aid program in Idleb. If the U.S. wants to "create a quagmire" in Idleb it will need Turkish support to restart its arming of the terrorists. Today U.S. emissaries arrived in Ankara likely to offer a deal: United States Special Envoy for Syria James Jeffrey held talks with Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal in the Turkish capital on Sept. 4. Jeffrey had served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ankara between the years of 2008 and 2010 and thus have great knowledge on the importance of Turkish-American ties.

...

The top three issues in regards to the current situation on Syrian soil that Turkish officials discussed with Jeffrey were the looming Idlib operation by Syria-Russia, delays in the implementation of the Manbij deal and efforts to speed up political settlement in Syria. On Idlib, Turkey and the U.S. are on the same page and have expressed that a massive operation into the overpopulated province would create an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy if civilians are not separated from terrorists. Both countries think al-Nusra and affiliated groups should be eliminated but this should be done carefully and without civilian casualties. The de Mistura press conference today made the same point and was likely coordinated with these talks. But neither de Mistura nor James Jeffrey nor any Turkish official have presented an idea of how to achieve that. Turkey was given several month to solve the Jihadist problem in Idleb by talks. It tried and failed. The current situation can not continue. It is unconscionable to leave the 1-2 million civilians in Syria under the rule of al-Qaeda. HTS is just now arresting hundreds of civilians who want to reconcile with the government. It builds gallows as warning to not talk to the government. It executes those who do and publishes pictures of it. Two UN Security Council resolutions demand to fight the "Al-Nusra Front (ANF), and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with Al Qaeda or ISIL, and other terrorist groups" and "to eradicate the safe haven they have established over significant parts of Syria ...". How is that supposed to be done without fighting them? Will the U.S. offer to resettle HTS and the other Jihadis in Wyoming? Will Turkey give them apartments in Antalya? No? Then what? U.S. President Trump added another warning against the Idelb operation: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 22:20 utc - 3 Sep 2018

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen! (Note: Instead of the "animal Assad" Trump used in an earlier tweet he now properly addressed Syria's president.) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dunford, also chipped in: We dont see any way that significant military operations are going to be beneficial to the people of Syria, Dunford told reporters during a trip to Athens. If major military operations take place we can expect humanitarian catastrophe and I think we would all want to see that be avoided, ...

...

Pressed about the best course, Dunford said: More of a discussion between the Turks, the Syrians and the Russians at more precise counterterrorism operations  as opposed to large scale conventional operations  would be the right approach. The U.S. is not a friend of the people of Syria. If it gives advice the Syrian government and its allies should do the opposite. Any delay of the liberation of Idleb will strengthen their enemy. They should launch the operation as soon as possible. Today the Syrian army began to prepare the battlefield for the upcoming fight. Some 30 bombing attacks were flown by the Syrian and Russian air force. The targets were depots and headquarters of the Jihadis. Removing their supplies is the easiest way to shorten the fight and to thereby prevent unnecessary civilian casualties. Posted by b on September 4, 2018 at 18:08 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk!

You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details.Overseas Vietnamese scientists meet Prime Minister to discuss latest hi-tech trends

VietNamNet Bridge - The most preeminent overseas Vietnamese technology talents from around the world recently met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Minister of Planning and Investment, leaders and technology officers.









New technologies are introduced in Vietnam









They visited hi-tech establishments in Vietnam, and shared experiences and views about technology development in Vietnam. More importantly, they suggested solutions on how to develop Vietnam in the long term and what to do in the 4.0 industrial revolution.



Most of them were from Silicon Valley. These included Phung Kim Cuong, a senior software engineer at Tesla; Dr Vu Duy Thuc from Stanford University, a well known face among technology startups; Dr Nguyen Duy Lan, who spent nine years working for Microsoft and owns nine technology patents in cybersecurity and Dr Do Binh Minh from NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration).



Thuc attended the international Blockchain Week event in early March 2018 in Vietnam, a special session held with Vietnamese blockchain-based developers.

The most preeminent overseas Vietnamese technology talents from around the world recently met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Minister of Planning and Investment, leaders and technology officers.



There were also many famous names such as Le Viet Quoc from Google Brain, recognized as one of the 35 under-35 young inventors of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Bui Hai Hung from Google Deepmind who are conducting research on AI (artificial intelligence).



The flight also brought young Vietnamese who had doctorates from prestigious universities in healthcare, education and agriculture.



Over half of the members of the group are conducting research on AI. Dr Do Minh Minh commented: AI is a key field in the 4.0 industrial development, based on the importance of data.



Of the overseas Vietnamese scientists and researchers, many have decided to return to Vietnam to set up business. Nguyen Duy Lan, for example, has started Veramine, while Cao Anh Tuan with Gene Friend Way can "look" at the genetic code of Vietnamese people to make early diagnoses.



I want to make a contribution to protecting cyberspace in Vietnam, Lan said.



At meetings with ministries leaders and local authorities, the technology talents talked about the possibility of cooperating with the municipal authorities in many business fields, from healthcare to agriculture, using the worlds most advanced technologies.



VinGroup, established as a real estate developer, has announced its plan to become a technology group. It has inaugurated the Big Data Research Institute where Prof Vu Ha Van from Yale University is the science director.



Experts estimate that the 4.0 industrial revolution may help Vietnams GDP increase by $8-18 billion a year.





RELATED NEWS

From math-loving student to Microsoft security engineer and big boss

Vietnamese-American tech firms in US yet to reach $1billion status





Mai Chi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 []State

Nagaland relief: Actor Sushant donates Rs.1.25 crore to CMRF

Sushant handing over the cheque to Neiphiu Rio.

DIMAPUR, SEP 4 (NPN) | Publish Date: 9/4/2018 11:59:53 AM IST

Popular Hindi cinema actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who arrived Dimapur Tuesday, donated Rs.1.25 crore towards the Nagaland chief minister relief fund.

According to CMO media cell, the actor personally handed over a cheque of Rs. 1.25 crore to the chief minister. Taking to twitter, the chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, said he was moved at the kind gesture made by Sushant and his team towards Nagaland Floods and willingness to help Nagaland at this crucial hour. Your contribution is encouraging and I hope to see the rest of the nation come forward selflessly, to #DonateForNagaland, the Rio tweeted appreciating the actor.

I thank Sushant Singh Rajput @itsSSR for standing with #Nagaland. He personally handed over a cheque of Rs.1.25 crore towards CM Relief Fund. I am grateful to him and everyone who has come in support of our state #NagalandFloods #DonateForNagaland, the chief minister wrote on twitter.

Sushant also took to twitter and thanked the chief minister. Thank you Sir for your precious time. We, with our full force and determination would work incessantly till the time our #Nagaland is perfectly restored. And this wonderful Gong does make a wonderful sound of friendship. Thanks once again Sir, he tweeted.

Meanwhile, CMO media cell informed that a total amount of Rs 45.50 lakh has been received from the contributors to the CMRF besides Rs.1.25 crore from actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

It stated that direct contribution to CMRF Bank Account was Rs. 15.69 lakh, online contribution through Air Pay Link was Rs 23.20 lakh and contribution through PayTM app was Rs 6.81 lakh.

Further, CMO informed that out of the total amount, Rs. 10 lakh was given to Kiphire district.

It said the chief minister has expressed gratitude to the citizens of the country for coming forward and making the contributions for relief and restoration operations in Nagaland. He also thanked Sushant Singh Rajput for the contribution.

Payments for CMRF can be made through Credit Card, Debit Card, Netbanking, Amazon Pay, OLA Money, Jio Money and PayTM. All contributions are 100% exempt from Income Tax as per 80G(2) of Income Tax Act.

Individuals from across the country have been coming out to generously contribute towards the Chief Ministers Relief Fund.Race Week Preview: Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line

Race Week is back at the Brickyard as NASCAR returns to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 25th time at the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line. To commemorate this historic milestone, IMS and NASCAR have amped up the week with an exciting lineup of races, concerts and much more! Lets break down all of the events on and off the track that will be sure to rev up your engines for Race Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Driven2SaveLives BC39 presented by NOS Energy Drink (Wednesday-Thursday, Sept. 5-6)

Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is going to its roots Wednesday, Sept. 5 and Thursday, Sept. 6 as the best short-track racers and select NASCAR drivers will compete on the new quarter-mile clay oval inside Turn 3. The event is already making history, as a record-setting 118 entries have signed up to compete at the Racing Capital of the World. Gates open at 4 p.m. both nights.

Lilly Diabetes 250 Practice, NASCAR Hauler Parade (Friday, Sept. 7)

Opening day for NASCAR weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway starts off with the young guns of the NASCAR XFINITY Series preparing to take on the veterans during practice for the Lilly Diabetes 250. Gates open for practice at 11 a.m., with cars hitting the track at 1 p.m.





Once practice concludes, make your way to Main Street in Speedway for the annual NASCAR Hauler Parade. The free event features games for kids, live music, NASCAR driver appearances and the chance to see NASCAR haulers up close and personal as they head to the Brickyard.

NASCAR Practice, Qualifying, Lilly Diabetes 250 (Saturday, Sept. 8)

Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is packed with events on and off the track. Saturday is your first day to see the stars of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series prepare for the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line.

Gates open at 8 a.m. with a full lineup of practice, qualifying and racing.

 10:30 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Practice

 11:45 a.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series Qualifying

 1:30 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Final Practice

 3:20 p.m.: Green Flag for the Lilly Diabetes 250 (100 laps)

 6:15 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying

FGL Fest (Saturday, Sept. 8)

Get ready for a full day of music as global entertainers Florida Georgia Line are headlining the inaugural FGL Fest. The revved-up lineup also features Cole Swindell Nelly , Raelynn, Jillian Jacqueline, Mason Ramsey, Riley Green and Stephanie Quayle.









Concert gates open at 2 p.m., and you must have an FGL Fest concert ticket to enter the concert area located in the Turn 4 infield. Tickets start at $39, with upgrades available for the Concert Pit area.

Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line (Sunday Sept. 9)

  Related Posts:  

Here is the quick breakdown of the schedule:The final 400 miles of NASCARs regular season comes down to 3 feet of bricks at the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line. See who will be crowned regular-season champion and who will claim their spot in the Playoffs.Gates open for Race Day at 10 a.m., with pre-race ceremonies beginning at 1 p.m., all leading up to green flag at 2 p.mBy Express News Service

KOLKATA: The depreciation in value of Indian rupee has been touted as beneficial to exporters, but this might not be the case always, according to Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) India.

EEPC on Monday said the currency volatility neednt always bring benefits to exporters. Our view has been that it is a stable currency that helps exporters, providing them with predictability of dealing with the buyers. Any fluctuation and volatility on either side does not help, EEPC India chairman Ravi Sehgal said.

The council said Indias engineering export growth shrunk to single digit at 9.4 per cent in July, from sharp increases in the previous few months even as the rupee was depreciating against the US dollar. It was a demonstration that a stronger dollar is not the only growth driver and does not always lead to export momentum, EEPC India said.

Rupee depreciated more in July (6.56 per cent) as compared to June (5.19 per cent). But did exports grow at a higher rate and was there a currency depreciation advantage? No, exports in July this year expanded at a lesser pace of 9.37 per cent than 14.17 per cent in June, said an EEPC official.By PTI

SINGAPORE: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and senior ministers from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have showcased the huge investment opportunities in their states for potential investors from Singapore.

Chief Minister Rawat along with Punjab's Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Public Works Minister Vijay Inder Singla and Uttar Pradesh's Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana held a series of meetings with top Singaporean ministers.

They jointly led a delegation of 'Invest North' and met separately Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung and Communications and Information Minister S Iswaran.

The 'Invest North' summit is being organised by the Indian High Commission in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The CM and Indian ministers also met Surbana Jurong, the town planner which has done a master plan for Andhra Pradesh's Amaravati city.

Jurong's expertise was sought for the proposed township near Mohali, Singla told PTI.

"We have 5,435-acre land through pooling scheme for the new township "Aerotropolis" for which we are now doing a conceptual plan," said Singla.

Expected to cost USD 2.6 billion, a detailed project report is underway for the Mohali Aerotropolis.

Addressing the "Professional Diaspora Connect", gathering, the delegation also gave an update on the smart cities, saying some were in the planning stage while others were progressing towards project implementation.

Addressing some 200 members of the Indian business community, Badal said Punjab will be among the first to complete its smart city projects covering Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar.

"We are moving ahead in a significant way. Most of the infrastructure is being put up in the cities," said Badal, adding that Punjab offers peaceful industrial relation with least number of labour unrest.

To attract fresh investments, State Government recently came up with enabling policy regime and incentives such as rationalisation of the power rates from Rs 7.60 per unit to a flat Rs 5.0 per unit, he added.

Uttarakhand has been ranked amongst the best states in the country on ease of doing business and is the first hill states to simplify the processes for starting a business, said Rawat.

The state has today emerged as one of the prime destinations for investments.

The State Government has identified the land and infrastructure for fulfilling the needs of focus sectors such as renewable energy, Biotechnology and Information Technology, he added.

Uttarakhand has become a 'preferred Investment Destination' for large businesses due to the integration of a rich ecosystem, highly skilled workforce, high technical expertise, continuous innovation and business-friendly policies, added the chief minister.

On leveraging India-Singapore relations, Rawat highlighted that since both the countries have signed 8 agreements in the fields of training of public service officials, cyber, security, Narcotics control, and defence co-operation, Uttarakhand can be seen as ideal destination for setting up business in these areas.

Uttar Pradesh also offer excellent investment environment for national and international investors with availability of land, 24x7 access to power etc.

The government has accorded highest priority to the industrial development and growth, which is evident from the fact that during the Ground Breaking Ceremony in July 2018, projects worth Rs 600 billion were inaugurated after 4 months of their announcements, said Mahana More than 50 delegates from three states and the CII are in Singapore pitching for investments during the summit.

While over the years 'Invest North' has always been organised within the country, this year, the CII is organising Invest North in Singapore to promote Northern Region States of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh as the preferred investment destination and engage with the overseas investment communities.S Lalitha By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The GoAir flight, which made an emergency landing at Kempe Gowda International airport on Saturday following engine problems, suffered a second technical failure as it was approaching the parking bay and had to be towed away with passengers on board, according to an eyewitness. The flight was heading to Pune on Saturday morning but had to return to KIA within 20 minutes of take-off.

ALSO READ | Bengaluru-Pune GoAir flight makes emergency landing after mid-air snag

Despite the twin snags and the scare, the 169 passengers on board unanimously applauded the stellar job performed by the two pilots on board. Flight G8-283 was piloted by Captain Deepesh Gracias and First Officer Sachin Kambli. Anil P Monteiro, Human Resources Director at the Bengaluru office of a Finland company and a frequent flyer out of KIA, relived his experience for The New Indian Express. It was 5.50 am when the flight took off and by 6.10 am an announcement was made from the pilots cabin that a technical glitch had occurred and the flight was returning to Bengaluru.

The pilot also assured us that the problem would be quickly fixed and the flight would resume the journey, Monteiro recalled. Occupying seat No 8, Monteiro said, The flight then took a U-turn. I knew something was amiss as you could spot through the window that the rear of the flight had dropped slightly. I always notice this drooping happens only when landing.

Anil Monteiro

To add more the drama, the flight had a slightly bumpy landing at KIA, he recalled. And then as the aircraft was slowly approaching the designated parking bay, it developed some other technical problem and stopped 10 metres from its destination. The pilot made an announcement and a tow vehicle will be used to take the flight with passengers to the spot, he recalled. However, what really stands out in Monteiros mind were the happy faces, the genuine appreciation and relief all around. The minute the flight landed, a round of claps began from the rear seats and slowly spread till the front seat. Literally, instant gratitude was shown to the pilots. I felt that despite flying very frequently, I have watched such dramatic scenes only in movies, he said.

Many technical staffers reached the flight then and tried to rectify the fault for 45 minutes. We were all on board during that time, but were later told it would take time to sort out the issues. All of us were taken to another GoAir flight which took off for Pune at 8.30 am, he said. No chaos and no real fear. We were kept well informed and taken care of by the staffers, he said.

Lauding the role of its pilots, a GoAir spokesperson told TNIE, They exemplified the professionalism and training provided to all GoAir Captains and First Officers. As the technical snag appeared, they analyzed it, decided the best course of action based on SOP, and completed the appropriate checklists. 

Attendants make woman comfortable



While incidents of crew or passenger misbehavior are quite common, the attendants on board the flight showed exemplary behaviour, taking a very humane approach to an ailing woman passenger. Anil P Monteiro, a passenger on board, said, A woman in her thirties suddenly took ill before take off. Her condition was so visible on her face. When staff were told about this, they immediately offered vacant seats in Business Class to the woman and her husband. Not many airlines are open to helping out passengers instantly in this fashion, he added. I have asked other airlines in the past when seats were empty but the staff refuse it, he added.By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Residents of Indiranagar have appealed to Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara not to demolish the BDA complex and chop 171 trees to build a mall that they did not need. The residents, instead, urged the Bengaluru Development Minister to construct a park where the complex currently stands. The DyCM, accompanied by other officials, met residents during an inspection of civic works within the CV Raman Nagar constituency here on Monday.

Within the premises of the Indiranagar BDA complex, he interacted with the Indiranagar residents, who gave him a memorandum requesting the authorities to not demolish the complex which housed 171 fully-grown trees. Residents also complained of other issues, including over commercialisation of the locality. The wine stores and other larger units exist in areas which are marked residential in the Revised Master Plan-2031, Swarna Venkataraman, a resident, told the Minister.

Bangalore Central MP P C Mohan was also present during the interaction. Taking a jibe at a senior minister, who is a partner in the Embassy group, he said, If anyone from Embassy group wants to make money by constructing a mall, do not allow them, Mohan said, and supported the residents demand.

Addressing the residents, Parameshwara said his intentions were to make the city more livable, keeping in mind its growth rate. He asked 5-10 residents to meet him next week to discuss alternatives for the complex, and also assured them that he would resolve the other issues in two months.

The DyCM inspected storm-water drains near Domlur flyover, Jeevan Bhima Nagar Main Road and New Thippasandra Main Road. He laid the foundation stone for construction of an underpass worth `45 crore at the junction of Suranjan Das Road and Old Madras Road. Officials estimate that it would take 18 months for its construction.

Parameshwara said he had undertaken the inspection to see for himself the prevalent issues in the constituency. Every year during September and October, the city gets a lot of rain, causing flooding and entry of water into homes. So as a precaution, I had instructed officials to work on storm-water drains and wanted to check on the same. He said while some officials had complied, others had not, and he had instructed them to finish the works before the rains start again.The DyCMs convoy movement through the city caused traffic blocks for prolonged periods, leading to congestions.

Will instruct BBMP to fix cap on awardees



Responding to over 500 people being conferred the Kempegowda Awards, Parameshwara said he did not know why so many awardees were chosen, and from next time he would instruct BBMP officials to fix a cap on the number of awardees.By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A joint alliance of farmers and workers has announced a mega rally on Wednesday from Ram Lila Maidan in the national capital. According to the organisers approximately three lakh people facing hardships in different sectors under the current central government will take part in the protest march towards Parliament.

But heavy rain in the national capital for the last three day might dampen the intensity of the protest. Three major organizers All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agriculture Workers Union (AIAWU) and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) have joined hands to take part in the rally."With just nine months left for the general elections and now the Modi government is making claims to find solutions to grave farmer distress plaguing the country.

Previous governments have also not done much but present is the worst. Therefore to make the present government understand the plight of farmers we are going to take out this rally in which lakhs of people will take part" said Hannan Mollah, General Secretary (AIKS). The unions are claiming that thousands of farmers have already reached the national capital and staying at different camps setup at Ramlila Maidan and Sahibabad area of NCR, many protestors are also staying at Gurudwaras.

The organizers plan a similar kind of protest which was witnessed in Maharashtra when scores of farmers marched from Nashik district to Mumbai. This march in Delhi is different as minimum wage workers and others are also going to join the protest the main demands of the protest would be wages not less than Rs 18,000 per month, generating of decent employment, debt waiver for poor peasants and agricultural workers and universal social security among others.

"Conditions are deteriorating in this section of the society, issues of the peasants are not being looked at. The present government has also brought down the number of days provided to work under MNREGA. There is ground swell of anger and if someone tries to raise their voice they are branded anti-nationals" said K. Hemalata President of the CITU.Ajay Moses By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Pursuing masters in the US was a dream for 20-year-old J Prathyusha. However, the eyes that cherished those dreams were shut forever on August 25, 2007. It was on this fateful day that Prathyusha and her friends were walking in the alleys of Koti to purchase competitive books when the second of the two bombs went off at Gokul Chat. By the time the debris had settled down, Prathyusha was lying dead on her tracks.

Even as the city awaits the verdict to be pronounced on August 27 on the twin blasts that had jolted the city 11 years ago, the victims of the blast want the accused get the harshest of punishments. She would have been blessed with children and I would have been a proud grandfather.

But the blast took my daughter away, recollected J Narasimha, Prathyushas father. During the course of the trial, Narasimha was one of the witnesses who spoke against his loss at the special court. He demanded that accused be hanged to death. They have no remorse, and whenever I saw him in the court, I felt that they should be hanged.

Meanwhile, the victims allege that the disbursement of financial assistance has been uneven for the thousands that have been affected. B Anjaiah, who lost his daughter in the blast, said: Our daughter is a victim of terrorist activity. What we got in compensation was `5 lakh. We expected the government to give us a job but that did not happen, Anjaiah said.

R Chander, another victim of the blast and the president of Terrorist Bomb Blast Victims Association (TBBVA) observed that the yardstick used for disbursement of funds was improper. The government, however, maintains that it has compensated all 43 deceased with financial aid in the blast.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: The judgment in the 2007 twin blasts case will be pronounced on Tuesday by a local court. The verdict will be delivered at a special court hall set up at Cherlapally Central Prison where five of the eight accused in the case are lodged now.

The judgment which was supposed to be delivered on August 27, was deferred to September 4 by T Srinivas Rao, Incharge Judge for the II Additional Metropolitan Sessions court, who conducted the trial, as the verdict was not ready due to voluminous nature of the case.

It may be recalled that two bombs exploded at Gokul chat and Lumbini park on the evening of August 25, killing 43 persons and injuring more than 70 persons.

The Counter Intelligence (CI) wing of the Telangana Police had investigated the case and arrested the accused, all alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives.

The five were produced before the court through video linkage from Cherlapally Central Prison.

The accused are Akbar Ismail Choudhary, Aneeq Shafeeq Sayeed, Mohammed Taariq Anjum Ahsan, Farookh Sharfuddin Tarkash and Sadiq Israr Ahmed Sheikh, while Iqbal Bhatkal, Riyaz Bhatkal are Amir Reza Khan are absconding.

The trial in the three cases began at the Metropolitan Courts Complex in Nampally but was shifted to a court at Cherlapally Central Prison in June this year.

Also Read | Nothing much has changed in the aftermath of 2007 twin blasts

The accused were charged under section 302 (murder) and other relevant provisions of the IPC and sections of Explosive Substances Act in connection with the blasts and also with regard to the recovery of an unexploded bomb found under a foot overbridge at Dilsuknagar area.

The agency had filed four charge sheets against the five accused and also named two other absconding accused, Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal.

According to the prosecution, Aneeq Shafique Sayeed allegedly planted the bomb at Lumbini Park while Riyaz Bhatkal planted the bomb at Gokul Chat while the unexploded bomb was planted by Ismail Chowdhari.

Tarik Anjum is accused of giving shelter to the other accused after the blasts.Pinto Deepak By

Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Two of the five accused facing trial in the twin blasts case of 2007 where two bombs ripped through Hyderabad killing 43 and leaving over 70 injured, were pronounced guilty by a special court here today. The quantum of punishment against the convicts Akber Ismail Choudhury and Anique Shafeeq Sayeed will be pronounced on Monday. On the other hand, two other accused were acquitted and judgment against another has been postponed to next hearing on Monday.

The much-awaited verdict after years of trial was earlier expected on August 27 but was postponed to today. The court found accused Farooq Sharfuddin Tarqish and Mohd Sadiq Israr Sheikh not guilty. Whereas, accused Mohd Tariq Anjum Ahsan's fate will be decided on Monday. The quantum of punishment for Ahsan who is facing charges for sheltering the accused before and after the blast, will also be pronounced on Monday, the court said.

ALSO READ | 2007 Hyderabad twin blasts case: A timeline of events

While five alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives were arrested following the blasts, two others including alleged mastermind Riyaz Bhatkal have been absconding. Investigators had found the blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park just months after the bomb blast at Mecca Masjid to be a revenge attack.

The judgment was delivered in the morning by T Srinivas Rao, in-charge of second additional chief metropolitan magistrate court, in a special court at the court complex inside Cherlapally central prison campus. Though there were talks about pronouncement of verdict over video conferencing, all the five accused were produced in the court on Tuesday.



The public prosecutor, K Surender, for whom the acquittal of two accused has come as a setback, said after going through the judgment copy against the two acquitted persons further course of action would be decided.

Meanwhile, the victims of the twin blasts are not very happy with the acquittal of two accused. Decrying failure in investigation and prosecution and demanding justice they have made an open request for an audience with chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

It may be recalled that the blasts at Gokul Chat Bhandar and Lumbini park on August 25, 2007 left 43 persons dead and more than 70 injured.

Four cases were initially registered at police stations concerned, after which Telangana state's (then AP) OCTOPUS (Organisation for Courter Terrorist Operations) had taken over the investigation. The Counter Intelligence Cell of Telangana police (then AP) took over the investigation in the final stage and filed chargesheet against all the accused persons.

The Cherlapally central prison saw deployment of heavy forces on Tuesday ahead of the final judgment in the 2007 blast case.By Express News Service

KOCHI: The Local Self-Government Department has launched a mobile app for gathering information on the damage caused to buildings and other properties in the recent floods. The local bodies have been directed to upload the details of the damage caused to houses, shops and other buildings in the flood-affected areas along with photographs through the app Rebuild Kerala.

ALSO READ | 23 tonnes of flood relief material sent to Kerala from Vijayawada station

The data collected with the help of the app will be submitted to a panel comprising engineers of local bodies and technical experts. The members of the panel will conduct a field visit to make sure the information uploaded through the app is correct. They will also assess the volume of damage and will submit the report, based on which the government will disburse the compensation amount.

The extent of the damage will be assessed under various categories - from 15 per cent to 75 per cent and above 75 per cent. The estimate will be calculated on its basis and the corresponding compensation will be finalised. The flood victims can lodge any complaint in this regard with the District Collector. The app developed by the IT Mission will help the local bodies record data under three categories - the people whose houses have been completely destroyed, the families which lost their houses and properties, and whose houses have been partially damaged.

The volunteers who are interested in data collection can register their names at www.volunteers.rebuild.kerala.gov.in At the time of registration, they should also mention the respective areas they are planning to work. Only registered volunteers will be able to upload details of the damage through the app. To find the exact location at the time of verification, geo-tagging should be done.

ALSO READ | Flood relief fund: BJP seeks social audit

According to the district administration authorities, more volunteers are required in the worst-hit panchayats like Chendamangalam, Chittatukara, Alangad, Kalady, Kunnukara, Puthenvelikkara and Parakkadavu. Each volunteer can select a maximum of five panchayats. The training programme for technical assistance to conduct field visit in municipalities, block panchayats and grama panchayats will be completed by Thursday.

The district administration has also completed the proceedings to integrate the activities of voluntary associations which are into data collection. The assistance for these associations will be provided by the technical team of Information Kerala Mission. The field work will be coordinated by the peoples representatives of the local bodies and the secretary.

Tech way to tackle crisis

The app, developed with the help of Open Source Crowd Sourcing platforms, can be downloaded from Google Play Store.

The app will also help in assessing the progress of the post-flood construction work.Aishik Chanda By

Express News Service

KOLKATA: Two years after the under-construction Vivekananda flyover collapse claimed 27 lives in north Kolkata, at least one person died and six were critically injured after a portion of the 40-year-old Majerhat rail overbridge in south Kolkata collapsed around 4.43 pm on Tuesday. Also, six Metro Rail workers are feared trapped under the debris. Rescue operations were on at the time of going to Press.

The deceased has been identified as Soumen Bag (28), a resident of Behala in south Kolkata, who sustained head injuries. He had gone to visit relatives when the incident happened. I saw the news and called him, but some other person picked up the phone and told me about my sons death, said Soumens father Pradip Bag.

While around 13 people were admitted to SSKM Hospital of which four are critical, 18 were admitted to CMRI Hospital, two of whom are critical.

The Metro Rail workers of the under-construction Esplanade-Joka phase lived in a makeshift room under the flyover and were seen resting there on Tuesday afternoon due to heavy rains.

One minibus, five cars and several two-wheelers were plying on the overbridge when it collapsed after heavy rains. The condition of the bridge was repeatedly shown by media outlets as very weak.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is currently in Darjeeling, promised to initiate a high-level inquiry.

ALSO READ | Majherhat bridge collapse sends road traffic haywire in Kolkata, train services hit too

ARMY, Navy and CISF teams were deployed to assist the NDRF, Fire Brigade and the Kolkata Police in the rescue operation.

We dug two manholes into the debris and rescuers descended into them looking for survivors, but did not find anyone there. But there were bamboo structures of the Metro workers room. We will cut the structure and enter. If anyone is there, we hope they would be alive, said Fire Brigade official DK Singh. The rescue operation is likely to continue late into the night. Sniffer dogs were used and the vehicles stranded on the broken bridge section were slowly salvaged by cranes.

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim and representatives of the CPM and BJP rushed to the spot. Locals began rescue operation even before the rescue teams arrived.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee promised to initiate a high-level inquiry into the incident. We will conduct high-level inquiry into the incident and strict action will be taken against whoever is responsible for negligence. Nobody will be spared, she said. The chief minister will cut short her three-day visit to the hills and reach Kolkata on Wednesday.

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi said: The bridge deserved better maintenance. There was a pit in the bridge and the PWD and Railways should have noticed that and maintained the bridge. There should be a proper probe.Sudhir Srinivasan By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Aneesh Chaganty, the Hollywood director of Searching that got released in India last week, was in Hyderabad at the time of this conversation. It isnt every day that a Hollywood director travels to India to promote his film, and Searchings not a studio-powered film either. This film, according to Aneesh, has no precedent, and for the three years his team worked on it, they didnt really know if it would even get released. And no one would have batted an eyelid if it didnt, he says. But it has been released, of course, and to generally positive reception  especially over its form.

Excerpts from a conversation with the debutant director:

Part of the buzz around Searching in India is because of your Indian origins.

Ive been coming to India since I was one foot high. I grew up in the States, yes, but my family is in Hyderabad. Id stay here for months at a time, and now, to come to Hyderabad to promote my feature film is quite something. In fact, the first video to get me attention was the Google Glass commercial I did. I came to Andhra Pradesh to shoot it, specifically Bhimavaram. I went on to make an Android commercial, a Google Translate commercial. I have a network of people in Hyderabad who can help me get things done. I may not be here all the time, but I make sure Im here for at least one week every year. Hyderabad is like my second home. Its good to be back.

What about Searching do you believe will appeal to Indian audiences?

I grew up on a mixture of Hollywood, Telugu cinema, and Hindi cinema. Even before I knew I wanted to become a filmmaker, I was soaking in elements from each of these industries. From Hindi and Telugu cinema, for instance, I learned the importance of emotion. Everything I make and want to make is emotional and sentimental.

Emotion that Hollywood would typically classify under melodrama?

Yes. Indian films wear their emotion on their sleeve, and American audiences dont like to go to a film thats overtly emotional. My goal is to hide this emotion under a genre. Despite what Searchings trailer may tell you, its a family drama. Its extremely emotional. Theres an opening montage sequence of about seven minutes that will leave you tearing up at the end.

I read that one of your first short films was narrated in reverse. Searching, of course, is a story thats told through a computer screen. Youre clearly not one to make easy films.

I guess Im a weird kid (laughs). I think its because Im attracted to the originality in telling stories differently.

And it also helps that such a unique narrative device helps attract eyeballs?

Exactly. Some of my peers keep asking themselves what sort of artistic, personal films they can make. I think its also important to marry such films with strategy. Make art, but also make sure theres a strategy behind it. My Google Glass video, for instance, was made three weeks before Mothers Day, so it could be released on that occasion.

Typically, stories woven around technology focus on its negative aspects  take Black Mirror, for instance. With Searching, what are you going for?

Im not just talking as an ex-Google employee here, but every person who makes the apps and the tools we consume every day, does it with good intentions. Id say they are almost altruistic. But the media and Hollywood usually portrays technology in a negative light. Searching isnt one such indictment. Yes, technology can alienate, but it can also connect. It can make us hope, it can make us love and maybe, it can bring a dad and daughter together  like in Searching.

The technology we use in Searching is largely relatable, unlike many Hollywood films that show technology unrealistically. We decided we would show technology exactly as we use it in our everyday life. Originally, we toyed with the idea of making him a software engineer, but we did away with it. We then got to thinking about small things we do on a computer  like closing a window, initiating a forgotten password request, deleting a file We asked ourselves what the emotional significance of each action could be. Whats the emotion behind deleting, say, a video? What if its a sentimental video? Is that a memory hes deleting? He would feel something when he did that. We picked up cold interfaces and utilised them in an emotional context under the three-act structure.

At what point during your own computer usage did you realise there was a story to be told through it?

Good question. I think it happened early on. The concept came first and the story later, but it had to seem otherwise. Searching needed to feel like it is the only real way in which this story could be told. If a film had to happen through a laptop, we knew it had to have information a character needed. What if he werent the owner of the laptop? That seemed more interesting. What if he had a missing child, and he desperately needed this information? And what genre would we slot this film into? The film is about information, and its truly in the mystery genre that information is withheld from the audience. And thats how Searching was conceived.

The editing must not have been easy at all.

It was so complicated that we gave an additional credit: Director of Virtual Photography. What has been accomplished, with limited resources, is a miracle. The job went above and beyond traditional parameters of editing.

In a sense, with such a narrative, are you channeling the voyeur in the viewer?

I think the viewer becomes less a voyeur and more the actual character, because youre looking at everything as the character does. If you were put in such a situation, what would you do? Its more or less what the main character does.

Did it ever seem daunting  this idea of telling a story through a mans laptop screen?

I wasnt convinced first. I saw a couple of films made with this conceit, and decided that you couldnt tell a gripping story with this idea. It was when I found this dad-daughter story that this computer gimmick stopped being the centrepiece. After the first 7 minutes of the film, you forget this gimmick. The story is the main attraction, and when its married to an unconventional way of telling it, the whole packaging becomes unique. Think of Christopher Nolans Following or Memento. Its kind of a statement to the world.

Searching is your Following, then?

Well, for starters, both end with ing, dont they? (Laughs) But wow, thats actually great. I never thought about that. Ill say that to my people.By AFP

VENICE: When Willem Dafoe was limbering up to play Vincent Van Gogh in a new film about the famously tormented painter, he did something that will give museum curators nightmares for years to come.

He was leafing through a "lost" sketchbook of the artist's from his time in Arles, when the film's director -- the flamboyant American painter Julian Schnabel -- looked at him like a man possessed.

"We had the white gloves on and everything," Dafoe told AFP, "and we were gently going through it looking at the drawings. Then at one point Julian grabbed my hand and slammed it down on one of the sketches.

"It was like something out of 'The Exorcist'," the actor said.

"He was forcing a transmission -- a connection between me and Van Gogh -- and I think it worked."

Critics at the Venice film festival agree, with Dafoe an early favourite for the best actor prize after "At Eternity's Gate" was premiered here on Monday.

While the authenticity of the sketchbook is disputed -- the Van Gogh Museum and two major experts on the artist are at war over the issue -- Dafoe believes it is genuine.

Both he and the mercurial Schnabel -- a famed neo-expressionist artist best known for his huge broken plate paintings -- are on familiar territory tackling the furies that drive and sometimes dog great artists.

Dafoe had to grapple with the demons of the great Italian director Paolo Pasolini in Abel Ferrara's 2014 film "Pasolini".

Schnabel also brought the tortured life of his old friend on the New York art scene, Jean Michel Basquiat, to the big screen in "Basquiat".

'It was a trip, man!'

In that film, the painter -- who got four Oscar nods for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" -- did not pull back from the hell Basquiat endured before his early death from a heroin overdose.

But Dafoe said his Van Gogh film is more than a simple biopic.

"I hate to be a cheerleader for my own movie but this is quite radical and emotional, it is not conventional in any way.

"It is not an awards movie" made with one eye on the Oscars. "It is about painting, it is about being an artist, it is about nature and spirituality... because Van Gogh wanted to be a pastor before he became a painter. He thought the bible was the greatest book ever written," Dafoe added.

"Painting is something Julian really knows -- this is where his two loves come together: painting and film-making."

"I was painting, Julian was painting, Van Gogh was painting," declared Dafoe with a laugh -- "It was a trip, man!

"It is shocking how much I paint in it. Julian was teaching me how to paint and then we were painting together in Van Gogh's style.

"You think, 'How interesting can painting be?' But if you have been in the studio with someone like Julian it is beautiful to watch."

"I had a shift in my way of seeing and my relationship to nature through playing Van Gogh and reading what he wrote," he said.

'I felt close to Van Gogh'

Dafoe, who first learned to paint three decades ago for "To Live and Die in L.A.", when he played an art forger, said shooting in the fields around Arles and in the asylum at Saint-Remy where Van Gogh wrote that "one continually hears shouts and terrible howls as of animals in a menagerie", gave him goosebumps.

"I felt close to him," said the actor, who looks spookily like the painter on screen.

Unlike other films about Van Gogh such as the 1956 classic "Lust for Life" starring Kirk Douglas, Defoe said the new movie avoids "the greatest hits" like the "Sunflowers" or depicting him hacking off his ear when he fell out with Gauguin.

"But for part of the movie he has no ear. We do not shy away from what he did to himself."

"It focuses on the end of Van Gogh's life and starts right before he meets Gauguin and he goes to Arles," he said.

"We shot there and in Paris and in Auvers-sur-Oise," where Van Gogh shot himself -- although the film goes with the controversial theory that he was killed after grappling with some local youths.

By filming in so many real locations like Saint-Remy, "part of which is still a hospital, we were flirting with his ghost," said Defoe, who missed out on a best actor Oscar for "Florida Project" last year.

"I never thought about any other person playing Van Gogh," Schnabel told reporters in Venice on Monday. "He has such inner depth. To have him with me on set was the best ally I could have."By Express News Service

Manvitha Harish

Tarakasura, directed by Chandrashekar Bandiyappa, is gearing up for release this month. On Monday, Rebel Star Ambareesh and wife Sumalatha released one of the audio tracks, Kannada Kaliyo Kannada Kaliyo, to which Shivarajkumar has lent his voice.

While the film is now with the Censor Board, the audio will be released on September 13. In fact, this film marks the debut of Vaibhav, son of theatre owner, Narsimhalui, and Manvitha Harisha. The film also features British actor Danny Sapani, who plays the antagonist in the film. We are looking at a September end release. Were just waiting for the certificate from the censor board to announce the official date, says the director, whose film has has music by Dharma Vish and cinematography by Kumar Gowda.By Online Desk

Director Aashiq Abu, who had made waves with 'Mayaanadhi', starring Tovino Thomas and Aishwarya Lakshmi, is coming up with his next.

Titled 'Virus', the film boasts of a stellar cast and crew with acting credits including Revathy, Asif Ali, Rima Kallingal, Tovino Thomas, Parvathy (wait for it) Kalidas Jayaram, Remya Nambeesan, box-office favourite Soubin Shahir, Dileesh Pothan and Chemban Vinod.

Reportedly, the Nipah virus epidemic which brought Kerala to a standstill for a period as well as largely affected the economic and cultural life of Kozhikode district is the premise of the film.

Moreover, the poster has used a photograph by Sajan V Nambiar of Mathrubhumi which shows two persons dragging a stretcher in heavy rains. The photo was taken during the heyday of Nipah scare.

While National award-winning cinematographer Rajeev Ravi helms the camera department, 'KL 10 Patthu' director Muhsin Parari has co-written the screenplay with Suhas and Sharafu.

Award-winning costume designer Sameera Saneesh will design the looks of the characters in the film.

It was earlier reported that a film will be made on Nurse Lini Puthusserry, who died battling the virus after she cared for a family diagnosed with the disease.

Director Jayaraj too had previously expressed interest in making a movie on the Nipah outbreak.

The Nipah Virus outbreak in Kerala claimed 17 lives till 10 June 2018. The outbreak which was reported in Kozhikode district on 2 May was initially attributed to fruit bats and bringing the social life in Kozhikode and surrounding areas to a standstill.

Kerala state government's efforts in dealing with the situation as well the expertise of the doctors who diagnosed the virus in the initial stages itself were lauded worldwide.K Sudha By

Express News Service

Chetna (1970) was a landmark film in the annals of Hindi cinema for its boldness. The films poster read: I dont think every woman is a prostitute, but I do think that every prostitute is a woman. And being a woman, she is as much a human being as a man. She has needs too... And desires. Director Abdul Majiths upcoming Tamil film, Torchlight, is on similar lines. The film, starring Sadha, Riythvika, is set for release this Friday after a protracted battle with the censor board. I have the dubious distinction of releasing a film with 87 cuts. But the audience will still be able to follow the course of events, says the filmmaker.

Torchlight, set in the 80s and 90s, is about the travails of sex workers. Majith says he researched the subject for around three months before going into production. Through various contacts, we found and spoke with sex workers in places like Salem, Namakkal, Nellai and nearby places. The women opened up once they were convinced of the purpose of our visit. It was moving to hear their stories, he says, adding that the film gets its name from the torchlight used by these women when scouting for customers among truck drivers and helpers on the highways.

Will you believe that the butts of the cigarettes are used as lipstick and poisonous seeds quashed to brush up eyelashes? The men they solicit are often drunk, and sometimes, they make as little as ten rupees per customer.

This is Majiths seventh film, and the director says he always wanted to bring to light the suffering of sex workers. They have various compelling reasons  to meet the expenses of a crippled husband or to educate their children. He decided to video his conversations with family members, which came in handy during the censor ordeal. I had to move to the Mumbai censor board after it got rejected in Chennai. It was sad to see even the women members of the censor board not sympathising with the pain of these women. They did not understand my intentions.







Though he really wanted to, the director says they could not film the project entirely on the streets and had to resort to sets for some portions. Due to the period setting, we had to ensure that mobile phones, for instance, were not visible in any frames.

After several established names backed out of the project, the filmmaker turned to Sadha to play the lead. She had her reservations, but was convinced once she realised the script was drawn from well-researched facts. It is no exaggeration to say that she lived the role. Riythvika, too, drew inspiration from her and was spot on with her act.

Majith wants his film to reach out to a larger audience in order to throw light on the plight of hapless sex workers. Given the A certificate tag and the subject, he is aware that drawing women to the theatre will be a huge task. But I believe that when the audience watches it, they will understand where Im coming from. Sex workers are beyond judgement which is what I have tried to say in around two hours.By Express News Service

BHOPAL: The son of a ruling BJP MLA has threatened to kill Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, if he went ahead with his visit to Hata town of Damoh district in Madhya Pradesh on September 5.

Princedeep Lalchandra Khatik, the son of Uma Khatik, the BJP MLA from Hata seat, posted his threat on the Facebook on Sunday. "Listen Jyotiraditya, you have the blood of erstwhile Gwalior ruler Jiwajirao, whose ancestors had helped the Britishers defeat and assassinate the Queen of Jhansi, Laxmibai. If you even tried to enter Hata town, I'll shoot you. Either you'll die, or me."

With the Congress immediately reporting the matter to the Damoh police, Princedeep deleted the post within a few hours. The Damoh police registered a case under Sections 294 (obscene words/post), 504 (intentional insult intended to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC against Princedeep on Monday.

Later, Uma Khatik apologized on camera for her son's social media post. She welcomed Jyotirditya to Hata town. In the evening, the BJP MLA herself escorted her son to the Hata police station, where Princedeep surrendered before the police.

"I've taken my son to the Hata police station and got him arrested. The cops are free to take further action against him as per the law," she told journalists outside the Hata police station.

Congress state spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said the Facebook post again exposed the BJP's inherent Godse mind set. "We demand that our leader's security be reviewed thoroughly and streamlined further, if needed."Abhijit Mulye By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: The CBI on Monday got the custody of Sharad Kalsekar, an accused in the Nalasopara arms haul case, for probing his alleged role in the assassination of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

The sessions court in Mumbai that had earlier rejected the CBI's plea to hand over Kalaskar's custody on August 29, granted the custody to the federal agency. Kalaskar is likely to be produced before the Pune court where the Dabholkar case is being heard.

The Pune sessions court had sent two other accused, Rajesh Bangera and Amit Degwekar, to the CBI custody On Saturday.

Another accused, former Shiv Sena Corporator Shrikant Pangarkar, is still in the custody of the ATS. The CBI is likely to seek his custody also.

While Pangarkar allegedly arranged training of the other accused of the Nalasopara arms haul, namely Vaibhav Raut and Sudhanva Gondhalekar, he was also allegedly in touch with the accused in the murder of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh.

ALSO READ: Accused in Gauri Lankesh case were conspirators in Narendra Dabholkar murder too, says CBI

The court also sent Raut and Gondhalekar to judicial custody on Monday.

Kalaskar had told the Maharashtra ATS that he had planned to hurl a bomb at a music festival in Pune. During the hearing for extension of his custody, the ATS had informed this to the court following which the CBI had sought his custody.

Meanwhile, a senior ATS official said they suspect that Satara in Western Maharashtra might have been the centre of activities of the Hindu hardliner activists such as those arrested in the Nalasopara case.

During interrogation of Kalaskar, the ATS learnt that the plan to attack the Western Music Concert - Sunburn Festival at Pune was hatched at Kalaskar's rented residence at Satara. They also suspect that the blasts at cinema houses, including the one at Vashi in Navi Mumbai, were planned at the same place.

Kalaskar, who had left home under the pretext of studies, used to stay at a rented accommodation at Kodoli village near Satara. Several meetings of the Hindu hardliner activists were held at the place while he was staying there, a senior ATS official said.

Another accused, Gondhalekar, who was arrested from Pune, is also from Satara. He too was involved in the plan to make a blast at Sunburn Festival. Kalaskar and Gondhalekar had plans to hurl crude bombs at the concert, which was later cancelled due to opposition from politicians and local citizens, the official said. They are now trying to ascertain whether there were anybody else involved in the plan.

The ATS has also seized six vehicles, including a bike, in the past few days. It is trying to ascertain whether it was the same bike used in Dabholkar and Lankesh murders. The ATS also recovered maps of several places, including Jalgaon, from the accused. The police is curious about the reason for collecting these maps, an officer said.By PTI

NEW DELHI: The birth of Lord Krishna was rung in with religious fervour and gaiety across the country on Monday as devotees thronged temples, while in Maharashtra 'dahi handi' celebrations on the occasion saw enthusiastic participation by youngsters.

In Mathura, which according to mythology, is the birthplace of Lord Krishna, lakhs of pilgrims paid obeisance at major temples amid tight security.

According to the secretary of Sri Krishna Janmasthan, Kapil Sharma, nearly 20 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance at temples in Mathura, Vrindaban, Barsana, Govardhan, Nandgaon, Baldeo, Mahaban and Gokul.

Vrindaban was the centre of attraction for pilgrims in the noon, where the festival was celebrated in three major temples -- Radha Raman temple, Radha Damodar temple and Shah Ji temple.

In Maharashtra, 'dahi handi' ritual is part of Janmashtami festival, where youngsters (called Govindas), dressed in colourful attire, make human pyramid to reach an earthen pot containing buttermilk suspended mid-air, and try to break it.

Religious institutions, political leaders and Govinda mandals took part in the 'dahi handi' celebrations which were marked by frequent chants of "Govinda aala re" (Govinda has come).

Several organisers roped in celebrities to pull crowd to their 'dahi handi' events.

The celebrations were held amid strict vigil by the Mumbai police who were out on roads to ensure compliance to the Bombay High Court's order on the age of participating Govindas (they should not be below 14), insurance for them, and the height of the human pyramid.

The Disaster Management Cell of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) remained alert to deal with any eventuality, while hospitals were asked to keep medical staff on standby.

In the past, several Govindas were injured after falling off human pyramids.

President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to extend their greetings to the nation on the occasion.

"Greetings and good wishes to fellow citizens on the auspicious occasion of Janmashtami. The teachings of Lord Krishna have a universal message - Nishkam Karma. May this festival inspire us to follow the path of virtue and righteousness in thought, word and deed #PresidentKovind," a tweet by the president read.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan also wished people on the occasion through Twitter posts.

In rain-soaked Delhi, thousands of devotees thronged temples to offer prayers to Lord Krishna.

Famous Krishna temples in the national capital -- Laxmi Narayan Mandir, ISKCON temple, Amar Colony, Krishna Pranami Mandir, Hare Krishna Mandir among others -- were specially decorated for the festival.

Colourful tableaux depicting the story of Lord Krishna's birth were put on exhibition.

In several residential complexes, cultural groups displayed special 'Jhankis' of Lord Krishna.

In Rajasthan, people thronged famous temples like Govind Devji temple in Jaipur among others since early morning.

Elaborate arrangements for security and crowd management were made at the Govind Devji temple which is the centre of attraction among the devotees, police said.By PTI

NEW DELHI: Popular actor Mohanlal on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brief him about the social work his organisation is carrying out.

The prime minister said it was wonderful meeting the actor Monday.

Twitter took seconds to troll the meeting between the two.

Former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt tweeted:

Modi: Such an honour to meet you

Mohanlal: My pleasure, Modi ji



Modi: Your humility is so endearing

Mohanlal: You're so kind



Modi: No, seriously. You're the Father of the Nation and still you took time out to meet me

Mohanlal: No, no Modi ji, that was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi pic.twitter.com/Axe83Fsau5  Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) September 4, 2018

"Modi: Such an honour to meet you

Mohanlal: My pleasure, Modi ji

Modi: Your humility is so endearing

Mohanlal: You're so kind

Modi: No, seriously. You're the Father of the Nation and still you took time out to meet me

Mohanlal: No, no Modi ji, that was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi"

Another Twitter user has tweeted that " In the picture, one is a magical actor who has amazed 1.25 billion people of his country with his mesmerizing method acting and he remains unchallengably good at it. The other one is Mohanlal."

In the picture, one is a magical actor who has amazed 1.25 billion people of his country with his mesmerizing method acting and he remains unchallengably good at it. The other one is @Mohanlal #WahModijiWah #NaMo #LoveAndInfinity #Mohanlal pic.twitter.com/iMQDTezLse  Nisam Asaf (@nisamasaf) September 4, 2018

"His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring," Modi had tweeted Tuesday.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful meeting with @Mohanlal Ji. His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring. pic.twitter.com/f3Dv3owHUV  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 4, 2018

Sharing details of his meeting with the prime minister, the actor said on his Facebook page that he briefed him about ViswaSanthi Foundation and its multi-faceted social initiatives.

"He has assured all support and offered to participate in the 'global Malayalee round table' that can formulate futuristic solutions for a new Kerala," he wrote.

He said the Prime Minister's Office also appreciated the organisation's vision to set up a cancer care centre to cater to the needs of the under-privileged.

A report by Deccan Herald had stated that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) wants to field Mohanlal from a Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Get well soon Honourable Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sir pic.twitter.com/DCcQGWKkDa  Mohanlal (@Mohanlal) September 3, 2018

According to the report, Mohanlal's meeting with PM Modi was part of an exercise to build a political image for the actor and has strengthened the speculation of the actor leaning towards the saffron party.

Mohanlal has also met Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayi before the latter left for the US for medical treatment.

The 'Odiyan' actor has not yet said yes to be a candidate for any party.

(with online desk inputs)Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: The BJP government in Rajasthan made a special effort to woo Dalit voters ahead of state elections through a Mega show called 'Mukhyamantri Jan Samwad' in Jaipur on Tuesday.

During the show, Vasundhara Raje interacted with over 35000 people from SC, ST and OBC backgrounds who have benefited from various government schemes. The highlight of the event was the announcement of distribution of smartphones to one crore families enrolled under 'Bhamashah' who are eligible under food security scheme in the state.

The event comes just two months after PM Modi met 2.5 lakh beneficiaries at the same venue. Raje distributed smartphones, two wheelers to the differently abled and disbursed loans at a concessional rate for self employed people of SC, ST background.

The CM also waived off earlier loans ( until Dec 31 , 2016 ) of people sanctioned by Rajasthan Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Cooperative Development Limited. Government claimed to have waived off loans upto Rs. 2 lakh for nearly 23,000 listed candidates amounting to a total of Rs.114 crores. The programme was attended by 15,000 sanitation workers also ,who were appointed during the tenure of Raje government.

During her speech, Raje launched an aggressive attack on congress and said that her government has done for more for people in these 5 years than Congress has done in 50 years. " Rajasthan was called a 'BIMARU' state earlier, but it has come out of that depth. But we need to take it further, we need to make it the best state and for that we need your love and support. We want to make a state of your dreams and work towards eliminating poverty," she added.

The Rajasthan CM also justified the BJP government's promotion of their schemes through such beneficiary interaction programs. "People should know about the benefits from various government schemes and who has got a house, a toilet or a scooter, etc so that others come to know about it . This will spread awareness among people who deserve and seek such benefits-" she said.

Raje also claimed that her government had spent Rs.26000 crores on providing free medical treatment to the people of the state for the first time and made 80 lakh toilets in the last five years. " Process is on to provide government jobs to 1.35 lakh people and we will give 3 lakh 25 thousand more government in the coming days," she added as she talked about creating employment opportunities.

The occasion was also used to announce a new scheme called 'Bhamashah Digital Pariwar Yojna' under which smartphones with data will be given to around one and a half crore Bhamashah Cardholders in the state. The scheme will also benefit one crore families the eligible under food scurity scheme in two phases ; one where Rs. 500 will be lent for purchase of the smartphones and the next phase will be to give data connection worth Rs.500.

The card treats a family as a unit , so only one phone will be provided to each family. The state planning department issued an advertisement seeking tenders to undertake the government plan to provide smartphones to families. A minimum of two camps will be organised in every block of the state by telecom companies between September 1 and 30 for people to avail the scheme. At present, there are over 1.5 crore families enrolled under Bhamashah according to the state government's data. The opposition says all this is just election tactics and nothing more.

"Whether it's the Gaurav Yatra, PM rally, SC ST rally or the teacher's rally, it's the exchequer's money which is being wasted just a few days before the code of conduct will be put in place. If they wanted to do something for the Dalits, they should have done it long back and not just a couple of months before elections-", said Raghu Sharma, MP from Ajmer and Congress Vice President in the state.

Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot also attacked the government and said : " Earlier, the taxpayers money was never used for events like this. Holding the rally or meeting is justified but addressing the beneficiaries of government schemes and using the government machinery to gather and send them back in buses so that they can give speeches is totally unjustified".

The various meetings and events are being seen as a ploy to target the Dalit votes as out of 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan 34 assembly seats are reserved for SC and 25 seats are reserved for ST. After losing in all 17 assembly seats in the by-elections held in Feb this year, the BJP wants to leave no stone unturned and is focussing a lot on weaker sections of the society.

Senior BJP leader Amit Shah, had lunch at a dalit's home during his last visit to Jaipur and even the RSS is organizing mass weddings for Dalit couples across Rajasthan. -"The Dalit voter is angry with ruling BJP over certain issues.

Dalit community has 17 percentage votes in Rajasthan and no political party can afford to displease them. In last five years 38 incidents of have taken place in the state where dalit grooms were humiliated by made to dismount from over the Mare they were riding on their wedding processions the upper castes Hindus . Dalits also cite the example of Dangawas where 6 dalits were brutally killed 3 years back over a land dispute ", political analyst Narayan Bareth said.

The BJP also had to face flak for the alleged dilution of the SC/ST act by the Supreme Court . The police action during the Dalit bandh on April 2 on the issue , had further aggravated the anger of the Dalit community.Kanu Sarda By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Sticking to convention, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra on Tuesday recommended the name of Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the seniormost judge in the Supreme Court after him, to be his successor. A formal letter to this effect has been sent to the Union Law Ministry.

If the government approves the recommendation, Justice Gogoi will be the 46th Chief Justice of India and the first from the Northeast, where he started legal practice as a lawyer.

READ| Who is Justice Ranjan Gogoi, first Supreme Court Judge from Northeast?

Last week, the ministry had sent a formal letter to Justice Misra, seeking the name of his successor. Justice Misra retires on October 2 and his successor will assume office the next day.

The soft-spoken Justice Gogoi hit the headlines earlier this year when he, along with three other judges, in an unprecedented move, addressed a joint Press conference and went public to express their disagreement with the way the chief justice was allocating cases and running the court.

This unparalleled event had given rise to speculations if Justice Misra would still recommend the name of Justice Gogoi as the next CJI.

Justice Gogoi is known as a person who bluntly speaks his mind. A few months ago, he had described independent journalists and sometimes noisy judges as democracys first line of defence and had also suggested that the judiciary should certainly be more pro-active, more on the front foot.

In the courtroom, Justice Gogoi created quite a flutter in 2016, when he issued contempt notice against a retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju who had, in a Facebook post, criticised the top courts verdict in the Soumya rape and murder case that held the accused guilty of rape but not murder.

Justice Gogoi is from Assam and headed the special SC Bench that is monitoring the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to identify citizens and weed out illegal immigrants.

In Justice Karnans contempt case, Justice Gogoi, along with Justice (since retired) J Chelameswar, had highlighted the necessity of revisiting the existing system of appointment of judges and bringing in necessary reforms to keep the public confidence intact in the judiciary.By PTI

MUMBAI: A fire engulfed an industrial area in suburban Malad Tuesday morning, but no casualty was reported, a civic official said.

The blaze erupted in a commercial unit near Somwar Bazar in the Bombay Talkies industrial area around 11.30 am, he said.

Eight firefighting engines and three jumbo tankers were rushed to the site and the blaze was brought under control, the official said.

"The fire broke out at 11.27 am and our control room was informed at 11.50 am. No casualty or injury was reported in the mishap," he said.

Mumbai police personnel, ambulance and officials of the civic ward concerned also reached the site, he said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the official said.

Local Congress MLA Aslam Sheikh demanded that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) come up with a comprehensive plan to check the increasing fire incidents in the megacity.

On August 22, a fire broke out on the 12th floor of a posh high-rise residential building in Dadar area, killing four people and injuring 16 others.

On August 27, a fire engulfed a three-storey residential building in Parel area, but there was no casualty.By PTI

JAIPUR: A MiG-27 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in an agriculture field in Jodhpur's Banad area during a routine mission Tuesday morning, but no loss of life was reported.

The pilot ejected safely from the single-seater fighter aircraft and was taken to a hospital in an IAF helicopter, defence spokesperson Colonel Sombit Ghosh said.

"A MiG-27 aircraft airborne from Jodhpur crashed during a routine mission today morning. The pilot ejected safely. A Court of Inquiry will investigate the cause of the incident," he said.

The Russian-made tactical strike fighter crashed within minutes of taking off from the Jodhpur airbase.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jodhpur East, Amandeep Singh Kapoor told PTI that the incident occurred in Dangyawas police station area and no loss of life or property was reported.

"Police rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. IAF investigating team has also reached the spot," he said.

Eyewitnesses said that they saw two fighter jets flying together, but one of them suddenly took a turn towards the open field and crashed near Devalia village in Banad area.

"Two fighter jets were flying together, but suddenly one of them changed its course and took a turn towards the open area and crashed. We saw the pilot ejecting and he parachuted in to the agriculture field," Sunil Bishnoi, one of the eyewitnesses, told PTI.

"We believe the pilot turned the aircraft towards the field in order to avoid the crash in a populated area," he said.

Another eyewitness, Omprakash, said that he saw smoke emanating from the aircraft before it crashed.

On July 18 of this year, a MiG-21 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force had crashed at Patta Jatian village of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh killing the pilot who had featured in a promotional video sharing his love and passion for the aircraft. The ageing MiG aircrafts have been dubbed flying coffins after a spurt in crashes.

(With inputs from agencies)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...By IANS

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday termed "censorship" the Information and Broadcasting Ministry's advisory to the media to avoid use of word "Dalit".

Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari said such terms are commonly used in public discourse.

"If the government ordains or the Ministry ordains that the language which you use in your reportage should also be one that is pre-cleared by them.

"How else will you characterise this advisory except to call it censorship? And my request to all those media outlets, who have been supporting the spectre of censorship, that they should introspect. When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind," he added.

The government's advisory asked for the use the constitutional term "Scheduled Caste" instead of "Dalit".By IANS

RANCHI: Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday invited Chinese companies to participate in the Global Agriculture and Food Summit due in November this year.

The Chief Minister, who is currently touring China, met Song Tao, Minister of International Liaison Department of Communist Party of China.

A press statement issued in Ranchi said Das invited Song as well as Chinese companies to participate in Global Agriculture and Food Summit due in the state on November 29-30.

During meeting with Raghubar Das, Song said the combined population of India and China was 2.56 billion, which is one-third of the world.

"If both countries work together, they can have a larger share of the world trade. There is natural relationship between both the countries," the statement said quoting Song.

The Chinese leader appreciated Jharkhand's ranking in 'ease of doing business'. He also appreciated the business environment prevailing in the state, the statement added.By PTI

SRINAGAR: The Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) on Monday expressed regret over the police not filing a charge sheet in the murder case of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari who was shot dead by suspected militants in June this year.

"The KEG regrets that the police have not been able to file a charge sheet in the broad daylight murder of the senior journalist so far. This was despite the fact that the police claimed to have solved the case," a spokesman of the guild said in a statement here.

Bukhari, 48, the editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir, was killed by gunmen at the Press Enclave here when he was leaving his office for an iftar party on June 15.

Police had later said the conspiracy to kill Bukhari was hatched by Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) in Pakistan and three cadres of the banned outfit executed the plan.

Referring to the reports of media persons in the valley allegedly being asked by security agencies to disclose their sources, the KEG said a journalist cannot be forced to reveal his source of information and "it is considered illegal across the democracies of the world".

"Freedom of speech cannot be suspended even if the assembly is in suspended animation. While the newspapers have routinely started getting 'notices' to explain things that have gone into print, there are very disturbing reports about reporters being asked to disclose sources, something that has not happened even during the emergency," the spokesman said.

The KEG asked the police to make public the charges against a news magazine journalist Aasif Sultan who was recently detained by the police.

"Police have registered a formal FIR after retaining him for six days. The KEG believes the police must make public the charges against him."

The 'incriminating material', the police have stated in a routine statement, is too vague to be accepted as a reason.

"The law enforcing agencies must understand the reality that a journalist's laptop will have 'incriminating' material because data collection is the fundamental activity of the reporters," it said.By IANS

PANAJI: A person was arrested on Monday for opening fire in a bar in South Goa after he was refused more drinks by the staff, police said.

According to the police, an inebriated Mubarak Khan opened fire in a popular bar in the beach village of Colva.

"We received a complaint from the manager of 49Rs bar and restaurant, Felix Fernandes, that Khan fired a bullet and threatened security personnel and hotel staff after he was refused more alcohol, as he was already drunk.

"The accused has been arrested," Police Inspector in-charge of the Colva Police Station Filomena D'Costa told reporters.

He said the weapon used by the accused has not been traced so far.By PTI

PUNE: Sharad Kalaskar was one of the two shooters who allegedly killed anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar in August, 2013, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a Pune court Tuesday.

The court remanded him in the central probe agency's custody till September 10.

The other alleged shooter, Sachin Andure, is now in judicial remand.

Kalaskar is an expert in "weapon handling" and was involved in "making of bombs", the CBI told Judicial Magistrate (First Class) S M A Sayyad.

"During the investigation, it was revealed that Kalaskar was the other shooter, who fired two bullets at Dabholkar along with Andure (who allegedly fired one round)," said CBI lawyer Vijaykumar Dhakne.

The agency wanted his custody to probe his role in the conspiracy further, Dhakne said.

The conspiracy was hatched by Virendra Sinh Tawde (already arrested), Kalaskar and others, he said.

Defence lawyer Dharmaraj Chandili opposed the demand for CBI custody of Kalaskar.

According to the CBI's charge sheet against Tawde, two men, named "Sarang Akolkar" and "Vinay Pawar", were the shooters who killed Dabholkar, but now the agency has changed its tune, he said.

The CBI has not yet recovered the firearms and the two-wheeler used in the crime, the defence lawyer pointed out.

Kalaskar was arrested last month by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with an alleged conspiracy to carry out blasts in the state.

The ATS had claimed that during interrogation, Kalaskar revealed that he and Sachin Andure were involved in the Dabholkar murder, following which it tipped off the CBI which arrested Andure.

The CBI took Kalaskar's custody from the ATS on Monday.

The agency has also claimed that two men arrested in the journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case by Karnataka police were also involved in the Dabholkar murder conspiracy.

The CBI arrested the two -- Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digvekar -- in the Dabholkar case last week.

While Dabholkar was killed in Pune on August 20, 2013, Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017.By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said it was not possible to bar the forces from using social media, but that they should do so within strictly laid down guidelines.

"Information is one of the pillars of national power. There is no way the Armed Forces can stay away from that," he said while speaking at a seminar on 'Social Media and Armed Forces.' Instead, the forces should be taught to leverage social media to their advantage, he said.

"We have received advice that we should advise our soldiers to stay away from the social media. Can you deny a soldier a smartphone? Can you deny soldier a smartphone at home or prevent his family to own one? If you can't prevent usage of smartphone, it is best to allow it. Social media is here to stay. Soldiers will use the social media. Our adversary will use the social media for psychological warfare and deception. We must leverage it to our advantage," he said.

While social media could be used to combat proxy wars and cross-border terrorism, he said it was "important to have means of imposing discipline" among the soldiers regarding their social media behaviour."I don't have a cellphone and when someone asks me my cellphone number I just give them (any random number) 9868. and if it turns out to be an 11-digit number I just say cut the last digit," he said.

"But we (the Indian Army) have to engage, remain engaged and benefit from social media." Recently, after a senior Army officer was allegedly honey-trapped by an ISI agent through Facebook, the Defence Ministry set out Social media guidelines for the forces, which include not using photos in uniform as profile pictures on any social media platform, exposing official identity like rank, unit name and location , or accepting friend requests from unknown entities.

Separately, in response to another question on the sidelines of the conference, General Rawat action will be taken against Major Major Leetul Gogoi, who was indicted by an Army court of inquiry for -"fraternising-" with a local woman at a Srinagar hotel and being away from his place of duty last month. -"If it is related to moral turpitude, then we will take action accordingly. If it is something else, the punishment will be (according) to the crime he has committed,-" Gen Rawat said.

Major Gogoi hit the headlines last year after he tied a civilian to the bonnet of his vehicle in Kashmir, for use as shield against stone pelters during polling in Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election. He was honoured by Gen Rawat with the Army chief's 'Commendation Card' for his sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations.By PTI

SRINAGAR: Two CRPF jawans were injured Tuesday when militants hurled a grenade at security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said.

The incident took place in the Sangrama area of Sopore in the district.

Two jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force were injured in it, a police official said.

The injured personnel have been hospitalised.

The area has been cordoned off and a search launched to nab the attackers, he said.By PTI

KOLKATA: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Tuesday said it would launch a campaign this month in various schools and colleges of West Bengal against the "ills of love jihad', inviting a strong rebuke from the ruling TMC, which asserted that "we will never allow the nefarious designs" of the Sangh Parivar to succeed.

The VHP, along with its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal, and women's wing, the Durga Vahini, would organise awareness campaign against "love jihad" and also use social media as a tool to reach out to the youth, VHP media convener Sourish Mukherjee said.

'Love jihad' is a term coined by some Hindu groups to refer to the alleged efforts by Muslim men to target women from other religious communities for conversion through love affairs.

"We will launch a state-wide campaign against the ills of 'love jihad' in the state from the middle of this month. The campaign would aware the youths about how love jihad is used to target our Hindu sisters. We will go to various schools and colleges and distribute pamphlets," Mukherjee told PTI.

A senior VHP leader said the organisation is not against love but it is opposed to the idea of using it as a bait for conversion of Hindu girls.

"We intend to create awareness about this among the Hindu girls and their parents," the VHP leader said.

While the BJP state leadership declined to comment on the issue, the ruling TMC and the opposition CPI(M) and Congress came down heavily on the VHP for allegedly trying to create unrest in the state and divide people on religious lines by this move.

"The VHP, the BJP and the RSS for last few years have been trying to divide the people of Bengal on religious lines. But as long as the TMC is there, we will never allow those nefarious designs of Sangh Parivar to succeed," senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim said.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said it is an alarming development and the state government should take steps to fight such elements.

"The organisations like the RSS and the VHP are gaining ground in Bengal as the TMC government is completely silent on them and is going soft while dealing with them. The state government should take steps to control such organisations," senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said.By Online Desk

In a letter to the Centre, Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra recommended Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor following his exit from office on 2nd October 2018. Justice Gogoi, who is the second senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, has been appointed as the 46th CJI by President Ram Nath Kovind, and will take oath 3rd October 2018.

Born on 18th November 1954 in Assam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi will be the first Chief Justice of India from the Northeast.

He joined the Bar Council of India in 1978 and mainly practised in the Gauhati High Court where he was appointed as a permanent judge on 28th February, 2001.

On 9th September, 2010 Gogoi was transferred to Punjab & Haryana High Court. He later took charge as the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court on 12th February, 2011.

He was later elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court on 23rd April, 2012.

Justice Gogoi was the first Supreme Court judge who fined a petitioner Rs five lakhs for withdrawing his petition after it came for hearing in the court.

He is also known for his famous judgment forbidding the use of politicians' photos in government advertisements. In May 2015, The Supreme Court had held that government advertisements could only include photographs of the Prime Minister, President and Chief Justice of India, thus ensuring politicians in power do not use taxpayers' money to gain political advantages.

On 12 January 2018, Justice Gogoi along with four other judges held a press conference, for the first time in the history of Supreme Court, criticising Chief Justice Misra and accused him of misusing his role.By PTI

NEW DELHI: The government has rejected a proposal by Russia to set up a manufacturing facility in India for AK-series assault rifles in partnership with the Adani Group, official sources said.

The decision comes amid a controversy over the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale aircraft deal with France.

The sources said Russia proposed the joint venture during Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's visit to Moscow in April for production of AK-103 rifle.

AK-103 is a modernised variant of the AK-47 rifle, which is extensively used by India's armed forces.

The sources said, according to existing policy, Russian defence firm Kalashnikov Concern can only partner government-owned Ordnance Factories for the project.

"The Russian proposal to partner with a private firm has been rejected.

They have the option of joining hands with a government firm for the project," said a source.

The proposal from Russia came when the Army was aiming at procuring around 7 lakh rifles.

India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore.

The Congress has raised several questions about the deal including rates of the aircraft while the government has rejected the charges.By IANS

DARJEELING: The West Bengal government will pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of the deceased in Majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata on Tuesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here.

The government will also pay Rs 50,000 to each of the injured, Banerjee told reporters.

ALSO READ: One dead in Kolkata's Majherhat bridge collapse; 31 admitted to hospital

"We will pay Rs 5 lakh to the family of the dead person as compensation. We will also give Rs 50 thousand to each of the injured," the Chief Minister said.

One person died and 19 people were injured when a portion of the Majerhat bridge collapsed in South Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon.By IANS

KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Tuesday urged the agencies responsible for the maintenance of the bridges in the state to conduct thorough examination of the structures immediately, after partial collapse of the Majherhat bridge here that killed a person and left 19 injured.

Tripathi offered condolences to the bereaved family members of the deceased and also wished speedy recovery to those injured in the bridge collapse in south Kolkata. He called upon the locals to help out in the ongoing rescue operation.

ALSO READ: One dead in Kolkata's Majherhat bridge collapse; 31 admitted to hospital

"Kesari Nath Tripathi visited the site of tragic incident of collapse of a portion of the Majherhat Bridge on Tuesday and interacted with available officials of the state government and Kolkata Police engaged in rescue and relief work," a release issued by the Governor's office said.

"He also urged the agencies responsible for maintenance of all the bridges in the state to do a thorough examination of the bridges and take corrective measures to maintain them properly," it added.Valson Thampu By

The historical fact that cultural nationalism is not native to India, but an early 20th century import from war-demented Europe, has ceased to bother us. We are inured to it in the garb of patriotism and majoritarian religious revivalism. Even a decade ago, the distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva mattered to most Hindus. That seems no longer the case. The factitious admixture of cultural nationalism and Hindu religious revivalism is now a crucial issue for Indian democracy. It helps, hence, to be clear about what it involves and entails.

The Hindutva-Hinduism coalescence overlooks the irreconcilable tension between religion and culture that widens, intensifies and turns malignant as time goes on. In the early phase of their partnership, cultures are enriched by the spiritual resources of religions. At this stage cultures seem like plants flowering on the soil of religions. The spiritual core of religions nourishes cultures with universal ideals and ethical robustness. The aim religion and culture share at this stage is the improvement of the human species. Art forms, nourished initially by religion, symbolise this human thirst for perfection. But religion and culture diverge through time into incompatibility. But the glorious past of their reciprocal enrichment leaves the door open to those who wish to invoke and abuse religions for anti-spiritual cultural projects. Its initiation is attended by a barrage of propaganda. The more irreligious a cultural project is, the heavier its dependence on propagandist deflections.

The primary value of religion, as Gandhi said, lies in its capacity to empower our ethical sense. Spiritual ideals and ethical imperatives rest on the premise of our universal kinship, the insight embedded in vasudhaiva kutumbakam. The spiritual vision penetrates the veil of surface diversities and discerns the deep, irreducible oneness of humankind. Culture takes the opposite route. It delinks itself from the depth of life and situates itself on the surface of things, where ethical demand seems dispensable. Diversity begins to offend and homogenisation seems the desired state. So even when violations of ethical norms are perpetrated against the other, peoples sense of righteousness is suppressed. Culture lends itself readily to nationalism; but religion cannot, since religion is nothing if not ethical.

The second point of growing divergence between religion and culture pertains to the cult of violence. What love is to religion, violence is to culture. Culture, by definition, is rooted in violence. The confrontation between the British Raj and Gandhi is its classic, near-mythological illustration. The Raj represented the genius of culture at its materialistic, violent invincibility. Gandhi encountered it with the resources of spirituality, especially truth-directed ahimsa. At the root of our struggle for freedom, the freedom of humankind everywhere, is a rejection of violence. Freedom, as Swami Vivekananda insisted, is essentially spiritual. The genius of culture, on the other hand, is inhospitable to freedom.

Slavery, in one form or another, has been a feature of all high cultures. At the zenith of its cultural expansion, there were more slaves than citizens in Rome. While cultures of the past enslaved specific sections of society, modern culture enslaves a people as a whole. Hindutva, a cultural project in the garb of religion, is bound to be inimical to freedom: the freedom not merely of certain minority communities but also of citizens as a whole, though it may now seem to be otherwise behind the smokescreen of majoritarian triumphalism.

The violence embedded in culture, by which cultures have risen and fallen, undermines social cohesion and dissipates the energies of a nation. The core spiritual concern in religion is, or should be: What kind and quality of human beings do we nurture? This is the essence of dharma. Culture, in its invasive pursuit of hegemonic control, feels vexed by, and flouts, dharmic restraints and consequently, precipitates social disarray. It is naive to label acts of gratuitous violencelike mob-lynchingsas accidental aberrations perpetrated by lunatic fringes. They have the air and aura of an orgy, and appeal to an instinct unhinged from ethical restraints. They appeal to a psyche devoid of the sense of fellow humanity. Humanity turns malignant without a sense of fellow humanity. Mob-lynching as a symbolic cult, if akin to the spirit of cultural nationalism, could well presage the sort of holocaust over which Hitler presided.

While cultural nationalism may begin, as it did in Germany, with an air of religious partisanshipHitler was a Jew-hater also because he was a Christian bigotit is inevitable that it effects the desecration not only of the religions it abuses but also of the religion it uses. Such use is, in itself, an abuse. History testifies that attempts to stitch alliances between religion and culture are preposterous. It is bound to work to the detriment of religion.

The Ram Janmabhoomi movement was not a religious project. That religious symbols and sevaks were co-opted into it does not prove the contrary. So, while tearing down a mosque excited hysteria, building a temple did not. The underlying political doctrine of the movement presumes that polytheism is a hindrance to homogenising and mobilising a people. The merit of polytheism is that diverse aspects of the Divine are intuited through different manifestations. Tolstoy, in A Letter to a Hindu, which had a profound influence on Gandhi, quotes profusely from the teachings of Lord Krishna for the reason that he revered Krishna as an exemplar of love. Love inspires truth.

Truth is the guard and guarantor of freedom. Cultural nationalism, which stayed tangential to our freedom struggle, has no use for love. It projects a martial remake of Lord Ram, who is, otherwise, an embodiment of righteousness. Lord Krishna as a Hindutva icon is unthinkable! The contrast between Gandhis Ram and Hindutvas Ram measures the distance between religion and culture,and its political avatar of cultural nationalism.

Valson Thampu

Former principal of St Stephens College, New Delhi

Email: vthampu@gmail.comBy Express News Service

SRIKAKULAM: Taking the recent instances of illegal sand mining into account, officials of the Mining department have decided to install CCTV cameras at the authorised sand reaches in the district. Hundreds of truckloads of sand is being illegally transported daily to Visakhapatnam, even by creating fake waybills. Police in the recent past had seized trucks transporting sand to Visakhapatnam with fake waybills of the Odisha government.

Despite the rule banning lifting of sand during night, majority of the sand-laden trucks ply during night-time. For record, not so long ago about 30 trucks, including a few proclaimers, got stranded at a sand reach at Purushotthapuram in Sarubujjili mandal near the Vamsadhara river after sudden influx of floodwater at midnight. Despite the cyclone warning, sand mafia tried to lift sand amidst heavy rains and that too at midnight.

Moreover, people involved in legal sand mining continue to dig the sand in the allocated reaches beyond allowed limits. Taking all things into account, district collector K Dhananjaya Reddy has decided to install CCTV cameras at the authorised sand reaches. With the installation of the proposed CCTV cameras, the district collector and the Mines AD can watch the action taking place at various sand reaches from their respective offices, directly as the server will be connected to the collectors and the Mining departments offices. As part of intensifying the surveillance on sand mining in the district, we have decided to put up CCTV cameras at all authorised reaches, said Tamminaidu, the additional director of Srikakulam Mines department.

He also said that as a part of the exercise, we are installing CC cameras at the reaches granted to Visakhapatnam in the first phase. He also said that henceforth GPS system would be introduced in the trucks that transport sand to Visakhapatnam. Unlike earlier, we will allow only tractors into the reaches, including reaches allocated for Visakhapatnam, he said.By Express News Service

BENGALURU: In a sign that it may have recovered from its poor showing in the assembly election, the Congress on Monday emerged with a slight but clear lead over rival BJP in the keenly contested polls to 105 urban local bodies in Karnataka.

The Congress won 982  about 37%  of the 2,662 wards across city corporations, city and town municipalities and town panchayats for which elections were held on August 31, and together with alliance partner JD(S), which won 375 wards, will keep control of a majority of the urban local bodies. On the other hand, despite winning 929 wards for a close second-place finish, the BJP is likely to govern just about 31 local bodies, where it secured a majority.

The much-debated strategy of the Congress and the JD(S) of having a friendly fight among its candidates seems to have paid off as the coalition, put together, won 1,370 seats, including 13 by the BSP.

The results show that Congress and JD(S), with their combined strength, can decimate BJP, said KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao. All speculations that the party could weaken with an alliance with the JD(S) can now be put to rest, he said.

Voters in urban areas are no longer supporting BJP and that was evident from todays results, said Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who announced that the two partners will work together in civic bodies with a fractured mandate.

The result can be seen as a setback for BJP that emerged as the single largest party in the May assembly polls. Despite the BJPs attempt to congratulate itself for Mondays results  an improvement over its 2013 tally  it was evident that the party leaders were less than satisfied with the outcome.

The results are satisfactory but we could have performed better. The party will focus on winning 22 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming general elections, state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa said.

Political analysts believe that the results should worry BJP. Urban areas are their (BJPs) forte but they havent been able to do well. The Congress is ahead of them. If a post-poll alliance can bring an advantage, it has to be seen how much of an impact a pre-poll alliance (between Congress and JD-S) can make, said Dr Sandeep Shastri, political scientist.

The BJP, that hoped to win 60 per cent of all local bodies, managed to win 4 out of 7 in DK and Udupi districts and retained power in Shivamogga.

Ullal municipality in Dakshina Kannada slipped from Congress hands for the first time in many years. The SDPI appears to have rocked the Congress boat. Despite not using pictures of its women candidates in publicity materials, three women won on SDPI symbol in Ullal.

While the JD(S) trumped the Congress in Tumakuru, Mandya and Hassan, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in Mysore city corporation. However, the Congress-JD(S) coalition holds a clear majority in the civic body.Amit S Upadhye By

Express News Service

HUBBALLI: Women students at the Indian Institute of Technology- Dharwad (IIT-D) say they are not allowed to step out of their hostels in the night, even if it is to go to the library within the campus, as per a new rule. For, the womens hostel is locked at 9.30 pm for their own safety. The students are forced to remain in their hostel whereas the male counterparts are allowed to use the campus facilities round-the-clock.

This curfew deprives us of our basic right to equality, said a student.

On August 14, the Dean, Student Welfare, held a meeting with the B Tech and PhD women students. There the new timing was announced saying it is unsafe for women to travel at night to the Academic building. The building is less than a mile away from the Girls hostel and is well within the campus and is well guarded by security personnel round-the-clock.

Following the new rule, the girl students and researchers have written to the Internal Complaints Committee explaining the problems faced by them and also proposed some solutions. The letter was signed by all the girls and submitted to the chairperson of the committee. On Monday, a meeting was called to discuss the alternatives with the girl students, but no decision was made on changing the timings.

An official from the IIT-D said the rule was implemented keeping the security aspects of both boys and girls in mind. The IIT-D has told the students not to venture outside the campus after 9.30 pm. There are no such restrictions within the campus. In case there are any, those will be addressed. The decision was taken after studying the timings of the residential education institutes in Hubballi-Dharwad including BVB, UAS and SDM Engineering College. There is a busy highway right in front of the institute and we made certain rules keeping the safety of students in mind, the official said.

Such a rule hurts our self-respect. The institute has imposed the curfew stating that all girls must be present inside the hostel building by 9.30 pm, failing which there would be serious consequences. On being requested to grant permission to study in the mess at night which is less than 50 mts away from the hostel, the Dean refused, a student told TNIE.

The rule deprives us of our basic right to equality. It limits access to all labs, libraries, classrooms, canteens and academic campus as a whole after dinner, which, however, remains open 24 hours for the male students. This makes it impossible for us to perform well in academics, participate in course projects, various competitions in and around the campus and going to the city to buy necessities, the student said.

Another student pointed out that in all other IITs in India no such rule is imposed.

IIT work culture is quite different from other colleges as inside the IIT campus students are given freedom to work day and night in order to achieve excellence. But such a restriction limits the potential of girls as the amount of productive time inside academic building is almost halved as compared to boys, the student said.Chetana Belagere By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: On September 5, 2017, four bullets were pumped into journalist Gauri Lankesh. Now, a year on, the Karnataka police claim to have almost cracked the case. With 14 arrests so far across Karnataka and Maharashtra, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of about 23 officers is set to submit its official report to the Karnataka government.

READ | SITs done well in pretty much cracking Gauri Lankesh case, says former husband Chidanand Rajghatta

After the crime was committed, police recovered a few CCTV camera footages of two bike-borne men wearing a black jacket and a helmet. While the images showed one man pumping bullets at Gauri, the other waited for his accomplice to be back. The government soon after constituted an SIT to investigate the case.

To rule out any professional or personal rivalry, police began to interrogate different people. Once this was ruled out, a team of about 200 SIT officers and others began to track right-wing groups to look for the link between Gauris killing and the Kalburgi case.

READ | Gait analysis helps nail Parashuram Waghmare as Gauri Lankesh killer

The CID team, which had worked on Kalburgis case, was also made part of the probe and asked to compile a list of all the possible men from right-wing groups operating in Karnataka. The list threw up over 300 people. A majority of them were from groups like Sri Rama Sene, Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti operating in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa. Police then set out to track the killers and soon realised there must be a link to the killings of Gauri, Kalburgi, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and author Govind Pansare.

READ | I have lost my lifeline with her death, says Gauri's mother Indira Lankesh

We analysed over 1.5 crore calls but got nothing. It was then we realised that Gauris killers were not using mobiles. Our interception of phone calls around that time did give one important lead, said an SIT officer.

The first lead

On November 2017, we picked up a conversation between one K T Naveen Kumar (37) alias Hotte Manja and a friend, said an SIT officer. Naveen, based in Chikkamagaluru district and the founder of Hindu Yuva Sene, had participated in programmes of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and the Sanatan Sanstha. He had told his friend that he had gone underground after Gauris murder.

READ | Gauri Lankesh Patrike renamed; to be relaunched on death anniversary

They tracked his activities and monitored his calls from mid-November, 2017 to February 2018. They found that he was talking to another friend Praveen, who used only coin booths to talk to Naveen.

The police, during the interception of calls, realised that the next target was Mysuru-based rationalist K S Bhagawan. The SIT, however, wanted to wait till both the men met and then arrest them. But once the plan to kill Bhagawan was set in motion, the SIT was forced to arrest Naveen.

Meanwhile, Praveen was supposed to attend a wedding of an activist, Mohan Gowda, of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti in Brahmavar on February 25. Unfortunately, a media channel broke the story of Naveens arrest and the SITs plan to arrest the other accused at the wedding. Or else, we would have cracked the case at least three months earlier, an officer said.

The vital diaries

A police inspector with Upparpet police station arrested Praveen alias Sujeet Kumar in connection with an illegal arms case in May, 2018.

This was the major breakthrough after Naveens arrest in February, said a police source.

A diary was recovered from Praveen in which police found several phone numbers and code names alluding to others involved in the plot. The diary also had sketches of routes to Gauris house. and other bits of information mentioning Amol Kale alias bhaisab, Amit Degwekar alias tamatar and Manohar Edave.

READ | Gauri Lankesh is no more, but her words are etched in our minds: Prof VS Sreedhara

Based on a tip-off that they were travelling in a Toyota Innova from Pune towards Karnataka, police chased and arrested the trio in Davangere. All three were unknown to the police. Naveen Kumar, according to SIT, met Kale and Edave at the Sanatan Sanstha conference in Goa where he reportedly claimed to have ammunition and guts to do anything for the sake of Hindutva. When Kale found that Naveen didnt have ammunition, he was assigned to do a recce of Gauris house.

READ | SIT gets clinching evidence against Parashuram Waghmore

Police were shocked to find nearly 28 mobile handsets, all dismantled, in Amol Kales car. They also found two diaries: one from Kale and the other from Edave. These diaries led to major arrests and also helped the Maharashtra ATS and local police crack the killings of Dhabolkar and Pansare and arrests of five right-wing leaders who had allegedly planned terror attacks in Mumbai.

Kale, along with dada, who is yet to be arrested, would look for innocent young boys who are fanatical about Hindutva, but are not so popular amongst police. The men went to Sindagi to meet Parashuram Waghmare, 26, who was out of prison after being accused of hoisting a Pakistani flag in Sindagi. He was shown videos of Gauri and was indoctrinated that she is anti-Hindu and should be killed. He was trained along with others at a resort in the jungles of Chikkale and Kanakumbi.

Accused in Gauri Lankesh case being taken to Magistrate Court (File | EPS)

After Waghmares arrest on June 11, police were surprised to see that he wasnt shocked at all. He told us I knew you would come for me and yes, I was the one who killed Gauri, recalled the officer. It was then that all four murders were linked and the CBI  investigating Dabholkars killing and the Maharashtra SIT  probing Pansares murder, were involved along with Karnatakas CID probing Kalburgis killing and Gauri murder case by Karnataka SIT began working together.

Later, Sachin Prakashrao Andure from Maharashtra was arrested. Later came the arrests of five right wingers in Maharashtra wherein a huge cache of explosives were recovered. Following this arrest, Dabholkars murder was reportedly cracked. The CBI now has taken custody of Kale.

The SIT has recovered 17 pistols along with one black pistol, which they suspect could be the weapon used for the killings of Gauri, Kalburgi and Dhabolkar. One bike was also recovered from Pune.Gopika Varrier By

Express News Service

THRISSUR: As the state government embarks on a Herculean task of rebuilding Kerala after the deluge, the concept of a State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) deserves fair attention.As per the National Disaster Management Authority policy, every state should have an SDRF, which will be the first responder during disasters. However, in Kerala, the proposal remains on paper. During the recent floods, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) quickly came to the aid of people affected by landslides in Kattippara.

If there is an active SDRF team in the state, it will definitely speed up rescue activities, said NDRF deputy commandant (operations) G Vijayan. Strengthening the SDRF with a proper force and infrastructure will help the state in dealing with tough situations in future, he said.As per the NDRF guidelines, a battalion of the force will have about 1,146 members, who can be deployed anywhere in the state as the first respondents.

When we say a battalion, it also includes equipment for rescue activities, said Vijayan, who has been leading the team in various rescue operations across the country. After the 2015 flood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu created a special police wing and trained its members to tackle similar disasters. The training of the third batch of the wing has already been completed. They have also started purchasing equipment such as boats, life jackets etc, he said.

Even though police and fire and rescue officers in Kerala are being trained by the NDRF for similar missions, it may not be enough when big disasters unfold again. It is true that such grave calamities happen only once in a while, but with the help of a trained force, we can create awareness among the public on how to act during such crisis, said Vijayan, adding that states policymakers have to decide on whether to strengthen the SDRF or not. Odisha has a well-trained special force to deal with such disasters as cyclones and floods are frequent there.

Right now, there is only one NDRF team in Kerala - the 46 members at the Regional Response Centre in Thrissur, who rushed to the aid of Kattipara during the landslides.As the responsibilities of the force are not confined to rescue operations, it can be used for rebuilding as well.By PTI

NEW DELHI: LIC Housing Finance will offer loans up to Rs 15 lakh at concessional rate of 8.5 per cent to customers in flood affected areas of Kerala.

Under the scheme, loan up to Rs 15 lakh will be extended for properties located in the flood affected areas of Kerala for the purpose of reconstruction, repair, renovation or up-gradation of dwelling units, the company said in a statement.

Announcing the plan Monday, LIC Housing Finance said 'Kerala Flood Scheme' will be offered at 8.5 per cent special rate of interest.

Customers can apply for loan till October 31.

Also as a relief for its existing customers, the company has decided not to levy any additional charges arising due to late payment of EMI for the month of August and September 2018, it said further.

All ancillary charges resulting from such late payments and recovery charges also have been waived till September 2018.

"We have sensitised our teams in the state to support the customers in every possible way. LIC Housing finance stands strong in support of Kerala and its people," said MD & CEO Vinay Sah.By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR:The Jail Department of Chhattisgarh Government has slapped a case against a notorious criminal who chose to shoot off a letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaiks office seeking a ransom of Rs 50 crore.

Pushpendra Chouhan, lodged at Central Jail, Bilaspur, had threatened in the latter that he would eliminate Naveen and his top bureaucrats if the ransom was not paid.

Booked in 42 cases of dacoity and murder, Chouhan is serving life imprisonment after conviction in two cases. In fact, the criminal has had a history of writing such letters. This is his shot at two minutes of personal glory from behind the bars.

After the Chief Ministers Office here received the letter, the matter was communicated to the Jail Department of Chhattisgarh which launched an inquiry. An Additional SP level officer conducted the investigation and it turned out that Chouhan had, indeed, written the letter. He confessed to it too.

Since he is facing trial in 40 cases, he has to be produced before court in regular intervals. Prima facie it appears he wrote the letter to the Odisha CM during one such production, DG (Prisons), Chhattisgarh Giridhari Nayak told this paper on Monday.

Though Chouhan keeps pulling off such stunts, the Jail Department did not take it lightly and got the whole matter investigated. Besides, it is a violation of jail manual and I have asked the Jail Superintendent to lodge a case against Chouhan, Nayak said.

As part of the investigation and subsequent prosecution, Jail Department will get his handwriting matched for securing forensic evidence.Interestingly, the criminal, in his letter, had also mentioned the address at which the ransom amount of Rs 50 crore was to be delivered. The address was : Central Jail, Bilaspur.S Godson Wisely Dass By

Express News Service

THOOTHUKUDI: Thoothukudi police on Monday booked a 28-year-old research scholar for allegedly raising anti-BJP slogans on a flight from Chennai to Thoothukudi based on a complaint filed by Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan. The scholar was remanded in judicial custody for 15 days but as she developed abdominal pains, she was hospitalised in custody,

S Lois Sofia, who is pursuing research at the University of Montreal in Canada, and Soundararajan were on the same flight to Thoothukudi from Chennai. Sofia was travelling with her parents who live in Kandancolony, Thoothukudi. According to sources, when Soundararajan tried to take her luggage, which was near Sofias bag, the latter raised an anti-BJP slogan. After the flight landed, Soundarajan questioned Sofias anti-BJP slogan at the airport lounge, and sought an apology. However, Sofia refused to apologise. The entire scene unfolded in front of BJP cadre gathered there.

On being informed of the matter, airport police tried to pacify the BJP leader, but in vain. Soundararajan reportedly insisted that Sofias anti-BJP comments were not in line with the right to free expression. Later, addressing media persons outside the airport, she raised questions about Sofias background. I can face criticisms at any time, but not inside an aircraft, she said. Sofias father, Dr A A Samy, a retired government doctor, said Sofia had raised an anti-BJP slogan but in a normal tone.

BJP cadre threatened my daughter

She didnt criticise anyone personally. Though I told the BJP leader that my daughter did not speak anything against PM Modi or even Soundararajan herself, the BJP cadre used unparliamentary language against my daughter, and verbally threatened her, especially after she refused to apologise, her father said.

Soundararajan lodged a complaint with airport police seeking action against Sofia. Police questioned Sofia for two hours, before handing her over to the All Women Police Station (AWPS) in Pudukottai.

The AWPS has booked Sofia under Section 290 (committing public nuisance) and 505 (1)(b) (statements conducing to public mischief with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public) of the IPC and Section 75 (1)(C) of the Tamil Nadu City Police Act (behaving in a violent or boisterous or disorderly or riotous or indecent manner which causes or is likely to cause a breach of public peace in a public place). She was produced before Judicial Magistrate Thamilselvi who remanded her for 15 days. Meanwhile, Dr Samy lodged a complaint at the AWPS against Tamilisai and the BJP cadre for verbally abusing Sofia. However, police said that they were not registering an FIR at the moment.

DMK President MK Stalin condemned Sofias arrest and demanded her release. If those shouting such slogans were arrested, it could be lakhs (of us). I too raise the slogan - Fascist BJP rule should end, he tweeted.By Express News Service

THOOTHUKUDI: A day after she was arrested for allegedly raising anti-BJP slogans while on a flight on which Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundarajan was travelling, 28-year-old S Lois Sofia was granted unconditional bail by Judicial Magistrate Tamilselvi in Thoothukudi on Tuesday. She had been remanded in judicial custody for 15 days on Soundarajans complaint on Monday.

Granting bail for Sofia, the magistrate told Dr AA Samy, her father, a retired government doctor, to advise Sofia against causing such problems again.

Advocate E Athisayakumar, who represented Sofia, told reporters, We are not retracting the complaint against the BJP leader (Soundarajan) and her partymen for passing abusive comments against Sofia, and urge district police to take action. State Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Scheduled Castes must act against Soundararajan, he said. Sofia reportedly belongs to a Scheduled Caste community.

Sofia was booked under Sections 290 and 505(1)(b) of IPC and Section 75 (1)(C) of Tamil Nadu City Police Act. Magistrate Tamilselvi, on Monday, struck Section 505(1)(b) of IPC as irrelevant to the case. Sofia, whose parents say she is pursuing doctoral studies in Canada, was released Tuesday evening.

Dr Samy told reporters the family had no connection to political parties or other organisations. The BJP is trying to spoil my daughters academic career, he alleged.

Soundarajan defended herself. The way Sofia expressed herself was not like a common passenger. I suspected some movement might be behind her. So, I lodged a complaint, Soundarajan told media at Chennai airport on Tuesday.

S Lois Sofia, the 28-year-old research scholar, is by her fathers account an academician with deep concern for her native Thoothukudi. Daughter of Dr AA Samy, a retired doctor, and Manohari, a retired staff nurse, from Kandan Colony near Third Mile in Thoothukudi, Sofia did her schooling from Holy Cross Convent in the town.

Dr Samy is a worried man now, as he fears that the episode aboard the flight might pose hurdles on Sofias academic career path as policemen have reportedly taken her passport. Dr Samy said Sofia was conducting research in physics and mathematics at University of Montreal in Canada.

Dr Samy says that despite living abroad, Sofia kept abreast of the developments in the coastal district. She has penned articles for major online publications on issues like Sterlite, Methane extraction project and the eight-lane expressway among others.

For anti-Sterlite activist Fatima Babu, Sofias arrest was a shock . She used to frequently call me to learn about the peoples agitation against Sterlite, she said.

It is learnt that Sofia had reached Chennai from Canada on August 30 and on Monday had been travelling home to Thoothukudi by flight with her parents when the incident happened. She was hospitalised with abdominal pain after being remanded on Monday. Her lawyer E Athisayakumar alleged she had been illegally quizzed for over 10 hours which caused her mental agony.

On Tuesday evening, she was released from custody on getting bail. Meanwhile, State BJP president Tamilisai Soundarajan has referred to a tweet from a Twitter account, purportedly Sofias, in which she appears to have said that she was considering raising the slogan on the flight. In other tweets the user had criticised Sterlite, the Centre as well as discussing other issues. That account has since been made private.By Express News Service

COIMBATORE: The case in which five youth  one from Coimbatore and four from Chennai  were arrested for plotting to murder Hindu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun Sampth and his son Omkar Balaji was likely to be transferred to the Special Investigation Division (SID) of Crime Branch-Central Investigation Division (CB-CID) after the accused were reportedly found to be hard-crore sympathisers of ISIS module.

According to highly-placed sources, one of the arrested  S Ismail of Thindivana in Villupuram  was reportedly a member of Islamic State for Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK). There were reports about 24 people from across the State being supporters of the IS module. All five accused are hardcore supporters of the IS module; hence, a dedicated team has to investigate to explore the larger conspiracy, the source explained. To allow for a dedicated team to work on the case, it would be transferred to CB-CID in a weeks time.

Then, all five accused would be taken under police custody for further investigation. Meanwhile, city police informed that two more youth  Faisal (25) and Anwar (24)  had aided the five-member unit. Police had collected more information about their whereabouts and were inquiring about their connection to Ashik  an accused who was from Sundaram street in the city. Faisal was arrested on Monday.

R Ashik (25) of Sundaram street in Coimbatore, S Ismail (25) of Villupuram district, S Shalavudeen (25), I Jafeer Sadiq Ali (29) and S Samsudeen (20) of Chennai were arrested for hatching a plot to kill the Hindu outfit leaders.

5 held from rly station

The city police, based on a tip-off from Central intelligence agencies, arrested five Muslim youth for reportedly hatching a plot to murder Arjun Sampath and his son Omkar Balaji, on Saturday night. Four were already on the radar of the intelligence agencies when they showed up at Coimbatore Junction; the fifth person had gone to the station to receive the other four.By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Defending her complaint against S Lois Sofia, hailing from Thoothukudi and pursuing higher studies in Canada, who raised slogans against BJP government on the flight to Thoothukudi on Monday, BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan on Tuesday raised suspicions that some movement might be behind Sofia and it should be investigated.

The way Sofia expressed herself and the way she conducted herself was not that of a common passenger. So I had a suspicion that some movement might be behind her. So, I lodged a complaint with the airport authorities about the slogan-raising incident, Tamilisai told mediapersons at the Chennai airport.

ALSO READ | Unconditional bail granted for jailed scholar S Lois Sofia who raised 'anti-BJP' slogan at Tamilisai

She said, I went to Thoothukudi by the 10.20 am flight to take part in the event where more than 1,000 Devendrakula Vellalas joined the BJP. The flight landed. My seat No was 3 and Sophias seat No. was 8. When I crossed her seat, she stood up, raised her hands and shouted a slogan, fascist BJP govt down down. First time, I just ignored her slogan. But she raised the same slogan again. But I kept quiet.

Tamilisai said when she came to the airport reception, Sofia passed through that way staring at her.

At that time, I asked her whether it was proper to raise slogan within the flight and she said she had freedom of expression to do that. I asked her if it was proper to express that freedom within the flight, she added.

On the charge that only because of the pressure given by Tamilisai, Sofia was arrested, Tamilisai denied that, saying Had I thought of exerting pressure, I could have done that through some other means too."

Condemning DMK president M K Stalins tweet in support of Sofia, Tamilisai recalled Stalin slapped a person in Metro train last year.

Would all political leaders agree to such slogans raised against them on flights? I did not violate any rules. I have the same rights like them as a woman leader. Can leaders of two political parties having differing views quarrel in the flight because they have freedom of expression ?

Had it been a slogan against me, I would have ignored it

Q: Would you be OK if Sofia had raised the slogan somewhere else?

A: Yes. Had Sofia raised this slogan somewhere else, I would have ignored it. See, very often we go for public meetings and there are such incidents and we just leave it at that. She should not have raised the slogan within the flight. Further, I strongly feel that it is not an emotional outburst. Within flight, such slogan-raising should not be encouraged. I suspected that Sofias slogan-raising would have been a preplanned one. Now, it has been proved with her tweet. The way she behaved created suspicion that she may be associated with some organisation.

Q: How does saying fascist BJP down become a personal attack on you?

A: If she had raised a slogan against me, I would have ignored it. I am the State president of the BJP and any attack on the party is personal to me. People are posting umpteen number of memes against me every day. I am not fighting with them.

Q: Wont this incident affect the image of their party in Tamil Nadu?

A: Definitely not. I have not done anything to damage the image of my party. When someone is belittling my party, I have the right to protect my party.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Stressing the need for optimum manpower support and infrastructure for effective functioning of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha in Andhra Pradesh and Farmers Debt Relief Commission in Telangana to prevent suicides by farmers and to address their grievances, a division bench of the High Court has directed the governments of AP and Telangana to utilise the services of their respective State Legal Services Authority in identifying the needy farmers to get the benefits under the above schemes.

The object of creating the above schemes is to provide an integrated empowered institution responsible for planning, implementation and monitoring of welfare, development and capacity enhancement to empower the farmers and to take up various measures and activities. Identification of those who are in need of support of such institutions and their access to the authorities concerned can be easily obtained if the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987 is put into operation for the benefit of such persons.

We are of the view that the State Legal Services Authority, the different District Legal Services Authorities under it and the Taluk Legal Services Committees under that State Authority would be able to steer clear of the process of connectivity of the needy persons to the institutions, it said.

The bench, comprising chief justice TBN Radhakrishnan and justice V Ramasubramanian, has passed this order recently on a PIL filed by social activists K Siva Ram Reddy, Pakala Srihari Rao, D Narsimha Reddy and others seeking directions to both the state governments to take necessary steps for preventing farmers suicides.

The petitioners sought directions to the authorities to frame suitable guidelines, policy and to register all genuine farmers under a common platform duly issuing individual identity cards, to frame a policy for supply of genuine seeds to the farmers and stringent action against the manufacturers and suppliers of fake and spurious seeds.

When the matter came up for hearing, the government counsels of AP and Telangana told the court that the governments constituted Rythu Sadhikara Samstha and Farmers Debt Relief Commission respectively to address farmers grievances. Taking these submissions into consideration, the bench said that these institutions would effectively work only if there was manpower supporting apart from infrastructure facilities.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Welcome to Paripoornananda: In a press release here on Monday, BJP state general secretary Chinta Sambamurthy said that they were welcoming Paripoornananda Swamy to Hyderabad. Paripoornananda is coming to Hyderabad, as the High Court stayed the State governments decision to expulsion of Swamy from the city. A large number of BJP workers would take part in the rally from Hayathnagar to welcome Paripoornananda, BJP general secretary said.

Speaking at a press meet, VHP spokesperson R Shashidhar said, On September 6, Paripoornananda will start from his Sri Peetham and will reach Suryapet. By 2 pm, he will reach Hayathnagar. From there, he will move towards LB Nagar where locals and other Hindu organizations will welcome him.

From there he will proceed towards Naagalaxmi Maatha Temple via Dilsukhnagar, Malakpet, Chaderghat and Koti to Basheerbagh, he said. The VHP criticised the state government for the externment saying that, KCRS government behaved like Nizam sarkar by expelling a dharma guru.

However, the High Court of Telangana gave a tight slap to this government by putting a stay on the expulsion.Swami Paripoornananda was externed on July 10 from the city for six months for allegedly making provocative speeches targeting other communities.

Subsequently, Swamis legal adviser Padmarao Lakkaraju filed a plea in the high court, challenging the externment orders. D Prakash Reddy, senior counsel for the Swami, has contended that externing the petitioner under the Act amounted to infringement of the fundamental rights.By ANI

KABUL: The United Kingdom defence secretary Gavin Williamson, who is on a three-day visit to Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif on Monday, expressed concern about Daesh fighters in Afghanistan, stating that the terrorist organisation poses a threat to the UK.

The minister revealed that the terrorist organisation fighters are in contact with cells in the UK and Western Europe, reported Sky News.

Sky News quoted Williamson as saying, "What we see is a real threat posed by these groups to the UK and we've got to be acting as we are to ensure that we do not see future Manchester-style attack. We consistently see terrorist groups operating here in Afghanistan, [and] evidence of their links back not just to the United Kingdom but to the whole of continental Europe."

Williamson also met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and reiterated UK's support to Afghanistan.

The UK embassy in Kabul in a tweet wrote,""We remain absolutely committed": In visit to #Afghanistan, Defence Secretary @GavinWilliamson met President @AshrafGhani, CEO Dr. Abdullah, Minister of Defence Tariq Shah Bahrami & NSA @hmohib. He reiterated #UK's support & commitment to strengthening & mentoring ANDSF."By AFP

BEIJING: A kindergarten principal in China trying to liven up a formal back-to-school ceremony with a racy pole dancer was fired after angry parents lit up social media with complaints.

Like most schools across China, the Xinshahui Kindergarten in the southern city of Shenzhen marks the start of the school year with a ceremony, usually consisting of performances and speeches.

But Monday's edition, which included the risque pole dance, cost principal Lai Rong her job.

Videos circulating on social media showed a scantily-clad dancer in hot pants shimmying up and down a pole to thumping music as stunned children in marching band uniforms looked on.

Others tried to mimic the sultry moves, with several small boys gyrating their hips and dancing around each other. In the background, shocked parents could be heard commenting about the suitability of the performance.

Many took to social media to express their outrage, threatening to pull their children out of school and calling for Lai's resignation.

"Pole dancing at a school welcome ceremony? How can I trust my children with them? I'm going to pull my kid out and ask for a refund," one parent wrote on social media platform WeChat.

"Is the principal an idiot?" another commented on the Twitter-like site Weibo.

In a text message to parents, Lai apologised for the "horrific viewing experience" and for not checking the dancer's performance, adding that the dance was intended to liven up the atmosphere.

#News: A kindergarten principal in Shenzhen, #China has been fired after approving of a pole dance routine to welcome approximately 500 students back on the first day of classes, after videos of the performance went viral online. (Clip from @mstandaert: https://t.co/wU3HzNnjSf) pic.twitter.com/OsHvQJ7fkO  Cat Wang (@catzxwang) September 4, 2018

Hours later, local education authorities announced they had fired the principal and put Xinshahui under investigation.

"Other schools in the district should reflect on this incident and strictly uphold education standards," the Bao'an education bureau said in a statement.

"I may as well be dead. I already lost the hope to live," Lai told state-run tabloid the Global Times.

This was just one of several incidents in a shaky start to the Chinese school year.

Over the weekend, parents complained that a television programme deemed mandatory viewing by state educators on Saturday night included 12 minutes of advertisements, mostly promoting online tutoring courses and stationery sales.

Earlier the same day, police arrested 46 people in central Hunan province after hundreds gathered to express dissatisfaction with the local school system.

According to posts on social media, parents were incensed when they were told they would have to move their children into dormitories at a local private school, dramatically increasing tuition fees.By PTI

MOSCOW: The Kremlin has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's warnings against a possible Syrian government attack on a rebel-held enclave.

Trump on Monday sent a tweet warning the Syrian government and its allies against a "reckless attack" on rebel-held Idlib province. Russia has been a key backer of President Bashar Assad and has complained about militants in Idlib targeting its own facilities and posing a terrorist threat on the whole.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday reiterated Russia's stance and called Idlib "a hornets' nest of terrorists."

Asked about Trump's tweet, Peskov said such warnings do not take into account "the dangerous and negative potential" of the rebel-held enclave and show that the White House does not have a "comprehensive approach" to solving the Syria crisis.By AFP

MOSCOW: Russia launched checks Tuesday after its space chief said an air leak on the International Space Station last week could have been deliberate sabotage.

Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected Thursday in a Russian spacecraft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or by astronauts in space.

Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening.

"There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments.

He added that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand."

"What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?" he asked.

"We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space."

A commission will seek to identify the culprit by name, Rogozin said, calling this a "matter of honour" for Russia's Energiya space manufacturing company that made the Soyuz.

'Not a meteorite'

Previously Rogozin had said the hole in the side of the Soyuz ship used to ferry astronauts was most likely caused from outside by a tiny meteorite.

"We have already ruled out the meteorite version," Rogozin said late Monday.

A Russian MP who is a former cosmonaut suggested that a psychologically disturbed astronaut could have done it to force an early return home.

"We're all human, and anyone might want to go home, but this method is really low," Maxim Surayev of President Vladimir Putin's ruling party, told RIA Novosti state news agency.

"If a cosmonaut pulled this strange stunt -- and that can't ruled out -- it's really bad," said Surayev, who spent two stints on the ISS.

"I wish to God that this is a production defect, although that's very sad, too -- there's been nothing like this in the history of Soyuz ships."

The hole is in a section of the Soyuz ship that will not be used to carry astronauts back to Earth.

A space industry source told TASS state news agency that the spacecraft could have been damaged during testing at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after passing initial checks and the mistake was then hastily covered up.

"Someone messed up and then got scared and sealed up the hole," the source speculated, but then the sealant "dried up and fell off" when the Soyuz reached the ISS.

Energiya will carry out checks for possible defects on all Soyuz ships and Progress unmanned ships used for cargo at its production site outside Moscow and at Baikonur cosmodrome, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday, citing a space industry source.

The ISS is one of the few areas of Russia-US cooperation that remains unaffected by the slump in relations between the countries and Washington's sanctions.

Russia's rockets used for launching spacecraft and satellites have suffered engine problems.

Currently on the ISS are two cosmonauts from Russia and three NASA astronauts as well as one German astronaut from the European Space Agency.By AFP

BEIRUT: Russian warplanes battered Syria's rebel-controlled Idlib on Tuesday for the first time in three weeks, a war monitor said, as expectations mount of a government offensive in the northwestern province.

Regime ally Moscow and rebel backer Ankara have held several rounds of talks aimed at averting an assault, but government troops have been massing near the rebel zone.

"Russian warplanes resumed bombing Idlib province after a 22-day pause," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The air raids "came a day after rebel units in Idlib hit regime positions in neighbouring Latakia province, which killed three pro-regime fighters," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

Abdel Rahman could not immediately provide a death toll for the strikes.

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month and Russian has stepped up its war rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."

Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft based at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

Russia accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponised drones and insists jihadist groups in the province must be eliminated.

Analysts say there is still a window of opportunity to avoid the humanitarian impact of a full-scale offensive.

The presidents of Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran are to meet in Tehran on Friday for three-way talks that are expected to focus on Idlib.

An estimated three million people -- half of them displaced from other parts of Syria -- live in the province and adjacent rebel-held areas.By Express News Service

Myanmar de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyis reputation is in tatters, with two journalists in the country on Monday being sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of breaching the state secrets law.

Throughout the trial, Suu Kyi had been unmoved by calls to intervene, or even criticise the court case.

The reporters, who worked for Reuters, claimed they were set up while exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine village in September last year. They claimed they were arrested after the police invited them to dinner in Yangon, and gave them documents. Shortly thereafter, they were arrested by another set of policemen for possessing classified material, indicating a frame-up.

The case had sparked international outcry as an attempt to muzzle reporting on the crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.

Bill Richardson, a US diplomat and a former Suu Kyi confidante, claims she criticised the two journalists when he tried to raise their plight in person. Suu Kyis response was filled with anger, referring to the journalists as traitors, he said.

READ HERE: The story that got the journalists jailed

Suu Kyi could perhaps redeem her reputation a tad if she asks the junta to pardon the reporters.By UNI

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syria against launching an attack on the country's last rebel stronghold with the help of Russia and Iran, saying the offensive could trigger a

"human tragedy."

The warning came as Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javed Zarif met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in a surprise visit to Damascus ahead of the looming offensive.

Syrian forces are amassing around the northwestern province of Idlib, in preparation for the assault.

"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human

tragedy," Trump tweeted.

"Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!"

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict.

But Russia and Iran have insisted that extremist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault.

Zarif's trip to war-ravaged Syria also comes just days before a top-level tripartite meeting in Tehran to discuss the Syrian conflict, now in its eighth year.

He met Assad to discuss "issues on the agenda for the tripartite meeting," according to the Syrian presidency's account on the Telegram messaging app.

Former de-escalation zone

Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored the negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in Syria.

Last year, they had designated Idlib as a "de-escalation" zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire.

Damascus's main sponsor Russia has been sounding the war drums in recent days, all the while seeking to pressure Turkey into reining in jihadists in Idlib,

Tehran and Moscow have provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said an all-out assault on Idlib and its catastrophic consequences could still be avoided.

ICG said Russia, whose air support would be crucial for the offensive to succeed, should understand that a bloodbath in Idlib would jeopardize its own political goals.

"By backing an all-out offensive, Russia risks undermining its long-term political objectives in Syria," ICG wrote in a nine-page briefing.

"Russia seeks to ensure not just the regime's military victory in Syria but its full political restoration through international re-legitimation at war's end."

Further Iranian engagement in Syria meanwhile risks drawing Israel deeper into the conflict.

A series of recent strikes in Syria that have killed Iranians has been attributed to Israel.

But Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday signaled strikes could be extended to Iraq if necessary.

Asked about the possibility of Israel hitting Iranian military positions in "Iraq or Tehran," Lieberman said: "We do not limit ourselves to Syrian territory alone. It must be clear."

US warnings ring hollow?

Britain, France and the US, 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.

But analysts still say the United States appears resigned to the likelihood of a final military victory by Syrian government forces.

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 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 as "moribund."

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.By UNI

UNITED NATIONS: President Donald Trump will chair a United Nations Security Council meeting on Iran this month during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York, diplomats and U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley said on Tuesday.

The United States, which holds the council presidency for September, has unsuccessfully pushed the U.N. to add sanctions on Iran. Haley has regularly attacked Iran, accusing it of meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen.

Diplomats said Iran could request to speak at the Sept. 26 council meeting, the week of the U.N.General Assembly. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to address the assembly on Sept.25.

The Iranian U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During a rare public meeting on Tuesday to discuss the proposed U.S.agenda for the council, Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said the Iran meeting should focus on the implementation of a 2015 resolution on Iran.

"We very much hope that there will be views voiced in connection with the U.S.withdrawal" from a 2015 international nuclear deal, Polyanskiy told the council.

Trump in May withdrew from the accord between Iran and six world powers aimed at stalling Tehran's nuclear capabilities in return for lifting some sanctions.

Trump ordered the reimposition of U.S.sanctions suspended under the deal.

Iran is still subject to a U.N.arms embargo and other restrictions contained in the 2015 resolution, which enshrines the nuclear deal.

European powers have been scrambling to salvage the accord. In February, Russia vetoed a U.S.-led bid for the Security Council to call out Tehran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of Yemen's Houthi group, a charge Tehran denies.

Haley arranged Tuesday's event after several members expressed opposition to her plan to convene a meeting on Wednesday on Nicaragua.

Haley said their views should be on record.

More than 300 people have been killed and thousands injured in crackdowns by police and armed groups on protests over government plans to cut welfare benefits.

The protests developed into broader opposition against President Daniel Ortega.

China, Russia, Bolivia and others said the situation in Nicaragua was not a threat to international peace and security and therefore should not be discussed by the council.

The United States has the nine votes required to block a procedural vote expected to be called by Bolivia, diplomats said.Multimedia Specialist

Anthony Zilis is a multimedia specialist at The News-Gazette. His email is azilis@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@adzilis).One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021A ZIMBABWEAN court has set free an opposition legislator who had been arrested for allegedly inciting his MDC Alliance party supporters to commit public violence ahead of the harmonised elections held in July.







Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers arrested Happymore Chidziva, the MDC Alliance party Youth Assembly leader, who is the Highfield West constituency MP-Elect, on Monday 03 September 2018 and charged him with incitement as defined in section 187 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.





Prosecutors alleged that Chidziva, who is represented by Jeremiah Bamu and Brian Dube of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), encouraged his MDC Alliance party supporters during a political rally held in July 2018 in Gweru in Midlands province to protest against an unfavourable election outcome and to defend their vote if Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) rigs the election in favour of ZANU PF party.





But Chidziva was set free by Gweru Provincial Magistrate Charity Maphosa after she granted him $100 bail and ordered him to report once a fortnight at Machipisa Police Station in Harares Highfield suburb.





In Harare, another MDC Alliance party youth leader, Chamunorwa Madya, the Deputy Secretary-General for the MDC Alliance party Youth Assembly and Mafaiti Mubaiwa, who is employed as a security personnel at the opposition party headquarters were on Tuesday 04 September 2018 granted $50 bail each by a Harare Magistrate after they were arrested for allegedly contravening section 36(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.





ZRP officers, who arrested Madya and Mubaiwa on Monday 03 September 2018, accused the duo of committing public violence after they allegedly participated in a demonstration held in Harare early in August to protest ZECs management of the July 30 harmonised elections.





Madya and Mubaiwa were represented by Nontokozo Dube-Tachiona and Gugulethu Mahlangu-Simango of ZLHR.There cannot be a crisis because we allocated enough fuel for the week, he said. Since I am not around, I can only assume that suppliers may have had logistical challenges collecting fuel from Msasa Depot (in Harare) for them to distribute countrywide.'Today Is a Monumental Day In

the Course of This Pandemic'(Newser)  "I am not saying that Timothy McVeigh bombed Oklahoma City in 1995 because the Buffalo Bills lost four Super Bowls in a row," writes Sam Anderson at Politico. That would be "absurd." But in his lengthy piece, Anderson makes the case that the Bills' misfortune might have at least played a role in McVeigh's mindset leading up to the bombing. It goes like this: McVeigh, who was stuck in a series of dead-end jobs and disillusioned from his time in Iraq as part of Operation Desert Storm, didn't have much going on in his life, but he lived near Buffalo and was a "superfan" of the Bills as they made their Super Bowl runs in the early 1990s. Before the team's third consecutive Super Bowl loss in 1993, McVeigh bet $1,000 he didn't haveand the Bills got blown out.

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"It was at this point in his life that Timothy McVeigh gave up on any kind of a normal future," writes Anderson. "He paid off his gambling debt with a cash advance from a credit carda debt he fully intended never to repay." That's because "the future was no longer relevant to him, no longer something to be planned for." He left New York state, becoming increasingly obsessed with gun rights and "spiraling extremism." Soon, the government siege at Waco left him weeping in front of the TV, bent on revenge. After that third Super Bowl loss, McVeigh had gone "looking for somewhere else to be, something else to dosomething bigger, more meaningful, more real," writes Anderson. "Reality had failed him, in so many ways, so he went off to pursue his own fantasy of justice, very far from Buffalo." Read the full story. (Read more Timothy McVeigh stories.)(Newser) 

Police arrested the organizer of an anti-violence protest that sought to shut down part of an expressway near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Labor Day. Per the AP , the Rev. Gregory Livingston spoke calmly to an Illinois State Police trooper as other protesters and dozens of other troopers stood nearby. When the trooper explained to Livingston that he would be arrested if he didn't leave an area close to the expressway, Livingston responded politely: "Arrest me." The trooper tapped him on the shoulder before leading him away. Authorities have not said if he will be charged. Earlier in the day, as several dozen protesters gathered, Livingston told reporters he wanted to highlight the inequities in the nation's third largest city. Poverty and a lack of investment in minority neighborhoods underpinned much of the deadly violence, he said.

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"What we're trying to do is end the tale of two cities in Chicago," he said. "We think that so much of this violence is generated by Chicago's legacy of segregation." Troopers successfully blocked access to Interstate 90 and no protesters appeared to reach it. The demonstrators had planned to march westbound on the interstate for about a mile. Some protesters carried signs that read, "End State-Sanctioned Violence." Others called on Chicago's mayor to resign, chanting, "Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel has got to go!" Troopers deployed megaphones to warn some protesters that they were too close to the expressway, saying: "The arrest process has begun. Please leave the roadway or you will be arrested." Livingston also organized a protest last month that briefly shut down Lake Shore Drive on Chicago's North Side.

(Read more protests stories.)(Newser)  A conservation group has made a horrifying find in Botswana, a country once thought to have been a bright spot amid the relentless slaughter of Africa's elephants. While conducting an aerial census of the country's elephants, they discovered the carcasses of 87 of the animals near a wildlife sanctuary. The elephants had been stripped of their tusks. "The varying classification and age of carcasses is indicative of a poaching frenzy which has been ongoing in the same area for a long time," the Elephants Without Borders group wrote in an incident report seen by NPR.

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Elephant populations in Africa declined by 30% between 2008 and 2014 alone due to rampant poaching, leaving Botswana, known for its tough response to poachers, with the world's largest population of the animals. But this year, the government of new President Mokgweetsi Masisi decided to disarm anti-poaching units, which used to have a shoot-to-kill policy. Conservationists fear many more elephants will be killed unless action is taken immediately. "I'm shocked, I'm completely astounded," Mike Chase from Elephants Without Borders tells the BBC. "The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest I've seen or read about anywhere in Africa to date." (In Asia, bees are helping efforts to protect wild elephants.)(Newser)  "I didn't think anybody was crazy enough to do something like this." So says Florida's Monica Walley, who was at her Orange County home Aug. 20 when a bullet whizzed through a window, missing her father's head by inches. It was one of three fired at the home in retaliation for a critical restaurant review, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Walley had penned the review on Facebook, explaining her disabled mother was denied service at the Daybreak Diner where she had once suffered a fall. "It was my mother's birthday, and all she wanted was her favorite Greek omelet," Walley wrote. Told she couldn't be in the restaurant without a companion, "she arrived back home in tears," Walley added in the review, which prompted hundreds of negative comments and some angry phone calls to the diner, per Fox 35.

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The restaurant said employees "have never and will never practice any form of discrimination." But the review was still a talking point that night as the son of the diner's owner drank beer with his roommate and a family friend, 42-year-old Norman Auvil. After finding Walley's address online, they discussed driving there to pick a fight or slash tires, police say, per WESH. Once outside the home, however, Auvil allegedly fired three shots. "I actually could feel the air from the bullet as it passed by me," Walley's father tells WJAX. "It missed me by about 4 inches." Arrested Thursday, per the Orlando Sentinel, Auvil was charged with shooting into a building, shooting from a vehicle and abuse of a disabled person after his two companions "expressed concern for their safety" and described other "violent outbursts by Auvil," per a criminal complaint. (Read more drive-by shooting stories.)(Newser)  The Harvey Weinstein scandal is leading to another controversy that just keeps growing: how NBC News handled the investigation. Network exec Andy Lack defended NBC in a memo to employees Monday, but reporter Ronan Farrow then accused Lack of fudging the facts, reports CNN. It all centers on a serious accusation: Did NBC try to kill the story that Farrow, then a reporter for the network, presented to his bosses about Weinstein? One of Farrow's former producers made that allegation last week, accusing NBC of a "massive breach of journalistic ethics." But in his memo, Lack insisted that what Farrow presented wasn't "fit for broadcast" because it had too few women willing to go on air to corroborate the accusations. "Contrary to recent allegations, at no point did NBC obstruct Farrows reporting or 'kill' an interview," Lack wrote.

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He added that the network let Farrow "go elsewhere" to flesh out the story, to the New Yorker. Farrow, however, says Lack's statement "contains numerous false or misleading statements," per the New York Times. For one thing, "the suggestion to take the story to another outlet was first raised by NBC, not me," wrote Farrow, "and I took them up on it only after it became clear that I was being blocked from further reporting." He said his piece for NBC was "twice cleared and deemed 'reportable' by legal and standards only to be blocked by executives who refused to allow us to seek comment from Harvey Weinstein." Lack says that's not true, and he dismissed as "baseless" the accusation that Weinstein himself exerted some kind of influence on NBC's decision. Farrow, for his part, is working on a book about the entire situation. (Read more NBC News stories.)(Newser)  Sherwin-Williams is asking the Supreme Court to take up a case regarding the historical sale of lead paintand advertisements that go back more than a century. The move comes after a California court found Sherwin-Williams and two other paint brands responsible for health risks tied to lead paint and ordered them to pay $1.5 billion in damages to a state cleanup fund, reports the Wall Street Journal. The ruling cited ads, one going back to 1904, in which Sherwin-Williams touted the benefits of its lead paint. The company argues it shouldn't be held responsible because the risks of lead paint weren't well established back then, though the state of California cited an internal Sherwin-Williams message written in 1900 that called white lead (formerly used in paint) a "deadly cumulative poison."

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This leaves advertisers with a vested interest in the case. As lead paint wasn't banned by the federal government in homes until 1978, 35 years after Sherwin-Williams stopped making it, some worry the ruling will affect how ads for a wide variety of products are interpreted well into the future in terms of liability. "The California court has retroactively imposed multi-millions of dollars of damages on Sherwin-Williams by applying today's scientific standards to ads that were published decades ago," Dan Jaffe of the Association of National Advertisers tells Adweek. "We're constantly learning things about products we didn't think were of any concern," he adds, per the Journal. "You can't demand companies to have clairvoyance." (Read more US Supreme Court stories.)(Newser)  The Taliban say the Afghan Haqqani network founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani, an ex-US ally turned fierce enemy, has died after years of ill health. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told the AP that Haqqani died on Monday inside Afghanistan. The elderly founder of the outlawed group had been paralyzed for the past 10 years. The Haqqani network was declared a terrorist organization by the United States in 2012. Haqqani, whose son is believed to have taken over the network in 2001, had not been heard from in several years, and reports of his death had been widespread in 2015.

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In announcing Haqqani's death Tuesday, Mujahed called him a religious scholar and an "exemplary warrior" who was "among the great distinguished Jihadi personalities of this era." Haqqani, whose group had close ties to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, was a prized CIA asset when Afghan guerrillas were fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s, the BBC reports. He allied himself with the Taliban after they seized power in 1996, and his group is believed to have been behind many recent attacks on NATO and Afghan forces.

(Read more Jalaluddin Haqqani stories.)(Newser)  A Malaysian court has sentenced an American man to death by hanging for killing his ex-wife, but the man will appeal the ruling on the grounds that he acted in self-defense, the AP reports. Lawyer KA Ramu says the High Court found his client, 63-year-old Gerald Wayne Mickelson, guilty of murder in the 2016 strangulation death of his ex-wife Guilda Mickelson, a fellow American citizen. Mickelson was working as an engineering consultant in Malaysia, but planned to move to the Philippines to be with his new Filipino wife. Ramu says the former couple got into an argument and his client acted in self-defense when his ex-wife started attacking him. The court found otherwise in its ruling Tuesday. (Read more Malaysia stories.)(Newser)  President Trump sent a tweet Monday warning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies against a "reckless attack" on Idlib province. "The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump said. On a visit to Damascus the same day, Iran's foreign minister said "terrorists must be purged" from Idlib and the entire northwestern province returned to government control, the AP reports. Mohammad Javad Zarif met with Assad and his foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, who is just back from a visit to Moscow.

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Zarif's visit comes days before the leaders of Iran, Turkey, and Russia are expected to meet in Iran to discuss the situation in Idlib. Assad has vowed to defeat the opposition in its last refuge in the northwestern province if the rebels do not surrender to government rule. Idlib and the surrounding area is home to some 3 million peoplenearly half of them already displaced more than once by the civil war. UN officials believe an offensive on Idlib would trigger a wave of displacement that could uproot an estimated 800,000 people and discourage refugees from returning home. The US and France have warned that an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisisand that a chemical attack in Idlib would prompt a western retaliation.

(Read more Idlib stories.)(Newser)  Monica Lewinsky gave a talk on the perils of the internet Monday night, then left a 15-minute interview after an "off limits" question about former President Clinton. "Im so sorry. Im not going to be able to do this," she said before walking off-stage at a conference in Jerusalem, reports USA Today. The question in question: Whether she still expected a personal apology from Clinton, which the interviewer, Israeli anchor Yonit Levi, "had put to me when we met the day prior. I said that was off limits," Lewinsky explained in a tweet. "There were clear parameters about what we would be discussing and what we would not."

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Her statement continues: "When she asked me it on stage, with blatant disregard for our agreement, it became clear to me I had been misled. To the audience: I'm very sorry that this talk had to end this way." "The question asked was legitimate, worthy and respectful and in no way deviated from Ms. Lewinsky's requests," said a rep for Levi's company, per the AP. "We thank Ms. Lewinsky for her fascinating speech to the conference, respect her sensitivity and wish her all the best." (Potential Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh wanted Clinton to face some pretty explicit questions about Lewinsky.)(Newser)  Early fireworks: The Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing got off to a lively start on Tuesday as Democrats repeatedly interrupted the opening statement of Republican Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reports the Hill. One Democrat after another spoke up to demand that the hearing be postponed until they can see thousands of documents that have been withheld in regard to the Supreme Court nominee. Protesters in the audience also interrupted, but Grassley said the hearing would not be delayed. "If we cannot be recognized I move to adjourn," said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. "We have been denied real access to the documents we need," he said, calling the panel's handling of the matter a "charade."

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Kavanaugh, for his part, intends to tell the committee that he will be a non-biased judge. I dont decide cases based on personal or policy preferences, Kavanaugh says in excerpts of his opening statement released in advance, per the Washington Post. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge, Kavanaugh says. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge. (Kavanaugh's attorney released thousands of pages ahead of the hearing, but not enough to appease Democrats.)(Newser)  Rahm Emanuel will not seek re-election to a third term as mayor of Chicago in 2019, he announced Tuesday. "This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not the job for a lifetime," said Emanuel, who just returned to the city after dropping his youngest child off for her freshman year at Princeton, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. The Chicago Tribune reports the 58-year-old had already amassed $10 million to fund a third-term run. Emanuel said he and his wife of 27 years decided it was "time to write another chapter together," noting he once promised her he would never run for office"and I'm about six elections behind the eight-ball."

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The former congressman, who also served as Barack Obama's chief of staff, told staffers of his decision shortly before his City Hall press conference. The AP points to the timing of his surprise announcement: one day before "one of the biggest police-shooting trials in the history of Chicago" is to begin. Police officer Jason Van Dyke goes on trial Wednesday for the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald. Emanuel had fought the release of the dashcam video. If that goes down as a low point, the Tribune also outlines some high points, including Emanuel's expansion of free pre-K and full-day kindergarten and financial moves he made to address four "grossly underfunded" public employee pension funds. (Read more Rahm Emanuel stories.)New Delhi:

Indias coffee production may fall by 20 per cent to around 2,53,000 tonnes because of severe floods in coffee-producing states Karnataka and Kerala, a Coffee Board official said. Karnataka and Kerala account for 90 per cent of the coffee production in India.



Coffee estates in Karnataka have been reduced to a pile of mud due to massive landslides. The industry is estimating coffee production in 2018-19 to fall by at least one-fifth due to floods, the board official told media.

Also Read | Petrol-diesel Price Rise: Chidambaram blames Modi Government, says it is due to 'excessive taxes'



According to the board data, the country is estimated to have harvested 3,16,000 tonnes of coffee in the 2017-18 marketing year (October-September). In the current 2017-18 marketing year, Karnataka is estimated to have harvested 2,22,300 tonnes of coffee and Kerala 65,735 tonnes, the Board data showed.



However, heavy rains in August triggered flash floods and landslides in multiple locations in coffee growing districts of of Kerala and Karnataka. Now, coffee crop has been damaged in 2.26 lakh hectare, and losses are estimated to the tune of Rs 654 crore as per the government report.



India exports both Robusta and Arabica varieties of coffee to countries like Italy, Germany and Russia.

Also Read | Petrol, diesel prices hit all-time high for eighth day



Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has demanded the central government to provide Rs 654 crore funds for relief-affected coffee growers in the state.

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Kathua (JK):

The Jammu Narcotics Control Bureau on Tuesday claimed to have foiled an attempt to smuggle huge quantity of heroin here and arrested four people in this connection.

It recovered over 22 kg heroin and Rs 17 lakh cash form them.

Also Read | Ghaziabad: Four cattle smugglers held for theft, slaughter of cows

Three Kashmiri residents were arrested here for smuggling heroin worth Rs 100 cr from Handwara town in the state to Punjab. The person who was to receive the contraband was also nabbed from the neighbouring state, Virender Yadav, the zonal director of the Jammu NCB, told reporters here.

He said a private car was intercepted at Pali Morh on Sunday and its search led to the recovery of 22.145 kg heroin.

Three peddlers, Bashir Ahmad Mir, Feroz Ahmad Sheikh and Waseem Ahmad Bhat, were arrested for smuggling the contraband, Yadav said.

Subsequently, he said, the NCB along with the police arrested Paramjit Singh from Jalandhar in Punjab on the disclosure of the arrested people and seized Rs 17.49 lakh.

Also Read | DRI seizes 8,000 kgs of shark fins bound for China

With these arrests, a nexus of drug traffickers was exposed and their attempt to smuggle the contraband foiled, he said.

He said this was the 11th seizure made by the Jammu NCB this year. Further investigation is on, he said.New Delhi:

In a tragic incident, a portion of over 50-year-old Majerhat bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkatas crowded Alipore area collapsed on Tuesday evening, leaving one dead and 19 others seriously injured, said police.

All the injured people, including two women, were admitted to Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital (SSKM) and Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) hospitals, the police added.

The Majerhat bridge that runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala caved in at around 4:45 pm during the rush hour.

Also Read | Research scholar, arrested for shouting fascist Modi government gets bail

On receiving the information, several teams of fire brigade, police and NDRF personnel rushed to the spot and rescued 25 people from the rubble. One minibus, four cars and a few motorbikes were crushed in the incident.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was in Darjeeling, said that expressed grief over the incident and ordered a probe in the incident. She had also announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,00 each to the injured.

A probe will be done by a committee headed by Chief Secretary Malay De to find out the cause of the collapse. Action will be taken against those whose negligence caused the accident. No one will be spared, PTI quoted Banerjee as saying.

Also Read | Then and now: BJP leaders on fall of rupee

Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the incident as deeply unfortunate and hoped for the speedy recovery of the injured.

I have come to see the rescue work. It is a big disaster. I heard that maintenance of the bridge is entrusted with the PWD and the railways. The matter required to be enquired, he told reporters.New Delhi:

Dowry scare may return to haunt Uttar Pradesh as a woman was killed allegedly by her husband and in-laws for want of dowry in Firozabads Fariha area, police said on Tuesday.

The woman identified as 18-year-old Poonam was poisoned to death on Monday allegedly by her husband and in-laws, police told PTI.

Also Read | Bangladesh: Woman TV journalist hacked to death

Following the complaint of the victims parents, an FIR has been registered against her husband Biri Singh and four others, police said.

A probe into the matter has been ordered and the body sent for postmortem, the police added.

(with inputs from agencies)London:

An influential representative body for the UKs leading universities on Tuesday called for a new post-study visa in an attempt to address a massive fall in international student numbers from countries like India.

The UK scrapped its post-study work visa in 2012, which had allowed international students from countries like India to stay in the UK and work for up to two years after graduation.

Prof Steve Smith, Chair of Universities UKs International Policy Network, said the dominant reason quoted by Indian students for choosing other overseas education destinations was the lack of an attractive post-study work option.

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Smith, who is the Vice-Chancellor of University of Exeter, warned that the UK is in danger of losing its position as one of the worlds leading destinations for international students unless a more welcoming message was sent out.

The issue of post-study has loomed large. We think the UK is missing out on students looking to study overseas, Smith said.

We think our proposal is a win-win; a win for students, universities and businesses across all regions of the UK, he said, adding that the timing of the proposal was crucial as Britain works out its post-Brexit positioning in the world.

The new temporary Global Graduate Talent Visa, which will allow qualified international students to work in a skilled job in the UK for a period of two years after graduation, was mooted as UK university chiefs gathered for their annual conference in Sheffield this week.

They highlighted the US and Canada offers a post-study option of three years, Australia four years and New Zealand three years as part of recent changes to its immigration policy.

Read More | UGC seeks proposals from institutions for extension of vocational courses

According to recent figures, the number of Indian students coming to the UK dropped from a peak of nearly 24,000 a year in 2010-11 to a low of around 9,000 a year in 2015-16. London Mayor Sadiq Khan also recently wrote to the UK Home Office calling for better post-study options to prevent this downward spiral.

We know this has been an active policy discussion even within government. We want to be ready with positive proposals for the government to make the UK an even more attractive destination for talented students and graduates, said Vivienne Stern, Director of Universities UK International.

Universities UK, with a membership of the countrys 136 leading universities, says its new visa proposal will involve all higher education institutions registered as Tier 4 sponsors in the country being able to sponsor their graduates to search for and gain work experience in the UK for up to two years.

This visa would not be a route to settlement in the country but provide a more flexible basis for students to seek work experience than currently permitted by the current Tier 2 visa, which involves restrictions on job level and salary and requires an employer sponsorship.

Read More | UAE announces first two astronauts to go to International Space Station

It would allow a wider range of employers in all parts of the UK to benefit from access to talented graduates from around the world, including small and medium employers who do not have Tier 2 sponsorship licences, usually due to the high costs and bureaucracy involved, Universities UK said.

The group said it believes its proposal is perfectly timed as the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is set to present its findings on the costs and benefits of international students to the UK government in coming weeks.

In reference to the UK governments claims of abuse of the post-study visa route in the past, Universities UK pointed to latest Home Office exit check data showing that 98 per cent of students on such a scheme had left on time.

The noise around large numbers overstaying is factually incorrect and the governments own data has shown that the level of abuse [of the visa system] is miniscule, which gives us the confidence to moot this new idea,? said Prof Smith.

The call comes as a new ComRes poll reveals increased support for international students and graduates in the UK, with nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of British adults surveyed saying that international students should be able to stay in the UK post-graduation for one year or more to gain work experience.

Read More | Ukraine launches joint military drills with NATO

Professor Janet Beer, President of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, said: ?This improved post-study visa would put us on a par with what is offered by countries such as the US, Canada and Australia.

As Brexit discussions continue, the UK needs an ambitious immigration policy that helps boost our regional and global competitiveness.

The new visa proposal, devised in consultation with business groups, follows UK Home Secretary Sajid Javids statement earlier this year to take ?a fresh look? at key parts of the UKs immigration policy.

Stephen Isherwood, Chief Executive at the Institute of Student Employers, said that allowing international students to work for a period post-study in the UK will help employers, large and small, to fill skills gaps.

As well as enabling growth, our universities will become more internationally competitive and it will mean that UK students can develop a global mindset too, he said.

Under current rules, international students from countries like India must find a job with a salary of at least GBP 20,800 with an employer holding a Tier 2 sponsor licence within four months of completing their course, or find sponsorship as an entrepreneur. PhD students are separately able to stay for up to 12 months following completion of their degree.

The new Global Graduate Talent Visa would give international graduates a longer period to search for a Tier 2 eligible role and allow UK-based employers to benefit from access to talented graduates, Universities UK said.

In 2011, under the UKs previous Tier 1 Post Study Work visa, the numbers of students transferring into work visas was 46,875. Following the 2012 changes, that dramatically fell in 2013 to just 6,238.

Alongside the new visa proposal, Universities UK said it will work with its members to support local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to hire international graduates under the existing Tier 2 visa route.London:

The sixth installment of Bruce Willis-fronted action blockbuster Die Hard has been officially titled McClane.

The name comes from Willis characters surname - McClane, a New York City and Los Angeles police detective who continually finds himself in the middle of difficult situations and is the only beacon of hope in crisis.

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed that this time the makers want the viewer to be invested in the protagonist even more.

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You can tell our intention by the fact that the title page we handed in (for the script) says, McClane. We want you to get invested in John McClane more than ever before, di Bonaventura told Empire magazine in an interview.

The filmmaker also confirmed what Willis previously said in 2015 about the next chapter, that the story will bounce back and forth between present-day McClane and his younger self.

I dont know how you do Die Hard without Bruce. The idea that hes not very significant in this movie is not accurate at all. We are gonna explore John McClane in his 20s. But just as prominent is the 60-year-old version, di Bonaventura said.

Read More | Aretha Franklin died without a will

Earlier, the new film was titled Die Hard: Year One, when Len Wiseman was in talks to direct.

The fifth film, A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) saw McClane heading to Russia to meet his son (Jai Courtney), who turned out to be an undercover operative for the CIA.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Slamming the Narendra Modi government over the arrest of 28-year-old Lois Sofia for allegedly shouting anti-BJP slogans, the Opposition Congress on Monday said that there was an unofficial Emergency in the country and urged the people of India to fight against the unalloyed fascism of the ruling regime.

Sofia, a research scholar in Canada was arrested on Monday for allegedly shouting "down with Modi, BJP-RSS fascist government" at Tuticorin airport on a flight in the presence of a Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan.

Condemning the students arrest, Congress national spokesperson Sanjay Jha tweeted, The official Emergency lasted 21 months. The unofficial Emergency is already 51 months old. And growing.

Also Read | Research scholar arrested for shouting fascist Modi government gets bail

In a series of tweets, Jha further said, Sophia versus Modi. It is symbolic of why the ordinary citizens of India need to rise to fight against unalloyed fascism of the current government.

The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is often accused of crushing the dissent in the country. Recently, the Supreme Court, while hearing the case of controversial arrests of five Left-leaning activists, had observed that "dissent is a safety valve for democracy. If you dont allow this safety valve, then the pressure cooker will burst."

Another Congress leader Manish Tewari, demanding the unconditional release of Sofia, compared the BJP leaders reaction with fascists and said the groundswell of dissent becoming a roar.

Also Read | Then and now: BJP leaders on fall of rupee

Lois Sofia hit a very raw nerve when she called a spade a spade. The TN BJP President reacted to dissent just as Fascists do by imprisoning those who oppose them. Groundswell of dissent becoming A roar. Condemn her arrest and demand her unconditional release, Tewari wrote on Twitter.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

India plans to build 100 new airports at an estimated cost of $60 billion in the next 10 to 15 years, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Tuesday. He said that these airports are to be constructed through public private partnership.

As many as 100 new airports would be built in the next 10 to 15 years for about $60 billion (about Rs 4.2 lakh crore), Prabhu told media. The government is also working on a cargo policy, he said.

Also Read | Delhi airport may get more traffic volume than London airport by 2020: Report

Indias aviation sector is one of the fastest-growing in the world and has recorded 50 months of double-digit traffic growth. According to IATA, India is expected to overtake Germany, Japan, Spain and the UK in the next 10 years to become the worlds third largest air passenger market.

(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Essential medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and medical devices will be made affordable and accessible to all in South-East Asia and beyond, as WHO member countries in the region pledged commitment on Tuesday.

Access to safe, effective and affordable medical products vital to prevent sufferings and impoverishment resulting from high out-of-pocket expenses on healthcare by families, especially the poor, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, said.

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Health ministers and officials of the 11 Member countries signed the Delhi Declaration on Tuesday at the Seventy-first Regional Committee Session of WHO South-East Asia Region in the capital. The declaration was signed with the commitment to improve access to essential medical products in view of the challenges in providing the right medical products at the right time to those in need.

Out-of-pocket healthcare spending on medical products has pushed 65 million people in the WHO South-East Asia Region into poverty, according to a WHO report. Hence, improving access to essential medicines is a WHO flagship priority programme in the Region since 2014.

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To overcome the challenges, the Delhi Declaration calls for:

Allocation of sufficient financial resources by countries, as part of overall health financing strategies

To reduce out-of-pocket payments of families on essential medicines

Strengthening national policies, regulation, supply chain management, and capacity to leverage intellectual property and trade for public health

To improve access to medicines and vaccines

Member countries are committed to develop an effective, transparent and participatory mechanism for regional price negotiation and pooled procurement to ensure accessibility and affordability of essential medical products for life threatening and rare diseases

To strengthen regulatory cooperation and collaboration to improve availability, quality and safety of essential medical products through the South-East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN)

Member countries agreed to leverage this strength to improve accessibility and affordability both within the Region and beyond.

To develop an essential medical products list, in particular essential diagnostics list, for improved patient care, affordability of quality tests, and greater capacity to diagnose diseases during outbreaks and strengthened capabilities of national laboratories.

Appropriate use of antibiotics; and innovation and investment in R&D including for neglected diseases, and affordable medical products.

Member countries agreed to ensure universal accessibility and affordability of essential medical products by 2030, as part of achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and the health related goals of SDG 2030 agenda.

The Regional Committee is held annually and is hosted by one of the 11 Member countries or the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

An Indian Air Force MiG-27 fighter jet, which took off from the IAF Jodhpur airbase, crashed in Rajasthans Banad while on a routine mission on Tuesday. The pilot was ejected safely, according to defence spokesperson Colonel Sombit Ghosh.

A court of inquiry has been set up to ascertain the cause of the crash, the Colonel said.

"A MiG-27 aircraft airborne from Jodhpur crashed during a routine mission today morning. The pilot ejected safely. A Court of Inquiry will investigate the cause of the incident," Ghosh was quoted as saying in PTI.

Also Read | Then and now: BJP leaders on fall of rupee

No loss of lives or property damage was reported in the crash, said Deputy Commissioner, Jodhpur, Amandeep Singh.

On hearing the news, the local police and army personnel rushed to the spot with medical help, as per reports. Fire tenders also rushed to the spot where the IAF plane crashed. Police have now cordoned off the area. The incident occurred in Dangyawas police station area, Singh said.

Meanwhile, the IAF investigating team also reached the spot.

Read More | Monsoon rains, floods claimed over 1,400 lives this year: Government

According to PTI, eyewitnesses said that they saw two fighter jets flying together, but one of them suddenly took a turn towards the open field and crashed near Devalia village in Banad area.

"Two fighter jets were flying together, but suddenly one of them changed its course and took a turn towards the open area and crashed. We saw the pilot ejecting and he parachuted in to the agriculture field... We believe the pilot turned the aircraft towards the field in order to avoid the crash in a populated area," Sunil Bishnoi, one of the eyewitnesses, said.

Another eyewitness, Omprakash, said that he saw smoke emanating from the aircraft before it crashed.

The IAFs MiG-27 crash comes after a series of crashes. On June 8, an IAFs Jaguar met with a minor accident as it developed a snag while landing. On June 5, Air Commodore Sanjay Chauhan breathed his last following a crash in the Mundra Taluk region of Gujarat.

India has stopped flying of its MiG 27ML squadrons, while two Jodhpur-based planes are still in services with the upgraded MiG-27.

Read More | Casting room was my training ground, says Stree actor

(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Nicosia:

President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday urged the youth not to get carried away by the instantness of technology, saying they must continue to work hard without the expectation of immediate reward.

President Kovind, who was in Cyprus on the first leg of his three-nation visit to Europe to continue Indias high-level engagements with European countries, delivered a lecture at the University of Cyprus on Youth, Technology and Ideas: Shaping the Contours of the 21st century.

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He unveiled the bust of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore at the University.

Technology has opened a whole new world of learning and has made it easier to accomplish tasks, he said.

You should, however, not get carried away by the instantness of technology. You must continue to work hard without the expectation of immediate reward, Kovind said.

The pursuit of excellence should be the key factor that should dominate the minds of future generations, he said.

I am in Cyprus for the first time and have been captivated by the warmth of the Cypriot people. Our two nations share very special ties.

As we move deeper towards the technology world, we must create open source platforms for communities and countries to access the fruits of science and technology. Access, equity and inclusion should remain key to developing and deploying technologies, the President said.

He said that digital classrooms have made learning more inclusive and interactive.

Also Read | India to build 100 new airports worth $60 billion

Students sitting across different continents engage in a classroom. The catchment area of ideas and cultures involved in education has grown manifold, he said.

Chemistry today is not being taught with just books but with sounds, visuals and digital experiments. E-books and education apps have acquired a new salience, he said.

We must dwell on what the Fourth Industrial Revolution promises. It is a force multiplier for development and growth. Yes, it will disrupt conventional jobs - but with advances in artificial intelligence, life-sciences and energy, many more opportunities would be created, Kovind said.

India has the third-largest scientific and technical manpower in the world with over 4,000 doctorate degrees awarded annually, he said.

The patents filed by Indian start-ups have gone up 15 times in 2017; from 61 in 2016 to 909, he said.

We are committed to sharing our technology platforms with those who need them. We are making our space technology available for rural development in Madagascar and bringing the fruits of telemedicine to many across the globe, Kovind said.

He said that a far greater challenge for youth would be how they manage climate change and the environmental stress.

For the present generation, this challenge amounts to dealing with variability in weather patterns, flash floods and forest fires, he said.

Also Read | Modi government on GDP high must take care of pitfalls ahead of polls

As we move towards a knowledge-based society, skilling and retraining will acquire center-stage of policy making and business development. In India, we have undertaken a massive programme to skill 150 million people over the next few years, he said

On Monday, India and Cyprus signed two agreements on combating money laundering and cooperation in the field of environment as President Kovind met his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades and held wide-ranging talks here.

Apart from Cyprus, Kovind will visit Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. This is his first overseas state visit in the second year of his presidency.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday accused the Congress of compromising national security for political gains and alleged that Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) was supporting ground for Naxalites during the UPA government.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi, BJPs firebrand spokesperson Sambit Patra also levelled a series of allegations against several Congress leaders, including Digvijaya Singh and Jairam Ramesh, saying that they romanticised the Naxalism.

National security is an issue of paramount importance and to play with national security only for political opportunism is something which the Congress has been doing so, Patra told reporters.

Also Read | On rising fuel prices, Congress gives it back to BJP - Bahut Hui Mahangai Ki Maar

Showing a letter allegedly written by Comrade Surendra to Comrade Prakash on September 25, the BJP leader claimed that Congress leader Digvijaya Singhs phone number was mentioned in it. He alleged that the letter revealed that several Congress leaders were willing to assist and fund the Naxals.

The National Advisory Council, the coterie of those who were closest to the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was the supporting ground for Naxalites, Patra said.

Suggested Read | Then and now: BJP leaders on fall of rupee

Patra also claimed that former union minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had written a letter to the Maharashtra Government to release Mahesh Raut, an activist who was arrested in for his Naxal links.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Day after Brazils National Museum in Rio de Janeiro suffered a massive fire, people voiced profound anger over the huge loss of the historically protected site and blamed the authorities of a lack of attention, said sources.

Similarly, Brazilian officials on Monday blamed years of government cutbacks, it said.

The museums destruction caused a social media outcry and demonstrators were gathered at the gates of the museum to form a human chain protesting against the budget cuts that they blame on the fire, said sources.

Also Read | Massive fire hit Brazils 200-year old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro

Its not enough just to cry, it is necessary that the federal government, which has resources, helps the museum to reconstruct its history, said museum director Alexandre Keller.

Roberto Antonio Gambine Moreira, the head of finance and planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro told AFP that the destruction as a loss to the whole world. We are not going to put up with this strangulation of public resources anymore.

This is a sign of the lack of investment, a lack of resources and the consequences that brings, said Moreira.

Read More | China's super hybrid rice output sets new world record

The museums collection included art and artifacts from Greco-Roman times and Egypt, as well as the oldest human fossil found within todays Brazilian borders, known as Luzia.

Luiza is a priceless loss for everyone interested in civilization, said Paulo Knauss, director of Brazils natural history museum.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Michel Temer described an inferno that gutted the treasured National Museum as a tragic loss of knowledge and heritage.

The fire, the cause of which remains unknown, broke out late Sunday destroying one of countrys most important scientific collections.

(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.More countries will be part of this years Manama Dialogue when compared to its previous editions, organisers revealed yesterday. The 14th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Regional Security Summit: The Manama Dialogue 2018 will be held from October 26 to 28.

The organisers have described the forum as a platform for some of the most powerful policymakers from the Middle East and beyond to find ways to address the regions most pressing challenges. IISS Middle East executive director Lieutenant General (Retired) Sir Thomas Beckett yesterday revealed further details of the event. We have a list of key delegates from last year who are returning this year.

There will be more participating countries we are also aiming for more officials from the ministerial level this time, he said. When asked how many countries are participating this time, he said that the final participators list has not been drafted. We are still close to two months away so we are expecting more participants to confirm as the time gets closer.

He said that the event will enable bilateral talks between governments A bilateral manager is provided to assist Ministers or key delegates from different governments to meet. The event is a concentrated opportunity for government officials to conduct bilateral engagements, he said.

The IISS has been hosted incredibly well by the Kingdom of Bahrain. We, of course, take pride in what we bring to the Kingdom. The Kingdoms convening power, its soft-power for bringing people in is very much an aspect for the Dialogues success. If it werent for the efforts and contributions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the support of His Majesty and the Crown prince, this would not be the forum it is.

I am happy to say that Bahrains contribution is significant. The forums first day will feature the opening ceremony and a televised plenary debate. The second days plenary sessions include US Policy in a Changing Middle East, Shifting Relationships and the Emerging Middle Eastern Order, Conflict and Diplomacy in the Middle East, Stabilization and Reconstruction in the Middle East and Preventing and Countering Transnational Threats.A 27-year-old Bahraini man will stand trial for trying to help a friend, who didnt have enough money to bring a maid, by buying a gun from him.

The Bahraini man revealed that he chose to buy the gun in a bid to support his friend, also Bahraini, financially.

The move got the two men in the dock in addition to a third Bahraini man. I was working with him (the second man), the 27-year-old said in his statement after he was arrested for possessing a weapon without a licence.The Bahrain Day will held in the city of Baja in Hungary on Wednesday. The Isa Cultural Centre will organise the event as part of its participation as a Guest of Honour at the Seven Hills International Film Festival (SHIFF).

Bahraini Maestro Waheed Al Khan will stage a concert as part of Bahrain Day, accompanied by Bahraini musicians and a renowned Hungarian orchestra to perform tunes of his album, Return, translating the values and memories inspired by the reality of co-existence in Bahraini society in the present and the past.Vienna : A kangaroo is on the loose and has been spotted in forests and meadows in Austria, police said yesterday. The animal -- not a native to the central European country -- has been seen numerous times since late last week in Hellmonsoedt district in Upper Austria state. Police, who have identified it to be a kangaroo from photos and videos they received, are trying to find out who the animal belongs to.

We have called all the zoos and kangaroo breeders around us, but no one is missing a kangaroo. We hope the owner will come forward, a Hellmonsoedt police official told AFP. It sounds unbelievable, but its true. Police cannot say what breed the kangaroo is but believe there is little to worry about for now -- the kangaroo is a shy animal so is unlikely to cause any damage, and its survival chances (in the wild) are perfect, the official said.Manama : Finastra, the UK-based financial software developer, has joined Bahrain FinTech Bay. Through the membership, Finastra will have access to key industry events and Bahrain FinTech Bays own events on Blockchain, InsurTech and RegTech, and collaboration opportunities with other partners and industry players. The company will also become a resident of Bahrain FinTech Bay to be at the heart of the ecosystem.

Wissam Khoury, Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa at Finastra said, Now couldnt be a better time to be part of this community as the Bahrain Fintech scene heats up. Working with Bahrain FinTech Bay will allow us to further collaborate with local Fintechs and banks, as the financial services landscape moves towards an open banking architecture. Our platform for open innovation, FusionFabric.cloud, is well positioned to help the ecosystem in its transition and will play a key role in doing so.

Khalid Saad, CEO of Bahrain FinTech Bay, said, We are delighted to welcome Finastra, a global Fintech force on board. Becoming a partner of Bahrain Fintech Bay will allow Finastra to increase collaboration with the local financial services ecosystem. With such a versatile community, it is crucial for us to have partners that share our vision of bringing all the actors together in one place to inspire innovation. Finastra and FusionFabric.cloud will play a key role in the ecosystem, enabling our Fintechs to collaborate, develop new applications at speed and low cost, and make these services easily accessible to banks and financial institutions in the region, and around the world.

Bahrain FinTech Bay was established earlier this year as part of a continued push in Bahrain to create the regions leading startup ecosystem. The hub currently counts over 50 partners, including banks, corporates, government bodies, universities and Fintechs.Manama : The Executive Committee of Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2018 held a meeting to discuss the preparations for the 9th edition to be held from October 7 to 8 under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak AlKhalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information & Communication Technology. The executive committee was chaired by Lulwa Sami Ebrahim, Acting Director of Communication and Marketing at iGA.

The committee consists of the Vice Chairman Ahmed Naeemi from Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance, Digital Transformation Specialist and Managing Partner in Intermid Abdulla Al Hamid, CEO of T-Linx Waleed Khalaf. The committee members also consists of iGA members; Policy and Research Consultant Dr. Nasser Mohamed Lori, Acting Director, Change Management & Business Process Reengineering Donia Faisal Sarhan, Acting Director, Government Systems Support and Maintenance Hesham Ebrahim Alhashemi and Head of Quality Assurance Salman Yousif Salman.

The panel has finalized preparations, including the coordination of hosting around 20 speakers from Bahrain and overseas, the supervision of the delegates registration, and promoting the Forum via various media channels in collaboration with special teams. The forum will present papers on the latest ICT developments.More than 450 participants are expected to take part and become familiar with the diversified experiences in IT and innovative programmes in the field.Many train services in western Japan will be cancelled on Tuesday due to Typhoon Jebi.

Shikoku Railway Company, also known as JR Shikoku, will cancel its services, except for some early morning trains.

West Japan Railway, or JR West, will cancel Shinkansen services between Shin-Osaka Station and Hiroshima Station from around 9 AM.

It plans to cancel all services in the Keihanshin area from around 10 AM.

In the northern parts of Kyoto and Hyogo Prefectures, the company plans to cancel services on part of the Fukuchiyama and San-in Lines, and all of the Maizuru and Bantan Lines from around 9 AM.

In Wakayama Prefecture and its nearby areas, the company will cancel some of the services on the Kisei and Wakayama Lines.

The company will cancel 246 limited express services.

Nankai Electric Railway plans to cancel all services from around noon.

Keihan Electric Railway will cancel services of the Keihan and Otsu lines from around noon.

Sanyo Electric Railway plans to cancel services of its main line and the Aboshi Line from around 10:30 AM.

Osaka Monorail plans to cancel services of its main line and the Saito Line from around noon.

Other railway companies in the Kansai region say they will make a decision depending on weather conditions.

Air traffic will be also affected.

As of 9 PM on Tuesday, airline companies decided to cancel 570 flights on Tuesday mainly in the Kansai region. They also say other flights may also be cancelled or delayed. - NHKA former member of House of Representative and Senatorial aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), honourable Ekperikpe Ekpo has insisted that Abak federal constituency must produce the next senator for Ikot Ekpene senatorial district in the forthcoming election.Ekpo who made the assertion Tuesday while addressing the people of Abak comprising Abak, Etim Ekpo, Ika, Ukanafun, and Oruk Anam local government areas at the Youth Development Center, Abak, urged the people not to vote any candidate that is not from the constituency in 2019.He lamented, Abak Federal constituency has been a victim of long years of marginalization. It is the only constituency in the country that has never produced a Senator after 58years. We must produce the next Senator come 2019. We must decide our fate ourselves. If we do not, no one will decide for us.In 2007, they said one governor is better than 50 Senators. How did that benefit Abak people? In 2011, they deceived us again. In 2015, they said it was compensation to Godswill Akpabio. 2019 is here and they want to deceive us again in the name of national interest. National interest is a deceptive gimmick, Abak federal constituency will not accept again. Oruk Anam/Ukanafun federal constituency have been represented thrice in the Senate, Ikot Ekpene/Essien Udim/Obot Akara federal constituency a record four times, Ini/Ikono federal constituency twice leaving Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika federal constituency as the only federal constituency in Nigeria that have not had a representative in the Senate for the past 58 yearsHe assured that his people were ready to support Abak local government area to produce the next House of Representative member in 2019 in the spirit of justice and fairplay, noting , I refused to go a second term for the House of Representatives for equity and rotational representation. Why should some people today be selfish? Never again should we bow down to unnecessary intimidationSpeaking, a former deputy Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and House of Representatives aspirant, Honourable Uwem Udoma urged the people of Abak federal constituency which consists of Abak/Ika/Etim not to support aspirants that just defected into the APC because they were seeking to secure the party ticket.No defector from PDP will get the APC House of Representatives ticket for this 2019 election. It is funny that some people who have been in the House of Representatives for two terms without anything to offer APC members in the federal constituency will now defect to the party and expect to be given the partys ticket while going on with consultation without even registering to have a party card, he noted.Similarly, erstwhile state Chairman of the APC and Chairman of Abak Redemption Movement, ARM, Dr Amadu Attai said,Never again shall we remain in slumber for people to come and take our right, never again. Quality representation brings about a better society and attracts development. We must be ready to send our best to represent us and protect our interestFormer Senate President David Mark has joined the presidential race, promising to fix the economy in two years.

Former Senate President David Mark has joined the presidential race, promising to fix the economy in two years.





Addressing officials of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he picked the presidential nomination form at the partys secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday, Mark said his military background is an added advantage.





He retired as a brigadier general in the Nigerian army.





Mark said judging by the number of people who have picked the PDP presidential nomination form, you can comfortably say that PDP is the choice part in the country.





Senate President Bukola Saraki; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto state; Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano state, are among the bigwigs who have picked PDP presidential form.





Anybody who has come here to collect the forms has a blueprint; the blueprint which we title 7:30 representing just two years, he said.





In two years, if given the opportunity, we will turn the economy of this country round, we will solve these security problems, we will bring Nigerians together. The level of distrust in the government today has never been experienced in the history of this country.





I have a very good military background and has been in politics since 1998. I think I have got the credentials to be able to do what I have promised my team.





Obviously there are priority areas and restructuring is one of them. I think the time has come to restructure this country.



The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has described the age and health of President Muhammadu Buhari as superb for gove...

Buhari

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has described the age and health of President Muhammadu Buhari as superb for governance.He said the two indices and experience of the President could not be found on those who were eyeing the presidential seat in the 2019 general elections.Ngige who spoke with journalists in Awka, Anambra State, said when Malaysia was in trouble politically and economically, it had to beckon on a 93-year-old, Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, to lead it as a prime minister.Reminded that Buhari seemed to be fatigued by age and ailments, Ngige said, That man (Buhari) you see there is healthier than 80 per cent of Nigerians.Im a medical doctor; I can tell you authoritatively that he is healthier than most people who see his health as an issue.He sits for over eight hours during our executive meetings. While some of us would be going for tea break to stretch our legs, Mr President would sit on his seat continuously, drinking only water.I can tell you authoritatively as a medical doctor of over three decades standing that Mr President is physically and mentally healthy. He is healthier than 80 per cent of Nigerians.Speaking on the allegations of marginalisation of the Igbo by the APC government, he said Ndigbo were the architect of their doom.He asked the Igbo to shun primordial sentiments and expand their political horizons by thinking positively and reaching out.He said the trouble with the Igbo was that they were always self-effacing.He said, Theres nothing that is being shared by the Buhari government that is not equitably done. Buhari has five flagship projects; Lagos-Ibadan to Ilorin Mambila Power Plants; Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway; Second Niger Bridge and East West roads.You can see how it was shared. So, how are you(Igbo) left out, why are you crying marginalisation, why are you crying wolf when there is none and it is this mentality that Im telling you people that you have to come out from.So, all Im saying in effect is that you (Igbo) must do political engineering; thats the Igbo of the South-East and the step to take forward is to support a Buhari presidency for 2019/2023 and vote for it with all their strengths. By so doing, they will not be left out in the power-sharing that will come thereafter like was done at this period.Uche Secondus, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that corrupt persons are mobilising and ganging up to i...

Uche Secondus, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that corrupt persons are mobilising and ganging up to install President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.





Speaking while inaugurating the partys campaign council for the September 22 governorship election in Osun state, Secondus said the APC has made itself a safe heaven for corrupt persons.





He said such persons are not only being granted relief but getting more protection.





The PDP leader said the worst form of corruption is rigging of election and buying of votes which the APC is perpetuating in our polity.





He said in Osun, the opposition party would not tolerate the charade that happened during the July governorship election in Ekiti state.





Enough is enough, PDP will not tolerate Osun being rigged like Ekiti, we have a popular candidate and the performance of the APC ruling government has been awful with months of salaries owned to workers, he said.





We are aware that the electoral commission that is supposed to operate as an unbiased umpire in the conduct of elections has suddenly made itself a parastatal of the federal government, conniving with APC and security agencies to exchange results.





Even security agencies whose allegiance should be to the constitution and people of Nigeria have allowed itself to behave as if they are operatives of the ruling APC.





We decided to set up this high powered committee to demonstrate the importance we attach to this election, all our Presidential aspirants and some state governors are members plus all other critical stakeholders from south-west and other parts of the country.





to stand on the commitment he made recently to two world leaders who visited the country. In his remark, Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is the chairman of the 85-member committee, charged Buharito stand on the commitment he made recently to two world leaders who visited the country.





Buhari had said he would conduct a free, fair and credible election.





Saraki said aside the popularity of the PDP candidate in Osun state, the people are yearning for change to return their state to the PDP.



The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday challenged the claim that the sum of N1.6bn linked to a former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan was a donation to the Anglican Communion of Otuoke Community, Bayelsa State.Counsel for the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, challenged the ex-presidential aide, Dr. Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, to show evidence that any part of the N1.6bn lodged in the Heritage Bank account of a firm, Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited, was transferred to the church.But replying, Dudafa said only his former principal, Jonathan, could offer an explanation on that.The EFCC is prosecuting Dudafa for an alleged fraud of N1.6bn.He was charged alongside a banker, Joseph Iwuejo, who the EFCC said was his (Dudafas) account officer with Heritage Bank.The defendants opened their defence on Monday after the court dismissed their applications for no-case submission.Dudafa had while being led in evidence by his lawyer on Monday, Mr. Gboyega Oyewole (SAN), contended that he was not guilty of any wrongdoing as alleged by the EFCC.He said the N1.6bn found in the account of Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited, which the EFCC linked to him, was not proceeds of fraud but part of the money donated to Jonathans church in Otuoke to build the St. Stephens Youth Development Centre, Otuoke, Bayelsa State.Dudafa said following a fundraiser organised in Lagos, the ex-President instructed him to follow up with Prince Arthur Eze, who pledged $10m (about N1.8bn).He said the ex-President asked him to look for someone in the private sector who could help to keep the $10m once Eze redeemed his pledge.Dudafa said, as a result, he got an ex-military man, Somprie Omiebi, who lodged the money in the Heritage Bank account of Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited.However, while being cross-examined on Tuesday by the EFCC lawyer, Oyedepo, Dudafa was presented with the statement of account of Avalon and was asked to point out if there was any money transferred from the account to the church.Responding, Dudafa said, From Exhibit B (the account statement), no fund was transferred to the Anglican Communion of Otuoke Community. I cant see it. It couldnt have been because only the former President could have given directive on what to do.Asked by Oyedepo to name the Bishop of the Anglican Communion of Otuoke Community, Dudafa said, I dont know; I only related with the former President.In the course of the cross-examination, Oyedepo led Dudafa to point out to the court from the statement of account that a sum of N30m was transferred on November 25, 2013, to The Jakes Fast Food and Restaurant, in which Dudafa had the highest share and often addressed himself as the chairman.The EFCC lawyer also showed Dudafa the statement of account of The Jakes Fast Food and Restaurant with the Guarantee Trust Bank, saying, It is correct that as of today, the funds that are in the account of The Jakes, paid by a Bureau De Change operator, Murtala Bashir, is in excess of N500m.The prosecutor also led Dudafa to point out that a total of N30m was transferred between December 21 and 22, 2015 to the law firm of Mr Habila Sylvanus, who is an uncle to Dudafa.The EFCC lawyer also led Dudafa to show the court that several millions of naira were transferred from the account of Avalon to a firm, Light Light, owned by one Engineer Brisebe, who helped Dudafa to build his house in Lagos.Dudafa, however, said he was not the one who managed Avalons account and he knew nothing about the payment to Light Light.The prosecutor also led Dudafa to point out that N40m was paid on November 11, 2015, to Joseph Iwuejo, who is standing trial along with Dudafa.Further proceedings in the case have been adjourned till Friday, September 7, 2018.Following the expiration of the continuous voters registration, CVR, by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State has appealed to the commission to extend the exercise to enable eligible voters register and partake in the 2019 general elections.Masari made the appeal when he inspected one of the registration centres in Katsina Local Government Area at the expiration of the two weeks extension deadline of the exercise.INEC had slated August 17 as deadline for the exercise, after which it extended the deadline by another two weeks that elapsed on August 31.The governor expressed fears that even with the two weeks registration extension deadline, many eligible voters may be denied the right to exercise their franchise during the general election.According to him, all the prospective voters I saw on the queue were young people.I think most of them are just turning 18 and I am impressed by this large turnout because it shows how serious people are to express their franchise during elections.But with the pace at which they are being registered, I doubt if INEC can cover the large crowd of people I see trooping to the registration centres. So I appeal to INEC to extend the deadline for the voter registration.However, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in the state, Alhaji Jibril Zarewa, said: We assure that it will not close until everybody is registered. We are not going to send anybody away.Now, the suspension of CVR is not stoppage of the process. It is to allow for the processing of the voters cards.The Governor-Elect of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has raised alarm over what he called clandestine moves by outgoing Governor of Ekiti ...

The Governor-Elect of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has raised alarm over what he called clandestine moves by outgoing Governor of Ekiti State, Peter Ayodele Fayose to dispose off some valuable government properties.





He stated that Fayose was engaging in shady arrangements for his personals gains and to the detriment of the people.





Fayemi spoke in a statement issued on Monday by his spokesman, Yinka Oyebode.





The former minister sounded warning to prospective buyers not to go into any business with the current administration.





Fayemi listed some of the properties allegedly put up for sale as: A large expanse of land between Ondo State Civil Service Commission and Elan Club, in front of Government Printing Press, Alagbaka, Akure.





Erinfun Livestock Development Center, covering 600 hectares of land along Federal Polytechnic Road, Ado-Ekiti and the new Oja Oba Market.



Senator Lanre Tejuoso has finally revealed how President Muhammadu Buhari advised him to remain with APC and not quit along with other sen...

Senator Lanre Tejuoso has finally revealed how President Muhammadu Buhari advised him to remain with APC and not quit along with other senators.





The Senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial District, who made this known to reporters in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, while declaring his intention to re-contest for the seat, maintained that he was still a member of the party.





He declared that he would not leave the APC provided that President Muhammadu Buhari also remained with the party.





He noted that the Presidents action and call were a great honour done to him.





The medical doctor  turned politician recalled that President Buhari asked him what he (the Senator) wants him to tell the Senators monarch father, Osile of Oke-Ona, Oba Adedapo Tejuoso, who is a close friend of the President, if his son leaves APC.





He disclosed that what happened was just a mere misunderstanding between him and the party at the local level, which, he said, had since been resolved.





I cannot leave APC. I will only leave if President Buhari leaves. When the incident happened, Mr. President called me and told me he wants me back in the party. What happened is just a misunderstanding in the local and it has been resolved.





You know Ogun state is known in Nigeria to be the first in most things. It has been established that for democracy to thrive and to catch up with that of the developed nations, direct primaries is the answer and since Ogun state is always the first I am sure my governor will surely support it because he always want the best for the state.





I am sure he will lead and others will follow and we are going to do direct primaries by Gods grace in Ogun state and I am sure my governor will agree.





So that everybody in the party can have their say and choose whoever they want. Anybody who offers himself for election let the people agree that you are competent enough. So let everybody vote.





It shouldnt be a scenario of where few people will just be gathered somewhere and somebody will then tell them what to do. We want a change and that is what our party is preaching.





We want direct primaries; we dont want indirect primaries where some people will owe some people because they are the one who help them achieve the success they have achieved.



Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, on Tuesday agreed finally to answer the summon Police issued him to appear before it at its headquarters.Disclosing this via his Facebook handle, the frontline critic of the President Muhamadu Buhari led administration prayed God to be with him as he sojourns to the place.I will report to the Inspector General of Polices office at Force Headquarters in Abuja at 12.00 noon today in response to the invitation that they sent to me last week. The invitation indicated that they want to question me about one of my essays. The Lord is with us!, he said.Recall that Fani-Kayode had prayed court to quash and declare as illegal, a summon Police issued him to appear at its headquarters to be interrogated over allegations bordering on conspiracy, criminal defamation, inciting publication, injurious falsehood and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.Vanguard had reported that he equally prayed the court to declare that the said letter of invitation by the police was unlawful, unjustifiable, illegal and unconstitutional.Fani-Kayode 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.However, it seems that what he called unconstitutional was on Tuesday turned constitutional as he agreed to storm the force headquarters to respond to their questions.After moving to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Emmanuel Uduaghan says he will liberate the people of Delta state from the Peoples De...

After moving to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Emmanuel Uduaghan says he will liberate the people of Delta state from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).





Uduaghan likened himself to the biblical Moses who was charged with liberating the Israelites from Egypt.





The former governor said Delta state must not be in the opposition camp after the 2019 elections.





Uduaghan, a Delta South APC senatorial hopeful, made the comments on Monday at Olomoro, Isoko south, where he paid a condolence visit to Lucy Esigie, a chieftain of the APC.





He said: Moses grew up in the palace where everything was comfortable for him but the Lord told him that his people were suffering.





He charged Moses to leave the palace so as to liberate them.





I have answered the call to return to active politics to liberate and unite our people who have been deeply polarised by the leadership of the PDP.





I have come for APC to take over and I am leading the Take Over Squad.





When Uduaghan defected from the PDP last week, he described himself as John the Baptist to Deltans.





Explaining the connotation, he said: They have been trying to deconstruct the meaning of John the Baptist that I used in my defection statement.





They are breaking their heads over it and wondering who and who will Uduaghan take to the APC.





Well, my new role as John the Baptist would be to mobilise virtually every PDP member, not just in Delta State but also in the Niger Delta to the progressives fold.





There are some people that we will not allow to cross over. They know themselves.





The former governor urged the Delta APC leadership to prepare for a battle, saying it would not be easy but victory is certain.



Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to stop this continuous prevarication, this approbation and r...

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to stop this continuous prevarication, this approbation and reprobation and stick to whether he is in support of restructuring or not.

The two men have exchanged a series of statements over their understanding of the concept of restructuring.





While Abubakar accused Osinbajo of lacking appreciation of the core tenets of the concept, the vice-president said Abubakars concept of restructuring is understandably vague.





In his latest response, Abubakar said the vice-presidents description of his understanding of restructuring as vague is unfortunate.





He said while Osinbajo could change his stance on the call for restructuring, he should not use one finger to hide behind semantics.





According to the former number two citizen, true progressives know that Nigeria needs to be restructured and restructured soon.





My advice to the Vice President is that he should choose whether he is for restructuring or whether he is against it and stick to his choice. This continuous prevarication, this approbation and reprobation, helps no one, least of all true progressives who know that Nigeria needs to be restructured and restructured soon, Abubakar said.





For the Vice President to say Alhaji Atikus concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition, is most unfortunate.





I am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be described as vague. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it would be the idea of geographic restructuring whose meaning is hanging in the air.





Read the full statement below





My attention has been drawn to a letter written in response to an essay on restructuring authored by me.





Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against geographic restructuring.





I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any term like geographic restructuring. It is a strange concept, not only because it is not what the restructuring debate is all about, but also because the words of the Vice President, which prompted my response were clear, unambiguous and unequivocal.





Mr. Osinbajo said, the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring. That I disagree with and so do many other Nigerians. If the Vice President has changed his stance, I welcome it, but we should not use one finger to hide behind semantics.





For the Vice President to say Alhaji Atikus concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition, is most unfortunate.





July 2017, respectively), I gave a very clear and concise ideas about administrative, political and economic restructuring as follows: I have been very clear, detailed, and unambiguous about my ideas for restructuring. At several occasions, including, but not limited to my speeches at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (made in April this year andJuly 2017, respectively), I gave a very clear and concise ideas about administrative, political and economic restructuring as follows:





Devolution of powers and resources to the states. Devolution of powers and resources to the states.





Matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them grow their internally generated revenue position. Matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them grow their internally generated revenue position.





The privatisation of unviable federal Government-owned assets. The privatisation of unviable federal Government-owned assets.





A truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply. A truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply.





Replacing state of origin with state of residence, and Replacing state of origin with state of residence, and





Passing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business with minimal governmental interference. Passing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business with minimal governmental interference.





I am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be described as vague. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it would be the idea of geographic restructuring whose meaning is hanging in the air.





Be that as it may, in his letter, Vice President Osinbajo then jumps from the topic of restructuring and goes on to say:





Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.





While what Professor Osinbajo says may be true or false, I must say that his dovetailing into the area of the economy does not explain certain facts such as the fact that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2017 that Nigeria lost 7.9 million jobs in the 21 month period under review.





If the Vice President cannot see that losing 7.9 million jobs in 21 months while creating 500,000 jobs is a deficit, then I do not know what to say to the honourable professor.





Professor Osinbajo also harps on prudence in public finance, but he fails to show the wisdom in sharing out $322 million of Abacha funds to the poor only to take a loan of $328 million from the Chinese the very next month. Many Nigerians, myself included, see this as imprudence.





Finally, while the Vice President is not exactly correct when he says In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigerias history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, let us for the sake of argument say that he is right.





My response to Vice President Osinbajo is that while I was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2006, Nigerias Economic Management Team, of which I was a prominent member, paid off Nigerias entire foreign debt of $30 billion, at a time when we were earning one third of what the Buhari administration is currently earning from oil. So such arguments are puerile at best.



The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has formally petitioned German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister, Theresa May, over what it termed growing impunity and acts of oppression by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.The party, in a letter signed by its national chairman, Uche Secondus and made available to journalists on Tuesday also accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led government of using anti-corruption agencies to harass and intimidate opposition figures, ahead of the 2019 general elections.The letter read: The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, under this administration, has metamorphosed into a draconian agency, showing scant regard for the rule of law and respect for human rights. The commission has turned the process of investigation into a media event to embarrass and tarnish the image of key opposition figures and sub-national governments of the federation perceived to be averse to the whims and electoral interest of the ruling party.For instance, in flagrant disregard of the law, the EFCC suspended the operation of statutory bank accounts belonging to PDP-controlled State Governments of Akwa lbom, Benue and Rivers states.It might interest you to know that a clear reading of todays political reality in our country shows a resolute desire by majority of Nigerians to vote out the Buhari administration in 2019, leading to the mass rallying on the platform of our party as the major opposition party; hence the desperate resort by government to muzzle and emasculate opposition in Nigeria ahead of the election. This includes the use of the EFCC to harass and attempt to force aspirants, particularly Presidential aspirants out of the race and reduce their capacity to raise funds through unending investigations and harassment of (potential) donors.Contrary to the anti-corruption promises made to the Nigerian people, associates of the President and his party, the APC, who have been accused and even indicted of corruption, are walking the streets free while opposition members are hounded.The EFCC has lost so much focus that when they are not chasing the Presidents opponents; they are shaking down legitimate businessmen like a mafia group. The Acting Chairman of the EFCC, who has not been confirmed by the National Assembly (a requirement of the law), goes about wearing a pinup of the Presidents re-election campaign, as if he is a volunteer in the Presidents campaign. While the PDP is not against any genuine effort against corruption, we totally reject government underhand method of hiding under a phony anti-corruption fight to unleash or attempt to decapitate the opposition ahead of the elections.The party also reminded the leaders of some of the strides recorded during its 16 years in power, saying, As you may have learnt, between 1999 and 2015, our party was in government, and tasked with the historic burden of restoring democracy and its tenets of good governance and rule of law; strengthened national cohesion and unity among our citizens, while reversing over a decade-long economic decline and stagnation.Above all, the PDP integrated Nigerias ethnic groups and created a free atmosphere for the opposition and media to operate unhindered. The Freedom Of Information Act remains a testimony to PDPs undying belief in a free and democratic Nigeria.On all counts, the PDP discharged its historic duty to global approbation. We released Nigeria from London and Paris Club debt, conducted four elections and grew our democratic practice leading to the first victory of an opposition party in Nigerias history.We liberalized the economy, enhanced best practices in all sectors of government businesses and set up the infrastructure for fighting corruption through the establishment of the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC).Sadly, the unfettered freedom and respect for human dignity entrenched by our party has been eroded in the last three years of the current administration.The recent outburst by President Buhari that he will jail more looters, created national outrage and concern about the role of the judiciary and respect Of our institutions. Also, his recent declaration, at an event of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), that rule of law will take second stage on issues involving alleged threat to national security, raises fresh concern about this administrations attitude and respect for constitutional rule, it added.The two leaders were in the country recently for bilateral talks with President Buhari on multiple levels of cooperation.Former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has again replied Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo for faulting his stance on restructuring, saying that restructuring is not an option but a necessity.In a statement disclosed to PremiumTimes, Atiku queried Osinbajo to choose if he is for restructuring or against it and noted that because Osinbajo was faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created.Recall that Osinbajo had said that Atikus concept and stance on restructuring was ambiguous, unclear and failed to include the elephant in the room-Corruption.Osinbajo equally accused Atiku of using the word restructuring which he is not conversant with to score cheap political points.His words, I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer to Nigerias socio economic circumstances. That would only result in greater administrative costs. But there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscal Federalism and good governanceAlhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room  corruption. And how grand corruption, fueled by a rentier economic structure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favorable concessions to enrich themselves. This was a main part of my presentations the Minnesota Town Hall meeting, part of his statement read.However, reacting barely 7 hours that the vice president reveled his stance, Atiku argued below:Restructuring Is a Necessity, Not an OptionBy Atiku AbubakarMy attention has been drawn to a letter written to Premium Times in response to an essay on restructuring authored by me.Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against geographic restructuring.I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any term like geographic restructuring. It is a strange concept, not only because it is not what the restructuring debate is all about, but also because the words of the Vice President, which prompted my response where clear, unambiguous and unequivocal.Mr. Osinbajo said, the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring. That I disagree with and so do many other Nigerians. If the Vice President has changed his stance, I welcome it, but we should not use one finger to hide behind semantics.For the Vice President to say Alhaji Atikus concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition, is most unfortunate.I have been very clear, detailed, and unambiguous about my ideas for restructuring. At several occasions, including, but not limited to my speeches at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (made in April this year and July 2017, respectively), I gave very clear and concise ideas about restructuring including:Devolution of powers and resources to the states.Matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them grow their internally generated revenue position.The privatisation of unviable federal Government-owned assets.A truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply.Replacing state of origin with state of residence, andPassing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business with minimal governmental interference.I am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be described as vague. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it would be the idea of geographic restructuring whose meaning is hanging in the air.Be that as it may, in his letter, Vice President Osinbajo then jumps from the topic of restructuring and goes on to say:Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.While what Professor Osinbajo says may be true or false, I must say that his dovetailing into the area of the economy does not explain certain facts such as the fact that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2017 that Nigeria lost 7.9 million jobs in the 21 month period under review.If the Vice President cannot see that losing 7.9 million jobs in 21 months while creating 500,000 jobs is a deficit, then I do not know what to say to the honourable professor.Professor Osinbajo also harps on prudence in public finance, but he fails to show the wisdom in sharing out $322 million of Abacha funds to the poor only to take a loan of $328 million from the Chinese the very next month. Many Nigerians, myself included, see this as imprudence.Finally, while the Vice President is not exactly correct when he says In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigerias history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, let us for the sake of argument say that he is right.My response to Vice President Osinbajo is that while I was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2006, Nigerias Economic Management Team, of which I was a prominent member, paid off Nigerias entire foreign debt of $30 billion, at a time when we were earning one third of what the Buhari administration is currently earning from oil. So such arguments are puerile at best.My advice to the Vice President is that he should choose whether he is for restructuring or whether he is against it and stick to his choice. This continuous prevarication, this approbation and reprobation, helps no one, least of all true progressives who know that Nigeria needs to be restructured and restructured soon.Atiku Abubakar, Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007 is a presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party.Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen, yesterday, described the rule of law as an essential element in any democratic society, maintaining that justice could not be effectively delivered when the supremacy of law was not respected.Justice Onnoghen spoke at a national workshop for Chief Registrars, Deputy Chief Registrars, Directors and Secretaries of Judicial Service Commissions/Committee, held at National Judicial Institute, NJI, in Abuja.While fielding questions from some of the participants, the CJN said he had on various occasions in the past, harped on the necessity of allowing the rule of law to prevail in the country.He said: I have said it repeatedly that we should let the law prevail in every aspect of our lives. It is only then that justice will flow down.When I was sworn in as the acting CJN then, I was asked to make a speech even though I did not prepare for it. On that occasion, I told them, members of the executives were there, including Mr. President. I told them that rule of law must be respected.It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had in an address he presented at the opening ceremony of the Annual General Conference of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, declared that he would continue to place national security and interest above the rule of law.President Buhari maintained that individual rights of alleged offenders would not be spared when national security and public interest were threatened.Meanwhile, the CJN said the workshop was part of measures to reinvigorate the judiciary to be able to administer justice without fear or favour.He said: The theme of this workshop, Applying Best Practices in Court Administration, is deliberate. It captures our efforts in ensuring better justice delivery in Nigeria, which has become imperative especially if justice is viewed within the context of service delivery. It also brings to focus the present challenges in court administration.The theme of this workshop underscores the fact that the public perception of the judiciary is largely determined by how we apply best practices in the business of the court.Thus, when the top echelons of the judiciary are properly trained, fully equipped and highly conscientious, then our judiciary will function optimally and further deepen public confidence in our ability to administer justice without fear or favour, affection or ill will.In her speech, the Administrator of the NJI, Justice R. P. I. Bozimo, said the judiciary could only mature when it embarks on positive innovation in the discharge of its statutory responsibilities.As court administrators, it is important to note that effective court administration requires not only a strong court management team, but also people of exemplary character.You must be fair, transparent and diligent in carrying out your duties. You are to ensure your staff respect all court users, be punctual to work and be of good conduct.Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has described the astronomical rise in the nations Foreign debt portfolio under the present administration as worrisome with a call on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop mortgaging the future of Nigerians.Frank who made the declaration in a statement in Abuja also pleaded with the Chinese and other foreign governments to be wary of granting loans to the present administration.He stated that despite over 100 per cent rise in the nations external debt under the Buhari administration, there is little or nothing on ground  in terms of concrete economic, social and infrastructural development to justify the huge debt already incurred by Buhari.The former APC chieftain said that the goal of Buhari is to return the country to pre-1999 debt level which ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo fought hard to cancel.If something is not done urgently to stop these huge loans being amassed by Buhari,, the countrys future will be in jeopardy and our childrens children will certainly turn slaves to our creditors. Unfortunately this is the kind of future that Buhari is preparing for Nigerians  both living and yet unborn, Frank stated.He thanked the Chinese Government for recently signing a $328million ICT pact with Buhari but regretted that the loans they have released to the country in the last three years are not being utilized for the purposes they were meant.Nigerians only hear of loans that the present administration has incurred in the last three years, but there is nothing on ground to show that such amounts have come into the Federal coffers for development, he stated.Frank wondered how the nations external debt profile skyrocketed from $10billion in 2015, to $22.08bn as of June 30 this year  representing a whooping 114.05 per cent, according to statistics from the Debt Management Office (DMO).He lamented that the nations local debt also currently stands at N12.15trillion.He said: Nigerians have not seen the proposed dividends accruable from these loans, otherwise, Nigeria would not have emerged the poverty capital of the world with over 87 million people living in extreme poverty  according to a report by the Brookings Institution on the World Poverty Clock recently.He urged the National Assembly to stop approving foreign loan requests by Buhari while calling on the Chinese and other world governments and international financial Institutions to desist from granting loans to the Buharis administration.The world ought to know that Buhari is on his way out as the 2019 election approaches. Therefore any loan agreement between Buhari and any entity at this point would be repaid by him in person and not the succeeding government, he stated.He called on the National Assembly to probe where and how the over $11billion external loans granted to Buharis administration in the last three years have been or are being utilized.This is not the way Buhari met Nigeria and he must not be allowed to worsen the economic condition of the country further, having failed to improve it. The National Assembly owes the country a duty to stop approving incessant foreign loan requests by Buhari.The world also owes Nigeria a duty to stop granting these loans because they are not being utilized for the welfare of the people, he stated.Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday replied the former Vice President and Presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, saying that his argument on restructuring was ambiguous, unclear and has mixed up with good governance and diversification of the economy.Osinbajo who disclosed this in a letter he sent to journalists, averred that Atiku seeks to score cheap political points by bringing up restructuring concept he is not fully conversant with.Faulting Atikus position Osinbajo said, I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer to Nigerias socio-economic circumstances. That would only result in greater administrative costs. But there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscal Federalism and good governance, part of his statement read.He further argued that Nigeria needs good governance, honest management of public resources, deeper fiscal Federalism, a clear vision for development and not geographical restructuring as postulated by Atiku.Read the full statement below:Kindly permit me a response to a piece in your publication, titled Osinbajo got it wrong on Restructuring, written, we are told, by my illustrious predecessor in office, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.First, let me say that I really would have expected Alhaji Abubakar to at least get the full text of my comments before his public refutal of my views.But I understand; we are in that season where everything is seen as fair game! He quoted me as saying that the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographic re-structuring.Yes, I said so.As the quote shows, I rejected the notion that geographical restructuring was a solution to our national problems. Geographical restructuring is either taking us back to regional governments or increasing the number of States that make up the Nigerian federation.As we all may recall, the 2014 National Conference actually recommended the creation of 18 more States. And I argued that, with several States struggling or unable to pay salaries, any further tinkering with our geographical structure would not benefit us.We should rather ask ourselves why the States are underperforming, revenue and development wise. I gave the example of the Western Region (comprising even more than what is now known as the South West Zone), where, without oil money, and using capitation tax and revenues from agriculture and mining, the government-funded free education for over 800,000 pupils in 1955, built several roads, farm settlements, industrial estates, the first TV station in Africa, and the tallest building in Nigeria, while still giving up fifty percent of its earnings from mining and minerals for allocation to the Federal Government and other regions.I then argued that what we required now was not geographical restructuring but good governance, honest management of public resources, deeper fiscal Federalism, and a clear vision for development.On the issue of deeper fiscal Federalism or restructuring, I explained how the then Lagos State Government, led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, decided to fight for greater autonomy of States.As Attorney-General at the time, it was my duty and privilege to lead the legal team against the then Federal government, in our arguments at the Supreme Court. I am sure that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would remember these cases on greater autonomy for States that I cite below, as he was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the time.At the Supreme Court, we won several landmark decisions on restructuring Nigeria through deeper fiscal federalism, some of which our late converts to the concept, now wish to score political points on.It was our counter-claims alongside those of other littoral States, that first addressed so comprehensively the issue of resource control. We agreed with the oil producing States that they had a right to control their resources. We argued, though unsuccessfully, that the Ports of Lagos were also a resource, which should enable Lagos State, in the worst case, to be paid the derivation percentage for proceeds of its natural resources. Years later, we also filed an action at the Supreme Court arguing that the Value Added Tax, being a consumption tax, should exclusively belong to the States.On the issue of who, between the Federal and State governments, should have authority to grant building permits and other development control permits, the Supreme Court, by a slim majority, ruled in our favour. It held that, even with respect to federal land, States had exclusive authority to grant building or other developments control permits.In 2004, we created 37 new local governments in Lagos State. We believed that we had a Constitutional right to do so and that in any event, a State should have a right to create its own administrative units. Several other States joined us and created theirs.The Federal governments response was to seize the funds meant for our local governments, thus strangulating States like Lagos, which had created new local governments. We challenged this at the Supreme Court. The court held that the President had no right under the Constitution to withhold or seize funds meant for the States. The allocations were not a gift of the Federal Government to the States. They were the Constitutional right of the States and local governments.The court also agreed that States had a Constitutional right to create local governments, pursuant to section 8 of the Constitution, but that the creation remained inchoate until the National Assembly, by resolution, amended the existing list of local governments to capture the newly created LGs.In response, we created by State Law, Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), to accommodate the newly created Local Government Councils until such a time as the National Assembly would complete the process. But the Lagos State Government took up the challenge to re-engineer its revenue service, making it autonomous. With innovative management, tax collection in Lagos became more efficient, and tax revenues continued to grow geometrically. Today, the State earns more IGR than 30 States of Nigeria put together!Further, we contested the attempts of the then Federal Government to create supervisory authority over the Finances of Local Governments by the signing into law of the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation to Local Governments Act, 2005. The Supreme Court also ruled in our favour, striking down many provisions of the law that sought to give the Federal government control over local government funding.I have been an advocate, both in court and outside, of fiscal Federalism and stronger State Governments. I have argued in favour of State Police, for the simple reason that policing is a local function.You simply cannot effectively police Nigeria from Abuja. Only recently, in my speech at the Anniversary of the Lagos State House of Assembly, I made the point that stronger, more autonomous States would more efficiently eradicate poverty. So I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer to Nigerias socio economic circumstances. That would only result in greater administrative costs. But there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscal Federalism and good governance.Alhaji Atikus concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition. He says it means a cultural revolution. Of course, he does not bother to unravel this concept. He says we need a structure that gives everyone an opportunity to work, a private sector driven economy. Yes, I agree. These are critical pillars of our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), including our Ease of Doing Business Programme.If, however, this is what he describes as restructuring, then it is clear that he has mixed up all the issues of good governance and diversification of the economy with the argument on restructuring.Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.Surprisingly, Alhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room  corruption. And how grand corruption, fueled by a rentier economic structure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favorable concessions to enrich themselves. This was a main part of my presentations the Minnesota Town Hall meeting.In arguing for good governance, I made the point that our greatest problem was corruption. I pointed out that grand corruption, namely the unbelievable looting of the treasury by simply making huge cash withdrawals in local and foreign currency, was the first travesty that President Buhari stopped.I showed the OPEC figures from oil revenues since 1990. In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigerias history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, less than 1/3 of what Jonathan Administration earned at the same period in that administrations life.Despite earning so much less, we are still able to invest more in infrastructure than any government in Nigerias history. The difference is good governance, and fiscal prudence.In the final analysis, restructuring in whatever shape or form, will not mean much if our political leaders see public resources as an extension of their bank accounts. This, I believe, is the real issue.Beef Buzz News

Beef, It's Whats for Dinner Revitalization Going Well- Beef Industry to Build on Rollout with Chuck the Beef Bot

Over the past year or so, Alisa Harrison, senior vice president for global marketing for the National Cattlemens Beef Association, has been a key player in the launch of the beef industrys digital marketing efforts, a new campaign focused on revitalizing the long-standing Beef. Its Whats for Dinner brand. She spoke recently with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays about the campaign and some of the new components being incorporated to better reach consumers with relevant information where, when and how they want it.





We launched the Beef. Its Whats for Dinner campaign last October and its been all digital because everything were doing today is digital. Not just the older millennial parent but all of us are so connected to our devices, Harrison said. Weve experimented with different kinds of platforms, but were advertising on some of the popular shows using Hulu because thats how millennials are watching television these days. And, then we have evolved into using some of the digital reality technology thats out there.





Earlier this summer, Harrison says the campaign launched its virtual reality component. By wearing a pair of goggles, consumers can take a virtual tour of a real farm or ranch and interact with an actual producer to learn about beef production and the people behind it. Harrison says this kind of engagement has been very effective in building consumer trust in beef and the beef industry. In addition, other innovations have been in the works as well. For instance, in the coming year, Harrison says the campaign will roll out the industrys very own bot, a virtual representative of the beef industry designed to connect, educate and serve consumers much like iPhones Siri or Amazons Alexa, powered by artificial intelligence. This bot has affectionately been named Chuck.





Chuck is an extension of the Beef. Its Whats for Dinner brand and it going to be kind of a centerpiece of our program in our next fiscal year. We created Chuck to help consumers learn how to cook beef and feed up new recipes, she said. That can be done through either voice, our website our through your smartphone.





Listen to Harrison speak more about the Beef. Its Whats for Dinner digital campaign and how they are working to better reach consumers, on todays Beef Buzz.





The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today. Today's edition is a special encore presentation.













Ron Hays Beef Buzzes With Alisa Harrision of NCBA on Beef's Digital Marketing Efforts

WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady NSI

Beef News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.Each December, Karl Lagerfeld dedicates Chanel's pre-fall collection to displaying the capabilities of Paris' storied couture workshops. Handwork by skilled craftspeople in ateliers (many of which have been brought under the Chanel umbrella since 1985) including embroidery by Maison Montex, shoes by Massaro, pleating by Maison Lagnon, are front and center at the destination runway show.

Last season, Lagerfeld returned to his hometown with a show in Hamburg, Germany's imposing Elbphilharmonie concert hall. This December, the show will come stateside, paying homage to Gabrielle Chanel's first visit to New York in 1931. Chanel shares a special bond with New York City as its retailers were the first to carry Gabrielle Chanel's hats starting in 1912 when she began working as a milliner.

While the location is still under wraps, Chanel's Pre-Fall 2006 Metiers d'art collection staged in the brand's 57th street boutique and its 2006 Cruise collection presented in Manhattan's Grand Central Station are reminders of the 109-year-old label's grand runway statements in the city. We anticipate that this December will be no different.

Image via GettyIt's being reported today that a worker is dead and two injured after toxic gas leaked at the Samsung Electronics plant in Giheung, south of Seoul, according to the local police at the site.

The accident happened at 3:40 p.m. in a section of the first basement packed with fire extinguishing equipment. Leaked Co2 from the equipment is said to have caused the accident.

A worker, 24, surnamed Lee, was found dead and two others were unconscious when rescue workers reached the scene. The dead and injured workers were from an outside contractor and not on Samsung's payroll, according to reports.

The injured workers were taken to hospital, but their condition was not immediately known.

The equipment is designed to put out fires by emitting carbon dioxide, which lowers the level of oxygen in a room and deprives the fire of the oxygen it needs to continue burning. Samsung believes a carbon dioxide leak occurred while the workers were inspecting the equipment.

Samsung expressed regret as an investigation has begun.





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.New, on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:

Da and Angelique Tarr: The Power of Faith: Stories of the Saints in the DR Congo, Part 1

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28 August 2018: President Nelson to Visit the Caribbean Area: Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve and his wife Ruth, will accompany him

2 September 2018: President Nelson Encourages Hurricane Survivors in Caribbean: Elder and Sister Renlund join visit to Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Im in awe of (among many other things) the sheer adventurousness of this remarkable man, who will mark his 94th birthday this coming Sunday, 9 September 2018. He delivered his remarks in Spanish. (He didnt serve a Spanish-speaking mission; he just wanted the Saints to hear and understand him in their native language.)

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President Oaks Addresses Mental Illness, Church History and LGBT Issues: Talk given to young married Latter-day Saints in Santa Monica, California

***

I close with a passage from a famous essay on Home Literature that was first delivered as a speech by Bishop Orson F. Whitney as a speech at the Y.M.M.I.A. Conference of 3 June 1888 and that was subsequently published in The Contributor for July 1888. Bishop Whitney was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1906, and served in that capacity until his death in 1931:

Above all things, we must be original. The Holy Ghost is the genius of Mormon literature. Not Jupiter, nor Mars, Minerva, nor Mercury. No fabled gods and goddesses; no Mount Olympus; no sisters nine, no blue-eyed maid of heaven; no invoking of mythical muses that did never yet one mortal song inspire. No pouring of new wine into old bottles. No patterning after the dead forms of antiquity. Our literature must live and breathe for itself. Our mission is diverse from all others; our literature must also be. The odes of Anacreon, the satires of Horace and Juvenal, the epics of Homer, Virgil, Dante and Milton; the sublime tragedies of Shakspeare [sic]; these are all excellent, all well enough in their way; but we must not attempt to copy them. They cannot be reproduced. We may read, we may gather sweets from all these flowers, but we must build our own hive and honeycomb after Gods supreme design.

We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. Gods ammunition is not exhausted. His brightest spirits are held in reserve for the latter times. In Gods name and by his help we will build up a literature whose top shall touch heaven, though its foundations may now be low in earth. Let the smile of derision wreathe the face of scorn; let the frown of hatred darken the brow of bigotry. Small things are the seeds of great things, and, like the acorn that brings forth the oak, or the snowflake that forms the avalanche, Gods kingdom will grow, and on wings of light and power soar to the summit of its destiny.News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.Former Deputy Minister for Finance, Cassiel Ato-Forson, has said that the current state of the countrys economy cannot support the floating of a $50 billion bond.



According to him, the economy may grind into serious challenges if the government goes ahead with the plan to float the bond.



Ghanas economy cannot support a public debt of $50 billion. Debt servicing as we speak at a percentage to total revenue is about 50%. Debt services and wages and salaries takes away the entire revenue of the country so how are we going to service that debt. Are they going to borrow to service that debt? What is the size of the economy of Ghana? It is less than $50 billion. It is not applicable, he said.

President Akufo-Addo while on a state visit to China last week urged that countrys president, Xi Jinping that Ghana was looking at floating a $50 billion Century Bondand was interested in getting China to take part.



The Ministry of Finance and the economists in Ghana are looking at floating a $50 billion Century Bond. This will provide us with the resources to finance our infrastructural and industrial development. We are hoping that, at some stage, China will interest itself, and take a part of it as Chinas contribution to Ghanas development, Akufo-Addo told Jinping.



But Cassiel Ato-Forson, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Esiam constituency in the Central Region said the government does not have the capacity to use the $50 billion if it successfully floats the bond.



He noted that the value of the governments planned development programmes was far less than the amount it was seeking to raise, arguing that the current revenue of the country is woefully inadequate to guarantee the repayment of the amount and its corresponding interest.



Government of Ghana does not have the capacity to utilize $50 billion even within 3 years. I say this because I know we dont have prepared projects to the tune of $50 billion. So why do you go out there to borrow$50 billion put it in an account, start paying interest you cannot spend in within 2 to 3 years but excess of 4 years. What kind of economic management is this?, he quizzed.



He is cautioning the government to be careful over its plan.



$50 billion bond without devt plan not good



Meanwhile, an economist, Dr. John Gatsi has cautioned the government against the move especially as it does not have a long-term national development plan that will provide guidance on what the money must be spent on to achieve a set target.



He said floating the bond against political promises was not sustainable.



He is therefore calling on the government to consult various stakeholders especially parliament over the matter to ensure that a sound decision is taken.



A country should engage in such a long-term borrowing based on a long-term development agenda approved by parliament and guiding all of us. That should be the case because when you are using natural resources as a mortgage for the country, you need to know that commodity goes through volatility in terms of price and when such things happen, they pose problems for the country, he said.



It is inappropriate to allow one government to put the country on that path bearing in mind the risk this poses to us in the future.It will be in the interest of the government to get the attention and the buy-in of other stakeholders especially parliament before engaging in further this discussion, John Gatsi added.

Source: citinewsroom.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoDeputy Secretary-General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has assured ex-staff of the defunct Capital and UT Banks that they will soon receive their severance packages.



Joshua Ansah said the negotiations on the payment of the severance package are at the conclusion stage so those affected should be assured they would receive what is due them.



Ex-staff of the two banks have been appealing to President Akufo-Addo and Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison, to intervene to ensure that their entitlements as former workers are paid.



Before the UT and Capital Banks staff went home, majority of them were not unionised. If you are not unionised, when it comes to these issues, its a bit difficult for anyone to sit down with the employer to negotiate.



So TUC directed Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance Workers (UNICOF) to go in after they had gotten the consent from the affected staff, he said.



According to him, All these were done and a stakeholder meeting was called and negotiations have been going on for some time now.



What is remaining now is some few things and issues that need to be cleared about those who have not received their packages. And I can assure them that immediately the negotiations are over, which will be soon, they will be paid their exit packages.



The Bank of Ghana, in August 2017, collapsed the two banks and directed state-owned GCB Bank to take over all their assets because they had become insolvent.



The staff were assured of entitlements, including severance packages.



However, they are yet to receive the entitlements a year after they lost their jobs.



The liabilities of the two banks, the BoG noted, overwhelmed their assets and the owners and managers of UT and Capital Banks were unable to increase the capital of the banks to address the insolvency.



The BoG subsequently appointed Messrs Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah from PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana Limited as joint receivers for the purpose of winding down the affairs of the two banks.



Meanwhile, most of the sacked staff have argued that they have been ignored for a long time.



Per the Joint Receivers letter dated January 15, 2018, an agreement was reached with UNICOF and the representatives to pay all staff of the defunct banks exit packages.

Source: myjoyonline









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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of Afrobarometer, Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, has warned against political parties functionaries serving as board chairpersons and chief executive officers (CEOs) of state-owned institutions.



He was delivering the keynote address at this years Kronti Ne Akwamu lecture  the 14th in the series  which formed part of activities marking the 20th anniversary of the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana).



The professor was worried about the winner-takes-all syndrome that has characterized Ghanaian politics in the Fourth Republic, and called for serious political reforms.



He said: It is particularly disturbing to learn that ruling party chairs participate in cabinet meetings in both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administrations, adding I wish to note with complete disapproval, Madam Chair, the practice that has emerged in the Fourth Republic of effectively fusing state with the ruling party.



The professor, who is a co-founder of CDD-Ghana, added this practice, which all our parties are guilty of, removes the lines that should separate the state from the government and co-mingles government business with governing party business.



He contended that the result is something of a party in government or call it party in government syndrome.



Afrobarometer is one of the subsidiaries of CDD-Ghana, and it is a pan-African tool for surveying public attitudes on issues of governance and democracy across several African countries.



He argued that government activities in the country have become inseparable from political party issues, and that party foot-soldiers continue to invade government institutions and in some instances sack CEOs of such institutions who are appointed by the president.



According to him, there was the need for a reform to restrict the discretionary powers of the president.



He observed the need for the president to go beyond the minimum requirement of consulting the Council of State in appointing public officials.



Inclusive Governance

The professor also bemoaned weak participation by the minority groups such as persons with disability, the poor, among others, in the countrys governance system, something he said was disturbing.



He observed that there was the continued under representation of women in politics, with women making up only 37 members out of the 275-member Parliament and just 33 of the 254 municipal, metropolitan and district chief executives (MMDCEs) in the country, he said.

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The Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Ghana, Natalia Koliadina, has stated that she has forwarded a petition filed at her office by the Minority in parliament, seeking clarification from the Bretton Wood institution on the US$2 billion barter agreement between the government of Ghana and Chinas Sinohydro Group Limited, to the IMFs Washington D.C. Headquarters for determination during the upcoming review mission under the Extended Credit Facility.



In a letter dated 30 August 2018, addressed to Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Cassiel Ato Forson, and copied to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament; Ms Koliadina, said: Given the complexity of the transaction, I am unable to answer your question immediately.



She emphasised that the IMF will use the definition of government debt in the Technical Memorandum of Understanding, which has not changed since the inception of the programme, to make a determination on the matter.



The Minority had wanted the view of the IMF as to whether the $2billion-for-bauxite agreement should be classified as a loan which could be added to the debt stock.



Per the agreement, Ghana will exchange refined bauxite with US$2 billion worth of infrastructure from the Chinese firm.



Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, in his presentation of the Mid-year Budget Review on the floor of Parliament of Ghana on Thursday, 19 July 2018, stated that the Sinohydro transaction is a barter. However, the Minority think otherwise.



We, the Minority, have carefully studied the provisions and terms of the so-called barter transaction, as officially tabled and passed by Parliament, and have identified a number of legal and technical issues that explicitly make the transaction a loan.



Thus, as was argued during the parliamentary debate on the transaction, it is the Minoritys opinion that the value of the transaction be added to the debt stock.



The Minority in parliament would, therefore, like to seek a clarification on this from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the petition signed by Mr Forson, and backed by Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader in Parliament, stated.



The Minority is of the view that the terms of the barter agreement contained in the joint memorandum to parliament, are totally inconsistent with, and contradict the position of the Finance Minister that the agreement is not a loan agreement and will not add to the public debt stock.



The Minority believe Mr Ofori-Atta will be engaging in an act of gross illegality if he attempts to push this through and we are convinced that Sinohydroa company that is not new to the terms of our Constitution and terms for borrowingand the Chinese authorities, will tread cautiously in entering into this agreement.



They also argued that any revenue from bauxite is state revenue, and therefore, should be captured as part of government revenues.



Similarly, the expenditure on roads, railways, etc., using the bauxite revenue, are government expenditures and should be captured as such. We are of the view, therefore, that the above transaction should be included in assessing the governments fiscal position at any given point in time, the petition added.







Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe recognition of this social paradox is universally important, i.e., religion and politics are separate entities.



Religion is led by faith, not by logic. However, the underlying principle that gives rise to the network of the two entities is law which governs the conducts of people.



The contention over the building of a national cathedral have emerged issues of political influence.



The answer to the controversy invites us to examine the motive behind it:



Government and the clergy consolidating their power to achieve a mutual objective, what is the possible outcome?



SOCIAL FACTS



Traditionally, national cathedrals are cultural symbols. And historically, they were built by imperial governments and those with absolute power. For example, the St Pauls Cathedral in the United Kingdom (in its current state) was put up by King Henry VIII as part of his declaration as head of the English (Anglican) Church in 1534.



In the United States of America, the 13 colonies which founded the nation lived under Christian rules.



Later generations of Americans have sought to establish a national identity, one that sanctifies the nations origin, as a nation of God.



The St Peter and Saint Paul Cathedral in Washington DC was built upon a charter from Congress to establish a national cathedral in 1893, and no other religion have carved that prominence in the States as Christianity.



Adding to this, a government with an absolute power as Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who for almost four decades was the President of Ivory Coast built the colossal Basilica (a national cathedral) in his hometown, Yamoussoukro. Indeed, this is a true illustration of absolutism.



To situate such a framework of government in Ghana would be a coup detat, constitutionally.



LEGAL CONCERNS



Religion is the pre-occupation of the day-to-day lives of Ghanaians and this gives a high degree of symbolical power to the clergy.



Elsewhere, religious institutions wield so much power, which, somewhat, cannot be contended - to the extent that they exercised undue influences on governments and the people.



The idea by the Christian sect to build a national cathedral has marked public criticism questioning governments role in the building project.



Article 21 of the 1992 Constitution guarantees the fundamental freedom to practice any religion as well as the freedom of assembly.



Although the Christian community boast of about 70% of Ghanas population, the Constitution does not enshrine the concept of majoritarianism where a majority of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in religion; but then again, it allows for the idea of pluralism - giving priority to all religious beliefs in Ghana as a secular state.



Lo, the insistence on the secular state of Ghana is not to be understood as a declaration of conflict between religion and the state.



For religion is a function of the state, and this must be understood before the issue can be addressed.



Thus, when the Christian society want to build a National Cathedral on a land space given by government after the demolition of the residences of Appeal Court Judges worth 5 million cedis, and who are going to be accommodated at a cost 2,500 cedis per month; by reasonable inference, it simply purports that the majority cost and ownership of the national cathedral is borne by government.



Furthermore, the affirmative statement by the President that the construction of the national cathedral is a national heritage in connection with the 60th anniversary of our independence ostensibly speaks to the governments prior recognition of Christianity as the iconic religion in Ghana.



This recognition is discriminatory against minority religious groups, and it belies the secular tenet in our Constitution.



CONCLUSION



Social hostilities based on discrimination against minority faith foments conflicts, and it has been a cause of sectarian violence in most countries.



For instance, in Egyptian, the conflict between majority Muslims and minority Coptic Christians; in Israel, majority Jews and minority Muslims, and in India, the recurring tension between majority Hindu and minority Christians and

Muslims.



It is important to emphasize in the social conditions and legal manifestations that Ghana remains secular.



The declaration of Ghanas independence was not for a section of the country but for an entire social recognition.



So therefore, a monument such as the national cathedral in commemoration of the 60 th anniversary of Ghanas independence should have a national character for all religious organizations for it to become a symbol of inter-faith harmony and

peace distinguished by the country.

Source: Daily Graphic









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Featured VideoThis is the remarkable moment dozens of migrants are caught on camera celebrating in the streets of Spain after arriving from Africa.



The men were filmed last month by a passing motorcyclist shortly after they crossed the Staits of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain.



During the clip dozens of the men run down a hill celebrating and smiling at the camera.



Some of them are topless and waving their t-shirts in the air as they celebrate the crossing.



Read Full Story .... dailymail.co.uk >>> :

















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Featured VideoThe National Democratic Congress [NDC] Member of Parliament [MP] for Lower Manya, Ebenezer Oklitey Tei-Larbi, says though he has no qualms about governments decision to access loans from international bodies for developmental projects, some of these loan deals will certainly not inure to the country's benefit.



To him, so far as Ghana is a developing country, it will need loans at all cost to better the economy, but not such financial agreements that will in the near future, be an albatross around our neck.



Hon. Tei Larbi was particularly critical over governments recent bauxite deal with China.



Barter or Loan?



There has been a series of back and forth accusations over the deal which was finalised over the weekend after a meeting between President Nana Akufo Addo and Chinas President Xi Jinping in Beijing.



Whies the Minority in Parliament is convinced it is a loan, government describes it as a barter arrangement. The trade deal saw the two factions trading words and calling each other names a few months ago.



Per the terms of the barter deal, government is leveraging on the Bauxite deposits in the country to offer a $2 Billion worth of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminum to the SINOHYDRO Group Limited of China.



The Chinese company is expected to provide US$2billion of infrastructure including roads, bridges, interchanges, hospitals, housing andrural electrification in exchange for Ghanas refined bauxite.



But concerns have been raised about the deal, with some even questioning its viability and value for money considerations.



Hiding A Supposed Debt From Ghanaians?



The Minority in Parliament is not convinced about the claim by government that the deal will not further inflate the already precarious state of the countrys debt to GDP portfolio, but rather see it as an attempt to hide a supposed debt from Ghanaians.

But the government has defended its decision to enter into the agreement because it is fully convinced that the right processes have been followed and the necessary due diligence have been done to ensure the nation gets the maximum benefit from its natural resources by adding value to them before exports.



Gov't Is Insincere



Contributing to a panel discussion on UTVs Adekye Nsroma programme, Hon. Tei Larbi accused government of not being sincere to the electorate.



I have a strong belief that this Sinohydro deal is a loan and not barter trade as claimed because it is coming to add to our debt stock and we [minority in parliament] are concerned about the burden of additional borrowing cost on the over-burdened taxpayer, he noted.

Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe government has initiated processes to lift the ban on the export of labour to countries in the Gulf Region, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has stated.



He said proposals for bilateral agreements for the lifting of the moratorium had been presented to the Attorney-Generals Department for scrutiny before it would be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval.



Currently, we are developing bilateral agreements with countries in the Gulf Region because some of them have brought proposals for better labour relations. But we have forwarded the proposals to the Attorney-Generals Department.



Given the work that has been done so far, I believe that when a memoir is sent to the Cabinet, it will be approved so that the ban can be lifted to enable us to send some of our labour to other countries, he said.



Job fair



Mr Awuah made this known when he spoke to journalists at a two-day job fair organised by the German Development Co-operation and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations in Accra on Monday.



The job fair formed part of the Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration (MAC), an initiative to tackle unemployment among the youth which has been identified as a major cause of irregular migration of the youth to the Gulf countries.



Scores of unemployed youth are participating in the job fair that will see about 100 of them get ready employment, while others will also be trained in entrepreneurial development and linked with industry players.



Present at the fair were representatives of the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), as well as ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).



No compromise



In July last year, the government placed a ban on the export of local labour to countries such as Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar because of widespread reports of maltreatment of Ghanaians in those countries.



Some of the migrants, who were mostly females, were made to do caretaking and service jobs, during which some of them were subjected to all forms of maltreatment, leading to loss of lives in some cases.



Mr Awuah observed that even though bilateral agreements were being considered towards the lifting of the ban, the government would not compromise the safety of Ghanaian workers both locally and abroad.



We believe in the dignity of Ghanaian workers in the country and in other parts of the world, so we will ensure that they are accorded decent work ethics, dignity and decency in line with International Labour Organisations (ILO) standards, he stressed.



Consolidated Bank brouhaha



Touching on the laying off of some workers by the Consolidated Bank, Mr Awuah said he would engage officials of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and other key stakeholders this week, to look at the plan for workers of the bank, who were reportedly being laid off, following the merger of five local banks.



I will meet officials of the BoG, the Consolidated Bank, worker unions and other relevant stakeholders this week to think about what should be done.



My duty will be to get information on the way forward from the horses own mouth on what the labour plans are for the Consolidated Bank. If there is the need for any labour restructuring, I would want to know how it will be done to ensure that no one is unfairly treated, he said.



German support



The German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Christoph Retslaff, in his remarks, reiterated the commitment of the German Government to support Ghana to create more employment opportunities for the youth.



He said efforts would be made to support the country to implement initiatives that would help achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.



One of the big challenges for this country that has to be tackled is the high rate of unemployment, especially among the youth, since it is sparking the transnational migration of young people, he said.

Source: Daily Graphic









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NIGERIAN OPPOSITION party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has disclosed its intention to imitate Ghanas One District, One Factory (1D1F) policy to make Nigeria a united and economically vibrant nation.



According to the PDP, the replication of the policy would help Nigeria in brain gain and create jobs for economic growth.



The 1D1F programme of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government led by President Akufo-Addo is aimed at establishing, at least, one factory or enterprise in each of the 216 districts of Ghana as a means of creating economic growth poles that would accelerate the development of those areas and create jobs for the teeming youth.



The policy aims to transform the structure of the economy from one dependent on production and export of raw materials to a value-added industrialised economy, driven primarily by the private sector.



Speaking at the inauguration of the executives of the Ghana Chapter of the PDP, Oloye Oyeyemisola Fatuyi, Vice-Chairperson of the PDP Ghana Chapter, said the 36 States of Africas most populous nation, Nigeria, are endowed with a lot of natural resources, which if harnessed properly can create millions of jobs for the people and other African nationals, yet due to greedy and selfish governance, millions of Nigerian youth live abroad and suffer while majority at home also go helpless and hopeless with no future prospects.



The inauguration, which ushered the introduction of 16-man executives to steer the affairs of the Chapter for the next term, was on the theme Time to rescue Nigeria: Urgent need for Nigerians in diaspora to get fully involved.



He stressed that President Muhammad Buharis government had broken down some facets of the Nigerian economy such as security and manpower development, thereby worsening the already appalling plight of the Nigerian youth.



According to him, instead of President Buhari to use the benefit of his recent state visit to Ghana to draw some lessons from his Ghanaian counterpart, President Nana Akufo-Addo, on how to run a peaceful, united and economically vibrant nation, he chose to embarrass his well-known country.



He explained that the high number of population of Nigerians in Ghana also constrains Ghanas infrastructure, hence the need for the next PDP government in 2019 to hit the ground running with the NPP governments ID1F policy to restore hope for Nigerians.



The Publicity Secretary for the PDP Ghana Chapter, Barry Ndu Nwaihim, mentioned some of the economic contributions of Nigerians living in Ghana, and emphasized the need to make a corresponding input regarding decision making back home.



Mr. Nwaihim reminded all Nigerian citizens resident in Ghana to be law- abiding and be of good conduct to foster peaceful co-existence between both countries.

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Health ministers from African countries, including Ghana, have pledged to implement key strategies to end cholera outbreaks in the Region by 2030.



Forty-seven African countries have adopted the Regional Framework for the Implementation of the Global Strategy for Cholera Prevention and Control at the 68th Session of the World Health Organisations Regional Committee for Africa (WHO-AFRO), which has ended in Dakar, Senegal.



They agreed to take evidence-based actions, which include enhancing epidemiological and laboratory surveillance, mapping cholera hotspots, improving access to timely treatment and strengthening cross-border surveillance.



Promoting community engagement, the use of the Oral Cholera Vaccine (OCV) as well as increasing investments in clean water and sanitation for the most vulnerable communities are other interventions.



Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO-AFRO Regional Director, said: Cholera is a symbol of inequity."



Its an ancient disease, which has been eliminated in many parts of the world. Every death from cholera is preventable. We have the know-how and today countries have shown that they have the will to do whatever it takes to end cholera outbreaks by 2030.



WHO is working hand in hand with countries, providing key technical expertise and guidance, said Dr Moeti.



The Oral cholera vaccine has been shown to be highly effective and WHO has facilitated the vaccination of millions of people across Africa. We must continue to expand use of this new strategy, said the Regional Director.



Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu, the Minister of Health, in a statement at the Session, said Ghana had adopted the Framework and using it to revise its guidelines for the management of cholera outbreaks, attested by the low record in the country.



"We trust and count on the expertise of WHO-AFRO to provide leadership in the Africa Region to stem the disease."



He said the Regional Implementation Framework would provide the necessary mileage for the elimination of the disease by 2030.



Cholera is a major global public health problem, but the burden and impact of the waterborne disease is greatest in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2017, more than 150,000 cholera cases, including more than 3000 deaths, were reported in 17 countries Africa.



This year there has been a hike in cholera cases across Africa, with eight countries currently battling outbreaks.



The Region is vulnerable to cholera for a range of reasons including 92 million people drinking water from unsafe sources in Africa.



In rural areas, pipe-borne water is often unavailable and people practice open defecation. Humanitarian crises, climate change, rapid urbanization and population growth are also increasing the risk of cholera.



In adopting the Regional Framework, countries pledged to reduce by 90 percent the magnitude of cholera outbreaks, particularly among vulnerable populations and in humanitarian crises.



From 2013 to 2017, WHO supported 65 cholera vaccination campaigns and supplied more than 16 million doses of vaccines to 18 countries globally, including 11 in Africa.



Many of the risk factors for cholera such as poor sanitation and rapid urbanization lie outside of the health sector and so WHO is working with a broad coalition of partners to engage with all relevant sectors to build a comprehensive and sustainable response throughout the Region.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoWith the collapsed of the Capital bank, loss of jobs and livelihood of thousands of people, giving the Otabil Family sleepless nights, an expensive building purportedly bought in America by the General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Pastor Mensa Otabil and his wife, Joy Otabil, has popped up adding to the familys already traumatic situation.



The current market value of the 4-bedroom luxurious home located in the city of Virginia is US$825,500. The value of the land on which the property sits is priced at US$251,600, while the building itself is priced at US$573,900, bringing the total cost of the property to US$825,500.



The address of the property was given as 15315 Mountain Crest CT Haymarket, VA 20169- Mountain Crest Estates L-15. The names on the property were; Otabil Mensa and Joy Surv. The neighborhood of the home was given as 02088 Avondale. It was built in 2012 and has four bathrooms, a basement area among others.



Interestingly, one of Pastor Otabils daughters; Baaba Otabil, went to Liberty University in Lynchburg-Virginia and graduated in 2017.



It is not clear, if Baaba lived in the house linked to her parents, while schooling in the US.



Meanwhile, many people are questioning, why she did not attend Central University in Ghana founded by her father.



Reports on the house, comes as Parliament readies itself to do a secret probe into the collapse of the seven commercial banks, including Capital Bank, which Dr. Otabil, had been the Board Chairman and had majority shares.



The Parliamentary probe do be done behind closed doors, is coming on despite huge demand for public hearing by voters, who fear there could be a cover up of friends, family members, schoolmates, church and lodge fellows.



Mismanagement and abuse of depositors funds are part of the claims leveled against Capital Bank leading to its collapse, last year.



It is not clear when exactly the Otabil family bought the expensive house in the US, although this is not the first time that issues on the building, have surfaced in the media with all manner of claims being made against the clergyman.



It first came up about three to four years ago, with Pastor Otabil, maintaining a stony silence but with the collapse of the Capital Bank, and the abuse of funds making the rounds, suspicions will are rife about the source of its funding, and the Pastor, will will have to respond to his ownership or otherwise of the 4-bedroom store house.



The Otabil family currently lives in the plush Trassacco Valley Estate; a gated and highly secured housing facility for the wealthy and famous in East Legon -Accra.



Two years before the Capital Bank collapsed, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), John Kofi Mensah, had predicted its doom. In a memo dated August 11, 2014, the then CEO of First Capital Plus Bank, which later was rebranded and called Capital Bank, said they could not meet their obligations to their clients.



I write to reiterate my earlier concerns and request for the Board to act with expedition and take drastic and urgent steps to resolve the seemingly intractable problems that have bedevilled and continue to dog the growth and our efforts to stand the bank on its feet till date.



The memorandum was addressed to the Board of the Bank. It also mentioned a number of cases where funds have been mismanaged.



Read the full memo below



BOARD MEMO



FROM: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER



TO: CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS, BOARD OF DIRECTORS



DATE: AUGUST 11, 2014



URGENT ACTION TO SALVAGE THE REPUTATION AND FORTUNES OF FIRST CAPITAL PLUS BANK



I write to reiterate my earlier concerns and request for the Board to act with expedition and take drastic and urgent steps to resolve the seemingly intractable problems that have bedeviled and continue to dog the growth and our efforts to stand the bank on its feet till date.



We have discussed these Issues at length, but we do not seem to have made any significant progress as exemplified by the fact, among others, that a recent 3 man committee we set up to come up with some solutions appear to have been still born. We also appear to be perfecting the art of crafting long -winding resolutions which are not backed by any serious follow-up action. I perceive that we are very conversant with and know very well the problems that confront, but lack the critical boldness and courage to tackle the bull by the horns. With respect, we all appear to be guilty of fiddling while Rome burns.



As the CEO, coupled with my interests as a shareholder of the Bank, I wish to set the ball rolling by shaking myself out of the self-imposed slumber that we all find ourselves. I think that I cannot do less than be in the forefront and spearhead the efforts to grow the Bank and move it to the next level to the path of joining the ranks of the foremost financial institutions in the country. The clarion call has assumed some urgency due in part to the attempt by the Government/Bank of Ghana to pass into law the Depositors Protection Bill and the Deposit Taking Institutions Bill which would, among others, oblige every Director of a Bank to report to the Bank of Ghana if he has reason to believe that a Bank of which he is a director cannot meet its future obligations on pain of criminal sanctions.



In short, transparency, candour and diligence in prosecuting a banks object of incorporation is no longer a matter of personal ethics, but have been raised to an obligatory statutory duty with sanctions to boot. We can therefore not have the luxury of going on with our duties as business-as usual. On the contrary, we are being compelled to move forward.



From my perspective, the issues that require urgent action appear to be:



1.0 Our inability to establish offshore counterparty relationships due to issues with shareholders credibility.



2.0 On top of this issue is our continuing inability to establish offshore counterparty relationships with other banks and financial institutions. As we are all undoubtedly aware, this problem has arisen and persists as a direct consequence of outstanding and unresolved issues hovering around shareholders of the bank. The Deutsche Bank and others have, after conducting due diligence on the bank, rejected our request for business relationship with them. We all know and agree that this type of business relationship constitute one of the essential life lines for the Bank. As long as this problem persists, we cannot reasonably expect to grow outside the boundaries of this country. This will undoubtedly lead to stunted growth and spell doom for the bank in the long run. Unfortunately as the issue is, I am sorry to state that we have dithered for far too long on this matter and require to act forthwith.



3.0 Unresolved TPF and capitalization issues.



3.1 This is a long standing issue and needs no further clarification.



4.0 Increasing interest expense and general costs of doing business



4.1 This has been the bane of the bank for some time now, that while management is embarking on a desperate and aggressive deposit mobilization to shore up liquidity to cover holes in the balance sheet, it is resulting in increased interest expense and general costs to us. This is detrimental to our profitability drive and the same is unsustainable.



5.0 Potential TPF and Related Costs



Decisions on some emerging liabilities which are potential TPF remain outstanding



6.0 For the above and other reasons, I hereby outline the following as urgent steps that the Board ought to ensure to save the Bank from any further casualties.



On the first issue above, I see the solution as a simple one: The shareholders must accept to have their shares held in trust for them. The only other option, as far as I can see, is that they remain and we get stuck in the tunnel, with the inevitable consequence that this may explode in our faces sooner than later.

Proper capitalization of the Bank since deposits with other Banks is not backed by actual liquidity.

iii. Acceptance of debt liability created through non-conventional practices and a delivery of a re-imbursement plan that will not create any further liquidity strain for the Bank.



Full disclosure of any and all potential liability created by any shareholder to avoid further surprises as has been the case lately.

Concrete steps to salvage the reputation of the Bank and prevent any further market and reputational risks.

Decisions Board must be implemented without further delay.

7.0 I regret to mention that unless we act ourselves and so with all the promptitude that it deserves, things may go out of hand, including the possibility that the Bank of Ghana may step in, by which time it will be too late for us to make excuses, with all of us risking sanctions (though I fervently hope that we act with expedition and seriousness to avoid that possibility).



8.0Accordingly, I think that we are all sitting on a time bomb and cannot afford to spend too much time in drawing a road map based on the proposals outlined here. I would think that we should be able to accomplish this assignment within three weeks from now.



9.0 Of course, the Boards acceptance or otherwise of my proposals would go a long way to assist my interpretation of the Boards willingness to share in my vision for the Bank and its customers at large. I will certainly interpret that as a vote of no confidence in my ability to steer the bank to its destination with your respective backing and cooperation.



Submitted for the boards action.

Source: The Herald









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoA humanitarian crisis is looming in a number of communities in northern Ghana, particularly areas along the White Volta and the Black Volta, following the spilling of excess water from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso.



Swathes of farmlands have been consumed by flood waters and lives are under threat. The situation is very bad, the Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Eric Nana Agyemang Prempeh, told the Daily Graphic yesterday.



He added, however, that no life had been lost.



He could also not readily provide figures on the number of displaced persons and the extent of damage to farms and property.



The NADMO boss said the water level was very high, saying: Its 100 per cent, which has been compounded by the flooding of rivers following heavy rains in the north.



In spite of that, he gave an assurance that his outfit was working extra hard to mitigate the plight of those affected by the situation.



NADMO on the ground



Our team is on the ground working very hard and I just returned from the area to work on additional relief items for displaced people, Nana Agyemang Prempeh stated.



Before the spillage last year, NADMO had estimated that over 200,000 people in communities along the White Volta and the Black Volta were expected to be affected.



The authorities in Burkina Faso began the spillage last Friday and the water was expected to get to Ghana within 72 hours at the pace of 95.4 cubic metres per second at which the Burkina Faso power company, Sonabel, said the water was moving.



Earlier signal



As has become the tradition, NADMO issued a flood alert ahead of the opening of the dam this year and warned residents along the two rivers that the combined effects of rising water levels in the White Volta and the opening of the dam could leave thousands of people affected by flooding and, therefore, urged the residents to move their valuables to higher ground for their safety.



It said it was collaborating with various bodies, including United Nations (UN) agencies, the 48 Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the Police Service, the Fire Service, the National Ambulance Service, the Meteorological Service Department and district assemblies in the affected communities, to help mitigate the effect of the spillage on the people.



Talensi



Already, some farmers in some communities in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region have begun experiencing the effects of the spillage.



According to the Talensi District Coordinator of NADMO, Mr Mahama Ken Kazar, about 700 farmers in 11 communities in the district had had their farmlands submerged, while about 2,700 acres of farmlands, made up of maize, millet, rice and yellow melon, had been submerged.



The affected communities, he said, included Pwalugu, Winkogo, Vung, Yinduri and Tolla.



Mr Kazar said "normally when the dam is spilled, our farmers start seeing visible signs of it when it reads 650 centimetres on the White Volta River gauge.



He indicated that last Sunday, the water level read 829 centimetres, adding that as of yesterday the level on the gauge read 870 centimetres.



The coordinator explained that if the level rose above 920 centimetres, it would lead to further disaster.



The situation, he claimed, had been exacerbated by torrential rains which, on August 7, 2018 in particular, flooded many farmlands.



One of the affected farmers at Pwalugu, Mr Vincent Atinga, told the Daily Graphic that all his crops were submerged with just about two weeks for him to harvest some of the crops.



A 25-member team of experts and technical people has been deployed to the Northern and the Upper East regions in an operation code-named "Thunderbolt" to ensure that rescue missions are successfully carried out.

Source: Daily Graphic









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Defeated Eastern Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Tawiah Boateng, has accused the party's Director of Elections and Aspiring National Chairman, Mr. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and former Ghana's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Mr. Victor Smith of masterminding his electoral defeat last Saturday.



He indicted the duo for ganging up against him during the elections and even asking some other aspirants to step down in favour of their preferred candidate.



Speaking on Okay FM's "Ade Akye Abia" programme, he explained that one of the candidates was offered a whooping GH130,000 to step down.



"Prior to the election, the former Eastern Regional Chairman and Executives of the party held series of clandestine meetings with the agenda to kick me out of office....Ofosu Ampofo and Mavis Ama Frimpong were the brains behind those moves," he stated.



According to him, the machinations of the two personalities got murkier when some ex officio delegates who hitherto had no voting rights, were allowed to vote during the elections whilst some delegates also came to the voting centre with flashlights; an act that clearly depicts they had prior knowledge there will be lights out during the counting to enable the perpetrators carry out their plan.



"You see when you go into an election this way, you end causing division among the party folks but for me it is a wake up call...I'm not disturbed, i will support the current executives for victory 2020," he stated.



Strong Denial



But the NDCs Director of Elections has strongly refuted the allegations.



Speaking on the same platform, he pointed out that to him, it was a free and fair contest and opined that Mr Tawiah Boateng's utterances is likely to cause some disaffection.



"This is the time we need to be more united than ever for election 2020," he added.



Mr Bismark Tawiah Boateng was defeated in his attempt to seek another term as the Eastern Regional Chairman of the NDC.



He trailed behind Mr John Owusu Amankrah popularly known as Jowak at the Regional elections of the party at the weekend.



Jowak polled 373 as against Tawiah Boateng's 281 votes.



Three people contended for the Chairmanship position and the third person, Mr Basil Ahiable polled 249 votes.



The newly elected regional executives were sworn into office by Mr Ofosu Ampofo.

Source: Isaac kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









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Sergeant Matthew Mainieri of the South Windsor (CT) Police Department has died from injuries sustained in an off-duty incident while trying to break up a fight. Image courtesy of South Windsor PD / Facebook.

An officer with the South Windsor (CT) Police Department has died from injuries sustained in an off-duty incident while trying to break up a fight.

"It is with profound sadness that the members of the South Windsor Police Department mourn the death of Sergeant Matthew Mainieri," the department said in a Facebook post.

Maineri was at a bar in Murrells Inlet, SC, when he was assaulted, according to WTNH-TV.

South Carolina deputies have charged 21-year-old Kelton Jess Todd with assault. Further charges are pending as the investigation remains ongoing.

Mainieri was a 20-year employee of the department, having begun working as a Community Service Officer in January 1998 and becoming a police officer in May 1999. During his career, Mainieri served as an officer, corporal, and sergeant. He served in the Traffic Division and Detective Division. He was a member of the regional traffic unit and was an accident reconstructionist.

"He was also an outstanding instructor in many areas including firearms and motorcycle instructor. He was a member of our regional emergency services team (C.R.E.S.T.) and was skilled at explosive breaching," the department said.

In recent months, Mainieri became heavily involved in starting a drone program for the department and obtaining the drone technology to find missing persons and suspects.

He was also the recipient of several awards including the department Medal of Valor, Chiefs Award, and Certificates of Commendation.

Mainieri is survived by his mother, sister, girlfriend, and countless friends.

"We send our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends as well as his police family throughout Connecticut and beyond. Final arrangements have not been made as of this writing and we will be assisting his family during this difficult time," the department said in its Facebook post.Officer Matt Cooper is listed in serious condition with a bullet lodged at his Carotid artery. Image courtesy of Covington PD / Facebook.

An officer with the Covington (GA) Police Department is reportedly fighting for his life after being shot by a man suspected of shoplifting at a Walmart store, according to WSB-TV.

Officers had responded to a report that three men were attempting to steal bandanas.

Officers arrested two suspects, but a thirdlater identified as 21-year-old Aaron Demonta Flemingfled on foot.

A Covington police sergeant and Officer Matt Cooper then chased Fleming, and during the foot pursuit Fleming reportedly shot Cooper.

Cooper was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where he is listed in serious condition.

"Thousands of you from all over the country have reached out to us to show your support for the Cooper family" the department said on Facebook. "Words cannot express how touched we all are. We want to let you know that Matts condition hasnt changed. He is still listed in serious condition. Officer Cooper will be evaluated again this morning by a vascular surgeon to prepare for a procedure to remove the bullet. The bullet Is lodged at his Carotid artery. His vital signs are strong. Matt Cooper is strong! He is a fighter! Please continue to pray for the Cooper family."

Fleming sustained a fatal gunshot woundhis gunshot wound was reportedly self-inflicted.According to the Charlotte Observer, a man opened fire on police officers as he fled the scene of an attempted break-in on Monday.

Two officers with the Cilo (SC) Police Department and a deputy with the Marlboro County Sheriff's Office were investigating the break in when they encountered a person riding a lawnmower who fired shots at the investigators. The two police officers then returned fire, hitting the person on the lawnmower, according to WBTW-TV.

The manidentified as 25-year-old Camelin Demetrius McRaeis reportedly charged with three counts of attempted murder, one count of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and one count of malicious injury to property.

No law enforcement officers were injured, but the deputy's car was struck by a bullet.Donna Jean Krey was so appreciated for her service to her church, community and senior center that she was named both the Michigan Senior of the Year for Service and the Dearborn Heights Senior Citizen of the Year.

Mrs. Krey passed away peacefully in her home with her daughters and best friend by her side on August 2, 2018. She was 83 years old.

During her life, Mrs. Krey was known as a hard worker who was full of energy and laughter, features that endured her to others.

Donna was dedicated, all her life, to her husband, family, her dear friends, her church and her senior center, son-in-law Eric Thompson eulogized during services at Howe-Peterson Funeral Home in Taylor.

As a long-standing member of Mount Hope Lutheran Church, Mrs. Krey volunteered to set up and serve the coffee for Sunday service, assisted with Advent dinners, served on the board and even joined the choir, which surprised her family. She enjoyed working with children at the church, teaching Sunday school to preschoolers, volunteering for vacation Bible school and reading to children weekly at the church.

She sewed school clothes in mod prints for her daughters Linda Yona, Cheryl Krey and Brenda Thompson. Brendas bedroom was over the sewing machine in the basement. She recalls being awakened on early summer mornings to the sound of her mother sewing at full speed loud enough to wake everyone in the house.

This is the way she did everything: working hard at full speed, doing what needed to be done, Eric Thompson said.

Mrs. Krey and her long-time friends were there for each other. They planned their childrens graduations and showers, vacationed together and maintained enduring friendships. Mrs. Krey crocheted afghans for her friends and family, surprising them with gifts in their favorite colors.

At the Eton Senior Center in Dearborn Heights, she ran the book sale and collected books to sell. The money earned was used to help pay for senior trips and parties. She enjoyed going on the trips with her friends and organizing the parties.

She really loved the Eton Senior Center and the friends she made there, Eric Thompson said.

And they loved her.

She was wonderful, said Director Kristin Rockensuess, who said Mrs. Krey was active since the 1980s.

She took care of all of us, said senior Jean Boguszwski. When we came in, she asked if there was anything we needed. We could tell her what book we were looking for. She would find it and then hang onto is until the next time we saw her. She collected hats for cancer patients that lost their hair. She was always so nice.

Linda Mahaney said she and Mrs. Krey met when their daughters, Cheryl and Brenda, were in kindergarten at Eton Elementary School. That began a friendship that lasted more than 45 years.

We just kind of evolved, Mahaney said. We were room mothers in schools, did Girl Scouts together and were involved in the YWCA. We traveled together. We spent New Years Eve together. We just stayed friends.

I have nothing but good memories. Family and friends were so important to both us. We were there for our daughters weddings, high school graduations, babies births  you name it. I was there when her husband passed away in 1991; she was there when my husband passed away in 1997.

She retired before I did and started going to the senior center. When I retired (as a school bus driver), she got me hooked on that. We were very, very involved in the senior center.

Like Mrs. Krey, Mahaney was honored for her volunteerism by the city and the state  the latter honor is known as the Margaret Whitehead Senior Citizens Award. Mahaney was at Mrs. Kreys bedside when she died. She eulogized her friend at the funeral home.

If you could pick friends, she said, I guess I picked the cream of the crop.

Eric Thompson said Mrs. Krey enjoyed the holidays by decorating her home, hosting the holiday dinners and making sure everyone would be there. When a family brought a new friend with them, she would make them feel invited and let them know she was glad they came. I remember after those holiday dinners, she really enjoyed the laughter of reliving funny stories that were told by family and friends.

Thompson said his mother-in-law had a strong sense of fairness and would say what was the right thing to do. She didnt like it when people she cared for were treated unfairly or were being left out. Donna would always speak up to defend them.

He said Mrs. Krey remembered the details of your life. She was interested in your work, family and what made you happy. She was a good listener because she was genuinely interested in you. She enjoyed being part of your life and she wanted you to know that she loved you.

As he started dating his future wife, Thompson said he was struck by the wall of family photos where you first walk in. The framed photos were neatly arranged and the wall was nearly full of smiling faces. I looked at the photos many times.

Later, I realized the pictures she was proud of were just like her life  surrounded by the family and friends she invited in her home. She wanted to be surrounded by her family. She planned and prepared to have all of us together with her in the kitchen, in the living room  anywhere we could sit  filling up her home like the photos that filled the wall. I think this is where she loved, being surrounded by family and friends, sharing talking, hugging and laughing together.

Mrs. Krey is survived by her three daughters, three grandchildren, four great grandchildren and brothers Kenneth Fritz and Richard Fritz. She was preceded in death by her parents, Kenneth and Anita Fritz; her husband of 37 years, Robert Krey; and son Stephen Krey.NOIDA, India, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Hon'ble Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the 13th President of India graced an elaborate gathering at Asian Education Group (AEG) at their campus in Noida. Students from all the schools of AEG, were present there to hear, meet and greet H.E. Pranab Mukherjee.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/655519/AAFT_Logo.jpg )

Dr. Sandeep Marwah addressed the students while initiating the program and pressed upon the students to have a positive attitude, self-belief and conviction with an aim to work for development of the society and have a vibrant India. He highlighted the importance of research and development in the growth of any country and as per him  it is the student community who has to take a lead in this regard. Marwah presented a 'Scroll of Honour' and memento to H.E. Pranab Mukherjee.

Mohit Marwah, Director, AEG, expressed his enthusiasm on the arrival of H.E. Pranab Mukherjee. Akshay Marwah, CEO, Marwah Studios, invited Mukherjee for lighting the ceremonial lamp. Dr. Lalitya Vir Srivastava, Director, Asian Education Group, expressed his hope that the students will always be remembering this interaction with him as a lifelong learning.

H.E. Pranab Mukherjee congratulated Asian Education Group for successfully imparting education for 25 years and becoming one of the most innovative, trusted and influential education groups in the country.

He called upon the student community to make India self-reliant in every field by better use of technology so that India would potentially be a super power in the coming days. But at the same time, one also needs to make sure that they do not lose track of their traditional values while moving ahead.

This was certainly a great experience for students of Asian Education Group to listen to the person who held the highest office of the nation. To culminate the program, Saurabh Sharma, Director Branding and Planning - AEG and Gurdeep Singh Director Admissions - AEG thanked H.E. Pranab Mukheree for taking time out of his busy schedule to have a nice and interactive session with the students of Asian Education Group.

About AEG:

Asian Education Group began its journey with a School of Media & Acting and currently runs 9 different schools in a tenure of 25 years.

For more detailed information about Asian Education Group, please visit http://aeg.edu.in/.

Media Contact:

Haripriya

[email protected]

0120-4831143

Asian Society of Film & Television



SOURCE Asian Education GroupNEWSALERT-US-AFGHAN-PENTAGON Pentagon watchdog finds no negligence in mistaken drone strike that killed Afghan civilians, official tells AP. (AP)Pentagon watchdog finds no negligence in mistaken drone strike that killed Afghan civilians, official tells AP. (AP)

RUPMount Sinai Queens Opening New Infusion Center The last week of October was marked by an expansion of health care capacity in the borough, as Mount Sinai Queens celebrated the opening of...

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Batty Over Halloween Celebration Was A Treat! The Central Astoria LDCs 6th annual Batty Over Halloween Celebration held on Sunday, October 24 was a real treat for everyone who came out. Excited...Russian national gets 11 years in prison for plotting terror attack

 RIA Novosti, Ruslan Krivobok

13:35 04/09/2018

MOSCOW, September 4 (RAPSI)  The North Caucasus District Military Court has sentenced Russian citizen Maxim Martynov to 11 years in prison for plotting a terrorist attack in one of shopping malls in Rostov Region, the courts spokesperson Alena Katkalo has told RAPSI.

According to the Investigative Committee, Martynov has been preparing the terrorist attack since February 2017 along with another man Ruslan Tambiyev. In the spring of 2017, the defendant acquired an explosive device which he later planned to activate in the malls building.

However, the crime was not committed because Martynov and Tambiyev were arrested on May 24, 2017, and the explosives were seized, the statement reads.

A criminal case against Tambiyev is being considered separately as he pleaded guilty and signed a plea deal with investigators.Member of banned terrorist organization sentenced to 12 years in Russian prison

 RIA Novosti, Vadim Zhernov

15:59 04/09/2018

MOSCOW, September 4 (RAPSI)  The North Caucasus District Military Court has sentenced Akhmet Baloyev, a member of the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia, to 12 years in prison for rendering assistance to terrorists, the courts spokesperson Alena Katkalo has told RAPSI.

Baloyev has been found guilty of pushing for terrorist activities, justifying terrorism and illegal weapon possession.

According to investigators, in September 2012, Baloyev aiming to deliver food product to terrorists and fulfill other assignments joined the Caucasus Emirate, a part of the Islamic State terrorist organization. From September 2012 to August 2017, the defendant supplied terrorists with food, personal-care products, household appliances. Moreover, he transferred terrorists through Russias Republic of Ingushetia in his car.

During Baloyevs arrest police seized a rocket propelled grenade from his premises.

The Islamic State, an organization which is prohibited in Russia, is currently one of the major threats to global security. Over three years, these terrorists have managed to seize large areas of Iraq and Syria. Currently, various forces combat the organization in both countries with battle for Iraqi Mosul as one of the most crucial directions.Ex-attorney involved in GTA Gang case gets 3 years for attempted embezzlement

 RIA Novosti, Vladimir Fedorenko

18:00 04/09/2018

MOSCOW, September 4 (RAPSI)  Ex-attorney previously involved in the so-called GTA Gang case Abubakar Manayev has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for attempted embezzlement, the Investigative Committees press service reports Tuesday.

According to investigators, Manayev has told his client misleading information that her case would be considered under a special procedure. He also told the woman that she would receive suspended sentence. He received 5 million rubles ($73,200), a half of the stipulated sum, from the client for his alleged services.

The defendant was arrested when receiving the money. Manayev pleaded guilty, the statement reads.

Earlier, the Moscow Regional Court removed Manayev from participation in the GTA Gang case. Manayev was the lawyer for one of the defendants Umar Khasanov.

In August, Khasanov was sentenced to life in prison. The sentenced three more gang members to life, another one received a 20-year prison term. The court also recovered nearly 2 million rubles (about $30,000) from the defendants. Five GTA Gang case defendants were found guilty of robberies and murders.

Russian media called the perpetrators of murders in the Moscow Region and M-4 Don highway a GTA gang as a reference to the popular videogame.Charges brought against alleged killer of Moscow police officer

 RIA Novosti, Yevgeny Odinokov

10:59 04/09/2018

MOSCOW, September 4 (RAPSI)  A suspect in killing a policeman at a Moscow metro station has been charged with infringement on the life of a law enforcement officer, the press service of the Investigative Committees Moscow Directorate reports Tuesday.

According to investigators, late in the evening on September 2, a police officer stopped a person for checking documents. Later, the policemans body with a firearm wound to the head was found in one of maintenance rooms at the Kurskaya metro station.

The suspect was identified, a criminal case over the murder was opened. Several examinations including physical and chemical, ballistic and dactyloscopic are to be conducted as part of the case, the Investigative Committee said.Rebelscum is a news and photo reference site for Star Wars toys and collectibles. We do not sell toys. Please support our site by shopping with one of our sponsors.As the Kerala government looks for the best technologies to rebuild infrastructure, start-ups see a bigger role for themselves.

Photograph: Sivaram V/Reuters

Start-ups in Kerala, which have come out with various technologies to support the rescue operations, may now engage in rebuilding activities as the state government is looking for the best technologies to build the infrastructure.

Several technology start-ups have already utilised their technologies in supporting the rescue operations when the state experienced its worst natural disaster, last month, after heavy rains, landslides and floods killed over 480 people and left thousands homeless.

Start-ups such as Strava Technologies, which used spatial data analytics platform CyberMonkey to offer geospatial intelligence to rescue teams; QKopy, a social networking app that has helped authorities fight fake news during emergency; and Riafy, an app studio that has developed cookbook recipes and others -- used their knowledge and technology to convert physical addresses into GPS coordinates, supporting rescue teams in mapping those requiring support.

Strava provided drone-mapping and GIS technology to help the rescue forces and also helped manage various distress calls and messages to offer useful data for efficient and faster rescue operations, said officials.

Riafy Technologies developed a platform in which addresses were converted into GPS coordinates -- as physical landmarks were not making any sense given most of them were submerged -- and colour-coded the locations based on rescue, food, water and medicine requirements.

Besides, it also eliminated duplicate requests, thus helping authorities effectively utilise useful data.

The company said in a blog post that within three days of the platform being launched, it has processed 100,000 requests for help and after eliminating duplicate requests, accurately pinned GPS locations of more than 35,000 people, saving thousands of lives.

QKopy, a start-up from Kozhikode, has also been working with local authorities to manage traffic as various roads were either inundated with flood waters, or damaged.

With the app installed by the public along with a particular number advertised by local traffic police officials, the administration was able to communicate to people directly on road conditions without any fake messages distracting users.

Earlier, when the Cyclone Ockhi had hit the southern coasts of Kerala, another start-up, C Mobile, had helped in search operations.

Now, with the rescue operations having ended and rehabilitation operations in progress, the state government is looking at various technologies available to help it rebuild the state.

"We are contemplating launching a programme to get resources from start-ups for finding solutions that would be ideally suitable for development," said Saji Gopinath, CEO of Kerala Start-Up Mission (KSUM).

The government is looking for solutions on faster construction technologies, weather-resistant models, and others.

For instance, a company from Copenhagen (Denmark) has come out with a technology to build houses through 3D printing, which could be set up very fast.

The government is looking at various aspects including such technologies.

This is apart from the "Call for Code Kerala Challenge", the new edition of the global initiative "Call for Code" that unites developers to solve pressing social issues, for which this year's topic is natural disaster preparedness and relief.

The hackathon, to be held on September 7 and 8, will focus on creating solutions pertinent to solving problems on the ground.

The hackathon will be a chance to find out how one can apply technology to better prepare for as well as reduce losses that result from such large-scale natural disasters, and what solutions could be built to help aid rescue and relief efforts during and after such events.'Unlike Big Bazaar, where the promoter calls the shot, in ABRL, professionals take decisions. So, every new CEO leads to a change in strategy, which confuses vendors and the team.'

Aditya Birla group had big dreams for retail. In 2007, it planned to set up a network of a 1,000 stores, with an investment of Rs 9,000 crore.

In the same year, the group acquired a 170-store chain Trinethra to spearhead its retail play and hired global consultants such as AT Kearney, BCG to steer its business.

Cut to 2018. Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL) has a network of 490 supermarkets and 20 hypermarkets.

Birlas have invested Rs 11,000 crore in their personal capacity in debt and equity.

But there is news its retail chain, More, might be sold out and that talks are on with investors such as Samara Capital.

For the retailer, eyeing break even since FY13, the magic numbers are still eluding.

Though ABRL is yet to come out with FY18 numbers, it posted a loss of Rs 644 crore in FY17, though sales went up 20 per cent to Rs 4,196 crore.

So, what went wrong?

Beside competition from kirana stores, the chain had to face low margins in food and grocery. Net margins in grocery retail are believed to be 2-3 per cent.

Aditya Birla had to shut unviable stores and go slow on expansion in the recent years, which also reduced its volumes.

Sanjay Badhe, a former ABRL employee and now a marketing consultant, says the biggest problem with ABRL has been lack of continuity in senior and middle management, coupled with shifting and non-consistent vision.

Sumant Sinha, its first chief executive officer, was replaced by a Birla veteran, Thomas Varghese, in 2008.

Varghese was replaced by Pranab Barua, CEO of textiles and apparel division at AB Nuvo, in 2012.

In 2013, Visak Kumar (who reported to Barua), replaced Russell Berman as CEO of both the supermarket and hypermarket formats.

In 2016, Mohit Kampani, the former MD of Spencer's Retail, was named ABRL CEO.

Unlike Big Bazaar, where the promoter calls the shot, in ABRL, professionals take decisions. So, every new CEO leads to a change in strategy, which confuses vendors and the team, a head of Mumbai mall, who did not want to be named, said.

ABRLs expansion plans have also been inconsistent, said Arvind Singhal, chairman at management consultancy Technopak Advisors.

They opened in Thane and in Delhi. Then Trinethra's stores were shut down in Andra Pradesh. If you look at D-Mart, the chain is focused on certain cities in Maharashtra and Gujarat," he said.

According to the mall head, ABRL chose wrong locations for its hypermarkets.

They were not present in good malls in Mumbai. If you are in a hypermarket, you should be in a good mall unless you are a value player like D-Mart.

D-Mart opens stores in neighbourhoods of large residential complexes. The mall head said More is not a category such as Big Bazaar or HyperCity, which are leaders in fashion and fresh produce, respectively.

They (ABRL) first wanted to become Big Bazaar and then Star Bazaar (run by Trent). But did not become either, he said.

According to experts, ABRL committed a mistake of having both supermarkets and hypermarkets under the same brand.

More started with a plan of large hypermarkets of 75,000 sq feet and supermarkets of 10,000 sq ft.

Dynamics of hypermarkets and supermarkets are different. If you have both in the same area, customers will be confused, a consultant said, adding Big Bazaar kept it simple, with 20,000 sq ft store in tier-II cities and 40,000-50,000 sq ft in tier-I cities.

An email sent to the AB group did not elicit any response.

Some like Raman Mangalorkar, CEO at data analytics firm Atom Data Lab, however, think ABRL is one of the few players that managed to survive in this turbulent retail environment.

They have certainly committed mistakes, but have also learnt from them and have consolidated their position and improved their performance to become profitable.

"In the hypermarket space, they have resized their stores and improved their operational performance and in supermarkets they are profitable despite the structural challenges faced by this format in India, Mangalorkar said.

For the fiscal year ended March 2018, according to insiders, the company has achieved store-level break-even, resulting in 95 per cent of its supermarkets and 90 per cent of its hypermarkets becoming profitable.

The break-even is due to its continued focus on rationalisation through the closure of unviable stores, fine-tuning its store format strategy, and tight control on the operating cost structure.

If the trend continues, ABRL expects to post Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation) profits in the current fiscal year, group insiders said.

For the nine months ended December 2017, ABRLs gross margins improved to 21.5 per cent from 19.4 per cent in the 2014 fiscal year because of better product assortment.

According to the insiders, improving gross margins have also led to better store profitability (7.8 per cent for the first nine months of FY18 compared with 3.3 per cent in FY14).

Photograph: Courtesy, Aditya Birla RetailThe Indian market regulator had revamped the FPI regulations in 2014 giving custodians the mandate to collect and verify the KYC documentation of offshore investors

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will be coming up with a special policy to ensure data privacy for investors.

Sources say the regulator is working on standard procedures for sharing and storing of investor data among market intermediaries and third parties.

The move comes at a time when the clamour for strict data privacy laws is growing louder with other regulatory agencies, including the Reserve Bank of India, making efforts to address concerns.

The proposed framework will focus on ensuring privacy of investor data. The development assumes significance as the amount of sensitive data collected by market intermediaries has gone up significantly in the recent past.

The policy will also set a strict protocol for sharing of investor data and address concerns raised by overseas investors, said people with knowledge of the development.

The central government is already working on an overarching data protection law, which would apply to all the institutions. However, there are also specific sectoral requirements for which the respective regulators can come up with regulations and guidelines.

"Further, the markets also witness cross-border flow of information as foreign institutions are a vital part of the market ecosystem. In such a scenario, our data laws should also be in line with the laws in other jurisdictions, especially that of Europe, said Prasanth Sugathan, legal director, Software Freedom Law Centre, India.

Last year, Sebi had made submission of Aadhaar details mandatory for all investors.

Brokerages have been collecting Aadhaar details along with fingerprints for verification since then. Further, Sebi is planning to entrust additional responsibilities on brokers through measures such as product suitability framework and affordability index.

In these frameworks, brokerages will be assigned the responsibility to evaluate the financial status of their clients by assessing their bank accounts and income tax filings. A lot of this is highly sensitive data.

Further, most of the brokerages have a diversified business profile as they provide services such as mutual fund distribution, margin financing, and insurance broking.

In such a scenario, there is a need for laws to specify how the investor data is shared, what sort of consent has to be taken from the clients, and also what are the exceptions for the consent.

The current data privacy guidelines look sketchy as there are no specified procedures in many of the scenarios.

"Further, several of these rules are not in tune with the current technological advancements. Any potential leak could impact millions of investors, said a source.

Another key area of concern remains how the data of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) is stored.

Several new data privacy laws have come into effect in the developed countries across the world.

The European Union (EU) has adopted a new framework called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Indian laws have to be in sync with such laws since the EU is the second-largest source of FPI flows for India after the US.

The current Indian rules are not in sync with the global data privacy laws.

"This could lead to conflicting situations where custodians are not sure whether to follow the Indian norms or follow the local norms of the FPI.

"In such scenarios, Sebi should provide some leeway to the custodians since they are trying to abide by statutory requirements, said Tejesh Chitlangi, partner, IC Universal Legal.

For instance, the GDPR law has brought the concept of right to be forgotten where an individual has the right to request erasure of personal data. However, there are no corresponding provisions in the Indian law to facilitate such a right.

The Indian market regulator had revamped the FPI regulations in 2014 giving custodians the mandate to collect and verify the know-your-customer (KYC) documentation of the offshore investors.

Currently, several stakeholders, including Sebi, brokerages, and stock exchanges, have partial access to the KYC data.

The current data privacy guidelines look sketchy as there are no specified procedures in many of the scenarios.

"Further, several of these rules are not in tune with the current technological advancements. Any potential leak could impact millions of investors, said a source.

Another key area of concern remains how the data of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) is stored.

Several new data privacy laws have come into effect in the developed countries across the world.

The European Union (EU) has adopted a new framework called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Indian laws have to be in sync with such laws since the EU is the second-largest source of FPI flows for India after the US.

The current Indian rules are not in sync with the global data privacy laws. This could lead to conflicting situations where custodians are not sure whether to follow the Indian norms or follow the local norms of the FPI.

"In such scenarios, Sebi should provide some leeway to the custodians since they are trying to abide by statutory requirements, said Tejesh Chitlangi, partner, IC Universal Legal.

For instance, the GDPR law has brought the concept of right to be forgotten where an individual has the right to request erasure of personal data.

However, there are no corresponding provisions in the Indian law to facilitate such a right.'The government failed. The officials chose not to hear the pleas of these helpless children.'

'Nothing can make things right for those girls now.'

IMAGE: Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, after a woman threw ink on his face while he was being taken to a special court in Muzaffarpur, August 8, 2018.

In their statements, the children at the home said they were forced to 'entertain' Thakur and other male guests in the facility.

Refusing to do so, they said, meant merciless beating and no food for days. Photograph: PTI Photo

Parveen Amanullah was the minister in charge of the social welfare department in Bihar from 2010 to 2014, but all her pleas of irregularities in the selection of NGOs to run shelter homes in the state were unheard by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

"If the government had seriously investigated the complaints about shelter homes, these girls would have been safe today," Amanullah, who joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014, tells Satyavrat Mishra.

The TISS social audit on the shelter homes in Bihar brought the rot in the system out into the open.

It presented a horrid picture of exploitation, cruelty and atrocities in these institutions.

As many as 34 girls were tormented at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

It's a shocking and disgusting incident. There are no words to criticise this intolerable act of cruelty.

Specifically, the Muzaffarpur shelter home case exposed the failure of the state government.

Those poor, helpless girls had already gone through enough. The state promised them comfort and security. And then it failed them.

The whole system, which was designed to protect these innocent orphan girls, collapsed.

The government failed to do its bidding. The officials chose not to hear the pleas of these helpless children.

Nothing can make things right for those girls now. However, the state government must make sure now that all those responsible are punished.

The shelter homes come under the social welfare department. You held that portfolio for almost four years. Why didn't you raise the alarm?

I came into politics to change the system, but soon found out that the people in power were not interested in it.

As a cabinet member, I did warn Chief Minister Nitish Kumar about the irregularities on several occasions, but he didn't pay heed.

I complained about the anomalies in the selection process of the NGOs, but my concerns were brushed aside. I did whatever I could as a minister.

I remember once a file was sent to me for giving approval to an NGO from Begusarai. There was no name of the president, secretary or treasurer in the file. I knew that the NGO was run by a known offender.

In another case, a senior bureaucrat had recommended approval for an NGO in Saran. I noticed that the NGO was run by a woman with a dubious track record.

I checked about the woman and found out that she had spent months in Beur jail in Patna on charges of a scam.

I refused to give approval in both the cases and asked the officials to investigate. They sat on the files for months.

I also took strong action against financial irregularities and put emphasis on strong monitoring.

I developed a strong complaint handling mechanism in the department and prevented several scams and scandals.

The officials of the social welfare department, however, created hurdles for me.

On numerous occasions, I have witnessed wrongdoings by bureaucrats.

I took action as much as a minister can and referred the cases that were above my level to the CM.

You are saying that the officials created hurdles to stop a minister from discharging her duties?

I did my job honestly, but the whole system was against my honesty. There was absolutely no support from the system.

Officials sat on the files for months. They never followed up on the investigations ordered by me.

The directives were not implemented and the departmental proceedings were kept away from me.

I had to ask them a thousand times to just get the file.

People were more interested in maintaining the status quo and protecting their own interests.

I was, literally, tired of this struggle with the corrupt system.

IMAGE: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Photograph: PTI Photo

There was no support even from the CM?

No support at any level. This government, even before I joined it and after I left, has always been in the defensive position. Its focus has never been on rooting out the bad elements and punishing them for their deeds.

If the government had seriously investigated the complaints about shelter homes, these girls would have been safe today.

Did you complain to the CM about it? What was his response?

I did, on more than one occasion. However, my concerns were not noted. I sent him all the case files along with the evidence.

I requested fast-track enquiries against accused officials including the principal secretaries, secretaries, directors, etc. However, I never heard back from him. I don't think anything happened about my complaints.

This is why I resigned from the cabinet. I told Nitishji that the system is completely rotten and nobody wants to change it. He asked me to stay and promised that things would improve, but I refused.

I knew he had no intention of keeping his words. Otherwise, he would not have allowed my successor Manju Verma to absorb all the suspended child development and protection officers.

I had ordered departmental enquiries against these officials on the charges of negligence, corruption, etc. Later, the government even promoted them.

This means that the CM relies more on his officials than his cabinet colleagues.

Yes, indeed. Once in a meeting, I told him that we must do something about corruption. I suggested that he must devolve more power to tackle this issue, but he brushed it aside.

"Oh no, no, we have to do it ourselves" was his response.

Nitishji was all ears about policy matters and new welfare schemes, but he never listened to suggestions on devolution of power or transparency. He was more interested in keeping the power in his hands.

Now that all the power is with him, he must take all the blame too, answer all questions and allegations. He can't put the blame on the minister or officials now.

It was the CM who overlooked the signs of the catastrophe that was building up.

What should be the government's next step?

This definitely involves the department officials.

A minister cannot do much damage without the support of senior officials of the department.

The criminal investigation, which is being done by the Central Bureau of Investigation, is another thing.

Nitishji cannot turn away from his administrative responsibilities.

The government cannot hide behind the CBI inquiry or use it as an excuse to not to do anything.

The CM must order a full in-house sweep.

Every file in the department must be scrutinised.

The role of those involved in the selection of NGOs must be closely monitored.

What, how, why, when, where and who overlooked the facts?

Who defaulted on monitoring and why?

The role of the senior officials must also be examined. The government must fix their responsibilities. Their call records must be investigated.

The air is thick with speculation about which politician or official used to visit the shelter home.

The government must order an identification parade to identify them as soon as possible.

Only crying CBI! is not going to solve any problem.

What do you think of the government's response on this matter?

Very, very poor. The CM has not yet seen the files concerning the selection of the NGOs. He is too busy patting his own back for handing over the case to the CBI.

He is running away from his responsibility.

Nitish Kumar has recently announced that the government will run these shelter homes now. Do you think it will solve any problem?

CM toh bas yehi sab dhandha karte hain (That's all the CM ever does).

Those who couldn't monitor the system earlier, how can they be expected to run the new system efficiently?

They failed in a simple monitoring job and now they are being asked to run the whole system, the same thing will happen again.

What will Nitishji do then?

The bottomline is that he neglected his duties.

Had he been a strict administrator, this would never have happened in the first place.

Had your system been as good as you say, the girls would have been safe in the NGOs.'What is surprising is that the police press conference was based on letters (allegedly written by the activists).'

'Now those letters, according to the police, are yet to be verified by their (forensic) laboratory.'

'So, even the police is not sure that those letters are genuine.'

IMAGE: Maharashtra Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Parambir Singh defends the action against five civil rights activists at a media conference in Mumbai, August 31, 2018. Photograph: Shirish Shete/PTI Photo

'How can the police do this? The matter is sub-judice,' asked the Bombay high court on Monday, September 3, raising questions over the Maharashtra police's media briefing on its case against five prominent activists arrested for their alleged links with Maoists.

Mihir Desai, senior advocate and co-founder of the Indian People's Tribunal and the Human Rights Law Network, agrees and questions the police's action.

Known to fight cases for the downtrodden and weak, Desai has often taken on the high and mighty in the establishment to safeguard human rights as defined by the Constitution.

It was Desai who fought the case for the family of 2002 Ghatkopar blast accused Khwaja Yunus who was allegedly killed in police custody.

In 2012, the Bombay high court directed the Maharashtra government to pay Rs 20 lakhs (Rs 2 million) as compensation to Khwaja's family.

"The police are keen to give evidence to the media than to the courts," Desai tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

What do you think of the Bombay high court's observation over the Maharashtra police's press conference?

The press conference by the police was completely wrong and the Bombay high court rightly rapped them for it.

In 2014, the Bombay high court had stated that these kinds of press conferences affect both the accused as well as the victim in terms of maligning them.

What is more surprising is that the press conference was based on certain letters (allegedly written by the activists).

Now those letters, according to the police, are yet to be verified by their (forensic) laboratory.

So, even the police is not sure that those letters are genuine.

According to us, those letters are not genuine.

But at least the police should be sure that the letters are genuine.

The police can confirm the authenticity of the letters once the laboratory says these are correct letters as these are handwritten letters and they have been found on a pen drive.

This is the police version.

Unless the laboratories verify, the police cannot show these letters (to the media).

Even if they are verified, the police cannot hold a press conference.

But more so, it is not verified by their own laboratory.

Is the police getting a 90-day extension for filing a chargesheet against five persons arrested in June for alleged Maoist links very unusual?

It is unusual, more so because there is no sanction.

In order for a court to take cognisance of the matter under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), you need the sanction of the government.

Now, there is no sanction from the government. So, today it cannot be treated as a UAPA case.

Therefore, the extension of time, according to us, was wrong.

According to us, the Pune court has made a mistake in granting this sanction.

Why is the government's sanction necessary in such cases?

The police can file an FIR (first information report), but extension of a chargesheet can be allowed if it is a UAPA case.

An investigation can always start with the FIR.

Before the court takes cognisance, UAPA sanction is needed from the government.

That is not obtained as yet, and therefore this order is wrong.

Are you going to challenge this order?

There are too many things right now. But we might challenge this order.

Do you think after these arrests, other human rights activists will come under pressure?

The police will try to strangulate human rights activists illegally, but then human right activists are known to fight back.

We are not worried about that.

We will fight back Constitutionally, legally, politically and factually.

These activists have been accused of planning to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi.

The Supreme Court intervened to ensure that these five activists were kept under house arrest only.

Is it a case of judicial overreach?

Not at all.

The Supreme Court has powers under Article 142 to do complete justice, and that is what they are doing.

The Supreme Court, unlike various other courts, has the power to intervene wherever they feel injustice is being done.

This power is not based on some law, but they have Constitutional power, given to them by the Indian Constitution.

So, the Supreme Court is entitled to do it.

What happens to investigations and arrests in such cases in the future?

The police are keen to give evidence to the media than to the courts.

If the police arrests people on basis of flimsy reasons, then they ought to be on the back foot.

They should be on the back foot.

This assumption that the police always acts neutrally is something which I don't agree with.Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose death was announced by the Afghan Taliban on Tuesday, was the founder of the dreaded Haqqani Network which is believed to be behind a campaign of violence throughout Afghanistan including the 2008 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul that killed 58 people.

The Afghan Taliban did not share the exact date of death or burial of the militant commander, who had transferred the operational leadership of the group to his son Sirajuddin Haqqani after the 9/11 attack.

'...Well known Mujahid, famous Islamic scholar, renowned fighter, leader of Muhajideen, minister of frontiers in (Taliban) Islamic Emirates and member of Leadership (Taliban) Council, al-Hajj Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani has died after long illness,' the Afghan Taliban said in statement.

He was believed to be in eighties and several times in the past the news of his death was circulated but it was not confirmed by the militant group.

Jalaluddin studied at the Darul Uloom Haqqania Nowshera in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province -- an Islamic seminary dubbed as the 'University of Jihad' as its alumni include slain Taliban chiefs Mullah Omar and Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent leader Asim Umar.

He belonged to Afghanistan's Paktika province, bordering Pakistan, and rose to prominence during the Afghan war against Soviet forces in 1980s. He was appointed as minister in the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan in 1990s.

Jalaluddin, who maintained his independent position during the Taliban regime, enjoyed close ties with Pakistan's spy agency -- Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

He also helped Osama bin Laden to set up terror training camps in Afghanistan and launch his efforts for global jihad and maintained close links with Al Qaeda and other Arab terrorists.

After the 9/11 attack and toppling of the Taliban government by the US-led forces, Jalaluddin apparently fled to the lawless tribal region of Pakistan and re-organised his fighters.

His group became most lethal and carried out several deadly attacks against United States, North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghan forces.

The Haqqani network, believed to be behind a number of kidnappings and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan, was accused of bombing the Indian mission in Kabul in 2008 that killed 58 people.

The attack was believed to be among the deadliest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The attack was believed to be carried out at the behest of the ISI.

The group is accused of targeting the Indian consulate in Jalalabad twice in 2007 and carrying out an attack on the Indian mission in Kabul in 2009 that killed 17 people. It also carried out several attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan.

In 2012, the US designated the Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation. Three years later, Pakistan also banned the Haqqani network as part of its National Action Plan.

The group is the bone of contention between Pakistan and the US as the latter accuse that Haqqani terrorists were still using Pakistani soil to launch attacks -- a charge denied by Pakistan.With water receding from most parts of rain-battered Kerala, the state is facing a challenge from different types of fever including leptospirosis which has claimed nine lives since August 29.

Two persons died of leptospirosis (rat fever) Monday, one each at Palakkad and Kozhikode, according to the Directorate of Health Services.

A total of 71 people tested positive for rat fever in various hospitals in the state while 123 people approached hospitals with suspected symptoms of the disease.

More than 13,800 people took treatment for various types of fever across the state Monday, officials said. Eleven confirmed and 21 suspected cases of dengue were also

reported in the state.

Talking to reporters after a meeting to review the fever-situation, Health Minister K K Shylaja said the government was ready with a plan to check the spread of different types of fever including leptospirosis.

People, who had engaged in cleaning operations in the flood-affected areas, have been asked to take preventive medicines for leptospirosis, she said.

District authorities have been asked to ensure proper waste management and mosquito control to check dengue fever.

Meanwhile, a cleaning drive was held at Kuttanad in Alappuzha district where state ministers G Sudhakaran and T M Thomas Isaac participated.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and former chief minister Oommen Chandy also took part in a drive organised by Kerala PCC in Alappuzha, one of the worst flood affected areas.

Flood water is yet to recede from some parts of Alappuzha especially from Kuttanad.

With more and more people returning home, the number of people in relief camps have come down to about 9550 from 13,000, State Disaster Management Control Room officials said.

Of this 4, 700 persons were in 44 relief camps in Alappuzha, they said.

Officials said rain-related incidents have claimed 488 lives since the onset of the south west monsoon on May 28.Any case of moral turpitude and corruption will be dealt with sternly, Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Tuesday, referring to Major Leetul Gogoi, who was found guilty of fraternising with a local woman at a Srinagar hotel.

Gen Rawat said action will be taken against Maj Gogoi according to his guilt.

I had clearly said that any case of moral turpitude and corruption will be dealt with in a very stern manner. The Court of Inquiry has recommended that we should go in for court martial proceedings.

If it is related to moral turpitude, then we will take action accordingly. If it is something else, the punishment will be (according) to the crime he has committed, Gen Rawat said in response to a question on Maj Gogoi.

Last month, an Army Court of Inquiry indicted Maj Gogoi for fraternising with a local woman at a Srinagar hotel and being away from his place of duty.

Maj Gogoi was detained by police in May following an altercation when he was allegedly trying to enter a Srinagar hotel with the 18-year-old woman.

Last year, the officer was at the centre of a human shield row after his decision to tie a civilian to the bonnet of his vehicle in Kashmir, purportedly as a shield against stone pelters during polling in Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election.

He was honoured by Gen Rawat with the Army chiefs Commendation Card for his sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations.

Gen Rawat said austerity measures will be brought within the army to the maximum possible level.

As far as the use of guest rooms and hotels are concerned wherever we have guest rooms available, we should stay in our guest rooms. And in case the guest rooms are not available, then the hotel facility should be utilised, he said.IMAGE: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval addresses at a book release function on Sardar Patel in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo

Having a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir was probably an "aberration", National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said on Tuesday as he stressed that sovereignty can never be compromised.

His remarks on Kashmir come at a time the Supreme Court is hearing pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35-A of the Constitution, which provides special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at the launch of a book on Vallabhbhai Patel, Doval also paid glowing tributes to the first home minister of India, saying he had made significant contributions in laying a strong foundation of the country.

Doval said sovereignty "cannot be a diluted and ill-defined", and added that when the "British left, probably they did not want to leave India as a strong sovereign state."

In this context, he said Patel could see through the plan of the British to sow seeds of disintegration in the country.

"His contribution is not about the merger of the states, it is only a means to an end. The thing was that to make a sovereign state in which there was the sovereignty of the people was established in the Constitution, which is applicable to the whole of it. Probably with Jammu and Kashmir, where the Constitution was...in a truncated form...another constitution of J&K continued to exist, which is aberration," Doval said at the event at Vivekananda International Foundation, a think-tank.

Doval is also one of the founders of the VIF.

Talking about the British rule, he said one of the their plans was to let the princely states decide for themselves, hoping that there would be chaos in the country.

"He (Patel) has been able to lay the foundation of a nation-state. And in nation-state, there was one law, one Constitution...Sovereignty can never be divided," Doval said.

The former top spy said nation building is an "exothermic process" that generates a lot of heat.

Unless that heat is generated it is not able to have that melting point in which all the different identities can merge and become one identity.

"Probably the heat was not sufficiently generated during our Independence movement because of the route that was taken. I am not criticising that...the non-violence was the route in which the cost of Independence was not really understood by our people," Doval said.A section of a 50-year-old bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed on Tuesday, snuffing out one life, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles, police said.

IMAGE: A cop looks at a section of collapsed Majerhat bridge in Kolkata. Photograph: PTI Photo

The Majerhat bridge in the crowded Alipore area caved in around 4.45 pm during rush hour.

It runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, vast areas of the southwest suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.

Police confirmed the death of one person and said 21 others, including three women were injured.

The deceased has been identified as Soumen Bag, a resident of Thakurpukur.

Bag, in his late 20s, was returning home from College Street in central Kolkata after buying some books when the incident took place, according to the police.

The injured have been admitted to SSKM and CMRI hospitals, the police added.

Fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue work had earlier said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble.

IMAGE: Vehicles are seen stuck after a section of Majerhat bridge collapsed in Kolkata. Photograph: Ashok Bhaumik/PTI Photo

Additional lighting arrangements have been made to facilitate the rescue work at night.

One minibus, four cars and a few motorbikes which were hit by the collapse were seen lying at the accident site till evening.

An eyewitness claimed that some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is now in Darjeeling, said that rescue work was almost over and only a concrete slab remains to be cut to find out whether any person was trapped there.

She said there was a hut under the bridge and some labourers engaged in metro rail construction work used to stay. "Had they been there during the time of accident, an unfortunate thing might have happened," she said.

Banerjee said that thousands of people pass through the area and the government has to probe the accident.

"A probe will be done by a committee headed by Chief Secretary Malay De to find out the cause of the collapse. Action will be taken against those whose negligence caused the accident. No one will be spared," she said.

She also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of the dead and Rs 50,00 each to the injured.

Banerjee said she will visit the site on Wednesday cutting short her tour.

IMAGE: This is the third bridge collapse in the city in five and a half years. Photograph: ANI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the incident as "deeply unfortunate" and hoped for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Governor K N Tripathi, who visited the site, described it as "a big disaster".

"I have come to see the rescue work. It is a big disaster. I heard that maintenance of the bridge is entrusted with the PWD and the railways. The matter required to be enquired," he told reporters.

National Disaster Response Force director general DG Sanjay Kumar said earthmovers are being used for clearing the area.

"We have to take into account the safety aspect while clearing the debris", he said.

NDRF personnel have engaged sniffer dogs to trace any person trapped under the debris.

The 450 metre-long bridge was built in early sixties and maintained by PWD, a member of mayor-in-council in the city municipal corporation said.

Some locals alleged the collapse might have been due to the construction of metro railway pillars nearby but this was not immediately confirmed by the experts.

Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, which is executing construction of the Joka-BBD Bag metro corridor passing through the vicinity of Majherhat bridge, said there is "no relationship of metro construction" with the incident.

IMAGE: An injured victim is carried to SSKM hospital. Photograph: PTI Photo

Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said the government would undertake technical inquiry after the rescue work is over.

Asked whether the committee which look after the old bridges had given fit certificate to the Majerhat bridge, the minister said, "I cannot confirm it".

The bridge collapse hit Circular Railway services and local train services in Budge Budge-Sealdah line inconveniencing a large number of commuters, an Eastern Railway spokesman said here.

The local train services were suspended from 4.45 pm, he said. The train services in the Budge Budge-Sealdah section at around 9 pm, an ER spokesman said.

The bridge collapse hit traffic movement to and from vast areas in south-west Kolkata and adjacent South 24 Parganas district during the peak evening hours.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien tweeted, "Watching scenes of Majerhat bridge #Kolkata collapse. Devastating. Rescue teams, disaster management teams, Police CP, fire fighters already reach spot. Locals join. Rescue operations on. Prayers for those affected. Difficult to gauge enormity of tragedy as yet looking at visuals."

IMAGE: One minibus, four cars and a few motorbikes which were hit by the collapse were seen lying at the accident site. Photograph: Ashok Bhaumik/PTI Photo

The army has kept three columns on standby for any assistance, defence sources said.

Opposition parties blamed the Trinamool Congress government and said its "callousness towards the repair of old bridges" was the main reason for the collapse.

"It is really unfortunate that the bridge has collapsed. The state government is solely responsible for it. The issue of repair of the old bridges is not at all in the agenda of TMC government," senior BJP leader Mukul Roy said.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury demanded an "answer" from Chief Minister Banerjee and Public Works Department Minister Hakim.

This is the third bridge collapse in the city in five and a half years.

An underconstruction flyover had collapsed in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016 and had claimed 26 lives.

On March 4, 2013, a road bridge had collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city but there was no casualty.'My immediate concern is restoring prestige and decorum of Rajya Sabha...'

'You look at any developed country, they are all very disciplined and law-abiding. Even in communist China, though I do not agree with their system, discipline has helped them. Discipline is a positive way of life'

IMAGE: Vice president M Venkaiah Naidu at his residence in New Delhi during an interview. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

Restoring the prestige of the Upper House is his "immediate" priority, vice president and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday as he called for reframing rules to take care of "erring members" and suggested stricter provisions in the anti-defection law.

In an interview to PTI, Naidu also suggested a host of reforms such as a decision by presiding officers within three months of receiving a complaint against a member for changing party allegiance, and setting up special courts dedicated to election-related petitions for speedy disposal.

Those leaving their parties must also quit their House membership, Naidu said, elaborating on his suggestion to reform the anti-defection law for quick action against party hoppers.

"This is the minimum moral responsibility. I want to make it a Constitutional responsibility. Morals, some follow, some don't," Naidu, who completed a year in office last month, said.

The current law on defections does not prescribe a deadline for presiding officers to dispose of complaints submitted by political parties against defectors.

According to the law, at least two-third members of a legislature party have to defect for escaping punitive measures like losing membership of the House.

"The time has come that rules of Parliament should be reframed to take care of erring members and this is possible if there is a consensus," Naidu said.

He said a committee appointed by him to revise Rajya Sabha rules has submitted a preliminary report and will submit the final report by the end of October.

"My immediate concern is restoring prestige and decorum of Rajya Sabha...," he said when asked about his priorities in his second year in office.

Expressing his concern over the delay in presiding officers deciding on cases, he said there have been instances when a decision has taken five years.

"That is wrong... Every party tries to take advantage. All these petitions should be disposed of in three months," Naidu said.

Loopholes in the anti-defection act have to be addressed by amending the law to take care of "grey areas".

Citing his decision on a Janata Dal-United plea for disqualification of its Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Yadav, he said he had shown the way.

Naidu had disqualified Yadav in December last year within three months of receiving the complaint against him.

"If you (presiding officer) sit on it and delay it, then it means you are going against the spirit of the law," he said.

Naidu also asked political parties to forge consensus on a national policy for legislative councils in states, saying there is a feeling among people that it is for the "rehabilitation" of politicians who are unable to get elected.

But he has not taken a stand on the issue, the vice president clarified.

"I am not taking a specific position in this regard. I am more on having uniformity...there has to be a basis even if you want to have a legislative council," he said, noting that only seven of 29 states have legislative councils.

Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for being a "disciplinarian", the vice president said no country can progress, prosper or be strong without discipline.

"You look at any developed country, they are all very disciplined and law-abiding. Even in communist China, though I do not agree with their system, discipline has helped them. Discipline is a positive way of life. I think that is the context in which the PM referred to discipline, not merely about discipline in Parliament," he said.

Naidu also pitched for equitable and proportional representation of different castes who get quota benefits, saying there is "certain unrest and unease" among targeted sections which feel only a few are getting the advantage.

"Reservation, what has been guaranteed, it should be there, it should not be touched. But within that, different communities, sections and subsections, there should be proportional representation. This is the wish among people and this needs to be examined thoroughly by political parties and parliamentarians," he said.

Last year, the Modi government appointed a commission to examine the sub-categorisation of almost 5,000 castes in the central list of Other Backward Classes to ensure "more equitable distribution" of reservations in central government jobs and educational institutions.

He said he handled two key events in his one year tenure -- the complaint against Yadav and a move by the Congress-led opposition to impeach Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

After consulting a host of experts, the Rajya Sabha chairman rejected the notice within days of receiving it.

Discussing the impeachment issue, he said, "It should be decided quickly. Urgency is required in such matters as a delay would cripple the institution."

Naidu said his decision was received well by the country -- the legal fraternity, academics and the media.

He said the two decisions gave him the "full satisfaction" that he had done his duty and a new trend was set.

He said he had undertaken 60 visits to different parts of country last year, including seven northeast states, attended 313 major outdoor events, covered 28 of the 29 states, including Union Territories.

He said he also visited 56 varsities and 21 leading science and research centres as part of his mission to "connect India".A court in Kerala has framed charges against six youths, alleged to be Islamic State terrorists, for trying to carry out terrorist activities in parts of southern India, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

A case was registered suo motu by the National Investigation Agency on October 1, 2016 based on information regarding activities of some youths, who had the intention of furthering the objectives of the proscribed terrorist group in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the National Investigation Agency said in a statement.

The youths 'had got together and formed an ISIS terror module named Ansarul Khilafa-KL over social media platforms and had made preparations to carry out terrorist attacks against prominent persons, including judges, police officers and politicians, and also against foreign nationals and rationalists', it said.

The probe agency arrested six members of the terror module on October 2, 2016, when they had organised a meeting at Kanakamala in Kannur district of Kerala, it said.

Subsequently, another member of the module was arrested on February 15 last year, after his deportation from the United Arab Emirates.

In this case, on October 5, 2016, the NIA also arrested ISIS operative Subahani Haja Moideen alias Abu Jasmine, who had travelled to Iraq/Syria in April 2015 and fought for ISIS, the NIA said.

Moideen returned to India in September 2015 and continued his activities in support of ISIS in India, it said.

The NIA filed chargesheet against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad N K, Safvan, Jasim N K, and Shajeer Mangalassery under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code on March 29, 2017.

A separate chargesheet was filed against Moideen under these Acts on the same day. A supplementary chargesheet was filed against accused Moinudheen P K under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Indian Penal Code in August last year.

Now the special NIA court in Ernakulam on Monday framed charges against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad N K, Safvan and Jasim N K, the NIA said.

The case has been posted to Thursday for framing of charges against Subahani Haja Moideen and for finalizing the trial schedule, it said.

Regular trial of the case is expected to commence from September 26, 2018, the probe agency said.The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit's plea seeking a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team into his claims that he was abducted, detained and tortured in custody in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

A bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and K M Joseph said entertaining the petition at this stage might impact the ongoing trial in the case.

The bench, however, granted Purohit the liberty to raise his contentions before the trial court and said it was not expressing any opinion on his petition.

"Why should we interfere at this stage? It may impact the trial," the bench said.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Purohit, told the bench that the issue raised by Purohit in his plea has to be looked into.

Since the National Investigation Agency is seized of the matter, the agency can look into it, Salve said.

The bench, however, asked him to raise the issue before the trial court.

Purohit is currently out on bail. It was granted by the apex court last year.

On August 27, he moved the apex court seeking a court-monitored probe into his alleged abduction, illegal detention and torture in the case.

Purohit sought compensation for his illegal detention and for being tortured brutally by officials of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, the plea said.

In his plea, Purohit said he was constrained to bring to the court's notice "the absolute illegal and arbitrary actions of the officials of the Respondent No.1 (Centre) and other agencies of the State, during the relevant time regarding the abduction of the Petitioner, a serving officer in the Intelligence Corps of the regular Indian Army and his brutal torture in the custody".

He said he had made numerous complaints in this regard to all competent authorities and sought redressal for his grievances.

Purohit referred to a recent media interview by former joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs R V S Mani and a book, "The Hindu Terror-Insider account of Ministry of Home Affairs 2006-2010".

Citing the interview, the plea said it revealed the "petitioner has been framed by some factions in the previous government for political reasons, including introducing a face of terror under the guise of saffron terror".

Purohit said in the plea that he was brutally tortured for eight days and was abducted and tortured by ATS officers before being produced in court.

According to the plea, Purohit is a highly decorated officer having received commendation from the Chief of Army Staff and many awards and citations for courage shown in eliminating dangerous terrorists, demolishing established terror networks through a well-built and organised source input network.

The Supreme Court had last year granted bail to Purohit setting aside the Bombay High Court order by which the bail was denied.

Purohit had earlier told the apex court that he was caught in a "political crossfire" and had been languishing in jail for nine years.

Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of north Maharashtra.

A special MCOCA court had earlier ruled that the ATS had wrongly applied this law against sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Purohit and nine others.

The 4,000-page charge sheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because of a sizeable Muslim population. It named Thakur, Purohit and co-accused Swami Dayanand Pandey as key conspirators. The NIA last year gave Thakur a clean chit.N Sathiya Moorthy goes back in time to dig up three cases that may not have any citation in legal text-books or lawyers ready-reckoners quoted before courts but which may still have a bearing on the current case against the arrested activists.

IMAGE: Poet and social activist Varavara Rao under house arrest, in Hyderabad. Photograph: PTI Photo

Independent of the final outcome of the ongoing Supreme Court case pertaining to the five activists arrested by the Pune police, in the interim, at the very least, there is a need to understand three precedents that may get referenced during the proceedings.

This is only the early stages of the procedural issues involved in the arrest of the five academics and cultural activists, for their purported role in the Elgar Parishad rally in the Maharashtra city, which turned violent on January 1.

Should the apex court still find substance in the Pune polices submissions that they had prima facie evidence against the arrested, then they may clear full-fledged investigations, maybe after ensuring that the Fundamental Rights of those five citizens in terms of right to liberty and equality are not violated during the course of the investigations and their remand / incarceration.

If such investigations became justifiable in the eyes of the law, the court may then apply the reasonable restrictions clause under Article 14 of the Constitution (Equality before law and equal protection of the law), for the investigators to proceed with their job with certain freedom as different from outright immunity.

The first of the three cases mentioned may not have any citation in any of the legal text-books or lawyers ready-reckoners authentically quoted before courts across the country. But it was also the most widely-covered of the three cases in the global media at the time.

A day after the Janata Party government at the Centre had former prime minister Indira Gandhi arrested (on October 3, 1977), a judicial magistrate in Delhi threw out the case after seeking and viewing the relevant entries in the case diary of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

According to newspaper reports of the time, additional chief metropolitan magistrate R Dayal found no meaningful entry in the case diary, leading to the conclusion that no prima facie case had been made out at least as yet warranting Indira Gandhis arrest when it was effected.

While opinion in the Janata Party leadership/government was said to be divided at the time on arresting Indira Gandhi and making a martyr out of her, the magistrates order meant that then Home Minister Charan Singh, his acolyte and Health Minister, Raj Narain, the giant killer from the 1975 Allahabad high court verdict that unseated Mrs Gandhi as an MP, and Industry Minister George Fernandes had to eat humble pie.

The Janata government did not take forward the investigations, and no attempt was ever made afterwards to revive the case and re-arrest Indira Gandhi.

The second precedent, too, pertains to the family -- and so would the third one, flowing out of the latter in a way. The reference is to the Supreme Court verdict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and the Vaiko detention case, after the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagm leader from Tamil Nadu openly argued the case of the Tamil Tigers in a public rally, years after the outfit had been banned in India.

In the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice K T Thomas, held in 1999 that it was a personal crime, and not a crime against the nation to warrant the application of the now-defunct TADA (Terrorism and Disruptive Activities) Act. The bench also dismissed a review petition filed by the CBI-SIT, the investigating agency in the case.

Having linked the assassination to the history of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, 1987, the CBI-SIT had failed to establish when exactly did the Tamil Tigers leadership hatch the conspiracy to do assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. The bench then reduced the number of death convict to four from the 26 as per the trial court verdict.

The case against MDMK leader Vaiko flowed from a case filed by the then government of Jayalalithaa, for a speech supporting the banned Tamil Tigers.

Vaiko had delivered the speech at a public rally, held in Thirumangalam in Madurai suburbs, months earlier, and his arrest at the Chennai airport, on arrival from a US trip, made national headlines.

Upholding the now-defunct Prevention of Terrorism Act, a division bench headed by Justice S Rajendra Babu held in December 2003 that a mere act of support to a terrorist organisation, the Tamil Tigers in this case, does not amount to an act of terror under the Act. This in turn led to Vaiko being released from prison, and the state government dropping the case against him subsequently.

In the present arrested activists case, the Supreme Court, the Delhi and Bombay high courts, and also a subordinate court in Pune, are all involved, simultaneously.

The SC took suo motu notice of the case after the Delhi high court overturned the transit warrant issued to the police to take one of the suspects, arrested in the national capital, to Pune for further investigations the same day.

The high court had held that the investigating agencies did not seem to have made out a case for the arrest, in the first place, and in a rare move, ordered his transfer to overnight house arrest.

With the other arrested persons either moving the respective high courts, or were expected to do so, Chief Justice Dipak Misra in the Supreme Court ordered the police release all those who had already been arrested, and hold them under house arrest until the next hearing, posted for September 6.

In doing so, CJI Misra observed that Dissent is the safety valve of democracy. If it is not allowed, the pressure cooker will burst. However, all courts involved have held that they did not want to pre-judge the police in the matter, and have asked them to continue with their investigations, unabated.

This has led to a situation in which those arrested earlier in the case continue to be in prison. Their case is likely to be agitated before the superior courts.

The Bombay high court, on Monday, while reiterating that they cannot stop the investigators from doing their job, however pulled up the Maharashtra police for holding a news conference to claim that they had conclusive proof to link the activists arrested in June and last week to Maoists, when the matter was sub judice.

N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and political analyst, is director, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter.IMAGE: BJP MLA Ram Kadam with Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan. Photograph: Kind courtesy @Varun_dvn/Twitter

A Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party MLA has told youngsters that he would "kidnap" the girl a boy likes even if she says no to the proposal, a controversial remark that drew sharp reactions from ally Shiv Sena and opposition parties.

Ram Kadam made the comments at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency in Mumbai Monday night.

"You (youngsters) can meet me for any work," he is heard in a video clip as telling the crowd, mainly comprising the youth.

Kadam went further, saying he has received requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their proposal.

"I will help, 100 per cent. Come (to me) with your parents. What will I do if parents approve? I will kidnap the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he is heard telling the crowd in Marathi. Kadam is also heard sharing his mobile number with the crowd.

When asked about the video clip, Kadam said his comments were distorted.

Shiv Sena sought Kadam's apology and asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state's home minister, what action would be taken against the MLA for making a statement that "threatens safety of girls".

The Congress called for Kadam's arrest, while the NCP said his comment brought to the fore "Ravana-like" face of the ruling party.

Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said the MLA offering to marry off girls "against their will" meant the lawmaker believed that "marriage is like forming government".

"Ashamed and disgraced that he sits in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra- a land of culture & women liberty," he tweeted.

"Not just an outright apology from him, but I'd want to know from the Home Minister of Maharashtra what action will be taken for openly making such statements that threaten the safety of girls and offering safety to those wanting to kidnap them," he added.

Opposition Leader in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said Kadam's remarks were unfortunate and condemnable. "The state government should immediately arrest him," he said.

State Nationalist Congress Party chief Jayant Patil said, "Cases should be filed against Kadam if a girl is kidnapped in Maharashtra as the MLA himself is encouraging their kidnapping."

"He should apologise. I am sure women members of the Assembly will pose questions to him," Patil said.

State Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik said Kadam was speaking the language of abducting girls.

"What Kadam said has revealed the Ravana-like face of the BJP. Kadam said he would abduct a girl for a boy. Therefore, he should be called as 'Ravana' Kadam," Malik told reporters.'I am hopeful that you will see more focused attention on this relationship,' former US assistant secretary of state Nisha Desai Biswal tells Alokananda Chakraborty.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

In the rag-rolled and dimly-lit interior of Spicy Duck, the Chinese restaurant at the Taj Palace, New Delhi, Nisha Desai Biswal looks absolutely wrong.

Diminutive for one thing, and too unpretentious in an off-white salwar-kameez and a hint of pecan lipstick.

The Indian-origin diplomat, who has served as the assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs in the US department of state in the Obama administration, approaches me with a wide grin and a gushing apology for being late.

"This is the first time that USIBC is hosting its annual general meeting in India rather than in Washington, DC. So you can see that I have been really, really caught up," says Biswal, who is currently the head of the US-India Business Council, a powerful advocacy group of US companies with business interests in India.

"I have been coming here once a month, sometimes more frequently since I took up this position, and this time, my primary focus is the India Ideas Summit that is scheduled for September 5 and 6 in Mumbai," she says as she arranges herself neatly on a sofa on a slightly raised platform on one side of the restaurant where we hope we will get some quiet time.

She has been in meetings since morning and is scheduled to meet the prime minister right after our lunch, she adds with her usual understated manner.

I get the point: This lunch is going to be neither long nor rambling.

The timing of our gastronomic encounter in Delhi's leafy diplomatic enclave could not have been better.

After being postponed twice, the first India-US 2+2 dialogue is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on September 6.

The meeting will involve External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and their American counterparts, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

"So what exactly is this India Ideas Summit? It is going to be the first such, right?" I ask as we scan the menu.

"What we have done this time is upended the traditional model and created a summit where we want to showcase how the US and the Indian industries are relevant for and are contributing to the needs and challenges of the two countries. So all of our panels and our speakers and our TED Talk type presentations are really going to be focused on that impact," she says.

"I am having conversations with our governments, industry and CSR partners such as Pratham about the conference to set up the issues that we can showcase at the summit. The politics and the problems are very important, but ultimately what brings the two countries together are the opportunities that we see in our partnership," she adds.

"We want this summit to be really about that."

I look around for the maitre d'. Can he help us choose from that elaborate menu? "Let's keep it simple and less spicy," Biswal suggests.

Our friendly maitre d' says he will bring us some wok-fried shimeji and scallop dumplings to start with. We could then move to a Sichuan-style sea bass with stir-fried greens, which will go perfectly with jasmine rice!

Decision made, I ask Biswal if India-US relations have lost some of their early momentum in recent months and about the potential of the upcoming talks.

"What I would say is that the fundamental issues, principles, values and objectives that bring us together are still absolutely strong," Biswal says as a waiter places two glasses of fresh lime and soda on the table with unobtrusive efficiency.

"What will ebb and flow will be the way in which that manifests and the trajectory. India was very high priority for President Obama as a relationship that he wanted to have a big impact on," she says.

"We got really ambitious in the final years of the Obama administration and particularly after Prime Minister Modi came in. The current administration has an ambitious vision for the US-India partnership and you saw that when PM Modi met President Trump in June last year."

"But I think that the US administration has been consumed with some challenges that need immediate attention. So the 2+2 got pushed back, if that is what you mean when you say the relationship has lost the early momentum."

Point taken. And I can see she is choosing her words very carefully.

Surprising, because Biswal is known to speak her mind.

When the Trump administration announced a sweeping ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, she was among the few who took a strong stance against it.

She has also been vocal on issues that concern the Indian subcontinent and took a strong stand against China after the Doklam standoff.

Last March, following reports that the Trump administration would initiate steps to toughen the H1-B visa procedure, she had said that 'demonising' the H1-B work visa issue would become a 'source of tension' between the two countries.

I guess, she doesn't want this meeting to become a "source of tension"! So what is the expectation from the 2+2 from where she stands?

"This administration has taken some time to consolidate and capacitate its teams. We are seeing Secretary Pompeo put his own mark on the state department and some of the transitions we have seen in the executive branch are starting to stabilise."

"I am hopeful that you will see more focused attention on this relationship. With the 2+2, there will be a big and bold engagement," she adds.

The sea bass and the vegetables arrive and they look impeccable. Biswal doesn't look much of a foodie but does she cook, I ask to ease things a bit, though I have a sense of what the answer would be -- that she would like to for her two daughters, Safya and Kaya, but her schedule doesn't leave her with much time to go through her paces.

A lot of her family is in India, I have read. Biswal was born in Gujarat, and her parents later migrated to the US. After earning her BA in international relations from the University of Virginia, she worked briefly in public relations, and then joined the American Red Cross in 1993.

Shifting to government service, Biswal served at USAID from 1995 to 1999 in several capacities. She returned to Capitol Hill in 2005 and in 2013, US President Barack Obama nominated her to be the next assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia affairs.

Taking a gap year at one point, she visited her maternal grandparents in Gujarat and stayed with them "learning about her roots."

"Did I tell you that my grandparents were freedom fighters and that they had served jail time?" Suddenly there is a twinkle in her eyes.

"They were very simple people and they really had this thing in them about serving their country. That is where I come from. That whole experience changed my... well..."

"World view?" I chip in.

"You can say that. That is when I decided whatever I do has to ultimately be about serving my country. What I do today is, in a way, a reflection of that idea of who I am," she says and I notice her food has stayed on the plate though it has gone round and round several times over.

If Chinese is not her scene, is she fond of Odia cuisine? Her husband Subrat is from Odisha and she paid her maiden visit to the state in 2015.

"That was a visit I had waited for for a long time because I had been coming to India for work at least six times a year and I had also visited Gujarat, but alone. 2015 was the year when my husband and I were travelling together to India for the first time," says Biswal.

"Odia is very similar to Gujarati for me. I have no difficulty understanding, but when I speak, I mix up words," says the diplomat, finally letting her guard down.Boca Raton, FL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/04/2018 --Accelerated Remediation is a reputed company that offers top quality mold inspection and mold remediation in Parkland and Pompano Beach Florida. As of now, the company provides services in Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Parkland, Highland Beach, Pompano Beach and the surrounding areas. The main aim of the company is to ensure healthy living and working environments by offering exceptional service in the indoor air quality industry. The company never compromises on the quality of work that they provide.



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Accelerated Remediation is a reputed mold inspection, removal remediation company which offers services in Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Parkland, Highland Beach, Pompano Beach and the surrounding areas.Buffalo, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/04/2018 --Access Elevator is a leading company which offers products to enable the aged people and mobility challenged individuals to move around the home freely. It specializes in providing premium quality Stairlifts in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. With the help of stairlifts, elderly adults can easily move upstairs as well as go downstairs. It becomes challenging for the elders to navigate through the stairs particularly for those who have mobility related problems. Access Elevator aims to ease this problem by providing varied types of accessibility aids. The company offers lifts that enable individuals to climb at ease without being thwarted in any way.



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Access Elevator is one of the leading company in the country that offers home elevator, wheel chair lifts, and stair lifts for the individuals suffering from mobility related problems.Houston, TX -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/04/2018 --All About Bail Bonds is leading company that provides the best bail bonds in Conroe and Pearland Texas area. The company is situated very near to the Harris County jail, and the main courthouse in Houston Texas and it functions round the clock which means it is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For any arrest or bail emergency, the bail bondsman here can assist the clients through the bail bond process so that their loved ones can be out of jail fast.



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All About Bail Bonds Company is a renowned company in the United States which offers the best in class bail bond services to the customers.Houston, TX -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/04/2018 --Alpha Capital Partners, a Pittsburgh area-based real estate investment firm, has acquired a 484-bed value-add property located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This student housing community was built in 2001 and sits on 9.3 acres adjacent to Western Michigan University. This is a prime location for students, just steps to the entrance of the university and directly across the street from the Haworth College of Business.



Western Michigan University is the third ranked public university in Michigan with 70% of its over twenty thousand students living off-campus. The property has recently been restored and benefits from strong occupancy rates of 95%.



Jide Famuagun, CEO of Alpha Capital Partners, said "This acquisition is one we are all very excited about. The property's proximity to Western Michigan University (which has been designated one of America's 'Best National Universities' for the last 27 years) was very appealing to our team. We look forward to providing Western Michigan University students a great housing option as we add all the amenities and tenant experience that come with being an Alpha property".



This is the fourth asset acquired in Alpha Residential Growth Fund IV, a targeted $50M fund. ARG Fund IV will acquire and operate student housing and multifamily communities with the objective of creating value through Alpha Capital Partners' investment and operating process.



About Alpha Capital Partners

Alpha Capital Partners is a Pittsburgh -based real estate investment firm that acquires student-housing, multi-family and medical offices in secondary and tertiary markets. The company is the leader in the middle-market space and has delivered higher-than-expected margins and risk-adjusted returns. Alpha Capital Partners is continuously growing its portfolio and currently owns 24 properties in growth markets across the United States.



For additional information, visit http://www.alphacapitalpartners.com.



Contact for Alpha Capital Partners

Investor Relations: Aly McCaffrey

Media: Lola Soyebo Harris

Phone: 412-212-0665Easton, PA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/04/2018 --Spectrum of Floors is a distinguished name when it comes to hardwood flooring in Allentown and Bethlehem Pennsylvania. These stunning floors boost the value of the home for a reason. They pull a room collectively and express natural style and quality. The company offers hardwood floors in a high matte or gloss finish that looks incredible because of innovative technology.



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Spectrum of Floors is a renowned company that offers best quality flooring for the residential and commercial spaces.Easton, PA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/04/2018 --Spectrum of Floors is a famous company which offers all types of residential and commercial flooring installation in Allentown and Stroudsburg Pennsylvania. The company specializes in vinyl, laminate, tiles and LVT flooring. Moreover, the company also offers diverse types of commercial and residential carpeting. The carpets provided by Spectrum of Floors are very much hard-wearing, and they usually come at economical prices.



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Spectrum of Floors is a top company that offers world class flooring installation services for the residential as well as commercial building.Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas learned last week that he and three other Republicans were stripped of key committees assignments by the House Steering Committee, which is under the control of Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio.

Huelskamp was removed from the Budget and Agriculture committees. Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona and Walter B. Jones of North Carolina were booted from the Financial Services Committee. And Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan also lost his seat on the Budget Committee.

Apart from Jones, all were rebellious right-wingers. Huelskamp and Amash voted against the budget proposed by Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin in committee and on the floor, saying it did not cut spending fast enough. They also voted against the continuing resolution that is funding the government through the end of March.

Huelskamp was interviewed by telephone Wednesday by CQ Roll Call reporters Shira Toeplitz and Janie Lorber on the Sirius-XM radio show Showdown 2012, on the POTUS Politics channel. This transcript of their conversation has been edited and condensed.

Q: Your district is western Kansas, a very rural area.The McKenzie County Heritage Association is joining with the American Legion ND Post 29, Watford City and ND Post 94, Alexander, to celebrate the WWI 100th Anniversary in conjunction with the annual McKenzie County Heritage Day on Sept. 15; 11 am - 5 pm at the McKenzie County Heritage Park. Heritage Park is located at 950 2nd Ave. SW, Watford City.

Enjoy an all around patriotic day beginning at 11 am with a Flag Raising and Flag Folding Ceremony conducted by the American Legion. The ceremony will include recognition of veterans and family recognition of relatives that served in WWI. The ceremony will also include recognition of the county leaders and first responders.

Special guest Glenn Wahus, American Legion Department Commander of North Dakota, will be speaking at noon with lunch provided by the Community Foundation. Also commemorating the American Legion Centennial will be a WWI exhibit in the train depot building all day and WWI period dress costume contest for all ages starting at 2 pm.

Visitors are encouraged to explore the historic buildings and antique tractors in Heritage Park that have been donated from all around McKenzie County. Watch the sawmill & shingle mill in action and view the historic pioneer school starting at 1 pm. The old time threshing begins at 2 pm with a coin toss in straw to follow. At 3 pm there will be a stationary baler and horsepower demonstration.

The Long X Arts Foundation will be displaying photography and artwork from local artists throughout the buildings. They will also have crafts for children to take part in throughout the day. Lane Sandstrom will be providing music for the day. There will be food vendors including snow cones available as well. Other events for young and old will be the cupcake walk at 1:30 pm, the pie eating contest at 2:30 pm and the sack race at 4 pm.

Admission for the day is a free will donation. Volunteers will be needed to help with the event. Contact Sandy Rieker at 701-444-5804 for more information.

Everyone is welcome to bring the family and enjoy a patriotic and historic day at the 20th annual McKenzie County Heritage Day!MEDORA, N.D.  The popular History Alive programs at the Chateau de Mores State. Historic Site during/September include portrayal of the Madame de Mores. Presentations will be held on the Chateau veranda on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. (MT). History Alive programs are free and open to the public.

The Madame de Mores (Medora) will appear at the Chateau Sept. 8. Portrayed by Karen Nelson, this program will center on Madame de Mores return to Medora in 1903 after spending summers at the Chateau from 1883 to 1886. Visitors will meet Madame in a brief retrospective on her time in western Dakota as well as her life following her return to France.

The free History Alive programs explore the lives and times of decades gone by, combining theater arts with history. The 20-minute monologues are based on original letters, diaries, and other documents, many from the archives of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

The Chateau de Mores is a state historic site managed by the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The Chateau de Mores site and Interpretive Center near Medora is open daily, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (MT). For more information, contact Site Supervisor Chris Dorfschmidt at 701-623-4355. Find out about additional upcoming educational programs sponsored by the State Historical Society of North Dakota at history.nd.gov/events https://history.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a13cda8364c0b99f233125843&id=562f2d50c7&e=ddf9a054ae or call 701-328-2666.Indian shares opened lower on Tuesday as investors fretted about a weakening rupee, higher oil prices and SEBI's new rules barring non-resident Indians from controlling foreign funds.

An emerging market sell-off and concerns about escalating U.S.-China trade war also kept investors nervous.

The benchmark BSE Sensex was down 41 points or 0.11 percent at 38,271 in early trade after falling around 0.9 percent the previous day. The broader Nifty index was down 20 points or 0.18 percent at 11,562.

Vedanta declined 2.2 percent after the company set Oct 1 deadline to go private.

Mahindra & Mahindra was trading flat after unveiling passenger vehicle Marazzo.

Reliance Infrastructure tumbled 2 percent despite winning a Rs. 200 crore arbitration award against NHAI.

Graphite India dropped 1.3 percent after buying a 16 percent stake in U.S.-based General Graphene for Rs 132 crore.

GMR Infra lost about 2 percent after divesting stake in four Indonesian firms.

PVR shed 0.6 percent on reports that it is seeking expanding overseas.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.comEuropean stocks may open on a subdued note Tuesday as investors fret about rising trade tensions and the sell-off in emerging market currencies, particularly in Argentina and Turkey. A lack of trading cues from Wall Street may also contribute to a lackluster opening.

U.S.-China trade tensions remain in focus ahead of looming U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports as early as this week.

Talks between U.S. and Canadian negotiators will resume on Wednesday after they failed to reach an agreement last week.

The U.S. August jobs data on Friday will again be watched closely for clues about how the Fed may continue its rate hike cycle.

Investors also remained concerned that growing turbulence in Argentina and Turkey could spread to other emerging .

Asian stock markets are broadly lower despite Argentina announcing emergency measures to restore investor confidence in its government.

The U.S. dollar strengthened while Brent crude futures traded slightly lower on rising supply from the OPEC Countries and the United States.

European markets ended mixed on Monday, with a weak pound lifting U.K. shares, while markets elsewhere across Europe fell on trade-related concerns after weekend U.S.-Canada trade talks ended with no deal.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index finished marginally higher. The German DAX slid 0.1 percent while France's CAC 40 index rose 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 jumped as much as 1 percent.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market AnalysisMediclinic International plc (MDC.L), a private healthcare services group, announced Tuesday that its Swiss operating division, Hirslanden, has reached agreement to combine Hirslanden Clinique La Colline with Clinique des Grangettes in Geneva, Switzerland. In the combined entity, Hirslanden will retain a 60% controlling interest.

Mediclinic will combine the operating companies of Hirslanden Clinique La Colline and Pidji Healthcare Ltd, the holding company for the Clinique des Grangettes group of companies, and pay a cash consideration of 68 million Swiss francs or 54 million pounds to current owner Philippe Glatz for a 60% interest in the new combined company.

Mediclinic and Philippe Glatz will have call and put options, respectively, on the remaining 40% interest in the combined company. The options shall be exercisable after 4 years.

The transaction is subject to competition approval in Switzerland with an effective date of the combination expected to be from October 2018, following which Hirslanden will consolidate 100% of the financial contribution from Clinique La Colline and Clinique des Grangettes.

The transaction is expected to be accretive to Hirslanden's earnings and EBITDA margin.

Clinique des Grangettes is a private hospital in Geneva. Philippe Glatz, will serve on the board of the combined . The members of the senior management team, the current hospital director, and senior clinical staff will remain with the combined entity.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsGerman IT company Bechtle AG (BC8G) announced Tuesday the successful acquisition of French IT provider Inmac Wstore S.A.S, effective on September 01.

The deal is the company's biggest takeover to date.

Following the unanimous consent given in July by the Inmac Wstore employees' workers council, Bechtle has now also obtained all required French regulatory approvals to go ahead with the acquisition.

In 2017, Inmac Wstore, with more than 400 employees, generated revenues of around 420 million euros.

As previously announced in July, Inmac Wstore will continue to operate in its existing structure under the established management team headed by Jacques Thefo.

Bechtle now ranks among the top 5 IT companies in France, which is the third-largest IT market in the EU.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsFrench stocks fell in cautious trade on Tuesday as rising trade tensions and the sell-off in emerging market currencies, particularly in Argentina and Turkey, kept investors nervous.

U.S.-China trade tensions remained in focus ahead of looming U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports as early as this week.

Meanwhile, talks between U.S. and Canadian negotiators will resume on Wednesday after they failed to reach an agreement last week.

The benchmark CAC 40 was down 32 points or 0.58 percent at 5,383 in opening deals after closing 0.1 percent higher in the previous session.

Banks BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale were flat to modestly higher as pessimism over Italian budget receded.

Re-insurer Scor soared 8.5 percent after it rejected a friendly takeover offer by Covea.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market AnalysisOil prices rallied on Tuesday to hit the highest level in almost two months after the evacuation of two Anadarko (NYSE:APC) platforms in the Gulf of Mexico amid a looming tropical storm.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp said on Monday it had shut oil and gas production at two oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of the approach of Gordon, which is expected to come ashore as a hurricane.

Prices also remained supported after ExxonMobil warned of a supply crunch in Nigeria in the wake of a six-week blockade by former workers at its oil facilities.

U.S. light crude was up $1.25 a barrel or 1.79 percent at $71.03, the highest level in almost two months. Benchmark Brent crude was up 1.33 percent at $79.20 a barrel.

Markets look forward to the weekly fuel stocks data due to be published by the American Petroleum Institute (API) later in the day.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market AnalysisPresident Donald Trump has accused his beleaguered Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department of damaging the prospects of two Republican congressmen seeking re-election by indicting them.

Rep. Chris Collins of New York and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California were indicted last month.

After being accused of insider trading, Collins suspended his re-election bid for a fourth term.

Hunter, a five-term Congressman, was indicted over campaign violations.

Both of them had endorsed Trump when he launched his bid for the presidency.

Trump unleashed a raging tweet storm criticizing Sessions Monday: "Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff," he said in a backhand compliment.

If the winning chances of two GOP candidates are affected in the mid-term elections, it is a set back for the Republicans, who are fighting hard against the Democrats who are seeking to wrest control of the House of Representatives.

"The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now," according to Trump.

He did not spare "Lyin' James Comey". "The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!," Trump tweeted.

In another tweet, Trump suggested that former Secretary Of state John Kerry, "the father of the now terminated Iran deal, is thinking of running for President". "I should only be so lucky - although the field that is currently assembling looks really good - for me!," he added.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsPresident Donald Trump has accused his beleaguered Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department of damaging the prospects of two Republican congressmen seeking re-election by indicting them.

Rep. Chris Collins of New York and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California were indicted last month.

After being accused of insider trading, Collins suspended his re-election bid for a fourth term.

Hunter, a five-term Congressman, was indicted over campaign violations.

Both of them had endorsed Trump when he launched his bid for the presidency.

Trump unleashed a raging tweet storm criticizing Sessions Monday: "Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff," he said in a backhand compliment.

If the winning chances of two GOP candidates are affected in the mid-term elections, it is a set back for the Republicans, who are fighting hard against the Democrats who are seeking to wrest control of the House of Representatives.

"The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now," according to Trump.

He did not spare "Lyin' James Comey". "The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!," Trump tweeted.

In another tweet, Trump suggested that former Secretary Of state John Kerry, "the father of the now terminated Iran deal, is thinking of running for President". I should only be so lucky - although the field that is currently assembling looks really good - for me!," he added.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political NewsThe majestic singing at the E.F.K.S. Hall in Sogi, the military-like precision of fire knife dancers, and the cultural splendor on display at the 28th Teuila Festival confirms Samoas place in the region as a premier tourism destination.

The one-week festival programme, which culminates with the crowning of the 2018 Miss Samoa Pageant in Savaii, has a lot to offer to the curious Apia residents, tourists and international visitors who continue to be amazed with what this nation can provide in terms of sustainable tourism.

Acting Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa said it nicely when she urged Samoans to celebrate with thanksgiving through song, dance and art at the weeklong festival.

It is a time that our country celebrates with thanksgiving in expressive art of song, dance and arts and our Christian faith, our cultural and natural heritage and the mana of our people; which transforms our minds and strengthens our will and resilience to implement the responsibilities that are required of us in our own calling to perform with specific standards and efforts.

It is also during this period that we pause to reflect discuss and refocus our priorities on strategic actions that yield improved results from sustainable tourism, she said.

Therefore, the request by the Australian airline Virgin Australia  for its license to fly between Australia and Samoa to be renewed should come as no surprise to anyone. Obviously, they did their homework and know the standing of Samoa in the region, as a premier tourist destination.

The airline published a public notice in yesterdays edition of the Samoa Observer, pursuant to the Civil Aviation Act 1998, for any written objections to their application to be sent to the Minister for Works, Transport and Infrastructure.

Virgin Australias request for its license to be renewed coincides with yesterdays announcement by the national carrier Samoa Airways, that it will begin a Brisbane service in November this year. The announcement by the national carrier as well as Virgin Australia should augur well for the growth of tourism in Samoa.

But the request by Virgin Australia could also raise eyebrows in the corridors of power in Apia, as the Government will worry at the implications of giving a foreign airline more access into the Samoan travel market at the expense of the national carrier.

The track record of the Government in managing the national airline has always been under scrutiny, from Polynesian Airlines in previous years to Samoa Airways today. There will be a lot of pressure on the Government to protect the national carrier, which is only two months away from celebrating its first anniversary.

Perhaps it would be prudent for the Minister for Works, Transport and Infrastructure to look at the issue holistically, to ensure that no stone is unturned and Samoas tourism industry at the end of the day benefits from the increased air connectivity and cheaper airfares  thanks to competition between the various airlines. Currently Virgin Australia, Fiji Airways, Real Tonga Airlines and Air New Zealand  together with the destinations that Samoa Airways services  offer tourists and the travelling public options. The services and international links offered by these five different operators currently makes Samoa one of the regions most accessible nation. Going a step further and offering Virgin Australia a deal could potentially open up access for some of the 1.2 million Australian residents who travel to New Zealand annually. Crossing the Tasman continues to be a popular route for Australians travelling overseas, according to Pangaea, an international travel public relations and representative network.

Visitor number figures reportedly released by the Samoa Tourism Authority last year point to a 4.8 per cent increase (on the previous year) in visitors to 145,740 and a 7.04 per cent growth in tourism earnings to US$155 million. Most visitors originated from New Zealand, followed by Australia and American Samoa according to Radio New Zealand.

Samoa is in the box seat to set the agenda in terms of sustainable tourism and become a model for other Pacific Island nations. Long-term political stability, respect for the rule of law, development of and support for the growth of the tourism and hospitality sector, and having all stakeholders on the same page have become key features of a government that is already working in unison with the tourism industry.

The plastic ban that will go into effect in January 2019  which has compelled members of the tourism sector in recent members to embrace eco-friendly waste management systems  shows the level of maturity that the industry has reached in this part of the Pacific. The push by the Government to phase out single-use plastics lies at the heart of its sustainable tourism ethos.

The opening up of its skies to encourage more competition, the push by the Government to phase out single-use plastics in the country and other similar initiatives are the cream on the cake.

Acting Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa subtly made reference to all these developments in the sector when she talked about sustainable tourism.

It is as the U.N.W.T.O. defines it is tourism that takes account of its current and future economic, social and environment impacts, addressing the need of the visitors, the industry, the environment and of course our host communities, she said, while adding that Samoa was an early pioneer in the development of the sustainable tourism management concept in the region.

The only way is up for Samoa and the opportunity is there for the Government to continue to work in partnership with the industrys various stakeholders. Nonetheless enjoy the best of what Samoa has to offer at the 28th Teuila Festival. God bless and have a nice day Samoa!What we feared for and continued to warn the relevant authorities about for quite some time now has happened. We are talking about the story of a Chinese man being found dead on the seawall, which was published on the front page of the Sunday Samoan.

This is a real tragedy especially when it is unfolding during the Teuila Festival Week which is supposed to showcase the best of Samoa. The death of the Chinese man on the seawall has instead put a dampener on those efforts.

We say this because the seawall on Beach Road is one of the most important features of the Apia Township. It is a wonderful space for everyone; whether you are looking for pictures of the sunset or sunrise in Samoa, keen on jogging or a leisurely walk, wanting to catch up with some friends and families or simply to sit down a catch your breath. It is one of those spaces visitors to this country must try.

Two years ago in an editorial Petty crime a crying shame, we sounded the alarm bells about the dangers that had started to surface on the seawall. In light of the Chinese mans death, we feel its important to revisit what we said then, warning the relevant authorities that something needed to be done to protect members of the public who visit the seawall.

At the time we said there was a sad trend emerging, involving criminals lurking around the area, preying on unsuspecting victims including visitors to this country. And they appear to strike at all hours of the day, even Sunday believe it or not. Take the experience of a student studying at the Oceania University of Medicine who was attacked there on a Sunday. Robert Duprey, 48, was attacked during his routine run on the seawall.

There was a man who was just walking (on the sea wall). I was running and I said, good morning, Mr. Duprey recalled. The man asked Mr. Duprey about where he was from.

I said the U.S. and I kept running. About 30 seconds after he comes up from behind me, punches me in the face and throws me down and tries to take my wallet and phone.

He hit me really hard from behind. Im on top of the seawall and I fall down to the bottom. When Im falling, I knew I was being attacked. 

Mr. Duprey believes the man was high judging by the look in his eyes.

I get up but he tries to come at me three times and I fight him off, he said. Then he comes at me with a coconut and then I get ready to fight but he starts running away because another man was coming to help me. I had blood all over my nose and face but he didnt get my things.

Luckily for Mr. Duprey, he was no slouch and was able to defend himself.

Now last week, a similar incident happened. This time, the culprit attacked another American man and his girlfriend at around 8:30 at night. The American man and his girlfriend were taking a leisurely stroll on the seawall when a man came out from nowhere and attacked them.

We were just walking along the sea wall enjoying ourselves when all of a sudden a burglar grabbed my girlfriends hand, the couple recalled. He was trying to get her purse and he did. Once he grabbed the purse, he pushed my girlfriend down and ran off with it.

The American chased after the man and with the help of a local, they were able to stop the robber as he tried to escape into the ocean. The police were called and the bag was luckily retrieved, along with all the womans personal belongings.

On both occasions, the victims were badly shaken. The American involved in the attack last week said the incident had left a bad taste in his mouth about Samoa.

Its so sad that incidents like this are happening too frequently now, he said. Too many people have been reportedly hurt and/or attempted robbery at this location at night time. Not only have there been robberies but people have been beaten on the sea wall. Also, there seems to be a much higher danger if one is a palagi.

The worry is that these criminals dont just target visitors. Weve heard many stories of innocent local residents who have also become victims  some of them young boys and girls who were simply enjoying the atmosphere. Which is what we should all be alarmed about.

That was two years ago. What was done about it?

Well on Sunday, we woke up to the sort of news no one wants to see. That an innocent Chinese man had been found dead. Its too early to tell what happened but from the accounts weve heard so far, it appears that it was case of an attempted robbery gone horribly wrong.

So what is going on in Samoa today?

Lets just say people talk so much about progress on these shores; the high rises in Apia, the flash lights and what have you. And yet when you scratch a bit deeper what you will find would alarm you. Deep beneath all the facade there is a sense of sadness, bitterness. The signs are there, that there is something terribly amiss, in the make up of this country.

Were talking about the rise in petty crimes, the poor standard of living among some people, the deteriorating state of our morals, values and our culture. These problems cannot be ignored, they are staring us in the face every day. And they are hurting innocent people  to the point now that someone has been killed.

This is very, very sad Samoa.Re: E.F.K.S. Church elders decision questioned.

Dear Editor

It has been a while now since we last heard about tax issues between EFKS and the government. After reading Letaa Taniuelu Maiava personal opinion on Samoa Observer 3rd September 2018, I feel that I must also express my own view as a genuine member of the EFKS church in contrary to his.

He said many members of the wider EFKS church do not support their elders decision to stop their faifeaus from registering as tax payers.

When we use the word many as a representative of an entire population, we must absorb the statistical testing methods to verify that such claim is true or not, so the lay preacher said many members, the question is how many? or shall we say, what percentage of the entire EFKS population is he referring to, that do not support the elders decision?

I am very surprised that one of the EFKS acting member and lay preacher is not aware of the different levels of authority within the Church, the elders hands are tight and hardly can do anything to amend the decision by the General Assembly even if they want to.

With reference to the EFKS Constitution the General Assembly is the Supreme Council of the Church and because of that its decision are conclusive and binding on the whole Church and only the General Assembly has the authority to change any of its own decision through approved constitutional procedures. So if anyone wants to question the decision then they must question the General Assembly not the elders.

The story of Jacob and Esau reminds an important message, Jacob disguised as Esau to trick his father Isaac so he can receive his fathers blessing, remember what Isaac said before he blessed Jacob, he said Your voice sounds like Jacob but your hands are like Esau. Sometimes people clothed as devoted church members but their voices and their perspectives are just as good as committed politicians.

I really respect Letaas opinion which he is entitled with, but telling the Church leaders and elders to leave their parishes and go into parliament where they can voice their political views, is no different than a political advocate clothed as a genuine and a faithful church member.

I once mentioned this in one of my previous letters to the editor, any reasonable person would give an advice on any government related matter but it doesnt mean they are politicians or even want to become one.

I dont agree with what Letaa mentioned, that the elders encourage the faifeau or telling the faifeau not to pay taxes, the correct statement should be, the elders reminded the faifeau to uphold the General Assembly decision because that is their constitutional duties, to implement within their delegated authorities any decision made by the General Assembly and I am sure Letaa is well aware of that, as he was used to take part several times in the past Fonotele Sessions. Besides church minister title is a property of the church and that includes Lay Preacher.

Without a doubt, reading from his opinion appears to be a law abiding citizen, and never wants to break any part of it, I hope he was free without any influence to judge the faifeau by saying that what they are doing is morally and ethically wrong yet they preach integrity and honesty. No wonder why the head of the Church, Jesus Christ reminds us not to judge others or we too will be judge.

I am an average person who works to earn a living, I pay my taxes and whats left I use a portion of it for church donations including alofa for the faifeau.

The government received their cut from my income as direct taxation; I pay for vagst as well, so why on earth would I agree for the government to claim three times more from the same money I earn given to the faifeau? Perhaps that is exactly what Letaa is saying a crime of stealing, and passing law to take extra money even though they already received their statutory portion is nothing more than a plain thief.

Besides that same alofa given to faifeau is circulating in the economy but Im sure he knows better, hes a qualified accountant.

If the governments still insist that their law is rightful, constitutional and morally justified in the sight of God, they have every right to challenge the matter in the court of law, but never forget we all answer to the Just God who is watching us with His True Judgment through Christ Jesus, because He is forever the God of both Church and all Governments.

Blessed week Samoa

S. MatautiaAn Australian social and conservative political commentator has slammed Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi over his criticism of climate change skeptics.

Andrew Bolt, who is a blogger and columnist at the News Corporation-owned Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne and is a co-presenter on Australias 2GB radio, decried the Prime Ministers appeal to Australia to cut carbon emissions to save Pacific Island nations from climate change.

Anyone who saw Samoas Prime Minister waddle to the podium of Sydneys Lowy Institute last week should have known he was conning us."

No, its not global warming thats the single greatest threat to the  wellbeing of peoples of the Pacific, as Tuilaepa Sailele bellowed while demanding that Australia have the political guts to slash its emissions."

Well, speaking of guts, friend, check your own. It should remind you far more Samoans are killed by what they stuff down their throats than by what Australians pump up their chimneys, he said in a blog, which the Herald Sun published early this week. (read the blog).

The Prime Minister, who addressed the foreign policy think-tank days after Australias political crisis came to an end with the ascension of Scott Morrison as the new Prime Minister, challenged Australia to take the lead to address climate change in the region.

We all know the problem, we all know the solutions, and all that is left would be some political courage, some political guts, to tell people of your country there is a certainty of disaster," Tuilaepa said.

But Mr Bolt refused to accept the argument by Samoas Prime Minister, saying: Sure, Sailele may rant about how global warming is drowning Pacific islands and smashing them with monster cyclones, but thats false, too. There is no evidence of more or worse cyclones in the Pacific. Samoas deadliest cyclone struck back in 1889, and its last category 4 cyclone was 27 years ago.

While the Australian blogger and commentator has turned the screws on Tuilaepa, his views on Australian domestic and international issues has not been without controversy, with commentators and media watchers often describing his comments as racist.

Bob Howarth, an Australian-based Pacific media consultant and journalism educator, has described Mr Bolts attack on Tuilaepa as bias and racist.

Bolts verbal attack on the Prime Minister of Samoa is typical of one of Australias most rightwing columnists with opinions reflecting the worst bias and outright racism that appeals to the most narrow-minded audience, he told Samoa Observer last night.

The Prime Minister is currently in Nauru attending the 49th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit.Four men who admitted to the kidnapping of a taxi driver and left him in the boot of his car earlier this year will be sentenced next Friday.

Roman Luamanu, Mu Fualau, Sui Fualau and Magia Luamanu appeared before Supreme Court Justice Leiataualesa Daryl Clarke yesterday, for prosecution to hear their submissions on what sentence they think should be impose on the defendants.

They were also ordered to be remanded in custody until their sentencing date.

Justice Leiataualesa said taxi drivers were vulnerable people of the community.

Taxi drivers in my view are vulnerable part of the community because they are vulnerable to these types of incidences and violent against them."

One of the factors in sentencing that comes to my mind is the need for deterrence in this type of offending against taxi drivers, he said.

The four defendants were also given an opportunity by the Judge to speak and all of them told the court that they feel remorseful for what they did to the victim.

The incident occurred on March 3 this year when the taxi driver was stopped and asked if he could take them to Vaoala to pick up a sack of taro from the house of the first defendant, Roman Luamanu.

The victim got out and went to the back to open the boot when he was allegedly punched in the back of his head by defendant Roman, who went on to demand that he got into the vehicle boot.

The victim said in his statement that he obeyed because he was scared and he jumped inside the boot. Roman allegedly sat in the drivers seat with Sui offside and the other two at the back of the taxi.

They then proceeded to rob the taxi driver of $125 and used another $20 to buy petrol for the car, which they drove around Apia and went to Vaitele Fou using this taxi while the owner was still inside the boot.

After their drink up they went to Pinati and had something to eat and then they drove back to Afiamalu to drop off Mu and Sui to their home while the owner was still in the boot, stated the reportThe island of Savaii has laid out the red carpet for the contestants of the 2018 Miss Samoa Pageant.

The nine contestants travelled to the big island on Monday on Samoa Shipping Corporation-owned vessel Lady Samoa III and were met on arrival, before they were invited to a welcoming ceremony where an ava exchange ceremony took place to mark their arrival.

Miss Susana o Samoa, Sonia Piva, said they were speechless at sight of the beautiful welcoming ceremony that the people had put on for them.

The girls were crying, weeping tears of happiness and overwhelmed of what they have seen from the exit of the ferry to the places where they are currently staying."

We feel so special and how the people are treating us here and its making us do our very best for them."

Prior to the arrival of the contestants, communities in Savaii were seen putting up decorations and cleaning the area in preparation for their arrival.

With everything they are preparing for the Miss Samoa Pageant, the Savaii people are working together to make this pageant a memorable occasion, not just for the contestants, but for them and the people watching this, said a villager on the island.

The contestants were introduced to the families hosting them for the four-days duration of the program, were eager to be taken home.

We cant wait to meet our beautiful miss. We have been working so hard these past few days. But seeing this is actually happening is taking all the exhaustion away and fill us with so much joy and amusement, said one of the host of the contestants.

A faletua, who was also there to receive a contestant, said: This is a great opportunity for us to be part of this special event, and this is another to showcase to not only Samoa but people watching this that we can do this if we work together as one.

The nine contestants are being accommodated by the following church groups: Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (C.C.C.S.) Saleaula - Dolores Cassandra Satiu Cufi (Miss Salimu Fagaloa), C.C.C.S. Sasina - Lanuola Giselle Tuiletufuga Price (Miss Samoa Melbourne), C.C.C.S. Sapapalii - Norah Lio Setu Aloianai (Miss Samoa Victoria), C.C.C.S. Samalaeulu - Levalasi Vivian Sua (Miss Le Naumati Creations), C.C.C.S. Lalomalava - Georgina Mulipola (Miss CCK), C.C.C.S. Iva - Erin Noelani Taefu (Miss Samoa Australia), C.C.C.S. Lefagaoalii - Christie Retalila Temareti (Miss Samoa New South Wales), Methodist Salelologa - Sonia Piva (Miss Susana o Samoa), and C.C.C.S.Tafua tai - Cecilia Tufuga-Fatu (Miss Samoa New Zealand).To mark the 40th Anniversary of the Samoa Observer, a series of selected articles printed over the last 40 years will be re-published in the next two weeks, to show our readers the issues covered by this newspaper over the years and the personalities that made the headlines.





First Published: 06 June 1995

A group of locals has been granted a conditional license to set up a third commercial bank in Western Samoa.

The National Bank of Western Samoa may begin business as early as October or November and is expected to lead to more competitive bank rates and services for customers.

The bank will be 100 per cent locally owned, with shareholders including members of the Meredith family and a group of Pago residents.

Plans to set up the bank were announced by the Finance Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele in his budget statement to Parliament last Wednesday.

He said the move would promote healthy competition with the Central Bank and Bank of Western Samoa.

With this positive step, we believe that this is the right time for Western Samoa to move away from direct controls to indirect and market-oriented approaches to monetary policy, he said.

Accordingly, the Central Bank has already initiated action...to gradually decontrol the financial system.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Papalii Tommy Scanlan, said yesterday that the National Bank had until September to fulfil the Central Banks requirements in regard to start up capital and other conditions.

If the shareholders fulfilled those requirements, the bank would be granted a full license, he said.

A third commercial bank would give people more banking options and provide competition in terms of bank fees and other services, he said.

The Central Bank fixes the maximum lending rates, so they (the National Bank) can set lower rates if they want. It will provide incentives.

Papalii said the Central Bank issued invitations for banking license applications last year in New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia.

He said five serious applications were received and the National Bank of Western Samoa was selected after thorough checks of those involved.

We dont just issue a bank licence to anybody. The directors and shareholders have to be people of high repute, trustworthy and of high integrity.

There was no bias towards either an overseas or local company winning the license and the local company happened to be the best, said Papalii.

The capital to set up the bank would come from shareholders, he said, but did not give further details.The need to maintain traditional Samoan dances was highlighted yesterday at a workshop between a local and overseas dance groups.

Held at the University of the South Pacific, Alafua Campus the Le Tiumasalasala dance group from Samoa and Leleiga o Aiga group from Hawaii shared skills and knowledge based on Samoan traditional dances.

Leleiga o Aiga founder and director, Henry Sataraka said that their group is from a school of the Samoan language, arts, and culture.

The vision is to preserve and perpetuate the Samoan culture for the Samoans born and raised abroad.

This the first trip to Samoa for our group to try and reconnect the students with their roots in reference to the land, culture, language in Samoa.

We are so fortunate to work together with a local dance group and will have the chance to perform for this years Teuila Festival, he said.

Henry added that the traditional Samoan dances are slowly becoming a lost art form as culture continues to evolve and change.

A dancer from Le Tiumasalasala dance group from Samoa, Benjamin Lelevaga, said that their founder is Eterei Maiava.

We are a newly established dance group of dancers that have danced for so long. The significance of the collaboration is to highlight the difference between a local and overseas dance group.

Kids from overseas are not rooted yet, they did not live and grow up in Samoa with all its cultural aspects. The kids from Hawaii are still learning about our culture and this get together will give both of us the opportunity to skills and knowledge with each other.

When kids from overseas come and do their own thing and we do ours but now its a first time experience to be united and be dance as one, he said.

Benjamin added that in their group there are 16 members with four girls and 12 boys, who are dancing with a passion and acknowledging that it is a God-given talent.

The two dance groups will be performing in weeks Teuila Festival on Thursday.YANGON, Myanmar (AP)  The wives of two Myanmar reporters for the Reuters news agency sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for possessing state secrets said Tuesday they were shocked by the court's decision.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced Monday in proceedings that were widely decried as unfair. They had reported about the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign that drove 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee to Bangladesh. The subject is sensitive in Myanmar because of worldwide condemnation of the military's human rights abuses, which it denies.

Wa Lone's wife, Pan Ei Mon, said at a news conference that she never expected such a harsh punishment "because everyone knows that they didn't do anything wrong." The two men testified that they had been framed by the police.

Pan Ei Mon gave birth to the couple's first child in Yangon on Aug. 10, but her husband has not seen their daughter.

"After I gave birth, I continued to keep strong with the hope that my daughter and her father will meet soon. But I felt like my hope was broken after the verdict yesterday. I am hopeless now," she said.

Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su, also said she had expected her husband would be coming home. They have a 3-year-old daughter.

"I believed he would be free, he felt the same," she said. "But it didn't happen, I felt like I am a crazy person."

She said she still hopes for mercy from the state. At the same time, she remains proud that her husband did his duty as a journalist.

The lawyers for the journalists said at the news conference that they would do whatever they could to get their clients freed. They can file an appeal or ask for a pardon, or hope the reporters could be freed under a general amnesty for prisoners.

Pan Ei Mon said she was saddened and hurt that the country's leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, had taken a legalistic position in a June interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK by saying that the two reporters were arrested for breaking the Official Secret Act, not because they exposed the army's abuses.

"I am very sad about what she answered because she was the one whom we always admired and respected," she said.

"We loved and respected her so much," she said. "We feel very sad as our respected person has the wrong opinion about us."

The case drew worldwide attention as an example of how democratic reforms in long-isolated Myanmar have stalled under Suu Kyi's civilian government, which took power in 2016.

Although the military, which ruled the country for a half-century, maintains control of several key ministries, Suu Kyi's rise to government leader had raised hopes for an accelerated transition to full democracy, and her stance on the Rohingya crisis has disappointed many former admirers.Helen and Dick Brown have survived three wildfires in the 42 years they have lived on South Grade Road and Boulder Oaks Lane, including this past summers West Fire in Alpine. They know they were fortunate to return to a home after the July 6 fire ignited at West Willows Drive off Interstate 8.

Thirty-four others in the rural East County community were not so lucky as the blaze scorched more than 500 acres. Its cause is still under investigation.

Helen Brown said she and her husband sat inside a bar on Old Highway 80 the afternoon of July 6, along with dozens of other displaced Alpine residents, watching in shock on big-screen televisions as the fire took out home after home in their neighborhood.

We didnt know if ours was one of them, she said. We watched while the house of our friends, Al and Sharon Haven, burned down. Our landscaper, Jim Beaty of Bates Tree Service, also lost his house and all of his equipment.

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Nearly two months later, the Browns were part of an audience of about 50 people who crowded into a meeting room at the Alpine Library to listen to a talk by Fire Marshal Jason McBroom of the Alpine Fire Protection District.

McBrooms Lessons from the West Fire discussed some of the aspects surrounding that fire  how triple-digit temperatures, acres of dry brush, high humidity and high winds caused the fire to spread quickly  and how to prepare for the next one.

He reminded residents that the same area burned in 1970 during the Laguna Fire, and that fires come with the territory.

McBroom said he is focused on raising awareness of the environment and conditions that surround Alpine and said there will be more talks in the coming months, much like the one he gave at the library.

We live in the WUI, the Wildland Urban Interface, McBroom said. The closer the brush and weeds are to structures, the higher the fire danger. The message is to educate homeowners on maintaining defensible space surrounding structures.

Defensible space is the required space between a structure and the wildland area that creates a buffer to slow or stop the spread of fire to the structure.

Cutting weeds and brush, trimming trees and removing vegetation surrounding the first 5 feet around the perimeter of structures increase chances of saving homes, McBroom said.

Maintenance of defensible space is a first starter, McBroom said. Planting low-growing plants and clearing non-native vegetation increases survival.

Alpine Fire Protection District Fire Chief Bill Paskle was also at the meeting and made sure copies of Ready, Set, Go! were available for residents. The 12-page booklet gives information on how to prepare for a fire, tips on best modes of protection and evacuation planning.

Its not a question of if, but when, the next wildfire will occur, Paskle wrote in the booklet.

The Browns said they had been though the Cedar Fire in 2003 and another wildfire in Alpine in 2001, and while they had the basics down, they gleaned some new information from the talk.

We learned we shouldnt have shrubs right next to the house, or plants right next to the house; we need a five-foot clearance, Helen Brown said.

Brown said that on the morning of the fire, she and her husband were in La Mesa at Grossmont Center, escaping the heat of Alpine. She said at about noon, they noticed smoke in the distance. A short time later, they started receiving text messages on their cellphones from a neighbors father alerting them to the fire.

The Browns quickly drove back to Alpine to gather important papers and items of sentimental value. They were able to make it to their driveway, but Helen Brown said they looked across the street and saw a neighbors house on South Grade Road consumed in flames.She said they decided the chance that an ember could be headed their way was too great and fled. The couple was not able to return for another day.

We never knew all that time whether our house was saved or not, she recalled. When we finally were able to go back, it was total relief and gratitude. Gratitude for the firefighters because our house could have easily gone down, but they saved it.

There have been fundraising events for those who lost their homes as well as GoFundMe online charity drives.

On Saturday, Sept. 8, there will be another event to help raise money for those in need.

The Alpine Fire Survivors Fundraiser with a live blues band  Chet and the Committee  is set for 2-7 p.m. at the American Legion Post at 3328 Alpine Blvd. Cost is $20 per person; the event is free to fire survivors and children 12 and younger.

Its to raise money mostly for the survivors who were uninsured, said organizer Stephanie Sorrels, director of the West Fire Victim Supply Post. Any funds that come in will go directly into the hands of the people who need it.

A link to the fundraiser can be found at: facebook.com/events/519802041823880

Tickets can also be bought and picked up at Shadow Mountain Community Church, 3520 Alpine Blvd. For more information on the fundraiser, call (619) 573-5638.

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.comEscondidos annual Grape Day festival will not be held this year due to a lack of funding and declining attendance.

The Grape Day 5K Run on Oct. 6 will however still take place.

The directors of the Escondido History Center, which has organized and staffed the festival since it was resurrected in 1996 after a nearly 50-year hiatus, voted earlier this year to discontinue the event, at least temporarily.

It has the potential for being a wonderful community event, but its going to take the community to support it, said Robin Fox, the executive director of the History Center.

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I think we need to rethink it and revise it in the future with a new look and a new exciting way.

Last years festival at Grape Day Park attracted only about 1,500 people compared to the festivals heydays in the late 1990s and early 2000s when as many as 5,000 would attend, Fox said.

In recent years, the community support has diminished and our volunteer support has diminished with people aging out, she said. The board made the decision this year we should take a break from it and rethink the festival itself and revise it in the future. It doesnt mean its the end of it forever because it is an important festival.

History Center volunteer Carol Rea said in an Internet post that attempts to invigorate the festival, including changing its date from September to October, failed to entice greater crowds.

Two years ago, the annual Grape Day Parade along Grand, which required extensive planning and traffic control measures, was discontinued after attendance had declined significantly and a lack of volunteers made it impossible to sustain, Rea wrote.

Two years ago, the date was changed from September to the first weekend of October, in part so as not to compete with the popular Poway Days, which many vendors were choosing over the Escondido festival, Fox said.

The last couple years, the (former) director here tried to avoid that and moved it to the first weekend of October, but we didnt see any relative difference (in attendance).

Rea said the first Grape Day festival was held in 1905 and celebrated as Bond Burning Day when the water bonds had been paid off the year before and the farming community wanted to celebrate their financial freedom.

The name was changed to Grape Day in 1908 and for many years drew large crowds from all over the state. But by 1950, the shift away from local agriculture as an industry and the loss of farmland to development put an end to the festival.

The festival was briefly revived in the 1970s, but returned full time in 1996 when Norm Syler, then director of the Escondido History Center, brought it back and the History Center became the lead organization.

This is not to say that its the end of Grape Day for Escondido, Rea wrote. If a significant number of experienced and dedicated volunteers are willing to step forward at this time and begin planning and taking action for next year, the History Center could provide the guidance to carry it forward.

The Escondido History Center is the second-largest historical society in the county next only to San Diego. The city has helped subsidize the center for many years but withdrew funding for the festival about a decade ago, Rea said, when the Great Recession resulted in many budget cuts.

The city does provide the buildings, at no charge, that house the main office, the train station and train car museum spaces, the blacksmith and wheelwright shops, the barn and the Victorian House, all located in the northern section of Grape Day Park. The city also pays the utilities and maintains the building and landscape.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones

UPDATES:

3:25 p.m.This story was updated with additional details.Coronado High Schools gym has a leak that early estimates say could cost as much as $800,000 to repair.

But the school district spent almost $1 million more than it made last year.

So before the district addresses the leak, it has to balance a $34 million budget thats seen stagnant revenues and rising costs in recent years.

According to the most recently adopted budget, the district has an estimated $955,000 spending deficit for the 2017-18 fiscal year and a projected $2.1 million deficit for fiscal year 2018-19.

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The district balanced last years budget with money from a reserve fund. Thats a strategy one school board member said cant become the new norm.

Now, it doesnt take a rocket scientist or a lot of knowledge of accounting to see that thats unsustainable, said Trustee Lou Smith during the June 21 school board meeting.

During that same meeting, Trustee Esther Valdez described the districts situation as the Titanic heading to the glacier.

Coronados situation isnt that bleak, according to Donnie Salamanca, the districts Senior Director of Business Development.

When we talk about deficit spending, I think it always goes to doom and gloom, he said. In my opinion, its only doom and gloom if you dont have a plan, if youre not aware of what the causes are or what your options are to get out of it.

The district is not in a position to cut programs at the moment, Salamanca added.

So what caused the deficit spending?

Declining enrollment, increased pension costs, aging facilities, and a state funding formula that gives Coronado less money per student than other districts all contributed to the current financial situation, Salamanca said.

There are about 3,100 students enrolled in the school district.

Last year, the district saw a decline of 111 students. That equaled to a loss of $900,000 in potential funds. Enrollment numbers have been down for the last two years but appear to be rebounding this year, Salamanca said.

Historically, the districts enrollment numbers yo-yo. The fact that about 38 percent of the student body comes from military families makes it difficult for the district to predict future trends because those families are constantly on the move, he added.

Rising costs of employee benefits are the biggest factor behind future projected deficits, Salamanca said.

The amount of money Coronado Unified pays to CalPERS and CalSTRS  two state-run retirement plans  grew from $1.6 million to $2.6 million between 2013 and 2016. That number is expected to climb to $4.1 million by 2019, according to the districts own statistics.

Rising maintenance costs stem from the Great Recession. When the district faced budget cuts, the school board decided to avoid cutting programs by deferring maintenance.

Finally, theres state funding.

Its a common misconception that the Coronado Unified School District is funded with property taxes in real-estate rich Coronado.

The districts money comes from the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which takes property taxes from cities throughout the state and redistributes them to school districts. The formulas goal is to increase equity by giving additional funds to districts with high-need students, such as those who come from low-income households, children in the foster care system, and English learners.

Coronado doesnt have a lot of those students compared to other districts. Therefore, they receive less money.

The district can opt out of LCFF and receive Basic Aid funding, which would let them get money directly from Coronados property taxes. But in order to do that, the city and district must pay back redevelopment debt that they still owe from before California dissolved redevelopment agencies.

The switch from LCFF to Basic Aid would give the school district about $2 million a year. But that wont happen until the debt is paid off in about nine years, according to the school district.

Until then, the school board is working on a plan.

Were just in the very beginning of a new strategic planning process to determine exactly what were going to emphasize and what we need to do to save the most opportunities for our students, Trustee Lee Pontes said.

That process involved three public meetings  the next one is Sept. 10  to evaluate ways the district can cut spending and increase revenues.

The district has already eliminated some expenses. In June, it cut two administrative jobs and one office position, Salamanca said.

Those changes should help shore up the $955,000 spending gap in the 2017-2018 fiscal year budget. The district wont know exactly how much those changes help until they finalize their 2017-18 review this fall.

The school district is also trying to add revenues by increasing attendance. While enrollment numbers set the benchmark for how much funding is possible, average daily attendance is what actually determines how much money the district receives, Pontes said.

Therefore, the district is trying to offset the enrollment decline with increased attendance by placing a greater emphasis on showing up to school. That involves outreach campaigns and communicating the importance of showing up to school with parents, he added.

Once the school board wraps up its public meetings and comes up with a strategic plan, it will share that vision with Coronado.

When we have that then, yes, of course we will take it to stakeholders, the teachers, students and share that with them and make sure they agree that this is a good road to be on, Pontes said.

Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or TwitterIn life and art, the husband and wife team of Ingram Ober and Marisol Rendon-Ober complement each other. He is talkative, she is quiet. He likes to explain the process while she focuses on the perception.

Both Ober and Rendon-Ober are teachers, sculptors and mixed-media artists. His work concentrates on social engagement. Hers explores illusions using common forms, often drawn in charcoal.

In public spaces, we find we are a better balanced as a team, Ober said. We have very different aesthetics, but similar concerns when researching a project. We discover the same things. We definitely temper each other in the way we react. Public art is very much about leaving your ego at the door.

We start from zero with a public project, Rendon-Ober said. The ideas come from gathering input from the community, because, she said, artwork belongs to the neighborhood and the public.

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Their two most recent public projects are And Then at the Bayside Fire Station No. 2, which they designed with Los Angeles artist Chuck Moffit, and A Place to Call Home at the Southcrest Trails Neighborhood Park.

And Then, which was finished in June and is an Orchid nominee for this years San Diego Architectural Foundation Orchid & Onions Awards, is designed to soften the corner location and provide a place to sit. On the busy intersection of Cedar Street and Pacific Highway, the installation is a multilayered experience wrapped in playful, eye-catching shapes.

Two bronze sculptural elements look like trumpet vines or old-time phonographs. A third is a nozzle. All are mounted on twisting hoses growing out of scrolled, filigreed red terrazzo and stainless steel, adding to the sense of movement.

But on closer look, this outer layer that artfully integrates elements of a fire station with natural vines, mimicked from those growing off the buildings second floor, has more stories to tell. One is about decomposition and growth. The concrete anchor of the artwork is designed to look like a crumbling piece of the fire station. The fluting in the ruin gives a nod to the County Administration Building across the street. Steel tendrils from the vines inlaid in cement creep toward the fire stations doors.

Despite all these details, Ober said, We viewed this work primarily as a sound sculpture.

The phonograph-like vines are indeed speakers looping through sounds starting with a drip that turns into flowing water, wind and fire. Each speaker has also another narrative in the background. One of the digitally created horn compositions tells the story of a fire emergency at a house while the other is the emergency from the perspective of the crew at the fire station. The name was derived from the audio, listening to whats next.

For A Place to Call Home, the couple focused on the history of the Southcrest park land. The blighted area along Chollas Creek was once a neighborhood with 60 homes that were bulldozed for a freeway that never materialized. That was the story everyone wanted to tell, Ober said.

The identity of the place no one had cared about for a long time became the theme for the installation. The area has been called Shelltown, Chollas Creek and Southcrest. The artists photographed 500 area residents each pronouncing a phoneme of those three names plus the word home. From those portraits they made one composite face in different variations to mouth those four words. Each variation became a cast concrete paver encircling a bronze tablet.

In a park of trails, this artwork is a moment of stillness and contemplation, Rendon-Ober said. The flatness of the piece brings it down to a human scale, she said.

As with all their work, the two try to be site-specific. Whenever we have the opportunity to embrace the space, we try to do that, Rendon-Ober said.

The two met at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont where they both received masters degree in fine arts in 2003. Their mentor, Roman de Salvo, a local sculptor, drew their attention toward San Diego. When two teaching positions became open within weeks in 2004  one at Southwestern College and one at Palomar College  they jumped at the chance. Ober is now art department chair at Palomar and Rendon-Ober, a native of Colombia, is an associate professor of art at Southwestern College.

The couple live in Encanto with their two children, 7 and 10, where they also spend time on another project: their home remodel, which Rendon-Ober said was like a very difficult teenager  out of control and using up a lot of money.

They plan to collaborate on more public art installments. For him, its to generate those playful moments of discovery. For her, its about creating an intimate moment with an artwork. That is priceless, she said.

Schimitschek is a freelance writer.California has the largest immigration court backlog, but the number of pending cases is growing more rapidly in other states, according to a new report.

Average wait times for hearings are also lengthening, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse of Syracuse University, an organization that analyzes data from immigration courts.

Regardless of political stance on immigration, most involved in the system agree that, for years, there havent been enough immigration judges for the volume of cases coming in. While the Trump administration has hired more judges, the backlog continues to grow.

Nationwide, the backlog grew to 746,049 cases through the end of July, according to TRAC. About 80 percent of those cases are in 10 states  California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia. (Immigration courts are present in 31 states or territories.)

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California has the largest backlog at 140,676 cases as of the end of July. Maryland has the fastest growing backlog, at 33,384, which is almost double the number of cases in the state at the beginning of fiscal 2017.

Californias backlog increased about 48 percent during that time from 95,252 cases at the beginning of fiscal 2017.

Massachusetts, Georgia and Florida also have faster growing backlogs than California at 76 percent, 67 percent and 57 percent, respectively. Nationally, the backlog grew about 38 percent, TRAC said.

Within each state, courts have varying wait times for cases to be heard and decided. Dockets solely consisting of cases for people held in immigration detention centers move faster because the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency within the Department of Justice that is responsible for immigration courts, prioritizes detained cases.

People who arent held in custody are also more likely to find lawyers and submit applications for ways to stay in the U.S., adding to their case times.

In a June report, TRAC calculated wait times for pending cases based on how long they had been waiting and how much longer until their next hearings. Some of those cases may need additional hearings before the case is finished.

Detainees at Otay Mesa Detention Center, in San Diego, have less than six months wait for their next hearings, according to TRAC. The court, which has five judges, has a backlog of about 500 cases.

San Diegos downtown court, with six judges, has about a year and a half wait and a backlog of over 4,000 cases.

Los Angeles and San Francisco both have much larger backlogs and longer wait times.

Los Angeles has over 70,000 pending cases, the second highest of any court in the U.S. after New York. People wait more than two and a half years for hearings in the City of Angels.

San Francisco, has almost 52,000 pending cases and a wait time of more than three years.

Two courts in Texas have the longest projected wait times nationwide at close to five years, followed by the court in Chicago at just over four years.

A docket of non-detained people in Imperial, Calif., ranks fourth at about four years.

According to EOIR, the two judges in Imperial have been hearing only detained cases but expect to begin working the non-detained docket in October.

The National Association of Immigration Judges has blamed disparities in funding between immigration enforcement agencies and immigration court as well as political priorities rearranging judges dockets under both the Obama and Trump administrations as reasons for the backlog.

The Obama administration rearranged judges schedules to hear recently arrived cases first as part of its response to an influx of migrants, particularly unaccompanied children, from Central America. The Trump administration sent judges to work in courts along the southwest border, which stalled cases those judges had been set to hear at home.

Ashley Tabaddor, president of the judges union, told Congress earlier this year that many judges who went to the border courts had no work to do.

Such docket shuffling tactics have led to further increases in delays and to the backlog of cases before the immigration court system as a whole, Tabaddor added.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has celebrated the agencys tactics for immigration courts and their judges, and he has condemned the backlog as an issue that needs to be addressed promptly.

Lets be clear: we have a firm goal, and that is to end the lawlessness that now exists in our immigration system, Sessions said at a June training session for EOIR. This Department of Justice is committed to using every available resource to meet that goal. We will act strategically with our colleagues at DHS and across the government, and we will not hesitate to redeploy resources and alter policies to meet new challenges as they arise.

Sessions implemented an annual quota to measure immigration judges performance as part of his plan to beat the backlog.

To end the lawlessness and move to the virtuous cycle, we have to be very productive, Sessions said at the June training session. Volume is critical. It just is.

Tabaddor told Congress those quotas will wreak havoc on the system and cause more immigrants to appeal their cases.

It is difficult to find a shred of practical justification in this approach, Tabaddor said.

When asked about the TRAC analysis, EOIR said it doesnt comment on third-party reporting of its data.

Speaking generally about the backlog issue, a spokesman for EOIR pointed out that since the end of January 2017, the agency has hired 82 immigration judges, bringing the total number of immigration judges nationwide to 351. The agency is planning to hire at least 75 more this fall.

Hiring more immigration judges and reducing the time it takes to hire a judge are two key elements reducing the pending caseload of immigration court cases, Sessions said in a statement.

The EOIR spokesman added that an electronic filing system being piloted in San Diego is also expected to help with the backlog.

In California courts, the number of new cases peaked in the mid 90s and has been trending up since a low in 2013, according to TRAC data. In 2016, California courts received 44,058 new cases, and in 2017, immigration officials filed 43,805 new cases in the state, a less than one percent decrease.

TRAC projected that the number of cases will have increased by 14 percent at the end of fiscal 2018 to 49,806. At the end of July, California courts had received 36,893 cases.

Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on TwitterFollowing doctors orders, Brian and Damaris Higuera drove home to let their baby die.

Not quite nine months old, Sadie had already endured a lifetime of medical treatments. Due to a rare genetic disorder, Schnizel Giedeon Syndrome, one of her kidneys malfunctioned, her intestines were displaced and her brain lacked the nerve fibers linking the two hemispheres.

Up to 300 seizures a day punished her little body. Nothing helped: not surgeries, opioids, steroids, nor consultations with experts from Rady Childrens Hospital in San Diego and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Its time for you to be your daughters hero, one doctor told Brian Higuera, and discontinue her medications.

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That would have been a death sentence. Five years later, though, Sadie is alive and seizure-free. Her parents say she was saved by an unorthodox treatment: cannabidiol, a marijuana extract commonly called CBD.

Hampered by a shortage of research, many doctors remain reluctant to prescribe marijuana or its chemical compounds to adults, let alone children. But, inspired by stories like those of the Higuera family, scientists are beginning to test pot-derived substances  especially CBDs, which have no psychoactive properties  on young patients.

In June, the FDA approved a CBD-based drug, Epidiolex, as an epilepsy treatment for patients as young as 2-years-old. At UC San Diego, researchers led by Dr. Doris Trauner have a $4.7 million grant to study CBD for children between the ages of 8 and 12 who have been diagnosed with moderate to severe autism.

While we are hopeful for benefit, it may be at the end of the day that CBD will do nothing for kids with autism, said Dr. Igor Grant, director of the schools Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, who said the study should begin in early 2019.

But if it helps them, my God, thats a blessing because we dont have a really great treatment for children with more severe autism.

Shared excitement

More than a century ago, marijuana was found in numerous medications sold in the U.S. In 1937, though, the federal government outlawed the substance. In 1971, the Controlled Substances Act lumped pot in with heroin, peyote and LSD, classifying them all as Schedule 1 drugs, having high potential for abuse and no recognized medical use.

Because of these legal restrictions, U.S. research on the therapeutic potential of marijuana and its chemical compounds has been slow and inconsistent. Other countries, though, have been less reluctant to investigate, giving special attention to CBDs.

Weve had some nice success overseas, said Stuart Titus, the CEO of Medical Marijuana Inc., a San Diego-based corporation that now focuses exclusively on CBDs.

In Brazil and Mexico, one of Medical Marijuanas CBD products has been approved as a treatment for refractory epilepsy.

Our product seems to help these children, Titus said, when the traditional treatments had not helped them.

In the U.S., the company cannot make any claims about its products medicinal value. But Titus notes that preliminary studies indicate that CBDs has potential to treat patients with a broad range of maladies: heart disease, arthritis, Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease.

Youngsters afflicted with epilepsy often have sleep and appetite issues.

For many of these children, CBD also helps with these peripheral maladies, Titus said.We really believe there is a tremendous amount of research still to be done. Were very excited about the future.

Investors appear to share this excitement. The publicly traded company reported revenues of $26 million last year; for the first six months of 2018, Titus said, sales had topped $39 million.

Sadies medical marijuana card

Researchers have long known that chronic use of marijuana can inhibit adolescent brain development. Should doctors be wary of prescribing pot extracts containing CBD or other cannabinoids to even younger patients?

Of course I have a concern about that, said UC San Diegos Dr. Grant, as I would about prescribing anything to a child. Lets do the science and do it in as responsible and safe a way as we can.

For the universitys autism study, the 30 children will receive CBD. To understand the mechanisms of any CBD benefit, tissue samples taken from the children will be reprogrammed as brain cells. CBD will be administered to these cells, and researchers will examine how they respond.

There is just anecdotal evidence out there, Grant said. Parents have been giving children with autism CBD and some of them find that this actually helps the symptoms of autism in a child.

But nobody has done a really proper clinical trial to see if that is so. That is our objective  to give it a proper clinical trial.

The upcoming study is the talk of San Diegos tight-knit group of families dealing with autism.

Its definitely something that the autism community is very excited about, said Amy Munera, president of the Autism Society San Diego. Its exciting to see that there is so much robust research, and its great that they are doing it here locally.

Its encouraging that the Higueras and others have used CBDs to control seizures, Munera said, because many people on the autistic spectrum suffer from epilepsy.

When your child is having seizures and you are trying meds and they are not working, Munera said, if there is something that will stop your childs seizures, you are going to want to try it.

Yet families eager to use CBDs to help their children may encounter numerous hurdles. Brian Higuera recalled calling doctors to obtain a medical marijuana card for his infant.

Its for an eight-and-a-half-month-old baby, he would say.

The two most common responses he heard:

1. Im sorry, but I cant do that.

2. Are you kidding?

Finally, he found a doctor willing to give the Higueras a medical marijuana card  for 30 days, not the usual one year.

The Higueras then tracked down a pharmacy that stocks CBD in a hemp oil with trace amounts of THC.

Sadie takes all nourishment and fluids through a gastrostomy tube installed near her naval. Her father prepared a solution, then slipped it into the g-tube.

About 10 minutes later, her arms stopped twitching  and then she started focusing on me, Brian Higuera said. I wondered: could this actually be happening or am I just wanting it to work?

When Damaris Higuera came home, she rushed to her babys side.

Sadie, she said, how are you?

Then the baby did something unusual: she looked directly at her mother.

We got our baby back! Damaris said, crying. We got our baby back!

Caring people

Sadies first nine months exhausted everyone in the Higuera household. The entire family  Brian, Damaris and their two other daughters, Dina, who is now 8, and Sophia, now 6  spent numerous days and nights in hospital waiting rooms.

Sadies grand mal seizures were tense episodes, leaving family members in tears. When surgeons removed a tumor from the base of Sadies spine, her survival was in doubt. The baby was hospitalized up to three weeks a month.

While the CBDs eliminated Sadies seizures, she still copes with a variety of congenital disorders. And the familys finances were being stretched to the limit.

The Higueras add a drop of cannabis oil to the CBD-laden hemp oil, as some studies indicate that CBD works best in combination with cannabis. Neither substance is cheap. Higuera, who had received an inheritance from his father, spent $50,000 to $60,000 a year on these fluids.

When Hemp Meds, a subsidiary of Medical Marijuana, learned of the Higueras story, the company established a foundation to pay for Sadies hemp oil.

Mankind Cooperative, the Miramar dispensary where the Higueras buy Sadies cannabis oil, sell it to the family at cost.

The cannabis industry are some of the most caring people Ive met, Brian Higuera said.

No one cares more for Sadie than her older sisters, who bring her toys and talk to her constantly, stimulating her injured brain.

You know, papa, Dina recently said to her father, Im really grateful that Sadie is still alive. Now I get to play with her.

For the Higueras, the past year has been especially happy. Sadie spent all 12 months at home, without a single trip to the hospital.Monica Lewinsky said Tuesday that she stormed offstage at a Jerusalem speaking event because of an interviewers off limits question about former President Bill Clinton.

The former White House intern turned anti-bullying activist tweeted that there were agreed-upon parameters regarding the topics of her televised conversation Monday night with a well-known Israeli news anchor, following a conference speech she gave about the perils of the internet.

Lewinsky called Yonit Levis first question about her relationship with Clinton a blatant disregard for our agreement.

Levi, the main anchor of Israels top-rated evening newscast, asked Lewinsky if she still expected a personal apology from Clinton over the fallout of the scandal of their affair 20 years ago. Lewinsky responded: Im so sorry. Im not going to be able to do this. She then put down her microphone and walked offstage.

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Levi reached out her hand and then anxiously followed Lewinsky offstage as some of the stunned audience awkwardly clapped. The confused hosts then rushed opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid onstage to keep the event moving along. A smiling Lapid, who plans to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the next Israeli elections, quipped: Everything has happened to me but stepping in for Monica Lewinsky is a first. There is no way Ill be interesting enough in the next few minutes but well do our best.

In a tweet several hours later, Lewinsky said she had been misled.

In fact, the exact question the interviewer asked first, she had put to me when we met the day prior. I said that was off limits, she explained. I left because it is more important than ever for women to stand up for themselves and not allow others to control their narrative. To the audience: Im very sorry that this talk had to end this way.

Levis employer, the Israeli News Company, said it did its utmost to abide by all agreements made with Lewinsky.

The question asked was legitimate, worthy and respectful and in no way deviated from Ms. Lewinskys requests, said company spokesman Alon Shani. We thank Ms. Lewinsky for her fascinating speech to the conference, respect her sensitivity and wish her all the best.

Clinton recently came under fire for responding defensively to questions in an NBC interview about his sexual relationship with the White House intern in the late 1990s. He insisted he did not think it necessary to offer her a personal apology since he had already repeatedly apologized publicly. Clintons affair with Lewinsky helped lead to his impeachment.

Lewinsky, who for years kept quiet about the relationship before re-emerging as a public speaker, wrote in March that their relationship was not sexual assault but constituted a gross abuse of power.The former GOP senator shepherding President Trumps Supreme Court pick through his confirmation process will temporarily fill the Senate seat left empty in the wake of John McCains death.

Retired Sen. Jon Kyl has only committed to serve in McCains place until the end of the year, according to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who announced his appointment Tuesday.

Its my hope that he serves longer. Ducey, a Republican, said, adding Kyl was the best possible person, regardless of politics.

Kyl, who spent 18 years on the chambers Judiciary Committee before stepping down from the Senate in 2012, has spent the summer acting as a political sherpa to Brett Kavanaugh, Trumps Supreme Court nominee.

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His appointment now allows him to vote for the nomination.

McCains widow, Cindy McCain, disclosed the choice shortly ahead of Duceys news conference.

Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona, she wrote on Twitter.

Kyl could technically fill the seat until the next general election in 2020. He has said he wont run for a full term.

The conservative former pol will pad Republicans narrow margin in the Senate. They hold a 51-49 majority, but McCain stayed in Arizona for much of the past year as he was being treated for brain cancer that killed him on Aug. 25.Congressional control is apparently more important than law and order, according to President Trump.

The President accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday of jeopardizing easy wins in the upcoming midterm elections by criminally indicting two Republican lawmakers.

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department, Trump tweeted. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff.

While Trump didnt mention names, his tweet comes in the wake of federal indictments against Reps. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).

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Collins, Trumps first congressional supporter, was indicted last month on 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and lying to investigators stemming from an alleged insider trading conspiracy involving his son and an Australian pharmaceutical company. The upstate New York congressman denies the charges.

Days after Collins indictment, Hunter  the second sitting lawmaker to support Trump  was charged with counts of fraud, records falsification and campaign finance violations for using political donations to cover personal bills. Hunter has also maintained his innocence.

The indictments, which were the result of extensive federal investigations, are benefiting Democrats trying to unseat Collins and Hunter, according to Trump.

The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now, Trump tweeted.

The President drew a parallel to ex-FBI Director James Comey, whom he fired under controversial circumstances last year.

The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting  UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Trump continued. Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Both Republicans and Democrats lambasted Trump over his latest broadside against Sessions.

The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice  one of the majority party and one for the minority party, Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said. These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began.

Georgetown University national security law Prof. Neal Katyal said Trumps outburst showcases his inability to differentiate between law and politics.

Such politicization of law enforcement is unforgivable, Katyal tweeted. The whole point of Sessions doing these indictments is to show law enforcement above politics.

The President has ramped up his attacks on Sessions in recent weeks, toying with the idea of firing him and belittling him for not taking control of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Sessions has pushed back against Trumps public tirades.

I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, Sessions said in a statement last month. While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.Key endorsements are boosting Antonio Martinez in his runoff battle with fellow Democrat Vivian Moreno for the San Diego City Council seat held by David Alvarez, who must leave office in December because of term limits.

Martinez has recently been endorsed by the county Democratic Party and by Christian Ramirez, who in the June primary finished just three votes behind Martinez for the second slot in the November runoff.

Moreno easily took first place in the primary and has dominated campaign contributions, but the recent endorsements appear to have tightened the race.

The winner will represent council District 8, which includes Barrio Logan, Sherman Heights, Otay Mesa and San Ysidro. Martinez and Moreno both live in San Ysidro.

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The endorsement from the county party is considered pivotal because the district is heavily Democratic, with registered Democrats outnumbering registered Republicans 32,424 to 9,164 through June 1. No Republican candidate ran in the primary.

Party endorsements are sometimes overshadowed by strong financial support from unions, but labor groups arent expected to focus significant resources on the runoff because it features two progressive candidates with similar agendas.

Antonio Martinez is the Democratic champion South Bay families need fighting for them at City Hall, said Jessica Hayes, chair of the county party, in a news release.

Ramirez, who chose not to request a recount in the primary because it would be too expensive, said he chose to endorse Martinez because he is a collaborative leader.

We need someone in City Hall who is willing to work well with others in order to find the solutions we so desperately need, Ramirez said in a news release.

Moreno has also received notable recent endorsements from Councilwoman Georgette Gomez and the Municipal Employees Association, the citys largest labor union.

We believe that Vivian will continue the work needed to strengthen our communities by ensuring our city staff have the resources they need to adequately serve the community, MEA general manager Mike Zucchet said in a news release.

The citys police officers union has endorsed Martinez, while the citys firefighters union issued a joint endorsement.

Gomez joins Alvarez among Democrats on the council endorsing Moreno. Democratic Councilman Chris Ward endorsed Martinez, while the councils other two Democrats  Barbara Bry and Myrtle Cole  have not weighed in.

Martinez is a San Ysidro school board member. Moreno is a member of Alvarezs council staff.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrickA San Diego city employee was repairing a broken water line in University Heights on Monday when a man emerged from a nearby house and shot him, thinking he was an intruder, San Diego police said.

A crew with the citys Public Utilities Department was sent to the area of Meade Avenue and New Jersey Street after a broken high-line was reported about 8:30 p.m.

High-lines are temporary, two-inch pipes installed above ground to keep people in service while water mains are being replaced. Broken high-lines are treated as emergencies, city officials said.

One of the crew members, a 55-year-old man, knocked on the door of a nearby residence before attending to the pipe near a front window of the house, police said.

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Soon after, a 79-year-old resident came out of the home with a 12-gauge shotgun, police said. He fired one shot at the worker, striking him in the arm and chest.

The injured worker was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

The resident later told police he thought the employee was trying to break into his house. The man, identified as Nathan Brogan, was arrested and jailed on suspicion of attempted murder, personal use of a firearm in commission of a felony and negligent discharge of a firearm.

Anyone with information related to the incident was asked to call San Diego police or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

Twitter: @karenkucher

(619) 293-1350

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comSouth Bay Rapid bus service connecting downtown San Diego to eastern Chula Vista, and eventually to the border crossing in Otay Mesa, opened Tuesday  a significant boost for the public-transit system as outlined in the regions often-divisive blueprint for mobility.

The now-opened bus line, dubbed the 225 Rapid, provides a transit service specifically aimed at communities in eastern Chula Vista. The route takes commuters between Santa Fe Depot and East Palomar Station, located at the entrance to Interstate 805, in roughly 30 minutes depending on traffic.

The benefit to me is that Im saving money on gas and wear and tear, Mitchell Martha, 37, said before boarding the new bus Tuesday morning.

Martha said he usually drives from his home in Eastlake, Chula Vista, to Balboa Park, where he leaves his car and walks into downtown. But he said hed gladly take the bus if it doesnt add any time to his commute.

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It needs to at least be the same, break even, he said. If this takes me any longer, and its more inconvenient then Im not going to do it. Im just trying it out.

The entire 26-mile Rapid bus line is expected to be completed by January and will including a dozen stops from downtown to a new Otay Mesa Transit Center at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The project includes a nearly six-mile-long, transit-only lane in the median of East Palomar Street and along Eastlake Parkway, including a bridge over state Route 125.

The stations will be equipped with shelters and digital displays providing real-time arrival information. Rapid buses are scheduled to arrive every 15 minutes during peak hours and every 30 minutes during non-peak times.

A rider looks out the window of a MetropolitanTransit System (MTS) South Bay Rapid limited bus, route Rapid 225, as it leaves the East Palomar Street Transit Station for downtown San Diego. (Howard Lipin / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Transportation officials said the new line was specifically designed around transit-oriented developments, such as the new 210-acre mixed-use development Millenia located just east of SR 125.

Karina Galarza had been driving from her home in Otay Ranch  which will eventually have its own Rapid bus stop  to the trolley in downtown Chula Vista before commuting into San Diego.

On Tuesday, the 35-year-old happily drove to the Palomar Stations dedicated parking lot to catch the new bus instead.

The fact that I dont have to drive all the way to the trolley is a big plus, she said. This is a nicer environment, nicer ride.

The entire project is expected to cost $128 million, including about $15 million for 16 new buses.

Funded by the regions half-cent sales tax, Transnet, the project is part of the San Diego Association of Governments long-range transportation plan.

For years, environmental groups have maintained that SANDAG has enabled sprawling development by prioritizing freeway projects. The agency has found itself in court numerous times in recent years over whether its accurately disclosing the greenhouse gas impacts of its planned transportation system.

SANDAG officials have routinely said they are delivering on the agencys primary goal to provide a wide range of transportation alternatives.

As a member of the SANDAG board of directors, our goal is to provide mobility choices for our regions citizens, Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas said Tuesday at a press event for the bus route.

This new route provides commuters with important alternatives to travel to downtown San Diego and other regional destinations and employment centers, and makes transit more available to all Chula Vista residents, she added.

The regional Rapid bus service  which connects residential areas, such as in Escondido and Rancho Bernardo, to job centers with limited stops  have been hailed as a major success by the agency and its 21-member border of elected officials from around the county. Rapid buses have seen increased patronage in recent years, even as overall transit ridership has declined in line with national trends.

In 2015, SANDAG officials proposed building freeway connectors between state Route 94 and interstates 15 and 805 to improve commute times on Rapid buses.

Environmental justice advocates quickly pushed back on the roughly $600 million project, which could have caused considerable disruption to nearby neighborhoods by adding elevated ramps along the SR 94 from the I-805 into Sherman Heights.

Activists called for a project alternative that would have instead converted existing lanes or the freeway shoulder to carpool and transit use. The project was shelved when a consensus couldnt be reached.

Now SANDAG said it plans to build dedicated bus lanes along the shoulders of SR 94 and I-805 by fall 2019 to service Rapid buses. The pilot project would run for three years and need legislative approval to be made permanent.

The project, however, doesnt replace the need for the previously envisioned freeway connectors, said Jennifer Williamson, a senior transportation planner with SANDAG.

I would not say that a shoulder project on 94, 805 is going to be in any way as good as having two (transit) lanes from 805 to 94, she said. Its a good interim solution, but I dont think its a final solution.

Until the South Bay Rapid project is completed, service will run on a limited schedule from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays only. Rides are free through Friday, Sept. 7.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.comAn Islamic court has punished two Malaysian women involved in a sexual relationship by caning each six times, court officials confirmed.

The women, identified as a 22-year-old and a 32-year-old, were each struck with a rattan cane in view of witnesses at Shariah High Court in Terengganu, Malaysia.

News outlets reported the older woman never winced when receiving the blows, but her co-defendant sobbed as she was walloped by a female prison officer. Both were fully clothed.

Global gay-rights groups lambasted the court decision and called for an end to LGBT discrimination in Malaysia as well as a halt to caning, which is outlawed in most parts of the world.

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Caning is a form of torture, and to inflict this brutal punishment publicly on two people for engaging in consensual, same-sex relations sends Malaysia back to the Dark Ages, said Amnesty International Malaysias interim executive director Gwen Lee.

Another outraged critic, George Varughese, president of the Malaysian Bar, called caning a barbaric form of punishment that has no place in a modern and compassionate society such as ours.

Malaysia is a Muslim-majority nation of 32 million people that has Shariah courts applying to Muslims and civil courts with jurisdiction over everybody.

The most famous caning case occurred in Singapore, a neighbor of Malaysia, in 1994, when 18-year-old American Michael Fay was caned four times in the buttocks for theft and vandalism.A passenger aboard one of two boats that crashed into each other on the Colorado River over the weekend opened up about the horrific ordeal as authorities continue to search for those people still missing in wake of the wreck.

I cant tell you exactly what happened cause I dont even know, Taylor Corbino said during an appearance on Good Morning America Tuesday. Her father, Pat Kelly, who was relaxing on the water nearby, said their lazy Labor Day vacation on the river went to hell in the blink of an eye.

Two vessels, a recreational boat carrying 10 people and another ferrying six, slammed into each other, head-on, near Moabi Regional Park Saturday evening, according to officials. Each vessel was traveling at about 50 mph when they hit, launching all of the passengers into the waters near the California-Arizona border.

We were actually sitting there  I sat next to my friend  we were looking at each other, Corbino recalled. We were actually talking, and then all of a sudden, I hear, excuse my language, I hear Oh s---. And I look up and next I see the boat, the other boat. And next thing you know, Im in the water.

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Kelly, who immediately set out to find his daughter amid the chaos, said the crash sounded like a freight train hitting the side of a building.

Corbino said she thought she was going to die as she struggled to make her way above water.

I cant tell you how long I was underwater, but I know it was long enough to where I couldnt hold my breath anymore, she told GMA. I actually breathed in some water and all I told myself was Taylor, swim to the top to get some air in.

In the end the pal shed been seated next to ahead of the crash was able to pull her back on board. Corbino said all six people on her boat were mostly uninjured and that she only felt a lingering soreness in wake of the crash.

I think were all still in shock. It hasnt hit us yet completely, Corbino said. Were all just thankful and blessed to be alive. We shouldnt be alive.

The Mohave County Sheriffs Office, which has been leading search operations, continued to hunt for the three people  a man and two women  still missing in wake of the deadly incident Tuesday afternoon. Law enforcement divers have covered a five-mile stretch of the river between the Park Moabi Channel and the Topock Gorge.

Some survivors in the incident were swept more than mile downstream by the waters quick-moving currents, authorities said.

Police on Tuesday identified the body theyd recovered from the waters Monday as Chrisi Lewis, 51 of California. Divers pulled her from the water around 7:30 a.m.

The Mohave county Sheriffs Office will continue to patrol the Colorado River until all the unaccounted passengers are located, according to a statement from the agency.School bus safety is surprisingly complex. In 2015, after reviewing school bus accidents, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration changed its stance and called for seat belts in all such buses. But Californians will be startled to hear that a bill Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last week wont require all school buses to have seat belts until 2035.

This isnt as random and strange as it appears. A 1999 state law mandated that when school buses with seat belts became available, they must be purchased by school districts, a Sacramento Bee analysis explained. Every school bus purchased since 2005 has had seat belts. But no buses bought before 2004 have belts. They have a lifespan of about 30 years  hence the 2035 deadline, which allows districts to get the maximum bang for their bus bucks.

From an economic point of view then, the new state law makes sense. But in the big picture, it is another reminder of how shaky school finances are in California: A basic measure to protect the safety of students thats recommended by experts is rejected by the state government on cost grounds.

The 2014 bailout of the California State Teachers Retirement System  which will eventually more than double how much school districts contribute to pensions  was supposed to bring stability to education funding. But as The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board predicted back in 2015, the cost of the bailout is going to affect school districts in dire ways. Heres hoping this doesnt include students getting hurt or worse traveling to and from school because theyre required to use unsafe buses.

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Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionThe announcement last week that Vic Bianes had resigned as director of San Diegos Public Utilities Department was long overdue, and it gives Mayor Kevin Faulconer a chance to clean up the citys scandalously mismanaged water agency. Lets see what he does with the opportunity to change its culture.

A July report by City Auditor Eduardo Luna laid out the latest stunning failures by water officials. It detailed how the same officials who downplayed a flood of complaints about sky-high water bills never noticed the incompetence of 10 meter readers who were responsible for nearly 2,000 erroneous water bills sent out in 2017  bills that were often off by hundreds of dollars. If these complaints had been taken seriously from the start, it wouldnt have taken long for someone to notice that they were clustered in areas served by the same meter readers.

The city will conduct a national search for Bianes successor and shouldnt settle for an internal appointee. For the moment, it has hired an experienced water engineer to assist with reforms and tapped Assistant Finance Director Matt Vespi to serve as interim director. Thats a start.

Such steps are an appropriate response to a scandal that should never have happened. Heres hoping that it spurs other city agencies to grasp that not only is it bad form to ignore residents complaints, its just plain bad to ignore vital information about how the city is  or isnt  working.

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Unfortunately, this blitheness is too common in government. Just last week, state Division of Motor Vehicles Director Jean Shiomoto wouldnt say her agency made a mistake in its sluggish response to lines of up to eight hours at DMV offices created by new federal ID responsibilities. Gov. Jerry Brown should tell Shiomoto that comment was a mistake.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionBob Hess Jr. knows it wasnt a popular stance.

The horse racing trainer who is a Chula Vista native was among the most outspoken critics of the Del Mar racetracks surface last season.

Before the 2017 summer meet, the dirt track received a complete makeover, and the encouraging result was far fewer horse deaths. But Hess was among those who expressed frustration that the deep layers of dirt, sand and silt adversely affected the racing and their horses health.

This summer, the fatalities were even fewer  three total over the 36 racing days of the meet that ended on Monday -- and Hess was far more satisfied.

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This year, its been wonderful, Hess said after Mondays second race, which he won with Tiger Mom.

The difference, in Hess view, was a better mixture of sand to dirt used by track superintendent Dennis Moore, which better kept the track moist.

Hess said that the horses in his barn suffered far fewer soft-tissue injuries. He said he lost 25 percent of his stable last summer at Del Mar to those type of injuries, which arent fatal, while only one horse this year had similar problems.

Ive been a critic, Hess said. We dont want fatalities  which is great  but I think they kind of overcompensated and got it a little too soft. Horses were having ligament and tendon injuries, and though theyre not life-threatening, its tough on the owners and the horses. We dont have to euthanize them, thank God, but were not going to be able to run them ever again.

Encinitas trainer Peter Miller, who recorded one of the greatest meets of his career, winning the training title with 31 victories, said he had a similar number of soft-tissue injuries in this meet compared to last year.

Theyre athletes; they going to have issues, Miller said.

I still think the track is too slow for my liking. There could be a happy medium. This track is very much a speed-bias track. They get very tired running over it, and the speed holds. The times are just too slow. Thats my opinion.

But again, its a safe track, and Del Mar does a great job.

One big change Miller made this summer was training all of his horses at Del Mar, when he previously worked them at considerably quicker San Luis Rey Downs in Bonsall.

When you have two totally different surfaces, its difficult to compete, he said. Its easy to go from a slow track to a fast track, but not the other way around.

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has been known to quickly pull horses from training at Del Mar if they dont like the track, would agree.

I know one thing, you can really get a horse fit here, Baffert said. Those horses went to Saratoga and glided over that track. Everybody was telling me how deep Saratoga was, and I tell them, You guys dont know deep. 

Notable

Jockey Kent Desormeaux received a three-day suspension for failure to give his best effort on his controversial ride of Take a Leap in the fourth race at Del Mar on Aug. 25. Take a Leap lost second by a nose in the race. Desormeaux denied that he stopped urging the horse.

Apprentice Assael Espinoza was fined $500 for the overuse of his whip on Mz Brown on Sunday, when the horse suffered a fatal injury to its leg in the stretch.

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tod.leonard@sduniontribune.com; Twitter: @sdutleonard

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.West Chester, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/04/2018 -- Unruh Turner Burke & Frees is pleased to announce that the Board of Supervisors for Valley Township unanimously appointed Andrew D.H. Rau and Unruh Turner Burke & Frees at its August 21, 2018 meeting to serve as its Solicitor. Valley Township is in Western Chester County and utilizes a manager-board form of government.



"Andy's talent for providing real world solutions to the increasingly sophisticated challenges facing Pennsylvania municipalities today will greatly benefit Valley Township," commented William J. Burke, III, a member of the Firm's Executive Committee.



Rau has more than two decades of experience as lead solicitor and counsel for both municipal bodies and private clients. He has led state-wide educational programs addressing legal ethics, eminent domain, cable franchising and cellular tower regulation. Named a "Top Lawyer" by Main Line Today magazine, Andy has also been recognized as a leading attorney by Suburban Life magazine, received a preeminent "AV" rating from Martindale-Hubbell recognizing his superior legal ability as judged by his peers, and has been selected for inclusion on the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers List on multiple occasions.



The Firm's Municipal and School Law Group has been a cornerstone of the Firm since it was founded in 1990. The Group, which consists of Ross A. Unruh, Andrew D.H. Rau, Amanda J. Sundquist and Daniel S. LePera, has served as solicitor and provided legal counsel to townships, boroughs, municipal authorities, business improvement districts, zoning hearing boards and school districts throughout the region. "We pride ourselves on providing effective high quality legal services to our clients with integrity. This dedication has permitted us to enjoy longstanding relationships with municipal clients that in many cases predate the founding of the Firm" said Ross A. Unruh, founding partner.



About Unruh Turner Burke & Frees

UTBF (http://www.utbf.com) is a full-service Pennsylvania law firm with 20 attorneys and 3 offices throughout the south-eastern Pennsylvania region that is dedicated to providing commercial law counsel to entrepreneurs, major corporations, government entities, financial institutions, non-profit organizations and individuals. With a practice that is broad and deep, the firm advises on business and tax law; commercial and real estate transactions; business and creditors' rights litigation; wealth preservation, estate and trust planning and administration; labor and employment law; municipal and school law; and zoning and land use.Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/04/2018 -- Global Blockchain government Market Size, Status and Forecast 2018," the report is a study of the market status on the basis of drivers, opportunities and constraints, market segmentation and competitive landscape. Blockchain is a distributed and decentralized ledger that facilitates collaboration and trust in the Internet space. Block-chaining technology provides a secure sharing of information, making it transparent and immutable for all participants. The government's role in implementing block-chain-based transactions is increasing steadily to improve business decisions, facilitate compliance and regulatory management, and reduce overall costs.



Get a Free Sample PDF Copy of Report at: https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/request_sample.php?id=3222



The global blockchain government market size was USD 104.5 Million in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 3,458.8 Million by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of +83% during the forecast period.



Top Key Players:



IBM (US), SAP (Germany), Microsoft (US), Oracle (US), Deloitte (US), AWS (US), Infosys (India), Bitfury (the Netherlands), Auxesis Group (India), Cegeka (the Netherlands), Factom (US), BTL (Canada), SpinSys (US), OTC Exchange Network (US), ModulTrade (UK), Blocko (South Korea), Symbiont (US), brainbot technologies (Germany), Guardtime (Estonia), BigchainDB (Germany), Somish (India), RecordsKeeper (Spain), Intel (US), Accenture (Ireland), and Blockchain Foundary (Singapore). The stakeholders include government agencies, blockchain technology vendors, independent software vendors, consulting firms, system integrators, Value-added Resellers (VARs), and Information Technology (IT) agencies



With increasing popularity of smart technology these days, Blockchain government market have thus become prominent creators of digital information. These systems lets users to collate, collect, and analyze the generated data, which subsequently has triggered rapid development of the global market in the last few years. Ongoing industrial advancements and the persistent penetration of Internet in the remote corners of the world are also responsible for the noteworthy growth of the Global Blockchain government market. Foremost contestants are upholding the use of worthy resources and purchasing raw resources from well-known industries.



Various factors, such as increased adoption of block-chain technology for a variety of applications such as government agency rapid business process changes, smart contracts, identity management and voting, and increased investment in venture capital and block-chain technology, I will. blockchain government market suppliers.



The regional analysis has been done to precisely formulate data of the geographical sectors such as Japan, China, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and India to understand super markets and hyper markets, on-trade, independent retailers, and convenience stores. The report also provides a segmented analysis of production rates further segregated under volume and value, along with the sale pricings.



Get Up to 40% Discount on this report: https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=3222



Table of Content:



Blockchain government Market Research Report 2018-2023



Chapter 1: Blockchain government Market Overview



Chapter 2: Global Economic Impact on Industry



Chapter 3: Market Competition by Manufacturers



Chapter 4: Production, Revenue (Value) by Region



Chapter 5: Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions



Chapter 6: Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type



Chapter 7: Blockchain government Market Analysis by Application



Chapter 8: Manufacturing Cost Analysis



Chapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers



Chapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders



Inquiry more about this report at: https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=3222Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/04/2018 -- Prevalence of both 3G and 4G LTE networks in Oman imply ample growth in Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market. Further, the imminent launch of 5G networks backed by necessary trials for the same suggest renewed growth possibilities in Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market. Market Research Hub (MRH) in its recent telecoms business intelligence report titled, 'Oman - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses' enumerates crucial factors that accentuate growth in Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market.



Local Investments Expected to Uptick Growth in Oman Telecoms, Mobile, and Broadband Market



To uptick the country's telecoms industry, Oman has made necessary progress to encourage local investments in Oman's telecom industry limiting fresh bids for the same. At the backdrop of increasing population and unparalled progress in technological advancements incorporation of apt telecoms, mobile, and broadband network is primary for seamless communication flow in Oman.



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As part of development strategy in Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market, Oman National investments Development Company, Tanmia has recently inked a deal to attain 32% stake in Awasr, the first broadband solution provider in Oman. The investment is aimed to facilitate novelties in FTTH broadband services, thereby consolidating the growth trajectory of Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market.



Further, to maneuver growth opportunities in Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market, leading telecom operator Ooredoo Oman has been awarded a new project to offer cloud-based data solutions to Oman Agriculture Development Company (OADC).This recent development supports Oman's vision to consolidate its telecoms foothold, thereby enrolling amongst one the most advanced telecoms economy at the global arena.



Pertinent research elements incorporated in the report brief readers about various market segments and factors that instill growth in Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market. Besides offering a detailed outlook on market definition and dynamics, the report is inclusive of core contributing factors towards robust growth trajectory. Additionally, the report also offers substantial information about the factor responsible for accentuated revenue streams in Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market. Further in the course of the report, readers are also presented with veritable insights about various marketing practices implemented by core market players across the region and their overall impact on end-users.



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Competition Matrix: Oman Telecoms, Mobile, and Broadband Market



Comprehensive research components encompassed in the report enable readers to draw firsthand information about the impact of winning marketing tactics and tools in bolstering favorable end-user response such as their buying preferences and eventual buying discretion. New entrants as well as existing market players in Oman telecoms, mobile, and broadband market can facilitate in-depth, unbiased analysis of these winning strategies to procure essential deductions based on which market players can implement profit oriented business models that ensure their precedence as well as surged profits in the market. Key players identified in the market include Omantel and Ooredoo Oman.



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Read Industry News at - https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/A team of scientists from Germany, Taiwan and the United States has demonstrated that antibodies to a toxin secreted from Cutibacterium acnes bacteria can reduce inflammation in acne lesions.

Cutibacterium acnes, formerly Propionibacterium acnes, is a Gram-positive skin bacterium and predominates (>60% of total bacteria) the facial skin in humans.

Nearly everyone hosts this species, which makes up almost half of the total skin microbiome.

Overgrowth of Cutibacterium acnes has been linked to acne vulgaris, a skin disease afflicting more than 85% of teenagers and over 40 million people in the United States.

Current medications are often insufficient and can cause difficult-to-tolerate side effects ranging from skin dryness and irritation, to depression and increased rates of birth defects.

An acne vaccination could circumvent potential adverse effects of topical or systemic retinoids and antibiotics, the current treatment options.

This vaccine would be the first to target bacteria already in human skin, instead of invading pathogens.

Current treatment options are often not effective or tolerable for many of adolescents and adults who suffer from this multi-factorial cutaneous inflammatory condition, said study lead author Dr. Chun-Ming Huang, a researcher in the Department of Dermatology at the University of California, San Diego and the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering at National Central University in Taiwan.

New, safe, and efficient therapies are sorely needed.

In the study, Dr. Huang and co-authors demonstrated that Christie-Atkins-Munch-Peterson (CAMP) factor, a virulence factor secreted from Cutibacterium acnes, is a main source of inflammation in acne vulgaris.

They then explored in mice and ex vivo in human skin cells whether they could inhibit inflammation by employing antibodies to neutralize this virulence factor.

The findings show that the application of monoclonal antibodies to CAMP 2 factor did indeed decrease the inflammatory response.

Once validated by a large-scale clinical trial, the potential impact of our findings is huge for the hundreds of millions of individuals suffering from acne vulgaris, Dr. Huang said.

The results appear in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

_____

Yanhan Wang et al. The Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Propionibacterium acnes CAMP Factor-Targeted Acne Vaccines. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published online June 30, 2018; doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2018.05.032Spillane, who will meet with corporate partners and is also visiting Hobart and Brisbane, attended a media dinner on Monday at the Sydney Opera House that was hosted by svp and md Australia and New Zealand, Karen Christensen.

He told guests that Crystal Endeavor, which is being presented as the largest, most spacious, purpose-built polar class expedition ship in the world, has luxury features that include heated floors and personal warming closets for wet gear.

He said as part of her inaugural season, Crystal Endeavor departs Bali on October 15, 2020, for extensive cruising around Australia and New Zealand. A highlight will be the spectacular New Years Eve fireworks in Sydney Harbour.

Qantas loyalty partnership

At the dinner Christensen announced that Crystal Cruises Australia has entered a multi-year partnership with Qantas for passengers to earn frequent flyer points.

She said passengers can earn up to three Qantas points for every US$1 spent on bookings made for Crystal Cruises, Crystal River Cruises and Crystal Yacht Expedition Cruises voyages in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Qantas Loyalty executive manager commercial David Young, a special dinner guest, said Crystal is our first choice in luxury cruising.

Young said that every dinner guest would receive 50,000 bonus Qantas points, the equivalent, he said, of three flights to Melbourne.What this means is uncertainty believe many Greeks with few believing their lives are going to improve or that the countrys prospects will be akin to those of other bailed-out eurozone states.

Indeed, within days of the governments much touted return to normalcy unions around the country were in the throes of making up for lost ground, led by the seafarers.

Indeed, seafarers working on the vessels serving Greeces vital domestic ferry network have already won a pay rise after they launched a 48-hour strike 3 September, leaving ferries moored at ports around the country.

The seafarers were demanding higher wages and restored labour rights. An original 24-hour stoppage was extended when the Panhellenic Seamens Federation (PNO) said negotiations with employers over a new collective agreement had broken down.

As the peak tourist season was coming to an end the action left those depending on the country's vast ferry network stranded, after ferry owners rejected seafarer demands for a 5% pay rise. Owners had claimed the strike action left some 180,000 passengers, 50,000 cars and over 3,000 trucks stranded.

A meeting 31 August between representatives of the PNO and the association of coastal shipowners (SEEN) on a new collective labour contract proved fruitless. The PNO rejected the shipowners offer of a 1% raise in seafarers salaries as of September and another 1% from June 2019.

After both sides mulled the offer, seafarer called off the strike action when it was agreed owners would pay increases of 2%, retroactive to January 1, 2018. A new round of negotiations will commence later in the year for 2019 pay rates.

The pay issue was just one of 14 demands of the PNO, that include tax breaks, pensions and crew complements. However, 12 of the demands are actually outside the owners control and come under the realm of other competent bodies, including the Shipping & Island Policy ministry, which has just had a new minister installed, Fotis Kouvelis.

Shipowners maintain most of the demands can only be solved as "part of a general change in government policy for workers and pensioners".

The PNO said in a statement: For eight consecutive years, seamen have not received an even a one-euro increase".

"The end of the bailout and fair growth, which the government refers to, translates to more aggressiveness from shipowners who refuse to renew wage agreements including raises, said Pemen, the union which represents marine engineers, said in a statement.MSC, and its vessel sharing agreement partners, are switching their IPAK service from calling at Felixstowe to London Gateway.

Noting the service interruptions at Felixstowe the container line said: MSC has therefore been implementing a number of contingency measures to ease the impact of these interruptions on our customers.

In this case calls at Felixstowe by the IPAK service are suspended from Week 36 with the vessel MSC Athos calling London Gateway on 9 September instead of Felixstowe. Transit times will remain the same.

While the Port of Felixstowe is reporting some improvements in the operations of its nGen terminal operating system container lines are temporarily shifting services from the UK port fed up with months of delays.

Read more: Port of Felixstowe fiasco - what went wrong?

Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) recently diverted its North Europe  Turkey (NET) service to Southampton.

In July Maersk Line diverted one of its transatlantic services with MSC and its COEX service to the Port of Liverpool for 12 weeks from Felixstowe.The move is aimed at optimising the growth potential, customer focus and core competencies of each in marine services and supply chain logistics respectively. Headquartered in Dubai and operating out of the Dubai Airport Free Zone, strategically located in the heart of Dubai adjacent to Dubai Airport, ISS Global Forwarding will focus on core activities of Global Freight Forwarding, Contract Logistics and Projects/Oil & Gas.

ISS Global Forwarding will initially be present in 18 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, India and Turkey. As part of its ambitious growth strategy, the company will expand its footprint to Asia Pacific, mainland China and Singapore. In addition, ISS Global Forwarding benefits from a global network thanks to partnerships with global operators, thereby providing its customers with multimodal, end-to-end supply chain solutions.

Learn more about smart shipping at Seatrade Maritime Middle East in October 2018

ISS Global Forwarding will be led by industry veteran Enver Moretti and a highly experienced senior management team. "We are establishing ourselves as a regional powerhouse and our aspiration is to be recognised within the supply chain logistics industry as a customer-centric organisation" said Moretti.

"We are confident in the future global growth opportunities presented by the supply chain logistics industry. We see particular value at this time in the long-term growth opportunities afforded within the emerging markets region where ISS Global Forwarding enjoys a strong presence" said Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani, ceo and executive director of the Investment Corporation of Dubai.Press Release

September 4, 2018 HONTIVEROS: AFTER 26 YEARS, WOMEN SCORE MAJOR VICTORY WITH EXPANDED MATERNITY LEAVE LAW Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday lauded the passage on third and final reading of the 100-Day Expanded Maternity Leave Bill in the House of Representatives as "an historic victory for women." Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, championed the counterpart bill in the upper chamber that was approved in March last year. The House of Representatives' version seeks to improve on the country's paid maternity leave policy by adding 40 days from the current 60 days. "After 26 years, we are finally able to upgrade this outdated policy. After 26 years, women have won this right in the workplace," said Hontiveros. The Senate's version proposes an extension to 120 days. The Akbayan Senator maintained that an extension of the paid maternity leave will improve the health of women, their newborn and their family. "Enough rest will give new mothers time for recuperation and recovery from childbirth," said Hontiveros. "It will also improve on families' overall well-being, with newborn infants being properly taken care of, with enough skin-to-skin contact with their mother," she added. Hontiveros also explained that the measure, once fully enacted into law, will improve productivity for businesses. "A healthy working population means less sick leaves and more productivity," she said. The Senator said that she is also looking forward to the measure making the country more competitive compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors. "Tayo ngayon ang may pinaka-kulelat na maternity leave policy sa buong ASEAN," lamented Hontiveros. At 60 days, the country's maternity leave policy lags behind Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia (90 days each), Myanmar (98 days), Laos and Brunei (105 days). Singapore and Vietnam top the list of the best maternity leave policies at 112 days and 180 days respectively. "This measure will make our labor practices at par with our ASEAN counterparts. An expanded maternity leave law will signal to the world our commitment to working women's rights and welfare," she furthered. The Senator also congratulated her House counterparts: partylist representatives Bernadette Herrera-Dy (Bagong Henerasyon) and Tom Villarin (Akbayan) for championing the said measure. "Together with women and labor advocates, they have been working tirelessly to ensure the passage of this bill. They are our women and labor champions," said Hontiveros. The measure will now move to a bicameral conference committee that will consolidate both versions of the bill for signing of the President into law. "I am looking forward to working with our House counterparts to bring forward this progressive measure that will benefit Filipino families," concluded Hontiveros.Trillanes amnesty had congressional concurrence,

any arrest sans Senate, House illegal: Pangilinan

Instead of addressing the rice crisis now engulfing the nation, this government is more concerned with silencing its critics using illegal and unlawful methods.

We stand by Sen. Trillanes, and will use all legal means to fight this illegal and abusive exercise of presidential power.

The revocation of the Proclamation granting amnesty to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is a clear persecution against one of the administration's toughest critics.

It has no justifiable basis and done to silence Sen. Trillanes, who in the past has exposed to the public possible wrongdoings of the President.

Proclamation 75 that granted amnesty to the senator in 2010 was concurred in by Congress. It could not be easily set aside by the whims of one man.

The Constitution provides that an amnesty proclamation requires the concurrence of both Houses of Congress and therefore the said revocation requires our concurrence and is therefore not immediately executory.

Absent our concurrence any arrest is illegal. We urge the Armed Forces and the PNP not to enforce an illegal arrest.Tilt Renewables' independent directors are recommending shareholders reject the $208.5 million Infratil-led takeover offer for the business, saying it is "simply too low".

Infrastructure investment company Infratil owns 51 percent of the Melbourne-based wind and solar developer. Last month it announced it was partnering with power company Mercury NZ, which in May acquired almost 20 percent of Tilt's shares, to buy out the rest at $2.30 a share. That is 8 percent more than they were trading at prior to the offer and matches what Mercury paid for its stake. The shares last traded at $2.29 on the NZX.

However, the "offer price does not adequately recognise the value of the current operational assets and the strong pipeline of future projects", Fiona Oliver, chair of the independent director committee, said in an emailed statement.

This is a very strong company in the renewables energy space, with excellent prospects. The $2.30 offer is simply too low. The independent directors believe the minority shareholders should be properly rewarded if Mercury and Infratil are to get total ownership and take the company private. The JVs premium of 8 percent on recent trading does not recognise the strategic value of this company," she said.

The premium is "materially below the average level for successful takeovers of this kind in New Zealand", she said, noting that the offer comes at an opportunistic time and doesnt factor in a major future project that may deliver significant benefits to the company. This refers to Tilt's bid for a portion of output from the fully permitted 336MW Dundonnell Wind Farm under the Victorian Renewable Energy Auction Scheme.

Oliver added that the committee will provide shareholders with a target company statement within two weeks that will include more detail, and an independent report by Northington Partners, "but our view is already clear".

Tilt has seven operating wind farms in Australia and New Zealand and a string of development opportunities in both countries. It has just completed the 54MW Salt Creek wind farm in Victoria and is preparing to proceed with the A$600 million, 336MW Dundonnell project in the same state.

The statement, which hasn't been published on the New Zealand or Australian stock exchanges, came as Infratil and Mercury announced they obtained approval from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board for the deal, the only substantive condition in the takeover offer.

(BusinessDesk)

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Rural Equities, the farming group majority-owned by the Cushing family, has agreed to sell two of its farms and continues to eye other investments outside New Zealand rural property.

The Hastings-based company, which owns 22 farms in New Zealand, said it has entered into unconditional contracts to sell Glendowns, a sheep and beef property in South Canterbury, and the northern block of Dalmuir, an arable property near Timaru, for more than $9 million, slightly above book value. The sale of the properties, which were leased, are due to settle in April.

Rural Equities, established in 1989 as New Zealand Farmlands, owns a mix of sheep and beef, dairy, deer and arable farms spread throughout New Zealand from Waikato to Southland. Its property portfolio has been shrinking as it sells down farms and the company has said it is considering new long-term investment opportunities in other asset classes and potentially other jurisdictions to provide enhanced returns and portfolio diversification.

In announcing its annual result this week, the company said that while nothing has met the directors investment criteria during the last financial year, the process continues.

Rural Equities reported its profit fell to $4.45 million in the year ended June 30 from $8.98 million a year earlier while operating earnings before interest and tax edged up to $5.03 million from $5 million. The company said the value of its rural property, excluding changes to the portfolio, fell by $1.51 million, compared with an increase of $4.32 million the previous year. It said the reduction was offset by a $3.09 million gain in its shareholding in ASX-listed agricultural company Webster, which has interests in Australian cotton and walnut farming and water rights.

As a result, net asset value per share lifted to $5.79 from $5.71 a year earlier, the company said.

This is a satisfactory operating result with firm prices being achieved for milk, sheep and beef," executive chair David Cushing said in a statement. "The rural property market was subdued with foreign investors being virtually excluded from the market and increasing environmental standards applied. In particular, the lack of foreign purchasers has resulted in very limited liquidity for large scale properties.

Rural Equities will pay a 5 cent dividend on Nov. 7, unchanged from the past three years.

The company is offering to buy back up to 650,000 of its shares at $4.90 apiece, which is 50 cents higher than the last share buyback in 2016 and a premium to the current market price. The shares last traded at $4.75 on the USX market, having changed hands between $4.65 and $5 over the past year.

"Given that REL shares trade infrequently, directors consider the offer will provide shareholders who are contemplating exiting their investment an ability to realise their shareholding at a premium to market and without paying brokerage fees," it said.

The offer is expected to open by Sept. 24 and close on Oct. 19.

(BusinessDesk)

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New Zealand has plenty of natural gas and will need to use it to keep its transition to a lower-carbon economy affordable for homes and industry, First Gas chief executive Paul Goodeve says.

The firm, which recently announced its move into LPG supply, wants to continue investing in gas infrastructure. It would be keen on further acquisitions if it could find assets of suitable scale, he said.

The coalitions ban on new offshore exploration wont "make any difference to emissions" but has reduced the prospects for workers in one of the countrys most highly-skilled and highest earning industries, he said.

Fortunately, New Zealand has plenty of onshore gas, he said. OMV, which has agreed to buy Shells offshore operations, should also be keen to extend the life of the ageing Maui gas field.

While hes not worried about near-term gas supplies, Goodeve is concerned that expectations of the rapid electrification of industry  as part of the countrys climate change targets - may be unrealistic. A lot of emissions reduction can be achieved by switching from coal to gas  which generally has about half the emissions - but the governments ban on exploration has already caused some firms to delay making that change, he said.

While we wait and think about how we can get a perfect solution, were missing an opportunity to do a better solution, Goodeve said in an interview in New Plymouth this week.

First Gas, owned by infrastructure funds managed by Australias Colonial First State, was formed in April 2016 to acquire the Maui gas transmission system and the non-Auckland gas pipelines previously owned by Vector. In December it agreed to buy Contact Energys Ahuroa gas storage facility for $200 million and in July agreed to buy its Rockgas LPG business for $260 million.

Goodeve said the company is a staunch advocate for gas and its place in New Zealands energy mix. The growth in LPG demand  6 percent-plus in recent years  also shows that firms and industry understand its value.

While everyone understands the need to reduce emissions in the economy, Goodeve said doing that on the ground is going to be complex. The country hasnt even settled on what carbon-zero means and there is a need to move quickly from headlines and slogans into detailed modelling and costs.

Once we do that well see how important gas  LPG, reticulated, LNG, whatever  is to New Zealand, he said.

In May, national grid operator Transpower published a series of scenarios suggesting a sustained investment in wind, geothermal and solar could slash emissions and help electrify transport and heavy industry. Electricity demand would more than double by 2050, while the contribution from oil and gas would fall to about 24 percent of the countrys primary energy use from about 60 percent now.

Not only would that require development of more than 35 wind projects and 20 new hydro projects, but the increased reliance on intermittent wind and solar would also increase the need to dry-year and peak winter loads, probably requiring on-going access to gas-fired generation or an alternative fuel such as hydrogen.

Last month Contact Energy chief executive Dennis Barnes called the scenarios wildly optimistic. Meridian Energy, the countrys biggest renewables generator, noted Transpowers electricity demand outlook was roughly twice that of the Productivity Commission and almost three times its own high demand projection.

Goodeve said some of the Transpower projections would be ridiculously expensive to implement.

We are going to need gas for longer than people think if we want to maintain our quality of life and export competitiveness and energy at a price that people can afford, he said.

One of the things that most concerns me about our carbon zero conversation is that no-one is talking about the impact that has on peoples cost of energy.

You are already seeing it with the Auckland fuel tax. The people it impacts on the most are those who can least afford it. You push the price of electricity from 30 cents a unit to 60 cents or 90 cents a unit  its going to have a tremendous impact on those people who can least afford to insulate their homes or buy PV (photovoltaic solar panels), he said.

Thats where gas is really well placed to help New Zealand balance the energy trilemma. If we dont have an open mind about that I think we are going to box ourselves into a corner.

We all want to have a more sustainable New Zealand, but we also want to have one in which people can afford to heat their homes. Im sure the government is thinking this through, but its complex.

In the meantime, First Gas will continue with its plans. It hopes to shortly complete the Ahuroa purchase and is preparing to start work this summer relocating the Maui pipeline away from the cliff edge at Gilbert Stream on the northern Taranaki coast.

Its purchase of Rockgas will roughly double the size of the firm and will involve it in LPG purchasing and retailing for the first time.

Goodeve said the group is keen to learn more in both areas, but particularly how to promote the use of gas. LPG is simply a different form of gas delivery  yet its much stronger growth relative to piped gas shows there is something lacking in the industrys piped gas offer  possibly in its pricing, or the process customers face getting connected, or both.

First Gas has no further plans to expand into gas retailing, and its primary focus remains gas infrastructure, he said.

Rockgas is a good business with a recognised retail brand. But the firm also operates mid-stream LPG storage and reticulated LPG networks, which fit with First Gass expertise in asset management and its appetite for growth.

Goodeve said Rockgas will also give the firm South Island exposure and deepen its coverage in the North Island. It also gives the company a bigger piece of the gas puzzle.

We feel theres an opportunity for someone to be a real advocate for gas as a fuel in New Zealand. By having a wider breadth and having a retail focus, we can justify putting a bit of effort and money into that conversation, which I think has been missing.

(BusinessDesk)

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The Productivity Commission's final report on achieving a low carbon economy makes concrete recommendations on how to treat methane under the Emissions Trading Scheme, says the ETS should be administered by a new, independent government agency, and says tradeable New Zealand Units of carbon should be regulated as financial instruments.

While the 620-page report largely confirms the findings of the commission's interim report, issued in April, there are new proposals in these and a few other areas that the government will consider as it develops the Net Zero Carbon Bill, due for introduction to Parliament in October, and that its Interim Climate Change Committee will take into account for its report into reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, due next April.

The commission's report says that "biogenic CH4" - methane produced by the belching of sheep and cows - "is unsuitable for inclusion in a single-cap ETS due to the difficulty such a scheme would have in driving emissions reductions in a manner that recognises the different atmospheric properties of short and long-lived gases.

"A dual-cap NZ ETS with separate trading units for biogenic CH4 and other GHGs, or a methane quota system, are two suitable alternative permit and pricing mechanisms for incentivising mitigation of bio-genic CH4".

The commission's report mirrors one last week from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, which set out the case for a less stringent approach to short-lived GHGs, while still driving towards zero net emissions by longer-lived gases, such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, as quickly as possible.

"In a dual-cap NZ ETS, each cap would be set in direct relation to the emissions budget for each category of GHG and would result in the creation of two separate types of NZUs: a long-lived NZU and a shortlived NZU," the commission proposes. "Given that the caps would be set at different emission quantities, the price of each type of NZU would be independently determined in its own market.

"Trading, and therefore abatement flexibility across participants, would be restricted to solely within each cap."

Alternatively, a methane quota system could be established, which would allocate a certain quota of methane emissions to each known emitter, with the ability to trade quota units.

The commission noted that the issue had not attracted much attention internationally because most developed nations are grappling with high emissions of long-lived gases, mainly CO2, whereas New Zealand is unusual because around half its emissions are from agricultural sources, including short-lived methane.

Yet "emissions of short-lived gases do not need to reach net zero to limit peak warming," the commission's report says. "The case for putting greater relative priority on mitigating long-lived gases is strong because emissions are irreversible. While this is well-understood within the scientific community, less policy attention has been paid to this issue globally."

"The commission considers that this 'two baskets' approach would provide for a distinctively New Zealand solution to its emissions profile. It would align New Zealands mitigation policy more closely with the underlying science of warming, address the countrys distinctive emissions profile, and could become a world-leading policy exemplar," the report says.

Climate Change Minister James Shaw was non-commital on the recommendations, saying they would be considered in policy development.

"I do think we will arrive at a target that satisfies a range of concerns, including the scientific reality that this and other reports are acknowledging, that a reduced but ongoing flow of methane doesn't produce any further warming for the climate and also meets the Paris (global climate change) Agreement requirements," he said. "Technically, you could have an all gases target and run different trading schemes or you could have a dual target but run the same trading scheme or you could run a combination.

"We've just got to see where the advice comes out on that."

On the new recommendation that a separate government agency should run the ETS, Shaw acknowledged only that it was "new suggestion", while the recommendation that NZ Units in the ETS should be treated and regulated as financial products, subject to the Financial Markets Conduct Act, was still under consideration.

(BusinessDesk)

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In Thane district neighbouring Mumbai, 13 Govindas, including two children -- one a 10-year-old and other 12-year-old -- suffered injuries, a Region Disaster Management Cell official said.

: Even as dahi handi festival was celebrated with gaiety on Monday, one Govinda (reveller) died and 150 others injured in separate incidents in Mumbai and suburbs, the police said.

In Mumbai, Kush Khandare, 20, suffered an epileptic attack when he climbed the first layer of a human pyramid in Dharavi in Central Mumbai this afternoon, police said.

He was taken to Sion Hospital where doctors declared him dead before admission, a senior police officer said.

The deceased was a resident of a chawl in Dharavi.

In separate incidents in the island city and suburbs, 150 Govindas suffered injuries, the officer said.

The festival, which marks the birth of Lord Krishna, was celebrated with enthusiasm across Mumbai, including in areas like Ghatkopar, Dadar, Lalbaug and Bhandup.

The dahi handi ritual is part of the Janmashtami festival in Maharashtra, where youngsters (called Govindas), dressed in colourful attire, make human pyramid to reach an earthen pot containing buttermilk and suspended in mid-air, and break it.

Religious institutions, political leaders and Govinda mandals took part in the dahi handi celebrations which were marked by frequent chants of "Govinda aala re" (Govinda has come).The Congress has secured 982 seats and the BJP 929 in the elections held Saturday, while JD-S came a distant third with 375 seats, according to the state election commission results.

: Establishing a slight edge over Bharatiya Janata Party in a closely fought race in urban local bodies polls in Karnataka, the Congress is set to gain control of a majority of the urban local bodies (ULBs), teaming up with its ruling coalition partner Janata Dal-Secular.

The others, including 329 independents, bagged the rest of the seats in the three-way race with the Congress and the JD-S fighting against each other, despite being coalition partners.

Both the Congress and JD-S have declared that they would tie-up in ULBs which have produced a hung verdict.

Elections were held for three city corporations,29 city municipal councils (CMC), 52 town municipal councils (TMC) and 20 Town Panchayats (TP).

Results for 2,662 of the 2,709 seats for which polls were held have been declared.

With the combined strength of Congress and JD-S securing 1,357 seats, they enjoy a clear edge over the BJP to seize control of a majority of the ULBs.

These elections were considered the first test of popularity of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, which was formed post-May assembly polls when it yielded a hung verdict.

The BJP had emerged as the single largest party in the assembly polls, but failed to shore up the numbers in its bid to form the government.

The ULB polls were also considered as indicative of the voters' mood before the next Lok Sabha elections.

Compared to its performance in the 2013 urban local bodies elections, BJP has fared far better. In the polls then conducted for 4,976 seats, the Congress had bagged 1,960 seats and BJP and JD-S 905 seats each.

Elections for the remaining more than 2,300 seats is likely be held early next year.

Polls to Kodagu urban local bodies has been withheld due to the recent floods in the district.

Reiterating the JD-S and Congress' resolve, former prime minister and JD-S supremo H D Deve Gowda said, "Wherever we can form a coalition government to keep the BJP out of power, we will certainly do that."

Buoyed by the election results, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said it was a 'befitting answer' to those who were saying that the coalition government was weak and would collapse soon.

"The election results have silenced all those who have been saying that Congress has weakened, that it was lagging behind and its popularity was diminishing," said an upbeat state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao.

State BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa admitted that the election results were not as per the expectations.

"Results are not as per our expectation. The overall results satisfy us because we could withstand the money and muscle power used during the election," he said.

Yeddyurappa said the results would not have any bearing on the popularity of the government because there were many local factors at work. He reiterated the party's resolve to win 22 or 23 seats out of 28 in Lok Sabha polls.

The ULB results show that the Congress, BJP and JD-S have broadly held on to their position secured in the assembly polls.

The results were marred by an ugly incident in Tumakuru where a Congress candidate and his nine supporters were injured in a suspected acid attack during a march to celebrate his victory.

Inayatullah Khan, who won the election from ward No.16 in Tumakuru -- around 70 km from Bengaluru, was taking out a victory procession in the morning when an unidentified person sprayed some liquid on the crowd and fled the scene, police said.

Around 10 people felt a burning sensation and were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were administered first-aid.

They suffered minor injuries, among whom Khan had the maximum burns on his face, Tumakaru Superintendent of Police Divya V Gopinath said.

Doctors said the liquid might be some low-intensity acid like bathroom cleaner, the SP said Police suspect the incident to be the handiwork of Khan's rival, whose name they did not disclose.

Nobody has been arrested so far and no complaint has been lodged, the officer added.The IMD representatives apprised the state authorities about the strong monsoon conditions with heavy rainfall activity in a meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan on August 9, according to a statement issued by the ministry of earth sciences.

: The central government said on Monday that the India Meteorological Department had issued necessary severe weather warnings for Kerala rains last month, refuting the charge that there were lapses on its part.

"Also the additional chief secretary (revenue and disaster management) was briefed orally over phone on all occasions. Member Secretary, SDMA (State Disaster Management Authority) was briefed on August 10. District collectors of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram were briefed on August 14. Briefings were sent to media also during this period," the statement said.

The MoES said the IMD had issued all necessary severe weather warnings through its office in Thiruvananthapuram and extended forecast range was issued two weeks in advance.

On August 30, the chief minister in the state assembly had said there were "lapses" on the part of the IMD's rain forecast during this period.

The IMD had forecast an estimated 98.5 mm rain in the state between August 9 and 15.

But, the actual rain received was 352.2 mm, Vijayan said, adding he purpose was not to find fault with anyone.

Weather forecasts for five days and outlook for subsequent two days, which also include heavy rainfall warning and wind warning, were sent through e-mail to Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Disaster Management), SDMA, Navy, Special Marine enforcement, print and electronic media, the statement added.

Short and medium range forecasts (five days in advance) were also issued by the IMD unit in Thiruvananthapuram, it said.

The ministry said orange alerts, which mean authorities should prepare for action, were issued with effect from August 6 and applicable from August 8 onwards while red alert, which means authorities start taking necessary action, was issued with effect from August 9.: The Congress said on Monday that the people of Karnataka have accepted the development policies of the Congress-Janata Dal-Secular government in the state and have rejected the 'jumlas' (rhetoric) of the BJP, after the party emerged as the single largest outfit in the local body polls.

The JD-S, which is in a coalition government with the Congress in Karnataka, termed the results a defeat of the BJP in the state.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, while thanking the people of the state, said that they have once again reposed their faith in the Congress.

"People of Karnataka have once again reposed their faith in Congress by making it the No.1 party in Urban Local Bodies. People have accepted development policies of Congress+JDS Govt & have rejected Jumlas of BJP. Many thanks to every @INCKarnataka worker!" he tweeted.

According to the state election commission, the Congress has secured 966 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 910 seats in the elections held on Saturday. The Janata Dal-Secular has won 373 seats.

Results for 2,628 seats out of 2,709 have been declared so far.

Both the Congress and the JD-S contested the polls separately despite being partners in the state government, but they have already declared that they would tie up post-election in urban bodies.

Party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi thanked the voters in urban centres for the party's good show, saying the results have demolished the myth that the Congress does not have a base in these places.

She said the Congress has also put up a good show in coastal areas and western regions of Karnataka considered a traditional stronghold of the BJP.

"The results have shown that wherever BJP has failed in its accountability and has resorted to unconstitutional means after the assembly polls, voters have given them a befitting reply," she said. Chaturvedi said all the murmurs about the Congress becoming weak following its alliance with the JD(S) has also been put to rest.

JD-S leader Danish Ali termed the poll result as a defeat of the BJP, noting that the civic elections were held in 104 urban assembly constituencies, out of which the BJP had won 69 in the state elections held in May.Madhya Pradesh is going to polls later this year along with Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Active presence on the social media is one of the eligibility criteria for the aspirants seeking to contest the upcoming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh on Congress tickets, a party functionary said Monday.

"It is essential for the candidates seeking nomination for the assembly polls to be active on the social media," state Congress' social media and IT president Abhay Tiwari said.

He said the party won't consider the inactive aspirants eligible for tickets.

Explaining the logic behind this pre-condition, Tiwari said voters are active on the social media and can be accessed effectively through internet.

"The social media activity of ticket seekers will be gauged from their presence on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp groups," he said.Hong Kong ushers mainland workers into new station



Hong Kong, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



Staff from mainland China quietly took up their posts at a new high-speed rail station in Hong Kong Tuesday in a move criticised by opponents as giving away the city's territory.

Hong Kong enjoys rights unseen on the mainland -- including freedom of speech -- as part of a handover deal between Britain and China, but there are fears those liberties are increasingly under threat from Beijing.

The new rail link between Hong Kong and southern China will see joint immigration checkpoints at the West Kowloon terminus, in the heart of the city, with a special port area patrolled by mainland security and subject to Chinese law.

The station will officially open on September 23 but the mainland section was handed over to Chinese personnel in the early hours of Tuesday.

The hush-hush ceremony took place at midnight and was not announced by the Hong Kong government until it was over. There was no media access.

City leader Carrie Lam denied the move was a cover-up, describing it as a "working level handover procedure".

"There was nothing sneaky," she told reporters on Tuesday.

The government put out a statement just after midnight confirming that the secretary for transport and a senior official from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong had jointly hosted the ceremony to "mark the commissioning of the mainland port area" at the station.

Under Hong Kong's mini-constitution -- the Basic Law -- China's national laws do not apply to the city apart from in limited areas, including defence.

Pro-democracy lawmaker James To accused the government of downplaying the significance of the mainland personnel's arrival.

"It should be a historic event, but they are very shy -- they didn't even invite the media to take the photos," he told AFP.

To described the stationing of mainland staff on Hong Kong soil as "very controversial" and a threat to the city's autonomy.

Both the port area and train carriages will be subject to Chinese law, prompting questions over how Hong Kong citizens will be required to behave in those zones, whether they will be punished for using Facebook and Twitter -- which are banned on the mainland -- or targeted for wearing clothing with political slogans.

Residents walking near the station -- which is still sealed off to the public -- were split over the arrangement.

A retiree who gave his name as Mr. Lau said the government was being disingenuous.

"Authorities forcefully insist it doesn't violate the Basic Law but anyone with a discerning eye can see that's problematic," Lau told AFP.

Another resident who gave his name as Li was more philosophical.

"To be honest, Hong Kong has already been handed over to mainland China," he said.Mandarin lessons in Malawi underline China's Africa ties



Lilongwe, Malawi, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



As African leaders attend this week's summit in Beijing awash with investment pledges, back in Malawi, pupils are stuck into their Mandarin lessons -- a clear sign of China's increasing sway over the continent.

"The world now is going in such a way that if you want to travel, (you) should not want to find difficulties talking to people. Language can be a barrier," said Ndaziona Mponde, a Malawian student studying Mandarin in the capital Lilongwe.

"I want to learn Chinese because if I get a chance of going to China maybe for business or for school then I wouldn't find too many problems," she told AFP.

Malawi and China have had diplomatic relations only since 2008.

But more than 1,000 Malawians now attend Chinese classes at 25 learning centres in four cities across Malawi, according to professor Feng Jianguo, director of the Confucius Institute in Lilongwe.

"We have a lot of Chinese enterprises offering opportunity of employment," Jianguo said.

"If you know how to speak, how to read and write and you learn the Chinese language, it will be much easier for you to find a job."



- Education and infrastructure -



Last month, the Chinese embassy in Lilongwe announced it would provide 1,000 scholarships to Malawian students ranging from undergraduate to doctoral levels to study in China.

The programme is just part of China's massive engagement with Africa in recent decades.

The world's second biggest economy has poured billions of dollars of loans and funding support for roads, ports and other major infrastructure projects.

From power plants in Botswana to diamond mines in Zimbabwe, railways in Nigeria and hydropower projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa has come to rely on China for investment and jobs.

Yvonnie Sundu, an arts reporter on Malawi's Nation newspaper who recently returned from studies in China, said the country's impact on Africa was increasingly evident.

"China is continuously offering options that were not previously available," she said.

"When you thought of going for further studies, the ideal choice was the UK or USA. But now, China has opened up."

Chinese President Xi Jinping told African leaders in Beijing on Monday that the country's investments on the continent have "no political strings attached" as he pledged $60 billion in new development financing.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Rwandan President Paul Kagame were among leaders present at the summit, which ends Tuesday.

At the demanding Confucius Institute at the University of Malawi teacher Sung Goujua has some encouraging advice.

"If your pursuit is to become a professional translator, maybe it can be quite difficult," he said. "But if you just want to learn basic communication, it is very easy -- maybe two or three months would be enough."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: </%method> 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: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... 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(0x7f3fd6763728)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6bb7bc8)', '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(0x7f3fd6763728)') 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(0x7f3fd6bb7bc8)') 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(0x7f3fd6791ac0)') 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(0x7f3fd6bb7bc8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6bb7bc8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6222348)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6b9ad98)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6b9ad98)') 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: </%method> 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: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... 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(0x7f3fd6a16b30)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6b4a008)', '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(0x7f3fd6a16b30)') 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(0x7f3fd6b4a008)') 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(0x7f3fd6b415c8)') 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(0x7f3fd6b4a008)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6b4a008)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6221f70)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd67023f8)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd67023f8)') 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: </%method> 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: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... 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(0x7f3fd6b6b500)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd7de8500)', '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(0x7f3fd6b6b500)') 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(0x7f3fd7de8500)') 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(0x7f3fd6b5ea60)') 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(0x7f3fd7de8500)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd7de8500)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd5fec810)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcde39198)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fcde39198)') 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: </%method> 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: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... 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(0x7f3fd6a30508)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6daacb0)', '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(0x7f3fd6a30508)') 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(0x7f3fd6daacb0)') 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(0x7f3fd6b7b440)') 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(0x7f3fd6daacb0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd6daacb0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd62221c8)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6dcbeb0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd6dcbeb0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0Russia says space station leak may be sabotage



Moscow, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



Russia launched checks Tuesday after its space chief said an air leak on the International Space Station last week could have been deliberate sabotage.

Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected Thursday in a Russian space craft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or by astronauts in space.

Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening.

"There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments, adding that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand".

"What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?" he asked.

"We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space."

A state commission will seek to identify the culprit by name, Rogozin said, calling this a "matter of honour" for Russia's Energiya space manufacturing company that made the Soyuz.

Asked for comment on allegations of possible sabotage, a NASA spokeswoman referred all questions to the Russian space agency which is overseeing the commission's analysis.

- 'Strange stunt'-



Rogozin had said the hole in the side of the ship used to ferry astronauts was most likely caused from outside by a tiny meteorite, but later admitted it had been ruled out.

A Russian MP who is a former cosmonaut suggested that a psychologically disturbed astronaut could have done it to force an early return home.

"We're all human, and anyone might want to go home, but this method is really low," Maxim Surayev of President Vladimir Putin's ruling party, told RIA Novosti state news agency,

"If a cosmonaut pulled this strange stunt -- and that can't be ruled out -- it's really bad," said Surayev, who spent two stints on the ISS.

"I wish to God that this is a production defect, although that's very sad, too -- there's been nothing like this in the history of Soyuz ships."

Alexander Zheleznyakov, a former space industry engineer and author, told TASS state news agency however that drilling the hole in zero gravity would be nearly impossible in that part of the spacecraft.

"Why would cosmonauts do it?" he asked.

The hole is in a section of the Soyuz ship that will not be used to carry astronauts back to Earth.

A space industry source told TASS that the spacecraft could have been damaged during testing at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after passing initial checks and the mistake was then hastily covered up.

"Someone messed up and then got scared and sealed up the hole," the source speculated, but then the sealant "dried up and fell off" when the Soyuz reached the ISS.

Energiya will carry out checks for possible defects on all Soyuz ships and Progress unmanned ships used for cargo at its production site outside Moscow and at Baikonur, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday, citing a space industry source.

The ISS is one of the few areas of Russia-US cooperation that remains unaffected by the slump in relations and Washington's sanctions.

Russia's rockets used for launching spacecraft and satellites have suffered engine problems.

Currently on the ISS are two cosmonauts from Russia, three NASA astronauts and a German from the European Space Agency.

am-ma/as/bpThorny trade, defense issues await US diplomats in India



Washington, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



Two of President Donald Trump's top officials are finally heading for talks in India this week, after Washington twice pulled the plug on the summit.

The so-called 2+2 dialogue will see Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis meet with their Indian counterparts on a range of key defense and trade issues.

Both sides are likely to herald Thursday's talks -- the first of their kind between the two nations -- as proof positive of their rapidly growing strategic partnership in the region.

But between the friendly photo calls and soundbites, the diplomats must smooth a slew of problems, exacerbated by Trump's testy relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The talks were first meant to be held in April and then in June but both were postponed, triggering speculation of a possible rift between the two countries amid disputes over trade.

Putting aside the interpersonal dynamics of their two bombastic leaders, the Indian and US officials must tackle two urgent issues -- America's demands for India to stop buying Iranian oil, and for it to think twice about making new Russian arms purchases.

"Creative thinking will be needed in the 2+2 dialogue to overcome these challenges, which should also ensure that there are no nasty surprises and difficult issues are settled through quiet diplomacy," Rakesh Sood, a distinguished fellow at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, wrote in an opinion piece for The Hindu newspaper.

In 2016, Washington designated India a "Major Defense Partner," capping years of efforts to improve India-US ties under president Barack Obama.

The aim was to improve military cooperation and cut red tape to ease defense deals.

It is having some success, with the two countries set to discuss expanding the scope and complexity of joint military exercises.

India and the US are also close to signing an agreement that would ensure communications between their two militaries are compatible and secure.

America desperately wants India on side to provide a regional bulwark against China's seemingly inexorable regional expansion that has already seen it secure a long-term lease on a Sri Lankan port.

And it wants India to distance itself from Russia, notably by stepping back from decades of purchases of Russian military equipment.

Proof of US outreach can be seen in the Pentagon's recent renaming of its massive Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific Command.



- Russian military deal -



But India, the world's top defense importer, wants to purchase new systems from Moscow, including its S-400 long-range, surface-to-air missile system.

Under current US rules against Russia, third countries could face sanctions if they transact with Russian defense or intelligence sectors.

The Press Trust of India recently quoted an unnamed official as saying the deal was almost done, and that Delhi would be asking for a special sanctions waiver from Trump.

However last week, Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, warned there are no guarantees.

"We would still have very significant concerns if India pursued major new platforms and systems (from Russia). I can't sit here and tell you that they would be exempt, that we would use that waiver," Schriver told a Washington think tank.

The US is open to helping India find an alternative for the S-400, he added.

India already has bought US Apache attack helicopters and other gear, and is negotiating to buy armed drones.

Schriver said he was overall "bullish" about the prospects for deepening US-India ties.

Pompeo and Mattis's counterparts are Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

In May, Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear deal with Iran and said other countries, including India, a key buyer of Iranian oil, must stop purchasing crude from the Tehran before November 4 or face US sanctions.

The diplomats will also discuss the endless conflict in nearby Afghanistan, where the US seeks Indian help in humanitarian projects.

Pompeo is also this week flying to Islamabad to meet new Prime Minister Imran Khan, just days after the Pentagon said it plans to cancel $300 million to Pakistan over its lack of "decisive actions" in support of American strategy in Afghanistan.Russian air strikes batter Syria's Idlib: monitor



Beirut, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



Russian warplanes battered Syria's rebel-controlled Idlib on Tuesday for the first time in three weeks, a war monitor said, as expectations mount of a government offensive in the northwestern province.

Regime ally Moscow and rebel backer Ankara have held several rounds of talks aimed at averting an assault, but government troops have been massing near the rebel zone.

"Russian warplanes resumed bombing Idlib province after a 22-day pause," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The air raids "came a day after rebel units in Idlib hit regime positions in neighbouring Latakia province, which killed three pro-regime fighters," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

Abdel Rahman could not immediately provide a death toll for the strikes.

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month and Russian has stepped up its war rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."

Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft based at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

Russia accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponised drones and insists jihadist groups in the province must be eliminated.

Analysts say there is still a window of opportunity to avoid the humanitarian impact of a full-scale offensive.

The presidents of Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran are to meet in Tehran on Friday for three-way talks that are expected to focus on Idlib.

An estimated three million people -- half of them displaced from other parts of Syria -- live in the province and adjacent rebel-held areas.French navy 'ready to intervene' in scallop row with UK fishermen



Paris, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



France said Tuesday its navy is standing by to avert new clashes between French and British fishing boats after tensions flared last week over access to scallop-rich waters off the Normandy coast.

Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told CNews television the navy was "ready to intervene in case of clashes".

Fishermen around 12 nautical miles off the Normandy coast last week hurled stones and insults in what has been dubbed a "Scallops War".

A British government source said it was France's "responsibility under international law to respond" since the clashes broke out in French waters.

"It's not our jurisdiction. The Navy are available if asked. It has not been asked," said the official, who asked not to be named.

At stake is access to rich stocks of the pricey delicacy in waters near the mouth of the Seine River.

French boats are allowed to fish there only between October to May to protect stocks.

But a deal struck years ago exempts British boats less than 15 metres (50 feet) long from the restrictions.

French fishermen want that loophole to be closed when representatives of the two sides meet for talks on Wednesday.

Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, attending the meeting, said it was "difficult to be optimistic" on the prospects for an agreement.

"We hope to strike a deal but that would be down to the French, because they have rejected the terms we've had in previous years," he told AFP.

Tensions boiled over last Tuesday when five British boats sparred with dozens of French vessels in the waters off the French coast.

Some of the boats rammed each other, video footage showed.

"We're going to have to work on this, because this situation cannot continue, we can't have clashes like this," Travert said.

He said a new deal was needed to ensure "a sustainable and efficient management of scallop stocks."

But he said British fishermen should not expect a separate deal with France as the UK prepares to leave the European Union in March next year.

Travert said "tensions were rising" as the scheduled date for Brexit approaches.

"We want a global accord, and do not want to see fishing treated separately, because fishing should not be a variable for adjusting Brexit," he said.Israel confirms 200 strikes in Syria in 18 months



Jerusalem, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



An Israeli military official said Tuesday the army had carried out some 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months against mainly Iranian targets, a rare confirmation of such action.

A total of 202 strikes were carried out in neighbouring Syria, the official said, all of which involved "military targets, most of them belonging to the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards."

Around 800 missiles and bombs were used in the strikes, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the details first reported in various Israeli media.

Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran is backing President Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war.

A series of strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel in recent months, but the Israeli military rarely confirms them.

Israel has previously acknowledged carrying out dozens of strikes in Syria against what it describes as advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group.

Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, is another of Israel's enemies which is backing Assad in the Syrian conflict.

The rare confirmation of strikes comes after Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman signalled his country could hit Iranian targets in Iraq if they threatened Israel.

"We will face any Iranian threat, no matter where it comes from," Lieberman said Monday.

The defence minister was speaking following reports that Iran had provided ballistic missiles to allied Shiite militias in Iraq in recent months.

"Our freedom of action is total," Lieberman added.

The Israeli military official did not comment directly on those reports on Tuesday, but said the army was aware of missile transfers from Iran to Iraq and then on to Syria.Israeli strikes target Iranian positions in Syria: monitor



Beirut, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



Israeli missile strikes targeted Iranian military positions in the Syrian provinces of Hama and Tartus on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Syria's state news agency SANA said its air defence systems downed several missiles launched from Israeli warplanes.

The Observatory said missiles struck Wadi al-Oyoun in the central province of Hama, near a scientific research centre which was already targeted by Israeli strikes in July and last year.

Iranian military positions in coastal region of Banias, in the province of Tartus, were also targeted, the Britain-based monitoring organisation said.

"There was material damage," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

"The air defence system responded to an Israeli aggression carried out by aircraft... that targeted some of our military positions in the provinces of Tartus and Hama," SANA said, quoting a military source.

"Some of the missiles" were downed, the agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of one dead and four wounded.Israeli strikes target Iranian positions in Syria: monitor



Beirut, Sept 4 (AFP) Sep 04, 2018



Israeli missile strikes targeted Iranian military positions in the Syrian provinces of Hama and Tartus on Tuesday, killing three Syrian soldiers, a monitoring group said.

Syria's state news agency SANA said its air defence systems downed several missiles launched from Israeli warplanes.

The Observatory said missiles struck Wadi al-Oyoun in the central province of Hama, near a scientific research centre which was already targeted by Israeli strikes in July and last year.

Iranian military positions in the coastal region of Banias, in the province of Tartus, were also targeted, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Three Syrian soldiers were killed and 23 people injured -- 14 Syrian and nine Iranians, according to the Observatory.

"The air defence system responded to an Israeli aggression carried out by aircraft... that targeted some of our military positions in the provinces of Tartus and Hama," SANA said, quoting a military source.

"Some of the missiles" were downed, the agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of one dead and four wounded.

A spokesman for the Israeli army refused to comment on the new raids, but an Israeli military official, in a rare confirmation, said the army had carried out some 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months against mainly Iranian targets.

Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran is backing President Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war.

A series of strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel in recent months, but the Israeli military rarely confirms them.AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands, Sept. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smart recruitment technology firm StartMonday Technology Corp. (CSE: JOB) (OTC:STMDF) (FRANKFURT: JOB) (the Company or StartMonday) is pleased to announce the launch of a no-subscription, pay-as-you-go service for employers, effectively opening the door to a whole new segment of customers in Europe and North America.



The service adds a job promotion shopping cart that is seamlessly integrated with StartMondays applicant tracking system (ATS) and facilitates job posting to a large selection of popular job sites and social media channels. Employers require no contract and can pay by credit card upon job posting.

Job promotion is a critical activity for busy employers who spend most of their recruiting budgets on job advertising versus a small proportion of their budget on recruiting tools. In fact, according to Talent Tech Labs in New York, employers spend $2bn per year on recruiting tools and ten times this amount on job advertising every year. Many regional managers in StartMondays target industries - hospitality and retail - tend to use recruiting tools intermittently. They might have a new hotel opening next month or a quick hire to replace a receptionist now, and next month they are back to focusing on guest satisfaction or customer experience. The quick set-up and low-cost of our new service is designed to suit their specific recruitment needs.

Ray Gibson, StartMondays CEO, commented, Weve been working toward this job promotion service for some months now and were excited to launch our digital marketing campaigns that are poised to win thousands of new paying customers. This represents an entirely new revenue stream for StartMonday.

For those organisations with more sophisticated human resource requirements, StartMonday continues to offer a paid subscription with advanced features in its full ATS such as talent pools of candidates, custom careers pages and customizable integration services.

See how StartMonday is making job candidate selection faster and easier for every employer. Please join us in celebrating this significant step forward in the growth of our business by visiting and sharing this simple registration page https://landing.startmonday.com/ .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Ray Gibson"

CEO & Director

About StartMonday (CSE: JOB) (XFRA: JOB) (OTC: STMDF)

StartMonday helps employers select better candidates, faster, with the power of 15second video introductions. StartMonday's videoled mobile and web applications deliver a better impression of personality and customer skills, ultimately helping employers decide which candidates they should talk to first  making the process much more efficient. The Company is dedicated to building powerful tools for the Mobile Generation and is further developing its technology with an open blockchain solution for verifiable career histories called CareerChain. For more information please visit www.startmonday.com.

CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT: The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.

Contact:

Walter Spagnuolo

Invictus Investor Relations

Office: +1.604.343.8661

Toll Free from North America: +1.800.274.8143

Toll free from Germany: +0800.180.6687

Toll Free From UK: + 0.800.014.8387

Email: investors@startmonday.com

Website: www.startmonday.comThe content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy StatementINVITATION

ContextVision AB invites its shareholders and other stakeholders to a company presentation with representatives from the management team. During the meeting we will present Contextvision AB and its 2nd quarter and half year 2018 figures and give an update on the ongoing projects. The meeting will be held at the offices of Norne Securities AS (Oslo Office), Roald Amundsens gt. 6, Oslo.

Wednesday, September 12th at 11.30

Lunch will be served

Anita Tollstadius, CEO, and Ann-Charlotte Linderoth, CFO, will represent the management. You are welcome to ask questions after the presentation.

You are most welcome!

Best regards,

Anita Tollstadius, CEO, ContextVision AB

Please sign up for participation at the presentation by e-mail:

ann-charlotte.linderoth@contextvision.se

The presentation is free, and we need your registration on September 10th by the latest.

Please visit www.contextvision.com for more information about the company or to subscribe to press releases and financial information.Optimization

Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should?

Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools.Interview with Poland's Foreign Minister 'Our Losses Were Much Bigger'

Poland is currently regarded as the EU's problem child. The country's national-conservative government refuses to deal with the refugee issue and it continues to undermine the rule of law. In an interview, Foreign Minister Czaputowicz explains why Warsaw is once again demanding war compensation from Germany.SILVER SPRING, Md., Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Senior Service America, Inc. (SSAI) , in partnership with DenverWorks, has received a $375,000 grant for Back to Business , a job training and placement program for older ex-offenders. The program will cover three Colorado areas: the city of Denver, as well as Arapahoe and Adams counties. It is being funded by NextFifty Initiative, a Colorado based foundation.



The SSAI/DenverWorks program comes at a time when the state of Colorado intends to release a significant number of non-violent offenders, who have served significant sentences, many of them older inmates. Many of these soon-to-be new parolees face a triple stigma of being over 50 years old, of being of minority descent, and of having criminal records. The two year Back to Business program will prepare 200 low-income, predominantly minority, 50+ Coloradans with criminal records to develop skills that allow them to overcome these specific barriers to employment.

SSAI is the only national organization focused on ensuring a place for older Americans as part of the workforce. The organization operates in 32 states and has served over 450,000 Americans since its inception. Its collaboration with DenverWorks marks SSAIs return to the state of Colorado since 2003.

The fact is that despite a national unemployment rate at 4.1 percent, older workers experience higher job loss and unemployment rates. The shift from Old Economy jobs like factory work, to New Economy, technology-based positions being a great factor, said Gary A. Officer, SSAI President and CEO. Those who have been incarcerated are at an even greater disadvantage upon their release.

The new alliance with SSAI will allow DenverWorks to expand its assistance to an older demographic. In the past, 20 percent of DenverWorks client-base has been over the age of 50. Gainful employment is fundamental to successful re-entry into the community for ex-offenders. Through our new national alliance with SSAI and a strong investment by NextFifty we will continue to break down the barriers to employment for those most in need, said Robert Andrews, of DenverWorks.

For more information about SSAI visit www.seniorserviceamerica.org .

Media Contact:

SSAI.Press@ssa-i.org

About Senior Service America, Inc.

Senior Service America, Inc. (SSAI) is committed to making it possible for low-income and other disadvantaged older adults to participate fully in determining their own future and the future of their communities. SSAI provides employment opportunities to low-income and other older adults in 32 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For 50 years, SSAI has operated the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) and currently partners with a diverse network of local organizations in 13 states. For more information, please visit www.seniorserviceamerica.org .

About NextFifty Initiative

NextFifty Initiative is an independent, Colorado-based, nonprofit organization. The organization was formed to create brighter, longer and healthier futures that unlock the potential of communities through an advanced grant making approach. Through this work, communities are positioned to fully benefit from the wisdom and diverse experiences of a thriving aging population. Our approach applies a multitude of lenses in funding high-yield aging solutions that benefit people age 50 and older. NextFifty Initiative focuses grant making designed to support concepts, projects and innovations that will benefit generations for years to come.The Good Republican Roger Cohen on the Death of John McCain

In an essay, American journalist Roger Cohen reminds us why, even after death, U.S. Senator McCain remains a powerful antidote to President Donald Trump.

Von Roger CohenInterview with Wolfgang Ischinger 'We Are Experiencing an Epochal Shift'

In a DER SPIEGEL interview, former German Ambassador to Washington Wolfgang Ischinger says that U.S. President Donald Trump is endangering the world order. For Germany, the epochal shift amounts to no less than a loss of identity.PENTICTON, B.C., Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- World Wildlife Fund Canada and the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC are teaming up to bring burrowing owls back to British Columbias southern grasslands by engaging residents in hands-on conservation efforts. Members of the public and media are invited to help construct burrows and learn more about this endangered species at an event on Saturday, Sept. 8.





About burrowing owls

During the 1990s, populations of this charismatic grassland bird dropped by approximately 90 per cent due to habitat conversion. Habitat loss, namely a lack of suitable burrows, is one of the biggest threats to burrowing owls today. Once installed, the newly constructed burrows will provide much-needed nesting habitat and help support the survival of burrowing owls in the wild.

About the event

This event is one of three opportunities this fall organized by WWF-Canada and Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC aimed to make people a bigger part the solution to wildlife loss in Canada. Interested community members can register online.

What: Construction of artificial burrows. This is an opportunity to see burrowing owls at their breeding facility, meet Pluto the education owl and learn from experts about the threats owls face.

Where: Oliver Breeding Facility, Oliver, B.C.

From Penticton, take Highway 97 to Oliver. Look for the South Okanagan Rehabilitation Centre sign just past Brauns Road. The Oliver Breeding Facility is behind the SORCO building.

When: Saturday, Sept. 8, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Who:

Lauren Meads, executive director of BOCS BC

Lia McKinnon, biology tech

Devika Shah, senior manager of strategic initiatives at the WWF-Canada

Volunteers from the community

About World Wildlife Fund Canada

WWF-Canada creates solutions to the environmental challenges that matter most for Canadians. We work in places that are unique and ecologically important, so that nature, wildlife and people thrive together. Because we are all wildlife. For more information, visit wwf.ca

About Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC

Burrowing Owls are a Species at Risk in Canada, a charismatic little ground-dwelling owl of semi-arid grasslands. Our project is largely volunteer driven, designed to restore self-sustaining populations of these birds to the B.C. southern interior grasslands where they were historically found. A reintroduction program began with breeding and release in 1992 and became a full-fledged society in 2000. Our program works with private landowners, government, non-profit agencies and First Nations to protect and enhance grasslands through sustainable range-management practices and stewardship activities. For more information, visit burrowingowlbc.orgChanges to Telenor Group's Executive Management

(Fornebu, 4 September 2018) Berit Svendsen is stepping down from her position as CEO of Telenor Norway and head of the Scandinavia Cluster. The Board of Directors of Telenor Norway has appointed Petter Furberg as the new CEO. Kaaren Hilsen is announced as the new CEO in Telenor Sweden. Morten Karlsen Srby is appointed acting Cluster Head of Scandinavia after Svendsen.

Berit Svendsen has been the CEO of Telenor Norway for seven years and has held an additional role of Cluster Head for Scandinavia since March 2017. During the last six months both Chair of the Board for Telenor ASA, Gunn Wrsted, and Telenor Group President and CEO, Sigve Brekke, have been in dialogue with Svendsen about further career development and potential new areas of responsibility.

Long-term work with management development

"It is important for the Board that the Group Executive Management team continuously broadens and develops its experience and competence, both professionally and geographically. The Board also wants Telenor to develop a wider range of leaders prepared to take on more extensive assignments in the Group, including potential successors to the Group CEO. Some candidates will benefit from more international experience whereas others will benefit from more exposure to the Norwegian market. The Board of Telenor ASA is pleased with how the Group CEO has followed up on the Board's plans to develop internal successor candidates. Telenor Norway has delivered great results for seven years thanks to Berit's leadership and, as a result, she is someone we saw as having a key role in Telenor's future, and it's a shame and very sad that Berit has decided to decline the offers of new roles presented to her. The Group CEO has really tried to accommodate her wishes," says Gunn Wrsted, Chair of the Board of Telenor Group.

"At the same time it is satisfactory to see that the long-term work with building leadership means that a complete Group Executive Management and management of our business units are already in place and are ready to deliver on the ambitious plans being made. To succeed in a challenging environment with strong competition, the energy of all employees in Telenor must be directed at delivering the best services to our customers. The Board regrets the uncertainty experienced within the Norwegian Telenor organization in the past few weeks and the strain this has caused for our colleagues", says Wrsted.

Rotation of roles

"I have tried to find a good solution tailored to Berit's own wishes, while at the same time ensuring development of competence and experience both for her and others. I greatly respect and understand that international assignments aren't always fitting. I have therefore explored all options to accommodate Berit's needs and wishes. As Berit herself showed a strong interest in continuing to work with Scandinavia, and I wanted to keep her in the Group Executive Management, one of the offers was a new fulltime role as head of this cluster and to take my role as Chair of the Board for Telenor Norway," says Sigve Brekke, Telenor Group President and CEO.

"Berit Svendsen has been a significant leadership figure in Telenor for many years, and she has made great contributions to the company and delivered solid results. I really hoped to continue working with Berit, while I was also clear that as leaders in Telenor, we must be prepared to rotate in the roles in order to increase the pool of competence and experience. It's disappointing that we have not succeeded in finding a role that Berit wanted to take on," says Brekke.

The parties have come to an agreement that means Berit Svendsen will step down from her position as CEO for Telenor Norway and Cluster Head for Scandinavia.

"I leave Telenor full of pride over having positively contributed to the company's development and growth through 30 years. I have had the pleasure of being lifted up and forward by fantastic colleagues and employees. Together we have taken Telenor to new heights, and this has been noticed also outside of the company. I wish all my friends and colleagues in Telenor the best of luck. Now I will take some time off and reset before I surely will take on new and exciting challenges elsewhere," says Berit Svendsen.

New leaders in Norway and Sweden

Petter Furberg has extensive experience from several of Telenor's operations and business areas. Since joining the company in 1998, he has held a number of senior management positions, including CEO positions in Myanmar and Bangladesh, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer in dtac, Thailand, and Head of Financial Services for Telenor Group based at Fornebu. Today he is EVP, Cluster Head for Emerging Asia and part of Telenor's Group Executive Management. Furberg started his Telenor career in the finance department of Telenor International in Norway.

"Petter Furberg has broad experience from senior management roles across Telenor Group. He has been part of leading complex established organisations and has been responsible for building one of our mobile operations from scratch as well as new product areas. I am pleased that he has accepted the demanding role as CEO of Telenor Norway. As Berit, he is a leader who is able to engage people and build enthusiasm. We believe he is the right person to lead a company that is critical both for Telenor Group and for the digitalisation of Norwegian society," says Sigve Brekke.

Bjrn Ivar Moen, current head of Telenor Norway's Mobile division, will be acting CEO of Telenor Norway from today until Furberg starts. Moen will thereafter remain in Telenor Norway's management team.

Kaaren Hilsen was until 2017 CFO in Telenor Sweden and has worked for Telenor's operations in Montenegro and Thailand. She now returns to Telenor from the position of CFO for Betsson AB.

"Kaaren Hilsen is an experienced leader who knows Telenor's businesses very well. I'm pleased that Kaaren is returning to Telenor after a brief period of time outside the company. Her broad international experience and ability to create results will contribute to further strengthening Telenor in the important Swedish market," said Sigve Brekke.

"I'm pleased that Morten Karlsen Srby has accepted the role as acting Cluster Head for Scandinavia and Chairman of the Board for the three Scandinavian business units for a period of one year. Few leaders are as well versed in Nordic and Scandinavian collaboration as him, and I'm confident in his ability to continue creating synergies between these three markets," says Brekke.

Telenor's Group Executive Management will have the following members after the changes:

Sigve Brekke, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Jrgen C. Arentz Rostrup, EVP and Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Cecilie Blydt Heuch, EVP and Chief People Officer

Anne Kvam, EVP, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer (effective 1 October)

Ruza Sabanovic, EVP and Head of Technologies and Services

Svein Henning Kirkeng, EVP and Head of Products and Marketing

Morten Karlsen Srby, EVP, acting Cluster Head Scandinavia (for one year)

Petter Furberg, EVP, Cluster Head, Emerging Asia (until he starts as CEO, Telenor Norway)

Albern Murty, EVP, Developed Asia Cluster and CEO of Digi

Available for media

Chair of the Board of Telenor ASA, Gunn Wrsted, and Telenor Group CEO Sigve Brekke will be available to answer questions from the media at Telenor Fornebu today, 4 September at 11:00 CET.

Location: The Hub, Telenor Fornebu

Media can also follow via phone: +47 67209300, code 12036587#, PIN: 0509

The meeting will be held in Norwegian.

For further information:

Atle Lessum, acting SVP, Head of Communications, Telenor Group

+47 415 05 645 | al@telenor.com

Hanne Knudsen, Director - Media Relations, Telenor Group

+47 90 80 40 15 | hanne.knudsen@telenor.com





This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Telenor via Globenewswire

Sanofi reaches civil settlement with US SEC



Paris - September 4, 2018 - Sanofi has reached a civil settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fully resolving the SEC's investigation into possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The settlement relates to an investigation by the SEC and U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of certain local activities outside the United States and France, namely, in Kazakhstan, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian territory during the period 2006 to 2015. As part of the settlement, the company neither admits nor denies it engaged in any wrongdoing.

Under the terms of the settlement, Sanofi has consented to pay $25,206,145 and has also agreed to a 2-year period of self-reporting on the effectiveness of its enhanced internal controls and anti-bribery and corruption compliance program. In announcing the settlement, the SEC highlighted Sanofi's full cooperation with the investigation as well as its strengthened compliance actions.

As disclosed on March 7, 2018, in the company's annual report (SEC Form 20-F and French "Document de Reference"), the DOJ has also completed its related investigation and has declined to pursue any action.

"Sanofi requires all our employees to act with integrity and to follow the highest standards of conduct. We have worked diligently to strengthen our compliance program worldwide and we are pleased the DOJ and SEC recognized these efforts and our close cooperation," said Olivier Brandicourt, Sanofi's Chief Executive Officer. "We will continue to strengthen internal controls, anti-bribery and corruption compliance programs, and our oversight and training of teams worldwide. Conducting our activities in an ethical way is something that our company takes very seriously."





About Sanofi







Sanofi is dedicated to supporting people through their health challenges. We are a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health. We prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments to fight pain and ease suffering. We stand by the few who suffer from rare diseases and the millions with long-term chronic conditions.







With more than 100,000 people in 100 countries, Sanofi is transforming scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around the globe.







Sanofi, Empowering Life





Media Relations Contact

Jack Cox

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 77 46 46

mr@sanofi.com



Investor Relations Contact

George Grofik

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 77 45 45

ir@sanofi.com





Sanofi Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "plans" and similar expressions. Although Sanofi's management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sanofi, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including post marketing data, decisions by regulatory authorities, such as the FDA or the EMA, regarding whether and when to approve any drug, device or biological application that may be filed for any such product candidates as well as their decisions regarding labelling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such product candidates, the absence of guarantee that the product candidates if approved will be commercially successful, the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives, risks associated with intellectual property and any related pending or future litigation and the ultimate outcome of such litigation, changes in applicable laws and regulations, the impact of cost containment initiatives and subsequent changes thereto, as well as those discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by Sanofi, including those listed under "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in Sanofi's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017. Other than as required by applicable law, Sanofi does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.





About Sanofi

Sanofi is dedicated to supporting people through their health challenges. We are a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health. We prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments to fight pain and ease suffering. We stand by the few who suffer from rare

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Sanofi via Globenewswire

Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.Despite North Korean willingness to get rid of its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program, Japan is moving ahead to expand its ballistic missile defenses. Most of these will be based on the Aegis system, which is normally installed on large (8,000 tons and up) warships. Japan has four of these Aegis anti-missile system destroyers with two more under construction. One of the new Maya class Aegis destroyers was launched in July 2018. It will now have its weapons and equipment installed and be in service by 2020. The second one of these 10,000 ton destroyers is under construction and scheduled to enter service in 2021. The Maya class destroyers are improved versions of the earlier Atago class destroyers. In turn, theses are improved versions of the first four Japanese Aegis-type ships, the Kongo class. The 9,500 ton Kongos were built during the 1990s and modeled on the American Burke class Aegis destroyers. The Kongos had 90 VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells for anti-aircraft/missile missiles as well as ASROC anti-submarine rockets (that carry an anti-submarine torpedo to, in effect, extend the range of the torpedo by 22 kilometers). Japanese Burke type destroyers also carry a five inch gun and eight Japanese designed anti-ship missiles (similar to the American Harpoon). The Maya class has 96 VLS cells (as do Atagos) as well as more advanced electronics that enable the Mayas to link with the U.S. Navy Cooperative Engagement Capability that allows real-time sharing of sensor and other data in real time.

In addition, Japan has ordered two land-based Aegis anti-missile systems but these wont be in service until 2024. At that point, Japan will have eight Aegis anti-missile systems and could have two more Aegis anti-missile destroyers by 2024 by upgrading the Aegis systems on two of the older destroyers. That depends on whether North Korea continues to be a threat and how much more of a ballistic missile threat China becomes. At the moment North Korea is sounding less cooperative and the Chinese are still a threat.

In 2017, Japan decided it did not need the more expensive THAAD anti-missile system and instead expanded its Aegis anti-missile systems. Japan is installing the two land-based Aegis systems on the main island. That plus the Aegis equipped destroyers armed with the SM-3A anti-missile missile would enable those two land-based Aegis systems to protect all three of the home islands. In addition, Japan has 24 Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries that can also fire the PAC-3 anti-missile missile. The PAC-3 has one drawback, it only has an effective range of 30 kilometers against incoming missiles. The Aegis SM-3 anti-missile missile has a range of from 700 kilometers (older Block 1) to more than three times that for the later Block II models. This is why two Aegis land-based systems can protect most of Japan (the main island). The Patriot PAC-3 provides local defense for key targets (the capital and major military bases).

The first Aegis Ashore system became operational in 2015 in East Europe and appears to be as reliable as the original ship-based systems. This was what was expected because the East European Aegis had never been to sea. In early 2014 the only land-based Aegis system in existence (in New Jersey) was taken apart, packed into 60 large (18.2 meter/40 foot) shipping containers and sent to Romania where it was put back together and in 2015 was an operational anti-missile system. After that two more ground-based Aegis systems were ordered; one in Poland and one in Hawaii. All three, including new Aegis components for two of them and needed missiles (24 per location) and launching hardware for all of them came out costing $767 million each. Then came the Japanese Aegis Ashore order, which will cost over two billion dollars for each system.

The U.S. has long sought to put anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe to protect against ballistic missile attacks from Iran. Russia has opposed this and sees it as a subterfuge to weaken the effect of Russian ballistic missiles attacking European targets. Most Europeans dont know what to make of that, but East European countries (like Romania) that spent 1945-89 as involuntary Russian vassal (or satellite) states, do see a need for protection from Russian missiles.

So far, Aegis has achieved an 83 percent success rate during live test firings. As a result, many countries want Aegis ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) ships for protection from local ballistic missile threats. The Aegis system was designed to operate aboard warships. These are usually cruisers and destroyers that have been equipped with the special software that enables the AEGIS radar system to detect and track incoming ballistic missiles. Currently, the U.S. Navy has about 40 ships with the Aegis anti-missile system. There are over 100 American and foreign warships equipped with Aegis, but less than half of them had the software mods and anti-missile missiles that enable them to shoot down ballistic missiles and low-orbit satellites. Converting an Aegis ship to Aegis ABM costs about $30 million, mainly for new software and a few new hardware items. This is seen as a safe investment and the U.S. expects to see most Aegis equipped ships to be upgraded to ABM versions in the 2020s.

To knock down ballistic missiles Aegis uses two similar models of the U.S. Navy Standard anti-aircraft missile, in addition to a modified version of the Aegis radar system, which can now track incoming ballistic missiles. The anti-missile missile is the RIM-161A, also known as the Standard Missile 3 (or SM-3). It has a range of over 500 kilometers and max altitude of over 160 kilometers. The Standard 3 is based on the anti-missile version of the Standard 2 (SM-2 Block IV). This SM-2 missile turned out to be effective against ballistic missile warheads that are closer to their target, as is its replacement, the SM-6. One test saw a SM-2 Block IV missile destroy a warhead that was only 19 kilometers up. An SM-3 missile can destroy a warhead that is more than 200 kilometers up. But the SM-3 is only good for anti-missile work, while the SM-2 Block IV and SM-6 can be used against both ballistic missiles and aircraft. The SM-2 Block IV also costs less than half what a SM-3 costs. SM-3 is not being replaced by instead constantly upgraded.

The SM-3 has four stages. The first two boost the interceptor out of the atmosphere. The third stage fires twice to boost the interceptor farther beyond the earth's atmosphere. Prior to each motor firing it takes a GPS reading to correct course for approaching the target. The fourth stage is the nine kg (20 pound) LEAP kill vehicle, which uses infrared sensors to close on the target and ram it.In 2017 the U.S. Navy 7th fleet lost three ships to navigation error within an eight month period. The January incident, involving the cruiser Antietam, was a grounding while leaving an anchorage in Tokyo Bay. The damage to the ship was not great and Antietam was repaired and back in service by the end of 2017. The captain was relieved and there was some mention of poor training for the crew members on the bridge who were in charge of lifting anchor and heading for sea. In June and August, it got worse with two 7th Fleet destroyers colliding with commercial ships at sea. These two collisions left 17 sailors dead and all were apparently related to lower readiness levels and overwork (and subsequent crew fatigue) in the ships of the 7th Fleet. The two Burke class destroyers (the Fitzgerald and McCain) that suffered fatal collisions had some of the worst readiness and training ratings in the entire fleet. These ratings exist to spotlight ships, and their crews, that need the most attention from senior leadership, especially the fleet commander. That was not happening and since the new Secretary of Defense is a retired (in 2013) marine general with firsthand experience with what was going wrong in the navy, the admiral responsible was held accountable in the traditional way and within weeks of the August collision, it was decided to relieve the 7th Fleet commander. Note that while both the Marine Corps and the Navy are part of the Department of the Navy the two organizations have evolved into separate services. The Marines have always been different and that meant marine generals could get away with being more traditional and hard ass than navy admirals.

The most severely damaged of the three ships was the Fitzgerald which wont be back in service until 2020 and will consume most of the nearly one billion dollars it cost to repair the three ships. The McCain damage is being repaired in a Japanese shipyard and while the work could have been completed by the end of 2018 it was decided to keep the McCain in the yard into 2019 to undertake some other work that would have to be done eventually and it would save time and money to do it now.

Less easy to deal with was the problems with leadership and training that the three accidents made rather obvious. In 2017 it was no secret that these problems existed throughout the navy but were most acute in the 7th Fleet which has been the busiest for over decade because it has to deal with growing Chinese naval power and more frequent crises with North Korea. One could say the problem was navy-wide but most intense in the 7th Fleet and not enough of the admirals were willing to speak up and admit to the politicians and voters what was going on and why it was not being addressed. One reason was that the politicians wanted admirals who would keep quiet and those admirals who spoke out got forced into retirement and replaced by younger officers willing to play by the new rules. This is not unique in American history or military history in general. But this occurrence is another aftereffect of the Cold War ending and attitudes changing with regard to responsibility and military readiness.

The immediate problem, in short, was that the navy has been getting smaller since the Cold War ended in 1991 and that process continued after 2001 because the increased defense spending went to the Army, SOCOM (Special Operations Command) and marine operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The navy and air force had to get by on a lot less. For example, the number of ships in the navy went from 333 in 1998 to 277 in 2017. Yet the navy kept the same number of ships (about a hundred) deployed overseas despite there being 17 percent fewer ships. Worse the newer ships, and some of the older ones were experimenting with smaller crews (and more automation). This is still a work in progress but meanwhile, lots of 7th Fleet ships were operating at a wartime tempo. This was wearing down the crews as well as the ships.

The ships overseas are also kept busier even though crew sizes have been reduced as well and although the navy knew this was going on not a lot was done to deal with what was obviously a growing problem. For example in the two years before the accidents the number of warships in the 7th fleet not certified as ready for combat increased five-fold (to 37 percent). The reasons why were no secret either. Many sailors were working over 100 hours a week when at sea, often double the standard 70-81 hours a week. Ships were more frequently unable to go to sea because of deferred (caused by manpower shortages) maintenance. The most serious shortages were in training, which apparently contributed to the three serious accidents and many more events that could have gotten very ugly.

Its an old naval tradition to punish (it used to be by hanging) an admiral if you wanted to get the attention, or just motivate, the others. This refers back to British Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757 for not trying hard enough to dislodge the French from the island of Minorca. This execution was later described as done to "encourage the others (admirals)." In fact, Byng died because of bad publicity surrounding the earlier execution of a junior officer for the same "offense," while senior officers got less lethal punishment. Byng was the victim of a leadership problem that keeps reoccurring.

Nevertheless, navies have always been rather harsher about inadequate leadership. It is an ancient naval tradition that someone must take responsibility and be punished when things go wrong. This attitude developed over the centuries because the seas are an unforgiving environment. Those put in charge of ships have absolute power and absolute responsibility. So, to this day, in most navies, the senior officers can quickly (or, in this case eventually) lose their jobs if things go wrong.

Admiral Byngs demise was, historically, not all that unusual. In centuries past, many navy commanders have been executed for not doing all their boss expected of them. But 18th century Britain considered itself to be in a kinder and gentler age, thus the outcry after Byng was executed, instead of simply being dismissed (or exonerated, something his descendants still call for). Now, in the 21st century, the trend continues, as do the punishments.

Hanging went out of fashion by the 20th century but getting fired apparently has the same impact. The sailors and junior officers who take a more realistic attitude towards this bad leadership (and suffer the most from it) have been demanding more accountability for over a decade, and not staying in the navy long when senior leadership did not improve. That may change if the complacent and compliant admirals are replaced with competent and accountable ones. This was not just a navy problem, the army, air force and, to a lesser extent, the marines all suffered from it. Unlike combat which is loud, involves real bullets that focus attention and responsibility. In peacetime bureaucratic battles back home are often kept out of sight and boldness by military leaders is less common because the paper bullets are quiet and can kill a career quickly. The damage can be substantial as the 2017 7th Fleet collisions demonstrated. There is no easy fix for this because the military is, by design and necessity subordinate to the elected officials who often do a lot of damage with the best of intentions and little scrutiny from anyone outside the military.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Arrow Resources Corporation (TSX-V: GRG, FSE: GAC, OTCQB: GARWF), (Golden Arrow or the Company) is pleased to announce the results from the Companys first diamond drill program at the Antofalla silver-gold-base metal project in Catamarca Province, Argentina. The program included over 3,000 metres of drilling in 11 holes testing the "Dome Zone," an area of approximately 4 by 4 kilometres. The program identified a new geologic target at the Cizalla Norte zone, consisting of silver and base metal mineralization in a shear belt, comprised of two parallel composite shear zones, and underlying sandstones. The shear belt incorporates silicified breccias, as intercepted in hole DDA-07 which returned up to 3 metres averaging 191 g/t silver. In the same drill hole, multiple intersections over a 70 metre interval in the adjacent sandstone were well mineralized, including 1 metre averaging 283 g/t silver and 2.1% zinc, 3 metres averaging 131 g/t silver, and 1 metre averaging 110 g/t silver, 1.7% lead and 4.1% zinc. The hole ended in mineralization at 275 m depth.



We are encouraged by the program results, particularly from this new shear zone which appears to have some similarities to mineralization at Chinchillas. With just two drill holes into this 650-metre-long shear belt the target remains open for expansion in both directions and to depth. In addition, the array of current targets in the Dome Zone covers an area of over 1600 hectares, so further geophysics and follow-up drilling is required to properly determine the full potential of the project. We have made the second option payment to the vendor so that we are able to proceed. commented Brian McEwen, Golden Arrows Vice President of Exploration and Development.

Program Details

The Antofalla Project includes a Miocene Dome complex hosted in Permian conglomerates and sandstones, with signatures of both high and low sulphidation epithermal mineralization. Mineralization has been identified in several areas of the Dome Zone. A review of the initial data indicated similarities to the geologic model for Golden Arrows Chinchillas silver project in Jujuy province which is currently being developed through a joint venture between Golden Arrow and SSR Mining Inc. ( https://goldenarrowresources.com/projects/jujuy-province/chinchillas ). A preliminary geological model for Antofalla is shown in Figure 1.

Golden Arrow completed 11 diamond drill holes on 4 main target areas within the Dome Zone (see Figure 2). Intervals with >20g/t silver or >0.1 g/t gold are summarized in Table 1, with hole location information in Table 2. The Cizalla Norte target has emerged as a new focus of exploration potential at the project, as drilling confirmed the discovery of significant silver-zinc mineralization in a shear belt/zone as well as along the contact with, and in, the underlying Permian sandstones. The mineralized contact between the flow dome and the sandstone basement is a similar environment for mineralization as is seen at the Chinchillas silver-lead-zinc deposit.

A geological interpretation of results from all targets is summarized below:

Cizalla Norte (previously Domos Norte). This target is in the north part of the Dome Zone. It includes a composite shear belt of approximately 650 m long with an azimuth of 110 and dipping 50-60 to the SW in dacitic lava flows. This belt consists of two parallel shear zones, each of 35 to 40 metres width, situated 30 metres apart. Silver mineralization appears to be related to hydrothermal breccias and quartz veinlets within the shear zones. Channel sampling of surface trenches cut the Northeast shear zone obliquely, and returned an average of 61.8 m @ 62 g/t Ag (41 samples averaging 1.5 m wide; 6 samples returned > 100 g/t Ag). Holes DDA-05 and DDA-07 are parallel holes drilled into this target, 110 m apart. Both holes intercepted both shear zones. The Southwest shear zone was first detected by these holes because at surface it is covered by alluvium material. Hole DDA-05 encountered isolated intervals of mineralization with up to 2 m @ 116 g/t Ag. Hole DDA-07, 110 m northwest of hole DDA-05, was drilled across the contact through the underlying Permian sandstones. In the shear zone cut by hole DDA-07 there are silicified breccias with up to 3 m @ 191 g/t Ag. At the contact with, and for 70 metres into, the Permian sandstones, from 205 to 275 metres deep, drilling intercepted a sphalerite/galena stockwork zone containing higher silver-zinc values, including 1m @ 283 g/t Ag and 2.1% Zn, 3 m @ 131 g/t Ag and 1 m @ 110 g/t Ag, 1.7% Pb and 4.1% Zn. A cross-section including hole DDA-07 is shown in Figure 3. The presence of the shear belt close to the contact of the underlying Permian sandstones is a new target just partially tested with these holes. Of particular note is that hole DDA-07 ended in mineralization at 275 m depth. Both ends of the shear belt and to depth are open and require testing with additional drill holes.

(previously Domos Norte). This target is in the north part of the Dome Zone. It includes a composite shear belt of approximately 650 m long with an azimuth of 110 and dipping 50-60 to the SW in dacitic lava flows. This belt consists of two parallel shear zones, each of 35 to 40 metres width, situated 30 metres apart. Silver mineralization appears to be related to hydrothermal breccias and quartz veinlets within the shear zones. Channel sampling of surface trenches cut the Northeast shear zone obliquely, and returned an average of 61.8 m @ 62 g/t Ag (41 samples averaging 1.5 m wide; 6 samples returned > 100 g/t Ag). Holes DDA-05 and DDA-07 are parallel holes drilled into this target, 110 m apart. Both holes intercepted both shear zones. The Southwest shear zone was first detected by these holes because at surface it is covered by alluvium material. Hole DDA-05 encountered isolated intervals of mineralization with up to 2 m @ 116 g/t Ag. Hole DDA-07, 110 m northwest of hole DDA-05, was drilled across the contact through the underlying Permian sandstones. In the shear zone cut by hole DDA-07 there are silicified breccias with up to 3 m @ 191 g/t Ag. At the contact with, and for 70 metres into, the Permian sandstones, from 205 to 275 metres deep, drilling intercepted a sphalerite/galena stockwork zone containing higher silver-zinc values, including 1m @ 283 g/t Ag and 2.1% Zn, 3 m @ 131 g/t Ag and 1 m @ 110 g/t Ag, 1.7% Pb and 4.1% Zn. A cross-section including hole DDA-07 is shown in Figure 3. The presence of the shear belt close to the contact of the underlying Permian sandstones is a new target just partially tested with these holes. Of particular note is that hole DDA-07 ended in mineralization at 275 m depth. Both ends of the shear belt and to depth are open and require testing with additional drill holes. Colorada Breccia . This is a breccia vent target approximately 200 m in diameter characterized by sulphide-mineralized lenticular to irregular shaped hydrothermal breccias. Of the four holes drilled at this target (DDA-02, DDA-03, DDA-10 and DDA-11), only DDA-11 intercepted anomalous values, including 12 m @ 0.31 g/t Au g/t, 109 g/t Ag, 0.4 % Pb and 2 m @ 0.54 g/t Au, 355 g/t Ag and 2.1% Pb.

. This is a breccia vent target approximately 200 m in diameter characterized by sulphide-mineralized lenticular to irregular shaped hydrothermal breccias. Of the four holes drilled at this target (DDA-02, DDA-03, DDA-10 and DDA-11), only DDA-11 intercepted anomalous values, including 12 m @ 0.31 g/t Au g/t, 109 g/t Ag, 0.4 % Pb and 2 m @ 0.54 g/t Au, 355 g/t Ag and 2.1% Pb. Filo del Volcan. This target includes diatreme breccias intruding dacitic pyroclastic flows. The three drill holes completed on this target (DDA-01, DDA-04 and DDA-08) encountered several high-grade intervals including 2 m @ 145 g/t Ag. This target is linked with the Colorada Breccia by the ENE-WSW fractures which may have controlled the emplacement of these bodies. Hole DDA-09 was drilled in-between the targets and intercepted several hydrothermal breccias with grey silica and pyrite. Silver values were generally low in this hole but anomalous gold intervals (i.e. 14 m@ 0.16 g/t Au), similar to the Colorada Breccia target, were encountered.

This target includes diatreme breccias intruding dacitic pyroclastic flows. The three drill holes completed on this target (DDA-01, DDA-04 and DDA-08) encountered several high-grade intervals including 2 m @ 145 g/t Ag. This target is linked with the Colorada Breccia by the ENE-WSW fractures which may have controlled the emplacement of these bodies. Hole DDA-09 was drilled in-between the targets and intercepted several hydrothermal breccias with grey silica and pyrite. Silver values were generally low in this hole but anomalous gold intervals (i.e. 14 m@ 0.16 g/t Au), similar to the Colorada Breccia target, were encountered. Filo Blanco This target is a silica cap. The IP/Resistivity survey indicated a chargeability anomaly situated just below the highest point of the system, coincident with a high resistivity anomaly, at 600 metres below surface. The chargeability anomaly was postulated to represent the feeder of the epithermal system or a porphyry body. Drill hole DDA-06 was drilled to 627 metres to test this target. In the first 250 metres a pervasively silicified dacitic flow was encountered, underlain by dacitic lava flows and pyritic sandstones down to 450 metres. Below 450 metres, and until the end of the hole, lava flows with disseminated pyrite were encountered, but with no significant mineralization.



Table 1. Drill Intercepts >20g/t for Ag, or >0.1 g/t Au.



HOLE NOTE From (metres) To (metres) Length (metres) Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) Pb

(%) Zn

(%) DDA-18-01 49 53 4.0 51 0.5 126 142 16.0 28 includes 138 139 1.0 118 0.7 155 157 2.0 30 0.4 168 173 5.0 58 0.2 includes 170 171 1.0 108 0.2 DDA-18-02 2 10 8.0 20 1 18 24 6.0 41 0.8 29 32 3.0 33 0.9 118 120 2.0 0.14 DDA-18-03 57 59 2.0 21 0.8 109 110 1.0 21 171 172 1.0 20 0.3 238 242 4.0 0.14 270 272 2.0 0.17 39 290 297 7.0 0.3 0.6 300 301 1.0 0.17 30 304 308 4.0 0.11 310 314 4.0 10 0.3 0.7 314 348 34.0 0.23 10 includes 317 318 1.0 1.70 24 DDA-18-04 75 77 2.0 28 148 152 4.0 21 178 190 12.0 28 194 197 3.0 22 0.5 201 218 17.0 27 220 221 1.0 30 222 224 2.0 55 DDA-18-05 71 72 1.0 22 80 82 2.0 22 128 130 2.0 53 160 162 2.0 40 202 204 2.0 116 DDA-18-06 no significant mineralization DDA-18-07 30 32 2.0 20 35 44 9.0 74 includes 38 41 3.0 130 48 49 1.0 49 78 80 2.0 29 84 86 2.0 27 106 109 3.0 64 includes 107 108 1.0 115 128 134 6.0 36 143 144 1.0 53 156 171 15.0 69 includes 159 162 3.0 191 176 177 1.0 24 185 193 8.0 31 205 207 2.0 42 0.3 0.4 249 250 1.0 283 0.8 2.1 259 262 3.0 131 0.3 272 273 1.0 110 1.7 4.1 DDA-18-08 43 50 7.0 38 65 69 4.0 91 96 108 12.0 63 includes 104 106 2.0 145 DDA-18-09 7 12 5.0 31 95 100 5.0 0.11 114 116 2.0 0.14 167 181 14.0 0.16 203 204 1.0 0.14 DDA-18-10 2 4 2.0 35 104 106 2.0 22 138 140 2.0 0.14 60 184 188 4.0 0.28 0.5 209 210 1.0 21 223 236 13.0 34 includes 224 225 1.0 0.18 159 0.5 0.3 254 302 48.0 0.4 includes 292 302 10.0 0.25 11 0.2 DDA-18-11 15 16 1.0 27 19 33 14.0 37 33 45 12.0 0.31 109 47 48 1.0 36 53 54 1.0 25 56 58 2.0 29 68 76 8.0 48 76 78 2.0 0.54 355 2.1 78 80 2.0 0.82 71 0.7 189 191 2.0 0.18 48 0.8 266 268 2.0 0.18 270 274 4.0 0.19 20

Note: The reported intervals are downhole lengths and are believed to approximate true width; this will be confirmed with geologic modeling and further drilling.

Table 2. Drill hole location and orientation data (Gauss-Kruger, Posgar Zone 2)

Hole Easting Northing Elevation (m) Azimuth (deg) Dip

(deg) Total Length (m) DDA-18-01 2616702 7165566 4782 130 -60 191 DDA-18-02 2617102 7165727 4604 210 -60 155 DDA-18-03 2617127 7165757 4562 210 -60 350 DDA-18-04 2616657 7165559 4790 120 -60 252 DDA-18-05 2616593 7166239 4684 50 -60 248 DDA-18-06 2616623 7165585 4807 0 -70 627 DDA-18-07 2616505 7166306 4683 50 -60 275 DDA-18-08 2616702 7165533 4811 130 -60 111.5 DDA-18-09 2616851 7165584 4737 130 -60 210.3 DDA-18-10 2617159 7165816 4558 210 -60 302 DDA-18-11 2617051 7165710 4635 135 -60 299

Methodology and QA/QC

Drill core was split and half core samples were shipped for preparation and analysis at Alex Stewart-Mendoza, an internationally recognized assay service provider. Samples were assayed for gold by Fire Assay/Atomic Absorption finish and analyzed for a multi-element package by ICP-OES following a four acid digestion. Silver results >100 g/t Ag were re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish on 50-gram samples. Lead and zinc results >10,000 ppm were re-analyzed by a three acid digestion and ICP-OES detection. The Company follows industry standard procedures for the work carried out on the Antofalla Project, with a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program. Blank, duplicate and standard samples were inserted in each batch of samples sent to the laboratory for analysis. Golden Arrow detected no significant QA/QC issues during review of the data.

Qualified Persons

The results of the Company's exploration program have been reviewed, verified (including sampling, analytical and test data) and compiled by the Company's geological staff under the supervision of Brian McEwen, P.Geol., VP Exploration and Development to the Company. Mr. McEwen is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the contents of the news release.

About Golden Arrow:

Golden Arrow is an exploration company earning production income. The Company has a successful track record of creating value by making precious and base metal discoveries and advancing them into exceptional deposits. Golden Arrow owns a 25% share of Puna Operations, a joint venture operated by SSR Mining, with more than 8 years of forecast production and upside potential at the Pirquitas-Chinchillas silver mining project. Golden Arrow is actively exploring on its more than 200,000 hectares of properties in Argentina. The Company is a member of the Grosso Group, a resource management group that has pioneered exploration in Argentina since 1993.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Joseph Grosso

_______________________________

Mr. Joseph Grosso,

Executive Chairman, President and CEO

For further information, please contact:



Corporate Communications

Tel: 1-604-687-1828

Toll-Free: 1-800-901-0058

Email: info@goldenarrowresources.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Readers are encouraged to refer to the Company's public disclosure documents for a more detailed discussion of factors that may impact expected future results. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6f251907-20b3-41f7-b1f3-8a5e48bbb4a7

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/99e7cf28-c873-4f14-a111-b8392c57d46f

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4c6dd0f6-5095-4712-bdb2-d00fd9f6235c



Russia has moved 25 warships to the Syrian coast, apparently in support of the Syrian offensive against Idlib, the last rebel held province. The naval force includes submarines, destroyers, frigates, smaller warships an several support ships. This is the largest number of warships Russia has ever deployed to the Syrian coast and this is officially an effort to deter the U.S. Navy from attacking the Syrian forces (which the U.S. said it would do if the Syrians used chemical weapons in Idlib). Russia has also moved more warplanes to Syria and has some heavy bombers ready to fly from southern Russia to launch cruise missiles at targets in Idlib.

Some of the rebel groups in Idlib have been seen digging trenches and destroying bridges, or installing remotely controlled explosives, in preparation for the expected battle. The Turkish border is heavily guarded by the Turks but traffic is allowed, especially supplies coming in from Turkey. The fortified Turkish border is meant to keep Islamic terrorists out, as well as refugees trying to flee the expected fighting in Idlib.

Russia warned that the rebels are preparing to use chemical weapons while the United States pointed out that the available evidence indicates that the Syrian Assad forces are more likely to use chemical weapons. So far the Syrian Army has moved about 2,000 armored vehicles (visible from the air) to the Idlib border. Russia and Syria will provide air support for the Idlib offensive and Turkey will maintain control of its border. No Iranian mercenaries are being used in Idlib, something Turkey insisted on and Russia and Syria persuaded Iran to accept. Iran repeated its determination to keep military forces in Syria despite Israeli refusal to accept that and willingness to keep bombing Iranian facilities. So far Iran has not been able to prevent these air strikes and Israeli officials agree (with commercially available satellite photos and eyewitness reports from Syria) that Iranian military activity has decreased considerably since July. This reduction in activity is apparently linked with unrest back in Iran.

Meanwhile

Elsewhere in the north (and the rest of Syria) there is not much violence at all, especially in Kurdish controlled territory (everything east of the Euphrates River). The Assads and Kurds are still negotiating the post-war form of government the Kurds will have. The Kurds want autonomy for their northeastern homeland and believe they have earned it. Although technically rebels after 2011 the Kurds were actually frenemies with the Assads throughout the civil war. Assad is inclined to grant it but Iran is pressuring the Syrians to take a hard line on the Kurds.

The Assads note that in neighboring Lebanon the recent national elections returned Christian billionaire Saad Hariri to his post as prime minister. Despite that Hariri has limited power as prime minister because Iran backed Hezbollah dominates the government to the point where they not only have a veto over anything the majority (which does not support Hezbollah) wants but can also push through nearly any new laws they (or Iran) wants. Most Lebanese do not want another civil war (like the devastating 1975-90 one) and Hezbollah and Iran take full advantage of that. The Assads fear they will end of like Lebanon if Iran is allowed to build a Syrian branch of Hezbollah. Putting that in perspective Hariri recently commented that he would rather deal with the Russians (about local matters) than the Assads.

Israel has warned that it will not allow a Syrian Hezbollah to be created and will attack Iranian forces in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. This is especially true as Iran seeks to establish their shorter range ballistic missiles in these three countries and threaten Saudi Arabia as well as Israel with them.

ISIL

ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) has gone guerilla and has no large base areas where it can operate openly, especially in Syria. Yet many ISIL gunmen still have their families (wives and children) with them. These can hide in plain sight as refugees or live among pro-ISIL civilians. Such communities provide some support for the ISIL fighters but must remain unknown to police or the many (the majority) Iraqis and Syrians who are hostile to ISIL. Guerilla tactics were always an ISIL staple, especially in Iraq where ISIL operated (as an al Qaeda offshoot) before it changed its name to ISIL. The name change was the result of the unexpected success of some of these Iraqi terrorists at establishing themselves in Syria. There the civil war was intensifying and the Assad government was losing. Now that ISIL has lost control (by early 2018) of Mosul and other Iraqi towns they have no choice but to start all over. In Syria, ISIL lost control of Raqqa (to the Kurds) at the end of 2017.

As ISIL personnel are now generally in hiding it is difficult to get an accurate count. Official mid-2018 estimates were about 17,000 in Iraq and 13,000 in Syria. But that implies that the number of armed men ISIL had in Iraq by 2014 is the same as mid-2018. How can that be given the relatively low level of ISIL activity since early 2018? The answer is that the official estimates include a lot of unarmed supporters, including family members. Captured ISIL members will often exaggerate the size of the group he belongs to as will ISIL members delivering threats to local civilians who the Islamic terrorists are trying to intimidate into compliance (not informing on ISIL). Cooperative civilians are immune to ISIL attacks so there is that. But the ability of ISIL to enforce the cooperation is often an illusion because ISIL tries to appear more omnipresent than they actually are.

A population of cooperative civilians is essential for ISIL to survive as guerillas and that is why there are probably more ISIL operating in Iraq than in Syria. The civilians not only provide some cover but are also a source of supplies (which ISIL strives to pay for, in order to build some loyalty.) This is all basic guerilla tradecraft that is made more difficult when there are a lot of cell phones around. That increases the risk of some angry (or not even local) civilian making a call to the police to report possible ISIL activity. ISIL leaders noted that a key factor in the loss of control in an area was the local civilians retaining some access to Internet and cell phone service as well as satellite TV receivers. ISIL (and other Islamic radicals) have long tried to control the use of all three of these items but have been unable to completely eliminate them from populations they control. Once ISIL was driven out of an area the cell phone companies were eager to rebuild their cell phone and Internet service and as people in those areas of restored cell phone service became more confident that reporting on remaining ISIL activity would not get them killed the calls started coming. These phone calls have become more frequent and has led to the growing number of arrests or discovery of ISIL hideouts and the destruction of active ISIL terrorists. This has led to a decline in terror related deaths and more violent encounters between security forces and the many sleeper cells ISIL deliberately left behind when they lost control of an area. What has kept ISIL going are Sunni Arab areas where they still have some support, at least as someone who will fighting hack against the Kurds and Shia Arabs. There are fewer Sunni majority areas in Syria for ISIL to get support from.

The civil war that began it was always about Syrian Shia (the Assads) and other minorities against the Sunni Arab majority. The Assads deliberately and successfully drove most of the Sunni Arabs most opposed to them out of the country. The Sunni Arabs are still a majority but they have been terrorized by the Assads and convinced that support for groups like ISIL would bring swift and severe punishment. There are more opportunities to find sanctuary in Iraq. There are some areas along the Iraqi border where ISIL can hide on the Syrian side, but once discovered they are subject to attack by Iraqi or American airstrikes (or artillery fired from Iraq) as well as Kurdish and Assad ground forces in Syria (as well as some Iran backed mercenaries). ISIL is still around in Syria and Iraq but as hunted killers, not rulers of vast areas in both countries.

September 3, 2018: The United States warned Russia, Syria and Iran not to attack Idlib province, the last rebel held area in Syria. This warning was mainly meant for Syria and its use of chemical weapons. Russia is mainly there to provide air support of the Syrians do attack. Russia is also trying to intimidate the Americans. Iran is sitting this one out and while Turkey supports clearing the Islamic terrorists out of Idlib the Turks are just going to defend their border against the expected million or more refugees fleeing the fighting. Turkey wont let them in. France also protested the offensive and also threatened to retaliate militarily. In the last two years, the U.S. has twice bombed Syrian forces in retaliation for Syrians using chemical weapons and threatens to do so again if the Syrians use chemical weapons in Idlib. Syria apparently plans to do so in order to reduce casualties among their own troops.

September 1, 2018: In the south (Damascus) there were several large explosions at the Mazzen airbase outside the capital. There were two fatalities. Syria blamed Israel, saying several rockets were launched from northern Israel against the Republican Guard base. Israel did not comment. Initial attempts by Syria claim the explosions were because of an accident, not an attack, were quickly withdrawn. There were too many witnesses and missile attacks leave missile fragments behind in the target area (which was right outside the base at a weapons and ammo storage area).

In the east (Homs province) an Iranian military convoy was hit by an airstrike. This killed four Syrians, one Iranian and three foreign mercenaries. At least eleven people were wounded. The airstrike may have occurred because the convoy was too close to the American special operations base of Tanf, on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border near the Jordan border. The American forces there reported they had been fired on by unknown forces but there was no damage and they did not return fire. So it remains a mystery whose warplanes did the deed. The Americans have some support from Sunni tribes in Syria and Iraq and that is mainly to keep informed on what is going on in the area around Tanf. Iran has assisted (with its mercenaries) Assad forces in trying to eliminate the Tanf base but these efforts have failed. The Americans have too much airpower and too much aerial and ground surveillance around Tanf. The U.S. has declared a free fire zone that means any Assad/Iranian forces getting within 30 kilometers of Tanf are automatically attacked. Iranian and Assad forces rarely test this free-fire zone. They know it works. While no one took credit for the airstrike it is now believed to be Israeli, but the Israelis often try to hide their involvement.

Off the Syrian coast 25 Russian Navy ships (most of them warships the rest support) and 30 aircraft held training exercises.

August 28, 2018: Russia, Turkey and Syria agreed on a plan to attack and destroy the Islamic terrorist groups in Idlib province, particularly HTS/al Nusra. Idlib is the last Islamic terrorist stronghold and is in the northwest, on the Turkish border. Idlib is currently controlled by various rebel groups. Over half of Idlib is controlled by the HTS (Hayat Tahrir al Sham) coalition. This is the main al Qaeda organization which evolved from al Nusra by absorbing (willingly or otherwise) many other like-minded groups over the years. About a third of the province is controlled by several other Islamic terrorist groups. Last week the largest six of these factions merged to form the NLF (National Liberation Front). This merger was arranged by Ahrar al Sham, a longtime rival of HTS. About ten percent of the province is controlled by Turkey (in the north along the hundred kilometer long border with Turkey) and Assad forces (several towns and villages in the southeast).

August 27, 2018: Israeli satellite photos show a new ballistic missile assembly facility being built on the Mediterranean coast at Baniyas. The new facility is similar in layout to existing missile assembly plants in Iran. The one in Syria appears to be about six months from completion. Iran is believed to be building or planning to build a similar facility in Iraq. These assembly plants would use Iran made components to produced solid fuel ballistic missiles including the Zolfaghar (700 kilometer range), the Fateh 110 which can be launched from trucks that carry them and have a range of 300 kilometers. There are also truck mounted Zelzal-3s with a range of up to 250 kilometers. All three of these can reach Saudi Arabian and Israeli targets from Iraq and Syria.

August 26, 2018: Syria and Iran signed a military cooperation deal. Details were not revealed although there was talk of Iran assisting in reconstruction efforts. That will be difficult considering the economic crises back in Iran and the growing popular protests against expensive overseas efforts Syria.

August 22, 2018: ISIL leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi issued his first recorded message in a year. The 55 minute speech admitted that ISIL had lost all the cities and major towns it controlled a year ago in the Syria and Iraq but urged his followers to continue attacking the enemy, which dozens of small groups of ISIL members have been doing with some success. Baghdadi had recently been reported killed (by an airstrike). These claims have been regular occurrences because so many people want the ISIL founder dead. Eyewitness reports from those who have seen Baghdadi in the last year report that he seems tired and dejected but still in charge whenever he met with his dwindling loyalists. Much like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, if you make enough enemies they will eventually catch up with you.

Russia revealed that their air force had launched about 39,000 sorties against enemy (rebels and Islamic terrorists) forces in Syria since September 2015. Some 121,000 targets were hit, killing 86,000 hostile personnel. The last major effort by Russian warplanes in Syria will soon take place in the northwestern province of Idlib. Russia, Turkey and the Assad government are trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender of the remaining rebels in Idlib but that is not expected to include all the rebel factions, most of them connected with one Islamic terror group or another. Syria is expecting some major air support from Russia in Idlib in order to keep casualties down for the Syrian ground forces. Iran has been persuaded to keep its mercenaries and IRGC forces out of this fight.

August 19, 2018: An American official confirmed that the United States, Israel and Russia agreed that Iran must not be allowed to establish a permanent military presence in Syria. Apparently, the Syrian government agrees with this as there have been some recent clashes between Assad forces and Iranian mercenaries.

August 18, 2018: In northern Syria, an army intelligence officer working for the Syrian Army Palestinian Department was assassinated by gunfire. Israeli involvement was suspected.

August 16, 2018: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) an Iraqi Air Force airstrike near the Iraq border killed 18 ISIL men at what was described as an ISIL headquarters for ISIL forces in Iraq. Most of the victim of this strike were not Syrian.

August 15, 2018: Russian military police are expanding the number of outposts on Golan Heights from four to eight. The Russian military police are there to keep rebels and Iranian forces out of the areas so the UN can resume outpost and patrol duty to the satisfaction of the of the Israelis. Syria is offering amnesty to most local rebels but the Russians are not interfering with Syrian police arresting or raiding the homes of locals suspected of still being rebels.

August 14, 2018: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) Iranian mercenaries have been fighting with Syrian Army (Assad) troops for control of the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. Apparently, there is a dispute between the Assads and Iran over who will control border crossings for routes that are part of the Iran to the Mediterranean land route. This route is essential to support any Iranian military expansion in Syria and Lebanon.

August 12, 2018: In the northwest (Idlib province) a rebel weapons storage site, filling the basement of an apartment building, exploded. Fifteen rebels died along with 52 civilians. Two five story buildings were destroyed.

August 11, 2018: Israel released satellite photos showing the massive damage done by a July 22nd attack on an Iranian run missile assembly plant in northwest Syria.

August 9, 2018: Russia, Turkey and Iran announced that they would do all they could to avoid a bloodbath in the in northwest Syria where Russian warplanes are bombing rebel positions in the province and Iranian mercenary troops are preparing to accompany Syrian troops for an advance into Idlib. The three allies did not reveal how they planned to deal with Turkish concerns that combat in Idlib would drive over a million refugees into Turkey.PATIENTS will be able to make evening and weekend appointments at two GP hubs across south Warwickshire, one of which is in Stratford, from this week.

The new GP Plus service will be offered at Trinity Court Surgery, in Arden Street, so patients can book routine and same-day appointments, either face-to-face or by telephone, from 6 to 9pm weekdays and 9am to 1pm at weekends.

Patients registered with any South Warwickshire GP will be able to see a doctor, nurse or clinical pharmacist at the hub in Stratford, or at the other one at Waterside Medical Centre in Leamington. They can book through their usual practice.

There will also be same-day appointments available for children up to 16 who need treatment after school hours, between 6 and 9pm on weekdays. GP+ clinicians will have access to patient records, so that the patients full medical history is known and records can be updated regardless of when or where patients are seen, subject to patient consent.

The hubs will be staffed by GPs and nurses from local GP practices, with some specialist roles recruited specifically for the new service. Tim Morris, Managing Director of South Warwickshire GP Federation, said: Attending GP appointments is not always convenient for patients, particularly for those who work full-time. GP+ will make it easier for people to see a GP, nurse or pharmacist, whether thats for a specific illness or to keep up to date with important screenings or medication reviews.

By operating from two central hubs, we have been able to maximise the range of services and the extra hours available to patients across South Warwickshire. We are particularly pleased to be offering the childrens clinic, which will allow young people to be seen and treated at short notice without having to attend A&E.

South Warwickshire GP+ is commissioned by South Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group and is being delivered by SWGP in partnership with Care UK and the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. For more information visit: www.southwarwickshiregps.nhs.uk/extendedaccessHOUSTON, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a new study on the healthcare real estate sector, Transwestern today reveals that swelling demand for healthcare services may push forecasted demand for medical office space well above supply in several U.S. markets. The report, Medical Office Space Gets Tight, bases its predictions on the anticipated growth in healthcare workers through 2019 and compares average space usage per worker to space that now exists or is currently under construction in 14 markets.



The segment of the population at or over the age of 65 is growing at a rate 14 times faster than those aged 64 or younger, said Jay Johnson, Managing Director of Healthcare Advisory Services. A greater demand for healthcare services means more workers, and this is going to make healthcare space much tighter in some markets.



Specifically, current projections estimate that just over 150,000 healthcare practitioners will be added to the economy over the next two years, and total demand for medical office space across the U.S. could range from 150.5 million to 225.8 million square feet by the end of 2019.



There is approximately 110 million square feet of available medical office space in existing and under-construction buildings in the U.S. as of the second quarter of 2018, said Director of Research Elizabeth Norton, the reports author. If all healthcare practitioners added to the economy through 2019 aim to locate within medical office space, absorption of this demand is impossible without a major shift in how people expect and receive healthcare.



New York, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Denver and Miami-Fort Lauderdale would be the most challenging for practitioners wishing to locate within medical office space. But other real estate options could provide feasible solutions, including leasing nontraditional spaces in conventional office buildings or repurposing empty retail space for medical uses.



Norton noted that the emergence of new forms of healthcare, such as telemedicine, digital health, and shared service centers, could suppress future demand to some degree, depending on how quickly these new approaches are adopted by the healthcare industry.



Transwesterns national Healthcare Advisory team has grown to become the countrys largest dedicated healthcare real estate team, operating from 19 cities and including more than 130 members. The team provides a full range of services, including leasing, investment, tenant advisory, property management, project management, and construction services for hospitals, healthcare networks, physicians and investors.



Download the report at: http://twurls.com/med-office



ABOUT TRANSWESTERN

Transwestern is a privately held real estate firm of collaborative entrepreneurs who deliver a higher level of personalized service  the Transwestern Experience. Specializing in Agency Leasing, Tenant Advisory, Capital Markets, Asset Services and Research, our fully integrated global enterprise adds value for investors, owners and occupiers of all commercial property types. We leverage market insights and operational expertise from members of the Transwestern family of companies specializing in development, real estate investment management and research. Based in Houston, Transwestern has 35 U.S. offices and assists clients through more than 211 offices in 36 countries as part of a strategic alliance with BNP Paribas Real Estate. Experience Extraordinary at transwestern.com and @Transwestern.

AttachmentSt. Petersburg, FL, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- BioNebicine Corp. (BioNebicine or the Company) a privately held biotech company, is pleased to announce that it has retained Environmental Diagnostics Laboratory, a division of PureAir Control Services, Inc., to conduct numerous controlled examinations of particle size emitted by an ultrasonic vibrating mesh nebulizer design with various medical formulations for BioNebicine.



Pulmonary delivery of various medicinal and non-medicinal formulations requires delivery of the formulation such that the particulate size is accepted by the lungs alveolus. The Company, in conjunction with its partners, has developed a patented nebulizer device and the necessary solutions and formulations required to achieve the targeted particle size for maximum absorption within the pulmonary system.

The Company has now reached a point where we must certify the results we have seen in our preliminary testing, stated Dr. Donald Pell, MD, the CEO and President of the Company. Future plans to deploy the device into the market require that we can meet the stringent demands of the human pulmonary system to absorb our numerous medication formulations to achieve maximum absorption.

The first round of testing will involve five (5) specific drugs: glucagon, regular insulin, sumatriptan (Imitrex), epinephrine, and the biologic Humira. The testing will commence on September 5, 2018 and take approximately 20 to 30 days to complete.

About the Company:

BioNebicines goal is to be a leader in the delivery of Biologics and Biosimilars medical formulations, insulin formulations, registered antibiotics and other drug formulations, vaccine formulation, antiviral formulations, and vitamin formulations. The Company specializes in the research and development of pulmonary micro droplet medical delivery systems using Ultrasonic Atomizing Vibrating Micron Micro Mesh (MMM) disc technology for the pulmonary uptake of Pharmaceutical Grade medical drug formulations.

The Company is currently completing its first round of funding from its Private Placement Memorandum, with the goal of becoming publicly traded on a major exchange in the coming months. More can be found on our website at: www.bionebicine.com.

Safe Harbor Statement: The information posted in this release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "plans," "explores," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "project," "intend," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, and various other factors beyond the Company's control.



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 ...Governor Andrew Cuomo received the endorsement of the Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg on Thursday, after reportedly promising not to interfere with New York's yeshivaseven as the city's education leaders have vowed to move forward with a long-delayed investigation into the ultra-Orthodox schools.

The agreement was reached during a Thursday night visit to the home of Brooklyn-based grand rabbi Zalman Tietelbaum, according to multiple reports. Israeli blog BeChadrei Chareidim first covered the visit, with Yeshiva World translating, "the Governor reassured the Rebbe that he would not interfere in Yeshiva education." Tietelbaum is one of two feuding sons of the late Grand Rebbe of the Satmar sect, and controls the central Satmar congregation in Williamsburg and the Satmar Yeshiva in Queens. Brooklyn's Hasidic community, which votes as a bloc, wields significant political power in state and local politics.

For my non Hebrew reading friends: Last week Gov. Cuomo met with the Satmar Rebbe, one of the most influential rabbis in the world, in Williamsburg, and promised him "not to interfere with yeshivas" and received the Rabbi's support. @CynthiaNixon https://t.co/Y75dCtw2Pb  Daniel Atwood (@AtwoodDaniel) September 2, 2018

The apparent quid pro quo comes weeks after the New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza addressed the stalled probe into whether the yeshivas are fulfilling basic education requirements, writing in a letter to State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia that investigators have still not been granted access to half of the ultra-Orthodox schools in question.

The investigation was launched three years ago, following allegations from the group Young Advocates For A Fair Education [Yaffed] that yeshiva students receive almost no secular instruction, leaving them with few options after graduation. It has been rigorously opposed at almost every step by leaders of the ultra-Orthodox sect, as well as powerful state Senator Simcha Felder.

"We have a governor who allegedly promised that, if reelected, he would pick up where Felder left off and let Yeshivas continue to deny tens of thousands of children a basic education," Yaffed founder Naftuli Moster told Gothamist, referring to the so-called Felder Amendment, which could exempt yeshivas from state guidelines requiring private schools provide education that is "substantially equivalent" to their public counterparts.

"Whatever happened to politicians expressing respect and appreciation for religious or cultural differences without crossing the line of promising to help them violate the law and the New York Constitution?" Moster asked.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for the Governor's Office, would not confirm or deny whether Cuomo made the comments to the Grand Rebbe, but did say that "the governor has no role in this matter as schools are regulated by the state Education Department." He added that the governor was working to ensure yeshivas are in compliance with all laws and State Education Department guidelines.

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo @NYGovCuomo visiting Satmar Rebbe last night in Williamsburg. pic.twitter.com/UING93u4uF  Ah Blick Magazine (@AhBlickLive) August 31, 2018



A lawsuit related to the Felder Amendment was filed this summer by Yaffed, and accuses both the State Education Department and Governor Cuomo of unconstitutionally exempting the religious institutions from oversight. Azzopardi would not comment on the lawsuit, or whether Governor Cuomo wants more yeshivas to open their doors to investigators.

Cuomo's primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, has likewise avoided the subject of the yeshiva investigation in her campaign so far.A 65-year-old man died Saturday morning from injuries sustained when an all-terrain vehicle operator knocked him off his bike days earlier, in an apparently deliberate act of aggression.

Eucario Xelo was riding home to Brooklyn from work at Jorge's Restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens between midnight and 1 a.m. on Aug. 28th, when a group of ATV and motorcycle riders pulled up behind him near the intersection of Seneca Avenue and Woodbine Street. According to the NYPD, the leading ATV rider "veered towards the bicyclist while simultaneously slowing down [and] knocking the bicyclist to the ground."

Police found Xelo lying in the street, "unconscious and unresponsive," and an EMS crew arrived to take him to Elmhurst Hospital, where he remained in critical condition until he was pronounced dead on Saturday.

The ATV riders, meanwhile, continued on their way without stopping, reportedly menacing another cyclist mere blocks away. Luckily, that person was not badly injured.

Xelo reportedly had his lights on, making himself visible to motorists. The NYPD believes the ATV driver acted intentionally.

"I hope they catch them [the ATV riders]," Augustina Hernandez, Xelo's estranged ex-wife, told the Daily News. "I hope there's justice because if they did that to an older person they could keep doing it to other people. They're going to keep doing it until they receive their punishment."

New York state bans the use of ATVs on public highways and public land, unless the area has been specially designated for ATV use and signage indicates that exception. Regardless of that caveatwhich doesn't apply to New York City streets, anywayit is always illegal to operate an ATV in a "careless, reckless, or negligent manner." The NYPD Collision Investigation Squad is currently seeking the driver, who could reportedly face vehicular manslaughter charges."You need to know how sad I am about where we find ourselves," says George Ayala, Psy.D., executive director of the Oakland, California-based MPact Global Action for Gay Men's Health and Rights. "How did we get to a place in the global HIV response where the needs and desires of public health elites matters more than the concerns of people around the world who are actually living with or at risk for HIV?"

Ayala is talking about the decision on the part of the International AIDS Society to hold the 2020 edition of the biennial International AIDS Conference (IAC) -- the world's largest forum about the epidemic, drawing some 20,000 people -- in the U.S., specifically in California's Bay Area. That decision, announced in March, drew an immediate backlash, with a wide array of HIV/AIDS activists in the U.S. and abroad saying that it was wrongheaded and even dangerous to hold the conference in the U.S. while the Trump administration is pursuing policies hostile to immigrants, foreign visitors (particularly from majority-Muslim countries), LGBTQ people, and HIV high-risk and high-incidence populations, including sex workers and drug users.

Major protests over the decision broke out at the 2018 IAC in Amsterdam. And now, even as IAS says it is going forward with plans to hold the conference in both San Francisco (wealthy, expensive, touting dramatic HIV reductions in recent years) and Oakland (poorer and more people of color, with only a fraction of San Francisco's HIV resources), Ayala and a broad network of activists worldwide are moving forward with planning a simultaneous conference outside the U.S., likely in Mexico City or Tijuana. That confab, they say, will prioritize the concerns and solutions of communities affected by HIV over those of researchers and public health officials.

A Diverse Outcry

Activists point out that the majority of global networks of people living with HIV or at high risk -- including MPact, Positive Women's Network, Positive Trans, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, and International HIV/AIDS Alliance -- oppose the conference being held in the Bay Area. The primary objection appears to be against holding it in the U.S. at all during the Trump era, given the difficulties that many people from poorer countries may have obtaining visas in the first place -- or actually getting into the country upon arrival.

On top of that, "All that has to happen to put the HIV entry ban back on is an executive order," says JD Davids (a staffer at TheBody who will be transitioning out in mid-September), a trans HIV activist who is part of an emerging coalition, HIV Power Shift, seeking to center affected communities over policymakers and researchers. And, based on precedent, it's highly conceivable that Trump might reinstate the ban by tweet perilously close to the conference date in order to sow bureaucratic chaos and curry favor with his base. If that happens, "conference organizers would seriously weigh the impact of this policy change," Megan Warren, the IAC conference organizer, wrote in an email. But activists wonder how the IAC -- a massive feat of planning, contracts, and budgets -- could change its location on such short notice.

Protesting IAC Conference Locations Is Not New

This is not the first time that the location of the IAC has drawn ire from activists. First imposed in 1987, at the height of AIDS-phobia, the U.S. ban on HIV-positive people coming into the country led to major protests of the IAC when it was held in San Francisco in 1990 -- and to moving the 1992 conference site from Boston to Amsterdam. In 2000, many protested the IAC taking place in South Africa while its president, Thabo Mbeki, was publicly denying that HIV caused AIDS -- but South African AIDS activists demanded it be held there as a global rebuke to Mbeki's denialism. In 2012, Obama finally ended the U.S. HIV travel ban in time for the conference to be held in Washington, D.C. However, ceding to conservatives, he still banned entry to sex workers and drug users, few of whom managed to attend, with the rest holding their own conferences in Kolkata, India, and Kiev, Ukraine, respectively.

That particular ban still stands; such folks would have to lie on U.S. visa applications -- a risk if customs and border entry officials scan their online or social media presence. According to New Orleans-based Kelli Dorsey, an independent sex-worker activist who was formerly the executive director of Different Avenues, an advocacy group for girls and women who engage in underground trades such as sex work, that's exactly what's been happening recently to Canadian sex workers who have been stopped at the U.S. border.

To have only a handful of sex workers and drug users at IAC 2020 would be "a dramatic loss," says Dorsey. "We'll miss out on learning how those folks are running programs in order to strengthen our own programs."

The inability of foreigners to get to the conference is not the only reason many activists oppose it being held in the Bay Area. They worry that, media-wise, it will be completely overshadowed by the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which takes place the following week.

"Who [in the media] will have time to go all-in on the AIDS conference?" asks Dazon Dixon Diallo, M.P.H., who heads Atlanta-based SisterLove, which supports women of color living with or at risk for HIV, and is founder and convener of Women NOW, a global HIV/AIDS conference for women of African descent. "The opposition! They'll say, 'Look at all the crazies coming to that sanctuary city in Nancy Pelosi's backyard.' We would rather the international AIDS community come to the U.S. when we have different national leadership and we've cleaned up our house."

Diallo is also among those who feels that, if the conference has to be in the U.S., it should be in a city in the South, which is still struggling with its epidemic, rather than San Francisco, which has been able to get its HIV epidemic relatively under control due to its disproportionate whiteness and wealth (and which is also expensive for visitors). "The minute you nationalize San Francisco's story of 'the epidemic is over,' it will silence the voices of millions of others over the world. It's not time to tout success until we're all reaching it."

Related: Citing Trump Policies, Activists Want AIDS 2020 Conference Moved Out of U.S.

Voices of Support

All this is not to say that everyone in the U.S. HIV community opposes IAC coming to the Bay Area, which hosted the conference in 1990. "This is a really important moment to reflect on the progress we've made here in San Francisco since then and to share best practices, as well as to highlight the disparities between us and Oakland and the rest of the U.S.," says Joe Hollendoner, the new CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), which lobbied hard to have the conference in the area.

According to Hollendoner, "Wherever you have the conference, there are challenges for people gaining entry." He says that when the IAC was held in Toronto in 2006, more visa requests were rejected by Canada than were by the U.S. in 2012 when the conference was in D.C. He says that U.S. Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Lee have promised to do everything they can to get as many conference-goers into the country as possible. And he says he is confident that, should Trump capriciously reinstate the HIV travel ban shortly before the conference, "we have a base of support of elected officials who will fight like hell to make sure that Trump's tweet will not become a reality."

Says Rob Newells, executive director of AIDS Project of the East Bay, which serves a large clientele of color: "I'm OK with it being here. I'm born and raised in Oakland, I'm a militant person by nature, and this is a place about resistance and protest. And my perspective is that, yes, there all these issues with the conference being in the U.S. and, yes, the U.S. is perpetrating lots of bad things now -- and we need the international community to come in ahead of the DNC and help us push on these issues like sex work and drug use. We can't separate our HIV activism from our political activism. Running away from these issues doesn't help solve them."

A Bay Area conference is also supported by Marsha Martin, D.S.W., formerly D.C.'s AIDS czar and now community coordinator for the Fast-Track East Bay Getting to Zero initiative to end the epidemic. "A joint conference collaboration between two cities, as in San Francisco and Oakland, has never been done before," she notes, saying that the conference will "absolutely" be evenly mixed between the two cities and that non-science sessions will not be marginalized to Oakland so that researchers and VIPs won't have to go there. "No one wants San Francisco to dominate," she says.

"Both cities' long history of activism and commitment to change is really important now in our country," she continues. "If we don't have it here, I believe we'll miss an opportunity, much like when the conference went to South Africa in 2000" to rebuke HIV denialists.

Unanswered Questions

Of course, it's too early to say whether immigration policies or other circumstances in the U.S. could worsen to the point where having the conference in the Bay Area becomes completely untenable. And it's also too early to know exactly what the possible alternate conference in Mexico might look like or how it will get people there, although Ayala says he envisions it being much smaller -- perhaps 2,500 to 5,000 people -- and that he and others are already talking with the IAC about making some satellite connections between the Bay Area and Mexico.

But Ayala stands by his decision to spearhead what might add up to a boycott of IAC by at least some U.S. activists. "It is not OK for IAS to continue with business as usual," he says. "Not OK for them to continue to justify to themselves the need for large, trade-show style conferences in the global north, to select host countries that are overtly hostile to people living with HIV and key populations" (such as sex workers and drug users).

And, in many ways, it appears that in this most fraught time in the U.S., the split over AIDS 2020 is a split between the large, well-funded institutions of HIV/AIDS -- the pharma companies, the big research centers, and the major AIDS service organizations, such as SFAF and the IAS itself -- and networks made up primarily of individuals living with, or at risk for, the virus itself, often in poor parts of the world.

"Even if they can get visas, what's going to happen to them when they arrive at our border for the conference?" asks Diallo. "This controversy isn't really just about the conference. It's about who has the power to decide where these conferences are held. We have to open up the table and share more of that power to make these decisions."One man's half-decade quest to recoup his investment on a ruptured relationship ended in Manhattan Supreme Court last week, when a judge ordered the return of an exorbitantly expensive engagement ring. The Post reports that one Jennifer Rutten must return the $40,000 boulder her ex-fiance, Rodney Ripley, gave her in 2011. If for some reason she cannot send back the ringif, for example, she flushed it down the toilet or sold it to cover legal fees, who knowsshe must reimburse Ripley the full purchase price.

Rutten and Ripley reportedly met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and after Rutten moved to New York, Ripley proposed on the Brooklyn Bridgewith a diamond that cost slightly less than the average Brooklyn family's annual income. The financial commitment seems to have outweighed the emotional commitment, though: The couple never made it down the aisle, breaking up within a year. Ripley asked her to return the ringa 3-carat rock from this very pricy jewelerbut apparently, Rutten did not appreciate being bothered in the wake of a certain superstorm.

"I was dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and he started harassing me," Rutten explained, the Post reports.

Yet the Sandy defense turned out to be just one in a series of excuses she deployed in attempting to secure legal ownership of the ring. Rutten's lawyer, William Costigan, reportedly argued that the ring's value, which he erroneously deemed $13,000, made it a matter for civil courts to decide; the complainant, however, kept receipts. He paid $39,057.10 for the ring itself, and an additional $40,000 for an insurance policy.

Rutten's lawyer also argued that when Rutten relocated to Wisconsin with the rock in 2013, the case moved outside New York jurisdiction. This would not seem to be a particularly useful legal route, however, as Wisconsin also views engagement rings as conditional gifts: As is the case in New York, the ring must be returned to the person who purchased it if the couple splits without marrying.

According to the Post, Rutten's final defense held that Ripley became "more typically abusive, emotionally abusive," and that in her anger, she didn't want to give back the ring. Justice Robert Reed wasn't convinced, though: On Aug. 27th, he ruled that "the undisputed facts show that the ring was given in contemplation of marriage and that marriage did not occur," obligating Rutten to return either the diamond or its retail cost within the next 45 days.

Data does suggest that lavish spending on weddings and their associated accoutermentsbig gaudy rings very much includedcorrelates to higher break-up rates. I'm not saying that the diamond in question is cursed and doomed this union, but I don't know, maybe weighting down your partner's hand with the cost of a luxury sedan is exactly as wasteful as it sounds.#FDNY Fire Marshals arrested Jem R. Ibrahimov, 42, of Manhattan, an individual suspected of vandalizing a FDNY firehouse, EMS Station, and multiple ambulances on at least two different occasions. Read more: https://t.co/VZFO9OaODo pic.twitter.com/JsgDcUSX0k  FDNY (@FDNY) September 1, 2018

Police arrested and charged the man suspected of defacing FDNY property in Washington Heights with swastikas and the words "Nazi Pigs," after he allegedly struck twice more this weekend. Fire marshals apprehended Jem R. Ibrahimov, 42, around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Engine 93/Ladder 45/Battalion 13 firehouse on West 181st Street.

Around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, police responded to a report of "criminal mischief" at 501 West 172 Street, FDNY EMS station 13. There, someone had marked four ambulances with large swastikas. About half an hour later, fire marshals caught Ibrahimov "in the act" at West 181st Street. The incidents mirrored acts of vandalism committed on Aug. 26th, when Ibrahimov allegedly scrawled "Nazi Pigs Die" in black marker on the same firehouse door where he was arrested. He also allegedly drew swastikas on four FDNY ambulances and an FDNY communications van parked outside the West 172nd Street EMS station.

It's unclear what, exactly, the nature of Ibrahimov's grievance with the FDNY is, and why he keeps targeting these two stations. Police have not disclosed a motive, but they have charged him with multiple counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime, aggravated harassment, making graffiti, and possession of a graffiti instrument.

"I commend our Fire Marshals for their great investigative work to apprehend an individual who defaced FDNY facilities and apparatus with hateful symbols and language," Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said in a statement, posted to Facebook. "Thank you as well to the members of the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force for their investigation and collaboration with our Fire Marshals."

Radiohead guitarist and composer extraordinaire Jonny Greenwood is bringing his hair-raising score for There Will Be Blood to a live stage once again, this time as part of the NY Philharmonic's Art of the Score series. [Correction: Greenwood will not be performingsorry about that.]

A complete screening of the Paul Thomas Anderson film will accompany the performance, which includes slithering Greenwood originals and classics from Brahms and Arvo Part. This is not a drill: tickets for the September 12 & 13 at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall are presently still available.

While Greenwood has gone on to score several films in the last decade including Norwegian Wood and Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, Inherent Vice, and Phantom Threadthe music for There Will be Blood was his Hollywood debut, and arguably his very best. Around the time the film came out, he described the therapeutic nature of composing to Gothamist as follows

"For me it just feels like the orchestra is making sounds I really want to hear. That's all I'm thinking about really. It's such an amazing thing; I'm still a bit in awe of what orchestras can do and how much of an event it is. And then when they're playing in a room You can forget and think that CDs are enough and you sort of don't need to see an orchestra play. But then once you're actually at the performance you realize it's so much more magical than a recording."

We're probably overdue for another chat with the Radiohead renaissance man (first question, what is a CD?). In the meantime, the good news for Phil-loving film buffs continues later this month: on September 14th and 15th, the second and final installment of the Art of the Score will commemorate the 50th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Andre de Ridder will conduct, with music from Richard Strauss, Ligeti, Johann Strauss II, and Khachaturian.

And elsewhere in the extended Radiohead universe, Thom York has released the first track from his upcoming score for the Suspiria remake. He'll be touring solo this winter, making two stops in Brooklyn, which are sadly sold out. The full album is out on October 26thhere's that first track:Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 08:25 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087712e2ca 4 Editorial #Editorial,#2019gantipresiden,anti-jokowi,democracy,Indonesian-politics,#2019PresidentialElection,2019-presidential-election,Jokowi-administration,police,Prabowo-Subianto,freedom-of-speech Free

The police crackdown on the movement to unseat President Joko Jokowi Widodo, through the use of the hashtag #GantiPresiden2019 (Change President 2019), may be intended to shield him, but the police are doing a great disservice to their President and to the nation. If they are not careful, their actions could contribute to his defeat in the April 2019 election.



The bans on meetings of the hashtag proponents in several cities in Indonesia in the past week are already being portrayed, at home and abroad, as suppressing free speech. As far as freedom of expression, and hence our democracy, is concerned, this is nothing but a huge setback.



There is absolutely no need for the police to do this. Their boss Jokowi is leading in all the surveys, he has all the advantages any incumbent could ask for. The successful Asian Games, in terms of hosting it and the nations performance, has added to his credentials going into the race.



Jokowi is doing alright. The last thing he needs is this sort of helping hand from the police.



The hashtag emerged as far back as early 2017, maybe even before, during the height of the Jakarta gubernatorial elections. The opposition had used this occasion to start its campaign early, even when it had no clue then who would run against the President.



But that was just the point. The incumbent is too strong that the only democratic way to unseat him is to discredit his performance. That is the theme of the campaign, but we have seen the counter campaign, equally aggressive, using the hashtag #Jokowi2Periode (Jokowi two terms) for much of the past year.



Indeed, democracy in the end is a war of words. Neither side really needs police protection or support. This is digital democracy in the 21st century, through hashtag wars. Police should move on from the comfort of their analog world.



Now that the opposition already has a candidate to rally around in Prabowo Subianto, its campaign is getting more aggressive as we get closer to the election date. The #GantiPresident2019 meetings are picking up pace, but so are the activities supporting the incumbent.



The police claim they stopped these meetings to prevent potential conflicts, because Jokowi supporters had plans to disrupt them. Once again, security and order trumps free speech, the sort of excuse popularly used by the Soeharto regime, then to suppress dissenting voices.



In recent years, we have seen time and again when police, citing law and order, curtailed freedom of speech and also freedom of religion. Rather than providing protection for those wishing to exercise their freedoms as guaranteed by the Constitution, police are taking the easy solution by shutting them down to prevent conflict.



This sort of overreaction on the part of the police against the#GantiPresiden2019 movement is unnecessarily elevating the hashtag and its proponents, giving them a new platform and a new cause to rally: Free speech.Facebook's definition of what constitutes "terrorism" is "overly broad" and risks leading to censorship and the arbitrary denial of access to its services, a UN rights expert warned Monday.

The UN Special Rapporteur on promoting and protecting human rights while countering terrorism has written to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg to express concern about the company's efforts to block "terrorists" from using its platform, according to a statement.

"The use of overly broad and imprecise definitions as the basis for regulating access to and the use of Facebook's platform may lead to discriminatory implementation, over-censoring and arbitrary denial of access to and use of Facebook's services," Fionnuala Ni Aolain warned.

Facebook's definition, she said, equates all non-state groups that use violence in pursuit of any goals or ends to terrorist entities.

The social media network's polices prohibit terrorists from using its services, and it uses detection technologies and a growing team of moderators to find and remove content.

Read also: Facebook shut 583 million fake accounts

"The use of such a sweeping definition is particularly worrying in light of a number of governments seeking to stigmatise diverse forms of dissent and opposition - whether peaceful or violent - as terrorism," Ni Aolain said.

"The definition is further at odds with international humanitarian law as it qualifies all non-state armed groups party to a non-international armed conflict as terrorists, even if these groups comply with international humanitarian law," she stressed.

She also voiced concern over a lack of clarity about the methods Facebook uses to determine if a person belongs to a particular group, and if that person has "the opportunity to meaningfully challenge such determination."

"The absence of any independent processes of review, oversight and monitoring of Facebook's actions is also highly problematic," she added.Asia Nader didn't know whether to worry more about being diagnosed with a hole in her heart at the age of 21, or having to wait a year for Swedish doctors to fix it.

"I completely fell apart when I found out," she told AFP, remembering the long agonising months until she finally had her operation in June this year, one month before her 23rd birthday.

Sweden has the fifth-highest life expectancy in Europe and cancer survival rates are among the continent's highest, according to 2017 OECD figures.

But Swedes are frustrated over their universal healthcare, one of the main pillars of their cherished welfare state, with long waiting queues due to a shortage of nurses and available doctors in some areas.

"Swedes have little confidence that politicians will solve this," said Lisa Pelling, chief analyst at progressive think tank Arena Ide.

"There is a risk their faith in the welfare state will be eroded," she told AFP.

Swedes, who on average pay more than half of their income in tax, see access to healthcare as the most important issue in the September 9 general election, polls suggest.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven's Social Democrats, the largest party, are on course for a record low score, after losing voters disgruntled over rising immigration putting a strain on the welfare system to the far-right Sweden Democrats.

'Lose time'

Swedish law stipulates patients should wait no more than 90 days to undergo surgery or see a specialist. Yet every third patient waits longer, according to government figures.

Patients must also see a general practitioner within seven days, the second-longest deadline in Europe after Portugal (15 days).

Yet waiting times vary dramatically across Sweden's 21 counties responsible for financing hospitals.

Read also: WHO urges SEA countries to prioritize universal health care

One dental patient in central Dalarna county told AFP six months passed before his check-up, while emergency room queues at Stockholm's largest hospitals average four hours.

The 2016 nationwide median wait for prostate cancer surgery was 120 days, but 271 days in the northern county of Vasterbotten, official figures show.

Swedes also complain about not being able to see their own regular general practitioner -- and the ensuing lack of continuity -- as a growing number of doctors and nurses are temporary hires employed by staffing companies.

Some 80 percent of the healthcare sector is in need of nurses, according to official data.

Online services where patients see a doctor via webcam, have mushroomed as a result.

"Every time you seek help you also see a new doctor... This makes us lose time on assessments and follow-ups," Heidi Stenmyren, president of the Swedish Medical Association, told AFP.

World's most expensive hospital

In Solleftea, the premier's northern hometown with nearly 20,000 residents, the only maternity ward was shut down last year to save money.

With the closest maternity ward now 200 kilometres (125 miles) away, midwives offer parents-to-be classes on how to deliver babies in cars -- which some have since done.

Sweden has the EU's third-highest spending on healthcare -- 11 percent share of its GDP -- and the heart attack survival rate is above the OECD average.

"I get worried sometimes when people disparage Swedish healthcare as if it didn't work at all... It's not black or white," Lofven told Swedish television SVT.

But the number of hospital beds has declined in recent years, as has the average length of stay.

Read also: Q&A: BPJS Kesehatan, health for all Indonesians

Frustrations peaked this year when it emerged that the bill for Stockholm's over-budget state-of-the-art New Karolinska Hospital would tick in at 61.4 billion kronor (5.8 billion euros, $6.7 billion) -- the most expensive hospital in the world.

And yet patients have had to be transferred to other overcrowded hospitals because some of the facilities are unusable.

Making matters worse, Sweden's ageing population has growing healthcare needs.

"In only five years, we will have 70,000 more people aged 75 or older... and that comes with more frequent illnesses," Lofven told AFP.

His Social Democrats have vowed to spend three billion kronor to hire more healthcare staff if re-elected.

The opposition Moderates, which governed for two consecutive terms before the Social Democrats took power in 2014, meanwhile want to reintroduce a law that rewards counties for shortening queues.

But critics say this just encourages doctors to prioritise easily-solved cases.In August, the National Book Committee (KBN) announced the recipients of its LitRI translation grants. This year, 70 titles were chosen from 131 applicants, comprising translated works in six languages by publishers in more than 10 countries.

If the number seems underwhelming, consider this fact: there was no government-sponsored translation program until several years ago, to be exact, until the KBN itself came into being in 2015. That year, Indonesia was selected as the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the KBN was established to organize the countrys preparation and activities during the event. To seize the moment, post the book fair, the KBN formally became a permanent institution under the Education and Culture Ministry.

Before 2007, the Indonesian Publishers Association [IKAPI] had tried to join the Frankfurt Book Fair independently several times, but failed due to a lack of funding. Only in 2009 did the Education and Culture Ministry begin to help. Now that the KBN exists, Indonesia has consistently promoted curated books and writers abroad, said Laura Prinsloo, the chairperson of KBN.

LitRI translation grants encourage foreign publishers to print Indonesian works in their countries, added Prinsloo.

Aside from the funding, finding the right translator was also tricky, according to the senior editor at Indonesias biggest publishing house Gramedia, Mirna Yulistianti. Literature works especially need translators who command both the English and Indonesian language skilfully. Not only grammatically, but they also must be able to translate the feeling and emotions well, said Mirna.

Obviously, title selection matters. For instance, literature works should be able to reflect Indonesia in terms of its culture, society and politics, argued Mirna. It doesnt always have to be about the 1965 tragedy; other themes such as women and oppression or poetry have also begun to attract foreign publishers, she added.

Then there is also the task of promoting the translated works abroad, which is mostly done by the writers or local publishers. The KBN can only help promote Indonesian books at four exhibitions that it participates in, which are the Beijing International Book Fair, Frankfurt Book Fair, London Book Fair and Bologna Childrens Book Fair -- the latter being the biggest childrens book fair in the world.

There is a huge interest in Indonesian books in the Middle East. Unfortunately, we still cannot reach the area, said Prinsloo.

Read also: We are neither 'kecebong' nor 'kampret' now

Take Okky Madasaris story for example. Last year, her novel Pasung Jiwa (Bound) received the 2017 LitRI grant for its Arabic translation and was published in August in Egypt and some Middle Eastern countries. However, Okky admitted that the government was not involved in promoting the translated book.

If not myself, then it is my publishers who do the distribution and promotion, said Okky.

Senior journalist and writer Leila Chudori had the same experience. Her novel Pulang has been translated into English as Home by John McGlynn of the Lontar Foundation, which also holds the distribution rights for the translated work in Southeast Asia. Home was acquired by Deep Vellum, a United States independent publisher that holds the distribution rights in the US and Canada.

In 2016, the Lontar Foundation worked with Deep Vellum and various US campuses and art centers to invite me to do a book tour in eight cities in the US, said Leila. Home has received government aid for the translation, not for promotion.

Indonesian writers also need to learn how complicated it is to enter the wider web of the international book industry, she said, adding that many people, even journalists, do not understand the process of translating books, the ownership of translation rights and the inner workings of the publishing industry in general.

This is also something that the KBN is working on. Through its workshops, the committee is trying to educate writers and agents on the sale of translation rights, book to movie adaptations, the global trend in the publishing industry and the manuscript writing process itself. The next event, the Litbeat Festival, will be held on Sept. 10 and 11 at the National Gallery.

The biggest obstacle, according to Prinsloo, was the lack of rights agents in Indonesia. You not only need to have the knowledge and the ability to sell the books, but you also need connections with foreign publishers. Some Indonesian writers do use the service of foreign rights agents, she said.

Government aid is needed to further promote Indonesian literature, starting with the KBNs existing programs and hopefully more.

Promoting books should be part of the diplomatic work of our embassies worldwide, said Okky. Books can influence people and, like other creative works, can be seen as part of our effort to foster our soft power as a nation, hence strengthening our international clout. (kes)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 06:45 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087712bb66 2 City Nur-Mahmudi-Ismail,graft-suspect,Depok,travel-ban Free

The police have asked the Depok immigration office in West Java to ban former Depok mayor Nur Mahmudi Ismail and city secretary Harry Prihanto from travelling abroad so as to assist their ongoing investigation into a graft case.

Today, we sent a request letter for cooperation with the Depok Immigration office for the sake of the investigation, Depok Police chief Sr. Comr. Didik Sugiarto said on Monday.

Nur Mahmudi and Harry have been named suspect in a Rp 10 billion (US$ 672,675) graft case related to a road-widening project on Jl. Nangka, a popular alternative route for motorists going from Jl. Raya Bogor to the Jagorawi toll road.

The 2015 plan was to widen the entire road by 6 meters on each side, which meant removing several roadside homes.

Didik said Nur Mahmudi had requested that contractors to use their own funds rather than from the Depok regional budget for the project. However, it was later found that the project was still allocated in the 2015 regional budget despite it supposedly being covered by the contractors.

The police also sent summons letters to Nur Mahmudi and Harry. [We are] scheduled to question them on Wednesday and Thursday Didik said as quoted by kompas.com.

Nur Mahmudi was the former chairman of the Islamic-based Justice Party, which then became the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). He served as agriculture and plantation minister under former president Abdurrahman Wahid from 1999 to 2000 before serving as Depok mayor between 2006 and 2016. (ami)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Rizal Harahap (The Jakarta Post) Pekanbaru  Tue, September 4, 2018 06:25 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087712ace5 1 National crocodiles,BKSDA Free

Villagers in Riau caught a saltwater crocodile that they wanted removed from the area, but the reptile died before Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) officials reached the scene.

The villagers of Marambai in Temiang, Bengkalis regency, caught the 4.2-meter long crocodile weighing approximately 400 kilograms on Sunday afternoon, after it had appeared and had been lingering near a port in the village for three days, giving locals the jitters.

The villagers were restless, thinking the crocodile might maul them while leaving for work on the farm or while going about their activities near the river, Temiang village official Sukadi said on Monday.

The villagers gathered to lure the crocodile out from the river using live chicken.

They did it, he said.

After catching the crocodile, the villagers tied it up near the river and showcased it to the other villagers. They reached out to the agency so the crocodile would be removed from the village and transferred somewhere safe.

BKSDA spokesperson Dian Indriati said local rangers had descended on the village on Monday, only to find out that the crocodile had died.

There was a deep wound just above the crocodiles brain, which emitted a foul smell, she said, refusing to speculate on the cause of the death. (swd)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 18:24 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771562b2 4 Business bank-indonesia,measures,rupiah-against-dollar,weakening,perry-warjiyo Free

Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjoyo said on Tuesday the central bank had spent Rp 7.1 trillion (US$476 million) since last Friday to help the rupiah, which stood at Rp 14,930 per US dollar at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Last Friday, we spent Rp 4.1 trillion to buy government debt papers sold by foreigners. Yesterday [Monday], we spent Rp 3 trillion, said Perry in the House Representatives building as reported by kontan.co.id.

He stressed the bank would always intervene in both the foreign exchange market and the secondary market to help the rupiah from strong external pressure in recent months.

He added the central bank had also increased its seven-day reserve repo rate (7DRRR) to 5.5 percent to keep the currency at its acceptable rate.

We hope that [with the intervention], financial assets like government debt papers remain attractive, Perry said, claiming that with the 7DRRR increase, there was still capital inflow in the period between June and August.

Previously, head of BI monetary management department Nanang Hendarsyah said the rupiah weakening was not only sparked by global pressure, but also because corporations needed to buy US dollars to finance their imports.

But he stressed the main factor of the rupiah weakening was the revision of US GDP from 4.1 to 4.2 percent, the move of the People's Bank of China to weaken renminbi value amid the Chinas trade war with the US and the drop of Argentinas peso and Turkeys lira. (bbn)Kenny Shopsin, whose "my way or the highway because I will throw you out" approach to serving customers made him a lovable if extremely grumpy figure in the NYC food world, passed away over the Labor Day weekend. His daughter Tamara Shopsin said on Instagram that the Essex Street Market location would be open on Wednesday: "My dad wont be there in body but he will be there. I love you dad."

Shopin opened his diner, Shopsin's (or Shopsin's General Store), in Greenwich Village in 1982 (it was originally a general store that he and his wife bought in 1973). Calvin Trillin wrote in the New Yorker in 2002:

Because Shopsin's has a number of rules and because Kenny is, by his own admission, "not a patient person," it's common to run into people who are afraid to enter the place. I've escorted a number of them to their first Shopsin's meal, in the way a longtime businessman in a Midwestern town might escort a newcomer to Kiwanis at noon on Wednesday. Since the "Seinfeld" Soup Nazi episode became part of the culture, people sometimes compare Kenny to the brilliant but rule-obsessed soup purveyor who terrified Jerry Seinfeld and his friends. Kenny would say that one difference between him and the Soup Nazi is that the Soup Nazi is shown ladling out his soup from a steam table; at Shopsin's, most soups are made from scratch when they're ordered. Some people think of Shopsin's as forbiddingly clubby, chilly to outsiders. Actually, Shopsin's does not have a crowd, in the sense of a group of people who go in assuming they'll run into someone they knowthe way the old Lion's Head, a few blocks uptown, had a crowd, built around Village Voice writers. At a play reading once, I was surprised to run into a Shopsin's regular I hadn't realized was an actor; all I'd known about him was that he doted on a dish called Turkey Spinach Cashew Brown Rice Burrito. Still, there are a lot of regulars, and they seem more at home than they might at a conventional restaurant. "You're really not allowed to be anonymous here," Kenny has said. "You have to be willing to be who you really are. And that scares a lot of people."

Trillin also witnessed Shopsin tell a party of four, which had two men in neckties, that the restaurant was closed (when it wasn't yet); Shopsin explained his decision thusly, "Fuck 'em."

The Village location closed in 2006 and reopened at the Essex Street Market, with its infamous menu of hundreds of items:

Kenny Shopsin has died. The man knew how to make a menu pic.twitter.com/9KASA772Dq  Rhett Jones (@rhettjonez) September 3, 2018

"Shopsin's daughter, Tamara, once admitted that the worst thing she had ever done was teach her father how to use Adobe InDesign. She didn't expect him to exploit the text-squeeze function to such an extent," Saveur reported in 2009.

Grub Street explained why he needed to squeeze so much text into two sides of a menu, "The actual menu at Shopsins was, like Shopsin himself, quirky to the extreme and inscrutably vast. The number of dishes on the downtown restaurants legendarily voluminous menu reached Himalayan heights of, at one point, 900 items. There are standards like the famous mac-and-cheese pancakes; numerous varieties of egg sandwiches (scrapple, anyone?), and loose interpretations of other cuisines dishes. Sometimes entirely imagined, as in the invented country of Indomalekia. Many are (not infrequently kooky) creations rooted in no traditions but Shopsins  taco fried eggs? Cheeseburger soup?  but one of his best-regarded dishes is nothing more than scrambled eggs and toast. Shopsin liked to make them with clarified butter, and was not shy about describing them as 'perfect.'"

Shopsin also wrote a book, with Carolynn Carreno, Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin, with tidbits like, "Pancakes are a luxury, like smoking marijuana or having sex. Thats why I came up with the names Ho Cakes and Slutty Cakes. These are extra decadent, but in a way, every pancake is a Ho Cake." Here he is, making his mac and cheese pancakes for the NY Times:

He was also the subject of a documentary, I Like Killing Flies, which Variety called an "affectionate portrait of Kenny, his brood and his singular worldview as the profanity-prone chef expounds on life, death, sex, terrorism, waste disposal and insect extermination."

Shopsin's author bio read as, "Kenny Shopsin is a self-taught chef who has developed his own inimitable style: he colors outside of the lines and then uses the crayons in his pancakes. He lives in Greenwich Village."

I loved Kenny Shopsin. He/Eve fed me for free when I was broke. Like everyone, our friendship was based on profane barbs flung back & forth at each other. The magic of Bedford St has so many memories. Ive more to say, but for now- #AllOurCooksWearCondoms #RIPkennyShopsin #EatMe  Lizz Pecker Watcher " Winstead (@lizzwinstead) September 3, 2018Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 11:26 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877138398 1 National Densus-88,#Densus88,police,#Police,shooting,#shooting,West-Java,#WestJava,terror-attack Free

The National Polices Densus 88 counterterrorism squad shot dead on Monday two individuals who were allegedly involved in the shooting of two police officers on the Kanci-Pejagan toll road near Cirebon, West Java.

"Two suspects, identified by the initials IA and RS, resisted arrest and tried to shoot police officers. Therefore, we took a tough and measured action [to shoot them], National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Setyo Wasisto said on Monday as quoted by Antara.

RS reportedly was a member of the Cirebon chapter of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a homegrown terror group that was recently banned.

The police suspected it was a revenge attack over the arrest in July of RS in-law for alleged involvement with the JAD.

In Mondays operation, two others were arrested on suspicion that they assisted the main suspects during the shooting on Aug. 24.

At that time, two traffic officers, First Adj. Insp. Dodon Kusdianto and First Adj. Insp. Widi Harjana, were conducting a routine patrol on the Kanci-Pejagan toll road when they encountered three men sitting on the side of the toll road.

The officers, thinking that the men needed assistance, stopped to help but were shot at by one of the suspects as they approached.

Dodon died in a hospital several days later, while Widi has shown signs of improvement after being treated.

The police also arrested three other suspects on Sunday.

"Several individuals allegedly indirectly involved with the shooting are still at large, Setyo said. (kuk/ipa)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 15:32 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771413f2 1 City fire,hospital,PGI-Cikini-Hospital,patients Free

Patients fled as the pathology ward on the third floor of PGI Cikini Hospital in Menteng district, Central Jakarta, suffered a fire on Tuesday morning.

The fire reportedly began at 9:05 a.m. as patients were evacuated to the hospital courtyard, and four firefighting units were dispatched to tackle the fire.

The fire grew bigger by the time we arrived, said Central Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency officer Ahmad Syaif Kahfi on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com.

By 10:37 a.m., the fire was extinguished, the building had cooled down and several patients were returned to the hospital.

Ahmad reported that some medical equipment had been damaged but there were no casualties. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Its safe now. Fortunately, it was an outpatient ward, he said, implying there were no bed-bound patients at the point of origin. (nor)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 12:55 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087713ac16 4 Business FreeportIndonesia,iupk,extension,divestment Free

Gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) has been given a one-month special mining permit (IUPK) extension, which is required for the company to import its copper concentrates.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry mineral business supervision director Bambang Susigit said in Jakarta on Monday that the extension for PTFI, a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX), was signed by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan on Aug. 31.

[The IUPK] is extended for another 30 days, Bambang said at a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission VII on energy affairs, adding that the extension was outlined in a 2018 ministerial decision.

PTFI received its first temporary IUPK in February 2017. It expired eight months later. The government then extended the IUPK for a second time until December 2017. Its third extension expired on July 4. Since then, the permit has been extended on a monthly basis.

The government, represented by state-owned mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), signed a heads of agreement with Freeport-McMoRan last month. Under the agreement, the government will get a majority stake in PTFI for US$3.85 billion. The divestment of Freeports shares have not reached a final agreement.

State-Owned Enterprises Ministry strategic industry and media affairs undersecretary Fajar Harry Sampurno said the negotiations on the divestment of 51 percent shares of PTFI were expected to be completed this month.

On the divestment, there are several issues that should be resolved. The agreement is expected to be completed this September, he added as quoted by kontan.co.id. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 14:33 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087713e7e4 1 Politics Maruf-Amin,#2019-elections,2019-presidential-election,#maruf-amin Free

Vice presidential candidate Ma'ruf Amin has said he would maintain his penchant for santri-like fashion by regularly wearing the sarong should he be elected in 2019.

Santri are students of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) who traditionally wear sarongs almost every day.

Maruf, the nonactive leader of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), made the statement in front of hundreds of students of Lirboyo Islamic boarding school in Kediri, East Java, on Monday.

"God willing, I will keep wearing the sarong, which reflects the identity of pesantren. I will become the first vice president to wear the sarong," Ma'ruf said as quoted by tempo.co.

Maruf is running in the 2019 election as the vice presidential candidate to incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who is also known for embracing traditional attire.

Jokowi has worn the sarong on several occasions, including when he celebrated New Years Eve 2017 at the Bogor Palace to immediately steal the social media spotlight.

Maruf's visit to Lirboyo was reportedly part of his tour to a number of Islamic boarding schools across East Java. The official campaign period for the election starts on Sept. 23. (kuk/ipa)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 14:09 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087713d925 4 Politics #politics,#Indonesia,intimidation,Islamic-cleric Free

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin has said that he is against the intimidation of religious preachers, including ustadz (Muslim teacher) Abdul Somad.

There must be no deterrence, intimidation or any other disturbances that threaten the security and safety of religious preachers, he said on Tuesday as quoted by tempo.co.

Lukman said that such acts were not allowed as long as sermons were educational, enlightening and broadened religious knowledge as well as strengthened unity.

He said he had communicated with the police on putting a stop to threats and intimidation against religious preachers.

On Sunday, Abdul Somad announced via his official Instagram account that he had canceled his religious outreach events in some part of Java Island.

The cancellation was made because of alleged threats and intimidation from people in the Central Java regencies of Grobogan, Kudus, Jepara and Semarang.

"The burden of the committee is getting heavier. [It has affected] the psychological condition of myself and the participants," Somad claimed.

"Therefore, I have canceled several events in Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta."

Somad was nominated by a group of Islamic preachers to be the running mate of presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto but the ustadz refused the offer.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 15:51 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877143407 4 National Roy-Suryo,sports-minister,Youth-and-sports-ministry,BPK,Supreme-Audit Free

The Youth and Sports Ministry has requested that its former minister, Roy Suryo, who served under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonos second term as president, return thousands of state assets that he borrowed during his tenure.

The ministry's request, written in a letter dated May 1, was signed by ministry secretary Gatot S. Dewa Broto.

Gatot confirmed the letter was sent on Monday. Yes, we sent the letter, he told tempo.com.

The letter states that the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) found there were 3,226 items borrowed by Roy's office that had yet to be returned to the ministry.

The agencys finding was based on an audit conducted in the three months before the letter was issued.

It was not the first time the ministry sent a letter to Roy, a Democratic Party politician.

On June 17, 2016, a letter was issued in which the ministry detailed items that were borrowed, including camera lenses, a mattress, a water pump and a Turkish carpet. Roy responded to it with a letter seven weeks later, saying that his office had returned all the items.

However, he said that, at that time, he did not oversee the handover process directly.

The BPK gave his office a qualified opinion according to the agency's 2015 financial report, he said.

If its a qualified opinion, I think its clear, nothing matters, he added.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Roy Suryo has not responded to phone calls and messages from tempo.co for comment. (sau)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 11:54 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877138d3b 4 Business US-dollar,speculative-transactions,punishment,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,BI,OJK,finance-ministry Free

The Finance Ministry, Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Financial Service Authority (OJK) have teamed up to prevent speculative transactions of the US dollar that they believe have sparked negative sentiment in the countrys economy.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the three institutions under the Financial System Policy Committee (KKSK) would monitor and study the behavior of market players in carrying out transactions.

We need to monitor whether their transactions are legitimate, whether they are needed to meet their industrys requirements or whether they are just illegitimate transactions, Sri Mulyani said in Jakarta on Monday as reported by kontan.co.id.

She added that legitimate transactions included those for raw material import transactions, capital goods imports and foreign debt payments.

Sri Mulyani said the government saw the other transactions as speculative activities.

If we find illegitimate transactions, we will impose tough measures because they are only speculative and spark negative sentiment, she said, adding that the measures were needed to prevent a further decline in the countrys foreign exchange reserve.

The foreign exchange reserve in July stood at US$118.3 billion, down $1.5 billion from June. The August figure is declining further because the central bank needed to intervene in the market due to the further weakening of the rupiah.

The foreign exchange reserve had declined by $12 billion since January. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Berlin, Germany  Tue, September 4, 2018 11:11 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877136eba 2 World #extremism,#BokoHaram,#Germany,funding,FightAgainstTerrorism,boko-haram Free

An international donor conference in Berlin pledged 2.17 billion euros ($2.52 billion) on Monday to help countries around Lake Chad to fight Boko Haram, organisers said.

The German foreign ministry said the aid would be disbursed "in the coming years" to Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, where the jihadist group launches frequent suicide bomb attacks from its bases in Lake Chad.

Another $467 million will be made available in the form of low-rate loans, the statement said.

Germany said it wanted to add another 100 million euros in humanitarian aid to the region by 2020, as well as 40 million euros earmarked for conflict prevention and stabilisation.

"This conference shows what it is possible to do when you work together," said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

The conference raised $672 million last year.

Ahead of this year's meeting, around 10 non-governmental organisations active in the region said 11 million people were in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

"The insurgency as well as military operations across the four countries have displaced 2.4 million people and left five million people food insecure while significantly reducing economic activity," said the statement signed by the NGOs including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and Action Against Hunger.

The conflict has aggravated an already difficult humanitarian situation in one of the poorest regions of the world.

The territory around the lake is difficult to access and most humanitarian aid must be delivered by armed convoys and staff transported by costly helicopters.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 17:19 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877147c00 1 Business import-tax,FinanceMinisterRegulation,current-account-deficit,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,DarminNasution Free

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has stressed that the new regulation to be issued in days will curb imports on consumer goods, which were blamed for ballooning trade deficit in July and increasing the current account deficit (CAD).

President Joko Jokowi Widodo summoned a number of economic ministers to have a meeting on the issue on Tuesday.

Speaking after the meeting, Sri Mulyani said the new finance ministerial regulation was a revision to Finance Ministerial Regulation (PMK) No. 34/2017. We will announce the PMK soon, said Sri Mulyani, estimating that it would be issued on Wednesday or Thursday.

The government has been mulling over increasing the import tax for about 900 consumer goods that have local equivalents in an effort to narrow the CAD.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution explained that under the regulation, import tariffs would not only be in the form of customs duties, but would also refer to import income tax or PPh Article 22 as well.

The point is that it refers to the PPh 22 regulation. It will not [directly] add to the import cost because it can be paid in credit and can be calculated when the importers pay [other] income taxes, Darmin said.

The CAD widened to US$8 billion in the second quarter of this year, equal to 3 percent of GDP, according to Bank Indonesia data. (bbn)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

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 15:36 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877142f86 4 Business DarminNasution,current-account-deficit,imports Free

The government will issue a finance minister regulation on new import tariffs within two days, said Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution after a meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The import tariff for downstream products would be up to 10 percent, while the import tariffs for raw material would be at 2.5 percent, he added.

The list will be completed within two days. We will announce it so that all the relevant people know about it, Darmin said as reported by kontan.co.id.

He said the government accelerated the process to issue the new policy so that it could immediately help the country reduce its current account deficit, which was at 3 percent.

He added that under the regulation, import tariffs would not only be in the form of customs duties, but it would refer to import income tax (PPh impor) or PPh 22 as well.

The point is that it refers to the PPh 22 regulation. It will not [directly] add the import cost because it can be paid in credit and can be calculated when the importers paid [other] income taxes, Darmin said.

The government is now assessing 900 consumer goods, whose import tariffs would be increased.

Indonesia Statistics recorded a US$2.03 billion trade deficit in July from the trade surplus of US$1.74 billion the previous month. Imports of consumer goods rose even higher than overall imports to $1.72 billion in July, up 70.50 percent month-to-month. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 17:56 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877150abc 1 City mob-attack,driver,drug-abuse,drug-rehabilitation,West-Jakarta Free

The police have decided to drop charges against a motorist who hit motorcyclists and then had his car destroyed by mob in Mangga Besar, West Jakarta, opting instead to send him to a drug rehabilitation center.

The driver, identified as Franky, was reportedly found to be under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident on Thursday.

Weve named him a drug user and decided he needs rehabilitation, Tamansari Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Rully Indra said on Monday, as quoted by kompas.com.

Before the incident, Franky consumed crystal methamphetamine in the parking lot of Lokasari commercial district in Mangga Besar at 10 a.m., according to Frankys report to the police.

Under the influence of the drug, he drove his car to Jl. Tamansari VII and hit a motorcycle. He then accelerated and entered a Transjakarta bus lane, hitting another motorcycle and a road divider. After the collision, his car was attacked by a mob.

Rully said the hit and run case had been dropped because the motorcyclists did not want to proceed with the legal process.

"We cant proceed with the case because there were no casualties or injured victims, Rully said, "There were only scratches on the vehicles.

The police are, however, proceeding with prosecution against the mob members. Five people have been named suspects, while the police are still looking for two other alleged perpetrators. (stu)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 15:16 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308771406fb 1 National #defamation,defamation,Bangka-Belitung,#Jokowi,Jokowi,police,#Police Free

Bangka Belitung Islands Police continue to gather more evidence in their investigation into alleged defamation against President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, which implicates at least two underage boys.

"We are still collecting more evidence before bringing the case into the court," Bangka Belitung Islands Police chief Brig. Gen. Syaiful Zachri said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

The police have named two suspects in the case, including a 16-year-old boy identified only by his initials, FZ. The other suspect is SD, 20.

Meanwhile, another underage boy, IK, 15, remains a witness in the case.

Both FZ and SD are charged with online defamation under Article 27, Paragraph 3 of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law, which carries a maximum sentence of four years behind bars.

The case first emerged after footage of a video call showing SD uttering harsh words against Jokowi went viral on social media and messaging platforms. Local residents later reported the video to the police.

"The President is the symbol of the state; therefore, [people] shouldn't make fun of him, especially by calling him foul words," Syaiful said.

First enacted in 2008, the ITE Law has become a scourge of the countrys internet users.

According to data from the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, 200 people have been prosecuted using the draconian law since it was first implemented. (kuk/ipa)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 18:35 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087715806d 1 Politics 2019-elections,voters-data,voter-list,DPT,KPU Free

The coalition supporting Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto for the upcoming 2019 presidential election claimed to find 25 million duplicate voter names registered on the temporary voters' list (DPS).

Mustafa Kamal, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) secretary-general, a party member of Prabowo's coalition, revealed the finding on Monday.

We found a total of 25 million duplicate names on the list. We even discovered some of the data had been duplicated up to 11 times in some regions, he said, as quoted by kompas.com.

Therefore, Mustafa asked the General Elections Commission (KPU) to deliver updated data to political parties. He said the coalition currently had a list of 137 million voters, less than 185 million voters declared by the commission.

The KPU is scheduled to update the final voters' list (DPT) from all over the country from Sept. 8 to 10.

Gerindra secretary-general Ahmad Muzani asked the commission to postpone the date of issuance of the DPT, which was scheduled for Wednesday, as it still needed further examination.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), a party member of President Joko Jokowi Widodo's coalition, suggested collaborative action to improve the list.

PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto said his party preferred to encourage joint correction of the voter list.

The context is we wont reject the DPT but are willing to correct it together, he said on Tuesday, as quoted by tempo.co. (sau)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Vienna, Austria  Tue, September 4, 2018 19:37 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087715b92c 2 World #Austria,#Russia,Austrian-Freedom-Party,scandal,espionage,Russia Free

The parliamentary probe adds to pressure on the country's far-right interior minister amid reports that Western secret services are increasingly wary of sharing information with their EU ally.

Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which has governed in a coalition since late last year, has a "cooperation pact" with President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

Interior Minister Herbert Kickl is from the FPOe, which also nominated Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl.

The inquiry is due to open with testimony from two officials of the BVT intelligence agency who complained about the February raids on offices and homes of senior officials.

Also due to appear was an official from the police unit that carried out the raids.

Officially, the operation related to an investigation into allegations of abuse of office.

But unusually, the searches were carried out by a police street crime unit run by an FPOe official.

Files seized reportedly related to investigations into far-right extremist groups.

Last week, a Vienna court declared some of the raids illegal because prosecutors had failed to explore other avenues to obtain the evidence they were looking for.

Kickl, who as chief strategist masterminded the FPOe's rise to power, has insisted the raids were above board, and accused the opposition of seeking to score cheap political points by calling for investigations.

Kickl is not due to give his statement to the enquiry until November.

Austria's National Security Council, an oversight body composed of ministers and opposition party representatives, held a closed-door meeting Monday to discuss the BVT affair.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the centre-right People's Party at the helm of the governing coalition, insists that Austria, which holds the EU rotating presidency, sees eye to eye with the bloc when it comes to Russia.

FPOe-backed Kneissl, however, raised eyebrows by inviting Putin to her wedding last month.

Images of the two of them dancing circulated widely.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 21:43 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087715e219 1 City brawl,student-brawl,clarification Free

The principal of SMA Muhammadiyah 15 Slipi senior high school in West Jakarta, whose student was killed after allegedly being stabbed and having acid poured on him, has insisted that the incident was a robbery and not a brawl.

There were only four of our students [at the scene] and none of them carried any weapons, Asrunas Imran, the principal in question, told tempo.co at his office in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, on Tuesday. They were seeking death if they wanted [to start] a brawl, he added.

One of the students, identified as 16-year-old AH, died on Saturday while receiving medical treatment at Medika Permata Hijau hospital in South Jakarta, with multiple stab wounds. The perpetrators also allegedly poured acid on the victim.

South Jakarta Police criminal unit head Adj. Sr. Comr. Stefanus Tamuntuan said on Monday that the victims and the perpetrators were students and had arranged the brawl via Instagram, tribunnews.com reported.

At least 29 individuals had been detained for questioning.

Imran, however, denied the report, saying that based on information solicited from AHs friends, AH and his three friends were going to visit a culinary spot in Bulungan, South Jakarta, but were ambushed by a group of people on their way home.

AH, who was riding a motorbike with a friend, fell off after the group allegedly kicked the bike.

This was not a brawl, but a robbery, Imran said. (fac)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Tue, September 4 2018

The police crackdown on the movement to unseat President Joko Jokowi Widodo, through the use of the hashtag #GantiPresiden2019 (Change President 2019), may be intended to shield him, but the police are doing a great disservice to their President and to the nation. If they are not careful, their actions could contribute to his defeat in the April 2019 election.

The bans on meetings of the hashtag proponents in several cities in Indonesia in the past week are already being portrayed, at home and abroad, as suppressing free speech. As far as freedom of expression, and hence our democracy, is concerned, this is nothing but a huge setback.

There is absolutely no need for the police to do this. Their boss Jokowi is leading in all the surveys, he has all the advantages any incumbent could ask for. The successful Asian Games, in terms of hosting it and the nations performance, has added to his credentials going into the race.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Kevin Buckland (Bloomberg) Tokyo, Japan  Tue, September 4, 2018 17:45 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087715031e 2 Business Suzuki-Company-of-Toga,China,Japan,market Free

Suzuki Motor is pulling out of China after dissolving its last remaining automaking partnership in the worlds biggest car market.

Suzuki agreed to transfer the 50 percent stake it holds in Changan Suzuki to Chongqing Changan Automobile as soon as legal proceedings are completed, the Japanese automaker said in a statement Tuesday.

Suzuki will continue licensing of production and sales of Suzuki models to Changan Suzuki. Sales of the Suzuki Changan joint venture declined 27 percent last year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.

Suzuki dissolved its other Chinese venture, a 23-year-long partnership with Jiangxi Changhe Automobile, in June.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 15:09 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087714069c 1 City pedestrian-bridge,damage,West-Jakarta,pedestrians Free

A tilted, disjointed pedestrian bridge by a Transjakarta bus stop on Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta has caused concern among pedestrians since it was hit by a truck early morning on Sunday.

On Monday, bus passengers were forced to jump over a bus stop fence using a small chair provided by the bus stop management, while a staff member was assigned to assist arriving and departing passengers in crossing the busy road.

The bridges entrance from the north side of Jl. Daan Mogot was blocked with bamboo because the bridge was tilted on one side and its stairs disconnected from the upper walkway. Its metal parts were also heavily rusted, wartakota.tribunnews.com reported.

Honestly, this is very annoying. This is dangerous because we have to cross the road where the vehicles are speeding. I hope its fixed soon, said a passenger, Sofi.

Cengkareng Timur subdistrict head Yuli Ardiansyah said the bridge was hit by a truck carrying dirt at 1 a.m. on Sunday.

For now, we have cooperated with the Jakarta Bina Marga Road Agency to fix the bridge soon, Yuli said on Monday.

West Jakarta Transportation Agency acting head Leo Amstrong Manalu said the agencys officers would be stationed in the area near the damaged footbridge to help manage traffic in the area. (ami/stu)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Sri Wahyuni (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Tue, September 4, 2018 13:29 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087713b9d0 1 Sports racing,Bimasakti,UGM Free

Gadjah Mada Universitys (UGM) Bimasakti racing team aims to place among the top three in the Student Formula Japan (SFJ) 2018, which opens on Sept. 4 and runs through Sept. 8 in Shizuoka.

UGM team spokesperson Andhira Jyesta said the student team had departed for Japan over the weekend. They comprise 20 students and two lecturers as supervisors, Andhira said on Tuesday.

Earlier, team captain Fajar Fitrahadi Danda said that the team had started preparing for the event in September 2017, and had finished manufacturing and assembling its formula-style vehicle by the end of May 2018. The team named it Bimasakti (Milky Way).

Since [May], we have focused on running test drives to improve the performances of both our car and driver, Fajar said during the Bimasakti's roll-out ceremony prior to the team's departure for Japan.

He added the seventh generation of the Bimasakti was lighter, more agile and more aerodynamic than its predecessors.

Fajar believed that the UGM team had improved upon the vehicle's design and performance over the last three years following a series of setbacks that forced the team to miss out on the 2015 Formula SAE.

The following year, after making several improvements to the vehicle, the UGM team placed the highest among Southeast Asian participants in SFJ. In 2017 it won the 2nd Best Design among Southeast Asian teams. (evi)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) The Hague, Netherlands  Tue, September 4, 2018 08:18 1156 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087712dd61 2 World #Crime,#Netherlands,hate-crime,Amsterdam,attack,Islam,insult Free

A 19-year-old Afghan man suspected in last week's stabbing of two American tourists at Amsterdam Central Station said Monday was motivated by insults to Islam, prosecutors said Monday.

"The man is of the opinion that in the Netherlands 'the Prophet Mohammad, the Koran, the Islam and Allah have often been insulted'," the Dutch prosecution service said in a statement.

The suspect, identified as "Jawed S., "had a terrorist motive and travelled to the Netherlands with that aim," the statement added.

The Afghan teenager mentioned far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders, according to the prosecutor's office.

Friday's attack came a day after an announcement by anti-Islam politician Wilders that he was cancelling moves to stage a cartoon competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammad, a plan that had angered many Muslims.

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".

- Suspect behind bars -

Earlier Monday Jawed S. appeared before a Dutch judge in connection with the case.

He was remanded in custody and will appear again before judges in two weeks, while police continue their probe.

He remains behind bars under maximum security and is only be allowed visits by his lawyer.

Two American tourists were seriously injured when a knife-wielding man attacked bystanders around noon on Friday at the busy train station next to Amsterdam's historic city centre.

Police reacted quickly and shot the man in the lower body. He and the injured tourists, both men aged 38, were taken to hospital.

The US State Department on Sunday condemned what it called an "unprovoked, horrifying attack" and offered full support to Dutch authorities, both in their investigation and "in our common fight against terrorism in all forms".

Both of the wounded American men remained in a satisfactory condition in hospital Monday, according to Dutch media.

German police on Saturday raided the suspect's home, which Dutch newspapers said was located in the western Rhineland-Palatinate state.

A German foreign ministry official Monday confirmed the suspect is an asylum seeker who was appealing a decision to reject his claim. The man had a German residency permit.

German police had no information linking the alleged attacker to any terror groups, the official said.

The Netherlands has been largely spared the kind 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.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Hong Kong  Wed, September 5 2018

Indonesia has asked Hong Kong authorities to raise the wages for Indonesian migrant workers residing in the territory, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Monday evening.

The request was conveyed by Deputy Foreign Minister AM Fachir during a meeting with Hong Kong Labor and Welfare Secretary Law Chi-Kwong.

I am conveying the aspirations of our migrant workers here on the wage increase. I hope the Hong Kong government can work on this, Fachir said as quoted by the statement.Batik Air, a subsidiary of Indonesia's largest low-cost carrier Lion Air, is set to launch on Sept. 7 a new route that would connect the East Javanese capital of Surabaya to Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara.

Lion Air Group said in a statement that the inaugural ID 6130 flight would depart from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya at 11:10 a.m. and arrive in Komodo Airport in Labuan Bajo at 1:40 p.m.

The return ID 6131 flight is scheduled to depart at 2:25 p.m. from Labuan Bajo and arrive in Surabaya at 2:55 p.m.

The route would be served by the Airbus 320-200, which has a capacity of 12 business and 144 economy class seats. Return flights would operate on Monday and Wednesday through Saturday.

Read also: Choosing between staying in a hotel or a boat in Labuan Bajo

Batik Air CEO Achmad Luthfie said the flights serve as an additional connection between popular destinations of Surabaya and Labuan Bajo.

"The launch of this new network is a continuation of my promise as CEO of Batik Air during the first Batik Air flight from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to Labuan Bajo," Achmad said as quoted by kompas.com.

He added that the latest route from Batik Air also complemented the Surabaya flights to Labuan Bajo, which Wings Air has scheduled to fly every Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. (liz/kes)The tourism bureau of Hanzhong city, Shaanxi province, recently held an event in Beijing to announce that the city is due to host the global finals of Miss Tourism World 2018 on Sept. 27.

The pageant will feature candidates from over 60 countries and regions around the world, including the United States, France and Brazil.

The city is also hosting a series of activities about tourism throughout September.

Its deputy mayor, Cheng Saixian, said that the event would be a great opportunity for Hanzhong to showcase its rich tourism resources, culture and history.

Hanzhong recently unveiled its newly completed Xinghanshengjing scenic area, a complex of Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220) style architecture that focuses on the dynasty's culture.

Read also: China: One foot in the past and both eyes on the future

With its rich biodiversity and ecosystem, Hanzhong is home to rare animals such as the giant panda and golden monkey. Tourists can enjoy forest parks, ancient towns and mountains and lakes.

In the spring, the region draws tourists with its patchwork of blooming rapeseed fields.

Data shows that the city had about 42.4 million tourist visits last year, an increase of 30 percent over 2016.Irish low-cost airline Ryanair began flying to Ukraine on Monday, launching a new route between Kiev and Berlin that will operate four times a week.

The Kiev-Berlin return flight became the first of 12 new routes Ryanair, Europe's busiest carrier, announced from the Ukrainian capital.

The low coster will also be flying from Kiev to Barcelona, Berlin, Bratislava, Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, Krakow, London, Poznan, Stockholm, Vilnius, Warsaw and Wroclaw.

Some 635,000 customers would use the routes annually, Ryanair predicted in a statement.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko welcomed the move.

"The countries of Europe are getting closer - one of the largest international low-cost airlines Ryanair began flights from Ukraine," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.

Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan echoed him, calling the event "one of the most important for Ukraine's airspace in recent years."

Several foreign low-budget airlines are already present in Ukraine.

Read also: Ryanair bans carry-ons for passengers paying its lowest fares

But the arrival of the no-frills Irish carrier is expected to be a boon for the country, making fares cheaper and boosting its battered tourism sector.

Ukraine, which in 2013-2014 saw a pro-EU revolt, is still struggling to end a conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country.

It is trying to get its tourism industry back on track, after the number of travellers to Ukraine plummeted because of the unrest.

In March 2017, Ryanair said it would enter Ukraine with four new routes departing from Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands.

But in July last year it abandoned the plans, claiming that Kiev's airport had not fulfilled pledges made as part of an unspecified "growth agreement".A capsule hotel or a hostel are viable options for those traveling on a shoestring budget.

Three budget lodging options opened recently in Jakarta, offering not only affordable rates, but also comfortable stays.

These spots come with trendy designs, proving that traveling on a budget does not mean settling for unsavory rooms in which to sleep.

The Digital Airport Hotel

Greater Jakartas Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has opened a capsule hotel for those looking for a place to spend the night.

The Digital Airport Hotel is located in Terminal 3 and features a minimalist and futuristic design, reminding visitors of a spaceship.

The hotel offers two types of rooms, Alpha and Beta. The former is equipped with a 22-inch TV and a portable desk, while the latter comes with 32-inch TV sans the desk.

In addition to the in-room facilities, guests can also expect cable TV, a USB charging outlet, a communal shower, free Wi-Fi, blankets, pillows, lockers, bathroom amenities and complimentary bottled water.

The rooms are available for stays of six hours or one day starting at Rp 250,000 (US$17) for Alpha and Rp 375,000 for Beta.

Read also: At a glance: Soekarno-Hattas new capsule hotel

KINI Luxury Capsule

Located in Pluit, North Jakarta, KINI Luxury Capsule boasts a trendy design with a touch of Indonesia.

The room is equipped with a locker, a folding table, two USB charging outlets and a universal plug, making it convenient for backpackers.

With a starting price of Rp 179,000, the capsule hotel also offers various free classes, including batik-making, Bahasa Indonesia and more.

Additionally, KINI Luxury Capsule also hosts its Culinary Tour on Thursday night, allowing foreign travelers to sample some of the best foods in town.

NOMAD Hostel Kemang

A post shared by NOMAD Hostel Kemang - Jakarta (@nomadkemang) on Jun 25, 2018 at 3:47am PDT

Kemang in South Jakarta is a popular area among expats. Different from the many business hotels in the area, this colorful hostel deserves a spot on your Instagram feed.

The NOMAD Hostel Kemang by Archipelago International comes with 192 pods split into four room types: 10 Pods, 14 Pods, 16 Pods and 20 Pods. The rooms are separated for male and female travelers.

It is equipped with spacious bathrooms, common areas, a swimming pool and coin laundry services, making it convenient for a long-term stay.

Currently, the hotel offers an introductory price of Rp 88,000 net per person valid until October. (kes)Tourists and locals in Greece were left stranded Monday as ferry workers halted inter-island transport and voted to extend a paralyzing strike by 24 hours, union and industry officials said.

A port police official said there were "no maritime connections from the country's principal ports".

The powerful Greek Seamen's Federation (PNO) hailed support for the walkout, and announced the strike would continue from 6 am (0300 GMT) Tuesday until 6 am Wednesday for all categories of boats.

The labor action comes at the tail-end of Europe's summer holiday season, and extra pre-strike ferries were called into action Sunday to move people at the last minute.

Industry body SEEN said the strike had caused "serious problems", leaving tourists stuck on remote islands with no way of making it to the mainland to catch booked flights back home.

The action has also caused a string of cancelled hotel bookings, and halted deliveries of essential goods to the Greek islands.

Read also: Ancient tablet of Odyssey epic discovered in Greece

The PNO launched its work stoppage after bosses rejected demands for a five-percent pay hike following years of austerity and salary freezes as the country emerges from a crippling economic crisis.

Despite two years of booming trade, industry representatives offered a one-percent rise in September, to be followed by another one percent next June.

The strike is the first since Greece emerged last month from three international bailouts and eight years of deep spending cuts.

Although budget cuts remain on the menu, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week pledge to increase the minimum wage, which had fallen to 586 euros ($680) a month from some 760 euros before the crisis took hold.Seasoned horror fans will already be familiar with the name Leigh Whannell. Before debuting his directing chops with 2015s Insidious 3 he was a frequent collaborator with James Wan, starring in and writing films such as Saw (2004) and Insidious (2010) .

With Upgrade the actor-writer-turned-director trades in supernatural for sci-fi, taking us to a world dominated by advanced technology . With it we see the capitalist future Whannell envisions. Microphones and police drones everywhere; touch-screen homes and cars operated by voice activation. It allows for some sleek and stunning production design. Whannell has a keen eye for immersive world-building, even if it is a dripping reminder of our growing reliance on technology .

Our protagonist, Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), is a tech-sceptic himself. He works as a stay-at-home mechanic, while his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo) works for a company that deals with the augmentation of humans and computers . But things can't stay peachy for long in this hi-tech dystopia. While out for a drive (or rather, car sex on autopilot), the couple fall victim to a brutal mugging. Grey makes it out, though paralysed from the neck down. Asha doesn't. Several months pass and Grey becomes suicidal, seeing nothing left worth living for. That is, until a techie wunderkind named Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson, who appears to be channeling Dane Dehaan) offers help in the form of an AI chip called STEM .

STEM is essentially HAL from 2001 , if HAL was implanted in your spine rather than your surroundings . Though Eron believes it should only restore motor functions - and it does - STEM is in fact able to both communicate with and even control Grey . While initially freaked out, Grey soon realises STEM can be used as a way to take revenge on his wifes killers. This leads to some impressive fight sequences wherein the camera remains fixed on Grey while still following his killing-machine movements . If less bloody scenes had been treated with the same amount of creative finesse, we may have been looking at a future midnight classic .

Thats not to say that Upgrade wont find a following. Whannells script is coated in tongue-in-cheek humour, most of it coming from a very game Marshall-Green . Though Greys situation is treated with the gravitas you can expect from a body horror based on revenge, the film never gets too lost in its own fantasy to stop having fun . But again, it fails to strike the right balance. The constant wrestling between gory violence and cheesy quips leaves the tone muddled. Are we to feel uneasiness at Greys descent into the horrific ramifications of bodily AI, or are we to find it as silly as he does ?Repression and retaliation against protestors continues in Nicaragua as the world looks away - Zeid Raad al-Hussein, UN Human Rights Chief.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega

crimes committed in Nicaragua On Wednesday the 29th of August the UN released a report entitled Human Rights Violations and Abuses in the Context of Protests in Nicaragua. This followed months of investigations intoagainst its own people.

The UN began to examine the criminal actions of the countrys President, Daniel Ortega, after his violent response to peaceful protests in April.

On the 5th of July the UNs Human Rights Chief, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, reported that

The violence and repression seen in Nicaragua since demonstrations began in April are products of the systematic erosion of human rights over the years, and highlight the overall fragility of the institutions and the rule of law.

He followed this statement with his frustration that Repression and retaliation against protestors

continues in Nicaragua as the world looks away.

Since April Nicaragua has passed through a number of stages. This began with the mostly peaceful protests in April, followed by the violent government backlash, resulting in the death of 300 and the injury of a further 2,000 civilians.

This final stage sees the criminalisation of protestors and demonstrators, who now fear for their lives as they are hunted within their own country for charges unduly assigned to them. Many are now facing charges of terrorism within the courts.

According to the UN report released on Wednesday, Nicaraguans are facing countless violations of human rights. They listed:

Extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, obstructions to access to medical care, widespread arbitrary or illegal detentions, prevalent ill-treatment

and instances of torture and sexual violence in detention

centres

.

On Friday, following a response to this report, Ortega ordered the exclusion of the UN human rights committee from Nicaragua. The countrys President described the UN as an instrument of the policies of terror, lies

and infamy they have taken possession of entire continents because of those who have committed genocides on entire populations. In other words, Ortega sees the UNs report as an unentitled interference in his country.

At a rally on Friday, he continued his damnation of the committee, saying, according to them the coup terrorists [the term he has coined for protestors and demonstrators] are little angels. He alludes once again to the murder of 22 policemen, his brothers, but neglects to mention the hundreds of citizens that his forces have killed - the same forces following orders from the government to shoot to kill.

Many of the victims of the paramilitary forces were not even involved in these protests. Speaking to Now This World, a mother recounted her story:

Paramilitary groups started firing at us. They werent in combat or fighting with anyone, they were just waiting for someone so they could start shooting and they shot my baby in the head.

This shocking story is not unique, and will continue being repeated if significant decisions are not made by the UN. It is more and more of a mystery why such stories are not being reported in the Western media.

The crisis in Nicaragua is having knock-on effects on other countries in South America.

Costa Rica is being flooded with more and more immigrants from Nicaragua

every day. So far 8,000 have filed for asylum, with a further 15,000 attempting to do so.

Ortega has asked Costa Rican officials to hand over the names of these refugees, claiming that they are criminals that should be returned to Nicaragua. Such an act would be a violation of human rights. There can be no doubt that Ortega will continue to hunt these people both within his country and out.

The UN

has planned to meet again this month to further discuss their failure to implement changes on Friday.

Meanwhile, Ortega has refused calls for his resignation. It is apparent that the Nicaraguan people are facing imminent danger and something must be done

soon

,

before it is too late.This week's Fresher Sounds tracks range from afro-beat influenced to guilt-free Abba-inspired pop, championed shoegaze and a good-old dollop of punk. No genre is off-limits.

Cosmic Strip - Sugar Rush

Menacingly dark shoegaze riffs complimented with a jarring, breathy vocal; Cosmic Strips 

Sugar Rush

 is a swirling daydream. With striking resemblances being drawn to early Beach House offerings while emitting energy matching that of PJ Harvey and Cat Power, 

Sugar Rush

 is evocative.

False Heads - Yellow

False Heads are the future of music, and their Iggy Pop-endorsed new single, Yellow proves the statement wholly.

A gigantic guitar solo; a rough-and-ready vocal performance screaming holy passion, and an insanely catchy couple of hooks. This band is speeding headfirst to cause havoc in the heavens and are already lined up to command the stadiums of the future.

Emma Blackery - Take Me Out

The usurper angling for the title of the princess of pop, Emma Blackery, is coming thick and fast into battle with her new track Take Me Out. The glistening feel-good single channels Lauren Mayberry-inspired (Chvrches) vocals sliced seamlessly across tropical-tinted, minimalist beats.

Controlled verses and crazy choruses; Blackerys Take Me Out is the ultimate guilt-free night out warm-up.

Rocky NTI - Follow You

Splice The 1975 with electronica and afro-beat rhythms and we get a magnificent hybrid known only as Rocky NTI. His debut single Follow You is a smorgasbord of rich heritage, influence and own individual flair.

Light, preppy and more importantly innovative, Follow You carries the sheer adrenaline to crowd the dance floor while simultaneously soundtrack intimate first kisses in cars.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Body Move

A beautifully sporadic pit of bubbling, controlled mess; Body Move is a serious contender for dance anthem of the year across the board.

The six-minute ray of sunshine marks TEEDs definite return with pounding beats and blaring synths. Tied together with an infatuating demand to move your body closer, we couldnt be more starstruck.

Kikagaku Moyo - Dripping Sun

Dance recklessly and heedlessly across the rainbow and paint the sky with your tongue during the introduction to Kikagaku Moyos Dripping Sun. However, do not be fooled by the flamboyant opening, as this track mellows, twists and turns before you are sent off on a ravenous exploration of the world once more.

Stretching just shy of eight minutes, Dripping Sun is a colossal odyssey into the unknown world of Kikagaku Moyo.



The Coral - Reaching Out For A Friend

Coated in a 70s psychedelic blanket, The Corals Reaching Out For A Friend is acoustic guitar-driven and boasts intermittent, tinny cymbal clashes. We'd absolutely believe this track was plucked straight out of ABBAs hidden artillery, given an indie-spruce and sent merrily on its way. Feel-good never sounded so warm.

Inge van Calker - River

Already a fully-fledged pop-star so premature into her musical career, Inge van Calker is ripe and roaring into action with her latest single River.

The release is charged with van Calkers attitude-riddled tone and marks her as an electronic-pop artist to keep an eye firmly fixed upon. No brilliance has been expensed on this dramatic, vocal-driven journey.

Lady Bird - Boot Fillers

Possessing the quick-wit and lyricism of Mike Skinner while boasting a spiky sound similar to that of early Drenge and a subdued, more-playful Idles; three-piece Lady Bird has successfully released the jocular 'Boot F

illers'.

Comedic lyrics with an underlying serious message pertaining to the turbulent trials of modern-day family life, Lady Bird have collided heavy, punk energy with teenage cheek.

An earworm best served live on stage; the attitude and personality of Lady Bird seep through stunningly.

Hannah Wants - How Long (feat. Kate Loveridge)

Transporting the gleaming, endless Ibizan summer directly into your living room, Hannah Wants once again exhibits her endless talents with latest prize How Long.

Enlisting Kate Loveridges silky vocals to drive the track, How Long is rich with emotion worth savouring. The perfect soundtrack to spend the nights dancing in the twilight, How Long is allowing us to hold onto those fleeting summer memories for just a moment more.

Dolores Haze - Play Hard, Fuck Hard, Love Hard

Stockholm trio, Dolores Haze, have released their most intimate single to date Play Hard, Fuck Hard, Love Hard. A song perfectly poised to snugly fit straight into a David Lynch production, Play Hard, Fuck Hard, Love Hard channels the frank honesty and the same captivating aura which Lana Del Rey has built her persona upon.

These women make badass look unconventionally elegant with ease.

Ishani - Dark Angel

Breathing a merciless lease of life back into trip-hop, Ishani is successfully infecting hearts and polluting membranes with her latest cut Dark Angel.

Penned in the wake of life being plagued by the suicides of her nearest and dearest, Ishanis Dark Angel is a bold yet eerie demand for awareness. It is swirling, it is captivating and more importantly, it crowns Ishani as the fallen angel of her chosen genre.

Ladytron - The Island

Ladytron is back in a big way, thanks to the storming new single The Island.

The track itself features a more-enhanced, powerful exhibition of what Ladytron do best. Blistering synths, euphoric, enticing vocals and an atmosphere of otherworldliness; The Island is a staunch marker for what fans can expect to uncover in the wake of her return. It is good to be home.Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here

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Home PageHome >Police Enforcement > Tickets and Cash > New Jersey Judicial Commission Takes On Ticketing For ProfitSouthern Pines, NC (28387)

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Cloudy skies. High 54F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers after midnight. Low near 40F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

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A password will be e-mailed to you.The Steigenberger Wiltchers oozes history and has seen Brussels built up around it from its prime position on Avenue Louise. You simply cannot miss this grand art nouveau palatial hotel, its black balcony grates contrasting with the white facade that glistens in the midday sun, so have no fear that you will miss the Wiltchers as you walk by.

The canopy-covered entrance and red carpet that leads past the concierge desk and up the stairs to the expansive dark oak reception desk is no less sophisticated. Glistening chandeliers cast low lighting over the heavy leather armchairs as a receptionist checks you in.

This stylish property owes its very existence to a family of British migrants who bought the former home of Baron Joseph de Crawhez in 1913. Sydney Wiltcher bought the building and built the foundations of the hotel, and in 1925 he joined forces with Carlton hotels to establish the Wiltchers and Carlton hotel. Between 1935 and 1993, the Belgian pharmaceutical company LUnion Chimique Belge operated its HQ from the hotel, and in 1993 the building was refurbished and reopened as the Conrad Brussels. The hotel that we see today opened in 2015 after a two and a half year refurbishment undertaken by the German Steigenberger hotels company.

Who For?

Brussels appeals to anyone who wants to experience medieval architecture and grand squares standing side-by-side with modern tower blocks and a bizarre statue of a urinating child. The Wiltchers appeals to travellers who want a luxurious base at the heart of the city from which to explore, attracting the gaze of envious locals and tourists as they catch a glimpse of you walking down the red carpet.

Facilities

The Steigenberger Wiltchers is a destination in its own right, attracting locals and visitors to the city to the Loui Bar and Restaurant in search of tasty meals created by Executive Chef Nicolas Gadomski and his team, to the intimate library for a light meal or meeting, in-house Aspria spa, or the onsite Mary artisan chocolatier boutique. Choose somewhere quiet to relax and sit back with a glass of aged Trappist beer.

Accommodation

The 267 rooms at the Wiltchers are available in seven sizes, all of which are decorated in soothing neutral grey, white and brown tones, boast large floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking either Brussels or the interior courtyard, and come with large plasma TVs and Nespresso coffee machines. The rooms come in either superior, deluxe, junior suite, duplex suite, executive suite, presidential suite, or the enormous royal suite, with the royal suite offering 320 square metres of space, a meeting room for 12 people, an office with a large work desk, a living room with a fireplace and a kitchenette.

Large king size beds draped in rich cottons, glass coffee tables and suede armchairs, a leather futon and fresh orchids are common in each room. The bathrooms, complete with soft white towels, rainfall showers and designer toiletries are large with full-length mirrors and torch-style lighting. A fresh glass bottle of Chaudfontaine is provided every day and a small square of wrapped Mary artisan chocolate is left on the folded corner of the duvet every night.

Food and Drink

The Wiltchers has four places to eat onsite. Every morning a large buffet breakfast is served in the bright and spacious Cafe Wiltchers, with cold cuts, fresh breads, hot sausages, beans, mushrooms, bacon and tomatoes, dried fruit and nuts, and freshly-squeezed juices to choose from. Guests are offered champagne and honey cut from a honeycomb to accompany their breakfast. Snacks and small meals can be served throughout the day at La Terrasse in the Courtyard with the opulence and quiet of the interior courtyard for a backdrop.

For dinner, there are two choices, either the opulent Loui Bar and Restaurant with a large menu of French and Belgian classics prepared by Executive Chef Nicolas Gadomski and his team, each dish served with handcrafted cocktails or handpicked wines chosen by expert sommeliers, or The Library, a great place to relax with a book over a light meal or tartine and a tea, coffee, or power juice. In the afternoon, the Wiltchers pastry chef prepares delicious Belgian pastries for diners.

Wi-Fi

Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the hotel.

How much

A Superior room costs from 153.49 per night, a Deluxe room from 190.99, Junior Suite from 265.9, Duplex Suite from 603.49, Executive Suite from 903.49, Presidential Suite from 2,778.49, and the unique Royal Suite from an impressive 4,879.24 per night.





Booking.com





Whats nearby?



The Wiltchers is at the centre of Avenue Louise, the main shopping street in Brussels. You can take the tram from directly opposite the hotel to attractions across the city, including the Grand Place and the Mannekin Pis or walk to a nearby metro station to connect to the European Quarter and the Royal Palace of Brussels or the many museums scattered across Brussels. There are countless chocolatiers just a short walk from the hotel, along with a variety of Belgian bars, cafes and restaurants.

READ ALSO: Top 10 things to see and do in Brussels

Getting there

Take the Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels-Midi from 29 one way and then take the metro to Louise for 2.10. You could also fly to Brussels International from across the UK with EasyJet, Brussels Airlines, British Airways, or Flybmi and then take the Brussels Airport train for 12.70 to Brussels Central station, where you will need to take the metro to Louise station.Should we have any sympathy for Paul Pester as he contemplates clearing his office at TSB HQ? Yes, and no. Yes because the ongoing IT fiasco was almost certainly not his fault. No because the buck must eventually stop at the top.

Yes because he was dealt a bit of a duff hand from his ultimate employers Sabadell Group, who appear to be largely responsible for the catastrophic migration of TSB customers accounts and records to their tech platform in April. No because hell walk away with a 1.7million pay-off.

Yes because its a lot to ask a chief executive to be fully conversant with the nuts and bolts of his banks systems.

Paul Pester has resigned as chief executive of TSB after some serious tech hiccups.

No because Mr Pester had previously held very senior management positions at Virgin Money, Santander and Lloyds TSB for nearly two decades in which the digital age transformed banking. Youd think he might have picked something up along the way.

TSB do at least have a chief information officer on their board, whose duties appear to be roughly the same as a chief technology officer.

They also have a chief operations officer who joined the bank to lead its build and development as a new multi-channel, challenger bank on the UK high street. Although this duty is listed after the fact that she is executive sponsor for gender diversity with a particular focus on building a sustainable female talent pipeline.

You will not find a technology or systems director on any of the major banks boards. Not surprising perhaps, because the board is a tight team: usually just a chairman, chief executive, finance director, maybe a chief risk officer, and then a bunch of independent non-executive directors.

So no tech guru in the Cabinet then  what about among the junior ministers?

Go to the senior management teams, which typically number anything from eight to 15 bigwigs, and you will find a chief operations officer  only part of whose responsibilities are the systems and applications that the functioning of the retail bank actually relies upon. But thats it.

This is the case at HSBC, RBS (which owns Natwest), Lloyds Banking Group (which owns Halifax) and Barclays  the four biggest retail banks in the UK, the old High Street names.

The one other really big name is Santander. This bank was built by its Spanish owner from the initial purchase of Abbey National more than 15 years ago, and then bulked out subsequently with Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.

Not exactly a challenger bank then but a relatively new and fresh presence on the High Street, with a whiff of innovative spirit behind it - and by far the most popular bank among customers of the Big Five High Street presences (Big Seven if you break out Halifax and Natwest).

The jury is still out on the growing number of start-up digital banks , but the old lenders will have to change very quickly if they dont want to lose their current younger customers.

And proof surely that it is possible to create a new, fully functioning bank fit for the digital age from legacy institutions. After some early teething problems in 2007, it has not suffered anything like the number or extent of glitches and outages that the others have.

Oh and look  they have a Technology & Operations Officer on the management board, as well as a Strategy & Projects Director.

You cant help feeling there was a realisation early on at Santander that to make their UK operation work they would have to do some pretty smart technological coordination and integration. It seems Sabadell didnt employ the same foresight  or if it did, it wasn't acted on very well.

The majority of current bank customers who are less than 40 years old and just about every single new customer who enters the market henceforth will demand a good digital banking experience - and leave if they don't get one.

The jury is still out on the growing number of start-up digital banks, but the old lenders will have to change very quickly if they dont want to lose their customer base.

The new fintechs almost by definition were founded - and are led - by entrepreneurial people who understood the technology behind them.

Meanwhile, the pace of innovation at the old High Street banks has been glacially slow, in their product offering, in their systems and in their governance.

If they want to still have customers in 30 years time, they will have to introduce bosses for technology and systems to the highest levels of management.An MP has warned Coca-Cola that any attempts to shy away from paying its fair share of tax in its 3.9billion takeover of Costa Coffee will not be tolerated.

Peter Kyle, a member of the Commons business committee, said the US fizzy drinks conglomerate could face a full investigation if its purchase of Costa poses a threat to the amount of tax flowing into HMRC's coffers.

Whitbread, the owner of Costa, stunned markets last week when chief executive Alison Brittain revealed it was selling the High Street coffee chain.

An MP has warned Coca-Cola that any attempts to shy away from paying its fair share of tax in its 3.9billion takeover of Costa Coffee will not be tolerated

The deal boosted shares in Whitbread, which also owns Premier Inn, by more than 14pc at the time.

But MPs and tax experts have raised concerns that Coca-Cola could rearrange Costa's structure so that it resembles that of Starbucks, which has a reputation for paying low levels of corporation tax.

Costa, which has been dubbed 'the taxman's favourite coffee shop', forked out 24.7million in corporation tax on profits of 103million last year  more than the headline 20per cent rate required by the Treasury.

In contrast, Starbucks paid just 2.6million of tax on its European operations on 43.8m of profits in 2016. Pret A Manger paid 5.6million on 86million in 2016 while Caffe Nero paid no taxes on losses of 25.5million in 2017.

According to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy from 2017, Coke made profits of $23.9billion and paid taxes of $4.9billion over an eight-year period in the US. This amounts to a US corporate rate of 20.4per cent when the main tax rate was 35per cent.

Labour MP Kyle, who sits on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said: 'If it looks like this is sliding to a position where it could negatively impact our High Street or our country's ability to generate revenue, then of course our committee will take an interest.

Whitbread, the owner of Costa, stunned markets last week when chief executive Alison Brittain (pictured) revealed it was selling the High Street coffee chain

'Coca-Cola has a decision to make. Does it want to be a company that is known for putting profit ahead of everything else, such as Starbucks?

'Or does it want to maintain the reputation that companies like Costa have of honouring the spirit of being a British company that contributes not just to our High Street but to our country through its honest contribution to our tax system.'

Kyle, 47, raised concerns that the purchase of Costa could have similar implications to US conglomerate Kraft Foods' takeover of Cadbury in 2010.

That controversial deal led to thousands of job losses and some production moved abroad, despite promises a factory near Bristol would be kept open.

Kyle added: 'Our country desperately needs companies to pay their taxes along the lines of any other company domiciled here. Increasingly going forward the actions of these sorts of transactions are going to influence the way we regulate.'

Richard Murphy, an independent tax expert, warned HMRC may not have the capacity to investigate Costa's tax affairs after the takeover.

An HMRC spokesman said: 'We subject large businesses to an exceptional level of scrutiny. We actively investigate more than half of the UK's largest businesses at any one time. This does not imply wrongdoing, it's a reflection of how complicated their tax affairs can be and how determined we are to ensure they are paying all the tax they owe.'

Whitbread and Coca-Cola declined to comment.Two former bosses of collapsed oil firm Afren have gone on trial on charges of money laundering and fraud

Two former bosses of collapsed oil firm Afren have gone on trial on charges of money laundering and fraud.

Osman Shahenshah, 56, and Shahid Ullah, 59, former chief executive and chief operating officer respectively of the African oil and gas firm  which was once a member of the FTSE 250 with a value of more than 2billion  are accused of receiving secret payments linked to Nigerian oil deals worth more than 300million.

The trial at Southwark Crown Court is expected to last for six weeks, with Serious Fraud Office prosecutors due to outline their case today.Sir Martin Sorrell sent a note congratulating Mark Read, his successor at WPP, and dispensing words of advice.

Sorrell, 73, emailed a message this weekend in his capacity as WPP's seventh-biggest shareholder to Read and his senior colleague Andrew Scott, the chief operating officer.

The email is understood to have advised Read and Scott who had been earmarked to become joint chief executives after Sir Martin left the advertising group under an earlier succession plan  to work closely together as a pair.

Sir Martin Sorrell (pictured) sent a note congratulating Mark Read, his successor at WPP, and dispensing words of advice

In the note, the veteran ad man is understood to have branded the hunt for a boss to replace him, which has taken five months, 'a complete waste of time' because of the succession plan already in place.

Read and Scott have been running the company together after Sorrell's abrupt departure.

He left earlier this year while a misconduct probe was looking at claims he spent 300 of company money on a prostitute.

Sorrell strenuously denies the allegations and WPP has never disclosed details of the matter.

Read's pay has been capped at 7million  just 10per cent of the total 70.4million pocketed by Sorrell three years ago, a figure which sparked shareholder outrage.

Read will also receive less than a fifth of the total 200,000 paid in benefits to his former boss, in a sign WPP is tightening the purse strings.

He has pledged to restore the group to growth and improve its use of technology to tackle competition from Silicon Valley.

The 51-year-old father-of-two said: 'What we will be focusing on is growth.

'But we also need to look at our traditional strengths in creativity, ideas and innovation and combine them with new skills in data and technology.

'Google, Facebook, Snap [parent company of messaging app Snapchat] and the rest of the technology companies are reshaping how our industry works, and that requires us to get new skills and demonstrate our relevance.

'But clients still need independent advice.'

Sorrell was one of Britain's best-paid bosses, earning more than 200million from 2013 to 2017.Sir,



May I take this opportunity to comment on the ongoing debate about our Kingdom of Eswatini remaining the only African country to recognise Taiwan. I am not a politician but my father is the late Dr Sishayi Nxumalo and I have a lot of interest in development.

I do not mean to be disrespectful to our leaders by seemingly belittling their hard work and tireless efforts which I may or may not be aware off.

Next month is the biggest China/Africa Summit.

This debate on Mainland China and Taiwan stand must be openly debated in public through lectures and public forums for the betterment of all. I am not necessarily saying remaining with Taiwan is wrong but the open debate on the subject is very important. Taiwan is a democratic country and this is how they would do it.



Yabin Wu (2017) says the value of contracts newly undertaken by Chinese companies in Africa reached US$75 billion {E1065 billion} in 2014, with a turnover of US$53 billion { E753 billion}, which is 40 times more than the figure in 2000. Among them, the coastal railway project contract in Nigeria, acquired by China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd, had a total value of US$11.97 billion, the highest value of a single-contract project in the history of Chinas foreign engineering activities

Stage one of the Addis AbabaAdama Expressway, with a total length of 78 kilometres, was completed in May 2014. Designed and constructed by China Communications Construction, this expressway is the first in Ethiopia and the first with such scale and quality in East Africa. Bidding for the construction of a new bridge over the Cuanza River in Angola was jointly won by an Angolan company, China Road and a Portuguese company, Bridge Corporation, in November 2014.

The project has a total contract value of about US$110 million {E1562 billion}, making it the first major public works contract won by a Chinese-funded company in collaboration with foreign companies since the influx of Chinese-funded companies into Angola in 2003.



At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in December 2015, China announced its offer of US$60 billion {E854 billion} and support for the Ten Major Collaborative Plans, which involve areas such as industrialisation, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure, finance, green development, trade and investment, poverty reduction and public welfare, public health, and peace and security.



Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy that is driven largely by industrial manufacturing and, especially, exports of electronics, machinery, and petrochemicals. This heavy dependence on exports exposes the economy to fluctuations in global demand. It is truly an international player with GDP US$1.175 trillion {E16 685 trillion} (2017 est) US$1.152 trillion (2016 est) US$1.136 trillion (2015 est.) and GDP (official exchange rate) US$571.5 billion (2016 est).



Taiwan has been a good friend for Eswatini for many years and has been a true development partner through health, agriculture, textiles and random donations of millions Emalangeni. Their involvement in the Innovation and Bio-Technology Park is just one such example. However, the time has come to ask the real hard questions with regard to our relationship.



We stand to lose billions in Mainland China Africa initiatives. We need to know as a people, if Taiwan can give Eswatini say US$10 billion which would be to fund energy generation, which is a major development initiative and revenue generator. This would frog leap our industrialisation and ensure a continued supply of high quality coal for years to come to Taiwan as an example.



Taiwan has some of the largest ecofriendly thermal power plants in the world and is importing coal. Why do they not put up a 5000MW ecofriendly thermal power plant at Maloma (since another has been approved for Mpaka), which will employ 30 000 emaSwati. This would involve a new coal mine which would supply the thermal power plant and export to Taiwan through Richards Bay.

The SADC energy pool requires all the energy they can get if they are to truly industrialise. Eswatini is sitting on Black Gold-Coal reserves for the next 500 years.

Had I a chance, I would humbly request those responsible to register The Royal Eswatini Mining Corporation and The Royal Eswatini Power and Energy Company to be in partnership with Taiwan. Then hand-pick emaSwati with mining and energy expertise around the world and put in place special training programmes in energy and mining.

Taiwan would then be requested for expertise and funding for these two companies. Trained young emaSwati would come back and run these companies. We cannot wait for foreign direct investment given our political situation as a kingdom in a sea of hostile republics. These two companies would take us to our second industrial revolution after sugar milling. Two thermal power plants would ensure abundance of energy which has been the engine and the industrial revelation around the world.



Sabelo Gabriel Nxumalo

taiwanchina9@gmail.comMBABANE  A man who completed school last year was found in possession of a knife while in the presence of Imbali.



Mcolisi Mndzebele pleaded guilty to charges of being found in possession of a weapon while in public. He informed Magistrate Lenhle Zulu that he had stolen the knife and he was going to give it to another person as a gift.



Mndzebele pleaded for the courts mercy, stating that it was the first time he carried a knife. I was walking down the street and there were a number of maidens when the police officer stopped me and searched me and found the knife.

This will not happen ever again. I passed three subjects last year and I was planning on studying decor as I sometimes get part-time jobs doing that, Mndzebele said. He was found guilty and sentenced to 10 months imprisonment with a fine option of E1 000.LUDZIDZINI  There was a near stampede as young maidens threw themselves to the ground in front of His Majesty King Mswati III who was doing kudlalisela.



This took place during the annual Reed Dance ceremony which was held at the Ludzidzini Royal Residence arena yesterday afternoon.

After dancing in front of the King and the Queen Mother, the over 100 000 maidens formed three groups in the arena.



Thereafter, the King was accompanied by libutfo to do kudlalisela to the maidens. Whenever the King did kudlalisela, the maidens would shout Bayethe wena Waphakathi! at the top of their voices.



However, some maidens failed to hold back their excitement as the King did kudlalisela in front of them as they threw themselves to the ground while others kneeled down. Meanwhile, those who were at the back also pushed forward to be close to the King and by so doing, those in the forefront were pushed closer to His Majesty.



As a result, the Kings bodyguards had to intervene and block the maidens from getting closer to His Majesty. Meanwhile, the King continued to smile as he did kudlalisela to other maidens.LUDZIDZINI  His intention was to witness the Umhlanga Reed Dance Ceremony but little did he know that his presence would end up causing chaos.



South African heartthrob Vuyo Dabula almost caused a stampede at the Umhlanga Reed Dance Ceremony yesterday.



The actor, who is popular for his role as Gaddafi Phakade on the daily soapie Generations: The Legacy, had maidens and members of the public going crazy.

Dabula, who was in the company of local musician and poet Qibho Intelektual had the maidens abandoning their dance routine to try and get closer to him.

Unlike other South African celebrities who were properly ushered into the VIP section, the actor chose the general section and it took just a few minutes before he was noticed by his fans who started screaming and pushing closer to him.



The screams were so loud that they invited those of the maidens who were dancing in the arena.

Instead of focusing on the dancing, the attention shifted to the actor, with some of the maidens literally rushing to get to where he was.

Efforts made by Master of Ceremonies of the day Wendy Hleta to calm down the fans, who were mainly maidens, proved futile as they continued screaming and taking pictures of the actor.



Kuba khona kwemlingisi akusho kutsi sale nibanga umsindvo. Naye lomlingisi akakhuteke, Hleta said which means, The presence of an actor should not make people disturb the event. The actor himself should behave.



Police



Seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service came to the rescue and politely requested the actor to leave.

About eight police officers had to escort him out of the arena while at the same time trying to block the fans who were pushing and shoving to lay their hands on the hearthrob. As they escorted him, the police had to control his excited fans who were seemingly prepared to go with him. Some maidens shouted that they were ready to go wherever he was being escorted to.



Siyolala lakayolala khona Gadaffi, the maidens screamed in vernacular which means, We are going to sleep where he will sleep.

The police escorted him to the parking area of the royal residence where he got inside a South African registered silver BMW X6.

He was assisted by local South Africa-based television star, Simphiwe Ncongwane to relax.



As he chilled inside the car, some of the excited fans stood outside, calling his name.

Again, the police made all efforts to get them to walk away and return to the arena.By Trend





Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini intends to meet in Rome with Tony Blair, advising on the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which is designed to transport natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, The Guardian reported.

"Italy's rightwing Interior Minister Matteo Salvini will meet with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Rome to discuss a controversial extension plan for the gas pipeline that will run from Azerbaijan to Apulia in southern Italy," the newspaper says.

The date of this meeting is not specified in the article.

TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU), and has already attracted 1.5 billion euros from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which approved the loan in early February 2018.

Connecting with the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network.

The project is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016.

Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe.

TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).Mid-Minoan primary male burial in a pit with a copper handbook (under Grave Building 2) Photo Source: Department of Antiquities of Greece

Two burials with rich grave goods were discovered in a pit of the Middle Minoan IA era (2100-2000 BC) in Siteia, NE Crete, during excavations of a palace-related cemetery, according to Athens News Agency.

Mid-Minoan IA beads of various types, made of ivory, carnelian and crystal ores. Photo Source: Department of Antiquities of Greece

The excavations took place at the cemetery of Petras in the area of Siteia, dated to 2800-1700 BC (Pre- and Proto-Palatial periods) and they have been going on for 14 years under director emerita of the Ministry of Culture Metaxia Tsipopoulou.

In the first pit, a primary or original burial of a man included the first weapon found in Petras, a bronze short sword, Tsipopoulou noted in a statement. The first burial also included a "secondary burial of a woman with a large number of gold beads of very fine workmanship" and beads of silver, crystal, carnelian and jasper.

Aerial view of the Petra cemetery. The excavated area is nearly 3/4 of an acre. Photo Source: Department of Antiquities of Greece





The second burial, also a principal one, was dated to the Proto-Minoan II period (2600-2300 BC) and included "dozens of gold beads with exquisite pressed decoration of spirals, as well as hundreds of other beads of gold or silver, with a diameter of 1mm, which appear to have been sewn onto a garment."

A third burial, elsewhere, was unique to Petras and comprised of a tomb made of perpendicular schist slabs, forming a box-like structure. This contained two secondary burials of children under 10 years old and two gold bracelets from thin sheets of gold.

Secondary burials in the Grave Building 27. The bones have been transported from the landfill site neatly (apparently in baskets). Photo Source: Department of Antiquities of Greece





For its era, the Petras cemetery has proven to be by far the biggest on Crete. It belonged to elite family members related to the palace in the area. So far, 26 funerary buildings of 45 to 150 sq.m. have been excavated, along with five burial pits that include irregular stones or low walls.

Small Early Cycladic Tomb. Photo Source: Department of Antiquities of Greece

According to Tsipopoulou, the cemetery contains at least four or five funereal buildings that were noted in 2018 but have not been fully excavated yet. It also features two extensive areas for rituals, dating to between 1900 and 1700 BC (Middle Minoan IB-IIB) and two periboloi, or low built enclosures, east and west.

Early Minoan III seals of ivory. Photo Source: Department of Antiquities of Greece





In antiquity, Petras had a large port and served as the entry gate to eastern Crete during the Pre- and Proto-Palatial period for the incoming trade of raw materials, objects as well as ideas from Syria and Egypt.

Early Minoan and Mid Minoan beads and gold bands. Photo Source: Department of Antiquities of Greece





Its palace, according to the official excavation site https://www.petras-excavations.gr/en was constructed in the Middle Minoan IIA era (19001800 BC), slightly after the large palatial complexes of central Crete. The preserved section of it covers 2,500 sq.m., but it's impossible to calculate its original extent becuase the whole southern section has been destroyed.

Early Minoan gold bracelets. Photo Source: Department of Antiquities of Greece





In the 14th century BC (during Late Minoan IIIA), after the destruction of its palace, there was building activity in the cemetery that appears to be related to honoring ancestors. This activity lasted to the 12th century BC.

During this year's season, the excavation staff included 19 graduate and doctoral students from the Universities of Athens, Crete, Thessaloniki, Kalamata, Madrid, Harvard, Rhodes and Toronto. Senior excavators included professors David Rupp, Miriam Clinton and Sevi Triantafyllou, Dr. Maria Relaki, along with nine workmen from Siteia.

The study group includes 26 archaeologists from Europe, the United States and Canada. The excavation, the stabilization of architectural features, the conservation of findings and their study are funded exclusively by INSTAP, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory which was founded as a nonprofit organization in the United States in 1982.Hanks and Wilson fell in love with another wonderful Greek island. In the past four years they visited Patmos in the Dodecanese and this year they decided to buy a villa on the island

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson purchased a second summer home in Greece, and specifically on Patmos island, according to Greek magazine Loipon.

It is known that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson love Greece and in the past few years they visit every summer. After all, Wilson is of Greek descent, so it was natural that when the couple first landed on Antiparos island in the summer of 1999 it was love at first sight.

After three years, and thanks to an invitation by their friend, Marianna Latsi, they elected Greece and Antiparos again for a few days vacation. In 2004, however, they decided to make it their second home and so they bought a plot between Glyfa and Chora, where they built a summer home based on the islands architectural style.

Ever since, the couple visit Greece every summer for a few days of sea. sun and relaxation.

According to the magazine report, Hanks and Wilson fell in love with another wonderful Greek island. In the past four years they visited Patmos in the Dodecanese and this year they decided to buy a villa on the island, and specifically in the Skala area.

It is a stone building, based, again, on the architectural style Dodecanese,with a large terrace overlooking the sea. The magazine notes that the couple were enchanted by the view.

According to the article, one of the great advantages of the seaside villa  that was also a decisive factor in the purchase  is a nearby heliport, as there is no airport on the island and the only means of air transport is by helicopter.

Read more at greekreporter.com

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: watchwithkristin License: CC-BY-SADiyar Al Muharraq, a leading urban developer in Bahrain, has signed a financing agreement with Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain (KFH-Bahrain) that will facilitate the purchase of residential units in its Al Bareh project by prospective owners.

The agreement covers both the plots and villas that are still available for sale, the company said.

The signing of the memorandum of association took place between the chief executive officer of Diyar Al Muharraq, Dr Maher Al Shaer, and the Executive Manager of Retail Banking Group at KFH-Bahrain, Khalid Rafea, along with Subah Al Zayani, Deputy Head of Retail Banking Group at KFH-Bahrain, in the presence of high-level officials from both sides.



Under the agreement, Kuwait Finance House will provide financing facilities to prospective customers who wish to purchase the properties in the Al Bareh Project that have not yet been sold, said a statement from the developer.

Al Bareh is one of the leading projects in Diyar Al Muharraq. It is a sophisticated residential community situated in a prime location on the west of the master-planned development, granting inhabitants with both a majestic seafront view and a prime view of the main canal, it stated.

The project offers both plots with different sizes as well as luxurious villas with a variety of designs to suit different tastes and needs, making it an ideal choice for a wide range of clientele, it added.

Dr Al Shaer said: It is indeed a pleasure to witness the signing of this agreement today which reiterates the high priority that we have given to both one of our most prominent residential projects and to catering to the financial requisites of prospective homeowners within the development. And to be able to partner with a financial institution that is as distinguished as KFH-Bahrain is an immense benefit to both us as a company and to those who wish their properties to be financed.

"Upon completion, Al Bareh is poised to make a substantial impact on Diyar Al Muharraq as a whole by augmenting its expansive range of residential offerings and to have an institution such as KFH-Bahrain, which is at the forefront of the Banking and Finance Industry in the kingdom, finance the sale of its properties, guarantees delivery on the promise of success that it holds," he added.-

TradeArabia News ServiceThe first edition of SmartSec conference kicked off in Bahrain Bay on Tuesday, jointly organized by Tamkeen Labour Fund and Bahrain Technology Companies Society (BTECH), in strategic partnership with Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) and sponsorship of NGN.



Inaugurated by Bahrains Minister of Electricity and Water Authority Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, the Cybersecurity & Blockchain conference, the event was attended by representatives from government bodies and ministries and representatives of institutions concerned in cybersecurity and blockchain.



More than 250 delegates took part in the conference that is a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the latest trends, innovation, and solutions featured by the international cybersecurity and Blockchain community.



While speaking on the occasion, Mirza said cybersecurity is an essential part of our lives because most of our lives because most daily lives involve the use of technology in one way or another.



For example, those global cyber-attacks that affected more than 60 countries including Bahrain last year and the recent warning by the Central Bank of Bahrain to banks and financial institutions of orchestrated attacks planned at ATMs around the world, he said.



The question of information security is very important when we conduct more of our lives digitally, we must ensure that the electricity supply that makes all this digital technology work safely and immune against cyber-attacks.

Nowadays, the concern about hacking the information security system is not only limited to companies but also extends to your safety system as an individual. As IT systems grow, new electronic risks are emerging and the number of threat is growing, Mirza added.



SmartSec aims to explore and localize the best global practices in Cyber Security & Blockchain, noting an accelerated approach of public and private institutions in Bahrain to use modern technologies such as cloud computing which leads institutions to face challenges of maintaining data security.  TradeArabia News ServiceSwedish home furnishing giant IKEA has joined hands with Saudi-based Ghassan Ahmed Al Sulaiman Furniture Trading Company to officially open doors to the group's largest store in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region offering more than 8,500 home furnishing products under one roof over a 37,000 sq m retail area.



Located in Salmabad area of the kingdom, the new IKEA Bahrain store was inaugurated by Shaikh Khalid Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, the Deputy Prime Minister at a grand ceremony held under the patronage of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister of Bahrain.



The impressive two-storey structure boasts a showroom, market hall and self-serve section. The facility will also include 50 room settings showcasing inspiring home furnishing solutions, a 650-seat restaurant and 1,200 parking spaces, of which 1,000 will be indoors.



Speaking at the launch, Ghassan Ahmed Al Sulaiman Furniture Trading Company CEO Saud Al Sulaiman said: "As is our motto - To create a better everyday life for the many people, IKEA Bahrain will have something for everyone, from home furnishing to food. With the opening of the store, people in the kingdom will now easily have access to affordable home furnishing solutions."



He pointed out that the store's USP was 'sustainability at low prices.' "All the products in the store are supported by price and product information that makes it easy for visitors to serve themselves. Customer involvement is how IKEA keeps its prices low," he explained.

The store will open to the public for the first time at 9am tomorrow (September 5). From Sundays to Wednesdays it will be open from 9am to 10pm and from Thursday to Saturday, it will be open from 9am to 1am.

Al Sulaiman said the rates of some of our products are such that more and more Bahrainis will flock to our store. "We have products for both our high-end clientele and the mid-income segment at our store. The idea is to offer well-functioning home furnishing products of good design at lower prices by using simple cost-cutting solutions without affecting the quality of the products," he noted.



"Good design is the right combination of form, function, quality, sustainability and a low price. The right balance is the unique challenge that keeps products innovative," remarked Al Sulaiman.



Since its inception in 1943, IKEA has successfully created affordable home-furnishing solutions for the many people, he stated.



"Our partnership with the brand began in 1983 and we have worked closely to expand into new markets. The kingdoms business friendly nature and potential made the move to Bahrain an easy decision for us, he added.

Al Sulaiman said as part of its long-term plans, IKEA will be launching its loyalty programmes at the Bahrain store as well. "We are hopeful of netting a record footfall at the Bahrain store over the coming months and see a repeat of our Saudi success story here as well."



The extensive recruitment process for the store began in September 2017 during which IKEA visited several universities and institutes within the Kingdom. Following the recruitment, co-workers had to undergo rigorous training to prepare themselves for the official opening of the store, said Al Sulaiman.



We have been working very closely with the Ministry of Labour and are happy to announce that we have provided 320 jobs to the local market. We are also very proud of our significant contribution to Bahrainisation, with 66 per cent of our co-workers being Bahrainis, he added.



The IKEA Bahrain also boasts a 220-sq-m play facility, Smaland (named after the small town in Sweden where Ikea started), that will ensure that customers have an enjoyable shopping experience as children are taken care of by Ikea staff, free of charge.



The store will also include a market hall, where customers can find everything from rugs to linens, picture frames to clocks, kitchen accessories to home lighting and even unique gifts.



"Customers will find that everything in the store has price tags that also contain important information about size, colour, craftsmanship, measurements, features and care. Tags on large items will also tell customers where to pick them up in the self-serve furniture area," remarked Fatima Gustafson, the store manager.



Each area in the showroom will have a sales desk where specialists can answer questions or offer home furnishing advice, she stated.



IKEA Bahrain will offer customers a range of over 8,500 products providing home furnishing solutions; combining function, quality, design, value and sustainability.



Keeping in line with the brands sustainability mission, the design of the Bahrain store features transparent roof hatches, minimised glazed areas, skylights, and solvent-free paints, she explained.



"In addition, condensate recovery technologies will optimize water flow in lavatories to save 50 per cent of water consumed and an intelligent lighting control system will automatically control lighting levels to suit the outdoor environment," she added.



Other types of services available at the IKEA store include product pick-up, home delivery, assembly, planning, returns and exchanges and online sales support, she added.



A star attraction for families will be the restaurant that will serve a variety of hot and cold local and Swedish dishes.



The bistro and Swedish food market, which facilitates grab-and-go snacks and take-home meals respectively, will take up about 500 sq m of the total area. A key highlight is the menu which will include childrens specials and baby food, as well as a daily offering of organic and vegetarian dishes.



The inauguration was attended by over 200 guests including ministers and members of the Crown Princes office, His Excellencys Office, Al Sulaiman Group members, business community leaders, partners and consultants.-TradeArabia News ServiceChina Eastern Airlines will soon be operating direct flights between Shanghai and Dubai, it was announced at an event on Monday.



Scheduled to begin on September 17, China Eastern Airlines will operate three weekly non-stop flights between Shanghai and Dubai International Airport (DXB).



The non-stop services are an addition to China Easterns three existing flights between Shanghai and Dubai with a stopover in Kunming, the capital city of Chinas Yunnan province.



The new services will offer customers greater choice and facilitate ease of travel between the two destinations. A top trading partner for the UAE, China is a major contributor to DXBs traffic with more than 2.2 million travellers in 2017. China Easterns association with DXB goes back to 2010 when it commenced service between Dubai and Kunming via Dhaka.



As part of the event, Eugene Barry, executive vice president of Dubai Airports Commercial Group presented a certificate of appreciation to Randy Cui, general manager (UAE) of China Eastern, for the carriers role in boosting UAE-China connectivity through a strong partnership with Dubai Airports. - TradeArabia News ServiceAl Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara has welcomed Adil Al Lawati as its new resident manager.



Al Lawati joins the resort following 18 years of experience, garnered from working in various companies across the globe including brands such as Al Sawadi Beach Resort, Millennium Resort Mussanah and Six Senses Zighy Bay Resort and Spa, Oman.



Prior to joining Al Baleed Resort Salalah, he was director of human resources at the Six Senses Zighy Bay Resort and Spa in Oman.



In his new role, Al Lawati will be working closely with the general manager to lead the hotels operations and continue to deliver an outstanding luxury indigenous-inspired experience. As resident manager, Al Lawati will be responsible for the smooth running of the resort, ensuring it adheres to Anantaras brand standards and ethos.



With committed passion for the industry as well as a proven background in providing high service standards, Al Lawati will play a vital role in the successful positioning and ongoing success of the five-star resort.



Conveniently located just 15 km from the airport, Al Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara sits within easy reach of Salalah city centre and an abundance of cultural treasures. Comprising 136 rooms and villas, the resort offers indulgent luxury with handcrafted furnishings and rich textures throughout to enhance the contemporary Middle Eastern ambience. - TradeArabia News ServiceConference highlights the regional dimension of the Lake Chad crisis, the crucial role of local actors, cross-border cooperation and ownership at all levels

Donors announce US$2.17 billion to support humanitarian, peacebuilding and development activities in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria; multilateral financial institutions announce US$ 467 million in concessional loans

Stakeholders commit to address the immediate and longer-term needs and help build the resilience of millions of crisis-affected people in the Lake Chad region

Berlin, 4 September 2018  The High-Level Conference on the Lake Chad Region concluded today with renewed commitments by participants to work together to address the multi-faceted crisis affecting the region. More than 70 countries, international organizations and civil society actors gathered in Berlin 3-4 September to discuss solutions to bring peace and stability to the affected countries. The participants discussed humanitarian assistance, crisis prevention and stabilization, as well as development, to chart a way forward for a comprehensive and inclusive response. The Conference provided an excellent opportunity for in-depth discussions on various aspects that had been raised during the 2017 Oslo Humanitarian Conference on Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region.

More than 17 million people across north-eastern Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, Chad and Niger are facing a complex crisis driven by extreme poverty, climate change and violent conflict. As a result, more than 2.4 million people are displaced and over 10 million people need assistance to meet their basic protection and humanitarian needs. Participants agreed that a coherent, multi-year approach is needed which integrates all available instruments to tackle the protection crisis and the root causes of the conflict. This is needed to pave the way for sustainable and resilient development of the region, and, thus, contribute to a better future for the people affected.

The political process initiated in the margins of last years conference in Oslo, highlights regional ownership and cross-border cooperation at all levels. It also established the Consultative Group on Prevention and Stabilization in the Lake Chad Region which met for the first time in Berlin in September 2017 and developed a regional cross-border framework for cooperation at Governor level. At a subsequent meeting in Maiduguri, Nigeria, in May 2018, the Governors founded a permanent forum and formalized their commitment to a regional stabilization strategy adopted 30 August 2018 in Abuja by the African Union and the Lake Chad Basin Commission.

During the Berlin conference, 17 UN Member States, the European Commission, pooled funds (UN Central Emergency Response Fund and UN Peacebuilding Fund), the World Bank and the African Development Bank combined announced US$2.17 billion to support a comprehensive response to the crisis in the Lake Chad Region.

In addition to this support, multilateral financial institutions (African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank) announced US$467 million in concessional loans.

The Foreign Minister of Germany, Heiko Maas, said:

Today, we stand together to renew our commitment to the Lake Chad region. Once the economic hub between northern and sub-Saharan Africa, it must not become a haven for terrorism, crime and human trafficking. Problems that transcend borders need solutions that do so as well. This is why Germany supports regional cooperation among the four crisis-affected countries. We aim to bolster local efforts for people to live once again in security and peace, to find rewarding work in their communities, and to be able to go to school. To tackle the immense challenges that confront the region, Germany has pledged a total of EUR 140 million in support of humanitarian and peacebuilding activities and in addition EUR 125 million for development activities in the Lake Chad Region in 2018 and beyond.

The Foreign Minister of Norway, Ine Eriksen Sreide said:

Norway remains committed to strengthening the humanitarian response and laying the foundation for a sustainable development in the Lake Chad region. We want to give priority to the protection of women, children and young people. They often bear the brunt of this crisis. Not least, there is an urgent need to step up the fight against Gender-Based Violence.

The Foreign minister of Nigeria, Geoffrey Onyeama, said:

The protracted humanitarian and development challenges in the Lake Chad region have placed enormous responsibilities on both the riparian states and the global community. Without doubt, there is a need for relevant stakeholders to scale up responses to the crisis, by bolstering and strengthening coordination towards ensuring a more synergized delivery of assistance.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said:

"Over 10 million people in the Lake Chad region still need live-saving humanitarian aid and protection. Violence, hunger, displacement and fear remain the harsh realities of their daily lives but today we have better access to many communities than we had a year ago. I thank the donors for their profoundly generous announcements of support to the humanitarian operation - this sends a concrete message of solidarity and hope to the vulnerable people who need us the most."

United Nations Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner said:

The US$ 2.17 billion in grants and the US$467 million in concessional loans pledged for the Lake Chad region are a strong endorsement of our new way of working together to address both the humanitarian needs and the root causes of the crisis in the longer term. In this way, our response to a crisis is also an opportunity to invest in a future where crises are less likely and nations are more resilient.As prepared for delivery.



Excellencies, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,



I would like to thank the Governments of Germany, Nigeria and Norway for co-hosting, together with the United Nations, this important and timely conference on the Lake Chad Region. Our appreciation goes to the Governments of Cameroon, Chad and Niger for their close partnership and to our German hosts, under the leadership of H.E. Heiko Maas, Minister of Foreign Affairs, for making this conference a reality in a short timeframe.



The fact that we have come together here in Berlin - following the 2017 Oslo humanitarian conference - to focus on humanitarian, development and stabilization efforts presents a great opportunity and demonstrates once more our commitment to a New Way of Working. It will allow us to discuss and emphasize the nexus between interventions addressing immediate humanitarian needs and those addressing root causes of the crisis in the longer term. We will also examine the linkages to prevention and building peace.



In this spirit of collaboration, UNDP organized a joint visit with OCHA to the region ahead of this conference to discuss the need for strengthening resilience. The visit highlighted that the humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad Basin is among the most severe in the world, with more than 10 million people in urgent need of life-saving assistance and protection. The underlying causes for the crisis are rooted in high inequality; perceived social injustice; lack of social service provision; historic marginalization; inadequate economic opportunities; high levels of poverty and the impact of climate change and land degradation. The Boko Haram insurgency and conflict dynamics have further increased peoples vulnerability. Farming, fisheries and pastoralist livelihoods, freedom of movement, commerce and local governance are being disrupted. Children, especially girls, are at risk, as they are disproportionally chosen for suicide attacks. Lured by religious narratives, financial incentives, a glimmer of hope or through violence, many young people lacking opportunity and feeling marginalized are attracted by Boko Haram.

Millions of people have been affected by the Boko Haram violence, with villages destroyed and many people killed. Often women are left as the only caretaker for their families. Where security can be ensured, there is a need to rebuild and put mechanisms in place to help people create new homes and access income opportunities. There is a need to re-establish social services and rebuild relations and trust. To sum it up, there is an urgent need for a scaled-up development response to help people to retake control of their lives.

Needs identified by governments to strengthen resilience in the region amount to USD 2.3 billion for a medium timeframe of three years. While the number might seem high at first, recall that we are addressing root causes of a large-scale crisis with a need to tackle multiple issues simultaneously.

To reduce the dependence on humanitarian assistance and to put the region on the path of sustainable development, humanitarian, stabilization and development agents must work in sync. Scaling-up development interventions in the Lake Chad Basin Region while humanitarian assistance continues will be key to reduce vulnerabilities and strengthen resilience with a long-term perspective. We are convinced that despite operational challenges, it is possible to invest now to strengthen the resilience of individuals, communities and institutions and make the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a reality for them.

Relevant frameworks for action do exist, nationally and regionally. We are working under the umbrella of the African Unions Agenda 2063; the recently approved Regional Strategy for the Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience of the Lake Chad Basin by the African Union and the Lake Chad Basin Commission; the respective National Recovery and Development Plans; as well as the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel. The call now is for implementation of these frameworks. The recently established Governors Forum of the Lake Chad Basin should play a critical role in this. Thanks to our German hosts who supported governments through UNDP, the Forum will serve as a transnational platform for coordination and exchange and provide a framework for implementation at local level while simultaneously promoting cross-border issues.



Excellencies, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,



We are working towards the objective of leaving no one behind. The challenges of the Lake Chad Basin transcend borders and go beyond unilateral responses. Under government leadership we need to join forces and scale up our collective engagement. I will be traveling with Mark Lowcock to the region next month to take stock of the progress achieved and send a strong signal for a New Way of Working to tackle the challenges.



Again, I sincerely thank the co-hosts and all partners for encouraging this forward-looking exchange, and I am honored to be a part of the discussions.

Refugees and asylum-seekers of different nationalities performing a play on the main stage at Bibliotheca Alexandrina as part of the "Heya Campaign" activities in March 2017. UNHCR Egypt/Mohamed Saleh.

The United Nations Refugee Agency in Egypt (UNHCR) and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Tuesday to renew their cooperation.

The event was attended by government officials, representatives of the diplomatic community, donor countries, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organisations, Egyptian civil society, media, and the private sector.

During the past four years, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and UNHCR Egypt worked together to include refugees and asylum-seekers in several cultural, educational, artistic and social activities side by side with Egyptians in order to promote sharing of knowledge and community cohesion. Activities carried out encompassed Refugees got Talent, with different musical performances from Syria, Sudan and South Sudan as part of 2017 World Refugee Day celebrations; and the Heya Campaign, with the participation of Syrian refugee women who shared their stories of resilience and success to mark the International Womens Day. Most recently, around 100 refugee youth of different nationalities took part in the Bibliothecas SAWA Project which focuses on promoting voluntarism and community-based initiatives.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina offers precious opportunities to refugees and asylum-seekers. Projects and activities in which refugees participate allow them to develop their skills and talents alongside their Egyptian peers, said Mr. Karim Atassi, UNHCR Representative to Egypt and to the League of Arab States. Refugees and asylum-seekers face numerous challenges in their daily lives. UNHCR works to support them and empower them, Mr. Atassi added.

Egypt prides itself on being home to millions of refugees, with Jesus Christ, the first refugee in Egypt in recorded history. Refugees live among Egyptians and not in refugee camps, as they are an integral part of our society, said Dr Mostafa el Fekki, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

Following the signing ceremony, Mr. Atassi and Dr. El Fekki opened a UNHCR photo exhibition titled Then and Now  Refugee Voices in Egypt which illustrates UNHCRs work, the governments generosity and Egyptian societys hospitality toward refugees and asylum-seekers over the past six decades. The exhibition will be open to the public until 9 September at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Conference Center B1 Open Area). The photo exhibition was set up for the first time on the occasion of World Refugee Day celebration in Cairo in early July and is scheduled to tour other governorates in the coming period.

As of 31 July 2018, Egypt hosted more than 233,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from 58 countries who were registered with UNHCR, of which over 40,000 reside in Alexandria and the other northern governorates.

UNHCR Egypts work is made possible by the generous contributions of Canada, Denmark, the European Union, RDPP NA, Italy, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America, as well as private donors from Australia, Korea, Germany, Spain, Japan, Italy, and Sweden.

Share on Facebook Share on TwitterTawergha families abandon the Triq al Matar settlement for internally displaced persons, near Tripoli, Libya, after a militia torched their homes.  UNHCR/Tarik Argaz

In light of the ongoing clashes in Libyas capital, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency is today appealing to parties to the fighting to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure and allow safe passage for those seeking refuge in safer areas.

Recent shelling of civilian neighbourhoods has caused death, destruction and displacement and is of great concern. Two people were killed and several others injured, including children at the Fallah 2 Tawergha settlement for displaced people on Sunday night as armed groups exchanged fire. The site hosts more than 900 displaced Libyans.

In Janzour area in western Tripoli, 27 Libyan families including two children suffering from a degenerative illness sought refuge in a school after clashes in the south of the city forced them to leave their homes. Yesterday, (Monday, 3 September) a UNHCR team visited the families and assessed their situation. In coordination with other humanitarian agencies, UNHCR will be providing emergency relief items to all 150 people sheltering in the school. A medical team from a local clinic is visiting the families and providing primary health care although the needs are increasing.

The current security situation in the Libyan capital is volatile, unpredictable and is restricting access by humanitarian agencies both to displaced Libyans and refugees affected by the clashes.

On Sunday, UNHCR coordinated with the Libyan Ministry of Interior and WFP the delivery of food for a week to the Triq Al Matar and Qaser Ben Ghasheer government detention centres where 2,450 refugees and migrants are being detained. The distribution of further assistance to Abu Salim detention centre, where 450 people are being held, had to be called off because of worsening clashes in the area.

We are closely monitoring the situation and coordinating with the Libyan Directorate for Combatting Illegal Migration and UN Agencies, and advocating for all refugees and migrants to be relocated to a safer place.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the Libyan Coast Guard rescued 276 refugees and migrants and disembarked them at Al Khums, 120 km east of Tripoli.

UNHCR partner International Medical Corps was present at al Khums disembarkation point and provided basic aid and medical assistance. A total of 195 men, 36 women and 45 children were disembarked and two bodies were recovered during the coast guard operation.

UNHCR will continue to provide assistance to Libyan displaced families and refugees despite the deteriorating security situation in Tripoli.

For more information on this topic, please contact:Refugees pick through discarded papers at a shelter in Johannesburg, South Africa. August 2008  UNHCR/James Oatway

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is extremely concerned at recent xenophobic violence in South Africa. Those targeted have included refugees and asylum-seekers.

Reportedly four people were killed in the Soweto area of Johannesburg in attacks by angry protestors last week, while many others were affected by earlier rounds of violence. Mobs looted and destroyed property belonging to foreign nationals. Tensions have also been observed recently in KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape Provinces.

UNHCR is calling on the authorities to ensure that those responsible for acts of violence and violations of human rights are brought to account. We urge all possible efforts to avert future attacks, including incitement or attempts to block peaceful solutions. If unchecked, such xenophobic attacks could lead to further damage and destruction.

UNHCR is meanwhile supporting efforts by the government to assist people who have been displaced or affected by displacement.

Over the past few days, UNHCR staff have visited refugees and asylum-seekers affected by the recent violence in Soweto to assess their situation and needs. Many foreign shop owners have been affected by the violence and their small shops  often their only means of livelihoods  have been looted and destroyed.

UNHCR welcomes the public expressions by many South Africans calling for peaceful coexistence and harmony with foreign nationals. And we call for urgent action by the government and civil society to prevent reoccurring violence against foreign nationals in South Africa.

South Africa currently hosts some 280,027 refugees and asylum-seekers.

For more information on this topic, please contact:Iran continues to set a global example through its progressive and inclusive refugee policies, but the country needs more support hosting one of the largest refugee populations in the world, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi during a three-day visit.

Iran is home to almost one million registered refugees, the vast majority from Afghanistan. The High Commissioner recognized Irans generous policies, which are oriented towards the inclusion of refugees in national services and the economy, including through access to the national health insurance scheme, permission to work in a range of occupations and documentation. In a ground-breaking move, since 2015, all Afghan children, regardless of status, have also had access to primary and secondary education.

In Tehran, Grandi met government officials, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javid Zarif, and Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli as well as the Director General of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants' Affairs, Ahmad Mohammadifar, expressing UNHCRs commitment to support Irans efforts in providing protection and seeking solutions for Afghan refugees while calling for greater international support. The High Commissioners visit to Iran is the first leg of a three-country tour  to Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan -- to address the Afghan refugee situation.

On the outskirts of Tehran, the UNHCR chief heard from members of the Afghan refugee community during a visit to the Persian Gulf Refugee Administration Centre which provides documentation services for refugees.

Irans efforts to give documents to Afghans in the country are positive and must be supported. They allow better access to health and education services, and greater chances of self-reliance. pic.twitter.com/IqCuHvUjSR  Filippo Grandi (@RefugeesChief) September 3, 2018

He also visited the city of Mashhad, home to Irans second largest population of Afghan refugees  to meet the governor and visit a vocational training college for refugees and a Government-funded charity hospital providing medical services such as kidney dialysis for both documented and undocumented Afghans.

As well as the registered refugees, who hold Amayesh identity documentation, the government also estimates that there are some 1.5 to two million undocumented Afghans present in the country. Over the past year, notable steps have been taken towards identifying this group and recording their presence, initially through a head count. A growing number, some half a million, of Afghan passport holders with Iranian work permits are also present in the country.

At a meeting with Irans diplomatic community in Tehran, Grandi said that at a time when Iran is facing economic pressures, vulnerable populations, including refugees, need more support. In hosting almost a million refugees, and working to address the situation of the undocumented, the Iranian government is making an important contribution to the management of population movements in the region and beyond, which should be supported.

Training allows refugees to thrive in Iran (Alex St.Denis, camera; Edith Champagne, producer)

While the volatile security situation in Afghanistan is currently not encouraging large-scale returns from Iran, some refugees are asking for support to find jobs or start businesses back home in Afghanistan. Its a sign of people looking to their long-term future with hope, Grandi said. We must not forget that the solution lies in Afghanistan -- and on the stability, security and prosperity of Afghanistan.

The Afghan refugee situation is one of the largest and most protracted in the world, with many having been in the country for as long as 40 years -- meaning many young refugees are third or even fourth generation, born and raised in Iran. Painfully aware of the ongoing insecurity in their homeland, they nevertheless still dream of one day returning to their roots.

This is a long-term refugee community, some of them have been here for decades, some were born here. There is a lot of ... entrepreneurial potential in this community. Grandi said.

In a discussion with refugee entrepreneurs who are running businesses around the country, employing Iranians as well as their compatriots, Grandi heard from 27-year-old Somayeh Ghaznavi, who runs a tailoring business in Tehran. It feels really good that I am working for myself. But I need support to continue, she said. I lost everything once, but I am trying again. I am still hopeful to be more successful and manage my life.

It feels really good that I am working for myself. But I need support to continue.

She started her business after completing a business skills training programme run by UNHCR partner ILIA, and now employs four women seamstresses to sew staff uniforms for a popular restaurant in Tehran and is able to support her family. Born and raised in Iran, Somayeh attributed her success to the ILIA centre, which not only trained her but now provides premises for her workshop.

I encouraged them to use their entrepreneurial spirit, not to depend on aid, to achieve self-reliance, Grandi said. These successful entrepreneurs, small but successful, have been able to pay back not through charity, not through aid, but by employing other refugees and by employing Iranians.

See also: Trailblazing health scheme benefits refugees in Iran

The challenge, said Grandi, is to make sure Iran is supported and funded by the international community so it can continue on this path, adding Iran has experienced 39 years of a refugee situation since it started receiving Afghans in 1979.

While in Tehran Grandi also highlighted the new global compact on refugees, due to be adopted by UN member states later this year, which provides a blueprint for how the international community will engage with countries  like Iran - hosting large refugee populations.

This is the global compact on refugees made real, made live. Iran is already implementing many of the responsibilities and contributing to a shared public good - the well-being of refugees," he said. "I hope Irans example will be taken up by other countries and will receive the support it deserves.Sean Gallup/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The New Yorker pulled Steve Bannon from its annual fall festival on Monday amid major pushback from staff and celebrity participants.



Bannon, President Donald Trumps former chief strategist, was scheduled to headline the star-studded The New Yorker Festival, but the magazine said it uninvited him after participants, including comedians Jim Carrey and John Mulaney, threatened to back out.



I dont want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that Ive ignored their concerns. Ive thought this through and talked to colleagues  and Ive re-considered. Ive changed my mind. There is a better way to do this, New Yorker editor David Remnick wrote in a statement Monday.



Our writers have interviewed Steve Bannon for The New Yorker before," he added, "and if the opportunity presents itself Ill interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage.



The weekly magazine had planned to interview Bannon, which it called a leading creator and organizer of Trumpism, as a part of the October festival. Critics slammed the decision, saying it would give the ex-White House staffer a platform to propel further the ideas of white nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism, and illiberalism, as described by Remnick's statement.



Remnick pulled the ex-White House staffer on Monday evening, just a few hours after the magazine announced that he would participate.



The reaction on social media was critical and a lot of the dismay and anger was directed at me and my decision to engage him, Remnick said, adding that staff members had also objected to the invitation. Some on social media have said that there is no point in talking to Bannon because he is no longer in the White House.



But Bannon has already exerted enormous impact on Trump; his rhetoric, ideas, and tactics are evident in much of what this President does and says and intends, he added.



Sally Yates, Trumps ousted deputy attorney general, actresses Emily Blunt and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and a number of musicians, including Kelela and Miguel, are scheduled to speak at the three-day festival, but some participants said they would walk if Bannon appeared.



If Steve Bannon is at the New Yorker festival I am out. I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate. I hope the @NewYorker will do the right thing and cancel the Steve Bannon event. Maybe they should read their own reporting about his ideology, film producer Judd Apatow said.



I apologize to Susan Morrison as I was really looking forward to our conversation. And I look forward to future @NewYorker Fests & other public, even heated, debates between different voices. But hard pass on this..., Mulaney said. Comedians Jimmy Fallon, Patton Oswalt and Carrey also said they wouldn't appear if Bannon was there.



The festival kicks off on Oct. 5.



Bannon -- who left the White House in August 2017 in the wake of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia -- blasted the magazine over its gutless decision to remove him from the lineup.



"After being contacted several months ago and with seven weeks of continual requests for this event, I accepted The New Yorker's invitation with no thought of an honorarium," Bannon said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The reason for my acceptance was simple: I would be facing one of the most fearless journalists of his generation. In what I would call a defining moment, David Remnick showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob."



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Recently arrived South Sudanese refugees wait to be registered at Kuluba collection point in Northern Uganda, May 2017.  UNHCR/Jiro Ose

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is (today) bringing South Sudan refugee representatives face-to-face with the parties involved in key peace negotiations in Khartoum. This dialogue will help ensure that refugee voices continue to play a pivotal role in the revitalized peace effort to end the countrys devastating civil war.

Following the conclusion of revitalized peace agreement negotiations on August 30th, some 16 South Sudanese refugees across six countries will now sit down with all parties involved in the talks today (Tuesday Sep 4) in Sudans capital, Khartoum. The refugees, who flew in from the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, to share their views, aspirations and expectations and to urge participants to find peace for the millions of South Sudanese, like themselves, whose lives have been uprooted by the conflict.

The talks mark a significant moment in the long quest for lasting peace for the people of South Sudan, said Arnauld Akodjenou, the Special Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on the South Sudan Situation. It is critical to have refugee voices heard, peace building efforts cannot afford to ignore them.

The current peace accord specifically calls for its dissemination to South Sudanese people inside the country and to refugees living in exile, so that the people most affected by the war, can understand, support and own the peace process.

The refugee representatives in Khartoum will serve to remind the world of the human toll that continues every day there is not peace in South Sudan, said Mr. Akodjenou. But they can also become strong peace advocates by spreading the word to refugee communities where they live, or upon return to South Sudan if they voluntarily plan to do so.

Since the start of the conflict in 2013, some 2.4 million people have fled South Sudan  the worlds youngest nation - as refugees and another 1.8 million are internally displaced inside the country. Civilians have fled extreme violence, human rights abuses and unimaginable levels of sufferings.

The Government of Sudan, and the East African political body the Intergovernmental Authority on Development IGAD are helping UNHCR and partners in hosting the visiting refugee representatives.

For more information on this topic, contact:(September 4, 2018) Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy today released the results of a recently completed gender pay equity analysis of UTSA faculty.

As part of a UT System initiative to ensure gender pay equity for faculty across all System institutions, UTSA faculty Daniel Sass and Anuradha Roy of the Department of Management Science and Statistics collaborated with leadership and staff from Academic and Faculty Support, Institutional Effectiveness and Human Resources to conduct the statistical analysis, which factored for department, rank and years of experience. In addition to comparing the earnings of female and male faculty, the UTSA study also examined the compensation of under-represented minorities, defined by UT System as Asian, Black or Hispanic.

Overall, the study showed that, among UTSA tenured/tenure-track faculty, there were no statistically significant differences among male and female faculty members salaries when controlled for department, experience and rank. Furthermore, with these variables controlled, there were no differences between under-represented minority and international faculty and White, non-Hispanic faculty.

Using the results from these statistical analyses, Human Resources then worked with the college deans to review the predicted and actual compensation of each tenured/tenure-track faculty member in light of national salary survey data. After considering additional factors such as faculty performance and experience, the college deans identified 72 faculty members who warranted adjustments to resolve salary inequities. Of those, 43 percent were women and 57 percent were under-represented minorities.

All colleges have multi-year plans to increase the salaries of those faculty identified through this process; however, reviews will be conducted in future years to make any adjustments needed. Approximately 40 tenured/tenure-track faculty will receive incremental adjustments this academic year.

UTSA should be proud that overall there were no significant differences in pay based on gender or ethnicity in light of other factors that affect pay. Working together, we took these results one step further by examining variability local to academic units, and the discrepancies there were addressed, said Jesse T. Zapata, senior vice provost for academic and faculty support, who represented UTSA at System-level discussions on the study. To ensure that we continue to identify and resolve any unintended pay gaps, we expect to conduct this exercise regularly, building upon this years study and further refining our dataset and model for analysis.UW Admissions Campus Visitor Center Opens in Wyoming Union

UW students pose for a photo at UW Admissions Campus Visitor Center, located on the west side of the Wyoming Union. The center will serve as the check-in location and launching place for daily campus tours for prospective students and guests. (UW Photo)

The University of Wyoming Office of Admissions new Campus Visitor Center is now open in the Wyoming Union.

Beginning today (Tuesday), the center will serve as the check-in location and launching place for daily campus tours for prospective students and guests. The center is located directly in front of the UW Copy and Print Center and next to the University Store on the west side of the Wyoming Union.

The UW Copy and Print Center, located in Room 114 of the Wyoming Union, will continue to provide services to the UW campus. During the semester, Copy and Print Center hours of operation are 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays; and 2-6 p.m. Sundays.

Campus visitors can park in designated spaces on the east side of the drive between Knight Hall and Coe Library. These spaces will be monitored by UW Transit and Parking Services, and vehicles without the specific permit will be ticketed.

The Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center and Tome Student Admissions Center will continue to be pivotal points of engagement for daily campus visitors, says Amy Fenolia, UW associate director of admissions.

Those on campus tours will experience firsthand the ease and convenience of the UW transit system by taking a shuttle to the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, Fenolia says. There, they will continue to discover UWs great history, significance and prestige in higher education. Visitors will have a presentation, meet with admissions counselors and be introduced to the legacy of alumni and cowboy support in the amazing facility.

For more information about campus tours, call (307) 766-4075 or email VisitUW@uwyo.edu.UW in the News

State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent articles:

The Laramie Boomerang reported that UW President Laurie Nichols delivered the first report card on the progress made after the first year of the universitys five-year strategic plan. KULR TV in Billings also reported on the fall meeting for the campus community. K2 Radio also noted the presidents update on the campus community.

Maine Public Radio asked UW economist Rob Godby to comment on the Trump administration's proposal to relax regulations on carbon emissions, which is welcome news in coal-producing states such as Wyoming, even though personnel in the industry acknowledge its impact would be limited.

Lilia Soto, a UW associate professor of American studies and Latina/o studies, discussed with Dallas radio station KERA about how Mexican migration of men into the U.S. often leaves young women behind in a state of uncertainty.

SweetwaterNow published UWs release announcing next months Homecoming schedule.

Marieka Arksey, collections manager for UWs Archaeological Repository, is teaching a class in which students are studying samples taken from the site where a mammoth was discovered at Buffalo Bill Reservoir. Researchers also discovered evidence of four other species from the Ice Age at the Cody-area site, according to The Powell Tribune.

The Casper Star-Tribune noted the fall semesters schedule of the UW Art Museum's Lunchtime Conversations with Curators, which offers free, informal gallery walk-through sessions with museum curators and guests.

UWs release announcing Half Acre Recreation and Wellness Centers open house this week for the campus community was published by Lady Click, an online website promoting womens health.

Wyo 4News published UWs release announcing that the Albany Community Health Clinic, operated by UW, is moving to a larger building in Laramie.Adrian Chng, GoBear CEO: Fintech primed to boost financial services sector in Vietnam

Vietnam is setting records. Notably, at the end of last year, it was named one of the worlds Top 20 internet users with 64 million connected people and in January this year, Vietnam claimed the title of the worlds fastest growing wealth hub, clocking in 210 per cent wealth growth between 2007 and 2017.

This is the reason that Forbes declared the country every keen investors must-watch for 2018. Besides, It means that Vietnam sits at the beautiful intersection where personal finance meets inevitable innovation.

In the last five years alone, Vietnam has experienced the entry of over 40 new fintech players, such as online payment platforms Mobivi and Momo, as well as the countrys first fully digital bank Timo.

One of these is financial products comparison platform GoBear, one of Asias fastest growing startups that has recently undergone leadership renewal.

Its new CEO, serial fintech entrepreneur and merchant bank Fintonia founder Adrian Chng, works closely with country director for Vietnam Bao Nguyen to increase the Vietnamese populations direct access to financial services, with a platform that has already delivered unbiased financial comparisons to 34 million users across Asia since its launch barely three years ago.

Adrian thinks it was only a matter of time before technology became primed to boost the personal financial services sector in emerging markets.

The new CEO said, It is an interesting situation because on one hand we have fast-growing and young populations with high mobile phone penetration across the region, but on the other, still relatively low penetration of traditional financial services like credit cards, loans or insurance. Because of logistical constraints, traditional distribution forms like physical bank branches cannot play in this space so it was only a matter of time before technology stepped in to improve efficiencies. When that happened, technology allowed financial institutions to access to the full spectrum of consumers.

Technology does this by making it easier for people to get connected and subsequently look for financial services online, which significantly improves customer acquisition costs. Increased connectivity and prolonged online activity also means people are now producing larger digital footprints than ever before.

But how do companies even begin to harness this data, let alone make sense of it? Cue another way technology can bridge for banks and insurance companies, including on top of mining that data for precious insights, fintech is increasingly contributing to developing new models of assessmenteven for the unbanked. It is the biggest opportunity yet to truly reduce the costs of acquisition.

In Vietnam, GoBear has demonstrated consistent development in numerous areas throughout the past year, despite being one of the groups newer market entries.

As of today, GoBear Vietnams local site www.gobear.com/vn is landing over two million monthly pageviews and one million monthly users.

Bao, outlining further plans for Vietnam, said, Our key priority now is to broaden the variety of products on the GoBear Vietnam platform. We are doing this in tandem with continuously enhancing the seamless user experience, such as advanced search and filter options to help users find the best products.

He continued, This year, GoBear Vietnam has already added home loans, home equity loans, and car loans, with life insurance and digital wallet coming soon. We are also working to integrate a personal pre-approval feature that will improve financial inclusion and financial access for our users. Our ultimate goal is to improve the standard of living for Vietnamese people who have limited access to mainstream financial services.

GoBear country director for Vietnam Bao Nguyen

It is perfect timing. GoBear currently offers more than 2,000 personal finance products across its soon-to-be seven markets (it will be launching in Indonesia this coming October), including personal loans. It sees strong growth opportunities in cash-based economies, where the challenge for everyday folk is borrowing from traditional lenders.

Chiming back in, Adrian shared, Emerging economies are hotbeds for personal loans because they are teeming with businesses being formed every day. People who have started taking loans will now start looking for forms of financial protection or insurance. This is the classic curve for the life cycle of personal financial services. After that, the next level of sophistication will come from people moving up the curve and looking for wealth and asset management products, particularly in the more developed markets. We can already see a lot of fintech companies in Southeast Asian markets trying to tap into personal loans and insurance.

But the question is where does GoBear plan to fit into all of this. According to Adrian, being an internet technology innovator first and foremost means that all the data it has acquired has allowed it to deeply understand new consumer behaviours, which continue to reveal deep insights to drive product innovation, including funding new types of insurance products altogether.

Adrian concluded, Imagine a travel insurance plan that has been made just for you, using the data on your smartphone that has been harnessed from the places you have travelled, and places on your bucket list. Acquiring more and more data and insights every day, GoBear is perfectly placed to partner with financial institutions on their product innovations. We can help them create whole new ranges of services and products. This adds significant value to the financial services ecosystem, and its enabling us to expand beyond our current business model.Phil Quade, chief information security officer at Fortinet arrived to Vietnam for a working visit to share about cyber security

As the 4.0 era is setting in, with a growing momentum in the digitisation of management and manufacturing processes, as well as increasing global connectivity, how would you evaluate the importance of cyber security to prevent cyberattracks?

Cyber threats are becoming more complex with new everyday dangers. From the IoT (Internet of Things) network to the cloud, businesses need an architecture that integrates, synchronises, and automates defence measures across their networks. Through its security fabric architecture, Fortinet provides a broad portfolio of advanced solutions for Vietnamese companies to help them grow their business safely.

These critical infrastructure systems are also increasingly targeted by cybercriminals, with a reported 51 per cent of critical infrastructure enterprises reporting an OT (Operational Technology)/SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition)/ICS (industrial control systems) security breach within the past 12 months.

Targeting and taking out a critical infrastructure system has huge appeal for numerous cybercriminals, especially cyber terrorists or criminal organisations. Motivations include holding systems hostage for a ransom, stock price manipulation (short sell, attack, and reap a clean profit), denial of assets or production for strategic or tactical reasons, political awareness or impact or corporate malfeasance (illegal competitive action).

Unfortunately, not only are many of these now-connected systems quite vulnerable to compromise, unlike IT networks, a failure in one of these sectors also has the possibility of causing a catastrophic event affecting both human life and property. The consequences of a successful attack can lead to the disruption and even destruction of physical assets and essential services like water, electricity, and fuel.

How are Fortinets cyber security solutions, especially solutions for critical infrastructure, applied in Vietnam?

Fortinet is among the top five public cyber security companies in the world. Its broad portfolio of solutions spans network, infrastructure, cloud, and IoT security.

Fortinet protects large enterprises, service providers, and government organisations around the world, including Vietnam, by providing customers with unmatched, intelligent protection across the entire extended attack surface. It also has the ability to meet the increasing performance requirements of borderless networks, now and in the future.

The Fortinet Security Fabric architecture can provide security without compromise, thereby addressing critical security challenges in the network, application, cloud or mobile environments.

At Fortinet, we offer both IT and OT solutions and ensure that they can work together. We have a number of experts in charge of critical infrastructure who have numerous years of experience in protecting OT for critical infrastructure.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam ranks first in terms of business email compromise (BEC) scams and CEOs, managing directors, directors, and presidents of enterprises are the primary targets. As a global leader in cyber security solutions, what are Fortinets specific solutions to deal with this incident?

90 per cent of cyber attacks were conducted via business email compromise scams. Fortinet supplies customers with security framework or security fabric with specific solutions. For example, in order to prevent email scams, Fortinet has an email security solution ready.

Advanced threats require more than passive security systems, especially when protecting critical infrastructure. Fortunately, the behaviour of most OT systems can be pretty easily defined, which means that unusual or aberrant behaviour should be likewise relatively easy to detect and block with a UEBA (user and entity behaviour analytics) system in place.

What is Fortinets strategic plan in Vietnam? Who are your potential customers in the future?

In Vietnam, Fortinet supplies comprehensive solutions for customers, including total security, enterprise Wi-Fi, storage, data, and information management. Fortinets customers are enterprises operating in telecommunications, finance and banking, energy, technology, and healthcare, among others. Based on our strengths, Fortinet is looking at mobile and internet network providers, state agencies, and small- and medium-sized enterprises. Two of the largest mobile and internet network providers and one of the four largest banks are Fortinets customers.Vietcombank needs to raise capital to meet BASEL II standards. - VNA/VNS Photo

Hue revealed the news after four State-owned banks  Vietcombank, Agribank, BIDV and VietinBank  proposed the capital hike at the meeting on bad debt resolution last week as they are facing difficulties to fulfill the plan.

Currently, the banks are under great pressure to hike capital to satisfy the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV)s regulations to meet Basel II standards in 2020. Under SBVs Circular, banks must maintain a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of at least 8 per cent as per Basel II norms, starting in 2020. With the new regulation, the CAR of the banks will fail to reach the minimum level set by the SBV if they fail to increase capital.

Basel II is the second of the Basel Accords, which are recommendations on banking laws and regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

At the meeting, Nghiem Xuan Thanh, Chairman of Vietcombank, asked the Government and SBV to consider increasing capital of State-owned banks or allowing the banks to either retain dividends or issue private placement shares to foreign investors to ensure both the value of the State capital and the interests of shareholders.

According to Thanh, the divestment of the banks is currently facing difficulties due to complicated regulations.

Besides being large and prestigious institutions from developed countries, foreign qualified buyers are also required to hold the stake for at least one year, Thanh said, adding it was hindering investors as the stock prices in the market constantly fluctuate.

Under the current legal regulations, the sales of the banks stake must be also in large lots and the sales price must not be lower than the market price, Thanh said.

Vietcombank had so far still failed to find partners from developed economies who agree to pay the banks shares at the market listed price  or nearly four times of the banks book value, Thanh said, adding that market listed prices of leading banks shares in the region, not only in Southeast Asia but also in Asia, only double that of the banks book value.

It also takes BIDV several years to find a strategic partner, but no one paid as high as the banks market listed price of over VND30,000 per share.

While facing difficulties in the divestment, the banks are not allowed to keep profits for the capital hike purpose as they still have to pay dividends in cash, which are supposed to be paid to the State budget. Representatives of State capital at State-owned banks often require to vote for dividend payout to be in cash at the banks annual general meetings so that the State receives money from dividends.

Last year, for example, it was estimated the State budget got nearly VND6.1 trillion (US$268.7 million) extra from the dividend payout of three State-owned banks  VietinBank, Vietcombank and BIDV.The Halong-Haiphong Expressway is now officially open for traffick

On September 1, the Halong-Haiphong Expressway and Bach Dang Bridge were officially opened for traffick.

Having a total investment capital of VND6.41 trillion ($283.6 million), the 24.6-kilometre long Halong-Haiphong Expressway connects Highway 18 in Halong citys Dai Yen ward with the Hanoi-Haiphong Expressway.

The Expressway helps to shorten the distance between Halong and Haiphong from 75km to 25km, and between Hanoi and Halong from 180km to 130km. It will halve the travel time from Hanoi to the famous bay.

This is the first expressway in the country developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, with the investment capital coming from the provinces budget.

Besides, the VND7.66 trillion ($338.9 million), 5.4km bridge spanning the Bach Dang River, will reduce the travel distance between Hanoi and Quang Ninh from 175km to 125km. It is also the first large-scale Made in Vietnam bridge.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaking at the event

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the Bach Dang Bridge is a clear demonstration of the self-reliant spirit, as well as the capacity in terms of technology of the Vietnamese people.

The Halong-Haiphong Expressway will not only contribute to improving the value of Hanoi-Haiphong expressway, but will also promote regional connectivity in the 3H (Hanoi-Haiphong-Halong) development triangle. Besides, it will open more opportunities for socioeconomic development in the northern region, the PM stated.

The PM asked Quang Ninh and Haiphong to change the investment attraction method and simultaneously improve the investment and trading environment so that the two provinces can become centres of tourism, and creativity.French President Emmanuel Macron has actively court the support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel for his institutional reforms. (Photo: AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

The meeting will focus on "European subjects including the euro, migration, technology and the international situation," the official in the French presidency told AFP on Monday.

He did not explain why the two leaders were meeting in Marseille instead of the French capital, or give other details of the visit.

Their talks will come after a trip by Macron to Luxembourg on Thursday to consult with the prime ministers of Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands on efforts to deepen European integration.

Animosity between Macron, a pro-EU centrist, and eurosceptic and nationalist governments in Italy and Hungary broke into the open last week.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini identified Macron as their adversary on immigration, leading Macron to reply that they were right to see him as their "main opponent."

The French president has made foreign visits a key element of his campaign to rally support for his ambitious reforms for the EU, including closer cooperation on security, immigration and the economy.

He has actively courted Merkel, seeing her as key to his agenda, but the German leader emerged badly weakened from elections last year and has given only lukewarm backing to many of his proposals.

She is facing intense pressure to clamp down on migration in particular after allowing some one million people to enter the country since 2015, which has bolstered support for far-right parties.

The anti-immigrant AfD party entered the German parliament for the first time last year, and in July Merkel had to agree to tougher immigration policies to stave off a rebellion led by her own interior minister.

Other EU countries also remain sceptical of Macron's agenda, against a backdrop of rising nationalism as leaders bicker over how to handle the thousands of migrants fleeing war and misery in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

European leaders will meet for a summit on Sep 20 in Salzburg, Austria, to try to hammer out their differences, nearly three months after barely reaching a deal on migrants at an EU summit in Brussels.Reed Tradexs Suttisak Wilanan believes in promoting regional connectivity

Suttisak Wilanan, deputy managing director of Reed Tradex, one of Asias leading event organisers, delves into the event highlights and what visitors can expect at Metalex Vietnam 2018, slated to take place on October 11-13 in Ho Chi Minh Citys Saigon Exhibitions and Convention Centre.

What is your outlook on the Vietnamese market and the investment environment?

Vietnam has recently made steady progress in improving its investment climate, as evidenced by higher scores as it went up five places since last year to rank 55th in the World Economic Forums Competitiveness Index and ranked 68th in the World Banks 2018 Ease of Doing Business rankings, up 31 places since 2014. Vietnam also reduced the corporate income tax rate from 32 per cent in 2003 to the current 20 per cent.

The countrys network of 16 bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements is among the best that manufacturers can find in any country at this point on the value chain. These trade agreements have dramatically reduced tariffs, anchored difficult domestic reforms, and opened much of the economy to foreign investment. It is estimated that more than 10,000 foreign companies  including major global players like Samsung, Intel, and LG  operate in Vietnam today, mostly in export-oriented and labour-intensive manufacturing.

All these positive factors will lead to sustained economic growth in the countrys future. Hence, it is crucial for Vietnam to reorganise its industrial system, keep the momentum of rising foreign direct investment flows, and increase the localisation rate, while boosting the supporting industries to cover their respective value chains. Exhibitions then prove a key mechanism for manufacturers to discover technologies and solutions to meet their needs while exploring endless possibilities in the future.

As a leading exhibition organiser, how does Reed Tradex support Vietnamese industrialists and manufacturers to access new business opportunities?

This year, we will make the exhibition programme more competitive, not only demonstrating machineries, but also co-ordinating with organisations and experts in the industry as well as businesses who hold the technology to spur the transmission of knowledge resources, technology transfer, and the exchange of the ability to apply technology and machinery practically, with the highest financial efficiency for manufacturers in Vietnam.

We also seek to turn our exhibition into the centre of the industrialist community. The event will not only look to cater to domestic manufacturers, providing a platform to exchange and connect to win at the local market, but will also feature international participants from Japan, South Korea, and Europe.

At Metalex Vietnam 2018, industrialists will have the chance to experience the latest SMT, solutions, and technology for electronics manufacturing at NEPCON Vietnam 2018, which returns to Ho Chi Minh City this year.

What advice would you offer prospective businesspeople who are searching for the right opportunities?

Aside from the technologies on exhibit, this will be a great opportunity for overseas investors to network with local suppliers so that they can better manage their needs to import industrial parts. Reed Tradex also feels fortunate to receive such an excellent opportunity to co-operate with JETRO, ITPC, and CSID to co-organise the Supporting Industry Show 2018 exhibition at this years event. This alliance will facilitate the transfer of new technologies and the expansion of business networks between Vietnamese and global enterprises, which are vital to sharpen the competitive edges of the supporting industry. This will open up new opportunities to prepare local businesses for deeper regional connectivity.Because of a strike by Greek ferry seamen, a port police official said there were "no maritime connections from the country's principal ports". (AFP/ARIS MESSINIS)

A port police official said there were "no maritime connections from the country's principal ports".

The powerful Greek Seamen's Federation (PNO) hailed support for the walkout, and announced the strike would continue from 6.00am (0300 GMT) Tuesday until 6.00am Wednesday for all categories of boats.

The labour action comes at the tail-end of Europe's summer holiday season, and extra pre-strike ferries were called into action Sunday to move people at the last minute.

Industry body SEEN said the strike had caused "serious problems", leaving tourists stuck on remote islands with no way of making it to the mainland to catch booked flights back home.

The action has also caused a string of cancelled hotel bookings, and halted deliveries of essential goods to the Greek islands.

The PNO launched its work stoppage after bosses rejected demands for a five per cent pay hike following years of austerity and salary freezes as the country emerges from a crippling economic crisis.

Despite two years of booming trade, industry representatives offered a one per cent rise in September, to be followed by another one per cent next June.

The strike is the first since Greece emerged last month from three international bailouts and eight years of deep spending cuts.

Although budget cuts remain on the menu, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week pledge to increase the minimum wage, which had fallen to 586 (US$680) a month from some 760 before the crisis took hold.Fighters of the National Liberation Front prepare in anticipation of an attack by the regime on Idlib province and the surrounding countryside. (Nazeer AL-KHATIB/AFP)

"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," Trump tweeted.

"Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!"

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict.

Syrian government forces are now massing around the northwestern province of Idlib, which is held by a complex array of rebels and violent extremist fighters, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers.

Russia and Iran have insisted that extremist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault.

Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored a negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in Syria.

Last year, they had designated Idlib as a "de-escalation" zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire.

All the while seeking to pressure Turkey into reining in militants in Idlib, Damascus's main sponsor Russia has been sounding the war drums in recent days.

Tehran and Moscow provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said an all-out assault on Idlib and its catastrophic consequences could still be avoided.

Russia, whose air support would be crucial for the offensive to succeed, should understand that a bloodbath in Idlib would jeopardise its own political goals, according to ICG.

"By backing an all-out offensive, Russia risks undermining its long-term political objectives in Syria," ICG wrote in a nine-page briefing entitled "Saving Idlib from destruction."

US WARNINGS RING HOLLOW?

Despite Trump's warning, analysts believe the United States appears resigned to the likelihood of a final military victory by Syrian government forces.

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."

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.M&A deals stand behind most of the FDI capital to arrive in Vietnam in 2018

According to statistics published by the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, generally, in the first eight months of 2018, foreign investors spent a total of $24.35 billion to register new and added capital as well as to contribute capital and purchase shares, which is a 4.2 per cent increase compared to the corresponding period of 2017.

Notably, as of August 20, 2018, the country granted investment certificates to 1,918 new projects, with $13.48 billion of newly registered capital, up 0.2 per cent on-year, and 736 capital adjustments with $5.58 billion, equalling 87.2 per cent of the figure from last year.

Meanwhile, 4,551 M&A deals were signed with the total investment capital of $5.28 billion, up 50.9 per cent compared to last year.

As of August 20, 2018, 4,551 M&A deals were signed with the total investment capital of $5.28 billion, up 50.9 per cent compared to last years figure.

Foreign investors invested in 17 industries nationwide. The processing and manufacturing industry kept the top position with a total of $10.72 billion, equalling 44 per cent of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The runner-up was the real estate sector with $5.9 billion, making up 24.2 per cent of the total.

In the first eight months of 2018, 97 countries and territories had investment projects in Vietnam. Japan ranked first with the total investment capital of $7 billion, making up 28.8 per cent of the total. South Korea ranked second with $5.16 billion, accounting for 21.2 per cent. The third was Singapore with $3.47 billion, capturing 14 per cent.

Regarding cities and provinces receiving FDI, foreign investors poured capital into 59 cities and provinces across the country. Hanoi attracted the largest investment capital volume among provinces with $5.93 billion.

Ho Chi Minh City ranks second with $4.42 billion. Besides, Ba Ria-Vung Tau ranked third for the first time, attracting the largest investment capital in the first six months with $2.17 billion.

2017 was a successful year for Vietnam in attracting FDI as a total of $35.6 billion arrived to the country, up 44.2 per cent compared to 2016.

FDI disbursement in 2017 reached a record of $17.5 billion, up 10.8 per cent against 2016.Created in Washington in January 2018, under the presidency of David Satterfield, the  little group  was tasked with relaunching the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski project for the destruction of State structures in the Middle East in general and Syria in particular. It initially included Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, Jordan and the United Kingdom (on the understanding that the Arab member states would not be destroyed in the short term).

The entity was secret at its inception, but progressively became more public as Germany and Egypt joined. It seems to have become more reasonable and is now seeking an honourable exit from the crisis. It has made contact with the Astana group (Iran, Russia, and Turkey).

And yet the United Kingdom relaunched the project against Syria by preparing a false flag operation in Kafr Zita. For this purpose, specialists from the Olive company were sent to the area, and chemical weapons were moved to the governorate of Idlib. The White Helmets abducted 44 children, whom MI6 planned to sacrifice and blame their murder on a chemical attack by the Syrian Arab Army against the  rebels .

MI6 organised the dissemination of this fake news in advance via the false witness testimony of a small child, Hala (photo). They created a Twitter account in her name on 29 July, and about thirty media immediately joined up, waiting for the signal (operation  Eyes on Idlib ). Among them are the BBC [1], Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty [2], BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post [3]  these are media which knowingly participate in British war propaganda.

Simultaneously, the Pentagon deployed in the Gulf the destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) with 56 cruise missiles on board, and a -1 strategic bomber carrying 24 AGM-158 JASSM air-ground cruise missiles on the air base of Al-Udeid in Qatar.

While the responsibility of British Prime Minister Theresa May is clearly established concerning the actions of MI6, we do not know who ordered the US military deployment.

Always paddling in the wake of London, French President Emmanuel Macron has already put forward the idea of relaunching the war, speaking before a meeting of his ambassadors in Paris. Thus, with contempt for the Syrian People, who had democratically elected their President, he proposed to choose in their place -  Let us respect the sovereignty of Syria, but let us truly respect it, by allowing the people to express themselves and to incarnate this sovereignty , he declared.

The authors of this plan know perfectly well that they have already lost the war if we look at it only from the Syrian point of view. Their new objective seems to go even further. It is their intention to provoke a conflict with Russia  in other words, a war which would quickly become global.

Syria and Russia reacted by revealing the facts. Then Russia sent a quantity of military material to Tartus via the container-carrier Sparta-3. Moscow also reinforced its presence off the coast of Syria (currently ten ships and two submarines) by planning vast military manoeuvres, which engage twenty-five ships and about thirty aircraft.

Frightened, the US State Department has just sent ambassador James Jeffrey to calm the countries in the region. He is expected in Israel, Jordan and Turkey. He is accompanied by David Satterfields assistant, Colonel Joel Rayburn from Military Intelligence. The US delegation will assure all its interlocutors that Washington is not planning to bomb Syria under false pretences.

Duly noted.

If the hosts of the US delegation have courage enough, they will not fail to ask for specifics - is the assistant for the Secretary of State for the Greater Middle East, David Satterfield, pursuing the policies of George Bush Jr and Barack Obama, or is he implementing the new policies of Donald Trump? [4] While Londons position is clearly anti-Russian, and that of the White House pro-US, what about that of the Pentagon?The Assembly of the Libyan tribes has refused any foreign aid as a matter of principle. It has decided that it is only through its own efforts that Libya will be liberated from the suffocating stranglehold of the jihadists that have carved up Libyan territory. Battles are already underway in Tripoli.

The United States had entrusted France with the task of re-establishing a colonial order in Libya. However in August, the United States revoked Frances mandate, preferring instead to allow Italy, now governed by nationalists, to deal with this matter.

Despite this, France, which had set up several meetings in Paris for the heads of rival tribes, is still pursuing its mandate with the same amount of zeal.

On 1 September 2018, the United States and Italy as well as France and the United Kingdom signed a joint communique calling for respect for the decisions on Libya announced by the President of the Security Council on 6 June 2018.

Yet, while this Presidential Declaration makes reference to Frances efforts, the only resolution adopted is to support the principle of fresh elections. Neither the Security Council nor the four Western Powers have been able to get beyond this minimal consensus.The Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States strongly condemn the continued escalation of violence in and around Tripoli that has caused many casualties and continues to endanger the lives of innocent civilians. We reiterate that the targeting of civilians and indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under International Humanitarian Law.

These attempts to weaken the legitimate Libyan authorities and hamper the course of the political process are not acceptable. We urge armed groups to immediately cease all military actions and warn those who tamper with security in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya that they will be held accountable for any such actions.

We reaffirm our strong and continued support to the United Nations Action Plan, as recalled by the President of Security Council on June 6th and by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame on July 16th. We call on all actors 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.Better Call Saul Quite A Ride Season 4 Episode 5 Editors Rating 5 stars * * * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Nicole Wilder/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Becoming Saul Goodman isnt like stepping into a phone booth and emerging in uniform as Superman. Jimmy McGill is never really inseparable from his eventual (though not forever) alter ego or, as we gathered in his sendoff to Francesca, vice versa. He hasnt yet settled on Saul Goodman  once an in-joke for his amusement while masquerading as the Spielberg of local commercials  as his permanent, professional nom de plume, but mistake ye not: The man who slings burner phones to bikers, lies to Kim about his bruises, and rips up the number of a shrink she recommends in a manner that foreshadows Francesca shredding incriminating documents is the same as Saul in mind, body, spirit.

If there were a precise, consciousness-switching moment, that toilet forestalling might have been it, though who could blame Jimmy for failing to see the value of therapy given Howards current state? Whatever went down between the two of them, or between he and Chuck, or he and Kim (not that Jimmy knows about that last bit), a combination of considerable wealth and twice-a-week psychologist visits ought to have been enough to stave off insomnia. Yet, here he is. What Jimmys really swearing off when he flushes that doctors digits is the onus of guilt and, to a considerable degree, goodness, that slips into sleeplessness.

Maybe Jimmys better off owning his bad, broken state. Howards the kind of guy who, despite teetering on the brink of madness, still shows up to court in his suit and tie and does whats expected of him. Jimmys more likely to splinter off as his alter ego and stumble into late-night trouble selling the aforementioned, CC Mobile prepaid clamshells out the back of his Esteem (shameless plug for my deep dive into that Suzuki charmer). Except its no longer Cicero or Chicago circa the 1980s, a fact Jimmy later laments out loud as Kim nurses his wounds. Sauls future life of underworld chicanery may end up with him requesting a ride to his new, droll existence as Omaha Gene, but at least up until getting his face reorganized by Jesse Pinkman as a parting gift, hed kept his nose mostly clean in the literal sense. Time, in other words, to ditch the Dog House tracksuits and dust off those colorful Davis & Main two-pieces in earnest.

Saul didnt necessarily head north to the Cornhusker State with the utmost of creature comforts (shoutout to Robert Forsters relocation expert, Ed), but it had to have been better than how Gus shuttled candidates for meth-lab engineers to Albuquerque. The irony is, carsick German master blaster Werner Ziegler had a much better handle on what Mr. Fring was looking for than the prior interviewee, a too-suave Frenchman who got sent back on the first transatlantic flight. (Though, much to Zieglers dismay, there would be no actual blasting or other attention-getting technique permitted.) Either that or Gus has an ultimately lethal fetish for hiring bookish eccentrics for whom navigating conundrums is their sole raison detre. (Probably the latter.) Werner never says outright how long it will take him to transform the laundry facilitys exposed basement into a fortress of crystal-synthesizing solitude, but Gus is a fairly methodical fellow, and theres reason to think the project stretches out over years. By the same logic, it could be completed in six months and sit waiting for half a decade until its ideal occupant  Walter White  makes Guss acquaintance.

Mike is about as enthused with all this as he was to open up at Staceys grief-venting group, but hes no less compelled to partake. For much of season four, he and Jimmy have been on mutually exclusive journeys, but the truth is theyve been paralleling each others free fall into some fairly dark, self-hating places. And their paths will intersect again soon in ways that might have them both nostalgic for the days of debating whether to snag a Bavarian Boy from some schmuck couch-surfing in his own printer-sales office. (Mikes half-sincere Are you okay? to a hyperventilating Werner was, like many a Hummel, virtually priceless.)

All of Sauls key characters (including those off-screen in Quite a Ride, like Nacho) are slipping into circumstances that threaten their independence, and not necessarily in terms of staying out of jail. Kim continues pushing back against Paige (enjoying Cara Pifkos committed turn to corporate hard-ass) and Mesa Verde, this time blowing them off to amend her and paralegal Violas oversight with some paperwork so she can help flailing addict Denise avoid the severest consequences for her actions. This has become Kims crusade now  practically forcing on-the-margins young people like Denise and teen vandal David to show up for court so she can help argue their way to a second chance. All as (or because) her own closest companion, Jimmy, continues making choices she cant control, with repercussions shed rather not face.

Kim will turn out okay. She may wind up unable to save Jimmy from himself, and possibly will ditch Mesa Verde and the law altogether for some other purpose. (You can almost hear cold-open Francesca pining, Why didnt you take me with you?) But ever since her car accident, Kim has been driven to dictate her story, while Jimmy  always tragically close to being that good, self-realized man  has all but ceded the wheel to Saul.

Apart From All That

 Love seeing Marlon Young (as Jimmys probation officer), most recently a Survivors Remorse standout, in anything.

 Of course Bill invented chicken.

 Cant escape those Isotopes.

 Matthew Brady photos.

 Given his reaction to some peroxide, Jimmy would not have dealt well with what Nacho endured.

 Street view of 8351 Louisiana Boulevard circa 2017.

 Will be interesting to see where Jimmy will be in nine months and 24 days.Photo: Marco Grob

When Jonah Hill was 7 years old, his parents asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up. He told them, I want to move to Springfield, the town where the Simpsons live. The Simpsons was Hills favorite show, though thats like saying the Bible was Billy Grahams favorite book; it undersells the influence somewhat. Im not an authority to make this judgment, Hill says now, but to me The Simpsons is hands down the greatest comedy writing ever to exist. After hed answered their question, his parents, who lived in L.A. and were both showbiz-adjacent  his mother as a stylist and his father as the accountant for, among others, Guns N Roses  gently explained that Springfield was not a real place. Then they broke show business down to two essential career paths: Theres people who write what Homer says and people who say what Homer says. Seven-year-old Jonah thought about this, then replied, Okay, thats what I want to do. I want to write what Homer says. I want to write Homers thoughts.

And he did  between the ages of 7 and 16, he wrote a tremendous amount of Simpsons scripts and kept them in a pile. The quiet creativity of it made him happy, just sitting alone imagining a conversation between Marge and Bart. He was at the same time the funniest person in every room, according to his sister, Beanie Feldstein, whos nine years younger. He was also high-school friends with Jake Hoffman, Dustins son, which led to a meeting with Dustin, which led to an audition for Hills first screen role, a small part in David O. Russells I Heart Huckabees. At 21, Hill appeared in a brief cameo in Judd Apatows The 40-Year-Old Virgin, in a memorable scene at an eBay store that involves silver platform boots with goldfish in the soles.

Two years later, in 2007, Hill was recruited for the Greek chorus of stoner bros who surround Seth Rogen in Apatows Knocked Up, and he starred in the Apatow-produced teen comedy Superbad, written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg. In Superbad, Hill played Seth, a portly, loudmouthed, obnoxious, vaguely manic, and relentlessly funny kid. The film made $170 million worldwide. Hill had gone from being a person who writes what Homer says to a person who says what Homer  or some very Homer-like younger characters  says. Hed become an actor, then he became a star. He was 24 years old.

That was over ten years ago, but its possible that this version of Hill  the portly, funny, teenagerish, brash comedic actor  is still the one embedded in your head. Thats the kind of thing that happens when you star at 24 in a comedy that makes $170 million. But I should warn you: That version of Jonah Hill is about four versions of Jonah Hill ago. Since then, weve met Jonah Hill, Oscar-nominated actor (for Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street); Jonah Hill, unlikely style beacon and obsession of Instagram fans, who track his movements and outfits in New York City; and, as of a year ago, Jonah Hill, oddball icon to a pack of acolytes whove organized Jonah Hill Day, an annual celebration in Brooklyn. In the past few months, weve seemingly seen a new Jonah Hill emerge, like a butterfly from a chrysalis, but with a lot more fresh tattoos. During a recent visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote the Gus Van Sant film Dont Worry, He Wont Get Far on Foot, Hill, in a genial mood, started by addressing the audience: Ive been gone for a couple of years. Its nice to see everybody. He continued to the viewers, I met you when I was like 20, and Im 34 now. I feel like I spent my whole 20s trying to be who people wanted me to be. And I didnt know who I was. The past couple of years have been amazing in that Im just going to be myself. The audience cheered.

Watching that clip, considering all the iterations weve seen so far and this surprising new version were meeting now, its hard not to wonder: Is it possible weve never really met Jonah Hill before? Hed like to introduce, or reintroduce, himself. We can start with a phrase that would have seemed hilariously unlikely ten years ago but now seems poignant and possibly important: Written and directed by Jonah Hill.

From left: Alexa Demie and Sunny Suljic in a scene from Mid90s. Photo: Courtesy of A24 Jonah Hill on the set of Mid90s. Photo: Courtesy of A24 From top: Alexa Demie and Sunny Suljic in a scene from Mid90s. Photo: Courtesy of A24 Jonah Hill on the set of Mid90s. Photo: Courtesy of A24

In the Flatiron office of A24, the boutique distribution company behind Mid90s, his debut film, Hill sits in a vast, airy boardroom, wearing chunky black glasses and a well-groomed beard. His bumper crop of new tattoos, acquired during the recent just going to be myself period, are hidden by the long sleeves of a casual velour pullover. Hell show off one, the same he shared with Kimmel. It reads HELLO, BEANIE! in the Hello, Dolly! Font  a tribute to his sister, who appeared in that show on Broadway and also starred in the film Lady Bird. I did this because I love her, Hill explains.

Shes my favorite person in the world and my best friend. Later I ask Beanie what she thinks about the tattoo. She says shes flattered: He told me he was going to get it. I didnt think it would be so big.

The walls of the A24 boardroom are empty save for a single poster, for Mid90s, which creates the perhaps inadvertent (or perhaps purposeful) impression that its the only Jonah Hill film that matters right now. It features the movies star, Sunny Suljic, who was 11 during filming, staring straight into the camera with a slightly defiant look under the tagline Fall. Get Back Up. Mid90s is a coming-of-age story set in L.A., so you might expect that its strictly autobiographical for Hill, but its not. Suljic plays Stevie, a lower-middle-class kid from a rough home, with an abusive older brother and an overtaxed single mom, none of which is true of Hills childhood. Mid90s centers on Stevies induction into a tight-knit group of rambunctious skateboarders with nicknames like FuckShit and Fourth Grade, so you might expect it echoes the pleasures offered in some of Hills early roles, in films like Knocked Up, which were built around the fun of watching a bunch of dudes hang out and roast each other while you get to tag along. But tonally, Mid90s isnt like that, either  the kids are sweet and funny and caring but also casually cruel and irresponsible and more than willing to put each other into mortal danger. Mid90s owes more to Kids and Harmony Korine than to anything by Apatow.

If Hill learned a lesson from his early success in Superbad, its this: I got to watch Seth and Evan and [director] Greg Mottola make something that was truly what they wanted to make. It was their voice, their ethic, their aesthetic, their emotions. That planted a seed in him. That seed took ten years to germinate, during which time Hill incidentally became one of the biggest comedy stars in the world. Now hes made the film that reflects his voice, his ethic, his aesthetic, and his emotions, and its the story of a preteen trying to find acceptance and learning how to accept himself. I wanted to show what its like to try and make your way, Hill says, and how acceptance happens so gradually or not at all. Hes been thinking a lot about that  about value and acceptance and the difference between what the world tells you youre good at versus the things you really want to pursue. This, to him, is what Stevies story is all about  not a feel-good tale about falling and getting back up but the story of discovering your true value and how the things you dont see about yourself are actually the things you have to offer, Hill says. Sometimes it takes a while to realize what those things are. He should know. Over the past three years, he would often wonder why he was bothering to write and direct a film. Why do I want to do this? hed ask himself. But he realized the answer: Because I want that idea to land.

Hill started out writing a different movie, about a grown man (with constant flashbacks to his 12-year-old self skateboarding), but when he described that film to the director Spike Jonze, his friend, Jonze told him, You look uninterested when youre talking about the main story, and you light up when youre talking about when theyre skating. That should be what you write about. (Hill was reticent to share more details on the jettisoned grown-man plotline, since he may yet use that in another script.) Hill wanted to make a film about skateboarding because it meant a lot to him when he was an adolescent, around the same age he was devouring The Simpsons. Skateboarding had an outsider ethic  a sort of punk, anti ethic, he says, that appealed to him and drew him in. He wasnt great at skateboarding, himself. I would say dedication-wise I was 100 percent, but skill-wise 14 percent. He could do a couple of tricks, but mostly he enjoyed the feeling of community. Hills not the first comedian or actor Ive encountered who has mentioned having a formative relationship with skateboarding. Its a pursuit that to an outsider can seem like a way for kids to waste endless summer afternoons, sort of like loitering on wheels. But skateboarding mimics the rhythms of creativity. You learn a new trick. You practice until you master it. You show it off. You start again. You move on to the next, harder trick.

This becomes a useful lens through which to consider Hills career.

From afar, his acting resume can seem unpredictable to the point of being haphazard. He knew the pitfalls of early success, and he was determined to avoid them, says Scott Rudin, who produced Mid90s. And he has a prodigious knowledge of show-business rhythms. Hes very astute at watching who the players are in the room and how theyre moving the pieces around the board. After succeeding in broad comedies, Hill starred in the 2010 off-putting sort-of comedy Cyrus, directed by the Duplass brothers. He then played Peter Brand, a nervous, shuffling brainiac, in Moneyball, opposite Brad Pitt. He co-starred as Donnie Azoff in The Wolf of Wall Street, in a performance that was ferociously comic in the way a riled-up pit bull can be ferociously comic as long as its on the other side of the fence. In the upcoming Netflix limited series Maniac, Hill plays Owen Milgrim, a character so timid he threatens to collapse in on himself. His whole acting career thus far has consisted of doing things you didnt think Jonah Hill could do, then moving on to a new thing. Of learning the next, harder trick.

Thats the acting part. Hill once told Howard Stern, I think I am pretty good at making movies. I am not good at being a famous person, and hes gotten in trouble at times in his celebrity career. In 2014, he shouted a homophobic slur at a particularly persistent paparazzo, then apologized profusely during a week of celebrity penitence. Given that, its notable that the kids in Mid90s talk like, well, kids from the mid-90s: They curse and call each other all kinds of names, including the names Hill himself got in trouble for using. Hill has thought about this; he thought about taking that out. But he wanted to be true to skateboarding culture and the way kids talk, which is partly how he ended up using those words himself. Its very deliberate to show how ugly that vernacular was, he says of the dialogue. To be fair, what these conversations convey in the film is not that these kids are cool but how badly they want to seem cool and how often they fail to pull it off.

Hill has also been seen as prickly. This has been mostly related to his taking offense at such journalistic inquiries as What kind of a farter are you? (That is an actual question hes been asked. He reportedly answered, Im not answering that dumb question! Im not that kind of person! Being in a funny movie doesnt make me have to answer dumb questions. It has nothing to do with who I am.) As I talk to him now, he seems like hes over that kind of thing.

Is he over that kind of thing? Theres a funny moment early in his Kimmel interview when Kimmel says, in a friendly but pointed way, that Hill smells good, which is surprising.

Why is that surprising? Hill replies. The implication seems obvious  that Hill is a funny and vaguely slovenly dude and not someone you need to take seriously. But then Hill laughs it off. Im going to really work hard to not take that as a shot, he says. He seems to be working really hard to not take things as shots these days.

You cant live in a world where youre wondering what people think of you. It will just drive you crazy, he says later. This is his constant refrain about life in the public eye: You cant worry about it. Just do what youre doing. The rest will sort itself out. Just put one foot in front of the other.

Several incidents in Hills recent life may have led to this change in perspective. Someone close to me, he says, gave him a copy of the poem Ithaka, by C. P. Cavafy, not too long ago, which really moved him. The message, he says, is its the journey, not the destination. I really abide by that. He tells a story of acting with Joaquin Phoenix, when Hill nailed a particular scene and afterward Phoenix give him a little nod, which to Hill felt great  like, Respect. Like he confirmed it. Feeling happy, Hill moved on to the next scene and just blew it. And Joaquin smiles even bigger at me.

Hes like, Whenever you think you have it is exactly when you dont have it.  Thats Hills philosophy now. I could give you any answer to these questions, but the reality is, I dont have it. To me, the lesson of life is you never have it. Its all just starting over every day.

Theres also a scene in Mid90s in which Ray, a skateboarder played by Na-Kel Smith, tells Stevie a story about losing his younger brother suddenly to a car accident. Smith delivers it with such earnest emotion you initially suspect that maybe its drawn from his life. But then, it could have been drawn from Hills life, toohis older brother, Jordan Feldstein, a music manager for bands like Maroon 5, died suddenly of a pulmonary thromboembolism at age 40 in 2017. The answer is neither: The scene was written years ago, Hill says. It was always the emotional core of the film. In regards to my brother, I love him and I miss him very much, and thats all I want to talk about that.

Overall, Hill comes across like someone in his early 30s who has just been through the familiar and necessary process of figuring out who he is  but who happened to do it while also becoming, as of 2015, the 28th-highest-paid actor in the world. (A particularly good year for him was 2015, in which he reportedly made $16 million  nearly $10 million for the sequel to 21 Jump Street alone, a project he produced and developed from the start.)

Artistically, hes now less concerned with how to make millions (for himself or others) than with how to keep the expectation of making millions (for himself or others) from preventing him from making things he really wants to make. He likes working with Rudin and Eli Bush, his producers, and with A24, because theres not the expectation to make a bajillion dollars and be so mainstream. Personally, he seems like someone in a very good place or someone whos working very hard to convey that hes in a very good place, and maybe theres not much difference between the two.

From left: Photo: Tal Rubin/GC Images Photo: TheStewartofNY/GC Images From left: Photo: Tal Rubin/GC Images Photo: TheStewartofNY/GC Images

Hill, streetwear icon, in New York. From left: Photo: Felipe Ramales/SplashNews.com Photo: SplashNews.com Hill, streetwear icon, in New York. From left: Photo: Felipe Ramales/SplashNews.com Photo: SplashNews.com

Perhaps the most unforeseen development in his recent life is his emergence as a lifestyle icon. Hes joined Instagram, briefly dyed his hair pink, and got all those new tattoos. Hes become a notorious connoisseur of, and occasional spokesperson for, au courant streetwear brands. While filming The Wolf of Wall Street, he moved to New York, then realized, Wow, I dont have to live in L.A. I made a list of my favorite filmmakers, and the majority of them live in New York. I was like, Wow, you can actually just live in New York City! So now he does. A menswear Twitter feed, Four Pins, started the Jonah Hill Fit Watch, which chronicles his style and physical fitness (his weight has famously fluctuated) in a largely affectionate way. Both Esquire and GQ have also praised his fashion choices  Esquire declared he has the perfect approach to street style, and GQ called him our new style savior  mostly because he walks around New York looking simultaneously as if he cares a little about cool clothes but not very much about the edicts of magazines like Esquire and GQ. A podcast, Failing Upwards, started Jonah Hill Day a year ago to coincide with Fashion Week. It started as a kind of ironic, tongue-in-cheek thing but from a place of sincerity, says Lawrence Schlossman, co-host of Failing Upwards. Heres this guy a lot of people grew up with as a jokey, overweight class clown in Superbad or This Is the End. Now were seeing him transition. Hes successful. Hes credible. He mixes Palace and Prada. Hes like next-level Jonah Hill  an aspirational but attainable avatar.

The advent of Jonah Hill Day both amused and alarmed Hill. I point out to him that there are two kinds of people in the world: people who would flock to a day named after themselves and people whod stay very far away. Ive been both! he says. The first year, I didnt go because I was too nervous. I was like, Is it arrogant to go? You get so in your head. But then I thought, These people are throwing a day for whatever reason, out of appreciation. Im going to go show them love. And so he did. He was amazed, he says, to discover that the attendees werent 15-year-old fans, as hed expected, but mostly grown-up men around his age. He smiled and posed for photos and generally had a good time, even though in some of the photos hes standing next to a cardboard cutout of himself.

We call this The Mansion, Hill announces the next day, in a darkened editing suite in Tribeca. Hes working on a very last-minute tweak to Mid90s with his editor, Nick Houy, before the film is picture-locked. Its the tiniest change imaginable: In a shot that flashes by in a montage, we see Stevie and his mom watching a movie on TV; its part of their weekly movie night, a sacred ritual. The film, barely visible, is GoodFellas. Hill wants to swap out one GoodFellas scene for another. Originally, it was the scene where [Joe Pesci] is shooting Spider, he explains. But I wanted to go with a less obvious scene. My favorite is where Scorseses mom is holding up her painting of a dog. Its a little more low-key. Hill understands that literally no one will notice this detail. Still, he had to make it. In part, he wants to show love and respect to Scorsese, and though he knows most people wont catch it, maybe a few people will. He has loaded the movie with little moments like that: unannounced cameos by favorite rappers or skateboarders and offhand nods to cherished films. The key is not to make a meal of it, he says, but if you know, you know.

In the early days of editing, Hill and Houy had been working in a smaller, windowless editing suite, but they got moved up by A24 to the mansion after an early screening of the film. I guess they liked the movie! Hill says, excited. Hes wearing the same black glasses, now with an all-white ensemble: white sweatshirt, white pants, white shoes. (The more streetwear-savvy readers will wonder, What pants? What shoes? I am the wrong correspondent to relay this.) This editing suite, the mansion, is not only bigger, but it also has windows, though theyre covered with blackout shades, giving the room a womblike feel. Hill says this is his favorite place to be in the world right now, and its easy to believe him. If you had spent your childhood making up Simpsons episodes and then sort of accidentally became an object of fascination for people who snap your photo and post it on the internet so they can talk about your pants, you too might enjoy spending your days in a darkened room, fiddling with your very first film. You too might spend endless hours worrying about the final details of a scene in which a little kid falls in love with watching movies.

For Hill, Mid90s is the culmination of a ten-year, self-directed film school. It is remarkable to look back and realize that, at age 34, Hill has already worked with Scorsese, the Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino, the Duplass brothers, Gus Van Sant, Bennett Miller, and Cary Joji Fukunaga. On the set of The Wolf of Wall Street, he marveled at Scorseses ability to solve, in 30 to 45 seconds, a problem another director might spend an hour on. But thats some combination of genius and experience, Hill says. Its so awe-inspiring that you dont even aspire to it. It does mean, however, that when youre finally making your own first movie, you can call up Scorsese for pointers, then drop by his house expecting a 15-minute conversation, as Hill did, and wind up talking for four hours.

Or theres the time Hill was out for dinner the night before he was to start shooting Mid90s. He ran into Ethan Coen, with whom hed worked on a small, one-scene role in Hail, Caesar!  a part Hill took specifically so he could watch the Coen brothers work. Hill asked Coen if he had any advice. Let me think about it, said Coen. Ill find you before you leave. Later, Coen stopped at Hills table. Ive got it, Coen said. Just try and enjoy it. I was so stressed out during my first movie, I didnt enjoy anything. Even try to enjoy the stress. Just enjoy the newness of it.

Tonight, Hill says, once hes done in the editing suite, hell go home and watch the Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon, a favorite of his, for the second time that week. Hes not watching for escape or even enjoyment. He wants to study it. He wants to imagine why Kubrick made every decision he made. He wants to learn.

At his advanced age, Hill now gives a lot of advice to his sister Beanie, who at 25 is more or less at the same point Hill was after Superbad. But the paradox of his own career is that its nearly impossible to emulate. So what advice would he give a 20-year-old kid starting out now? Dont try and do what you think is flashy or is the coolest thing to do. Think of what you actually love, Hill says. Okay  so when exactly did that happen for him? When in his career did he figure out what he actually loves?

Hill thinks about this for a long moment in the dark of the editing studio. Then he thinks for another long moment. It doesnt seem like he cant recall when this happened. It seems like hes wondering whether he should reveal it.

Then he says, When I pulled up to the set on the first day of Mid90s, and the cameras were there, and the trucks were there, and the kids were in their costumes, and I was behind the camera, I thought, This is home. I knew this is what I wanted out of my life. He could end there. But he doesnt. And I didnt feel like it was given to me. I felt like I had worked for it.

*This article appears in the September 3, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!Kevin Spacey. Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

The Los Angeles County district attorney has declined to prosecute sex crime cases against Kevin Spacey, Anthony Anderson, and Steven Seagal, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In two of those cases, the statute of limitations of the claims against the men had passed; in the third, involving Anderson, the reporting party declined to be interviewed by authorities for the case. This particular investigation into Spacey, whom multiple men have accused of sexual assault, involved an incident that took place in 1992. (Spacey is still facing a second sexual assault charge in Los Angeles, according to Deadline.) The case involving Seagal took place in 1993. The L.A. district attorney is still investigating Harvey Weinstein over a rape accusation, while Weinstein is facing felony sex charges in New York.Time to sit down for another relaxing episode of Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood. We start this episode with  fighting. Spoiler alert: The middle of the episode is fighting. And the end of the episode? Well you guessed it, people are fighting. Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood has more violence than a UFC tournament. Why? Because our favorite cast members lack the emotional maturity to resolve problems with their words. I cant relate to this at all. I have never been in a physical altercation, certainly not of the televised variety. But without these incessant confrontations, this wouldnt be a Love & Hip Hop franchise, itd be a Behind the Music special on artists you dont know or care about.

But lets hop in. We start at the end of the Bentleys vs. Lyricas food fight, which could be in the Guinness World Records book for Most Middle-aged Participants. These are parents throwing coleslaw at each other in a public restaurant. And mind you, this is supposed to be the moment that Lyrica announces shes pregnant with A1s bedazzled baby. Instead, there are more security guards here than at a mall cop convention, and Id just like to take the time to thank the best tactical team since SEAL Team Six. As mentioned, they will be working for their check today, because half the LHHH cast is feeling knuck and the other half is feeling buck. But I digress  This scene ends with Lyricas mother, who I will refer to as Big Lyrica, crying on the side of the 305 highway after her daughter tells her shes pregnant. This is not the environment I would want to bring a child into, but thats just me. Someone people like tomatoes, other people like to throw food.

Lets hop on over to the next Family Feud. Shun Love and Amber Riley argue because they are a mother and daughter who have no business working with each other. Shun Love is an off-brand Kris Jenner, who pays for her daughters photo shoot and tells her how to live. Amber is a way-off-brand Kim who has neither the confidence or the business savvy. It is abundantly clear that Shun Love is trying to live vicariously through her daughters career. I dont understand this, but I dont have children. Who knows? One day, I could name my daughter Ziwe Jr. and make her join the New York Philharmonic. It truly doesnt matter, there are bigger and better fights for us to get into anyway.

This next confrontation is not necessarily a fight between people, but rather a fight between Brooke and reality. She believes she can bully Marcus into marrying her if she books a hotel room, a priest, and a one-way flight for his mom. Id say that Brooke is dead wrong, but she gets exactly what she wants from Marcus: a formal proposal and a ring. I would love to take Brookes Mastercard Masterclass on how to coerce loved ones into appeasing my outrageous demands because Brooke has two rings. I may not relate to her journey, but I certainly respect the hustle.

Our next Battle Royale is at Akbars house. Its not entirely clear what these women are fighting about. At first, it seems like they are arguing over who gets to be Akbars main sister-wife, but Teairra makes it clear that shes not interested. At some point, Alessandra and Not Sade start to bicker about who gets to speak. Then, Akbar and Not Sade get into it about who gets to pick the women invited into their harem. Teairra realizes that this conversation is fruitless and makes the second best decision to leave. (The best decision is to not have gone to Akbars house in the first place, but again, all I can do is try to relate to these women.) This is when Not Sade and Alessandra cut loose like a pack of wildebeest, charging Teairrra and Paris. Akbar is left in the dust wondering how he let this get so out of control. If we are rating Love & Hip Hop fights on a scale of Americas Funniest Home Videos to American Ninja Warrior, (and we shouldnt rate these because thats morally reprehensible), Id give this an 8. There were cardio, surprise attacks, and aerial leaps. Again, special shout-out to the hardest working security team on VH1, I never want to see anyone get hurt, and they ensure I can enjoy this show (slightly) guilt-free.

On the other side of town, RoccStar brings Paris and Brooke to Amber Rileys single release party to pretend to like her music. Hes paid half the crowd to bob their heads, which makes me wonder what the going rate is for Background Actor at Friends Show. Standing around and pretending to have fun is something I do for free anyway, so this doesnt seem like a bad gig. Id like to submit my resume. RoccStar plays Amber Rileys song  To say that this is the worst song Ive ever heard would be an understatement. This is what they played Noreiga to break his psyche. Its not music, its torture. And Shun Love knows this and shes enraged because she dropped $20,000 on this record. I dont blame her for being upset, I blame her for wasting that kind of money on garbage. If you want to set up your daughter financially for life, consider buying her some stocks and bonds. RoccStar responds to her rage by playing Amber Rileys raw vocals to a room full of people that already think shes untalented. To put it mildly, the raw vocals sound like a cat being waterboarded. Everyone grimaces as their ears bleed.

Finally, we head to that appears to be the Last Supper. This is the fight we saw so acutely in the previews where A1 fights gravity and jumps over a ten-foot table. Id like to approach this scene as a case study in each cast member playing their role. We start with Ray J and Princess. Ray feels guilty about knowing Safarees little secret and has invited him to confront A1 and Lyrica at their dinner. This annoys Princess because shes been under house arrest for the last couple of weeks and hasnt seen her friends. She rightfully tells Ray J to get over his feelings and stop causing drama. Ray J says hell pay for dinner. This is the least he could do for ruining what is supposed to be A1 and Lyricas baby announcement. Ray J is our de facto pot-stirrer and Princess is his foil.

Brooke announces that she and Marcus have gotten re-engaged for the first time. Its tactless to do this at someone elses event, but our favorite villainess is great at making things about her. Never to be outdone, Lyrica interrupts the toast everyone is giving to Brooke to announce that she and A1 are having a baby. Lyrica and A1 are oblivious to the drama coming their way that their personal lives are at the center of. Love it or hate it, A1 and Lyrica are the nucleus of this season, and without them (or rather their marital problems) there would be no central drama. In his confessional, Ray J wonders whose baby Lyrica is carrying, because he is the the troublemaker and this question is certain to make trouble.

Safaree arrives at the party and says nearly nothing, hes playing the role of unwilling antagonist. My problem with Safaree is that if he can admit to Ray J that he slept with Lyrica, he should be able to say this to A1s face. Anything less is cowardly. Ray J has no business being the bearer of bad news but of course, he does the dirty work because our plot has got to move forward somehow. Also, props to Marcus, who is playing his role of giving reaction shots. Safaree responds to the drama by saying, I dont know what you got going on in your relationship, but leave me out of it. Its a little late for that, Safaree. If you wanted to be left out of the drama you shouldnt have gossiped about a married woman in the first place. But again, I cant relate to this. All I can do is grab my popcorn and wonder how A1 defies the laws of gravity to hop over that table.Nicki Minaj. Photo: Rancel Lopez

This years Made in America Festival was embroiled in controversy before it even began: Its creator Jay-Z had a public war of words with Philadelphias mayor over whether or not the festival could remain at its usual location, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (just beyond the Rocky steps), for another year or get run out of the city altogether. Ultimately, Jay won and the festival took over Philly for its sixth consecutive Labor Day Weekend. Vulture was on hand to see what the ruckus was all about, stopping by all five stages (Rocky and Liberty being the main venues; Tidal, Freedom, and Skate all more intimate.) Didnt catch the livestream? Heres what you missed, from Nicki Minajs wardrobe malfunction, to the Tekashi 6ix9ine problem, to Meek Mills homecoming, and more.

Nicki Minaj.

Though the big news out of her set was an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction that led to some nip slips (they saw my nipples at least 50 times, she later half-joked), dont let it distract from the real news: Nickis Queen tour, whenever it happens in North America, will probably slap (though she might want to work out those costume kinks). Naturally, Nickis stage involves a throne  as did Janelle Monaes  but what solidifies her reign is her body of work: She can choose to reach as far back as mixtape track Itty Bitty Piggy or as recently as her shit-talking Barbie Dreams (asking the crowd beforehand which rapper we think has the biggest dick) with the confidence that all will be equally known and met with the same commotion. She can nix her heels, hand her stage over to her collaborators A$AP Ferg, Lil Uzi Vert, and Tekashi 6ix9ine (more on him below), host a dance contest to Good Form to give out a cash prize to a woman from the crowd, then resume the show at any point without really missing much of a beat. (And when she does, she can merely smirk, bat her falsies, and itll look like it was part of the show.) Nicki is preparing to take a victory lap, losses be damned.

The Tekashi 6ix9ine problem.

Most of hip-hop still doesnt know what to do with the problematic rappers of the SoundCloud generation, particularly as their popularity increases at an alarming rate. On Saturday, Tekashi 6ix9ine, the Brooklyn rapper who has plead guilty to use of a child in a sexual performance and is awaiting sentencing, was set to make his first festival appearance. He was a late addition to the lineup (booked for the main stage) and on the day of his performance he missed his scheduled set time entirely and with no reason given. Most of the crowd waited it out for 45-plus minutes before moving on, testament to the hunger his young fans have (and we mean very young; a group of girls who looked 10 years old stood excitedly in front of us). The show stalled by bringing on other barely known rappers and a cameo from Meek Mill, but it wasnt enough to keep the majority of the crowd from finally leaving.

Eventually, Tekashi arrived two hours after his start time and the rapper once described as a life-size Skittle made his festival debut with the rowdiest crowd reaction of the entire weekend. He said Made in America was the first festival to invite him without ever mentioning why that may be, then stripped down to his underwear (which he proudly claimed were still not name brand, despite his new money), and paid tribute to his roots by draping himself in the Mexican flag. Perhaps the most difficult to stomach, though, he also honored fellow controversial rapper XXXTentacion, who was killed in June and had been awaiting trial on domestic-violence charges at the time of his death. Tekashi spoke of his last conversation with X, about how they were each going to do and be better, then led the crowd in a We love X chant multiple times. The moment became the biggest crowd-pleaser of the whole festival, and the most uncomfortable to witness firsthand.

#Millidelphia.

Though Meek Mill performed first at New Yorks Hot 97 Summer Jam after his release from prison, Made in America marked his official homecoming. The problem with headlining a major musical festival, though, is even if its in your hometown, your set still has to be accessible to the masses, not just those homegrown. Mill performed mostly from 2017s Wins & Losses, but saved the moment thats bigger than him for last, with his now infamous, career-defining Dreams & Nightmares intro. The crowd was so deafening from the instant it started to the second the beat switch kicks in that he played it back again.

The love for Phillys new class of female rappers.

Both Meek Mill and Kendrick Lamar gave part of their sets to up-and-coming local talent, bringing out Philly rapper Tierra Whack and Bri Steves, respectively, for a couple songs, putting both artists in front of millions of new eyes. (Mill also brought out Phillys PnB Rock.)

Dancing to Zedd and Diplo in the makeshift forest.

EDM had its own separate stage away from all the main action  where Tokimonsta, Snakehips, and Cashmere Cat all killed  but its biggest stars got headlining billing over on the Liberty stage, the next-biggest to the main. Its a better fit: Situated among a path of trees, both Zedd and Diplos sets felt like a rave hosted in the middle of a forest (mosh pits included). Between his many hits, Zedd played everything from Daft Punk to Cardi B. In a rare-ish solo set from Diplo (hes usually joined by Major Lazer, Skrillex, or now with Mark Ronson as their new duo Silk City), he used the opportunity to play less of his own work and act more as a traditional DJ than producer, dropping what hes been into lately (which includes a lot of trap  specifically Travis Scott  and Shek Wes).

Juice Wrlds emo rival.

There might not be a bigger hero to the teens right now that Chicago rapper Juice Wrld  a hero not because he provides any longterm saving, but because he offers what all kids hurting desperately crave: catharsis. Juice Wrlds brand is emo-rap and the currency he lives off of is tears and hard drugs, excessive amounts of each. His show saw the largest crowd at the Tidal stage for new artists and easily its most affected. One kid climbed a traffic light to get a better vantage from which to take it all in, then proceeded to accidentally break it. Other kids climbed trees. Everyone screamed Lucid Dreams and Wasted like the words were tattooed on their cerebrums. Now that Warped Tour is dead, Juice Wrld might be the next best thing to keep its emo spirit alive, for better or worse.

Discovering Shoreline Mafia.

For an East Coast festival created by a New York City legend, Made in Americas Tidal stage hosted a helluva lot of West Coast talent, starting with L.A.s Shoreline Mafia on Saturday. Admittedly, the group was new to this Vulture (or anyone else above 21, wed imagine) but theyve since shot up our ones to watch list. Dont come to Shoreline expecting nuance  they specialize in typical drug rap and sexual innuendoes no better than the ones your average 15-year-old comments on Instagram modelss photos  but rather appreciate their immediate comfort on stage, despite being new to this, and infectious energy. They possess the necessary charm and star power to build a loyal fan base, so much so that they already had a crowd of about 200 people on the opposite coast rapping their every word. They even got a more frenzied reception during fellow bigger Cali group SOB x RBEs own set when they were brought back out as guests for Da Move.

Lil B leading us all in the Y.M.C.A.

It is a travesty that Lil B will never quite be as famous for his music as rap blogs wanted him to be, but hes never any less amused by his own caricature. The BasedGod headlined the smaller Tidal stage on Sunday  to a crowd of about 150 people. And, you know what, he had a ball doing so. Comedy is what you come for in a Lil B show, and laughs are what he delivered, opening his set with, of all things, a very rare performance to the Y.M.C.A, a song we want so badly to believe he only just discovered this past February.

Jay Park causing pandemonium.

Park is one of Roc Nations most recent signees and for good reason: The Seattle rapper treated performing on the Tidal stage like it was the main, bringing backup dancers and star presence. Park got his start in K-pop and the astronomical fame that comes with that world hasnt left him despite his transitioning to a focus on the American rap game. When he exited the stage with his dancers, he did so by entering into the crowd, legions of which chased Park as he made his way into the festival and over to see other performers as if her were just a regular.Excerpt from Rx. Photo: Rachel Lindsay / Grand Central Publishing

You wont know the shape of your own unraveling until it happens.

So speaks the inked avatar of Rachel Lindsay a few pages into her debut graphic memoir, Rx. She sits with her legs spread and her arms in her lap, gazing toward the reader with baggy eyes from the cold comfort of a hospital bed. A tagged medical bracelet adorns her wrist. She is slipshod and her hair wisps off uncontrollably. Its a deceptively crude drawing, comprised mostly of straight lines and blank textures. But one gets the feeling that this drawn humans saucer eyes, so clear and simple, are cutting past whatever defenses you may have and channeling the words above her directly into your heart. Maybe I shouldnt use the second-person in that statement. Your mileage may vary, but in that single-panel page, Lindsay was gripping me on a very individual level.

I, too, have never known the shapes of my own unravelings until they happen. Like Lindsay, I live with bipolar disorder. Like her, I have seen professionals and taken medications to treat that disorder for much of my life. And like her, I have learned that those practices are not cures. I, too, have been hospitalized during a manic episode and have come close to return engagements on a number of occasions. The phenomenon of mental decay is presented in such a blazingly clear and coherent way in Lindsays book that I cant get it out of my head. For anyone with an affection for comics and an interest in ailments of the mind, Rx is required reading.

We live in an age when destigmatization of mental illness is allegedly a cultural priority, but there are realms that remain stupidly off-limits. We express tender affection for the depressive person, bludgeoned by misery and unable to move. We embrace the anxious one, held back from full participation in society due to the overwhelming tidal wave that is a panic attack. These are welcome developments. But, by and large, we have yet to confront the assholes.

Thats where we get to the shapes of unravelings. There are times when a bipolar patient loses their mind through sadness, melting into the bed and wishing for oblivion. But noble depressions evil twin is mania, and as anyone who has lived through a manic episode can tell you, it makes bad ideas seem like exceedingly good ones. As such, it often leads you to hurt those around you with your selfish and impulsive acts. The trouble here is that we want to believe that everyone should be held accountable for their actions and we want to be sensitive to the distortions of mental illness  but what if those impulses are at cross-purposes? How should we navigate responsibility and forgiveness?

Rx doesnt offer answers to those questions, but it deserves praise for the way it subtly asks them. From a 30,000-foot view, the narrative arc is familiar: person seems fine, person goes crazy, person confronts craziness, person comes out the other end with a new self-understanding. But the specific contours of Lindsays memoir surprise us with their idiosyncrasy.

Excerpt from Rx. Photo: Rachel Lindsay / Grand Central Publishing

She begins as an employee of a marketing firm, assigned to a Pfizer account that requires her to sell antidepressants. The gig triggers fury against the pharmaceutical industry that quickly reveals itself to actually be fury against the fact that she has to be a prisoner of her own drugs. She wants to move to the frontier, live as an artist and musician, figure herself out. But ever since she was diagnosed, her life has revolved around the goal of, as she puts it in a full-page panel of her flat-expressioned face, Staying Sane. That means paying for medication and therapy via health insurance, and thus full-time employment. Choices were made for me, she writes above a silhouette of herself receiving a prescription from a doctor; flip the page and theres a two-page spread of a hand holding two and a half pills, which speak the cursive words, good night.

Just her luck, a manic episode appears in which her mind puddle-jumped planets. We see demi-circles appear under her eyes and inwardly slanted eyebrows above them. Her appetite for food decreases, her appetite for marijuana (a substance that she never really gets into but is clearly a problem for her, as it is for countless bipolar people) increases. It was all familiar, she says. I recognized the red flags. But in the context of the moment  it all felt like a completely reasonable reaction to my life. Again, elegance should not be mistaken for simplicity here. Lindsay is making an astoundingly astute observation about mania, which is that its often rooted in understandable responses to the world. And, more important, its largely beyond your control once it rolls into effect, no matter how noticeable it might be.

I wont spoil too much about how the episode plays out, but given the framing device of the story, its not a spoiler to say it leads her to a medical institution and a hard examination of truths shes been avoiding. The book is a product of those examinations, and the moments that stuck with me most are the ones in which she recalls alienating those around her. She slacks off at work due to overconfidence about a possible new job and forces others to cover for her; she screams at her parents for pointing out the obvious-even-to-her fact that shes manic; she tries to become  as she puts it in a chapter-heading image of herself in shades on a mean street  an urban badass  talks mad smack, smokes dank bud, dont give a fuck. In the books hindsight, she can observe that mania is a specific breed of insanity  calculated, omniscient, unyielding. It strips you of remorse and responsibility. Its a prick, and it can turn you into one.

Again, we get back to the shapes of unravelings. Mine havent looked exactly like Lindsays, but every day, I carry the regret of the awful romantic mistakes, arrogant professional decisions, self-destructive indulgences, and irreversible life choices I have made while manic. I, too, grapple with substance abuse and have turned to THC as a balm despite the fact that my psychiatrist told me it was only further breaking my brain. My specifics may differ, but I couldnt get enough of Lindsays zoomed-out observations about the terrifying heights of our shared disorder. She does not paint herself as a hero, nor can I  we must bear the burdens of the stupid slip-ups weve made. Because who else will? She is merely asking for a shred of empathy from the people wronged by people like us.

Shes also trying to prove that comics can be a uniquely well-primed medium for narratives of mental illness. I spoke with Lindsay about the book and, time and again, she emphasized that notion. Having the ability to show, versus tell, is really powerful, she said. But also, just being able to depict yourself as a cartoon character. My style is very old-school and cutesy, and I think that gives people a little bit of something to empathize with and to see that character through the whole experience by getting an emotional attachment.

Excerpt from Rx. Photo: Rachel Lindsay / Grand Central Publishing

Shes onto something  as comics analyst Scott McCloud famously observed in Understanding Comics, simple faces can be easier to relate to than more detailed ones due to the primal fact that we perceive our own faces in simple terms when were not looking in a mirror. We see ourselves as smiley or frowny faces, and a blunt style like Lindsays allows us to subconsciously envision ourselves inside her emotions. That bluntness and seeming crudity also ensures that the reader isnt distracted by flashy shows of detail and rendering. You are taking in the story and the feelings, undiluted by anything else

Whats more, theres the matter of pacing. A prose novel moves the reader along the page at a consistent rate, whereas a comic can force you to slow down or speed up depending on the number and complexity of panels on a page. Being able to re-create the manic intensity of the moment by how quickly you get the reader to move along through your images is really helpful, she said. Having that control and decision-making makes the reader more a part of the story than they would be if they were just reading sentences.

But perhaps most important is the immediacy of the comics medium. Lindsay is far from the first cartoonist to chronicle mental illness in sequential art  Nate Powell did so in Swallow Me Whole, Ian Williams did in The Bad Doctor, Ellen Forney in Marbles. What they all share in common with Rx is their ability to punch the reader in the face with a stark image that instantly registers, and with sparing text that is, due to the economy of a page, more like poetry than prose. You can also read a graphic memoir/novel in a single sitting in a way you cant with even the most masterful prose books. When youre in the hole, you may not have the energy to process big blocks of words. A comic, though, can be far more digestible.

As I sat down to write about Rx, I kept thinking about a comic that in no way resembles Lindsays work. Its Frank Miller and David Mazzucchellis Marvel Comics epic, Daredevil: Born Again. When I was hospitalized during a manic episode in my sophomore year of college, I happened to have a paperback of it in my backpack and I pored over it whenever I wasnt in group therapy or staring blankly into the middle distance. I couldnt muster the strength to read a conventional book, but Born Again seared itself into my brain. I journaled about it and pondered the ways in which my struggle resembled that of the titular hero. In some ways, that comic saved my life. Maybe Rx can do that for someone else. For some people, unraveling is inevitable. Its the story you tell when you spool back up that matters.Goodies! Photo: Vulture

Each month, Abraham Riesman offers recommendations of comics media, including book-length graphic novels, comics-format nonfiction, ongoing series, and comics-related items in other forms. With any luck, at least one of them will be a match for you.

For this month only, if you buy a comic through comiXology and enter the checkout code VULTURE15, youll get $5 off purchases of $15 or more.

Berlin by Jason Lutes (Drawn + Quarterly)

Recommend isnt a strong enough verb for conveying how badly you need to read Berlin. Urge and implore fall short, too. Perhaps I should simply say that I demand you read Jason Lutess dictionary-sized epic of Weimar-era life in the titular metropolis. The cartoonist began serializing this chronicle of intertwining lives well over 20 years ago, but this month finally sees the release of the complete narrative, from its unassumingly quiet opening to the awe-inspiring two-page spreads that conclude it. The stories that play out between those two bookends sway from the romantic to the apocalyptic and back again, and the intricate linework and oft-mind-blowing layouts are incomparable. For a reader whos white-knuckling it through our present period of social collapse, Berlin is a beacon of both warning and hope.

West Coast Avengers by Kelly Thompson, Stefano Caselli, Triona Farrell, and Joe Caramagna (Marvel)

Given that there are barely any new ideas to be found in superhero comics, theres a tendency to rely on quirky, genre-narcissistic humor in order to stoke interest. On its surface, West Coast Avengers should be one of those dull attempts at content-free giggles: Its a revival of a long-dead series featuring a motley crew of misfits who poke fun at the very concept of superhero-ing. And yet, in the hands of master-class artist Stefano Caselli and rising superstar writer Kelly Thompson, it shines and soars. It follows the adventures of Thompson muse Kate Bishop  a young former apprentice of Hawkeye who migrated to L.A. to become a P.I.  as she assembles a team to counter uniquely Left Coast threats. The grouping is admirably eccentric (I didnt think Id ever live to see X-Man Quentin Quire and bizarre meta-character Gwenpool occupy the same comic, much less engage in explosion-heavy squabbling), the dialogue pops, and Casellis pencils and Triona Farrells colors evoke everything one loves about a lazy day on the Venice Beach boardwalk.

Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn + Quarterly)

A scientist makes a startling discovery: All the men are dying off. Catastrophe and collapse ensue. The women who live on form their own community and attempt to imagine what society can be. All of that stuff, but funny: thats what you get when you open up Aminder Dhaliwals stupendous Woman World. Its a series of vignettes from the post-apocalypse, in which the gendercide has made men a fading, misremembered curio (to wit: a young girl finds an old DVD of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and becomes convinced that Kevin James was the epitome of old-world masculinity) and the challenges of building a feminine commune are met with good-natured bickering (should the society be called Woman World? Matriarch Macrocosm? Queen Quay? Gal Globe?). First serialized on Instagram, Dhaliwals elegantly lined humor feels perfectly pitched for the contemporary moment in bite-sized, social-media-friendly humor without ever feeling dumbed-down or cutesy. By the way, I vote for Queen Quay, but I dont think my vote counts for much.

Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories by Peter Kuper (W. W. Norton)

While reading Kafkaesque, I was reminded of a recent article in The Guardian about the blight that is the contemporary trend toward skim-reading. As information continues to overload us and we decreasingly read physical print, we glide over complexities in texts and tend to just look for the gist of a given piece, the simple nut that easily summarizes the argument. The article didnt mention comics, but surely this phenomenon applies to them, as well  we soak up plot and gags and twists and fail to wrestle with anything that requires extended thought. Well, woe to the reader who tries to skim Peter Kupers Kafkaesque, because theyll find nothing easy to grab hold of. Kuper is one of the most distinctive and accomplished artists of the alternative-comics generation and this collection of illustrated adaptations of little Franz Kafka tales elides easy interpretation. What, exactly, was Kafka trying to say in his story about the man who sits at the gate of the law for his whole life without ever entering? And how literally were we to take The Burrow or The Spinning Top? Kuper doesnt have the answers for us, and his faux woodcuts, with their explosive faces and grim chiaroscuro, cannot be easily digested  a supreme virtue.

The Seeds by Ann Nocenti and David Aja (Dark Horse / Berger Books)

Ann Nocenti is one of the great unsung heroes of the comics medium. Back in the late 1980s, she began a truly fantastic run as the writer of Daredevil, but to this day, most of it remains unavailable in collected editions. She was an influential editor of various X-Men titles, but few speak of her in histories of the mighty mutants. She was only ever on the edge of the spotlight, then left it altogether a number of years ago. Lucky for us, shes back and better than ever. Super-editor Karen Berger has hired her to write The Seeds for Dark Horses Berger Books line alongside one of the best artists in the industry, Hawkeye veteran David Aja, and the results are extremely promising. Its hard to say what the book is about, exactly, since were only one issue in and that issue was as enticing as it was mysterious. But suffice it to say that its about some kind of postapocalyptic world where a substantial portion of the population has given up on modern technology and the rest of the world is suffering in a curious hellscape. Berger used to edit DCs legendary Vertigo imprint, and this is one of the first Berger Books titles to really feel like classic Vertigo, which is about as high a compliment as one can give a serialized comic.

The Nameless City: The Divided Earth by Faith Erin Hicks and Jordie Bellaire (First Second)

The Divided Earth is a tragic affair, and not just because of the battles waged and the prices paid within its pages. Its simply a tragedy that Faith Erin Hicks and Jordie Bellaire have to end their marvelous Nameless City trilogy. Ever since the series began with 2016s The Nameless City, its become one of the high-water marks in contemporary fantasy comics. Theyre set in a heavenly urban dreamworld inspired by pre-modern dynastic China, a city where nations and races coexist and collide, where conquerors come and go but the stones remain the same. In this conclusion to the triptych, alliances are forged and the race is on to find the secret formula for a super-weapon that could change the world for the worse or the better. Hicks is at the peak of her written and visual abilities here, giving us stunning vistas and dense back-alleys populated by empathetically drawn faces and bodies. The action stings, the passion burns, and the fantastic ending will lessen the blow of the fact that it has to end at all.

She Could Fly by Christopher Cantwell, Martin Morazzo, Miroslav Mrva, and Clem Robins (Dark Horse / Berger Books)

A family is watching TV at home in Chicago. The mother gives the daughter a pet cactus. The daughter bites into it, its spikes jutting out through her cheeks and tongue. She lunges forward and stabs her mothers eye out. But wait, no, that didnt happen, its just a figment of the daughters imagination. Nevertheless, a voice speaks in her head: You are going to kill her. You are evil and worthless. Meanwhile, the world wonders at the fact that a flying woman was sighted. Welcome to the world of the remarkable new series She Could Fly. The writing is deliberately choppy in the name of expressing both the agony of self-hating disease and the surreal nature of everyday life; the artwork quakes and squirms with uneasy intensity. Its a surreal slip into the world of mental illness and the uncanniness of the world around us that should make writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Martin Morazzo into household names, if theres any justice.

Other People by Joff Winterhart (Gallery 13)

Few of us bother to visit the worlds Joff Winterhart describes in Other People. Its a compilation of two graphic novellas by the British cartoonist, Days of the Bagnold Summer and Driving Short Distances, and it takes the reader to the hidden, forgotten places of the U.K. These are towns where jobs are unglamorous but no one complains much, youngsters have little to do but seem content to stare off into the middle distance, and maybe a handful of people have been to London once or twice but didnt care for it. One can hardly imagine the characters being interested in buying offbeat comic books, but if they were to pick this one up, theyd see themselves delicately reconstructed with a vibrant love and boundless empathy. Days chronicles six weeks in the lives of a teenager and his single mother, Driving tells of a post-breakdown 20-something who starts working for a stout and principled man whose job is a bit hard to pin down, and both are illustrated with a jangly and tender elegance that looks and feels like nothing else on the shelves. Even in the prose aisles, youd be hard-pressed to find a piece of literary fiction as nuanced and beautiful as this.Photo: Alessio Bolzoni/Amazon Studios/Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Maybe youve heard: There are not a lot of women in the Venice lineup. Well, not a lot of women filmmakers  there are plenty of women, stories about women, and women walking down the red carpet. But there are only eight films directed by women in the official selection, and a lone woman director in this years 21-deep competition lineup: Australias Jennifer Kent, with her follow-up to 2014 horror breakout/evergreen meme The Babadook. The festival agreed to sign a protocol identical to the one signed by the programmers at Cannes this year, which agrees to greater transparency in the selection process, increased gender parity in executive boards, and an overall goal toward gender parity in directors  but not a quota. Festival director Alberto Barbera rivals Cannes director Thierry Fremaux in his vocal discomfort with letting anything but quality determine the lineups, stating with no small degree of melodrama that he would quit his post if any kind of quota was put into place.

Sadly, I departed Venice before The Nightingales premiere, so the lone film by a woman director I will have caught by the time I leave is Charlie Says, Mary Harrons story of the three women convicted in the Manson Family murders. It was in the Orizzonti sidebar, and I went to the premier screening, where Harron and her cast and more than a few Doctor Who fans (a scraggly, drawling Matt Smith plays the title role) packed into the Sala Darsena, next door to the glitzier (and bigger) Sala Grande.

The vibe of festival sidebars is an interesting thing to feel out. At Cannes, the Directors Fortnight often feels like a more thrilling place to be than the main competition (Debra Graniks Leave No Trace and Chloe Zhaos The Rider both made appearances there); Sundances Next program is more hit-and-miss but feels comparable in stature to the competition screenings (Josephine Deckers Madelines Madeline was a breakout this year, and currently in limited release). Theres less pomp and speechifying overall at Venice compared to those two tastemaking festivals, but the Orizzonti screening I went to definitely felt at least a few rungs lower than the competition premieres. And  perhaps theres some correlation here  Orizzonti happens to be the sidebar with the strongest female showing, with a whopping 5 films out of 19 directed by women. (If youre keeping track, yes, that accounts for over half the female-directed films at Venice.)

I wish, then, that I could fight harder for Harrons film, especially with Quentin Tarantinos Once Upon a Time in Hollywood looming on the horizon like a big, bright oxygen-sucking ball of gas. Undoubtedly the Tarantino will be more star-studded, louder, and, crucially, more expensive than Harrons, which is more an attempt at a psychological portrait of Manson acolytes than a mythologizing of the grisly events of 1969. Our primary protagonist is Leslie Lulu Van Houten (Hannah Murray), who arrives as a new family member about a year before things go south (its all relative, I suppose) and gets her coveted ego death, replacing every aspect of herself with blind devotion to Charlie Manson and a whole lot of LSD.

There are flickers of the truly exciting, complex film that Charlie Says could have been throughout; Guinevere Turner (who also wrote the scripts for Harrons American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page) spends a lot of time on the group dynamic in the family; how the whole group contributes to breaking down and building up each member. In an early scene, a new recruit is made to strip down in front of the Family; she begins to cry, humiliated and terrified. But then the women of the commune gather around her, repeating to her over and over again that shes beautiful, and we see her smile, as a lifeline is formed to that narcotic feeling of acceptance. Later, Charlie practices throwing knives at his followers to test their allegiance. Terror and reward are always in quick succession, and the film does a good job of making us feel that. And even though Smith feels miscast in the role, Harron also does an admirable job of making his Manson more of a dangerous spoiled baby than a charismatic leader, a volatile specimen of fragile male ego who just wants to wear his cool leather fringe outfit and be a rockstar.

But Charlie Says never gets its momentum going. The film flashes back-and forth between BC (before the crimes) at the Spahn Ranch, and 1972, when Leslie, Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon) and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendon) are serving their life sentences in the California Institution for Women. The fantastic Merritt Wever, in a performance so good I wish the rest of the film could rise up around her, plays Karlene Faith, a grad student assigned to teach classes to Charlies Girls, and she becomes increasingly distraught over the degree of their brainwashing, desperate to give themselves back to them. But while the film does a passable job exploring how one gets seduced by a cult, it has a harder time elucidating who those selves really were before they came into Charlie, and what restoring them would actually mean. The editing is disorientingly abrupt as well, hopping from one timeline to another with seemingly no rhyme or reason.

Charlie Says, despite its considerable flaws, was an interesting film to watch close on the heels of Suspiria, a superior film in every way, but one that also deals with womens relationship to evil, and what monstrous forces we invite into our lives. Im still very wary of spoiling very much from Luca Guadagninos movie (my review is here and doesnt spoil any plot points that arent in the trailer or havent been previously reported) but Ive been noting the increasing repetition of the line that its this years Mother!



As a person who adored Suspiria and loathed Aronofskys piping hot allegorical windbag, I take some issue with the comparison, because I think it sets up expectations that are not anywhere near the same neighborhood as Mother!s goals. Yes, both films have just-see-it-for-yourself bonkers final acts, yes both will undoubtedly get an F CinemaScore. But audiences who both loved and hated Mother! walked out of it eager to decide what it was about  whether it was global warming or living with Darren Aronofsky. While Ive heard many people who have seen Suspiria express a desire to see it again, and think more deeply about all the seemingly disparate ideas it ties together about 20th-century Germany and Jung and the body, I dont think anyone thinks theres a single thing its about unless its just something like the virality of evil  which doesnt have quite the same 1:1 punch as Jennifer Lawrence is Mother Earth! Guadagnino puts a lot in his pot, but hes not so hung up about having it coagulate into any one message or parable as he is expressing a kind of phenomenon that you will either feel on an intuitive level or not.

This weekend of womens stories (again, mostly told by men) was perhaps most encapsulated by the premiere of the first two episodes of HBOs My Brilliant Friend, the first installment of its adaptation of Elena Ferrantes Neapolitan novels. It sounds strange to say, but the trick Ferrantes writing pulls is not that different from David Kajganichs Suspiria update: pulling in issues of class, politics, sociology, and female bonding and then letting some harder-to-utter idea form like a cloud over them, imbuing its events with more meaning. (I wrote about the premiere over the weekend.) Saverio Costanzos overly mannered, tastefully sepia-toned adaptation has all the events of the first section of Ferrantes first book, but the cloud of something elseness is missing.

To watch the first two episodes of My Brilliant Friend without having read the source material would probably leave you perplexed as to how this story won so many devoted readers around the world  so many of them women. Granted, the episodes document the early stages of Lila and Lenus friendship, but Ferrantes prologue, in which she hints at adult Lilas obsession with disappearing, casts a haunting spell over seemingly mundane stories of dolls and shoes and furious fathers. That prologue is reproduced nearly word-for-word at the start of the premiere episode, but it feels like a recitation; everything is in place, but it feels hollow.

I offered my own left-field proposal for how the adaptation could have been improved, but aside from that, while its just as likely a woman director would have botched it, I cant help but think that would be a more promising place to start, especially when dude who just doesnt get what all the fuss about Elena Ferrante is is such a documented type. There were plenty of them walking out of the Sala Darsena during the packed press screening I attended; those who stuck around could be seen checking their texts and emails and sighing loudly, and they werent wrong to. In a cruel twist, one of the most important womens stories of the 21st century was made to feel minor and inferior to emails and, yes, a man.Five-time champion Roger Federer crashed out of the 2018 US Open in a stunning fourth-round loss to Australian John Millman.

The Swiss, who last won the tournament in 2008, went down 3-6 7-5 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-3) to the world No. 55 in three hours and 34 minutes.

Australia Continents and regions Oceania Roger Federer Sports figures Sports and recreation Tennis Sports events Tennis events Grand Slam Tournaments US Open (tennis) john millman Maria Sharapova

The out-of-sorts Federer failed to convert set points in the second and third sets before faltering again in the fourth.

Two Federer double faults put his opponent 4-1 up in the tie-break and an overcooked Federer forehand secured a memorable win for the 29-year-old Millman, who will next play Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

READ: Serena drops set but reaches US Open quarters

It is the first time Federer, who has only failed to reach the quarterfinals of a grand slam on seven occasions, has lost to a player ranked outside the top 50 at the US Open.

"It was very hot, one of those nights where I felt I couldn't get air," Federer, who made 77 unforced errors in the match, told reporters.

"There was no circulation at all. For some reason, I struggled in the conditions. It's one of the first times it's happened to me. I do believe since the roof is on that there is no air circulation in the stadium. That makes it a totally different US Open.

"But John was able to deal with it better. He comes from maybe one of the most humid places on earth, Brisbane. I knew I was in for a tough one. I was just happy that the match was over."

Until Monday night, Federer had been 40-0 against opponents outside the top 50 at the US Open.

Leading up to this match, the 37-year-old had displayed his usual dominance, swatting aside Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka, France's Benoit Paire and Millman's compatriot, the 30th seeded Nick Kyrgios, in straight sets.

But an anticipated quarterfinal tie against old rival Djokovic, which would have been their 47th meeting and seventh at the US Open, was scuppered by Millman, who will now meet the Serb Thursday.

"I have so much respect for Roger and what he has done for the game," said Millman during a courtside interview.

"He definitely was not at his best, but I'll take it. I felt like a deer in the headlights at the beginning, to be honest with you. Roger had the ball on a string, but I got a bit more aggressive and probably capitalized a bit on Roger having an off-service day.

"The one thing I can control is the fight in me. It's the one thing I've always done throughout my career."

Sharapova also suffers fourth-round loss

Another major name made an early exit at Flushing Meadows Monday as former champion Maria Sharapova lost 6-4 6-3 to Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the fourth round.

Sharapova, 31, has only once reached the quarterfinal of a grand slam since she returned from a 15-month doping ban in April 2017 and last reached the last eight in New York in 2012.

The 2006 US Open champion told reporters: "If I didn't have the belief to keep doing this and to keep having the motivation and the grind of doing this every day in order to get myself in these positions, I don't think I would be here."

Asked whether this was the most challenging period of her career, Sharapova -- who left Russia for the US with her father aged seven -- said: "What's challenging is when you're a teenager and you have a few hundred dollars and you've got no sense of the future and you don't know where you're going to end up.

"You just have a dream. I think that's a lot tougher than being 31 years old and having the opportunity to do whatever I want in my life."

Visit CNN.com/sport for more news and features

Navarro, the world No.24 who was celebrating her 30th birthday Monday, will play home favorite Madison Keys in the quarterfinals.An Alabama man who reported his roommate missing this month is now charged in the roommate's death. News outlets report 47-year-old James Darrell Tabor, also known as Kevin Kirby is charged with murder in the death of 39-year-old Michael Shane Osborn. Colbert County Sheriff Frank Williamson says Kirby was arrested following the discovery of Osborn's body.

According to a report, authorities say Kirby reported Osborn missing on Friday. Williamson says Osborn's body was found the next day in a wooden area near the men's shared home. Williamson says Osborn's body has been seen to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Huntsville for an autopsy. He says more information about the case will be released Tuesday morning.It's unclear if Kirby has a lawyer to contact for comment.Students from Armavir Province, who commute to college in Yerevan, demonstrated outside the Government Building today demanding that their daily free bus service be reinstated.

The roundtrip student buses were cut on September 1, the first day of school, in response to complaints lodged by Galaktika Trans Service, the private company that now plies the route between the town of Armavir and Yerevan with its minivans.

Students complain that they now have to pay for the ride to and from Yerevan and that their daily commute is much less convenient than before.

Also demonstrating outside the Government Building were Galaktika drivers and management representatives, who were demanding that the company be granted a monopoly to the route. They say that the contract Galaktika signed with the government includes such a clause.

Gurgen Grigoryan, a Galaktika representative, told Hetq that a number of illegal buses also ply the Armavir-Yerevan route, making it hard for the company to stay in business.

Galaktika Director Shoushan Khachatryan says that the company has been servicing the rout for the past sixty years. It now operates 22 minivans and four buses. She also claims that the government contract specifies that Galaktika should have exclusive rights to the route.

Every day, two or three new vehicles arrive on the route. They have Russian and Georgian license plates. We dont know where theyve come from. Today, there are some 35 illegal vans on our route. My drivers cant work. Theyre literally being pushed aside, says Khachatryan.

Deputy Minister of Transport, Communication and IT Armen Pambukhchyan briefly met with the demonstrators and invited a few inside to discuss the matter.Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, who had been slapped with a two-month detention order that was later overturned by the Court of Appeals after being charged with usurping state power during the March 2008 post-election protests, now has been given the option of signing an affidavit promising not to flee Armenia during the court case.

Kocharyan, the outgoing president in 2008, was charged on July 26 of usurping state power to quell the mass protests that followed the contested February 2008 presidential election that ushered in the ten-year reign of Serzh Sargsyan as present.

On August 13 the Court of Appeals ruled that Kocharyan cannot be prosecuted for the March 1, 2008 post- election violence in Yerevan that killed ten.

A spokesperson for the Special Investigative Service told Hetq that they have the right to hold Kocharyans passport but did not provide additional information.By WestKyStar Staff Sep. 03, 2018 | 03:56 PM | PADUCAH

Housman is the current contact for Troop 1 and Darrin Miller is the contact for Troop 18, the popular patriotic fundraiser Troop 1 started over 10 years ago. The program requires lots of planning, mapping out and asigning who places which flags, placement of an in-ground reusable sleeve to hold the pole and then marking each location prior to placement. Grass often grows over the holes and makes it tricky to find between holidays.



With respect for Old Glory, the scouts, under guidance from parents and scout masters, safely and securely store the flags, keep them in good shape, maintain poles and stay prepared for the next holiday.





Troop 1 and Troop 18 Boy Scouts Holiday Flag Programs display a 3x 5 American flag on a 10 pole. The flags are placed in subscribers' yards by a scout for some of the same holidays. The following holidays are the ones troop 1 includes in its flag placements:

February  Presidents Da

May  Memorial Day

June  Flag Day

4th of July

September  Labor Day

September 11

November  Veterans Day



It's a great way to show your patriotism and fly the colors effortlessly all for just $50 for a one-year subscription.



For questions or to order your flag from Troop 1, contact Brent Housman by phone at 270-366-6611 or email at BHousman@hilliard.com or Darrin Miller with Troop 18 by email: damiller@ashland.com.

Troop 1 Boy Scouts, in uniform, placed over 350 American flags in lawns throughout the community Monday morning to celebrate Labor Day n Paducah. Troop 18 stepped up last July 4th to take over flag placements in the downtown area and out toward Reidland. Each troop has its own guidelines for flag placement, holidays observed, etc."It's a very popular patriotic effort on the part of our scouts," says Brent Housman. "The number of those signing up for flag placement has doubled in past few years." Once placed, the scouts salute the flag and move on to the next designated location. It's all part of the troops' Holiday Flag Fundraiser.

On the Net: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.A Cuban government investigator looking into reports of mysterious acoustic attacks on US and Canadian diplomats on the communist-run island on Monday dismissed a US government theory that microwave weapons emitting concentrated beams of radiation may have been used in the incidents.

"If you look at the alleged events, there have been reports that there are several people in a room with thick walls and thick windows and only one person was targeted. This is a kind of weapon that doesn't exist," said Dr. Mitchell Valdes-Sosa, a well-known neurologist who is part of the Cuban special task force investigating the alleged attacks. "It's science fiction, not science," he said.

Asia Brain injuries Caribbean China Concussions Continents and regions Cuba Diseases and disorders East Asia Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government departments and authorities Head injuries Health and medical International relations International relations and national security Investigations Latin America Neurological disorders and injuries North America Science State departments and diplomatic services The Americas United States Weapons and arms Wounds and injuries Embassies and consulates Companies New York Times Co

"First, it was sonic weapons, now microwave. What's next, kryptonite?" the investigator said in an interview with CNN at his research center in Havana, referring to an earlier theory that sonic weapons emitting high-powered ultrasound waves could have caused the injuries.

Valdes-Sosa said researchers and investigators are working on a paper to rebut the microwave weapons theory.

Previously, the government not only denied involvement in the attacks but cast doubt on whether they actually occurred. In June, Cuba's Foreign Ministry said "political motivations" drove the United States to withdraw its embassy personnel.

Though a March report based on the examinations of 21 diplomats who served in Cuba didn't link the attacks to microwaves, the study's lead author, Douglas Smith, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Brain Injury and Repair, told The New York Times that US diplomats in Cuba and China likely suffered brain injuries and that microwaves are considered the culprit.

Valdes-Sosa said for a microwave weapon to work it would have to been used at a close distance, and none of the diplomats reported seeing the alleged perpetrators. He said that Cuban authorities had investigated the report that one diplomat who suffered an apparent attack had seen a van speed off and that the vehicle belonged to a church.

While the US has not directly blamed the Cuban government for carrying out the attacks, US officials said Cuba is responsible for safeguarding the diplomats well-being and that Cuban officials would likely know if a third government were responsible.

But Valdes-Sosa said after more than a year of US, Canadian and Cuban investigations there was still no hard proof that any attacks actually took place.

"For an attack to have occurred you have to have a real victim. First the thing we are not sure is if all these people evacuated from Cuba are really ill or have suffered do something that happened to them," Valdes-Sosa said. "Second, you have to have a perpetrator. Who would be interested? You have to have the opportunity."

In a Sunday interview with CNN, Smith said microwaves are "a main suspect" in causing the diplomats' injuries, but ultrasound and infrasound were being studied as potential causes as well.

"It's almost like a concussion, but without a concussion -- meaning that they look like individuals who have persistent concussion symptoms but have no history of head impact," Smith said, describing the injuries and explaining that learning the cause is vital to determining the best means of preventing it.

"Just like we have ways to prevent people from having a concussion, you could think of maybe protecting your brain from these energy sources," he said.

What we know about the attacks

Most of the attacks came in 2016 and 2017, though there have been a handful of reported incidents this year as well.

A senior administration official told CNN that investigators have torn apart buildings where diplomatic employees encountered the sounds but found no acoustic devices, leading law enforcement to believe that the injuries were the result of microwaves beamed from a nearby location and that the "sounds" were merely a means of masking the microwave attacks.

This is only a theory, the official said, and there is no concrete evidence to back it. However, brain scans on the injured personnel showed changes that indicate damage, the official said.

In a statement, the US State Department on Sunday neither confirmed nor denied the possibility that microwaves were behind the diplomatic injuries.

"The health and well-being of our personnel remains our top priority," the statement said. "The investigation into the origin of these symptoms continues. The inter-agency community is working diligently to determine the cause of the symptoms, as well as to develop mitigation strategies."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this year he was establishing a Health Incidents Response Task Force, led by Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and including representatives from the departments of Justice as well as Health and Human Services.

The task force will serve as the "coordinating body for department and interagency activities, including identification and treatment of affected personnel and family members, investigation and risk mitigation, messaging, and diplomatic outreach," Pompeo said in a statement.

The sophistication of the attack has led US officials to suspect a third country is involved, perhaps as retribution against the United States or Canada -- whose diplomats have also been targeted -- or to drive a wedge between those countries and Cuba.

In August 2017, officials included Russia among a list of countries that have an adversarial relationship with the United States and that American investigators suspected might be involved.President Donald Trump warned Syria and its allies Russia and Iran on Monday against attacking the last major rebel stronghold of Idlib province in the country's northwest.

"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province," Trump wrote on Twitter. "The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!"

Biological and chemical weapons Continents and regions Donald Trump Eastern Europe Europe Idlib Middle East Middle East and North Africa Military Military weapons Political Figures - US Russia Syria Weapons and arms Weapons of mass destruction Syria conflict Unrest, conflicts and war Bashar al-Assad Political Figures - Intl Rebellions and insurgencies Government and public administration Investigations Iran Politics Russia meddling investigation North America Sergey Lavrov The Americas United States Military operations

Hours after the tweet, Russian planes struck parts of western Idlib, according to an activist media group and Syrian rescue group the White Helmets. The White Helmets said rescues were underway amid "intensive airstrikes."

The President's warning comes just days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a similar warning to Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, saying an attack on Idlib was something that Syria and Russia "agreed not to permit," and that the US "sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict."

US officials have grown worried that an assault on Idlib could involve the use of chemical weapons if the rebels are able to slow regime advances.

Syrian President Assad's regime has moved armed helicopters closer to Idlib in recent weeks, according to two defense officials. The US is concerned they could eventually be used to launch another chemical attack as well as a conventional assault.

The day before Pompeo's warning, Lavrov told Western nations not to "play with fire" over Idlib and claimed 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.

The Pentagon responded Friday, saying, "Russia has recently launched a concentrated disinformation campaign to discredit the United States and international partners and allies" and calling Lavrov's allegation about preparations for a staged chemical strike "absurd."

CNN reported Friday that US intelligence and military targeting experts have created a list of Syrian chemical weapons facilities that could be struck if Trump decided to order a new round of airstrikes in the country.

So far, a decision to take action has not been made, but one administration official with direct knowledge of the situation told CNN the military "could respond very quickly" if Syria launched a chemical weapons attack.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived in Damascus on Monday, and told reporters he hoped that events in Idlib went the same as operations in the past.

"We hope that the province of Idlib will be cleared of terrorism the same way as with previous operations of the Syrian military, with the lowest casualties, such as the suburbs of Damascus and the southern provinces," Zarif said.

Earlier this year, weeks of violence displaced 320,000 people in the southern province of Daraa, after the Russian-backed Syrian military launched an offensive to recapture the town.

Eventually the rebels came to a reconciliation agreement with the Syrian government in which the fighters agreed to hand over their weapons to Syrian forces. Anyone who didn't want to be part of the agreement was to have been allowed to transfer to Idlib.

About 6.2 million Syrians have been displaced since the conflict began in 2011, with a further 6.3 million having fled abroad as refugees, according to a recent UNHCR report.

'Humanitarian catastrophe'

Idlib is home to some 3 million Syrians, according to United Nations estimates, and 70,000 fighters from multiple factions, including former al Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The heavy concentration of residents and fighters, analysts say, makes the province a powder keg.

"Idlib would see a humanitarian catastrophe that exceeds the level of any seen in the Syrian conflict so far," said Lina Khatib, head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Chatham House think tank in London.

"You have the potential for civilians to be not just targeted by the regime but also to be caught in battles through which these rebel groups aim to defend against regime attacks," said Khatib.

Half of Idlib's population are displaced people, bused to the northwestern province from former rebel areas across the country. The area is densely populated, with many civilians flocking to camps near Syria's border with Turkey as they brace for an imminent attack.

Turkey, which has closed its border to fighters and civilians, has vowed that a regime incursion into Idlib would constitute a "red line." But analysts say there is little that it can do in the face of Russian and Syrian resolve to root out the fighters.

"There's a lot of tough jihadists in the region and Syria's not going to digest them. The regime is not going to accept them, so they've got their backs against the wall," said Joshua Landis, director of Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

"They're facing death, and Turkey has made it clear that they're not going to take them."

Idlib hosts a ragtag group of rebels, including Chechen and Chinese Uyghur fighters. In 2017, Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the global coalition against ISIS, called Idlib province "the largest al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11."

"There's no good solution to this. It's a very raggedy ending to a horrible war which has had nothing but tragedy," said Landis.SYRACUSE- New York State Police are investigating several incidents that occurred on Sunday night at the state fair, and they arrested two people from Madison and Oneida County.

According to State Police, at about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, they responded to a restaurant row for a reported stabbing of a 17-year-old male victim from Syracuse who was struck in the chest. He was transported to the hospital and is listed in stable condition.

Shortly after that, police responded to two women fighting. They fell through a glass area at the food stand. A 20-year-old was taken to the hospital for cuts and was released on Monday morning.

Police also responded to several disturbances before and after a concert in the Chevy Court area. The local fire departments and other law enforcement had to remove 30 teens from the roof of a restroom building in that area.

After the concert, several people moved to the midway area where troopers had to break up several fights. They had to call in several local agencies to break up fights at a nearyby gas station.

State Police arrested Joseph P. Fish, 24 of Oneida, for Resisting Arrest and Disorderly conduct. They also arrested Wayne G. Kimball, 25 from Rome, for Resisting Arrest and Disorderly Conduct. A third person from Cortland was also arrested. They'll appear in court at a later date.

Police are still investigating the incidents.Job title: Part-time Multimedia Journalist

Description: WKTV NewsChannel 2, the dominant #1 NBC, CBS, and CW affiliate in Utica, New York, is in search of a part-time news multimedia journalist and video editor. The successful candidate will be able to write copy, shoot and edit video, operate live shot equipment, and publish content to the stations website and social media platforms. Must be self-reliant and have a willingness to perform a variety of assigned tasks. Excellent writing skills, a smooth on-air presence, and a thorough understanding of modern digital journalism are a must.

Skill requirements: Must be proficient in broadcast writing, videography, and nonlinear editing. Must be social media savvy and skilled in writing for online publication. Must be able to lift and carry professional camera gear. Must have a clean driving record and pass a drug test. Must be willing to work flexible shifts, including overnights, weekends, and holidays. Must have a college degree in journalism or communications, or equivalent professional experience.

WKTV is an equal opportunity employer.

Position opens: Immediately

Search closes: When a suitable candidate is found

Hours: Part-time (30 hours per week)

Supervisor: News Director

Qualifications: College degree required

Email resumes to: Jeremy Ryan, News Director -- jryan@wktv.com

POSTED 9/4/18

EMAIL ONLY. PHONE CALLS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)  Some say debates are the best way to get to know a candidate. Democrat Chris Campbell hopes she'll get the chance to debate her opponent this fall.

She's facing incumbent Republican State Representative Sally Siegrist.

While meeting potential voters, Chris Campbell often gets the same questions.

"When a debate will be? If one is being scheduled?" said Campbell. "And when I tell them that my opponent has refused to debate me they're very disappointed and surprised that she's not willing to debate me."

Incumbent Republican State Representative Sally Siegrist didn't want to go on camera. However, she said she's not refusing to debate Campbell.

Siegrist said she hasn't been able to find time in her schedule and she can't take time off from her legislative duties or serving her constituents, which makes her free-time limited.

The League of Women Voters has been working with her for weeks to try to set up a date. We're told she refused any days in October and denied six proposed days in September.

"I would like the opportunity to debate my opponent," said Campbell. "I would like the voters to have a chance to ask us questions."

News 18 also offered to host a District 26 debate. Siegrist said she doesn't want to do one on weekends and said October is out of the question. We asked her to let us know if any weekdays in September would work. We're waiting to hear back.

"We need to make ourselves available, it's only an hour," said Campbell.

Incumbents refusing or not finding time to debate is something former Indy Star Political Reporter Mary Beth Schneider said is common.

"They don't want to get asked those questions, they don't want to put their opponent on an equal footing," said Schneider.

However, it frustrates her as a former journalist and current voter.

"People deserve to hear what each of these candidates stand for and get asked sometimes some difficult questions," said Schneider.

Campbell sent out a statement calling on Siegrist to agree to a debate.

In it, she called state representative a full-time job. According to the Indiana Constitution, it's part-time. However, Campbell doesn't see it that way.

"A voter is going to meet us on the street. Are we going to say we are not available right now I'm not on the clock? No," said Campbell. "So, it is a bit of a full-time job whether the constitution says it's a full-time job or not, I think we need to be available."

Campbell and Siegrist weren't the only candidates who couldn't agree on a debate time this season.

The League of Women Voters also reached out to candidates for State Senate District 22 and Indiana's 4th Congressional District. Both were unable or unwilling to debate.

However, we are likely to see a debate between the Tippecanoe County Sheriff candidates and those running for Tippecanoe County Clerk.

Details on those will be released soon.DEMOTTE, Ind. (WLFI)  The Jasper County Sheriff's Office has released the mugshot of a man who allegedly stabbed his wife to death in DeMotte. That's in the northern part of the county.

Joseph Borgia is currenly in the Jasper County Jail and is charged with murder and child neglect. On Aug. 24, police were called to Whispering Woods Drive in a rural part of DeMotte for a structure fire. When they arrived, no fire was found. Instead, deputies said they found Borgia distressed with blood residue on his clothes outside a home.

According to a news release, two children were also found outside the home with Borgia. They were taken into protected custody by police.

Investigatiors said, 35-year-old Amanda Borgia was found stabbed to death inside the home. Sheriff detectives and Indiana State Police are investigating. Borgia is being held without bond.



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The Australian Broadcasting Corporations (ABC) premier current affairs program, Four Corners, aired a lengthy interview last night with Steve Bannon, the nationalist demagogue who played a key role in the 2016 election campaign of Donald Trump and served for a time as his chief advisor.

The ABC interview was the second time in recent months that the Australian media has provided Bannon with a platform to elaborate his call for a full-scale economic and political confrontation against China to prevent it becoming a rival of US global dominance. His policies are largely being implemented by the Trump administration.

On July 9, the Sydney Morning Herald international editor Peter Hartcher published a feature highlighting Bannons views.

Keynote presenter Sarah Ferguson travelled to Washington to interview Bannon for Four Corners in mid-August, ahead of the release of a documentary film he commissioned, Trump@war. The aim of the film is to mobilise the right-wing base of the Republican Party for the US congressional election on November 6.

Summing up his standpoint, Bannon stridently disagreed with Ferguson when she attempted to describe Trumps agenda as trade war to lower the trade deficit. He insisted: This is not trade war  Australia is at the frontlines of this. We are in an economic war with China, OK.

Australia, he asserted on several occasions, was the tip of the spear in the Pacific and the canary in the mine shaft, in a clash of civilisations between what he alleged was the Judeo-Christian west and Chinese totalitarianism. He mapped out a scenario in which the US and its allies seek to throw back decades of economic development in China, and bring global finance and production back under unchallenged American hegemony.

Trump, he asserted, was trying to reset this economy to the economy that weve had since the American system came up in the 19th century.

In the face of such megalomaniacal rantings of world domination, Ferguson did not raise the obvious issue. The logic of Bannons positions, and the manner with which it is being pursued by US imperialism, is a devastating military conflict with China, a nuclear-armed state.

Bannons views are being feted under conditions in which the Australia media has waged a near two-year xenophobic campaign against purported Chinese interference and influence. Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC have been among the most vociferous.

In late June, the anti-China campaign led directly to the Liberal-National Coalition government and the Labor Party opposition joining forces to push sweeping foreign interference laws through the parliament that will be used to prosecute alleged agents of the Chinese state.

Bannon has the highest praise for the anti-Chinese witch-hunt and legislation in Australia. He wants a similar campaign developed in the US and similar laws enacted.

The most dangerous aspect of Bannons politics is the consciousness with which he is attempting to forge a base for extreme nationalism and militarism. His anti-Chinese agitation is continually couched as a defence of the jobs and living standards of the working class. He works to channel workers anger and discontent behind a program of war, while denouncing the globalist elites and Wall Street elites such as Goldman Sachs over the destruction of large sections of manufacturing industry.

Bannons anti-China bashing and racist demagogy is echoed by the American trade unions and significant sections of the Democratic Party. He boasted that he could win over to his alt-right movement up to 25 percent of the supporters of Bernie Sanders.

Bannon has worked for years to fashion the Republican Party into a populist instrument to develop the US-led war drive against China. He was instrumental in Trumps campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination, authoring much of the populist rhetoric that Trump employed. While he was sacked from the administration not long after it took office, Bannon remains a significant powerbroker within the Republican Party and is believed to still be in contact with both the president and Washingtons inner circle.

Bannon has developed close relations with nationalist formations and figures that he believes can be used to push politics to the right on a global scale. He has spoken in support of the United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP) and Boris Johnsons anti-European Union wing of the British Conservative Party. In France, Bannon has been feted by the neo-fascist National Front. He has lauded the right-wing Italian government formed by the ultra-right League and Five Star Movement as a model for the world.

At various points in the interview, Bannon dismissed out of hand Fergusons attempts to condemn his association with organisations that have long histories of racist and anti-Semitic positions. It was noteworthy, however, that she asked him nothing about the Trump administrations relentless persecution of so-called illegal immigrants, which is one of its chief nationalist appeals.

Nor did the ABC raise the glaring fact that the suspicion and hostility being developed toward China in both the US and Australia, and Bannons continual reference to Judeo-Christian values, is stoking the most extreme anti-Chinese xenophobia.

Bannon did not answer directly when Ferguson asked about his connections in Australia. He has no shortage of co-thinkers, however, in the countrys political establishment, trade unions and the media.

The Liberal Party faction that conspired to oust Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, including Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, share much of Bannons outlook. Modelling themselves on the alt-right in the US and European right-wing movements, they are consciously seeking to refashion the Liberal Party into a far more economic nationalist movement, based on anti-immigrant and anti-Chinese sentiment.

This revolution is global, Bannon declared. Its coming to Australia.

The Bannon-Ferguson interview took place before the August 24 removal of Turnbull and installation of Scott Morrison as prime minister. It was significant that Bannon denounced Turnbull as too much of an appeaser of China.

The primary source of interference in Australian politics is the United States government and its agencies. To some extent, they had a hand in the political coup against Turnbull.

In both Washington and within the Australian military-intelligence apparatus, Turnbulls government had been considered soft on Beijing because, while generally backing all US actions and policies, it had refused to order Australian naval operations against Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea and was critical of aspects of Trumps trade war measures.

Morrison will be under constant pressure of the extreme right of the Liberal Party and of Washington to take a far more bellicose stance, heightening the danger of conflict.

Bannons rhetoric and its promotion within the media underscore the immense dangers that confront the international working class. Against economic nationalism and the attempt to defend the outmoded capitalist system, the fight for a socialist and internationalist perspective to unify workers around the world must be developed with the necessary sense of urgency.Ever since Jeremy Corbyns election as Labour Party leader in 2015, the British public has been bombarded with a torrent of lies declaring that he is an anti-Semite.

The right-wing slander campaign has been concocted and promoted internationally by an alliance of Labours Blairite right-wing, Zionist groups linked directly to the State of Israel and the Conservative Party. Their aim is to silence and criminalise any signs of growing left-wing sentiment expressed in the support for Corbyns minimalist reforms.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has now joined this despicable witch-hunt. As Israels leading liberal daily, it has an influence out of proportion to its four percent Hebrew readership, thanks to an online English edition aimed at the Jewish Diaspora.

Two articles give the flavour of Haaretz coverage.

Last month, UK-based freelance journalist Rosie Whitehouse wrote an article headlined, The Last anti-Jewish Pogrom in Britain Occurred Under a Labour Government.

Hers is a scurrilous rewriting of history tarring the 1945 Labour government with anti-Semitism so as to assert a continuity with Corbyns tepid brand of Fabianism.

Her focus is on the Sergeants Affairthe murder of two British army sergeants by Zionist Irgun paramilitaries in Palestine in 1947, then ruled by Britain. Drawing attention to the anti-Jewish riots that broke out in the UK as a result and labelling them Britains forgotten pogrom, she attributes political responsibility to the Labour government because it let down and failed to protect the Jewish community.

This can happen again, Whitehouse insinuates, if Corbyn is not stopped from becoming prime minister. Of the backlash against Jews in Britain, she declares, The unnerving lesson here is that Labour policy created a toxic atmosphere in which the riots erupted spontaneously and concludes, In Britain today there is a similarly toxic atmosphere.

Whitehouse insists that the Labour Party is bound to set its house in order before its leaders hostile milieu lights a touch paper for something worse.

She claims the root cause of the 1947 riots lay in Labour reneging on its election promise to lift restrictions imposed in 1939 on Jewish immigration to Palestine in order to appease the Arabs who opposed thousands of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust finding a home in Palestine.

A Jewish insurgency against the British [in Palestine] was growing, as was violence between the Jewish and Arab communities. The Labour government chose to play one off against the other in a dangerous gamble, she continued.

This is history according to the most right-wing Zionist pedigree. Contrary to her claims, the history of the Labour Party has in general been one of support for the Zionist project.

In 1917, the Liberal-led war coalition that included the Labour Party, issued the infamous Balfour Declaration in which Britain sought to wrap its predatory aims in the Middle East in pledges of both a homeland for the Jews under its protection and independence for the Arabs (set out in the 1915 McMahon-Hussein correspondence), in return for support against the Ottoman Empire, Germanys ally in the war.

Britain believed that the establishment of a strategic client regime in Palestine would help consolidate its empire and safeguard the Suez Canal route to India.

However, opposition came from both the Arab regimes in the oil-rich Middle East and the Palestinians in the face of Jewish immigration into the country and anti-Arab terrorist atrocitiescarried out by the likes of Vladimir Jabotinskys fascist-influenced Revisionist party and the terrorist gangs it spawned.

As Palestine became increasingly ungovernable, Britain repeatedly shifted its policies, supporting at one time the Jews, immigration into Palestine and Jewish nationalism and at another the Arabs and Arab nationalism.

In 1930, Ernest Bevin, the Transport and General Workers Union leader, who would become Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour government, helped overturn the attempts by Labour Colonial Secretary Lord Passfield (Sidney Webb) to restrict Jewish immigration and land acquisition and to establish a legislative council in Palestine that would inevitably have an Arab majority.

In late 1935, the Labour Party opposed renewed plans for a Palestinian legislative council. Its defeat led to the 1936 Arab Revolt that was suppressed with utmost brutality by the British military, fully supported by the Labour Party, and accompanied by an intensified anti-Arab terrorist campaign.

In 1939, as war with Germany approached, the Labour Party opposed the Chamberlain Conservative governments White Paper restricting Jewish immigration and proposing a bi-national state in Palestine.

When Labour came to power in 1945, the status of Britain in world affairs had diminished. It was beset by colonial demands for independence and was unable to resolve the Palestine conflict on its own terms. In 1947, the United Nations rejected its proposals for a bi-national state, proposing instead the partition of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish state, which the US and the Soviet Union supported as a way of blocking Britains position in the Middle East and furthering their own strategic interests.

The Irgun killing of the two British soldiers alluded to by Whitehouse took place during these tumultuous events. The paramilitary organisation, led by Menachem Begin who became prime minister of Israel in 1977, and is the political ancestor of the current Likud-led coalition of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, was violently opposed to a bi-national state.

In pursuit of an exclusivist Jewish state, Irgun waged a terrorist campaign against the Arabsthe real pogrom of the periodaimed at their expulsion from Palestine. One of its most notorious actions was the April 1948 Deir Yassin massacre where 250 men, women and children were murdered in cold blood. It was one of the most significant factors in precipitating the exodus of some 750,000 Arabs from Palestine, who along with their descendants remain permanent refugees (See here and here.)

In 1947, the Irgun kidnapped and hung the two sergeants in retaliation for death sentences passed on three of its own fighters. The British tabloid press seized on the killings. The right-wing Daily Expressnow aligned with the right-wing UK Independence Party and one of the leaders of the Corbyn witch-huntwhipped up a furore, set against the background of austerity Britain where there was widespread poverty and hunger, questioning the loyalty of British Jews.

Former members of Oswald Mosleys pre-war British Union of Fascistsrelaunched as the Union Movement in 1948also exploited the incident.

Therefore, far from being spontaneous as Whitehouse claims, it was the gutter press helped by the fascists who fomented the ensuing anti-Jewish riots. And although they were the largest ever seen on the streets of Britain, with no broader popular support, they rapidly fizzled out.

The anti-Jewish riots were certainly serious, but there was no anti-Jewish pogrom in Britain in 1947. Indeed, there have been no pogroms at any time in modern British history. Moreover, Whitehouse presents no evidence that the Labour government played any role in the disturbances, or that it failed to protect the Jews, because she cannot. As foreign secretary, Bevin was accused of anti-Semitism by the Zionists for backtracking on Labours commitment to Jewish immigration and statehood.

Whitehouses attack on Corbyn was followed up with another piece by Haaretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer, who holds dual British/Israeli citizenship, in an opinion piece, Why Corbynism Is a Threat to Jews throughout the Western World.

His slanderous article has the merit of making crystal clear that the aim of the manufactured outrage over Corbyns supposed anti-Semitism has nothing to do with defending Jews. It is aimed at silencing all criticism of Israels murderous policy towards the Palestinians in the occupied territories and its recent apartheid-style Nation-State law, which enshrines Jewish supremacy as the legal foundation of Israel.

Pfeffer speaks for those in ruling circles who fear that Corbyn will be unable to contain the aspirations of the tens of thousands of predominantly young members that joined the party and voted Corbyn into the leadership in 2015, in the belief that he would oppose austerity and war. They will tolerate no restraints on the divine right of the corporate and financial sectors to exploit the working class. He warns, Jeremy Corbyn is the only radical left-wing and truly socialist leader on the cusp of power in the West. If Labour under his leadership does win the next general election, his ideology will become hugely influential, across Europe and in America as well.

Prefacing his remarks on Corbyns foreign policy, Pfeffer makes the politically revealing suggestion, Put Israel and the Jews aside for a moment. Look at the rest of his foreign policy issues.

He then regurgitates all the other crimes that have been ascribed to Corbyn over the last periodhis opposition to the US-UK bid to topple the Assad regime in Syria and his reluctance to sign up to the anti-Russia propaganda campaign.

The broader political goal of the Corbyn witch-hunt is now out in the open: it is the silencing of all opposition to the British ruling elites agenda of social reaction at home and stepped-up militarism and war abroad, in which Israel plays a vital role in the Middle East. This is the campaign that the supposedly liberal Haaretz now spearheads.In a weekend that saw an escalation in the campaign by Labours right-wing to smear party leader Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semite, Momentum leader Jon Lansmans appearance on the platform of the pro-Zionist Jewish Labour Movement was damning.

Lansman took his place alongside former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other Blairite warmongers such as current JLM chair Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth, the former director of Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre and someone exposed by WikiLeaks as a strictly protect US asset.

The meeting saw Brown declare that anti-Jewish sentiment was a problem of the conspiracy-theory left.

Dame Margaret Hodge, who in July staged a vicious provocation against Corbyn in parliament, screaming in his face that he was a fucking anti-Semite and racist, told the press, I called [Jeremy] an anti-Semitic racist in July, and everything that has emerged since then has confirmed my belief that I was right. Making clear the end-game of the anti-Semitism slanders, she added, He [Corbyn] is the problem.

In the face of such statements, Lansman advanced himself at Sundays meeting as the voice of reason best placed to push Corbyn in the direction demanded publicly by his opponents.

The head of an organisation that claims to be the political home of grass-roots supporters of Corbyn happily joked that the Labour leader could be given anti-Semitism training. When he was challenged by an audience member, he replied, to applause and laughter, I think there is always a place for education and training in everyones lives and Jeremy Corbyn has a longstanding commitment to lifelong training.

Momentum, he reassured his audience, was determined to fight anti-Semitism and rebuild trust as unfortunately there is a perception there is anti-Semitism in our party and that is why we have got to act.

This is a blatant apologia for a campaign to blackguard the left as anti-Semitic. And it was accompanied by a promise that right-wing Labour MPs should not feel their seats are under threat from Momentum, if only they stop waiting for Jeremy to go so they can turn the clock back

Lansman is deliberately downplaying the threat posed by the right-wing plot to keep the Conservatives in power by splitting the Labour Party. He would rather make Labours 500,000 members hostage to a cabal of pro-austerity, pro-war MPs than risk the development of a genuinely rank-and file movement against them.

Four days earlier, the former welfare minister, Frank Field, quit the Labour group at Westminster complaining of the tolerance of anti-Semitism and culture of nastiness under Corbyn. Rather than forcing a by-election, as is usual, Field arrogantly declared he would continue as an independent Labour MP.

In 2010, Field accepted Conservative Prime Minister David Camerons invitation to act as Poverty Tsar in the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition that was overseeing vicious austerity. He has described former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as a hero, commenting that he would see Mrs. T from time to time, during the time she was in office. His decision to quit the Labour group came after he had suffered a no confidence motion by his own Birkenhead constituency Labour party, in response to his voting with the Tory government on Brexit, preventing its potentially damaging defeat.

The Observers Andrew Rawnsley commented that more resignations by the right-wing are on the way and that, One of the challenges for this group over the summer of Labour ferment has been persuading some of their number to wait rather than resign immediately. He reports that one associate of Mike Gapes, the Labour MP for Ilford South, who says he has been agonising daily over whether to quit, stating, A lot of the summer has been about holding the gang together and stopping people splitting off, one by one. Were all trying to stay in formation until the right moment.

A front-page article in the Sunday Times, owned by billionaire oligarch Rupert Murdoch and which has played a central role in the manufactured anti-Semitism campaign, was headlined, Labour Rebel MPs plot breakaway party and no confidence vote.

It reported that a group of Blairite MPs  plan a no-confidence vote to give MPs a way of expressing their disgust at Corbyns handling of the affair in the hope that it will embolden others to join a breakaway. It added, Fury at Corbyns approach to anti-Semitism has pushed up to 15 MPs to the brink of a breakaway from Labour...

On the morning of the JLM conference ex-Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, repeated on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show his earlier accusation that Corbyn was guilty of the most offensive comments since Enoch Powell, the former right-wing anti-immigrant Conservative MP, and author of the infamous Rivers of Blood speech in 1968. Sacks said Corbyn had to repent and recant, and until he did so, he is as great a danger as Enoch Powell was.

In a hysterical diatribe, Sacks asserted that British Jews were considering leaving the country because of the prospect of Corbyn becoming prime minister: Jews have been in Britain since 1656. I know of no other occasion in these 362 years where Jews, the majority of our community, are asking Is this country safe to bring up our children? When people hear the kind of language thats been coming out of Labour, thats been brought to the surface among Jeremy Corbyns earlier speeches, they cannot but feel an existential threat.

Replying to Sacks, Labours Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell also held out the flag of surrender, stating that he found his remarks brutally honest and quite distressing.

I just say to Lord Sacks youve got it wrong, come and talk to us, he begged.

The extent to which the intelligence services are involved in the campaign against him was confirmed by the announcement that Corbyn has been requested to attend a briefing by Andrew Parker, the head of the domestic MI5 intelligence agency. This is supposedly to give Corbyn a lecture on the facts of life regarding the threat from jihadist terrorists and Russian spies in Britain.

Coming after months in which MI5 has refused to brief Corbyn on security issues, this is the most overt interference in political affairs by Parkermeant to reinforce the constant accusations that Corbyn cannot be trusted on issues of national security.

The author also recommends:

Reject the anti-Semitism slurs against Jeremy Corbyn! Drive out the Labour Party right wing!

[31 August 2018]Millions of people in Germany and around the world have reacted with disgust and horror to the scenes of fascist violence in the German city of Chemnitz. On August 27, thousands of neo-Nazis marched through the city, giving the Hitler salute undisturbed by the police, and attacking people they identified as foreigners.

In recent days, tens of thousands of people have taken part in demonstrations throughout Germany against this outpouring of right-wing violence. But moral outrage is not enough to stop the fascist mob: it is necessary to understand the political roots of its resurgence.

Unlike the 1930s, the Nazis today are not a mass movement, but a hated minority. But this does not make them any less dangerous. They derive their strength from the politics of the establishment parties and from the support they receive from the state apparatus. They feel strong because they have friends in the police, in the secret service and in the government. The Nazi march in Chemnitz was preceded by a years-long campaign to promote right-wing extremist politics.

Eight years ago, the book Germany abolishes itself by Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Thilo Sarrazin opened the door for the official rehabilitation of xenophobia and racism. The book, which claimed that German society was being destroyed by foreigners, was praised in feature articles and on talk shows as a bestseller before the first copy even reached bookstores.

In 2013, German President Joachim Gauck announced the end of German military restraint, and the newly-formed grand coalition government agreed on a program of massive military rearmament. The government supported the right-wing coup in Ukraine, setting in motion a continuing confrontation with Russia.

The German political establishment began a systematic campaign to downplay German crimes in the First and Second World War. It can hardly be a responsible policy in Europe, if you begin with the idea: We have been to blame for everything, the Berlin academic Herfried Munkler said.

In Der Spiegel magazine, his colleague Jorg Baberowski defended the Nazi apologist Ernst Nolte and explained that Hitler was not vicious because he did not want talk at his table about the extermination of the Jews.

In a panel discussion at the German Historical Museum in 2014, Baberowski said the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and other terrorists could only be won if Western armies were prepared to take hostages, burn down villages, hang people and spread fear and terror.

At a philosophy festival in May 2016, Baberowski claimed that men in Germany were helpless against immigrant violence because they could no longer fight. We see that men in Germany no longer know how to handle violence, said Baberowski. These statements, which were prominently quoted by numerous right-wing websites, were put into practice by the fascist mob in Chemnitz.

When the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGPSocialist Equality Party) and its student organization, the IYSSE, protested against Baberowskis right-wing extremist positions and his attempt to whitewash Nazi crimes, we became the target of a furious witch-hunt by the German political establishment. The media and the management of Humboldt University defended Baberowski, while he agitated against refugees on all TV channels and founded a far-right discussion group in which leading representatives of the fascistic Alternative for Germany (AfD) participate.

The AfD flourished in this right-wing climate. Among the fascist partys leaders are many representatives of the statemilitary, intelligence officers, policemen, judges and professors. Although only 13 percent of voters supported the AfD in this years general election, it is now setting the political tone in Berlin. The federal government has adopted the AfDs xenophobic refugee policy all down the line. The AfD heads important parliamentary committees, leads the official opposition and enjoys a disproportionate presence in the media.

A key role in this right-wing conspiracy is played by the secret service. With its 3,100 employees and an annual budget of 350 million euros, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as the German secret service is called, is a hotbed of right-wing extremism. The National Socialist Underground (NSU) racist terrorist group was permeated with and partially financed by undercover informants working for the secret service.

The German secret services Constitutional protection report 2017, which appeared in July, employs rhetoric indistinguishable from that of the AfD. The network of neo-Nazis around the AfD and Pegida, the representatives of the New Right such as Bjorn Hocke, Gotz Kubitschek and Jurgen Elsasser, as well as right-wing extremist publications such as Junge Freiheit and Compact, are not mentioned in the report. The name of the AfD appears only as a victim of alleged left-wing extremists!

While the AfD is given a free pass, the report effectively brands opposition to supposed (sic!) nationalism, imperialism and militarism as subversive. The SGP is listed in the report as a left-wing extremist party and an object of observation. This is the answer of the German secret service to the SGPs efforts to expose the extreme right. In the eyes of the German state, it is not the AfD and the neo-Nazis that are the problem, but their opponents.

The state and government support the AfD and the neo-Nazis because they serve to create a constituency for its policies of military rearmament, attacks on democratic rights and social austerity. The dangerous developments of recent weeks have shown that German democracy is as fragile as it was in the 1930s. As soon as the German ruling class embarks on an imperialist great power policy and feels resistance from below, it again moves to the extreme right.

The grand coalition of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats has agreed on a massive military rearmament program. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) has threatened the US, the worlds largest military power, with a counterweight if the White House crosses red lines. The strategy papers from the Ministry of Defence under Ursula von der Leyen read like the Nazi fantasies of German hegemony over Europe.

There is no support for this policy in the population. This is why official politics takes the form of a conspiracy at the highest level of the state, in which the opposition partiesthe Greens, the Left Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP)are also involved. They have all helped to organize the social austerity that widened the gulf between rich and poor. They demand more police and stronger intelligence services and support the militaristic politics of the grand coalition government.

This development is not limited to Germany. Across Europe, in the face of growing social tensions, the ruling elites are relying on authoritarian forms of rule and fascistic forces. The global nature of this process makes clear that this is not a coincidence, but the fundamental tendency of the capitalist system.

The only social force that can counter this development and stop the extreme right is the international working class. For this reason, the SGP calls for the expansion of the class struggle across the continent. The conspiracy of the grand coalition, the intelligence services and right-wing extremists must be stopped.

It is time to revive the revolutionary socialist traditions of Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Liebknecht, Lenin and Trotsky, defended only by the International Committee of the Fourth International and its sections. The SGP calls on workers and young people to join its ranks and take up the fight against capitalism, fascism and war.

The SGP demands:

* Stop the conspiracy of the grand coalition, state apparatus and right-wing extremists!

* No more war! Stop Germanys return to militarist great power politics!

* Abolish the secret service and immediately cease monitoring the SGP and other left-wing organizations!

* Defend the right to asylum! No to increased state powers and surveillance!

* End poverty and exploitationfor social equality! The wealth of the financial oligarchy, the banks and major corporations must be expropriated and placed under democratic control!The Seattle Education Association (SEA), the local affiliate of the Washington Education Association (WEA), is sending teachers to work on the first day of school Wednesday after reaching a tentative agreement Friday with Seattle Public Schools (SPS), which meets none of the teachers demands. The union has ordered educators back to the classrooms without releasing the full details of the deal and teachers will not have a chance to vote on it until the weekend.

The union contract covers more than 5,000 educators in Seattle, which is one of 200 districts in Washington state negotiating new contracts in the wake of a state Supreme Court decision that declared that the state had failed its paramount responsibility to educate children and had to increase funding for schools and teacher salaries. The settlement by the SEA is aimed at isolating striking teachers in other districts and to preempt the increasing calls by rank-and-file teachers for a statewide strike to win substantial improvements to wages and school funding.

Last Tuesday, Seattle educators packed Benaroya Hall, the citys immense downtown opera hall, for a general membership meeting where they overwhelmingly authorized a strike by voice vote. Teachers, specialists and support staff expressed their eagerness to wage a fight for salary hikes necessary to meet the rising cost of living in Seattle, health care for substitute teachers, and an expansion of public-school staff and greater funding more broadly. Attendees reported that many educators called for a vote repeatedly at the beginning, interrupting the union officials as they sought to drag out their explanation of the lack of progress on the basic demands of educators.

The union said it would call teachers out if a tentative agreement was not reached by Wednesday, September 5. Late Friday night, the school board and union announced that they had reached a deal.

Although they are being sent back to work before approving the contract, educators have little to no information regarding the agreement, and will only receive details on Tuesday evening at the earliest, once union representatives meet. The contract ratification vote will take place on Saturday, September 8. Tellingly, the school board has released more details about the agreement than SEA itself, which is seeking to prevent teachers from reviewing the actual agreement in advance of returning to work on Wednesday.

In their Friday night press release, Seattle Public Schools began, We are excited to share that the Seattle Education Association and district have reached a tentative contract agreement, going on to list the normal school start dates for the district. The highlights of this agreement, they say, include competitive pay increases, increased nurses, increased counselors for middle and high schools, enhanced substitute health care benefits, and an expansion of Race and Equity Teams along with other professional development.

That the school board resorts to such amorphous descriptions only underscores the fact that the union has reached a deal that in no way addresses teachers needs. From the beginning, the SEA limited its demands to meager wage increases and advanced no proposal to oppose the ongoing assault on public education by the Democratic Party, which runs Seattle and the state government, and the giant corporate interests that have systematically looted the funding for essential services.

In 2013, Democratic Governor Jay Inslee backed the largest state corporate tax break in US history, an $8.7 billion giveaway to aircraft giant and defense contractor Boeing. The Democratic city government has also repeatedly handed over tax cuts and other incentives to Seattle-based Amazon, whose billionaire CEO, Jeff Bezos, pockets the equivalent of a teachers starting annual salary every 12 seconds.

The SEA leadership majority has limited pay raise demands to 8 to 10 percent, while the so-called radical Social Equity Educators faction, backed by Socialist Alternative, International Socialist Organization and Democratic Socialists of America, has called for a 15 percent pay hike.

Teachers know very well that these salary demands are grossly inadequate to make up for years of stagnant wages while the cost of living has soared in the Seattle area. Seattle has seen the highest growth in housing costs of any city in the United States. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, anyone making less than $50,400 last year is considered low income.

By comparison, the starting salary for certificated teachers in Seattle last year was about $37,000. Meanwhile, teachers, many of whom are saddled with student loan debt, have seen their salaries stagnate over the past decade, including a six-year period where they did not even receive their state-mandated cost of living increases.

In contrast to rank-and-file teachers call for a statewide strike to address the funding crisis in the state, ISO member Jesse Hagopian, a leader of the Social Equity faction, has provided a cover for the SEA and the Democrats and is advocating a new statewide levy, which would fund meager pay raises with regressive taxes that hit the working class the hardest.

The deal will also do little to improve the conditions faced by substitute teachers, the most precarious layer of teachers in the district. While it ostensibly provides for enhanced healthcare benefits for these teachers, there is no indication of what this actually means. Rather, it is likely that this enhancement entails nothing more than a modest benefit for those substitute teachers fortunate enough to work nearly as many hours as a full-time teacher.

Rank-and-file educators must reject the blackmail by the SEA and elect rank-and-file committees in every school and community to wage a genuine struggle. They should demand the release of the contract details and a ratification vote before any return to work, based on the principle of no contract, no work.

Seattle teachers should reach out to other educators to wage a statewide walkout and fight to unite with teachers around the country who are engaged in struggle, including Los Angeles teachers who voted last week by 98 percent for strike action. At the same time, teachers must appeal to other sections of the working class, including UPS, Amazon, Boeing workers, along with students and parents.

Rank-and-file committees should issue their own demands, including salary increases of at least 30%, expanded staff and programs, reduced class sizes, a sharp increase in funding for public schools, immediate provision of healthcare for substitute teachers.

It is a lie to claim that there is no money when both big business parties squander trillions on bank bailouts, corporate tax cuts and criminal wars. The provision of the necessary resources to secure high quality public education for all requires a frontal assault on the entrenched wealth and power of the giant corporations, the establishment of a progressive taxation system to implement a radical redistribution of wealth, and the nationalization of the giant corporations like Boeing and Amazon under workers control. This requires the building of a powerful political movement of the working class against both corporate controlled parties and the fight for socialism.The United Steelworkers union (USW) announced Saturday that it would extend its current contracts with US Steel and ArcelorMittal for a short period of time past the bargaining deadline. The current contract expired at 11:59 PM on September 1 and covers 15,000 workers at Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal and 16,000 at Pittsburgh-based US Steel at plants throughout the US.

The union has been engaged in contract negotiations with the two steel manufacturing giants since July 9. Arcelor Mittal has proposed a 3-year contract that includes a 2 percent pay raise in the first year and 1 1/2 percent raises in the next two years, along with a signing bonus worth $1,980 after taxes. The proposal also includes cuts to health insurance for current workers and retirees that could force workers to pay up to $8,000 per year out-of-pocket for health care. Additionally, the company wants concessions on vacation pay, incentive pay, family and medical leave, and pensions.

US Steels demands are even more egregious. The company is demanding an unprecedented seven-year contract, with a 3.25 percent raise in the first year, 2 percent in the second, 1 percent in the third and no wage increases for the remaining four years. During years four through seven, hourly wage increases would be replaced with lump-sum annual bonuses of up to 5 percent of wages if company revenue hits targets set by management.

US Steel also wants to establish a new tier of new hires who will be paid less and receive fewer benefits. The company proposed to cut retiree health benefits last month, in addition to demanding cuts to hours and elimination of overtime pay.

Last month, US Steel announced it will invest $750 million in its 7-mile long, 112-year-old Gary Works plant, all of which will come off the backs of workers. US Steel and the USW will no doubt threaten workers with a withdrawal of investment if they do not accept the massive takeaway demands.

Both companies have seen an increase in their profits since the last concessions contract was forced through after steelworkers worked for seven months without a contract in 2015. Together, the steel giants made $2.1 billion in profits last quarter.

ArcelorMittal workers have not had a wage increase for three years, while US Steel workers have not had a raise for six years. The companies look forward to even greater profits in 2019, as the Trump administrations 25 percent tariffs on imported steel, which went into effect in June, have caused an uptick in stock prices and brought the price of US-made hot rolled steel to over $900 per ton.

Well aware of the deep dissatisfaction among rank-and-file workers, USW officials have complained that US Steel and ArcelorMittal are not offering acceptable proposals. After forcing workers to labor beyond the contract deadlines, the USW has now announced it will hold a strike authorization vote. This is nothing more than a hollow maneuver, however, aimed at allowing workers to blow off steam while the USW conducts closed door talks to fashion a deal the union officials think they can ram past the oppositions. Since negotiations in Pittsburgh began nearly two months ago, the union has not released a single counter proposal to the membership, which is determined to recoup past concessions and win substantial improvements.

During the 2015 contract struggle, the USW refused to call a strike, and forced workers to remain on the job without a contract, isolating workers at US Steel and ArcelorMittal from locked out ATI workers, whom the union starved into submission with meager strike pay. At the end of the struggle, the USW pushed through wage freezes and increased health care costs, along with a restructuring of the steel industry that eliminated jobs, extended working hours and introduced new lower-paid tiersgiving the companies everything that they needed to satisfy their profit interests.

When the current contract was ratified in the beginning of 2016, the USW justified the sacrifices that it forced workers to make in the name of keeping the companies profitable against foreign competitors. The cuts, they said, were necessary for workers to keep their jobs. Thousands of workers lost their jobs nonetheless. Now, the USW is laying the groundwork for even greater betrayals.

Thousands of steelworkers rallied at ArcelorMittal and US Steel plants across the country on August 30 to protest the concessions demanded by the corporations. Plans for the rallies were announced by the USW on its website just two days earlier, and were planned by the union to contain the mounting anger of the working class that has intensified in the course of a decade of wage and benefit cuts, and to keep them isolated from other steelworkers across the US and internationally.

The turnout at the rallies demonstrates the growing militancy among steelworkers, and mirrors that of teachers, UPS workers, autoworkers and many others who are coming into struggle around the US and internationally.

On Saturday, the USW called for the strike authorization vote among US Steel workers to take place in individual union chapters this week. If the strike vote is approved, the union will be able to call a strike with 48 hours notice. Although the steelworkers are expected to overwhelmingly vote for strike action, the USW has made it clear that it will work to avoid it at all costs. In the same letter that announced the vote, the union wrote: The local leadership will then return to Pittsburgh [after the vote] to try to finalize a deal before we take any strike action.

Earlier this year, 93% of UPS workers organized under the Teamsters union voted to authorize a strike at the beginning of June, and workers at Fiat Chryslers Kokomo Transmissions plants voted to strike in a near unanimous vote on July 19. Following the massive strike wave among teachers in West Virginia, Kentucky, Colorado and Arizona this spring, teachers in Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles, California voted to strike on August 28 and August 31, respectively.

In all of these cases, the unions are either in a hurry to wrap up strikes as soon as they begin or to prevent them all together. The real interests of the trade unions in the US and around the world were summed up concisely in January during the Janus v. AFSCME case, when attorneys for the public-sector unions repeatedly told the Supreme Court that agency feesthe equivalent of union dues for public sector workers who opt out of union membershipwas the tradeoff for no strikes. In other words, unions serve to prevent strikes from threatening the wealth and power of the ruling elite.

On August 31, Italian steel unions called for a September 11 protest of workers at Ilva, one of Italys largest steelmakers, as ArcelorMittal plans to take over the company and threatens workers with job losses and wage cuts. The nationalist unions on both sides of the Atlantic have made no attempt to connect these struggles.

The USW is quick to blame workers in other countries for taking the jobs and wages of workers in the US and Canada. But workers must see through these nationalist lies, and ask themselves who is responsible for the attack on jobs and pushing through one concessions contract after another. It is the transnational corporations that scour the globe in search of the lowest labor costs, and unions, like the USW, which function as nothing more that cheap labor contractors and managements enforcers.

Rank-and-file steelworkers must take the conduct of this struggle into their own hands by electing rank-and-file factory and workplace committees at every US Steel and ArcelorMittal mill and facility. These committees should advance their own demands, for a 40 percent across-the-board wage increase, the abolition of all tiers, the shortening of the workweek with no loss of pay, full funding of health care and retirement benefits, and workers control over production to stop speedup and unsafe conditions.

Instead of backdoor negotiations, rank-and-file committees must elect their own representatives to attend all negotiations and livestream them to all workers. Workers must reassert the principle of No contract, no work and prepare immediate strike action as US Steel, ArcelorMittal and the whole steel industry. Rank-and-file committees should fan out to unite with UPS workers, teachers, autoworkers, US Postal Service workers and other workers to prepare a general strike.

In opposition to the nationalist trap being set by the unions and the Trump administration, US steelworkers should unite with their class brothers and sisters internationally in a common struggle against the capitalist system and for a socialist program, which would include the transformation of the steel companies into public enterprises democratically controlled and collectively owned by the working class.Since April, the Central American nation of Nicaragua has been a country in turmoil.

In just over four months, at least 322 people have been killed, thousands injured and hundreds detained as waves of anti-government protests and ensuing crackdowns have swept Nicaragua, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Twenty-one of the dead were police officers and 23 were "children or teenagers," the agency said in a recent statement.

Central America Continents and regions Latin America Nicaragua The Americas Crime, law enforcement and corrections Government organizations - Intl Human rights International relations and national security Law enforcement Policing and police forces Protests and demonstrations Tourism Travel and tourism United Nations Armed forces Military

Meanwhile, the official government death toll during the same period stands at 198.

A scathing report by UN human rights experts last week accused the Nicaraguan government of human rights violations in dealing with protestors, saying: "the majority of victims have been young men, under 30 years old, coinciding with the average profile of the protesters, including university students and young professionals."

President Daniel Ortega -- a former revolutionary whose Sandinista rebels overthrew Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza in the 1970s -- said the UN report was "nothing more than an instrument of the policy of death, of the policy of terror, of the policy of lying, of the policy of infamy."

The government expelled the UN group.

That was followed by another anti-government demonstration on Sunday. IACHR reported that three people -- a doctor and two police officers -- were injured in clashes between protesters and pro-government forces.

First lady Rosario Murillo, who is also her husband's vice president, has compared protesters to "vampires," "coup-mongers" and "devils." In a speech on Wednesday, Murillo said protesters were "demons who for three months lashed out at Nicaragua, kidnapping peace, wanting to break the unity, but they could not and will not," adding, "the people are more unified than ever!"

But she also said recently the situation in the country has "normalized." There is no room for hate, Murillo said, according to state-run news agency Digital 19, because the only way Nicaragua will succeed is through "reconciliation."

IACHR, which is part of the Organization of American States (OAS), says things are far from normal, as the government is "simultaneously stigmatizing demonstrators, dissidents, social leaders and human rights defenders."

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Wednesday said that "the past four months have exposed the fragility of the country's institutions and the rule of law, and created a climate of fear and mistrust."

Fear and mistrust

Those are sentiments echoed by several Nicaraguans who spoke with CNN in recent weeks by Skype or by phone.

A 38-year-old father of four and manager of a supermarket told CNN paramilitary troops enter his store a few times a week, hooded and armed. But he stays quiet, he said, afraid to speak or even document the visits.

Worries of losing his job and income linger, as customers now buy the bare minimum and tourism is at zero. "Salaries are low and basic services high," he said, asking not to be identified by name for safety reasons.

Nicaragua's efforts to develop tourism and attract foreigners from countries such as the United States have paid off in jobs and dollars in recent years -- according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, 2017 saw 274,000 jobs created in the travel and tourism sector, with an expected rise of 4.1% in 2018.

But Sarah, 34, an American working independently in Nicaragua in the tourism industry for the past 12 years, says the impact of the political upheaval brought her business in western Nicaragua's Tola region to a standstill.

"Since day one of the repression to the protests, our inquiries dropped off completely and cancellations started coming. People got scared," Sarah told CNN, asking her last name be omitted.

Authorities have made it a point not to target or stop tourists, Sarah said, adding she witnessed both police and protesters allowing foreigners to pass checkpoints and roadblocks. While she believes the country's situation is not normal, she reiterates that had she not felt safe, she would have left.

A CNN request for comment to the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism on what impact the last four months have had on the industry and statistics went unanswered.

Anti-government protests in Nicaragua began this spring with people frustrated over the government's response to a devastating wildfire in an area of protected tropical rain forest. Unrest spread and tensions worsened after a government decision in April to change the country's social security system. The changes increased contributions by workers and employers but reduced pensions for retired workers in the second-poorest country in the Western Hemipshere.

The government subsequently reversed the social security change, but the people continued to march, with authorities moving to stem the protests and violence escalating. At least 10 people were killed in the first few days of unrest.

Demonstrations by citizens, crackdowns by the country's National Police and armed paramilitary groups, and violence have marked the weeks since.

Neighboring Costa Rica has been overwhelmed by the number of Nicaraguans leaving their homeland. An average of 200 Nicaraguans a day are applying for asylum, with "nearly 8,000 asylum claims by Nicaraguan nationals" registered since April, the UN's refugee agency said in a statement at the end of July. Around "15,000 more have been given appointments for later registration as the national processing capacities have been overwhelmed."

Makeshift barricades

On July 13, pro-government forces attacked the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, where students had been holed up in defiance against the government. The attack lasted several hours, leaving at least two dead and forcing students from the university, including those already injured, to flee.

At least 12 people were killed during attacks that weekend, according to Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "The appalling loss of life must stop -- now," Colville said.

As a form of protest and protection against pro-government armed groups, local communities and demonstrators erected makeshift barricades and roadblocks, locally known as tranques.

At the behest of Ortega and his wife, the National Police's "Operation Cleanup" began to remove what they deemed "barricades of death."

National Police General Ramon Avellan, speaking to reporters in July, said they'd remove them, "at whatever cost." Avellan has since been promoted to deputy director of the National Police.

On July 17, pro-government forces stormed Monimbo, a stronghold of the country's anti-government movement in western Nicaragua. The violence, which lasted more than four hours, left at least four dead, and streets littered with shell casings and shattered glass, reporters with CNN said.

Carlos Trujillo, US ambassador to the OAS, condemned the forceful intervention, describing the government's actions as "genocide." The government in turn referred to the incident as the city's "liberation."

The United States and the international community have denounced the Ortega regime's actions in responding to protests, while Cuba and Venezuela remain steadfast allies, condemning the protests as coup attempts meant to destabilize the country.

CNN made multiple requests to the National Police and the Nicaraguan government for comment on the death toll discrepancies, detainments and alleged human rights violations, but the requests remain unanswered.

'You can feel the fear'

Some Nicaraguans interviewed by CNN described nighttime scenes of deserted and silent streets as people are taking to their homes and staying inside, fearful of encountering roaming paramilitary troops or police if they venture out.

A Nicaraguan couple in their 30s told CNN over Skype that they feared simply going outside, "fearing the police, thinking they might kill or detain us."

"It is not normal that protesters are being treated as terrorists and parents are having to send their children across the border," the woman said. Like other Nicaraguans interviewed, the couple asked not to be identified by name.

Max Jerez, a 24-year-old political science major at the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua in Managua, agrees with the couple.

"There are many things that aren't normal," he told CNN. "In the streets you can feel the fear."

Jerez said he has put his education on hold and is calling for students to boycott returning to classes "until the conditions for safety are met, because right now, being a student alone is a crime."VERMILLION COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - A domestic dispute landed two people in jail and a police officer in the hospital.

On Monday, several law enforcement agencies responded to a home in Hillsdale.

Police had information that a suspect in a recent domestic battery case was hiding inside the home.

Police say Amy Long and a juvenile refused to let officers inside the home, even after Long allegedly told police the suspect was inside.

That is when Indiana State Police Master Trooper Ty Lightle was reportedly burnt by a cigarette and bit by a pit bull.

Police say Long was tased three different times.

She and the juvenile were taken to the Vermillion County Jail.

By law, the dog was quarantined due to not being immunized.Shelling hits the airport. Hospitals get caught in the crossfire. Migrants huddle in detention facilities between warring militias. And standoffs between factions with impenetrable grudges hold, making a resolution seem beyond distant.

This has been much of Libya's curse since the 2011 unseating of Moammar Gadhafi, but the past week has been a particularly ghastly episode. Militias holding parts of the capital, Tripoli -- who are technically loyal to the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) -- have been attacked by another armed group known as the 7th Brigade, from Tarhouna, to the capital's southeast. All sides accuse the other of corruption, and maintain their grip will restore order.

Africa Continents and regions Libya Middle East and North Africa Northern Africa

Yet the opposite is obviously proving the case. Militias have been fighting or squabbling, often at a slow-burn rate, for control of parts of the city for years. The distant thump of explosions or intermittent gunfire is far from abnormal across the city's skyline. But this uptick has led the GNA to denounce the fighting -- among militias that are technically loyal to it -- and declare a state of emergency.

Ongoing clashes have left at least 47 people dead and more than 140 wounded, a Libyan ambulance official told CNN. Prisoners broke out of a jail during the unrest on Sunday, with local media reporting 400 had escaped, although a GNA official claimed it was just dozens.

Yet this is a smaller part of the wider problem. Nationwide, Libya is split yet again. In the east, General Khalifa Haftar, who decades ago helped Gadhafi's original coup, has consolidated control around the city of Benghazi. Another militia, the Misrata Brigades, dominate a port to Benghazi's west.

There are further fiefdoms around the oil-rich nation -- Libya has been reduced by the ongoing violence to an economic slump, and people queue for hours outside banks for the most basic of services.

To add to that, ISIS fighters -- who gained substantial control around the town of Sirte and along Libya's massive Mediterranean coastline until a 2015 offensive against them -- remain a threat. Only last week, a US airstrike killed an ISIS militant near Bani Walid, the US military said.

In Tripoli, the GNA's path has been far from straightforward. It first arrived as something of a UN and Western-backed implant, and found itself often restricted to its base in the port. It has since grown in power, and the Libya Dawn faction that formerly controlled much of the capital has stepped back. Yet some of Dawn's loyalists are said to be assisting the 7th Brigade's offensive. That old rivalry, too, persists.

If you have kept up, then you may understand the scale of the challenge ahead for UN negotiators as they seek calm, or even a short-term peace. None of this complexity softens the agony for Libya's people, who have seen their oil-rich dictatorship flounder as the revolution brought the warring rule of the gun rather than a simple switch to elected leaders. Or the plight of the thousands of migrants, who risked all in Africa's deserts to reach the coastline, but now languish in Libya's jails.

Nor does it improve the confidence of European leaders who depend upon Libya's government -- and its coastguard -- to stop the migrant trade across the Mediterranean.Tupelo Cloudy 48 Hi: 49 Lo: 44 Feels Like: 45 More Weather Columbus Cloudy 48 Hi: 48 Lo: 47 Feels Like: 44 More Weather Oxford Partly Cloudy 43 Hi: 45 Lo: 40 Feels Like: 40 More Weather Starkville Cloudy 46 Hi: 48 Lo: 45 Feels Like: 44 More Weather

Get ready for a return to at least some rainfall for Wednesday as the cooler side of fall returns for a few days.OXFORD, Miss. (AP)  The University of Mississippi is moving into a former hospital it purchased as expansion space.

Ole Miss says the first tenant, the Counselor Education Clinic for Outreach and Personal Enrichment, moved in last week. Eight other tenants are expected to relocate in coming months to the former Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi, which the university is calling the South Oxford Center.

Ole Miss bought the 485,000-square-foot (45,000-sq. meter) building in 2017 for $22 million, as Baptist opened a new Oxford hospital. The university says the purchase was much cheaper than new construction.

The university plans renovations including a library and exercise room.

Associate Provost Donna West Strum says the center, with abundant parking, is more convenient for some community-focused services.

The university is offering a shuttle connecting to the main campus.JACKSON, Miss. (WTVA) - Troopers investigated four highway deaths during the Labor Day enforcement period.

The Mississippi Highway Patrols Labor Day Enforcement period was from Friday, August 31 at midnight to Monday, September 3 at midnight.

During this period, troopers issued 9,440 citations with 166 DUI arrests statewide.

Troopers also investigated 165 crashes, which included 54 injuries and four deaths.

A significant increase in traffic citations was recorded for the period compared to last year (3,843), stated Captain John Poulos. We attribute this to heavy traffic and the utilization of all available troopers including the addition of new troopers from Cadet Class 62.

One fatal crash happened on Friday, August 31 on Interstate 22 in Union County. Mervyn Epsman, 79, of Warrior, Alabama, and Jerome D. Young, 48, of Nettleton, were killed in the crash.

RELATED: Two killed in Union County crash

Other fatal crashes happened in Clarke County, killing a Shubuta man, and in Newton County, killing a Union man.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Leon County Commissioner's will finalize the plans to improve voter security in the county.

WTXL ABC 27's Jada Williams joins was live Tuesday morning from the Leon County Courthouse.

There are two grants for commissioners to approve all helping to increase security measures ahead of the next election.

Both grants total about $245,000.

While most FLorida counties received some money from the Federal Elections Security Grant, Leon County was one of two counties also offered the Albert Network Monitoring Secuity Solution.

This technology alerts organizations to potential security threats in real time.

Leon County Supervisor of Elections has been analyzing its voter security measures for the last two years, working to identify areas to strengthen.

Mark Earley, the Leon County Supervisor of Elections, says he hopes to have those changes made through having this grant in place by the November elections.

Commissioners will discuss it at their board meeting, which starts at 3 p.m. Tuesday.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Two people were arrested for theft at the Belk Department store after one of them received a refund for an item they had not bought, police said.

Jody Len Brant, 48, and Sandra Cresong Tumbleston, 50, both of Lake Placid, Florida, were seen entering the Belk Department Store on Wednesday with no merchandise on their persons, a probable cause affidavit said.

The store's loss prevention officer told a Tallahassee Police Department investigator that Tumbleston selected a bed comforter on the second floor and then met Brant on the first floor.

Brant and Tumbleston then went to the second floor to a register.

There Tumbleston placed the unpaid bed comforter on the counter and requested to return it without a receipt, the court document said.

Brandt handed the Belk employee his identification for the return.

After the Belk employee collected Brant's information and handed Tumbleston a gift card for $107.50, the loss prevention officer stopped Brant and Tumbleston and escorted them back to the loss prevention office.

Officers on scene found Tumbleston's vehicle and saw possible stolen property from Belk in plain sight.

Searching the vehicle the next day, an investigator recovered the property. Then, that day, Tumbleston and Brant were charged with dealing in stolen property.

Both people remained in the Leon County Detention Center on Monday.

Brant had a $5,750 bond. Tumbleston, who is wanted on a Polk County warrant for failure to appear, had a listed bond of $750.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 01:33:53|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who serves as the rotating chairperson of the African Union, addresses the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who is also rotating chair of the African Union (AU), said here Monday that China's engagement in Africa has been "deeply transformational both internally and with respect to Africa's global position."

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Kagame said China sees a stronger Africa as an opportunity rather than a problem.

FOCAC, established 18 years ago on the basis of equality, respect and a commitment to mutual "well-being," has grown into a powerful engine of cooperation fully aligned with Africa's Agenda 2063 and sustainable development goals, he said.

"An expanded cooperation framework presented by President Xi (Jinping of China) fully reflects our common understanding of the future of our community," he said.

The AU chair said Africa and China will intensify their collaboration in various industries, the ICTs (information and communication technologies), infrastructure and trade.

"We will also open new pathways on environmental protection and scale up people-to-people exchanges," he said.

He called on the countries of Africa to "increase our sense of ownership of joint programs" by improving project management and increasing participation by the African private sector.

Kagame also rejected misinterpretations of China-Africa ties, saying that "Africa is not a zero-sum game and our growing ties with China do not come at anyone's expense. Indeed the gains are enjoyed by everyone who does business on our continent."

In his speech, the Rwandan leader also mentioned Xi's four visits to Africa as president, reaching every major region of the continent as well as countries of different sizes and economic profiles.

"This commitment speaks to the vigor and reliability of our relationship," Kagame said. "China has proven to be a win-win partner and sincere friend."Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 01:38:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Former Ethiopian minister Junedin Sado returned home on Monday after close to a decade in exile due to disagreements with the Ethiopian government.

Sado, who had served as Ethiopia's minister of transport as well as other high-level government roles, followed the footstep of many other opposition figures, journalists and activists who returned following the government's reconciliation effort.

Sado's homecoming on Monday came a day after another prominent Ethiopian government critic and human right activist, Tamagn Beyene, who returned on home on Saturday 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 recent peaceful transition and reform within the Ethiopian government was the major factor for him to return.

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.

The Ethiopian government, following Abiy Ahmed's premiership in early April, has been implementing various decisions aimed at creating a nationwide reconciliation, including 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.

Ahmed also declared an amnesty invitation for exiled 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.

Other notable activists and journalists that have returned include Jawar Mohammed and Mohammed Ademo.

Various rebel groups, such as the Patriotic Ginbot 7, Oromo Leberation Front (OLF) and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), have also declared ceasefire.

The ONLF, a rebel group operating in the Ethiopia's Somali regional state, is the latest to declare a unilateral temporary ceasefire.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 01:59:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MADRID, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Spain suffered its biggest fall in the number of international arrivals in the month of July, according to data published on Monday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The country received 9.98 million international tourists in July of 2018, 4.9 percent less compared with July of 2017, while the amount of money spent by the tourists fell 0.9 percent.

The decrease was due to a drop in the number of tourists coming from Britain, France and Germany. The number of British tourists fell by 5.6 percent in July, the arrival of tourists from France fell by 11.4 percent, and the arrival of German tourists fell by 6.2 percent.

The main destination in the month of July was the Balearic Islands which received 24.4 percent of the total international tourists, followed by the eastern region of Catalonia and the southern region of Andalusia. The number of international tourists fell by 2.2 percent year-on-year in the archipelago of the Balearic Islands, and by 6.7 percent and 2.2 percent in Catalonia and Andalusia respectively.

However, in the first seven months of the year, the arrival of international tourists to Spain rose by 0.3 percent.

Industry, Trade, and Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto, said the government was committed to a tourism strategy based on "quality, bearing in mind that we could also have a slowdown in flows".

The improvement of stability in destinations such as Tunisia or Turkey can compete with the sun and beach tourism that Spain also offers in many places of the country, causing the decline in international arrivals in Spain, which is the world's second most visited country after France.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 03:04:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ZAGREB, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Croatian navy missile boat left a port in Split on the Adriatic Sea on Monday to join NATO's Operation Sea Guardian in the Mediterranean, state news agency HINA reported.

The missile boat "Vukovar" is the first Croatian vessel to join Operation Sea Guardian. It is led by a commander and 32 crew members and will carry non-combat tasks in the mission from the Sept. 5 until Sept. 21.

The mission which was launched in 2016 includes maintaining maritime situational awareness, deterring security threats and providing support to NATO's strategic communications in the Mediterranean.

"We are aware that the security of NATO and Croatia is defended not only on Croatian borders but also in places where threats emerge," Defense Minister Damir Krsticevic said at the ceremony in Split.

The commander of "Vukovar", captain Nikola Basic, stressed that this mission is a challenge, but also an opportunity for the crew to show their ability and determination.

Croatia became a full member of NATO on April 1, 2009. The southeastern European country has contributed to the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) and to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 03:04:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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VIENNA, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Unemployment in Austria saw a strong eight-percent decrease year-on-year for the month of August, the Public Employment Service (AMS) said on Monday.

A total 344,651 people were registered as jobless or in further training for the month, giving a national unemployment rate of seven percent as per Austria's own calculation method, or an even lower 4.9 percent as per the Eurostat calculation.

The AMS noted that the long-term unemployed, defined as those without work for a year or more, fell a significant 16.1 percent.

Further notable decreases in unemployment were seen in young people (down 11.9 percent), and among Austrian nationals (down 10 percent).

Lesser improvements were noted in those aged 50 and over, with a disability, and foreign nationals.

AMS head Johannes Kopf said the favorable situation means it is becoming more difficult for companies to find qualified staff. In August it took an average 49 days to fill a job vacancy, nine days more than the same period in 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 04:59:48|Editor: Liangyu

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Members of the National Ballet of China perform at the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo, Egypt, on Sept. 2, 2018. In the Egyptian capital Cairo, a large audience applauded wholeheartedly after a Chinese ballet troupe presented a series of short programs including classical and modern ballet shows. The shows were performed by members of the National Ballet of China (NBC) who are visiting Egypt and hosted by the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

by Ahmed Shafiq

CAIRO, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- In the Egyptian capital Cairo, a large audience applauded wholeheartedly after a Chinese ballet troupe presented a series of short programs including classical and modern ballet shows.

The shows were performed by members of the National Ballet of China (NBC) who are visiting Egypt and hosted by the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo.

"This is my first time to watch a Chinese ballet show and it is really amazing. The performances told us stories about the Chinese culture," Samar Seif, an Egyptian employee at transportation company, told Xinhua.

Seif, who used to practice ballet when she was a little girl, said she came to the show with her friends to get some knowledge about the Chinese ballet art.

After upgrading the relations between China and Egypt to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014, cultural exchange has been at its peak as artists, cultural and musical delegations have paid frequent visits.

Through such cultural moves, both countries want to boost friendly ties under the background of the Belt and Road Initiative, which certainly promotes deeper understanding of each other and wakes up the ancient civilization in the new era.

"Today's show was impressive, captivating and classy. I can say the Chinese ballet school is one of the best in the world," she said.

The young lady added that she appreciates the idea that the Chinese Cultural Center in Egypt holds many cultural and artistic events that bring China closer to the Egyptians.

"You don't even have to pay to watch these shows. It is a very smart way to spread the Chinese culture worldwide," Seif said.

The NBC, or the Central Ballet Troupe, was founded in 1959 and based in the Tianqiao Theater, which was specifically built for NBC.

In addition to performing in China, NBC has toured internationally, and produced and performed many Chinese and Western ballets.

"Now we are becoming more internationalized, putting on some of the best ballet in the world," Xu Gang, assistant artistic director of the NBC, told Xinhua.

Xu mentioned the troupe's cooperation with the world's best ballet composers and dancers, saying that the NBC is determined to introduce the best ballet to China and to create best ballet with Chinese characteristics.

"Some of our colleagues are performing for the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and we are performing in Egypt," Xu said.

The actor stressed that art transcends borders of countries and is shared by all human community, adding that the performers of the troupe are working to make the world know more about China.

"We are amazed by the old civilization here in Egypt. I believe the Egyptian audience understood what we wanted to express," Xu said.

"I believe it is the best way to communicate with African people through ballet and other artistic forms which require no language," he added.

Liu Qi, an actress of the NBC, said she felt honored to perform in Egypt as both China and Egypt are two countries with splendid culture.

"Ballet originates in Western countries, but now we bring Chinese style and characteristics into it," she said.Labor Day anti-violence protest leader Reverend Gregory S. Livingston confronts with Illinois State Police in Chicago, the United States, Sept. 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

CHICAGO, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Police arrested 12 people attempting to block traffic on the highway leading to Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Monday.

According to Illinois State Police, eight men and four women were arrested, including local activist and protest leader Reverend Gregory S. Livingston.

Police used a loudspeaker to instruct protesters to leave the highway. Protesters, including Rev. Livingston, then formed a single-file line to be arrested.

More than 100 police officers from several local and state agencies were present to stop the protesters from walking on the highway.

Activist Audrey Davis, a former school teacher of Chicago, told Xinhua, "Like all protesters, I am concerned about the escalating violence in our city and in our state ... I think there's a lot of inequity in black neighborhoods compared to white ones."

The protesters' demands include more African Americans in the construction workforce in Chicago, the repurposing of closed schools, economic investment in African American neighborhoods, resources for black led anti-violence initiatives, and the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

This protest comes just days before the beginning of the trial of former Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke, who prosecutors charged with the first-degree murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. On December 29, 2015, Van Dyke pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial begins on Wednesday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 09:55:38|Editor: Liangyu

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KATHMANDU, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A consortium of Nepal's five commercial banks on Monday approved credit worth 16 billion Nepali Rupees (140.48 million U.S. dollars) to Hongshi Shivam Cement Private Limited, a Nepal-China joint venture company.

It is one of the largest ever financings pledged by Nepali commercial banks to any industry or infrastructure project, according to Hongshi Shivam Cement Company.

The consortium led by Nepal's NMB Bank, co-led by Nepal Investment Bank and participated by Prabhu Bank, Everest Bank and Nepal SBI Bank pledged the loan to the cement company which has been conducting trial production of cement since May.

Lai Weipeng, general manager and director of Hongshi Shivam Cement and Sunil K.C, chief executive officer of NMB bank exchanged the financing document here on Monday.

The joint venture said that the loan was sought from Nepali banks to conclude financial closure of the cement plant. It has already received approval to inject Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth 86.22 million U.S. dollars from Investment Board, Nepal and the central bank. The Chinese company has pledged to inject a total FDI of 359.18 million U.S. dollars in the project, making it the largest FDI in the country's cement industry.

After exchanging the document, Lai said, "We are delighted on the financial closure of the project, which makes Hongshi Shivam Cement the largest cement factory in Nepal." With production capacity of 6,000 tonnes per day, it is the largest cement factory so far established in the Himalayan country.

Company officials said that they would use the loan pledged by the commercial banks to start commercial production of cement.

"We have recently received quality certificates for our cement from the Nepali government. So, we can now start commercial production of cement shortly," Satish Kumar More, a director of Hongshi Shivam, told Xinhua on Monday.

NMB Bank CEO K.C. said that a project like this would support growth in infrastructure, encourage injecting FDI in the economy and help generate employment. In the joint venture company, Hong Kong Red Lion Cement No-3, a subsidiary under Hongshi Holding Limited, has 70 percent stake and Nepal's Shivam Holding has the stake of 30 percent, according to the company.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 10:05:41|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Photo taken on Sept. 2, 2018 shows the burning National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A massive fire on late Sunday raced through Brazil's 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, causing no casualties but probably the total loss of a collection of more than 20 million items. (Xinhua/Li Ming)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Rio de Janeiro firefighters on Monday battled and brought under control a devastating fire that destroyed Brazil's prestigious National Museum.

Despite their efforts, little remains of the more than 20 million artifacts in the collection of the 200-year-old museum, which is also the South American country's oldest scientific institution.

"What survived? The building and several pieces, almost 10 percent," Cristiana Serejo, a museum deputy director, told reporters at a press conference.

The fire broke out late Sunday after the natural history museum was closed to the public. No injuries were reported, according to local authorities. Only the security guards were inside the building at the time of the blaze but they all managed to escape unharmed.

Fire spread quickly through the wood interiors of the three-story building, fueled by a vast collection of documents.

Efforts to put out the fire were hindered by the fire hydrants that however had no water, so firefighters were forced to collect water from a nearby lagoon until more water trucks arrived.

For hours, only one ladder was available to battle the blaze and it was put to use on the front of the building, while the fire quickly spread to the back of the museum.

The National Museum, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in June, originally served as a residence of Brazil's imperial family, when the country was under Portuguese rule. It was where Empress Leopoldina signed Brazil's declaration of independence in 1822.

Among its prized collection were a meteorite discovered in the 18th century, the largest dinosaur fossil ever found in Brazil, and the fossilized skull of Luzia, the oldest human remains found in the Americas, dating back 12,000 years.

It also had several pieces of Greek and Roman art, a number of Egyptian mummies, and a large collection of African art dating back to the early 19th century.

At least part of the Central Library, which was housed in a separate building, was saved, along with some documents and botanical exhibits saved by museum workers who entered the burning building to rescue what they could.

In recent years, the museum saw cutbacks in funding that led to several exhibits being closed due to the poor state of the building.

A string of news reports revealed electrical problems and termite infestation. The museum was even briefly closed after electricity bills went unpaid.

An online crowd funding effort was set up earlier this year to reopen one of the dinosaur exhibits.

In 2018, the museum, which is affiliated with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), has received only 10 percent of the needed maintenance budget, according to local media reports.

A renovation project, including fire prevention and mitigation measures, was reportedly postponed because of Brazil's electoral law, which restricts spending during an election period.

According to Serejo, the building's smoke detector wasn't working.

Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, a deputy director at the museum, complained about the lack of care and interest for historical heritage in Brazil. He told local TV stations late Sunday that no authorities attended the ceremony of the museum's anniversary and that museum directors had been requesting renovation funds for several years.

"The museum's collection, 200 years of history, was completely destroyed," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 10:20:44|Editor: ZD

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NEW ORLEANS, the United States, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Deep into St. James Parish, southern U.S. state of Louisiana, hundreds of construction workers are busy installing chemical equipment.

Among the vast expanse of sugarcane fields, this site is unique both in its appearance and identity.

Yuhuang Chemical Industries Inc. (YCI), a subsidiary of China's Shandong Yuhuang Chemical, is constructing a 1.85-billion-dollar methanol production facility here along the Mississippi River.

It is by far the largest Chinese investment in Louisiana's chemical manufacturing industry.

The YCI began to turn dirt on its 1,300-acre site in January 2017, clearing the way for the first of three construction phases of the methanol plant. The project has entered key phase in construction these days.

"We will gradually place in the majority of the large equipment on foundation, stepping toward assembly stage" Charlie Yao, CEO of YCI Methanol One, was animated when talking about the recent progress of his venture.

The plant has been hailed by many as a sign of strengthening business ties between China and Louisiana.

"Yuhuang's methanol project proceeded amid difficulties and challenges. It indicates that China and the United States are highly complementary in economic structure and trade," said Xu Chen, chairman of the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA (CGCC), which represents more than 1,500 Chinese and U.S. companies. "The project also helps facilitate U.S.-China collaboration."

The plant is expected to generate approximately 2,000 construction jobs at peak and at least 100 direct permanent jobs during operation.

Ron Gros, a Louisiana local, joined Yuhuang's methanol project early 2017. With rich working experience in U.S. chemical industry, Gros regarded his debut in the fledging Chinese company as "a good opportunity for his career."

"It's been a good working experience to come from the start to watch a chemical plant being built from the ground up," Gros is also confident about his future advancement.

Yuhuang's location on the riverfront was "strategic" and "mutually beneficial," according to Yao, as the facility benefits from the availability of natural gas feedstock and associated infrastructure. Meanwhile, its anchoring brings job opportunities and tax revenues to local communities and helps boost the port industry.

The plant is expected to start commercial production in mid-2020, with a productive capacity of approximately 1.7 million metric tons of methanol per year.

Methanol is used in the manufacturing of countless everyday products, including plywood, carpet, fuels and plastics.

The majority of the methanol produced at the site will be transported by barge and rail to north America, while the rest will be exported to China and Europe by oceangoing vessels, according to the company.

Many foreign companies including those from China are looking to long-term investment in Louisiana and that bodes well for the future of people living in the river parishes, said Paul Aucoin, executive director of the Port of South Louisiana.

Foreign direct investment has become an essential part of economic growth in Louisiana, and China is among the fastest-growing sources of foreign investment in the state, according to local economic development authority.Photo taken on Jan. 29, 2018 shows a view of Gwadar port in southwest Pakistan's Gwadar. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

by Jamil Bhatti

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistani government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has shown its full support and a firm commitment to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), vowing to utilize the project for poverty alleviation and development of the country.

In the victory speech after his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party won the July 25 general election, Imran Khan described CPEC as one of the best models to bring people out of poverty and assured the nation that the PTI would take it as an opportunity for the development of Pakistan.

"China has given us an opportunity of progress by starting CPEC which can raise prospects of investment flows from other countries and investors," said Khan, adding that his government would learn from China how they pulled out 700 million people out of poverty.

Local political watchers said that CPEC can help the PTI fulfill its manifesto in which the party promised to provide 10 million jobs for youth and marginalized communities in its five-year tenure.

On Saturday, an official statement said that the government had posted nine experienced and senior officers to the southwest Balochistan province as part of their policy to expedite development projects under CPEC in the province, the house of CPEC's major project of Gwadar port.

In his several public speeches and interviews before the general elections, Khan also vowed to work on CPEC more vigorously so as to extract the best and maximum benefits for the country.

Khan once told media that CPEC had injected a new energy into Pakistan's national economic and social development by bringing many positive aspects, especially by providing some 60,000 direct jobs to Pakistani youth during the past five years.

Earlier on Friday, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, said that the government is fully committed to the development of CPEC for the country's development, prosperity, poverty alleviation, human resource development, job creation, industrialization and power generation.

Bakhtiar, who is also the minister in charge of CPEC, held a meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing and said that development of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under CPEC is the priority area of the new government to achieve high economic growth and to encourage exports.

The Pakistani government has already asked all the officials concerned to speed up the efforts for SEZs where industry, commerce and entrepreneurship will be the main areas of focus, a way to generate employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled labor.

The minister also discussed various models of possible Chinese investment for the CPEC projects, third party participation and possible cooperation in agriculture and tourism sectors.

Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan's information minister, commented last week that the CPEC is an expression of Pakistan's geo-social relationship with China and the government intended to further develop the corridor.

Photo taken on May 25, 2018 shows the Multan-Shujaabad section of Multan-Sukkur Motorway in Multan, Pakistan. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

Power projects under the CPEC have brought a great practical change in Pakistan's energy sector by bringing 13 to 14 hours a day of load-shedding in 2013 to almost zero in 70 percent areas of the country. Over 20 energy projects have been planned under the CPEC, which will double the energy-thirsty country's current capacity for electricity production after their completion, according to the planning ministry.

A speedy work is in progress at several road infrastructure projects under the CPEC which is connecting the country's north with the south.

Cooperation from China helped Pakistan emerge as a rising economy in the world, the planning ministry said, adding that projects under the CPEC, including road infrastructure, energy projects and Gwadar port, would accelerate economic development and would further open Pakistan to the world.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 10:50:50|Editor: ZD

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TRIPOLI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan government announced late on Monday that more than 1,800 families had been displaced by clashes in the south of the capital Tripoli.

A total of 1,825 families were displaced from seven areas in Tripoli to other safe areas, as a result of armed clashes between government forces and armed militias, the Ministry for Displaced People's Affairs said in a press release.

More than 2,000 distress calls have been received, of which some concern random shells and injuries, the statement said.

The ministry also predicted that at least 1,000 families from southern Tripoli will be displaced in case the clashes intensify, and civilian casualties are likely to rise as a result of indiscriminate shooting.

Southern Tripoli has been witnessing violent clashes since Aug. 27 between government forces and armed militias, killing 41 people and injuring 123 others.

The Libyan interior ministry on Friday announced a cease-fire in Tripoli under the auspices of the United Nations. However, witnesses said heavy gunfire and explosions could still be heard in some parts of the capital city.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the continued escalation of violence in and around Tripoli, warning that "indiscriminate use of force is a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law."

Following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Gaddafi, Libya has been suffering incessant violence and political division.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 10:50:51|Editor: Liangyu

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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China contributed the biggest portion of international tourist arrivals into Brunei through Brunei International airport for first quarter of 2018, latest government statistics show.

According to Brunei's Tourism Development Department under the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism, A total of 70,729 international tourists arrived in the country through the Brunei International Airport in Q1 2018, an increase of 4.1 percent compared to the same period of the year 2017.

China emerges as the top contributor to tourist arrivals into the sultanate in Q1 2018 due to the increase of air connectivity from chartered flights with 26.2 percent share (18.5 percent in Q1 2017).

This is followed by Malaysia 21.5 percent (23.9 percent in Q1 2017), Indonesia 10.5 percent (9.9 percent in Q1 2017), Philippines 7.3 percent (8.5 percent in Q1 2017) and Singapore 4.5 percent (5.4 percent in Q1 2017).

In total, the top five countries have contributed the majority portion of total international tourist arrivals for Q1 2018 at 70 percent share.

While the Far East market including China, South Korea and Japan continued to show persistent growth at 40.5 percent, other markets comprising Long Haul markets, Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN have declined by 13.3 percent, 8.4 percent and 5.1 percent respectively.

The main purpose of visiting Brunei is for holiday and leisure which stands at 48.8 percent share. About 12.7 percent of total tourists were on transit in Brunei, while 12 percent visited for business purposes followed by visiting friends and relatives at 8.9 percent.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 10:55:53|Editor: ZD

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BERLIN, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Germany urged Russia to keep engaging in diplomatic talks to resolve the Ukrainian crisis on Monday following the assassination of a pro-Russian rebel leader in eastern Ukraine.

"We urge all parties to continue with their constructive participation in negotiations," Steffen Seibert, spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told reporters in Berlin.

"It is really important that an escalation is prevented now," Seibert noted.

The remarks were made after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday the murder of Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of Ukraine's independence-seeking Donetsk region, made it impossible for the four-way Ukraine talks involving Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, known as the Normandy format, to continue.

Zakharchenko was killed in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk, part of Ukraine's Donbas region.

"This is a blatant provocation aimed at hindering the implementation of the Minsk agreements," Lavrov added.

The Minsk agreements resulted from the four-way talks includes 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 Donbas, among other measures.

Germany said the death of Zakharchenko should not invalidate the Minsk agreements.

Chancellor Merkel is scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Marseille on Friday. During the meeting, she is widely expected to raise the issue which could become a formidable threat to an already fragile peace in eastern Ukraine.

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 Donbas, 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 violation.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 10:55:55|Editor: ZD

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BRASILIA, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) said Monday it will present an appeal to the Supreme Federal Court in order to guarantee the presidential candidacy of ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The announcement was made by the party's vice-presidential candidate Fernando Haddad after visiting Lula in prison.

Lula is serving a 12-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering.

Last week, the majority of Superior Electoral Court (TSE) judges rejected Lula's candidacy for October's presidential election, citing the so-called "Clean Record Law", which bans anyone with a criminal record from seeking public office.

Haddad said there will be a petition made to the United Nations so that it can appear before Brazilian authorities regarding the decision.

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 said that the UN's stance was not mandatory in this case.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 12:41:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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PARIS, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The recent killing of a pro-Russian rebel leader in eastern Ukraine would not call into question Minsk agreements aimed at ending large-scale hostilities there, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said Monday.

"The latest developments in eastern Ukraine are unlikely to undermine the parties' obligations under the Minsk agreements or the pertinence of the Normandy-format meetings between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine," she said.

"It is precisely when tensions arise that negotiations must begin in good faith," she added.

Alexander Zakharchenko, the elected leader of the independence-seeking Donetsk, part of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, was killed in an explosion on Friday at a local cafe.

On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it made the Normandy format talks impossible to continue, noting "This is a blatant provocation aimed at hindering the implementation of the Minsk agreements," which were reached during the four-way Ukraine talks.

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 Donbas, among other measures. However, the cease-fire pact has never been fully implemented.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:06:19|Editor: Yurou

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MEXICO CITY, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Monday that his country will continue to push for Canada's inclusion in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and sustain its trilateral character.

"We are continuing to promote a trilateral agreement, convinced of the need for Canada to remain as a business partner inside the treaty," said Pena Nieto during his final government report delivered at the National Palace.

Mexico and the United States reached an agreement in principle on Aug. 27, but Canada is not included yet.

Talks between Canada and the United States stepped up following the announcement of the agreement between Mexico and the United States, but various issues remain to be overcome.

Negotiations between Canada and the United States will restart on Wednesday.

Mexico "will follow up on the bilateral negotiations between the United States and Canada," said Pena Nieto.

The Mexican president, who is due to finish his six-year term on Nov. 30, said that the principled agreement with the United States helped "dispel uncertainties generated in the last few months."

He added that the agreement also "gives certainty to the country in its most important trade relationship."

The Mexican president went on to declare that Mexico's objectives were achieved, namely, to preserve free trade, not to accept export quotas and to strengthen tools for resolving trade disputes.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:06:20|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Political observers, policy researchers and experts on international affairs spoke highly of President Xi Jinping's speech at a high-level meeting between Chinese and African leaders on Monday.

They believe that the speech has pointed out the direction for African countries' participation in building the Belt and Road jointly and joining hands with China to build a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future.

In the keynote speech themed "walk together towards prosperity," President Xi said that China stands ready to strengthen comprehensive cooperation with African countries to build a road of high-quality development that is suited to national conditions, inclusive and beneficial to all.

Constantinos Berhe Tesfu, professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University, said Ethiopia is a beneficiary of China-Africa cooperation.

The building of industrial parks in Ethiopia and the expansion work on the Bole International Airport in the capital city all benefit from the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, he said.

Gedion Jalata, CEO of the Center for Excellence International Consult in Ethiopia, said the Belt and Road Initiative offered African countries diversified choices on their paths of development, provided more opportunities to relevant countries in the aspects of capital and experience, and strengthened linkage between Africa and China in the fields of trade and investment.

Blandina Kilama, a senior researcher at the Policy Research for Development in Tanzania, said more and more Chinese entrepreneurs have come to invest in Tanzania in recent years, which created many jobs for the locals.

Historical experience shows that it is in the interests of Tanzania to consolidate cooperation with China, she said.

Tanzanian lawmaker Dalaly Kafumu said that the key to the deepening of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation is that China does not attach political strings to assistance to Africa.

He believes that the increasingly close trade between China and Africa will inevitably bring more opportunities to African countries.

The building of interconnectivity helps African countries to alleviate poverty and move toward modernization, while it also encourages Chinese companies to go abroad, said Denise Kodhe, executive director of the Institute for Democracy and Leadership in Africa, a Kenyan think tank.

China understands the fact that each country has its own national conditions and adopts its own political system; and it is even more aware that one can not impose its own political system and development path upon others - something that Western countries lack, said Pedzisai Ruhanya, director of Zimbabwe Democracy Institute.

The way China invests in and cooperates with Africa is appreciated by African countries and is a better way to help improve African countries' economy and benefit the African people, said Ruhanya.

Charles Onunaiju, director of the Center for China Studies in Nigeria's capital Abuja, said that Xi encourages two-way investment between Chinese and African enterprises, which is exciting.

It is foreseeable that as more Chinese companies invest in Africa and introduce technology and management experience to local companies, the latter will achieve great benefits and development, Onunaiju said, adding that it will also allow more "made in Africa" products to enter the international market.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:11:22|Editor: Yurou

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KABUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of Haqqani network militant group, has died of illness, the Afghan Taliban outfit confirmed on Tuesday.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, confirmed in a statement that Jalaluddin Haqqani was ill and bed-ridden for the past several years and he has passed away after a long battle with illness.

The statement did not provide details.

Jalaluddin had led the Haqqani group for years, however, his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is leading the notorious Haqqani group over the past several years, after his father's illness.

Sirajuddin presently also serves as deputy leader to the Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.

As a Taliban-linked group of militants, the Haqqani network mostly operating in eastern provinces and capital Kabul, and has been responsible for many high-profile attacks against Afghan security forces and U.S.-led NATO coalition troops.

Local experts believe that the death of Jalaluddin, who was a member of Taliban leadership council, would be a blow for the network and the Taliban insurgent group.

Jalaluddin was also a key Mujahidin leader during in 1980s during the former Soviet Union war in Afghanistan.

The Haqqani network was designated as a terrorist group by the United States in 2012.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:31:26|Editor: Liangyu

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LUSAKA, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The changing paradigm shift in global economy leaves China as the best hope for Africa's future development, a Zambian expert said on Monday.

"I believe that China offers the best option for Africa. It is evident that China has become the best trading partner for the continent which must be embraced with both hands," said Yusuf Dodia, chairperson of the Private Sector Development Association in Zambia.

As Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is currently underway in Beijing, Dodia told Xinhua that China offers a win-win situation for the continent.

Africa, he said, needs to use the summit to ensure that it presents concrete arguments on how it thinks the relations with China could be enhanced.

According to him, Africa needs industrialization, skills and technology development and strong partnership with China in order to spur economic development.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:36:27|Editor: Yurou

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LONDON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 fire engines and around 80 firefighters are battling a fire early Tuesday at a primary school in London, London Fire Brigade said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:36:27|Editor: Yurou

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KABUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- One U.S. service member of U.S.-led NATO coalition forces was killed and another wounded following an apparent insider attack in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition forces said Tuesday.

"The sacrifice of our service member, who volunteered for a mission to Afghanistan to protect his country, is a tragic loss for all who knew and all who will now never know him," General Scott Miller, commander of Resolute Support (RS) and U.S. Forces- Afghanistan, was quoted in a statement as saying.

The latest death has brought to six the number of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan since January this year.

Additional information will be released as appropriate and the wounded soldier was in a stable condition, according to the statement.

Such incident had also happened in the past when Afghan soldiers turned their weapons against coalition forces and Taliban insurgents mostly claimed responsibility for insider attacks.

On July 7, one U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded in a similar incident in southern Uruzgan province.

NATO and U.S. forces completed their combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, after 13 years of military presence in the country.

However, around 16,000 foreign forces remained in Afghanistan to help Afghan forces in the fields of training, advising and backing them in the war on insurgents.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:41:29|Editor: Yurou

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HANOI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam earned nearly 30.9 billion U.S. dollars from exporting phones and their components, mainly to the United States, the European Union, South Korea and Southeast Asia, in the first eight months of this year, up 15.7 percent on-year.

Specifically, the value of phones and components exported to the United States climbed up 27.2 percent, to South Korea up 26.4 percent, and to the European Union up 13 percent, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Tuesday.

Between January and August, Vietnam spent roughly 9.3 billion U.S. dollars importing phones and their components, increasing 4.3 percent over the same period last year.

By the end of June, the country, with a population of some 95 million, had 126.9 million fixed and mobile phone subscribers, including 119.4 million mobile phone ones, said the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority.

Vietnam made total telecommunications revenues of 188.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 8.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:41:29|Editor: Yurou

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HANOI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam spent over 1.1 billion U.S. dollars importing fruits and vegetables in the first eight months of this year, up 12 percent on-year, its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Tuesday.

Specifically, fruit imports stood at 812 million U.S. dollars, up 0.2 percent, mainly from Thailand and China.

In 2017, Vietnam spent nearly 1.6 billion U.S. dollars importing fruits and vegetables, up 68 percent against 2016.

In the first eight months of this year, the country gained roughly 2.7 billion U.S. dollars from exporting fruits and veggies, posting a year-on-year increase of 14.8 percent, said the ministry.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:41:30|Editor: Yurou

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SYDNEY, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Stability in government and updating of legislative reforms have seen Papua New Guinea (PNG) shoot up the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index.

"Our country's ease of doing business is independently measured by the World Bank, it is a good story and if we look at the last two years, our ease of doing business has improved about 36 placings," PNG's Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) chairman Leon Buskens said on Monday.

"In 2016 PNG ranked 145 out of 189 economies. It was an improvement from prior years which was due to legislative changes and our ranking improved to 119 by 2017 and this year we further improved further 10 places to 109," he said.

Across the rest of the South Pacific region, Samoa came in at 87th place, Tonga reached 89th, Vanuatu ranked 90th and Fiji registered 101st.

According to Buskens, one of the major reasons for the improvement in conditions has been the inclusion of information communication technology (ICT) to register companies with the IPA.

"Using ICT as a platform, to make it cost effective, now we are open 24 hours 7 days a week online," he said.

This monumental change has allowed businesses from inside and outside of the country to register with the IPA in about 10 minutes.

Previously, Buskens said the process would have taken up to 51 days.

"Reviews of a lot of our policies are long outdated, policy laws for example, the National Investment Policy we have not reviewed that for the last two decades," he said.

"We are going through that and again this is to stimulate growth, the other is the Associations Act also going through the process of strengthening that."Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 13:56:33|Editor: Yurou

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PHNOM PENH, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian authorities had arrested 10,199 illicit drug suspects in 5,145 cases during the first eight months of 2018, according to an Interior Ministry's anti-drug department report on Tuesday.

About 5,965 suspects are involved in drug trafficking and 4,234 are related to drug use, the report said, adding that 213 of them are foreigners in 15 nationalities.

The report said more than 487 kilos of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, methamphetamine pills, and ketamine, and 38 kilos of dry marijuana, were seized from the suspects during the January-August period this year.

In the entirety of 2017, the Southeast Asian country caught 17,795 suspects in 8,173 drug-related cases and confiscated nearly 300 kilos of illicit drugs.

Cambodia has no death sentence for illicit drug traffickers. Under its law, a person trafficking more than 80 grams of illicit drug will be imprisoned for life.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 14:06:34|Editor: Yurou

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HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Two police officers and at least 11 Taliban militants were killed in a fierce clash after Taliban attacked a security checkpoint in Afghanistan's western province of Badghis Tuesday, a local official said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 14:56:42|Editor: xuxin

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HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Two police officers and at least 11 Taliban militants were killed in fierce clashes after Taliban attacked a security checkpoint in Afghanistan's western province of Badghis Tuesday, a local official said.

"The clashes occurred in the early hours of Tuesday after Taliban attacked the checkpoint with guns and rocket propelled grenades, along a main roadway in Laman, an area on the outskirts of provincial capital Qala-e-Naw city," Naqibullah Amini, the provincial police spokesman, told Xinhua.

Four police personnel and 16 Taliban were also wounded in the fighting which lasted for hours, the source added.

Reinforcement forces were dispatched to the area and the security troops seized weapons after the fighting in the province, 555 km northwest of Kabul.

In a separate development, militants kidnapped four people after intercepting a bus and singling them out from among the passengers in Maywand district of southern Kandahar province earlier on Tuesday.

The police launched a search raid to locate and rescue the kidnapped passangers, Bashir Khaqsar, an official of provincial police department, told Xinhua.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been on the rampage since the beginning of 2015 when the Afghan security forces assumed full responsibilities of security from the U.S. and NATO troops.

The militants also intensified attacks against security forces and staged coordinated large-scale attacks against Afghan cities and districts after they launched a yearly rebel offensive on April 25.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 15:01:43|Editor: xuxin

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LONDON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 fire engines and around 80 firefighters are battling a fire early Tuesday at a primary school in London, London Fire Brigade said.

It is unknown whether there was anyone at the school, located in Hewett Road of Dagenham, when the fire broke out in the early hours of the day.

Around half of the single-storey building is currently ablaze.

The cause of the fire is not known at this stage.

London Fire Brigade said the firefighters "are making steady progress" in tackling the fire.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 15:11:45|Editor: xuxin

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ULAN BATOR, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The International Women's Federation of Commerce and Industry (IWFCI) -- Global Women's Trade Summit will be held here from Sept. 6 to 8, Ochkhuu Baigali, president of the IWFCI Mongolia, said Monday.

About 300 delegates from Mongolia, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, India and other members of the IWFCI, and its founder Diana Abruzzi will attend the event, Baigali told Xinhua over the phone.

The annual event aims to support female entrepreneurs, strengthen their business contacts, and help them explore opportunities for cooperation and exchange experiences, she said.

The summit in Mongolia is themed "Global Innovation and Connectivity."

Within its framework, a total of seven panel discussions will be held, namely "Opportunities in Mongolia," "ASEAN-Mongolia-Central Asia," "Digital Economy and Ecosystem," "Innovations and Entrepreneurship," "Future of Finance," "Creative Industries" and "Women in the Global Economy."

Founded in Australia's Melbourne in 1992, the IWFCI is the first truly international chamber of commerce for women in the world.

Mongolia became a member of the non-profit and non-governmental organization in 2016.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 15:16:47|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea approved a proposal on Tuesday to shorten mandatory military service period by up to three months that will take effect from next month.

The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, approved the defense ministry's offer to shorten the military service period over the coming years.

Starting in October, the service period will be gradually curtailed from 21 months to 18 months for the Army and the Marine Corps, from 23 months to 20 months for the Navy, and from 24 months to 22 months for the Air Force.

It was part of the military's reform measures, called the Defense Reform 2.0, to modernize the armed forces instead of reducing the number of troops.

The military aimed to cut the number of soldiers to half a million by 2022 from the current 625,000.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 15:31:48|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened a meeting on security and foreign affairs on Tuesday, a day ahead of his special envoys' visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to the presidential Blue House.

Attending the meeting were Moon's five-member special delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, top national security advisor and the head of the National Security Office of the Blue House.

The other four delegates were Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country's spy agency, NIS deputy chief Kim Sang-gyun, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung and Yun Kun-young, a Blue House official.

Presidential chief of staff and ministers of defense, foreign affairs and unification also attended the meeting.

Moon's special emissaries were scheduled to take an air route over the western inter-Korean sea boundary to Pyongyang Wednesday, and return home on the same day.

The special envoys are expected to set a date for the third summit between Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, which the two Koreas agreed to hold in Pyongyang before the end of September.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 15:36:51|Editor: xuxin

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COLOMBO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Russia's flag carrier Aeroflot will re-launch regular non-stop flights to Sri Lanka's capital Colombo from Oct. 28, Sri Lanka's government information department said on Tuesday.

The airline, which stopped flights to Colombo a decade ago, will re-introduce five weekly flights between Moscow and Colombo on the state-of-the-art Airbus A330 aircraft.

The nine-hour flights will boost inbound tourism from Russia to Sri Lanka and will also be a major boost for business travel to the island country, the information department said.

It will also promote Colombo as a vital transit destination.

In addition to Aeroflot, the information department said several other major foreign airlines have also expressed an interest in flying to Sri Lanka while many existing operators have added extra capacity via bigger aircraft.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 15:36:52|Editor: ZX

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KUNMING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Eight people have been confirmed dead with the last three missing bodies retrieved from a mudflow that occurred in southwest China's Yunnan Province last Wednesday, local authorities said Tuesday.

The accident occurred in Mojiang County in the city of Pu'er as a mudflow poured to a tunnel construction site and carried away a work shed.

Four railway construction workers were killed on site by the mudflow, leaving four workers missing and two more injured.

During the search and rescue operation, the bodies of the four missing workers were recovered and identified by relatives and DNA tests, said the city's publicity department.

The work shed belongs to a branch of the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited.

Meanwhile, thousands of rescuers searched for 15 people who were missing after a flood and mudslide hit Yunnan's Mengdong Township in Malipo County on Sunday.

The flood and mudslide left five people dead and seven others injured, while also forcing the evacuation of more than 1,500 residents, according to the local rescue headquarters.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 15:41:55|Editor: xuxin

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BEIRUT, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Around 200 Syrian refugees returned to their homeland on Tuesday from Shaba'a in Lebanon through the Masnaa Border Crossing, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Refugees gathered in Shaba'a public school, waiting for buses to take them back to their country under strict supervision by the Lebanese General Security Directorate, NNA said.

According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, more than 1 million Syrian refugees are registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, while the government estimates the true number of Syrian refugees in the country at 1.5 million.

The prolonged stay of Syrian refugees in Lebanon over the past five years has become an economic and social burden for the country, prompting the government to facilitate a safe return for refugees to their homeland.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 15:57:02|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched on Tuesday its first Trade Finance Scorecard, a new tool to address market gaps stemming from the unintended consequences of global measures to fight money-laundering and terrorism.

"Preventing criminals and terrorists from exploiting the global financial system is critically important," said ADB's Head of Trade and Supply Chain Finance Steven Beck.

"But these regulations can also undermine jobs and growth at small businesses and developing countries. This new scorecard will open a channel of dialogue among stakeholders to help prevent crime and terrorism while financing growth and job creation," Beck said.

The ADB said the Trade Finance Scorecard focuses on issues related to the interpretation, implementation, and compliance with regulations designed to curb money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the context of correspondent banking and trade financing.

"The scores are assigned on two levels. Firstly, at a macro level, to identify characteristics of effective regulation that could be strengthened. Secondly, at a micro transactional level, to highlight specific challenges that can be addressed in the shorter term," the ADB said.

The ADB added "Elements of effective regulation outlined in the first level are scored out of 10 on seven criteria: consistency (4), risk alignment (3), design (2), stakeholder communication (5), technology and data (5), enforcement (4), and quality control (3). These criteria are used to assess five working-level issues in the second level."

The ADB said the scorecard is based on feedback from industry leaders and regulators and will complement existing tools such as the Financial Action Task Force's recommendations against money laundering and terrorist financing.

"The scores are illustrative and directional," said Beck, stressing the need to have "better ways of addressing these issues, and we see the scorecard as the start of a process of engagement on this difficult subject."

ADB's Trade Finance Program (TFP) closes market gaps by providing guarantees and loans to over 200 partner banks to support trade, helping companies across Asia to engage in import and export activities.

In 2017, TFP supported 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in trade through 3,505 transactions. Its financial support is complemented by regular workshops and seminars to increase knowledge and expertise in trade finance products, anti-money laundering, and risk management.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:07:04|Editor: ZX

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Kirk Merritt, executive director of the Ohio Soybean Association (OSA), speaks during an interview in Ohio, the United States, Aug. 21, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Feihu)

by Xinhua writers Yang Shilong, Li Feihu, Chang Yuan

WORTHINGTON, the United States, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- As the harvest season in the U.S. midwestern state of Ohio is approaching, soybean farmers are sitting on pins and needles due to the ongoing tariff battle between the United States and its major trading partners.

"We hope that the tariffs are not in place when the current crop is harvested, as we said, starting in a month. Longer-term tariffs would be very harmful to the profitability of Ohio soybean farmers," said Kirk Merritt, executive director of the Ohio Soybean Association (OSA), in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The U.S. administration under President Donald Trump has levied tariffs on a host of products from around the world, and countries like China, India, Mexico and Canada have responded by slapping their own taxes on imports from the United States, especially on its breadbasket.

LONG-TERM TARIFFS HARMFUL

"I think if the tariffs continue longer-term, it would be very harmful to Ohio soybean farmers and American soybean farmers," Merritt said at the OSA's headquarters in Worthington, 17 km south of Columbus, the state capital of Ohio.

Independent research shows "significant reductions in long-term profitability" for soybean farmers if the tariffs are "in place for several years," Merritt said.

The estimated annual economic impact of the Ohio soybean industry on the Ohio economy exceeds 5.25 billion U.S. dollars, according to the OSA.

Ohio was the seventh-largest soybean-producing state in 2017. The state's soybean farmers planted 5 million acres of soybeans last year and exported 1.8 billion dollars' worth of the crop. China bought more than 691 million dollars' worth of soybeans from Ohio in 2017.

"China has been for many years our largest export market, for Ohio, and for the United States," Merritt said. "So our farmers understand the importance (of the international markets)."

The farmers are already feeling the squeeze. The soybean price decreased by approximately two dollars per bushel, which is about 20 percent, since China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soybeans in July.

"We have heard estimates of potential financial harm for crops that they are holding but not yet sold based on the drop in the price, of anywhere from 25,000 or 200,000 (dollars) for an individual farmer. It is a significant amount for farmers," said Merritt.

The numbers are devastating for farmers who operate with high overhead and slim profit margins in the best of times.

The break even on soybeans right now is approximately 9.50 dollars per bushel though it would vary very widely from one farm to the other, according to an analysis by researchers at Ohio State University.

"Prices currently are below break even. Most farmers are selling at 8.20 or 8.50 dollars' range on those specific beans. They would not make much," Merritt said.

"If it is not resolved in the next year, two years, three years, (it) will have a very adverse effect on their bottom line, will make them less profitable," he added.

MARKET HARD TO BUILD

Fred Yoder is a fourth-generation farmer from Plain City, 24 km away from Worthington. Yoder and his family farm around 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans. He also owns and operates his own retail farm seed business.

Farmers come to him for help because he served as president of the National Corn Growers Association and has become an advocate not only for Ohio's agriculture industry, but the United States' as well.

The tariffs have already given farmers in Ohio and the Midwest a "very tough time," said the farmer, who has been involved in the agri-business for over 40 years.

"I've lost 100,000 dollars just from what I haven't got sold (in the futures market)," Yoder said.

As the harvest season is approaching, the situation is becoming "very worrisome" because most farmers have to borrow funds to put the crop out by buying the inputs, e.g. the seeds, the fertilizers and the crop protection products, he said.

The possible loss of the Chinese market will greatly hurt Ohio and the U.S. soybean industry as no one market can replace the world's largest middle-class market, said Yoder, who had recently returned from a two-week trade mission to China.

Agricultural experts warn when the farmers' income goes down, the ripple effects will penetrate Ohio's and the U.S. economy -- car dealers, grocery owners and bankers are going to feel the pinch.

"Our production will continue to increase in the coming years. So we will need new markets. In short-term, we certainly can sell more to Europe. We can sell more to Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia ... But in longer-term, it won't make up for the market in China," Merritt said.

After all, he said, it took American farmers over 35 years to build a market in China and they do not want to pass it over easily to their competitors like Brazil and Canada.

TRADE, NOT AID

There is little wonder that Ohio's elected officials and lawmakers are also beginning to sound the alarm.

Republican Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Joni Ernst of Iowa have teamed up with Alabama Democrat Doug Jones to introduce legislation that would clip the wings of the president's unilateral tariff powers.

"These are policies that are harming the economic interest of Americans who are important, most particularly the farmers," Ohio Governor John Kasich said.

"For farmers, farmers don't want welfare, they want trade. They want to be able to sell their stuff," said Kasich, referring to the Trump administration's announcement of a 12-billion-dollar plan to compensate farmers hurt by the trade battles.

Furthermore, the aid actually "stifles the ability for farmers to be competitive amongst each other," said Matt Dolan, an Ohio state senator.

"Tariffs don't necessarily hit the government. They hit individuals and corporations," Dolan added.

"There's no way we're going to ever survive without trade. U.S. agriculture can not survive without international trade, and China was our biggest trade partner and it's going to be very difficult to replace the business we are doing with China," said Yoder.

"We hope that the current situation will be resolved in a mutually beneficial way as well, that in a longer-term we will be able to continue that win-win partnership (with China)," Merritt said.

(Xinhua reporters Xu Jing, Miao Zhuang and Wang Ying also contributed to the story.)

(Video editors: Liu Xiaorui, Zhu Jianhui)Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:12:04|Editor: xuxin

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ULAN BATOR, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia is ready to cooperate with foreign investors on a large coal deposit, said a minister at the 8th Coal Mongolia International Conference and Exhibition, which started on Tuesday.

The international event is being held after Mongolia decided to sell up to 30 percent of the Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi Company on domestic and international stock markets. Tavan Tolgoi is one of the world's largest untapped coking and thermal coal deposits, with a total estimated reserve of 6.4 billion tons.

Mongolian Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry Dolgorsuren Sumiyabazar said at the opening ceremony that Mongolia is ready to cooperate with foreign investors on the Tavan Tolgoi deposit.

Mining is expected to be a leading sector in Mongolia for the next 20 to 30 years, said Sumiyabazar, who hopes the annual conference will help attract more foreign investment for the Mongolian mining industry, especially coal mining.

The 8th Coal Mongolia International Conference and Exhibition has attracted 3,000 participants, including some 600 officials and investors from 15 countries such as China, Australia, Canada and Britain. The theme of this year's conference is "Together towards Technological Advancement."

During the two-day event, the participants will discuss ways to raise Mongolian coal competitiveness in Asia, to increase Mongolian coal exports and to introduce coal mining technology into Mongolia.

Coal is Mongolia's main export. The country extracted 26.3 million tons of coal in the first seven months of this year, according to Sumiyabazar.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:27:10|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) vowed on Tuesday to help countries and regions of Asia and the Pacific leverage digital technologies for development, saying digital technology is rapidly developing in diverse fields.

ADB President Takehiko Nakao said at 2018 Digital Development Forum that new tools like mobile communications, robotics, and artificial intelligence are bringing profound changes to the way people live, work, interact and do business.

To help countries leverage digital technologies for development, Nakao said ADB created the Digital Technology for Development Unit in March 2018. The Manila-based bank is also implementing new digital reforms that focus on innovation and support dramatic modernization of business processes, he added.

With appropriate policies, Nakao said the developing countries and regions of Asia and the Pacific stand to benefit tremendously in this new era. "I see great opportunities, as well as challenges," he said.

The two-day forum provides a venue for high-level discussions on the use of information and communications technology (ICT) for development in region.

During the forum, ADB will sign a cooperation agreement with the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) to collaborate on research and development of innovation programs and activities, and capacity building and the promotion of innovation programs at both institutions.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:32:12|Editor: xuxin

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RABAT, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani on Monday commended Chinese companies' growing interest in investing in Morocco, the PM's office said in a statement.

According to the statement, El Othmani met representatives of leading Chinese companies on the sidelines of the Sixth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs in Beijing.

These meetings were an opportunity for the two parties to explore investment projects and promote expertise sharing and job creation in a win-win spirit, said the statement.

Chinese investors have demonstrated rising interest in investing in communication, energy and infrastructure sectors in Morocco, said El Othmani.

El Othmani also highlighted the opportunities offered by Morocco for foreign investors, stressing his country's commitment to further improving the business climate for Moroccan and foreign investors to attract more investment toward the African continent in line with Morocco's African policy.

For their part, the Chinese officials hailed the investment climate in Morocco, expressing their readiness to support the major projects taking place in Morocco, as well as launching joint ventures with Moroccan economic stakeholders to serve the interests of both parties.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:37:14|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- One has been found dead and two others injured in a carbon dioxide leak accident at a Samsung Electronics semiconductor factory in South Korea, local media reported Tuesday.

The accident occurred at about 3:40 p.m. local time (0640 GMT) at a Samsung chip plant in Yongin city, east of the capital Seoul.

Three workers of a Samsung subcontractor were found lying on the floor. They were taken to a nearby hospital, but one was declared dead at the hospital. The remaining two had yet to regain their consciousness.

Police and fire authorities were investigating the exact cause of the incident.

In March 2014, one worker of a Samsung subcontractor was killed for a carbon dioxide leak in a Samsung facility in Suwon city, Gyeonggi province.Srinagar, Sep 03:Twenty-six-year-old Fayaz Ahmad Wani of Chewa Kalan, Pulwama became the 68th civilian killed during this year.

Of the 68 civilian killings, the highest 16 killings were witnessed in April followed by 14 in May, seven each in January and June, five each in February and March, eight in July and six in August.

The civilians were mostly killed in the firing by the government forces.

Among the deceased civilians, some were killed in crossfire during gunfights between militants and government forces at various locations particularly in south Kashmir.

According to Police, some civilians were also killed by unidentified gunmen.

Overall, at least 263 persons were killed in Kashmir valley during this year and of them, the highest are militants  130, 40 are policemen including some paramilitary CRPF men and 25 are Army men.

The militants belonged to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad outfits.

Of the 130 slain militants, the highest 24 each were killed in June and August while at least 19 were killed in April followed 18 in May, 17 in March, 11 in July, 10 in January and seven in February.

Last month witnessed the highest magnitude of violence in eight months with 45 deaths followed by 42 killings in June, 41 in April, 36 in May, 29 in March, 27 in July, 23 in February and 21 in January.

Of the 45 people killed in August, 24 were militants, eight policemen, seven Army men and six civilians.

In July, eight civilians, 11 militants, three policemen, four paramilitary CRPF personnel, and an Army man were killed while in June, 24 militants, six civilians, eight policemen and three Army men were killed.

In May, 18 militants, 14 civilians, three cops and an Army man were killed.

The first quarter of 2018 also saw a halt in operations against militants in the hinterland from 17 May to 16 June for the holy month of Ramadan.

During the Ramadan, 36 persons were killed in different incidents of militancy-related violence and of them, 22 were militants (majority of them killed in gunfights along LoC), five policemen and 4 Army men.

In the holy month, four civilians were killed in different incidents.

In April, 16 civilians, 19 militants, four Army men, a policeman and a political worker were killed.

In March, 17 militants, five civilians, four policemen including three Special Police Officers and three Army men were killed.

In February, seven militants, five civilians, five policemen and six Army men were killed.

In January, 10 militants, seven civilian and four policemen were killed, while Army suffered zero damage during first month of the year 2018.

RKSource: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:37:15|Editor: xuxin

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DUBAI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continued its decline in August, down to 55.0 from 55.8 in July, UAE's second largest bank Emirates NBD said Tuesday.

A PMI above 50 indicates an expanding business environment while a figure below 50 means a contraction.

The weakening PMI is largely due to a decline in average employment, despite the strong output growth in the non-oil private sector, according to the monthly report released by Emirates NBD.

"It is the first time the decline in average employment has been recorded since the survey began in August 2009," said Khatija Haque, head of MENA Research at Emirates NBD.

The UAE is the most diversified Gulf Arab economy as the non-oil sector contributes to 71 percent of its GDP, according to the Ministry of Economy.

However, the UAE's second biggest lender maintains that the government spending and investment, and net exports, rather than private consumption, are expected to be the engines of the economic growth in 2018.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:42:15|Editor: xuxin

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VIENTIANE, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Laos and Thai officials were holding a major trade meeting on Tuesday as the neighboring countries seek to identify measures to boost the value of their shared trade.

The meeting, scheduled to be held in the Lao capital Vientiane from Tuesday to Thursday, saw officials from the two countries discuss more measure to increase bilateral trade to 10 billion U.S. dollars by 2021, local daily Vientiane Times reported.

In 2017, trade between Thailand and Laos amounted to 6.17 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.1 percent from the previous year.

Thai Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong was quoted by the online Bangkok Post as saying last week that the Lao-Thai joint trade meeting is seen as a strategic move by the Thai government to foster trade relations with Laos.

Among the key goods imported by Laos from Thailand are finished oil, automobiles and parts, steel and steel products, livestock, chemicals, cosmetics, soap and acne treatment products, machinery and parts, fresh and frozen poultry, and plastic products.

Laos' exports to Thailand are mainly hydroelectric power, agricultural products and other natural resource-based products.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:52:17|Editor: Lu Hui

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BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of China and Africa have gathered here once again to explore new opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation and reinvigorate plans to build an even brighter future together.

Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined a blueprint on Monday at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), marking a new starting point for friendly engagement between the largest developing country and the promising continent.

African leaders said they will align their countries' development strategies with the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative in order to boost development synergy, promote win-win cooperation and build a closer partnership with China on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

FOCAC has provided a platform to boost the Africa-China partnership in the past 18 years, which will lead to closer ties and more achievements, African leaders said at the High-Level Dialogue Between Chinese and African Leaders and Business Representatives, held on the sidelines of the summit.

The Beijing summit "reflects the unique as well as the strategic nature of our partnership," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who co-chairs the two-day summit with Xi, said at the dialogue, which is also the Sixth Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs.

The Africa-China partnership "facilitates the realization of Africa's developmental aspirations reflected in Agenda 2063 through pragmatic collaboration in the quest for win-win cooperation," he added.

"I am convinced that the FOCAC has taken the comprehensive strategic partnership journey further and to higher levels," Ramaphosa said.

Speaking on behalf of leaders of North African countries, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said "China and Africa enjoy sound cooperation in trade."

He noted that China has put forward the important Belt and Road Initiative, while the African Continental Free Trade Area is gradually taking shape and African countries are making progress in seeking development paths that suit their national conditions.

Such moves will help upgrade China's trade and investment cooperation with North African as well as other African countries, he added.

China supports African countries in jointly building the Belt and Road to share the win-win outcomes, Xi said at the dialogue.

He said in his keynote speech that China stands ready to strengthen comprehensive cooperation with African countries to build a road of high-quality development that is suited to individual national conditions, inclusive and beneficial to all.

EQUAL PARTNERS

Since FOCAC was established in 2000, China together with various African countries have been developing their relations on the basis of equality and mutual respect. This year's summit is the third of its kind in FOCAC history, with the previous two meetings being held in Beijing in 2006 and Johannesburg in 2015.

At the opening ceremony of this year's summit, Xi pointed out that China follows a "five-no's" approach in its relations with the countries of Africa: no interference in the development paths of individual countries; no interference in their internal affairs; no imposition of China's will; no attachment of political strings regarding assistance; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation.

"China follows the principle of giving more and taking less, giving before taking and giving without asking for return," Xi said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who is also rotating chair of the African Union, said China's engagement in Africa has been "deeply transformational both internally and with respect to Africa's global position."

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the summit, he noted that Xi has paid four visits to Africa as president, reaching every major region of the continent as well as countries of different sizes and economic profiles.

"This commitment speaks to the vigor and reliability of our relationship," Kagame said. "China has proven to be a win-win partner and sincere friend."

Speaking on behalf of East Africa, Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh said at the business dialogue that the Africa-China partnership, in contrast to some allegations, is based on win-win cooperation and mutual benefit.

Africa has found in China a partner who believes in the continent's ability to lift its people out of poverty and achieve economic independence and self-sufficiency, Guelleh said.

"China's investment and involvement in East Africa date back to more than 40 years ago," he added, "which demonstrates not only the depth of our friendship, but more importantly, how China, even when it was trying to develop itself and lift its people out of poverty, always extended the hand of friendship to Africa and believed in our success."

BRIGHTER FUTURE

China-Africa cooperation has yielded fruitful results in the past years. Leaders of the two sides said Monday that they expect more achievements through win-win cooperation in the future.

Bilateral trade is registering fast growth. China has been Africa's largest trading partner for nine consecutive years. Trade between China and Africa increased seventeen-fold in value from 2000 to 2017. In 2017, trade volume surged 14 percent year on year to 170 billion U.S. dollars. In the first half of 2018, the figure jumped 16 percent to nearly 100 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, China's investment in Africa surged by more than 100 times in value from 2000 to 2017. By the end of 2017, Chinese investment of all kinds in Africa totaled 100 billion dollars, covering almost every country on the continent.

Xi announced on Monday eight initiatives to bolster bilateral cooperation in the next three years, including promoting industrial cooperation, developing infrastructure connectivity, facilitating trade, protecting the environment, and upgrading health aid programs.

Meanwhile, China backed the initiatives up with a financing package of 60 billion dollars, which came on top of the 60-billion dollars in funding support China pledged to provide Africa at the 2015 Johannesburg summit.

China has honored its 2015 promise, with the funding having been either delivered or arranged, Xi said.

Through FOCAC and other forums, China has worked to ensure that Africa's development is prominent on the international agenda, said Ramaphosa, South Africa's president.

"Building on these remarkable achievements, we welcome the announcement ... by President Xi of new FOCAC initiatives that will have a significant and lasting impact on peace, stability and sustainable development on the African continent," Ramaphosa said.

China and Africa have long formed a community with a shared future. Together, their relations will become a model for building such a community for all of humanity, Xi said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:57:18|Editor: xuxin

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BANGKOK, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Arrest warrants have been issued by a court for the administrator of a web page and a dozen sharers of "fabricated" content about a British girl allegedly raped on a Thai tourist island.

The police in Koh Samui island obtained on Monday the arrest warrants from the provincial court of Surat Thani following the alleged crime which reportedly occurred in June on Koh Tao island off the southern Thai province.

The arrest warrants were for the administrator of CSI LA web page, namely Pramuk Anantasilp, and a dozen sharers of such "fabricated" content online, said Surat Thani province's deputy police commander Pol. Col. Cherdphong Chewpreecha.

CSI LA web page has publicized the story of the 19-year-old British female, identified as Isabelle, which the police have found as "fabricated either in whole or in part," prompting them to seek arrest of the web page administrator and sharers.

Such "fabricated" story violated the Computer Crime Act, tarnished Thailand's tourism image and jeopardized its national security, public safety and economic stability, according to the police.

Last week, Deputy Tourist Police Commissioner Pol. Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakparn, who investigated the rape complaint filed by the alleged victim herself after she had returned home in England, found it was "groundless" without concrete evidence to substantiate it.

The British girl claimed to have been raped on the night of June 25 on Sairee beach in Koh Tao island but Pol. Maj. Gen. Surachate viewed footages of CCTV cameras in the neighborhood and found the tide rising high along the shore, making it very unlikely for anyone to hang around on the beach.

Isabelle lodged a complaint with the Koh Samui police the next day about her personal belongings gone missing, including 3,000 baht (about 90 U.S. dollars) in cash, a cellphone and credit cards after she had spent a period of time drinking with friends.

But she did not mention having been raped by an unknown person on the beach of the tourist island to the local police.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 16:57:19|Editor: xuxin

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BEIRUT, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The representative of Hamas in Lebanon urged on Tuesday the Arab countries to secure funds for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to continue its work, after the United States decided to stop funding it, a Lebanese newspaper reported.

"Rich Arab countries have not been much of a support to UNRWA in contrary to European countries," Ali Baraka was quoted by Elnashra, an online independent newspaper, as saying.

He further criticized the U.S. decision as politically motivated.

"They want to deprive the Palestinians of (the rights of) going back to their homeland," he said.

The United States announced on Friday that it will no longer contribute to UNRWA, calling the UN refugee agency an "irredeemably flawed operation."

The announcement sparked fury among Lebanese officials, who voiced their concerns over a suspected conspiracy to prolong the Palestinians' stay in Lebanon.

On Monday, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League to issue a decision for funding UNRWA.

Meanwhile, Lebanese caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Gebran Bassil held a meeting on Monday with 24 top foreign diplomats from countries concerned with the UNRWA funding crisis.

Some countries, including France, Switzerland and Britain, agreed to increase their donations to UNRWA during the meeting, according to sources close to the ministry.

As the oldest and largest relief organization, UNRWA was established in 1949 and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5.4 million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development.

Its services include education, health care, relief, social services, infrastructure, camp improvement and microcredit.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 17:07:22|Editor: ZX

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SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The chief special envoy of South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that the envoys will discuss ways to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula during their scheduled travel to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Chung Eui-yong, top national security adviser for Moon who will lead the five-member special delegation, told a press briefing that the delegation will discuss ways to permanently achieve peace on the peninsula through complete denuclearization.

Improved inter-Korean relations, the denuclearized Korean Peninsula and peace settlement would be discussed with their DPRK counterparts during the special envoys' visit to Pyongyang, Chung noted.

Moon's special emissaries were slated to take an air route over the western inter-Korean sea boundary to Pyongyang on Wednesday and return home on the same day.

Chung said the emissaries will discuss with their DPRK counterparts ways to advance inter-Korean relations through the implementation of the Panmunjom Declaration, which Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un signed following their first summit in April at the border village of Panmunjom.

Moon and Kim agreed to hold their third summit in Pyongyang before the end of September.

Chung said they will also discuss a detailed schedule and dialogue agenda for the upcoming summit.

Chung will also deliver a letter from President Moon to top DPRK leader Kim. Whether the special envoys will meet Kim has yet to be decided.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 17:52:35|Editor: ZX

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AMMAN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Queen Rania of Jordan has praised China for playing an influential role in global economy and aiding refugees in the Middle East, while hoping that Jordan will learn much from collaborations with China in varied fields.

The queen made the remarks in a written interview with Xinhua ahead of her visit to China to attend the second Alibaba XIN Philanthropy Conference 2018 due on Sept. 5 in Hangzhou, China, at the invitation of Jack Ma, founder of China's Alibaba Group and the Jack Ma Foundation.

"I have very fond memories from my previous visits to China, and I look forward to visiting again," the queen said, adding that she has a lot of respect for Ma and the work that he is doing, as well as his vision for philanthropy.

"It is very uplifting to see that people are embracing philanthropy, within China and beyond," said the queen, founder of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF).

During his May visit to Jordan, Ma announced the first-stage funding of 3 million U.S. dollars to the QRF to support the development of its online learning platform, Edraak, as well as the training of school principals at the Queen Rania Teacher Academy.

"Going forward, we are looking forward to collaborating further and exchanging knowledge with the Jack Ma Foundation, so that we can work together on our common goal to promote access to quality education for all," the queen said.

CHINA'S GREAT PROGRESS, GENEROUS REFUGEE AID

In the interview, Queen Rania lauded China for having made "tremendous progress" over the past decades.

"It's the world's biggest exporter, it's second largest economy, and there is no doubt that it plays a critical and influential role in development and in the global economy," she said.

The queen noted that China is now classified as the world's top technology hub and home to some big companies on par with Silicon Valley giants like Apple and Amazon in the United States.

"I can only be delighted to revisit China at such exciting times as these, and I am certain that my trip will be rewarding on so many levels," she said.

Jordan is a small country with a young and driven population that can learn so much from collaborations with China, especially in the fields of technology, commerce, trade, and education, she said.

Talking about the refugee crisis that has placed a heavy burden on Jordan, one of major host countries of refugees, Queen Rania said Jordan is "tremendously grateful" to China for its longstanding support to ease the burden of hosting refugees.

"Over the years, China has not only provided food assistance and humanitarian aid to refugees in Jordan, but also supported the development of Jordan's overtaxed infrastructure," she said.

The queen mentioned that, just two months ago, China pledged an additional 15 million U.S. dollars in aid, "which will go a long way in helping us meet refugees' needs."

She also commended China for recently donating 2.35 million dollars to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which faces the worst financial crisis in its 70-year history after the United States recently cut its fundings.

"UNRWA is a lifeline to more than 5 million people in the region, 40 percent of whom live in Jordan alone, and China's generosity will contribute to alleviating some of the pressure on the struggling agency," said the queen.

Jordan, which is spearheading efforts to secure necessary funding for the agency to continue its services, is hopeful that other countries will follow China's example, she said.

The ultimate solution for this crisis, however, can only be found through a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and all its final status issues, the queen stressed.

EDUCATION CAN MAKE MIRACLES

Queen Rania, a strong advocate of education and a passionate philanthropist and peace maker, underlined the power of education to address most pressing challenges of today, including unemployment and radicalization.

For the Jordanian queen, education has remained at the forefront of her activities over the years.

"I believe in the power of education because it holds the answer to many of the challenges we face today," she said.

She established the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development in 2013, out of her belief that investing in children is the best investment that can be made in the Arab world.

"Knowledge, creativity, and talent are key ingredients to any country's success, and that all begins in the classroom," she noted.

The QRF has implemented a number of initiatives and programs to support education reform in Jordan. Queen Rania set up the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, which offers educators critical training and professional development.

Four years ago, she also launched Edraak, one of the first non-profit online Arabic open education resource platforms, to provide Arabic speakers with the opportunity to learn online.

Focusing mainly on adult learners seeking higher education and professional development opportunities, Edraak has so far reached 1.7 million registered learners.

Education is the key to addressing the most pressing challenge on young people's minds today, which is unemployment, the queen said.

"Our challenge is to continue to invest in the right kind of education, and to grow our economy in order to create more opportunities for them within Jordan," she said.

Queen Rania stressed that education also plays a key role in fighting terrorism, a major part of which is the fight against the "extremists' false narrative of hate and the twisted ideology of the outlaws of Islam."

"I always say, you cannot kill an ideology with a bullet. You can only kill it with a better idea. Extremists prey on hopelessness and despair, taking advantage of vulnerable people who feel as though they have no other options," she said.

The queen said she is convinced that a large part of the solution to eradicating terrorism lies in education.

"If we can equip our youth with the skills they need to succeed in the world and jobs to make their lives purposeful, then there is no cause for desperation or resentment," she said.

PHILANTHROPY IS SHARED RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL

In the interview, Queen Rania also voiced her optimism about the power of philanthropy to create opportunity and reduce inequity.

"I am inspired by how committed and energetic some people are about philanthropy. I think it is critical that we encourage and support those looking to help, to make a difference, to bring innovative ideas to the field of philanthropy, whether in China or throughout the rest of the world," said the queen, a mother of four.

Philanthropy is "a shared responsibility of all," she said.

The queen said philanthropy should be "a collaborative effort," in which the public, private, and civil society sectors complement each other's work and build on shared successes.

She said she believes that philanthropy lives in the hearts of humans, "because giving is something that is built into our DNA and deep-rooted into our human conscience."

"Giving is part of what makes us human ... In a sense, we see giving as the best way to improve ourselves," she said.

WOMEN'S SUCCESS STARTS WITH EMPOWERMENT

Queen Rania, who believes that the pathway to a woman's success begins with empowerment, has been a passionate spokesperson for women's rights.

Serving as a positive role model for Arab women, the queen uses her international platform to shed light on the most pressing challenges facing Arab women.

"I think it is often easier for people to paint us all with the same, stereotypical brush: downtrodden, uneducated, and voiceless," she said.

The reality is that Arab women from all walks of life are increasingly leaving their mark on every level of society, not just as homemakers, but also as professors, doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, she insisted.

Arab women have emerged as role models in almost every industry, breaking through glass ceilings and providing an excellent example to both girls and boys of the next generation, she said.

That said, in many cases, progress has been slower than expected. Unfortunately, sexism is not limited to a single country or region, and women everywhere are at risk of discrimination and abuse, the queen added.

This is true particularly in areas of conflict, where women are always the hardest hit. In times of conflict or political upheaval, women's hard-won gains are reversed and their rights are treated as afterthoughts, she said.

For Rania, who became Queen of Jordan in 1999 as the youngest queen in the world, balancing private life as a wife and mother with public duties as queen does not seem to be an easy task.

"Twenty years is a long time. A lot has changed since 1999. I've also changed and I've learnt a lot," she said.

"I have faced tough challenges, but they have made me more authentic, truer to who I am, and less fearful ... I am not afraid of standing up for my values and beliefs," said the queen.

While expressing her sadness and concerns about the continued turmoil and violence in the Middle East, Queen Rania said most people in the region still hope for a better future of peace and justice.

"No matter where we come from or what we believe, at the heart of it, all people want the same things: a safe place to call home, the ability to work for a living, and a quality education for our children," she said.

These things are achievable, but only when people put differences aside and collaborate on comprehensive solutions, she said.

"Our shared humanity is so much stronger than the labels that divide us, and it is in our best interest to work together to achieve sustainable global development and create a world worthy of the next generation," said the queen.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 18:02:37|Editor: Liangyu

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Peng Liyuan (C, front), the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, attends a China-Africa meeting on HIV/AIDS prevention and control in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2018. Peng, together with spouses of African heads of state and government, launched an initiative at the meeting for joint efforts by China and Africa to combat HIV/AIDS. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Tuesday attended a China-Africa meeting on HIV/AIDS prevention and control in Beijing.

Peng, together with 37 spouses of African heads of state and government, launched an initiative at the meeting for joint efforts by China and Africa to combat HIV/AIDS.

Making concerted efforts against HIV/AIDS has become a global consensus, and cooperation between China and Africa in this regard has been effective, said Peng, who also reviewed her work as the World Health Organization (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

She said the on-going Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has provided new opportunities for deepening China-Africa cooperation on HIV/AIDS control.

China, African countries and relevant international organizations will begin implementing in 2019 a three-year project on HIV/AIDS prevention among adolescents and health promotion at community level, Peng said.

At the meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Michel Sidibe, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, made positive comments on China-Africa cooperation on combating HIV/AIDS and highly commended Peng's outstanding contributions to raising awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention and caring for AIDS patients.

China has been actively supporting African countries in combating HIV/AIDS, sending medical teams to more than 40 African countries and providing them with free medicine, medical equipment and supplies.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 18:07:39|Editor: ZX

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LUSAKA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Zambia launched a 10-million-U.S.-dollar program on Monday aimed at tackling various challenges facing vulnerable children in the southern African nation.

The Service Efficiency and Effectiveness for Vulnerable Children Initiative, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with the technical support of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), will cover 15 districts in Zambia.

According to a statement released by UNICEF, the initiative, launched in Kitwe City, Copperbelt Province, will address many issues contributing to the vulnerability of children and adolescents.

The issues include household poverty, violence, family separation, lack of education, malnutrition, HIV infection, early pregnancy and child marriage.

"The situation of our children requires urgent attention and the need for basic care and support services," Emerine Kabanshi, Zambia's minister of community development and social services, said in the statement.

Noala Skinner, a UNICEF representative, said the initiative gives families a chance to break out of the cycle of poverty and exclusion and will contribute to preventing and addressing violence against children.Queen Rania of Jordan met with Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, in Amman, Jordan, on May 7, 2018. (photo provided by Office of Queen Rania, Royal Court of Jordan)

AMMAN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Queen Rania of Jordan has praised China for playing an influential role in global economy and aiding refugees in the Middle East, while hoping that Jordan will learn much from collaborations with China in varied fields.

The queen made the remarks in a written interview with Xinhua ahead of her visit to China to attend the second Alibaba XIN Philanthropy Conference 2018 due on Sept. 5 in Hangzhou, China, at the invitation of Jack Ma, founder of China's Alibaba Group and the Jack Ma Foundation.

"I have very fond memories from my previous visits to China, and I look forward to visiting again," the queen said, adding that she has a lot of respect for Ma and the work that he is doing, as well as his vision for philanthropy.

"It is very uplifting to see that people are embracing philanthropy, within China and beyond," said the queen, founder of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF).

During his May visit to Jordan, Ma announced the first-stage funding of 3 million U.S. dollars to the QRF to support the development of its online learning platform, Edraak, as well as the training of school principals at the Queen Rania Teacher Academy.

"Going forward, we are looking forward to collaborating further and exchanging knowledge with the Jack Ma Foundation, so that we can work together on our common goal to promote access to quality education for all," the queen said.

CHINA'S GREAT PROGRESS, GENEROUS REFUGEE AID

In the interview, Queen Rania lauded China for having made "tremendous progress" over the past decades.

"It's the world's biggest exporter, it's second largest economy, and there is no doubt that it plays a critical and influential role in development and in the global economy," she said.

The queen noted that China is now classified as the world's top technology hub and home to some big companies on par with Silicon Valley giants like Apple and Amazon in the United States.

"I can only be delighted to revisit China at such exciting times as these, and I am certain that my trip will be rewarding on so many levels," she said.

Jordan is a small country with a young and driven population that can learn so much from collaborations with China, especially in the fields of technology, commerce, trade, and education, she said.

Talking about the refugee crisis that has placed a heavy burden on Jordan, one of major host countries of refugees, Queen Rania said Jordan is "tremendously grateful" to China for its longstanding support to ease the burden of hosting refugees.

"Over the years, China has not only provided food assistance and humanitarian aid to refugees in Jordan, but also supported the development of Jordan's overtaxed infrastructure," she said.

The queen mentioned that, just two months ago, China pledged an additional 15 million U.S. dollars in aid, "which will go a long way in helping us meet refugees' needs."

She also commended China for recently donating 2.35 million dollars to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which faces the worst financial crisis in its 70-year history after the United States recently cut its fundings.

"UNRWA is a lifeline to more than 5 million people in the region, 40 percent of whom live in Jordan alone, and China's generosity will contribute to alleviating some of the pressure on the struggling agency," said the queen.

Jordan, which is spearheading efforts to secure necessary funding for the agency to continue its services, is hopeful that other countries will follow China's example, she said.

The ultimate solution for this crisis, however, can only be found through a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and all its final status issues, the queen stressed.

EDUCATION CAN MAKE MIRACLES

Queen Rania, a strong advocate of education and a passionate philanthropist and peace maker, underlined the power of education to address most pressing challenges of today, including unemployment and radicalization.

For the Jordanian queen, education has remained at the forefront of her activities over the years.

"I believe in the power of education because it holds the answer to many of the challenges we face today," she said.

She established the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development in 2013, out of her belief that investing in children is the best investment that can be made in the Arab world.

"Knowledge, creativity, and talent are key ingredients to any country's success, and that all begins in the classroom," she noted.

Queen Rania of Jordan made a visit to the northern Rabahiya coeducational secondary school in Amman, Jordan, on Oct. 24, 2017. (photo provided by Office of Queen Rania, Royal Court of Jordan)

The QRF has implemented a number of initiatives and programs to support education reform in Jordan. Queen Rania set up the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, which offers educators critical training and professional development.

Four years ago, she also launched Edraak, one of the first non-profit online Arabic open education resource platforms, to provide Arabic speakers with the opportunity to learn online.

Focusing mainly on adult learners seeking higher education and professional development opportunities, Edraak has so far reached 1.7 million registered learners.

Education is the key to addressing the most pressing challenge on young people's minds today, which is unemployment, the queen said.

"Our challenge is to continue to invest in the right kind of education, and to grow our economy in order to create more opportunities for them within Jordan," she said.

Queen Rania stressed that education also plays a key role in fighting terrorism, a major part of which is the fight against the "extremists' false narrative of hate and the twisted ideology of the outlaws of Islam."

"I always say, you cannot kill an ideology with a bullet. You can only kill it with a better idea. Extremists prey on hopelessness and despair, taking advantage of vulnerable people who feel as though they have no other options," she said.

The queen said she is convinced that a large part of the solution to eradicating terrorism lies in education.

"If we can equip our youth with the skills they need to succeed in the world and jobs to make their lives purposeful, then there is no cause for desperation or resentment," she said.

PHILANTHROPY IS SHARED RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL

In the interview, Queen Rania also voiced her optimism about the power of philanthropy to create opportunity and reduce inequity.

"I am inspired by how committed and energetic some people are about philanthropy. I think it is critical that we encourage and support those looking to help, to make a difference, to bring innovative ideas to the field of philanthropy, whether in China or throughout the rest of the world," said the queen, a mother of four.

Philanthropy is "a shared responsibility of all," she said.

Queen Rania of Jordan visited a school in Al Hallabat Area, Zarqa, Jordan on Sept. 11, 2017. (photo provided by Office of Queen Rania, Royal Court of Jordan)

The queen said philanthropy should be "a collaborative effort," in which the public, private, and civil society sectors complement each other's work and build on shared successes.

She said she believes that philanthropy lives in the hearts of humans, "because giving is something that is built into our DNA and deep-rooted into our human conscience."

"Giving is part of what makes us human ... In a sense, we see giving as the best way to improve ourselves," she said.

WOMEN'S SUCCESS STARTS WITH EMPOWERMENT

Queen Rania, who believes that the pathway to a woman's success begins with empowerment, has been a passionate spokesperson for women's rights.

Serving as a positive role model for Arab women, the queen uses her international platform to shed light on the most pressing challenges facing Arab women.

"I think it is often easier for people to paint us all with the same, stereotypical brush: downtrodden, uneducated, and voiceless," she said.

The reality is that Arab women from all walks of life are increasingly leaving their mark on every level of society, not just as homemakers, but also as professors, doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, she insisted.

Arab women have emerged as role models in almost every industry, breaking through glass ceilings and providing an excellent example to both girls and boys of the next generation, she said.

That said, in many cases, progress has been slower than expected. Unfortunately, sexism is not limited to a single country or region, and women everywhere are at risk of discrimination and abuse, the queen added.

Queen Rania of Jordan visited the Queen Rania Family and Child Center (QRFCC) in Amman, Jordan, on May 2, 2018. (photo provided by Office of Queen Rania, Royal Court of Jordan)

This is true particularly in areas of conflict, where women are always the hardest hit. In times of conflict or political upheaval, women's hard-won gains are reversed and their rights are treated as afterthoughts, she said.

For Rania, who became Queen of Jordan in 1999 as the youngest queen in the world, balancing private life as a wife and mother with public duties as queen does not seem to be an easy task.

"Twenty years is a long time. A lot has changed since 1999. I've also changed and I've learnt a lot," she said.

"I have faced tough challenges, but they have made me more authentic, truer to who I am, and less fearful ... I am not afraid of standing up for my values and beliefs," said the queen.

While expressing her sadness and concerns about the continued turmoil and violence in the Middle East, Queen Rania said most people in the region still hope for a better future of peace and justice.

"No matter where we come from or what we believe, at the heart of it, all people want the same things: a safe place to call home, the ability to work for a living, and a quality education for our children," she said.

These things are achievable, but only when people put differences aside and collaborate on comprehensive solutions, she said.

"Our shared humanity is so much stronger than the labels that divide us, and it is in our best interest to work together to achieve sustainable global development and create a world worthy of the next generation," said the queen.Anantnag: A youth died of a bullet wound to the head and another suffered severe nerve injury due to pellets after government forces opened fire on protestors here in Pulwama district on Monday, during a massive anti-militancy operation in which more than 18 villages were put under cordon.

The slain youth has been identified as Fayaz Ahmad Wani, son of Muhammad Ahsan Wani, resident of Chewa Kalan village in Pulwama.

Wani was a certified lab technician and worked at a private lab. He also worked at the clinic of a doctor in the evenings.

A doctor at Pulwama district hospital told Kashmir Reader that Wani was brought to the hospital with a bullet wound to his head. He was almost dead when he reached here. We revived him to some extent and referred him to Srinagar. But he was declared dead on arrival at SMHS, the doctor said.

He added that another youth injured by pellets had suffered severe nerve damage and was also sent to SMHS hospital.

According to local sources, a cordon and search operation (CASO) was launched at about 7:00 AM in more than 18 villages of Pulwama district.

Soon after the CASO was launched, clashes erupted in many parts of these villages, including on the outskirts of Gusoo village, a local source said.

The sources said that local youths blocked roads leading to Gusoo from Chewa Kalan village. The forces disembarked from their vehicles to remove the roadblocks when they came under stone-pelting. In response, they opened fire directly at the protestors, leaving Wani critically injured, the sources said.

In Murran Chowk area of main town Pulwama, at least two youths sustained pellet injuries, including the youth who suffered severe nerve damage.

A police spokesperson said that a youth was killed after being hit by a bullet during clashes. He was hit by a bullet and was taken to hospital where he succumbed, the spokesperson said. He avoided commenting on why and by whom the bullet was fired that killed Wani.

Clashes erupted in many parts of Pulwama district amid a spontaneous shutdown as soon as news of Wanis killing started doing rounds. Nobody was reported injured during these clashes by the time this report was filed.

The CASO in the villages was called off later in the day. The operation was similar to many carried out throughout last year in Shopian district, following which many new army camps were established in the district.

Wanis body reached his native village at about 4:00 PM and, within minutes, thousands of people reached to participate in the funeral prayers.

The funeral prayers were held amid anti-India, pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan slogans. Pakistan flags were also waved at the funeral ground.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 18:42:49|Editor: xuxin

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ABUJA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Local experts in Nigeria have urged the government to enhance cultural ties with China, using the mechanisms provided by the ongoing Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

At a seminar in Abuja to discuss the agenda of the ongoing FOCAC Beijing summit late Monday, the experts said, as a potent tool for peaceful co-existence, culture and tourism will play a major role in the implementation of the new eight major initiatives which China announced with African countries.

The eight major initiatives with African countries include fields such as industrial promotion, infrastructure and connectivity, people-to-people cooperation, trade facilitation, and green development, in the next three years and beyond.

Under the new people-to-people initiative, Nigeria needs to strengthen its culture and tourism cooperation with China, said Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, head of the National Council for Arts and Culture in Nigeria.

"Culture is the biggest and best asset to promote peace in a very diplomatic manner," Runsewe said at the event organized by the China Alumni Association of Nigeria.

Mallam Abdullahi Idris, a senior lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa in Nigeria's central region, said there are vast opportunities in strengthening culture and tourism cooperation between the two countries.

"The opportunities are too numerous to mention. Tourism and culture will enhance people-to-people cooperation between us (China and Nigeria) because the two countries have a lot in common and a lot to share," Idris said.

Mohammed Suleiman, president of the China Alumni Association of Nigeria which boasts of over 5,000 members, said China and Nigeria can further deepen people-to-people cooperation for future development through cultural exchange and integration programs.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 18:47:50|Editor: xuxin

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LONDON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 fire engines and around 80 firefighters are battling a fire early Tuesday at a primary school in east London, London Fire Brigade said.

It is unknown whether there was anyone at the school located in Hewett Road of Dagenham, when the fire broke out in the early hours of the day.

Around half of the single-storey building is currently ablaze.

The cause of the fire is not known at this stage.

London Fire Brigade said the firefighters "are making steady progress" in tackling the fire.

The fire has now been brought under control.

London Fire Brigade's station manager Rod Wainwright said, "Flames could be seen from some distance away and crews were faced with a serious blaze when they arrived on the scene."

"They worked very hard to bring the fire under control but given the intensity of the fire, there is unfortunately significant damage to the school," he said.

"It is unfortunate timing that this fire has occurred just before the start of term," he said. "It is too soon to speculate on the cause of the fire but as soon as they're able to, fire investigators will enter the site to start their work."

Crews removed a gas cylinder from the school building and have been cooling it down to prevent the risk of explosion.

Those who live nearby were told to keep their windows and doors shut due to the smoke.

A statement on the school's website said the children are set to return from the summer holiday on Wednesday. The school has 1,300 pupils.

It is unclear when the school will reopen.

Another school in the district has also been closed for the day due to the smoke.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 19:02:51|Editor: Lu Hui

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BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu will head a delegation to visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Saturday as a special representative of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president.

The announcement was made by a spokesperson of the CPC Central Committee's International Department in Beijing Tuesday.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, will also attend activities to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK, said the spokesperson in a press release.

Li was invited by the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK government, said the spokesperson.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 19:07:53|Editor: xuxin

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TOKYO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Typhoon Jebi, the most powerful typhoon to make landfall in Japan in 25 years, struck western Japan on Tuesday, wreaking havoc on buildings, infrastructure and transportation systems and leaving at least two people dead and injuring 97 others, according to public broadcaster NHK.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said that after making landfall in the southern part of Tokushima Prefecture, the typhoon passed near Kobe and moved into the Sea of Japan.

Numerous flights, train services and highways were closed in the Kinki region and beyond, and shops, factories and other facilities, particularly in western Japan, were closed, including the popular Universal Studios attraction in Osaka prefecture.

At Kyoto Station a number of people were injured when a piece from a glass ceiling collapsed due to the powerful winds, according to local police reports.

The powerful typhoon forced Kansai International Airport in western Japan to halt its operations at midday as high waves caused by the typhoon saw the airport become inundated with water.

The airport's operator said that large areas of the airport have been submerged, including runways, parking spaces and passages to buildings in the basement of the facility.

According to the Japan Coast Guard, powerful gusts of winds blew a tanker into a bridge that connects the airport with Izumisano City.

Both the bridge and tanker were damaged in the incident.

The vessel, used to carry fuel to the airport, was moored at the time of the accident. The tanker had finished carrying fuel to the airport, but the winds were powerful enough to break its moorings and smash the vessel into the bridge.

The coast guard said, however, that none of the 11 stranded crew members aboard the tanker were injured.

The coast guard added that dozens of other ships have been swept away in Osaka port by the powerful winds, although there have been no reports of injury to crew members as a result.

A number of high-sided trucks in western Japan were tipped over on a highway by the powerful winds, local police said, with one truck almost completely blown off a bridge connecting Shikoku island and the main island of Honshu, local media reported.

Typhoon Jebi was traveling at a speed of 65 km per hour in the sea off Fukui city and packing winds of up to 180 kph with an atmospheric pressure of 965 hectopascals at its center as of 4 p.m. local time, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Due to the effect of the westerly jet stream, the weather agency said Jebi is picking up speed. The typhoon is forecast to hit west Hokkaido, although other northerly regions are bracing for impact, with Aomori Prefecture setting up evacuation centers at six different locations, according to local media reports.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was due to visit southwestern prefectures on Tuesday, but his plan was canceled due to the severity of the typhoon.

The prime minister, in a disaster response meeting, pledged to remain alert in dealing with the impact of the typhoon. Abe urged members of the public to listen for evacuation orders, warnings and advisories and if necessary evacuate as early as possible.

The powerful typhoon has heavily disrupted transportation services, causing flights and rail services to be canceled, as well as some commercial facilities' operations.

More than 700 local and international flights have been canceled by domestic airlines, and Japan's top two carriers, All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Co., have canceled 289 and 218 flights each.

The Tokaido Shinkansen and Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train lines had some services suspended by railway operators and parts of major highways have also been closed, the transport ministry said.

Some stores in Osaka and Kyoto prefectures as well as in other parts of western Japan have shut down operations for the day and Toyota Motor Corp. said it will halt its nighttime operations at 14 factories across the country, particularly those in western and northern areas.

According to the JMA, up to 500 mm of rain is forecast to fall in central Japan and up to 400 mm in western Japan in the 24-hour period through 6 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

Tokyo, Japan's capital, has felt the peripheral gusts of Typhoon Jebi, the JMA said.

At an emergency press briefing on Monday, an official from the Japan Meteorological Agency was quoted as saying that the typhoon has been categorized as "very strong" by the agency and based on the strength of its top winds, would be the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Japan since 1993.

By Wednesday, Typhoon Jebi should be downgraded to an extra-tropical cyclone, the JMA said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 19:22:54|Editor: xuxin

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COLOMBO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Tourism Ministry said on Tuesday that tourist arrivals from China was likely to see a significant growth following steps taken to promote Sri Lanka as a holiday destination in Chinese provinces.

The ministry said in a statement that Tourism Minister John Amaratunga held discussions with the provincial tourism authorities in China, who had assured him that every effort will be made to increase visitor arrivals to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka participated in the Ningbo International Tourism Expo in Zhejiang this week, which had a 300,000-visitor participation and is one of the leading travel events in China.

This was the first time that a tourism delegation from Sri Lanka visited the expo in a province that generates over 60,000 arrivals to Sri Lanka each year, the Tourism Ministry said.

The Sri Lankan delegation also met officials from China International Travel Service (CITS) where matters relating to tourism development were discussed.

Officials from both sides also noted that the strong air connectivity between Ningbo in east China's Zhejiang Province and Colombo was an added boon in promoting tourism in the region.

Sri Lanka has become a popular destination for Chinese tourists. Over 163,000 Chinese tourists arrived in Sri Lanka from January to July, while the government said it hopes to attract at least 1 million Chinese tourists per year by 2020.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 19:47:58|Editor: xuxin

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GENEVA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- In a new UN-led effort to move forward the political process to end the Syrian conflict, senior officials from Russia, Turkey and Iran will gather in Geneva next week for constitution-related discussions.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday told a press conference here that he will hold formal talks with representatives from the three countries on the establishment of a "Syrian-led and Syrian-owned" constitutional committee so as to raise the curtain for a real peace process in Syria.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 19:53:01|Editor: xuxin

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BERLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Deutsche Bank must leave the Euro Stoxx 50, Europe's most important blue-chip stock index, by the end of the month, Germany's largest bank confirmed on Tuesday.

Deutsche Bank hereby responded to the publication of the new composition of the index by Stoxx Ltd., the index arm of German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse. Given a steep fall during Deutsche Bank's market capitalization in recent years, the Frankfurt-based lender is no longer included in the list of Europe's 50 most valuable publicly-listed companies as of September 24.

The Euro Stoxx 50 has traditionally included several corporate heavyweights from Germany, including the business software provider SAP, the Siemens industrial group and luxury carmaker Daimler. The energy company E.ON will be demoted alongside Deutsche Bank in September as well, while industrial gas producer Linde is set to rise into the index ahead of its merger with U.S. rival Praxair.

The decision is likely to cause financial as well as reputational damage to Deutsche Bank as it seeks to shore up its business model in protracted corporate restructuring effort. Index tracker funds with a portfolio of equities mirroring the composition of the Euro Stoxx 50 index must respond to changes in its makeup by divesting accordingly, a development which could weigh further on the ailing share price of Deutsche Bank.

So far this year, the company's valuation has already plunged by 30 percent to 20 billion euros (23.1 billion U.S. dollar). Nevertheless, Deutsche Bank insisted on Tuesday that the development would not affect its corporate strategy. The lender said its focus is on reforms to raise profitability as outlined by chief executive officer (CEO) Christian Sewing. In turn, these measures would lead to an eventual recovery of the share price.

"We have accelerated the restructuring of our bank substantially", Sewing said at the presentation of the Deutsche Bank earnings figures for the second quarter (Q2) of 2018. Not least due expensive legal settlements in connection to accusations of criminal fraud, Deutsche Bank's annual profits have been deep in the red for the past three consecutive years. Cumulative losses since 2015 stand at more than 9 billion euros.

Speaking at bank's latest annual general meeting (AGM), Sewing consequently announced that the number of staff would have to fall from currently around 97,100 to significantly below 90,000 as a consequence. "The reduction in headcount is unavoidable if our bank is to return to a sustainable path of profitability", the CEO argued.

Additionally, Deutsche Bank intends to place a greater emphasis on its European home market in the future, reducing its investment- and retail banking presence in the U.S. in particular. Sewing joined Deutsche Bank as a teenager and was named as the successor to the ousted ex-CEO John Cryan in April.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 19:53:02|Editor: xuxin

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DAMASCUS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded in a recent explosion that rocked an arms depot in an air base west of Syria's capital Damascus, state news agency SANA reported Tuesday.

The explosion that shook the Mazzeh air base west of Damascus on Sept. 2 was the result of a "human error," instead of a short circut in the preliminary speculation, SANA cited a military statement as saying on Tuesday.

The explosion happened as confiscated weapons from recently liberated areas were being moved into the base, the statement added.

After midnight Sunday, two big explosions rattled the capital from the western side, causing pro-government media outlets and activists to report an Israeli missile strike on the Mazzeh air base.

The state-run TV stations later cited a military source as denying any foreign attack on the base.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 19:58:03|Editor: xuxin

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DAMASCUS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Russian warplanes carried out 30 airstrikes on 16 rebel-held positions in the northwestern province of Idlib and nearby rebel-held areas on Tuesday, a monitor group reported.

The Russian air raids took place amid heavy ground shelling by the Syrian army, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The targeted positions lie in a triangle of areas stretching from the western countryside of Idlib to the mountains of the northwestern province of Latakia until the Al-Ghab Plain in the northwestern countryside of Hama Province in central Syria.

The airstrikes targeted 10 areas in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.

They came in response to an allegedly rebel drone attack on Syrian military positions in the Latakia mountains, which killed three soldiers and wounded many others, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

However, the London-based watchdog said the rebel attack against the government positions in Latakia was not carried out by drones but through artillery shelling.

The Russia- and Iran-backed Syrian army is preparing a wide-scale offensive against the rebels of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, or the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.

The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are set to hold a summit in Iran's capital Tehran on Friday to discuss the situation in Idlib, where Turkey holds considerable sway over an array of rebel groups.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 20:13:07|Editor: xuxin

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MADRID, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish Defense Ministry has decided to stop the sale of 400 bombs to Saudi Arabia as they could be used in the ongoing conflict in Yemen, media reports said.

Sources from the Defense Ministry confirmed that the ministry has paralyzed the sale worth 9.2 million euros (10.6 million U.S. dollars).

The original contract to supply the weapons was approved in 2015 by the People's Party government of Mariano Rajoy and signed by then Defense Minister Pedro Morenes.

In an operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen on Aug. 9, Saudi bombs hit a bus, killing 51 people, 40 of whom were children,

The Saudi-led coalition admitted on Sunday "mistakes in compliance to the rules of engagement," and added that would "undertake legal proceedings to hold the ones who committed mistakes accountable according to the rules and regulations related to such cases."

The Spanish Defense Ministry made the decision 24 hours before Spanish Secretary of State for Commerce Xiana Mendez meets with members of the "Control Arms" coalition, which is made up of charities such as Oxfam, Amnesty International and Greenpeace and calls for "greater control and transparency" over the sale of Spanish made weapons.Amir Ahmed Bhat, the 21 year old young boy from Shopians Chitragam, as per family members was arrested in January this year and was kept under detention for more than a month. He was tortured inhumanely in the Police custody,

Pulwama { September 03 Salman Shah Two photographs of youth posing with assault rifles have gone viral over Social media in Kashmir as the numbers of youth who have picked up guns challenging the Indian rule on Kashmir has mounted to 144, making 2018- the year of highest Militant recruitment since 2008.

Amir Ahmed Bhat, the 21 year old young boy from Shopians Chitragam, as per family members was arrested in January this year and was kept under detention for more than a month. He was tortured inhumanely in the Police custody, a family member told The Kashmiriyat. The fear of Police prosecution and the follow up has led many youth in the past to pick up Arms including some popular commanders like Dawood Sheikh and Majid Zarger of Quimoh Kulgam.

Amir had seen his friends and relatives going to jail, some of them are still in jail, booked under baseless offences, he did not want to land up in the jail for months together, the family member said. To avoid being arrested by the local Police, i remember there has not been a single day when he slept at home, he said, adding that, Amir used to sleep in the apple orchards since January 2018. Some of Amirs friends and relatives have been arrested the last month and he grew in suspicion that he might be taken away too. i took dinner for him to the nearby orchard on Friday since he had not been home on that day, but i found him missing, the family member told The Kashmiriyat. The family waited for Amir to come back, but on Monday, only his photo with a gun appeared over the social networking sites. He was innocent, but he was pushed to pick up the gun, he did not want to tortured in the Police custody, a friend of Umar told The Kashmiriyat.

Amirs father passed away last year due to cancer, now he is survived by a mother, six sisters and two brothers. However Police Sources said that Amir had been working as an Over ground worker for Zeenat ul Islam since the past few years. He was closely linked to Zeenat ul Islam who is one of the most wanted Militants, Police sources told The Kashmiriyat. He said that another youth who posed with a gun, Umar Dhobi was also linked to a slain Lashkar commander from malikgund Shopian who was killed in an encounter recently in Kiloora area of Shopian.

However after the killing of the Lashkar commander, he got close with Hizb and joined them, the Police official said. Umar Mohuddin Dhobi, a resident of Pinjoora area in South Kashmirs Shopian district owned a confectionery shop in his locality. He was a B.A student, but after situation the mayhem and constant bloodshed in South Kashmir, he quit his studies and opened a shop, a friend of Umar told The Kashmiriyat. Many Kashmiri youth quit studies and some were even thrown out of jobs for their alleged role in Anti India activities since 2008.

He went missing from home on Friday morning and since then we have been looking for him everywhere, but to no avail, a relative told The Kashmiriyat. Today in what has become a trend now for new age Militants to announce their entry into Militant outfits, a photograph of Umar Dhobi carrying an Ak 47 Went viral over social networking.

Umar belongs to a poor family and is survived by old age parents, two Brothers and two sisters. Since 2010, Kashmiri youth have been picking up guns after the civilian uprising of that year failed, Many prominent faces of New age Militancy including Burhan Wani, Majid Zarger, Saddam padder, Junaid Matoo all picked up guns post 2010. However Militancy has seen new highs post the killing of Burhan Wani on July 08, 2016. (The Kashmiriyat)Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 20:28:11|Editor: xuxin

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DAMASCUS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Safe humanitarian corridors have been set up for civilians to leave the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, ahead of an anticipated Syrian military offensive on the province, the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper reported Tuesday.

The corridors linking Idlib with areas in Aleppo were established after "long and arduous" negotiations between Russia and Turkey, Al-Watan said.

The civilians who want to get reconciled with the government can take the corridor leading to the government-controlled city of Tal Rifat in northern Aleppo, while others who reject the deal with the government can take another corridor to areas under the control of Turkey-backed rebels, the newspaper explained.

The Russians have underlined the need to end the presence of the ultra-radical rebels in Idlib, mainly the Levant Liberation Committee (LLC), otherwise known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will hold a summit on Friday in Iran's capital Tehran to discuss the situation in Syria, mainly in Idlib.

Russia and Iran represent the Syrian government, while Turkey has been a supportive side of the rebels in Idlib.

Activists said Ankara branded the LLC as a terror group after trying in vain to persuade it to dissolve itself to avert a wide-scale offensive in the area.

The Syrian government has stressed that it prefers the reconciliation in Idlib.

Analysts believe a limited operation will be carried out on positions of the al-Qaida-linked groups in Idlib, in parallel with reconciliation with other rebel groups.

Idlib has emerged as the major destination and stronghold for the rebels fleeing other parts of Syria through deals or after surrender.

In recent months, the Syrian army captured several towns in the southern countryside of Idlib with hundreds of people starting to return to those areas.

Idlib is now in a state of severe lawlessness characterized by assassinations, explosions and infighting.

The major rebel group in Idlib is the LLC, which has vowed not to surrender and will fight against any anticipated Syrian attack.

For the Syrian army, securing Idlib could almost seal a definite victory against seven-year-long insurgency targeting the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Idlib is of strategic significance as it shares a border area with Turkey to the north, and neighbors the coastal province of Latakia, hometown of Bashar al-Assad.

Notably, the namesake capital city of Idlib lies close to the international road linking the capital Damascus with the northern province of Aleppo.

Idlib is home to around 2.5 million people, including those evacuated after the surrender of rebels in other Syrian areas.

There are no precise figure on fighters among the 2.5 million, but some estimates say the number ranges between 40 and 50,000.

In fact, not all rebels in Idlib are ready to fight as many of them hope to get reconciled with the government, despite rejection from the Nusra Front and its allies.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 20:33:13|Editor: ZX

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Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (L) shakes hands with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) Xu Qiliang in Astana, Kazakhstan, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xiaowei)

ASTANA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) Xu Qiliang here on Tuesday, pledging to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China in various fields.

Kazakhstan and China are friendly neighbors and important cooperation partners, Tokayev said, adding that Kazakhstan greatly values its long friendship with China and supports the Belt and Road Initiative.

Kazakhstan firmly supports China on international issues and is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China in such fields as politics, economy, culture and security, the Senate chairman said.

The two countries would jointly fight against the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism and improve the livelihood of both peoples, Tokayev said.

Xu, also member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said China and Kazakhstan have established a stable comprehensive strategic partnership thanks to the efforts of the two countries' heads of state, and are enjoying a further development of bilateral ties.

Noting the alignment of China's Silk Road Economic Belt and Kazakhstan's Nurly Zhol (Bright Path) economic program, as well as the "Chinese dream" and the "Kazakhstan dream," Xu said this would bring more welfare to the peoples of the two countries.

Together with Kazakhstan, China is ready to fulfill the important consensuses reached by the two heads of state, deepen the pragmatic cooperation and exchanges between the two militaries as well as strategic mutual trust, and secure regional peace and stability with joint efforts, Xu said.

During his visit to the Central Asian country, Xu also met with Defense Minister of Kazakhstan Nurlan Ermekbaev.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 20:38:14|Editor: xuxin

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ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopia Investment Board on Tuesday reversed a major regulation that restricts foreign investment in the country's budding logistics sector.

The decision was made to make the logistics sector more efficient, professional and modern, with the injection of foreign capital and expertise, Ethiopia Investment Commission Communications Director Mekonen Hailu told Xinhua.

"With Ethiopia attracting large-scale investment in the export-oriented manufacturing sector, especially from Chinese firms, the efficiency and speed of the logistics sector is of utmost importance if the country's manufacturing revenue goals is to be met," Hailu said.

The opening-up of the logistics sector is part of the government's grand plan to open the economy to foreign investment, he said, adding that a legislation is planned to define the share limit for foreign companies.

On June 5, the Executive Committee of the ruling coalition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front issued a statement saying it is to partially liberalize key sectors of the Ethiopian economy, including transportation, telecommunication, and power generation.

South Africa-based telecom operator Vodacom and German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom have shown interest in buying shares in the state-owned Ethio-Telecom.

The country's national air carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, is also in discussions to sell minority shares to other African countries.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 20:43:15|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- SF Airlines, the aviation branch of China's express giant SF Express, on Tuesday opened a new direct all-cargo air route linking Shenzhen, in south China's Guangdong Province, with Singapore.

The new cargo route will be operated by B767-300 cargo freighters, representing the company's latest step in expanding its international route network and enhancing its global presence, according to SF Airlines.

It came soon after the airline opened a direct cargo route between Shenzhen and Chennai, in southern India, on August 5.

"The opening of new international cargo routes shows our capacity to quickly respond to market demand and serve our customers with a competitive network," said Liang Xi, SF Airlines' vice president of maintenance and engineering.

To date, Shenzhen-based SF Airlines has the country's largest all-freighter fleet with 47 aircraft.

The cargo airline focuses on providing air express and customized air freight services for SF Express. It has transported around 2 million tonnes of cargo since its launch in 2009.

China has seen a surging air express industry. In 2017, the country transported 7.06 million tonnes of airmail cargo, a 5.6 percent increase year on year, said statistics from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 20:43:15|Editor: xuxin

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JERUSALEM, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that he decided to purchase weapons only from Israel because the country does not restrict their uses as other countries do, according to officials and local media.

The remarks were made during Duterte's meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on the third day of his four-day visit to Israel.

He thanked Rivlin for the military and security assistance and knowledge provided by Israel to the Philippines over the past years.

"There are many more opportunities for cooperation between us," he said.

He said he has instructed the Philippines' military to buy weapons and security equipment only from Israel.

"The United States is a good friend but if we purchase weapons from it, it will come with restrictions," he was quoted by Israel's Ynet news site as saying.

Israel has sold home-made pistols and Galil assault rifles to the Philippines, with more weapons sales on the agenda of the current visit by Duterte.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 20:48:19|Editor: xuxin

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JUBA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency on Tuesday convened a face-to-face meeting bringing South Sudan refugee representatives with the parties involved in key peace negotiations in Khartoum.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the latest dialogue will help ensure that refugee voices continue to play a pivotal role in the revitalized peace effort to end the country's devastating civil war.

"It is critical to have refugee voices heard. Peace-building efforts cannot afford to ignore them," Arnauld Akodjenou, special adviser to the UNHCR on South Sudan, said in a statement.

He said the refugee representatives in Khartoum will serve to remind the world of the human toll that continues every day there is no peace in South Sudan.

"They can also become strong peace advocates by spreading the word to refugee communities where they live, or upon return to South Sudan if they voluntarily plan to do so," Akodjenou noted.

The UN refugee agency said the refugees, who flew in from the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, will share their views, aspirations and expectations, and urge participants to find peace for the millions of South Sudanese whose lives have been uprooted by the conflict.

The current peace accord brokered by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an east African bloc, specifically calls for its dissemination to South Sudanese people inside the country and to refugees living in exile, so that the people most affected by the war can understand, support and own the peace process.

Since the start of the conflict in 2013, some 2.4 million people have fled South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, as refugees. Another 1.8 million are displaced inside the country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:08:26|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2018 shows the U.S. Embassy in Egypt after a "reported incident" took place, in Cairo, Egypt. The U.S. Embassy in Egypt said Tuesday on its Twitter account that it was aware of a "reported incident" near the embassy and asked people to leave the area. (Xinhua)

CAIRO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Embassy in Egypt said Tuesday on its Twitter account that it was aware of a "reported incident" near the embassy and asked people to leave the area.

Earlier, some local news websites reported that an explosion took place near the U.S. embassy in Simon Bolivar Street in the heart of the Egyptian capital Cairo.

No casualties were reported.

The embassy urged the citizens to avoid the area and monitor local media for updates.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:08:26|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- For Egyptian entrepreneur Mohamed Helal, China's new initiative to increase imports from Africa means unprecedented potential opportunities for his company that focuses on eco-friendly fertilizer technology.

China could become his firm's biggest market as the country seeks to expand non-resource imports from Africa, said Helal, vice president of Gizatec, on the sidelines of a business forum under the two-day 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

At the summit, it was announced that China will increase imports, especially non-resource products, from Africa.

"China is looking to improve its agricultural sector and switch from chemical fertilizers to organic fertilizers. That's why Gizatec is here to help Chinese farmers produce healthier food in an eco-friendly way," Helal said .

Gizatec started last year to export fertilizers to China, a market at least 300 times as large as Egypt's domestic market, according to Helal.

Helal believes increased advanced agricultural product imports will also benefit China.

"Although Africa is in the early stages of industrialization, it has some advantages in agricultural production and technologies," he said.

As China seeks to expand imports for balanced foreign trade, African firms are jumping in for a slice of the pie.

It was also announced at the summit that China will support African countries in participating in the China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled for November this year. The least-developed African countries will be exempted from paying exhibition fees.

Salaheddine Mezouar, president of the Moroccan Employers' Association, said the CIIE will encourage African companies to enhance their manufacturing capability, and allow them to better understand the demands of Chinese consumers.

Mezouar noted that currently exports from many African countries are still raw material rather than processed goods.

"The CIIE will encourage African companies to export more value-added products to the Chinese market," he said.

Helal is also hoping that the Shanghai expo will introduce his company to more Chinese consumers and distributors.

"As China opens its door to more imports, the liquidity of international markets will move up and global markets will flourish consequently," Helal said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:08:27|Editor: xuxin

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BERLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- It is for German intelligence professionals and not the federal government to decide whether alleged links between the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and right-wing extremists should be investigated, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday night.

Merkel's remarks were heard during a conference at the government's Meseberg country retreat, referring to an increasingly heated public debate about the democratic legitimacy of the AfD in Germany.

In the chancellor's view, it was a "good practice" for the relevant authorities, including the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), to reach their own verdict on whom to monitor.

"These are not political decisions but rather decisions based on facts," Merkel said.

BfV officials at the federal and regional levels were already keeping track of the evolving situation to determine whether the necessary conditions for investigations into the AfD's conduct were fulfilled.

Earlier, Thomas Opperman, deputy president of the federal parliament (Bundestag), had publicly urged intelligence services to begin monitoring the AfD in light of widely-publicized far-right marches in the East German town of Chemnitz.

AfD politicians have helped organize several demonstrations provoked by the alleged murder of a German by two foreigners in Chemnitz. Following clashes with police, anti-Nazi protestors and civilians, the party's leadership defended what it saw as understandable outbursts of anger.

"It is legitimate to go berserk after this kind of crime," the AfD's deputy leader Alexander Gauland said at the time.

Opperman argued that violent demonstrations in Chemnitz had hereby showcased how the AfD cooperated with Neonazis and other far-right activists who were plotting to overthrow Germany's constitutional order.

Opperman's intervention has met with mixed reactions. Speaking in Meseberg as well, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz agreed with Merkel that the decision ultimately lay with intelligence professionals but said that the scenes from Chemnitz justified a thorough re-assessment in this context.

By contrast, Christian Social Union (CSU) party leader and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer insisted that it was not yet necessary for the BfV to be involved.

His party colleague Andrea Lindholz, president of the parliamentary interior committee, warned that such a move could allow the AfD to strike the pose of being a victim of the political establishment.

Meanwhile, the regional offices of the BfV in the states of Lower Saxony and Bremen have already launched independent investigations into the youth organization of the AfD last week.

"The AfD youth organization represents a worldview in which minorities like immigrants, asylum seekers, Muslims, political adversaries and homosexuals are sweepingly denigrated and defamed," Lower Saxony State's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said.

"One can no longer avert one's eyes and downplay (the behavior in question). The time has come to act," Pistorius added.

Earlier, Lars Steinke, the leader of the AfD youth organization in Lower Saxony, was stripped of his role after he described the Nazi resistance fighter Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg as a "traitor."

AfD deputy regional party leader Kay Gottschalk emphasized in response to the latest BfV investigation that the leader would not tolerate "any right-wing extremist tendencies" in the youth organization and considered stripping the group of its official title if it failed to remove members with such views.

At least so far, the AfD's involvement in far-right marches in Chemnitz does not seem to have hurt its electoral prospects, with national voter support rising to 17 percent in recent polls.

However, a survey by the Civey opinion research institute found that 57 percent of Germans are in favor of the party being monitored by the BfV on a federal level.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:08:29|Editor: ZX

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GUANGZHOU, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A batch of wood has just been transported from Gabon in Central Africa to Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. After being painted and assembled, the wood will be sent to European and American countries.

This has been a project of Yihua Group in recent years. In 2012, Yihua Group set up wood processing and production bases in Gabon, participating in the country's green industry and using environmentally friendly methods to exploit 350,000 hectares of forest, creating jobs for over 1,000 locals.

In recent years, more and more private firms in Guangdong have invested in Africa. According to the provincial commerce department, 244 companies from Guangdong have set up branches in Africa by the end of 2017, among which 241 are private firms.

"Private firms, full of economic vitality, have been actively investing in Africa in recent years and are optimistic about Sino-Africa cooperation," said Liu Jisen, executive vice president of the Institute for African Studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

China and African countries have complementary advantages in labor, natural resources, industrial structure, finance and technology, said Xu Chuwu from the African General Chamber of Commerce (Greater China).

According to customs data,Guangzhou's import-export volume to Africa reached 87.35 billion yuan (12.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, seven times that of 2006. Mechanical and electrical products were major export products and diamond and resources were major imported products.

Guangdong Shineng Electric Equipment Group Ltd has invested in power plants and power equipment factories in Uganda in the past eight years, with its products accounting for 80 percent of the local retail market. The company is also expanding its business in countries including Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda and Nigeria.

An industrial park was also opened in Uganda in August. Besides a steel plant and a tin smelter, a brick factory and a slag grinding plant, which both use steel slag as materials, and a sewage treatment plant were also built.

"We not only lift the products' added value but also make efforts to protect the environment in the park," said Lyv Weidong, chairman of Guangzhou Dong Song Energy Group Co. Ltd.

With Sino-Africa relations deepening, cooperation has also gradually expanded from trade, construction and infrastructure to medical services, environmental protection, tourism, education, culture and technology.

Artepharm CO. LTD., China, co-founded by Guangdong New South Group Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, carried out projects in the Union of Comoros with an aim to cure malaria.

By 2014, malaria cases decreased by 98 percent compared with those before 2006, and no malaria-related deaths were reported, said Chen Yuejin, vice president of New South. In addition, the company is planning to build 10 new medical centers in Africa.

To better match the needs of both private firms and African counterparts, commerce chambers and industry associations have been established. The Africa Investment and Trade Alliance, initiated by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Guangdong Committee, has recruited over 100 members, said Lin Tao, the committee's president. The committee also built a commerce chamber in Kenya this year.

"We are building a platform for the two sides to communicate and share information, integrate financial resources, improve investment mechanisms and help firms build wholesale centers, sales bases and industrial parks in Africa," Lin said.Srinagar: Fayaz Ahmad Wani, who was killed Monday during a search operation by government forces in his native village of Chewa-Kalan worked in a private pathology lab in Pulwama.

Wani, 30, a postgraduate in English, was readying to leave home for his Lab when he heard about the search operation. On seeing soldiers dotting the entire area around his home, he decided to sit indoors until the searches were over.

He stepped out of his home to catch up with his friends only after the search in our village was over, said a shocked relative of Wanis.

His close friend, who wished not to be identified, said that the friends were lounging on some heavy wooden logs when army soldiers directly fired a volley of bullets toward them.

We were a group of 8 to 10 there when we were fired upon, the slain young mans friend said, adding Wani fell down with a thud on receiving a bullet.

We shifted him to hospital but he could not be saved, he said, letting out a howl of pain and anger.

According to Wanis another friend, he had never been a part of any stone pelting crowd.

He has never ever thrown stones on forces and even today he was not pelting any stones on the forces, said Showkat Ahmad.

Wani was the youngest son of Mohmmad Ahsan Wani, a farmer.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:13:31|Editor: xuxin

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TRIPOLI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Interior Ministry on Tuesday denied the withdrawal of the Italian embassy from the capital Tripoli due to violent clashes.

"The Diplomatic Security Department of the Ministry of the Interior denies rumors of withdrawal of the Italian embassy from Tripoli," the ministry said in a statement.

It also called on all its members inside Tripoli to urgently return to their positions and exercise their duties to preserve security, particularly foreign embassies and missions.

Local media reported that the staff of the Italian Embassy in Tripoli had left on Monday due to the armed clashes in the city.

Southern Tripoli has been witnessing violent clashes since last week between government forces and armed militias, which 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 in southern Tripoli.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:18:34|Editor: xuxin

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JERUSALEM, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli police arrested on Tuesday three suspects involved in a flight tickets scam worth 1 million U.S. dollars.

The three suspects sold flight tickets to the Ukrainian city of Uman to 2,000 Jewish believers before absconding with the money, the police said.

On the Jewish New Year in September, tens of thousands of religious Jews will fly to Uman to pray at the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who founded the Hasidic Jewish movement named after him at the end of the 18th century.

The police investigation began following complaints filed by two victims, who claimed to have purchased flight tickets from an Israeli travel agency called "Europnim" at a price of about 635 U.S. dollars per ticket.

A day before the flight, the company notified its customers that the tickets were cancelled, and then disappeared with the money and did not answer the customers' phone calls.

Two of the suspects are owners of the agency. They were brought for questioning on suspicion of forgery, money laundering and other offenses.

The investigation revealed that they had ordered tickets worth 1.3 million dollars from the Ukrainian Airline Anda Air, but never paid the money.

The third suspect was arrested on suspicion of collaborating with the two and receiving some of the money paid by the passengers.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:33:39|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government on Tuesday told Filipinos in Libya to prepare for possible evacuation, as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) raised the alert level following days of factional fighting in that Middle East country.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano declared Libya under alert level three due to escalating violence that threatens the safety and security of an estimated 3,500 Filipinos who are still in Libya.

Cayetano, who is in Jerusalem with President Rodrigo Duterte, has also informed Philippine Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello of the decision to upgrade the alert level from two to three.

Under alert level three, all Filipinos in Libya are enjoined to start preparations for evacuation and all those with valid employment contracts who are currently on vacation in the Philippines will not be allowed to return.

The DFA said it is placing on standby rapid response teams to assist the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli in evacuating the 1,800 Filipinos in the capital who have been caught in the middle of the factional fighting that has been raging for more than a week.

Aside from fighting, the DFA also warned "instances of looting, robbery, car theft and other crimes."

The DFA also told Filipinos to store "enough food and water to last a few days," to prepare for disruptions in power supply and internet connectivity.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:38:44|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China will host an international forum on non-governmental cooperation on ecological improvement along the Belt and Road.

The forum, scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13 in Wuwei City of northwest China's Gansu Province, will launch a restoration project of the Populus euphratica trees along the Belt and Road to promote non-governmental cooperation on ecological improvement, Chen Peng, vice president of China Green Foundation, said at a press briefing Tuesday.

There is also plan to launch a fund for international cooperation in ecological improvement.

Chen said the road to ecological improvement along the Belt and Road would be long and uphill as desertification and land degradation are serious in many Belt and Road countries.

During the forum, China will share its experiences in ecological improvement and promote non-governmental cooperation to tackle ecological problems along the Belt and Road, said Chen.

A total of 180 representatives from over 20 countries along the Belt and Road and international organizations will attend the forum.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:43:47|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in held telephone talks Tuesday night with U.S. President Donald Trump on Moon's special envoys' visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Moon's office said.

Moon and Trump talked over phone for about 50 minutes from 9:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) about the scheduled travel by Moon's special emissaries to Pyongyang, according to the presidential Blue House.

The five-member special delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, top national security adviser of the Blue House, planned to visit Pyongyang Wednesday morning and return home on the same day.

Moon and Trump exchanged opinions about situations on the Korean Peninsula, including the denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington after the DPRK-U.S. summit on June 12, and the upcoming third summit between Moon and DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un.

Moon and Trump agreed to maintain close consultations and cooperation in every level, the Blue House said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:43:49|Editor: xuxin

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BRUSSELS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Leading news agencies in Europe on Tuesday criticized Internet giants for "plundering" content and demanded more revenue for their work.

A joint statement signed by CEOs of around 20 news agencies, including France's Agence France-Presse, Britain's Press Association, Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur and Belgium's Belga, lambasted Internet giants such as Google and Facebook, which are highly profitable, for not paying for news media's content.

It is a lobbying effort towards lawmakers of the European Parliament, who will debate a new copyright law this month that may force the Internet giants to pay more for creative content on their platforms such as news, music or movies.

One idea on the news suppliers' minds is a "neighbouring right", meaning that Google or other websites should pay for their linking to media's content.

The other idea is to make platforms like YouTube legally liable for copyrighted material, so the media's work won't be posted without pay.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:48:50|Editor: ZX

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ZHENGZHOU, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A former senior political advisor from central China's Hubei Province was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 2 million yuan (about 293,000 U.S. dollars) for taking bribes by a court in central China's Henan Province on Tuesday.

Liu Shanqiao, former vice chairman of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was convicted of accepting money and gifts worth over 17.9 million yuan personally or through persons of interest between 2009 and 2017, said a statement by the Intermediate People's Court of Nanyang City.

Liu's illicit gains will be turned over to the state treasury, the statement said.

The court found that from 2003 to 2017, Liu took the advantage of his positions to assist certain organizations and individuals in business operations, project contracting, personal arrangements and promotions, among others.

Liu confessed his crimes, showed repentance and was cooperative in returning all his illegal gains, which constituted mitigation of sentence, the court said.

Liu told the court he would not to appeal.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:48:50|Editor: ZX

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DUBAI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China Eastern Airlines will launch direct flights from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Chinese eastern metropolis of Shanghai from Sept. 17, the carrier said Tuesday in an emailed press release.

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines will be the first Chinese carrier to operate direct flights between Dubai and Shanghai.

The first direct flight will be launched on Sept. 17, operated by an Airbus 330. From Sept. 17 to Oct. 26, there will be three direct flights per week, while the number of weekly flights will increase to four from Oct. 27.

The company's current flights from Dubai to Shanghai via Chinese southwestern city of Kunming will remain unchanged, said the carrier.

"Shanghai and Dubai are both economic trade and financial centers in their countries. The personnel exchange between the two cities is the most intensive among other cities in China and the UAE," said Li Lingbing, China's Consul General to Dubai.

As one of the major air carriers in China, China Eastern Airlines operates a fleet of more than 650 passengers and cargo aircrafts.

The company's network covers 80 percent of Chinese cities, reaching 177 countries and 1,074 destinations worldwide.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 21:48:50|Editor: xuxin

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BERLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany are unlikely to invest in innovation during coming years, a study published on Tuesday by the DZ Bank finds.

According to the study, less than a third (29 percent) of so-called companies polled on behalf of DZ Bank planned to invest in the development of new products or business models during the coming three years. The share was even lower for the smaller enterprises, of which only every fifth (20 percent) had earmarked funds for innovation.

By contrast, 92 percent of companies said that it was a priority for them to improve efficiency of existing commercial practices. The findings were based on a representative survey of 800 SMEs with gross annual revenue ranging from 500,000 euros to 125 million euros (144.5 million U.S. dollar).

Commenting on the apparent slighting of innovation by SMEs, Uwe Berghaus, head of corporate banking at DZ Bank, said that it was sensible for business leaders to focus on improving efficiency during an economic boom period. At the same time, however, Berghaus warned that failing to simultaneously pursue a systematic strategy of innovation would come at a cost.

"If companies lose access to new markets and miss out on product trends, this (disregard for innovation) can come back to haunt them," a statement by the DZ manager read. He highlighted that the greatest obstacle to innovation cited by respondents was a lack of qualified staff rather than a lack of desire to innovate.

"Last year's survey already showed that the lack of qualified workers is a crucial obstacle to investment by 61 percent of firms...This year's finding is even more worrying because it does not just concern the current business situation but the future," Berghaus said.

Germany's SME sector faces the prospect of weaker competitiveness in the long-run if it fails to attract the workers needed for successful innovation.

On a more positive note, the DZ Bank study emphasized that nearly all companies considered plans to either maintain or raise their current levels of overall investment, with 40 percent saying they would spend more during the next three years and a further 53 percent indicating that investment would remain steady.

DZ Bank is the flagship institute of Germany's "Volks- and Raiffeisen" banking sector, a group of cooperative credit organizations which were set up in the 19th century to assist impoverished farmers. As the country's second largest lender, DZ bank continues to play a central role in the contemporary German financial industry and mainly specializes in services for SMEs.Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2018 shows Xu Jing (L) talking with Raphael Tuju in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. Xu Jing, who teaches at the University of Nairobi's Confucius Institute, is the chinese teacher of Raphael Tuju, the Secretary General of the ruling Jubilee Party of Kenya. (Xinhua/Li Yan)

by Jin Zheng, Christine Lagat

NAIROBI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Raphael Tuju carries himself with elegance and his imposing persona, eloquence and intellect has earned him one of the most coveted seats in Kenya's body politic.

The Secretary General of the ruling Jubilee Party whose headquarters is located in downtown Nairobi, has an expansive office that is tastefully furnished and has interior decor that is eye-catching to visitors.

An ever busy senior Jubilee party official and minister without portfolio, Tuju is taking time to learn new phrase in mandarin with a Chinese tutor.

"Mandarin is spoken by more than 1.3 billion people in the world and I think it is a very important language to me as we build our relationship with China," Tuju told Xinhua.

The middle-aged father of three and a former television producer became an elected representative in 2002 and has since served in different Kenyan administrations as a minister for tourism, information and foreign affairs.

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2018 shows Xu Jing (R) teaching Raphael Tuju in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. (Xinhua/Li Yan)

Prior to enrolling for a Chinese language course in the early days of July this year, Tuju had made frequent official visits to China in his capacity as a cabinet minister and senior official of the ruling party.

Securing an accomplished Chinese tutor to guide him through the basics of spoken and written mandarin was an honor to a man who has developed a strong attachment to the culture, political and economic system of the Asian giant.

"Well, I am a social scientist and it is very important to break the barriers in communication by learning other people's languages. The Chinese is one of the most ancient civilizations and it is a pity we have not prioritized the language and am impressing my children to learn it," said Tuju.

He had woken up at dawn last Friday to spend an hour on a homework given earlier by the Chinese tutor, Xu Jing, who teaches at the University of Nairobi's Confucius Institute.

"Have you done your homework?" Xu asked Tuju. "Yes, I did some but was very busy last week because of the upcoming trip to China," he responded and later pronounced Chinese numbers with ease.

Tuju accompanies President Uhuru Kenyatta during his trip to China to attend the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit held in Beijing on Sept. 3-4.

"When I go to China in the next few days, I would like to learn more Chinese," said Tuju adding that he is determined to overcome initial setbacks and improve his proficiency in spoken mandarin.

As a senior official from the ruling Jubilee party that has forged a working relationship with the Communist Party of China (CPC), Tuju is convinced that fluency in mandarin is key to promote Sino-Kenya ties in all spheres.

In fact, he has been spending a two-hour session with the Chinese tutor on Tuesdays and Fridays since July 3rd to learn characters, numbers and pronunciation of key words like greetings.

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2018 shows Xu Jing (R) teaching Raphael Tuju in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. (Xinhua/Li Yan)

"What is most difficult for me besides characters is that I do not have many Chinese friends to talk to. Writing is also difficult but I want to keep on pressing," said Tuju.

"Luckily, I have a very good teacher who is also tough, she gives me a lot of homework and if I do not do it, am in big trouble," Tuju told Xinhua with a light touch adding that his regular meetings with CPC officials has triggered a desire to learn the Chinese language and communicate effectively with them.

Despite being a senior cabinet member who is busy with domestic political affairs, Tuju still creates time to attend Chinese language lessons either at home or at the office.

He expressed confidence that he would be able to master the spoken Chinese language within one year.

Tuju's enthusiasm to improve his proficiency in mandarin while defying age and hectic schedule has impressed Xu Jing who revealed he is now able to introduce himself in fluent Chinese.

"He is really interested in learning the Chinese language. He is very busy but trying his best to understand the language," said Xu.

"One day he was sick and sent a message requesting to rest but he later called me to teach him at his home," She added.

Xu's steely guidance is expected to boost Tuju's proficiency in mandarin as he occupies a vantage position to deepen China-Kenya economic, political and cultural ties.Two held with red panda hides in Kathmandu

Two people have been arrested in possession of five red panda hides on Tuesday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:08:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (C, back) meets the press together with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (L, back) and Senegalese President Macky Sall, former and new African co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), after the conclusion of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday met the press together with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Senegalese President Macky Sall, former and new African co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Xi first made the announcement that the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit has come to a successful conclusion.

The summit has published the Beijing Declaration -- Toward an Even Stronger China-Africa Community with a Shared Future, which crystalized consensus of China and Africa on current major international and regional issues, and sent the world a strong signal of the two sides going forward hand in hand, Xi said.

The FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2019-2021) was also adopted at the summit to confirm that China and Africa will comprehensively enhance pragmatic cooperation focusing on the implementation of the eight major initiatives, Xi said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:13:58|Editor: xuxin

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ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Various UN agencies on Tuesday jointly called for better utilization of Africa's water-energy nexus so as to harness the continent's resources towards sustainable development.

The UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), UN Environment, and the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) jointly made the call during a meeting in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday as experts and policymakers gather to discuss mainstreaming and implementing the water-energy for sustainable development in Africa.

Linus Mofor, Senior Environmental Affairs Officer at the ECA, said African countries are already experiencing catastrophic climate change and variability impacts in inter-related ways across many sectors - including water, energy and agriculture.

Mofor further stressed the need to set up integrated approaches in responding to the increasing energy and water demand to enhance livelihoods and sustain economic growth and address the additional pressures on natural resources due to urbanization and population growth in a continent affected by the changing climate.

"That is why for us at the ECA the nexus work is of high importance, especially in view of how we support our member states with the implementation of their nationally determined contributions to climate change under the framework of the Paris Agreement," said Mofor.

According to the United Nations, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the centrality of energy and water resources to sustainable development, and the vital role that improved access to both water and energy play in advancing progress in other areas, including health, education and poverty eradication.

The UN further stressed that an integrated development of the energy and water policies is of paramount importance and not in isolation from each other.

According to figures from the UN, only 28 percent of the population in Sub Saharan Africa have access to electricity while many African countries are not on track to meet the global drinking water target.

Samba Thiam, Head of the UN Environment Liaison Office to the African Union (AU) Commission, also said that with the increasing demands for water and energy on the continent, it is important for experts to understand their interlinkages as well as potential water-energy nexus options that can effectively contribute to meeting Africa's water and energy demands.

"An integrated approach to the water-energy nexus can increase energy efficiency, decrease water pollution, reduce costs of energy and water delivery, increase access to services, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Thiam.

The three-day meeting, that attracted more than 100 participants from the African Region in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa as of Tuesday, discussed Africa's water and energy targets and indicators, including cross-sectoral mainstreaming, the challenges related to the water-energy nexus and possible solutions, and other related issues as the continent seeks to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Organizers also expressed their hope to enhance knowledge management and best practices' sharing on the water-energy nexus and inter-linkages with other SDGs; and strengthening advocacy and outreach in the areas of energy and water and their interlinkages during the next three days.

According to Jong Soo Yoon, Head of the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNSOD), water was the key driver for sustainable development hence the need for such a workshop.

"At the end of the workshop we hope we would have contributed to developing the capacity of governmental institutions and relevant stakeholders in the African region to effectively manage the water-energy nexus and interlinkages with other SDGs for sustainable development to facilitate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at national level," he said.

"Integrated approach to water-energy can increase energy efficiency, decrease water pollution, reduce costs of energy and water delivery, increase access to services and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Abraha Adugna, Ethiopia's State Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity, also said during the gathering that water and energy were closely interlinked and interdependent hence water and energy problems should not be addressed in isolation or at the expense of each other.

"It is critical to better understand the water-energy nexus and the driving forces of the water and energy cycles for efficient and sustainable use of these resources," he said, adding to manage both resources, planners and decision makers need to consider ways to maximize the supply of one while minimizing the over use of the other.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:24:00|Editor: ZD

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UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura addresses a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sept. 4, 2018. In a new UN-led effort to move forward the process to end the Syrian conflict, senior officials from Russia, Turkey and Iran will meet in Geneva next week for constitution-related discussions, the UN special envoy on Syria said Tuesday. (Xinhua/Xu Jinquan)

GENEVA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- In a new UN-led effort to move forward the process to end the Syrian conflict, senior officials from Russia, Turkey and Iran will meet in Geneva next week for constitution-related discussions, the UN special envoy on Syria said Tuesday.

The UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said at a press conference here that he will hold formal talks with representatives from the three countries on the establishment of a "Syrian-led and Syrian-owned" constitutional committee.

He described the effort as a curtain-raiser for a real peace process in Syria consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 as a "strong guideline" which includes many issues.

"The constitutional committee can be, and should be, now the entry point for what we call a credible political process, as the long as the constitutional committee is credible as well," said the UN negotiator.

De Mistura said his discussions with the senior Russian, Turkish and Iranian officials will take place on Sept. 10 and 11 for the new process, which he said is the best "roadmap we can see."

Those talks will be followed on Sept. 14 by further encounters with senior delegations from seven other states: Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States.

"There are some important options on how to help the Syrian side to organize the work of the constitutional committee."

"I am also engaging the European Union which is very keen in supporting our effort and the Arab League on the political process," said the UN envoy.

According to the UN envoy, the UN Security Council will also hold a discussion on Syria on Sept. 20.

"I cannot and will not at this stage forecast today how far we will be progressing on 10 and 11 September, but I do can state the following: it is going to be quite an important moment of truth," de Mistura said

His team is seeking the "buy-in" of the government and opposition in Syria and a wide-range of Syrian society, including women from the country, in the bid to restart the peace process.

He touched briefly on the current tension in northern Syria's Idlib region.

"We hope that nothing will be dramatically happening regarding Idlib. That is our hope and our wish," said de Mistura. "We still believe that the political process should not be the hostage of anything."Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:24:00|Editor: ZX

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LHASA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Red Cross Society of China and the regional government of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region signed an agreement Tuesday to further reinforce cooperation in humanitarian aid.

The organization will help and promote emergency rescue training, humanitarian aid, and international exchanges and cooperation in the region, according to the agreement.

A handbook concerning aid projects in Tibet between 2018 and 2020 has also been released. A total of 18 Red Cross societies from other Chinese provinces and regions will take part in targeted aid projects on diverse poverty alleviation and disasters relief requirements across the region.

"As a humanitarian social relief organization, we should focus on poverty-stricken regions such as Tibet, and humanitarian needs in such areas should be the motivation and direction of our jobs," said Wang Haijing, vice president of the Red Cross Society of China.

The organization has decided to provide 5 million yuan (731,000 U.S. dollars) to set up a disaster preparedness and relief center in Tibet. More funds in terms of hematopoietic stem cell donation, and organ donation and transplantation will be established.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:34:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GAZA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar Tuesday said that his movement will not see a war with Israel, and is interested in reinforcing an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement reached with Israel in 2014.

Sinwar made the remarks in a meeting held in Gaza city with dozens of youths to discuss the current situation in the Gaza Strip.

"But this doesn't mean that we are not ready to repel and prevent any (Israeli) aggression. We are always fully ready together with all other factions to do so," said Sinwar, stressing that "popular protests and marches are currently our choice."

Since March 30, Hamas has been leading rallies and protests called the "Great March of Return" every Friday in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel.

"These marches, mainly the arson balloons (released from Gaza into Israel), were a serious and real challenge to the occupation and the conspiracies to liquidate the Palestinian cause," said Sinwar.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov has led serious dialogue between Hamas and Israel to reach a calm agreement in the Gaza Strip and improve the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave.

Sinwar unveiled that there were so many mediators coming to Gaza from time to time as the popular pressure on the occupation (Israel) reached its peak, adding "now we eased this pressure to enable the mediators to help ending the Israeli siege on Gaza."

Talking about reconciliation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, Sinwar said "although the efforts to achieve reconciliation have retreated, but still we haven't lost the hope to make it (reconciliation) real and true."

Sinwar denied that his movement agreed to use an airport in Eilat in southern Israel, but admitted that his movement accepts a sea passage that links the Gaza Strip with Cyprus.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:39:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi lawmakers Tuesday agreed to resume their session on Sept. 15 to elect a new speaker of the parliament.

The move is to give a push to the political process after deep division among the parliamentary blocs, the parliament said.

The parliament decision came after a meeting of the eldest parliament member Mohammed Ali Zayni, who temporarily chairs the newly elected parliament, with heads of the political parliamentary blocs earlier in the day, said a statement of the media office of the parliament.

On Monday, the parliament held its first session since May 12 parliamentary elections but failed to elect a new speaker, who should be from the Sunni political blocs.

In accordance with the power-sharing system in Iraq, the president should be for the Kurds, the speaker for the Sunnis and the prime minister for the Shiites.

The divided Sunni blocs nominated six candidates for the speaker post, which will need absolute majority of the total 165 lawmakers by direct secret ballot.

The parliament also will have to elect the speaker's first deputy and second deputy, usually to be one from the Shiite candidate and another from Kurdish candidate, who both will need absolute majority by direct ballot.

Zayni tried to resume the session later after giving time for lawmakers to reach a consensus, but the parliament failed to reach a quorum.

The competing political blocs had each claimed to hold majority to form the largest alliance, which will have the right to form the next government.

The conflicted announcements by the competing political blocs confused the political scene and hampered the important progress in forming a new government.

According to the Iraqi constitution, the parliament shall elect the president from the Kurdish lawmakers by a two-thirds majority of its members. Then, the elected president will ask the largest alliance to form a government within 30 days.

On May 12, millions of Iraqis went to 8,959 polling centers 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.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:44:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KIGALI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's annual conversation on conservation forum opened here on Tuesday with a call on environmentalists to adopt new technologies in nature conservation.

The two-day event, which brings together more than 500 conservationists from around the world, aims to create a unique platform linking conservation with sustainable tourism.

Participants include conservation and tourism experts from around the world discussing, debating, and seeking solutions to the challenges facing conservation.

Speaking at the forum, Rwanda's Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said use of new technologies in nature conservation will help to gather accurate data on wildlife and efficiently monitor entire ecosystems and adopt concrete measures to protect endangered species.

The forum precedes Rwanda's annual baby gorilla naming ceremony locally called Kwita Izina scheduled to take place on Friday at the foot of the Volcano National Park in Musanze district in northern Rwanda.

Some 23 baby gorillas will be named at the event.

The 14th Kwita Izina comprises of a week-long celebration of events under the theme: Conservation and Sustainable Tourism - a foundation for future generations."

The premier said the new baby gorillas that will be named are proof of Rwanda's determination to protect biodiversity.

"Our tourism strategy is conservation-led. It is one of key pillars of our economy and has been one of Rwanda's major foreign currency source for the last 7years," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:44:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KIEV, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and visiting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz here on Tuesday discussed the crisis in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and bilateral cooperation, Poroshenko's press service said.

Speaking at a joint briefing after the talks, Poroshenko thanked Austria for its role in the diplomatic settlement of the Donbas crisis and the rehabilitation of children from the conflict-affected region.

Kurz stressed the importance of finding a peaceful solution to the Donbas conflict and said Austria will continue its support for humanitarian initiatives in eastern Ukraine.

Poroshenko also spoke about trade and economic cooperation.

"We believe that the growth of foreign direct investment, the economic growth in Ukraine and the beginning of the privatization process are extremely important for our cooperation," he said. "We are confident that we will continue this effective cooperation at all levels."

Both sides have agreed to observe 2019 as the year of Ukrainian culture in Austria.

Kurz arrived in Kiev on Tuesday for a one-day visit.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:44:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in held telephone talks Tuesday night with U.S. President Donald Trump on Moon's special envoys' visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Moon's office said.

Moon and Trump talked over phone for around 50 minutes from 9:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) about the scheduled travel by Moon's special emissaries to Pyongyang, according to the presidential Blue House.

The five-member special delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, top national security adviser of the Blue House, planned to visit Pyongyang Wednesday morning and return home on the same day.

Moon and Trump exchanged opinions about situations on the Korean Peninsula, including the denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington after the DPRK-U.S. summit on June 12, and the upcoming third summit between Moon and DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un.

Moon and Trump agreed to maintain close consultations and cooperation in every level between the two sides, the Blue House said.

During their Pyongyang visit, Moon's special envoys would discuss with the DPRK side a detailed schedule and agenda for the third Moon-Kim summit, which the two Koreas agreed to hold in Pyongyang before the end of September.

The South Korean leader explained in detail to Trump about the dispatch of his special envoys to Pyongyang, which aimed to consult on ways to build permanent peace on the peninsula through complete denuclearization as well as to prepare for the third summit with the DPRK top leader.

Trump told Moon that he sincerely wished for Moon's special envoys to bear a good result, asking Moon to inform him of the outcome of the special envoys' travel to Pyongyang.

Moon said now is a significant period for settling peace on the peninsula, which would go together with complete denuclearization, stressing that improved inter-Korean relations and eased tensions on the peninsula will contribute to the peninsula's complete denuclearization and the settlement of a lasting peace regime.

Trump expressed his sincere wish that the upcoming inter-Korean summit would bear a good result to enhance ties between the two Koreas, implement the agreements reached at the June 12 DPRK-U.S. summit in Singapore, and help future dialogues.

Moon and Trump agreed to review their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, scheduled for later this month, to deeply consult on future strategy and cooperation ways for the Korean Peninsula issues.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:54:15|Editor: Liangyu

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SHANGHAI, Sept.4 (Xinhua) -- Tourism New Zealand Tuesday reached an agreement with major Chinese online travel agency Ctrip to attract more independent Chinese tourists.

Under the agreement, Tourism New Zealand and Ctrip will offer more routes and products mainly to woo Chinese tourists who prefer customized trips over group tours.

China is the second largest source of tourists for New Zealand. From July 2017 to July 2018, Chinese tourists made 448,000 trips to New Zealand, up 11.9 percent year-on-year. Among them, over 40 percent were independent travelers.

Chinese travelers are sophisticated and like individualized itineraries, according to Gregg Wafelbakker, general manager for Asia at Tourism New Zealand.

"For example, Chinese are now attracted more by hiking in New Zealand, but still spend less time for each hiking tour than traditional European visitors," said Wafelbakker, "therefore we will develop more specialized services for them."

Under the agreement, Tourism New Zealand and Ctrip will also jointly train more professionals to serve Chinese tourists, currently focusing on those specializing in honeymoon or family trips.

Wafelbakker estimated that the annual number of trips made by Chinese to New Zealand would double by 2024.CPN spokesperson Bishwakarma arrested again, taken to Bhojpur

Spokesperson of Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal (CPN), Khadga Bahadur Bishwakarma has been taken to Bhojpur following an arrest on Tuesday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:54:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BERLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) presented ambitious plans on Tuesday for the modernization of Germany's armed forces (Bundeswehr).

Speaking at a naval training academy in Bremerhaven, von der Leyen confirmed an earlier report by the newspaper "Handelsblatt" that her ministry was seeking to raise the level of German military spending in several steps. "After a long time of shrinking, a time of growth has come again," she said.

The exact details of the plan are confidential but have already been shown to parliamentary delegates in select defense committees. According to "Handelsblatt", the defense ministry is aiming for higher funding of 43 billion (49.7 billion U.S. dollars), or 1.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019, and a further rise to 60 billion euros, or 1.5 percent of GDP, by 2024.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) recently argued in response to a raft of reports on the poor state of the German armed forces that her government had a responsibility to provide soldiers with a "much broader range of material and equipment" in order to ensure that they could fulfill their international missions.

Defense spending is currently the second largest item (38.5 billion euros) in the German government's 2018 budget but still trails far behind planned labor market and social expenditure (139 billion euros).

However, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) has so far rebuffed most calls to offer his coffers further the armed forces, arguing that higher spending does not automatically translate into a better defense strategy. Seeing as Scholz already agreed to slightly better funding than previously planned for the sector back in May, von der Leyen's latest call for an even more far-reaching modernization drive was widely seen on Tuesday as potentially heralding another cabinet conflict within the ruling "grand coalition" government in Berlin.

Aside from disgruntled soldiers, supporters of higher defense spending in Germany have also drawn attention to growing international criticism of the country's long-standing failure to meet the official NATO defense spending target of 2 percent of GDP.

U.S. President Donald Trump in particular has accused Berlin of failing to pull its weight in this context and even went as far as to threaten to revoke his country's security guarantee to Europe.

As a consequence, CDU/CSU defense policy spokesperson Henning Otte urged the government on Tuesday to set aside its internal quarrels and focus on improving the operational readiness of German armed forces. "It is imperative that we provide the urgently needed financial means (to the army)", Otte told press.

Scholz and other SPD politicians had previously complained that the ministry of defense was simply asking for larger and larger sums of taxpayer money without specifying what the funds would be used for. This specific issue appears to have been resolved by von der Leyen's latest plan.

"Handelsblatt" reported that the confidential document includes detailed information on future staffing levels and military procurement, as well as how these capacities would be used to meet the broader NATO target of being able to mobilize 30 battalions, 30 fighter jets and 30 marine units within 30 days.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:04:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BERLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The global shipping industry is under growing time pressure to ensure its compliance with looming new environmental regulations, Kitack Lim, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) warned on Tuesday.

Lim's comments were made at the opening of the Hamburg SMM maritime trade fair, one of the world's most important event of its kind for the shipping industry. As of January 1 2020, the IOM will mandate members to use fuels with a sulfur content of at most 0.5 percent, compared to a previous 3.5 percent limit, when travelling the high seas. Alternatively, vessels can install so-called "scrubber" exhaust system cleaning technologies to reduce environmental pollution.

"The priority for the IMO and the industry is now to implement the new regulatory limits resolutely", Lim said. He highlighted that an even stricter Sulphur threshold of 0.1 percent was already in place. In the North Sea and the Baltic Sea which had proven "very successful."

Responding to the challenges identified by the IMO secretary general, Esben Poulsson, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) expressed confidence that the industry would ultimately succeed in becoming more environmentally sustainable.

"We will make it, but we will have to work hard", Poulsson told press. He noted that fuels in compliance with the new regulations were not yet universally available and that their exact pricing, a key cost factor for shipping firms, was still unknown.

Nevertheless, the ICS president stressed that shipping companies were preparing to ramp up their investments in "Green Shipping" between 2019 and 2023. According to a recent survey, measures taken towards that end would come at a total cost of more than 215 billion euros (248 billion U.S. dollars).

Additionally, Poulsson argued that progress was being made on a separate target to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by half between 2008 and 2050. Whereas the global volume of trade had increased by 30 percent during the last ten years, CO2 emissions from shipping fell by eight percent during the same period.

Between Tuesday and Friday, the SMM will draw shipping companies, shipyard operators and a range of supplier companies from across the globe to Hamburg. 2,300 exhibitors are present at the trade faire which is expected to attract a total of 50,000 visitors.

Caterpillar product manager Frank Starke, representing one of the engineering firms showcasing their products at the fair, cautioned on Tuesday that the jury was still out on what new technologies would be best suited to help achieve the industry's vision of "Green Shipping".

Whereas motors could already be powered by hydrogen in principle, questions remained surrounding related security and logistics. Further candidates for a less polluting propulsion solutions were battery-powered vessels and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

On its official website, the Hamburg SMM singled out the cruise ship industry for pioneering environmental sustainability at sea. The trade fair drew attention to a recent order by German AIDA Cruises for what will become their third LNG-ready cruise vessel from the Meyer Werft shipyard.

Earlier, the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) emphasized in a study that LNG technology offered one promising means to reduce their negative impact of shipping on air quality in port cities and praised AIDA Cruises for their efforts in this regard.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:09:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A design project from China exploring the emotional significance of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge has won attention and award at the London Design Biennale (LDB) which opened here Tuesday.

The Memory Project of Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, created by Nanjing University professor Lu Andong's team, contains three rooms connected by a 17-meter long corridor and are featuring respectively sounds, images and historical perspectives of the bridge which was built 50 years ago.

The first exhibition room displays the sound memories related to Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, including five songs written for the bridge and the sounds collected from the surrounding environment of the bridge. It also includes 13 old radios provided by a collector with motifs of the bridge, which constitute the visual memories of that era's sounds.

The second room displays portrait photos from all over China, showing people who could not visit the bridge in person at that time would take pictures in a photography studio in their hometown in front of a background painting of the bridge.

"By taking these pictures, people participated in the same classic image that was widely spread," said the designer and curator Lu Andong, "Meanwhile, these photos also witnessed important moments in people's lives, such as reunions and graduations."

Lu started this memory project four year ago when his studio has collaborated with historians and local artists amassing an archive of artifacts, memories and audio and visual evidence.

"This exhibition considers the emotional significance of an iconic structure and how it ingrained itself on the nation's collective memory and how contemporary design-based place-making has reclaimed the monument as a place of memories and emotions," he introduced.

The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was completed in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution and was the first modern bridge over the Yangtze River in China designed and built without foreign assistance.

At more than 4.5-km in length, the double-deck road-rail bridge quickly became a national symbol of technological achievement, as its image and the story of its construction disseminated through mass media, such as posters and photography. In the following decades, this exceptional monument sparked an emotional state among a whole nation and became the pinpoint of a shared memory and people from all over China.

John Sorrell, president of LDB, said the team from Nanjing University has created an exhibition that "responds creatively to the Biennale theme of Emotional States, and which will be of great interest to all our visitors."

Dr. Christopher Turner, Artistic Director of the LDB, said the Nanjing entry was awarded an Honourable Mention for "the excellence of its conception and delivery".

"Professor Lu presented a fascinating tour through the cultural symbolism and importance of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, a great example of how history can inform and educate the present. The jury was impressed with the high, scholarly standard of the display and can not wait to visit China and see this important museum when it opens later this year," added Turner.

A highlight of the global design calendar, LDB sees some of the world's most exciting and ambitious designers, innovators and curators gather in the British capital to show how design impacts human being and every aspect of human lives.

In response to this year's theme Emotional States, participants from 40 countries, cities and territories will exhibit their design installations at Somerset House from Sept. 4 to Sept. 23 to reveal how design influences emotions.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:09:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOSCOW, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's warning to Syria and its allies not to attack Syria's rebel-held northwestern Idlib Province ignored the danger terrorists pose there, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

"Making some kind of warning without paying attention to the dangerous and negative potential of the situation in Idlib for the whole situation in Syria is not the fullest and comprehensive approach," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted by TASS news agency as saying.

Trump tweeted Monday that a "reckless attack" on Idlib could result in hundreds of thousands of victims and warned Syria and its allies Russia and Iran against making a "grave humanitarian mistake."

The Syrian army, backed by Iran and Russia, has been amassing forces to launch a wide-scale offensive against what it calls ultra-radical groups in Idlib while at the same time trying to reach reconciliation deals.

Peskov said he was aware that the Syrian Armed Forces were preparing "a solution" for problematic Idlib, from where terrorists were sending drones to attack Russian military installations in Syria.

He said Idlib will be one of the main issues on the agenda of the Russia-Turkey-Iran summit to be held in Tehran on Friday.

Idlib, with a population of about 2.5 million, is strategically important as it shares a border with Turkey to the north, and also hosts a Russian-operated air base. It is close to the coastal province of Latakia, home of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Construction is underway in Chinese company Yuhuang's methanol plant in St. James Parish, the United States, Aug. 30, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Mocheng)

NEW ORLEANS, the United States, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Deep into St. James Parish, southern U.S. state of Louisiana, hundreds of construction workers are busy installing chemical equipment.

Among the vast expanse of sugarcane fields, this site is unique both in its appearance and identity.

Yuhuang Chemical Industries Inc. (YCI), a subsidiary of China's Shandong Yuhuang Chemical, is constructing a 1.85-billion-dollar methanol production facility here along the Mississippi River.

It is by far the largest Chinese investment in Louisiana's chemical manufacturing industry.

The YCI began to turn dirt on its 1,300-acre site in January 2017, clearing the way for the first of three construction phases of the methanol plant. The project has entered key phase in construction these days.

"We will gradually place in the majority of the large equipment on foundation, stepping toward assembly stage," Charlie Yao, CEO of YCI Methanol One, was animated when talking about the recent progress of his venture.

Photo taken on Aug. 30, 2018 shows equipment to be installed in Chinese company Yuhuang's methanol plant in St. James Parish, the United States. (Xinhua/Zhang Mocheng)

The plant has been hailed by many as a sign of strengthening business ties between China and Louisiana.

"Yuhuang's methanol project proceeded amid difficulties and challenges. It indicates that China and the United States are highly complementary in economic structure and trade," said Xu Chen, chairman of the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA (CGCC), which represents more than 1,500 Chinese and U.S. companies. "The project also helps facilitate U.S.-China collaboration."

The plant is expected to generate approximately 2,000 construction jobs at peak and at least 100 direct permanent jobs during operation.

Ron Gros, a Louisiana local, joined Yuhuang's methanol project early 2017. With rich working experience in U.S. chemical industry, Gros regarded his debut in the fledging Chinese company as "a good opportunity for his career."

"It's been a good working experience to come from the start to watch a chemical plant being built from the ground up," Gros is also confident about his future advancement.

Construction is underway in Chinese company Yuhuang's methanol plant in St. James Parish, the United States, Aug. 30, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Mocheng)

Yuhuang's location on the riverfront was "strategic" and "mutually beneficial," according to Yao, as the facility benefits from the availability of natural gas feedstock and associated infrastructure. Meanwhile, its anchoring brings job opportunities and tax revenues to local communities and helps boost the port industry.

The plant is expected to start commercial production in mid-2020, with a productive capacity of approximately 1.7 million metric tons of methanol per year.

Methanol is used in the manufacturing of countless everyday products, including plywood, carpet, fuels and plastics.

The majority of the methanol produced at the site will be transported by barge and rail to north America, while the rest will be exported to China and Europe by oceangoing vessels, according to the company.

Many foreign companies including those from China are looking to long-term investment in Louisiana and that bodes well for the future of people living in the river parishes, said Paul Aucoin, executive director of the Port of South Louisiana.

Foreign direct investment has become an essential part of economic growth in Louisiana, and China is among the fastest-growing sources of foreign investment in the state, according to local economic development authority.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:34:29|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SINGAPORE, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The IP Week @ SG, and intellectual property event, kicked off in Singapore on Tuesday under the theme "Ideas to Assets: Connecting Markets through IP," attracting some 300 enterprises.

Indranee Rajah, second minister for finance and second minister for education, said on the opening ceremony that IP rights play an important role as an essential and strategic tool for business growth in the future economy, helping companies protect their innovations and bring their products and services to the global market.

The minister quoted data from the World Intellectual Property as saying that six out of 10 IP applications since 2016 are made in Asia.

To support the focus on innovation, Singapore has strengthened its connectivity to international markets to help innovative enterprises expand internationally, Indranee added.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore announced Tuesday new initiatives with innovation stakeholders to strengthen Singapore's position as an IP and innovation hub.

Singapore would work with insurance company to introduce IP insurance products. Moreover, the IP Academy Singapore would provide courses on intangible asset management to equip Singaporeans with IP and innovative-related skills.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:39:33|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China and African countries agreed to work together toward an even stronger community with a shared future, according to a declaration adopted Tuesday at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

Sharing weal and woe, the Chinese and African peoples have forged a deep friendship rooted in similar historical experiences, development tasks, and political aspirations, the declaration says.

"We agree to strengthen collective dialogue, enhance traditional friendship, deepen practical cooperation, and work together toward an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future," it says.

Calling Africa an important participant in the Belt and Road Initiative, the declaration says China-Africa cooperation under the initiative will generate more resources and means, expand the market and space for African development, and broaden its development prospects.

African countries support China in hosting the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2019, the declaration says.

It notes that China and African countries applaud the role FOCAC has played over the past 18 years to promote China-Africa relations.

In the declaration, China pledges to continue to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with African countries in keeping with the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith, and the principle of upholding justice while pursuing shared interests, as proposed by President Xi Jinping.

China welcomes a representational office of the African Union (AU) in Beijing, the document says.

African members of FOCAC reaffirm their commitment to the one-China principle, and their support for China's reunification and China's efforts in resolving territorial and maritime disputes peacefully through friendly consultation and negotiation.

On anti-corruption cooperation, China and African countries welcome the launching of the African Anti-Corruption Year, pledging to take it as an opportunity to jointly fight corruption and promote integrity.

China will continue to, in keeping with the principle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, help enhance Africa's production capacity in the secondary and tertiary industries, and promote the transformation and upgrading of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation focusing on improving Africa's internally driven growth that reduces reliance on export of raw materials, according to the declaration.

"China will, as always, offer assistance and support to Africa's development with no political strings attached," the document says.

It notes that China and African countries firmly uphold multilateralism and oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism.

China supports early progress in developing African Continental Free Trade Area and the Single African Air Transport Market, says the declaration.

It urges developed countries to honor their official development assistance commitments to developing countries, especially those in Africa, on time and in full.

In the declaration, China vows to firmly support African countries and regional organizations such as the AU in their efforts to independently resolve African problems in the African way, and to continue to play a constructive role, in light of the need of Africa, in providing good offices and mediation of African hotspot issues.

On tackling climate change and protecting the environment, the declaration calls on developed countries to honor their commitments at an early date and to support African countries with funding, technology transfer and capacity building.

China will work with Africa to fight illegal trade in wildlife, says the document.

It says China and African countries welcome Senegal as the next co-chair of FOCAC, noting that the Eighth FOCAC Ministerial Conference will be held in Senegal in 2021.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:44:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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NAIROBI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- International exhibitions will be held in Kenya frequently to help showcase investment opportunities in President Uhuru Kenyatta's Big Four Agenda including manufacturing, food security, housing and universal health coverage, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Chris Kiptoo, the principal secretary in the ministry of industry, trade and cooperatives, said the government and private sector partners will be organizing regional and international exhibitions to sell Kenya as an ideal investment destination.

"Trade exhibitions play a pivotal role in promote the growth of investments in sectors that could help us realize goals set out in the Big Four Agenda and 2030 economic blueprint," said Kiptoo.

He spoke in Nairobi during the opening of 21st edition of Kenya International Trade Exhibition that attracted 150 exhibitors from 30 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.

The two-day trade fair which is expected to attract 5,300 visitors will showcase products covering agriculture and manufacturing sectors, pharmaceutical, plastic and printing, hospitality, food and beverages industry.

Kiptoo said this year's edition of Kenya international trade exhibition was timely as the government rolls out a raft of incentives to attract investments in sectors that have a huge impact on the Big Four Agenda.

"We believe that private sector led initiatives will be key to realization of our growth agenda. The government has created a conducive environment for investors to play a meaningful role in advancing development," Kiptoo remarked.

He noted that creation of a commodities exchange platform, wholesale hubs and special economic zones, will enable the private sector fully exploit emerging investments opportunities in Kenya.

Kenya's wholesale and trade retail sector that accounts for 7.6 percent of the country's GDP, is expected to catalyze industrial growth while creating new jobs.

Kiptoo said Kenya is well positioned to tap into opportunities presented by international trade exhibitions to accelerate transition from subsistence to high tech manufacturing led economy.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:44:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MADRID, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Spain has seen a sharp increase in the number of African immigrants crossing the perilous Mediterranean to the country in the first eight months of this year, data from the Interior Ministry showed on Tuesday.

According to the data, a total of 28,620 African immigrants made the dangerous sea crossing from North Africa to Spain in the period, an increase of 163 percent over the same period of last year.

The immigrants made the crossing in a total of 1,168 dinghies, data showed.

In terms of the landing points, 27,352 of the immigrants crossed to either the Spanish mainland or the Balearic Islands, while 496 made landing on the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa, and 772 arrived at the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta in North Africa.

The data was published after Spanish Maritime Rescue Services confirmed that they rescued a further 600 people from dinghies off the south coast of Spain on Sunday and Monday, although these rescues are not reflected in the data for the first eight months of the year.

It should also be highlighted that the United Nations agency for refugees UNHCR estimates that 318 people either died or disappeared while trying to cross from North Africa to Spain between January and July. This tragic number is almost three times the 113 deaths registered in the same period in 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:54:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TRIPOLI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Violence in Libya killed 22 civilians and injured 3 in August, the UN Support Mission in Libya said Tuesday.

"From August 1 to August 31, 2018, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya documented 25 civilian casualties, 22 deaths and 3 injuries, during the conduct of hostilities across Libya," the Mission said in a report.

"Victims included 14 men, 2 woman, 4 boys and 2 girls, and 2 men and 1 woman injured. The actual number of civilian casualties is believed to be higher," the report said.

Gunfire, shelling and explosive remnants of war caused the majority of the casualties, the report added.

The mission warned warring parties in Libya against "use of mortars, other indirect weapons and imprecise aerial bombardments in civilian-populated areas."

It also urged them not to place fighters or other military objectives in populated areas.

Since the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime, Libya has been plunged into escalating violence, unrest and political division.Darchula residents use risky Tuin to cross Mahakali River

People from more than six remote villages of Darchula district are forced to cross the Mahakali river through wire bridges or Tuins and risk their lives daily.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:59:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by Peerzada Arshad Hamid

NEW DELHI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was killed and 19 others injured Tuesday after a portion of a 40-year-old bridge collapsed in eastern Indian state of West Bengal, local media said.

Officials have not yet confirmed the casualty figures.

The overpass known as Majerhat bridge collapsed near the Majerhat railway station in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.

"A section of a bridge in a busy area of posh south Kolkata came crashing down this afternoon, triggering shock across the city. Many people are feared trapped underneath, some still in their vehicles. One person was killed and 19 were injured and they have been shifted to the hospital," a media report said.

Following the incident, authorities rushed ambulances, disaster management response force personnel and heavy machinery to the spot to carry out rescue work.

Television images showed several cars, two-wheelers and buses on the caved in portion of the bridge.

Eyewitnesses said several vehicles were trapped under the debris and several people were feared to be trapped.

Authorities have dispatched paramilitary and army personnel to the spot to assist in the rescue efforts.

"We are constantly monitoring the situation. We are initiating a probe so that everything can be found out and we are taking steps on an emergency basis to rescue those who are trapped," said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is on a visit to Darjeeling.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the incident unfortunate.

"The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," Modi said in a statement.

In 2016, at least 26 people were killed when an under construction flyover collapsed in the city.

Deadly accidents due to failing infrastructure is common in India. Experts attribute it to lax administration, corruption, the use of poor quality materials, inadequate supervision, and poor safety standards for workers.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:59:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ULAN BATOR, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Movie lovers in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator will this week enjoy many popular Chinese movies free of charge.

The Chinese Film Days opened on Tuesday evening with an audience of some 200 at the Tengis Cinema in Ulan Bator.

The opening film was "The Last Tycoon" directed by Wong Jing.

The other nine movies to be screened include "Finding Mr. Right," "The Mermaid," "Beijing Love Story," "Let's Get Married," "Monk Huazang," "Monster Hunt," "The Magical Brush," "Goodbye Mr. Loser" and "The Master."

During the opening ceremony, Zang Zhijun, deputy director of Film Group of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, expressed the hope that these movies will help Mongolians better understand Chinese culture, history and people's daily life.

From Sept. 4 to 8 in the Mongolian capital, the film event is part of the culture and tourism program called "Feel China", which features Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:59:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KIGALI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda plans to double tourism earnings in the coming years through sustainable wildlife conservation, a top official in the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said Tuesday.

Clare Akamanzi, chief executive officer of RDB, said this while speaking at the country's fourth conversation on conservation conference in the Rwandan Capital Kigali organized by the government of Rwanda ahead of the annual baby gorilla naming ceremony commonly known as Kwita Izina.

"Our aim is to double tourism revenues in the next few years through sustainable conservation of wildlife that is being threatened by habitat loss due to human encroachment," she said.

She noted that through wildlife conservation program, the government has successfully implemented actions to solve those threats, building trust with local communities, trying and adapting innovative solutions.

"As part of sustainable strategy, the government introduced tourism revenue sharing scheme with communities surrounding national parks in order to support their social and economic development," Akamanzi noted.

According to her, 10 percent of tourism revenues support communities around national parks through infrastructure development such as schools, hospitals, hotels and roads.

It also supports artisans, farmers' cooperatives and other various categories.

The conference that runs from Sept. 4 to 5 has brought together more than 500 conservationists from across Rwanda and beyond to discuss, and find solutions to the challenges affecting tourism development.

Belize Kaliza, chief tourism officer of RDB said that apart from wildlife conservation, the government has strengthened its tourism marketing strategy through Visit Rwanda campaign, among others.

"Tourism promotion coupled with sustainable wild conservation measures key to double our tourism revenues and boost our economy," she noted.

Rwanda's tourism sector generated 438 million U.S dollars in 2017. However, the country targets to double tourism receipts to 800 million dollars by 2024, according to RDB.

Rwanda is set to give names to 23 baby gorillas, born late last year and this year in annual Kwita Izina' ceremony slated for September 7 at the footsteps of volcanoes national park, Musanze district, Northern Province.

The baby gorilla naming ceremony to be celebrated for fourteenth time is preceded by a week-long celebration of events dubbed: "Conservation and Sustainable Tourism - a foundation for future generations".

Gorillas contribute about 90 percent of tourism revenues from Rwanda national parks, according to RDB.

The population of mountain gorillas, one of the world's most endangered species, increased by 25 percent from 480 in 2010 to 604 in 2016, according to a latest census commissioned by the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC).Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:14:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BANGKOK, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three army privates were reported missing after a boat capsized in a river in northern Thailand on Tuesday.

According to 38th Army Circle commander Maj. Gen. Thawat Srisawang, the three army privates were swept away from the long barge which capsized just before noon in the fast-flowing Nan River in the northern province of Nan.

They were among a crew of 49 rowers of the barge, all soldiers of the 38th Army Circle.

The soldiers were practicing for a traditional boat race scheduled later this month, when the boat capsized, sending all the rowers overboard. Most of them drifted along the fast-flowing and whirling river and managed to swim or were rescued to safety. Three of the rowers who made it to the river bank were injured and rushed to hospital.

Two of the three missing soldiers were not good at swimming, while the other, who was believed to have tried in vain to help them, also went missing, the army general said.

A search and rescue mission was underway from Tuesday afternoon until evening and will resume on Wednesday morning.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:24:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAIRO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A man was arrested on Tuesday after a bottle of chemicals in his backpack caught fire near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) said in a statement.

Initial investigation showed the 24-year-old man, Abdullah Ayman Abdel-Samea, embraces extremist ideas and he intended to use the bottle in an act of aggression, the SIS quoted a security source as saying.

The incident took place in Simon Bolivar Street near the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in downtown Cairo, causing no casualties or damage, said the statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. embassy said that it was "aware of a reported incident" near its premises, warning citizens against coming to the area.

It said in a later Facebook post that Egyptian police finished their investigations at the scene and "the embassy is resuming normal business."

Egypt has been fighting a wave of terrorism since the military removed former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

The terror attacks killed hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians over the past few years. A Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

Egypt's ongoing massive anti-terror war launched by Egyptian military and security forces left hundreds of terrorists dead and thousands of suspects arrested. Security conditions have significantly improved in the country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:29:48|Editor: ZD

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Palestinian protesters and medics carry a wounded man during clashes after a demonstration at the Erez crossing near the border with Israel, northern Gaza Strip, on Sept. 4, 2018. Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated on Tuesday afternoon in northern Gaza Strip against the United States' decision of stopping U.S. financial aid to United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), eyewitnesses and local media reported. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)

GAZA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated on Tuesday afternoon in northern Gaza Strip against United States' decision of stopping U.S. financial aid to United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), eyewitnesses and local media reported.

The Gaza-based highest commission of the "Great March of Return," which was found on March 30, organized the demonstration in northern Gaza Strip close to the fence of the border with Israel.

The commission said in a press statement that the demonstration was against U.S. President Donald Trump's declarations against the Palestinians since last December, mainly cutting off aid to the Palestinians and declaring Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

When the demonstrators approached the borders, clashes broke with Israeli soldiers close to Erez Crossing Point on the border between northern Gaza Strip and Israel, the eyewitnesses said.

The demonstrators burned tires, waved Palestinian flags and threw stones at the Israeli army lookout posts and forces.

Medical sources said that Israeli soldiers opened fire at the demonstrators, shot and wounded at least three when they approached the fence of the borders. Dozens suffered suffocation after inhaling tear gas.

Earlier Tuesday, leader of Islamic Hamas movement in Gaza Yahya Sinwar stated that his movement is not seeking a war with Israel, and is interested in reinforcing the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement reached with Israel in 2014.

"But this doesn't mean that we are not ready to repel and prevent any (Israeli) aggression. We are always fully ready together with all other factions to do so," said Sinwar, stressing that "popular protests and marches are currently our choice."

Since the beginning of rallies and marches on March 30, Gaza Health Ministry said that 171 Palestinians were killed and more than 18,000 wounded, many of whom were shot by live ammunition.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:34:49|Editor: huaxia

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JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE) closed weaker on Tuesday as it took the brunt of the news that the South African economy had slipped into a technical recession.

South Africa has officially entered a technical recession after Statistic South Africa announced that the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) had decreased by 0.7 percent in the second quarter of the year.

The first quarter's GDP growth has now also been revised to -2.6 percent. This is SA's first recession since the 2008/2009 global financial crisis.

The biggest drags on economic growth were agriculture, forestry and fisheries, which decreased by 29.29 percent.

"We believe that South Africa's agricultural economy could rebound to the positive territory in the third quarter of 2018," Wandile Sihlobo, an economist at Agbiz, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

South Africa's rand had shed 2.3 percent against the U.S. dollar by Tuesday afternoon.

Bond yields spiked and retail, banking and property shares were heavily sold off on the JSE.

On the JSE, Naspers's negative patch continues, dropping 0.67 percent to R3,183.61, though Chinese internet company Tencent, of which Naspers owns about a third, was up nearly 2 percent in Hong Kong trade.

The all share was 1.4 percent down at 57,891.82 points. Industrials lost 1.76 percent, banks 4.17 percent, general retailers 4.27 percent, and food and drug retailers 2.25 percent, but the gold index added 0.62 percent.

British American Tobacco rose 2.37 percent to R732.49.

TFG lost 6.6 percent to R167.23 despite earlier reporting a solid 32-percent growth in turnover for the first 20 weeks of its financial year to end-March. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:39:51|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Brunei on Tuesday called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Police (ASEANAPOL) to be unified as one law enforcement body for the region.

According to Radio Television Brunei (RTB), the sultanate's national broadcaster, Brunei's Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah said in his opening speech at the 38th ASEAN Police Chiefs Conference that coherence should be embedded within the values of each member country to ensure ASEANAPOL act as one, with one voice, for the safety and security of the Southeast Asian region.

The Sultan, who is also the Inspector General of the Royal Brunei Police Force said that ASEANAPOL plays a vital role for all ASEAN national police forces and it needs to strengthen close collaboration in order to overcome various challenges within the region.

The conference brings together regional police teams and international law enforcement agencies to discuss security issues and transnational law enforcement.

Organized by the Royal Brunei Police Force, the conference was attended by participants from 10 ASEAN member countries and the ASEANAPOL Secretariat.

The conference was also attended by dialogue partners comprising ASEAN Secretariat, Australia, New Zealand, China, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Turkey and International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), among others.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:39:52|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Xi said the China-Kenya comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership has enjoyed rapid development and is leading China-Africa cooperation in various fields.

China is willing to strengthen inter-party cooperation and governance experience sharing with Kenya, expand cooperation in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure construction, medical care and health as well as industrial capacity, and enhance people-to-people and sub-national exchanges, helping Kenya achieve its Big Four Agenda, said Xi.

China welcomes Kenya to participate in Belt and Road cooperation, congratulates its accession into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and will support Kenya in building an economic belt and industrial parks along the railway lines, Xi said.

Kenyatta said the summit made plans for the direction of the forum in the coming years and will promote the common prosperity of Africa and China.

Kenya is willing to deepen its comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership with China, actively participate in Belt and Road construction and promote connectivity, said Kenyatta.

After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:44:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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YEREVAN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Thomas Greminger, secretary general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), on Tuesday in Yerevan, the press office of the Armenian prime minister said in a statement.

According to the statement, the two sides highlighted the current high-level of cooperation and exchanged perspectives about the further development of ties. Pashinyan briefed Greminger on the recent developments in Armenia with regard to strengthening democracy, rule of law, fight against corruption, as well as reforms that will ensure the implementation of early parliamentary elections, the statement read.

Greminger said he welcomed the latest process in Armenia and vowed support for the reform agenda of the Armenian government.

Pashinyan and Greminger also discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, with the former expressing his country's commitment to an exclusively peaceful solution to the conflict.

The OSCE Minsk Group has been making efforts for decades to mediate in the negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.Doctors defer protest after deal

The Nepal Medical Association has postponed its phase-wise protests by a week after an agreement with the government on Monday on amending the provisions of the newly enforced Criminal Code relating to medical negligence and recklessness by doctors.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:54:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday appealed to prevent a bloody conflict in the northern Syrian area of Idlib, saying that next days would be "critical".

"Let's try to avoid that the last probably major battle of this Syrian territory conflict ends in talks and not in a bloodbath," he said.

According to the UN Envoy, there are currently 2.9 million civilians in Idlib among whom 10,000 fighters from al Nusra are mingling and which the UN Security Council has declared as a terrorist organization.

Saying that the UN priority is the protection of civilians avoiding a military confrontation, de Mistura told a press conference here Tuesday that "Idlib is our first priority and Idlib is our second priority because we are very concerned".

He also noted that on Tuesday there were six air strikes on Idlib which was concerning.

Earlier Tuesday, de Mistura announced a new UN-led effort to move forward the process to end the Syrian conflict, saying senior officials from Russia, Turkey and Iran will meet in Geneva next week for constitution-related discussions.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 00:59:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JUBA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations envoy in South Sudan on Tuesday called on the humanitarian community to scale up support for the displaced South Sudanese in Juba.

Alain Noudehou, deputy special representative at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), lauded aid agencies for their work to provide much needed shelter to displaced people who have been relocated within Juba over the last weekend, stressing that they need rapid support from the humanitarian community.

"These people have told us that they have almost nothing in the way of shelter and food. The community living at Mangateen have welcomed them with open arms, and we will do the utmost to support both the community and the displaced people," he said in a statement issued in Juba.

The statement came after the UNMISS and humanitarian community successfully relocated nearly 3,500 people to an informal site in Juba from an UNMISS protection of civilians site due to a security situation that has put the lives of many at risk.

Noudehou said the relief agencies have moved with flexibility and agility, and that they are now undertaking rapid assessments of the needs of the people who have moved to this informal site in Mangateen, Juba.

"It has been hugely rewarding to see the humanitarian community pull together when people are in need. I want to thank them all for their unwavering support for people who desperately needed it," Noudehou said.

He said humanitarian organizations will provide a full range of services including shelters, clean water, sanitation and hygiene, health and protection, while seeking durable solutions for the displaced people.

Since the start of the conflict in 2013, some 2.4 million people have fled South Sudan -- the world's youngest nation -- as refugees. Another 1.8 million are displaced inside the country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 01:10:01|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame who attended the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Calling the just concluded summit a meeting with historic significance, Xi expressed his appreciation and gratitude to Kagame for his attendance, also as the rotating chairperson of the African Union, and his contribution to the success of the summit.

Xi said the African people's profound friendship with China was evident as so many African leaders had come to attend the summit.

"We feel delighted and fulfilled to see a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future taking shape and growing," he said.

Noting the important consensus reached during his state visit to Rwanda in July and the outcomes of the Beijing summit, Xi said the two sides should strengthen strategic communication, solidarity, and coordination, continue their mutual support, cooperate in Belt and Road construction, and enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges so as to enhance the friendly cooperation.

Kagame said the success of the summit has strongly boosted Africa-China ties. He thanked Xi for the great importance he attached to Africa and his important leading role in promoting Africa-China relations.

With similar historical experience, Africa and China have a deep foundation in their relations. Being grateful for China's long-term support, Rwanda will remain committed to promoting the bilateral cooperation and Africa-China cooperation, he said.

With China's support, Rwanda and Africa will achieve faster development, he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 01:15:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOSCOW, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Energia Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) will check all the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft to establish a reason for air leak on the International Space Station (ISS), Russian media reported Tuesday.

RIA Novosti news agency quoted a source in the space industry as saying that the inspection of the spacecraft based in Korolyov in the Moscow region will start in the next few days. The checking of those located at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan will begin next week.

On Thursday, astronauts of the ISS detected a minor air leak on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station, which they patched on Friday.

On Monday, Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos' head Dmitry Rogozin told reporters that a special commission was checking whether there was a deliberate drill impact on the Soyuz spacecraft's skin or it resulted from a manufacturing defect.

He said that the spacecraft had been damaged from the inside and the initial version that the leak was caused by a meteorite had been ruled out.

"It is a matter of honor of Energia RSC to find out who did it, whether it was a defect or an intentional action, and where it was done - on Earth or already in orbit," TASS news agency quoted Rogozin as saying.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 01:20:03|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (C, back) meets the press together with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (L, back) and Senegalese President Macky Sall, former and new African co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), after the conclusion of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday met the press together with African co-chairs of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) as the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit concluded.

Xi was accompanied by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Senegalese President Macky Sall, presidents of the previous and sitting African co-chairs of the FOCAC.

Xi made the announcement that the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit has come to a successful conclusion.

The summit issued the Beijing Declaration -- Toward an Even Stronger China-Africa Community with a Shared Future, which crystalized consensus of China and Africa on current major international and regional issues, and sent the world a strong signal of the two sides going forward hand in hand, Xi said.

The FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2019-2021) was also adopted at the summit to confirm that China and Africa will comprehensively enhance pragmatic cooperation focusing on the implementation of the eight major initiatives, Xi said.

All FOCAC members agreed to jointly build a China-Africa community with a shared future that assumes joint responsibility, pursues win-win cooperation, delivers happiness for all, enjoys common cultural prosperity, ensures common security, and promotes harmony between man and nature, which will set a model for the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, Xi said.

All FOCAC members agreed that China-Africa relations have embarked on a distinctive path of win-win cooperation and are at their best in history, Xi said.

China and African countries are willing to enhance the alignment of strategies and policy coordination, push forward the joint development of the Belt and Road, and closely align the Belt and Road Initiative with the African Union Agenda 2063, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the development strategies of African countries, Xi said.

All FOCAC members agreed that China-Africa relations have demonstrated unprecedented cohesiveness, vitality, and creativity. China will continue to adhere to the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith, and uphold the values of friendship, justice, and shared interests, and push the in-depth, solid, steady and enduring development of the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, Xi said.

All FOCAC members also agreed that China-Africa cooperation is part of international cooperation with Africa. In conducting cooperation with Africa, all parties of the international community should respect African countries' sovereignty, listen to Africa's voice, take Africa's stance seriously, and deliver on commitments made to the continent, Xi said.

The forum was established 18 years ago. The successful hosting of the Beijing Summit has brought China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership to a new historic starting point, and on a new journey, Xi said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 01:20:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAMASCUS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Israeli warplanes infiltrated the Syrian airspace on a low altitude on Tuesday, targeting Syrian military sites in the central province of Hama and northwestern province of Tartus, the Syrian army said.

The Israeli warplanes penetrated the Syrian airspace coming from over the Lebanese territories, more specifically from the western side of Beirut city in Lebanon and moved north into Syria, said the statement.

The Syrian air defenses intercepted much of the Israeli missiles and forced the Israeli warplanes to flee, said the army statement, stopping short of specifically identifying the targeted facilities.

The state-run TV said the Israeli attack targeted the Wadi al-Oyoun area in Hama province while activists said that a scientific research center in the city of Baniyas in Tartus was also targeted.

In July, the Israelis targeted the scientific research center in the town of Masyaf in Hama countryside.

A month later, Aziz Asber, a senior Syrian scientist running the research centers in Masyaf, was assassinated in the same area. The assassination was blamed on Israel as Asber was reportedly running a missile program with the help of the Iranians.

Israel repeatedly claimed it was targeting Iranian positions in Syria with its official stressing that Israel will not tolerate Iranian presence in Syria.

The fresh escalation comes as the U.S. and its Western allies were threatening the Syrian side with the use of force over allegations that the government side is planning a chemical attack in Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.

Damascus read the threats as the Western powers' way to hinder the government forces' planned assault in Idlib under false pretexts of chemical weapons' use.LUANDA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 people were killed and 12 others injured on Tuesday morning in a collision involving a rail maintenance train and a freight train in Bibala, a municipality in Angola's southern Namibe province, local authorities said.

Emergency crew on site said the death toll could go up and that there are still victims stranded in the trains.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 01:25:05|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SKOPJE, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Macedonian government will be taking necessary measures to create a peaceful atmosphere for the upcoming referendum on the name agreement with Greece, Macedonian Minister of Interior Affairs Oliver Spasovski told media on Tuesday.

"We are making all necessary preparations to create a peaceful atmosphere for the citizens to make a decision on their own in the upcoming referendum," Spasovski said.

According to Spasovski, Macedonia is in the midst of a historic moment ahead to the referendum.

European Union (EU) and NATO membership, according to Spasovski, will bring numerous benefits and guarantee security to the country.

"Through the EU accession, Macedonia will be able to use 260,000 euros (301,113 U.S. dollars) daily in European financial assistance," said Spasovski.

Spasovski made the statements during his visit in the municipality of Veles where he held discussions with representatives on mutual cooperation and restoration of trust between the local community and police.

On Sept. 30, Macedonia will hold a referendum on NATO and EU membership bids and on its agreement with Greece on the country's name.

Macedonian citizens will vote in the referendum on the question: "Are you in favor of NATO and EU membership, and accepting the name agreement between Macedonia and Greece?"

Macedonia is formally called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) by the United Nations. Macedonia is also the name of a northern province in Greece. Athens is worried that the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.

The solving of the name row that has existed between two countries is seen as the main obstacle Macedonia has to overcome in order to make progress towards the European Union (EU) and NATO integration.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 01:50:09|Editor: Liangyu

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by Humam Sheikh Ali

DAMASCUS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- As the last major battle against the rebels in Syria looms, the pro-war plans such as the return of refugees and the reconstruction process are already on the table.

Since earlier this year, the rebels were driven out of key areas in the capital Damascus, the central province of Homs and the southern region, including Daraa province, which was the birthplace of the Syrian war.

While it is not only the place where rebels are still located, Idlib is also the last major one as it has become the gathering place for all the opposition fighters, who were dislodged from other parts of the country.

The Syrian army has been amassing forces and military gears around Idlib in recent weeks, as well a few rebel-held areas adjacent to Idlib such as the northern countryside of Hama province and the countryside of the Latakia province in northwestern Syria.

The preparations for the battle were coupled with a heated Western pressure by the United States, Britain and France, which alleged that the Syrian army was planning a chemical attack in Idlib.

The allegations were slammed by Damascus and its allies of Iran and Russia as a new wave of Western threats to prolong the crisis and to prevent the army from moving on with its offensive on Idlib.

After more than seven years of investing into the rebel factions and other opposition groups, the West is finding itself facing a reality that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has almost won the war.

The Russian and Iranian sides, both key allies to Damascus, have been exerting major efforts to pave the way for the upcoming offensive in Idlib to close the chapter of battles and open a new chapter in the country's long-standing conflict.

Iran will host a summit on Friday that will group the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss the situation in Idlib as Turkey has a considerable sway over the rebels. The Turkish alliance with Russia and Iran is crucial at this stage amid a rift between Ankara and Washington.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Syria's capital Damascus on Monday and held talks with Assad and top Syrian officials after he had visited Turkey.

He made it clear that the extremist group of the Levent Liberation Committee (LLC), also known as the al-Qaida-linked Nsura Front, must be "cleaned out" of Idlib.

He said the upcoming tripartite summit in Tehran will discuss ways to confront the extremist groups, mainly the LLC, amid efforts to separate this group from other less-radical militants who could agree on a reconciliation deal with the government without a broad military operation.

These efforts to end the situation in Idlib is also supported by Damascus officials, who said that achieving reconciliation in Idlib is a priority.

Analysts believe that a limited military campaign could be launched against the extremist groups while at the same time reconciliation deals could be made with other factions that want to achieve reconciliation with the government.

The main challenge to this battle, which could be the last major one in Syria, would be the threats of the United States and its allies.

The United States has been outright about its demands, which mirrors the Israeli ones, that are mainly about the rejection of the growing Iranian influence in Syria and the need for the Iranian-backed forces to leave the country.

Additionally, the end of the war against the rebels in Idlib would put Damascus in the face of a new task, which is the presence of the U.S. forces, which have entered the country without the consent of Damascus.

Hamidi Abdullah, a political expert, said the departure of the foreign forces that have come to Syria uninvited will be the next phase after the war on the rebels in Idlib.

The U.S. forces are now backing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in their fight against the Islamic State's last positions on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in the countryside of Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria.

Representatives of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political wing of the SDF, have held talks with Damascus about the future of the Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria.

According to observers, a deal could be reached in a later stage about those areas with no military confrontation expected.

Syria and its allies are now attaching importance on two major post-war projects, namely the return of refugees and the rebuilding of Syria.

Over the past few months, government officials in Syria have called on the Syrian refugees in neighboring countries and abroad to return to Syria as the situation has become better.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said that the government welcomes the return of the refugees to their country, stressing that their return would be safe and that the government would try to facilitate all economic and social conditions for them.

Several batches of refugees have already returned from Lebanon in recent weeks and months.

Pro-government al-Watan newspaper said in an article published Tuesday that nearly 1.4 million Syrians have returned to the country in 2018.

In August, Alaa Ibrahim, governor of Rif Damashq Governorate, told Xinhua that 25,000 refugees had returned from Lebanon within four months amid ongoing process.

Ibrahim said the government even grants the draft dodgers who are returning to the country six months to settle down before reporting to the military service.

No retribution is being practiced against returnees, including those with criminal records who had fled the country illegally, he noted.

Out of an estimated pre-war 22-million population in Syria in 2016, 13.5 million were identified by the United Nations as in need of humanitarian assistance, with more than six million forced into internal displacement, and about five million fleeing outside Syria.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:05:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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STOCKHOLM, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Swedish government proposed on Tuesday a new bill that helps the country to counter money laundering and terrorist financing.

The bill will improve law enforcement authorities' access to information of financial companies, their account events and transactions.

"The best way to tackle financial crime is to cut off the cash flow," Swedish Minister for Financial Markets and Consumer Affairs Per Bolund said in an official statement.

Already now the financial companies have been required to provide financial information. The aim of the proposed bill is to specify in the law that the information should be disclosed without delay and in electronic form.

"The proposal is one in the series on measures that the government takes to counter abuse of our financial system," Bolund said.

According to an international evaluation made by the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Sweden has one of the best systems in the world to fight financial crimes.

"I am pleased that Sweden is among the few countries that have passed FATF's strict evaluation. Yet we cannot lean back but have to continue our work," the minister said.

The bill is proposed to be put into operation on Sept. 1, 2019.Draft bill expands chief secretary post eligibility

Special class civil staff working in provincial and local governments would be eligible to become Chief Secretary of the federal government, if Parliament endorses the proposed bill on the Federal Civil Service.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:10:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIGA/VILNIUS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Latvian rail companies are demanding over 82 million euros (95 million U.S. dollars) worth of compensation from neighboring Lithuania for a dismantled railway section, local media reported on Tuesday.

In response, Lithuanian transport minister Rokas Masiulis slammed Latvia for demanding the compensation, saying that the Latvian move was a surprise to him and "like a stab in the back".

Masiulis said Latvia's claim is unfounded, and the sums of claims are "cosmic". According to Masiulis, Latvia's compensation demands are politically motivated.

In breakdown, Latvian national rail company Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railways) is demanding 56.92 million euros in compensation for the income it did not earn between 2009 and 2017 because of the lost railway connection.

Its subsidiary LDz Cargo, meanwhile, demands 25.4 million euros for unearned income the company could have generated by shipping oil from a refinery of Polish oil company Orlen in Mazeikiai, Lithuania.

The 19-km long section of track connecting Lithuania and Latvia, close to the Orlen refinery in Mazeikiai, was suddenly closed and dismantled in late 2008.

Lithuania said the closure of the railway connection was due to the poor condition of the tracks and the need for repairs. However, the rail section was never restored.

After the European Commission issued its ruling and fined Lithuanian Railways 28 million euros, the Lithuanian government promised last December to rebuild the Mazeikiai-Renge railway line. Earlier this year, Lithuanian Railways started rebuilding railway track.

Lithuanian Railways paid the fine in January.

The dismantle of the railway prevented oil company Orlen Lietuva, a subsidiary of Polish oil company PKN Orlen and a major customer of Lithuanian Railways, from using the services of other railway companies.

According to Latvian media reports, the Latvian companies' claims are based on the ruling by the European Commission which found in October 2017 that Lithuania had breached the EU's anti-trust rules by removing the tracks on the Mazeikiai-Renge railway section, thus hindering competition on the rail freight market.

The two Latvian rail companies said they would now wait for Lithuania's response, but warned they would consider a lawsuit if their demands are rejected.

"We hope that we will succeed in reaching an agreement, otherwise, if we fail to do that, we will seek justice in court," Latvijas Dzelzcels representative Maris Ozols said on public radio.

In his response, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has called the Latvian rail companies' demand "incomprehensible and legally baseless".

"Next month, Latvia holds parliamentary election, and that kind of aggressive move could help during election. I see no other explanation," Lithuanian transport minister told Lithuanian national radio LRT.

Masiulis said the ministry would wait for more information from Latvia before considering any response.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:30:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SANAA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi forces on Tuesday fired four ballistic missiles at the facilities of Saudi oil giant Aramco in the border city of Jizan, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported that the Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles over Jizan.

The Saudi TV did not provide details about the other missiles claimed by the Houthi militias.

On Monday, the Houthis said they launched a ballistic missile at economic targets in Jizan.

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 has intervened in the Yemeni war since 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| 2018-09-05 02:30:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TRIPOLI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Two firefighters were injured on Tuesday when trying to put out fire in an oil tank south of the Libyan capital Tripoli, which is witnessing violent clashes between government forces and armed militias, according to the National Oil Corporation.

The Corporation demanded an immediate cease-fire to save the lives of its workers in the oil tanks compounds in southern Tripoli, who have not been able to leave due to the heavy clashes.

The Chairman of the Corporation Mustafa Sinalla condemned the violence that caused fire in the oil tank.

He stressed that the priority of the Corporation is to "evacuate its workers and save their lives," stressing that "material losses will be very huge."

Southern Tripoli has been witnessing violent clashes since last week between government forces and armed militias, which killed and injured many people.

Libya has been suffering escalating violence and chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Gaddafi's regime.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:40:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The White House said on Tuesday that it would "respond swiftly and appropriately" if Syria uses chemical weapons in Idlib province.

In a statement, the White House said, "It remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately."

"The United States is closely monitoring the situation in Idlib province, Syria, where millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent Assad regime attack," it said, accusing the alleged possible attack of being "backed" by Russia and Iran.

"President Donald J. Trump has warned that such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," said the White House.

"The United States will continue to work tirelessly with its Allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria under the auspices of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254," it said.

Since earlier this year, the Syrian rebels were driven out of key areas in the capital Damascus, the central province of Homs and the southern region.

The government's army has been amassing forces and military gears around Idlib in recent weeks, as the last major battle against the rebels in Syria looms.

Trump tweeted on Sept. 3 that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "must not recklessly attack Idlib Province."

"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" He said.

The Kremlin responded later that Trump's warning to Syria not to attack the rebel-held Syrian province ignored the danger terrorists pose there.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Idlib will be one of the main issues on the agenda of the Russia-Turkey-Iran summit to be held in Tehran on Friday.

Idlib, with a population of about 2.5 million, is strategically important as it shares a border with Turkey to the north, and also hosts a Russian-operated air base. It is close to the coastal province of Latakia, home of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:40:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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VILNIUS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's economy ministry proposed legalizing virtual office addresses which would offer an opportunity to establish businesses without having a physical address, Lithuanian economy minister Virginijus Sinkevicius said on Tuesday.

"For many years already, there have been enterprises both in Lithuania and elsewhere in the world which operate without physical offices, often in different cities or even different countries. However, it was required to have a physical address in order to register an enterprise," Sinkevicius was quoted as saying in a statement released by his ministry.

In the event a company did not need a physical headquarters, addresses of owners' private apartments or broker services were used for registering the enterprise, the minister said.

If the decision is adopted, Lithuania would become one of the first countries in the world to legalize virtual headquarter addresses, the ministry stated. To establish the virtual office, an email address registered at the National Electronic Delivery Information System would be sufficient.

According to the ministry, the choice of a virtual office would facilitate communication with state authorities and other entities, as well as reduce administrative and financial burdens for businesses.

Lithuania's business representatives praised the initiative.

"Sometimes there is a lack of confidence to adopt advanced and brave decisions, yet this proposal serves as a concrete example that technologies might be used for improving the business environment," Paulius Vertelka, the director of Lithuania's ICT industry association Infobalt, was quoted as saying by local media.

Ruta Skyriene, the head of the Lithuanian association Investors Forum, said she believed virtual business headquarters can become a reality in the near future.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:45:26|Editor: Li Xia

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Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2018 shows the closed Meitiga Airport after clashes on Aug. 30, 2018, in the city of Tripoli, Libya. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Tuesday announced that the fighting parties in the capital Tripoli have signed a UN-sponsored agreement to end the fierce fighting in the city. "Under the auspices of Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Ghassan Salame, a cease-fire agreement was reached and signed today to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property, and reopen Meitiga Airport in Tripoli, Libya," the Mission said. (Xinhua)

TRIPOLI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Tuesday announced that the fighting parties in the capital Tripoli have signed a UN-sponsored agreement to end the fierce fighting in the city.

"Under the auspices of Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Ghassan Salame, a cease-fire agreement was reached and signed today to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property, and reopen Meitiga Airport in Tripoli, Libya," the Mission said.

The agreement was signed during a meeting with a number of Libyan officials and military leaders in Tripoli to discuss the security situation in Tripoli.

"Today does not aim to fix all the Libyan capital's security problems; it seeks to agree on a broader framework on the way to start addressing these issues," Salame said during the meeting.

On Sunday, the UN Mission called on the Libyan parties to hold an urgent meeting to discuss the security situation in Tripoli, which is witnessing violent clashes between the government forces and armed militias since last week.

The clashes have killed and injured many people, and forced more than 1800 families to flee their homes.

Libya has been suffering escalating violence and chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Gaddafi's regime.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 02:45:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIRUT, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that it does not encourage the return of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to their homeland because of the insecurity there.

"We do not encourage the return of Syrian refugees because proper human conditions do not exist in Syria and the UNHCR cannot be present in Syrian areas until it is fully aware of what is happening there," Cameron Rashleigh, UNHCR's head of field office in South Lebanon, was quoted by Lebanese media as saying.

Around 541 Syrian refugees returned to their homeland Tuesday through the Masnaa border crossing from the meeting points in Shabaa, Burj Hammoud and Tripoli.

Rashleigh said the return of Syrian refugees was organized by Lebanon's General Security. Though UNHCR workers were present to support the refugees, the agency did not participate in organizing their return.

This is not the first time that the UNHCR expressed a cautious stance with regard to the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.

At the beginning of June, the UNHCR was accused by caretaker Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil of scaring refugees away from returning to their homeland through warnings and threats.

This prompted Bassil to issue instructions to freeze the renewal of the UNHCR staff residency permits until further notice.

The UNHCR announced later that the agency will "encourage a voluntary return for refugees and work with its team inside Syria to remove obstacles endangering those who wish to return."Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 03:00:30|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIRUT, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) will continue its cooperation with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to ensure security in South Lebanon, LAF Commander Joseph Aoun said on Tuesday.

"Our continuous cooperation preserves stability and security in the south while reflecting positively on the stability of Lebanon in general," Aoun said during a meeting with UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Stefano Del Col at the UNIFIL headquarters in south Lebanon.

Aoun pledged the LAF's "full support" to Del Col for the success of his mission, the UNIFIL website.

"The excellent cooperation and coordination between the two forces has dramatically improved the security situation and been instrumental in providing the stability to UNIFIL's area of operations," Aoun said.

For his part, Del Col emphasized the importance of building on the momentum of an already enhanced presence of UNIFIL and LAF coordination, noting that a priority for the international community and UNIFIL is to further build the capacity of LAF in southern Lebanon.

"The establishment of the (LAF) Model Regiment, for example, is an important step forward to extend state authority and security, and preserve stability," Del Col said.

He added that the two sides have "a common intent" to ensure stability in the area of operations and ensure that the area is free of unauthorized weapons and hostile activities of any kind.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 03:20:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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STOCKHOLM, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) --- With less than a week to go before Swedes head to the polls in the country's general election, the Swedish government announced that accommodation rules for asylum seekers will be reformed if the Social Democrat-Green Party coalition remains in power.

Outlining the proposals on its own website on Tuesday, the government claimed the new policies would counteract the negative consequences of Sweden's so-called EBO law, under which asylum seekers are allowed to arrange, and receive allowance for, independent housing while they wait for the Swedish Migration Agency to process their asylum applications.

The EBO law has been criticized for leading to segregation and overcrowding in towns with so-called "socio-economically challenged" areas since many asylum seekers who take advantage of the law tend to choose to move in with friends or relatives who already live in small apartments in immigrant-dense areas.

Such living conditions tend to "delay individuals' integration in Swedish society", the government statement reads, "and in some areas EBO can, and already has, led to problems for children and young people in school, to psychological and physical ill-health, to unemployment and increased segregation".

One of the two proposed measures involves denying a daily financial allowance towards rent for asylum seekers who arrange for independent housing in areas with "socio-economic challenges" in certain municipalities. It is up to the municipalities themselves to define which areas should be included here.

The other proposal is that if an asylum seeker arranges accommodation in a socio-economically challenged area, he or she must choose a residence that is appropriately sized for the number of people living in it and not be overcrowded.

Otherwise, the asylum seeker will be denied the right to a daily financial contribution. Again, the individual municipalities will set the terms.

Further, the Swedish Migration Agency will continue to be responsible for arranging accommodation for asylum seekers who choose not to apply for independent housing under the EBO law.

The government believes the new rules would encourage asylum seekers to settle in a wider range of areas than they do currently, and that the rules would help them avoid overcrowded living conditions.

This would also increase asylum seekers' chances of integrating in Swedish society as they wait for their applications to be processed and afterwards, provided they are granted a Swedish residence permit.

Municipalities with areas that are socio-economically challenged would also improve their chances of offering welfare services to all residents, both asylum seekers and Swedish citizens, according to the government.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 03:45:40|Editor: Liangyu

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The train carrying 41 containers, 20 of which are filled with Belarusian milk powder, leaves the Kolyadichi railway station in Minsk, Belarus, Sept. 4, 2018. The first container train loaded with dairy products on Tuesday left Belarus for China, local media reported. (Xinhua)

MINSK, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The first container train loaded with dairy products on Tuesday left Belarus for China, local media reported.

The train consists of 41 40-foot containers, 20 of which are filled with Belarusian milk powder. The other containers are filled with Belarusian exports. The train will travel from the Belarusian railway station of Kolyadichi to the Tuanjiecun station in Chongqing, China.

Aleksei Bogdanov, head of the Central Office for Foreign Economic Activities of the Belarusian Agriculture and Food Ministry, told reporters that it is not the first shipment of Belarusian dairy products to China but it is the first shipment being delivered by a container train.

The shipment was organized by the Belintertrans Transport-Logistics Center enterprise (BTLC) of the Belarusian Railways and ZAO Meat & Dairy Company.

The train will take 10 days to reach its destination. Getting the freight from Belarus to China by sea would take 40 days, experts said.Women Empowerment: Experts highlight challenges for women entrepreneurs

Limited access to finance and the involvement of middlemen in the marketing of products produced by women remain major challenges for the growth of women entrepreneurship, leaders and entrepreneurs said Monday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 03:45:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TEHRAN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tuesday that he held "very good" talks with Syrian officials on reducing humanitarian disaster in an imminent assault on Syria's rebel-held northern province of Idlib.

The talks, held during Zarif's visit to Damascus on Monday, focused on the removal of terror groups out of Idlib, Zarif said, adding that the two sides highlighted the need to minimize the "humanitarian cost" of the military operation.

Efforts should be made to prevent any damage to the Syrian civilians while cleansing Idlib from the terror groups, Zarif told the reporters.

Zarif visited Damascus as part of a shuttle diplomacy to resolve the situation in Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.

The top Iranian diplomat said the militants of the Levant Liberation Committee, or the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, must be "cleaned out" of Idlib.

His visit came ahead of a summit to be held on Friday in Tehran by the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia, who will discuss the Syrian situation, especially in Idlib.

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned Syria and Russia against launching a "reckless" attack on the rebels in Idlib, and the White House vowed on Tuesday to swiftly respond to the use of chemical weapons by Syrian troops.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 03:55:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOSCOW, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Russian and Mongolian senior officials have discussed ways to enhance trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, the Russian government said on Tuesday.

Relevant topics were touched upon by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev and his Mongolian counterpart Ulziisaikhan Enkhtuvshin during a working meeting in Moscow, according to a statement published on the Russian government's website.

"A wide range of issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation, as well as the work of the Russian-Mongolian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation were discussed," the statement said.

Main directions of the commission's work include the building of the Russia-Mongolia-China economic corridor, the preparation for a free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and Mongolia, cooperation on agro-industrial, transport and energy sectors, as well as financial support for joint projects, according to the statement.

The participants noted that trade between the two countries continues to show positive dynamics and that progress is observed in almost all joint projects.

Trade volume between Russia and Mongolia in 2017 increased by almost 50 percent to over 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, and grew by some 30 percent in the first half of 2018.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 04:00:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TEHRAN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iranian foreign minister and visiting Mongolian deputy foreign minister on Tuesday called for expansion of ties in diverse areas, Tasnim news agency reported.

Mohammad Javad Zarif and Battsetseg Batmunkh exchanged views about a range of issues, including ways to boost the bilateral economic relations between the two countries.

The two diplomats also discussed a host of topics, including parliamentary ties, agricultural cooperation especially in the livestock sector, holding joint business forums, and cooperation in transportation, scientific, cultural, oil and energy sectors.

Earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that "Tehran is ready to develop and strengthen its economic and trade ties with Mongolia, and harness all the capacities and opportunities to deepen the bilateral relations."Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 04:10:48|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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STOCKHOLM, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Swedish government has proposed three new measurements to tackle aggressive tax planning, evasion and financial crimes, the Government Offices of Sweden said Tuesday.

The proposals include increased international automatic information exchange, new possibilities for the Swedish Tax Agency to prevent financial crimes and tighter rules against foreign companies that are registered in a low-tax country but controlled from Sweden, according to a press release from the Offices.

The tightening of the laws means that income to a Swedish owned company, that is based in a low-tax country, can be taxed regularly.

"Everyone has to pay taxes. Step by step, we make things harder for those who spend a lot of time in avoiding their duties. Now we are tightening the rules even more," Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson said in the press release.

During the current government's rule, Sweden has made several legislative changes to counter tax evasion, tax exile and money laundering.

The proposals are proposed to enter into force on Jan. 1, 2019.Chinese President Xi Jinping (C), Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga attend a trilateral meeting in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, June 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

MOSCOW, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Russian and Mongolian senior officials have discussed ways to enhance trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, the Russian government said on Tuesday.

Relevant topics were touched upon by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev and his Mongolian counterpart Ulziisaikhan Enkhtuvshin during a working meeting in Moscow, according to a statement published on the Russian government's website.

"A wide range of issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation, as well as the work of the Russian-Mongolian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation were discussed," the statement said.

Main directions of the commission's work include the building of the Russia-Mongolia-China economic corridor, the preparation for a free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and Mongolia, cooperation on agro-industrial, transport and energy sectors, as well as financial support for joint projects, according to the statement.

The participants noted that trade between the two countries continues to show positive dynamics and that progress is observed in almost all joint projects.

Trade volume between Russia and Mongolia in 2017 increased by almost 50 percent to over 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, and grew by some 30 percent in the first half of 2018.A malnourished 4-year girl is weighed while she receives treatment at a malnutrition department in a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sept. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)

by Mohamed al-Azaki

SANAA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Wijdan Mohammed Hussein is only four years old, but her face looks ten times older than age. With a tiny and skeletal body, she cannot even sit by herself.

Wijdan is among the 1.8 million malnourished children who are struggling to survive in the war-torn Yemen, where the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that the number of malnourished children is increasing daily.

Wijdan was brought by her mother to the Al-Sabeen Maternity and Child Hospital in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, after a long journey from al-Mahathirah, a remote village in the faraway northern province of Saada.

"Her father died from hunger two months ago," Karimah Hussein, Wijdan's mother, told Xinhua.

"She is always sick with flu, stomachache, vomiting and diarrhea," the mother said.

She said, in a low voice, that the war and continued airstrikes had damaged every farm and all kinds of business in and around her village.

"I have sold everything to pay taxi fee to bring my daughter to the hospital because most health centers in Saada had been destroyed," the mother said.

Doctor Elham Abdulaziz said Wijdan has acute malnutrition, amoebiasis and inflammation in the chest.

"She is in critical condition," Abdulaziz said, while examining Wijdan.

"The number of malnourished children is increasing daily as long as the war and economic blockade continue," the doctor said, adding that the hospital receives up to 90 similar cases every day.

Inside the corridor of the Al-Sabeen Maternity and Child Hospital, another 20 families, carrying their visibly malnourished children, were waiting for treatment.

A malnourished 4-year girl sits on a bed as she waits to be weighed while she receives treatment at a malnutrition department in a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sept. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)



Most of the children came from remote villages from faraway provinces of Hajjah, Bayda, Raymah, Hodeidah, Jawf, Amran and Mahweet.

Mohammed Hasan al-Mazi, who is one and half years old, has been suffering malnutrition for eight months. The child arrived at the hospital along with his parents after a seven-hour travel from Bast village in Abs district of the northwestern province of Hajjah.

"Worsening economic situation, war, and salary cut are key reasons behind our child's illness," Hasan al-Mazi, father of Mohammed, said in angry voice.

Asriyah Faysal, a four-month-old baby girl, came from a remote village in the western mountainous province of Raymah.

"We had travelled seven hours on ragged roads and two hours on a paved road until we arrived at the hospital," said the girl's father.

"I have no money or job ... I want to treat my daughter from malnutrition," the desperate father said.

As a public health center in the capital Sanaa, the capital lacks the most basic medical supplies. All the medicines were bought from pharmacies outside the hospital.

Civil war erupted in Yemen in March 2015 between the Yemeni government backed by the Saudi Arabia-led Sunni military coalition and the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebels which seized much of the north, including the capital Sanaa.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reported that more than 160 attacks against medical facilities in Yemen have been carried out by the warring parties, damaging 45 percent of the country's medical facilities.

The naval blockade has "significantly restricted" imports of food, medicines and fuel, according to the ICRC and Save the Children Organization.

Power cuts have forced hospitals to rely on generators, while salary cuts have forced most of the state medical employees to leave.

Last week, Peter Salama, deputy director-general of emergency preparedness and response of the World Health Organization, warned of possible "third wave" of cholera epidemic. Since April last year, the disease has already killed 2,300 people, mostly children.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced over 3 million others, according to the data recently released by United Nations humanitarian agencies.

Nearly 25 million Yemenis have no access to clean drinking water since the war erupted.

Yemen, the poorest Arab country, is now on the brink of mass famine, with about half of the children under five chronically malnourished, the UN has warned.

Still, there is no sign of a quick end to the war, despite the peacemaking efforts made by the UN, which is to host a new round of peace talks on Yemen in Geneva on Sept. 6.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 05:31:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DUBLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Ireland's jobless rate has dropped to a record low in over a decade's time.

Statistics released by the Central Statistics Office on Tuesday showed that the August jobless rate in the country stood at 5.6 percent.

This is the lowest jobless rate ever recorded since April 2008, said Alan McQuaid, an economist with local consulting company Merrion Capital.

Ireland's unemployed rate is over two and a half percentage points lower than the current Eurozone average of 8.2 percent, he added.

McQuaid attributed the improvement of the local employment market mainly to the strong recovery of the Irish economy, especially in its construction, accommodation and food service sectors.

Employment rose in ten of the 14 economic sectors on an annual basis in the second quarter of 2018, he said, adding that the employment rates in the construction sector and the accommodation and food service sector were up 13.9 percent and 10.8 percent respectively in the period.

While there has been a sharp drop in the headline unemployment rate, the jobless rate for persons aged 15 to 24 still remained high despite falling to 13.9 percent in August from 14.4 percent in July, he said.

He suggested that the government should focus on the training and education of the young labour forces so as to reduce their jobless rate.

McQuaid said that the rise in employment appears far from over. He predicted a 5.7 percent jobless rate for the whole 2018 as against a 6.7 percent jobless rate in 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 05:46:12|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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HELSINKI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish governmental plan to make it easier for companies of fewer than 20 employees to make dismissals is no doubt facing widely labor action in Finland.

The labor unions had expected the plan to be called off during the budget talk last week, but Prime Minister Juha Sipila said instead that the preparation for the changes in the labor laws would continue. The decision was confirmed by Labor Minister Jari Lindstrom on Tuesday.

On Monday, Jarkko Eloranta, chairman of the blue-collar central organization SAK, said all the SAK unions started preparation for "measures" which would not be "just demonstrations". Similar preparations have been underway in the white-collar unions, including those of nurses and teachers.

The unions have said the plan is unacceptable and will create inequality on the labor market, arguing that the change will affect one third of the Finnish wage earners.

The government has defined the change as a measure to improve employment and make hiring easier. The entrepreneurs who support the plan believe the current protection against dismissal is too high that businesses cannot take the risk of hiring.

In Finland, in case an employee fails to meet work standards, dismissal is not a legal option, and the company usually should arrange something else to do or offer training during working hours. Employers can send away a new recruit within 3 or 4 months trial period but not thereafter.

The entrepreneurs complain that "letting a person go" is much easier in most countries that compete with Finland on the world market.

Professor of law Niklas Bruun told the business daily Kauppalehti that the actual impact of the would-be reform on employment is unclear. He questioned the way the reform has been "branded as a measure to boost employment".

Discussing the political implication, Susanna Ginman, editorial writer of the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet, said a public conflict would increase the support for the opposition social democratic party. The social democratic opposition is currently leading the polls concerning the general election next May.

The coalition government led by Sipila has been plagued with conflicts with unions on austerity measures, labor laws and unemployment benefits since it entered the office in the summer of 2015.

Eloranta said the plan to make dismissals easier would amount to be "the last straw that breaks the camel's back". This was understood as a reference to the possibility of major labor actions.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 06:01:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BUDAPEST, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Hungary placed as the seventh most preferred investment target worldwide, according to IBM's latest Global Location Trends, based on 2017 data, official sources said here on Tuesday.

"Hungary is also ranking on the top of the list at number 16 in the area of high added value foreign investments," Tamas Menczer, official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, declared at a press conference.

The country is made attractive by the economic environment for investors: one of the lowest personal income tax rates in Europe, the lowest corporation tax and the social contribution tax is also declining steadily, according to Menczer.

According to him, in 2010, when unemployment stood at 12.5 percent, it was clear that one of the most important tasks of the new government was the creation of jobs. Unemployment rate has now fallen to 3.5 percent.

The government's investment incentive policy has also changed, and today it is possible to support investors who, besides the preservation of jobs, carry out technological development and modernization as well, Menczer pointed out.This file photo taken on April 4, 2017 shows an unconscious Syrian child receiving treatment at a hospital in Khan Sheikhun, Idlib province, Syria, following a suspected toxic gas attack. (AFP Photo)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council will discuss the situation in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, on Friday, said U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Haley, whose country is taking over the presidency of the Security Council for September, on Tuesday warned against the use of chemical weapons in Idlib, saying U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear that the country will respond if chemical weapons are used.

"This is a tragic situation, and if they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that. But they cannot do it with chemical weapons. They can't do it assaulting their people and we're not going to fall for it," Haley told reporters when presenting the Security Council's program of work for September.

She said a Security Council meeting has been scheduled for Friday morning so that the council will be acting before a chemical weapons attack would take place.

"What you are seeing is the Security Council come together and say: we will not kind of sit by and wait until after the chemical weapons attack. We want to have a meeting now to discuss what should not happen," said Haley.

The United States and its Western allies were threatening Syria with the use of force over allegations that the Syrian government is planning a chemical attack in Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the Arab country.

Damascus read the threats as the Western powers' way to hinder the government forces' planned assault in Idlib under false pretexts of chemical weapons' use.Government all set to launch digital platform

The Ministry of Information and Communication has developed an integrated applicationGoN Citizen Appaimed at providing citizens access to information and services of all three tiers of government.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 06:16:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- An intergovernmental conference on protecting marine biodiversity on Tuesday kicked off its first session at UN Headquarters in New York, marking the start of the negotiations towards a legally binding treaty to serve that end.

Rena Lee, president of the conference, said in her opening remarks "this day has been a long time in coming for many who have been working on these issues for many years," expressing her hope that "we can work together as a whole to move the process along to a successful conclusion."

In 2002, a UN informal consultative process discussed the protection of marine environment, setting off a journey toward formal treaty negotiations under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) adopted in 1982.

Last December, the UN General Assembly adopted a modality resolution that set the stage for Tuesday's Intergovernmental Conference on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ).

Miguel de Serpa Soares, the UN under-secretary-general for legal affairs and the secretary-general of the conference, expressed confidence that the first session will be fruitful and lead to the development of an instrument that all delegations can agree to.

"There is ample evidence of increasing pressures on oceans," he said. "If such pressures and their impacts are not addressed, their cumulative effect will lead to a destructive cycle in which the oceans will no longer be able to provide many services that humans and other life on this planet depend on."

According to a policy brief circulated at the session, ABNJ makes up 64 percent of the oceans, nearly half of the planet's surface and over 90 percent of its habitable volume; it plays a critical role in the international community's efforts to achieve objectives prescribed in the Sustainable Development Agenda of the UN.

"Sustainable oceans and seas can contribute to poverty eradication, sustained economic growth, food security and creation of sustainable livelihoods," Soares said, adding that protecting the marine environment will also help build resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Rena Lee also expressed hope that the delegations will move towards to "a fair, balanced and effective outcome," which "reflects our varying concerns and interests."

The Intergovernmental Conference on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction will meet initially for four sessions, with the second and third taking place in 2019 and the fourth in the first half of 2020.

Tuesday's first sessions will last till Sept. 17, during which delegates will have substantive discussions on marine genetic resources including questions on benefit-sharing, environmental impact assessments, management tools as well as capacity building and marine technology transfer.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 06:56:22|Editor: Yamei

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SANTIAGO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Asian and North African markets hold the key to growth for Chile's wine sales, Agriculture Minister Antonio Walker said on Tuesday.

"The future of Chile's wine industry must aim at positioning itself more strongly in international markets such as China, India, Southeast Asia and North Africa," Walker said at a ceremony marking National Wine Day.

The goal of Chilean winemakers is "to conquer China, to do in India what we have done in China, conquer Southeast Asia and North Africa," said Walker.

To expand the country's export markets, the private and public sectors must work together, he said.

"The private world, the government and the winemaking world have to meet up," said Walker, adding the Agrarian Policies and Studies Bureau is the venue for exchanging ideas, identifying challenges and "taking charge of the problems."

Chile is the world's fourth-largest wine exporter, according to the minister.

The ceremony was hosted by the Santa Carolina Vineyard, one of the country's oldest, and drew officials from several sectors as well as the president of export promotion agency Wines of Chile, Mario Pablo Silva.

"For such a small country to be such an important global player in the consumption of wine is reason to be very proud," said Walker.

Chile's wine exports generate some 2 billion U.S. dollars in revenue each year, according to Walker.

"Wine exports account for 5.7 percent of the country's non-copper exports, it's a huge sector that continues to have a great future," he said.

Copper is Chile's main export product.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 23:19:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TOKYO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Typhoon Jebi, the most powerful typhoon to make landfall in Japan in 25 years, struck western Japan on Tuesday and went on to wreak havoc on cars, buildings, infrastructure and transportation systems, leaving at least seven people dead and injuring more than 200 others.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said that after making landfall in the southern part of Tokushima Prefecture, the typhoon passed near Kobe and moved into the Sea of Japan.

Numerous flights, train services and highways were closed in the Kinki region and beyond, and shops, factories and other facilities, particularly in western Japan were closed, including the popular Universal Studios attraction in Osaka prefecture.

Regarding the typhoon-related fatalities, in Shiga prefecture a man died inside a warehouse after the building collapsed and a man in Osaka prefecture fell from the second floor of a house, reportedly because of the strong winds, local police said.

Also in Osaka, an elderly man fell from the upper floor of a housing complex and was confirmed dead and three others died after being struck by objects flung by the powerful gusts of the typhoon, local officials said.

The majority of those injured were in western and central Japan. At Kyoto Station a number of people were injured when a piece from a glass ceiling collapsed due to the powerful winds, according to local police reports.

Strong gusts could be felt in areas far from the typhoon, with four people injured after being hit by a roof falling in Hachioji, western Tokyo.

The powerful typhoon forced Kansai International Airport in western Japan to halt its operations at midday as high waves caused by the typhoon saw the airport become inundated with water.

The airport's operator said large areas of the airport have been submerged, including runways, parking spaces and passages to buildings in the basement of the facility.

Winds of up to 209 km per hour were logged at the airport on Tuesday afternoon and 3,000 people were stranded due to the floods there, local authorities said.

According to the Japan Coast Guard, powerful gusts of winds blew a tanker into a bridge that connects the airport with Izumisano City.

Both the bridge and tanker were damaged in the incident.

The vessel, used to carry fuel to the airport, was moored at the time of the accident. The tanker had finished carrying fuel to the airport, but the winds were powerful enough to break its moorings and smash the vessel into the bridge.

The coast guard said, however, that none of the 11 stranded crew members aboard the tanker were injured.

The coast guard added that dozens of other ships have been swept away in Osaka port by the powerful winds, although there have been no reports of injury to crew members as a result.

A number of high-sided trucks in western Japan were tipped over on a highway by the powerful winds, local police said, with one truck almost completely blown off a bridge connecting Shikoku island and the main island of Honshu, local media reported.

Power outages affected around 1.61 million households in the Kansai region and 95,000 in Shikoku. The blackouts were caused by the torrential rain, local utilities said.

A number of historical and cultural assets and artifacts were damaged as a result of the powerful winds, with temples in Kyoto, Nara and Shiga all suffering damage, according to local media reports.

Typhoon Jebi was traveling at a speed of 75 km per hour over the sea off Sado Island, and packing winds of up to 180 kph with an atmospheric pressure of 970 hectopascals at its center, JMA said as of 8:00 p.m. local time (1100 GMT).

Due to the effect of the westerly jet stream, Jebi is picking up speed, the weather agency said. The typhoon is forecast to hit west Hokkaido, although other northerly regions are bracing for impact, with Aomori Prefecture setting up evacuation centers at six different locations, according to local media reports.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was due to visit southwestern prefectures on Tuesday, but his plans were canceled due to the severity of the typhoon.

The prime minister, in a disaster response meeting, pledged to remain alert in dealing with the impact of the typhoon. Abe urged members of the public to listen for evacuation orders, warnings and advisories and if necessary evacuate as early as possible.

Japan has been battered by a number of typhoons recently, with western regions being particularly hard hit with 220 people killed in July alone.

The powerful typhoon on Tuesday has heavily disrupted transportation services, causing flights and rail services to be canceled, as well as some commercial facilities' operations.

More than 700 local and international flights have been canceled by domestic airlines, and among Japan's top two carriers, All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Co. have canceled more than 500 flights between them.

The Tokaido Shinkansen and Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train lines had some services suspended by railway operators and parts of major highways have also been closed, the transport ministry said.

Some stores in Osaka and Kyoto prefectures as well as in other parts of western Japan have shut down operations for the day and Toyota Motor Corp. said it will halt its nighttime operations at 14 factories across the country, particularly those in western and northern areas.

According to the JMA, up to 500 mm of rain is forecast to fall in central Japan and up to 400 mm in western Japan in the 24-hour period through 6:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday (2100 GMT Tuesday).

At an emergency press briefing on Monday, an official from the JMA was quoted as saying that the typhoon has been categorized as "very strong" by the agency and based on the strength of its top winds, would be the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Japan since 1993.

By Wednesday, Typhoon Jebi should be downgraded to an extra-tropical cyclone, the JMA said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-05 03:50:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Britain has received a wide range of positive and constructive feedback about its proposals for a post-Brexit trade deal from a number of European Union (EU) countries, the House of Commons was told Tuesday.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab gave an update on the government's Brexit negotiations to MPs on their first day at Westminster after the summer recess.

Raab said he, along with Prime Minister Theresa May and other senior ministers have made visits across Europe, explaining Britain's Brexit proposals and making the case for what the government has put forward for a future relationship with the EU after next March.

Since the publication of the government paper detailing the government's proposals, the so-called Chequers plan unveiled by May, British ministers have had more than 60 ministerial engagements with their counterparts across Europe, said Raab.

Raab said he and the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, have injected additional pace and intensity into the negotiations, as the final phases are reached.

"The vast majority of the withdrawal agreement has been agreed," Raab told MPs, adding that when it is signed it the will safeguard the rights of EU citizens in Britain and British nationals in the EU so they can continue to live their lives broadly as they do now.

"It will allow for the UK to make an orderly and smooth transition as we move towards a future deep and special partnership with the EU," said Raab.

Raab said the government is committed to delivering a future relationship that will see Britain leave the European Single Market and the Customs Union.

On the yet to be decided issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the neighboring Irish Republic, Raab said the British government has made clear the EU proposals are unacceptable, because they would create a customs border down the Irish Sea.

"We are determined to reach a solution that protects the Belfast Agreement and avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland," he added.

The Belfast Agreement restored peace to Northern Ireland after several decades of troubles, and a frictionless border is seen on the island of Ireland as a crucial element of the peace agreement.

Raab concluded by saying Britain has presented its proposals in a spirit of compromise, adding: "So too they have proved challenging in some respects for some in the EU. But, our friends across Europe are engaging seriously with our proposals on the substance."

Raab also updated MPs on steps the government has taken over the summer months to prepare for the unlikely event that a deal with the EU is not reached.

"While we expect to reach a deal with the EU, while it remains the most likely outcome, and whilst it remains our top and indeed our overriding priority, as a responsible government, we have a duty to prepare for any eventuality," Raab said.

He added: "Our approach acknowledges that there are some risks to a 'no deal' scenario, and demonstrates that we are taking the action to avoid, to minimise and to mitigate these potential risks so we are equipped to manage any short-term disruption."

Raab added that a no-deal scenario would bring some countervailing opportunities, such as Britain's ability to lower tariffs and bring into effect new free trade deals, straight away. It would also bring a swifter end to the payments, running into billions of dollars a year, which Britain contributes to the EU.

"British people can rest assured, that the UK will be ready for Brexit -- deal or no deal -- and prepared, whatever the outcome, so this country will go from strength to strength," he concluded.

Raab's statement was attacked by Keir Starmer, Brexit spokesman for the main opposition Labor Party.

He said the statement would reassure nobody, dismissing May's Chequers Brexit blueprint as a fudge. Starmer also said there were huge gaps in the government's plans for a no deal outcome, particularly on the fate of the Irish border.

The GMB trade union, one of the biggest in Britain with 620,000 members, on Tuesday announced it had called for a public vote on a final Brexit deal. Political commentators say the union's move will increase pressure on the main opposition Labor party to also back a public vote.Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos and Bethlehem Mayor Anton Salman signed a twin city agreement between their cities in Bethlehem. Budapest is twinned with numerous cities but many of these pacts are more protocol-based, Tarlos said after the signing ceremony on Bethlehems Manger Square.

Others involve a more active relationship, however, and Budapest attaches special importance to its cooperation with Bethlehem, he added. Budapest hopes to focus its cooperation with Bethlehem on classical culture, youth affairs, sport and heritage protection, he said.

Budapests goal with the agreement is not political, but rather to create the conditions for cooperation with the iconic birthplace and spiritual roots of the Christian community, he said, arguing that Europes classical culture needed to be protected.

Another aim is to bolster Budapests image and attract more and more tourists from Bethlehem to the Hungarian capital, he said. He praised the roles of Marie Antoinette Sedin, the former Palestinian ambassador to Hungary, and Csaba Rada, Hungarys ambassador to Palestine, played in bringing together the pact between the two cities.

Salman told MTI after the signing that he plans on visiting Budapest next spring to get to know more about Hungarian culture.

Bethlehem wants to engage in cultural exchanges with its newfound Hungarian twin city, as well as a chance to promote itself to Hungarians and raise awareness of the challenges faced by Palestinians and the people of Bethlehem, he said.

MTI Photo: Kallos BeaThe Hungarian state secretary for family and youth called for the new EU Youth Strategy to put more emphasis on the challenges facing young people wanting to start a family, saying that the current demographic situation makes the issue especially pressing.

Katalin Novak spoke at an informal meeting of EU ministers for youth, convened to discuss challenges facing European youth and debate the European Commissions new EU youth strategy for 2019-2027. The EP is to vote on the strategy in November.

We should ask ourselves why young people do not have enough children, Novak said, adding that the question should be raised not only in Hungary but in Europe as well. The EU is also working on a programme to motivate young people to explore Europe more, she said.

Talks are under way on the EU budget for the 2021-2027 financial cycle, with a proposal to double the funding for the Erasmus programme, Novak said. It is important that the scheme should not become elitist but give as many young people as possible an opportunity to experience living in another EU member state, she said.

The proposal chimes well with the measures of the Hungarian government, she said, which has allocated several times more funding for young people in 2019 than in 2010.The conservative Jobbik party has called on the Hungarian government to support its proposal to abolish the semi-annual clock-change to daylight-saving time (DST).

Jobbik proposed that Hungary should apply the summer time permanently two years ago, lawmaker Lajos Kepli told a press conference.

Meanwhile, an EU poll has shown that 80% of the blocs citizens support scrapping the current practice of resetting the clocks every spring and autumn, and EC President Jean-Claude Juncker also called for it last Friday, he said.

The economic benefits of the current system to adjust to changes in daylight have become negligible, while its impact on public health is severe, Kepli insisted.Five private textbook publishers will sue the Hungarian state as the state rejected without considering their applications to have the licences of their textbooks extended for another five years, the website Atlatszo reports.

Andras Romankovics, vice-president of the National Association of Textbook Publishers, told the website that the lawsuit is about freedom of choice of textbooks and ultimately about the freedom of education because if the publishers lose the lawsuit, pupils will be taught only from state textbooks next year.

The five wanted to extend their licence for another five years, but the Human Resources Ministry told them that there is no legal possibility to extend the licences of private publishers.

The first of 20 trials set by a court will begin at the Public Administration and Labour Court on September 5. Romankovics says it complicates the problem that six or seven judges will try the cases rather than one.Hayu community faces extinction threat

The endangered Hayu community, who have been living in Udayapur district for generations, are at risk of extinction with no one to conserve their culture and language.If You Go If you go What: Land of Joy and Sorrow: Japanese Pioneers in the Yakima Valley, an exhibition at the Yakima Valley Museum, traces the story of the Japanese families who settled in the Yakima Valley, incarceration at Heart Mountain Relocation Center and the community after World War II. Where: 2105 Tieton Drive, Yakima. When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Cost: $7 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, children 5 and under are free, and families are $15; special group rates and tours are available. Information: Call 509-248-0747 or visit yakimavalleymuseum.org

Not Forgotten In 2017, the Yakima Herald-Republic published a yearlong series of reports about what happened to Japanese-Americans living in Yakima Valley after Executive Order 9066 was signed Feb. 19, 1942, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The order made it legal to remove people from military areas as deemed necessary or desirable. Though the Yakima Valley was outside Military Area No. 1 west of the Cascades, the boundaries were moved east to include it. Mass removal of the Yakima Valleys Japanese-American residents took place June 4-5, 1942. A total of 1,017 men, women and children  683 of whom were born in the U.S.  were transported to the Portland Assembly Center in Oregon, where they stayed for about three months. They then were taken to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Cody, Wyo. Only about 10 percent returned to the Valley. Read all of the stories in the series at http://www.yakimaherald.com/special_projects/not_forgotten/

Internment or incarceration? There's a difference Internment or incarceration? The commonly used term internment is misleading when describing the camps that held 120,000 people of Japanese descent during the war. Internment refers to the legally permissible detention of enemy aliens in time of war. It is problematic when applied to American citizens; yet two-thirds of the Japanese-Americans incarcerated were U.S. citizens. Although internment is a recognized and generally used term, Densho, an online project on the history of the era, prefers incarceration as more accurate, except in the specific case of aliens detained in a separate set of camps run by the U.S. Army or Justice Department. Detention is used interchangeably, although some scholars argue that the word denotes a shorter time of confinement than the nearly four years the Japanese-American camps were in operation. Source: https://densho.org/terminology/Indira murder case still a mystery after 7-yrs

The murder of Indira Bhusal, a then CPN-UML Bardiya district leader shot dead at Badhaiyatal Rural Municipality-5 on August 28, 2011, continues to remain a mystery. Less than a week after the murder, Ramkali Sunar, believed to be the only witness to Bushals murder, was also found dead in a nearby forest.Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs

07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0)

Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na...Students from Dunbar Elementary School walk out the front door of the school, on the way to their waiting bus, as the school day ends on Tuesday Septmenber 4, 2018. Philadelphia Federation of Teachers held a news conference at Dunbar Elementary to complain about the dangerous temperatures teachers and students are being forced to work and learn in since most of the district's schools do not have cooling systems. Read more

With temperatures in the 90s and the heat index over 100, Philadelphia students and teachers are boiling over building conditions inside 200-plus public schools.

Schools will dismiss at noon Wednesday, officials said, but there was no relief on Tuesday, when the high was in the mid-90s and many classrooms felt hotter. Most Philadelphia School District buildings are old and do not have air-conditioning.

"With the health and safety of our children and educators at stake, it's unacceptable that the district hasn't taken any action or made any announcements about their plans for dealing with this heat wave," Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan said in a statement.

At a news conference with Jordan at Dunbar Elementary in North Philadelphia  which was erected in 1931 and has only window air-conditioning units in select classrooms  City Councilwoman Helen Gym called on the state and Peco to come up with a plan to cool city schools.

"It is inhumane for children to attend school in buildings where there is no relief from the heat," she said.

Gym said her office calculated that it would cost about $4 million to purchase air-conditioning units for all district classrooms, but that the real cost would be much higher, since many buildings' electrical systems are too old to support the units.

(Jordan said teachers at Richmond Elementary School told him last week that they all had air conditioners, but that not all could be used at the same time because of electrical problems.)

Robin Cooper, president of the principals' union, said her members are frustrated at the lack of guidance: Should they send students out for recess? Should students whose parents keep them home because of health concerns be marked absent?

Cooper, who joined Jordan and Gym outside Dunbar, said holding a full day of school was "a poor call."

"Our schools are not built for this heat," said Cooper. "This is dangerous. We can't plan, and we're getting no guidance."

Shawn Bird, the district's chief schools officer, said that because the weekend was slightly cooler than last week, officials made the call to bring students back for a full day Tuesday. Once the day begins, it's tough to call an early dismissal, because parents must scramble for care. (During snowy weather, businesses often close too, Bird pointed out; but they have air-conditioning and rarely close in hot weather.)

He said the district had distributed fans and extra water to schools that requested them.

"We agree with the PFT that we want our kids to be comfortable, and our employees to be comfortable, but it's unfortunate that we can't control the weather," said Bird.

Gym, Jordan, and Cooper said the district should not be making day-to-day calls based on temperature. A longer-term fix is needed, they said.

Philadelphia schools have historically welcomed students back to class the day after Labor Day, but for the first time school started this year in August. Officials said late August heat was about equal to the mid-June heat that they would avoid by starting the year earlier.

Even if the temperatures were similar, urban buildings without air-conditioning are going to be hotter in August than they would be in June, said Simi Hoque, a Drexel University associate professor who is a building energy-efficiency expert.

Summer heat has a cumulative effect in buildings, and would peak in August, she said, and the buildings would be all the more affected by the "urban heat island" effect. Structures and paved surfaces absorb heat during the day and are slow to release it at night, when temperatures in the city can be several degrees higher than they are in surrounding suburbs.

"The school has been absorbing heat over the summer," she said, "and it has to find a way to flush it out. It doesn't happen that easily at night."

Philadelphia schools dismissed early two days last week because of the heat. On one day, 12 students at one high school fell ill because of the heat, and one staffer had to be removed by ambulance. Jordan said more students and teachers were sickened by the heat Tuesday, but Bird said he had not heard such reports.

Bird said the district had provided guidance to principals on handling heat-related problems. Students on higher floors, for instance, could have been moved to cooler parts of the building.

He also said a calendar committee would be formed soon to consider when school should start and finish next year.

Outside Dunbar, Bruce Harris, a special education teacher, said that he did his best in brutal conditions.

"It was extremely humid inside the school  oppressive," said Harris. "Our kids were stuck here in a situation that wasn't in their best interest."

At J.H. Brown Elementary in the Northeast, veteran teacher Janet Gilmer called the mayor's office and the city health department for answers: Why was it OK that her first graders were sweltering in 94-degree heat all day?

"If I had 28 dogs in these same hot conditions," Gilmer said, "I'd be arrested, and rightly so."

Staff writer Anthony R. Wood contributed to this article.Corey McCabe, left, reacts as Lisa Geist, right, talks about their 17 year-old daughter, Brieze McCabe, in Kulpmont, PA on July 5, 2018. Their daughter died of an apparent drug overdose. The parents struggled to help her when they found out last fall that she was using heroin. Read more

Learning that their child is struggling with a substance-use disorder is any parent's nightmare. But, especially if the child is still a minor, that realization is often coupled with another overwhelming question: Where can you turn for help?

It's a question without an easy answer. In Pennsylvania, for instance, there are only eight treatment facilities that accept adolescents, said Jennifer Smith, secretary of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. Seven are residential programs. One takes only boys referred through the juvenile justice system.

In a state where 5,456 people died of a drug overdose last year, parents and advocates alike say there's a dearth of options for parents trying to help children through addiction, a relapsing disease where early intervention is key. (In New Jersey, just eight of the more than 370 addiction treatment programs listed in a state database indicate that they serve adolescents and children.)

Though the state can help some parents with costs, parents from around the state said navigating the treatment system with a minor child is daunting and often prohibitively expensive. They spoke of spending tens of thousands of dollars to send teenagers to long-term rehab programs, of having to pull children from programs where they seemed to be thriving after their insurance ran out, or of praying that teens in juvenile court cases would be sent to treatment instead of detention.

"A lot of attention is going to the 22- to 38-year-olds, but for the most part, they did not pick up as adults," said Rebecca Bonner, the head of Bridge Way School, the state's only high school for teenagers in recovery. "This is the piece we're missing in our state, and the resources and services for adolescents are virtually nonexistent."

Since Bridge Way opened in 2011, Bonner said, five residential treatment facilities for adolescents around the state have closed, and even intensive outpatient programs that admit teenagers are hard to come by.

Smith said a number of factors contribute to the problem. Treating adolescents means more specialized training and a bigger load of paperwork than most facilities are willing to undertake. There's higher client turnover at facilities that take teenagers, largely because many teens aren't there voluntarily, and so are more likely than adults to leave. Smith said employees at several treatment facilities around the state have been accused of inappropriate conduct with their teenage charges, leading to those institutions' closures.

>> READ MORE: Opioid addiction treatment with medicine works best. Why don't more young people get it?

For parents who don't have private health insurance and ready access to cash, the options are even slimmer. Lisa Geist, who grew up in Kensington but moved to Pottsville to raise her family, first noticed last summer that her daughter Brieze McCabe, then 16, was evasive, withdrawn, even staying out of the house for days at a time. Then she found heroin baggies in her daughter's purse.

Geist had already helped an older daughter with opioid addiction, and knew that private schools and high-end residential treatment programs were out of the question for people of limited means. Officials at the local Children and Youth Services agency, she said, didn't seem to take Brieze's case seriously until she was arrested on drug possession charges.

"It took her getting criminal charges for anyone to even step in," Geist said. "Treatment had to be a punishment."

A judge in Juvenile Court allowed Brieze to attend a treatment facility outside of Pittsburgh that accepted Medicaid. She turned 17 there and seemed to be doing better, Geist said. Her bubbly attitude was back. She was excited to hit her 90th day of sobriety. She told Geist on the phone that she was homesick.

Geist and Brieze's father, Corey McCabe, said they would have wanted their daughter to attend school at a place like Bridge Way, where tuition is covered by grants from the state, after her treatment. But it's a day school in Philadelphia, 2 hours from home. There was no way to get her there.

In Pottsville, the juvenile justice system offered little support, Geist said. Brieze's juvenile court date  when Geist hoped a judge would sentence her daughter to house arrest or more treatment  kept getting pushed back. Brieze started leaving the house for days at a time again.

The day before she was finally due to appear in court, she fatally overdosed. Toxicology reports showed the drug she overdosed on was fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid behind most of the overdose deaths in Pennsylvania.

"She wanted to do right," Geist said. "But she got out of treatment, and there was no supervision, no one to answer to, just me calling Children and Youth, calling juvenile probation, and asking them to put her in another treatment center or something."

Sousan Robinson's 16-year-old son, whose drugs of choice are marijuana and the synthetic cannabinoid K2, was first arrested at age 15 and has been in four juvenile detention centers. When her 14-year-old son also showed signs of substance abuse, she scrambled to persuade her insurer to cover a stay at a well-regarded residential school in California. When the insurance ran out, Robinson had to beg the facility to keep him for a few more days as she scrambled again  to fund his plane ticket home.

"It's debilitating me, emotionally, financially  I maxed out every credit card to try to get them treatment," she said. "People tell you the one or two places [in the area that will treat adolescents], and you'd better hope your insurance covers it."

She's grateful, though, that her younger son has not been in the juvenile justice system. Robinson's sons are biracial, and she's listened with frustration in parenting support groups as white parents speak of children in drug court or their seventh stint in rehab. "Kids of color don't get rehab," she said. "They get jail."

Smith said it's crucial that support for addicted teenagers doesn't end with a residential treatment placement.

"There are so many support services that really have to be initiated for an adolescent," she said. "That has to involve plans for completion of their education  something around what the school district is doing, as well as their involvement in the community."

Parents who are struggling to find treatment options should contact their local single-county authority, the agencies that handle drug and alcohol treatment programs around the state, Smith said. They can also help parents without insurance or with high deductibles fund treatment for their children. "There's not any way to navigate the system on your own," she said. "Even if you have great insurance, and millions of dollars to pay the bills, strictly from a case-management perspective, aside from just getting the adolescent into treatment, there's so much more that goes into ensuring their continued engagement in recovery."

Smith encouraged parents to call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's national helpline for substance abuse treatment: 1-800-662-HELP. (The agency also has a free help sheet available online.) In New Jersey, the 24-hour line for addiction treatment can be reached at 1-844-276-2777.

In parenting groups around the Philadelphia region where mothers such as Robinson go to vent and seek support from others in their shoes, parents of adult children have plenty of sympathy for those with teens.

Lori, who asked that her last name not be used because she fears her 27-year-old son, newly in recovery, will face stigma, said her son started using pills at 14 and graduated to heroin at 19. His recovery has been long and hard, she said, with multiple stints in rehab and jail. But trying to find him treatment before he turned 18, she said, was even harder.

"It is a constant, constant battle to try to find anything for that age group," she said. "When it's young people, and there's so little out there, you just hang on for the ride."On the first warm night of spring, as the wind began to cool the air and whip around the eaves of the tent taking up a block of Girard Estates, Richard DiGregorio, 29, prepared to take the microphone. "Get some drinks in you, Rich  a half hour goes quick!" the DJ joked.

It was time for DiGregorio to serenade his bride, Victoria Fera.

Lore has it that the serenade comes from Italy. On the eve of their wedding, the groom would visit the bride's parents' house with friends and neighbors in tow. They might bang pots and pans to get the bride's attention at her bedroom window, then, from the ground, the groom would sing love songs to his love above  often accompanied by a mandolin, accordion, and strings. Coffee, cake, and a party followed  until the father of the bride shooed everyone home by midnight.

The romance behind the serenade keeps South Philly couples planning the tradition. Though revised, the key components remain: The party usually happens on the street or sidewalk in front of the bride's parents' house, and there is music. Some grooms lip-sync or sing karaoke. Others brave a capella or don't sing at all.

DiGregorio and Fera blended the old and the new for their serenade. Per tradition, DiGregorio's song choice, K.C. and Jojo's "All My Life," was a secret until Fera sat in a chair, surrounded by their guests for the big serenade. His encore, "No Higher Love" by Young Gunz, was a surprise detour from the conventional; guests posted live video of the performance and tagged the rapper on Instagram. But Fera switched up the traditional when she took the microphone after DiGregorio and sang "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, then "I Say a Little Prayer for You."

"In traditional Italy, weddings are not just a celebration of love. It is a link between two families, and the couples are ambassadors between them," says Marco Circelli, executive director of Filitalia, which promotes Italian language and culture through classes, workshops, and trips to Italy.

Along with block parties and proms, "serenades" are listed on the City of Philadelphia Streets Department street event application form. And though small, the number of serenade permits has risen in the last few years. From 2015 to 2017, the department approved 21, 26, and 31 serenade applications, respectively. In 2018 so far, 13 couples have applied. For young Italian couples, the serenade is a nod to the past with a distinctive spin of their own.

"We are dealing now with the third or fourth generation of Italian Americans  the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of immigrants  so today's couples don't have a direct link with what it means to be an immigrant," he said. "So people try to revamp their origin, because they want that link to the old traditions."

Fera and DiGregorio's party spilled from her parents' Girard Estates porch and yard into a tent out front. The porch was decorated with ribbons, flowers, and Christmas lights  a nod to the tradition's humble origins. The bridesmaids wore black, the bride wore a cropped white T-shirt that read, "Feel my shirt. That's wifey material," and Rich's T-shirt said "Groom." Jello shots, a keg, and two cases of vodka kept the party going until after the tent came down at 11 p.m.

Beyond the sung performance, serenades have a reputation for being laid-back affairs. Wedding guests are invited, as well as acquaintances who didn't make the guest list, neighbors, and passersby. Though serenades have a casual block party feel, their price tag can be extravagant. To pull off a decent serenade, it's not uncommon to shell out $5,000 to $6,000, traditionally paid for by the bride's family. A full bar, a catered spread, a DJ, and a Port-a-Potty all add up. A tent or canopy  a serenade staple  can cost thousands of dollars. A block party permit through the city is $150.

Johnny Luciano, aka DJ Johnny Looch, emcees around eight or 10 serenades a year and offers packages for both the wedding reception and the serenade. "I can tell you that this tradition has expanded a lot in the past 20 years," he said. "Which is great for business."

And, he says, this tradition is strictly Philly.

"I can tell an Italian buddy from New York or Boston, 'I'm DJing a serenade,' and they'll have no idea what I'm talking about."

The serenade's Italian origin is linked to an emphasis on music and community, said Circelli, but its origin is murky. Five regional scholars of Italian American culture were unfamiliar with the tradition. Older Philadelphians remember serenades in the 1950s and '60s. The postwar era brought a more unified Italian heritage, rather than factions based on regions in Italy.

"The serenade is like the Christmas Eve before the wedding," said Carol Villone Sisto, 56, who had hers in 1979 at her parents' house at 19th and McKean. Sisto's husband hired a string band to play her favorite love songs, including "On the Street Where You Live." Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were traditional serenade standbys, she said. Her best friend Dena had a serenade, too  and years later, in 2015, Dena's daughter, Brittany, was serenaded by her fiance to Bruno Mars' "Treasure."

As for her own daughter?

"She says she doesn't want a serenade," Sisto said. "But she's getting one."

South Philadelphians had a spectrum of opinions on the time-worn tradition.

"We had it the night before the wedding," recalled Dan Iannuzzi, who works with his wife of 18 years at Talluto's Authentic Seafood in the Italian Market. "It doesn't matter if you're hung over. That's why you do it. You drink enough so that you go ahead and go through with the wedding."

Today, Italian American millennials are sharing the serenade tradition with mates from outside the insular blocks of South Philly Italian communities.

Gina Gariffo, 27, grew up in the Stella Maris parish in South Philadelphia, and met her future fiance, Michael Penrose, 28, at Neumann Goretti High School. Penrose, who is Irish, grew up in the Mount Carmel parish, and had never heard of the tradition of the serenade. He's still deciding what he will sing at their serenade this month.

Observers say gentrification and the demise of parish elementary schools meant more mixing between neighborhoods and communities  and is a reason for young Italian couples to want to hold on to traditions like this.

Mark Kaachi, who married Elana Mele in March, is from the West Coast, a child of Indian and Swedish immigrants. Growing up, Kaachi's Indian father would often foist a microphone into his and his siblings hands at parties to entertain guests. Maybe that's why he was brave enough to sing a capella at a serenade for Mele in front of her parents' Packer Park home, the heated tent wedged onto the sidewalk so as not to block bus traffic, on a bone-chillingly cold day.

Both couples agree the rapid-fire sharing of wedding photos on social media makes the spectacle of the serenade all the more enticing.

"Facebook has a lot to do with it," said Gariffo. "Now, you can have a Snapchat filter for your serenade."

"It lives on forever," added her fiance, wincing.Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks during a press conference to announce the charges being brought against former Philadelphia Police Officer Ryan Pownall at his office on 3 S. Penn Square on Tuesday, Sept. 04, 2018. Read more

For the first time in nearly two decades, a former Philadelphia police officer was charged Tuesday in an on-duty shooting, and the city's reform-minded top prosecutor characterized the case as an example of police accountability that was long overdue.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said that after a yearlong investigation, a grand jury had determined that Ryan Pownall  formerly an officer in the 15th District  should face counts of murder and related offenses for unnecessarily firing his weapon at 30-year-old David Jones when Jones ran from a traffic stop in June 2017. Jones later died from two gunshot wounds to the back.

Pownall was arraigned Tuesday afternoon on charges of murder, possession of an instrument of crime, and reckless endangerment, and was denied bail, according to court records. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 19.

At a news conference, Krasner described the charges against Pownall as "applying justice even-handedly," and added that it was "regrettably unusual" that officers in Philadelphia have infrequently faced criminal consequences for questionable or problematic conduct.

"This is a city, like many other American cities, where there has not been accountability for activity by police officers in uniform, especially when that activity involves violence against civilians," said Krasner, who spent three decades as a defense attorney and specialized in police misconduct cases before being elected district attorney.

Hours after Krasner's announcement, a police union official called the case against Pownall an "absurd disgrace," saying the union would seek to have the charges downgraded and get Pownall released on bail.

"Today's meritless indictment clearly illustrates a district attorney who has an anti-law-enforcement agenda," John McNesby, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, told reporters and about 100 supporters at the union's Northeast Philadelphia headquarters. Joining him on stage were Pownall's wife, Tina, and brother, Edward.

The case illustrates how the relationship between the city's police force and top prosecutor has been marked by bouts of tension and disagreement. It also provides the first example of Krasner's acting on a campaign promise  which he reiterated after being sworn in  that he would pursue cases against police officers if the evidence supported it.

The decision to charge Pownall was a measure of relief for Jones' father. "It doesn't bring him back," Thomas Jones, 48, said, "but hopefully [we] continue to get justice."

It also drew immediate praise from activists who last year staged near-daily protests and disruptions after the shooting, as well as other Krasner supporters.

Isaac Gardner and Christopher Norris, two of the most visible protesters, hailed the decision outside the District Attorney's Office as soon as Krasner's news conference ended, with Gardner saying Krasner was "stepping up and doing the right thing." Asa Khalif  who had been arrested while demonstrating for Pownall's arrest  tweeted: "Good job Larry Krasner!"

Pownall, 36, was dismissed from the Police Department last year over the shooting, with Commissioner Richard Ross citing a host of departmental violations and saying Pownall displayed "poor judgment" during the altercation with Jones.

According to a grand jury report detailing Pownall's arrest, Pownall had been transporting a father and two children to the Special Victims Unit for an interview on June 8, 2017, when he spotted Jones riding a dirt bike near Whitaker and Hunting Park Avenues.

"Look at this motherfr," Pownall is quoted as saying. He then drove across traffic and sought to stop Jones while the three witnesses remained in the back seat of his police SUV, the report says.

The report says Pownall cursed at Jones, and then frisked him and felt a gun. A struggle ensued, but Jones broke free and ran away, according to the report. Pownall tried to fire his service gun but it jammed. He fixed it and fired at least three shots, the report says, striking Jones twice in the back.

Jones' weapon  which he was barred from legally owning because of his previous felony convictions  was later found on the ground "roughly 25 feet from where Pownall was firing, in the opposite direction of Jones' flight," the report says.

"[Jones'] death was not necessary to secure his apprehension  an apprehension that would never have been necessary if Pownall had not incited the confrontation," the report says.

Fortunato Perri Jr., Pownall's lawyer, said Tuesday that Pownall was "legally completely justified in his actions, and he will be exonerated of all charges. "

The last on-duty officer charged for a shooting in Philadelphia  Christopher DiPasquale in 1999  did not go to trial because two judges dismissed the charges against him.

Pownall, who is white, was involved in 2010 in another on-duty shooting of a black man from behind.

In that case, Pownall was one of several officers who fired at Carnell Williams-Carney, who had run away from police in Frankford. Pownall later testified that he believed he fired the shot that struck and paralyzed Williams-Carney, although ballistics tests could not be conducted because the bullet remains lodged in his back.

Last month, Philadelphia Weekly and City & State PA published a joint investigation reporting that Pownall had been the subject of 15 civilian complaints between January 2013 and March 2018, the third-highest total of any officer on the force.

Earlier this year, the out-of-work Pownall was hired by the Philadelphia Parking Authority as a maintenance employee. He quickly resigned after colleagues raised concerns about it.The grave of World War II POW 2nd Lt. Feoktist Kalinin at Finns Point National Cemetery in Pennsville. Read more

Finn's Point National Cemetery, on the banks of the Delaware River in Salem County, is a monument to tragedies.

It was established as the final resting place for Confederate prisoners of war who died of disease and malnutrition while held at Fort Delaware on an island in the river. About 2,500 are buried there in common graves, along with about 125 Union soldiers who had been their guards.

In 1997, the cemetery made its way into the headlines when serial killer Andrew Cunanan shot and killed the caretaker, William Reese, 45, and stole his red pickup truck on his way to claim his last victim, the fashion designer Gianni Versace, in Miami Beach.

In an unshaded corner of the cemetery, down a dirt road from Fort Mott State Park, is a reminder of another tragedy.

There, in two lines made up of simple white tombstones, are the graves of 13 German prisoners of war who died while being held at Fort Dix during World War II. Ten of the POWs died of various causes, but the three other gravestones all bear the same date: June 29, 1945  52 days after the fighting in Europe ended.

>> READ MORE: A grave mission back to Vietnam

Lt. Feokist Kalinin, Second Lt. Ignatz Nasaremko, and Pvt. Felip Spotow hanged themselves during a riot at Fort Dix staged by inmates who, while captured in German uniforms, were Soviet turncoats facing repatriation to the country they had betrayed. Guards found 15 other nooses hanging, unused, from the rafters.

The rioters had been members of a German battalion made up of deserters and prisoners of war from the Red Army who switched sides.

The Nazis, not trusting the turncoats and failing to realize they would fight hardest against the Red Army, posted thousands of them to Normandy in time for the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

Not as well-equipped as their German counterparts, hundreds of Russians quickly surrendered to U.S. forces. About 4,000 were sent to the United States, and when the war ended, 154 of them were at Fort Dix.

When the fighting stopped, the Red Army controlled a number of German prisoner of war camps holding captured American and British combatants, pawns in any possible attempt by Joseph Stalin to get his traitors back.

>> READ MORE: At Philly veterans cemetery, an overdue salute to black Civil War soldiers

While the Geneva Convention called for the repatriation of prisoners of war to the country whose uniform they wore, the United States and Britain agreed  before the war ended, at the February 1945 Yalta conference  to repatriate all Soviet citizens, whether they were prisoners of war or slave laborers in German custody or POWs who surrendered while fighting for the Nazis.

"While the attorney general had serious legal reservations about this, since the [German army POW] repatriates faced execution, the Department of State had grown 'extremely anxious' that Soviet officials might link the return of Americans found in German POW camps to the repatriation of their citizens," according to Jason Kendall Moore, writing in the scholarly journal Diplomatic History.

There was debate within the Truman administration, but the policy when the war ended called for POWs who admitted Soviet citizenship to be repatriated.

The riot at Fort Dix

According to a story in the Inquirer, the 154 Soviet citizens held at Fort Dix barricaded themselves in their barracks and set small fires about 9 a.m. on June 29 after learning they were to be sent home "in accordance with an agreement reached at the Yalta conference for the reciprocal exchange of Soviet and United States citizens."

Army soldiers fired tear gas into the barracks, prompting the POWs to charge, armed with mess kit knives and clubs made from broken furniture, wounding two American officers and a private.

Guards opened fire, wounding seven rioters. Two other POWs were injured trying to climb over a barbed wire fence.

Entering the barracks, the guards found the three dead prisoners and 15 unused nooses.

The surviving POWs were loaded on trucks and ambulances to New York to be put on a ship to Europe. But their repatriation was delayed after President Harry S. Truman ordered further investigation.

Under questioning, many said they had hoped to be killed during the riot.

One Army captain, Richard Riewarts, told investigators the rioters "did not appear to care for their lives at all."

"They pointed to their hearts and said, shoot at it," he said, according to the New York Times.

>> READ MORE: Korean War vet finally says goodbye to his fallen friend lost 66 years ago | Ronnie Polaneczky

Seven POWs were determined to not be Soviet citizens and were removed from the group facing repatriation.

The Times said the remaining prisoners were quietly loaded on a ship on Sept. 6 and eventually handed over to the Soviets in Hof, Germany.

One turncoat and Stalins order

Of the three POWs who committed suicide at Fort Dix and are buried at Finn's Point, research has provided a thumbnail portrait of one of them. Little is known about the two others.

Feoktist Kalinin was born Jan. 25, 1919, in Zalessovo in Altai, a mountainous region bordering Kazakhstan in central Asia.

According to Russian records, he graduated from Vrubel College of Art, became a lieutenant in the Red Army, and was reported missing in 1942.

German military records say he was assigned to the 439th Ost-Battalion, 914th Regiment, and was captured June 10, 1944, in Isigny, France, four days after D-Day.

Some Russian records, including a history of his hometown school, indicated only that he was reported missing or died during what Russians call the Great Patriotic War and make no mention of his actual fate.

Altogether, the U.S. sent back two million of the five million Soviet citizens, mostly from within Europe, who were repatriated after the war.

Stalin could not abide anyone who escaped his influence, and many of those returned were executed, even Red Army soldiers who had been captured by the Nazis and held in camps in deplorable conditions. They had violated the dictator's order to fight to the death.

Andreas Gambardello contributed research for this article.Investment essentials

Despite the progress, a number of challenges remain on our way to sustainable developmentRecently graduated students from Kennett High School in Chester County wave to friends, from the second floor balcony of the house they rented for the week in Wildwood June 13, 2018, during "Senior Week." Read more

WILDWOOD  For Jessica Dorazio, 18, the week began with getting an impromptu flower tattoo on the Wildwood boardwalk. A few days later, she fell asleep to the sound of drunken neighbors attempting to climb up a column to a second-story balcony at 2 a.m.

Dorazio and 11 of her friends  all recent high school graduates from Delaware County  have been staying at a four-bedroom condo on Wildwood Avenue for the last week in the name of a tradition that spans decades and generations: Senior Week.

"It was spur of the moment.  I was like, 'It's Senior Week, why not?'" Dorazio said of her back tattoo as her housemates cooked spaghetti. "MotorSport" by Migos, Cardi B, and Nicki Minaj blared in the background.

Senior Week is a rite of passage that starts in early June in Wildwood (nicknamed "Childwood") and lasts about three weeks. Thousands of teenagers descend upon the five-mile-long island for back-to-back days of partying after receiving their diplomas.

Student rentals dot every Shore town, but Wildwood is the epicenter.

Many year-round residents and town officials despise the spectacle, but businesses and homeowners scrambling to make money during the three-month summer season see it as a necessary evil that injects cash into Wildwood's economy.

>> READ MORE: The cop in viral Wildwood beach arrest was a temporary officer. Jersey shore towns use them every summer

Dorazio and her friends paid $6,500 plus a $1,000 security deposit to stay less than a block from the boardwalk. Their surprisingly spotless kitchen and living room is decorated with homemade banners hung with putty, since the lease doesn't allow holes in walls. It's a post-graduation trip some of their parents made in the 1980s.

Dorazio's housemate Sarah Diercksen, 18, who recently graduated from Springfield High School, has a family summer home in Wildwood and said her mother attended Senior Week after graduating in the 1980s.

"I knew coming down here what Senior Week is, so I knew what to expect. It's good to know, so I can be cautious and careful. Knowing [Wildwood] like the back of my hand just makes me more comfortable here than anywhere else," she said. "My parents are chill with everything. It's just they want me to be safe and responsible."

How Senior Week began remains a mystery  one that puzzles even members of the local historical society. The earliest accounts of it come from the early 1970s, when residents say Philadelphia Catholic high school students began coming to Wildwood after graduation.

Most probably stayed in the cramped rooming houses that once dominated the city, said Wildwood Historical Society president Al Brannen. Teens paid about $2 a night for a bunk bed and common bathroom.

With its two-mile-long boardwalk and free beach, the island was a getaway from strict parents and teachers, Brannen said.

Fifty years later, businesses cautiously welcome teens in June, when the boardwalk would normally be deserted. Senior Week T-shirts are displayed in storefronts and lawn signs mark which houses will rent to students and which will not.

"I think a lot of business owners dread Senior Week because of the problems, but they don't dread that they make good money off of it," Mayor Ernie Troiano said. "That's what fuels this engine."

One boardwalk worker, henna artist Bobby Kole, 25, uses his sales skill to bring teens into Oxygen Tattoo. When a large group of students walks past the store, he pitches a special $20 offer: One volunteer can get a henna tattoo free, given each friend chips in a few dollars. The catch? Kole picks the tattoo (typically a phallic design).

"I love" Senior Week," Kole said. "This boardwalk would be empty right now if these kids weren't here."

At the Crescent Court hotel on 26th Avenue, a sign outside welcomes students coming to Wildwood for prom and Senior Week. Owner Kathy Distro, 75, has seen a lot in her nearly 50 years running the hotel, including parents supplying their children with alcohol.

She rents three-bedroom units to students for $1,200 a night. For families, she charges $315 a night. The price difference, Distro said, is because housing rowdy teens is risky. By the end of June, Distro said, she typically makes around $20,000 to $25,000 from student rentals.

"Senior Week is a necessary evil," Distro said in the lounge area of her 10-unit complex. A couch cushion was torn open, with foam pouring out, because a student ripped it apart earlier in the month, thinking his car keys were lost inside.

The Senior Week rental market, she said, is broken into two groups: Newer condos and homes with owners not willing to rent to destructive kids, and older units with owners hoping to make extra money off-season.

"If you get a bad group, they can do a lot of damage," Distro said. She goes the extra mile to ensure that students behave: They sign contracts and get wristbands, and a parent must sign them in. She's in the hotel all day to shut down shenanigans, even if that means calling their guardians.

One of the biggest problems during Senior Week is absentee landlords who rent to large groups of teens, hike up the price, and don't monitor the property, said City Inspector John Davis. Some violate fire codes by using bunk beds to squeeze extra students into rooms. Homes packed with 20 people are common.

About eight years ago, Wildwood passed a "Rowdy House" ordinance to address the problem. If police are called to a property repeatedly for underage drinking, disorderly conduct, loud parties, or other violations, the city issues a warning to the homeowner, Davis said. Any subsequent calls lead to a summons issued by code enforcement for "maintaining a nuisance property." Those found guilty are fined up to $1,000.

If calls continue, the landlord must appear before the commissioners, who decide whether the owner's mercantile license should be revoked. Those operating without a license are subject to fines up to $1,000 per day. The goal: Make it too expensive for inattentive owners to stay in business.

>> READ MORE: Beyond 'Club Wa:' Shore towns grapple with teens gone wild

The city issued $6,000 in such fines last year. In the last five years, Davis said, the city has closed at least a dozen properties. Another law requires landlords who live far from Wildwood to hire an agent who lives in the area to check on the property.

"This 'Rowdy House' ordinance was designed because property owners were renting to too many kids to make a quick buck," he said. "If there's 1,000 renters and you pick off 100 of the worst ones, now things start to change."

Still, taking problem property owners to court is a lengthy process. Months can pass before results are seen.

Senior Week draws money to the city's coffers in other ways. Those ticketed for underage drinking must show up in Municipal Court and pay a fine. On average, Wildwood takes in $100,000 each June from tickets written for underage drinking, excessive noise, breaking curfew, and any other local ordinance violations, according to business administrator Chris Fox.

Wildwood police issued about 194 citations to party houses in June last year, including underage drinking and noise violations, according to Municipal Court records. About 100 people were ticketed on the beach and boardwalk during that same period for drinking under the age of 21.

In the early 1990s, Fox said, police began almost solely writing local summonses for underage drinking, as opposed to more serious state statute violations that appear on criminal records.

"I often wonder how many people's jobs and careers were ruined back then because they were charged [by Wildwood police] for underage drinking or fighting under the state statute," Fox said.

Ten extra officers are deployed on the boardwalk to keep the peace during Senior Week and the summer season, Troiano said, and the city aggressively enforces underage drinking laws during summer months.

>> READ MORE: Wildwood has fans, and they're not all high school seniors

In the past, Wildwood officers and judges held assemblies at South Jersey and Philadelphia high schools urging students not to party on the island when they arrive after graduation. Lacking results, the city ended the program.

Many falsely perceive Wildwood as being a "lawless land," Troiano said, pointing to the controversial arrest of 20-year-old Emily Weinman over Memorial Day weekend. Video showing a temporary Class II police officer punching Weinman went viral, putting Wildwood in the national spotlight.

"They drink, the beer muscles come out, and the brain shuts down," Troiano said. "They're urinating off balconies and throwing up in the streets If Senior Week disappeared, I'd be a happy person."Chris Fallon, attorney for Johnny Bobbitt, speaks with the media after a hearing in Burlington County Superior Court in Mt. Holly, NJ on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018. Bobbitt, a homeless man whose selfless act of using his last $20 to fill up the gas tank of a stranded motorist in Philadelphia got him worldwide attention, is now suing the couple who led a $400,000 fundraising campaign to help him. Read more

Editor's Note: On Nov. 15, 2018, the Burlington County Prosecutor's 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., the homeless man whose kindness to a stranger inspired a $400,000 GoFundMe campaign, said Tuesday that all of the money raised for his client is gone.

Chris Fallon said he learned of the fund's status in a conference call Tuesday with lawyers for Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico, the Burlington County couple accused of mismanaging the money raised for Bobbitt.

"It completely shocked me when I heard," Fallon said. "It came as a complete surprise to me."

Word of the missing funds came on the same day Bobbitt's lawyers asked a judge to impose sanctions on the couple after the pair missed a court-ordered deadline to hand over any remaining GoFundMe money. Bobbitt hired a legal team after becoming concerned that the couple had squandered much of the money raised to help him get off the streets. He said they denied him access to the funds while spending money on expensive vacations and a new BMW.

Bobbitt made international news last year when he spent his last $20 to help McClure after her car ran out of gas and became stranded on an I-95 overpass in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. Touched by his generosity, McClure and her boyfriend, D'Amico, started the GoFundMe campaign with a goal of getting him into a home.

Months later, the relationship between Bobbitt and the couple grew strained. The promise of a home gave way to a camper they bought him and placed on property McClure's family owns in rural Burlington County, and as Bobbitt continued to struggle with drug addiction, the couple withheld much of the money. Soon, the camper was sold, and Bobbitt was once again homeless.

The couple told the Inquirer and Daily News last month that about $200,000 of the money remained. The balance, they said, had been spent to help Bobbitt. D'Amico admitted spending $500 of the GoFundMe money to gamble at SugarHouse Casino, but he said he paid it back with his winnings.

Last week, lawyers for Bobbitt asked Superior Court Judge Paula T. Dow to require the couple to submit an accounting of the donated funds and wire the money into a trust for him within 24 hours. McClure and D'Amico missed the deadline.

>> UPDATE: Couple in Johnny Bobbitt's $400k GoFundMe campaign will take the Fifth, lawyer says

On Tuesday, Bobbitt's lawyers asked that D'Amico, 39, and McClure, 28, be held in contempt of court because no money had been transferred from the couple's savings account, which is where they said they had deposited the GoFundMe money, into an escrow account set up by the law firm Cozen O'Connor.

Concerned that the couple could present a flight risk, the lawyers asked the judge to issue sanctions requiring D'Amico and McClure to remain in New Jersey, surrender their passports, post a bond, and be barred from spending any money in their bank accounts.

Since last month, when the Inquirer and Daily News reported Bobbitt's concern about the couple's stewardship of the money, the story has drawn national attention. Last week, McClure and D'Amico appeared on Megyn Kelly Today and denied taking any of the money for personal use, except for the $500 D'Amico said he took to gamble. They told the television audience that they would agree to open the books and give a full accounting of the spending.

Given the publicity, Bobbitt's lawyers said they worried that the couple might "leave the state of New Jersey or the United States with the moneys raised."

>> READ MORE: Bobbitt's lawyer: New Jersey couple has missed deadline to turn over money

Jacqueline Promislo, one of Bobbitt's three pro bono lawyers, said the couple's lawyer, Ernest E. Badway, had not responded to an email detailing wiring instructions or an inquiry about whether the money had been moved.

According to the application for sanctions, D'Amico and McClure failed to comply with the court's 24-hour deadline "without explanation or request for extension."

"We're really concerned about the flight risk," Promislo said over the weekend as the team of attorneys mulled further legal action.

A court hearing on the matter is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Badway declined to comment Tuesday. D'Amico and McClure could not be reached.

Through Fallon, his lawyer, Bobbitt declined to be interviewed. After learning that the money was gone, Bobbitt is "regretful this happened" and "disappointed," Fallon said.

For the first time, Fallon revealed that D'Amico had tried to cut a deal with Bobbitt. On Monday, after the couple appeared on national television, he said D'Amico wrote to Bobbitt suggesting that he abandon his lawyers and settle the conflict by accepting whatever money was left in the account.

"D'Amico offered to write him a check," Fallon said.

GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Withorne said Tuesday that the company had deposited $20,000 into the escrow account created by Bobbitt's attorneys to provide assistance for him while an investigation into the case proceeds.

Fallon said the $20,000 will be used for six months of housing and food for Bobbitt.

GoFundMe said it would cooperate with authorities.

"We are working with law enforcement officials to ensure Johnny receives all of the funds raised on his behalf," Withorne said. "While we assist law enforcement with their ongoing investigation, GoFundMe is also working with Johnny's legal team to ensure he's receiving support while the remaining funds are being recovered."

>> READ MORE: Couple who raised $400k for homeless Johnny Bobbitt ordered to turn over remaining funds

As for donors, if GoFundMe determines that donations were misused, the company said, it refunds individual contributions of up to $1,000.

At an injunction hearing on Thursday, Badway told Dow that the 24-hour deadline would be difficult to meet over the holiday weekend, calling the order a "harsh remedy."

In response, Dow said, "The banks are open Friday, most banks are open Saturday. And if the moneys aren't in the bank, they can pull their money out of their pillowcases and have them delivered to you, to be handed over and placed in a trust account."

Dow ordered a full accounting of the money by Sept. 9 with details on how the money was used and when it was spent.

In court last week, Badway said Bobbitt stole from the couple and received at least $200,000 of the funds since the couple set up the GoFundMe page for him last November. McClure, a receptionist, and D'Amico, a carpenter, have said they were wary of giving Bobbitt large sums of money because they feared he would spend it on drugs.

Bobbitt's attorneys say he has received closer to $75,000, including the cost of the camper and an SUV, both since sold.

Bobbitt's attorneys have taken steps to enter him into a 28-day residential detoxification program. Bobbitt went for an interview on Monday, Fallon said.

"Even though part of the story is sad," Fallon said, "there may be some silver lining if he can beat the addiction."President Trump is painted as unhinged and impulsive in excerpts released from Bob Woodward's new book, 'Fear: Trump in the White House.' Read more

"He's an idiot."

That's how White House chief of staff John Kelly refers to his boss, President Trump, according to an explosive new book written by famed journalist Bob Woodward, most known for being one of two Washington Post reporters to help take down the President Richard Nixon administration due to his digging during the Watergate scandal.

"It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in crazytown," Kelly is quoted as saying about Trump in Woodward's new 448-page book, Fear: Trump in the White House. Kelly added, "I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."

Both the Washington Post and CNN obtained Woodward's book ahead of its Sept. 11 release and published excerpts on Tuesday morning, revealing the chaotic nature of President Trump and a staff attempting their best to protect the country from his dangerous and impulsive commands.

Robert Costa, who first reported the excerpts for the Washington Post, said Woodward paints a "bleak portrait" of a president who is at odds with his own aides and fumes constantly about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's meddling during the 2016 election.

"Woodword uses the phase nervous breakdown. He talks about an administrative coup d'etat," Costa said on MSNBC Tuesday afternoon. "You see an administration that's struggling to contain and guide their own president. Reluctant to say anything publicly, but privately going so far as to take trade agreements off his desk."

Despite calling Woodward a "fair" reporter in an audio recording of a phone conversation back in August, the White House issued a statement claiming without evidence the 'book is nothing more than fabricated stories.' Kelly also denied calling President Trump an idiot, calling Woodward's account "total BS" and "another pathetic attempt to spear people close to President Trump."

Ari Fleischer, who served as George W. Bush's press secretary from Jan. 2001 to July 2003 and is currently a Fox News contributor, was featured in Woodward's Bush at War, his first book about the Bush White House. Fleischer said despite Woodward's generally negative portrayal of the White House and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the longtime journalist had all his facts straight.

"There were quotes in it I didn't like. But never once  never- did I think Woodward made it up," Fleischer wrote. "Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays it straight. Someone told it to him."

Here are six explosive excerpts from the book that have been posted so far.

Mattis said Trump had the understanding of a fifth or sixth-grader

According to Woodward, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was alarmed after a meeting in January where Trump questioned the country's military presence in South Korea, including a secret intelligence operation that allowed the U.S. to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds.

"We're doing this in order to prevent World War III," Mattis told Trump, according to Woodward. After the meeting, Woodward writes, "Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like  and had the understanding of  'a fifth- or sixth-grader.' "

Trumps personal lawyer was afraid world leaders would think the president was a dumbbell

Among the most explosive claims in the book is that John Dowd, Trump's former personal attorney, was so convinced the president would perjure himself during an interview with Mueller that he staged a practice session with the president, which he later reenacted in front of Mueller.

According to Woodward, Dowd told Mueller, "I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?' "

The subject reportedly came up with Trump again the day before Dowd submitted his resignation.

"Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit," Dowd told Trump, according to Woodward. "You are not a good witnessMr. President, I'm afraid I just can't help you."

Trump called Sessions mentally retarded

It's no surprise one of Trump's targets in the book is embattled attorney general Jeff Sessions, whom the president has belittled publicly for more than a year.

But according to Woodward's new book, Trump told former White House staff secretary Rob Porter that Sessions was a "traitor" for recusing himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner," Trump reportedly said, mocking Sessions' southern accent. "He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."

Trump got McCains POW story backwards

During a dinner that included Mattis and Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Woodward writes that Trump falsely claimed that Sen. John McCain, R., Ariz, was given an early release from a Vietnamese prison because his father was a prominent Navy admiral.

"No, Mr. President, I think you've got it reversed," Mattis reportedly said, noting that McCain actually refused to to be released as a POW until his fellow prisoners were freed, leading to five more years of brutal torture.

"Oh, okay," Trump replied, according to Woodward.

Trump regretted walking back his comments on Charlottesville

Following the deadly violence that broke out during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last year, Trump was widely criticized for blaming "both sides." The outpouring of criticism actually forced Trump to clarify his comments and condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis in a speech from the White House.

But according to Woodword, it was a speech Trump regretted almost instantly.

"That was the biggest f mistake I've made" Trump said according to Woodward, adding it was the "worst speech I've ever given."

Trump clueless that orders were removed from his desk

The book reportedly opens with former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn stealing a letter from Trump's desk that the president intended to sign that would have withdrawn the United States form an important trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn reportedly did something similar to prevent Trump of pulling out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, better known as NAFTA.

"I can stop this. I'll just take the paper off his desk," Cohn told Porter, according to Woodward.Bdour Hussein, a refugee from a war-shattered Syria, works as a prep cook at Suraya restaurant in Philadelphia. Read more

In 2012, they were running for their lives from the Syrian civil war, said Bdour Hussein, but were stopped at the border with Jordan.

For three days, her family had no food. The children wept from hunger. And she was powerless to help them.

It was a miracle they made it that far, she said, that they were all alive  her husband, Ayhem Almousse, and their two children, Hanin and Zakerye  a wonder they had survived the violence and terror. They spent the next four years living in and around a refugee camp.

But that's not what she wants to talk about, Hussein said in an interview. What she wants people to know about the family's new life in the United States is this:

They did not come here for a handout.

She works. She pays taxes. She pays rent.

In fact, with her husband disabled by the war, Hussein has broken out of the traditional, nonworking role of Syrian women and become the main support for her family.

"I wish the door was open for more people to come," she said in Arabic. "This is life. The other side of the world is not."

On Thursday, Hussein, 30, will join other Philadelphia-area refugees and resettlement agency officials to speak out against what they see as the Trump administration's effort to end the nation's historic role as a haven for people fleeing war, genocide, persecution or natural disaster.

>>READ MORE: Immigrant advocates fear U.S. will no longer be a beacon for refugees

A news conference is set for 10 a.m. Thursday at Nationalities Service Center, which with HIAS PA and Bethany Christian Services has resettled more than 2,000 refugees in the Philadelphia area in the last four years.

Scheduled to speak is neuropsychologist and HIAS PA volunteer David Glosser, the uncle of White House immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller, who excoriated his nephew as a hypocrite in a recent Politico essay.

The world demand for help is great, with an estimated 25.4 million people currently forced from their homelands, according to the United Nations. President Trump and his administration believe the nation has lost control of its borders and want to reduce virtually every form of immigration.

By law, the president must set an annual cap on refugee admissions before the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. Trump set the current cap at 45,000, a nearly four-decade low, and less than half the 110,000 set by President Barack Obama in 2016. Only about half of those 45,000 are expected to have been admitted by the time the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

Local resettlement agency officials say they hear that Trump might drop the cap to 25,000, with perhaps only half of that number actually entering the country due to bureaucratic slow-downs.

Refugees differ from some other classifications of migrants in that they carry a specific legal status. If chosen for resettlement in the United States, they undergo extensive security checks, then must apply for permanent-resident status a year after being admitted.

Hussein has turned in her application and is waiting to receive her green card, which would allow her to live and work permanently in America.

Last week, she talked about her journey from war to freedom during a break from her job at Suraya, the Middle Eastern restaurant in Fishtown.

It turned out that the restaurant needed someone who could make authentic kibbeh, a dish that's more complicated than it looks. And Hussein happened to be an expert.

"It's a huge asset being able to hire someone like Bdour," said owner and chef Nick Kennedy. "Having people with that direct first-hand knowledge is fantastic."

>>READ MORE: History repeats: When America turned away refugees

It's a long way from Syria to Fishtown.

As they fled the war in late 2012, the family was split at the border. Hussein and the children were admitted to Jordan, but her husband was turned away. Months later, he was allowed to join them at a Jordanian refugee camp.

Conditions were so harsh that the family sneaked away, moving into a local village and living in a deserted warehouse.

All the time, Hussein said, she thought of what she wanted for her children: To have enough food. To have a home. To go to school, gain an education.

In 2015, still in Jordan, the family was contacted by the U.N. Did they wish to be resettled in the U.S.?

Hussein wasn't sure at first. She wondered, even as her family grew, would they be welcome as Arab Muslims?

Other Syrians told her to do it: Jobs could be found in America. And children could go to school. After months of U.S.-government vetting, the family arrived in South Philadelphia in August 2016.

The culture shock was enormous  "new language, new everything"  but people were kind, Hussein said. In September 2017, they moved into a rented house in Northeast Philadelphia.

Hussein is still learning English, but her children  daughter Hanin, 7, and sons Zakerye, 6, Mohammed, 4, and Abdoulle, 3  seem to effortlessly absorb the language.

She wishes she could speak directly to people in power, the people around the president, to tell them about the refugees who want to come here and work hard. About the people who would be great Americans if they only had a chance.

"Imagine all those people [to whom the government says], 'Don't come.' Imagine all those people if they could come, and work and pay taxes, build the economy," Hussein said. "We are not whatever they think we are."Chris Ent leaves his shirt in his pickup as he cools down, fishing on a hot day off along the Delaware River in Burlington City on steamy Tuesday. TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer Read more

Today is expected to be the first day of what could become the fourth heat wave of the summer and the National Weather Service has issued an alert for much of the Philadelphia region for heat indexes in the 100 plus range.

The forecast calls for a high of 94 today today in Philadelphia, but with dew points above 70, it will be downright steamy.

The weather service has issued a heat advisory beginning at 11 a.m. that extends until 7 p.m. Wednesday for most of the region except for the New Jersey counties bordering Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Beach Island.

Philadelphia public schools announced they would close at noon Wednesday because of the heat. All after-school activities, including athletic programs and professional development sessions, are canceled. Universal Schools will also dismiss classes noon on Wednesday.

The projected highs for Wednesday and Thursday are 92 and 91, just enough to qualify for a heat wave. Overnight lows will be in the mid-70s, enough to hold the heat in.

A cold front with the potential to generate thunderstorms should break the heat Thursday night. The high for Friday will be about 82, according to the latest forecast.

There's a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms both Saturday and Sunday.Hundreds #FillTheSteps Against Violence on the Art Museum step organized by Inquirer and Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas Monday June 11, 2018. Read more

Back in June, I was lucky enough to attend the Fill the Steps against gun violence rally on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The event was led by Philadelphia school students, anti-gun violence activists, and the family members and friends of murder victims.

There, a young woman attending high school in Philadelphia spoke about how gun violence affected her life and what could be done to stop youth gun violence. One thing she mentioned was the need for after-school programs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that the third leading cause of death among youth ages 10 and 24 is homicide.

According to information from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had more than 1,200 firearms-related injuries in 2014, almost half of which were suffered by individuals under 25 years old.

Information from 2010 to 2014 indicates that more than 96 percent of all suicides and homicides in Pennsylvania are firearms-related.

Nationally, an analysis by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention shows that the hours between 3 and 7 p.m. are the most violent for juveniles.

After-school programs and summer programs for youth, also called out-of-school-time (OST) programs, can provide a safe environment where children can engage in academic endeavors, build social skills, and explore career opportunities.

The Afterschool Alliance study, "America After 3 p.m.," shows that 85 percent of parents in Pennsylvania support public funding for after school, and that more than 70 percent of parents not only find peace of mind with after-school programming for their children  these programs help parents keep their jobs.

Parents are not alone in supporting this; youths want more out-of-school time programs as well.

Right now, 12 percent to 20 percent of students in grades K-12 can participate in a program after school in Pennsylvania, while as many as 18 percent of school-age children are completely unsupervised between 3 and 6 p.m.

Half  50 percent  of the youths in our state would participate in after-school programming if given the chance.

Unfortunately, Pennsylvania isn't doing enough to financially support out-of-school programming.

Most programs piece together money through grants from state institutions, foundations, and donors. That leaves few spaces in programs for those that cannot afford them, and a wider variety of opportunities to those who have the ability to pay out of pocket. Some of those can cost hundreds of dollars each week per child.

Reducing violence and creating opportunities for youth are relatively easy improvements for communities. Many existing programs would jump at the chance to bring in more children and develop more programming, particularly for high school youths.

In Philadelphia, and across the state, there has been a focus on pre-K and early childhood education, which are important to the development of every child. With so many youth experiencing violence during after-school hours, programs for teenagers need the same attention and funding.

The national discussion over violence prevention heightens and subsides, like an ebb and flow, accompanying tragedy. We do not need to wait to have that conversation in Pennsylvania.

We can expand that conversation to include out-of-school opportunities and reduce violence against youth now. These opportunities are needed in every community in Pennsylvania, from Briar Creek to Reading, Lock Haven to Philadelphia.

Supporting out-of-school opportunities can not only save the lives of youth in Pennsylvania, it can make our communities better and stronger for everyone.

Aja Beech is the arts integrated literacy and family engagement coordinator for Sunrise of Philadelphia, a provider of out-of-school time opportunities for youth, and a member of Resilient Voices, a speakers bureau organized by the Office of the Victim Advocate of Pennsylvania. She originally wrote this piece for PennLive.com.Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney addresses the huge cowd of union workers gathered at Penn's Landing on Agust 15, 2018, in protest against Trump's policy of family separation for immigrant families. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer Read more

Summer is over, and hundreds of students who spent the summer as interns for various public officials are heading back to school armed with new knowledge, skills, contacts, and a shiny line on their resume. They'll soon start working on their assignments for class. Meanwhile, the Office of the Mayor should work on an assignment of its own  finding money to pay next year's interns.

According to reporting by Michaela Winberg for Billy Penn, the 50 lucky students who get to spend their summer as interns for Mayor Kenney are not paid.

The mayor's office explains that the internship is an educational and developmental experience. The internship offers skill-building workshops  such as resume writing  and networking opportunity. The interns work on a project in a manner that is similar to a class.

The program does sound like a good opportunity  a gateway into public service. That is why it is a shame that low-income students for whom taking an unpaid summer internship is not an option are less able to take advantage of the opportunity.

There are very tangible benefits for an internship. According to the B.A. Rudolph Foundation, 51 percent of students who had one or more internships graduate with a job offer at hand compared to 17 percent of students who did not have an internship.

This is exactly the type of cycle that limits social mobility. According to a Pew Philadelphia Research Initiative, only 1 in 4 Philadelphia residents who are making a middle-class salary were born to parents making less. If you aren't born with money, you are unlikely to make money.

The mayor's office says that it encourages students to find external funding or ask their schools for college credit. Getting external funding is hard  only 10 of the 50 interns this summer had some sort of stipend, according to Billy Penn. While college credits sound like a benefit, they actually cost. Most schools charge students for every credit  even credits that do not include a class, such as an unpaid internship. Half of the students in Pennsyslvania graduate with more than $26,000 in debt. When students are asked to pay for credits for unpaid internships, they are also asked to pay for the interest.

Due to the growing number of unpaid internships in for-profit entities, states such as Oregon and California cracked down on employers whose internships violated minimum-wage laws. In 2010, this action compelled the Labor Department to pay more attention to criteria for internships.

Government entities and nonprofits have more leeway for unpaid internships; still, in June, the U.S. Senate allocated $5 million to pay interns in the hopes of attracting a more economically diverse cohort.

Kenney says that he is in favor of raising the minimum wage  which the city can't do alone because of state preemption  and the city's requirement that contractors pay a living wage. He should extend the same concern to students working for him.

The mayor has a full academic year to find wages for his summer interns. We hope he aces this assignment.New Delhi: Actress Alia Bhatt, who was back home for quite a few days, has returned back to the sets of Ayan Mukherji's directorial upcoming 'Brahmastra' in Bulgaria. A sci-fi film, 'Brahmashtra' also stars Ranbir Kapoor, megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy and Nagarjuna Akkineni.

In the meantime, Dharma Productions took to Instagram to welcome Alia on the sets. The official handle of Dharma Productions shared a photo of the actress in which she is seen smiling as she checks her phone. They captioned the post as, "Back where she belongs! @aliabhatt on the sets of #brahmastra."

Alia too shared the same photo on her Instagram handle writing, "And we are back".

Check out the post here:

As soon as Alia's photo was shared on the social media, several fans commented on the post questioning who she was chatting to. While some of them commented saying that she was chatting with RK, other thought that probably RK once again turned into a photographer to take this beautiful click.

Alia has several big projects in her kitty. Apart from 'Brahmastra', she has Zoya Akhtar's 'Gully Boy' in which she has been paired alongside Ranveer Singh. She has also come on board for Karan Johar's muti-starrer project 'Takht' and Abhishek Varman's 'Kalank. She will also be seen in aaspecial appearance in Anand L Rai's 'Zero'.SAN FRANCISCO/MUMBAI: Google retains only a slight lead over Facebook in the competition for digital ad dollars in the crucial India market, sources familiar with the figures say, even though the search giant has been in the country far longer and has avoided the controversies that have dogged its rival.

Facebook`s success has shaken Alphabet Inc`s Google, led by an Indian-born CEO, Sundar Pichai, who has made developing markets a priority.

Google officials in India earlier this year were alarmed to learn that Facebook Inc was likely to generate about $980 million in revenue in the country in 2018, according to one of the sources. Google`s India revenues reached $1 billion only last year.

Facebook and Google declined to comment on Indian revenue figures or the competition between the two companies.

Google is now pushing back, attempting to lure customers with better ad-buying tools and more localized services. The revamped strategy mirrors initiatives that have succeeded in boosting the time Indian consumers spend with Google services.

The battle in India reflects an epic challenge for Google in developing markets around the world that are crucial to the company`s long-term growth - many consumers in those country`s are gravitating to Facebook and it`s siblings, Instagram and WhatsApp, at the expense of Google search and YouTube, and advertising dollars are quick to follow.

"Facebook is a far more user-friendly platform even though they haven`t created features specifically for Indian advertisers," said Vikas Chawla, who runs a small ad-buying agency in India.

Facebook ads, compared with those on Google search or YouTube, tend to transcend language barriers more easily because they rely more on visual elements, said Narayan Murthy Ivaturi, vice president at FreakOut Pte Ltd, a Singapore-headquartered digital marketing firm. Pinpointing younger consumers and rural populations is easier with Facebook and its Instagram app, he and other ad buyers said.

And Facebook is succeeding in India, which boasts the fastest-growing digital ad market of any major economy, despite internal turmoil and political controversy. It has been without a country head for the last year, and has faced a series of incidents in which rumors circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp have prompted mob violence.

Facebook and Google between them took 68 percent of India`s digital ad market last year, according to advertising buyer Magna. Media agency GroupM estimates digital advertising spending will grow 30 percent in India this year.

The Facebook phenomenon is evident close to home for Google. During a recent lunch period, six out of 10 people who walked out of Google`s Bangalore offices while looking at their phones told Reuters they were checking WhatsApp. All 10 said they regularly used Whatsapp.

Eight Indian ad buyers interviewed by Reuters were divided on whether Facebook would overtake Google in Indian ad revenue. That such a question would even be debated explains why Pichai, Google`s chief executive, has pressed to flip the company`s approach to emerging markets.

"India is the most important market for the `Next Billion Users` initiative," Caesar Sengupta, the head of the effort, told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual "Google for India" event in New Delhi last week.

NEW TACTICS

For many years Google designed its services for early adopters of new technology, who tended to be in Silicon Valley, said Nelson Mattos, who oversaw Google`s Europe and Africa operations for several years. Great products would then find a broad global audience.

"Over time, as you saw the growth of Facebook, the importance of WhatsApp and other tools in these new markets, and not the same adoption of Google, the company started to realize that maybe they had to change that approach," Mattos said.

Shortly after taking the helm three years ago, Pichai mapped a new strategy for places such as India: More services tailored to locals; more marketing on radio, billboards and TV; more local staff and start-up investment.

Google`s India workforce has more than doubled since to more than 4,000 employees, or about eight times Facebook`s presence, according to a tally of LinkedIn profiles and company statements.

Its products evolved too, becoming easier to use with low data plans. Smartphone apps such as Files Go and Tez - rebranded last week as Google Pay - were aimed at Indians.

"There`s definitely a sea change," said Asif Baki, a user researcher at Google who oversees two-week "immersion trips" in developing markets for senior executives and staff.

The efforts are bearing fruit. Indian users during the first half of this year spent more time on Google services than on Facebook services, according to estimates from audience measurement firm Comscore. Over a similar period a year ago, Facebook came out on top.

Extending those gains to the ad business is a work in progress. A handful of Google executives, including leaders for display ads and small business advertisers, traveled to India earlier this year in a previously unreported trip to better understand the needs of Indian clients.

The visit spurred them to consider ideas such as enabling advertisers to reach users only in a particular Indian state, since language and literacy vary greatly around the country, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

At the New Delhi event, Google unveiled a plan to bring Indian newspaper content online, to increase the supply of search results - and ads - available in regional languages.

Google still has to reckon with other issues. Small businesses in emerging markets are less likely to have websites, a foundation for Google ad campaigns but unnecessary for Facebook.

Executives met with one Indian merchant who recorded product videos on YouTube then messaged the links to potential customers on WhatsApp, said Kim Spalding, the company`s general manager and product lead for small business ads.

Facebook, meanwhile, is already on to commercializing such behavior. Just weeks ago, it began charging for text-based marketing features on WhatsApp, with video ads expected to launch next year.NEW DELHI: Indian airlines are expected to post combined losses of up to $1.9 billion this financial year led by full-service carriers like Air India and Jet Airways driven by rising costs and low air fares, aviation consulting firm CAPA India said.

The loss forecast for the 12 months ending March 31 is up from an estimated $430 million to $460 million sector-wide loss in January largely due to the depreciation of the rupee and a rise in oil prices, CAPA said in a report released on Monday evening.

Ticket prices have not risen to compensate for higher costs, and CAPA said with the exception of Interglobe Aviation Ltd`s IndiGo, none of the airlines have strong enough balance sheets to comfortably withstand higher costs and lower yields.

"Most carriers are ill-equipped to withstand cyclical downturns," CAPA said in the report. "Airlines have completely lost pricing power as a result of the rapid influx of capacity."

India is the fastest-growing domestic aviation market in the world and carriers have placed orders for hundreds of new Airbus SE and Boeing Co jets.

But airlines have struggled to stay profitable despite filling nearly 90 percent of seats and seeing a more than doubling of domestic passenger numbers over the last four years.

India is one of the cheapest domestic airline markets in the world and promotions such as $50 one-way tickets on the two-hour flight from Mumbai to Delhi are easy to find.

CAPA estimated Indian airlines, including money-losing state-owned Air India Ltd, need an additional $3 billion of capital in the near term to shore up their balance sheets.

The government in June said it had failed to attract bidders for a 76 percent stake in the national carrier, which is dependent on handouts to keep operating.

Jet Airways (India) Ltd last month reported a quarterly loss of 13.23 billion rupees ($185.79 million) and said it was seeking to cut costs, inject capital and monetise its frequent flyer programme.

Budget carrier IndiGo, the country`s largest airline, in July reported its lowest quarterly profit in three years, with earnings down 97 percent due to rising fuel costs and foreign exchange losses.NC hits out at kanchanpur officials over nirmala rape and murder

The opposition Nepali Congress has accused the Kanchanpur local administration of not taking the rape and murder of a teenage girl in the district seriously.Srinagar: Terrorists on Tuesday hurled grenade targetting Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said.

The incident took place in the Sangrama area of Sopore in the district.

The jawans belonged to troops of D/177Bn CRPF, a police official said. As many as four security personnel were injured in the incident.

The jawans have been admitted to the hospital for treatment. As per latest reports, the conditions of the jawans are stable.

The area has been cordoned off and a search launched to nab the attackers, he said.

The incident comes a day after a 26-year-old man died in the clashes between the protesters and the security forces in Pulwama district.

Fayaz Ahmad Wani, 26, was killed on Monday in firing by the security forces in Gusoo village during clashes with protesters and stone-pelting mobs.Slamming NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar, the Congress on Monday vehemently criticised Kumar for blaming former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan for the slowdown in country's economy and termed his comments "obnoxious and laughable".

Earlier on Monday, Kumar had said that Rajan's policies on non-performing assets (NPAs) led to the slowdown in the economy and not the government`s demonetisation drive.

Reacting to this, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala brushed aside NITI Aayog Vice Chairman`s remark and termed it "obnoxious and laughable".

"This is called blame game and shifting of the goal post. When UPA demitted power, NPAs were only 2 lakh 83 thousand crore which was controllable but now after 4 years of BJP rule, the NPAs are touching 12 lakh crore. Modi Government has itself given this data through a reply in parliament on 31st July 2018... Demonetisation disaster has led to a drop of 1.5 per cent in GDP causing a loss of two lakh twenty-five thousand crores," Surjewala added.

He also launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, "Only a handful industrialist friends of PM Modi is prospering and every other business is shutting down. Currency is falling, the economy is failing, exports are down and Foreign direct investment (FDI) is at the lowest level."

Holding a similar opinion, Congress MP Rajeev Gowda said, "Rajiv Kumar was also ahead in attacking Raghuram Rajan in his efforts in cleaning up the banking system. The NPAs were being identified by Raghuram Rajan and it is important to identify them. BJP has done a horrible job in not acting early enough and strong enough. Trying to pass the buck and blame on Rajan is just an absolute mistake and it has no credibility or factual basis."

Talking about the decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he said, "We had a global financial crisis in 2008 after that every country went through a slowdown. The Congress and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) did a tremendous job in helping to revive India`s economy."

"BJP government came into power at a time when they were able to benefit from the growth that was picking up again. However, there was two body blows to economic growth namely demonetisation and the bad implementation of the GST. These two essentially took away our two per cent of the GDP growth. Now we are slowly inching back to the growth rate that should have been a steady-regular growth rate through the last few years," he added.NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge yet again failed to attend the meeting of a high-powered committee for the selection of a Lokpal or an Ombudsman on Tuesday. This was the fifth time that the senior Congress leader refused to attend the crucial meeting.

Kharge said that he wouldn't do so until he gets the status of a full-fledged member instead of a 'Special Invitee'.

The senior Congress leader had written a letter  his fifth so far - to the Prime Minister in which he had requested the Centre to invite him to the Lokpal selection panel meet as a full-fledged member and not as a 'Special Invitee'.

"The government continues to invite me as a Special Invitee to the Selection Committee despite being aware of the fact that there is no provision under Section 4 of the Lokpal Act, 2013," he said in his letter sent on September 2.

Kharge had earlier written to the Prime Minister on February 28, April 10, July 18 and August 18 this year over the issue.

"Accepting this invitation to attend as a 'Special Invitee' without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting in the procedure would be violative of both the letter and spirit of the Lokpal Act," the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha said in his September 2 letter.

"I am, therefore, forced, once again to respectfully decline the invitation to attend the meeting of the Selection Committee untill the Leader of Single Largest Opposition party is conferred the status of a full-fledged member as envisioned in the Lokpal Act, 2013," he said.

Kharge said he was aware that the government was using the opportunity to spread a canard that the Opposition was not cooperating in implementing the Lokpal Act despite the fact that the government itself maintained that he was not a member of the selection committee.

"The very fact that the government was forced to act by the Supreme Court indicates the lack of seriousness and sincerity of the government in implementing the Lokpal Act," he added.

(With PTI inputs)Lucknow: The auspicious festival of Janmashtami was celebrated all across the nation with much fervour. While some celebrated the festival on September 2 this year, in some parts it is being celebrated on September 3.

In a bid to communal harmony, Hindus and Muslims in Agra together celebrated the festival, making preparations for the same. "We have been doing this since the last 15 years. We want India to be united just as the way we are. There are no barriers of caste and religion in celebrating festivals," a local resident, S Qureshi said.

Agra: Hindus & Muslims together make preparations for #Janmashtami celebrations. S.Qureshi, a local says, 'we've been doing this since last 15 years. We want India to be united just as the way we are. There are no barriers of caste & religion in celebrating festivals.' (03.09.18) pic.twitter.com/3dbyOyqtW4  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 3, 2018

In yet another instance, Muslims in Aligarh presented a tale of communal harmony as they made statues of Krishna and Radha on the occasion of Janmashtami. They said that it was not the first time the Muslim workers in Aligarh made those statues. It is an annual procedure for the Muslim workers in Aligarh to make Krishna's statue. They are well-crafted with the making of these brass statues and know how to polish them and which clothes to equip them with.

The occasion of Janmashtami marks the birth of Lord Krishna - the eight avatar of god Vishnu. It is known as Gokulashtami in several parts of the world. According to Hindu lunar calendar, it is observed on the eighth day (Ashtami) of the Krishna Paksha in the month of Shrawana or Sawan. It overlaps with August and September of the Gregorian calendar. The festival of Shri Krishna Janmashtami is followed by Nandotsav - celebrating the occasion when Nanda Baba distributed gifts to the community in honour of Krishna's birth.In a desperate attempt for rescue, the mother of a woman, allegedly trafficked to Oman on the pretext of a job, has sought the help of Minister of External Affairs Minister (MEA) Sushma Swaraj to rescue her daughter.

The woman, who hails from Hyderabad, is stranded in Oman and is being ill-treated by her employers, according to the family.

The family of the woman had filed a First Information Report (FIR) in August at the Amberpet police station of Hyderabad.

In his complaint, the husband of the victim Shaik Jhangeer said that he and his wife Parveen Begum met with a travel agent named Javeed for a job in Oman. Jhangeer alleged that Parveen, who left for Oman on February 21 to start her job, is forcibly made to work in many houses as a maid and is also being beaten by her employer. He also claimed that his wife is not receiving any payment in lieu of her services.

Speaking to ANI, Noorjahan Begum, the mother of the victim, said, "We were told by the agent that my daughter will be working in a hospital. After reaching there she informed us that she is being made to work in a home as a maid. The situation of my daughter was fine for the first three months, but after that, her employers started torturing her and she is now forced to work in multiple houses. She is also not given food and is requesting us for immediate rescue."

Noorjahan also said that her daughter`s health has become worse and no medical care is being provided to her in the foreign land. The family of the victim also asserted that the agent who helped the victim in getting the job is absconding.Mumbai: A study by a two-member team of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay has found the presence of microplastic in several table salt brands in the country.

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic usually measuring less than 5 millimetre in diameter formed by the product's gradual degradation in the environment, especially the sea.

The team from IIT-B's Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering found 626 microplastic particles in the tested samples. The study stated that 63 per cent of the microplastic particles was in the form of fragments and 37 per cent were fibres.

The study found that 63.76 micrograms (or 0.063 milligrams) of microplastic was found per kilogram of salt tested. It further revealed that Indians were consuming about 117 micrograms (0.117 milligrams) of microplastic annually if the average person has a daily salt intake of 5 grams.

The study, titled "Contamination of Indian Sea Salts with Microplastics and a Potential Prevention Strategy was co-authored by Professor Amritanshu Shriwastav and Chandan Krishna Seth of the CESE. It was published on August 25 in the Environmental Science and Pollution Research, an international peer-reviewed journal.

"India is among three largest producers of salt for domestic consumption as well as industrial purposes. Hence a study was needed and it has now backed the global discourse on rising presence of microplastics in our food chain," said Professor Shriwastav. "This is a comparatively recent development where scientists have started to find the presence of plastic. This is because there are no checks on how and what is being dumped into the sea," an IIT-B official said.

The official, however, added that there was no study available to link the increased consumption of microplastic to health related issues.

Professor Shriwastav claimed that around 85 per cent of microplastic, by weight, can be eliminated by employing the simple sand filtration technique.In a first, a Tejas fighter jet was refuelled mid-air by an Indian Air Force aircraft on Tuesday. According to a report in NDTV, it is major step that would ensure expansion of the range up to which the fighter jet can strike in combat situations.

As per the report, there was no actual transfer of fuel from the Indian Air Force II-78 tanker to the light combat aircraft. Several more tests need to be conducted to validate the capability of Tejas fighter jet, which is made in India. One of these tests would also include actual transfer of fuel.

The indigenous supersonic fourth-generation fighter has been inducted by the Indian Air Force into the No 45 Squadron 'The Flying Daggers', based at Sulur Air Force Station at Kangayampalayam in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had in late 2017 cleared the acquisition of 83 LCA Tejas Mk1A aircraft and the HAL has also ramped up the production of the jet from eight per year to 16.

The 83 Tejas Mk1A will come for Rs 50,000 crore and help the IAF which has been struggling with the depleting number of fighter squadrons.

India has also joined the select club of US, Europe, Russia and China having the capability of Deck Landing of fighter aircraft. The LCA Tejas Naval Prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by Captain Shivnath Dahiya safely executed the first contact of the arrestor hook system with Arresting wire at moderate taxi-in speeds on location at the Shore Based Test Facility, INS Hansa, Goa on August 2.NEW DELHI: The Congress and several other Opposition parties are planning to launch a nationwide agitation on the rising fuel prices and falling rupee in the days to come.

The Rahul Gandhi-led party also accused the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre of unleashing "economic terror on the nation."

According to sources, Congress general secretaries and its state unit chiefs will reportedly meet on September 6 to decide on the date of its nation-wide agitation on sky-rocketing fuel prices.

"In June 2008, the petrol price was raised from Rs 45.52 to Rs 50.52 and the price of diesel from Rs. 34.76 to 37.76 (during UPA government). That time the crude price was $138.54 per barrel. In July, 2008, the price of crude oil went up to $145 per barrel," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said while addressing a press conference here.

"When we increased the price of petrol by Rs 5 and that of diesel by Rs 3, a BJP spokesperson had charged UPA government with unleashing economic terror," he said. "Today, when the crude price is almost $70 per barrel and petrol price is Rs 78 per litre in Delhi, I want to ask the government if it is not economic terror", Tewari added.

"A nation-wide agitation on this will definitely take place. Considering the current crude oil prices, the petrol price should be about Rs 39 a litre and diesel Rs 37.50, including all taxes," he added.

"If fuel prices are not reduced, Congress will take to the streets to launch a nationwide agitation from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. A meeting was called today to plan the strategy," Tewari added.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party and Nishad Party workers, led by Gorakhpur MP Pravin Nishad, staged a protest demonstration against petrol and diesel price hike at the Padri Bazar crossing on Tuesday.

Carrying banners and posters, the protestors raised slogans against government policies and soaring petrol and diesel prices in the country.

Pravin Nishad, while addressing the people, said it has been four years but the government does not seem concerned about the problems being faced by the people.

Separately, the Odisha Congress on Tuesday lashed out at the BJP-led government at the Centre for sky-rocketing of fuel prices, while ruling BJD announced plan to launch a 3-day stir to protest hike in oil prices.

"Prices of petrol and diesel are sky-rocketing in the country and the common people are hit hard as the BJP-led NDA government is indifferent to their plight," Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik said in a statement.

Noting that prices of petrol and diesel have been rising everyday in an unusual manner, the OPCC chief took a dig at the BJP-led government for not including fuel within the purview of GST.

He said common people are hit hard due to fuel price hike as it is having a spiralling effect on the prices of essential commodities.

The OPCC chief also targeted the ruling BJD in Odisha accusing it of being dormant and lacking courage to raise its voice against the BJP.

The ruling BJD too came down heavily on the Centre for "unprecedented" fuel price increase and said the prices have gone beyond control as the NDA government "failed to take concrete steps to tackle the situation."In a remark that courted a huge controversy yet again, senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mandal was caught on camera allegedly giving instructions to his party workers to get a party rebel and a woman BJP leader arrested on a false case of possessing cannabis.

The Birbhum district president was presiding over a meeting in the Aushgram assembly constituency in neighbouring Burdwan East district on Sunday when the alleged video was shot.

"Arrest the man whom we have excluded from the five-member committee. Also, that woman, that plump one. What's her name? The one owning a garment shop, get her arrested too. She is a BJP worker. Can you control them? Tell me if you can control them, otherwise, we will arrest them in a cannabis case and put them behind bars," Mandal was purported heard instructing party workers in the video clip.

The video went viral on Sunday night and kicked up a political storm in the state with the opposition accusing the ruling TMC of using the police to settle the score with the opposition.

Under the anti-narcotics law, a minimum jail term of six months is awarded for possessing up to 1 kg of cannabis, while the punishment for possessing a larger quantity could lead to prison term of up to 20 years.

Mandal is the party's observer in three assembly constituencies -- Mangalkot, Ausgram and Ketugram -- in East Burdwan district.

State Agriculture Minister and TMC leader Ashis Bandopadhyay was also present in the meeting. The five-man committee, which was mentioned in the clip, is the one formed by the district TMC to look after the development work in the constituency.

Reacting to Mandal's threat, Sangita Chakraborty, a BJP leader in Aushgram, said the video clip proves how the TMC uses police to settle the score with political opponents.

"This is how political opponents are being put behind bars in the TMC regime. What do they mean by cannabis case? Does that mean all the cannabis cases against politicians of opponent parties are false and fabricated?" she questioned.

Speaking on the issue, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said he had not seen the video and so he could not comment on it.

The vice-president of the TMC's Birbhum district, Avijit Sinha, said the video had been "fabricated" to malign Mondal and the party.

"We feel that the video that has gone viral is a fabricated one. It has been done to malign the party," Sinha said.

Mandal had courted controversy in July 2013 when he asked his supporters at a public meeting in Birbhum to hurl bombs at the police and burn down houses of rebel TMC candidates in panchayat elections.

Ahead of the 2016 assembly election in the district, the Election Commission had taken note of Mandal's controversial comments and put him under 24-hour surveillance.

The BJP and the CPI(M) said the video was an example of how police were being used by the TMC to stifle dissent in the state.

"We have been saying this (using the police) for a long time and now this video has proved how police are being used to attack us. The people of the state will give a befitting reply," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.

CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty also expressed similar view and demanded that action be taken against Mandal.

The TMC had won all the 42 zilla parishad seats in Birbhum in the May rural polls in West Bengal without any contest.JAMMU: Former chief minister and People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday reiterated the demand for talks between Indian and Pakistan to end the bloodshed in her state Jammu and Kashmir.

''I appeal to our Prime Minister to hold dialogue with new Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and resume talks from where former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji had left, so that violence in the Valley can come to an end,''Mehbooba Mufti said.

I appeal to our Prime Minister to hold dialogue with new Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and resume talks from where Vajpayee Ji had left, so that violence in the valley can come to an end: Former #JammuAndKashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti in Rajouri pic.twitter.com/LOB1I5LFBg  ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018

The PDP leader made this remarks while speaking to reporters in J&K's Rajouri.

Mufti had sometimes back said that both the terrorists and security forces were victimising each others families which is highly condemnable and marks a new low in the situation of the state.

She said that the families shouldnt become the target of casualties and made to suffer for something they have little control over.

The statement by the former chief minister of the state came shortly after at least nine people, whose family members are working in the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Army, were kidnapped and later released by terrorists from Shopian, Kulgam, Anantnag and Awantipora in the state.

"Terrorists and forces victimising each others families is highly condemnable and marks a new low in our situation. Families shouldnt become casualties and made to suffer for something they have little control over," she said.

Hitting out at the ruling BJP, the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti had recently said that her party's alliance with the saffron party was like drinking poison. She said that she had suffered throughout the course of the coalition government in the state.

Referring to her late father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, the former J&K chief minister said that he chose to join hands with the saffron party for a second time because they had a good alliance during the reign of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"Mufti Sahab agreed to join hands with BJP again because we had a good alliance during Vajpayee ji reign. But this time, it was a difficult decision. Forming an alliance with BJP was like drinking poison. I suffered during the two years two months of the PDP-BJP alliance," Mehbooba Mufti said.

Mehbooba's government came under fire after BJP pulled out of the three-year-old ruling coalition with PDP and called for Governor's Rule in the state, forcing her to resign as the chief minister.

The BJP decided to pull out of the coalition government owing to the former's alleged soft posturing towards separatists and stone-pelters.

Mufti's party was also reportedly against the Centre's decision to revoke the temporary suspension of anti-terror operations announced during the holy month of Ramzan.Nepal Army yet to find consultant for DPR

One year since the laying of foundation for the Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway, Nepal Army, the developer of the project, is yet to select the consultant for preparing the detail project report, a prerequisite for building any infrastructure.Mumbai, Sep 3 (PTI) The Maharashtra police told a city court on Monday that former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar, arrested in the arms haul case, was in touch with an accused who is in custody of their Karnataka counterparts in connection with a high-profile murder case.

According to sources, the said accused is Amol Kale, arrested in connection with the killing of Gauri Lankesh, a Bengaluru-based journalist, in September last year.

Pangarkar and three other accused in the arms haul case -- Sharad Kalaskar, Vaibhav Raut, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar -- were produced before Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Padalkar after their police remand ended.

The fifth accused Avinash Pawar is in ATS custody till Tuesday.

They were arrested last month by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with the seizure of arms and ammunition from different parts of the state.

Seeking extension of Pangarkar's remand, the ATS told the court that it had received a report from the Karnataka police that his name was found in a diary seized from an accused who is in their custody in connection with a high-profile murder case.

The anti-terror agency told the court that Pangarkar was using two mobile phones. One of them had certain text messages which showed his connection with the man who is in custody of the Karnataka police.

The ATS added that it also needs to find out whether the Karnataka accused attended an arms training camp allegedly run by Pangarkar in Jalna, his home district in central Maharashtra.

The court extended Pangarkar's police custody till September 6. It sent Raut and Gondhalekar to 14-day judicial custody after the ATS said their police remand was not required.

It also granted the custody of Kalaskar to the CBI for probing his alleged role in the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in 2013.KOCHI: In the aftermath of the worst floods and landslides which claimed the lives of over 350 people and damaged property worth several thousand crores, the Kerala government has decided not to hold any official celebrations for one year.

News agency ANI claimed that the Kerala Government has decided to cancel all official celebrations for one year.

Programs including International Film Festival of Kerala and other youth festivals stand cancelled, it said.

Kerala Government has decided to cancel all official celebrations for one year. Programs including International Film Festival of Kerala and other youth festivals stand cancelled #KeralaFloods pic.twitter.com/r5aJGHYW8c  ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018

The Kerala government further announced that it won't host any function that involves huge sums of money for a year and instead divert the amount for flood relief.

The decision in this regard was taken following Kerala government's assessment of the worst floods which estimated a loss to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore to the state.

An order issued by the Kerala government said that no government department would host any festival for a year.

The funds earmarked for all such cancelled events would be diverted to the Chief Minister`s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF), it said.

Till Monday, the CMDRF fund had received Rs 1,036 crore.

Kerala Ministers are soon leaving to 14 countries to raise money from public contributions.

However, with water receding from most parts of rain-battered Kerala, the state is facing a challenge from different types of fever including leptospirosis which has claimed nine lives since August 29.

Two persons died of leptospirosis (rat fever) Monday, one each at Palakkad and Kozhikode, according to the Directorate of Health Services.

A total of 71 people tested positive for rat fever in various hospitals in the state while 123 people approached hospitals with suspected symptoms of the disease.

More than 13,800 people took treatment for various types of fever across the state Monday, officials said.

Eleven confirmed and 21 suspected cases of dengue were also reported in the state.

Talking to reporters after a meeting to review the fever-situation, Health Minister K K Shylaja said the government was ready with a plan to check the spread of different types of fever including leptospirosis.

People, who had engaged in cleaning operations in the flood-affected areas, have been asked to take preventive medicines for leptospirosis, she said.

Officials said rain-related incidents have claimed 488 lives since the onset of the south-west monsoon on May 28.

(With PTI inputs)At least one person got killed while over 25 others got injured as part of a 40-year-old bridge collapsed in Majerhat area of Kolkata in West Bengal on Tuesday afternoon. The rescue operation continued till last reports came in with fears of more people and vehicles being trapped under the debris of the collapsed bridge. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital.

The incident occurred at around 4.45 pm, following which fire tenders, ambulances and teams of NDRF and local police rushed to the spot. West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim also reached the spot soon after the information came in. He said that the priority was to conduct rescue operation to take those trapped out of the debris. Pointing that the bridge is 40-year-old, he added that a technical team would later look into the cause of the collapse.

West Bengal Chief Minister, who is in Darjeeling, said that though she wanted to head back to Kolkata immediately, but could not do so as flights were not operational after evening. She said that the governments focus was on relief and rescue operation.

We are very worried. We are receiving information from the rescue team on ground. We want to go back as soon as possible. There are no flights in the evening, we are unable to do so, said Mamata Banerjee.

Our team is focused on relief and rescue work. Our priority is relief and rescue. Rest of the investigation will be done later, she further said.

The bridge, which passes over the Majerhat railway station, is an important bridge in Kolkata connecting Behala to areas which lie on the other side of the Sealdah railway line.

Teams of NDRF and local police are conducting the rescue operation at the collapse site. The Indian Army clarified that its personnel have not been called in yet but since the area is very close, Army field hospital detachment has been sent.

The opposition, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), attacked the Mamata Banerjee government for not paying attention to bridges and flyovers which were in depleted condition. BJP leaders Babul Supriyo and Roopa Ganguly blamed the Trinamool Congress government for alleged laxity in management of flyovers and bridges in Kolkata.NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed grief over the Majerhat bridge collapse in South Kolkata in West Bengal in which several people were seriously injured and many vehicles crushed under the debris.

The PM also termed the incident as ''deeply unfortunate'' and said that his thoughts are with the kith and kin of the victims.

''The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest,'' the PM said in his condolence message.

The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 4, 2018

Meanwhile, the state's Governor, Keshari Nath Tripathi said, ''Bridge deserved better maintenance. There was a report on a pit here for quite some time, I don't know whether PWD noted it. PWD and Railway administration had the responsibility to maintain it. The matter requires investigation.''

The fully-functional bridge collapsed in Majerhat area of south Kolkata in West Bengal on Tuesday afternoon. Though initial reports said that at least five people had died in the incident, a Trinamool Congress minister said that there were no reports of any casualty. He, however, said that eight others got injured and were rushed to a nearby hospital.

West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim, who rushed to the spot soon after the bridge collapse, said that all those who were trapped have been rescued. He said that while there was no information about any casualty in the incident so far, the same cannot be confirmed so soon. Speaking to reporters, the minister said, "It was a 40-year-old bridge. As of now there has been no casualty, but search operations are underway, let us wait."

An eyewitness claimed that he managed to rescue one person, but he succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital.

The bridge reportedly collapsed at 4.45 pm. At least 10 fire tenders and ambulances were rushed to the spot. Many vehicles got trapped as the flyover collapsed.

According to eyewitnesses, several people on motorbikes also got trapped under the bridge. They said that electricity went off in the area as the bridge collapsed.

The entire area was cordoned off as the rescue operations began.

People were asked to vacate the area at the earliest as authorities feared that remaining part of the bridge could also collapse.

Fire brigade, police and NDRF personnel are engaged in rescue work in the fading light.

The Indian Army clarified that its personnel have not been called in yet but since the area is very close, Army field hospital detachment has been sent.

Reacting to the incident, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is currently in Darjeeling, said that she was very worried and wanted to rush back to Kolkata at the earliest.

"We are very worried. We are receiving information from the rescue team on the ground (Majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata). We want to go back as soon as possible. There are no flights in the evening, we are unable to do so," said Mamata Banerjee.

The bridge, which passes over the Majerhat railway station, is an important bridge in Kolkata connecting Behala to areas which lie on the other side of the Sealdah railway line.

More than two years ago, Kolkata's Vivekanand Flyover in Burra Bazar had collapsed resulting in the death of over 20 people while more than 60 others were injured. The flyover was under construction when two parts of the over 2.2-kilometre-long structure came crashing down in the congested market area on March 31, 2016.

Almost a 100-metre long section of Vivekanand Flyover had crashed trapping several pedestrians and vehicles under huge concrete slabs and metal.A bridge in Majerhat area of south Kolkata collapsed on Tuesday afternoon leaving several trapped under the debris. At least five people are feared dead in the mishap. Along with rescue teams, locals also rushed to the rescue of those trapped and tried to pull the people out of the rubble.

What we know so far:

- The Majerhat bridge collapsed on Tuesday at about 4:45 pm. At least 10 fire tenders and ambulances have been rushed to the spot. Many vehicles have been trapped under the rubble.

- West Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim said that there are no reports of casualties as of. However, eyewitnesses claim that at least five people have been killed and 10 are trapped. "It was a 40-year-old bridge. As of now there has been no casualty, but search operations are underway, let us wait. All those who were trapped have been rescued," Hakim said.

- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is currently in Darjeeling said that the top priority of the officials is to rescue the people. "We are very worried. We are receiving information from the rescue team on ground (Majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata). We want to go back as soon as possible. There are no flights in the evening, we are unable to do so. Our team is focused on relief and rescue work. Our priority is relief and rescue. Rest of the investigation will be done later," Mamata Banerjee said.

- Union Minister Babul Supriyo claimed that despite earlier warnings regarding the flyover being risky, the authorities did not take any action to prevent the tragedy.

- Circular Railway services have been stopped after the bridge collapse. EMU local train services were suspended. However, train services in the Sealdah-Budge Budge section, which also passes under the bridge, was not affected.Darjeeling/ Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is in Darjeeling, expressed her deep anguish over the Majerhat flyover collapse in Kolkata while directing the state machinery to carry out the relief and rescue work on priority. She added that there were no deaths have been reported till now while eight people were injured in the tragedy.

"We are very worried. We are receiving information from the rescue team on the ground. We want to go back as soon as possible. There are no flights in the evening, we are unable to do so. Our team is focused on relief and rescue work. Our priority is relief and rescue. Rest of the investigation will be done later," said Mamata in Darjeeling.

A section of the Majerhat flyover collapsed at around 4:45 pm on Tuesday trapping several people and vehicles under the heavy concrete slabs. Several cars and a bus were on the section of the flyover which collapsed.

Some eyewitnesses claimed that at least five people have been reportedly killed in the collapse. One eyewitness told Zee News that he along with others managed to pull out one person from the debris, but the person succumbed to his injuries on way to the hospital.

The area has been cordoned off as the rescue operations began. People were asked to vacate the area at the earliest as authorities feared that remaining part of the flyover could also collapse. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), local police and fire brigade officials are conducting the rescue operation at the collapse site.

The Indian Army refuted reports that its units have been called in for relief and rescue efforts. "Army has not been called in but since the area is very close, Army field hospital detachment has been sent," Indian Army said in a statement.

The flyover, which passes over the Majerhat railway station, is an important bridge in Kolkata connecting Behala to areas which lie on the other side of the Sealdah railway line.

Mamata had reached Darjeeling on a three-day tour on Monday (September 3, 2018).Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh police have stepped up security across the state in view of the ongoing protests against the amendments in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Nearly 35 organizations have called for a 'Bharat bandh' against the SC/ST Amendment Bill passed in the Parliament last month.

The administration has imposed prohibitive orders under CrPC in four districts- Morena, Shivpuri and Bhind, all three in Gwalior-Chambal region, as well as in Ashok Nagar district in view of the proposed bandh.

Gwalior-Chambal region, one of the sensitive areas, had witnessed a large-scale violence on April 2 this year during the 'bharat bandh' called by Dalit groups.

Makrand Deuskar, Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) told reporters today, "Police headquarters have alerted all the superintendents of police in view of proposed bandh on September 6."

Police have been directed to contact the groups holding protests&do arrangements as per scheduled program. If needed, police can also carry out restrictive proceedings: Makrand Deuskar, IG Law&Order on Bharat Bandh called against amendments of SC/ST Act on Sept 6. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/3UBbkVe50S  ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018

He said the police force allotted to the districts on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami yesterday, would continue to remain deployed.

Madhya Pradesh has witnessed protests against the ruling party leaders at various places in the past few days.

"In view of proposed Bharat Bandh on September 6, the prohibitive orders under CrPC section 144 have been imposed in the district," Bhind District Collector Ashish Gupta said in a press note.

"It is necessary to impose section 144 this time as the law and order situation in the district was disturbed on April 2 this year when some organisations had given the call of 'Bharat bandh'," he said.

The collectors in Shivpuri and Morena districts have also imposed prohibitive orders under CrPC section 144.

Brahma Samagam Sawarna Jankalyan Sangathan's national president Dharmendra Sharma said that about 150 organisations of upper castes and OBCs would participate in the Bharat bandh against the amendments in SC/ST Act.

"We will protest peacefully on September 6. Through this protest, we will demand withdrawal of this black law. All the sections except SC/ST are affected due to this amendment. We will also write letters to all MPs of the country," Sharma said.

Former Union Minister and senior BJP OBC leader Prahlad Patel expressed his displasure over the protests.

"The role of people from the OBC community has become all the more important in this scenario. For centuries, the OBCs have been acted as a bridge between upper castes and scheduled castes and they will continue to play this role actively in future," he said.

Protests have been going on against the amendments in SC/ST Bill in parts of the state since the past one week.

The protesters staged a demonstration outside the bungalows of Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar at Gwalior and Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagirath Prasad at Bhind.

The protesters also staged a demonstration at Higher Education Minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya's bungalow at Gwalior.

The protesters also showed black flags to Union ministers Thawar Chand Gehlot and M J Akbar at Guna and Vidisha respectively. Several other protests were also organised across the state.

Earlier this year, the apex court had removed the strict provision of mandatory arrests under the Act.

This decision had triggered nationwide protests by Scheduled Castes organisations, forcing the Centre to bring an amendment to the Act during the Monsoon Session to overrule the SC order.MUMBAI: In a big embarrassment for the ruling BJP in Maharashtra, one of its lawmakers on Tuesday courted a controversy by saying that he will kidnap a girl even if she refuses a proposal from a boy and help him elope with her.

The controversial comments were made by BJP MLA Ram Kadam, who came under severe attack from ally Shiv Sena and other parties.

Kadam had made the controversial remarks at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency in Mumbai on Monday night.

"You (youngsters) can meet me for any work," he had told a huge gathering of youngsters there.

A video clip of the event later surfaced in which Kadam can be seen saying that he was flooded with requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their proposal.

"I will help, 100 percent. Come (to me) with your parents. What will I do if parents approve? I will kidnap the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he told the crowd in Marathi.

Whenever you need me, call me. Say you've proposed a girl & she isn't ready&you need help. It'll be wrong but I'll help. What will I do? I'll go&talk to your parents, &if they say they like the girl, we'll help you elope: BJP MLA Ram Kadam during Dahi Handi celebrations yesterday pic.twitter.com/y0W6hITdxg  ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018

Kadam also reportedly shared his mobile number with the crowd.

However, when quizzed about his controversial statement, Kadam said that his remarks were distorted.

''If there was something objectionable, there were several journalists and they would've paid attention. They didn't because they heard entire speech and not just a small video. Opposition leaders are making a 40-second clip viral on Twitter. That's creating a wrong impression,'' Kadam'said.

If there was something objectionable, there were several journalists & they would've paid attention. They didn't because they heard entire speech & not just a small video. Opposition leaders are making a 40-second clip viral on Twitter. That's creating a wrong impression: R Kadam pic.twitter.com/4VdpJlCEaY  ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018

''I said that every youth, whether it's a boy or a girl, should marry after taking their parents into confidence. After saying this, I took a long pause and from the audience said something. I repeated that on mike and after that also, I spoke some more,''Kadam told ANI.

Demanding an apology from the MLA, the Shiv Sena asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state's home minister, what action would be taken against Kadam for making a statement that "threatens the safety of girls".

The Congress also called for Kadam's arrest, while the NCP that said his comments exposed "Ravana-like" face of the ruling party.

Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray took to Twitter to slam the MLA offering to marry off girls "against their will".

"Ashamed and disgraced that he sits in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra- a land of culture & women liberty," he tweeted.

One BJP MLA has offered from a stage to help boys kidnap girls and marry them even against the will of the girls. I guess he believes marriage is like forming a govt. Ashamed and disgraced that he sits in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra- a land of culture & women liberty  Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) September 4, 2018

Not just an outright apology from him, but Id want to know from the Home Minister of Maharashtra what action will be taken for openly making such statements that threaten the safety of girls and offering safety to those wanting to kidnap them.  Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) September 4, 2018

"Not just an outright apology from him, but I'd want to know from the Home Minister of Maharashtra what action will be taken for openly making such statements that threaten the safety of girls and offering safety to those wanting to kidnap them," he added.

Opposition Leader in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said Kadam's remarks were unfortunate and condemnable. "The state government should immediately arrest him," he said.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said, "Cases should be filed against Kadam if a girl is kidnapped in Maharashtra as the MLA himself is encouraging their kidnapping."

"He should apologise. I am sure women members of the Assembly will pose questions to him," Patil said.

State NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Kadam was speaking the language of abducting girls.

(With PTI Inputs)New Delhi: Season twelve of the controversial reality show Bigg Boss is all set to hit the television screens this September. And the reality show has already got its first set of participants!

According to an Ians report, comedienne Bharti Singh will participate in Bigg Boss 12 with her husband Harsh Limbachiyaa. She says she doesn't want to be labelled as "jhagra" queen and hopes people vote in bulk for the couple.

However, this is not the first time the couple will be seen in a reality show. Earlier they had participated together in dance reality show "Nach Baliye" and have completed the shoot for the next season of stunt-based show Khatron Ke Khiladi. The audience will get to see them together again in Bigg Boss 12, which will be hosted by the superstar Salman Khan.

"I am scared of 'weekend ka war' when Salman scolds people after removing his coat," Harsh said at Villa Marina, Coco Beach Nerul, Goa, on Monday, as reported by IANS.

"People call me a comedy queen. I don't want to be 'jhagra' queen. Even if he (Harsh) gets out in the first week, it's okay but I want to stay till the end. And please meet me every week," Bharti was quoted as saying by the news agency.

The 12th edition of the show will premiere on Colors on September 16, this time with a different twist!

(With inputs from IANS)Lucknow: A Class 11 student was shot dead by bike-borne assailants in Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh when he was on way to school on Tuesday morning, police said.

The gunmen first stopped him. Before the teenager could understand what was happening, he was shot from close range on the temple.

The deceased has been identified as Priyanshu, a student of the National Inter College at Kandhla. He was shot near the Hindu Inter College.

As a crowd gathered at the crime scene, the assailants sped away but dropped their country-made murder weapon.

The student was rushed to a private medical facility where doctors pronounced him dead.

The police are probing what led to the murder.

Nepals reputation, ability have increased after BIMSTEC summit: PM Oli

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that Nepals prestige and capacity have increased after organising the 4th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).TORONTO: A Canadian waitress has decided to sue her former employer for changing the dress code and asking her to wear a bra at work.

According to Daily Mail, 25-year-old Christine Schell was recently fired from her job after she refused to comply with the change in dress code which meant that she had to wear a bra to work.

Schell had stopped wearing a bra three years ago for comfort and health reasons.

Schell began her job as a waitress at Greenside Grill in the Osoyoos Golf Club in May this year.

However, her habit of not wearing a bra started making the customers coming to the club highly uncomfortable and they complained to the owners about her being braless.

This led to the introduction of a new dress code, which stated that women must wear either a tank top or bra under their uniform shirt.

When she refused to comply, she was fired from the job.

She later chose to contest the case in a court of law and filed a plea before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

She claimed that the men didnt have the same restrictions on their dress code.

Its gender-based and thats why its a human rights issue, she said.

I have nipples and so do the men and it doesnt affect anybodys ability to do their job, she added.

The tribunal is yet to decide on her human rights complaint and ascertain if wearing a bra was a justifiable work requirement.

It doesnt affect anybodys ability to do their job, she said.

A similar case was reported last year when a 22-year-old barmaid Kate Hannah took to social media to write a strongly worded post after being sacked for not wearing a bra for her pub job.LONDON: A fire broke out in a primary school in London`s Dagenham and 12 fire engines and around 80 fire fighters are trying to douse the flames, London Fire Brigade said early on Tuesday.

No injuries have been reported so far in the fire that broke out on Hewett Road.Open source

Facebook scandals have become part of Ukrainian everyday life, as well as terrible dreams of companies and their PR stuff. During the last half-year at least three well-known Ukrainian companies became involved in a conflict situation with their buyers and could not get out of it, without losing face. At least two companies tried to get a piece of glory on the background of the arrival of public figures in Ukraine. And this is not counting Facebook itself, which several times fell into the hands of the authorities because of the leakage of user data or their illegal collection.

Social media are a powerful tool. With their help, you can achieve justice, attract attention to your business or the death of the competitors. However, this weapon might not work or even turn against someone who has violated the invisible rules of defending his reputation in the network.

David vs. Goliath

What happened: a conflict between the Citrus store and the customer, it occurred in March this year. The client wanted to repair her iPhone, it was recognized as non-repairable, and then sold on the black market. The new owner began to aggressively demand from the girl her iCloud password, threatening to send her personal photos to her contacts. The victim's brother wrote about the situation on Facebook, tagged several major Ukrainian media. Citrus initially refused to accept responsibility for an authorized service center employee. Non-recognition of responsibility has drawn great attention to the press, regular mentions, and detailed analysis in a negative context.

GoodWine client complained that his pregnant wife was refused to make coffee for her taste, and after one and a half years one of the directors in social networks hinted that the inscription on socks "Makes me mad" is dedicated to her. This case did not become so resonant but nevertheless was discussed in professional circles.

How it works: Confrontation between a small person with a big "evil" cannot end well for the latter since public opinion would always protect a small person, Vira Chernysh, international marketing consultant, explains.

How Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich

What happened: One of the clients of the Stylus store complained that he had purchased the stolen goods in the store. The support service did not pay attention to the issue, and the victim turned to the store owner at one of the business events. The conflict between the owner and the client began at the stage of an absentee discussion, and during the direct contact, it turned into fabricated accusations from the client and the use of physical force by the director.

How it works: The store owner did not refuse to publicly discuss the problem and did not hide that in a fit of anger he somehow crossed the line. This partially reduced the degree of the scandal. Unlike the first example, the reputation of the client was not so ideal (escalation of the conflict and verbal aggression, which provoked even more brutal responses). Both participants (and not just the one accused initially) have lost their identity during the conflict, and the client has lost the chance for the sympathy of the audience and identification with the victim.

Taking advantage of someone else's glory

What happened: After the concert of Massive Attack (according to one theory, the vocalist of the group Robert Del Nye is Banksy, an English underground artist), two Banksy graffiti appeared in Kyiv. On the one hand, the presence of two graffiti eloquently hinted that neither of them is original. On the other hand, there was a polemic between two groups of authors about which of them is a real graffiti.

The first to claim authorship was the Underdog agency, which installed a tablet with its own manifestos near the images. The agency explained that they were the first to apply graffiti, and the competitors "decided not to notice this fact," trying to take advantage of it. Then the team attributed the authorship of all the works to themselves.

The activity of Underdog caused the second group of authors to come to the light too. It turned out that the second work belongs to the Yabloko ideas studio agency. The purpose of the Underdog was self-promotion, the goal of Yabloko ideas studio was the promotion of "TOKA" electric stations (the name of the company appeared in media publications).

Public skirmish on Facebook has become viral. The Underdog blog says that during the week the campaign received 150 publications in the media (not only in Ukrainian but also in international) and more than 5 600 000 coverage.

How it works: Initially, both companies have chosen as an information guide an event that will attract mass interest and with a high probability of getting into the media. However, the spontaneous turn of events (the presence of not one, but two graffiti) has leveled the value of the information guide itself, but the interest in the situation was doubly heated.

Read the original text at 112.ua.The illegal armed groups shelled positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of Krymske, Shumy, and Vodiane

Open source

During the day on Monday, since 7 a.m. till 6 p.m., militants in Donbas violated ceasefire regime three times, none of the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine injured. The press office of the JFO HQ reported this on Facebook.

The rival carried out aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms. The enemy didnt use the prohibited by the Minsk Agreements weapons, reads the message.

During the day, the Ukrainian positions were shelled in the areas of the settlements: Krymske, Shumy, and Vodiane.

In case of a threat to the life of servicemen, commanders adopted a decision to implement the firepower effect. No casualties among the military personnel of the Joint Forces during the shelling reported. The situation in the area of the Joint Forces Operation remains under control, reads the message.

Reportedly, during the previous day, on September 2, the illegal armed groups of Russian militants attacked Ukrainian positions in Donbas 16 times. Eight Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in combat; half of them only got minor injuries.On September 4, the enemy attacked at our positions six times

Open source

Militants performed 20 attacks over past 24 hours on September 3, two Ukrainian soldiers sustained injuries as a result. This was reported on the Joint Forces Operation HQ Facebook page.

The occupants opened fire at our positions 20 times. The enemy did not use Minsk-banned weapons, the message says.

The militants applied grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms shooting near Krymske, Myronivskyi, Zaitseve, Shumy, Opytne, Pisky, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Vodyane and Lebedynske.

Today, two soldiers were injured. The enemy lost two militants, two more were wounded.

On September 4, the enemy attacked at our positions six times. In Donetsk sector  from heavy machine guns and small arms near Krasnohorivka, in Mariupol sector  from heavy machine guns near Hnutove, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne.

No casualties reported.

Related video:There's a chance that fights in the combat area will cease, as long as UN peacekeepers' mission does not include Russian representatives, - Ukraine's defense ministry

Since the beginning of the year, some 80 Ukrainian soldiers deceased and over 560 were wounded in Donbas combat zone. Lieutenant General Anatoliy Petrenko said that as quoted by the press service of Ukraine's defense ministry.

He added that the peacekeeping operation in support of Minsk agreements is absolutely logical initiative because people keep dying in Donbas.

'Minsk agreements were signed in 2014-2015. We still observe the use of large caliber weaponry and drones, the mining of territories, and people die because of the mines. The civilian infrastructure gets destroyed, Russian troops stay on our territory. It's all neglected...', he said.

According to him, the stable ceasefire and troops withdrawal may be reached through the enforcement of the international component of pressure on Russia. The official added that all provision of Minsk agreement, including the holding of the fair local elections, economic and humanitarian restoration of Donbas, can be implemented through peacekeeping operation under the aegis of the UN. 'But there's an important condition: there should be no Russians in the peacekeeping mission; there should be no Russian military in Donbas', he stressed.No casualties among the Ukrainian ranks on September 4 reported

Open source

The militants have reinforced their front lines with mortars and artillery and increased the number of the attacks over the past 24 hours on September 3, as Dmytro Hutsulyak, the Spokesperson of the Defence Ministry, said, 112.ua reports.

In total, on September 3, the enemy conducted 20 adjusted fires.

In Luhansk sector Russian occupation troops performed five firing provocations near Krymske, Shumy, Zaitseve and Myronivskiy.

The enemy shot 15 times at our positions near Vodyane, Pavlopil, Pisky, Lebedynske, Opytne and Hnutove in Donetsk sector.

As a result, two Ukrainian soldiers were injured. They were taken to the hospitals. Their health condition is satisfactory.

From the beginning of the day, six adjusted attacks were recorded. All of them were performed in Donetsk sector. The occupants were firing at the positions of the Armed Forces from heavy machine guns near Hnutove, Krasnohorivka, Shyrokyne and Lebedynske.

No casualties among the Ukrainian ranks reported.

Moreover, according to the Central Intelligence Department of Ukraines Defence Ministry, the Command of the Russian occupation troops enhanced the fighting capacity of the frontline units due to the murder of Alexander Zakharchenko, the Head of the so-called DNR.

In particular, the mortar and artillery batteries of the enemy took up combat positions, which were prepared earlier, at night and carried out drills on firing control. Moreover, the occupants additionally mined the areas, sniper units took positions along the demarcation line, Hutsulyak said.

Additionally, the Russian leadership of the frontline troops is imposing information about the alleged preparation of the Armed Forces to the intensified fighting.

Related video:World-class businessmen and economists, investors and visionaries will gather in Kyiv on October 18-19, 2018 for one of Ukraine's key business events  Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF).

The main theme of this year's KIEF will be the future in the hi-tech world. Therefore, in addition to traditional discussions about the development of economy, industry, financial system and education, much of the Forum will be devoted to the latest technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotization, blockchain, and their impact on business and society. Implemented hi-tech projects will also be in the focus of the Forum: an exhibition zone of over 1,000 square meters will be arranged there.

In addition, KIEF participants are expected to discuss the issues of the development of economy, industry, financial system and education. Among the themes of panel discussions are the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, fair play on global markets, development of exports from raw materials to value added products, strategies for inclusive growth, the future of agribusiness, and so on.

"The Forum's strategy is to bring together business leaders, authorities, society and international expert community within one communication platform to determine the most effective way of Ukraine's development and challenges on this way. And this approach is working well  KIEF has been proving it for the fifth consecutive year," said Yuriy Pyvovarov, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Kyiv International Economic Forum.

As part of the preparation for KIEF 2018, a series of business events will be held. The first of these, held on March 1 this year, was a public talk with the founder of UFuture and K.Fund Vasyl Khmelnytsky. And on March 30, KIEF together with the Ukrainian Association of the Club of Rome organized a conference of scientific youth "Economic Future of Ukraine" that united the energy of talented Ukrainian youth around the ideas of balanced and socially oriented economic development.

About KIEF

During the first KIEF, held in 2014, the contours of structural reforms needed for Ukraines economic breakthrough were outlined. Within KIEF-2015, experts offered the most effective tools for this breakthrough. The main conclusion was the advice not to give Ukraine's economy at the mercy of the free market, and specifically to manage it via the government-business-society triangle. 2016 Forum was dedicated to strategic issues: how to attract investments to Ukraine and how to become part of a global process of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

To participate in the fourth Forum, which in October 2017 brought together 113 speakers from 30 countries, 210 media representatives and more than 1,200 visitors, numerous delegations of potential investors visited Kyiv to learn about business opportunities in Ukraine. Thus, the Forum is working to improve the reputation of the country, and many entrepreneurs find partners, clients and new contacts for business development during the KIEF.

Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF) is a permanently operating venue for shaping the strategy of economic development of Ukraine. It is aimed at setting up a dialogue between experts, businesses and government, using the best international practices, creating a road map for the development and promoting the conversion of ideas into real action.The Head of Ukrzaliznytsia noted that at the moment, mostly coal and construction materials are taken from Russia to Ukraine

The transit traffic between Russia and Ukraine has decreased more than five times since 2012. Yevhen Kravtsov, the acting Head of Ukrzaliznytsia claimed this as Novoe Vremia reported.

The export-import operation allowed from and to Russia decreased few times since the beginning of the combat actions. If we talk about the transit traffic, it decreased more than five times since 2012, he said, adding that mostly coal and construction materials are taken from Russia.

At the same time, the head of the Ukrainian railways noted that the loss of the transit for Ukrzaliznytsia is a minus as such traffic gives more income than the inner one.

Mainly, the cost of the transit traffic is four times more expensive than the inner, Kravtsov added.

As for today, we have the communication with Russia but the passenger flow decreases year by year. The loss of the transit, not only from Russia but also from the Central Asia due to the restrictions imposed by Russia and other directions is the significant and serious economic issue for the uninterrupted work of Ukrzaliznytsia. The funds not received from the transit should be received from the inner market. So, we need to raise the tariffs at the inner market, he said.

Earlier, Omelyan stated that the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine intended to stop passenger railway traffic from/to Russia, yet, the cancellation of cargo transportation was not considered.

As it was reported the issue of the termination of the railway traffic with the Russian Federation is on the agenda, however, it should be supported by the Council of the National Security and Defense and the Cabinet of Ministers.

Also, Omelyan claimed he signed a "historical document" concerning the restriction of the traffic with Russia.

In its turn, the Transport Ministry of Russia has worked out the parcel of the responsive measure in the case Ukraine cancels the railway and bus traffic with Russia.

Related video:Over 60 percent of PMs orders unheeded

More than 60 percent of Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis instructions to repair the roads in Kathmandu are found to have gone unheeded.Open source

After 4 years of heading the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, on August 31 its "leader" Alexander Zakharchenko was killed as a result of an explosion near the cafe "Separ".



This death immediately raised two questions:from which side did the death of the main "militant" come and what will it change in the part of Donbas not controlled by Ukraine.



As the practice of recent years shows, it seems that some evil fate or somebody's evil will reigns around people associated with the occupation of Crimea or the creation of "People's Republics" in Donbas. So, we observed the murders of the field commanders Dremov, Motorola, Givi and the founder of the Oplot organization Yevgeny Zhilin; deaths of the founder and the first head of LNR Valery Bolotov, the parents of the second head of the LNR Igor Plotnitsky (they were poisoned by mushrooms), and the death of the Russias permanent representative in the UN, Vitaly Churkin.



This trend demonstrates that the post of head of the "Donetsk People's Republic" means if not the execution, but at least extreme danger. In this situation, it was difficult to predict from which side the struck came.



DNR head was killed after the explosion in the cafe "Separ", his favorite vacation spot, which belonged to one of the "DNR parliament deputies," who had previously been the guard of the head of the separatists.



Less than an hour after the explosion, at the "official" level they reported the death of Alexander Zakharchenko and the severe wounding of another odious leader - Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Taxes and Duties of the DNR Alexander Timofeev.



The guilty persons were found with astonishing speed, a statement was made that the saboteurs were detained, and the organizer of the attempt is Ukraine. The latter statement was also supported in the Russian Foreign Ministry, which representative Maria Zakharova stated that "there is every reason to believe that the murder is made the Kyiv regime, which has repeatedly used similar methods to eliminate dissenters and dislikers."



Ukraine made another assumption: the Security Service, through the press secretary Olena Gitlianska, rejected its involvement, naming problems inside the DNR the main reasons. A number of experts directly blamed the Kremlin for the murder. In general, there are enough grounds for such a statement:



1) According to the official version, the security guard of Zakharchenko, who most likely laid the explosives, escaped from the scene of the assassination attempt. According to other sources, three guards disappeared from the personal guard. To recruit so many traitors seems a difficult task for the SBU, it is much easier for local criminal elements.



2) Since the beginning of the summer, Zakharchenko and his right hand Alexander Timofeev have been subjected to considerable criticism; there have been numerous talks about plans to replace the "head of the republic." That is, in Russia they were clearly dissatisfied with such candidatures.



3) The problem of changing power could be solved in several ways - from a quiet resignation due to health reasons to a forcible shift of power, as it was in Luhansk. The first option was the most acceptable, although not everyone would have believed in it. But the variant with heroic death had an indisputable advantage: it was possible, having accused Ukraine, to give a heroic halo to the "resignation" of Zakharchenko, who had previously been accused of bringing the uncontrolled part of Donbas to impoverishment.



4) The coincidence was suspiciously successful, in which both odious leaders, who were attacked by the criticism in the summer, were in one place and were eliminated.



However, like in many other murders, there are many versions of its consequences. They can be divided conditionally into bad, good and neutral.



The conventionally bad consequences include the intensification of military operations on the front line, caused both by a certain desire to avenge the death of Zakharchenko, and, in the opinion of the Russian Federation, the desire of Ukraine to terminate the Minsk agreements.



Indirect confirmation of a bad scenario was the introduction of a state of emergency in the "DNR", the closing of "borders" of the "DNR" with the Russian Federation, the "LNR" and Ukraine, the plan "Interception" to search for murderers. Finally, the movement of military equipment, recorded after the murder.



The good consequences of Alexander Zakharchenko's death for Ukraine could be linked to his successor.

In self-proclaimed "DNR" surprisingly quickly - in just 3 hours and in accordance with the "legislation of the republic"  was decided the question of the successor. According to Article 62 of the "Constitution of the People's Republic ", in the event of early termination of the powers of the "head of the People's Democratic Republic", they are temporarily executed by "the first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk People's Republic." As a result of Alexander Timofeev's wounding, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Trapeznikov became the head. The latter is a non-public person, and therefore not as odious as Alexander Zakharchenko, although in the republic he also has a very bad reputation.

Of course, there can be no question of the return of uncontrolled territories. According to experts, the option of entering peacekeepers is more likely, as they have been saying since August 2017, and then - the gradual integration of "people's republics" into Ukraine.



For the latter, it was not at all necessary to deal so radically with the head of DNR, since his position on the issue of entering peacekeepers completely coincided with the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin: a negative reaction in 2015, up to the threat of starting military operations against peacekeepers, and agreement with their introduction on the terms of the Russian Federation in the fall of 2017.



In fact, good or bad scenarios depend only on one thing: whether the leaders of Ukraine and Russia agreed on key issues relating to Donbas, for example, about the special status, that is, the broad autonomy of the now uncontrolled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions upon their return to Ukraine. It is hardly worth doubting that the Russian Federation, which did not include it and did not recognize LDNR as an independent state for 4 years, eventually plans to return Donbas to Ukraine on its own terms or continue to support the self-proclaimed "people's republics" until it achieved a satisfying Kremlin result.



Judging by the fact that for the "DNR" it took only 3 hours to approve the new temporary head of the "republic", all actions of the local elite are still absolutely under the control of the Kremlin and it is up to it to choose the future scenario.



However, there are no preconditions yet to expect anything too good or too bad from the death of Alexander Zakharchenko, because a little time has passed.



In a word, so far we have a third version of the consequences of this assassination - neutral. According to it, the parties can choose: either to begin the return of Donbas to Ukraine, or to start military operations (they, however, unlikely could change anything globally), or leave it as it is.



It seems that the preservation of the status quo is most siutable now due to the absence of any serious signals to change the situation for better or worse.Speaking about the reasons for the current economic "infirmity," people tend to name anything they want, but not the labor migration. Although not all officials in our country suffer from a kind of episodic myopia. Thus, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in its report calls strengthening of labor migration the key risk for the countrys future economic growth. According to the analysts, this factor is conspicuous like genitals on ones forehead. If even external conditions for our export goods are favorable in the near future (international prices for metals, grain, ore), and inflow of external and domestic investments into the real sector would begin, the development would not be rapid. Even now, even the average start-ups in the sphere of industry and engineering in Ukraine are facing a colossal problem of shortage of personnel, especially in the technical and engineering segments. Sudden resuscitation of large-scale productions in the east and south of the country, as well as the entry of large Western corporations to Ukraine, are not real at all because of the total deficit of workers.

But the central bank of Poland has called labor migration from Ukraine a key factor in the current high rates of Polands economic growth. It was thanks to the influx of fresh Ukrainian migrants that the current pro-government party in Warsaw even managed to take an unprecedented step to abolish the decision of the "predecessors" regarding raising the pension age for the Poles. This happened due to the fact that part of the Polish labor migrants, who left for the countries of Western Europe, was replaced by an influx of migrants from Ukraine.

Today the Poles are shooting shows about Ukrainian guest workers a la "Girls from Lviv" and some social videos, in one of which the Ukrainian housekeeper helps a local idler solve the math problem, recalling her higher education. Although, of course, not everything is so rosy, and the idea that without the Ukrainians the Polish economic miracle would never have taken place is paralleled with quite opposite thoughts.

Although our political elites do not worry about this kind of segregation. They are more busy counting the transfers that come to Ukraine from the "labor migrants." Last year, the NBU has counted $ 9 billion. With this money, native financial-industrial groups have deployed both residential construction and new shopping centers. Everyone wants to get at least a small slice from this big cake. Polish banks have launched whole marketing programs in the hope of working with this resource. According to the Polish media, citizens of Ukraine for the third consecutive year are becoming leaders in the purchase of housing among foreign buyers. In 2017, Ukrainians have purchased 70,000 square meters in Poland, which is 16% more than a year earlier. Total purchases of housing by foreigners in Poland amounted to 264 thousand square meters (an increase of 6%). Hence follows a simple conclusion: every fourth apartment in Poland, bought by foreigners, belongs to people from our country. Germans are in the second place, the third belongs to the British men. French and Belarusians have also entered the top five.

And what do our statistics say? According to various estimates, between 2 and 6 million people work abroad. The current government is shying away from the population census. The most objective data say about 2.7 million permanent migrant workers.

In recent years, the number of the able-bodied population of Ukraine has decreased from 20.9 million (2010) to 17.85 million (2017), and the main reasons for this have been the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of part of Donbas.

Surprisingly, at the same time, the dynamics of the gross product per capita of the able-bodied population has practically not changed in the last seven years: in 2010 this indicator was 6.5 thousand dollars per year, in 2017 - 6.1 thousand dollars. The extremes were fixed in 2013 - 8.8 thousand dollars (maximum), which is explained by the policy of the fixed rate, when GDP grew, and the exchange rate remained unchanged, and in 2015 (minimum) in the amount of 5 thousand dollars (one of the reasons was the sharp devaluation of the national currency). These figures are taken without taking into account Crimea and uncontrolled territories of Donbas.

If we take the dynamics of GDP in 2014-2015, the total decline in the gross product was 16.4%, while in 2009, due to the global world crisis, a comparable 15.1%.

Data on per capita income clearly show that if the GDP growth in 2016-2017 could only gain about 5% of the 16.4% lost, GDP per capita in terms of per capita practically returned to the level of 2010 (the growth of this indicator in 2010-2013 largely due to the policy of a fixed rate). And this means that if the crisis of 2008 was internal (although it was introduced from the outside, exacerbated due to the inefficient internal structure of our economy), the crisis of 2014-2015 was provoked by external, exogenous causes (war, annexation), although the trigger was inside the national political system. Thus, everything the authorities should do was not the mythical "reforms", but a simple restoration of the decayed economic potential, effective economic incentives and a new employment policy that would stimulate income growth and slow labor migration.

At present, labor productivity in Ukraine is practically at the level of 2010, and if the scale of labor migration exceeds the estimated indicators, it exceeds this level. The remaining population generates the final national product at its maximum. The transition to a higher level is possible only because of colossal investments (innovative leap), which is practically unrealistic, or as a result of activation of the frozen potential of the real sector of the economy. Plus the development of the tertiary sector (services, science, education, medicine). But there is not enough population for this. Those 2.7 million people who went abroad could generate GDP at the level of $ 16.5 billion. Instead, the government consoles 9 billion transfers, which are not only almost half as much, but also practically do not participate even in minimal budget redistribution. In addition, the work of 2.7 million people is a wage fund in the amount of 11 billion USD per year with deductions to the Pension Fund in the amount of more than 2,5 billion USD and income tax of about 2,1 billion USD, which would allow to increase the revenue part of the budget, and reduce the deficit of the Pension Fund.

But these are just figures for our "fathers of Ukrainian democracy!" It is just nothing for them, but for us, it is our whole life. They have been amortizing the old potential of the industrial economy of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic for 25 years. The present migration-raw material model would handle much less. Although in the context of the current economic policy, the main thing is to survive until the next summer.

Read the original text at 112.ua.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or 112.International and its owners.Open source

Ukraines Foreign Ministry reported having prepared the documents for termination of the Friendship Treaty with Russia. Such was the instructions of the Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. If none of the parties informs the other side about the intent to cancel the treaty, the agreement will be automatically prolonged for another 10 years. For Ukrainians living in Russia, this step will not have any consequences. Their rights are guaranteed by other international treaties. Another question is whether Russia actually complies with them.

The majority of provisions in the Friendship Treaty (Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, 1997) repeats the norms of international law that continue to be obligatory for both countries. As for the rights of Ukrainian citizens staying in Russia, it is important to take into account that from the point of view of the international law, from the moment of Crimeas annexation, the two states are in the armed conflict. And even in case it completely halts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Ukraine regains control over its eastern border, the legal state of armed conflict with the Russian Federation will continue until it returns Crimea to Ukraine. Accordingly, the rights of Ukrainian citizens in Russian Federation and Ukrainian territories occupied by it, are guaranteed, first of all, by the norms of international humanitarian law, as well as a number of human rights conventions, which operate both in peace time and during an armed conflict. Among the most latter, the most important are the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, whose jurisdiction extends to the Russian Federation as a member of the Council of Europe, controls compliance to it.

Ukrainian citizens in Russia and Russian citizens in Ukraine are ensured by the Geneva Convention (IV) of 1949 on the protection of civilians in wartime. Its provisions also cover the occupied territories. As the European Convention on Human Rights, this one also guarantees foreigners fundamental rights on the territory of one of the parties to the conflict: respect for human dignity and honour, right for a fair trial, appropriate treatment, etc.

The provision of the Friendship Treaty that the parties guarantee to the citizens of the other state the same rights as for their own citizens, except cases provided for by the national or international agreements, does not add anything essential to the provisions of the Constitutions of Russia and Ukraine regarding all the foreigners.

In other words, after the termination of this bilateral treaty, the norms of international law will still be in effect and guarantee the rights of citizens on both sides to the conflict. The internal constitutional provisions regarding the rights of foreigners will act in the same manner.

The Friendship Treaty with Russia has served to develop the relations between the two countries deepens the strategic partnership. The document contains the possibility of creating appropriate mechanisms for this. In particular, it provides for the frequency of meetings between the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia - at least twice a year. It also provides for the establishment of joint commissions and other similar structures. Thus, this document is the basis for the development of friendly relations, which are no more after the start of an armed conflict... And if Russia does not respect the state sovereignty of Ukraine, its territorial integrity and political independence, if the Russian Federation has violated and continues to violate all the fundamental principles of the international law in regard to Ukraine, then there are no elementary basic prerequisites for friendship, cooperation and partnership.

In case of this treaty, the question arose before Ukraine whether it wished to prolong it. Obviously, if Ukraine had agreed to extend the treaty under current conditions for another 10 years, it would have put itself in a very strange position. Refusal to prolong the document is a forced and logical step. There is no need to be an expert of international law to state the violation by Russia of all the fundamental norms of the friendship treaty in conditions of armed intervention and occupation of the part of Ukrainian territory. In such a situation, it would be impossible to pretend that nothing happens, allowing the continuation of this agreement.Five Ukrainian political prisoners from Crimea will shortly be taken against their will to Rostov in Russia for trial with the conditions en route likely to be even worse than those in the Simferopol SIZO [remand prison] where they have been illegally held since October 2016. The fact that this is not the first time that Russia is so violating the Geneva Convention and other international agreements does not make it any the less serious, and human rights lawyer Emil Kurbedinov believes such behaviour should be viewed as a war crime.

The International Criminal Courts Office of the Prosecutor determined back in 2016 that Russias occupation of Crimea constitutes an international armed conflict. Neither ICC, nor any other international body is in any doubt that Russia is an occupying power. As such, it must abide by the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War which expressly prohibits occupying powers from carrying out individual or mass forced transfers or from imposing its legislation on the occupied territory. All five men: Teymur Abdullaev; Uzeir Abdullaev; Emil Dzhemadenov; Rustem Ismailov and Aider Saledinov are charged under Russian law with (unproven) involvement in an organization (Hizb ut-Tahrir) which is legal in Ukraine.

The transfer itself is also of concern since the conditions are shocking, and the men are held incommunicado. Kurbedinov also notes that because they are charged with terrorism, they get particularly rough treatment.

All the men have wives and children, have never had any trouble with the law and are devout Muslims. It was indeed noted at the time of their arrest on October 12, 2016 that the FSB appeared to have focused on men who had recently carried out the Haj to Mecca, a trip each Muslim must undertake at least once in their life.

The fact that the men are all law-abiding members of the community is only one of the reasons why Russian propaganda channels often use fake video footage in reporting such arrests. The other is that the charges themselves have nothing, but name, to link them with terrorism.

All are accused only in connection with the peaceful pan-Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir which is legal in Ukraine and most countries, and which is not known to have carried out any acts of terrorism or violence anywhere in the world. The renowned Memorial Human Rights Centre considers all men convicted of such charges to be political prisoners, and it is likely that they will issue a statement shortly about the Simferopol Five. There is, after all, no need in such trials of Crimean Muslims to await the (predetermined) verdicts given the additional illegality of Russias prosecution of Ukrainians from occupied Crimea.

These prosecutions have been referred to as a conveyor belt of repression in which one person is designated the role of organizer, with three or more men charged with involvement. In this case, Teymur Abdullaev is accused of being the organizer of a Hizb ut-Tahrir cell and under Article 205.5  1 could face up to life imprisonment. The other men are charged with involvement in this supposed cell and could get 10-20 year sentences.

Russia imposes all kinds of restrictions on the lawyers revealing any details before the trial, however, judging by the two previous court imitations of a trial, the charges are likely to be based solely on secret witnesses and scraps of conversations on religious or political subjects interpreted by obliging FSB experts as indicating membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir.

All five men and their families were subjected to gratuitously violent armed searches in the early morning of 12 October, with small children awoken to see their fathers forced to the ground and then taken away in handcuffs. In at least the case of Teymur Abdullaev, he was also beaten by the men carrying out the search.

The two Abdullaev brothers seem to have received particularly brutal treatment, with Uzeir complaining of torture by the convoy officers bringing the men to court. It took a major effort to raise the alert internationally in April 2018 before Uzeir Abdullaev finally received even the minimum amount of treatment for severe blood poisoning. His mother, who is herself a doctor, believes that he did not, even then, receive sufficient treatment, and she is beside herself with worry about her sons as their forced transfer approaches.

The preliminary hearing is to take place in a Simferopol court on 5 September, after which the men will be taken to Rostov.

Please help to publicise these cases where innocent men have been taken from their wives and children and face 20-year or life sentences on fabricated charges. Such bulk prosecutions, where proof is essentially not required, enable the FSB to flourish good statistics on fighting terrorism and get bonuses or promotion (details here). In occupied Crimea, Russia is also using them as a means of intimidation and persecution, and is increasingly targeting men known for their civic activism, for example in Crimean Solidarity, an initiative helping political prisoners and their families, and publicising such cases of persecution.

Read the original text here.

Related video:Ukraines President noted that the cultural diplomacy is very reliable and effective tool for the development of the relations between nations, countries

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko claimed that 2019 will be declared a year of the Ukrainian culture in Austria. He claimed this on the results of the negotiations with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz as 112 Ukraine reported.

We agreed that we will declare 2019 a year of the Ukrainian culture in Austria. And the cultural diplomacy is a very reliable and effective tool for the development of the relations between our nations, countries. Culture is the key of the hearts of both, Ukraine and Austria. It will make out nations close, Poroshenko noted.

Also, Ukraines President expressed hope that Ukraine and Austria will continue the cooperation at all levels and invited Austrian president to visit Ukraine.

I am sure that we will continue an effective cooperation at all levels. At the presidential level, we expect the president with a visit. I asked Mr. Sebastian to pass my invitation. Also, we invited Austrian delegation to visit on the anniversary of Holodomor in November, the guarantor noted.

Also, after the meeting with diplomats in Avdiivka, Ukraine's president sent offers on the possible mentorship of Austria over one of the settlements.

We sent the offers on possible mentorship of Austria over one of the settlements, as I noted at the meeting with diplomats in Avdiivka. Today, we carefully work out the positions, Poroshenko added.

Earlier Oleksandr Shcherba, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Austria, stated that the fact that Russian President Putin was invited to the wedding of Karin Kneissl, Austrias Foreign Minister, damaged the country's reputation in Ukraine.

Earlier Putin danced with Karin Kneissl, Austria's Foreign Minister, at her wedding. After this, Kurz stated that regardless of Putins visit to the wedding of Austrias Foreign Minister, the policy of his state towards Russia would not change.

Related video:The officers of Russias FSB held the searches of Crimean Tatar Marlen Mustafayev at Myasoidivska Street, Kamianka village, Simferopol district of occupied Crimea as Crimean Solidarity reported on Facebook.

It is noted that the searches at the house of Crimean Tatar took place today in the morning. His under-age daughter who is not even two-years-old and old sick mother-in-law were in the house.

A prisoner transport vehicle arrived to Mustafayevs house and blocked the entrance to the yard. Preliminary, the FSB initiated the searches.

According to his wife, the officers searched for the weaponry. They confiscated the documents, telephones.

About 9:30 a.m. Marlen Mustafayev was taken by the law enforcers.

We note that Mustafayev is a human right activist; he helped the families of the Ukrainian political prisoners.

On February 21, 2017, the law enforcers searched the house of Mustafayev. Then, he was arrested for 11 days. He was accused of the posting of the banned information in the social networks in July 2014.

Also, ten people who came to the house of Mustafayev to support the activist were also arrested.

As we reported the Russian law enforcers held the searches at Kurske village, Bilogorsk region at the houses of four underage Crimean Tatars and one more search took place in Kholodivka village, Sudak region.

Moreover, they held the searches in annexed Crimea at the house of Muslim Aliev involved in Hizb ut-Tahrir case.

Related video:Also, the Chancellor reported that Austria will provide 1 million euro to Caritas organization for the support of the people at the east of Ukraine

Federal Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz has urged Russia to return to the negotiation table on the settlement of the Donbas Conflict. He claimed this on the results of the meeting with the Ukrainian president as 112 Ukraine reported.

I want to appeal to Russia with the urge to return to the negotiations table as this return is necessary also in the Normandy Format. If there is not enough progress, it is necessary anyway because it is the only existing format to find a peaceful solution, Kurz claimed.

Also, he reported that Austria will provide 1 million euro to Caritas organization for the support of the people at the east of Ukraine.

The Austrian Republic will continue to provide money to support the people at the east of Ukraine and we agreed to provide one more million of euro to such organization as Caritas that will provide help and make at least a little contribution for the reduction of grief at the east of Ukraine, Kurz added.

As we reported President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko claimed that 2019 will be declared a year of the Ukrainian culture in Austria. Also, Ukraines President expressed the hope that Ukraine and Austria will continue the cooperation at all levels and invited the Austrian president to visit the Ukrainian state.

Related video:The country's foreign minister is currently on a working visit in Ukraine

Norway is aware and closely follows the actions of the Russian Federation in the Baltic Sea. Ine Soreide, the country's foreign minister said that during her visit in Kyiv on Tuesday.

'We support the EU sanctions and restrictive measure, and our position will remain the same in the future. Norway stands for the support of the international law, and this (Russia's action in the Baltic Sea, - 112 International) is a violation of the international law. We also consider these situations not only in the context of Ukraine but also in the context of the region where Ukraine belongs to', Soreide said.

She also added that Russia's military presence in the area is increasing.

'As we see, the situation in the region shows that Russia's military presence increases; the military drills get more complicated, as we see more military aircraft appearing there', the minister concluded.

In late August, Danish fighters escorted the Russian bomber Tu-95, which approached the country's airspace over Baltic Sea.Open source

Ine Soreide, Norway's foreign minister will arrive in Donbas conflict area on Wednesday, September 5. Pavlo Klimkin, her Ukrainian counterpart said that as quoted by 112 Ukraine TV channel.

'I told the minister about the latest events. Tomorrow, she will have an opportunity to see it with her own eyes (...) Nothing can substitute that emotion you feel when you look at the damage and devastation caused by the Russian terrorist forces in Donbas, when you speak to those living there - facing the shooting almost every night', he said.

He added that the Norwegian official announced some extra assistance for Ukraine from her country.

'Norway has been supporting us in every area', he said.

Earlier, Klimkin stated that Ukraine actively develops cooperation with certain Norwegian companies in the area of renewable energy.'We start working with a number of Norwegian companies, which come here to build facilities in the area of renewable energy. It is about very serious investments, 300-400 million Euros in the solar and the wind energy,' Klimkin said. He also expressed hope that soon more Norwegian investors will join the Ukrainian projects.

In spring, Estonian leader Kersti Kaljulaid visited the division line in Donbas."Salvini does not always divide when he addresses as Interior Minister and when as the leader of the political party," Ukrainian Ambassador to Italy said

Open source

The statements of the Interior Minister of Italy Matteo Salvini about the "legality" of the "referendum" in Crimea should be perceived as the words of the political but not as the representative of the authority. Yevhen Perelyhin, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Italy claimed this as Interfax-Ukraine reported.

"Let's start from the premise that Matteo Salvini is not just a minister but a leader of the political party that has the biggest support of the society  according to the data, it is about 32%. He also claimed that he was in annexed Crimea in violation of the Ukrainian legislation. Unfortunately, then his actions did not face the adequate reaction of the society. It is obvious that Salvini does not always divide when he addresses as Interior Minister and when as the leader of the political party," the ambassador noted.

He also emphasized that the colleagues of Salvini in the government did not support his statements and the Foreign Ministry of Italy emphasized during the speech at the parliament that Italy continues to support the decisions of the international community and respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Earlier Italian Interior Minister and Vice Prime Minister Matteo Salvini considers the annexation of Crimea legal and said that the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine is fake. Foreign Ministry o Ukraine condemned such statement and Italian Ambassador to Ukraine Davide La Cecilia assured that "position of Italy in the support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is clear and consistent".

Related video:The bulls and the bears

The wildly fluctuating Nepse index does not give a correct picture of the economyAccording to Pavlo Klimkin, further steps are to be taken soon

ICTV

Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraines Foreign Minister, stated that Ukraine had to reconsider its treaty and legal basis with Russia. He said it on air of ICTV in Svoboda Slova program.

It cannot be done in one second, but it will be, as we cannot follow the treaty and legal basis which existed in the past reality, the Minister said.

Commenting on the visa regime with Russia, the Minister noted that we should not just set a seal, but also control the process of the border crossing.

If we introduce a visa regime, we need a biometric one. We should move in that direction step by step, he added.

Earlier, Klimkin stated that the documents for termination of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership with Russia are prepared and they will be soon passed for consideration.

Reportedly, Pavlo Klimkin, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, stated that around 1 million Ukrainians leave Ukraine annually. He called this situation critical.

Related video:The documents were signed during the visit of the leadership of the Interior Ministry to Ankara

Ukraine and Turkey intend to cooperate in the sphere of the fight against terrorism, illegal transporting of the migrants and human trafficking, cybercrime, money laundering, drug trafficking and transnational organized crime. The documents were signed at the meeting of Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and his Turkish colleague Suleyman Soylu took place as the press service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine.

The joint declaration was signed today. Avakov claimed during the ceremony that Ukraine is increasing the cooperation with Turkey in the counteracting terrorism. According to him, there are also the agreements on the cooperation in the military sphere.

We have the agreements on the cooperation of the border guards, guards, police and rescuers. Also, I thank for cooperation in the military sphere. Now we implement the big project on the modernization of Mi-17 helicopters. There will be 18 of them, Avakov explained.

Moreover, the sides signed the memorandum on the cooperation of the National Guard and Chief Security Department of Turkey. The document provides the information exchange between the countries in the law enforcement sphere and programs for the advanced training of the police officers.

As we reported State Agency on Energy Efficiency (SAEE) of Ukraine and the Ministry of Energy and Industry of UAE signed a memorandum about mutual understanding in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Related video:Ukrainians were detained on August 28 and they are still in detention on Sevastopols border crossing checkpoint

Open source

The law enforcers opened criminal proceedings on the fact that FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) officers detained a Ukrainian small-sized fishing boat and illegally detained four citizens, as the press office of National Police Central Department in Crimea and Sevastopol reported.

Ukrainian border guards told the police officers that on August 28 FSB Border Governance detained a Ukrainian fishing boat and its crew in the Black Sea.

It is known that the Ukrainian fishermen are still in detention on Sevastopols border crossing checkpoint.

The criminal proceeding was opened on illegal deprivation of liberty and detention of a boat, under the articles of Ukraines Criminal Code which provide imprisonment up to eight years.

A pre-trial investigation under the procedural administration of Crimeas Prosecutors Office is underway. The conditions which are important in the case are being defined, the police informed.

Earlier, in February of 2018 Ukraine filed a Memorandum, which proves that Russia violated Ukraines rights in the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and Kerch Straight. It shows that since 2014 the Russian Federation illegally suspended Ukraine from enforcement of its rights as a coastal State, used Ukrainian resources for its own purposes. Moreover, Russia is stealing Ukrainian energy and fishery resources, harms the Ukrainian fishermen and blocks the movement to the Ukrainian ports.

Related video:According to Oleksandr Shcherba, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Austria, this situation upsets him

Oleksandr Shcherba, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Austria, stated that the fact that Russian President Putin was invited to the wedding of Karin Kneissl, Austrias Foreign Minister, damaged the reputation of the country in Ukraine, as Salzburger Nachrichten reported.

Its not just about the wedding, but also about the cooperation between this party which is in the parliamentary coalition in Austria, and United Russia  the ruling party in Russian Federation. In our opinion, one cannot be pro-Russian and neutral simultaneously. A contradiction is observed here, the Ambassador said.

According to him, the negotiations with Ukraine show that this wedding damaged Austrias reputation in Ukraine.

We are friends and partners connected with a mutual past, present and, I hope, future as a part of the European space, with mutual goals and values. Till August 2018, there were no changes in Austrian-Ukrainian relationships, the Ambassador added.

Earlier, Russian President Putin danced with Karin Kneissl, Austrias Foreign Minister, at her wedding. Yet, Sebastian Kurz, the Chancellor of Austria, stated that the policy of his state concerning Russia would not change.Moscow municipal peoples deputy has filed a complaint to the Investigation Committee against another peoples deputy Viktor Kotov for an article about Sentsov, which he wrote for Nasha Yalimanka newspaper, as Radio Liberty reports.

Dmitry Zakharov addressed the investigators. According to him, the article says that Sentsov is not guilty, and his case is fake. Zakharov thinks that this way the author justifies terrorism, the message says.

He also asked the Investigation Committee to determine whether Kotov has connections with Ukraines special services.

Kotov was not summoned for questioning as he said himself. He also stated that Zakharov is known for a long time: he started writing complaints against peoples deputies for various reasons when the elections campaign began.

As is known, Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian political prisoner, has been starving in Russia penal colony of Labytnangi for 100 days now. He announced a hunger strike in May 2014, demanding to release him and the rest of Ukrainian political prisoners illegally held by the Kremlin. Sentsov already survived three health crises; the medics warn that the fourth one, which might involve the breakdown of the body's internal organs, could begin anytime.

The native of Crimea, film director and political activist, Sentsov was illegally detained in Crimea in 2014, then taken to Russia. They judged him and sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment at a high-security penal colony. The prosecutors charged Sentsov with preparing terrorist acts in the occupied Crimea. Sentsov denies his guilt. Ukraine's government, common citizens and the international society - politicians, artists, public figures - urge the Kremlin to release him.

Related video:The Security Service claimed that the disclosure of the information during the investigation may harm the investigation and determination of the truth in Handziuks case

Open source

The Security Service of Ukraine sealed the information about the investigation of the case of attempted assault on Member of Kherson City Council Kateryna Handziuk. Ukrainian News report.

The agency claimed that the disclosure of the information on the investigation may harm the investigation and impede getting to the truth during criminal proceeding.

As it was reported earlier, four suspects in the attempted murder of Adviser of Kherson Mayor Kateryna Handziuk pleaded guilty.

Kateryna Handziuk, Adviser of Kherson's Mayor was attacked near her place. The attacker soaked her with acid. the woman was hospitalized.

30 percent of her body was burned: head, arms, legs, chest and left eye.

The attack on the employee of the City Council of Kherson was reclassified from "Hooliganism" to "Serious physical injuries committed with the aim of intimidation", and after a while - on "Attempted murder with a special cruelty."

Yuriy Lutsenko took the case under his own control. He reported that the attack on the adviser was a part of the plan to destabilize the situation in the south of Ukraine. Later the investigation was

Suspected in the attack was detained on August 3. He name is Mykola Novikov, previously detained for robbing and illegal weapons handling. He is a member of one of the criminal organizations in the Kherson region. According to Anton Gerashchenko, obviously, the detainee was fulfilling someone's order. Whereas, Gerashchenko added that they approximately know who was the proponent.

The Police have already published the picture of the second possible suspect in the attack on Kateryna Handziuk, Adviser of Kherson's Mayor.The institution's financial position worsened in 2017 when Russia refused to make any voluntary contributions

Open source

Ukraine has completed the process of voluntary contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe. The sum made 400,000 U.S. dollars. Ukraine's permanent office at this institution reported that on Facebook.

The Ukrainian government noted that the Council of Europe's welfare worsened after Russia refused to make any voluntary contributions in 2017. According to the message, the Kremlin is trying to use financial blackmail in order to return the Russian delegation to the PACE.

'In these conditions, the government of Ukraine decided to support the Council of Europe financially. We made a voluntary contribution in addition to our obligatory payments to the budget', the Ukrainian government reported.

The money is supposed to be used for funding the ECHR, fighting corruption, fighting racism and intolerance, torture prevention, protection of minorities, the equation of rights of men and women, protection of journalists and cultural heritage safety.Andriy Parubiy, the Spokesperson of Ukraines Parliament, stressed that the most important thing is a systematic work of the Ukrainian legislative body

Andriy Parubiy, the Spokesperson of Ukraines Parliament, defined main tasks of the Verkhovna Rada at the 9th session. He delivered them from the rostrum of the Parliament, 112 Ukraine broadcasted it.

The main tasks of the Verkhovna Rada for autumn 2018 according to the Spokesperson are:

- National Security and support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Parliament has to prolong the reform of the defence sector. The law on national security was adopted and now the Parliament should adopt its derivatives.

- The Euro-Atlantic direction in the Constitution

I support the offer to enshrine the Euro-Atlantic direction in the ConstitutionI am convinced that this is significant. Because I remember when in 2010 all the mentions about NATO were excluded from the law on basis of the internal and external policy in several minutes in this hall. We cannot allow our Euro-Atlantic direction be revised by anyone, Andriy Parubiy stated.

- Budget-2019 in time

The Spokesperson supported the idea to preserve a tradition introduced last year  it means that the budget shouldnt be adopted on the New Year Eve.

- Open voting lists at 2019 elections

Next block is electoral. We are entering an electoral year and we have to reform the electoral legislation. I believe, that the Verkhovna Rada should start considering the Electoral Code no later than October. It systemizes a number of laws  the law on elections to the Verkhovna Rada, the law on local elections and the law on Central Electoral Commission, Parubiy noted.

- The renewal of the composition of the Central Electoral Commission

The decision of the Central Electoral Commission as of August 9 on cancellation of the elections to the territorial communities was a wake-up call. And it meant that we cannot put this issue aside. I think that in the nearest future we could find a common ground and, passing all the procedures, we will renew the composition of the Central Electoral Commission, Parubiy said.

- Laws on European integration

We have more than 50 laws, 21 of which are being considered. Its rather symbolic that the first week of the 9th session we begin with the laws which are included in the strategic plan on the European integration, the Spokesperson said.

- Economy

You remember our top-35 mutual set of bills on economy, the part of which we considered during the previous session. We have to define the prerogatives and with the help of the committees and the Government continue working on this plan, Parubiy noted.

- Law on language

It is quite important to consider the bill on the state language at this session. Its our duty to adopt a law on language in a democratic atmosphere, atmosphere of discussions. These issues are fundamental for the life of the nation and state, the Spokesperson said.

- Reform of the Parliament

The bills on the number of committees, on their distribution according to D'Hondts method. I will remind you that we didnt finalize the question of the Temporary Special Commission. Additionally, I will recommend to regulate the system and the procedure of bills registration to stop a legislative spam which unfortunately exists in Ukraines Verkhovna Rada, the Spokesperson said.

- The Parliamentary immunity

According to Parubiy, the Constitutional Court adopted a conclusion; the Committee expressed its position; two bills were sent to the Parliament. Its time for the peoples deputies to decide.

Related video:However, according to Volodymyr Omelyan, the demand for the air transport is increasing

Open source

Volodymyr Omelyan, Ukraines Infrastructure Minister, stated that only 5-7% of Ukrainians use the service of the airline companies, as he said on air of Pryamyi.

5-7% are using the service of the air transport. He believes that its possible to make it to 50%. As the experience of the countries like Poland and Hungary prove that its not a theorem, but a possible fact, the message says.

He stated that the key question is whether the state would invest in aviation. If it does, then the number of the companies and Ukrainians, which will use the services, will increase.

Earlier, Omelyan stated that the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine intended to stop passenger railway traffic from/to Russia, yet, the cancellation of cargo transportation was not considered.

Related video:The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine received permission for a pre-trial investigation of the former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on suspicion of seizing LNG (liquefied natural gas) for 77,4 million dollars. Ukraines Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko wrote this on his Facebook page.

"Yesterday we received a permit for a special pre-trial investigation on M. Azarov, who is suspected of embezzlement of liquefied gas for about 77,4 million dollars in complicity with other members of the criminal organization of V. Yanukovych," Lutsenko wrote.

In the near future, the Prosecutor General's Office plans to open the case materials to the defense and send it to the court.

As it was previously reported, in January 2018, the Prosecutor General's Office announced suspicion to the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and ex-head of the National Bank Serhiy Arbuzov. In particular, the ex-PM is suspected of illegal embezzlement of particularly large volumes of liquefied gas extracted by PJSC Ukrhazvydobuvannya and PJSC Ukrnafta. It is noted that this caused damage to the state in the amount of 77,4 million dollars.

Earlier, the investigation team of Robert Mueller, Special Attorney of FBI revealed more than 300 documents in the case of Paul Manafort. In particular, the documents describe Manafort's cooperation with Ukrainian Party of Regions and Oppositional Bloc. For instance, Paul Manafort describes in detail the performance of Mykola Azarov at the convention of Party of Regions in the message to Political Adviser Tad Devine.

The EU imposed the sanctions against Yanukovych and his entourage in March 2014 and extended them annually.

Mykola Azarov, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Vitaly Zakharchenko, the former Interior Minister, Viktor Pshonka, the former Prosecutor General and his son, Olena Lukash, the former Justice Minister, Andry Klyuyev, the former Head of the Presidential Administration, Serhy Klyuyev, the MP, Viktor Ratyshniak, the former Deputy Interior Minister, Serhy Arbuzov, the former First Vice Prime Minister, Oleksandr Klymenko, the former Incomes and Levy Minister, Eduard Stavytskym the former Energy Minister, Dmytro Tabachnyk, the former Education Minister, Serhy Kurchenko, the oligarch remained on the list.Three suspects held for rape of teenage girl

Police have arrested three suspects in connection to the rape of a 14-year-old girl at a guest house in Damak, Jhapa, on August 14.Open source

On Monday, September 3, Kyiv Shevchenkivskiy District Court did not manage to consider the motion of the Chief Military Prosecutors Office concerning the extension of the preventive measure for Nadiya Savchenko, which is detention in custody, as Radio Liberty reports.

The Court took into account Savchenkos request and rescheduled the consideration of the motion for Tuesday, September 4, as the working day was over. Moreover, the Court also considered the fact that the participants of the process got tired, as Savchenko said.

The prosecutors stated that if the Court would not manage to consider the motion till September 7, the day when Savchenko is to be released from custody, she can influence the witnesses and leave Ukraine.

At the same time, Savchenkos defense stated that there is no reason to be concerned, as Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the so-called DNR, who posed a threat, died.

Reportedly, Savchenko underwent a polygraph test. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed that the psychological forensic examination with the use of the polygraph of MP Nadiya Savchenko has confirmed her intentions of the coup d'etat, particularly the commitment of the terrorist act in the governmental quarter and the Ukrainian Parliament.

Shevchenkivskyi District Court decided on preventive measures for Nadiya Savchenko, Ukrainian peoples deputy  detention on custody for two months till May 20, 2018, without a right for bailment. During her speech, she declared a hunger strike. She also noted that she wasnt going to escape Ukraine. Later, Appeal Court enhanced Savchenkos detention until July 14.

On July 13, her detention was extended and she declared an indefinite hunger strike.

Nadiya Savcheko, MP is suspected of organizing a terrorist act in the Ukrainian Parliament and in the government district of Kyiv. Yuriy Lutsenko, Prosecutor General claimed that he has proof that Savchenko planned an armed coup d'etat, which would have brought to mass civilian casualties. In particular, according to the information of Prosecutor General's office, she planned to shell Kyiv from grenade launcher. Furthermore, she together with early detained Volodymyr Ruban are suspected of an organization of assassination of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Related video:Tutor arrested for child molestation

Police on Monday arrested a 24-year-old man from Lalbandi in Sarlahi district on child molestation charge.Custody death: Yadavs family suspects torture, demands probe

Two days after the death of Free Madhes activist Ram Manohar Yadav in police custody, his family has demanded investigation into the incident suspecting torture as the cause.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By Ssebuliba Samuel.

In Kenya a crippling shortage of fuel is looming, after petroleum distributors went on strike yesterday to protest introduction of the 16 percent increment tax on the product.

As many as 200 tanker owners and resellers affiliated to the Kenya Independent Petroleum Distributors Association and Petroleum product drivers aggregated on Nairobis Nanyuki Road-the main source of the regions fuel.

Members said they would be on strike until the new tax, which has seen petrol products go up by between Sh11 and Sh13 from Sh114.90 for Super Petrol and Sh103.90 for diesel is shelved.

Members barred tanker drivers contracted to transport product from Mombasa to the Nairobi depots, from accessing the depot.

Slow operations were also reported at the Kenya Pipeline Eldoret depot after some fuel distributors refused to have their tankers filled.

According to Joseph Karanja the chairman Kenya Independent Petroleum Distributors, Members will be on strike until this decision is reversed.By Ruth Anderah.

An office assistant at Innovation for Property Action has been arraigned before City Hall Court and charged with theft of employers property.

Solomon Ocen charged before a grade one magistrate Beatrice Kainza and pleaded not guilty to the theft and office breaking offences.

Prosecution states that Ocen on August 12th 2018 at plot 21 Kanjokya Street Kamwokya in Kampala did break the office of Innovation for Property Action and stole therein 153 smart phones, 27 laptop computers, 15 phone screen guards, 6 GPS machines and phone chargers all valued at over 173million shillings.

The trial magistrate ordered him to return to court after two weeks to know the stage of investigations in the case.By Damali Mukhaye.

The preliminary reports from the medical board indicate that the kyandodo east legislator Robert Kyagulanyi and Mityana municipality MP Francis Zaake did not require specialized treatment abroad after examining them.

Addressing journalists at media center the minister of health Ruth Aceng says that the preliminary reports she received indicate that the two MPs had nothing significant to go abroad for further treatment because their conditions could be handled by Ugandan medical specialists.

She says that all the reasons that were given by the Mps alleged specialists whom the ministry do not recognize where all false and that the medical board found that the Mps medication situation could be handled in the country and are now abroad on their own facilitation since the medical board found no reason to sponsor them for further treatment.

Mp Zaake has since gone for medical attention in India and Mp Robert Kyagulanyi was flown to the US for further treatment after their conditions where reportedly worsening.

Related Stories

Bobi Wine, Zaake cleared to travel for treatment

MOH deny receiving any request nor delaying MPs from going abroad for medicationThe bilateral agreement, which President Trump says is much simpler, much better, excludes Canada.



The United States and Mexico, at the exclusion of North American Free Trade Agreement partner Canada, on Monday morning announced a separate bilateral trade deal.

President Donald Trump, who held a televised joint press conference in the Oval Office with Mexicos outgoing president Enrique Pena Nieto on the telephone, said the deal is much simpler, much better for both countries.

Well get rid of the name NAFTA because it has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt very badly by NAFTA, Trump said.

Pena Nieto also called the new trade agreement with the United States positive for both countries, but added, Its our wish that Canada will also be incorporated in all of this. Mexicos new incoming president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office Dec. 1, has been included in the trade agreement negotiations.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the trade agreement with Mexico, when finalized, will strengthen intellectual property and digital trade protections.

The agreement also will require Mexico to raise its de minimis shipment value from $$50 to $100. Shipment values up to this level would enter Mexico without customs duties or taxes, and with minimal formal entry procedures, making it easier for more businesses, especially small- and medium-sized ones, to be a part of cross-border trade, USTR said.

For the agricultural industry, USTR said the new agreement will commit to reduce trade distorting policies, increase transparency over sanitary and phytosanitary policies, and maintain zero tariffs on agricultural products traded between the two countries.

Mexico has agreed to not restrict market access for U.S. cheeses labeled with certain names, and the two countries agreed to new labeling and certification provisions for the wine and distilled spirits trade. USTR noted that Mexico agreed to continue recognition of Bourbon Whiskey and Tennessee Whiskey as distinctive U.S. products, while the U.S. agreed to continue recognition of Tequila and Mezcal as distinctive products of Mexico.

According to USTR, the U.S.-Mexico agreement would require a 75-percent U.S.- and Mexico-made parts content requirement for automobiles manufactured and traded between the two countries. The Trump administration said this should stimulate reshoring of auto parts production in the United States.

It also will close gaps in the current NAFTA agreement that incentivized low wages in automobile and parts production by requiring that 40 percent to 45 percent of auto content be made by workers earning a minimum of $16 per hour, USTR said.

USTR said the trade agreement includes new provisions that will increase U.S. and Mexican textile and apparel production, as well as enhance customs enforcement over this trade.

In addition, the two countries negotiators reached agreement on new provisions covering trade in specific manufacturing sectors, including information and communication technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, cosmetics and chemicals.

Trump said he would like to hold similar bilateral discussions with Canada as early as this week, which could result in Canada either joining the U.S.-Mexico trade agreement or produce a second bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Canada. Trump criticized Canadas high import tariffs on dairy product imports and said they would not be allowed to persist under a new trade deal with Canada.

The White House raised the idea of reaching separate trade agreements with Mexico and Canada last month.

Meanwhile, the total value of cross-border trade between the United States and its partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement  Canada and Mexico  has remained strong, climbing another 6.3 percent in June to $106.07 billion compared to the same month a year ago, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Transportations Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). Year-over-year growth has been posted in each of the last 20 months for which after-the-fact data is available.Speaking before Government representatives, political parties, and civil society, the statesman emphasized the fight against corruption is a unanimous responsibility, so he urged them to put individual priorities aside in favor of the population.

"() I think we are moving in the right direction. We can have economic growth, take a decentralized approach, implement good social policies, but if we lack solid institutions and a frontal struggle against corruption , all this cannot be sustained over time and welfare becomes ephemeral," he warned.[Comunicado Oficial] El Peru lamenta el devastador incendio producido en el Museo Nacional de Rio de Janeiro, asi como la irreparable perdida del acervo historico y el patrimonio tras este tragico siniestro. https://t.co/S576EVtHcUStormy Chromer

Multi-genre jams

by Patrick Dunn

From the September, 2018 issue

"The borders of my mind can always be redrawn." Even those who don't consider themselves jam-band enthusiasts may share the sentiment from the group Stormy Chromer's song "Redrawn," after seeing the Ypsi-based band perform live. Drummer Amin Lanseur and bassist Ryan King were inspired to start the band in 2014 after attending a festival organized by that progenitor of jam bands, Umphrey's McGee. Stormy Chromer's lengthy, improvisational, and often instrumental numbers fit Umphrey's template to a degree. But the band's versatility and impressive musicianship add unique appeal.



Stormy Chromer's members all have professional musical training, an unlikely precursor to playing their current instruments in a rock band. King has a degree in classical clarinet from U-M, while Lanseur took tuba and other music classes at EMU, where he met guitarist Spencer Hanson in jazz class. Guitarist Brendan Collins, too, has studied jazz and other musical topics at WCC.



Neither tuba nor clarinet is heard at a Stormy Chromer show, and the sound could only occasionally be described as jazz. But the players' professional attention to detail is clear. The members frequently turn their heads to form a loose circle around Lanseur, who leads the band's regular shifts in tempo and groove with his innovative and energetic drumming. Lanseur knows his instrument well, and he constantly adds graceful flourishes that add complexity to otherwise simple beats. Collins handles the lion's share of the lead guitar work, employing a small army of pedals as he cycles from attention-grabbing blues solos to mellow, echoing arpeggios. Hanson adds colorful rhythm parts and some impressive leads of his own. And while the band's sound isn't bass-heavy, King flashes some funky chops in occasional solos.



The players' diverse musical backgrounds also have engendered a loosey-goosey approach to genre that can be fascinating to behold. Their jams can run up to ten or fifteen minutes, shifting fluidly from groovy funk to mind-expanding prog drone to heavy-metal sludge to power-chord classic rock, all with impressive

...continued below...

Definitely going to check these guys out at the Blind Pig on September 7th, bound to be a good one - as hometown throwdown's often are.

This show is going to be great! Awesome write up :)

Thanks for the kind words! Can't wait to play at the piggy on the 7th!

ease. Often they'll throw in their original folk-inflected ballad "Virginia in Vermont," with King and Lanseur singing pleasant harmony, for good measure. The covers that leaven their mostly original sets are similarly diverse, ranging from the Cranberries to Rush to Ann Arbor's own Tally Hall. Where many jam bands play primarily funk or prog, those are just ingredients in Stormy Chromer's delightful, danceable mix. If the band ever seems to be settling into a particular musical idiom, just keep that pencil ready at the borders of your mind and wait for the next intriguing shift. [Originally published in September, 2018.]On August 29, 2018, Erika wrote:On August 29, 2018, Brisket wrote:On August 29, 2018, Amin Lanseur wrote:YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENRPESS. Dozens of farmers from the province of Armavir have blocked the highway leading to Yerevan as protest to the grape procurement prices.

Farmers are demanding procurers to buy the grapes at the previously set 160 dram price per kg, rather 140. They claim that they have been assured earlier in spring that the procurement price will be 140 drams.

One of the farmers said that all companies were buying grapes at 160 drams, until the Ararat brandy factory announced that it will lower the price to 140, which prompted all other procurers to set the same price.

Ararat brandy factorys Armavir CEO Arthur Sargsyan met with the farmers, claiming that this is the first time that he is hearing protests about procurement prices. The procurement price of grapes this year was decided to be 140 drams. If you have other demands, if you are willing to bring forward other questions, I will present it to the management, and the management will make a decision, he said. He also said that contracts with farmers do not include procurement prices.

The farmers were seemingly unhappy over the CEOs statement and they continue the demonstration.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. With the support of Business Armenia, 14 companies will represent the Armenian textile industry and its export potential at the CPM  Collection Premiere Moscow International Fashion Trade Expo held on September 4-7. CPM is the largest fashion industry expo in Western Europe. Over 25,000 brands (including worldwide famous ones) will participate in the expo: more than 1280 clothing lines from 30 countries around the world, Business Armenia told Armenpress.

Armenian textile industry will be presented in two pavilions: 4 underwear producing companies in one pavilion, the other 10 fashion item producers in the next one.

Representatives of famous brands and fashion designers take part in the expo. This time we are aiming to sign more deals by connecting fashion and textile. That is, we not only represent our textile producers but also show that our companies are ready to handle fashion orders, head of the events department of Business Armenia, Mr. Markus Azadian, said.

Previously, with the support of Business Armenia and UN Industrial Development Agency (UNIDO) desk in Armenia, our textile producers have participated in the CPM - Collection Premiere Moscow fashion expo by representing the collective brand 5900-BC.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The phrasing chosen by Hayk Marutyan, candidate for Yerevan Mayor from the My Step bloc, werent too accurate, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told reporters.

Hayk Marutyans phrasings werent too accurate. I believe that each of our statements, each political announcement must fit into the revolution of love and solidarity. Therefore I think that we must speak about brighter colors that black and white, the PM said.

During a fundraiser event earlier on September 2, Hayk Marutyan, the acclaimed actor and producer who is running for Yerevan Mayor, made a speech which was widely criticized both by the society and political parties.

Today the situation in Armenia is very clear: there are white forces and there are black forces, period. I want to officially announce, although you know [this], but I have to say, indeed  we are the white forces, and all others who dont want us to succeed, I can say they are the black forces, Marutyan said.

Marutyan later released a statement on Facebook, saying he isnt perfect and that he believes he could have chosen a clearer phrasing.

Hayk Marutyan is perhaps best known for the critically acclaimed TV comedy show Kargin Haghordum. Marutyan has also starred in numerous other TV series and sitcoms, as well as feature films. He is also a screenwriter and producer. For many years Hayk Marutyan has been engaged in activism in social and political matters.

He is a member of the Civil Contract Party.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan commented on the statement of 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan about his return to politics, reports Armenpress.

All those, who will have an opportunity and desire to participate in the parliamentary elections in accordance with the law of the Republic of Armenia, will participate, the PM told reporters.

Commenting on the observation according to which some forces already carry out campaign despite that it hasnt begun yet, Nikol Pashinyan said the Electoral Code doesnt ban the campaign outside the election campaigning period. The campaign is a daily political activity. I normally react to any activity which is not banned by law, therefore, any political force, political figure can share their ideas with the citizens, the Armenian PM said.

2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan announced recently that he is going to participate in the upcoming snap parliamentary elections.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. A certain portion of the North-South Road Corridor will be a toll road after the project is completed. The toll will not exceed the price of gas which is spent when traveling the existing road, minister of transportation, communication and IT Ashot Hakobyan told reporters today at a press conference on his 100 days in office.

Tolled roads arent only in Armenia, there are many similar [roads] in numerous countries. In this specific section the tolling is justified. It will be a toll road for everyone, both Armenian citizens and foreigners, he said.

Hakobyan did not mention a completion date for the project, because it depends on international funding sources, the pace of the construction and the governments financing opportunities.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan says Armenia has participated in Artsakhs Independence Day celebrations at a very high level, and the rest of the comments are inappropriate, reports Armenpress.

Asked why he didnt attend these celebrations in Artsakh, the PM told reporters that he visited Stepanakert a week before these events.

The President of Artsakh in his remarks stated that it is an unprecedented situation that the current leader of Armenia pays three visits to Stepanakert within three months. I think Armenia was presented at these events at a very high level. Armenias President, deputy prime minister, ministers, secretary of the security council were present. I think other comments are just inappropriate, he said.

Asked whether the participation of former PM of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan in the Artsakh celebrations wasnt strange, the PM said: You should ask this question to the Artsakh authorities. I am not the one who decides who must attend the Stepanakert celebrations and who not.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has slammed media rumors on his alleged desire to see former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan take office as president as absurd.

Lets not speak about absurd things. The President of Armenia has been elected in March of this year and he still has 7 years of tenure ahead, Pashinyan said.

Certain media reports alleged that the PM is willing to see Ter-Petrosyan back in office as President.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Justice minister Artak Zeynalyan on September 4 received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to Armenia George Saganelidze, the ministry told Armenpress.

During the meeting the justice minister highly appreciated the multilayer cooperation of the two countries and stated that there is a great potential to deepen it. In this context the minister attached importance to the regular organization of the Armenian-Georgian forum which enables to discuss the concerns and issues in the legal field, as well as contribute to solving them through the exchange of experience.

In his turn the Georgian Ambassador thanked the minister for the reception and said Georgia attaches importance to the achievements recorded in Armenia.

The officials also discussed a number of other issues during the meeting.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Vice Speaker of the Parliament, Co-Chair of the Armenia-Belarus inter-parliamentary cooperation commission Eduard Sharmazanov on September 4 received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Armenia Igor Nazaruk, the Parliament told Armenpress.

During the meeting the officials discussed issues relating to the mutual cooperation of the two countries, the development of inter-parliamentary ties.

Sharmazanov attached importance to the cooperation of legislative bodies in international parliamentary platforms, in particular, within the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

CSTO plays a key role in Armenias security, the Vice Speaker said.

Sharmazanov said this year international scientific conference dedicated to the 75th anniversaries of Kursk and Stalingrad battles will be held in Yerevan in October. The Ambassador also attached importance to the organization of this conference, adding that he will definitely participate in the event.

The officials also highlighted the joint steps and initiatives aimed at preserving the common Christian and traditional values.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Today, the results of the #UcomRoaming Instagram contest that was held online in July-August 2018, have been summed up. The selected three most interesting, most creative photographs, which were posted on the open Instagram profiles of their authors and have received at least 50 likes, were shared by the users in their Stories by mentioning the @ucom_official page and using the #UcomArmenia and #UcomRoaming hashtags in the descriptive part of the post, Ucom told Armenpress.

The 1st prize  iPhone 8 with 64GB of internal memory space went to Levon Hambardzumyan from Vanadzor, who has assembled the word Ucom from a huge amount of stones on a hill, by showing one of the most harmonious scenes of the Armenian nature.

The 2nd prize winner Julietta Harutyunyan from Artashat received 150GB bundle of high-speed mobile internet to be used during 6 months. The 3rd prize went to Loretta Manukyan from Yerevan: she has received 50 GB bundle of high-speed mobile internet to be consumed during 6 months.

Overall, #UcomRoaming hashtag was used by 541 Instagram users. Though it was not stipulated by the terms of the contest, we decided to donate 10GB bundle of mobile internet to all participants. The ones, which are not yet Ucom subscribers, will get a phone number to enjoy this 10GB mobile internet bundle in the fastest Armenian 4G+ mobile network, said Tigran Safaryan, the Marketing and Communications Director at Ucom.

Let us remind that participants should have written Ucom while at work, on vacation, or any other place in any way, e.g. on the sand, with fruits, pencils, etc., and then they should have published their photos in accordance with the Instagram online contest rules.YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Foreign minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on September 4 received OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger, the ministry told Armenpress.

Welcoming the guest, the foreign minister said Armenia values the OSCE as an important regional platform, and the cooperation with the organization in different spheres has a special place in Armenias foreign policy agenda. Minister Mnatsakanyan highlighted the readiness of the Armenian side to continue the active cooperation with the OSCE within the frames of the Armenia cooperation programme.

During the meeting the officials exchanged views on the cooperation programs between the OSCE secretariat and the Armenian foreign ministry.

Introducing the recent domestic political developments in Armenia, the FM said one of the priorities of the new government is to continue the process of reforms based on the mandate given by the people directed for ensuring rule of law, justice, equal opportunities in economic and social sectors, as well as fighting corruption.

Minister Mnatsakanyan specifically touched upon one of the priorities of the government, the development agenda one of the main pillars of which is the innovation, including in the fields of creative education, industry, agriculture and etc.

In the context of the ongoing activities aimed at holding snap elections, the Armenian FM attached importance to the active and productive cooperation with the international partners aimed at properly organizing the election process.

At the meeting the Armenian FM and the OSCE Secretary General also discussed the recent developments over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process. Both highlighted the importance of settling the conflict exclusively peacefully within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship as the only format having a mandate of international community. In this context the foreign minister stated that Artsakhs status and security are a priority for the Armenian side in the negotiation process, but in order for the process to move forward, it is necessary to form an atmosphere contributing to peace. In this regard the Armenian FM highlighted the steady implementation of the previous agreements, cessation of ceasefire violations and militaristic rhetoric.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. A venture capital called Multi Group has been founded in Armenia with the goal to provide financial support to startups, minister of transportation, communication and information technologies Ashot Hakobyan said at a press conference today.

He said that the venture funds initial capital is 1,000,000 dollars.

During the past three months weve had numerous meetings with international IT institutions, reputed organizations with the purpose of creating a national venture fund in Armenia. We presented the idea of creating the fund in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York and we received positive feedback, he said.

He said that the ministry is actively working for creating the national venture fund.

Hakobyan says theyve submitted an amended version of the bill on granting tax privileges to IT startups for approval to the PMs office.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, 4 SEPTEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 4 September, USD exchange rate up by 0.35 drams to 483.73 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.52 drams to 559.10 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.03 drams to 7.09 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.06 drams to 620.05 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 23.80 drams to 18663.51 drams. Silver price down by 1.85 drams to 225.9 drams. Platinum price down by 53.29 drams to 12255.2 drams.YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received on September 4 OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Government of Armenia, the PM noted that Armenia highlights cooperation with the OSCE for European and regional security, as well as in other spheres of bilateral interest and is ready to continue the productive cooperation.

Recording the existing high level of partnership, the interlocutors discussed the opportunities to further deepen it.

The PM referred to the recent domestic political developments in Armenia, introducing the reforms aimed at the development of democracy, establishment of rule of law, fight against corruption, and holding snap parliamentary elections. Nikol Pashinyan noted that its a priority for the Government of Armenia to hold more free, transparent and democratic elections and the Government highlights the technical and expertise assistance of international partners, including the OSCE.

Thomas Greminger welcomed the processes in Armenia and expressed readiness to assista the reform agenda of the Armenian Government.

The Armenian PM and the OSCE Secretary General also spoke about Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process. Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the active efforts of the OSCE and the international community aimed at making the region more secure and emphasized that Armenia is committed to an exclusively peaceful settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict based on negotiations in the sidelines of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs format.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The investigator of the Special Investigation Service (SIS)of Armenia has made a decision to choose signature bond on not leavening as preventive measure for Robert Kocharyan, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the SIS.

The Court of Appeals approved on August 13 the appeal of Kocharyans attorneys against the decision of the 1st instance court to remand 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan in custody.

45 MPs signed a petition to change Kocharyans precautionary measure, but the Prosecutor Generals Office rejected it.

The Court of Appeals has examined the appeal of attorneys for two days after which it was announced that the courts ruling will be released on August 13, at 16:00.

Robert Kocharyan has been charged on July 26 over the 2008 March 1 case, under the Article 300.1 part 1 of the Criminal Code for breaching the constitutional order of the Republic of Armenia. He has been remanded into custody. His attorneys appealed the court ruling.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanRussian President Vladimir Putin became enraged and conspicuously blundered during the 2015 Minsk Agreement talks with Ukraine, according to a book by former French President Francois Hollande.

Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The US, the European Union, and other observers say Russia has slyly used troops posing as Ukrainian separatists to stoke a war there for years.

But when Putin was arguing with Ukraine's president, Hollande said, he appeared to slip up and acknowledge the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine.

He made other embarrassing blunders at the meeting too, Hollande wrote.

Russian President Vladimir Putin became so enraged during a shouting match with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that he revealed he was lying about Russia's role in a military uprising in eastern Ukraine, former French President Francois Hollande wrote in a book published earlier this year about his time in office.

In 2014, Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine and began to support separatists in the eastern part of the country through information warfare, direct shipments of weapons, and the deployment of Russian fighters posing as Ukrainian separatists.

Experts branded the campaign, for which Russia denied responsibility, as a new form of conflict called hybrid warfare. The strategy involves multidomain fighting, economic pressure, and a distortion of facts on the ground.

But in a heated argument with Poroshenko at the 2015 talks to form the Minsk Agreement, a document that sought to end the conflict but that Russia has yet to implement, Putin apparently became so angry he tripped up.

"Poroshenko and Putin constantly raised their voices with each other. The Russian president was so worked up, that he started threatening to decisively crush his counterpart's forces," an excerpt from Hollande's 2018 book, "The Lessons of Power," says, according to a translation by UAWire.org, which writes about Russia and Ukraine.

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"This showed that there are Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. Putin suddenly realised, and got a grip on himself," Hollande wrote, according to UAWire.org.

But even after Putin got ahold of himself, his narrative continued to unravel, Hollande wrote.

In Minsk, Poroshenko asserted Ukraine's sovereignty as its leader. Putin would not acknowledge directing any of the separatist forces and constantly had to frame his contributions to the conversation as speculation on what the separatists might say, if they were there.

Hollande wrote that Putin tried to delay the cease-fire between the fighting sides for weeks. When Hollande and Poroshenko brought up that Russia had been sanctioned as result of the fighting, and not a nebulous group of unnamed fighters, Putin "pretended not to understand or not to hear what we were saying," Hollande wrote.

"At seven in the morning after a sleepless night," both sides finally struck a deal that Putin could agree to, Hollande wrote. But Putin, maintaining he wasn't in control of the separatists, had to run off, Hollande wrote.

"Suddenly Putin said that he needed to consult with the separatist leaders. Their emissaries were in Minsk too. Where exactly? In some hotel or in an office neighbouring ours? At least we didn't see them," Hollande wrote.

Fighting continues in eastern Ukraine, with more than 10,000 dead. Russia still denies any official involvement in the fighting and remains under the sanctions imposed in 2014.Even Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe appears to have had enough of the behaviour of Australian politicians, using a speech in Perth last night to remind them of the words of the country's first first female member of parliament, Edith Cowan, is a jab at the workplace dysfunction in Canberra.

His pointed comments come in the wake of Liberal MP and former corporate lawyer Julia Banks announcing she'll leave politics after just one term, citing bullying during the recent leadership spill as one of the reasons for her decision.

Her marginal Victorian electorate of Chisholm was the only seat won by the government at the 2016 election.

South Australian Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi agreed with Banks and has threatened to use parliamentary privilege to those responsible, while Minister for Industrial Relations and Women, Kelly ODwyer told ABC TV's 7.30 this week that it was clear to her that Liberal MPs were subject to threats and intimidation and bullying and she was a little bit disgusted after some of her male colleagues said the women in politics needed to toughen up.

Radio commentator Alan Jones said they needed "a teaspoon of cement".

Revealing the new redesigned $50 note, which features Cowan, and Aboriginal writer and inventor David Unaipon, will be released on October 18, the RBA Governor drew attention to one of the security features on Australian currency - the microtext written into the design, which while visible to the naked eye, requires magnification for many to read it.

The $50 note features an extract from Edith Cowan's first speech to the Western Australian Parliament.

Low said: "For those who will struggle to read it, I would like to quote a little from the text. In 1921 Edith Cowan said:

I stand here to-day in the unique position of being the first woman in an Australian Parliament If men and women can work for the same state side by side and represent all the different sections of the community I cannot doubt that we should do very much better work in the community than was ever done before.

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"

The RBA boss picked up on the theme, adding: "Nearly one hundred years on, this sentiment is just as relevant as it was back in 1921. We are proud to have this text on the new $50 note and to recognise Edith Cowan's achievement. The note will also have a seating plan of today's Western Australian Legislative Assembly. It will also recognise Edith Cowan's lifelong advocacy of women."

Cowan entered politics, aged 59, in 1921, the year Western Australia passed legislation so women could stand for parliament. She beat the state's Attorney-General - ironically, the man responsible for the change - to win her seat, but only served one term. She didn't waste it, introducing laws so women could enter the legal profession and putting women on a par with fathers if their children died without a will.

She was also one of the first politicians to promote sex education in schools.

NOW READ: Here's Australia's new $50 noteThe slain leader of a Russian-backed republic in Ukraine was reportedly killed by a bomb planted on a chandelier

The prime minister of the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Zakharchenko was assassinated last week by an explosive device placed in a floor lamp or chandelier.

The explosion also killed Zakharchenko's bodyguard, Vyacheslav "Slavyan" Dotsenko, and wounded two others, including Alexander Timofeyev, the DPR's finance minister.

The perpetrator was most likely near the cafe and saw Zakharchenko enter before he or she detonated the bomb.

The prime minister of the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine was killed last week by a bomb placed in a chandelier or floor lamp, according to Kommersant, a Russian media outlet.

Alexander Zakharchenko was killed about 5 p.m. last Friday in an explosion at a downtown Donetsk cafe called "Separ," meaning Separatist.

Zakharachenko died from craniocerebral trauma, with the blast nearly taking his head off, according to Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper.

The explosion also killed Zakharchenko's bodyguard, Vyacheslav "Slavyan" Dotsenko, and wounded two others, including Alexander Timofeyev, the DPR's finance minister.

Kommersant reported over the weekend that an explosive devise was placed in a chandelier or floor lamp and ignited by a telephone call.

The perpetrator was most likely near the cafe and saw Zakharchenko enter before he or she detonated the bomb, Kommersant reported. The cafe is apparently owned by a DPR security official and was thoroughly guarded, raising questions of an inside job.

Multiple people were later arrested near the cafe in connection with the bombing, including "Ukrainian saboteurs," Russia's Interfax reported.

"Read nothing into [these arrests of Ukrainian saboteurs] until we know more details," Aric Toler, a researcher with Bellingcat, tweeted last week.

https://twitter.com/AricToler/status/1035552923877605377?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

Kyiv and Moscow have both been accused of several assassinations in the Donbas and Ukraine as a whole since the war began in 2014.To legalize or not to legalize, that is the question on the lips of many legislators in Latin America since Argentina opted not to decriminalize abortion following a senate vote. It did at least open the way for greater debate on a subject viewed so differently across the region in which abortion is entirely legal in Cuba and Uruguay, but where women can even be jailed for a miscarriage in El Salvador. Attitudes are changing in some traditionally conservative societies, though, as Guatemala debates contradictory proposals that would either loosen or toughen laws; Brazil's Supreme Court considers a plan to decriminalize abortion in the first 12 weeks; and Chilean legislators debate a bill that would universally allow abortion in the first 14 weeks. Here, four women tell AFP about their abortion experiences. - Cuba: 'A right but not a game' - Josefa is 46 and lives in Havana. Cuba was the region's pioneer, legalizing abortion in the first eight weeks in 1965. "I got pregnant at 23. I had my first child and supposedly I couldn't have any more. When I fell pregnant again it was a surprise: I was studying and decided to abort." She had three abortions over a decade but later had a second child, who is now 12. "In Cuba it's my right to choose when I want to have a child. It's not a contraceptive method. "I didn't have the financial means and I wasn't ready to have another child. I preferred to abort at an early stage of pregnancy. "We have this right in Cuba but I don't deny that lots of people use it indiscriminately as a contraceptive, and that can provoke very serious health problems. "I had a friend who had so many (abortions) that she could no longer have children, and now she regrets that. "We have the right to choose but we must also realize that it's not a game." - El Salvador: 'Law discriminates against women' - Elsi Rosales, 27, lives and works in the countryside, and carries the scars of a traumatic stillbirth. Since 1998, El Salvador's laws in this area have been unforgiving with abortion for any reason and even miscarriages punishable by up to 40 years in prison. "I was 38 weeks pregnant. I have a three-year-old son who was born by C-section, I didn't know what labor pains were." It happened as Rosales worked in the fields carrying firewood. "I felt pain in my lower back, I didn't know what was happening but felt like I needed to use the bathroom." It was there that her stillbirth happened. "At that point, I lost consciousness. I was taken to hospital with a hemorrhage. The doctor treating me asked what happened and was the one who denounced me." She spent 10 months in jail but now wants to fight for abortion reform. "I'm going to join the fight so that the women in jail feel they're not alone. This justice system discriminates against us for the sole reason that we're women." - Mexico: 'No guilt' - Since 2007, abortion has been legal in the capital Mexico City up until 12 weeks. In the rest of the 31 states it's allowed in cases of rape or a threat to the mother's life. But in Guanajuato, it's outlawed and carries a maximum sentence of 30 years. Art promoter Monse Castera, 32, has had three legal abortions, the first in France when she was 21. "It was... very professional, the one in which I felt most secure." The next two were after it was legalized in Mexico City. "They weren't experiences that left me feeling guilty or with emotional pain. Abortion is not something we should feel ashamed about. It should be avoided but what should most be avoided is having unwanted children. "It fills me with infinite sadness that in 2018 a woman cannot make decisions about her own body. If men could get pregnant this discussion wouldn't even be on the table. No law should tell you what you can or can't do with your body." - Uruguay: 'Example to other countries' - Office worker Mariana Rodriguez, 27, had an abortion in a public hospital in Uruguay, where it has been legal since 2013. "It was never in my thoughts to become a mother. I don't feel psychologically prepared, nor do I have maternal instincts." A torn condom and a morning-after pill that didn't work sent her down the abortion path. "The process was great, I felt well supported and never judged. "No-one tried to persuade me. The psychologist just asked me if I was sure and I gave my explanation. "I was lucky that I didn't have to listen (to talk of homemade methods) using parsley and a knitting needle. I'm thankful of the law in Uruguay, it's applied in a perfect way and should be an example to other countries. "For me, it's a very personal debate: how each individual views the fetus, embryo, baby, the concept of motherhood, the stereotype that women are born to be mothers... But it has to be law, there's no discussion there." burs-ll/ltl/bc/ia Argentina's senate may have voted not to legalize abortion but moves are afoot throughout Latin America to at least debate the issue in parliament Cuba was the region's pioneer in legalizing abortion at an early stage of pregnancy Elsi Rosales spent 10 months in jail for a miscarriage but now wants to fight for the rights of women incarcerated over abortions Mexican Monse Castera says it is more important to avoid having unwanted children than to avoid abortions Uruguayan Mariana Rodriguez says it should be up to the individual not the state to decide whether or not to abortAward-winning photographer and rights activist Shahidul Alam, whose month-long detention has triggered an international outcry, failed to win bail on Tuesday after Bangladesh's high court refused to consider the request, his lawyer told AFP. Alam was arrested on August 5 for making "false" and "provocative" statements on Al Jazeera and on Facebook Live during massive student protests in Dhaka. Rights groups, UN rights experts, Nobel laureates and hundreds of academics have called for the immediate release of the 63-year-old, who says he has been beaten in custody. After a lower court rejected a bail petition for Alam last month, his lawyers moved to the high court in Dhaka and a hearing was set for Tuesday. But "the court did not hear the case because one of the judges (said he) felt embarrassed to hear the case," lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua told AFP. Barua said the judge did not give any further explanation. He said Alam's legal team was now trying to get the case heard by another bench of the high court. Alam's arrest capped a turbulent month in Bangladesh as teenage students poured onto the streets for nine straight days after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Alam had told Al Jazeera that the protests were the result of pent-up anger at corruption and an "unelected government... clinging on by brute force" that had looted banks and gagged media. He is being investigated for allegedly violating Bangladesh's internet laws, enacted in 2006 and sharpened in 2013, which critics say are used to stifle dissent and harass journalists. Alam -- whose work has appeared widely in Western media and who founded the renowned Pathshala South Asian Media Institute -- faces a maximum 14 years in jail if convicted, along with others detained during the protests. The photographer told reporters outside court last month that he had been beaten so badly in police custody that his tunic needed washing to get the blood out. New York-based Human Rights Watch has demanded his release, denouncing authorities for targeting activists and journalists instead of prosecuting those who attacked students when last month's protests were broken up. Last week activists beamed images of Alam onto buildings in Kathmandu during a seven-nation Asian summit that included Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Shahidul Alam, seen here soon after his arrest, says he has been beaten in custodyToday will not have as much rain around. There will be only a few scattered showers this afternoon. I have the rain chances down to 30% today. The better chance for rain is south of I-10 near the coast. North of I-10 could still have an isolated shower or two, but it is less likely that happens. Temperatures, meanwhile, will continue to be help in check and will stay in the 80s.

Through the evening hours, the rain chances will slowly go back down. I do not expect any rain after sunset, and more particularly after midnight. The temperature will slowly cool down, but it will still be warm and humid.

Overnight, it will be mostly cloudy with a few showers possible. I have a 20% chance of rain overnight. This will be more like drizzle than anything else. It will be a muggy night, but it will not be too warm. The rain and clouds are helping keep the temperature cool. Lows tonight will be in the lower to mid 70s.

Tropical Storm Gordon is in the Gulf of Mexico and is continuing to move to the WNW. Gordon is expected to make landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi late tonight, or early Wednesday morning. Gordon should also be a category one hurricane by that time. The expected landfall is too far to the east to have any major impact to us in Southwest Louisiana.

On Wednesday, the rain chances will remain at 40%. Gordon will keep moving to the northwest and will stay out of our viewing area. Therefore, we should not have much of an impact at all. It may be a little breezy at times, but nothing too strong.

By Thursday, the center of the storm will be to our north. Gordon will be weaker but may bring a few showers to our area. Since the storm center will be to our north, it will pull moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico, keeping our rain chances around 60% for Thursday and Friday.

This next weekend will not be as bad. There will be some rain around, but certainly not a wash out. I have the rain chances at 40% for Saturday and Sunday. So, it will be back to a normal summertime pattern. There could be a few breaks in the clouds at times, so any outdoor plans should not be canceled.

Meteorologist Grant Roberts

Copyright 2018. All rights reserved.Belgians are famous for taking their beer seriously, but authorities are now moving to preserve some of the historic cafes where drinkers have been quaffing since the early 20th century. In the heart of the village of Alsemberg, in the Dutch-speaking Flemish Brabant region, south of Brussels, the PastaCafe is one of those that has best kept its 1920s and 1930s decor. The bar and dark woodwork are vintage, as are the leather headrests that remain on the wooden benches. And cracks in the multicoloured floor tiles, which date from the dawn of the last century, show how many drinkers have trod there. "They even had a horse in here once," says manager Ilse Rillaert, showing a picture from the 1970s or 80s as proof. The "charming, authentic" bar is the opposite of the modern "bling" drinking haunt, says the manager, who is in her thirties. "There is a lot of warmth, people who come to eat here feel at home with an interior like this." - 'Only a handful' - Rillaert, who took over from her brother in 2013, says that the cafe, known to older locals by its old name De Hoorn, has served as the backdrop for an English-language costume drama by French director Francois Ozon, the 2007 film "Angel". It was also used by a Belgian Dutch-language pop group called Clouseau in the 1990s after they became locals because they lived nearby. With a red-brick facade, typical of this part of Belgium and northern France, it is one of three cafes that the Flemish regional government said in August it planned to add to a selection of listed sites because of its "exceptional" interiors. Belgium, whose thousands of beers have since 2017 boasted UNESCO World Heritage status, has hundreds of such old cafes or so-called estaminets. "But if you want a completely intact interior, typical of the bourgeois cafes from the first half of the 20th century, there are only a handful," says Joeri Mertens, a real estate heritage researcher for the Flemish region. Seven of them have already been listed in the region and the three others nominated in August, including the PastaCafe, are set to be added next year after a routine public inquiry by local authorities. The goal is to show future generations this furniture, stucco ceilings and vintage mirrors, even if it imposes some constraints on the bar owners themselves. "They will have to seek our approval for any developments," said Mertens, "but on the other hand, we have a budget that they can access for renovations." - 'Hard to find' - Ilse Rillaert from the PastaCafe welcomed the scheme. "When I quit, my successor won't be able to ruin this place. It's great to know it will stay like this," she said. Belgium's French-speaking regions are also preserving their vintage bars. In Brussels and Wallonia, they have been doing so since the 1980s, particularly for those in the Art Nouveau style of the famed Belgian architect Victor Horta, but there are still not many. The Brussels cafe, A La Mort Subite (Sudden Death), which opened in 1910, benefits from protection of the interior, exterior, main floor and cellar, says its boss Bernard Moucharte. "It's hard to find cafes which have kept their style permanently," says Julien Maquet, of Wallonia's heritage agency. Belgium is taking steps to preserve some of the historic cafes where people have long quaffed beer The PastaCafe in Alsemberg, in the Dutch-speaking Flemish Brabant region, is one of Belguim's historic cafes that has best kept its 1920s and 1930s decor The PastaCafe in Alsemberg is one of three cafes that the Flemish regional government has said it plans to add to a selection of listed sites because of its "exceptional" interiorsA visa row between China and host nation Nauru almost derailed the Pacific's largest annual diplomatic summit, it emerged Tuesday, exposing sensitivities about Beijing's rising influence in the region. As formal discussions began at the 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum, leaked letters revealed some members threatened to boycott the meeting over Nauru's treatment of Chinese delegates. Nauru does not have diplomatic relations with China, instead recognising self-ruled Taiwan, which has paid for much of the infrastructure being used to host the PIF summit. Beijing and Taipei have vied for diplomatic influence in the Pacific for decades, with both sides offering aid and support to small island states in return for recognition. In an apparent bid to tweak the nose of Chinese delegates, Nauru refused to stamp entry visas into their diplomatic passports, instead saying it would only process their personal passports. While seemingly a minor detail, it provoked a furious response from other PIF members, many of whom receive development aid and concessional loans from Beijing. China claims sovereignty over the democratic island and relations between the two have worsened since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, as her government refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China". Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi sent a letter to Nauru President Baron Waqa threatening to withdraw from the summit and warning other leaders were likely to follow suit. "Your unilateral action as President of Nauru is a dangerous precedent that I believe may not be accepted by forum leaders," he wrote in a letter obtained by AFP. He added: "The decision taken by your government questions the integrity, credibility and foundation of our organisation." Waqa eventually relented and proposed a compromise in which the Chinese delegation had their visa acceptance letters stamped, rather than their passports. - 'Rock and a hard place' - China does not belong to the PIF but is one of 18 countries that attends as a "dialogue partner" for discussions with member nations. Australia's Lowy Institute think tank estimates China provided US$1.78 billion in aid, including concessional loans, to Pacific nations between 2006-16. The "soft power" wielded by Beijing has alarmed Australia and New Zealand, with both countries boosting their own aid programmes in a bid to maintain influence in a region they regard as their backyard. New Zealand's desire to rekindle relations with its Pacific neighbours is so intense that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is leaving her newborn baby Neve at home in Auckland to attend the summit Wednesday for just one day. Ardern in June became only the second world leader to give birth while in office after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto in 1990. But her daughter has not had vaccinations and cannot yet travel. Some political pundits criticised the extra NZ$80,000 ($53,000) Arden's flying visit would cost, on top of the travel expenses of New Zealand's official delegation. "I was between a rock and a hard place, damned if I did and damned if I didn't," she told reporters. "At the end of the day the option was go for a short time or don't go at all." Ardern said New Zealand's offer to take 150 of the estimated 900 asylum seekers on Nauru was still on the table. They are on the island as part of Australia's tough immigration policy, which sees asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat detained and processed in remote camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Concerns over the asylum seekers' welfare has dominated the lead up to the PIF summit, with rights groups alleging many are suffering mental health issues due to indefinite detention and systemic abuse. Delegates from China were angered by Naura's refusal to stamp their diplomatic passports at the Pacific Islands Forum New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will attend the PIF for one day to rekindle relations with Pacific Island neighbours

The body of an Australian woman who died while working on a superyacht in Greece is on its way home to Australia.

Sinead McNamara, 20, was found tangled in rope at the back of the yacht in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The model and Instagram star had been working as a crew member on the Mayan Queen IV for several months.

A coroner found that 20-year-old Aussie model Sinead McNamara died as a result of hanging. Source: Instagram

A coroner has found that Ms McNamara, from Port Macquarie in New South Wales, died as a result of hanging.

According to media reports, she died as she was being airlifted to hospital.

Model Sinead McNamara had been working on a superyacht for several months when she died. Source: Instagram.

Two weeks before her death, the model shared a cryptic message on Instagram below a picture of herself riding a quad bike along a Greek cliffside in June.

My head is all over the shop, she wrote alongside the image.

Take me back to this, where my only worry was not cracking my skull open.

The exact circumstances surrounding her death remain a mystery.The EU ombudsman on Tuesday savaged the rushed and murky procedure that saw Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's chief of staff promoted to the body's top administrative post. Emily O'Reilly did not criticise Martin Selmayr personally, nor call for the process to appoint him secretary general of the European Commission to be re-opened. But she warned that the members of Juncker's commission had not followed their own rules "in letter nor in spirit" when it elevated him in February. The Commission, in a statement and later at a combative press conference, rejected the report's conclusion that any EU rules had been broken. "The Commission created an artificial sense of urgency to fill the post of Secretary-General in order to justify not publishing a vacancy notice," the ombudsman's office said. "It also organised a Deputy Secretary-General selection procedure, not to fill that role, but rather to make Mr Selmayr Secretary-General in a rapid two-step appointment." "All of this risked jeopardising the hard-won record of high EU administrative standards and consequently, the public trust," the statement warned. Before February, Selmayr was chief of staff to Juncker, the former Luxembourg premier now serving as Brussels' most powerful EU official. Juncker himself has reportedly called his German right-hand man "The Monster" because of his reputed work ethic, and critics saw him as a power behind the throne. Eyebrows were raised when he was abruptly named secretary general -- chief civil servant of the EU's 30,000-strong executive -- with no transparent hiring process. But Juncker -- and some key EU member states -- stood by Selmayr, and he now seems likely to survive even after a new head of the commission is appointed next year. In a scathing report, the ombudsman found the 28-strong College of Commissioners responsible for "four instances of maladministration" in Selmayr's promotion. O'Reilly urged the Commission to develop a specific and separate appointment procedure before it next seeks a secretary general. But the report noted that her "investigation did not concern any assessment of Mr Selmayr, who she understands is both a competent EU official and committed to the European Union." Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, the German member of the college with responsibility for human resources, seized upon this in a statement released in response to the report. "While we do not share all aspects of the underlying report," he said, "we welcome that the Ombudsman... neither contests the legality of the appointment procedure of the Secretary-General, nor the choice of the candidate." Oettinger said the Commission would re-examine how to better apply its own rules in future. The EU ombudsman criticised the European Commission over the appointment to a senior position of a top aide to commission chief Jean-Claude JunckerEurope's biggest news agencies accused Google and Facebook of "plundering" news for free on Tuesday in a joint statement that called on the internet giants to share more of their revenues with the media. In a column signed by the CEOs of around 20 agencies including France's Agence France-Presse, Britain's Press Association and Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur they called on the European Parliament to update copyright law in the EU to help address a "grotesque imbalance". "The internet giants' plundering of the news media's content and of their advertising revenue poses a threat both to consumers and to democracy," the column said. European Parliament lawmakers are to set to debate a new copyright law this month that would force the internet giants to pay more for creative content used on their platforms such as news, music or movies. A first draft of the law was rejected in July and the plans have been firmly opposed by US tech firms, as well as advocates of internet freedom who fear that the regulations could lead to higher costs for consumers. "Can the titans of the internet compensate the media without asking people to pay for access to the internet, as they claim they would be forced to? The answer is clearly 'yes'," the column said. The joint statement from the agencies, which are major suppliers of news, photos and video, said Facebook reported revenues of $40 billion (34 billion euros) in 2017 and profits of $16 billion, while Google made $12.7 billion on sales of $110 billion. "Who could reasonably argue that they are not in a position to make fair payment for the content they use?" the agencies asked. "What we are really talking about is introducing a fair payment by those who have ripped off the news. For the sake of Europe's free press and democratic values, EU lawmakers should press ahead with copyright reform," they added. - 'Neighbouring rights' - The column marks a new lobbying effort by media groups, backed by artists such as Paul McCartney, to sway European lawmakers as they prepare for a second vote on September 12. The fight is over two parts of the planned law. The first is Article 13, which would make platforms like Google-owned YouTube legally liable for copyrighted material to prevent content producers from seeing their work posted without pay. The second is Article 11, which would create a so-called "neighbouring right" meaning that newspapers, magazines and news agencies would have to be paid when Google or other websites link to their stories. "Without paying for it, internet giants such as Google and Facebook use vast quantities of news that is produced at great cost by press publishers and news agencies," added the joint statement on Tuesday. Critics argue that the reform would lead to blanket censorship by tech platforms because of copyright problems, reducing their role as a hub for creativity, especially YouTube. They say it would also restrict the usage of memes and remixes by everyday internet users who often use content without securing the rights. The column was signed by the heads of TT in Sweden, STT in Finland, Belgium's Belga and APA from Austria, as well as other media groups across the European continent. European Parliament lawmakers are to debate a new copyright law that would force internet giants to pay more for creative content used on their platformsFrance is partly to blame for the crisis in Libya, Italy's Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta said Monday, ruling out Italian military intervention there. "France, from my point of view, has a responsibility," the minister wrote on Facebook, evoking the military intervention in 2011 by France and other nations against the regime of Libya's then leader Moamer Kadhafi. "It is clearly now undeniable that this country (Libya) finds itself in this situation because someone, in 2011, put their own interests ahead of those of the Libyan people and of Europe itself," the minister said. "France, from this point of view, is partly to blame," Trenta added. Earlier Italy's parliamentary speaker Roberto Fico called the situation in Libya "a serious problem which France has left us". Trenta said that it was necessary to move forward "together" to secure peace in Libya. The Italian press on Monday suggested that special Italian forces could be sent to intervene in Libya, a possibility which Trenta ruled out. Fighting has been raging between rival militias in the southern suburbs of the Libyan capital Tripoli in recent days, following a failed ceasefire. The Libyan capital has been at the centre of a battle for influence between armed groups since the ouster and killing of dictator Kadhafi in 2011. The United Nations mission to Libya (UNSMIL) has invited the "various Libyan parties" to Tuesday talks for "urgent dialogue". Italian Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta said that it was necessary to move forward "together" to secure peace in LibyaFrance said Tuesday its navy is standing by to avert new clashes between French and British fishing boats after tensions flared last week over access to scallop-rich waters off the Normandy coast. Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told CNews television the navy was "ready to intervene in case of clashes". Fishermen around 12 nautical miles off the Normandy coast last week hurled stones and insults in what has been dubbed a "Scallops War". A British government source said it was France's "responsibility under international law to respond" since the clashes broke out in French waters. "It's not our jurisdiction. The Navy are available if asked. It has not been asked," said the official, who asked not to be named. At stake is access to rich stocks of the pricey delicacy in waters near the mouth of the Seine River. French boats are allowed to fish there only between October to May to protect stocks. But a deal struck years ago exempts British boats less than 15 metres (50 feet) long from the restrictions. French fishermen want that loophole to be closed when representatives of the two sides meet for talks on Wednesday. Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, attending the meeting, said it was "difficult to be optimistic" on the prospects for an agreement. "We hope to strike a deal but that would be down to the French, because they have rejected the terms we've had in previous years," he told AFP. Tensions boiled over last Tuesday when five British boats sparred with dozens of French vessels in the waters off the French coast. Some of the boats rammed each other, video footage showed. "We're going to have to work on this, because this situation cannot continue, we can't have clashes like this," Travert said. He said a new deal was needed to ensure "a sustainable and efficient management of scallop stocks." But he said British fishermen should not expect a separate deal with France as the UK prepares to leave the European Union in March next year. Travert said "tensions were rising" as the scheduled date for Brexit approaches. "We want a global accord, and do not want to see fishing treated separately, because fishing should not be a variable for adjusting Brexit," he said. Fishermen have clashed over access to rich stocks of scallops in waters near the mouth of the Seine River Fishermen hurled stones and insults in the latest episode of a long-running "Scallops War" French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert hopes to avoid fresh clashes between French and UK scallop fishermen in waters off NormandyGuatemala President Jimmy Morales ordered the head of a United Nations anti-corruption commission be blocked from entering the Central American country just four days after shutting down the mission. The UN's International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala had been investigating corruption in the country but its mandate was ended by Morales on Friday. The government said in a statement that it considers Colombian Ivan Velasquez "a person acting against order and public safety." It said his actions were impacting on the "governability, institutionality, justice and peace in the country." Velasquez is currently attending meetings in the United States, said Matias Ponce, CICIG spokesman. Morales's move not to renew CICIG's mission came 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. Set up in 2006, the mission 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. Guatemala President Jimmy Morales has banned the UN anti-corruption mission over "interference" in internal mattersA young mother has been charged over the 2015 and 2017 deaths of her two infant children after investigators discovered a series of internet searches just hours before the second child was rushed to hospital in an unresponsive state.

Stephany LaFountain made an emergency call in November 2017 saying her 13-month old child was not breathing. The child was rushed from their home in Alaska to a nearby hospital but died four days later.

When investigators found that the 23-year-old mum had also lost her four-month-old daughter just two years earlier, they discovered a series of similarities between the two cases.

As they probed further, investigators discovered the mother had searched the Internet for ways to suffocate, ways to kill human with no proof, how to commit the perfect murder and 16 steps to kill someone and not get caught, just hours before the second child was hospitalised.

Stephany Lafountain has been arrested and charged over the deaths of her two infant children. Image: Fairbanks Police Department.

This is just an unimaginable tragedy, Fairbanks Police Chief Eric Jewkes said at a press conference.

We have two infants, we have two babies, that were killed by their mother. How do we even imagine that?

At the time, the cause of the first death was undetermined, but showed consistencies with a suffocation death, according to police. The second child died of complications of anoxia, or lack of oxygen to the brain.

The father of the second child, who was not identified by police, was a deployed member of the military at the time the child died. According to the Washington Post, the couple divorced in February.

LaFountain was arrested on Thursday and charged with first- and second-degree murder of both children.

She is being held on $2 million (US) bail at Fairbanks Correctional Centre.A Melbourne teenager has drowned while holidaying in Bali with friends, just weeks after her mother died from cancer.

Tributes are flooding in for 19-year-old Kristen Mace, a former student of Firbank Girls Grammar School in Brighton, who her friends say died in an unfortunate accident.

The teen, who reportedly had a history of epilepsy, suffered a seizure while walking alone and fell into a pool on Sunday morning, The Age reported. She is being remembered as loyal and caring friend, sister and daughter.

Melbourne teenager Kristen Mace has reportedly died in a accident while holidaying in Bali with friends, just weeks after her mother died from cancer. Source: Kristen Mace / Facebook

Her friends found her body just days before she would have celebrated her 20th birthday on Wednesday.

Ms Maces death comes just three weeks after her mother Jodi died of cancer. The family held the womans funeral in Brighton less than a fortnight ago, according to news.com.au.

A GoFundMe fundraising page has been set up by a friend towards the costs of bringing Ms Maces body back home to Australia, as her travel insurance did not cover this, according to the page.

The 19-year-old who had a history of epilepsy reportedly drowned after falling into a pool. Source: Kristen Mace / Facebook

The page has almost raised its $50,000 goal in less than 24 hours.

The impact on the Mace family no doubt is indescribable, the crowdfunding page organiser, Harrison Pirrie, wrote.

Kristen was an amazing girl and will be dearly missed by all. As discussed the circumstances over the past three weeks for the Mace family are beyond tragic. We need to band together and donate generously so we can help bring Kristen home.

One friend wrote: Kristen, you held a special place in so many peoples hearts and didnt even know it.

Your beautiful, kindhearted personality and contagious laugh and smile will be so dearly missed. Everything about you was truly special. You were honestly one in a million. Love you always, she said.

Kristen Mace would have celebrated her 20th birthday on Wednesday. Source: Kristen Mace / Facebook

Another friend said the teen would be missed by many.

You left a smile on everyones face where ever you went. You were a loyal and caring friend, sister and daughter.

Heaven is lucky to have gained such a shinning star, youll be glowing right next to your mum.

Story continues

Firbank Grammar School has also paid tribute to the 2016 graduate, sending their condolences to the Mace family.

A DFAT spokeswoman confirmed to Yahoo7 assistance was being provided to the family.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian who died in Bali, Indonesia, in accordance with the Consular Services Charter. For privacy reasons we are unable to provide further details, it said in a statement.

Travel insurance in the event of death overseas

In cases of death overseas, consular assistance may include support and guidance to families and liaison with local and Australian authorities to assist with funeral arrangements or repatriation of remains, DFAT said.

Insurance companies will generally provide advice on, and take care of, most of the arrangements and costs associated with a local funeral or the return of the deceased to Australia, the department added in an online statement.

Unfortunately, many Australians travel overseas without adequate insurance cover.

If an Australian dies overseas and is not covered by travel insurance, the tragedy can significantly add to the stress on the family, left with the responsibility of making funeral arrangements and meeting the costs involved, such as returning the body home.

We strongly recommend that all Australians travelling overseas take out travel insurance to cover the costs of hospitalisation and medical treatment should they become ill overseas, as well as costs incurred as a result of death, DFAT urged.John Millman's joy was tinged with guilt after he stunned 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer to reach the US Open quarter-finals on Monday. As Federer struggled in suffocating humidity, his physical troubles contributing to 77 unforced errors, Brisbane-born Millman gained in strength to close out the contest 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/3). "I felt a little bit guilty today because he didn't have his best day today that's for sure," said Millman, a 29-year-old ranked 55th in the world. "I'm very aware he didn't have a great day in the office. Probably to beat him I needed him to have an off day and I needed to have a good day." Millman, in the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time, admitted to feeling like "a deer in the headlights" in the first set, but he rose to the occasion on the 23,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium court. "It was a slightly intimidating environment," he said. "At the start I don't think I was playing so well. But as the match went on, I felt more comfortable, felt pretty good. "I've always done a good job of not letting the moment get the better of me," added Millman, whose career has been slowed by a string of injuries and three surgeries. Even though he felt his win owed something to Federer's off night, he didn't see why he couldn't press on in his bid to become the first Australian man to win a Grand Slam since Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2002. "Why not," he said of his chances of beating 13-time major winner Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals. "I'll have to improve a lot on the last time I played him," said Millman, who won just three games in a Queen's Club loss to Djokovic this year. "He's an incredible player and he's in really good form now, too. "But why not? I think it's a disservice to who I am if I go out there and don't have that belief." John Millman celebrates a point in his upset victory over Roger Federer in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday.A grieving NSW mother, whose teenage daughter was sent home from hospital a day before she died from meningococcal, has warned others to be aware of the potentially deadly symptoms.

Central Coast student Mischelle Rhodes, 19, came down with a fever last Tuesday, but was sent home from hospital with painkillers and died the next day.

The hospital did some blood tests, gave her Nurofen, gave her Panadol and sent her home, the students mother Anjini Rhodes said.

They said she was okay.

By Wednesday morning, Mischelle was getting worse and began vomiting.

Her mum took her back to Gosford Hospital and by lunchtime there was quick-spreading rash.

And she told me, Doctors told me Im going to die, Ms Rhodes said.

Experts say meningococcal is very uncommon in NSW but warned anyone who developed symptoms to seek immediate medical advice.

These included sudden fever, headaches, neck stiffness, joint pain or a rash of red-purple spots.

Watch the full story above.Russia on Tuesday said it has officially warned US internet giant Google against "meddling" in next Sunday's local elections by hosting opposition leader Alexei Navalny's videos calling for mass protests. Representatives of Russia's electoral commission, the Prosecutor-General's Office and the state internet watchdog at a meeting alleged Navalny uses Google's services to disseminate illegal information and warned that the company may be prosecuted if it does not act to stop this. A Google spokeswoman declined to give a specific comment, telling AFP in an emailed statement that the company "reviews all valid requests from government institutions". Central Election Commission member Alexander Klyukin said the commission had sent an official letter to Larry Page, the CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, regarding Navalny's use of YouTube. The fierce Kremlin critic has urged Russians to protest on September 9, when several Russian regions and Moscow elect regional and local officials. Navalny is currently serving a 30-day sentence for violating public order laws during a protest earlier this year. "Mr. Navalny buys the company's advertising tools to publish information on YouTube about the mass political event on September 9, on the day of elections," Klyukin said. "We informed Google that such events on election day will lead to massive violation of the law" because political agitation is banned on election day, he said. "Meddling by a foreign company in our election is not permitted." He called Google a "gigantic American company" and hinted that Washington uses it as an influence tool. US officials have repeatedly warned about the dangers of Russian interference in upcoming elections and there is a full-scale probe underway into Moscow's alleged role in the 2016 presidential election which brought Donald Trump to office. Navalny's close ally Leonid Volkov reacted to the officials' statements by saying that the Sunday rally is perfectly legal and doesn't violate election laws since its aim is not to campaign for a particular candidate. The demonstration is to protest upcoming pension reforms, which will hike the retirement age by five years for women and three for men -- a deeply unpopular measure that has caused a rare sag in Vladimir Putin's ratings. YouTube is "the only channel to inform the masses" since Russian companies have rejected similar commercial requests to publish information about upcoming demonstrations, Volkov said. "All levels of the Russian government... have been ordered to block the protest by any means necessary," he wrote on Facebook. - 'Mouthpiece' for illegal information - The deputy chief of Russia's internet watchdog Roskomnadzor, Vadim Subbotin, accused "foreign internet platforms" of disrespecting Russian laws and serving as a "mouthpiece for disseminating illegal information". He said Google-owned YouTube "acts as a link in the chain for propaganda of anti-social behaviour during Russian elections". He said "over 40" YouTube channels "constantly call for violating Russian law". "Certain parties interested in destabilising the situation in Russia attempt to attract internet users to illegal actions by providing unlimited opportunities on foreign internet giants like Google," he said. If Google fails to respond to official complaints, this will be seen as "de-facto direct intervention in Russia's domestic affairs," he said. The officials discussed their grievances against Google during a meeting at Russia's upper house of parliament. Alexei Zhafyarov, an official from the Prosecutor-General's Office, said it had sent an official warning to Google over the "inadmissibility" of violating Russian election law. "This is a rather serious measure, after which they can be called to account," including via criminal prosecution, he said. Russia has long pushed for greater control of information published by Russian users on international platforms to curb political dissent and prevent terrorism. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a fierce Kremlin critic, has urged Russians to protest on September 9 when several Russian regions and Moscow elect regional and local officials The Russian authorities accuse US internet giant Google of meddling in upcoming local elections by allowing opposition leader Novalny to put up videosSpain's first trial linked to thousands of suspected cases of babies stolen from their mothers during the Franco dictatorship wrapped up Tuesday with prosecutors seeking 11 years jail for the elderly former gynaecologist in the dock. Eduardo Vela, 85, a former gynaecologist at the now-defunct San Ramon clinic in Madrid, is accused of having in 1969 taken Ines Madrigal, now aged 49, from her biological mother and given her to another woman who then raised her and was falsely certified as her birth mother. "In this country, a person who played God -- changing people's parentage, faking birth certificates like in my case and negating the right to know one's origins -- cannot remain unpunished," Madrigal told reporters at the end of the hearing in Madrid. She said she hoped the trial, whose verdict could come within a month, would help open "thousands of cases that are closed" even if she would never know who her real mother was. Activists say around 2,000 similar cases dating back to General Francisco Franco's dictatorship of 1939 to 1975 have failed to make it to court in Spain because of a lack of evidence or because the time limit to file charges has passed. In a dark and often overlooked chapter of the right-wing dictatorship, the newborns of some left-wing opponents of the regime, as well as of unmarried or poor couples, were removed from their mothers and adopted. New mothers were frequently told their babies had died suddenly within hours of birth and the hospital had taken care of their burials, but in fact they were given or sold to another family. Baby stealing began after Franco came to power following the 1936-39 civil war pitting left-wing Republicans against conservative Nationalists loyal to the general. It was part of an effort to purge Spain of Marxist influence. It was expanded to take newborns from poor families as well as illegitimate babies, and went on as an illegal trafficking network during democracy until at least 1987 when a new law was introduced to better regulate adoption. - 'Historic' - Enrique Vila, a lawyer who has written extensively about the "stolen babies" scandal, said Vela's trial could provide "moral" encouragement for other victims to bring forward lawsuits. "There are dozens of doctors and nuns across Spain who are guilty" and who are still alive, he told AFP. During questioning in the opening session of the trial on June 26, Vela said he could not remember details of how the clinic, which he ran for 20 years up to 1982 and is believed to have been a centre for baby trafficking, operated. He added that the signature on Madrigal's birth certificate was not his. Vela -- the first person prosecuted over the "stolen babies" scandal which broke in the media in the 1980s -- was due to return to the witness stand the following day but instead he went to hospital after falling ill. He is accused of falsifying official documents, illegal adoption, unlawful detention and certifying a non-existent birth. The probe into the case was not without its difficulties, with a policeman declaring in court that Vela burnt his clinic's archives. But the agent insisted that "there was a plot to which Mr. Vela probably belonged" that consisted in taking babies from single mothers who were in shelters that were often run by religious orders. - Jesuit priest involved? - Emilie Helmbacher, a French journalist, also testified by videoconference. In an investigation in Madrid in December 2013, she used a hidden camera to record Vela as he appeared to confess to having given Madrigal away as a "gift" in June 1969. In the recording, he said "Ines Madrigal's mother did not pay" for her. Vela's lawyer Rafael Casas criticised the hidden camera recording and said his client had "nothing to do" with what he is accused of. Another witness, Paz Gordon, who stepped in as godmother for Madrigal's baptism, told the court that the actual mediator in her case was a Jesuit priest. The cases echo events that took place during Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Courts there have since handed down lengthy jail terms for the systematic theft of babies from political prisoners. Demonstrators holding baby dolls and placards reading "Human rights for stolen babies" have rallied outside the Madrid court where a former gynaecologist is the first person prosecuted over the scandal which broke in the media in the 1980s. At a previous hearing in June, a woman wore a T-shirt reading "I look for my son" outside the courtUS President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syria against launching an attack on the country's last rebel stronghold with the help of Russia and Iran, saying the offensive could trigger a "human tragedy." The warning came as Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javed Zarif met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in a surprise visit to Damascus ahead of the looming offensive. Syrian forces are amassing around the northwestern province of Idlib, in preparation for the assault. "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," Trump tweeted. "Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict. But Russia and Iran have insisted that extremist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault. Zarif's trip to war-ravaged Syria also comes just days before a top-level tripartite meeting in Tehran to discuss the Syrian conflict, now in its eighth year. He met Assad to discuss "issues on the agenda for the tripartite meeting," according to the Syrian presidency's account on the Telegram messaging app. - Former de-escalation zone - Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored the negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in Syria. Last year, they had designated Idlib as a "de-escalation" zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire. Damascus's main sponsor Russia has been sounding the war drums in recent days, all the while seeking to pressure Turkey into reining in jihadists in Idlib, Tehran and Moscow have provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011. The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said an all-out assault on Idlib and its catastrophic consequences could still be avoided. ICG said Russia, whose air support would be crucial for the offensive to succeed, should understand that a bloodbath in Idlib would jeopardize its own political goals. "By backing an all-out offensive, Russia risks undermining its long-term political objectives in Syria," ICG wrote in a nine-page briefing. "Russia seeks to ensure not just the regime's military victory in Syria but its full political restoration through international re-legitimation at war's end." Further Iranian engagement in Syria meanwhile risks drawing Israel deeper into the conflict. A series of recent strikes in Syria that have killed Iranians has been attributed to Israel. But Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday signaled strikes could be extended to Iraq if necessary. Asked about the possibility of Israel hitting Iranian military positions in "Iraq or Tehran," Lieberman said: "We do not limit ourselves to Syrian territory alone. It must be clear." - US warnings ring hollow? - Britain, France and the US, 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. But analysts still say the United States appears resigned to the likelihood of a final military victory by Syrian government forces. 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 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 as "moribund." 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. Syrian rebel fighters prepare for an upcoming government forces offensive, in the countryside of the rebel-held northern Idlib province Idlib province: The last insurgent stronghold in Syria Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javed Zarif's (L) meets with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," US President Donald Trump tweetedSunday, September 2, 2018

Katie Metler has a fascinating article in the Washington Post about Brooklyn, Iowa's reaction to the efforts to politicize the death of Mollie Tibbetts, who was allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant. Friends and family say that Mollie, who was liberal, would have been angered by President Trump's speech seeking to use her death to build support for immigration enforcement.

Brooklyn is a farm town, named after two brooks that it lies between. "Immigrant families have been drawn here by the work opportunities in the meatpacking industry, on construction crews and as farmhands. The Latino population in town has grown steadily since 2000, yet it still makes up just 2.3 percent of the population. Brooklyns Latino residents say they have felt welcome in this town, which sits halfway between Iowa City and Des Moines along Interstate 80, but there have been subtle tensions. Language barriers create some separation, and there are cultural disconnects: In Mexico, quinceaneras are a community affair. Here, they are not."

Mollie Tibbetts' father, Rob Tibbetts, published an opinion piece in the Des Moines Register denouncing those who have chosen to callously distort and corrupt Mollies tragic death to advance a cause she vehemently opposed. He criticized politicians and pundits who would not honor the Tibbetts' family wishes to not make her death an issue about immigration:

"They have instead chosen to callously distort and corrupt Mollies tragic death to advance a cause she vehemently opposed. I encourage the debate on immigration; there is great merit in its reasonable outcome. But do not appropriate Mollies soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist. The act grievously extends the crime that stole Mollie from our family and is, to quote Donald Trump Jr.,`heartless' and `despicable.'

Courtesy of the Des Moine Register

KJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2018/09/little-bear-creek-phot-courtesy-of-brooklyn-iowa-website-katie-metler-has-a-fascinating-article-in-the-washington-post-ab.htmlUS President Donald Trump expressed his hopes for the "success" of the next inter-Korean summit, Seoul said Tuesday, even as relations grow cooler between Washington and Pyongyang. South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to travel to Pyongyang later this month for what will be his third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year. A high-level delegation will fly to the North Korean capital on Wednesday to discuss the details of Moon's visit. In a phone conversation on the eve of the delegation's trip, Trump and Moon agreed to continue "close cooperation" in their efforts to denuclearise the North, Moon's office said in a statement. "President Trump said he sincerely hoped for the success of the South-North summit in September, not only for the improvement of inter-Korean ties but also the implementation of the June 12 US-North Korea summit agreement and future dialogue," it added. The two leaders also discussed holding a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York later this month. Moon and Kim have met face-to-face twice now, the first during a historic summit at the border truce village of Panmunjom in April. They met a second time at the same location in May as they scrambled to salvage plans for a summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore, which eventually went ahead as scheduled. The rapid rapprochement on the Korean peninsula led to a landmark meeting between Kim and Trump in June after months of trading threats of nuclear war amid heightened tensions. At the summit the pair reached a vague agreement to work towards the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula", but there has been little movement since. Pyongyang has slammed the US for its "gangster-like" demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament, and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency reported there was no indication the North had stopped its nuclear activities. Last month Trump ordered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to abruptly cancel a planned trip to Pyongyang, citing lack of progress on denuclearisation. US President Donald Trump said he "sincerely hoped for the success" of the next Korean leader summit, according to a statement from the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-inLeaders of Britain's main opposition Labour party met Tuesday to decide whether to adopt in full an international definition of anti-Semitism, after internal strife on the issue and souring ties with the Jewish community. The party's governing body decided earlier this summer to accept only a partial interpretation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, reigniting a long-running row over anti-Semitism that has lead to fears of a formal split. Labour's leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran pro-Palestinian campaigner, has repeatedly come under fire over his own past comments, actions and associations. The party's National Executive Committee discussed whether to reverse its decision to omit some examples of anti-Semitic behaviour in the IHRA definition from its code of conduct for party members. Rival groups protested outside the entrance to Labour's headquarters in London as the meeting took place, attended by Corbyn, who went in through a back door. Stan Keable, secretary of the Labour Against the Witch Hunt group, said the IHRA definition was specifically designed to associate anti-Semitism with criticism of Zionism and Israel. "This whole campaign about new anti-Semitism is a lie," he told AFP. "This is a struggle between the right and the left wing in the Labour Party. This is a struggle for the control of the Labour Party." Meanwhile Damon Lenszner, part of a group of counter-demonstrators, said British Jews felt "under threat". "The far left in any country has always had an anti-Semitism problem, the same as the far right," he said. "Now they've infiltrated and now they control Her Majesty's opposition", which is a "disgrace... it puts shame on the UK". In March, British Jewish leaders wrote a joint letter claiming "enough is enough" over anti-Semitism within Labour, and protests were held outside parliament. The letter claimed a "repeated institutional failure" within the party to tackle the problem and accused Corbyn of siding with anti-Semites "again and again". It said there was "literally not a single day" in which Labour spaces, either online or in meetings, did not repeat "slanders against Jews". The letter claimed Corbyn "cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities. "Corbyn did not invent this form of politics, but he has had a lifetime within it, and now personifies its problems and dangers." Rival groups protested outside Labour headquarters in London as the opposition party met to decide whether to adopt in full an international definition of anti-Semitism, to end internal strife and souring ties with the Jewish communityThe Cayuga County Senior Moments Resource Fair is coming back bigger and better than ever for its third annual event this September.

"This is our third year, and every year it's gotten better and better," said Janet Taylor, an aging services specialist at the Cayuga County Office for the Aging. "Every year we have more vendors."

Taylor explained that there will be a large range of vendors at the senior resource fair on Sept. 14, with many returning vendors as well as some new guests. Balance testing, which she said was a popular activity in the past, will be back this year while new vendors include a local chapter of AARP, the American Associations of Retired Persons, and a New York statewide Senior Action Council.

She explained that the county clerks office will be present to help people apply for passports, veterans will be able to apply for discount cards, Wegmans Pharmacy will offer flu shots, Medicare consultations and memory testing will be available for individuals and the Cayuga County Sherriffs Office will also demonstrate a Project Lifesaver Program which includes a tracking device that locates wandering individuals.

The goal of the event, Taylor explained, is to educate and provide seniors, family and community members information and resources to help with planning for the care of ones self or elderly family members. The idea is that the event is a one stop shop for people, Taylor said.

"The energy is really positive," Taylor said of the event.

Over the years, she added, the Office for the Aging has received feedback through evaluation forms that has helped the fair to improve every year. She said that people have reported that its been a positive event and has provided helpful connections, services and guests have presented valuable information. In the past, Taylor explained, there have been three different presentations but this year the Office for the Aging scaled back to two keynote events since people expressed that there wasnt enough time to attend all the presentations and visit with all the vendors.

The vendors and various Cayuga County government departments will all be available throughout the duration of the fair, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., while an annual Office for the Aging public hearing and two presentations are scheduled at specific times throughout the fair. One exception to the vendors, Taylor said, is that there will be elder law consultations with two attorneys from Auburns Boyle and Anderson law firm, which will only be available from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Each year the Office for the Aging hosts a public hearing, this year it will be from 9:30 to 10 a.m., and Taylor explained that it is a really important aspect to the day as it allows residents to give the office feedback and gives the office an opportunity to hear about needs in the community that are either unmet or could be better addressed.

Then, at 10:30 a.m. there will be a workshop with Aurora of Central New York to present and discuss strategies and information to help people cope with vision and hearing loss, explained Auroras Director of Outreach David DeFrancis.

DeFrancis explained that the presentation, which will be given by Auroras Vice President Ann Costa, is important because one-third of seniors have hearing loss and one-in-four seniors have vision loss. The goal of Aurora, he added, is to keep people at home to stay as independent as possible.

Vision and hearing loss touch all our lives, DeFrancis said, explaining that a lot of people are diagnosed with hearing or vision loss and no longer know how to continue with simple living skills such as being able to read their mail or hear their grandsons voice over the phone.

Aurora will also have assistive equipment available at the fair to demonstrate, which DeFrancis said will be very interesting for people curious about the equipment and technology available.

These equipment and these strategies change people's lives," DeFrancis said of what Costa will share at the fair.

The second keynote presentation at 11:45 a.m., by Trudy Scarr  an aging life care professional at Inspire Care  will help teach seniors how to become the best advocate they can be for themselves when it comes to medical care and treatment.

Scarr explained that Inspire Care advocates for older individuals and provides and coordinates services to help them live at home safely for as long as possible.

Something Scarr has noticed, through working with elder clients and caring for her own parents, is that senior citizens often show up for appointments, get recommendations and medications and go home  often with questions unanswered. Sometimes, she added, people are even unsure of what their diagnoses mean.

Its important to be your own advocate, Scarr said. "You are in the best position to take care of yourself."

Scarr said her presentation will help people learn the right questions to ask to have more meaningful appointments, how to store and maintain medical records and will touch on medication management. Especially since people often only get a few minutes with their doctors, she added, she wants to help teach people how to make their next appointment their best appointment.

Her hope is that what she shares will increase seniors confidence in self-care to help them either maintain their wellness or improve their health.

Once the workshops complete around 12:30 p.m., seniors will still have time to peruse the fair and visit with numerous vendors, get screened for eligibility for New York Connects benefits and learn about the countys services for seniors over the age of 60 as well as enjoy healthy snacks and grab a goody bag.

Any questions about the event can be directed to the countys Office for the Aging at (315) 253-1226. People who may need a ride to the Sept. 14 event can contact the Scat Van office at (315) 253-0996 to ask about availability and reserve a spot by Sept. 10.

Staff writer Megan Ehrhart can be reached at (315) 282-2244 or megan.ehrhart@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @MeganEhrhart.

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Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.If you want to get better at something, it's only natural to seek the help and advice of someone who has mastered the skill. If you want to get in shape, you may look for a personal trainer. If you are interested in becoming a better painter, you take painting classes. The same is true for an alcoholic who wants to pursue a sober life with the help of the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Besides going to meetings, it is a good idea for the newcomer to seek out a personal sponsor  someone who has successfully applied the principles of A.A. in everyday life, can guide you through difficult times and can give one-on-one support. After all, the sponsor has been where you've been and understands your daily struggle of trying to function as a recovering alcoholic in a world where drinking alcohol is ubiquitous.

Are you ready to ask a sponsor? It is up to the sponsee to select a sponsor  someone you are comfortable with and find easy to talk to  and ask if he or she would be willing to become your sponsor. Just as it wasn't easy to walk into your first A.A. meeting, it may be difficult to ask someone to become your sponsor. Most A.A. groups realize that they all need help and they most likely had a special person in their lives who helped them cope with difficult situations. Don't be afraid to ask; the sponsor is likely to get as much out of the experience as the sponsee. An A.A. sponsor and sponsee are seen as equals. They should have an open relationship in which both talk freely and honestly with each other. Sponsorship can be a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship, as most A.A. groups feel that sponsorship is a vital part of their ongoing growth and progress in recovery. I am forever grateful to my sponsor, who has seen me through challenging times.

Are you ready to become a sponsor? Sponsorship does not only benefit the one being sponsored, but strengthens the older member's sobriety. I can attest from personal experience that sharing my success by helping someone else live without alcohol brings satisfaction, responsibility and growth to my own life. Being a sponsor has helped me spiritually, and is one of the ways I am giving back. There is no hierarchy in A.A., so any member can help a newcomer learn to cope with a life that doesn't involve alcohol. It is suggested to seek out a sponsor of the same sex to stay focused on the primary purpose of the relationship, someone who has lived without alcohol for some time and someone who has a good understanding of the A.A. principles and the 12 steps. A sponsor should have the capacity and patience to listen, counsel and commit time to the new member.

Sponsor dos and don'ts: A sponsor does everything in his or her power to help a newcomer get and stay sober through the A. A. program. A sponsor leads by example, encourages A.A. meeting attendance, makes introductions to other members, provides A.A. literature, is available to the sponsee when problems arise, reinforces the 12 steps, and much more. The sponsor emphasizes the importance of the A.A. recovery program, not his or her own personal views, doesn't try to convert, doesn't pretend to have all the answers, and doesn't make the newcomer dependent on the sponsor but helps the sponsee rely on the A.A. program.

A.A. literature states that most members owe their sobriety to someone who took a special interest in them and was willing to share a great gift with them. Sponsorship responsibilities are accepted as opportunities to enrich personal A.A. experiences and to deepen the satisfaction that comes from working to help others.

Timothy Donovan from Auburn is a member of the Cayuga County Drug-Free Community Coalition, the Cayuga County Alcohol and Substance Abuse Sub-Committee, and Alcoholics Anonymous. For more information, he can be reached at timmy5710@yahoo.com.

Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0Meg Vanek, the longtime director of the Cayuga County Convention and Visitors Bureau, announced her retirement Monday after decades spent promoting tourism throughout the region.

Vanek, whose 40-year career in tourism spanned from California to England before establishing a tourism office in Auburn in 1997, will leave her position as executive director of the Cayuga County Conventions and Visitors Bureau later this year, according to a press release.

While at the CCCVB, Vanek created the first research-based strategic plan for tourism in the county that captured the attention of travel writers from across the country and world.

Some of Vanek's other accomplishments include the creation of the award-winning Finger Lakes Sweet Treat Trail and a customized online hospitality training program for the county's tourism industry. Tourism spending in the county exceeded $100 million in 2017.

"By pioneering new programs, staying abreast of key market trends and creating important partnerships, Vanek has truly set the CCCVB up for the future," Jessica Cantu CCCVB chair said in the release. "We appreciate everything she has done for tourism in Cayuga County and we wish her a warm congratulations on her retirement."

The CCVB board of directors already has a plan of succession in place, and will begin a search for a new executive director soon, the release said.

In addition to her work at the CCCVB, Vanek also serves on Auburn's Historic & Cultural Sites Commission, the Finger Lakes Regional Tourism Council, the Cayuga Lake Scenic Byway Board of Directors, the New York State Travel Industry Association Board of Directors and the United Way of Cayuga County.

Staff writer Ryan Franklin can be reached at (315) 282-2252 or ryan.franklin@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @RyanNYFranklin

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 4 Angry 0The transition of Owasco Lake's harmful algal bloom surveillance program to a volunteer-led effort has allowed for a greatly expanded area of coverage, but the first full year with volunteers in the primary role has also come with some growing pains.

Over the past four years, as harmful algal blooms (HABs) have become a persistent problem across New York's lakes, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has established numerous surveillance programs to monitor the blooms.

On Owasco Lake, the DEC in 2015 first partnered with the Owasco Lake Watershed Inspection Program, the professional agency formed by an agreement between the city of Auburn, town of Owasco, and Cayuga County, to take samples at six locations around the lake.

Beginning in 2016, the DEC and the inspection program began training and including volunteers from the Owasco Watershed Lake Association (OWLA) in order to expand monitoring beyond what the program's limited staff could accomplish while also attending to their other responsibilities.

That's really what it boils down to, is having the yes and the boots on the ground, Watershed Specialist Andrew Snell said.

In that framework, the inspection program staff was responsible for receiving and responding to reports of HABs, coordinating sampling by volunteers, delivering samples to a lab for analysis, and disseminating results to the public, according to the DEC.

Besides Owasco Lake, Honeoye, Otisco, Seneca, Cayuga, Skaneateles and Canandaigua lakes all have similar HAB surveillance programs in place which usually include partnerships with lake associations and other local entities.

This year, approximately 30 OWLA volunteers, after additional training from DEC and Finger Lakes Watershed Hub staff, assumed primary responsibility for the surveillance program.

However, OWLA President-elect Julie Lockhart said at August's meeting of the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council that said that shift has come with more extra duties than she thinks volunteers should be responsible for.

While Lockhart said she's happy to run the surveillance program, which includes conducting weekly sampling at specific zones around the lake, driving samples to the approved lab in Syracuse and posting the results on the OWLA website, she has also had to field a flurry of phone calls and emails from residents concerned about possible HABs.

The bottom line is we're volunteers. We can't be the authority and the resource for this, Lockhart said, adding that the volunteers are happy to monitor for HABs but can't also be expected to be responsible for public notification.

DEC HABs program coordinator Dr. Rebecca Gorney and the Division of Water's Dr. Jacqueline Lendrum both said in a phone interview that the department is committed to working with both the volunteers and the Cayuga County Health Department to further streamline the program and ease any growing pains, and would specifically be addressing how to handle public notification.

Absolutely, communication is something we're working on, Gorney said, adding that she planned to meet with the department and volunteers soon. We'll see if the Department of Health can work with us to release those pinchpoints the volunteers are having. We definitely want to continue working with the volunteers.

Lendrum also sought to reassure the public that the DEC, the county health department, and all other involved agencies have systems and procedures in place for notification in the event of a lakewide bloom.

For individual blooms, however, Health Department Environmental Health Director Eileen O'Connor urged any residents concerned about localized blooms to keep in mind the DEC's recommendation of know it, avoid it, report it.

The Environmental Health division's website includes a section dedicated to HABs which recommends blooms on Owasco Lake be reported to the inspection program at 315-427-5188. Blooms on any other water body in Cayuga County should be reported via email to the DEC's Habsinfo@dec.ny.gov account.

Staff writer Ryan Franklin can be reached at (315) 282-2252 or ryan.franklin@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @RyanNYFranklin

Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Two former Auburn Correctional Facility inmates were indicted Tuesday in connection with the July 2017 death of another former inmate, the Cayuga County District Attorney's Office announced.

During the evening of July 9, corrections officers at ACF found Daniel Wingate unresponsive in his cell, covered in blood. Wingate was initially evaluated at the prison and then immediately transported to Auburn Community Hospital, where he died on July 14, 2017, due to complications of blunt force injuries to the head, the DA's office said.

Following an investigation by ACF staff, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, state police and the district attorney's office, Rupert Alberga, 36, and Ashton Bellamy, 32, were both charged in connection with Wingate's death.

Alberga and Bellamy were arraigned Tuesday by Cayuga County Court Judge Thomas Leone. Alberga, also known as Dwight, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, while Bellamy, also known as Amir, was charged with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them, according to the DA's office.

Alberga is currently serving a life sentence at Attica Correctional Facility for second-degree murder, which he was convicted of in Albany County Court in April 2014. He faces 15 years to life for each first-degree murder charge, according to the DA's office.

Bellamy is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility. He was previously convicted in September 2015 of first-degree assault in Nassau County and sentenced to eight years in prison and five years of post-release supervision. He was also convicted of second-degree assault in Nassau County in 2009. Because of his two prior violent felonies, Bellamy could face life in prison if convicted of the current charges against him, the DA's office said.

Before his death, Wingate was serving a five-year sentence on a first-degree sex abuse conviction in Monroe County. According to the DOCCS website, he was scheduled to be released in September 2017. Prior to his most recent sentence, he was convicted of sex abuse and spent time in prison from 1995 to 2008.

Alberga and Bellamy are scheduled to reappear in Cayuga County Court on Nov. 8.

Love 17 Funny 8 Wow 4 Sad 5 Angry 14DALLASHustler founder Larry Flynt travels to Dallas for the grand opening of the newest Hustler Hollywood boutique Septemeber 15 at 6:00 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public, and guests will have the opportunity to speak with Flynt personally, get autographs and photos, and enjoy drinks and the chance to win prizes throughout the night.

"I always enjoy connecting with members of the communities in which we open our boutiques," Flynt said. "I have been excited about Dallas for a long time, and look forward to a long relationship with this wonderful city."

The store, located at 9341 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, is the first Hustler Hollywood to open in the the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, and the 25th location for the retailer in the U.S.

For more information, visit www.HustlerHollywood.com.CYBERSPACE  The Czech Republic's Little Caprice has been keeping busy shooting a variety of specialty scenes for her online fans.

A new lesbian scene, directed by Marcello Bravo and titled First Touch, for her site LittleCaprice-Dreams.com pairs her blindfolded with another brunette, the Spanish porn star Apolonia Lapiedra.

Check out the "First Touch" scene on LittleCaprice-Dreams.com.

When not working on her own site, she and real-life partner Bravo recently appeared on Greg Lansky's Vixen.com. The 30 minute clip entitled A Long Time Coming follows Caprice and Bravos work on one of producer Greg Lanskys other adult properties, Tushy.com, where the pair recently shot Gaping for My Husbands Boss. It features an interracial foursome with Ana Foxxx and Jason Brown.

In A Long Time Coming, Foxxx and husband Brown meet Little Caprice and Bravo, who show them all over Prague while on holiday. The couple returns the favor when Caprice and Bravo visit them in L.A.

Gaping for My Husbands Boss served as Caprice's Tushy.com debut, in a story that depicts Little Caprice taking a daily stroll along the beach to clear her mind. With her husband out of town, she has something to think about. She loves to flirt and her husband's boss is her latest conquest. She has already acted outrageously to get his attention, now she finds herself all alone with him, and he is not in the mood to play any more games.

Caprice has a long list of credits with some of the top adult studios, including Marc Dorcel, DDF, Private, Hustler, X-art.com and MetArt. She also has posed in print publications like Playboy, Penthouse, Maxim, and Hustler.Tuesday, September 4, 2018

If you're on the law teaching job market this year, this post is for you. Among the areas that Minnesota Law School is searching for is labor & employment law. Here's the job announcement:

The University of Minnesota Law School plans to fill one tenure-track junior (entry-level and/or lateral) faculty position, to begin in the 2019-20 academic year. Rank upon hire will depend on qualifications. This is a full-time, nine-month appointment.

Qualifications-Applicants should hold a J.D. or degree of equivalent rank and should demonstrate outstanding potential in scholarship and teaching. We are especially interested in the following academic subject areas: constitutional law, employment/labor law, administrative law, civil procedure, environmental law, health law, international law, intellectual property law, property law, and tort law; however, the Law School will consider outstanding candidates with interest or expertise in other subject matter areas.

People of color, women, individuals with disabilities, members of the LGBT community, and other candidates who will contribute to the cultural and intellectual diversity of the faculty are strongly encouraged to apply. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity employer.

To apply, please go to http://humanresources.umn.edu/jobs and reference job ID 326112.

-Jeff Hirsch

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/laborprof_blog/2018/09/minnesota-looking-for-labor-employment-law-professor.html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".Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world. Many of his employees are so poor, youre paying their welfare benefits. And hes not the only tech billionaire offloading his payroll costs onto taxpayers. This is an indefensible scam. Why is only Bernie talking about it? pic.twitter.com/PdXBfQsHsq  Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 31, 2018

On Thursday night's show, Tucker Carlson of Fox News launched into a diatribe over the supposed injustices of Amazon's pay practices.Carlson is a talented host and a passionate expositor of his position. But he has his logic exactly backwards here: Amazon offers lower pay because there is a free market for labor in the United States, and because government benefits provide the base upon which would-be workers rely. Were we to cut government benefits for lower-wage workers, Amazon and other companies would have to pick up the slack or face a lack of labor. The laws of supply and demand work predictably in the labor market. Pay rates aren't the fault of Amazon. They're the fault of the government.With that said, Carlson's rhetoric is indicative of a broader move by many on the Right toward a philosophy of populism - a populism mirrored on the Left, as Carlson's comments about Bernie Sanders suggest.What is populism? It's more a strategy than a philosophy - claiming to stand with "the people" is a time-honored political tool, often utilized by demagogues of every side. But there are certain factors the new populist upswells of Left and Right share: in-group loyalty; skepticism about free markets; and deep distrust of institutions. These three characteristics manifest in different ways. For the Left, in-group loyalty amounts to a constant harangue about the threat of " whiteness ," which includes everything up to and including references to the glory of the West; for the Right, in-group loyalty amounts to a backlash against an intersectional coalition and a profound distaste for immigration of all sorts. For the Left, skepticism about free markets manifests in the newfound desire to embrace democratic socialism; for the Right, skepticism about free markets manifests in the newfound desire to regulate corporations who refuse to abide by their political principles. For the Left, distrust of institutions amounts to a blanket critique of "institutional racism" and the repeated suggestion that "the patriarchy" has stunted the souls of Americans; for the Right, distrust of institutions looks like a warm embrace for conspiracy theories regarding government agencies, as well as enthusiasm for bad actors like Edward Snowden.Populism works because its appeal is universal: it allows us to blame out-groups, freedom, and government for everything. Someone or something else is always to blame. Never mind that the philosophy of populism is inherently contradictory - if you don't trust the free markets and you also don't trust the institutions that regulate the free markets, what exactly is the solution? The pitch is excellent: it's not your fault. It's somebody else's.But that pitch is extraordinarily dangerous for two reasons. First, it leads people to abandon personal responsibility in search of institutional change - in many cases, institutional change directed at institutions that largely work. Second, it leads to reactionary politics on both sides, and increasing radicalism on both sides. If your in-group is threatened, even for good reason, you are likely to defend it. If Bernie Sanders is attacked for his idiotic economics, it's comfortable to rally around him; if Donald Trump is attacked for paying off porn stars, it's comfortable to rally around him. These men are your protectors, your champions in the fight against forces you can't control. In fact, it's easy to begin gauging the value of your in-group leadership by how often that leadership is threatened - the more your in-group leadership falls under fire, the more obvious it is that they're defending you. Mutually reinforcing reactionary politics results. That's just what we're seeing.Populism runs directly counter to classical liberalism, of course. Founding philosophy saw the in-group as those individuals and groups willing to embrace a view of God-given rights protected by a limited government of enumerated powers; they saw the free market as a tool for prosperity as well as a manifestation of basic property rights; they saw American institutions as repositories of ambition, to be checked by ambition. And today's populists are promoting a view of the world that is simply inaccurate: race relations in the United States are largely excellent, the free markets have unleashed global and national prosperity, and our institutions may be plagued by incompetence, but they're not corrupt by any measurable global standard. Still, populism represents a rising threat. And that threat isn't unique to one side of the political aisle.We do take from the classics, but it's less of a full, rigorous read of a classic in its entirety, as much as it's trying to "get" what these thinkers were doing that was so innovative and moved the field [forward].

...Readiness to provide student support services, student housing, adequate library resources, financial stability, curriculum design, program effectiveness and assessment, faculty qualifications, and business practices.

One of higher education's perplexing questions is why, in a nation as diverse geographically, demographically, and philosophically as the United States, do most colleges and universities seem so much alike? One answer is that there is so much oversight: from accrediting agencies, from government bodies, and from professional associations, that conformity is assured.But that does not mean innovation is entirely stifled. One example is CreatEd Institute in Black Mountain, North Carolina. CreatEd is a private, non-profit educational Christian institute that opened in the fall of 2016 and is unique in a number of ways. First, it is unique in its educational mission. To the founders of the institute, education is more than just gaining knowledge and career training: it is about developing the whole person by helping students grow spiritually, intellectually, and professionally.Second, the institute intentionally limits the size of its student body to foster an intimate learning environment. As such, students start and progress through the program in a small cohort of about 30 or 40 students-and they attend classes and participate in student activities within that cohort for the entire 16 months of the core program. Topics covered in the core program include philosophy, art, anthropology, theology, mathematics, physics, biology, economics, government and law, and literature.Another aspect that makes CreatEd distinct is its approach to class scheduling. Unlike traditional semester settings, where students take four or five classes simultaneously for 15 weeks, students at CreatEd take a set of classes each semester-but they take and complete a course before moving on to the next one. That way, students can fully immerse themselves in one subject without having to juggle several at the same time.The curriculum at CreatEd takes inspiration from the "Great Books"-particularly those included in the Syntopicon ("a subject-matter index to writings included in the Great Books") compiled by philosopher Mortimer Adler. But, according to the institute's director of operations and faculty, Jeff Ingle, the institute is not a Great Books school in a strict sense. Rather, students read portions of the books and try to putIngle continued:Ingle added that the Socratic method is employed in the classroom and that students are encouraged to take an active role in analyzing the readings and in connecting the ideas of one author with "other great thinkers throughout time." Among the classic and contemporary authors students are exposed to include Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Peter Kreeft, Norman Geisler, and many more.Another appealing feature of the program-although it undoubtedly steepens the program's overall cost-is the class trip to Italy in the fourth semester. There, students complete their fine arts module while having the chance to explore a different country and culture.Perhaps what sets CreatEd apart the most from other educational models is how it provides students with the opportunity to participate in a two-semester vocational training program directly after the 16-month core program. In the first semester of the vocational "Guild" program, students are enrolled in a course called "Business Model Development" where they learn career-oriented skills such as finance and marketing.Then in the second semester, students get hands-on experience in the industry of their choosing in the form of an apprenticeship, entrepreneurship, or research project, and then are assigned a corresponding industry professional as a mentor.The students who attend CreatEd are not only North Carolinians. Instead, according to Ingle, they come from all across the country, including Alaska. To attract students, CreatEd officials often market to high school students in Summit Ministries (a Christian organization), as well as to students who come from non-traditional K-12 backgrounds such as homeschool students and Classical Conversations students (a Christian learning community).But CreatEd has some major obstacles to surmount before it can be a degree-granting institution. Since its opening in 2016, CreatEd was only able to award Certificates of Completion to students who finished the core program-and not any formal degrees. That seems to be changing, however, because at a recent committee meeting of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, the institute was granted an interim two-year permit that allows it toThere are some conditions that come with the interim permit, however. UNC officials conducted a site visit as a prerequisite to issuing it. Afterward, the team of state examiners and state authorization staff drafted a list of requirements that CreatEd would need to address. The list included:During the BOG committee meeting, Daniel Harrison, the UNC system's associate vice president for academic planning and state authorization, noted that the team was particularly concerned about the number of faculty members and their credentials. On CreatEd's employee page, for instance, there doesn't appear to be anyone who holds a PhD. But according to Harrison, the institute "agreed to affiliate with other universities, [in case] students have questions about the curriculum that can't be answered by their very small faculty."According to Harrison, since the institute may not be able to resolve all of the team's requirements within the short span of two years, it addressed what it could and then developed a plan of action to meet the other requirements. Harrison added that the team will evaluate the institute annually and revisit the site after two years to assess whether to issue it a full license.So, for all of its attractive qualities, there appear to be some potential drawbacks that students should take into account before packing their bags for Black Mountain. For instance, besides the concerns listed above by the state examiners, the cost of attendance at CreatEd is rather high. The total cost of the four-semester core program is $39,820, although approximately $5,000 worth of scholarships and grants are available for each student. Students are also encouraged to work part-time to help pay for tuition expenses.And if students were to continue onto the Guild program, they would have to pay roughly an additional $8,773 to $11,708 (depending on what vocational track is chosen).Besides the program's hefty price tag, CreatEd is also not accredited-and does not at present plan on pursuing accreditation. According to its website, there are two reasons for this decision. One, the founders are concerned that CreatEd's unique design would not fit into accreditors' narrow educational models.Additionally, the expense of accreditation would be difficult for a small institution like CreatEd to afford. Nonetheless, it still might be worthwhile for the institute to pursue accreditation in the future because it would ease the transfer process to four-year colleges or universities.However, the institute has tried to compensate for its lack of accreditation by working on a number of transfer agreements with institutions that accept unaccredited coursework. One of those institutions is Montreat College in Montreat, North Carolina. Montreat also makes its library available to students at CreatEd. The two institutions are only 15 minutes from each other.Yet, even with the hurdles it still needs to surmount, the CreatEd Institute is a good reminder that a college education can-and perhaps should-come in all shapes and sizes. As its educational philosophy emphasizes, becoming an educated person is more than a rite of passage to a piece of paper and a job-it's about learning how to think deeply about transcendent truths and incorporating those truths into how one lives one's life.And in a world of higher education where administrative offices and university planning committees are in a seemingly endless arms race to one-up other universities to increase enrollment by the slightest margin, it is refreshing to see innovative institutions that prioritize quality over quantity.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average

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The Democrats will soon call publically for US military strike on Russia LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 460273

09-04-2018 02:58 AM











Post: #1 The Democrats will soon call publically for US military strike on Russia

Advertisement Democrat politicians already are privately calling for US attacks on Russia.



Many expressed this sentiment at the prolonged McCain resist/funeral extravangazas.



They are working with military to provoke a Russian and Iranian attack on US forces. US and its allies are already attacking Russian and Iranian units in parts of Syria the US is trying to takeover. This is being reported as ambiguously as possible. Ascribing attacks as being by "coalition" or "Israeli".



The coming downside for Dems is that they will face a situation where they are forced to publically call for direct US military attacks on Russia. It will never be allowed to escalate to that point in a fashion that allows the Dems to escape blame for that particular escalation.



The dems have resolved themselves to calling for war with the Russian state as part of a package of painting Trump as a coward for refusing their demand to start a war they will also blame him for.



It's all about retaining control over the system sucking all its people dry. Many expressed this sentiment at the prolonged McCain resist/funeral extravangazas.They are working with military to provoke a Russian and Iranian attack on US forces. US and its allies are already attacking Russian and Iranian units in parts of Syria the US is trying to takeover. This is being reported as ambiguously as possible. Ascribing attacks as being by "coalition" or "Israeli".The coming downside for Dems is that they will face a situation where they are forced to publically call for direct US military attacks on Russia. It will never be allowed to escalate to that point in a fashion that allows the Dems to escape blame for that particular escalation.The dems have resolved themselves to calling for war with the Russian state as part of a package of painting Trump as a coward for refusing their demand to start a war they will also blame him for.It's all about retaining control over the system sucking all its people dry. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 434534

09-04-2018 03:00 AM











Post: #2 RE: The Democrats will soon call publically for US military strike on Russia





Does that mean America will be vaporized? Does that mean America will be vaporized? LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 460273

09-04-2018 03:03 AM











Post: #3 RE: The Democrats will soon call publically for US military strike on Russia

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 03:00 AM)



Does that mean America will be vaporized?

Not without the political stage being set for the post-vaporization period.



But yes, it will be crippled. Not without the political stage being set for the post-vaporization period.But yes, it will be crippled. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 460273

09-04-2018 03:06 AM











Post: #4 RE: The Democrats will soon call publically for US military strike on Russia

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 03:00 AM)



Does that mean America will be vaporized?

You are You are LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 450243

09-04-2018 03:11 AM











Post: #5 RE: The Democrats will soon call publically for US military strike on Russia

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 03:00 AM)



Does that mean America will be vaporized?

Spiddy

Registered User

User ID: 460038

09-04-2018 03:18 AM



Posts: 18,712









Post: #6 RE: The Democrats will soon call publically for US military strike on Russia

If they did Trump would ignore them.

When Israel ask for it the Orange Shitweasel will give the go order without even waiting for Fox and Friends to offer an opinion.

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.





H.L. Mencken 1920. Loud Sneeze

lop guest

User ID: 460218

09-04-2018 03:27 AM











Post: #7 RE: The Democrats will soon call publically for US military strike on Russia

Spiddy Wrote: (09-04-2018 03:18 AM) If they did Trump would ignore them.

When Israel ask for it the Orange Shitweasel will give the go order without even waiting for Fox and Friends to offer an opinion.

How come leftists think people who are

'islamophobes" are evil racist bigots.... but think their own Israelophobia is the purest righteousness??



Let me guess: I "just wouldn't get it so why bother to try and explain it" to me.....amirite? yeah, uh huh. How come leftists think people who are'islamophobes" are evil racist bigots.... but think their own Israelophobia is the purest righteousness??Let me guess: I "just wouldn't get it so why bother to try and explain it" to me.....amirite? yeah, uh huh.















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Page: 1 2 Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate Paint it black

Registered User

User ID: 441324

09-04-2018 02:38 PM



Posts: 1,233









Post: #1 Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

Advertisement

Japan announced evacuation warnings affecting more than 1 million people and canceled hundreds of flights Tuesday as Typhoon Jebi, the strongest storm to hit the nation in 25 years, battered the countrys west coast.



Jebi, which means swallow in Korean, collided with the countrys Shikoku island around noon, with heavy rain and gusting winds recorded at up to 208 km/h (129 mph), Reuters reports. A few hours later, the storm made a second landfall on Honshu, Japans main island, and headed north, according to national broadcaster NHK.



Around 3.9 in. of rain fell in Kyoto in the storms first hour, with as much as 20 in. expected by noon Wednesday ; a few people have already been injured by heavy winds.



https://start.att.net/news/read/category..._the-rtime Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate As The Strongest Typhoon In 25 Years Makes LandfallJapan announced evacuation warnings affecting more than 1 million people and canceled hundreds of flights Tuesday as Typhoon Jebi, the strongest storm to hit the nation in 25 years, battered the countrys west coast.Jebi, which means swallow in Korean, collided with the countrys Shikoku island around noon, with heavy rain and gusting winds recorded at up to 208 km/h (129 mph), Reuters reports. A few hours later, the storm made a second landfall on Honshu, Japans main island, and headed north, according to national broadcaster NHK.; a few people have already been injured by heavy winds. The Modest Poster

Registered User

User ID: 433612

09-04-2018 03:24 PM



Posts: 10,440









Post: #2 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

OP, do you like this song?







Archangel

Michael

User ID: 441975

09-04-2018 03:29 PM



Posts: 14,103









Post: #3 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

A friend in Naples, Florida was telling me they'd gotten 8 inches of rain in a few hours.



3.9 inches of rain the first hour is really something though. (This post was last modified: 09-04-2018 03:30 PM by Archangel .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 451706

09-04-2018 04:28 PM











Post: #4 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

So they had to evacuate a small suburb. spo snouou

Vocem sine nomine audivit!

User ID: 350320

09-04-2018 04:30 PM



Posts: 67,593









Post: #5 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

spo snouou Wrote: (09-02-2018 04:30 PM)





spo snouou Wrote: (09-02-2018 04:37 PM) The Most Powerful Storm Of 2018 Is Headed Toward Japan



The Atlantic hurricane season may be slipping by to little fanfare (so far), but its a different story in the northwest Pacific. A dangerous super typhoon currently packing 274km/h winds could make landfall in Japan early next week.



Typhoon Jebi, which started getting organised east of Guam on August 27, exploded to life over the last few days, intensifying from a Category 1 to a Category 5-equivalent storm in less than 48 hours between August 29-30.



Colorado State University tropical storm expert Philip Klotzbach told us that based on its central pressure and maximum windspeeds, Jebi has achieved the dubious distinction of most powerful cyclone to date this year.



Currently located 585km northwest of Saipan, Jebi is moving west-northwest at 22km/h, continuing its trek over open ocean into the weekend before making an expected northward veer early next week.



That turn will place it on a direct course for mainland Japan. Recent model runs show a high chance of the storm making landfall near Kyoto, potentially as a powerful typhoon.



more:

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/09/the-m...ard-japan/



Quote: Residents of central and eastern Japan need to prepare for destructive winds, flooding rain, mudslides and storm surge flooding from Monday night until Wednesday.



#TyphoonJebi The storm comes as around 27,000 people in Nagato in western Japan were ordered to evacuate their homes on Saturday due to torrential rain. #jebi #typhoon #japan #weatheralert #weather



#TyphoonJebi By the time the typhoon makes landfall, it's sustained winds are forecast to be around winds are 170km/h with gusts nearer to 200km/h.



#TyphoonJebi The path of the typhoon appeared to cover western Chugoku region, where record rainfall in July unleashed flooding and landslides, killing around 220 people in Japan's worst weather-related disaster in decades. #jebi #typhoon #japan #weatheralert #weather #Chugoku



The storm is expected to make landfall on the country's main island on Tuesday, according to Japan's Meteorological Agency.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/TyphoonJebi?src=hash singing spider

terrarising the 'hood

User ID: 460312

09-04-2018 05:17 PM



Posts: 21,287









Post: #6 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate





at least 6 dead by now

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m3tV5XY



nobody starts at point zero singing spider

terrarising the 'hood

User ID: 460312

09-04-2018 05:21 PM



Posts: 21,287









Post: #7 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate





Osaka airport

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m3tV5XY



nobody starts at point zero LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 268543

09-04-2018 06:00 PM











Post: #8 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

According to the losers around here Japan should not even exist at this point and we should all be dead from radiation.



What happened? LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 459984

09-04-2018 06:04 PM











Post: #9 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

The Asians F#CK SO MUCH, 1 Million is actually NOT MANY!

Its just a Small Burg, In Asian Countries! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 445895

09-04-2018 06:05 PM











Post: #10 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 04:28 PM) So they had to evacuate a small suburb.

Osaka is a f*cking giant city bro. Lol Osaka is a f*cking giant city bro. Lol LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 459984

09-04-2018 06:07 PM











Post: #11 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 06:05 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 04:28 PM) So they had to evacuate a small suburb. Osaka is a f*cking giant city bro. Lol To US Yah, But to Them, its a SMALL Town!

They Breed Faster than a Virus.



One Million is Nothing to Asians. To US Yah, But to Them, its a SMALL Town!They Breed Faster than a Virus.One Million is Nothing to Asians. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 268543

09-04-2018 06:10 PM











Post: #12 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 06:07 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 06:05 PM) Osaka is a f*cking giant city bro. Lol To US Yah, But to Them, its a SMALL Town!

They Breed Faster than a Virus.



One Million is Nothing to Asians.

But remember asians are superior to us. But remember asians are superior to us. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 459984

09-04-2018 06:21 PM











Post: #13 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 06:10 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 06:07 PM) To US Yah, But to Them, its a SMALL Town!

They Breed Faster than a Virus.

One Million is Nothing to Asians. But remember Asians are superior to us. We Create New Stuff and the Tiny Elves

Make it Smaller and More of it!

------------------------------------------

Every TOY I ever Owned Said Made in CHINA!

Therefore The CHINESE Must Be ELVES!

Elf Woman Sexy, Love You Long Time! We Create New Stuff and the Tiny ElvesMake it Smaller and More of it!------------------------------------------Every TOY I ever Owned Said Made in CHINA!Therefore The CHINESE Must Be ELVES!Elf Woman Sexy, Love You Long Time! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 310652

09-04-2018 06:24 PM











Post: #14 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 06:00 PM) According to the losers around here Japan should not even exist at this point and we should all be dead from radiation.



What happened?

someone told me recently that benevolent ET has cleaned it up for us someone told me recently that benevolent ET has cleaned it up for us LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 268543

09-04-2018 06:29 PM











Post: #15 RE: Japan Tells More Than A Million To Evacuate

LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 06:24 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (09-04-2018 06:00 PM) According to the losers around here Japan should not even exist at this point and we should all be dead from radiation.



What happened?

someone told me recently that benevolent ET has cleaned it up for us

LOL I don't even think you are exaggerating, I could see someone saying that here. LOL I don't even think you are exaggerating, I could see someone saying that here. Advertisement

















Animal testing is a cruel, outdated and unnecessary practice. In traditional tests, rabbits, mice, rats and guinea pigs have substances forced down their throat, dripped into their eyes, or smeared onto their skin, and are left to suffer for days or weeks without pain relief. Photo by iStockphoto

81.3K shares







California made history late Friday night when it became the first state in the nation to pass legislation that ends the sale of cosmetics, including products like lipstick, shampoo and deodorant, that have been newly tested on animals.

Lawmakers in both houses voted unanimously on the last day of the state legislative session to pass the Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act (SB 1249) and the bill now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature. Given Gov. Browns stellar record on supporting animal welfare issues, including making his state the first to pass a law banning puppy mill sales at pet stores last year, we are hopeful he will sign this bill, allowing the groundbreaking law to go into effect on January 1, 2020.

As the most populated state in the country, and as the worlds fifth largest economy, Californias decision to remove animal tested cosmetics from its store shelves will no doubt have a huge impact both here in the United States and abroad. Californias pioneering action also highlights the need and urgency for Congress to pass the Humane Cosmetics Act, federal legislation that would end the production and sale of animal-tested cosmetics in the United States. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Reps. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., Don Beyer, D-Va., Ed Royce, R-Calif., Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., Frank LoBiondo, R-NJ, and Paul D. Tonko, D-NY, has been endorsed by 250 companies in the cosmetics industry.

The world is rapidly moving toward ending animal testing for cosmetics. Nearly 40 countries, including the member countries of the European Union, Guatemala, India, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey, have banned or limited the use of animals for cosmetics testing. More than 1.8 billion people reside in countries where all cosmetic products on their store shelves were created without any new animal testing. The #BeCrueltyFree campaign, led by the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International and Humane Society Legislative Fund, is on the front lines in efforts to pass strict legislation to end cosmetic animal testing in countries including the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Argentina.

Animal testing is a cruel, outdated and unnecessary practice. In traditional tests, rabbits, mice, rats and guinea pigs have substances forced down their throat, dripped into their eyes, or smeared onto their skin, and are left to suffer for days or weeks without pain relief. Fortunately, cosmetic companies can still create new and innovative products the cruelty-free way by choosing from thousands of ingredients that have a history of safe use. For new ingredients, animal tests are increasingly being replaced with non-animal methods that are often quicker, cheaper and more reliable predictors of toxicity in humans.

We thank Sen. Cathleen Galgiani and Assemblymember Ash Kalra for championing the bill in California, and are proud to have worked with partners, including the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Social Compassion in Legislation and cosmetics company LUSH, in securing the passage of this groundbreaking bill. Lets celebrate the victory for animals in California today, while keeping up the push to make the United States the next country that says no to cruel cosmetics.

P.S. Were closely monitoring the weather forecast along the Gulf Coast and are reaching out to our partners in animal welfare and to emergency managers to offer our assistance. Please remember that if it is not safe for you, it is not safe for your pets. Ensure your disaster plan includes your animals: get tips here on making a disaster plan for your pets. The HSUS is thinking of everyone in the expected path of the storm and we encourage you to heed storm warnings and solidify your disaster plans today.

Support the Humane Cosmetics Act"I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what's actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you fucking asshole."

 Elon Musk, September 4, 2018, to Buzzfeed News.

Hope you had a fun Labor Day holiday, because it's time to get back to work figuring out what the heck is going on with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and newly minted pedophilia expert.

In an all-new wacky email, Elon Musk is reportedly accusing one of the Thai cave rescuers of being a "child rapist," and he "hopes" there is a lawsuit.

BuzzFeed News reports that Musk accuses the man of moving to Thailand to take a child bride. The rescuer denies all the claims.

From Buzzfeed's extensive report:

Musk last month apologized for accusing Vernon Unsworth of pedophilia after the diver questioned the value of Musk's contribution to the rescue, a small submarine that ultimately went unused. But in a series of emails to BuzzFeed News, Musk repeated his original attacks on Unsworth  and made new and specific claims, lambasting the rescuer as a "child rapist" who moved to the Southeast Asian country to take a child bride. Unsworth denied Musk's accusations through his attorney. Though Musk prefaced one email with "off the record," BuzzFeed News did not agree to that condition of the correspondence. (Per common journalistic practice, a conversation is off-the-record only if both parties agree to the terms. ) BuzzFeed News first emailed Musk last Wednesday to ask for comment regarding a legal threat made by Unsworth's lawyer in August after the Tesla CEO reopened his apparently evidenceless criticism of the rescuer in a Twitter argument the day before. Musk responded without addressing the substance of the legal threat. BuzzFeed News followed up twice, once on Wednesday and once on Thursday, and Musk responded with two separate emails. "I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what's actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you fucking asshole," Musk wrote in the first message. "He's an old, single white guy from England who's been traveling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time." "As for this alleged threat of a lawsuit, which magically appeared when I raised the issue (nothing was sent or raised beforehand), I fucking hope he sues me," he added.

No word on why Musk seems to actually believe these allegations against Unsworth, or what evidence he may have. He provided nothing to the reporters he communicated with at BuzzFeed News.On September 12th, the European Parliament will vote on whether to include Article 13 with the new Copyright Directive, and if they do, they will destroy the internet.



Under Article 13, anyone who allows users to communicate in public  to post audio, video, stills, code, anything that might be copyrighted  must be sent to a copyright enforcement algorithm that will compare it to all the known copyrighted works (anyone can add anything to the algorithm's database) and censor it if it seems to be a match.

No one has ever built anything remotely like this. The closest anyone has come is Youtube's Content ID system, a $60,000,000, universally loathed copyright enforcement system.

German music professor Ulrich Kaiser had heard Article 13's proponents dismissing the idea that the system would end up censoring legitimate works, so he tried a disturbing experiment: he uploaded public-domain recordings of "Bartok, Schubert, Puccini and Wagner" and waited to see if Content ID would censor him.

Shortly thereafter, these public domain recordings by long-dead composers were attracting a flurry of copyright notices, each claiming that Kaiser had violated copyright and demanding that his videos be censored. He sent counternotices with mixed results  sometimes, Google's own counternotification address just refused to accept his emails  and found his channel plastered with other peoples' advertisements, and his open licenses switched to proprietary ones.

Content ID has a mere 75,000,000 works in its database; the EU proposal is orders of magnitude larger, and will grow to encompass billions of works  every copyrighted photo, song, book, article, and snippet of code. Content ID is a garbage fire, and it only has to examine a limited selection of videos, and only considers their soundtracks.

We have ONE WEEK to stop this absurdity. Here's where you go to write to your MEP about it. Every European should visit this site. Make sure you personally get in touch with at least two friends in the EU and ask them to take action, too.

We can't afford to have our public communications regulated by a bunch of unaccountable, broken algorithms.



I only received more notices, this time about a recording of Beethoven's Symphony No.5, which was accompanied by the message: "Copyrighted content was found in your video. The claimant allows its content to be used in your YouTube video. However, advertisements may be displayed." Once again, this was a mistaken notification. The recording was one by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Lorin Maazel, which was released in 1961 and is therefore in the public domain. Seeking help, I emailed YouTube, but their reply, "[] thank you for contacting Google Inc. Please note that due to the large number of enquiries, e-mails received at this e-mail address support-de@google.com cannot be read and acknowledged" was less than reassuring. I wish I could tell you that the ending to this tale was wholly happy. It is true that many of my contestations of these copyright violations were successful, and the videos were not taken down from YouTube. However, I intended to release all of my videos under a free license, so that they could be used in the future for others to educate and inform students about these beautiful works. Even in cases where my defense to the ContentID claims were successful, the videos were not reverted to this free license, making it much more difficult for others to use and share these digitized works in the way I originally had intended.



This Music Theory Professor Just Showed How Stupid and Broken Copyright Filters Are [Karl Bode/Motherboard]

Can Beethoven send takedown requests? A first-hand account of one German professor's experience with overly broad upload filters [Ulrich Kaiser/Wikimedia]- US President Donald Trumps recent tweet about land reform in South Africa drew sharp criticism and condemnation from ordinary citizens, farmers and politicians alike

- Trump waded into the land debate in his typically bigoted, ill-informed manner to give an opinion about a subject which he does not understand

- Yet Trump should be thanked, his tweet managed a near miracle, local political leaders are actually in agreement about something

PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see Briefly news on your News Feed!

Donald Trumps recent tweet about land reform in South Africa were based on misinformation and fear-mongering, the tweet drew sharp criticism from almost every single corner in the country with ordinary South Africans, farmers and politicians being united in their admonishment of Trump.

Trump waded into the touch land reform debate in his typically bigoted and ill-informed manner and managed to inflame (not for the first time) an entire country. Yet South Africans should actually be thanking the American president.

READ ALSO: Mixed race couple prove love cannot be torn apart by race or religion

Trump has managed something of a miracle. His tweet not only galvanised the general population of the country but critically for the first time in what seems forever the leaders of all the major political parties actually agree on something and have put up a united front.

Briefly.co.za gathered that President Cyril Ramaphosa acting in his capacity as leader of the government and the African National Congress (ANC) quickly stepped-up and assured potential investors that South Africa would not turn into another Zimbabwe.

Ramaphosa assured investors, most notably British Prime Minister Teresa May, that there would be no land seizures in the country. IOL.co.za reported that Ramaphosa said (as he often has in the past) that land reforms and expropriation would be handled delicately.

Ramaphosa said he intended to bring the same delicacy to land reform which Nelson Mandela had shown in the final dismantlement of the apartheid government.

PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane, a staunch opponent of amending the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation, warned that international leaders stoking the flames of fear added no value to the debate in the country.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema was predictably less diplomatic and called on Trump to butt-out of local affairs. Malema bluntly told Trump that he should stay out of the debate because he had caused enough issues for Africa.

Even farmers united and said Trump should leave South Africa to South Africans and rather focus his attention on the mounting problems he faces at home.

This all means Trump managed to unite the country, its people and critically our leaders in a way which hasnt been seen since the days of Nelson Mandela, but please dont tell Trump he has done a good job, his ego is big enough already.

READ ALSO: Julius Malemas bodyguard allegedly fires shots at EFF members after party conference

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- An explosion at the Rheinmetall Denel munitions factory outside Somerset West claimed the lives of 8 workers on Monday

- The explosion was big enough to destroy the entire building and surrounding walls

- It is not yet clear what the cause for the explosion was

PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed!

An explosion shook the Macassar community in more ways than one; not only could people near the explosion physically feel the impact, 8 lives were lost during the sudden event.

The reason for the explosion that happened on Monday, 3 August, is still unknown. Experts and the police worked into the nightly hours to determine the cause of the explosion but it is still unclear.

South Africa's acting president, David Mabuza, ordered that the investigations be given the highest priority.

PAY ATTENTION: Save mobile data with FreeBasics: Briefly is now available on the app

Thami Ngwenya, spokesperson for the acting president, said Mabuza not only expressed his deepest sadness at the loss of 8 lives, he wished the families of the deceased well.

TimesLIVE reported the explosion was intense enough to destroy the entire building as well as the surrounding walls.

Lawrencia Samuels lost her husband, Nico, to the explosion, as reported by EWN. She remembers that he loved his job as supervisor at Denel.

Sadly, four children are now left without a father and with no clear indication of the cause of their dad's death. The families of those who passed away in the explosion are anxiously waiting for the outcome of the investigation.

READ ALSO: SA enters a technical recession, Ramaphosa's new dawn slips out of reach

Do you have a really good story to share with us? Let us know on our Facebook page and we might just tell your story.

To stay up to date with the latest news, download our news app on Google Play or iTunes today.

Enjoy watching the TOP-5 Miracles by African Pastors and check out what else is going on at Briefly South Africa's YouTube channel.

Source: Briefly.co.zaNews / Africa

by Stephen Jakes

Mthwakazi Republic Party South Africa province, on Sunday held its successful monthly general meeting at the usual venue in Yeoville Recreation centre.The party said the meeting was well attended, barely a month after elections, where MRP participated."The SA provincial chairman, Mr B Ndlovu, briefly poured his heart in song that awakened every warrior in the room.He gave a brief history of MRP, how it came about and its founding blocks along the way. He also touched on the party's recent election performance and its implications," said the party."He charged all, to fasten the belts as the election encounter marked a turning point in our struggle history. "From now on, the gear is changing, we're in a transition mode" Said Honourable M . Moyo, who is MRP President. He challenged all abaThwakazi especially those in diaspora to rethink about this "curtain life".... The land back home is said to be the richest, but literally we are a stateless and poorest people."The party said the other bone of contention was the issue of documentation, how in many ways our ambitions are limited because of lack of proper documentation."The president also spoke about the need to compile a broad Mthwakazi skills data base that will help fight and protect our space back home. In a nutshell, card carrying members were encouraged to take the struggle to the people, recruit and strengthen the party grastroots. In his closing remarks, the president said "kuzagijinywa , akusancengwana ibhulugwe alibothswe madoda lamadodakazi okoMthwakazi," said the party.News / National

by Staff reporter

HARARE businessman Genius Kadungure, also known as Ginimbi, who is accused of swindling a Zanu-PF member Dexter Nduna of R1 581 890 in a botched mining supply deal, was summoned to appear in court on September 17 for trial.Kadungure is being charged together with his alleged accomplice Wicknell Chivayo.Allegations are that Kadungure swindled Nduna's construction firm, Badon Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd, and a Kadoma-based miner only identified as Gatawa of R1 581 890.Sometime in November 2012, Kadungure and Chivayo allegedly connived with unknown accomplices and created a fictitious company, Transco Civil Engineering, purportedly based in South Africa and opened a company account with Absa bank.The State alleges the pair created an email account named procurement@marangediamonds.com pretending to be legitimate representatives of Marange Resources. It is alleged Kadungure then contacted the complainants through the phone and misrepresented himself as Marange Resources chief buyer and said he was looking for mining pumps at competitive prices.The State alleges Kadungure referred Nduna to his bogus company, Transco Civil Engineering, in South Africa, on the pretext that it was a recommended supplier.On December 4, 2013, Gatawa sent his brother Enock to South Africa to purchase the pumps. He was ordered to deposit R1 046 890 for the purchase of 10 flight pumps into the Absa account.After the transfer, Enock was told by Transco Civil Engineering that they would send the pumps via DHL in three days' time. It is alleged on December 12 Gatawa went to DHL Airport branch, to collect the pumps and was shocked to receive a parcel of mobile phone chargers.That is when he realised that he had been duped, the court heard.News / National

by Staff reporter

BULAWAYO's newly-elected ward three councillor, Tinashe Kambarami (MDC Alliance) has been taken to court over an $11 000 debt owed to the National Railways of Zimbabwe Contributory Fund (NRZCPF).Sometime in August 2016, the pension fund filed summons against Kambarami and Rosemary Kambarami demanding payment of an $11 300,64 debt, and the court granted the order, but the duo failed to pay up.On August 27 this year, NRZCPF applied for Kambarami's civil imprisonment for defying the court order."The Sheriff of the High Court require and direct Tinashe Kambarami and Rosemary Kambarami that you the defendants are called upon to pay the plaintiff the sum of $11 300,64 and taxed costs of $3 421,06. You are required to pay this sum by virtue of a judgment obtained against you at the High Court at Bulawayo on August 2, 2016 under which you were ordered to pay the sum of $11 300,64 interest thereon and were also ordered to pay $3 421,06 taxed costs of the case. The deputy Sheriff has attached and received $20 leaving a balance of $11 300,44," the summons read.NRZCPF submitted that the two should be brought before the High Court in Bulawayo to show cause why an order for their imprisonment should not be made."You should bring your evidence of your financial position and it will in your interest give the court evidence of your income from wages, salary or other earnings and any other income you may receive from any other sources," the summons read."You are at liberty to approach the judgment creditor before the date of the hearing and make an offer of settlement of the sum due."Unless you pay the plaintiff the sum specified or unless the plaintiff accept the offer of settlement which you make, you must appear before the magistrate court on the date and at the time specified. If you do not do so, a writ of personal attachment may be issued against you and you may be committed to prison."The latest lawsuit came a few weeks after Kambarami was issued with another summons for civil imprisonment over a debt of nearly $40 000 in unpaid rentals and legal costs by the same pension fund.Kambarami and NRZCPF entered into a lease agreement in September 2015, but he defaulted in payment of rentals resulting in his eviction and the culmination of a series of lawsuits.In December last year, Kambarami lost some of his properties after they were attached by the Sheriff of the High Court and auctioned for failing to pay the debt.News / National

by Staff reporter

ZANU-PF offices in Caledonia, on the out-skirts of Harare, were early yesterday morning burnt down in act of suspected arson.Police confirmed the burning of the building which also housed Tongoville Housing Cooperative offices. All documents on the allocation of stands were destroyed.The cause of the fire was still to be established, but senior ZANU-PF officials in the area said the fire could have been caused by illegal land dealers, who sought to conceal evidence of their dirty dealings involving the par-celling out of land in Caledonia.The Zimbabwe Land Commission had just started investigations into land deals in Caledonia.Some accused MDC-Alliance members, saying there were recent clashes between supporters of the ruling party and those of the opposition.It is alleged MDC-Alliance members threatened to "fix" ZANU-PF supporters during the clashes. ZANU-PF Caledonia chairman Eliah Hamandishe said the fire was discovered by a passer-by around 4am, who then alerted some residents.The Fire Brigade attended to the scene around 5am, but it was too late to save the documents and property. The building had a thatched roof."We suspect that the arsonists could have used petrol because of the extent of the damage," said Hamandishe.He said the destroyed property was worth thousands of dollars. Hamandishe said it was too early to ascertain the cause of the fire."All the documents have been burnt," he said."Some illegal land dealers felt that the land commission was getting all the information from our office, so (that might be the reason why) they could have burnt the offices.The fire destroyed all the property and some water pipes.Surveyed and approved plans that were in the offices were destroyed. We only managed to get some few documents. We have reported the matter to police." A ZANU-PF youth member Willard Million said they suspected the MDC-Alliance."There were some clashes last week between ZANU-PF and MDC-AlIiance members in Caledonia, where the opposition members threatened unspecified action against us," he said."We suspect they are behind the arson."Police spokesperson Assistant Com-missioner Paul Nyathi yesterday con-firmed the incident. He said investigations were underway."I can confirm that we received a report of malicious damage to property concerning offices at Caledonia," said Asst Comm Nyathi."The ZRP is currently working flat out to ascertain the cause of the fire, the motive behind the fire and also to identify the perpetrators."News / National

by Staff reporter

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa moved facilitated the return home from Singapore of former first lady Grace Mugabe whose mother died last week, NewZimbawbe.com has reported.Grace was in the southeast Asian country for treatment over an undisclosed health complaint when her mother, who was 83, died in Harare last Thursday.Sources close to President Mnangagwa confirmed to NewZimbabwe.com that the Zanu-PF leader directed government to facilitate the former first lady's return home for her mother's funeral."The president decided to spare the former first lady the inconvenience of scheduled flights at this difficult moment so a chattered plane was arranged for so she could return home as quickly as possible," said a senior Zanu-PF official.Relations between Mnangagwa and the former first family appear to be on the mend after hitting a deadly low as the fight for former president Mugabe's succession came to head.After being publicly humiliated at rallies by Grace, Mnangagwa was dramatically fired from government and Zanu-PF by Mugabe in November last year.NPF spokesman Jealousy Mawarire commended Mnangagwa for the gesture."I want to thank President Mnangagwa and his Presidium for facilitating for the travel of former First Lady Dr Mugabe back home for the funeral of Ambuya Marufu," Mawarire said on Twitter."Such a gesture is very much invaluable and much appreciated. May the lord keep you, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."News / National

by Staff reporter

THE MDC Alliance's urgent High Court application seeking to overturn a police ban on coalition leader Nelson Chamisa's Kwekwe "thank you" rally this past Sunday, will now be heard on Thursday before Bulawayo High Court judge Nokuthula Moyo, NewZimbabwe.com reported.Police last week barred the firebrand opposition leader from proceeding with his first rally since his controversial electoral defeat July 30 citing the current typhoid outbreak in Gweru.The Alliance immediately approached the High Court in Bulawayo on Friday with any urgent chamber application seeking to challenge the ban.The application could however not be heard as judges were reportedly not present to hear the case.It was then pushed to this Monday only to be further moved to Thursday.News / National

by Staff reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has pledged to create billionaires as he opens the country to foreign investors and build bridges with former hostile countries.Mnangagwa, who was sworn in on Sunday, is desperate to revive the country's economy that is in a state of disrepair after years of neglect by the Zanu-PF government.However, introducing a new ethic in government, Mnangagwa says he would like to see young people in the country creating synergies with foreign investors and attracting foreign direct investment.Speaking during the launch of the surveillance security products by a Chinese company Hikvision last week, Mnangagwa said the country should embrace technology to enable it to achieve middle-income status by 2018.The Chinese company partnered a local hardware and electrical appliance supplier Nations Hardware and Electrical to supply its products not only in Zimbabwe but on the African continent."My government will continue to create an environment where capital feels safe and business can thrive and create jobs for our people and an improved standard of life for all."Nations Hardware and Electrical spelt out its strategy as "Kaizen", meaning continuous improvement, which is the company's thrust towards continuous enhancement and expansion for the ultimate benefit of economic growth."I also challenge you in the long run to seek avenues to further our innovations, leveraging on my Government's thrust and drive as espoused in the incubation and innovation framework."I would like a Zimbabwe where those who are imaginative and are capable to become billionaires, our quest to modernise the economy requires those high-level technology equipment," said Mnangagwa.Speaking at the same function, Nations Hardware and Electrical senior manager Islam Jogee said the aim of the rapid growing company is to attract foreign direct investment as well as create jobs."We have our association with our partner demonstrating foreign direct investment at play, Zimbabwe is indeed open for business, we are ready have always been ready to do business with you," said Jogee.He said the aim of the company is to offer artificial intelligence that can be used both by government and private players.Jogee described the company as the toolbox of Zimbabwe, aiming not only at creating employment but also attracting Zimbabweans who are now living in the Diaspora."We must work together, business, government and the people of Zimbabwe. We are blessed and endowed with beautiful weather, beautiful people and intelligent people, let's work together, let's be passionate in what we do, let's us grow our country and let us be passionate in what we do, let us grow our country, we would like to make Zimbabwe work again," said Jogee.In his inauguration speech, Mnangagwa vowed to put the economy first and make Zimbabwe, that has currently has no currency of its own, stable and competitive again.News / National

by Staff reporter

VENDORS will be required to move to designated places outside the central business district soon, newly elected Harare mayor has said.Mayor Hebert Gomba said this in an interview soon after being sworn in at Town House yesterday."City of Harare will not take any action without consulting the vendors on the possible way forward and work with them for the benefit of everyone."We are prepared to work with them and agree on the easing of the problem emanating from visibility of vendors in the CBD."We have a long term solution to this and we have finished constructing a vending market along Simon Mazorodze Road some of them will be accommodated there."We are going to proceed to construct vending holding bays on the out skirts of the city and introduce buses to ferry people into the city centre."As for now we are going to find a possible solution to make our city look tidy by engaging them," said Mayor Gomba.In her speech, provincial administrator Cathrine Kampila said the mayor had come at a time when the generality of the people felt or believed that they were not getting adequate service delivery that includes water, refuse collection and trafficable roads among others."You are expected to put in place strong and viable turnaround programs for your local authority to be self-sustainable in the long run," said Kampila."Council business is like a relay, you have taken over programs and resolutions from the previous council; it is your duty to ensure the fulfilment of those programs and resolutions."While I urge you to be very futuristic in your thinking in resolution making, I also urge you to set achievable targets based on your financial capacity."People are tired of fake promises, promise things that you can achieve, promise projects that can be funded."As policy makers, it is imperative that you always maintain high levels of discipline and professionalism in your conduct," said Kampila.News / Press Release

by ZLHR

A ZIMBABWEAN court has set free an opposition legislator who had been arrested for allegedly inciting his MDC Alliance party supporters to commit public violence ahead of the harmonised elections held in July, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) reported on their website.Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers arrested Happymore Chidziva, the MDC Alliance party Youth Assembly leader, who is the Highfield West constituency MP-Elect, on Monday and charged him with incitement as defined in section 187 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.Prosecutors alleged that Chidziva, who is represented by Jeremiah Bamu and Brian Dube of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), encouraged his MDC Alliance party supporters during a political rally held in July 2018 in Gweru in Midlands province to protest against an unfavourable election outcome and to defend their vote if Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) rigs the election in favour of ZANU PF party.But Chidziva was set free by Gweru Provincial Magistrate Charity Maphosa after she granted him $100 bail and ordered him to report once a fortnight at Machipisa Police Station in Harare's Highfield suburb.In Harare, another MDC Alliance party youth leader, Chamunorwa Madya, the Deputy Secretary-General for the MDC Alliance party Youth Assembly and Mafaiti Mubaiwa, who is employed as a security personnel at the opposition party headquarters were set to appear at Harare Magistrates Court, answering to charges of contravening section 36(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.ZRP officers, who arrested Madya and Mubaiwa on Monday 03 September 2018, accused the duo of committing public violence after they allegedly participated in a demonstration held in Harare early in August to protest ZEC's management of the July 30 harmonised elections.Madya and Mubaiwa, who were represented by Nontokozo Dube-Tachiona and Gugulethu Mahlangu-Simango of ZLHR, were expected to be set free on bail too.Opinion / Columnist

Following the unfortunate incident in which six people died in the post-election violence of August 1, 2018, which was instigated by the MDC-Alliance as it staged anti-Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) demonstrations in Harare, President Mnangagwa set up a seven-member commission of enquiry to investigate the issue.The composition and other aspects of the commission have already been cause for relevance-seeking antics by detractors seeking to cast aspersions on the body.The commission of inquiry into the post-election violence of August 1 2018, which is led by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, includes regional and international commissioners - United Kingdom (UK) lawyer Rodney Dixon (QC), Nigerian and former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, and former Chief of Tanzania's Defence Forces General Davis Mwamunyange.Local commissioners are University of Zimbabwe law lecturer Prof Lovemore Madhuku, UZ dean of social sciences Prof Charity Manyeruke and former Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) president Vimbai Nyemba.The commission's terms of reference include establishing the circumstances leading to the post-election violence, identifying the actors and their leaders and their motives, enquiring into the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)'s intervention and establishing what necessitated the involvement of the military in assisting to restore law and order among other issues.The commission's tenure is three months. Barely hours into the tenure of the commission, some people, especially in the opposition camp, had already begun trying to poke holes into the body by criticising its composition.Self-exiled former ZANU-PF member Prof Jonathan Moyo took to Twitter where he claimed that Motlanthe had been picked by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. He further claimed that Chief Anyaoku and Dixon were chosen by the British Ambassador to Zimbabwe Catriona Laing. Prof Moyo also speculated that Mwamunyange and Manyeruke had allegedly been chosen by Vice President Costantino Chiwenga, while President Mnangagwa selected Prof Madhuku and Nyemba.Zimbabwe is a sovereign state and for any person to claim that President Ramaphosa chose Motlanthe is preposterous, more so, coming from a whole professor. There is no way that President Mnangagwa would engage Motlanthe without consulting President Ramaphosa, but to insinuate that he was chosen without agreement is to overstretch one's imagination.Prof Moyo gave the impression that President Mnangagwa and VP Chiwenga individually and separately chose commissioners, which is at best silly for anyone to claim. The President consults his deputies on such national business and nothing is amiss about VP Chiwenga suggesting some of the commissioners. Nothing is sinful or criminal about national leaders choosing commissioners in the normal course of their mandate and duty.Other critics such as the self-exiled girl child rights activist Betty Makoni also sought to politicise the commissioner selection process by charging that Prof Manyeruke was a ZANU-PF member. First and foremost, she is a Zimbabwean citizen and professional who has every right to participate in the affairs of her country.The opposition conveniently chose to overlook the choice of an opposition party leader Prof Madhuku to represent opposition interests and overplayed Prof Manyeruke's affiliation. This was obviously driven by Prof Madhuku's level headedness which has seen him criticise the MDC-Alliance and ZANU-PF without fear or favour when necessary.The MDC-Alliance wanted its own representative in the commission, yet it is the one whose youths unleashed the orgy of violent protests against ZEC before the electoral body was done with announcing results. It cannot be a perpetrator and commissioner at the same time. Realising this conflicting position, some in the MDC-Alliance, who chose to find fault with Prof Madhuku's commissionership, gave that he was a presidential election candidate in the July harmonised election.Nothing is as unrelated as his election candidature and his membership of the commission. The commission's brief is not about presidential elections and Prof Madhuku did not contest ZEC's handling of the election or the results. It is about establishing what happened in Harare city centre on August 1, 2018 and providing recommendations on how it can be prevented in future.Prof Madhuku is, therefore not conflicted. If anyone is anything, it is the MDC-Alliance, which is confused by its defeat both in the polls and the Constitutional Court. Prof Moyo has also ineffectually attempted to criticise the President by claiming that the latter had constituted the commission in contravention of the law.Zimbabweans will, however, remember that Prof Moyo left the country in a huff late last year, abandoning his law school studies and his competence to speak on legal issues is, therefore, questionable. He is the one who spoke amiss about the reckoning of the MDC-Alliance's electoral court deadline, which turned out to be at a tangent with the correct position as later spelt out by Chief Justice, Luke Malaba on August 24, 2018.President Mnangagwa, who appointed the commission in terms of the Commissions of Inquiry Act (Chapter 10:07), is a trained lawyer, while Prof Moyo is a law school dropout who is seeking relevance and attention. Other detractors have also sought to malign the appointment of the commission by referring to some past commissions of enquiries, whose results were not made public under the previous dispensation.While the President has worked with the former President Robert Mugabe for many years and shared the liberation war trenches with him, he is his own man who should not be judged using Mugabe's stewardship of the country as a yardstick.Such people should know that Mugabe is not Mnangagwa and Mnangagwa is not Mugabe. The way that President Mnangagwa has run the country for the past nine months has, without shadow of doubt, demonstrated that he is a different man with a refreshingly different vision for the nation.The nation should give the commission time to discharge its mandate and present its findings and recommendations to the President. The President should then be judged on how he is going to act on the report and not on the basis of his past association with the former President.Opinion / Columnist

Enos Denhere Is a Entrepreneur Leadership and success speaker. He is seeking for Business Leadership Developing Job/Internship in USA .



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The Rwanda 2020 vision proved to the whole world whatever is lacking, we have means to acquire it not to depend of international aid . The main message is that we should not remain mentally married to the idea that nothing can get moving without external finance. The 2020 Vision is a game changer in Rwandan economy. A better economy supersedes with better health facilities. Rwanda has made substantial gains in the health and welfare of its population over a relatively short period of time includingstand-out achievements on the Millennium Development Goals. Today, Rwanda's 11.8 million citizens have local access to eye care and vision treatment - the first developing country to provide all its citizens with local access to affordable eye care. The Ministry of Health ventured into other partnerships example collaboration with drone-tech start-up Zipline, which connects aid workers to fleets of pilotless aircraft via SMS, to deliver medical supplies to rural health centres. This simple innovation cuts delivery times for vital blood supplies from several hours, or even days during bad weather, to 40 minutes. It became the first country in the world to integrate drones into their health system.Universal access to equitable and affordable quality health services for citizens in the world and should be the aim of any Health Sector Policy. There is need of Community-Based Health Insurance schemes that must be developed to meet the needs of any citizen outside of the formal sector, where access to and utilization of healthcare services had been historically very low. For instance Rwanda was one of only four African countries to have met the targets of the Abuja Declaration (to allocate at least 15% of national budgets to the health sector) and of the High Level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems (to spend at least US$44 per capita on health). Rwanda's near-universal health care system has been the focus of much discussion and debate in the global health community. Now reaching nearly 90% of the population, its unique funding model, which combines tax revenue, foreign aid and voluntary premiums, has been closely studied by development agencies and governments alike across the developing world.The Rwandan government is one of very few in the world where female members of parliament outnumber men. His Excellency President Kagame rule has transformed Rwanda, enhancing peace-building and women's empowerment, increasing economic development, and advancing the country's education and communications technologies. Rwanda is now much-admired by people and institutions all over the world. Kigali is the cleanest city ever found in Africa.Life expectancy, literacy, primary school enrollment and spending on healthcare have all improved.More than two decades on, Rwanda's economy, left in tatters following the genocide, has come a long way. Rwandans are generally living healthier and wealthier livesProgress of the country starts with conducive environment and creates room for citizens to participate in rebuilding of the nation. Most African countries should to learn from Rwanda on how to implement vision. Rwanda 2020 vision is a tactical vision with light to future generation .FILE PHOTO - The logo of Laurentian Bank is seen at its head offices in Montreal, April 1, 2015. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

By Matt Scuffham

TORONTO (Reuters) - Laurentian Bank of Canada's (Toronto:LB.TO - News) third-quarter earnings missed market expectations, hurt by costs related to restructuring, lower margins and a fall in residential mortgage sales, sending its shares to the lowest level since January 2016.

The Montreal-based lender reported an 18 percent decline in earnings per share, excluding one-time items, to C$1.34 in the third quarter ended July 31. Analysts had, on average, estimated earnings of C$1.45, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Its shares, which have fallen by nearly 30 percent since it announced "documentation issues and client misrepresentations with some mortgages" last December, were trading down 4.7 percent to C$44.35 at 10.10 a.m. EDT (1410 GMT), having earlier hit a low of C$44.25, down 4.9 percent.

Laurentian said it had completed a review of mortgages incorrectly sold to Canada's federal housing agency and an unnamed buyer and repurchased mortgages from those parties during the quarter.

"On the positive front, the bank's mortgage portfolio review is complete with repurchases looking to come within guidelines," CIBC analyst Robert Sedran said in a research note.

"Our more pressing concern was earnings power and the downward drift in our estimates of late. The news on that front was more problematic, with higher expenses and lower net interest income," he said.

During the quarter, the bank repurchased C$135 million ($103 million) of mortgages that had been sold to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) securitization programs and C$115 million of mortgages sold to an unnamed party. Both buybacks were in line with its past guidance.

Mortgage lending practices have been under scrutiny in Canada since problems related to underwriting procedures were identified at alternative lender Home Capital Group (Toronto:HCG.TO - News).

($1 = 1.3146 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Susan Thoams)By Matt Scuffham TORONTO (Reuters) - Laurentian Bank of Canada's third-quarter earnings missed market expectations, hurt by costs related to restructuring, lower margins and a fall in residential mortgage sales, sending its shares to the lowest level since January 2016. The Montreal-based lender reported an 18 percent decline in earnings per share, excluding one-time items, to C$1.34 in the third quarter ended July 31. Analysts had, on average, estimated earnings of C$1.45, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Its shares, which have fallen by nearly 30 percent since it announced "documentation issues and client misrepresentations with some mortgages" last December, were trading down 4.7 percent to C$44.35 at 10.10 a.m. EDT (1410 GMT), having earlier hit a low of C$44.25, down 4.9 percent. Laurentian said it had completed a review of mortgages incorrectly sold to Canada's federal housing agency and an unnamed buyer and repurchased mortgages from those parties during the quarter. "On the positive front, the bank's mortgage portfolio review is complete with repurchases looking to come within guidelines," CIBC analyst Robert Sedran said in a research note. "Our more pressing concern was earnings power and the downward drift in our estimates of late. The news on that front was more problematic, with higher expenses and lower net interest income," he said. During the quarter, the bank repurchased C$135 million ($103 million) of mortgages that had been sold to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) securitization programs and C$115 million of mortgages sold to an unnamed party. Both buybacks were in line with its past guidance. Mortgage lending practices have been under scrutiny in Canada since problems related to underwriting procedures were identified at alternative lender Home Capital Group . ($1 = 1.3146 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Susan Thoams)Cover your plants: Frost advisory issued for many parts of Alberta

While it's technically still summer, a frost advisory has been issued for much of the central and northern parts of the province.

Environment Canada is advising people in affected areas to cover their plants tonight as a ridge of high pressure is moving into the province that could bring patchy frost early Tuesday morning.

The advisory applies to most regions north of Calgary, with the exception of a few areas to the northwest of the city and Fort Chipewyan - Wood Buffalo National Park in the top northeast corner of the province.

Frost advisories are in effect for:

- Airdrie - Cochrane - Olds - Sundre.

- Bonnyville - St. Paul - Cold Lake - Lac La Biche.

- City of Edmonton - St. Albert - Sherwood Park.

- Drayton Valley - Devon - Rimbey - Pigeon Lake.

- Drumheller - Three Hills.

- Fort McMurray - Fort MacKay.

- Fort Saskatchewan - Vegreville - Redwater - Smoky Lake.

- Grande Prairie - Beaverlodge - Valleyview.

- Hanna - Coronation - Oyen.

- High Level - Rainbow Lake - Fort Vermilion - Mackenzie Hwy.

- Leduc - Camrose - Wetaskiwin - Tofield.

- Lloydminster - Wainwright - Vermilion - Provost.

- Peace River - Fairview - High Prairie - Manning.

- Red Deer - Ponoka - Innisfail - Stettler.

- Rocky Mountain House - Caroline.

- Slave Lake.

- Spruce Grove - Morinville - Mayerthorpe - Evansburg.

- Wabasca - Peerless Lake - Gift Lake - Cadotte Lake.

- Westlock - Barrhead - Athabasca.

- Whitecourt - Edson - Fox Creek - Swan Hills.

Full weather information can be found on the Environment Canada website.

- MORE ALBERTA NEWS | Alberta farmer says dry summer could mean a 30% hit to his crop yield

- MORE ALBERTA NEWS | The end of Trans Mountain may actually hurt the environment, argues consultant

- Read more articles by CBC Calgary, like us on Facebook for updates and subscribe to our CBC Calgary newsletter for the day's news at a glance .Job opportunities, a $15 minimum wage and cutting surgical wait times were among the issues on the minds of New Brunswick's party leaders on Labour Day.

During a stop in Saint John, Liberal Leader Brian Gallant pledged to create more jobs and modernize the provincial labour laws so New Brunswickers have the same protections as Canadians in other parts of the country.

"Ensuring that workers in New Brunswick are well-supported and protected will help us continue to grow the economy in a way that ensures fairness for everyone," Gallant said in a statement.

Meanwhile in Moncton, Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs talked health care reform.

Standing in front of the Moncton City Hospital, Higgs said a PC government would cut wait times for hip replacements, knee replacements and gynecological surgeries by 50 per cent.

The PC leader also said his party would recruit more doctors by getting rid of what he described as an antiquated billing system. He said more nurses would be trained and retained in the province by making sure there is a fair exam for all nursing students.

Higgs added that his party would improve the Electronic Patient Record model, making it easier for patients to move around the system to find the right care.

Labour Day picnics and barbecues

All five leaders were on the campaign trail Monday as New Brunswickers celebrated Labour Day.

NDP Leader Jennifer McKenzie attended a Labour Day picnic at Fisher Lake in Saint John Monday afternoon.

She planned to canvass for a $15 minimum wage in the Saint John Harbour riding with party volunteers.

Green Party Leader David Coon walked in the N.B. Exhibition parade in Fredericton and then served food at the Fredericton District Labour Council's Labour Day picnic at Officers' Square.

Coon planned to attend the opening ceremonies of the exhibition before attending the UNB-St. Thomas orientation week corn boil.

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin also attended the Fredericton District Labour Council's Labour Day picnic at Officers' Square before he continuing to do more canvassing in his riding of Fredericton-Grand Lake.

Higgs planned a visit to the Birchmount Lodge seniors residence before attending a rally while Gallant was travelling to Moncton later Monday afternoon.

The election is Sept. 24.Mark Norman's military corruption trial will play out during the 2019 election campaign

It will be next summer before Vice-Admiral Mark Norman goes to trial on a single charge of breach of trust  putting a politically-charged corruption case right in the middle of the next federal election campaign.

A trial date of Aug. 19, 2019 was set as the military's former second-on-command elected Tuesday to be tried in provincial court, a hearing that is expected to take seven weeks.

His lawyer, Marie Henein, denied she wanted the case heard during a politically sensitive time and said the long run-up is needed because of a fight with the government over disclosure of documents.

She said she has asked the Crown to waive cabinet secrecy on all documents related to the case  a request to which the government has not responded.

"It's quite an extraordinary prosecution where, really, the complainants decide what we get to look at, what's important and what's not," she said following Tuesday's court appearance.

"We've asked for a full waiver of cabinet confidence so that we can defend this case, so that we can see the full story, and that waiver is still not forthcoming."

Henein also served notice in court Tuesday that she will be bring forward a motion early next year to have the charges against Norman stayed.

The clock is ticking. The Supreme Court of Canada's landmark Jordan decision requires that an accused face trial in a provincial court within 18 months of being charged.

The judge hearing the Norman case on Tuesday asked Henein if she would be flexible about the deadline. Henein said she was not prepared to waive anything as long as issues of disclosure by the Crown remain in play.

Norman was charged last spring after the RCMP accused him of leaking cabinet secrets to a Quebec shipyard in relation to a contract to lease a supply ship to the navy.

The charges relate to his time as commander of the navy. He was, at the time of being charged, the vice chief of the defence staff.

Story continues

Norman was removed from the post this summer, but remains suspended with pay. His job is now being filled by the former commander of the Canadian Army, Lt.-Gen. Paul Wynnyk.

On Tuesday, Norman thanked his supporters, some of whom sat through the court proceedings.

"This has been a really difficult time and it's going to continue to be a real challenge and I just want everybody to know how much that support means to me," he said.

A Go-Fund-Me page has been set up to defray his legal costs, which the federal government has refused to pay. It has a set goal of $200,000, of which $140,450 had been raised by Tuesday.

In the past few months, the Crown and defence have argued various pretrial matters, including the issues of disclosure of evidence.

Case involving cabinet confidences is unique

A legal expert said the question of how much in the way of secret cabinet documents the federal government is willing to disclose in open court will be crucial.

In order to demonstrate Norman leaked cabinet secrets, the Crown will have to provide evidence that the information was classified and it will need to present that in court.

"Government is faced with a very difficult problem," said retired colonel Michel Drapeau, a lawyer with extensive experience in access to information cases.

"In order for them, as the attorney general, to make their case, they have to show what evidence and what kind of evidence  cabinet confidences  was released."

Questions of censorship, how much censorship and whether the evidence will have to be presented behind closed doors are likely going to be a major issues, he added.

"I cannot remember a case like this over the last, say, 40 or 50 years, where cabinet confidences have been revealed and disclosed" in open court, Drapeau said.

Government in unusual position

The other problem, he said, is that whatever documents the federal government chooses to disclose as part of the case will have to signed off by the Privy Council Office, which is responsible for cabinet records.

That puts the government in the position of being both the accuser and the gatekeeper of information.

The question of whether that is fair to Norman is something that will have to be debated in court, said Drapeau.

"It will be interesting to see how the court responds to that and whether the Crown will simply disclose everything to his counsel," he said.

Leak involved $668M contract

The focus of the RCMP's case involves published reports in November 2015 that the Liberal government, newly elected at the time, had second thoughts about a $668-million contract to lease a supply ship for the navy.

The leak embarrassed the government. According to search warrant evidence filed before Norman was charged, cabinet ministers felt it impeded their ability to review the decision, which was made by the previous Conservative government just ahead of the last election.

The Liberals eventually relented and allowed the leasing project, which was being run out the Chantier-Davie shipyard in Levis, Que., to proceed.

Norman is accused of leaking information to Davie executives that eventually found its way into the hands of the media. None of the allegations against him have been tested in court.

The Liberal government seems to have let bygones be bygones with the shipyard. It recently signed a $610 million contract to convert civilian icebreakers for coast guard use.'Utterly outrageous': Liberals shoot down opposition bid to force ministers to lay out pipeline plan

Liberal MPs have blocked a bid by the opposition parties to call key ministers to committee to lay out the next steps on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The Conservative motion to hold a six-session study came in the wake of last week's Federal Court of Appeal decision to overturn approval for the $7.4 billion project. The judgment found that consultation with Indigenous communities on the project was not robust enough and that its environmental review did not adequately assess the impact of increased tanker traffic.

Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs called it "quite stunning" that the Liberals would shoot down her motion to hold a six-session study of the government's plan to respond to the ruling.

"It is utterly outrageous that the prime minister has clearly sent the Liberals into committee today to deny Canadians the opportunity to hear about their plan for the Trans Mountain expansion," she said. "They have failed on the pipeline and now are shutting down questions (from) Canadians.

"I hope this concerns Canadians in all corners of the country."

Stubbs blamed Liberal failures for the abrupt suspension of the pipeline twinning project and accused the government of having no concrete plan to respond to the court ruling.

"That is absolutely unacceptable and the prime minister and the cabinet owe Canadians answers," she said.

Stubbs said the Liberals have imposed added costs and red tape on the energy sector, making Canada less competitive on the world stage. She said that flight of energy capital has become a "crisis."

Thousands of people have been thrown out of work as a result of Liberal actions, she said.

"They feel betrayed. They're angry. They feel that they're being kicked while they're down by a Liberal government which is all talk and fails to deliver," she said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the court ruling underscored the serious problems with the project, and urged the government to halt it for good.

Story continues

"This is just something we don't need," he said.

Instead, he said, the government should make the "difficult decisions" to transition Canada's economy to renewable energy sources and green jobs.

Last week, Kinder Morgan shareholders voted to approve the sale of the existing pipeline and other assets to the federal government for $4.5 billion.

Liberal MP Marc Serre called that an "investment in Canada's future" and said he's confident that it will get built despite the court ruling. The government is carefully reviewing the ruling and will determine next steps in due course, he said.

"The Conservatives could not get it done. We will," he said.

Serre said the Liberals inherited a flawed review and consultation process and have made improvements to ensure economic growth does not come at the expense of environmental protection.

Stubbs had tabled a motion calling on the committee to invite Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi and Finance Minister Bill Morneau to appear before it to explain how the project came off the rails, and what the government intends to do about it.

Appeal is an option

It's not clear yet whether Canada intends to appeal the decision or will instead try to complete the consultations the court said were lacking. NDP MP Nathan Cullen urged the government not to pursue an appeal, saying it would be "throwing good money after bad."

The Trans Mountain pipeline carries crude oil and some refined products between Alberta and the B.C. coast. Kinder Morgan applied to build a second pipeline parallel to the first that would triple its capacity; Canada's hope is much of that oil would end up in Asian markets.

Canada's reliance on the United States for its oil exports decreases the price Canada can get for its oil  an amount Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself says amounts to a $15 billion loss each year.

Ninety-nine per cent of Canada's oil exports go to the United States.

Here is the full text of Stubbs' defeated motion:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Standing Committee on Natural Resources study the federal government's actions with regards to the Trans Mountain pipeline purchase and the Trans Mountain expansion project;

That six meetings be allocated for this study;

That the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Natural Resources appear before the committee, for an hour each, at the first meeting of the study;

That the first meeting be held no later than Sept. 6, 2018;

That this study be concluded before November 2018, that the meetings be televised; and that the committee report its findings back to the House.The first long-term shelter for victims of sexual exploitation will open this week in the Montreal region, providing a stepping stone for survivors who are trying to reintegrate into society.

Opening Friday, the new facility will have a full-time counsellor on site and another that will visit on an ad hoc basis, helping victims rebuild their lives.

That visiting counsellor will be Maylissa, who was involved in the sex industry from the ages of 15 to 17 and is now a married mother of three.

She says she wants to help fellow victims of sexual exploitation to escape the industry.

"You experience the worst of men," Maylissa told CBC. "The man is in a position of power and  you're just not experiencing healthy relationships."

CBC has agreed to withhold her last name because she fears intimidation and harassment.

Maylissa says the goal isn't just to give residents food and shelter, but also a sense of belonging.

"We all need to belong to a community and this is what we're building. We're building a community of people from all walks of life, that are saying, 'We're for you, we're with you, we love you, we want you to get out of this.'"

Providing residents with a 'new beginning'

Chantal, whose last name CBC has also agreed to withhold, was kicked out of her home at age 16.

She found she wasn't able to make ends meet as a waitress. To supplement her income, she worked part time for various escort agencies over a five-year period.

Now 40 years old, she said some agencies rented a shabby hotel room for her to work out of whereas others had her travel with a driver, day and night.

"At one point, after a night that was not pleasant at all  it was really rock and roll  I looked at myself in the mirror and said to myself, 'I can't do this anymore,'" Chantal told Radio-Canada.

Chantal managed to get out of the industry in a time when there were few resources to help victims of sexual exploitation.

Story continues

Now, she said, this new lodging facility will provide a "new beginning" where residents will "be able to reach their full potential."

Lodging for 5 women

The shelter will be only be able to accommodate five women for now due to a lack of funding, but the hope is to triple that number in the near future, says Ronald Lepage, executive director of The Way Out, the non-profit organization behind the initiative.

The Way Out, working in collaboration with health and social services, offers Quebec-based victims of sexual exploitation a range of services such as a drop-in centre, individual follow-up, skill development and social reintegration assistance.

According to the organization's website, sexual exploitation victims are traumatized by abuse, stigmatized by society and often suffer from mental health problems, homelessness and addiction.

It estimates there are some 4,000 men and women, aged 12 to 25, currently engaged in Montreal's sex industry.

Montreal is a sex tourism hot spot, the organization's site states, with an estimated 200 illicit massage parlours, 65 strip clubs and 38 escort agencies.

With files from Radio-Canada, CBC's Antoni NerestantMUN student who died suddenly last year honoured with new scholarship

Family and friends of Alex Kirkland gathered outside the Blackall House residence at Memorial University Sunday to announce a new scholarship in her name and place her ashes beneath a blue spruce planted in her memory.

The 18-year-old second-year student was living at the residence when she died suddenly last October from complications brought on by an irregular heartbeat.

"She was a dedicated community builder and a leader in her own right, and we thought it was really important to recognize that forever by establishing this fund," said Stephanie Kirkland, Alex Kirkland's mother.

Kirkland was from Ottawa, and more than 20 family members and friends made the trip from Ontario for Sunday's celebration of her life and the new annual scholarship.

Called the Alex Kirkland Community Builder Award, it will be open to first- and second-year MUN students who are community leaders like Kirkland, said her parents.



Each recipient will be awarded $1,000.

According to her mother, the scholarship celebrates Kirkland's "spirit, her love of people and her ability to create space for people to come together and build a community."

"She was an avid and passionate defender of the quiet ones," she said.

Kirkland was president of her residence and, according to her family, considered MUN her second home.

They said that by burying some of her ashes beneath the spruce, the school can remain her second home forever.

"It was a big part of her life and we want to cherish everything we can about it," her father Trevor Kirkland said.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and LabradorA toddler was killed and seven other people were taken to hospital with injuries in a three-vehicle crash on Sunday.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary says it was called to the intersection of Robert E. Howlett Memorial Drive and Ruby Line just before 3 p.m.

A green Chevrolet Equinox was headed north on Robert E. Howlett when it struck a blue Toyota Rav-4 heading west on Ruby Line, police say.

The Toyota subsequently hit a third vehicle  a red Nissan Versa.

Police say eight people were transported to hospital, "including a toddler that we regret to inform was pronounced deceased at the hospital."

The toddler was a passenger in the Chevrolet Equinox. The female driver of the Rav-4 remains in hospital in serious condition, police said in a press release Monday.

"The RNC offers its sincerest condolences to the family of the deceased toddler, whose identity we will not be releasing," police said in the release.

Accident investigators are looking for anyone who may have witnessed the crash to contact the RNC at 709-729-8000.

Anyone with dashcam footage from the area, between 2:40 and 3 p.m., are asked to get in touch as well.

Read more articles from CBC Newfoundland and LabradorBy Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - The longer Donald Trump stays in office, the higher the risk that anti-American forces will gain the upper hand in Germany and push it into the arms of Russia and China, veteran German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger said in an interview. The chairman of the Munich Security Conference and former ambassador to Washington was speaking to Reuters days before the publication of his book "World in Danger", in which he urges Germans not to giving up on the United States because of Trump, while also pressing them to accept more global responsibility. "The longer Trump remains in office, the harder it will be to stand up to those in this country and elsewhere in Europe who have been arguing since the Vietnam war that we need to cut the cord with America the bully," Ischinger said. "It would become much harder for the German government to stay the course and defend this relationship," he said. "And the forces calling for a closer relationship with countries like Russia or China might be emboldened." Since entering the White House in January last year, Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, left the Iran nuclear deal and threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organisation (WTO). He has repeatedly attacked Germany for its trade surplus and lack of defense spending, unsettling a country that has long viewed America as its closest ally outside of Europe and a bulwark of its security and defense. A survey by the Pew Research Center last year indicated that only 35 percent of Germans have a favorable view of the United States under Trump. A poll by the Koerber Foundation suggested that Germans see Trump as a bigger foreign policy problem than authoritarian leaders in North Korea, Russia or Turkey. "SERIOUS VIOLATION" Against this backdrop, some German politicians are urging the government to seek closer ties with Moscow and Beijing - two authoritarian powers whose values diverge from the liberal democracy that Germany has built in the seven decades since it rose from the ashes of World War Two with American help. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a strong believer in the transatlantic relationship, has resisted. Ischinger expressed particular concern about Trump's use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool, and his threat to punish German and other firms involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with Russia. "If U.S. sanctions are applied to prevent Nord Stream 2, the repercussions will be poisonous for the transatlantic relationship," he said. "Even if you have doubts about the wisdom of Nord Stream 2, it is hard not to see this as a serious violation, as an instance of the U.S. forcing its views on the Europeans." Ischinger praised Merkel for spelling out the need for Germany to become more independent but said it was high time that her words were translated into action. He estimated that the government would need to raise defense spending by 10-15 billion for the four-year legislative period, if it hopes to meet its most basic commitments. "We're not where we should be. And you can even argue that we've taken a step backwards in recent years," Ischinger said. "It's not enough to declare that we want to assume more responsibility. We need to show where the beef is, and that there is beef. There need to be budgetary consequences." (Reporting by Noah Barkin; Editing by Kevin Liffey)For those who are home, and for those who are on the way. For those who support the historic and just return of the land of Israel to its people, forever loyal to their inheritance, and its restoration.SC asked to junk quo warranto case vs Duterte

posted September 03, 2018 at 11:10 pm by Rey E. Requejo September 03, 2018 at 11:10 pm

The Supreme Court has been asked to dismiss the quo warranto case filed by suspended lawyer and former nuisance presidential candidate Elly Pamatong against President Rodrigo Duterte. In a 21-page comment, Solicitor General Jose Calida urged the SC to dismiss for lack of merit Pamatongs petition that accused Duterte of usurping the powers of the chief executive due to his alleged invalid certificate of candidacy for the 2016 polls. The Solicitor General described Pamatongs suit as a nuisance petition consisting of false allegations. The chief state lawyer even asked the SC to sanction petitioner who deplorably trivialized the rules of procedure and who may be held liable for indirect contempt without prejudice to the corresponding administrative and criminal actions.Calida disputed Pamatongs claim that Dutertes certificate of candidacy in the May 2016 presidential poll was invalid because his withdrawal of COC for mayor in Davao City and substitution for presidential bet of PDP-Laban were not allowed under the rules of the Commission on Elections. The Comelec resolution affirming the certificate of candidacy of President Duterte as valid and effective has attained finality and can no longer be assailed, Calida said.

COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section.Photo - Peter Brookshaw being presented the Basil Sellers Australian Over 31 Award by Russell Modlin

The Emerging Writers Over 31s awards were presented at the 2018 Young Writer Awards ceremony on Saturday was at the Christchurch Salvation Army Centre  for the annual young writers conference.

Young writers came from Australia, New Zealand, and across the world for the annual awards conference. Press Service International in conjunction with Christian Today established the young writer ministry in 2009 whereby each young writer is published in their own column 10 times a year, once every 5 weeks.

Mr Basil Sellers AM has provided the award funding along with a substantial sum each year for air-fare scholarships to aid their expenses getting to the annual conferences. In 2018 the Awards Commission set up last year divided the awards for 18-30 years of age, and then over 31s. Panellists marked all their articles and their marks were then collated by a statistician.

Well-Being Australias Russell Modlin the MC for these annual young writer awards dubbed these Over 31s as the Consistency Tronson Awards to honour Mark and Delma Tronsons 10 years developing this young writer ministry.

2018 over 31s Awards

Australia - Peter Brookshaw

New Zealand - Emma McGeorge

Internationals - Kandima Awendila

Photo - Kandima Awendila (Mozambique) being presented the Basil Sellers International Over 31 Award by Russell Modlin

The Over 31s Panellists

Tim McDonald - former young writer

Peter Rope - former young writer

Talisa Pariss-Proby - former young writer

David Luschwitz - former young writer

Peter Brookshaw - Australia

Pete Brookshaw is the Senior Minister of The Salvation Army Craigieburn. He has a Bachelor of both Business and Theology and is passionate about the church being dynamic and effective in the world and creating communities of faith that are outward-focused, innovative, passionate about the lost and committed to societal change. He has been blogging since 2006 at www.petebrookshaw.com about leadership and faith.

Peter Brookshaws previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/peter-brookshaw.html

Photo - Emma McGeorge being presented the 2018 Basil Sellers New Zealand Over 31 Award by Bishop Brian Carrell

Emma McGeorge - New Zealand

Emma is an Italian-South African with a New Zealand passport, living in Papua New Guinea. As well as years of running a puppet ministry and directing student choirs, she has served with Mission Aviation Fellowship since 2007, currently based in PNG. Emma's deep joy is in writing, music, playing with her ginger cats and finding God in unexpected places.

Read Emma's creative expressions at www.girlkaleidoscope.wordpress.com or follow her PNG adventures at www.pngponderings.wordpress.com

Emma McGeorges previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/emma-mcgeorge.html

Kandima Awendila - Internationals

Kandima Awendila was born in Mozambique and lives and works as an IT Service Desk Engineer on the Gold Coast. Kandima has been a regular for many year at the annual young writer conference and these past two years has also served as an Australian Panellist.

Kandima Awendila's archive of articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/kandima-awendila.html

These three Over 31s emerging writers might be summed up as the Whos Who in the young writer team.

Young people 18-30 years interested in writing for Christian Today with your own column please connect with Dr Mark Tronson timeout@bushorchestra.com 0419 917 713

Photo - Young writers Caitlyn Furler and Laura Miles

Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.

Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.htmlThere seems to be a shift happening in our culture at the moment. Australia has become a popular destination for right-leaning media commentators and activists.

This began to emerge last year when a men's rights conference brought a number of prominent men's rights activists to Australia such as Karen Straughan. Things really started to take off though with the successful tour of provocative controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos in December. Since then Jordan Peterson has come to Australia, Nigel Farage is touring here, Gavin McInnes is coming here and Milo is coming back with Ann Coulter.

Recently popular Canadian YouTube personalities Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux toured here.

Lauren and Stefan have built up successful platforms bringing reasoned arguments to a range of current popular topics including feminism, multiculturalism, immigration, economic philosophy, race relations and defense of the traditional family unit.

I find both of these commentators thought provoking and interesting and I am certainly not the only one who has become interested in the angle that they and others like them have brought to cultural and political conversations. It is clear there is a demand for these kind of speakers in Australia at the moment, which would have been hard to envision only a few years ago. So, what is the reason for this?

Is there a rise in hate and bigotry?

Given some of the media reporting and intense protests by agitators on the political left during their tour in Australia and New Zealand, you might be led to believe that the popularity of these speakers is due to a rise in hate and intolerance.

You may have heard how difficult it was for them to simply get a visa to come to Australia or you may have heard about the fierce protests in Melbourne or about their show in Auckland getting canceled not once but twice.

But dig a bit deeper and you will find that they are not hateful at all.

While they were here they went out of their way to engage peacefully and respectfully with hate-filled protesters. They kindly gave an umbrella to protesters on a rainy night in Adelaide and attempted to engage in debate with them despite their irrationality and bitterness.

No, Lauren and Stefan have not become popular for peddling hate and appealing to people's baser instincts. To the contrary, they have become popular because they are talking about important issues that many people care about but that are often being ignored or downplayed by mainstream media.

It is clear to anyone who follows Lauren and Stefan that they care deeply about the world, ethics and morality and want to find real solutions to complex social issues. But what they say is not always politically correct hence the attempt to demonize them.

The growing hunger for forbidden truths and critical thinking

This whole attempt to silence them is creating a curiosity for what they are saying. People are beginning to see that they are articulate and intelligent and communicating truth. This is fueling a greater hunger for truth and reality in our culture.

These speakers are committed to the search for truth no matter how controversial. They don't back down from controversial conversations whether it be the challenge of Islam in the West, the sensitive science of race and intelligence, the contentious Australian history wars, the differences between the genders and western identity. Many people are not satisfied with the politically correct view of such topics and are looking for a more thorough, careful, intellectual and ethical discussion of them.

Stefan's now famous catchphrase is 'not an argument!' The commitment to facts, reason and evidence that he advocates is something powerful that we as Christians should wholeheartedly embrace. We should not be afraid of the search for truth and those who are asking hard but important questions that we may not be entirely comfortable with.

What I believe God is doing

The now thriving conservative counter-culture was almost non-existent three years ago, but the signs of its birthing were there. When I first came across Lauren Southern in mid-2015 she was relatively unknown, but I instantly knew that there was an anointing upon her life and that she was going to be influential in the culture wars.

When I see so many alternative speakers coming to Australia I have no doubt that God is up to something. It is a sign that people are searching for meaning and truth. Although not all of the speakers are Christians many of them like Stefan seem to be becoming more sympathetic to the Christian faith and I think they are bringing a lot of people along with them.

God is doing something significant in Australia right now. I believe we are in the beginning stages of a spiritual awakening and revival and I think it will impact upon the cultural and political aspects of society.

Associating spiritual revival with a revival of conservatism may make some uneasy but this seems to be what God is doing right now. Christian truth transcends the left/right divide and there are two or more sides to every issue including the ones discussed by Lauren and Stefan. But in a time when progressive values are being pushed ever more aggressively there is definitely a need for conservative truths to be particularly emphasized.

Conor is from Adelaide South Australia. He is a gardener and is involved in ministry. He loves God, music, reading and thinking deeply about philosophy and current events in the world.

Conor Ryans previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/conor-ryan.htmlDavidoff is getting ready to release the 2018 edition of its Davidoff Chefs Edition, a release that is done in collaboration with top chefs around the world. Its a project that brings together the world of cigar making and culinary arts. The cigar is being branded Davidoff Chefs Edition 2018 50th Anniversary to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Davidoff brand.

The Davidoff Chefs Edition made its debut in 2016. The same blend made a return in 2017. For the Chefs Edition 2018, there is a different blend, and a different team of culinary chefs who worked on the project.

There are five chefs who participated on the project. These chefs have a combined 12 Michelin stars, one of the most coveted honors for a chef.

Thomas Keller, The French Laundry in Yountville, USA,

Alvin Leung from Bo Innovation in Hong Kong,

Klaus Erfort from his eponymous Gastehaus in Saarbrucken, Germany,

Heiko Nieder from The Restaurant in Zurich, and

Shaun Rankin from Ormer Mayfair in London.

As for the blend, the Davidoff Chefs Edition 2018 utilizes a Dominican wrapper, San Andres Negro binder, and a combination of Nicaragua and Dominican tobaccos in the filler. The cigar is available in one size  a 6 x 54 Toro. The cigars are presented in 10-count boxes with a total allocation of 5,000 boxes. The cigars will feature the commemorative Davidoff 50th anniversary banding.

Discipline and passion for your work certainly are the cornerstones of continuous success, commented Chef Klaus Erfort in a press release, but also the feeling of making guests happy. Seeing the smiling faces when they leave the restaurant in the evening is a consistent source of motivation.

I firmly believe that no true progress can be made without the best ingredients, added Chef Shaun Rankin. Only when you handle these with respect can you develop recipes and your own repertoire and personal style.

Chief Marketing Officer Edward Simon said, In bringing together the creative powers of international kitchen pioneers with Davidoffs cigar visionaries in the Dominican Republic, we intended to create an extraordinary cigar experience inspired by flavours from the four corners of the world. These highly acclaimed Chefs and Master Blenders, whose mission is continually to push the boundaries of taste, have truly excelled in creating a blend and experience second to none.

The Davidoff Chefs Edition 2018 is set to arrive at Davidoff Appointed Merchants this month.

At a glance, here is a look at the Davidoff Chefs Edition 2018 :

Blend and Origin

Wrapper: Dominican

Binder: San Andres Negro

Filer: Dominican (Piloto Visus, Visus, Yamasa Visus, San Vicente Mejorado Ligero) and Nicaraguan (Esteli Visus)

Country of Origin: Dominican Republic

Factory: Cigars Davidoff

Vitolas Offered

Toro: 6 x 54

Photo Credits: Oettinger Davidoff AG, used with permissionTUESDAY, Sept. 4, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- In vitro fertilization gives couples struggling to conceive the chance to have children, but a new study suggests these kids are at increased risk for high blood pressure.

The study, of 54 teens conceived through assisted reproduction, found that eight -- or 15 percent -- had high blood pressure. That compared with just one case among 43 teenagers who were conceived naturally.

The scientists said the results build on evidence that assisted-reproduction procedures can affect the development of the blood vessels.

An earlier study of the same kids found that those conceived through the procedures were more likely to show signs of "premature aging" in the blood vessels: Their arteries tended to be stiffer and less elastic in response to blood flow, the researchers said.

The latest findings suggest that that can translate into early cases of high blood pressure, experts said.

"I think this is a really important study," said Dr. Ki Park, an interventional cardiologist at University of Florida Health, who was not involved in the research.

"There certainly is a signal of some long-term vascular changes in these children. And they show up early," Park added.

That said, no one is trying to be "alarmist," stressed Dr. Larry Weinrauch, of Harvard Medical School.

Weinrauch wrote an editorial published online Sept. 3 with the study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

"This is saying that if your child was conceived through ART [assisted reproductive technology], you want to be aware of this higher risk," he said.

Weinrauch suggested parents talk to their pediatrician about getting regular blood pressure checks.

Park agreed, and said the advice goes beyond childhood. A yearly blood pressure check would be wise for young adults who were conceived through assisted reproduction, she said.

ART refers to fertility treatments where both the egg and sperm are handled. The most common procedures include in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

In the United States, about 1.7 percent of babies born each year are conceived through ART, according to government figures.

"This is a wonderful technology that has produced more than 6 million kids at this point," Weinrauch said.

But, he added, it's important for researchers to keep digging into any increased health risks to those kids as they grow older.

Why would ART be linked to blood vessel dysfunction? Park and Weinrauch both said the evidence suggests it's something about the procedures themselves -- rather than the health of the parents, for example.

In the latest study, mothers were relatively young and generally healthy. And none of the kids had birth complications -- like preterm delivery or low birth weight -- that might affect their later health.

"It seems the ART procedures really are the main culprit," Park said, though the study did not prove that ART caused high blood pressure risk to rise.

Lead researcher Dr. Emrush Rexhaj did note that the siblings of kids in the study all had normal blood vessel function.

Beyond that, animal research has shown that ART techniques may affect blood vessel development, according to Rexhaj, of the University of Bern, in Switzerland.

The findings are based on 54 Swiss teenagers who were conceived through ART, and 43 of their classmates who were conceived naturally. All of the kids wore portable monitors to record their blood pressure over 24 hours.

Overall, teens in the ART group had blood pressure numbers that were a few points higher, on average. And just over 15 percent had readings high enough for a diagnosis of high blood pressure.

In the United States, an estimated 3.5 percent of teenagers have high blood pressure, according to Weinrauch. So that 15 percent figure is striking, he added.

He also said it's possible the study underestimates the problem: These teens were born to healthy moms. Kids whose mothers are obese or have high blood pressure, for example, may well face an even greater risk of the condition.

It's not clear whether people conceived via ART ultimately have higher-than-average risks of heart disease or stroke. The procedures were first done in 1978, Weinrauch noted -- so most people conceived that way are still too young to measure that risk.

One thing that is clear, Rexhaj said, is that those young people -- like everyone -- should maintain a healthy lifestyle.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on high blood pressure in kids.Share this: Twitter

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Secretary of Governance Alfonso Navarrete Prida

Governance Secretariat

Abraham Gonzalez 48

Colonia Juarez

Delegacion Cuauthemoc

C.P. 06600

Mexico City, Mexico

September 4, 2018

Dear Secretary Navarrete,

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent press freedom advocacy organization, is deeply concerned about the imminent gap in financing that threatens the operation of the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. We urge the Mexican federal government to take immediate action to guarantee continued and sufficient funding for the institution, which provides protective measures to over 700 journalists and human rights defenders under imminent threat of violence.

In an August 22 statement, the president of Mexicos National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez, disclosed that the current financial reserves of the mechanism, which is funded through a federal trust, will be exhausted by the end of September. Officials of the mechanism have confirmed to CPJ that, unless the situation changes, the institution will be forced to retire protective measures for its beneficiaries by October 1.

Mexico is the most dangerous country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere. This year alone, at least seven reporters have been killed, according to CPJ research, at least three of them in clear connection to their work. Journalists are also subject to death threats and online aggression, among other risks. The vast majority of cases of violence against reporters remain without a conviction; according to CPJs 2017 Global Impunity Index, Mexico ranks sixth, just below war-torn nations such as Somalia, Iraq, and Syria.

The mechanism was created in 2012 after Mexico adopted the Federal Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. After a difficult first few years, the mechanism has taken important steps to improve its protocols for risk evaluation, rapid response, and relocation. As such, the institution has become an important tool for the security of journalists and human rights defenders in situations of extreme risk. With the incoming administration taking office on December 1 of this year, it is pivotal to press freedom in Mexico that the mechanism operate throughout the transition period.

The mechanisms funding challenges are not new, unfortunately, and appear to be a repetition of last year. During a May 4, 2017, meeting with a CPJ delegation in Mexico City, President Enrique Pena Nieto committed to adequately funding the mechanism so as to guarantee its continuing operation. Officials tell CPJ that this commitment has never fully materialized.

We appeal to your government to take immediate steps to guarantee adequate funding for the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists and to take the appropriate steps to prevent a repetition of these issues in the future.

Sincerely,

Alexandra Ellerbeck

North America Program Coordinator

Committee to Protect JournalistsThe Philippines and Israel have signed three fundamental agreements on labor, science, and trade as a way of strengthening their bilateral ties. They signed the deals even as Malacanang said Tuesday the Philippine government was scheduled to sign an agreement with the Israeli oil firm Ratio Petroleum Ltd. that would cover energy exploration in Palawan. We are expecting an agreement on exploration to be signed between the Philippines and a company in Israel, Ratio Petroleum Limited, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told reporters in Israel. Its another foreign investor helping us to explore for energy in an effort to provide energy security. In a speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the signing of the three bilateral agreements as he expressed gratitude to the historic visit of President Rodrigo Duterte. Were going to sign here today three important agreements in trade, in science and, no less important, in caregiving, Netanyahu told Duterte, adding his father had received compassionate care from a Filipino caregiver. There has been a remarkable phenomenon in Israel where thousands and thousands of families have taken heart from the support given by Filipino care workers to the elderly. I am one of those families, Mr. President. I, like many, many Israeli families, am deeply moved by this show of humanity. And today were going to sign an agreement that will knock off as much as $12,000 from the cost of every caregiver.This is money that is taken away from the caregivers and the families, the Israeli families who so want their service. This is an exceptional agreement and I think it heralds the kind of friendship that we are developing. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III signed the Bilateral Agreement on the Temporary Employment of Filipino Home-Based Caregivers in Israel. According to a statement posted online on the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, the labor agreement will completely cancel all fees paid to agents and save thousands of shekels. Meanwhile, the Memorandum of Understanding on Scientific Cooperation, signed by Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, will encourage and establish scientific cooperation programs between Israels Ministry of Science and Technology and the countrys Department of Science and Technology. Lastly, the Memorandum of Intent on the Collaboration on Promotion of Bilateral Direct Investments, signed by Economy and Industry Minister Eli Cohen and Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez, encourages bilateral investments between the two countries. With the forged agreements, the Philippines expects a more suitable employment of Filipino caregivers in Israel, a further cooperation on the field of science and a progressive economy through investments.Share this: Twitter

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New York, September 4, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a Ukrainian courts decision to grant the countrys prosecutor generals office permission to access the phone records of Natalie Sedletska, a reporter, editor, and television presenter for Schemes, an investigative journalism project of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Libertys Ukrainian Service.

On August 27, the Pechersk District Court of Kiev, at the request of the prosecutor generals office, ordered Sedletskas telephone service provider to hand over information, including text messages and location data, covering the 17-month period between July 2016 and November 2017, according to RFE/RL.

The Kiev courts decision to grant prosecutors access to Natalie Sedletskas phone records is an affront to the principle of press freedom that the Ukrainian government purports to uphold, said Gulnoza Said, CPJs Europe and Central Asia research associate. Protecting sources is at the heart of newsgathering, and we call on prosecutors to stop this overreach so that journalists can safely do their work of holding the powerful to account.

Sedletska is an awardwinning journalist whose video investigations into alleged corruption have included the activities of the prosecutor generals office, as well as senior members of the government. She is one of several Ukrainian journalists listed as a witness in the prosecutor generals office probe of the possible disclosure of state secrets and pre-trial investigation data by the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Artem Sytnyk, according to RFE/RL. Sedletska was summoned to the prosecutor generals office for interrogation in December, according to a post she published on Facebook at the time.

Sedletska told CPJ that the order grants the prosecutor generals office the right to access her text messages and phone calls made using her telecom provider, as well as her location data. But she said it will not allow the prosecutor generals office to obtain her physical phone, thus putting those text messages or phone calls made with encrypted messenger apps out of their reach.

RFE/RL spokesperson Joanna Levison called on the court to nullify the decision, which she said was excessive, in flagrant violation of international standards, and not in line with Ukraines commitment to protect the free press.

That the request targets well over a years worth of data belonging to a prominent Ukrainian investigative journalist raises deeply troubling questions about the real intent of those seeking the information, Levison said.

Anatoliy Popov, a lawyer for RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service, said the courts ruling granted investigators access to a much larger amount of private journalist information than is necessary for a specific investigation, adding that the news outlet will respond with appropriate actions.China has pledged $60 billion of financial assistance to Africa bolster industry, counter hunger, and enhance security in the continent. It was announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in his inaugural address at third Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing.

FOCAC is an official forum between China and all states in Africa (except Eswatini). It was started as Ministerial Conference in 2000 in Beijing and since then it is held triennially in China and Africa alternatively.

2018 FOCAC Highlights

Focal areas: Eight focal areas of funding were mentioned that would premise emergence of China-Africa community with shared future in the new era. Energy, transport, telecommunications and tapping cross-border water resources will be Chinas priority in this next phase of Africas infrastructural forays.

Economic and trade cooperation: Chinas will also help to set up additional economic and trade cooperation zones to promote industrialisation in Africa. It will also encourage local currency settlements, instead of hard currency usage to settle transactions. It will also support Africa to achieve general food security by 2030.

Security: China also flagged its intent to bolster security in the continent. It will set up peace and security fund in partnership with Africa. It will also support countries in Sahel region and others bordering piracy-ridden Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Guinea apart from providing military aid to African Union.

50 China-Africa security assistance programmes will be launched under flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China has already established naval base in Djibouti on the edge of the strategic Gulf of Aden, which links the Red Sea and Arabian Sea

Environment Protection: China-Africa Green Envoys Programme will be launched to strengthen Africas capacity for environmental management, pollution prevention and control, as well as green development. China-Africa environmental cooperation centre will also be set up where research on environmental issues will be conducted.

Financing Mechanism: For financing, China will nudge African countries to tap new multilateral lenders such as Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), New Development Bank (NDB) of emerging economies as well as Silk Road Fund marshalled by China.

Out of $60 billion offered, China will disburse $15 billion as aid, interest-free loans and concessional loans, $20 billion as credit line, channel $10 billion into special fund for China-Africa development and $5 billion special fund will be set up only for African imports.Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released draft Charter of Patients Rights prepared by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Ministry plans to implement the Charter of Patients Rights through State governments for provision of proper health care by clinical establishments. This charter is expected to act as guidance document for Union Government and State Governments to formulate concrete mechanisms so that Patients Rights are given adequate protection and operational mechanisms are set up to make these rights functional and enforceable by law.

Draft Charter of Patients Rights

The draft charter is inspired by international charters and is guided by national level provisions with objective of consolidating comprehensive document on patients rights in India. It provides patients with right to emergency medical care and informed consent, right to non-discrimination, seek a second opinion and choose alternative treatment options, if available. It also includes 17 rights with description and draws upon all relevant provisions.

Need Charter of Patients Rights

There is no consolidated uniform document on patients rights that can be followed by all states uniformly. Some states have adopted National Clinical Establishments Act, 2010 and certain others have enacted their own State-level legislations to regulate hospitals. Right to non-discrimination in medical treatment is important right. Every patient has right to receive treatment without any discrimination based on his or her illnesses or conditions, including HIV status or other health condition, religion, caste, ethnicity or sexual orientation.India and Cyprus have signed two agreements on combating money laundering and cooperation in the field of environment. These agreements were signed after wide-ranging talks between President Ram Nath Kovind and his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades in Nicosia (capital of Cyprus). President Kovind visited Cyprus on the first leg of his three-nation visit to Europe including Bulgaria and Czech Republic to continue Indias high-level engagements with European countries.

Key Facts

The MoU on combating money laundering was signed between Financial Intelligence Unit, India, and Unit for Combating Money Laundering of Cyprus. This agreement will further strengthen institutional framework to facilitate investment cross-flows.

India-Cyprus tiesUkraine has launched annual joint military exercise named Rapid Trident with United States and other NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) member countries. The exercise will place in western Ukrainian village of Starychi from September 2 to 15, 2018. Its main goal is to practice countering armed aggression in conditions of the hybrid war. It is being conducted week before Russia holds its biggest military exercise Vostok-2018 since Cold War, in eastern part of the country and with participation of China and Mongolia.

Rapid Trident Exercise 2018

The exercise is composed of multinational, brigade-level, computer-assisted command post exercise, that is ntegrated with battalion-level field training exercise, and platoon-level situational training exercise. It will see participation of around 2,200 soldiers (all having combat experience) from 14 countries including the UK, Canada, Georgia, Turkey, Poland and Germany. During this exercise, armored vehicles, aviation units and around 350 pieces of military equipment will be used. It will also for first time will see participation of Ukrainian Border Guard Service and National Guard troops.HOLOCAUST CENTER. President Rodrigo Duterte visits the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem, on the western slope of Mount Herzl, Israels official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, dedicated to preserving the memory of the dead; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need. Presidential Photo

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has apologized for comparing himself to Adolf Hitler, visited Israels Holocaust memorial on Monday and said he hoped the world learned lessons from the horrific period in history.The President held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the second of a four-day visit to Israel, with defense deals and other areas of cooperation on the agenda. All visiting leaders pay their respects at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, usually without much fanfare. But Dutertes Hitler remarks and other controversial actions, including his internationally condemned drug crackdown that has killed thousands, put his visit in the spotlight. He spoke twice during his visit to the solemn memorial perched high in Jerusalems hills, saying he could not imagine a country obeying an insane leader. And I could not ever fathom the spectacle of a human being going into a killing spree... I would like to say that we are one in saying that this will not happen again. Duterte later read out what he wrote in the memorials guest book, saying may the world learn the lessons of this horrific and benighted period of human history. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin also gave a brief lecture on Hitler to Duterte when they met on Tuesday. Hitler was actually representing the devil himself, Rivlin said when the two men met at his Jerusalem office. He was the devil on earth. Rivlin went on to say that Dutertes visit to Israels Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Monday must have illustrated to him the sensitivity surrounding any reference to Adolf Hitler. Probably you have realized yesterday the feelings when you have visited the museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, to really feel the atmosphere, to feel the feelings of all the people that were part of this disaster, said Rivlin, whose position is mainly ceremonial. Duterte appeared to be listening attentively during Rivlins brief comments. He later spoke about trade and cooperation with Israel. On Wednesday, Duterte will inaugurate a memorial near Tel Aviv commemorating the Philippines acceptance of 1,300 Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Dutertes visit to Yad Vashem led to criticism even before it took place, mainly due to comments in 2016 comparing himself to Adolf Hitler. Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there are 3 million drug addicts [in the Philippines]. Id be happy to slaughter them, Duterte said then. Historians say 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. Duterte later apologized and said the comments were aimed at critics who had likened him to the Nazi leader. Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an editorial headlined A Hitler admirer at Yad Vashem, while left-wing politicians questioned why Netanyahu would welcome Duterte with open arms.Netanyahu is willing to whitewash an illegitimate leader, who took pride in massacring his citizens and violating human rights, and why? Tamar Zandberg, head of the leftist Meretz party, wrote on Facebook. Because Duterte is willing to support the occupation [of the West Bank]. Israels government focused on what it sees as the positive aspects of Dutertes visit, the first by a Philippine leader in more than 60 years of diplomatic ties. Netanyahu noted the Philippines support for Israel at the United Nations and said his father had been cared for by a Filipino in his later years, as is the case with many elderly Israelis. Duterte, speaking alongside Netanyahu ahead of their lunch, said they share the same passion for peace. But we also share the same passion of not allowing our country to be destroyed by those who have the corrupt ideology who know nothing but to kill and destroy, he said. He thanked Israel for supplying him with unspecified defense equipment that was critical in winning the warpresumably a reference to his governments battle against jihadists in the city of Marawi last year. Netanyahu is always on the lookout for allies who will support Israel in international forums, where the country often faces criticism over its occupation of Palestinian territory. In recent months, he has found common cause with a number of nationalist leaders, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The Philippines was among the countries that abstained from a UN General Assembly vote rejecting US President Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital in December. It also emerged as a significant new customer in 2017 for Israel, with sales of radar and anti-tank equipment worth $21 million. Beyond that, the country is an important provider of labor to Israel, where some 28,000 Filipinos live including many working as care providers for the elderly. On Monday, the two countries signed agreements related to Filipino caregivers, scientific cooperation, and bilateral investments. Immediately after Dutertes arrival on Sunday night, he revived one of his previous foul-mouthed remarks that have caused anger, saying he was sorry for calling former US President Barack Obama a son of a whore. Duterte lobbed the insult in 2016 in response to steady criticism from the United States over his violent drug crackdown. It would be appropriate also to say at this time to Mr. Obama that you are now a civilian and I am sorry for uttering those words, Duterte said Sunday while speaking to Filipinos in Israel. On Wednesday, Duterte heads to Jordan, where he is expected to meet King Abdullah II.Tamil Nadu: 75,000 fishermen keep off sea, flay rise in prices of fuel

September 04,2018 | Source: NDTV

About 75,000 fishermen from some coastal districts of Tamil Nadu refrained from going to the sea today, in order to condemn the rise in price of diesel, a fishermen association representative said.

Speaking to reporters, president of Tamil Nadu coastal mechanised boats fishermen association P Sesuraj said it's time diesel and petrol were brought under the goods and services tax as it would help in bringing down the price of the fuel.



He also said fishing activities have been less over the last one month as fishermen could not afford to buy fuel for their boats. The spiralling price has affected the livelihood of the fishermen, he added.Maharashtra: Locals protest against nuclear power plant in western India

September 04,2018 | Source: Xinhuanet

Local people held a protest march on Monday to oppose land acquisition of the construction of Jaitapur nuclear power plant in coastal Konkan in western India. Villagers including a large number of women gathered at Madban village in Rathnagiri district and shouted slogans against the proposed power plant, expressing their dissent in the proposal which will anticipate to create a great loss for the local residents' livelihood. According to Press Trust of India's (PTI) report, the project was proposed 12 years ago and just started construction. Almost 80 percent of the land acquisition of the total 930 hectares owned by 2,500 persons has been completed.



However, some farmers and villagers are opposing the project, citing forced rehabilitation and loss of livelihood. "The use of nuclear fuel, its impact on global warming and potential threat to fishermen, are issues not being properly addressed by the government," said Satyajeet Chavan, chairman of Janhakka Seva Samiti, who is the protest leader.



PTI report added, the plant will take over land that currently belongs to the villagers in five different fishing villages which are Madban, Varliwada, Karel, Niveli and Mithgavane. The Jaitapur project will be the largest nuclear power plant in the world, with a collective capacity of 9,900 MW.Between a nation performing on global platforms like the United Nations or the G-20 and nurturing bilateral relationships, there is expanding space for regional diplomacy. India has invested heavily in this intermediate sphere, but has so far got mixed results. This came into sharp focus as the fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) ended in Kathmandu last week.

Established in 1997, Bimstec  composed of five South Asian countries (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and two South-east Asian nations (Thailand and Myanmar)  aims to leverage sub-regional cooperation for accelerating economic development. Functioning informally, it achieved very little until 2015. Since October 2016, however, it gathered momentum as India looked around to assemble its friendly neighbours for an interaction with the leaders of Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) at their eighth summit in Goa.

In this backdrop, the key takeaway of the latest Bimstec summit was the leaders decision to order a major institutional reform to strengthen the grouping. Agreed measures include drafting a charter, creating a new Permanent Working Committee, pledge to provide more financial and human resources to the secretariat, and plan to establish a Bimstec Development Fund. Another highly needed reform is to focus on a handful of sectors rather than frittering away limited resources on 16 areas of cooperation.

Expanding connectivity through roads, railways, air links and shipping has been a priority, but the grouping has not moved beyond the stage of studies and planning. It showed promise for energy cooperation as a new agreement on Grid Interconnection was signed in Kathmandu, but this is not enough. The way forward was best spelt out by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in his businesslike address. He urged the organisation to concentrate on connectivity, trade and investment, people-to-people contact, security, and science and technology and step up to be a key player to support Asia as a driving force of the global economy.

Even limited progress by Bimstec has raised fears about future prosp-ects of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). Nepals PM stressed that Saarc and Bimstec do not substitu-te but complement each other. Others in Nepal went on to allege that India, in its zeal for Bimstec, was trying to undercut the Saarc process.

When confronted with a question on the subject, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale wisely sidestepped it, observing that Bimstec fits in well with Indias Neighbourhood First policy, Act East policy and New Delhis stress on the development of the Northeast. He also added that India dealt with every multilateral organisation on its merits.

Launched in 1985, Saarc groups together eight countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Maldives. in addition to the five South Asian members of Bimstec). It too managed to achieve modest success. It was moving along gingerly when Pakistans obstruction to proposals on road connectivity and refusal to respect Indias sensitivities on terrorism led to the indefinite postponement of its 19thsummit (which was due to take place in Islamabad in November 2016). Saarc has been in a slumber mode since then. Its future is dependent on the chances of an India-Pakistan rapprochement, which is uncertain at present.

On South Asias western and northern flank, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a Eurasian political, economic and security partnership among China, Russia and four Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan). It received a South Asian dimension as India and Pakistan joined the SCO as full members in June 2017.

Its 18th summit held in Qingdao was the first gathering of leaders of all its eight members. President Xi Jinping hailed the SCO as a new model for regional cooperation, which shared ideas to tackle global challenges amid growing instability and uncertainty. For long, there was a perception that China would allow Indias entry into SCO only when India agreed to Chinas admission into Saarc. This proved wrong. Moreover, there were fears that while attending the SCO summit, India might be compelled to reduce its resistance to Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This too didnt happen as India, braving isolation, reiterated its principled opposition to President Xis flawed concept of connectivity.

India is a strategic partner, not a member, of Asean, and this strategic partnership has developed fairly well. It was on display at the Asean-India commemorative summit in New Delhi recently, and in the participation of all 10 Asean leaders in Indias Republic Day celebrations. The summit marked the 25thanniversary of Asean-India dialogue relations. The two sides agreed to further strengthen and deepen the strategic partnership for mutual benefit. Much potential exists for expansion of trade, investment, connectivity, tourism and development cooperation, which is waiting to be tapped optimally.

The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Brics are among the bigger regional organisations. India has been playing a prominent and proactive role in them too, not only to promote its national interest, but also to contribute to peace, stability and prosperity of the respective regional spaces.

The range and complexity of issues addressed in the regional organisations, seen above, are truly mind-boggling. Despite their limited numbers, Indian diplomatic personnel  both in the external affairs ministry and diplomatic missions abroad  are able to deal with them, ensuring an appropriate leadership role for India. But they need help! Implementation of agreements and programmes, stemming from the regional fora, needs to be done back home  in various ministries and agencies of the Government of India, state governments and the private sector.

Two suggestions merit consideration. First, the external affairs minister should encourage her Cabinet colleagues to take a greater interest in the subjects tackled in regional institutions and ensure a whole-of-the-government approach.

Second, the MEAs Foreign Service Institute should hold a regular series of workshops for senior officials of various ministries to educate them about the changing dynamics of regional diplomacy. Only then will India be able to reduce the gap between declaration and delivery, and serve as a model for other member-states to perform better on the regional stage.

H10The private Kuwaiti airline Wataniya Airways has announced it is suspending temporarily operations for the second time in a decade, after resuming last year following a six-year hiatus.

Board chairman Ali al Fozan Monday said the new suspension is caused by unexpected circumstances that could not be avoided, according to Dubai-based Arabian Business.

Fozan highlighted lack of aircrafts as reason for the temporary suspension. The airline is currently operating four A320 family aircraft. Three of them have gone out of service, Fozan was quoted as saying at a press conference in Kuwait City.

One of the three aircrafts, according to the airline official, needs to have an engine replaced, while two others left service after the carrier ended a wet lease contract with Olympus Airways over objections by Kuwaits civil aviation authority (DGCA).

[Wataniya] cannot operate with one plane so we decided to suspend operations temporarily until return of the second plane, Al Fozan said adding that lack of planes has caused sharp fall, by 50 per cent, into the operation.

The decision to halt for the time being operations came following threats by the DGCA to revoke the airlines license, and calls by countrys lawmakers to the company to pay compensation to travelers who were stranded late last month in Istanbul, Baku, and Sarajevo over lack of aircrafts.

Crown Prince Sheik Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah stepped in and gave instructions to the government to fly back home citizens affected by Wataniya flights cancellations.

The airline has come under repeated criticism over regular flight cancelations and delays. The DGCA gave the private operator three months to improve its services or it will face suspension.

Fozan promised a return to the sky in the near future as he argued that the company is financially sound.

We are committed to complying with all decisions and regulations of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and are keen on offering services at highest standards, he said.

The firm currently operates four A320 family aircraft on routes that cross the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

In July, it signed, via its exclusive aircraft provider Golden Falcon Aviation, an order of 25 Airbus A320neo jets worth around $2.8bn at list prices.Today I turned off my ad blocker, enabled JavaScript, opened my network monitor, and clicked the first link on Hacker News - a New York Times article. It started by downloading a megabyte of data as it rendered the page over the course of eight full seconds. The page opens with an advertisement 281 pixels tall, placed before even the title of the article. As I scrolled down, more and more requests were made, downloading a total of 2.8 MB of data with 748 HTTP requests. An article was weaved between a grand total of 1419 vertical pixels of ad space, greater than the vertical resolution of my display. Another 153-pixel ad is shown at the bottom, after the article. Four of the ads were identical.

I was reminded to subscribe three times, for $1/week (after one year this would become $3.75/week). One of these reminders attached itself to the bottom of my screen and followed along as a scrolled. If I scrolled up, it replaced this with a larger banner, which showed me three other articles and an ad. I was asked for my email address once, though I would have had to fill out a captcha to submit it. I took out my phone and repeated the experiment. It took 15 seconds to load, and I estimate the ads took up a vertical space equal to 4 times my phones vertical resolution, each ad alone taking up half of my screen.

The text of the article is a total of 9037 bytes, including the title, author, and date. I downloaded the images relevant to the article, including the 1477x1082 title image. Before I ran them through an optimizer, they weighed 260 KB; after, 236 KB (using only lossless optimizations). 8% of the total download was dedicated to the content. 5 discrete external companies were informed of my visit to the page and given the opportunity to run artibrary JavaScript on it.

If these are the symptoms, what is the cure? My basic principles are these:

Use no, or very little, JavaScript

Use raster images sparingly, if at all, and optimize them

Provide interactivity with forms and clever CSS

Identify wasted bandwidth and CPU cycles and optimize them

Ive been building sr.ht with these principles in mind, and I spent a few hours this optimizing it further. What do the results look like? The heaviest page, the marketing page, today weighs 110 KB with a cold cache, and 4.6 KB warm. A similar page on GitHub.com weighs 2900 KB cold, 19.4 KB warm. A more typical page on sr.ht weighs 56.8 KB cold and 31.9 KB warm, after 2 HTTP requests; on GitHub the same page is 781 KB cold and 57.4 KB warm, 118 requests. This file is 29.1 KB. The sr.ht overhead is 27.6 KB cold and 2.7 KB warm. The GitHub overhead is respectively 751.9 KB and 28.2 KB. Theres also a 174-pixel-tall ad on GitHub encouraging me to sign up for an account, shown before any of the content.

To be fair, the GitHub page has more features. As far as I can tell, most of these arent implemented in the page, though, and are rather links to other pages. Some of the features in the page include a dropdown for filtering branches and tags, popups that show detail when you hover over an avatars, some basic interactivity in the search, all things that I cant imagine taking up much space. Does this justify an order of magnitude increase in resource usage?

Honestly, GitHub does a pretty good job overall. Compared to our New York Times example, theyre downright great. But they could be doing better, and so could we all. You can build beautiful, interactive websites with HTML and CSS alone, supported by a simple backend. Pushing the complexity of rendering your single-page app into the frontend might save you miniscule amounts of server-side performance, but youd just be offloading the costs onto your visitors phone and sucking their battery dry.

There are easy changes you can make. Enable caching on your web server, with a generous expiry. Use a hash of your resources in the URL so that you can bust the cache when you need to. Enable gzip for text resources, and HTTP/2. Run your images through an optimizer, odds are they can be losslessly compressed. There are harder changes, too. Design your website to be usable without JavaScript, and use small amounts of it to enhance the experience - rather than to be the experience. Use CSS cleverly to provide interactivity. Find ways to offload work to the server where you can. Measure your pages to look for places to improve. Challenge yourself to find the simplest way of building the features you want.

And if anyone at Google is reading, you should try recommending these strategies for speeding up pages instead of pushing self-serving faux standards like AMP.Japanese casual wear retailer Uniqlo recently announced that it plans to open its first store in HCMC next fall.

Its parent company, Fast Retailing, will set up a joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation to enter the Vietnamese market, where they will own 75 and 25 percent respectively.

Tadashi Yanai, CEO of Fast Retailing, said he was optimistic about the opportunities in this exciting economy and retail market and look forward to introducing Uniqlo and other apparels to Vietnam.

Its first store in Vietnam will be in Ho Chi Minh City, and Uniqlo will soon recruit staff for its launch, according to Nikkei Asia Review.

Uniqlo's arrival is set to intensify the competition between foreign brands like Zara and H&M in Vietnam.

Zara and H&M, who came to Vietnam two years ago, have outlets at Vingroups malls in both HCMC and Hanoi.

Currently, Vietnamese can only buy Uniqlo goods from independent local retailers or order them from Japan.

Uniqlo aims to have around 400 outlets in Southeast Asia and Oceania by 2022, generating $2.71 billion worth of revenues.

A survey released in October last year by market research firm Q&Me showed fashion items topping online purchases in Vietnam followed by IT products, cosmetics, food and beverage, and books and stationery.

According to Statista, a database portal of statistics, consumer survey results and industry studies, the apparel market will be worth $2.74 billion this year and is expected to grow at 7.7 percent annually until 2021.Improved PPP rules are expected to revitalize infrastructure investment in Vietnam, but legal entanglements continue to be a concern.

Vietnams infrastructure has struggled to keep up with its robust economic and population growth.

Rapid economic growth and urbanization are driving demand for roads, power, airports, ports, waste and water treatment, hospitals, and other public infrastructure for goods and services.

Meanwhile, public funding is unable to meet these needs. The gap would have to be made up from other sources including private investment in the form of public-private partnerships (PPPs).

To put it simply, the public sector has the users (or customers) and land and can provide other incentives such as tax breaks. The private sector can bring in technology, capital and efficiency through experience.

Other countries have successfully implemented PPPs. In Vietnam, a number of tools have been created to assist the government in its support for PPPs, aiming to create a much improved legal framework for PPP to revitalize investment in infrastructure projects.

Legal issues update

The new tools include the Project Development Facility to help make a rigorous assessment of potential projects and the Viability Gap Fund, which provides needed government support to make them financially viable if they are not otherwise.

The government has enacted several laws to promote infrastructure development, especially through private investment.

Decree 15/2015/ND-CP on PPP investment is very promising with regard to the forms of contracts, the various sectors targeted, state support or participation, projects bankability, and tender requirements.

However, in the process of implementation, there are conflicting legal issues that deter investors from choosing PPP as an investment mode, meaning there are few PPP projects thus far.

For instance, Decree 15 clearly allows project contracts to be governed by foreign laws, namely contracts involving a foreign party and government agency guarantee contracts.

But an issue arises when it comes to real-estate related matters, which are not yet finally decided under the Land Law which will be the governing law.

Moreover, as PPP laws are only at decree level, the regulatory framework for PPP projects mainly includes the Law on Enterprises, Law on Public Investment, Law on Bidding, etc., most of which regulate public investment, and not private, or investment cooperation between the government and private investors.

Investors are also concerned about the stability of PPP regulations since they are mainly decrees. Since a PPP project could take years to complete, regulations in decrees could change and cause investors confusion in the implementation of the laws.

State agencies also face certain difficulties in managing PPP projects. In an actual incident narrated by an officer at the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the government once signed a PPP contract with an investor, but later amended the contract value due to changes in policies. As a result, the land price increased 14 times from the previously agreed level, leading to a substantial loss for the investor.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, there will be an expected 598 registered PPP projects in 2016-20 with a total investment of VND250 trillion ($10.69 billion).

Given the shortcomings of Decree 15, it would be hard to achieve these numbers without its replacement by another decree.

In that context, Decree 63/2018/ND-CP was issued on May 4, 2018, to eliminate bottlenecks in PPP implementation.

Decree 63 - What is new?

Capital contribution responsibility

The investor is responsible for contributing and mobilizing capital for the project, with the ratio of the investors capital to the owners equity determined as follows:

For projects with a total investment amount of up to VND1.5 trillion ($64.13 million), the equity the investor must maintain is at least 20 percent of that amount;

In case of projects worth more than VND1.5 trillion, it must be at least 20 percent of the first VND1.5 trillion and 10 percent of the amount exceeding that.

There is no capital contribution requirement by the government, thus reducing the financial burden on the government.

Payment methods in BT projects

Investors are very interested in well-located lands when implementing build-transfer (BT) projects. However, when the lands gradually run out, BT projects do not seem to attract investors.

Decree 63 has added another method in addition to the exchange of land for infrastructure, so that investors have more options in terms of compensation.

Now investors may also receive payment in the form of transfer of rights to do business, exploit works/ services, etc.

Impact of CPTPP and EVFTA on PPP projects

Covered government entities and agencies

According to Decree 63, tenders for the selection of PPP investors will be governed by the Law on Public Procurement.

While the Law on Public Procurement still has some shortcomings, Vietnam will be bound by its commitments in the Government Procurement chapter in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTP) and the EU-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA), including procedures to carry out a tender and in what specific circumstances the Government must call for a public tender.

Investors now have the opportunity to participate in procurement by Vietnamese government entities and challenge the government if it does not grant them the opportunity to do so in qualified circumstances.

The CPTPP and the EVFTA both make a list of government entities and agencies whose procurement of particular goods and services at a particular amount must be subject to public tender.

While the CPTPP only allows expansion of the list within 5 years of the entry into force of the agreement, the EVFTA allows a longer period of 15 years.

How to appeal government tender decision?

The CPTPP and the EVFTA make it possible for foreign investors to sue the Vietnamese government for its tender decisions according to the dispute settlement by arbitration rules.

The violating party must take all necessary measures to promptly comply with the arbitral decision.

In case of non-compliance, as in the WTO, the CPTPP and the EVFTA allow temporary remedies (compensation) at the request of the complaining party.

Enforcement of arbitral awards

The final arbitral award is binding and enforceable without any question from the local courts regarding its validity. This is an advantage for investors considering the fact that the percentage of annulled foreign arbitral awards in Vietnam remains relatively high for various reasons.

Vietnams strong economic growth and its demand for infrastructure development are great opportunities for investors planning to invest in the country. The CPTPP and the EVFTA are effective tools to support foreign investment in Vietnams infrastructure sector in the form of PPP. Under these agreements, foreign investors could take recourse to arbitration proceedings and have the arbitral awards fully enforced in Vietnam.

*Oliver Massmann is general director of Duane Morris Vietnam LLC.As investment in hydropower and construction projects ramp up, ecosystems along Southeast Asia's longest river are paying the price.

At more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles), the Mekong is Southeast Asia's longest river. It runs through six countries, providing food and income for more than 70 million people.

But the integrity of the river, and therefore of the livelihood of the people who depend on it, is under threat - particularly in the lower Mekong basin in Cambodia and Vietnam. Its banks are being dug up and sand taken away for use in construction projects, and its waters are increasingly being dammed for hydropower.

"I believe that in just a few centuries, the whole delta is going disappear from the map," ecologist Nguyen Huu Thien, who has been researching the river's ecology for more than 20 years, told DW.

Sediment - the fine soil particles found at the bottom of the river - is carried by the current and deposited at the delta. This sediment provides fertile ground for plants and animals, including farming.

But over the past decades, the sediment is being carried away faster than it can be deposited. As a result, riverbanks have become unstable, leading to landslides in the lower Mekong basin.

Communities destroyed

The road to My Hoi Dong, a village in the Vietnamese province of An Giang, has been blocked since April, 2016. To Thi Kim Huong can recall precisely what happened that day.

She was washing vegetables in the river. Cracks had earlier appeared in houses along the water, and police were helping people evacuate. "Suddenly I heard strange noises," she told DW. "It sounded like ab-ab-ab-ab-ab."

A police officer shouted for her to get out of the water immediately. Seconds later, the houses around her began to collapse. "Within five minutes, 16 houses fell into the water right in front of my eyes," she said, shuddering at the memory.

One of those houses belonged to Tran Van Bi. He arrived just in time to see its roof vanish beneath the water. "I've been living here a long time, but I've never seen anything like this," he told DW. "I think the sand mining causes these landslides."

Huu Thien thinks the same. "Sand mining prevents the sand from arriving downstream. And the most sand mines are in Cambodia and Vietnam."

The cost of mining sand

Mekong Delta residents have had to cope with losing their homes to the river. Photo by Pascal Laureyn

The village of S'ang, more than a hundred kilometers upstream in neighboring Cambodia, used to be a tranquil spot on the Tonle Bassac, a tributary of the Mekong River. But some years ago, a sand mining company started digging here. Now the roar of dredging machines fills the air.

"The constant noise gives me headaches and raises my heart rate," complained Liou Lihout, who has lived there for decades. "They don't even take a lunch break."

Lihout's neighbor, Sok-Jang, has to contend with more than just the noise. The back part of his home - including his bathroom - has collapsed. You can still see the remains of walls and some of his belongings floating in the river. "I have no place to go," he told DW.

"I took a loan from the bank to buy this house. They only started dredging after I moved in."

Dams and sand mining have taken their toll on villagers in the Mekong Delta. Photo by Pascal Laureyn

The dredged sand is being used to fill a drained lake at the site of a nearby construction project. But Meng Heng, an activist with environmental organization Mother Nature, said the miners are taking more sand than permitted.

"The official documents about the amount of sand are being forged," Heng told DW. Heng cited a 2010 report by the Global Witness, which indicated that some 700,000 tons of sand have been dredged without permission.

The Cambodian government dismissed the report as "cheap" and "rubbish," and called the allegations "malicious."

Residents determined to stay

A Chinese-funded dam built on the Sesan, another tributary of the Mekong, caused the village of Kbal Romeas in Cambodia's Stung Treng province to flood, until the government officially classified the area as a lake and ordered residents to leave. But the people don't want to go.

A road in Kbal Romeas disappears as water overtakes the land. Photo by Pascal Laureyn

Vibol used to play in the village square as a little child. Now it's flooded and abandoned. He points at inscriptions on several houses: one reads NOLS2Dam. "No Lower Sesan 2 Dam," Vibol explained. "We'd rather die here," he explains.

The villagers don't say this lightly. Their ancestors have been buried here over generations, and abandoning them would be considered a disgrace. The cemetery looks like a scattering of tiny sheds barely emerging from the water. But villagers still come here to perform traditional rituals.

A dying river

In some regions of the Mekong Delta, it's no longer possible to grow vegetables or eat fruit from the trees as water engulfs the land. There's even a shortage of fish. "Fish tend to migrate for breeding, but the dams block their migration routes. So those fish will become extinct," Heng told DW.

On the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, fisherman Duon Cong To says some of the species he caught in his youth have already disappeared.

Fisherman Duon Cong To knows exactly how his livelihood and dinner depend on Linh, a kind of white fish. Photo by Bui Tien Dat

"Linh fish lives in Cambodia, but comes all the way to Vietnam to breed," he explained. "So you have to be aware of when and how to catch it."

Cong To knows plenty about the ecology of this region. But then again, he has been living off the river for the last four decades. "Living on a mountain, you know when birds sing. Living on a river, you know how fish talk," he says, reciting an old Vietnamese saying.

But with all these changes taking place along the Mekong, how long the fish will keep speaking their language? Heng fears the mighty river that has supported so many for so long will soon lose its life-giving power.

"My concern is that a lot of people live along the Mekong River," he says. "And now we see that fish and tree species are disappearing. With these changes, the lives of the people will also change dramatically."A man sits on a house that has been submerged fully except for the roof in Thanh Hoa Province on Saturday. Photo by VnExpress/Le Hoang

The heavy flooding and landslides triggered by torrential rains in northern and central provinces have left 14 people dead.

Thanh Hoa Province in north central Vietnam has suffered the heaviest casualties, with nine people reportedly killed and three missing, said the Central Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

The northern mountainous provinces of Hoa Binh, Lai Chau, Lang Son, Son La, Yen Bai reported one death each as of Tuesday morning.

More than 360 houses have been swept away while 750 others had to be evacuated.

Flash floods destroyed 6,534 hectares of rice, with Thanh Hoa bearing the brunt.

Since August 29 the north and the central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An have been battered by downpours of up to 200 millimeters caused by a tropical convergence zone.

In Thanh Hoa, the rains sparked the worst floods in years and landslides that isolated many villages and towns, inflicting great misery. Locals also blamed their plight on discharge from hydropower dams in the area.

In Lai Chau in the northern mountains, landslides blocked national highways and paralyzed traffic for hours Monday morning.

On Friday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc instructed local authorities to take emergency action to prevent further loss of life and damage to property.

A fortnight ago at least 10 people were killed and two were reported missing as Typhoon Bebinca turned into a tropical depression and making landfall in Thanh Hoa on August 17.

Vietnam was hit by a record 16 tropical storms last year in which 389 people died or went missing and 668 others were injured, mostly in the northern and central regions.Chinas intentions and ASEANs ability to reconcile internal divisions will decide whether a new agreement can grow some teeth.

The announcement last month that ASEAN and China had agreed on a single draft code of conduct negotiating text over the South China Sea after years of talks has been hailed as a milestone. But while getting to that point is evidence of mutual goodwill, it reveals more about the regions perennial dilemma -how to keep trying when the challenges to cooperation continue to mount.

Given the pace of the negotiations, arriving at the zero draft for negotiations sounds like a big achievement. The more sensitive elements up for negotiation though, are wide, starting with the content, including the geographic scope; dispute settlement mechanisms; the duty to cooperate; references to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); the role of third parties; whether there will be explicit mention of the militarization activities; and whether it is going to be legally binding - among other contested issues.

Theres disagreement not only between China and ASEAN but also between ASEAN member states. Stalled negotiations have led many commentators, including me, to conclude that the code of conduct could become a tool in Chinas strategy to distract the rival claimants with detrimental consequences for ASEANs interests. The long-running ASEANChina dialogue on the South China Sea has brought little confidence because of concerns about Chinas intentions and ASEANs ability to reconcile its internal divisions.

But the single draft suggests that theres some symbolic value behind the largely questionable progress. Chinas leaders want to show that theyre capable of resolving the disputes peacefully. A conciliatory attitude will also help guard against meddling by external parties as Beijing demonstrates that it can manage issues with neighbors smoothly. Not only are the talks back on track, but China is offering more cooperation, including announcing the first-ever ChinaASEAN maritime exercises. Scheduled to take place in October, ahead of the ASEAN summit in November, the joint initiative is certainly a positive sign for regional cooperation.

Beijings good intentions are also being demonstrated beyond Southeast Asia. China has donated a warship to Sri Lanka and pledged a surveillance and hydrographic vessel to Fiji later this year. Its important for Beijing to show that it can cooperate. However, negotiating a peaceful settlement of disputes seems detached from Chinas steady militarization of the artificial islands it has constructed in the South China Sea and its incremental control over the disputed waters. Coercive behavior towards vessels or aircraft passing through or over the area continues.

So why do the ASEAN states play along? Despite the challenges of the process and the many concerns that Southeast Asian nations have about China, none of them can afford to disengage. While the majority of the Filipino population still strongly support their countrys assertion of its maritime claims, the (still popular) Duterte administration has opted for some risky bets in its relations with Beijing. Most recently, the foreign secretary, Alan Peter Cayetano, said that Manilas willingness to put aside territorial claims in pursuit of joint exploration with Beijing was a matter of principled pragmatism. "Lets cooperate first, and lets talk about who owns what, who has jurisdiction, later on," he said, adding, "Whats better, 60-40 or 0-0?" Many Filipino experts find Manilas new attitude hard to accept.

Singapore - this years ASEAN chair - is under pressure to deliver. It has just completed its term as the coordinator of the ASEAN - China dialogue and appears to have wanted to lock in the list of items to be included for further negotiations. As one example, the draft negotiating text includes Chinas proposal that parties "not hold joint military exercises with countries from outside the region, unless the parties concerned are notified beforehand and express no objection." If that clause makes it into the final, it would give Beijing a veto over ASEAN member states choices about who they conduct exercises with in the South China Sea.

Its no surprise that Beijing is seeking to impose unfavorable conditions on the rest of the claimants. But where the negotiations go from here, and whether they will be binding, is another matter. As such, the drafts real value is that it changes the nature of the negotiations to "open cards" and enhances the transparency of the process.

Timing is an important factor given the ASEAN tradition of rotational leadership. The Philippines assumed coordinatorship of the ASEANChina dialogue on August 5 and will serve in the role until 2021. The Duterte government has, as yet, displayed little evidence of its ability to represent ASEAN-wide interests in the negotiations with China.

While finalizing the code of conduct is still a remote prospect, the next few years will determine the momentum and nature of the negotiations. A non-claimant as the next ASEAN chair would add to neutrality of the negotiations (next year is Thailands turn). The year 2020 may bring more interesting developments: Vietnam - an active claimant (which calls the waterway the East Sea) - will become chair and intends to have a strong focus on security, including deepening the agenda for the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus forum. In the following years, the chairing will successively rotate to Brunei, Cambodia and Laos.

All ASEAN member states - both claimants and non-claimants - are interested in engaging with China, and the single draft negotiating text is a sign of progress. But challenging times are ahead for the claimant states to negotiate provisions that actually support rather than circumvent UNCLOS, including the option for judicial settlement and arbitration in case of further violations.

*Huong Le Thu is a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Her piece was originally published on The Strategist.Ukraine-EU trade in agricultural commodities grows to $4.6 bln in seven months

Ukrainian exports alone were estimated at almost US$3.1 billion.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterUkrainian vessel detained near Russia-occupied Crimea - Police

Four crew of the fishing boat are being held at a coast guard detachment in Sevastopol, the stronghold of the Russian Black Fleet.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterColumbias new President Monday said he will not reverse his predecessors decision to recognize Palestine as a free state despite demand by Israel that its South American ally scarps the surprising move.

Damage was done by the fact that there was not more institutional discussion. [Former] president [Juan Manuel] Santos told me that he had made that decision, but it is irreversible, Ivan Duque told a local radio station.

We would have benefited from more analyses [about the pros and cons of recognizing Palestine], but we should be part of the solution, not the problem, the new President added.

Columbia, Israels main ally in South America early last month, a day after Duques inauguration, indicated that it recognized Palestine as a free state. The decision, according to Bogota, was made by Duques predecessor Juan Manuel Santos.

Times of Israel notes that Duque was informed in advance of the move, which had been channeled to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in a letter.

Duque also told the local radio that any government governs until it is replaced by its successor administration, and therefore Santoss decision cannot be disputed and will stand.

The Israeli Government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not comment on Duques decision to abide by Santoss diplomatic decision which is a blow to Israel.

However Israeli Deputy Minister Michael Oren said the Colombian presidents decision not to annul his predecessors lame-duck recognition of Palestine was damaging to Israel, Times of Israeli reports.

Even worse  the decision directly harms the peace process by giving the Palestinians free of charge what they could have received in exchange for concessions in future negotiations. So now, why should the Palestinians want to negotiate at all? Oren said in a statement.

The decision to recognize Palestine as a free state antagonizes Duques previous plans, prior to his election, to transfer the Columbian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and deepen ties with Israel.

The South American country early this year abstained when 128 countries voted a resolution condemning US President Donald Trumps decision recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Columbia had also abstained when 138 member countries of the United Nations supported in 2012 granting Palestine observer state status within the world body.Top manager of State Geoagency detained in anti-corruption raid

The official demanded a bribe from a local business for gaining a right to monitor generalized geological data in its operations.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterKlimkin elaborates on Ukraine's response to Russian provocations in Azov Sea

The Foreign Minister seeks to achieve recognition of the Sea of Azov as an ordinary territorial sea, where border lines must be drawn between Ukraine and Russia.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterNational budget for 2019 should be balanced, fair and realistic  PM Groysman

It's time to once again demonstrate that the Cabinet of Ministers and the parliament are able to make responsible decisions, Groysman said.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterRussia's Gazprom about to start laying Nord Stream 2 pipes in Finland

Ukraine is against the construction of Nord Stream 2 as it expects a decline in gas transit shipments across its territory and subsequently a decrease in revenue from gas transit.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterOperations to rid Iraq and Syria of ISIS remnants are well underway, said Colonel Sean Ryan, Spokesperson for Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve.

In Iraq, operations by the Iraqi Security Forces, or ISF, are securing the country and pursuing ISIS remnants in the remote deserts of Anbar and in the mountains of Kirkuk, Diyala and Salah ad-Din, said Colonel Ryan. The ISF continues to locate, identify and destroy ISIS remnants in addition to securing roads and infrastructure from attacks by malign actors.

In the first week of August alone, the operations conducted by the ISF across Iraq led to the arrest of more than 50 suspected terrorists, and 500 Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, and munitions.

Additionally, the ISF continues to clear and secure central infrastructure such as the busy roads of Irbil and Kirkuk, Hawija, Samarra, Salah ad-Din and the regions power structure, which was subject to a number of ISIS terror attacks recently.

In Syria, said Colonel Ryan, coalition forces and partners are preparing for phase three of Operation Roundup whose ground offensive has not yet begun. Operation Roundup is an effort to accelerate the defeat of ISIS in the last territory they hold in the Euphrates River Valley.

As the Syrian Defense Forces, or SDF, are preparing for the offensive, they are also providing safe passage for civilians leaving Hajin, the last ISIS stronghold in the Euphrates River Valley and assuring that ISIS fighters attempting to flee the area are apprehended.

In the remainder of Northeast Syria, local security forces are securing cities through law enforcement and counter-IED activities enabling civilian stabilization efforts to continue and preventing the resurgence of ISIS.

Finally, stabilization efforts across Iraq and Syria continue to prevent the return of conditions under which ISIS arose. In Iraq, the government is working to improve living conditions across the country by addressing areas of greatest need, particularly in rebuilding infrastructure damaged by the fight against ISIS and providing access to daily necessities such as electricity and water.

In Syria, stabilization efforts are focused on saving lives, demining, water, electricity and the delivery of necessities.

The United States and its allies are committed to not only driving ISIS out of Iraq and Syria but making it impossible for them ever to return.During his travels in South America, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis called the ongoing tragedy in Venezuela a human-imposed condition.

This is not some act of God, he noted. It's not something that just had to happen because it was a natural disaster. In fact, they sit on enormous oil reserves. They've got tremendous opportunity for their people.

The United States abhors what the misguided Maduro regime has done to the once prosperous country. We stand with the people of Venezuela in the midst of the tragedy that's forced on them by the power-hungry oppressive regime that has compelled the citizens . . . to flee their own country, declared Secretary Mattis.

President Nicolas Maduro has lashed out against and threatened neighbors who have pointed out the regime's failures. Maduro, said Secretary Mattis, should know that we do not solve our problems in this hemisphere in that way, and that we democracies will stand together in rejecting such bellicose language and the saber rattling that is behind it.

Simon Bolivar, a Venezuelan military and political leader who liberated Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, among others, from Spanish rule, once said that the most perfect system of government is that which produces the highest sum of societal security and the highest sum of political stability. It was Maduro and his inner circle, said Secretary Mattis, that violated the liberator's proud legacy.

Democracy, the rule of law, individual freedom, and human rights cannot be taken for granted, warned Secretary Mattis. It is important to remember this when looking at what Maduro has done to destroy Venezuelas democratic government.

A key characteristic of a professional military is democratic, civilian control. You see this in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, observed Secretary Mattis. But you will not see it in Cuba, you will not see it in Venezuela, you will not see it in Nicaragua, where the military is used to oppress their own people and keep certain regimes in power, noted Secretary Mattis.

As a bulwark against these repressive regimes, the United States is seeking to broaden and deepen cooperation with allies and partners committed to strengthening democracy and the rule of law in the Western Hemisphere.The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host the Judo Grand Slam as planned after it guaranteed the international Federation of the sport, IJF, that it will allow the Israeli flag to be displayed and the anthem be sung during the sport event.

The IJF, in a statement on its website, welcomed the UAE decision to let Israeli athletes to take part in the Grand Slam under the Israeli symbols.

The historic decision will thus allow all nations to display their national insignia and national anthem, including Israel, IJF said on its websites.

The event to take place in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, Oct. 27-29, became uncertain after local authorities suggested to ban Israeli symbols. The IJF in July threatened to remove rights to host the sport event if the Gulf country does not provide guarantees.

Last year, Israeli symbols were banned during the Abu Dhabi competition, the flag did not appear during medal ceremonies, and the national anthem was not played for Israels gold medalist, the Times of Israel recalled.

The UAE like most Arab countries does not have official diplomatic ties with Israel.

However, analysts and reports have hinted at covert ties, mainly in area of security and alliance against Iran.

The IJF has also threatened to transfer Tunis Grand Prix to another location on the same grounds.Arayik Papikyan: There is no alternative but having amnesty as soon as possible (video)

Lawyer Arayik Papikyan told journalists today that more than 8 billion drams are provided for the maintenance of penitentiary institutions from the 2018 budget. Almost as much money is envisaged for the maintenance of the judicial power. According to him, there were about 5 thousand people in Armenia's penitentiary institutions as of last year. "Almost the same amount of money is required for the maintenance of one branch of the government, as it is for penitentiary institutions. The reason for this absurd situation is that we have too many convicts or detainees." The lawyer reminds that no amnesty decision has been made in Armenia for 5 years. "Under current conditions, amnesty will also be in line with the creation of a revolutionary atmosphere of solidarity. We must not forget that amnesty may also extend to criminal cases on crimes committed by the former regime, which has been heard in post-revolutionary Armenia. " According to Arayik Papikyan, the decision on amnesty must be until September 21. "There is no alternative but having amnesty as soon as possible."Galaxy Group of Companies expands its activities in Belarus: a new TIME and Pandora store launched

I think its a good moment to invest in Armenia. Head of Markets at Symbiotics Vincent Lehner

Ameriabank has Raised USD 17.5M Tier 2 Capital

UNIGHT TO UNITE. UCOM CELEBRATED ITS REBIRTH

Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees

Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia

UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13

Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition

S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive

Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk

Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide

1217 new cases

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel

Google Ad

Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch

"Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia

UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month

The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York

Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency

UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers

Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden.

"The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer

Generation A 13  your chance to be the changeArmenian FM and OSCE Secretary General discuss developments over NK conflict settlement (video)

Foreign minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on September 4 received OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger. Welcoming the guest, the foreign minister said Armenia values the OSCE as an important regional platform, and the cooperation with the organization in different spheres has a special place in Armenias foreign policy agenda. Minister Mnatsakanyan highlighted the readiness of the Armenian side to continue the active cooperation with the OSCE within the frames of the Armenia cooperation programme. During the meeting the officials exchanged views on the cooperation programs between the OSCE secretariat and the Armenian foreign ministry. Introducing the recent domestic political developments in Armenia, the FM said one of the priorities of the new government is to continue the process of reforms based on the mandate given by the people directed for ensuring rule of law, justice, equal opportunities in economic and social sectors, as well as fighting corruption. Minister Mnatsakanyan specifically touched upon one of the priorities of the government, the development agenda one of the main pillars of which is the innovation, including in the fields of creative education, industry, agriculture and etc. In the context of the ongoing activities aimed at holding snap elections, the Armenian FM attached importance to the active and productive cooperation with the international partners aimed at properly organizing the election process. At the meeting the Armenian FM and the OSCE Secretary General also discussed the recent developments over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process. Both highlighted the importance of settling the conflict exclusively peacefully within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship as the only format having a mandate of international community. In this context the foreign minister stated that Artsakhs status and security are a priority for the Armenian side in the negotiation process, but in order for the process to move forward, it is necessary to form an atmosphere contributing to peace. In this regard the Armenian FM highlighted the steady implementation of the previous agreements, cessation of ceasefire violations and militaristic rhetoric.Galaxy Group of Companies expands its activities in Belarus: a new TIME and Pandora store launched

I think its a good moment to invest in Armenia. Head of Markets at Symbiotics Vincent Lehner

Ameriabank has Raised USD 17.5M Tier 2 Capital

UNIGHT TO UNITE. UCOM CELEBRATED ITS REBIRTH

Google Ad

Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees

Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia

UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13

Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition

S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive

Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk

Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide

1217 new cases

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel

Google Ad

Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch

"Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia

UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month

The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York

Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency

UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers

Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden.

"The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer

Generation A 13  your chance to be the changeIn Mauritania, the provisional results of the legislative, regional and local elections held last weekend were to be published on Tuesday by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI). Yet, the first indications show the results are favorable to the ruling party, the Union for the Republic (UPR), followed by the Islamist opposition party Tewassoul.

The ballot is considered as a test for the UPR, one year before the 2019 presidential election. The opposition suspects incumbent President Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz will seek a third term next year, despite the assurances he gave that he would not.

On Monday, the coalition of six opposition parties claimed major breakthroughs, particularly in the capital Nouakchott, where several candidates of the UPR will have to go for a second ballot in most municipalities. We are leading in almost three of the eight communes, said Mohamed Jemil Ould Mansour, head of the Coalition for Leadership of the Capital Regional Council and former president of Tewassoul.

For his part, the vice president of the UFP (Union of Forces for Progress) opposition party, Lo Gourmo Abdoul, one of the opposition candidates in Parliament, assures that the ruling party goes to the second round in most cities, including Nouadhibou and Zouerate.

Voter turnout was also a test for these elections, where some 1.4 million Mauritanian voters were to elect a new 159-seat parliament, 13 regional councils and 219 city councils. Although several Mauritanians boycotted the polls, some news agencies reported a high voter turnout in a number of polling stations in Nouakchott.

Meanwhile, the opposition denounced Saturday important problems in terms of organization. Some voters, in particular, had trouble finding their polling station, which had been moved at the last minute.

The polls were held in the absence of international observers, with the exception of observers from the African Union.PM Pashinyan receives OSCE Secretary General (video)

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received on September 4 OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger. The press service of the Government of Armenia reports, the PM noted that Armenia highlights cooperation with the OSCE for European and regional security, as well as in other spheres of bilateral interest and is ready to continue the productive cooperation. Recording the existing high level of partnership, the interlocutors discussed the opportunities to further deepen it. The PM referred to the recent domestic political developments in Armenia, introducing the reforms aimed at the development of democracy, establishment of rule of law, fight against corruption, and holding snap parliamentary elections. Nikol Pashinyan noted that its a priority for the Government of Armenia to hold more free, transparent and democratic elections and the Government highlights the technical and expertise assistance of international partners, including the OSCE. Thomas Greminger welcomed the processes in Armenia and expressed readiness to assista the reform agenda of the Armenian Government. The Armenian PM and the OSCE Secretary General also spoke about Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process. Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the active efforts of the OSCE and the international community aimed at making the region more secure and emphasized that Armenia is committed to an exclusively peaceful settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict based on negotiations in the sidelines of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs format.The Verkhovna Rada has rejected the European integration bill, which adapts the Ukrainian legislation in the field of intellectual property to the EU legislation in terms of the rights to protect inventions and utility models.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said corresponding bill No. 7538 on amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the improvement of the legal protection of inventions and utility models was supported at first reading by 171 people's deputies at a plenary session on September 4 (with the quorum being 226 votes).

In addition, people's deputies did not support the proposal of Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy to send the bill to the committee for another first reading or return to the subject of legislative initiative for revision. Thus, the document is considered rejected.

The draft law provides for the implementation in the national legislation of provisions, directives and regulations of the EU in the field of legal protection of biotechnological inventions, medical products.

According to an explanatory note to the document, this draft law is implementing to the Association Agreement with the EU.The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has drawn up recommendations for submission of document with the purpose of agreeing on conditions and the rules of operation of an international payment system, the payment organization of which is nonresident, in the country, the central bank has reported on its website.

"This document is intended to support partnership relations with payment market players and simplify the process of preparing documents that, in accordance with the law, are sent to the National Bank of Ukraine for registration of an international nonresident payment system," the NBU said.

The recommendations include the procedure for issuing and submitting documents to the NBU, a description of the provisions that should contain the documents, as well as a list of Ukrainian legislative acts and documents of international organizations that should be used to submit documents to agree on the terms and conditions of the international payment system.

Payment organizations of international payment systems have the right to carry out activities in Ukraine only after their registration by entering information about them into the register of payment systems, settlement systems, participants in these systems and payment infrastructure service operators, which is kept by the NBU.

The NBU enters information into the register on the international payment system, the payment organization of which is a nonresident, after agreeing the conditions and the order of the activity of this payment system in Ukraine.

Currently, the register contains information on 10 international nonresident payment systems, of which three are international card payment systems and seven are international money transfer systems.President's draft of amendments to Constitution regarding Ukraine's aspirations to join EU, NATO published on Rada website

The text of president's bill No. 9037 to introduce amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution regarding the country's strategic course to obtain a full membership in the European Union and NATO has been published on the Verkhovna Rada's website on Monday evening.

According to suggested amendments, the Verhkovna Rada's powers will include "the implementation of the state's strategic policy of obtaining Ukraine's full membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."

The Ukrainian president shall be the guarantor of the implementation of the state's strategic policy of joining the EU and NATO, while the government, in turn, shall ensure the implementation of the strategic policy aimed at Ukraine's membership in these organization.

It is suggested to entrench in the preamble by the constitutional amendments that the parliament confirms "the European identity of the Ukrainian nation and the irreversibility of Ukraine's policy of European and Euro-Atlantic integration."

In addition, the president suggested removing from the Constitution's transitional provisions a norm stipulating that "the use of existing military bases in Ukraine for temporary stay of foreign armed units is possible on a rental basis in the manner prescribed by Ukraine's treaties ratified by the Verkhovna Rada."

The president's bill was registered at the Verkovna Rada on Monday, September 3.Kyiv and Ankara agree on cooperation in fight against terrorism, illegal migration

nterior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov and his Turkish counterpart Suleyman Soylu signed an agreement on cooperation in combating terrorism, illegal trafficking of migrants and human trafficking, cybercrime, etc. in Ankara on September 4.

"The document provides for cooperation in the field of combating terrorism, illegal trafficking of migrants and human trafficking, cybercrime, money laundering, illegal drug trafficking and transnational organized crime," the communications department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said.

Avakov noted that Ukraine supports Turkey in all forms of combating terrorism.

"We had a very meaningful meeting on cooperation in combating this type of crime. And the declaration we have signed today will ensure better cooperation," he said.Ukraine and Norway in talks on EUR300-400 mln investment in renewable energy - Klimkin

Ukraine and Norway are negotiating about investments in renewable energy projects for EUR300-400 million, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"We are starting work with a number of Norwegian companies that come to build relations in renewable energy. The matter concerns serious investment of EUR 300-400 million," the minister said at a joint press conference with the Norwegian foreign minister in Kyiv.

According to Klimkin, the matter concerns projects, in particular, related to solar energy.Ukraine has made a voluntary contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe in the amount of $400,000 to support the organization in difficult times of financial blackmail on the part of Russia, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"Today Ukraine has made a voluntary contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe in the amount of $400,000. Russia uses financial blackmail against the Council of Europe. In these difficult times the organization needs support," Klimkin wrote on Twitter.

"Join us, otherwise the Council of Europe will no longer defend its values and principles," the Ukrainian foreign minister added.Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg will visit Ukraine in the next two months, while Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman will make a return visit in November, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"Every week we have a high-level and a parliamentary visit. And we hope that the prime minister will be here in just two months," he said at a joint press conference with the foreign minister of Norway in Kyiv.

The Foreign Minister of Norway, in turn, stated in the coming months the Minister of Trade, Industry and Fisheries of Norway, as well as the head of the parliament of this country will come to Ukraine.

"The Prime Minister of Ukraine will also visit Oslo in November," the diplomat said.Tenders to select advisors to prepare PrJSC Indar, PJSC United Mining-Chemical Company, PJSC Odesa Port-Side Plant and state-owned enterprise (SOE) Electrotyazhmash Plant and Coal Company Krasnolymanska were held with gross violations during the second stages held on July 30 and July 31, 2018, according to participants of Grant Thornton International consulting firm network.

"Taking into account our large international experience of participation in such privatization tenders in many countries, we can state that the actions of the tender commission and the Fund [the State Property Fund] at the tenders deny all the loud declarations about fair and transparent large privatization in Ukraine," they said in a statement sent to Interfax-Ukraine.

Representatives of Grant Thornton (Ukraine), Ria Grant Thornton SPA (Italy) and Grant Thornton Consulting Ltd. Skopje (Macedonia) said that violations were committed during the second stages of the tenders on July 30 and July 31.

"During the tenders, a number of illegal actions and gross violations of the procedure for holding tenders in accordance with the procedure were committed by the tender commission," they said.

The companies said that in the presence of all the tender participants, envelopes with bids were not opened, and their compliance with requirements was not determined, and also the best bids were not determined using scoring points, as well as the winners of these tenders.

"This, in turn, created conditions for the manipulation of facts, documents and, in general, the process of scoring points and directly affected the results of the tenders. This does not give grounds to consider them unbiased and fair, and also believe that the most competitive bids won in these tenders," Grant Thornton International said.

According to Grant Thornton, the remuneration offered by them both as fixed and dependent on the results of the privatization is in some cases lower than the corresponding price proposal of the companies recognized as the winners of the tenders.

The authors of the statement said that they had informed the Cabinet of Ministers and the Special Commission of the Verkhovna Rada for Privatization about these violations, suggesting that they conduct a comprehensive operational investigation within their authority and, if confirmed, abolish the results of the second stage of the tenders.

In addition, on August 21 and 22, Grant Thornton LLC appealed to the Administrative District Court of Kyiv with administrative claims against the State Property Fund seeking to declare the results of the tenders to select advisers for Electrotyazhmash, Coal Company Krasnolymanska and Indar invalid. On August 28, the court opened proceedings in these cases.

According to the authors of the statement, another participant appealed to the Kyiv District Court the results of the tenders to select advisors for the Odesa Port-Side Plant and United Mining-Chemical Company.

"We are convinced that before the completion of the aforementioned actions and restoration of confidence... it is inexpedient to hold the following tenders to select privatization advisors, and accordingly we do not plan to participate in them. We call on all representatives of the Ukrainian and international business communities to do this," the companies said.There is still a big humanitarian crisis (in the Lake Chad region). [It is] not over despite the progress we have made, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock told a high-level humanitarian conference on the region Monday.

The conference, held in Berlin September 3-4, seeks to maintain the momentum from last years Oslo conference and increase and expand international support to some ten million people across the four countries  Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger  who remain dependent on assistance.

Last February, meeting at an UN-backed conference in Oslo, Norway, donors pledged over $650 million towards emergency assistance programs in 2017 and beyond. These resources helped achieve a significant scale-up in the humanitarian response, reaching more than six million people with assistance, and averting a famine in northeast Nigeria.

However, humanitarian needs continue to grow and so do the resources needed to respond. Of the $1.58 billion required for 2018, only about $600 million (38 per cent) has been received (as of 25 July).

The appeal we had on the humanitarian response plan this year has been generously financed but not to the degree where any of us can be comfortable that we can meet the needs of the people we can reach, still less of those we are still trying to reach, added Mr. Lowcock, urging additional funding and resources.

At the same time relief workers face severe challenges reaching the worst affected due to Boko Haram violence, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Alongside life-saving humanitarian response, addressing the underlying cause is vital to ensure lasting solution to the crisis, highlighted the UN relief chief, noting the need to scale up longer-term resilience and development assistance as well as promoting stabilization.

If we can make more progress with peace building, good governance, the creation of jobs and education opportunities  and the respect of human rights  we work indeed with the underlying issues and this is what we need to do, he said.

The Berlin conference is organized by OCHA and the UN Development Program (UNDP) together with the Governments of Germany, Nigeria and Norway.

It is expected to reinforce an approach combining the response to immediate humanitarian needs with addressing the root causes of the crisis in a way that leads to sustainable, resilient development.Norway is closely monitoring the situation in the Sea of Azov and speaks in favor of international law, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Sreide has said.

"We are considering this situation not only in the context of Ukraine, but more broadly, in the context of the region. Russian military presence is increasing there, military exercises are becoming more extensive there, and the number of planes there is increasing. Therefore we are closely monitoring this situation," she said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Kyiv.

She added Norway supports the EU sanctions and this position will remain unchanged in the future.

"We also stand for observance of international law, but here it is violated," the minister explained.Occupation forces violated the ceasefire in Donbas five times during the day on Tuesday, from 07:00 to 18:00, while the weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements were not used, the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) headquarters' press center has informed.

"Disregarding the conditions of the "school" truce, the enemy opened fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms on the positions of the Joint Forces near the settlements Schastia, Pisky, Bohdanivka, Hnutove, and Shyrokyne. The enemy also opened fire from antitank missile systems on the defenders of Bohdanivka," the report says.

There are no human losses among Ukrainian servicemen, the situation in the area of the operation remains under the control of the Joint Forces.With this statement we, the representatives of Grant Thornton LLC (Ukraine), Ria Grant Thornton S.P.A. (Italy) and Grant Thornton Consulting DOO Skopje (Macedonia), the members of the global international network of consulting firms Grant Thornton International, would like to attract the attention of the supreme bodies of state power of Ukraine, representatives of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, the Special Control Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on privatization issues and the Ukrainian and international business community, to the material violations of the procedures on the 2nd stages of competition for the selection of advisers for the preparation for sale of large-scale privatization objects in Ukraine, namely, PJSC Indar, PJSC United Mining and Chemical Company, PJSC Odessa Port Plant, and state enterprises Zavod Electrotyazhmash and The Krasnolimanskaya Coal Company (hereinafter referred to as the Competition), which was held by the State Property Fund of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Fund) on July 30th and 31st, 2018.



We have been encouraged to participate in the above-mentioned competition, following the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of the new Law of Ukraine "On Privatization of State and Communal Property" dated January 18, 2018 No. 2269-19 (hereinafter referred to as the Law), as well as repeated statements of the first persons of the state with promises to end the shadow privatization, including through the involvement of highly qualified advisers with a worldwide reputation in processes the privatization. We also proceeded from the fact that Articles 3, 19 of the new Law of Ukraine "On privatization of state and communal property" and paragraphs 3, 23, 30 approved by Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine Procedure for involving advisers in the process of privatization of state-owned objects" (hereinafter - the Procedure) dated 30.11.2016  878 guarantee an open, lawful, transparent procedure for holding a contest and select a winner.



Unfortunately, given our considerable international experience in participating in similar privatization contests in many countries of the world, we can state that the actions of the Competition Commission and the Fund during the Competition rebut all public declarations of honest, fair, transparent large-scale privatization in Ukraine.



In contradiction with generally accepted international standards and imperative requirements of the current Law, which impose the mandatory selection of advisers on the principles of openness, public availability and transparency, the Competition Commission in fact held all competitions behind closed doors, where we were participants.



In particular, during the Competition process, the members of the Competition Commission have committed a number of unlawful actions and material violations of the Competition procedure as provided for in the Procedure, namely:



1. The envelopes with bids were not opened in the presence of all contest participants, in other words, their price offers and terms of service were not publicly recorded;





2. the compliance of the bids with the current legislative requirements was not determined in the presence of the participants, and the best bids were not selected by calculating the points according to the criteria specified in paragraph 5 of the Procedure; 3. the winners of these competitions were not selected in the presence of the contestants.



This, in turn, has created the conditions for manipulating with facts and documents, generally the process of counting points and directly influenced the results of the Competition, which does not give any grounds to consider them unprejudiced and fair, as well as the fact the most competitive offers have won these contests.



At the same time, the aforementioned actions of the Competition Commission may inflict substantial damage to the State of Ukraine, considering that the Bid price offered by Grant Thornton company both fixed and variable fee offer are in some cases lower than the price offers of the bidders that the Competition Commission has determined as the winners.



We have informed in details the Government of Ukraine and the Special Commission of the Verkhovna Rada on privatization about the above-mentioned violations, inviting them to conduct a comprehensive operational investigation of the facts provided by us within their authority and, if these facts are confirmed, to cancel the results of second stages of the Competition of selection of advisers for the preparation for the sale of objects large privatization in Ukraine and take all necessary measures to ensure lawfulness and transparency in conducting the next competition for the selection of advisers.



On August 21st and 22nd Grant Thornton LLC applied to the Kyiv District Administrative Court with administrative claims to the State Property Fund of Ukraine asking for the invalidation of the results of the Contest on the selection of advisers for the State Enterprise Eletrovazhmash Plant; State Enterprise Coal Company Krasnolimanskaya and PJSC Indar. On August 28th, 2018, Kyiv District Administrative Court adopted the relevant Decrees on the acceptance of claims of Grant Thornton LLC for the consideration and subject to open the proceedings in these cases.



We are aware that another participant has appealed to the Kyiv District Administrative Court regarding the results of the Contests for the selection of advisers for PJSC "Odessa Port Plant" and PJSC "United Mining and Chemical Company".



We are convinced that, pending completion of the above-mentioned actions and restoring confidence in the fact that the Competition Commission in its work will strictly adhere to the principles of legality, impartiality and justice, It is inappropriate to conduct the next competitions for the selection of advisers for privatization.



We are also convinced that without the selection of world-renowned privatization advisers in competitive, open and fair competitions, it is impossible to secure largescale privatization in Ukraine on the principles of legality, transparency and noncorruption.A helicopter owned by a Moldovan company has crashed in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 12 people, including two Ukrainian crew members and 10 Afghan soldiers, officials say.

The Mi-8 helicopter crashed on September 2 after takeoff from a military base near Mazar-e Sharif, the capital of Balkh Province, Moldovas aviation authority said.

A statement said that two people onboard survived -- a Ukrainian member of the crew and an Afghan serviceman.

It also said that the aircraft was operated by Moldova's Valan International Cargo Charter Co.

An Afghan security source was quoted as putting the death toll at 13, with only the Ukrainian surviving the crash.

Nazer Khuda Pamiri, deputy commander of Afghan forces in northern Afghanistan, said the helicopter crashed in Dehdadi district due to "technical problems."

He said the aircraft was transporting Afghan security forces from a military base to the northwestern province of Faryab.

Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said the helicopter was hired by the ministry.

The Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO combat troops in 2014.

Based on reporting by AFP, TASS, and InterfaxA 45-year-old Iranian man set himself on fire on September 4 in front of his children outside Tehrans city hall.

Despite severe burns, the victim was saved and taken to a hospital, reports say.

Disregarding the screams of onlookers and warnings by police officers, the man tried to commit suicide by self-immolation, with his two children and a colleague present at the scene.

The man was apparently protesting a fine of 5 billion rials (roughly $118,000 at official rate) that he received after his shop was sealed off by municipality staff.

According to state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), The man, who has not yet been identified, set himself on fire at the same time the capital citys mayor was leaving a city council session.

Pro-reform Mayor Mohammad Ali Afshani paused for a few seconds before leaving the scene, ILNA reported.

The official news agency of the government, IRNA, however, denied that Afshani had been present at the time of the tragic incident.

Furthermore, it is reported that the man intended to set his children on fire as well but did not succeed after several people stepped in and intervened.

Citizens present at the scene say the victim runs a shop in District 2 of Tehran, a website close to the secretary of the influential Expediency Council, Tabnak, reported. Municipal agents have penalized him with a 5 billion rial fine, which he could not afford. He pleaded for help from the municipality but was disappointed. Therefore, he decided to set himself on fire.

Self-immolation to protest hardship in Iran is not unprecedented. On January 7, during nationwide anti-ruling establishment protests, an Iranian man set himself on fire to protest his business being closed by municipal agents. Shocked bystanders put out the flames and took the victim to the nearest hospital.

On May 22, ILNA reported a municipal worker in financial distress set himself on fire in the city of Abadan in oil-rich province of Khuzestan, southwestern Iran.

The man set himself on fire in the city of Abadan, suffering severe burns to 80 percent of his body, ILNA said. The man was rushed to a burn care clinic in the city of Ahvaz, about 100 kilometers away. There was no further update on his condition.

ILNA also said a male coworker tried to help the self-immolator but also suffered burns to 35 percent of his body.

According to statistics, each day more than 13 people take their lives by suicide in Iran, most of whom are aged 1535. Some studies also show that in 2013, for instance, the average rate of suicide in Iran was six out of every 100,000 people, the BBC Persian Service reported two years ago.

Last year, Mohammad Javad Fatemi, chairman of the Burns Research and Study Center, affiliated with the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, announced that 30,000 people are hospitalized every year for setting themselves on fire across the country.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 73 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Sept. 4.

Armenian armed forces were using heavy machine guns.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

By Firangiz Agalarova  Trend:

There will be very active struggle for power in Armenia, Russian public figure, political analyst, director general of the Institute for Political Studies Sergey Markov told Trend Sept. 4.

In these circumstances, opponents of Nikol Pashinyan accuse the prime minister of being ready to make significant concessions on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Markov, who is also member of the State Duma of the fifth convocation and member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, said.

But I think Pashinyan is not quite ready for this concessions," he added. On the contrary, he is interested in "patriotic euphoria". So, his supporters may organize provocations in the form of local clashes to allow the prime minister to demonstrate "firmness" and "stiffness" of his position in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Pashinyan has already started to toughen the negotiating positions when he stated that the illegal regime created in Nagorno-Karabakh region must take part in the negotiations on the conflict settlement, Markov said.

"Therefore, I think that due to domestic political reasons it is not worth expecting the Armenian leadership to make significant compromises and concessions, he said. It seems improbable to me. So, I am not optimistic about that."

I was optimistic earlier, he said. "The negotiations were very successful 1.5-2 years ago. By the end of 2016 the families of internally displaced people could return to their lands. But it did not happen. The last steps in this issue have not been made. I know that for certain."

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Captains Regent of the Republic of San Marino Stefano Palmieri and Matteo Ciacci.

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I cordially congratulate you and the people of your country on the occasion of the national holiday of San Marino, Republic Day, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

On this festive occasion, I extend my best regards to you and wish the friendly people of San Marino everlasting peace and prosperity.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

By Samir Ali - Trend:

Statements by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Sochi as part of the official visit to Russia and the signed documents testify that the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia have reached a qualitatively new stage, Azerbaijani MP Sadagat Valiyeva said.

She said that the trade turnover between the two countries increased by 35 percent and reached $2.5 billion in 2017. Russias direct investments in Azerbaijan amounted to $1.5 billion, she noted, adding that presently, about 700 joint ventures with Russian capital operate in Azerbaijan.

At the same time, many Russian energy companies successfully operate in Azerbaijan, she said. Military-technical cooperation between the two countries is also developing, Valiyeva added.

The MP noted that along with all this, Azerbaijan and Russia are working together to implement projects of global importance.

Namely the common position and the work on the creation of the International NorthSouth Transport Corridor with total length of 7,000 kilometers that will connect the markets of Western Europe with Asian producers will significantly accelerate the transportation of goods from South Asia and Middle East to Europe, the MP said.

In this regard, joint transport projects of Russia and Azerbaijan will cover a great number of countries, increase the transit opportunities of our countries and contribute to the opening of thousands of new jobs, she noted.

Valiyeva added that in terms of imports, Russia is the number one partner for Azerbaijan.

Russia and Azerbaijan enjoy relations of strategic partnership, Valiyeva said, noting that regular ties between the two heads of state give special dynamics to interstate relations.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

Parvin Mirzazade, head of the state protocol department at Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry, received newly-appointed Consul General of Turkey Zaki Ozturk in the Ganja city, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry said in a message Sept. 4.

During the meeting, in connection with his appointment as consul general, Ozturk presented a patent document to Parvin Mirzazade.

Mirzazade wished success to the consul general in his future activities.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on friendly and fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as prospects for further development of these relations.Morocco and Burkina Faso signed Monday three agreements on judicial cooperation in civil, commercial and administrative matters, as well as on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and extradition.

The accords were signed in Ouagadougou by visiting Moroccan Minister of Justice Mohamed Aujjar and his Burkinabe peer, Bessole Rene Bagoro.

Under the extradition deal, the two countries will exchange persons who have committed reprehensible acts in each of the two countries.

Aujjar also held Monday in Ouagadougou talks with Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba on means to promote bilateral relations.

During his three-day working visit to Burkina Faso, Aujjar will also meet the first vice-president of the National Assembly and the minister of State to the Presidency.

The visit will be marked by the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Institut superieur de la magistrature du Maroc (higher institute of the judiciary) and its Burkinabe counterpart.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order providing funds for construction of the Shamkir-Abbasli-Narimanli road in the Shamkir District.

Under the presidential order, the Azerbaijan Highway State Agency is allocated 4.8 million manats for the construction of the road connecting eight residential areas with a total population of 71,000 people.Details added (first version posted at )

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

Another part of unsecured loans of the Azerbaijani Bank Standard bank, which is undergoing the liquidation process, has been secured with collateral worth 61 million manats, Deputy Executive Director of ADIF Vugar Abdullayev said Sept. 3 at a meeting of the creditors' committee of Bank Standard.

Abdullayev noted that part of the loans was issued without collateral, however later an opportunity came up to provide these loans with collateral.

"All these pieces of property are marketable and we will continue to work on their further sale and transformation into funds," Abdullayev said.

He said the sale of property of Bank Standard is also going on presently.

"To date, about two million manats have been received from the sale of property of Bank Standard. Basically, vehicles are sold at auctions, one item of real estate has also been sold. We will continue to work over the sale of property," Abdullayev said.

He said the Fund has paid the insured depositors of Bank Standard the compensation in the total amount of 437 million manats to date.

"Out of this amount, the ADIF has managed to return more than 85 million manats due to the reimbursed loans, sale of property and other actions prescribed by the legislation," Abdullayev said.

He added that to date, the courts continue to consider cases for the reimbursement of overdue loans issued by Bank Standard.

"To date, the courts have 300 cases on the reimbursement of loans issued by the bank in the amount of about 155 million manats. In addition, the cases in the amount of another 195 million manats are still under consideration at courts", Abdullayev said.

The Bank Standards license was revoked on October 1, 2016, and the Bank was declared bankrupt on October 4. The bank was established in 1995. It was one of the largest private commercial banks in Azerbaijan and was among the market leaders in terms of deposits.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_MammadovBaku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

By Huseyn Veliyev  Trend:

The Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) in partnership with the Centre for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications of Azerbaijan has organized a forum on competitiveness issues in Baku (Azerbaijan Competitiveness Forum  ACF-2018), the Head of the Azexport.az portal Zaur Gardashov told Trend Sept. 4.

Gardashov noted that the participation of about 20 U.S. companies in the forum, which will be held in Baku on September 6-7, is expected. The US delegation will also include representatives of the State Department for economic affairs.

"The U.S. companies are interested in investing in various sectors of the Azerbaijani economy, and these issues will be discussed by representatives of the United States with the heads and representatives of various state agencies of Azerbaijan," Gardashov said.

He added that the BCIU organization was established by former US President Dwight Eisenhower, and its main goal is to expand the activities of American companies in foreign markets.

Within the framework of the forum, the Azerbaijani side will inform the participants about reforms implemented in the country's economy, improvement of the business environment, and the data on the country's positions in the Doing Business rating, etc. will be presented.

The ACF-2018 forum will aim to identify tangible steps that the public and private sectors in Azerbaijan and the United States can take to highlight the country's fundamental indicators, as well as opportunities for improving its competitiveness.

The ACF will bring together the management of financial investors and project developers, companies and entrepreneurs based in Azerbaijan in order to discuss the country's competitiveness. The forum will determine how the US private sector can work with the government and private sector of Azerbaijan to create growth mechanisms for Azerbaijan's growing economy.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @h_veliyevBaku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 5

Trend:

The first delivery of Afghan goods through the international transport corridor Lapis Lazuli, which passes through Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and further to Europe, will be held in October, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said.

The ministry noted that the first delivery will be of a test character and two containers to be shipped of Afghan carpets and gemstones will go to Turkey and Holland.

The pilot phase will enable the Lapis Lazuli Corridor countries to assess problems and challenges and they will then take the necessary steps to solve the issues, the director of transit and trade facilities at the MoIC Yahya Akhlaqi said.

According to Akhlaqi, the Afghan goods will be sent to Turkey and Holland by railway and on trucks and will reach the Black Sea ports in six days.

At todays meeting with transport companies, we decided to transfer some of the goods via railway and the rest via truck and ship, said Akhlaqi.

The International Chamber of Commerce's country director Abdul Qadir Bahman meanwhile said the Lapis Lazuli Corridor will help traders export and import goods quickly and more cheaply.

According to the Lapis Lazuli project, railways and highways will connect the city of Torghundi in the Afghan province of Herat with Turkmenistan's Ashgabat, and further with the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi. The corridor will extend to the new port of Baku in Alat, going further through Tbilisi to Ankara with branches leading to Poti and Batumi in Georgia, and go ahead from Ankara to Istanbul.

The budget of the project is estimated at $2 billion. This large-scale project is aimed at increasing the economic integration of countries in the region and increasing trade.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sep. 4

By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:

The first gas from the Absheron field is planned to be received in 3Q2020, the French company Total, which is the operator of the field development told Trend.

"Absheron first phase of development is ongoing: drilling of the first development well started in February 2018 and is planned to be completed by mid-2019. The detailed engineering for facilities started in August. The first gas in planned in 3Q2020," the company stated.

In general, the first phase is based on an "early production scheme", Total noted.

"That is one single development well is tied-back to Oil Rocks facilities through a 35-km subsea line. A platform will be built in Oil Rocks to receive the Absheron effluents and pre-process them prior being handled in existing facilities. The development scheme of second phase is defined, but will need to be tuned based on data to be collected during drilling of the first development well. Some synergies with existing facilities are also looked for in order to optimize this scheme," the company noted.

Total also stated that some talks with the Azerbaijani state company SOCAR about Umid-Babek are ongoing at the moment.

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR and Total signed a framework agreement in 2016 on the main contractual and commercial principles regulating the program of the first phase development of the Absheron field.

The first phase of the fields development envisages drilling of one well at a sea depth of 450 meters. The production will stand at 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas and 700,000 tons of condensate per year and these volumes will be used in Azerbaijans domestic market. It is planned to produce up to 4 billion cubic meters of gas at the second stage.

Absherons reserves are estimated at 326 billion cubic meters of gas and 108 million tons of condensate, according to the estimations of Total specialists.

JOCAP, is a joint venture with 50 percent ownership by SOCAR and the remaining 50 percent - by Total, the operator of the development of the Absheron field.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyevBaku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

During the Hungarian PM Viktor Orban's official visit to Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldayev met with the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, Kyrgyz agency Kabar reported.

During the meeting, a fruitful exchange of views took place on the Kyrgyz-Hungarian cooperation, as well as current international issues.

Abdyldayev underlined the need to strengthen the political dialogue between the two countries, as well as to expand bilateral cooperation on all aspects of mutual relations, in particular in agriculture, tourism, education and science, as well as in finance and economy.

Szijjarto stressed the successful cooperation between the two countries and expressed the readiness of the Hungarian side for further active cooperation with Kyrgyzstan.

At the end of the meeting, Szijjarto was awarded a medal by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic for his contribution to strengthening of cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Hungary.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 4

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

The first international conference Heavy Caspian: Turkmenistan 2018 will be held in the Avaza city on October 1-3, 2018, the international company Heavy World said in a statement.

This event is a multi-platform for professional discussions and solutions for handling oversized cargo.

It will discuss the structure of logistics in the country, including: the capability of the port of Turkmenbashi to receive project cargo, the state of road and railway infrastructure, the experience of delivery of project cargo to Turkmenistan.

The conference plans to touch upon all the aspects of logistics in Turkmenistan, including:

- Potential of Turkmenistan transport infrastructure (ports, roads, bridges)

- Sharing practice of delivering project cargoes in the direction of Turkmenistan

- Particulars of state regulation of the transport sector

The press release says that in 2017, the GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate of Turkmenistan amounted to 6.5 percent, which is higher than the indicator for 2016 by 0.3 percent. Turkmenistan is adapting to changes in the economic environment.

The construction of the Turkmenbashi seaport in Turkmenistan has been completed, the construction of a gas chemical complex for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene, the construction of the country's largest gas field "Galkynysh" is nearing completion.

Turkmenistan borders with Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan on land, and with Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran on the sea.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 4

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Governor of the People's Government of Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Shohrat Zakir and the delegation of the Turkmen government discussed the aspects of investment cooperation in the city of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper.

The sides also discussed the cooperation in the trade and economic sphere.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the forum entitled "Turkmenistan-China: Tourism on the Great Silk Road", organized by the State Committee for Tourism of Turkmenistan and the Committee for the Development of Tourism of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

"Turkmenistan is a unique country and has great potential not only in tourism sector, but also in the trade and economic area," Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper cited Erkin Tuniyaz, deputy governor of the People's Government of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, as saying.

Turkmenistan's Ambassador to China Chinar Rustamova focused on the country's investment potential, key vectors of the innovation development strategy.

The Chinese companies are represented in the Turkmen market in oil and gas and telecommunications spheres, transport, agriculture, textile, chemical and food industries, health care and construction sectors.

China has implemented a number of major projects in the gas sector. In particular, CNPC company is taking part in the development of the Bagtyyarlyk contract territory and construction of facilities on the Galkynysh giant gas field. Since 2009, China has been importing Turkmen gas with the prospect of increasing the volume of gas imports to 65 billion cubic meters of fuel per year.

According to data for 2016, about forty enterprises with Chinese capital were operating, and about 70 investment projects totalling more than $4 billion and 2.3 billion yuans have been registered in Turkmenistan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

The agents of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan have stopped an attempt to smuggle $5.3 million into Kyrgyzstan, Sputnik Uzbekistan reported referring to the "Uzbekistan 24" TV channel.

The agents of the Department of State Security Service for Andijan region have detained three residents of one of the areas bordering with Kyrgyzstan. They tried to smuggle $5.3 million by car to the neighboring country.

A criminal case has been opened, the investigative actions are in progress. The detainees face imprisonment for up to eight years for smuggling a large amount of cash.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

Iran has decided to ban wholesale of staple food products to foreigners in Astara border city as the countrys national currency continue to lose its vale against the US dollar.

Mohen Ahani, head of the Industry, Mine and Trade department of Astara said that the decision was made by the Market Regulation Headquarter of the border city, IRNA news agency reported Sept. 4.

The administration has made the decision to prevent the major outflow of subsidized goods such as vegetable oil, sugar, rice, meat, poultry, and raw livestock products from the border, Ahani said.

The official said that the Customs Administration of Astara will supervise the implementation of the decree.

Earlier in July the Iranian government banned the export of 18 agricultural products until further notice.

These items included corn, wheat, flour, barley, oat, oilseeds, unprocessed oil, palm oil, alfalfa, straw and wheat straw, fish meal, bran, soybean meal, press cakes, fish feed, additives for fish feed, rye and sorghum.

The Iranian government also banned sugar export on September 3.

The move came after the Iranian minister of industry, mine and trade on June 20 banned the import of 1,339 commodities categorized as "non-essential goods with domestic counterparts".

The decisions came as a move to save foreign currency, after the Iranian rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar on the unofficial market after President Donald Trump in May withdrew from the nuclear deal with Tehran.

The US dollar jumped to as much as 129,000 rials in the open market in the Iranian capital city of Tehran yesterday.

According to reports by Iranian media outlets, a US dollar and the euro, respectively, traded for 129,000 and 149,000 rials in the open market in the afternoon on Monday, Sept. 3.

A US dollar was worth 36,000 rials in mid-September last year.King Mohammed VI is an emblematic figure of Pan- Africanism, said Antonio Yelpi, President of the Latin American Centre for Democracy Studies.

Morocco, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, is striving to develop a set of strategies aimed at consolidating Moroccos relations not only with all the countries of the African continent, within the framework of South-South cooperation, but also with Latin America, said Yelpi, in remarks posted on the news website siempre.mx.

The return of Morocco to its institutional family, the African Union, has given a new impetus to its strategic partnership with African countries in various fields, including investment promotion and counterterrorism cooperation, noted Yelpi, who is also President of the Africa-Latina Foundation.

The Kingdom has become, in this regard, a leader, particularly in the field of immigration and scholarship granting to foreign students, the researcher added.

He noted further that Morocco stands out as one of the major contributors in the fight against violent radicalism and terrorism, in all its forms. Over the years, the Kingdom has become an active collaborator in peacekeeping operations, is a stabilizing player in the region and a reliable ally, said the searcher, highlighting the political and democratic reforms undertaken by the Kingdom.Tehran, Iran, Sept. 4

Trend:

Abolhassan Firouzabadi, the head of the High Council of Cyberspace, said the government is moving to legalize the use of cryptocurrencies in the country.

The policy of the High Council of Cyberspace is to organize the use of cryptocurrencies in the country as the government is moving to use them in the near future in a bid to circumvent the new US sanctions, Firouzabadi said on September 4, Irans economic Ibena news agency reported.

Stressing that the final decision has not been made yet, noted that a working group is studying it to establish online exchanges for virtual currencies and mining of virtual currencies.

Iran is preparing the ground to create its own state-issued cryptocurrency in a bid to dodge the returning US sanctions, reports said.

Earlier, Irans Directorate for Scientific and Technological Affairs is pressing ahead with creating a digital currency under the sanctions.

We are seeking to prepare the grounds to use an indigenous currency in Iran, Alireza Daliri, the deputy for management and investment at the Directorate for Scientific and Technological Affairs, said in later July.

He added that the currency would help the country at the time of sanctions.

So far, the United States government has confiscated 500 Bitcoin from Iranian holder assets, estimated at $5.77 million in purchase value.

The exact reason for the confiscation is unclear, though some speculate it has to do with Iranian bitcoin holders evading imposed US sanctions.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran. The first round of US sanctions on Iran went into effect in August, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports in November.

As the US mount pressure on Iran, news is doing the rounds that a major Iranian hotel booking website is accepting crypto payments to avoid the incoming sanctions upon them.

It seems that cryptocurrency could be the savior of the Iranian hotel and tourism business. However, the current legal ban on cryptocurrencies in Iran has made it difficult for them to find an attorney to take on the issue.

Reports are saying that Iran plans to remove the ban and is no longer opposed to the use of digital currency trading. Crypto payments could now be a very viable alternative to centrally-backed fiat cash in the wake of the newly imposed sanctions.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

Iran and Azerbaijan will decrease preferential tariff between the ports of the two countries, under mutual agreement, Mohammad-Ali Hassanzadeh, deputy head of Irans Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) for ports and economic affairs, said.

Hassanzadeh made the remarks during a meeting with Taleh Ziyadov, director General of Baku International Sea Trade Port on Sept. 4 in Amirabad port, northern Mazandaran Province, IRNA news agency reported.

Decrease of the preferential tariff will lead to boosting trade between the ports of the two countries, Hasanzadeh said. 

Economic capacity of the two countries for trading is very high and the existing port infrastructures should be used for developing the economic ties, he added.

The official further invited the private sector entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan and Iran to make investment in the ports of the two countries.

Grounds are prepared for joint investment in Iranian northern ports, including Amirabad and the PMO has forecasted incentives for foreign investors, Hassanzadeh noted.

According to the official IRNA news agency, trade turnover between Iran and Azerbaijan hardly reaches $1 billion, of that $400 million falls on tourism sector.

Only 2 percent of trade between the two countries is carried out via ports.Tehran, Iran, Sept. 4

Trend:

An Iranian man was taken to hospital after trying to set himself on fire in front of Tehran municipality in a potential protest against the deteriorating economic situation in the country.

The young man immolated himself, using fossil fuel, in front of the building of Tehran municipality on Tuesday morning regardless of people and police officers warnings and screams, ISNA news agency reported.

His two children and colleague were also next to him during the incident.

He was taken to hospital soon after the suicide attempt.Saudi Arabia said its forces have intercepted two ballistic missile fired by the Houthi militias toward the border Saudi city of Jazan on Tuesday, Al Arabiya reported.

The Houthis has stepped up missile attacks on the kingdom in recent months.Chinas parliament chief will visit North Korea this weekend as President Xi Jinpings special representative for celebrations marking 70 years since the founding of the country, Reuters with reference to the state news agency Xinhua said.

North Korea, locked in a standoff with the United States over its nuclear and missile programmes, is preparing to host a number of major events for the Sept. 9 anniversary, including a military parade, possible visits by foreign delegations, and - for the first time in five years - a massive choreographed performance known as the Mass Games.

There had been speculation in diplomatic circles that Xi himself would go. Xi and North Koreas youthful leader, Kim Jong Un, have met three times this year, each time in China.

Xinhua gave few details about the visit of parliament chief Li Zhanshu, who is the third most senior member of Chinas ruling Communist Party, in its brief report on Tuesday, aside from saying he would arrive on Saturday.

In a separate reports, the Norths KCNA news agency said Li would visit from Sept. 8, without saying how long he would stay.

Kim met U.S. President Donald Trump in June and agreed to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but negotiations since then appear to have stalled with both sides increasingly criticising the other for a lack of progress.

Trump last month cancelled a planned visit to North Korea by his top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing insufficient progress in the denuclearization talks.

Trump has also questioned Chinas role in helping to resolve the crisis over North Koreas development of nuclear weapons that threaten the United States, and has said that while China is exerting tremendous pressure it is also supplying Pyongyang with considerable aid.

China says it is committed to enforcing the harsh U.N. sanctions on North Korea and has also welcomed the talks between Trump and Kim.

China has long feared chaos or war on the Korean peninsula, and has repeatedly called for talks to resolve tensions.Three people have sustained injuries and were taken to a hospital after being attacked with a "noxious substance" in West London on Tuesday, London Metropolitan Police Service said, Sputnik reported.

"Police were called at around 14:09 p.m. [13:09 GMT] on Tuesday to reports of a noxious substance attack on Westbourne Grove [street]," a spokesman for the police was quoted as saying by the Getwestlondon newspaper.

The news outlet said that the substance was sprayed into the men's faces and was previously reported to be acid.

"It was an irritable substance, three men were taken to hospital as a precaution," a spokesman for the police said as quoted by the newspaper.

The crime scene was attended by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) and the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

"We sent a single responder in a car, two ambulances and an incident response officer to the scene. We also dispatched our hazardous area response team," a LAS spokeswoman was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The fire brigade checked the area and said that the chemical reading was normal, the outlet said.

No one has been arrested yet in connection with the attack and there have been no reports that the victims' injuries were serious, the police said, according to the news outlet.A police commissioner and three officers were killed by armed gunmen on Monday in Guadalajara, the capital of the western state of Jalisco in Mexico, according to police reports, Xinhua reported.

The gunmen surprised commissioner Eduardo Plazola as he left his home in the Loma Dorada neighborhood in the municipality of Tonala, police said.

Plazola and the three officers, among them a female officer, returned fire and wounded some of the attackers who managed to escape.

"We immediately began to search for the suspects in order to apprehend them, in the process we seized a vehicle believed to have been used in the attack," local police said.

Police officials said the murder of the officers was a response by organized crime over the arrests of several of its members that have taken place over the past few weeks.

"Incidents like these do not deter us, Guadalajara police will continue to work to uphold the rule of law," police said.

Mexican authorities have attributed previous violent incidents in Guadalajara to members of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, which uses the city and other towns in the state as a base of operation.

Among the cases registered so far this year are the failed attempt against the public prosecutor, which left several dead and the disappearance of three film students who were mistakenly kidnapped by the cartel, according to the official version of events.

The attorney general of Mexico considers the Jalisco New Generation cartel the biggest criminal organization in Mexico currently.The Japanese authorities recommended on Tuesday evacuation of more than 300,000 people over the approaching typhoon of Jebi, Sputnik reported.

The authorities recommended evacuation of 287,000 people in the port city of Kobe and 90,000 people in the city of Hiroshima.

Japan has already cancelled 632 flights in the central and southwestern parts of the country over the approaching typhoon. The flights are primarily cancelled at the airports of the cities of the Kansai region such as Osaka and Kobe.

The typhoon also disrupted the railway and ferry traffic. The Jebi typhoon is currently located southeast of the Japanese archipelago with the wind strength reaching up to 60 meters per second.

Previously, the Pacific Ocean Typhoon Jebi is slated to make landfall near Honshu. Weather officials in Japan had issued flood, landslide and high-wave warnings to areas of Japan devastated by deadly flooding earlier this yearPhilippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who once likened his crime-fighting policy to Hitlers mass murders and then apologized for the comparison, on Monday laid a wreath to commemorate the Holocaust dead in Jerusalem, Reuters reports.

During his visit to Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust memorial and museum, Duterte stood alongside his daughter, Sara, whom he fathered with Elizabeth Abellana Zimmerman, his Jewish first wife, which by religious tradition makes Sara Jewish too.

In a solemn ceremony, he kindled the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance and laid a wreath.

Reading from what he wrote in the visitors book after the ceremony, Duterte said: Never again.

May the world learn the lesson of this horrific and benighted period of human history. May the hearts of peoples around the world remain ever open. And may the minds of all men and women learn to work together towards providing a safe haven for all who are being persecuted.

In 2016, in a reference to an opponents remark that his rise could be like that of Adolf Hitler, Duterte said he himself would be happy to slaughter drug addicts in a similar way to the Nazi leaders mass murder of Jews.

Duterte is paying an official four-day visit to Israel, the first by a Philippines president, and officials on both sides have tried to play down his record of jarring invective.

Israels Government Press Office said most of the visit would be closed to the media, an apparent precaution against any faux pas by a president whose two-fisted crime-fighting tactics and rhetoric have raised hackles at home and abroad.

Tourism, labor and defense deals were signed earlier when Duterte met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his office.Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4

Trend:

Russian automakers are switching over to settlements in national currencies with Turkey for the supply of components, as such plans have been declared by a number of companies, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov told RIA Novosti.

Speaking about the automotive industry, the minister noted that the current volatility of the ruble reduces profitability of those companies which still lack proper level of localization, however, the companies aimed at a high level of localization and enhancement of the volume of export supplies, also depend on imported components to some extent.

"For example, the level of localization for the range of products of "AvtoVAZ" PJSC company, on average, is above 50%, but is not equal to 100%. Therefore, the presence of 10, 20 or 30% of imported components has a significant effect. Only the case of the Turkish lira is an exception, we are working separately in this direction now. We still purchase quite large volumes of components in Turkey, for example for AvtoVAZ and other companies, but we see less dependence here, and of course, we experience more dependence in the EU countries," Manturov said.

He said that Turkish manufacturers "are switching over to payments in the national currency with great pleasure."

Answering the question whether Russian car making companies are already paying for components in Turkish lira or are just planning to switch over to such settlements, Manturov said: "I will not tell now exactly whether our manufacturers have switched over to purchases in national currencies to date, because they are great in number, there are more than one hundred manufacturers. But at least a month ago, we talked with a number of manufacturers, they were planning to switch over in a little while."

"The transition to settlements in national currencies is always a risk hedging. The lira has weakened, the ruble has also weakened slightly. Such situation will be comfortable for us," the minister added.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.

Marili Cancio, the Republican challenger seeking to reclaim Miami's state Senate District 40 from Annette Taddeo and the Democrats, announced Tuesday the release of her campaign's first commercial.

Paid for by the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the ad seeks to introduce voters to Cancio, an attorney and mother who served for years as Miami Dade College trustee. It strikes a nonpartisan tone, never once mentioning the words Republican or Democrat.

I am delighted to announce the release of the first television and digital ad of my campaign for the Florida state Senate focusing on my positive vision for a better Florida by addressing the many issues that confront our community, while steering away from the rigid agendas of partisan politics that dominate the current political arena, Cancio said in a press release.

The ads, according to Cancio's campaign, will air regularly on English and Spanish language television networks, as well as on social media.KYODO NEWS - Sep 5, 2018 - 04:27 | All, Urgent, World

South Korean President Moon Jae In and U.S. President Donald Trump held talks over the telephone on Tuesday, on the eve of the departure of a South Korean presidential envoy to North Korea to discuss plans for a third inter-Korean summit.

"President Moon explained in detail that the special envoy will be sent to prepare for S. Korea-N. Korea summit and to settle permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula through denuclearization," the presidential office said in a statement.

It showed that Trump wished for a fruitful result from the upcoming inter-Korean summit, which is expected to take place sometime this month.

Separately, the White House said Moon briefed Trump that he was sending Seoul's top security adviser Chung Eui Yong to Pyongyang "to meet with Chairman Kim and promised a readout of that meeting," in reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is chairman of the country's Workers' Party of Korea.

Moon and Trump discussed their efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea and agreed to meet later this month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, it said in a statement.

Moon on Sunday appointed Chung to lead a five-member delegation to visit North Korea.

The delegation will include Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae Sung, Yun Kun Young, presidential secretary for state affairs, and Kim Sang Gyun, a senior NIS official.

Those five members met with Kim Jong Un in March when they traveled to Pyongyang to plan the historic summit on April 27 between Moon and Kim at the border village of Panmunjeom.

The two leaders held a second summit there on May 26.

North and South Korea agreed in high-level talks on Aug. 13 to hold a third inter-Korean summit sometime in September in Pyongyang.

The South Korean delegation will fly directly to North Korea on Wednesday over the Yellow Sea and return to Seoul the same day.KYODO NEWS - Sep 5, 2018 - 07:59 | All, Japan, Urgent

A tanker smashed into the bridge linking Kansai International Airport with the mainland and left around 5,000 people stranded on Tuesday as strong winds and high waves from a powerful typhoon blasted western Japan.

The airport, which sits on a manmade island in Osaka Bay, has been flooded and closed since the afternoon. It will not resume operation at least until Wednesday evening, according to airline officials.

(The tanker is seen on the right)

[Photo courtesy of West Nippon Expressway Co.]

The damage to one of the biggest airports in Japan -- mainly used by visitors to cities in the Kansai area such as Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe -- could affect the country's tourism boom.

The 2,591-ton Houn Maru, which had been anchored in the bay, was swept toward the approximately 3,700-meter-long bridge around 1 p.m., damaging the sole gateway by land to the airport.

Those stranded at the airport will likely be transported to the mainland using lanes not affected by the collision, the airport operator said. Train services using the same bridge have been also suspended.

None of the ship's 11 crew members were injured in the incident. The local coast guard dispatched a helicopter to rescue them.

5,000 left stranded at Osaka airport as powerful typhoon hits western Japan

The transport ministry said the airport closed all of its runways at noon and shut down the entire facility from 3 p.m. due to flooding.

The airport's runway and the basement floor of a terminal building have been flooded, according to airport officials.

Tuesday was the 24th anniversary of the opening of the airport, built on an artificial island, in 1994. It is now the third busiest airport in Japan.

The airport has been increasingly used by foreign passengers, particularly those from China, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries, as it has been expanded for budget airlines.

In fiscal 2017 through March, the number of passengers, both domestic and international, hit 28.80 million, the highest since its opening, according to data released by the operator.

Dozens of salvage barges were also swept away at Kobe-Osaka port after their ropes snapped due to the strong winds. While some people remain onboard, there has been no report of injuries, according to the coast guard.KYODO NEWS - Sep 4, 2018 - 23:35 | All, Japan, Urgent

CLICK BELOW FOR LATEST UPDATE:

5,000 typhoon-stranded people being ferried out of Osaka's Kansai airport

A powerful typhoon rip through western Japan on Tuesday, leaving at least seven people dead and more than 200 injured, while strong winds and high waves closed Kansai International Airport and caused a ship to smash into a bridge linking the airport with the main island.

Winds of up to 209 kilometers per hour early Tuesday afternoon raked the airport, where one of the two runways and basement floor of a terminal building flooded and around 5,000 people were stranded, according to local authorities.

After passing the southern part of Tokushima Prefecture, the typhoon passed near Kobe and moved into the Sea of Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Flights and train services were canceled in the Kinki region and elsewhere, while factories and commercial facilities such as Universal Studios Japan, a popular theme park in Osaka, were closed.

Tanker smashes into Kansai airport bridge as typhoon hits Japan

A man working inside a warehouse in Shiga Prefecture died after the building collapsed, while another man fell to his death from the second floor of a house in Osaka, apparently because of strong wind, police said.

A man in his 70s fell to his death while repairing a roof in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, apparently due to strong winds, local firefighters said.

The other victims were also Osaka residents. An elderly man was confirmed dead after he was found on the balcony of a housing complex, apparently after he fell from an upper floor.

(Aki, Kochi Prefecture)

Three others who died are believed to have been hit by a door gate, a cooler box and another object turned into lethal projectiles by typhoon winds, the police said.

Many people were injured in western and central Japan due mainly to strong winds. Several people were injured at Kyoto Station when part of a glass ceiling collapsed due to the strong wind.

Strong winds blew in areas far from the typhoon including the Tokyo metropolitan area. Four people were hurt as a roof fell on them on a street in Hachioji, western Tokyo.

A number of trucks were tipped over by the wind on the Meishin Expressway in Shiga Prefecture, police said. Another truck was nearly blown off a bridge connecting Shikoku island and the main island of Honshu.

In Osaka Bay, a tanker was swept from its mooring and propelled into a bridge connecting Kansai International Airport and the city of Izumisano in Osaka Prefecture, according to the Japan Coast Guard. The tanker and bridge were both damaged but the ship's crew were unhurt.

(An overturned truck in Osaka)

Dozens of other ships were swept from their moorings in Kobe-Osaka Port but the crews are all apparently safe, according to the coast guard.

Torrential rain caused temporary power outages affecting about 1.61 million households in Kansai and 95,000 in Shikoku.

Cultural assets such as ancient temples in Kyoto, Nara and Shiga were also damaged by the typhoon.

Jebi became the first typhoon categorized as "very strong" by the weather agency to make landfall on Japan's main islands since 1993 when a powerful typhoon left 48 people dead or missing.

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jebi was traveling at a speed of 75 kph over the sea off Sado Island, and packing winds of up to 180 kph with an atmospheric pressure of 970 hectopascals at its center.

Japan has been hit by a succession of typhoons recently, with western parts of the country devastated by massive flooding and landslides that left more than 220 people dead in July.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was forced to cancel a planned visit to southwestern prefectures on Tuesday.

(Kansai International Airport)

The weather agency said the typhoon is expected to travel to an area west of Hokkaido and weaken to an extratropical cyclone by Wednesday morning.

Transportation operations and businesses were significantly affected by the typhoon.

Domestic airlines canceled over 700 local and international flights, mainly scheduled to depart from or arrive at airports in western and central Japan. Railway operators also halted some services, including on the Tokaido Shinkansen and Sanyo Shinkansen lines, while some expressways were closed.

Toyota Motor Corp. said it will suspend its nighttime operations at 14 plants across the nation, including in Aichi, Fukuoka and Miyagi prefectures.

Department stores in western Japan, including outlets in Osaka and Kyoto prefectures, closed for the day. Nagoya in central Japan also closed tourist sites such as Nagoya Castle.Chasing India's total of 210/2, Afghanistan could only make 144/7 in 20 overs. India have climbed above Namibia in the points table by virtue of better net run rate (+0.073).The open water nearest the sea ice surrounding Antarctica releases significantly more carbon dioxide in winter than previously believed, a new study has found. Researchers conducting the study used data gathered over several winters by an array of robotic floats diving and drifting in the Southern Ocean around the southernmost continent.

The effort is part of the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM), a six-year, $21 million-program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through its Office of Polar Programs (OPP) and based at Princeton University. NOAA and NASA provide additional support for SOCCOM, and NSF's OPP coordinates all U.S. research on the southernmost continent through the U.S. Antarctic Program.

As part of the SOCCOM project, researchers from the University of Washington, Princeton University and several other oceanographic institutions wanted to learn how much carbon dioxide was transferred by the surrounding seas. The floats made it possible to gather data during the peak of the Southern Hemisphere's winter from a place that remains poorly studied, despite its role in regulating the global climate.

"These results came as a really big surprise, because previous studies found that the Southern Ocean was absorbing a lot of carbon dioxide," said lead author Alison Gray, an assistant professor of oceanography at the University of Washington. "If that's not true, as these data suggest, then it means we need to rethink the Southern Ocean's role in the carbon cycle and in the climate."

From data-poor to data-rich

The Southern Ocean region plays a unique role in the global climate. It is one of the few places where water that has spent centuries in the deep ocean travels all the way up to the surface to rejoin the surface currents and connect with the atmosphere.

Carbon atoms move between rocks, rivers, plants, oceans and other sources in a planet-scale life cycle. Learning the rate of these various transfers helps to predict the long-term levels of carbon dioxide.

Obtaining data from this region is extremely difficult, though. The Southern Ocean is among the world's most turbulent bodies of water, which makes obtaining data extremely difficult. Storms in Antarctica are some of the fiercest on the planet. In winter, the circumpolar current and winds have no barrier to ripping around the continent. According to Gray, the average storm lasts four days, and the average time between storms is seven days.

Yet data from the Southern Ocean are vital to building a comprehensive global picture of how atmospheric carbon dioxide interacts with the polar oceans.

"Antarctic waters, until now, have been a data-poor region for these kinds of measurements," said Peter Milne, OPP's program manager for ocean and atmospheric science. "SOCCOM, using technologies that previously were unavailable to researchers, is already proving its worth by gathering information that otherwise would remain largely unobtainable."

Previous winter measurements in the region had come mainly from ships traveling across the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica to supply polar research stations. Those data were few and far between.

"After four years of SOCCOM, the vast majority of information about the chemistry of the Southern Ocean is coming from these floats," Gray said. "We have more measurements from the past few years than all the decades that came before."

Floating data

The floating instruments that collected the new observations drift with the currents and control their buoyancy to collect observations at different depths. The instruments dive down to 1 kilometer and float with the currents for nine days. Next, they drop even farther, to 2 kilometers, and then rise back to the surface while measuring water properties. After surfacing they beam their observations back to shore via satellite.

Unlike more common Argo floats, which only measure ocean temperature and salinity, the SOCCOM floats also monitor dissolved oxygen, nitrogen and pH, or the relative acidity of the water. The new paper uses the pH measurements to calculate the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide, and then uses that to figure out how strongly the water is absorbing or emitting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Looking at circles of increasing distance from the South Pole, the authors find that in winter the open water next to the sea-ice covered waters around Antarctica is releasing significantly more carbon dioxide than expected to the atmosphere.

"It's not surprising that the water in this region is outgassing, because the deep water is exceptionally rich in carbon," Gray said. "But we underestimated the magnitude of the outgassing because we had so little data from the winter months. That means the Southern Ocean isn't absorbing as much carbon as we thought."

The newly published study analyzes data collected by 35 floats between 2014 and 2017. Gray is now analyzing newer data from more instruments to identify seasonal or multiyear trends, where the patterns might change from one year to the next.

"There is definitely strong variability on decadal scales in the Southern Ocean," Gray said. "And the models are really all over the place in this region. The SOCCOM floats are now providing data at times and places where before we had virtually nothing, and that is invaluable for constraining the models and understanding these trends."

Paper co-author and SOCCOM director Jorge Sarmiento at Princeton University said: "This is science at its most exciting -- a major challenge to our current understanding made possible by extraordinary observations from the application of new technologies to study previously unexplored regions of the ocean."

Sarmiento added that observations from these technologies have implications for understanding the global carbon cycle.

"We find that the Southern Ocean is currently near neutral with respect to removal of carbon from the atmosphere, contrary to previous studies, which suggest there is a large uptake of carbon by the Southern Ocean," Sarmiento said. "These results can be reconciled if there is a corresponding unobserved carbon uptake waiting to be discovered somewhere else in the ocean."

Gray conducted the research as a postdoctoral researcher in Sarmiento's research group.

The paper with the study's results will be published today, Aug. 14, in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

###

Other contributors to the paper include Stephen Riser at the University of Washington; Kenneth Johnson at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; Seth Bushinsky at Princeton; Joellen Russell at the University of Arizona; Lynne Talley at Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Rik Wanninkhof at NOAA; and Nancy Williams at Oregon State University.The quest to find new ways to harness solar power has taken a step forward thanks to new research in the field of semi-artificial photosynthesis

The quest to find new ways to harness solar power has taken a step forward after researchers successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen by altering the photosynthetic machinery in plants.

Photosynthesis is the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy. Oxygen is produced as by-product of photosynthesis when the water absorbed by plants is 'split'. It is one of the most important reactions on the planet because it is the source of nearly all of the world's oxygen. Hydrogen which is produced when the water is split could potentially be a green and unlimited source of renewable energy.

A new study, led by academics at St John's College, University of Cambridge, used semi-artificial photosynthesis to explore new ways to produce and store solar energy. They used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of biological components and manmade technologies.

The research could now be used to revolutionise the systems used for renewable energy production. A new paper, published in Nature Energy, outlines how academics at the Reisner Laboratory in Cambridge developed their platform to achieve unassisted solar-driven water-splitting.

Their method also managed to absorb more solar light than natural photosynthesis.

Katarzyna Soko?, first author and PhD student at St John's College, said: "Natural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed - around 1-2 per cent of what it could potentially convert and store."

Artificial photosynthesis has been around for decades but it has not yet been successfully used to create renewable energy because it relies on the use of catalysts, which are often expensive and toxic. This means it can't yet be used to scale up findings to an industrial level.

The Cambridge research is part of the emerging field of semi-artificial photosynthesis which aims to overcome the limitations of fully artificial photosynthesis by using enzymes to create the desired reaction.

Soko? and the team of researchers not only improved on the amount of energy produced and stored, they managed to reactivate a process in the algae that has been dormant for millennia.

She explained: "Hydrogenase is an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen. During evolution this process has been deactivated because it wasn't necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted - splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen."

Soko? hopes the findings will enable new innovative model systems for solar energy conversion to be developed.

She added: "It's exciting that we can selectively choose the processes we want, and achieve the reaction we want which is inaccessible in nature. This could be a great platform for developing solar technologies. The approach could be used to couple other reactions together to see what can be done, learn from these reactions and then build synthetic, more robust pieces of solar energy technology."

This model is the first to successfully use hydrogenase and photosystem II to create semi-artificial photosynthesis driven purely by solar power.

Dr Erwin Reisner, Head of the Reisner Laboratory, a Fellow of St John's College, University of Cambridge, and one of the paper's authors described the research as a 'milestone'.

He explained: ""This work overcomes many difficult challenges associated with the integration of biological and organic components into inorganic materials for the assembly of semi-artificial devices and opens up a toolbox for developing future systems for solar energy conversion."

###Thu., Nov. 4, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

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History

Once Mary Lincoln became a public figure, many men sought to label her, define her and defame her. We have seen Mary painted as unstable, mean-spirited and crazy. But, was that really who Mary Lincoln was? Join in this panel discussion with three female historians as we hold an empathetic, evidence-based discussion about Mary Lincoln. Go beyond the stereotypes to learn more about this remarkable woman. Panelists are Callie Hawkins, Director of Programming at President Lincoln's Cottage; Stacy McDermott, author of Mary Lincoln: Southern Girl, Northern Woman, and Erika Holst, Illinois State Museum History Curator. Hosted by the Illinois 217-782-6044After several rounds of negotiations between the United States and Canada to redraw the NAFTA deal by ironing out the trade-related disputes at the higher levels, both the parties failed to reach a consensus by the Friday deadline. As the talks ended in a stalemate, President Trump upped the ante by threatening to dump the tripartite trade agreement and script a bilateral trade deal with Mexico, forcing Canada to either mend its ways or accept the shift in trade dynamics.



To that end, Trump formally notified the Congress of his intentions to ink the new NAFTA deal with or without Canada within a 90-day period. Although the trade talks are likely to resume on Wednesday, Canada has voiced its dissent against the unrelenting pressure tactics of the United States and made it clear that it would not sign a deal unless it is beneficial for its citizens.



As the trade skirmishes are likely to continue until any of the warring nations relents, investors could benefit from certain Canadian stocks that have solid fundamentals to reap healthy return on investments. Before we handpick such stocks, let us dig a little deep into the issue to get a fair idea of the situation.



U.S.-Canada Trade Spat



Canada has close trade ties with its neighbor with interwoven economies and integrated supply chains. The value of goods and services sold between the two countries reportedly totaled $673.1 billion last year, largely benefiting from NAFTA, thus making it the largest export market for the United States. However, Trump believed that the regional trade agreement incentivized U.S. companies to move jobs to lower-wage countries like Mexico and harmed domestic job creation. He also increased his tirade against Canada from last year and accused its government of unfairly supporting the dairy industry.



In order to force the neighboring country to offer trade concessions, Trump further imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada. Moreover, he has made public his intentions to extend similar tariffs to all automobiles and auto part exports from the Great White North, expecting to increase economic pressure to force its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to capitulate.



On its part, Canada retaliated with its own set of tariffs on U.S. goods. However, as United States reached an agreement with Mexico to resolve its trade disputes, the onus shifted back to Canada to reengage in talks to protect its own interests and prevent alienation within the region.





Story continues

Canada Forced to Negotiate Due to Mexico Deal



As the regional trade fulcrum shifted more toward the growing supremacy of the United States, Canada was forced to join the negotiation table. Both the parties were reportedly within striking distance of a deal. However, differences relating to the U.S. demands over dairy policy and patent protections for pharmaceutical industry annulled the settlement process.



With Trump remaining hell-bent to rework NAFTA to give more impetus to domestic manufacturing industries, Trudeau has little choice. Experts widely believe that if he pulls out from the negotiation table until the United States offers acceptable terms and concessions, he could jeopardize the countrys economy in a spiraling brawl with the unpredictable Trump. Moreover, it remains fairly unclear about how Mexico would react to the proposition of a bilateral trade agreement, replacing the age-old tripartite deal.



4 Canadian Stocks to Benefit



Amid such volatile market condition, we have handpicked four top-ranked Canadian stocks that will likely add a sparkle to your portfolio. These companies currently carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) and flaunt a VGM Score of A or B. Also, the stocks have witnessed positive earnings estimate revisions for the past 60 days.



North American Construction Group Ltd. NOA: This heavy construction and mining services provider has VGM Score of A and Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings has moved up 84% to 46 cents per share in the past 60 days. Shares of this company have appreciated 87.8% in the past year.



Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. MPVD: This diamond exploration firm has Zacks Rank #2 and VGM Score of A. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings has moved up 280% to 18 cents per share in the past 60 days.



Gran Tierra Energy Inc. GTE: This oil and gas exploration firm has Zacks Rank #2 and VGM Score of B. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 earnings has moved up 17.2% to 34 cents per share in the past 60 days. Shares of this company have appreciated 65.9% in the past year.



EXFO Inc EXFO: This telecommunication component provider has Zacks Rank #2 and VGM Score of B. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings has moved up 6.3% to 17 cents per share in the past 60 days. Shares of this company have appreciated 25.8% in the past three months.



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Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.



With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.



It's not the one you think.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.5 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Kosmos Energy Stock Now Kosmos Energy's (KOS) Deep Gulf Energy acquisition is likely to boost its production and cash flow in the long run.

Kosmos Energy Ltd. KOS looks compelling at the moment. Given the companys strong fundamentals as well as positive estimate revisions, it seems like this is the right time to add the stock to your portfolio.

Kosmos is a growing exploration and production (E&P) company engaged in the acquisition, development, operation, and exploration of oil and natural gas properties along the Atlantic Margins. The company has operations in Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Suriname, Mauritania, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal. Notably, it currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), which means the company is poised to outperform the market.

What Makes the Stock a Solid Bet?

Higher Output Leads to Earnings Growth

Its diversified production sites in proven, emerging and frontier basins have enabled the company in deploying sustainable exploration and boosting its output. Notably, in the first half of 2018, Kosmos total net oil volumes sold came in at 7.7 million barrels, 56.6% higher than the first half of 2017. The strong ramp-up in production is expected to continue during the second half of this year, given its plans to invest $300 million in its operations in 2018. The production growth should translate into increased earnings. For the third quarter of 2018, we expect its bottom line to surge more than 130% year over year.

Deep Gulf Energy Acquisition

Kosmos recently agreed to acquire Deep Gulf Energy from First Reserve, which is a private equity investment firm focused on energy and other shareholders, for $1.2 billion. With this buyout, it will enter the prolific Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The deal is expected to increase the companys production to 70 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBoe/d) from 45 MBoe/d. Majority of the output (85%) is expected to be oil. The stock and cash deal will enhance the companys estimated reserves of 200 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBoe), as of Jun 30, 2018, by 40% to around 280 MMBoe. The acquisition is an attractive investment choice for Kosmos, providing it with both short and long-cycle exploration opportunities.

Story continues

Dividend in the Offing

Owing to the acquisition of Deep Gulf Energy, Kosmos expects to generate significant cash flow from the assets, which can enable it to pay dividends to its shareholders starting from the first quarter of 2019. This makes the stock even more attractive for your portfolio.

Estimate Revision & Surprise History

Over the past 60-day period, the stock registered one upward estimate revision, leading to an increase in earnings estimate from 2 cents to 3 cents per share. It is to be noted that the company beat estimates five times in the last seven reported quarters. Kosmos recorded an average positive earnings surprise of 14.7% during the said period.

Kosmos Energy Ltd. Price and EPS Surprise

Kosmos Energy Ltd. Price and EPS Surprise | Kosmos Energy Ltd. Quote

Impressive Industry Outlook:

The industry, to which Kosmos belongs, currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 30 out of 255 (top 12%). Studies have shown that 50% of a stock's price movement is directly tied to the performance of the industry group that it belongs to. In fact, an average stock in a strong group is likely to outperform a great stock in a poor industry. Therefore, taking industry performance into account becomes a necessary measure.

Price Performance:

Kosmos has gained 26.1% in the past year, outperforming the 15.8% collective growth of the stocks belonging to the industry.

Other Stocks to Consider

Investors interested in the energy sector can opt for other top-ranked stocks like McDermott International, Inc. MDR, Subsea 7 S.A. SUBCY and Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. HLX, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Houston, TX-based McDermott is an equipment provider for energy companies. The companys top line for 2018 is likely to improve 145% year over year. In the last four reported quarters, the company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 101.7%.

Luxembourg-based Subsea is an oilfield service providing company. In the last four reported quarters, the company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 318.6%.

Houston, TX-based Helix Energys bottom line surpassed the consensus mark in three of the last four quarters, with the average positive earnings surprise being 66.7%.

Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?

Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.

With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.

It's not the one you think.

See This Ticker Free >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



Kosmos Energy Ltd. (KOS) : Free Stock Analysis Report



McDermott International, Inc. (MDR) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (HLX) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Subsea 7 SA (SUBCY) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.(Adds details, comment)

TOKYO, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Two global aluminium producers have offered Japanese buyers lower premiums for primary metal shipments for the October to December quarter, two sources directly involved in the pricing talks said on Tuesday.

The producers offered shipments at premiums of $112 and $115 per tonne above the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price , the sources said. That is down 13 percent to 15 percent from the current quarter.

The offers reflect the weak supply and demand fundamentals in Asia and low spot premiums of below $100 per tonne, the sources said.

The latest quarterly pricing negotiations began last week and are expected to progress during an international industry conference in Berlin next week, the sources said.

"One producer revealed its offer of $112 today," one of the sources said.

A third major producer is likely to reveal its offer next week, the sources said.

Japan is Asia's biggest aluminium importer and the premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to pay each quarter over LME price set the benchmark for the region.

For the quarter ending in September, Japanese buyers agreed to pay a premium of $132 (PREM-ALUM-JP), up 2 percent from the prior quarter on rising spot premiums in the United States.

At least one of the sources said he believes that none of Japanese buyers would accept the offers given a wide disparity between the current spot premiums.

Major producers include Rio Tinto Ltd,, South32 Ltd and Alcoa Corp. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; editing by Richard Pullin and Christian Schmollinger)Arthur J. Gallagher's Acquisition to Brace Australian Base

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG recently acquired Super-Advice Corporate Services Pty Ltd and Personal Advice Services Pty Ltd, collectively known as Super-Advice. This buyout is expected to help the acquirer not only expand but also improve its superannuation as well as employee benefits consulting service abilities throughout Western Australia and Sydney. Thus, the consolidation is expected to enable the insurance broker to fortify its presence in Australia. However, financial details of the transaction were kept under wraps.



Closer Look at the Transaction



Established in 2002, Super-Advice offers employee benefits consulting and corporate advisory services with special focus on corporate superannuation and employee group insurance. This in turn, allowed the company to earn the status of a key leader regarding the aforementioned services in Australia. By acknowledging every business individual identity and core values, the company helps clients deliver customized solutions while handling all the necessary employee enquiries and administration issues, efficiently and diligently. Notably, the acquired company will continue to operate from the current locations of Perth and Sydney after the completion of the buyout.



The latest integration is anticipated to be a substantial value addition to the acquirers already robust inorganic portfolio. The team at Super-Advice will help boost the acquirers employee benefits consulting and individual Wealth Management abilities, thereby solidifying its footprint across Australia. Given the reputation built by Super-Advice over a considerable period of time, the insurance broker is likely to leverage this goodwill and the strength offered by the acquired entity.



With this transaction, Arthur J. Gallagher looks to improve its employee benefit consulting service profile, which not only offers a detailed knowledge on the employee benefits market but also helps meeting the clients fundamental business objectives most efficiently. Therefore, the latest consolidation is expected to reinforce Arthur J. Gallaghers strong inorganic growth profile as well as add capabilities to its insurance brokerage service portfolio.



With respect to cementing its existence in Australia and boosting its superannuation and employee benefits business, Arthur J. Gallagher acquired Brisbane, Queensland-based Finergy Solutions Pty Ltd and Sydney, New South Wales-based Avantek Pty Ltd, which will provide it with the capacity to offer tailor-made and innovative solutions to its clients.



Arthur J. Gallaghers discerning M&A activity bears testimony to its compelling inorganic growth strategy. Year to date, the company has successfully completed 26 mergers for an aggregate amount of approximately $240 million. It remains optimistic about its ability to draw acquisition partners in its typical small tuck-in size at fair prices.



Over the past few years, Arthur J. Gallaghers impressive progress has been primarily cushioned by organic sales as well as prudent buyouts and mergers. The company has been closely monitoring its acquisition pipeline in the retail employee benefits brokerage and wholesale brokerage areas, which remains sturdy with about $300 million of revenues. Further, driven by the number and size of non-U.S. purchases, the companys top line, fed with international contribution, is likely to improve.



Zacks Rank and Share Price Movement



Arthur J. Gallagher carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of the company have rallied 14% year to date, outperforming its industrys rise of 5.3%. We expect top-line growth, smart acquisitions and a healthy capital position to push the shares up in the near term.

Story continues





Other Acquisitions in the Insurance Space



We have been noticing insurers adopting the inorganic route to enrich their portfolio for a while now. The insurance industry has been arresting attention with a host of acquisitions on the back of its all-time high available capital resource.



Recently, Enstar Holdings (US) LLC, a unit of Enstar Group Limited ESGR, signed an agreement to acquire Maiden Reinsurance North America, a U.S. diversified business of Maiden Holdings, Ltd. MHLD. The buyout will further strengthen Enstar Groups dominance in the market with respect to closing legacy acquisitions and also, ramping up its inorganic growth portfolio. Further in July, Brown & Brown, Inc.s BRO unit, The Advocator Group, LLC, announced buying Professional Disability Associates, LLC to provide enhanced services that will ultimately result in strengthening substantial carrier, customer and client relationships.

You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?

Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.

With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.

It's not the one you think.

See This Ticker Free >>



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Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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Maiden Holdings, Ltd. (MHLD) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment ResearchBrazil is set to hold the fifth pre-salt round, which is likely to be the last auction prior to the presidential election in October.



Fifth Round Auction Details



The applications of six companies, which include BP plc BP, Royal Dutch Shell plc RDS.A and TOTAL SA TOT, were the first to receive approval from Brazils oil regulator ANP for bidding in September 28. The auction includes four blocks under production sharing agreements (PSAs) in the pre-salt layer.

Other companies comprise China-owned CNODC, Germanys DEA Deutsche Erdoel and Qatars QPI. BP, Royal Dutch Shell and TOTAL currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



Of the six companies, only DEA Deutsche Erdoel does not have an exploration and production contract for oil and/or gas in Brazil. A total of 12 applications have been received by the regulator for the bid round and the remaining applications are expected to be evaluated in the next meeting.



The four blocks in the auction comprises Saturno, Tita, Pau-Brasil and Sudoeste de Tartaruga Verde. These blocks are located in the Campos and Santos basins.



This round is the last opportunity for oil companies to secure a stake in Brazils coveted pre-salt areas, as the outcome of the presidential elections can transform the rules for future auctions.



The impending elections pose uncertainty over the future of Brazilian oil auctions regime. Some of the candidates in the election support the return of Petrobras, which is likely to boost development of Brazils oil resources.



Reforms in Brazils Oil Sector



A series of regulatory changes have piqued the interest of oil majors for deepwater blocks in Brazil. Earlier, Petrobras had to be selected as the managing company, which is not compulsory anymore. The number of Brazilian machinery and construction material required for exploration and production has been reduced. The changes came into effect when most oil majors were reluctant to invest in offshore blocks amid rigid regulations and price volatility.



In Brazils fourth Production Sharing Round held in June, Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM was an aggressive bidder. Moreover, consortiums comprising BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Equinor ASA and Chevron Corp. won the rights to explore three blocks in the Santos and Campos basins, besides Petrobras.



Conclusion



Per the International Energy Agency, Brazil is likely to be the second-biggest contributor, after United States, to growing oil supplies outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in the next few years.

Story continues

A major portion of the contribution is expected to come from offshore drilling. In a recent report by the agency, Petrobras along with other international oil companies will boost global supplies by more than a million barrels a day by 2023, exceeding 1% of the global market.



Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars?



Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge.



With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research.



It's not the one you think.



See This Ticker Free >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report



BP p.l.c. (BP) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) : Free Stock Analysis Report



TOTAL S.A. (TOT) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment ResearchSAO PAULO, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Brazilian pulp producer Eldorado Brasil Celulose SA said on Tuesday that its parent company J&F Investimentos SA had exercised its right to cancel a contract for the sale of 50.59 percent of the company, according to a securities filing on Tuesday.

Eldorado said J&F had informed it that a deadline had lapsed to conclude the sale to buyers CA Investment (Brazil) SA and Paper Excellence B.V. As a result, Eldorado said CA Investment has filed an arbitration claim against the sellers and Eldorado, according to the filing. (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Christian Plumb)(Adds details on Blackstone bid, offer premium and Oxford)

Sept 4 (Reuters) - Investa Office Fund said on Tuesday that Canada-based Oxford Properties Group had offered A$3.29 billion ($2.4 billion) for acquiring the property manager, higher than an A$3.2 billion offer earlier from Blackstone Group. Oxford offered A$5.5 per unit in Investa, compared with the A$5.3485 offered by Blackstone, the company said in a statement. The offer represents a premium of 3.4 percent to Investa's closing price on Monday.

Blackstone had sweetened its offer for Investa in August after which Investa's board recommended the offer, in the absence of a superior proposal.

Investa had requested a trading halt in its shares on Tuesday ahead of the announcement.

Oxford, which is a real estate manager headquartered in Toronto, had bought an approximately 10 percent stake in the company in August, at A$5.25 per security. ($1 = 1.3868 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Workers with two state-owned Chinese oil developers fought with sticks, shovels and Molotov cocktails in a dispute over prospecting rights in the northwest province of Shaanxi, the state-run tabloid Global Times reported late on Monday.

Local police have begun an investigation into an "escalating dispute" between PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Company, a subsidiary of China's biggest oil and gas producer PetroChina, and Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group, which is owned by the provincial government, the paper reported.

Five people were hurt at the weekend in what was the third violent showdown this year between the two companies, the paper said. The dispute concerns development rights for the Zizhou gas field, which are claimed by both sides, the Global Times said.

The gas field is run by PetroChina Changqing but the local government also granted drilling rights in the area to Yanchang Petroleum earlier this year, the Chongqing Morning Post newspaper reported on Sunday.

The local government and public security bureau declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday. Yanchang Petroleum, PetroChina and the state giant's subsidiary also all declined to comment.

The case highlights the tensions between central government-run firms and regional authorities desperate to retain control over lucrative energy and mineral resources.

China has long kept a tight grip over its energy reserves, and normally allows only major central government-run companies like PetroChina or its rival Sinopec to develop oil and gas.

In the 1990s, Shaanxi allowed private citizens around the city of Yulin to drill for oil in a bid to alleviate crippling poverty, but Beijing ordered the province to stop the practice amid concerns about safety and pollution, and as PetroChina complained about infringement of its exploration rights.

As a compromise, Shaanxi was given special dispensation in 2007 to amalgamate several private oil and gas projects under its own local state enterprise, allowing it to receive more tax revenues from local oil and gas production.

(Reporting by Meng Meng, Aizhu Chen and David Stanway; Editing by Tom Hogue)* Revenue for 4 mths to April jumped to $2.3 bln

* Trend in line with earnings for 2017

* Firm under pressure from Alibaba-backed rivals (Recasts and adds earnings details)

BEIJING, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Chinese on-demand food delivery service firm Meituan Dianping said revenue for the four months ended in April almost doubled from a year earlier, though losses widened ahead of a highly anticipated Hong Kong listing.

The company, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, is spending heavily to fend off a slew of rivals aligned with Tencent rival Alibaba.

Revenue jumped to 15.8 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) and gross transactions on its platform also doubled to 71.1 billion yuan, according to a updated prospectus filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

But its net loss for the period was almost three times bigger at 22.8 billion yuan.

Meituan is seeking to raise as much as $4 billion before an overallotment option, and is valuing itself at up to $55 billion, sources with knowledge of the IPO have previously said.

The latest figures were in line with the trend of strong growth in revenue but wider losses posted in 2017. The losses also reflect adjustments related to share-based compensation ahead of its listing.

In the past year, several of Meituan Dianping's top competitors have consolidated under Alibaba, including food delivery firms Ele.me and Baidu Waimai, which was previously controlled by Baidu Inc.

That has put extra pressure on Meituan Dianping, especially during the summer months when on-demand food services offer heavy discounts to attract new customers.

Ele.me has said it spent 3 billion yuan on marketing this summer in an effort to lift its market share over 50 percent. Meituan Dianping commanded around 59 percent of China's on-demand delivery market as of March 31. ($1 = 6.8278 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)There is a lot to be liked about Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) as an income stock, over the past 10 years it has returned an average of 5.0% per year. The stock currently pays out a dividend yield of 4.3%, and has a market cap of US$224.65b. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Lets take a look at Verizon Communications in more detail.

See our latest analysis for Verizon Communications

How I analyze a dividend stock

When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:

Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers?

Has its dividend been stable over the past (i.e. no missed payments or significant payout cuts)?

Has the amount of dividend per share grown over the past?

Is is able to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?

Will it have the ability to keep paying its dividends going forward?

NYSE:VZ Historical Dividend Yield September 4th 18

How does Verizon Communications fare?

Verizon Communications has a trailing twelve-month payout ratio of 31.3%, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect VZs payout to increase to 51.7% of its earnings, which leads to a dividend yield of around 4.5%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to $4.59 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income.

If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, its dividend stocks and their constant income stream. In the case of VZ it has increased its DPS from $1.84 to $2.36 in the past 10 years. During this period it has not missed a payment, as one would expect for a company increasing its dividend. This is an impressive feat, which makes VZ a true dividend rockstar.

Compared to its peers, Verizon Communications has a yield of 4.3%, which is on the low-side for Telecom stocks.

Next Steps:

Keeping in mind the dividend characteristics above, Verizon Communications is definitely worth considering for investors looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, you should always research extensively before deciding whether or not a stock is an appropriate investment for you. I always recommend analysing the companys fundamentals and underlying business before making an investment decision. Ive put together three essential aspects you should further research:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for VZs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for VZs outlook. Valuation: What is VZ worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, its not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether VZ is currently mispriced by the market. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.PARIS (AP)  French President Emmanuel Macron pushed Monday for Europe to take more responsibility for its own defense, saying the continent's security shouldn't rely so much on the United States and could even include discussions with Russia.

In a speech to French ambassadors in Paris, Macron said "Europe cannot rely on the United States only for its security. It's up to us to meet our responsibilities and guarantee our security, and therefore European sovereignty."

He said discussions on defense cooperation should be extended to all European countries and Russia, on condition that progress is made with Moscow on putting an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine between the government and Russia-backed separatists.

Macron's vision included a more united front on at least half a dozen security topics and comes after U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated demands for Europe to become more self-sufficient in its defense.

"This reinforced solidarity will imply a revision of the European architecture of defense and security: by initiating a renewed dialogue on cybersecurity, chemical weapons, conventional weaponry, territorial conflicts, space security, the protection of the polar zones, in particular with Russia," Macron said.

With the exceptions of fellow NATO members France and Britain, the European allies have lived under the nuclear umbrella of the United States since World War II.

That NATO alliance with the U.S. is especially important to countries like Poland and the Baltic states, which had long been under the thumb of Moscow before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Story continues

At a NATO summit last month in Brussels, Trump put more pressure on European countries, asking them to increase their defense spending to at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product  a NATO goal that many members, including Germany, do not yet meet. Germany is, however, increasing its military spending to 1.5 percent of GDP by 2025.

Macron's speech on Monday aimed to set the roadmap of French diplomacy for the next year.

Since his election in May 2017, the 40-year-old French leader has called for a more integrated European Union as a whole, with a common European defense budget and security doctrine.

In November, EU countries officially launched a new era in defense cooperation with a program of joint military investment and project development aimed at helping the EU confront its security challenges. Twenty-three of the EU's 28 member nations signed up to the process, known as permanent structured cooperation, or PESCO.

Britain, which is leaving the EU in March 2019, and Denmark, which has a defense opt-out, were among those not taking part.

France, meanwhile, is also pushing for the full implementation of the 2015 Minsk peace agreement that France and Germany backed to settle the conflict in Ukraine, which has killed at least 10,000 people since 2014.FILE PHOTO - U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks before signing an executive order on strengthening retirement security in America at Harris Conference Center in Charlotte, NC, U.S., August 31, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

By Michelle Price

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Labor Day hit back at Richard Trumka, president of the United States' largest federation of labor unions, after Trumka said on Sunday that the president's policies had hurt American workers.

Trumka, who is head of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), said on Fox News of Trump's policies: "Unfortunately, to date, the things that he's done to hurt workers outpace what he's done to help workers."

The AFL-CIO president cited changes to the tax code that encourage companies to outsource jobs, the administration's failure to produce an infrastructure program and its overturning of regulations, including some protecting health and safety.

On Monday, the national Labor Day holiday, Trump tweeted that Trumka had represented his union "poorly."

"Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly," Trump added.

In follow-up tweets, the president hailed economic growth, adding: "The Worker in America is doing better than ever before!"

A spokesman for Trumka, John Weber, declined to comment on Trump's tweets.

Trumka had also questioned Trump's Saturday tweet that there was no need to keep Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The president warned Congress not to meddle with the trade negotiations or he would terminate the trilateral trade pact altogether.

"It's pretty hard to see how that would work without having Canada in the deal," Trumka said on Sunday, noting that the economies of Mexico, the United States and Canada were heavily integrated.

Trumka, who met with Trump alongside other labor leaders last month to talk about trade issues, is a highly influential figure on trade issues and his support will likely be necessary for the passage of any legislation on trade promoted by the administration.

Story continues

Democrats are working to get union members to vote in the Nov. 6 midterm congressional elections.

Former Vice President Joe Biden marched in a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh, campaigning on behalf of Democrats. "We're in a fight for the soul of America," he said. "It's about time we restore dignity to work."

(Reporting by Michelle Price; Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Dan Grebler)Private Colleges Launch Tuition Discount Programs to Attract Top Students

It's a tactic big-box retailers have used for years: "Find it for less at another store and we'll match the price."

While theres always a risk price-matching may hurt the bottom line, companies would rather have your business at a discount than not have it at all. Now more private universities have taken notice of the practice.

Over the past two weeks, two private universitiesAtlanta-based Oglethorpe University and Pittsburgh-based Robert Morris Universityhave announced new price-matching programs for high-performing students who might otherwise attend a state university.

Starting in the fall of 2019, qualifying freshman who were admitted to the main campus of either Penn State University or the University of Pittsburgh will be guaranteed a lower cost of tuition at Robert Morris, as part of the university's Public Price Match Plus program. Although the sticker price for a year at RMU is more than $12,000 higher than a year at the one of Pennsylvania's state universities (with room and board, cost of books and other expenses included), the private university contends that the net cost of tuition is actually competitive once financial aid and a program scholarship of $3,000 are applied.

At Oglethorpe, the price-match guarantee isn't just limited to Georgia state schools. The university's Flagship 50 program will match tuition at any of the nation's flagship state universities. For high-cost states such as California or Massachusetts, the price match might favor the university more than the student. But for 2019 freshmen who reside in states with a low cost of education, such as Wyoming or Florida, the program could save them thousands of dollars a year. By Oglethorpe's own estimation, the cost of tuition at the University of Wyoming is just $5,550. If you're a resident of Wyoming and you meet the minimum SAT and GPA qualifications required by the Flagship 50 program, you could take the low cost of a U of W degree across the country to Georgia.

Story continues

The five cheapest flagship schools in the country

The rise of competitive tuitions

The rise of price-match tuition programs among private universities are seen as a way to dispel the notion that tuition at private universities are cost prohibitive as well as to boost enrollment. In a nation with soaring student loan debt, private universities want to make it clear that with financial aid, the cost of tuition isn't nearly as high as people believe.

But universities also want to maintain a healthy portion of high-performing students, and private universities aren't the only ones trying to compete. Over the past few years, public universitiessuch as the University of Nebraska at Kearneyhave broadened their in-state tuitions to include surrounding states in order to attract more students. Others state universitiessuch as Southern Illinois University Edwardsvillehave offered their lower in-state tuition to all domestic U.S. students.

And just last month, New York University, which is a private university, announced it would offer full tuition scholarships (a $55,018 value for the 2018 to 2019 academic year) to current and future medical students, no doubt sending rival schools to the drawing board to come up with a competitive enrollment incentive.

If the trend of broad tuition discounts continues across the nation's public and private universities, it will be good news for students struggling under the high cost of education. In the meantime, most students will continue to depend on federal student aid and private loans to fund their education.JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Workers from South Africa's mainly-white Solidarity union staged a go-slow protest at the petrochemicals firm Sasol (SOLJ.J) on Monday over a share scheme offered exclusively to black staff, and said they would begin a full strike on Thursday.

South African companies are required to meet quotas on black ownership, employment and procurement as part of a drive to reverse decades of exclusion under apartheid. Meeting the rules makes a company more likely to qualify for government tenders.

Solidarity has been waging a challenge against racial quotas in the workplace, and lodged a complaint against the policy in 2016 with the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Sasol, the world leader in technology that converts coal and gas to fuel, has sold 25 percent of its local operations to qualifying black employees, a foundation and the black public in a 21 billion rand (1.1 billion) deal financed by the company.

It has said the scheme is not a benefit but a mechanism designed to meet the rules on black economic empowerment, and was backed by shareholders.

But Solidarity said the scheme was discriminatory and that it would file a complaint to U.S. regulators. Sasol also operates in the United States.

The union said 6,300 of its members would hold a go-slow at Sasol's facilities in South Africa, and then strike on Thursday.

"We are not against the scheme, we just want it to be inclusive of all workers. If the company makes it inclusive, the majority will still be black, so we see no need to exclude white workers as this is discrimination," said Dirk Hermann, Solidarity's chief executive.

Sasol, which employs around 26,000 people in South Africa, said it was aware of Solidarity's intent to strike, and that it had made contingency plans.

SHARES SLIP

Story continues

Sasol's shares were 1.4 percent lower at 568.14 rand, with the market expecting the dispute to be resolved without affecting earnings.

A Sasol spokesman said parts of the flagship Secunda and Sasolberg plants, which produce fuel and chemicals respectively, were anyway undergoing scheduled maintenance shutdowns, but that both plants otherwise continued to operate.

The ruling African National Congress said in a statement that it was concerned by the "obsession with perpetuating racial polarization" triggered by Solidarity's protest.

Solidarity's Hermann said the union was not promoting racism and had backed schemes at AngloGold Ashanti (ANGJ.J) and iron ore mining firm Kumba (KIOJ.J) that treated white and black workers equally.

But it was in court challenging an empowerment scheme at the cement firm PPC (PPCJ.J) that grants each black worker twice as many shares as a white worker.

Herman said Solidarity had also challenged a similar scheme at South Africa's biggest mobile operator, Vodacom (VODJ.J), but had been hampered by its low members' roll at the firm.

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, which mediates in labour disputes, ruled that Solidarity did not have a legal right to challenge Sasol's scheme in court, but could push its cause through industrial action.

"We expect Sasol to come to the negotiating table," Hermann said.

(Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Kevin Liffey)The latest round of proposed tariffs would affect the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Pencil, the company said in a letter to the government. (Photo credit/CNBC)

President Donald Trump could levy tariffs of up to 25% on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports any day now, leaving many U.S. businesses worried about increasing competition, potential layoffs, and price increases for consumers.

Should these tariffs go into effect, everyday products from baby wipes to bicycles could be caught in the fray.

In recent weeks, nearly 3,000 comments, including requests to testify, have been filed with the U.S. Trade Representatives Office, urging the Trump administration not to go through with the tariffs. But the effort seems a long shot for them. The deadline for public comments was Sept. 6, and Bloomberg reported the tariffs could go into effect very soon. In the last round of tariffs, only five products were removed from the original list of 284 goods.

Here is what some big multinationals and small businesses have to say about the tariffs.

(David Foster/ Yahoo Finance)

Apple

Caught in the escalated trade tension between Washington and Beijing, Apple (AAPL) spoke out to oppose the tariffs, which cover a wide range of Apple products, from Apple Watch, Air Pods to Apple adapters, cables and chargers. In the comment, the worlds most valuable publicly traded company emphasizes its the largest U.S. corporate taxpayer to the U.S. Treasury, and warns the imposition of tariffs could result in lower U.S. growth and competitiveness and higher prices for U.S. consumers.

Because all tariffs ultimately show up as a tax on U.S. consumers, they will increase the cost of Apple products that our customers have come to rely on in their daily lives, the company said in the comment filed on Sept. 5.

President Trump, who recently dined with Apple CEO Tim Cook, reacted to Apples comment by urging them to make products in the U.S., instead of China.

Story continues

Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China  but there is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now. Exciting! #MAGA  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2018

Its worth noting that Apples major manufacturer Foxconn broke ground on its plant in Wisconsin this June. While the Trump administration is making final touches on tariffs on the $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, Apple is scheduled to unveil the next version of iPhone on Sept. 12. Apple stock slipped 0.8% at market close Friday.

Samsonite

Luggage behemoth Samsonite  whose subsidiary brands include Tumi, American Tourister, Hartmann, High Sierra, Gregory, Lipault, Speck and eBags  sources more than 80% of its products from China. In an industry heavily dependent on imports, it already faces high duties and would have to pass additional costs from tariffs on to customers.

Over 99% of the bags and travel goods sold in the U.S. market today are imported. These products are not made in the U.S. There is no reason to impose a tariff on a good that is not made here, will not be made here and cannot be made here for several years due to the lack of a supply chain for all the necessary components parts, Samsonite said in a comment filed to USTR. The only impact this tariff will have is on the consumer.

The luggage giant Samsonite sources 80% of products from China. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Whats more, its not feasible for the company to shift production to another country because it would take years to identify a supplier of the quality and quantity we are currently importing, the company wrote. Our products are not high-technology goods with inherent intellectual property vulnerabilities and we are limited in the countries where we can source our products. Although we have explored sourcing from other countries, there are few viable alternatives available due to the large capacity production and quality available in China. In addition, in order to shift production, it would take years to identify a supplier of the quality and quantity we are currently importing, the company wrote.

Vera Bradley

Subject to the same category of tariffs as Samsonite, Vera Bradley (VRA), the Indiana-based backpack maker said imposing tariffs could harm its improving business and erase all of its savings from the tax reform bill. Meanwhile, it has been making efforts to reduce its dependence on China. Between 2014 and 2019, Vera Bradley expects to lower its China-based production from 95% to under 50%.

But the company said it doesnt have enough time to react to the looming tariffs. Our supply chain cannot react quickly and the increase in tariff will have a material negative affect on our operating results or be passed on to our customers, wrote Vera Bradley in a comment.

Rebecca Minkoff

Handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff has testified testify at hearings before the United States trade representative.

Fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff submitted a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to testify regarding the proposed tariffs, noting that these duties would have unintended consequences by opening the field for trademark squatters in China.

While we agree with  and are grateful for  the administrations efforts to change unfair trade practices as they relate to intellectual property, we believe that tariffs are a suboptimal approach in our industry, Minkoff wrote. Placing tariffs on products like ours (in particular handbags) that are not at risk for intellectual property theft in manufacturing, are not related the the China 2025 plan, will only ennoble the bad actors in the Chinese economy who pose a genuine threat to our business via bath faith registrations of our recognized trademarks.

The Honest Company

Jessica Albas the Honest Company says the tariffs on baby wipes will increase its costs.

The Honest Company, the household products startup founded by actress Jessica Alba, said that 14% of its total sales come from baby wipes and tariffs would crush its business.

Increases in Honests product costs by as much as 25% from the proposed tariff would impede Honests ability to competitively market and price its baby wipes in an industry dominated by large, established companies, the company wrote in a letter. As a not-yet-profitable, start-up company, Honest would be unable to efficiently take on the costs of additional duties that its larger, more established competitors are more easily able to absorb. The proposed modification would also require Honest to increase its prices, potentially reducing the availability of core baby necessities in the U.S., thereby negatively impacting U.S. consumers.

Trek Bicycle Corporation

Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle Corporation, one of the largest in the U.S. with nearly $500 million in domestic sales, estimates that it would pay an additional $30 million in tariffs if the 25% rate is approved.

Trek will be forced to pass these costs on to the consumer, raising prices on adult bicycles, kids bicycles, components, and key bicycle-safety equipment like helmets, the company wrote.

Furniture and bedding

Trumps tariffs on China not only target equipment used by hobbyists, but also household items, including furnishings and home decor.

For instance, more than 80% of the worlds feather and down filling used in pillows and comforters comes from China, according to American Down and Feather Council.

Tariffs on feather and down filling materials hurt American manufacturers of pillows and comforters, and affect THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN JOBS, Royal Slide Sales Co., a zipper seller in Garfield, N.J., wrote. At the same time, because there are no tariffs on pre-filled, made-in-CHINA pillows and comforters, this new tariff would help [CHINESE] pillow and comforter factories be more competitive with their finished products.

The Dump, a furniture outlet operated by Haynes Furniture, even used potential tariffs as a promotional tool in its commercials aired in August, urging customers to buy before the 25% tariffs come into effect. StyleCraft Home Collection, a home goods store in Southaven, Mississippi, said it has purchased in China for the past 35 years.

The products are only available from China and are created by highly skilled artisans who have decades of experience, Ron Armstrong, executive vice president of StyleCraft wrote. There is no way to build the products in the USA as the cost of labor, facilities and EPA restrictions wouldnt allow it as the costs would be too prohibitive and would take decades to implement.

Ning He, the CEO of Blue Ridge Home Fashions, echoed that sentiment, adding that the 25% tariff would have a devastating effect on business.

Something like decorative backsplash tiles might also be hurt by tariffs, according to Tao Wu, the founder of Houston, Texas-based WS Tiles.

If tariffs are imposed on our industry, consumers will be given less choice to decorate and renovate their homes, said Wu. As well as this, some customers need affordable access to our products. Using our home city as an example, Houston is a victim of regular flooding due to hurricanes and our low sea level. Many consumers in the city prefer to install porcelain floor tiles because if their home is flooded, they wont need to replace the floor every time (carpets and wooden flooring always need replacing after water damage). Tariffs would be giving consumers a horrible choice between paying an additional 25% to help flood-proof their home, or install a cheaper wood or carpet solution that could be a ticking financial time-bomb.

The United Dance Merchants of America

Your kids dancing costumes may see a price hike, warns The United Dance Merchants of America (UDMA). The group said tariffs would result in more expensive costumes and dancewear, making it hard for many families to participate in the recreational activity.

Dance is an expensive commitment for a family. Studio fees, costumes, travel, competition fees are a significant use of family discretionary income, the UDMA wrote. As prices rise, lower income families will not be able to afford to have their child(ren) participate in dance.

Small businesses take a hit

Small businesses decry tariffs, which could shut their mom-and-pop stores down. (Photo Credit/CNBC)

While big multinationals worry the proposed tariffs may eat into their bottom lines, to many mom and pop businesses, it has become a matter of survival. More than 50 quilt shop owners across the country have spoken out against the extra duty on imported cotton and fabric, saying it could be the last straw to push them out of business.

If tariffs on cotton fabric go into effect, I will be out of business. My patrons cannot afford expensive fabric for their hobbies, wrote Karen Bates, who runs Sew Creative, a quilt shop in Ashland, Oregon.

In small towns, small businesses are the key supporters of the local community. In Seymour, Connecticut, the Yankee Quilter shop warns the tariffs could drastically increase the costs of goods and push the woman-owned small business to shut down, a loss for the local community.

This is not just about the business, but employees mortgages that this business helps support, the community it builds when like-minded people gather, said the Yankee Quilter shop. The crafting industry is in jeopardy of disappearing with these tariffs.

Jerry Proulx, who runs The Caners Choice, a furniture restoration service in South Burlington, Vermont, voiced his concerns after his supplier of rattan warned him that there are plans to impose tariffs on its products, which are made in China.

I am one of those Americans who have faithfully paid their taxes every year. I work hard for my money and make an OK living  not wealthy by any means but enjoy my craft as an antique restorer, specifically chairs, Proulx wrote. Any imposed tariffs will definitely affect my bottom line and could likely drive me out of business altogether. I am just one of many furniture repairers out there  mom and pop businesses trying to make a living.

How will the tariffs impact your business and life? Write to Krystal Hu via krystalh@yahoofinance.com or follow her on Twitter. Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to laroche@oath.com.

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The USD/CAD pair failed to capitalize on the weekly bullish gap and was now seen consolidating in a range, just above mid-1.3000s. The pair broke to the upside last Friday and reached a fresh weekly high at 1.3087. Price was holding near the highs, with a bullish tone, consolidating important daily gains. From the weekly low the pair raised almost 200 pips.

The move to the upside followed comments from Canadian negotiator Freeland who said were not there yet regarding the trade deal with the US and Mexico. PM Trudeau added that a no deal on NAFTA was better than a bad one. Also, the pair moved higher on the back of a stronger US dollar which gained momentum amid risk aversion market sentiment. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to exclude Canada from a new NAFTA agreement after the recent US-Canada trade negotiations ended without any agreement. Trump also warned the Congress not to interfere with these negotiations or he would simply terminate the trilateral NAFTA pact altogether.

Exit From NAFTA Looks Highly Likely For Canada

While Canadian Prime minister is ready for NAFTA exit instead of agreeing to a bad deal, Loonie struggles to come to terms on NAFTA proceedings which kept weighing on the Canadian Dollar at the start of a new trading week. The pair touched an intraday high level of 1.3077, albeit struggled to gain any follow-through traction despite a combination of supporting factors. A modest US Dollar uptick, coupled with a mildly negative tone around crude oil prices, which tend to undermine demand for the commodity-linked currency  Loonie, did little to inspire the bulls and eventually led to a subdued/range-bounce price action through the early European session earlier today.

{alt}

Moreover, traders also seemed reluctant to place any aggressive bets amid holiday-thinned liquidity conditions on the back of a bank holiday, both in the US and Canada. Moving ahead, this weeks important macro releases scheduled at the beginning of a new month, including the keenly watched US non-farm payrolls data, and the latest BoC monetary policy update on Wednesday will play a key role in determining the pairs next leg of directional move.

Story continues

Despite last weeks strong up-move, the pair remains within a short-term descending trend-channel held over the past two months or so. Hence, it would be prudent to wait for a decisive move beyond the channel resistance, currently near the 1.3100 handles, before placing any major bets in Greenbacks favor. On the flip side, a slide back below the key 1.30 psychological mark would reinforce the trend-channel and turn the pair vulnerable to head back towards challenging the 1.2900 handle support.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) finalizes a reimbursement agreement with Australian government, which will improve the access to the drug.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRTX announced that an agreement has been finalized with the Australian Government, which will allow reimbursement on cystic fibrosis (CF) drug, Orkambi (lumacaftor + ivacaftor) in the country. This follows the positive recommendation from Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) last month. Per the agreement, the drug will be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) starting Oct 1, 2018.

Orkambi is approved for treating CF patients aged six years and above with two copies of the F508del mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene in the country. We remind investors that this is the most common form of mutation in CF patients. There are approximately 1,300 patients in Australia who are eligible for treatment with Orkambi. The drug may see faster acceptance as it will improve the access to the drug, which in turn will drive sales.

Vertex is pursuing similar agreements in several European countries, following the first approval of the drug in the European Union in 2015. The company has successfully signed agreements in some countries including Germany, Ireland, Sweden and Italy. However, it is also facing resistance in some countries including the United Kingdom and France due to its high listing price, which has resulted in limited revenues from these countries.

The stock has gained 23% so far this year against the 1.7% decrease registered by the industry.

Orkambi is the major product revenue generator for Vertex, bringing in $665.3 million in sales in the first half of 2018. The company has two other CF drugs  Kalydeco (ivacaftor) and Symdeko  in its portfolio. We remind investors that, Symdeko is a combination of tezacaftor and ivacaftor, which was launched in the United States in February for treating CF patients. The drug has shown strong uptake so far and is under review in Europe.

Story continues

The company has strong prospects as all the three drugs are performing well. According to the company, about 34,000 people worldwide are eligible for treatment with Vertexs CF medicines and it expects to consistently expand the number of eligible patients in 2018.

Vertex also has a strong CF pipeline which includes triple combination treatments for CF, which are expected to treat almost 90% of the global CF patients, if approved.

Meanwhile, in late June, Galapagos NVs GLPG lower-than-expected top-line results in a phase II study on its CF candidate, GLPG2737, turned out to be a positive for Vertex. Moreover, Galapagos collaboration partner, AbbVie ABBV opted out of the development of a triple combination regimen for CF patients. Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. CRBP is developing a CF candidate, lenabasum, in a mid-stage study.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Price

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Price | Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Quote

Zacks Rank

Vertex currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Zacks Investment ResearchSTORIES YOU MIGHT LIKEA Dutch judge has ordered a 19-year-old Afghan man held for a further two weeks on suspicion of stabbing two U.S. citizens at Amsterdam's main train station in a suspected terrorist attack.



Following a behind-closed-doors hearing, the judge extended the suspect's custody because of fears he may flee, repeat the crime, or violate the law, an Amsterdam court said on September 3.



The statement did not release further details of the case.



Two American tourists were seriously injured on August 31 when the suspect, identified only as Jawed S., attacked people with a knife in the crowded train station near Amsterdams city center.

Police at the station quickly shot the man in the lower body. He was taken to the hospital, as were the two injured men.

Thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the train station after the attack. The site is a major hub for international tourists visiting Amsterdam.

"Following an initial statement by the suspect it has emerged that the man had a terrorist motive," Amsterdam city hall said after police questioned the suspect.

The authorities said Jawed S. had a German residency permit and that German police raided his apartment on September 2. Police did not reveal the location of the residence.

German Interior Ministry spokesman Harald Neymanns on September 3 said the suspect was registered as an asylum seeker in Germany.

Neymanns also said that German police had no information that he was considered a threat to security.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, and Channel News AsiaFor nearly 15 years, Washington showered aid dollars and praise on Islamabad to encourage it to abandon support for hard-line Islamist militant groups in general and the Afghan Taliban in particular.

But a tough approach involving ceasing aid to Pakistan and publicly questioning its counterterror efforts is making little headway in changing Islamabads approach to its quarter-century of support for Afghan insurgents.

As a new Pakistani civilian administration settles in, Islamabad is unlikely to change course on the Afghan Taliban despite Washingtons visible efforts to prompt a change of perspective in Islamabad by denying aid and publicly urging it to move against militants.

With U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and General Joseph Dunford, the top U.S. military officer, scheduled to visit Islamabad on September 5, the two countries still seem miles apart.

Ayaz Wazir, a former Pakistani diplomat, says relations between Washington and Islamabad are overshadowed by the issue of how to deal with militants operating out of Pakistan, particularly those active in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan played a major role in worsening our relations with Washington, and it will continue to do so if we fail to address their [U.S.] concerns, he told Pakistans private Capital TV. I think we should stop looking at who is accusing us of harboring militants, but if there are militants here we should do something about them.

Ahead of Pompeos visit, the U.S. military canceled $300 million in aid to Pakistan because of a perceived lack of action against militants. This year, Washington has revoked nearly $800 million in payments to Islamabad from the so-called Coalition Support Funds (CSF).

Washington has also pushed for Pakistans inclusion on a global money-laundering watchdog list and taken other steps to push Islamabad to ramp up its counterterrorism efforts after U.S. President Donald Trump accused Islamabad of harboring the terrorists his countrys forces are fighting in Afghanistan.

We have made decisions on curbing assistance and putting constraints on our relationship with Pakistan as a means to try to persuade them to adopt that course and use their influence on the Taliban, Randall G. Schriver, assistant U.S. secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told a think tank audience in Washington on August 29.

Efforts to involve Islamabad in helping Kabul reach a peace settlement with the Talban suffered a major blow after Afghan and U.S. officials pointed fingers at Pakistan following a botched Taliban attempt to overrun the strategic southeastern Afghan city of Ghazni last month.

The Taliban enjoy freedom of action there [in Pakistan]; they occasionally come from there, and casualties are taken back there. These are things we are concerned about, General John Nicholson, commander of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission, told journalists on August 23.

In Islamabads corridors of power, however, everything still seems to be up for discussion.

We will try to inform them [U.S. officials] of the performance and progress Pakistan has made by incurring financial losses and casualties, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told BBCs Urdu service. We think that this contact will provide us an opportunity to understand each other.

For years, Islamabad has urged Washington and its NATO allies to compare their combined casualties to its losses in the war against terrorism while urging against scapegoating Pakistan for their failures in Afghanistan.

While Pakistan might have lost more soldiers since 2004, nothing explains its longstanding relations with Taliban leaders, most of whom continue to shelter on Pakistani soil.

In March 2016, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's adviser for foreign affairs, acknowledged that Islamabad has some influence over them [Taliban] because their leadership is in Pakistan and they get some medical facilities. Their families are here."

Two months later, a U.S. drone strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur in the southwestern province of Balochistan. He was apparently targeted as he returned to his Pakistani hideout after visiting Iran in May 2016.

Sherry Rehman, a former Pakistani envoy in Washington, however, argues that Pakistan can still leverage Washingtons dependence on Pakistani routes for to supplying its forces in Afghanistan.

They do not have a northern [supply] route to [U.S. forces in] Afghanistan, she told Pakistans Geo TV. They need us for evacuation or whatever presence they want to keep in Afghanistan. They still need GLOCs [ground lines of communications]. The political settlement they are seeking in Afghanistan cannot be achieved without us [Pakistan].

In Washington, few seem ready to listen to such arguments since Trump accused Islamabad of giving safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan in January.

The "United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," he wrote on Twitter.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense Randall Shriver said Washington would like Islamabad to help bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table so that they can negotiate a peace deal with Afghan President Ashraf Ghanis national unity government.

Our approach of cutting assistance and pressuring Pakistan on their relationship with the Taliban will be sustained, he said.We like to think we control our bodies, but the opposite is often true. Such is the case with circadian desynchrony, commonly known as jet lag.

Exhaustion. Gastrointestinal discomfort. Headaches. Difficulty concentrating. Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. These common jet-lag symptoms can put a damper on a dream vacation or ambitious business trip  unless you figure out how to game your own system.

Senior experimental psychologist John Caldwell has spent most of his career researching the effects of sleep deprivation and sleep restriction, while also studying countermeasures that sleep-deprived people can use to function better. Much of his research was done in the military aviation community, and it helped fuel insights for the book Fatigue in Aviation: A Guide to Staying Awake at the Stick, which he co-wrote with J. Lynn Caldwell.

While our bodies can adjust to about one time zone change per day, jet lag sets in when we cross three or more of them, because it wreaks havoc on our circadian rhythms, Caldwell says. Thats a fairly new phenomenon, historically speaking.

People now can fly from New York to Paris in nine, 10 hours, whereas in 1923 you did it on a ship, and it took you six days to get over to Europe, Caldwell says. We just havent evolved to the point where we can rapidly change those rhythms, because its a relatively recent thing.

While you cant banish the effects of jet lag, scientists and physicians agree you can adjust to a new time zone more quickly. Heres how:

 Work to align your sleep schedule with your destination. Because your body can naturally adjust to about only one time-zone change per day, youll want to manually adjust your schedule. That means changing your bedtime to be better mesh with your destination.

Ranit Mishori, a family medicine professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, frequently flies to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. To be ready to hit the ground running when she arrives, she starts adjusting her bedtime two to five days in advance to match the local time there. That means going to bed earlier when going east and waking up much earlier, she says. When I come back to the U.S., I do the same but in reverse.

 Time your light exposure. Circadian rhythms are influenced by sunlight. While travel may make those rhythms hurly-burly, you can get them on track with exposure to or avoidance of light, says Pradeep Bollu, associate director of the University of Missouri Health Care Sleep Disorders Center. When traveling east, your biological clock will be behind. Melatonin and avoiding bright light in the evening can help with advancing our biological clock, he says. Similarly, bright light exposure after waking up also will help advance our biological clock to suit the new time zone. When traveling westward, he adds, the biological clock is ahead of the latest time zone. He suggests gravitating toward bright light in the evening and exercising to stay awake later and sleep longer.

An online calculator, such as Jetlagrooster.com, can help with a plan to avoid jet lag, sharing the ideal time to sleep and the ideal time for light.

 Pack the melatonin. A number of physicians suggested taking melatonin, a hormone that is produced naturally in the body and helps you sleep. Taking a very small dose helps to recalibrate its release so that it is in sync with the time zone of your destination, says Kern Singh, a spine surgeon in Chicago with Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush. Singh says he takes 5 milligrams of melatonin on the plane and again when he lands.

I time the dosing depending upon the time zone of my destination. For example, if I am leaving for Europe and its 3 p.m. in Chicago but its 9 p.m. in London, I take the melatonin right away so I fall asleep at the appropriate time of where I am traveling to, he says.

 Turn your wine into water. Having a glass of wine or two on the plane could hamper your sleep, which could worsen jet lag, says Quay Snyder, president and CEO of the Aviation Medicine Advisory Service of Centennial, who advises pilots on staying in top condition in the air.

It definitely has a sedating effect as far as getting someone to sleep, but it destroys their rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, so their actual mental recovery is reduced, he says. Instead, be sure to drink plenty of water so you stay hydrated while traveling.

 Seek medicinal help. You can ask your doctor for some, if so inclined. Bruce Stephen Rashbaum, owner and medical director of Capital Center for Travel and Tropical Medicine in Washington, D.C., considers prednisone, a prescription corticosteroid, to be the most effective tool for jet-lag recovery. He tells patients to take it when they land, which is typically early in the morning, and again in the late afternoon and the next day.

Our bodies have a gland called the adrenal, which releases a prednisone equivalent around 5 a.m. and 5 p.m., he says. Adding a little extra prednisone mimics what the adrenal gland would do on its own and can reset the bodys clock. It is this simple ritual that works nearly every time.Tips for choosing a reliable home contractor:

Confirm the contractor is licensed with the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department by visiting pprbd.org/Search/Contractor. Look for contractors around Colorado Springs that have had an active license for several years. If a contractor asks you to pull a permit for your roof repairs, its a red flag that they do are not properly licensed to obtain the permit themselves.

Check to make sure the contractor is registered to conduct business in Colorado, by visiting the Secretary of States Office website at sos.state.co.us/biz/.

Get estimates from more than one contractor. Dont let a contractor pressure you into signing right away  especially if a contract has blanks that a contractor can fill in later.

Look for a contractor that is consistently registered at the same permanent address and has insurance. Ask to see the companys certificates of insurance and verify with the insurer that the certificate is valid.

Contact the Better Business Bureau to check for complaints filed against any contractors you are considering hiring. Visit the local BBB website at bbb.org/southern-colorado.

Ask a contractor for references in your area and contact them.

Before paying for roof repairs or signing a contract, contact your insurance company and arrange to have an authorized adjuster come to your home.

Dont pay for a job in full or sign a completion contract until all the work is done.

What homeowners should know:

Contractors can prepare an estimate for you, discuss that estimate with you and answer an insurance companys questions about that estimate. They cannot negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf.

A law passed in 2012 makes it illegal for scammers to pay, waive, or rebate a homeowners deductible  which companies will sometimes do by offering gift cards, other perks or payments in exchange for a homeowner placing a sign in their yard.

The Colorado Roofing Association maintains a list of roofing contractors that are properly insured and licensed, have passed a nationally recognized exam related to roof repairs, and have committed to following a code of ethics. Visit the associations website at coloradoroofing.org.

A written contract must include the following elements: the approximate dates and cost of service, the contractors contact information, information about the contractors surety and liability coverage insurer and information about the consumers right to rescind the contract within 72 hours if their insurance company denies the claim. The document must also include a statement, in bold-type, saying that the roofing contractor shall hold in trust any payment from the property owner until the roofing contractor has delivered roofing materials at the residential property site or has performed a majority of the roofing work on the residential property.

Following hailstorms, residents should check for damaged mechanical vents that connect gas-fired appliances, such as furnaces and water heaters, to roofs. If the vents are broken, disconnected, or not allowing air to flow freely, carbon monoxide can become trapped in a home. Visit pprbd.org/Information/Disasters for more information.

What homeowners can do if they think theyve been a victim of a scam:

File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Call local police if you believe fraud has been committed.

File a complaint with the Colorado Attorney Generals Office by visiting coag.gov/file-complaint.

Sources: Colorado Attorney Generals Office, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies Division of Insurance, Colorado Roofing Association, Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, Better Business BureauVeloy and Michael Montano, who have fallen victim to two roofing scams in the past five years, say they feel robbed of more than just their money.

One of those botched jobs left carbon monoxide steadily leaking into their home for months. The leak led to chemical poisoning thats unraveled some of Michaels basic cognitive abilities and left him unable to work, according to a lawsuit the couple filed in 2015 against the now-defunct roofing company that did the repairs.

These days, Michaels movements are slow and his speech is soft. He no longer can drive, enjoy 3- to 5-mile runs several times a week, or play the guitar while singing along with Veloy, whom he met while performing in a band when they were young.

I did have an active life. And Id love to have it back, he said.

The Montanos, Security-Widefield residents who are in their 70s, are among the many households that have been targeted by storm chasers  companies that invade an area after extreme hailstorms and weather events. Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region has been battered by several such storms this summer.

The notorious storm chasers, whose crews often are unlicensed and unqualified, show up at customers doors to pressure them into signing a contract or lure them to strip mall offices with yard signs advertising the best deal in town. But once the contractors get the signatures theyre looking for, they often skip town without fulfilling their promises.

After the bill has been paid, little can be done aside from initiating costly civil litigation.

Homeowners  honestly, theyre so trusting. Theyll sign a contract without even looking. said Roger Lovell, building official at the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, which licenses roofers. And thats where a lot of the problems start.

To get a roof repair license, which can take up to five weeks, a company must provide references and undergo a background check. Sometimes, out-of-state companies will try to get away with doing the work without the proper license or a permit, or by asking a homeowner to pull the permit for the repairs, Lovell said.

The system has some safeguards. The Regional Building Departments licensing committee may impose penalties on any licensed contractor thats doing work without a permit, Lovell said. And, for each permit that a company gets using its license, the contractor must request and pass a follow-up inspection from the building department to be eligible for an annual license renewal.

However, if the company does not plan to stick around, renewing its license likely isnt a concern, he said.

My best advice is dont sign a contract on the spot without doing due diligence, without checking to ensure that the contractor is indeed licensed, Lovell said.

Checking to ensure that a company is licensed by the Regional Building Department, however, isnt always enough. Out-of-state companies sometimes will use small, local companies as shells and offer them money to use their license to work in the area, said Scott Riopelle, president and owner of Denver-based Interstate Roofing, which has been in business for more than two decades.

Riopelle recommended looking for a local company thats had an active license and worked under the same name and at the same location for several years.

Many roofing companies go out of business within two to four years  well short of the lifespan pledged in warranties they offer to customers, he said.

And a companys websites can be deceiving, Riopelle said.

The internet is changing the way things are done, he said. The more money you have, the bigger you can look online. The more money you have, the more recognition you get from Google.

After her roof started leaking in 2013, Veloy Montano said, she spoke with a representative of the company because she saw the contractor doing a job for the hotel where she was employed. The contractor told her money was needed up front to purchase supplies, she said.

The Montanos paid the company more than $8,000 in September 2013, court records show.

While the work was being completed, the exhaust system on the Montanos water heater was disconnected, and colorless, odorless gas began seeping into their home on Leta Drive, according to the lawsuit.

Because the company did not obtain a permit for the work from the Regional Building Department, as pledged in its contract, the repairs werent subject to an inspection afterward, the lawsuit states.

The leaks werent discovered until Colorado Springs Utilities and Security Fire Department visited their home the following March, court records show.

By then, the damage was done. Michael had developed intense headaches, coupled with nausea, hallucinations, and tremors that resembled Parkinsons disease. He would plead for help on his knees, said his wife, who often resorted to prayer when doctors werent able to give her answers.

I took him to I dont know how many doctors, emergency rooms, hospital after hospital, Veloy said, adding that it was a physicians assistant who eventually pinpointed carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause.

The Gazette was unable to confirm the diagnosis with a medical professional.

As of early 2016, Michael had racked up medical bills totaling nearly $50,000 from doctors, neurology specialists, laboratories and other practitioners, according to court documents.

The couple settled with the company in 2016, court records show. The details of that settlement are confidential.

Less than two years ago, another company  which also has since gone out of business  knocked on their door after a hailstorm, promising long-lasting repairs. They were, once again, taken advantage of by a contractor who did not follow through with what it pledged in its contract, the couple said.

Now, the Montanos and their three chihuahuas are staying at an area hotel and a Denver-based company  finally, one they are happy with  is replacing the roof on their home.

Many of Michaels symptoms have eased with time, and his condition has improved with speech and physical therapy twice a week, his wife said.

They hope to return to work one day.FILE - In this March 10, 2014 file photo, Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips decorates a cake inside his store, in Lakewood, Colo. Phillips a suburban Denver baker who wouldnt make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple cannot cite his religious beliefs in refusing them service because it would lead to discrimination, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)Children and parents at Xinshashui Kindergarten in Shenzhen, China were recently greeted on the first day of the new school year by -- at least in my opinion -- a very tasteful pole dancing performance. I don't know what the big deal is, nobody is even paying attention except the color guard, and they're probably only standing there because they have to be. Man, my kindergarten sucked, I demand a redo. "You are on the grade level." Whatever, mom!

Video footage of the bizarre arrangement on Monday shows a woman in skimpy clothing and high platform shoes spinning around a pole on a small stage as confused three- to six-year-olds looked on.

Horrified parents posted clips of the pole dance on social media, with many saying that they're now trying to withdraw their children from the school and get their tuition back. The school in question...has issued an apology, citing that the performance was well-intentioned. Lai Rong, the principal of the pre-school in the city's Bao'an District, said in the apology that the school was trying to 'lighten up the atmosphere' during the first day of school.

Hey -- it happens. What sounds like a good idea in the beginning turns out to be, at least in a lot of other peoples' opinions, a bad one. We've all been there. Still, it's not like they're teaching pole dancing at the school. Right? Wait -- tell me they aren't teaching pole dancing at the school. "They aren't." Oh thank heavens. Still, I guess if there's on lesson we can all take away from this it's that pole dancing performances are probably best left to PTA night.

Keep going for the video while I speculate how the dancer felt about all this. Nobody ever asked her opinion.

Thanks again to Closet Nerd, who agrees you goofed if you just dropped your kids off at school that morning instead of coming inside.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- East Africa Metals Inc. (TSX-V: EAM) (East Africa Metals or the Company) is pleased to announce it has received Draft Model Agreements (DMAs) from the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas (the Ministry) for the Companys Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Projects, located in the Tigray National Regional State of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Ethiopia).



The delivery of the DMAs indicates the Ministry has approved the permit application and advanced the permitting process to the next stage. The DMAs set out the rights and obligations of both parties with respect to the development and operation of the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Gold Projects and, once executed, will result in the issuance of the Mining License for each project.

This is another important milestone for East Africa Metals and our efforts to establish mining operations in Ethiopia, said Andrew Lee Smith, East Africa Metals CEO. The issuance of the DMAs for the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Projects by the Ministry represents an important permitting milestone and the Company looks forward to further discussions with the Ethiopian government to conclude the process. Once issued, the Company will have three permitted mining projects within a 15-kilometre area of influence.

The Company is currently reviewing the DMAs and expects to respond to the Ministry after compiling an assessment of the documents. In anticipation of the pending development program, the Company is currently engaged in Project Financing discussions with potential financiers and development partners.

Mato Bula Gold Copper Project (see news release dated April 30, 2018) :

Post-tax NPV of US$56.6M for base case using US$1,325 /oz Au, US$3.00/lb copper and US$17.00/oz silver, at an 8% discount rate.

Payback of pre-production capital in 3 years from start of production.

C1 cash operating cost of US$412/oz Au including all on-site costs and AISC cost of US$620/oz Au calculated with all on-site and off-site costs, TCRC charges, sustaining costs and net of by-product credits.

Average annual metal production of approximately 34,750 ozs gold, 1.67 million pounds copper and 4,780 ozs silver.

Pre-production capital cost of US$54.2M million including contingency of 38% on direct costs and 26% on total of direct and indirect costs.

Open pit mining utilizing drill blast, trucks and shovels, waste stripping ratio of 9/1.

Processing rate of 1,400 t/day using conventional crush/grind comminution, gravity concentration and flotation to produce a copper-gold concentrate. In addition a gold bearing pyrite concentrate will be produced and treated off-site by Carbon in Leach (CIL) technology.

Life-of-mine metal recoveries of 86.4% for gold, 87.4% for copper, and 50% for silver.

Concentrate grades average approximately 132 g/t gold, 25.5% copper and 28 g/t silver.

Minimum 8-year mine life, based on proposed open pit depth of 190 metres.

Significant potential exists to extend mine life as drilling has identified mineralization along strike and to 370 metres down dip.

Da Tambuk Gold Project (see news release dated April 30, 2018):

Post-tax NPV of US$13.0 M and IRR of 28.6% for base case using US$1,325 /oz Au and US$17.00 /oz silver, at 8% discount rate.

Payback of pre-production capital in 1.9 years from start of production.

C1 cash operating cost of US$420/oz Au including all on-site costs and AISC cost of US$642/oz Au calculated with all on-site and off-site costs, TCRC charges, sustaining costs and net of by-product credits.

Average metal production of approximately 24,000 ozs gold per year and 6,000 ozs silver per year.

Pre-production capital cost of approximately US$34.1 M including contingency of 36% on direct costs and 26% total of direct and indirect costs.

Underground trackless mining utilizing ramp access, cut and fill and open stope mining.

Processing rate of 550 tonnes per day using crush/grind comminution, gravity concentration and CIL technology.

Average life-of-mine metal recoveries of 93% for gold and 50% for silver.

Minimum 4-year mine life based on mining plan depth to 200 metres below surface.

Excellent potential to extend mine life as drilling has intersected significant mineralization to 260 metres down dip.

More information on the Company can be viewed at the Companys website: www.eastafricametals.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Andrew Lee Smith, P.Geo., CEO

For further information contact:

Nick Watters, Business Development

Telephone: +1 (604) 488-0822

Email: investors@eastafricametals.com

Website: www.eastafricametals.com



Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "forecast", "project", "budget", "schedule", "may", "will", "could", "might", "should" or variations of such words or similar words or expressions. Forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company as at the date of such information and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: early exploration; the ability of the Company to locate financing for the projects; mineral exploration and development; metal and mineral prices; demand for the metals and minerals; availability of capital; accuracy of the Company's projections and estimates, including the initial mineral resource for the Adyabo, Harvest and Magambazi Projects; timely approvals of mining licence/permit applications; timely approvals of exploration licence extensions applications; interest and exchange rates; competition; stock price fluctuations; availability of drilling equipment and access; actual results of current exploration activities; government regulation; political or economic developments; foreign taxation risks; environmental risks; insurance risks; capital expenditures; operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities; personnel relations; the speculative nature of strategic metal exploration and development including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves; contests over title to properties and/or projects; and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, as well as those risk factors set out in the Companys managements discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2017 and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and the Companys listing application dated July 8, 2013. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including but not limited to: Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Projects estimated project economics; the ability to carry on exploration and development activities; the timely receipt of any required approvals; the ability to obtain qualified personnel, equipment and services in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the ability to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner; and the regulatory framework regarding environmental matters, the renewal or extension of exploration licences, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The Company does not update or revise forward looking information even if new information becomes available unless legislation requires the Company do so. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.GUELPH, Ontario, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Fourth Pig co-operative, one of the most innovative sustainable construction companies in Ontario, is improving the environment for our province and those living and working in their buildings.



The simple fact is that conventional buildings are a climate change catastrophe. If we dont change the way we make them, then we will not meet the greenhouse gas targets we need to address climate change, says Matt Adams, one of the co-operatives founders and director of operations and education.

Set up as a worker co-operative - a business owned and operated by its members  the Fourth Pig uses ecologically sustainable construction materials to create healthy buildings and communities to address climate change in the GTA, the Golden Horseshoe and the Muskoka region.

And the Fourth Pig is more than a green construction company. Choosing to be a co-operative means the business has made a commitment to invest in their community. They provide public education by hosting talks on green building and hands-on skill-building workshops. They also raise awareness of the importance of green buildings in our communities with our public policy makers.

Sustainable building means a cleaner environment, more efficient energy generation and use, more effective use of building materials, and healthier living spaces, says Adams. The result is buildings that are good for the planet and good for your health.

The Fourth Pigs push for a more collective approach to construction in Ontario is reflective of their unique business model, which is inherently co-operative, sustainable and democratic. Its a model that drives their mission and their approach to building as well.

Learn more about The Fourth Pig Worker Co-operative online at https://www.fourthpig.org/ or by contacting them at 416-778-5223, or at info@fourthpig.org .

ABOUT THE ONTARIO CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION (OCA)

Co-operatives are a different kind of business model that are driven by people, planet and profit. OCA supports, develops, educates and advocates for Ontarios 1,500+ co-operative businesses. We exist to strengthen and unite the co-operative movement and we believe that co-operatives are the solution to creating stronger communities, which help to build a better world.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Babu Owino has written to President Uhuru Kenyatta asking him to assent to the Finance Bill 2018 and cushion Kenyans against difficult times expected from the new fuel levy.

In an open letter to the Head of State on Monday, the Embakasi East lawmaker urged the government to find alternative ways of reducing public expenditure and wastage instead of increasing the tax burden on the common mwananchi.

According to Owino, the 16% VAT on fuel effected by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich is illegal because Parliament voted to amend the Finance Bill and suspend its implementation.

Read Babu Owino open letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta below.

**************************************

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA ON SOARING PUBLIC DEBT & ITS EFFECT ON ORDINARY WANANCHI

Your Excellency,

I recall vividly that just over a month ago you made the prudent decision to suspend new projects until old projects are completed. While some circles were critical of this decision, as a young Parliamentarian, I welcomed it as a move that would instill discipline in the Executive arm of Government while ensuring tax payers money is well spent and accounted for. I also felt that the country had already over extended itself in terms of large capital intensive projects and needed some time to offset existing debt before moving on to new initiatives.

I have since then followed the trajectory of the nations financial management over the past few weeks with consternation. I note that during your visit to the US, it was made public that your government is borrowing the sum equivalent of 450 billion shillings for the construction of a six lane highway from Mombasa to Nairobi. I further note that in your visit to China, your government has taken on a further 380 billion shillings in debt for the construction of Phase 2A of the Standard Gauge Railway from Naivasha to Kisumu. This totals close to a TRILLION shillings in new debt in the span of ten days.

During this period, we have seen the Treasury Secretary, Henry Rotich, purport to implement an illegal tax on the people of Kenya no doubt to finance our growing debt obligations. I do not hesitate to call the tax illegal because Parliament voted to amend the Finance Bill and suspend the implementation of the proposed sixteen percent value added tax on fuel. Parliament is the supreme law making organ of the land as per the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and as such any attempt by the Executive to levy a tax not approved by the August House is both illegal and unconstitutional.

I, therefore, write to you on behalf of the young people of our society struggling on a daily basis to make ends meet. I write to you on behalf of our mothers, stretching themselves to the limit, to ensure their families do not sleep hungry.I write to you on behalf of future generations, to whom we have a deep and solemn responsibility not to burden with a hopeless future. I write to you in regard of the untimely sixteen percent value added tax on fuel proposed by your Treasury Secretary.

Your Excellency, as a young person and as a leader, I pledged to support you in your efforts to unite the nation and build bridges. I further pledged to help you secure your legacy in your final term as President in the spirit of your Handshake with my Party Leader, H. E Raila Odinga and indeed, in the spirit of our own personal handshake within the precincts of Parliament during your state of the nation address. I therefore humbly take this opportunity to plead with you to assent to the Finance (Amendment) Bill 2018 and save our people from the difficult times such a tax promises.

We as Parliament have read the mood of the people and realized that the Bill as initially proposed would portend untold suffering amongst the most vulnerable in our society. Our people are already overburdened with the high cost of living. The introduction of such a tax at this time would only serve to make their lives more unbearable.

I make this request as a father to a fellow father, for the sake of our children and our childrens children, let us seek to find innovative ways to reduce public expenditure and wastage instead of raiding the pockets of ordinary wananchi.

I and the youth of this nation look forward to your positive response on this matter.

Yours faithfully,

Hon. Babu Owino,

MP, Embakasi East Constituency & The Peoples Servant.The Indiana State Board of Animal Health and a number of industry stakeholders are worried about a disease that could have a devastating impact on pork farmers.

Multiple cases of African Swine Fever have been reported in China, but has yet to be found in the United States.

Maria Cooper is the Director of Biodefence and High Consequence Disease Preparedness for the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. She says the highly-contagious disease can come with a variety of symptoms for pigs.

When we make a diagnosis of a foreign animal disease, like African Swine Fever, there will immediately be trade barriers. So, other countries will shut off some of our exports, Cooper says.

African Swine Fever is not harmful to humans, but its highly contagious to pigs and theres no vaccine to prevent it. Pigs can catch the disease through contact with human clothing, in their feed, and even trailers that transport the animals.Indiana is leading efforts to implement 5G technology  internet access that relies on smaller wireless technology. But a proposal from the Federal Communications Commission mirrors a somewhat unpopular move the Indiana General Assembly has already made.

Indiana legislators met at the statehouse Tuesday with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to discuss his proposal for nationwide 5G cellphone technology deployment.

His proposal would build infrastructure for wireless internet access, but Carrs proposal would also bar local governments from prohibiting wireless deployment and set deadlines for municipalities to approve or disapprove applications.

Wireless 5G technology only requires small boxes, but requires more of them, especially in urban areas, because the signals degrade over a much shorter distance. Local officials want the technology, but worry about allowing telecommunication companies to deploy it however, and wherever, they see fit.

Carr insists thats not the case. He says his proposal gives cities the ability to monitor aesthetics.

This federal decision that we would vote on the FCC doesnt green light any particular deployment, Carr says. At the end of the day you still have to go through the local review process.

Two years ago, more than 100 Indiana cities and towns passed emergency legislation which temporarily staved off the loss of local control. A bill passed this year invalidated most of those efforts.

Carr says installing new small transmitter boxes will require providers to invest $275 billion in network infrastructure.

That represents a massive investment in Americas infrastructure, in American jobs; without a penny of new taxes, he says.

The technology will likely be faster in cities than in rural areas where the digital divide is already a challenge, but Carr says the FCC is working to bridge that gap.

The finish line is not the moment we see next gen deployments in New York or San Francisco," Carr says. "Success can only be measured when all Americans, no matter where they live, have a fair shot at fast affordable broadband.

The FCC has a $10 billion fund paid into by telecommunication companies that Carr says will be used to pay for deploying 5G in rural areas.Last May, U.S. President Trump exited the landmark 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal, an agreement reached in Vienna on July 14th, 2015 between Iran, the P5+1, and the European Union that lifted economic sanctions on Iran in return for their limiting their nuclear program.

Almost immediately, the U.S. began reimposing sanctions against Tehran. The first round began in early August, but in November, the most formidable sanction go into effect  those targeting Irans oil exports and the banking sector. Officials say that Washingtons aim is to bring other countries imports of Iranian oil down to zero.

Japans efforts to get a waiver from Washington that would allow it to continue importing oil from Iran appear to have been unsuccessful, according to Jiji Press, who adds that Japanese oil companies are now forced to prepare to suspend Iranian imports and investigate ways in which they can switch to other Middle East producers.

That Japan had requested a waiver was confirmed by a Trade Ministry official, who declined to comment further.

As well, Showa Shell Sekiyu plans to observe a government decision on Iranian oil imports, said a spokesman for the crude wholesaler, but no specifics have been provided. Other wholesalers declined to comment.

Because the country is reliant on outside sources for energy, 80 percent of Japans oil is imported from the Middle East. According to the Japanese government, Saudi Arabia is Japans largest supplier of crude at 39 percent. Iran is Japans sixth largest importer, supplying the country with about 5 percent.

French oil-and-natural-gas company Total has officially left Iran in the face of the U.S. threats, Irans oil minister announced in August.

Irans economy, already troubled before the new U.S. sanctions, sparked a major uprising in December and January. Public discontent and calls for regime change continue, as protests rock the country, putting pressure on President Hassan Rohanis government.

If the U.S. gains the cooperation of its allies to halt imports of Iranian oil, and bring its exports to zero, it will help the Iranian people see their ultimate goal of regime change.Kenyas renowned activist Boniface Mwangi believes Raila Odinga has been compromised by President Uhuru to dance to the Jubilee tune.

In yet another scathing attack on the Opposition leader, Boniface Mwangi claims that Railas time in politics is up and it is time for him to retire. He alleges that Raila is officially in Jubilee after he received a hand cheque from President Uhuru in order to stop resisting.

In the post on Monday, Boniface Mwangi claimed that Raila has ruined the country with his selfish transactional politics which include selling nominations.

Railas selfish, transactional politics has ruined our nation; from selling nominations to destroying those who refuse to bootlick him, wrote Mwangi.

The outspoken government critic further pointed out that people, especially from Railas Luo community, have died while fighting for justice but their leader is shaking hands with killers as if nothing happened.

People have died, especially Luos, fighting for justice, but Raila Odinga shakes hands with the killers and moves on as if nothing happened, said Boni.

Boni now wants the NASA leader to retire honourably and go home to play with his grandkids.

The former Starehe Parliamentary aspirant made his sentiments known on social media, sparking a war of words with Raila Odingas supporters on Twitter.

Read his full statement below.

Mr. Raila Odinga is officially in Jubilee and the tune he plays, moving forward, is the one Uhuru Kenyatta pays for. You can continue following him like fools, or choose another leader. Raila has played his role and he must go home to play with his grandkids. Railas selfish, transactional politics has ruined our nation; from selling nominations to destroying those who refuse to bootlick him.

People have died, especially Luos, fighting for justice, but Raila Odinga shakes hands with the killers and moves on as if nothing happened. Raila should now retire honourably and, failing to do so, might find his base dishonouring him one day.

The peoples president, Raila Odinga, received a handcheque from Kenyas President Uhuru in order to stop resisting and joined Jubilee. Will he accept a second cheque from William Ruto to say those two famous words, Ruto Tosha? Time will tell. Insulting me doesnt change the facts. Thats all.

Ps: One quality that Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and William S. Ruto supporters all share is sycophancy. Instead of addressing issues raised, they call you names. I hope those four are the last tribal kingpins well have and, moving forward, leaders will be elected based on ideology, not tribal base. Luhyas dont have THE tribal kingpin, but two pretenders, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula. Other tribes wait for directions from the others. I am hoping Governor Kibwana will run for President! His corruption-free leadership in Makueni is enough proof that he can make a good president. If he doesnt vie, we shall #FagiaWote.During the previous round of sanctions, Iran disabled tracking on its tankers, resulting in millions of barrels of oil exports that were unaccounted for, according to Bloomberg and analysts.

During this next round of sanctions, nearly 200,000 bpd of Irans oil exports could be undisclosed, Robin Mills, CEO at consultancy Qamar Energy in Dubai, told Bloomberg. While this volume will not have a significant impact on the global oil market, it could be helpful to Iran in offsetting some of the sting from the U.S. sanctions that kick in in early November, according to the expert.

Smaller Chinese refiners could take some of the undisclosed oil shipments, Iman Nasseri, Managing Director Middle East at FGE London, told Bloomberg, adding that China, India, and Turkey are likely to continue buying Iranian oil after November 4.

According to Nasseri, Iran may export around 800,000 bpd of its oil well into 2019.

Last month, all signs pointed to significantly reduced Iranian oil exports compared to previous months. Between August 1 and 16, Irans oil exports plunged by 600,000 bpd compared to July loadings, Platts preliminary tanker tracking data showed.

Crude oil and condensate exports were set to drop to a total of 64 million barrels in August, or 2.06 million bpd. It would be the first time that monthly crude and ultra-light oil shipments out of Iran fell below 70 million barrels since April 2017, according to preliminary trade flows data by Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Ship tracking data crunched by Bloomberg confirmed Reuters data that Iranian oil and condensate exports were below 2.1 million bpd in Augustthe lowest levels since March 2016, with crude oil exports at their lowest since January this year.

Source: oilprice.comEgesa FM presenter Joseph Mochere Atandi alias Okebiro O Mose was not only suicidal but homicidal, it has emerged.

Before hanging himself on Saturday, the popular comedian allegedly tried to kill four members of his family. The revelations were made by Mocheres kin, including his wife and elder brother.

A day before he committed suicide, Mochere is said to have tried stabbing his elder brother and wife but they overpowered him.

He was armed with a knife and had become wild as he threatened to kill anyone in the house, said Teresa Moraa, Mocheres widow.

After the incident, Mocheres wife fled their home in Imara Daima Estate, Nairobi for their rural Nyamira home with their two children. Mocheres brother, who had gone to reconcile the two, also left and returned to his own home.

I would be preparing to bury five people in my compound had it not been for the intuition of his wife and his brother, who had gone to negotiate for peace in the family, Mocheres father Atandi Rabera was quoted by Standard.

He added: They only came to me once in the past when they had a crisis. I advised them to go to a Catholic priest and get counselling and prayers. I have not heard of any incident from them since.

According to Mocheres younger brother, Daniel Ombwori, the couples marriage had been troubled for the last four years, with the comedian being accused of having extra-marital affairs since his rise to celebrity status.

Before hanging himself in his home, Mochere reportedly penned a suicide note addressed to his wife stating she had blocked his calls and texts, which he took to mean was the termination of their marriage.

I have been patient enough but you have been stressing me for nothing. Take those children and look for another father who is not immoral and who has never seduced any lady. Goodbye, the note read.

Mochere becomes the second Egesa FM presenter to take his own life after William Tolbert jumped from a building in Nairobi ten years ago due to love-related depression.- Kris Aquino sent gifts and a heartwarming message to her friends Sharon Cuneta and her husband Senator Kiko Pangilinan

- Sharon took to social media to express her appreciation for Kris gesture

- However, there were some netizens who did not like the gift she gave the couple

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Kris Aquino decided to show her love and appreciation for her friends  married couple Sharon Cuneta and Senator Kiko Pangilinan.

KAMI learned that the Queen of All Media gave her two friends an extravagant balloon arrangement as well as a heartfelt message for them. She also greeted Kiko a happy birthday.

Sharon took to social media to express her appreciation towards Kris gesture:

Yesterday Kiko and I each received a huge balloon arrangement from Kris. They and especially her message made our day!

I didnt even know she was still in Hawaii but its just like Kris to not delay anything, especially if it is to show those she cares about how special they are to her.

Thank you, Beej! And you are most welcome. Make the most of your vacation and rest well, because there is like a ton of blessings waiting for your attention when you come home! Lots of love always!!! Ate S. and Kiks, Sharon wrote.

Swipe to the left to see the other photos in this Instagram post of the Megastar:

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Unfortunately, some netizens who posted on Fashion Pulis did not appreciate Kris gift for the couple:

Utterly useless gift. Sa lahat ng binigay niya sa mga celebrities, this is is the most impractical. Kung ayaw niya mamigay ng branded stuff like she usually does, pagkain nalang sana. Ito itatapon lang. walang kwenta talaga.

the balloons jusko. Nakakaimbyerna when people are fighting to reduce plastic waste. Flowers nalang sana next time or something biodegradable.

Sana lahat tau me pakialam sa kalikasan. It was a nice gesture pero ndi environment friendly. Flowers, plants, food, etc, madami pang pwede.

In an earlier report by KAMI, Sharon gave an expensive gift to her friend Vice Ganda during her guesting on his show Gandang Gabi Vice.

Sharon Cuneta has three children with her current husband, Senator Franklin Pangilinan.

They are Sophia, Frankie at Miguel. She also has a daughter  KC Concepcion  with her ex-husband Gabby Concepcion.

POPULAR: Read more news about Sharon Cuneta!

Today we are going to ask Tagalog strangers some very funny tricky questions! Do you think you can answer them correctly? These individuals from the Philippines have their answers! What do you think came first, the egg or the chicken? Can you cry under water? These questions might sound easy, but in reality, they are pretty tricky and it is easy to make a mistake!  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.ph- Bae-by Baste's mother recently announced about her pregnancy

- Baste seemed was taking good care of his younger brother in one of his mommies latest post

- Sadly, Mommy Sheila Granfon's pregnancy was ectopic

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Mommy Sheila Granfon shared the news about the additional blessing to their family just a few days ago. She also shared a clip showing Baeby Baste assisting his younger brother in the toilet which seemed to look like he is ready to be a more responsible brother.

Another great joy is coming, Baeby Bastes Instagram post on Friday read. Along with it is a screenshot of his moms Facebook post, showing a pregnancy test with two lines which indicates positive.

The Facebook post read: Isang munting anghel na naman ang ipinagkaloob ni Lord na magsisimula na ang kanyang paglalakbay patungo sa aming pamilya.

Sadly, Baeby Baste's mom suffered a miscarriage because of an ectopic pregnancy. Mommy Sheila shared a screenshot of text explaining about ectopic pregnancy.

She also expressed her sadness but acceptance as well. She wrote, "Ok lang po Lord, Your plans are better than mine. Who am I to question You? Ang daming chances, opportunities and happiness ang binigay Nyo po sa akin kahit makasalanan ako. Kaya po Lord, Your will be done. Thank You for everything PRAY, HOPE and DONT WORRY. -Padre Pio #MayGodblessusall #blessedweekenddabarkads"

Instagram followers of Baste sent their message to comfort Mommy Sheila.

Sebastian Benedict Granfon Arumpac, also known as Baeby Baste, is from in General Santos City. He is a is Filipino child actor and is the youngest host in the noontime variety show Eat Bulaga!.

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Filipinos Answer Funny Tricky Questions Tagalog: Who Is Neil Armstrong? | HumanMeter

Philippines social experiment: can you answer these tricky questions?

Today we are going to ask Philippines strangers some very funny Tagalog tricky questions!

Do you think you can answer them correctly? These individuals from the Philippines have their answers! Who Is Neil Armstrong? These question might sound easy, but in reality, they are pretty tricky and it is easy to make a mistake!

Click Play and find out the answers to these tricky questions from the Tagalog speakers

Source: Kami.com.phA form three student has been arrested by police in Tharaka Nithi County as the main suspect in the murder of his classmate over the weekend.

The body of the deceased, 17-year old Lewis Muthomi, was found lying in a pool of blood at Magutuni market in Maara sub-county on Sunday evening by residents who alerted Kiera chief Protasio Mutembei. The deceased was a student at Maguma Day Secondary School.

According to a resident who did not want to be named, the students had fought earlier on Saturday over a woman who works at a bar at the market.

After fighting, the suspect left but returned at around 9 pm. He stabbed his classmate in the neck with a knife, the resident said.

Police were reportedly informed about the murder at around 10 pm.

But speaking to journalists at his office in Chogoria town, Maara OCPD Johnston Kabusia said they had not received reliable information on the circumstances around the murder.

The police boss said the deep cut on the front side of the victims neck indicated that a knife was used in the attack.

Officers from Chogoria Police Station arrested the suspect at his home in Maara sub-county, where they found a blood-stained knife and clothes.

Kabusia asked residents to help them and said investigators would ask the court for more time to hold the student for investigations.

Some villagers attributed the murder to the consumption of illicit brews at the market and asked police to arrest the brewers.- Kapamilya star Melai Cantiveros-Francisco shared wisdom about being a mom of two

- Melai said she doesnt have me-time but it is important to take care of herself also

- She also admitted that sibling jealousy happens sometimes but she just gives advice to her eldest daughter

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Kapamilya celebrity Melai Francisco disclosed some witty insights about being a hands-on mother of two children.

KAMI learned that the Magandang Buhay host often have struggles in time management since she has to be a mother and a celebrity at the same time.

Melai hinted, however, that working in showbiz should not supersede parents obligations to their youngsters.

As a mother, the Kapamilya star shared the importance of taking care of herself despite having no me-time.

Minsan, kailangan mo din bigyan ang sarili mo ng time kasi paano kung ikaw naman ang magkasakit so ako, eto, getting stronger, she explained in an interview with PEP.ph.

The Pinoy Big Brother Grand Winner even expressed how she works hard to manage her time for her kids and for television shows.

"Talagang nagche-check ako na parang, 'Okay ang mga anak ko, na-check ko sila.' Bago matulog, nakapag-usap kami (ng asawa ko) ng ginawa niya the whole day, Melai said.

"Tapos nakapag-pray bago matulog. Ginagawa ko yun day by day, ginagawa ko ang best every day sa pag-balance ng time," she added.

Despite Melais efforts to make her daughters feel that she is a hands-on mom, the TV host admitted that sibling jealousy happens sometimes between baby Mela and baby Stela.

"Meron nang konti kasi minsan ang time ko nabibigay ko lahat kay Stela, e, she revealed.

"Pag-uwi ko, Stela agad ako. Tapos yung isa naman, puro, 'Mama, mama, mama!' she added.

To solve this issue, Melai always tells her eldest daughter Mela to be humble to her youngest sister.

This way, the celebrity mom said her youngest child can learn and imitate the humility that is being shown to her also.

Ang mga bata kasi, hindi ginagaya kung ano yung sinasabi mo, she further remarked.

"Ginagaya kung ano yung ginagawa ng elders nila. So yun ang ginagawa ko sa kanila," she concluded.

In a previous article by , the Your Face Sounds Familiar Season 1 Grand Winner admitted her first crush during her PBB stint.

Melai is a Filipina actress, comedienne, and host. She married Jason Francisco on December 9, 2013 and they were granted two lovely children, Mela and Stela.

POPULAR: Read more news about Melai Cantiveros!

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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, the daughter of Richard Gomez and Lucy Torres, got an advice from her parents about suitors

- Lucy said Juliana should not take things too quickly because she is still young

- The Congresswoman also expressed that she allows her daughter to be visited by male friends

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Juliana Gomez, the daughter of actor Richard Gomez to politician wife Lucy Torres, received a tall order from her parents about entertaining suitors.

KAMI learned that Congresswoman Lucy does not have an issue with Juliana having male friends and inviting them at home.

She even emphasized that having both boys and girls as companions is a good thing for her daughter to enjoy her childhood.

However, since Juliana will be turning 18 on September 8 and the possibility of having suitors is already unavoidable, Lucy ordered her daughter to never rush things out when it comes to love.

"I always tell her that falling in love is a beautiful thing. I dont say, No, no. Youre not allowed to be friends with boys or boys are not welcomed at home, she explained in an interview with PEP.ph.

"I tell her lang, huwag magmadali.' At that age, youre so young, she added.

Lucy admitted that she always reminds her daughter that love is deceptive so she needs to take it slowly and just make a lot of friends.

You feel na kasi its love, but ang layo pa niyan, the Congresswoman expressed.

"Parang ang babata pa talaga nila. So I said na, Make a lot of friends," she further disclosed.

Meanwhile, the Congresswoman revealed that her house is open for Julianas friends and that she becomes happy every time her daughter has visitors.

She even expressed that she always avoid putting malice on her daughter whenever her male friends are in their house.

"I love it when the house is filled with her friends, so they take over the kitchen and they bake, Lucy said.

"I want her to have a normal childhood and to grow up not thinking that boys and girls cant be friends, because they can be friends! she added.

It doesnt also have to be, Baka nandito yan kasi nanliligaw yan? Di ba? Why put malice in something simple?"

In a previous report by , Juliana disclosed that she will be celebrating her debut through an unusual ceremony.

Born on September 8, 2000, Juliana is the only daughter of actor Richard to politician Lucy.

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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PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed

Having a wife is a blessing that not everyone is fortunate to grace. Other than being a symbol of love, it is also a sign of maturity because a married person is also entitled to bigger responsibilities.

It is considered a blessing and luck also if a man can be able to find a wife who is responsible enough to take good care of their family.

But for Kapamilya actor Makisig Morales, there is definitely more than the feeling of being cared that pushed him to propose to his girlfriend.

Undoubtedly, the actor is very lucky because aside from having a caring fiancee, he also has a soon-to-be wife who is a drop-dead gorgeous beauty queen.

Nicole Joson is a Filipino-Australian beauty queen. She proved that she has a strong desire for a crown when she was hailed as Miss Earth Australia Charity in 2017.

In the same year, Nicole showed her passion and dedication to the world of pageantry and became the New South Wales Finalist for Miss World Australia 2017.

By looking into her Instagram posts, it is never hard to tell that this gorgeous queen is also a passionate model. She always makes sure that her assets are evident in every photo taken of her.

Aside from her sexy body, it is also her glaring eyes that make many people adore her. Surely, it is also one of the reasons why Makisig doesnt want this stunning lady to get out of his life.

It is never always Nicoles physical beauty that can make Makisig love her.

The Australian beauty queen is also an advocate of charitable works. She loves to be with children and to be of help to them in any means.

Occasionally, she participates in feeding programs and other activities for the benefit of her community.

Lastly, it is also a satisfying feeling that our very own Super Inggo star has found someone who is sweet and brave enough to marry him.

More than any other achievements or involvements that we have yet to know about Nicole Joson, there is one thing that we can be sure of as of the moment  that she is deeply in love with Makisig and soon she will become Mrs. Morales.

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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- The reasons behind the grant of Sen. Trillanes' amnesty back in 2011

- Since the campaign for national elections in 2016, Sen. Trillanes and Pres. Duterte have been exchanging tirades

- President Duterte has revoked the amnesty granted to Trillanes and ordered the police to arrest the senator

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Even before entering politics, Senator Atonio Sonny Trillanes IV has been serving the country as a lieutenant of Philippine Navy. However, he was also involved in movements opposing the administration and served as the voice of those in military.

Oakwood mutiny

Trillanes presence has been relevant in politics back in 2003 where he led and staged a mutiny. On July 27, 2003, more than 300 soldiers who belonged to a military group called Magdalo, besieged the deluxe apartment Oakwood Premiere (now Ascott) in Ayala Center, Makati.

KAMI learned from Inquirer that the main goal of Magdalo was to let out their grievances such as anomalies in Armed Forces of the Philippines Retirement and Separation Benefits System and construction of different facilities in Marine Base.

Photo from Inquirer

Source: UGC

They also wanted to expose the corruption happening in the administration under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, especially in the military. In addition, Magdalo group urged officials such as former President Arroyo, former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, Philippine National Police (PNP) General Hermogenes Ebdane and former chief of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Intelligence Service Victor Corpus to resign from their offices.

Magdalo took over the place for almost 20 hours until they had a negotiation with the government. The group was also charged in general court martial including Magdalo leaders Navy Lt. Antonio Trillanes, Philippine Armys Captain Gerardo Gambala and Milo Maestrecampo.

Senate bid in 2007

Photo from ABS-CBN News

Source: UGC

As reported by ABS-CBN News, while serving his time in his detention cell at Philippine Marines headquarters, Trillanes won a seat in Philippine Senate. Trillanes got about 11 million votes through his strong campaign and advocacy against corruption.

Peninsula Manila siege

On November 29, 2007, Trillanes along with Brig, Gen. Danilo Lim and other soldiers walked out from their court hearing about the Oakwood mutiny. They marched all the way to luxurious hotel, The Peninsula Manila and held a press conference ousting former President Arroyo.

Photo from ABS-CBN News

Source: UGC

The hotels guests were asked to evacuate the place. There were gunshots heard inside and tear gas used. However, despite the red alert status and 3 P.M. deadline declared by the Philippine National Police (PNP) along with the warrant of arrest issued by Makati regional trial court, the soldiers did not surrender just yet.

Photo from Rappler

Source: UGC

At 5 P.M., an Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) barged into Manila Pen to arrest the mutineers. The siege concluded with Trillanes and Lim surrendering to the government along with the arrest of the soldiers and members of the media.

Trillanes amnesty

Photo from ABS-CBN News

Source: UGC

Back in 2010, former President Benigno Noynoy Aquino III signed Proclamation No. 75, seeking amnesty to those who were involved in Oakwood mutiny and Manila Pen siege. In January 2011, the amnesty was granted for 78 military and police officers.

Trillanes second chance in politics

Photo from GMA News

Source: UGC

In 2013, Trillanes won his second term in the Senate. On October 15, 2016, he announced his candidacy for the vice presidential seat. He ran as an independent candidate but his own group, Magdalo, backed him up throughout the campaign. However, he loses the bid to Vice President Leni Robredo.

PAY ATTENTION: 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!

Trillanes vs. Duterte

The war began days before the national elections in 2016 when Trillanes made a statement that President Rodrigo Duterte has not been transparent when it comes to his wealth. According to Trillanes, Duterte had P227 million in his bank account in Julia Vargas BPI, which the President did not declare as part of his assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN).

Photo from ABS-CBN News

Source: UGC

However, Duterte denied these allegations by saying that the account Trillanes was referring to was nonexistent. The senator then challenged Duterte to sign a waiver allowing to scrutinize Dutertes bank account and if his allegations were false, the former Davao City mayor can charge him with libel. Duterte along with his running mate, Alan Peter Cayetano signed an empty waiver.

On May 5, 2016, Trillanes filed a plunder complaint to Duterte, saying that the alleged source of P2.4 billion deposit to Dutertes bank account is from the ghost employees said to be part of Davao Citys government. Trillanes even accused the President that the billion worth of deposit could be from illegal drug transactions.

The opposing parties have been exchanging tirades since then on. Trillanes mostly criticized Dutertes war on drugs. When Duterte admitted he could not fulfill his promise of ending the drug issues in the country, Trillanes had a press release saying,

"Duterte lies and deceives just to get his way. He is a monster who craves killings and tries to justify it through lies, deception and twisted logic. I fervently pray for the day that Filipinos would finally wake up and realize it."

Last August, Sen. Trillanes tested negative for all illegal drug use. He then challenged the President through a tweet, Kailan kaya magpapa-drugtest ang mga Dutertes?

According to him, the first family should go through drug test first in order for the public to know that the ones leading the war on drugs are clean.

Recently, President Duterte has signed Proclamation No. 752, seeking to revoke the amnesty given to Sen. Trillanes.

According to Dutertes camp, the amnesty given to him was invalid, that Trillanes did not apply and comply to the requirements to qualify for the Amnesty Program. President Duterte even ordered AFP and PNP to arrest Trillanes.

However, Trillanes showed his proof, documents, and media recordings about his application for amnesty. The Department of National Defense (DND) is still searching for the documents supporting Trillanes arguments.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an alias warrant and travel ban for Trillanes. The senator said that he will not resist the arrest and that he will not escape from all these allegations.

Trillanes is currently at the premises of the Senate office. As per Senate President Vicente Tito Sotto III, no arrest will happen as long as Trillanes is under the custody of the Senate.

POPULAR: Read more about Sen. Trillanes here!

Today we are going to ask Tagalog strangers some very funny tricky questions! Do you think you can answer them correctly? These individuals from the Philippines have their answers! What do you think came first, the egg or the chicken? Can you cry under water? These questions might sound easy, but in reality, they are pretty tricky and it is easy to make a mistake!  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.phThe People's Front parliamentary faction earlier came up with the initiative to name a central street in Kyiv in honor of Senator McCain.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko suggests that Kyiv's Ivan Kudrya Street be renamed after the late U.S. Senator John McCain.

"The president is asking parliamentary factions to support his appeal to Kyiv City Council to rename the street of Ivan Kudrya who was a [Soviet] terrorist, a Chekist [secret police] operative acting against the Ukrainian national liberation movement, and give it the name of Senator John McCain," presidential envoy in parliament Iryna Lutsenko said at a meeting of faction leaders and chairmen of parliamentary committees in Kyiv on September 3.

Read alsoU.S. Senator McCain's parting message: Ukraine should be beside NATO

As UNIAN reported earlier, the People's Front faction in Ukraine's parliament earlier came up with the initiative to name one of the central streets of Kyiv in honor of Senator McCain.

Poroshenko attended the Senator McCain memorial service at Washington National Cathedral in the United States on September 1.

Among the current and foreign leaders and officials on the guest list for John McCain's memorial service were about a dozen from former Soviet states, particularly Ukraine and Georgia, according to The Washington Post. "Both countries have high regard for the late Arizona senator who supported their efforts in recent years to stand up to Russian aggression," it said.Zari Hassans maternal instincts have been questioned by concerned netizens who are convinced she has put the life of her son in danger.

The mother of five was going about her usual business of posting on social media when she inadvertently shared what people termed as private information.

Zari was over the weekend celebrating her three sons when she appeared to share sensitive information about her son, Raphael. She claimed that Raphael has passwords to her bank cards.

He has all my bank cards passwords, partner in crime. Loves the Gucci life, Hed kill for me @raphy_junior762, wrote Zari.

The post drew criticism from social media users who noted that South Africa, where robbery crimes are rampant, is not exactly the place to share private information with the public.As Americans and observers try to make sense of the countrys current political situation, many are looking back to events 50 years ago.

The year 1968 was a difficult and dramatic time in the U.S. -- as well as in many other countries.

One important event in the U.S. that year was the Democratic National Convention. It was held at the end of August in Chicago, Illinois. Democrats gathered there to decide their partys candidate for president. But the meeting turned angry and violent.

Some of the issues that led to conflicts there are still part of the countrys national conversation today.

Vietnam

One of the key issues Americans were facing in 1968 related to the war in Vietnam. The U.S. had been involved in the conflict since 1955. Tens of thousands had already died.

Then, in early 1968, thousands more troops were killed in a series of surprise attacks by the North Vietnamese. The action was called the Tet Offensive, because the attacks happened during the celebration of the Lunar New Year, known in Vietnamese as Tet.

Following the Tet Offensive, a well-known U.S. television reporter called the conflict a stalemate. In other words, neither side could win but the conflict continued.

The opinion of reporter Walter Cronkite matched the feelings of many Americans. A public opinion study of early 1968 showed that half of Americans opposed the way the U.S. government was dealing with the war.

Yet top government leaders did not promise to end U.S. involvement. The president at the time, Lyndon Johnson, was quickly losing support, even within his Democratic Party. In March 1968, he said he would not seek re-election. Johnsons decision created an opening for other Democratic politicians to fight over the partys nomination.

Three major candidates divided the party. They were the vice president at the time, Hubert Humphrey; a senator from Minnesota named Eugene McCarthy; and a senator from New York named Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy was also the brother of former president John F. Kennedy, who was killed in 1963.

Racism and poverty

In 1968, some voters were also demanding that government officials address issues of racism and poverty.

One of the leaders of the movement was Martin Luther King, Jr. He called for Americans of all races to come together and reduce economic inequality. King spoke about the need for better housing, better education, and better-paying jobs for struggling Americans.

In April 1968, King was preparing to protest with a group of African-American workers in Memphis, Tennessee. But on April 4, he was shot and killed while standing outside his hotel room.

Americans across the country soon learned of Kings assassination. Riots broke out in more than 100 cities, including Washington, D.C.

On the same night, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy spoke to a crowd in Indianapolis, Indiana. He called for the country to come together.

He told the crowd, What we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.

Two months later, on June 5, Kennedy was shot, too. He died the following day.

Battle outside the Democratic convention in 1968

For some Americans, King and Kennedys deaths added to feelings of sadness and frustration about the Vietnam War, racism, poverty and other situations they believed were unfair and threatening. So when Democratic officials held their meeting in August, as many as 15,000 protesters came, too. These groups aimed to march to the place where Democratic Party officials were meeting and demand an end to the war, as well as attention to other social and political changes.

But police blocked their efforts. They said most protesters did not have permission to go near the meeting location.

For several days, the protesters clashed with police and soldiers. The struggle turned violent. Officials used tear gas and batons. Protesters, police, bystanders, reporters, and medical workers all suffered injuries. More than 500 people were arrested.

News media showed some of the violence on television. Later, the events were described as a battle.

Battle inside the Democratic convention in 1968

A battle was also going on inside the Democrats meeting. Some officials wanted the party to call for an end to Americans involvement in Vietnam. Others wanted to continue the U.S. governments plan for the war.

In general, powerful party leaders supported the candidate who would continue the war, Hubert Humphrey. But some party officials objected. Inside the meeting, they argued, sang, marched, shouted, and refused to give their support to Humphrey.

In the end, Humphrey won the partys nomination. But on television, the meeting appeared divided and out of control. One person who was there said many people who had attended the convention applauded when their airplane finally left Chicago. They were relieved it was over.

Effects of the 1968 Democratic convention

Less than three months later, Democrats narrowly lost the presidential election. Richard Nixon of the Republican Party was elected the countrys next president.

As a candidate, Nixon said he would continue the Vietnam War until Americans could reach peace with honor. Nixon also said he spoke for Americans who believed in law and order.

His words connected with some voters. For example, opinion studies at the time found that a majority of Americans approved of the way that police and city officials had acted toward the Democratic convention protesters. These Americans may not have supported the war in Vietnam, but they did not support the actions of the protesters, either.

Yet, some of the protesters' objections, and the problems that came to light during the Democrats meeting that year, remain unresolved. Historians point to 1968 as a time that increased feelings of distrust between the public and political parties; the public and government officials; protesters and the police; and government officials and the media.

Im Kelly Jean Kelly.

Kelly Jean Kelly reported this story for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

dramatic - adj. greatly affecting people's emotions

convention - n. a large meeting of people who come to a place for usually several days to talk about their shared work or other interests or to make decisions as a group

Lunar - adj. of or relating to the moon

stalemate - n. a contest in which neither side can gain an advantage or win

frustration - n. a feeling of anger or annoyance caused by being unable to do something

baton - n. a long thin stick

bystander - n. a person who is standing near but not taking part in what is happening

applaud - v. to strike the hands together over and over to show approval or praise

relieved - adj. feeling relaxed and happy because something difficult or unpleasant has been stoppedBrazil is the largest exporter of soybeans, chicken and beef in the world. It is also a major producer of pork and corn.

The Reuters news agency says Brazils success is partly a result of low prices for farm land and permissive land-use policies.

Some farmers are leaving the Amazon, partly because of international concerns about the rainforest. Many are moving to an area in the center of the country, known as the Cerrado.

The Cerrado is about the same size as Mexico. It stretches from Brazils western border with Paraguay up to the northeast and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest flat, wooded grasslands in South America. The area is also home to five percent of living species on Earth.

Over the past 10 years, Brazilian farmers have been developing large parts of the Cerrado. The government says the area has lost more than 105,000 square kilometers of its native plant cover since 2008. That number represents 50 percent more land than the deforestation seen during the same period in the Amazon. Based on relative size, the Cerrado is disappearing nearly four times faster than the rainforest.

The Cerrado is also rich in carbon dioxide gas. Studies have linked rising levels of carbon dioxide to rising temperatures in Earths atmosphere. Many scientists blame the increase on deforestation and use of coal, oil and other fossil fuels.

Brazilian officials say protection of native plant life is important to meeting the countrys goals under the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change. But scientists say industrial farming in the Carredo could hold back Brazil's efforts and worsen global warming.

Liliana Pena Naval is an environmental engineering professor at the Federal University of Tocantins. She told the Associated Press that the removal of plants can cause bodies of water to disappear.

Thousands of plants, fish, insects and animals are also affected. Many of these species are only beginning to be studied.

Farmers see the development of the Cerrado as necessary for Brazils food security and economic success. The agriculture industry grew 13 percent in 2017. The ability to keep producing new farmland at low costs has given Brazil better chances for success than other countries.

Increased trade with China

Deforestation in the Cerrado has slowed from the early 2000s. But farmers continue to develop large parts of the area. Much of the growth is fueled by Chinese demand for Brazilian meat and grain. China is Brazil's top buyer of soybeans. China is also a major purchaser of Brazilian pork, beef and chicken.

Rising trade tensions between China and the United States have only made the connection stronger. Brazil's soybean exports to China are up 18 percent through the first seven months of 2018. The increase comes as Chinese buyers have canceled tens of millions of dollars' worth of business deals with U.S. suppliers.

Environmental protections remain strong in Brazil. Rainforest farmers are required by law to protect 80 percent of native plants on their land. As part of its promise under the Paris Agreement, the government agreed to end illegal Amazon deforestation by 2030.

But Brazil has made no similar effort to protect the Cerrado. Environmentalists say the areas wooded grasslands have failed to capture the public's attention the way the Amazon has.

Last year, some environmental protection groups began calling for large international businesses to protect the Cerrado. Among those groups were Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Foundation and the Brazilian research group IPAM. They called for immediate action to end the deforestation in a document known as the Cerrado Manifesto.

More than 60 companies, including McDonalds, Unilever and Walmart, offered to follow the manifesto. They have agreed to support measures that would end native vegetation loss in the Cerrado from their production processes.

Farmer Julimar Pansera purchased land in the Cerrado seven years ago. Today, he oversees nearly 49 square kilometers of soy fields and has about 20 full-time employees. He said there is no future without growth.

"There is still a large area to be opened," he said. "It will be one of the great centers of Brazilian agriculture."

Im Jonathan Evans.

Jake Spring reported this story for the Reuters news agency. Jonathan Evans adapted his report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

deforestation  n. the act or result of cutting down or burning all the trees in an area

global warming  n. the recent increase in the world's temperature that is believed to be caused by the increase of certain gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

species  n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants

vegetation  n. plants in general; plants that cover a particular areaThe wives of two news reporters jailed in Myanmar said on Tuesday the men were innocent and called for them to be released.

A court found the reporters guilty on Monday of violating the countrys Official Secrets Act. They were sentenced to seven years in prison.

Their case is seen as a test of progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which was ruled by a group of military officers until 2011. The country is also called Burma.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, work for the Reuters news agency. They were investigating the killing of villagers from the Rohingya Muslim minority by security forces when they were arrested in December 2017. The reporters told a court they were not guilty of the charges.

The wives and defense lawyers spoke at a press conference in Yangon on Tuesday.

Kyaw Soe Oos wife, Chit Su Win, said she had expected the court to clear the charges against the two men on Monday.

I believed that we would be able to go home together, she said, adding that the men were doing their jobs and are innocent.

Wa Lones wife, Pan Ei Mon, said she wanted the reporters to be released as quickly as possible.

She said that she was sad that Myanmars government leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, seemed to speak against the reporters before the ruling.

Aung San Suu Kyi told Japanese television station NHK in June that the two men were not arrested for their reporting, but because they violated the Official Secrets Act.

Neither the Nobel Peace Prize winner nor her governments main spokesman have spoken about the case since the jail sentence was announced.

Many Myanmar news organizations and more than 20 civil society groups denounced the courts ruling. They said the conviction was an attack on the right to freedom of information.

The privately owned 7 Day Daily is one of Myanmars most popular newspapers. Its front was all black with words that read A sad day for Myanmar.

The newspaper said the sentences end the hope that the current government will value and respect media freedom. It added that the government had earned a reputation for media suppression, as former military governments had done.

The paper said everyone needs to know that democracy will not survive in an information dark age.

Myanmar barred media interference by the government in 2012. It was part of reforms by a quasi-civilian government that led to elections in 2015. Aung San Suu Kyis party, The National League for Democracy, won the vote.

An editor of the Irrawaddy online news website said Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint had to understand that the case was about the peoples right to know.

The editor, Kyaw Zwa Moe, said, These Reuters reporters were simply doing their jobs by attempting to gather information so as to uncover the truth.

The privately owned Myanmar Times showed a large picture of Kyaw Soe Oo, wearing handcuffs as he left the court. It said the conviction was a blow to press freedom.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported the conviction. It did not criticize the decision, but said the defense could appeal.

The conviction comes as the United Nations said the killing of Rohingya in August 2017 was carried out by Myanmars military. A U.N. report called for top generals to be tried. Myanmar rejected the reports findings.

U.N. agencies have said more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since August of last year.

Im Jonathan Evans.

The Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. The editor was George Grow.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

conviction n.the act of proving that a person is guilty of a crime in a court of law

reputation  n. the common opinion that people have about someone or something

quasi-  combining form in some way or sense but not in a true, direct, or complete

editor  n. a person whose job is to edit something or oversee the language of something

handcuffs  n. a set of two metal rings that are joined together and placed around a person's wristsPlease enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.

The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website:

We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service.18:41

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday discussed 'bilateral, regional and international issues' during their crucial talks, in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties on basis of 'mutual trust and respect'.





This is the US' first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections and comes days after the Trump administration cancelled $300 million in military aid to Islamabad.





Pompeo, accompanied by US Joint Chief of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford, reached the Foreign Office to meet with Qureshi.





Qureshi and Pompeo discussed 'bilateral, regional and international issues' in the meeting that lasted for about 40 minutes, Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said.





'FM Qureshi underscores the need to reset bilateral ties on basis of mutual trust and respect. Safeguarding Pakistan's national interests will remain supreme priority,' Faisal tweeted.





Pompeo is also expected to meet Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Prime Minister Khan.





He is expected to press Pakistan to target all terror groups on its soil and play a positive role in war-torn Afghanistan when he meets the country's new leadership in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties.





The Trump administration has cancelled $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terror groups active on its soil, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.





Pompeo landed at the Nur Khan Airbase in Islamabad this afternoon and went straight to the US embassy.





Earlier, sources had said that the situation in Afghanistan, talks with the Taliban, action against the Haqqani Network and other militant groups, issue of suspension of US aid and other bilateral and regional issues will be discussed.





The relation between the two 'allies' are passing through a difficult period as the US is upset over what it calls lack of cooperation from Islamabad in eliminating militancy in Afghanistan.





The two sides publicly differed over what was discussed between Pompeo and Khan during a telephonic conversation.





Later, the US topped it by cancelling $300 million aid which Pakistan said was the money it already spent in the war on terror and Washington was bound to reimburse it as part of understanding between the two sides.





Talking to reporters travelling with him hours before landing in Pakistan, the Secretary of State said: "The rationale for them (Pakistan) not getting the money is very clear. It's that we haven't seen the progress that we need to see from them."





He defended the Trump administration's decision to cut $300 million aid to Pakistan, saying Islamabad did not make satisfactory progress in combating terrorism.





"The very reason for this trip is to try and articulate what it is our expectation is, the things that they can do, the things that they expect us to do, and see if we can't find a path forward together," Pompeo said.





However, Pompeo said that this was not news for Pakistan.





"Look, this wasn't news to the Pakistanis. It made a lot of headlines over the last few days because of the formality... but they were told this past summer that they weren't likely to get that money.





"There are real expectations. We need Pakistan to seriously engage to help us get to the reconciliation we need in Afghanistan... They have important interests, security interests in Afghanistan to make sure they get the issues at their border right, and we need their help," he said.





Pompeo said he wanted to get there at the beginning of Khan's tenure in an effort to 'reset the relationship' between the two countries.





"We have worked closely with the Pakistanis in my role as the CIA director. Our teams have been working together for a long time. There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership that we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together. They have expressed good-faith intention to do so," the Secretary of State said.





Qureshi, in one of his media talks, said that what the US was showing was just one side of the picture.





"We will show (them) the other side," he said. -- PTI

As stated in several of its provisions, it is a duty of all holders of political power to respect, uphold and defend the Basic Law of the MSAR from the very moment of taking office. Article 101 strongly determines as a duty of the Chief Executive, principal officials, members of the Executive Council and of the Legislative Assembly, judges and procurators () [that they] must uphold the Basic Law (); in paragraph (2) of Article 50 it also prescribes the duty of the Chief Executive to be responsible for the implementation of the Basic Law; in paragraph (1) of Article 71, it determines the duty of the Members of the Legislative Assembly to enact, amend, suspend or repeal laws in accordance with the provisions of the Basic Law.

Also, complementary legislation of the mini-constitution of the MSAR prescribes the duty of the Members of the Legislative Assembly to strictly observe and uphold the Basic Law, as results from paragraph (4) of Article 38 of the Regime of the Legislature and the Statutes of Members of the Legislative Assembly (Law 3/2000); and, finally, the validity of the laws, independent administrative regulations, and of supplementary administrative regulations and other normative acts of the MSAR, depends on its conformity with the Basic Law, as per paragraph 1 of Article 3 of Law 13/2009.

The Central Authorities of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), starting with its President, have also repeatedly and consistently affirmed the need to promote and defend the Basic Law, whether at the solemn meetings of the NPC, or when the leaders of the MSAR visit Beijing to render accounts of achievements and work under development, or at other less solemn occasions.

Thus, for example, following The full implementation of the spirit of the Two Sessions: New journey of the development of Macao, the director of the Liaison Office of the Central Peoples Government in the MSAR, Zheng Xiaosong, introduced four aspirations in the sessions, highlighting the following two: the full implementation of the principle of one country, two systems and the strict observance of the Constitution and the Basic Law of Macao (Source: GCS, 2018-03-26).

Subsequently, the principal officials and the General Prosecutor of the MSAR were summoned to Beijing in April this year to undertake the necessary training. At the meeting which Han Zheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China and vice-prime minister, had with the trainees, he said he hopes the government team of the MSAR will bring into daily life the spirit referred in the instructions of the Secretary-General, Xi Jinping, about the role of Macao, and the implementation of the principle of one country, two systems and the Basic Law in the staunch defence of the sovereignty, security and interests of the development of the Country. For the vice-prime minister, the government team in charge must always defend the population and work for their benefit.

In order to strengthen the Governments capacity to manage and promote the development of Macau, of the four requirements, Secretary Sonia Chan highlighted the following two when speaking to the media: the first, with the meaning that the directors shall implement, in full, the Basic Law and the principle of one country, two systems; the second, referring to the need to defend the unity and sovereignty of the Country, as well as the interests of national development and security (GCS, 2018-04-24, Source: Office of the Government spokesman Han Zheng). We see, therefore, special relevance has been given to the full and strict compliance with, and defence of, the Basic Law, both by the National Peoples Congress, the Central Authorities, and by the government team of the MSAR (at least in their declarations).

If, however, we take a look at the political activity and legislative action taken, whether by the Secretaries of the Executive, or by the Members of the Legislative Assembly (and of the house), it can be quickly discerned that instead of the strict observance of the Constitution and the Basic Law of Macao (Zheng Xiaosong), or the implementation of the principle of one country, two systems and the Basic Law (Han Zheng), that instead of the leaders perform[ing], fully, the Basic Law and the principle of one country, two systems (Sonia Chan), and instead of defend[ing] the Basic Law, to which all have sworn at the time of taking up their roles, this has not always occurred. This is because the Secretaries have not been known to adequately transmit the training the leaders have received to their respective public services, or because the Secretaries themselves have not internalized the importance of non-violation of the Basic Law.

As an example you can point to the principle of equality (from the negative angle, the prohibition on discrimination), as set out in Article 25 of the Basic Law: the attempt to force non-resident workers to pay more for public transport than residents, or that non-resident women pay disproportionately more for the costs of child-birth, or, more recently, that homosexual students should be subject to exceptional and corrective measures serve as reminders of this principle.

This violation of the Basic Law has not only been at the hands of the Secretaries and of their public departments, but also by our very own Members of the Legislative Assembly, as per Article 37 (paragraph 2) of the Law 15/2009 regarding retroactivity of indexed valuations as at 1 July 2007, and with the Law on Prevention and Combating Domestic Violence, in such a way that led to the always insightful Pereira Coutinho to observe in June 2016, that Article 25 of the Basic Law is precisely the one that is most violated: This article is constantly being violated.

What should also be mentioned, referred to earlier, is the draft resolution, which was tabled by the Members who intended to replace the law and wanted to interfere with the competences of the courts, all of which had been established by law and in the exercise of the legal profession. In addition, finally, by the conjunction of Article 105 of the Rules of Procedure of the Legislative Assembly with paragraph (a) of Article 107, we see the violation of the provisions in the final part of Article 75 of the Basic Law, which relates to the presentation by the Members of proposals for amendments to bills pertaining to Government Policy.

On the other hand, if we look at the events in Hong Kong which have challenged the unity, the sovereignty and security of the peoples Republic of China, we find that it is, above all, from within society that radical sectors and separatists have emerged to lodge the strongest attacks on the Basic Law of the HKSAR and the principle one country, two systems.

In Macau, the residents, lovers of the Motherland and the MSAR, conversely  and it is unanimously recognized as such  have not only not expressed any sympathy and agreement with these attacks, equally clearly and unequivocally, they have disapproved and rejected them. And, we are, nevertheless, somewhat victims of a situation that is not ours, we are paying the price of that irreverence, as President of the Foundation Rui Cunha recently commented, in reference to Occupy Central.

If the attacks to the Basic Law, in Hong Kong, come, especially, from certain sectors, minority interests and extremists in society, the danger of attacks to the Basic Law in the MSAR come mostly and surreptitiously from the Executive and even the Legislature, which should be the first organs of political leadership in the region to worry about their defence, their respect and strict compliance.

The announcement of the non-renewal of the contracts of lawyers Paulo Taipa and Paulo Cardinal, as advisors to the Legislative Assembly is of extreme concern to the residents of Macau, in particular, to the Portuguese community and, within this, to the legal community. As a result of this de facto dismissal, the Legislative Assembly has lost two legal experts, who are unanimously considered to be highly qualified and with extensive technical-legal experience. They have thoroughly scrutinized, together with the rest of the advisors under their direction, the violations to the Basic Law, as well as the rigorous use of the categories of the various branches of the Law and the design of the systematic construction of the provisions of law. They served, also, as an interface with the lawyers of the Executive in the pursuit of the best legal solutions for the residents of Macau, which greatly facilitated the work of the lawmakers and judges who are now called upon to be the ultimate guardians of the Basic Law.

Such legal advice, given all the meritorious descriptions, helped to compensate for the lack in (legal) training of almost all of the Members of Legislative Assembly, without compromising the last word on policy, which always lies with the legislators. It is certain that Macau society has now gained two voices that certainly will continue to scrutinise future violations, but without the restraint and the moderation that their roles had heretofore imposed. The Legislative Assembly has, however, lost them, with manifest damage to the proper conduct of its legislative work and, thus, it is the MSAR that is made poorer.

The President of the Legislative Assembly has been touted as one of the three candidates for the Chief Executive and he has not denied this intention. Being imputed with the liability for the termination of the contracts of those advisors (refer to the request for clarification from members Pereira Coutinho, Ng Kuok Cheong and Sulu Sou on the non-renewal), his message to the community is likely to be the subject of several interpretations, all of them with negative impact upon his image: first as political sanitation (as already characterized by some commentators) and/or as a planned exchange of Portuguese lawyers (with exceptional qualifications and experience) for Chinese ones (young and still far from meeting the requirements) or, even for Portuguese lawyers without the necessary and in-

depth knowledge of the realities of the MSAR. In any case, it results in an incomprehensible devaluation of the importance and the necessity for strict compliance with of the Basic Law. Or, as implicated, although not yet publicly, the withdrawal of his candidacy.

Indeed, to dispense of the best and most experienced legal consultants, who could guide him (as well as other legislators and Chairmen of the Committees) on the strict compliance with the Basic Law, the President of the Legislative Assembly is going in a direction counter to that of the other candidates for the role of the Chief Executive, who have sought to surround themselves with legal advisors with technical capacity and the professional experience to enable them to perform their job well and display an irreproachable record of accomplishments: resolution of the problems of the residents of Macau, without violations of the Basic Law, or, at least, with the least possible violations. On the other hand, no longer intending to apply for the position, the act in question can be understood as part of his declaration to withdraw his candidature.

In any case, it is unfortunate that such interpretations are politically possible, because Ho Iat Seng would undeniably be a good candidate for Chief Executive. On the other hand, perhaps the Central Authorities, one day, will summon, too, all the Members of the Legislative Assembly, to receive training in Beijing on the Basic Law and the imperative for its defence, as were the principal officials and the General Prosecutor. If that would happen, the MSAR will benefit, because the Basic Law and the principle of one country, two systems must be defended by all: by its residents and by all its political and public officials. Joao Albuquerque Lawyer

Translated from the Portuguese original by MDT/KTranz

This article was also published in Portuguese and Chinese by Plataforma weekly.THE sight of five burly guards blocking the way out of her dorm filled Ren Liping with rage.

It was 3 a.m. on a recent Saturday and the thin, bespectacled 26-year-old Chinese graduate student was exhausted. Her mind raced back to earlier in the day when she had tried once again to publicly protest her alleged rape. Again, the police had stopped her and held her at a station for hours. Again, she was escorted back to campus.

Now this.

She pounded on the glass door with her fist, but the men ignored her. This is illegal! she shouted, to no response. She felt nauseous. Her face was numb. She picked up a bicycle pump in the corner and smashed it against the glass.

The door shattered.

Whoever tries to suppress my case will end up like this door, Ren said to the men.

More than a year after she accused an ex-boyfriend of raping her on the China University of Petroleum campus in the coastal city of Qingdao, this had become Rens life: a series of attempts to protest the university and authorities mishandling of the case.

At every turn, Ren has been stymied by the schools guards or the police, who say theres no evidence of a crime. She was even detained in a hotel for six days at one point.

Her efforts highlight at once the challenges of reporting sexual assault in China and the determination of a new generation of Chinese women pushing the country into its own #MeToo moment despite attempts to silence them.

The movement has gathered considerable steam in China, with dozens of men, including prominent media personalities, non-profit advocates and even a top monk, publicly accused of sexual assault or sexual misconduct in recent months.

But like any social campaign, #MeToo poses a challenge to President Xi Jinpings administration, which has waged an unprecedented crackdown on civil society groups and activism that the ruling Communist Party deems as threats to its rule.

Ren accuses Liang Shengyu, her ex-boyfriend, of raping her on campus last summer. Liang denies the allegation. They are suing each other for defamation.

In an action that legal experts say is unprecedented, Ren is also suing the police  for what shes described as a mishandling of the investigation and the use of force against her.

She is a representative for the #MeToo movement, said Lyu Xiaoquan, a Beijing lawyer who helped Ren prepare her initial complaints.

Ren and Liang met in 2013 when they were undergraduates at the universitys geosciences department. Liang says he was attracted to Rens strength and independence. They dated for two years, experiencing for the first time the freedom of a romance far from their parents scrutiny.

After a bitter breakup, Liang and Ren rarely spoke. But last summer they got back in touch, and on the evening of July 28, 2017, agreed to walk back to their dorms together after Liang completed an assignment in the lab.

Their accounts of the rest of the night diverge.

Ren said that Liang asked her if they could get back together, but that she said no because she liked someone else. Liang then cornered her in a bicycle parking lot, she said, pinned her against a concrete wall and put his hand inside her denim shorts.

Stunned and terrified, Ren tried to choke him but wasnt strong enough.

Youre dirty, she told him.

Youve been with me before. You didnt think I was dirty then, he said, according to Ren.

Ren said Liang ignored her protests, pulled down her shorts and raped her. She was sobbing in pain, she said.

Do you want to destroy me? she cried at the time.

Thats when he stopped, picked his cap up off the ground, and walked away, Ren said.

According to Liang, however, Ren had been pestering him for weeks because she thought he had a new girlfriend.

Liang said Ren tried to convince him to break up with this woman and that all they did that night was argue.

We did not have any physical contact whatsoever that night, he said. And there was no so-called rape or sexual assault or behavior of that kind.

At first, Ren did not plan on reporting her alleged rape.

I didnt know what people would think of me, she said.

When it continued to haunt her five days later, she told the school, but administrators encouraged her to keep quiet. Then she went to the local police station, where a female officer told her to drop her claim, saying that not all sexual experiences are pleasurable, according to Ren.

Frustrated, Ren filed lawsuits against the police and started holding protests.

But the authorities resolve to silence her only grew with her efforts. In June, after she shouted in the middle of a campus square about being raped, Ren said security detained her inside a hotel room in Qingdao for six days while the city hosted a major summit.

Her parents were also ordered to stay in the hotel with her. Her mother, a wheat farmer from rural Henan, said university officials dangled vague job offers and study abroad opportunities to get Ren to drop her case. Their promises to investigate Liangs conduct never materialized, according to her mother, who requested that she only be identified by her surname, Zhang.

Everyone lied to us, Zhang said. Its because our family has no money or power  if we did, things wouldnt have reached this stage.

School officials declined repeated requests to comment. Police in a district in Qingdao that oversees the campus said investigators examined the case closely, interviewing Ren and Liang, their family members, teachers and classmates, and concluded that no crime had taken place. In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, the district police bureau said investigators asked Ren about the alleged rape multiple times but found inconsistencies in her description of the circumstances.

In July, Ren took a four-hour train ride to Beijing, joining the legions of petitioners who flock to the capital to seek help from the central government for what they believe are abuses of power by local officials that lead to personal losses such as home seizures or being laid off.

Ren submitted her documents to three petition offices. A security officer at one of the places remarked that she seemed too young to be among the more than 1,000 petitioners who come to the office every day. Two months later they would return to repeat the same cycle: line up, submit papers, wait, he said.

Just like that, I was hit with a splash of cold water, Ren wrote on her online blog that night. Hope has pretty much been extinguished.

The authorities have continued to monitor Rens movements, she said, more than a year after she first went to the police. On a recent trip to a neighboring city, one man whom she says was trailing her dragged her into a black car when she tried to depart for a third city where she planned to meet with a lawyer.

But Ren remains determined to hold the police, the university and Liang to account.

On the eve of the Aug. 3 protest that would end up being thwarted, Ren posted somber photos of herself wearing a black sun hat and sunglasses, holding up a sign with #METOO# scrawled on it.

Ren correctly predicted she would face punishment for her actions. Quoting a Chinese proverb, she declared: Id rather be a shattered jade than an unbroken piece of pottery. Yanan Wang, Qingdao, APThe requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday pledged USD60 billion in financing for projects in Africa in the form of assistance, investment and loans, as China furthers efforts to link the continents economic prospects to its own.

Speaking to a gathering of African leaders in Beijing, Xi said the figure includes $15 billion in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, $20 billion in credit lines, $10 billion for development financing and $5 billion to buy imports from Africa.

In addition, he said China will encourage companies to invest at least $10 billion in Africa over the next three years.

Chinas outreach to Africa aims to build trade, investment and political ties with a continent often seen as overlooked by the U.S. and other Western nations. That has provided lucrative opportunities for Chinese businesses, while African nations are often happy to accept Chinas offers that come without demands for safeguards against corruption, waste and environmental damage.

No details were given on specific projects, although Xi said China was planning initiatives in eight areas, including providing $147 million in emergency food aid, sending 500 agricultural experts to Africa, and providing scholarships, vocational training and trade promotion opportunities.

The pledge comes on top of a 2015 promise to provide African countries with $60 billion in funding that Xi said had either been delivered or arranged.

Also yesterday, Xi promoted Beijings initiative to build ports and other infrastructure as a tool for common prosperity in a world facing challenges from trade protectionism.

Addressing businesspeople prior to the formal opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Xi said the Belt and Road initiative will expand markets. He tried to mollify concern that Beijing wants to build strategic influence, promising Chinese investment comes with no political strings attached.

Unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise. Economic growth lacks robust drive, Xi said in a speech. China-Africa cooperation under the BRI is a way to common prosperity that brings benefits to both our peoples.

African and other Asian leaders have welcomed Belt and Road but some projects have prompted complaints about debt and other problems. The initiative involves hundreds of projects, most of them built by Chinese contractors and financed by loans from Chinese state-owned banks, across an arc of 65 countries from the South Pacific through Asia to Africa and the Middle East.

In a major blow to Chinas ambitions, Malaysia recently canceled Chinese-financed projects worth more than $20 billion, saying they were unnecessary and would create an unsustainable debt burden. Deeply indebted Pakistan is also reportedly reconsidering some projects in the multi-billion dollar China- Pakistan Economic Corridor that is a key link in the BRI.

The Beijing forum brings together leaders from China and more than 50 African countries. Dozens of African leaders met with Xi ahead of the conference.

Xi made no mention of the political and debt concerns that overshadow some BRI projects. But Chinese officials previously have rejected accusations that projects leave host countries too deeply indebted to Chinese lenders.

Chinas investment in Africa comes with no political strings attached, Xi said. China does not interfere in Africas internal affairs and does not impose its own will on Africa. APThe logo of the soon-to-be established municipal organization was revealed yesterday, according to a dispatch published in the Official Gazette. The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) explained that the design concept mainly makes use of the abbreviation of the municipal organizations Portuguese name, IAM, to form a blooming lotus flower. From left to right, the IAM logo features a color gradient starting with green, then blue and ending on a yellow note. Green represents plants and greenery, yellow represents land, and the intermediate gradient blue represents water.

Historical building partially collapsed

A historical building located at 6 Calcada do Lilau collapsed yesterday morning. The building has two stories and was unoccupied. A roof section of nine square meters, and one sixteen square meter wall collapsed. The collapse does not pose any danger to its neighboring buildings. The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) claimed to have already messaged the buildings owner to follow up with the propertys maintenance. The owner also submitted an engineering work plan to the IC. The bureau will later inspect the building together with the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT).

Cultural fund grants MOP300 million in subsidies

The Cultural Industry Fund has sponsored more than 160 projects since its launch in 2014 up to June this year. The total sponsorship involves more than MOP300 million. In the first half of the year, there were 15 subsidized projects, totaling MOP33 million, of which MOP8 million were subsidies and MOP25 million were interest-free loans. Last year, MOP145 million in subsidies were granted. Seventy percent of the subsidized projects involved amounts of between MOP1 million and MOP3 million.

Sulu Sou calls for comprehensive sex education

Lawmaker Sulu Sou has called on the government to implement comprehensive sex education into the curriculum. In an inquiry written to the government, Sou noted that it is important for Macau to gradually promote comprehensive sex education. Sou believes that the priority of the citys education authority in terms of sex education, should be local schools. The government authority has the responsibility to closely communicate with executives and teaching staff [of these organizations], Sou declared. How is the administration authority planning to cooperate with schools and educational organizations to teach students how to protect themselves, how to engage in safe sexual actions, and respect diverse sexual orientation? Sou questioned.

Man arrested after stealing during flight

A mainland male citizen has been arrested for stealing on a flight. Reports were filed by two mainland residents, in July and August 2017. The flight departed from Beijing to Macau. Together, both individuals reported a total loss of MOP159,000. The 48-year-old suspect was arrested last Saturday, and denies the accusation. The police authority seized four bank cards which did not belong to the suspect, and USD1,100 in cash. The PJ believes that there is another affiliate on the run.A group comprising hundreds of casino employees held a demonstration yesterday calling for better tobacco control inside gaming venues and better welfare conditions.

The demonstrators started marching at 4 p.m. from the World Trade Center, heading towards the government headquarters.

The group delivered two letters to two different governmental departments: one to the tobacco control office and another to the Chief Executives residence.

These casino employees called on the government to enhance law enforcement activities inside casinos, in particular those regarding smoking.

In the past, many demonstrations were held by casino employees urging tobacco control inside casino premises.

This time, the group also proposed that the government ban frequent smokers from entering casinos.

Some gaming operators are accused of allowing gamblers to smoke inside casinos, in particular in areas where smoking is prohibited.

Besides regulating smoking in casinos, the demonstrators suggest that casinos which do not attempt to stop unregulated smoking be penalized.

In 2019, the new Tobacco Control Law will ban smoking in all gaming venues. However, according to what we know, we worry that many casinos will continue to allow gamblers to smoke in prohibited areas. They [casinos] even forbid workers from telling gamblers this area is not allowed for smoking, complained Cloee Chao, president of New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association, which organized yesterdays demonstration.

According to Cloee, the demonstrators mainly criticize the government for its weak law enforcement of the prohibition against smoking inside casinos.

All six gaming operators are the same [in regard to allowing smoking inside casinos] because the law does not enforce any kind of punishment over the employer or the responsible personnel in the locations, so that the law enforcement operation will be unnecessary, said Cloee Chao.

Regarding gaming employees welfare, the group hopes that casinos can pass on tips given by customers to the dealers.

We leave the tips inside a box once customers give them. However, casinos have never publicized how much in tips they received and where they are, said Chao.

According to the association president, who unsuccessfully ran for lawmaker during the last election, the casinos used to publicize the amount made in tips.

However, later, it was never announced. [] We really hope that they can bring out the tips and distribute them among workers, said Chao. We hope that the government can better supervise casinos.The University of Macaus (UM) Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH) recently hosted the Momento Boot Camp 2018, a one-month research camp gathering nearly 30 researchers from 11 regions.

According to the university, the research team worked together for one month on Modelling Parameters of Cognitive Efforts in Translation Production in Relation to Translation Universals, a project sponsored by UMs Multi-year Research Grant.

The project seeks to develop an integrated cognitive model of the

translators mind based on empirical evidence, which is to be validated

through a range of parameters, using various approaches and tools.

The project is associated with a UM-wide cross- disciplinary research

project titled Neuroscience, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence,

which is led by vice rector (academic affairs) Lionel Ni.

When addressing the boot camp participants, Ni said that translation is an important subject at UM, while cognition and artificial intelligence are some of the niches UM is developing.

The participants have gone through the standard collaborative research process. conceptualization and planning, and have now reached the implementation stage. The next steps will be evaluation and dissemination.

Meanwhile, UM noted that progress has been made incorporating Asian languages into the system originally developed by European scholars.

Outcomes of the boot camp will be presented at the Fifth International Conference on Cognitive Research on Translation and Interpreting to be held at Renmin University, Beijing in November.

Li Defeng, director of the FAHs Centre for the Studies of Translation, Interpreting and Cognition, believes that the boot camp and its results will help translation studies go beyond Eurocentrism.

The collaborating universities include Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

in Germany, Durham University in the United Kingdom, the Federal

University of Minas Geras in Brazil, the City University of London in the

UK, Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, and Renmin University of China.

Thousands of people are expected to attend a concert early today [Macau time] in the eastern German city of Chemnitz against far-right protests.

The performances, by some of Germanys most popular bands, come in reaction to a week of sometimes violent rallies by far- right groups against migrants  and leftist counter protests.

The nationalists protests were triggered by the fatal stabbing of a 35-year-old German man in Chemnitz on Aug. 26, allegedly by two migrants from Iraq and Syria.

The tension that has built up over the past week in Chemnitz reflects the growing polarization over Germanys ongoing efforts to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants to the country since 2015.

The concert, which is being promoted under the #WeAreMore hashtag, is part of an effort by German civil society to position itself against the growing far-right movement in parts of Germany.

Former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel harshly criticized the political establishment for being too passive when it comes to fighting far-right groups in Germany and asked them to make a stronger showing in places with simmering discontent and anti-migrant sentiment.

I think it would be good if as many representatives as possible  not only in Chemnitz but everywhere  go to places where we think the citizens are not agreeing with our state, he said.

But, Gabriel added, there was a clear line between angry citizens and those inciting the people with hatred.

We have to go with toughness after these terrorists, he said in an interview with Bild Television adding that, there wont be any discussions with people who make the Hitler salute. There will only be the rigidity of the state.

Gabriels comments followed Saturdays demonstrations by about 4,500 far-right protesters in Chemnitz, who were rallying against migration. Around 4,000 leftist protesters also marched through the city in a counter-protest, and 1,800 police officers were deployed to keep the groups apart.

Scenes earlier that week of vigilantes chasing foreigners in the citys streets and showing the Hitler salute have shocked people in others parts of Germany and beyond.

Gabriel also called on the domestic intelligence service to start watching the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party, which was voted into national parliament last year.

In the past, the nationalist AfD has officially distanced itself from radical far-right groups, but over the weekend it joined ranks for the first time with the more radical Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, or PEGIDA, and Pro Chemnitz group and marched through the city together with them.

Also on Monday, the widow of Chemnitz victim Daniel H., spoke out for the first time, saying that, Daniel would have never wanted the protests triggered by his killing. Their full names werent given, in line with German privacy laws.

Daniel was neither left nor right, widow Bianca T. said adding that she was shocked by how the far right was exploiting his death. I looked at the events on Saturday night  this was not about Daniel at all.

All we want to do right now is mourn him in peace, she said. APTotal merchandise imports for July 2018 amounted to MOP7.54 billion, according to the latest data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), up by 23.6 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, total merchandise exports fell 17.6 percent to MOP918 million, with the value of re-exports also slipping by 17.4 percent to MOP791 million.

The rise in merchandise imports was led by an increase in the importation of mobile phones, watches and cosmetic products, according to DSEC. Exports were dampened by the 77.8 percent fall in the garment sector and a 38.4 percent decline in tobacco.

From January to July 2018, the total value of merchandise exports increased 5.6 percent year-on-year to MOP7.11 billion, with the value of re-exports (MOP6.18 billion) growing by 8.6 percent, but that of domestic exports (MOP930 million) declining by 10.9 percent. Total value of merchandise imports went up by 24.4 percent year-on-

year to MOP50.9 billion.

The merchandise trade deficit widened to MOP43.79 billion in the first seven months of 2018.

Broken down by place of origin, merchandise imports in the first seven months of the year came mostly from mainland China (29.4 percent) and the EU (21.1 percent). Imports from Portuguese-speaking countries amounted to just MOP458 million, while that of Belt and Road countries outside of the greater China region reached MOP4.42 billion.

When analyzed by destination, merchandise exports to the nine provinces of the Pan-Pearl River Delta area (MOP1.15 billion) increased by 3.5 percent year-on- year in the first seven months of 2018, but exports to Shanghai (MOP16 million) dropped by 82.6 percent, resulting in a net 3.9 percent decrease in exports to mainland China (MOP1.18 billion).

Meanwhile, exports to Hong Kong and the EU rose by 8.3 percent and 4.2 percent respectively, and those to Portuguese-speaking countries (MOP24 million) increased notably by more than 3,600 percent year- on-year.Flood prevention works at the Inner Harbor will commence this year, with the project expected to be completed in 2021.

The local government has planned to install a stormwater pumping station between piers 25 and 26 at the inner harbor.

The station will be used to collect rainwater from San Ma Lou and the Municipal Market of Patane.

The water will be collected by culvers with a capacity of 2,200 cubic meters and the water will drain through the pumping unit.

In order to reduce the amount of tidal water, the authority will carry out interception and diversion works by targeting the existing rainwater outlet channels, strengthening the drainage network, and will also improve the road surfaces drainage capacity.

In addition, the SAR government plans to carry out grouting and seepage prevention works along the Inner Harbor.

The government will also build 13 fixed pump wells, improve the anti-backflow facilities at the canal, enhance the drainage capacity, and improve the current measures for seawater inversion.

Finally, the SAR government plans to build a movable tidal gate at the Wan Chai estuary in order to alleviate, in the long-term, the flooding problems in the inner harbor area.Two Malaysian Muslim women convicted under Islamic laws of attempting to have sex were caned yesterday in a rare public whipping that was slammed by lawmakers and rights activists as a form of torture.

Lawyers and activists said the women, aged 22 and 32, were seated on stools facing the judges and given six strokes from a light rattan cane on their backs by female prison officers. More than 100 people witnessed the caning in a Shariah courtroom in northeast Terengganu state, they said.

Muslim Lawyers Association deputy president Abdul Rahim Sinwan said unlike caning under civil laws, the punishment under Islamic laws isnt painful or harsh and was meant to educate the women so they will repent. The women, dressed in white headscarves and clothing, didnt cry or scream but showed remorse, he said.

Repentance is the ultimate aim for their sin, he said.

Human rights groups slammed the punishment as a setback for human rights and said it could worsen discrimination against people in Malaysias lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community.

Caning is a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and may amount to torture, Amnesty International Malaysia said in a statement. People should not live in fear because they are attracted to people of the same sex. The Malaysian authorities must immediately repeal repressive laws, outlaw torturous punishments and ratify the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

Malaysia follows a dual-track justice system. Nearly two-thirds of Malaysias 31 million people are Muslims, who are governed by Islamic courts in family, marriage and personal issues. The two unidentified women were discovered by Islamic officials in April and sentenced last month by a Shariah court to six strokes of a cane and a fine after pleading guilty.

Thilaga Sulathireh, from the group Justice for Sisters who witnessed the caning, said she was shocked by the public spectacle. She said Malaysian laws were inconsistent because civil laws prohibit corporal punishment against female prisoners.

Its a regression of human rights in Malaysia. Its not about the severity of the caning. Corporal punishment is a form of torture regardless of your intention, she said.

Lawmakers also joined in the chorus of condemnation against the public caning.

Islam teaches us to look after the dignity of every human being. And that mercy is preferable to punishment, opposition lawmaker Khairy Jamaluddin tweeted.

Lawmaker Charles Santiago said the government must repeal all laws that criminalize homosexuality.

And this is because we really need to make sure that no one is publicly caned let alone because of their sexuality, he said.

Malaysia is seen as a moderate and stable Muslim-majority country, but Islamic conservatism is on the rise.

The caning occurred amid a climate of fear and discrimination against Malaysias lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. A few weeks ago, authorities removed the portraits of two LGBT rights activists from a public exhibition. Malaysia religious minister Mujahid Yusuf later said the government doesnt support the promotion of LGBT culture. A transgender woman was also beaten up by a group of people in a southern state this month. APShaped like a peanut and smaller than some big-city airports, this tropical Pacific island has an unusual history. Thanks to rich deposits of a fertilizer ingredient, Naurus 11,000 citizens were once among the wealthiest people on earth. But after much of the phosphate was plundered, Nauru squandered its wealth on bad investments, like a 1993 musical about Leonardo da Vinci.

That left the island searching for new sources of income, and in recent years it found an answer by becoming a holding station for hundreds of refugees who tried to reach Australia by boat. Australia designed a policy of keeping boat refugees and asylum seekers far from its shores to deter more of them from trying to make the voyage, but many critics say the policy violates human rights.

The fate of those refugees, including a growing number of children who advocates say are suffering from life-threatening medical conditions, is casting a shadow over the Pacific Islands Forum conference that starts in Nauru today [Macau time]. The forum brings together 18 members including Australia and New Zealand to discuss regional issues.

On the agenda are plans for an enhanced regional security agreement and discussions on the threat that climate change poses for low-lying islands. Chinas growing role in the Pacific will likely be a point of tension, with some forum members favoring diplomatic relations with Taiwan. But Nauru has been eager to limit discussion of the refugees.

For years, Nauru has effectively prevented most journalists from reporting firsthand by charging 8,000 Australian dollars (USD5,750) to apply for a media visa. Nauru has waived the fee for the forum, but has allowed only a handful of journalists and placed restrictions on them.

Many of the more than 600 refugees on the island describe the hopelessness and depression they feel after being stuck in limbo for up to five years. They say theyre not accepted by the locals, and that many of their children dont attend island schools because they are bullied or made to feel unwelcome.

While the U.S. has taken some of the refugees from Nauru under a deal struck by former President Barack Obama and reluctantly accepted by President Donald Trump, many refugees fleeing places like Iran and Somalia say they have no realistic hope of being allowed into the U.S. under its current immigration policies, which has sharpened their sense of despair.

A series of Australian court cases have described how some of the 120 or so refugee children on Nauru have been evacuated because they are suffering from resignation syndrome, a medical condition in which they withdraw socially and stop eating and drinking.

Ahead of the forum, Nauru has hit back at the findings.

Sadly some refugee children on Nauru are being manipulated into self-harm by some of their families (supported by activists) in a disgusting & tragic political game, the government wrote on Twitter. The end goal is to make international headlines & get to Australia. This is the real child abuse.

But Louise Newman, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Melbourne who has advocated for the refugee children, says some of their symptoms are impossible to fake.

To all intents and purposes, they become comatose, she said. Its like they go into hibernation from the overwhelming stress. Their brain switches off engagement with their social environment. They dont respond to pain. Their knee-jerk reflex is absent.

Newman said she has seen four cases of Nauru children aged between about 10 and 14 with resignation syndrome. She said they typically need to be rehydrated intravenously and that full recovery can take a year or more.

Its very confronting, she said. It speaks to me of the terrible consequences of policies that are poorly thought through for children. Australia should not be condoning what amounts to a form of state-sponsored child abuse.

Nauru in recent weeks has dismantled a much-criticized tent encampment that was home to some of the refugee families and relocated them into community housing. On Twitter, Naurus government has denounced media reports that it was trying to polish its image ahead of the forum as #FakeNews.

Fact  its dismantled because no longer needed, the government wrote.

Many of the leaders gathering this week in Nauru have little appetite for intervening in what they see as an issue between Nauru and Australia.

Weve got 50,000 people who are homeless back home, said New Zealands Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters in Nauru, adding we have to help fix their lives up as well before we start taking on new obligations of the level that some people would like.

Aside from the refugee issue, Australia faces other challenges at the forum, said Jonathan Pryke, the director of the Pacific islands program at Australias Lowy Institute, a think tank.

A draft declaration for an enhanced security agreement states that climate change is the biggest risk to the region, Pryke said, yet climate change has become such a toxic issue in Australian politics that it helped topple former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last month.

Turnbulls replacement Scott Morrison is planning to skip the forum, which Pryke said is not a good look, and he will instead send new foreign minister Marise Payne.

I imagine theyll have to hold their nose to sign off on the declaration, Pryke said of the Australian delegation.

He said that as a tiny island, Nauru, which has been independent for 50 years, has limited options for making money. Despite that, Pryke said, it has managed to confound pessimists by surviving several boom-and-bust periods and the sometimes extravagant lifestyles of its political elite.

After losing the money from the phosphate, Pryke said, Nauru, which is just 21 square kilometers (8 square miles), remade itself first as a tax haven and money laundering hub and later as the camp for Australias refugees.

They have been a bit of a chameleon when it comes to generating new revenue, he said. Its a good income source for them now. But it does come at the cost of the wellbeing for individuals who are on the island against their will. Its hard to justify. Nick Perry, Nauru, APKeeping traditional Portuguese flavors authentic while cooking in Macau is a task that seems difficult to some. Others decide to take different approaches to Portuguese traditional food by adapting it to a different audience  the Asian customer.

But there are exceptions, and some of the local entrepreneurs have started to see the advantages of keeping traditional food authentic. That seems to be the case of chef Pedro Almeida and his local partner, who they decided to bring to Macau the centenary tastes of northern Portugal through a snack that has existed for more than 150 years.

This idea was the genesis of Pasteis de Chaves  Macau, a snack shop located at Travessa da Se a few steps away from the tourist-filled Senado Square in central Macau.

The shop sells precisely the Pastel de Chaves, a snack originating from the city of Chaves in Northern Portugal in 1862.

This flaky pastry is very popular in the Portuguese district of Vila Real, and was traditionally made using a minced beef-based filling. Despite staying faithful to its roots, the pastry has evolved and modern recipes include new fillings such as chicken, codfish and even sweet flavors.

Opened just a couple of months ago, the business has been running as expected, business partner and chef Almeida told the Times, revealing that the small business is part of a bigger plan that aims to bring traditional Portuguese flavors to the region.

My partner, who is also a major stakeholder, is local, but he believes a lot in the potential of Portuguese products. The Pasteis de Chaves was the second (out of four planned) projects under the motto of 100 percent Portuguese. There are two more projects underway but I can say we will continue this path of respecting the Portuguese traditional gastronomy and not create mixed or fusion cuisines of any kind, Almeida said. We are trying to create something here with strong roots. We are taking this slowly and calmly, and as the shop is owned by us we do not need to submit to the extreme pressure [unlike many others] to pay the rent.

This advantageous position has given the chef more freedom to try to follow the trends in Portugal and bring them to Macau:

We can play a little, we can experiment with new flavors. Namely, we are about to start to make one sweet flavor, as we have many visitors that enter the shop and ask if that is a sweet snack and many give up coming when they know there isnt. As with the savory beef and chicken flavors, the sweet one will also be made with products from Portugal and that can deliver Portuguese authenticity [in taste].

We aim to keep the quality and thats why we are producing small quantities, although we have the capacity to produce more and accept more orders. We choose not to as we want to go slowly and step-by-step.

Responsible for faithfully recreating the northern Portuguese snack, Almeida told the Times, I was born in Chaves and Im a chef. I had an idea already how the pastries were made but still I went to a special training in Chaves and when returned I started to produce it here.

Although acknowledging that there are other Pasteis de Chaves already on the market in Macau that come directly from Portugal frozen, the ones sold at this shop are made locally.

We started to produce the Pastel de Chaves in a bite size version due to the shop location and the fact that most people that visit us want to try several different things, while the traditional size [in Portugal] is a bit bigger.

Currently, the best seller continues to be the traditional beef flavor but the chicken is also a good option as there are many people that do not eat beef. Coming soon will be the novelty of the sweet pastry that will be made with fig leaf gourd.In order to strengthen storm surge monitoring and forecasting capabilities, the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) is co-operating with the Pearl River Hydraulic Research Institute from Zhuhai to actively gather marine meteorological observations from the respective sea areas.

On Friday, the SMG issued a statement announcing the co-operation. By the end of this year, it is expected that Macau will be able to receive real-time surveillance data from weather buoys built by the Zhuhai institute.

Data will include the water depth, sea currents, wave height, wind speed, wind direction and atmospheric pressure, among other classes of marine meteorological data.

The observations are believed to extend the local districts meteorological monitoring range from the land to the nearby sea area, and from meteorology to hydrology, so as to allow the SMG to better understand the meteorological and hydrological variations in the sea area close to the city.

The observations are expected to provide important references regarding the monitoring and forecasting of storm surge.

In total, there are five weather buoys sending information to the SMG. These five buoys are located below the Sai Van Bridge, in the east sea area of the Macau Peninsula, at the southeastern border of the Macau sea area, at the mouth of Mo Dao Men on the southwest of Macau and at the mouth of Huang Mao Bay on the southwest sea border of Macau.

The Zhuhai Institute is a direct affiliate of the Pearl River Water Resources Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources of China.

According to the SMG, the institute has extensive experience in hydrological monitoring in the Pearl River estuary, and over the years, the institute has devoted itself to conduct extensive research on the Pearl River estuary and has installed many other weather buoys in the sea.This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. AcceptThe next round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports  USD200 billion worth  could come as soon as this week, after talks to avert them ended without resolution. China is set to retaliate promptly with duties on nearly everything it imports from the United States. Even as he signaled an initial deal with Mexico, President Donald Trump declared it wasnt time to restart negotiations with China; administration hardliners appear to believe that the Chinese economy is more fragile than it looks, increasing U.S. leverage. For their part, Chinese negotiators seem resigned to wait until after the U.S. midterm elections before pushing for new talks.

Both sides should instead climb down while they still can.

Chinas apparent nonchalance suggests it still wants an easy way out of this conflict. Its negotiators have reportedly offered to buy more U.S. commodities  to bring down the bilateral trade deficit  and to refrain from devaluing Chinas currency to boost exports. But these moves would not address the main issue: Chinas failure to live up to its World Trade Organization obligations, especially in the way it bolsters its own high-tech sector through massive subsidies and by forcing foreign companies to transfer technology.

China continues to insist its a developing nation that should be allowed scope to build up infant industries, even as it deflects pressure to open up cloud computing and other technologies by citing national-security concerns. And now worldwide anger at Trumps trade bluster seems to have persuaded Chinese leaders that they have global opinion on their side.

Theyre wrong. U.S. concerns about Chinas trade barriers, discrimination against foreign companies, and attempts to procure technology by any means are well-founded and widely shared. By ignoring or downplaying them, or taking half-measures to address them, China has already lost credibility internationally.

Chinas reluctance to reform runs counter to its long- term interests as well. Its pushed to the breaking point the multilateral trading system that has enabled the countrys remarkable four-decade expansion  at a time when its economy is at risk of stalling before the country can break out of middle-income status. Meanwhile, the subsidies and market barriers associated with its Made in China 2025 industrial plan are as likely to encourage fraud, inefficiency and waste as they are to generate innovation. China could foster greater competition and attract more investment by establishing a level playing field.

For its part, the Trump administration could best meet its own desire for improved trade by giving China room to adjust course. Chinese officials are justifiably confused about who speaks for the White House in trade talks. The good-cop-bad-cop routine that till now has balanced a more conciliatory Treasury department against hardliners in the U.S. Trade Representatives office has exhausted whatever negotiating value it may have once had. If the U.S. wants to extract reforms from China, it needs a set of clear, focused, consistent and reasonable demands, paired with firm enforcement mechanisms. It also needs to reestablish trust that the U.S. government will stand by any deal, despite Trumps shifting whims.

For the U.S. to drag out matters in an effort to bring the Chinese economy to its knees would be foolhardy. Leave aside the fact that any Chinese slowdown would hammer global growth and hence the U.S. economy. If the U.S. backs Chinese President Xi Jinping into a corner, its leverage will only diminish. Xi, who has promised to restore China to its rightful place at the center of the global economy, cant afford to be publicly bested by Trump. At a certain point, compromise will for him become impossible, regardless of what that means for Chinas gross national product.

Trump should be seeking concessions from China, not total capitulation. As he himself has said about how to succeed in negotiating any deal: You cant be too greedy. The Editors, BloombergABC RadioFans from 49 states and Australia traveled to Buena Vista, Colorado for Dierks Bentleys first-ever Seven Peaks Music Festival over Labor Day weekend.

"Its going to take a few days, maybe weeks, for me to process that Seven Peaks actually happened, and happened at the highest possible level, Dierks reflects. Everything about this journey was so special, from the initial seed of an idea, to the last song sung on Sunday night.

He adds, I couldnt be more proud of the team that came together to create this, and the fans that adopted the festival so quickly and easily, and have made it their own. Without a doubt I can say this festival is at the very top of any career achievements Ive had.

Dierks greeted campers as they arrived on Friday, before joining Sawyer Brown onstage for their hit Some Girls Do and helping Clint Black out on Killing Time.

On Saturday, Dierks joined both Kiefer Sutherland and Brothers Osborne during their sets, while Sunday offered the rare opportunity to do his #1 single, Different for Girls, with his duet partner on the record, Elle King.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Philippines authorities have announced they are looking to repatriate all their nationals living illegally in Kuwait, which has extended amnesty for residency violators.

The ambassador of the Asian country to Kuwait told Kuwait Times that the mission has been receiving applications from hundreds of Filipinos seeking to return home voluntarily.

We have applications pouring every day and we hope they will be cleared soon so they can go back home, Philippines ambassador to Kuwait Rene Villa said.

Kuwait has extended amnesty for illegal migrants. The initial deadline of February 22 has been extended to April 22.

There are up to 130,000 illegal residents in the Gulf country.

Manila has already begun the repatriation of its nationals residing in Kuwait as part of its policy to protect Filipinos working there from abuses.

President Rodrigo Dutret this month announced his governments decision to dispatch free charter flights to fly out nationals.

The plan, according to Filipino authorities, is to return 10,000 residency violators. 2,500 have been so far repatriated and a further 2,500 will soon follow.

President Dutret is expected to visit Kuwait early next month in a move to calm the diplomatic tension that has birthed off lately between the two countries over reported abuses and violations suffered by Filipino workers.

A new labor agreement is expected to be signed during Dutrets visit early March.The US has vetoed a draft text providing for extending protection to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

The text proposed by Kuwait garnered 10 votes in favor, but the US vetoed the text, which it said failed to even mention Hamas, and the groups responsibility for protecting civilians. Four countries abstained.

The draft would have urged the Security Council to consider measures to guarantee the safety and protection of Palestinian civilians and requests a report from the UN Secretary-General on a possible international protection mechanism.

The US has tabled its own draft text that would have called on Hamas and Islamic Jihad to cease all violent activity and provocative actions, including along the boundary fence. This text did not get any support except from the US itself, with three Security Council Members rejecting it and 11 abstaining.

Several members said the US text was tabled without prior consultation, and did not take into account the overall context of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Before voting on the Kuwaiti text, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said that the terrorist group Hamas bore primary responsibility for the awful living conditions faced by civilians in Gaza.

A necessary precondition for peace is recognition of reality. One of those realities is that Hamas is a major impediment to peace. They are in charge of Gaza, and they use their resources not to help the people of Gaza but to wage war against Israel, she said.

Another reality is when the United Nations sides with terrorists over Israel, as the Kuwait resolution does, it only makes a peaceful resolution of this conflict harder to reach, she added.

Immediately following the US veto, Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi, Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the UN, said that the failed resolution had been submitted on behalf of the Arab countries and has been supported by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at its recent summit in Istanbul.

We deplore that the Council failed to adopt the resolution, which stipulates protection should be provided to the Palestinians who he said were in dire need and enduring a tragic situation in the face of massacres by Israel, the occupying Power, he said.

The UN had repeatedly called for calm last month along the border of the Gaza Strip  the Palestinian enclave occupied by Israel  where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians participated in the Great March of Return from 30 March to 15 May.

But at the climax of demonstrations on 14 May to mark al-Nakba or the Catastrophe, by which Palestinians remember their mass displacement during the 1948-1949 war, at least 60 Palestinians were killed at the border fence by Israel security forces who fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas.

They were protesting United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the official opening that day of its embassy there.Turkish Interior Minister has opposed the presence of leaders of leading opposition party Republican Peoples Party (CHP) at the funerals of Turkish soldiers killed by militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), over the partys support to the Kurdish cause.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has barred CHP provincial Chiefs from attending the funerals of the soldiers slain in the fight against PKK fighters.

Ankara has blacklisted the group as terror group. Western countries have also pegged it as a terror movement.

The CHP condemned the ban decision, saying it could incite conflict.

The partys spokesperson, Bulent Tezcan, described the decision as polarizing and said Soylu should resign.

Ankara also accused the CHP to be lenient towards the PKK and being supportive of Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), an opposition party that Ankara considered to be the political arm of the PKK.

Some CHP supporters ahead of the June 24 election suggested that they would vote for HDP to ensure the pro-Kurdish party exceeded the 10 percent threshold required to enter Turkeys parliament, Reuters reports. The pro-Kurish party did better as it scored nearly 12 per cent.Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The world's first clinical trial (SURGUVANT) evaluating anti-inflammatory use at the time of surgery in colon cancer patients to improve their cancer outcome has been published in scientific journal, BMC Cancer.

The research successfully tested an anti-inflammatory agent with anti-cancer properties known as Taurolidine in the SURGUVANT trial which was funded by a grant from Geistlich Pharma AG, Wolhusen, Switzerland. The research was undertaken by researchers at RCSI in Dublin in collaboration with the Cork University Hospital group, University College Cork, Mercy University Hospital and the Bon Secours Hospital, Cork led by Professor Paul Redmond, RCSI Council member and Chair of Surgery at Cork University Hospital and Mr Peter O'Leary, CUH Department of Surgery.

The Surguvant trial examined a link between surgical inflammation and the recurrence of cancer. The trial randomised patients undergoing surgery for colon cancer to either a placebo or 2 percent Taurolidine solution. The trial reported that important components of the inflammatory response to surgery that have been shown to propagate tumour cell growth, can be attenuated successfully without compromising patient safety.

"We are delighted that this important clinical trial could be performed in Ireland. The Surguvant trial is the first of its kind to be performed worldwide showing that it is safe to use Taurolidine in this critical period of time for cancer patients where they are exposed to an inflammatory response necessary for wound healing but which can be potentially detrimental to their cancer outcome," said Professor Redmond. "Now that we have proven the safety of this treatment strategy, it remains to be demonstrated if targeting the inflammatory response to surgery will lead to improved outcomes for cancer patients. We hope to do this in much larger future trials."

Explore further New Omega-3 trial for secondary liver cancer surgery

More information: H. Paul Redmond et al. RandomiSed clinical trial assessing Use of an anti-inflammatoRy aGent in attenUating peri-operatiVe inflAmmatioN in non-meTastatic colon cancer  the S.U.R.G.U.V.A.N.T. trial, BMC Cancer (2018). Journal information: BMC Cancer H. Paul Redmond et al. RandomiSed clinical trial assessing Use of an anti-inflammatoRy aGent in attenUating peri-operatiVe inflAmmatioN in non-meTastatic colon cancer  the S.U.R.G.U.V.A.N.T. trial,(2018). DOI: 10.1186/s12885-018-4641-xMicroglia (pink) are a sort of garbage disposal for the brain. They quickly engulf small protein-coated latex balls and digest them Credit: Susanne Wolf, MDC

Microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, differ in male and female mice. MDC researchers have reported on the sex-specific features in Cell Reports. Their findings could change how we treat neurological diseases.

Microglia monitor the brain's health around the clock, much like a battalion of tiny soldiers. When the cells sense pathogens or an injury through their movable projections, they rush to the trouble spotand try to save that which is still salvageable.

But they do so quite differently depending on the animal's sex. "We were really surprised to find so many differences between the microglia of male and female mice," says Dr. Susanne Wolf, senior author of the study published in the journal Cell Reports, and researcher in the Cellular Neurosciences Lab at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin.

Male cells are always ready for action

Together with colleagues at Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin and a group of researchers from Warsaw, Wolf conducted a study on the structure and function of microglia, using brain slices and isolated cells. "It turns out that the brains of male mice have more microglia," says Wolf. And, according to the researcher, that's not the only difference: the cell bodies of male brain immune cells are larger than their female counterparts.

She and her team also determined not only which genes are active in the male and female cells, but also which proteins are produced by these genes. "We identified more than 1,000 genes and 300 to 400 proteins that are regulated differently according to sex," says Wolf. Many of them, she adds, are more active in male microgliasuch as those that are involved in the production of defense molecules.

What's more, everything suggests that the male cells also act differently than female cells. "The microglia of male animals seem to be permanently at attention, ready to strike and keep order," Wolf says, adding that tests show there are higher voltage levels in the membranes of male cells even when they are idle. And, according to the researcher, the cell surface contains more of those proteins responsible for stimulating T cells during inflammation.

In another experiment, the team of researchers treated microglia with the signaling molecule ATP, which is released in greater amounts when the brain suffers an injury. "We discovered that male cells respond much more robustly to ATP than their female counterpartsa response that includes higher ion currents and increased production of certain proteins, among other things," explains Wolf.

Female microglia have better survival skills

Male microglia, says the researcher, appear to wear themselves out faster because of their constant alertness. "In the female cells, proteins and genes responsible for protecting cells, such as DNA repair genes, are more active," Wolf explains. "In the male cells, on the other hand, we see increased activity of genes involved in initiating programmed cell death." This means, she adds, that male microglia might be less protected against environmental insults and quicker to activate the cellular suicide program.

"It almost seems as if the male cells are more willing to take risks than the female ones," says the study's first author Dilansu Guneykaya, a Ph.D. student at the MDC. "They almost always react faster, but as a result they sometimes seem to put themselves in danger."

Another study recently published in Cell Reports also confirms that the thrill-seeking nature of male microglia does not always pay off. "The Italian researchers were able to show that the cells of male mice had a harder time dealing with an experimentally induced stroke than the microglia of female mice," reports Wolf. "But when female microglial cells were implanted in the brains of male mice, the effects of vascular obstruction were less severe in these rodents."

Therapies need to take greater account of differences

As early as 2010, reports Guneykaya, researchers criticized in the journal Nature that male animals are used in neuroscience studies much more than female animalspointing out that this practice could distort findings. "Our study clearly confirms this hunch: the brain immune cells of both sexes act very differently," says Guneykaya. It is crucial, she adds, that this insight be taken into account in future research on neurological, and especially, psychiatric disorders.

"At the University of Groningen, with whom we collaborate closely, there are plans to repeat our murine experiments with human brain material taken from recently deceased donors," reports Wolf. But, she adds, already today researchers conducting patient studies to test medications for neurological disorders must be aware of the fact the brains of men and woman could respond very differently to the same agent.

"Sex-specific differences can also be seen in the frequency of neurological disorders," add Wolf. Autism, for example, is about four times more prevalent among boys than girls. In contrast, about twice as many women than men suffer from multiple sclerosis. "The differences are there, but are not yet sufficiently taken into account when treating patients," says Wolf. She adds that she hopes her study will help change this.

Explore further Immune cells in the brain have surprising influence on sexual behaviorThree-dimensional culture of human breast cancer cells, with DNA stained blue and a protein in the cell surface membrane stained green. Image created in 2014 by Tom Misteli, Ph.D., and Karen Meaburn, Ph.D. at the NIH IRP.

A large genomic analysis has linked certain DNA mutations to a high risk of relapse in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, while other mutations were associated with better outcomes, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of British Columbia.

The knowledge could help predict which patients are most likely to have their cancer return and spread, and could help guide treatment decisions. It also opens the door to developing more aggressive treatments for patients with the newly identified high-risk mutations.

The study appears Sept. 4 in the journal Nature Communications.

The researchers analyzed tumor samples from more than 2,500 patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, one of the most common forms of the disease. These cancer cells have receptors that bind to the hormone estrogen in the nucleus of the cell and drive tumor growth.

More than 266,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer each year, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 70 percent of cases are estrogen receptor positive.

ER positive breast cancer patients have a number of treatment options that block the estrogen receptor to stop tumor growth. Such hormonal therapies are effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy and radiation. But some tumors develop resistance to these treatments, mutating in ways that fuel growth independent of the presence of estrogen. These types of mutations are of great interest because they are responsible for the majority of deaths due to breast cancer.

"We would like to help doctors identify patients who are likely to do well versus those who are likely to have a recurrence," said first author Obi L. Griffith, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine and an assistant director of The McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine. "Those with mutations that are associated with a good prognosis may need less intensive therapy than they might otherwise receive. But if a patient's tumor has mutations linked to high risk of relapse, it's useful to know that early so they can be treated with more aggressive therapies or even potential investigational therapies that could be targeted to their specific mutations."

The new study confirmed past work showing that relatively common mutations in genes called MAP3K1 and TP53 had opposite effects on tumor aggressiveness. Patients with MAP3K1 mutations did well, while those with TP53 mutations were likely to have a recurrence. The study also identified three genesDDR1, PIK3R1 and NF1with relatively uncommon mutations that were associated with cancer recurrence and spreading.

"Although mutations in DDR1 and NF1 are considered rare, they are associated with early relapse, which makes them much more common in patients who unfortunately die from the disease and, thus, could be critical therapeutic targets," said Matthew J. Ellis, MB, BChir, Ph.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine. "Their identification also gives us very important molecular clues into the nature of aggressive tumor behavior."

"It is likely that these genes will now be included in gene panel tests, particularly when clinical trials are developed that target these mutations," Ellis added.

One unique element of this study was the age of the samples. Many were over 20 years old, allowing the researchers to know the full history of how the patients fared. But unlike more recent cancer sequencing studies, neither healthy tissue nor blood samples from those patients were collected or stored alongside the tumor. That means the old tumor samples couldn't be compared with normal DNA from the same patients. Comparing the DNA of healthy tissue versus tumor tissue in the same patient can help identify mutations driving the cancer.

According to co-first author Nicholas C. Spies, a graduate student in Griffith's lab, scientists now have enough healthy genomes sequenced to be able to compare, on a broad population level, normal genomes to cancer genomes and use big data bioinformatics methods to pull out the mutations likely to be driving cancer, even in old samples that can't be directly compared with healthy DNA from the same patient.

The researchers also pointed out the importance of continuing to sequence cancer genomes.

"With all the breast cancer sequencing that's been done, it's tempting to think we've found everything of importance," Griffith said. "But this study tells us there is still more to discover."

Explore further Study sheds new light on mechanism of breast cancer treatment resistance

More information: Griffith OL, Spies NC, Anurag M, et al. Prognostic effects of somatic mutations in ER-positive breast cancer. Nature Communications. Sept. 4, 2018. Journal information: Nature Communications Griffith OL, Spies NC, Anurag M, et al. Prognostic effects of somatic mutations in ER-positive breast cancer.. Sept. 4, 2018.Policemen wearing masks provided by the American Red Cross in Seattle, 1918. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

To judge by the popularity of films like World War Z, pandemics are in vogue and none more so than the Spanish influenza of 1918-19. To mark the centenary of the pandemic this autumn, the BBC has commissioned Spanish Flu: In their own words, a major television docudrama on the pandemic, while 2018 has already seen the publication of several new titles revisiting the science and history of the flu.

Curious then that for the first 50 years after the Spanish flu swept around the globe, killing about 50-100m people, no one  least of all historians  gave it much thought, concentrating instead on the far more compelling story of the Great War. Indeed, in 1924 the Encyclopedia Britannica didn't even mention the pandemic in its review of the "most eventful years" of the 20th century.

This neglect of the "Spanish influenza"  so-called because Spain was one of the few countries in 1918 to report the spreading illness  extended to the public sphere, hence the marked absence of memorials to the nurses and civilians, most of them young adults, who perished in the three waves of infection.

Why this should have been the case puzzled commentators at the time. "Never since the Black Death has such a plague swept over the face of the world  [and] never, perhaps, has a plague been more stoically accepted," commented The Times in December 1918, at the height of the deadly second wave of the pandemic.

Major Greenwood, who co-wrote Britain's official report on the pandemic, was similarly perplexed, remarking in 1935 that "there is some psychological interest in the fact  that actually the emotional impression created [by the influenza pandemic] was fainter than that produced by much less grave epidemiological happenings".

Bad timing

One obvious reason was the way that the pandemic was overshadowed by World War I. The second wave of the pandemic coincided with the Allied assault on Cambrai in October 1918 and the collapse of the Hindenburg Line. Then in mid-November, just as flu deaths were peaking, came the armistice. The result was that many families buried their dead to the sounds of bells and hooters as people flocked to the streets to celebrate the peace.

Burying flu victims, North River, Newfoundland and Labrador (1918). Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Another was that at the time people had little appreciation of the scale of the mortality (in 1927, epidemiologists estimated the global death toll at just 21m).

But perhaps the most important reason is that, unlike the soldiers who gave their lives for king and country, the flu dead did not readily lend themselves to narratives of nationalism and sacrifice. Instead, they became the forgotten fallen.

So when did historians wake up to the 1918 pandemic? The answer appears to be around 1968. That was the year that the author Charles Graves, prompted by a new pandemic of "Hong Kong" flu, published Invasion by Virus. This was followed in 1974 by Richard Collier's Plague of the Spanish Lady. Drawing on the personal testimonies of over 1,700 flu survivors, Collier was the first to capture the horror and panic as the flu circumnavigated the globe. However, his narrative was episodic and lacked a true historical perspective.

It was left to the environmental historian Alfred Crosby in his 1976 book Epidemic and Peace to place the pandemic in the context of other great scourges of the past, such as the Black Death, which killed an estimated 40-70m in the middle decades of the 14th century.

Crosby was also the first to argue that the pandemic had had a significant impact on history by sickening the US president, Woodrow Wilson, at a critical juncture of the Versailles peace negotiations in Paris in April 1919. The result was that the American delegation acceded to French president George Clemenceau's demands that the Germans pay harsh reparations, sowing the seeds, claimed Crosby, for the rise of Nazism and the second great conflict of the 20th century.

Anything but forgotten

However, Crosby's book made little impact until 1989 when, in the wake of the AIDS pandemic, his publishers reissued it under the new title of America's Forgotten Pandemic. The sobriquet struck a chord, prompting historians from other countries to pen similar accounts recalling the impact of the "forgotten pandemic" on Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Spain.

Today, the Spanish flu is anything but forgotten. On the contrary, the interest in the 1918-19 pandemic is so great that one prominent medical historian, better known for his writings on the Black Death, has taken to referring to the Spanish flu as "the Great One". It would be hard to imagine a clearer admission that the 1918 pandemic's time is now.

Explore further Data gathering can't prevent a new influenza pandemic

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Herbalists mostly recommend treating underlying physiological condition through herbal remedies. Credit: UNAMID/Flickr

The use of non-biomedical methods to treat mental disorders in developing countries, like Ghana, has long been acknowledged. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about 80% of people who need mental health care in developing countries go to indigenous or faith healers for care.

Some studies have been done to explain the popular use of non-biomedical health care alternatives, and various reasons have been suggested. These include an alignment of the illness beliefs of patients and healers, easier or more flexible accessibility, and cost.

But many of these studies of non-biomedical health care systems in Africa tend to assess the healers as one homogeneous group of practitioners. In our study, we argued that different types of healers may hold different worldviews. These in turn influence how they conceptualise or think about different disorders.

We conducted interviews with 36 participants from four different categories of non-biomedical healers in Ghana's capital Accra. The categories of healers were herbalists, Pentecostal Christian faith healers, traditional medicine men (also called shrine priests) and Muslim clerics/healers.

Using case vignettes, we examined the healers' notions about three different types of mental disorders  schizophrenia, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We examined their ideas about the nature and perceived effects of the different disorders, as well as their thoughts on the causes.

Understanding the different beliefs about different disorders is important in efforts to improve mental health care in developing countries. In particular, with increased calls for collaboration between biomedical and non-biomedical health care systems, it's important to understand how the different groups of healers think about different conditions.

Different views on different conditions

Our data suggest that indigenous and faith healers' views on psychotic illness were similar to biomedical notions. But they held different views on depression and PTSD. These views were fluid, and obviously influenced the choice of treatments they offered patients.

All the healers readily identified the case vignette of schizophrenia as an example of mental disorder. This was often described as "madness" by the healers. Some local names that the healers used included "abdam", "dam" and "sk". These names are often used to describe people whose behaviour is perceived as disruptive, disorganised or overtly dysfunctional.

Although the participants believed spiritual factors like witchcraft and curses could cause such a condition, they were also aware that certain physiological processes (such as traumatic brain injury) as well as abuse of drugs and alcohol could account for it. They all considered it to be a severe condition which required urgent intervention.

So for this psychotic disorder there weren't major differences in the views of the various categories of healers, and their views were similar to biomedical understanding of psychotic disorders.

But this wasn't the case for all the disorders.

For example, most of the healers were quite firm in their views that post-traumatic stress disorder was not a mental disorder. Rather, they considered it to be a normal reaction to a traumatic experience. The healers thus endorsed more psychosocial explanations for PTSD.

Depending on their orientation, they described different causes for the symptoms of PTSD. For example, pastors, described PTSD as being due to the presence of a "spirit of fear". Some herbalists also believed the symptoms were physiological manifestations of "thinking too much".

Given these different notions of cause, their recommended treatments also varied. However, all the participants emphasised the need for some form of counselling. In most cases, the healers believed that PTSD could develop into full-blown "madness" (ie disruptive/psychotic behaviours) if left untreated.

There was a great deal of difference between the healers when it came to depression. Most of the herbalists had physiological explanations for the symptoms and did not consider depression to be a mental disorder. For their part, the traditional medicine men viewed depression as a milder form of mental illness. Some pastors did identify the condition as depression, while the Muslim clerics saw it as potentially resulting from Jinn possession.

As expected, the recommended treatments were based on the identified cause. For instance, the herbalists mostly recommended treating the underlying physiological condition through herbal remedies. The pastors advocated biomedical care as well as spiritual interventions like prayer and fasting.

Collaborating

In many African countries traditional and faith healers are viewed as community leaders and their views are likely to reflect those of their patients. Consequently, biomedical professionals who treat patients who are also seeking help from indigenous and faith healers, would benefit from understanding the different beliefs about different disorders. This can then form an important part of clinical training and practice.

In addition to this, the healers' positions of influence within their communities is a unique opportunity to enhance the reintegration and monitoring of patients once they return to their communities. Their influence can also play a key role in fostering patient behaviour change and treatment compliance, as well as eliminating stigma.

But this can be done only through appropriate collaboration with community-based healers. It can only work effectively if there's an appreciation of the different views of different healers. Understanding this diversity of approach may be crucial in developing a framework for collaboration amongst different types of healers (including biomedical practitioners) to improve mental health care.

Explore further Study finds traditional healers contribute to HIV care delays

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.In 2014, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a law requiring a 1:1 or 2:1 patient-to-nurse staffing ratio in intensive care units (ICU) in the state, as guided by a tool that accounts for patient acuity and anticipated care intensity. The regulations were intended to ensure patient safety in the state's ICUs, but new research led by physician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published today in Critical Care Medicine found the staffing regulations were not associated with improved patient outcomes.

"We hypothesized that Massachusetts ICU nurse staffing regulations would result in decreased complications and mortality for critically ill patients when compared with patients admitted to ICUs across the country unaffected by Massachusetts regulations," said lead author Anica C. Law, MD, core faculty at the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and staff physician in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at BIDMC. "But we did not identify improvements in patient outcomes associated with the state's nursing requirements."

The research team examined records from 246 medical centers nationwide, comparing patient outcomes in Massachusetts' six academic ICUs with outcomes in 114 out-of-state academic ICUs before, during and after the state mandate was implemented.

The Massachusetts regulations mandated 1:1 or 2:1 patient-to-nurse ratios, based upon patient acuity and anticipated care intensity. Academic ICUs were required to comply with the new regulations by March 31, 2016, while all other hospitals had until January 31, 2017. Analyzing tens of thousands of ICU admissions records, Law and colleagues focused on the change in mortality rates for patients in Massachusetts' academic ICUs before and after the mandate was implemented, compared with patients hospitalized in out-of-state hospitals; other analyses looked at changes occurring at community, non-academic ICUs and among a group of the sickest patients who received support from a ventilator. The team also analyzed the rate of complications, including central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, hospital-acquired pressure ulcers and patient falls with injury.

The researchers found modest increases in ICU nurse staffing ratios in Massachusetts before and after the mandates implementation, demonstrating a change from 1.38 patients per nurse to 1.28 patients per nurse. However, these increases were not significantly higher than staffing trends in states without state-mandated ICU staffing regulations, suggesting nurse staffing increases in Massachusetts could not be attributed to the state legislation. Law and colleagues also found that risk of mortality and risk of complications in Massachusetts' ICUs remained stable after the law's implementation, with no significant difference in trends compared to out-of-state hospitals.

"Our results suggest that the Massachusetts nursing regulations were not associated with changes in staffing or patient outcomes," said Law. "The modest changes in nurse staffing we saw in Massachusettsapproximately one extra nurse per 20-bed ICU per 12-hour shiftremained unassociated with changes in hospital mortality."

Explore further Greater collaboration between ICU nurses and ICU physicians may minimize VAP risk

More information: Anica C. Law et al, Patient Outcomes After the Introduction of Statewide ICU Nurse Staffing Regulations, Critical Care Medicine (2018). Journal information: Critical Care Medicine Anica C. Law et al, Patient Outcomes After the Introduction of Statewide ICU Nurse Staffing Regulations,(2018). DOI: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000003286Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Do you have a dream job? New evidence says that, rather than finding your passion, you should develop it instead.

The English language is full of well intentioned mantras. "Follow your passion" is a commonly peddled phrase, one that has really resonated with Millennials around the world.

If life were a Disney movie, then "finding your passion" would lead to The Onethe dream job. Happily ever employed.

But much like Prince Charming with dashing good looks, a castle and the perfect ability to harmonise, we must wonder if dream jobs really exist. And could pursuing them be limiting our potential?

New research has found that our mindsets about interests and passions have implications for the way we navigate our world. They can influence how we explore opportunities and overcome challenges and may have implications for how successful our careers are.

The most interesting man in the womb

"I came out of the womb a musician" is the kind of expression you might hear from someone with a fixed mindset of interest. Someone with a fixed mindset believes that interests and passions are inherent. They were born loving music, and they'll love music (and only music) until they die.

On the other hand, a growth mindset of interest embraces the idea that interests are developed. They can change, and with cultivation, they will grow. Someone with a growth mindset is more likely to think I've never tried playing a musical instrument, but that doesn't mean I can't give it a go.

It's a subtle but significant psychological difference.

In a study of 126 university students at Stanford University, it was found that students with a growth mindset were more likely to express excitement about a new topic, an eagerness to learn more about it and even consider pursuing a career in the field.

Students with a stronger, fixed theory were less enthusiastic about topics that fell outside their core interest.

But a willingness to explore novel areas is not where the influence of a growth mindset ends.

Does passion equal endless motivation?

Students with a fixed mindset of interest were more likely to believe that a person who had found their passion would be endlessly motivated to pursue it.

No challenge too great, no hurdle too high. And procrastination? Non-existent once you've found your passion.

But students with a growth mindset suggested otherwise. "I think that pursuing a passion is never simply easy and fun. It is challenging, and that is what makes the pursuit rewarding," reported one student.

Which is all very well on paper. But what effectif anydo these mindsets have on students when they tackle challenges in real life?

Theories of interest in action

"Early in college, students often take a class because the topic sparks their interest. Astronomy, for example, can seem fascinating. The vastness of space and the possibility of life in a galaxy far, far away beg to be explored," wrote the researchers.

"But what happens when the material becomes difficult, the concepts abstract and the mathematics challenging?"

Researchers began to answer this question by first piquing students' interest in black holes with a popular science video. This one, in fact:

When they asked the students how interested they were in black holes, the response (on average) was "fascinated".

But when the students were asked to read an academic paper on black holes, an interesting divergence occurred.

The paper in question, Evidence for Black Holes, was not overwhelmingly difficult, said researcher Dr. Paul O'Keefe. It sat "in the sweet-spot of difficulty". But even this moderate challenge seemed to have a great effect on students with a fixed mindset, whose interest in black holes plummeted.

But for students with a growth theory? In spite of finding the article content difficult, their interest in black holes was maintained.

So what does this difference indicate?

Eggs, baskets, etc.

Because people with a fixed mindset believe passions provide motivation, when they inevitably come up against a challenge, they may begin to think this is difficult so it must not be right for me.

As the researchers write, "urging people to find their passion may lead them to put all their eggs in one basket but then to drop that basket when it becomes difficult to carry".

People with a growth mindset on the other hand are more likely to anticipate challenges and less likely to drop their interest when they occur.

Naturalising growth

When teachers read about this research that demonstrates the potential impact of growth mindsets, often their first instinct is to rush to organise more opportunities for students, says Paul. He says this is well intentioned but ineffective.

"What matters is not how many opportunities are provided but the motivation behind the exploration of opportunities. Are students genuinely exploring and experimenting? Or are they hunting down The One?"

"The message to find your passion is generally offered with good intentions to convey: Do not worry so much about talent, do not bow to pressure for status or money, just find what is meaningful and interesting to you." But the mindset that accompanies this message may actually undermine the overall development of people's interests.

It seems that telling people to find their passion might do more harm than good. It may be of greater use to help people develop a growth mindset and make them aware that having one puts you in a better position to navigate both school and work as well as any other interest you may have.

Is there a catchy mantra that will allow us to neatly package that information?

Probably not. But that doesn't matter.

Paul suggests it's not what we say but what we do that is most important in fostering this approach to life. If young people can see that their parents and teachers embody a growth mindset, it will become natural for them to think the same way.

So let's show students that you don''t need to find The One to be happily ever employed. If we can help them understand that interests can change and be developed, they just might live happily ever after.

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.Credit: Marco Uliana, Shutterstock

Vector-borne diseases account for more than 17 % of all infectious diseases, causing over 700 000 deaths annually, according to a factsheet by the World Health Organization (WHO). These are infections transmitted by vectors like mosquitoes, ticks, flies, sandflies and fleas. Under an initiative to support research in this field, the EU-funded INFRAVEC2 project recently unveiled its revamped online shop and website.

As explained in a press release on the INFRAVEC2 website, the products on offer include colonies of mosquitoes not previously available, such as Anopheles atroparvus, a widespread European species. This was the major vector of human malaria until Europe was declared malaria-free in 1975. According to the website, "[t]his species would be able to transmit malaria again if public health surveillance was relaxed and malaria re-entered Europe. It may also transmit human viruses such as West Nile virus." The INFRAVEC2 colony was made available to researchers after mosquitoes were collected from Spain's Ebro River Delta in 2017. It replaces "a decades-old colony and will allow more accurate research on the risks and control of this mosquito."

New experiment opportunities

The INFRAVEC2 website also offers access to new technologies to study malaria parasites in mosquitoes and combinations of arbovirus-infected mosquitoes as well as opportunities to work in top-level facilities on different disease vectors, including the sandfly. Scientists will be able to perform previously impossible experiments on basic sandfly biology and leishmaniasis, a potentially lethal disease affecting more than 10 million people each year. Sandflies also transmit human viruses, in Europe and elsewhere, which can be studied in the INFRAVEC2 facility. "Access to these new research tools will help researchers more quickly identify useful drugs and insecticides for development."

INFRAVEC2 (Research Infrastructures for the control of vector-borne diseases) was launched in 2017 to provide key research resources to the European vector biology community. It follows the INFRAVEC (Research capacity for the implementation of genetic control of mosquitoes) project that ran between 2009 and 2014. INFRAVEC2 aims to build a lasting European network of facilities to control insect vector-borne diseases.

The 2015-2016 Zika virus disease outbreak in the Region of the Americas, the re-emergence of yellow fever, and an increase in cases of dengue and chikungunya further highlighted the importance of vector control. INFRAVEC2's infrastructure will be able to respond to current insect-spread disease epidemics. It will also contribute to Europe's ability to predict and prevent future insect-carried disease outbreaks. This is particularly important because rapid unplanned urbanisation, increases in international travel, altered agricultural practices and climatic factors are fuelling the spread of vectors worldwide, putting an increasing number of people at risk. WHO predicts that today more than 80 % of the world's population is at risk of vector-borne diseases.

More information: INFRAVEC2 project website: INFRAVEC2 project website: infravec2.eu/Orange County, CA - A man accused of sexually abusing multiple children over several years in Orange County was arrested Thursday, officials announced.

Javier Ortiz Pichardo was booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of child abuse, according to the Santa Ana Police Department.

Pichardo, 45, according to O.C. Sheriffs Department records, allegedly started molesting minors in 1999 while working as a cook at a Santa Ana restaurant called New China.

Investigators believed his first victim was a 7-year-old dining with a family.

Pichardo molested the child in the bathroom, then subsequently befriended the family and offered them food for free, according to detectives. At some point, he was allowed to pick up the victim from school, police said. The abuse continued for seven years until the family lost contact with the man, authorities added.

Police said they started looking into the case when the now 26-year-old victim saw Pichardo at a McDonalds, took down his license plate number and called the authorities.

Detectives learned that Pichardo had been a suspect in a 2002 child annoyance case in Costa Mesa and a 2012 child molestation incident in Santa Ana.

Neither case could be proven, so Pichardo was never arrested in these cases, Santa Ana police said in a statement.

When officers arrested Pichardo on Thursday, they determined that he had been molesting a family member for nearly a decade, according to investigators.

He confessed to molesting the 26-year-old and the family member, police said. Authorities were revisiting the 2002 and 2012 cases.

Pichardo was being held on $1,000,000 bail.

Anyone with information could contact Detective Jessica Guidry at 714-245-8530, jguidry@santa-ana.org or Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.Samsung Pay has officially launched in South Africa, making mobile payments easier than ever before.

The payment app is compatible with selected Samsung smartphones and allows South Africans to make payments at a variety of stores without the need to have their wallet and physical bank card with them.

Once installed, Samsung Pay integrates seamlessly with your smartphones operating system and can be accessed by simply swiping up from the bottom of your device.

Payments are secured with a PIN and biometric security, allowing you to authenticate your mobile payments using the fingerprint recognition and iris scanner features of your device, or by entering a code.

The application is currently compatible with Absa and Standard Bank cards, and support for additional banks will be added in the future.

Pay anywhere

Using Samsung Pay to purchase a product is effortless compared to traditional card payments, and the app is compatible with almost every POS terminal you will encounter.

This means that you can comfortably head out on the town without your wallet, confident that your banking data is secured within Samsung Pay by biometric or PIN authentication.

Paying with your Samsung smartphone is as simple as opening the application, authenticating as the user, and holding your device against the POS terminal.

Almost instantly, your app will reflect that the payment has been completed and you can continue about your day without the hassle of getting out your wallet or constantly entering your bank PIN.

Creating Samsung Pay to work with a large range of POS systems involved the implementation of unique technology into Samsungs flagship devices, and it is this hardware that allows the app to function so well.

High-end devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9 series feature this technology built in to their design, and upcoming flagship devices will continue to include these unique hardware features.

How it works

Samsung Pay uses Near-Field Communication (NFC) and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology to facilitate payments on compatible POS terminals.

NFC is the same technology used by bank cards to make contactless payments, and only works with payment terminals which support NFC or tap-and-go payments.

Not all POS terminals support this technology, however, and this is where Samsung Pay comes into its own as a powerful mobile payments platform.

Samsung Pay can also broadcast an MST signal.

The MST signal mimics the magnetic stripe on a physical card and can be used to interface with older card machines that only support manual card swipes.

This useful technology is exclusive to supported Samsung devices and makes Samsung Pay one of the easiest and most widely-supported ways to pay for purchases in South Africa.

Thanks to this payment terminal support, Samsung Pay can be used to pay for everything from petrol and coffee to movie tickets and dinner at a restaurant.The organisers of PyConZA, LinuxConfZA, and PGConfZA have announced the first ever Open Source week.

This will be a monumental and historic first for South Africa, as we host a series of community-organised conferences and events for an entire week at the same venue, said the organisers.

Open Source week will run from 8-14 October 2018, and will be hosted at the Birchwood Hotel  10 minutes away from OR Tambo airport outside of Johannesburg.

The organisers stated that tickets for the conference are now available for attendees.

Proposals for talks can also be submitted, along with sponsorship packages for companies.

Now read: Microsoft is betting big on blockchainTelkom Group CEO Sipho Maseko has said that being the Minister of Telecommunications is not an easy job.

Responding to a question at SATNAC 2018 on what he would do if he was the minister, Maseko said the number one principle is that regulation must enable investment.

Between the three large telcos we invest R25 billion to R30 billion a year, Maseko said.

He said the question to answer is: What will it take for network operators to continue their investment in infrastructure in South Africa?

As hypothetical minister, Maseko said he would balance the competition in the market. If competition is uneven, that means it is not possible to provide services across the population in a sustainable way.

If others lose because their products and services are lousy, thats okay, but they mustnt lose because the system is stacked against them, Maseko said.

The government must therefore ask what the areas are where there is no competition, and how does it open those markets?

Another important question is how policy and regulation may be used for a positive outcome, without resulting in unintended consequences.

Maseko illustrated his point about regulation encouraging future investment and unintended consequences with the story of Telkoms obligation to rollout phone lines to underserviced areas in the early 1990s.

Telkom had to build one million lines, and the intention was very good, Maseko said.

The tragedy of it, though, was that it was at the beginning of mobile phones, he added.

While Telkom was obligated to roll out copper phone lines to previously-underserviced areas, Vodacom and MTN were required to build their networks to cover 90% of South Africas population.

The project to roll out one million landlines to underserviced areas failed. We wrote off at least a billion or two. Everybody had a cellphone.

Maseko said that when you legislate or regulate, you must make sure not to solve the problem of 10 years ago, but anticipate what the problem will be in 20 or 30 years.

Use the instrument of legislation to fix a future problem rather than a historical one, said Maseko.Jordan Felling, founder and creative director of The Pollinate Brand, described her company as a creative studio with a niche for producing events that give back.

Rooted in Napa Valley, our innovative hive is brimming with a tribe of creatives ranging from event producers to PR pros whose shared focus is to raise ideas and inspire brand memory, she said.

All of my professional experience has been focused on giving and advocacy for people and projects that are about doing good for the greater good, she added.

When I launched Pollinate, I knew that I wanted to wake up as an artist every day and focus my energies on projects where giving is the mission.

1. What was your first job?

A dollhouse workshop, Lake Forest, Ill. It was like Santa Claus studio, we learned how to wire a house with electricity on a one-inch scale!

2. What job would you like to try/not try?

Try: Global diplomat  I have always wanted to work abroad on behalf of an U.S. aid organization or non-profit NGO.

Not try: Anything to do with the industry of killing of animals for food.

3. How did you get into this industry?

From 2006 to 2012, I worked for Oxbow School, where I am an alumna.

From there, I studied printmaking and art history at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. When I joined the staff in 2006, I rooted myself in Rockridge, Oakland.

In 2013, I spent a year volunteering with Project Color Corps and Creative Growth, both in Oakland, and was recruited to work with Yves Behar and fuseproject, a brilliant industrial design studio in San Franciscos Dogpatch design district.

(In) 2015, I moved to Napa (joining) Garen Staglin as his executive assistant.

With Garens blessing I departed in 2016 to launch Pollinate. I worked for one year at Cadet Beer & Wine Bar and all my cash tips as a business savings accountwhen I founded Pollinate, I was able to self-fund this project.

4. What is the biggest challenge your industry has faced?

Encouraging creativity. I worry that with a monopoly with event vendors, and an approved Napa Look that local brand communications and events will start to all look the same.

Pollinate goes out of our way to find artists and makers to collaborate with so that each event has its own fingerprint; brands can feel good with something custom made by hand just for them.

5. If you could change one thing about your business/industry, what would it be?

For Pollinate, I am eager to design/create beyond Napa Valley.

As I look to 2019, I hope to manifest a long-distance project with a brand that wants to work and play in Napa and needs Pollinate to play host.

6. Whats on your to-do list?

MUCH MORE TRAVEL.

My boyfriend is from Germany. We travel together well. I always look forward to escaping on adventures with him  beyond our weekend excursions to Bolinasperhaps a sailing adventure in the Greek Islands?

MAKING ART.

I recently combed through all my prints and drawings and created a must cut, paste, draw pile that I have freed up for collage, and monoprinting.

7. What is one thing you hope to accomplish in your lifetime that you havent yet?

I would like to be more language fluent, sign language and develop my German or Spanish  speaking skills.

8. Which three people would you most like to have dinner with?

Poet Tracy K. Smith.

Michelle Obama.

Artist Louise Bourgeois.

9. Whats something people might be surprised to know about you?

I am a mayonnaise addict. We recently adopted chickens, which has only made my aioli experiments more dangerous.

You can take the girl out of the Midwest, but you cannot take the Midwestern spirit out of this girl!

10. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?

Eating dozens and dozens of oysters and drinking copious amounts of Champagne with my late father, James A. Felling.

To reach Felling email Jordan@thepollinatebrand.com.

The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.As Labor Day arrives -- and economic inequality rises on the political agenda -- a little noticed measure in the recently signed defense spending bill aims to address the widening wealth divide between workers and the owners or top executives who manage them. The measure, co-sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is intended to expand financing options and raise awareness for programs that can help employees become partial owners of the companies where they work.

The new provision could also help address what has been called a "silver tsunami" of retiring Baby Boomer business owners. Much has been made of what that generation's departure from the workforce will mean -- a loss of institutional knowledge, a shift in the job market and a drain on Social Security. But less attention has been paid to the wave of retiring Boomers who own closely held private businesses. They will need to sell their companies, transition them to a new generation of owners -- or risk shutting them down, cutting jobs in the process.

The provision, known as the Main Street Employee Ownership Act before it was added to this year's defense bill, will make it possible for firms to use Small Business Administration loans to finance what's known as employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs, an arrangement that can help transfer ownership of the company to employees rather than have to find a suitable buyer or rely on family members who may be ill-suited or unprepared to keep the lights on.

In an ESOP, companies get tax incentives to either set up a trust fund into which they contribute shares or to finance the purchase of shares through a loan. Companies then give shares to all employees in amounts based on their relative pay or on a more equal basis.

The new provision also empowers the SBA to assist with employee ownership plans and raise awareness of the approach. The plans are predominantly used by closely held or privately owned companies -- and while some publicly traded companies, including Procter & Gamble, use them, they are much rarer.

The new measure is "the most significant policy change on employee share ownership in over two decades," said Joseph Blasi, the director of the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University, who worked with Gillibrand's office on the bill. Still, its immediate impact is probably limited to small companies: The SBA loans that can be used are capped at $5 million, though they can be combined with other financing.

But it's also a rare bipartisan stab at finding a way to address the gap in wealth, according to Corey Rosen, founder of the National Center for Employee Ownership, a nonprofit membership group. One economist's analysis found that the richest one percent of American households own 40 percent of the country's wealth, the highest it has been in 50 years.

"We're grasping for ways to deal with economic inequality and pretty much the two sides can't agree on anything -- except this," Rosen said. "While this particular bill is just one step in that direction, it indicates here's a path that's worth exploring."

As of the end of 2014, the average employee share in ESOPs of closely held private companies was $134,114, said Blasi. (The average 401(k) balance at the end of 2015 was $73,357, according to data from the nonprofit Employee Benefits Research Institute.) Workers can only pocket the value of their shares from ESOPs when they leave the company; they then sell the shares back to their employer.

While ESOPs can help workers build wealth, some research has shown benefits for employers. In a National Bureau of Economic Research study co-authored by Blasi, surveys of 40,000 workers showed that those with company stock plans were more likely to say they would intervene if they saw a colleague slacking off and far less likely to say they'd leave the company -- as long as they didn't feel micromanaged or like they weren't involved in helping to solve company problems. (That could send a mixed message to workers: We're going to give you ownership, but not make you feel like you have any.)

Another study found that companies that set up employee stock ownership plans were less likely than those without them to go bankrupt or disappear for other reasons.

And Paige Ouimet, a professor at the University of North Carolina's business school, has found in research that publicly held companies with ESOPs had improved productivity. But whether more of the gains from higher profits went to employees (in the form of raises) or shareholders (in the form of higher stock prices) depended on whether there was a competitive labor market. She said it's not always clear in some research whether companies perform better because they have employee ownership, or whether better-performing companies are just more likely to implement equity plans.

Employee ownership plans are far less prevalent among publicly traded companies, who may not to offer them for various reasons -- investors may perceive they are a way to entrench managers with friendly employees, company officers could believe that equity should be reserved for top managers or top performers, or they may want to focus on more diversified retirement plan options. Meanwhile, employee stock ownership plans are complicated structures that mean additional governance issues, which could limit the growth of their use.

Still, some companies have decided to add them to give more employees access to equity, increase a sense of ownership among workers, and try to plan for the future. In June, Tuff Shed, the Denver-based maker of outdoor storage buildings, added an ESOP for its more than 1,300 employees after seeing that many of its employees weren't participating in their 401(k) plan or getting the full company match.

CEO Tom Saurey could have made a straight, no-strings-attached contribution to workers' 401(k) plans, but that wouldn't have also helped him begin to plan for the future transition of his company once he's ready to move on, said Phil Worth, the company's vice president of marketing. The new plan will give most employees 3 percent of their salaries in the form of company stock to an ESOP and still offer them a 401(k) to which they can contribute themselves.

Even if Saurey isn't predicting he'll go anywhere for more than a decade, an ESOP still helps the company prepare for that eventual handoff. "Who's going to be in control of the company someday? If not [Saurey], who's the most passionate about the company? Employees," Worth said.

Making employees feel more like owners at the company was also a rationale.

"The day you give somebody a raise is great. Everybody feels good, but the lasting effect only goes so long," he said. "A sense of ownership is a different conversation."EXPLORING THE IMAGINARY WORLDS OF RAY BRADBURY

The St. Helena Public Library, 1492 Library Lane, hosts an artists reception for Lance Burris on Thursday, Sept. 6, at 7 p.m. Burriss exhibition consists of illustrations painted by the artist for his book titled Paint with a Typewriter/Type with a Brush: Exploring the Imaginary Worlds of Ray Bradbury through the Art of Illustration. Free admission. Info, shpl.org; 963-5244.

WHATS NEW AT THE CAMEO

Crazy Rich Asians closes its run at Cameo Cinema, 1340 Main St., on Thursday, Sept. 6. The Bookshop debuts on Friday, Sept. 7. The Wife joins the scheduled lineup on Friday, Sept. 14. Info, CameoCinema.com; 287-4172.

MIKE GREENSILL PERFORMS

St. Helena pianist Mike Greensill performs from 5-7 p.m. Thursdays at Silos, 530 Main St., Napa. Free admission. Info, silosnapa.com; 251-5833.

COMING SOON TO BLUE NOTE

Blue Note Napa is a live music jazz club/gourmet restaurant venue occupying the first floor of the historic Napa Valley Opera House, 1030 Main St., Napa. Upcoming acts include Omar Sosa Quarteto Afrocubano (Sept. 6-8); Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers (Sept. 12), and Mike Phillips (Sept. 15). For tickets and additional information, call 880-2300 or visit bluenotenapa.com.

ST. HELENA FARMERS MARKET

The St. Helena Farmers Market is held Sept. 7, at Crane Park, 360 Crane Ave. St. Helena, from 7:30 a.m.-noon, rain or shine. CaMomi Osteria chef Valentina Guolo-Migotto hosts a cooking demonstration at 10:30. Info, sthelenafarmersmkt.org.

MUSIC ON THE TERRACE

Justin Diaz performs live music at Merryvale Vineyards, 1000 Main St., St. Helena, on the terrace on Friday, Sept. 7, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Free admission. Info, merryvale.com; 963-7777.

PARKING LOT PARTY

St. Helenas Health Spa Napa Valley hosts its end-of-summer Parking Lot Party on Friday, Sept. 7, from 6-9 p.m., at 1030 Main St. The event will include live music from Noema; food trucks; local wines; and an adults-only tricycle relay race. Tickets are $15-$20. Info, parkinglotparty.splashthat.com.

BALE GRIST MILL HARVEST DINNER

Napa Valley State Parks Association hosts its annual The Bale Mill Harvest Dinner on Saturday, Sept. 8, at 6 p.m. The outdoor candlelit dinner fundraiser includes live music, a milling demonstration, passed appetizers, cocktails, a whiskey bar, and a silent auction. The meal will be catered by Napa Valley Bistro chef Bernardo Ayala. Tickets are $125 and available at brownpapertickets.com/event/3573770. The Bale Grist Mill is located at 3369 St. Helena Highway in St. Helena.

COMEDY AT CHARLES KRUG

Stand-up comedian Helen Hong performs at Charles Krug Winery, 2800 Main St., St. Helena, Saturday, Sept. 8, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Summer 2018 Stand-Up Comedy Series, hosted by Wine Country Comedy Club. Tickets are $28. Info, thelaughcellar.com.

KNIFE SKILLS

Napa Valley Film Festival hosts a screening of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Knife Skills at Culinary Institute of American at Copia, 500 First St., Napa, on Sunday, Sept. 9, at 4 p.m. Admission is $10. Pre-registration is suggested. Info, ciaatcopia.com/events-calendar.

NAPA COUNTY VET CONNECT

Vet Connect is held Thursday, Sept. 13, at Napa County Veteran Services Office, 650 Imperial Way, Napa, from 9 a.m.-noon. Vet Connect is a one-stop shop to connect veterans to local resources and services. Info, 253-4558; countyofnapa.org/HHSA/VeteransServices.

SUNSET CINEMA SERIES

Napa Valley Film Festival hosts a screening of Life in Color Thursday, Sept. 13, at Charles Krug Winery, 2800 Main St., St. Helena, at 6 p.m. Life in Color is about a fired nanny and a struggling comedian who are stuck house-sitting together. Tickets are $10. The Sunset Cinema series will continue this summer. Info, napavalleyfilmfest.org.

ZEROTHE END OF PROSTATE CANCER

ZEROThe End of Prostate Cancer joins Daughters 4 Dads to host the Napa Valley ZERO Prostate Cancer 5K Run/Walk, which will be held at Napa Valley College, 2277 Napa-Vallejo Highway, Napa, on Saturday, Sept. 15, at 8 a.m. The Run/Walk promotes awareness for prostate cancer and encourages men to be informed about their risk. The fundraisers goal is to create Generation ZERO  the first generation of men free of prostate cancer. Run/Walk participants will receive tech shirts, free food and prizes, and the opportunity to connect with others who are impacted by prostate cancer. Participation fee is $25-$20. Info, zeroprostatecancerrun.org/napa.

COASTAL CLEANUP DAY

Volunteers will assemble to pick up trash and recyclables at Jacob Meily Park on Pope Street in St. Helena on Saturday, Sept. 15, from 9 a.m. to noon as part of California Coastal Cleanup Day. Info, 967-2794; mfontana@cityofsthelena.org.

CELEBRATE MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park, 3369 Saint Helena Highway North, Saint Helena, hosts a Mexican Independence Day celebration on Saturday, Sept. 15, from noon-5 p.m. The free event includes mariachi music, dancing, food trucks, and hands-on crafts activities. Parking is limited at the Bale Mill. Free shuttle bus service will be available at Bothe-Napa Valley State Park to the Bale Mill. Info, 963-2236; napaoutdoors.org.

WALK TO END ALZHEIMERS

The Alzheimers Association hosts its annual Walk to End Alzheimers fundraiser on Saturday, Sept. 15, at Yountville Park at the corner of Washington and Lincoln streets. The two-mile walk starts at 10 a.m., following a welcome ceremony that kicks off at 9 a.m. Held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide, the Alzheimers Association Walk to End Alzheimers is the worlds largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimers care, support and research. Info, 573-1210; napawalk@alz.org.

MURAL UNVEILING

Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, 1490 Library Lane, St. Helena, unveils its new public mural Painted Pirates  inspired by Stevensons classic Treasure Island  on Saturday, Sept. 15. The celebration runs from noon-4 p.m. The mural was created by students from Nimbus Arts and funded by the City of St. Helena. Free admission. Info, 963-3757; stevensonmuseum.org.

CINEMABITES AT CAMEO CINEMA

Cameo Cinema, 1340 Main St., hosts another installment of its CinemaBites series on Monday, Sept. 17, at 5 p.m. Cuban Food Stories is a documentary about food, society, and culture on the island of Cuba. A personal road-trip adventure all around the island to discover the most authentic flavors and stories behind the Cuban cuisine. Prior to the film, enjoy Cuban-inspired bites provided by Oak Avenue Catering paired with mojitos. Tickets are $45. Info, CameoCinema.com; 287-4172.

To include your event in the St. Helena Star community calendar, submit details online at napavalleyregister.com/calendar or contact online editor Samie Hartley at shartley@napanews.com.The harvesting of white grapes like Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay continues in the Napa Valley, but growers are still waiting for temperatures and sugar levels to rise before harvesting their reds.

It may be another year, like 2017, where the sugars are a little lower relative to acidity which works well for us, said Tom Farella of Farella Vineyards. This last half of the summer is reminiscent of 2010, the coolest summer in memory (so far without the rude, nasty, three-day heat spike).

Heres this weeks harvest report, organized by American Viticultural Area (AVA):

Calistoga  Matt Crafton, Chateau Montelena  Another relatively quiet week as the majority of the white grapes in Calistoga have been harvested. Its been quite a few years since the crush pad has been idle on Labor Day at Montelena, but its been great to give the crew some rest before we get too busy. While most of the attention thus far has been on the cool weather down valley and its effect on Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, Calistoga has seen consistent temperatures each afternoon in the mid-80s, perfect for our Zinfandel and Cabernet.

Howell Mountain  Laura Barrett, Clif Family Winery  With temperatures creeping up into the low 90s on Howell Mountain, we are seeing twice as many degree days accumulate as compared to last week. This should accelerate ripening, pushing the last green Cabernet Sauvignon clusters through veraison. Mia Klein of Cimarossa was spot on when she observed 8-10 days of fairly uniform warm weather alternating with the same time of slightly cooler temperatures. This seasons weather pattern is reminding Mike Lamborn of Lamborn Family Vineyards of the old days. He is looking forward to ripening his robust Zinfandel crop without any shrinkage. Collectively, Howell Mountain vintners are wishing for more of the same.

Diamond Mountain District  Dawnine Dyer, Dyer Vineyards  Temperatures returned to normal over the Labor Day weekend with foggy mornings and afternoon temperatures reaching into the high 80s. Great weather for ripening and veraison is now all but finished on Diamond Mountain. Canopies are healthy, the last green thinning is done, and the wait for harvest is on. So far no one is even checking sugar levels but we should have baseline information next week.

Chiles Valley District  Alexander Eisele, Volker Eisele Family Estate  Harvest is underway; Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio are the first to be harvested. Yields are average to above average with beautiful clean quality fruit. Chardonnay is still far behind, lingering in the 17-19 Brix range. The days have been mild with cool overnight lows, followed by morning fog. Nice steady progression to ripening. Verasion in Cabernet is almost complete.

Spring Mountain District  Stuart Smith, Smith-Madrone  With warming weather Stony Hill will start harvesting Chardonnay later this week or early next week. Im excited; the 2018 vintage is looking good, is how Mike Chelini of Stony Hill sizes up the upcoming harvest. Were lucky being in the Napa Valley with our great weather especially compared to Europe, he adds. Starting his 47th harvest at Stony Hill, Mike remembers only two especially difficult vintages. In 1972, as the new Stony Hill vineyard manager, Mike managed a crew of one  himself. He pruned and managed the vineyard entirely by himself. Two years later Fred and Eleanor McCrea asked Mike to also be their winemaker and it became a friendship which lasted for the rest of their lives. Its an end of an era: with the change of ownership this will be Mikes last vintage at Stony Hill.

St. Helena  Stephen Taplin, Taplin Cellars  The Cabernet harvest still looks up to four weeks away here in St. Helena. Some are picking Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay now but the persistent cool temperatures of the 80s and low 90s are contributing to a slow, steady maturation of Cabernet, the predominant grape in our appellation.

Rutherford  Kristin Belair, Honig Vineyard & Winery  The cooler temperatures and slower start to getting harvest into full swing has brought the benefit of fine-tuning our new destemmer and experimenting with some new fermentation ideas. On all fronts, we are delighted with the results. We bought in our first Sauvignon Blanc from our home vineyard today (Labor Day) and are thrilled with the nicely balanced flavors and fresh acidity. It looks to be relatively calm until the end of the week, with vineyard samples showing fruit ever so close to being ready to bring in. Valley floor Cabernet Sauvignons are looking lovely, with Brix in the 20-21 range. With the moderate weather in play we dont expect to see any reds until the beginning of October.

Oakville  Jennifer Rue, Oakville Ranch Vineyards  Vines in Oakville and across the valley are almost clocking bankers hours, with a marine layer burning off around 10 a.m. and cooling breezes kicking in by 4 p.m. These lovely days bring a steadiness to the ripening curve and we are seeing flavors developing very nicely at lower Brix. Tannins are also bearing a lushness that feels on pace to resolve without excessive hanging. If the weather keeps up like this were in for a beautiful harvest with wonderful flavors and lower alcohols. However, we farmers can be a superstitious bunch and the surprise ending to 2017 sticks with many of us, reminding us not to count our chickens until they hatch.

Stags Leap District  Elizabeth Vianna, Chimney Rock Winery  In Stags Leap District this week, we were all remembering the heat spike we experienced last year at this time and relieved that 2018 is off to a very different start. Michael Beaulac, at Pine Ridge Vineyards, tells me that his vineyard manager, Gustavo, was on vacation, so he was feeling relaxed going into Labor Day week. Michael Baldacci at Baldacci Family Vineyards remarked, This cool weather has definitely slowed things down and I would guess that we are closer to two weeks behind last year. I already like some of the flavors that I tasted in the vineyard. It looks like we will make it through Labor Day without any crazy heat like last year which is awesome! At Chimney Rock, we continue to enjoy the perfect ripening weather and my team is delighted to have a stress-free long weekend.

Mount Veeder  Lorenzo Dalla Brea, Hess Collection  Due to mild temperatures, ripening last week moved very slowly, barely accumulating 1 Brix on white varieties on Mount Veeder. While our crews are getting ready for the upcoming harvest, we look at the slow ripening as a positive drive for a more uniform ripening within each block. For Chardonnay we see varietal flavor development, while acidities are still maintaining fairly high levels, this is typical for our elevated location on Mount Veeder. Looking at results from last samples we are still most likely two weeks away from any start of the 2018 harvest.

Oak Knoll District  Jon Ruel, Trefethen Vineyards  Temperatures remained pretty mild over the past week as growers continued to pick early varieties. Brad Smith at Silenus brought in some Sauvignon Blanc but says their estate Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are still a ways away. Steve Matthiasson has been picking Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay and is excited that sugars are low relative to flavors and acids. At Trefethen, we brought in more Chardonnay and picked Pinot Noir for Mumm Napa. We remain very optimistic about the quality of the vintage.

Coombsville  Tom Farella, Farella Vineyards  The weather is holding at cool and mild. Things are progressing but still on the slow side. It may be another year, like 2017, where the sugars are a little lower relative to acidity which works well for us. This last half of the summer is reminiscent of 2010, the coolest summer in memory (so far without the rude, nasty, three-day heat spike). We should be getting Sauvignon Blanc by the end of the week.

Carneros  Christopher Hyde, Hyde Vineyards  After weeks of cool weather, temperatures have warmed up as harvest starts to get into full swing in Carneros. The warmer weather is welcomed by all and will mean lots of action for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir growers and wineries alike in the next couple of weeks.

For real-time harvest photos and updates, visit the Napa Valley Vintners Harvest 2018 website at napavintners.com/harvest.

Pop the cork on Napa Valley wine! Discover the hidden stories of Napa Valley wine and the people behind it -- plus expert analysis from our columnists and more with our weekly email newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.AMERICAN CANYON  American Canyon leaders on Tuesday will consider a new ordinance allowing cannabis businesses to operate within the citys industrial area.

The new law, if adopted, would permit companies to set up in the Green Island Industrial District for the purposes of conducting indoor commercial cultivation, manufacturing, testing and delivery of cannabis products.

The City Council decided earlier this year to not allow retail cannabis stores to open in American Canyon, or allow outdoor cultivation in neighborhoods.

City staff has worked on the draft ordinance for about 18 months. Following the passage of Proposition 64 in November 2016 that legalized recreational marijuana, the City Council adopted an emergency moratorium banning all cannabis operations until a local ordinance could be established.

With the moratorium expiring Nov. 14, the city intends to have the new ordinance adopted and in effect by October. The American Canyon Planning Commission reviewed the proposed draft on Aug. 13 and unanimously recommended it to the City Council for consideration.

The new law would create a three-step process for businesses to obtain the necessary permits and licenses to perform indoor cultivation, manufacturing, testing, or delivery, or some combination of these permitted operations.

The ordinance references microbusinesses, defined as vertically integrated companies that can handle several cannabis-related operations under one roof.

A company would have to obtain from the city a local cannabis business license and a conditional use permit before approaching the state for a cannabis license. If they intend to operate as a microbusiness, the owners would also have to obtain a microbusiness license from the city and state.

Community Development Director Brent Cooper told the Planning Commission on Aug. 13 that the city would prefer new cannabis businesses have really good bonafides as well as competence and expertise in one or more of the allowed operations.

Cooper said one way to do this would be to authorize vertically integrated cannabis businesses that can handle more than one type of use, such as cultivation, manufacturing and testing.

State law already imposes certain limitations on cannabis microbusinesses. They can have only 10,000 square feet of indoor cultivation, and if performing manufacturing, they cant use volatile solvents, including butane, hexane, propane and ethanol.

City staff has recommended that the city cap the number of cannabis business permits it issues to only six to begin with. Cooper said the limitation is a way to ease the cannabis industry into the American Canyon commercial fabric.

He also noted there is a low vacancy rate for commercial space, and added the city doesnt want the introduction of cannabis operations to displace any existing businesses.

In addition to restricting cannabis operations to the citys industrial zone, the ordinance establishes a 600-foot buffer to prevent businesses from being too close to sensitive areas, including schools, daycare centers, public parks, youth centers or any parcel with residential zoning.

Anne Steinhauer with 6539 Consulting, who is working with the Napa Valley Cannabis Association, endorsed the draft ordinance during the Planning Commission meeting.

This is an exciting time for American Canyon and for the county of Napa to allow a new agricultural product to come into our communities and diversify our businesses and create another economic driver for us, said Steinhauer.

She said they hope the ordinance is adopted and goes into effect this fall so new businesses can get up and running after the first of the year.

We definitely have people who are interested in working with American Canyon, Steinhauer said.

The ordinance would also allow the delivery of cannabis products to American Canyon residences by businesses located in the city or from outside of it. For American Canyon-based businesses, these would be non-storefront retail operations that can sell products only via delivery.

The delivery issue prompted Planning Commission Chairman Andrew Goff to remark that when he thinks of cannabis delivery, I see a giant Cheech & Chong truck driving down the street.

In response, Steinhauer said cannabis business operators want a professional approach to their services. I have no interest in having a Cheech & Chong-type mobile driving down the streets.

Zack Crafton, CEO of ESI Logistics, a cannabis company based in Colusa, told the commission that their delivery vehicles are unmarked for safety reasons and to avoid criminal trouble. We dont want folks to know whats inside them, he said.

Crafton added that there are a ton of state restrictions governing delivery operations, including limits on when deliveries can be made  state law mandates only from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and requirements for drivers to only deliver to adults with identification.

The discussion off restrictions on cannabis businesses prompted City Attorney William Ross to chime in, saying it could be a challenge for the city to enforce everything. But you have to honestly concede that enforcement is going to be a real issue, he said. I dont see how its going to occur.

The ordinance does not impose a tax on cannabis sales. However, there is public support for such a move, Cooper said based on survey responses the city received. Any tax would have to be approved by the City Council and by local voters in a general or special election.

The council meets at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 4 at City Hall on Broadway.

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.Land Trust of Napa County has announced the acquisition of 1,910 acres that will be known as the Wragg Ridge Preserve.

The land near Lake Berryessa features a wide expanse of oak woodlands, covering almost the entire property, as well as priority habitat for wildlife, including endangered species.

The acquisition was funded by grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the California Natural Resources Agency and the Arthur L. and Elaine V. Johnson Foundation.

Without their help, this conservation project would not have been possible, said Doug Parker, CEO of the Land Trust. And I also want to thank the owners who sold the property through a bargain sale, below its appraised value. Their generosity was a critical element in protecting this beautiful natural area.

Protecting our states natural resources continues to be a priority for the California Natural Resources Agency, said Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird. Funded via the Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation program, the Wragg Ridge acquisition project will protect in perpetuity riparian habitat for the California Red-legged Frog and will provide a wildlife corridor between Lake Berryessa and Lake Curry to the south.

This is a very significant conservation acquisition, said Dan Winterson, who manages the Bay Area Conservation Program at the Moore Foundation. We are very happy to support the excellent work of the Land Trust in protecting Wragg Ridge, which will have important wildlife habitat and connectivity benefits.

The new preserve is the largest property the Land Trust has added to its portfolio in over 10 years.

The vast majority of our transactions are conservation easements, as I think most people know, said Parker. But this property was in a strategic location and had a wealth of habitat and wildlife values that we thought could benefit from our ownership and management.

The property abuts protected lands at Lake Berryessa and is near land owned and managed by the Bureau of Land Management, part of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, as well the Quail Ridge Reserve, which is part of the University of Californias Natural Reserve System. It expands protection along a high ridge  Wragg Ridge  extending south from the lake.

The public will be able to hike the new preserve via guided tours. The first one at Wragg Ridge is planned for Nov. 11. More information will be posted shortly at www.napalandtrust.org/.

The property is dominated by extensive oak woodlands  predominantly blue oaks and interior live oaks, with some black oaks  and it also contains priority wetlands, including a creek, seasonal springtime pools and year-round ponds.

The wetlands provide habitat for rare species, including the federally listed California Red-legged Frog, one of the few federally listed species in Napa County. The largest native frog in the western United States, this species is estimated to have lost over 70 percent of its previous habitat. It was listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act in 1996. The Land Trust will work with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on habitat enhancement and restoration efforts for this species as well as other priority wildlife on the preserve.

The new preserve is also significant as a connector to ensure future wildlife migration along protected corridors.

The propertys five miles of continuous ridgeline and diverse array of high quality habitats will provide opportunities for wildlife to move across the landscape while accessing important resources, said Mike Palladini, Stewardship Program Manager for the Land Trust. The propertys broad range of ecological and topographic features, and its connectivity with other intact natural areas should help native plants and animals adapt to the impacts of climate change as well.

Protecting large expanses of oak woodlands is significant for wildlife. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has documented habitat for more than 300 wildlife species that depend on oak woodlands for food and shelter. Protection is a priority because oak woodlands are endemic to this region and only a small percentage are protected statewide.

With this newest acquisition, the Land Trust has now protected over 72,000 acres, more than 14 percent of Napa County.

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.An 856-acre forest with redwoods in Angwin could soon gain protections that will keep it a forest for the foreseeable future, immune to the possibility of bulldozers making room for luxury homes or vineyards.

The Wildlife Conservation Board voted Thursday to spend $3.5 million on the Angwin forest. Thats the last funding piece needed to purchase a $7.1 million conservation easement from Pacific Union College, the owner of the land.

Pacific Union College (PUC) will continue to own the forest once the deal is wrapped up, perhaps in a few months if all goes as planned. But development rights would be retired through an easement held by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The biodiversity of our forest presents incredible opportunities for education, research and recreation, PUC President Robert Cushman said. This will ensure that it can be enjoyed by those at the college and in the surrounding community for generations to come.

This forest has qualities that set it apart.

It has some of the interior-most stands of redwood in the entire range of redwoods, said Doug Parker, CEO for the Land Trust of Napa County.

Moore Creek starts in this area, he said. Moore Creek drains into Lake Hennessey reservoir, a major water supply for the city of Napa.

The forest ranges from 860 feet to 1,885 feet above sea level. Protecting it is part of an effort to preserve a wildlife corridor extending through Napa County used by black bear, deer and mountain lions, a Wildlife Conservation Board report said.

Spotted owls, the California red-legged frog, the ringtail cat, the pallid bat and the northwestern pond turtle find habitat in the forest. The land is core habitat for the Napa false indigo, a rare plant found in only five Northern California counties, the report said.

The development threat is significant, the report said. Napa County has some of the highest agricultural land values in the nation and the site has more than 200 acres of potential, prime vineyard land. Zoning allows subdivision into three residential properties.

The property owner is under great pressure to sell off parcels from the forest to raise funds to further its educational mission, the report said.

Parker praised PUC for accepting $1.5 million less than the fair market value for the conservation easement. Unlike most land owners, PUC cant take a tax deduction for the discount because it is a nonprofit.

Although the forest is, and will remain, private property, PUC has allowed the public to use trails there. The colleges forest manager, Peter Lecourt, said the plan is to continue this practice and add such features as a parking lot, kiosk and brochure.

Our forest is the primary way PUC relates to the wider community, Lecourt said.

The Land Trust will monitor the conservation easement, with Cal Fire holding the easement because of its forest management expertise and because it owns the adjacent Las Posadas State Forest, Parker said.

Lecourt said PUC signed a deal with Cal Fire to work together on forest management as neighbors.

This is a new relationship and bond were forming here, Lecourt said.

Contributors to the $7.1 million funding deal are the Wildlife Conservation Board at $3.5 million, a Cal Fire state forest legacy grant at $2.85 million and the Land Trust of Napa County at $750,000.

Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.A 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 crash 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 crash. Anyone with information is asked to call the Vallejo police traffic division at (707) 648-4329.SAN FRANCISCOTo the uninitiated, the bright-orange, Tic Tac-size specks scattered on the sidewalks, wedged into the openings of heating grates and piled in small mounds along curbs here are a bit of a mystery.

They are the sterile plastic caps to hypodermic needles, tossed aside by the scores of heroin addicts who dwell outside Twitter and Banana Republic and City Hall. The local government distributes them free to protect drug users from disease.

At the same time, the city has banned the use of another plastic item: the drinking straw. The laws supporters say it will prevent a million straws a day from washing into the San Francisco Bay.

Napkins, straws, and bags are available upon request, reads a footnote on the menu of the Sentinel, a walk-up sandwich shop in the citys thriving financial district. You can still get needles for free though. Welcome to SF.

The streets of San Franciscohilly, curvy, cinematic and, in recent years, a bleak showcase for the mentally ill and economically displacedhave long reflected this eccentric citys governing priorities and many civic contradictions.

Some are easy to make fun of, the utopian fantasies of a place famous for pursuing its own artisanal world view.

But a new mayor has taken office. She is, at least for the moment, trading San Franciscos liberal-laboratory style of local government for a practical, down-and-very-dirty approach that is reflected in what she said she wants as her legacy.

I want people to walk around this city and think, Wow, its so clean here,  Mayor London Breed said during a recent interview. I want people just hanging out in front of where they live and enjoying the weather, people of all races, able to live in dignity because they have a home and are able to make ends meet.

Simple and hugely complex.

Breed is the first African American woman to run San Francisco, emerging from a close election in June that was largely about how the city is changing and what should be done to preserve its character.

In recent years, that question has centered on an expanding tech industry, an economic bonanza that most cities would simply celebrate. But the investment and jobs have come with rising housing costs, rapid neighborhood redevelopment and an exodus of longtime residents, including those from her own black community.

The shifts have made the city, once a cradle of counterculture and now a mecca of the mainstream economy, among the most exciting and puzzling in the nation.

It is a magnet for young tech talent and a public venue for despair, a place with the lowest percentage of children of any major American city that can spend weeks debating the pricing for permits to test on-street delivery robots. It spends more than a quarter-billion dollars a year on issues surrounding its 7,500 homelessand has the third most billionaires of any city in the world.

All of this can be seen on its famous streets.

In January, United Nations special rapporteur Leilani Farha walked them, comparing some of the conditions she saw there with poverty in Mumbai. This in a city where the median household income for home buyers is now $303,000 a year, a historic high.

You begin to wonder about all the tax dollars and whether they are being spent in the right way, said Jeffrey Ouyang, a 10-year city resident who works for the tech start-up Zumper, a real estate search site.

Ouyang, 33, said he believes poverty and homelessness have gotten progressively worse despite the citys rising tax base.

You begin to think about impact, he said, and whether we have any of it right.

None of this is a mystery to Breed, who was raised in San Franciscos public education and housing systems. A former county supervisor, Breed said she is growing into the snap-to power that comes with the mayors office, saying the promotion helps getting the simple things done quickly.

Among Breeds first decisions was to deploy a five-person Public Works crew to do nothing but clean the streets of human fecesit was, in fact, dubbed the poop patrolas the city has received more than 14,000 reports about human waste this year alone.

This is the near-term problem, Breed said, while the plastic-straw ban looks further ahead. As she put it, You can walk and chew gum at the same time.

There are things that matter now, and there are things that matter for the future of our planet and the next generation of people growing up in this city, she said. We cant just think about what we need to do now.

Even those now items take time in a city as expensive as this one.

For instance, Breed said she wants to add nearly 50 Public Works employees assigned to keep the streets clean. She has the money to do so. But the hiring will be difficult.

Some of these things are going to definitely take time and be challenging to implement because we also have a housing crisis, right? she said. We have people who we need to hire. But people struggle to live here on these city salaries, and so all of this is interconnected.

Among the current governing paradoxes for Breed and other civic leaders is what might be called the inside-outside problem.

Walk along Market Street, once a seam line separating glamorous San Francisco from some of its seedier southern neighborhoods. Now it is a stretch that features among other new landmarks the offices of Twitter. The building, linked to another by a skywalk, includes a permission-only courtyard accessible from the street.

Behind glass on one side of the narrow courtyard is SF Fitness, its spinning class packed during a recent lunch hour. The Market, an upscale takeout place, is on the other side, and in the middle there is an outdoor fire pit where employees gathered on a foggy afternoon to eat noodle soup and sandwiches.

Just outside the gate is what amounts to an open-air heroin shooting gallery on the sidewalks of Market Street. The telltale orange caps are bountiful. Black metal bins, labeled Biohazard, are set out for syringe disposal.

Behind a cluster of nearby lunch trucks serving tuna poke and tacos al pastor, a half-dozen men worked small needles into their arms during the same lunch hour, one sprawling back on the hard ledge where he sat after doing so.

Ive just never seen so many people shooting up on a walk to work as I have recently, said Holly, a 27-year-old who recently moved here from Los Angeles and declined to give her last name for fear it might get her in trouble with her employers. I know I am part of the problem, the high housing costs, and Im not proud of that. But I really hope this city is focused on this drug use.

Breed and others want to move the drug use indoors, providing so-called safe-injection sites where addicts will have privacy and clean needles pending a hoped-for rehabilitation. The state legislature recently approved a measure allowing San Francisco to begin a three-year test program.

Visiting a model safe-injection clinic this week, Breed announced that she wants to open a real one as soon as possible, a tacit statement of resistance to federal drug policy. She said the city would first have to determine how to protect the clinics operators from federal prosecution, which has been threatened.

The city also wants to move tech workers outdoors, at least during mealtimes. Under a measure before the city government, new tech companies would not be allowed to open on-site cafeterias, long a lure to would-be employees, hoping to better spread the wealth from within the citys insular tech offices to the local restaurants and lunch trucks just outside.

Tech leaders oppose the measure. But much of the business community, often viewed here as more problem than partner, says Breed is on the right track.

Were feeling encouraged about the progress were seeing and the plan that is beginning to take shape, said Kevin Carroll, executive director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco. As a city, just working to keep the streets clean is a huge priority, and were seeing that now.

It is not just Breed and city employees working on those streets. While the challenges along them span the social-services spectrum, the focus for many is on the most visible one.

On a recent morning, Ouyang and Regina Pina, the office manager at Zumper, walked with Jessica Donig along Market Street, past Timberland and Zendesk, stopping at the homeless people they encountered every hundred feet or so.

Donig works for the nonprofit Miracle Messages, which seeks to connect San Franciscos homeless with family members, some of whom have been lost or estranged for years. It is tangible, if difficult, work.

At a bus stop outside a new steel-and-glass hybrid office and shopping mall, Donig crouched down to speak to a woman who gave her name as V. Another woman sat next to her, slumped forward in a wheelchair.

Ouyang dropped Goldfish crackers, a granola bar, socks and wool hats into Vs shopping bag, as Donig asked if there were any relatives she would like to reach. V told her she wants to speak to her aunt, Celina, who has custody of her daughter.

She hasnt been picking up the phone when I call, V said.

If shes not picking up, well, I dont know what the dynamic is, but we can certainly try, Donig said. Is there anything else I should know before having the conversation?

After doing this work for a year, Donig said, What I see is that people are compassionate, but they dont know what to do. And they dont want to look these people in the eye without some kind of solution.

As a company, Zumper conducted a morale survey a few months ago. One of its findings was that employees wanted to be more active in the community.

Zumper began giving employees time off to volunteer, and Miracle Messages was a nonprofit that the companys chief executive already gave to.

So they hit the streets.

This is all kind of new to mehomelessness, the drug use, people living in BART [transit] stations, said Pina, who came to the city from the San Joaquin Valley city of Tracy. And it makes me anxious. But the shelters are full, and I dont see that many other organizations out here.The California Legislature passed a sweeping proposal to address wildfires despite warnings that the legislation would raise energy bills for customers across the state.

Amid calls from PG&E for a legislative response to wildfires that killed more than a dozen Californians and destroyed thousands of homes over the last year, lawmakers approved a bill that makes it easier for utility companies to recover wildfire costs from ratepayers. The measure also designates $1 billion in cap-and-trade money to the removal of dead trees and brush that fuel blazes, among many other major changes to state law.

"This was not easy," said Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins. "It's not perfect. We made sure that the victims of 2017 are going to be as whole as possible. I think we did the best we could to get as far as we could."

The sweeping proposal formed quickly this week after months of hearings and intense lobbying that pitted some of the most powerful players at the state Capitol against one another. They agreed on one thing: the outcome would carry serious repercussions for California businesses and residents.

In the end, the bill drew support from PG&E, the California Association of Counties, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the California Professional Firefighters, the State Building and Construction Trades Council, the California Forestry Association and dozens of other groups.

AARP California, the California Farm Bureau Association, Sierra Club California, Western States Petroleum Association and several additional advocacy groups remained opposed.

Discussions at the Capitol began after the firestorm in wine country last year left PG&E with up to $15 billion in liability, according to estimates from stock analysts. Utilities and electrical workers spent millions urging lawmakers to change state law to lessen the industry's legal responsibility for property damages from wildfires or risk forcing the company into bankruptcy.

Under existing "strict liability" and "inverse condemnation" laws, utility companies are typically responsible in court for providing compensation for property damages if its equipment causes a fire, regardless of whether any negligence is proven.

If utilities do nothing wrong, the California Public Utilities Commission typically allows customer rates to rise to offset losses for property damages. But last November the CPUC rejected a request by San Diego Gas and Electric to recoup nearly $380 million, and the ruling alarmed power companies.

The homeowners insurance industry fought back against the utilities, contending that any changes to inverse condemnation that left them holding the bag would lead to higher premiums or no coverage at all in fire-prone areas. Insurers feared they wouldn't be able to continue to sue utility companies to recover payouts to policyholders.

After dedicating weeks of hearings to the liability law, Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, said the Legislature would not change the inverse condemnation law in the court system this year.

"The Legislature had no appetite to change our Constitutionally bound liability laws, which then allowed the conversation to focus on better fire prevention," said Nicole Evans, a spokeswoman for three major insurance trade associations. "These laws provide an essential counterbalance to the utilities' ability to seize private property in providing electricity."

But the final bill, put together by a wildfire conference committee Dodd heads, took another avenue to reduce the utility companies' financial burden for property damages that many argue will hurt ratepayers.

The proposal lawmakers approved Friday instructs the California Public Utilities Commission to determine whether a utility company behaved responsibly, complied with new plans to prevent fires or if extreme conditions exacerbated the extent of the damages. The bill allows the commission for the first time to split costs between ratepayers and utility shareholders based on its findings.

State regulators would also have to consider PG&E's "financial status" and limit costs from the 2017 wildfires that ultimately fall on shareholders to the maximum amount the utility can pay without harming customers or affecting its ability to provide service.

Any excess costs that the commission determines PG&E shareholders cannot afford from the blazes last year could be tied into bonds that are paid by ratepayers over time. All utility companies would be allowed to seek similar bonds to finance recovery costs for future fires under certain conditions.

Ratepayer advocates, manufacturers, agricultural groups and the state's largest oil industry association quickly rallied against the proposal, calling it a "bail-out" for utilities that cause fires out of negligence.

"Our biggest concern is that manufacturers already pay industrial electricity rates that are more than 80 percent higher than the rest of country," said Gino DiCaro, a spokesman for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association. "The fact that ratepayers would be on the hook for billions of dollars would be a problem for growth going forward."

The Utility Reform Network said lawmakers were concerned about PG&E's financial troubles, but didn't seem to care as much about how the change would hit ratepayers.

"In some parts of PG&E's service territory, shut-off rates for households that can't afford their energy bills are already 20 percent," said Tom Long, the group's legal director. "If this bill passes, shut-offs will only get worse."

Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, agreed.

"The tragedy of our response is that it's focused more on Wall Street profits and utility shareholders instead of what's right for Californians," Hill said.

Dodd contended that rate increases for utility customers were unavoidable after the 2017 fires. He argues that the bonds would allow ratepayers to slowly pay off costs for fires, instead of being hit with a massive increase all at once. And any rate hikes are hypothetical -- the CPUC could refuse to allow PG&E to raise rates or attain bonds, he said.

He and other legislators felt they needed to take action to prevent PG&E from going bankrupt, and he said the potential bonds charges from last year's fires would be minimal. In bankruptcy, ratepayers would still face higher bills and homeowners would struggle to get their claims paid, Dodd said.

"It means so many of our constituents who are uninsured or underinsured will likely not recover from wildfire devastation and quite frankly colleagues, we just cannot allow that to happen," Dodd said.

Holding up a map that showed the parts of the state under the greatest threat of wildfire, Assembly Republican Leader Brian Dahle said, "You're going to burn if we don't do something fast."

The bill also bans utility companies from funding executive salaries or bonuses with ratepayer money and sets new standards for the corporations to improve infrastructure to prevent fires.

The Senate supported the bill with an overwhelming 29-4 vote. The Assembly approved it 45-10, sending it to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Neil Kalton, a stock analyst for Wells Fargo, said his company believes PG&E could go bankrupt if the law didn't change and the company was blamed for additional wildfires this year.

PG&E also threatened that it would not be able to attract as much money from investors for clean energy projects to meet the California's climate goals without changes to the law.

"If a company is looking to invest in clean energy projects and the question is, do I invest in a project in California or do I go to another state where utilities are financially strong and stable?" said Steve Malnight, a senior vice president of strategy and policy for PG&E.

After the votes, PG&E issued a statement saying it appreciated the governor and lawmakers for their work on the "growing threat of climate-driven wildfires."

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.From the very start of the Democrat-on-Democrat race for the U.S. Senate between longtime incumbent Dianne Feinstein and state Sen. Kevin de Leon, there has really been only one issue  age.

Thats because in spite of what de Leon sometimes says, theres very little difference between the two on policy. Both can be counted on to resist President Trumps Supreme Court nominations and fight for continued abortion rights. Both are ardent gun control backers. Both back Obamacare, although de Leon wants to take health care a step beyond that.

The real difference between them is age. Feinstein is more than 30 years older than de Leon, the soon to be termed-out former president of the state Senate.

Almost everything de Leon has said in running against Feinstein is really about age and the patience and perspective it can bring. Sure, de Leon uses a lot of code words, like the hackneyed and overused slogan, Its time for a change.

It was clear in the primary that most Democratic voters werent buying the age argument, which essentially goes like this: It doesnt matter what Feinstein does. The mere fact shes 85 is reason enough to dump her.

She got 70 percent of all Democratic votes in June.

But the universe of voters will be much larger in November; younger voters are more likely to turn out in general elections than primaries.

And theres no doubt that young Turks among California Democrats feel kinship with de Leon, even though he pulled less than 13 percent of the total vote in the primary.

This was plain in the endorsement vote for de Leon by 65 percent of the more than 300 executive board members of the states Democratic Party. That panel is dominated by liberal leftists elected after the Bernie Sanders wing of the party turned out in droves for local caucuses soon after President Trumps election and chose hundreds of delegates to the state party convention where board members were picked.

By contrast with the disapproval she draws from the youngish party board, Feinstein gets strong backing from the vast majority of elected state Democrats, including Gov. Jerry Brown, fellow Sen. Kamala Harris and the very vocal anti-Trump Rep. Adam Schiff of Pasadena, newly prominent for his role in opposing Trump as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

The ageist complaints would have some merit if there were any evidence Feinsteins performance has fallen off as shes grown older, any reason to believe she cannot do her job as well now as ever.

But there is no such evidence. By all appearances, Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee and former chair of the Senates Intelligence Committee, is at least as active now as 20 years ago, when no one mentioned her age.

Yes, in the early months of Trumps presidency, she counseled patience, but its been clear for many months that her patience long ago ran out, as shes made statement after statement and vote after vote to chastise or oppose Trump.

So the de Leon argument that she was somehow off base in mid-2017, when she counseled giving Trump a chance to develop and thus drew de Leons very vocal ire, should be rather irrelevant today.

No, Feinstein hasnt been as shrill as Harris in questioning figures like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but her civilly-phrased questions seemed more piercing to many. And no Democrat has done more to preserve Obamacare, which provides health coverage for about 5 million previously uninsured Californians.

But shes still known accurately as a centrist, which galls de Leon and his supporters. Shes offered compromises on water issues and won support from Central Valley farmers, but also fights for civil liberties causes.

And shes been scrupulously fair to business, which bothers some labor leaders who actively fund the party.

Theres also the fact that de Leon knows that if he doesnt win now, hell probably never get a Senate seat, what with folks like Schiff, state Treasurer John Chiang and others ready to take a shot at the next slot that opens.

Which means this contest has always been about timing and the fact Feinstein has lived longer than a lot of other people, and it still is.

Thomas D. Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column. He is author of the book, The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Governments Campaign to Squelch It.In Lynne Champlin's column "A Pacific pilgrimage, a tribute to those who served 1939-1945" (Aug. 27), she described the school that held the crew of the USS Grenadier. In the photo, my grandfather, Carl O. Quartername, is the third name from the bottom.

I've been to this school and touched this wall. It was a surreal experience to visit the spot that he became a POW. He spent two years as a POW at camps in Penang, Sinagapore, and Japan. He was liberated from a camp that performed labor at a copper mine at the end of the war.

I have the diary he kept during his time as a POW. It contains an extensive list of servicemen that he was held captive with. The names in his diary include the entire crew of the Grenadier, captives from other ships and submarines and most notably - Louis Zamperini. Lynne - thank you for sharing the story.

Duane Stofan

PortlandAwhile ago, I was sitting in the pews of a Pentecostal church one Sunday when I heard the preacher tell one of the worst tithing stories yet. I thought I'd heard them all, but I was dead wrong. This one takes the cake, folks. I believe you will agree with me on this one.

It seems there was this business man, who was afraid that he'd have to pay more in tithes if he made more money. He asked the minister to pray for him on the matter. His pastor said, I'll pray you make less money.

With a smug look on his face, the Pentecostal preacher believed he made his point on tithing when he ended his sermon. However, I was totally appalled by his closing remarks. Let me tell you what I took from his sermon.

This pathetic story strongly suggests that this business man was manipulated by his church into paying tithes. What you decide to give to any church or ministry is all voluntary. If you want to give a hundred dollars or one dollar, you have the right to do so. You also have the right not to give anything to a church or ministry. It's your choice.

However, churches want you to believe that you have to pay tithes, because the word tithes is mentioned several times in the Bible or the Holy Scriptures. Christians are told to go on faith and give 10 percent of their income into the collection plate. This point seems ludicrous to me.

The Ten Plagues of Egypt is also mentioned in the Old Testament book of Exodus in the Bible. However, I don't believe I need to go on faith and actually experience these awful calamities to make me a much stronger Christian.

Pentecostal and Assemblies of God pastors usually gravitate towards the Old Testament verse Malachi 3:8-14. This scripture talks about robbing tithes and offerings from God's storehouse, which is the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. It was to support the Levite priesthood for temple sacrifices, and only given three times out of the year on certain feast days. Churches today don't celebrate or even observe these so-called Jewish feast days. (Deuteronomy 16:16, Numbers 18:21)

For some reason, these charismatic ministers are confused by the content of this scriptural passage and insist that their congregation members pay tithes to their churches or ministries. Actually, I don't believe they are really confused on the matter. I think they preach the subject of tithing for profit and financial gain, not for Biblical content.

These fundamental ministers are not part of the Levite priesthood nor is today church the Jewish ancient temple in Jerusalem spoken about in Malachi 3:8-14. Since Jesus Christ died on the cross for mankind's sin, tithes and temple sacrifices are no longer a requirement to obtain for people's sins. Also, you may not realize this fact, this administration building was destroyed by the Roman army in 79 AD.

Muslims and Jews are still fighting in the Middle East two thousand years later over the Temple site.

Most born-again Christians today revere their three-piece suit pastors as a prophet, who's the only one who has total understanding and clarity from God about the Holy scriptures and faith. It isn't so. I think these gullible people need to wise up and realize he's just a man. If you have a female pastor, she's just an ordinary woman. No special powers whatsoever for either male or female pastors. Sorry.

Tithing is part of God's old covenant with the Israelites. As believing Christians, we are now under the covenant of grace and salvation. When pastors today are telling their congregation members to go on faith and pay tithes, they are putting their flock back under the Old Testament Law for profit. I call this extortion.

Oftentimes, I've found out my former Assemblies of God pastor doesn't like my anti-tithing views being printed in the opinion area of the newspaper. He gets upset when I write these kind of statements for the general public. We just won't tell him about it, that's all. Mums the word, people.

Carl G. White

NapaThe 47th Indo-Bangladesh border co-ordination conference, which is a director general level talks between Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), began in New Delhi on Monday.

India is taking up issues like BSF personnel being attacked by Bangladeshi criminals and those related to cross-border smuggling.

Also read: Delhi to raise attacks on BSF personnel by Bangladeshi criminals with Dhaka

The two sides also shared updates about the movement of Rohingyas in their respective jurisdictions.

Earlier, a 13-member delegation of the BGB, led by its Director General (DG) Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam, arrived in the national capital on Sunday as part of their six-day tour.

The 13-member Border Security Force (BSF) side will be led by DG K K Sharma.

The bi-annual meeting comes at a time when relations between India and Bangladesh are at an all-time high.

Issues related to border infrastructure, simultaneous coordinated patrol in vulnerable areas of the border and mutual sharing of information are also on the BSF agenda.

The BGB are taking up issues like smuggling of various types of drugs/narcotics from Bangladesh and arrest or apprehension of Bangladeshi nationals by the BSF among others.

A joint record of discussion will be signed between the two forces on September 7.

Notably, DG level conference between the two neighbouring countries began way back in 1975.

The last time the two border forces of India and Bangladesh met in April early this year in Dhaka.A 10-member naval diving team from Visakhapatnam and the Army joined the rescue operations to retrieve the bodies of five persons of a family feared to have been killed after the car in which they were travelling plunged into the Dikhow River (near Sivasagar in Assam) on Saturday evening.

The incident took place at Dicial Village in Dikhowmukh, about 20km from Sivasagar. The Sarbananda Sonowal Government is leaving no stone unturned to search for the family of Haren Bora, who went missing after the Maruti Swift Dzire car plunged into the river. The Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal contacted the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) and the Union Home Ministry regarding the search-and-rescue operation. He has also taken up the matter with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Defence Ministry to seek help from the Navy.

The search-and-rescue operation started on Sunday morning but with little success because of the strong undercurrent in the Dikhow River, which is in spate with muddy water blocking underwater vision. Divers are going as deep as 40 feet in some areas.

Altogether, 10 boats have been pressed into service. Three teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), six teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), one each from Dibrugarh and Sivasagar and two teams each from Jorhat and Golaghat are engaged in the operation, apart from one team from the para commando unit of the Indian Army.

Altogether, 32 deep sea divers are engaged in the rescue operation and two boats of the Inland Water Transport Department are on standby. These divers include eight from the NDRF, four each from Dibrugarh and Jorhat SDRF, three each from Sivasagar and Golaghat SDRF and 10 divers from the para-commando unit.

Moreover, 44 NDRF personnel, seven from Dibrugarh SDRF, 12 from Sivasagar SDRF, 10 from Jorhat SDRF, eight from Golaghat SDRF, 14 personnel from the para-commando unit and five from civil defence are also at work.

A defence press release stated the naval diving team from Eastern Naval Command and diving equipment has been airlifted from Visakhapatnam. The Sivasagar district administration sought the Navys assistance. It will augment the NDRF team and civil authorities in the search and recovery operations, the release stated.

Col Chiranjeet Konwar, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Dimapur-based 3 Corps, said a team of 14 divers of the Armys Special Forces unit under the Spear Corps based at Dimapur commenced the search from early morning on Monday.

The river is 70-80 metres wide with strong currents, making the search a slow process. Due to the recent rains, the water has become muddy, delaying the search, Konwar said. He added that besides diving equipment, the Navy team is carrying two inflatable Gemini boats and side scan sonar to locate the vehicle.Success still eludes the search and rescue teams engaged at the Dikhow River in Sivasagar district of eastern Assam to retrieve the family of five who were drowned along with the Maruti Suzuki Dzire vehicle they were travelling in for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.

Also read: Assams Dikhow tragedy: Navy divers arrive from Visakhapatnam to boost search operations

Notably, a ten member team of deep divers from the Indian Navy were flown in from Vizag to boost the rescue operation already carried on by teams of para commando from the Indian Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF).

Search and rescue operation resumed early Tuesday morning at daybreak with the deep divers from the Indian Navy joining the rescue team.

A total of 47 divers have been pressed into the search and rescue operation on Tuesday.

These include nine from NDRF, four each from SDRF of Dibrugarh, Sivasagar and Jorhat, three from Golaghat SDRF, five from Guwahati SDRF, 10 para commando divers of the Army and the specialized eight deep divers from the navy.

As many as 14 boats are engaged in the search and rescue operation on Tuesday.

These include three of NDRF, one each from the SDRF teams of Dibrugarh and Sivasagar; two each from Jorhat and Golaghat SDRF, one from the 21 para commando of Indian Army, two specialized boats of the Navy and another two from the Inland State Water Transport Department.

A total of 138 personnel are engaged in the intense operation launched on Tuesday.

These include 42 from NDRF; seven from SDRF, Dibrugarh; 11 from SDRF, Sivasagar; six from SDRF, Jorhat; seven from SDRF, Golaghat; 14 from SDRF, Guwahati; 14 para commando, 10 Naval personnel; seven from Civil Defence and 20 from the State Water Transport Department.

On the other hand, the water level of the Dikhow River is constantly rising with strong undercurrents making the operation even more arduous.

However, there is no trace of the five-member family of Haren Bora who went missing after the Maruti Swift Dzire car plunged into the Dikhow River at Dichial village of Dikhowmukh area in eastern Assams Sivasagar district on Saturday evening.China records new outbreak of COVID-19

Prominent physicist Yuri Hovhannisyan becomes recipient of UNESCO-Russia International Prize

Armenia FM states how likely it is to cooperate with Russia in terms of military and 'open itself towards Europe'

Case of sale of child forwarded to Armenian court, an advocate is among the culprits

Afghan man sells 9-month-old daughter for $2,000 to maintain his family

International Committee of the Red Cross reps visit Armenian captives and hostages in Azerbaijan

Russia MFA on '3+3' regional advisory mechanism

Armenian political scientist: '3+3' format is only Turkey's attempt to enter region in field of diplomacy

Armenia FM: Ankara's rhetoric is having a negative impact on stability in the region

Armenian FM: Over 100 captives have been returned to Armenia after cessation of fire

Armenia PM discusses Karabakh conflict and regional issues with US Deputy Assistant Secretary

Relatives of missing soldiers and captives to meet with Armenia PM on Saturday

Armenia State Revenue Committee chairman meets with Head of EU Delegation

FM: Armenia hopes talks over nuclear program are successful and allow to lift sanctions against Iran

Armenia Ombudsman touches upon problems that arise during conscription

Opposition 'Armenia' Alliance inviting everyone to rally at Freedom Square on Nov. 8 at 6 p.m.

Armenia Anti-Corruption Committee chairman: Nearly 2,000 crimes will be investigated in 2022

Armenia Human Rights Defender's Office to receive more funding next year

Several political parties in Armenia will receive government funding

Dmitry Shugayev: Russia not violating international commitment with regard to supplies to Armenia and Azerbaijan

Aram Sargsyan's Republic Party and Samvel Babayan's Liberal Party sign coalition memorandum in Meghri

Armenia MOD ex-spokesperson to join parliamentary standing committee on defense and security as expert

NEWS.am daily digest: 03.11.21

National Hero of Armenia Tatul Krpeyan's daughter Aspram Krpeyan to become MP of opposition faction

Armenia justice minister: New penitentiary institutions to be built in 2022

Ombudsman: Some Armenia villages do not have water at all because of Azerbaijan

Armenia ombudsman: Do officials realize accountability for their statements about road sections?

Premier, IMF Mission Chief to Armenia confer on cooperation agenda

Dollar drops in Armenia

Belarus proposes creating roadmap for developing relations with Azerbaijan

Member of Armenian initiative Vahagn Chakhalyan apprehended again, declares sitting strike

Armenia Ombudsman: Azerbaijanis have opportunity to establish control over road leading to Kapan

Armenia obtains another consignment of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine from China

Georgia defense minister visits Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex

Armenia Supreme Judicial Council: Courts are overloaded

Missing soldiers families reopen street in front of Armenia government building

Numerous Azerbaijan criminals to be released from prison on anniversary of occupation of part of Artsakh

Armenia Security Council secretary should be held accountable for his statements, says ombudsman

Relatives of missing Armenian soldiers shut down street near government building

Armenia State Revenue Committee chief, Russia ambassador underscore active contacts between tax, customs authorities

Armenia justice minister: We have first death from Covid in penitentiary

102 new cases of coronavirus reported in Karabakh

Congressman Pallone: US must push Minsk process forward to achieve settlement that keeps Artsakh Armenian

Armenian PM staff chief says has no information on Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan leaders possible meeting

Armenia ombudsman: Security zone needed at all areas of contact with Azerbaijan

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Two Armenian children, whose mother was deported last year from Netherland, re-emerged from hiding on Monday evening, Dutch News reported.

Supporters of children hope that Justice Minister Mark Harbers will apply the right of discretion in cases such as theirs. However, he has already said that he does not plan to use it because the children are not at risk in Armenia.

The Volkskrant has tracked down three other cases in which youngsters who had spent a large part of their lives were threatened with deportation.

The outcry over one of the cases led the next government to commit to an amnesty for child refugees who have lived in the Netherlands longer than five years.

However, Lily, and Howick, do not qualify for the amnesty, because their mother has not followed the deportation plans, which is one of the main preconditions for acceptance.

As reported earlier, two Armenian children, whose mother was deported last year from Netherlands, have gone into hiding as they face imminent deportation.

The children only have the right to asylum in the Netherlands if they fear they will be persecuted or endangered by the Armenian authorities and there is no question of this, the court ruled. In addition, help is available for the children when they return if their mother is unable to care for them, as has been claimed. The children will not end up on the streets, the court said.

Last year it was decided to deport Armina Hambartsjumianthe mother of Lily, 11, and Howick, 12to Armenia from the migrant center, where they lived. The children were not at home when their mother was picked up and their whereabouts are unknown. She has also refused to say where they are. Armina was deported in August last year. Her children were found a week later.McCain's wife Cindy McCain offered her congratulations to Kyl on Twitter.

McCain was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War and spent more than five years as a POW in Hanoi.

Many of those replying agreed with McCain, echoing her sentiments about America's being great.

The Arizona Republic reported that Kyl agreed to serve in the Senate at least through the end of 2018. "She did it the way her dad would want her to do it, she was direct, the way John was". Another memorial service was held for the late senator in Washington before he was laid to rest at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis.

"Number one, Americans appreciate military service".

Among those paying tribute to McCain at Sunday's private service were his sons Jack and Don, retired Army General David Petraeus and Senator Lindsey Graham, a long-time political ally and friend. McCain graduated from the academy in 1958 and went on to become a decorated fighter pilot who was captured by North Vietnam in 1967. Many held their hands over their hearts and waved American flags. One woman shouted out, "God bless America!" "Godspeed" and "Rest In Peace Maverick".

For his final resting place, McCain picked the historic site overlooking the Severn River, not Arlington National Cemetery, where his father and grandfather, both admirals, are buried.

"Chuck has his wingman back now", the late admiral's widow, Sarah Larson, told CNN.

The president, who has often criticized and clashed with McCain, was not in attendance. Trump, whose rhetoric seemed to have spread to at least some of his staff, also refused to acknowledge McCain when he signed a bill named after him.

The president's daughter and son-in-law entered the cathedral on Saturday morning shortly before McCain's funeral service began. The 81-year-old died at his home in Arizona on Saturday, August 25, days after his family announced he'd suspended treatment for glioblastoma and 13 months after doctors first discovered the aggressive tumor on his brain. Aside from Meghan McCain, Senator Joe Lieberman spoke as well as former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

The aircraft normally designated "Air Force Two" carried John McCain and his family to Washington, D.C.as he made his final flight across the country.

"The thing about John's life was the fantastic sweep of it", former President George W. Bush said during his eulogy to McCain.

"He tried to drain the swamp before it was cool, that you can fight hard and still be respected. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off".Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tue. that the countrys oil, gas and petrochemicals are at the forefront of countering the enemies economic sanctions against Iran, MehrNews reported.

President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Assalouyeh in southern Iran on Tuesday to visit and open three new petrochemical projects, including Phase 3 of Pardis Petrochemical Complex with a production capacity of 1.755 million tonnes ammonia and urea; Methanol Production Unit of Marjan Petrochemicals with an annual production capacity of 1.65 million tonnes of methanol; and Phase 1 of Damavand Petrochemical Company Power Plant with an annual production capacity of 650MW of electricity.

Speaking at the inaugration ceremony for the three projects, President Rouhani said some of the projects inaugurated today had been started during the sanctions era before the signing of the nuclear deal, and a number of other projects were signed today to be implemented now that the enemy seeks to impose new sanctions, following the US' unilateral withdrawal from the agreement.

They want to return us to 40 years ago so that we yield and admit we were wrong to have wanted to be independent, Rouhani said. [They want us to] regret that we threw them out of Iran, that we now want to be an influential actor in the region.

Such a dream will never be realized and we will overcome the problems, reassured Rouhani.

The fact that three major projects are inaugurated in one day, especially now that hostile countries are exerting pressure against our nation and imposing unlawful and cruel sanctions, it means our victory against the enemies plots, he stressed.

The president noted that 14 petrochemical projects have been inaugurated since 2013, and six more projects will be inaugurated next year.IS Supporters Promote Kashmir as Alternative Jihadi Battlefield to Afghanistan and IraqSIU Carbondale enrolls strongest class of new students in recent history

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Southern Illinois University Carbondale welcomed its strongest class of first-time college students in recent history this fall.

According to official fall 2018 enrollment data, the average ACT score for new students is 23.65, an increase of more than .8 percent over the previous year and the highest in at least 20 years. This is above both national and state averages and places SIU student scores among the top 26 percent nationally.

We have undertaken a planned, coordinated effort to attract and enroll students who can be successful at SIU Carbondale, said Carlo Montemagno, the universitys chancellor.

We are attracting strong students who are coming for the high quality of our academic programs and the strength of our faculty, Montemagno added. We are in a rebuilding year. Strong students will attract strong students. This new class, plus an increase in freshman retention rates, are positive signals as we work to raise the profile of SIU and grow future enrollment.

This years student body is 53 percent male and 47 percent female. In line with the past few years, nearly 28 percent are minority, and more than 8 percent are international.

We are very proud of the diversity of our campus and the quality of our students, Montemagno said.

Focus on enrollment

Total enrollment is 12,817, down 11.9 percent over fall 2017.

Montemagno said the decline was expected as the university undergoes major changes intended to drive enrollment to 18,300 by 2025.

We knew that this year would be challenging, since many students are already seriously considering colleges in their junior year, and the recruitment season was well underway when we embarked on our transformation, said Montemagno, who started in August 2017. Our focus last year was on increasing the quality of new students, retention and positioning ourselves for the future.

We anticipate that we will see enrollment begin to turn around with next years freshman class, he added. Enrollment growth takes time, but we have the plans in place going forward.

Among the changes underway are an academic reorganization, exploration of new academic programs, new recruitment messages and strategies, and an increased focus on the total student experience.

We are already seeing signals that our evolution is having an impact, Montemagno said. Attendance at our open houses for prospective students has increased and applications for fall 2019 are already up over the previous year. Were on the right track.

For more information, please see the chancellors blog.

Contact: Rae Goldsmith, Chief Communications Officer, SIU Carbondale, 618-303-9997 (cell)Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed satisfaction at his countrys cooperation with Morocco, which he described as a key partner in addressing migration challenges.

Morocco is a safe country with whom we are cooperating at different levels including most obviously migration, Sanchez said in a statement to radio Cadena Ser.

The Spanish PM said that Spain as it faces the ageing of its population should find solutions through a legal and organized migration.

Sanchez statements come at a context Spain is becoming the EUs main gateway for illegal migrants.

He also defended his countrys decision to receive the ship with 630 migrants on board last June, saying that such a gesture sends a message to the EU that migration should be treated as a shared concern.

He said Spain is working with key EU member states to ensure the fair distribution of migrants within the EU.Dear Newsie Readers,

Newsie has now permanently ceased it's services as of Friday 20th December 2019.

Newsie has been an owner-funded operation since day one.

Coming up to three years old, while we still firmly believe Newsie has a place in the New Zealand media landscape, the cost in both time and money has become too burdensome for the owners to continue alongside other ventures.

With the current government looking to restructure public broadcasting, and seemingly supporting NZME buying a ring-fenced Stuff, the time seems right to call it a day.

Should it happen, the combination of NZME and Stuff will ensure New Zealands national media will die a death by a thousand opinion-based articles.

Newsie has always tried to stick to balanced news, to inform readers of the facts of a situation, amid being largely ignored by government. Hopefully, one day someone else will take up the challenge to fight the good fight.

The good news, however, is that there were no job losses as a result of Newsie closing. Thanks to careful structuring, everyone involved in Newsie will retain their current positions.

We hope you all have a happy Christmas and new year. Stay safe, and stay out of the news.

The team at NewsieSeveral Chinese businessmen have discussed in Beijing with Head of Moroccan Government Saadeddine El Othmani their investment projects set for the North African country and reviewed ways to facilitate their implementation to help create jobs within the frame of a win-win partnership.

The Chinese entrepreneurs met El Othmani on Monday on the sidelines of the 3rd China-Africa summit (3-4 Sept.) hosted by president Xi Jinping.

They hailed Moroccos political stability, the incentives offered to investors and the quality of skilled manpower, voicing readiness to increase their investment in the Kingdom, contribute to its major development projects and enhance partnership with Moroccan economic operators in Africa.

For his part, El Othmani expressed his governments commitment to improving the business climate for Moroccan as well as foreign investors to attract more investment for the African continent in line with Moroccos African policy.

We are ready to facilitate and improve the business climate, for the benefit of Moroccan as well as foreign investors, he said, noting that Chinese firms are interested in investing in the sectors of telecommunication, energy and infrastructure.

During the Africa-China summit, President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion package of assistance, investment and concessional loans to Africa.

Since 2000, Africa has borrowed about $130 billion from China to finance infrastructure projects. China has now become Africas largest trading partner, outperforming France, India and the United States.

Chinese companies and exporters are finding very fertile soil in Africa and are expected to invest $10 billion in the continent in the next three years.

HOLLAND TAYLOR

The Takeout: Is a hot dog is a sandwich?

Holland Taylor: No.

The Takout: You do not consider it a sandwich?

Holland Taylor: No, I consider a hot dog, a hot dog. And its one of my favorite things in life to eat.





GUY PEARCE

Guy Pearce: No, because the bread never feels as good as the many options that you can have with a sandwich.

The Takeout: Its just a bun.

Guy Pearce: Its just a bun, yeah. To me, a sandwich is about choosing a good multi-grain, you know? And look, Im a vegetarian, so I dont eat hot dogs anymore. But no, I dont think its a sandwich.





ROB RIGGLE

Rob Riggle: Wow, this is a question. This goes back to Plato, I believe. I dont think it is, but I know people who are absolutely adamant that it is a sandwich...I am open-minded. If someone can present me with a quality argument, I could change my mind. I can be swayed. But as I stand here before you now, I will have to say that I dont see it as a sandwich. I see it as a standalone entity.





ANDY SAMBERG

Andy Samberg: I dont think a hot dog is a sandwich.

The Takeout: Why is a hot dog not a sandwich?

Andy Samberg: Because of the closed side.





BEN SCHWARTZ

Ben Schwartz: Okay, then you have to consider a hot dog a sandwich. Although, the bun is connected a little bit more. I love that were doing, like, a tight ten on this.

The Takeout: Okay, so if you had to choose.

Ben Schwartz: I would say that if you tell me that a hamburger is a sandwich, I would say that B would equal that a hot dog is a sandwich.





TROMBONE SHORTY

Trombone Shorty: Well, I think anything thats between two pieces of bread, I guess that is a sandwich. Ive definitely had hot dogs where the bread is separated. That would prompt the question, what is a hot dog?





RITA MORENO

Rita Moreno: Its a sandwich! Anything thats between two slices of bread is called a sandwich. Why is that a question? Why is that a difficult issue? Does anyone say otherwise?





ANGELA BASSETT

Angela Bassett: Absolutely.

The Takeout: Absolutely?

Angela Bassett: Absolutely.

1. This is really bad Im a regular person that use to do regular shit like engage in Twitter topics I never knew I would become famous and old topics and how I feel about MY SON will make me a bad person!! Them tweets are from 2013 that was 5 Years ago my life is not the same

2. I dont even have the same outlook on life as I did before! Im not about to let yall tear me down I DONT have a problem with gays I love gays my favorite cousin is gay I hang with gays my hairstylist, makeup artist, stylist is gay! When I perform I interact with the city boys

3. I pull them on stage take pics with them talk to them!!! Gay guys are fun I love the way they talk I love everything about them me being a parent I wouldnt want my son to be gay that doesnt make me homophobic that doesnt make me hate gays! Now LEAVE ME ALONE!As the crude powerhouse that is Texas Permian Basin becomes old news, oil explorers are looking for the next big thing--and they have found it in the more-than 4000 feet of stacked pay in Wyomings Powder River Basin. In Powder River, Big Oil has found less-congested pipelines, cheaper land, and more importantly, a whole lot of oil.

Its not the first time that the Powder River Basin has garnered industry attention. In 2014, when oil prices were soaring, many industry players were already eyeing the basin as the next big thing, but when oil prices waned in the following years many drilling plans in Powder River were abandoned for established operations. Now, as United States crude prices ballooned by nearly 50 percent over the last year, there has been a renewed rush for land deals in oil rich areas, and the Powder River Basin is no exception. Although the deals are largely undisclosed, we know that there have been a number of deals in Wyoming, bringing industry-wide interest to the conventional and shale formations found there.

In the last month the state of Wyoming has seen Oklahoma-based firm Rebellion Energy pay more than $100 million for 19,000 acres, Vermilion Energy spend $150 million for 55,000 acres, and Navigation Powder River LLC spend about $10 million for 3,000 acres. Not bad for a months work.

Another potential catalyst for growth in Wyoming oil is currently underway just south in neighboring Colorado, where votes will decide on November 6th whether to further limit the drilling of oil by increasing the buffer zone between dwellings and oil and gas wells to 2,500 feet. If the Colorado electorate votes to increase the buffer, drilling will become impossible in much of the state, a development that with almost certainly push even more investors over the state line into Wyoming, where the laws are friendlier to oil and gas extractors. To highlight this fact, Wyoming gubernatorial candidates were tripping over each other to proclaim their love for fossil fuels, the states major jobs creator, in the run-up to the August 21st election. Related: The Collapse Of Venezuela's Imaginary Oil Currency

Now, just this week, the major NPL gas project has finally been greenlit, and its 3,500 wells are soon to follow (much to the dismay, it must be said, of many environmentalists and wildlife activists). The NPL is projected to bring in as much as $17 billion to the Wyoming economy--a particularly large price tag when considering the fact that Wyoming has the smallest population of any state in the nation.

A representative for Juniper Capital Advisors, the financial backer of Navigation Powder River LLC, told Reuters that Powder River is in much the same position that the Permian Basin was in a few years ago, just before it exploded into the fastest growing oil region in the world. Now, the Permian has more oil than they know what to do with, and real estate is at a premium, whereas in Powder River, things are still affordable and accessible--for now.

In large part due to the Permians smashing success, the US has quickly become the worlds largest crude oil producer, with soaring export rates, but the production level has far outpaced the infrastructure. The problem is particularly marked in the Permian, forcing producers like ConocoPhillips and Noble Energy to relocate their rigs and even pause production until there is more pipeline volume available. Even as oil prices have risen in the last year, Permian producers have had to undersell their oil to pipelines in Cushing, Oklahoma. Now, as a result, oil from the Rocky Mountains and Midwest is more than $17 per barrel more expensive than Permian oil.

Now that the Permian has reached its limits, Wyoming can expect a major uptick in drilling. The conditions are perfect, as neighboring Colorado pushes to move away from oil-friendly policy, the oil prices are high, and the incoming Wyoming governor has shown himself to be wide open to drilling expansion. Wyomings oil rush has already begun, and unlike in 2014, this time the tide shows no signs of receding.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Pipeline capacity constraints in the Permian are affecting not only surging oil production. Theres a shortage of natural gas pipelines as well, and operators across West Texas and New Mexico have been flaring natural gas at higher rates as gas production has soared together with oil production.

In the fastest-growing oil patch in the United States, surging volumes of natural gas have become a kind of a side product that drillers prefer to burn off instead of shutting in wells and missing out on monetizing the oil production gushing out in the Permian. Company executives admit that they wouldnt flare as much gas as they do if they had a choice.

According to estimates by The Wall Street Journal, every day in the Permian companies burn around US$1 million worth of natural gas. The greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of gas are equivalent to the emissions from 2 million cars. In total, drillers in the Permian flare some 3 percent of the gas they pump alongside oil, the WSJ has estimated.

The regulator of the Texas side of the Permian fields, the Railroad Commission of Texas, has approved all 20,000 requests in the past five years from companies to flare gas, according to the WSJ review of the data, confirmed as accurate by Texas officials.

In New Mexico, regulators also allow companies to burn gas, but in 2015, they started requiring drillers to report how much gas they are flaring.

In North Dakota, the home of the Bakken shale formation, regulators stepped in years ago to limit flaring by imposing the so-called gas capture goals that progressively increase the goal to use the gas between 2014 and 2020. Current gas capture goals require drillers to capture 85 percent of gas through October 31, 2018. The goal will be lifted to 88 percent beginning November 1, 2018, and to 91 percent starting November 1, 2020. Related: Can We Expect An Oil Price Spike In November?

However, with strong oil production volumes in North Dakota this year, gas flaring exceeded the state-wide limit of 15 percent for a third consecutive month in June 2018, data by North Dakota Industrial Commission compiled by S&P Global Platts shows.

With the stricter limit on flaring from November onwards, companies may also limit their oil production in North Dakota, analysts say. There are new gas processing plants in the works, but until they come online by probably late 2019, companies may find it harder to comply with the new flaring limits.

In the Permian, Apache CEO John Christmann told Bloomberg in June: In a perfect world, I dont want to flare, because you are also burning revenue.

While companies target mainly oil in the Permian, they dont think that high gas flaring rates is a sustainable and acceptable business decision.

Thats not the way we want to operate, spokesman Kelly Swan of Oklahoma-based WPX Energy Inc told the WSJ, noting that the company flared 10 percent of its Permian gas production in Q1, and reduced the flaring rate to 6 percent in Q2. WPX Energy has been building a gas processing plant to capture the gas it produces.

The lack of enough infrastructure and pipelines in the Permian, coupled with surging production, has depressed natural gas prices at the Waha hub in the area. This year through August, prices were on track for their lowest annual average since 1999, according to Reuters calculations. The discount of Waha prices to the U.S. benchmark Henry Hub so far this year has been two times wider than last years discount and the widest since 2008, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Without reasonable action from the Railroad Commission of Texas, rising gas production and insufficient pipeline capacity could lead to companies flaring more gas, Colin Leyden, Senior Manager, State Regulatory & Legislative Affairs  Natural Gas at the Environmental Defense Fund, wrote in an op-ed in June. Related: The Biggest Threat To The Oil And Gas Industry

During the previous upswing in production, Permian operators in Texas flared in 2015 enough gas that would have served all of the household needs in the Permian counties of Texas for two and a half years, Leyden said.

Some companies are doing a good job to minimize flaring as much as possible, but overall, there are major gaps in the flaring practices of various Permian drillers, according to an EDF flaring report from November 2017.

Until pipeline and infrastructure capacity constraints are overcome, which analysts expect at some point in late 2019, gas flaring would be inevitable, according to Venetta Seals, the mayor of Pecos, the seat of the Reeves County in Texas.

Without the infrastructure being here, the only other solution is what, they stop drilling? Seals told The Journal.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:West Texas Intermediate could rise as high as US$95 a barrel by this winter on the back of a number of factors, the leading among them the Iran sanctions, John Kilduff from Again Capital told CNBC.

According to Kilduff, founding partner of the investment company and a seasons energy trader, "The global market is tight and it's getting tighter, and the big strangle around the market right now is what's in the process of happening with Iran and the Iran sanctions. These Iranian barrels that we're going to lose, it's really going to hurt. It's really going to make a difference and tip the scale in my view to an upside surprise."

There are differing opinions about how U.S. sanctions against Iran will affect oil prices. While there seems to be general agreement that there will be a negative effect, opinions differ as to its extent. Some analysts believe that Iran could resort to secret oil shipments, for example, which will curb the effect of the sanctions, which aim to reduce the countrys exports to zero.

Furthermore, there are reports that China and India have found a way to continue buying Iranian crude despite sanctions: refiners from these two countries will simply switch to Iranian tankers insured by Tehran. This is also a headwind for prices if we are talking about Iranian sanctions as the number-one bullish factor. Related: Can We Expect An Oil Price Spike In November?

Yet Kilduff notes that Iranian crude oil exports are already falling, and this will intensify as November 4 approaches. As refiners rush to secure supply from other producers, a lot of inventories are being drained and when those inventories are depleted, prices will spike.

This is particularly true for the United States, where Kilduff noted the rising demand for gasoline despite higher prices, resulting from the strong economic growth.

The fundamental picture is the strongest I've seen in quite some time," Kilduff said. "Everybody has got a job, everybody is driving to that job, and they're going to continue to drive to that job no matter what gasoline costs."

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:The Kenitra Peugeot plant will double its production capacity by 2020, said a PSA Group management source during a site visit organized by the Ministry of Industry.

The PSA Automotive Group intends to double its production capacity at its Kenitra plant. This decision follows the first results achieved so far, the source said, describing these results as very satisfactory and encouraging, reports the news portal le360.

The plant will start in 2019 and we will double its size by 2020 to go from 100,000 to 200,000 cars produced per year, said the PSA group management source. The PSA Group plans to inject in its Kenitra plant a total amount of 550 million.

The partnership between PSA Group and Morocco is working well, and the success of our brand in Africa, the Middle East and worldwide justifies the need to increase our production capacity sooner than expected, says the same source.

As a reminder, the first car engine was assembled in the Kenitra plant this year and the assembly of the first cars began last July.Yemens Houthi rebels have claimed a successful attack on an unidentified oil facility of Saudi Aramco in Jizan, according to a report in Iranian state news agency IRNA. The strike with Badr 1 missiles took place on Monday, two days after an earlier one that targeted a Saudi frigate in Jizan.

That earlier attack, IRNA said, was in response to the Saudi forces killing Yemeni fisherman near the port of Hodeidahthe focal point of the Saudi-Houthi conflict.

The Yemeni war, which began in 2015, has led to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world at the moment, and there is no end in sight, as the Saudi-led forces continue to strike Hodeidah, widely considered as the location that could tip the scales in the war. Last month, after reports of a Houthi strike against a Saudi oil tanker, the rebel group offered a ceasefire, but it failed to hold.

Despite the humanitarian crisis, Yemen in August restarted crude oil exports. A 500,000-barrel cargo from a field in the southern province of Shabwa was sent to China, The National reported a couple of weeks ago.

Now there are plans to restart the rest of the oil fields in Shabwa and neighboring provinces, the secretary to the oil and minerals minister told the Emirati daily. The provinces are under the control of the elected government that the Houthis are fighting as a result of the intervention of the Saudi and Emirati forces.

There are also reports that Saudi Arabia has plans to build an oil port in another Yemeni province, the governorate of Al-Mahra in the southeast. The Al-Mahra governorate borders Oman, and the border crossing, as well as the seaport and airport in the governorate, is under the control of the Saudi and UAE coalition, which has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen for the last three years.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:A six-week-long blockade of ExxonMobils offices and oil facilities in Nigeria by former workers protesting their dismissals now threatens the normal production and exports of Nigerias flagship Qua Iboe crude grade, the U.S. supermajor, operator of the oilfields producing Qua Iboe, said on Sunday.

The continued blockade means a loss of access for employees [and contractors]. Continued denial of access to production facilities could impact the companys ability to safely continue production operations, S&P Global Platts quoted ExxonMobil as saying in a statement.

Exxon is the operator with a 40-percent stake of the fields producing the Qua Iboe grade. The fields are located 20-40 miles offshore Nigerias southeastern region. The oil is pumped to the shore via a seabed pipeline system to the Qua Iboe terminal, and production and exports average around 320,000 bpd. Due to its qualities of light crude containing very low levels of sulfur, the Qua Iboe has high yield of gasoline and middle distillates, and is popular among refiners globally.

The blockade at Exxon started in the middle of July, when workers started to protest the dismissal of more than 800 security personnel that Exxon had engaged. The workers claim that they had been sacked without any severance pay and in breach of labor laws, and vowed to continue the protests until the laid-off workers are reinstated.

Exxon, for its part, told Platts that the despite the fact that the personnel were third-party direct employees, the U.S. company offered significant severance packages as agreed by all parties.

The protests continued even after the Nigerian Labor Ministry ordered last week the workers to stop their blockade, Exxon says.

According to the U.S. supermajor, the former employees threatened current employees with violence and other actions that threaten production at one of Nigerias key joint venture assets, says the Exxon statement, as carried by Platts.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Russian oil companies currently generate a lot of cash, so they will be able to shoulder a cumulative US$14.75 billion (1 trillion Russian rubles) in extra taxes under the oil tax reform that Moscow will be implementing over the next six years, the head of the tax department at Russias finance ministry, Alexei Sazanov, told Reuters in an interview published on Monday.

Last month, Russias President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that would phase out Russias crude oil export duty by 2024, which is expected to increase export netbacks for oil producers. Another oil-related law introduces the so-called negative excise duty, or excise refund for refiners, aimed at stimulating refinery upgrades and higher light oil product output.

At the beginning of June, Russias Finance and Energy Ministries said that they had agreed with the domestic oil companies to begin phasing out in 2019 crude oil export duties by 5 percentage points annually over the next six years, from 30 percent now to zero as of 2024.

To cushion the impact on refineries from the rise in crude oil prices and a disappearing indirect subsidy, the Russian government will be refunding refineries with the negative excise duty. Those refunds will be based on the amount of crude oil that the refineries process, the light products they supply to the Russian market, and the distance to the markets.

The exact levels of the negative excise duty as well as some other parts of the new tax reform are still subject to discussions and minor changes, Sazanov told Reuters.

According to the official, Russias oil industry expects to see US$29.5 billion (2 trillion rubles) in combined free cash flow this year, which are huge figures. The new tax regime is not expected to affect Russian oil production, which held steady at nearly post-Soviet highs in August at 11.21 million bpd, after a big boost in July from June after OPEC and its Russia-led non-OPEC partners agreed to ease the cuts to offset supply disruptions.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:India has given permission to state-owned refiners to import oil from Iran with Iranian tankers and insurance, after the biggest Indian shipping company backed out of Iran voyages due to the U.S. sanctions, sources told Reuters, in a sign that India may not cut off Iranian oil imports after the sanctions return.

The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) has stopped Iranian oil trade because of lack of insurance cover, a source in the company told Reuters, while a government official said that Indias shipping ministry has allowed state refiners to import Iranian oil on the so-called cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) basis, under which Iran would provide the shipping and the insurance for the oil cargoes.

Iran eager to continue selling its oil to Indiaits second-largest single oil customer after Chinaeven as some Indian refiners are said to be thinking of reducing oil imports from Iran for fear of running afoul with the U.S. sanctions and having their access cut off to the U.S. financial system. Earlier this summer, reports had it that Iran had started to offer India cargo insurance and tankers operated by Iranian companies as some Indian insurers backed out of covering oil cargoes from Iran.

Refiners and oil traders in China, Irans top oil customer, have reportedly started to switch to using Iran-owned tankers for almost all their crude oil imports from Tehran.



Related: The Collapse Of Venezuela's Imaginary Oil Currency

China has said that it would not stop buying Iranian oil despite U.S. efforts to bring the Iranian exports down to zero. But Beijing is also said to have agreed not to increase its oil purchases from Iran.

India, for its part, has been torn between cutting itselfand its refinersoff from the U.S. financial system by continuing to import Iranian oil, and keeping cheaper Iranian oil imports flowing. India is expected to finalize its strategy regarding Iranian oil purchases after a meeting with top U.S. officials on Thursday.

India will definitely not entirely cut off its crude oil imports from Iran, a senior Indian government official with direct knowledge of the countrys oil purchasing policy told Reuters last week.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Iran plans to move its main oil export terminal from deep into the Persian Gulf to a terminal in the Gulf of Oman, AFP quoted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as saying on Tuesday.

Moving the main oil export terminal from the Khark Island terminal to Bandar-e-Jask on the Gulf of Oman would result in Iranian oil tankers not having to pass through the critical chokepoint in the Gulfthe narrow Strait of Hormuzwhich is being used for exports by both Iran and its rivals in the area, including Saudi Arabia.

Iranian oil export volumes are already being shifted from Khark Island in the Gulf to the terminal on the Gulf of Oman, and the move should be completed by the end of Rouhanis term in office in 2021, the Iranian president said.

This is very important for me, it is a very strategic issue for me. A major part of our oil sales must move from Khark to Jask, AFP quoted Rouhani as saying in a televised speech.

The Strait of Hormuz is the worlds most important chokepoint, with an oil flow of 18.5 million bpd in 2016, the EIA estimates.

As the first round of U.S. sanctions on Iran kicked in last month and the second round of sanctionsincluding on Iranian oil exportsis set to snap back in early November, the Islamic Republic has recently stepped up rhetoric about controlling the most vital oil flow chokepoint in the world. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rebuffed Irans claims, saying in a statement posted on Twitter: The Islamic Republic of Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz.



Related: Oil Nears $80 Per Barrel

In other televised remarks today, Rouhani said that Iran would continue to export oil despite U.S. efforts to choke all of Tehrans oil sales.

We will continue by all means to both produce and export oil, AP quoted Rouhani as saying on state television. Oil is in the frontline of confrontation and resistance.

According to some analysts briefed by Bloomberg, Iran may resort to various ways of reducing the impact of the U.S. sanctions on its oil exports, and those tactics include secret oil shipments without trackers on tankers, bartered trades, discounts, and extended credit periods on oil sales.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Mercedes-Benz is unveiling on Tuesday its first all-electric model Mercedes-Benz EQC at an event in Stockholmthe first of a series of global premieres of electric vehicles by German luxury car brands to challenge Tesla in the premium EV segment.

Although its global premiere is today, the Mercedes-Benz EQC will be launched on the market in 2019 and will be the first all-electric Mercedes-Benz model from the car brands new product and technology brand, EQ.

Another German brand, BMW, is teasing the premiere of a new concept EV, BMW Vision iNEXT.

A third automaker, Audi, started on Monday mass production of the Audi e-tron, the brands first all-electric SUV. The world premiere of the e-tron will take place in Teslas very own backyard, San Francisco, on September 17.

The German carmakers are presenting electric vehicles that could start challenging Teslas market share in the premium EV sales, but analysts diverge in their opinions about just how fast and how much the German luxury brands can take away from Tesla.

According to Wajih Hossenally, an automotive powertrain analyst at IHS Markit, the arrival of German premium EV offerings would weaken Teslas position in the luxury segment.

Tesla has virtually zero competition - but this will change from 2019 onwards, the analyst told Reuters.

LMC Automotive thinks that the German car brands could exceed Teslas market share and hold 11.8 percent of the market in 2020. Three years later, Germanys luxury electric vehicles share could rise to 19 percent, according to LMC Automotive forecasts, carried by Reuters.

Analysts who spoke to German newspaper Handelsblatt are less optimistic about the chances of German luxury EVs taking on Tesla in the short to medium term. Arndt Ellinghorst at Evercore ISI thinks that the first German EVs will be expensive compromises between the old and new world, while Peter Fuss, an automotive expert at consultancy EY, believes that the Germans will have success in a niche market, but noted that Tesla has a few years of head start.



By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:The Nigerian Navy has deployed 16 newly bought ships to the Niger Delta to guard critical oil infrastructure, local media report, quoting the Chief of the Nigerian Naval Staff. Still, the official said, the Nigerian Navy has a long way to go to eliminate the vessel capacity shortage it has been suffering.

The oil industry of Nigeria is vital for the country, which makes pipeline vandalism and other militant activity in the Niger Delta all the more problematic. In August, a report from the Nigeria Natural Resource Charter revealed that the country had lost some US$7.23 billion (2.6 trillion naira) from oil theft in just two years, 2016 and 2017.

Data from Chatham House suggests that in addition to oil theft in the Delta, Nigeria is also losing US$1.5 billion a month from pirates stealing oil. The figure was confirmed by Nigerias Vice President and is equal to the daily export value of the crude shipped via the Forcados terminal.

Things are so bad that Nigeria has been ranked the worst performer globally in terms of oil theft, ahead of Mexico, Russia, and Iran. Until this year, the country also had a major problem with militants in the Delta, whose attacks on pipelines and export terminals suspended oil transport capacity for months.

And militants are not the only ones that interfere with Nigerias oil industry. Exxons Qua Iboe terminal is currently under a blockade from former employees of the local unit of the company, who were laid off in July. Since then, they have been protesting at Qua Iboe, and Exxon says if the blockade continues it could affect its production. Qua Iboe has a daily capacity of 300,000 bpd of crude.

Nigerias oil production fell by 160,000 bpd in the second quarter of the year, to an average daily of 1.84 million bpd, Nigerian media reported earlier today.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Unplanned works on fields and systems pumping Norwegian gas to other European countries will reduce Norways outbound gas flows for up to four weeks, which, according to traders, will further boost natural gas prices in Europe.

According to Norwegian gas operator Gassco, two unplanned events are currently reducing day-ahead and within-day supplies and may continue to do so for up to four weeks.

On Sunday, an outage affecting the fields delivering gas into the SEGAL pipeline system occurred, and according to Gassco data as of Monday morning local time, unplanned corrective maintenance on fields delivering into the SEGAL system will reduce gas availability by 5.8 million cubic meters for a period of between one and two weeks.

This outage adds to an outage at the Asgard field, where a compressor failure requires unplanned works and flows would be reduced by 8.6 million cu m for between three and four weeks.

Prices at the Dutch TTF gas hub have been moving up on the news of the outage, a European gas trader told S&P Global Platts on Monday.

In the UK, wholesale gas prices rose slightly on Friday, with the Norwegian outage at Asgard contributing to the rise along with rising exports and withdrawals from storage. Prices further rose on Monday morning UK time, as planned maintenance at some UK sites and unplanned outages at others combined to push prices up.

This summer, natural gas prices in the UK surged to the highest for a summer season, with Europes natural gas market the most bullish in years as higher-than-expected summer demand and a tighter market drive natural gas price futures to levels last seen during this past winters supply crunch.

The past winter season in Europe was one of the coldest this decade, sending gas demand soaring and the level of natural gas stored in tanks across Europe dropping to below average levels.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Toddler survives four days lost in the wilderness in China

A toddler has miraculously survived four days lost in the wilderness after wandering off into the woodlands near her home in a remote part of rural China.

Seven hundred police officers and villagers spent days searching for the 22-month-old girl, nicknamed Xiaojiao, in the rolling hills of Rong county in the southern region of Guangxi, with the aid of drones and rescue dogs.

The child had been playing with two of her siblings, aged four and six, near the small village of Shuikou when she wandered off, Yulin Daily and the Yulin Evening News reported on Saturday.

Her father, a farmer named Chen Qingran, asked family members to look out for her when she failed to return home for dinner but failed to report her disappearance officially until the next afternoon.

From the time the child went missing to when we received the alert was nearly 24 hours, so we missed the best search time, Huang Jianfeng, director of the local police station, was quoted as saying.

That not only increases the difficulty of the search, but the possibility for accidents.



For three days, police and hundreds of volunteers scoured fish ponds, waded through rivers and combed the dense hilly woodlands that surround the village.

The girl went missing during the rainy season, which meant that the artificial waterways in the area were swollen and the steep, grassy slopes of the hills were slippery  all of which raised concerns that the child had drowned or fallen.

Investigators also scanned surveillance footage and stopped suspicious vehicles in the area.

The multi-pronged search stretched late into the evenings, but yielded no results.

But on Friday morning, nearly four days after Xiaojiao had gone missing, a villager heard strange noises coming from an area of bushes on a steep incline above a canal.

He notified police, who arrived on the scene to find the child buried in the brush, covered in cuts and insect bites, but still alive.

Story continues

Xiaojiao was rushed to a health clinic and transferred to a hospital where she was treated for dehydration and bruising.

Reports indicate that the child is in stable condition.

This is a miracle, a police official was quoted as saying.









This article Toddler survives four days lost in the wilderness in China first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.How much time each one of us actually spends working actually depends to a large extent on the economic situation. Credit: iStock

The life expectancy of human beings continues to increase. While this is good news for the individual, it does cause difficulties for the pension system. This is why experts as well as some politicians call for the retirement age to be raised further. However, the actual duration of working life is determined only in part by the retirement age defined by the government. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research are exploring the impact of other factors such as profession, gender, level of education and the economic situation. Analogous to life expectancy, they strive to estimate the working life expectancy based on these aspects.

On paper it is currently 65 years and seven months. This is the age when a German employee can enter retirement without suffering financial losses. The average German, however, enters retirement before they turn 62. That is more than three years earlier. There is a notable gap between official entitlement and reality, when it comes to the retirement age, and this is true not only for Germany but also for most other industrial countries. On top of this, many people spend periods of time throughout their working life, in which they are not gainfully employed  due to illness, unemployment, training or retraining measures, raising children or caring for relatives.

For the domain of politics it is essential to know, how much of their lives citizens spend actually working. After all, this is what determines the income of the government and social insurance funds. At the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Mikko Myrskyla's team of scientists is working on gathering reliable data about the duration of the working life. Their area of research "Labour Demography" has examined for different nations, when employees are entering retirement, what the reasons are for retiring from their profession earlier than intended, and which long-term developments are beginning to emerge.

The basic rule is as follows: The higher the level of education, the greater the number of working years a 50-year-old has ahead of them. The scientists are speaking of working life expectancy at the age of 50. Health aspects are particularly likely to play an important role in this context. When considering the entire life, better educated individuals tend to spend more time studying, which shortens the duration of their working life. Nevertheless, they are less likely to become unemployed, and this increases the duration of their working life. Another important aspect for women is, whether it is common in their respective country that they are gainfully employed, and in which ways a reconciliation of career and family life is promoted.

How much time each person actually spends working, also depends significantly on the economic situation. A study conducted about the years between 1989 and 2012 in Finland shows that the recession of the early 1990s initially reduced the working life expectancy of 50-year-olds. It was only towards the middle of the decade, when the economy began to pick up speed once again that older employees returned to remaining employed for longer.

For Spain the scientists have calculated the effects of the financial crisis that started in 2008 in relation to overall working life expectancy. The results show the number of working years to have decreased from 38 years for men and 33 years for women to 26 years for both sexes. Those affected the least were highly qualified individuals and women, especially older ones. The researchers attribute this to the fact that it was the construction sector in particular that came to a standstill in Spain, and significantly fewer women than men are working in this industry. Similar developments were observed by the researchers for Italy, which was also severely affected by the financial crises.

In another survey it was found that the 2008 financial crisis had a weaker impact on the working life expectancy of women than on that of men, also in the USA. Here the consequences of the economic downturn varied greatly and partly also in unexpected ways, depending on level of education, gender and population groups. The working life expectancy of 50-year-olds with university degrees, for example, decreased by a surprising extent. The researchers' explanation for this effect is that older university graduates, who lost their work due to the recession, tended to enter retirement early  unlike other population groups that could not afford to do so.

The exact opposite could be observed for women without any school-leaving qualifications, especially within the population group of Hispanics: Their working life expectancy at age 50 increased. The scientists consider the "added worker effect" to be the reason for this. According to this explanation, the crisis led to many women from poorer sections of the population to take up employment, in order to compensate their husbands' unemployment or lower income.

Mikko Myrskyla and his team are particularly interested in long-term trends. Within the context of a general increase of life expectancy, the question arises, whether working life expectancy is also increasing. The survey conducted in Finland showed that this was actually the case: Here the average number of working years that 50-year-olds have ahead of them increased by one year for men and by as much as two years for women between 2001 and 2012. This increase exceeded the increase of life expectancy. With regard to the pension system, the researchers consider this to be a very positive development.

Meanwhile, a rather different situation could be observed in the USA. On the one hand, working life expectancy for 50-year-olds across all population groups is higher here than in European countries such as Finland, Great Britain or Spain. On the other hand, however, it remained largely unchanged between 1992 and 2011  except during the years of the recession, when it decreased.

The researchers are concerned about the significant inequalities within the population, not only in the USA. In future studies, the scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research would like to address differences in health, health-related behaviour and disabilities. After all, the political domain requires reliable data for promoting an extension of the working life, without putting human health at risk.

Explore further Smoking reduces increase in life expectancy for less educated women

More information: Christian Dudel et al. Working Life Expectancy at Age 50 in the United States and the Impact of the Great Recession, Demography (2017). Journal information: Demography Christian Dudel et al. Working Life Expectancy at Age 50 in the United States and the Impact of the Great Recession,(2017). DOI: 10.1007/s13524-017-0619-6Photo: Tom Williams/AP Images

After John McCains death, as official Washington set its flags at half-staff, Chuck Schumer proposed another kind of tribute to the iconic senator and war hero: that the Russell Senate Office Building, currently named for a segregationist southern Democrat, be renamed for McCain. His Republican colleagues, however, demurred.

They could not admit that their real reason for opposing the honor was that McCain had crossed Trump. Nor could they defend Senator Richard Russells ardent white supremacy, which extended to denouncing laws to ban lynching. Instead, they flailed about, inventing pretexts on the fly. Russell did so many other things, Georgia Republican David Perdue rhapsodized. He was a big supporter of the Great Society, the War on Poverty. Now, we all know those things failed, but he was a big champion of them. So here was Perdue arguing that Russell deserved to be honored for his role in crafting what Perdues party regards as a historic debacle. Even Lindsey Graham proclaimed that the best way to honor his best friend would somehow be to not name a Senate building after him: Instead of worrying about what to name for him  lets be more like him.

What was at stake in this absurd stance was something large: Donald Trump was once again demanding a display of submission from his party. And once again, he received it. As in a Stalinist show trial, the preposterousness of the statements made them more rather than less valuable. Senate Republicans demonstrated their willingness to turn on a colleague out of fealty to Trump, and all the better for him that they did so out of transparent fear rather than conviction.

The GOP elites icy disposition toward Trump has melted slowly and in stages over his first year and a half in office. In the past few weeks, the process has accelerated. Whatever restraining force Trumps party exerted against him has now almost completely dissipated.

Take, for instance, the election-security bill both parties worked together to craft this summer. The measure would have given top state election officials security clearances to view warnings about hacking threats, convened a technical advisory board to share best practices, and increased the use of paper ballots that could be checked in case of a hack, along with other steps that are both obviously needed and just as obviously unobjectionable. But the White House came out against the bill, so Republicans dutifully paused work on it.

Senate Republicans have likewise all but abandoned the wall of defense they had once maintained around Attorney General Jeff Sessions. An original true believer in Trump, Sessions was the first senator to endorse him, later joined his campaign, and has enthusiastically carried out Trumps agenda of rolling back Obama-era police reforms. But Sessions had to recuse himself from Robert Muellers investigation into Trumps campaign, since Sessions had been part of it  and this one area turns out to be the only thing within Sessionss purview that Trump cares about. Trump demands and expects the attorney general to gin up criminal charges against Trumps enemies while ignoring misdeeds by Trump and his allies. The president told an interviewer, The only reason I gave him the job [is] I felt loyalty.

What has prevented Trump from firing Sessions until now were the quiet warnings from the attorney generals former Republican Senate colleagues that they would refuse to confirm a successor. If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay, Graham insisted a year ago. Now Republicans have signaled a passive acceptance, treating Trumps impulses as completely normal behavior and ignoring his manifestly corrupt intent in replacing the top federal law-enforcement official. The presidents entitled to an attorney general he has faith in, says Graham now, as if Sessions had lost Trumps trust for a legitimate reason, and not for the crime of observing the basic ethical norms Trump wishes to shred.

At the moment, the partys narrow Senate majority might prevent Trump from replacing Sessions with a crony who will hobble the Mueller probe.

Republican senators are urging Trump to wait until after the midterms, at which point the Senate is likely to grow much Trumpier.

Of the 35 seats up for reelection, 26 are held by Democrats, ten of them defending seats in states Trump won in 2016. The terrain is so heavily red that Republicans might gain senators even if Democrats enjoy a national wave. And even if Republicans fail to add any seats, the Senates composition is certain to change. McCain is being replaced with a Republican appointee, and fellow Trump critics Jeff Flake and Bob Corker are retiring. New Trump-skeptical Republicans stand little prospect of joining Congress  Trump has effectively wiped them out.

A recent list circulated by congressional Republicans to members of their party demonstrates the degree to which Trumps party has internalized its role as enabler of the presidents misconduct. Republicans have used their majority in Congress to quash almost any oversight of the administration. The list tallied all the scandals and acts of gross incompetence that Democrats would like to investigate if they win control of at least one chamber of Congress.

Democrats, the list warned, would look into Trumps tax returns, Trump family businesses  and whether they comply with the Constitutions emoluments clause, including the Chinese trademark grant to the Trump Organization, Trumps dealings with Russia, including the presidents preparation for his meeting with Vladimir Putin, The payment to Stephanie Clifford  a.k.a. Stormy Daniels, and on and on.

The point of this impressive litany of scandals was not to show that Republicans have abdicated their basic responsibilities or that the public has a right to information about which business interests directly pay the president and his family, exactly which sources of blackmail he is vulnerable to, and so on. The point was to help Republicans warn their own side what might come to light if Democrats win the midterms. The prospect of Congress acting independently has churned Republican stomachs, Axios notes. That the GOP should or could restrain Trumps corruption has become unfathomable.

As Republicans scant interest in inhibiting Trump has waned, his authoritarianism has grown more uninhibited. He threatened Google with unspecified consequences unless it tweaks its algorithm to drive readers toward more pro-Trump stories. He has edged closer to issuing a pardon of Paul Manafort as a reward for his former campaign managers refusal to cooperate with prosecutors. And he ranted in a meeting with leaders from the Christian right that antifa will launch violent attacks against them unless Republicans win in the midterms. Even more delusional than Trumps fear of coordinated nationwide attacks by a minuscule faction of left-wing street-fighter wannabes is the premise that somehow they would base their attack on the election results. (Put the clubs and shields away, fellas, the antifa activists gathered at their election-viewing parties will say after CNN projects Democrats falling short of 218 House seats.) And he has increased the frequency of his Lenin-esque charges that the parts of the news media his party does not control are the enemy of the people.

Trumps latest maniacal outburst coincided with  and was likely caused by  the deepening investigations. Trumps longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, confessed to charges in open court, and for the first time, the phrase unindicted co-conspirator began to circulate in connection with Trump himself. It may turn out to be one of the more resonant phrases of this sordid era. As Trump plunges deeper into his war against the rule of law, the Republican Congress marches along beside him, unindicted co-conspirators all.

*This article appears in the September 3, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Organic chemists at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania have synthesised a new material, which can be used as a detector of cyanides in water. In contact with cyanides it changes colour in half a minute  more than 20 times faster than currently used colorimetric commercial cyanide detection products.

Discharges from metal finishing industries, iron and steel mills, and organic chemical industries are among the major culprits of cyanide releases to water. Chlorination treatment of some wastewaters can produce cyanides as a by-product.

Also, cyanide is produced naturally by over 1,000 plant species, among them sorghum, bamboo shoots and cassava. Relatively low concentrations of cyanide can be highly toxic to people and wildlife.

"Some regions are more susceptible for cyanide contamination in water than others. For example, among the potentially dangerous natural sources of cyanide is cassava, which in South American countries is used for food, and which can be poisonous if not properly prepared. Also, the waters used in mining industries have to be checked from cyanide as it is being used in the extraction of gold and silver", says Professor Vytas Martynaitis, researcher at KTU Department of Organic Chemistry.

The compound synthesised by a group of researchers of KTU Faculty of Chemical Technologies could be of use in situations, where cyanide poisoning is likely. The new material reacts to cyanides: it changes colour almost instantly after exposure to the toxic substance.

"Our compound is faster than other researched and commercially used colorimetric substances. While currently used in the market cyanide detectors' reaction time is 20 minutes, our compound gives out colour upon detecting cyanide in half a minute", points out Martynaitis.

In contact with cyanides, one of the synthesised compound's bonds dissociates and nitrophenolate, which is giving out the colour, is formed. Comparing with the similar substances currently used in cyanide detection products, the compound synthesised in KTU laboratories is more than 20 times faster.

The research group has synthesised the new material, which can have numerous applications: for example, if integrated with polymer, the cyanide detector could be presented in a form of a testing strip, which immediately changes colour if the water contains traces of cyanides.

The substance synthesised by KTU chemists "Spiro[chroman-2,2"-indole] derivatives as cyanide ion chemo sensors" has been recently patented by European Patent Office (EPO).

Explore further Rapid response in cases of smoke poisoningAlthough deep reefs are often considered a refuge from thermal anomalies, this new study argues that both shallow and deep reefs are under threat of mass bleaching events. A team of scientists focused on the mass bleaching event in 2016 that caused the death of 30% of shallow-water corals on the Great Barrier Reef. The study details how the impacts of this bleaching lessened over depth, but were still substantial on deep reefs. Credit:  Pedro Frade

A new study demonstrates that the recent mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef was not restricted to shallow depths, but also affected deep reefs. Although deep reefs are often considered a refuge from thermal anomalies, the new research highlights limitations to this role and argues that both shallow and deep reefs are under threat of mass bleaching events. Published today in the journal Nature Communications, the study focuses on the mass bleaching event in 2016 that caused the death of 30% of shallow-water corals on the Great Barrier Reef. It details how the impacts of this bleaching lessened over depth, but were still substantial on deep reefs.

"During the bleaching event, cold-water upwelling initially provided cooler conditions on the deep reef," says study co-author Dr. Pim Bongaerts, curator of invertebrate zoology and Hope for Reefs co-leader at the California Academy of Sciences. "However, when this upwelling stopped towards the end of summer, temperatures rose to record-high levels even at depth."

Lead author Dr. Pedro Frade from the Center of Marine Sciences (CCMAR) says the research team was astounded to find bleached coral colonies down to depths of 131 feet beneath the ocean's surface. "It was a shock to see that the impacts extended to these dimly lit reefs, as we were hoping their depth may have provided protection from this devastating event."

The Great Barrier Reef is known to harbor extensive areas of deep coral reefs that are notoriously difficult to study. Using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), the team deployed sensors to 328 feet beneath the ocean's surface to characterize how temperature conditions at depth differ from those in shallow habitats.

The Great Barrier Reef is known to harbor extensive areas of deep coral reefs that are notoriously difficult to study. Here, a diver takes a closer look at corals. Using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), this team deployed sensors to 328 feet beneath the ocean's surface to characterize how temperature conditions at depth differ from those in shallow habitats. Lead author Dr. Pedro Frade from the Center of Marine Sciences (CCMAR) says the research team was astounded to find bleached coral colonies down to depths of 131 feet beneath the ocean's surface. "It was a shock to see that the impacts extended to these dimly lit reefs, as we were hoping their depth may have provided protection from this devastating event." Credit:  Pim Bongaerts

A team of divers then conducted surveys during the height of bleaching across a number of sites on the northern Great Barrier Reef. They noted that overall, major bleaching and mortality affected almost a quarter of corals at the deep sampling points, while confirming previous reports of impacts on close to half the shallower corals.

"Unfortunately, this research further stresses the vulnerability of the Great Barrier Reef," says Dr. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from The University of Queensland, where the study was conducted. "We already established that the refuge role of deep reefs is generally restricted by the limited overlap in species with the shallow reef. However, this adds an extra limitation by demonstrating that the deep reefs themselves are also impacted by higher water temperatures."

The researchers will continue to study how the process of recovery varies between shallow and deep reefs.

Explore further Deep reefs unlikely to save shallow coral reefs

More information: Pedro R. Frade et al, Deep reefs of the Great Barrier Reef offer limited thermal refuge during mass coral bleaching, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Pedro R. Frade et al, Deep reefs of the Great Barrier Reef offer limited thermal refuge during mass coral bleaching,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05741-0Current inequities in access to Denver's parks among minorities and low-income residents are the legacies of segregationist land-use and housing policies, as well as funding mechanisms that prioritized investment in wealthy white neighborhoods, according to a new study led by University of Illinois recreation, sport andtourism professor Alessandro Rigolon. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer

Current inequities in access to Denver's parks that are found among the city's minorities and low-income residents are the legacy of exclusionary local and state zoning codes, and funding policies that favored investment in wealthy neighborhoods, a new study found.

Although these disparities have declined over time, these improvements were driven primarily by gentrification, with ethnic minorities' relocating into suburban areas with greater park acreage as whites returned to the urban core, rather than city officials' efforts to promote equity, said lead author Alessandro Rigolon, a professor of recreation, sport and tourism at the University of Illinois.

To determine why Denver parks don't adequately serve all city residents, Rigolon and co-author Jeremy Nemeth of the University of Colorado conducted a comprehensive case study of the city's practices for establishing and funding its urban parks from 1902, when both the city and county of Denver were founded, through 2015. Their study appears in the Journal of Education Planning and Research.

The researchers examined both public and private initiatives associated with Denver parks, analyzed spatial data on the locations of the city's parks and parkways, and reviewed current and archival land use, park planning, funding and housing policies.

Rigolon and Nemeth also interviewed numerous current or retired park planners, several Denver historians and staff members of nonprofit organizations who work on green space issues in the area.

Rigolon said that much of Denver's well-regarded system of parks and parkwaysranked 20th among the 100 largest cities in the U.S. - was founded through early 20th century programs such as the City Beautiful movement.

Planners told the researchers that a pattern of inequitable distribution of city parks originated with the funding system that was implemented during the city's early years. Under that system, funding for the installation or improvement of parks and parkways was allocated to the wealthiest districts that collected the greatest property tax revenue, East Denver and South Denver.

These upscale, mostly white districts also benefited disproportionately from land donations by real estate developers, who often gifted park acreage to the city to enhance their housing developments' prestige and appeal to potential buyers.

But as with many U.S. cities, Rigolon said, affordability and segregationist policies such as exclusionary zoning regulations and restrictive homeowners association covenants prevented many ethnic minorities from living in these areas.

"Our historical analysis shows that although Denver has moved past an era of overtly discriminatory policies or race-based redlining, the policies, plans and practices that were implemented by previous generations continue to impact ethnic minorities' and low-income residents' access to urban parks decades later," Rigolon said.

Establishing new parks in areas accessible to low-income people of color became even more difficult after World War II, the researchers wrote, when "white flight" to the Denver suburbs decreased property tax revenues and the parks department's budget shriveled after an administrative reorganization, both of which promoted disinvestment in the central city.

Exclusionary housing regulations in the city's 1925 housing regulations persisted when the codes were updated in 1956, a historian told the researchers.

Likewise, the city's R-0 district ordinance, which was adopted in 1956 and lasted until 1989, limited construction in upscale neighborhoods to single-family homes on spacious lots, and "prohibited unrelated people from 'living in sin'" to prevent unwanted people from residing in these areas.

Moreover, Colorado's adoption of the Poundstone Amendment to the state constitution in 1974 thwarted Denver's ability to establish large parks beyond the ones that already existed in affluent areas. The amendment, which was prompted by white suburban residents' opposition to racial integration of their schools, prevented city officials from annexing land from a nearby county unless a majority of that county's residents voted in favor of it, the researchers wrote.

"It's really hard to overturn the legacy of segregation," Rigolon said. "The racist politics that shaped policies during a city's formative years still determine who gets to live where. Neighborhoods are set in stone, and historical-preservation ordinances limit the kinds of changes that can be made to properties."

The master-planned "New Urbanist" communities established in Denver over the last 20 years rarely included affordable housing, and many of the parks in these wealthier areas were privately owned and de facto inaccessible to residents of other neighborhoods, according to the study. Even when well-meaning park planners strove to make positive changes, they said their efforts were constrained by political systems that prioritized economic growth over social equity.

To improve park access for disadvantaged residents, the authors suggested that Denver's park planners work with equity-oriented nonprofits; capitalize on publicly owned, unused land such as large streets in residential neighborhoods; and partner with other departments such as transportation and public works that have reliable sources of public funding.

Explore further Study shows zoning regulations impact where marijuana dispensaries can locate

More information: Alessandro Rigolon et al, What Shapes Uneven Access to Urban Amenities? Thick Injustice and the Legacy of Racial Discrimination in Denver's Parks, Journal of Planning Education and Research (2018). Alessandro Rigolon et al, What Shapes Uneven Access to Urban Amenities? Thick Injustice and the Legacy of Racial Discrimination in Denver's Parks,(2018). DOI: 10.1177/0739456X18789251Top panel shows modelled change in annual mean rainfall (as a percent) given a global warming at the PETM, ~56 million years ago.Bottom panel shows the same thing but for EXTREMES in rainfall. The key thing is that in some regions, the rainfall decreases (top panel is red) but the extremes in rainfall increase (bottom panel is blue), such as in southern Africa, the Amazon, or northern Australia. This is what we mean by a "decoupling". Credit: BRIDGE - University of Bristol

A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol has shown that ancient global warming was associated with intense rainfall events that had a profound impact on the land and coastal seas.

The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which occurred about 56 Million years ago, is of great interest to climate scientists because it represents a relatively rapid global warming event, with some similarities to the human-induced warming of today.

Although there have been many investigations of how much the Earth warmed at the PETM, there have been relatively few studies of how that changed the hydrological cycle.

This newly published work shows that rainfall increased in some places and decreased in others, according to expectations, but that much of the world experienced more intense and episodic (or 'flashy') rainfall events.

Lead author Dr. Matt Carmichael from the University's Schools of Chemistry and Geographical Sciences, said: "With the same climate models used to study future climate change, we studied how a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations would affect rainfall patterns on a world with Eocene geography.

"This increased the overall global precipitationwarmer air holds more water. But it also changed the pattern and frequency of extreme events.

"The tropics became wetter and the incidence of extreme events increased, by as much as 70 percent in some tropical regions.

"In other places, total annual precipitation and the number of extreme events became decoupled; in other words, they became drier, with less frequent but more extreme events. All of this illustrates the complexity of how global warming will affect our local, regional and global rainfall patterns."

Co-author Professor Rich Pancost from Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, explained how these findings agree with a range of geological and chemical features of the Palaeocene-Eocene global warming.

He said: "This warming event is associated with major changes in how soil and sediment were eroded and moved around the landscape.

"In many places, river systems that had been transporting silt or sand became associated with fist-sized rocks or even boulders; and more sediment was transported to and buried in coastal margins. In some locations, the rate of sediment accumulation increased by a factor of ten. But at the same time, there is also evidence that these systems became more arid.

"Our climate simulations reconcile this for many locations, showing an increase in aridity with fewer but more intense rainfall events. Those events were likely responsible for increased energy in these systems, moving around more material and larger objects. Ultimately it flushed more sediment to the ocean, causing eutrophication, blooms of algae and in some cases hypoxia."

Co-author Professor Dan Lunt from the School of Geographical Sciences added: "There are many similar events in Earth history, where warming appears to have been associated with changes in rainfall and sedimentary systems.

"Although we have not investigated them here, it is very likely that our results are translatablebecause the physics that underpins them remains the same. Thus, the collective body of research confirms that global warming in the past and the future will be associated with more 'flashy' rainfall, with implications for flooding and water management."

Professor Pancost said: "Past climate has lessons for our future. Not only do the models show evidence for more intense rainfall eventswith all of the implications that entailsbut they are consistent with all of our other data.

"In fact, they explain inconsistencies in our other data and confirm some long-established hypotheses. In doing so, they foreshadow our potential future with complex and dramatic changes in rainfall, more flooding and more soil erosion."

Explore further New research indicates likely hydrological implications of rapid global warming

More information: Matthew J. Carmichael et al, Changes in the occurrence of extreme precipitation events at the PaleoceneEocene thermal maximum, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2018). Journal information: Earth and Planetary Science Letters Matthew J. Carmichael et al, Changes in the occurrence of extreme precipitation events at the PaleoceneEocene thermal maximum,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2018.08.005Credit: Hitachi

Hitachi, Ltd. today announced the development of an original energy saving power semiconductor structure, TED-MOS, using next-generation silicon carbide (SiC) material that contributes to saving energy in electric vehicles (EV). This power semiconductor is a new device using a fin-structured trench MOSFET based on the conventional DMOS-FET, a SiC transistor of power semiconductor. Using this new device, an energy saving of 50 percent was confirmed as the structure reduces the electric field strength, an index of durability, by 40 percent and resistance by 25 percent compared to the conventional DMOS-FET. Hitachi intends to apply this device in motor drive inverters which are a core component of EVs to increase energy efficiency. Furthermore, by utilizing this technology not only in EVs but also in a range of electrical transducers used in societal infrastructure systems, Hitachi hopes to contribute to efforts to reduce global warming and the realization of a low-carbon society.

With the anticipated increase in global energy demand, targets to reduce environmental load are being set through initiatives such as the SDGs and COP21 to realize a sustainable society. As the adoption of EVs is also expected to increase dramatically, reducing EV power consumption is considered critical, Thus, the use of power semiconductors using SiC as the semiconductor material which can deliver significant energy savings for inverters, is attracting much attention. One issue, however, is that in SiC power semiconductor, unlike silicon (Si) devices, the resistance varies greatly depending on the crystal plane. Although trench SiC MOSFET (Fig. 1(2)) has been proposed as a means to facilitate the flow of electric current on the crystal plane at a lower resistance in comparison to the conventional DMOS-FET (Fig. 1(1)) structure, as electric fields easily concentrate at the edges of the trench on the base plane, it was difficult to simultaneously achieve high durability.

To address this challenge, Hitachi developed an original fin-structure trench DMOS-FET "TED-MOS" that achieved both a reduction in resistance with the smaller trench pitch and high durability with lower electric fields for industrial applications at high voltage (3.3 kV), and presented these results in May 2018 at the International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD) in Chicago, U.S.A..

This time, Hitachi has enhanced the "TED-MOS" for EV inverters as they require higher current density at a lower voltage (1.2 kV) (Fig. 1(3)). The "field relaxation layer (FRL)" was developed to reduce the electric field strength extensively, where the PN junction to relax the applied voltage forms in the center of the device structure. In addition, the "current spreading layer (CSL)" was developed to reduce the resistance in the n-JFET region, which serves to form the electric current path connecting the sides of the fin-like trenches as low-resistance crystal planes and the n-JFET region. As a result, "TED-MOS" simultaneously achieves both a smaller electric field strength and lower resistance in SiC power semiconductors.

The benefits of this technology development was verified using a prototype device. It was found that the "TED-MOS" reduced the electric field strength by 40 percent and resistance by 25 percent in comparison to the conventional DMOS-FET while maintaining the rated voltage of 1.2kV required for the motor drive in EVs. Furthermore, the modified device structure mentioned above also improved the switching speeds between ON/OFF of the power semiconductor, and as a result, energy loss in the electric current due to this switching operation was also reduced by 50 percent.

Going forward, Hitachi will contribute to the prevention of global warming and the realization of a low-carbon society by applying this technology to various electrical transducers, not only in EVs but also in various societal infrastructure systems.

Explore further Researchers quantify factors for reducing power semiconductor resistance by two-thirds

Provided by HitachiPrototype of the automated fish egg sorter. Credit: Fraunhofer IPA

Zebrafish possess almost all of the same genes we humans doand that makes their eggs the perfect model organisms for use in genetic and drug research. Previously, samples have had to be prepared manually, which is a very time-consuming task. Now, however, a clever machine learning algorithm will be able to separate and sort the fish eggs automatically. From November 6-8, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA will be at the VISION trade show in Stuttgart (Hall 1, Booth G42) to demonstrate how their new solution works in practice.

The zebrafish, or danio rerio, has long been popular as a model organism for cell and molecular biologists. Measuring just six centimeters in length when adult, these tiny creatures hatch out of transparent eggs spawned by the mother fish. The fish is extremely valuable to researchers because its eggs remain transparent right into the early larval stage, which allows scientists to observe the developing cells and organs under the microscope without damaging the embryos. A mature female can lay several hundred eggs each week, which can then be used in the lab for genetic and drug research: toxicology studies of cancer drugs for instance or the investigation of heart diseases. The zebrafish genome is a 70-percent match for the human genome, and some of the most important organ systems are also the samemaking it extremely valuable for biomedical research.

Working toward a high-throughput analysis system

If there is one difficulty with preparing fish egg samples, it is that a specialist is required to manually inspect each egg, determine its stage of fertilization, classify it under the microscope and then place it on a microtiter plate. It currenly takes a trained lab technician around 12 minutes to fill a standard 96-well microtiter platewith the monotony of the task only increasing the rate of error. Researchers at Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart wanted to speed up this process, and now a new automated solution is expected to classify three eggs a second and sort fertilized eggs into a 96-well microtiter plate in under two minutes.

A fertilized fish egg at the two-cell stage. Credit: Stefan Scholz / Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Umweltforschung GmbH  UFZ

The goal is to establish a high-throughput analysis process that can be incorporated into a fully automated system, thereby further increasing sample processing rates. The initiative is funded by Baden-Wurttemberg's State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing Construction as part of a project entitled "Laboratory 4.0 Application CenterThe Cloud Laboratory."

"Not only does this technology take the strain off the lab technicians who have to prepare the samples, it's also a way to bypass the choke point in the process chain, cut staffing costs and increase the speed with which products such as new medicines can be developed," says Bastian Standfest, a researcher in Technology and Device Development within Fraunhofer IPA's department for Laboratory Automation and Biomanufacturing Engineering. Together with group leader Martin Thoma and colleagues Xi Chen and Sascha Getto from the department of Image and Signal Processing, Standfest is responsible for developing the automated fish egg sorter that is now available in prototype form. The core of the solution is a camera system that identifies the stage of fertilization using a machine learning algorithm.

A self-learning system

A rotating syringe sucks the mixture of fertilized and unfertilized eggs out of a ventilated container, adding them to a transfer liquid so that in the next step they can be directed into a fluidic channel and separated there.

A fertilized fish egg at a later stage of cell division. Credit: Stefan Scholz / Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Umweltforschung GmbH  UFZ

Optical sensors monitor the entire process. After that, the camera system uses a deep learning algorithm trained to recognize various stages of cell development so as to determine the eggs' stage of fertilization. "We're training the algorithm using a database of images of classified fish eggs. The algorithm learns to identify the various markers of the different stages of cell development as it goes, and this is what allows it to determine whether an egg is fully fertilized or not," explains Standfest. The fertilized eggs are placed in the wells of the microtiter plate by means of a pressure pulse generated by the fluidic chip. Initial testing has gone well, with an extremely low false positive rateonly in 0.2 percent of cases was an unfertilized egg erroneously classified as fertilized. The research team anticipates being able to process several thousand eggs an hour.

At the moment, Standfest and his colleagues are busy at work maximizing the speed of the process and optimizing the algorithm. "The newly recorded images are constantly being fed back into the system, gradually improving it until, we hope, we have a self-learning system," says Standfest. "On top of that, we can potentially adapt the system to other macroscopic sorting processes, including automated separation and classification of other organisms."

The current design represents a first use case for an intelligent and self-learning system of this type. This platform technology is the first step toward bio-intelligent systems, and it can potentially be adapted to other areas of application. Projects of this type moreover support the biological transformation of manufacturing at the interface between the life sciences and engineering.

Explore further Scientists find malformations and lower survival rates in zebrafish embryos exposed to cannabinoidsThe SKA will have over 2000 radio dishes and 2 million low-frequency antennas once finished. Credit: The Square Kilometre Array

When mapping the universe, it pays to have some smart programming. Experts share how machine learning is changing the future of astronomy.

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences and the first science to incorporate maths and geometry. It sits at the centre of humankind's search for its place in the universe.

As we delve deeper into the space surrounding our planet, the tools we use become more complex. Astronomers have come a long way from tracking the night sky with the naked eye or cataloguing the stars with a pen and paper.

Modern astronomers use advanced computer programming techniques in their workfrom programming satellites to teaching computers to analyse data like a researcher.

So what do astronomers do with their computers?

Mo' data, mo' problems

Big data is a big problem in astronomy. The next generation of radio and optical telescopes will be able to map huge chunks of the night sky. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will push data processing to its limits.

Built in two phases, the SKA will have over 2000 radio dishes and 2 million low-frequency antennas once finished. These antennas combined will produce over an exabyte of data each daymore than the world's internet usage per day. The data is then processed to be made manageable, meaning the size of the data that astronomers have to deal with will be smaller.

Project scientist for the Australian SKA Pathfinder Dr. Aidan Hotan explains.

"Data from a radio telescope array is very much like the flow of water through an ecosystem. The individual antennas each produce data, which is then transmitted over some distance and combined with other antennas in various stageslike smaller tributaries combining into a larger river," says Aidan.

"The largest data rate you can consider is the total raw output from each individual antenna, but in reality, we reduce that total rate to more manageable numbers as we flow through the system. We can combine the signals in ways that retain only the information we want or can make use of."

While the SKA will be the biggest project of its kind, many modern telescopes are capable of collecting data faster than humans are able to use it.

Dr Gemma Anderson has programmed Australian radio telescopes to automatically monitor explosions in space. Credit: NASA

How to find an explosion

The SKA will be a game-changing tool for astronomers once complete. Already, astronomers are preparing their work for phase one of the SKA. To do this, they're working on ways to make their jobs quicker and easier by automating the recording and processing of data.

So what sort of work can astronomers automate?

Dr. Gemma Anderson is a research associate at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Perth. There, she has programmed Australian radio telescopes to automatically monitor explosions in space.

"We have a telescope in space designed to look for explosions. The space telescope sends information back to Earth, and I have two of the big radio telescopes in Australia set up to receive that signal. When they get the signal, these telescopes stop what they're doing and try to observe the explosion as quickly as possible," Gemma says.

Gemma uses the Swift observatory, currently orbiting Earth, to find gamma ray bursts in space. The bursts are the short-lived, incredibly energetic byproduct of dying stars.

Gemma and her team have programmed Australia's Murchison Widefield Array and Australia Telescope Compact Array to receive alerts from Swift and point to the source of the gamma ray burst.

In the past, telescope data like this was small enough for astronomers to work through themselves. Now, Gemma uses software that automates much of this process.

Data processing is such a big task that it needs to be done on supercomputers. Supercomputers are powerful computers that can often process vast amounts of data in hours instead of the months or years it would take on a standard laptop. The end product is an image that Gemma can use for research without needing to process the data herself.

"For those people interested in being an astronomer, it's very important to get experience in computer programming. We need to become more proficient in processing and analysing large amounts of data," Gemma says.

Schooling a robot

Dr. Rebecca Lange of the Curtin Institute for Computation and Astronomy Data and Computing Services is helping astronomers boost their computer programming techniques by providing them with training.

A nearby spiral galaxy known as NGC 1433. Credit: ESA/HUBBLE & NASA

"I think astronomers will have to start working more with software engineers. In the intermediate time span, though, astronomers will become better at computing. Things like programming have to become part of the training. Not only for astronomers, it's important for anyone doing science now," Rebecca says.

Among the techniques that Rebecca trains astronomers in is machine learning. Don't worry, it's not the kind of learning that leads to a robot uprising.

"The use of machine learning typically involves an automated search through an enormous image file, looking for what we call sourcesthe objects in space that emit natural radio signals. These sources appear as bright spots against a dark background," says Aidan.

"Since most of space is empty, using a clever source-finder makes it a lot easier for scientists to work out where the interesting bits are. However, this source-finder needs to be smart enough to classify a huge number of different kinds of objects, including things that human eyes have never before seen."

One source might be a galaxy that is spiral shaped, while another might be elliptical. The machine-learning program learns to sort similar images into those labels through a series of steps. These steps are a basic emulation of how human brains recognise patterns. Getting computers to do this gives astronomers useful information out of raw data.

"Machine learning is getting picked up because we now have the amount of data needed. When you're doing supervised learning, you need a lot of data to train on. If you look at galaxy classification, we have done so many already that we have a great training sample for machine learning," Rebecca says.

She thinks automation and machine learning will give astronomers more time to focus on their science rather than analysing their data. She also says designing these programs will be the job given to next-generation astronomers in their early career.

"Astronomers are still getting used to machine learning. They're still experimenting: what algorithm works best, what kind of machine learning techniques are most useful to apply," she says.

"Right now, it's a great entry point for Ph.D. students to develop code. The industry needs it, and it saves them having to sort the data themselves."

They will reach deeper into the universe and find old galaxies from the beginning of time. They will map hidden worlds, distant suns and the strangest, most destructive forces in existence. Perhaps they will even find new life.

These computer programs will work like a funnel. They will sort through massive amounts of raw data to find astronomers valuable information. A long way from our analogue past, computers are helping us uncover the secrets of our universeperhaps even, one day, understanding of our place within it.

Explore further Astronomers smash cosmic records to see hydrogen in distant galaxy

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.White matter fiber architecture of the brain. Credit: Human Connectome Project.

A team of researchers with The University of Queensland has found evidence suggesting that mammalian brain hemispheres had a means of communicating long before the development of the corpus callosum. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes mammalian brain studies they conducted using MRIs and what they found.

The corpus callosum is the largest mass of white matter in the human brain. Its purpose is to serve as a bridge between the two hemispheres, allowing fast, smooth communications between the two. All placental mammals have a corpus callosum, but for some reason, the other two main groups of mammals do not. Instead of a corpus callosum, marsupials (pouched mammals) and monotremes (egg laying mammals) have a simple network of nerve fibers that connect their brain hemispheres. In this new effort, the researchers wondered if the nerve fiber networks once occurred in placentals prior to the evolution of the corpus callosum. To learn more about that possibility, the researchers studied the nerve fiber network of a fat-tailed dunnart (a marsupial) and a platypus (a monotreme) using MRI scans.

The researchers found patterns in the scans reminiscent of the corpus callosum in both the marsupial and monotreme brains. The patterns included long range connections between hemispheres, which, the researchers noted, suggests similar functions. They claim this is possible evidence showing that the corpus callosum did not evolve independently, but is due to the continued evolution of the nerve fiber networks that all three types of mammals once shared.

The researchers also suggest their findings indicate that mammalian brains require very specific types of connections in order to facilitate proper communication between hemispheresthe types of connections found in both nerve fiber networks and the corpus callosum. The study also shows the likelihood that nerve fiber networks developed approximately 80 million years before the development of the corpus callosum. The team concludes by pointing out that their findings could prove valuable for research in other areas, such as studies of people with abnormal brain connectivity problems.

Explore further New research links brain structure with hallucinations and musical aptitude

More information: Rodrigo Suarez el al., "A pan-mammalian map of interhemispheric brain connections predates the evolution of the corpus callosum," PNAS (2018). Rodrigo Suarez el al., "A pan-mammalian map of interhemispheric brain connections predates the evolution of the corpus callosum,"(2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1808262115 Abstract

The brain of mammals differs from that of all other vertebrates, in having a six-layered neocortex that is extensively interconnected within and between hemispheres. Interhemispheric connections are conveyed through the anterior commissure in egg-laying monotremes and marsupials, whereas eutherians evolved a separate commissural tract, the corpus callosum. Although the pattern of interhemispheric connectivity via the corpus callosum is broadly shared across eutherian species, it is not known whether this pattern arose as a consequence of callosal evolution or instead corresponds to a more ancient feature of mammalian brain organization. Here we show that, despite cortical axons using an ancestral commissural route, monotremes and marsupials share features of interhemispheric connectivity with eutherians that likely predate the origin of the corpus callosum. Based on ex vivo magnetic resonance imaging and tractography, we found that connections through the anterior commissure in both fat-tailed dunnarts (Marsupialia) and duck-billed platypus (Monotremata) are spatially segregated according to cortical area topography. Moreover, cell-resolution retrograde and anterograde interhemispheric circuit mapping in dunnarts revealed several features shared with callosal circuits of eutherians. These include the layered organization of commissural neurons and terminals, a broad map of connections between similar (homotopic) regions of each hemisphere, and regions connected to different areas (heterotopic), including hyperconnected hubs along the medial and lateral borders of the cortex, such as the cingulate/motor cortex and claustrum/insula. We therefore propose that an interhemispheric connectome originated in early mammalian ancestors, predating the evolution of the corpus callosum. Because these features have been conserved throughout mammalian evolution, they likely represent key aspects of neocortical organization Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

 2018 Phys.orgLouisiana State University researchers are evaluating 13 different villages across the Pangani and Rufiji districts of Tanzania and analyzing the local mangrove ecosystems, including how humans influence and interact with these ecosystems. Credit: LSU

Louisiana State University is leveraging its expertise to improve coastal and environmental conditions in communities around the world. Experts are working to identify how small, coastal villages in the East African nation of Tanzania get caught in poverty traps, or mechanisms that cause poverty to persist in low-income communities. They are evaluating 13 different villages across the Pangani and Rufiji districts of Tanzania and analyzing the local mangrove ecosystems, including how humans influence and interact with these ecosystems.

Researchers from the LSU College of the Coast & Environment, in collaboration with the University of Rhode Island, the University of Dar es Salaam, Florida International University, and Sea Sense, intend to create a predictive socio-ecological model that could determine the ecosystem-wide environmental and economic effects of fishing and deforesting in a given sector along the resource rich Tanzania coastline.

While the other team members are focusing on the human systems piece of the puzzle, the LSU unit is analyzing the natural resources at play. Victor H. Rivera-Monroy, with his graduate student, Xiaochen Zhao, is studying the distribution of mangroves in wetlands and factors that regulate their ecosystem services, or how they benefit humans. Steve Midway and Michael Polito, along with their respective graduate students Matt Robertson and Mario Hernandez, are researching the local fish ecology and fisheries. Robert Rohli is examining how climate variability and change are linked to the local hydrology and resulting ecosystem productivity.

According to Rivera-Monroy, mangrove ecosystems are critical to the livelihoods of the coastal poor and provide a number of ecosystem services for humans such as providing a habitat for commercially valuable fish and other species, protecting coastal villages from flooding and storm surge, improving water quality, and absorbing carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) from the atmosphere. He says more than 35 percent of mangrove areas worldwide have degraded or been lost entirely in the past two decades, and most of those mangrove systems are located in developing countries.

Rivera-Monroy and Zhao are measuring the mangrove forest structure, species diversity, and current surface area in and around these Tanzanian villages and analyzing the natural and human influences on its reduction in size over the last 20 years.

"One of the most conspicuous impacts we detected in this coastal area is the illegal extraction of wood," Rivera-Monroy said. "We were surprised by how some of the mangrove forest species are targeted in small patches, but they add up to the total area being deforested on a large scale."

LSU Ph.D. student Mario Hernandez is analyzing where local fish in Tanzania fit into the ecosystem by analyzing what they eat. Credit: LSU

Midway and Robertson are collecting fish catch data provided by the local villages' Beach Management Units (BMUs) such as: methods used to catch fish, how many fish are caught, and the types of fish locals are catching. While the BMUs having been collecting this data for some time, this is the first time anyone attempted to analyze and synthesize their statistics and their utility in coastal management plans. Robertson recently published this work in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management.

Tanzania currently manages fisheries based on nationwide statistics, meaning blanket regulations for villages that use a variety of gear and catch a variety of species. Midway believes that in order to optimize fisheries management, Tanzanian officials need to be responsive to differences between regions. Midway plans to provide them with his research findings with the hope that they will improve regulations by adapting to that regional data.

"These fishermen are catching anything they can, including fish that are [very small]. That's not usually something that happens in more developed areas [because] we are more regulated. This is what you get when you have fished all the big ones down," Midway said.

In conjunction with overfishing, the tools and methods used by some Tanzanian fishermen to catch fish are harmful to fish habitats.

"We've seen multiple groups of men pulling these 300-meter trawls through seagrass habitats. They're dragging nets to catch these fish and I have not seen them catch anything larger than maybe a foot. You can see in the net that there are shards of coral all over the place, loads of seagrass, and fish that are not mature at all. It's really unfortunate," Hernandez said.

When fishermen drag these large nets through the sea grass habitats, they are destroying the habitat that juvenile fishes need to grow and reproduce, reducing the fish population and damaging their ability to replenish their numbers, meaning there are less fish available for the Tanzanians to use as a source of food or trade. While fishing is a large part of the local economy and large catches benefit fishermen in the short-term, it is creating a long-term scarcity.

LSU coastal researcher Matt Robertson collected fish catch data provided by the local villages in Tanzania. Credit: LSU

The same can be applied to the mangroves in the area that are harvested to build houses and burned into charred wood, or wood chips, which are sold or used to heat homes. Like sea grasses, mangroves are also potential fish habitats. But if they are overharvested, this could further disrupt the life cycles of local fish and their food webs, compounding the villages' ecological and economic problems.

Additionally, Polito and Hernandez are analyzing where local fish in Tanzania fit into their ecosystem by analyzing what they eat. They analyze tissue samples taken from fish specimens and the surrounding habitats and use stable isotope analysis to determine the flow of nutrients throughout the entire food web.

They take a very small piece of a fish's white tissue, a sample about the size of a fingernail, and freeze and later dehydrate it before returning with it to the U.S. for analysis. In Polito's lab at LSU, they are able to use an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) to break the sample down into carbon and nitrogen.

Once they have the isotope ratios of nitrogen and carbon of a fish sample, they can match the ratio to sea grass or mangrove habitats in the region. Through this process, they can identify the fish's local habitat. This information could be instrumental in helping local Tanzanians determine where to fish or harvest mangroves and where not to fish or harvest mangroves in order to best sustain local fish populations.

By understanding the structural and functional attributes of the mangrove ecosystem, and its role in supporting fisheries and other vital resources, these experts are working to determine the monetary value of these mangrove systems and model how to recover and sustain themallowing Tanzania to conserve mangroves and fisheries while also creating long-term economic stability in the region.

Explore further With fewer types of fish to catch, Maine fishermen may be losing their knowledge of the sea

More information: M.D. Robertson et al, Fishery characteristics in two districts of coastal Tanzania, Ocean & Coastal Management (2018). M.D. Robertson et al, Fishery characteristics in two districts of coastal Tanzania,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.06.015On its second flight, FOXSI captured evidence of hard X-ray emission from nanoflares. FOXSI's observations of hard X-rays are shown in blue outlining the very hottest regions of the solar atmosphere, superimposed over a soft X-ray image of the Sun from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) and NASA's Hinode solar-observing satellite. Credit: JAXA/NASA/Hinode/FOXSI

Without special instrumentation, the Sun looks calm and inert. But beneath that placid facade are countless miniature explosions called nanoflares.

These small but intense eruptions are born when magnetic field lines in the Sun's atmosphere tangle up and stretch until they break like a rubber band. The energy they release accelerates particles to near lightspeed and according to some scientists, heats the solar atmosphere to its searing million-degree Fahrenheit temperature.

All of this happens in colors of light so extreme that the human eye can't see them. Nanoflares aren't visibleat least not to the naked eye.

Finding the traces of nanoflares requires X-ray vision, and scientists have been hard at work developing the best tools for the job. The latest advance in this project is represented by NASA's Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager, or FOXSI mission, soon to take its third flight from the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico, no earlier than Sept. 7.

FOXSI is a sounding rocket mission. Derived from the nautical term "to sound," meaning to measure, sounding rockets make brief 15-minute journeys above Earth's atmosphere for a peek at space before falling back to the ground. Smaller, cheaper and faster to develop than large-scale satellite missions, sounding rockets offer a way for scientists to test their latest ideas and instrumentsand achieve rapid results.

FOXSI will travel 190 miles up, above the shield of Earth's atmosphere, to stare directly at the Sun and search for nanoflares using its X-ray vision.

FOXSI on the rail for its first launch on Nov. 2, 2012. Credit: NASA/FOXSI/UC Berkeley

"FOXSI is the first instrument built specially to image high-energy X-rays from the Sun by directly focusing them," said Lindsay Glesener, space physicist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and principal investigator for the mission. "Other instruments have done this for other astronomical objects, but FOXSI is so far the only instrument to optimize especially for the Sun."

The Sun tells its story in layers of light, each of which reveals what's happening at different temperatures. For example, the sunlight that our eyes can see is primarily from the Sun's photosphere, which is approximately 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But there's much more going on outside the bounds of human vision. X-ray light, in particular, reveals processes that heat plasma to millions of degrees Fahrenheit, like the most violent explosions at the cores of nanoflares.

But high-quality views of X-rays from the Sun don't come easy. Unlike visible light, X-rays are hard to focus; they are largely unaffected by the lenses and mirrors used in conventional telescopes. Previous X-ray missions had to make do without focused light.

"In the past we generally used cleverly selected masks to block out some part of the incoming X-rays," said Sam Krucker, space physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, and principal investigator for FOXSI's two previous flights. "This does not result in very high-quality images, but it nevertheless gave us crucial information on the most energetic part of solar flares."

To focus the X-rays, the FOXSI team used extremely hard, smooth surfaces tilted to a small angle (less than half a degree) that would gently corral incoming X-ray light to a point of focus.

"Thanks to these telescopes we can now make focused X-ray images of our Sun" said Krucker. "These images have a much-improved image quality at a much higher sensitivity."

This video shows views of the Sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in different wavelengths of visible and extreme ultraviolet light. Notice how features on the Sun that are visible in one wavelength are not visible in another, because they have different temperatures. Download in HD: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4117 Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Studio/Scientific Visualization Studio/Tom Bridgman

This will be FOXSI's third flightits first was in 2012, during which it successfully viewed a small solar flare in progress, and its second in 2014, when it detected the best evidence at the time of X-ray emission from nanoflares. The third mission follows up on this discovery, but this time it includes a new telescope designed for imaging lower-energy, so-called soft X-rays as well.

"Including the soft X-ray telescope gives us more precise temperatures," said Glesener, allowing the team to spot nanoflare signatures that would be missed with the hard X-ray telescopes alone. In addition, several other performance improvements have been made to produce more accurate, higher-resolution images.

FOXSI's third flight will also be the first led by Glesener, who was a graduate student, and then the project manager, for the previous two flights led by Krucker.

"This kind of training and project inheritance is common in sounding rocket programs," said Glesener. "They are designed to grow and mature scientific leaders as well as hardware!"

FOXSI is a collaboration between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and has co-investigators from the University of Minnesota; University of California at Berkeley; NASA's Goddard and Marshall space flight centers in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Huntsville, Alabama, respectively; the University of Tokyo; Nagoya University; the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; and Tokyo University of Science. FOXSI is supported through NASA's Sounding Rocket Program at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. NASA's Heliophysics Division manages the sounding rocket program.

Explore further NASA sounding rocket instrument spots signatures of long-sought small solar flaresJon Kyl, shortly before he retired from the Senate. Photo: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Former senator Jon Kyl will inherit John McCains seat in the upper chamber. On Tuesday, Arizona governor Doug Ducey decided to return the 76-year-old Republican to the Senate, in a move that will strengthen Mitch McConnells caucus in the short term  but just might weaken it in the long run.

Appointing McCains replacement was a tricky task for Ducey, as it required him to balance several competing concerns. The Arizona GOP is sharply divided between a Trumpist majority, and a more Flake-y fringe. By picking a caretaker replacement  i.e., someone who would not seek reelection in 2020  Ducey could avoid alienating either contingent, and allow Republican primary voters a chance to choose the seats long-term occupant. And yet, that option would also increase the risk of a Democrat swiping the seat in the near-future, since (all else being equal) its harder to beat an incumbent than to win an open race. In a similar conundrum, Ducey could have potentially strengthened his prospects for reelection this fall by choosing a relative moderate to take McCains place  or fortified his resume for a future presidential run by doing right by the GOPs activist base.

The Kyl pick could allow Ducey to have his uncontroversial caretaker  and his long-term, far-right Senate appointment, too. According to the New York Times, Kyl has only committed to serving until the start of the next Congress, in January. In other words, Kyl might serve just long enough to provide McConnell with a spare vote for confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court (before his appointment, Kyl was leading the outside lobbying effort to secure Kavanaughs confirmation)  and then step down, thereby allowing a newly reelected governor Ducey to put a younger, more ambitious conservative in his place.

That said, Kyl has not ruled out remaining in the seat until 2020. And if he does choose to stay, the GOP would (almost certainly) forfeit the advantage of incumbency when defending that seat during the next presidential election.

Kyl served three terms in the Senate before retiring in 2013. For much of the time since, hes been working as a lobbyist at Covington & Burling. He is expected to immediately (if, perhaps, temporarily) cut ties with his existing clients.Average wide-slit spectra of WD1145 (blue) and the reference star (red) obtained with GTC/OSIRIS. The He i and Fe ii absorption features of WD1145 are marked with purple and green vertical lines, respectively. The principal telluric absorptions lie within the light-grey shaded areas. Both average spectra have been normalized. Credit: Izquierdo et al., 2018.

An international group of astronomers has conducted a study of a peculiar white dwarf known as WD 1145+017 that showcases periodic transits of planetary debris. The new research, presented in a paper published August 22 on arXiv.org, determines fundamental parameters of this object and provides essential insights into the nature of debris around it.

Located some 570 light years away, WD 1145+017 (or WD1145 for short) is a white dwarf about 2 percent the size of the sun, with a mass of about 0.63 solar masses. In 2015, astronomers detected periodic transits from debris encircling this star, which made it the first known white dwarf with a transiting planetary-mass object orbiting it.

Subsequent observations of WD 1145+017 provided evidence that the mysterious object orbiting this white dwarf every 4.5 hours is an asteroid being shredded apart by the star. However, more studies of WD 1145+017 are needed to determine the real nature of the debris.

That is why a team of astronomers led by Paula Izquierdo of the University of La Laguna, Spain, has carried out the first simultaneous fast optical spectrophotometric and broad-band photometric observations of WD 1145+017. For this purpose, they employed the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the Liverpool Telescope (LT).

"Here, we report the first simultaneous spectroscopic and photometric study of WD1145, obtaining fast optical spectrophotometry and photometry using two different telescopes," the researchers wrote in the paper.

According to the study, GTC and LT observations suggest that the mysterious object around WD 1145+017 could be a comet being disintegrated by the white dwarf. The deep transits observed by Izquierdo's team show a remarkable delay in the egress compared to their ingress times. The researchers noted that this is consistent with a scenario of a comet-like tail emanating from the fragments.

Moreover, the deepest transit indicates a substantial substructure near minimum light. The astronomers explained that such structure could be caused by a closely spaced chain of rocky fragments, similar to the debris stream of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 that broke apart and collided with Jupiter. However, it could also be caused by a debris cloud extending 120 degrees in azimuth with an inhomogeneous density structure.

"The longest (87 min) and deepest (50 per cent attenuation) transit recorded in our data exhibits a complex structure around minimum light that can be well modeled by multiple overlapping dust clouds," the paper reads.

The authors of the paper added that time-resolved spectroscopy with a higher signal-to-noise ratio could be helpful in disclosing more details about the white dwarf and the debris surrounding it.

In addition to the investigation of the nature of the object orbiting WD 1145+017, the astronomers also determined the basic parameters of the white dwarf, including its mass, effective temperature (15,020 K) and cooling age (224 million years). Their results are consistent with the values provided by previous observations of this system.

Explore further Researchers investigate a peculiar star-forming dwarf galaxy candidate

More information: Fast spectrophotometry of WD 1145+017, arXiv:1808.07320 [astro-ph.SR] Fast spectrophotometry of WD 1145+017, arXiv:1808.07320 [astro-ph.SR] arxiv.org/abs/1808.07320 Paula Izquierdo et al. Fast spectrophotometry of WD 1145+017, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2018). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty2315 Abstract

WD 1145+017 is currently the only white dwarf known to exhibit periodic transits of planetary debris as well as absorption lines from circumstellar gas. We present the first simultaneous fast optical spectrophotometry and broad-band photometry of the system, obtained with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the Liverpool Telescope (LT), respectively. The observations spanned 5.5 h, somewhat longer than the 4.5-h orbital period of the debris. Dividing the GTC spectrophotometry into five wavelength bands reveals no significant colour differences, confirming grey transits in the optical. We argue that absorption by an optically thick structure is a plausible alternative explanation for the achromatic nature of the transits that can allow the presence of small-sized (m) particles. The longest (87 min) and deepest (50 per cent attenuation) transit recorded in our data exhibits a complex structure around minimum light that can be well modelled by multiple overlapping dust clouds. The strongest circumstellar absorption line, Fe II 5169, significantly weakens during this transit, with its equivalent width reducing from a mean out-of-transit value of 2 AA to 1 AA in-transit, supporting spatial correlation between the circumstellar gas and dust. Finally, we made use of the Gaia Data Release 2 and archival photometry to determine the white dwarf parameters. Adopting a helium-dominated atmosphere containing traces of hydrogen and metals, and a reddening E(BV)=0.01 we find Teff=15020520 K, logg=8.070.07, corresponding to MWD=0.630.05 M and a cooling age of 22430 Myr. Journal information: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

 2018 Phys.orgFrom an ecological standpoint, wood foams are ideal for a whole range of applications. Credit: Fraunhofer WKI

Wood foam and metal sponge  can they be combined? That was the question that experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut WKI delved into in a project entitled "HoMe Foam"  with HoMe being a German acronym for wood-metal  together with scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM. As a result, the contrasting materials come together in perfect harmony. The innovative new material mix boasts excellent insulating properties and has a low bending strength.

Nowadays, sustainability is a key aspect when developing new materials, where the main focus is on ensuring the input materials used come from renewable sources and that the product is recyclable at the end of its service life. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, WKI are developing wood foams made entirely of wood. The natural adhesive properties of wood make synthetic adhesives superfluous. From an ecological standpoint, this makes wood foams ideal for a whole range of applications, for example as a core material for lightweight construction and sandwich panels, as packaging material, or for thermal insulation or soundproofing.

In order to extend the application range of wood foam, a group of Fraunhofer Institute researchers led by Dr. Frauke Bunzel from Fraunhofer WKI developed a wood-metal foam hybrid that unites the properties of both wood foam and metal sponge. In the course of the project, they elaborated the principles for manufacturing the composite and determined its initial key properties, making it possible to classify it in relation to other materials. In follow-up projects, researchers will tailor the composite's properties to selected applications. "Strengthening the wood foam with a metal skeleton, for example, can substantially enhance its characteristically low bending strength." In the case of HoMe foam, the bending strength of the hybrid is even greater than that of its two components. "That makes it an ideal core material for sandwich panels or as a self-supporting lightweight semi-finished material," explains Dr. Bunzel. Another advantage is that, unlike wood foam, metal sponge can conduct electricity. The outstanding properties of wood foam are its high levels of sound absorption and low thermal conductivity, making it an excellent insulation material. Combining metal sponge and wood foam creates a lightweight hybrid material with a higher functionality, one that can be used for components that provide reinforcement and absorb sound. The material is thus suitable for use in the automotive industry, for example, as reinforcing acoustic mats in engine compartments or as floor plates. Other applications are conceivable too.

Metal sponge plates. Credit: Fraunhofer IWU

How do you get the wood foam into the metal sponge?

Just putting the wood and metal foams into a bowl and mixing them doesn't do the trick, the reason being that the Fraunhofer IWU researchers don't foam the metal sponge, but manufacture it in a casting process. The result is a sponge-like, open-cell metal structure with many tiny cavities. At present, this metal sponge is manufactured in plates measuring 250 mm x 250 mm x 30 mm. The wood foam, which has a firm consistency similar to that of beaten egg whites, then has to be inserted into the metal sponge plate.

Originally, the team tried using pressure to force the wood foam into the metal sponge plate, but the wood fibers stuck to the surface, infiltrating only the cavities at the margins of the sponge. The solution was a tapping technique, which enabled the researchers to fill the entire metal sponge with wood foam.

The working group is currently looking at ways to streamline the process chain for producing the wood foam and to simplify and accelerate the process for inserting the wood foam into the metal sponge. The goal is to get HoMe foam into industrial-scale production soon.

The metal sponge is manufactured in a casting process. Credit: Fraunhofer IWU

Explore further Wood-derived foam materialsVascular system of a two days old zebrafish embryo (magenta: endothelial cells, light blue: blood cells). Credit: University of Basel, Biozentrum

Blood vessel formation relies on the ability of vascular cells to move while remaining firmly connected to each other. This enables the vessels to grow and sprout without leaking any blood. In the current issue of Nature Communications, scientists from the Biozentrum at the University of Basel describe how this works. In this process, the cytoskeleton pushes the cell forward, while an adhesion protein subsequently closes the gap to the neighboring cell, like a zipper.

The blood vessels form a widely ramified supply system that passes through our body from head to toe. They serve as pathways for blood cells and transport oxygen as well as nutrients into each individual organ. In the embryo, blood vessels develop simultaneously in many different places, then connect with each other and thus form a complex network. The starting point of vascular growth are the so-called endothelial cells. These can migrate in groups out from a vessel and form new tubes, the capillaries.

Prof. Markus Affolter's team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel uses the zebrafish as a model organism to investigate the development of blood vessels. In their current study, the scientists have shown that endothelial cells can migrate within vessel sprouts while remaining firmly attached to each other. If the cells were unable to remain attached, bleeding into the surrounding tissue would occur during vascularization.

Vascularization: constant rearrangement of endothelial cells

The transparency of the zebrafish embryo allows researchers to observe blood vessel formation live in the living organism. High-resolution time-lapse imaging of vascularization shows that the endothelial cells move over each other to form a capillary, thereby continuously rearranging their position in the newly forming vessel. Dr. Heinz-Georg Belting, head of the study, took a closer look at this process.

During the rearrangement of the endothelial cells in the vessel, it is important that the cells elongate and migrate while constantly maintaining cell-cell junctions. The adhesion protein VE-cadherin and the cell skeleton play a crucial role in this process. "These two players must work closely together during these active cell movements," says Belting. "The cytoskeleton takes the first step; it ensures the elongation of the cell. VE-cadherin then anchors the cell protrusions to the neighboring cell. An additional protein finally stabilizes the newly formed endothelial cell junction. This repetitive process enables the cell to slowly creep forward." This mechanism works like a zipper, as soon as the cell has moved a little, the gap to the adjacent endothelial cell is closed.

Plasticity ensures growth and flexibility

The fact that the endothelial cells are very motile during blood vessel formation and yet always stay firmly connected ensures the plasticity of the vessel while maintaining its stability. "The ability of endothelial cells to recognize each other, to migrate and to form cell junctions prevents damage during growth. Furthermore, the blood vessels are flexible to respond to different conditions, such as fluctuations in blood pressure," says Belting "This plasticity also plays a role in wound healing, inflammation and immune response."

Explore further Blueprint for blood vessel fusion discovered

More information: Ilkka Paatero et al. Junction-based lamellipodia drive endothelial cell rearrangements in vivo via a VE-cadherin-F-actin based oscillatory cell-cell interaction, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Ilkka Paatero et al. Junction-based lamellipodia drive endothelial cell rearrangements in vivo via a VE-cadherin-F-actin based oscillatory cell-cell interaction,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05851-9Norms? We dont need no stinkin norms! Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Trump went after eternally-embattled Jeff Sessions with new venom on Monday afternoon, this time for deigning to indict members of his own party just weeks before the midterm elections.

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

....The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

His tweets amount to an endorsement of banana-republic corruption at the Justice Department  rarely charted territory even for a president who doesnt bother pretending to respect separation of powers or other dusty pillars of Democracy.

The two lawmakers Trump is referring to are New York Congressman Chris Collins, who was charged with insider trading in August  he made a possibly incriminating phone call on White House grounds  and Californias Duncan Hunter, who is accused of engaging in an almost comical level of graft over many years, which including disguising personal purchases as benefits to military veterans.

In a huge coincidence, Collins and Hunter were the very first two members of Congress to publicly endorse Trump for president.

Shortly after being indicted, Collins announced he wouldnt run for re-election, a decision that will probably help Republicans already-solid chances of retaining his seat in a deep-red district. According to the Cook Political Report, both seats are now competitive, but still favored to end up in Republican hands.

If Trump really wants to despair about November, he might want to take a look at the few dozen other seats Democrats have a chance to flip  and then ponder whether his attorney general is responsible for the GOPs dire electoral outlook, or maybe, just maybe himself.Photo: T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Over the Labor Day weekend, official Washington staged a celebration of itself through the funeral of John McCain. The insularity on display somewhat understandably enrages critics on the left and right alike. In their treatment of President Trump as a boorish outlier, and a unique personal threat to the health of the Republic, the elites either revealed their implicit conspiracy against the president (according to populists of the right) or their own insularity (according to the populists of the left).

It is certainly true that the bipartisan resistance centered around McCain has registered more self-satisfaction than actual resistance. Still, on the same weekend official Washington was treating Trump as an outcast, Trump was demonstrating what he has done to earn this status. In a revealing weekend tweet, he castigated his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for allowing the Justice Department to indict a pair of House Republicans.

Trumps latest declaration of corrupt intent puts a fine point on the question both groups of skeptics have tended to avoid. Right-wing Trump allies have defended his assault on the Department of Justice by picking apart the FBIs counterintelligence investigation, adopting (for the narrow purposes of defending Trump) a radically pro-civil-libertarian view of FISA warrants, or demanding to know why Trumps subordinates are being charged with crimes other than collusion with Russia. On the left, some critics have mocked the idea that there is anything worthwhile in the bipartisan defense of democratic norms against Trump.

But Trumps intention to politicize the Department of Justice frames in sharp detail the question they have largely elided. However one feels about the general merits of the Washington Establishment, here is a threat to a specific governing norm whose value is beyond dispute. Trump objects to the indictments of two House Republicans who have been caught in blatant illegality. Representative Chris Collins, the first House Republican to endorse him, was overheard boasting about making colleagues rich with his inside information. Representative Duncan Hunter not only systematically misappropriated public funds but was recorded in a series of damning emails. These are not marginal cases. Trumps entire rationale for opposing the prosecutions is that they hurt his party.

And Trump has been repeatedly clear about his objective. He regularly demands that his attorney general protect his personal interests and open investigations into figures he dislikes. Trump tried to sell Sessions on the prospect that he would become a hero to the Republican base by locking up Hillary Clinton, and then berated him when he failed to do so. Trumps lawyers have written a memo defending his prerogative to do so. The President not only has unfettered statutory and Constitutional authority to terminate the FBI Director, they argued, he also has Constitutional authority to direct the Justice Department to open or close an investigation, and, of course, the power to pardon any person before, during, or after an investigation and/or conviction.

Regardless of the law, there is nobody actually willing to defend such an arrangement on normative grounds. A system in which a president can order up investigations of the opposing party and quash investigations of his own would hand incumbents a weapon so powerful it would make democracy a sham. Vladimir Putin has not needed to cancel elections in order to cement his authority. His most important tool has been selective law enforcement, which has allowed him to court allies with the promise of riches and legal impunity, and to intimidate his critics with with ruinous threats to their reputation, fortunes and freedoms.

A Wall Street Journal editorial earlier this year sneered, were pleased to report that there hasnt been a fascist coup in Washington. It hasnt been for lack of trying, or for lack of support from institutional Republican organs like the Journal. Indeed, despite a handful of criticisms, Republicans in Congress have largely refused to criticize Trumps demands to control the DOJ.

Neither the law nor the Constitution can do much to stop Trump from fully corrupting the Justice Department. The only thing standing between American democracy and Trumps vision of a Putin-like regime that terrorizes the opposition while nourishing an oligarchy of regime supporters is that much-mocked word: a norm. It is on this specific question, not some generalized cultural assessment of the Washington elite, that the struggle to defend democracy rests.8 hours ago

Burning Mortgage Question: Should You Retire, Then Pay Off Your Mortgage?

A common question: Should you pay off your mortgage before you retire? A less common question: Should you retire, then pay off your mortgage? If you've hemmed and hawed over the benefits of paying off your mortgage versus keeping it, you're not alone.

Read ArticlePresident Trump. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

It is relatively easy to get White House staffers to leak mind-blowing anecdotes about President Trumps various derangements, and for that very reason, it is hard to find new anecdotes that register on the crazy-Trump scale. CNN and (unsurprisingly) the Washington Post have obtained early versions of Bob Woodwards version of tales from the court of the mad king, and even by the high standard set by the many previous insider accounts, his portrait of Trumps delusional state appears to be especially harrowing.

Woodward confirms that Trumps former secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, described him as a fucking moron, a fact that has been reported previously. He adds several more officials to the list of people who have blurted out this obvious conclusion.

After security officials tried fruitlessly to explain to Trump the importance of American defenses in South Korea, including a system that reduces the warning time of a North Korean missile attack from 15 minutes to seven seconds, Secretary of Defense James Mattis told associates that Trump acted like  and had the understanding of  a fifth- or sixth-grader. 

Former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn seemed to believe that Trump actually lacks object permanence. To prevent the president from signing a letter canceling a free-trade agreement with South Korea, he stole the letter from Trumps desk. Trump did not notice it was missing, the Post reports.

Chief of Staff John Kelly has called Trump an idiot and also crazy:

Hes an idiot. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in crazytown, Kelly is quoted as saying at a staff meeting in his office. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.

Trumps lawyer John Dowd has likewise called his client an idiot. Somewhat more audaciously, he has argued that Trump should not have to testify to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, because the transcript would leak, and foreign leaders would see that Trump is an idiot:

Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: Im not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?

Another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, tried to argue to Robert Mueller that Trump could not be asked to give an interview because he is a compulsive liar. They literally explained to Mueller how they conducted a mock interview with Trump, and he was so unable to tell the truth that they considered him mentally disqualified from testifying:

Jay Sekulow went to Muellers office and re-enacted the mock interview. Their goal: to argue that Trump couldnt possibly testify because he was incapable of telling the truth. He just made something up. Thats his nature, Dowd said to Mueller.

It seems somehow unfair to let somebody remain on the job as president because hes such a compulsive liar he cant be allowed to testify under oath.

Trump also demeaned the wartime service of John McCain, stating that the former Navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his fathers military rank and leaving others behind.

This is in fact the opposite of the truth. The whole point of what makes McCains imprisonment so heroic is that North Vietnam offered to give him early release on account of his fathers rank, believing it would demoralize other members of the military, and McCain refused, even withstanding torture rather than give in and accept freedom. This is the most important and well-known fact about McCain and Trump got it backward. Its like attacking Harriet Tubman for her refusal to help escaped slaves.

Woodward has repeatedly scolded the media for its unfairness to Trump, and expressed skepticism about the Russia investigation. Another reporter who did the same thing, before proceeding to publish a book stuffed with harrowing inside tidbits about Trumps dysfunction, is Michael Wolff. Perhaps both of them were shrewdly planting favorable commentary in order to warm up potential sources. Wolffs book, and its too-amazing-to-be-real anecdotes, was met with a fair amount of skepticism from the mainstream media.The additional support from Woodward seems to confirm its essential thrust, if not every detail. However dumb and crazy you might think Trump is, reality always turns out to be even worse.Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC Group) delivered a total of 173,540 vehicles in August, a year-on-year increase of 10.07%. For the first eight months, the group's YTD sales reached 1,360,071 units, climbing 6.3% over the previous year.

Last month, the automaker saw its PV sales growing 9.68% from a year ago to 172,627 units. As to the performance of each segment, the sales of the car and SUV amounted to 77,543 units and 88,000 units, up by 14.65% and 1.88% year on year respectively. The MPV sales in August skyrocketed 109.71% over the year-ago period to 7,084 units. From January to August, cumulative sales of the car and MPV segments all presented year-on-year growth, while the year-to-date sales of the SUV dropped 4.05% over a year ago.

GAC Motor, GAC's self-owned subsidiary, posted a year-on-year growth of 4.52% in monthly sales with 42,008 vehicles delivered in August. Its Jan-August sales reached 351,165 units, showing up a positive growth of 6.02% as well.

With respect to the sales performance of major joint ventures, GAC Honda encountered a year-on-year decline of 4.28% with its August sales totaling 55,314 units, while still outperforming other subsidiaries. Following GAC Honda, GAC Toyota witnessed its monthly sales surge 47.13% over the previous year to 54,540 units. Meanwhile, it handed over a total of 361,046 vehicles from January to August, achieving a year-on-year jump of 17.45%.

However, the Sino-French joint venture GAC FCA's sales slumped 33.51% to 8,515 units from 12,806 units delivered in August, 2017. The company also suffered a plunge of 52.39% in year-to-date sales with 87,391 vehicles handed over in total.Photo: David Burnett/Contact Press Images

The shuttle that transports senators from the Capitol to their offices shimmies a bit, like a kiddie roller coaster. Kirsten Gillibrand, new to the ride, holds on to her seat very tightly as the train clatters to a stop. Gillibrand is already into hour six of her day, and its barely noon. She drove her 1-year-old son, Henry, to day care, clutching a bottle of breast milk she had pumped earlier. She then banged out Old MacDonald Had a Farm on a Fisher-Price keyboard. Henry didnt want her to go (Its okay, Bunny, Ill see you tonight). There was a short drive to a breakfast held by the gay lobbyist group the Human Rights Campaign (Who wrote these remarks? Theyre not very good), then a series of discourses on the special bond she feels with gay people (I was a 34-year-old woman lawyer working twelve hours a day in New York City. All the men in the firm were married. My only friends were gay men), why door-to-door campaigning is easy for her (I was the No. 1 Girl Scoutcookie seller as a girl! Id go into any neighborhood!), and what she thought of Maureen Dowds labeling her Tracy Flick and calling her sharp-elbowed (I think I have nice elbows). We get off the train, and Gillibrand strides ahead in sensible black flats (You would never write about Chuck Schumers shoes, but its okay. People want to know these things).

Kirsten Gillibrand is working hard to reintroduce herself to her constituents. Her first hundred days were marred by policy flip-flops, threats from political rivals, and images of her as a fighter for Big Tobacco who happened to keep two guns under her bed. So she is giving it another go. My parents and my husband have been worried about the coverage, says Gillibrand. I told them, Give me six months, and I will make it better. People meet me, they like me. I work hard.

New York is not a particularly civil town, especially when it comes to politics. And Gillibrand started dodging insults even before she was sworn in. Her former colleague in the New York congressional delegation Carolyn McCarthy called her appointment totally unacceptable. Another New York representative described her selection as mind-numbing. And yet many of the traits that Gillibrands foes use to attack her are the same traits that make her likely to hold her Senate seat in 2010. Sure, she is pushy, in a Tracy Flick sort of way. Yes, she has shown all the ideological purity of the McCain campaign. And absolutely, she is cozy with RepublicansAl DAmato stood next to her at her appointment-announcement press conference.

But while everyone was mocking and plotting, Gillibrand raised $2.3 million in less than 90 days during an economic meltdown. Shes got the Clintons on her side. Chuck Schumer has embraced her. She has received the support of the twelve other Democratic women senators. Last month, President Obama made a call and talked potential Democratic primary opponent Steve Israel out of challenging her. Even Caroline Kennedys cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been kind to her in public.

Gillibrand is a fan of J.R.R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings books, and her life has had a similar the-quest-is-all momentum. She is practical and not inclined toward introspection, helpful qualities when you are trying to morph from an upstate congressional representative who supported building a bigger fence along the Mexican border and achieved a 100 percent NRA rating to a United States senator in need of statewide votes who is now an immigration advocate who decried gun violence the week of the mass shooting in Binghamton. Gillibrand is the scion of a local political family determined to make the last difficult leap from the merely well connected to the power elite, and she appears to be succeeding.

I heard a common refrain from her colleagues. They see Gillibrand as a young woman in a hurry whose aggressiveness seems almost gauche, even for a politician. Yet her upstate roots and young children give her an Everymom image that middle-class voters love. And her drive has its benefits. She is working or thinking about things she needs to do every moment that she is awake, says Elaine Bartley, her longtime best friend. The rest of her friends, were trying to get thank-you notes out a month after our kids birthday party, and shes getting them out the next day.

Her lack of polish can cause opponents to dismiss her as a country bumpkin who is in over her head. But her folksiness comes with a sharp edge. She learned how to play hardball from her grandmother, a legendary political force in Albany. She has the work ethic of someone who spent tens of thousands of hours of her youth on mind-numbing legal work. And she is a canny collector of political friends. She has a single-mindedness about where she wants to go, says a Democratic activist who knows her well. She wouldnt throw her mother under a train, but shed run you over with a train if you got in her way.

Photo: David Burnett/Contact Press Images

Gillibrand is preppy, blonde, short, and athletic. She looks like someone who might give tennis lessons at a country club, as she did when she was 16. She has run two marathons but is sensitive about the baby weight she has yet to shed. Her children have been sick recentlythere was a trip to the emergency room last weekbut she powers on, even boasting about her endurance. I get up with the kids when theyre sick. Johnny, my husband, doesnt do as well with interrupted sleep as I do.

Were in her office now. Gillibrand has moved into Hillary Clintons old space, but because of a bureaucratic delay, shes not fully unpacked. The walls are bare and smell of fresh paint. When I ask Gillibrand what politicians have inspired her, she pauses a moment, then cites her grandmother.

If you make a quick right off the New York State Thruway onto a service road on the outskirts of Albany, youll come to Noonan Lane. The oldest home on the secluded street was once the residence of businessman Peter Noonan and his wife, Polly, Gillibrands maternal grandparents (the street was named after their family). Less than a mile away is Corning Hill Road, the longtime home of Erastus Corning II, Albanys mayor for life from 1942 to 1983. Polly met Corning in 1937 while working as a secretary for the Scenic Hudson Commission, an organization helmed by Corning, then a state senator. Their friendship confounded and fascinated Albany for nearly half a century.

The mayor was a prep-school Wasp who shipped his own two children off to boarding school; Noonan was the lightly educated daughter of Irish immigrants. Her salty manner is said to have loosened up the buttoned-down Corning, and she exercised power as a patronage queen during his reign. The mayors own wife avoided political functions, so Noonan served as Cornings traveling companion. According to Paul Grondahls biography, Mayor Corning, Noonan once entertained two journalists on a flight back from the 1974 state Democratic convention with cracks about Cornings failing sexual prowess. Grondahl writes that there is no evidence that Albanys political odd couple was ever sexually involved, but the relationship was certainly close. Corning spent so many evenings at the Noonans that he had his own recliner, just across from Peters.

Although Corning was estranged from his own children, he treated the Noonans four children as his own, particularly Penny Noonan, Gillibrands mother. When Penny started dating a boy named Douglas Rutnik, Corning informally adopted him too. Penny Noonan and Doug Rutnik eventually married, went to law school, and started Rutnik and Rutnik, an Albany law firm that benefited from municipal business Corning steered its way. When Corning died, in 1983, he left his familys insurance practice to the Noonan children.

Polly Noonan liked to keep her family close, so Penny and Doug Rutnik built their own house on Noonan Lane. (Two of Pollys other children eventually built houses on the block as well.) Kirsten Rutnik was born in 1966. She is the couples middle child, sandwiched between an older brother, Doug, and a younger sister, Erin.

Gillibrand talks often about helping her grandmother do political work as a child. Wed do typical stuff like putting bumper stickers on cars, she says. She flashes a mischievous look. Sometimes, you are putting your own candidates bumper sticker over somebody elses candidates bumper sticker.

Its not hard to see where Gillibrand gets her confidence. Penny was the first real working mom that a lot of us kids knew, says Elaine Bartley. She was always multitasking, working on a case on the phone while unloading the dishwasher. Thats where Kirsten got the idea that she could work, raise kids, do it all. Now semi-retired, Rutnik spends much of her time in Florida or with her grandchildren. Shes also a hunter who shoots the family turkey every Thanksgiving. We never pushed Kirsten into politics. She took to it naturally, Rutnik told me not long after Gillibrands Senate appointment. I thought the governor would be crazy not to choose Kirsten. Then Caroline Kennedy came along, and I wondered why anyone would take her seriously. It annoyed me: Just because shes a Kennedy, people think she can do the job. And then I heard Caroline speak, and it was clear this was not her forte. Thats when I knew Kirsten had a chance.

Gillibrand attended Catholic grade school in Albany and went to high school as a day student at the prestigious Emma Willard School, in Troy. She spent most of her time studying, she says. I was a big nerd. I wasnt the smartest, but Id put in tons of hours. On the schools tennis team, Gillibrand earned a reputation as a player who wore down her competitors by returning their shots until they crumpled with exhaustion. Because her parents lived nearby, Gillibrand often hosted classmates from Emma Willard for sleepovers. Kirsten was always working out deals and compromises, even then, says Bartley. Shes always been very social, very outspoken. She was always the central character in any event while we were growing up.

Photo: David Burnett/Contact Press Images

Gillibrand debated between Princeton and Dartmouth for college. I went to visit Princeton, and all the girls wore a ton of makeup and high heels and had fancy pocketbooks, she says. And then I visited Dartmouth, and everyone was in sweats with no makeup, doing outdoor things. That was more my speed. At Dartmouth, Gillibrand majored in Asian studies after taking a class in Chinese politics. Learning Chinese doesnt have a lot to do with talent or skill, Gillibrand says. It is about putting in the hours doing rote memorization. And I knew I was good at that. She joined a sorority and played tennis and squash, but didnt participate in student government. I didnt like the type of people involved, she says. But her fellow students nevertheless saw where she was headed. She was always very nice. She always remembered names, says a classmate. You could see how she could become a politician.

Gillibrand was viewed by some as a career climber as early as law school. She enrolled at UCLA in 1988, and spent the summer between her first and second year interning in the Albany office of then-Senator Al DAmato. Gillibrands father had become close with DAmato in the eighties, serving as a conduit to the capitals political Establishment (after Rutnik and Penny Noonan had divorced, Rutnik dated Zenia Mucha, a senior DAmato aide). Gillibrand passed the bar in 1991 and moved to Manhattan to take a job as an associate at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell. The next year, she received a prestigious clerkship with Court of Appeals judge Roger Miner, a Republican appointee. Because the position was so coveted, and Gillibrand had not finished in the top 10 percent of her law class, it was assumed that she received the position based on her fathers DAmato connections.

After her clerkship, Gillibrand returned to Davis Polk, where she worked for nine years, logging long workweeks for a series of clients including the tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris. During her 2008 congressional reelection, operatives for Sandy Treadwell, her Republican opponent, compiled boxes of information that documented Gillibrands involvement with Philip Morris, but the media was largely uninterested. The New York Times revisited the material after Gillibrands Senate appointment. The Times 2,700-word front-page story depicted Gillibrand as a key player on the account, making trips to Philip Morriss European cigarette-testing lab and using her office as a war room to plot strategy to defend the company against government claims that it knew tobacco was a carcinogen and hid that information from consumers. The story noted that Davis Polk allowed associates to decline to work for certain clients if they found the work ethically objectionable, but that Gillibrand appeared to have thrown herself wholeheartedly into her Philip Morris assignment.

Gillibrand declined to speak to the Times for the story, but when I asked her if she regretted her work, she answered with a defiant No. She didnt defend the work on its own terms, however. I had an opportunity to work with Robert Fiske on the case, and he is universally regarded as one of the great lawyers of our time, she told me. Then she said, And the work on that case allowed me to do pro bono cases. Gillibrand then listed some of the pro bono cases she worked onhelping battered women get divorces from abusive men and aiding a housing alliance to sue landlords over lead-paint problemsbut as with most lawyers, the pro bono work took up no more than a fraction of her time.

Gillibrand began attending fund-raisers for the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign and building a database of political contacts. Kirsten has been compiling lists and contacts since Dartmouth, says Sarah Hoit, a college friend who served in the Clinton administration. She saw the benefit of e-mail lists long before others did. Penny Noonan Rutnik recalls that her daughter was already thinking about her political career when she was at Davis Polk. I remember getting a call from her saying she was having a tough time finding a cleaning woman who wanted to be paid legally, Rutnik says. I said, Whats the big deal? And she said, Mom, I might want to run for office someday. I cant have an illegal cleaning my house. Ill do it myself if I have to. 

Gillibrand says it was Bible study that awakened her to public service. When I was working in New York, I taught a Bible class for 10-year-olds, she says. My favorite parable is the one Jesus tells about the talents. Shes referring to the story in which a master becomes angry with a servant for wasting a coin, or talent, he was given. What I took from that is we have to do the most with the talents God has given us. I was working as a corporate lawyer, where I wasnt helping people. I was just helping big companies make money. And I wanted to do more. The story may be true, but it clearly sounded rehearsed.

Photo: David Burnett/Contact Press Images

Gillibrands first foray into public service came in 2000, when she ran into thenHUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo at a fund-raiser. She simply approached Cuomo, she says, and explained her desire to get into public service. A representative from Cuomos office called her the next day and offered her a job as a special counsel. I said, Can I think about it?  Gillibrand says. He said they needed to know by the end of the day. I said yes.

After George Bush defeated Al Gore that November, however, Gillibrand returned to corporate law, becoming a $500,000-a-year partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, working with star Democratic litigator David Boies. She also began raising money for New York Democratic heavyweights like Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer. Gillibrand met Clinton in 1996, and, as she tells it, the pair bonded over their shared experiences as women in the male-dominated world of corporate law. They spoke regularly, if informally, over the next several years, and when Clinton decided to run for Senate in 1999, Gillibrand joined the fund-raising group Women for Hillary.

In 2002, Gillibrand informed Boies, Schiller that she was thinking about running for office. The firm allowed her to transfer from New York to its Albany office, and she established residency in nearby Hudson. When I was living in New York, I thought about running for City Council or State Assembly, but there were twenty qualified candidates for every opening, Gillibrand says. So I thought, I like federal issues. What about Congress? I asked Johnny what he thought about raising kids upstate, and he was happy with it. So we moved home. Well, near home.

Gillibrands move to Hudson was carefully calculated. The town is in the southern part of the 20th Congressional District, a region that sprawls to Lake Placid in the north and almost to Binghamton in the west. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats almost two to one, but Gillibrand learned that Clinton and Spitzer had rolled up large majorities in the district in 2000 and 2002. She theorized that a moderate Democrat could win there under the right circumstances. She contemplated running in 2004, but Clinton, now something of a Gillibrand mentor, suggested the political climate would be better in 2006.

My parents and husband have been worried about the coverage, says Gillibrand. I told them, Give me six months, and I will make it better. People meet me, they like me. I work hard.

With George Bushs approval ratings at an all-time low, the 2006 electoral environment was, in fact, ripe for Gillibrand. And Republican incumbent John Sweeney was imploding. He had recently been photographed puffy-eyed at a Union College fraternity party and was thought generally to have gone Washington by many of his upstate constituents.

Gillibrand hit her mailing lists hard, raising a startling $2 million by the spring of 2006. Still, the Rahm Emanuelled Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee remained skeptical. In May 2006, Emanuel dispatched Representative Steny Hoyer to check on the race at a fund-raiser. Hoyer was there, but he seemed checked out, recalls Bartley. But then Kirsten got up and start talking about the race and how it was winnable, and people started clapping and he started paying attention.

Emanuel upgraded Gillibrands candidacy from doubtful to winnable on the big congressional map in his office at the DCCC. Resources began to pour into her campaign. Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson signed on to help Gillibrand, and Clinton gave her some of her own coveted fund-raising lists.

Tracking polls showed the race was even going into the final week. Just one week before the election, however, a confidential police report was leaked to newspapers. Rumors had long circulated that state police had been called to Sweeneys home in 2005 to respond to a 911 call from his wife alleging spousal abuse. The Sweeney campaign contended the timely leak was orchestrated by Gillibrands campaign, specifically Wolfson (Wolfson wont comment).

We had a press conference about it, and I heard a reporter talking to Wolfson, and he was feeding him details that hadnt been released yet, a Sweeney aide told me.

Gillibrand has never denied that her campaign was the source of the leak despite being asked about it several times. She defeated Sweeney by six points.

I met Jonathan Gillibrand at the Dubliner, a Capitol Hill restaurant. A 39-year-old British national, Jonathan has kind eyes, a shy demeanor, and the look of a man who is not unhappy to pop out of the house now and then for a quick pint of Guinness. He is, essentially, the antithesis of his warp-speed wife.

The couple met when Jonathan was dating a friend of Kirstens in 1999 and Jonathan was getting his M.B.A. at Columbia. When her friend stopped seeing Jonathan, Kirsten asked if it was okay if she contacted him. They bonded over their shared Catholic heritage and attended Mass at St. Ignatius, on the Upper East Side, on their second date. They were married in 2001.

Photo: Clockwise from top left, Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images; Ryan Kelly/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images; Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times/Redux; Patrick McMullan; Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Gillibrand gave birth to her first child, Theo, in 2003, at the age of 36, when she was working at Boies, Schiller in Albany. She became pregnant with Henry shortly after she was elected to Congress. On May 14, 2008, she spent twelve hours on the floor of the House before going into labor. The birth of Henry Nelson Gillibrand was announced the next day to a standing ovation on the House floor.

The Gillibrands moved to Washington, D.C., when Kirsten became a congresswoman, in 2007, but they were still spending weekends in Hudson. Now they live almost exclusively in Washington. Jonathan works for a Washington real-estate investment trust. To take care of the kids after school or day care, the couple employs a babysitter or relies on family for help. Jonathan is not much interested in Washington political life. When we met in Washington, he told me about an exotic-car convention he was planning on attending in Florida. Thats much more my kind of thing, he said with a wry smile.

A friend of the family says Jonathan supports Kirstens political ambitions but is worried about the effect her career may have on their family. When she was thinking of making her name available for the Senate, he said, Sure, throw your hat in the ring,  the friend says. But he never thought she would get it. Now hes freaked out about the loss of privacy and his wife traveling so much. When I asked Gillibrand about Jonathans concerns, she said, My husband and I talked about the appointment. We said, Is this something that we are prepared to do as a family? Would I be good at this? Is this something where I could make a difference? And we decided that the impact you can have as a senator is extraordinary, because you could have a voice on all issues.

Gillibrand is, by all accounts, a dedicated parent. She drops off Theo at preschool and Henry at day care before her workday begins and tries to be home with them at night as early and often as possible. As a congressional representative, she would sometimes bring Theo to the House in the evenings. They have a cloakroom that has hot dogs and peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and candy. For him it was, Oh, I want to go with you to the Capitol Building!  While the large number of representatives allowed her to shift the time she spent presiding over the House, the Senate has proved less flexible. Shortly after her January appointment, Gillibrand was assigned a gavel time of between 5 and 7 p.m. on days the Senate was in session. Gillibrand went to the Senate leadership and explained that the time conflicted with Theo and Henrys dinner-and-bedtime routine. She asked if she might switch with a senator without small kids. She was politely told no. (The decision was later reversed.)

Gillibrand is aware that being the mother of two young children can be a powerful connecting tool for a politician. I hate being away from my kids, but its no different than for a mom who is cleaning out offices from 4 p.m. to midnight, she says. My burden isnt any greater than hers. She recently introduced legislation calling for stronger testing of potential toxins in baby products and, during a series of satellite interviews with New York television stations, deftly worked in the idea that she, as a mother of two small children, was shocked to find this kind of stuff in products I use every day.

Gillibrands voting record on womens issues is brief, but strong: She has a 100 percent rating with naral Pro-Choice America, and has been active on equal-pay legislation. And shes built a network of powerful women allies. One of the first calls Gillibrand made when she was contemplating a run for Congress was to a Hillary Clinton connection, Judith Hope, a Democratic National Committee member and founder of the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee, a fund-raising project aimed at encouraging pro-choice women to run for office. Once Gillibrand was appointed senator, Hope and other activists quickly rallied around her. The Eleanor Roosevelt types now see Hillarys seat as a womans seat, says a frustrated staffer for a potential Gillibrand opponent. Theyve completely circled the wagons around Gillibrand.

With women still badly underrepresented in the Senate, liberal women activists are reluctant to bash Gillibrand, even if they disagree with her on policy issues. I got an earful from a Gillibrand friend when I suggested her House views were out of step with many Democrats. This is more important than another yes vote on immigration, the activist told me. We have the opportunity to keep a woman in the Senate from a major state like New York. The stakes are too high for ideological purity.

Gillibrand arrived in Washington in 2007 with a reputation as a dragon slayer from a swing district. She was given plum assignments on the House Agriculture and Armed Services committees. The New York Times wrote a multipart series about her first year in office. Resentment within the delegation began almost immediately. Much of the ill will centered on the perception that she seemed to feel entitled to special treatment because she had upset a Republican incumbent. Leadership does a lot to protect candidates from marginal districts, says a staffer of a senior New York representative. But she flouted the conventions. She placed calls to Charlie Rangel and then to Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi trying to get better committee assignments. That was good for her, but not for the delegation.

Fellow Democrats also took exception to the fact that Gillibrand bucked the party line on hot-button issues. She joined the Blue Dog Democrats, an alliance of mostly southern fiscally and socially conservative Democrats. She earned a 100 percent rating from the NRA, in part for her vote in favor of a measure that limited information sharing on gun buyers between the ATF and FBIa position vehemently opposed by big-city mayors including Mike Bloomberg. (The tension between the mayor and the senator continues. Bloomberg was a major supporter of Caroline Kennedys Senate bid, and Gillibrands representatives suspect his people have been responsible for much of her negative press.) She voted in favor of the controversial measure to label New York a sanctuary city, and to potentially cut off federal aid until municipal authorities begin actively curbing illegal immigration. And she was one of a small minority of Democrats to vote against the TARP bank-bailout legislation, a move said to enrage House Speaker Pelosi.

Despite her critics objections, Gillibrands voting record proved politically effective, at least in the short term. In 2008, she faced a well-financed Republican in business executive Sandy Treadwell. He outspent her $7 million to $4.5 million, but while his campaign was largely self-financed, Gillibrand raised more money from outside sources than any other freshman representative elected in 2008. Her conservative positions on economic issues, guns, and immigration were catnip to her upstate constituents, leaving Treadwell boxed in. When she voted against TARP, we knew we were finished, a Treadwell aide says. She was smart. She didnt leave us any openings.

The Treadwell campaign tried to exploit Gillibrands work for Philip Morris, but it lacked a key weapon. We looked everywhere for video of her speaking at an anti-tobacco rally, says the Treadwell adviser. Theres nothing. She was too smart to leave anything that you could use in a negative ad. Gillibrand defeated Treadwell last November by a margin of 62 to 38.

I assure you that we will be united in our opposition to her, says one early rival. Shell be reelected over my dead body.

When Barack Obama nominated Hillary Clinton to be secretary of State in November, Governor David Paterson made a special effort to find a woman to fill Clintons seat. The potential 2010 Democratic slate headed by Paterson otherwise threatened to feature all males, perhaps all from downstate, no less. The list of women for Paterson to choose from wasnt especially long. Westchester congresswoman Nita Lowey, who would be 73 before 2010, quickly withdrew her name from consideration. It was unclear if Manhattan congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who went on a Hillaryesque listening tour, would have statewide appeal. Paterson liked Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, but her lack of electoral experience made her a risky choice.

Enter Gillibrand. Not only would she provide the gender diversity Paterson sought, but she was popular upstate, had a good relationship with the Clintons, and had powerful financial connectionsall of which could help get her elected and help the beleaguered Paterson in his own 2010 campaign. A Washington Post blog posted a list of contenders and placed Gillibrand as the second favorite, trailing only Nassau County executive Tom Suozzi.

But whatever hopes Gillibrand had for winning the seat were all but ended when Caroline Kennedy emerged as a candidate. Recognizing that she could not compete with Kennedys star power, Gillibrand instructed her allies only to let the governor know she was still interested and not to lobby on her behalf. She completed a questionnaire Paterson requested, but otherwise kept out of view.

That all changed when Kennedy removed herself from consideration. On the evening of January 22, Paterson called Gillibrand in Washington and asked her if she was still interested in the job. He told her he had not made his final decision, but he requested that she fly to Albany and await further instructions. Paterson also asked her to make one phone call. One of the few constituencies the increasingly embattled governor could rely on was the gay community, and Gillibrand had expressed support in interviews for civil unions instead of legalizing gay marriage. Paterson instructed Gillibrand to call Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, and promise she would reverse her position. Gillibrand made the call, and then headed to Albany. With rumors still circulating about whom Paterson might choose, Gillibrand went to bed uncertain of her fate.

Shortly after 2 a.m., Gillibrands cell phone rang, and Paterson greeted her with Good morning, Madame Senator. Gillibrand thanked the governor, hung up the phone, and promptly advised an aide to leak the news to the New York Times before Paterson could change his mind.

In Washington, the New York delegation was apoplectic. Representatives Steve Israel, Jerry Nadler, and Maloney all believed they were being seriously considered for the post. We thought Paterson had two real choices, said a senior staffer of one of the contenders. He could name a celebrity like Caroline, someone so huge that shes going to get her phone calls returned. Or he was going to name a kick-ass legislator who can run circles around the other legislators. Paterson went a third way.

When Paterson asked Israel, Nadler, and Maloney to join him in Albany for the announcement as a sign of unity, they declined. Carolyn McCarthy immediately promised to challenge her in a primary.

The delegations mood didnt lighten at Gillibrands appointment-announcement press conference. Gillibrand walked past State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver with barely a hello but was seen talking animatedly with DAmato. When the camera went wide, there was DAmato, standing closer to Gillibrand than Paterson was. You could hear heads exploding, says a Gillibrand critic. We just couldnt believe what we were seeing.

Gillibrand says she expected the vitriol with which her colleagues met her appointment, but she was still stung by it. I was hurt but not surprised, she says. I thought they were my friends. They came to campaign for me. They raised money for me. Ive called all of them and asked them to lunch. She lets out a little smile. Some of them dont want to have lunch with me.

Its later in the day, and Gillibrand is scheduled to film interviews in a Senate studio with upstate New York television stations. She detours into a dressing room to adjust her makeup, and Bethany Lesser, a press aide, whispers, Senator, you dont have time. You look fine. Gillibrand ignores her. Bethany, let me tell you a story. There was a press conference on a windy day where I didnt look my best, and that was the picture my opponents used in negative ads for two years.

Gillibrands first hundred days in the Senate brought a new set of problems. There were questions about her legitimacy and experience. There was a bit of Uh-oh, can she handle this?  says a top aide to a Senate Democrat.

Gillibrand has also been accused of flip-flopping on policy issues with an eye toward the 2010 election. Despite her sanctuary city vote in the House, she wrote a letter to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in February asking that the agency stop its raids on residences. In 2007, she had co-sponsored the renewal of legislation requiring the federal government to delete information learned from handgun background checks after 24 hours. Shortly after being named senator, she voted to repeal that provision.

As police sweep her car at a checkpoint near the Capitol, I tell Gillibrand about a remark Schumer made to me. One of the things I like about Kirsten is I can tell her when shes doing things wrong. She takes it well, Schumer had told me. I wont try and minimize the mistakes shes made, but I dont think theyre insurmountable at all. Shell learn.

Its Schumer, more than anyone, who is responsible for Gillibrands relaunch. At Gillibrands lowest point, shortly after the Times tobacco story, New Yorks senior senator agreed to cooperate with (and some suspect he orchestrated) what was viewed by some as a Times makeup call, a front-page story about how Schumer was taking Gillibrand under his wing. The piece implied that Schumer was supporting Gillibrand because he could manage her. The message Schumer meant to send was clear: He is on Gillibrands side and expects others to be as well. I dont endorse eighteen months out, Schumer says. But I can tell you Ill be endorsing her at the right time.

Gillibrand insists shes not, as some observers have suggested, Schumers puppet. But she doesnt deny hes a mentor. Its all true. I had dinner with Chuck in New York last week, she told me at one point. And Chuck told me what I was doing wrong. He told me what events I should have skipped and what ones I should have gone to. And I listened. He knows a lot.

Gillibrands standing has also been enhanced by Barack Obama. In May, Long Island congressman Steve Israel, arguably Gillibrands most formidable potential primary opponent, was a day away from announcing his candidacy. Staff had been hired, and a website was about to be launched. But then Israel was called to presidential chief of staff Rahm Emanuels office and two days later received a call from the president. That day, Israel announced he would not run.

The Gillibrand camp spun Israels withdrawal as a sign of support from Obama. It certainly had that appearance, but the presidents motives were more far-reaching than that. The filibuster-proof 60-seat majority Democrats will enjoy if Al Franken is seated is fragile. The Democratic leadership doesnt want to waste precious resources on internecine warfare. The Washington Establishment hates change, says a Democratic Senate staffer. There is no way Schumer and Harry Reid are going to abandon her. Theyll give her some kind of legislative trophy that she can put her name on. And if youre a lobbyist, youre going to be like, Whats in it for me to take a flier on someone else when the smart moneys on Gillibrand?  Late last week, Carolyn McCarthy announced she wouldnt run either.

Maloney, meanwhile, is said to be on the verge of announcing a bid to unseat Gillibrand in the 2010 Democratic primary. The commercials write themselves, says a top Manhattan political consultant. Big Tobacco. Immigration. Guns. Its all there. And she has no record. She has no base of goodwill to build on. Says one early rival, I assure you that we will be united in our opposition to her. Shell be reelected over my dead body. Names that have surfaced on the Republican side as possible 2010 opponents include former governor George Pataki and Congressman Peter King.

Gillibrands fund-raising ability may be her most powerful weapon. Although she alienated some of her Wall Street backers with her vote against the Bush bailout bill while she was in the House (Crains New York Business editorialized that the vote disqualified her from Senate consideration), shes been working to address that. In March, she held a fund-raiser with Wall Street executives hosted by Bill Clinton at the Upper East Side mansion of corrugated-box millionaire Dennis Mehiel, Carl McCalls running mate in 2002. At that event, she left no doubt that she understood what her audience expected of her. I used to represent a rural, conservative Republican district, Gillibrand told the crowd. Now I represent all of New York, and I have to represent all New Yorkers. I know the difference.

Gillibrand raised $250,000 at the event. On April 6, she reported amassing $2.3 million in the first quarter, a substantial number thats all the more striking in the current economic climate. Maloney has not displayed the ability to raise large amounts of money during her career. She currently has $1.3 million in the bank, enough to buy roughly one weeks worth of television ads. Polls show Pataki even in a theoretical race against Gillibrand, but he has expressed no interest. King, who is not well known outside his own Long Island district, would be hard-pressed to match Gillibrands war chest.

Gillibrand, of course, has a clear vision of the future. As we say good-byeshes off to make fund-raising callsshe asks, Did you get what you need? Did I tell you if I wasnt a lawyer, I wanted to be a journalist? I love getting at the truth. My favorite is Greta Van Susteren.

For a fleeting moment, a look of concern comes over Gillibrands face, and she touches my arm. Is this going to be okay?

But before I can say anything, the smile returns. Kirsten Gillibrand believes again. This will be okay. I know it will be okay.A pool of blood remains at the gutter where an alleged drug user was killed by unidentified assailants in Manila, Philippines. Photo: Ezra Acayan/NurPhoto via Getty Images

In 2013, Facebook hit upon an idea to grow its user base: It would subsidize internet access to Facebook on mobile devices in countries where cellular data was pricey, physical internet infrastructure was poor, and the smartphone revolution meant many leapfrogged from having no internet access at all to using their smartphone as their only source to the web. It found the perfect country to test this out on, in the 100 million citizens of the Philippines, calling it Free Facebook.

If the idea sounds familiar, its because Facebook attempted to do a version of this in many more countries with its Internet.org plan, hoping to get basic internet access to billions of people living without it  access that would come thanks to subsidies from Facebook. Internet.org was largely a failure, thanks to pushback by local governments, telecom companies, and human-rights organizations. Meanwhile, Free Facebook remains wildly successful in the Philippines. As outlined by BuzzFeed News reporter Davey Alba, the company serves as the de facto ISP for many Filipinos:

Thanks to a social mediahungry populace and heavy subsidies that keep Facebook free to use on mobile phones, Facebook has completely saturated the country. And because using other data, like accessing a news website via a mobile web browser, is precious and expensive, for most Filipinos the only way online is through Facebook.

Roughly 69 million Filipinos have access to the internet today, of those nearly 100 percent have a Facebook account. In the U.S. and Canada, for comparison, 87 percent of people with internet access use Facebook. (Zuckerberg, when told by the CEO of Filipino website Rappler in April of 2017 that 97 of the population with internet access was on Facebook, reportedly asked, What about the other 3 percent?)

Two years after the launch of Free Facebook, Rodrigo Duterte mounted a presidential bid, casting himself as the tough-on-crime, anti-elite Everyman ready to bring back jobs and order. Posts about Duterte, full of memes, propaganda, and outright libel (one opponent, now in prison on a dubious drug charge, saw a fake sex tape circulate on Facebook with her in it) did extremely well on Facebook, as nearly any inflammatory content does. When Duterte said he would dump the bodies of executed drug dealers into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there, the post immediately went viral, viral, viral, bragged one of his two social-media directors.

He won handily, and his rule has been brutal. At least 12,000 people have been killed during Dutertes crackdown on drugs, and hundreds of thousands of Filipinos have been jailed, many of them opponents of Duterte himself. Meanwhile, his social-media team has actively worked to bring in social-media influencers to prop up Dutertes regime (think Filipino versions of social-media creatures like Mike Cernovich, Laura Loomer, or Jack Posobiec) working closely with the Duterte administration  sometimes directly on the government payroll  to spread fake stories such as a deposed Supreme Court justice was caught attempting to flee the country. Meanwhile, news sources seen as unfriendly to the Duterte campaign have increasingly come under fire, including banning all reporters from an outlet from the presidential palace.

Look: Absent Facebook, Duterte almost assuredly would have assumed power and began his dictatorial rule over the Philippines. But Facebooks News Feed algorithm, attenuated to surface anything that attracts attention, amplifies dictators and demagogues like Duterte. In one egregious example, a fake sex tape spread quickly through Facebook of one of Dutertes opponents having sex with her chauffeur. De Lima is not only screwing her driver, she is also screwing the nation, quipped Duterte.

Facebook says its working to police the content in the Philippines better. We know we were too idealistic about the nature of these connections and didnt focus enough on preventing abuse or thinking through all the ways people could use the tools on the platform to do harm, said a Facebook spokesperson to BuzzFeed News. In the Philippines, this includes the roll-out of third-party fact-checking, better detection of bad content, improved enforcement of our policies, and deeper support for the countrys digital literacy efforts. (Ironically, many of Facebooks content moderators who would end up doing this work live in the Philippines.)

Theres a peculiar callousness in Facebook using entire countries as testing environments. Last year, the company wanted to know what happen if it split the News Feed into two separate streams: one only populated by posts created by friends, and one only for posts created by media publishers. Instead of testing this on a small percentage of American users, it simply flipped the switch in six countries: Bolivia, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Guatemala, and Cambodia. Media organizations suddenly saw their websites traffic plummet, fake news stories flourished, and Facebook shut down the experiment within weeks , apologizing in a post that the company received feedback that we made it harder for people in the test countries to access important information. About 66 million people  roughly the population of Texas, Florida, and New York combined  live in those six countries. Each country has its own particular news ecosystems, cultural norms, and political challenges. For Facebook, the countries represented a handy way to try out some A/B testing. To be very cynical about it, it also probably affected Facebooks decision that those six countries bring in significantly less advertising dollars than Texas, Florida, and New York.

In the Philippines, its Free Facebook program has become so successful that its hard to imagine how Facebook and the Philippines could ever untwine themselves from each other. (Indeed, the company partnered with Dutertes government to build an undersea cable connecting the Philippines to the U.S. and Asian countries.) And even after Duterte leaves office, whenever that may be, the Philippines will still be a country where one websites algorithm determines what 97 percent of internet users look at.

There are, of course, no parallels to be drawn between the Philippines and the United States.

Correction: An earlier version of this story cited that 97 percent of Filipinos with Internet access have a Facebook account. According to the data from WeAreSocial, that number is actually 100 percent; 97 percent of Filipinos with internet access were on Facebook in April 2017. The post has been updated to reflect that.Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.This report was compiled by Lisa Andre. You can reach her at landre@leecentralcoastnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @LAndreSYVNewsPhoto: Courtesy Brigade Kitchen

Editors note: Since this article was published in 2018, one of the brands we tested  Potluck Cookware  has changed its branding. Its now called Goldilocks, but its products are the same as they were when we tested them. So weve changed the companys name accordingly, to Goldilocks, throughout this post.

Just like mattresses and bedsheets and underwear before them, cookware sets have become the newest products being sold by a slate of direct-to-consumer start-ups. New companies have sprouted up in the last couple of years, claiming to manufacture high-quality stainless-steel cookware and chef-friendly knives at surprisingly low prices, ostensibly without the markup of traditional retail. Since Im a person who likes to cook (and writes about cookware a lot, so gets served ads for these companies across the internet constantly), I wanted to know: How well does this gear actually perform in the kitchen? And which of these new direct-to-consumer cookware brands is the best?

How I Tested

To find out, I called in samples of six direct-to-consumer cookware brands  Brandless, Brigade Kitchen, Made in Cookware, Material Kitchen, Misen, and Goldilocks  and tested each of them over a two-week period. Though I was intrigued by direct-to-consumer cast-iron brand Field Company, which makes skillets, and the sold-out enameled Dutch oven from Milo, I chose to exclude those brands from my review process because they only sell individual items, not cookware sets or kits. Also, cast-iron and stainless steel are two different beasts, and I didnt want to get bogged down in material differences.

Over the course of my testing period, I gave my regular rotation of pots, pans, knives, and utensils a break and used only the gear from these six brands to prepare and cook all of my meals. I went through most of the 22 utensils and 13 knives sent to me, but I didnt use every single pot and pan (of which there were 13). However, I used at least two pieces from each brand  including all of the frying pans that I had on hand  and I cooked different dishes with different styles of preparation in each.

How I Rated

Ultimately, I was looking for gear with professional-grade qualities, stuff that could happily be used by professional chefs and serious home cooks, but wasnt too intimidating for beginners. Though Ive never worked in a restaurant kitchen, Ive spent a lot of time interviewing professional chefs about their favorite gadgets and gizmos, and as a prolific home cook myself, Ive adopted many of their tips and preferences in my own kitchen. I also fall into the Alton Brown school of cookware: Throw out all unitaskers, and fill your kitchen with gear that can do more than one thing. My hunt for the most user-friendly experience also meant that I preferred brands that sold cohesive sets of gear to those that made one-off pieces, to eliminate the chance of filler.

At the end of the day, though, all of the cookware worked  eggs were fried, chicken was braised, tacos were assembled  so nothing was really bad. Even within my highest-ranked sets, some of the tools performed better and were easier to use than others; thats why I also picked out standout pieces from each company in addition to the overall rankings. Heres what I liked, what I didnt, and what I would recommend.

Best professional-grade kitchen gear, overall  Goldilocks

What I Tested: The 22-piece Essentials Bundle, which contains every piece from their line. You can also buy their gear in sets if you dont want the whole shebang; theres the Cookware Set, the Knife Set, and the Utensil Set.

What I Would Buy: the 12-piece Utensil Set.

The Good: If youre a serious home cook whos looking for professional-grade gear because youve outgrown your old stuff, or youre someone who is truly starting from square one with no idea what kitchen gear you really need and whats a gimmick, go for Goldilocks. Its one of those rare brands thatll both satisfy professionals and help people who arent yet confident in their cooking skills by giving them the essential tool kit they need to succeed.

Most of their gear looks and feels like it came straight from a restaurant supply store on the Bowery, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Its chef-centric and utilitarian, in large part because the founders of Goldilocks started the design process by surveying home cooks and professional chefs to find out what they actually wanted  and directly incorporated that feedback into what pieces were included and how they were manufactured. (This iconic New York Times piece by Mark Bittman from 2009, outlining his essential kitchen gear, was another inspiration, admitted co-founder Minsuk Kim in an email.)

A good example of Goldilocks commitment to chefs standards was their decision to make tri-ply stainless-steel cookware rather than five-ply, like some of their competitors, including Made In and Brigade Kitchen. They were told by a chef who worked at Chez Panisse that tri-ply was standard in their kitchen, so thats what they went with. And every piece of cookware I tested could take the heat, even though Im not cooking like Alice Waters. I made a braised chicken dish in the skillet, which held up to frying, high oven temperatures, and deglazing, and the chefs knife made quick work of onions and overripe tomatoes.

And though I enjoyed using both the stainless-steel pots and pans and three-piece knife set, and would heartily recommend the Essentials Bundle, it was the Utensil Set that gave me the most joy (and is also, in my opinion, the best deal). For $80, you get 12 pieces that will fully outfit your kitchen, including several kitchen essentials that no other direct-to-consumer kit I tested includes  like two stainless-steel mixing bowls, a handsome colander, a Y-shaped peeler, and measuring cups and spoons. But even the more standard utensils are outstandingly simple, offered in the best, most chef-friendly versions. For instance, the spatula is a flexible fish spatula, the style beloved by Smitten Kitchens Deb Perelman because its thin edge is perfect for everything that needs to be loosened, lifted, or turned. The metal tongs are straightforward, long, and sturdy enough to use on a grill if you really wanted. Even the silicone spatula resembles those Ive see used in professional kitchens, not the cutesy ones employed on the Food Network or in YouTube tutorials.

The Less Good: The focus on chef-quality gear for the lowest prices possible means that Goldilocks doesnt have the most panache in terms of aesthetics, and in a couple of instances, the material felt a little cheap. The lids are made of a lighter stainless steel than the pots and pans themselves, and the handles of the knives are made of rough plastic rather than wood. Its a case of function over style, and though that might be a bummer for folks looking to curate a Pinterest-worthy kitchen, its fine for those looking to make Pinterest-worthy food.

Best stainless-steel pots and pans  Made In Cookware

What I Tested: The eight-piece Core, which comes with a ten-inch stainless-steel frying pan, a ten-inch nonstick frying pan, a two-quart saucepan, a four-quart saute pan, and an eight-quart stockpot.

What I Would Buy: the ten-inch nonstick frying pan.

The Good: With their heavy bottoms and well-designed, easy-to-lift handles, the pots and pans from Made In became my most-used cookware during the two-week testing period. I made filling for blueberry pie in the two-quart saucepan, which held high heat evenly without burning the sugary mix. I made a mess of cheesy polenta in the eight-quart stockpot without burning anything, and the ten-inch all-stainless frying pan was ideal for cooking ground beef for tacos. Made In is the only direct-to-consumer cookware brand I tested that sold a nonstick frying pan, and though I enjoyed all of the gear, this one was the standout of the bunch because it had the biggest chance to go badly. But it passed my egg-frying test beautifully, with not a broken yolk in sight.

Since the cookware is made of brushed stainless steel rather than polished, it was easy to clean and keep clean. I also appreciated that the branding was minimal, though I was tickled by the engraved recipes on the bottom of every piece, including one for roux on the saucier and another for an omelette on the nonstick skillet. And though I was mostly looking for complete sets, I liked that you could buy individual pieces to fill in your collection as you need it, making it a good choice if you know you want to upgrade a particular item in your kitchen.

The Less Good: Though all of these companies are technically start-ups, Made In felt the most twee, and the branding made me take it less seriously at first. For instance, two cards came with my pots and pans: one explaining the basics of using and caring for all-stainless cookware, the other providing instructions on how to take the best food photos for Instagram. However, since the gear worked so well, I got over it quickly.

However, whats still unclear to me is if youre getting a great deal when you buy Made In cookware. The prices for a lot of the pots and pans are comparable to that of All-Clad tri-ply, even when youre buying in bulk. For instance, the 10-piece All-Clad cookware set  with an eight-quart stockpot, a three-quart saute pan and three-quart saucepan, and two frying pans  costs $650 on Amazon, while Made Ins 11-piece Kitchen Sink bundle, with a pretty similar lineup, costs $699. Granted, Made Ins gear is five-ply, not tri-ply like All-Clad, but in terms of performance, I wouldnt really be able to tell much of a difference between the two.

Best knife set  Misen

What I Tested: The three-piece Essentials Knife Set in blue, with a eight-inch chefs knife, a paring knife, and a ten-inch serrated bread knife.

What I Would Buy: the Essentials Knife Set.

The Good: Though Misen does sell all-stainless-steel cookware, I did not have the opportunity to try their skillet during my testing period. However, their knife set has been in my possession long before my testing period started; its actually been on my magnetic strip for the last three months, when we had houseguests and I wanted to put away my nice Global knives so they wouldnt get chipped. I havent bothered to put those more-expensive knives back up, which speaks to how much I enjoy the Essential Set. To me, Misens three-piece Essential Set is the Platonic ideal of a knife set, and if youre looking for a Wusthof dupe, this is it. Theyre heavier than my Global knives, as most European-style knives are, these knives feel nicer and more balanced in my hands than the plastic-handled set from Goldilocks, and the edges have held as sharp as the first day, even after a few months of use.

The Less Good: The colored handles of the knives, cute in photographs and on my knife strip, dont scream professional, and though the knives were balanced, the handles sometimes felt a bit boxy in my hand. Youll also have to wait a bit to get exactly the set I used: The blue Misen knife set is on preorder, since its been so highly demanded, though you can buy it in red or sage. Ditto all of the cookware, including the stand-alone skillet, which wont ship until mid-November.

Best complete cookware set for beginners  Brigade Kitchen

What I Tested: The four-piece Set, which comes with Brigade Kitchens complete lineup: a 9.5-inch stainless-steel skillet, a 2.5-quart saucepan, a three-quart saute pan, and a seven-inch Santoku knife.

What I Would Buy: the Set.

The Good: Brigade Kitchens philosophy is to create high-quality, basic cookware at an approachable price, and to that end, the gear itself felt solid. Theres also no filler in their line, and thats why the complete set would be my choice for a college student or a recent graduate moving into their first apartment. The five-ply stainless-steel pots came with glass lids, ideal for less confident chefs who want to be able to peek at whats happening (and a feature that came in handy when steaming rice). The skillet, with a heavy bottom and slightly sloped edges, was good for sauteing vegetables. I had few complaints about the actual performance of the Santoku knife, with an ever-so-slightly curved tip that allowed me to rock through onions with not a tear in sight.

The Less Good: Though the quality of the pieces was mostly good to great, there were some small design issues that kept them from feeling truly professional-grade, starting with the heavy Brigade Kitchen branding. The logo, visibly etched into the bottom of the pots and pans, stared at me while I stirred my veggies. And though the polished stainless steel is beautiful when its right out of the box, its trickier to clean and keep fingerprint-free over time, especially when compared to brushed steel. I also didnt love the glass lids for that same reason. I was pretty sold on the knife because it felt so good in my hand, but it also refused to stick to my magnetic knife strip, which was frustrating and a little too dangerous for my liking. But even if none of the individual pieces stood out as incredible on their own, as a set, it was the most complete, with the least filler, especially for a beginner.

Best Japanese-style chefs knife  Material Kitchen

What I Tested: The seven-piece Fundamentals, which comes with an eight-inch and a four-inch knife, stainless-steel tongs, a wooden spoon, a stainless-steel spoon, and a stainless-steel spatula, all stored in a wooden base.

What I Would Buy: the eight-inch chefs knife, made from three layers of Japanese steel.

The Good: Of all the utensils I tested, those from Material Kitchen were the most beautifully organized, least of all because they came presented in a handsome wooden container. The set itself, when you lay it out, ostensibly has everything you need to prep and cook, and all of the pieces look truly statuesque, in an elegant dark wood and brushed steel.

My favorite piece was the eight-inch kitchen knife, which found a delicate balance between function and design. It rivaled my favorite Global in terms of performance, cutting through tomatoes like a hot knife through butter, with a sleek dark-wood handle that reminded me of some of my dads favorite hollow-handled Japanese chef knives from Shun  at less than half the price.

The Less Good: Though theyre gorgeous when sitting on the counter, I found the utensils sculptural to a fault. The wooden spoon, for instance, wasnt ideal for sauteing vegetables or using in a pan, since it had too much of a scoop; however, it was a great serving spoon for a tomato-and-Feta salad. The slotted metal spatula, though flexible, was too hefty and lacked the precision of my go-to fish spatula.

Of all the utensils, the tongs gave me the most trouble. I found them to be heavy and imprecise; while making spaghetti cacio e pepe, I roughed up and sliced a couple of strands when trying to toss the pepper in with the pasta. The tongs also rely on a so-called one-handed magic lock to open, meaning they only release when you turn them down and close when you turn them back up, and I couldnt figure out how to use them for a couple of days since they didnt come with any directions. There was a learning curve for much of the gear, which left me a little on edge since I thought I knew how to use tongs. Thats why I wouldnt recommend the Fundamentals Set, as a whole, to a serious home cook. Its beautiful on the counter, but its better-suited for someone who prefers to entertain rather than cook.

Most price-sensitive knives and utensils  Brandless

What I Tested: The six-piece Essential Knives set and the six silicone utensils, including a slotted spoon, a serving spoon, a pasta fork, a silicone spatula, a slotted turner, and silicone tongs.

What I Would Buy: the silicone tongs.

The Good: The knives and utensils from Brandless are a steal when you consider the fact that theyre only $3. So if youre really on a tight budget, you could consider it. But the gear from Brandless was pretty hit or miss. The silicone kitchen tongs, for $3, were definitely the best piece of the set, though I was pleasantly surprised by the paring knife, which was sharp and balanced, perfect for peeling apples or cutting eyes out of potatoes. The serrated bread knife cut through my farmers market loaf without shredding it to pieces. Even the rubber spatula was a solid tool for scraping down the side of a bowl of batter, though a little flimsy for sauteing. The gray silicone tools with light wooden handles were very pretty in my marble canister, too.

The Less Good: The misses, on the other hand, really missed. One of the biggest disappointments was the chefs knife, with its straight edge like a cleaver. The lack of curve on the blade meant I couldnt quickly, efficiently, or safely rock the knife back and forth. Instead, my usually smooth cuts turned into sharp whacks on the cutting board, which is how you lose a finger if youre not paying attention. For that reason, I would strongly recommend that you save up for a better chefs knife and maybe steer clear of the knives from Brandless, but if youre looking for serviceable and affordable silicone utensils, you could do worse than these.

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Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Tuesday condemned "Russian aggression" in Ukraine's east, an unusually strong wording coming on the heels of President Vladimir Putin's controversial visit to Austria. "I speak not only as Chancellor but also as President of the EU Council, we need a clear reaction to the Russian aggression" in eastern Ukraine, Kurz told reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. "I must note that it makes us very unhappy that the situation remains so tangled," said the 32-year-old conservative leader, who has sought to improve EU ties with Russia. Kurz called on Russia to "return to the negotiating table," including with France and Germany, in quotes released by Kiev. "This is the only format that we have so far," Kurz was quoted as saying. Germany and France have sought in recent months to revive the stalled peace process in a bid to settle the simmering conflict. But Moscow ruled out any talks in the near future following last week's assassination of east Ukraine's top rebel, Alexander Zakharchenko. Kurz's visit to Ukraine came after Putin's dance with Austria's foreign minister as a guest at her August wedding caused uproar in Ukraine and Europe. A senior Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that the Austrian Chancellor had promised to provide Kiev with an "explanation" about Putin's visit. "This wedding has caused considerable damage to Austria's reputation in Ukraine," Ukrainian Ambassador to Austria Oleksandr Scherba wrote on Facebook on Monday. During a joint media appearance with Kurz, the Ukrainian leader thanked Vienna for its "strong support" and added that "no weddings ... can stop the Russian aggression." Journalists were not allowed to ask the leaders any questions, underscoring the sensitivity of the topic. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the rebel insurgency began in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions in April 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of funnelling troops and arms across the border, which Moscow denies. The photos of the 53-year-old Austrian foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, dancing with Putin and bowing to him at her wedding fuelled questions about her neutrality and that of the EU country. She shrugged off the row, insisting he attended at her private invitation.Cambodias Daun Penh Investment has just infused Series C funding to Netmeds India with Sistema Asia Fund, Tanncam Investment, and Indian investment bank MAPE participating in the round

Cambodian investment management firm Daun Penh Investment has announced that it has infused a total of US$35 million in Series C funding to Netmeds, the Indian online pharmacy service. The funding was announced in time with the companys mission to expand its reach and make quality medication and healthcare accessible and affordable to more Indians.

The funding is also considered a timely move considering Indias government has announced the final amendment to the Drug and Cosmetic Act which recognised the e-pharmacy business via Ministry of Health & Welfare.

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, said Pradeep Dadha, CEO and Founder of Netmeds.

Also Read: Female lifestyle platform For Her Myanmar raises six-figure investment to bolster content

Prominent business leader Oknha ING Bun Hoaw said that the idea of building a business would improve lives has been the goal in Cambodia. We are proud to play a part in this, and excited about our expansion into one the worlds largest and fastest growing economies, he said.

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The post Cambodian Daun Penh Investment infuses US$35M into online pharmacy Netmeds India appeared first on e27.The two organisations will collaborate through AISGs 100 Experiment programme, where both will jointly develop innovative AI products and solutions for the local industry



Canadian software company, Element AI, has announced a partnership with AI Singapore (AISG), a government initiative designed to anchor deep capabilities in Artificial Intelligence to support the its Smart Nation efforts.

Under this partnership, Element AI will help local enterprises discover and define the highest impact applications of AI in the areas of supply chain and financial services.

The two organisations will collaborate through AISGs 100 Experiment programme, where both will jointly develop innovative AI products and solutions for the local industry. As part of this collaboration, Element AI will co-locate part of its team together with AI Singapore in the newly-launched innovation4.0 building at NUS.

Together with Element AI, we are ready to seize new opportunities that will strengthen AI innovation in Singapore, said Professor Ho Teck Hua, Executive Chairman of AISG. Investment in knowledge transfer and our local talent pool alongside Element AI will foster industry adoption efforts and help drive our Smart Nation initiatives forward.

Also Read: These 3 blockchain startups are building on AI to change our everyday lives

Element AI CEO Jean-Francois Gagne said: Joining forces with AISG is a natural fit as Singapore looks to advance their Smart Nation initiative and Element AI expands its product offering in supply chain and finance. As this partnership will also be deeply rooted in research, its a great opportunity to expand our collaborative research model. Growing our presence in Singapore goes hand-in-hand with our efforts to foster innovation and achieve new research capabilities via local talent pools.

AISG is a national programme launched by the National Research Foundation (NRF) to catalyse, synergise and boost Singapores AI capabilities to power our future, digital economy. AISG brings together all Singapore-based research entities, startups in the field, and companies developing products to collaborate and grow knowledge, tools, and talent crucial to the development and deployment of AI products and smart digital technologies.AISG is driven by a government-wide partnership comprising NRF, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO), the Economic Development Board (EDB), the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), SGInnovate, and the Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS).

With offices in Montreal, Toronto, London, Singapore and Seoul, Element AI is funded by leading investors, including BDC Capital, Data Collective, Fidelity Investments Canada, Hanwha Investment, Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures, National Bank, NVIDIA GPU Ventures, Real Ventures, and Tencent.

The post Canadian startup Element AI to support AI Singapore in its Smart Nation initiatives appeared first on e27.Mahathir Mohamad smiles during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on 10 May. (PHOTO: Associated Press)

At 93, one might think that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad would be into his second childhood by now. But his mind remains as sharp as ever, and he seems to be having fun as he takes a jibe here and lands a punch there at his favourite plaything since his first spell as PM: Singapore.

Before, he was a one-man attack force; but now he has four playthings to do the job for him. Four Singaporeans  historian Thum Ping Tjin, freelance writer Kirsten Han, graphic novelist Sonny Liew and champion of foreign workers rights Jolovan Wham  are finding themselves in a swirling controversy over their highly-publicised meeting with Mahathir in Putrajaya on Thursday (30 August), where Singapore political exile Tan Wah Piow invited the so-called beacon of democracy to open a conference on promoting democracy in Southeast Asia.

What might have been a straightforward meeting became a political whirlpool with Marine Parade Member of Parliament Seah Kian Peng and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam jumping in to put the four in the dock.

Liew began to clarify his position with Facebook posts on that 80-minute meeting, saying he and the others were much too wide-eyed and naive. Thum stuck to his guns with a post to say that he was no traitor. Even before the controversy blew up, Han had said there was no whole-hearted endorsement of Mahathir, and Wham distanced himself by saying Mahathir still holds very conservative and offensive views.

Mahathir achieved all this without uttering a word in public about the meeting. The quartet of Singaporeans gave him that oxygen of publicity.

We all know that Mahathir has a problem treating Singapore as an equal. Since his coalitions impressive victory in the Malaysian general election three months ago, he has poured cold water on the proposed high-speed railway project between Kuala Lumpur and Jurong East, revisited his water price hobby horse, jibed about the high salaries of Singapores ministers and snidely remarked that Singaporeans are tired of their government. The tone is somewhat mellower now compared with the acerbic words he used to attack Singapore when he was Prime Minister for 22 years from 1981 to 2003. But his mindset remains the same.

Story continues

Tread lightly

Law Minister K Shanmugam (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

As Mahathir is smiling away like a Cheshire cat in KL, the whole episode throws up a few pointers for the Singapore government and those who want to cross swords with the government.

First, dont take your fight to other countries or to people outside Singapore. The public, with a government ever ready to beat the drum, just wont accept it. That is the reality in a country where many have a stake in supporting the government. People here remain fearful of what will happen to them if they side with politicians that the government detests.

Remember what happened to opposition politician Chee Soon Juan when he went to Washington to raise questions at a presentation by then PM Goh Chok Tong at the Committee on Foreign Relations in Washington in 2004? He was roundly criticised for his confrontation-style politics and has paid a heavy price at the ballot box.

Two, as Mahathir returns to haunt and taunt Singapore, there is no leader here who is prepared to stand up and give it back in equal measure. The closest a minister has come to doing so was when Shanmugam commented on that meeting, And you know, we are not saying anything about Dr Mahathir but I think one needs to be careful with these things. And now to try and explain away what is so obvious, that doesnt do them (the Group of Four) much credit either.

It is a heavily-nuanced quote but in short, it is telling Singaporeans to understand where Mahathir is coming from. Just on Sunday, an announcement came from Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin that the two countries have agreed to postpone the rail project with Malaysia not having to pay compensation. Singapores Transport Ministry was surprised and forced to say that the talks are on-going.

It looks like there will be no immediate end to these kind of surprises as Mahathir, and his ministers, do things their own way. A strong leadership on the south side of the Causeway needs to tell the Malaysian ministers that neighbours dont conduct relations this way.

Three, the time has come for Singapore to stand up to Mahathir and tell him: We are not your playthings. We are your neighbour, so treat us like one. But who will bell this playful cat?

P N Balji is a veteran Singaporean journalist who was formerly chief editor of Today, as well as an editor at The New Paper. He is currently a media consultant. The views expressed are his own.

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COMMENT: The furore over ministerial pay is gaining currency again

COMMENT: SingHealth cyberattack throws up leadership issueFILE PHOTO: A display featuring missiles and a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran September 27, 2017. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi/TIMA via REUTERS.

(This Sptember 1 story is corrected to make clear 2015 nuclear deal was with Iran)

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 Iran 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.

Story continues

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)(File photo) Senator Antonio Trillanes

MANILA, Philippines  Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra clarified on Tuesday (September 4) that the amnesty granted to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV was null and void from the beginning.

It is actually nullified or declared void ab initioas if it never existed, never been valid for non-compliance with certain mandatory requirements, Guevarra said in a press conference amid the chaos after the issue was published on a newspaper of general publication on Tuesday.

Guevarra explained that under Proclamation No. 75 or the General Proclamation of Amnesty issued by the Aquino administration in 2011, a person accused of rebellion like Trillanes should submit under oath an official application for amnesty. Also, there should be an admission of guilt to qualify for such which, the DOJ claimed, Trillanes failed to accomplish.

Following the turn of events, the DOJ is now drafting a formal request to the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 to issue an alias warrant of arrest for the senator.

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Jose Calida denies hand on the matter contrary to the accusations of Trillanes that he masterminded his arrest.

I dont know about that. Hes not the judge. Hes not a prosecutor so if he wants to file cases, let him file a case, Calida said.

Trillanes believes that the sudden move of voiding the amnesty granted to him has something to do with the Senate inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the government contracts won by Calidas family-owned security firm which he (Trillanes) led also on Tuesday.  Marje Pelayo (with reports from Mai Bermudez)

The post DOJ: Trillanes amnesty void from the beginning appeared first on UNTV News.Overnight Saturday, a string of explosions at a military airport near the Syrian capital reportedly killed two regime fighters and injured 11 others.

Iran's foreign minister held talks with officials in Syria on Monday as Syrian forces and their allies prepare for an assault on the last opposition stronghold in the country.

Iranian forces have backed Bashar Assad in Syria's civil war.

Syrian pro-government media initially blamed the blasts on Israel, but state media later quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying the explosions were caused by an electrical malfunction in a munition depot nearby.

The Syrian army denied reports that an Israeli missile attack targeted a Syrian airbase west of Damascus early Sunday, saying a short circuit caused an explosion in an arms depot near the airbase, according to the state TV.

He could not specify their nationalities or whether they belonged to militias or government forces.

But a Syrian military source later rejected the claim, stating that the base was not the target of "Israeli aggression", according to state-run Sana.

Nike unveils striking new Colin Kaepernick ad campaign

The new ad, which Kaepernick shared on social media Monday afternoon, features the message: "Believe in something". Kaepernick was once best known for his quarterbacking skills for the San Francisco 49ers .

Israel has previously launched strikes against Syrian territories and accused of targeting the Mazzeh airport, but has not officially acknowledged it as a target.

"The explosions heard were due to an explosion at a munitions deposit close to the airport which was due to an electrical short circuit", the source said, without mentioning any casualties.

Separately, Iran's military attache to Damascus told Iranian media on Tuesday that the country's military advisers would remain in Syria under a defence agreement signed this week.

Israel, too, has carried out strikes against forces allied with Iran, in a stated effort to prevent the Islamic Republic from entrenching itself near its border.

In July, Syria accused Israel of bombing a military post in the northern province of Aleppo, where at least nine pro-regime fighters were killed according to the observatory.

In a meeting in Damascus on Monday, Zarif and Assad asserted that Western countries would not be able to deter Iran and Syria from defending their principles, the interests of the two nations, and the security and stability of the entire region.

Tehran has provided steady political, financial, and military support to the government during this period.More than a week after 18 cats native to St Johns Island were allegedly abducted and brought over to mainland Singapore, four of the island cats have been found roaming at Sembawang Park.

On Aug 26, a posse of people who arent part of the St John Islands Cats group was said to have taken away the cats as some sort of rescue effort to relocate them in mainland Singapore  specifically in the Ang Mo Kio district. Attempts to reach out to the group of people who abducted the cats failed to elicit clear answers, except the alleged news that one cat was put to sleep while another was handed over to an animal shelter.

Cat welfare group St John Islands Cats provided an update to their ongoing investigations yesterday afternoon. One cat was found at barbecue pit, appearing to have gum problems, while another was found at a carpark nearby.

The third cat was found at the park itself, while the fourth cat was said to be frightened by humans, and will require another trip to capture it with a humane trap. Meanwhile, the three hungry and thirsty felines were quickly fed by the group volunteers and taken to the vet for medical checkups.

One of the cats was found with fragments of bone in its stomach  likely a result of eating discarded leftovers at barbecue pits out of hunger.

Another update stated that the St Johns Island cats that were abducted have been dumped a week ago. The search continues for the rest of the island cats, while the Agri-Veterinary Authority (AVA) is investigating the still unknown culprits responsible for the deplorable deed.

The post Four of the 18 cats allegedly abducted from St Johns Island found abandoned at Sembawang Park appeared first on Coconuts.Speak up against those who advocate absurd idea of Hong Kong independence, Carrie Lam tells university students and leaders

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday urged university students and management to speak up against those advocating Hong Kong independence on campuses, as she condemned youngsters using school events as an opportunity to promote absurd separatist ideas.

In recent years, there has been an unhealthy trend in saying that Hong Kong can be independent, Hong Kong can determine its own future, Hong Kong can be separated from China  I feel heartbroken by such statements, the citys leader said.

She singled out students who were using their status as members of student unions executive councils, and the occasion of the first day of school to spread what she described as untrue statements.

I hope university authorities and students, if they see anything that is not right or any actions that are not legal, they will speak up. Do not think that the issue will just go away, Lam said.

Lam spoke in the morning, before Baptist University held an event to welcome more than 2,000 new local and international undergraduates to its Kowloon Tong campus.

The student unions acting president Ken Lui Lok-hei did not mention independence, but gave a fiery six-minute speech criticising the government for telling students they could not voice out anti-Chinese government views.

He compared that with Taiwans White Terror massacre of anti-government protesters in 1947 under nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, and urged students to challenge the authorities.

I think the first step [to safeguard Hong Kongs future] is to get a clear understanding of our identity  we are Hongkongers, he said.

He later told reporters that Lams comments were quite ridiculous as any discussion of Hong Kong independence or politics still constituted free speech.

Last week at Education Universitys ceremony to mark the start of the new academic year, the president of the student unions provisional executive council, Cheung Yam, said: Independence is the only way to build a place truly based on the interests of Hongkongers.

Story continues

On Monday, student leaders at Chinese Universitys inauguration ceremony insisted they had a right to discuss the citys sovereignty, even as two top officials cautioned students against separatist talk, dismissing such discussions as pointless.

Lam on Tuesday said students advocating independence were violating the Basic Law and the one country, two systems governing principle, which guarantees a degree of autonomy for the city.

We will not tolerate any [comments] that have an impact on this basic policy direction  or the bottom line mentioned by President Xi Jinping on July 1 last year, she said.

The citys mini-constitution states that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China, and the president used his speech during a landmark visit to the city last year to issue a tough message to separatists.

Lam pledged the government would handle any violation of the Basic Law in accordance with the law.

She also said she had heard foreign visitors she hosted express negative views about Hong Kongs youth, with many of them under the impression that youngsters supported separation from China. Creating such an impression was unfair to other students, Lam said.

Banners and posters with messages advocating separatist ideas have been put up on university campuses in recent years, sparking verbal clashes. Last year, former Chinese University president Joseph Sung Jao-yiu led nine other tertiary institutions in releasing a joint statement saying they did not support independence.

Lam said such incidents put pressure on university presidents who love and care about their students, but who might not wish to be harshly critical of their antics.

Baptist University on Tuesday did not print Luis speech in full in its programme booklet, dropping the portions where he referred to Taiwans White Terror massacre and his description of Mandarin as a foreign language not commonly used in Hong Kong.

A university spokesperson said Lui was told that due to space constraints, only a truncated version of his remarks would be printed though he could still give his full speech.

The university respects freedom of speech and will not interfere with the union presidents speech, the spokesman added.

Earlier this year, the university punished three students through suspensions and community service orders for being among a group who stormed the universitys language centre in January.

In an eight-hour stand-off with staff, they demanded management scrap a Mandarin proficiency requirement for all graduating students and called for greater transparency in an exemption test.

This article Speak up against those who advocate absurd idea of Hong Kong independence, Carrie Lam tells university students and leaders first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.

More from South China Morning Post:Iran's foreign minister met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday in a surprise visit to Damascus ahead of a looming regime offensive against the country's last rebel stronghold. Mohammad Javad Zarif's trip to war-ravaged Syria also comes just days before a top-level tripartite meeting in Tehran to discuss the Syrian conflict, now in its eighth year. On Monday afternoon, he met Assad to discuss "issues on the agenda for the tripartite meeting," according to the Syrian presidency's account on the Telegram messaging app. Zarif also met with Syria's prime minister and its chief diplomat Walid Muallem on Monday. A statement by Syria's foreign ministry said Zarif and Muallem discussed political and military developments "in preparation for the tripartite summit for guarantors of the Astana process." Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored a negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in Syria. The presidents of the three countries are due to meet in Tehran on Friday to discuss the conflict. Last year, they had designated Idlib province in the northwest as a "de-escalation" zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire. But Syrian government forces are now massing around the province, which has become the last rebel bastion in the country. Idlib is held by a complex array of rebels and jihadists, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers. Russia and Iran have insisted that jihadist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault. "Iran will remain a supporter of the Syrian government in its efforts to remove terrorists from its land, and it will continue its advisory role and help the Syrian government in the upcoming Idlib campaign," Iran foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said. Tehran has provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011. Iranian Defence Minister Amir Hatami was in Damascus last week and signed a "defence and technical agreement" designed to ensure the continued "presence and participation" of Iran in Syria.Iraqi lawmakers are seen during the first session of the new Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, Iraq September 3, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi lawmakers who met this week for the first time since a May election and are still struggling to form a new government, decided on Tuesday to put off their next meeting until Sept. 15, having failed to elect a parliament speaker.

Naming a speaker and two deputies is the first major step towards establishing a new government, with lawmakers still trying to determine which of competing blocs had the most seats.

An alliance backing Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and a populist Shi'ite cleric has been competing with a rival bloc backed by Abadi's predecessor Nuri al-Maliki and an Iran-backed Shi'ite armed group.

After parliament met on Monday for the first time since the election, its temporary leader said it would remain in session until Tuesday. But lawmakers failed to reach a quorum on Tuesday and agreed to return in 11 days.

On Sunday, lawmakers backing Abadi and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announced they had managed to form an alliance that would give them a majority bloc in parliament.

Hours later, however, a group led by Maliki and militia commander Hadi al-Amiri responded by saying it had formed its own alliance that would be the largest bloc. It said it had persuaded some lawmakers to defect from the rival bloc.

The power struggle reflects division within Iraq's Shi'ite majority and the competing influence of Iraq's two main allies, the United States and Iran, which despite being enemies on the wider regional stage both backed the Baghdad government in a 2014-2017 war against Islamic State.

Amiri and Maliki are Iran's two most prominent allies in Iraq, while Abadi is seen as the preferred candidate of the United States.

Sadr led an anti-American Shi'ite militia during Iraq's 2003-2011 U.S. occupation and sectarian civil war. He now campaigns against corruption and portrays himself as a nationalist who rejects both American and Iranian influence.

(Reporting by Raya Jalabi; Editing by William Maclean and Peter Graff)Israeli President Reuven Rivlin gave a brief lecture on Hitler to Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday after the Philippine leader's 2016 remarks comparing himself to the Nazi dictator who carried out the Holocaust. "Hitler was actually representing the devil himself," Rivlin said when the two men met at his Jerusalem office. "He was the devil on earth." Rivlin went on to say that Duterte's visit to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Monday must have illustrated to him the sensitivity surrounding any reference to Adolf Hitler. "Probably you have realised yesterday the feelings when you have visited the museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, to really feel the atmosphere, to feel the feelings of all the people that were part of this disaster," said Rivlin, whose position is mainly ceremonial. Duterte appeared to be listening attentively during Rivlin's brief comments. He later spoke about trade and cooperation with Israel. The controversial Philippine president spoke of Hitler in 2016 when talking about his violent drug crackdown that has killed thousands. "Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I'd be happy to slaughter them," Duterte said then. Historians say six million Jews died in the Holocaust. Duterte later apologised and said the comments were aimed at critics who had likened him to the Nazi leader. - 'Crimes taking place' - Duterte also told Rivlin he had ordered his military to only buy military and intelligence equipment from Israel. He said the United States was a "good friend," but buying such equipment from US firms meant the country would "also be listening", seemingly meaning gathering intelligence on the Philippines. Duterte said the same would be true for countries such as China or Germany. The comments seemed to contradict Duterte's previous remarks. In November, he said he planned to buy more weapons from Russia. A few dozen people opposed to arms sales to the Philippines protested outside the presidential compound in Jerusalem during the meeting. "We're protesting against Israel's involvement in the crimes taking place there," lawyer and human rights activist Eitay Mack told AFP. Further arms deals were expected to be part of Duterte's discussions in Israel. The Philippine president met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. In comments before their working lunch, Duterte thanked Israel for supplying him with unspecified defence equipment that was "critical" in "winning the war" -- a reference to his government's battle against jihadists in the city of Marawi last year. On Wednesday, he will lay a wreath at a memorial near Tel Aviv commemorating the Philippines' acceptance of 1,300 Jews fleeing the Holocaust. He will travel to Jordan later in the day. Duterte's trip to Israel began on Sunday night with him apologising to former US president Barack Obama for having called him a "son of a whore" in 2016, one of several foul-mouthed remarks that have caused outrage. He lobbed the insult in response to steady criticism from the United States at the time over his violent drug crackdown. Fresh controversy awaits Duterte back home. On Tuesday, he ordered the arrest of a lawmaker fiercely critical of his drug war, the second presidential critic from the Senate to be threatened with detention.Israeli soldiers run near the scene where a Palestinian, who according to the Israeli military attempted to stab a soldier, was shot dead, in Hebron in the occupied West Bank Israeli soldiers run near the scene where a Palestinian, who according to the Israeli military attempted to stab a soldier, was shot dead, in Hebron in the occupied West Bank September 3, 2018. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli forces said they shot and killed a Palestinian who was brandishing a knife near an Israeli settlement on Monday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service confirmed the death near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, but said it had no further details.

"A Palestinian assailant approached an Israel Defence Forces checkpoint near Kiryat Arba, east of Hebron, with a drawn knife in his hand. In response, IDF troops fired towards him ... The assailant was neutralized," a brief military statement said.

However, a Palestinian resident of Hebron, Abed al-Maw'ti al-Qawasmi, claimed that the man was shot by an Israeli settler who "stopped his car suddenly and then fired at him".

Al-Qawasmi said he heard four shots, and that the man killed was not carrying "any knives or anything". No Israelis were hurt.

It was the first killing of a Palestinian by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank since July, when a Palestinian assailant was shot dead after he entered the Israeli settlement of Adam and stabbed three people, one of whom later died.

Israeli-Palestinian tensions have surged in the past few months after a series of U.S. and Israeli policy decisions that have angered Palestinians and raised international concern.

They include U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital in December, the moving of the U.S. Embassy to the city in May, and Israels adoption of a nation-state law that says only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country.

However there has been a recent drop in violence along the Gaza Strip-Israel border as Egypt, the United Nations and Gulf State officials attempt to enact a truce following a months-long series of protests.

At least 170 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers during the weekly demonstrations on the Gaza-Israel border, drawing international criticism of Israel. One Israeli soldier has been killed by a Gaza sniper.

Story continues

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in 2014 and a bid by the U.S. administration to restart them has so far shown little sign of progress.

Palestinians want to establish a state in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognised internationally, and maintains control over more than half the West Bank, where the Palestinians have limited self-rule.

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta; Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Andrew Roche)A South Korean man was jailed for two years on Monday after he left a boarding pass in a toilet at Hong Kong International Airport to enable a mainland Chinese man to illegally enter Australia seven years ago.

Self-professed businessman Lee Joon-ho, 50, pleaded guilty in July to one count of conspiracy to obtain services by deception and one count of making a false representation to an immigration officer. He was sentenced and jailed in Hong Kong after appearing in the District Court on Monday.

Lee was arrested when he arrived at the airport last November and admitted that in December 2011, he acquired a boarding pass to Sydney with his real passport and purported to depart for Australia on Qantas Airways to an immigration officer at clearance.

Once in the airports restricted area, Lee left the boarding pass inside a toilet stall for the Chinese national, who entered the area using his real passport and a ticket to a mainland city, to pick up.

Lee told investigators he was following an intermediarys instructions and would receive a flight ticket to Shanghai, according to Ng Chi-hong, chief immigration officer at the Anti-Illegal Migration Agency.

The mainland man who picked up Lees pass was stopped and arrested by immigration officers when he attempted to board the plane with a fake passport, which had Lees identity information.

He was sentenced to 12 months in jail in January 2012 for making a false representation and using a forged travel document.

The mainland man said he paid a total of 120,000 yuan (US$17,500) to illegally enter Australia to look for a job, Ng said.

Lee was identified as the facilitator by investigators following up on the case but was only arrested six years later because we didnt have enough evidence to prove he provided his boarding pass for someone else, Ng said.

This is an individual case and we dont think it was syndicated criminal activity, Ng added.

Story continues

Little more than a month ago, a Frenchman was sentenced to 30 months in jail for procuring boarding passes and transferring them to other travellers for cash and free flights.

Hong Kong is an international transport hub, we cannot rule out the possibility that the outlaws might make use of this for criminal activities, Ng said.

The Anti-Illegal Migration Agency, founded in 2004, conducts daily patrols in the airport and collaborates with foreign immigration authorities as well as diplomatic missions in the city to fight illegal immigration with forged travel documents and the illegal transfer of Hong Kong passports.

The South Korean consulate general said it learned about Lees case the day he was arrested and had offered him help.

A consul at District Court for Lees verdict on Monday noted the family knows about his sentencing and that the diplomatic mission was keeping them apprised.

This article Man jailed after Hong Kong airport boarding pass handover helped mainland Chinese traveller illegally enter Australia first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.According to a health ministry toll, on Sunday, the clashes left at least 41 people dead and 123 injured.

The fighting pits pro-government militias against a brigade known as the Seventh, or the Kani, and allied forces led by Salah Badi, a militia leader who was blamed for leading the destruction of Tripoli in 2014.

A UN-backed government is nominally in power in the capital, but militias occupy much of the rest of the country.

A rocket also hit the Waddan Hotel in central Tripoli near the Italian embassy. Reporting from Tripoli, Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed said stray rockets were responsible for the death of several civilians.

Libyan authorities closed Tripoli airport on Friday after some rockets were fired in its direction, a spokesman for the state airline Libyan Airlines said.

On Sunday, some 400 detainees managed to escape after rioting at a prison in Ain Zara, also in the capital's southern suburbs, as the fighting raged.

Roxanne Pallett's former on-screen husband brands her 'evil'

However despite her distress at watching Ryan break down on television Lucy said that she doesn't wish any harm to Roxanne. Celebrity Big Brother bosses have confirmed that Ryan was offered professional support in wake of Roxanne's accusations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the violence and called on all sides to abide by a UN-brokered ceasefire.

Guards were unable to prevent the prisoners from escaping as they feared for their own lives, the statement said. The country is now governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the east, each backed by an array of militias that wield real power on the ground.

It said in a statement: "Due to the danger of the current situation and for the sake of the public interest, the presidential council declares the state of emergency in the capital, Tripoli, and its suburbs to protect and secure civilians, public and private possessions and vital institutions".

Most detainees at the prison have been convicted of common crimes or were supporters of former leader Muammar Gaddafi found guilty of killings during the uprising that toppled his government in 2011.

A fragile truce reached in coordination with the United Nations mission in Libya took effect on Thursday, but was quickly breached.

The four countries said they "warn those who tamper with security in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya that they will be held accountable for any such actions".Motives have yet to be ascertained in the petrol fire incident at a Penang urology unit of a private hospital.

Yesterday afternoon, The Sun reports that an allegedly mentally unstable individual splashed the unnamed doctors office with petrol, and then setting it alight.

via Edmund Lee

Six victims were injured in the attack, including the doctor, and a Taiwanese national. All of those hurt were between 30 to 50 years old.

During the attack, some of the victims were able to restrain the suspect, causing him to suffer burns to his hands during the scuffle.

According to logs by investigators, a call to the Fire and Rescue Department was made at 4:55pm, and fire officials were able to control the blaze within 10 minutes.

Currently, the doctor injured in the attack is in the hospitals ICU, while the other victims are reported to be in stable condition.

The post Man starts petrol fire in urology department of Penang private hospital appeared first on Coconuts.Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas attends the High Conference on the Lake Chad Region in Berlin Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas attends the High Conference on the Lake Chad Region in Berlin, Germany, September 3, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

BERLIN (Reuters) - Donor countries pledged $2.17 billion to the drought-stricken area around Lake Chad on Monday, after a United Nations official warned that many millions in the African region still urgently needed help.

At a conference in Berlin attended by more than 70 states, international organisations and non-governmental organisations, donors pledged this sum would be made available "over coming years", according to a German foreign ministry statement.

It would be supplemented by $467 million in cheap credits from development banks, the ministry added.

A famine was averted in the region last year largely thanks to international aid, but millions of people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon were still in dire need of help, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told reporters.

"The crisis is not over. There are still 10 million people who need lifesaving assistance," he said. "A quarter of the people we are trying to reach are displaced from their homes and the only means of staying alive they have is what is provided by humanitarian organisations."

Germany, a leading destination for migrants including from Africa, pledged an extra 100 million euros ($116 million) for humanitarian aid in the region up to 2020. This was on top of 40 million euros in funding for stabilisation and conflict prevention efforts, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

His government has promised to help African nations improve conditions to keep people from embarking on dangerous journeys in the hope of reaching Europe.

Development Minister Gerd Mueller, just back from a visit to Chad, said 2.4 million people have already fled the region due to climate change and violence blamed on the Boko Haram insurgent movement and Islamic State.

"We need a joint European solution. And the international community must get far more engaged for the overall region to give these people a chance for survival and undercut a breeding ground for terrorism," Mueller said in a statement.

Story continues

Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Development Programme, warned that more people could flee the region unless the international community took action to help them for the long-term.

($1 = 0.8609 euros)

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Andrea Shalal, Editing by William Maclean and David Stamp)President Duterte meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minsiter's Office in Jerusalem on September 3, 2018.

"We also share the same passion of not allowing a family to be destroyed by those who [have] corrupt ideologies", Duterte added in what appeared to be a reference to his fight against drug criminality.

President Rodrigo Duterte shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) prior to their meeting in Jerusalem on Monday while Filipinos (inset) greet the 73-year-old leader on his arrival at the Ramada Hotel to meet with the Filipino community, estimated at 31,000 legally working, majority living in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.

Duterte later apologised and said he had been misunderstood. He is expected to agree to a deal to purchase Israeli oil and arms. Several world leaders and the United Nations have accused Duterte of human rights violations. Tamar Zandberg, head of the leftist Meretz party, wrote on Facebook.

Netanyahu has worked to cultivate allies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where many countries have historically shunned Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.

The Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte landed in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening local time for a four-day visit to solidify burgeoning ties with the Jewish State in an attempt to pivot away from the Philippines' long-time reliance on American military hardware and support.

Israel is among the world's biggest arms dealers, with almost 60% of its defense exports going to the Asia-Pacific region, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry.

The Philippines emerged as a significant new customer in 2017 for Israel, with sales of radar and anti-tank equipment worth $21 million.

His visit to Israel was to include a stop at a monument commemorating the Philippines' rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.

Woman Smashes Windows, Runs Over Bus Driver In Road Rage Incident

The police report said he suffered bruises and scratches on his left elbow and pains on the left side of his hip. Police say that the incident began when the woman illegally passed the bus and was hit by the bus as a result.

"We assign great importance to this visit, which symbolizes the strong, warm ties between our two peoples as well as the enormous potential for developing and strengthening the relations", Israel's Foreign Ministry stated. But Sunday, while visiting a Holocaust memorial in Israel, Duterte vowed to fight "insane rulers" like Hitler.

Duterte's visit has sparked criticism over his so-called war on drugs which has seen thousands of alleged drug offence suspects killed extrajudicially.

"Hitler massacred 3 million Jews".

The company previous year won a tender to supply the Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) with 560 of its Galil basic assault rifles, according to the organization and tender documents.

Duterte drew global condemnation for comparing himself to Hitler in 2016.

Historians say six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

Duterte went to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem for a bilateral meeting that also saw the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on the Temporary Employment of Home-Based Filipino Caregivers, Memorandum of Understanding on Scientific Cooperation and Memorandum of Intent on the Collaboration on Promotion of Bilateral Direct Investment.

Duterte has been accused of condoning human rights abuses in his deadly drug crackdown and has made controversial comments about the Holocaust.

"They have been very happy working here", he said, speaking in English.Sessions court sentenced a senior citizen to 12 years imprisonment, along with two whips, after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting an 11-month infant girl.

Sixty-eight-year-old Hashim Karim admitted to the charge, in an incident that occurred at a house in Shah Alam, August 20th, in the afternoon while the babys sitter went out to renew her road tax. Hashim, her father-in-law, had been entrusted to look after the girl.

Deputy Public Prosecutor in the case, Aimi Syazwani Sarmin is reported to have told the court:

The victim is like a grand-daughter to the accused, and he should have taken a good care of the baby  Although he is 68-years-old, he [should not be] spared from being whipped as he is a sexual offender.

He added that such a sentence was a provision under Section 377CA of the Penal Code, relating to sexual assault via object.

The Star elaborated that at 4pm, on the day of the attack, the babysitter asked her father-in-law to watch over the baby, who was sent to the house for child-minding Monday to Friday by the infants parents, while she renewed her car road tax and insurance.

Returning later, she found that the infant was inconsolably crying, and now had blood on her pants. When she bathed the child, she found more blood coming from her private area.

Testifying in court, a gynecological specialist reported that the injuries sustained by the baby were consistent with those of a blunt object being forced into her privates.

Police reported that Hashim confessed his crime to his son, and that this was overheard by a third party.

The post Senior citizen gets 12 years prison sentence after being found guilty of sexually assaulting baby appeared first on Coconuts.(PHOTO: Getty Images)

Two Taiwanese men who flew to Singapore to act as money mules in police impersonation scams were jailed on Tuesday (4 September).

Chen You-Jeng, 34, was jailed for three years while Hsieh Teng-Chia, 31, was jailed for two years and nine months. The duo, who were working for a transnational syndicate, had pleaded guilty to one count of assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct.

They were involved in cheating five victims, aged 51 to 83, of a total of $185,000.

In June, another Taiwanese member of the syndicate, 52-year-old Huang Ying-Chun, was jailed six and a half years for his role in the scams.

Started over drinks

Early last year, Chen and Hsieh met over drinks in Taiwan. When Hsieh told Chen that he was short on cash, Chen recruited Hsieh to act as a middleman in Singapore to collect and handover money.

Hsieh was promised NTD 75,000 (S$3,300) for a months work and Hsieh agreed to the do the job. Chen had also been promised NTD59,500 for recruiting Hsieh.

On 5 July last year, Hsieh arrived in Singapore with Chen. The duo met with another co-accused, Chen Peng-Yu, a 35-year-old Taiwanese man. Chen Peng-Yu then provided Hsieh with instructions to collect and handover the monies.

Over the next few days, Hsieh and Chen would travel to various parts of Singapore to collect the money obtained from scam victims. Hsieh collected and handed over a total of $185,000.

Modus operandi

During the police impersonation scams, victims would receive phone calls from persons who claimed they were officers from Singapore or China. The callers convinced the victims that they were involved in money laundering cases or other serious crimes.

The victims and other involved parties were also told that their bank accounts or bank cards had been implicated in these offences and that they would be prosecuted unless they cooperated with the callers.

These victims were then conned into providing their bank account details, which enabled the callers to transfer money out of the victims accounts without their knowledge.

Story continues

In the three cases, the victims funds were transferred to other unwitting victims before they were finally obtained by the scammers.

District Judge Salina Ishak, who passed the duos sentences, said that general deterrence was the main sentencing principle due to the increasing prevalence of such offences. The syndicated nature of the offences also caused much public disquiet, she added.

More Singapore stories:

Taiwanese man jailed 6.5 years for role in nearly $1M police impersonation scamSeah Kian Peng. (File photo: Screengrab from YouTube/gov.sg)

Last week, a group of activists, including Singaporean historian Thum Ping Tjin and former political dissident Tan Wah Piow, met Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad for over an hour.

Thum shared a photo of his meeting on Facebook, which was called out by PAP MP Seah Kian Peng, who questioned Thums loyalty to Singapore while making claims that were criticised by other activists as misleading. The activists said Seahs claim was very different from what Thum had posted  Perhaps the MP didnt read it, they wrote.

In his post, Seah said: It appears quite clear to me that PJ Thum does not wish Singapore well.

In the wake of the uproar, Seah on Monday apologised to the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) for mistakenly associating former political detainee Teo Soh Lung with the party in a Facebook post. However, he did not retract or clarify his statements about Thums post.

In light of the apparent differences between Thums original post and Seahs response (and subsequent apology), do you think Seah overreacted? Have your say: Take our poll and leave a comment below.

Related stories:

Mahathir meets with Singaporean political dissidents, activists

Activists want MP Seah Kian Peng to retract statement over Mahathir meeting

MP Seah Kian Peng apologises to SDP over Facebook postThe storm was expected to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico, and reach the central Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana late on Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said.

Gordon was expected to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico to almost hurricane-level winds before making landfall late on Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. A storm surge warning was issued from the Shell Beach, Louisiana area to the Mississippi-Alabama border. Storm surge of 1-2 feet is possible from Destin, FL to the Mississippi/Alabama border.

As of 11 a.m.EDT, there were no watches or warnings on Anna Maria Island related to Tropical Storm Gordon.

"Any time you get a tropical cyclone in the Gulf production region there could be some disruption, " said Steve Silver, a senior meteorologist at Radiant Solutions in Gaithersburg, Maryland. A tropical storm warning was also extended eastward to the Okaloosa-Walton County Line.

Norman said wind gusts clocked-in at 49 miles per hour at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport and 45 miles per hour in Bradenton around 1:30 p.m.

After a relatively slow start to the 2018 hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center continues to track two storms  one of which could spoil the outdoor Labor Day holiday plans for residents across Floridas west coast.



ABC News The path for Tropical Storm Gordon takes it into the Gulf Coast around Biloxi Miss. late Tuesday Sept. 4 2018

The southern Gulf Coast has already been heavily impacted by this summer's so-called "red tide", in which massive algae blooms have caused waves of dead marine life to wash up along the coast, driving people from the water.

Upper-level wind shear is now too high to support a tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico, but wind shear is forecasted to decrease as the wave moves into the Gulf.

The Weather Prediction Center is forecasting rain totals as high as 5 inches through Wednesday morning in South Florida.

If Gordon stays on this path, Georgia should be relatively unscathed as the bulk of the moisture and wind will remain well to our west.

In addition to flash flooding, the weather service says tornadoes are possible through Monday night across the southern and west-central Florida peninsula.

Nike unveils striking new Colin Kaepernick ad campaign

The new ad, which Kaepernick shared on social media Monday afternoon, features the message: "Believe in something". Kaepernick was once best known for his quarterbacking skills for the San Francisco 49ers .To the list of human hazards associated with bad airheart attacks, decreased lung function, asthma, and early deathwe can add one more: Alzheimers.

In a wryly titled working paper put out last month, Hazed and Confused, researchers from Arizona State University found that increased, incremental exposure to fine particle pollution over the course of a decade increases the chances of a dementia diagnoses by 1.3 percentage points. The pollutants they studied are known as PM 2.5 for their small sizeinvisible fragments thrown off by fields, factories, and fires that easily make their way into our lungs and correlate more closely with health effects than any other common pollutant.

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Its the second recent study to make the connection between cognition and pollution. In August, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences determined that in Chinese cities, where smog can hide the sun for weeks at a time, long-term exposure to pollution was linked to declining test scoresespecially in older men.

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Theres been little study of particle pollution and dementia, of which Alzheimers, which affects more than 5 million Americans, is the most common form. The authors of the working paper, led by ASU economist Kelly Bishop, used 15 years of Medicare records for nearly 7 million adults to figure out where older Americans lived, when they were diagnosed with dementia, and what kind of air they were breathing. Their conclusionthat a diagnosis probability goes up more than 1 percentage point for every additional 1 microgram-per-cubic-meter (g/m3) exposure over 10 yearsmight be more alarming than it sounds, because the variance between U.S. counties ranges as high as 13 g/m3. Its worth noting that both studies assess the correlation of air pollution and cognitive problemsits unclear if the first causes the second, or if some third factor is undergirding both.

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Fine particle levels have fallen consistently in the United States since the millennium, thanks in part to Environmental Protection Agency regulation and the long-term shift away from burning coal and heating oil. The average concentration in the U.S. now hovers around 9 g/m3. (The World Health Organization recommends staying below 10, a standard for clean air that fewer than 10 percent of people on Earth enjoy.)

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The worst place to breathe in the United States is Kern County, California, home of Bakersfield, where agriculture, transportation, and power combine with still desert air to create small-particle levels that can run three times as high as they do over the mountains in smoggy Los Angeles. Kern Countys weighted annual average PM 2.5 count was 18.2 in 2017twice that of Manhattan. The Central Valley sits at the top of the EPAs list of U.S. counties sorted by particle pollution, but a handful of car-dependent areas are up there too, including Detroit; Oakland, California; and Los Angeles.

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But combustionwhether from forest fires, power plants, or stovescontinues to be one of the biggest factors. Thats why little Fairbanks, Alaska, has some of the worst air in the United States: Alaskans like their fireplaces. In the Western U.S., recent wildfires are reversing national trends, sending fine particle pollution back up in 2017. In Britain, according to the Economist, wood fires at home now account for 34 percent of PM 2.5 emissionsnearly three times more than cars and trucks.

The good news, I suppose, is that one reason PM 2.5 has gone down is that the EPA started directing states to police counties pollution levels in the late 90s, with the maximum average concentration set at 15.5 g/m3. At the time, 27 percent of the U.S. population was breathing air above that mark. Today, just a handful of counties are up there, and all but one (San Bernardino, California) are rural. But the Trump administration is threatening to undo that progress. Under acting administrator Andrew Wheeler, the EPA is considering changing its classification of PM 2.5 to a threshold pollutant, arguing that any exposure below a threshold of 12 g/m3 is safe. If Wheeler changes the official designation of PM 2.5, the EPAs position would be that breathing in small amounts of soot has the same impact as breathing in none, Emily Atkin writes at the New Republic, arguing that that changewhich flies against most evidence on PM 2.5would make it easier to repeal the Clean Power Plan.

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Being an economics paper, the ASU study focuses more on money than science. America spends upward of a quarter-trillion dollars on Alzheimers-related care every year, but thats probably a big underestimate, because it doesnt include whats thought to be billions of labor-hours put in by unpaid caregivers (mostly the children and spouses of those afflicted). Some researchers think dementia may be the reason older Americans start making worse financial decisions as they age.

Put it all together and it means that the cleanup is significantly reducing the incidence of Alzheimers. But again, these are economists were talking about, so they put a number on the additional dementia-related savings from the EPAs action since 2000: $150 billion.This article is published through a partnership with New York Medias Strategist. The partnership is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected by New York Media. If you buy something through our links, Slate and New York Media may earn an affiliate commission.

The very first thing I did when moving into my 100-year-old house a decade ago was install a dishwasher; I couldnt wait one minute to have a machine do all the dishwashing. But there are some things you cant just stuff in the dishwasher and be done with, such as a frying pan coated with dried scrambled-egg residue.

Cleaning such items with a sponge just makes the sponge gross and gak-covered, so I bought this little set of three hard plastic pot scrapers instead. I initially found the doodads when an insurance salesman mailed one to my mother as a promotional item in the 1980s, and while I thought it was clever as kid, Im even more impressed by it now, considering that shes still using the exact same one in her kitchen some 30 years later.

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I use them to scrape stuck-on food residue directly into the trash, saving my pipes and keeping my pans pristine. The hard plastic edge of the scraper cleans any sort of stuck-on gunk without scratching your pots, pans, or dishes: baked-on eggs, burned cheese, hard-as-a-rock brownie pan residue, crusty lasagna, crusty oatmeal. It gets into every nook and cranny with minimal elbow grease, and once youre done scraping, just rinse the scraper off or toss it in the dishwasherits hard plastic, so no filthy food debris is able to stick to it.

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All Scrub Daddy addicts, take note: That smiley-faced thing might be cute, but it still gets coated with whatever youre scrubbing, rendering it filthy and disgusting after one or two uses. (Plus, it only lasts about eight days max before it totally disintegrates, leaving you with a wrinkled, dejected face that I like to call the Scrub Granddaddy.) Not to mention the fact that throwing away a sponge every week or so results in a ton of waste. Ask my mom: Youll lose these little scrapers long before they wear out.

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BUY: Bogo Brands Nylon Plastic Pot and Pan Scraper with Grip (Set of 3)

$9, Amazon

More Strategist-Approved Pot Scrubbers

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Writer Foster Kamer tipped us off to the wonders of this Japanese scrubber, which he learned about from artist Jenny Holzer: Its got a rich, century-long history, and its since become one of the most common household objects in Japan. After ten minutes cleaning with it, youll know why. On first glance, its angry little brown fibers look like theyll do more damage to your hands than your pots. But fear not: Those fibers, made of hemp palm, soften under water, enough for you to get a cozy, ticklish hold on. And then they will proceed to absolutely obliterate any grime youll come across, on any surface. They clean easily.

BUY: Japanese Tawashi Brush

$7, Amazon

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Remember the kitchen-sponge scare of summer 2017? We went and found alternatives to sponges that were much less bacteria-friendly. These brushes fit the bill.

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BUY: Casabella Loop 3-Piece Dish Brush Set

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If youre still clinging to the sponge, you could do worse than the Shark Tankintroduced Scrub Daddy, which by now is perhaps the worlds most famous sponge.

BUY: Scrub Daddy Scratch-Free Sponges (4-Count)

$15, AmazonThis is the final installment of Ask a Teacher, Slates back-to-school advice column.

My son recently started sixth grade. His homeroom teacher told them they are legally allowed to sit or kneel during the Pledge of Allegiance, but commented that that is not what he recommends or believes in personally. My son supports Black Lives Matter and thinks the pledge is silly and has opted to sit. Hes a little worried because this teacher also teaches his math and robotics classes. Should he be concerned that their obviously different politics could result in the teacher grading him differently or otherwise treating him differently in these classes?

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In general, I want to support my son in fighting his own battles, but am wondering if I should quietly ask the principal to remind teachers of students constitutional right to refuse to salute the flag. Any general principles for parents about when it is and isnt appropriate for us to intervene?

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Your sons teacher was wrong when he imposed his personal beliefs on the class, and I can understand your sons concern. A teacher in Colorado recently pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in injury after forcing a student to stand for the pledge while he was exercising his constitutional right not to do so. But this is the extreme exception and not the rule.

The classroom is no place to promote your own political beliefs. As an American who is politically active, its not always easy for me to refrain from expressing my political opinions, but I have always done so. That said, I dont believe that your sons teacher will intentionally treat your son any differently because of his position on the Pledge of Allegiance. I have never met a teacher who would intentionally treat a student differently because of any disagreement over politics, religion, or any other belief.

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I also respect your decision to allow your son to fight his own battles. I think its a good one. My suggestion would be to wait and see how the first month plays out. If your son feels that hes being treated fairly, all is well. But if he feels implicit bias is raising its ugly head, a conversation with the teacher (and then the principal depending on his response) might be in order.

Recently my childrens school implemented a very strict no gifts policy for parents giving gifts to teachers. I understand the reasoning behind the policy (avoiding the appearance of favoritism for families who gift teachers, not wanting teachers to feel like they owe parents, et cetera). Ive always liked to go big on gifts for my childrens educational teams, because I know how important the work they do is and how little they get paid for it. The least I can do is get my kids teachers a gift card to buy supplies for their class or treat them to a gift certificate for a nice dinner on their birthday. What are some ways I can follow the policy yet show my heartfelt appreciation to the men and women who dedicate their lives to educating my kids?

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The best gift I have ever received from a parent was given to me during my first year of teaching. Near the end of the school year, a parent wrote a letter describing how instrumental I had been to the growth and success of her daughter and praised my effort, skill, and commitment to teaching. Then she sent that letter to me, my principal, and my superintendent. As a brand-new teacher, this meant everything to me. It was validation that despite my inexperience and all that I still needed to learn, I had done well, and the people who would help determine the course of my career knew it. Seven years later, another parent did the same thing for me, and this time, the letter also went to the board of education. It felt just as good.

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If it doesnt violate your schools policy, an end-of-year album filled with photographs, letters, or poems written by students and parents, and other memorabilia from the school year, is a fantastic gift, and its a way for everyone in the class to come together to show their appreciation for their teacher. I have about a dozen of these from my two decades of teaching, and I cherish each one. I often bring them to school to show my latest batch of students as well. They get such a kick out of seeing the faces who filled the classroom before them.

Finally, your child could also make a gift for the teacher, eliminating parents from the gift-giving equation. These are some of my favorite gifts that I have ever been given. Theyve ranged from poems written and illustrated by students about me, often framed so I can hang them in the classroom, to Lego re-creations of scenes from the Shakespeare plays that we have studied throughout the year. (I have two of these on display in my classroom.) Last year, a student made me a hatchet from a stone, a carved piece of wood, and some twine. While the appearance of a surprisingly well-crafted hatchet on the last day of school made my principal nervous, this student was famous for being able to make stuff from other stuff, so the gift made sense. Also, the bragging rights that come from wielding a student-made hatchet made this gift unforgettable.

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If your child is willing to put some thought and effort into making something for a teacher, the results can be extraordinary.

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Why do classes have so many events that parents are expected to attend when parents do not want to have to attend these events? Relatedly, if a parent does not attend these events, will teachers think worse of them and their kids or do teachers secretly know that these expectations are insane?

We are human beings, too, often with children of our own.

Teachers are engaged in a constant balancing act. Some of our students parents work two or three jobs and are just happy to see their kids for 15 minutes a day. Other parents are fortunate enough to have flexible work schedules and want to be involved in as much of school life as possible. They volunteer in class, serve on the PTO, and work to make their childrens school experience as rich as possible.

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As a result, we often find ourselves serving two masters, and truthfully, the most demanding of those masters are the ones with the most free time to make demands. As a result, we find ourselves trying to ensure that parents and students see their school as a place filled with diverse opportunities and experiences, both during and after school.

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So many teachers also love their jobs and want to make each school year as meaningful and memorable as possible. They view teaching not only as a career but as their primary passion. They want every school year to be unforgettable for their students. The desire to pack the calendar with events comes from a good place.

Happily, I can report to you that no teacher will think any less of you if you dont attend these events. We are human beings, too, often with children of our own. Add to this aging parents, demanding in-laws, overly dramatic friends, pressing hobbies, booming side hustles, poorly behaved pets, overflowing laundry bins, and everything else that makes a life burst at the seams, so we get it. If you cant make it to one of our school events, or if you would prefer to remain at home, lying on the couch, watching Netflix, we understand completely.

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Sometimes, in those moments, we even envy you.

Can you get over it if a kid is really, really difficult at the beginning of the year? Or will you never really like that kid?

I can absolutely forgive a kid for being exceptionally difficult at the beginning of the year (or any time of the year, for that matter). In fact, those tend to be the kids whom teachers remember best. They are the reason we become teachers in the first place!

We want to help kids improve. We want them to become better students and better citizens. When a challenging student becomes less challenging, or when a struggling learner struggles a little less, or when a child who doesnt love learning becomes enthusiastic about school, thats the best part of our job.

We dont expect perfection to walk through our classroom doors on the first day. We expect that much work will need to be done, and we cant wait to get started.At least one high-profile House primary remains on the Democrats 2018 calendar: Tuesdays contest in Massachusetts between Rep. Mike Capuano and Boston city Councilwoman Ayanna Pressley. This intra-party fight, though, does not mimic the same narrative weve seen elsewhere.

Capuano and Pressley are both proud progressives with the track records to prove it. As a result, their primary is lacking the ideological fights over policy that have animated other closely watched Democratic primaries in places such as New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Nebraska. Meanwhile, the 7th District, is so liberal that Republicans havent bothered to contest it this century. And so with the nomination doubling as a free ticket to Washington, theres been none of the usual messaging fights that tend to break out ahead of competitive general elections, where one candidate talks about turning out a disaffected base and the other plots a path to the middle.

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Even the outsider-versus-insider trope is an imperfect fit in this one. As a 10-term incumbent, Capuano is the one carrying the insider baggage, but Pressley is an outsider only in comparison. She served on the city council for the past eight years and previously worked on Capitol Hill as a staffer for former Rep. Joseph Kennedy II and later Sen. John Kerry. She may be looking to shake up the status quo, but she has plenty of experience working within the current system, far more than political newcomers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Kara Eastman.

With those traditional fault lines absent, this Boston-area primary has become the most explicit test yet of a question being asked increasingly on the left in the age of Trump: What counts more to Democratic voters, political experience or lived experience?

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Capuano, a 66-year-old white man, has been coasting to re-election on the former for the better part of two decades, before which he was the mayor of Somerville, a residential suburb of Boston. Hes one of the most reliably liberal members of Congress, and his progressive policy bona fides are well established. He was an early backer of sanctuary cities, a vocal opponent of both the invasion of Iraq and the Patriot Act, and a supporter of single-payer health care well before Bernie Sanders and co. turned it into a litmus test on the left. Capuanos backerslike former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the states first black chief executive, and Georgia congressman and civil rights icon John Lewiscite that progressive track record to argue he deserves another term.

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Pressley, a 44-year-old black woman, says its time for a change. We will vote the same way, she said during a debate earlier this month, but I will lead differently. She was the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council, and shed be the first elected to Congress in Massachusetts if she can take down Capuano, who hasnt faced a serious primary challenge since he was first elected in 1998. Shes put a premium on her personal experiencenot only as a person of color, but also as a woman, as a survivor of sexual assault, and as a daughter of a single mother and of a father who battled drug addiction and spent time in prisonto argue shes better suited to represent a district, the only one in the state, where most constituents are people of color. As she has put it: The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.

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Such a pitch is not unique to Pressley. Ocasio-Cortez, who has endorsed Pressley and is the candidate to whom she is most often compared, also used her identitiesas a Latina, as a middle-class American, as a former restaurant workerto connect with voters in her diverse district on the way to shocking Rep. Joe Crowley in New York this summer. Likewise, gubernatorial candidates such as Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Andrew Gillum in Florida spoke openly about their lived experiences on the way to winning their respective nominations.

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But in those races, the representation argumentin short, that those long ignored or sidelined from the political process deserve to be given a voicewas a secondary storyline, one that ran parallel to fights over policy or politics. In Queens, for instance, the major fault line was ideological, between Ocasio-Cortezs democratic socialism and Crowleys relatively centrist worldview. In Georgia, it was political, between Abrams belief she could turn out the Democratic base and her opponents plan to focus on moderates and independents in November. In Florida, where Gillum ran as an unapologetic progressive and bested both an establishment-favored moderate and a self-funding, self-proclaimed radical centrist, it was both.

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Claiming that Tuesdays primary is only about identity politics would be an oversimplification, of course. Pressley and Capuano overwhelmingly agree on matters of policy, but their rare points of disagreement are illustrative. Earlier this year, for example, Capuano voted for a Blue Lives Matter bill to make assaulting a police officer a federal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Capuano has defended that vote by downplaying the legislation as a statement bill, since similar laws were already in the books in all 50 states. But Pressley counters such statements are exactly the problem. As she said at a recent debate: We are holding up the dignity and life of police officers, and, meanwhile, we are not getting justice for the black men in this country who are being murdered every day.

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Capuano has led by double-digits in limited polling this year and enters Tuesday as the clear favorite, though the outcome remains in doubt. An added wrinkle: The primary is the day after Labor Day, when many would-be voters will be busy returning to work and getting their kids back to school. Another factor is that while the district is majority-minority, the electorate is not. According to the most recent U.S. Census data, 41.5 percent of its residents are non-Hispanic white, but a local political data firm estimates about 55 percent of registered voters are white. Primary turnout in the district in the last midterms in 2014 skewed even whiter: 65 percent.

The demographic breakdown of Tuesdays vote will be parsed by Democrats trying to gauge just how effective Pressleys pitch worked across racial, ethnic, and gender lines. With so many of the usual policy or political variables either eliminated or muted, this primary may be the closest thing to a control group theyll find. The results will come far too late to inform how the party thinks about what makes a good candidate for this November. What it means for 2020, though, is a different story.By the time President Donald Trump runs for re-election in 2020, he might be able to accept unlimited campaign contributions to support his bid, thanks to his nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. Documents released ahead of Kavanaughs confirmation hearings this week that date from his time in George W. Bushs White House reveal that the judge just might be ready to strike down whats left of federal law limiting contributions to candidates, as a First Amendment violation. There are two cases heading to the Supreme Court that would allow him to do just that.

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As court watchers are well aware, the Supreme Court has been chipping away at campaign finance limits for some years now. In the 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court held that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited sums to support or oppose candidates for office if their payments are made independent of candidates campaigns. And in a much less famous but equally important 2014 case, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the same five-justice majority who decided Citizens United made it harder for courts to sustain the constitutionality of lawsaimed at preventing corruption and its appearancethat limit the amount of money that individuals can contribute directly to candidates. As I explained in Slate when Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, McCutcheon was a subtly awful decision that was also vintage Roberts: It subtly undermined old precedents to set the stage for their eventual overruling.

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Despite the McCutcheon setup, the court has moved slowly. It so far has passed up an opportunity to review precedents dating back to before Justice Samuel Alito joined the high bench in 2006, when the court flipped from a body deeply deferential to campaign finance regulation to one deeply skeptical of it. The court has repeatedly refused to reconsider the constitutionality of the 2002 McCain-Feingold law limiting the ability of political parties to take soft money donations from wealthy individuals, corporations, and labor unions, and has also refused to consider overturning a pre-Alito case, Federal Election Commission v. Beaumont, barring corporations from contributing directly to candidates.

The documents reveal a person deeply skeptical of the most basic campaign finance limits, ones that say a wealthy person cannot simply write a $100 million check to a candidate.

If, as expected, Judge Brett Kavanaugh joins the court, he could well push it to move more quickly in a way that could eventually cause the downfall of the federal law that limits an individual to contributing no more than $2,700 per election to a candidate for federal office. Kavanaugh worked in the Bush White House when it was looking at the McCain-Feingold law, which Bush eventually signed even while expressing constitutional reservations about parts of it in a signing statement.

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Recently released documents from the time that Kavanaugh was advising Bush on McCain-Feingold show a person seriously skeptical of campaign finance laws constitutionality. Kavanaugh expressed deep misgivings about laws that let outside groups spend unlimited sums in elections while limiting how much candidates and parties can raise to respond to such ads. He told another adviser that he saw serious First Amendment problems with capping what people can contribute to candidates, adding that it is possible my 1A views are even purer than yours. He also noted that while very few people thought contribution limits to candidates are unconstitutional, I for one tend to think those limits have constitutional problems.

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As Common Causes Steve Spaulding notes, Kavanaugh himself acknowledges in the docs that hes far outside the mainstream here. The documents reveal a person who is deeply skeptical of even the most basic campaign finance limits, the ones that say a wealthy person cannot simply write a $100 million check to a candidate to run for office. (Lest you think that amount is fanciful, it is less than the amount that casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers network have spent in recent elections, and Trump impeachment advocate Tom Steyer has spent nearly that much in the past.) The inequality of influence and corruption and its appearance that could stem from such a system is profound.

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And yet this could well be the direction in which we are heading. Right now pending before the court is a cert petition asking the Supreme Court to review Montanas campaign contribution limits. The issue in the 9th Circuit case of Lair v. Motl may seem a bit esoteric; it concerns how much evidence of corruption a state must produce to support a campaign contribution limit. But make no mistake: The Lair case, brought by Citizens United brainchild Jim Bopp, builds upon Chief Justice Roberts McCutcheon decision to argue for a standard that would lead courts to strike down virtually all contribution limits.

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The court is also considering petition from opponents of city-level campaign contribution limits in Austin, Texas. Although a 5th Circuit panel upheld Austins limits in Zimmerman v. City of Austin, newly confirmed Judge Jim Ho wrote a strong dissent from the entire 5th Circuits decision not to rehear the case. Ho, a former clerk of campaign finance law opponent Justice Clarence Thomas, issued a screed arguing that all campaign finance laws violate the First Amendment and people who dont like big money in politics should simply shrink the size of government so the government doesnt have a lot of goodies to give away.

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Neither Lair nor Zimmerman directly call the federal $2,700 campaign finance limit into question, but either or both cases could be the vehicle to create a precedent that would compel federal courts to strike down the $2,700 limit. It could even happen before the 2020 election. And because this is a constitutional ruling, there would be precious little that Congress could do about it (not that Mitch McConnell, who has helped engineer these events, from supporting the relevant lawsuits to blocking Merrick Garland and shoving Kavanaugh through the Senate without a full document release, would want to do anything but pop open a bottle of Champagne).

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As I recently wrote in Slate, the world of election law and voting rights is about to get much worse with Kennedys departure. Judge Kavanaugh is already on record as supporting porous campaign finance laws that would allow the Russian government and other foreign entities to spend unlimited sums in our elections. It now appears he believes wealthy Americans have a constitutional right to directly fill candidate coffers with unlimited sums, gaining unprecedented influence over these officials. With Kavanaugh replacing Justice Kennedy, and Chief Justice Roberts in the middle of the court, the era of big money in politics may soon get a heck of a lot worse.The fight over how the Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder, squandered Rs 22,500 crore in less than a decade has become fiercer with Shivinder suing his elder brother Malvinder and former Religare CEO Sunil Godhwani in the National Company Law Tribunal for oppression and mismanagement of RHC Holding.

In what's obviously a start of another family feud in corporate India, former Ranbaxy promoter Shivinder Singh today in a press statement said that he has parted ways with his brother Malvinder to follow his "own path". He held Malvinder and Godhwani responsible for systematic undermining of the interests of their companies and their shareholders.

Shivinder revealed that this action was "long overdue but got delayed in the hope that better sense shall eventually prevail and another ugly chapter of family feud would not be written in our family business' glorious history."

Shivinder said that he can't be a party to activities in which transparency and ethics are continuously and consistently negated. "It has come to a point where this means that I am now disassociating from my brother as a business partner and will be pursuing an independent path going forward," said Shivinder.

Last month, both the brothers had blamed Godhwani for orchestrating a series of transactions over a decade and leaving them with a debt load. "Mr Godhwani used his position to conceive and orchestrate a series of transactions over the better part of a decade that led to our Group's debt load by 2016. Regarding Mr. Godhwani, it is clear that he used our trust in him to exercise undue influence and has taken advantage of the faith bestowed by both families," Shivinder and Malvinder told BusinessToday.In.

The Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder, have been at the centre of one of the biggest corporate turmoils after they squandered Rs 22,500 crore in less than a decade.

The two brothers were loaded with Rs 9,576 crore in cash in 2008 after selling India's largest pharmaceutical firm Ranbaxy Laboratories to Japan's Daiichi Sankyo. Just 8 years later, in 2016, they were in debt of Rs 13,000 crore.

Here's the full text of the statement issued by Shivinder Singh.

This release comes in the aftermath of the legal and financial issues surrounding our joint companies. For two decades now, Malvinder and I, Shivinder Mohan Singh, have been synonymous with one another. Though the fact is, I have all along been the publicly supportive younger brother to Malvinder's Chairmanship of the group, who took decisions on behalf of the family.

My focus and passion has always and solely been Fortis Healthcare since its inception. It is the only company I have worked for and all my intent and resources have been in nurturing this company. The concept of helping people in need and walking the talk of Fortis' vision: "saving and enriching lives" has been the hallmark, as I served Fortis for almost two decades. I took public retirement to my Spiritual home, Beas to serve my Master, in 2015; leaving the thriving company I founded in 'trusted' hands and in a period of less than two years, it has moved towards disintegration and ruin of a national healthcare asset.

While the group businesses were in "Competent" hands, red flags have crept up in the group with disturbing regularity. Decisions taken in Religare's NBFC arm; the transaction and subsequent management of the sale of the group's then flagship - Ranbaxy to Daiichi, culminating in one of the most damaging Arbitration cases in the history of India Inc., the unimaginable losses accumulated in running a private charter airline business (Ligare aviation), all these only go to show that the malaise is systemic.

Sensitivity to the family business' reputation has refrained me from making any public or private statements despite my family's and my personal trauma. My family reputation kept me a silent spectator, as I mutely watched the organisation I founded come to a point where it was publicly auctioned; where my family and myself have been stripped of our legacy, our finances and my personal credibility. Despite my best efforts, on my return from Beas for the past many months to salvage the situation, the continued systemic missteps resulted in a quicksand which now seems beyond resolution, if I continue to remain silent.

Recent planted media articles attempting to foist the responsibility of poor decisions taken, to an elder in the family who always stood by us as a father-figure ever since the premature demise of our father; has compelled me to break my silence. Attempts to pass the buck to an eminent figure, who has been a guiding light not only to our family but also to a large section of the public, deceives no one.

I have filed a case against Malvinder and Sunil Godhwani in the NCLT for oppression and mismanagement of RHC Holding, Religare and Fortis. This action was long overdue but got delayed in the fond hope that better sense shall eventually prevail and another ugly chapter of family feud would not be written in our family business' glorious history. However, the unpleasant events finding narration in the petition go fundamentally against my grain. The collective, ongoing, actions of Malvinder and Sunil Godhwani led to a systematic undermining of the interests of the companies and their shareholders mentioned above as also the committed and loyal employees of the group.

While it saddens me immensely and I wish Malvinder well; I can no longer be party to activities in which transparency and ethics are continuously and consistently negated. It has come to a point where this means that I am now disassociating from my brother as a business partner and will be pursuing an independent path going forward.In a few weeks, the Senate will likely confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he will serve a lifetime appointment. A few years after he joins the benchor as early as next JuneKavanaugh will cast the decisive vote in a 54 decision that will eviscerate Roe v. Wade. Within hours, days, and weeks of that ruling, a slew of states will outlaw or severely limit abortion; others will resume enforcing abortion bans that remain on the books. None of this is hypothetical or seriously debatable. The American conservative movement has spent decades waiting for this exact moment. Now that it has arrived, they are determined not to miss their opportunityand by all indications, they will not. Republicans are on the brink of achieving their long sought-after goal of abolishing the constitutional right to abortion access.

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It is not surprising that conservatives have perfectly executed their well-laid plan to reverse Roe. What is remarkable, however, is how little resistance they have faced from progressives. While a majority of Democratic senators have already voiced their hostility to Kavanaugh, their base has utterly failed to mount a vigorous, sustained opposition to his nomination. If, today, liberals could channel a fraction of the outrage they will feel after Kavanaugh overturns Roe, they would have a shot at keeping him off the court. Instead, their relative apathy toward his impending confirmation has likely doomed reproductive rights for at least a generation.

Kavanaugh has not been particularly subtle about his distaste for Roe and its successor, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In his current job on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Kavanaugh attempted to manipulate these precedents in order to prevent an undocumented immigrant minor from terminating her pregnancy. Under Casey, the government cannot impose an undue burden on a woman seeking an abortion before viability. Yet the Trump administration had imposed a flat ban on abortion for undocumented minors in federally funded shelters. (It maintained that minors who wished to terminate their pregnancies should either find a sponsor in the U.S.a near impossible task for many without family hereor leave the country.) Kavanaugh held that this position did not constitute an undue burden, in a ruling which would have forced Jane Doe, a 17-year-old who was already 15 weeks pregnant, to continue her unwanted pregnancy.

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There is little mystery to how all this ends.

The full D.C. Circuit swiftly overturned Kavanaughs ruling and granted Doe access to abortion. In response, Kavanaugh penned a furious dissent that brimmed over with anti-abortion rhetoric. The majority, he sneered, had granted Doe abortion on demanda phrase that, as Irin Carmon notes, is deployed by the right to denote women capriciously making decisions for themselves. He claimed that Doe was not mature enough to make this major life decision on her own, even though she had already received the necessary judicial bypass from a state court. And he asserted, incredibly, that the Trump administration was being unlawfully forced to facilitate Does abortion by merely stepping aside and letting her obtain it. (This argument is fundamentally theological, not legal.)

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Kavanaughs dissent lays out a road map for the reversal of Roe and Casey. If the Trump administrations outright ban on abortion for immigrant minors does not constitute an undue burden, then nothing does. And Kavanaugh knows it. The judge seized upon the case to signal his discontent with Casey and offer a glimpse into how hed go about reversing the decision. Once he is on the Supreme Court, he can chip away at precedent by upholding a variety of abortion restrictions, insisting that they are not an undue burden. And once the court has eroded Casey to the point of nullity, it can finally overturn it outright.

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On its own, Kavanaughs approach to the Jane Doe case is enough to prove his anti-abortion, anti-Roe bona fides. But if that doesnt convince you, consider his 2017 address to the American Enterprise Institutethe speech that seems to have bumped him to the top of Donald Trumps Supreme Court shortlist. During his address, Kavanaugh took gratuitous swipes at Roe, praising then-Justice William Rehnquists dissent and disparaging the doctrinal foundation of Roes constitutional holding. His lavish praise for Rehnquists anti-abortion dissent sent a clear message to Trump and his advisers: Put me on the Supreme Court, and you can trust me to overturn Roe when the time comes.

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All of this is on the public record. And yet the Democratic base has not treated Kavanaughs confirmation like the emergency that it is. There is none of the urgency that surrounded Congress botched repeal of the Affordable Care Act. There is little of the rage that greeted controversial Trump nominees like Betsy DeVos. Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican senators who stand a chance of opposing Kavanaugh, have said that they do not feel significant pressure from their constituents to vote against him. There is a different level of intensity, Murkowski explained in July. The confirmation vote is simply too abstract, too impersonal to ignite the passions of last summer. There is no sit-in movement, no mass outpouring of fear and frustration. Activists seem to have devoted relatively little time and money to shoring up red-state Democrats opposition to Kavanaugh. And it seems that theyve barely bothered to appeal to the rest of the Republican caucus.

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If the Senate were currently on the brink of passing a bill that would ban abortion in much of the country, progressives would surely be swarming every congressional officeeven those of conservative Republicans. Confirming Kavanaugh will have roughly the same effect, yet only a tiny fraction of the country seems especially upset about it. Roe is popular among Democrats and Republicans, and when it goes, Americans will take to the streets en masse. Their anger will snowball once they see the grim reality of abortion bansthe women arrested and imprisoned for exerting control over their bodies. For now, though, they are watching the disaster unfold in slow motion, and few seem moved to even call their senators.

There is little mystery to how all this ends. The modern Republican Party is built upon a conviction that Roe is illegitimate. Kavanaugh is a GOP apparatchik who has vocally endorsed the anti-abortion party line. Once he is in the Supreme Court, he will do precisely what his party asks of him and gut the constitutional right to abortion access. Progressives had a brief shot at stopping him and saving Roe. They blew it.Framingthe act of constructing a way of viewing an issueis a fascinating political skill. And in the days leading up to Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearings, I couldnt help but get a kick out of the disparate ways Republicans and Democrats were framing their answers to the same question: How many pages of Kavanaughs records from his time in the George W. Bush White House have been released?

Fairness has nothing to do with the documents fight, and it will have nothing to do with the confirmation hearings. It has nothing to do with the whole project here.

Democrats responded with a percentage: Four percent of the available Kavanaugh records have been made public. Only 4 percent! Republicans, meanwhile, emphasized the astounding number of pages floating around out there: 440,500 of them, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassleys team declared proudly on Friday. Wowza! Thats, like, thousands of books, or hundreds of copies of the Affordable Care Act. Or, as they put it, its more than the combined volume of similar material for the last five nominees confirmed to the Supreme Court.

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This tedious, two-month debate about paper has, on its surface, been about what level of transparency is fair ahead of a lifetime appointment that would shift the American judiciary a degree to the right. So its worth reiterating, as Kavanaughs confirmation hearings begin, that fairness has nothing to do with the documents fight, and it will have nothing to do with the confirmation hearings. It has nothing to do with the whole project here. Republicans want Kavanaugh confirmed because he will support their policy preferences; Democrats want him stopped because he will strike theirs down. Republicans would be fine with zero documents released to the public but felt they had to throw something out there; Democrats want the silver bullet that so far has escaped them. The confirmation hearings that begin on Tuesday will not be a good-faith bipartisan examination of Brett Kavanaugh. They will be Democrats last chance to make a scene, with Republicans functioning as a defensive line.

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So, then, what sort of scene will Democrats try to make?

Democrats have been emphasizing three main areas of attack against Kavanaughs record, all of which appeal to the base: access to abortion, of which Kavanaughs not a great fan; protection for those with pre-existing conditions, as another legal threat to Obamacare begins its way through the legal system; and Kavanaughs expansive views of executive power. On all three issues, Kavanaugh has tried to tell the handful of distantly swayable Republican and Democratic senators with whom hes met what theyd like to hear. Democrats believe that his lengthy trail of writings and speeches, such as his praise of the dissent in Roe v. Wade, will make it difficult for him to get away with such vague postures as declaring Roe settled law.

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Expect to hear the most youve heard about SeaWorld since you visited it as a child.

Just as Democrats focused on the frozen trucker case during Justice Neil Gorsuchs confirmation hearings to show his pro-business, anti-little-guy leanings, Democrats will highlight how Kavanaugh dissented from an opinion finding that SeaWorld had violated workplace safety standards when an orca named Tilikum attacked and killed one of its trainees during a performance. When should we as a society paternalistically decide that the risk of significant physical injury is simply too great even for eager and willing participants? Kavanaugh, unimpressed, wrote. The trainer shouldve known that whale meant business when she took the gig.

Democrats will also press Kavanaugh on his unfriendly posture toward Chevron deferencethe principle that courts should defer to an agencys interpretation of an ambiguous statuteand what that could mean for government agencies ability to write rules and regulations not explicitly outlined in a statute. A limitation of Chevron could sharply narrow the ability of the government to write new regulationsand make life harder for the next Democratic president.

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With a new legal challenge to affirmative action, now supported by the administration, making its way to the legal system, its quite possible that Kavanaughs succession of Anthony Kennedy could spell the end of affirmative action. Democrats will definitely spend time on that. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees ranking member and the strongest gun control advocate in the Senate, will challenge Kavanaugh on his expansive view of the Second Amendment, and Sens. Dick Durbin and Pat Leahy, who both served on the Judiciary Committee during Kavanaughs 2006 confirmation hearing for appellate judge, will revisit whether Kavanaugh misled or lied to them about his involvement in the Bush-era debate over the legal treatment of detainees. And without Al Franken around to get worked up and inspire a thousand blog posts to bloom, expect Cory Booker and Kamala Harris to take up the mantle of viral outrage (that can be used in their presidential campaigns).

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Even with all of these rich policy areas, though, the procedural issue of limited access to documents still seems to be at the forefront of Democrats minds. Recognizing the slim odds they have of stopping Kavanaugh, theyve worked to label the entire process as a corrupt power grab.

Of the 430,000 documents that George W. Bushs review team has submitted to the committee, 267,000, as of Friday, had been made available for public consumption while the others remained committee-confidential. (President Trump claimed executive privilege over another roughly 100,000, in what Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, bless his heart, dubbed the Friday night document massacre.) One of the final stages of the document drama heading into the hearing, then, has been whether Democratic senators could refer to committee-confidential documents in an open hearing. Grassley, in a letter to committee members on Aug. 22, gave senators until Aug. 28 to flag which confidential documents they might want to use so that his staff could ask Presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush to waive the remaining confidentiality restrictions on them. According to Grassley spokesman Taylor Foy, only one senator took them up on the offer. But Democrats had a reasonable excuse for rejecting it: They didnt want to tip off Grassley, and thus Kavanaugh, to their lines of inquiry ahead of the hearing.

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I cant think of a more appropriately slapstick escalation of the documents saga than this. In a process during which many members of each side superficially pretend to maintain an open mind about a consequential nominees acumen and ability to apply the law, we enter the confirmation hearings with a dispute about whether the chairman is trying to rat out the minority party. Here, then, is all you need to know: Republicans have one more vote in the Senate than Democrats and cant afford to lose this confirmation fight. Everything that weve seen, and will see, flows from that.In her new essay, Nuance: A Love Story, Meghan Daum charts what she calls her affair with the intellectual dark web. This is a group of writers, commentators and podcasters who, despite their political differences, have come together under the IDW banner due to their mutual distaste for identity politics, their critiques of campus culture, and their willingness to push back against what they see as the doctrinaire progressivism that reigns supreme on social media and in elite discourse.

Daum herself became attracted to the group, which includes Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and Christina Hoff Sommers, because Questions that had once been treated as complicated inquiries requiring scrutiny and nuance were increasingly being reduced to moral absolutes, especially as far as liberal types were concerned. Describing a maddening toggle between what I felt versus what I thought I was supposed to feel, Daum, who had always identified as a liberal, began listening to podcasts hosted by members of the IDW, and watching their videos on YouTube. Although she remains torn about some aspects of what it would mean to fully embrace their ideasJust as you cant fight Trumpism with tribalism, you cant fight tribalism with a tribe her piece is about her engagement with a number of ideas many progressives find distasteful.

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I recently spoke by phone with Daum, whose latest book is The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed what should really count as identity politics, whether the IDW is a political movement, and how the resistance turned her off.

Isaac Chotiner: What is your current relationship, ideologically, to the intellectual dark web?

Meghan Daum: Theres a part of me that could easily be seduced in some ways by that world and the notion of sort of joining them. But I also think that would be an intellectually dishonest position. I know that wouldnt really sit well with me. So, I thought the only way to conclude the piece was to really kind of just sit in that ambivalent place.

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The word seduced has kind of a negative connotation. What does that imply?

I dont know. I mean, look Im a freelance writer. I work from home. I live by myself. I have never been employed by any particular publication. I was a columnist for the Los Angeles Times for many, many years, but I was always a freelancer. So I think that for somebody in my position  there is something very appealing about affiliation, or alignment with some kind of group or a club. Or a tribe is the word that keeps being used. So, in a way I could have seen myself kind of going in that direction. But I also think that  I actually think that if youre really faithful to a lot of the ideas that are being discussed in that realm, you have to, like I said, really own your conflicted-ness about it. And kind of sit in that ambivalence. And it doesnt make for hot takes, it doesnt make for very hashtaggable ideas. But I really think thats the only kind of honest place to land.

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One of the themes that runs through your piece was the ups and downs of your marriage. And one of the things you highlight is that the engagement with this tribes ideas offered you a certain kind of self-help. Do you think thats true of all political movements, or do you think theres something specific about this one?

I wouldnt call it a movement. And I certainly wouldnt call it political. Its more like 

see, again, Im really trying to work through this. Its a good question. Its really more like an expanding conversation. If it allows people to explore their ambivalence and their cognitive dissonance around a lot of the issues that are in play and being discussed in this particular cultural and political moment, I think that thats important.

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I think, if anything, this movement, conversation, whatever, has arisen in reaction to social media, and the sort of intersection of Twitter culture and Trumpism, and everything that led up to it. And it really made for very polarized modes of discourse. And that statement is nothing original. But I do think that there is a hunger out there for more complicated discussions, and the ability to float ideas and entertain lines of inquiry in other settings, [which] get completely smacked down before you can even finish your sentence.

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There are several people in the IDW who have a self-help flavor to them, specifically Jordan Peterson.

Oh, for sure.

His book is called 12 Rules for Life. Is the self-help one of the things about him that appeals to you?

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No, not at all. So, Jordan Peterson: Its tricky because hes really the most visible figure in this movement. But hes also kind of the least representative of them, in a way. I actually wrote a column in the L.A. Times back in March talking about how potentially dangerous he was for this movement, this web. I was talking about how the intellectual dark web was sort of this rising movement, and it had some really interesting qualities. But the prominence of Peterson kind of jeopardized that, because he was being talked about too much, but also in a lot of the wrong ways.

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So, Peterson contains multitudes. And the elements of him that are self-help dont personally appeal to me. I think theyre fine, I dont have any problem with them. And I think that hes doing a lot of good for a lot of people. But just to answer your question, no. Hes not what drew me in at all. I mean, as I talk about in the piece, my gateway were those conversations between John McWhorter and Glenn Loury. They are not the selling Jordan Petersonsize concert halls.

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I dont know if you ever saw his thing about why, if he were American instead of Canadian, he would vote for Trump, but it was like

Yeah, but he really  I dont know, see if you actually watch that entire clip he was  I believe he was speaking sort of hypothetically if he were an American in a certain kind of circumstance, and of a certain kind of mindset, then he would vote for Trump, etc., etc., etc.

Right. He said that he wouldve gone into the voting booth with the intention of voting for Hillary in this hypothetical. But because her identity politics had become so loud, essentially, he wouldve had to vote for Trump. Which gets to my concerns about the movement, namely the idea that Hillary Clinton was practicing more identity politics than Donald Trump, which it does feel like something that some people in the intellectual dark web believe. It seems like that is where things start to go off the rails.



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Yes, because the term identity politics gets thrown around, I think, recklessly. I mean, Peterson  and again, like I said in the piece, its easy to end up defending him. And I really dont even care about him very much, but he has a long history of criticizing the identity politics of the right, as well as the left. Hes kind of allergic to dogmatism, no matter how you slice it. And I dont think he does himself any favors in terms of refining his message.

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But, yes. There is a strain of this intellectual dark web that talks about identity politics and political correctness and tribalism, and throws around the terms in a very simplistic way. And like I said in the piece, it would frustrate me when I would see people doing that. But then on the other hand, I think there are other people who are digging much deeper, and really having those nuanced conversations.

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In the piece, you say that those fighting Trumps bigotry too often instituted their own kind of tyranny. Almost immediately, the resistance became not just a front line against Trumpism but its own scorching battleground. To be frothing with rage over one thing meant being insufficiently aggrieved over something else. If you were worried about women, you werent worried enough about blacks. If you marched for immigrants, why didnt you show up for the scientists? For many, there was no amount of outrage that couldnt be outdone, no wokeness woke enough. Where do you feel like this was going on: people who march for immigrants were criticized for not showing up for scientists? The idea that this became a kind of tyranny. Im just wondering where you felt that manifested itself.

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No, thats a very fair question. I mean, for one thing youve expertly managed to single out probably the most deliberately hyperbolic moment in the piece, but thats fine. I just felt that that was kind of the mood and the palette on social media. I was just seeing a lot of people on Twitter trying to out-outrage one another. And I just think there was a sort of overriding sense of misery and frustration, and resentment, thats causing people to kind of  there was a sort of grievance Olympics.

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And so, that moment in the piece I guess I was talking about a kind of mood thatwell, I was talking about a sort of mood that you saw on social media.

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You add, From NPR to CNN to dinner parties in gentrified Brooklyn, youd think the only allowable conversations were the ones in which facts were massaged to accommodate visceral feelings of leftist outrage. If this is really going on at CNN, thats sort of beyond Twitter. Thats not how I would view CNN over the past couple years.

Well. I mean, I think that the piece is really trying to look at  examine an overriding sort of feeling of cognitive dissonance, and frustration, that I certainly had. And that I think a lot of people have had. And certainly the responses that Ive gotten to the piece would suggest that Im not the only one feeling this way. So I guess what I wanted to talk about was the reason that people get wrung into these conversations on the IDW, is that there is a sense of not having the time or the space to really work out their ideas and their opinions of things without getting immediately pigeonholed into  well, youre saying you dont support immigrants. Or youre saying that the gender wage gap is a myth. That sort of thing.

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I was just seeing a lot of people on Twitter trying to out-outrage one another. There was a sort of grievance Olympics.  Meghan Daum

Im trying to wrestle with what constitutes throwing out an opinion, and what constitutes trying to silence someone. As an example, someone saying David Brooks should fucking retire already! is something you offer as an example of this sort of leftist outrage. Which we can agree is kind of crudely stated, but its an opinion that anyone could have without wanting to silence anyone. They just think David Brooks isnt a good columnist.



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Right. I mean, obviously, people can say anything they want. And frankly, the reason that I framed the piece around the demise of my marriage was because I think these very questions that youre asking, I think theyre sort of unanswerable. I can say whatever I want. But I wanted to get at just a really sort of abstract ephemeral feeling that was going on. I want to get at these kind of more fleeting, difficult to articulate, kind of ambient  a sort of feeling about the culture. Again, you can tell how  this is the first interview Ive done about this.

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No, obviously, Im not going to sit here and say that people are being silenced. Clearly, theyre not. But I do think that there is a feeling among a lot of liberals that theres a distancing from their friends and their peers. And there are some people who they can talk to candidly, and others that they cant. I mean, I cannot tell you how many emails Ive gotten from people, and Im sure youve found this yourself, where theyre like, Oh my gosh. I feel like if I ask certain questions even, my friends are just going to write me off.

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You mention in the piece, By then, Hillary Clinton  was talking about white Americans needing to recognize their privilege. You were saying that as like, OK, here are the liberals playing identity politics. Is there a tension between the dark web claiming to really prioritize strong opinions and free speech, and the toxic reaction they seem to often have to people saying things like this?

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Hilary Clinton was definitely using identity politics but in certainly a more palatable way than Donald Trump uses identity politics. I think I say right there in the piece that for a long time the right had absolutely cornered the market on identity politics. And no one does it better than Trump. I guess, this is the thing. I could have wrapped up the piece by saying, Hey, the intellectual dark web isnt perfect. But its our best hope, or, This is a really important movement for our times. This is the only way forward. Theres a little bit of me that thinks that. I have moments where I would love for it to be that simple. Honestly, I just dont know. And the answer to the question is I just dont know.

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I was looking up the Hilary Clinton quote. So this is the whole quote: We white Americans need to do a better job of listening when African Americans talk about the seen and unseen barriers you face every day. We need to recognize our privilege and practice humility rather than assume that our experiences are everyones experiences. We all need to try as best we can to walk in one anothers shoes. It feels unhealthy that weve gotten to a place where something like that is considered identity politics.

Well, were in a very unhealthy place as a culture. I dont disagree with you a bit. But I think there are people who hear a quote like that and unfortunately their first thought is, Oh, I wonder who wrote that for her. I wonder what advisor told her to say that. I wonder what kind of polling data gave them the idea that this would be a good thing to say to this particular audience in this particular venue. I mean, I think that is the kind of visceral reaction that too many people have. And that then leads them to a discussion basically laying out what I just said.

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Is the proper response to that, though, to do what it seems like a lot intellectual dark web people do? To get really upset about Hillary Clintons identity politics? Or is the proper response to explain to people why what she said is not a threat to white Americans?

Well, I think  look, the corner of the intellectual dark web that Im interested in I think is intelligent and nuanced enough that the people that follow it are intelligent enough to not need an explanation to why Hilary Clintons statement is fairly anodyne. I really cannot speak for the Jordan Peterson acolytes, the Ben Shapiro acolytes. A lot of the stuff in the intellectual dark web is very cartoonish and boring to me, as I said in the piece.

The question that you asked is a very valid one. Its not one that I need to be asked. So really, again, the piece was a process of sort of wading through all of this stuff. And trying to figure out what parts of this attracted me, and what parts didnt. And really what was going on. Whats going on in this particular moment. And its really a mine field and a moving target. I dont know any other way to say it. And this very conversation I think is completely emblematic of that. Its very hard to kind of narrow this stuff down. But thats also what makes it interesting.When democracies are under threat from the right, conservative movements have an especially important role to play in their defense. As the political scientist Daniel Ziblatt has argued in his masterful Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, conservatives act as a hinge of history: If they come to democracys defense, the system usually survives. If they make common cause with democracys enemies or prioritize short-term wins over a long-term commitment to maintaining democratic institutions, the door stands wide open for all manner of autocrats.

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In 19th-century Britain, for example, the Tories managed to integrate royalists and reactionaries into the parliamentary system, isolating extremists on the fringes of the political spectrum. In the early 20th century, by contrast, established right-wing parties in Italy and Germany handed the reins of power to fascists and, in many cases, themselves morphed into outright enemies of democracy. As in many other cases, the result of the conservatives failure to come to the defense of democracy was political catastrophe on a vast scale.

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For anybody who knows this historical pattern, the abject failure of the Republican Party to denounce Donald Trump in 2016 was deeply worrisome. Tested with its most important decision since the civil rights era, the conservative establishment failed in its most basic historical responsibility. Unwilling to prioritize the health of the republic over the prospect of filling a vacant seat on the Supreme Court and the fear of losing their regular spot on Fox News, conservative stalwarts who secretly detested Donald Trump invited his authoritarian brand of politics into the very center of power. Even if Trump is soundly repudiated at the polls in 2018 and 2020, it will likely take many years until we manage to clean our politics of the stench of autocratic aspiration.

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Even after Trumps shocking victory, it was still possible to think that the failure of Americas conservative elites was a peculiar outlier. Unlike most western democracies, the United States has a weak party system, making it harder for political insiders to exert control over their partys candidates or policies. Perhaps, one theory went, the Republican Party simply lacked the organizational capacity to keep extremists at bay. Whats more, unlike leading center-right parties in most other western democracies, the Republican Party had moved further and further from the political center. Perhaps, another theory held, Trump could win control of the party because it had long ago undergone a process of radicalization.

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Both purported reasons suggested that conservatives in other countries would prove more resistant to the lure of the antidemocratic right. Moderate leaders in countries with strong political parties, the theory went, would never follow the ignominious lead of men like Newt Gingrich or Chris Christie.

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Like so many other beliefs that were widely held in the distant days of 2016 but now appear touchingly quaint, this hopeful story is no longer tenable. Over the past few years, conservatives in many countries with strong political parties have forged perilous coalitions with the far-right. In Austria, for example, Sebastian Kurz has taken power by delivering control of foreign policy and the security services to right-wing extremists with roots in the neo-Nazi movement and a deep affection for Vladimir Putin.

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But perhaps the most shocking piece of news has come over the course of the past few days. For all intents and purposes, Angela Merkel is forging a tactical political alliance with the most sophisticated enemy of liberal democracy in Europe: Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary.

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One reason why Orban has, over the past eight years, managed to take quasi-dictatorial control over his country without engendering much opposition from European institutions is that he has always maintained links to mainstream conservative parties across the continent. The most important institutional manifestation of this link has been the continued membership of his political party, Fidesz, in the European Peoples Party, the largest faction in the European Parliament. And the most important defender of Fideszs membership in the center-right EPP has, in turn, been its leader, a German politician by the name of Manfred Weber.

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When the European Parliaments Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs sounded the alarm bell about an erosion of basic individual rights in Hungary, Weber called its report biased and politically motivated, warning that the European Parliament was about to turn itself into a Big Brother. When Orban was standing for re-election in a contest that many outside observers considered the last chance to oust him by democratic means, Weber called him a strong prime minister who vivifies European political debates. And when Orban duly extended his hold on power in elections that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, in unusually undiplomatic language, condemned as free but not fair, Weber congratulated him on his clear victory.

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While its unclear if its motivated by tactical considerations, genuine ideological affinity, or some combination, Weber has perfected a deeply cynical dance to shield Hungary from being held accountable by the European Union. Each time the European Commission considers measures against Orban, and each time other members of the European Peoples Party call on him to expel Fidesz, Weber claims that he would finally act if Hungary crossed democratic red lines on issues like fair elections or the independence of the countrys judiciary. But each time that one of these red lines is blatantly violated, Weber pretends that minor tactical concessions by Orban amount to a real about-face.

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For all intents and purposes, Angela Merkel is forging a tactical political alliance with the most sophisticated enemy of liberal democracy in Europe.

Significant electoral irregularities and the evisceration of independent media that allowed Orban to cling to political power? Not a red line according to Weber. Extreme attacks on NGOs and universities? Worrisome but apparently acceptable. Blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric? You get the point.

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As R. Daniel Kelemen, a professor of political science at Rutgers University and one of the leading academic observers of central Europe has argued, Webers stance has fatally undermined Europes ability to hold Orban in check. Because the most powerful faction in the European Parliament never broke with Fidesz, it proved impossible to build the kind of cross-partisan consensus the EU needed to sanction Orban in a robust and timely manner. And the realization that member states could blatantly disregard basic democratic rules without inviting censure from Brussels has, in turn, emboldened other countries, like Poland, to copy the Hungarian model. Partisan politics provides the most powerful explanation of why the EU has been so ineffective in opposing Orbans drive to consolidate power, Kelemen concludes. To understand why the EU has not done more to defend democracy in Hungary, one must look first to the leadership of the EPP.

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But even though Weber has, as the leader of the EPP, played a pivotal role in allowing Orban to destroy Hungarian democracy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week backed his bid to become the center-rights candidate for president of the European Commission. If he is selected as the EPPs Spitzenkandidat, or lead candidate, for European Parliament elections scheduled for next spring, and the grouping wins the most seats, Weber would likely take on the most powerful office in the European Union.

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Because the politics of the European Union are so complicatedand, frankly, boringthe significance of these developments has widely been missed. And yet the basic takeaways are reasonably simple.

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It is hardly a secret that Merkel has no particular love for Orban. But she also appears to believe that she needs him to sustain a majority in the European Parliament and that parts of her own domestic coalitionincluding Webers Christian Social Union, led by the countrys fractious interior minister, Horst Seehoferhave deep admiration for the form of authoritarian populism he embodies. Faced with the heavy political costs of taking a principled stance, she has evidently decided to make her peace with the undemocratic right.

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The implications for European politics are enormous. First, it is now clearer than ever that the European Union is willing to tolerate deeply illiberal and even undemocratic states as members in good standing. This will do massive damage to the legitimacy of the European Union: While German citizens may concede that it makes sense to pool their sovereignty with French voters in order to have a greater say in the wider world, it will be hard to explain why they should do the same with a Hungarian dictator.

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And second, the bulwark that established parties on both the left and the right once formed against enemies of democracy now looks more brittle than ever. If Weber and Merkel are willing to sell out their principles in order to retain a majority in the comparatively unimportant European Parliament, it is hard to see why they should resist an alliance with the far-right populists of the Alternative for Germany if that should, one day, be the price they have to pay to retain power in Berlin. (Indeed, even as they were faced with the spectacle of violent far-right protests in the city of Chemnitz over the past week, some center-right leaders have been conspicuously reluctant to condemn their potential allies on the populist right.)

For many years, Merkel has widely been seen as a heroic defender of liberal democratic values. In the wake of Trumps election, some overexcitable commentators even hailed her as the true leader of the free world. But the past few days suggest a much bleaker assessment of her career: If conservative politicians really are hinges of history, then Merkel may well be remembered as one of those who failed the most important test of their times and failed to stand up to the antidemocratic right.Monica Lewinsky quickly cut an onstage interview short in Jerusalem after she was asked a question regarding former President Bill Clinton. The anti-bullying activist gave an emotional speech at the conference in which she talked about how she was shunned by members of her own community after the story of her affair with Clinton broke. Afterward Lewinsky sat down with news anchor Yonit Levi for an interview.

In the first question, Levi brought up comments that Clinton recently made in which he said he didnt believe he owed Lewinsky an apology. Do you still expect that apology? A personal apology? Levi asked Lewinsky. Lewinsky didnt seem to hesitate and simply answered: Im sorry, Im not going to be able to do this. She then proceeded to leave the stage.

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.@MonicaLewinsky walking out abruptly on @LeviYonit (chief anchor at @NewsChannelIL ) few seconds into her on stage live Interview after being asked: do you still expect a personal apology from Pres. Clinton. Sorry, i cant do this. pic.twitter.com/ZN3BiGViwF  Tal Schneider     (@talschneider) September 3, 2018

Lewinsky later explained her reason for walking out. There were clear parameters about what we would be discussing and what we would not, Lewinsky wrote on Twitter. Lewinsky said Levi had asked her that very question a day earlier, and she had rejected it. When she asked me it on stage, with blatant disregard for our agreement, it became clear to me I had been misled, she added. I left because it is more important than ever for women to stand up for themselves and not allow others to control their narrative.The chairman of NBC News, Andrew Lack, pushed back Monday against reports last week that questioned whether the network gave in to pressure when it rejected Ronan Farrows story on Harvey Weinsteins sexual misconduct. In a memo to NBC News employees Monday evening, Lack clearly explained why the news network felt it could not air the allegations against Weinstein, insisting Farrow did not have the goods. Attached to the statement was a long document detailing the reporting process.

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We spent eight months pursuing the story but at the end of that time, NBC Newslike many others before usstill did not have a single victim or witness willing to go on the record, Lack said to staffers in the memo. Lack sent the memo shortly after a producer who worked with Farrow told the New York Times that NBC News moved to kill the story, which is what led him to take it to the New Yorker. Separately, the Daily Beast reported that NBC News General Counsel Susan Weiner threatened to smear Farrow if he continued to report on Weinstein.

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Lack, however, insists none of this is accurate. He says that when Farrow objected to NBC News unwillingness to go forward with the story, the network convened an independent group of the most experienced investigative journalists in our organization to review his material with fresh eyes. They were all tasked with figuring out what, if anything, could be broadcast. But their conclusion was unequivocal, Lack wrote, this story is not ready for air.

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Lack goes even further, saying its disingenuous to suggest Farrow merely took the reporting he had done at NBC to the New Yorker. Farrows award-winning New Yorker article about Weinsteinpublished nearly two months after he left NBC News and five days after The New York Times piecebore little resemblance to the draft script he produced at NBC News, the statement said. While the New Yorker piece cited several victims by name, none of them had been included in the reporting Farrow presented to the higher-ups at NBC News, according to the network.

In the statement, NBC also detailed the contacts that Weinstein and his representatives had with the network. Although Weinstein and his people did repeatedly try to contact people at NBC News, none of it had an effect on the reporting. They were aggressive and persistent. This is a dynamic NBC News is quite familiar with as a home to investigative journalism and had no impact on the editorial process, reads the statement.The New Yorker Festival dropped Steve Bannon as a headliner amid widespread outrage following news that the former adviser to President Donald Trump would take part in the fall event. The decision to drop Bannon came after at least five comedians scheduled to appear at the festival said they would not participate in an event alongside the former White House adviser.

I dont want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that Ive ignored their concerns. Ive thought this through and talked to colleaguesand Ive re-considered. Ive changed my mind. There is a better way to do this, The New Yorker editor David Remnick wrote in a long statement explaining the decision. If the opportunity presents itself Ill interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage. In the statement, Remnick defended the decision to invite the firebrand white nationalist, saying that to interview Bannon is not to endorse him.

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A statement from David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, explaining his decision to no longer include Steve Bannon in the 2018 New Yorker Festival. pic.twitter.com/opayiw5GQ2  The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 3, 2018

Remnick seemed well aware when he announced the lineup that the decision to invite Bannon would be controversial. I have every intention of asking him difficult questions and engaging in a serious and even combative conversation, Remnick told the New York Times in the piece announcing Bannons presence at the festival. The audience itself, by its presence, puts a certain pressure on a conversation that an interview alone doesnt do.

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The outrage, however, seemed to come at a much faster clip and was much more intense than Remnick seems to have anticipated. Perhaps most importantly, several key guests quickly took to Twitter to say they wouldnt participate in the festival. And it quickly looked like the race to pull out of the event was gaining momentum. John Mulaney tweeted Im out saying that he supports public intellectual debate  this isnt James Baldwin vs William F Buckley. He was not alone. Judd Apatow also took to Twitter to say that he wouldnt take part in an event that normalizes hate.

Im out. I genuinely support public intellectual debate, and have paid to see people speak with whom I strongly disagree. But this isnt James Baldwin vs William F Buckley. This is PT Barnum level horseshit. And it was announced on a weekend just before tix went on sale. https://t.co/oYk1llNgvV  John Mulaney (@mulaney) September 3, 2018

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If Steve Bannon is at the New Yorker festival I am out. I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate. I hope the @NewYorker will do the right thing and cancel the Steve Bannon event. Maybe they should read their own reporting about his ideology.  Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) September 3, 2018

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Jim Carrey quickly picked up the baton with a simple message: Bannon? And me? On the same program? Could never happen. Patton Oswalt had a suggestion after he dropped out: See if Milo Yiannopoulos is free? And Bo Burnham wasnt exactly diplomatic: I am respectfully saying fuck that.

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Bannon? And me? On the same program?



Could never happen.  Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) September 3, 2018

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AdvertisementOn Tuesday morning, as the Senate Judiciary Committee began confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats finally began to put up a real fight.

Moments after Chairman Chuck Grassley attempted to commence the proceedings, Democratic senators launched a coordinated effort to halt them. Their complaint: Republicans, led by Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, rushed Kavanaughs confirmation in order to place him on the court as quickly as possible (and before the midterms). In the process, theyve concealed millions of pages of documents from Kavanaughs work in the George W. Bush White House.

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The fireworks continued throughout the morning; you can watch the livestream here:

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Republicans refused to request documents from Kavanaughs three years as staff secretary, which the nominee has referred to as the most interesting and informative for me in preparation for his work on the bench. Theyve solicited only a fraction of documents from Kavanaughs work in the White House Counsels Office, and the National Archives, which determines which presidential records may be released, cant finish its review until the end of October. So Republicans set up an alternate process overseen by GOP attorney William Burck to furnish some documents before then. Burck, who currently represents White House counsel Don McGahn, worked for Kavanaugh during the nominees tenure as staff secretary. And he now gets to decide which of his former bosss records will be turned over to the committee.

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On Friday, to no ones surprise, Burck announced that he would withhold more than 100,000 pages of documents from Kavanaughs service in the White House Counsels Office, citing (but not formally asserting) executive privilege. Then, hours before the start of the hearing, Burck dumped 42,000 pages on the committee but demanded that they not be released to the public. In sum, the senators who will soon vote on whether to give Kavanaugh a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land have seen just a tiny fraction of the nominees White House records.

And so, on Tuesday morning, Sen. Kamala Harris interrupted Grassleys introduction to demand that the hearings be postponed until the committee received and reviewed a fuller range of documents.

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Sen. Mazie Hirono backed Harristhen protesters interrupted the proceedings and were greeted by raucous applause. As soon as they were removed, Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced his support of Harris and Hirono, describing the hearing as a charade and a mockery of our norms. More demonstrators then exploded in protest. Once they were removed, Sen. Cory Booker appealed to Grassleys sense of decency and integrity also asked the chairman to pause the hearings, describing the document-review process as a violation of the values Ive heard you talk about time and time again.

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What is the rush? Booker asked. What are we trying to hide by not having the documents out front?

More protesters. Hirono spoke again, then Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse lodged his grievance over Burcks dubious claim of executive privilege. Sen. Patrick Leahy seconded Whitehouses objections as yet more protesters shouted from the back of the room. Blumenthal and Whitehouse called for a vote on reconvening the hearings at a later date. Sen. Amy Klobuchar attempted to force a vote, but Grassley stonewalled her. This back-and-forth continued for much of the morning and it was unclear when it would end. As the Daily Callers Kevin Daley pointed out on Twitter, theres one possible reason Grassley would not allow Blumenthals motion for a vote to adjourn to proceed.

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Grassley doesn't have the votes to defeat a motion to adjourn right now. GOP Sens. Graham, Crapo, and Flake are missing, giving Democrats a 10-8 advantage at the moment. https://t.co/aTUK5svuBw  Kevin Daley  (@KevinDaleyDC) September 4, 2018

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There is little chance that Democrats efforts will actually block Kavanaughs confirmation. Republicans have the votes, and the Democratic base has largely failed to show up to the Kavanaugh fight. But the senators objections did prove that, at a bare minimum, they recognize the fundamental illegitimacy of these hearings and refuse (for now, at least) to play along with the charade. If Democrats in the committee were fully committed to exposing the farce of these hearings, theyd simply walk outand leave the room full of the Republican politicians and operatives who rigged the process in the first place. But failing that, a group venting of Democratic disgust is a pretty effective way to open this sorry show.President Donald Trump wrote another chapter in his weird, long-running feud with his own Justice Department on Labor Day, this time due to its prosecutions. Trump attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions for indicting two Republican congressmen who were among his earliest supporters during the 2016 election.

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department, Trump tweeted. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff

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Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

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As strange as they may seem, the commander in chiefs attacks against the attorney general are hardly new. Trump has taken a liking to criticizing Sessions on Twitter ever since he recused himself from special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. But his latest criticism seems to be taking the attacks to a new level as Trump appears to be suggesting the two lawmakers should not have been charged because they are very popular Republicans.

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The Justice Department declined to comment on Trumps comments regarding the indictments of Rep. Chris Collins of New York and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California. Collins and Hunter were indicted within two weeks of each other on unrelated charges and theyve both pleaded not guilty.

Trump went on to note that Sessions would now become a favorite of Democrats on Capitol Hill. The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin James Comey, Trump wrote. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!

....The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

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These were just two of the tweets that Trump sent throughout the holiday. He also celebrated Labor Day, criticized the president of the AFL-CIO, and also mentioned a possible presidential bid by former Secretary of State John Kerry.

Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend. Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

Advertisement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 ...German camera maker Leica's products have been available in India for long, but it was only in November last year that the company set-up its base in the country. Leica Camera India Private Limited, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Leica Germany, has a working office based out of Gurgaon that takes care of administrative functions. It also has a Leica store at Connaught Place, New Delhi, for customers to walk in and experience their line-up. Leica is also selling its lower entry-level modes through Amazon India in the country. The company also has a shop-in-shop in Bangalore, and the graduation of the shop-in-shops will be Leica Stores. The company plans to introduce 3-5 Leica stores over next three years in India.

Being a luxury camera company, not many are aware of this brand. But unlike other camera brands, Leica doesn't believe in advertisements and communication but in the brand experience.

Sunil Kaul, Managing Director, Leica Asia-Pacific, explains, "We have various channels of reaching out to our customers. Other than Leica Store and shop-in-shops, we also have an in-store program -- Coffee with Leica. Under this program, Leica users share their stories with us, we shortlist and select them to present their work. In addition, we have a Leica Academy, where one can learn photography, different forms of photography, and have travel and experiential tours."

Talking about the India operations, Kaul says, "We did not come to India to make money. The effort, amount and time we put in here, in any other market would get 20 times the result. A lot of work needs to be done. But we are here to build a brand. People largely are not aware of the brand. We are ploughing the field. We are doing everything for people to experience the brand." He further adds, "We have done this before in China. 10 years ago, Leica was an unknown brand in China but today we have a sizable business generating a reasonable profit. We see that happening in India, maybe not immediately, but in the next 3-5 years. Currently, we are not losing double-digit and are close to breaking even."

Priced upwards of Rs 85,000, Leica is offering its complete range in India as well. And irrespective of the regulations and taxes, the pricing is very similar to what is available abroad. However, the Leica cameras purchased abroad are not covered under warranty in India. Kaul explains the reason behind this, "Each and every part has a serial number and if the camera cannot be repaired in India, it has to be sent back to the country where it can be repaired. When it comes back, it gets stuck in customs as the serial number doesn't match the records."

Unlike other camera brands, Leica does not have products to appeal the masses and has some unique offerings in its portfolio. For instance, while LCD display is a common feature in new age cameras, Leica has one model which doesn't feature an LCD display. Similarly, it has a Monochrome camera, which is manufactured in small quantities and is fairly popular amongst users. Leica's philosophy is to make a few, for the few.

Of the complete range, many Leica cameras are handcrafted. Just like luxury watches, the cameras have a hand-painted serial number. All Leica cameras that involve handwork are manufactured either in Germany or at the small factory in Portugal, which accounts for close to 80 per cent of the total production. Leica has also collaborated with Panasonic, which is also an original manufacturer for a few of its models that do not require hand work.The evolution of shared service centers in Slovakia - are they ready for another upgrade?

Shared services centers (SSCs), or business services centers, have quietly evolved from an invisible segment of the Slovak economy into a strong and confident sector. They are mostly subsidiaries of global corporations  with an increasingly greater influence on their parent companies.

Today, 65 SSCs in Slovakia employ more than 35 000 people and it is of great importance to the Slovak economy that this business model has spread from its stronghold in Bratislava to other Slovak regions. Whilst SSCs in the western regions focus more on financial, HR and other business services, the east is complementing business services with a big footprint in IT services.

When, for example, Deutsche Telekom rolls out a new product at its new-generation data center in Houston, Frankfurt or Singapore, they call on experts from its SSC, T-Systems Slovakia in Kosice. Today, this is normal, but only 15 years ago it would have seemed very unlikely. Then the eastern region employed around 1 000 IT experts, in small-scale operations at local factories. By 2017, the region employed around 11 000 and a further 2-3 000 freelance experts delivering a range of IT, business and software services worldwide. The average added value of SSCs from eastern Slovakia exceeds 80%  annually, it exceeds half a billion euros contributed to the regional GDP (directly 400 mil in added value and a further 180 mil. due to sourcing suppliers regionally).

The evolution of SSCs is important and not only due to the quantifiable numbers, i.e. the number of employees and financial performance. Employees personal stories about career jumps and the global successes of their projects make this clear. They show that the SSC industry is maturing and evolving from its initial focus on routine transactions to sophisticated delivery and responsibility for business or IT services. Many SSCs seek to go beyond the second stage, to the creation of value for their parent companys core business, service or product innovation and development.

Is this transition to higher-value roles at Slovak SSCs real, or is it just a marketing fad to boost the image of SSCs in the labor market? There are many myths about SSCs  from the jokes about mindless clickers, to a lack of creativity, to limited career prospects. These are of course myths, but lets look at what the insiders have to say. Jakub Horbaj relates how he passed bootcamp training and started six years ago as a systems administrator: I started with a simple job like many others, but I was curious about the business. Moving from one SSC in Slovakia to another in Czech Republic was not enough and I could not get a full picture. Jakubs ambition exceeded the possibilities offered by the region: I moved to Finland. Spending a few years there was great; however, I heard how the situation in Kosice had changed, so I came back. Now, I am a Business Development Manager  creating opportunities for others. And what keeps him in Kosice? Most importantly, new projects with innovations and creativity

However, one swallow does not make a summer and there are many SSC jobs like Jakubs. A quick research into eastern Slovakias SSCs in their regional cluster  the Kosice IT Valley  reveals they are seeing a 1015% increase in jobs with global responsibility for a high-profile service, product or customer. What does globally responsible mean for Ondrej Vereb, a lead architect at a SSC?: First, its about reputation, emphasized Ondrej, I have the power to create a kind of quality trademark for me, my team, the company and the region. This is not a one-man show, I have to gain trust from my team, and they must want to develop personal skillsonly a strong, knowledgeable team can make a difference in the global IT market, when you are from an unknown place in a small country.

How will the SSC sector in Slovakia evolve? There are lessons we can learn from established industries  simpler, transactional jobs will slowly disappear, but not necessarily to cheaper countries in Asia. Geography and cultural proximity still play an important role in the SSC business. The axe looming above SSCs is automation  robotic process execution, artificial intelligence, zero-touch and customer self-service will all have the same impact  a reduction of simpler jobs at SSCs over the next two to three years.

Will automation lead SSCs to a similar fate as we saw in the once-powerful TV industry in Slovakia? A rapid fall from market leadership and a slow decline? SSCs have an ace up their sleeve to achieve a brighter future than experienced by TV manufacturers: the competences of their employees. If we add customer business insight to employees hard skills, automation could boost demand for their services and increase employee numbers. The future will no longer be about delivering a service cheaper. In commodity markets, customers no longer react to minute variances in prices. What will count is the skills to consult with the customer, to tailor a migration or innovation project to its particular business needs, and to guide the customer through the digitalization maze.

Are SSCs from Kosices IT Valley up to this challenge? They have aspirations, but they need to quickly bring this aspiration to the labor market and create a value proposition for prospective employees, so that they can strengthen their skills prior to joining SSCs. The challenge the SSC industry faces is to upgrades its talent management model  shifting from junior generalists to versatilists capable of starting their careers in mid-level or senior positions.

Martin Dzbor is Head of Strategy Development at T-Systems Slovakia s.r.o.

Originally published in Connection, the magazine published by AmCham Slovakia

4. Sep 2018 at 12:30 | Martin DzborNo need to celebrate the Constitution; it's a remnant of Meciar's era

Unlike some other state holidays, Constitution Day was even attended by ex-prime minister Robert Fico.

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A hyped-up holiday created during the era of [autocratic premier] Vladimir Meciar  that is how a historian and political analyst view Slovak Constitution Day, adding that the public is not fully accustomed to this state holiday.

Some politicians commemorated it more spectacularly on Saturday, September 1 than the recent 50th anniversary of the August occupation of Czechoslovakia.

Constitution Day is a superfluous holiday, historian Dusan Kovac said. The Constitution is a contract among citizens on how the state should function, not a sacrament or golden calf, he added. He deems the constitution from September 1, 1992 a work of then-prime minister Vladimir Meciar, stating the only purpose of creating this holiday was to draw attention to his own rule.

By that time, the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic still existed. So was it a constitution of independent Slovakia, which did not even exist then? Thats nonsense, Kovac explained.

They failed to commemorate the occupation

On September 1, Open Day in the Slovak Parliament takes place annually. Earlier in the day, Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko of the SNS party met in the original parliamentary building with former parliamentary speakers.

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini of the Smer party paid tribute to Constitutional Day there, too.

The state failed to organise any central event to mark the jubilee of the Soviet invasion of then-communist Czechoslovakia. Pellegrini commemorated it at the grave of the 1968-leader of the Communist Party [and proponent of the Prague Spring political reformation] Alexander Dubcek, while Danko attended a reverential event at Safarikovo Square in Bratislava organised by the Confederation of Political Prisoners of Slovakia.

4. Sep 2018 at 20:23 | Lucia KrbatovaChinese investor to manufacture suitcases in Svidnik

Sensei Logistic plans to employ 15 people.

Chinese Ambassador to Slovakia, Lin Lin (L) during the meeting with Svidnik officials and the Sensei Logistic company, on August 31, 2018. (Source: TASR)

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The Chinese investor Sensei Logistic plans to manufacture suitcases in Svidnik (in Presov Region), presenting its intent during the August 31 visit of Chinese Ambassador to Slovakia Lin Lin to the town with a population of 11,492.

Weve been running our business in Stara Lubovna for the second year, focusing on the production of suitcases, said Jozef Bulko, director of Sensei Logistic, as quoted by TASR newswire. When we found out that the demand is significant and the handling of component imports quite difficult, we decided to make an investment here, where we were provided with suitable premises.

The company plans to employ approximately 15 people as early as this year.

I expect the operation to be firing on all cylinders by the end of March, which means some 30 people, Bulko addedm as quoted by TASR.

Im quite glad to see an investor from China here, ambassador Lin Lin said at the meeting with town officials and company representatives, as quoted by TASR. Its the first tangible result of cooperation we have started together. Despite the fact that it's the first Chinese investment, I believe this is a good beginning and to be followed by other investors, even Chinese tourists.

4. Sep 2018 at 14:33 | Compiled by Spectator staffFewer thefts but more violence and extremism in Slovakia

Overall, less crimes were committed this year compared to recent years.

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The good news about criminality in Slovakia is that it's the lowest it's been in the last 10 years.

In the first half of 2018, police recorded a total of 33,000 crimes while in January-June 2009, the figure was more than 54,000. This is a considerable decline in overall criminality in the country, the Sme daily wrote, citing data collected from My Regiony. Police statistics show a decline of up to 39 percent.

Less burglaries

The property crime rate fell by almost 66 percent. The police dealt with 464 house burglaries this year, compared to 1,118 ten years ago.

This year, a total of 728 vehicles were stolen as of the end of June  10 years ago 1,936 cars were stolen.

Economic criminality also decreased by 25 percent in the last ten years and in the case of fraud, there were 1,102 cases this year. On the other hand, the number of tax evasion cases almost tripled.

The statistics on violent criminality show contradictory results, however. Although it has declined by 29 percent in the past ten years, there was less criminality in the first half of 2014 and 2015.

Extremism on the rise

The 66 percent decrease in robberies was another positive result but it seems that extremism is on the rise again: this year, 92 violent crimes with a racial context were recorded, which is the second worst figure after 2011.

Furthermore, 323 cases of sexual abuse were recorded this year, which is the second worst figure in the past decade, after 2014.

The rise in the number of cases may be caused by more people reporting crimes in this category, which could mean Slovaks have a greater sensitivity to this issue. This could also be the case with extremism, Sme summed up.

4. Sep 2018 at 21:52 | Compiled by Spectator staffTech giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the second Indian company to clock the Rs 8-lakh crore market valuation following a surge in its share price on Tuesday. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries had touched the Rs 8-lakh crore mark on August 23, becoming the first Indian company to do so.

During the intra-day trading, the TCS share surged 2 per cent to a record high of Rs 2,097 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), taking its m-cap to Rs 8,01,550.50 crore.

TCS was the first Indian company to cross the Rs 7-lakh crore market cap in June after it crossed the $100 billion milestone in April. Its market valuation had gone past the Rs 6-lakh crore level earlier this year, making it the second company to achieve the milestone after Reliance Industries.

Its stock has gained around 54.6 per cent this year. The stock has seen a continuous rise due to share buyback offer worth over Rs 16,000 crore by the company from September 6 to September 21. Under the offer, TCS has decided to buyback total 76.19 million shares for Rs 2,100 a piece.

While RIL is the first homegrown major to achieve this feat, the aggregate market capitalisation of 15 Tata Group companies comes out to be around Rs 11.32-lakh crore. Also, the collective valuation of Deepak Parekh-led financial services company, HDFC Group, had also crossed Rs 10-lakh crore recently.

Companies offer share buyback when they want to boost the overall share value or to reduce the number of shares in the market or to stop other shareholders from taking control of the company. The process also improves shareholders' earning per share.

In its quarterly results for the quarter ending June, TCS' net profit rose 6.3 per cent sequentially while 23.5 per cent on the Y-o-Y basis to Rs 7,340 crore.

(Edited by Manoj Sharma)Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has reportedly tapped into the ride-hailing business, according to local media.

Jiangsu Jingdong Information Technology Co., Ltd., a logistics subsidiary owned by JD.com, updated its business scope on China's National Enterprise Credit Information Public System. The official website reveals that such businesses as online taxi booking, vehicle and auto parts sales as well as public transportation service have been added this time.

Founded on June 16, 2009, Jiangsu Jingdong Information Technology mainly focuses on JD.com's express delivery business. In 2010, it procured the express delivery qualification from China's State Post Burea with the validity period lasting from September 29, 2010 to September 28, 2015. The company has 298 branches across China, covering such provinces as Shangdong, Shaanxi, Hubei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian, etc, according to a website providing enterprise information checking service.

Some analysts said JD.com intends to build a ride-hailing freight platform with similar operational mode to Didi depending on the company's powerful logistics system and rich logistic vehicle resources.

Prior to JD.com's participation, on-line service provider Meituan officially launched its ride-hailing service on March 21 in Shanghai and has operated in several cities such as Shanghai and Nanjing.

The current ride-hailing market in China is absolutely dominated by Didi. Although it is hard to tell now whether the JD.com or Meituan's intrusion will threaten Didi's predominance in this market, more options to be offered is a good thing to consumers.The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the External Affairs Ministry to reveal the names of private individuals who travelled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his foreign trips after an RTI activist alleged he didn't get a satisfactory answer from the Prime Minister's Office. CIC issued the directive after RTI activist Karabi Das approached it saying he was not given complete information regarding Modi's foreign travels, including the names of all private individuals who accompanied him between 2015 and 2017.

The MEA, which had allegedly denied information, told CIC RK Mathur that information regarding people who travelled with Modi can't be given as the ministry only records the data regarding date and time of the PM's visits, and expenses incurred on his flights. Karabi had sought the information from the Prime Minister's office in January. Activist Subhash Agrawal, who represented Karabi, told the CIC that the ministry had even charged Rs 224 for providing information, which he paid but failed to get the reply. The ministry representative assured the CIC that they will look into the issue.

"A list of private persons (not linked with security) who travelled with the Prime Minister of India at government expenditure should be provided to the appellant redacting names of other officials," Mathur ordered, reported news agency PTI. Mathur was hearing two different matters in which applicants were reportedly denied information regarding people who accompanied Modi during his foreign tours.

Minister of State for External Affairs, VK Singh, disclosed to the Rajya Sabha in July that a total of Rs 1,484 crore were spent on Modi's foreign travels, including expenses on chartered flights (Rs 387.26 crore), aircraft maintenance (Rs 1088.42 crore) and hotline facilities ((Rs 9.12 crore), ever since he became Prime Minister in May 2014. The PM has visited a total of 84 countries in his 42 foreign trips since the BJP came to power at the Centre. He had visited 66 countries in the first three years after he became the PM in 2014.

(Edited by Manoj Sharma)Afghan Taliban confirmed death of Jalaluddin Haqqani

ISLAMABAD: Afghan Taliban on Tuesday confirmed the death of Haqqani militant network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was accused of spearheading a series of deadly attacks in Afghanistan.





It is with great regret that we inform our believing Mujahid Afghan nation and the vast Islamic Ummah that the prominent Jihadi figure, religious scholar, exemplary warrior and pioneer of celebrated Jihads; the Minister of Frontiers during the reign of Islamic Emirate and member of the Leadership Council, the esteemed Al-Haj Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani has passed away after a long battle with illness, surely to Allah we belong and to Him is the return, a Taliban statement said early Tuesday.





Jalaluddins son Siraj-ud-Din Haqqani is deputy chief of the Taliban and he is considered as the leader of the Haqqani Network.



India agreed inspection of its Kishanganga hydroelectric project

LAHORE: India has agreed to allow Pakistan to inspect the projects in the Jhelum basin, including Kishanganga hydroelectric project, in the near future and Islamabad will allow New Delhi to carry out inspection of the Kotri barrage over the Indus under Article VIII (4) (c) of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), it has been learnt.



According to the minutes of the 115th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission held between the two countries from Aug 29 to 30 in Lahore, Pakistan also urged India to arrange for the Special Tour of Inspection of the projects in Jhelum basin including Kishanganga HEP which is pending since 2014, on which ICIW (Indias Commissioner for Indus Waters) gave his assurance to arrange the same promptly.



During the meeting, the Pakistani and Indian authorities were unanimous about strengthening the role of the Permanent Indus Commission. Islamabad also highlighted the need and asked New Delhi to share the information about potential projects at the planning stage for examination. In this way any objections (if raised by Pakistan) can be addressed in the design at the early stage of planning instead of debating with India at belated stage when practically incorporating the requisite changes becomes a challenge.



In order to converge on the objections raised by Pakistan, both sides reiterated their stance and endeavoured to resolve the issues. In this regard both sides agreed to exchange the detailed basis of adopting various design parameters for both 48MW Lower Kalnai and 1000MW Pakal Dul HEPs at the Chenab River. During the meeting both the sides agreed to conduct the General Tours of Inspection which could not be conducted since 2014.



In this regard first PCIW (Pakistani Commissioner for Indus Waters) will visit the Chenab basin in the last week of September 2018 followed by the tour of ICIW to the Kotri barrage in the Lower Indus, according to Article VIII (4) (c), the document reveals.



In the meeting, which was held under Article VIII (5) of the IWT, both sides also agreed to arrange the next meeting of the commission soon after the tour of inspection on both sides to discuss and endeavour to address Pakistans objections on Lower Kalnai and Pakal Dul.



Pakistan has already approached the World Bank and sought referring the case to International Court of Arbitration (ICA). However, India, on the other hand, wants the dispute decided by the neutral experts. In June, this year, World Bank had reportedly asked Pakistan to accept Indias demand of a neutral expert and stand down from pursuing its stand of referring the dispute to the ICA. Pakistan had also raised concerns over the inauguration of the Kishanganga hydropower plant by India during talks with the World Bank in Washington.



Since the talks between the two countries have been restored, Pakistani team may inspect the Kishanganga project on the eve of the next meeting of the permanent commission for the Indus waters in India or before this.



In reply to a question, he said India had no objection on the Kotri barrage in the lower Indus. Their (Indian experts) visit to Pakistan will be after ending our experts inspection of the Lower Kalnai and Pakal Dul projects scheduled by end of this month, the official said. The Indian experts visit / inspection of the Kotri barrage is sort of routine one, as they have no objection or concerns in this regard.Opp parties last mintute meetings for presidential election

Meetings to deliberate on the presidential election continued till Monday, as opposition parties made last ditch efforts to bring a consensus candidate and the ruling Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) gave reassurances to allies in hopes to retain their support for its candidate Arif Alvi.



Media reports suggested that a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) delegation visited Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the candidate of all remaining opposition parties, and urged him to consider withdrawing his name. The maulana apparently agreed on the condition that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership supported the move. The latter has been opposed to the PPPs nominee, Aitzaz Ahsan, over his harsh stances against the partys supreme leader Nawaz Sharif. No meeting took place between PPP and PML-N leadership subsequently.



Also on Monday, PTI and PPP leaders held meetings with Balochistan National Party-Mengal leaders and discussed the presidential election.



After a six-point agreement prior to the Prime Ministers election last month, the PTI and BNP-Mengal on Monday settled on a nine-point agenda in return for the Baloch nationalist partys support for Alvi in the election today.



The agreement was reached in a meeting between Alvi, Jahangir Tareen and Sardar Akhtar Mengal. The PTI reaffirmed its commitement to implement a special package for the restive western province which would also include building of small dams for production of hydropower, establishment of specialised hospitals and a six per cent jobs quota for Baloch domicile holders in the federal govrnment. The PTI government would also strive to promptly resolve Gawadars water crisis.



Later in the day, Mengal also met PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.



Zardari went to the parliament lodges where he met with the BNP leader, sources said. The meeting revolved around the presidential elections and contemporary situation in Balochistan.



Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) finalised preparations for the election for which polling stations were set up at all four provincial assemblies and the National Assembly. The ballot papers and other related equipment was shifted to polling stations.



The chief justices of respective high courts will serve as presiding officers during the polling process. The Chief Election Commissioner will serve as the Returning Officer. The name of PPPs Aitzaz Ahsan is displayed on the top of the ballot paper, while the name of PTIs Arif Alvi comes after him, followed by Maulana Fazlur Rehmans name.



The code of conduct for the presidential election was also issued according to which Senators, MNAs, and MPAs would not be allowed to carry their cell phones, while casting the vote.Pak-Afghan renewed their confidence in APAPPS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday renewed their confidence in Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) as the most comprehensive mechanism for bilateral dialogue on issues of concern to the two countries.



This was agreed during a telephonic conversation between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani. The Afghan foreign minister had called Mr Qureshi to greet him on his appointment as foreign minister.



Mr Qureshi too had in one of his earlier pressers expressed his desire to speak to his Afghan counterpart and visit Kabul.



Both sides appreciated recent improvement in relations since the launch of the APAPPS process in May 2018. It was noted that the framework provided the most comprehensive institutional mechanism to discuss all mutual issues, a statement on the conversation issued by the Foreign Office read.



Marked improvement in relations was observed since the two sides agreed to operationalise APAPPS  the new bilateral ties framework. However, the Afghan side began questioning its efficacy after the recent upsurge in violence, particularly after the Ghazni attack.



Kabul had alleged that the Ghazni attack had been carried out by militants backed by Islamabad.



President Ghani went public with his frustration when he said: Gen Bajwa, you signed a document with us and told me repeatedly in our conversations over the phone that when elections (in Pakistan) are over you will pay attention to it. I need answers now.From where they came and why are they receiving treatment in your hospitals.



It now looks Afghanistan is again ready to engage with Pakistan under APAPPS.



The two leaders agreed that the next round of APAPPS would soon be held in Islamabad, the FO said. The two foreign ministers also welcomed the holding of joint Pak-Afghan Ulema Conference in Islamabad, the dates for which are being finalised.



During the conversation, Mr Qureshi also touched upon the partial suspension of working of Pakistans consulate in Jalalabad over interference by the provincial governor and removal of security barriers around the missions premises.



Mr Qureshi requested the Afghan government for restoring the previous security arrangements existing till 28th August, 2018, so that the Consulate Generals normal functioning could be resumed at the earliest, the FO said.



Foreign Minister Rabbani, the statement said, reassured a positive outcome soon in this regard and recalled his meeting with the ambassador of Pakistan in Kabul yesterday.Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship."The previous Portals described how Chinese Americans in 19th century San Francisco were subjected to racist city and state school laws. From 1871 to 1885, they were denied access to any public schools at all. It took a historic court case to force the city and state to provide schools  albeit separate ones  for Chinese residents of the city.

In September 1884, a Chinese woman named Mary Tape dressed her 8-year-old daughter, Mamie, in a checkered pinafore, tied a ribbon in her braid and took her to Spring Valley Primary School, a one-story wooden building on Union Street between Franklin and Gough streets. The schools principal, Jennie Hurley, was uncertain what to do and appealed to the citys new superintendent of schools, a virulent Southern racist named Andrew Jackson Moulder.

Moulder, who in his previous incarnation as state superintendent of schools had been largely responsible for Californias anti-Chinese school laws, refused to admit Mamie. Her father, Joseph Tape, appealed to the Chinese Consulate for help."PM,Speaker NA discussed amending NA rules

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Monday discussed amending rules in order to ensure the former could respond to questions on different government matters in the house every fortnight.



The speaker during the meeting also apprised the prime minister about the expenses incurred by the NA.



The meeting discussed how the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly-2007 could be amended so that the prime minister could reply to the queries of the opposition in the house during what is called Prime Ministers Hour.



In 2012, the rules of the Senate were amended under which one hour was allocated for the prime minister to give reply to the questions.



Rule 61 of the Senate says: The prime minister shall whenever possible personally respond to points raised by members whenever he is present in the house. However, the prime minister shall attend the Prime Ministers Zero Hour at least once in each week when the Senate is in session.



Talking to reporters Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said although the prime minister could speak on the floor of the NA any time, necessary amendment to rules was required to allocate Prime Ministers Hour once in a fortnight.



Besides, the prime minister at another meeting reiterated his commitment to build five million housing units at affordable prices without removing Kutchi Abadis in urban areas.



Construction of low-cost and affordable five million houses is the foremost priority of the government which would not only address housing issues of the people especially in the major cities but would also promote economic growth and create job opportunities, the prime minister said while presiding over a meeting.



Simultaneously, we have to devise a comprehensive mechanism for regulating Kutchi Abadis and slums without dislocating poor people and ensuring provision of all civic amenities to the people in those areas, he added.



Yaqoob Izhar, Najeeb Haroon, Arshad Dad, Housing and Works Secretary Dr Imran Zeb Khan, Law Secretary retired Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha and other senior officers attended the meeting.



During the meeting the prime minister, after a detailed discussion on various international models and road-map for addressing the issue of housing, formed a committee under housing and works secretary to devise a comprehensive and coherent plan of action, in consultation with relevant experts and representatives of concerned departments, taking into account all aspects including the legal framework, availability of the land bank and raising of required resources for smooth implementation of the project.



The committee would submit its initial recommendations to the prime minister within one week.



Mr Khan emphasised that the private sector should be encouraged and maximum facilitation be extended to those who would be partnering with the government in the implementation of 5 Million Housing Programme.



Meanwhile, Prime Minister Khan formed a committee headed by Attorney General Anwar Mansoor to make necessary laws to curb smuggling and illegal channels of money transfer from and to Pakistan called Hawala and Hundi.



The committee will submit its report within a week.Suspension of security assistance to Pakistan is not a new decision: USA

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon on Monday dispelled the impression that the United States had cancelled its assistance to Pakistan.



In a statement, Pentagon spokesperson Lt Col Kone Faulkner explained that the suspension of security assistance to Pakistan was announced in January 2018 and on Saturday the Pentagon asked Congress to reprogramme a suspended amount of about $300 million that Pakistan was to receive from the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).



CSF is included in the suspension and it remains in place. This is not a new decision or a new announcement, but acknowledgement of a July request to reprogramme funds before they expire, he said.



The explanation sends a message to the new Pakistani government that Washington wants to give Prime Minister Imran Khan and his team some space to familiarise themselves with the issues they would be dealing with. Any new decision affecting US-Pakistan relations will only be made after Washington has had enough interaction with the Pakistani leadership to understand how it operates.



Yet, the Pentagon official minced no words in stressing how Washington wants to rebuild its relationship with Islamabad.



Since January, we have consistently engaged with Pakistani military officials at the highest levels, based on both a shared commitment to defeat all terrorist groups that threaten regional stability and security, as well as on a shared vision of a peaceful future for Afghanistan, Col Faulkner said.



We continue to press Pakistan to indiscriminately target all terrorist groups, including the Haqqani network and we continue to call on Pakistan to arrest, expel or bring the Taliban leadership to the negotiating table.



The Pentagon official also said that the US definition of terrorist groups includes Lashkar-e-Taiba, which focuses on India, not Afghanistan.



Col Faulkner pointed out that Washington announced its decision to suspend US security assistance to Pakistan in January and in July the remaining $300m was reprogrammed due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the (Trump administrations) South Asia Strategy.



The funds would expire on Sept 30, if not reprogrammed.



The emphasis on forcing the Taliban to join the Afghan peace process confirms the general perception in Washington that President Donald Trump wants some stability in Afghanistan before November, when Americans elect a new Congress. Political observers in Washington say Mr Trump believes this could have a positive impact on the elections.



The 17-year-old Afghan war is also Americas longest and the Trump administration wants to end this in a manner that allows Mr Trump to claim he brought peace to Afghanistan.New UK drama White Dragon, starring John Simm is getting fast-tracked on BBC First.

Simm stars as a professor whose world comes crashing down when his wife is killed in a car crash in Hong Kong.

The 8 part series conspiracy thriller, which will air in the UK as Strangers, is written by newcomers Mark Denton and Jonny Stockwood, and directed by Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton, Murdered by My Boyfriend, Broadchurch). It is also produced by Harry and Jack Williams (The Missing).

It also features Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Emilia Fox and Aussie Anthony Hayes.

This will air just a day after its UK debut on September 12.

British Professor Jonah Mulrays life is turned upside-down after his wife, Megan, is killed in a car-crash in Hong Kong. Though his wife lived and worked there for six months, Jonahs fear of flying has kept him in London. Now forced to abandon his sheltered life, he must venture across the world to identify her body.

When Jonah arrives, he is immediately overwhelmed by the neon-saturated hyper-modern island of Hong Kong, a place in constant motion, and a world away from the halls of academia. Its a city divided, with one foot still in its colonial past and another in its Chinese future.

Then Jonah discovers that Megan led a secret life. It seems to completely destroy everything they built together in London. With Megans death leaving so many unanswered questions, Jonah struggles to make sense of it. Did their relationship amount to anything more than a lie? Jonah is drawn deeper and deeper into a web of conspiracy as he comes to terms with this utterly alien and unfamiliar environment, battling to uncover the truth about his wifes death.

John Simm plays Jonah Mulray, Dervla Kirwan is Megan and Emilia Fox plays Sally, a British consul who is trying to assist in the unravelling of the mystery.

8:30pm Wednesday September 12 on BBC First.UK thriller Bodyguard starring Keeley Hawes has become the biggest new drama on British television in a decade.

The series by Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty) tells the story of a heroic but volatile war veteran (Richard Madden) assigned to protect the Home Secretary (Hawes) whose politics run contrary to his own. Responsible for her safety, is he actually her biggest threat?

It has received a consolidated figure of 10.4 million UK viewers, the highest launch figure for any new drama across all UK channels since 2006. That was an increase of 3.6m on its overnight audience (6.8m), an impressive uplift of 54%.

Bodyguard is also the number one drama of 2018 so far including as the biggest non-soap drama of the year for 16-34 year olds.

On BBC iPlayer, Bodyguard has broken drama debut records  with episode one getting 2.2million requests in its first seven days.

The success of Bodyguard is a tribute to the magnetism of our two leads, Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes. Im exceedingly grateful to World Productions and to the BBC who have supported the project throughout production, and to the viewers whove responded with such enthusiasm, says Mercurio.

Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content, says: Im thrilled with the response to BBC Ones new Sunday night drama Bodyguard, the figures are extraordinary and all credit to the mastermind creator and writer Jed Mercurio who is surprising the audience at every turn.

It is yet to be confirmed for the Australian market, but is likely to head to BBC First.A controversial Sunrise segment which led to protests from Indigenous communities has been found to be in breach of the Code of Practice, but Seven may appeal the finding.

The March segment which discussed a newspaper story about claiming Indigenous children could only be placed with relatives or other Indigenous families, was inaccurate and in breach of the Code.

At the centre of the breach was this exchange:

Sam Armytage : Prue, I guess post-Stolen Generation theres been this huge move to leave Aboriginal children where they are, even if theyre being neglected in their own families. Should white families be allowed to adopt at-risk Aboriginal children?

Prue MacSween: to think that we would knowingly  and the statistics prove it  knowing that were going to leave them in these dangerous environments is just not on.

While Seven maintained the segment repeated a statement from the Courier Mail, media watchdog the Australian Communications and Media Authority concluded that would have conveyed to viewers that current rules provide that Indigenous children can only be placed with relatives or other Indigenous families, and not with non-Indigenous carers.

It ruled that as inaccurate and said Seven should have taken steps to verify it before it was used for a panel discussion.

The ACMA investigation also found that the segment provoked serious contempt on the basis of race in breach of the Code as it contained strong negative generalisations about Indigenous people as a group. These included sweeping references to a generation of young Indigenous children being abused. While it may not have been Sevens intention, by implication the segment conveyed that children left in Indigenous families would be abused and neglected, in contrast to non-Indigenous families where they would be protected.

The segment led to ongoing community protests outside Sunrise studios and on the Gold Coast, with demands for an apology and sackings.

Broadcasters can, of course, discuss matters of public interest, including extremely sensitive topics such as child abuse in Indigenous communities. However, such matters should be discussed with care, with editorial framing to ensure compliance with the Code, said ACMA Chair, Nerida OLoughlin.

The ACMA considers that the high threshold for this breach finding was met, given the strong negative generalisations about Indigenous people as a group, added Ms OLoughlin.

ACMA noted a follow-up segment broadcast by Sunrise the following week was a more informed discussion but did not correct the earlier error appropriately.

Since the community backlash over the segment, Prue MacSween has not appeared as a commentator on Sunrise.

ACMA says it is in discussions with Seven about its response to the breach noting that Seven may yet appeal the finding.

Update: Statement from Craig McPherson, Director of News and Public Affairs:

We are extremely disappointed the ACMA has seen fit to cast a label on a segment that covered an important matter of public interest, child abuse, sparked by comments attributed to a Government minister and widely circulated in the press on the morning of the broadcast.

While the ACMA recognises the segment was underpinned by concern for the welfare of Indigenous children, it has isolated comments from independent commentators without any context to the broader coverage given to this topic.

The coverage included a detailed follow-up segment on Sunrise featuring expert analysis from leading Aboriginal leaders and academics who expressed appreciation this issue was finally being raised in mainstream media.

The irony is that the very issue the commentators were critical of, that is political correctness preventing meaningful discussion and action, has come to bear with this finding.

The finding seeks to rule out issues and topics for discussion segments, as determined by ACMA. Its decision is a form of censorship; a direct assault on the workings of an independent media and the thousands of issue-based segments covered every year by Sunrise, other like programs, newspapers and talkback radio.

The 7 Network will be seeking a judicial appeal.Botswana, considered the last refuge of elephants in Africa, disarmed their anti-poaching units in May this year. The country fast became a killing zone and Elephants Without Borders reported 87 elephants found stripped of their tusks near the Okavango Delta wildlife sanctuary. BBC reported that the extent of the slaughter shocked those people carrying out wildlife game counts.

Dr. Mike Chase said that they expected an increase in poaching in the country as two years ago it started to rise near the borders of the country. The concern with 87 recent carcasses is that the killing happened well inside the country.

Chase explained he was "shocked," adding, "I'm completely astounded. The scale of elephant poaching is by far the largest I've seen or read about anywhere in Africa to date."

Nearly 90 elephants found poached after disarming wildlife officials

The dead elephants were found while carrying out the Botswana government's elephant census. According to Chase, most of the deaths were recent. Additionally, they located the bodies of white rhinos. National Public Radio US obtained the "Elephant Poaching Incident Report Reference" which said that these kills were assumed to have been carried out by poachers. Attempts were made to hide the bodies under scrub. Tusks were hacked out of their faces and the carcasses left to rot.

Botswana relies on tourism to support thousands of local people. Until now, the country was thought to be the last safe place for the herds. Across Southern Africa, from countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe, the animals became increasingly under pressure. The relentless slaughter for ivory elsewhere meant Botswana could boast the largest population of the animals.

However, within a matter of weeks after then-president Ian Khama retired from politics in April 2018, the incoming president disarmed the anti-poaching units.

Withdrawal of weapons from poaching units not explained

President Mokgweetsi Masisi almost immediately withdrew weapons from the national parks and wildlife services but no explanation was offered.

The country previously had a "shoot to kill" anti-poaching policy in place. Disarming the officials who protect the wildlife resulted in something almost anyone could have predicted - open house slaughter within protected areas.

Botswana, long seen to be the flagship of wildlife protection in Africa made some controversial decisions recently. Commercial hunting bans introduced in 2014 reported on in 2015 by the Guardian were greeted with joy by the anti-hunting lobby. However, it led to the loss of jobs in the sector. Elephants that could still migrate previously used the water holes in hunting areas to trek through to Zimbabwe. With the loss of the water stops, there were fears of a die out.

Additionally, as local communities became disenfranchised from the closure of the hunting sector, they turned to other ways to earn money from wildlife. The easiest profitable cash source comes from poaching.

Controversial hunting ban

At the time of the hunting ban, Democracy Works spokesperson Olmo von Meijenfeldt cautioned that poaching would increase if the income from hunting was taken away. They noted that while Botswana appeared to be at the "cutting edge of conservation," that "one has to be cautionary with the ban on hunting because the effect could be that poaching will increase." The Guardian quoted him as adding that "communities might be forced through economic pressures to supplement the income that was lost through participating in the hunting industry. Apparently, there seems to be no easy solution to the wildlife problems in Africa, whether through controlled hunting bans, or poaching pressure.

It was noted by the Guardian that Julian Rademeyer, a "South African journalist and author of an expose of the global trafficking trade entitled "Killing for Profit," said: I dont think were on top of it. I think it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Sadly, since then that toll of elephants took on a grim increase.

Botswana's glittering elephant protection crown severely tarnished

It seems that Botswana's glittering conservation crown is now severely tarnished. The country became the top destination for those able to afford something millions of others only experience in documentaries. The tourism sector generated 227m in 2014. The decimation of the elephant herds will likely lower that figure substantially.

The country boasted the opportunity to shoot with the camera only. However, who will bother to travel to a country where the elephant slaughter means that soon there won't be any elephants left to photograph? Increasingly, other animals join the tragic demands of wildlife trafficking. Pangolins, giraffes, lion, and cheetah all go to feed the insatiable demand in Asia and elsewhere.

Critical danger to elephant population and tourism sector

In the words of Chase cited by the BBC, "Our new president must uphold Botswana's legacy and tackle this problem quickly. Tourism is vitally important for our economy, jobs, as well as our international reputation, which is at stake here as being a safe stronghold for elephants."Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet speaks from her office at the Palais Wilson on her first day as new United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, September 3, 2018. Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via REUTERS

Thomson Reuters

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who took the helm of the U.N. human rights office on Monday, will need a strong voice in confronting populists and crises marked by war crimes, activists said.

Bachelet swiftly called on Myanmar to free two Reuters journalists convicted earlier in the day for their reporting on the crackdown on Rohingya.

Bachelet was chosen by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to succeed Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein of Jordan and the appointment was approved by the General Assembly last month.

She was tortured during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet but later rose to serve twice as Chile's president.

She inherits an inbox that includes conflicts in Yemen and Syria and crises in Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Just last week independent U.N. investigators said that six Myanmar generals should be prosecuted for "genocidal intent" and another expert panel said that some air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen may amount to war crimes.

"This is an extraordinarily challenging time for human rights, given the rise of autocratic populists, the increasingly muscular hostility of China and Russia, the loss of the US and often the UK as voices for human rights, and a leadership void making possible a proliferation of atrocities in such places as Syria, Yemen, and Myanmar," Ken Roth, executive-director of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

But he said some governments and U.N. officials hope she will be "quieter and more selective" than Zeid who criticized governments in China, Israel, Russia and the United States.

The U.N. Human Rights Council, which opens a three-week session on Sept 10, is due to hold a debate on extending the mandate of its investigators on Yemen. It will also examine the next steps toward ensuring justice in Myanmar.

Zeid left a political hot potato after saying in January that his office had found 206 companies doing business linked to unlawful Israeli settlements in the West Bank and urging them to avoid any complicity in "pervasive" violations against Palestinians. His report did not name the companies and said that its database was not yet complete.

Story continues

"The immediate test she has got in terms of taking on the Council is the settlements database," Roth said, saying that Bachelet should not delay publication of the list.

Another activist group, UN Watch, said last month that Bachelet has "a controversial record when it comes to her support for the human rights abusing governments who rule Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and we need to know how she plans to address these urgent situations."

Zeid, asked last week his advice to Bachelet, told reporters: "To very much continue along the same trajectory."

(Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

See Also:COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Shares in Danske Bank <DANSKE.CO> fell more than 6 percent on Tuesday after a media report suggested a money laundering scandal centred on its Estonian branch could be bigger than previously thought.

The Danish bank handled up to $30 billion of Russian and ex-Soviet money through non-resident accounts via its Estonian branch in 2013 alone, according to an independent investigation, the Financial Times reported late on Monday.

The non-resident portfolio at the Estonian branch has been at the centre of allegations that the bank had flawed money laundering controls from 2007 to 2015, which has led to criminal investigations in both Denmark and Estonia.

A Danish newspaper report in July said that Danske laundered up to $8.3 billion in Estonia in 2007-2015.

Danske Bank has admitted to flaws in its anti-money laundering controls in Estonia and has launched its own inquiry, the results of which are expected this month. It was not able to verify the FT report.

"The matter is very complex, and no conclusion as to the number of suspicious customers or transactions - or indeed the extent of potential money laundering - can be drawn from any individual pieces of information taken out of context," the bank said in a statement.

Shares fell 6.3 percent to 177.30 Danish crowns at 0925 GMT, near the lowest level since July 2016. Shares traded as low as 173.30 crowns on July 18, when the bank said it would forego profits made from transactions in Estonia that are subject to money laundering investigations.

The latest report could add to the pressure on Chief Executive Thomas Borgen, who was in charge of international banking, including Estonia, from 2009 to 2012. He got the top job at Danske in 2013.

In another money laundering case, Dutch bank ING <INGA.AS> said Tuesday it will pay 775 million euros ($900 million) in a settlement with prosecutors.

Gross profits from its non-resident portfolio in Estonia between 2007 and 2015 amounted to 1.5 billion Danish crowns ($233 million), but it was not clear how much of that amount Danske would waive, it said in July.

Story continues

The FT said the findings on the non-resident portfolio were contained in a draft report by consultancy Promontory Financial commissioned by Danske Bank.

Promotory Financial was not immediately available for comment when contacted by phone.

A Danske spokesman highlighted the need to distinguish between gross flows in Estonia, potentially suspicious flows, and transactions with a clear illegal purpose.

He said Danske remains on track to publish the findings of its investigation this month and that the FT report would not prompt the bank to speed up release of the investigations.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Keith Weir)By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers will this week discuss proposals to adopt a tax on companies' digital turnover by the end of the year, a document prepared by the Austrian presidency of the bloc said.

EU governments agree that tax rules should be changed to increase levies on digital services that are currently undertaxed, but are at odds on the process to reach this target.

Smaller states with lower tax rates such as Luxembourg and Ireland, which host large American multinationals, want EU changes to come together with a global reform of digital taxation, which has been under discussion for years to no avail.

Larger states, such as France and Italy, which claim to have lost millions of euros of tax revenue due to digital giants' shift of taxable profits to lower-tax countries, want a quick solution.

They support the European Commission's proposal for an EU-wide 3 percent tax on digital revenues of large firms that would be introduced before a global overhaul of tax rules.

Austria, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, intends to move forward with the 3 percent tax plan, it said in a paper seen by Reuters that will feed into discussions on the subject at a meeting of EU finance ministers on Friday and Saturday in Vienna.

While waiting for a global deal, EU states "face the risk of erosion of the corporate taxation bases already now and might be tempted to act unilaterally," the Austrian document said, urging "a uniform approach" for an interim EU solution based on the Commission proposal.

Eleven of the 28 EU states are already considering their own national measures, the document said, warning against the risk to the EU common market if no common plan was quickly agreed.

Austria will ask ministers whether they agree on focussing work on a EU temporary solution that should be agreed upon by the end of the year, according to the paper.

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To overcome some of the criticism of the measure, Vienna is proposing to reduce the scope of the tax, which would no longer be applied to the sale of users' data as in the Commission proposal.

Only revenue from online advertising services, in which Google <GOOGL.O> and Facebook <FB.O> excel, and from virtual marketplaces, such as Amazon <AMZN.O>, would be subject to the new tax, under the Austrian plan.

In line with the Commission's proposal, only firms with a global annual turnover of 750 million euros and EU revenue of at least 50 million euros a year would be taxable.

Some 200 companies would fall within the scope of the new tax proposed by the Commission, European officials said, estimating additional annual revenues of about 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) at EU level.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by David Evans)Voting started for presidential election

ISLAMABAD: Voting has started in the National Assembly, Senate, and Punjab and KPK assemblies as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Arif Alvi, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate and joint-oppositions Fazlur Rehman contest for presidency.



The process of voting will continue till 4pm in the evening, while a total of 1,021 individuals are registered to vote.



PTI nominated Arif Alvi, who triumphed in general elections 2018 from NA-247, while PPP nominated Aitzaz Ahsan despite reservations of the opposition alliance  especially Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)  which then chose to put forward the name of Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman.



Media reports suggested that a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) delegation visited Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the candidate of all remaining opposition parties, and urged him to consider withdrawing his name.



The maulana apparently agreed on the condition that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership supported the move.



Candidates profiles:



PTIs Arif Alvi has a graduate degree in dentistry from the DeMontmorency College of Dentistry in Lahore. He started his political career during student years when he was a member of Jamaat Islamis student wing Islami Jamiat Talaba. He remained with the JI before joining the PTI when it was launched in 1996-97.



Maulana Fazlur Rehman followed in his father Mufti Mahmoods footsteps and got inducted into the party of Deobani religious scholars Jamiat Ulema Islam. He became the secretary general of the party following his fathers death. In the 1980s, a leadership row led to a split in the party and Rahman formed his own faction JUI-F. He has won several elections from his home seat in Dera Ismail Khan, facing his first defeat to a PTI candidate this July.



Aitzaz Ahsan has a law degree from the Downing College in Cambridge. In 1967, he was called to the bar at the Grays Inn. He has been a lifelong member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland fell slightly behind its tax revenue target for 2018 at the end of August after it collected 0.3 percent less than planned due to underperformance in three of the four main tax categories.

While surging corporate tax receipts were 6.8 percent ahead of target in the first eight months, income tax and value-added tax, the two largest tax categories, fell 0.2 percent and 0.9 percent below target. Excise duty was also 6.7 percent behind target at the end of August.

The total tax take, however, was still 5.1 percent up year-on-year, thanks to Ireland's booming economy.

Expenditure was 0.7 percent behind where the government had estimated to record an exchequer deficit of 1.8 billion euros. The government expects to run a deficit of 0.2 percent of economic output this year, although the central bank has urged it to be more prudent and target a surplus.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Alison Williams)FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past posters of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algiers, Algeria April 9, 2018. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina/File Photo

Thomson Reuters

By Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been dismissing generals to tighten his grip on power ahead of him possibly seeking re-election next year and to diminish the power of the military, analysts and diplomats said.

Two weeks ago, Bouteflika, 81, sacked two more generals, bringing the number of dismissed top military figures to about a dozen in the last few months alone.

The firings point to an accelerating security reform launched several years ago to transform Algerias politically oriented military into a more professional body, political sources told Reuters.

Easing the grip of an army dominating the OPEC oil producer since the 1954-1962 independence war with France will take time.

But the first results can been seen -- dismissals that once caused tremors in the secretive North African country now seem routine.

"Generals used to sack, not to be sacked," said one retired intelligence officer, asking like others not to get named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

"Decisions used to be taken at Tagarins, now they are taken at Zeralda," he added.

Tagarins is the location of the defense ministry in central Algiers, while Bouteflika works in the coastal village of Zeralda, 20 km (12 miles) west of the capital.

When Bouteflika was first elected in 1999, the army and the intelligence services were seen as the real holders of power.

Now, amid speculation that he will bow to calls from the ruling party to run for a possible fifth term in presidential elections in 2019 despite health concerns, Bouteflika has been concentrating power in his inner non-military circle.

Key players are now his youngest brother Said Bouteflika, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and Interior Minister Nouredine Bedoui.

The recent sackings include four regional commanders, the head of military intelligence and several generals at the defense ministry, as well as police chief and army officer Abdelghani Hamel.

Story continues

INVESTORS

Before this year's cull, Bouteflika had already sacked in 2015 the top intelligence chief, Mohamed Mediene, and tens of senior generals in the intelligence services.

He also replaced the main intelligence agency DRS with a new body called CSS led by a retired general, Athmane Tartag -- it reports to the presidency, not to the military like before.

"It is a long process, the goal is to make the military more professional, and away from politics," said Arslan Chikhaoui, chairman of a consultancy firm.

Changes in Algeria are closely watched as the country is a key ally in the Western fight against jihadism in the region and a top energy supplier to Europe.

If the shift away from the army continues, this might help investors tired of visa or project applications becoming stuck in a bureaucracy dominated by military and security figures suspicious of foreigners.

"That will be welcome news for foreign direct investors who will see the step as further normalization of the decision making process within the government," said Geoff Porter, head of North Africa Risk Consulting.

Algeria wants to drum up more investment for its oil and gas sector to end years of stalling output.

Bouteflika hired in March 2017 a U.S.-trained new CEO to revamp state firm Sonatrach who has been rebuilding ties with oil majors who had lost interest in Algeria due to red tape, disputes and tough terms.

The biggest risk remains the health of Bouteflika who has rarely been seen in public since a stroke in 2013 confined him to a wheel chair. A reminder of this was his trip last week to Switzerland to conduct what the presidency described as routine tests.

(Editing by Ulf Laessing and William Maclean)

See Also:BEIJING (Reuters) - China's state broadcaster issued an apology on Sunday after parents complained that a compulsory television program targeted at millions of school children was preceded by almost a quarter of an hour of non-stop advertising.

All elementary and middle school students and their parents were told by the education ministry to watch the program "First Lesson of New Semester" at 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Saturday.

The program, produced by CCTV and the education ministry since 2008, is aired on Sept. 1 every year to mark the start of the new school calendar after a two-month summer break. This year, the program focused on the "spirit of creativity" as China observed its 40th year of opening up.

But TV viewers had to sit through 12 minutes of advertisements on cars and scooters, home appliances, toothpaste and stationery.

"We sincerely apologize to parents and students for the long TV commercials ahead of the program," the state broadcaster CCTV wrote on Weibo, a popular Twitter-like microblog.

The commercials were dominated by ads on after-school tutoring in a country where a growing middle class is able to afford extra classes aimed at improving the chances of getting better grades and a stab at scholastic glory.

"Are you so short of money?" wrote one Weibo user.

The outcry over the commercials coincided with protests by parents over the weekend in a city in southern China about school enrolment.

Police on Sunday detained 46 people in Leiyang city in Hunan province after bottles, bricks and firecrackers were thrown at officers and government officials during a 600-strong protest.

Many parents also expressed disapproval over the choice of an all-male pop band for the program's opening musical act, saying they were too "effeminate".

"Can we find someone who is more masculine? If our youth is effeminate, so will the country be," one angry parent wrote on Weibo.

Story continues

(Reporting by Lusha Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

See Also:Children differ widely in how well they do at school. In recent years, researchers have shown that around two-thirds of differences in school achievement can be explained by differences in childrens genes.

Genes have been shown to influence how well children do at primary school, at the end of compulsory education, and even in different subjects. However, less is known about how genetic and environmental factors contribute to how well a child continues to do academically throughout their time at school.

To study this, we used a sample of over 6,000 pairs of twins who are part of the UK-representative Twins Early Development Study and analysed their test scores from primary school to the end of compulsory education. Our new research found that the twins educational achievement was remarkably stable: children who do well in primary school also tend to perform well in GCSE exams, taken at the end of compulsory education.

Using twins allows us to estimate the proportion of differences that can be explained by genetic factors. Identical twins share 100% of their genes, while non-identical twins share on average 50% of the genes that differ between people, just like other siblings. If identical twins are more alike on a particular trait than non-identical twins, such as school achievement, we can infer that it is influenced by their genes. We can then estimate the heritability of that trait  or the proportion of differences that are down to the differences in childrens DNA sequence.

Read more: The same genes influence exam results across a range of school subjects

We looked at what factors influenced stability in educational achievement  when grades in a standardised test remain similar between primary and secondary school. We found that about 70% of the stability in achievement is explained by genetic factors, while 25% is accounted for by the twins shared environment, such as growing up in the same family and attending the same school. The remaining 5% was explained by their non-shared environment, such as different friends or different teachers.

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When there was a change in educational achievement  where grades increased or dropped between primary and secondary school  we found this was largely explained by those environmental factors that are not shared by twins.

Its reasonable to assume that this substantial influence of genes on the continuity of childrens achievement during their time at school can be explained by intelligence. Yet we found the influence of genes remained substantial  at 60%  even after accounting for intelligence, which was measured using several verbal and nonverbal tests taken by the twins over the course of childhood and adolescence.

Predicting achievement using DNA

While twin study estimates such as this can tell us about traits within large groups of people, recent scientific advances are revealing more about the influence of genes on the individual. There has been considerable recent success in identifying genetic variants associated with educational attainment through what are called genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These studies pinpoint genetic markers associated with certain traits. However, each genetic marker explains a very small proportion (less than 0.1%) of the individual differences in school performance.

A more powerful method was recently developed that sums up thousands of the genetic markers found in the GWAS studies to instead calculate a genome-wide polygenic score. This score is now being used, with increasing levels of accuracy, to predict variance in a trait, such as school achievement, for people unrelated to each other.

Read more: Your genes can help predict how well you'll do in school  here's how we cracked it

As part of our new study, we used data from previous GWAS analyses to create a polygenic score for education attainment. We calculated a score for one of each pair of our 6,000 sets of twins (so that everybody in this part of the study was unrelated). This predicted whether they would do well across their time at school. These predictions ranged from accounting for 4% of the variance in educational attainment at the start of primary school, to 10% of the variance at GCSE levels. Our findings confirmed the results from the first part of our twins analysis  that the same genetic variants play a role in explaining why children differ in achievement at every stage in development.

To hear more about Twins studies and why they are so important for science, listen to the Twins episode of The Anthill podcast.

Our findings, which suggest that genes influence how well a child will do across the length of their time at school, should provide additional motivation to identify children in need of interventions as early as possible, as problems are likely to remain throughout the school years. In the future, polygenic score prediction, together with the prediction of environmental risks  such as exposure to certain neighbourhood, family, and school characteristics  might provide a tool to identify children with educational problems very early in life. They could then be provided with individualised learning programmes.

For example, we could use DNA tests at birth to identify children at genetic risk for developing reading problems, and give them early intervention. As preventive interventions have greater chances of succeeding early in life, a great strength of polygenic scores is that they can predict at birth just as well as later in life, which could be of particular help for those children who are likely to struggle the most.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia has agreed with Singapore to postpone the development of a high-speed rail service by two years, Malaysian media reported, as Southeast Asia's third-largest economy looks to review mega projects to cut its massive debt.

Malaysian business weekly The Edge on Saturday cited sources confirming both countries agreed to postpone the project to May 31, 2020 at no penalty to either, to allow Malaysia time to review its finances.

A senior Malaysian minister on Monday confirmed the sides have agreed to postpone the project at no penalty, and that details would be made clear when a new agreement is signed soon.

"We have agreed to a reasonable period," Azmin told reporters at an event when asked how long the project would be postponed, in a recording reviewed by Reuters.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad declared his intention to cancel the project just weeks after leading his coalition to victory in a general election in May.

Azmin said Malaysia is committed to the project, but that it would need to be more affordable.

"We want to continue with this project because it will bring good to both countries," Azmin said. "However, over the course of the postponement we will discuss ways to reduce the cost."

Azmin's office did not respond to requests for details of the postponement.

Singapore's Ministry of Transport declined to comment, referring queries to a Facebook post by its minister, Khaw Boon Wan, in which he said a decision would be announced "soon".

In July, Singapore said it would seek to recover over S$250 million ($182.44 million) in costs incurred to date should Malaysia cancel the project.

Mahathir, who launched a review of all multi-billion dollar projects approved by his predecessor, said Malaysia would look to negotiate a deferment of the project to reduce any burden of compensation.

($1 = 1.3703 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Joseph Sipalan in KUALA LUMPUR and Fathin Ungku in SINGAPORE; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

See Also:Sky News

The sight of an extremely rare radiated tortoise inching its way along the dusty curb of a road in southern Madagascar is emblematic of what the country is going through. The creature, with its unusual high shield and distinctive yellow markings, is critically endangered. In a land where more than 90% of the human population are said to be living below the poverty line, earning the equivalent of less than $2 a day, the temptation to plunder the country's natural resources is overwhelming for some - especially when many are struggling to live, eat, survive.The Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte paid a visit to Jerusalems national Holocaust memorial on the second day of his controversial visit to Israel, branding the Nazi leader "insane" as he lamented the genocide of six million Jews.

The comments marked a dramatic turnaround for Duterte, who just two years ago had compared his anti-drug campaign to the Holocaust and said he would be "happy to slaughter" three million addicts. He later apologised.

Duterte, known for his profane outbursts and accused of committing widespread human rights abuses, spoke quietly and respectfully during his stop at the Yad Vashem memorial. He said the Holocaust should never be repeated and that "despots" have no place in the modern world.

"I could not imagine a country obeying an insane leader, and I could not ever fathom the spectacle of the human being going into a killing spree, murdering old men, women and children. I hope this will not happen again," he said.

"There is always a lesson to learn: that despots and leaders who show insanity, they should be disposed of at the first instance," he said.

Duterte, the first Philippine president to visit Israel, has received a warm welcome from the government, despite criticism that it is embracing a leader accused of rights abuses in his deadly crackdown on drug dealers.

The agenda is expected to include an arms sale to the Philippines. Israel agreed in the past to sell assault rifles to the Philippines national police force.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked Monday on the countries' long friendship. He said the Philippines took in Jewish refugees after World War II and was the only Asian nation to vote for Israel's establishment. He noted that Filipino health aides now assist the elderly in Israel, including Netanyahu's father.

"We remember our friends, and that friendship has blossomed over the years and especially over the last few years," Netanyahu told Duterte. "There has been a remarkable phenomenon in Israel where thousands and thousands of families have taken heart from the support given by Filipino caretakers for the elderly."

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Duterte, who will inaugurate a memorial near Tel Aviv on Wednesday commemorating the Philippines' acceptance of Jews fleeing the Holocaust, thanked Israel for hosting some 28,000 Filipino workers and for assisting his country in times of need.

"We share the same passion for peace. We share the same passion for human beings. But also we share the same passion of not allowing our country to be destroyed by those who have the corrupt ideology, who know nothing but to kill and destroy," he said at a joint appearance with Netanyahu.

Whitewash

The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1957. Netanyahu has worked to cultivate new allies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where many countries have historically sided with the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel, to help chip away at the number of anti-Israel votes at the United Nations.

But Netanyahu has come under fire for embracing Duterte, a 73-year-old former government prosecutor whose forces are accused of killing thousands in anti-drug raids since he took office in 2016.

Duterte drew outrage that year when he compared his anti-drug campaign to the Holocaust and himself to Hitler. More recently, he forcibly kissed a woman on stage and said there would be many rape cases in a Philippine city "if there were many beautiful women".

Netanyahu "is willing to whitewash an illegitimate leader, who took pride in massacring his citizens and violating human rights, and why?" Tamar Zandberg, head of the leftist Meretz party, wrote on Facebook.

"Because Duterte is willing to support the occupation (of the West Bank)," Zandberg added.

Members of Netanyahus own Likud party also expressed reservations, with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee chairman Avi Dichter stating: It may be that we have to take a pill against nausea to receive him."

In its lead editorial Monday, the liberal Haaretz daily accused Netanyahu of selling out Israeli values for dubious allies.

"Under the shadow of Duterte's visit, Israel once again proves it's willing to overlook leaders' human rights violations for the sake of opportunities for arms deals and defence contracts," the newspaper said.

Drawing a parallel with Netanyahus embrace of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an admirer of Hungarys Nazi-allied World War II leader Miklos Horthy, Haaretz said Dutertes visit was consistent with the Israeli prime ministers diplomatic worldview, under which its necessary to bolster ties with leaders of countries where liberal values arent high priority, to say the least, in order to shatter the Western consensus against the occupation".

The Philippines was among the countries that abstained from a UN General Assembly vote rejecting US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December.

It also emerged as a significant new customer in 2017 for Israel, with sales of radar and anti-tank equipment worth $21 million.

Duterte, who calls Trump a friend and in 2016 cursed President Barack Obama for alleged meddling, has offered the former occupant of the White House an apology of sorts during his Israel trip.

"I said, 'Son of a bitch, Obama you can go to hell. You son of a bitch.' I said that because he was not a civilised person," Duterte said during a meeting with Filipinos in Jerusalem. "It would be appropriate also to say at this time to Mr. Obama that, 'You are now a civilian and I am sorry for uttering those words.'"

On Wednesday, Duterte heads to Jordan, where he is expected to meet King Abdullah II.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)Smoke rises from buildings that were hit by reported Russian air strikes in the rebel-hold town of Muhambal, about 30 kilometres southwest of Idlib.



Photograph: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP/Getty Images

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said panic is spreading among the 3 million citizens of Idlib province as he suggested the Assad government and its allies had set 10 September as the date for a full-scale bombardment of the last large rebel enclave.

De Mistura pleaded with the Russian and Turkish presidents to look each other in the eyes and find a solution that avoids a humanitarian tragedy in the region.

Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who have backed the Syrian government and rebels respectively, are due to meet in Tehran on Friday to discuss Idlib. De Mistura suggested that if their discussions fail, it is likely that as many as 800,000 citizens will try to flee the province, including over the border to Turkey.

The northern province and surrounding areas are the last major swathe of territory held by insurgents fighting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, who has been backed by both Russian and Iranian forces in Syrias seven-year-old civil war. It is held by a complex array of rebels and jihadists, many of whom have been blacklisted as terrorists by world powers. Syrian government forces are massing around the north-western province in preparation for the assault.

Marine Gen Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, warned on Tuesday that a major Syrian military assault on the rebel-held enclave would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe and instead recommended more narrowly tailored operations against militants. We dont see any way that significant military operations are going to be beneficial to the people of Syria, Dunford told reporters during a trip to Athens.

If major military operations take place we can expect humanitarian catastrophe and I think we would all want to see that be avoided.

De Mistura repeated his personal offer to go to Idlib to find a formula that avoids further conflict but admitted the airstrikes already launched in Idlib on Tuesday could be a sign that the talks between Russia and Turkey on how to defuse the crisis were not going well.

Story continues

Turkey has warned against an assault, and has assembled observation posts around the region. Iran insisted it would push the militants out of Idlib, but the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, claimed this could be achieved with minimum human cost. We will try to prevent any damage to the Syrian people and complete the process of clearing extremists, Zarif said, according to the state news agency IRNA.

De Mistura also said he believed both sides in the conflict might have access to chlorine-based weapons, describing them as in the grey zone between conventional and chemical weapons.

The White House warned on Tuesday that the US and its allies would respond swiftly and appropriately if Assad used chemical weapons again.

De Misturas warning came after he set out a proposed timetable for diplomatic talks on a new constitution for Syria in an attempt to revitalise the moribund diplomatic process.

De Mistura said he was asking Turkey, Russia and Iran to meet on 10 and 11 September, followed three days later by a meeting with France, the UK, US, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Germany and Egypt.

He said the planned meetings represented a moment of truth in finding out whether the parties wanted a credible political settlement to end the seven-year civil war. He said this was vital for the millions of Syrian refugees waiting to decide whether to return home.

De Misturas aim is to report on the peace process to a US-chaired meeting of the UN security council on 20 September, probably at the time of the UN general assembly.

Late on Monday, the US president, Donald Trump, warned the Syrian president and his allies not to recklessly attack Idlib province, warning that hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.

The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen! Trump tweeted.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said: Just to speak out with some warnings, without taking into account the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria, is probably not a full, comprehensive approach.

The presence of militants in Idlib was undermining the Syrian peace process and making the region a base for attacks on Russian forces in Syria, he added.

The Syrian government feels no external political pressure to rewrite its constitution to give a role to a militarily defeated opposition that it regards as illegitimate. This will make De Misturas objective more difficult.

The plan for a constitutional committee was first advanced by the Russians at the beginning of the year. Since then discussions about the size and composition of the committee, including the role of the Kurds or opposition groups, have become deadlocked.Specialist engineering and technology recruitment solutions company Gattaca updated the market on its review of its international footprint on Tuesday, having started the review at the beginning of August with a view to focussing on markets where it believed it could make significant, scalable and sustainable profits in the short to medium term.

The AIM-traded firm said it also wanted to reduce its exposure to businesses and territories which were characterised as lacking critical mass, declining market share, low profitability or with a high administrative burden, including unattractive payment terms.

As a result of that review, the company said on Tuesday that it was now putting in place a number of steps to withdraw from those territories and markets, including the contract telecoms infrastructure markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America - some of which was UK sourced - as well as its operations in Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Qatar.

Gattaca said that as part of that process, it was also consolidating its London and Bromley offices to a single location at its London Cotton Centre premises.

It said it was currently notifying all staff and customers that would be affected by the process.

Gattaca said it remained fully committed to growing its international footprint in those areas and territories which offered the opportunity to achieve those significant, sustainable and scalable profits.

The Americas, where the firm had reportedly been experiencing excellent growth, was described as a clear example of that.

We are pleased therefore to announce today the opening of a new hub in the USA, based in Atlanta, Georgia; this will operate alongside our existing hub in Dallas, Texas, the board said in its statement.

In China we aim to replicate the success of our America model as we see a shift towards engineering and IT permanent recruitment and a reduction in the legacy telco market.

The board said it also remained fully committed to technology, and would continue to invest in its Networkers brand, including in the sub sectors within telecoms which met its strategic criteria.

Gattaca said the business impacted represented around 7m of FY18 NFI, the significant majority of its non-recoverable withholding tax, and made a small contribution toits FY18 underlying profit after tax.

That business had been in decline, the board claimed, and the board had not forecast it delivering a significant contribution towards its FY19 underlying profit after tax.

As a result, its forward expectations remained broadly unchanged.

The cessation of the detailed activities would allow a significant release of working capital, in the order of 7m before exit costs, and result in a reduction in net debt, which at the end of July 2018 was 41m - being better than the boards previous estimate of 46m.

One-time restructuring costs to be incurred during FY19 were expected to be of the order of 3m.

Gattaca said it would update the market further at the time of its full-year results announcement on 8 November.

The steps we are announcing today will place Gattaca on a firm footing for future growth, said Gattaca chairman Patrick Shanley.

The withdrawal from these territories and telco infrastructure operations remove some very low margin business, which was tying up significant working capital and diluting the strength of our core operations.

Following this review, Gattaca can now focus on our strong core and growing businesses, in particular within UK engineering, UK IT, and North America as well China and our recently acquired RSL Rail business.DS Smith updated the market on its trading for the period since 1 May on Tuesday, saying it continued to be excited by its prospects.

The FTSE 100 company said its focus on sustainable packaging in resilient and growing sectors, including fast-moving consumer goods and e-commerce, was consistently driving market share gains.

It had also seen good like-for-like volume growth in the year-to-date, with progress in all geographic regions.

Recovery of input cost increases from earlier in the calendar year was said to be in line with the boards expectations, with the consequent positive margin impact.

Cash flow had also remained a focus in the period, as the company maintain a disciplined approach to working capital and capital expenditure.

The directors said trading remained in line with their expectations.

Interstate Resources, the companys North America paper and packaging division, continued to perform very strongly.

Integration continued to go well, and the board said it had added additional capacity and further enhanced its customer offer via the acquisition of Corrugated Container Corporation, which completed on 1 June.

The board said it was delighted by the customer reaction, with a number of major customers seeking to partner with DS Smith for their packaging solutions in both Europe and the US.

Looking at Europe, on 4 June the company announced the proposed acquisition of Papeles y Cartones de Europa for 16.80 per share, and an implied enterprise value of 1.9bn.

The required regulatory approval process was said to be progressing as expected, and DS Smith anticipated completion in the fourth calendar quarter of 2018, as it had previously indicated.

Preparation for integration was continuing at pace, with the board saying it looked forward to welcoming Europac to the DS Smith group.

In June the company also announced a strategic review of its plastics division.

Progress had been positive, with the board promising a further update as appropriate.

I am pleased with our momentum in the year to date, in a period when we also announced a significant acquisition and associated equity fundraising to expand our position in the important Iberia region, said DS Smith group chief executive Miles Roberts.

The corrugated packaging industry continues to demonstrate excellent growth prospects, driven by changing shopping habits, e-commerce, and the ever-increasing relevance of sustainability.

DS Smith is in a strong position, as a market leader, to capitalise on these opportunities, and the board looks to the future with confidence.Ryanair released its August traffic statistics on Tuesday and said many customers were starting to switch to a new lower cost checked bag option.

The Irish low-cost carrier reported 9% growth in total group traffic to 13.8m passengers, with a 97% load factor.

Traffic on Ryanair itself was up 5% to 13.3 million customers, with a 97% load factor, while Laudamotion traffic was 0.5 million customers with a 92% load factor.

There was no comparator for the Laudamotion operation, as Ryanair only completed the purchase of its 75% stake during August.

The company said staff shortages in air traffic control, and one pilot strike on 10 August - branded unnecessary by the firm - caused almost 550 flight cancellations in August, compared to 27 cancellations in the same month last year.

"Ryanair's August traffic - which includes [Laudamotion] traffic for the first time - grew by 9% to 13.8 million customers, while our load factor was unchanged at 97%, on the back of even lower fares, said Ryanairs chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs.

Regrettably, over 100,000 Ryanair customers had their flights cancelled in August because of repeated ATC staff shortages in the UK, Germany and France, and one day of unnecessary pilot strikes.

Ryanair, together with other European airlines, calls for urgent action by the EU Commission and governments to correct these ATC staff shortages which are disrupting the travel plans of millions of Europe's consumers this summer.

The Irish budget airline also reported that since it began the offer on 1 September, more than 10,000 customers have switched to its new lower cost /8 per 10kg checked bag from the 25 per 20kg bag, as part of its new cabin baggage policy.

Jacobs said the new option was available for all flights from 1 November. "This new lower cost 8 x 10kg checked bag means that checked bag income will probably decline as we deliver more savings to Ryanair customers. Up to 50% of customers will continue to bring two free carry-on bags from as they travel on Priority Boarding and thisnew policy will speed up the boarding and cut flight delays.Paul Pester will step down as chief executive of TSB Banking Group in the wake of the bank's major IT failings.

Customers were initially left without access to online banking features in April and have since been consistently facing online and mobile banking issues, with TSB issuing its latest apology on Monday following a weekend of disruption.

The fiasco cost the company 176.4m and drove a half-year loss according to figures released by TSB in July.

Pester served as chief executive for seven years and steered the bank through its launch and separation from Lloyds in 2011 and its acquisition by Sabadell Group in 2015.

It was the Barcelona-headquartered parent company that pushed the button on the IT upgrade as part of its digitisation strategy, with subsidiary Sabadell Information Services, known as Sabis, outsourcing the IT integration contract to Germany's GFT Technologies and giving US group First Data the contract to provide payment processing services, with responsibility for migrating TSB credit and debit card portfolios. After the IT collapse, IBM was hired to help fix the problem, warning that the problems could be prolonged and questioning the quality of the testing before the transfer went ahead.

"The last few months have been challenging for everyone at TSB," Pester said. "However, I want to thank all my colleagues across TSB for their dedication and commitment during this period and for their focus on putting things right for TSB customers."

Nicky Morgan MP, chair of the treasury committee said that Pester had set the tone for the bank's "complacent and misleading public communications" and that it was right that he should step down.

"The committee remains concerned about the continuing problems at TSB, including unacceptable delays in compensating customers who have been badly let down. It is to be hoped that Dr Pesters successor is able to restore the confidence of the banks long-suffering customers," said Morgan.

To that end, TSB non-executive chairman Richard Meddings will now take on the role of executive chairman in order to commence a full search for a new chief executive.

"Although there is more to do to achieve full stability for customers, the banks IT systems and services are much improved since the IT migration. Paul and the board have therefore agreed that this is the right time to appoint a new CEO for TSB," said Meddings.WPP returned to underlying growth in the second quarter of the year though this was not enough to prevent the marketing conglomerate's profits falling in the first half of the year as its North American business remained under major pressure.

Freshly appointed chief executive Mark Read said the board had begun to "focus" the portfolio of business through 15 disposals and divestments in the period, accelerated initiatives to simplify the organisation and had won new contracts with the likes of Adidas, Hilton, Mars and Shell by providing "more effectively integrated solutions" to clients.

He hailed the increase in like-for-like revenue of 1.6% for the first half, thanks to a 2.4% LFL gain in the second quarter that was the first quarterly progression since the start of 2017.

While North American sales fell in the quarter, amid pressure on advertising, digital & interactive and brand consulting businesses, other regions were all better, with a "marked improvement" noted in the faster growing markets of Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa & the Middle East and Central & Eastern Europe. Germany performed particularly well and mainland China showed "significant improvement"..

But reported revenue fell 2.1% to 7.49bn in the first six months of the year due to a 5% currency headwind that masked 2.9% underlying growth. Headline profit before tax of 735m was down 7.4%, or down 2.5% if currency headwinds are ignored.

Headline profit before interest and tax of 821m was down 7% and PBIT margin of 13.3% was down 0.5 points, with the slight decline attributed to the mix of performance by geography and function and a decision to invest in the growing areas of our business. EBITDA of 948m was shy of the average analyst forecast of 973m.

A day after his appointment as CEO, Read said his focus will be on "invigorating our company and returning the business to stronger, sustainable growth", with a strategy review underway and due by the year end, "addressing our structure, our underperforming operations, particularly in the United States, and how we position the company for the future".

Already, disposals and divestments, including Globant and AppNexus, have generated cash proceeds of 676m this year, used to strengthen our balance sheet and improve the average net debt to EBITDA ratio, with reports that a sale of market research division Kantar also thought to be under consideration. Net debt averaged 4.98bn in the period, up from 4.71bn a year before.

Read's initiatives to simplify the sprawling mass of the group, which employs 130,000 people worldwide, are designed around "making it easier for us to manage and clients to access" and have so far included co-locations in New York, Kuala Lumpur, Prague and Toronto.

Headline diluted earnings per share fell 6.2% to 42.6p, down 1.3% in constant currency, despite 201m of share buy-backs. Including net exceptional gains in the first half, reported EPS rose 14.6% to 53.4p.

An interim dividend of 22.7p per share was declared, the same as last year.

For the full year, revenue guidance was slightly improved but margin guidance was down from flat at constant currency to -40bps on a like for like basis.

WPP shares fell 7% to 1,186.5p in early trading on Tuesday.

Broker Shore Capital noted that EBITDA was short of consensus forecasts but was "reassured by what appears to be a solid performance", with outlook comments that "look supportive" of a solid full year.

Although full year margin guidance was trimmed, analysts at Liberum did not expect much change in consensus numbers, especially given FX moves, with WPP receiving over a third of revenues from North America.

"Longer-term, WPP has moderated its guidance - revenue less pass through cost guidance is now at industry average vs above industry average before, annual margin improvements the same (0% to 0.3% improvement pa at constant currency) although the longer-term margin target of 20% has gone and headline eps growth of 5%-10-% growth is the same. We think this makes sense and is prudent, especially as WPP still has significant market research assets that its main competitors do not have and which drags down profits," Liberum wrote.

Richard Hunter at broker Interactive Investor felt it was a robust first-half performance but highlighted concerns for the group, with net debt that remains stubbornly high.

"In addition, there is something of struggle within parts of the brand consulting unit, and the United States in particular, which is slightly alarming given the strong current growth being seen in the worlds largest economy. The currency effect has been a mixed bag, whilst it remains to be seen whether the structural change within the industry is here to stay and, equally, whether WPP is up for the fight."London's FTSE 100 was down 0.8% to 7,448.34 in afternoon trade on Tuesday as investors continued to digest disappointing construction data.

Lloyds Banking Group was on the rise as Berenberg upped its stance on the bank to 'hold' from 'sell', keeping the price target at 60p.

Berenberg said Lloyds darling status has largely faded and weaknesses inherent in the banks strategy - ie to focus somewhat narrowly on margins, at the likely expense of risk-adjusted return - are increasingly well recognised.

"Risks remain, including from Brexit and from the Bank of Englands stress tests. However, with Lloyds shares down by circa 12% year-to-date, in line with large UK peers, the path to further absolute downside is less certain."

Still, it added that Lloyds remains its least-preferred large UK bank.

WPP was under the cosh as it said it returned to underlying growth in the second quarter of the year though this was not enough to prevent the marketing conglomerate's profits falling in the first half of the year as its North American business remained under major pressure.

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "New CEO Mark Read will be glad the slide in revenues seems to have abated, but with margins under pressure instead, profits are still sinking.

"We wont get a full update on plans to get WPP back on track until later this year, but there are several areas that need attention. Net debt is expected to shrink, which is likely to mean further asset sales, and with dividends already above the target payout ratio, that might come at the expense of growth in the payment to shareholders.

"Longer term, margins are expected to stabilise and earnings per share targets are ambitious. But the big question is whether Mr Read feels WPPs conglomerate structure remains the way forward, if not, then WPP as we know it might not long survive the departure of its founder."

Housebuilders were in the red, with Persimmon, Berkeley, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey down as FTSE 250 peer Bellway fell. Bellway posted record full-year profit and revenue thanks to higher completions and "robust" demand, but called for clarity over Brexit and the Help to Buy scheme to underpin market sentiment.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Whitbread (WTB) 4,639.00p 1.27%

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 245.10p 0.95%

Barclays (BARC) 178.72p 0.68%

SSE (SSE) 1,268.50p 0.55%

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 59.93p 0.52%

TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,406.50p 0.43%

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,559.50p 0.41%

British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,743.50p 0.39%

Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,602.50p 0.29%

London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 4,683.00p 0.28%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

WPP (WPP) 1,205.00p -5.60%

Just Eat (JE.) 747.00p -3.76%

Persimmon (PSN) 2,383.00p -2.26%

Evraz (EVR) 497.80p -2.12%

NMC Health (NMC) 3,872.00p -2.07%

Sage Group (SGE) 591.20p -2.02%

Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 6,960.00p -1.97%

Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,601.00p -1.88%

Barratt Developments (BDEV) 536.20p -1.87%

Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 165.85p -1.86%Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Changan Automobile announced on September 4 that it will acquire the other 50% stake in Changan Suzuki, which was previously owned by Suzuki Motor and Suzuki (China) Investment Co.,Ltd, with RMB 1.

After the acquisition completes, Changan Suzuki will be wholly possessed by Changan Automobile and be incorporated into the consolidated statements of the Chinese parent company.

Zhu Huarong, president of Changan Automobile, said the joint venture will remain its original name before the joint venture contract with Suzuki Motor is officially dissolved in 2020.

Changan Suzuki was founded in May, 1993, with a registered capital of $190 million. Three shareholders, namely, Changan Automobile, Suzuki Motor and Suzuki (China) Investment Co.,Ltd, possessed 50%, 40% and 10% stake respectively in the Sino-Japanese joint venture. It currently has two plants in Chongqing with a total capacity of 350 thousand vehicles and 350 engines on an annual basis.

In 2009, Changan Suzuki's annual sales exceeded 150 thousand vehicles for the first time thanks to the roll-out of the new Alto. Then, the automaker saw its annual sales jump to 200 thousand units and to 220 thousand units in 2010 and 2011.

However, the joint venture failed to maintain the upward sales momentum after 2011, suffering continuous sales drop year by year due to lack of new blood and competitiveness in product lineup. Last year, the company only delivered around 86,000 vehicles.From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...Vermont wildlife officials removed the body of a drowned moose from the water. Too many people crowding for photos of the animal scared it and it retreated to the water after getting ashore. Fox News reported that the animal swam "across Lake Champlain from New York to South Hero, Vermont," on the weekend. According to officials, the animal was "spooked" by all the people and took refuge in the water.

Moose crowded by people, got scared

The Independent UK reported that when it came out the water after a long swim, it needed to rest. However, people crowded it and it had to move back.

Obviously, it was very afraid. Exhausted from a swim already, it battled in the water, Fish and Wildlife Officer Robert Currier told WCAX3. The water was quite rough with "4- to 5-foot swells and high wind," Fox News noted.

Vermont wildlife officers responded but it was too late

Although the wildlife officers did respond to the scene where the moose was struggling, they had to wait for a boat to arrive. In the interim, the animal drowned. The body was taken out the water but it was too late to do anything for the exhausted animal. Robert Currier explained that if a moose feels threatened it will usually do one of two things; either become aggressive or try and get away. It was not the ideal retreat, but if it had become aggressive, people may have been injured, or worse.

Either outcome was undesirable and in the end, the moose lost its life.

People cautioned to give wild animals space to avoid injury and death

People were reminded that "the best practice is to stay away from it, keep your distance, dont crowd the moose." Wild animals are often unpredictable and people must be aware that they are actually wild, and not domesticated pets.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

World News Daily Report mentioned an incident in Canada where a moose weighing 1,200 lbs seriously injured a man from Michigan. In the Vermont incident, the moose died near a popular cycle path. It's quite possible that the animal could have injured someone.

Similar drownings happened in the past

A similar incident happened in Southsea, UK in July, which involved a deer from the Isle of Wight.

A deer swam ashore near a beach where people were enjoying the warm weather. The animal became nervous with all of them and backed off into the water. Already exhausted, it was hoped rescue would come in time. Unfortunately, in that incident, when the rescue boat went to fetch an expert in animal rescue from the shoreline, a member of the public tried to help. They got a rope over the head of the deer but it drowned in the process. On that occasion, the BBC reported that the tragic loss of life could have been avoided.Actor Bruce Willis is the star of the classic American action series "Die Hard." He is a decorated and well-known celebrity in Hollywood, but he is most famous for his role in the "Die Hard franchise." The actor will be reprising his role in the upcoming movie, which will be the sixth entry in the series. Details regarding the direction of the film were recently revealed by producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, according to MovieWeb.

Simplicity

The next film in the series will be called "McClane" instead of being called "Die Hard 6" or "Die Hard: Year One." Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and his team want people to be invested in the main character, and naming the film after said main character certainly gets that point across.

The producer also noted that the upcoming film will flip back and forth between the younger version of the character and the older version. The audience will be able to view both sides. Fans are still in the dark when it comes to plot details for the film, but those details will likely come out sooner rather than later.

The original title was supposed to be "Die Hard: Year One," although it was scratched. While that would have also been an appropriate title, as mentioned above, it seems that those involved with the project really wanted to get the point across that this film would focus on the main character.

That said, this would not be the only instance of actors returning to the roles that made them famous, as Tom Cruise is set to appear in the upcoming "Top Gun" sequel.

A big role in the upcoming film

Bruce Willis is in his sixties now, but even so, the actor will have a big role in the upcoming film. Rumors are pointing to the film going back to a young John McClane prior to the events of the first film in the franchise, when he was a beat cop in the 70's.

Producer Bonaventura said: "I don't know how you do Die Hard without Bruce.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

The idea that he's not very significant in this movie is not accurate at all. We are gonna explain John McClane in his twenties. But just as prominent is the 60-year-old version."

The first entries in the series have done very well, but the last couple of films have been lackluster with a weak script and story. The first couple of Movies in the series are the most interesting, with a regular cop saving the day. There is no official word on a release date for the next film.

Apparently, Bruce Willis will have a say in who they cast as the younger version of John McClane.Language is all about communication. Ifsay something anddon't understand it, then we arewasting our time.For example, a Swede and I were looking at a book the other day, in which one of the female characters referred to another one as "duck". My colleague interpreted this as insulting, because it would be so if you did the same thing in Swedish (using the word "anka"). However, it seemed to me that "duck" and "ducky" were precisely the sorts of expressions that buxom barmaids used to use in those 1960s British television shows that I saw as a child, in which it was a friendly term. It turned out that the book was set in London, and published in 1958, so that was the correct interpretation.This sort of variation in interpretation is one reason why word descriptions of wines are frequently disparaged, because it is often rather difficult to work out what all of this flowery language is supposed to mean (see my post on Wine writing, and wine books ). In turn, this dissatisfaction is one reason why wine-quality scores are popular, because mathematics is supposed to make communication pedantically precise.For example, in the early 1900s Jacques Futrelle created the character Professor van Dusen (also known as The Thinking Machine), who solved mysteries by the remorseless application of logic. His mantras was: "Two and two equal four, not just some of the time but all of the time".This emphasizes the ultimate goal of mathematics as a language, that we cannot go wrong  a mathematical proof of a proposition is as close as we can get to certainty.However, to use of this advantage we must be rigorous, and be pedantic about our intention, as well. This is often problematic, because most people manage to forget all of the mathematics they were taught at school, within minutes of leaving that school for the last time.For example, you should all recognize that van Dusen is actually wrong, because the assumption that the sum uses base10 is not warranted, and in base2: 1 + 1 = 10.So, wine-quality scores will only be at their best as a means of communication if they follow the logic of mathematics. Sadly, they rarely do.The first widely applied wine-scoring system was the 20-point scale developed in the 1950s by Maynard Amerine and his colleagues at the University of California, Davis. In this scheme, each organoleptic characteristic of the wine is assigned a number of points based on its perceived quality, and these points are summed to produce the final score. The wine characteristics include: appearance, color, aroma and bouquet, total acidity, sweetness, body, flavor, bitterness, and astringency,In theory, everyone who uses the UCDavis scale should be "speaking the same language"; and therefore any differences in wine scores should represent differences in perceived wine quality, not differences in the use of language. However, in practice, this will be true only if summing the sub-scores makes mathematical sense  if this is not so, then the sum is not a repeatable mathematical quantity.For the sum to make any mathematical sense, each possible quality point has to mean exactly the same thing as every other possible quality point. That is, a point for color has to mean exactly the same thing as a point for astringency; if not, then adding the points has no precise mathematical meaning. Furthermore, every user has to mean exactly the same thing when they assign each quality point. It is like counting apples  we all need to agree on what an apple is, and then we need to be able to recognize each apple when we see one; if I try to add 3 apples and 3 blackberries, the sum of 6 may not make much sense.Is this required uniformity of the points likely to be true in the case of wine-quality assessment? I doubt it, although I would love to have someone demonstrate that I am wrong. This means that, even in this situation, where the input to the quality score is pre-specified as the sum of a set of parts, the mathematics is not helping us communicate as much as we would like. And this is the best-case scenario!On the other hand, most wine commentators do not use any such scoring scheme. Their wine-quality scores are personal to themselves. That is, the best we can expect from each commentator is that their wine scores can be compared among themselves, so that we can work out which wines they liked and which ones they didn't. However, the scores cannot be comparedcommentators at all.I have shown this unfortunate situation in two main blog posts, where I directly compared the scoring systems of several professional commentators for the same wines:No-one's scores were the same as anyone else's, irrespective of what set of points they used. So, differences between scores could mean differences in wine quality, but they could just as easily reflect differences in the interpretation of the numbers. In this case, the numbers are no better than are words as a means of communication. It is like watching someone from Scotland trying to talk with someone from Texas  they may ostensibly be using the same language (English), but they may also find that their communication is an uphill battle.Obviously, we shouldn't conclude from this that points are pointless. But we might conclude that the sometimes-heard argument that numbers are more precise than words does not really apply in the case of wine-quality assessments. Even in the best-case scenario, where sets of points are added together to produce the score, might make little mathematical sense.I believe that this is the main reason why the best-known mathematically trained wine commentator has repeatedly said that she is wary of assigning quality points to the wines that she tastes. This is Jancis Robinson , who has a degree in mathematics (and philosophy) from the University of Oxford. As far as I know, she has never put it this way, but she could do so with perfect assurance: wine assessment is no better using numbers than words, because the numbers violate many of the mathematical requirements for a precise language.Tom Wark has posted a very intersting response to my comments over at hisblog: A wine rating is an adjective, not a calculation . In one sense he does not disagree with my conclusion, but instead disputes the premise that numbers must be treated as calculations. My reply (as posted on his blog), is to question "why, given that the numbers are not mathematics, we are using mathematical language in our attempt to communicate. To me, this is like using English words without creating English sentences! So, if a wine rating is an adjective, then dont use a number, because this is a very poor substitute for an adjective."Unless I happen to like the sound of your voice! I have long thought that one reason the English have traditionally disliked the French and the Scots is that, for spoken English, both groups have accents that are much more melodious than any of the numerous English ones.This idea goes back a long way. For example, in Johann Wigand's(1562) we find: "That twice two are four, a man may not lawfully make a doubt of it, because that manner of knowledge is grauen [graven] into mannes [man's] nature."See Why do Americans stink at math? We expect numbers to be in base10 because we have 10 fingers, but any base is actually possible, and to be pedantic we should always specify which one we are using. Computers, for example are binary, and thus use base2, while computer programming often uses octal, which is base8, or hexadecimal, which is base16. Given the number of devices in the modern world that have a computer processor in them, base2 is almost as common as base10 these days.Anne de Courcy in The Telegraph:

Paul Scott, author of The Jewel in the Crown (1966), said of India: It was mysteriously in our blood and perhaps still is. Despite the comparatively small number of British who actually went there  in 1901, at the height of the Raj, there were only about 155,000 in the subcontinent  there was an extraordinary bond. Some families didnt come home for centuries, but stayed in India generation after generation, as dolphins follow in line across the open sea, as Kipling put it. David Gilmour, author of Curzon (1994) and The Ruling Caste (2005), has tackled this rich history in The British in India, from the granting of the East India Companys charter in 1600 to the mid-1960s, when the hippy invasion began. Although the chronology is never in doubt, his treatment is grouped by topic  intimacies, formalities, voyages, working life, and so on. The result is somewhat like a tapestry.

He makes it plain that his subject is not the morality of ruling great swathes of land that belonged to others. I am not going to attempt to produce a balance sheet, to weigh indigo planters who tyrannised Indian peasants against doctors who saved Indian lives, or to balance the undoubted violence of British soldiers against the deeds of a famine worker or a builder of canals. Instead, he gives us just about everything one has ever heard of, or would wish to know, about the British in India, from what these expatriates ate  anglicised curries and kedgeree, with chicken as a backstop  to their painful separation from their children, who were sent home to school at the age of five. Superbly researched, The British in India is authoritative and comprehensive.

More here.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.En espanol | When I tried to be a pillar of strength, it created problems for us, said Bob, the devoted but weary husband of Lorraine, his cancer-stricken wife, during our last psychotherapy session. I learned that when I shut off my feelings, then she felt shut out.

It was 1995 and Bob wasnt the first male caregiver Id treated who thought that being as unbending and silent as a stone pillar was the right way to be strong through a family medical crisis. But Lorraine had dragged him into therapy because his cold, hard stance made her feel more alone, not better supported. After several sessions in which shed confronted him for being unfeeling, he finally began to express his own fears about her cancer. She responded with relief. During a later meeting, he allowed himself to cry about the sadness of their situation. She put her arm around him to comfort him and said she felt close to him again.

It is now 23 years later and male caregivers as a whole have changed in many ways. According to a March 2017 report from the AARP Public Policy Institute, the percentage of caregivers who are men has risen from 34 percent to 40 percent in less than a decade and male caregivers are stepping up to take on many of the medical and personal care tasks, including feeding, dressing and toileting, long handled by female caregivers. Men are managing home health aides and taking time off work to drive their loved ones to medical appointments. Over 60 percent of them are feeling moderately to very stressed by being a caregiver  just like their female counterparts.

But are male caregivers also changing emotionally? Thats a more mixed picture. In my clinical practice, I see men who readily complain about their caregiving duties and feeling overwhelmed. Others, though, still think theyre supposed to squelch all feelings to uphold a standard of being cool, calm and collected; they come across as buttoned-up and remote as Bob was. I know they are trying to be tough guys to protect themselves from too much sadness, anxiety and anger. But I worry that keeping themselves under tight rein robs them of the flexibility necessary for adapting to caregivings myriad and sudden challenges.Youre a responsible adult, right? You have a household budget and track your expenses. Your will and insurance are all up to date. And since the beginning of your career, youve maxed out your 401(k) and have been carefully saving for retirement.

Yeah, right.

Many of us know what we ought to do to ensure our financial security in our later years, but few of us actually follow through. Business and behavior experts say there are good reasons for our negligence. In many ways, were hardwired to mismanage money.

Finance is simple but not easy, says Nick Holeman, a senior financial planner with Betterment.com, an online investment company. Its easy to understand at a higher level what you should be doing. But implementing it and sticking with it long-term is when it becomes very difficult.

A few psychological traits that make the job tough:

Instant gratification

Experts say one of the biggest challenges is our urge for immediate pleasures. It's fueled by the emotional parts of our brains, and can overwhelm the logical side thats trying to point out we probably dont need that new pair of shoes or a delicious (but pricey) dinner out right now. That's why some people are more likely to use extra money to indulge in a shopping binge than to tuck it away in a retirement plan.

Kelley Long, a member of the American Institute of CPAs' Consumer Financial Education Advocates, says the answer isnt to scold yourself.

She admits to bouts of retail therapy, but has found a solution that works for her. As soon as she gets home after shopping, she puts a date on her calendar to make returns. That allows her to rationally review her purchase at home, and decide whether it was necessary. I also enjoy the feeling of returning something.

For those with an online shopping habit, she suggests setting up a special email folder so that sales alerts from online retailers are automatically filed away before landing in your in-box, and tempting you to shop.

Digital envy

Of course, we know that instead of spending, we should be saving. The traditional financial advice is to pay yourself first  put aside part of your paycheck before you even see it. By automating the process, and incrementally increasing your savings every year, you can accumulate a sizable nest egg over time.

For people who have trouble budgeting, Holeman of Betterment.com takes it further. He suggests that once you identify your goals and set up a savings plan, try not to worry about other spending. As long as you save what you need to save, it doesnt matter what you do with whatevers left over, he says.

But many of us are willing to spend money we dont have by pulling out credit cards or financing purchases. Often, this is fueled by an innate drive for social status and to keep up with our neighbors and friends. That challenge has only gotten worse in the age of social media. In the past, we might have just heard about friends great vacations, fabulous dinners and new cars. Now were bombarded with pictures and videos of them online.

Digital envy can be hard to resist, studies show.

Theres a lot of peer pressure involved here, says Long. Indeed, a 2016 Harris poll found that 1 in 4 people admitted to being jealous after seeing someone posting about a purchase or vacation on social media.

Long says that when she starts feeling overwhelmed by others posts, shell visit her own profile to be reminded that her life looks good online, too. And she also tries to limit her time on social media sites. Her husband even keeps the apps off his phone.En espanol | BRETT JOHNSON IS AN IMPOSING and charismatic ex-con whom the U.S. Secret Service once dubbed the Original Internet Godfather. His criminal masterstroke? Creating Shadowcrew, one of the first online forums where bad guys could safely buy guns, stolen credit cards, Social Security numbers and every drug imaginable. But Shadowcrew was shut down by federal agents in 2004, and for the next decade Brett was in and out of prison. At one point he went on a four-month run from the law, funded by roughly $500,000 he stole from ATMs. That landed him on the Secret Services Most Wanted list.

Hes the good guy of our story.

As is Blue London. Wiry, in his early 20s, with hair to his waist and an attitude to match, Blue recently pleaded guilty to crimes related to his role as a hacker for some of the biggest illegal sites on the internet. It was his first job and, with a looming prison sentence, it may be his last for a while. To protect him from reprisals, we agreed not to use his real name; he asked that we use Blue London.

Brett and Blue have seen the light. Today, both are willing to share in detail how the internet gets used by criminals to steal money from you. Brett, because its his new job: He is now a consultant who helps law enforcement catch cybercriminals. Blue, because he wants to reduce his prison sentence.

Their coming forward is timely. Massive data breaches get big headlines, but many more occur with little fanfare. In 2017, there were 829 data breaches in the United States, exposing over 2 billion individual records, says Paul Stephens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Identity fraud  defined as using personal identifying information to steal money from victims  is at an all-time high, with 16.7 million Americans losing nearly $17 billion in 2017, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. Brett and Blue know why these numbers keep growing because they contributed to it. And truth is, it was pretty easy.

The two recently gave me a tutorial on how criminals go about stealing peoples identities and turning that data into money. The class took place mostly in the dark web, a secretive place on the internet where crooks and scammers buy and sell their wares under the protective blanket of anonymity. Heres what I discovered.Wings defenseman Hugo Allais follows unlikely path from France

The defenseman from Amiens, France was in his fifth year in Quebec when the league he was playing in wasnt allowed a regular season.WASHINGTON  President Trumps bigoted hatred of Latino immigrants has been clear from the beginning. Now his administration is aggressively persecuting Latino citizens as well.

It is hard to be shocked anymore, given the multiple daily outrages committed by Trump and his minions, but a report Thursday by The Washington Post was jaw-dropping: In the borderlands of southern Texas, the State Department is denying passports to hundreds and perhaps thousands of men and women who have official birth certificates demonstrating they were born in the United States.

In some cases, valid passports have been confiscated and revoked, their holders stranded in Mexico, unable to come home. In other cases, people have been arrested, sent to detention centers and slated for deportation. Imagine how they and their American families must feel  and how their distress must make Trump and his fellow xenophobes feel warm inside.

Denial of passports effectively renders the victims stateless  meaning they cannot travel outside the country, because they would not be re-admitted  and potentially vulnerable to being deported. Again, these are people who have government-issued birth certificates, long accepted as gold-standard proof of citizenship. The Trump administration simply doesnt see Latinos as full-fledged Americans.

The Post quoted a 40-year-old man named Juan  he didnt want his last name used for fear of being targeted  who has a birth certificate stating he was born in the Texas border city of Brownsville. He served his country for three years in the U.S. Army, then was a cadet in the Border Patrol, and now works as a Texas state prison guard. But when he applied to renew his passport this year, the State Department responded with a letter saying it didnt believe he was a citizen.

It is important to understand that for Americans who live along the border, a passport is a necessity. People flow back and forth across the Rio Grande all the time to work, make business deals, see family or perhaps just try out a trendy new restaurant. The border is not like the Berlin Wall, though evidently Trump would like it to be.

There is a backstory: In the 1990s, several Texas midwives admitted accepting bribes to falsely claim that some Mexican infants were born in the United States. These same midwives, however, also delivered many more Latino babies, at least tens of thousands, who were legitimately born in the United States. From official records, it is impossible to tell the difference.

The Trump administration appears to be denying passports simply because the applicant is Latino, was born in south Texas and was delivered by a midwife  something the federal government explicitly promised not to do in a 2009 court settlement with the ACLU.

The administration claims there has been no change in policy. But the Post quoted immigration lawyers who say there has been a dramatic surge in passport denials.

In Juans case, the State Department demanded he produce documents including proof of his mothers prenatal care in the United States, his baptismal certificate and rental agreements from when he was an infant. He managed to find some of this obscure material  and yet his passport application was denied a second time.

A military veteran who served his country was told that it isnt his country after all.

Think how you would feel if this nightmare were happening to you. Like everyone else, you have no memory of the details of your birth. You only know what your parents have told you and what the official records say, all of which is almost surely true. Suddenly, because of your Latino heritage, your core identity is challenged and your right to live in the United States is threatened.

If the government had specific evidence that an individuals birth certificate was falsified, then we could have a debate about the right thing to do. But this administration is assuming that a person of a certain ethnicity, recorded as being born in a certain part of the country and meeting other unspecified criteria, is de facto not a citizen  and has the burden of proving otherwise.

At this point, the Trump administration has the burden of proving this is anything other than vile, unadulterated racism.

Trump launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers. His administration cruelly separated nearly 3,000 Central American children from their families and seeks to make their parents ineligible for asylum. His clear message to would-be Latino immigrants is: No admission.

And now, an equally blunt message for lifelong Latino citizens: Go away.

Robinsons columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion  look for the syndicated columnist link. E-mail: eugenerobinson@washpost.com; copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.Q: The news has reported a few stories about a life-saving technology called ECMO. Is that available for children, too?

A: Absolutely. In fact, ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) has been used to support babies with life-threatening heart and lung problems for about 30 years. It is a machine that sits at the bedside and is connected to the child by cannulas inserted into large veins and arteries. A pump pulls blood from the patient through the cannulas and across a specially designed membrane for oxygenation. The pump can take over the function of the heart, while the membrane acts like a lung. A child can stay on ECMO for a couple of days or a couple of months, depending on the indication. This provides time needed for organs to recover from illness. Occasionally, organs do not recover, in which case ECMO can become a bridge to a heart or lung transplant.

Our patients have included a newborn with Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn (PPHN), who went on the day she was born and came off 10 days later, on Fathers Day. Another newborn born with a congenital lung problem went on at age 5 days and stayed on for 5 weeks before coming off in good condition. There was a teenager with Influenza myocarditis who needed to be stabilized on ECMO and then transported to a heart transplant center in another state. And there was an 8-year-old with newly diagnosed cancer who developed rapid respiratory failure and needed to be supported on ECMO in order to get through her first round of chemotherapy.

Typically, ECMO is used in conditions that affect the heart or lungs. In 1994, a new cause of heart/lung failure requiring ECMO came to light, Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS). HPS is endemic to the Four Corners area and initially caused 100 percent mortality. It mostly affects young to middle-aged adults, often in good health, causing rapid, life-threatening heart and lung disease. To date, the only way to survive HPS is with ECMO support. A series of HPS patients from 1994-2000 had a 66 percent survival rate, a vast improvement from the prior 0 percent survival rate.

The original history of ECMO dates back 75 years. In 1944, researchers discovered that blood became oxygenated as it passed through an artificial cellophane membrane. In 1953, this was combined with perfusion support for the first successful open heart operation, and by 1970, it was possible to support infants undergoing cardiac surgery. The next evolution was finding a way to use ECMO safely for days to weeks, to support diseased lungs that can take weeks to recover. The first success was in 1972, in an adult. However, overall survival rates remained low and ECMO fell out of favor for adults. However, in 1975, a baby, Esperanza, was born at the University of Michigan with respiratory failure due to PPHN. She was put on ECMO as a last chance, and survived. There had been a handful of prior attempts in newborns, with 100% mortality due to bleeding complications. Ezperanza became the first successful case of ECMO for newborn respiratory failure.

Over the next 40 years, both ECMO technology and intensive care practices improved. CMO has been standard care for infants and children with heart and/or lung failure since 1990. It came to New Mexico in 1991. Dr. Mark Crowley (Division Chief, Pediatric Critical Care, UNMH) and his associates at the time consulted with experts in the field and started the ECMO program. It has consistently served the New Mexico population ever since, currently supporting between 10-15 children per year, including babies as small as 2K. Each case is a multi-disciplinary effort, entirely dependent on the expertise of surgeons, intensivists, neonatologists and specially trained nurses. Because it is so resource intensive and requires specially trained personnel, it is not available in every hospital. But each region will have designated ECMO centers.

ECMO is a life-saving therapy, but it does have inherent risks, such as clot formation, air bubble formation and bleeding. Survival rates vary by diagnosis  cardiac issues 62 percent, respiratory issues 84 percent (50-95 percent). Fortunately, families tend to view post-ECMO life favorably, with most parents considering their child to be in good health, with few physical limitations. So we will continue to offer this therapy to children and work toward better technology and even better outcomes.

Anjali Subbaswamy is a Pediatric Intensive Care Physician at UNM. Please send your questions to her at asubbaswamy@salud.unm.edu.By Dan Boyd

SANTA FE  Bernalillo County Republicans have selected Robert Godshall, a retired federal immigration officer, to fill a ballot vacancy for an Albuquerque-area state House seat.

Godshall will replace state Rep. Larry Larranaga as the Republican nominee on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. Larranaga, who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994, made a surprise announcement last week that he was ending his re-election bid because of family health issues.

The timing of his decision gave Republicans just one week to come up with a replacement candidate in House District 27, which encompasses a swath of the Northeast Heights. Thats because today is the deadline to fill ballot vacancies created by the withdrawal of primary election nominees.

State GOP Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi said Godshall, who worked as a Border Patrol agent and an investigator with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before retiring about 10 years ago, will be a strong candidate and would continue Larranagas work on budgetary, economic development and public safety issues.

Robert Godshall will continue that legacy, and we will work hard to elect him to the New Mexico House of Representatives in November, Cangiolosi told the Journal.

However, Godshall is getting into the race at a late stage, with Election Day just over two months away.

And although Larranaga easily won re-election two years ago in House District 27, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton actually got slightly more votes in the district than did Republican Donald Trump. The 2016 breakdown was 43.9 percent for Clinton, compared with 42.6 percent for Trump, according to the online Daily Kos news site.

The Democratic candidate in this years House District 27 race is Bill Pratt, a retired physician who narrowly won a two-way primary race in June. Pratt had just under $340 in his campaign account as of July.

All 70 state House seats are up for election this year, and Larranaga is one of several prominent incumbents heading for the exits. Democrats currently hold a 38-32 majority in the chamber.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

In the aftermath of revelations that at least seven girls reported that the same foster father had sexually assaulted them  and that the nonprofit that placed children in his home did not take seriously multiple other disclosures of abuse over the years  the licenses of both the family and the business were revoked.

But when the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department examined its own history with the foster family, it determined the departments investigators had followed policies and procedures in the prior investigations.

CYFD Secretary Monique Jacobson said the department will conduct a more thorough critical incident review after the criminal case investigated by the Albuquerque Police Department is completed.

We dont want to be in the position where were making excuses for things that should not have happened to children having happened, Jacobson said in a recent interview. But we also do have to look at, did we take the steps that, per policy and procedure, we are required to take? If we did, and we didnt catch this, why? And what needs to change moving forward?

Jacobson said one thing that keeps coming up is that historically, CYFD investigators have tended to look only at an individual allegation to determine whether it could be substantiated, rather than look for patterns of past accusations.

Without speaking specifically to these investigations, it is something weve been working to change, she said. We dont want investigators to look at allegations in isolation but to gather as full a picture as possible and make sure theyre looking at it in a manner that tells the whole story.

Police had been notified when accusations of abuse were made in the past, and at least one case had been forwarded to the Crime Against Children Unit.

But it is unclear from incident reports what happened in those cases, and APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos did not answer several emailed questions about the outcome of any of those accusations and whether the prior accusations were taken into account a new one was investigated.

Police Chief Michael Geier did not respond to calls seeking comment.

In response to questions about whether the chief or anyone at APD is reviewing its officers interactions with the foster family, Gallegos sent a statement that read: Our detectives are working closely with the District Attorneys Office and CYFD to investigate all allegations. We will share details once the investigation is complete.

Mayor Tim Kellers office did not answer questions about whether he has directed APD to review its prior interactions with the foster family in this case.

Instead, Alicia Manzano, the mayors spokeswoman, emailed a statement that said, Albuquerque has faced heartbreaking cases involving children. Thats why Mayor Keller directed APD to review policies aimed at protecting children and to improve cooperation between different agencies. APD is working with the DA and CYFD to fully investigate this case.

License revoked

Last April, after a 10-year-old girl accused her foster father of touching her sexually, a CYFD investigator quickly discovered there had been other allegations of abuse, dating back to 2000, according to court documents. None of those previous allegations had been substantiated by CYFD investigators.

But CYFD workers immediately removed the girl and two other young foster children from the home and substantiated their disclosures of sexual penetration, molestation and emotional abuse against the foster father, according to court documents.

Then, because of the prior allegations, CYFD began an audit of Familyworks, the not-for-profit business that had been contracting with the family.

Familyworks employees referred the Journal to Desert Hills treatment center, because it has a business agreement with the center. The CEO of Desert Hills did not respond to messages seeking an interview or comment.

The audit ended with CYFD finding that the business had not followed procedures, had in some cases failed to report claims of abuse and hadnt been providing adequate treatment, Jacobson said.

Familyworks license was revoked last month.

Then, Jacobson said, she also wanted to determine whether CYFD workers investigations that found no substantiation of the abuse claims in the past were thorough and done correctly.

A team of experienced CYFD investigators conducted a preliminary review  similar to the review they did in an unrelated case earlier in the summer when, authorities say, a 7-year-old girl was trafficked by her close relatives. In that case, the review found several lapses in the way investigators handled previous calls.

But this time, Jacobson said, the team found that CYFD investigators had done what they were supposed to do. That means they cross-reported accusations to law enforcement, consulted with therapists and treatment providers, and conducted safe-house interviews with the children when necessary.

Jacobson said investigators also had escalated the cases to a higher-level staffer after two investigations were made into the foster family  a policy put into place after the high-profile child abuse death of 9-year-old Omaree Varela in 2013.

We looked at those high-level policy procedures: Were we following what were expected to do in these types of situations? she said. These investigations and our initial look shows it was followed and we did do investigations as would be expected.

But, Jacobson said, the investigator in the most recent case took a wider look at the foster familys history than previous investigators, which exemplifies the attitudes CYFD is trying to encourage in its employees.

The investigator was patient and persistent in terms of recognizing that it can take time for children to disclose things that have happened to them, she said. It can take time for children to open up and be more comfortable talking about things that happened in their past.

Several allegations

When abuse allegations against the foster father were reported to CYFD, the department cross-reported each case to law enforcement, as is the policy, Jacobson said.

But law enforcement records could not be found for all of the accusations listed in court documents, and its unclear whether police investigated every call.

In 2000, Bernalillo County sheriffs deputies investigated a 16-year-old girls claim that the foster father had raped her. The girl later recanted, and the case was closed due to insufficient evidence, according to a spokesman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office in Albuquerque.

In October 2012, a 15-year-old girl reported that the foster father had touched her inappropriately, according to a police incident report. The officer interviewed the girl and her therapist, and the girl recanted. The case was forwarded to the Crimes Against Children Unit, but it is unclear what happened next with the investigation.

In February 2013, a 12-year-old girl reported that the foster father had grabbed her arm and dragged her into another room, and a Familyworks employee reported the allegation to APD, according to a police incident report.

The report says that the officer talked with the therapist and was told that there were no prior reports of abuse at this foster familys home. Its unclear from the report whether the officer looked into the familys history independently, which included at least two previous calls to law enforcement about sexual assault allegations.

In 2015, a 10-year-old girl reported that the foster father had raped her, and in 2017 a 6-year-old reported that he had touched her vagina. Those allegations were detailed in court documents, but no report of those incidents could be found at the APD records department.

The most recent case was reported in April 2017, when a 10-year-old girl told school counselors that the foster father had raped her. When CYFD investigators talked to two other girls staying in the home, the previously mentioned 6-year-old and an 8-year-old, those girls also said he was bad, according to court documents. APD is actively investigating this case.A motorcyclist died Saturday after colliding with a semi-truck south of Carlsbad, according to New Mexico State Police.

Officer Ray Wilson said 37-year-old Christopher Kelly was headed south at an excessive rate of speed on Kelly Road near N.M. 31 when his motorcycle tipped over and slid past a stop sign.

The motorcycle collided with a Peterbilt semi-truck headed east on N.M. 31.

Kelley, who is from Andrews, Texas, was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured.

Wilson said in a news release that alcohol does not appear to be a factor. Kelly was not wearing a helmet.A new cell screening and analysis technology that accelerates tissue-processing rates by up to 100-fold is nearing market, boosted by a $1.5 million venture investment in local startup BennuBio.

The company is commercializing a University of New Mexico breakthrough in flow-through cytometers, or cell meters, which are used to rapidly analyze millions, and often billions of cells for medical diagnostics and drug discovery.

Todays cytometers can process only about 10,000 cells per second because tissue samples are pushed through cytometers one at a time. In addition, when screening complex conglomerates of cells, the process slows down to 100 cells per second.

BennuBios technology processes up to 10 tissue samples through a cytometer simultaneously, allowing researchers to screen up to 100,000 cells per second for simple tissue samples. For the more complex conglomerates, it can screen up to 10,000 cells per second, or 100 times more than todays technology, said BennuBio President and CEO Steven Graves, a UNM chemical and biological engineering professor who developed the technology.

Such speeds can be critical for researchers, especially when seeking rare cells.

When youre looking for just a few cells out of five billion, that can help find the quintessential needle in a haystack, Graves said.

Unlike most cytometers, which use fluids to flow single tissue samples through the machine, BennuBio uses sound waves to separate samples into multiple channels for parallel processing.

Using sound waves also makes sample preparation easier and faster, and it allows researchers to re-use samples for further screening to confirm findings. With fluids, samples can be used only once.

Given BennuBios market potential, New Mexico-based Tramway Venture Partners, Cottonwood Technology and Sun Mountain Capital jointly invested $1.5 million in the company in August. Another $500,000 is expected from those investors, or others, in the coming weeks.

Both Tramway and Cottonwood have received money from the states Catalyst Fund, which invests in local venture firms to channel more capital to early-stage startups in New Mexico. This is Tramways second Catalyst-backed investment, and Cottonwoods third.

Were very excited about BennuBios potential impact, said Tramway managing partner Waneta Tuttle. It could be transformative for researchers.

The company expects to begin selling its first cytometers to research clinics and pharmaceutical developers by mid-2019.

Its machines are already well advanced. Graves and his team have been developing them since 2013, when serial entrepreneur Mike Cumbo licensed the technology from UNM and launched a startup, ETA Diagnostics, to market it.

But ETA had difficulty raising capital, encouraging Graves to restructure the company and bring on more cytometry experts. That includes BennuBio board member Terry Dunlay, who previously used different UNM technology to speed up cytometry processing through his own company, IntelliCyt Corp., which German pharmaceutical firm Sartorius AG acquired for $90 million in 2016.

The team, plus the companys imminent march to market, sealed the deal with investors.

They have a working prototype in place, said Cottonwood managing director David Blivin. We expect initial customer trials by year end, and sales by next year.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WASHINGTON  The Environmental Protection Agency had no proper justification for spending more than $3.5 million on round-the-clock security for former head Scott Pruitt, including nearly $1 million in travel costs for his bodyguards, the agencys internal watchdog concluded on Tuesday.

The EPA allowed Pruitt and his team to increase the security detail from six agents for Pruitts predecessor to 19 for Pruitt without proving the need, an undocumented decision (that) represents an inefficient use of agency resources, the EPA Office of the Inspector General concluded.

According to the EPA inspector generals report, Pruitts security costs were more than double those of his predecessor, Gina McCarthy, during her last year.

The inspector generals report also cited $106,507 in overtime for Pruitts bodyguards that lacked proper authorization.

Travel costs for Pruitts bodyguards more than tripled, to $739,580, from February 2017 to December 2017, owing to Pruitts insistence on 24-hour-a-day security and on premium-class travel for himself and a bodyguard, the report said.

Pruitt left the EPA this summer amid a barrage of scandals over his spending and other allegations of abuses of office.

The EPA did not immediately comment on the report. The inspector generals report says the agency contended the level of protection is an administration decision, informed by the awareness of risks and the potential impact of those risks to the efficient functioning of the agency.

Pruitt, a Republican, had been regarded by many conservatives as one of the more effective members of President Donald Trumps Cabinet. His July resignation came days after two of his closest advisers spoke to House oversight committee investigators and revealed new, embarrassing details in ethics scandals involving him.

Pruitt expressed no regrets in his resignation letter to Trump.

It is extremely difficult for me to cease serving you in this role first because I count it a blessing to be serving you in any capacity, but also, because of the transformative work that is occurring, Pruitt wrote. However, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us.Five adults connected to a compound in Taos where a dead child was found were arraigned on federal firearms charges Tuesday morning.

One of the five Muslim defendants, a native of Haiti, is charged in federal court with unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition by an alien living illegally in the U.S., and the other four are charged with aiding and abetting, and conspiring with her in the weapons violation.

The federal counts were filed after child abuse charges against all five were either dismissed by judges or dropped by the District Attorneys Office in Taos last week.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Lucas Morton, 40, Jany Leveille, 35, Hujrah Wahhaj, 37, and Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, will have preliminary and detention hearings today in federal court in Albuquerque.

The group was arrested last month and all five were charged with child abuse after Taos County deputies raided the compound near the New Mexico-Colorado border. Authorities found 11 children described as malnourished and a dead boy, 3-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj. The boy, who suffered from seizures, was found in a tunnel and is Sirah Ibn Wahhajs son, according to court documents.

Leviell and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj had faced state charges of child abuse resulting in death in state court for not providing the boy with medication. Those counts also were dropped last week after judges had dismissed the lower-level child abuse counts against all five defendants because the Taos District Attorneys Office had missed deadlines to hold preliminary hearings .

Court documents state that the adults were training children at the compound to carry out armed attacks on various institutions, such as schools and banks. Citing interviews with children now in state custody, investigators have said that Levielle told the group that the dead boy, Abdul-Ghani Wahhj, would be resurrected as Jesus to tell them which corrupt institutions to attack.

Leveille, of Haiti, was in the country illegally and the federal charges are based on her allegedly firing a weapon during training exercises, court documents state. Tuesday morning, the five adults appeared briefly in federal court in Albuquerque. The men wore hats, and the women were in white, gray and black burkas.

Taos District Attorney Donald Gallegos has said he intends to pursue the state child abuse charges against the group anew, before a grand jury in the judicial district that will be seated later this month.

In a heated letter sent Friday and posted on his offices Facebook page, Gallegos  who has faced criticism for his handling of the compound case, particularly the failure to hold timely preliminary hearings  blasted Attorney General Hector Balderas for a television interview in which he said the D.A.s office had declined Balderas offer to help. I never declined your offer of assistance, Gallegos wrote.

I am sorry that you are not happy that you were unable to get national press by entering the case at an early point  as that is what you seem to be concerned about, he continued. Well, you are doing a good job of getting press attention by criticizing me and my office now. He said the AGs Office had declined to help when asked in other cases. In a response letter, a deputy attorney general wrote there is an active investigation into one of the other cases Gallegos referenced and that Gallegos office had never handed off the prosecutions or provided case materials for the others.

Balderas wrote in his own Aug. 31 response letter that he disagrees with any conclusion other than one that my actions taken with regard to this matter have been to proactively find a solution and respond to the evolving needs of my law enforcement partner.94.3 Radio One India the brand owned by Next Radio Ltd, a subsidiary of Next Mediaworks Ltd will commence its 11th year celebrations from Sept 4, 2018 to peak on Sept 18, 2018, the day of the anniversary. The celebrations in its 7 cities of operation will continue till the end of October 2018.

The 11th anniversary of 94.3 RADIO ONE will see the launch of its unique audience tracker called the INTERNATIONAL INDIAN ANNUAL MONITOR report. This, the first time for any media company in India, tracks brand/category preference behaviour of 4.2 Mn upscale listeners (as per IRS) of 94.3 Radio One in Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore  The largest media markets . The annual report has a foreword by respected industry stalwarts  Sam Balsara, Sunil Lulla, Ashish Pherwani, Leo Puri, Madhu Dutta, Sulina Menon & Subhodip Pal.

This pioneering report was created with queries pertaining to brands/categories that were designed as help questions and not research. These 'help questions' were asked by Radio ONE RJs on its stations and 1.3 million fans of 94.3 Radio One on facebook. The questions sought genuine listener advice and listeners helped their favourite RJs in making real life product / brand choices. Extensive responses have been tabulated in the report to provide valuable insights for future content creation & improving brand conversation impact for advertisers, exclusively within this upscale audience of 94.3 Radio One. The complimentary Annual International Indian monitor report can be accessed from here.

On our 11th anniversary we at 94.3 Radio One feel the deepest connection with our tribe - The International Indian. The International Indian Annual Monitor, a first for any media company in India, directly tracks our upscale audience consistently & accurately to build enhanced value for our listeners & advertisers in the digital age. Our 11th anniversary is a momentous occasion for us to thank our listeners, advertisers, business partners, board & team members for their fabulous contribution throughout our different 11 year journey said Vineet Singh Hukmani, MD & CEO Next Radio Ltd, who also completes 11 years with the company on Sept 18th.

Music Video for the 11th year by the in house Radio One band

The theme for the 11th year celebration is WHATEVER IT TAKES - A rejuvenated commitment to listeners, advertisers and well wishers by each and every member of the company across India. This theme is expressed in a song performed by the in-house band of the company.

NEW CONTENT for the 11th year.

Being Indias largest international format radio network, we are refreshing the sound design of the station to be even more current. This will help listeners feel the renewed connect with a global quality sound. We will have the legendary Kabir Bedi anchoring a new program on air called #OneWon that showcases how 1+1 = 11. It highlights unique situations that came together during the year to create a winning combination! We will also have enhanced Indian & International celebrity participation to amplify the celebration in our listener community said Anil Machado, COO  Programming & Innovations.

The company has designed a new logo to commemorate the 11th year with the tagline  Celebrating 11 different years. Station heads of 94.3 Radio One, across all the 7 cities, have kicked off a special 2-month program that involves health check-up camps, motivational offsite visits and special movie screenings and fun outings for both employees & listeners.Amidst the recent heavy floods which ravaged many parts of Kerala resulting in loss of life and resources, ACC Limited, one of Indias leading producers of cement and ready-mix concrete stepped in with resources, manpower and logistical support to provide on-ground relief and rehabilitation to assist people and local authorities in the flood impacted regions of the state.

Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director & CEO, ACC Limited and his team visited some of the worst affected regions in Kerala to understand the requirements of the locals to help enable long term rehabilitation solutions.

On his arrival in Kochi, the team visited the Rajashree S M M Senior Secondary School, East Kadungalloor where the Madukkarai Task Force team have been engaged in cleaning and restoration of the destruction from the floods. This was followed by a visit to Sree Sai Vidya Vihar, Kadungalloor where the ACC team had already completed the restoration work last week. Additionally, he also met the affected families in Neduvannur area in Parambayam, followed by Alwaye and then Vennala floods.

Commenting on the situation, Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director & CEO, ACC Limited said, We salute the spirit of the people of Kerala for their resilience, courage and sheer determination as they face one of the most daunting times. Going far beyond financial contribution, ACC employees are on-ground in Kerala, ensuring that we use our best resources to help create an impact to the lives of affected people and lead the rehabilitation efforts from the front. We will continue to support the people of Kerala in the coming days.

Along with contributions by ACC Trust, ACC employees have donated one day's salary to the humanitarian effort. Apart from financial aid, the leadership has leveraged the companys resources to support relief and rehabilitation, while also collaborating and mobilizing its channel partners to help in these efforts. ACC has also sent teams of carpenters, plumbers, electricians and maintenance personnel from its plant in Madukkarai, Tamil Nadu to Kerala for rehabilitation and rebuilding. Displaced people in Kerala have been finding it difficult to go back to their homes due to the heavy mud deposit inside their homes, disrupted electricity and water supply and damage to household items such as furniture, clothes and kitchen utensils. ACC teams of maintenance workers are helping them with the removal of mud deposits, restoration of electricity and plumbing facilities.Singapore based Active leisure brand ACTIMAXX in a major development today announced the signing of actor par excellence, National award winner Raj Kummar Rao as their brand ambassador. The move essentially showcases the endeavour of ACTIMAXX to consolidate its market position in the Indian subcontinent. ACTIMAXX offers the perfect range of active wear, super comfortable and high on fashion, that makes one feel active, true to the brands promise of FEEL FIT.

ACTIMAXX brand is owned by ACTIBRANDS PTE Singapore. ACTIMAXX manufacturing and marketing pvt ltd. is the Indian strategic partner of ACTIBRANDS PTE. The company today enumerated their plans of growing the ACTIVE LEISURE brand in the Indian subcontinent which will cater to the taste of the younger generation in the country. With an eye catching logo on their T-shirts and a structured fit, the brand is already quite a rage amongst the youth. The T-shirts offer unique design, colour and are extremely comfortable and durable. Both the track pants and the T-shirts are perfect for the track or the gym or can be casually donned for a Sunday brunch or a weekend gateway.

Elaborating about the association with Raj Kummar Rao, Ms. Divya  brand director ACTIMAXX , stated, Actimaxx is pleased to join hands with Mr. Raj Kummar Rao. It is a matter of great pride for us. Mr. Rao shares ACTIMAXXs ethos of innovation in execution and the spirit of challenging the conventional. ACTIMAXX s brand promise is FEEL FIT; the brand celebrates the holistic fitness oriented to FIT FOR LIFE.

How we dress influences howweI feel about ourselves. It also influences what we do. Thats what the brands mantra is all about, Divya added.

ACTIMAXX has already launched ACTIVE LEISURE product categories which includes T-shirts, and Track pants. These merchandise are available online as well as in offline stores which give the consumers the best of international styling and design. ACTIMAXX aims to provide products of superior quality coupled with a new age look and feel which will be able to easily grab the attention of the youth.

The product range starts from INR 469- 899

Fashion for me is comfort. It is something that makes you feel confident about. ACTIMAXX is one such brand which makes you feel fit, sharp and edgy. Their clothing line is young and trendy and connects with the youth. I am extremely glad to be part of ACTIMAXX. We are confident of building the brand as one of the most successful ACTIVE LEISURE brand, said Raj Kummar Rao.Her love for innovation and spontaneity has never let Gazal Jain, Copy Supervisor, FCB Ulka, be satisfied with a conventional job. Everything about the creative world fascinates Jain, letting her take the liberty to take anything and everything in thoughts, experiences, and relationships and converting that into something meaningful.

Jain started her career as a copy intern with Ogilvy 6 years back, post which she has been learning and exploring the world of advertising and has never looked back.

She loves working in a team, making conversations with people, ideating with them and successfully bringing jobs to completion.

What does it takes to climb up the ladder in advertising? Heres Gazal Jain in her own words...

How did you get into the role you are serving?

I have always been creatively inclined. Everything about the creative world fascinates me, taking liberty to take anything and everything in thoughts, experiences, and relationships and convert them in to something meaningful.

So here I am, doing what I think I do best, because I dont see myself doing anything else.

What particular skill sets do you think you bring to the table?

Deriving communication from everyday conversation that in turn leads to an idea is what I believe in. And that is truly my strongest skill set.

One campaign that you have worked on that you are particularly proud of? Please take us through the making of the campaign.

I am personally very proud of the work we did for Cadburys Bournvita Quiz Contest, called India Plays BQC. This campaign celebrated the 40 glorious years of BQC and its return to television on Colors from August 4, 2013. This digital campaign was in sync with Cadbury Bournvitas mainline campaign  Tayari Jeet Ki.

I remember as a child being glued to my television set to catch up with Derek OBrien, who hosted the Bournvita Quiz Contest. So, when I was asked to be part of this project, I was super excited and its one of the reasons why this campaign is very special to me!

We created a microsite showcasing BQCs best questions over the years and a mobile app which enabled users to prepare for the show and then participate in real time with their Facebook or Twitter logins. Viewers had to answer as soon as quizmaster Derek OBrien asked his questions to the children during the quiz show.

Along with this, we also ran a Twitter contest  #IndiaPlaysBQC  every week, which trended for 9 weeks straight till the end of the show. Here, we encouraged people to play the practice sessions on the app by running contests and promoting the Tayyari Jeet Ki angle as well.

Also Read: Ad lands Young Guns: Sanjeeda Khan, iCubesWire

Icons in advertising you look up to and how they have influenced you and your work?

Over the years that I have been in this industry, I can safely say that its not just one person who is responsible for the outcome of a project. Its a collective effort of the team. Having said that, for me, I think everybody has a unique way of expressing creativity and I am influenced by them every single day.

What are the five most productive things that you do in your everyday routine?

Making Me time

Watching shows  because with the variety of shows that have come out, we are bound to get some creative ideas from there

Music

Taking a longer route while travelling back and forth from work  gives me time to think before the madness at work begins and helps me relax before reaching home

Sketching  well I love scribbling and making my own art, which I call Shit I Do, it really relaxes me

Do you think a career in digital advertising is a viable one in the long term?

I know it is for the next few years, at least till the time I plan to work. God knows, with newer technology coming every now and then, digital might get overshadowed.

What does it take to succeed in a career like advertising?

Success for everyone is very different. For me, as long as I enjoy what Im doing (obviously with the occasional rantings and late nights in office), Im happy. Having said that, for anyone to succeed, I think its just about being responsible towards something, because when youre responsible, you automatically treat that project like your life and will do anything to do the best you can.

What would be your advice to youngsters planning to enter this industry?

Have fun. Make mistakes. Thats the only way to learn. Find the right set of people to work with, observe, learn and get inspired.

Also Read: Ad lands Young Guns: Nishant Malsisaria, Dentsu Webchutney

Where do you see yourself in five years time?

I have no idea. I cannot predict the future. But for now, Im happy being where I am.

Is there any agency/ organisation that you would like to work with in the future?

Like I said earlier, Im happy being where I am for now. I want to enjoy this and then see where I go from here.

Click here to read more Young Guns articles.In the early 1980s, I began traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border to take make photographs for my book To the Promised Land. I wanted to tell the story of people desperate to reach America, writes photojournalist Ken Light at The Washington Post. Earlier this year, amid reports of immigration traumas at the border, Light returned to his old contact sheets a saw how little had changed. Looking today at my images from the 80s reminded me how much time can stand still  not just in a photograph but also in the universe around it, he notes.Jordanian businessmen in the private sector are currently working to break the ice between Amman and Damascus to reopen the two border crossings, namely the Nassib and Ramtha crossings, which the Jordanian side officially closed in 2015 after Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions took control of them on the Syrian side.

Head of the Jordan Chamber of Commerce Nael al-Kabariti told Al-Monitor that around 100 Jordanian figures in the economic and industrial sectors have decided to partake in the Damascus International Fair, due to start in mid-September. The Damascus International Fair in Syria is an international exhibition that has been held annually in Damascus since 1954. Participating countries introduce their industrial, commercial, business and economic activities.

This participation is aimed at re-establishing the bridges that were cut off with Syria because of the closure of the border. We will discuss the strategy for future action in rebuilding Syria when calm is reinstated in Syria and reconstruction begins. This is why both countries need to be coordinating, so as Jordan can provide Syria with reconstruction material and logistic support, Kabariti noted.

The Nassib border crossing, where trade has been suspended since 2011 due to security conditions after serving as a vital line between Syria and Jordan, can only reopen if one of the two countries compromises and asks for it, Jordanian and Syrian officials said. Amman and Damascus are both waiting for the other party to request the opening of the crossing.

In April 2015, Jordanian authorities officially announced the closure of the crossing after FSA factions, namely Fallujah of Horan Brigade, Yarmouk Army, the Lions of Sunna Brigade and the Artillery Corps, took over the area. Then-Jordanian Interior Minister Hussein al-Majali justified the closure of the crossing as being the result of the violent incidents on the Syrian side of the border.

Hopes of reopening the crossing resurfaced after the Syrian regime, backed by Russia, took control of the crossing and southern Syria on July 6, after the Syrian opposition agreed to hand over its weapons and positions.

On Aug. 28, the Jordanian government contacted the customs clearance companies to get ready to resume work as soon as the crossing reopens in coordination with Syrian authorities.

Meanwhile, the head of the Agricultural Materials Traders & Producers Association of Jordan, Khalil al-Haj Toufic, told Al-Monitor that a group of Jordanian businessmen in the private sector are expected to head to Syria on Sept. 4 to meet with Syrian businessmen and discuss ways to resume economic trade between the two sides.

It seems, however, the opening remains stalled for political reasons. Jordan would only reopen the crossing if the Syrian side officially puts in a request for it. Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and government spokesperson Jumana Ghunaimat told Al-Monitor, The Syrian side has not yet requested the opening of the crossings.

The Nassib border crossing remains closed. Jordan is ready to open the borders, but Syria has yet to ask for that, she added.

Meanwhile, Syria also holds on to the same demand. Syrian Transport Minister Ali Hammoud told Reuters Aug. 6 that the Damascus-Amman International Road in Syria is ready to function, but the Syrian government had yet to receive any request from Jordan to reopen the crossing.

The closure of the crossing caused financial losses for the two countries. Trade volume between the two reached $750 million in 2010 but has fallen to zero since 2011, said Abdelsalam Thiabat, president of the Ramtha Chamber of Commerce.

According to the Amman Chamber of Industry, Jordan imports textiles, clothing, animal and vegetable products from Syria, while the kingdom exports to Syria chemical products, agricultural products, plant products, machinery and electrical appliances.

Toufic said that trade between the two countries continued through the ports of Aqaba and Latakia, especially since some Syrian materials are irreplaceable, such as spices, jams and some legumes  but the tariff has risen on them by 10%.

It would bode well for both countries if the crossing reopens. We suffered great losses after Syrian goods stopped entering Jordan in 2011. We also stopped exporting to Europe, and the movement of commercial trucks between the two countries completely stopped, Thiabat told Al-Monitor.

The Ramtha and Irbid provinces are known for selling Syrian goods, especially clothing, cotton and foodstuffs. But their supply stopped, causing a decline in commercial activity. Data by the Ramtha Chamber of Commerce indicate that 70% of trade there relied on Syrian products.

Economist Mazin Marji believes that Nassib/Jaber crossing is of great importance to both Jordan and Syria. It shortens distances and opens all of Europe to Jordanian goods, the Gulf and West Asia to Syria, and thus allows Lebanon and Turkey to benefit from the goods and passenger movement as well.

Marji told Al-Monitor, In some years, the crossing made $1 billion in revenues for both countries. He expects this mutual benefit to push both countries to overcome their political differences.

Despite the absence of a formal decision to reopen the crossing from either party, both countries have carried out the necessary maintenance of the crossing facilities  especially from the Syrian side  and repaired the damage caused by the fighting, while Jordanian clearance companies have begun maintenance operations in their offices on the Jordanian side of the crossing, awaiting the official decision.

Secretary-General of the Jordanian Ministry of Transport Anmar al-Khasawneh told Al-Monitor, The Ministry of Transport is ready to serve as an executive and operational body, but we are awaiting a decision from the Jordanian Foreign Ministry in this regard.

Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad al-Kayed told Al-Monitor that the reopening of the crossing is in the hands of the Jordanian Interior Ministry.Women's rights activists and Christian figures rejoiced as Egypt appointed its first Coptic Christian woman as governor of the Nile Delta city of Damietta.

The appointment of Manal Awad, the first Christian woman to hold the position of governor in Egypt, reflects an unprecedented state willingness to empower Christians and appoint them in leading government posts.

Former member of Egyptian parliament Gamal Assad said the Egyptian leaderships attitude toward Christians has dramatically changed under the reign of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Assad added that there will have to be community support to any initiatives or decisions that are made in the interests of Christians in Egypt. The new Christian governor in Damietta is going to be under threat because there are still followers of the Muslim Brotherhood group out there, and they are of course opposing the appointment of any Christian in a leading post, he told Al-Monitor.

Assad recalled demonstrations by thousands of Muslims in 2011 following the appointment of a Christian man as governor of the Upper Egyptian city of Qena. The demonstrations revealed how the Egyptian society was in total rejection of having a Christian in a leading post. That is why genuine community backing is very crucial, he added.

Awad, who has a Ph.D. in natural sciences from the University of Alexandria, is the second Egyptian woman to hold the post of governor in Egypt. Nadia Abdu was Egypts first woman to assume office as governor when she was appointed to the Nile Delta governorate of Beheira.

Activists and Christian figures described Awad's appointment as unprecedented and promising for both women and Christians in Egypt.

Randa Fakhr El Deen, executive director of the NGOs' Union Against Harmful Practices on Women and Children, said that the appointment signals a change of attitude from the Egyptian government toward Christians. Egyptian Christian women hold leading posts in Egypt nowadays, including current Minister of Migration Nabila Makram Ebeid.

It is a dream coming true for many Christian women in Egypt and a very encouraging gesture that would inspire them to pursue their aspirations in holding leading posts in the country, Deen told Al-Monitor.

Deen said that Awad would nevertheless face uphill challenges during her tenure in office due to a societal misperception that women and Christians should not lead a Muslim community.

It is not just about the fact that she is a woman. She is also Christian, and that would put a lot of challenges before Governor Awad with the existence of extremists and religious people who think that Christians should not take over leadership posts, she added.

Shortly after her appointment, Awad held a meeting with the heads of the governorates directorates to follow up on the work mechanisms at each of them. During the meeting, she asserted the necessity to exert all-out efforts to serve, meet the needs of citizens, develop work at each directorate, and follow up with field visits on all the governorates conditions.

Awad was appointed deputy governor of Giza in 2015 and worked on community service and environmental development. In that role, she was responsible for the development of informal settlements in the Giza governorate. Awad was able to obtain a large number of grants and funding from international organizations to develop informal settlements and carry out several projects in the city.

She was also under-secretary for the Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Egypt has the largest Christian community in the Middle East, representing about 10% of the Egyptian population  which currently stands at about 95 million.

The countrys Christians have long accused the government of persecution, negligence and marginalization. Christians were also targeted in several attacks by Islamist extremists.

Nevertheless, Sisi showed a very different approach toward the Christian community by visiting the Coptic Orthodox Church several times and urging the government to restore churches that were torched and destroyed during the era of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

In 2016, the Egyptian parliament approved a law that sought to ease restrictions on building churches. In April this year, the Cabinet approved the legalization of unlicensed churches in order to make it easier for Christians to practice their religious rituals.A strategically important decision was how Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked categorized the Aug. 28 decision by Jerusalem District Court Judge Arnon Darel. The court barred the Israel Defense Forces from evacuating several homes at the West Bank settlement of Mitzpe Kramim, even though these houses were built on private Palestinian lands, thus legalizing the outpost. Darel ruled that under Israeli law, even legally questionable transactions could be valid if conducted in "good faith," accepting the argument by the settlers and the state that when the land was allocated to build Mitzpe Kramim in the late 1990s, neither of them was aware that it was private.

Working together intensively we have wrought a change in the states policy, Shaked said, patting herself on the back and praising Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit for overturning his predecessors stand on the issue.

Despite Shakeds satisfaction with the precedent-setting decision, she also knows that the Supreme Court could strike down the lower courts ruling on appeal and instruct the state to restore the outposts lands to their (Palestinian) owners. The justice minister has surely considered the possibility that the good faith excuse would not sway the top courts justices when they weigh the landowners heartbreak.

Nonetheless, she spelled out the cause of her pleasure with the message she conveyed in the wake of the ruling to the Supreme Court (apparently addressing the Supreme Court justices). The injustice done in the evacuations of the Amona and Netiv Haavot [outposts] should not be repeated, Shaked said, referring to the Supreme Courts rulings in recent years ordering the evacuation of two outposts built on private Palestinian lands. The District Court, as she sees it, righted those wrongs when it clearly stated that whoever settled [the land] with the states approval and in good faith, would not be evicted, in her words.

In good faith, indeed? Mitzpe Kramim features in a landmark 2005 report on Israels unauthorized outposts compiled by attorney Talia Sasson at the request of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The report said the state had never adopted any decision establishing this and several other outposts. The defense minister did not authorize the establishment of Mitzpe Kramim as an extension of an existing adjacent settlement, no detailed planning was conducted for the outpost, and parts of it were located on private Palestinian lands. The report implicated the defense ministers adviser on settlements, Ron Shechner, in violating the law. As a result, then-Attorney General Manny Mazoz, currently a Supreme Court justice, ordered Shechners firing. In 2012, Shechner was appointed director of the Judea and Samaria Council, an umbrella organization of Israels West Bank settlements.

Adi Mintz, Shechners predecessor in that post, told Haaretz in 2004 that all the outposts went up in coordination with the top echelons of government. Even Labor Party Chair Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who served as defense minister in the Sharon government, went along with this policy and ordered his ministry to cooperate with such decisions. According to Mintz, at some point Sharon made a U-turn, but by then there were already 100 outposts, some authorized and some in the process of getting permits.

Since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power, the outposts have resumed their growth trajectory, expanding and multiplying in coordination with the political echelons just like the good old days of Ariel Sharon. Ruling in September 2016 on evacuating the Netiv Haavot outpost, the Supreme Court justices nonetheless said, The authorities involvement in erecting the outpost should not affect our decision.

Sasson, a retired senior state prosecutor, stressed in her report, There is no way to validate the establishment of an outpost on private Palestinian property, not even post factum. Nine years on, in its ruling on the illegal outpost of Amona, the Supreme Court also wrote that structures erected on private Palestinian land could not be validated, not even after the fact. The Sasson Report, which recommended a series of measures designed to sort out the legal jungle in the Israeli-occupied territories, has been gathering dust in the Justice Ministrys cabinets.

Shaked boasted that since taking office three years ago, she had been working to pass legislation and administrative measures regulating the status of Israeli settlements, and her Sisyphean labors had paid off. Among the regulatory tools Shaked pushed through was February legislation transferring the Supreme Courts jurisdiction over petitions filed by West Bank Palestinians to the Jerusalem District Court, a measure proven extremely effective by the Mitzpe Kramim ruling. The Sisyphean labors to which Shaked alluded focus on her efforts to appoint judges holding the same views as those of HaBayit HaYehudi, her rightist Jewish Home party.

While the media generally spotlight deliberations by the Judicial Appointments Committee regarding Supreme Court candidates, Shaked also operates below the radar to push through appointments of religious, conservative judges to the lower-level District and Magistrate courts. The path from those benches to the countrys top court is shorter. Until and if they are promoted to that coveted bench, the lower court judges are supposed to grant the judicial wishes of the conservative political right.

Israels justice system has for years held a dual and thankless role, serving both as the external fig leaf of Israels occupation and the domestic punching bag of the occupations leaders. To the outside world, Israel boasts of an independent legal system. To the inside, right-wing leaders blame the court for leaning to the left and against the settlers. Thus, for example, in late July the court saved the state from itself and from international shame, overturning a decision that barred five critically ill cancer patients (immediate relatives of Hamas members) from leaving Gaza for treatment in east Jerusalem. The courts ruling reversed what amounted to a death sentence for these women. This requisite decision resulted in a deluge of domestic cursing and swearing. Numerous previous rulings legalizing the settlement enterprise and enabling it to prosper are forgotten whenever the justices dare deviate from the path carved out by the right wing and the settlers.

The Mitzpe Kramim decision and other similar ones bring us closer to the day when Palestinians and human rights advocates refuse to take part any longer in the rigged legal process. A few more such strategic important rulings will wipe out the occupation regimes remaining semblance of decency and turn it into de jure apartheid rule. Even a world-leading high-tech power like Israel is unable to both eat its democracy and preen itself in front of the world as the sole democracy in the region.Turkey's armed forces  known as the ultimate guardian of secularism since the foundation of the modern Turkish republic almost a century ago  are now trying to strike a balance between religious freedom and freedom from religion.

During an Aug. 20 TV program, a well-known Turkish politician raised claims that cadets at the war academy in Ankara had sparred over who should lead Friday prayers at the school mosque. Umit Ozdag, deputy chair of the nationalist Good Party, said he planned to follow up by submitting a question to parliament on the issue of some cadets wanting an imam of a religious order to lead Friday prayers instead of the assigned conscript imam.

Did the issue reach the General Staff and then [President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan? What decisions were made? Ozdag queried.

The following day, the Ministry of National Defense issued a harshly worded denial of Ozdags claims. Yet the debate on how the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) will preserve its traditional secular character while allowing for more religious freedom is far from over. Some of the most pertinent questions pertain to who should serve as imams at mosques at TSK facilities and who will lead the prayers, especially the Friday congregational prayer.

The TSK is known for its hard-line secularist character. For decades, it adhered strictly to the principle that the army should be kept off limits to political Islam and military units should be free of religious disputes. Conscripts doing their compulsory military service served as imams and muezzins (those who lead the calls to prayer) in mosques across TSK facilities. Also, military units, no matter how big and crowded they are, have traditionally had a single mosque or a prayer room to facilitate supervision.

The practice of having professional officers serving as imams was abandoned after the 1980 coup. In 1997-1998, the top brass led a harsh secularist campaign to force the resignation of the premier  who was the leader of an Islamist party  and purged officers who taught religion courses at military schools and were graduates of theology faculties.

After the 2016 failed coup, however, war academies were placed under the newly founded University of National Defense, dominated by administrators appointed by the Justice and Development Party government. As a result, mosques and prayer rooms in their facilities became the subject of rivalries.

Since the 2016 coup attempt, the number of practicing Muslims among newly admitted cadets has grown. The issue came to public attention last year amid complaints that the single mosque at the Army War Academy  an almost 3,000-person-strong institution sprawling over a vast area  had become insufficient, especially on Fridays, and that cadets lost a lot of time walking to the mosque for prayers. Proposals have been made to open prayer rooms at each battalion, in addition to the main mosque.

Asked about the proposals, a military official raised questions about how far such demands might go and their potential impact on military discipline. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told Al-Monitor, Lets suppose that a prayer room is allowed at each battalion building, where approximately 300 cadets receive training. Will the students then ask for prayer rooms in other areas such as dormitories, cafes and training grounds? This would require dozens of prayer rooms across the Army War Academy. How many prayer rooms will be enough to keep the sensitive balance between the schools working discipline and the worship needs of cadets who are practicing Muslims? Moreover, those prayer rooms would require constant control to prevent them from being used for political purposes.

According to the official, striking a balance became more difficult in the climate after the 2016 coup attempt. On one hand, the number of students who are practicing Muslims has increased [since the coup attempt], and school administrations need to make sure that hundreds of students can worship freely and with the least possible trouble. On the other hand, however, the TSK needs to preserve its secular character, keep political Islam at bay and make sure that mosques at military units do not fall under the control of religious orders. Since [the coup attempt], maintaining this sensitive balance has become more difficult, he said.

In early August, the pro-government Islamist daily Yeni Akit ran an article titled Battalion imams are a must for the TSK, which argued for chaplain officers who would offer religious guidance to military personnel, pointing to the example of Western armies that employ civilian and military chaplains. In short, the article called for reinstating the old chaplain officer and battalion imam positions and thus for imam officers to serve at TSK mosques. A retired colonel quoted in the article said it was high time for the TSK to have chaplain officers to guide and meet the religious needs of military personnel.

Despite a relative relaxation over the past decade, the militarys hard-line secularist stance has always caused resentment among Turks. Until 10 years ago, mothers wearing headscarves would often be barred from the oath-taking ceremonies of their sons or wedding parties taking place in officers clubs. Turks were also accustomed to stories of officers being denied promotion or sent off to remote regions just for being practicing Muslims. The conservative majority now believes that since the 2016 coup attempt, the TSK has begun to shrug off some of its secularist baggage, a process the political elites should support.

In secular quarters, however, the Islamization of the army is a highly critical matter. They see the TSKs perception of secularism and its relation to Islam not merely as a military issue but also as a sociocultural one that defines society. Hence, secular Turks worry that if the TSK abandons its traditional perception of secularism, the nation will follow.

The best example in the Muslim world is perhaps the transformation of the Pakistani military under Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who served as president from 1978 to 1988. The rise of piety in the Pakistani army and the subsequent politicization of religious influences is a well-known process that led to various problems and the erosion of that armys professional and military ethics norms.

Turkey's civilian and military elites need to determine whether a civilian-military gap should persist between how society and the military perceive secularism. Should the militarys perception of secularism be sterner than that of society, or should the military be a direct mirror of the nation? For instance, will Turkish society be more peaceful and feel more secure if the rate of Friday prayer attendance or Ramadan fasting at military barracks is equal to the nations overall rate, or lower than it?

In sum, the fundamental questions are: How much should the TSK free itself from religion, and how much freedom of religion should it allow within its ranks? Should the decision be up to civilian or military leaders? In other words, is this a political or technical/bureaucratic question? Who is going to set the standards and disciplinary mechanisms to make sure the issue is addressed in a uniform fashion at the more than 200 military units and barracks across Turkey? Turkey is still vague on those critical issues.As the world braces for major military action to take place in the last Syrian rebel stronghold of Idlib, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas visit to Ankara on Sept. 5 is set to bring forth some urgent issues.

The meeting between the two states, taking place during a de-icing period overcoming sour relations, is expected to cover a number of topics, including detained German citizens in Turkey and the troubles in the Turkish economy. But the most serious and time-sensitive concern for both countries at this time lies abroad.

"We will do everything to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib, Maas told reporters in Berlin on Sept. 3 amid reports that the regime in Damascus is preparing for a major Moscow-backed military offensive against Syrian rebel concentrations south of the Turkish border. On Sept. 4, Russia announced that it had begun striking Idlib, after several weeks of a pause, in a bid to support its longtime ally.

It will be a highly important topic of my visit to Turkey on Wednesday and Thursday this week, Maas said ahead of his meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

In parallel with the German governments campaign to mobilize world powers against the offensive, the minister underlined that Turkey had a key role to play in terms of the next steps for "Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad. This was in reference to the three-way cooperation officially declared through the de-escalation zone agreement signed in the Kazakh capital, Astana, last year between Turkey, which is known to support rebel groups, and Iran and Russia, both Assad allies.

Two weeks ago German Chancellor Angela Merkel also asked Russia to use its influence on the Syrian regime to prevent an escalation and a humanitarian catastrophe, although it was met with a counter-call from Moscow for Berlin to use its influence with the rebels. Last week, Merkel also touched base with US President Donald Trump over the phone and discussed the situation in Syria.

In addition, a European Union official told Al-Monitor that the Astana guarantors should act to prevent a new upsurge of violence and maintain their commitment for the implementation of the de-escalation agreement for Idlib, which has now the largest presence of internally displaced persons and can therefore turn into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Turkey, which has backed some insurgent groups in Idlib, where it also has 12 observation points, is also trying to avert an attack by forces loyal to Assad for a number of reasons, including the expected refugee outpour and worries about Ankara's prestige within Syrias borders. The Turkish foreign minister said Aug. 24 that it would be disastrous to seek a military solution in the region.

The international communitys prevention efforts seem doomed to fail. The Kremlin has been saying that rebels, with the help of a British contractor, are planning a chemical weapons attack with the intent of blaming it on Syria. The Syrian regime appears ready for a final showdown.

On Aug. 30, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, said government forces will "go all the way" in Idlib and liberate the "whole territory from terrorism." This came only several days after Russian media reported Moscow's largest naval deployment in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the conflict in 2011.

Regaining control over Idlib is both strategic and symbolic for the Assad government, and thus, Moscow. While some have suggested it could mean the end of the war  after having retaken eastern Ghouta, Daraa, Quneitra and parts of Homs, taking back Idlib would give Assad control of western Syria, where the majority of the population lives.

The government would also regain control of a critical trade route that runs from Jordan to Turkey, and also another one running between Aleppo and the Assad stronghold of Latakia; Russias Hmeimim airbase in Latakia is located near this route and has reportedly faced occasional rebel attacks coming from Idlib.

The city of Idlib is some 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of the al-Bab border crossing, which is near Rehanli, Turkey. The city of Idlib and surrounding Idlib province are home to nearly 3 million Syrian civilians, many of whom fled from other cities that were retaken by Assad forces. If the Idlib offensive is launched, it is feared that many people wont make it out alive, and that large numbers of those who do survive will be displaced.

Germany and Turkey, two countries whose migration policies have been under fire, are quite worried about that displacement  and thus the huddle.

Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the director of German Marshall Funds Ankara office, told Al-Monitor that an Idlib operation poses a dilemma, and that a potentially strong migrant influx toward Europe will put Idlib under the spotlight during the encounter of the two top diplomats.

It is a matter of up to 1 million Syrian refugees pressing against Europes gates: Of course [the top agenda topic] is Idlib in these meetings, he said.

Highlighting clashing opinions in German domestic politics, the director said that a new wave of Syrian refugees would spark even harsher rows in the Bundestag, and would pose as yet another test for Merkel on a highly sensitive topic.

Her governments decision to admit some 1.3 million refugees in 2015, mainly from parts of the Middle East like Syria and Iraq, had already drawn widespread criticism from parts of the German public, and in last year's general election, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party entered parliament for the first time, winning 12.6% of the vote and more than 90 seats.

On Sept.1, some 5,000 far-right demonstrators filled the streets of the German city of Chemnitz, voicing fury against Berlins immigration policy after a pair of Iraqi and Syrian refugees were suspected of murdering a German national.

Law enforcement officials had a tough time breaking up clashes when angry demonstrators  some of who were seen to do the Nazi salute and chant foreigners out  were met by a counter-protest from a group of 1,000 citizens supporting immigrants.

Yet an offensive on Idlib, the last of four "de-escalation" zones agreed to by world powers in 2017, poses a threat not only of more displaced persons but also for Syrian refugees looking to move back to their homeland, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Aug. 31.

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 said.

Turkey itself is seeking to create safe zones in Syria in order to transfer the Syrian refugees back to their homeland.

Since increasing its military involvement in Syria in 2016 with Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkey has been carrying out its second cross-border military operation in the northern Syrian province of Afrin and also is conducting coordinated but independent military patrols with US forces in Manbij. Turkey's objective in Manbij is to remove the Syrian-Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, which Ankara sees as a terrorist offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. Safe havens will be created as a result of these efforts, Ankara says.

As it works to create what it calls safe zones in Afrin and the Euphrates Shield Operation areas, Turkey, under heavy economic pressure nowadays, could get economic support it seeks from Europe, Al-Monitor has learned. The German government would consider supplying money, it was understood, on condition that Turkey keeps its border gates closed to those trying to flee Idlib and places them in Syrias north instead.

However, Unluhisarcikli said that based on the information obtained, areas under Turkey's sway will not be big enough to accommodate those who flee from Idlib following a military confrontation.

Set to be launched in phases, as the Syrian army has announced, the assault would initially target southern and western parts of the insurgent territory, Reuters reported, quoting an official in the regional alliance backing Assad.

The offensive would eventual wind up in Idlib city. An ordinary Syrian urban area seven years ago, Idlib today is host to around 60,000 armed rebels indoctrinated by various radicalized militant groups. These groups include Syrias strongest rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda. Other armed groups include Islamist heavyweights Ahrar al-Sham and Nureddine al-Zinki  the Syrian Liberation Front.

That is why this is not only Europes or Turkeys problem. It is also not only a matter of refugees. This is a threat to China, Russia, too, Unluhisarcikli said, referring to the foreign fighters in Idlib who will now head elsewhere, creating some serious security concerns.

Some intense international cooperation is required to overcome the dangers of Assads final strike on the rebel stronghold that will pressure Turkey more than any, Unluhisarcikli said, coming back to the reason for the meeting between the German and Turkish foreign ministers.Cushman & Wakefield announced two deals that resulted in the sale of four Birmingham apartment properties.

Josh Jacobs and Jimmy Adams of Cushman & Wakefield represented the sellers. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Timberfalls was built in 1979.

One sale involved Timberfalls, a 176-unit apartment community along Valley Avenue, which Broadview & Co. sold to Arcan Capital. Built in 1979, the property was 96 percent occupied at the time of sale, and includes a swimming pool, laundry facility and a clubhouse. Arcan will execute a value-add program on the property.

In the other deal, FM Capital sold a three-property portfolio, which includes Alpine Village, Olympia Village and Knoll Crest, to SB Pacific Group. The apartment communities were constructed between 1975 and 1976, and arrived to market 91 percent occupied.

"This sale demonstrates the sustained demand for portfolio ownership in the Birmingham metro," Adams said. "Investors are drawn to Homewood and Hoover as highly profitable investment spaces given the strong schools and barriers to entry. New ownership has a plan to improve operations through management and capital focus."

Cushman & Wakefield's Southeast Multifamily Advisory Group closed $4.8 billion in sales volume through 268 deals and more than 55,000 units last year.Callie Walker's trunk for the Miss America competition is filled with elegant gowns, flirty dresses, kicky shoes and at least one comfy jumpsuit.

One item is missing, though, from her wardrobe as Miss Alabama 2018.

A swimsuit.

Walker, 20, didn't pack a bikini, a tank, a two-piece or bathing gear of any kind for her trip to Atlantic City, N.J.

She doesn't need it for the competition, which takes place this week and concludes on Sunday with a televised finale. The Miss America organization eliminated its swimsuit strut earlier this year, citing concerns that it objectified the contestants -- now called "candidates" -- and was not in keeping for its goals for "Miss America 2.0."

"We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance," Gretchen Carlson, chairwoman of the pageant's board of directors, said in June on ABC's "Good Morning America." "We are moving it forward and evolving it in this cultural revolution."

Swimsuits were nixed, Carlson said, to help Miss America refashion its image into a more modern and empowered mode, presenting the women competing for the crown as strong and relevant. The talent portion of the competition would be given more emphasis as a result, she said, and the evening gown segment would be revised. An on-stage interview was added to the agenda, as well.

State and local organizations were allowed to keep the swimsuit portion of their pageants this year -- including the Miss Alabama pageant in June -- but Carlson made it clear that women in the national competition would be showing less skin.

"We're changing out of our swimsuits and into a whole new era," a tweet from the Miss America organization said. "#byebyebikini"

Were changing out of our swimsuits and into a whole new era #byebyebikini #MissAmerica2019 pic.twitter.com/08Y7jLFxhs  Nia Imani Franklin (@MissAmerica) June 5, 2018

The transition to Miss America 2.0 hasn't been an easy one, as pageant organizers, former winners and contestants around the country have grappled with the swimsuit issue. Is it a revered tradition or an embarrassing throwback? Opinions are mixed, and the folks involved seem deeply polarized.

Other controversies have erupted, as well, involving criticism of Carlson's leadership and protests by the current Miss America, Cara Mund, that she's been bullied and silenced by Miss America's power brokers.

With all the strife behind the scenes, it's a difficult year to be part of the Miss America hoopla. But the current group of candidates is forging on, participating in a week of activities that range from preliminary competitions to public appearances to the annual Show Us Your Shoes parade.

Callie Walker competes in a swimsuit preliminary for the Miss Alabama 2018 pageant. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com)

On the swimsuit frontier, Miss Alabama 2018 seems to be taking the change in stride. During a phone interview from Atlantic City, Walker sounded entirely sanguine about the lack of a swimsuit event, saying she was disappointed at first but has left that emotion far behind.

"Looking back, yes, I was very sad to see the swimsuit competition go," Walker told AL.com. "But it's not in the back of my mind. I'm so excited to be here, and make the experience the best that I can. Sometimes change is hard, but I have to embrace change."

Still, like some of her fellow candidates for Miss America 2019 -- including Miss New Jersey 2018, Jaime Gialloreto -- Walker has been hitting the gym for years, toning her physique in anticipation of swimsuit events like the one previously held at the national competition.

"Seeing that aspect of the competition go was a little disappointing because we all worked out so hard," Walker said.

In Walker's view, the swimsuit event gives her a chance to show that she's healthy and fit as she's walking down the runway.

"I never felt like I was being objectified," Walker said. "I felt like I was presenting my best self, and I was proud."

In addition, she'd like to have a chance to compete at the same level as her mother, Angela Tower Walker, a former Miss Alabama who won the swimsuit preliminary at the Miss America pageant in 1985.

"She's got me beat," Walker said. "I won't have a chance to match what she did."

The bottom line, though, is that Walker said she respects the decision made by the Miss America organization. Walker added that she's focusing on the activities that are on her agenda this week, instead of bemoaning an event that's gone.

"I just hope that I make Alabama proud with what I present at the competition," Walker said. "Being here is pretty awesome."

If you watch: The Miss America 2019 competition airs on Sept. 9 at 8 p.m. CT on ABC.The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is investigating an early morning incident in Muscle Shoals involving a police patrol car striking a bicycle rider, who later died of his injuries.

According to the Alabama State Troopers, the crash happened on Alabama 133, north of Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, at about 3:20 a.m. today.

Bramlett Osteen III, 70, was killed when the bicycle he was riding was struck by a vehicle driven by a Muscle Shoals police officer.

Osteen was airlifted to Huntsville Hospital, where he died.It's a ritual growing across rural America for students that underscores a larger problem.

You need online access to do your homework, to study for a test, to simply email your teacher. Yet your rural American home has no internet connectivity.

So you get in the car, you drive to McDonald's or whatever business might have a free WiFi connection and you sit in the parking lot with your computer in your lap.

It's bottom-line reality for millions of students across the country, according to Anne Hazlett, assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

It's why she joined U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, and other Alabama political heavyweights at Lake Guntersville State Park last week to meet with leaders of rural communities and learn more about their needs and how they can solve the problem.

While a world without the internet might be impossible to imagine, it's not for more than 20 million Americans, Hazlett said.

"We think about kids that are living in small towns these days," Hazlett said. "I've traveled to 38 states in the 16 months I've been on this job and the number of stories I hear of children who are doing homework in a McDonald's parking lot is staggering.

"For those kids to be able to do homework - whether at McDonald's or at all - that connectivity is needed."

The lack of online connectivity ripples beyond school children. It affects commerce, it affects economies, it affects health care, it affects ... well, imagine the everything in your daily life that requires the internet.

"When it comes to our children and their education, when it comes to telemedicine, when it comes to taking care of our seniors, when it comes to enhancing the farmers of this state and their productivity, all of these things connect us through broadband initiatives," Alabama Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said.

"And it's by enhancing this that we're able to move our state forward in the sense of economic growth. We're very supportive and we're on board."

As Aderholt put it, it's leaving some parts of rural America in the 20th century regardless of what the calendar says.

"It is the infrastructure challenge of our day and the quicker we recognize that as a nation and as a state, the better off we're going to be," state Sen. Clay Scofield, R-Guntersville. He's a farmer by trade and his north Alabama district includes miles of small, rural communities.

Scofield sponsored a bipartisan bill passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey earlier this year that essentially extends a hand from Alabama to federal assistance to solve the connectivity crisis. It makes $7.5 million available for grants for companies seeking to expand broadband into rural areas.

"It's yet another step forward to improving access to high-speed internet," Ivey said.

It's sort of the state-level equivalent to the $600 million the U.S. Department of Agriculture has available for grants for the same purpose - providing a financial incentive to those companies to extend an online connection to a rural area that might cost more money than the company is interested in spending.

Just as the state of Alabama doles out hundreds of millions of dollars each year in giving incentives for companies to come to the state, the USDA grant program is a similar concept.

"When you have access to a grant as opposed to a loan, it's very convincing (to companies)," Aderholt said. "They can access this money. They have their own money they can tap into. The problem in rural America it is more costly to provide internet. What they can do is have access to these federal funds - millions of dollars in some instances - to go out to those areas that otherwise, a private company just could not afford to do because they couldn't make any money.

"If there is only a mile of line and they only have one or two houses, it's not economically feasible for some of these private companies to come in. This is where they can help these rural communities that would otherwise be left out in the cold."

Aderholt, in the words of both Ivey and Scofield, "spearheaded" that $600 million effort as chair of the Subcommittee on Agriculture as part of the House Appropriations Committee.

An area of northwest Alabama is already seeing some benefit to that federal money, of course. Aderholt announced in May that Tombigbee Communications had received $3 million as it expands online connectivity services in Marion, Winston, Fayette and Lamar counties.

The meeting last week in Guntersville included business and elected leaders who gathered in a roundtable discussion to talk about the specifics of expanding broadband in northeast Alabama. Steve Foshee, the president and CEO of Tombigbee Communications, was among those in attendance.

That conversation, Aderholt said, got as focused as what internet speed would be best - not too slow to be useless but not too fast as to be cost-prohibitive.

"It can be very daunting for two reasons," USDA's Hazlett said. "One we have fewer people. We have an infrastructure that we need to build and we have fewer people to spread that cost across, fewer businesses and fewer families. In addition, oftentimes in rural America, the geography can be quite challenging."

In other words, it often takes more money to connect rural America than urban America. And according to Hazlett, of the 24 million Americans without access to broadband internet, 80 percent of them live in the countryside.

"It's truly a foundational issue for every community," she said. "However, building that infrastructure is not an easy task."

But Alabama leaders hope the task is now a little easier through the federal and state grants now available. Scofield said the legislature plans more investment in the program, acknowledging that the initial $7.5 million isn't enough.

"We know that's just the beginning," he said.

And maybe soon, the kids of rural America will be going to McDonald's only for a Big Mac and fries and not as a place to do homework.

"We look forward to the day we can take connectivity for granted," Scofield said, "much like we do power and water."Eight Alabama counties are under a "State of Emergency," declared by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey earlier Tuesday in advance to Tropical Storm Gordon's arrival.

The declaration includes Baldwin, Mobile, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Monroe and Washington counties. The declaration was first announced publicly on Twitter by Alabama Emergency Management Agency director Brian Hastings.

The Alabama State of Emergency was signed by @GovernorKayIvey this morning. @AlabamaEMA is activated Level 3. Division A & @AlabamaNG are activated. @alabamapower has shifted resources and postured for a coastal event. Stay informed on school closures. @MobileAlEMA @BaldwinEMA pic.twitter.com/HPrpOrqClJ  Brian Hastings (@B_Hastings_EMA) September 4, 2018

"They felt this morning was the appropriate time to do it," said Mobile County Emergency Management Director Ronnie Adair said.

Said Baldwin County Commissioner Chris Elliott: "We appreciate having the resources should we need them."

Ivey's declaration comes after the governors of Mississippi and Louisiana issued similar orders on Monday. The governor also made the same order in October 2017, in advance to Tropical Storm Nate's impact on the Alabama coast.

Nate was upgrade into a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall, packing winds around 80 mph. Gordon be packing winds of 70-75 mph, according to the National Weather Service's latest advisory.

Tropical Storm Gordon was located about 190 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and was moving west-northwest at 15 mph.

Alabama's declaration, coming a full day after its neighboring states, doesn't mean that emergency officials aren't in frequent talks with one another, Hasting said.

Hastings said "everyone has been in lock step since Friday."

"The timings of the emergency declarations may be a little different, but when you look at the foundations set and the activities done behind the scenes, we are all in lock step," said Hastings. "Every state is different. Historically speaking, Mississippi and Louisiana usually declare emergencies quicker than any other state. There are really no wrong answers, or right answers."

He said that Alabama EMA officials have been in conversations with their own county and local emergency directors in advance to determining the emergency declaration.

Hastings said there is nothing that prevents local authorities for taking additional action ahead of a storm.

"Let's just say something happens that is so localized, but the mayor (or city and county leaders) are waiting on the governor to take action," said Hastings. "That just doesn't make any sense."

He added, "If you declare an emergency early and often for everything you do, does it lose the impact from the messaging? We're trying to figure out the impacts from this storm and what it will be. It's a fast-type storm."

For now, the state is leaning on local authorities when it comes to coordinating first responders, and rescue operations.

"They know the people," Hastings said. "They know the culture. They know what the assets are. We just want to be very responsive if they are short on things."

Ivey's order officially activates the State Emergency Operations Center in Clanton. Also, the Alabama National Guard (ALNG) has activated teams to support Division A, in the coastal portion of the state.

"All coastal Alabama residents need to prepare now ahead of tonight's potential landfall near Alabama," Ive said in a news release. "I have directed essential state agencies to be on the ready should they be needed over the next couple of days."

Hastings said residents in storm surge and flood prone areas need to "get to a safe place by early afternoon" and remain sheltered until Wednesday morning, when Gordon is expect to leave the Gulf Coast.

He also said that power outages are expect, and encouraged residents to have 72-hour emergency kit ready.

"Alabama is postured for a coastal wind and water event, but the key will be the preparation of our citizens," Hastings said.

The order does not include any evacuation requirements.

Adair, in Mobile County, said that jurisdictions in South Mobile County, which are expected to experience the greatest impacts from storm surges estimated at 3 to 5 feet, could declare their own evacuation notices. So far, no evacuation notices have been issued.

A State of Emergency declaration frees up supplies and personnel that may be needed after a storm. In addition, the declaration allows the state to approach the Federal Emergency Management Agency for additional resources if needed.

Baldwin County Sheriff Huey "Hoss" Mack said the declaration is more of a "procedural thing" to make sure "resources are there if, in fact, something happens."

He wishes it had a different name, though.

"I wish we could find a better name for it," said Mack. "An emergency lends (an image) to an impending disaster or whatever. I'd like to call it a 'State of Preparation.'"

This story was updated at 12:08 p.m. on Sept. 4, 2018, to include additional comments from Brian Hastings, the state EMA director.

This story was updated at 9:16 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2018, to include information about Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's "State of Emergency" declaration.WASHINGTON - Hours before the start of hearings on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, the lawyer for former president George W. Bush turned over 42,000 pages of documents from the nominee's service in the Bush White House, angering Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who issued what is certain to be a futile call to delay the proceedings.

 The Senate was just given an additional 42,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents the NIGHT BEFORE his confirmation hearing. This underscores just how absurd this process is. Not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow.  Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) September 4, 2018

Taylor Foy, a spokesman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, responded that "our review team will be able to complete its examination of this latest batch in short order, before tomorrow's hearing begins."

The hearings are scheduled for 9.30 Tuesday morning, with opening statements by committee members. No information was released on the subject matter of the documents and Bush's lawyer asked that they be kept from the public, made available only to committee members and staff.

Kavanaugh, appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by Bush, served the former president in the White House Counsel's Office from 2001 to 2003 and as staff secretary from 2003 to 2006.

William Burck, a lawyer representing Bush, said in a letter to Grassley that the 5,148 documents totaling 42,390 pages retrieved from the National Archives were to be treated as "Committee Confidential," with access limited to Judiciary Committee members and staff with no public availability, at least for the time being.

In the letter to Grassley, Burck said lawyers working on behalf of the former president would determine at a later date which of the documents are "appropriate for public release."

The Bush legal team had already turned over about 415,000 pages to the committee, with about 147,000 of them withheld from public view. President Donald Trump has claimed executive privilege to prevent release of more than 101,921 pages of records from Kavanaugh's tenure in the White House. Kavanaugh, as "an associate and senior associate White House counsel, dealt with some of the most sensitive communications of any White House official," including deliberations on judicial candidates, Burck said in a letter to the committee Friday.

The level of production of documents from Kavanaugh's White House days, both in the counsel's office and as Bush's staff secretary, has been a central point of attack for Democrats jousting with the White House and Republicans over the Trump's second Supreme Court nominee. Demands for documents from his staff secretary service have been rejected by Republicans.

Now-Justice Elena Kagan was the last Supreme Court nominee to have served in a White House. Christopher Kang, deputy counsel under Obama, told The Washington Post that Obama did not invoke privilege on any documents involving her work.

Republicans know this has been the least transparent SCOTUS process in history and the hearings should be delayed until we can fully review Judge Kavanaughs records.  Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) September 4, 2018

Foy countered that the volume of documents turned over dwarfs "the total Executive Branch material for the last five confirmed nominees combined."

The hearings are expected to last four days, so staffers and members will have more than a few hours to review the documents before any vote is taken on sending the nomination to the full Senate.

(c) 2018, The Washington Post. Fred Barbash and Seung Min Kim wrote this story.Authorities are searching for an escaped inmate who cut through the fence outside the Franklin County jail over the weekend.

Robert Lee Brown

Robert Lee Brown escaped around 3 p.m. from the jail on Walnut Gate Road in Russellville, according to the sheriff's office. Brown is a 26-year-old from Lauderdale County.

"He cut a hole through the fence and was gone," said Chief Deputy Delane Clark. "We don't know what he cut it with."

Brown was in jail because his probation was revoked in a burglary case, court records show.

Brown escaped wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and orange Crocs shoes, Clark said. Authorities deployed K9s to track Brown, but they lost his scent in creek.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Franklin County sheriff's office at 256-332-8811.John Dowd was convinced that President Donald Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert Mueller. So on Jan. 27 the president's then-personal attorney staged a practice session to make his point.

In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the president eventually lost his cool.

"This thing's a goddamn hoax," Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying, "I don't really want to testify."

The dramatic and previously untold scene is recounted in "Fear," a forthcoming book by Bob Woodward that paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration officials and other principals.

Woodward writes that his book draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses that were conducted on "deep background," meaning the information could be used but he would not reveal who provided it. His account is also based on meeting notes, personal diaries and government documents.

Woodward depicts Trump's anger and paranoia about the Russia inquiry as unrelenting, at times paralyzing the West Wing for days. Learning of the appointment of Mueller in May 2017, Trump groused, "Everybody's trying to get me" - part of a venting period that shellshocked aides compared to Richard Nixon's final days as president.

A copy of the 448-page book was obtained by The Washington Post. Woodward, an associate editor at The Post, sought an interview with Trump through several intermediaries to no avail. The president called Woodward in early August, after the manuscript had been completed, to say he wanted to participate. The president complained that it would be a "bad book," according to an audio recording of the conversation. Woodward replied that his work would be "tough," but factual and based on his reporting.

A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump's inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.

Woodward describes "an administrative coup d'etat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the president's desk so he couldn't see or sign them.

Again and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trump's national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs and his contempt for the mainstream perspectives of military and intelligence leaders.

At a National Security Council meeting on Jan. 19, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds (versus 15 minutes from Alaska), according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all.

"We're doing this in order to prevent World War III," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.

After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, "Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like - and had the understanding of - 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'"

In Woodward's telling, many top advisers were repeatedly unnerved by Trump's actions and expressed dim views of him. "Secretaries of defense don't always get to choose the president they work for," Mattis told friends at one point, prompting laughter as he explained Trump's tendency to go off on tangents about subjects such as immigration and the news media.

Inside the White House, Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis.

- - -

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was "unhinged," Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."

Reince Priebus, Kelly's predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, "the devil's workshop," and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were "the witching hour."

Trump apparently had little regard for Priebus. He once instructed then-staff secretary Rob Porter to ignore Priebus, even though Porter reported to the chief of staff, saying that Priebus was "'like a little rat. He just scurries around.'"

Few in Trump's orbit were protected from the president's insults. He often mocked former national security adviser H.R. McMaster behind his back, puffing up his chest and exaggerating his breathing as he impersonated the retired Army general, and once said McMaster dresses in cheap suits, "like a beer salesman."

Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a wealthy investor eight years his senior: "I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. . . . You're past your prime."

- - -

A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a "traitor" for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions' accent, Trump added, "This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner. . . . He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."

At a dinner with Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He falsely suggested that the former Navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his father's military rank and leaving others behind.

Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: "No, Mr. President, I think you've got it reversed." The defense secretary explained that McCain, who died Aug. 25, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the Hanoi Hilton.

"Oh, okay," Trump replied, according to Woodward's account.

With Trump's rage and defiance impossible to contain, Cabinet members and other senior officials learned to act discreetly. Woodward describes an alliance among Trump's traditionalists - including Mattis and Gary Cohn, the president's former top economic adviser - to stymie what they considered dangerous acts.

"It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually," Porter is quoted as saying. "Other times, we would fall over the edge, and an action would be taken."

After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. "Let's fucking kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the fucking lot of them," Trump said, according to Woodward.

Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: "We're not going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured." The national security team developed options for the more conventional air strike that Trump ultimately ordered.

- - -

Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump's strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn "stole a letter off Trump's desk" that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he had removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice it was missing.

Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the president has long threatened to do. In spring 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter: "Why aren't we getting this done? Do your job. It's tap, tap, tap. You're just tapping me along. I want to do this."

Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: "I can stop this. I'll just take the paper off his desk."

Despite repeated threats by Trump, the United States has remained in both pacts. The administration continues to negotiate new terms with South Korea as well as with its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico.

Cohn came to regard the president as "a professional liar" and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trump's handling of a deadly white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika on her college dorm room.

Trump was sharply criticized for initially saying that "both sides" were to blame. At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, "That was the biggest fucking mistake I've made" and the "worst speech I've ever given," according to Woodward's account.

When Cohn met with Trump to deliver his resignation letter after Charlottesville, the president told him, "This is treason," and persuaded his economic adviser to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohn's horror at Trump's handling of the tragedy - and shared Cohn's fury with Trump.

"I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times," Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward. Kelly himself has threatened to quit several times, but has not done so.

Woodward illustrates how the dread in Trump's orbit became all-encompassing over the course of Trump's first year in office, leaving some staff members and Cabinet members confounded by the president's lack of understanding about how government functions and his inability and unwillingness to learn.

At one point, Porter, who departed in February amid domestic-abuse allegations, is quoted as saying, "This was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is."

Such moments of panic are a routine feature, but not the thrust of Woodward's book, which mostly focuses on substantive decisions and internal disagreements, including tensions with North Korea as well as the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trump's handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a preemptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.

In the fall of 2017, as Trump intensified a war of words with Kim Jong Un, nicknaming North Korea's dictator "Little Rocket Man" in a speech at the United Nations, aides worried the president was provoking Kim. But, Woodward writes, Trump told Porter that he saw the situation as a contest of wills: "This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim."

The book also details Trump's impatience with the war in Afghanistan, which had become America's longest conflict. At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisers for 25 minutes, complaining that the United States was losing, according to Woodward.

"The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you," Trump told them. "They could do a much better job. I don't know what the hell we're doing." He went on to ask, "How many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?"

The president's family members, while sometimes touted as his key advisers by other Trump chroniclers, are minor players in Woodward's account, popping up occasionally in the West Wing and vexing adversaries.

- - -

Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter and senior adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist.

"You're a goddamn staffer!" Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. "You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!"

Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: "I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter."

Such tensions boiled among many of Trump's core advisers. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as "natural predators."

"When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody," Priebus says.

Hovering over the White House was Mueller's inquiry, which deeply embarrassed the president. Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: "Donald, I'm worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?"

Trump relayed the conversation to Dowd and said it was "like a kick in the nuts," according to Woodward.

The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller's office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump's January practice session.

- - -

Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: "I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?' "

"John, I understand," Mueller replied, according to Woodward.

Later that month, Dowd told Trump: "Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit."

But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller's questions, had by then decided otherwise.

"I'll be a real good witness," Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.

"You are not a good witness," Dowd replied. "Mr. President, I'm afraid I just can't help you."

The next morning, Dowd resigned.President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday, suggesting the Department of Justice put Republicans in midterm jeopardy with recent indictments of two GOP congressmen.

In his latest broadside against the Justice Department's traditional independence, Trump tweeted that "Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department."

He added: "Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......"

The first two Republicans to endorse Trump in the Republican presidential primaries were indicted on separate charges last month: Rep. Duncan Hunter of California on charges that included spending campaign funds for personal expenses and Rep. Chris Collins of New York on insider trading. Both have proclaimed their innocence.

Another blow in Trump's long-running feud with Sessions, the president's complaint fits with his pattern of viewing the Department of Justice less as a law enforcement agency and more as a department that is supposed to do his political bidding.

Trump, who did not address the specifics of the charges, just the political impact, has previously pressed Sessions to investigate his perceived enemies and has accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department. Trump has also repeatedly complained that Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation.

Some of the issues Trump has raised have either already been examined or are being investigated.

The tension between Trump and Sessions boiled over recently with Sessions punching back, saying that he and his department "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations." Still, Sessions has made clear to associates that he has no intention of leaving his job voluntarily despite Trump's constant criticism.

A spokeswoman for Sessions declined comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The man accused of killing five people in Citronelle with an ax and gun in 2016 plans to plead guilty to capital murder charges, according to court records the suspect signed without an attorney.

Court records filed Tuesday show Derrick Dearman intends to plead guilty to 10 counts of capital murder--two counts for each of the five victims.

The filing states that the Mobile County District Attorney's Office plans to dismiss another two counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping. The notice was filed Tuesday, but it was signed by 29-year-old Dearman-- acting without an attorney-- and D.A. Ashley Rich on Friday.

Official plea agreements have not yet been filed. Last week Dearman fired his attorneys and asked to represent himself, one of his lawyers Debbie McGowin said. The judge granted his request, and asked Dearman's former lawyers stand by.

McGowin added that Dearman went against the advice of his counsel.

Dearman was indicted last year on six counts of capital murder and two counts of first-degree kidnapping for killing five people in August 2016. He is charged with the slayings of Robert Lee Brown, 26; Chelsea Marie Reed, 22; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Shannon Melissa Randall, 35. The sixth murder charge was filed because Chelsea Reed was five months pregnant with her and Justin Reed's first child, but Tuesday's filing states that is one of the counts to be dismissed with Dearman's guilty plea.

Indictments state Dearman killed the five people and unborn child by shooting them with a gun and "chopping" them with an ax.

Mobile County Circuit Judge Rick Stout said Friday he has no doubts that Derrick Dearman was mentally fit to either stand trial or plead guilty. Records show he denied a motion from Dearman's attorneys for a hearing to determine Dearman's competency. According to the order, the judge reviewed reports about Dearman's mental status and questioned him.

"It clearly appeared the defendant does have such rational understandings. His answers to the Court's questions were responsive and his understanding of trial proceedings was above normal," the judge wrote. "Eye contact was maintained during questioning, and nothing regarding his appearance or actions were abnormal."

The quintuple murder happened after Dearman's estranged girlfriend, Laneta Lester, fled to her relative's home on Jim Platt Road in Citronelle after she said Dearman was abusive. In the early morning hours of Aug. 21, 2016, police said Dearman came to the home and Lester called police to report him for trespassing.

When police arrived, they could not locate Dearman and left. Sometime between 1:15 a.m. and daylight, Dearman returned to the home and, according to the indictment, Dearman killed each of the victims with a gun and an ax.

An infant was found unharmed at the scene.

Police said Dearman then stole a set of car keys from the home and left, forcing Lester to come with him. Lester grabbed another infant, who was not harmed, and took the child with her. Dearman drove Lester and the infant to his father's home in Mississippi, where police said Dearman then told his father what he had done. He released Lester and the baby.

This post will be updated.Police officers speaking out against governments crackdown or asking to resign, face threats, arrest and even death.

Managua, Nicaragua  A smattering of photos are whats left of the life of Faber Lopez Vivas.

They show a normal 23-year-old, fixing motorbikes with his brother in the garage, hugging his nephews, dancing at family Christmas parties and playing frisbee with his beloved dog, Kira.

In one, he stands behind his partner with a hand on her expanding belly  he was about to become a father, with a daughter still due to arrive this September.

In others, he wears his uniform, sitting in the undergrowth with his gun resting on his lap.

Faber was an officer in the Nicaraguan police force. One photo shows him with the dogs in his K-9 training programme. He was called away in the middle of the course to deal with the protests rumbling through the countrys streets.

Now Faber is dead. His mother Fatima Vivas Torrez picked up his beaten and stitched-together body on July 9.

Faber, right, was called away in the middle of a training course to deal with the protests

She claims that he was killed, not by protesters but by his own colleagues in the Nicaraguan police force.

Fatima, other police officers, human rights groups and analysts have told Al Jazeera that dissident law and order officials are among the most vulnerable in the recent government crackdown.

They allege phone hacking, imprisonment, torture and even death can be the fate of officers who voice their disapproval with the governments violent methods to quell opposition. Even simply asking to be discharged can lead to the same fate.

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The Nicaraguan protests began over reforms to the social security system. But they quickly ballooned into calls for the countrys increasing autocratic President Daniel Ortega to step down. Street barricades went up, students occupied the national university. Thousands marched.

When Ortegas government hit back, the police  together with armed paramilitary groups, were used to violently break up protests and round up suspected opposition supporters.

The United Nations says that in the more than four months since the start of the crisis, the force has been involved in forced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings.

Fatima Vivas Torrez claims her son Faber was deeply unhappy with the actions of his fellow officers and wanted to resign but was warned of the consequences. He said, Mum, Ive already asked to resign, but they tell me if I do, theyll kill me and my family.

Things began to get tenser when a photo appeared on social media of Fatima with Medardo Mairena, a prominent farmer leader and government critic. Her son told her that it was causing him problems with his superiors.

Fatima was deeply worried. On Sunday, July 8, she went to mass after trying, and failing, to get hold of Faber early that morning.

There was no answer either when she got back from church. Officials wouldnt take her calls, or evaded her questions. Then, news began circulating on Facebook police pages that Faber had been killed.

Finally, at around 11pm, she says she reached a sympathetic officer on the emergency line. I said, Please dont keep me hanging on; its my son. She said I understand, Im a mother, too. She rang me back half an hour later and in a melancholy voice told me my son was dead.

Signs of torture

The next day, things were about to get even worse. Fatima went to pick up the body. Pablo Cuevas, a lawyer with national rights group the Permanent Human rights Commission (CPDH) went with her.

The forensic doctor in the morgue told Fatima and Cuevas that the cause of death was a shot to the head while dealing with protesters.

But Fatima says that when she later examined the body with forensic doctors whom she knew, they discovered something completely different.

Faber was deeply worried about the actions of his fellow officers and wanted to resign, his mother said

We started to find the signs of torture; wounds in the arms, fingers broken, nails torn out, bruises on the back, a wound in the left leg, cigarette burns on the arms. His face completely deformed. I said, This isnt a gunshot, this is torture.'

Fatima passed Al Jazeera videos and photos of the body of Faber. They show wounds to both arms and head, along with a mass of stitching on the face. One of the fingers is bloody and hanging as if on a hinge.

A forensic expert to whom Al Jazeera showed the video and the pictures confirmed that Faber suffered great torture before he died and said that a massive blow to the head eventually killed him  not a gunshot.

Fatima believes that her son was tortured to death for wanting to leave the police, and for the photo that showed her with the farmers leader. What an accident that Friday he says hes going to resign and then Sunday my son is dead? And they hide his death, they lie to me, and why?

Prisoners or dead men

Rights groups say that Faber Lopez Vivas is far from the only officer who suffered from speaking out. Cuevas, the CPDH lawyer who went with Fatima to pick up her sons body, puts it bluntly. Police who ask to be discharged can wind up prisoners or dead men, he says.

Its a stark message, but both Amnesty International and CENIDH, another Nicaraguan human rights group, also told Al Jazeera that officers wishing to leave the force can face threats, jail time or even death.

Back in his fluorescent-lit, cell-like office, Cuevas takes a police shield out of his desk drawer. He says it is just one of several given to him by officers who have asked the CDPH to process their discharge for them in absentia, while they go into hiding.

It is now the human rights groups policy to give them 15 days to go underground or flee the country before they present their resignation. The assumption is that as soon as the police force knows that an officer has quit, the force will come after them.

In exile

Later, Al Jazeera tracked down one of the officers who has fled  to Costa Rica. He is young, very young.

He says that he had wanted to join the police force since witnessing his father being robbed of his entire pay packet when he was 14.

I felt helpless to not be able to do something and that was what motivated me, he told Al Jazeera.

But once in the force, he says he realised changing things would be difficult. He found himself empathising with his student friends, angry over the violent excesses of his own force.

He began to speak out to colleagues, but realised he was getting nowhere. Now scared, he wanted out.





He says he called in sick and shut himself in his house, wondering what to do. Finally, he got in touch with the CPDH. He handed them his uniform and badge and they agreed that they would present his resignation once he was safely away. He ran.

The day after the police realised he had gone, he says that they searched his home.

Meanwhile, he had already arrived in neighbouring Costa Rica, without a penny.

He had never left Nicaragua before and was reduced to sleeping on the streets for six days, he says, until a family friend took him in. His situation is still desperate. He cant even tell the many other dissident Nicaraguans who fled the country what he did for a living. He fears they will reject him, too.

In a Skype phone call with Al Jazeera, he broke down in tears. In the blink of an eye, your life, your illusions are gone, he said.

Youre suffering because youre far from your family, your country, and you dont know where to turn for help. Youre alone.

In prison

Other police officers have been even less lucky and have been locked up before they could get away, according to human rights groups.

One of them tells his story while sitting in a hotel in the centre of a Nicaraguan city outside of the capital. He is short, stocky and nervous, but as the TV lights for the interview are set up to give him the anonymity that he has asked for, he opens up.

My biggest fear was to fire on a person who was defenceless. Who was marching peacefully in protests, he says.

Fresh out of the police academy, the officer says he was charged with guarding the home of a public figure. One day, a march began to close in on the residence. They gave us orders to defend ourselves at all costs. We understood that was an order to fire. We had AK-47s.

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Luckily, the march didnt come close to where he was stationed. But it was the final straw. He wanted out.

He made his feelings known in a group WhatsApp chat with fellow police officers. That, he subsequently found out, was unwise. One day, he says he was called in by the police intelligence unit who showed him already deleted messages from the phone he realised they had hacked.

They told him they would take him for a walk to refresh his memory on what else he could have said, or plotted. The next thing he knew, he says, he was in prison.

He was kept there for four days, he says, without his family knowing his whereabouts while the police interrogated him. They said to tell them everything because, if they found anything different than what was on my phone, then they would have to imprison my parents, my family, my wife.

The officer says that his brother eventually found out where he was. After pressure from his family, he was released. Hes since been allowed to leave the force.

A once respected police force

It wasnt always like this for Nicaraguas police officers. A few years ago, they belonged to a force that was the envy of other Central American countries struggling with sky-high crime rates and rampant corruption.

Nicaraguas model, which focused on close links to local communities and high levels of public trust, earned international plaudits and kept homicide rates relatively low.

But former officers and human rights organisations say that over time things started to radically change. The ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) demanded obedience and the countrys law and order institutions began to take a distinctly partisan hue.





A former federal prosecutor, speaking to Al Jazeera under a condition of anonymity, said The first time I knew it was turning political was in 2015, when we had to go to the official welcome ceremony for Nicolas Maduro. Then, in a march against peasant farmers. Then, in 2016, we had to go and vote  and they knew who you had voted for.

She says that, in the end, she resigned after refusing to take a case against those she considered innocent.

The autonomy of the police force, in particular, was badly affected says Roberto Orozco, a Nicaraguan security analyst. It was the litmus test that Ortega never passed. He gave benefits to favourites and undermined the little institutionality that the police had.

For many, that process reached its conclusion with the recent appointment of Francisco Diaz Madriz as police chief. A relative of President Ortegas by marriage, he has been sanctioned by the United States for human rights abuses and is believed to have been in charge during the crackdown on protests.

Al Jazeera contacted the Nicaraguan police force multiple times, detailing the accusations against it and requesting comment. There was no reply.

A demonstrator shouts slogans to riot police during a protest against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortegas government in Managua [Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters]

Government supporters defend the force, pointing to the 22 officers killed during the protests, and describing demonstrators as criminals, and vandals. Violence against officials is acknowledged in a new report from the United Nations human rights office describing cases of burning, amputations and desecration of officers corpses.

But the UN says that those cases do not legitimise in any way the Nicaraguan governments response and goes on to hold the police responsible for a litany of alleged abuses, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearances; widespread arbitrary detentions; torture and ill-treatment.

Whats more, the police have acted in tandem with armed extra-official groups says Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty Internationals Americas Director.

Theres been more than 300 people killed in the context [of the protests], both by the police and paramilitaries  parapolice as theyre called there, she told Al Jazeera.

They operate in collusion with the police and some of these groups are being protected by the police themselves while they commit atrocities against demonstrators.

No hope of going home

With shadowy, and seemingly ruthless, forces arrayed against them, many dissidents believe they simply wont be able to return home till President Ortega leaves office.

Fatima Vivas Torrez, the mother of murdered police officer Faber Lopez Vivas has fled the country after receiving threats.

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Speaking to Al Jazeera via Skype from a location in Central America that she did not want to reveal, she says in tears: All the time, it gets more difficult. Far away from my country. Without money. Without my other children. And Ill never see Faber again.

Many former policemen and women, including the young ex-officer who fled to Costa Rica, are facing similar dilemmas.

Its not known how many have quit the force in the last few months.

But what human rights organisations agree on, is that they are far from safe.

Follow John Holman on Twitter: @johnholman100Ramiz Tiro lost 33kg in camps run by Croat forces, where he was tortured and forced to serve on the front lines.

Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina  When 67-year-old Ramiz Tiro was finally released from the concentration camps run by Croat forces during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994, he felt like an animal.

Starved and dehydrated, he had lost 33kg. Having spent 262 days in hell, as he described it, he had forgotten what it felt like to be treated as a human being.

I thought I wouldnt make it out alive because you lose hope, Tiro told Al Jazeera.

I was tortured so much; they made an animal out of me. There was psychological [torture], hunger, thirst, non-stop labour, working on the front line amid shootings; you didnt feel like you were going to survive and that there would ever be an end to this.

It's important to tell our stories so that we don't forget and so that it doesnt happen ever again. Ramiz Tiro, Bosnian concentration camp survivor

It was under the leadership of the so-called Croat wartime statelet Herceg-Bosna and its military (HVO) that thousands of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) were rounded up from their homes and transferred to a network of concentration camps where they were regularly abused  enduring severe beatings, psychological torture, hunger and thirst while others were shot dead.

Detainees were forced to carry out dangerous work on the front lines for the HVO  digging trenches, building forts and picking up dead bodies  and were forced to serve as human shields, as confirmed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, (ICTY) in 2017.

Some detainees were forced to drink their own urine, others were made to eat shoe polish and grass off the ground. Another detainee was subjected to electric shocks until he blacked out, the ICTY noted.

In another case, the Croat military police forced a Bosniak to lick his own blood off the floor so that the blood of a Balija [derogatory word for a Bosniak Muslim] does not remain on Croatian soil, they told him.

It was under these conditions that Tiro, as prisoner number 320243, spent nine months between 1993 and 1994 in three detention centres including Dretelj, the most notorious camp in the former barracks of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) in the so-called Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna.

Removing Muslims

This past week marked the 25th anniversary of the declaration of the unrecognised statelet of Herceg-Bosna as a Croatian republic, with Mostar designated as its capital city.

It was formed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991 with the intent to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and unite with Croatia, as the ICTY confirmed.

In November 2017, the ICTY sentenced six high-ranking officials of Herceg-Bosna to 111 years in prison.

They were found guilty of contributing to the joint criminal enterprise (JCE), which had as its ultimate goal creating Croatian territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Mostar  the southern city besieged for nine months.

Croatia was also complicit in the JCE, the ICTY said.

Crimes committed against Muslims between 1993 and 1994 were not random acts of a few unruly soldiers, the ICTY stated in 2013.

On the contrary, these crimes were the result of a plan drawn up by members of the JCE whose goal was to permanently remove the Muslim population from Herceg-Bosna.

An illustration from Tiros book, Dretelj: At the Door to Hell, picturing a scene in the camp, by artist Ekrem Moca Dizdar [Courtesy: Ramiz Tiro]





Croat forces began their new wave of arrests in May and July 1993.

At night, apartment by apartment, one block after the other, separation awaited each Bosniak family. The men were transported to camps and the rest of the family was typically expelled from their homes in west so-called Croat Mostar to east so-called Muslim Mostar.

Tiro was arrested on the night of June 30, 1993, with the rest of the Muslim men from his neighbourhood, and transported to Heliodrom, a former JNA military facility.

Once the heavy steel doors opened, he saw a room packed with hundreds of men sitting on the concrete floor, their faces drained. There was barely room to stand, let alone sit, Tiro said.

However, the 19 days that he later spent in Dretelj were by far the worst.

They wouldnt open the door for days, leaving us shut inside without any food or water, Tiro said.

When they were given a meagre ration of food, they had only a few seconds to eat it under threat of punishment.

All the while, Tiro asked himself: Why? Why am I being arrested? Why am I being tortured? Why are we being expelled from our homes when our families have lived here for the past 500 years?

We went to school together [with Croats], we lived together and all of a sudden hes my enemy now? he said.

Tiro recognised one of the soldiers who would lock them in as a former schoolmate.

Tiro asked him, Why is this being done to us? Im just like you.

No, no, youre balije [Muslims]. Youre the enemy of our state, the soldier said.

This was unfathomable for me, Tiro recalled. But I realised what it was about during my time as a prisoner.

Serving as a human shield

At Heliodrom, being picked from the rows of detainees for labour was a nightmare.

On some days, they knew they would face a guaranteed death, Tiro said, working on the front line amid clashes between HVO and Bosnian forces (ARBIH).

When you went for labour on these days, you werent sure if you were going to come back, Tiro said.

It was here that the majority of detainees would be killed. A truck would leave with 60 detainees in the morning and come back in the evening with only 40 or 50.

Those who survived were covered in blood and in shock.

These crimes were the result of a plan drawn up by members of the JCE whose goal was to permanently remove the Muslim population from Herceg-Bosna. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Tiros turn to work on the front line as a human shield came on Saturday, August 14, 1993  the most frightening day in his life.

Forty men were brought to the front line in the middle of Mostar. An HVO soldier ordered them to head into the clearing and build a protective wall out of sandbags just 10 metres away from ARBIHs position, putting its security at stake.

They hesitated, knowing they would surely be shot at.

Get out! the soldier shouted at them. Or do you want me to kill you all now on the spot? he said, aiming his loaded gun at them.

With no choice, they headed for the clearing, carrying sandbags two by two. Halfway there, bullets began hitting the sandbags, sending sand spilling onto the ground. Another bullet hit a branch above them.

How many warning shots will there be? Tiro thought to himself.

But there was no turning back or running away as the HVO soldier who had given them the orders kept them in his crosshairs, threatening to shoot them if they did.

We were surely headed towards death. I was just waiting for the moment when I would fall to the ground, Tiro said.

They set down their first sandbags unscathed, but when they turned back to for more, an explosion went off and they found themselves on the ground.

Tiro had been hit in the head by shrapnel. Blood ran onto his face. He could hardly see. He held his hand to his head stop the bleeding but felt as if a large part of his head was missing. His fellow detainees were also injured, covered in blood.

Luckily, the shrapnel hadnt damaged his brain, the surgeon told him later on when he regained consciousness in the hospital.

His friend and fellow detainee had also survived after undergoing surgery to repair veins and arteries that were ruptured in the explosion.

In spite of the danger, sometimes hunger was so dire in the camp that detainees would risk their lives and volunteer to work on the front lines, just so they could get a tin of food.

Twenty-five years later, the search continues for the bodies of 700 killed detainees, according to the Association of Mostar Concentration Camp Detainees.

To this day, Tiro still has trouble sleeping and suffers from pain. Despite everything hes been through, he says he doesnt hold on to negative feelings.

By writing my book [Dretelj: At the Door to Hell], I was able to return to my old self, Tiro said.

Its important to tell our stories so that we dont forget and so that it doesnt happen ever again.

An illustration from Tiros book, Dretelj: At the Door to Hell, picturing a scene in the camp, by artist Ekrem Moca Dizdar [Courtesy: Ramiz Tiro]



Crime suspects in central town face punishment by civilians, but government condemns response as mob injustice.

Mutuati, Kenya  On a bitterly cold night in July 2014, Morris Nkonja grabbed his machete and set out along a muddy path off the main road in Mutuati, a hilly village in Meru, central Kenya.

His mission, like many other times before, was simple: break into a restaurant that was closed for the day, grab valuables and vanish in the dead of night.

I broke the door and went straight to the counter where they keep cash, recalls the now-30-year-old. I smashed the safe box and seized all the cash inside. I thought it was a lucky night for me.

But Nkonjas luck quickly ran out. As soon as he stepped outside, he was instantly surrounded by five men, also equipped with long, sharp-edged machetes.





It was well-planned. They knew I was coming and that is why they waited silently for me to finish, says Nkonja, who was a well-known robber in the area.

I will never forget that night, he adds, massaging his knee with his rough right palm.

The men had been hired by the owner of the restaurant to protect it due to the rising crime rate in Mutuati.

Everything has a start and an end, and tonight will be your last! roared a man in the group.

Which limb do you want us to chop off? another asked Nkonja, who was now begging for mercy.

A machete promptly came down, cutting off the robbers left arm. In a blink of an eye, the five men had served their own form of justice  no need for police or courts to get involved.

Daniel Mbogori, a 54-year-old private security officer, says he has cut off limbs of 40 thieves in nearly 10 years [Idris Mukhtar/Al Jazeera]

Seeking alternatives

Crime is a major problem in Meru, a khat-rich county where many residents depend on the trade of the mild narcotic.

Last year, Meru recorded Kenyas second-highest number of crimes: 5,151, or seven percent of all cases nationwide. In 2015, it topped the list with the highest number of murder cases across Kenyas 47 Kenyan counties.





Daniel Mbogori, 54, is a private security officer who is frequently hired to protect businesses in Mutuati. Over the past 10 years, he says he has used his machete to cut off the limbs of more than 40 thieves.

He says the surging number of crimes and a slow prosecution process are the main reasons people hire him.

If we take them to the police, they are bailed out for a small amount of money and they continue stealing. But if we give justice to them, they reform and become good men, says Mbogori.

Murugi lost his right hand after he was caught stealing khat, a mild narcotic chewed by many East Africans [Idris Mukhtar/Al Jazeera]

One of them is Henry Murugi.

Dressed in an old green coat and blue jeans, he vividly recalls the instance he lost his right hand more than two decades ago.

I was indignant and jobless. So that night, I left my house and went to a khat farm to get a few kilos of khat to sell the next day, he recalls. Once done, he tried to run back home but came across a group of men.

I saw angry men with long machetes looking at me. I looked back and found others. I dropped the khat and surrendered my right arm, he says.

Life has to go on

Such practices seem to have the approval of many residents in Mutuati and its surrounding villages who say that they have lost their trust in Kenyas police and the countrys judicial system. Instead, they argue, this kind of punishment has led to the reforming of many thieves.

Esther Karimi, a member of the assembly in Meru county, says that aggrieved residents are often denied justice due to collusion between the authorities and perpetrators.

Players such as the police often collude with perpetrators to interfere with case files or evidence. Instant justice has been necessitated by the lousy nature of our judicial system, Karimi says.

Isaack Mwiti, 33, is a trader in Mutuati and a victim of theft. Standing by his red-painted shop where he sells dry foodstuffs, Mwiti says that he stopped worrying about being robbed after this form of punishment became an option.

In the end, we all want bad people to pay the price, whether in jail or cutting their limbs. For me, I think the latter works well, says Mwiti, adding that crime has significantly reduced in the area.

Now, many people think twice before attempting larceny.





Buxton Mayabi, Meru deputy county commissioner, says authorities are aware of such cases.

Revenge is a type of a mob injustice and we condemn it. This is not the only affected county in the country, but we are aware of the criminal act and we are dealing with them within the law, adds Mayabi.

Mwenda Mbijiwe, a security analyst, says the practice is a reflection of the governments failure to protect its people.

The implementers of what we call the social contract between the people and the government have failed. When there is a failure by government to honour the social contract, then the citizens take upon themselves to honour themselves, says Mbijiwe.

Back in Mutuati, Nkonja heads to a bar he frequents to temporarily forget his struggles.

Missing an arm is a symbol of my past life; everyone will know that I lost it due to robbery, says Nkonja, who is unable to sufficiently fend for himself and is now left at the mercy of relatives.

Life has to go on.An IMF-dictated liberalisation will not solve Iraqs problems. The country needs a third way.

Harith Hasan is a senior fellow at Carnegie Middle East and a former senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

On September 1, some 150 protestors gathered at the main entrance of Iraqs large oilfield, Nahr Bin Omar, threatening to break in and disrupt production. Thousands of others assembled in front of the provincial governments headquarters in the nearby city of Basra, demanding that their grievances over service provision, unemployment and water pollution be addressed immediately.

At least six were injured in clashes with the police and 16 arrested.

These demonstrations have not been an isolated incident. Protests spread across the southern provinces of Iraq this summer, fuelled by frustration over lack of services, economic inequality and unemployment in a region full of lucrative oil deposits.

Incapable of meeting the demands of protesters, the Iraqi government has resorted to a combination of coercive measures and collective bribing. Earlier in the summer, Iraqi security forces, allied with militias, killed at least 14 protesters and arrested more than 200, while the internet was shut down to prevent communication between activists.

At the same time, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced some measures to appease the protesters, including granting 10,000 jobs for Basra residents in the already inflated and dysfunctional public sector.

While these measures secured temporary calm in some areas, Iraq today is at a critical inflexion point. More than 15 years after Saddam Husseins regime was overthrown, Iraqs economy remains overly dependent on its oil resources, burdened by an inflated public sector, hobbled by corruption and patronage, and steeped in inequality.

Plummeting oil prices in 2014 exposed these flaws and drove societal tensions over poverty and inequality to a breaking point.

While modest increases in oil prices today provide a small window of opportunity to address these challenges, the protests rocking southern Iraq showed that the Iraqi public is running out of patience.

Ethnic politics and oil wealth

During the oil boom of 2004-2013, Iraq used its growing revenues to add jobs to the public sector and maintain societal acquiescence through an economy of subsidies, which saw the oil wealth redistributed through various government handouts.

An emphasis on ethnic power-sharing in government resulted in institutions dominated by political parties and incentivised leaders to use their control of various agencies to reward allies and funnel money to specific constituencies.

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The result was a bloated public sector filled with ethnic parties representatives, rather than efficient workers. The webs of patronage have made Iraq one of the worlds most corrupt countries.

While these networks were thriving when oil prices were high and sectarianism and identity-based divisions were on the rise, things started to change in 2014, when oil prices plummeted. The defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) two years later mitigated sectarian fears and incentivised society-wide mobilisation behind socioeconomic demands.

This entrenched culture of patronage has augmented the feelings of despair among Iraqs youth as it has left a very narrow room for social mobility and economic advancement beyond joining these clientelistic networks.

Although al-Abadi has attempted to root out corruption, an approach that prioritises individuals will not be effective. Corruption can only be tackled through systematic reform and an independent legal system.

The distribution of key public positions between parties has turned state institutions into fiefdoms and prevented meaningful accountability, given that the same parties dominate the parliament and have influence over the judiciary and the anti-corruption commission.

A third way

Despite mounting demands for change, these parties have persistently reproduced their dominance through a largely undemocratic electoral system, patronage, militias and, when necessary, electoral fraud.

Even when a majority of voters boycotted the last general election, this did not change the behaviour of political parties which went on negotiating the formation of a government according to the same practices.

Estimates indicate that 60 percent of Iraqis are under the age of 25. In a few years, Iraq will see a peak in its working-age population but must be able to harness this power.

Iraq must deal with the social and economic challenges of unemployment, scarce state resources, inequality, poor governance, rapid demographic growth and an environmental crisis exacerbated by increasing water shortages.

Given the growing public anger in Iraq, the only path forward is to make the state more efficient and accountable, which cannot take place unless the basic principles that shaped its modus operandi change. The country needs a vision of development that departs from the rentier culture and identity politics in which state institutions have played a major role.

Reform should be focused on stirring the country away from the failing centralised system which empowers ruling elites and their patronage networks. And it should also avoid insensitive liberalisation policies which ignore the crucial role of the state in the redistribution of wealth and social security provision. The reform effort in Iraq should pursue a third way.

Youth unemployment currently stands at close to 20 percent, and most graduates from Iraqi universities want the security of a public sector job. If the government can effectively plan for new development and undertake new training programmes for its youth, Iraqs population boom can become the engine of this economy, but if the current system remains, further unrest is likely.

There are several areas that a new development strategy needs to address. Renewable energy provides an opportunity to diversify the economy and produce new jobs. New technology in irrigation and reforestation can save Iraqs agricultural sector and provide more sustainable resources for the future. Family planning can help ease the demographic boom and ensure a degree of social cohesion.

These actions are dependent on the ruling factions having the political will to address the root causes of the current crisis.

Iraqs main problem is the widening gap between popular expectations and the states capacity to meet them. This gap could have been narrowed, had the ruling groups not prioritised their and their surrogates profit over responsible governance.

The recent protests sent a strong message to them; ignoring this message will further delegitimise the current system and radicalise public anger.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.Adeel Malik is Globe fellow in the economies of Muslim Societies at the University of Oxford.

Few challenges are more existential for Saudi Arabia than the need to wean its economy away from an excessive dependence on oil. The country faces two certainties on the external and domestic fronts: the excessive volatility of oil markets with its attendant consequences on the national budget and a growingly young and educated labour force (more than 50 percent of Saudis are below 25 years of age).

Saudi Arabia has traditionally bought social peace by distributing rents to its citizens through salaries, subsidies, and other welfare instruments. This social pact has become increasingly precarious in the midst of fluctuating oil revenues and expanding expenditure commitments at home.

It is in this context that Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 was hailed as a reformist intent, signalling a transformative move towards a post-oil future. A key plank of this strategy was the partial privatisation of Saudi Aramco through an initial public offering (IPO) of around 5 percent of its share in global markets. When the Saudi king recently pulled the plug on this international listing of Aramco, observers have started wondering about the fate of diversification.

Is there still hope for diversification after a central pillar of the Vision 2030 has fallen through? And, is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans grand vision still relevant and credible?

Diversifying without an Aramco IPO

The short answer is that it is still too early to write off the prospects for diversification in Saudi Arabia. Equally, diversification would have proven challenging, with or without the partial privatisation of Aramco.

Firstly, although Aramcos listing in international stock markets has been called off, the national oil company is still planning to raise debt through its acquisition of a strategic stake in SABIC, the countrys petrochemical giant.

With its currently modest debt levels, Saudi Arabia should have little difficulty raising money through capital markets. The only difference would be that the cash would be raised in a roundabout way through bonds rather than equities.

Secondly, even if Aramcos listing had gone ahead, it wouldnt have solved Saudi Arabias diversification challenge on its own. While a centrepiece of Vision 2030 and despite all the fanfare on the original announcement, the Aramco listing would have only served as a wealth management strategy.

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A helpful start, indeed. But diversification is a more serious and intricate development challenge in the context of Middle Easts oil exporters. Quick-fixes or stop-gap arrangements can only provide a temporary breather; they are no substitute for structural economic reforms.

To diversify its economy, Saudi Arabia would need a holistic development vision that recognises the fundamental inseparability of economics and politics.

Diversification is unlikely to result from a technical blueprint delivered by jazzy foreign consultants. For too long, the country has attempted to reform its economy in ways that neutralise the effect of such reform on politics. But the trouble is that any genuine shift in the countrys economic structure will produce political consequences, which neither the rulers nor the consultants they hire wish to confront.

For example, to develop a non-oil economy the regime will have to accommodate the prospect of a truly independent private sector, which can generate new pockets of economic influence whose power could spill over into the political domain.

It is precisely for this reason that authoritarian regimes in the Middle East are suspicious of outsized economic actors who could initiate political action.

This means that regimes only tolerate a private sector that is dependent and loyal. Firms recognise that the standard operating principle to survive (and thrive) is to partner with regime insiders either directly or through brokers and fixers.

The moment a business becomes successful or indicates a potential for growth, it is pressurised to sell or go into partnership with the regimes frontmen. Firms thus face a binary option: partner or perish.

In this scenario, firms prefer to operate under the radar and avoid direct confrontation. When connections with the royal circle become the most valuable asset for firms, small young companies have poor prospects in the marketplace.

Challenges of private sector growth

It is little surprise, then, that the Saudi private sector is dominated by large established players or companies that are simply a front for powerful royals. And, it is usually these large connected conglomerates that benefit from state contacts through opaque procurement and licensing procedures.

With one of the largest construction industries in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia can unlock its economic potential through a systematic reform of this sector, which would involve making bidding procedures genuinely competitive.

Connected firms also have privileged access to the two essential inputs private firms need  land and credit. Small firms face huge difficulties in accessing land, especially in peri-urban spaces where powerful families tend to leave land parcels idle in anticipation of capital gains.

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Until recently, arbitrary land confiscations by members of the royal family were a common occurrence. This land is sometimes sold back to the government for implementing public projects, generating a handsome rent for insiders.

Public land registries are notoriously under-developed. And, when it comes to accessing bank credit, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face a systematic disadvantage, receiving only about two percent of total loans.

Difficulties in land ownership mean that these firms lack the requisite collateral needed to secure bank loans. With oil-induced uncertainty affecting bank lending and large exposures to a few connected borrowers, commercial banks have limited room or incentive to offer intermediate credit to SMEs, a segment of economy that is most deserving of such capital.

As if entry and survival in the market werent hard enough, SMEs also find it difficult to exit the market as insolvency is exceptionally hard to resolve in Saudi Arabia. On this account alone, Saudi Arabia ranks 168th out of 189 countries in the 2018 Doing Business report.

This does not bode well for the forces of creative destruction that define a dynamic firm space where firms can enter, compete, or exit according to the diktats of market competition.

In the midst of these structural barriers, diversification will remain a pipe dream.

The politics of diversifying an economy

To diversify, the Saudi government needs to introduce radical pro-competition reforms, make land markets more transparent, and de-couple markets from the stranglehold of connected actors and firms. However, any such reform is likely to have grave political consequences, since it will reduce or kill the rents that help to sustain the cooperation of royal elites and their influential business partners.

The larger point I thus wish to make is that a genuine economic open door (infitah) will create both winners and losers. In this context, diversification is not just about creating winners who have a vested stake in a reformed business environment; it also requires compensating losers who could potentially spoil reform efforts.

In East Asia, this was done by striking deals with rent-seeking groups who could throw spanner in the works. As famous economist Pranab Bardhan has argued, these deals were often backed by institutional arrangements to share rents with potential spoilers.

Such arrangements existed, for example, in Japan where potential spoilers in the Liberal Democratic Party were systematically bought off. In Malaysia, the Chinese business conglomerates brought prominent members of Malay political elites on company boards.

Extrapolating this to Saudi Arabia, could one imagine a bargain that keeps ruling clans out of business in exchange for higher royal stipends or in-kind rewards?

To do so, however, would require an active recognition of the political fallout of economic reform and the creation of new bargaining structures that could balance the interests of reformers and spoilers, and nudge the growth trajectory towards a higher equilibrium.

Had the political fallout of an Aramco listing been worked out before and the buy-in from relevant actors secured in advance, the devastating blow to the credibility of Vision 2030 could have been avoided.

After all, it was clear from the outset that the valuation of Aramco was hugely over-optimistic and that an international listing would necessitate a more transparent disclosure and an opening up of Aramcos books, something that would face political resistance. In the end, politics trumped whatever economic rationale lay behind the proposed IPO.

Going forward, rather than relying on flashy, big bang approaches to diversification, Saudi policymakers need to adopt a more grounded and constructive strategy for economic reform that recognizes the centrality of politics.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.Critics say Beijings Belt and Road project is worsening debt problems in some African countries.

Chinese and African officials have rejected criticism of Beijings development projects on the continent as they ended a summit that included a $60bn pledge for more aid to the continent.

President Xi Jinping hosted leaders from across Africa amid questions about whether his countrys Belt and Road global trade infrastructure initiative is worsening debt problems in some countries.

Everything we do with China is perfectly under control, including on the financial and debt side, Senegals President Macky Sall said on Tuesday at the end of the two-day summit.

We shouldnt let our conscience be disturbed by criticism made regarding the nature of our relations with China, Sall said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said one of the summits main achievements was an agreement to work hard to increase Africas value-added exports to China.

For his part, Xi said the summit opened a new chapter in the history of China-Africa relations.

Debt forgiveness

On the opening day of the summit on Monday, Xi offered $60bn in financial support to African countries over the next three years. He said the debt of the continents poorest nations will be written off.

The Chinese president said the figure included $15bn in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, a credit line of $20bn, $10bn for development financing and $5bn to buy imports from the continent.

Chinese companies will be encouraged to invest no less than $10bn in African countries in the next three years, he added.

The money comes on top of $60bn offered at the last summit in 2015.

Chinas special envoy for African affairs, Xu Jinghu, said Beijing would be very conscientious in its cooperation with Africa and conduct feasibility studies before choosing projects.

China has not increased the debt burden of Africa, she told reporters.

Chinese companies have carried out many infrastructure projects in Africa like the Ethiopian Light Rail Transit [EPA]

Costly aid

Xis cherished Belt and Road project has already seen China loan billions of dollars to countries in Asia and Africa for roads, railways, ports and other infrastructure projects.

Critics have warned that the Chinese leaders pet project is burying some countries under massive debt.

Beijing loaned around $125bn to African nations between 2000 and 2016, according to data from the China-Africa Research Initiative at Washingtons Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

A study by the Center for Global Development, a US think-tank, found serious concerns about the sustainability of sovereign debt in eight Asian, European and African countries receiving Chinese funds.

Locals in some countries have complained about the practice of using Chinese labour for building projects and what are perceived to be sweetheart deals for Chinese companies.

The concerns are likely to grow as countries in other parts of the world begin to question whether Chinese aid comes at too high a price.

Time has come for African leaders to critically interrogate their relationship with China, an editorial in Kenyas Daily Nation said on Monday.Relations between the strategic allies are tense after the US announced the cancellation of $300m in aid to Pakistan.

Islamabad, Pakistan  As US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to the Pakistani capital Islamabad this week, with relations between the erstwhile strategic allies at a low ebb, analysts warn the road ahead could be even tougher for the South Asian nation.

Pompeo lands in Islamabad on Wednesday and will hold talks with the countrys top civilian and military leadership during a one-day visit, before continuing on to neighbouring India.

On Sunday, the Pentagon confirmed the US was moving to cancel $300m in Coalition Support Funds, a reimbursement payment to Pakistans military, due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions against armed groups targeting US and Afghan forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The move was part of a sustained effort by the US administration to pressure Pakistan, after President Donald Trump cut more than $1.1bn in security assistance in January, accusing Pakistan of nothing but lies and deceit.

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Pakistan denies it supports any armed groups, saying it has carried out indiscriminate military operations against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (sometimes called the Pakistan Taliban) and all other armed groups that have operated on its territory.

The Pakistan Talibans presence in the countrys northwestern tribal districts, along the border with Afghanistan, has been severely degraded by a series of military operations launched since 2014, but the group still launches sporadic large-casualty attacks on Pakistani targets.

Pakistan claims the Tehreek-e-Taliban is being offered safe haven in eastern Afghanistan, from where the group has launched several attacks on Pakistani forces.

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The principal US complaint for years, however, has been that Pakistan has failed to act against leaders of the Afghan Taliban and the feared Haqqani Network who, it says, have been based in Pakistan for more than a decade.

Last month, tensions rose still further when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accused Pakistan of supporting hundreds of Afghan Taliban fighters as they launched a raid on the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni.

Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal, responding to the charge, said: These are completely baseless allegations with no evidence.

Crucial visit

The Ghazni offensive, the first major Taliban assault on a city in months, and the timing of the aid cut mean Pompeos visit comes at a particularly sensitive time, as longtime Pakistani opposition politician Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has just taken the reins of power, analysts say.

This visit is crucial, said Hassan Akbar, director at the Jinnah Institute think-tank in Islamabad. It will set the tone for the new administration in Islamabad, regarding their approach to the United States.

The timing of the visit, coming as it does so soon after Ghazni and the aid cut announcement, is also significant, said Akbar.

While the Ghazni offensive failed to meet its objective, it has given a serious setback to the efforts at peace in Afghanistan, and has clearly demonstrated the weakness of the US recent Afghanistan strategy, he said.

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We expect that they will be looking to put more pressure on Pakistan, to either cut ties with, or use whatever influence they feel Pakistan has, with the Taliban to bring them to the negotiating table.

The signs leading into the visit suggest difficult conversations will take place. On Sunday night, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi warned that relations with the US had reached the point where they were almost non-existent.

With the visit of the US secretary of state we have an opening and a beginning can be made, and we will try to build a consensus in areas of mutual interest, he told reporters in Islamabad. It is our shared objective to cleanse the region and the world of terrorism.

No carrots, only sticks

Zahid Hussain, a senior journalist and security analyst based in Islamabad, said Pakistan should not expect an easy set of meetings on Wednesday, particularly giving the timing of the $300m assistance cancellation.

The message is clear, it is basically a departure from the previous administrations policy of the carrot and the stick, he said. Now, it seems that there is no carrot, only a stick.

Hussain warned while the US may be prepared to take a more aggressive stance with Pakistan, it may be impossible for Pakistan to deliver on Trumps demands.

To expect Pakistan to fight the US war here on Pakistani soil may be expecting too much, he said, pointing out many Afghan Taliban commanders are understood to have rebased themselves to Afghanistan from Pakistan, as the armed groups offensive against the Kabul government strengthens.

For Akbar, too, the prospects for positive outcomes from Pompeos visit are limited.

In the coming days, I think the situation in Afghanistan is going to get worse. And as that gets worse, I see the US likely blaming Pakistan for not taking action against armed groups, he said.

Its a bleak situation.

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashimRival armed groups have clashed for more than week over control of the capital city.

The death toll from ongoing fighting in Libyas capital, Tripoli, has risen to at least 50, health officials said, as violence between rival militias rages on.

The health ministry said on Tuesday clashes between armed groups had also left more than 138 people wounded.

The previous death toll stood at 39 people, including 18 civilians.

On August 27, fierce battles erupted in Tripolis districts after the Seventh Brigade, an armed group based in Tarhouna, 65km southeast of the capital, launched a surprise offensive against rival militias.

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A truce was reached the next day but clashes resumed shortly after, forcing authorities to close Tripolis only functioning airport.

The UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli declared a state of emergency on Sunday.

Al Jazeeras Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said the situation remained tense with sporadic fighting and indiscriminate rocket fire continuing to land in residential areas.

Several attempts have failed to put a ceasefire in force since the clashes erupted on August 26, Abdelwahed said.

The Seventh Brigade whose commanders say it works under the presidential guard of the GNA was disavowed by the government in April.

Facebook blackout

On Monday, the social media website Facebook was blocked in Tripoli and the surrounding cities.

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Libyan utility LPTIC, which owns the two state-run telecoms firms, said in a statement that a lack of security had led to outages. Maintenance engineers were unable to reach some stations which had stopped working due to a lack of power.

It did not comment on Facebooks blocking.

Access to the web is controlled by state firms and monitored by security bodies which are effectively controlled by armed groups working with the weak GNA.

Independent national media based inside Libya scarcely exists as journalists often face threats from armed groups or officials unhappy with critical coverage

Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew and ruler Muammar Gaddafi and led to his death.

The country is governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the countrys east, both of which are backed by an array of militias.Constitutional Court backs electoral bodys decision that the former VP cannot run because of a pending case at the ICC.

Former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, a top opposition figure who returned to the country after more than a decade, has been barred as a presidential candidate in Decembers long-delayed election.

The Constitutional Court of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) late on Monday backed the electoral commissions decision that Bemba cannot run because of a pending case at the International Criminal Court.

Bemba became a surprise contender after ICC appeals judges in June acquitted him of war crimes committed by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo forces in the neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. He returned to the DRC last month after more than a decade away.

The electoral commission, however, pointed out the pending case in which he was convicted of interfering with witnesses, calling it synonymous with corruption. Congolese law prevents people convicted of corruption from running for the presidency.

In appealing to the Constitutional Court, Bembas party had urged it to do the right thing despite evident political pressures. Bemba earlier noted that six major opposition parties had been discussing a possible joint candidate and that the electoral commission rejected him because it was likely that I would be the candidate.

Opposition parties have accused President Joseph Kabilas government of blocking some top candidates from running. Congolese authorities blocked another top opposition contender, Moise Katumbi, from entering the country to register as a candidate.

Felix Tshisekedi, the candidate for Congos largest opposition party, remains eligible to run.

Democratic transfer of power

Kabila after almost two years of speculation and unrest has said he will step aside but backed a candidate for a recently formed coalition.

The opposition worries he will continue to assert his influence even as one of Africas most turbulent nations faces what could be its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.

The opposition is up against Kabilas chosen candidate, former Interior Minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary with the new Common Front for Congo coalition. He is among nine Congolese sanctioned by the European Union last year for obstructing the electoral process and related human rights violations.

The final list of presidential candidates is expected on September 19.

The Constitutional Court upheld the invalidation of former Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito but said another former prime minister, Samy Badibanga, accused of having a second nationality, can run.

The United States was among those praising Kabila, who by law cannot run again after his mandate ended in December 2016, for his decision to step aside but it warned that Congos electoral commission must take all steps necessary to guarantee a free and fair vote.

Congos government has blamed the election delay on the difficulties of organising a vote in the vast country. The opposition and some in the international community are objecting to the planned use of electronic voting machines despite warnings from watchdog groups that transparency and credibility could suffer.

In response, Congos government has declared it will fund the election itself.

Whoever wins the December 23 vote takes over a vast country with trillions of dollars worth of mineral wealth but with dozens of armed groups battling for a part of it. Millions of Congolese have been displaced by various internal conflicts.Hussein has now spent more time in pre-trial detention than is currently allowed by Egyptian law.

Egyptian authorities have renewed the detention of Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein for the 16th consecutive time by a further 45 days.

Hussein has now spent more than 620 days in detention, which exceeds the legal period of pre-trial detention allowed in Egyptian law.

According to the criminal procedures law, authorities should have either released Hussein or referred him to a court by the 18-month mark, which was on June 21.

Hussein was detained on December 20, 2016, by Egyptian authorities upon his arrival in Cairo for an annual vacation to visit his family.

Five days after his initial arrest, Egypts interior ministry accused Hussein  an Egyptian national who was based in Qatar  of disseminating false news and receiving monetary funds from foreign authorities in order to defame the states reputation.

Since then he has been kept in solitary confinement, denied his legal rights, and has yet to be formally charged.

Al Jazeera has condemned the repeated renewals of his imprisonment, denies all allegations against Hussein, and demands his immediate and unconditional release.

The Egyptian authorities did not listen to the pleas of his daughter Zahra, who described the suffering his family faces, waiting in the long queues at the prison, in the harsh cold and under the hot sun, and how they may only meet him with permission, Ahmad al-Yafei, Al Jazeera Arabics managing director said in a statement on Tuesday.

Today, I am sending a message to Zahra Mahmoud Hussein, that I personally and all of her fathers colleagues and free journalists around the world will not rest until Mahmoud Hussein is free, he and all the journalists who pay for the truth with their lives and freedom.

Al Jazeera Media Network will spare no effort to that end and in the never-ending pursuit of that goal.

In February, the United Nations called Husseins jailing arbitrary detention, saying the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr Hussein immediately.

The International Press Institute has also called on Egypt to immediately release Hussein and other journalists in a social media campaign using the hashtag #PressEgypt.

Husseins next hearing is scheduled for October 8.Palestinian students who won scholarships in Hungary say they cant leave Gaza because of Rafah crossing waiting list.

A group of Palestinian students from Gaza has issued a desperate plea for help as they face the prospect of losing their scholarships in Europe due to a long waiting list for leaving the besieged enclave.

The 14 students successfully obtained European visas to study at various universities in Hungary, but have not been able to receive exit permits to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.

If the permits are not issued by the end of the week, they face the likelihood of joining the 56 percent of graduates who are currently unemployed in Gaza.

Yussef, 25, who did not want his full name published, lives in Rafah, home to Gazas border crossing with Egypt.

He has been offered the chance to pursue a masters degree in biology at the University of Szeged but fears he will never make it there.

Many friends my age are university graduates with no future The restriction on our movement is really killing our spirit, Yussef, who aspires to be a biotechnologist, said.

Since 2007, a land, air and sea blockade has been enforced on Gaza by Israeli and, partially, by Egyptian authorities in response to Hamas coming to power  imposing strict limitations on the movement of both people and goods.

Patients are often denied medical treatment in hospitals outside Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian students are prevented from pursuing education abroad.

Yussef describes the scholarship as a life-changing opportunity.

I was so excited at first to find a full scholarship that covers the area Im interested in, he said.

But now, I feel sad, frustrated and anxious. I have just one week to be in attendance before I lose my place and that is a scenario I just cant bear to think about.

The Rafah crossing has been open since May  the longest period of time Egyptian authorities have allowed it to remain open from both sides in recent years.

However, due to thousands of Palestinians trying to make the crossing, the students face several months wait.

In December 2017, authorities in Gaza announced a registration system to apply for exit permits through Rafah, citing increasing numbers of people wishing or expected to travel.

The system aims to regulate the movement of travel of citizens and foreigners through the Rafah crossing under the crisis  and provides equal opportunities for registration of travel, Gaza authorities stated on a website.

Also anxiously awaiting his fate is Mohamed Alhayek, 24, who published the groups plea for help on social media.

A Gaza City resident, he has been offered a place at the University of Debrecen to pursue a masters degree in Computer Science.

One of the biggest hardships we face is getting out of Gaza, said Mohamed, who hopes to one day launch his own Gaza-based company specialising in data science services.

I want to make a change in the place where I live. We are occupied by Israeli forces and I believe education is the most powerful and effective weapon we can use to defend our country.

This sentiment was shared by his brother Mahmoud, who was lucky enough to leave Gaza four years ago at the age of 18 to study civil engineering in Turkey, where he also works to pay for his education.

I feel free here. Im not faced with the daily challenges I experienced in Gaza. When I first arrived, having access to electricity 24 hours a day was a real novelty, said Mahmoud.

However, his freedom comes at a price. He has not been able to visit his family since moving to Turkey because the risk of being unable to return to his studies is too high.

His goal is to return to Gaza as a university lecturer to help others continue their education.

A future offering little hope has led to a disenchanted youth, believes journalist and political analyst Saud Aburamadan, who was born and still lives in Gaza.

I have watched young children grow into adults who have never left the Strip and it is hugely problematic for their mental wellbeing.

It is why hundreds of young people protest each Friday  because they have lost all hope for a better future and this is the only thing they can do, he said, referring to the Great March of Return protests.

The weekly protests, in which more than 170 Palestinians have been killed since they began at the end of March, aim to highlight Palestinians right of return to their villages from which they were expelled to make way for the foundation of Israel. This right is enshrined in United Nations Resolution 194 adopted in December 1948.

We are not just talking about 14 students, we are talking about hundreds. They must go, its their right, and as soon as possible, otherwise they will lose their future and their hope.Six killed and a dozen wounded as demonstrations escalate over abysmal government services in the southern province.

Deadly clashes continued in Iraqs southern oil hub of Basra after hundreds gathered to mourn the death of a protester killed a day earlier.

At least six people were killed and 12 injured in violent demonstrations near a provincial government building on Tuesday when protesters stormed the office and set it alight, sources on the ground told Al Jazeera.

Sources on the ground said members of the security forces had also been injured.

The situation is continuing to escalate after the death of a protester yesterday, said demonstrator Laith Abdelrahman. Security forces are using live ammunition and tear gas to break up the demonstrations.

Yasser Makki died in a hospital following clashes with security forces on Monday night, while six other people were hurt.

As the clashes continued, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi held an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the unrest and ordered the Ministry of Interior to conduct an immediate investigation into the protests, state media reported.

Demonstrations have been ongoing for months in southern Iraq over poor government services, corruption, and a shortage of potable water.





Completely enveloped

According to Abdelrahman, the government office caught fire after protesters hurled petrol bombs at security personnel.

There is a big fire in the provincial government building, which has now become completely enveloped in flames, he said.

Al-Abadi ordered an investigation into Makkis death, while the local head of Iraqs Human Rights Commission, Mahdi al-Tamimi, also called for a probe.

Our orders are clear in banning the firing of live ammunition during demonstrations, al-Abadi said in his weekly news conference, according to state TV.

Hundreds gathered to mourn the death of Yasser Makki, who was killed in clashes on Monday [Reuters]

Escalating anger

Nabil al-Assadi, another demonstrator in Basra, told Al Jazeera that, despite attempts to break up the demonstration, protesters have not retreated.

Security forces have been using tear gas and live ammunition to break us up, but that is making us more adamant to continue, he said, adding they were demanding that the local chief of security step down.





This extensive use of force against protesters, who are demanding legitimate rights, is unacceptable, al-Assadi added.

Mustafa Saadoun, director of the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, said six people were killed on Tuesday and 12 wounded in the violence.

Twenty-three protesters have been killed since July 8 when the wave of demonstrations erupted across Iraq over electricity outages, unemployment, and official corruption.

It is clear the government is using excessive force. It is also clear the use of live ammunition is direct and targeted. Many of those injured have been wounded in the head, said Saadoun.

Although Prime Minister al-Abadi suspended the electricity minister last month  saying his government is taking measures against those responsible for poor services in Basra  protests have continued.

Public anger in Iraq has also increased at a time when politicians are struggling to form a new government. An inconclusive first parliamentary session finished on Monday as two rival blocs continue to vie for power.

Contaminated water

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In recent weeks, protests have also focused on water contamination in Basra as thousands were admitted to hospitals in the southern province.

Deepmala Mahla, country director for the NGO Mercy Corps, said the situation was extremely dire.

There is a health crisis which stems from water contamination, and there have been thousands of cases of people going to hospital with symptoms as a result, she told Al Jazeera.

Tests showed faecal contamination was high while chlorine levels were low in water supplies, she said.

There is an acute shortage in the quantity and quality of suitable drinking water in the south of Iraq. These conditions are worrying, making the stakes very high and the risk of a cholera outbreak possible, Mahla said.

Iraqs government said it is investigating the water supply in Iraqs second-largest city.Lake Chad donors hope funds will help more than current crises

Donors promise millions more for Africas Lake Chad, but will it be enough for a region beset by violence, famine and climate change?Senator Antonio Trillanes has criticised the presidents anti-drug war and challenged him to explain his wealth.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the arrest of his fiercest critic in Congress after revoking the senators amnesty for involvement in unsuccessful military uprisings years ago.

Senator Antonio Trillanes condemned Dutertes move, which was made public on Tuesday, as illegal and a clear case of political persecution.

After Senate leaders assured they would not allow his arrest in the Senate, Trillanes said he would stay in the building while police officers waited outside in a looming standoff.





Were living basically in a de facto martial law environment of the 70s kind, Trillanes told a throng of journalists and supporters, referring to martial law declared by dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, which is regarded as a dark chapter in Philippine history.

Trillanes has repeatedly questioned Dutertes deadly drug war, and challenged the president to explain his alleged hidden wealth.

He also presented before the Senate witnesses who accused the president of being directly involved in extrajudicial killings.

Amid political tensions over the arrest order, some opposition politicians and followers visited the Senate to show support for Trillanes.

The 47-year-old former navy officer was detained for years before his election to the Senate for involvement in three military revolts from 2003 to 2007 protesting official corruption under the presidency of Gloria Arroyo, now House Speaker and a Duterte ally.

Bending the law

Trillanes received amnesty under Dutertes predecessor, Benigno Aquino III. Several young military officers who were detained for joining failed coup attempts and uprisings against Arroyo were also granted amnesty. But only Trillanes was revoked so far.





In an interview with the news website Rappler, Aquino said the amnesty he extended to Trillanes must be respected and recognised by the Duterte administration.

Trillanes said his lawyers would petition the Supreme Court to fight the move by Duterte, who is on a visit to Israel.

Theyre bending the law to be able to do their political objective, which is to persecute the political opposition, Trillanes said.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told a news conference that Duterte signed a proclamation last week voiding Trillanes 2011 amnesty, because the senator had failed to comply with all of its requirements  including a clear admission of his involvement in past coup attempts.

Trillanes cannot invoke his congressional immunity from arrest because the crimes he allegedly committed, including rebellion, were serious and punishable by life imprisonment, the justice chief said.

During a televised Senate session, however, Trillanes showed proof refuting that claim.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque told reporters in Israel the move against Trillanes was not political persecution, saying the government was just enforcing the law.

But Vice President Leni Robredo said the arrest order sends a chilling effect to the critics of the Duterte administration.

Another opposition senator and Duterte critic, Leila de Lima, is also under police detention.A Saudi prince has told protesters in Britains capital that the wider royal family ought not to be blamed for what is happening in the region, pointing the finger instead at the king and his heir apparent.

The comments can be heard in a video that captured an encounter outside an unnamed London location between Prince Ahmed bin Abdelaziz  one of the few remaining sons of the founder of Saudi Arabia  and a group of activists chanting slogans such down, down, the Al Saud and criminal family Al Saud.

In the footage, which was posted on social media earlier this week, the prince approaches the activists and answers some of their questions on the situation in Yemen and Bahrain.

           : "  "  : "    "!        : "  "                 ! pic.twitter.com/4gMbfZzfdO    (@barqnewskw) September 3, 2018

Translation: Prince Ahmed bin Abdelaziz, King Salmans brother, heard opposition figures chanting down down Al Saud so he retorted, All of the Al Sauds cant be blamed!? There are people responsible for the state of war in Yemen.

There are specific people that are responsible. Dont blame the entire family, the prince said. In Yemen and elsewhere, our hope is that the war ends today before tomorrow.

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Asked who these individuals were, the prince said it was the king and his heir apparent, in reference to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS.

The conflict in Yemen has escalated dramatically since March 2015, when Saudi-led forces launched a military operation against advancing Houthi fighters.

Since the conflict began, more than 10,000 people have been killed, and millions have been driven from their homes.

Campaigners have accused MBS, who also serves as defence minister, of being the chief architect of the Yemen war, which has led to what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

Wave of arrests

Public displays of dissent are rare in the kingdom, where critics of the government and Saudi monarch face lengthy jail sentences, corporal punishment and hefty fines.

Dozens of royal family members, ministers, and top businessmen were arrested in November 2017 during an anti-corruption purge launched by MBS. Allegations against those detained included money laundering, bribery, and extorting officials.

The crackdown, which came about via a royal decree, was said to be in response to exploitation by some of the weak souls who have put their own interests above the public interest, in order to illicitly accrue money.

Most were freed after reaching settlement deals with the government, including Saudi businessman and billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Experts have argued that the arrests were a way for the crown prince to consolidate economic and political power in Saudi Arabia.

Prince Ahmed previously served as interior minister between June and November 2012 under the late King Abdullah before being replaced with Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.Spain put the brakes on a sale of hundreds of missiles to Saudi Arabia amid concerns about their use against civilians in the war in Yemen.

The defence ministry has launched a process to cancel the contract between Spain and Saudi Arabia signed in 2015 for 400 laser-guided munitions and will pay back the $10m already paid for the weapons, broadcaster Cadena Ser reported on Tuesday.

We confirm the news, an unnamed spokeswoman at the defence ministry said, declining to give any additional details.

The ministry said last month it had never sold arms that could be used against a civilian population and condemned the killing of non-combatants in Yemen.

The Saudi embassy in Madrid did not immediately respond to emailed questions and follow-up calls by The Associated Press.





Human rights groups have denounced Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its allies in a war the United Nations says has killed more than 10,000 people and left 8.4 million on the brink of famine.

Important precedent

Spain is the fourth-largest provider of military equipment and weapons to the Gulf state, according to Amnesty International.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an independent global security database, said the United States, Britain and France are Saudi Arabias main arms suppliers.

Last year, Saudi Arabia reportedly agreed to buy seven billion dollars worth of precision-guided munitions from the United States.

Andrew Smith, a spokesman from the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade, said Spains decision has put a lot of pressure on the Saudi-led coalition.

It sets an incredibly important precedent across Europe and to the governments who are continuing to arm and support this brutal bombardment, such as the US and the UK who have sold by far the most weapons, Smith told Al Jazeera.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Spains then-Defence Minister Maria Dolores Cospedal signed bilateral agreements in April [Paul White/AP]

Smith said he hopes the Spanish government stays true to its word.

We also hope that it does apply pressure internationally and that it does call for other governments to do the same, he added.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have led a military coalition fighting against Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015.

Amnestys Rasha Abdul Rahim told Al Jazeera Spains move was only a first step and it should cancel all arms sales to Saudi Arabia, not just the 400 missiles.

These kinds of munitions have been used in attacks against hospitals, homes, and markets time and time again, Rahim said. Its high time such action has been taken.

The alliance has faced increasing calls for restraint in its bombing campaign, particularly following an attack that hit a school bus and killed 51 civilians, including 40 children, last month.

UN human rights investigators say all sides may have committed war crimes in the conflict.

The war in Yemen has become the worlds worst humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in desperate need of food, medicine, and other assistance.First strikes in weeks kill civilians and raise fears threatened push against last rebel-held province may be under way.

Air raids have pounded areas in Syrias last rebel-held province of Idlib, killing several civilians and raising further concerns that an all-out government offensive is only a matter of time.

The strikes on Tuesday came as the United Nations urged Russia, a Syrian government ally, and Turkey, which backs certain rebel groups in Idlib, to help avert a bloodbath.

A full-scale military offensive would be devastating for the nearly three million people living in the province, including many rebels and civilians who were bussed out of other areas as they came back under government control.

At least 24 raids  the first in three weeks  hit the area on Tuesday morning, Al Jazeeras Stefanie Dekker reported from Antakya, in neighbouring Turkey, citing activists who said they saw Russian and Syrian regime warplanes in the sky.

The bombing mainly targeted the city of Jisr al-Shughour on Idlibs western edge, along with its surrounding towns and villages, activists told Al Jazeera.

The attacks lasted for several hours before subsiding at around 7pm local time (17:00 GMT).

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At least 10 civilians were killed in the air raids and 20 others were wounded, according to Ahmed Yarji from the White Helmets, a group of rescue workers operating in rebel-held territories.

Other sources put the death toll to at least 17.

Yarji said five children, all members of the same family and aged between five and 11, were among those killed.

Civilian homes were the only buildings being targeted, the 33-year-old said.

Medics were able to respond but it was incredibly challenging, especially since the main roads used by ambulances were also bombed, Yarji added.

According to Yarji, a double-tap air raid targeted members of the White Helmets as they reached a site hit in an earlier attack.

Residents of the area are scared to sleep inside their homes today, and many have opted to sleep in the wilderness, fearing another wave of air strikes, he said.

Activists also said the latest attacks prompted dozens to flee towards Aleppo on the easten side of Idlib, or towards Turkey, which has sealed off its border with Syria since last year, allowing only for the flow of humanitarian goods.

Shortly before Tuesdays raids, the Kremlin called Idlib a pocket of terrorism and said the presence of rebel groups there undermines the possibility of a political settlement to Syrias seven-year war.

We know that Syrias armed forces are preparing to resolve this problem, Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, without commenting on a timeframe for the expected operation.





Last major bastion

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has sworn to recapture every inch of Syria and has made big gains against rebels since Russia joined his war effort three years ago.

His forces have been amassing around Idlib, presumably in preparation for the assault to seize the last major bastion of the rebel groups who have been trying to oust Assad since the start of the war in 2011.





Turkey, whose army controls a string of military posts around Idlib, has for weeks been engaged in diplomatic efforts to prevent a Syrian government attack on Idlib. Turkey, Russia and Iran, which is also a major Assad ally, are expected to hold a summit on Syria in Tehran on Friday.

In Geneva, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday called on the leaders of Russia and Turkey to draw up a solution in the coming days to prevent a major battle for Idlib.

A telephone call between the two of you would make a big difference, de Mistura said, addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan directly in a media briefing.

Moscow and Ankara should be given more time to negotiate a way to prevent an offensive, he added.

De Mistura, who has mediated several rounds of Syria talks in recent years, without making any progress, said he was determined to hold discussions with high-level envoys from Turkey, Iran and Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, despite concerns the offensive may begin before then.

The UN has previously warned that an all-out assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syrias conflict.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump late on Monday warned Syria against recklessly attacking Idlib, which he said could trigger a human tragedy.

Asked about Trumps tweet, Peskov said on Tuesday such warnings do not consider the dangerous and negative potential of the rebel-held enclave, and show the White House does not have a comprehensive approach to solving the Syria crisis.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister, said his government is making efforts to remove rebel fighters from Idlib with the least human cost.

The situation in Idlib is sensitive, Zarif told Iranian state TV on Tuesday. Our efforts are for  the exit of terrorists from Idlib to be carried out with the least human cost.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli planes targeted military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source.

Syrian air defences confronted and downed some of the rockets, SANA said.

An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment, Reuters News Agency said.

The Israeli military has in the past carried out attacks on Iranian and Iran-affiliated targets in neighbouring Syria. It has warned of a growing Iranian military presence in Syria, which it sees as a threat to its safety.Comments by US president come as government forces prepare to launch an offensive to retake rebel-held Idlib province.

US President Donald Trump has warned the Syrian government against launching an attack on rebel-held Idlib province amid concerns that the planned offensive will create a new humanitarian crisis.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy, Trump said in a tweet on Monday.





Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen.

The warning came as Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with the Syrian president in a surprise visit to Damascus ahead of an expected government offensive on Idlib.

The northern province is the last major rebel stronghold fighting al-Assad, who is backed by both Russian and Iranian forces.

Moscow and Tehran have insisted on fighting what they say are terrorist groups, with Zarif saying that areas under rebel control must be cleaned out and brought back under government authority.

Trump has sought better relations with Russia since taking office in 2017, but the United States has been unable to rein in Moscows military and diplomatic support for al-Assad.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said Washington views any government assault on Idlib as an escalation of Syrias war, and the State Department warned that Washington would respond to any chemical attack by Damascus.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, wrote on Twitter late on Monday: All eyes on the actions of Assad, Russia, and Iran in Idlib. #NoChemicalWeapons.

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Zarifs visit to Damascus comes as Tehran prepares to host a summit on September 7 between the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss the situation in Idlib, Fars news agency reported.

Turkey, which has long supported anti-Assad rebels, has cooperated with Russia and Iran on talks over Syria in recent years and has troops in the Idlib region on an observation mission.

Last week, Irans defence minister travelled to Damascus and signed an agreement for defence cooperation between the two countries.Japans government issues evacuation advisories for more than a million people following the storms landfall on Shikoku

At least nine people have been reported dead and more than 300 injured as Typhoon Jebi  the strongest in 25 years  pummelled Japan.

The reports on Tuesday came after the Japanese government issued evacuation advisories for more than a million people following the storms landfall on Shikoku, the smallest main island.

Jebi  whose name means swallow in Korean  raked across the western part of the largest main island, Honshu, near the city of Kobe, several hours later, heading rapidly north.

NHK, the national public broadcaster, reported that one of the nine fatalities was a 71-year-old man, who died in western Shiga prefecture after being trapped under a warehouse that collapsed in the strong winds.

Kansai International Airport is partly inundated after typhoon Jebi hit Osaka [AP]





Jebi is considered a category-3 typhoon, out of five, on the Saffir-Simpson scale. According to Kyodo News, it was the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Japan since 1993.

Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961, NHK said, with storm surge covering the runways at Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

NHK also reported that an estimated 3,000 passengers are stranded at the Kansai airport, as airline companies cancelled hundreds of flights. Several hundred airport workers were also stranded.

In Osaka, an operation to free the stranded crew of a fuel tanker was called off because of a ruptured gas pipe. Two people were reported rescued, while nine remain on board, according to NHK.

Evacuation advisories were issued as the wind and rain began picking up, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

Wind gusts of up to 208km/h were recorded in one part of Shikoku, with forecasts as high as 216km/h.

The fast-moving storm quickly crossed the mainland, and by nightfall was heading out to sea from Ishikawa in central Japan.

According to the countrys meteorological agency, most of the country remains in warning.

Scores of ferries and train journeys were also cancelled, local media reported.

Shinkansen bullet train services between the capital, Tokyo, and Hiroshima were also suspended and Universal Studios Japan was closed. Toyota Motor Corp meanwhile said it was cancelling the night shift at 14 plants.

Some 177,000 customers across western Japan lost power, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cancelled a scheduled trip to Kyushu, Japans southernmost main island, to oversee the governments response to the typhoon, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.

Damages are expected to put a further strain on Japans recovery budget as the country continues dealing with natural disasters.

The threat of further floods comes soon after parts of Japan were hit by torrential rains in July, killing more than 100 people.Definitions full adoption will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel, party spokesperson says.

Britains main opposition Labour Party has announced it will fully adopt an internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism as it tries to end a long-running internal debate that engulfed senior members and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The partys National Executive Committee (NEC), its governing body, decided at a meeting in London on Tuesday to endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, as well as its list of 11 examples.

A party spokesperson said that the NEC had also adopted a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

The NEC welcomed Jeremy Corbyns statement to the meeting about action against anti-Semitism, solidarity with the Jewish community and protection of Palestinian rights, as an important contribution to the consultation on Labours code of conduct, the statement added.

Tuesdays announcement came two months after Labour endorsed a code of conduct that left out four of IHRAs 11 examples, including one that cautions against claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.

Corbyn has previously expressed concern that aspects of the IHRA definition  signed by 31 countries including the UK and US  could restrict criticism of Israel that is not anti-Semitic in nature.

The debate fed into a months-long row over alleged anti-Semitism in the party, in which MPs and Jewish groups repeatedly accused Corbyn of failing to act.

But Corbyn supporters said the controversy was stirred up by his enemies within and outside of the party to discredit the politician, who has long campaigned for political justice for Palestinians.

Before the hours-long meeting, protesters from both sides of the debate gathered outside the partys headquarters.





Al Jazeeras Laurence Lee, reporting from London, said the pressure on Corbyn and his leadership team had become enormous in recent weeks.

There has been so much criticism of him and his supporters that they have eventually climbed down [on adopting the full IHRA definition], Lee said.

But there is a caveat; they have accepted all the examples of anti-semitism [in the IHRA code] but have said this does not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians, he added.

Critics, however, said the NECs decision to caveat its adoption of the code with an accompanying statement was an unnecessary qualification.

Margaret Hodge, a veteran Labour Party parliamentarian, described the move as two steps forward and one step back in a post on Twitter on Tuesday.

Glyn Secker, a member of Jewish Voice of Labour, said the decision was ludicrous, however.

This is a party that could become the party of government and we cant discuss matters of foreign policy, the rights of the Palestinians to their own self-determination, the suffering that the Palestinians are experiencing at the hands of Israel, we cant discuss that in the Labour Party because it would be defined as anti-Semitic, Secker told Al Jazeera.

The Jewish Voice of Labour, an organisation that comprises Jewish members of the Labour Party, has described the IHRAs code as a threat to freedom of expression and debate and said it offers an inaccurate definition of anti-Semitism.

A definition of antisemitism which needs to rely on examples, which may or may not be anti-Semitic depending on context, fails that test, the organisation said in its submission to a Labour Party Consultation on Definition of Antisemitism.





Corbyn, meanwhile, has repeatedly stated that anti-Semitism, racism and prejudice of all kinds have no place within Labour, but in an August 3 article for The Guardian, he added: It is unfortunately the case that this particular example, dealing with Israel and racism, has sometimes been used by those wanting to restrict criticism of Israel that is not anti-Semitic.

In the same article, he also admitted that the party had been too slow in dealing with cases of anti-Semitic abuse committed by members.

The parliamentary wing of the Labour Party is expected to meet on Wednesday to vote on the NECs decision.

The controversy followed earlier debates over Corbyns role in a 2014 ceremony in Tunis at which a perpetrator of the 1972 Munich Olympics attack  during which 11 Israelis were killed  was honoured and his hosting of a 2010 event at which a Holocaust survivor compared Israel to Nazism.

Corbyn said he attended the event in Tunis as part of a wider event focused on peace and, separately, that he did not condone all views expressed at the event in 2010.Defenders of Jeremy Corbyn say attacks against Labour leader are meant to discredit his pro-Palestine stance.

Britains Labour Party is set to vote on the internationally-recognised definitions of anti-Semitism, following a protracted debate that has dogged the party and sparked criticism of the countrys main opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The vote on Tuesday by Labours ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) is seen as a bid to resolve a controversy, which Corbyn supporters said was stirred up by his enemies within and outside of the party to discredit the politician, who is a strong advocate of a Palestinian state.

Ahead of the vote, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who served between June 2007 and May 2010, said the issue touched at the soul of the Labour Party, and must be dealt with at once.

On Thursday, veteran Labour member Frank Field, who has been in the House of Commons for almost 40 years, announced his resignation in protest of Corbyns leadership on the issue.

Corbyn has repeatedly stated that anti-Semitism has no place in the party and the movement.





Al Jazeeras Laurence Lee, reporting from London, said there has been a long-running split in the Labour Party over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with one wing supportive of the Palestinian struggle and another wing supporting Israel.

But never before has that split come to the surface like this, because never before has there been a Labour Party leader so obviously pro-Palestinian, he said.

At a time when the ruling Conservative Party is in a hole over Brexit, Labour is tearing itself apart, Lee added.

What is the controversy?

The definition of anti-Semitism was set by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which also cited 11 specific examples of racial abuse in public, the media, educational institutions, the workplace and the religious sphere.

Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.

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However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic, the alliance said.

In July, Labour endorsed a code of conduct that left out four of the 11 examples listed by the IHRA.

The four points include:

Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.

Applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

What is being done to resolve the debate?





The Labour leadership has argued that the definition, signed by 31 countries and used by many British institutions, does not allow for criticism of Israels treatment of Palestinians.

In an August 3 article for The Guardian, Corbyn wrote that anti-Semitism had no place in the party, but added:

It is unfortunately the case that this particular example, dealing with Israel and racism, has sometimes been used by those wanting to restrict criticism of Israel that is not anti-Semitic.

Tuesdays compromise plan is expected to seek to safeguard the rights of members who want to criticise Israels treatment of the Palestinians.

However, there are also talks of parliament members walking out if Corbyn does not accept the compromise plan.

Past controversies

Corbyn has acknowledged that in the past, the party was too slow to process disciplinary cases over anti-Semitic abuse by party members.

His critics have also questioned Corbyns reported hosting of a Holocaust survivor, who compared Israel to Nazism, in 2010. Corbyn has apologised for that incident.





Corbyn is also accused of appearing during a 2014 ceremony in Tunis honouring a perpetrator of the 1972 Munich attack that killed 11 Israeli Olympic team members.

Corbyn defended that incident saying he attended the event as part of a wider event focused on peace.

Paul Sweeney, a Labour member of parliament and Shadow Scotland Office Minister, said he has never personally encountered anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

He said the accusation is being used as a political weapon against Corbyn.

Mike Cushman of the Jewish Voice for Labour has said that while the Labour Party is not free of anti-Semites, it is not the main problem confronting the party.

Cushman also said that the main issue is that supporters of Israel dont want people in the Labour Party, or anywhere else to talk about Palestinian rights.

There is also a wing in the Labour Party, who have not reconciled themselves with Corbyns leadership, and they want him out, Cushman added.

Al Jazeeras Lee said suggestions that a veteran anti-racist politician like Corbyn may have a problem in confronting the issue carries significant electoral risk for the party.

Labour remains a party, whose membership love the leader, but whose politicians are deeply divided on him.The New Yorker magazine has cancelled plans to interview former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon to its annual festival next month after numerous panelists announced they would drop out if he remained.

David Remnick, the US-based magazines editor-in-chief, announced the reversal on Twitter on Monday after the festivals lineup was met with immediate backlash.

Ive thought this through and talked to colleagues  and Ive re-considered, Remnick, who has repeatedly denounced US President Donald Trump and his administration, wrote in a statement of his decision on Bannon.

There is a better way to do this. Our writers have interviewed Steve Bannon for The New Yorker before, and if the opportunity presents itself Ill interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage, he said.

A statement from David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, explaining his decision to no longer include Steve Bannon in the 2018 New Yorker Festival. pic.twitter.com/opayiw5GQ2  The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 3, 2018

The move came after several panelists said they would not share a platform with Bannon, whose influence was seen as having driven Trumps travel ban on majority Muslim countries and his reaction to the killing of a protester by a white supremacist in Charlottesville, Virginia last year.

If Steve Bannon is at the New Yorker festival I am out, wrote comedian and Hollywood producer Judd Apatow. I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate.

If Steve Bannon is at the New Yorker festival I am out. I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate. I hope the @NewYorker will do the right thing and cancel the Steve Bannon event. Maybe they should read their own reporting about his ideology.  Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) September 3, 2018

Bannon? And me? On the same program? Could never happen, added actor Jim Carrey.

Bannon? And me? On the same program? Could never happen.  Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) September 3, 2018

Bannon, who was to headline the prestigious festival, denounced Remnick in a statement.

The reason for my acceptance was simple: I would be facing one of the most fearless journalists of his generation. In what I would call a defining moment, David Remnick showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob, he said.

Since leaving the White House last year, Bannon has continued to champion right-wing causes, including supporting British anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, who was freed from prison last month after winning a legal challenge over contempt charges.

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He has also announced plans to set up a foundation in Europe, called The Movement, to spark a populist right-wing revolt.

Bannon is scheduled to appear September 15 at The Economists Open Future festival in New York City.

According to The Economist, festival attendees will discuss the most urgent issues of our time and remake the case for liberal values. At least one guest already plans to drop out.

Several activists, filmmakers, writers and journalists condemned the New Yorkers invitation to Bannon, claiming the magazine was providing him with a platform to propagate white-nationalist views.

He created an online home for white nationalists to groom and grow their violent base. He cemented his destructive white supremacist views into the DNA of the White House. Now, New Yorker is selling tickets to see him headline. And here we are, folks. https://t.co/JyK8J13Zko  Ava DuVernay (@ava) September 3, 2018

Bannon is the Evangelist of American White Supremacy. He is integrating the USA AltRight into European racist, fascists conservative Movement. His goal is to destroy American democracy & replace it with a Russian styled autocracy. #WhyHelpHim? @NewYorker @TheEconomist https://t.co/4CSv8ebxko  Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) September 3, 2018

If Steve Bannon were in the administration or still the head of Breitbart, you could make a claim he's an influencer and then invite and challenge him. But the dude is struggling, trying to create "The Movement" in Europe. The New Yorker invite only helps him.  Wajahat "Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic" Ali (@WajahatAli) September 3, 2018

Bannon is a marginal crank whose flagging career is being revived by The New Yorker and The Economist. Who pays the price for the mainstreaming of his racism? Not the self-congratulatory free speech festival crowd wholl pay to hear him.  Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) September 3, 2018

The New Yorkers reversal, however, was also criticised by conservative commentators.

"Steve Bannon dropped from New Yorker Festival after outrage from Judd Apatow, Patton Oswalt, John Mulaney and more speakers" Tell us again, who are the open-minded, emphatic, every-deserves-respect folks?https://t.co/xeySAgaLrd#LiberalBigots  Larry Elder (@larryelder) September 4, 2018

New Yorker Editor David Remnick disinvites Steve Bannon from festival after readers balk, Jim Carrey, Judd Apatow threaten to walk. So much for interviewing people with different views  HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) September 3, 2018

The New Yorker Festivals 19th edition will take place from October 5 to 7 and will include anti-gun activist David Hogg, actress Emily Blunt and writers Haruki Murakami and Zadie Smith.On October 28, 2005, another curious event took place in those same halls of justice: an allegedly Republican special prosecutor indicted a White House advisor of his own party for a series of process crimes unrelated to the original intent of his investigation.

In April 2005, a Republican-led Department of Justice did something quite unusual. After catching a Democratic operative stealing and destroying highly relevant classified documents, the DoJ punished him as though he had stolen the Snickers bars from the office vending machine.

As will become clear, this double injustice not only foreshadowed future injustices, but it also served as a practice run of sorts for the players involved. Several of these players would come center stage once again in the long-running political drama that debuted in 2016.

The Democratic operative on that barely warm seat in 2005 was former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, since deceased. The attorney general at the time, the feckless Alberto Gonzales, had been on the job less than two months when the Berger deal went down.

Gonzaless deputy attorney general, James Comey, however, had been on the job for more than a year. It was under Comeys supervision that the DoJ reviewed the case against Berger. It was a doozy.

In the nerviest of his criminal acts, Berger stole highly classified documents and stashed them under a trailer at a construction site during a break. He retrieved the documents at the end of the day and admittedly used scissors to cut them into little pieces before throwing them away. He then lied to investigators about what he had done.

As punishment, Comey and crew recommended a $10,000 fine for Berger and a three-year loss of top-level security clearance. That, incredibly, was it. Oh, yes, as part of the package, the FBI and/or DoJ was to give Berger a lie detector test. Neither agency bothered.

Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart had to be fuming. Two years earlier, Comey, then U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, prosecuted Stewart for lying to investigators on a minor stock transaction and saw to it that Stewart served five months in prison. Months later, it would be Bush/Cheney advisor Scooter Libbys turn.

The FBI Director in 2005 was Robert Mueller. His role in the Berger case might have paralleled Comeys role in the Hillary Clinton email affair, but it did not. Comey served as the public face in both the Berger and the Clinton cases, the former as Deputy AG, the latter as head of the FBI. Comey likes the limelight.

During his eight years in the Clinton White House, Berger had done worse than steal documents. Like Pulp Fictions Winston Wolf, his job was to solve problems. In April 2002, the former president had a problem to solve. Someone had to review intelligence documents in advance of the various hearings on 9/11. As made clear in a 2007 report by the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform -- a primer on deep state treachery -- Berger did not welcome the assignment.

According to the archivists, Berger indicated some disgust with the burden and responsibility of conducting the document review. I have a suspicion of what those documents were. Suffice it for now to say they had to contain information damaging to both Clinton and Berger sufficient for Berger to risk his livelihood, his reputation, and his very freedom.

The House report states that Berger made four trips to the National Archives. The first of his visits was in May 2002, the last in October 2003. He clearly left his mark. The full extent of Bergers document removal, said the House report, is not known and never can be known.

The archivists expressed shock that neither the FBI nor the DoJ even questioned Berger about his first two visits when several original documents were there for the taking.

Were it not for Paul Brachfeld, the inspector general of the National Archives, the Berger case might never have surfaced. In January 2004, a month after Comey became deputy AG, Brachfeld met with DoJ attorney Howard Sklamberg. Concerned that Berger had obstructed the 9/11 Commissions work, Brachfeld wanted assurance that the commission knew of Bergers crimes.

He did not get it. On March 22, 2004, two days before Bergers public testimony, senior attorneys John Dion and Bruce Swartz informed Brachfeld the DoJ was not going to notify the commission of the Berger investigation before his appearance.

On Wednesday, March 24, 2004, Berger testified publicly before the commission. The commission members, at least the Republicans, did not know he had been apprehended stealing and destroying the very documents the commission was expected to review. This much was evident in Chairman Thomas Keans initial exchange with Berger.

We are pleased to welcome before the commission a witness who can offer us considerable insight into questions of national policy coordination, Mr. Samuel Berger, who served as President Clintons national security advisor, said the clueless Kean.

While the commission hearings moved on, Brachfeld kept prodding Justice. On April 6, 2004, two weeks after Bergers appearance before the 9/11 Commission, he called DoJs Inspector General Glenn Fine and again expressed his concern that the commissioners remained unaware of Bergers theft. Fine organized a meeting for April 9.

Brachfeld reported to those gathered, Berger knowingly removed documents and therefore, may have purposely impeded the 9/11 investigation. Some of those documents, Brachfeld added, might have been original. If those originals had been destroyed, they would have been lost to history. There were no other copies.

Brachfeld made no headway. The commissioners learned nothing about Berger until July 19, 2004, three days before the 9/11 Commission released its final report, too late for any significant amendment.

The commissioners might have forever remained in the dark had there not been a leak from somewhere in the Bush administration. At the time the leak became news in July 2004 -- and then just barely -- Berger was serving as a campaign adviser to Senator John Kerry.

To counter the news, Bergers attorney Lanny Breuer introduced a media-friendly narrative in which Bush was the real villain for using the revelation as a campaign ploy. It worked. The New York Times would write off the theft and surrounding noise as a brief stir in the campaign season. His motives in taking the documents remain something of a mystery, reported the Times. How different history would have been had the Washington Post contented itself with writing, The motives of the Watergate burglars remain something of a mystery.

After nearly a year of quiet negotiation, Bush Department of Justice officials announced their stunning plea deal with Berger. They did so strategically. To starve the deal of media attention, the DoJ made the announcement on Friday, April 1, 2005, the day after Terri Schiavos highly publicized death.

In September 2005, a federal judge upped the ante on Bergers theft but not by enough to hurt: a $50,000 fine -- chump change for the wealthy attorney -- two years of probation, and one hundred hours of community service.

As I watched these events unfold, I presumed the Bush DoJ went soft on Berger to honor some unwritten pact among presidents to protect their predecessors national security secrets. That may be part of the calculus, but as has become evident, Republican presidents have little control over their Justice Departments. The Bush White House had even less control than does the Trump White House. The Trump White House at least has Trump.

Republican presidents struggle against a collective of entrenched careerists, soulless opportunists, and left-wing ideologues -- the so-called deep state. The ideologues are in it for the power, the careerists for the pensions, and the opportunists for the applause. Working together with their media partners, they follow the path of least resistance, which is almost inevitably to the left. When a Democrat is president, they have his back.

The DoJ attorneys calling the shots in the Berger case -- Dion, Swartz, Sklamberg, and Fine -- were all holdovers from the Clinton administration. As far as I could tell, Fine, Swartz, and Sklamberg had only contributed to Democratic candidates in federal races and Dion had no record of federal contributions.

As the House report noted, The Justice Department was unacceptably incurious about Bergers Archives visits. Overseeing this incuriosity, and serving as the investigations public face, was Deputy AG Comey. If Comey told his good friend Mueller about Bergers crimes, he did so on the QT. According to the House Report, the DOJ did not notify the FBI, at least not officially, until after Berger pled guilty. Mueller never said boo.

In July 2004, when the Berger story broke, Comey told the media, "As a general matter, we take issues of classified information very seriously. It's our lifeblood, those secrets." As Comey proved again in the summer of 2016, if a prominent Democrat is implicated, he and his colleagues do not take these issues seriously at all. If, however, the security issue involves someone who is unconnected or disruptive, prosecutors will turn over every stone just for the spectacle of turning them over.

Scooter Libby learned this the hard way. His undoing started with a news leak about a telegenic, if insignificant, CIA agent named Valerie Plame. The leak had nothing to do with Libby or his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney. No matter. Comey pressured his boss John Ashcroft to recuse himself from an investigation into the leak. Sound familiar? He then named a special counsel who just happened to be the godfather of one of Comeys children. That sounds familiar too.

The Patrick Fitzgerald appointment took place at roughly the same time the archivists were alerting the DoJ to Bergers repeated theft of critical documents. The media much preferred the Plame story to the Berger story, and so the opportunists played to the media.

Even before Fitzgerald really got started on the investigation, however, he, Mueller, and Comey learned who the leaker was. The news was not welcome. He was one of their own, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, a veteran swamp dweller and an open critic of President Bush.

Still, Fitzgerald had his commission and the uncritical attention of the media. With their full-throated support, he did an unrestrained dumpster dive into the Bush White House not unlike Muellers into the Trump White House. All Fitzgerald managed to climb out with was Libby. The media were hoping for hated Bush advisor Karl Rove and maybe even Cheney. They had to make do.

Six months after Berger got his wrist slapped, Fitzgerald indicted Libby for a series of Martha Stewart-style process crimes. Unlike Berger who got no jail time, Libby was hit with thirty months. Under pressure from the right, President Bush commuted his sentence, but Libby had to wait until 2018 to be pardoned, courtesy of President Trump.

As to Armitage, he was never prosecuted for anything. The DOJ accepted his claim the leak was unintentional much the way it would accept Hillarys lack of intent claim years later. The deep state takes care of its own.

In many ways, 2005 was a dress rehearsal for 2016. Mueller and Comey had learned how to play their parts. The media had learned how to play theirs. Indeed, the show would have been another huge hit if only Trump had stuck to the good Republican script the way Bush had.The Germans Will Never Learn

German foreign minister Heiko Maas of the German Social Democratic Party believes that Europe must unite to form a "counterweight" to the United States when it "crosses the line" in its dealings with Germany. Maas believes that Germany and France should forge a stronger bond in order to diminish American freedom of action  whether it be in imposing sanctions on Iran (which would harm European business interests) or in forcibly renegotiating longstanding (bad) deals with Europe (specifically, Germany) on trade and mutual defense. But the idea that Germany, France, or any other European country could strengthen the fraying unity within the European Union  in order to "balance" against the United States, no less  is an absurdity that only a European liberal like Maas could countenance. Europe is not a united entity, and it will never act as a counterweight to the United States (at least not by itself). This is especially true of the European Union.

Such sentiments are hardly new. Throughout the 1990s, various German leaders expressed similar attitudes on the need to distance their country (and Europe) from the United States since the Cold War was over. Infamously, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroder of the Social Democratic Party led the charge against the United States in the run-up to the Iraq War of 2003. He was joined in that feckless crusade (to stop another hapless campaign  George W. Bush's war of choice in Iraq itself) by French President Jacques Chirac and, naturally, Russian president Vladimir Putin. E.U.-topia Since the 1990s, German elites  particularly those on the left  have called for a multipolar world order in which the United States is but one of many powerful actors alongside the European Union. Postmodern German leaders deluded themselves into believing that the E.U. could be anything other than a paean to Europe's traditional love of big government. But, as years of European politics in the post-Cold War era have shown, the E.U. is a paper tiger on its way out. Don't take my word for it. Just read the words of George Soros, the doyen of European integration, who argued earlier this year that the E.U. is experiencing an "existential crisis." Soros went on to predict that unless drastic actions were taken (which, given the nature of the divisions within Europe, such actions will not be taken), the European project would soon collapse. In today's world, where there are challenges to the E.U.'s legitimacy both from within Europe and from without, the European response to these threats has been haphazard. In Soros's own words, the E.U. morphed away from what it was meant to be  a voluntary coalition of equal partners  and into a "relationship between creditors and debtors" that is "neither voluntary nor equal." As I said, such a union cannot act as a counterweight to the United States. Never Forget: Germany Needs the U.S. With nationalism and populism on the rise in much of Europe today, and with the E.U. apparently unable to break its corrosive structure, Heiko Maas's plan for Germany to strengthen the E.U. is laughable. I suspect that even Heiko Maas and his fellow left-leaning German elites know this to be true. After all, Maas's ode to European integration is couched in the rhetoric of nationalism. As Maas writes: "Europe United" means this: We act with sovereignty at those points where nation-states alone cannot muster the level of power a united Europe can. We are not circling the wagons and keeping the rest of the world out. We are not demanding allegiance. Europe is building on the rule of law, respect for the weaker, and our experiences that show that international cooperation is not a zero-sum game. Further, Maas's calls for a closer alliance between the economically dynamic Germany with the militarily powerful France (by continental standards, at least) implies that even Maas recognizes the limits of relying on a "Europe United." This gets us back to the Russo-Franco-German strategic triangle that has been building since the dark days of the Iraq War of 2003. Such an alliance is historically feasible; however, as history has proven, this precise alliance will not last for very long. It cannot. Despite their agreement on such things as the need for a multipolar world or their close trade over energy, there are broader cultural and political disagreements that will  over time  destroy whatever alliance may exist among Moscow, Berlin, and Paris. For her part, outgoing German chancellor Angela Merkel of the right-of-center Christian Democratic Party, has all but shot down Maas's article. But, given the fact that Maas was likely writing on behalf of a larger swathe of German of elites who are tired of what they view as American priggishness over issues such as trade and mutual defense  as well as Germany's need to do business with neighboring Russia or Iran  Maas's view will likely hold out. Let Maas's new world order of multipolarity and balance ring out. It'd save America much money and many lives, being able to hand off some responsibilities to capable allies. Unfortunately, though, the Germans are kidding themselves if they believe they'll be able to achieve this in Europe  not without a great power backing their play (and that great power is not France). They will be forced to choose between the United States and Russia. I suspect that Berlin will ultimately end up in the United States' camp. History is returning to Europe. And history is doomed to repeat itself...something that the Germans are incapable of learning. The U.S. must continue protecting its own interests, always reminding Berlin that we stand ready to receive them as friends...so long as they pay their fair share. Brandon J. Weichert is a geopolitical analyst who manages The Weichert Report: World News Done Right and is a contributor at The American Spectator, as well as a contributing editor at American Greatness. His writings on national security and Congress have appeared at Real Clear Politics, Space News, and HotAir.com. He has been featured on CBS News.com, the BBC, and the Christian Science Monitor. Brandon is a former congressional staffer who holds an M.A. in statecraft and national security affairs from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. and is currently working on his doctorate in international relations.Will the Media Turn against Pope Francis?

The huge sex scandal engulfing Pope Francis and the Catholic Church creates a dilemma for American news media. On the one hand, sex sells, and the Catholic Church has been an object of criticism by generations of the secular leftists that dominate journalism. On the other hand, Pope Francis is generally adored by the worlds media for his perceived liberality on sex and other issues, and the particulars of the scandal involve one of the favorite causes of the cultural left: normalizing homosexual behavior. Since the release of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report regarding sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, the Catholic world has been in turmoil. That turmoil only intensified  exponentially -- when retired Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano released what amounted to an affidavit accusing senior Catholic hierarchs of knowingly covering up and even enabling the abuse. Vigano placed special focus on the retired Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, DC, Theodore McCarrick, a prelate of vast influence in the American church, a reputed "kingmaker," a one-man fund raising juggernaut, close adviser to Pope Francis, and a mentor to such progressive luminaries as cardinals Wuerl, Cupich, and Tobin -- all among Francis's anointed. As if that weren't enough, Vigano called on Francis himself to resign for his knowing complicity in the coverup of McCarrick's crimes.

Vigano's release of his testimony was timed to coincide for maximum effect with Francis's controversial trip to Dublin -- already a public relations disaster due to lack of attendance. That disaster was compounded when Francis issued his non-denial statement in response to press questions about the Vigano testimony: "I will not say a single word ..." followed by a tacit appeal to the press to basically ignore it all. Ordinarily that type of stonewalling by a high-profile public figure would be met with a storm of protest and accusation in the media. Just such a storm did in fact ensue, but mainly in the world of Catholic blogging and tweeting. The mainstream media, on the other hand, seemed strangely (or maybe not) indifferent. In the past, Catholic sex scandals involving the clergy have been widely characterized as pedophilia. Knowledge that this characterization was, in fact, inaccurate, that the problem was overwhelmingly one of homosexual priests preying upon adolescents and young men, had been carefully kept in the background. With this fresh outbreak of scandal, however, the Catholic blogosphere, fueled by Vigano's testimony regarding McCarrick's abuse of seminarians, quickly galvanized around the accusation of a powerful "lavender mafia" of homosexual prelates dominating the post Vatican II Church. The Catholic blog Rorate Coeli has published a handy review of the known situation by the eminent Italian historian of Vatican II, Roberto de Mattei: The homosexualization of the Church started to spread in the 1970s and 1980s, as the meticulously documented book by Father Enrique Rueda reveals: The Homosexual Network: Private Lives and Public Policy, published in 1982. In order to understand the situation at that time, it is essential to read the study dedicated to Homosexuality and the Priesthood. The Gordian Knot  of Catholics? by Professor Andrzej Kobylinski of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw.* Kobylinski cites a book entitled The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A reflection on the Priests Crisis of Soul, (2000) by Donald Cozzens, Rector of the Cleveland Seminary in Ohio, wherein the author states that at the beginning of the 21st century the priesthood became a profession, exercised predominantly by homosexuals and we can even talk about a heterosexual exodus from the priesthood. (snip)

In 2004 The John Jay Report appeared, a document prepared at the request of the American Episcopal Conference, in which all the cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons, from 1950 to 2002, were analyzed. This document of almost 300 pages is of extraordinary informative value  writes Kobylinski. The John Jay Report demonstrated the link between homosexuality and sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. According to the report of 2004, in the overwhelming majority of cases of sexual abuse it is not about pedophilia, but ephebophilia, that is, a degeneration that consists not only of sexual attraction towards children, but towards adolescent boys, at the age of puberty. The John Jay Report demonstrated that about 90% of the priests condemned for sexual abuse with minors are homosexual priests. [emphasis added] The McCarrick scandal is therefore not the last act in a crisis that goes way, way back. Yet, in the Letter of the Pope to the People of God," and throughout his trip in Ireland, Pope Francis has not once denounced this moral disorder. The Pope maintains that the main problem in sexual abuse by the clergy is not homosexuality but clericalism. Francis's ambivalent stance toward established Catholic teaching, dating back to Paul's letters to the early churches, has been well documented from the beginning of his papacy, starting with his famous "Who am I to judge?" Not as well-known outside the Catholic blogosphere has been his relentless advancement of prelates who are not only favorable toward the acceptance of homosexuality but who are notorious for living a "gay" lifestyle themselves. I can hardly do better than link to this account of the episode in which Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia commissioned a homoerotic mural for his cathedral church which featured "Jesus carrying nets to heaven filled with naked and semi-nude homosexuals, transsexuals, prostitutes, and drug dealers, jumbled together in erotic interactions." Paglia himself was included in the mural, embracing a naked man, and the image of Christ was modeled on a local male hairdresser. Paglia now heads the Pontifical Academy for Life, and Francis also appointed Paglia as president of the Pontifical Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family -- after purging the institute of its orthodox members. It's hardly surprising, then, that mainstream media outlets were initially loath to attack the "gay friendly" Francis. Indeed, the mainstream media was inclined to dismiss Vigano's testimony in favor of damage control narratives that were floated by proxies for Francis. But this may be a crisis that is too good to waste. The long term goal of the Left is simply to destroy any moral authority the Catholic Church may still have in the broader conservative society -- Catholic or not. To induce a sense of hopelessness among conservatives. The Church is still the Church. Popes come and go. The goal for the progressive media will be to try to separate cultural Catholics from the influence of Catholic doctrine by discrediting the entire hierarchy -- not just "conservatives". The current crisis offers an opening for progressives that may well override any other concerns. I think the more liberals consider their options the more confident they'll become that attacking the American bishops and even the Francis papacy can be done without empowering conservatives or endangering the homosexual agenda -- and they'll push ahead. To bring down a pope -- could it possibly get any better than that for progressives? For all its warts the Church is one of the few truly significant social institutions that interposes between the State and the individual. Removing such "intermediary institutions" -- so that each individual in his individuality is confronted with the full power of the State -- is what totalitarianism is all about. One needn't accept the Church's claims to see where danger lies. We see the increasingly open totalitarianism of the Left everywhere today. The Church -- or at least its hierarchs -- has brought this crisis upon itself, but it's a crisis that in its broader dimension will draw in all conservatives. We will need to be aware that while malevolent forces have been at work within the Church, other malevolent forces will be seeking to take advantage of this crisis for goals that are inimical to our freedoms. Image by Timothy BishopWhether it's John McCain, Aretha Franklin, or Mollie Tibbetts, when someone dies, Americans customarily offer sympathy without considering the victim's political leanings. For a grieving family to command the undivided attention of a nation and then impose upon that audience criticism and political lecturing illustrates how shameless some people are when it comes to elevating agenda above decorum.

After being subjected to stage-managed funerals coordinated solely by Donald Trump's political enemies, it's evident that in some circles, having a corpse double as soapbox far outweighs the value of memorializing the dead.

The most recent example of politicizing a funeral began when pastors, anti-Semites, politicians, and a cabal of chummy ex-presidents, as well as the fawning left-wing media, pop stars, Hollywood, and the political elite, descended on Detroit and Washington, D.C. to publicly denounce Trump and to advance a message of harmony through a unified expression of hatred.

Then, after the dust settled in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery and John McCain's flag-draped casket was finally rolled one last time  at taxpayers' expense  onto Air Force Two, the father of a murdered 20-year-old college student named Mollie Tibbetts nailed the coffin shut, so to speak, when he joined the chorus of malcontents.

In July, Rob Tibbetts's daughter and "best friend" Mollie was tragically murdered by a Mexican illegal named Cristhian Bahena Rivera. According to everyone except Mollie and her father, Rivera had zero right to roam the streets of Brooklyn, Iowa. After stalking Mollie, killing her, and then stuffing her into the back of his car, Rivera dragged the dead girl's body out of the trunk and dumped her in a cornfield to be ravaged by the elements.

A month later, after Mollie's body was found, Americans of every political persuasion wept for both the dead girl and her family. Then, to drive home the point that Mollie's death proves that illegal aliens put every citizen at risk, conservative pundits and the right-leaning news media warned the nation about illegals like Cristhian Bahena Rivera.

Instead of aligning himself with logic and reality, and instead of fighting to protect other potential victims, Rob Tibbetts decided to virtue-signal on behalf of his dead child in the form of an op-ed published in the Des Moines Register. In the piece, Tibbetts took potshots at Donald Trump, Jr. and apologized to Hispanics for Americans who dare to think that roving illegal males pose a threat to public safety.

Mollie's dad defined truth as politicization and challenged his own experience by opposing those who disagree with the lax immigration policy that, whether Tibbetts acknowledges it or not, contributed to his daughter's death.

Much as Meghan McCain bludgeoned Trump and his followers at her father's funeral, in the op-ed, Rob Tibbetts corrected those who imply that illegal immigration was at fault for an illegal alien killing Mollie. Rob Tibbetts also accused those who believe in sovereign borders of "distorting [Mollie's] death to advance racist views."

On his daughter's behalf, Mollie's father had a message for the Hispanic community:

To the Hispanic community, my family stands with you and offers its heartfelt apology. That you've been beset by the circumstances of Mollie's death is wrong. We treasure the contribution you bring to the American tapestry in all its color and melody. And yes, we love your food.

Regrettably, the dead girl, who Tibbetts wrote was "vehemently opposed" to a nation with borders, is currently unavailable to comment on the menu.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, New York, a "colorful melodious" illegal, an MS-13 gang member from El Salvador, contributed his "spark of divinity" when he climbed through a second-floor window into the upper level of a bunk bed and raped an 11-year-old girl.

While Mollie's grieving father was busy apologizing to the Hispanic community and aligning his daughter with John McCain and Aretha Franklin, Julio Ayala was crossing another border. Instead of pillaging a nation, this time, he plundered a little girl.

By failing to differentiate between legal and illegal immigration and by offering a "heartfelt apology" to those who, by virtue of being in America, are criminals, Tibbetts took a symbolic stand for every Julio Ayala skulking around the two dozen American cities and towns also known as Brooklyn.

By recommending that America "build bridges, not walls," what Mollie's father, bless his heart, failed to consider is how, according to a 2017 opinion piece, written by Catalina Lobo-Guerrero in the N.Y. Times, in Ayala's home country of El Salvador:

Girls are indeed considered a problem ... [and] women are raped and killed daily. For the past few years, El Salvador has been listed among the world's deadliest countries for women, and ranks first in Latin America.

The problem for America is that the bridge Tibbetts proposes in Mollie's honor will undoubtedly attract individuals with cultural norms that originate in countries where women are "raped and killed daily," as well as beckon north mores that could contribute to someone else's daughter being found dead in a cornfield. Either way, after removing the air-conditioner from a second-story window to access his victim, in addition to Tibbetts's bridge, next time around, Julio Ayala would appreciate if America would be kind enough to provide him with a ladder.

Though expressed in print, Tibbetts's written words mimicked the tenor of the bully pulpit that was erected in D.C.'s National Cathedral, where, in John McCain's honor, those who despise Trump, verbally dispensed discord to foster unanimity. In like manner, Rob Tibbetts's blatantly political op-ed attempted to shame into silence those who dared oppose a dead girl's father, promoted an open borders agenda, and accused political adversaries of what Tibbetts is doing himself.

By lobbing verbal torpedoes at Donald Trump, Jr. and anyone else who resists open borders, what Tibbetts did in the Des Moines Register was not at all different from what Meghan McCain did in Washington, D.C. when she insulted the 62 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump.

And so, once again, Trump-haters have proven that furthering a political agenda far outweighs the fear of criticism that could result from exploiting the death of a loved one.

Jeannie hosts a blog at www.jeannie-ology.com.From Friday to Sunday, six people were killed and another 23 wounded in gun violence across the city. That brings the grisly toll to 1,026 people shot since Memorial Day, the unofficial beginning of summer.

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer, and in Chicago, it's been a bloody season, indeed.

Fox News:

Among the latest victims: a 25-year-old doctoral student at Northwestern University. Shane Colombo of Sun City, California, was shot and killed Sunday night while waiting at a bus stop after he was caught in the crossfire of two other people, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Police responded to anther shooting early Sunday on the city's Far South Side where an unidentified male died from an apparent gunshot wound to the chest, WLS reported. The suspect was spotted leaving the scene in a vehicle but police eventually lost sight of him. On Saturday at around 4 a.m., a 30-year-old woman was killed after someone opened fire on a group of people in an alley on the West Side, WGN reported. She was shot in the back of the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. From Friday to Sunday, at least 23 people were wounded in apparent shootings including two girls, ages 11 and 17, hit by bullets fired from a drive-by vehicle.

The number of Chicago's children who have been shot is alarming. Since September 2011, at least 174 people under the age of 17 have been killed, while 1,665 kids have been shot. While some of that number are members of street gangs, the vast majority are innocent kids caught in the crossfire.

What is the city doing? Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police superintendent Eddie Johnson have decided to play a shell game with the number of officers they say are deployed.

The first weekend in August, following some 70 people headed to bed or the morgue with extra holes in their bodies, Special Ed flooded the streets with officers: After the most violent weekend in Chicago in more than two years, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced Tuesday afternoon that several hundred additional officers have been deployed to neighborhoods most wracked by the shooting.

At his second news conference in as many days, Johnson said 430 officers have been added to patrols in five of the hardest-hit districts on the West and South sides. Those numbers will increase to 600 by the weekend, he said. That involved canceling days off, offering huge amounts of overtime and pretty much lying to the media  which ate it up like it was fresh off the griddle. It made a dent in the numbers, but still, over 50 people got shot. What happened this weekend? In an effort to tamp down potential shootings over the historically violent Labor Day holiday weekend, Chicago police will deploy an additional 1,400 officers to patrol the streets. Wow. From 600 to 1,400 in just four weeks? That's amazing. Special Ed ought to be promoted to "Super-Duper-Intendent" just based on his ability to hire, train and equip 800 additional bodies on short notice.

When Emanuel was elected in 2011, he promised to "cut the fat" from the police budget. He took officers off the street and assigned them to desk duty while initiating a hiring slowdown.

The results were entirely predictable. Now, as the city leaders look to massively increase the police presence on the streets, it will do very little good. The gangs have taken over large swaths of the city's neighborhoods. Dislodging them will take more than additional officers patrolling the streets.

Recommended reforms being considered by a U.S. court judge will only make the situation worse and lower police morale even farther. The city is mired in an existential crisis, with politicians and activists all proposing wrongheaded solutions  including more gun control  to make the streets safer. It may take the deployment of the National Guard to retake the city's streets, because no one in city hall or police headquarters has a clue about how to address the crisis.

Image credit: Daniel X. O'Neil via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.New Schweizer-recommended book exposes extent of corruption at FBI and DOJ

The FBI and the DOJ have gone to the Dark Side. Amazing, considering their longstanding promotion of their status and posture for decades as the defenders of freedom and the American way  but times change, and the deep Deep State has no special affection for the America conceived of and promoted by the founders. I have a friend and colleague who is retired from the FBI. We talk, and he insists that the FBI basic hardworking field agents and such are concerned and upset about the misconduct of the many miscreants in the leadership of the FBI and the DOJ. For example, he tells me of the perceived problems that were created by FBI decisions to make cases headquarters cases instead of following FBI protocols that made the field agents the drivers of the case. However, I see nothing of any effort by FBI agents to fix the corruption problem at the top. Wanna know why? They are bureaucrats, and they have no taste for the risks of fixing corruption.

So here comes Peter Schweizer, prolific and reliable writer and official with the Government Accountability Institute. Schweizer's books  Secret Empires, Clinton Cash, Throw Them All Out, Extortion  are all intended to expose the corruption and malignancy of the bureaucratic leftist Deep State. I am sick to death of government corruption and misconduct, like most Americans. We condemn and abhor the lies and the espionage perpetrated by high officials in the intelligence agencies, with a particular role for the corrupt FBI and DOJ. So here comes the book Compromised: How Money and Politics Drive FBI Corruption by Seamus Bruner, recently promoted by Sean Hannity and also by the venerable Mr. Schweizer, Mr. Bruner's mentor of sorts, since they both work at the Government Accountability Institute. Mr. Schweizer is actively promoting the Bruner expose, which focuses on two major considerations: FBI and DOJ projects to promote a Deep State advocacy that would reverse the election of 2016 and a vastly expanded Deep State project to create expansive surveillance of Americans In Compromised, Bruner explains the scandal of FBI officials' role clearing the uranium resources acquisition by the enemy that was complicity in espionage and, in another area of consideration, the revolving-door profiting from promoting the surveillance project contracts that were a source of extraordinary income for FBI directors Comey and Mueller, as exposed by Bruner. Comey's excellent arrangement with Lockheed Martin provided him with income of millions when he left the FBI for a few years. Comey made tens of millions as a major official of Lockheed and facilitator of Lockheed's surveillance contracts with the federal government, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. Mueller's intimate relationship to another federal contractor, Booz Allen, was also lucrative during his time in the private sector. Mr. Bruner does not neglect in his book the work of FBI and DOJ officials in the effort to reverse the election of Donald Trump  their "insurance policy" work  and he exposes in depth the commitment to the surveillance state that was part of the effect of FBI and DOJ efforts in the past 15 years, to include a scandalous and dishonest misuse of the powers provided by the Patriot Act and the formation of the rubber-stamp FISA courts that only rarely kept FBI and DOJ officials from initiating surveillance. The point Mr. Bruner makes is that the FISA Court approvals invariably resulted in surveillance of American citizens without probable cause, and that is illegal and unconstitutional. The details of the misuse of powers are some of the most sobering sections of the book. The problem of FBI official activities and revolving-door antics stinks and makes one consider the FBI to be, as some say about law enforcement, only one step away from illegal and miscreant corruption. I will not accept any argument that the FBI had integrity  Hoover was a political manipulator from the beginning and set the tone. We are seeing the exaggerated corruption that can develop when politics influences law enforcement and law enforcement officials consider themselves above the law for ordinary Americans. For those with short attention spans or limited time, the Compromised is ideal, running through the scandals at breathtaking speed. I read the book in a few hours. For the plodding reader who wants some verification, Bruner has 90-plus pages of references and sources for his claims. Your efforts to assess his assertions and advocacy will take some time  and it's because Bruner has a well developed and researched argument. He also has the respected recommendation of Peter Schweizer. Read it. I was outraged and enraged and then some to read about the nature of the FBI and the DOJ. Shame on them. And I don't excuse the field agents and those who claim innocence. They know what the problems are. They are bureaucrats, and as bureaucrats, their first priority is protecting themselves and their pensions. John Dale Dunn is a physician and inactive attorney, who lives in Brownwood, Texas.The untold, unlearned story of the man who implemented Hitler's horrors

The new film Operation Finale is the story of the carefully calculated capture, trial, and execution of Adolf Eichmann, the "architect" of Hitler's final solution: the extermination of the Jews of Germany, Poland, France, the Baltics, Hungary, and what was then Czechoslovakia. Most of us old enough to know the basics of this story have not been acquainted with the details of the plan to locate and extricate Eichmann from Buenos Aires and get him to Israel for his public, globally televised trial. This is a must-see film because the ravages of the Holocaust are barely taught in American schools anymore, if at all. What used to be required, essential knowledge has been cast aside in favor of the primacy of race, class, and gender issues.

Eichmann's trial exposed the "banality of evil," as Hannah Arendt, a journalist who covered the trial, described it. The lesson? Monsters like Eichmann who are comfortable perpetrating horrendous evil on other human beings are indeed banal. They are amoral, without conscience. They may love their own families but think nothing of exterminating millions of human beings they have, for one reason or another, deemed worthy of extinction. Think Stalin and Mao as well as Hitler, Eichmann's boss. There are numerous others throughout history. Like the other Nazi criminals tried at Nuremburg , Eichmann adopted the ridiculous "I was following orders" defense. That the horror of the Holocaust is not taught in our schools any longer is a tragedy of catastrophic proportions. Watch a video of university students on the most prestigious campuses in America being asked the simplest questions about our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court, their understanding of socialism, fascism, Nazism, etc. They are thoroughly ignorant of all these things. They know nothing of history, ours or the world's, but can expound of the horrors of racism, sexism, homophobia, misogyny, patriarchy, etc. in this nation. All they know, all they have been taught, is that America is guilty of crimes against humanity when, in fact, it is the dictators around the world, leftists they revere like Mao and Che Guevara, who are the criminals, guilty of the bigotry and crimes they project onto Donald Trump. They have yet to admit that Trump is the good guy. We finally have a fearless president, a man who does not back down, is not afraid of the left, who does not buckle to P.C., a man who truly loves this country. The Holocaust; the Holodomor, Stalin's genocide (60 million); Mao's genocide (45 million); and, looking farther into the past, the Turks' genocide of the Armenians in 1915, the one both Bush and Obama promised to acknowledge but never did, are all vivid examples of man's inhumanity to man. We like to think the world has evolved toward civility, but it has not. Evil prevails. It is all around us. The barbarous tactics of jihadists threaten us all. So does the denial of evil by the Western left. So anxious to be seen as accepting of all "faiths," the West has capitulated to all things anti-Western, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic. These are the groups our left embraces. Wander about on any university campus, and you will see that this is true. The left is in the business of hate and intolerance. Leftists no longer value freedoms  free speech, freedom of religion. They support freedom of assembly if it is Antifa, Occupy Wall Street, or Black Lives Matter but seek to prohibit any assembly of conservatives or supporters of conservative values. Mount a pro-Trump demonstration, and Antifa will be there, masked and armed. Eichmann never felt any guilt or regret for his part in the Final Solution that killed over six million Jews of Europe. He was "following orders" like any good soldier. He was working to protect his country from being "overrun" by Jews. He cared for his own family but cared nothing for the millions whose deaths he orchestrated. The man was a monster, and he was banal. That is the lesson, still unlearned, of history. Until our schools, from kindergarten through university, begin again to teach the truth of history, ours and the history of every other nation, the lessons of history that have changed the world in profound and catastrophic ways will remain unlearned. People who believe they are educated but are not will continue to wreak havoc on civil societies. See the film. It is riveting, even though we know how the story ends. Image: Sargoth via Wikimedia Commons.At the moment, Senator Joe Manchin leads, but recent visits from President Trump are apparently closing the gap, as we see in this report :

We're getting an early indication of midterm trends based on how West Virginia is voting.

A new poll shows President Trump's recent trip to West Virginia is giving Republican Senate candidate Patrick Morrisey a boost heading into November. The data, released by Harper Polling and 35th PAC Thursday, puts Morrisey down just six points to Democrat Joe Manchin. Although the incumbent Democrat leads 47 to 41 in the survey, 12% remain undecided. The poll is good news for Morrisey, who saw himself down 10 points in a poll last month. Additionally, the survey shows the president has a 63% job approval rating, including 94% from Republicans. This comes after the president visited West Virginia earlier this month. President Trump also called out Manchin during the rally, saying Morrisey will support his agenda while Manchin will vote with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

There are three possible outcomes in "almost heaven" West Virgina:

1. Senator Manchin is re-elected easily. It could be an early sign that the GOP vote did not show up, given the state's recent presidential results.

2. It's too close to call, and the networks let it sit for hours. That's a bad sign for other red-state Democrats.

3. Morrisey wins early. That would be a sign that Democrat incumbents in Indiana and Missouri are in deep trouble.

At some point, the Trump White House will have to make a call about West Virginia. Do we spend our time in West Virginia or against more vulnerable Democrats in Missouri, Indiana, and North Dakota?

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.Shanghai (Gasgoo)- SAIC-GM and China's EV battery giant CATL recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Shanghai, saying that both parties will join forces to seek in-depth exploration in battery technology field, and deepen cooperation in R&D of SAIC-GM's next-gen NEV batteries.

By virtue of their respective advantages, SAIC-GM and CATL will jointly explore highly-efficient cooperative mode to deepen strategic cooperation in NEV battery field. In the meantime, as their cooperation deepens, both parties will jointly improve their abilities in sustainable development and innovation to shape potent core competitiveness.

It is said that GM's NEV batteries are provided by LG Chem in overseas market. However, if GM wants to gain subsidies from local government, it is required to cooperate with local battery company.

According to a foreign media report, GM has postponed the launch plan for the Buick Velite 6, a PHEV which will be produced from September this year as scheduled, due to the substandard performance and safety of the batteries offered by A123 Systems.

SAIC-GM will launch 10 NEV models by 2020. Models under Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet will be partly electrified by 2025, covering pure electric vehicle and PHEV. What's more, SAIC-GM aims to achieve NEV sales of 100,000 units by 2020. The partnership with CATL will help accelerate SAIC's deployment in NEV area.The small coastal town of Puerto Chicama, in northwestern Peru, is home to the longest, the most perfect, left-breaking wave in the world. Here, the wave stretches for about 2.2 km from the point an isolated rocky outcrop where the wave breaks to a long pier on the barren coast, where the wave ends. Locals confirm that the entire distance has been ridden on a single wave. The whole cape upon which the waves break, to their most westernmost end, is actually 4 km long, although no one has ever ridden it for that distance.

An endless series of left-breaking swells is a common sight at Chicama. If you fall off or need a rest, just wait for the next wave coming right behind and off you go again! It is a dream, Ben Herrgott, an Australian surfer. Photo credit: Jonathan/Flickr

The surfing potential of Chicama was first discovered in 1965 by Hawaiian surfer Chuck Shipman. Legend has it that Shipman was peering out of the window of plane when he noticed an impossibly long left-breaking wave (waves are either left or right, depending on which direction the wave breaks from the point of view of the surfer riding the wave). He asked the pilot about the place, and once he got to Hawaii, Shipman consulted a large detailed map of Peru, and identified a couple of promising headlands.

Shipman then wrote to his friends in Peru and urged them to explore the northwestern coast. The first attempt failed to find the unmarked dirt road to Chicama, but later, another group of surfers found the way to the promising surf spot. Since then Chicama has also a popular surf destination.

The wave at Chicama is divided into multiple sections. The very outside point is called Malpaso, which breaks for about 150 meters. The next point toward town is called Keys, which breaks for another 600 meters before hitting deep water. Then comes the Point which is about a kilometer long and considered the best part of the wave. Finally, there is El Hombre. The waves usually doesnt connect, but when the swell is over six feet high, which is quite rare, one can ride all the way to the pier on a single wave. The ride can last ride for three to five minutes an eternity for a surfer.

Early this year, the legendary wave at Chicama became the worlds first nationally protected surf break, when the Peruvian government passed a law forbidding any construction within a kilometer of the shoreline that could potentially affect the way the wave breaks along the coast line. The government also plans to protect five other waves. Eventually the country hopes to have 130 protected waves.

Related: The Monster Waves at Nazare, Portugal

Photo credit: theduckwhisperer.com

Photo credit: Silvan Hagen/Flickr

Photo credit: unknown

Photo credit: waterwaystravel.com

Photo credit: waterwaystravel.com

Sources: magicseaweed.com / waterwaystravel.com / Wikipedia / SurflineBixby support for third-party Android apps that Samsung promised as part of last months Galaxy Note 9 announcement will be launching this fall, the companys mobile CEO DJ Koh told CNBC. The current plan is to have both an application programming interface (API) and a full-fledged software development kit (SDK) ready for a November release at Samsungs annual Developer Conference taking place in San Francisco, California, according to the executive.

While Bixby has been on the market since early 2017, Samsungs decision to open it to third-party developers is primarily prompted by the incoming arrival of the Galaxy Home, the companys first smart speaker meant to challenge the likes of Amazons Echo lineup and Googles Home-series products. Without the backing of a global developer community, Samsung isnt likely to catch up to its competitors whose smart home ecosystems already include a wide variety of third-party app creators. Regardless, the Bixby SDK and API will allow developers to make apps that can also be used on smartphones and tablets compatible with the firms artificial intelligence assistant, as Samsung already confirmed last month.

The release of the Galaxy Note 9 also marks the debut of Bixby 2.0, the first major upgrade of Samsungs digital companion thats now much more receptive of natural-language commands and queries, answers questions in a swifter fashion, and is even better at controlling every aspect of its host device. Third-party app integration is the next major step on Bixbys journey toward becoming a full-fledged ecosystem, with the assistant being expected to make the jump to a wider variety of consumer electronics in the near future. To date, the service is available on select smartphones, tablets, and refrigerators, with the Galaxy Home being the next product category scheduled to join the platform. Samsung has yet to name any high-profile partners planning to embrace Bixbys native ability to communicate with third-party apps this fall but several such companies are likely to support its November launch.Samsungs first foldable Android smartphone will launch this year, the companys mobile chief DJ Koh told CNBC, dispelling previous rumors about the handset being scheduled for an early 2019 debut. The industry veteran said Samsungs internal estimates suggest the market is ready for a bendable mobile device, though older reports suggested the company sees this product category as a niche offering and was prepared to commercialize it sooner if it had the technological ability to do so.

As Mr. Koh himself previously hinted Samsung will be releasing its first foldable handset in 2019, its presently unclear what prompted the company to accelerate that timeline, though the development may be related to the fact that Huawei is said to be planning to launch a similar product later this year and Samsung repeatedly said it wanted to beat its Chinese rival in the bendable phone race. Mr. Koh suggested Samsung spent a great deal of time on figuring how an unfolded mode would be different than a tablet experience, stating that most traditional smartphone use cases will be supported in the devices folded form. While the executive was vague on the technical details of the handset, recent reports suggested Samsung is essentially looking to deliver a single-screen flip phone whose display panel can be bent into a shape of a traditional wallet.

Besides its first foldable phone, Samsung will also debut a handset with four rear cameras by the end of the year, according to a new rumor which started making the rounds on Sunday. As for the bendable device, its likely to be priced at over $1,500 and be available in limited quantities, at least until Samsung is done testing the market response to its first-of-a-kind product. The handset is likely to be equipped with high-end internals comparable to those found in the newly debuted Galaxy Note 9 flagship.Nokia is concerned that the currently ongoing trade war between the United States and China will slow down the stateside 5G project, having said as much in an August 30 ex parte filing with the Federal Communications Commision. Even if the numerous tariffs spanning tens of billions of dollars worth of goods from the Far Eastern country dont impede 5G deployment in the U.S., theyre likely to raise its cost by hundreds of millions of dollars, Nokia wrote. The Finnish network equipment manufacturer partially relies on components sourced from China, though its filing doesnt clarify whether the additional cost estimate is meant to be reflective of the extra expenses incurred on its own products or an industry-wide projection.

Regardless, Nokia told the FCC that the current administrations trade war with China is incompatible with the agencys vow to lower barriers to [5G] deployment. The company acknowledged that the FCC isnt responsible for international politics but its presently unclear whether it also voice its concerns directly to the White House or the U.S. Department of State. As for the FCCs role in the episode, Nokia believes the current geopolitical situation in the world should affect the regulators policy enactments, i.e. see the agency opt for even looser regulations than what it would consider if relations between Washington and Beijing were better. Nokia didnt go into many specifics in its filing addressed to Republican Commissioner Michael ORielly and Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, among other FCC officials such as Michael Carowitz, Special Counsel to Chairman Ajit Pai.

The global 5G race is still heating up and may be won by the U.S., China, South Korea, or Japan, according to a number of recent reports from industry analysts. Verizon and AT&T are starting their experimental rollouts later this year, with Sprint and T-Mobile planning to follow suit in early 2019, which is also when first large-scale 5G deployment efforts are expected to take place throughout the country, with nationwide coverage still being the telecom industrys 2020 goal.OnePlus is planning to open a brick-and-mortar store in Paris, France, it seems, at least according to the info provided by the source. The companys co-founder, Carl Pei, was at this years IFA in Berlin, and he allegedly hinted that such a store will become a reality in the near future. This does come as a surprise, as OnePlus is selling its product via its website, and did not show interesting in retail until now, but that may change in the near future, as the company is probably looking to grow even more, similar to Xiaomi.

The company did have some presence in retail in France, due to its partnership with Bouygues, a French carrier, but the company never had its own store or anything of the sort. Carl Pei also said that such a store will open before the company makes its next major launch, and that obviously means that it will be open before the OnePlus 6T arrives later this year. The OnePlus 5T was announced back in November, and the 6T is expected to come in November 2018, so the store will open sometime in between now and the OnePlus 6Ts launch day. The companys retail store will offer more than just smartphones, as the company does have more products under its belt, including backpacks, t-shirts, smartphone accessories, and so on.

On top of speaking about the upcoming retail store, the companys co-founder also talked about Xiaomis Pocophone brand and Poco F1 smartphone a bit. He said that the company (OnePlus) is unfazed by the recent arrival of the Poco F1, while he also added that OnePlus biggest enemy is OnePlus, suggesting that the company only competes against itself, while admitting that theres always room for progress, and that OnePlus can improve on many things. That is pretty much all the info that we have thus far, but it will be interesting to see if the company is planning any more retail stores except the one in Paris, and it quite probably is.With the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung decided to remove the option to disable the dedicated Bixby button on the device. This caused a lot of negative feedback from reviewers and everyday users of the Galaxy Note 9. Because of this, Samsung has decided that it will be bringing this option back to the Galaxy Note 9, and it expects it to be available via an update by the end of the month.

Bixby is Samsungs own personal assistant, that it debuted on the Galaxy S8 last year. Since the Galaxy S8, it has had its own dedicated button on the side of the phone. This is cool in theory, as you could easily pull up Bixby and ask it to do things, etc. However, many are finding that they are pressing the button by mistake, time and time again. Which causes Bixby to open when the user doesnt want it too. Hence why they want it to be disabled so that they arent pressing it by mistake all the time. Some users would also like it to be remappable, so that you can use it to open up the Google Assistant (a la the LG G7 ThinQ), or even use it as a dedicated camera button, which many people would really appreciate.

Its still unclear why Samsung decided to remove the option to disable Bixby on the Galaxy Note 9, seeing as the company had added it shortly after the Galaxy S8 launched, and it remained until the Galaxy Note 9. Perhaps, since it was debuting Bixby 2.0 with the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung thought that more people would want to use Bixby. But the actuality here is that Bixby is still a pretty hot mess, compared to other personal assistants on the market right now  like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The update should arrive by the end of the month, to disable Bixby. Though in the US, it may be a bit later on.Sprint and mobile network technology provider Ericsson have now teamed up to build a distributed virtual core network and operating system specifically catering to the IoT for Enterprise and business customers. The global effort is planned to result in a 5G-ready solution for the market that will optimize data flow, security, and enable the creation of an immediate economy based on the IoT. To that end, the Sprint IoT platform will be built on Ericssons own IoT Accelerator platform and start with a software-based core network designed to reduce the distance between nodes  placing them directly on-premise if needed  in order to reduce latency and improve security. That will, according to the companies, also result in reduced time between data input from end-devices and the generation of actionable information from IoT applications.

Meanwhile, the operating system to be used in conjunction with that network offering will simplify activity for both the connectivity of a device on the IoT and those devices firmware and software, the pair claims. All of that data will further be managed on the security front by solutions built-in at the chip level for associated IoT hardware. The OS will also deliver lifecycle management and the ability to monitor billing and usage data. Used together, the system will enable data to be brought in by connected devices and immediately turned into information that can be used by enterprise or business customers. Thats backed by a service assurance which covers all aspects of the network from cloud orchestration and application management to resource fulfillment and network operations across all locations included in a given Sprint IoT network.

The overall goal of the new IoT solution, as described by the two companies, is to provide a secure and seamless way for businesses and society to connect. More specifically, the partners point to the low-latency needs of AI, edge computing, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and similar technologies. That doesnt necessarily provide much insight with regard to how this latest IoT effort differs from Sprints previous proposed entries into that sphere of the technology market. However, the companies are set to provide more details at the upcoming Mobile World Congress Americas event on September 12.Twitters CEO, Jack Dorsey, is set to testify in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce tomorrow in Washington DC, along with Facebooks COO Sheryl Sandberg. Today, the House of Representatives released Dorseys prepared statements that he will be reading tomorrow once the testimony gets started. Dorsey states in the prepared remarks that Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, referring to how it decides which content should be removed from its site.

Dorsey also states that we believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially. In fact, from a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform. The testimony is going to be in regards to how Twitter is working to fight fake news and misinformation, as well as how it is working to keep foreign powers from influencing the mid-terms which are happening in November. This is why the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are bringing in officials from Google, Facebook and Twitter this week. Of course, Twitter is going to have more to answer to than the other two, especially after how it handled Alex Jones from InfoWars. While every other platform banned him almost instantly, Twitter did not, and then finally caved into a two-week suspension of his account.

Since inviting these three companies to come testify before the committee, all three have been accused of bias, especially in terms of what news is shown about the Trump Administration. While Trump has been going after Google primarily, it also affects Facebook and Twitter as well. This is because these companies have been suppressing coverage on Trump, and he has even shown proof, comparing Obamas State of the Union speeches with his own from earlier this year. Showing that his was not even on the first page of search results, compared to Obamas being at the top. So its going to be an interesting week for the three companies in Washington, DC., and it may result in more regulation for these social media companies.BarcelonaYou only need to take a look at some of the figures to appreciate the inequalities between native Catalans and foreign residents in Catalonia. The unemployment rate among the native population is 9.7 per cent while the same figure for foreign residents is 20.8 per cent. Poverty risk among the former is 15.7 per cent, whereas it is 41.6 for the latter. In fact, very few immigrants hold management positions in the public administration, companies of media, as Oriol Amoros, the Catalan governments Secretary for Equality, Migrations and Citizenry readily admits. He says that they must ensure that diversity is no longer invisible. Achieving this goal and empowering immigrants by encouraging their mingling with the rest of society is one of the three objectives of the national accord for interculturality which the government is readying. The initiative also aims to promote the inclusion of immigrants, as well as raise awareness of them and boost their recognition. Still, NGOs insist that the accord shouldnt be merely declarative and they have asked for specific measures.

In 2008 we already had a national accord for immigration. At that time 14.99 per cent of the Catalan population was foreign. In 2017 the figure dropped to 13.78 per cent and its hovered around 15 per cent over the last decade. But immigrants have not been represented to the same extent in Catalan society during this time. Amoros claims that not everyone is represented in the Catalan administration and police force. Things have got better in Parliament, but people queuing at food banks do not represent the full spectrum of society. Still, he mentions the case of Employment Minister Chakir el Homrani the first Catalan minister with Moroccan ancestry and MP Najat Driouech, the first ever representative to wear a hijab in Parliament, both of whom will help to roll out measures to give visibility to all origins.

Amoros pointed out that the national accord for interculturality is one of the main pledges of minister El Homrani for this term. The Secretary for Equality, Migrations and Citizenry said there is not a set date to unveil the accord because the process is more important than the end result. The process must foster a profound debate on what Catalan society is about and how all this diversity can be woven into a single human fabric, said Amoros. On this point, he noted that Catalonia is the European nation that has changed the most in the 21st century because the population has risen by 20 per cent in little over a decade, with over one million foreign-born newcomers.

Nevertheless, Catalonias Taula del Tercer Sector (Board for the Third Sector), which brings together over 3,000 Catalan charities, has made it clear that there can be no interculturality until there are equal opportunities for all. Javier Bonomi, the Taula spokesperson on immigration issues and chairman of Fedelatina, remarked that this ought to be the cornerstone [of the project], and he called on the government to earmark funds and lay down a road map for the accord. In order to avoid what we have seen in other European countries, we must try to help migrants break through their glass ceiling. They should be able to get a job in the state sector so that, for instance, people from different backgrounds may enter the teaching profession, he added.

An appreciation of foreign languages

In order to increase the presence of immigrants in fields where so far they havent been so visible, Amoros is certain that in Catalonias case the national accord must target the administration, too. One of the options being considered to increase the number of migrants in the civil service is to regard a knowledge of foreign languages as a merit in entrance exams. If public employees are able to deal with the public in other languages, that is an additional merit, said Amoros. Bonomi concurred with him and he argued for positive action and training schemes that allow migrants to gain employment in the public sector. The Taula spokesman cited the examples of the new vacancies in the Catalan and Barcelona City police: specific training programmes have been devised for immigrants in order to give them the resources that would allow them to pass the entrance exams.

Amoros is also hopeful that the accord will prompt companies and associations to ask themselves if their staffs are diverse enough. As for the presence of migrants in media, it is a government policy supported by the Board of Journalists to create an expert guide that lists people from all ethnic backgrounds so that they are more visible. If a more diverse society can be made visible, our outlook will change, Amoros predicted. He believed that the cure to racism is to have a friend with a different skin colour. Nevertheless, Bonomi warns that if the national accord is all political talk but no action, we will have seen two generations of newcomers go by and well still be stuck in the same place.

When will I stop being an immigrant?

Amoros admitted that a question that keeps coming up with people who have settled in Catalonia is: When will I stop being an immigrant?. He argues that you should be a migrant while you are travelling from A to B, but he admits that there is no single answer to that question. According to him, it depends on every individual person as well as the rest of society. However, he is optimistic and claims that Catalonia will continue to be one people made up of individuals that came from all over.Ukraine has begun joint military exercises with 10 NATO countries in western Ukraine amid ongoing tensions with Russia over Moscow's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists.



The Rapid Trident 2018 drills officially opened on September 3 at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyy National Ground Forces Academy, in the western region of Lviv. (Picture source: Sputnik Mundo)

The Rapid Trident 2018 drills officially opened on September 3 at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyy National Ground Forces Academy, in the western region of Lviv. Taking part are about 2,200 troops from 14 countries, including the United States and nine other NATO member states. The maneuvers are scheduled to continue until September 15. For Ukrainian forces, the exercises will involve 350 units of military equipment. The Ukrainian Border Guard Service and Ukrainian National Guard troops will take part in the drills for the first time.

The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, said at the opening ceremony that all countries participating in the maneuvers "stand in solidarity with Ukraine for Ukrainian security, Ukrainian sovereignty, and Ukrainian territorial integrity." The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has described Rapid Trident maneuvers as "a culmination of multinational training exercises, conducted annually, that serves as the validation for Ukraine's Ministry of Defense under the recommendations of allied and partner nations."

Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Moscow's biggest military exercises since 1981 are to be held between September 11-15 in eastern Russia with the participation of China and Mongolia.South Korea approved a proposal on 4 September to shorten mandatory military service period by up to three months that will take effect from next month. The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, approved the defense ministry's offer to shorten the military service period over the coming years.



The military aimed to cut the number of soldiers to half a million by 2022 from the current 625,000. (Picture source: South Korean Armed Forces)

Starting in October, the service period will be gradually curtailed from 21 months to 18 months for the Army and the Marine Corps, from 23 months to 20 months for the Navy, and from 24 months to 22 months for the Air Force. It was part of the military's reform measures, called the Defense Reform 2.0, to modernize the armed forces instead of reducing the number of troops. The military aimed to cut the number of soldiers to half a million by 2022 from the current 625,000.

The President of the Republic is the Commander-in-Chief (ex-officio). The military authority runs from the President to the Minister of National Defense, who is commonly (but not legally bound to be) a retired 4-star General (equivalent to a British Army/Commonwealth full General or a Royal Navy/Commonwealth Admiral). The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a 4-star General or Admiral, is the Senior Officer of the Armed Forces and has the Operational Authority over the Armed Forces, with directions from the President through the Minister of Defense. Traditionally (with one exception), the position is filled by an officer of the Army. The chain of Operational Authority runs straight from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Commandants of the several Operational Commands. Currently there are five Operational Commands in the Army, two in the Navy (including the Marine Corps) and one in the Air Force.

The respective Chiefs of Staff of each Service Branch (Army, Navy, Air Force) has administrative control over his or her own service. Each Chief of Staff is also a standing member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.The ACT Law Society also gave out its first Pro Bono Service Award. Jennifer Wyborn, Clayton Utz partner and head of pro bono, received the award from ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay MLA for her outstanding pro bono legal services to the Canberra community.

The team have made an exceptional contribution to the ACT community through their pro bono work for the Womens Legal Centre and Canberra Community Law. This work has significantly increased the services these community legal centres are able to provide for socially or economically disadvantaged people in the ACT and advanced access to justice for women in Canberra, the ACT Law Society said.

Jennifer has overseen a number of significant pro bono matters and is particularly passionate about matters that involve questions about the management of domestic violence in the workplace. She has introduced a reverse secondment arrangement with the WLC, where one of their staff is embedded one day a fortnight with the Clayton Utz team, gaining access to expert guidance and strategic advice on WLC cases. This professional development has been invaluable to increasing the skill and capacity at WLC, it said.

Wyborn and the Clayton Utz team also provide free training for workers in the communitys legal sector in areas that include discrimination and employment law.

Pro bono is part of what it means to be a lawyer at Clayton Utz, Wyborn said. We see it as a privilege to support community legal centres such as WLC ACT and Canberra Community Law to help them build capacity and be able to respond to the growing demand for their services. On behalf of our team, we thank them for this recognition, and also acknowledge the terrific work they do.Downtown San Francisco is the location for international firm Bird & Birds first foray into the US.

The representative office will offer the firms US clients non-US legal advice in their own time zone, while acting as a platform for the firms work with US partner firms.

Our firm vision, to be the number one law firm in the world for organisations being changed by technology or the digital world, is consistent with us having a presence in one of the most innovative, technology and IP-rich cities in the world, said CEO David Kerr.Pillay was the director of the enforcement division of the CCS. Poh was the deputy head of the competition and regulatory economics practice at Drew & Napier. He was also previously a senior lawyer at the CCS.

Meanwhile, Campbell Johnston Clark (CJC) has hired its second HFW partner. Gareth Williams has joined the firm just weeks after Paul Apostolis, who headed the HFW shipping practice in Singapore, moved to CJC.

Williams has joined Apostolis and Iain Short as the three directors of CJC in the city-state. He brings to the firm more than three decades experience, including two decades in Greece, where he focused on the shipping industry and international trade. He is a specialist in dispute resolution and contract law, with an interest in general aviation law.MinterEllison and Arnold Bloch Leibler (ABL) were involved in the acquisition of an iconic Australian luxury goods retailer.

MinterEllison acted for Manderrah, which purchased Oroton under a deed of company arrangement (DOCA). ABL acted for Deloitte, the administrators of Oroton, with ABL partner Genevieve Sexton and senior associate Elyse Hilton leading the DOCA process.

Oroton, which entered voluntary administration in late 2017, was listed on the ASX and has more than 50 stores in Australia and Asia.Australasian Lawyer has just confirmed five new speakers to join the already exciting speaker list for the Legal Tech Summit in Sydney this October.

Kicking off the day, Allens Applied Technology Manager Karan Mehta, Ashurst head of Digital Services Tae Royle, Maddocks Partner Shaun Temby and McCullough Robertson COO Kim Trajer will be discussing Leveraging technology to improve your customer experience. Find out what processes firms can automate without impacting on the client experience.

Next Baker & McKenzie Partner Patrick Fair will share his expertise on privacy and cybersecurity. With risks and regulations relating to cyber threats increasing, data security is becoming critically important for all businesses, including law firms. Fair will share examples of where other firms went wrong and strategies on keeping data secure.The Auto Care Association hosted a trade mission to Chile on August 2122 as part of the Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) award from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The association received the award to help the automotive industry increase exports to free trade agreement partners in Latin America.



Trade missions are business development opportunities to gain first-hand market information and participate in one-on-one meetings with potential clients and partners. The association, in collaboration with the U.S. Commercial Service, has organized trade missions to Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica in the past two years.

Trade mission delegates participated in personalized business-to-business matchmaking meetings with foreign industry executives, pre-screened to match companies specific business objectives. Delegates also had the opportunity to participate in a country briefing and a networking reception hosted by the charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile.



I feel that the meetings were all done professionally, with people I am looking to do business with, said Albert Montaner, regional manager at The Parts House and Auto Care Association member. I personally think I will be doing business with everybody that I met, without a doubt. The trade mission was priced right. For what we got, it was a pure benefit---a good bang for the buck.

We definitely got value from the trade mission, said Linda Hamill, sales manager at BWI Parts and Auto Care Association member. We expect new sales right away and believe we will recoup the money spent on the trade mission from newly generated sales. We learned a lot about doing business in Chile. The local companies shared their challenges and the types of products they need. All the information gained from local vendors was insightful and helpful in growing our export business.

The trade mission is a good tool for any company that is trying to move into a new market, said Javier Betancourt, vice president, sales, Herrero & Sons Corp. Its money well spent; its worth it. It was well-organized; you get a glimpse of the market and the key players.

For more information about the Auto Care Associations international initiatives and activities, please visit autocare.org/international. For additional event information, please contact Carolina Arregoces at carolina.arregoces@autocare.org or 240-333-1037.In the last two years, 596 aircraft in the U.S. landed or almost landed on the wrong runway or wrong airport, and 85 percent of those events involved general aviation aircraft, according to the FAA. At a recent Safety Summit held in Leesburg, Virginia, the FAA said these types of incidents are one of the top five hazards in aviation. Im asking each of you to make this a priority, FAA Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell said at the meeting, according to a report by NBAA. In a recent Safety Alert for Operators (PDF), the FAA cited several best practices for pilots to ensure they are lining up on the correct runway, such as checking Notams, stabilizing the approach, making good use of the available technology and being ready to go around if needed.

The probability of being involved in a wrong-surface event is highest when operating in visual conditions, according to the FAA, and more than 90 percent of the incidents occur in daylight. Airfield geometry, communications and expectation bias also play a role. About 75 percent of incidents involve parallel runways, and parallel taxiways also can cause confusion. At the summit, Teri Bristol, chief operating officer at the FAAs Air Traffic Organization, said pilots need to be aware of the issue. Weve had some close calls, and were very concerned, she said. The NTSB will release its final report later this month on the near-miss in San Francisco last year when an A320 crew lined up on a taxiway instead of the runway.Welcome Guest! You Are Here:Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said those who are cited in Bob Woodwards forthcoming book, "Fear," as disparaging President Trump "should be questioning why they are there" and "get another job," per CNBC.

That's the kind of disloyalty that leads to you leaving, not staying and undermining the president.

 Rudy Giuliani

Catch up quick: Woodward writes that Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and that "he's gone off the rails," per the Washington Post.An independent Pentagon investigation into the U.S. drone strike that mistakenly killed 10 Afghan civilians on Aug. 29 did not find evidence of criminal negligence or violation of law, according to the official tapped to lead the review.

The big picture: The botched operation was the result of "execution errors combined with confirmation bias and communication breakdowns," Lt. Gen. Sami Said, the inspector general of the Air Force, said at a press conference Wednesday. The full report is classified to protect sources and methods, according to Said.A new poll shows Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right, nationalist party, overtaking the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) to pull into second place ahead of a crucial regional election next month in Bavaria, reports Reuters.

The big picture: The surge follows anti-immigrant demonstrations last week in the city of Chemnitz, where about 6,000 people marched after a German national was killed, allegedly by two refugees. SPD is currently in coalition with Angela Merkel's center-right Central Democratic Union (CDU), making AfD the largest opposition party. The rise of the AfD contributed to an immigration standoff that threatened to bring down Merkel's government in June. She's just one of the many European leaders attempting to fend off anti-migration, populist forces.Richard Liu, the billionaire CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, was arrested in Minneapolis Friday on suspicion of rape, according to the city's police department.

The latest: Liu, who was released Saturday without any charges, is back at work in China, a company spokesperson told Axios. A Minneapolis police spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that the investigation into the alleged incident is ongoing.This week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis will travel to New Delhi for talks with their Indian counterparts. Pompeo will also visit Islamabad to meet Imran Khan, Pakistans new prime minister.

Why it matters: This high-level U.S. diplomacy is freighted with importance for the Trump administrations South Asia strategy. The White House sees India as a key partner in U.S. efforts to push back against Beijings rising influence in Asia. Pompeo and Mattis will try to reaffirm the strength of the U.S.India relationship, which has suffered recent strains after years of growth and warmth.

Such cooperation will face challenges, rooted largely in Washingtons unhappiness over New Delhis warm relations with Iran and Russia. While India enjoys close energy and defense ties, respectively, to those two countries, the White House has moved to sanction both of them  and it doesnt want New Delhi doing business with them. Other White House policies, including its new steel tariffs and threats to dismantle visa programs that have greatly benefited Indian workers in the U.S., have also caused friction.

Meanwhile, Pompeo will arrive in Islamabad only a few days after Washington canceled $300 million in security assistance to Pakistan, citing the country's failure to take sustained action against terrorists who enjoy safe haven in Pakistan and target U.S. forces next door in Afghanistan. With Taliban offensives at a fever pitch and U.S. officials redoubling efforts to launch a peace process with the emboldened insurgents, Pompeos meeting comes at a critical moment for the struggling U.S. war effort.

What's next: The outcome of Pompeo's and Mattis' diplomacy could go a long way toward determining the degree of success (or failure) of the Trump administrations South Asia strategy.

Michael Kugelman is deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center.In the next few days, the White House is expected to name former Cuba-embargo lobbyist Mauricio Claver-Carone as Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere on the National Security Council, replacing Juan Cruz. Claver-Carone was a co-founder and director of the U.S. Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee (USCD PAC), one of the most active pro-embargo groups in Washington. He was also director of the nonprofit organization Cuba Democracy Advocates, which is dedicated to promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Cuba.

Why it matters: If Claver-Carone starts as expected on September 17, a political appointee who has dedicated his entire career to U.S.Cuba policy will assume responsibility for coordinating U.S. policy across departments (State, Defense, Commerce and Treasury, among others) for 34 countries in the hemisphere.

The future White House advisors limited background on most things Western Hemisphere (including Canada) raises concerns. Claver-Carones only other experience in the region has been with Venezuela and Nicaragua as Cuban client states, advocating harder-line policies toward the countries autocratic regimes in accordance with Cuban interests.

Reality check: Coordinating U.S. policy toward a diverse hemisphere with myriad interests requires a larger lens through which to view the region than just that of Cuba. Tightening alliances with Argentina, Chile, and Peru, working with a future Brazilian government after its October elections, deepening trade relations with partners, and addressing the endemic security issues in Central America require a deeper, broader knowledge and experience.

The bottom line: For many Latin American governments  perhaps unfortunately  Cuba is seen primarily as a peripheral issue driven by U.S. politics. Placing Cuba at the hub of policy coordination, as Claver-Carones appointment may well do, is not the way to maintain and build influence with U.S. allies in the hemisphere.

Christopher Sabatini is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, executive director of Global Americans and a non-resident fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute.The Trump administration released a statement Tuesday warning that, if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad chooses again to use chemical weapons, the United States will respond "swiftly and appropriately."

The big picture: Assad's forces, backed by Russia and Iran, are preparing to launch an offensive in the rebel-held province of Idlib, which could result in a massive humanitarian crisis for the almost three million Syrians who live there. According to Bob Woodward's new book, Trump reportedly told Defense Secretary James Mattis he wanted to assassinate Assad last April after the Syrian dictator used chemical weapons on innocent civilians.

"The United States is closely monitoring the situation in Idlib province, Syria, where millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent Assad regime attack, backed by Russia and Iran. President Donald J. Trump has warned that such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Let us be clear, it remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its Allies will respond swiftly and appropriately. The United States will continue to work tirelessly with its Allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria under the auspices of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254."

 White House Press Secretary Sarah SandersFarmers in western Armenia blocked a major highway leading to capital Yerevan on Tuesday morning, demanding that distillers offer a higher price for grapes grown in local vineyards.

The protest action paralyzed traffic causing trouble to many drivers and commuters.

The farmers demanded that the local branch of the Yerevan Brandy Company, with which they have contracts for the supply of their produce, raise the purchasing price for grapes, which it lowered by some 4 cents per kilogram this year.

The villagers cited an increase in the cost of production, saying that they were no longer satisfied with the grape purchasing price of some 25 cents per kilogram in dollar terms. According to the protesting grape-growers, this price only covers the cost of their crops and leaves them with no income.

Prices for chemicals and diesel fuel have increased, one farmer complained. They do not explain how they set the purchasing price. Today they set one price, tomorrow they may lower it.

Talking to RFE/RLs Armenian Service, deputy governor of Armavir Gagik Gabrielian said that liquor firms offer a price for grapes based on the quality and quantity of the produce. It is necessary to get in touch with the company and offer that they start buying at a higher price as they did in the past, he said.

The Yerevan Brandy Company later today issued a statement, saying that the purchasing price it offers to farmers is the highest price level that the company can offer, considering that it purchases a maximum volume of 29,000 tons.

The distiller reminded that the current price is by 8 percent higher than last years and this increase is twice as high as the annual inflation registered in the country.

The company says that next year it will raise the grape purchase price by the size of official annual inflation registered in Armenia.

Falling grape prices have been a recurrent problem in Armenia and in the countrys winegrowing Armavir region, in particular. During some years distillers even cut the volumes of their purchases, citing falling sales, with the central government having to urge them to buy the products of villagers.Armenias Special Investigative Service (SIS) has officially prohibited former Armenian President Robert Kocharian from traveling abroad pending investigation into a criminal case in which coup charges have been brought against him.

SIS spokesperson Marina Ohanjanian told RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Tuesday that investigators have decided to apply a measure of restraint called a written undertaking not to leave the country in relation to Kocharian, who is charged in connection with deadly 2008 post-election events during which he allegedly overthrew Armenias constitutional order.

Kocharian spent more than two weeks in custody last summer. The Court of Appeals on August 13 overturned a district courts July 27 decision to allow Kocharians arrest. It said that the Armenian constitution gives the ex-president immunity from prosecution. The Prosecutors Office has appealed the courts decision at Armenias highest judicial instance  the Court of Cassation, which is still to consider the case. Meanwhile, Kocharian has filed a counterclaim with the Court of Cassation after his lawyers said he was not fully satisfied with the August 13 ruling. Kocharian insists that there are no grounds for his prosecution and that he is being prosecuted for political motives.

Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, stands accused of illegally using the armed forces against opposition supporters who protested against alleged fraud in a disputed presidential election held in February 2008. Eight protesters and two police personnel were killed when security forces broke up those demonstrations on March 1-2, 2008.

Kocharian announced his return to active politics on August 16.

The SISs decision comes one day after one of Kocharians lawyers, Aram Orbelian, told RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that his client intends to go to Germany for an annual medical examination. There is no measure of restraint against Kocharian, but the ex-presidents passport is kept by the law-enforcement bodies, Orbelian explained on Monday.

Orbelian said today that he and other lawyers working for Kocharian will peruse the SISs decision before commenting on the matter on Wednesday.By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 73 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Sept. 4.

Armenian armed forces were using heavy machine guns.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) in partnership with the Centre for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications of Azerbaijan has organized a forum on competitiveness issues in Baku (Azerbaijan Competitiveness Forum  ACF-2018), the Head of the Azexport.az portal Zaur Gardashov told Trend Sept. 4.

Gardashov noted that the participation of about 20 U.S. companies in the forum, which will be held in Baku on September 6-7, is expected. The US delegation will also include representatives of the State Department for economic affairs.

"The U.S. companies are interested in investing in various sectors of the Azerbaijani economy, and these issues will be discussed by representatives of the United States with the heads and representatives of various state agencies of Azerbaijan," Gardashov said.

He added that the BCIU organization was established by former US President Dwight Eisenhower, and its main goal is to expand the activities of American companies in foreign markets.

Within the framework of the forum, the Azerbaijani side will inform the participants about reforms implemented in the country's economy, improvement of the business environment, and the data on the country's positions in the Doing Business rating, etc. will be presented.

The ACF-2018 forum will aim to identify tangible steps that the public and private sectors in Azerbaijan and the United States can take to highlight the country's fundamental indicators, as well as opportunities for improving its competitiveness.

The ACF will bring together the management of financial investors and project developers, companies and entrepreneurs based in Azerbaijan in order to discuss the country's competitiveness. The forum will determine how the US private sector can work with the government and private sector of Azerbaijan to create growth mechanisms for Azerbaijan's growing economy.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Azerbaijan will hold the Nasimi Festival of Poetry, Arts, and Spirituality for the first time on September 27-30.

The festival is dedicated to the work of Imadaddin Nasimi (1369-1417), one of the brilliant poets and thinkers of the East.

The festival is being implemented under the organization of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and support of Azerbaijans Ministry of Culture.

The festival will be held under the slogans Beyond the limited self, reflecting the philosophical views of the poet, and I am a particle, I am the sun which are the poets lines.

The program of the large-scale event covers various types of art and knowledge fields. During the festival, programs will be organized in various places in Baku, as well as in Shamakhi, the native city of the poet.

The festival's project is being implemented on an international scale with the participation of world famous artists, philosophers, scientists who write about spirituality in modern society, as well as professionals, amateurs in this field and young people.

By the virtue of the Nasimi Festival, Baku will become center of search for spirituality through art and poetry. At the same time, the festival is aimed not only at glorifying and perpetuating the poetry of Nasimi, the most urgent issues of spirituality in the modern world can be reached through his work, through various kinds of art and harmony.

The festival seeks to show the philosophical ideas of Nasimi embodied in present time. After all, Nasimis poetry glorified the beauty and mind of a person, served to liberate the individual from all kinds of conventions and dogmas, by emphasizing the understanding of the high destiny of a man and the limitlessness of a persons possibilities. Therefore, the festival will be of great interest, because it is addressed to people of completely different interests.

Jahangir Selimkhanov, the festival coordinator, said in an interview with Trend that the author of the idea of the festival is Vice-President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva.

The creativity of Nasimi is unique and all his poetry is saturated with the philosophical sense of the universes creation, life, the place of a person in the world, calling for evolution and perfection, Selimkhanov said. Thats because man is the best creation of God. The nature, beauty of the surrounding world, kindness and mercy are the sources inspiring the poet on the way to the knowledge of life and the universe.

For the first time, such a grandiose festival will be held for spectators not on tickets and invitations, but exclusively through registration on the official website www.nasimifestival.live, where it is also possible to find out the details about the project.

It is planned to make the festival traditional, with prizes and competitions, Jahangir Selimkhanov added. So we would like to know what the audience is really interested in. A very large influx of spectators is expected, because it will be an incredible festival that will leave a lot of impressions for the guests. It will happen for the first time in Azerbaijan and all over the world!

The festivals program

On the first day of the festival, participants will visit the Shahendan cemetery in Shamakhi city, where Shahendan, the brother of Imadaddin Nasimi, as well as outstanding poet Seyid Azim Shirvani, were buried.

The participants will also visit the Juma Mosque built in 743, one of the most ancient mosques in the Caucasus, the Pir Omar temple in Avakhil village and the Shamakhi History and Local Lore Museum.

Poetical and musical gatherings will be held in Shamakhi before Nasimis monument, as well as an event with the participation of the winners of a literary contest dedicated to the memory of Imadaddin Nasimi and held by the Ministry of Culture as part of The Word literary project.

At the contest, young poets will present works inspired by the genius of Nasimi. As part of the festival, Azerbaijani folk musical compositions and musical works calling for spirituality will be performed.

The opening of the International Ethical Design event - Sensitive Fashion will also take place in the Meysari village in Shamakhi district.

The event created on the basis of content published systematically during the last few years in the Baku magazine under the heading ECO. Fashion Route, will carry out the functions of informing and educating about environmental sensitivity in production of clothing and interior items, reproduction, restoration of forgotten and outdated traditional methods and production technologies, and will also serve as the showroom and the sales salon.

The works of Azerbaijani and foreign designers will be presented there. The exhibition will showcase the styles of clothing that were used in Azerbaijan for centuries, clothes decorated with various national ornaments that were in vogue in different periods of time.

Then, an evening of acoustic and electronic music called Closer to Stars will be held at the Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory named after Nasraddin Tusi of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS).

The program will be attended by Sahib Pashazade, Irshad Huseyn (Azerbaijan), Ali Phi (Iran), Sati Kazanova (Russia), Rabih Beaini (Lebanon/Germany), Abdel Karim Shaar (Lebanon), Nguyen Le and Ngo Hong Quang from "Ha Noi Duo", Gorkem Sen (Turkey), the Ar Berd duet (France).

On September 28, the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku will host a lecture talk by German scientist Michael Hess, entitled Nasimi legacy in contemporary contexts.

On the same day, after demonstration in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow and Tbilisi, the exhibition Live Life will be presented at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, organized at the initiative of vice president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the founder and the head of IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Action) Public Association Leyla Aliyeva.

The exhibition is aimed at drawing attention to environmental problems, nature protection, as well as educating the public about the role of art in this field.

The Hurufiyya exhibition of the UAE-based Barjeel Art Foundation in the Heydar Aliyev Center will consist of 26 paintings and graphic works. These are works by contemporary artists living in a number of Arab countries that represent a stream called hurufiyya (images based on letters, calligraphy), widely spread over the past 20 years. The exhibition will also feature several works by Honored Artist of Azerbaijan Tarlan Gorchu.

Then the program will continue with a musical and video art installation called 77 million paintings by the creator of the ambient music genre, prominent UK composer Brian Eno. Prior to this, this work was demonstrated in Tokyo, London, New York, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Sydney, Mexico City, Cape Town, Rome and other cities.

The official opening of the event will take place in the Heydar Aliyev Center. Thus, on the evening of September 28, as part of the concert program, the Center will feature Nasimi poetry, excerpts from Azerbaijani folk music.

Young and middle-aged composers will present their new versions of the composition of outstanding Azerbaijani musician of the 13th-14th centuries Abdulgadir Maragayi for the ensemble of old musical instruments Echo of the Ages under the Azerbaijan National Conservatory, as well as The Legend of Nasimi by the brilliant composer Fikrat Amirov, the song Prayer written to the words of Nasimi by Honored Artist of Azerbaijan Tunzalya Agayeva.

Also, the famous UK singer and composer of Azerbaijani origin Sami Yusuf will perform at the concert.

This day of the festival will end in the Chamber and Organ Music Hall with the presentation of the Cycle music project of honored artists of Azerbaijan Rain Sultanov and Isfar Sarabski, glorifying spirituality and eternal values. In this project, Sarabski, along with the piano, will perform jazz organ music.

On September 29, the Artistic Yoga Session with the famous master of yoga Nandan Gautam will be held at the Heydar Aliyev Center. Classes conducted by Nandan Gautam will be accompanied by the music composed by the author himself.

Also on September 29, musicians from different countries in the form of collective improvisation will perform the work From the Seven Days (Aus den sieben Tagen) by the prominent German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in the Shirvanshahs Palace.

The composer, without writing a single note in the work, considered it his task to write texts that inspire performers from a spiritual point of view. Musicians, having read these texts, freely improvise and get inspiration from both the authors work and from each others performances.

The placement of musicians not in one, but in different, remote from each other corners of the palace personifies the knowledge of truth in solitude. With the help of modern communication tools, these individual performances will be combined, and will be broadcast live online.

The project will be attended by musicians representing different cultures and styles - honored artists of Azerbaijan Elchin Shirinov and Shahriyar Imanov, violinist Osman Eyyublu, as well as Kudsi Erguner (Turkey), Sefudi Kouyate (Guinea), Naomi Sato (Japan), Christina Vantzou (US/Belgium), Elisabeth Harnik (Austria) and Gianluca Iadema (Italy).

The Stone Chronicle Museum will host a video lecture titled Emphatic civilization and shared economy by world-famous US economist Jeremy Rifkin on September 29, and then a question-and-answer session will be held.

The Stone Chronicle Museum will also feature the Bahariyya music performance inspired by the works of the immortal Nasimi.

Thus, along with five performers of Azerbaijani folk music - Teyyub Aslanov (folk singer), Aliaga Sadiyev (plays string instrument), Elnur Mikayilov (plays bowed string instrument), Shirzad Fataliyev (plays wind instruments), Kamran Karimov (plays drums) - Farhad Farzaliyev (electronic music and sound design) will also perform on the stage.

On the same day, the DanceAbility inclusive dance group will perform at the Seaside National Park. During this performance, which resulted from the three-week rehearsals of DanceAbility Azerbaijan, dancers, which also include people with disabilities, will share the joy of self-expression in their dance.

These dances will bring to the Baku Boulevard the spirit of Nasimis philosophy, consisting in seeing a man as the highest and perfect creation.

September 30, an idle industrial warehouse in the Gala township of Baku will host presentation of the urban art project titled The Expanding Wall. About 10 Azerbaijani and foreign urban artists will participate in the project and will create their works on the walls of the building. They include artists from the US, South Africa, Brazil, Belgium, Spain and France.

Children and adolescents, directly observing the process of the works creation, will also draw under the guidance of masters of fine arts. Students of the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts will subsequently portray these sketches on the walls of the building on a large scale.

On the same day, the Gala Archeology and Ethnography Reserve will host introduction with the works created as part of the project Waste - to Art and Music of Stone, a concert program consisting of children and teenagers of the famous Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay (an orchestra of musical instruments created as a result of waste recycling).

During the festival, the fusion of art and captivating charm of Icheri sheher (Baku Old City) will allow guests to make a journey through ancient Baku. Exhibitions, installations, video projections will be showcased in Icheri sheher, poetry and music samples will be heard, and theatrical performances will be shown.

Imitative poems written to Nasimis lines will be presented to spectators in narrow streets and alleys of Icheri sheher in an unusual way - for example, in the form of calligraphy on the walls, or in the form of sound recording, and even being animated on some landscape by using the QR code technology.

At the end of the festival, the winners of the poem contest dedicated to the memory of Imadaddin Nasimi will be awarded in the Baku Media Center as part of The Word literary project of Azerbaijans Ministry of Culture.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

"Mon cinema francais" project continues to surprise cinema lovers in Baku.

Azerbaijani film lovers have a chance to see some of the greatest French films with English subtitles for free.

Every Friday, Azerbaijans favorite artists share their impressions of French films screened at the Landmark's outdoor terrace within the framework of the "Mon cinema francais" project.

The project is co-organized by the French Embassy in Azerbaijan and the French Institute and Landmark Hotel Baku in cooperation with the bright representatives of the artistic world of the country.

Famous philosopher, audiovisual artist Teymur Daimi will attend the screening of the film "Holy Motors" by Leos Carax on September 7.

"Holy Motors" is a 2012 French-German fantasy drama film written and directed by Leos Carax, starring Denis Lavant and Edith Scob. Lavant plays Mr Oscar, a man not unlike an actor who inhabits several roles, but there are no apparent cameras filming the man's performances. It is Carax's first feature film since 1999. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

The film screening event starts at 19:00. Admission is free.

Notably, the film by Louis Malle "Lacombe Lucien" will be showcased on September 14. Azerbaijani architect, designer, art critic Elchin Aliyev will attend the film screening.

Acclaimed national film director Ilgar Safat will present film lovers the film by Robert Bresson "Money" on September 21.

Famous national actor and movie director Bahram Bagirzade will surprise the audience with the film by Francis Veber "The Toy" on September 28.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Naila Huseynli

Recently, traveling for health and wellness became one of the most important tourist patterns of economic returns generated by the tourism industry, tourist destinations and the health sector. The number of tourists coming for medical treatment has increased in the last ten years, which it shows the great potential for further development of recreational tourism in Azerbaijan.

In this regard, a new strategy for the development of health tourism in Azerbaijan may be adopted by the end of 2018.

The strategy is almost ready and must be submitted to the Azerbaijani parliament in the near future, Ruslan Guliyev, chairman of the Association for Support of Medical and Thermal Tourism of Azerbaijan, president of the World Health Tourism Organization told Trend.

The representative of the association noted that at the beginning of the year it was planned to adopt the "Action Plan for the Development of Health Tourism", designed for 2018-2020, but this process is delayed due to reforms in the ministry and the establishment of new State Tourism Agency.

"In general, the creation of the Action Plan remains a priority, most likely, it will be approved after the development strategy is adopted," Guliyev said.

Azerbaijan took over a chairmanship in the World Health Tourism Organization from the UAE in 2018.

"Azerbaijans chairmanship in the World Health Tourism Organization will further develop tourism in the country," he added.

Azerbaijan has been a member of this international organization since 2014, in which 60 countries are represented, including Russia, UK, Germany, Turkey and India.

The health tourism in Azerbaijan has been noticeably improved after the adoption of the state program on development of resorts in 2009-2018. To boost the sector, there was established the Association to support the health and thermal tourism in Azerbaijan, as well as modern medical and health centers were opened in Baku, Naftalan, Nakhchivan and other regions of the country.

The fresh mountain air, pure water, organic fruits of the Azerbaijani regions and beach recreation on the Caspian Sea Shore have already known among many tourists. It would suffice to mention the world famous Istisu, Galaalti, Naftalan, Duzdag recreational resorts.

Azerbaijan is rich with hot and mineral springs, thermal sulphur-hydrogen water sources and all types of mud volcanoes that are used for medical purposes. There are around 300 mud volcanoes existing in Azerbaijan. The mud is used for treatment of radiculitis, skin, cardiovascular, gynecological, urological diseases, and gastrointestinal disturbances. It is also widely used in the cosmetology. Another exceptional medical product of Azerbaijan is its well-known healing Naftalan oil which is considered a treatment for many diseases. Naftalan, the place of origin of this crude oil, is a famous balneotherapeutic health resort well-known for its oil baths.

Moreover, Azerbaijan is also known for its salt mines used for asthma therapy. The most popular one is called Duzdagh Cave (salty mountain cave) located in Nakhchivan. There are over-and underground treatment premises located 300 meters below sea level. The Cave is rich with sodium chloride ions which are useful for treatment of bronchial asthma, hay fever, bronchitis, rhinitis and other respiratory organs diseases.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Statements by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Sochi as part of the official visit to Russia and the signed documents testify that the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia have reached a qualitatively new stage, Azerbaijani MP Sadagat Valiyeva said.

She said that the trade turnover between the two countries increased by 35 percent and reached $2.5 billion in 2017. Russias direct investments in Azerbaijan amounted to $1.5 billion, she noted, adding that presently, about 700 joint ventures with Russian capital operate in Azerbaijan.

At the same time, many Russian energy companies successfully operate in Azerbaijan, she said. Military-technical cooperation between the two countries is also developing, Valiyeva added.

The MP noted that along with all this, Azerbaijan and Russia are working together to implement projects of global importance.

Namely the common position and the work on the creation of the International NorthSouth Transport Corridor with total length of 7,000 kilometers that will connect the markets of Western Europe with Asian producers will significantly accelerate the transportation of goods from South Asia and Middle East to Europe, the MP said.

In this regard, joint transport projects of Russia and Azerbaijan will cover a great number of countries, increase the transit opportunities of our countries and contribute to the opening of thousands of new jobs, she noted.

Valiyeva added that in terms of imports, Russia is the number one partner for Azerbaijan.

Russia and Azerbaijan enjoy relations of strategic partnership, Valiyeva said, noting that regular ties between the two heads of state give special dynamics to interstate relations.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Thomas Greminger, secretary general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will come to Azerbaijan on a working visit, Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told Trend Sept. 4.

Hajiyev said that the visit is scheduled for September 11.

Thomas Greminger will arrive in Baku on the evening of September 11, Hajiyev noted. A number of meetings, including with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, are expected to be held. Political, economic and humanitarian issues will be discussed as part of the meeting. In particular, the process of settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be discussed.

This is Gremingers first visit to Azerbaijan after he was appointed OSCE secretary general July last year as a result of the so-called silence procedure - after on July 12, the OSCE Permanent Council agreed on a single candidature, nominated Greminger for this vacant position and appealed to the foreign ministers of the OSCE to approve the candidate during a five-day procedure.

The appointment entered into force, because no objections were received from the foreign ministers until the deadline - July 18.

Earlier, Greminger was Switzerlands permanent representative to the OSCE.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Naila Huseynli

At the end of last year, 167 petrol stations of SOCAR operated in Switzerland.

It is stated in the annual report of SOCAR in 2017, AZERTAC reported.

The report says that SOCAR operates in Switzerland through SOCAR Trading and SOCAR Energy Switzerland. SOCAR Trading was founded in Geneva, in 2008. The company is engaged in the sale of crude oil, oil and oil products owned by third parties.

SOCAR Trading was founded in order to expand oil revenues from Azerbaijani oil by exporting directly to the world market after delivery of crude oil from Azerbaijan to the Ceyhan port through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, increase the profitability of SOCAR in dealing with the sale of oil and petroleum products owned by third parties in international markets, increase Azerbaijan's sphere of influence in the world.

The main offices are located in Geneva (headquarters), Singapore, Dubai, London, Houston and Calgary.

SOCAR Trading have established relations with all processing factories which is capable of processing Azeri Light oil. Azerbaijan sent its oil to Asia through shifting oil away from the low-sulfur oil-rich Mediterranean Sea, and managed to increase the price of crude oil.

The company has increased its international reputation through participating in Oil terminal at Fujairah port of United Arab Emirates and LNG terminal projects in Malta.

SOCAR Energy Switzerland is engaged in the wholesale and retail sale of oil products in the Swiss market. The assets of Esso Switzerland have been controlled by SOCAR in accordance with the contract signed between SOCAR and ExxonMobil in 2012.

Retail stores also operate in filling stations based on franchising agreements with well-known Swiss company, Migros.

SOCAR is the sole producer of petroleum products in Azerbaijan owning over 370 filling stations in Georgia, Ukraine, Romania and Switzerland. It is also a co-owner of the largest Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim.

The company with headquarters in Geneva was established by SOCAR at the end of 2007. Presently, SOCAR Trading sells the bulk of SOCARs crude oil exports from the Turkish port of Ceyhan, trades oil and oil products of other countries, and assists the parent company in connection with international investments. SOCAR Tradings field of activity covers the countries of Europe, Asia and America.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini intends to meet in Rome with Tony Blair, advising on the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which is designed to transport natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, The Guardian reported.

"Italy's rightwing Interior Minister Matteo Salvini will meet with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Rome to discuss a controversial extension plan for the gas pipeline that will run from Azerbaijan to Apulia in southern Italy," the newspaper says.

The date of this meeting is not specified in the article.

TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU), and has already attracted 1.5 billion euros from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which approved the loan in early February 2018.

Connecting with the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network.

The project is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016.

Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe.

TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Sara Israfilbayova

Revenues of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) from the project of development of the countrys Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields amounted to $135.142 billion from early 2001.

The Fund reported that the company received $6.656 billion in the framework of the ACG project during January-August 2018.

A contract for development of ACG block of oil and gas fields was signed in 1994 for 30 years.

Thirteen companies from eight countries (Azerbaijan, the U.S., Great Britain, Russia, Turkey, Norway, Japan, and Saudi Arabia) have participated in signing of the "Contract of the Century".

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR and BP-operated Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) signed an agreement on future development of the ACG field in December 2016.

The agreement will cover the development of the field until 2050 and will add significant resource development potential. The document specifies the key commercial terms for the future development of the ACG field and enables the parties to conclude negotiations and finalize fully-termed agreements in the next few months.

The ACG field, which lies 120km off the coast of Azerbaijan, is considered to be the largest oilfield in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.

The proven oil reserves of the block amounts to approximately 1 billion tons.

Shareholders of the ACG development include BP with 30.37 percent, AzACG - 25 percent, Chevron  9.57 percent, Inpex  9.31 percent, Equinor - 7,27 percent, ExxonMobil  6.79 percent, TP  5.73 percent, ITOCHU  3.65 percent, ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) - 2,31 percent.

SOFAZ was established under the Presidential Decree, dated December 29, 1999, "On Establishment of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan".

The main purpose of the establishment of the Fund was to preserve and multiply the income derived from oil, create an excellent economic base, taking into account social needs, the requirements of economic progress and development of the country. Besides, the challenge ahead is to protect the country's economy from possible negative influences caused by the growth of foreign exchange earnings and avoidance of damage to financial discipline.

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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzFrance's Air Liquide S.A. starts supplying hydrogen in Kazakhstan through the acquisition of hydrogen and purification units with a total capacity of up to 30.000 Nm3/h starting September 1.

This investment of 12 million euros by Air Liquide Munay Tech Gases (ALMTG) marks the first step in the cooperation between Air Liquide and KazMunayGaz (KMG). The hydrogen and steam produced will be delivered to the Pavlodar Oil and Chemistry Refinery (POCR) in the context of a long term Gas Supply Agreement.

Hydrogen is used for the process of hydrotreatment of diesel and gasoline to reduce sulfur content, thus contributing to cleaner transportation fuels. Air Liquide will bring its technology know-how and operational expertise to reduce the energy consumption and increase operational reliability and flexibility of hydrogen facilities, thus contributing to improving efficiency and competitiveness of the Pavlodar refinery.

ALMTG is a joint-venture between Air Liquide and KazMunayGaz NC (KMG), the Kazakhstan National Oil & Gas company with respective 75 percent and 25 percent ownership. The joint venture partners plan to pursue further opportunities in hydrogen and nitrogen supply to KMGs other refineries.

Olivier Randet, Vice-President, Cluster Eastern Europe, said: We are delighted to work with KazMunayGaz and to start operating in Kazakhstan. We are committed to provide our long-time expertise to improve efficiency and reliability for the benefit of our customer. We are looking forward to continuing supporting industrial development in Kazakhstan.

The world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with approximately 65,000 employees and serves more than 3.5 million customers and patients. Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are essential small molecules for life, matter and energy. They embody Air Liquides scientific territory and have been at the core of the companys activities since its creation in 1902.By Trend

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Syrias territorial integrity must be preserved and the process of reconstruction of the war-stricken country should begin soon.

The territorial integrity of Syria must be maintained, Zarif, who was on an official visit to Damascus, said on September 3, Tasnim news agency reported.

Noting that reconstruction process of the Arab country should begin under the Syrian flag, he said all those displaced should return home.

The remnants of terrorists in the remaining regions of Idlib must be flushed out of the areas, he said.

The foreign minister also pointed to an upcoming summit in Tehran between the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey, and said the talks aim to bring a lasting solution to the ongoing crisis in Syria.

The three countries have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstans Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.

Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the countrys pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

Uzbekistan and Egypt will discuss the possibility of creating a joint horticultural and logistics hub, Uzbek media outlets reported.

Within the framework of the official visit of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah As-Sisi, the Uzbek-Egyptian business forum and cooperation exchange in B2B format will be held in Tashkent on September 5.

The visit is the first by an Egyptian president since a visit by late President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s. The visit also comes after two visits by previous Uzbek President Islam Karimov to Egypt in 1992 and 2007 during which several cooperation agreements in the economic, scientific and investment domains were signed.



Representatives of business circles and business enterprises of the two countries will take part in the events. As a result, it is planned to sign mutually beneficial investment and trade agreements in the sphere of tourism, pharmaceutics, electrical engineering and others. In addition, within the framework of the business forum, the issues of creating a horticultural and logistics hub in Uzbekistan will be discussed, the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Trade said.

Diplomatic relations between Uzbekistan and the Arab Republic of Egypt were established on January 23, 1992. The contractual and legal framework of the two countries includes 51 interstate, intergovernmental and interdepartmental documents.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

The signing of the agreement on cooperation in tourism between Azerbaijan and Russia will give an impetus to further rapprochement between the two countries in this area, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) Nahid Bagirov told Trend on September 3.

The chairman of AzTA noted that Russia is an interesting market for Azerbaijan in terms of tourism.

Russia has always been an attractive tourism market for Azerbaijan, Bagirov said.

He noted that for further development of tourism relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, it is necessary to increase the advertising of Azerbaijan as a tourism destination not only in Moscow, but also in the regions of Russia.

Russia is a big country with a significant number of population. Therefore, it is necessary to actively promote the tourism potential of Azerbaijan in Russia, in particular in its regions. It is also necessary to develop direct airline service between the regions of Russia and Azerbaijan. But before that, it is necessary to conduct good advertising, study the market and analyze the interest, Bagirov said.

A ceremony of signing documents with participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin took place in Sochi on September 1. In particular, agreement between the governments of the two states on cooperation in tourism was signed.

Tourism is developing at an unprecedented rate in Azerbaijan, which in recent years turned into a country attracting foreign guests from the farthest corners of the world.

The statistical data shows that in January-July 2018, about 1.6 million foreigners and stateless persons from 191 countries of the world arrived in Azerbaijan, which is 9.1 percent more compared to the same period of 2017. Of the total number of arrivals, 31.5 percent accounts for Russian citizens, which is quite a big number.

Azerbaijan was on the 15th place in the TOP-20 countries Russian tourists are eager to visit in 2018.

There are several reasons why Russian tourists choose to head to Azerbaijan for their vacation. Tourists are attracted to the quality of the hotel basis, the richness of excursion programs and the development of sanitary and spa complex, for example Naftalan. Most tourists believe that the hotel base in Azerbaijan does not fall behind with Europe.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Kyrgyzstan supports the implementation of the tour package, covering Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

We are ready to make every effort to successfully implement the tour package entitled "Modern Silk Road", which covers Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov said at the summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking states in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz Kabar news agency reported.

"Gradual joining of Uzbekistan and Hungary to this project will make this package even more attractive," Jeenbekov said, adding that Kyrgyzstan actively supports the dynamic development of tourism among our countries.

The president also proposed to pay special attention to the expansion of ties among young people of the countries.

I initiate joint implementation of special economic and humanitarian projects to strengthen the interest of young people in innovative projects and entrepreneurship, he added. For this purpose, I propose to create an ad-hoc working group of the secretariat of the Turkic Council.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Bakhtiyar Umarli

Although each single city has its specific beauty, some towns are distinguished by its historical background and some by its beautiful nature. Azerbaijan's Shaki city is always in the spotlight of both foreign and local tourists with its picturesque nature and history. The town known as Nukha was renamed Shaki in 1968.

It is possible to visit the city situated 370 km far from Baku for about 4.5 hours by three roads. (Kurdamir, Agsu and Ismailli). The shortest route is Ismailli road. Drivers of sedan cars mainly prefer this road, because, the highway running through Ismayilli is beautiful and shorter than others. This part of highway is always cool even during the hottest days of summer, because leaves of the trees on the both side of the road do not let sunlight get through.

Shaki is not too big. Two days are enough for going sightseeing. The residents of the city are very hospitable and ready to help tourists in any matter.

The city is located in the southern of the Greater Caucasus, and its road is upside-down and not very wide. Even though all roads were covered with cobblestone in the past, currenty the main parts are paved.

Some roads are being reconstructed due to setting of its sewerage system. The arkhs have been built along the roads so that rainwater flowed to the river.

The river flowing through the city center gives a special beauty to Shaki. Shaki looks like Georgian Tbilisi both for this aspect, and for historicity. When you walking through the narrow streets of Shaki, you feel like you are inside the old Azerbaijani films. Almost, the Caucasus snowy mountains are seen from each street.

Temperature of the city is cool and fresh because it is located on slope of mountains. You will not get exhausted from heat on summer days. Sometimes, continuous rain may be annoying.

Shaki khan palace



The museum built in 1762 is one of the places attracting the most attention of its guests and welcoming hundreds of tourists every year. The palace was built during the reign of Hussein Khan, the grandson of Chalabi Khan, who founded the first independent khanate in Azerbaijan. Although the palace is inside the castle, it is surrounded by additional walls.

The most interesting fact about the palace is that during the construction no glue or nail was used. There are bird pictures, plot illustrations, fight and hunting scenes in walls of the two-storey palace. Tastefully decorated niches, mirrored fireplaces are an example of true art. The niches were decorated with illustrations drawn to the "Leyli and Majnun" poem of Nizami Ganjavi.

The plane trees planted beside of the pool are 400 years old. They were planted in 1532. The width of the trees is 13.5 meters and the height is 42 meters. It is prohibited to cut the trees down as they included in the "The Red Book".

There is museum, Albanian temple, a cafe serving national and Shaki dishes, shops selling handicrafts in the yard.

Horse riding and taking photos are allowed in the yard surrounded by castle walls.



Shaki halva



The most delicious treat everyone asks to bring from Shaki is baklava. Although, this sweet is named bakhlava in some Azerbaijani regions, however, local residents call it halva. It is one of the most preferred desserts by the city's guests.

Two or three slices of halva, which is made from rice flour, nut or hazelnut, and sherbet, are enough to enjoy its taste because of its sweetness. If desired you can replace sherbet with honey. The price of the halva is 6 manat ($3.5). Guests favorite halva is Ali Akhmads and Yahiyas products.

The exact information about the history of Shaki Halva has not been reached so far. There are currently more than 60 halva shops in Shaki. Many of them belong to local residents.

Shaki Piti

When someone says piti in Azerbaijan, Shaki comes to mind. Piti is a meal made in pottery called "dobu". Although it looks like "bozbash" for the first glance, however they are absolutel different. The distinctive feature of piti which made from meat, chickpeas, and chestnut is crushing before eating. In ancient times, local residents have used the rumka for crushing chickpeas. Most times, when the piti is served, sumak with onion slices are also placed next to it.

You don't feel hungry for 6-7 hours, when you eat dobu piti. The piti reportedly was given to the workers in ancient times due to its high calories.

If you are in Shaki, you may choose Gagarin restaurant, which is located on way to the Shaki Khan palace, as meal in this restaurant is tasty and the view of the city is gorgeous from here.

Caravanserais



At the time Shaki has five caravanserais, however, only two of them - Upper and Lower caravanserais have been survived to this very day. The palace, built in the 18th century for travelers and caravans, is now used as a hotel and there is a restaurant, where national dishes are served.

You feel gorgeous when entering the old palace, which is full of green trees. The ceiling of inner part of the gates is cupola, which is made from brick.

Caravanserai is one of the most favorite places which all of visitors choose here for photo shooting. The Azerbaijani film Hem ziyaret, hem ticaret (Visit and trade), in which actor Haji Ismayilov co-starred with Nuriya Ahmadova, was shot in the yard of the Caravanserai. Even President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also been here.

There are also sightseeing places such as Markhal, Soyuqbulag, Galarsan-Gorersen fortress, Mustafa bay's place, and Khan lowland in Shaki. A restaurant surrounded by greenery has been built near the Soyuqbulag. The road to the Markhal passes near the Soyugbulag. The water of this spring is like ice and very tasty.

Gelersen-Gorersen fortress is located on the coast of the Kish river, about 4 km from Shaki city center. The path to the castle is tiring because it is upright. However, it is worth to be breathless for its amazing view.



The fortress built to protect from enemy still maintains its actuality. In general, this is not the only sightseeings to see in Shaki. Even though the city is far from Baku, however, it is worth to visit Shaki for its beautiful panorama.Local and Albany County officials marked the one-year anniversary of the South Westerlo Business Association, formed after the May 21, 2017, fire that destroyed Lady Bug Soap as well as the owners' home. After the blaze, local businesses raised thousands of dollars for the recovery effort, the catalyst for the creation of the association. Since then, according to County Executive Dan McCoy's office the association has raised funds for two new advertisement signs after the original was knocked down as well as working to raise their profile on social media.

McCoy recognized accomplishments as part of the Albany County Cares about Our Businesses annual celebration of small businesses. (Albany County County Executive's office)WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh faces the bright lights of his confirmation hearing Tuesday with a bitterly divided Senate that is nonetheless almost sure to install him as the next justice, even as the nation becomes more polarized than ever in battles over the judiciary.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Americans are split over whether President Donald Trump's second nominee to the Supreme Court should be confirmed, with partisans more divided over the selection than any other high-court candidate in the past three decades.

Just under 4 in 10 - 38 percent - say he should be confirmed, while a similar 39 percent say he should not; almost a quarter, 23 percent, have no opinion. Middling levels of overall support plagued the nominations of failed Supreme Court picks for Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush.

Barring a major stumble by Kavanaugh, however, the 53-year-old is on track to be confirmed by the end of the month and sit on the nation's most powerful court for decades - rendering the hearings as little more than a perfunctory box to check as Democrats struggle to land a blow against a nomination they have little power to kill.

"The numbers are not on our side," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., the main vote counter for Senate Democrats. "Having said that, this is going to be an important and exhaustive hearing on the important issues facing the Supreme Court and Judge Kavanaugh."

Public views of Kavanaugh stand out for being more politically polarized than any Supreme Court nominee dating to 1987. Kavanaugh has the support of 78 percent of Republicans in the Post-ABC poll, along with 13 percent of Democrats, a difference of 65 percentage points.

The only other nominee with nearly as wide of a margin was Trump's nominee Neil M. Gorsuch, who had the support of 81 percent of Republicans and 22 percent of Democrats - a difference of 59 points, according to a February 2017 Pew survey. Gorsuch still garnered more positive ratings overall than Kavanaugh, with 44 percent supporting his confirmation and 32 percent opposing.

Robert Bork, whose nomination was defeated by the Senate after he was chosen by Reagan, received narrowly positive support at 31 percent to 25 percent in Gallup's initial gauge of opinion in 1987, although those figures turned more negative over time. And Bush's nominee, Harriet Miers, garnered 33 percent support with opposition at 27 percent in Pew Research Center polling. In the face of opposition from the right, her nomination was withdrawn.

"Consider the president nominating him and what this president said about judges, what this president said about the Constitution, what he has said about what he expects of those who are loyal to him," Durbin said. "Is it any wonder the American people are skeptical about whether Judge Kavanaugh can truly be independent?"

Still, Republicans working to get Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court are unconcerned about his relative lack of popularity in public polling. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., needs only to keep his ranks together to get Kavanaugh confirmed, and Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska - considered to be key swing votes - have not signaled publicly that they are seriously considering rejecting his nomination.

Meanwhile, a trio of red-state Democrats - Sens. Heidi Heitkamp, N.D., Joe Donnelly, Ind., and Joe Manchin III, W.Va. - are being heavily pressured to cross party lines and confirm Kavanaugh, just as they did for Gorsuch in April 2017.

"It speaks more to the polarization than anything about the judge himself," said Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, an advocacy group that promotes conservative nominees to the courts.

While a slew of Republican and Democratic senators have made their positions official on Kavanaugh, Severino added that the confirmation hearings are "also a real opportunity for the American people to see Brett Kavanaugh himself."

"They've heard a lot of things. They've heard this vision of him as this evil monster who's out there to destroy the Constitution," she said. "They've heard he's a great carpool dad . . . now they get a chance to see and judge for themselves."

Senate Democrats are preparing an onslaught of questions that center on health care and abortion access, Kavanaugh's views on presidential power and what he knew about various controversies under the Bush administration, such as its treatment of enemy combatants in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Kavanaugh served for five years under Bush as associate White House counsel and subsequently as staff secretary, and Democratic senators who questioned him during his confirmation hearings for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals insist Kavanaugh wasn't truthful about his knowledge of key Bush administration policies.

The fate of the Affordable Care Act could be a potent line of questioning for Democrats, particularly as conservative states mounting a legal challenge to the health-care law face a hearing in Texas while Kavanaugh's confirmation proceedings unfold.

And Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said in an interview that she plans to question Kavanaugh on how much he knew about the misconduct allegations against Alex Kozinski, the former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, for whom Kavanaugh clerked. Republicans, in turn, are prepared to point out that other Kozinski clerks have been nominated for federal judgeships and confirmed with the help of Democratic senators.

If confirmed, Kavanaugh would replace former Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a swing vote for three decades on the high court.

On one of the issues that has animated Democrats in the Kavanaugh fight - abortion rights - most Americans want to hear the nominee's opinion before he is confirmed.

Almost 6 in 10, 59 percent, say he should publicly state his opinion on the matter while about 3 in 10, 31 percent, say he should not. That mirrors Post-ABC polling since the early 2000s that found majorities wanting Supreme Court nominees to disclose their opinions on abortion.

"Certainly, I would have concerns about where he would go with Roe vs. Wade," Hirono said. "There will be a number of those who have those concerns."

More Democrats (74 percent) than Republicans (48 percent) say Kavanaugh should state his abortion position before being approved by the Senate. Leading up to Elena Kagan's confirmation in 2010, that was flipped, with more Republicans (66 percent) than Democrats (46 percent) saying she should publicly state her position on abortion.

Overall, a 45 percent plurality says the Supreme Court should leave the ability for a woman to get an abortion the same as it is now, while 30 percent say the court should make it harder and 21 percent say it should become easier. People who want abortion made easier are largely opposed to Kavanaugh's confirmation, with 62 percent of them saying he should not be confirmed and 15 percent saying he should. A majority of those who think abortion should be made harder support his confirmation (66 percent), while 13 percent say he should not be confirmed. Those who say the Supreme Court should not make changes to the ability for a woman to get an abortion lean against confirming him (45 percent) as opposed to confirming him (31 percent).

Among other demographic differences in support for Kavanaugh's nomination are gender and religion. Almost half of men, 47 percent, say he should be confirmed, compared with 29 percent of women. And white evangelicals back Kavanaugh's confirmation by about a 3-to-1 margin, 56 percent to 18 percent, although more than one-quarter have no opinion. White Catholics are more evenly divided, with 44 percent saying he should be confirmed and 38 percent saying he should not.

"That's typical of the type of warfare against Republican nominees," Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, a former Judiciary Committee chairman who has participated in 14 Supreme Court nomination fights, said of public perceptions about Kavanaugh. "We're going to get him confirmed. But there'll be a lot of fuss and game-playing over it."

The Post-ABC poll was conducted among a random national sample of 1,003 adults reached on conventional phones and cellphones; the margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

---

The Washington Post's Gabriel Pogrund and Scott Clement contributed to this report.Pike County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Quinten L. Cantwell, 34, of Bowling Green, Missouri, was arrested at 7:01 p.m. Sunday on charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia and on a Pike County warrant accusing him of failing to appear in court.

 Ryan Couch, 25, of Hannibal, Missouri, was arrested at 6:48 p.m. Friday on charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

 Anthony W. Waters, 38, of Pittsfield was arrested at 12:14 p.m. Friday on charges of driving while license is suspended or revoked, possession of methamphetamine and possession of a controlled substance.

 Alexandria A. Cooley, 21, of Pittsfield was arrested at 8:38 p.m. Thursday on a domestic battery charge.

 Donald J. Little, 35, of Pittsfield was arrested at 8:38 p.m. Thursday on a domestic battery charge.

 Brian A. Martin, 30, of Griggsville was arrested at 9:54 p.m. Wednesday on a domestic battery charge.

 Meagan L. Martin, 41, of Griggsville was arrested at 9:54 p.m. Wednesday on a domestic battery charge.

 Alicia K. Niffen, 28, of Pleasant Hill was arrested at 6:40 p.m. Aug. 28 on a possession of methamphetamine charge.

Compiled by David C.L. BauerTwo months ahead of the midterm elections, Democrats hold a clear advantage over Republicans in congressional vote support, with antipathy toward President Donald Trump fueling Democratic enthusiasm, even among those in the party who stayed home four years ago, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.

The survey also points to broad unrest and frustration with the political system generally. More than 6 in 10 Americans say Trump and the Republican Party are out of touch with most people in the country. While Democrats fare better, a narrower 51 percent majority also judged them out of touch.

Registered voters say they favor the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate in their district by 52 percent to 38 percent. That is a marked increase from the four-point edge in an April Post-ABC poll but similar to the 12-point advantage Democrats enjoyed in January.

Because of the overall makeup of congressional districts, analysts have long said that Democrats would need a clear advantage on this "generic ballot" question, and in the national popular vote for the House, if they hope to flip the 23 seats needed to take control. The Post-ABC poll puts Democrats in a stronger position today than some other recent surveys, which showed them with an edge of about eight points on this measure.

Self-identified Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are slightly more likely than Republicans and Republican-leaning independents to say they are absolutely certain to vote, by 80 percent to 74 percent.

Four years ago, when Republicans made gains in the midterm elections, the GOP enjoyed a 10-point advantage on this question in Post-ABC surveys that fall, 71 percent to 61 percent. The latest survey also asked whether people had voted in 2014, and among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who say they did not, 63 percent say they are absolutely certain to vote in November.

The past three midterm elections - 2006, 2010 and 2014 - produced substantial losses for the party that held the White House. In 2006, Republicans lost control of the House, but they regained it four years later. In 2014, they captured control of the Senate. Trump's victory in 2016 gave them full control of the executive and legislative branches.

Presidential approval has become a strong indicator of which party voters will support in midterm elections. More than 8 in 10 voters who disapprove of a president's performance have backed opposition party candidates in recent midterm elections.

In the Post-ABC poll, more than 8 in 10 voters who approve of Trump support Republicans, while more than 8 in 10 of Trump disapprovers support Democrats. Given Trump's current ratings, this puts Republicans at a clear disadvantage heading toward November.

Through most of his presidency, Trump's approval ratings have been generally stable. His current average in surveys polling random samples of registered voters since mid-August is about 42 percent, which includes the results from the Post-ABC poll. Republicans know they will be exceedingly vulnerable in November if the president is not able to improve his standing over the next two months.

Ironically, the GOP's weak position comes even as 58 percent of Americans say the economy is excellent or good, tying ratings from January as the most positive marks in 17 years. The fact that many Republicans are worried about whether they can hold the House during a time of positive economic assessments underscores how much Trump's unpopularity has undermined the party' greatest asset as fall campaigning begins.

The 38 percent minority of voters who rate the economy as "not so good" or "poor" favor Democrats over Republicans at 70 to 20 percent, a 50-point margin. But Republicans hold only a seven-point advantage with the majority of voters who view the economy positively, 49 to 42 percent.

Trump is a key factor in the asymmetry. Nearly half of voters who are upbeat about the economy still disapprove of the president's job performance. Among this group, Democrats lead Republicans by a lopsided 74-point margin in congressional vote preferences, 83 percent to 9 percent.

When asked whether they would rather have Democrats control Congress "as a check on Trump" or a Republican-controlled Congress "to support Trump's agenda," 60 percent of voters say they prefer having Democrats in control. In July 2017, that figure was 52 percent, at a time when Trump's job ratings were almost identical to today.

Meanwhile, 59 percent of voters say it is extremely or very important for them to support a candidate who shares their opinion of Trump, a figure that has grown seven points since April. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats and 65 percent of Republicans say they are seeking candidates with similar views of the president, suggesting that Trump is a motivator for both his supporters and his opponents.

The gender gap in views of Trump continues to be a key factor looking ahead to the fall campaign, with the Post-ABC poll finding 66 percent of female registered voters disapproving of Trump, including 59 percent who disapprove "strongly." Among men, 52 percent disapprove, 45 percent strongly.

Vote preferences show a similar divide, with men basically split in support for Democratic or Republican House candidates, but women favoring Democrats by 58 percent to 33 percent, a 25-point margin. Women are also nine points more likely than men to say it's important for congressional candidates to share their views on Trump.

Americans sense high stakes for the November elections, which could boost turnout from a half-century low point in 2014. Nearly two-thirds of registered voters say it is more important to vote now than in past midterms. Democratic-leaning voters are more likely than Republican-leaning voters to say that voting this fall is more important than in previous midterm years, by 75 percent to 57 percent.

A Democratic takeover of the House would break unified Republican control of the federal government and give lawmakers substantial power to launch investigations of the Trump administration on a range of fronts.

Many Democrats have avoided talking about their intentions on whether to pursue impeachment proceedings that could remove Trump from office, while some Republicans, including Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, have warned that Democrats would try to impeach the president.

The Post-ABC poll finds that 72 percent of adults think the Democrats would seek to impeach the president if they were in power in the House, including 79 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of Democrats. However, the country is closely divided on the question of whether Congress should begin such proceedings - 49 percent are in favor and 46 percent opposed. The gap between the support for impeachment proceedings and the wider perception that Democrats would undertake them could be a liability for Democratic candidates in November.

Both parties have sought to take advantage on the issue of immigration, with Democrats hoping to exploit Trump's now-rescinded policy of separating parents and children at the border, while Republicans are casting Democrats as weak on immigration and favoring "open borders" that have led to increased gang crime.

The Post-ABC poll finds a 56 percent majority of adults overall think Trump is "too harsh" in dealing with illegal immigration, while about 3 in 10 think he's handled it about right and 1 in 10 say he is "not tough enough." Asked how Democrats would govern if they won control of Congress, 47 percent think they would handle illegal immigration about right, but 43 percent think they would not be tough enough and only 4 percent believe they would be too harsh.

Trade also looms over the fall campaign, with U.S. agriculture and other industries expecting to take an economic hit from escalating trade disputes with China and other countries. The Post-ABC poll finds that 41 percent of the public supports the tariffs Trump placed on some goods imported to the United States, while 50 percent oppose them.

On the broader question of who is or is not in touch with the American people, the perception of the president and the GOP has changed little since the early days of Trump's presidency, with 63 percent saying each are out of touch. At the same time, 51 percent say the Democrats are out of touch with most people; in April 2017, it was 67 percent who thought that was the case.

This Post-ABC poll was conducted Aug. 26-29 among a national random sample of 1,003 adults including 879 registered voters. The overall results have an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, while the sample of registered voters has an error margin of plus or minus four points.

---

The Washington Post's Emily Guskin contributed to this report.Several people were rescued from flooded vehicles Monday night across San Antonio, but one roadway on the North Side stalled multiple drivers at once, causing an extended rescue operation.

About four or five drivers became stranded around 10:45 p.m. on Basse Road while trying to pass under U.S. 281.

First responders rescued at least seven people from the vehicles and ushered them to safety.

RELATED: Heavy rainfall 'smashes' daily record as storms cause flash flooding across Bexar County'

As of 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, the roadway was still barricaded off from passing drivers.

Firefighters responded to a total of 63 high water rescue calls from Monday night to Tuesday morning. Of the 63, four required firefighters to enter the water to save the victims, said Joe Arrington, a spokesman for the San Antonio Fire Department.

Arrington urges all drivers in San Antonio to avoid high water and "turn around, don't drown."

The drivers were caught up in the record-breaking rainfall across San Antonio. Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said via social media that parts of San Antonio had up to 6.07 inches of rain, which "smashes" the daily rainfall record of 1.76 inches from 1889.

Over 9 inches of rain was observed around Stone Oak Parkway, and more than 8 inches between Shavano Park and Camp Bullis, according to the NWS website.

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Houston-based HCA Gulf Coast completed its acquisition of North Cypress (Texas) Medical Center and named Jim Brown the facility's CEO.

Here's what you should know:

1. Mr. Brown was formerly HCA Healthcare's chief development officer. He also served as Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System's senior vice president/ambulatory services CEO.

2. Mr. Brown holds a master's in healthcare administration from San Antonio-based Trinity University. He is an American College of Healthcare Executives fellow.

3. HCA Gulf Coast acquired North Cypress Medical Center, a139-bed acute care facility, Sept. 1.

4. HCA Gulf Coast Division President Troy Villarreal said in a press release,"Jim Brown is uniquely qualified to lead North Cypress Medical Center. He has a strong background in hospital operations, a keen understanding of our strategic plan and a proven track record developing services that meet the community's healthcare needs."In the U.S., one healthcare issue that dominates headlines, surveys and reports is the exorbitant cost of care.

Many organizations haven't successfully lowered costs because they don't understand the true cost of care, which is critical to grasp in a value-based world. "What you don't know, you can't solve," according to Tushar Pandey, vice president of decision support for Strata Decision Technology. However, only 10 percent of U.S. healthcare systems have adopted advanced cost accounting tools to address this knowledge gap, according to Mr. Pandey.

"Data is probably the most valuable resource health systems and healthcare have today, but on the flip side, [data is] probably the most underutilized resource that exists in healthcare as well," said Mr. Pandey, during an Aug. 28 webinar sponsored by Strata Decision Technology and hosted by Becker's Hospital Review. "It's because there are too many silos that exist between data. [Clinical and financial data] need to talk to each other to have a meaningful impact in healthcare."

Stan Jakubowski, senior financial system support analyst with Portland-based Maine Medical Center, joined Mr. Pandey for the webinar. During the presentation, Mr. Jakubowski described how the 637-bed hospital leveraged Strata's decision support tools to deliver actionable data.

Creating actionable dashboards and reports

Maine Medical Center was successful in leveraging data to understand costs because it had the right tools, mindset and skillset in place to drive action, Mr. Pandey said during the webinar.

After shopping around for analytics tools that could provide Mr. Jakubowski's team with insights into cost, revenue and statistical measures for Maine Medical Center's 12 service lines, Mr. Jakubowski selected the Strata Decision Support dashboard.

"I've found most systems are on this continuity somewhere: If they're really flexible and you can do anything you can dream of, you need a programmer's background to actually get it up and working, and it takes time to build it up from scratch," he said. "There's other systems that come as a box, really canned and nice  but you can't tweak them, you can't do everything that you imagine. But Strata's got a nice blend of these two things."

MMC applied parameter logic to Strata's standard reports to customize reports for various service lines, a process Mr. Jakubowski likened to building a house out of Legos. Strata can accommodate multiple service line definitions, he said.

With the help of clinical end-users, the decision support team first focused on defining nine service lines such as adult medicine, surgical services and neuroscience. The team later used Strata's executive dashboard feature to build dashboards for three location-based service lines: critical care, emergency department/urgent care and primary care.

The team set up templates and used the dashboard's global parameter feature to quickly replicate them across the first nine service lines. The dashboards display information in a tabular format alongside graphics.

The team then selected data points, including volume, average length of stay, case mix index, payer mix, contribution margin, net income and financials per case. Strata offers a huge advantage, Mr. Jakubowski said, by making it possible to pinpoint the exact cost for each visit and the contribution margin per case.

Empowering end users to harness data

To take advantage of these capabilities, Mr. Jakubowski's team met with the service line leaders most interested in the reporting tool on a weekly basis. Those leaders used Strata reports to present data during monthly meetings, which generated interest among other stakeholders. For instance, data highlighting differences between high-volume and low-volume service lines captured the attention of C-suite executives.

Through regular meetings with the decision support team, service line leaders became familiar with the reports, and Mr. Jakubowski's team developed a deeper understanding of the leaders' goals.

During the training process, MMC distinguished between basic users and super users. Whereas basic users received watered-down instructions, super users were extensively trained on understanding Strata data and how it's organized.

MMC's user-based approach differentiates it from other organizations, according to Mr. Pandey. Few organizations with similar tools put the data in decision-makers' hands.

"One of the things I like [that MMC is] doing  is this concept of empowering other users to be able to contribute to the cause," Mr. Pandey said. "As you're developing a big base of super users who can do their own data discovery and their own analytics, what that does is expand that power, empowers others to be able to create things like that for people they work for, or audiences they think are necessary."

In addition to teaching providers to use the tool, it's crucial to help clinical personnel develop financial understanding through strategies such as cost accounting bootcamps, Mr. Pandey said.

Transforming data into action

With staff thoroughly trained, MMC is using Strata decision support tools to determine if certain tests are overutilized or if scheduling tests earlier can improve the average length of stay. Previously, reports from Strata helped the hospital discover variations in implants used for single spine fusion procedures drove up costs. Team members were able to view what implant items neurosurgeons typically used and respond accordingly.

The data was key to validating the procurement department's efforts. From fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2018, MMC's procurement department made efforts to lower supply costs by standardizing implant prices or encouraging physicians to use more economical items. The efforts were successful  and Strata delivered the data to prove it.

Listen to the webinar recording here.Utica, N.Y.-based Mohawk Valley Health System secured the last piece of funding to finance its $480 million expansion project, according to the Utica Observer-Dispatch.

The expansion calls for the construction of a 672,000-square-foot hospital, which will be built on a 25-acre campus in downtown Utica. The hospital has been proposed as a replacement for Mohawk Valley's two Utica-based campuses, St. Elizabeth and St. Luke's.

Most of the project will be funded by a $300 million state grant. The remainder will be financed by the $180 million loan, which hospital administrators say will be finalized in the next few weeks.

"We cannot take out a $180 million loan to build a $480 million hospital without a plan to make sure we can pay for it," Robert Scholefield, the health system's executive vice president said about repaying the loan, according to the Observer-Dispatch. "That's our commitment to the community. That's our commitment to our 487 employees. So yes, there is a plan."

The project is in the design phase, which will be wrapped up by October. Hospital administrators expect to break ground late next year.The following hospital and health system ratings, outlook changes and affirmations took place in August, starting 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.

8. S&P revises West Park Hospital District's outlook to stable

S&P Global Ratings revised the outlook to stable from positive on Cody, Wyo.-based West Park Hospital District.

9. Moody's revises ThedaCare's outlook to negative

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A1" rating on $223 million of Appleton, Wis.-based ThedaCare's debt. Concurrently, the credit agency revised the healthcare provider's outlook to negative from stable.

10. S&P downgrades EvergreenHealth's rating to 'A'

S&P Global Ratings downgraded Kirkland, Wash.-based EvergreenHealth's long-term rating to "A" from "A+." The health system is also known as King County Public Hospital District No. 2.

11. ProMedica gets 3-notch downgrade, negative outlook from Moody's

Six days after a multinotch downgrade from S&P, a second credit rating agency, Moody's Investors Service, lowered Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica Health System's rating several notches to "Baa1" from "A1." The rating action affects $420 million of debt.

12. Fitch upgrades Gundersen Lutheran's debt to 'AA-'

Fitch Ratings upgraded La Crosse, Wis.-based Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center's series 2011A and series 2012 bonds to "AA-" from "A+," affecting $194 million of debt.

13. Moody's upgrades Mercy Hospital to 'Ba3' after sizable debt payment

Moody's Investors Service upgraded Iowa City, Iowa-based Mercy Hospital to "Ba3" from "B1," affecting $34 milion of debt. Concurrently, Moody's revised the hospital's outlook to positive from negative.

14. S&P revises Denver Health and Hospital Authority's outlook to stable on improved finances

S&P Global Ratings affirmed its "BBB" long-term rating on Denver Health and Hospital Authority and revised its outlook to stable from negative.

15. Moody's affirms 'Aa3' rating on U of North Carolina Hospitals

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Aa3" long-term rating on Chapel Hill-based University of North Carolina Hospitals, affecting $330 million of debt.

16. Moody's affirms 'A2' rating on Rex Healthcare

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A2" long-term rating on Raleigh, N.C.-based Rex Healthcare, affecting $140 million of debt.

17. ProMedica gets multi-notch downgrade from S&P

S&P Global Ratings downgraded Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica Health System's long-term rating several notches to "BBB" from "A+."

18. Fitch upgrades Adventist Health's debt to 'A+'

Fitch Ratings upgraded its long-term rating on Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health's $919 million in outstanding debt to "A+" from "A."

19. Fitch affirms Guadalupe Regional Medical Center's 'BB' rating

Fitch Ratings affirmed its "BB" rating on Seguin, Texas-based Guadalupe Regional Medical Center's series 2015, affecting $113.6 million in debt.

20. Moody's revises Tarrant County Hospital District's outlook to negative

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Aa3" rating on Grand Prairie, Texas-based Tarrant County Hospital District, affecting $18 million of debt. The district does business as JPS Health Network.

21. Moody's assigns 'Baa1' rating to Cabell Huntington Hospital

Moody's Investors Service assigned its "Baa1" rating to Cabell Huntington (W. Va.) Hospital's series 2018A and 2018B revenue refunding and improvement revenue bonds. In total, the bonds are $260 million.

22. Moody's affirms 'Baa1' rating on Silver Cross Hospital

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa1" rating on New Lenox, Ill.-based Silver Cross Hospital's outstanding bonds, affecting $280 million of debt.

23. Moody's affirms Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's 'Aa2' rating

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its long-term "Aa2" rating on Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, affecting $418 million of debt.

24. Fitch downgrades Holy Redeemer Health System to 'BBB-'

Fitch Ratings downgraded Huntingdon Valley, Pa.-based Holy Redeemer Health System's revenue and refunding bonds to "BBB-" from "BBB."

25. Fitch upgrades NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital's rating to 'A'

Fitch Ratings upgraded the rating on New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital's series 2014 to "A" from "A-," affecting $25.95 million of debt.

26. Fitch affirms Texas Children's Hospital's 'AA' rating

Fitch Ratings affirmed its "AA" long-term rating on the outstanding bonds of Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital, affecting about $666 million of debt.

27. SCL Health gets Fitch issuer default rating of 'AA-'

Fitch Ratings assigned Broomfield, Colo.-based Sisters of Charity Leavenworth Health Services Corp. an issuer default rating of "AA." The system does business as SCL Health.

28. Moody's revises Doctors Community Hospital's outlook to negative

Moody's Investors Service revised Goddard, Md.-based Doctors Community Hospital's outlook to negative and affirmed its "Baa3" rating on the hospital's outstanding bonds. The action affects $64.2 million of debt.

29. Fitch downgrades Premier Health's rating to 'A'

Fitch Ratings downgraded Dayton, Ohio-based Premier Health's rating to "A" from "A+." At the same time, Fitch assigned the health system an issuer default rating of "A."

30. Moody's affirms 'Baa2' rating on King's Daughters' Health

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa2" rating on the $95 million series 2010 bonds of Madison, Ind.-based King's Daughters' Health.

31. Moody's downgrades San Gorgonio Memorial Healthcare District to 'Baa3', maintains negative outlook

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Banning, Calif.-based San Gorgonio Memorial Healthcare District's general obligation bond rating to "Baa3" from "A3," affecting $115.7 million of outstanding debt.

32. S&P downgrades Westchester County Health Care to 'BBB-'

S&P Global Ratings downgraded Valhalla, N.Y.-based Westchester County Health Care's revenue and refunding bonds to "BBB-" from "BBB."

33. S&P revises UAB Medicine's outlook to negative over weaker operations

S&P Global Ratings revised Birmingham, Ala.-based UAB Medicine's outlook to negative from stable.

34. S&P upgrades Torrance Memorial Medical Center's rating to 'A'

S&P Global Ratings upgraded its long-term and underlying rating on Torrance (Calif.) Memorial Medical Center's outstanding debt to "A" from "BBB."

35. Moody's affirms 'A1' rating on ProHealth Care

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A1" rating on Waukesha, Wis.-based ProHealth Care, affecting $181 million of outstanding debt.

36. Moody's assigns 'Baa1' to Baptist Healthcare System's bonds

Moody's Investors Service assigned its "Baa1" rating to Louisville-based Baptist Healthcare System's proposed $130 million series 2018A revenue refunding bonds. At the same time, Moody's upgraded the health system's parity debt to "Baa1" from "Baa2," affecting $442 million of debt.Several healthcare organizations received donations to fund research, advance treatments, improve patient care or start renovations in August.

Here are nine recent donations, grants or gifts given to healthcare organizations in the last month, reported by Becker's Hospital Review:

1. University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (Aurora) received the largest private gift in its history  a $120 million commitment from the Anschutz Foundation. The donation will support faculty recruitment and retention, research opportunities, industry partnerships and the construction of a 390,000-square-foot health science building.

2. Mission Health (Ashville, N.C.) pledged to donate $90 million to hospital foundations in six rural communities, but with a twist. The provider said the donation will only be made if its proposed sale to Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare closes. The funds, which would come from sale proceeds, would be distributed over a three-year period. The gifts would support programs to enhance the health and well-being of the rural communities.

3. Indiana University Health (Indianapolis) received a $10 million gift from Joe Schwarz, a self-made businessman who lost his battle to throat cancer five months ago, and his wife Shelly. The gift will support construction of a cancer center at IU Health North, based in Carmel, Ind. The cancer center, scheduled to open in January 2020, will be named after the donors.

4. Ronald McDonald House Charities, a nonprofit foundation seeking to improve the health and well-being of children, received a record-breaking $100 million gift from AbbVie. The gift, which is the largest in the charity's history, will expand access to housing and family-centered services for pediatric patients and their families during hospital stays.

5. Bryan Medical Center (Lincoln, Neb.) received the largest single donation in its 82-year history from the Acklie Charitable Foundation. The amount of the gift remains undisclosed. The private donation will support a $45 million expansion and renovation of Bryan's East Campus.

6. Erlanger Children's Hospital (Chattanooga, Tenn.) obtained a $5 million donation from the Kennedy Foundation  the single largest gift in its history. The donation will support the children's outpatient center, slated to open in December.

7. Partners in Health (Boston) is a foundation that broadens access to healthcare for marginalized populations. It received a "visionary" $15 million gift from the Wagner Foundation to establish new programs, including an effort to collect and store health data in remote Liberia, where health records are often difficult to come by.

8. The Valley Hospital (Ridgewood, N.J.) received two donations Aug. 15 totaling $35 million. The gifts, $15 million from Bolger Foundation and $20 million from an anonymous donor, will go toward construction of its 372-bed hospital in Paramus, N.J.

9. Parkland Health & Hospital System (Dallas) received a $1 million donation from the Hillcrest Foundation to support the construction of a comprehensive breast health center. The new center will replace its existing breast health center. With the $1 million donation, the health system has raised $36 million of its $40 million goal.Ellwood City (Pa.) Hospital is facing financial troubles, but members of its advisory board are confident the hospital will improve its financial position, according to the Ellwood City Ledger.

Americore Health, a privately held company based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., owns and manages Ellwood City Hospital. Nine complaints were filed against Americore earlier this year alleging the company defaulted on contracts totaling $7.1 million. In June, New York's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the creditors, resulting in bank accounts tied to Ellwood City Hospital being frozen, according to the Ellwood City Ledger, which cited court documents.

Ellwood City Hospital couldn't make payroll or pay other expenses after the accounts were frozen, and was forced to implement layoffs. Hospital officials have not released the exact number of layoffs or the departments affected, according to the report.

Despite Ellwood City Hospital's financial struggles, members of its advisory board say it will only take a few weeks for the hospital to improve its financial position.

Americore Health CEO Grant White told Alan Dambaugh, chairman of the hospital's seven-member advisory board, Ellwood City Hospital has the financial backing it needs to continue operating.

"It looks grim now, but within the next few weeks we should be able to get the labs running," which is a major revenue source for the hospital, Mr. Dambaugh told the Ellwood City Ledger. "We just have to ride it out for another two weeks."

More articles on healthcare finance:

Tennessee health system lands in bankruptcy after acquiring 3 hospitals from CHS

NewYork-Presbyterian's net income tumbles 47%

Vanderbilt University Medical Center points to Epic rollout for 68% drop in operating incomeApple is seeking an engineering manager to support its health business.

The open position, posted to Apple's website Aug. 30 and titled "Knowledge Engineering Manager - Health," targets engineering managers with a background in health data, including at least two years leading software engineering, data science or clinical informatics teams.

The job listing highlights Apple's preference for candidates with experiences in health standards, medical coding systems and health knowledge representation, such as graph databases and deep relational data modeling.

Apple doesn't note what unit the engineering manager will join  only that they will lead a team working on "an exciting project" to "ensure we continue innovating in a rapidly changing field."

"This is a great opportunity to empower people to improve their health," the job listing reads. "The ideal candidate enjoys breaking down complex problems, thrives in an agile and dynamic cross-functional team, loves data, and wants to make a big impact on health."

In recent months, Apple has ramped up its health records project, an effort to integrate patient health records into the iPhone's Health app. In August, the company closed enrollment for the Apple Heart Study, a joint heart rhythm research project with Stanford University School of Medicine in California and telehealth vendor American Well.

Apple also has a number of rumored projects. A patent application made public in June suggests the tech giant may soon offer a wearable device that monitors blood pressure, for example.

The new job listing mirrors a similar post the iPhone maker released in April, seeking a "Clinical Health Insights iOS Engineering Manager."

For the clinical health insights position, Apple said it sought an engineering manager who has "a strong attention to detail, thrives in an agile and dynamic cross-functional team, loves data, enjoys building teams and mentoring engineers, and wants to make a big impact on health."California senators passed a bill Aug. 29 that could make the Golden State the first to set a quota for female representation on boards, CNN Money reports.

The bill awaits a signature from Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown. If signed into law, public companies would be required to have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019 or face a penalty. One-fourth of public companies based in California do not have any women on their boards.

The law would increase the quota in 2021, requiring boards with five directors to include at least two women and boards of six or more to include three or more women directors by the end of the year, according to the report.

European countries have already implemented comparable requirements. A similar but more extensive law in Norway requires 40 percent of board directors to be women. Mandatory quotas have worked to increase board diversity in Europe, according to the report.

Read more here.

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Atul Gawande is hiringA prominent federal judge resigned from the board of directors at Houston-based Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center after an investigation revealed a high rate of deaths and unusual complications in the hospital's heart transplant program, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Five things to know:

1. Carolyn Dineen King, a senior U.S. Circuit judge, said she stepped down from St. Luke's board May 30, two weeks after the Chronicle and ProPublica published the investigation detailing problems with the program. Ms. King joined the board in January 2014 and chaired the committee that oversees quality and patient safety at St. Luke's, part of Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives.

When a reporter asked Ms. King if she quit because she was not fully informed about the program's problems, she declined to comment.

2. The series of stories published by Chronicle and ProPublica found the program performed an outsized number of transplants that resulted in patient deaths or unusual complications. After raising concerns, several top physicians left the program, including a few cardiologists who began sending patients to other hospitals for transplants.

3. Ms. King was the only board member who resigned this year, hospital officials said. Additionally, hospital administrators took steps to "correct and improve" the heart transplant program over the last three years and kept board members informed of their progress, a spokesperson told the Chronicle.

4. A special committee of the board, appointed after the investigation's release, aims to improve the heart transplant program and is "committed to ensuring the high level of excellence that everyone envisions at Baylor St. Luke's," hospital officials said.

5. CMS cut off Medicare funding for the program Aug. 17 because the hospital did not show it had done enough to ensure patient safety.

The deadline to appeal CMS' decision is Sept. 14, but hospital administrators have not said if they plan to do so.



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Living like a leader: A day with Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Tomislav MihaljevicUnionized healthcare workers and their supporters protested Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente on Labor Day over planned job cuts, according to CBS Los Angeles.

The workers, who are represented by the Service Employees International Union  United Healthcare Workers West, marched to Kaiser Permanente Downey (Calif.) Medical Center, where they rallied. Police confirmed 13 union activists were arrested outside the medical center in the protest, but did not provide details, according to the report. Kaiser Permanente employees and their supporters also marched and protested at Kaiser Permanente Oakland (Calif.) Medical Center.

Union officials said in a news release that workers were protesting job cuts they believe would harm patient care. These cuts include outsourcing 70 pharmacy warehouse workers in Downey, 34 couriers at a laboratory in North Hollywood, Calif., 43 licensed vocational nurses in San Francisco, Oakland, San Leandro, Santa Clara and Walnut Creek, Calif., and 96 pharmacy warehouse workers in Oakland and Livermore, Calif.

Additionally, union officials claim Kaiser Permanente plans to move 742 jobs from call centers in Hollywood, Baldwin Park and Woodland Hills to other areas of California, as well as close a skilled nursing facility in Manteca, Calif., effective Oct. 31.

"Kaiser has been outsourcing our jobs to people who aren't invested the way we are. I love what I do, and I'm good at it," said Jesse Felix, a seven-year Kaiser Permanente employee in Chino Hills, Calif.

In a statement to Becker's, John Nelson, vice president of communications at Kaiser Permanente, took issue with the union's claims.

"The truth is Kaiser Permanente is growing and adding jobs. As one of the largest private employers in California with more than 149,000 employees and 16,000 physicians, we have added more than 13,000 jobs in the state since 2015. We have more than 12,000 open staff positions and will continue to add many kinds of jobs, including blue-collar jobs. The number of our employees represented by SEIU-UHW has grown by more than 8,000 over the same period," he wrote.

"We are disappointed that the current leadership of SEIU-UHW has chosen to mischaracterize Kaiser Permanente's strong commitment to labor and to pursue an adversarial, destructive approach."

As far as the union's claims about pharmacy operations, he said Kaiser Permanente worked with SEIU-UHW for more than a year to transition its internal pharmacy warehouse operations to an existing service provided by UPS Supply Chain Solutions. Mr. Nelson said it is a necessary move "to address the many regulatory, technical and efficiency challenges we face now and in the future."

"What's important is that we never make decisions like this lightly. We don't know of any other employer who offers more generous support to employees who are affected by job changes: We try to retrain and reassign our people first, and if that isn't feasible, we provide them up to one year of salary and benefits," he wrote.

Mr. Nelson also disputed the union's claims about outsourcing 43 vocational nurses in the Bay Area and nursing homes in Valley House and Manteca, Calif., calling the union "inaccurate in its portrayal of the impact to our LVNs."

"In fact, Kaiser Permanente does not even have a skilled nursing facility in Santa Clara," Mr. Nelson said. "We want employees affected by changes to continue to be part of Kaiser Permanente and will provide assistance and help identify other positions for them within the organization."

SEIU-UHW represents more than 55,000 Kaiser Permanente employees in California. Their current contract expires Sept. 30.

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Vermont nurses lead negotiator quits talks, says union leaders forced her outThe National Labor Relations Board found that Pittsburgh-based UPMC violated the law regarding the formation and operation of an employee council, Bloomberg BNA reported.

Six things to know:

1. The 2-1 panel decision, issued Aug. 27, relates to the council established by employees in environmental services at UPMC's Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh.

2. The NLRB found the council was a labor organization under the law, contrary to arguments from the hospital. The law defines labor organization as "any organization of any kind . . . in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment or conditions of work." Hospital representatives had argued that they only discussed quality and efficiency issues with the council, which were not considered "conditions of work." However, the NLRB disagreed, saying evidence did not show discussions were limited to quality and efficiency.

3. The NLRB also found the hospital "dominated or interfered with the formation or administration of the council." According to the board, the council was established by UPMC's vice president for operations, John Krolicki, and it was decided the council would consist of department manager Dan Gasparovic and employee volunteers. The first meeting took place in Mr. Gasparovic's conference room, and employees received prepared bylaws. Mr. Gasparovic at a subsequent council meeting revealed the group's chair and co-chairs, without taking a vote or letting council members weigh in, according to the NLRB. And at meetings after that, the labor board said UPMC set aside time for reporting on the employee of the month award and other council activities.

4. Additionally, the NLRB found that UPMC "contributed 'financial or other support' to the  council, including extensive financial and logistical support of the council's efforts to put on a Memorial Day picnic and to develop and maintain the employee of the month award."

5. The council has been inactive for years, but the NLRB ordered UPMC hospitals to ensure the council is "completely disestablished," according to Bloomberg BNA.

6. UPMC spokesperson Paul Wood told Becker's the August NLRB decision "deals with disputes from five to six years ago and relates in large part to policies and practices that UPMC has long since changed." He said the organization is evaluating its appellate options on charges upheld by the NLRB.

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Vermont nurses lead negotiator quits talks, says union leaders forced her outA 23-year-old man is accused of impersonating a physician at California hospitals, according to SFGate.

Arya Ouskouian is charged with one felony count of providing a medical diagnosis while impersonating a physician. He is also charged with eight misdemeanors for allegedly misrepresenting himself as a licensed medical practitioner, according to The Orange County Register.

Authorities allege Mr. Ouskouian posed as a physician at least seven times at Children's Hospital of Orange County in Orange, Calif., between April 23 and June 4. He is also accused of diagnosing a man about a growth on his neck on May 3 while pretending to be a physician at UC Irvine.

Mr. Ouskouian allegedly cleared security at CHOC by claiming to have lost his hospital badge and requesting a temporary one. Authorities claim Mr. Ouskouian accessed restricted floors of the hospital using the temporary badge, according to ABC News.

After learning Mr. Ouskouian was trying to pose as a resident physician, CHOC notified the California Department of Public Health, other area hospitals and law enforcement agencies.

"During limited time on our campus, we believe this individual did not interact with any of our patients," the hospital told ABC News. "The individual did not have any access to patient health information. Out of deference to the prosecution and defense of this matter, we will not provide any additional details."

The University of California Irvine Medical Center also cooperated with the investigation, according to ABC News.

"There is no indication the person impersonating a physician compromised UCI Health patient records or saw patients at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange or at UCI Health outpatient physician offices," the medical center said in a statement to ABC station KABC-TV. "This person was not affiliated in any way with UCI's school of medicine or residency program."

Mr. Ouskouian was arrested Sept. 3 and released Sept. 4 after posting bond. He will appear in court Sept. 25.

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Fake nurse in Maryland submitted thousands of false Medicaid claims, authorities sayPending approval from state regulators, Evergreen Park, Ill.-based Little Company of Mary Hospital plans to close its 20-bed inpatient pediatric unit by Nov. 1, according to The Chicago Tribune.

The hospital attributed its decision to end inpatient pediatric care to a declining demand for the service due in part to an industry shift toward outpatient care and a specialized children's hospital in the same service area.

"In light of the fact that we have seen decreasing pediatric hospitalizations, coupled with a dedicated childrens hospital within our same service area, we are discontinuing our pediatric inpatient unit," John Hanlon, MD, Little Company of Mary Hospital's president and CEO, told The Tribune.

The hospital also will halt its Care Depot program, which served as a place where hospital employees and community members could drop off their sick children for the day, so they could go to work.

Little Company of Mary still will offer pediatric emergency department services, urgent care and outpatient surgery.

Several Chicago area hospitals have shied away from pediatric inpatient care in recent years amid heightened competition from other specialized children's hospitals. In 2017, Chicago-based Mount Sinai Hospital and Amita Health's Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, Ill., shuttered their pediatric inpatient care units.

The closure of the pediatric unit needs approval from the Illinois Health Care Facilities and Review Board.America's largest cable company, Comcast, is bypassing health insurers to tackle its medical costs directly  and has kept its healthcare costs nearly flat while other large employers watch their costs rise an average 3 percent each year, according to The New York Times.

Here are four things to know about Comcast's employee benefits:



1. In the past five years, the $169-billion company based in Philadelphia capped its healthcare cost growth at roughly 1 percent a year. Comcast spends about $1.3 billion each year on healthcare for its 225,000 employees and families.

2. The company did not widely adopt the use of high-deductible health plans to transition more healthcare costs onto employees. While many employers require workers to select a plan sporting an average $1,500 deductible, Comcast cut its deductible to $250 for most of its workers, according to NYT.

3, The company does work with some insurers, but it has largely turned its back on them when it comes to innovation. Comcast contracts with its own portfolio of companies, such as health benefits solution Accolade, to administer and guide employees through their healthcare experiences. The company invests in some of the firms, including Accolade, through its Comcast Ventures venture capital arm.

4. Comcast is one of the first major employers to offer workers access to a physician through telehealth company Doctor on Demand, which connects employees to physicians via cellphone. The company also uses Grand Rounds, which helps employees find a physician and receive a second opinion.



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BCBS of Tennessee resolves dispute with 520-member anesthesiologist, physician groupThe ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo seems to be waning, according to The New York Times.

Here are three things to know:

1. As of Sept. 2, the WHO reported 91 confirmed and 30 probable Ebola cases linked to the outbreak, including 51 confirmed and 31 probable deaths.

2. Only a few Ebola cases appear each week, and two Ebola treatment centers in the Congo's North Kivu Province now house less than 30 patients in their 78 beds.

"We cannot say the outbreak is under control yet," Dr. Oly Ilunga, the country's health minister, told The New York Times. "While the number of confirmed cases has slowed down lately, we must remain vigilant. An Ebola outbreak works in waves, and the first wave hit us hard."

3. This first wave was made up of people infected before health workers came to the area. The second wave, made up of more than 3,500 family members, neighbors and medical workers exposed to individuals with the virus, are still in their "incubation periods," according to The New York Times.

More articles on clinical leadership and infection control:University of Cincinnati College of Medicine's neurosurgery department Chairman Joseph Cheng, MD, recruited six neurosurgeons and plans to add more faculty, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Here are six things to know:

1. Dr. Cheng hired:

Charles Prestigiacomo, MD

Nicholas Marko, MD

Juan Torres-Reveron, MD, PhD

Jonathan Forbes, MD

Rani Nasser, MD

Matthew Garrett, MD, PhD

2. The recruited neurosurgeons published a total of 125 papers in the past year, according to Dr. Cheng.

3. The neurosurgery department now employs 11 adult neurosurgeons and five pediatric neurosurgeons.

4. Dr. Cheng has proposed creating four additional faculty positions.

5. Construction is underway on the $60 million UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, which is expected to open in April 2019. The neuroscience building will feature all UC Health outpatient neurological care and is expected to create 50 new positions.

6. Dr. Cheng requested an $8 million budget increase to keep up with recruiting, which is going faster than expected.An international consultancy firm is creating 400 new digital specialist jobs paying an average of 35,000 in Belfast in a major expansion.

PA Consulting said it was enhancing its digital expertise with the creation of the jobs over the next five years. The initial phase of the job creation will be focused on digital engineering roles.

It is receiving support of 3m from economic development agency Invest NI.

PA Consulting already employs around 2,600 people around the world.

Anita Chandraker, PA Consulting's global head of innovation services, said: Our digital team helps our clients to use digital technologies to adapt and transform their operations in an era of disruptive change.

She said the company had thought long and hard over where to locate the posts but chose Belfast on the strength of its existing technology sector, talent pool, salaries, education and universities and infrastructure. Northern Ireland ticked all the boxes, she said.Airline Jet2 has announced plans to recruit 50 new cabin crew members at Belfast International Airport.

It's part of a massive drive to recruit 3,000 staff across Europe. The company said the roles will support its growth after what it described as "a bumper summer".

Jet2 is planning to increase its capacity from Belfast International Airport by another 7% next summer, with more than 450,000 seats on sale.

The company's chief executive, Steve Heapy, said: "This is our biggest ever recruitment drive at Belfast International, and once again demonstrates our commitment to investing in our customers and in people's careers.

Graham Keddie, managing director at Belfast International Airport, said: "Jet2 has very popular brands that are well established with Northern Ireland holidaymakers.

"The announcement of 50 new jobs at Belfast International Airport is a most welcome development and clearly demonstrates their commitment to the local market."The soaring cost of butter was a key factor in trading difficulties at Co Londonderry bakery McErlain's (stock picture)

The soaring cost of butter was a key factor in trading difficulties at Co Londonderry bakery McErlain's, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.

The Magherafelt company was bought two weeks ago by Paul Allen, the managing director of crisps giant Tayto, after being put into administration.

A letter seen by this newspaper from administrators EY to the suppliers of the company also revealed that Mr Allen's firm Hatch Bros paid a total of 1.85m for the business.

The administrators explained in the letter that the company had expanded rapidly over the last 18 months, investing in new machinery and staff.

But the peak trading period of Christmas 2017 failed to generate expected profits for the scaled-up business, leading to major losses and cash flow problems.

The letter said: "Adverse movements in the prices of key ingredients such as butter (exacerbated by forward contracts at peak prices) contributed to these issues and management did not implement sufficient controls to monitor costs during this period."

Consumer prices of butter hit 4 for 500g last year, an increase of as much as 50% on the year before.

The cost growth has also hit food manufacturers like McErlain's which rely on butter as a key ingredient. Prices are now around 3.15 for supermarket-own brands, 3.29 for Spar's own local brand or 3.75 for brands like Golden Cow.

Michael Bell, chief executive of the NI Food and Drink Association, said butter supply had tightened across Europe as a result of climate conditions.

"Demand has increased and the price has moved up. This is a global cost movement and the price has been relatively stable at this high level for a while," he said. "Historically, the cost of butter has made sharp movements up and down, but the next movement will be determined by supply-and-demand factors."

Dankse Bank is the largest creditor of the company but agreed to provide funding throughout the sale of the business, which resulted in the rescue of 260 jobs at the company. Managing director Brian McErlain remains in his role.

According to the letter, corporate finance experts at EY had approached nearly 30 potential trade and financial buyers for the 50-year-old firm, which has customers including Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.

A total of 27 were identified and 15 then expressed an interest.

There were offers from two companies, with Hatch Bros the only company to make an offer based on buying the business as a going concern.

The letter by administrators EY to the suppliers of McErlain's said the disappointing Christmas performance had led the company to commission consultants to identify ways of improving performance.

That 'turnaround' plan was introduced in May and was to bring a return to profitability by August.

However, management accounts released in July showed the turnaround plan was not working as quickly as it was expected to.

The directors then started looking for an investor or buyer. EY had been appointed to carry out an analysis of the options open to the company, with Danske Bank saying it would continue to fund the company.

But according to the letter, EY's process made it clear that the company required more support, while the July accounts showed "a material adverse variance against forecast profitability".

According to the letter, EY was then engaged to support an accelerated sale, including preparing for potential insolvency.

Ways of keeping trade going were then discussed, with discussions then including a sale process.

However, the letter says that trading the business in administration without a sale was not in the best interests of creditors because "a number of key contracts would terminate on insolvency and it was uncertain which customers would continue ordering product".

In addition, it was decided that shutting down the company altogether would result in even greater creditor claims as employee liabilities would be increased and assets would be worth less.

This week the company announced it was recruiting another 40 staff.

There are an undisclosed number of other suppliers who have been told their debts are not likely to be repaid, but who have been asked to continue working with the company under new owners.Retail giant Primark may move into temporary premises in Belfast city centre as a stop-gap while its old Bank Buildings home remains out of bounds, it has emerged.

The retailer is understood to be looking into alternative sites in the city centre, one week on from the catastrophic fire which ripped through its Bank Buildings premises.

Potential locations include empty units in CastleCourt shopping centre, close to its Royal Avenue home.

But the company has not given any further details of the position of its 360 members of staff in Belfast, who were to be paid for last week.

Nor has the company confirmed its plans to recruit another 100 staff for the store, which was to see the completion of a 30m extension over the next few months.

Nicky Finnieston, a director at commercial property agents Lisney, said: "There are a few empty units in the city centre which could be big enough to house Primark. There is not a huge pile of options to choose from, but there are definitely vacancies."

Meanwhile, a number of shops including Aldo, Zara, Tesco Metro, City Picnic and Abacus Beads remain closed as they are within a safety cordon in close proximity to the shell of Bank Buildings.

Karen McGovern, the owner of Abacus Beads, has said she expects her unit on Castle Street to remain inaccessible for three months.

But she told the Belfast Telegraph that the business rates paid on her unit have now been suspended after talks involving Belfast City Council, Belfast Chamber of Commerce and Land & Property Services.Measles is not only uncomfortable, itchy and rather unsightly, but the virus can sometimes be really dangerous too. Although most common in young children, measles can potentially affect anyone who has not been vaccinated against it.

While fatalities are thankfully rare, cases of measles have now reached the highest this decade, according to the World Health Organisation. More than 41,000 children and adults across Europe have been infected with measles in the first six months of 2018, and at least 37 have died.

So what do people - and particularly parents - need to know? We spoke to Dr Paul Shepherd, a GP with Push Doctor (www.pushdoctor.co.uk), to find out what you should do if you or a family member contracts the infectious virus this autumn...

What is measles?

Measles is an infectious disease caused by a virus and it's known as being quite unpleasant and severe.

"It used to be a common illness, especially in children, until the introduction of the measles vaccine, given as part of the MMR vaccine in infancy," says Shepherd.

"However, the MMR vaccine uptake reduced following the flawed research of the discredited Dr Andrew Wakefield [who proposed a link between the MMR jab and autism and bowel disease], and so we've seen increasing cases of measles in the UK, and more especially across Europe in recent years."

Parents should be particularly wary of measles, notes Shepherd, as it can lead to serious complications in childhood, including meningitis and pneumonia, sometimes with fatal consequences.

How do you catch measles?

Much like the common cold, measles is easily spread via tiny droplets that come out of the nose and mouth.

"It's usually transmitted from person to person by coughing, sneezing, or direct contact with body secretions," says Shepherd.

You can catch measles by breathing in these droplets, or touching a surface that the droplets have settled on and then placing your hands near your nose or mouth, as the virus can survive on surfaces for a few hours.

What are the obvious signs and symptoms?

If you've been around someone with measles, you might not know if you've caught the virus until two weeks later.

"Symptoms will usually start to develop in a person who has been exposed to and infected by the virus after between 10-14 days," says Shepherd.

"Early signs are fever, cough, cold symptoms and sore eyes due to conjunctivitis. You will often, at this stage, find spots inside the cheeks which are a white or grey colour, known as 'Koplik's spots'," he explains.

After a few days, the characteristic measles rash appears.

"Look out for a bright red rash, starting on the head and neck before spreading to the rest of the body."

Shepherd notes that the rash is often itchy and, after about four days, the colour of the rash turns a more dark red or brown colour.

How is it treated?

There are several things you can do to help relieve the unpleasant symptoms of measles, and reduce the risk of spreading the infection.

"The usual first aid measures will apply, giving paracetamol or ibuprofen to relieve aches and pains and help lower temperature. It is also important to stay well hydrated by drinking plenty of water," says Shepherd.

It can also be helpful to close any curtains to reduce light sensitivity while you're getting over the worst of it. Most cases of measles will settle on their own over about 10-14 days, and once you have had measles, your body builds up resistance to the virus, so it's highly unlikely you'll get it again. That said, you should contact your GP as soon as possible, if you suspect that you or your child may have measles.

"As a result of catching measles, complications due to bacterial infection may arise, such as middle ear infection, pneumonia and meningitis.

"It is also very important that medical advice is sought quickly if there are any signs of complications arising," warns Shepherd. "Worrying features would include difficulty breathing, chest pain, coughing up blood, drowsiness, confusion or fits.

"In this situation, antibiotics will often be needed to treat the complicating bacterial infection and, in severe cases, hospitalisation is required."

What can you do to prevent catching measles?

Measles can be prevented by having the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This is given in two doses, as part of the NHS childhood vaccination programme in the UK. The first dose is given when your child is around 13 months old, and a second dose is given at three years and four months - but you could still get vaccinated later, if the childhood MMR is missed.

"The measles vaccine should have been given during childhood as part of MMR but the vaccine can be given at any age, if it has been missed," says Shepherd, who stresses that having an extra vaccination will not cause any harm. Vaccination against measles is vital, both to protect an individual person and also to develop a high level of immunity in the population, in order to prevent the virus spreading.

"There's also an injection that can be given in special circumstances called Human Normal Immunoglobulin, which is a concentration of antibodies against the measles virus," he adds. "This may be given within six days of known exposure to the measles virus to babies under six months, unvaccinated pregnant women, or people with weakened immune systems."

If you already have measles, then the best thing to do is wait out the unpleasant symptoms, and stay away from others where possible.

"You should avoid work or school for at least four days after the rash appears, so you can avoid passing it on to others," says Shepherd.Sinn Fein has warned the British government will attempt to "force through a disastrous Brexit deal" for Ireland.

Mairtin O Muilleoir has called on the Irish government and the European Union to "stand firm" on what he called British attempts to undermine the rights of Irish citizens in the Brexit negotiations.

Read More

The South Belfast MLA was speaking at a Sinn Fein party planning event in Co Cavan.

Parliament resumed on Tuesday with debates surrounding Brexit expecting to dominate the next few months ahead of the leaving date of March next year.

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill is set to meet the EU's Chief Brexit negotiater Michel Barnier in Brussels this month alongside the SDLP, Alliance Party and Green Party leaders.

She said that the group would be arguing that Northern Ireland cannot withstand exclusion from the single market or customs union.

"The backstop is the bottom line," she said.

Any backstop would allow Northern Ireland to remain as part of the customs union in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

At the weekend Michel Barnier has said he is "strongly opposed" to key parts of Theresa May's proposals for a post-withdrawal trade deal.

The British Government are pushing this negotiation through to November and we have a long experience of these people in terms of negotiation, Mr O Muilleoir said.

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They will run this to the wire and they will try and bounce the EU and the Irish government into a deal which is in the interests of Britain and certainly not in the interests of the people who live on this island.

That will have a potentially disastrous impact on the people who live on this island."

Mr O Muilleoir said it was time for the Irish government and European Union to speak up for Northern Ireland.

However, the Taoiseach gave reassuring statements to Irish citizens living in the northern side of the border who voted to remain within the EU. He gave us very strong assurances in relation to the Irish government stance in terms of our rights and we want to see him hold to those commitments," the South Belfast MLA said.

We need to see Michel Barnier and the Irish Government hold firm to commitments that were given to Irish citizens and to ensure that the rights of people right across this island are protected.Children in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to be hospitalised by asthma attacks when they go back to school after the summer holidays, a charity has warned. Stock image

Children in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to be hospitalised by asthma attacks when they go back to school after the summer holidays, a charity has warned.

As pupils return to the classroom this week, Asthma UK says the number of young people being treated in hospital for asthma attacks doubles.

Figures show a 121% increase in hospital admissions in September, compared to the previous month.

The charity is urging parents to be on high alert to spot the warning signs before an asthma attack strikes.

Asthma UK believes a lack of routine in taking medicine and inhalers over the holidays could be behind the rise, as parents might not remember to give their child their prevention medicine.

Asthma medication builds up over time, helping to protect the airways.

A lack of routine use means attacks can be triggered by cold and flu viruses when children return to school.

As a result, children are at a much greater risk of having a potentially fatal asthma attack when they go back to school.

More than 30,000 children in Northern Ireland are thought to have asthma, which can leave people struggling to breathe.

Asthma UK is calling on parents of children to follow its advice on how to spot an approaching asthma attack and understand what to do to avoid it.

Dr Andy Whittamore, from Asthma UK, says that while going back to school should be an exciting time for children, many could end up in hospital fighting for life after an asthma attack.

He said: "This is extremely distressing for a child and their parent.

"It could be avoided if parents know how to spot their child's asthma is getting worse and know what to do if their child is having an asthma attack.

"Parents should not feel afraid to book an urgent appointment with the GP or asthma nurse if their child is using their reliever inhaler (usually blue) three or more times a week, coughing or wheezing at night, or feeling out of breath and struggling to keep up with their friends."

Parents who are concerned should give two to four puffs of their reliever inhaler, through a spacer.

They are advised to make a same-day appointment with their child's GP.Police said a major drugs bust in Co Down is linked to the UDA.

The Paramilitary Crime Task Force swooped on a business premises in Newtownards on Monday seizing a large quantity of illegal drugs. Cannabis, cocaine and a mixing agent were all discovered with police estimating a potential street value of 100,000.

One man aged in his 40s was arrested on drugs offences and later released on police bail pending further investigation.

Detective Inspector Lynne Knox said they believe the drugs are linked to the South East Antrim UDA.

The harm caused by drug misuse impacts on people's lives at every level in Northern Ireland," she said.

"It includes crime committed to fuel drug dependence; organised criminality, the violence and exploitation that goes hand in hand with production and supply; paramilitary style attacks and the irreparable damage and loss to the families and individuals whose lives it destroys. This seizure demonstrates our ongoing commitment to removing drugs from our communities and the harm they cause.

We are committed to tackling the issue of drugs and I would appeal to the public to speak to us if they have any concerns or information regarding drugs in their communities. I would ask anyone who is aware of any individual involved in the supply of drugs to contact their local police on 101.

"Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime."

The Police Service of Northern Ireland, HM Revenue & Customs and the National Crime Agency established the Paramilitary Crime Task Force to tackle criminality linked to paramilitarism as part of the Executives action plan on tackling paramilitary activity, criminality and organised crime.A nursing unit for the elderly and terminally ill has been shut amid claims of a staff walkout over concerns for the safety of residents.

Families of people living at Rose Court in Ballymena were given two weeks to find alternative accommodation for their loved ones as a result.

It has been claimed that nursing staff warned Runwood Homes, the firm at the centre of the Dunmurry Manor care home scandal, that they would leave their jobs if their concerns were not addressed.

The family of a resident said a nurse told them that the staff quit their jobs when this did not happen.

Runwood Homes has said the closure of the service came as a result of a UK-wide shortage of nurses and it has "total confidence" in the senior management team, describing the home managers as "excellent".

Fiona O'Neill's 89-year-old mother Margaret is in hospital after an unexplained fall at Rose Court.

She said: "I'm horrified by what has happened to my mum, we're heartbroken.

"She was the only person left in the nursing unit, because we hadn't been able to find anywhere willing or able to take her.

"She hasn't been sleeping, because she has osteoarthritis and is in agony with it.

"Apparently, on Sunday night she wouldn't go to bed, so she was brought down to the residential wing and sat on a chair in the lounge.

"She was found lying on the floor at 1.30am.

"She's been diagnosed with pneumonia and fluid on her lungs, she is very sore, she is very confused and agitated.

"Then we got a phone call from Rose Court on Monday while mum was in hospital saying that as far as they were concerned she had been discharged from their care when she left in the ambulance in the middle of the night and she wouldn't be allowed back."

Ms O'Neill, a nurse from Newtownabbey, said the family had already come to the decision to remove her mother from the home following a catalogue of what they termed horrific treatment.

She sobbed as she said: "My father died three years ago and until then they lived independently together at home and then daddy died four weeks before their 64th wedding anniversary. This is what she's been reduced to, but she doesn't complain.

"Very rarely she will say that isn't very much compared to what she had, what do you say to that?

"When we went to the trust, the person who is supposed to be her advocate told us she was impatient, because she wouldn't wait 15 minutes to be taken to the toilet.

"Where's my mum's dignity, when is the Northern Trust and Runwood Homes going to look at the whole woman and person that she is?

"She's come through so much, she's a mother, a grandmother, great grandmother, a sister, an aunt.

"Where do they look at her as an individual and provide the person-centred care that she needs and deserves?

"I'm a nurse and I'm disgusted with what I've seen. They're all blaming everyone else for the failures instead of trying to do their best for my mum.

"All we want is for them to make it right for her."

Among the failings the family say they witnessed and Mrs O'Neill, who has diabetes, experienced during her 18-month stay at Rose Court are:

Her blood glucose readings were at a dangerously high level but staff at the home failed to act.

Her medication chart was incorrectly filled in and Mrs O'Neill went 48 hours without pain relief despite a GP stating she needed the medication every four to six hours.

A podiatrist was allowed to cut Mrs O'Neill's toenails despite repeated requests from the family that this should only be done by the trust podiatrist - she subsequently had a toe amputated as the result of an unexplained ulcer.

Photographs of Mrs O'Neill's room show filthy equipment even after the family complained to the management about the shocking conditions.

The family say they repeatedly found communal net underwear in their mother's room despite providing proper underwear and repeatedly asking that they cease using the net underwear on her.

It was said one resident waited four hours to be taken to the toilet just a matter of weeks ago.

Another resident who asked to be taken to the toilet was told they didn't need to go, as they were wearing a pad.

In April this year the family say they became so exasperated by the treatment being endured by their mother that they made a formal complaint to Rose Court management.

They were forced to follow it up with an email on June 18 as they had not received a response.

Ms O'Neill said: "It does not fill me with confidence that Runwood Homes are dedicated to providing high quality, dignified care and to take seriously complaints or concerns raised by those residents or family members.

"Yet again, Runwood management response is unacceptably poor."

Essex-based Runwood Homes was slammed by the Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland in June for a catalogue of neglect and abuse at another one of its care homes.

Eddie Lynch issued a damning indictment of the company for the treatment of residents at Dunmurry Manor.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's health watchdog took the unprecedented step of closing another Runwood facility, Ashbrooke Care Home in Enniskillen, last August as it believed it posed a serious risk to life.

Reacting to Mrs O'Neill's ordeal, Mr Lynch said: "I am shocked to hear about this lady's experience and hope that she is now receiving the care she needs.

"This is particularly concerning to hear, given that my office sought and received assurances within the last month from the trust when a different concern was raised with us about Rose Court.

"The fact that this is happening on the heels of my Home Truths report into a different Runwood Home gives me even more cause for concern.

"Authorities must act now to implement all of my recommendations, to ensure our older people are safe and well cared for."

Aidan Hanna from NI Patient Voice said it is time for the Department of Health to act.

"Runwood Homes is simply not fit for purpose," he said.

"For them to maintain the line that they provide an excellent service and respond to issues quickly is laughable in the face of all the evidence to the contrary.

"If the Rose Court unit was closed because of a shortage of nurses, then why are other homes, that are properly run, able to attract and retain staff?"

Response from Northern Trust

The Northern Trust said: "The Northern Trust was made aware on August 9, 2018, of the decision by Runwood Homes to reconfigure the Slemish Unit within Rose Court Home, from a general nursing unit with 31 beds to a residential unit specifically for people with dementia.

"This was necessary due to a shortage of nurses required to provide care in the nursing unit.

"None of the other units within Rose Court are affected. The safety and wellbeing of service users is always our main priority.

"We can confirm that we have worked closely with a total of 25 affected service users and their families to ensure that suitable alternatives were identified as quickly as possible and any specific concerns addressed."

Response from Runwood Homes

Runwood Homes said: "The decision to repurpose the nursing unit at Rose Court, Ballymena, as a residential unit was taken in early August after consultation with key stakeholders concluded that the continued management of a nursing service was not viable due to a national, ongoing shortage of registered nurses. For legal and professional reasons, we cannot go into the specifics of care for individual residents.

"However, we can say this resident was made several offers of alternative accommodation and has turned them all down because she wishes to remain at Rose Court.

"Going forward, we cannot admit any residents who require nursing care as the nursing unit is now replaced by a residential model of care.

"The board of directors for Runwood Homes have total confidence in the senior management team overseeing service delivery in Northern Ireland and the excellent team of home managers providing person-centred care on a daily basis."Turning the ship before it hits the icebergA notorious Northern Ireland child killer whose victim's relatives had warned should never be allowed to walk free is unlawfully at large after failing to return to Maghaberry Prison.

John Clifford, who uses a mobility scooter to get around, had been released from Burren House on the Crumlin Road on Sunday to attend an appointment - but failed to return when expected.

Read More

The unit is a satellite of Maghaberry Prison and houses up to 22 prisoners reaching the end of long jail sentences.

Clifford raped and strangled his eight-year-old niece Sue Ellen Clifford, before leaving her on a deserted railway line in 1988.

The 56-year-old had been freed in 2005 but was back behind bars in 2007 for breaching the terms of his probation.

Clifford had been baby-sitting Sue Ellen in her home on the Rathcoole estate in north Belfast on the night of her murder.

After getting drunk he took the child from her bedroom and forced her to walk with him along the Belfast to Carrickfergus railway line.

Sue Ellen asked her uncle to carry her because she was feeling tired.

Clifford did as she asked, but when he realised she was not wearing any underwear he sexually assaulted her.

When Sue Ellen began to scream he strangled her with a strap and then dumped her body.

He initially denied the murder but broke after three days of questioning and confessed.

Less than two years later, Sue Ellen's devastated mum Martha Adair took her own life. The heartbroken parent could not face life without her daughter.

Clifford's list of offences also includes indecent assaults and cruelty to children.

Members of Sue Ellen's family have previously spoken of their fear that if Clifford was ever released he would kill another child.

In 2010, Sue Ellen's sister Deborah Adair warned that if Clifford was released he could murder another child.

"Mark my words, he will rape or murder another child. John Clifford is pure evil," she said.

"That man destroyed my family - he didn't only murder my sister Sue Ellen, he was responsible for the suicide of my mummy."

Following Clifford's failure to reappear after his release on Sunday, Inspector Paul Noble said: "We have initiated enquiries to locate John Clifford.

"He is described as being 1.75m tall with green eyes and fair hair. He is of medium build with a fresh complexion.

"When last seen he was wearing a black beanie style hat, heavy black coat, grey trousers and black dress shoes.

"He was last seen using a distinctive three-wheel mobility scooter bearing the registration plate EXZ 4974.

"Members of the public or anyone with information about his whereabouts should contact us immediately on 101."

The Northern Ireland Prison Service said it is investigating "the circumstances surrounding the abscondment of John Clifford".

It added: "At this time we are focused on returning him to custody and we would ask anyone with information to contact the PSNI immediately."The full story of how an RAF Spitfire came down near the south Armagh border during the Second World War has finally been revealed by an eyewitness after more than 70 years

The full story of how an aircraft came down near the south Armagh border during the Second World War has finally been revealed by an eyewitness after more than 70 years.

Details of the 1942 crash were initially hushed up by the Irish authorities because of the Free State's wartime neutrality.

Retired farmer James Watters, from Lisdungormal near the Co Monaghan village of Clontibret, said he can still vividly recall, as a boy of 10, hearing the plane "roar across" their home after dark before it ploughed into a field.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, Mr Watters said: "It emerged the pilot had already bailed out by parachute, and had landed safely, near Keady in Co Armagh.

"Luckily the non-piloted aircraft didn't strike our house, but there was a terrific explosion when it crashed into the field a few hundred yards away, which belonged to a neighbouring farmer."

Mr Watters and his late mother, as well as his two sisters, went to the scene of the crash the next day.

He said there was a huge crater and the immediate area was littered with debris.

"There were also a lot of live bullets lying around, which obviously came from a consignment inside the fighter plane when it crashed," he added.

"However, we all had to move away from the field as a blanket of security was thrown around the area next day - it was an experience that I'll never forget."

Mr Watters said he had decided to speak following an appeal last week by an Irish Military Archive team seeking information about the crash on December 17, 1942.

It emerged Mr Watters added that the pilot, identified as Milo Rundall, bailed out of the aircraft after "he had become lost".

Rundall had been flying back to Eglinton, Co Londonderry, which for a short period was home to the famous American 82nd Fighter Group.

The pilot landed safely across the border near Keady, while the pilot-less aircraft flew on, before plunging vertically into the field at Corrintra.

The impact caused a crater some 30 yards square and wreckage was scattered over most of a field.

Eamon de Valera had declared that the Irish Free State would remain neutral during the war, which was referred to as 'The Emergency'.

It was seen as a way of showing its independence from Britain.

De Valera also feared supporting the war would split the government and country.An inquest into the death of Claire Roberts from hyponatraemia is to proceed, a coroners court was told. Brian Lawless/PA.

An inquest is to proceed into the death of Claire Roberts, a lawyer told a coroners court in Northern Ireland.

The nine-year-old, from Rochester Road in Belfast, died in the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1996 from hyponatraemia  which is caused by lack of sodium in the bloodstream.

She was at the centre of a public inquiry into the deaths of several children in hospitals.

The inquiry concluded that the tragedies were avoidable.

A lawyer told a preliminary hearing of the inquest in Belfast: The police investigation is likely to take a very lengthy period of time because it is going to be an investigation looking at all aspects of Mr Justice OHaras report.

We consider the inquest could proceed in advance of the police completing their investigationLawyer

He added: We consider the inquest could proceed in advance of the police completing their investigation.

Coroner Joe McCrisken instructed legal counsel to draft a witness list and address the scope of the hearing.

Police can request the inquest to be adjourned if someone is charged with a serious criminal offence.

In January, Mr Justice OHara ascribed Claires death to negligent care, and said there was a cover-up.

A new inquest was ordered by Attorney General John Larkin QC following publication of the inquirys findings.

The inquest will sit again later this month.Police are following International lines of enquiry as they investigate a Dublin man accused of trying to smuggle more than 20,000 out of the Northern Ireland, a judge has heard.

A prosecuting lawyer also told District Judge Nigel Broderick that while the investigation against 66-year-old John Gilligan is in its early stages, the file has been assigned to a PPS officer and police have a mobile phone to be examined.

There are international lines of enquiry to be pursued, said the lawyer.

Appearing at Antrim Magistrates Court via videolink from Maghaberry Prison 66-year-old Gilligan, wearing an open necked, light blue shirt, confirmed his identity and that he could see and hear the court, telling the clerk yes I can, thank you very much.

Gilligan, from Greenforth Crescent, Dublin is in custody accused of attempting to remove criminal property from Northern Ireland on 23 August this year.

It is understood the charge arises after officers from the National Crime Agency arrested the pensioner at Belfast International Airport and seized 23,000 which the Crown claim arises from crime.

In a statement the UK National Crime Agency said 23,000 in cash was recovered at the scene and said in a statement at the time:

National Crime Agency officers in Northern Ireland have today charged a man with money laundering offences.

Gilligan initially appeared at Coleraine Magistrates Court last month when he was refused bail and remanded into custody.

In court on Tuesday, Septermber 3, while the prosecution sought an adjournment for four weeks, defence solicitor Jim McGinnis asked for the shortest possible adjournment so that momentum is maintained.

Mr Gilligan is 66 and he doesnt enjoy good health, said the solicitor revealing that since he was remanded to Maghaberry he has already had to be taken to hospital.

He was badly injured during an attempt on his life in 2014 when he was shot six times, Mr McGinnis told the court.

Judge Broderick said he would have to recuse himself from hearing the case because before taking up his position on the bench, I was previously a partner in s firm that represented Mr Gilligan in the Special Criminal Court therefore it would not be appropriate for me to rule on the case.

The judge said he would adjourn the case for a week but that in the meantime, he had e-mailed the resident judge in Coleraine Magistrates Court to see if he would take the case on while still keeping it in this county court division.

He told the PPS and defence lawyers however that judge is currently on annual leave and may not have access to his e-mail.

With Gilligan remanded back into custody to appear again next Tuesday, Mr McGinnis asked for him to be held back for a videolink consultation.The conduct of independent councillor Jolene Bunting has caused a level of reputational damage to Belfast City Council, a hearing by Northern Irelands local government watchdog has been told.

The claim was made in a statement given by the councils chief executive, Suzanne Wylie.

The Local Government Commissioner for Standards is looking into 14 complaints about Ms Buntings behaviour.

On Tuesday, acting commissioner Ian Gordon chaired an interim hearing at the Resolution Centre in Belfast.

It follows an interim report by deputy commissioner Paul McFadden, which recommends that it is in the public interest for Ms Bunting to be suspended for six months.

Counsel for the deputy commissioner outlined to the hearing areas of the councillors code of conduct to which the complaints against Ms Bunting relate.

These include an onus to represent the whole community, to promote good relations and act as a positive example.

He outlined details of the complaints.

These included Ms Buntings endorsement of comments made by Britain First frontwoman Jayda Fransen during the Northern Ireland Against Terrorism rally at Belfast City Hall on August 6 2017.

Expand Close Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen is facing criminal charges over comments she made in Belfast about the Muslim faith (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

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Ms Fransen made a number of remarks about the Muslim faith, for which she is facing criminal charges.

The complaints against Ms Bunting also include a video during which she and Ms Fransen speak to the camera while standing in front of the Belfast Islamic Centre, comments she made about Islam at council meetings, and a frog meme which was perceived by some to be sectarian.

In Ms Wylies statement to the commissioner, she raised two matters.

The first was that a number of councillors had approached her with concerns over the frog meme which Ms Bunting had tweeted.

The second was an incident during which Ms Fransen filmed a video for her supporters while sitting in the Lord Mayors chair in Belfast City Hall dressed in councillors robes.

The hearing was told that no permission had been sought for the visit.

In her statement, Ms Wylie said it was unacceptable for the council chamber to be used in this way.

She added that Ms Buntings conduct has caused a level of reputational damage to Belfast City Council.

Ms Wylie also expressed concern that Ms Bunting could go on to cause serious reputational damage to the council.

It is unusual for an interim hearing to take place as part of the process, and occurred in this case because of the number of complaints against Ms Bunting.

Expand Close Britain First leader Paul Golding watched the interim hearing from the public gallery (Gareth Fuller/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Britain First leader Paul Golding watched the interim hearing from the public gallery (Gareth Fuller/PA)

A number of members of Britain First, including leader Paul Golding, watched proceedings from the public gallery.

Ms Bunting had previously been associated with the far-right group, but earlier this year there was a falling-out.

The investigations into the complaints is continuing, with the full hearing set to take place at a later date.

Potential penalties include disqualification as a councillor.

The interim hearing is set to resume on Tuesday afternoon.A man charged with murdering his wife after her body was recovered from water near Devenish Island in Co Fermanagh is to challenge some expert evidence which led to him being charged with her murder.

Defence lawyers made the disclosure as Stephen McKinney (42) appeared for a scheduled committal hearing at Enniskillen Magistrates Court.

McKinney, who had been residing in Lifford, but remanded on bail to an address at Castletown Square, Fintona, is accused of murdering his wife Lu Na, on a date between April 11 and 14, 2017. She was originally from China, and the couple married in 2003, living in a number of places before settling in Co Donegal.

Aged 35 at the time of her death, she was mother of the couple's two children, who were asleep onboard the boat when the alleged murder occurred.

A defending lawyer said having reviewed the case papers - of which there are 2,500 pages - and on consulting with McKinney, a decision had been taken to seek an adjournment.

A prosecuting lawyer said on the basis of what had been discussed, the next stage would be a Preliminary Investigation (PI). This will require a district judge to be allocated to read the case papers. However, the defence said they did not feel a full PI was required, as the issues are limited to the evidence of certain experts and what they say.

Deputy District Judge Trevor Browne remanded McKinney on continuing bail and ordered him to appear again later this month when a date for the hearing will then be allocated. Mrs McKinney's death was originally treated as a tragic accident during a family boating trip on Lough Erne, with the defendant adamant he had tried in vain to save her after she fell into the water.

However, police obtained statements from marina staff, expert witnesses, work colleagues of the deceased and telecommunications evidence, and a murder inquiry was launched.

McKinney was arrested and charged with murder.Alliance leader Naomi Long is due to hold separate talks with Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill this week in a bid to end the political stalemate at Stormont.

All Northern Ireland's political parties except the TUV met yesterday at Mrs Long's request in an attempt to kick-start negotiations aimed at restoring power-sharing.

The DUP's Simon Hamiltion and Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey attended the meeting, along with Ulster Unionist MLA Steve Aiken, SDLP chief whip Colin McGrath, Green MLA Steven Agnew, People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll and independent MLA Claire Sugden.

Afterwards, Mrs Long said: "It was good to have everybody bar the TUV in the room.

"We had robust and direct exchanges but they were constructive and everyone is going back to reflect with their party leaders on the next step forward."

Mrs Long said she would hold separate bilateral discussions with DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill later this week.

Speaking after yesterday's meeting, Mr Maskey said: "Sinn Fein is a party of dialogue and we will participate in any process which is credible and can achieve a successful outcome.

"Institutions of government need to enjoy public confidence and it is intolerable and unacceptable that we are still without an Assembly and Executive due to the DUP's decision to renege on the draft agreement in February and collapse the political negotiations.

"The issues of rights and equality still need resolved and any new process must focus on that if it is to be successful. It must also be fully inclusive of all parties and both governments."

Mr Maskey accused the Government of abandoning its responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement due to its Westminster pact with the DUP.

"There is a clear requirement under the agreement for the two governments to take decisive action and determine how the obstacles to power-sharing will be explicitly removed, by what means and in what time frame under their joint stewardship," he added.

Speaking earlier, DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said: "For nearly 600 days the people of Northern Ireland have been denied a government by Sinn Fein. Local decision making has come to a standstill and our public services are being undermined.

"We have spent the summer engaging with the Government, stressing the need for decisions to be taken. People are tired of uncertainty.

"It is clear that decisions will now be made at Westminster.

"With Parliament returning this week, the Government will be required to live up to their commitments to ensure the good governance of Northern Ireland."

TUV leader Jim Allister said yesterday's discussions were "not designed to address the core of the problem but to resurrect failed institutions".

He added: "The fundamental issue with the Stormont structures is that they cannot operate without Sinn Fein/IRA, a party which has no interest in Northern Ireland existing, much less succeeding and prospering.

"Unless and until there is the will to face up to that reality, there is no point in talks.

"The best that can be hoped for otherwise is that enough sticking plaster is found to put the institutions back in place until the next crisis, real or manufactured, comes along."A man who lashed out at a nurse attempting to wake him at Belfast's Mater Hospital has been jailed for four months.

Michael McNally jumped up and threw a clenched fist before he was restrained on the ward.

The 31-year-old, who has more than 300 previous convictions, was also dealt with for separate shoplifting, drugs and criminal damage offences.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard he refused to be assessed after being admitted to the hospital on August 9.

A prosecution lawyer said he then tried to strike out at the staff nurse, but failed to connect with her.

McNally, of Clifton Park Avenue in the city, continued to swear and shout abuse after police were called.

He pleaded guilty to common assault and disorderly behaviour.

Defence solicitor Pearse MacDermott said McNally had passed out, and reacted when a pinching technique was administered to wake him.

"That caused him to jump up with a clenched fist," Mr MacDermott told the court.

"He was roused unexpectedly, and his persona would perhaps not be recognised by hospital staff."

McNally further admitted a range of other offences committed on dates between April and August this year.

He stole 109 worth of goods from an Iceland store, and air fresheners valued at 85 from Tesco.

The drugs charges related to 20 worth of cannabis found on his possession, while he also caused an estimated 200 worth of damage to the glass panel on a Salvation Army hostel door.

Imprisoning McNally for a total of four months, District Judge Fiona Bagnall said any mitigating factors about his drug problems were "little comfort" to the hospital staff who had to deal with him.Two people have died following a road traffic collision in Omagh on Monday, police have confirmed.

The crash happened on the Doogary Road just before 3pm and involved a gold-coloured Volvo car and a red-coloured Scania articulated lorry.

Sadly, the occupants of the Volvo car  a married couple aged in their 70s - died at the scene of the collision," Inspector Keir Kitt said.

It's thought the couple had been visiting Northern Ireland from England.

The lorry driver was uninjured.

SDLP West Tyrone MLA Daniel McCrossan said the community had been left stunned.

"There is real shock and sadness in the community at the news that a married couple, aged in their seventies, have died following a road traffic collision on the Doogary Road," he said.

"My heartfelt sympathies go out to their family and loved ones. The times ahead will be difficult for them but I know the local community will rally round and do all they can to help and support them."

Inspector Kitt continued: I am appealing for witnesses or anyone who was travelling on the Doogary Road between 2.30pm and the time the collision was reported to us to contact us.

I am especially keen to hear from anyone who may have captured dashcam footage of the collision, or believe they saw the Volvo car prior to the collision.

Please call 101, quoting reference 760 of 03/09/18.



Guwahati, Sep 4 : Assam government has decided to provide smartphones to over 61,000 Anganwadi workers in the state for monitoring nutrition levels in children and instantly reporting on daily basis.





The state Social Welfare department has started the process to procure smartphones.





According to the reports, there are over 61,000 Anganwadi centres under Intregated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in the state.





The Assam Anganwadi workers would get the smartphones having Common Application Software.





The Anganwadi workers would enter the details including number of children, their health updates, weight etc in the specific software in the

smartphones and will report it to the headquarters.





According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 29.8 per cent of the total children under the age of five in Assam are underweight, 36.4 per cent are stunted and 35.7 per cent are anaemic.





Assam Social Welfare minister Pramila Rani Brahma said that, the Anganwadi workers should have must to submit reports to the headquarters.





They had submitted the reports through online by using commercial internet services. They have faced lots of problems. I had already discussed with the departmental officials to solve the problems, Pramila Rani Brahma said.





Earlier, the Anganwadi workers had demanded to provide computer, laptop for submitting the reports. Later I was informed that, there are such type of provisions as to provide smartphones to the Anganwadi workers and several other states had already taken this initiative. We will provide the smartphones to the Anganwadi workers within short period, Pramila Rani Brahma said.



The health service in Northern Ireland has been under incredible strain.

Ministers have been warned of a potential "humanitarian crisis" in Northern Ireland's health service.

Former Ulster Unionist leader Lord Empey said there were 280,000 people waiting for a consultant-led first appointment.

Lord Empey called on the Government to bring powers back temporarily to Westminster on "humanitarian grounds" to "offset what could be a potential humanitarian crisis in the winter as the health service is totally unable to cope".

Decisions had to be taken, Lord Empey told peers at question time in the Lords.

The Government had an "over-arching responsibility" to the people of Northern Ireland and could not "keep hiding behind the fact that there is no movement between the parties".

His question came after recent protest rallies in Northern Ireland over the failure of Assembly members at Stormont to patch up their differences and get back to work.

For the Government, Viscount Younger of Leckie said no option was "off the table" and the Government "is prepared to step in to protect the interests of Northern Ireland to ensure the country is stable economically".

He said the Government's single most important priority remained to restore an executive at Stormont.

"The people of Northern Ireland deserve this," he added.

Lord Younger said the return of the parties to Stormont remained a "credible and achievable option" and the issues dividing them were not "insurmountable".

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For Labour, former Northern Ireland secretary Lord Murphy of Torfaen said the province had been without a government longer than Belgium and it was time for fresh thinking.

He urged the Prime Minister to get involved and called for intensive all-party talks and the possible involvement of an independent chairman.

"If we don't do any of these things inevitably we will drift to direct rule, which will be a total and utter disaster," Lord Murphy warned.

Lord Younger said the Prime Minister remained fully committed to bringing about the restoration of the executive and kept in close touch with what was going on.A Co Antrim man who twice sexually assaulted a woman having stalked her to her hotel room has had his four-month jail term affirmed

A Co Antrim man who twice sexually assaulted a woman having stalked her to her hotel room has had his four-month jail term affirmed.

Despite his claims that the attacks in the Dunadry Hotel were impulsive, Judge Melody McReynolds said it was her view that the actions of 34-year-old William McAdam were actually "quite contrived".

The judge told an Antrim County Court appeal hearing: "It's clear that he was targeting a working woman staying in a hotel where she was entitled to feel safe."

Affirming the sentence originally imposed by District Judge Peter King last July, Judge McReynolds said that having dealt with sex offences "in excess of 30 years... I'm satisfied not only that the custody threshold is passed but that the most effective deterrent for this man is a period of custody".

At an earlier hearing McAdam, from Ballymena Road in Doagh, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and one of trespassing into a hotel room at the Dunadry Hotel with intent to commit sexual assault on September 3 last year.

A prosecuting lawyer told the court the woman had checked into the hotel and was going into her room when McAdam followed her in.

He took his T-shirt off but didn't answer when the woman repeatedly asked what he was doing and they both left the room.

The lawyer said the woman went back into her room but "within seconds" there was a knock at the door and when she answered it, McAdam was there claiming to be from room service. He initially went in to the bathroom and then started to fix the bed, but then he reached out "and grabbed her left breast".

She pushed him away but he grabbed her other breast and when she pushed him away again "he grabbed her around the waist and said that he wanted to have sex with her".

The terrified victim ran from the room but McAdam "pressed her to the wall" and only let go when she screamed for help.

McAdam was arrested a week later when hotel staff spotted him again. He refused to answer the majority of police questions.

However, the court heard that during one exchange, when officers asked McAdam what he thought when the woman pushed him away, he told police: "It made me more determined to touch her again, so I tried to do it again."

In court yesterday defence counsel Aaron Thompson conceded it was a serious case with "a number of concerning features".

But he argued that the best way to deal with it from a sentencing point of view, was with probation intervention and supervision.

He argued that given it was McAdam's first offence, coupled with his mental health problems, protection of the public would best be achieved through statutory help to "deal with the underlying causes" of the offence and "tackle head-on" McAdam's issues, which would lessen the likelihood of further offences.

He further submitted if that did not work and McAdam reoffended "he will be back before you and then he will certainly deserve to go to jail".

However, jailing McAdam, and also affirming the seven-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order, Judge McReynolds said she had no doubt his victim will have been "left with feelings of insecurity when she travels for business in the future".

She said McAdam's targeting of the vulnerable woman was "compounded compounded by his total lack of empathy".

Affirming also that McAdam must sign the police sex offenders register for seven years, the judge said she felt the best way to protect the public was to jail him.The scene in the Riverside area of Dunmurry in south Belfast where three cars were damaged in the early hours of Tuesday morning after an arson attack. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

Three cars were set alight in Dunmurry in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

At around 2.55am it was reported to police that two cars were set on fire in the Riverside area.

Another car indirectly caught on fire as a result of the incident.

Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service attended the scene and dealt with the fire.

It is understood that an accelerant was used during the incident.

Anyone with information about the incident should contact police in Lisburn on 101 quoting reference number 113 4/9/18.North Antrim MP Ian Paisley has begun his 30-day suspension from the House of Commons.

He was suspended after failing to declare two luxury family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government.

He was also found to have breached rules on paid advocacy after lobbying then Prime Minister David Cameron on a UN resolution concerning human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

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Mr Paisley has also been suspended by the DUP pending an internal investigation and faces a petition of recall.

If 7,543 people sign the recall petition, 10% of the electorate, then a by-election will be held.

The petition, which is due to run until September 19, is the first of its kind in UK parliamentary history.

There has been speculation that Mr Paisley could resign from his seat to force an early by-election which would allow him to present for key Brexit votes, but this has been denied by sources close to the Paisley camp.Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt faced repeated calls to stop the sale of arms to Riyadh (PA)

Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt has defended arms sales to Saudi Arabia after coalition forces carried out a deadly air strike on a busy Yemeni market.

As MPs returned to the Commons after summer recess, Mr Burt faced repeated calls to stop the sale of arms to Riyadh after the strike on August 9 which left at least 51 people, 40 of whom were children, dead.

Mr Burt defended the UKs position on arms sales, stating that Saudi Arabia was under attack from Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

How can the Government continue to claim that there is no clear risk that the arms we sell to Riyadh are being used to violate international humanitarian law?Shadow Foreign Office minister Fabian Hamilton

He said: The coalition acted in support of a legitimate government, theyre currently having missiles fired at civilian targets in their own states.

I dont see the political justification for withdrawing our arms.

Mr Burt added: We assess arms exports to Saudi Arabia against strict criteria, the key test is whether there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law, we take this very seriously and keep the licensing decisions under careful review.

Human Rights Watch said the attack which hit the bus added to the coalitions already gruesome track record of killing civilians at weddings, funerals, hospitals and schools in Yemen.

It has urged countries to immediately halt weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.

The SNPs defence procurement spokesman Douglas Chapman accused the Government of being tone deaf to concerns and asked: How many more Yemeni children have to die?

Shadow Foreign Office minister Fabian Hamilton later cited a United Nations report which found the Saudi coalition was routinely ignoring its own no strike list of 30,000 civilian targets.

He added: In the light of this, how can the Government continue to claim that there is no clear risk that the arms we sell to Riyadh are being used to violate international humanitarian law?

Mr Burt responded saying that the report was not accepted in full by the coalition, adding: The important thing is international and humanitarian law must be adhered to.

Yemens civil war has been raging since March 2015.

The coalition said it had accepted the conclusions of its investigative body, known as the Joint Incidents Assessments Team, which found that the August 9 air strike involved mistakes including failing to take measures to minimise collateral damage.

The coalition said it will take all the legal measures to hold accountable those who were proven to have committed mistakes once it officially received the findings. It also pledged to coordinate with Yemens government to compensate civilians.The Duke and Duchess will attend the WellChild annual awards (Chris Jackson/PA)

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to celebrate the courage shown by seriously ill youngsters at the annual WellChild Awards.

Harry and Meghan will join children, parents, carers and celebrity supporters at the glittering ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in central London.

The duke has been patron of WellChild  the national charity for seriously ill children and their families  since 2007.

Expand Close Harry with the WellChild award winners in 2017 (Matt Dunham/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

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It will be former Suits star Meghans first time at the moving event, which celebrates the inspiring qualities of some of the countrys seriously ill young people and those who care for them.

The duke and duchess will attend a pre-ceremony reception and meet the young winners of each award category and their families, and the nominated healthcare professionals.

We are delighted to announce that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will attend the #WellChildAwards on 4th September.



The Duke of Sussex has been Patron of @WellChild for the past 10 years. pic.twitter.com/ACQMDlw91g  WellChild (@WellChild) August 20, 2018

Harry will present an award during the ceremony and also deliver a speech.

Winners this year include seven-year-old Matilda Booth, from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire, who has spina bifida, is paralysed from the chest down and has had more more than 40 operations.

She has been praised for her great zest for life and her courage, strength and determination.

 Meet the 2018 inspirational WellChild Award winners! The winners will receive their #WellChildAwards on Tuesday!



Find out more at https://t.co/qxxYXrKf4Q  pic.twitter.com/CzPVRMxYLk  WellChild (@WellChild) September 2, 2018

Mckenzie Brackley, from Fife, has also been hailed as inspirational.

The four-year-old, who had to learn to speak, swallow, eat and drink and move again due to acute flaccid paralysis, was praised for being there for other children when they are scared or sad.

Despite his own problems Mckenzie cheers up everyone when they are low, and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, WellChild said.



Guwahati, Sep 4 : The Indian Navys deep-sea divers, Indian army, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are engaged in ongoing search and rescue operation for five members of a family, who went missing after their Swift Dzire car plunged into Dikhow river in upper Assams Sivasagar district on September 1 evening.





According to the reports, a 8-member diving team with equipments from the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam had reached in Sivasagar town to help in the ongoing operation.





Apart from the Indian Navys diver team, Indian army, SDRF and NDRF teams are also engaged in search operations.





But, the search operations failed to locate the car.





Five members of a family went missing after a Swift Dzire car where they were travelled plunged into Dikhow river on Saturday evening.





The incident took place at Dikhowmukh area near Gaurisagar in the upper Assams district when the family was travelling from Guwahati to Sivasagar and their speeding car lost its control and fell into Dikhow river.





The five members of the family are  Haren Bora, his mother Phunu Bora, wife Ponou Bora and two daughters Simpi Bora and Munmi Bora.





Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is supervising the rescue operation and has spoken to the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the search and rescue operation of the

missing family.





The Assam CM has also taken up the matter with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Defence Ministry for help from the Indian Navy.





The state government is taking all possible steps to recover the vehicle and the missing persons.





Meanwhile, two boats of Inland Water Transport (IWT) have been kept as

standby.





Though the search and rescue operation has started form Sunday morning, the search teams are yet to strike success because of the strong undercurrent in Dikhow River which is on a spate with muddy water blocking vision under water.





Divers are going as deep as 40 ft in some areas and a total number of 10 boats have been pressed into service.





Three teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), six teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), one each from Dibrugarh and Sivasagar and two teams each from Jorhat and Golaghat have been pressed into the search and rescue operation, apart from one team from the Para Commando of the Indian Army.





A total of 32 deep divers are engaged into rescue operation and these divers include eight from the NDRF, four each from Dibrugarh and Jorhat SDRF, three each from Sivasagar and Golaghat SDRF and 10 divers from the Para Commando of the Indian Army.





A total of 100 rescue personnel are engaged in the search and rescue operation including 44 from NDRF, seven from Dibrugarh SDRF, 12 from Sivasagar SDRF, 10 from Jorhat SDRF, eight from Golaghat SDRF, 14 personnel from the Para Commando and five from Civil Defence.



Activists outside a meeting of the Labour National Executive Committee in London (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

If Labour adopts an international definition of anti-Semitism it could be the start of the journey to rebuilding trust with the Jewish community, deputy leader Tom Watson said.

His comments came as Labours ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) considered how to defuse the row over anti-Semitism which has simmered for months.

In an indication that the situation could escalate even further, Scotland Yard was reviewing a leaked file of anti-Semitism complaints within Labour.

There were noisy protests from rival groups outside Labours HQ as senior party figures met to consider whether to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and its illustrative examples.

Critics have claimed that the wording of the examples could prevent criticism of the Israeli governments actions against Palestinians, but senior Labour figures have urged the body to adopt the full definition in order to help draw a line under an issue which has dogged Jeremy Corbyns leadership.

Mr Watson said: I hope we can adopt the IHRA definition today, I hope that is the start of the journey in rebuilding trust with the Jewish community.

Before the deputy leaders comments, controversial activist Peter Willsman was given a warm welcome by supporters, but jeered by critics, as he arrived at Labours head office.

Mr Willsman was re-elected to Labours National Executive Committee on Monday despite losing the support of the influential Momentum group after it emerged he had blamed Jewish Trump fanatics for the anti-Semitism row.

Opponents shouted shame on you as Mr Willsman arrived, and police were in attendance outside the office block housing Labours HQ to keep rival groups of protesters apart.

Expand Close Peter Willsman was cheered by supporters and jeered by critics as he arrived (Stefan Rousseau/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Peter Willsman was cheered by supporters and jeered by critics as he arrived (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Labour MP Chris Williamson, a former shadow minister and ally of Mr Corbyn, claimed Mr Willsmans comments had been misrepresented.

He said the IHRA examples were flawed and the NEC should add a provision to protect free speech.

Whats important is that they add a rider at the end to ensure freedom of speech is preserved and protected because (Benjamin) Netanyahus apartheid regime is inflicting terrible hardships on the Palestinian people, he said.

The meeting came as a leaked internal Labour dossier obtained by LBC detailed 45 cases of alleged anti-Semitism.

Among the cases were messages posted by party members on social media, including one which read: We shall rid the Jews who are a cancer on us all.

Another involved a reference to a Zionist Extremist MP  who hates civilised people, about to get a good kicking.

Speaking during a call-in on LBC on Tuesday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said: Hate crime is something we take very, very seriously.

If somebody makes an allegation to us which contains something like that, absolutely we will take it seriously, we will scope it, we will see whether a crime has taken place.

A listener said he would make a formal report of hate crime to the Met.

Ms Dick continued: I, of course, will pass this to my experts to deal with but the law is quite complicated, the bar is actually quite high.

The broadcaster passed the leaked material to former senior police officer Mak Chishty, who said that 17 instances should have been reported to the police for investigation, and another four were potential race hate crimes.A Labour activist at the centre of a row over allegedly anti-Semitic comments was cheered as he arrived for a meeting of the partys ruling body.

Pete Willsman was re-elected to Labours National Executive Committee on Monday despite losing the support of the influential Momentum group after it emerged he had blamed Jewish Trump fanatics for the anti-Semitism row which has dogged Jeremy Corbyn through the summer.

The NEC is expected to approve the incorporation in full of an international definition of anti-Semitism into Labours code of conduct for members.

Protesters gathered at Labours head office in London ahead of the meeting, with some cheering Mr Willsmans arrival, while others shouted shame on you.

The meeting came as Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told LBC she would review a leaked internal Labour dossier obtained by the radio station detailing 45 cases of alleged anti-Semitism, amid claims that as many as 17 might require reporting to the police.

Expand Close John McDonnell has backed the full IHRA examples of anti-Semitism (Yui Mok/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp John McDonnell has backed the full IHRA examples of anti-Semitism (Yui Mok/PA)

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has become the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

Mr McDonnell acknowledged the party should have moved more quickly to resolve a row which has dominated headlines over the summer and sparked warnings of a deep rift with Britains Jewish community.

The NEC will consider whether to reverse its decision to omit some examples of anti-Semitic behaviour in the definition from its code of conduct for party members.

Critics of the IHRA approach have claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli governments actions against Palestinians and protests are expected outside Labours London HQ urging the NEC to reject the examples.

On September 4, the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party will be discussing the adoption of ALL examples of... Posted by Labour Against the Witchhunt on Thursday, August 23, 2018

Mr Willsmans election to the NEC  one of a slate of nine supporters of Jeremy Corbyn to win posts on the body  led to further unease about the partys response to anti-Semitism.

Amanda Bowman, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Mr Willsmans election following his reprehensible comments was deeply concerning.

She said the NEC must adopt the full IHRA definition and all its examples and then begin taking firm disciplinary action against all those who commit anti-Semitic acts and bring the party into disrepute by denying the problem.

Mr Willsman said his job on the NEC was to support his friend for 41 years Mr Corbyn  who he called Jerry.

He said critics were trying to undermine the Labour leader and some MPs, elected by Labour voters, seem willing to help the rich and powerful.The Duchess of Sussex presented an inspirational little girl with a white rose  as she and her husband honoured the achievements of youngsters battling serious conditions to lead normal lives.

Matilda Booth made the first presentation, giving Meghan a bouquet of white blooms, and in return the duchess picked a rose from the bunch for the seven-year-old, who has spina bifida and is paralysed from the chest down.

The duke and duchess chatted to the youngster when they attended the WellChild Awards  a glittering ceremony recognising the achievements of children and teenagers with serious health conditions and medical staff who care for and treat others with similar illnesses.

Sharon Booth, 47, who lives with her daughter Matilda in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, said after the royal encounter: Matilda chose the flowers, she was shell-shocked to be given the rose, she said shes going to put it in her memory box.

Not to be left out, Harry made a pinky pledge with the seven-year-old during a reception before the awards ceremony began, hooking his little finger around the girls matching digit.

Mrs Booth said the royal urged her daughter, who wants to be a nurse, to never stop smiling as youve got a beautiful smile.

When Matilda brought out her soft-toy pug, she told the duke and duchess, who wore a trouser suit by Altuzarra and a Deitas blouse, it was named after talent show mogul Simon Cowell.

Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet seven-year-old Matilda Booth (Victoria Jones/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Mrs Booth, whose daughter recently turned seven and won the inspirational child award in the four to six-year-old category, said: Harry said, I can see the resemblance.

Meghans first appearance at the event saw her interacting with all the winners, sharing jokes, a hug and receiving gifts along with her husband.

Melissa Granger, 15, from St Helens, who has Angelman syndrome which leaves her needing 24-hour care, hugged the royal couple as her brother Jacob, 18, watched.

Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet Jacob Granger and his sister Melissa (Victoria Jones/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet Jacob Granger and his sister Melissa (Victoria Jones/PA)

He was given the most caring young person award for helping to look after his sister.

Mckenzie Brackley, from Fife, has also been hailed as inspirational.

The four-year-old, who had to learn to speak, swallow, eat and drink and move again due to acute flaccid paralysis, was praised for being there for other children when they are scared or sad.

Despite his own problems, Mckenzie cheers up everyone when they are low, and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, WellChild said.

Harry has been patron of WellChild  the national charity for seriously ill children and their families  since 2007 and regularly attends the annual awards ceremony.

Expand Close Meghan and Harry meet Mckenzie Brackley during the WellChild Awards in London (Victoria Jones/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Meghan and Harry meet Mckenzie Brackley during the WellChild Awards in London (Victoria Jones/PA)

Simon Cowell had recorded a video message for Matilda, who her mother described as obsessed by the TV mogul and his number one fan.

In the short clip, played during the awards ceremony, Cowell told the wheelchair-bound youngster that winning the inspirational child award meant you are probably one of the best people now in the world  in fact you are.

You deserve it, you are an amazing person  Im your number one fan remember that, so congratulations.

Matildas award was presented by Harry, who acknowledged the presence of his wife during a speech at the ceremony.

Expand Close The Duke of Sussex praised the children at the awards (Victoria Jones/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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He said: For the past 40 years, WellChild has been identifying issues and finding long-lasting solutions so that families can care for and support their children at home in the very best possible way.

I have been a patron of the organisation for 11 years now and this year I am especially grateful to be able to share the scope and magnitude of this work with my wife, who joins me here this evening.

Harry also praised the indomitable spirit of the young people living their lives despite debilitating illnesses: I want to acknowledge the young people who have been dealt the toughest cards imaginable  but who persevere, rise above, and set the example of living life to the fullest.

In fact you are often the ones who lift us up  your can-do attitude and unwavering spirit serves as a constant reminder that we must always look to the positive and never give up.The Russian Embassy said it had sent more than 70 notes and letters to the Foreign Office, Home Office and police since the poisoning (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The Russian Embassy in London has once again demanded access to Novichok poisoning victims Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

Six months on from the nerve agent attack in Salisbury it has reiterated its belief that the UK is flouting international law by apparently keeping the pair from having contact with embassy officials.

A statement released by the Russian Embassy on Tuesday referred to the circumstances of the March attack as obscure and accused British authorities of keeping the Skripals in isolation ever since their release from hospital.

It said: They remain out of the public eye at an unknown location, unable to communicate freely with their relatives, friends, journalists or Russian officials, deprived of the freedom of movement.

Six months in isolation: Russia demands that UK stops violating intl law and human rights of Sergey and Yulia #Skripal. https://t.co/2g3WxGzFHS pic.twitter.com/T1DqrbEnUK  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) September 4, 2018

The statement claimed that authorities in the UK had refused to allow the embassy to have direct contact with the former spy and his daughter in order to verify their actual health situation, the conditions in which they are held and, most importantly, to ascertain to which extent their isolation is voluntary.

The embassy added that it had sent more than 70 notes and letters to the Foreign Office, Home Office and police since the poisoning but had had nearly all of its queries ignored.

Following her release from hospital Ms Skripal said she was grateful for the offers of assistance from the Russian Embassy but at the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services.

A small amount of Novichok is thought to have been used in liquid form to target the Skripals.

The attack sparked a wave of diplomatic expulsions by Britain and its allies, and retaliatory ones by Russia.

The UK Government said it is highly likely Russia was behind the attack but Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility.

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.London Fire Brigade said sprinklers could have prevented significant damage when a blaze broke out at Roding Primary School in Dagenham (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Sprinklers could have saved a school building which was gutted by a huge blaze a day before pupils were due to return from their summer break, London Fire Brigade has said.

One of Roding Primary Schools sites in Dagenham was destroyed in the fire which raged in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the brigade said.

Some 80 firefighters tackled the blaze at the Hewett Road building, the cause of which remains under investigation.

Expand Close Firefighters at Roding Primary School in Hewett Road, Dagenham, east London (Stefan Rousseau/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Firefighters at Roding Primary School in Hewett Road, Dagenham, east London (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

A large part of the single storey structure was damaged, although no-one was injured in the blaze, which took around three hours to bring under control.

The building was not fitted with sprinklers, London Fire Brigade (LFB) said, citing it as a strong example of the need for such devices in schools.

The Brigades Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Lee Drawbridge, said: There could be no clearer example of why sprinklers in schools are so important as they could have significantly reduced the damage and impact of this fire.

Crews were faced with a serious blaze when they arrived at the school and worked very hard to bring it under control but given the intensity of the fire, there is unfortunately significant damage to the school.

UPDATE: #Dagenham #school fire - the fire's been brought under control but we'll be on the scene for the rest of the day. Fire investigators will begin as soon as remaining spots of fire are out. Updated lines: https://t.co/VXgQSTM3wq pic.twitter.com/FSsMs7cU7B  London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) September 4, 2018

The site has suffered fire, smoke and water damage and will remain closed until further notice, the local council said.

Suitable alternative accommodation is being sought and parents will be notified of any update, Barking and Dagenham Council said.

The schools other site on Cannington Road will reopen as normal on Wednesday, it added.

In a statement on its website, the council said: Thanks to everyone for their patience and support while we work with the school on the clear up operation and getting pupils back to school as quickly as possible.

LFB said it was calling on the Government to make sprinklers mandatory in all new school builds and major refurbishments.

Mr Drawbridge said: Londons firefighters are called to more than 80 fires in schools every year and, in most cases, sprinklers are not fitted, meaning millions of pounds are wasted repairing fire and water damage.The teenager was arrested at his home in Watford (National Crime Agency/PA)

A teenager has been convicted over bogus bomb threats that triggered the evacuation of more than 400 UK schools and an airport security scare.

George Duke-Cohan twice targeted schools in the UK and US with hoax messages  before phoning-in a fake report of a hijacked aircraft while under investigation.

The 19-year-old, of Mutchetts Close, Watford, pleaded guilty on Monday to three counts of making hoax bomb threats, during a hearing at Luton Magistrates Court, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

He had first created panic in March 2018 when he emailed thousands of schools in the UK warning about an explosive.

More than 400 schools were evacuated as a result, according to the NCA.

Police arrested him days later, but he was able to send another batch of emails to schools in the US and UK while under investigation in April.

Expand Close More than 400 schools were evacuated due to the hoax (National Crime Agency/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp More than 400 schools were evacuated due to the hoax (National Crime Agency/PA)

His messages claimed a pipe bomb had been planted on the premises.

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a second time and released on pre-charge bail with conditions that he did not use electronic devices.

Before long his name was in the frame for a third hoax  regarding a bogus tip-off that hijackers had taken over a United Airlines flight between UK and San Francisco.

A joint investigation between the NCA and the FBI was launched when a hacker group known as Apophis Squad claimed on social media that it had successfully grounded flight UAL 949 on August 9.

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Detectives found that Duke-Cohan had made the calls to San Francisco Airport and their police force while he was on pre-charge bail for the two previous offences.

He posed as a worried father, claiming his daughter had contacted him from the flight to say her plane had been hijacked by gunmen with a bomb.

The plane was placed on lockdown when it arrived at San Francisco airport as the report was investigated, requiring all 295 passengers to remain on board.

This caused disruption to onward journeys and financial loss to the airline, the NCA said.

Duke-Cohan was arrested for a third time at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire, on Friday.

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He was found to be in possession of numerous electronic devices, despite the restrictions in place .

The teenager was remanded in custody after his guilty plea and is due to appear at Luton Crown Court on September 21.

NCA senior investigating officer Marc Horsfall said: George Duke-Cohan made a series of bomb threats that caused serious worry and inconvenience to thousands of people, not least an international airline.

He carried out these threats hidden behind a computer screen for his own enjoyment, with no consideration for the effect he was having on others.

Despite being arrested and having conditions imposed restricting his use of technology, he persistently broke those conditions to continue his wave of violent threats.A demonstrator holding a painting saying For the many not the Jew, at a protest in London against anti-Semitism in the Labour Party (Yui Mok/PA)

Labours ruling body is meeting to decide whether to fully adopt an internationally-recognised definition of anti-Semitism later. Here are some key questions answered about the flashpoint issue:

What is the row about?

When the National Executive Committee (NEC) met in July, it approved a new code of conduct on anti-Semitism despite intense criticism from the some of the partys MPs and peers as well as Jewish leaders.

The code endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, although it omitted four examples from the IHRA list.

The experts of the UK Delegation to the IHRA reflect on the working definition of #antisemitism and its relevance in the UK: https://t.co/PG6MQdJTX2  IHRA (@TheIHRA) August 7, 2018

What were the examples?

Accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than their home country; claiming that Israels existence as a state is a racist endeavour; requiring higher standards of behaviour from Israel than other nations; and comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis.

Full IHRA definition and all examples: a necessary minimum to begin to restore trust. https://t.co/PE6hRUkk1V  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) September 3, 2018

Who says they should be adopted?

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell is the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to fully adopt the IHRA definition and examples, while deputy leader Tom Watson has also backed it.

On Monday, shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said adopting it is a necessary minimum to begin to restore trust, while former prime minister Gordon Brown has also supported the move.

Backbenchers including Luciana Berger, John Mann and Dame Margaret Hodge have also been vocal critics of the NECs failure to adopt the definition in full.

Why would it not be adopted in full?

Critics of the IHRA approach have claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli governments actions against Palestinians.

What has the fallout been?

The NECs July decision fuelled a wider row over cases of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, with Jeremy Corbyn coming under fire for his handling of the issue.

The Labour leader has also seen intense scrutiny over some of his past comments and associations.

In the past, in pursuit of justice for the Palestinian people and peace in Israel/Palestine, I have on occasion appeared on platforms with people whose views I completely rejectJeremy Corbyn

In August, Mr Corbyn apologised for appearing at a 2010 event at which a Holocaust survivor compared Israel to Nazism.

Last week he was condemned by former chief rabbi Lord Sacks for comments he made criticising British Zionists for not understanding English irony, although an ally said the Labour leaders words had been misinterpreted.

Has anyone quit over the row?

Veteran Labour MP Frank Field cited the partys handling of anti-Semitism when he resigned the party whip last week.

The MP for Birkenhead described Labour as a force for anti-Semitism in his resignation letter.

Reports have suggested MP Mike Gapes is ready to quit over anti-Semitism and Ms Berger has said comments made by the Labour leader left her feeling unwelcome in my own party.Donald Trump warned hundreds of thousands of people could be killed in an attack on Idlib (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Donald Trump has warned Syrian president Bashar Assad and his allies against a reckless attack on Idlib province.

It comes after Irans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the start of a visit to Damascus that terrorists must be purged from Syrias Idlib and the entire north-western province returned to government control.

But the US president said on Twitter that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province.

He added: The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!

Mr Zarifs comments in Damascus were reported by Irans semi-official Fars news agency and came as Syrian forces and their allies were preparing for an assault on Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in the country.

Syrias territorial integrity should be safeguarded and all tribes and groups, as one society, should start the reconstruction process, and the refugees should return to their homes, Mr Zarif said.

He met with Mr Assad and his foreign minister Walid al-Moallem, who is just back from a visit to Moscow.

The visit comes days before the leaders of Iran, Turkey, and Russia are expected to meet in Iran to discuss the situation in Idlib.

Fruitful meetings in Islamabad with PM @ImranKhanPTI, Army Chief, Speaker & Foreign & Finance Ministers. In my 8th trip to Pakistan, I was honored to be the first minister received by new govt. Emphasis on expanding bilateral, regional & global partnership. Neighbors our priority pic.twitter.com/4J69DVNGSc  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) August 31, 2018

During their meeting, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif discussed the agenda of the summit in Iran.

A statement from Mr Assads office said Iran and Syria had similar views on the different issues to be discussed. It provided no further details.

Mr Zarif said it was necessary to consult with our Syrian friends ahead of the September 7 summit, according to Fars.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russias stance and called Idlib a hornets nest of terrorists.

Asked about Mr Trumps tweet, Mr Peskov said such warnings do not take into account the dangerous and negative potential of the rebel-held enclave and show that the White House does not have a comprehensive approach to solving the Syria crisis.

Iran has lent crucial military and economic support to Mr Assad throughout the seven-year civil war and the discussions are expected to focus on the decisive battle for Idlib.

Mr Assad has vowed to defeat the opposition in its last refuge in the north-western province if the rebels do not surrender to government rule.

Expand Close Syrian president Bashar Assad speaks with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Damascus (SANA via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Syrian president Bashar Assad speaks with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Damascus (SANA via AP)

Idlib and the surrounding area is home to some three million people  nearly half of them already displaced more than once by the civil war.

Tens of thousands of people fled to Idlib after surrendering in government offensives elsewhere, choosing to relocate to an opposition-held area rather than risk reprisals or forced conscription at the hands of the government.

UN officials believe an offensive on Idlib would trigger a wave of displacement that could uproot an estimated 800,000 people and discourage refugees from returning home.

Thousands of government troops and allied fighters have been massing in areas surrounding the province.

In their meeting on Monday, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif also discussed what they called western pressure on their two countries, in apparent reference to the US sanctions on Iran and calls for limiting Irans role in Syria.

Israel has grown nervous of Irans growing presence in Syria and threatened to prevent a build-up of pro-Iranian forces near its frontiers with Syria.

Russia, another Syria ally, and Damascus have also said that western countries are preparing to carry out strikes against Syria ahead of the Idlib offensive. They claim such threats were part of the Wests attempt to undermine Syrias drive to restore control over all its territories.

The US and France have warned an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisis and warned that a chemical attack in Idlib would prompt a western retaliation.

In the statement from the Syrian presidents office, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif said that resorting to threats and pressure reflect the failure of those countries to realise their plans for the region after Syria and Iran confronted them.German authorities plan to step up surveillance of the far-right Alternative for Germany amid growing concern that the third-largest party in parliament is closing ranks with extremist groups.

Activists for AfD marched in the eastern city of Chemnitz alongside leading figures in anti-migrant group Pegida and members of the areas militant neo-Nazi scene in the past week, after two refugees were arrested over a German citizens fatal stabbing.

Parts of AfD are openly acting against the constitution, justice minister Katarina Barley told the RND media group.

We need to treat them like other enemies of the constitution and observe them accordingly.

Expand Close Crowds at the concert against far-right protests in Chemnitz (Jens Meyer/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Authorities in northern Germanys Bremen and Lower Saxony said they have begun monitoring the partys youth wings in the two states.

Boris Pistorius, Lower Saxonys interior minister, said the decision was not related to recent events in Chemnitz. It was based on the Young Alternatives anti-democratic goals and close links to the Identitarian Movement, a white nationalist group which has been under surveillance for four years, Mr Pistorius said.

His counterpart in Bremen, Ulrich Maeurer, described the views of AfDs youth wing in the city-state as pure racism.

AfD immediately announced it would dissolve the two youth sections in question to avert harm to the party and insisted its aims were democratic.

Expand Close Police cars stand across the road as police separate leftist and nationalist demonstrators in Chemnitz (dpa/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Andreas Kalbitz, a member of the partys national leadership, accused other political parties of panicking in the face of AfDs electoral success.

AfDs rise since its founding five years ago has shaken Germanys establishment and called into question the countrys post-war consensus that far-right parties have no place in the mainstream.

The party, bolstered by widespread unease in Germany about the influx of more than a million refugees since 2015, placed third in the 2017 national election.

Officials are particularly concerned about its strategy in eastern Germany, where Mr Kalbitz said the party hopes to become the strongest force after state elections next year.

Saxony  where Chemnitz is located  has an entrenched neo-Nazi scene and AfD has done particularly well there.

The party encouraged last weeks protests, which drew thousands following the August 26 killing of 35-year-old carpenter Daniel Hillig in Chemnitz. Some of the demonstrations erupted into violence between far-right marchers and counter-protesters.

A 22-year-old Iraqi citizen and a 23-year-old Syrian citizen were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter over Mr Hilligs death, police said.

Government officials urged Germans who are upset over the killing to distance themselves from the neo-Nazis who performed Hitler salutes, chanted Foreigners out and harassed journalists covering the demonstrations.

If one doesnt think this way, it would be good to draw a clear line and distance oneself from those who are doing that, said Steffen Seibert, German Chancellor Angela Merkels spokesman.

In an organized response to the far-right events, tens of thousands of people gathered on Monday in Chemnitz for a free open-air concert by some of Germanys best-known bands.

The show was part of an effort to encourage young Germans to stand up against far-right extremism. It was promoted with the hashtag #WeAreMore and broadcast live online.More and more Labour MPs are expressing concern at Jeremy Corbyns stance on anti-Semitism

The Labour Party has never been in such a chaotic mess as it is at the moment. The anti-Semitism row, far from abating, has suddenly escalated to dangerous proportions.

Frank Field, who insists he is not a gesture politician, shocked the leadership by his decision to resign the party whip over the issue and because of alleged intimidation within the movement.

The leadership have been fearful that Field's action would be followed by an avalanche of his fellow MPs following suit, which would thrust Labour into as bad a crisis situation as it has experienced in its entire lifetime.

More and more Labour MPs are expressing concern at their leader Jeremy Corbyn's stance on anti-Semitism.

But resignation is a huge step for an MP to take - it would blight his/her prospects of being able to fight the next general election.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi, has renewed his attack on Corbyn, saying his stance is at least as bad as that taken by Enoch Powell - that remark must have stung Corbyn more than anything.

And former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has waded in, saying this issue is destroying the soul of the Labour Party and must be resolved - and quickly.

Adding to this, the hard-Left campaign group Momentum - much-feared by moderates - is calling for a change in the system of choosing parliamentary Labour candidates.

This is seen as a sinister move designed to dump anyone who is not a hardliner.

Altogether, a sorry mess, which, far from being cleared up, is getting worse every day.

Sir Vince Cable appears to be playing a tantalising game of cat and mouse with his own political future and that of the scarcely visible Liberal Democrat Party he leads.

He has insisted he is not resigning early from the leadership, but says he will lead the party into the next general election if it is called "in the near future", which certainly implies he does not expect to retain his post if this parliament runs its full term to 2022.

Sir Vince has also been hinting that the Liberal Democrats may consider the prospect of having a leader who is not a Member of Parliament.

That may become inevitable if the Liberal Democrats' scant numbers in the Commons are reduced much further.

For a man who says "I'm certainly not stepping down", he seems strangely obsessed with the leadership issue.

There has also been widespread speculation he's been involved in secret meetings in what used to be called smoke-filled rooms with some shadowy political figures considering the question of the formation of a new Left-of-centre party, which would presumably include those moderate Labour MPs who are considering defecting. Sir Vince is planning to deliver what might be called a major pre-conference speech in a few days' time, during which he aims to clarify the murky situation and offer a few clear answers to the questions he has posed.

But don't be too sure: a politician's idea of clearing up a mess is often to make it worse.

And that could mean the Liberal Democrats facing a lingering death.

Alex Salmond, the former First Minister of Scotland, has come under attack for launching a crowdfunding operation to enable him to finance a legal challenge to the Scottish Government over accusations of sexual harassment against him.

But I believe that Salmond, who fiercely denies these accusations, is quite within order in taking this action.

After all, those who are investigating these allegations are presumably using taxpayers' money to do so.

If what he says is confirmed, Salmond has been shamefully treated over this affair.

He has apparently been kept in the dark about what has been going on. He does not even know who those who have complained about his alleged conduct are.

Anyone whose reputation is at stake and who is facing such serious allegations is entitled to be aware of what is going on.

To pursue this issue behind his back, so to speak, is outrageous.

Sir Vince Cable is probably the last person the Prime Minister would want to take lectures from. But if she wants to improve her dancing technique, she may have to.

Cable is, in fact, a smooth and accomplished performer on the dancefloor. He has even appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, although not as a contestant. You could say he is the Fred Astaire of Westminster.

But if the Liberal Democrat leader is Fred Astaire, Theresa May is certainly not Ginger Rogers.

Her galumphing "style" was visible for all to see - not once, but twice - during her three-day trip to Africa.

One day, perhaps, when she has more time on her hands, she might be invited on to the show as the natural successor to John Sergeant and Ann Widdecombe - two of the great, but unintended, comics of the light fantastic.Visitors to Drik, a Dhaka-based multimedia organization, art gallery and photo archive founded by award-winning photojournalist Shahidul Alam, react to one of his photographs, Sept. 4, 2018.

Updated at 4:55 p.m. ET on 2018-09-04

A Bangladeshi High Court panel declined on Tuesday to hold a bail hearing for jailed photojournalist Shahidul Alam without explaining why, the attorney general said.

The renowned photographer was arrested a month ago under the nations Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Act after he criticized a government crackdown on student protesters. Officials claim he provoked violence by spreading false information.

The High Court has felt embarrassed to hear the bail petition of Shahidul Alam, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told BenarNews. As a matter of our practice, the judges need not clarify to lawyers why they felt embarrassed.

Justices Ruhul Quddus and Khandaker Diliurujjaman had been assigned the photojournalists petition for bail on Aug. 29. Officials did not say which of the two judges had declared that they were embarrassed to hear it.

Sara Hossain, an attorney representing Shahidul Alam, said his legal team would make a final attempt on Wednesday to secure bail by appealing to Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, who was expected to assign the matter to other judges.

Is this the reality that he would be jailed, he would not be given the chance to seek bail and there would be no hearing on his bail petition? she asked reporters outside the court.

Pressure

In Bangladesh, judges have been known to decline politically sensitive cases on the grounds of feeling embarrassed about handling them.

When the Bangladesh Nationalist Party  now the main opposition party  ruled the country from 2001 till 2006, many judges said they felt embarrassed to take on cases related to the assassination of Bangladeshs founding leading, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

In such instances, political pressure on a case or influence from powerful groups can be a factor, according to legal experts.

Judges can feel embarrassed to hear any case when they think they can somehow be influenced in anybodys favor, or when judges think they have some personal involvement in the case. The judges are given the privilege to show embarrassment for the sake of justice, former Chief Justice A.B.M. Khairul Haque told BenarNews.

False claims

Police arrested Alam, 63, at his residence in early August, hours after he criticized the ruling Awami League government in an interview with Al Jazeera television, and posted Facebook Live updates about the situation in the streets as police and armed goons cracked down on student protests.

The demonstrations had brought parts of Dhaka to a standstill for a week as teenagers demonstrated for road safety after two classmates were killed by a speeding bus in late July.

At least 42 people  half of them students  were arrested in connection with the protests. As many as 26 journalists were beaten and injured while covering the dramatic scenes in the streets.

As he was being dragged to court, Shahidul Alam yelled out that police had beaten him and refused to allow him access to a lawyer.

Last week, Shahidul Alams partner, Rehnuma Ahmad, told BenarNews that he had severe jaw pain, difficulty breathing and was suffering from eye problems while in custody. He could not eat anything solid for the last seven days, she said on Thursday.

The son and niece of Prime Minister Hasina, meanwhile, have expressed differing views about Alams incarceration.

Hasinas son, Sajeeb Wazed, an information and communications adviser to the Awami League government, accused the award-winning photographer of inciting violence.

He used both social and traditional media outlets to spread false claims about students deaths. That, in turn, initiated violence and an attack on the governing partys headquarters, Wazed said in a statement on Aug. 29.

However, his cousin Tulip Siddiq, a member of the British parliament, called on Bangladeshs government to release Shahidul Alam.

Bangladesh must uphold international standards of justice in treating its own citizens, Siddiq told The Times of London. I would hope our Foreign Office will convey that message in stark terms to a country that is seen as a close ally.sacw.net - 4 September 2018

The Press Conference

Parambir Singh, ADG (Maharastra Police), flanked by his two deputies - Shivaji Bodkhe, JCP, Pune and the investigating officer, Shivaji Pawar, ACP, in a press conference in Mumbai, inaugurated a distinctly new storyline, incorporating and retaining only fragments of the earlier official versions, on the nationwide raids and arrests carried out on August 28.

(Ref.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=PCVKfstx2Qc&app=desktop#dialog, https://indianexpress.com/article/india/elgaar-parishad-probe-maharashtra-police-cite-letters-to-show-maoist-modi-links-back-activists-arrests-5334647/ and https://www.news18.com/news/india/arrested-activists-wanted-to-end-modi-raj-sought-money-to-procure-grenade-launchers-police-1863141.html

In fact, during the briefings, he himself said as much.

Heres a useful summarisation of the press conference, echoing the charges made by the Pune Police: https://mobile.twitter.com/iMac_too/status/1035567590293164032?s=08

The New Storyline

The sum and substance of this surprise version is as under:

I. The CPI (Maoist) is engaged in a conspiracy to overthrow the lawfully established government through unlawful means.

Thats, however, hardly any discovery of America.

The outfit is engaged in armed insurgency against the Indian state, in a bid to overrun it, for years by now. Even since well before the emergence of the current structure back in 2004. It would, eventually, be banned in 2009.

(Ref.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_India_(Maoist)#Legal_status)

II. The CPI (Maoist) is of late engaged in trying to expand to urban areas - link up with Dalit and Muslim groups.

While the insurgency, for decades, remains limited to rural patches, or rather remote and fairly inaccessible backwaters of India, the outfits involved, in their various avatars, always had urban pockets of influence - mostly among students and, to a significantly lesser extent, workers.

Thats also rather widely known.

Reports of systematic Maoist attempts to link up with Dalit groups is also hardly anything new.

Heres just an example:

A 2004 document seized by investigating agencies suggests that garnering support of Dalits formed an integral part of the Maoist agenda before the Khairlanji (in Maharashtra) incident (in 2006, involving a ghastly attack on a six-member Dalit family, rape of the women - two in number, parading them naked and murder of all barring one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khairlanji_massacre).

The fact that the Naxals reportedly aimed at amalgamating the dalit aspirations and struggle with the revolutionary zeal since the last few years was established after the seizure of literature and documents found in possession of several arrested sympathisers like Anil Mhamane and three others and leaders like Arun Ferreira, Murli, Vishnu, Vkiram and Tusharkant Bhattacharya.

(Ref.: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Naxals-eyed-Dalit-support-before-Khairlanji/articleshow/2482155.cms )

Similar is the case with Muslims:

The current statement (by CPI-Maoist in 2008) relating to the (extension of) proscription of SIMI could be understood by considering the following. One, it is an attempt to win over the support of the Muslim community and thus broaden their base.

Two, the Maoists are making common cause with SIMI by condemning its proscription as they too are a proscribed organisation in some states; they are also banned by the central government under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Three, and more importantly, this should be seen in the context of the Maoist tactic of making common cause with any organisation or body that opposes the Indian state either through peaceful means or violently. This is part of the United Front tactics of the Maoists [emphasis added].

(Ref.: https://www.dnaindia.com/india/comment-maoists-seek-linkages-with-muslim-extremists-1185536)

III. The five accused, now under house arrest, are linked to the CPI (Maoist).

But, then:

(M)ere membership of a banned organization cannot incriminate a person unless he is proved to have resorted to acts of violence or incited people to imminent violence, or does an act intended to create disorder or disturbance of public peace by resort to imminent violence.

(Excerpted from: Arup Bhuyan vs. State of Assam; decision dated 3-2-2011 of Supreme Court in Criminal Appeal No.889 of 2007  held applicable. p. 1-2 at https://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/pdf/SupremeCourtReport/2011_v4_pii.pdf )

IV. The five accused are actively engaged, including procurement of arms, mobilisation and disbursal of funds and plot to assassinate the Indian Prime Minister, in the project "overthrow", by violent and unlawful means.

Therere "thousands of letters" (recovered mostly from Rona Wilsons hard disk?) to substantiate.

The above allegation, beyond doubt, constitutes a serious offence.

A Sudden Departure

The interesting point is that even two days back, on the preceding 29th, the Maharashtra police didnt, reportedly, cite the project "overthrow" as a ground for seeking remand of the accused either before the Delhi High Court or the Supreme Court, even though the arguments of the Public Prosecutor, the same day before a Pune court (ref.: https://scroll.in/article/892464/photo-shows-about-lynchings-seeking-arms-from-nepal-claims-against-activists-arrested-on-tuesday ), seeking remand of three of the accused, broadly, prefigured the case thatd be put across in the press conference two days thereafter.

Maharashtra Police: Its Loss of Face: Nations Conscience Stirred

In fact, the remand, in the process, was refused and the state had to cut a very sorry figure and suffered serious loss of face.

(Ref.: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/navlakha-was-on-verge-of-release-when-sc-ordered-house-arrest/articleshow/65600670.cmsA and http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2018/aug/29/sc-says-dissent-safety-valve-of-democracy-orders-house-arrest-of-accused-activists-1864540.html )

At least five leading national dailies followed up with stinging editorials, the next day morning: https://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/mccarthy-moment-pune-polices-countrywide-swoop-on-left-wing-activists-rightly-elicits-outrage-and-legal-challenge/, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/the-safety-valve-activists-arrest-bhima-koregaon-dalit-violence-supreme-court-5331689/ , https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/shock-arrests/article24813620.ece, http://www.asianage.com/opinion/edit/290818/arrests-of-activists-totally-unjustified.html and https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/editorial-dna-edit-major-faux-pax-the-pune-police-have-cut-a-sorry-figure-2656610

The fact that some of the raided and arrested, this time round, are well-known public figures with pretty impressive track records, conceivably, went a long way to trigger the nationwide outrage.

Five highly eminent persons, none with any known aMaoista tinge, took the initiative to knock the doors of the Supreme Court to scuttle the much derided move of the Pune police.

(Ref.: https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/the-five-renowned-strangers-255678#.W4t1byEafKe.facebook )

The reports of highhanded and outright brutish conduct of the forces during raids also, apparently, helped stir the conscience of the nation.

Heres a representative sample:



aThey asked me (Varavara Raos son-in-law, who heads the Department of Cultural Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) in Hyderabad, whose house was also raided), why are there so many books in your house [emphasis added]? Do you read all of them? Why purchase so many books? Why do you read so many books? Why are you reading books on Mao and Marx? Why do you have books published in China? Why do you have songs of Gaddar? Why are there photos of Phule and Ambedkar in your house, but no photos of gods? he said.

One officer, Satyanarayana said, pointed to the books and told him he was areading too many booksa and aspoiling studentsa [emphasis added].

(Ref.:A https://indianexpress.com/article/india/elgaar-parishad-probe-policemen-referred-to-my-caste-asked-why-no-sindoor-says-arrested-activist-varavara-raos-daughter-5331859/ )

The Backdrop

It may be recalled here that the Bhima-Koregaon violence, which was officially alleged to be the ground for raids and arrests on the previous, and first, occasion, on the June 6th last, and also this time (as was being presumed till now), had occurred around the last New Years Day (ref.: https://www.news18.com/news/india/bhima-koregaon-how-and-why-the-january-violence-snowballed-into-arrest-of-rights-activists-1860141.htmlA and https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/bhima-koregaon-clashes-90-day-extension-granted-for-filing-charge-sheet-against-five-arrested-in-june/article24847421.ece ).

On the following April 17, this year, the first instalment of raids in multiple cities were carried out.

The Pune police have carried out searches at five places at the residences of some prominent activists and a lawyer in connection with their alleged links to the Bhima-Koregaon commemorative program on January 1. The activists include Rona Wilson (Delhi) and lawyer Surendra Gadling (Nagpur). The residences of Sudhir Dhawale and Harshali Potdar, Jyoti Jagtap and Ramesh Gaichore and Dhawala Dengle are being searched in Pune.

A senior police official said, aAn offence had been registered at Pune against Kabir Kalamanch in connection with alleged provocative speeches during Elgar Parishad at Pune on January 1. The program had been organized on the occasion of Bhima-Koregaon commemoration. We already had some evidence of Maoist links to the events connected Bhima-Koregaon. The searches on Tuesday are to check for further evidence in the matter.a

(Ref.: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/bhima-koregaon-commemoration-event-pune-police-searches-activists-for-alleged-links-5140569/ )

This was followed up with arrests of five on the June 6 following, after an interval of over a month and a half, from Delhi, Mumbai and Nagpur.

This was claimed to be based on the forensic analysis of the materials seized during the raids on April 17.

Police sources said that following the forensic analysis of electronic and other evidence obtained during the search operations [on April 17], four teams of Pune city police were dispatched to Mumbai, Delhi and Nagpur on Tuesday (June 5). Police teams started arresting the suspects in the early hours of Wednesday.

(Ref.: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/koregaon-bhima-violence-case-pune-police-arrest-top-urban-maoist-operatives-from-delhi-mumbai-nagpur-5206033/ )

The ground, as indicated by the police was:

aWe have been able to establish the money trail between these Naxal sympathizers and Naxals ahead of the Elgar Parishad in Pune on 31 December 2017. Offences were registered against some of these activists, including Dhawale, in January ***for the violence in Bhima-Koregaon on 1 January*** [emphasis added] that we believe was triggered by their inflammatory speeches at the Elgar Parishad. We have accumulated more evidence in the last few months and have a stronger case now,a the official said.

(Ref.: https://www.livemint.com/Politics/fUBcFuoIaTsgAjj4qBJtwN/Bhima-Koregaon-violence-Pune-police-arrests-5-Dalit-activis.html )

Its worth noting that:



A special court on Sunday granted the Pune police a 90-day extension for filing charge sheet against the five activists arrested on June 6 for their alleged links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Bhima-Koregaon clashes of January 1.

(Ref.: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/bhima-koregaon-clashes-90-day-extension-granted-for-filing-charge-sheet-against-five-arrested-in-june/article24847421.ece )

Also noteworthy:

On the prosecutions claim about purported funds being supplied to the accused to aggravate the clashes, he (defence counsel Advocate Rohan Nahar) said: aWe have nothing to confirm or deny the allegations as we are not furnished with any report of the polices investigations or their findings. We will come to know of the specific allegations only once the charge sheet is filed.a

(Ref.: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/bhima-koregaon-clashes-90-day-extension-granted-for-filing-charge-sheet-against-five-arrested-in-june/article24847421.ece )

So, after more than four and a half months since seizure of the incriminating materials and almost three months after the first wave of raids and arrests, based on the forensic analysis of the materials seized during the raids on April 17, while carrying out the second instalment of raids and arrests, the Pune police is unable to file a charge sheet against those arrested earlier within the stipulated (first) deadline of 90 days of arrests.

The Storyline Challenged

Its yet another matter that those who were arrested now, and also some others, have just pooh-poohed these "letters" (ref.: http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/2/14834/Letter-Fabricated-to-Criminalise-Me-And-Others , http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/2/14844/I-Am-At-My-Wits-End-Wiith-These-Lies, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/police-evidence-fabricated-say-families-of-arrested-activists/articleshow/65636986.cmsA and https://indianexpress.com/article/india/elgaar-parishad-bhima-koregaon-pm-modi-assassination-maoists-lawyers-question-evidentiary-value-activists-used-dark-net-to-send-emails-say-cops-5336601/A and also: http://www.caravanmagazine.in/governance/government-policy/interview-adivasi-rights-activist-stan-swamy-bhima-koregaon-crackdown ).

Questionable Legality of the Press Conference

Its also pertinent to note that whether the subject press conference has breached the bounds of legality is an issue of controversy.

(Ref.: https://mobile.twitter.com/pbhushan1/status/1035529666772099073?s=08 and https://scroll.in/article/882273/activists-arrest-by-leaking-modi-assassination-plot-letters-pune-police-went-against-the-law )

It, in fact, appears that the press conference has very much violated the instructions laid down in the Para 2. VI & X of the Advisory on Media Policy of Police issued by the GoI on April 1st, 2010 (ref.: https://mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/SC-ST-AdvisoryMedia-010610_2.pdf).

Even more relevant:

The Bombay High Court (on Sept. 3) has pulled up Maharashtra Police for holding a press conference, elaborating on the evidence it claims to have, against activists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. While hearing a petition, the court said how can the police hold a press conference when the case is subjudice.

"How can the police do this? The matter is subjudice. The Supreme Court is seized of the matter. In such cases, revealing information pertaining to the case is wrong," said Justice Bhatkar.

(Ref.: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/on-activists-arrests-bombay-high-court-questions-press-conference-by-maharashtra-police-when-case-is-1910371?amp=1&akamai-rum=off )

Why Press Conference?

Be that as it may, one just cant help wonder why the Maharashtra police opted not to ambush its opponents with a sudden disclosure as regards the "thousands of letters" at the next hearing of the case in the Supreme Court on the coming 6th!

That too going beyond the bounds of permissible conduct.

Thats rather remarkable.

The press conference was, plausibly, (i) a defensive response deeply rattled by the nationwide outrage, as also encapsulated in the five editorials by leading newspapers, cited above, and the harsh reaction of the Supreme Court, (ii) the urge to influence and pressurise the Supreme Court ahead of the 6th September hearing and, finally, (iii) as brought out by a tweet summarising the briefings, cited above, to shape public opinion in its favour, by stirring up paranoia and all that.

Implications of the Storyline

As we did see above, out of the four essential points, listed above, made during the press briefings, there is nothing earth-shaking as regards the first three.

The points one and two are just old points, presented as something new.

The presentation of attempted link-up with Dalits and Muslims, as something new, understandably, apart from trying to sensationalise and stir up anti-Dalit and anti-Muslim sentiments, suggests that the police want also to open a window to launch attacks on the Dalit activists, in view of rising belligerence against the incumbent regime, and also Muslims to quell future protests against mob lynching by Gau Rakshaks, using the alleged link-up with Maoists as a useful peg.

The third point, that the accused are linked to the CPI (Maoist) is by itself not an incriminating one, as has been brought out above.

The fourth one, the charge of active involvement in the project "overthrow" including a plot to assassinate the incumbent Prime Minister, by way of mobilising of forces, collection and disbursal of funds and procurement of lethal and sophisticated weapons rests solely on the "thousands of letters", three (?) of which had already been leaked to the friendly media outlets - at least two as early as in early June, but none produced in the court so far.

And, this is a charge distinctly different from one anchored in Bhima-Koregaon violence, which had (officially) been the case till now.

Its also not clear, at least as yet, what the new FIR looks like.

Credibility of the aLettersa

The accused have, based on the contents shared publicly, have trashed these as just "concocted".

Heres an earlier audit of the two "letters" leaked then and the related circumstances, underlining the implausibilities, by this observer: The aLettera that Discloses a Plot to Assassinate: Disturbing Implications at https://sabrangindia.in/article/%E2%80%9Cletter%E2%80%9D-discloses-plot-assassinate-disturbing-implications

One of the points raised there (point: VI.), in a way, has now been echoed and quite sharply put across by a senior Congress politician:

After disclosing that he is defending some of the arrested activists in court, senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, aDo you think its an illusion of grandeur that the Pune police is in-charge of investigation and the NIA and CBI are nowhere to be seen? The biggest investigating agencies of our country are not to be seen in a case of an assassination attempt against the PM. The Pune police is in-charge? I find it absurd. [Emphasis added.] I am gravely concerned about the security of the Prime Minister if you are leaving a matter like this to the Pune police.a

(Ref.: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/why-are-cbi-nia-not-involved-if-its-bid-to-assassinate-pm-asks-congress/article24835369.ece )

In fact, a plain reading of these leaked "letters" would reveal how implausible they look like. (Ref. points VI to VII of the aaudit referred to above.)

In this context, one should very well remember how the Prime Minister himself, during the closing phase of the campaign for the last Gujarat assembly poll, had hurled a charge of treason, nothing less (!) at his immediate predecessor and the previous Vice President of India, only to be meekly withdrawn later, the poll having been over and results declared, on the floor of the parliament: https://twitter.com/officeofrg/status/946038581306441728?lang=en

Also, not to forget that he has a long track record of being faced with (politically convenient) assassination threats. (Ref.: http://www.caravanmagazine.in/politics/many-plots-to-assassinate-narendra-modiA and https://www.khaleejtimes.com/editorials-columns/how-assassination-plot-saved-gujarat-s-modi-his-job )

aThousands of Lettersa : Likely Use/Impact

In any case, the claim of "thousands of letters", whether contents fully disclosed or not would be used to pressurise the Supreme Court.

The fact that the draconian UAPA has been applied which mandates establishment of prima facie innocence by the accused makes the things even trickier, regardless of the fact that various procedural and other lapses have already been pointed out (ref.: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/know/urban-naxals-is-a-term-to-demonise-dissent/article24828924.ece, https://scroll.in/article/893039/flouting-the-law-maharashtra-police-took-witnesses-from-pune-while-raiding-and-arresting-activists and https://indianexpress.com/article/india/elgaar-parishad-bhima-koregaon-pm-modi-assassination-maoists-lawyers-question-evidentiary-value-activists-used-dark-net-to-send-emails-say-cops-5336601/ ).

Not difficult to imagine that the arguments made by the government advocate before the Court, citing selected portions of the alleged "letters", would also be used to launch a vicious and vigorous campaign against those raising their voices against stifling of dissenting voices within the country and stir up a mood of paranoia.

In case of grant of remand of the accused to the Pune police by the Supreme Court, which cannot just be ruled out, under the weight of "thousands of letters", this campaign would get even more vicious and shriller by tom-tomming it as its conclusive vindication.

Its precisely, in this context, the following thoughtful observation becomes particularly pertinent:

Obviously, not a single charge will actually stick, but that is clearly not the intention. The case will drag on in what I have described as a process of apunishment by triala . The judicial system is slow, and is willing to pretend that it does not notice the utter silliness of the prosecutions submissions. The accused will either continue to languish in jail or, even if enlarged on bail, will be harassed for years by the judicial process.

(Ref.: https://scroll.in/article/892553/if-the-accused-have-set-up-an-anti-fascist-front-theyre-in-fact-acting-in-defence-of-democracy)

Bogey of aUrban Naxalsa

Itd be pertinent to note here that the DGP, during his briefings, repeatedly pointed out that anybody daring to take on the police version and challenge its validity is an overground Maoist, trying to discredit the police.

One only wonders whether hed place the Supreme Court and High Courts, apart from the editorial boards of the five leading national newspapers, cited above, in the same very slot.

Obviously, the purpose is to throttle voices of opposition by dangling the threat of implicating as aMaoistsa . (Also ref.: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/know/urban-naxals-is-a-term-to-demonise-dissent/article24828924.ece )

Not that its not already being done.

Interestingly, heres a strong refutation of the police version of the Bhima-Koregaon violence, as manifested in terms of their actual actions on the ground, by an officially appointed panel to probe into it led by the Pune Dy. Mayor:

The asecret report also revealed that villagers were aware about the clash conspiracy a night before it took place but were forced to stay quiet.

Water tractors full of kerosene were also prepared a night before the violence, while lathis and swords were stacked up at a tea stall in the village, the report stated.

The eight-page report, submitted on January 20, claimed that Hindutva activists Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote allegedly roped in Hindutva ultras to create unrest. The document further stated that Milind and Ekbotes men also announced the conspiracy on social media and were aware about the clashes since 16 December 2017.

(Ref.: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/exclusive-bhima-koregaon-violence-secret-documents-pune-police-maharashtra-government-sambhaji-bhide-milind-ekbote-clashes-hindu-activists-ultra-dalit/278496 )

This, however, is a dangerous game threatening to subvert the very purported purpose as has been quite aesthetically brought out here:



The projection about Urban Naxals may help the government gain immediate political support, but it could help the guerrillas in two ways. First, it perpetuates a myth about their spread and might. An underground insurgent needs a mythical aura. An insurgency is as much a reality as it is the product of myths that society weaves around the insurgent.

(Ref.: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/inventing-urban-naxal-crpf-brodsky-naxal-left-activists-express-columns-5333345/ )

The Main Danger

Coming to the essential purpose of the latest wave of onslaughts, backed up with sustained media campaigns, the observation by an eminent, and no radical by any whatever stretch, analyst deserves careful attention:

The most alarming aspect of the current situation is that these specific arrests and raids are a pretext for something even more sinister: The creation of permanent internal war. This is an excuse to say that the nation is always under peril a first from anti-nationals, then the urban Naxals, and maybe next will be Homo sapiens. The idea of a nation under constant peril is the pretext for legitimising excessive state power, it is the pretext for targeting your opponents as traitors, and it is the pretext for creating the conditions where the necessity of a astronga leader who can confront the peril becomes an inevitability. [Emphasis added.]

. . .

This may not be a declared Emergency. And, statistically, the crackdown might pale in relation to the Emergency. But the Emergency was merely about power. What we are seeing is something more insidious: The production of a psychological complex where everyone is a traitor. It is time for the courts and civil society to push back against a power that seeks to not just imprison our bodies, but stultify our souls. [Emphasis added.]

(Ref.: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/sinister-homo-sapiens-elgaar-sudha-bharadwaj-indian-express-columns-5333338/ )

Broadly similar sentiments have been expressed by an octogenarian academic-activist of some eminence, whose house was raided this time:



The mahaul [current environment] in ... the country is that if you raise questions and find facts, you are anti-development. If you are anti-development, you are anti-government. If you are anti-government, you are anti-national. That is the logic being followed here.

(Ref.: http://www.caravanmagazine.in/governance/government-policy/interview-adivasi-rights-activist-stan-swamy-bhima-koregaon-crackdown )

That, of course, doesnt rule out the room for other subsidiary objectives.

Conclusion

In any case, the essential, and inescapable, point that emerges is:

It is time for the courts and civil society to push back against a power that seeks to not just imprison our bodies, but stultify our souls.

The cost of failure is going to be too high.

04 09 2018Indonesian police shot dead two alleged militants and arrested five more in separate incidents while hunting for suspects in the shooting of two traffic officers in West Java province late last month, authorities said Tuesday.

Members of Densus 88, the nations elite counter-terror unit, killed the two suspects Monday as officers tried to arrest them during a raid, according to Inspector Gen. Setyo Wasisto, the national police spokesman.

During the arrest, they resisted by firing at the police using a handgun which had been seized from an officer, Setyo told reporters in Jakarta, referring to the two slain suspects.

During a routine patrol on Aug. 24, two police officers stopped to check on three men who were sitting on the side of a toll road in Cirebon regency. One of the three opened fire, hitting both officers, one of whom died at a hospital days later, while the other was in serious condition, investigators said.

On Sunday, three suspects were arrested, leading to the arrest of two more suspects, Setyo said.

Two other suspects, identified as Rajendra Sulistiyanto and Ica Ardebaron, were killed the following day in the Central Java town of Tegal, Setyo said.

According to him, Rajendra was a member of the Cirebon branch of the pro-Islamic State militant network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which Indonesian authorities have blamed for a series of terrorist attacks in the country in recent years.

The authorities have arrested more than 350 suspected militants and killed 23 others across the country since mid-May, when suicide bombers attacked three churches and a police headquarters in Surabaya, the nations second largest city, officials said Tuesday. However, they declined to provide information on how many of those arrested suspects were still in jail.

The Surabaya bombings killed 14 bystanders, as well as 10 members of two families who were blamed for carrying out the bombings that were linked to JAD, police said.

In August, the national police deployed 170,000 personnel to secure the Asian Games, the largest sporting event after the Olympics that was hosted by Indonesia this year.

A terrorism expert at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta, Zaki Mubarak, said that a flurry of arrests in recent months were linked to the regional sporting event in Jakarta and Palembang, which ended on Sunday.

There must have been a threat to the Asian Games and the police were aware of that, he told BenarNews.Former jailed Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim gestures as he addresses business leaders at the financial district of Makati city east of Manila, Sept. 4, 2018.

Updated at 4:44 p.m. ET on 2018-09-05

The public caning of two women found guilty of same-sex relations by a Malaysian sharia court was carried out without due process and compassion, Anwar Ibrahim, leader of the Peoples Justice Party who is poised to become the next prime minister, said Tuesday.

But as rights groups condemned the canings in the religiously conservative East Coast state of Terengganu on Monday, an official in neighboring Pahang said that state was planning to mete out the same punishment against gay Muslims who violate local Islamic laws.

Im a practicing Muslim, I dont share that interpretation and certainly that sort of action to publicly cane without proper due process and understanding, and [a] show of compassion is something most Malaysians do not accept, Anwar told a news conference in the Philippines.

If you are careless in making statements on this issue, you will be labeled as anti-Sharia law, secular and so on, he added.

Anwar, who from a jail cell helped lead the opposition Pakatan Harapan alliance to a stunning victory in the May 9 general election, is expected to take over as prime minister after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad eventually hands over the reins of government as he promised.

Anwar, 71, was on a two-day social visit to Manila to meet with old friends including former President Joseph Estrada, who was impeached in 2001 and later convicted of plunder before receiving a presidential pardon. Anwar also delivered a speech before a Filipino business group.

No objection to it: Religious affairs minister

In Terengganu in April, Malaysian Islamic enforcement officers arrested the two women, aged 32 and 22, after they were allegedly found attempting to have sex in a car in a public square. They pleaded guilty last month to breaking Islamic laws and were sentenced to a fine and six strokes of the cane.

A day after about 100 people witnessed the canings, a religious-affairs official in Pahang said Islamic authorities were carrying out an in-depth study to use caning as punishment for Muslim lesbians and gays found guilty of violating local Sharia laws.

We are studying the matter thoroughly. Were looking to implement it here, a source in the Pahang religious affairs department told BenarNews.

On Monday, Mujahid Yusof Rawa, Malaysias minister in charge of the Islamic Affairs, said the punishment meted out against the two women did not cause any pain.

My take on this issue is, as long as it was conducted under the rule of law, then there is no objection to it, Mujahid told reporters at an event outside Kuala Lumpur.

Federal Territory Minister Khalid Samad urged those who were not happy with the punishment to push for laws to be changed at the state level.

Predominantly Muslim Malaysia has a federal court system and Islamic court system that function separately.

In Islam, sexual relations between women is called Musahaqah. In Malaysia, it is punishable by caning in Johor, Penang, Sarawak and the Federal Territories.

Back to the dark ages

The caning of the two women ignited widespread criticism amid concerns around the countrys growing intolerance toward the LGBT community.

On Tuesday, Phil Robertson, a deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Terengganu officials committed an outrageous human rights violation that tarnished Malaysias image as a rights-respecting nation.

He urged the federal government to take steps to ensure that lesbians or gays are not punished for consensual sexual relations with another adult.

No one should be tortured for any reason, and certainly not for loving another adult of the same gender, he said.

Gwen Lee, Amnesty International Malaysias interim executive director, said the caning of two consensual adults had sent Malaysia back to the dark ages and showed that the new government was not committed to protecting the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community in the country.

U.S. Ambassador Kamala Shirin Lakhdir also reacted.

I am saddened by the caning of the two women in Terengganu today (Monday). I appreciate all those organizations and individuals who have spoken out for tolerance and human rights, she told reporters.

But Musa Awang, president of the Malaysian Association of Sharia Lawyers, claimed that the punishment against the two women was carried out without compromising their dignity.

Caning under sharia law protects the dignity of the offender. They are fully dressed and their aurat is covered, he said, referring to parts of the body that must be covered according to Islam.

It is different from Western corporal punishment, where the offender is stripped and only the private parts are covered, he said.

The last time a woman was sentenced to caning in Malaysia occurred in March 2010 in Pahang.



Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was found guilty of violating the states Islamic law for drinking beer, but the Sultan of Pahang intervened and commuted her punishment to community service.A Philippine police investigator inspects a vehicle at a military checkpoint near where a bomb exploded in the southern Philippine town of Lamitan in Basilan province amid threats of bombings, July 31, 2018.

Islamic State-linked fighters blamed for two deadly bombings in a southern Philippine province during the past week have managed to slip past a government dragnet in vast marshlands in the south, the military said Tuesday.

Regional military spokesman Capt. Arvin John Encinas told BenarNews that at least 100 fully armed members of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) under the command of Abu Turaife had been initially trapped in parts of Liguasan Marsh. However, many of them escaped undetected.

We are looking into more than 100 armed militants in the marshland but some of them managed to escape our security cordon recently, Encinas said.

The military and police have tagged the BIFF as the primary suspect behind the two bomb attacks that killed at least five, and wounded scores of others, in the southern town of Isulan. Weeks earlier, IS had claimed a suicide bomb attack that left 11 people dead on Basilan island, farther to the south.

The BIFF is an extremist group that split from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), once the countrys largest Muslim rebel force, which signed a peace pact four years ago.



On July 26, President Rodrigo Duterte signed a law promising wider self-rule for Muslims in the south.

The law will give the MILF control over many local government functions, including taxation and education, as well as allow Muslim Filipinos to incorporate Islamic law into their justice system. The MILF will retain control of the autonomous region until elections are held later this year.

The BIFF, however, has rejected the deal and vowed to continue its fight for self-rule in the south, where Muslims are a large minority.

One of its commanders, Turaife, has been touted as the likely next leader of the local IS branch in the south, after Isnilon Hapilon was killed by the military in Marawi last year. Hapilons death in October effectively ended the Marawi siege that killed 1,200 people, most of them militants.

While the BIFF as an organization did not send fighters in Marawi, it had launched diversionary attacks elsewhere in the south.

Encinas said that the United States was helping Filipino forces flush out the BIFF from their known lairs in the south. Primarily, he said, Washington was providing them with vital intelligence data against the BIFF, similar to what they did in assisting Filipino forces in Marawi.

They are providing us intelligence reports. Our coordination is only limited to sharing of information, Encinas said of the U.S. assistance.

Earlier, Washington had assured the Philippines of its continuing support on its war on terror amid the deadly bomb attacks in Mindanao.

Both allies are bound by a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, under which they can call on each other for help in times of crises or aggression by outside forces. While U.S. troops are barred from joining actual combat operations in the Philippines, they have been providing training and hardware upgrades since the 1990s.

Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, the joint task force military commander in the south, said troops had added security to Isulan and other cities in the south.

The barbaric attacks were part of the retaliation of the bandits since they suffered heavy losses from our sustained military operation, Sobejana said Tuesday, referring to the Isulan bombings.

Those bandits are now lacking on logistics and financial support, so they engage in more terror attacks and wanted to project that they are still capable to sow terror and acquire financial support from the international terror group, he said.

Richel V. Umel from Iligan and Froilan Gallardo from Cagayan de Oro contributed to this report.Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, the woke vs. the awakened.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesFor Immediate Release, September 4, 2018 Contact: Noah Greenwald, (503) 484-7495, ngreenwald@biologicaldiversity.org Zinke Sued for Refusing to Release Documents on Efforts to Strip Protection From American Burying Beetle Oil, Gas Industry Colluding With Trump Administration to Strip Rare, Striking Beetle of Protection, Clear Path for Oil, Gas WASHINGTON The Center for Biological Diversity sued Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to release public documents about the agencys move toward stripping Endangered Species Act protections from the American burying beetle. Documents already obtained by the Center show interference in science and collusion between the administration and the oil and gas industry in their efforts to remove protection for the beetle. The oil and gas industry has for years tried to end protections for the highly endangered beetle, which has declined by more than 90 percent and today lives in a few isolated populations. The Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Zinkes office about the beetle on Feb. 27, 2018. To date the agency has failed to release detailed records related to the request. We have serious concerns Secretary Zinke is trying to manipulate science and strip the American burying beetle of protections simply to please the oil and gas industry, said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. This work is going on behind closed doors at Zinkes Interior Department. The public has every right to know how this is being carried out, and thats why were suing. The Center learned that the agency may be seeking to strip the beetle of protections through a scientist who was asked to be on the review team but was later kicked off for asking questions about the methods and conclusions of the review. The scientists experience on the review team is detailed in a letter sent to the agency expressing alarm about the use of unsound science and poor ethics. This letter raises serious alarm bells about the use of science in Ryan Zinkes Fish and Wildlife Service, said Greenwald. Its not a stretch to assume that a climate-denier like Zinke wont give a lick about scientific integrity when it comes to a species like the American burying beetle. The review of the beetles status was prompted by a 2015 petition to remove Endangered Species Act protections for the beetle from the Independent Petroleum Association of America and others in order to clear hurdles to oil and gas development in Oklahoma, one of the last strongholds for these striking orange and black beetles. Concerns that the administration is moving to strip the beetle of protection are heightened by emails obtained by the organization Documented Investigations, showing the IPAA had meetings focused on the beetle with Vincent DeVito, who was head of Trumps campaign in Massachusetts and was then appointed to be a special counselor on energy policy by Zinke. DeVito has referred to his position as the office of energy dominance and took credit for delaying protection of another species, the Texas hornshell, on behalf of the IPAA. He recently resigned his position, but concerns about interference in science at the Department of Interior remain. The status of the beetle is being assessed using a new process, referred to as a species status assessment, or SSA. The process itself has come under controversy. In 2017 acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Greg Sheehan issued a memo requiring inclusion of state representatives on SSA teams. Since states like Idaho or Wyoming often oppose protections for endangered species, such a move clearly interjects politics into what should be a purely scientific inquiry. The SSA process also takes decisions about protections for endangered species out of the hands of scientists and puts them into the hands of politically motivated bureaucrats, which is exactly what has happened in the case of the beetle. These concerns led the Center to also seek documents related to the new process in todays lawsuit and file a notice of intent to sue over the agencys failure to provide notice and comment on the new process. The beetle once occurred across the eastern half of the United States and parts of Canada, but today is reduced to a small number of isolated populations in states including Oklahoma and Nebraska, where it faces ongoing threats from oil and gas and agricultural development.India has fast-tracked many initiatives aimed at achieving all the core tenets of universal health coverage.

Health ministers and experts from countries in WHO South-East Asia Region recently began five day deliberations on priority issues, emphasizing on universal health coverage for ensuring health for all.



Universal Health Coverage is at the core of Sustainable Development Goal 3 and can be a very powerful tool for social, gender and economic equity, said J P Nadda, Indias Minister of Health and Family Welfare, inaugurating the Seventy-first session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia here.



The year 2018 is also the 40th anniversary of the historic Alma-Ata Declaration, and due to our collective efforts, the Region is better prepared, and is accelerating progress toward the shared global vision of health for all through universal health coverage, he said.



Nadda said India has fast-tracked many initiatives aimed at achieving all the core tenets of universal health coverage - strengthening health systems, improving access to free medicines & diagnostics and reducing catastrophic healthcare spending.



Speaking at the inauguration, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director WHO South-East Asia, said, WHOs new global thrust aims to have one billion more people benefitting from universal coverage; one billion more people protected from disaster, and one billion more people enjoying better health as we tackle the many determinants of ill health that lie beyond the reach of the health sector.



The WHO South-East Asia Regions priority programmes are already aligned to these goals and the Region is witnessing growing support for health from the highest levels of government, and impressive progress and achievements.



WHO Deputy Director General, Jane Elizabeth Ellison, said, building on the Regions achievements we look to the many challenges ahead and our agenda this week draws our discussions to a wide range of vital subjects; from the need to improving civil registration and vital statistics to increasing action on improved vector management for better control of malaria and dengue; from progress in child survival to the promotion physical activity.



Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer of National Institute of Transforming India, and Preeti Sudan, Health Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Planning, spoke at the inaugural and shared the various initiatives being taken by India to improve health and wellbeing of people.



Marking 70 years of WHO in South-East Asia Region, a special commemorative document was released by Nadda, Dr Khetrapal Singh, Jane and other ministers/ heads of delegation from WHO South-East Asia Region and other dignitaries.



WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will be joining the Regional Committee session later in the week.



Representatives of a number of partner organizations and civil society are participating in the meeting that is expected to adopt resolutions on key health issues.



The Regional Committee session, the highest policy making body of WHO in the Region, is hosted annually by any one of the 11 Member countries in the Region, or the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office. The session this year is being hosted by the Regional Office.

The Polisario has not been invited to attend the third China-Africa Forum, which is being held in Beijing September 3-4 with the participation of leaders and heads of government of 53 African countries, including Morocco.

Morocco is represented by a delegation led by head of government, Saad Eddine El Othmani.

Unlike the African Union-European Union Summit of November 2017 held in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire, when the Polisario was invited to attend, under the pressure of Algeria and South Africa, no representative of the separatist front was present in Beijing at the opening the China-Africa summit Monday (Sept.3).

The Chinese government has not sent an invitation to the leaders of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi republic SADR for the simple reason that China, like the UN, does not recognize this entity.

In 2015, when Morocco had not yet returned to the African Union, Beijing had pressured South Africa, host of the 2nd edition of the Chinese-African Forum, to exclude the Polisario Front from the meeting.

China, which is confronted, like Morocco, to secessionist problems with the cases of Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong, whose legal status has not yet been defined, does not recognize the ghostly SADR and rejects any rapprochement with the Polisario leadership.

Even in the UN Security Council, China, which is one of its five permanent member states, has always shown reservations and neutrality in handling the Western Sahara issue.

As a reminder, last April 29, during the vote in the Security Council of resolution 2414 on the Sahara, China abstained.

It is for all these reasons that the so-called SADR and the Polisario have been sidelined by Chinese authorities.

In his opening speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion for Africas economic development.

The sum will be distributed as credit lines ($20 billion), subsidies, interest-free loans and concessional loans ($15 billion), special funds ($10 billion), and support for imports from Africa ($5 billion). Chinese companies will be encouraged to invest at least $10 billion in Africa over the next three years, the Chinese President said.The MoDs Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), which develops technological innovations that provide an advantage to defence and national security

Plasticell Ltd, a developer of stem cell technologies and regenerative medicines, has been contracted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a pilot programme to develop regenerative medicines for the treatment of injuries resulting from combat or terrorism.

Plasticell will deploy its combinatorial stem cell screening platform, CombiCult, to develop technologies for the conversion of pluripotent stem cells into platelets that promote tissue recovery and regeneration.

This defence-related work is an extension of Plasticells programme for manufacture of universal platelets from stem cells in vitro, to supplement or replace donor-derived material which is perishable and in short supply. Platelet transfusions are used in a number of medical applications but could also be used to treat individuals exposed to high levels of radiation from civilian, military or terrorist sources. In addition to their key role in blood clotting, platelets have been shown to promote wound healing, nerve regeneration and musculo-skeletal regeneration, all of which are especially relevant to recovery from various forms of battlefield injury commented Dr Yen Choo, founder and Executive Chairman of Plasticell.

As part of this programme, Plasticell will expand its existing collaboration on artificial platelet biology with Kings College London. The MoDs Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), which develops technological innovations that provide an advantage to defence and national security, will fund the research programme and if successful, may provide further support through to potential applications in the front line.With Bone Marrow Transplant being the only cure for Thalassemia, it becomes very important to find a matching donor for such treatment.

As we head closer to World Marrow Donor Day, Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre at Narayana Health City  one of the leading Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant units in India highlights alarming cases of two Cambodian sisters aged 9 and 11 years; their hero and saviour being a 11-month-old sibling and half HLA matched father. With Bone Marrow Transplant being the only cure for Thalassemia, it becomes very important to find a matching donor for such treatment.

It is highly unlikely to find an unrelated donor for Cambodian descent patients as there is no Cambodian donor registry and number of Cambodian donors in other registries are almost negligible, informed Dr. Sunil Bhat, Head  Paediatric Oncology, Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant at Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre, Narayana Health City. Chances of a match with other ethnic backgrounds is extremely low, he added.

It was a big shock for this couple from Cambodia to have two consecutive children  both girls, suffering from Thalassemia  a potentially lethal disease. Both sisters were diagnosed with Thalassemia major  a disease that requires life-long blood transfusion every few weeks. Most of the affected patients usually die in the second to fourth decade of life, confirmed Dr. Sunil Bhat.

Fortunately, almost eight years after the second child was born, the family was blessed with a baby boy who was normal and did not suffer from Thalassemia. The father being a doctor by profession had made every possible effort to provide the best care to both his affected daughters. However, it was getting difficult for him in Cambodia. Giving adequate, safe and effective blood transfusions and managing the complications of iron overload was becoming a challenge to the family. They had learnt that Bone Marrow Transplant is the only cure for this condition.

They began their search for a centre with immense experience in paediatric bone marrow transplants. Their research led to Narayana Health City in Bengaluru and Dr. Sunil Bhat who has remarkable experience in treating complex cases of blood disorders in children. The centre is also known for its innovative techniques in Haplo identical (half-matched) bone marrow transplants.

Affirming that Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) is the only cure for many life-threatening diseases, Dr. Sunil Bhat said, For more than 100 potentially life-threatening diseases, bone marrow transplant or blood stem cell transplant is the only cure. These diseases range from cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma, solid cancers to genetic disorders of blood forming cells and immune system like thalassemia major, sickle cell anaemia, severe immunodeficiency disorders. With increasing number of haematological disorders, the number of patients requiring a blood stem cell transplant is also increasing. There are more than 1, 00,000 patients with serious blood disorders diagnosed in India every year and they can be cured with a BMT. One of the major differences between bone marrow transplant and solid organ transplants like liver and kidney is that in BMT we need to match HLA of the patient and the donor. The chance of a patient finding a matched donor within family is only 25% to 30%; this leaves about 70% patients needing BMT for the cure of their disease but dont have a matching donor.

The younger sister was fortunate as her brother was the HLA match who could donate, but he was only 11 months old! Extracting marrow stem cells from a donor who is an infant was a clinical challenge. The team at Narayana Health City came up with an innovative plan of taking the bone marrow from the donor at two different time points, around 4 to 6 weeks apart, in order to have adequate marrow for transplant. The transplant was performed in March this year making the 11-month-old infant the youngest donor to have donated bone marrow for his sister. The girl is completely cured of Thalassemia now.

However, her elder sister was not so lucky as she couldnt get a fully matched donor. Therefore, her transplant was even more challenging. She did not have any HLA matched donor either in the family or anywhere in the World. The next possibility was a Haplo-identical transplant. Doctors at Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre at Narayana Health City decided to use the stem cells of the father who was a half match with the elder daughter. A new technique was used in haplo (half matched) transplant as the donor stem cells were not fully matching the patient. Her bad cells were taken out in a procedure called TCR alpha-beta depletion and only the good cells were given to the patient, explained Dr. Sunil Bhat. This avoids the risk of donor cells attacking the patients body, he said.

Although this technique helps in the above mentioned mechanism, it would delay the immune recovery, which would put them at risk of serious infections. To address this issue of slow immune recovery, CD45RA depletion is an additional technique recently introduced, informed Dr. Sunil. This helps us to give memory cells, which can fight infections in the patient, he said. This new technique has probably been used for the first time in India for the treatment of Thalassemia major.

The transplant using this technique was performed on the elder girl in June this year and she is also cured of her disease completely.Medical products are a major component of out-of-pocket health care spending which has pushed 65 million people into poverty in the WHO South-East Asia Region.

Member countries of WHO South-East Asia Region have committed to make essential medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and medical devices affordable and accessible to all, both within the Region and beyond.

Access to safe, effective and affordable medical products vital to prevent sufferings and impoverishment resulting from high out-of-pocket expenses on healthcare by families, especially the poor, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, said, as health ministers and officials of the 11 Member countries signed the Delhi Declaration to improve access to essential medical products.

Medical products are a major component of out-of-pocket health care spending which has pushed 65 million people into poverty in the WHO South-East Asia Region.

Though significant efforts have been made by countries in recent years, as improving access to essential medicines is a WHO flagship priority programme in the Region since 2014, challenges remain in providing the right medical products at the right time to those in need.

To overcome challenges, the Delhi Declaration calls for allocation of sufficient financial resources by countries, as part of overall health financing strategies, to reduce out-of-pocket payments of families on essential medicines.



The declaration calls for strengthening national policies, regulation, supply chain management, and capacity to leverage intellectual property and trade for public health, to improve access to medicines and vaccines.

Signing the declaration at the Seventy-first Regional Committee Session of WHO South-East Asia Region, Member countries committed to developing an effective, transparent and participatory mechanism for regional price negotiation and pooled procurement to ensure accessibility and affordability of essential medical products for life threatening and rare diseases.

The Member countries committed to strengthen regulatory cooperation and collaboration to improve availability, quality and safety of essential medical products through the South-East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN).

With the Region emerging as a major manufacturer of essential medical products especially generic medicines, Member countries agreed to leverage this strength to improve accessibility and affordability both within the Region and beyond.

The Member countries committed to developing an essential medical products list, in particular essential diagnostics list, for improved patient care, affordability of quality tests, and greater capacity to diagnose diseases during outbreaks and strengthened capabilities of national laboratories.

The declaration also emphasized on more appropriate use of antibiotics; and innovation and investment in R&D including for neglected diseases, and affordable medical products.

The Member countries agreed to ensure universal accessibility and affordability of essential medical products by 2030, as part of achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and the health related goals of SDG 2030 agenda.

The Regional Committee is held annually and is hosted by one of the 11 Member countries or the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office.Paris, September 4, 2018

FIRST-HALF 2018 RESULTS

A new sales and marketing approach yielding the first positive results in the July/August period

A successful commercial launch in Italy

IFRS 15, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, has been applicable since January 1, 2018. Iliad has therefore prepared its consolidated financial statements for the first half of 2018 in accordance with this new standard.

DEPLOYMENT OF A NEW SALES AND MARKETING APPROACH

In a fiercely competitive environment, Iliad recorded a disappointing sales performance in the first half of 2018. In June 2018, the Group launched a new sales and marketing approach in order to re-boost growth, based on:

All of the above actions will enable the Group to re-boost its sales and begin a new growth cycle.

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN FIRST-HALF 2018

The Iliad Group is one of the leading electronic communications operators in France and Italy, with more than 20 million subscribers. In a fiercely competitive market, the Group generated 2.4 billion in revenues, stable compared with the same period of 2017.

The key figures and significant events of first-half 2018 were as follows:

France

Operations review

Financial review

Italy

Operations review

Financial review

KEY INDICATORS

Operating performance indicators

* 50/100 GB for non-Freebox subscribers** 32.20 including the restatements related to IFRS 15*** Excluding promotions

Financial performance indicators

GROUP OBJECTIVES

France

Italy

INCOME STATEMENT - FRANCE

Revenues

Revenues generated in France in first-half 2018 were more or less stable compared with the same period of 2017 at 2.4 billion (down 0.2%). In a fiercely competitive market, the Group recorded a 2.2% decrease in Landline revenues (to 1,334 million) and a 2.4% rise in Mobile revenues (to 1,066 million).

The table below shows the breakdown of revenues for France by category for first-half 2018 and first-half 2017 as well as the percentage change between the two periods.

Landline revenues

Against a backdrop of heightening competition, revenues for the Landline business retreated 2.2% to 1,334 million. The main factors underlying this business's performance in first-half 2018 were:

Mobile revenues

Revenues generated by the Mobile business rose 2.4% to 1,066 million in first-half 2018 (with revenues invoiced to subscribers up 5.4%). The main factors that drove the Mobile business's performance during the period were as follows:

Intra-group sales

Intra-group sales correspond to sales between companies from the Group's two different businesses and mainly consist of billings of interconnection operations. They are eliminated in consolidation.

Gross profit

Gross profit for France amounted to 1,372 million in first-half 2018, up 5% year on year.

As a percentage of revenues, gross profit climbed almost three points to 57.3%, driven by the sharp increase in profitability for the Mobile business which was achieved thanks to the improved subscriber mix and an increase in traffic volumes carried directly on the Group's own network.

EBITDA

EBITDA generated in France advanced some 20 million year on year to 894 million and the EBITDA margin widened by almost one point to 37.3%. The EBITDA figure for the first half of each year is negatively affected by IFRIC 21, which requires certain tax charges for the whole twelve-month period to be recognized in full at January 1.

The main factors affecting EBITDA generated in France in first-half 2018 were as follows:

Profit from ordinary activities

Profit from ordinary activities rose by 7 million to 437 million. This rise was fueled by the higher EBITDA figure although this positive effect was partly offset by a 1.6% increase in depreciation/amortization expense resulting from the continued rollout of the Group's FTTH and mobile networks.

INCOME STATEMENT - ITALY

Iliad's Italian operations made only a small contribution to the Group's consolidated financial results for the first half of 2018. The following table presents a simplified income statement for the Italy segment for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2018 and June 30, 2017.

Revenues

As the commercial launch of the Group's Italian mobile business took place on May 29, 2018, it only contributed one month of operations in the first half of 2018. Its main results are described below.

Iliad's operations in Italy reported robust commercial success, with 635,000 subscribers signing up in the space of just one month and a total of 1.5 million subscribers achieved by early August. Iliad's business model in Italy is based on a straightforward, transparent offering with no hidden costs. During the first half of 2018, the Group also (i) pursued its network capital expenditure, (ii) continued to hire new people for its local team, (iii) incurred advertising expenditure in order to anchor the brand in its new market, (iv) set up a physical distribution network of stores and kiosks with automatic SIM card dispensers, as well as the possibility for subscribers to sign up directly online via their mobile phone, tablet or computer, and (v) entered into partnerships with nationwide reseller networks (Sisal, Lottomatica) in order to create customer proximity and enable subscribers to easily top up their SIM cards.

In Italy, Iliad has put in place:- An effective and inexpensive distribution network.- A brand which already has a strong image.- A very high-quality mobile service.

First-half 2018 revenues amounted to 9 million, generated in just one month and mainly comprising (i) SIM card activations during the period (9.99 per SIM card), and (ii) the subscription price (5.99/month).

EBITDA

EBITDA came to a negative 28 million, primarily reflecting (i) roaming costs paid to Wind/Tre, (ii) marketing and advertising expenses related to the commercial launch and developing the brand's image in Italy, and (iii) overhead expenses, particularly payroll costs.

Profit/(loss) from ordinary activities

The Group's Italian operations generated a 31 million loss from ordinary activities in the first half of 2018, including the depreciation/amortization expense for the network's initial components and frequencies.

Cash flows and capital expenditure

In the first six months of 2018, the Group pursued its major capex programs focused on rolling out its landline and mobile Ultra-Fast Broadband networks, backed by a solid financial structure. During the period, it invested 773 million (excluding frequency payments) in its landline and mobile infrastructure in France, enabling it to become more autonomous and increase its profitability while at the same time enhancing its subscriber service.

The year-on-year change in consolidated Free Cash Flow mainly reflects the following:

BALANCE SHEET

The Group is not subject to any liquidity risk as a result of acceleration clauses contained in loan agreements entered into by Group companies or as a result of any breaches of financial covenants (ratios, targets, etc.).

At June 30, 2018, the Group had gross debt of 4,154 million and net debt of 3,257 million. The Group maintained its solid financial structure during the period and its leverage ratio at June 30, 2018 was 1.8x EBITDA. At the same time, it also had a very strong liquidity position.

The Group ended the first half of 2018 with 871 million in available cash and cash equivalents.

GLOSSARY

The definitions of the main terms used by Iliad are set out below:

Alternative operator: An operator that entered the market subsequent to the incumbent State operator losing its monopoly.

Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband ARPU (Average Revenue Per Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband User): Includes revenues from the flat-rate package and value-added services but excludes one-time revenues (e.g., fees for migration from one offer to another or subscription and cancellation fees), divided by the total number of Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband subscribers invoiced for the period.

Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband subscribers: Subscribers who have signed up for the Group's ADSL, VDSL or FTTH offerings.

Connectible FTTH socket: A socket for which the link between the shared access point and the optical splitter has been put in place by the building operator, which the Group can access in accordance with its co-financing commitments, and for which the connection to the Group's network has been completed or is in progress.

EBITDA: Profit from ordinary activities before share-based payment expense, depreciation, amortization and provisions for impairment of non-current assets.

FCF: Free Cash Flow

Freebox Revolution ARPU (Average Revenue Per Freebox Revolution Subscriber, excluding promotions): Includes revenues from the flat-rate package and value-added services but excludes one-time revenues (e.g., fees for migration from one offer to another or subscription and cancellation fees), divided by the total number of Freebox Revolution subscribers invoiced for the period.

FTTH (fiber-to-the-home): Data delivery technology that directly connects subscribers' homes to an optical node (ON).

Gross profit: Corresponds to revenues less purchases used in production.

Leverage ratio: Represents the ratio between net debt (short- and long-term financial liabilities less cash and cash equivalents) and EBITDA.

M2M: Machine to machine communications.

Net adds: Represents the difference between total subscribers at the end of two different periods.

Net debt: Difference between short- and long-term financial liabilities, and available cash and cash equivalents as presented in the balance sheet.

Profit for the period from recurring operations: Profit for the period excluding the impact of non-recurring items such as the Group's share of restructuring and acquisition costs related to the eir transaction and non-recurring income tax charges.

Revenues invoiced to subscribers: Revenues generated from services invoiced directly to subscribers (services included in subscribers' mobile plans as well as additional services).

Total Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband subscribers: Represents, at the end of a period, the total number of subscribers, identified by their telephone lines, who have signed up for a Free or Alice Broadband or Ultra-Fast Broadband offering, excluding those recorded as having requested the termination of their subscription.

Total mobile subscribers: Represents, at the end of a period, the total number of subscribers, identified by their telephone lines, who have subscribed to a Free mobile offering, excluding those recorded as having requested the termination of their subscription.

Unbundled subscribers: Subscribers who have signed up for the Group's ADSL, VDS or FTTH offerings through a telephone exchange unbundled by Free.

About Iliad

Iliad is the parent company of Free, the inventor of the Freebox, the first multiservice box on ADSL. Free is behind numerous innovations in the Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband access segment (VoIP, IPTV, flat-rate calling plans to multiple destinations, etc.) and provides straightforward and innovative offerings at the best prices. The Freebox Revolution, the sixth generation of Freebox units, notably includes an NAS and a Blu-RayTM drive. Free also offers the Freebox mini 4K, the first Android TVTM and 4K box on the French market. Since January 2012, Free has brought mobile phone usage within everyone's reach with straightforward, no-commitment offerings at very attractive prices. As at June 30, 2018, Free had over 20 million subscribers (6.5 million Broadband and Ultra-Fast Broadband subscribers and 13.6 million mobile subscribers). On May 29, 2018, the Group launched its mobile network in Italy under the Iliad brand, becoming the country's fourth operator with 635,000 subscribers at June 30 2018.

[1] 50/100 GB for non-Freebox subscribers

[2] Excluding promotions

This press release and all the financial documents of the 1H 2018 Results are available (PDF) on our website www.iliad.fr/en - Press Release, - Management discussion and analysis, - Consolidated accounts, - Slideshow.PR Newswire

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Sept. 4, 2018

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nationally known Trial Attorney Geoffrey Fieger announced today he is helping unrepresented victims of Larry Nassar. "A lot of people don't realize that most unrepresented Nassar victims only have until September 10, 2018, to file their lawsuit." Michigan State is hoping this very short deadline comes and goes without anyone realizing their rights have likely been completely extinguished. "Any Nassar victim who has yet to file a claim must come forward so that I can protect and preserve their rights," said Fieger, who recently filed two lawsuits on behalf of victims in the second round of filings against MSU and Nassar.

"I don't want a single Nassar victim to be denied justice because of a back door deal negotiated between MSU President John Engler and his cronies." MSU's $500 million settlement was conditioned upon the Nassar victims withdrawing their support for changes in Michigan's laws to make it easier for sex assault victims to pursue justice in Michigan courts. The MSU / Nassar tragedy allowed the Michigan legislature to hear loud and clear the victims' cries of injustice emanating from Michigan's inadequate laws for sex abuse victims. The legislature was very close to extending the statute of limitations for sex assault victims to 30 years, with retroactivity allowing for claims arising out of past abuse. Once Engler negotiated the $500 million settlement, however, he was able to persuade his friends to drastically cut back on the reform package. Most Nassar victims now have until September 10, 2018, to file their claims.

Fieger explained:

"I have fought MSU President John Engler on many issues over the years. This $500 million "settlement" is classic. It wasn't a settlement to resolve the claims or provide justice for the Nassar victims, it was a settlement to make sure thousands of other sex assault victims never step foot in a courtroom. To the other Nassar survivors out there, don't let them get away with this. You still have time to do something, but you must do it now."

For further information contact Geoffrey Fieger at the Fieger Firm 19390 W 10 Mile Road, Southfield, Michigan 48075 (248) 355-5555

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-renowned-trial-attorney-geoffrey-fieger-says-time-is-running-out-for-nassar-victims-300706558.html

SOURCE Fieger Law FirmImproperly timed traffic lights.

Drivers who pull out in front of you.

Drivers who accelerate in the left-turn lane.

Drivers who are discourteous about allowing others to merge.

Drivers who dont use their blinkers.

Drivers on their cellphones instead of driving.

Vote

View ResultsSite traffic information and cookies

We use cookies to collect and analyse information on our site's performance and to enable the site to function. Cookies also allow us and our partners to show you relevant ads when you visit our site and other 3rd party websites, including social networks.You can choose to allow all cookies by clicking Allow allor manage them individually by clicking Manage cookie preferences, where you will also find more information.It has been just over a month since a deadly tornado struck the Alonsa area, and while the cleanup is moving ahead, theres still much to be done.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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It has been just over a month since a deadly tornado struck the Alonsa area, and while the cleanup is moving ahead, theres still much to be done.

The tornado that hit was classified as an EF4 on the scale, which typically causes devastating damage. In this case, the tornado killed a 77-year-old man, and left much destruction in its path.

"I think its going to be a multi-year cleanup effort. Were not going to recover overnight," said Shawn Gurke, who lives in the community.

A big part of the cleanup from the Aug. 3 tornado that still needs to be completed is in Lake Manitoba, said resident Vaughn Cabak.

"Nothing has happened and nothing is started, and were hoping something does start because the lake is not usable unless its thoroughly cleaned," Cabak said.

A few methods are being considered, Cabak said, including the possibility of scuba divers, as well as dredging  using equipment to gather up any debris and removing it from the lake.

On Friday, Alonsa Reeve Stan Asham said that someone from the provincial government came from Brandon to meet with them and discuss cleanup options.

They still have to be priced out, Asham said, but regardless, something has to be done.

"The lake will have a lot of stuff in it, a lot of metal and glass and stuff that will be harmful to people, even if they go boating," he said.

MELISSA VERGE/BRANDON SUN Although the debris on the beach has been cleaned up since the tornado hit Margaret Bruce Beach on Aug. 3, there's still a lot that needs to be done with the lake, local resident said.

Although a lot of debris that was on the shore on Margaret Bruce Beach has been picked up, there has to be more in the deeper water of the lake that isnt visible, Cabak said.

Cabaks dad, Russell Cabak, confirmed that the entire cabin their family owned went into the lake, along with their shop and several trailers.

And, its all still in Lake Manitoba somewhere.

"We cant even see them," Russell said.

Cabak has to deal with the cleanup of what remains of the family cabin, with nothing but the foundation that was left.

"We still have to fill in the hole and level it out," he said. Once they do, "that will be it for that spot," he said.

"We may build another cabin, but we wouldnt build it right on that site."

There has been a silver lining, however, that has become clearer in the days and weeks following the disaster.

Cabak's wife had lost her wedding rings that were inside the cabin to the tornado.

"It was a week or two ago that I was out here looking, cleaning up glass and I actually found one of them, and one of my cousins found one of them a short ways away," Russell said.

MELISSA VERGE/THE BRANDON SUN Alonsa resident Shawn Gurke watches a truck floating in Lake Manitoba after the tornado hit on Aug. 3. A month later and the lake still needs to be cleaned up, local residents said.

"It was kind of surreal, I never expected to find them. An event like that is a one in a million."

It has also brought the small community of Alonsa closer together, Gurke said.

"The people who you enjoy but are kind of acquaintances, suddenly theyre friends," he said.

"Youre just so damn happy to see everybody and that you lived through it."

Wawanesa Insurance has given $10,000 toward getting yards back into shape, and replanting trees, Gurke said. He wanted to issue a challenge to other corporations to help out the small community.

"Theres lots of recovery that needs to happen, theres lots of things that insurance doesnt cover," Gurke said.

Local producers are hurting, as they no longer have a place to pasture their cows, he said.

"Were trying to get enough resources together to maybe bulldoze and bring some of that land back to usable. We could spread (more proceeds) among the farmers to use for things like fences and maybe some of the bulldozing," Gurke said.

"Were talking about multi-millions in damages, so its not something we can fix in a short period of time."

 mverge@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @Melverge5SOURIS VALLEY  Mary Conway has attended every edition of Koushkoupayh Days since the Metis festival began in 2012.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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SOURIS VALLEY  Mary Conway has attended every edition of Koushkoupayh Days since the Metis festival began in 2012.

She sat behind a little table on Saturday during the festival, and displayed sashes and necklaces that she made by hand that were for sale. The sashes were ruby red in colour with intricate designs, and the necklaces were created from wolf willow beads.

Conway said she started creating them because of her kids.

"I wanted my kids to be proud of being Metis," she said. "Some people ... I think its because theyre not proud of who they are. They dont walk with their head up and step forward and get jobs and ask for jobs ... do things.

"I wanted them to have more self-confidence and be proud of their heritage."

The necklaces were started because of family, and it takes a family effort to come up with the finished product.

Conways son helped her pick the beads, and her husband took the skin off them so they could be used to create the necklaces that were for sale on the table in front of her on Saturday.

"He (my son) knows that I make these, and his job happened to be near a bush and he picked me a whole big bag full, so I have a whole bunch that I froze," Conway said. "I get them out and I make some every winter."

Its a way Conway can stay busy while doing something that represents her heritage.

"You can watch TV, or you can read or you can just make sashes and necklaces, so I just use my spare time to do that," she said.

The necklaces and sashes have both changed over time as it became easier to access different materials. In times past, Metis people used tiny beads in between the wolf willow beads that only used to come in red and white or blue and white colours, she said.

"Now we go to Walmart and just get any colour we like," Conway said.

The polyester that the sashes are made from is also store bought.

The intricate designs that are woven into them all have meaning, Conway said.

The black design stands for the dark period, she said.

"When the settlers came, and when Louis Riel was hung and when the children went to the residential schools, those are all dark periods," she said.

Theres also a blue and white design on the sash that stands for the water and the sky, and a green lifeline of the person who owns the sash.

In the middle of the scarf is a thicker pattern, which stands for the Turtle Mountains, where Conway lives.

"We think thats the jewel of the Prairies, so we made it all colours, plus it shows all the flowers that grow in the Turtle Mountains that are all different kinds," she said.

Each necklace takes about 30 minutes to create, and the sashes take a week. Its $10 per necklace, and $100 for a sash.

The festival is a way for Conway to not just show off her creations, but to celebrate Metis culture.

"The people, I know most of them. Ive been coming so long, so we can just have really a Metis reunion," Conway said. "Its good music, and its good friends and theres good food and we just enjoy it so much."

 mverge@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @Melverge5The Sioux Valley Dakota Nation community is taking steps to raise awareness and combat the growing presence of methamphetamines and other drugs in the community.

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This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The Sioux Valley Dakota Nation community is taking steps to raise awareness and combat the growing presence of methamphetamines and other drugs in the community.

"Weve been receiving information that meth is starting to come into the community (and) in an effort to raise awareness we thought we would put on these (meth awareness day) workshops," Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Chief Vincent Tacan said.

"Were trying to get the word out and create awareness and let people know what resources are available in the area."

The second meth awareness day took place on Wednesday and was designed to help educate those in attendance about methamphetamine use and addiction in the community.

Almost 200 people reportedly attended the event.

Attendees completed a survey about methamphetamine use in the community and received a T-shirt promoting an end to drug abuse in an effort to help spread the word in the community.

"Personally, I feel that its really a tough situation to be in, especially when the numbers are going to be going higher," Tacan said.

"Not just methamphetamine, but other drugs in the community."

Several speakers were featured during the event, including a member of the community recovering from methamphetamine addiction, a member of law enforcement and Addiction Foundation Manitoba representation.

Tacan said he was concerned that his community lacks the necessary resources to deal with the growing prevalence of methamphetamine addiction in the community  perhaps most notably, a shortage of treatment facilities.

"One of the things were going to see immediately is that were ill-equipped to deal with any situation where we have a lot of that going on," Tacan said.

"We know that methamphetamine is probably one drug that really takes a toll on people and you can see that in their physical appearance."

Tacan said that the meth awareness day, the second of many Sioux Valley plans to host, plays an important role in the community by helping illustrate the impact of methamphetamine and other drugs on the community.

The Meth Addiction Planning Committee, the spearhead of the meth awareness movement, focused on education about the situation and sharing information to help address the problem.

Sioux Valley plans to continue delivering the message of methamphetamine and addiction awareness, with special attention focused on the youth of the community.

"Its going to have to continue on into the high schools and focus on the youth because they have the most potential ahead of them," Tacan said.

"We need to focus on reaching those members and to keep them on track."

The meth awareness day is one of the many steps Sioux Valley is taking to prepare for the growing drug problem.

Tacan said that police have been monitoring the spread of methamphetamine and other drugs in the community, along with a security team from the community that has been documenting and collecting information.

Dakota Tiwahe Services director Carol McKay-Whitecloud attended the methamphetamine awareness day and said she was hopeful that the message delivered would help heal the community.

"Our community was not ready or prepared for this problem," McKay-Whitecloud said.

"I dont think any community is. Its just something thats taken us by storm. Its here and we have to be proactive, preventative and get awareness out there."

Methamphetamine has been in the community for a number of years, McKay-Whitecloud said, but there has been a spike in visible use this year.

The drug is cheaper, easier to access and provides a longer high while also carrying a more lasting impact on the quality of life of both its users and their community.

McKay-Whitecloud said there are some who are concerned that the increased use of methamphetamine in the community will lead to a rise in crime, as individuals look to raise money to help feed their addictions.

She said that events like the awareness day provide guests with signs to look for that an individual may be using methamphetamine, including behavioural changes such as insomnia, lack of appetite, increased aggression, paranoia and psychosis, along with physical changes such as sores on the body.

McKay-Whitecloud said the Meth Addiction Planning Committee is making headway in the community based on its slogans: "Stick to tradition no addiction" and "wichoni wanji (one life)."

The community has developed strategies to help deal with influx of methamphetamine, which is being accompanied by an exploration of the use of both traditional medicine and culture to aid in the addiction healing process.

"We have the capacity in our community to do healing. Were a resilient group of people," McKay-Whitecloud said.

"We need to look for ways and strategies to fight against this horrible drug."

 ckemp@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKempBy Eamon Quinn

The price of new builds for first-time buyers will continue to rise by an annual 5% to 6% for the next few years, although the Central Banks mortgage lending rules are weighing on prices in the second-hand market, says Glenveagh Properties.

The stock market-listed firm, which raised an additional 210m last month after its Dublin market debut last summer, said it has no nervousness at all about the first-time market which it supplies.

Potential ECB rate increases and the Central Banks macro-prudential rules will affect the second-hand market, however, and prices across the market will ease back to post single-digit growth next year.

Following a tax credit of 1m, Glenveagh had a net loss in the six months to the end of June of almost 7.16m on revenues of over 1.29m.

The market backdrop remains very favourable, it told analysts and it was not changing its land purchase plans focused on Dublin, though Cork and other urban areas remain on the agenda.

As it seeks to use the proceeds of its shares sales, it said most of its land purchase deals have been struck off-market.

In the rental market, it has attracted quite a few inquiries about its Herbert Hill site in Dundrum.

Asked about its share price, the company told reporters the performance was a bit disappointing but that banks and Reit firms across the market had sold off in recent times.

It said it is confident about the long-term outlook.

The shares, which fell 1.6% to 1.06 yesterday, have traded as high as 1.26 this year. Noticing latest USSC data on retroactive impact of "drugs -2" guideline amendment | Main | Federal district court finds Louisiana LWOP sentence for low-level recidivist unconstitutionally excessive under Eighth Amendment (and local DA will not appeal to Fifth Circuit) 

The name Jeff Skilling still stirs up a lot of sentencing thoughts for me because, 15 years ago, he was portrayed as one of the "worst-of-the-worst" white-collar offenders and he was one of the first very high-profile white-collar defendants to be sentenced after Booker made the guidelines advisory. Consequently, this new article caught my eye under the headline "Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling released from prison and sent to a halfway house." Here are the particulars and context:

Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron CEO sentenced to a long prison term for his role in one of most notorious corporate fraud cases in history, was recently released from a minimum security federal prison camp in Alabama to a halfway house at an undisclosed location.

Enron's spectacular collapse cost investors billions of dollars and wiped out the retirement savings  not to mention the jobs  of thousands of employees. Skilling, 64, was convicted of 12 counts of securities fraud, five counts of making false statements to auditors, one count of insider trading and one count of conspiracy in 2006 for his role in hiding debt and orchestrating a web of financial fraud that ended in the Houston company's bankruptcy.

He was sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined $45 million, the harshest sentence of any former Enron executive. Five years ago, Skilling's sentence was reduced to 14 years by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake. He is scheduled to be released Feb. 21, 2019, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Federal prisoners are often released from prison several months early to a halfway house, a highly restricted dormitory-like setting that helps inmates ease back into society. They must maintain curfews, find work and stay out of trouble. A. Kelley, assistant residential re-entry manager for the Bureau of Prisons in San Antonio, said the bureau would not say where Skilling is living.

The Bureau of Prisons typically sends inmates to a halfway house in their home city where they resided before incarceration. It helps them re-acclimate to a more normal life and re-establish relationships with their families, said Philip Hilder, a white-collar defense lawyer who represented Sherron Watkins, a former vice president at Enron who went to then-Enron chairman Kenneth Lay to warn him of accounting irregularities she discovered while reviewing Enron's assets.

Inmates are typically required to get a job while they're at a halfway house and to report regularly to the federal probation department for up to three years, Hilder said. Skilling's lawyer could not be reached for comment.By Padraig Hoare

A body representing almost 2,000 retailers in Ireland has named five politicians it claims are the best advocates for the sector as it goes through major transition.

Retail Excellence said the four TDs and one senator were the top supporters for their support of retail industry priorities including insurance, online, employment challenges, infrastructural investment and resources for the authorities.

It said Senator Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) and TDs Dara Calleary (Fianna Fail), Jan OSullivan (Labour), Michael Healy Rae (Independent) and Maurice Quinlivan (Sinn Fein) cared about retailers big and small.

Established in 1995, Retail Excellence is said to be the biggest lobby group for the sector in Ireland with almost 2,000 members. It is led by former Labour Party senator Lorraine Higgins.

This cross-party group of Oireachtas members through their work has shown that they care about retailers big and small and value the role these businesses play in their local communities across Ireland, said Ms Higgins.

We appreciate their support on behalf of the industry, their support for the sustained growth of it and their recognition of retails role as the largest private industry employer in the country.

The bipartisan group has worked to encourage a vibrant, sustained and healthy retail industry which we appreciate and value she said.

Ms Higgins has called for a minister for retail to be appointed as the sector goes through transition such as the growing move towards online shopping.

Retail has 45,000 businesses, of which 75% are family-owned, employing 282,000 employees and contributing 7bn per annum to the exchequer, says Ms Higgins.Ryanair have seen their traffic grow in August despite pilots in Ireland, Belguim, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands going on strike during the month.

The latest Ryanair statistics show that the number of passengers carried by the airline grew to 13.3 million customers in August, a 5% increase on the same month last year.An elderly married couple have died following a road crash in Omagh.

The incident took place on the Doogary Road on the outskirts of the Co Tyrone town at around 2.30pm on Monday afternoon.

A car and a lorry were involved in the collision.

The PSNI has urged any potential witnesses to come forward.

Inspector Keir Kitt said: The collision on the Doogary Road was reported to us at 2.55pm and involved a gold-coloured Volvo car and a red-coloured Scania articulated lorry.

Sadly, the occupants of the Volvo car  a married couple aged in their seventies  died at the scene of the collision.

The lorry driver was uninjured.

I am appealing for witnesses or anyone who was travelling on the Doogary Road between 2.30pm and the time the collision was reported to us to contact us.

I am especially keen to hear from anyone who may have captured dashcam footage of the collision, or believe they saw the Volvo car prior to the collision.

Please call 101, quoting reference 760 of 03/09/18.

SDLP West Tyrone MLA Daniel McCrossan has expressed his shock and sadness at the deaths.

There is real shock and sadness in the community at the news that a married couple, aged in their seventies, have died following a road traffic collision on the Doogary Road, he said.

My heartfelt sympathies go out to their family and loved ones. The times ahead will be difficult for them but I know the local community will rally round and do all they can to help and support them.

- Press AssociationBy David Raleigh

Gardai have issued a warning to the public about a Dubai broadband scam in which a Limerick pensioner was duped out of 10,000 by the fraudsters.

The scam is organised through phone contact with the victim making it harder to detect the exact location of the perpetrators.

Sergeant Ber Leetch, Crime Prevention Officer at Henry Street garda station, urged elderly people, and their loved ones, to be cautious when taking unsolicited phone calls.

"A gentleman in his early 70s received a phone call at 12 oclock in the day from a male claiming to be from a broadband provider," Sergeant Leetch said.

"He engaged the gentleman in conversation regarding his Internet and informed him that his bank account had been hacked and that he would transfer him to the cybercrime section, Sgt Leetch explained.

"The gentleman believed this to be legitimate and provided his online banking details.

"He was then asked for permission to move 10,000 from his account to an account in Dubai as (he was informed) a hacker had gotten access to his money and it would be safer in the Dubai account.

"The gentleman agreed to this.

He didnt realise that he had been a victim of crime until his bank contacted him the following day to say that they were investigating the unusual transaction of the 10,000 to Dubai.

"As always, do not give your banking details to anybody over the phone.

"If you are asked for any details hang up the phone and call your bank yourself, they will soon tell you if you have anything to be concerned about," she added.Social Justice Ireland is calling for stronger Government action on housing, healthcare, education, rural development and other social issues.

In its latest social monitor, the organisation highlights growing pressure on public services, compounded by major infrastructure deficits and a lack of public investment.

Director of Social Justice Ireland, Dr Sean Healy, said the Government had failed to respond adequately to the crisis.

Dr Sean Healy

The Government has failed to respond to our nations housing crisis," said Dr Healy.

"Mortgage arrears are again increasing, there are almost 87,000 households on social housing waiting lists, and 10,000 homeless. This is a national emergency.

"Of those 10,000 homeless, 3,600 are children. Over half of the 87,000 households on the social housing waiting lists are families.

The impact of homelessness and precarious housing on our nations children will be felt for generations to come. This is both unacceptable and unnecessary at a time when resources are available to make a real impact on the housing crisis.

The organisation is calling for Government intervensions to tackle mortgage arrears.

"Mortgage arrears increased in the first quarter of this year," said Colette Bennett, research and policy analyst with Social Justice Ireland.

"The majority of the 2.9 billion arrears is owed by households in late-stage mortgage arrears.

"With further loan sales to vulture funds recently, Government needs to intervene to ensure that mortgage lenders are encouraged to offer a full suite of options, including Mortgage to Rent, and that local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies are properly resourced to support these offers."

Other issues highlighted in the monitor include the need to combat social isolation in rural communities; the rising number of people underemployed; the widening gap in income distribution; and the need to increase Irelands tax take to resource the necessary investment.

Read the monitor in full here:

According to local media, Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said that Singapore has agreed to put the project on hold "indefinitely", and there will be no need for Malaysia to pay compensation during the period.



He added that the project may be resumed when the Malaysian economy is improved, adding that in case the project is cancelled, Malaysia will have to make the compensation, which is around 500 million ringgit (123.1 million USD), to Singapore.



The governments of Malaysia and Singapore signed a legally-binding pact on the project in December 2016 under the administration of former Prime Minister Najib Razak with total investment of about 17 billion USD. Both sides called for tender last year.



The high speed rail project would cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to 90 minutes once in operation.



However, after taking office in May 2018, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced the cancellation of the project as part of his policy to cut down the countrys debts. But the leader later said that the project will not be cancelled but postponed, adding that he sent a working team to Singapore for negotiations.-VNAJohn Gilligan has appeared in court in Antrim accused of trying to smuggle more than 20,000 out of Belfast international airport.

The 66-year-old was arrested after the cash was seized in August.Sinn Fein has welcomed the conviction of gangland murderer Freddie Thompson at the Special Criminal Court.

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald says she supports the decision by the three-judge panel which found the Kinahan cartel member guilty of murder.

That is despite previous calls from Sinn Fein to scrap non-jury proceedings like those held at the special criminal court.

Speaking ahead of day two of the party's think-in in Cavan, Ms McDonald appeared to soften the party's approach on the issue.

"I very much welcome that conviction. I represent an inner-city constituency myself," she said.

"On the issue of non-jury courts, we are not unique or alone in Sinn Fein in raising concerns about that in terms of due process but it is far outweighed by our certain knowledge and our concern to keep communities safe."

Digital DeskNew research from the ESRI has found mothers with higher childcare costs when their child was aged three tended to then work fewer hours when their child was five.

The study was based on 'Growing Up in Ireland' data which tracked the employment of mothers across the first five years of their child's life.

Research professor with the ESRI Helen Russell says many parents face significant childcare costs, especially in urban areas, and that the mothers working life can suffer as a result.

"We found that on average families were spending 12% of their disposable household income on care for their three-year-old and this rose to 16% for lone parents and 20% for low-income households," she said.

It's quite a substantial burden.

Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune said more needs to be done to support female employees who have children.

"In order for women to succeed in the workplace - they need to be supported," she said.

"That support can come from a number of places such as the State, employers, managers, family and friends.

"The Government is working hard to ensure it supports working parents and I would also urge employers to do what they can too to support parents.

"At European level there is a lot of work going on to help women in the workplace. Much of the work I am engaged in at the European Parliament is on the promotion of a good work/life balance.

"Employers can have a big influence in the success of female employees and even small changes can mean a lot."

Digital DeskThe road has total length of over 139.2km, including 131.5km of high-speed road and another 7.7km linking the expressway with National Highway 1A. It traverses Da Nang city, Quang Nam province and Quang Ngai province, which form part of the central key economic region of Vietnam.



It allows speed limits of up to 120km per hour, helping reduce travel time from Da Nang to Quang Ngai to one and a half hours, instead of the usual three hours when using National Road 1A.



The project, beginning in 2013, costs over 34.5 trillion VND (1.64 billion USD), including 798.5 million USD loaned by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and over 590 million USD by the World Bank (WB). The rest was covered by the Vietnamese Government.



The first 65km-long section, linking Da Nang and Tam Ky city of Quang Nam, was inaugurated in August 2017.



Da Nang  Quang Ngai Expressway is expected to create opportunities for central localities to make breakthroughs, attract investment, and promote the development of industrial parks and tourism along the countrys central coast.



It is also hoped to boost transport connectivity from the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia economic triangle through the East-West Economic Corridor to seaports in the central region.



Speaking at the launch ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung thanked the JICA and the WB for funding the project.



He asked the Ministry of Transport to direct the investor to urgently complete support facilities along the route, and the investor, Vietnam Expressway Corporation, to abide by State regulations in management, exploitation and maintenance of the expressway, ensuring traffic safety, environmental hygiene as well as safe, smooth and effective operation of the road.-VNAFar from being enemies of free-to-air television, tech giants Google and Facebook have benefited brands by increasing competition in advertising, Journal of Advertising Research senior advisory board member Les Binet said on Tuesday, amid an ongoing inquiry into the tech giants' role by the Australian competition regulator.

Advertising on free-to-air television is more effective in the 2010s than it was in the late-1990s thanks to synergies with social media and search marketing, the advertising guru said at a media briefing organised by commercial television lobby ThinkTV on Monday.

Les Binet is a senior advisory board member for the Journal of Advertising and head of effectiveness of Adam & Eve DDB.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is in its last three months of preparing a report for the treasurer about the impact of the digital giants on traditional media companies, as part of an inquiry with a particular focus on advertising revenues.

We often think of digital and traditional media as being competitors with one another, and they are obviously to an extent. But in fact actually they work together, they work in synergy, Mr Binet said.Britain's Royal Academy is to ensure its next exhibition of nudes has an equal gender split of naked men and women, as it navigates the post-Me Too era.

The academy, which has just had a restructuring to celebrate its 250th anniversary, will have almost exact parity between male and female nudes in an exhibition of Renaissance art next year.

The decision, confirmed by Tim Marlow, the artistic director of the academy, at its new season launch on Monday, marks the first time it has introduced a gender quota for any of its exhibitions.

The Renaissance Nude, due to open in March, will include around 85 works created between 1400 and 1530.JESSIE COLE Jessie Cole is a writer from northern New South Wales. She has published two novels  Darkness on the Edge of Town and Deeper Water. Her memoir, Staying, is published by Text. Jessie Cole, author of Staying. BELOVED

Toni Morrison A dazzling treatise on the effects of slavery and intergenerational trauma, Beloved was the first book I read that showed me the power of literature. I read it as a young adult and could palpably feel my mind cracking open to accommodate a new empathy and understanding. After reading it, I saw the world through different eyes. I was changed.

WRITTEN ON THE BODY

Jeanette Winterson All Winterson's books throb with passion and life. Written on the Body is unabashedly romantic. The language is fearless and beguiling. I wrote out whole sections of it by hand as though trying to imbibe it. Women are often told we feel too much, too strongly. This book gave me permission to feel big things, and to write about those feelings, no matter how terrifying they might be. SWALLOW THE AIR

Tara June Winch Winch was in her early 20s when this book was published. The writing was so accomplished and the author so young, reading it made me realise that perhaps you didn't have to wait to be old enough to have something important to say. Swallow the Air so wholly captures the feeling of what it is like to be young and searching, adrift in the world. Reading it gave me the courage to explore my own story, even if I didn't know yet where it was headed. A MURDER WITHOUT MOTIVE

Martin McKenzie-MurrayTownhouses and apartments would be blocked from being built on land more suited to single homes under a Brisbane City Plan amendment proposed on Tuesday.

The council will discuss a major amendment to the Brisbane City Plan on Tuesday afternoon to implement its commitments made through Brisbanes Future Blueprint.

A major amendment to the City Plan has been proposed to stop townhouses and apartments being built on small suburban blocks. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

The blueprint, unveiled by lord mayor Graham Quirk in June, was a revised plan for the city following the $2.1 million ratepayer-funded Plan Your Brisbane campaign and included 40 action items.

The proposed amendment is designed to address action one from the blueprint: protect Brisbanes backyard and our unique character.The suburban rail loop is the kind of long-term infrastructure planning and investment that has been sorely lacking over the past 30 years. But more importantly, it marks an overdue shift away from a CBD-centric approach that has long threatened our citys liveability.

The proposed suburban rail loop.

But if I have one quibble to make about the project its this: current plans for the suburban rail loop do not prioritise Melbournes west, where so much of Melbournes growth is occurring. The west will receive fewer stations than Melbournes east and will have to wait decades until after tunnelling under the eastern suburbs is complete.

The City of Wyndham  the municipality I serve  is an epicentre of that growth in the west. Wyndham alone will grow to nearly 500,000 people in the next 20 years. Thats almost 20 per cent bigger than what Canberra is today.

But as far as public transport goes, our residents are already feeling the pinch. We have one railway station per 30,000 residents, which is well below the Greater Melbourne average of one per 20,500 residents.Gang crime squad detectives have been called in to investigate shots being fired at a home in Perth's southern suburbs.

Police were called to the home about 10.30pm. Credit:Texas Reeks/Twitter

Police were called to the home on Rand Avenue in Waikiki around 10.30pm on Monday.

Damage to a perimeter wall of the house is consistent with gunshots, police have said.David Leyonhjelm is used to stirring controversy on the national stage, but now he's making waves in his own backyard.

As well as defending a defamation suit against Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the Liberal Democrat has landed himself in hot water with the City of Canada Bay over his household pool in Drummoyne.

David Leyonhjelm faces a fine of up to $2200 if found guilty. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

On July 16, Canada Bay prosecutor Jen Bukovac issued the NSW senator with a court attendance notice accusing him of failing to register the swimming pool, as is required of all homeowners under state law.

He has been charged with the offence "fail to ensure registration information entered on register", as of the morning of June 15, and faces a fine of up to $2200 if found guilty.Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to waive debts for the least developed African countries that have both high debt burdens and diplomatic ties with China.

The move comes as China is seeking to dispel criticism that its Belt and Road Initiative is a form of "debt trap diplomacy" that has left African and Pacific nations with high debt levels after accepting loans from Chinese banks for infrastructure projects.

Female members of Chinese People's Liberation Army honour guard wait for the welcome ceremony for Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi in Beijing. Credit:AP

Speaking at the opening of a summit with African leaders in Beijing, Xi said his country would offer an extra $US60 billion ($83 billion) in financing to African countries.

"In addition, for Africa's least developed countries, heavily indebted and poor countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries that have diplomatic relations with China, the debt they have incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese government loans due to mature by the end of 2018 will be exempted," Xi said.London: UK Labour has finally adopted an international definition of anti-Semitism in full, after months of argument over whether the definition suppressed free speech  or whether in refusing to adopt it the party was endorsing anti-Semitism in its ranks.

Labour and its leader Jeremy Corbyn have suffered a summer of accusations of racism, at a time they could have been making hay over the governments deep divisions and hugely unpopular Brexit plan.

Jeremy Corbyn has come under fire over his response to claims of anti-Semitism in Labour ranks Credit:Matt Dunham, AP

The decision was reached in a long and reportedly fraught meeting of Labours national executive on Tuesday, during which rival demonstrators clashed outside the party HQ chanting Jeremy Corbyn out and Oh, Jeremy Corbyn.

It came a day after Labour official Peter Willsman was re-elected to the body despite the emergence of a recording of remarks he made saying he had certainly never seen any anti-Semitism in the party, and the allegations of anti-Semitism were invented by Trump fanatics in the Jewish community.Premier Li meets with president of Sierra Leone

2018/09/02

Premier Li Keqiang met with Julius Maada Bio, president of Sierra Leone, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Sept 2 ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Premier Li said China and Sierra Leones friendship has taken root in the hearts of the people, and the two countries consistently help and support each other, forging a profound friendship in the fight against Ebola.

Both China and Sierra Leone are developing countries. China will spare no effort in providing support to improve the economic and social development in Sierra Leone to achieve win-win cooperation, said Premier Li.

He also expressed the hope that the two countries will strengthen trade and investment cooperation, and forge new cooperation in healthcare and education. He said he hopes Sierra Leone could provide more preferential policies, attracting Chinese enterprises to invest.

Bio gave his thanks to Chinas help during Sierra Leones difficult time, especially in the fight against Ebola.

He said Sierra Leone is happy to learn from Chinas experiences in country governance, expand trade, investment and finance cooperation and further deepen bilateral relations with China.Washington: Alphabet's Google posted what it called "testimony" for a congressional hearing on social media companies' efforts to thwart election meddling in advance of November's midterm races -- only it doesn't appear anyone will be there to deliver it.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has said it rejected Google Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker as a witness because he wasn't high-level enough in the company to testify at a hearing on Wednesday that will hear from Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

The US Capitol building Credit:Bloomberg

Walker's prepared testimony lists the four new types of disclosure the company promised concerning election advertising in his last congressional appearance in the fall of 2017. Those include databases listing election ads on Google search, YouTube and across the web, as well as a verification program and disclosures on political ads.

Google has insisted that Alphabet CEO Larry Page and Google CEO Sundar Pichai wouldn't be the best officials to appear despite the Intelligence committee's desire to hear from decision-makers.The Tuesday said Neeraj Singal, former promoter of Bhushan Steel, will remain out on interim bail granted by the in a Rs 25 billion fraud case.

A bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, however, stayed the operation of the judgement and transferred to itself the plea Singal had filed in the high court for adjudication.

The bench said it was only allowing the interim bail to continue, and the operation of the rest of the judgement regarding various aspects, including the Serious Fraud Investigation Office's power to arrest and investigate, will be deliberated later.

The had on August 29 granted bail to Singal, arrested by the for allegedly siphoning off Rs 25 billion of

The apex court was hearing an plea to stay the Delhi High Court order in the case.

The had earlier said Singal is accused of siphoning off Rs 25 billion of public funds, and his release will cause grave harm to the ongoing probe, which has reached an advanced stage.

It had sought a stay on the high court order, claiming that the accused usurped public money taken through bank loans.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.



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Digital EditorLets get this out of the way first: There is no basis for the charge that President Trump leveled against Google this week  that the search engine, for political reasons, favored anti-Trump news outlets in its results. None. Mr. 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 Mr. Trumps address this year. But that concludes the defense of Google portion of this column. Because ...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.Setting a deadline for itself, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the company would wait another 12 months to take a call on starting an airline in India. We will lose interest in time because we have a fund that we would like to invest. If we do not invest in time, we have to use that fund somewhere else, Akbar told newspersons at a media interaction on the side lines of the International Aviation Summit ...

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In an embarrassment to the Maharashtra government, the on Monday demanded to know why the police addressed the media on the arrests of five rights activists when the matter was sub-judice.

"How can the police do this? The matter is sub-judice," a division bench comprising Justice S.S. Shinde and Justice Mridula Bhatkar observed while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL).

Petitioner Satish Surgiv Gaikwad, who calls himself a victim of the January 1 Koregaon-Bhima caste riots, filed the PIL seeking a Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the incident and restraining the Pune Police from investigating it.

When the was seized of the matter, how can the police read out documents which could be produced as evidence in the case, the court said, terming the police action as "wrong".

As Public Prosecutor Deepak Thakare assured the court that he would discuss the issue with the concerned police officials and seek their response, the judges posted the matter for further hearing on September 7.

Petitioner Gaikwad also urged the to take over the investigations into the Pune Police's action against several well-known rights activists in June and August in different parts of India.

In June, the police had arrested Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut. The August swoop led to the arrests of P. Varavar Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Fereira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha.

While a PIL on the second round of arrests of August 28 was heard by the on August 29, two days later on August 31, Maharashtra's Additional Director-General of Police Param Bir Singh addressed a media conference in Mumbai.

In that briefing he showed documents and reiterated that a conspiracy was allegedly hatched by the five arrested activists in connivance with the banned CPI (Maoist) "to overthrow the central government" and carry out "a Rajiv Gandhi-style assassination" to end the rule of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi.

The police media briefing evoked widespread criticism from lawyers, activists and eminent personalities and even the Shiv Sena.

The police action followed a probe into the Elgar Parishad of December 31, 2017, organised by the Kabir Kala Manch, which allegedly led to the Koregaon-Bhima violence in Pune district on January 1.

Presently, the five arrested activists are under house arrest till September 6.Two-and-a-half years after an under-construction flyover in north Kolkata came down and killed 26, a portion of a 40-year-old bridge in southwest Kolkata collapsed during the afternoon rush hour on Tuesday. At least, 19 people were injured and five feared dead. At the time of the incident, at least five cars, a minibus and three two-wheelers were on the bridge, said witnesses.

Fire personnel, who were aiding the rescue operations, said 20-25 people who were trapped under the debris were rescued. Two were in a serious condition. Nine people were rushed to the nearby hospital, of ...Twelve people have died of leptospirosis disease in Kerala between August 1 and September 3, while 372 confirmed leptospirosis cases have been reported from the flood-hit state since August 1.

In lieu of the outbreak, Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja Teacher called a review meeting at Kozhikode, the district from where the most number of leptospirosis cases have been reported.

After the review meeting, the health minister announced three weeks of high alert and said, "Kerala would be on high alert for next three weeks but there is nothing to panic. All hospitals are equipped with enough stocks of medicine. Even though there were wide advisories after the flood, people were reluctant to consume precautionary tablets. As more cases have been reported from Kozhikode district, an isolated war-room will be set up in Kozhikode medical college."

Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that affects both humans and animals. It infects human when they come in direct contact with the urine of infected animals or with a urine-contaminated environment. Some of the early symptoms of the disease include high fever, muscle pain, headache, redness of the eye, vomiting, diarrhoea among others.

Kerala was recently hit by the worst floods in nearly a century, which claimed lives of more than 400 people and caused damage to the tune of nearly Rs. 20,000 crores.A portion of the arterial Majerhat bridge in southern Kolkata collapsed Tuesday, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles, police said.

State minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said she has heard about the death of five persons in the incident but it was yet to be confirmed.

Another minister Firhad Hakim said six persons were taken to hospital.

As crowds gathered at the spot in congested Alipore locality, where mangled cars were buried under the debris of the bridge, Chief Minister said the first priority is to rescue the injured and those who are trapped.

The area has several under-construction buildings nearby.

An eyewitness said some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped.

Fire brigade, police and NDRF personnel are engaged in rescue work in the fading light.



#WATCH: Rescue teams and ambulances arrive at the spot where part of Majerhat bridge in South Kolkata has collapsed. #WestBengal pic.twitter.com/5pgpxSgwke  ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018TThe retreat of the southwest monsoon might be delayed this year, for the third year in the row, because of a lot of moisture in the air in west Rajasthan, where the withdrawal begins, said Met official. A fresh low-pressure area is developing over the Bay of Bengal.

This might also cause rain over north India, if its moves along the monsoon trough. At least for the next 3-4 days, the monsoon withdrawal might not start from the western part of Rajasthan, as there is considerable moisture in the atmosphere there, though it might not be raining. Also, there is a possibility ...Flood-hit Kerala's proposal of an additional cess on state goods and services tax (SGST) to raise resources for rehabilitation may have to undergo modifications for an approval by the GST Council, the highest decision making body. Several state finance ministers have said that the proposal of imposing a 10 per cent cess across the board on SGST may put an additional burden on the people, who have been hit by the worst floods in the state in decades.

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.

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Digital EditorIf Indias top policy think tank is to be believed, the reason economic growth faltered last year, reaching 5.6 percent in the June quarter after 7.6 percent nine months earlier, had nothing to do with the November 2016 ban on 86 percent of the countrys cash. The decline had been in the making since early 2016 because, under Rajans governorship of the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank devised mechanisms to identify stressed and non-performing ...

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Property construction projects to the tune of Rs 1 trillion and infrastructure projects worth nearly double of that in Maharashtra will be stuck in the pipeline till October 9, with the Supreme Courts (SC) recent ban on construction activity in the state.

The cash collection of developers as well as their costs and litigation are going to rise as a consequence. On Friday, the SC imposed a blanket ban on construction activity in the state as well as in Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh after they failed to comply with an earlier order to come up with a solid ...Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has once again returned on the small screen with the 10th season of the 18-year-old iconic show Kaun Banega Crorepati, which premiered at 9 pm on Sony TV on September 3. While the first season aired on 2000, much has changed since then.

While the format remains the same, for the first time, the Indian reality show will use of Augmented Reality (AR) technology to make the show more visually appealing. Here are some things that the new season of KBC has introduced: Kab Tak Rokoge According to the tagline Kab Tak Rokoge, the show will laud ...US President on Monday warned against launching an attack on the country's last rebel stronghold with the help of and Iran, saying the offensive could trigger a "human tragedy."



"President Bashar al-Assad of must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," Trump tweeted.

"Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict.

Syrian government forces are now massing around the northwestern province of Idlib, which is held by a complex array of rebels and violent extremist fighters, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers.

and have insisted that extremist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault.

Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored a negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in

Last year, they had designated Idlib as a "de-escalation" zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire.

All the while seeking to pressure Turkey into reining in jihadists in Idlib, Damascus's main sponsor Russia has been sounding the war drums in recent days.

ALSO READ: At least 32 killed in string of Islamic State suicide attacks in Syria

Tehran and Moscow provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011.

The Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said an all-out assault on Idlib and its catastrophic consequences could still be avoided.

Russia, whose air support would be crucial for the offensive to succeed, should understand that a bloodbath in Idlib would jeopardize its own political goals, according to ICG.

"By backing an all-out offensive, Russia risks undermining its long-term political objectives in Syria," ICG wrote in a nine-page briefing entitled "Saving Idlib from destruction."



Despite Trump's warning, analysts believe the United States appears resigned to the likelihood of a final military victory by Syrian government forces.

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 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." 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.Google retains only a slight lead over Facebook in the competition for digital ad dollars in the crucial India market, sources familiar with the figures say, even though the search giant has been in the country far longer and has avoided the controversies that have dogged its rival. Facebook's success has shaken Alphabet Inc's Google, led by an Indian-born CEO, Sundar Pichai, who has made developing markets a priority. Google officials in India earlier this year were alarmed to learn that Facebook Inc was likely to generate about $980 million in revenue in the country in ...on Monday dismissed reports saying it plans to impose fees on expatriate remittance, Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Saudi Finance Ministry confirmed that it supports the free movement of capital through official channels in accordance with standard and practices.

The ministry added that this will also enhance foreign investors' confidence in the kingdom's and financial systems.

The ministry also said such an approach comes in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 to diversify the and attract foreign investments.

The ministry clarified that the statement was issued in response to "baseless and unfounded" media reports.

The ministry also dismissed in 2017 similar reports.Three months after a ban due to the spread of the Nipah virus, Qatar has again allowed fruit and vegetable imports from Kerala. In June, the contagious and brain damaging virus had claimed over a dozen lives in Kerala.

The government of Qatar says the cause for the ban is now over. After the barrier was imposed, a committee of officials from the food and health ministries of both Qatar and India had been formed to assess the progress on controlling the virus in Kerala. The development is good news in the wake of Kerala's struggle to restore normalcy after the recent bout of ...New Delhi [India], Sept 4 (ANI): Counter-terrorism, defence cooperation and trade will be the key highlights of the inaugural India-United States 2+2 Dialogue that would take place in New Delhi on September 6.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis will arrive in New Delhi on September 5. According to sources, bilateral meetings between Pompeo and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and between Mattis and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be held on September 6 in respective ministries. The bilateral meetings will be followed by the combined 2 +2 Dialogue.

Top sources told ANI that counter-terrorism will be discussed in detail which may include a follow-up discussion on recently held Homeland Security Dialogue and Designation Dialogue. In this regard, the sharing of information, designation of international terrorists and organisations are on the table.

The US has designated Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as terrorist organisations on the recommendations of India. Similarly, India has also designated Al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) as terrorist organisations which affect the US, sources said.

Washington and New Delhi will also discuss cooperation with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which has recently blacklisted Pakistan on charges of terror financing. Besides, talks will also cover exchange of intelligence and information.

Pompeo will be travelling from Pakistan to India. Sources said that India is keen to hear US assessment of Pakistan.

On defence cooperation, sources told ANI that the leaders will take a stock of progress made during discussions on defence enabling agreements like COMCASA, military to military cooperation, specific partnership co-development, maritime security and other issues related to national security.

The US has given India the status of major defence partner and has also accorded STA1 status. According to sources, the specific issue of S-400 missile deal with Russia is not on the table as it pertains to a third country. Sources added that CATSA is an internal US law and the country is expected to keep in mind its strategic relations with other countries while taking decisions.

Sources further said that India will also sensitise the US on oil imports and impact of sanctions on the Indian economy. "New Delhi will put it's case on how heavily dependent India is on Iran oil imports. It's refineries are used to Iranian crude, and cost of changing to other sources and the alternatives which are available," sources said.

New Delhi, at the same time, will also use this opportunity to understand from the US about its expectations from India. Other countries like Japan, China and South Korea are also holding discussions with the US on Iran sanctions.

After 2+2 Dialogue is concluded, all the four leaders will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following which Pompeo will be flying back to Washington. Sitharaman will be hosting a dinner for Mattis.

This will be the first 2+2 Dialogue between the countries as it is replacing the annual Strategic Dialogue between India and US. India regards this as the highest institutional political engagement between the two countries, while terming the 2 +2 Dialogue as a major diplomatic event in the calendar. The US has similar dialogue formats with two other countries -- Australia and Japan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Youth wings of several Opposition parties are trying to formulate a grand alliance 'Mahagathbandhan' ahead of 2019 polls to corner the Central Government on the issues related to the youth of the country.

Shedding light on the proposition, Indian Youth Congress Amrish Ranjan Pandey told ANI, "Youth Wings of several opposition parties are coming together for the future of India. It is an election year and young India has the major portion in the votes. We will expose the government by reaching out to young India".

In order to reach out to young people, leaders from the youth wing of Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtiya Janta Dal , Rashtriya Lokdal, Indian Union Muslim League, Conference, and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will address the media in Delhi on Tuesday.

Democratic Youth Wing of India and All India Youth Federation will represent left party's Youth wing in the press conference.

However, Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress' youth wings, are not part of the strategy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri has said that the civic bodies of Delhi will achieve their physical target of constructing five lakhs community and 67 lakhs individual household toilets by the end of 2019.

Speaking after inaugurating a workshop on 'Swachh Survekshan-2019' for the municipal bodies of Delhi today, Puri said that so far as the Open Defecation Free (ODF) target was concerned, it required the behavioural change of the public at large in rural and urban areas of the country.

The workshop on "Swachh Survekshan-2019", organized by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) in collaboration with Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, was attended by delegates from all the three civic bodies and Delhi Cantonment Board.

Puri further said that the behaviour change had many aspects like gender empowerment, the dignity of the girl child, and green and clean cities envisioned under the Swachh Bharat Mission. He added, "In addition to the construction of toilets, more attention and efforts are required in respect of the scientific processing of solid waste Management. The Swachhta Mission has now become a mass movement."

The Minister appreciated that the NDMC has bagged the first position in the category of cities of 1-3 lakh population and overall fourth position in the country and hoped that it would get the overall first position in the forthcoming Swachhta Survekshan-2019.

Puri said that under the Smart City initiatives, the NDMC had achieved many milestones by commissioning various projects like Wi-Fi, Smart Poles, Solar Tree and Ideation Centre at Connaught Place.

Stressing upon the reduction of plastic items in day-to-day life, Member of Parliament and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Meenakshi Lekhi said that it is the need of the hours to come forward to reduce, reuse and recycle the plastic waste so as to make the planet environment-friendly.

Outlining the details of the steps undertaken by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the Mission Director of the Swachh Bharat V. K. Jindal informed that the entire nation would be Open Defecation Free by the end of 2019. He said the scientific segregation of the waste, started in 73 cities in 2016, now has increased to 4,203 cities in 2018 and all cities of the country will be covered by 2019.

NDMC Chairman Naresh Kumar in his welcome address threw light on several achievements of the civic body in New Delhi area under the Swachh Bharat Mission.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least ten terrorists affiliated to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Khurasan (ISIS-K) were killed in joint operations conducted by Afghanistan Police and military forces in the eastern Kunar province.

Afghanistan Military's 201st Silab Corps issued a statement confirming that the militants were killed during airstrikes and ground operations conducted in Suki district, reported Khaama Press.

The statement added that the operations were jointly conducted by the military, police, intelligence and public order police forces with the support of the Air Force as part of the Silab-2 (8) operations in an attempt to crack down on terror outfits and clear the way for safe elections in the country.

The 201st Silab Corps further stated that several villages had been cleared of terrorists' presence and that the local residents and security forces had not suffered any casualties.

The terrorist groups, including ISIS supporters, have not responded to the report so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 21 Taliban militants were killed in a clash with Afghan security forces in Afghanistan's Paktia province.

TOLOnews quoted officials as saying that the clash broke out around Monday midnight in Janikhel district when the militants launched an attack on the security check posts. The attack reportedly ended on Tuesday.

The officials added that dozens of militants were injured, while four security forces were killed in the ambush. Six others were injured.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Taliban said that their fighters had taken control of the district and killed a number of security troops. However, the office of Paktia governor dismissed the group's claims and clarified that the militants suffered heavy casualties during the clash.

The attack came before the group announced the death of Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said that any case of moral turpitude and corruption against Major Leetul Gogoi will be dealt with sternly.

"Talking about Major Gogoi, I had clearly said that any case of moral turpitude and corruption will be dealt with sternly. A Court of Inquiry has been conducted which has recommended that we should go in for court martial proceedings for whatever he has been found guilty of," General Rawat told reporters here.

He said that punishment will be given to Major Gogoi as per the crime committed by him.

"Action will be taken based on his guilt that emerges from this. If it is related directly to moral turpitude then we will take action accordingly. If it is something else then a punishment will be given to him according to the crime he has committed," the Army chief said.

Earlier, the Indian Army's Court of Inquiry had found Major Gogoi guilty in the Srinagar hotel altercation case and came to a conclusion that the facts on the ground were against him, and sought disciplinary action against Major Gogoi.

The court had held him accountable for violating the official Army policy of fraternising with a local woman and for being absent from the place of duty while on active service in an operational area.

On May 23, Major Gogoi was detained by the Jammu and Kashmir police from a hotel in Srinagar following an altercation. The argument erupted when Major Gogoi, who was allegedly trying to enter the hotel with a woman, was barred from doing so.

General Rawat had said that Major Gogoi would be given "exemplary punishment" if found guilty.

Major Gogoi first made headlines in April last year, when he tied a civilian to the bonnet of his vehicle as a "human shield" and drove through Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam during the Srinagar constituency by-elections. He was later awarded the Army chief's 'Commendation Card.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad's request to change his hospital ward has been sent to jail authorities, Director of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), RK Shrivastav, said on Tuesday.

"Lalu Prasad has requested to change his ward because of disturbance caused due to the barking of dogs. His request has been sent to jail authorities. We have written to the Municipal Corporation to remove dogs from the vicinity," he told ANI.

Lalu, who is undergoing treatment at RIMS under jail custody, complained of barking dogs and toilet stench at night disturbing his sleep. Citing the problems, he applied for a shift to the paying ward from the super specialty ward.

On August 25, the former Bihar chief minister was discharged from a hospital in Mumbai after receiving treatment for chest pain and low haemoglobin count.

The 70-year-old leader was initially admitted to Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute, but was later shifted to RIMS.

Lalu is convicted in four cases of multi-crore fodder scam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking action against Additional Director General (ADG) of Maharashtra Police, Param Bir Singh under contempt of court for disobeying the order of the magistrate and disclosing evidence related to the Bhima-Koregaon violence in media.

According to the petition filed by social activist Sanjay Bhalerao, the police read out parts of letters, which were "crucial evidence" in the case, in a press conference before submitting it to the court in Pune.

Bhalerao is being represented in the Bombay High Court by his lawyer Nitin Satpute. The matter has been slated for a hearing on September 7 - the same day when court will hear the petition of alleged victim of the Bhima Koregaon violence, Satish Gaikwad, who wants the case to be handed over to the Investigative Agency (NIA). Gaikwad is also being represented in the High Court by the same lawyer.

On Monday, the Bombay High Court had came down heavily on the Maharashtra Police for holding a press conference and elaborating on the evidence against activists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case.

The court questioned the police for holding a media interaction when the case is sub-judice and criticised him for disclosing details of the matter, even after the police themselves had sought strict confidentiality in the proceedings.

Maharashtra Police, on August 28, had arrested five activists, claiming they had links to the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist). The raids triggered strong criticism against the police, leading the cops to defend and claim that they had strong evidence against the arrested activists.

The arrests can be traced to the violence that erupted between the Dalit and Maratha groups, earlier this year near Pune, during the bicentenary anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle. The clashes killed one person and left several injured, including 10 policemen.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) media chief Anil Baluni on Tuesday said an elaborate strategy has been framed in the meeting attended by cabinet ministers under the chairmanship of party president Amit Shah to discuss preparations of upcoming polls in four states and 2019 elections.

Speaking to ANI, Baluni said, "A meeting of Cabinet Ministers was conducted under the chairmanship of Amit Shah to discuss preparations of upcoming polls in four states and 2019 elections. An elaborate strategy has been framed. It was a regular meeting. Such meetings will be conducted often now."

Shah will be on a day visit to Chhattisgarh on September 5 and will attend various programmes organised under ' Atal Vikas Yatra' by the state government at Pragya Giri Maidan, Kurubhat of Rajnandgaon district.

Chhattisgarh is scheduled to go to polls later this year with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram.

On a related note, the general elections are due to be held in April or May 2019 to constitute the seventeenth Lok Sabha.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A special Investigation Agency (NIA) court here on Tuesday framed charges against seven out of eight accused in ISIS Omar Al-Hindi module case. The NIA had registered the case suo motu on October 1, 2016.

The case is based on information about a group of youth involved in allegedly spreading objectives of the proscribed organisation ISIS in southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. They formed an ISIS module, Ansarul Khilafa-KL, over social media platforms and had allegedly made preparations to carry out attacks on important people including judges, police officers, politicians, foreign nationals and rationalists residing in India.

The NIA had arrested six members of the terror module on October 2, 2016. The members had allegedly organised a conspiracy meeting at Kanakamala in Kannur district of Kerala. Subsequently, another member of the module was arrested following deportation from the United Arab Emirates.

In the same case, on October 5, 2016, NIA arrested an ISIS operative Subahani Haja Moideen alias Abu Jasmine, who had allegedly traveled to Iraq/ Syria in April 2015 and is believed to have fought for the terrorist organisation in the name of Islamic Caliphate. He returned to India in September 2015, and allegedly continued his activities in support of the ISIS in India.

NIA has filed charge sheet against all the accused in the case under different sections of Indian Penal Code. The case has been posted to September 6, 2018, for framing of charges against Subahani Haja Moideen and for finalising the trial schedule.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A session court here on Tuesday sent Sharad Kalaskar, an accused in Narendra Dabholkar murder case, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till September 10.

The CBI, however, had asked for a 14-day custody of Kalaskar to investigate the murder case. CBI lawyer Vijay Kumar Dhakne in his argument said, "He is one of the shooters who fired two bullets at Dr. Dabholkar. He is involved in various activities. Sharad Kalaskar is an expert in weapon handling. We demand 14 days custody."

Defense lawyer Dharam Raj countered that CBI's demand of Kalaskar's custody was not warranted. "The 14-day custody of Sharad Kalaskar was not at all warranted. In remand application, their arguments were vague that Kalaskar was an expert in firearm training. There was no specific argument," said the defense lawyer.

Dabholkar, the founder of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), was shot dead on August 20, 2013, by bike-borne assailants, while he was returning home from a morning walk.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday termed the Kolkata bridge collapse as a "deeply unfortunate" incident and hoped for a speedy recovery of those who were injured.

A portion of the bridge, located in South Kolkata's Majerhat area, collapsed on Tuesday morning. The incident trapped many people and crushed many vehicles under it.

"The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," the Prime Minister tweeted.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also took to Twitter to express grief over the incident, while speaking to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and assured her of every possible help from the Centre.

"The bridge collapse incident in Kolkata is extremely tragic. Four NDRF teams have already reached the spot. One more team is on the way. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," he wrote.

Assuring that the injured are currently stable, Mamata Banerjee said, "19 people have been injured and all of them are stable right now. We have reports of death of one person, but that hasn't been confirmed. There might be three or four casualties as the bridge fell at a spot where a slum is located."

However, West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi blamed the both the Public Works Department and the Railway administration for not shouldering the responsibility in order to maintain the 40-year-old bridge.

"The bridge deserved a better maintenance. There was a report of a pit for quite some time. I don't know whether the PWD noted it. Both the PWD and the Railway administration had the responsibility of maintaining the bridge. It requires investigation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Farmer outfits All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agriculture Workers Union (AIAWU) and Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) will be holding a rally on Wednesday at Parliament Street in the capital under the name 'Majdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally'.

In total, fifteen points have been listed by the unions, including loan waivers of all India farmers; land to landless; implementation of Forest Right Act; 200 days work and Rs 350 wages for MGNREGA workers; Price control of essentials commodities and PDS; and minimum wages of Rs 18,000 for workers (including no contract system as all should be permanent).

"More than 3 lakh people are going to participate in this mega rally," Hannan Mullah, general secretary, AIKS, told ANI.

Mullahalong with Tapan Sen (CITU), Vijay Raghavan (AIAWU) and AIKS president Ashok Dhawale will address the rally.

Mullah said, "Farmers, factory workers from different parts of the country will participate in the rally.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)General Scott Miller, the newly appointed Commander of the NATO-led armed forces coalition in Afghanistan - Resolute Support, has pledged to give all support to Afghanistan's defence and security forces.

General Miller relayed his support for the country during a meeting with President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday, the Office of the President, ARG Palace confirmed in a statement, reported Khaama Press.

During the meeting, Ghani congratulated General Miller for his appointment as the commander of the US and allied forces in Afghanistan and thanked him for accepting the responsibility.

The priorities of the Afghan armed forces, the US' strategies for South Asia were among some of the topics discussed by the two.

General Miller took over as the commander of the NATO-led Resolute Support, which is comprised of over 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, from Army Gen. John Nicholson on September 2.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Setting an example of communal harmony, Hindus, and Muslims of Agra's Kheriya Mod locality come together to celebrate the festival of Janmashtami. This tradition of jointly celebrating the festival has been going on in this locality for about 15 years.

Md. Shadil Quereshi, a local resident told ANI, "We start preparations several months in advance and all Hindu-Muslims work very hard for it. From decoration to the set-up we all work together on all aspects. We believe that there is no religion or caste in celebrating the festivals. We have been doing this for around 15 years and we want our children to continue the same. We want that Hindu-Muslim live affectionately all across the country in this same way."

Harishankar Shukla, president of the regional market committee that organises the festival in the locality, said that they want to spread a message of love and brotherhood through this effort.

"Our basic thought is that everyone in society must live with love and brotherhood. Throughout the year we organize different festivals which are celebrated together. If everyone in society lives cordially with love and affection than only nation will progress. We have been celebrating Janmashtami in this way for the last 15 years. Everyone works together for this occasion," he told ANI.

In accordance with the theme of Hindu-Muslim unity, the banners put up for the occasion of 'Janmashtami' portray Lord Krishna on one side and the Islamic symbol of crescent and star on the other.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The much awaited 2+2 Dialogue, which is to be held here on September 6 is likely to discuss the significant issue of increasing the interaction between the Indian Army and the Central Command of the US.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity an officer told ANI, "One significant issue likely to be put forth will be the increase in the interaction between the Central Command of the US and the Indian Forces. This was till now restricted to the Indo-pacific Command of the US." It is significant to note that the Pakistan and Afghanistan also comes into the area of this Command of the US.

The issues on agenda reflect a rise in the level of confidence and trust building between the US and India. In the high level 2+2 US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be holding talks with their Indian counterpart foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The talks will also include more number of courses and increased number of vacancies in each course. An officer told ANI, "The two sides are likely to discuss about the exchange of military personnel visiting on courses having advanced specialisation which till now were not open as they were considered very critical domain courses." The officer told this on the condition of anonymity.

The responsibility of the region which includes India comes under the Indo Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) of US which is head quartered in Hawaii. Whereas, the Central Command is responsible for 20 nations in the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and the strategic waterways that surrounds them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind apprised the Indian community in Bulgaria of India's growth story, saying that the economy of the country is making steady progress.

Addressing the Indian diaspora in the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Tuesday, President Kovind said, "We have undertaken a range of transformative policy measures to give a new purpose and clarity of visions for inclusive development and good governance in the country. We have imparted a new energy to our economy. India is the fastest growing major economy in the world with the current growth rate of 8.2 percent. We are making steady progress towards becoming a USD 5 trillion economy and the third largest consumer market in the world by 2025."

The President also hailed the Indian community in Bulgaria as "bridge between the two countries". "Indian diaspora in Bulgaria constitutes a living bridge between the two countries. There is one common thread which binds us all together. This is our common cultural and traditional heritage. I am happy that you have kept our traditions and festivals alive in this country as well but what is truly heart-warming is the way our Bulgarian friends appreciate and embrace our culture and ethos."

He also detailed about India's economic growth and said, "According to latest World Bank and IMF estimates, Indian economy will continue on its high trajectory recording 7.8 percent growth in 2019. India was ranked 3rd in the World Economic Forum's list of most trusted governments in 2017. We climbed 42 places in the World Bank ease of doing business index in last few years."

Elaborating further on economic reforms undertaken by the Indian government in last few years, President Kovind said, "The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has created a single unified market in India for the first time in its history. The Digital India program is transforming the face of public service delivery in the country. To promote entrepreneurship and create jobs under our microfinance scheme MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Limited) we have dispersed 128 million loans worth US dollar 90 billion. 74 percent of their beneficiaries are women."

The President also spoke about the ambitious health care program Ayushman Bharat scheme which he said will provide health insurance to 40 percent of the Indian population.

He further emphasised on India-Bulgaria ties and said, "Indology Department of Sofia University has been doing stellar work for 35 years in spreading awareness about Indian culture. I am delighted to learn its scholars have translated eight principal Upanishads from Sanskrit to Bulgarian."

He also extended an invitation to Indian diaspora for Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) to be held in Varanasi from January 21 to 23 next year.

President Kovind is on his state visit to three European countries-Cyprus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday did not approve the special Investigation Agency (NIA) court's order of convicting two out of the five accused in the 2007 Hyderabad twin blasts case and acquitting two others.

"Justice has not been done yet," he said.

"It was a very tragic incident for Hyderabad. Lawyer of the acquitted told me that all evidence was circumstantial. Even the eye-witnesses were found one-and-a-half years after the blast. I feel that justice has not been done yet," Owaisi told media here.

The NIA, which has been set up inside Cherlapally Central Jail, will pronounce judgement on one more accused on Monday. All five accused are lodged in the same jail. The quantum of the sentence will be discussed on Monday.

Those convicted are Aneeq Shafeeq Sayeed and Ismail Chaudhary while those acquitted in the case are Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkish and Mohd Sadiq Israr Shaik. Furthermore, two more accused in the case, Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, are absconding.

The simultaneous blasts occurred in Hyderabad in Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park, killing nearly 42 people and injured over 60.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chung Eui-yong, top national security advisor for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, on Tuesday said that deliberations on the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula would be held ahead of the visit by a special delegation to North Korea.

Briefing the media, Chung Eui-yong was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying, "The special delegation also plans to hold discussions on ways to completely denuclearise (the peninsula) and establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula."

A five-member delegation, which would be visiting North Korea on Wednesday, will be led by Chung and also include National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon and Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung.

Explaining the agenda of the visit, Chung underscored that the delegation would set the date for the third-inter Korean summit between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang and discuss ways to bolster inter-Korean relations.

"First, the delegation will seek to set a specific date for the South-North summit that the countries have already agreed to hold in Pyongyang in September. Second, it will discuss ways to develop South-North Korean relations by implementing the Panmunjom declaration," he said while referring to the agreement signed by the two Korean leaders during their first-ever meeting in the border village of Panmunjom in April.

The visit assumes significance as Moon and Kim had agreed to hold their summit in North Korea, in an effort to improve inter-Korean relations and implement the agreements reached in the Panmunjom declaration.

In the April meeting, 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 Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) in May.

If the third summit goes ahead, then this would be the first time 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.)The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain Lieutenant Colonel Srikant Prasad Purohit's petition seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into his alleged abduction and torture by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with 2008 Malegaon blasts case.

While pronouncing the orders, the apex court also asked Purohit, one of the main accused in the case, to approach the trial court.

Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court refused to stay framing of charges by the lower court against Purohit and others in connection with the case. The court said that the matter pertaining to the validity of sanction for prosecution against Purohit under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act need to be decided by the trial court.

Aparna Purohit, the wife of Purohit, called it a "favourable" order. "It is good that it has been decided who is going to take up the matter. He will definitely get relief. The High Court has told that the trial court should decide the matter. Won't appeal it anywhere, it is a favourable order," she told the reporters here.

Purohit was arrested for allegedly masterminding the blasts in Malegaon in 2008. In April, the apex court had allowed Purohit to challenge the charges framed against him.

Purohit, after spending nine years in jail, was granted a conditional bail by the top court in August last year. According to media reports, Purohit had in June revealed that he was beaten, abused and tortured while he was in custody of the Maharashtra ATS.

In a letter, he had claimed that he was threatened to own up a crime which he never committed. The Malegaon blasts, that took place on September 29, 2008 killed six people and injured several others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nadeem Nusrat, chairman of Voice of Karachi, a US-based advocacy group, has welcomed Washington's recent actions to pressurise Islamabad in order to stop supporting terrorist groups in their soil.

Nusrat penned a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, prior to his visit to Pakistan and said, "We appreciate the current administration's decision to cancel USD 300 million in Coalition Support Fund (CSF) to Pakistan. The Voice of Karachi and South Asia Minorities Alliance leadership requests the US government to exert its influence over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international lending bodies to stop them from financially bailing out Pakistan until its military leadership agrees to stop interfering in civilian affairs and refrain from supporting terrorist groups and proxies who are involved in terrorism inside Pakistan as well across the border."

He claimed that Pakistan is not a "homogenous country" and has been run by the military forces.

Nusrat said, "Pakistan is not a homogenous country, and it is inhabited by many ethnic and religious groups who enjoy rich heritage, culture and are perfectly capable of running their own affairs."

"Unfortunately, since its inception in 1947, Pakistan has been run by a military elite that hails mainly from only one province of Pakistan, Punjab. This Punjabi-dominated military elite has used a national institution like Pakistan Army as a means to promote and safeguard interests of Pakistan's Punjabi-speaking people only," he added.

He alleged that the Pakistani military forces had "forcibly annexed" Balochistan in 1948, and "brutally crushed" the separatist movements in the province.

"Pakistan's Balochistan province had not formally agreed to join Pakistan at the time of India's partition in 1947. It was forcibly annexed by the Pakistani military in 1948. Since then this province, which is Pakistan's largest province in terms of area and is full of minerals, gas and other natural resources, has witnessed many nationalist uprisings and separatist movements. All these movements were brutally crushed by Pakistan's Punjabi-dominated military, leaving tens of thousands of Balochs dead and injured," Nusrat asserted.

The Voice of Karachi chairman claimed that the Pakistani forces killed Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti for demanding more rights for the province. His death led to another nationalist uprising and subsequent military crackdown, claiming thousands of lives.

Talking about Karachi, Nusrat continued, "Karachi, Pakistan's most populous province with an estimated population of 32 million people, is the city whose taxes run Pakistan's economy. Karachi is home to millions of Muslims who had migrated from India at the time of partition. These immigrants are known as Mohajirs. Once Pakistan came over its initial challenges, the Pakistani military started an organised campaign to purge all state and private institutions of Mohajirs. Pakistan's first military dictator General Ayub Khan took away Karachi's status as being the nation's capital and made Islamabad, a newly formed city in Punjab, as the new capital of Pakistan."

Asserting that the Mohajirs are 'victims of enforced disappearance', he further said, "When Mohajirs started a political movement against these blatant injustices, a vicious military operation was launched against their representative political party in 1992. Since then, over 20,000 Mohajirs have been killed by Pakistani security forces and their sponsored groups in fake encounters and armed attacks. Thousands of young Mohajirs have become victims of enforced disappearance and many thousands are languishing in prisons, most of them without being ever produced in any court of law."

Nusrat alleged that the Pakistani military forces were also involved in the brutal operation in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province which shares a border with Afghanistan and where the murderous gangs of the Taliban and the notorious Haqqani Network freely operate.

"Pakistani military establishment's reckless policies and its patronage to extremist religious proxies have resulted in widespread destruction in the KPK province leaving hundreds of thousands of Pashtuns dead, injured and displaced," he added.

Nusrat asserted that indigenous populations in the Gilgit-Baltistan region were also being subjected to state persecution. He claimed that the Pakistani military establishment's decision to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is badly hurting the region's indigenous populations who have been denied any say in this project.

He continued, "At the moment, many projects are underway in Gilgit-Baltistan to turn the indigenous populations into minority and vast tracts of lands have been handed over to Chinese and Punjab-based companies to house non-locals in the region."

Throwing light on the religious persecution of minorities in Pakistan, the Voice of Karachi chairman elucidated, "Pakistan's religious minorities are faring no better at the hands of an army that is obsessed with a jihadi ideology. Ahmadis, whose forefathers like those of Mohajirs had played a dominant role on Pakistan Movement are now constitutionally declared as non-Muslims in Pakistan. Their places of worship are routinely attacked by religious extremists."

"Pakistan's founding leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a Shiite, but Shia community in Pakistan is now a prime target for religious extremists. People of Hazara, whose majority is Shiite, is also a constant target of a brutal campaign of killing and intimidation. Christians, Sikhs, Ismailis, and Hindus, too, are suffering at the hands of those religious extremists who clearly enjoy Pakistani military establishment's overt or covert support," he added.

Nusrat further stated that there are countless reports which firmly establish how Pakistani military agencies are supporting the Taliban, Haqqani network and other extremist religious groups within and outside the country's borders, particularly in the region bordering Afghanistan.

"All this shows Pakistani military elite's absolute disregard for national and internal values, ethics, treaties, and covenants. This undemocratic practice must be stopped and the people of Pakistan, including its persecuted ethnic and religious minorities, be granted all those rights they fully deserve. Until this happens, all military and civilian aid and grants to Pakistan be suspended," he asserted.

Nusrat went on to say that the persecuted groups have pinned their hopes on the US administration and expected Pompeo to forcefully raise the issue of their persecution in his bilateral meetings with Pakistani officials, particularly with the military hierarchy.

"On behalf of all persecuted ethnic and religious groups as well as all democracy-loving people in Pakistan extends full support to the current administration's South Asia policy," he further stated.

The Voice of Karachi and South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation will be holding 'Day on the Hill' event at US Capitol Hill on September 5. The event is aimed at highlighting the issue of religious freedom and minority rights in Pakistan and to show solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and US troops.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Andhra Pradesh Information and Technology minister Nara Lokesh on Tuesday unveiled the curtain raiser of Fintech festival 2018 and also launched the website. The festival will be held from October 22 to 25 in Vizag.

The event will witness a congregation of India's economic community to discuss industry trends, market insights, the Indian regulatory framework, along with global fintech ecosystem. The initiative intends to bring together industry, academicians and investors to innovate, co-create and build the fintech ecosystem.

The festival will also be marked by the presence of eminent personalities from regulatory authorities, like the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Reserve bank of India, multinational Fintech companies. They are expected to share the stage about improving digital infrastructure in the nation and unveil India with the trends of cybersecurity. The event will also explore opportunities in India's digital banking transformation.

The major focus of the festival will be to identify key challenges and opportunities for Fintech entrepreneurs, and perspective of incumbents along with designing a roadmap for the development of an empowering Fintech ecosystem.

Also, a Hackathon with one million dollar challenge will be held from 17 September to 12 October prior to the Fintech fest. The challenge will be conducted on a worldwide basis enabling startups to showcase their products and solutions. To promote the challenge and the festival, road shows are being planned in eight major cities across the world, which will include Chicago, New York, San Fransisco, Tel Aviv, Paris, London, Hong Kong and Bangalore. The highlight of the event will be the opening address by humanoid robot Sophia and a CXO roundtable with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu .

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistan Supreme Court was on Monday informed that Pakistan nationals hold assets and properties worth over $150 billion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A report by A.F. Ferguson, a chartered accountancy firm, was presented in the court in connection with a case on the offshore accounts and properties of Pakistan nationals, reported Dawn.

"Such a massive amount is still parked abroad despite the amnesty scheme?" Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar questioned during the court proceeding.

The governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Tariq Bajwa underlined the steps taken in order to recover the funds.

"Notices have been issued to the 125 people who have assets in the UAE. If they write on affidavits that they do have assets outside of Pakistan, we will interrogate and tax them. But if they deny that, then we can take the help of the UAE government and ask them to take action in accordance with benami properties law," said Bajwa.

He further stated that they have sought support from other agencies including the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Chief Justice Nisar expressed his dismay over the headway the case has made, saying that individuals hiding assets in foreign countries are entitled to money laundering trials.

The chief of the chartered accountancy firm, Shabbar Zaidi, mentioned two prominent channels that are used for transferring wealth out of the country - Havala and banking routes, adding that, "funds are moved abroad by showing it as agricultural income."

Upon being questioned by Justice Umar Ata Bandial if there was a ban on transferring funds outside the country, Bajwa said, "Only a sum of $10,000 is permitted to be taken outside of Pakistan," adding that a list of 225 Pakistan nationals with properties in London has also been made.

Attorney General Mansoor Ali Khan told the court that the newly elected government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan is "serious about bringing back the money."

"A task force has been formed under the Prime Minister's stewardship. The government wants the apex court to provide guidance in this regard," Khan was quoted as saying by Dawn.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)New Delhi [India], Sep 04 (ANI): A London-bound Jet Airways flight was asked to abort its take off after it was detected that it had rolled down from the runway for takeoff without taking permission from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) of the Delhi airport. The incident took place on August 25 at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The ATC sources said that the pilot of 9W-122 was informed to take holding position on runway number 28, but the pilot instead rolled down the plane to make it airborne, which prompted the ATC to order the pilot to abort the takeoff. The pilot was immediately asked to go back for taxing.

When the incident happened around 337 passengers were on board. The airline has ordered a probe into the incident.

According to the airlines the serious security breach has been brought to the notice of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The Jet Airways has de-rostered its crew members of its flight no 9W-122.

Confirming the incident, a Jet Airways spokesperson told ANI: "Following an aborted takeoff on a Delhi-London flight last on August 25, Jet Airways has taken its flight crew members off flying duty for the purpose of an investigation. As per standard procedure, the airline has reported the matter to the regulator and is fully cooperating with the ongoing process. For Jet Airways, the safety of passengers is of paramount importance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacted with the awardees of Teachers' Awards, 2017 at Lok Kalyan Marg and congratulated them for their efforts towards improving the quality of in the country.

Prime Minister Modi commended their dedication towards and for making it their life mantra. He said that a teacher remains a teacher throughout life.

During the interaction, the Prime Minister urged the awardees to mobilise the community and to make them an integral part of school development. He also exhorted the teachers to work towards bringing out the inherent strength of students, especially those from poor and rural background.

He also encouraged the teachers to digitally transform their schools and its neighbourhood.

Interacting with the Prime Minister, the awardees narrated their inspirational stories in transforming their schools into centers of learning and excellence. They also thanked Prime Minister Modi for the new online nomination process and schemes like Digital India, which is bringing a big qualitative change in school throughout the country.

This year, the Ministry of Human Resource Development had revised the guidelines for the selection of Teachers for Awards. The new scheme envisages self-nomination and was inspired by recent innovations in major awards. The scheme is transparent, fair, and rewards demonstrated excellence and performance.

The Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar was also present on the occasion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bollywood actor Sushmita Sen gave wonderful advice to her elder daughter Reene, who turned 19 on Tuesday.

Taking to social media, the 'Main Hoon Naa' actor asked her daughter to enjoy every moment of her teenage life.

The excited mother asked her daughter to learn everything she could, be it singing, dancing or anything that would help her grow as a person.

Sushmita Sen also had words of wisdom for her daughter, wherein she said that her daughter "should make new friends, explore new horizons, embrace the past, look forward to the future but live in the moment & with each step create who you choose to become ????????"

"Your sister & I love you beyond!!! Here's to you & I turning 19 yrs old today...Aim for the skies...it's #time to #fly ??????????Dugga Dugga Shona!!! Enjoyyyyyyyyyy!!! Mmuuuaaah" she added in her Instagram post

The actor, who is a single mother adopted Renee in 2000 and ten years later she adopted another baby girl, Alisah.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Reliance Infrastructure - Astaldi S.p. A (Italy) consortium signed an agreement with Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) on 04 September 2018 for construction of prestigious Versova-Bandra Sea Link Project in Mumbai.

Reliance Infrastructure - Astaldi had earlier bagged the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Rs. 7,000 crore project on a competitive bid basis.

The consortium had emerged the most competitive bidder with their bid of Rs. 6,993.99 crore. The other bidders in fray were L&T-Samsung and Hyundai Development Company-ITD.

The tender for the construction of second sea link in Mumbai on EPC-basis was floated by MSRDC. With a length of 17.17 km, Versova-Bandra Sea Link is three times the length of the existing Bandra-Worli Sea Link, which is 5.6 km.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Negotiators from nearly 190 countries, including India, gathered here on Tuesday for the six-day resumed sessions of the UNFCCC's subsidiary bodies and the Ad Hoc Working Group on the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement amid strong calls for progress.

At the resumed session, the countries will focus on developing the implementation guidelines of the Paris agreement.

The guidelines in a 'rulebook' are needed to provide guidance on how to implement the agreement and to see transparently how countries are progressing in their actions.

The opening of the session saw a brief addresses by Prime Minister of Fiji Bainimarama, who is currently presiding over the climate change negotiations, as well as the Polish in-coming COP President Michal Kurtyka, who will preside over the negotiations at this year's climate change conference or COP24 to be held in Katowice in Poland in December.

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina J. Mohammed, Minister of Natural Resources and of Thailand Surasak Karnjanarat and Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Patricia Espinosa also addressed the opening.

All speakers strongly urged negotiators to step up the pace of their work and to move towards negotiating texts that capture clear options on the implementation guidelines that can swiftly be finalized and adopted in Katowice.

This is crucial given the deadline that countries set for themselves to complete this work at COP24 this year.

Executive Secretary Espinosa said COP24 was now right around the corner.

"We are working against the clock. We must now complete the heavy lifting and we must do it rapidly. UN Climate Change stands ready to assist countries," she said.

Current COP President Bainimarama impressed upon delegates that the six-day Bangkok talks were urgent.

"In these few days, we have the opportunity to put the Paris Agreement on a path from words to action," he said.

The implementation guidelines will unlock practical actions and bring the agreement's institutions to life.

This is vital for all aspects of climate action, including enabling ambitious global and national adaptation action and emission reductions, developing fair transparency and compliance arrangements and mobilizing means of implementation, especially with respect to finance, to support developing country action.

In-coming COP President Kurtyka said non-state actors were steaming ahead and that governments had to keep up with that pace by putting in place the implementation guidelines.

He urged delegates to craft clear texts in Bangkok that they could work with at COP24.

"Clarity and a streamlined text is my request," he said.

Global investors are closely watching and formulating their expectations for this round of negotiations.

Aviva Investors Chief Responsible Investment Officer Steve Waygood said: "After a summer of extreme weather events across the globe, the risk that unchecked climate change poses has never been clearer.

"It's time for country delegates at UN climate talks this week to agree on ambitious and robust rules for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. As a global insurer and investor, we rely on a transparent and consistent regime to deliver the essential global transition to a low-carbon economy."

Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, said: "The Paris Agreement is critical to driving trillion-dollar investment into the global low carbon economy.

"An ambitious and transparent implementation rulebook, holding countries to account for delivering and scaling-up their commitments on climate change, will lock in policy certainty and underpin investor confidence."

--IANS

vg/qd/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Police on Tuesday said it averted a gang war shooting within the Rohini court complex and arrested four men who had come to kill a rival gang member during a hearing.

Police said a team of Special Staff arrested the four from a service road near Rohini Court. They were identified as Sandeep, 26, Tarun, 22, Lalit, 18, and Pankaj, 18. They are residents of west Delhi and work for gangster Neeraj Bawana, police said.

A team of Special Staff received a tip off that some criminals from Neeraj Bawana gang would come to Rohini Court around 10 a.m. to kill a rival gang member, identified as Gaurav, 30, during a hearing, Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajneesh Gupta told IANS.

"The four were arrested while they were waiting for Gaurav to reach the court. Two country-made pistols and four live cartridges were recovered from them," Gupta said.

"The gang members wanted to avenge a murder," Gupta added. "It is believed that the accused took Rs 10 lakh for eliminating Gaurav."

--IANS

sp/prs/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Arizona organization that advocates on behalf of undocumented LGBTI immigrants says more of their clients are living in fear because of President Trumps zero tolerance immigration policy.

Trans Queer Pueblo, which operates out of a small house in Phoenixs Garfield neighborhood, runs a monthly clinic that offers health care to undocumented LGBTI migrants. Trans Queer Pueblo Project Coordinator Dagoberto Bailon told the Washington Blade during a July 19 interview that his organization also works to provide undocumented LGBTI immigrants fair and dignified work and access to immigration-related services.

Trans Queer Pueblo works with other immigrant advocacy groups that visit the Eloy and Florence Detention Centers  two facilities outside of Phoenix that house detained undocumented immigrants  and meet with detainees. Trans Queer Pueblo also remains a vocal critic of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over the treatment of LGBTI immigrants who are in their custody.

Karyna Jaramillo, an undocumented transgender woman from Mexico who is Trans Queer Pueblos Liberation Coordinator, is among those who paid tribute to Roxana Hernandez, a trans Honduran with HIV who died on May 25 while in ICE custody in New Mexico, during a vigil that took place outside ICEs offices in downtown Phoenix.

Jaramillo said fled to the U.S. in the late 1980s after police officers in Mexicos Morelos state raped her.

She was detained in the Eloy Detention Center for two weeks in 2015 after she was arrested for DUI. Jaramillo said guards used male pronouns to refer to her and the men with whom she was detained threated her as though she was a sex object and a sick person.

Bailon, who entered the U.S. from Mexico when he was eight, said immigrant detention centers are not equipped to care for LGBTI people. He spoke with the Blade as Jaramillo and two of their colleagues, Crystal Zaragoza and Dora Mejia, listened.

Zaragoza, the daughter of Mexican migrants who coordinates Trans Queer Pueblos Justice in Health Care Program, told the Blade many of the organizations clients were afraid to seek access to health care and other services after Trump took office. Zaragoza said Trans Queer Pueblos health care clinic currently has a three-month waiting list.

There are many patients who have not seen a doctor in 10 years, 14 years, she noted. They are still a little bit afraid.

Trans Queer Pueblo works against the backdrop of Arizona laws that critics contend specifically target immigrants. These include Senate Bill 1070, a law then-Gov. Jan Brewer signed in 2010 that allowed police officers to check the immigration status of anyone who they suspected were in the U.S. illegally.

English is the official language in Arizona, even though statistics indicate more than a quarter of the states residents speak another language at home. Undocumented immigrants are unable to receive Medicare and other public assistance in Arizona.

Arizonas hate crimes law includes sexual orientation, but not gender identity. The late-U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was among those who opposed a controversial religious freedom bill that Brewer vetoed in 2014.

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu are among the states most vocal opponents of undocumented immigrants. Babeu, who has run for Congress twice, came out as gay in 2012 amid allegations he was in a relationship with an undocumented immigrant.

Arizona is a state where the intent of all of these policies is to see how they work or how those that pass in other states can improve them, Bailon told the Blade, referring specifically to SB 1070. Many white people and Republicans  and not only Republicans, but Democrats also  I think are really trying to maintain this status quo that allows them to remain in power and to continue to dictate what happens to communities of color.

Ylenia Aguilar, a member of the Osborn School District Governing Board in Phoenix, largely agreed with Bailon when she spoke with the Blade at a restaurant in downtown Phoenix on July 19.

Aguilar, who was born in Mexicos Veracruz state and learned she was undocumented when she was in high school, was able to normalize her immigration status under the Violence Against Womens Act because her mother is a survivor of domestic violence. Aguilar, who is now married, became a U.S. citizen in 2016.

Aguilar is an organizer for UnidosUS, the countrys largest Latino civil rights organization, and a Human Rights Campaign supporter. She is also an interpreter for undocumented immigrants who go before federal judges in Phoenix.

Aguilar, whose paternal grandfather in Mexico was gay, pointed out to the Blade her school board is the only one in Arizona that has publicly criticized the Trump administration over the separation of migrant children from their parents. She also acknowledged immigration was among the issues about which voters were angry going into the 2016 election.

I was conflicted by that, she said. I was like, you had the opportunity to vote all your life and you chose not to. There are people crossing the desert, risking their lives. Eighty percent (of women) get raped. Children and women get raped. They die. They die of heat exhaustion. Theyre exposing their lives obviously because going through that journey is way better than what they have in their native countries, so I never take that for granted.

Immigration is interesting here

The Blade reported from Arizona less than six weeks before the states primary elections, which took place on Tuesday.

Arpaio, who Trump pardoned in 2017 after his criminal contempt conviction over his failure to stop profiling Latinos as part of his campaign against undocumented immigrants, and former Arizona state Sen. Kelli Ward lost to Congresswoman Martha McSally in the Republican primary for retiring U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)s seat. McSally will face off against Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema, an openly bisexual Democrat who voted for a 2015 bill that sought to block Syrian and Iraqi refugees from resettling in the U.S., in November.

David Garcia, a professor at Arizona State University, will square off against incumbent Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in the general election. A RGA (Republican Governors Association) PAC ad that aired on a Phoenix television on July 23 said Garcias election as governor would mean more drugs smuggled across our border and more gang members in our neighborhoods.

Immigration is interesting here, Aguilar told the Blade. Just the narrative here is interesting.

Its sad, she added. My families that I serve live in fear.

Bailon described Arizonas politics to the Blade as super messed up. He and his colleagues further stressed the states laws continue to target immigrants, the LGBTI community, sex workers and other marginalized groups.

We are seeing various tactics that are being used to ensure that these people dont have a voice or a vote, said Bailon.Six construction workers were killed in a crane crash accident in Iran's capital Tehran on Tuesday evening, official IRNA news agency reported.

The crane had been installed in a construction site in the Chitgar district to the west of Tehran where the workers were busy working, the spokesperson for the firefighting department of Tehran municipality told IRNA.

Seyyed Jalal Maleki said that the firefighters working to rescue the other people were injured in the crash accident.

The cause of incident is under investigation, the report said.

--IANS

ahm/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday launched its first Trade Finance Scorecard, a new tool to address market gaps stemming from the unintended consequences of global measures to fight money-laundering and terrorism.

"Preventing criminals and terrorists from exploiting the global financial system is critically important," said ADB's Head of Trade and Supply Chain Finance, Steven Beck.

"But these regulations can also undermine jobs and growth at small businesses and developing countries. This new scorecard will open a channel of dialogue among stakeholders to help prevent crime and terrorism while financing growth and job creation," Xinhua news agency reported quoting Beck.

The ADB said the Trade Finance Scorecard focuses on issues related to the interpretation, implementation, and compliance with regulations designed to curb money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the context of correspondent banking and trade financing.

"The scores are assigned on two levels. Firstly, at a macro level, to identify characteristics of effective regulation that could be strengthened. Secondly, at a micro transactional level, to highlight specific challenges that can be addressed in the shorter term," the ADB said.

The ADB added: Elements of effective regulation outlined in the first level are scored out of 10 on seven criteria: consistency (4), risk alignment (3), design (2), stakeholder communication (5), technology and data (5), enforcement (4), and quality control (3). These criteria are used to assess five working-level issues in the second level.

The ADB said the scorecard is based on feedback from industry leaders and regulators and will complement existing tools such as the Financial Action Task Force's recommendations against money laundering and terrorist financing.

"The scores are illustrative and directional," said Beck, stressing the need to have "better ways of addressing these issues, and we see the scorecard as the start of a process of engagement on this difficult subject."

ADB's Trade Finance Program (TFP) closes market gaps by providing guarantees and loans to over 200 partner banks to support trade, helping companies across Asia to engage in import and export activities.

In 2017, TFP supported $4.5 billion in trade through 3,505 transactions. Its financial support is complemented by regular workshops and seminars to increase knowledge and expertise in trade finance products, anti-money laundering, and risk management.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Amit Sadh has started shooting for the military drama series "India Strikes-10 Days" and says he is honoured.

"As I start my shoot today for 'India Strikes-10 Days' ... I cannot feel more privileged and honoured. Congrats Sameer Nair, Samar Khan and the entire team. Thank you my fans for the support," Amit tweeted on Tuesday.

"India Strikes-10 Days" is based on the 2016 Uri terror attack and Amit will be seen as the main lead Major Tango.

"India Strikes-10 Days" is based on the first chapter from Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh's book "India's Most Fearless".

In 2016, a terror attack at an army base in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri killed 17 soldiers. The Indian Army retaliated with surgical strikes 11 days later.

The series is being directed by Raj Acharya.

Harmanjit Singha, Sudeep Nigam, Abhishek Chaterjee, Aadhar Khurana are the team of writers who have scripted this ten-part thriller.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress on Tuesday described the arrest of a Tamil Nadu woman research scholar for allegedly raising slogans against the state BJP President as an act of "fascism," which was a clear evidence that there was an "undeclared emergency" in the country.

The Congress also said that the 2019 elections would be a contest between fascism represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and democracy represented by progressive and pluralistic forces.

"Fascism was on full display when a young lady travelling from Chennai to Tuticorin hit a raw nerve when she allegedly shouted 'down with fascist BJP government'," Congress leader Manish Tewari told media here at a press conference.

He said that Tamil Nadu BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan in a display of unbridled arrogance lodged a complaint against the girl following which she was sent to 15 days of judicial custody.

"If this is not undeclared emergency, then what is," the former union minister questioned.

"This was not only an assault on the freedom of speech and expression but it was also an assault on the constitution, democracy and idea of India," he said.

Tewari was referring to the arrest of Lois Sofia, 28, a research scholar at the University of Montreal, Canada, and a native of Thoothukudi in the state.

Referring to the arrest of five social activists across the country last week, Tewari said, "This was completely uncalled for. This was the second case within a week."

"This is a pattern which has been playing out repeatedly and systematically since 2014," he alleged.

Listing the incidents of muzzling dissent, the Congress leader said the assault on the students of Film Institute of Pune, events that led to the suicide of Hyderabad University student Rohith Vemula, derecognition of Periyar study circle in IIT-Madras, stopping the screening of a Kashmiri film in IIT-Delhi, vilification campaign against Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) etc. are among many such instances.

He said that there was a narrative which the BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) is trying to peddle. "If you question the BJP, you are termed anti-national. If you question the government, then you are called a traitor. Is this the India that we want?" he asked.

"It is becoming clear that battle for 2019 is going to be fought between fascism represented by BJP and democracy represented by progressive, pluralistic forces. It is going to be a battle not just to replace the government but for the very soul of india," Tewari added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A court in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday granted bail to Lois Sofia, who was arrested after shouting a slogan against the BJP on a Tuticorin-bound aircraft in which state BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan was also travelling.

On Monday, on a complaint by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, police arrested Sofia, 25, and the court remanded her in judicial custody for 15 days. The arrest as well as the court ruling was widely condemned in the state.

The young woman was taken to a government hospital in Tuticorin as part of the remand procedure and was admitted owing to stomach pain.

Sofia was charged with "public nuisance" under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and for giving impolite reply to a public servant under the Tamil Nadu City Police Act.

Welcoming the bail granted to Sofia, DMK President M.K. Stalin urged the Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday to withdraw the case filed against her and also take action against BJP members who had threatened her family.

Stalin said that in a democracy every individual had a right to criticise the government.

Soundararajan told reporters on Tuesday that Sophia had posted on social media that she would shout slogans against the BJP.

Sofia was seated behind BJP leader Soundararajan in the flight on Monday.

According to Soundararajan, the young woman said it was her right to raise slogans and the BJP leader alleged that she uttered "unspeakable words" at the airport lounge.

Sofia, said to be pursuing research in Canada, was returning home when she spotted the BJP leader. Suddenly, she got up and shouted: "Facist BJP government, Down down."

On landing at Tuticorin, the BJP leader got into a verbal spat with the student and lodged a complaint with the police who arrested her.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court on Tuesday said "big scandal" is taking place in the name of real estate business, as it favoured independent forensic audit of balance-sheets of the to know diversion of home buyers' money.

Saying "big, serious fraud" is being committed on home buyers, a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice U.U. Lalit told the to cooperate with the auditors or face sealing of its premises and a forensic audit of accounts of all companies, including directors, their wives and daughters.

It said those found guilty will have their properties sold.

The court asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh, appearing for Bank of Baroda (BoB), to suggest names of auditors and posted the matter for hearing on September 6.

The ASG said BoB has initiated insolvency proceedings against Amrapali and its forensic audit of some companies showed diversion of Rs 27.65 billion.

The Buildings Construction Corporation India Ltd (NBCC) gave a proposal for completion of 15 residential projects having 46,575 flats at an estimated cost of Rs 85.00 billion in 6-36 months, adding that it could take over the projects while denying outing its own money to build these projects.

NBCC chairman Anoop Kumar Mittal, who was present in the court said that to realise the estimated cost of Rs 85.00 billion to complete the projects, there will be a shortfall of Rs 20.38 billion which can be raised from selling unsold floor space worth Rs 21.00 billion.

The court said it will try to reach the persons "responsible for the fraud" and retrieve each and every money siphoned off from various projects.

On the proposal of NBCC, the bench said: "We won't ask you (NBCC) to put any money. We will provide you all the necessary funds to start the project. The idea is that the wheel should start moving."

The court asked to file its response on NBCC's proposal.North Korean filmmaker Jero Yuns "Beautiful Days" has been announced as the opening title of the 23rd Busan International Film Festival.

Starring Lee Na-young, "Beautiful Days" depicts the story of a woman who abandons her husband and child to escape North Korea for a better life abroad. Martial arts drama, "Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy," by Hong Kong's Yuen Woo-ping will close the festival, reports variety.com.

The festival will start from October 4 to October 13.

"'Beautiful Days' sees the dissolution and restoration of a family, and also that its subject is very timely," said festival director Jay Jeon.

For its twenty third edition, the Busan film festival has selected 323 films from 79 countries. That includes 115 world premieres and 25 international premieres.

With a Midnight Passion screening of the rebooted "Halloween," producer Jason Blum is expected to attend the festival.

A new program named Busan Classic has been newly launched. The section is dedicated to films that are historically important.

South Korean filmmaker Kim Hong-joon ("Im Kwon taek's Moonlight") will head the jury of the festival's signature competition section New Currents.

Further details will be announced on Tuesday afternoon at a second press conference in here.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cambodia on Tuesday ruled out rumours that the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared in 2014 with 239 people on board, crashed in the country's remote jungle.

"First, there is no any evidence -- information or data -- to prove that it crashed in Cambodia," Sin Chansereyvutha, spokesman for Cambodia's State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, told Xinhua news agency.

"Second, if this news was true, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia would make a hotline call to us for cooperation because in ASEAN, we have a memorandum of understanding on cooperation and information sharing on search and rescue when there is a plane crash," he said.

"But the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia has not contacted us on this issue, so we conclude that this is false news."

He said Cambodia has no plan to search the missing plane in its jungle unless there is evidence-attached request from the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia.

The spokesman's reaction came after The Sun reported on Tuesday that British video producer Ian Wilson claimed he has spotted the doomed passenger jet on Google Maps which crashed in Cambodia's remote jungle after spending "hours" searching online.

The flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing mysteriously disappeared from radar in the early hours of March 8, 2014.

Radar and satellite tracking indicated it went down in the southern Indian Ocean.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With more and more enterprises in India aiming for digital transformation amid a growing economy, the country faces imminent cyber threats from rogue nation-state actors and a collective approach is the need of the hour, a top official from US-based Internet Society (ISOC) has stressed.

Founded in 1992 by people involved with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) -- an open standards body which develops and promotes voluntary Internet standards -- Virginia-headquartered ISOC is a non-profit organisation dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and safe use of Internet worldwide.

"India is a rising economic and military power, so nation-state actors would always think what they could gain from systems and networks in the country, to try and get an edge over on something," Rajnesh Singh, Regional Bureau Director-Asia Pacific, ISOC, told IANS in an interview here.

"Owing to India's status of a fast-growing economy and having a global footprint, the country is vulnerable to cyber attacks by nation-state actors over trade deals, military hardware, economic information and financial information," Singh added.

India today is in the top three largest Internet markets in the world.

According to Singh, it is not only the job of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), government or cyber security firms to ward off cyber threats -- but also users themselves.

"A lot of users these days are bit naive in terms of Internet usage. They need to realise that they are part of the larger ecosystem and are not just being connected to something in isolation. I think a big component -- education and awareness -- is missing. A collaborative effort is needed," the official told IANS.

The number of cyber-security incidents has gradually increased in India over the past few years.

According to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) housed at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), India witnessed 44,679, 49,455 and 50,362 cyber security incidents in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.

These included phishing, website intrusions and defacements, virus and denial of service attacks, among others.

To provide a safe experience for over 400 million Indian Internet users, ISOC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) to look into securing routers.

The partnership would promote the Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) -- a global initiative to implement the crucial fixes needed to reduce the most common threats to the Internet's routing system.

"The Indian mindset has to change and education is a key component here. Once you share details on the Internet, you open gates for the hackers. We are fascinated by pirated CDs and free apps, without knowing what may be behind these. Awareness on the security issue is a must," ISPAI President Rajesh Chharia told IANS.

"Importantly, youth and non-English Internet users in rural areas are highly vulnerable to cyber threats," Chharia said, adding that MANRS will help patch the network in a way that the rural areas also get secured.

According to Singh, ISPAI will spread MANRS to non-ISPAI members -- including youth in colleges.

"If MANRS is incorporated within the learning system in the country, youth will have an idea what measures to take and what not, to ensure they are no more vulnerable to Internet threats," Singh said.

(Rachel V. Thomas can be contacted at rachel.t@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda strongly denied there was any kind of land scam in Haryana during his tenure.

"There has been no land scam under my rule in Haryana. In fact, I have not bought even an inch of land in Haryana in my working tenure. I got the land I have as a legacy from my father," he said while addressing a press conference here in Rajasthan on Tuesday.

Hooda and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra were booked on Saturday by Haryana Police for alleged irregularities in land deals in Gurugram.

An FIR was registered at Kherki Daula police station in Gurugram.

Hooda said it is the Bharatiya Janata Party which has devised the plot to name him. The government in Haryana is working with a vengeance, he added.

"Despite being Chief Minister of Haryana for 10 years, I did not indulge in vengeance against any party. However, it is clearly evident that BJP government is playing vendetta politics," he added.

He said although the M.L. Khattar government has formed a special commission to probe the land scam which is yet to submit its report, the BJP government has filed the FIR, he alleged.

This act symbolises how frustrated the government has become. It is taking such measures to divert people's attention from the Rafale jet deal, said Hooda.

Had there been a strong proof on the land scam, he and Vadra would not have been allowed to roam freely, he added.

He also questioned the Centre's silence on the questions being raised over the Rafale deal signed with France by the Narendra Modi government.

He demanded that the Centre should form a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe thoroughly the Rafale issue so that people can know the truth, he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Students at Roberts Middle School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio were asked to rank who is more deserving of life in a disturbing school assignment.

The assignment titled Whom to Leave Behind, required students to choose eight people from a list of 12 who would be put on a spaceship and saved from earths destruction. The decision would be made based on the students ranking of the list from most deserving to least deserving.

People on the list included a homosexual male, professional athlete, a Hispanic clergyman who is against homosexuality, a militant African-American medical student, a female movie star who was recently the victim of sexual assault, among others.

According to Cleveland 19 News, the assignment was handed out in math class and was meant to be an icebreaker for students.

Ohio 6th Ward City Councilman Adam Miller posted a photo of the assignment on Facebook calling it an inappropriate project for young kids.

The Cuyahoga Falls Superintendent Dr. Todd Nichols released a statement saying they were just made aware of the situation and are investigating.Five people, including the stepmother, were arrested on Tuesday for the gang rape and murder of a nine-year-old in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district in a horrific crime stemming from jealousy.

Senior Superintendent of Police Syed Imtiyaz Hussain told reporters that the woman and four youths have been arrested for the gang rape and murder of the girl whose body was found in the forests of Uri tehsil two days back.

Giving details of the crime, he said the victim's father, Mushtaq Ahmad Ganai, complained that his daughter was missing and he feared she may have been abducted.

During investigation, police found that the girl's father had two wives and that the victim was the daughter of a woman from Jharkhand.

His first wife, Fahmeeda, would mostly work outside the house while the other would mostly stay at home to cook food.

On September 2, the body of the missing girl was found in a decomposed form, about one kilometre from the family home.

Investigation revealed that Fahmeeda had been nourishing a long-standing grudge against the non-local wife of her husband and her children as she felt that her husband was more affectionate towards his second wife Khushboo.

The deceased daughter was the dearest of ll children to the father.

Fahmeeda hatched a conspiracy to eliminate her step daughter.

On the fateful day, she took her to the nearby jungle and committed the crime along with four young men: her son Sahil, 14, and his friends Kaiser Ahmad, 19, Aadil Ahmad, 14, and Naseer Ahmad Khan, 28.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's presence in the US, where he is undergoing treatment, is advantageous for monitoring the Goa administration because of the 12-hour time difference between the two regions, the BJP said on Tuesday.

Responding to questions from the media on Parrikar's repeated absence from the state, BJP spokesperson Sidharth Kuncolienkar said: In fact, it is more advantageous because there is 12 hours difference, so when it is night here, it is day there.

"So, it is virtually 24 hours monitoring. No administrative work has stopped, it is going on at the same pace," the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson said.

Further rejecting accusations of lack of governance, in light of Parrikar's third trip to the US in six months, for treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer, he said senior ministers in the BJP-led coalition government were ensuring smooth administration.

"Everything is going on smoothly. We have our senior ministers too. (PWD minister) Sudin Dhavalikar, Vijai Sardesai, (Revenue Minister) Rohan Khaunte, other ministers," he said.

Incidentally, Sardesai, who is Town and Country Planning minister in the Parrikar-led cabinet on August 28, had said that the absence of the Chief Minister had impacted governance in the coastal state.

The Congress has already demanded imposition of President's Rule in Goa, claiming that there was no governance in the state, due to the repeated absence of Parrikar and serious ailments faced by two other cabinet ministers, who have not reported to work for several weeks.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Do you often speak to your baby? The more baby talk words that the infants are exposed to, the quicker they can grasp the language, suggests a study.

The study of nine-month-old babies by the University of Edinburgh researchers suggested that those who hear words such as bunny or choo-choo more frequently are faster at picking up new words between nine and 21 months.

The team noted words that end in 'y' -- such as tummy, mummy and doggy -- or words that repeat sounds -- such as choo-choo and night-night -- could help infants identify words in speech.

"Our findings suggest that diminutives and reduplication, which are frequently found in baby talk words across many different languages can facilitate the early stage of vocabulary development," said lead researcher Mitsuhiko Ota, from the University's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.

For the study, appearing in the journal Cognitive Science, the team recorded samples of speech addressed to infants learning English.

They checked the speech addressed to each infant for features that characterise baby talk words.

As well as analysing so-called diminutives ending in 'y' and reduplication -- which contains repeated syllables -- they checked for onomatopoeic words that sound like their meaning, such as woof and splash.

They examined the rate of the infants' language development by measuring the size of the children's vocabulary at nine, 15 and 21 months.

They found that infants who heard a higher proportion of diminutive words and words with repeated syllables developed their language more quickly between nine and 21 months.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress on Tuesday termed "censorship" the Information and Broadcasting Ministry's advisory to the media to avoid use of word "Dalit".

Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari said such terms are commonly used in public discourse.

"If the government ordains or the Ministry ordains that the language which you use in your reportage should also be one that is pre-cleared by them.

"How else will you characterise this advisory except to call it censorship? And my request to all those media outlets, who have been supporting the spectre of censorship, that they should introspect. When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind," he added.

The government's advisory asked for the use the constitutional term "Scheduled Caste" instead of "Dalit".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Financially troubled Jet Airways has flown into yet another air pocket with rating agency ICRA downgrading the company's short and long term credit facilities.

The downgraded comes at a time when India's aviation sector faces the headwinds of rising fuel prices and a weak rupee amidst heavy competition and low air fares that have already pushed many domestic airlines deep into the red, including Jet Airways.

Accordingly, the airline's long term rating assigned to "Long term Loans" and "Non-Convertible Debentures" was revised to BB (negative outlook) from BB+ (negative outlook).

Besides, airline's short term rating has also been downgraded to A4 from the previous A4+.

"The ratings downgrade considers the continued deterioration in the operating and financial performance of the company because of its inability to pass on the increase in jet fuel prices to the customers," ICRA said in its report on Monday.

"The company has large debt repayments due over FY2019 (Rs 3,120.3 crore), FY2020 (Rs 2,444.5 crore) and FY2021 (Rs 2,167.9 crore)."

Further, ICRA said that the credit profile of Jet Airways will continue to remain stretched in the medium term until the domestic airlines industry is able to pass on the increase in jet fuel prices to the customers through an increase in fares or the company is able to raise adequate funds to ease the liquidity pressures.

The downward revision comes after Jet Airways Group on August 27 reported a net loss of Rs 1,326 crore for the first quarter of 2018-19 from a net profit of Rs 58 crore earned during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

On a standalone basis, the airline's net loss stood at Rs 1,323 crore from a net profit of Rs 53.5 crore reported for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

According to the airline, an increase in Brent fuel price by more than 36 per cent, along with a weak rupee and a mismatch between high fuel prices and low fares primarily undermined its financial performance during the quarter under review.

Jet Airways also plans to go in for a cost reduction programme to reduce expenses totalling Rs 2,000 crore over two years.

In addition, the company has decided for a "balance sheet restructuring" which entails capital infusion and debt reduction.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and counter-terrorism efforts as well as India's oil imports from Iran following a US ban will be among a host of issues that will come up at the first India-US 2+2 dialogue here on Thursday, New Delhi's biggest diplomatic engagement with Washington this year.

Ahead of the meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, informed sources said that the Global Strategic Partnership between India and the US has got a fresh impetus under US President Donald Trump.

The 2+2 dialogue mechanism was announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in June last year and this replaces the earlier strategic and commercial dialogue and is set to become an annual affair.

The twice-deferred meeting was earlier scheduled for July 6 in Washington. But, it was put off purportedly because of Pompeo's North Korea visit for unscheduled meetings with its officials.

Before that, the first 2+2 meeting in April, also to be hosted by the US, was called off after Trump suddenly sacked the then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Among the few countries the US has 2+2 dialogue are Australia and Japan.

According to the sources, two major areas of convergence between India and the US in recent times have been the Indo-Pacific region, which has emerged as a very important geostrategic area, and counter-terrorism efforts.

"In terms of regional issues, the Indo-Pacific issue will be discussed," an informed source said. "We want to know the US perspective on this."

As counter-terrorism is a subject of interest for both India and the US, designation of individuals and organisations as global terrorists is expected to be discussed.

While US has labelled leaders of Pakistan-based terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, much to India's satisfaction, New Delhi has similarly labelled al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent and the Islam State-Khorasan.

With the US imposing fresh sanctions on Iran over the country's nuclear programme, a major irritant that has arisen is its ramifications on India's oil imports from the West Asian nation.

With India-Iran bilateral economic ties dominated by crude oil imports, New Delhi will seek to sensitise the US how very energy import-reliant country India is.

According to the sources, price is an important factor here and the discussions will be around what the US expectations are whereas India will express its concerns and requirements.

India has also started oil and gas imports from the US after many years and, according to the sources, with an import target of $2.5 billion, it is also expected to address the bilateral trade deficit issue which is largely tilted in India's favour.

India supports UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that calls for comprehensive action on Iran's nuclear programmme and does not want it to become a nuclear state, but New Delhi is not opposed to Tehran getting access to clean civilian nuclear energy.

The sanctions on Iran have also put a shadow over the Chabahar port project in Iran, being jointly developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan.

The port gives access to Afghanistan by bypassing Pakistan and there have been concerns in Delhi about what the implications of the sanctions will be on the key project.

However, it is learnt that there has been an understanding that Chabahar is a larger regional issue on which Afghanistan too is talking with the US.

Defence has also emerged as a key pillar of bilateral ties, with the US designating India as a Major Defence Partner in 2016.

However, India has signed only one of three foundational agreements needed for interoperability with the US -- the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement in 2016 -- and not the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement.

According to the sources, COMCASA is likely to come up for assessment during the 2+2 dialogue but an outcome cannot be prejudged at this juncture.

"Defence innovation is something important for us," an informed source said, adding that discussions have been held on the Defence Trade and Technology Innovation.

However, with the Trump administration's Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) coming into effect in January 2018, India's defence deals with other countries have come under the scanner.

CAATSA targets countries doing business with Russian, Iranian and North Korean defence companies and with India being a major defence partner of Russia, it has become a matter of concern.

The most controversial issue is India's purchase of four S-400 missile systems from Russia at a cost of more that Rs 40,000 crore.

US lawmakers have opposed this deal, citing its non-compatibility with US equipment but the sources here have said that India's defence ties with third countries will not come up for discussion in the 2+2 dialogue as it is essentially a bilateral meeting.

"CAATSA is a US law and it is for Washington to give a waiver," a source said.

Addressing the bilateral trade imbalance is also expected to be another issue of discussion during the upcoming dialogue.

Bilateral goods trade stood at $74.5 billion in 2017-18, with India having a trade surplus of $21.3 billion.

However, last month, India became the 37th country and the third Asian country after Japan and South Korea to be accorded Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 status by Washington, paving the way for the sale of high-technology products to New Delhi.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi's BJP MLA Vijender Gupta on Tuesday demanded that the Aam Aadmi Party government issue a White Paper on seats reserved for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) but lying vacant in private schools in the last four years.

"From 2015-16 to 2017-18, about 40,000 seats have remained vacant. During 2018-19, as many as 12,600 seats are lying vacant. The government owes an explanation as to why nearly 53,000 seats have remained vacant in these four years," Gupta said.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly said that the government must expose those who denied admission in private schools to children from deprived backgrounds.

"Only a thorough fact-finding inquiry will reveal the reasons behind the government's failure to ensure 100 per cent filling of EWS seats."

"Once the White Paper brings out the truth, the government must take remedial action to ensure that all EWS seats are filled every year," he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chinese electronics company iVOOMi on Tuesday launched its sub-brand Innelo which would cater to the needs of the smartphone buyers in India.

The first product from the brand to be introduced is "Innelo 1" smartphone which would come with a notched display.

"We are delighted to bring our sub-brand Innelo to India. With a vision to capture the premium smartphones and accessories market, we aim to bring high-end technology products and offer them at pocket-friendly prices," Ashwin Bhandari, CEO, Innelo India, said in a statement.

The Hong Kong-based brand will be backed by supply chain, operations and service infrastructure of iVOOMi in the Indian market with a dedicated network of 500+ service centres across the country.

Each Innelo product goes through over 20 quality test rounds before reaching the market, the company claimed.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday invited Chinese companies to participate in the Global Agriculture and Food Summit due in November this year.

The Chief Minister, who is currently touring China, met Song Tao, Minister of International Liaison Department of Communist Party of China.

A press statement issued in Ranchi said Das invited Song as well as Chinese companies to participate in Global Agriculture and Food Summit due in the state on November 29-30.

During meeting with Raghubar Das, Song said the combined population of India and China was 2.56 billion, which is one-third of the world.

"If both countries work together, they can have a larger share of of the world trade. There is natural relationship between both the countries," the statement said quoting Song.

THe Chinese leader appreciated Jharkhand's ranking in 'ease of doing business'. He also appreciated the business prevailing in the the state, the statement added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Seoul in South Korea for three days from September 12, during which various agreements will be signed, government sources said on Tuesday.

"Kejriwal will travel to Seoul, South Korea, for the twin-city agreement between Delhi and Seoul. The visit follows an invitation from the Seoul Mayor. Agreements on pollution control, drinking water, public transport, education and urban development will also be signed," the sources said.

Last year, the Delhi government signed a twin-city agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Government for strengthening cooperation in the fields of e-governance, transportation, climate change and smart city.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Kerala government on Tuesday announced that it won't host any function that involves huge sums of money for a year and instead divert the amount for flood relief.

The cancelled events include the much-acclaimed International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), held every December, besides state school youth festivals.

Officials say Kerala has suffered damage amounting to Rs 30,000 crore in the worst floods to hit the state in a century.

A government order said that no government department would host any festival for a year.

The funds earmarked for all such cancelled events would be diverted to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

However, State Culture Minister A.K. Balan said there was some disconnect in the order.

"There needs to be more clarity about this order and a letter has been sent to the Chief Secretary for the same. There was no decision taken by the Committee of Ministers looking into rebuilding the state," Balan told the media.

Veteran Director Kamal, who is also the chairman of the academy that organises the IFFK, said the order had come as a surprise as he had discussed about the conduct of the film festival with Balan in the morning.

"We can hold this festival without any celebrations and utilize our own funds," said Kamal.

Till Monday, the CMDRF had received Rs 1,036 crore. Kerala Ministers are soon leaving for 14 countries to raise money from public contributions.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday resigned from the Lok Sabha after being elected to the Meghalaya Assembly on August 27.

He will take oath as a member of the Assembly on Wednesday.

Sangma, who won the by-election from South Tura, said he had submitted his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

The by-election in South Tura was necessitated after Agatha Sangma resigned to pave the way for her brother Conrad to contest in order to retain the post of Chief Minister.

Sangma, the youngest son of former Lok Speaker late Purno A. Sangma, defeated Charlotte W. Momin of the Congress by 8,421 votes in a four-cornered contest.

Conard Sangma, who was sworn as the 12th Chief Minister of Meghalaya on March 6, was a non-elected member of the 60-member Assembly.

Sangma assumed the top post of Meghalaya, which his father had held for a short period, after the regional United Democratic Party (UDP), People's Democratic Party and the Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) decided to support the NPP in forming the government on the condition that Sangma would be the Chief Minister.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday held telephonic talks with US President Donald Trump about his special envoys' visit to North Korea, officials said.

Moon and Trump talked over phone for around 50 minutes regarding the scheduled travel by Moon's special emissaries to Pyongyang, according to the presidential Blue House, Xinhua reported.

The five-member special delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, top national security adviser of the Blue House, planned to visit Pyongyang on Wednesday morning and return home on the same day.

Moon and Trump exchanged opinions about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, including the denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington after the North Korea-US summit on June 12, and the upcoming third summit between Moon and North Korean top leader Kim Jong-un.

Moon and Trump agreed to maintain close consultations and cooperation at every level between the two sides, the Blue House said.

During their Pyongyang visit, Moon's special envoys would discuss with the North Korean side a detailed schedule and agenda for the third Moon-Kim summit, which the two Koreas agreed to hold in Pyongyang before the end of September.

The South Korean leader explained in detail to Trump about the dispatch of his special envoys to Pyongyang, which aimed to consult on ways to build permanent peace on the peninsula through complete denuclearization as well as to prepare for the third summit with the North Korean top leader.

Trump told Moon that he sincerely wished for Moon's special envoys to bear a good result, asking Moon to inform him of the outcome of the special envoys' travel to Pyongyang.

Moon said now is a significant period for settling peace on the peninsula, which would go together with complete denuclearization, stressing that improved inter-Korean relations and eased tensions on the peninsula will contribute to the peninsula's complete denuclearization and the settlement of a lasting peace regime.

Trump expressed his sincere wish that the upcoming inter-Korean summit would bear a good result to enhance ties between the two Koreas, implement the agreements reached at the June 12 North Korea-US summit in Singapore, and help future dialogues.

Moon and Trump agreed to review their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, scheduled for later this month, to deeply consult on future strategy and cooperation on the Korean Peninsula issues.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Civil society groups on Tuesday urged Myanmar to release the two Reuters journalists who were sentenced to seven years in prison for violating an archaic secrets act while investigating the massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.

A Myanmar court on Monday had sentenced reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to seven years in prison for violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, reports Efe news.

"We strongly condemn punishment of the two journalists for simply carrying out their work. The decision indicates that the entire trial process was neither free nor fair and was completely manipulated," the 83 groups said in a joint statement.

The journalists were arrested on December 12 allegedly in possession of confidential documents, handed over to them by police officers, while they were investigating the murder of a dozen Rohingyas by the military.

"We believe that the decision by the court is irrational and the case brought against the two journalists was framed to justify the arrest and imprisonment of them," said the letter.

"We take this as a crackdown on the right of access to information and freedom and an oppressive gesture on all concerned people of Myanmar who are aspiring and building a society characterized by the rule of law, accountability, freedom and Justice," the letter added.

The reporters were investigating a mass grave of 10 Rohingyas in the village of Inn Din in the Rakhine state, which had subsequently led to the conviction of seven Burmese soldiers to 10 years in prison.

The reporters have pleaded innocence and claimed that they were set up.

Their claim coincides with the testimony of Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, who in April declared that a senior official had ordered him and other subordinates to hand over secret documents to Wa Lone to trap him, an allegation the police denies.

The Inn Din massacre was part of an Army campaign in Rakhine, following a series of attacks by Rohingya rebels on multiple government posts in August last year.

The offensive led to the exodus of around 700,000 Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic minority, community to neighbouring Bangladesh where they now live in overcrowded refugee camps set up by the UN and nonprofits.

Last week, the UN had published a report that claimed there were elements of intentional genocide in the army offensive against the Rohingyas.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police in Ghaziabad have arrested a Nigerian for online fraud in which he cheated an Indian of Rs 29 lakh.

The police recovered three laptops and three mobile phones from his possession, Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna told the media.

The arrest followed a complaint from a Dinesh Chand who said he was cheated of Rs 29 lakh online.

The cyber cell of Ghaziabad police solved the case, leading to the arrest of the Nigerian who gave his name as Friday and who lived in Delhi's Tilak Nagar area.

He told the police that several gangs were operating in this field and they would lure unsuspecting victims by telling them that they had won big money in lottery and they needed to send an advance sum to get the prize.

The money was immediately remitted to Nigeria through Western Union, the police officer quoted the arrested man as saying.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Haryana Police said on Tuesday they have sought permission from the state government to further probe the corruption case registered against Congress President Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and realtors including DLF.

The police on Saturday booked Vadra, Hooda, DLF and Gurugram-based Onkareshwar properties for their alleged involvement in a land scam worth Rs 5,000 crore in Gurugram in 2008.

The case was registered on the complaint of Surender Sharma, a resident of Rathiwas village near Tauru, alleging that a company belonging to Vadra's Skylight Hospitality cheated people and the state.

A case was registered on charges of cheating, hatching conspiracy and forgery.

The complaint read that Vadra's company purchased 3.5 acre land in Shikohpur here on the Delhi-Jaipur-Mumbai highway for Rs 7.5 crore in 2008 and later sold it to DLF for Rs 58 crore.

The Haryana government then allotted 350 acres of land to DLF in violation of rules.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Shamsher Singh on Tuesday told reporters: "We registered the case immediately as soon as we received the complaint (On September 1). We have written to Haryana Director General Police B.S. Sandhu seeking approval of relevant authority from the state government to further begin investigation."

Parliament passed the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2018 on July 24 to enhance transparency and accountability of the government but some of the provisions of the bill are drawing criticism on social media.

After the amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), 1988, a police officer needs prior approval of relevant authority or government to begin investigation.

The same does not apply when the accused is caught red-handed.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Haryana, it set up a one-man commission of Justice S.N. Dhingra on May 14, 2015 to probe the land scam.

Deals were allegedly inked for land in Shikohpur and Sihi villages in Gurugram.

Complainant Surender Sharma is known as a big property dealer and land owner.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three years of efforts of four-laning in the first phase of the national highway in Himachal Pradesh between Parwanoo to Solan towns have again virtually been washed away this monsoon -- with less than 10 per cent of the 39-km long, newly-laid road motorable in one stretch.

Motorists say the maximum damage to the road is on a 30-km stretch between Parwanoo and Kumarhatti, where over 20 km is either badly damaged or piled with boulders and muck due to frequent landslides.

They fear a threat to life from the falling debris while travelling through the hills that have been excavated for highway widening.

Even the executing agency, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), for the project -- which aims to cut travel time between Chandigarh and the Himachal capital Shimla by shortening the distance by 17 km -- does not know what to do with the falling boulders and muck.

It is simply putting the blame on heavy rains that are triggering landslides, damaging the road network time and again. Last year, too, this stretch was damaged by landslips during the monsoon and had to be rebuilt.

"We can't do much as the loose hill strata could hardly withstand the rains," NHAI Regional Officer in Shimla, Gursewak Singh Sangha, told IANS.

He said that, in some stretches, NHAI had constructed retaining structures like breast walls up to the height of 12 metres but sliding rocks and boulders damaging them badly -- as well as the highway.

"For the past two months we have not made much progress in the construction of the stretch between Parwanoo and Solan owing to rains," he added.

The Rs 748 crore outlay for four-laning the Parwanoo-Solan highway lapsed in March. A total of 23,785 trees faced the axe for its widening.

Geologists blame unscientific cutting of precipitous hills, largely of shell, sandstone and clay, for the frequent landslips.

"Most of these mountain slopes are of sedimentary formation and have become destabilised with the reckless cutting by heavy earth-moving machinery. The loose and naked boulders with muck will continue to roll down on the highway for eight to 10 years more," former state geologist Arun Sharma told IANS.

The highway construction lacks proper design and has been poorly executed... the debris could continue to fall till the angle of repose (slope stability) is maintained in the mountain cutting, he said.

The angle of repose is the angle of maximum slope at which a heap of any loose solid material will stand without sliding.

"On the Parwanoo to Solan stretch, most of the hill cutting was done largely vertically than horizontal. At some points, large-scale vertical cutting was carried out," Sharma said.

Vertical cutting was mainly done due to less land acquisition as horizontal cutting needs more land, added Sharma, a member of the Union Ministry's State Expert Appraisal Committee to assess projects.

Driving uphill to Shimla or the Kasauli hills is not pleasureable for motorists these days, remarked Ramandeep Bains, a motorist from Chandigarh.

"In fact, it's a nightmare now. Almost every day one comes to know of incidents of landslips and falling rocks hitting moving vehicles," Bains told IANS.

Some of the stretches along the Parwanoo-Solan stretch have become permanent landslide points like Chakki ka Mor. The risk of driving is aggravated after dusk.

In the next phase, the four-laning of a 22-km-long stretch between Chambaghat and Kaithlighat is scheduled. It will cost around Rs 598 crore. Then work will begin on the last stretch between Kaithlighat and Shimla.

Official sources told IANS that the four-laning of the 88-km stretch that connects Shimla and Parwanoo -- on the Haryana-Himachal border -- would cost Rs 2,730 crore as per initial estimates.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has promised to provide a smart phone and a Wi-Fi connection each to the beneficiaries of Bhamashah Scheme in Rajasthan.

Raje on Tuesday launched Bhamashah Digital Family Scheme during the CM-Beneficiaries Dialogue programme organised in Jaipur.

Addressing thousands of beneficiaries of the state government schemes who had gathered here from different parts of the state, she said that around one crore beneficiaries of Bhamashah family will be given Rs 1,000 each in two phases; in first phase, they will get Rs 500 to buy a mobile phone and in the second phase, they will get Rs 500 for Wi-Fi connectivity.

With the Bhamashah Digital Family Scheme, the beneficiaries will remain updated with different government schemes being run for them via their smart phones, she said.

The Bhamashah scheme focuses on Below Poverty Line (BPL) women and also considers woman of the family as its head. The scheme promises distributing the financial and non-financial benefits of governmental schemes in a transparent manner via smart phone.

The state government's IT and communication department has issued directions to all district collectors to organise camps in each district to distribute mobile phones to beneficiaries.

District collectors have been told to complete the task by September 30 as the code of conduct for the Assembly polls is expected to be in force in October, sources said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hours after a bridge collapse in Kolkata on Tuesday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and assured her of the Centre's assistance, "if needed".

Calling the incident "extremely tragic" and praying for the speedy recovery of the injured, Singh tweeted that "four NDRF teams have reached the spot. One more team is on the way".

The Home Minister said that Banerjee apprised him of the ground situation.

A portion of a bridge collapsed in South Kolkata on Tuesday, crushing a man to death and leaving 19 persons injured and several vehicles damaged.

Banerjee confirmed one death and expressed apprehension about the fate of five-eight people who may be buried under the rubble.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The long-drawn negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement will continue into 2019 to sort out issues related to goods and services trade among member nations, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Tuesday.

The Minister was briefing reporters here following a meeting of trade Ministers of the 16-nation RCEP in Singapore last week, which concluded on Sunday.

The RCEP is being negotiated by 10 Asean nations -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam -- and their six free trade agreement (FTA) partners India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

"The RCEP negotiations will not end in 2018. It has been agreed at the level of leaders that it will go on in 2019 as well. We will have the opportunity to work on all the issues," Prabhu said on the sidelines of a promotional event organised by the India Coffee Board.

Of the 16 countries in the proposed multilateral grouping, India does not have FTAs with Australia, New Zealand and China, which pose a hurdle to RCEP negotiations, Prabhu said.

"We cannot negotiate through the RCEP route with these countries... on India's insistence, we will now negotiate with China, Australia and New Zealand separately along with RCEP negotiations."

At the Singapore talks, India was able to convince on the issue of a grace period of more than 20 years before the RCEP guidelines on free trade are implemented, Prabhu said.

He said that custom lines being negotiated would be adopted later after suggestions are received by the Commerce Ministry from all trade associations in the country.

According to the Minister, at the Singapore meeting, India emphasised on three important issues, including linkage of services to goods negotiations since the agreement is a comprehensive one.

"We have emphasised on the inclusion of services under goods in the economic agreement. Our argument has been accepted and now services will also be included under the ambit of RCEP," he said.

India currently has a massive trade deficit with China, while segments of Indian industry have periodically voiced concern that lowering or eliminating import duties for China may flood the Indian markets with goods from the communist country.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Editors note: Visibles, an LGBTI website in Guatemala City, originally published this article. Visibles is a media partner of the Washington Blade.

(WB) Human Rights organizations express our opposition to Initiative 5272, For the protection of life and the family, which was proposed on April 26, 2017, and is now being discussed in the Guatemalan Congress.

According to its preamble, the law seeks to introduce norms and reforms designed to protect the right to life, the family, the institution of marriage between a man and a woman, freedom of conscience and expression and the right of parents to guide their children in the area of sexuality.

Nevertheless, if the bill is approved, we will be on the brink of a serious setback in terms of the protection and guarantee of human rights for women, for children and adolescents and LGBTIQ people in Guatemala.

The proposal specifically extends the punishment for abortion, including for situations of spontaneous abortion or natural death of the fetus during any stage of pregnancy that even occurs during involuntary, emergency obstetric situations. This scenario would mean that Guatemala would approve a regressive regulation similar to that of countries like El Salvador, where abortion is completely prohibited and has resulted in the criminalization of women who are victims.

With that said, we remember that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the CEDAW Committee have already spoken about the negative impact of laws criminalizing all forms of abortion have on the right to life, personal integrity, health and the rights of women to live free of violence and discrimination.

At the same time, Initiative 5272 contains regulations that prohibit private and public educational institutions from implementing inclusive sexual education policies and programs in the name of parents rights to decide what type of education their children can receive. These regulations perpetuate discriminatory and violent practices against girls and adolescents in a country where the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented that 24,258 of the 52,288 registered births from January to September 2017 were to mothers under 18-years-old.

In this regard, the IACHR in 2017 urged the government to implement public education policies with a comprehensive focus on children and adolescents, including sex and reproductive education for different age groups.

The initiative also seeks to reform the Civil Code by expressly banning of marriage and civil unions between people of the same sex and limiting adoption to families that are only comprised of a man and a woman. At the same time, it also seeks to guarantee that people are not obliged to accept as normal non-heterosexual conduct and practices, increasing the risk of acts of violence, discrimination and hate crimes.

With that in mind, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has determined the aforementioned provision would violate the American Convention on Human Rights, which states an inalienable right cannot be negated or restricted by anyone, and under no circumstances, because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

In this sense, the norms contained within text are openly discriminatory, attempt to go against the full exercise of rights of LGBTIQ people and constitute incitement of discrimination and violence.

Initiative 5272 is only a flagrant attempt under the sovereignty of the Guatemalan government to go against agreed upon obligations and its approval would carry international responsibility. The undersigned organizations urge the Guatemalan government to abstain from approving this regulation and immediately adopt ways to dismantle practices and norms that continue perpetuating underlying discrimination against women, adolescents and the LGBTIQ community.

http://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2018/08/Comunicado-5272-30-Ago.pdfThe Reliance Infrastructure Ltd-Astaldi S.p.A.(Italy) consortium has bagged the project for the northern extension of the Rajiv Gandhi Bandra Worli Sea Link from Bandra to Versova, an official said here on Tuesday.

The consortium has signed an agreement with the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for the Rs 7,000 crore Bandra-Versova arm of the RGBWSL within five years.

In the competitive bidding process, RInfra-Astaldi with its bid of Rs 6,993.99 crore beat the L&T-Samsung and Hyundai Development Ltd-ITD to bag what is the country's single biggest urban infrastructure project.

The MSRDC had floated the tenders for the construction of the second sea link on an EPC-basis to build the Versova-Bandra Sea Link, 17.17 km-long, or three times the existing 5.6 km-long RGBWSL.

RInfra EPC CEO Arun Gupta said the mega-project will further propel the company as a premier EPC company in India.

"Our partnership with Astaldi S.p.A. will help us create a truly world class mega-infrastructure project for Mumbai," Gupta said.

Though the project is slotted for completion within five years, during monsoons, works would be completely stalled, giving the consortium barely three-and-half years to ready it.

The present 5.6 km-long RGBWSL is a cable-stayed bridge between Bandra and Worli was fully opened for operations in early 2010.

The country's first sealink road project, the RGBWSL, has slashed the travel time between Worli-Bandra from around 40 minutes to barely 10 minutes, and later plans were announced to extend the alternative sea route to Nariman Point in south and to Versova and finally till Borivali in north.

The RInfra's project partner is the world's third largest player in bridge construction and has executed the world's fourth longest suspension bridge Izmit Bay Bridge, Turkey worth Rs 45,500 crore in April 2016.

That year, it also completed the Western High Speed Diameter Motorway in St. Petersburg, Russia, worth Rs 17,600 crore, comprising a 12 km section with 5.3 km-long viaducts on sea and two cable-stayed bridges.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russia's flag carrier Aeroflot will re-launch regular non-stop flights to Sri Lanka's capital Colombo from October 28, Sri Lankan government's information department said on Tuesday.

The airline, which stopped flights to Colombo a decade ago, will re-introduce five weekly flights between Moscow and Colombo on the state-of-the-art Airbus A330 aircraft, Xinhua news agency reported.

The nine-hour flights will boost inbound tourism from Russia to Sri Lanka and will also be a major boost for business travel to the island country, the information department said.

It will also promote Colombo as a vital transit destination.

In addition to Aeroflot, the information department said several other major foreign airlines have also expressed an interest in flying to Sri Lanka while many existing operators have added extra capacity via bigger aircraft.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the Uttarakhand government's plea for vacation of its August 31 order staying construction activities in some states and union territories.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur posted the matter for Wednesday after Uttarakhand's counsel mentioned the plea for vacation of the stay.

The state government pleaded that Uttarakhand is facing a "crisis situation" due to formation of an artificial lake in Tehri Garhwal, adding that the stay on construction activities be vacated so that relief measures could be undertaken to save human lives.

Construction activities have been stopped at a time when the state is facing a crisis due to rains and landslides, the counsel said.

On August 31, the top court had imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh on the Uttarakhand government for not framing a policy under the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

The Uttarakhand government informed the court that it has prepared a revised policy as per the Rules and it has been cleared by the Ministry concerned.

The top court had slammed some states and union territories, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh for not framing their respective policies on solid-waste management even after two years, and had stayed further constructions there till they come up with it.

The top court is hearing a matter related to the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules.

It had earlier directed the Central government to submit a chart, indicating whether states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of the said Rules.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a breakthrough move, British scientists have used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen by mixing biological components and man-made technologies.

The team led by academics at the University of Cambridge, used semi-artificial photosynthesis to explore new ways to produce and store solar energy, a finding that could now be used to revolutionise the systems used for renewable energy production.

Their method also managed to absorb more solar light than natural photosynthesis.

"Natural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed -- around 1-2 per cent of what it could potentially convert and store," said lead author Katarzyna Soko, doctoral student at the University's St. John's College.

Artificial photosynthesis has been around for decades but it has not yet been successfully used to create renewable energy because it relies on the use of catalysts, which are often expensive and toxic. This means it cannot yet be used to scale up findings to an industrial level.

The new model, detailed in the journal Nature Energy, is the first to successfully use hydrogenase and photosystem II to create semi-artificial photosynthesis driven purely by solar power.

The team not only improved on the amount of energy produced and stored, they managed to reactivate a process in the algae that has been dormant for millennia.

"Hydrogenase is an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen. During evolution this process has been deactivated because it wasn't necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted -- splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen," Soko explained.

Soko hopes the findings will enable new innovative model systems for solar energy conversion to be developed.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indiscriminate shelling on Tuesday hit the headquarters of the US embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli, as clashes continue between government forces and militias, a security source said.

"An unknown number of indiscriminate shells hit the US embassy building. The damage due to the fire caused by the missiles remains unknown," a source of the Interior Ministry told Xinhua news agency.

"The firefighters cannot reach the building as it is located in the near Tripoli International Airport on the southern outskirts of the capital, where clashes broke out again," the source said, noting that the embassy building is currently empty.

Southern Tripoli has been witnessing violent clashes since last week between government forces and armed militias, which killed and injured many people.

The reasons for the clashes remain unknown, with growing tension and military mobilisation over the past few days between armed groups from outside and inside the city.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Consumer electronics giant Sony India, which is focusing on strengthening its premium image, expects that the share of premium products across categories to its revenue would increase to 30-35 per cent in the next two years, an official said on Tuesday.

"Premium products across different categories (television, sound, digital imaging etc.) contribute about 20-25 per cent to the revenue now. In the next two years, we expect the share (from premium products across categories) would be around 30-35 per cent," company's Managing Director Sunil Nayyar said here.

For the television business, the share of premium products particularly 55 inch and above was to the range of 5-6 per cent in terms of value two years back. Now, value contribution is more than 20 per cent already, he said on the sidelines of the launch event ahead of Durga Puja festival in West Bengal.

"We continue investing in our premium segments and make it affordable by launching finance schemes," said Nayyar, the first Indian Managing Director of the company.

According to him, Japanese electronics major has a 26 per cent market share in the television market in India in terms of value.

"Our focus is to strengthen Sony's premium image not only in televisions but in all the categories," he said.

He also said the televisions contribute nearly 60 per cent to its total sales in India at present and nearly 15 per cent comes from audio and another 15 per cent from digital imaging while the remaining 10 per cent from other products.

The company is aiming at achieving Rs 300 crore sales during festive season in West Bengal and is looking to achieve 27 per cent growth in television sales from the state over previous festive season.

In West Bengal, the television maker has a 30 per cent market share in value terms.A day ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunfords stopover in Islamabad, the Pentagon has said that America will continue to press Pakistan to "indiscriminately" target all terrorist groups.

"Since January, we have consistently engaged with Pakistani military officials at the highest levels, based on both a shared commitment to defeat all terrorist groups that threaten regional stability and security, as well as on a shared vision of a peaceful future for Afghanistan," Pentagon spokesperson Lt Col Kone Faulkner told The News International on Monday.

"We continue to press Pakistan to indiscriminately target all terrorist groups, including the Haqqani Network and we continue to call on Pakistan to arrest, expel or bring the Taliban leadership to the negotiating table."

The Pentagon official also clarifed: "The suspension of security assistance to Pakistan was announced in January 2018. CSF is included in the suspension and it remains in place."

President Donald Trump had suspended all security related assistance to Pakistan early in 2018, alleging that Islamabad was not acting against militant groups as promised, New International reported.

Following the presidential orders the White House froze around a billion dollar aid to Pakistan but had also proposed some $300 million in its new annual budget which was again tied to act against militant groups.

This has been a long demand from the Trump administration to come to terms with militant groups especially the Taliban to help initiate dialogue for a political settlement in Afghanistan.

"Owing to lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia strategy the remaining $300 million was reprogrammed by Defence Department in the July 2018 timeframe for other urgent priorities before the funds expire on September 30."

Pompeo and Dunford will be in Islamabad on Wednesday en route to India.

They will meet the new Imran Khan led government to discuss issues of mutual concern in an attempt to gain much needed cooperation in Afghanistan at a time when violence is escalating and Trump's year-old South Asia strategy is making little headway against the Taliban ahead of the mid-term poll in the US, the National reported.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three former Water Resources Ministers in Kerala on Tuesday asked the government to order a judicial probe into the floods that ravaged the state, saying it was a man-made disaster.

The three include Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan of the Congress, P.J. Joseph (Kerala Congress-Mani) and Kollam Lok Sabha member N.K. Premachandran of the RSP.

The demand for a judicial probe comes at a time when the Kerala High Court is looking into a public interest petition which says that the floods were a man-made disaster caused due to callousness of officials and the way the dam waters was handled.

Premachandran told the media that the Dam Safety Authority and the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) did not apply their mind.

"The Facebook post of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is enough to prove that the entire dam water management policy of his government was an abject failure," he said.

Radhakrishnan said they were not playing and wanted to ensure that such a disaster never happens again.

The floods, the worst to hit the state in a century, have caused damage of Rs 30,000 crore.

--IANS

sg/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump has slammed Attorney General Jeff Sessions for deigning to indict members of his own party just weeks before the midterm elections.

Trump on Monday blasted Sessions and lamented the indictments of Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins who were his earliest supporters in the Congress during the 2016 election, suggesting they should not have been charged because they are Republicans, the CNN reported.

"Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicised charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department," Trump tweeted.

"Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff..."

New York Congressman Collins was charged with insider trading in August -- he made a possibly incriminating phone call on White House grounds.

While California's Hunter is accused of engaging in graft over many years, which includes disguising personal purchases as benefits to military veterans, the Time said.

The comment on Monday was the latest indication that Trump, who ran on a pledge to "drain the swamp", believes his political allies should be immune from prosecution, regardless of the evidence stacked against them, the CNN said.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the President's tweets.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.



Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will tell Congress Wednesday that his company will continue to "serve the public conversation" and "does not use political ideology to make any decisions."

Dorsey will appear Wednesday before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in a hearing on online censorship of conservative opinions and misinformation activities ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, Xinhua reported.

In a prepared written testimony posted Tuesday by the House committee, Dorsey said Twitter will remain an "impartial" "global town square," and it does "not shadowban anyone based on political ideology."

"To serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform," he said.

The Twitter CEO's testimony came a few days after US President Donald Trump accused U.S. tech companies of trying to "silence" conservative voices.

Tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google are "treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful," he said last week.

Twitter has constantly denied the claims by Republicans that conservative accounts were shadow banned or their opinions were censored on the platform.

"We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially," Dorsey said in the testimony, adding that "we do not make value judgments on personal beliefs."

He said Twitter has increased transparency on political ads and taken measures to remove suspected or spam accounts.

"Over the course of the last several months, our systems identified and challenged between 8.5 million and 10 million accounts each week suspected of misusing automation or producing spam," he said.

Dorsey will also appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee this week along with Facebook Chief Operation Officer Sheryl Sandberg, and will be asked about measures against possible online misinformation activities ahead of the November midterm elections.

He said his company has suspended a total of 3,843 accounts linked with the Russian Internet Research Agency and 284 accounts originated from Iran for "malicious activities."

"Increased transparency is critical to promoting healthy public conversation on Twitter and earning trust," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tripoli, Sep 4 (IANS/AKI) Militias fighting for control of the Libyan capital Tripoli agreed on a ceasefire on Tuesday following talks mediated by the United Nations special envoy Ghassan Salame, the UN's mission to Libya said.

"Under the auspices of Special Representative Ghassan Salame, a ceasefire agreement was reached and signed today to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property and reopen Mitiga Airport in Tripoli," UNSMIL tweeted.

UNSMIL's tweet did not state when the truce was due to enter into effect.

Members of the Italian cabinet were due on Tuesday to hold talks on the violent clashes between rival armed groups that have killed at least 50 people including at least 19 civilians and injured over 120 since August 24.

Italy's foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi on Tuesday spoke to Libya's UN-backed premier Fayez al-Sarraj about the deadly clashes in Tripoli, the foreign ministry said. During their phone conversation, Moavero "confirmed Italy's solidarity with and support to the Libyan people and their institutions," the ministry stated.

Moavero assured Sarraj "of the unwavering Italian commitment to galvanise effective and determined action by the international community in favour of dialogue and reconciliation...to cement security and stability in Libya," the foreign ministry said.

Italy plans to hold an international conference on Libya in the autumn, with a focus on security, reconciliation and human rights, and Moavero is ready to report to parliament on the situation in the turmoil-wracked country, according to the foreign ministry.

The Sarraj government declared a state of emergency in Tripoli on Sunday, saying in a statement it was necessary to "protect and secure civilians, public and private possessions and vital institutions".

The violence in Tripoli has cast serious doubt as to whether the war-wracked country is ready to hold planned elections later this year.

--IANS/AKI

prs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday decided to give compensation to farmers in whose agricultural fields, power towers or transmission lines will be installed, an official said.

The compensation would be 85 per cent of the circle rate of that area.

For long, farmers have been demanding this as they say that once power towers are installed, the land is not fit for farming purposes.

In the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, it was also decided that the UP Power Corporation Ltd will construct two 400 kva power sub-stations at Sector 123 and 148 in Noida.

The work of laying down the Mono Rail line has been withdrawn from the Noida Authority and handed over to the UPPCL. This Rs 796.95 crore project has been approved by the state cabinet and is likely to be completed by February 2019.

The cabinet also ratified a proposal to construct a 400 kva power sub-station at Bhaukri in Kaptanganj assembly segment of Basti.

The Rs 829.59 crore project once complete will be a big boon for farmers in Sant Kabeernagar, Basti, Gorakhpur, Siddharthanagar and Maharajganj, an official said.

It was also decided that university teachers would get the benefits of the Seventh Pay Commission.

In a bid to boost religious tourism and with an eye on its Hindu vote bank the BJP government has also decided to beautify the path from the Ganga river in Varanasi to the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple, which is one of the 12 Jyotirlinga's in India.

Many buildings around the temple will be purchased from their owners to widen and beautify the area. Rs 14.55 crore has been earmarked for the purpose.

--IANS

md/pgh/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday said justice was yet be done for the families of the 42 people who lost their lives in the 2007 twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad.

Reacting to the verdict of a city court, which convicted two accused and acquitted two others, he said that closure for the victims had not happened.

The Hyderabad MP told reporters that the investigating agencies should properly conduct a fresh inquiry and the accused who were absconding should be brought to book.

The Second Metropolitan Sessions Court on Tuesday held Anique Shafiq Syed and Akbar Ismail Choudhary guilty. The quantum of punishment will be announced on September 10.

Farooq Sharfuddin and Sadiq Ahmed Sheikh were acquitted for lack of evidence.

The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president said the blasts were the tragic moment for Hyderabad.

"Justice is yet to be done and families of the 42 people who lost their lives and the 54 injured are still suffering," he said.

Owaisi said that he personally knew a Sharma who lost his daughter in this terror attack.

The MP said the youths who were acquitted spent nine years in jail. "What will happen to them?"

While 32 people were killed at Gokul Chat, a popular eatery, 10 others lost their lives at Lumbini Park, near State Secretariat, in near simultaneous blasts on August 25, 2007.

--IANS

ms/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha and BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday called on fasting Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel and said that they will take his agitation over the demand for reservation for Patels and farm debt waiver to the national level.

On Energy Minister Saurabh Patel's remarks that Hardik's indefinite fast was backed by the opposition Congress and that the state was doing its best for the Patel community and farmers, Shatrughan Sinha said that all political parties were supporting the fasting leader.

"The whole country is moved by Hardik's fast, except the governments at the Centre and the state," Yashwant Sinha told reporters. Yashwant Sinha resigned from the BJP in April.

Both leaders said they had extended support to Hardik on his demands.

"The farmers issues raised by Hardik are not confined to Gujarat but are relevant to the whole country. Farmers are in deep distress and the situation requires a permanent solution. I appeal to everyone, including the opposition, to raise the issues of farmers across the country," Yashwant Sinha said.

Rubbishing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claims that Gujarat was a model state, Shatrughan Sinha said there was nothing like a Gujarat model. "The Gujarat model has failed. Now, you are not going to get bonus (in 2019 elections)," he said.

According to medical reports, Hardik has lost around 20kg ever since he began his fast 11 days ago and his condition continues to deteriorate.

Meanwhile, Gujarat's six religious organisations of the Patels discussed the issues arising out of Hardik's agitation and offered to mediate or help him end his fast. Their leaders later in the evening rushed to state capital Gandhinagar for a meeting with BJP Ministers from the community to discuss the situation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The antitrust movement is making a comeback. Zephyr Teachout, candidate for New York state attorney general, is promising to fight Activists such as Matt Stoller of the Open Market Institute are beginning to draw attention to the problem of concentrated market power. Think tanks like the Washington Center for Equitable Growth are starting to zero in on the issue as well. The revival of this movement is still in its infancy, and certainly hasnt reached anything approaching the fervour of the Progressive Era a century ago. But the new antitrust crusaders are experiencing a tailwind from an unlikely ally  the economics profession.

In the past, economists have not exactly crowned themselves with glory in the fight to keep big business from getting too big. Some have made a bomb of money offering their services as consultants to companies looking to execute megamergers. The so-called Chicago School of antitrust analysis, popularised during the mid-20th century, dismissed the dangers of market concentration except in the case of explicit price-fixing or outright domination of a market by a single company. This school of thought heavily influenced the burgeoning movement to integrate law and economics, leading to looser antitrust enforcement in the 1980s and afterwards.

But in the past few years, economists have become increasingly concerned with the problem of stagnating wages. Profits have grown strongly since the turn of the century, but real wages  even including health and retirement benefits  have risen only slightly.

There are many theories to explain the divergence: Global (especially Chinese) competition, the impact of technology, and rising land values. But another theory  rising market power  is gaining increasing currency in the profession.

In the past few years, a series of papers by a mix of younger and well-established economists has argued that industry is becoming more concentrated, partly as a result of mergers; that this concentration has led to higher consumer prices and lower wages; and that companies are managing to squeeze more profit out of the economy even as they invest less for the future.

Now the concern about monopoly power is spilling out beyond the halls of academia, and reaching the ears of the countrys top policymakers. At the recent Jackson Hole, Wyoming, policy conference, central bankers from the Federal Reserve heard a number of senior figures sound the alarm. Those included Esther George, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist John Van Reenen, and Jason Furman and Alan Krueger, two Ivy League professors and former economic advisers to the Barack Obama administration.

Kruegers remarks provide a good overview of the emerging consensus. He notes that even as industries have become more concentrated, the traditional forces that balance the power of corporations have weakened: The decline in union representation and the erosion of the real value of the minimum wage have contributed to the significant rise in inequality and polarisation of incomes in the US since the early 1980s.

Krueger also notes that structural changes in the US economy  the rise of noncompete agreements, temp-staffing agencies and outsourcing  have aggravated the situation.

Meanwhile, the steady drumbeat of research papers continues. A paper by economists Chris Edmond, Virgiliu Midrigan and Daniel Yi Xu built a model showing how high markups -- the difference between the price a company charges for its products and the cost it paid to create those products  can be very detrimental to consumers. Van Reenen, with co-authors Zack Cooper, Stuart Craig and Martin Gaynor, connects monopoly power to health-care prices  the authors looked at price variation in health-care markets and found that in places where hospitals have a local monopoly, prices are 12 per cent higher. Ioana Marinescu and Herbert Hovenkamp discuss the possibility of using to prevent companies from lowering wages, rather than maintaining the current exclusive focus on consumer prices.

Its important to note that the economics profession isnt in universal agreement about the issue. A team of researchers from the Economic Policy Institute has argued that rising market concentration can explain only a small part of wage stagnation. Edmond et al caution that breaking up large companies could hurt productivity, especially if the giants are more efficient. And Van Reenen argues that changes in information technology and globalisation, rather than weakened antitrust law, are the culprit behind the rise of dominant companies, by creating winner-take-all markets.

Nor are all economists joining the fight. Interestingly, those who are sounding the alarm tend to be researchers who study labour, public finance, trade and macroeconomics. Economists in industrial organisation, the field traditional focused on assessing the effects of mergers and market power, have been relatively muted -- in fact, the number of empirical studies assessing the impacts of mergers after the fact has been curiously low for a number of years. A cynical interpretation is that this may be due to industry capture; economists specialising in this area may not want to jeopardise their future ability to land lucrative pro-merger consulting gigs.

But overall, economists are growing more concerned about the threat posed by corporate power. The budding antitrust movement will offer them valuable ideas, data and intellectual heft in its quest to stem the rampant power of industrial giantsWhen US President Donald Trump declared in 2017 that he was walking out of the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, it did two things. While triggering waves of protests across the world, it also galvanised several American businesses, counties, universities and colleges into action.

They came together to declare We are still in. It was an unprecedented moment, where the Head of the State declared unilateral noncooperation with a movement that had the planets best interests at heart, and some its most powerful citizens came out to say, Even if America is ...Goa Congress spokesperson Ramakant Khalap on Monday demanded President's rule in the state in the backdrop of long absence of Chief Minister who is currently in the United States for a medical treatment.

"For the last six months, the administration is in turmoil. Adding to the ailment of the Chief Minister, two more ministers have fallen ill," Khalap said at a press conference while talking about Goa's Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar and Urban Development minister Francis D'Souza.

Demanding dismissal of the Goa government, Khalap further demanded that the Governor should intervene in the matter. "We continue to pray for good health of all of them, but we cannot sit idle and watch helplessness of people in Goa. The Governor should intervene. We demand that the Goa government be dismissed and President's rule be imposed in the state," Khalap added.

Parrikar underwent treatment at a US hospital earlier this year. He went back to the country again on August 10 for a follow-up and returned on August 22, but he was later admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai the next day due to health complications.

He once again left for the US on August 29 midnight and is now expected to return later this week.India and the US will aim to further solidify their global strategic partnership in the inaugural two-plus-two dialogue on Thursday with a focus on significantly boosting military ties and ironing out differences over India's defence engagement with Russia and crude oil import from Iran, official sources said.

The two sides will also seek to finalise a pact on encrypted defence technologies, deliberate on ways to boost counter-terror cooperation, look for increasing engagement between their navies in the Indo-Pacific region and try to resolve tariff-related issues.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold the twice-postponed talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford will also be part of the US delegation.

As Secretary Pompeo arrives here tomorrow from Islamabad, India will also try to get his view about his engagement with the new government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the sources said.

They said the focus of the talks will be to lift the strategic engagement between the two countries to a "whole of government approach" covering a wide range of areas for cooperation.

"The two-plus-two dialogue is core of the whole of the government approach and is the highest level political engagement between the two countries this year," said a source.

In the talks, the sources said, India will also try to "sensitise" the US that any cut in import of Iranian oil in compliance with the US sanctions may impact the country's overall economy as the crude oil from that country is much cheaper.

India is also expected to apprise the US about the importance of the Rs 40,000 crore deal it is about to finalise with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems. The US has been indicating that it does not want India to finalise the deal with Russia.

The sources said both sides will also discuss the long-pending Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA). The COMCASA will help India obtain critical and encrypted defence technologies for Indian defence platforms from the US.

"Both sides are discussing the COMCASA. We cannot prejudge the outcome," said a source.

The two sides are also likely to deliberate on overcoming differences over issues relating to tariffs on still and aluminium besides trying to evolve ways to bridge trade deficit.

Talking about deepening trade ties, the sources said India is expected to procure oil and gas worth USD 2.5 billion in the current calender year.

India is also expected to raise its concerns over the Trump administration's decision to make changes in the H1B visa programme.

The sources said the US delegation will arrive here on Wednesday. Swaraj will have a separate bilateral meeting with Pompeo while Sitharaman will have a one-on-one meeting with Mattis on Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks.

Twelve officials from each side are expected to attend the talks which will be followed by a working lunch. In the afternoon, Swaraj, Sitharaman, Pompeo and Mattis will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On import of Iranian oil, the sources said India may also convey to the US that some of its refineries are dependent on certain kind of crude oil and making technical adjustments in them may require huge investments as well as time.

"We will take an independent decision on import of Iranian oil. It will not be under any compulsion. We are in touch with many other countries. We are examining various instrument for continuing to import petroleum products from Iran," said a source.

After withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the US has imposed sanctions on Iran. It has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from the Gulf nation to "zero" by November 4 or face sanctions.

As ports in Iran also comes under the ambit of US sanctions, the sources said India was hopeful that it will be allowed to continue its engagement in development of the Chabahar port as it is a major link for trade with war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Iran is India's third largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The US's sanctions on import of Iranian petroleum products will be effective from November 4.

On possibility of the US granting a waiver to India on S-400 missile deal, the sources said it was for the Trump administration to take a call on it considering the strategic dimension of its relationship with the country concerned.

The US has imposed military sanctions against Russia under the stringent CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) law for its annexation of Crimea.

India's position on the issue has been that it will go ahead with the deal notwithstanding American sanctions on military transactions with Moscow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)When Mitchell Cushing first heard that Foiled Again would be racing at the Windsor Fair on Labour Day as part of his farewell tour, he was excited for the opportunity to see harness racings all-time richest horse compete in his home state of Maine. He never expected to end up with the best seat in the house.

But thats where Cushing found himself Monday, in the sulky behind Foiled Again as he faced five foes in the Au Revoir Pace for 14-year-olds at Windsor. Much to the delight of the large crowd in attendance, Cushing drove Foiled Again, the 1-5 favourite, to a one and one-quarter-length victory in 1:55.4. It was win No. 102 in Foiled Agains illustrious career.

It was everything I expected, Cushing said. He doesnt do anything wrong. Hes just an absolute class act. I was just doing what I know to do to make a horse go, and going along for the ride with the old man because he knows what hes doing.

A lot of horses, you have to help them finish the job. When I reminded him at the top of the lane that there was a job left, he hit a whole different gear. That was a cool moment. He knew what his job was and he knew he could finish it, as he has so many times before. That was pretty special.

As he neared the finish line, Cushing lifted his whip to the crowd in celebration.

Windsor always draws a big crowd, and its a big harness racing crowd, Cushing said. They have an understanding of whats going on. Its a noticeable energy.

I wanted to get the crowd involved. When I tipped my whip everyone started screaming and threw their hands up. That was probably the most electrifying moment. It was pretty awesome.

Fans were invited to join Foiled Again in the winners circle photo following the race.

I think most people took advantage of that and got in there, Cushing said. It was pretty full.

The 20-year-old Cushing, who lives in Albion, Maine, and is the son of driver Ron Cushing, began driving in 2014. Last year, he won 92 races from 681 drives. So far this year, he has won 147 races in the exact same number of drives.

When Cushing heard Foiled Again was coming to Maine, he reached out to the horses connections to thank them.

I know the importance of that fair and the fan base, Cushing said. Maine appreciates harness racing. Its a small state in the sense of racetracks, but the appreciation is so great. I knew what it would bring to Maine just to have him here. I was just ecstatic to have him here and watch him in my home state. Driving him never crossed my mind.

A week prior to the race, though, Cushing received the call to drive Foiled Again.

For (trainer and co-owner) Ron Burke to instill his trust in me with a horse like Foiled Again, that was an honour in itself, said Cushing, who drove one horse previously for Burke, in February at the Meadowlands. That was almost as much of an honour as sitting behind him in a race.

Foiled Again has won 102 of 319 career races and earned $7.59 million. Only 14 pacers have reached 100 wins in the past 40 years and few in that group competed at the level of Foiled Again, who has 21 stakes victories worth at least $100,000 to his credit. Hall of Famer Rambling Willie is the only other pacer in the 100-win club with more than $2 million in purses.

In 2011, at the age of seven, Foiled Again was Pacer of the Year. He is the only pacer older than the age of four ever to receive the honour. Additionally, Foiled Again is one of only two horses, along with Rambling Willie, to receive three consecutive Dan Patch Awards for best older male pacer.

Foiled Agains accomplishments and popularity were acknowledged beyond harness racing in 2015 when he was honoured by Breyer with a model created in his likeness. The gelding is owned by Burke Racing, the Weaver Bruscemi partnership, and JJK Stables.

All harness racing horses face mandatory retirement at age 15, so this is Foiled Agains final season. His farewell tour next will head to Scioto Downs in central Ohio on Saturday, followed by visits this month to Freehold Raceway on Sept. 15, the Delaware County Fair in Ohio on Sept. 19-20, Batavia Downs on Sept. 21, and Shenandoah Downs on Sept. 29.

Cushing said Foiled Agains trip to Windsor will always be a special moment in his life.

Thats something youll never forget, Cushing said. No matter how fast you go, or how much money you go for, that horse just makes it all.

(USTA)Indian-Americans Hiral Tipirneni, Anita Malik and Sanjay Patel -- all from the opposition Democratic party -- have won their respective primaries to advance to the US Congressional elections in November.

While Tipirneni and Malik -- both women -- are running for the US House of Representatives seats from Arizona, a State which is known for its Republican leanings, Patel is seeking to enter the House from the 8th Congressional district of Florida, a traditional swing State.

Tipirneni won the Democratic primary from the 8th Congressional District of Arizona uncontested, while her party colleague Malik won the party primary in a three-way contest from the 6th Congressional District of Arizona.

In November general elections, Malik is pitted against Republican incumbent David Schweikert.

Tipirneni, who lost to Republican Debbie Lesko in the Special Elections early this year, is battling against the same opponent.

Patel is challenging Republican incumbent Bill Posey. He won the seat uncontested. Congressional primaries in Florida and Arizona were held on August 31.

On Tuesday, the Indian-American Impact Fund announced to endorse Malik.

"It's no surprise that Anita, a tech executive and entrepreneur, ran such a smart and innovative campaign," said Raj Goyle, co-founder of Impact and a former member of the Kansas House of Representatives.

Currently, the US House of Representatives has four Indian-Americans - the largest number so far in the history of the US Congress.

The group is being led by three-term lawmaker Ami Bera, from 7th Congressional District of California. Three others Raja Krishnamoorthi from 8th Congressional District of Illinois, Pramila Jayapal from 7th Congressional district of Washington State and Ro Khanna from 17th Congressional district of California are first timers.

All four of them - from the Democratic party - have won their respective primaries and are seeking re-election in November polls.

Four more Indian-Americans have won their respective Congressional primaries to enter the race for US House of Representatives.

Republican Indian-American Jitender Digankar has challenged Krishnamoorthi in the 8th Congressional district of Illinois. Another Republican Harry Arora has won the party's primary from the 4th Congressional District of Connecticut.

Aftab Pureval from Ohio's 1st Congressional District has been endorsed by former President Barack Obama, while former American diplomat Sri Preston Kulkarni is running from the 22nd Congressional District of Texas.

At the start of the primary season early this year, there were about 20 Indian-Americans in the race for Congress.

Indian-American Abhijit Das is seeking the Democratic primary from 3rd Congressional District of Massachusetts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 30 pilgrims from West Bengal were injured when a tourist bus hit a stationary truck on a highway in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district on Tuesday, police said.

The incident took place in the morning when the driver of the bus, carrying 70 passengers, lost control over the vehicle on the Lucknow-Faizabad highway near Safedabad area, a police official said.

The injured have been rushed to the hospital, where the condition of six was said to be stable, the official said.

All the passengers are from West Bengal and were returning after paying obeisance in Ayodhya, the official added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five people were arrested for allegedly robbing a man of Ruthenium, a precious metal, in Karol Bagh here, police said on Tuesday.

The plan to rob the businessman was hatched by 48-year-old Kulwant Singh, along with his accomplices, to cause losses to former in business, they said.

Inderjeet Singh, a resident of Amritsar, Punjab, received a call from one Nishant Verma from Dehradun, who claimed to be a jeweller.

Verma showed interest in purchasing five kilogram of Ruthenium metal powder from Inderjeet Singh. Negotiations took place and subsequently Verma placed an order for three kilogram of Ruthenium metal power and it was decided that the material would be handed over in Delhi, police said.

On June 15, the complainant reached a house in Karol Bagh where four men were present. Inderjeet Singh gave them some powder as sample, and they left the place to get it tested, they added.

After some time, all of them came back and one of the accused allegedly took out a knife and robbed Inderjeet Singh of the bag containing the Ruthenium powder along with a mobile phone. They locked him in the house and fled the spot, police said.

On August 4, one of the accused Amit Kumar (39), a resident of Dehradun, was arrested on the basis of a tip-off, following which the case was transferred to Crime Branch.

Subsequently, four others were also nabbed. One of them was identified as Joginder Pal, who was arrested from Ghaziabad on August 16. His arrest was followed by that of Manoj Kumar from Dehradun on August 17, police said.

Police nabbed Kulwant Singh from Amritsar on August 20. The fifth accused, Vicky, was wanted in a case in Uttar Pradesh and had surrendered before the court at Muzaffarnagar, UP, in order to avoid his arrest and recovery of Ruthenium powder from his possession by the Crime Branch. He was brought to Delhi on production warrant and, thereafter, taken into police custody, they said.

During investigation, it was found that Inderjeet Singh and Kulwant Singh are dealing in jewellery items and are business rivals. It was due to the business rivalry that Kulwant Singh prepared the plan to cause losses to Inderjeet Singh, said Rajiv Ranjan, Additional Commissioner of Police (crime).

Kulwant Singh had asked Pal to contact the complainant for purchase of five kilogram of Ruthenium and posed as Verma.

Two kilogram of Ruthenium metal powder has been recovered from Vipin's hideouts located at Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and Hisar, Haryana. Further, 150 was recovered at the instance of Pal.

Ruthenium is considered a precious metal and used for making jewellry, electrical contacts and solar cells. It is also mixed with gold, platinum or palladium to form an alloy that is used to make jewellry. The cost of Ruthenium is around Rs 6 lakh per kilogram.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration Tuesday said it has invoked the stringent Gangsters Act against eight persons for their alleged involvement in crimes here.

District Magistrate Brajesh Narayan Singh, based on a recommendation report by Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Pal Sharma, pressed charges under the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, against these persons, an official statement said.

The Act has been invoked against Asif and Shahzad, residents of Dadri, Rahul and Vipin from Bareilly, Deepanshu from Kanpur Dehat, Zubair from Meerut, Gulzar and Saadaan from Ghaziabad, it said.

Under Section 14 of the Gangsters Act, a district magistrate can order attachment of any property (movable or immovable) in possession of any person which has been acquired by a gangster as a result of the commission of an offence recognised by this Act.

"The district administration is committed to ensuring continuous strict action against people of criminal nature. Therefore, similar action will be taken in future against the mafia and criminals under the Gangsters Act and the Gunda Act besides considering their expulsion from the district," Singh said.

The district administration has earlier also invoked the Gangsters Act against anti-social elements and even against people associated with property dealings and real estate firms who have cheated buyers.

The administration has stepped up action since the twin-building collapse in Greater Noida's Shahberi village in July in which nine persons, including a toddler and two women, were killed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey Tuesday said that 90 per cent of tickets on flights to and from flood-affected Kerala were sold below Rs 10,000, dismissing the charge that airlines had jacked up the fares exorbitantly.

"Ninety per cent tickets sold at less than Rs 10,000 which was an informal ceiling set (by authorities) and airlines cooperated," he told reporters on the sidelines of the International Aviation Summit here.

He said the fares were in economy class and for direct flights to the state.

He also took on those who sought to mislead the general public by putting up screenshots which claimed the airfares had touched Rs 60,000 on social media.

These fares, he said, were not for direct flights to and from Kerala.

Kerala witnessed its worst flood in a century last month, which claimed the lives of hundreds of people and rendered thousands homeless.

Meanwhile, participating at a plenary discussion at the event he made it clear that India was finding it "difficult" to commit to International Civil Aviation Organization's Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) requirements.

The scheme is aimed at curbing the aviation industry's carbon dioxide footprint worldwide and from January 1 next year, commercial operators must measure and report the fuel use and emissions of all international flights.

Voicing strong objection to framing regulations which differ from region to region, he said, "There cannot be patchwork solutions to environmental regulation."



Besides, he said India has not yet reached the level attained by mature aviation markets.

"Therefore, the main issue for negotiation is what should be the baseline and the reference to which we should regulate ourselves. We are having difficulty in accepting the benchmark level being sought to be imposed upon us," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, along with Union minister Piyush Goyal, today reviewed the various railway projects concerning Kumbh 2019 here on Tuesday.

Adityanath also launched a website and an app dedicated to Kumbh, an official release issued here said.

During the meeting, it was decided that special names will be given to the trains that will run on important bathing days for the convenience of pilgrims, it said.

The chief minister asked the officials concerned to complete the five under construction Railway Overbridges (ROBs) in Allahabad by October this year.

He also enquired about the special trains to be operated from different state capitals to Prayag for Kumbh, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The arrest of a woman student, who raised slogans against the BJP on board a domestic flight, is part of a "larger pattern of criminalisation and suppression of dissent" by the ruling party at the Centre, advocacy groups said Tuesday.

In a joint statement, CERAS (Montreal), India Civil Watch-Canada, and South Asia Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD, Vancouver) said the arrest of Louis Sophia for "a quite minor expression of opposition" was not an isolated incident.

"It follows last week's arrests of five eminent democratic rights defenders on unfounded charges of being supporters of alleged 'terrorist' organisations, and is part of a larger pattern of criminalisation and suppression of dissent by the BJP," they said.

Sophia, 28, is a student of a Canadian university and was on her way to visit her native Tuticorin city in Tamil Nadu.

He arrest followed the arrest of five activists last week by Maharashtra police in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence.

The groups said they would take up the matter with Canadian parliamentarians and urge them to discuss this with the Indian High Commissioner in Ottawa.

They said: "The party (BJP) has used agencies of the state to attack and arrest, and encouraged social vigilantes, hate trollers, and lynch mobs against Muslim and Christian minorities, Dalits and adivasis, as well as writers, artists, journalists, lawyers, academics, and others who speak out in defense of civil liberties and democratic rights," the groups said.

They demanded that all charges against Sophia be dropped.

"The expression of opposition and dissent is a fundamental right in a democracy. The criminalisation of the exercise of this right suggests that democracy itself is under threat in India," they said.

The BJP and its state unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, on whose complaint the woman was arrested, have come under attack for "crushing" freedom of expression.

Sophia was granted unconditional bail by a court Tuesday.

Soundararajan and the student, who travelled to Tuticorin by the same flight last night from Chennai, were involved in an altercation after landing at the airport, a video of which was aired by TV channels.

Soundararajan is heard telling Sophia and other people at the arrival lounge that a plane was no place to raise slogans.

"It (inside of a flight) is not a public forum... How can you expect me to keep mum when she (Soundararajan) shouts down with BJP's fascist government looking at me? Is it freedom of expression?" she asked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose death was announced by the Afghan Taliban on Tuesday, was the founder of the dreaded Haqqani Network which is believed to be behind a campaign of violence throughout Afghanistan including the 2008 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul that killed 58 people.

The Afghan Taliban did not share the exact date of death or burial of the militant commander, who had transferred the operational leadership of the group to his son Sirajuddin Haqqani after the 9/11 attack.

"...Well known Mujahid, famous Islamic scholar, renowned fighter, leader of Muhajideen, minister of frontiers in (Taliban) Islamic Emirates and member of Leadership (Taliban) Council, al-Hajj Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani has died after long illness," the Afghan Taliban said in statement.

He was believed to be in eighties and several times in the past the of his death was circulated but it was not confirmed by the militant group.

Jalaluddin studied at the Darul Uloom Haqqania Nowshera in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province - an Islamic seminary dubbed as the 'University of Jihad' as its alumni include slain Taliban chiefs Mullah Omar and Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent leader Asim Umar.

He belonged to Afghanistan's Paktika province, bordering Pakistan, and rose to prominence during the Afghan war against Soviet forces in 1980s. He was appointed as minister in the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan in 1990s.

Jalaluddin, who maintained his independent position during the Taliban regime, enjoyed close ties with Pakistan's spy agency - Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

He also helped Osama bin Laden to set up terror training camps in Afghanistan and launch his efforts for global jihad and maintained close links with al-Qaeda and other Arab militants.

After the 9/11 attack and toppling of the Taliban government by the US-led forces, Jalaluddin apparently fled to the lawless tribal region of Pakistan and re-organised his fighters.

His group became most lethal and carried out several deadly attacks against US, NATO and Afghan forces.

The Haqqani network, believed to be behind a number of kidnappings and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan, was accused of bombing the Indian mission in Kabul in 2008 that killed 58 people. The attack was believed to be among the deadliest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The attack was believed to be carried out at the behest of the ISI.

The group is accused of targeting the Indian consulate in Jalalabad twice in 2007 and carrying out an attack on the Indian mission in Kabul in 2009 that killed 17 people. It also carried out several attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan.

In 2012, the US designated the Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation. Three years later, Pakistan also banned the Haqqani network as part of its National Action Plan.

The group is the bone of contention between Pakistan and the US as the latter accuse that Haqqani militants were still using Pakistani soil to launch attacks - a charge denied by Pakistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Air Marshal Arvindra Singh Butola took over as the Commandant of Air Force Academy (AFA) at Dundigal here Tuesday.

A highly experienced pilot, the Air Marshal has more than 6,700 hours of flying time onboard 21 types of aircraft, a defence release said.

Prior to the new post, he was Senior Air Staff Officer of an Operational Command, it said.

Butola graduated from National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla in May 1981 and was commissioned in the Helicopter stream of Indian Air Force in June 1982.

In his career spanning over 36 years in the Indian Air Force, he has held several important positions, including Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Operations (Transport and Helicopters) at Air Headquarters.

The Air Marshal has also served as Senior Flying Instructor and Advisor to the Namibian Defence Force and Deputy Chief Test Pilot at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)America's online shopping giant Amazon, which has a sizeable presence in India, on Tuesday became the second US company to hit USD 1 trillion in stock market value.

Silicon Valley-based Apple was the first US company to do so less than a month ago.

Amazon shares traded at USD 2,050.27 Tuesday afternoon, which pushed the company's market valuation over USD 1 trillion.

The Seattle-based company which started as selling books online is owned by Jeff Bezos, who among other things also owns The Washington Post, a top American daily.

Amazon, in recent years, has emerged as a disruptive force in shopping, attracting millions of customers across the globe - the US and India in particular - to shop online.

Over the past few years, Amazon has emerged as a major FDI investor in India.

This year alone, Amazon stocks have jumped 75 per cent adding USD 435 billion to its market capitalization. This is combined market capitalization of America's top three retail stores - Walmart, Costco and Target.

The Wall Street Journal said investors rewarded Amazon because of it demonstrating better financial discipline in recent quarters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rare Relics of Christ's Passion to be Presented in Lake Charles

Contact: Denise Murphy, 860-496-0648



TORRINGTON, Conn., Sept. 4, 2018 /Standard Newswire/ -- Eight rare Relics of the Passion, with a unique musical and meditative program focused on the Passion of Christ, will be presented at multiple churches in Louisiana from September 12th through September 19th.



The program, entitled "Call from the Crucified Heart," is a unique one-hour presentation of The Passion that couples holy relics with supporting meditations and musical pieces that serve as a guide to help you accompany Jesus through His suffering during the Passion. The program ends with an opportunity for personal veneration of the relics.



The Apostolate for Holy Relics, guardians for these relics, has toured across the United States throughout 2016, 2017 and 2018. Having the opportunity to join in this program while they are here in the Diocese of Lake Charles in Louisiana is sure to be an experience that will help you connect with the very roots of your faith.



It's very rare to see a group of related holy relics all in one place as is presented in this program. Collections such as this are generally seen only in Rome or the Holy Land and is something that most people only get to see once in a lifetime. What's significant about this collection is that these relics are brought into a single venue with a unique narration that brings the story of the Passion to life.



Documents for these relics have been reviewed and authenticated prior to the commencement of the first tour in 2007 and have been venerated in events throughout the world.



The Relics of the Passion collection includes:

A piece of the True Cross, which was discovered by St. Helena



A piece of the Holy Table from the room where the Last Supper took place



A piece of the Column of Flagellation



A piece of The Crown of Thorns



A replica of the Holy Nail, fashioned using filings from the true nails



A relic from the head of St. Longinus, the centurion who pierced the side of Christ



A picture of (the effigy of) the Veil of Veronica touched to the original with a Vatican seal attesting to the fact.



A piece of the exterior wrapping for the Shroud of Turin

Additional information regarding the AHR and their upcoming tour with the Relics of the Passion in Louisiana, can be found at www.relictour.org.

Amid speculation of early assembly elections in Telangana, the BJP is likely to sound the poll bugle in the state with a public meeting by its president Amit Shah next week.

Shah would address a public meeting on either September 12 or 15, the party's state unit president K Laxman said.

Laxman, who met Shah here last Sunday, said the BJP's national executive to be held in Delhi on September 8-9 would also discuss Telangana elections.

"His (Shah) message was to face the elections whenever... whether it is early or on schedule dates. The national leadership of the party is going to give full support and the president himself said he is going to launch the campaign in Telangana starting from Mahabubnagar from this month itself," Laxman told PTI.

Laxman said his party is prepared to face assembly elections whenever they are held.

While the state assembly polls are originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year, speculation has been rife that the ruling TRS may go for early assembly elections to cash in on the "perceived positive atmosphere" prevailing for it in the state.

Addressing a public meeting of the party on Sunday, the TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had said the ministers and party leaders had entrusted him to take a decision on the issue in the interest of people.

"This is again being prompted by KCR (as the chief minister is commonly known as) himself. He should spell out why he is going for early polls. Is he not confident of his performance in the last four-and-half-years?" Laxman said.

He said Rao appeared to be thinking of early polls as he feels the "Modi charisma" would be a major factor if the assembly and Lok Sabha elections are held together.

Asserting that the BJP would go alone in the elections, Laxman expressed confidence about his party's victory.

Asked about the "cordial relations" between the TRS and the BJP and speculation that the two parties may forge an alliance, Laxman asked how was it possible when the state's ruling party "is implementing the (Asaduddin Owaisi-led) MIM agenda".

Rao met Modi twice last month on various issues concerning the state, which was seen by some as a sign of growing proximity between the two parties.

"There is no question of the BJP joining hands with the TRS. Modi as a Prime Minister is doing his best for the people of Telangana, not for KCR, not for the TRS. is difference and governance is different," Laxman said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The armed forces and the Defence Ministry are steadfastly behind all officers who have conducted operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the north east, Army Chief Bipin Rawat said Tuesday.

His comments come in the backdrop of nearly 700 Army officers and soldiers approaching the Supreme Court against the alleged dilution of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, also known as AFSPA.

Sources said if the officials lose the case, it will be a major embarrassment.

They said the Army chief, during an interaction with officers last week, had disapproved of the Army personnel approaching the apex court.

When asked about this, Rawat declined to comment, saying the matter was sub judice.

"This case is sub-judice and I would not like to speak on that," he told reporters in response to a question.

"The armed forces and the government, the Defence Ministry and everybody are steadfast behind all the officers who have conducted operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the north east or anywhere we are countering terrorism or insurgency," he said.

Rawat said the Army will support them in whatever way it can.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Aurora Prize Laureate Kyaw Hla Aung, a noted lawyer and activist from Myanmar, on Tuesday announced he would donate his USD 1 million award money towards humanitarian relief work among Rohingya refugees.

He was given the award this year for his fight against injustice and advocating on behalf of the Rohingya people.

The money will be distributed among three international organisations -- Mdecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and MERCY Malaysia -- providing medical aid and assistance to Rohingya refugees across South East Asia, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative (AHI) has announced.

MSF, UK, will receive USD 400,000, while MERCY Malaysia and the ICMC USD 300,000 each. This initiative will benefit around 3,75,000 Rohingya refugees, a media release said.

The AHI, founded on behalf of the Armenian Genocide survivors, seeks to help those in urgent need of basic humanitarian aid.

MSF is directing the funds to further advance the emergency response in the Balukhali Makeshift Settlements in Bangladesh, the AHI said.

The organisation estimates that it will benefit approximately 2,50,000 Rohingya refugees, it said.

MSF has hugely increased its operations in response to the unfolding of the humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar where several Rohingyas, who fled their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine state, are living.

Our team of more than 2,000 staff is running 10 health posts, four primary health centres (open around the clock), and five inpatient health facilities (providing 24-hour secondary healthcare).

"This potential support comes at a crucial time, especially as the Monsoon season approaches and with it the likelihood of devastating flooding and landslides in the camps, MSF executive director Vickie Hawkins said.

The ICMC is allocating its share of the Aurora funds to two initiatives directed at empowering Rohingya refugees in Klang Valley and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

It also aims at improving damaged infrastructure at the Kutupalong Camp settlement in Bangladesh. The ICMC estimates that over 20,000 people will benefit from these projects.

We would use the Aurora award to advance our work with Rohingya and other refugees in Malaysia and elsewhere, Secretary General, ICMC, Monsignor Robert J Vitillo, said



MERCY Malaysia will use its share of the funds to provide primary and maternal health care, and operational support to Rohingyas by collaborating with the Rakhine State Health Department in the Sittwe IDP camps and Kyauktan village.

MERCY Malaysia estimates that over 1,00,000 Rohingya people will benefit from this initiative.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a plaint against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on award of contracts, a preliminary vigilance enquiry has been completed and a Draft Final Report sent to the Vigilance Commissioner, the Madras High Court was informed Tuesday.

Submitting a counter petition in connection with the complaint made by R S Bharathi of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Advocate General Vijay Narayan submitted that the preliminary enquiry by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption was over.

When the case by the DMK leader came up before Justice A D Jagadish Chandira, the Advocate General (AG) after filing the counter, submitted that the Investigation Officer has filed the Draft Final Report (DFR) on the basis of the preliminary enquiry conducted by him.

The DFR was dispatched on August 28 by the Directorate of Vigilance And Anti-Corruption (DVAC) which has reached the Vigilance Commissioner and he has to pass orders on it, the AG submitted.

The matter relates to a criminal original petition filed by Bharathi, who is a Rajya Sabha member and DMK's organising secretary, against Palaniswami.

In his complaint, Bharathi alleged that Palaniswami had misused his official position as a minister during late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's tenure and now as the Chief Minister and awarded contracts for five road projects to his friends, benamis and close relatives.

Palaniswami, by allegedly doing so, caused "loss" to the exchequer to the tune of crores of rupees and enriched himself and others, he alleged.

The petitioner said he had lodged a complaint with the DVAC as early as on June 13 last, but the agency, for reasons not known, did not take any action on it.

When counsel for Bharathi sought time to go through the counter and sought an adjournment, the judge posted the matter to September 7.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bombay High Court Tuesday allowed former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who is out on bail in a money laundering case, to travel in the state without seeking court's permission.

Justice P D Naik said the NCP leader, however, must inform the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in advance if he planned to travel outside Maharashtra, and provide the address and contact number where he can be reached.

On May 4, the high court granted bail to Bhujbal, more than two years after he was arrested by the ED.

It imposed certain conditions, such as that he must take the trial court's permission if he wished to go out of Mumbai.

Bhujbal had filed an application in the high court seeking that the restrictions on travel be lifted.

He is a member of the Legislative Assembly and needs to visit his constituency in Nashik district frequently and also to Delhi for political meetings, he said.

Obtaining the court's permission every time caused him "undue harassment," Bhujbal said.

ED lawyer Hiten Venegaonkar opposed the application, saying that Bhujbal owns several properties across the state and can tamper with evidence if permitted to travel without any restrictions.

The high court, however, noted that it was apparent that Bhujbal would need to travel to his constituency and for political meetings, among other things.

Bhujbal was arrested in March 2016 after an ACB probe concluded that he, as PWD minister in then Congress-NCP government, awarded contracts for the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi and for some other works to a private firm in return for kickbacks.

The ED booked him and his nephew, former MP Sameer Bhujbal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for allegedly channelling the ill-gotten money to shell firms.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Accusing the Congress of compromising national security for political opportunism, the BJP alleged Tuesday Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council was a "supporting ground for naxalites" during the UPA regime and some party leaders "romanticised" the naxalism.

Levelling a series of allegations against the Congress, the BJP also sought to question senior opposition party leaders such as Digvijaya Singh and Jairam Ramesh for what it termed was indicative of their alleged support to people with "naxal links".

There were no immediate reactions from the Congress leaders.

Addressing a press conference here, the BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra also alleged the Congress tried to "mainstream maoism and naxalism" during its rule amd the party should therefore call itself the "Congress Party of Maoists" or the Indian National Congress (Maoists).

Showing a letter which he said was written by one 'comrade' to another, Patra said it talked about the Congress willing to fund their activities and contacting Digvijaya Singh for assistance.

"National security is an issue of paramount importance and to play with national security only for political opportunism is something which the Congress has been doing so," Patra told reporters.

He claimed the letter was written by 'Comrade Surendra to Comrade Prakash' on September 25 and it says the Congress leaders were willing to assist and fund the process. He alleged the letter contained a phone number of Digvijaya Singh, who he said was the Congress president "Rahul Gandhi's guru".

Patra alleged the Congress has always been double-faced on naxalism, as some opposed it while there are others within the party who have romanticised naxalism.

"The National Advisory Council, the coterie of those who were closest to the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was the supporting ground for naxalities," Patra said.

Patra also claimed that former union minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had written a letter to the Maharashtra Government to release Mahesh Raut, an activist who was arrested in for his naxal links.

Accusing the Congress of having "so much love for convicted naxals", Patra alleged the party compromised the national security for way too long.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP central leadership is "unhappy" with its Bengal unit over its failure to capitalise on the killing of two party workers in Purulia after rural polls in the state, a senior state party leader said Tuesday.

BJP national general secretary and in-charge of the state Kailash Vijayvergiya expressed his dissatisfaction during an internal review meeting of the party over the failure of the state leaders to "grab the issue of the killing of party workers" in West Bengal, he said on the condition of anonymity.

"Kailash ji has asked us to launch a fresh movement across the state over the violence and attack on BJP workers in the state," he said.

During the meeting with the state leaders, Vijayvergiya criticised them over their failure to launch a continuous movement and an agitation on the issue of killing of party workers in Purulia after the state rural polls.

"He (Vijayvergiya) said instead of being on the streets on this issue, the state unit was satisfied with just holding a few meetings and rallies. He also asked the leaders the reason why the state unit had failed to launch a mass movement on the issue," a senior BJP leader told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

Two BJP activists were found hanging in Purulia district on May 31 and June 2 and the central BJP unit had held a nationwide agitation. BJP national president Amit Shah had also held a rally in Purulia to protest against the killing and had calling for defeating the ruling TMC government in the state.

The alleged killings had created a political controversy as the BJP had performed well against the TMC in Balarampur area of Purulia in the last panchayat poll.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP welcomed Tuesday a court verdict convicting two Indian Mujahideen operatives for the 2007 twin bomb blasts here, but stressed such cases should be tried expeditiously, an opinion voiced also by the Congress.

The court convicted the two cadres of the terror outfit for bomb blasts that rocked Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park here more than a decade ago, claiming 44 lives.

"We welcome the verdict of the court convicting two of the accused in the blast cases," Krishna Saagar Rao, spokesperson of BJP's Telangana unit, told PTI.

"However, justice to those killed in these blasts came many years later. These kind of terror cases need to be fast tracked and the guilty should be brought to book through quick trials," he said.

P Sudhakar Reddy, the Deputy Leader of Congress in the Telangana Legislative Council, also said fast track courts should be set up for speedy justice in such cases.

"Such cases should be speeded up. Fast track courts should be set up. There will be fear if judgements come within a limited period (of time). I don't want to comment on legalities. Speedy justice should be done, especially in such cases," he said.

Reddy, the Chairman of Rajiv Jyothi Sadbhavana Yatra Committee, which works for spreading awareness against terrorism, demanded that the one person in the families of each of he victims should be given job.

The court also acquitted two other accused cadres of the terror outfit.

Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge (in-charge) T Srinivas Rao convicted Aneeq Shafique Sayeed and Mohammed Akbar Ismail. Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash and Mohammed Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik were acquitted.

Meanwhile, AIMIM president and Hyderabad Lok Sabha member, Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted, "FAROOQ & SADIQ have been in prison from 2009 & after 9 years Court finds them NOT GUILTY acquits them & their Lawyer ABDUL Azeem tells me evidence was circumstantial & eyewitnesses who where found after 1 yr of offence. No closure/Justice for victims families. Pain continues."



The quantum of sentence is expected to be pronounced Monday.

The Court is also expected to pronounce its judgement on Tarik Anjum, who is accused of giving shelter to the accused after the blasts, in Delhi and other places, on Monday.

They were booked in connection with the blasts on August 25, 2007, and the recovery of an unexploded bomb in the Dilsukhnagar area here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Opposition parties in Tuesday alleged that the Trinamool Congress-led government's "callousness towards the repair of old bridges" was the main reason behind the collapse of a portion of the Majerhat bridge.

Governor K N Tripathi, who visited the site, described it as "a big disaster".

"I have come to see the rescue work. It is a big disaster. I heard that maintenance of the bridge is entrusted with the PWD and the railways. The matter required to be enquired," he told reporters.

The over 50-year-old bridge in south Kolkata caved in around 4.45 pm during rush hour claiming one life, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.

"It is really unfortunate that the bridge has collapsed. But the fact is the state government is solely responsible for the bridge collapse. The issue of repair of the old bridges is not at all in the agenda of TMC government," senior BJP leader Mukul Roy said.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury demanded an "answer" from Chief Minister and Public Works Department Minister Firhad Hakim.

"Earlier in 2016, we had witnessed a bridge collapse (at Burrabazar). This incident proves that the state government is yet to learn its lessons. The state government should give an answer," Chowdhury said.

Reacting to the allegations, Hakim said this is not the appropriate time to indulge in "politics over the incident".

The chief minister who is on a visit to Darjeeling now has ordered a probe to be conducted by Chief Secretary Malay Dey.

Banerjee also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to the injured.A stockpile of over 36,000 modern AK-series assault rifles have been recently provided to central paramilitary forces and select state police units, a senior official said Tuesday.

The official, who is part of the security establishment under the Union home ministry, said the weapons have been procured from Bulgaria after a global tender was completed successfully sometime back.

"These AK-47 rifles are now being sent to multiple Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and state police units who were part of the joint tender. A good bulk of these weapons will go to the CRPF and BSF who have to deal with internal security challenges, guard the border and tackle Left-wing extremism and militants and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir," the official, who requested anonymity, said.

This series of assault rifles are increasingly being preferred by the security forces due to their utility in all-weather conditions, good rate of fire and ease of adaptability in multifarious combat zones, the official said.

These rifles are considered superior to the indigenously made INSAS rifles (Indian Small Arms System) as their fire is accurate, spews quick round of bullets and is better to operate in jungle warfare conditions where moisture and heat affect the performance of a rifle, he said.

Keeping this in mind, the central paramilitary forces and the state police forces had expressed desire to purchase the AK (Avtomat Kalashnikova) series rifles for their jungle warfare and special task units and the Union home ministry had then clubbed their requirements and floated a global tender, he said.

The tender was open for bidding about a year back and the delivery of the assault weapons, which have some enhancement in their basic features, has now begun, he said.

When contacted, a senior CRPF officer told PTI that the weapons will be provided to their combat units in Jammu and Kashmir and anti-Naxal operation areas in a month's time.

The Union government had last year authorised the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the country's largest CAPF with over 3-lakh personnel, to replace almost all of its INSAS weapons with AK assault rifles in the ten Maoist violence-hit states where it is deployed to undertake offensive operations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chinese and African officials on Tuesday rejected criticism of Beijing's debt-laden overseas development projects as they wrapped up a summit that included a new USD 60 billion assistance pledge for the continent.

President Xi Jinping hosted leaders from across Africa amid criticism that his country's Belt and Road global trade infrastructure project is worsening debt problems in some countries.

"Everything we do with China is perfectly under control, including on the financial and debt side," said Senegal's President Macky Sall, whose country took over the co-chairmanship of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) for the next three years.

"We shouldn't let our conscience be disturbed by criticism made regarding the nature of our relations with China," Sall said in remarks alongside Xi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to close the triannual FOCAC summit.

For his part, Xi said the summit "opened a new chapter in the history of China-Africa relations".

Ramaphosa, who handed over the co-chairmanship to Sall, said another achievement at the summit was an agreement to "work hard to increase Africa's value-added exports to China".

He had called on Monday for the two sides to work to "balance" trade relations, noting that Africa exports raw materials to China while Chinese factories send finished products back to the continent.

Xi opened the meeting on Monday with an offer of $60 billion in funding for projects over the next three years, saying there were "no political strings attached" but warning against spending on "vanity projects".

Xi also said China would write off the debt of some of the poorest African countries, without specifying which.

The money comes on top of USD 60 billion offered at the last summit in 2015.

China's special envoy for African affairs, Xu Jinghu, said Beijing would be "very conscientious" in its cooperation with Africa and conduct feasibility studies before choosing projects.

"China has not increased the debt burden of Africa," she told reporters. "The reasons behind the African debt are quite complex. It has been accumulated for a long time," Xu said, adding that the prices of raw materials exported by Africa have fallen and reduced countries' revenues.

"There are many countries in Africa. Even for the countries that are heavily indebted, China is not the main creditor. So it doesn't make sense and it's groundless to put the blame on China for the African debt," she said.

The new financing includes USD 15 billion in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, USD 20 billion in credit lines, the creation of a $10 billion fund for development financing and a USD 5 billion special fund to pay for imports from Africa.

Chinese companies were encouraged to invest at least USD 10 billion on the continent.

Johan Burger, director of the NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said Xi's warning against vanity projects showed the "severity" of the issue.

"Should this money be spent on vanity projects, it will lend credence to the charges against China," Burger said.

"China itself does not have an never-ending source of funding, and would not want to see its financing be wasted, with no returns for itself and no real benefit for the countries involved.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Putting to rest all speculation, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra Tuesday recommended to the Centre that Justice Ranjan Gogoi be his successor, eight months after he was part of a revolt against the country's top judge.

Despite the differences, Misra stuck to convention and recommended Gogoi, the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court after the CJI. If confirmed by the Centre, considered a formality, Gogoi will be sworn in on October 3, a day after Misra retires.

Highly placed sources said the letter by Misra has been sent by the office of the CJI to the Ministry of Law and Justice for necessary action.

Gogoi will have a tenure of little over a year. His term is due to end on November 17 next year when he attains the age of 65.

Misra's recommendation is in line with the tradition that the senior-most apex court judge succeeds the incumbent CJI on his retirement.

Speculation over Misra's recommendation on the next CJI arose after the court's four most senior judges-- Justices J Chelameswar (since retired), Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, had called an unprecedented press conference in Delhi on January 12 this year and criticised him on several issues, especially the manner of allocation of cases to certain benches.

The recommendation came after Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently asked Misra to recommend his successor, setting in motion the process of a change of guard at the apex court.

Gogoi, who is set to become the 46th CJI, was elevated to the apex court on April 23, 2012. He has been part of several key verdicts and is presently seized of sensitive cases including the finalisation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the PIL seeking appointment of a search committee members to select Lokpal.

According to 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 will, at an appropriate time, seek the recommendation of the outgoing chief justice of India for the appointment of his successor.

Under this process, after receiving the CJI's recommendation, the law minister puts it before the prime minister who advises the President on the matter.

"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.

The law minister recently said the government's intention on the appointment of the next chief justice of India should not be questioned. He had also said the Executive will take a call when the incumbent names the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor as per convention.

Gogoi was part of a five-judge Constitution bench which, by a majority of 3:2, had dismissed the plea of P A Sangma challenging the election of Pranab Mukherjee as President in 2012..

In a first of its kind incident in the judicial history of independent India, a Gogoi-led bench had issued the suo motu contempt notice against former judge Markandey Katju, for his blogs containing comments on the judges.

Later, Katju apologised.

In a landmark verdict, a bench headed by Gogoi held in 2015 that government advertisements could only include photographs of the prime Minister, President and Chief Justice of India, a measure to ensure that politicians in power could not use taxpayers money to gain political advantages.

Gogoi was also heading the bench which struck down a law in Uttar Pradesh which allowed former chief ministers to retain official accommodations even after demitting office.

This verdict led leaders like Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, BSP supremo Mayawati and father-son duo, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav to vacate their bungalows in posh localities of Lucknow.

Gogoi was also part of the seven-judge bench led by then CJI J S Khehar which, for the first time, took to task rogue elements in higher judiciary.

The bench had held C S Karnan, the then judge of the Calcutta High Court, guilty of contempt and gave him a six- month jail term.

Karnan had alleged corruption in the highest levels of the judiciary, as well as caste discrimination against him. He also held that the seven judges hearing his contempt case guilty of offences.

Gogoi, son of Keshab Chandra Gogoi who was the Chief minister of Assam, had joined the legal profession in 1978 and was appointed as permanent judge of the Gauhati High Court on February 28, 2001.

Later, he was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 9, 2010 where he became the Chief Justice on February 12 next year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra Tuesday sent a letter to the Central government recommending Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor.

Justice Gogoi will be sworn in as the next CJI on October 3, a day after Justice Misra's tenure ends.

The CJI has written to the Ministry of Law and Justice endorsing and recommending the name of Justice Gogoi, the senior-most judge, as the next CJI.

Highly placed sources had confirmed on September 1 that Justice Misra had decided to go by convention and recommend the name of Justice Gogoi, who is next in seniority to him, to succeed him.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had recently asked Justice Misra to recommend his successor, setting in motion the process of a change of guard in the apex court.

Speculation over Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI arose after the court's four most senior judges, including Justice Gogoi, called a press conference in January this year and criticised Justice Misra on 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 the Indian judiciary.

According to 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 will, 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 receiving the CJI's recommendation, the law minister puts it before the prime minister who advises the president on the matter.

"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 the government's intention on the appointment of the next chief justice of India should not be questioned. He had also said the executive will take a call when the incumbent names the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as his successor as per convention.

Prasad was responding to a question at the Law Ministry's annual press conference on whether the government would follow laid-down conventions and procedures to appoint Justice Gogoi as the next chief justice when 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 said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 29-year-old Nigerian national was arrested Tuesday for illegally possessing cocaine worth Rs 37.76 lakh at Jogeshwari, a western suburb here, police said.

The accused, Phemmy Olyuanka Opyemi, was arrested in the wee hours by Amboli police from Sahakar Road, Jogeshwari West, an official said.

Police recovered 472 grams of cocaine from him during his search, he said.

Opyemi had come to sell the banned substance to his customers in the area, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Stepping up its attack on the government, the Congress Tuesday alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani "acted in collusion" over the Rafale jet contract.

Speaking to reporters here, Congress leader Jaipal Reddy said the government was paying Rs 41,205 crore more for the Rafale deal with about Rs 1,100 crore being paid extra for each aircraft compared to the price decided by the UPA government.

While the government as well as Ambani-led Reliance Group have denied the allegations levelled by the Congress over the Rafale deal, the main opposition party has decided to hold a series of conferences till September 6 across the country to highlight what it calls a "scam" in purchase of Rafale fighter jets from French company Dassault.

Reddy's press conference was organised as part of this campaign, under which the Congress also plans to hold district and state-wide agitations starting September 7, as also dharnas and protests in all state headquarters from September 16-30.

Facing allegations of undue benefits from the multi-billion dollar Rafale deal, Reliance Group has already sent legal notices to several Congress leaders asking them to "cease and desist" from levelling such charges, which was promptly dubbed by the party as evidence of a "nexus between the BJP and the corporate world".

Addressing the conference here, Reddy said, "I level this responsible charge that Prime Minister Modi and Mr Anil Ambani were in collusion (over the Rafale deal)...This deal could not have been possible had the Indian private company, the prime minister and the French private company not been in collusion."



The former union minister said Ambani appeared to be a "genius" by "guessing the working of the prime minister's mind" when even the Foreign Secretary and the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had no knowledge about the deal.

"Mr Anil Ambani knew just 12 days before the deal that this would be signed between Dassault Aviation company and the Government of India... and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) would not be in the picture (and) there would be no transfer of technology.

"He (Ambani) registered the company 12 days before the deal. So if somebody has guessed the working of the prime minister's mind so correctly, he should be considered genius," Reddy said.

Reddy also questioned the government's stand that the rise in price was due to additional accessories, equipment and missiles, claiming that the prime minister had on April 10, 2015 said the configuration would be the same as before.

"Configuration means, in defence language, the same aircraft, same accessories, same equipment. Now, where is the question of new accessories?" Reddy asked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Pune-based man, who had lodged an FIR in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence that led to the arrest of five human rights activists, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking that he be made a party in the plea filed by historian Romila Thapar and four others.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it would hear the plea on September 6 when the petition filed by Thapar and four others will come up for hearing.

The plea filed by Tushar Damgude sought that he be made a party in the pending case as it was he who had lodged the FIR in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence last year.

The top court had earlier ordered that the five human rights activists would be kept under house arrest till September 6 observing that dissent was the "safety valve" of democracy.

While granting relief to activists Varavara Rao, Arun Farreira, Vernon Gonzalves, Sudha Bhardwaj and Gautam Navalakha, the top court did not consider the vehement opposition of Maharashtra government challenging the locus of the petitioners, Thapar and four others, seeking relief on their behalf, and calling them "strangers".

The Maharashtra Police had arrested them in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31 last year that had later triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village. The state had challenged the petitioners' locus, dubbing them as "strangers".

The plea, by Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpandey and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala, has sought an independent probe into the arrests and their immediate release.

Prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, while activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha was arrested from New Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The on Tuesday dubbed as "censorship" the advisory of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry asking TV channels to refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for people belonging to Scheduled Castes.

spokesperson also hit out at some television channels supporting the government's move, and asked them to introspect.

He said these are terms which are commonly used in the public discourse.

"If the I&B Ministry ordains that the language which you use in your reportage, should also be one that is pre-cleared by them, how else would you characterise this advisory except calling it censorship?" he told reporters.

Hitting out at channels that are considered close to the BJP, he said his request to all those media outlets supporting the "spectre of censorship" is that they should introspect.

"When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind," he said.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued an advisory to all private satellite TV channels, urging them to refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for people belonging to Scheduled Castes in compliance with a Bombay High Court directive.

The advisory urges channels that they may refrain from using the term 'Dalit' while referring to people belonging to Scheduled Castes.

The letter, addressed to all private TV channels on August 7, referred to a June directive by the Bombay High Court asking the ministry to consider issuing a direction to the media to stop using the word 'Dalit'.

The court directive had come over a petition filed by Pankaj Meshram before the Nagpur bench of the high court.

"It is accordingly advised that media may refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' while referring to members belonging to Scheduled Castes in compliance with the directions of the Hon'ble Bombay High Court and the Constitutional term 'Scheduled Caste' in English, and its appropriate translation in other languages should alone be used for all official transactions, matters, dealings, certificates, etc. for denoting the persons belonging to Scheduled Castes," it said.As Patidar leader Hardik Patel has launched an indefinite fast, the Congress, in an apparent bid to corner the BJP government in Gujarat, announced on Tuesday state-wide protests for farm loan waiver.

Patel is on hunger strike demanding quota for the Patidar community and loan waiver for farmers.

Several Congress leaders have visited him in the last eleven days since his fast began and announced support, which has prompted the BJP to allege that his agitation is a Congress-backed one.

"Congress will hold protests at every district and taluka headquarters tomorrow with the slogan 'save democracy, waive loans of farmers'. Our demand is the government immediately give relief to farmers by waiving farm loans," the opposition party said in a release.

"The BJP government has become arrogant. It has not shown interest in heeding the problems faced by people," it added.

A Congress leader said on the condition of anonymity that the 2015 quota agitation of the Patidar community, led by Patel, helped the party make gains in last year's Assembly elections.

The party is hoping that Hardik Patel will similarly help it in a big way in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he said.

Energy minister and BJP leader Saurabh Patel alleged today that the quota agitation is "political", and is backed by the Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Copper prices traded lower by 0.11 per cent to Rs 423.40 per kg in futures market Tuesday as speculators reduced bets amid a weak trend overseas.

At the Multi Commodity Exchange, copper for delivery in November declined by 45 paise, or 0.11 per cent, to Rs 423.40 per kg in a business turnover of 1,956 lots.

Likewise, the metal for delivery in February contracts shed 30 paise, or 0.07 per cent, to Rs 429.45 per kg in six lots.

Analysts said sentiment remained bearish after London metal prices steadied Tuesday, but a trade dispute between China and the United States chilled factory activity in August and tempered appetite for metals.

Meanwhile, copper for delivery in three months hit its weakest in nearly two weeks at USD 5,935 a tonne before steadying to trade flat at USD 5,968 a tonne. Shanghai Futures Exchange copper fell 0.4 per cent to 47,970 yuan (USD 7,034) a tonne.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister Upendra Kushwaha Tuesday launched a veiled attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, claiming criminals in the state appeared to have no fear of law.

The RLSP chief, who recently stated that Kumar should not stake claim for a fourth consecutive term, made the remarks in Hajipur, the district headquarters of Vaishali, where he had gone to meet the family members of a slain party worker.

Manish Sahani, the district president of the RLSP's extremely backward castes cell, was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen on August 13 when he was walking out of his office, which is located near a police station.

"Killings and murders are taking place... The chief minister should himself take cognizance of such incidents and discuss with his officials why such lawlessness is prevailing in the state," Kushwaha told reporters.

"It seems the fear of law has disappeared from the minds of criminals operating in Bihar. It is a challenge before the administration," he added.

The comment on the NDA government in the state by the leader whose party is a part of the coalition assumes political significance.

Kushwaha's party has of late been raising demands that it be given more weightage than Kumar's JD(U), pointing towards the larger population of koeris (Kushwaha's caste) than Kurmis (Kumar's caste).

The Union minister has also dropped hints, in recent times, that he may consider switching over to the opposition RJD-Congress combine if he gets a better deal even though he continues to stress his loyalty towards the BJP-led NDA, which he had joined ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.

Kushwaha quit the JD(U) in 2013 and floated his own outfit.

The return of Kumar to the NDA, last year, is believed to have caused uneasiness within the RLSP, which comprises mostly former JD(U) dissidents.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi asserted that law and order has improved in the state since Kumar left the Grand Alliance, comprising the RJD and the Congress, and returned to the NDA.

"Since October last year, there has been a close monitoring of incidents of crime. Altogether 1.77 lakh people have been put behind bars for various offences. Good policing has resulted in a 13.9 per cent decrease in cases of kidnapping, a fall of 31.82 per cent in the incidence of rapes and a drop of 12.18 per cent in arocities against Dalits," Modi tweeted.

"The state has also been successful in reining in naxal violence. Earlier, Bihar was placed second among the states affected by ultra-Left violence but now it occupies the fifth position. As against 100 incidents of naxal-related violence in 2016 and 71 in 2017, there have been only 25 such instances so far this year. Many top naxal leaders' properties have been attached", he said.

Modi also trained his guns at the RJD-Congress combine for "blowing stray incidents out of proportion and defaming Bihar" and "showing sympathy for naxals who are involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday approved a 50 per cent subsidy for hotels and restaurants that use eco-friendly fuel instead of coal in clay ovens.

The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, also decided that a subsidy of up to Rs 1 lakh would be given to industries that switch to piped natural gas (PNG).

It approved the Department of Environment's proposal to provide subsidy to restaurants, banquet halls and hotels for replacing or converting their coal-based tandoors with electricity or gas-based ovens.

A 50 per cent subsidy or a maximum of Rs 5000 per tandoor would be given for switching to such eco-friendly ovens from April 1 next year, the Cabinet said in a statement.

The Cabinet noted that it was also decided to incentivise industrial units that switch from polluting fuels to PNG, following several meetings with Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) and industrial associations.

A grant of Rs 50,000 to small industries and Rs 1,00,000 to large industries will be provided in approved industrial areas in Delhi and redevelopment industrial areas, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A cache of explosives, including gelatin sticks and detonators, was seized from Maharashtra's Raigad district and two people were arrested in this connection, a police official said Tuesday.

Around 46 gelatin sticks, some detonators and other material were seized Monday after a raid at the house of Mohammad Umar Jahir Kazi at Dhalghar village in Mangaon tehsil of the coastal Raigad district adjoining Mumbai, he said.

It is suspected that the explosives were meant for illegal fishing activity, he said.

Kazi, 48, was arrested following the seizure, he said.

On further inputs, one more person, who used to sell these explosives to Kazi, was arrested from Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, he said.

Some fishermen were injured recently in a blast while they were engaged in fishing activity in the Arabian Sea, Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar told PTI.

While investigating the case, police got information about Kazi and another person who was selling these explosives illegally for fishing activity, he said.

Accordingly, raids were conducted and the two men were nabbed, he said.

"We have recovered gelatin sticks and detonators and arrested the two persons under the Explosives Act and the Explosive Substances Act," Paraskar said, adding that a probe was underway.

Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is an illegal practice of using explosives to stun or kill fish for easy collection.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Seven people, including a doctor, have been arrested for looting medicines worth Rs 2 crore when the consignment was being transported in a lorry last month, the police said Tuesday.

The accused were arrested Monday and the looted drugs recovered from them.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vaibhav Krishna, the consignment was looted near Amrala Gate on the intervening night of August 13 and 14.

The medicine consignment was being transported from a warehouse in Partapur in Meerut to Agra.

Besides the looted medicines, the police 100 cartons of medicines that had stolen from Haryana by the accused.

The robbers were identified as Sanjoo, Surendra, Omveer, Rishi, Aslam and Sonu, natives of Delhi and Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh. The doctor was identified as Anil Kumar. He was allegedly involved in selling the looted medicines to medical stores, the SSP said.

An SUV, two trucks, two country-made pistols with three live cartridges, and four knives have been seized from them. Three gang members are still at large, the SSP said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The top official with the UN's Palestinian aid agency says countries including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and India have stepped up in recent months with a "very high amount" of USD 238 million in extra funding amid US cuts.

UNRWA Commissioner Pierre Kraehenbuehl reiterated his disappointment with the Trump administration's announcement last week that it's cutting all funding for the agency, after partial cuts announced earlier this year.

Despite the new contributions, Krahenbuehl told reporters by phone Tuesday that the funding situation remains "critical", and over USD 200 million is needed this year to "sustain our operations".

The new commitments, including from Turkey and some other European countries, came after the US announced plans in January to contribute USD 60 million this year, down from USD 360 million a year ago.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A court here Tuesday extended the custody of suspected right-wing activist Avinash Pawar in an explosives seizure case till September 6.

Pawar was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra Police on August 24.

He was produced before Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Padalkar Tuesday after his remand ended.

Seeking an extension of his custody, the ATS said it has obtained "mirror image" of the data in his mobile phones and his home computer, and it needed to question him in this regard.

So far, Pawar has not given any information about the SIM cards of three mobile phones seized from his house, said chief public prosecutor J B Desai.

One of the phones the activist used had been given to him by co-accused Vaihbhav Raut, the prosecutor said.

The possibility of Pawar having received training in use of firearms and bomb-making cannot be ruled out, he said.

Observing that the grounds put forward by the ATS were legal and justifiable, the judge extended Pawar's custody.

The ATS had claimed earlier that the right-wing activist had carried out reconnaissance of the houses of certain persons, including Mukta Dabholkar, daughter of slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar; activist Shyam Manav and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad.

These persons were on the accused persons' target list because they "spoke against the Hindu religion", the investigation agency had told the court.

The ATS arrested Vaibhav Raut, Sudhanwa Gondhalekar, Sharad Kalaskar and Shrikant Pangarkar last month and seized explosives and arms and ammunition from various places.

It claimed that these persons were right-wing activists who planned to carry out blasts at a western music concert in Pune last year.

Pawar is the fifth person to be arrested in the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As doctors expressed concern over the health of Hardik Patel, the Gujarat government Tuesday stepped up its efforts to persuade the Patidar leader to end his indefinite hunger strike which entered eleventh day.

Hardik had launched his fast on August 25 for demands, including farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in government jobs and education sector.

The BJP-led state government held a meeting with several key leaders of the Patidar community at Gandhinagar Tuesday night, hours after doctors expressed concern over the health of Patel who has lost almost 20 kgs of weight in the last eleven days.

The doctors attached to the Sola civil hospital said Hardik had lost weight and should get admitted to the hospital.

After meeting Patidar leaders associated with six different bodies of the community, Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said the government's priority is to ensure that the Patidar leader calls off his hunger strike.

Revenue minister Kaushik Patel and Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja also spoke with Patidar leaders associated with Vishwa Umiya Foundation, Umiya Mata Sansthan and Khodaldham Trust among others.

"During the meeting, we conveyed that the government is worried about Hardik Patel. We appealed to the leaders to persuade Hardik Patel to end his fast. The leaders have promised us that they would meet Hardik Patel in this regard," the energy minister said after the meeting.

C K Patel, who led the delegation of Patidar leaders, told reporters that they would convey the feelings of the government to the 25-year-old quota spearhead.

"This is just a first meeting over many issues of Patidars. Such meetings will take place in the future too. The government showed a positive approach to many of our demands. We will meet Hardik to convince him to end his fast," he told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Saurabh Patel had claimed that Hardik Patel's quota movement was a politically-motivated agitation with the backing of the Congress.

Meanwhile, more support poured in for Hardik Patel Tuesday, as former Union minister Yashwant Sinha along with Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shatrughan Sinha met him at his residence near here and extended their support.

After the meeting, Yashwant Sinha announced that he would take Hardik's agitation, particularly with regard to farmers, to the national level.

"During my short meeting with Hardik, it has been decided that we will take this agitation to the national level and fight strongly. Not just Gujarat, we will take this movement to every corner of the country," Sinha told reporters.

"The issues on which Hardik Patel is holding fast have created an impact across the country. The issues are being discussed everywhere," he added.

While the former Union finance minister maintained that he and others were with Hardik in his "fight for farmers", he also opined that the government should pay attention to the demand of reservation.

Responding to a query on caste quota, Sinha said the Union government should chart out a way forward as people from various communities who were outside the scope of reservation have demanded it.

"The Central government should think about this. It has formed a backward class commission. It should think on how to take this matter forward. As far as possible, we should try to work to improve (lives) of many communities who have lagged behind, as per Constitution," he said.

Shatrughan Sinha said their meeting with Hardik was not politically motivated.

"We gathered here in a non-political capacity on the basis of humanity. We are here because our aim is to construct the temple of humanity. We have no objection on mandir-masjid (sic)," he said.

He alleged that the BJP governments in Centre and Gujarat were not bothered even as the entire Patidar community was worried about Hardik.

"When farmers' loans can be waived in other BJP-ruled states, why it cannot happen in Gujarat? Farmers must get justice. I appeal to the government to waive farm loans," Shatrughan Sinha said, adding democracy needs to be strengthened to fight autocracy.

Meanwhile, the state government Tuesday told the Gujarat High Court that it was not trying to suppress or "demoralise" the agitation of Hardik Patel.

The government, in a written reply, said it was only trying to ensure that there was no violence such as witnessed during the Patidar quota agitation three years ago.

The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) led by Hardik Patel has moved the high court, alleging that police were not letting people enter the bungalow on the outskirts of Ahmedabad where the quota leader is on hunger strike since August 25.

Hardik had launched his hunger strike on the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in Ahmedabad.

He had on Sunday released his "will" in which he divided his property among his parents, sister, 14 youths killed during the quota agitation in 2015 and a 'panjrapole' (shelter for ill and old cows) near his village.

Apart from the Congress, leaders and representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) have visited Hardik at his residence and extended their support.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister on parliamentary affairs Babar Awan resigned today after the anti-graft agency registered a corruption case against him, in the first jolt to the Imran Khan-led government.

Awan, while stepping down, said the rule of law of must start from himself. He said he has forwarded his resignation to the prime minister.

"Just reached PM House to tender my resignation from Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Rule of Law begins with me. Thank you, Insafians for standing by me always. I will never let you down," Awan wrote in a tweet.

The resignation of the close aide of Khan came hours after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a corruption case against Awan regarding a delay in Nandipur Project in the Accountability Courts in Islamabad.

Geo reported on Sunday that Awan was questioned by the anti-graft body for three hours over allegedly delaying the Nandipur Project.

Quting sources, the report said that a team of the NAB's Rawalpindi chapter, led by Deputy Director Asma Chaudhry, questioned the 60-year-old Senator from Punjab province for keeping the project's file "away" for months, leading to a loss worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer.

The delay was caused during the tenure of Pakistan Peoples Party-led government in the centre from 2008 to 2013, with Awan then serving as minister for law and justice, Geo reported.

The former federal minister for water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, along with other officers of the ministry, also faces a corruption case for delay in the same project, the report said.

The corruption cases were filed after a commission, constituted on the direction of the Supreme Court, held officers of the Ministry of Law and Justice responsible for the delay, it said.

Khan, who was sworn-in as prime minister last month, has vowed to root out corruption and cut down government expenditure to overcome the serious financial difficulties faced by Pakistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Last week's leakage of the question papers for recruitment tests for tubewell operators has left the aspirants a shattered lot, cursing their luck and the state, which, they say, is gaining "notoriety" due to the frequent leaks of papers over the years.

"Our state appears to be gaining notoriety due to the frequent leaks of question papers for various competitive examinations for the government jobs," said a harried Himanshu Kumar (name changed on request), who was to take the test for recruitment of the tubewell operators on Sunday.

Kumar had come to Lucknow with his friend Mahendra Singh (name changed) from Faizabad, braving inclement weather, to take the test



Lamenting over the development, Kumar said, "All my efforts have gone in vain... another year has been lost due to the question paper leakage. I was quite confident of clearing it. But the paper leakage has dashed my hopes."



Recalling the events unfolding on the day of the test, Singh said he had come across reports on Sunday morning on WhatsApp that the question for another paper has been leaked.

"Initially, I had dismissed it as rumour. But when I reached the examination centre, it turned out to be true," he said.

Reacting to some of the corrective measures, announced by the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC), the two welcomed them but dubbed them as "too late and too little".

"It's good that the UPSSSC has woken up to the malady, but it appears to be too late and too little," said Singh.

The examination for recruitment of tubewell operators, which was be held by the UPSSSC on Sunday, was cancelled on Saturday following the leakage of the question paper for Hindi.

The latest instance has occurred within months after the leakages of question papers for recruitment of assistant teachers in July and for those of police constables in June this year.

They were followed by yet another leakage of question papers for online tests for recruitment of sub-inspectors (SI) in July 2017, followed by the surfacing of papers for the preliminary examination of Uttar Pradesh provincial services on WhatsApp messaging service platform in March 2015.

Earlier in June 2013, the state had witnessed leakage of question papers for recruitment of railway police constables followed by the May 2011 leakage of All India Engineering Entrance Examination question papers.

While the repeated leaks of question papers for various examinations have been undermining the chances of genuine candidates and sending the police on arduous hunts for the criminals, the undeterred miscreants have gone on perfecting the art of their craft, often deploying high tech tele-communications gadgets like spy mikes and cell phones.

The UP STF had arrested Sunday 11 persons, including five candidates, and had seized from them five admit cards, 11 miblie phones and Rs 1.48 lakh from them.

Earlier this year on July 29, the police had arrested as many as 51 persons from different parts of the state for their alleged roles in facilitating cheating during a recruitment examination for assistant teachers in the state.

Besides using various high-tech gadgets for facilitating cheating in various examinations, the gang allegedly used to hire professional impersonators from Bihar to sit in place of candidates to clear the tests on behalf of them, the police had revealed.

The professional "test-crackers" were generally found to be bright students from Bihar, who would sit in place of candidates, the police had found.

Barely weeks priors to the unearthing of the racket, the police had held 19 others on June 18, allegedly for aiding cheating through hi-tech devices, such as spy-mics, and deploying professional "test-crackers" to take the examination in place of candidates aspiring for the post of constable.

The two-day examination for appointing 41,520 constables had been conducted by the UP Police Recruitment Board at 860 centres in 56 districts.

Earlier in August last year, seven members of a gang allegedly involved in leaking question papers for an online test for police sub-inspectors were arrested by the UP STF.

The online examination had been organised by the UP Police Recruitment Board from July 7 to July 31 at 97 centres across the state. The test, however, had to be cancelled after the question paper was leaked on July 24 on various social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.

During the probe, it was found that Rs 10 lakh had been charged from each of the "collusive candidates" by the gang, which used to install remote access tools in computers of examination centres to solve the papers, senior police officers had said.

Rattled by the use of unfair means through hi-tech gadgets in various competitive examination for government jobs, Rajasthan has of late begun suspending mobile internet services in large parts of the state during the scheduled hours of the examinations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Gurgaon police have sought permission from the state government to probe the case registered against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda over a land deal which allegedly favoured Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra.

Hooda and Vadra were booked by police on Saturday in connection with alleged irregularities in the deal.

The BJP had made the deal a major issue in the the 2014 election, alleging that Vadra made crores of rupees with the connivance of the then Hooda-led Congress government.

Under the amended Prevention of Corruption Act, the police have to get approval of the competent authority' before investigating an FIR against a public servant, a senior official said Tuesday.

The Gurgaon police wrote to the state government on September 1 for this permission to investigate Hooda, Gurgaon Police Commissioner K K Rao said Tuesday.

He said once the permission is given the investigation will start.

The FIR against Vadra, Hooda and two companies -- DLF and Onkareshwar Properties -- was registered at Kherki Daula police station in Gurgaon.

The accused were booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Hooda said Tuesday in Jaipur that the BJP government is pursuing "vendetta politics".

The Congress leader claimed the case has been lodged to divert attention from the Rafale fighter aircraft deal.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, however, said the BJP government is committed to uprooting corruption.

"The FIR registered on Saturday will be thoroughly examined and investigated," Khattar had told reporters in Gurgaon on Sunday.

The FIR was lodged after a complaint was received from one Surinder Sharma, a resident of Nuh.

It said Vadra's Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd purchased 3.5 acre of land in Gurgaon's sector 83 from Onkareshwar Properties for Rs 7.50 crore in 2008, when Hooda was the chief minister and also held the portfolio of Town and Country Planning Department.

Later, Skylight Hospitality sold this land to realty major DLF for Rs 58 crore after procuring commercial licence for the development of the colony with the influence of Hooda, Sharma alleged.

In turn, DLF was favoured by the Hooda government with permission to develop another piece of land, it was alleged.

The Khattar-led BJP government set up a one-man commission headed by Justice (retd) S N Dhingra in 2015 to probe the grant of licences for developing commercial colonies in Gurgaon's sector 83.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An alleged hardcore criminal was arrested and detained under Public Safety Act (PSA) in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said Tuesday.

Yogeshwar Singh alias 'Jaibu', a resident of Udh Mandi village of Vijaypur, was arrested on Monday by a special police team and was subsequently lodged in Kathua district jail after execution of warrant under PSA, a police spokesman said.

Singh is a habitual criminal and his activities are prejudicial. His motive was not only to create terror among peaceful and law abiding citizens but also to form a criminal gang, he said.

The spokesman said the district police compiled Singh's entire record, prepared a dossier and got a warrant issued under PSA from deputy commissioner of Samba.

Singh was involved in a number of crimes over the past few years, the spokesman said, adding that four FIRs stand registered against him since 2015, including two under NDPS Act.

Teams were constituted many times in the past, but Singh managed to give the police parties the slip, the spokesman said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Gujarat government claimed on Tuesday that Patidar leader Hardik Patel's quota movement was a politically-motivated agitation with the backing of the Congress.

This is for the first time that the BJP government has reacted to the agitation of the 25-year-old, who has been on an indefinite fast for the last 11 days, demanding loan waiver for farmers and quota for Patidars in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

In a statement, Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said, "Patidar quota agitation is a political stir backed by the Congress. Ever since the agitation started three years back, we suspected that the Congress was behind it. Now, our suspicion has come true."



Saurabh said the Congress leaders who went to meet Hardik at his residence are those who are "anti-BJP and opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

"The quota stir is politically-motivated. The Congress needs to make its stand clear about reservation when the Supreme Court and various high courts have already made it clear that quota can not go beyond 50 per cent," the minister said.

He urged the quota-agitation spearhead to allow doctors to conduct his medical check-up. "We are also worried about his health. Our government wants him to cooperate with doctors," the BJP leader said, adding that a fully-equipped ambulance -- 'ICU on Wheels' -- and a team of doctors have been deployed at his residence.

Thanking the Patidar community for its "cooperation and maintaining peace" during the agitation, Saurabh said the government's door were open for talks. "Since this agitation is a politically-motivated one, it has to end through political means. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's government is committed to maintain peace in the state," he added.

Hardik had launched his hunger strike on August 25 -- the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in Ahmedabad which had turned violent that day in 2015.

He had Sunday released his "will" in which he divided his property among his parents, a sister, 14 youths killed during the quota agitation in 2015 and a panjrapole (shelter for ill and old cows) near his village.

Apart from the Congress, leaders and representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) have so far visited Hardik at his residence and extended their support to him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha Tuesday extended his support to Quota leader Hardik Patel who has been on hunger strike for farm loan waiver and Patidar reservation for the last 11 days.

The former Finance minister expressed the need to take the agitation launched by Hardik Patel for the cause of farmers across the country.

Sinha visited the quota spearhead at his residence near Ahmedabad.

He was accompanied by BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, former BJP chief minister of Gujarat Suresh Mehta and ex-BJP MP from Maharashtra Nana Patole.

Hardik Patel had launched indefinite fast on August 25 for demands including a farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in jobs and education.

The state BJP government has dubbed Hardik Patel's hunger strike "politically motivated".

"The issues on which Hardik Patel is holding fast have created an impact across the country. The issues are being discussed everywhere," he told reporters after meeting Hardik Patel.

Sinha, the convener of political action group Rashtra Manch, said the agitation launched by Hardik Patel should be taken to various parts of the country.

"One thing that we decided after a short discussion with Hardik Patel is that we need to take this agitation across the country and fight strongly," Sinha said.

He said the issues plaguing farmers in the country are serious and that farmers be granted a permanent relief including a loan waiver.

"We stand with Hardik Patel who has been raising the issue of farmers. Now the time has come that we fight together. We discussed this with him and we hope that the government wakes up now and initiate steps to resolve Hardik Patel's demands," the former BJP leader said.

Responding to a query on caste quota, Sinha said the Union government should chart out a way forward as people from various communities who are outside the scope of reservation have demanded it.

"The Central government should think about this. It has formed a backward class commission. It should think on how to take this matter forward. As far as possible, we should try to work to improve (lives) of many communities who have lagged behind, as per Constitution," he said.

Shatrughan Sinha said their meeting with Hardik Patel was not politically motivated.

"We gathered here in a non-political capacity on the basis of humanity. We are here because our aim is to construct the temple of humanity. We have no objection on mandir-masjid (sic)," he said.

Hardik Patel had launched his hunger strike on the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in Ahmedabad.

He had Sunday released his "will" in which he divided his property among his parents, a sister, 14 youths killed during the quota agitation in 2015 and a panjrapole (shelter for ill and old cows) near his village.

Apart from the Congress, leaders and representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) have so far visited Hardik Patel at his residence and extended their support.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court Tuesday set aside a trial court order granting bail to journalist Upendra Rai, arrested by the CBI for his alleged involvement in dubious financial transactions.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva allowed the CBI's challenge to the trial court's June 8 order granting relief to Rai.

On June 18, the operation of the June 8 bail order was stayed by the high court after it sought Rai's response on CBI's plea challenging the relief.

Challenging the trial court's order, Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi and advocate Rajdipa Behura, both appearing for the CBI, had argued that Rai's custody was required as fresh arrests were being made in the case and the FIR showed that public servants were involved and under investigation.

The agency had argued that the scribe was only a "front" and other big fish were involved in the matter.

The CBI's counsel had claimed in the high court that the findings in the trial court's bail order were "utterly perverse" and the investigation was at a crucial stage.

Therefore, the counsel said, the scribe should not be allowed bail.

Rai's counsel had claimed that the bail was rightly granted by the trial court and it should not have been stayed by the high court.

Rai was granted bail by the trial court in the CBI case on June 8 and, moments after he got the relief, he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at the Tihar Jail here.

He was arrested by the CBI on May 3 for allegedly indulging in dubious financial transactions and getting an airport access pass made by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) by furnishing false information.

CBI has also arrested Bureau of Civil Aviation Security official Rahul Rathore and Air One Aviation CMD Alok Sharma in the case.

The Supreme Court on May 4 refused to interfere with his arrest.

Prasun Roy, chief security officer, Air One Aviation Pvt Ltd, was also booked by the CBI, which had carried out searches at eight locations in Lucknow, Noida, Delhi and Mumbai.

In its FIR, the agency has alleged that going by the value of the transactions of over Rs 1 lakh each during 2017, Rai's accounts received Rs 79 crore, while Rs 78.51 crore was debited from it during the same period.

The ED had arrested him in the money laundering case related to alleged extortion and dubious financial transactions.

It had registered a money laundering case against him based on the CBI FIR.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court will hear later this week a plea seeking to close down unauthorised pathological labs and diagnostic centres in the national capital, alleging that they were being managed by unqualified technicians.

The petition is listed for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao on September 6.

The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Bejon Kumar Misra, a social activist, also sought to formulate a policy for regulating the opening and running of pathological laboratories, including calibration of the diagnostic equipment in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi.

The plea filed through advocate Shashi Bhushan, sought that as an alternative, guidelines be framed for implementation of the Clinical Establishment Act (Registration Regulation Act, 2010) to deal with the issue of unauthorised labs allegedly managed by "un-qualified" lab technicians.

"The NCT of Delhi is dominated by illegal and unauthorised pathological and diagnostic labs in every nook and corner of the city. These labs are operated by unqualified and irregular lab technicians, who are neither registered technicians nor have any required degree for managing the pathological and diagnostic labs," the petition said.

Misra alleged that the unqualified lab technicians were not only conducting various tests, but were also providing inferences based on unscientific and unqualified outcomes, which undermine the health and safety of people.

The plea said a small error in the diagnosis would lead to threat of life and irrational treatment to patients.

"Now such illegal labs continue to mushroom in and around Delhi NCT and it can be easily estimated that the total number of such illegal pathological and diagnostic labs can be anywhere between 20,000 to 25,000, and every street in the capital is having such illegal pathological labs," the plea claimed.

It alleged the city government has no proper mechanism or strategy to stop the mushrooming of such illegal labs.

"The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) under the Quality Council of India (QCI) is optional and not mandatory before opening of a pathological or diagnostic lab in Delhi," the petition added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Private non-life insurer HDFC Ergo Tuesday announced the launch of a cyber insurance policy for individuals named E@Secure.

This policy aims at providing comprehensive protection to individuals and their families against any cyber-attacks, cyber frauds or digital threats that could lead to a financial loss and or reputational loss, a release said.

The policy also pays for legal cost and expenses and legal advice sought by the insured in case of a legal dispute arising out of specified risks covered in the policy.

******************* Tech Mahindra partners with FutureSkills for employee training *



Tech Mahindra Tuesday announced its partnership with FutureSkills, a NASSCOM initiative, to train its workforce in next gen technologies.

This is a step towards reskilling and upskilling Tech Mahindra's workforce in next gen technologies, to enable them to deliver innovative and cutting-edge solutions to the customers, the company said in a statement.

FutureSkills is powered by Edcast, a leading Silicon Valley organisation for personalised learning.

******************* MTDC, MCGM make special arrangements for Ganesh festival *



To promote Ganesh festival amongst travellers, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) Tuesday said it has made special arrangements for international tourists in association with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).

A pavilion with over 300 capacity has been set up at Girgaum Chowpatty for tourists to observe and participate in the cultural fervour of Maharashtra, a release said.

The pavilion will include amenities like clean drinking water, mobile toilets, bus transport along with refreshment, Maharashtra tourism minister Jaykumar Rawal was quoted as saying in the release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tropical Storm Gordon gained strength as it moved steadily toward the US Gulf Coast Tuesday, on track to make landfall just east of New Orleans with hurricane force winds.

Authorities declared a state of emergency in the "Big Easy" -- devastated in 2005 by mega Hurricane Katrina -- and encouraged people living outside its levee system to evacuate voluntarily.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Gordon, which formed near the upper Florida Keys Monday, was 190 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River at 1200 GMT.

A hurricane warning was in place from the mouth of the Pearl River, on the Louisiana-Mississippi state line, to the Alabama-Florida border to the east.

At 1200 GMT, the storm was moving on a northwesterly track at a speed of 15 miles per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) that extended up to 80 miles from the storm's center.

"The center of Gordon will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico today, and will approach the north-central Gulf Coast within the warning area late this afternoon or evening, and move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley tonight or early Wednesday," the NHC said in a statement.

Up to eight inches of rain could fall across the Gulf states. Meanwhile, warnings of a "life-threatening" storm surge of up to five feet were in place across a stretch of the Louisiana and Alabama coastline east of New Orleans.

"The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves," the NHC said.

The NHC added it expects "rapid weakening" once Gordon makes landfall.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amnesty International India said Tuesday the Centre's advisory to private satellite TV channels to refrain from using the word 'Dalit' for people belonging to Scheduled Castes will impede the Dalit rights movement from asserting itself against caste-based oppression.

"Progressive social groups adopted the term 'Dalit' in the 1970s to assert their identity in their fight against caste-based oppression. The term 'Dalit' is much more than just a word, it is a shared identity that recognises the historic discrimination faced by the community in India," Asmita Basu, Programmes Director, Amnesty International India said.

"The government has no business telling the media to not use the term 'Dalit'. Government should respect the right of Dalit groups to identify themselves in the manner they choose," she said.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has issued the advisory to all private satellite TV channels, urging them to refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for people belonging to Scheduled Castes in compliance with a Bombay High Court directive.

The Amnesty International India in a statement said it spoke to two private channels who confirmed that they have received the circular.

It is unclear though whether newspapers and magazines have also received the circular. The ministry so far has not specified whether the circular was binding and did not list any action if TV channels do not comply, the statement said.

"If the media is gagged from upholding the values of fundamental rights, this would affect the right to dignity and the right to life for those who are fighting against caste-based oppression. This will affect the identity of not only this generation, but also the future generations," Paul Diwakar, General Secretary of National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), was quoted as saying to the Amnesty International India, in the statement.

The rights body said this was not the first time the central government was objecting to the use of the term 'Dalit'.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on March 15 this year, in a letter, to chief secretaries of state governments and Union Territories said, "the Central government/state government and its functionaries would refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for the members belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as the same does not find mention in the Constitution of India or any statute," the Amnesty International said.

The advisory by the I&B Ministry, addressed to all private TV channels on August 7, referred to a June directive by the Bombay High Court asking the ministry to consider issuing a direction to the media to stop using the word 'Dalit'.

The court directive had come over a petition filed by Pankaj Meshram before the Nagpur bench of the high court.

"It is accordingly advised that media may refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' while referring to members belonging to Scheduled Castes in compliance with the directions of the Hon'ble Bombay High Court and the Constitutional term 'Scheduled Caste' in English, and its appropriate translation in other national languages should alone be used for all official transactions, matters, dealings, certificates, etc. for denoting the persons belonging to Scheduled Castes," the advisory said.

The advisory had also cited the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment circular of March 15, advising the central and state governments to use the term 'Scheduled Caste'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The top brass of the state police and BSF Tuesday called on Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik separately and apprised him of the internal security situation of the Valley.

Kashmir Inspector general of Police S P Pani met the Governor at the Raj Bhavan and briefed him about the security scenario in the Valley, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said.

He said the Governor advised the IGP to have close surveillance on all fronts.

The Governor asked the IGP to ensure that the forces play a "prompt and pro-active role" in solving the problems of the people at large, the spokesman said.

He said the IGP's meeting with the Governor was followed by BSF Inspector General Sonali Mishra's meeting.

Mishra too apprised the Governor of the security situation in her jurisdiction.

She apprised Malik about the role and responsibilities of the BSF during the annual Shri Amarnathji Yatra which concluded recently, the spokesman said.

He said the Governor lauded the BSF's role in smooth conduct of the Shri Amarnathji Yatra year after year and advised her to ensure enhanced surveillance along the borders.

He also advised her taking stringent measures to enforce counter-infiltration grid during the ensuing winter, besides taking steps for welfare of the BSF personnel, engaged in difficult duties.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 22-year-old student of the IIT Bombay was found dead in a hotel room in suburban Jogeshwari here, the police said Tuesday.

Police suspect it to be a case of suicide, saying the deceased Jaideep Swain was apparently suffering from depression.

Swain, who hailed from Chhatishgarh, had checked into the hotel last Friday (August 31), a police official said.

The cleaning staff of the hotel knocked on the door of Swain's room Monday (September 3) afternoon, but failed to get any response, he said.

The staff then called up the police and opened the door with a spare key in our presence, the official said.

Police found Swain lying unconscious inside the room, following which he was rushed to hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, he said.

According to the official, Swain had sent a mail to his sister before taking the extreme step, stating that he was 'feeling sorry for going off-track'.

Police have registered a case of accidental death and further investigation is on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India is learnt to have declined an invitation from Russia to attend a multilateral conference on Afghanistan after Kabul decided not to be a part of it.

Sources said India will not attend the conference as Afghanistan itself had decided against attending the conclave.

Russia is organising the conference to bring peace in Afghanistan.

India has always been favouring an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process to bring peace and stability in that country.

The peace conference on Afghanistan was scheduled to take place in Moscow on Tuesday, but it has been postponed after several countries turned down Russia's invite to attend the event.

The Taliban had indicated its willingness to attend the conference.

India has been actively involved in reconstruction efforts in war-ravaged Afghanistan. Since 2002, India has committed USD 2 billion to the socio-economic development of the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A raft of key issues such as the US' sanctions on import of Iranian crude oil, boosting cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and finalising a pact on encrypted defence technologies will be the focus of the inaugural two-plus-two talks between India and the US here on Thursday, official sources said.

India's plan to ink a Rs 40,000 crore deal with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems may also figure in the talks, the sources indicated Tuesday.

Issues like enhancing trade, effectively dealing with terrorism and India's concerns over the Trump administration's decision to make changes in the H1B visa programme are also expected to figure prominently in the talks, they said.

Under the new framework finalised last year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold talks with the US Secretary of State Mike R Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis.

As Secretary Pompeo arrives here tomorrow from Islamabad, India will also try to get his view about the new government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the sources said.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford will also be part of the US delegation.

Swaraj will have a separate bilateral meeting with Pompeo while Sitharaman will have a one-on-one meeting with Mattis on Thursday morning before the delegation-level two-plus-two talks.

Twelve officials from each side are expected to attend the talks which will be followed by a luncheon meeting.

In the afternoon, Swaraj, Sitharaman, Pompeo and Mattis will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The sources said the focus of the talks will be to lift the strategic engagement between the two countries to a "whole of government approach" covering a wide range of areas for cooperation.

Significantly boosting defence and security cooperation, including in areas of co-development of military platforms, will be a priority, they said.

Referring to India's yet to be inked S-400 missile deal with Russia, the sources said it was for the US to decide on what steps it may take.

India's position on the issue has been that it will go ahead with the deal notwithstanding American sanctions on military transactions with Moscow.

On US sanctions on import of Iranian oil, the sources said India will also explain to the US delegation its position on the issue, including how the import has been crucial for India's energy security.

In May, the US withdrew from the landmark Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed the sanctions that had been suspended in return for curbs on Tehran's nuclear programme.

Iran is India's third largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The US' sanctions on import of Iranian petroleum products will be effective from November 4.

India and the US will also attempt to firm up a long-negotiated agreement which will provide for obtaining critical and encrypted defence technologies by the Indian military from the US, official sources said.

Both sides will discuss the long-pending Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement (COMCASA), the sources said.

The COMCASA will help India obtain critical and encrypted defence technologies for Indian defence platforms from the US.

The sources said ways to bolster cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and ways to deal with challenge of terrorism will figure prominently in the talks.

The US delegation will arrive here tomorrow. While Secretary Pompeo will leave from India Thursday evening, Secretary Mattis will depart on Friday.

Defence Minister Sitharaman will host a dinner for him on Thursday evening.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A contingent of the Indian Army's 61 Cavalry based here flew to Israel on Tuesday to participate in the centenary celebrations of liberation of Haifa by the Indian troops.

The nine-men contingent is being led by Major Arpit Rathee, defence spokesperson Colonel Sombit Ghosh said.

The contingent flew to Israel from New Delhi.

A mounted cavalry force comprising the Jodhpur Lancers, the Hyderabad Lancers and the Mysore Lancers had liberated the city of Haifa from the occupation of Turkey in an unparalleled mounted cavalry charge a hundred years ago.

"A large number of soldiers from Rajasthan including the leader of the charge Major Dalpat Singh had laid down their lives in the bold action. Present day 61 Cavalry Regiment is the new avatar of amalgamation of the Jodhpur and Mysore Lancers and hence the custodian of this great historical heritage," he said.

Haifa Day is celebrated by the government of Israel in September every year.

Being the centenary year of liberation, the celebrations have gained special relevance this year. Multiple celebrations have been planned in Israel, Delhi and Jaipur in the coming weeks, he said.

The famous Teen Murti Memorial in Delhi has been recently rechristened as Teen Murti-Haifa Memorial by the Indian government to pay obeisance to the brave Indian soldiers who fought in this historical battle.

The contingent will participate in a series of events which will culminate with wreath laying at the Hindu Cemetery, a memorial to acknowledge the sacrifice of the Indian soldiers in the battle of Haifa, located at Mount Carmel in Haifa city.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iran's foreign minister said at the start of a visit to Damascus on Monday that "terrorists must be purged" from Syria's Idlib and the entire northwestern province returned to government control.

Mohammad Javad Zarif's comments in Damascus were reported by Iran's semi-official Fars agency and came as Syrian forces and their allies are preparing for an assault on Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in the country.

"Syria's territorial integrity should be safeguarded and all tribes and groups, as one society, should start the reconstruction process, and the refugees should return to their homes," Zarif said.

He met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who is just back from a visit to Moscow. The visit comes days before the leaders of Iran, Turkey, and Russia are expected to meet in Iran to discuss the situation in Idlib.

President Donald Trump on Monday sent a tweet warning Assad and his allies against a "reckless attack" on Idlib province. "The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump said.

During their meeting Assad and Zarif discussed the agenda of the summit in Iran. A statement from Assad's office said Iran and Syria "had similar views on the different issues" to be discussed. It provided no further details.

Zarif said it was necessary to consult "with our Syrian friends" ahead of the Sept. 7 summit, according to Fars.

Iran has lent crucial military and economic support to Assad throughout the seven-year civil war and the discussions are expected to focus on the decisive battle for Idlib.

Assad has vowed to defeat the opposition in its last refuge in the northwestern province if the rebels do not surrender to government rule.

Idlib and the surrounding area is home to some 3 million people nearly half of them already displaced more than once by the civil war. Tens of thousands of people fled to Idlib after surrendering in government offensives elsewhere, choosing to relocate to an opposition-held area rather than risk reprisals or forced conscription at the hands of the government.

UN officials believe an offensive on Idlib would trigger a wave of displacement that could uproot an estimated 800,000 people and discourage refugees from returning home. Thousands of government troops and allied fighters have been massing in areas surrounding the province.

In their meeting Monday, Assad and Zarif also discussed what they called "western pressure" on their two countries, in apparent reference to the U.S. sanctions on Iran and calls for limiting Iran's role in Syria. Israel has grown nervous of Iran's growing presence in Syria and threatened to prevent a build-up of pro-Iranian forces near its frontiers with Syria.

Russia, another Syria ally, and Damascus have also said that western countries are preparing to carry out strikes against Syria ahead of the Idlib offensive. They claim such threats were part of the west's attempt to undermine Syria's drive to restore control over all its territories.

The US and France have warned an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisis and warned that a chemical attack in Idlib would prompt a western retaliation. In the statement from the Syrian President's office, Assad and Zarif said that resorting to "threats and pressure reflect the failure of those countries to realize their plans for the region after Syria and Iran confronted them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iran will help push militants out of the last Syrian rebel stronghold with "the least human cost", Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday.

"We will try to prevent any damage to the Syrian people and complete the process of clearing extremists," Zarif said, according to state agency IRNA.

"The situation in Idlib is sensitive. We will try to remove terrorists from Idlib with the least human cost," he added.

Iran has been a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the seven-year conflict, and will assist the push against the last rebel stronghold along the Turkish border.

Zarif said the looming offensive had been discussed with Turkey and Syria.

It will also be addressed at Friday's summit in Tehran between the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia.

US President Donald Trump warned Syria, Iran and Russia on Monday against attacking the province, saying the offensive may cause a "human tragedy".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Israeli military official said Tuesday the army had carried out some 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months against mainly Iranian targets, a rare confirmation of such action.

A total of 202 strikes were carried out in neighbouring Syria, the official said, all of which involved "military targets, most of them belonging to the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards."



Around 800 missiles and bombs were used in the strikes, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the details first reported in various Israeli media.

Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran is backing President Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war.

A series of strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel in recent months, but the Israeli military rarely confirms them.

Israel has previously acknowledged carrying out dozens of strikes in Syria against what it describes as advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group.

Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, is another of Israel's enemies which is backing Assad in the Syrian conflict.

The rare confirmation of strikes comes after Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman signalled his country could hit Iranian targets in Iraq if they threatened Israel.

"We will face any Iranian threat, no matter where it comes from," Lieberman said Monday.

The defence minister was speaking following reports that Iran had provided ballistic missiles to allied Shiite militias in Iraq in recent months. "Our freedom of action is total," Lieberman added.

The Israeli military official did not comment directly on those reports on Tuesday, but said the army was aware of missile transfers from Iran to Iraq and then on to Syria.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israeli missile strikes targeted Iranian military positions in the Syrian provinces of Hama and Tartus on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Syria's state agency SANA said its air defence systems downed several missiles launched from Israeli warplanes.

The Observatory said missiles struck Wadi al-Oyoun in the central province of Hama, near a scientific research centre which was already targeted by Israeli strikes in July and last year.

Iranian military positions in coastal region of Banias, in the province of Tartus, were also targeted, the Britain-based monitoring organisation said.

"There was material damage," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

"The air defence system responded to an Israeli aggression carried out by aircraft... that targeted some of our military positions in the provinces of Tartus and Hama," SANA said, quoting a military source.

"Some of the missiles" were downed, the agency said, reporting an initial casualty toll of one dead and four wounded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dozens of Israelis are protesting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's visit with Israel's president.

The demonstrators gathered outside President Reuven Rivlin's residence Tuesday prior to Duterte's arrival.

Waving Israeli flags and blowing whistles, they chanted "shame, shame, shame. We will not be silent and we will not agree to the selling of weapons."



Israel has sold assault rifles to the Philippines national police force in the past and a major arms sale is reportedly on the agenda.

Human rights lawyer Itay Mack says the international community will eventually announce that Duterte is "responsible for crimes against humanity."



Duterte, the first Philippine president to visit Israel, is known for his profane outbursts and has been accused of committing human rights abuses in his deadly anti-drug campaign.

He's generally received a warm welcome.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In the largest ever flash sale, cash-strapped private carrier Tuesday put 25 lakh seats up for grabs at almost one-third of the normal fares for travel across its domestic and international network under a limited period offer.

The bookings of flights under the six-day offer will start on Tuesday and cover both business and economy class travel, said in a statement.

The travel period starts from September 10 onwards, it added.

" offers an up to 30 per cent savings on 2.5 million seats on travel within India and beyond to and from the UK/Europe and Canada, Gulf and South Asian countries," the airline said.

The offer will be available through all booking channels of the airline till September 7, the airline said, adding customers bookings their tickets through the company's website and mobile can avail it till September 9.

Selling inventory in advance helps an airline generate working capital.

Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways, which posted a whopping Rs 13 bn loss in June quarter owing to high jet fuel prices, rupee depreciation and lower fares, is facing a cash crunch and looking for ways and means to raise capital.

"Guests can explore a whole gamut of destinations across the globe using this travel opportunity, as also make considerable savings on their bookings," said Raj Sivakumar, senior vice-president for worldwide sales and distribution, Jet Airways.

The Jet Airways offer comes a day after budget carrier announced the sale of 10 lakh seats at fares starting Rs 999 for its domestic and international flights.

In a similar move, Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia Berhad had Saturday offered fares as low as Rs 1,399 for the group airlines international network and Rs 999 for travel within India on its subsidiary, AirAsia India, flights.

The Jet Airways' global fare sale is available to guests booking their one-way and return tickets, for either business or economy travel, the statement said.

Guests from India can choose to travel to any of the airline's 66 destinations, including international ones, the airline said, adding guests booking their tickets from cities in the Gulf can book their travel to destinations in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Far East.Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das Tuesday invited Chinese investments in the food processing sector in his state, which is one of the largest producer of vegetables and fruits in India.

Das, who is currently on a five-day tour to China on the invitation of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), held talks with Song Tao, Minister of International Department of the party here to enhance ties between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the CPC.

He also called on Huang Kunming, a Politburo member and Head of the Publicity Department of the CPC.

The talks were focussed on enhancing India-China relations as well as the party-to-party relations between the BJP and the CPC, he told Indian media here on Tuesday.

Das also said he was visiting China, both as a BJP worker and the state's Chief Minister, to enhance relations with China in the backdrop of the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Besides the BJP, the CPC has party-to-party ties with other Indian political parties, including the Congress and the CPI(M).

During the talks, Das said, he highlighted about the various development projects in his resource-rich state and invited Chinese investments specially in the food processing industry as Jharkhand in one of the largest producer of vegetables and fruits in India.

He said, he has invited China to be the partner country in "the Global Agriculture and Food Summit '18" being held by Jharkhand in November 29-30 in the state capital, Ranchi.

The summit will highlight the rich ecosystem of Jharkhand and its untapped potential of agriculture and food sectors, he said, adding that his aim was to make the state a food-processing hub of the eastern India and invited large-scale Chinese participation.

He said that land allocation for the setting up factories was not an issue as his government has acquired 1000 acres of land, which has been transferred to the Industrial Area Development Authority of the state.

"Chinese investors coming through regular foreign investors route can access the land for their units," said Das.

The Jharkhand chief minister had visited Beijing and Shanghai and he will now be visiting the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, where China's large food processing units are located.

He said that in Zhengzhou, he will be meeting provincial leadership of Henan Province and visit major food processing and infrastructure companies of China and invite them to invest in Jharkhand.

During his meetings with Chinese officials, he highlighted the various development projects undertaken by his state, including the world's tallest 'Buddha stupa' to be built at Itkhori in Chatra district.

He said Itkhori has special significance to Buddhists as it is where Buddha has left his mother and headed to Bodh Gaya.

Plans are afoot to link Itkhori to Buddhist circuit which is being developed to attract more Chinese tourists, he said.

Das also said there are plans to build a tower, similar to the Shanghai tower, in Ranchi to attract tourists.

The Shanghai tower is the world's second tallest building. The 632-metre, 128-story mega skyscraper has the world's highest observation deck within a building. It is also equipped with the world's fastest elevators.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sharad Kalaskar was one of the two shooters who allegedly killed anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar in August, 2013, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a Pune court Tuesday.

The court remanded him in the central probe agency's custody till September 10.

The other alleged shooter, Sachin Andure, is now in judicial remand.

Kalaskar is an expert in "weapon handling" and was involved in "making of bombs", the CBI told Judicial Magistrate (First Class) S M A Sayyad.

"During the investigation, it was revealed that Kalaskar was the other shooter, who fired two bullets at Dabholkar along with Andure (who allegedly fired one round)," said CBI lawyer Vijaykumar Dhakne.

The agency wanted his custody to probe his role in the conspiracy further, Dhakne said.

The conspiracy was hatched by Virendra Sinh Tawde (already arrested), Kalaskar and others, he said.

Defence lawyer Dharmaraj Chandili opposed the demand for CBI custody of Kalaskar.

According to the CBI's charge sheet against Tawde, two men, named "Sarang Akolkar" and "Vinay Pawar", were the shooters who killed Dabholkar, but now the agency has changed its tune, he said.

The CBI has not yet recovered the firearms and the two-wheeler used in the crime, the defence lawyer pointed out.

Kalaskar was arrested last month by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with an alleged conspiracy to carry out blasts in the state.

The ATS had claimed that during interrogation, Kalaskar revealed that he and Sachin Andure were involved in the Dabholkar murder, following which it tipped off the CBI which arrested Andure.

The CBI took Kalaskar's custody from the ATS on Monday.

The agency has also claimed that two men arrested in the journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case by Karnataka police were also involved in the Dabholkar murder conspiracy.

The CBI arrested the two -- Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digvekar -- in the Dabholkar case last week.

While Dabholkar was killed in Pune on August 20, 2013, Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Tuesday said his government accorded top most priority for quality of and suggested officials to study steps taken by the AAP government in Delhi in the field and submit a report.

He asked the officials to recommend ways to improve the quality of in the state, the Chief Minister's Office said in a tweet.

Responding to the tweet, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government would be happy to share its experience with Karnataka.

Kumaraswamy made the suggestion following a meeting he held with the department officials Monday.

"Recruitment of teachers, maintenance of school buildings and infrastructure issues, were among the points discussed in the meeting," he said.

Kejriwal in his tweet said: "Delhi govt will be more than happy to share its experiences wid (sic) Govt of Karnataka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senators will hear Tuesday from President Donald Trump's pick for the US Supreme Court, who pledged to be a neutral "umpire" who favours the law over personal preference.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh's high-profile hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee kick off Tuesday at 9:30 am (local time), with Republicans praising him as a principled and exacting jurist and Democrats furious over what they describe as a lack of transparency about his time in George W Bush's White House.

Kavanaugh, who if confirmed would replace retired swing-vote justice Anthony Kennedy, said in excerpts of his opening remarks that he is a "pro-law judge" who would bring his impartiality to the nation's high court.

"A good judge must be an umpire -- a neutral and impartial arbiter who favours no litigant or policy," he said in the excerpts released by the White House.

"I don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences." US Court of Appeals Judge Kavanaugh, 53, is expected to face punishing questioning from Democrats over his endorsement of presidential immunity and his opposition to abortion.

Around two dozen witnesses are lined up to argue for and against confirming Kavanaugh, who could swing the nine-member high court decidedly in conservatives' favor for years to come.

Kavanaugh stressed that if confirmed, he would be "committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution," and would always strive to be "a team player on the Team of Nine." Democrats have mobilized heavily to prevent his confirmation.

They have been fiercely critical of the Trump administration for not providing sufficient documentation about Kavanaugh's time in Bush's White House, where he may have played key roles in terrorism-related decisions, such as permitting the torture of detainees.

On Monday night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer complained that the administration provided senators an additional 42,000 pages of



Kavanaugh documents on the evening before the confirmation hearing. "This underscores just how absurd this process is. Not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow," Schumer tweeted.

The Judiciary Committee responded, saying "the majority staff has now completed its review of each and every one of these pages." Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, joined what she called a "silent protest" on the Supreme Court steps minutes before the hearing to draw attention to the lack of transparency.

"I've never had a hearing like this, where documents are so difficult to get," she said, pointing to what she said was the 93 per cent of documents from Kavanaugh's time as a White House counsel and then staff secretary that have not been provided to the Senate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit South Korea later this month to sign agreements in various sectors including e-governance, transportation, climate change and smart city with the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The chief minister is expected to leave for South Korean capital Seoul on September 11 and conclude the visit on September 14, said a Delhi government official.

This will be the his first bilateral visit to a foreign country after becoming the chief minister of Delhi, he said.

In November last year, the Delhi government had signed a twin city agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Government for strengthening cooperation in the fields of e-governance, transportation, climate change and smart city.

The agreement - Establishment of Friendship City Relationship - was signed between Seoul Metropolitan Government led by Mayor Park Won Soon and Chief Minister Kejriwal.

Other areas of cooperation that the agreement proposed were environment, culture and tourism, education, waste water, solid waste management, public health and youth exchange, among others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)State Bank of India and its employees have donated Rs 10 crore in the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund in the flood-ravaged Kerala, said the country's largest lender in a statement on Tuesday.

State Bank of India Managing Director (Retail and Digital Banking) Parveen Kumar Gupta handed over a cheque of Rs 8 crore to E P Jayarajan, Minister in-charge of Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

"This includes Rs 5 crore raised by the employees of SBI collectively and a further contribution of Rs 3 crore by the bank, to make the total contribution amount to Rs 10 crore in the CMDRF, including the initial contribution of Rs 2 crore to CMDRF," the release said.

The bank has 1,245 branches and 3,243 ATMs in the state.

As per the release, over 15,000 employees of the bank across the state voluntarily undertook on-the-ground relief measures by providing basic supplies like food and grain, medicines, drinking water, clothes, to the affected people.

The bank has managed to normalise services for its customers by making all branches and most of the ATMs operational immediately, it added.

To meet immediate cash requirements of the flood affected people, over 2,800 cash-POS machines were also deployed by the bank.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Concerned over the unprecedented simultaneous drought and flood situations in different areas of the Siang river basin, Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday drew the attention of the union home ministry to it.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he sought an assesment of the situation by an inter-ministerial team for further action and precautionary measures.

The Chinese government had in a August 29 report, its first river water data share this year, cautioned that Tsangpo river, as Siang is called in that country, was in spate following heaviest rains in 150 years and the various gauge and discharge stations on it had seen a discharge of 9,020 cumec (cubic metre per second) water.

This had prompted the East Siang district administration to requisition IAF for helicopter to evacuate people and high waters of the river had affected over 1,000 families living along it at Mebo.

The chief minister informed Singh about the reports of Siang River flowing above the danger level and said that many houses have been eroded and washed out under the impact of gushing flood water.

The sudden rise in the water level and the muddy water flowing in the river is causing concern amongst the locals, Khandu said in the letter.

The situation is now normal following improvement in weather condition, officials said.

In contrast to it many areas of Namsing circle also in Mebo sub-division of East Siang district, areas of Siang, Upper Siang and parts of Lower Dibang Valley districts are facing drought-like situation, the letter said.

He requested the ministry to depute an inter-ministerial team to visit the flood and drought affected areas of the state for a clearer picture for immediate remedial measures, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Kindergarten principal of a Chinese school was fired following parents and public anger for permitting a pole dance which was performed on the flagpole bearing the national flag.

authorities from Baoan district of Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province fired the principal amid criticism of the pole dance show in front of children on the first day of classes on Monday, state-run Global Times said.

The Baoan district bureau made the announcement, after a video went viral online in which the pole dancers are performing next to a flagpole bearing China's national flag on the playground of the Xinshahui kindergarten, as part of the school's opening day.

Kindergarten principal Lai Rong said there were 500 children aged three to six years old and 100 parents. Some of the boys in the audience were seen mimicking the strip-like pole dance moves.

The school and its principal soon faced a backlash online, with many calling the dance absolutely inappropriate for children at that age.

"We would like to pull our children out of the school and get a refund," said one of the parents.

Lai sent an apology letter to the daily on Monday, admitting that the school had failed to carefully examine the dance content before allowing it to be performed, and the school was simply trying to liven up the atmosphere.

"A few parents did come to me requesting a refund and threatening to pull their children out of the school. While others said it was just to learn a new type of dance," Lai said



"I may as well be dead. I already lost the hope to live," Lai said, claiming she arranged the pole dance because of the dancer's excellent skills.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Kremlin has criticized US President Donald Trump's warnings against a possible Syrian government attack on a rebel-held enclave.

Trump on Monday sent a tweet warning the Syrian government and its allies against a "reckless attack" on rebel-held Idlib province.

Russia has been a key backer of President Bashar Assad and has complained about militants in Idlib targeting its own facilities and posing a terrorist threat on the whole.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday reiterated Russia's stance and called Idlib "a hornets' nest of terrorists".

Asked about Trump's tweet, Peskov said such warnings do not take into account "the dangerous and negative potential" of the rebel-held enclave and show that the White House does not have a "comprehensive approach" to solving the Syria crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The death toll from fighting between rival armed groups in Libya's capital Tripoli has climbed to at least 50 people including civilians, authorities said Tuesday, as the UN mission stepped up efforts to broker a cease-fire.

Fighting erupted last week when the Seventh Brigade, militias which hail from Tarhouna, a town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Tripoli, attacked southern neighbourhoods of the capital.

The Tripoli Revolutionaries' Brigades and the Nawasi Brigade militias which support the Tripoli-based UN-backed government have come to the city's defence.

At least 138 people, including civilians, have since been wounded, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew ruler Moammar Gadhafi and led to his death. The country is currently governed by rival authorities in Tripoli and the country's east, each of which are backed by an array of militias.

Other armed groups have carved out fiefdoms across the country, with many profiting from smuggling and extortion.

The UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has voiced concern about the impact of the fighting on migrants and internally displaced people.

Spokeswoman Liz Throssell said Tuesday that some of the nearly 8,000 arbitrarily detained migrants are trapped in detention centres in areas where fighting has taken place, without access to food or medical treatment.

She said at least 21 civilians have been killed, including two women and two children since August 26.

Also on Tuesday, the UN Refugee Agency called on parties to the fighting to "spare civilians and civilian infrastructure and allow safe passage for those seeking refuge in safer areas".

The clashes have forced the UN-backed government to declare a state of emergency in and around Tripoli, saying the fighting is "an attempt to derail peaceful political transition" in the country.

The government said it "could not remain silent over the attacks on Tripoli and its suburbs, which is a violation of security in the capital and of citizens' safety".

Mohamed Buisier, a political analyst, said the fighting was expected as the armed groups protecting the government in Tripoli were getting "larger portions of financial incentives."



"This is a normal thing after years of failure...We are in a new phase where nobody can strip the militias from their arms. Libya needs an international peace-keeping force," he said.

The UN mission in Libya has been preparing for a meeting between the warring parties in an effort to put an end to the fighting.

It called on "the various concerned parties" to meet on Tuesday for an "urgent dialogue on the security situation" in Tripoli.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Excise officials Tuesday seized 490 cartons of India Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and 40 drums of spirit worth Rs 1 crore and arrested a person in this connection from Bihar's Gopalganj district.

District Excise Superintendent Priya Ranjan said that 490 cartons of foreign liquor and 40 drums of spirit - each drum containing 200 litres - were seized from two trucks at Balthari check-post under Kuchaikot police station of the district.

The value of the seized items - liquor and spirit - are estimated to be around Rs 1 crore in the open market, the excise superintendent said.

During the search and raid, the team arrested the driver of a vehicle identified as Ravi Kumar, a resident of Sonipat district of Haryana while other persons managed to escape from the spot, the officer said.

Manufacture, trade, sale, consumption and possession of liquor was completely banned in Bihar by the Nitish Kumar government in April 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Mahila Congress raised Rs 25 lakh for Kerala floods relief and handed it over to AICC treasurer Ahmad Patel on Tuesday, a party statement said.

An All Indian Mahila Congress (AIMC) delegation led by its president Sushmita Dev met Patel and handed over the donation collected by AIMC teams across India.

Kerala State Mahila Congress President promised a contribution of Rs 5 lakh and AIMC President enclosed drafts and cheques of approximately Rs 20 lakh which state presidents and national office bearers of AIMC collected and contributed themselves, an AIMC statement said.

Apart from that, relief materials in the form of food and sanitary napkins for women have been dispatched from various states by Mahila Congress workers, it said.

The Mahila Congress is committed to continue to raise funds for "sisters in Kerala and help build Nava Kerala", the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bombay High Court Tuesday



refused to restrain a trial court from framing charges against Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and other accused persons in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

A bench of justices S S Shinde and Mridula Bhatkar, however, directed the trial court - the special National Investigating Agency (NIA) court here - to consider, in accordance with a previous Supreme Court order, the issue of 'sanction' of prosecution raised by Purohit.

"The Supreme Court has also directed that trial in the case be expedited and hence, it would not be appropriate to grant the stay. The trial court will therefore consider the issue of the sanction as per the SC order and proceed further in the case," the bench said.

The special court is expected to begin framing of charges in the case Wednesday.

Purohit had approached the high court earlier this month.

In his plea filed through advocate Shrikant Shivade, he had urged the high court to stay the framing of charges until the issue of his sanction, raised by him in his appeal seeking a discharge, was decided upon finally by the high court.

In his appeal as well as in the plea that was heard Tuesday, Purohit claimed that he cannot be prosecuted in the case since the sanction granted by the government to prosecute him in the case was wrong in law.

A prior sanction for Purohit's prosecution was required since he was a serving Army officer at the time.

The sanction was issued on January 17, 2009 by the additional chief secretary of the Maharashtra Home department.

Advocate Shivade, however, said under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the state law and judiciary department, which is the sanctioning authority, has to set up an appropriate authority and seek its report first.

In Purohit's case, the sanction for his prosecution was given in January 2009 but the authority was appointed only in October 2010, he argued.

The sanction in Purohit's case thus, was not valid under the provisions of the UAPA, Shivade argued.

Last year, Purohit had also filed a plea in the high court challenging his prosecution on the ground of validity of the state's sanction.

However, the high court had on December 18 last year refused to quash the government sanction.

Purohit then approached the Supreme Court that refused to intervene in the case on April 20.

The apex court observed that the issue of the sanction could be considered by the trial court at the time of framing of charges.

However, Purohit approached the high court seeking the stay, expressing the apprehension that the trial court might not take an unbiased view on the issue.

The bench, however, said the parties need not make any assumptions about the special court.

NIA counsel Sandesh Patil too opposed Purohit's plea and argued that in light of the Supreme Court order, it would be appropriate to allow the special court to decide the issue of sanction and proceed with the framing of charges.

Six people were killed and over 100 injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went off near a mosque at Malegaon in Maharashtra on September 29, 2008.

On December 27, 2017, a special NIA court had dismissed the pleas filed by Purohit, his co-accused sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, and six others seeking discharge from the case.

The court, however, gave them partial relief by dropping all charges against them under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Their appeals against this order are pending before the high court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As African leaders attend this week's summit in Beijing awash with investment pledges, back in Malawi, pupils are stuck into their Mandarin lessons -- a clear sign of China's increasing sway over the continent.

"The world now is going in such a way that if you want to travel, (you) should not want to find difficulties talking to people. Language can be a barrier," said Ndaziona Mponde, a Malawian student studying Mandarin in the capital Lilongwe.

"I want to learn Chinese because if I get a chance of going to China maybe for business or for school then I wouldn't find too many problems," she told AFP. Malawi and China have had diplomatic relations only since 2008.

But more than 1,000 Malawians now attend Chinese classes at 25 learning centres in four cities across Malawi, according to professor Feng Jianguo, director of the Confucius Institute in Lilongwe.

"We have a lot of Chinese enterprises offering opportunity of employment," Jianguo said.

"If you know how to speak, how to read and write and you learn the Chinese language, it will be much easier for you to find a job."



Last month, the Chinese embassy in Lilongwe announced it would provide 1,000 scholarships to Malawian students ranging from undergraduate to doctoral levels to study in China.

The programme is just part of China's massive engagement with Africa in recent decades.

The world's second biggest economy has poured billions of dollars of loans and funding support for roads, ports and other major infrastructure projects. From power plants in Botswana to diamond mines in Zimbabwe, railways in Nigeria and hydropower projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa has come to rely on China for investment and jobs.

Yvonnie Sundu, an arts reporter on Malawi's Nation newspaper who recently returned from studies in China, said the country's impact on Africa was increasingly evident.

"China is continuously offering options that were not previously available," she said.

"When you thought of going for further studies, the ideal choice was the UK or USA. But now, China has opened up."



Chinese President Xi Jinping told African leaders in Beijing on Monday that the country's investments on the continent have "no political strings attached" as he pledged USD 60 billion in new development financing.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Rwandan President Paul Kagame were among leaders present at the summit, which ends Tuesday.

At the demanding Confucius Institute at the University of Malawi teacher Sung Goujua has some encouraging advice.

"If your pursuit is to become a professional translator, maybe it can be quite difficult," he said.

"But if you just want to learn basic communication, it is very easy -- maybe two or three months would be enough.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mauritius said Tuesday it is fully committed to implementing recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), amid reports that a Sebi panel wants tighter rules for foreign investors coming from non-FATF countries.

Mauritius is a member of the Eastern and Southern African Anti Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) which was launched in 1999 and the ESAAMLG is also an associate member of the FATF since June 2010.

The FATF is an inter-governmental policy-making body that was set-up in 1989 to promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. It has 37 members, including India.

"By signing the memorandum of understanding of the ESAAMLG in 1999, Mauritius endorsed the FATF recommendations and committed itself to implement these recommendations," said Faraz Rojid, the head of Financial Services at the Economic Development Board of Mauritius in a statement.

He further said, "Mauritius has, through the years, taken significant steps to enhance its framework for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism and implement the recommendations contained in its mutual evaluation reports."



The island nation has been one among the early countries to have been assessed under the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP). The assessment of standards and codes found a high level of compliance with internationally accepted norms and best practices, he noted.

"The FSAP also emphasized that Mauritius has taken several major steps to align its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism framework with international standards," he added.

The remarks come amid media reports that a Sebi panel wants tighter rules for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs)coming from non-FATF countries.

The Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has set up a committee headed by former RBI deputy governor HR Khan to look into FPIs related issues.

Last week, Rojid had said that Mauritius IFC is a tax compliant jurisdiction and had put in place appropriate legislation for exchange of information with other nations as per global norms.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 29-year-old MBA graduate in Jammu and Kashmir has joined the Hizbul Mujahideen, prompting the Army to assure all possible help if he shuns the path of violence, a senior officer said.

The picture of Haroon Abbas Wani with an AK-47 rifle has gone viral on social media recently, indicating his joining the terror group on Saturday. Wani is a resident of Ghat area of Doda district and a master of business administration degree holder from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra.

His family has made a passionate appeal for his return. "The biggest jihad is to serve elderly parents. There is no need for jihad as we are happy," his aunt said in a video message, adding that his decision had left them ashamed. "Your mother and father has fallen sick and they need you very badly. Please return."



His uncle, Farooq Ahmad Wani, said he was very good at studies and gave no inkling of his joining the terror group ever. He was working in a private company in Jammu and "we are unable to understand who lured him into this path".

Commenting on the issue, Maj. Gen. Rajiv Nanda, general officer commanding (GOC), Delta Force, said, "Yesterday, we came to know about Wani joining a terror group... I hope good sense will prevail upon him and he will return to mainstream.

"If he returns, we are there to help him. We can guide him but it's he, who has to choose path for him."



Nanda said Wani was not at his native village, but at Jammu since the last two-three years and it could not be immediately known who motivated and misguided him to join militant ranks.

"The youth belongs to an educated family and has put them to a lot of trouble (by his decision). I was moved to see the video of his ailing mother and other family members on social media, who are begging him to return back as his brother's marriage is scheduled on the 9th of this month," the army officer said.

Wani is the second youth joining terror ranks from Doda over the past three months. In July, 25-year-old Abid Hussain Bhat had joined the Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit and got killed along with another militant in an encounter with security forces in Anantnag district later that month.

Nanda rejected possibilities of the incident influencing other youths, saying it was a "stray incident". "Although we are keeping a close eye on the recent development but there are no reports that it has impacted overall scenario or influenced any other youth.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday opposed Karnataka's "unilateral" action to seek the Central Water Commission's clearance to a feasibility report for a Rs 5,912-crore reservoir at Mekedatu on Cauvery river.

Approaching CWC was in violation of the final order of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Palaniswami said the upper riparian state had not approached Tamil Nadu seeking its concurrence for the Mekedatu Balancing Reservoir-cum-drinking water project.

He sought Modi's intervention to stop forthwith further processing of the feasibility report.

"I would like to point out that this action of Karnataka is in violation of the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court and also in contravention to the directives of the Government of India to share the plans with the co-basin States for their consent before proposing any new schemes," Palaniswami said.

Karnataka's proposal to build a reservoir at Mekedatu across the Cauvery would amount to a "clear violation" of the final order of the tribunal and a Supreme Court order on water for consumptive use by stakeholder states, he added.

"The proposed reservoir will affect the natural flow of the river Cauvery and will nullify the final order of the Tribunal and the Supreme Court.

"In a federal structure, no upper riparian state should unilaterally interfere with the natural flow of an inter-state river without the consent and concurrence of the lower riparian states," he said.

The Karnataka government has not approached Tamil Nadu seeking concurrence for the project, but directly approached the CWC "in contravention to the guidelines/procedure laid down by the Government of India," Palaniswami added.

The CWC ought not to have processed the proposal and should have instead advised Karnataka to get the concurrence of Tamil Nadu and other co-basin states on the matter, he said.

"This unilateral action of Karnataka has caused great alarm and apprehension among the people of Tamil Nadu as it will affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers who depend on Cauvery water," he said.

Palaniswami urged Modi to instruct the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation to direct the CWC "to stop forthwith further processing" of Karnataka's feasibility report to construct the balancing reservoir at Mekedatu.

The Ministry of Water Resources should also be instructed that no consent should be given to any projects on Cauvery river without obtaining prior concurrence of Tamil Nadu and other co-basin states, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Several policemen were injured in a clash with a group of people who were protesting against a liquor shop in their locality in South Dinajpur district Tuesday.

The liquor shop at Gopal Colony area of Balurghat, the district headquarter town, was also ransacked by the mob, police said.

The shop, owned by the security guard of an MP, was earlier located at Hili More beside the state highway. But it was relocated to Gopal Colony following the Supreme Court's order prohibiting liquor vends within 500 metre of the national and state highways across the country.

Police said the people were angry with the liquor shop being relocated in the locality and today a large group went there and started ransacking it.

When the police reached there, a clash ensued with the mob and several policemen were injured in brick batting. A police vehicle was also ransacked, police said.

Later, a large police contingent went there and resorted to lathi charge to bring the situation under control.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Terming resumption of dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad as "inevitable" for peace in south Asia, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the hand of friendship to his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan for skae of Kashmir.

The Peoples Democratic Party president also appealed to the Prime Minister to follow the steps of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to revive the peace process between the two neighbours.

Peace in south Asia will only be possible if it is ensured in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP president said, addressing a public meeting in border district of Rajauri.

Urging Modi to extend the hand of friendship to Khan and pick up the peace process from where Vajpayee had to leave it, Mehbooba said, "It will usher a new era of growth and tranquillity in the two countries."



If it's done, the people would no longer live in constant fears and heave a sigh of relief, she said.

She said opening new roads between "divided Jammu and Kashmir" and strengthening the people-to-people contact would lower the tension across the border.

Terming dialogue and reconciliation between India and Pakistan as "inevitable for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, Mehbooba said, "The two countries need to rise above ego and exhibit the political astuteness to help realise the people's dream of a peaceful and tranquil Jammu and Kashmir."



Asserting that economic packages alone would not usher peace in the Valley, she said consistent and earnest efforts aimed at taking youths into confidence are needed "to stop them from going adrift".

The economic packages alone are not going to resolve the issue. The roads, bridges and electricity are vital for the people, but unless there is dialogue aimed at the resolution of the conflict, no relief can be ensured for the masses, she said.

She said after the 2014 polls yielded fragmented mandate, PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided to form government with the BJP with "the sole motive to reincarnate the Vajpayee era" in the state and to stop the vicious cycle of unabated killings and violence.

As I told my father that the decision to join hands with the BJP has more risks than rewards and would decline party's popularity, he said he was ready to sacrifice everything including his life, if that resolves the decades-old conflict, Mehbooba said.

Her father was confident that the reconciliation and dialogue would be initiated, and the measures taken during Vajpayee's era would be replicated once again, she added.

However, when Prime Minister Modi addressed a rally in Srinagar on November 7, 2015 , he announced Rs 80,000 crore package but exhibited no willingness for a thaw between India and Pakistan for the peace in the state.

This disheartened everyone including the people who had come from far-flung areas to listen to him," she said.

The PDP chief said even after witnessing hurdles in his way, her father remained adamant to get the two countries closer and always pitched for the dialogue which were desperately needed for peace in the state.

When I took over as the Chief Minister and headed the state for two years and two months, I did not compromise on my stand and stood like a rock before the Central government to protect state's special interests.

Had I shown any laxity in my approach, the BJP would not have toppled the government. They did not succeed in any way to make me barter the interests of the state for petty power and I can tell you with all certainty that I kept the honour and dignity of my people intact," she said.

Referring to the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua district in January this year, Mehbooba said she went to New Delhi and made it clear that the PDP cannot be the part of the government unless the two ministers who had openly supported the rapists were sacked and a transparent probe was allowed.

As the Chief Minister of the state, I remained in the forefront to thwart attempts to intimidate Gujjars and Bakerwals in the state and took every measure to ensure that no one harms them, she said.

Mehbooba said preserving the secular character of the state has been the top most priority of the PDP since its inception.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mumbai South Central MP Rahul Shewale Tuesday announced an aid of Rs 1 lakh for the family of a 20-year-old 'govinda' who died during Dahi Handi celebrations in the city on September 3.

Shewale visited the deceased Kush Khandare's house in Dharavi in Central Mumbai and attended his funeral Tuesday.

He announced that he would pay Rs 1 lakh to the family from his personal funds.

Khandare suffered an epileptic attack when he climbed the first layer of a human pyramid in Dharavi to break Dahi Handi, according to police.

He was taken to Sion Hospital where doctors declared him dead before admission.

In separate incidents in the island city and suburbs, 150 Govindas suffered injuries yesterday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madhya Pradesh police have stepped up security across the state in view of the ongoing protests against the amendments in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Some organisations have also given a call for 'Bharat bandh' against the SC/ST Amendment Bill passed in the Parliament last month.

The administration has imposed prohibitive orders under CrPC in four districts- Morena, Shivpuri and Bhind, all three in Gwalior-Chambal region, as well as in Ashok Nagar district in view of the proposed bandh.

Gwalior-Chambal region, one of the sensitive areas, had witnessed a large-scale violence on April 2 this year during the 'bharat bandh' called by Dalit groups.

Makrand Deuskar, Inspector General of Police (Intelligence) told reporters today, "Police headquarters have alerted all the superintendents of police in view of proposed bandh on September 6."



He said the police force allotted to the districts on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami yesterday, would continue to remain deployed.

Madhya Pradesh has witnessed protests against the ruling party leaders at various places in the past few days.

"In view of proposed Bharat Bandh on September 6, the prohibitive orders under CrPC section 144 have been imposed in the district," Bhind District Collector Ashish Gupta said in a press note.

"It is necessary to impose section 144 this time as the law and order situation in the district was disturbed on April 2 this year when some organisations had given the call of 'Bharat bandh'," he said.

The collectors in Shivpuri and Morena districts have also imposed prohibitive orders under CrPC section 144.

Brahma Samagam Sawarna Jankalyan Sangathan's national president Dharmendra Sharma said that about 150 organisations of upper castes and OBCs would participate in the Bharat bandh against the amendments in SC/ST Act.

"We will protest peacefully on September 6. Through this protest, we will demand withdrawal of this black law. All the sections except SC/ST are affected due to this amendment. We will also write letters to all MPs of the country," Sharma said.

Former Union Minister and senior BJP OBC leader Prahlad Patel expressed his displasure over the protests.

"The role of people from the OBC community has become all the more important in this scenario. For centuries, the OBCs have been acted as a bridge between upper castes and scheduled castes and they will continue to play this role actively in future," he said.

Protests have been going on against the amendments in SC/ST Bill in parts of the state since the past one week.

The protesters staged a demonstration outside the bungalows of Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar at Gwalior and Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagirath Prasad at Bhind. The protesters also staged a demonstration at Higher Education Minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya's bungalow at Gwalior.

The protesters also showed black flags to Union ministers Thawar Chand Gehlot and M J Akbar at Guna and Vidisha respectively. Several other protests were also organised across the state.

Earlier this year, the apex court had removed the strict provision of mandatory arrests under the Act. This decision had triggered nationwide protests by Scheduled Castes organisations, forcing the Centre to bring an amendment to the Act during the Monsoon Session to overrule the SC order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)State-run National Buildings Construction Corporation (India) Ltd Tuesday told the it can complete 15 housing projects with 46,575 flats of private realtor Group within 36 months at a construction cost of around Rs 85 bn.

NBCC, which had earlier told the apex court that it was ready to undertake the projects of the embattled realtor, placed a proposal before the court for completing the projects in phases.

Referring to details provided to it by Amrapali, NBCC said there were 11,403 flats under 'Category A' and the work for that would be completed within 6-12 months.

Besides, there were 32,384 flats in 'Category B' and 2,788 units in 'Category C', for which the work would be completed within 36 months, NBCC said.

"It is tentatively estimated that the ongoing 15 residential projects may be completed within a period of 36 months," the NBCC said in its proposal filed before a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit.

The bench asked to file its response on the NBCC proposal and posted the matter for further hearing on September 6.

During the hearing, NBCC chairman Anoop Kumar Mittal said it would not be possible for the corporation to start work without funds.

The bench assured NBCC that it would be provided with requisite funds, so that "the wheel starts moving".

In its proposal, NBCC has said that as per Amrapali's information, the balance cost of construction for completion of these projects comprising 46,575 units would be around Rs 52.2 bn.

"However, as per preliminary studies, site visits and inputs received from and the workings undertaken by NBCC, the tentative estimated construction cost to complete the ongoing project for categories A, B and C will be Rs 85 bn as against Rs 52.2 bn estimated by Amrapali" it said.

However, this estimate was subject to change pursuant to a detailed study of projects, bidding process pursuant to tenders for relevant works and preparation of detailed project planning (DPR), it added.

NBCC has also suggested options that can be considered by the apex court for arranging necessary funds for completing the projects.

It has said that as per information provided by Amrapali group, the existing 41,690 home buyers were required to pay Rs 38.53 bn at different stages of completion of projects as per the flat buyer agreement.

NBCC said 4,885 units are currently unsold of the launched projects and if such unsold units will be sold, it is estimated to generate approximately Rs 26.09 bn.

To enable NBCC to commence the construction of these projects, it further said, the apex court can direct Amrapali to deposit Rs 2.5 bn into an escrow account within a month of approval of the proposal.

Regarding the balance amount for completing construction of these housing projects, NBCC said there was unused floor space index (FSI) of approximately 144 lakh square feet saleable area and its sale was likely to raise up to Rs 21 bn, as per information provided by Amrapali.

NBCC has said its proposal is based on the information and documents shared by Amrapali, New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) and Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA).

It has also requested the court to consider constituting a high-powered committee comprising a retired judge of the Allahabad or Delhi High Court, a technocrat, a bureaucrat and others to bring in accountability and transparency inthe completion of projects, utilisation of funds and also to protect and safeguard the interest of home buyers.

The top court had earlier slammed Amrapali for playing "fraud" and "dirty games" with the court and had ordered attachment of all bank accounts and movable properties of 40 firms of the group.The recently concluded 4th BIMSTEC summit, hosted by Nepal, was "fruitful" in terms of both the decisions taken during the summit and its success, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli said Tuesday.

The two-day summit, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others, was held on August 30 and 31 in Kathmandu.

The BIMSTEC is a regional grouping comprising India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The grouping accounts for 22 per cent of the global population, and has a combined gross domestic product of USD 2.8 trillion.

The summit concluded with the seven member states approving an 18-point Kathmandu Declaration that called for identifying and holding accountable States and non-State entities that encourage, support or finance terrorism, provide sanctuaries to terrorists and falsely extol their virtues.

Briefing the Parliament about the summit, Oli said that Nepal's reputation, reliability, ability and prestige have been enhanced after successfully conducting the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit in Kathmandu.

"It has been seen that Nepal can hold any kind of programme in an organised manner," Oli said, adding that the "summit was effective and largely successful."



Prime Minister Oli said that bilateral discussions were held with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also with the presidents of Myanmar and Sri Lanka on the sidelines of the Summit.

He said that he discussed regional interests and ways to resolve problems during separate meetings with the heads of state and government of the seven member states.

Oli, the chair of the summit, said that the summit focused on core areas (trade, investment, connectivity, energy, tourism) rather than proliferation.

Similarly, he said that the summit has paved way to sell electricity to India and other BIMSTEC member states.

Oli said that during the separate formal meetings with heads of the state and government of BIMSTEC member countries, discussions were held on various issues including to prevent terrorist activities in the member states and to abide by the Panchsheel Treaty (the five principles of peaceful coexistence) in the implementation of the Kathmandu Declaration.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The sixth installment of Bruce Willis-fronted action blockbuster "Die Hard" has been officially titled "McClane".

The name comes from Willis' character's surname - McClane, a New York City and Los Angeles police detective who continually finds himself in the middle of difficult situations and is the only beacon of hope in crisis.

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed that this time the makers want the viewer to be "invested" in the protagonist even more.

"You can tell our intention by the fact that the title page we handed in (for the script) says, McClane. We want you to get invested in John McClane more than ever before," di Bonaventura told Empire magazine in an interview.

The filmmaker also confirmed what Willis previously said in 2015 about the next chapter, that the story will "bounce back and forth" between present-day McClane and his younger self.

"I don't know how you do 'Die Hard' without Bruce. The idea that he's not very significant in this movie is not accurate at all. We are gonna explore John McClane in his 20s. But just as prominent is the 60-year-old version," di Bonaventura said.

Earlier, the new film was titled "Die Hard: Year One", when Len Wiseman was in talks to direct.

The fifth film, "A Good Day to Die Hard" (2013) saw McClane heading to Russia to meet his son (Jai Courtney), who turned out to be an undercover operative for the CIA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The contemporary definition of love and the discord in modern marriages is the subject of a new play that is premiering in Delhi on September 8.

'Jab We Separated', directed by actor and theatre stalwart Rakesh Bedi, will feature famous television actress Shweta Tiwari and theatre personality Rahul Bhuchar, along with Bedi himself.

The play depicts the mindset of modern day couples whose lives are woven in the fragile thread of mistrust.

It mirrors the contemporary society in the wake of infidelity among young couples, who resort to seemingly the only solution available to their problems -- divorce, the organisers said.

"Divorce today is one of the most burning social issues in our society. 'Jab We Separated' explores discord in matrimony and how young couples today have lost faith in the concept of love, compassion and forgiveness," Bedi said.

'Jab We Separated' tells the story of Sanjay Sahni (Bhuchar) and Priya Maheshwari Sahni (Tiwari) who are living in a flat in Mumbai and have filed for divorce.

Priya doubts her husband of cheating on her, while Sanjay feels his wife does not give him enough space.

The court gives the warring couple six months to reconcile, and the play explores the possibilities, if any, of them getting back together.

"This play raises many pertinent questions and will keep the discerning audiences completely engaged during this powerful performance," Bhuchar said.

The plot also peeps into the solitary life of senior citizens like Priya's immediate neighbour Monty Mitha (Bedi), who is constantly seeking company as he has no one to talk to.

The production will be staged on September 8-9 at Arya Auditorium and Kamani auditorium here respectively.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was 23 years old when she was tortured and fled her country's dictatorship into exile. Now, more than four decades later, she will face her past fighting such abuses worldwide as the new U.N. human rights chief.

Bachelet, 66, is often seen smiling, chatting easily or tossing unplanned comments or jokes into her speeches. But behind her good humor lie haunting memories of the brutal dictatorship that tore her family apart.

Her father, air force Gen. Alberto Bachelet, died in 1974 following months of torture in prison. Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military had convicted him of being a traitor for opposing the 1973 military coup that ousted President Salvador Allende.

Bachelet herself was arrested along with her mother in 1975. She was a young member of the Socialist Party, and her time in a secret prison was an ordeal that she prefers not to talk about, saying only in her autobiography that she suffered "physical hardships."



Using the family's political connections, she went into exile in Australia and the former East Germany. There she reunited with her then-partner, Jaime Lopez.

At age 25, Lopez became one of the leaders of the Socialist Party that had seen many of its members tortured, killed or forcibly disappeared by Chile's military dictatorship. He returned to Chile, but only briefly because he feared he would be captured by Pinochet's agents.

Back in Europe, Bachelet reminded him of the importance of committing to the cause and her father's sacrifice, according to "Bachelet. The Unofficial Story," by Javier Ortega and Andrea Insunza.

"My dad died because he was consistent. I expect nothing less from you," the book says Bachelet told her then-boyfriend.

When he followed her advice, Lopez was captured in Chile. Under torture, he gave Pinochet's secret police information on other members of the Socialist Party, before he became one of the about 1,000 people who were forcibly disappeared during the dictatorship.

Her father's death and her boyfriend's disappearance marked Bachelet's character. Despite this, she never held grudges - not even against the Chilean military, said Giorgio Agostini, a sociologist who has long-known Bachelet and has written about her life.

Bachelet returned to Chile in 1979 when she felt she could do so safely. She studied medicine, specializing in pediatrics, and began working at an organization that helped children with mental health problems whose parents had been victims of the 1973-90 dictatorship.

Bachelet rose through the ranks of the Socialist Party and became a key player in the center-left coalition that dominated Chile's government for almost 20 years after Pinochet lost power.

Putting her traumatic past behind, she helped the discredited military regain its status in the wake of Pinochet's dictatorship.

One of her emblematic moments came when she was named Latin America's first woman defense minister during the government of President Ricardo Lagos. She continued to break boundaries when she became Chile's first women president in 2006.

After her term, she was named the first head of U.N. Women, the world body's new women's agency. She left the post to return to Chile and won the presidency again, serving from 2014-18.

Bachelet is known as a caring single mother, a hard worker and an astute negotiator.

In her new post as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, she replaces Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, a diplomat and member of Jordan's royal family.

Diplomats from the U.N.'s 193-member states burst into applause in July when the General Assembly president gave official approval to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' selection of Bachelet.

But in Chile, some human rights groups criticize her record, saying that as president she failed to close a special prison for dictatorship-era criminals that provided them with comforts they wouldn't enjoy in regular confinement.

Guterres has said that Bachelet is taking office "at a time of grave consequence for human rights." "Hatred and inequality are on the rise," he said.

"Respect for international humanitarian and human rights law is on the decline. Space for civil society is shrinking. Press freedoms are under pressure." On Monday, Bachelet's third day in her new job, a Myanmar court sentenced two journalists from Reuters agency to seven years in prison on charges of illegal possession of official documents.

The ruling was met with international condemnation that will add to outrage over the military's human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims.

"On several issues related to different parts of the world," Bachelet told reporters in Geneva on Monday, "I need to gather more information and make a deep analysis. But I have to mention how shocked I am after finding out about their seven-year prison sentences.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National Green Tribunal sought Tuesday a report from NBCC Limited on the revival of the iconic Purana Qila lake here after a plea alleged that the project was being undertaken in a manner which would damage the environment.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed NBCC to submit the report by September 24 when the matter would be heard next.

The direction came on a plea filed by city-resident R K Gupta who contended that NBCC and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have put a plastic sheet on the bed of the lake, preventing groundwater recharge by both treated recycled water and rainwater.

The plea said that the method of concretisation and laying down of the sheets will lead to damage of the lake.

"The ASI and NBCC should have noted that the Old Fort lake in its old form was unlined adding considerably to the groundwater recharge round the year in the area declared as critical by the Central Ground Water Board.

"By their act the two agencies have eliminated recharge through the bed of the lake causing grave environmental damage. The project as conceived and being implemented has adverse impacts on the environment, contrary to the ecosystem of the lakes," the bench said.

The petitioner has sought directions to restore the lake to its natural condition by removing impermeable plastic lining and explore alternative revival techniques for the water body.

The NGT had earlier slammed ASI over the poor condition of the lake and summoned its senior official to explain why it had not been cleaned despite its direction.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A court in Kerala has framed charges against six youths, alleged to be ISIS terrorists, for trying to carry out terrorist activities in parts of southern India, according to an official statement issued Tuesday.

A case was registered suo-motu by the National Investigation Agency on October 1, 2016 based on information regarding activities of some youths, who had the intention of furthering the objectives of the proscribed terrorist group in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the NIA said in a statement.

The youths "had got together and formed an ISIS terror module named Ansarul Khilafa-KL over social media platforms and had made preparations to carry out terrorist attacks against prominent persons, including judges, police officers and politicians, and also against foreign nationals and rationalists," it said.

The probe agency arrested six members of the terror module on October 2, 2016, when they had organised a meeting at Kanakamala in Kannur district of Kerala, it said.

Subsequently, another member of the module was arrested on February 15 last year, after his deportation from the UAE.

In this case, on October 5, 2016, the NIA also arrested ISIS operative Subahani Haja Moideen alias Abu Jasmine, who had travelled to Iraq/Syria in April 2015 and fought for ISIS, the NIA said.

Moideen returned to India in September 2015 and continued his activities in support of ISIS in India, it said.

The NIA filed chargesheet against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad N K, Safvan, Jasim N K, and Shajeer Mangalassery under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code on March 29, 2017.

A separate chargesheet was filed against Moideen under these Acts on the same day. A supplementary chargesheet was filed against accused Moinudheen P K under the UAPA and the IPC in August last year.

Now the special NIA court in Ernakulam on Monday framed charges against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad N K, Safvan and Jasim N K, the NIA said.

The case has been posted to Thursday for framing of charges against Subahani Haja Moideen and for finalizing the trial schedule, it said.

Regular trial of the case is expected to commence from September 26, 2018, the probe agency said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a joint operation, Sahibabad police and cyber crime cell arrested a Nigerian from the Rajendra Nagar area here Tuesday on charges of online fraud, police said.

The arrested was identified as Friday, son of Ogboo, a native of Lagos in Nigeria. At present, Friday was living in a rented home in Tilak Nagar, New Delhi.

The police nabbed Friday using his call details.

City SP Shlok Kumar said Sahibabad police had received a complaint from one Dinesh Kumar that a Nigerian national had defrauded him of Rs 2 lakh on the pretext of helping him establish a gold business.

Kumar had transferred the sum into the account of Friday through net banking. However, when Kumar called him, there was no reply. Following which, Kumar lodged an FIR.

Police have recovered three laptops and three mobile phones which were used to hoodwink gullible persons.

After a brief period away from India, Friday returned to the country by changing his name and passport. He contacted unsuspecting persons through social networking site Facebook and internet-based messaging service WhatsApp.

He lured them on the pretext of business opportunities. He confessed to have swindled a total of Rs 50 lakh from his victims, police said.

He has been sent to jail and booked under appropriate sections of IPC and IT Act, the officer added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National (NSE) today raised concern over potential for large-scale on financial market infrastructure and called for setting up the standards to bring about the change through talent empowerment and investment in innovation.

Increasing global interconnectedness and complexity of systems make the risk of a large scale cyber attack even more pertinent and threaten the stability of financial markets, its managing director and chief executive officer, Vikram Limaye, said Tuesday at the ' Future Tech 2018'.

"The potential for large-scale on financial infrastructure at a very low cost is a major risk across the globe," he added.

has listed as one of the four major risks today and in the years to come.

The Ponemon Institute's 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study pegs organisations in India, and as the most likely to experience a material data breach in the next 24 months.

Limaye pointed out that as leaders in the capital market space, it is our responsibility to set the standards and the FutureTech series is one of the many initiatives taken up by the exchange to bring about the change through talent empowerment and investment in innovation.

"Our focus is on building resiliency and security to ensure that the capital and its constituents are able to provide the services that they are intended for, he said.

The capital market ecosystem is considered as one of the important segment in the national critical infrastructure (NCI) of any economy, he said, adding rendering it vulnerable and susceptible to cyber breaches or security threats would damage and impair the economic and social fabric of the nations.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.): The Congress in Telangana Tuesday alleged that the number of voters in the state, which should have increased between 2014 to 2018, has come down.

"The number of voters, generally, as per population, should have increased since 2014 to 2018. As per the draft voters' list released now, the number of voters is less by 20 lakh," Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy Tuesday told reporters here.

While the number of voters was 2.81 crore in the 2014 elections, it came down to 2.60 crore voters now even after adding eight lakh new voters, he said.

He wondered whether anybody was tampering with the voters lists and alleged that 'those in power' had earlier tried to tamper with the lists ahead of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.

He appealed to the Election Commission to see that the electoral rolls are 100 per cent accurate.

Reddy also urged that those completing 18 years of age should be enrolled in the voters lists.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The monsoon session of Odisha Assembly began Tuesday with obituary references to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lok Sabha ex-speaker Somnath Chatterjee and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi.

The members also paid tribute to deceased Odisha minister Jadunath Das Mohapatra, MLAs Suryamani Jena, Muralidhar Kuanr and Braja Kishore Mohanty and martyred head constable Sanjay Majhi during the 30-minute session.

As a mark of respect to the departed leaders, Speaker P K Amat adjourned the proceedings till tomorrow.

As soon as the members gathered in the Assembly, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik moved a condolence motion, which was supported by the Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra and BJP legislature party leader KV Singhdeo.

Stating that Vajpayee's demise was a "great national loss as well as a personal loss" for him, Patnaik said: "I will always cherish my association with the late Prime Minister, especially during the initial years of my life."



Vajpayee was an "astute leader" who showed to the world the art of managing a coalition government by embracing its diversities, he said.

"He embodied a unique combination of grace, idealism and tolerance. A true statesman, he was admired across the political spectrum. His depth of vision and understanding of issues was unparalleled. He had a large heart with special love for Odisha," the CM observed.

Talking about Karunanidhi, the chief minister said his demise ended an era in Tamil Nadu

"The DMK patriarch will always be remembered for the immense contribution he made to Tamil cinema, literature and politics," he added.

Senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra described Vajpayee as one of the tallest leaders in India.

"Despite differences in political ideology, I was profoundly impressed by his personality and behaviour. He believed in democracy and did not spare anybody who did not observe the 'Raj Dharma'."



On Somnath Chatterjee, the Leader of Opposition said he always fought for justice.

"I had met him several times in Delhi. In a way, he was my friend, philosopher and guide. With his demise, the country has lost a great leader, who always fought for the poor and the downtrodden to uphold justice," Mishra said.

Stating that India has lost its worthy son, Singhdeo dubbed Vajpayee as a "distinguished parliamentarian who put nation before politics".

"Politically a liberal and a Hindutva proponent, he was the only leader who could easily reconcile two seemingly opposite ideologies and make them work together. Although criticised as a right man in a wrong party, he had time and again clarified that he is part and parcel of the BJP movement," he said.

The former prime minister showed exemplary political acumen and leadership qualities, the BJP Legislature Party Leader maintained.

"Not only did he lead a coalition government of 33 parties, but also took India's economic development to greater heights," Singhdeo added.

The 13th session of Odisha Legislative Assembly will continue till September 20.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Odisha government has decided to disengage about 50,000 retired government employees recruited by different departments on adhoc basis during the last four years, an official said today.

A notification in this regard was issued by the General Administration department, the official said.

The decision in this regard was taken at the meeting of secretaries chaired by chief secretary A P Padhi on August 25. In the meeting it was decided to disengage the retired employees from government jobs.

The meeting was informed that about 50,000 retired employees have so far been recruited to do jobs on adhoc basis.

"All retired persons, who have been engaged by different Departments/Heads of Departments should be disengaged by appropriate authorities," the notification said. It asked the authorities to stop engagement of retired government employees henceforth.

The state government has also asked the concerned departments to take necessary steps and carry out the order with immediate effect and treat the notification as "most urgent."



Earlier, the state government in 2012 had made provision for tenure-based re-engagement of retired government officials, instead of fresh recruitments. The aim was to utilise skilled professionals and retired government employees.

Meanwhile, Odisha Labour minister Sushant Singh said his department has sought reports from different departments on how many employees are currently employed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a major decision ahead of the coming Assembly elections, the BJP government in Chhattisgarh Tuesday decided to pay a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal in addition to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to paddy farmers.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh at his official residence here.

"Paddy procurement for Kharif season 2018 will start from November 1. Farmers will be given a bonus of Rs 300 per quintal along with the MSP," Singh told reporters.

For 2018-19 Kharif season, the NDA government at the Centre has announced MSP of Rs 1,770 per quintal for A-grade paddy and Rs 1,750 per quintal for common grade paddy.

With bonus, the Chhattisgarh government will be paying farmers Rs 2,070 per quintal for A-grade paddy and Rs 2,050 for common grade paddy, Singh said.

The state cabinet approved a provision of Rs 2,400 crore for payment of bonus, he said.

The decision is significant as Assembly elections are due in the state by year-end.

The government will have to get the proposal passed in the Assembly. It has requested the Governor to call a special session of the legislature where demand proposals for the second supplementary budget will be tabled, Singh said.

The special session is likely to be held on September 11 and 12, the chief minister said.

The MSP and bonus will be deposited directly into the bank accounts of farmers who sell paddy at the procurement centres run by the primary cooperative societies, he said.

In the last Kharif season, farmers had received the bonus later, after the procurement process was over, but this time the whole amount will be paid together, he noted.

The cabinet also decided to withdraw 19,832 cases registered against forest-dwellers under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, Singh said.

These cases were registered before December 31, 2016, and the offences carry the maximum fine of Rs 20,000, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Pakistani-origin student from northern England is set to become the first hijab-wearing finalist of the Miss England beauty pageant in Nottinghamshire.

Sara Iftekhar, who is studying law at Huddersfield University in West Yorkshire region of England, will contest against 49 other hopefuls this evening for the crown after she had won the Miss Huddersfield 2018 title in July.

The 20-year-old, who also works as a make-up artist, is popular on social media and posts pictures of herself in traditional Pakistani outfits on her Instagram page.

"I did not expect to be making history. I do feel proud. At the end of the day, I may be the first woman to wear a hijab [at the Miss England final]. However, I am just a regular girl and we all have a fair opportunity in this contest," Sara said, adding that she decided to take part in Miss England for "a bit of fun".

"If I want to cover myself up and dress modestly why should that be an issue? I am just like the other contestants. If I am sending out that message it will motivate other people to participate in a beauty contest," she said.

At the age of 16, the make-up enthusiast started up a clothing business and donated profits to Beauty with a Purpose a charity backed by the Miss World organisation.

On a fundraising page she set up for the children's charity, she wrote, "I participated in Miss 2018 in order to show that beauty doesn't have a definition. Everyone is beautiful in their own ways, regardless of their weight, race, colour or shape".

"I still feel honoured to be one of the amazing girls in the top 50 chosen out of 22,000 women. I just can't wait to see where this journey takes me," she wrote on her Instagram page.

The winner of tonight's event at Kelham Hall in Newark, Nottinghamshire, will represent England at the Miss World competition in Sanya, China, in December this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Countering the criticism that the Goa government is now leaderless, the state BJP said Tuesday that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is "monitoring" the administration from the US where he has gone for treatment.

"There is no crisis and collapse of administration. Everything is functioning smoothly. The chief minister is monitoring the administration from the United States 24 hours of the day," party spokesperson Siddharth Kuncolienkar said.

He rubbished the claim of opposition Congress that the administration has collapsed, and President's rule is needed.

"By asking for President's rule, the Congress is admitting that it does not have the numbers to form an alternative government," the BJP leader said.

Senior ministers such as Sudin Dhavalikar and Vijai Sardesai "are doing their job perfectly", he said.

Parrikar left for the US on August 30 for medical treatment and is expected to return on September 8. He underwent a three-month-long treatment in the US for a pancreatic aliment earlier this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.): L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited Tuesday announced that the patronage of Hyderabad Metro Rail has touched 20 million (passengers).

LTMRHLManaging Director & Chief Executive Officer K V B Reddy thanked Hyderabadis for welcoming and embracing Hyderabad Metro Rail services in an "overwhelming" manner.

"We have touched this number earlier than expected with only the NagoleAmeerpetMiyapur operational stretch, and we are sure that these numbers will increase manifold with the inauguration of AmeerpetLB Nagar stretch," he said in a statement.

In November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated a 30 km stretch between Miyapur-Ameerpet-Nagole out of the 72-km long elevated metro project.

There are 24 Metro Rail stations in the operational 30 km stretch.

The concessionaire L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited is building the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL)project across three corridors.

According to Reddy, the last and first mile connectivity measures have significantly improved and there are many options available once one (passenger) deboards the train to reach the destination.

"Our endeavour is to consistently improve passenger services. We have recently introduced free water facility for the passengers and also free of cost restrooms usage at all Metro stations.

Soon passengers more new facilities will be introduced," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot on Tuesday accused Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government of "exploiting" sarpanchs and hollowing out Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) during its tenure in the state.

Pilot alleged that the ordinance fixing a minimum educational qualification for contesting elections to the PRIs in Rajasthan has shut the doors for women, poor and other weaker sections of the society.

In December 2014, the state government had issued an ordinance amending the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, which makes class 8 pass mandatory for the post of sarpanch and class 10 for panchayat samiti election.

"The BJP government exploited sarpanchs and threatened them of dire consequences during the recent bypolls in the state. The government has hollowed out PRIs in the last over four years," Pilot said addressing a gathering of sarpanchs and PRIs representatives here.

He said the Congress will strengthen the institutions if it is voted to power in the upcoming Assembly election due later this year.

"Educational qualification criteria should first be implemented in contesting parliamentary elections. It is surprising that uneducated people can reach Parliament but cannot contest election to become sarpanchs," Pilot said.

Congress national general secretary Avinash Pande said it was difficult to understand whether the chief minister has "insulted or honoured" sarpanchs by increasing their pay by Rs 500 each.

He claimed that people are fed up of the "misgovernance" of the ruling BJP in Rajasthan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A plea was filed in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday seeking to quash the registration of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM as a political party, alleging that it raises issues concerning only Muslims and seeks votes in the name of religion.

The petition filed by the president of the Shiv Sena in Telangana sought setting aside the June 19, 2014 order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) granting recognition of state party of Telangana to the All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Musalimeen (AIMIM).

Petitioner Tirupati Narasimha Murari claimed that the constitution and working of AIMIM was against the law laid down by the Supreme Court and the party was ought to be disqualified as a political party as its aim and object are opposed to the concept of secularism, one of the requirements under the Representation of the People Act.

The petition, filed through advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain, also sought a direction restraining the ECI from recognising and treating the AIMIM as a registered political party.

The petitioner, who claimed to have contested Lok Sabha polls in 2014, said he was filing the plea in his personal capacity and the relief sought in the petition affects his rights of free and fair election.

The plea said the English translated meaning of AIMIM was 'All India Council of the Union of Muslims' which was founded as a political party in 1958 and the leaders and workers of the party were "continuously abusing Hindu religion, their Gods Goddesses". It alleged that several FIRs have been lodged against them.

"The constitution of AIMIM clearly raises issues relating to Muslim community and thinks only for the welfare of Muslims, which is violative of the principles of secularism as envisaged by the Constitution of India...

"The party having aim and object for the benefit of only Muslim community, formed on communal concept can in no way fulfil the object of secular principles. The declaration given by AIMIM to uphold the secular principles is farce and fraud on the law and the constitution," it claimed.

The petition said every political party was bound to follow the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and to ensure that its candidates do not seek vote making religious appeal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday interacted with the recipients of National Teachers' Awards here and exhorted them to work towards bringing out the inherent strength of students.

On the eve of Teachers' Day, the prime minister congratulated the awardees for their efforts towards improving the quality of in the country, an official statement said.

He commended their dedication towards and for making it their "life mantra". He said that a teacher remains a teacher throughout his or her life.

During the interaction, Modi urged the awardees to mobilise the community and to make them an integral part of school development. He also exhorted the teachers to work towards bringing out the inherent strength of students, especially those from poor and rural background.

The prime minister said that the educators should work towards removing the disconnect between the teachers and the students, so that teachers are remembered by the students throughout their lives. He also encouraged the teachers to digitally transform their schools and its neighbourhood.

During the interaction with the prime minister, the awardees narrated their stories in transforming their schools into centres of learning and excellence.

They also thanked the prime minister for the new online nomination process and for schemes such as Digital India, which is bringing a big qualitative change in school throughout the country, the statement said.

This year, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has revised the guidelines for the selection of teachers for National Awards.

The new scheme envisages self-nomination and was inspired by recent innovations in major national awards. The scheme is transparent, fair, and rewards demonstrated excellence and performance, the statement pointed out.

The teachers will be conferred the award for 2017 on Wednesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday interacted with the recipients of National Teachers' Awards here and exhorted them to work towards bringing out the inherent strength of students, especially those with rural background.

On the eve of Teachers' Day, the prime minister congratulated the awardees for their efforts towards improving the quality of in the country, an official statement said.

He commended their dedication towards and for making it their "life mantra". He said that a teacher remains a teacher throughout his or her life.

During the interaction, Modi urged the awardees to mobilise the community and to make them an integral part of school development. He also exhorted the teachers to work towards bringing out the inherent strength of students, especially those who are poor and from rural areas.

The prime minister said that the educators should work towards removing the disconnect between the teachers and the students, so that teachers are remembered by the students throughout their lives. He also encouraged the teachers to digitally transform their schools and its neighbourhood.

During the interaction with the prime minister, the awardees narrated their stories in transforming their schools into centres of learning and excellence.

They also thanked the prime minister for the new online nomination process and for schemes such as Digital India, which is bringing a big qualitative change in school throughout the country, the statement said.

Later, in a series of tweets, the prime minister referred to the work carried by the awardees to highlight their contribution.

"Met Shri Mohammad Imran Khan Mewati from Alwar. I appreciate him for developing educational e-content including videos, website and even Mobile Apps. His Apps cover a range of subjects at primary and secondary level as well as for competitive examinations. Congrats to him," he wrote on Twitter.

Describing G S Zaithantluanga from Mizoram as his "friend", Modi said along with developing a scientific temper among students, he is helping students excel in cultural competitions.

"He has initiated the adoption of vocational education and skill training in the school too. Proud of him," Modi said.

Modi also spoke about Gopal Jee, the principal of a school in Bihar's Sitamarhi.

"His work on environmental conservation is outstanding. He has also worked hard to improve literacy rates in his district and always inspires students to study harder so that they can fight poverty," he wrote on the microblogging site.

This year, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has revised the guidelines for the selection of teachers for National Awards.

The new scheme envisages self-nomination and was inspired by recent innovations in major national awards. The scheme is transparent, fair, and rewards demonstrated excellence and performance, the statement pointed out.

The teachers will be conferred the award for 2017 on Wednesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The South Pasadena police has said that its officers "acted appropriately" during the shootout that led to the death of former "ER" actor Vanessa Marquez.

Marquez, best known for her role as a nurse on "ER", was shot and killed by South Pasadena police during a welfare check at her home.

"We believe our officers acted appropriately under a tragic set of circumstances," South Pasadena City Manager Stephanie DeWolfe said in a press release posted on her official Twitter account.

"We are asking the public to respect the investigative process and allow the Sheriff's Department and D.A.'s office to gather and release the facts," she added.

DeWolfe said they "support our officers and stand by them during this investigation".

"We believe the facts will show that our officers, along with a mental health professional, made every attempt to resolve the situation peacefully before the use of deadly force became necessary," DeWolfe said.

"We look forward to hearing the results of the investigation. In the meantime, we are asking the public to be patient and wait until the facts of the case are confirmed before making judgements about the incident," she added.

She was shot in the torso and later died at the hospital.

Marquez, who appeared in the films "Stand and Deliver" and "Twenty Bucks", was in the last year after claiming on Twitter that "ER" co-star George Clooney played a part in blacklisting her from the industry after she and other "ER" cast members complained of sexism and racism on the set of the show.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Credit: Brantley GutierrezFoo Fighters have postponed two Canadian tour dates because frontman Dave Grohl is ill.

The affected dates include a show in Edmonton scheduled for tonight, and a stop in Calgary this Thursday, September 6. The make-up shows will take place October 22 and October 23, respectively.

"That's the late time I ever make out with Bono," Grohl joked -- a reference to the iconic U2 frontman losing his voice during a show in Berlin over the weekend. Bono has since recovered, and U2 will return to Berlin to finish the show on November 13.

Foo Fighters are currently touring North America behind their new album Concrete and Gold. During a show in Seattle on Saturday, Grohl and Foo guitarist Pat Smear were joined on stage by their former Nirvana band mate Krist Novoselic to perform the grunge icons' cover of The Vaselines' "Molly's Lips." Novoselic's new band Giants in the Trees opened the show.

You can watch fan-shot footage of the "Molly's Lips" performance now on YouTube.

Foo Fighters are expected to resume their tour Saturday, September 8 in Vancouver.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.blood boiling time of fight for a great cause - young, never tired, non stop going.

new colonnal wears the jacket of back-sign - 1948 more space, less people, general talks with colonnel not seating but walking around "let us have a walk" like Steve Jobs (talkiing walking meetings)

Guo min dong flag -Chinese



Idiotic acting: running to fight enemy, but one hand holding up his helmet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_im66EfdQ8

Fighter Squadron is a 1948 American World War II aviation war film in Technicolor. At an American air base in England in 1943, conniving, womanizing Sergeant Dolan (Tom D'Andrea) manipulates everyone, while insubordinate, maverick pilot fighter ace Major Ed Hardin (Edmund O'Brien) gives his commanding officer and close friend, Colonel Brickley (John Rodney), headaches by ignoring the out-of-date rules of engagement formulated by Brigadier General M. Gilbert (Shepperd Strudwick). When Major General Mike McCready (Henry Hull) promotes Brickley to whip a new squadron into shape, Brickley also recommends Hardin as his replacement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K797Ttv4Pb8Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy Tuesday congratulated the staff of a government primary school at Koonichampet here for bagging the first rank under 'Swachch Vidyalaya Puraskar' scheme at national level and handed over a cheque of Rs 1 lakh to the school.

The Union HRD Ministry had selected 52 schools under the scheme across the country and out of them seven schools are in Puducherry and Karaikal regions.

The government primary school at Koonichampetwith a strength of 500 students is one of these seven and it has notched the all India first rank with hundred percent marks in fulfilling the parameters including maintenance for the award.

During his visit to the school, the Chief Minister said, "it has brought laurels to the whole of Union Territory by bagging the first rank at the national level."



Lauding the dedication on the part of the school teachers in maintaining the premises, providing potable water, proper upkeep of toilet and sanitation as a whole, Narayanasamy said the Ministry would present a cash award of Rs 50,000 to the head of the school at a function in Delhi on September 18.

"Puducherry government does not want to lag behind and so it has taken a decision to present a cheque for Rs 1 lakh for the impressive performance of the school from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund," he said and handed over the cheque to the principal (in charge) of the school Sasikumar amidst thunderous applause.

Chief Minister then said the school had emerged as a role model for other institutions.

Secretary to A Anbarasu and Director of School L Kumar were among those present.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind Tuesday arrived in Bulgaria and met his Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev who received him at the hotel where the Indian delegation is staying.

President Kovind arrived in the capital Sohia from Cyprus where he met his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades and held wide-ranging talks.

He is on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Europe to continue India's high-level engagements with European countries.

"In a special gesture, President Radev and the First Lady of Bulgaria received President Kovind at the entrance of the hotel where the Indian delegation will be staying," President's Secretariat said in a tweet.

"President Radev spoke to President Kovind of his admiration for Indian culture, specifically mentioning Buddhism and yoga, the Gita and the Mahabharata. In light-hearted banter the two dignitaries also discussed the Bulgarian President's favourite Hindi film Haathi Mere Saathi," it said.

President Kovind and the and the First Lady were received by Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov at the airport.

Kovind is the fifth Indian President to visit Bulgaria and the first in 15 years.

From Bulgaria, he will fly to Czech Republic on the final leg of his three-nation trip on September 6.

During the visit, Kovind will have a meeting with President Radev, who will host a Banquet in his honour. Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov will call on President Kovind.

Kovind will address the business representatives of India and Bulgaria at a Business Forum. He will deliver a lecture at the Sofia University and will also address the members of Indian diaspora during the visit.

This is his first overseas state visit in the second year of his presidency.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind said Tuesday that the Indian community in Bulgaria constitutes a "living bridge" between the two countries after he arrived here on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Europe.

President Kovind arrived in the capital Sohia from Cyprus where he met his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades and held wide-ranging talks.

He addressed the Indian community in Bulgaria and asserted that it was a "true reflection" of India's diversity, culture and traditions and constitutes a "living bridge" between the two countries.

"India-Bulgaria friendship is very special. Our links are old and ancient. There are surprising similarities in our cultures, and deep and abiding connections too. You meet a Bulgarian and he or she will tell you the music closest to traditional Bulgarian music is Indian!" President's Secretariat said in a tweet.

"The great Bulgarian painter Boris Georgiev was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Our great poet Rabindranath Tagore visited Bulgaria in 1926 and added yet another chapter to our cultural ties," it said.

President Kovind is on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Europe to continue India's high-level engagements with European countries.

He praised Indology department of Sofia University for doing "stellar work" for 35 years in spreading awareness about Indian culture.

"Delighted to learn its scholars have translated eight principal Upanishads from Sanskrit to Bulgarian," he said.

Earlier, Kovind met his Bulgarian counterpart Rumen Radev who received him at the hotel where the Indian delegation is staying.

"President Radev spoke to President Kovind of his admiration for Indian culture, specifically mentioning Buddhism and yoga, the Gita and the Mahabharata. In light-hearted banter the two dignitaries also discussed the Bulgarian President's favourite Hindi film Haathi Mere Saathi," it said.

President Kovind and the and the First Lady were received by Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov at the airport.

Kovind is the fifth Indian President to visit Bulgaria and the first in 15 years.

From Bulgaria, he will fly to Czech Republic on the final leg of his three-nation trip on September 6.

During the visit, Kovind will have a meeting with President Radev, who will host a Banquet in his honour. Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov will call on President Kovind.

Kovind will address the business representatives of India and Bulgaria at a Business Forum. He will deliver a lecture at the Sofia University and will also address the members of Indian diaspora during the visit.

This is his first overseas state visit in the second year of his presidency.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Qatar Airways will wait for "another 12 months" to decide on setting up an airline in India as it seeks clarity on "ambiguous" foreign ownership norms, its chief Akbar Al Baker said Tuesday.

The comments come less than three months after Baker said that the Gulf carrier would soon be moving an application to launch a full-service airline in India for domestic operations.

Baker, who has been Qatar Airways' Group Chief Executive Officer for over two decades, said that the rule of allowing foreign entity to own up to 100 per cent stake in Indian carriers is not very clear.

"What we are given to understand is that a foreign airline cannot own 100 per cent but a foreigner can. I don't know what is the difference between a foreigner and an airline," he said.

Speaking at a select media round table here, he said that if Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) owns 51 per cent and Qatar Airways has 49 per cent in an airline that is not allowed. "It is very ambiguous. Really the rule is not clear," he noted.

The QIA owns Qatar Airways.

Under Foreign Direct Investment norms, foreign airlines can only have up to 49 per cent stake in an Indian carrier.

On how long Qatar Airways can wait on India venture, Baker said, "We will wait for another 12 months but beyond that we will not be able to..."



"There is always an opportunity to invest in airlines in India. India is a huge aviation market.

"We will lose interest in time because you know we have a fund we would like to invest. If we don't invest in time, then we would have to invest somewhere else," Baker said.

It was in March 2017 that Baker first mentioned about its plans for a carrier in India. In February this year, he had said it plans to launch an airline in India with at least 100 planes.

According to Baker, the airline is open for partnership provided it gets a good local partner who is credible and financially sound.

Further, he said it does not matter whether it would be a majority or minority stake. "As long as it is a robust entity we don't have any problems to work with them," he added.

Making clear Qatar Airways' strategy, Baker said it does not want to go and invest in an airline just because they need funds.

"We need to invest in an airline that will give us return on investment, efficiently run and that has growth potential," he said.

Noting that Qatar Airways does not want to take 2-3 per cent, Baker also said that it would look for substantial stake of "say 10 to 15 per cent".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Qatar Airways will wait for "another 12 months" to decide on setting up an airline in India as it seeks clarity on "ambiguous" foreign ownership norms, its chief Akbar Al Baker said Tuesday.

The comments come less than three months after Al Baker said that the Gulf carrier would soon be moving an application to launch a full-service airline in India for domestic operations.

Al Baker, who has been Qatar Airways' Group Chief Executive Officer for over two decades, said that the rule of allowing foreign entity to own up to 100 per cent stake in Indian carriers is not very clear.

"What we are given to understand is that a foreign airline cannot own 100 per cent but a foreigner can. I don't know what is the difference between a foreigner and an airline," he said.

Speaking at a select media round table here, he said that if Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) owns 51 per cent and Qatar Airways has 49 per cent in an airline that is not allowed. "It is very ambiguous. Really the rule is not clear," he noted.

The QIA owns Qatar Airways.

India has permitted foreign investors, barring foreign airlines, from owning up to 100 per cent stake in local carriers. While a foreign airline can hold up to 49 per cent stake, foreign investment arms can own the remaining.

On how long Qatar Airways can wait on India venture, Al Baker said, "We will wait for another 12 months but beyond that we will not be able to..."



"There is always an opportunity to invest in airlines in India. India is a huge aviation market.

"We will lose interest in time because you know we have a fund we would like to invest. If we don't invest in time, then we would have to invest somewhere else," Al Baker said.

It was in March 2017 that Al Baker first mentioned about its plans for a carrier in India. In February this year, he had said it plans to launch an airline in India with at least 100 planes.

According to Al Baker, the airline is open for partnership provided it gets a good local partner who is credible and financially sound.

Further, he said it does not matter whether it would be a majority or minority stake. "As long as it is a robust entity we don't have any problems to work with them," he added.

Making clear Qatar Airways' strategy, Al Baker said it does not want to go and invest in an airline just because they need funds.

"We need to invest in an airline that will give us return on investment, efficiently run and that has growth potential," he said.

Noting that Qatar Airways does not want to take 2-3 per cent, Al Baker also said that it would look for substantial stake of "say 10 to 15 per cent".

To a query on whether Qatar Airways is in talks with any airline in India, Baker replied in the negative.

Qatar Airways had shown interest to IndiGo many times but they were not ready apart from the initial public offer.

"India is such an important market. India is a sleeping economic giant. There is potential here that is not available in many other countries," Al Baker said even as he mentioned that double-digit growth does not mean that airlines are going to make money.

The country's domestic aviation sector has been registering double-digit growth for more than three years.

Stating that the carrier did look at investing in Air India, Al Baker said the question was about whom to partner with.

The government had proposed strategic disinvestment of debt-laden Air India but the plan failed to take off.

Last December, Qatar Airways said it would like to add more flights to India in the future as the country is an economic superpower and an important destination for it.

Al Baker became Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive in 1997.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress Tuesday alleged the Narendra Modi-led government inflicted losses to a state-run company and benefitted a private company with the Rafale jet deal.

The opposition party also demanded a probe by the Joint Parliamentary Committee into the deal.

"The NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the Rafale deal to benefit a private company to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore," Congress Rajya Sabha member Kumari Selja told reporters here.

While the Congress has been alleging that the Rafale deal was a "scam", the allegations have been refuted by the government.

"The UPA government, in December 12, 2012, agreed to buy a fighter aircraft from Dassault Aviation for Rs 526.10 crore and going by this deal the price of 36 aircraft was Rs 18,940 crore," Selja said.

"But the Modi government junked the agreement, and on April 10, 2015 went for buying 36 aircraft for 7.5 billion euros, which means Rs 60,145 crore. At this rate, cost of each aircraft jumped to Rs 1,670.70 crore," the former Union minister said.

This way, Modi caused a loss of Rs 41,205 crore to the state coffers, she alleged.

"Besides, the government inflicted a loss to a state-run company and profited a private company with Rs 30,000 crore," she said.

The Congress leader said the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had inked an offset contract with inked Dassault Aviation in the shape of a work share agreement on March 13, 2014, but it was "snatched away from the HAL and given to private company Reliance Defence, which does not have any work experience, for Rs 30,000 crore".

Reliance group has refuted the charges of any undue benefit from the deal and has already sent legal notices to a number of Congress leaders asking them to "cease and desist" from levelling these allegations.

Selja further claimed that the Modi government gave the Reliance firm Rs 1,00,000 crore life-cycle cost contract related to Rafale.

She further alleged Modi had said in April 2015 that 36 Rafale aircraft were being procured under emergency purchase, but the first aircraft would not land in India until September 2019 and the entire fleet of 36 imported fighter aircrafts would reach the country by 2022.

"This means that under the deal of April 2015, the Air Force would get the aircraft in eight years. So what is the point of emergency purchase?" she asked.

In view of the growing threat from China and Pakistan, she said, it was a compromise with the country's security.

"The Indian Air Force needs at least 126 fighter aircraft. Previous Congress-led UPA government's request for proposal was based on it in 2012," the Congress leader said.

"But Prime Minister Modi reduced this to 36 from 126, without holding consultations with the Air Force," she alleged and sought a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into Rafale deal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.): Terming the Rafale jet deal as the 'scandal of the century', Congress MP and former Union Minister M Veerappa Moily Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of 'playing' with the country's securuty.

Addressing a press conference along with Rajya Sabha member K V P Ramachandra Rao here, he questioned why the Cabinet Committee on Security did not ratify the deal before it was signed with French company Dassault.

He said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had no business to continue in office as she had compromised the 'defence integrity' of the country.

"We will undertake a series of agitation programmes across the country to expose the biggest scandal of the century," Moily said.

He alleged that only the Prime Minister and Anil Ambani were privy to deal when it was signed in 2015.

Anil Ambani registered a company just 12 days prior to signing of the Rafale deal and had 'zero experience' in dealing with defence systems, he alleged.

"It's an open dacoity of the country's security that had never taken place before.

Don't know if the then Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar was taken into confidence as the Prime Minister signed the deal on his own. Even the Indian Air Force didnt know about it," Moily claimed.

"The prime minister is playing with the defence and security of the country," he alleged.

To a question on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys assertion that Dassault offered the full-weaponised jets at 20 per cent lesser cost than was negotiated in 2007 (during the UPA regime), Moily remarked that Jaitley was 'defending a case that is defenceless'.

"It's only about the price and transparency. Price of the deal has been doubled. Bofors deal was only Rs 60 crore.. Peanuts... Rafale is Rs 41,000 crore,"the AICC leader alleged.

He said the Congress was now taking the issue to the people's court as the Prime Minister did not want it raised in Parliament.

On September 12, Congress cadres in all districts would submit memoranda to the respective District Collectors to be forwarded to the President and on September 24, the state Congress would submit a petition to the Governor," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Railways will save Rs 130 billion per annum in fuel bill and reduce carbon emissions by around 3.4 million tonnes a year after the of lines is completed, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said Tuesday.

Speaking at a conference on 'E-Mobility in Indian Railways' organised by the Ministry of Railways through Institution of Railways Electrical Engineers (IREE) in association with NITI Aayog, Sinha said actual savings due to initiatives in energy procurement has so far been Rs 75.04 billion.

"Indian Railways should increase their target and has to lead this segment in the country and also go with the vision of Prime Minister's clean and green energy. Railways should look into the options of ethanol blending," he said.

Chairman, Board, Ashwani Lohani stated that the of lines has been identified as one of the major potential areas for reducing the expenditure of the national transporter.

He also voted for seamless movement of traffic between different modes of transport, and ease of sharing revenue, increase the speed of freight trains, improved terminals and their integration.

Around 300 delegates from the Ministry of Railways, other central ministries, public sector undertakings, and industry partners attended the conference.Negotiations for the mega-trade deal RCEP will continue in 2019 as more rounds of talks are required to sort out issues pertaining to goods and services, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said Tuesday.

Trade ministers of 16 members of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) met last week in Singapore to review the progress of negotiations.

The mega trade pact aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.

Prabhu said that India in the Singapore meeting emphasised on three important issues, including establishing linkage of services to goods negotiations as the agreement is a comprehensive one and not focus only on goods.

The services sector is a key area for India as the segment accounts for about 55 per cent of the country's GDP.

He said that it is an economic partnership agreement and services must be an integral part of it.

"The RCEP negotiations will not end in 2018. It has been agreed at the level of leaders...it will go in 2019 as well and we will have opportunity to work on all the issues," the minister told reporters here.

He also said that there are 16 countries in the group and in this India do not have free trade agreements with Australia, New Zealand and China.

With rest of the members, including Japan and ASEAN countries, India already has a trade agreement.

India has stated that "we cannot negotiate through RCEP route with these three countries and we have to separately negotiate with them," he said adding "India's insistence have been accepted and now we will be negotiating with China, Australia and New Zealand separately along with RCEP negotiations".

Prabhu said that the leaders in Singapore have also accepted the demand of India for having 20 years implementation period of the agreement.

The commerce ministry will also hold discussions with stakeholders on the inclusion of products.

RCEP bloc comprises 10 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners - India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The talks, which were launched in Phnom Penh in November 2012 have dragged on as the member countries want an agreement over the removal of customs duties on the maximum number of products traded between them. However, countries like India have certain reservations on this as the grouping includes China, with which New Delhi has a huge trade deficit.

Indian industry and exporters are apprehensive about the presence of China in the grouping. They have stated that lowering or eliminating duties for China may flood Indian markets with Chinese goods.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the ministry said that trade ministers in Singapore tasked the negotiators to go into the details of ASEAN's "non-paper on trade in goods market access negotiations".

In the meeting, the Indian commerce minister reiterated the need for providing adequate flexibilities on various elements of the Non-Paper, such as exclusion, reduction, staging and deviations.

"Accordingly, it was agreed that member countries will intensify bilateral pairing process on requests and offers ... these elements and determine the ambition level of each country to the mutual satisfaction," it said.

The ministers directed that the negotiations on all these issues will be intensified during the 24th RCEP Auckland Round from 17-24th October.

India is looking for a balanced trade agreement as it would cover 40 per cent of the global GDP and over 42 per cent of the world's population.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP MP and former Union minister Shanta Kumar has complained to the Centre about inflated airfares to city, saying they are discouraging tourists from visiting Himachal Pradesh.

Last-minute air travel from Delhi can cost as much as Rs 20,000, he claimed. Passengers paying this fare could be sitting next to someone who has paid only Rs 2,000, the MP from Kangra said Tuesday.

He said he has written to Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on the high fares discouraging visitors to the state.

He said he has raised the issue earlier as well with the Centre.

The Himachal Pradesh government has in the past urged the Centre to subsidise air travel to the state.

Sanjeev Gandhi, secretary of the local hoteliers' association, said most travel agencies are booking air tickets now via Chandigarh, Amritsar and Jammu as these tickets were cheaper.

Besides the Gaggal airport in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh has domestic airports in Shimla and Kullu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A revised second detailed project report for the multi-purpose Pancheshwar dam project has finally been sent to the development authority, which will soon be forwarded to the Indian and Nepalese governments for clearance.

The approval of the two stakeholder countries will pave the way for the works to start on the long-awaited project which is expected to fulfill power andirrigation requirements for both countries.

A fresh,updated version of the secondDPR, prepared by WAPCOS, was sent last month to Pancheshwar development authority (PDA) which will now forward it to the Indian and Nepalese governments for approval, " a WAPCOS official at Pancheshwar site said Tuesday.

India and Nepal are the two stakeholders in the ambitious project and WAPCOS is the Indian company entrusted with the task of preparing the DPR.

The fresh DPR is therevised versionof the second report sent to the PDA in June, 2017, about which both countries had some reservations.

PDA, which has representatives from both India and Nepal governments, is responsible for the construction of the project.

"ThesecondDPR prepared by the company, last year had to be updatedassome objections were raised by both governments on rehabilitation packageanddesignpoints, said Kulbhusan Thakur, anengineer working with WAPCOS at Pancheswar site in Champawat district ofUttarkhand.

Currently, tunnels meant for geological studies are being dug at the dam site, Thakur said.

We have to dig a 650-metre tunnel at Pancheshwar and 170 metre for thetunnel at Rupaligar, the WAPCOS engineer said.

"During my recent review of the project, WAPCOS engineers said the fresh DPR has been prepared which contains clarifications on points raised by the Nepal government, said Champawat District Magistrate S N Pandey, who reviewed the project last week.

The multi-purpose project, as part of which a 315-metre high dam is proposed to be builtin Mahakali river bordering India and Nepal, is a bi-national hydropower generation and irrigation project from which both countries are likely to benefit.

Mooted in the year 1967, the project has progressed slowly with its first DPR being prepared in 1995. However, the project was prioritised byPrime Minister Narendra Modi during his visitto Nepalin 2014 after which the second DPR was prepared last year which has now been revised and sent to the PDA.

"We are waiting for theDPR to be approved by both governments. Only after that, project works will start, the WAPCOSengineer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) said Tuesday that its consortium has inked an MoU with Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for the Rs 70 billion Versova-Bandra Sea Link Project in Mumbai.

"Reliance Infrastructure Limited - Astaldi SpA (Italy) Consortium signed an agreement with MSRDC today for construction of prestigious Versova-Bandra Sea Link Project in Mumbai," the company said in a statement.

Reliance Infrastructure-Astaldi had earlier bagged the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Rs 70 billion project on a competitive bid basis. The consortium had emerged the most competitive bidder with their bid of Rs 69.93 billion.

The other bidders in the fray were L&T-Samsung and Hyundai Development Company-ITD, it said in a statement adding that the tender for the construction of the second sea link in Mumbai on EPC basis was floated by the MSRDC.

With a length of 17.17 km, Versova-Bandra Sea Link is three times the length of the existing Bandra-Worli Sea Link, which is 5.6 km, the statement said.

Reliance Infrastructure EPC CEO Arun Gupta said, This project will further propel Reliance Infrastructure as a premier EPC company in India. Our partnership with Astaldi S.p.A, the third biggest construction player in the world in bridges, will help us create a truly world-class mega infrastructure project for Mumbai.

Reliance Infrastructure - Astaldi has to commission the project in five years from the appointed date.

However, the company said that owning to the monsoon, the work would be completely stalled for three months each year.

The largest order executed by Astaldi SpA is Izmit Bay Bridge (Gebze-OrhangaziIzmir Motorway Project) in Turkey with $7 billion investment for the entire project, the statement said.

Besides, Astaldi has also executed the Western High-Speed Diameter Motorway in Saint Petersburg in Russia with Euro Rs 176 billion contract value, it added.

The project has a 12-km section with 5.3-km viaducts on the sea and two cable stay bridges, which was opened to the traffic in December 2016.The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday inducted rotavirus vaccine in the routine immunisation programme to protect 57 lakh children in the state from diarrhoea.

Launching the vaccine, state Women and Child Welfare Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the government was of the firm opinion that the vaccine will play a monumental role in bringing down infant mortality rate in the state.

"Rotavirus can cause extreme diarrhoea in children and can even be fatal in some cases. I am extremely happy that we have inducted the rotavirus vaccine in the routine immunisation programme, which will protect our children from this deadly virus," she said.

A media workshop was conducted on the occasion to sensitise the participants on the importance of the work so they can spread awareness and educate the masses about the importance of the vaccine, an official release said.

Emphasising on the importance and use of the vaccine, national immunisation officer Dr A P Chaturvedi said, "All newborns must be administered the vaccine in a three-dose schedule over six, 10 and 14 weeks along with five drops of pentavalent one, two and three vaccine."



With this launch, Uttar Pradesh becomes the 11th state to introduce the vaccine as part of the routine immunisation programme, ensuring complete prevention from rotavirus.

The vaccine was first introduced in the country in the routine immunisation programme in 2016 in Odisha and subsequently expanded to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Jharkhand, Principal Secretary Medical Health and Family Welfare, Prashant Trivedi said.

"We will see a a significant drop in the infant mortality rate in Uttar Pradesh after the launch of this vaccine," he said.

Director General, Family Welfare, Dr Neena Gupta said, "More than 2.1 crore doses of rotavirus vaccine have been administered to children till May 2018. We will be protecting 57 lakh newborns every year against rotavirus diarrhoea with the introduction of the vaccine."



Available data indicates that rotavirus accounts for nearly 40 per cent of moderate to severe diarrhoea in children below the age of five resulting in approximately 78,000 deaths in the country, Director, National Health Mission, Pankaj Kumar said.

Amit Mehrotra from UNICEF said in recognition of the global rotavirus disease burden, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended inclusion of rotavirus vaccine the national immunisation programme of all countries.

In 95 countries, where rotavirus vaccine has been introduced, a significant reduction in hospitalisation and death due to rotavirus has been recorded, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Foreign currencies valued at Rs 1.22 crores have been seized from a passenger at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, a senior Customs official said here Tuesday.

The currency, including U.S Dollars, UAE Dirhams and Saudi Riyals, totally valued at Rs 1.22 crore, was seized from the passenger, who was about to depart for Sharjah yesterday by an Air Arabia flight, Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar said.

The currency was concealed inside the clothes kept in the hand baggage, he said.

The passenger has been arrested, Kumar added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rwanda's ruling party was set to win three-quarters of directly elected parliamentary seats in this week's poll though the opposition Greens won seats for the first time, provisional results showed Tuesday.

Long-time ruler President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and its seven smaller allied parties, had 74 percent of the votes after Monday's election, with most of the ballots counted, equating to 40 seats in parliament, a slight drop on five years earlier.

Three other parties supporting the government's policies shared out most of the other seats. Final results are not due until 16 September.

Parties were vying for 53 of the country's 80 directly elected parliamentary seats of which 24 are reserved for women, two for youth and one for the disabled, all chosen by special councils and national committees.

Instead of voting for individual lawmakers, Rwandans vote for a party which then decides the candidates to enter parliament.

The country's only critical opposition, the Green Party made a political breakthrough, despite the expected dominance of the RPF.

The Greens became the first opposition party to enter parliament, according to the provisional results, winning two seats.

"It's a sign that Rwanda is opening up its political spectrum," said Green party leader Frank Habineza, a former RPF member who has become a critic of Kagame's policies.

"We have reached a significant objective in obtaining parliamentary seats," he added, after the Greens, the only opposition party tolerated in Rwanda, won five percent of the popular vote, the minimum required for parliamentary representation.

Habineza had won only 0.45 percent of the vote in last year's presidential election, won by Kagame with 99 percent.

Another opposition aspirant, Diane Rwigara, was blocked from contesting that presidential election before being arrested and charged with treason.

Nearly all of Rwanda's seven million registered voters took part in Monday's legislative vote, according to the National Election Commission.

The projected 75 percent for the RPF would represent a slight decline since the last parliamentary poll five years ago, but still guarantees the ruling party's dominance.

Despite winning widespread praise for the high level of female representation in Rwanda's parliament, the legislature does not challenge Kagame, preferring to act as a rubber stamp for his initiatives.

Three years ago parliament unanimously approved a plan to hold a constitutional referendum that changed presidential term limits, clearing the way for Kagame to stay in power until 2034.

The outgoing parliament has also approved harsh prison terms for journalists publishing cartoons deemed "embarrassing to government authorities".

Kagame has been the de-facto leader of Rwanda since 1994 when, as a 36-year-old, his rebel army routed extremist Hutu forces who slaughtered an estimated 800,000 people -- mainly minority Tutsis -- and seized Kigali.

Kagame is hailed for his role in halting the genocide and turning around Rwanda's economy but criticised for his iron-fisted rule with rights groups regularly accusing him of ruling through fear and crushing free speech.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russia on Tuesday said it has officially warned US internet giant Google against "meddling" in next Sunday's local elections by hosting opposition leader Alexei Navalny's videos calling for mass protests.

Representatives of Russia's electoral commission, the Prosecutor-General's Office and the state internet watchdog at a meeting alleged Navalny uses Google's services to disseminate illegal information and warned that the company may be prosecuted if it does not act to stop this.

A Google spokeswoman declined to give a specific comment, telling AFP in an emailed statement that the company "reviews all valid requests from government institutions".

Central Election Commission member Alexander Klyukin said the commission had sent an official letter to Larry Page, the CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, regarding Navalny's use of YouTube.

The fierce Kremlin critic has urged Russians to protest on September 9, when several Russian regions and Moscow elect regional and local officials. Navalny is currently serving a 30-day sentence for violating public order laws during a protest earlier this year.

"Mr. Navalny buys the company's advertising tools to publish information on YouTube about the mass political event on September 9, on the day of elections," Klyukin said.

"We informed Google that such events on election day will lead to massive violation of the law" because political agitation is banned on election day, he said.

"Meddling by a foreign company in our election is not permitted." He called Google a "gigantic American company" and hinted that Washington uses it as an influence tool.

US officials have repeatedly warned about the dangers of Russian interference in upcoming elections and there is a full-scale probe underway into Moscow's alleged role in the 2016 presidential election which brought Donald Trump to office.

Navalny's close ally Leonid Volkov reacted to the officials' statements by saying that the Sunday rally is perfectly legal and doesn't violate election laws since its aim is not to campaign for a particular candidate.

The demonstration is to protest upcoming pension reforms, which will hike the retirement age by five years for women and three for men -- a deeply unpopular measure that has caused a rare sag in Vladimir Putin's ratings.

YouTube is "the only channel to inform the masses" since Russian companies have rejected similar commercial requests to publish information about upcoming demonstrations, Volkov said.

"All levels of the Russian government... have been ordered to block the protest by any means necessary," he wrote on Facebook.

The deputy chief of Russia's internet watchdog Roskomnadzor, Vadim Subbotin, accused "foreign internet platforms" of disrespecting Russian laws and serving as a "mouthpiece for disseminating illegal information". He said Google-owned YouTube "acts as a link in the chain for propaganda of anti-social behaviour during Russian elections".

He said "over 40" YouTube channels "constantly call for violating Russian law".

"Certain parties interested in destabilising the situation in Russia attempt to attract internet users to illegal actions by providing unlimited opportunities on foreign internet giants like Google," he said.

If Google fails to respond to official complaints, this will be seen as "de-facto direct intervention in Russia's domestic affairs," he said.

The officials discussed their grievances against Google during a meeting at Russia's upper house of parliament.

Alexei Zhafyarov, an official from the Prosecutor-General's Office, said it had sent an official warning to Google over the "inadmissibility" of violating Russian election law.

"This is a rather serious measure, after which they can be called to account," including via criminal prosecution, he said.

Russia has long pushed for greater control of information published by Russian users on international platforms to curb political dissent and prevent terrorism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russian warplanes battered Syria's rebel-controlled Idlib on Tuesday for the first time in three weeks, a war monitor said, as expectations mount of a government offensive in the northwestern province.

Regime ally Moscow and rebel backer Ankara have held several rounds of talks aimed at averting an assault, but government troops have been massing near the rebel zone.

"Russian warplanes resumed bombing Idlib province after a 22-day pause," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The air raids "came a day after rebel units in Idlib hit regime positions in neighbouring Latakia province, which killed three pro-regime fighters," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

Abdel Rahman could not immediately provide a death toll for the strikes.

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month and Russian has stepped up its war rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."



Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft based at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

Russia accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponised drones and insists jihadist groups in the province must be eliminated.

Analysts say there is still a window of opportunity to avoid the humanitarian impact of a full-scale offensive.

The presidents of Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran are to meet in Tehran on Friday for three-way talks that are expected to focus on Idlib.

An estimated three million people -- half of them displaced from other parts of Syria -- live in the province and adjacent rebel-held areas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government has rejected a proposal by Russia to set up a manufacturing facility in India for AK-series assault rifles in partnership with the Adani Group, official sources said.

The decision comes amid a controversy over the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale aircraft deal with France.

The sources said Russia proposed the joint venture during Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's visit to Moscow in April for production of AK-103 rifle.

AK-103 is a modernised variant of the AK-47 rifle, which is extensively used by India's armed forces.

The sources said, according to existing policy, Russian defence firm Kalashnikov Concern can only partner government-owned Ordnance Factories for the project.

"The Russian proposal to partner with a private firm has been rejected. They have the option of joining hands with a government firm for the project," said a source.

The proposal from Russia came when the Army was aiming at procuring around 7 lakh rifles.

India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore.

The Congress has raised several questions about the deal including rates of the aircraft while the government has rejected the charges.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court Tuesday assured state-run NBCC of funds to complete 46,575 flats of crisis-hit Amrapali Group at an estimated cost of Rs 8,500 crores and favoured forensic audit of balance sheets of the private realtor to assess the extent of siphoning of funds by them.

The top court observed it appears that a "big scandal is taking place in the name of real estate business" and termed it as a "big serious fraud" committed on the homebuyers.

The court asked the Amrapali Group to cooperate with the auditors or face sealing of its premises and forensic audit of accounts of all entities including directors, their wives and daughters.

As the National Buildings Construction Corporation India Ltd (NBCC) gave a proposal for completion of 15 residential projects having 46,575 flats at an estimated cost of Rs 8,500 crores in 6-36 months, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit said the court will try to reach the persons responsible for the fraud and retrieve each and every money siphoned off from various projects.

"We won't ask you (NBCC) to put any money. We will provide you all necessary funds to start the project. The idea is that the wheel should start moving," the bench said and asked Amrapali Group to file a response to NBCC's proposal.

The court also took note of a submission made by Anil Mittal, a chartered accountant of Anil Ajay & Company, the statutory auditor for most companies of the Amrapali Group, that money from nine firms were used to purchase shares of 37 associate entities.

Mittal informed the court that the money taken from homebuyers was also used to purchase office space space called "Amrapali Towers" in sector 62/63 of Noida.

"This is a big scandal going on in the name of real estate business. This is a big fraud. You will never know there may be 100 persons behind the curtain. We are going to find the real persons behind the curtain and would go everywhere to find them. We will retrieve each and every money siphoned off from the projects," it said.

The bench asked Mittal whether the money which was used in Group companies was without any interest, to which he replied in affirmative.

He said the money from nine companies was used in 37 firms for purchasing shares and a share agreement existed in this regard.

"A company starts at a capital of Rs 1 crore and Rs 150 crore is taken from the homebuyers in the name of a project. Then the shares of a third company are being purchased, not from the money of the company but from the money collected from homebuyers. This is how you inflate the share capital of the companies and create a cobweb," Justice Lalit observed.

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, appearing for Bank of Baroda that has initiated insolvency proceedings against Amrapali, said its forensic audit of some companies showed diversion of Rs 2,765 crore.

"They (Amrapali) are not totally independent and they are with their creditors. Their statements cannot be taken on a face value. There is urgent need for independent forensic audit of all group companies," he said.

The bench asked the bank to suggest names by September 6 for carrying out forensic audit of all companies within a fixed timeframe.

Singh said he would inform the court if the bank wishes to carry out forensic audit of all companies, or else suggest another methodology for carrying out such an exercise.

"We want to know the outflow of funds from an umbrella company to even a single entity and its usage. We want to have the forensic audit of every single entity including the directors who have worked with the company since 2008 including the accounts of their wives, daughters and all related persons", the bench said.

The court said those found guilty will be under scanner and their properties will be sold.

The bench said it will look into concerns of nominee directors who by virtue of being the financial creditor to Amrapali Group are on the board and their properties details are being sought by the court.

Senior advocates Shyam Divan, Siddharth Luthra and Harin Raval, appearing for some nominee directors, said they had nothing to do with the affairs of Amrapali Group and were on the board because of being financial creditors.

"We can't assess your bonafide at present. We can't discharge you at this moment. Let the forensic audit report come and then we will see," the bench said.

At the outset, NBCC chairman Anoop Kumar Mittal, who was present in the court said that to realise the estimated cost of Rs 8,500 crore for completion of projects, there will be shortfall of Rs 2,038 crore which can be raised from selling unsold floor space for worth Rs 2,100 crore.

The bench said at present money can't be taken from home buyers and to start the construction of pending projects, it may auction some unencumbered properties.

The top court had earlier slammed the group for playing "fraud" and "dirty games" with the court and had ordered attachment of all bank accounts and movable properties of its 40 firms.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The on Tuesday declined urgent hearing on a plea by the Tamil Nadu government challenging the National Green Tribunal's (NGT) order allowing mining major access to the administrative unit inside its closed plant at Tuticorin in the state.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it will hear the plea next week.

The state government had on August 14 moved the apex court against the order.

The had on August 9 allowed Vedanta to enter the administrative unit inside its plant, observing that no environmental damage would be caused by allowing access to the administrative section.

The tribunal, however, had said the plant would remain closed and the company would not have access to its production unit and directed the district magistrate to ensure this.

ALSO READ: Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal to take company private on Oct 1

The Tamil Nadu government had on May 28 ordered the state pollution control board to seal and "permanently" close the mining group's copper plant following violent protests over pollution concerns.

Sterlite's factory had made headlines in March 2013 when a gas leak led to the death of one person and injuries to several others, after which then chief minister J Jayalalithaa had ordered its closure.

The company had then appealed to the NGT, which overturned the government order. The state then moved the against it and the case is still pending.

The had then ordered the company to pay Rs 1 billion as compensation for polluting the environment.

After Sterlite announced its plans to expand the Tuticorin plant, locals started fresh stir that continued for over 100 days, culminating in the May 22 police firing on protestors that claimed 13 lives and left scores injured.Animation of the last 100 days of activity at Kilauea Volcano on Hawaiis Big Island, with earthquakes also included.

That was just awesome!

The NWSs Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) mitigates tsunami hazards in Hawaii produced by large, distant earthquakes throughout the Pacific Ocean, but PTWC also issues warnings for tsunamis generated by earthquakes within the State of Hawaii itself. The last such dangerous tsunami was generated by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1975. Small earthquakes generated by volcanic activity are far more common, and typically have a magnitude less than 3.0 and occur a few times a day. That rate changed on the afternoon of April 30, 2018, when an earthquake swarm began within Kilauea Volcano such that earthquakes began to occur far more frequently, about 100 per day.

This animation begins a month earlier on April 1 to start with a more typical earthquake pattern and proceeds forward in time at a rate of one day per second of animation time. Circles indicate the location of earthquakes as they occur, with their size indicating their magnitude and their color representing their depth. Three days before the swarm began the lava within the Overlook crater inside of Halemaumau overflowed. Then on April 30 the 35-year-old Puu Oo eruption ceased and its cone partially collapsed. This event coincided with the start of a swarm of volcanic earthquakes on Kilaueas East Rift Zone, a feature extending from the volcanos summit that carries magma underground through its flanks. Eruptions can take place anywhere along this rift zone as well as at the volcanos summit. Earthquake occurrence then moved northeast along the East Rift Zone away from the summit, suggesting the movement of magma below ground in this direction. Magma reached the surface and erupted as lava on the afternoon of May 3, eventually building channelized lava flows, destroying about 700 homes, and covering more than 12 square miles including Kapoho Bay. In this animation a growing orange field represents these lava flows.

Lava began to drain from the Overlook crater at the same time and by May 15 its lava lake had dropped hundreds of feet before producing steam-driven explosions when it interacted with ground water. Some of these explosions were strong enough to register as magnitude 5.0 earthquakes and sent ash clouds to 30,000 ft. above sea level. By the end of May, however, these explosions changed their character such that they no longer produced large steam-driven ash clouds. The walls of Halemaumau had begun to collapse, thus widening it and burying its Overlook crater as magma continued to drain from the summit to feed the flank eruption. These collapse explosions seemed to release trapped volcanic gas rather than groundwater steam and yielded only small ash clouds, though they still released explosive energy greater than magnitude 5.0 earthquakes and occurred about once per day. In this animation black circles represent these volcanic explosions with their size indicating their energy release in equivalent earthquake magnitude. No explosions have occurred since August 2 but it is too early to tell whether similar explosions will happen again.

This animation includes charts showing some statistics about the earthquake activity. The top graph shows the maximum earthquake magnitude per day. The bottom graph shows the total number of earthquakes per day. On April 30 the frequency of earthquakes increased to about 100 per day and their magnitudes exceeded magnitude 4.0. The largest earthquake struck on the afternoon of May 4 with a magnitude of 6.9 that produced numerous aftershocks that continue today. This largest earthquake also moved the flank of Kilauea Volcano as much as 20 inches seaward. With the subsidence of Kilauea Caldera and the collapse of Halemaumau the number of earthquakes dramatically increased to more than 700 per day by June 15 and continued until August 4 when they suddenly returned to normal background levels, coinciding with the pause of the vigorous eruption of lava.

Though PTWC monitors all earthquakes in Hawaii, including this ongoing activity, the primary responsibility for mitigating volcanic hazards in the State of Hawaii rests with the USGSs Hawaiian Volcano Observatory who publishes updates daily and advises local emergency managers.

Be ready! Get prepared!

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Youtube  The First 100 Days of New Activity on Kilauea VolcanoThe Supreme Court Tuesday refused to entertain Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit's plea seeking a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into his alleged abduction, illegal detention and brutal torture in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and K M Joseph said entertaining the petition at this stage might impact the ongoing trial in the case.

The bench, however, granted Purohit the liberty to raise his contentions before the trial court and said it is not expressing any opinion on his petition.

"Why should we interfere at this stage? It may impact the trial," the bench said.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Purohit, told the bench that the issue raised by Purohit in his plea has to be looked into.

Since the NIA is seized of the matter, the agency can look into it, Salve said.

The bench, however, asked him to raise the issue before the trial court.

Purohit is currently out on bail. It was granted by the apex court last year.

On August 27, he moved the apex court seeking a court-monitored probe into his alleged abduction, illegal detention and brutal torture in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

Purohit sought compensation for his illegal detention and for being tortured brutally by officials of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), the plea said.

In his plea, Purohit said he was constrained to bring to the court's notice "the absolute illegal and arbitrary actions of the officials of the Respondent No.1 (Centre) and other agencies of the State, during the relevant time regarding the abduction of the Petitioner, a serving Officer in the Intelligence Corps of the regular Indian Army and his brutal torture in the custody".

He said he had made numerous complaints in this regard to all competent authorities and sought redressal for his grievances.

Purohit referred to a recent media interview by former joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs R V S Mani and a book, "The Hindu Terror-Insider account of Ministry of Home Affairs 2006-2010".

Citing the interview, the plea said it revealed the "petitioner has been framed by some factions in the previous government for political reasons, including introducing a face of terror under the guise of Saffron Terror".

Purohit said in the plea that he was brutally tortured for eight days and was abducted and tortured by ATS officers before being produced in court.

According to the plea, Purohit is a highly decorated officer having received commendation from the Chief of Army Staff and many awards and citations for courage shown in eliminating dangerous terrorists, demolishing established terror networks through a well-built and organised source input network.

The Supreme Court had last year granted bail to Purohit setting aside the Bombay High Court order by which the bail was denied.

Purohit had earlier told the apex court that he was caught in a "political crossfire" and had been languishing in jail for nine years.

Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008, at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of north Maharashtra.

A special MCOCA court had earlier ruled that the ATS had wrongly applied this law against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Purohit and nine others.

The 4,000-page charge sheet had alleged that Malegaon was selected as the blast target because of a sizeable Muslim population. It named Thakur, Purohit and co-accused Swami Dayanand Pandey as key conspirators. The NIA last year gave Thakur a clean chit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Select base metal prices receded by Rs 2 per kg at the non-ferrous metals market today, tracking a weak trend overseas amid muted demand from consuming industries.

Traders said sentiments turned bearish on the back of weak trend overseas where London metal prices steadied Tuesday, but a trade dispute between China and the United States chilled factory activity in August and tempered appetite for metals.

Meanwhile, copper for delivery in three months hit its weakest in nearly two weeks at USD 5,935 a tonne before steadying to trade flat at USD 5,968 a tonne. Shanghai Futures Exchange copper fell 0.4 per cent to 47,970 yuan (USD 7,034) a tonne.

Besides, subdued demand from consuming industries at domestic spot market, too, weighed on prices, they said.

In the national capital, copper mixed scrap and nickel plate (4x4) fell by Rs 2 each to Rs 441 and Rs 933-935 per kg, respectively.

Lead ingot and lead ingot also traded lower by a similar margin to Rs 144 and Rs 151 per kg, respectively.

Following are today's metal rates (in Rs per kg):



Zinc ingot Rs 137-143, nickel plate (4x4) Rs 933-935, gun metal scrap Rs 227, bell metal scrap Rs 229, copper mixed scrap Rs 441, chadri deshi Rs 295.

Lead ingot Rs 144, lead imported Rs 151, aluminium ingots Rs 168, aluminium sheet cutting Rs 164, aluminium wire scrap Rs 164 and aluminium utensils scrap Rs 162.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Gujarat Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP Jiva Bhai Patel joined the BJP along with his supporters in the presence of party chief Amit Shah here on Tuesday.

Patel was a member of Parliament from Mehsana constituency from 2004-2009 and was also the treasurer of the state Congress.

Speaking at the occasion, Patel, who is known to be an influential leader of the Patidar community, said Gujarat could flourish "only under the leadership" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The country is progressing ahead under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Whether it is economic progress, protecting the borders or development for everybody, Modi has done an exemplary work in every sphere," Patel said.

He exuded confidence that under the leadership of Shah, the party would reach new heights.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda and party general secretary Arun Singh were also present.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A wave of sexual harassment complaints that accompanied the #MeToo movement is straining many of the state and local offices tasked with policing workplace discrimination of all kinds.

Places such as New York City and Massachusetts have added resources to deal with the surge in complaints, but human rights agencies elsewhere say their small staffs are struggling to keep up with growing caseloads.

In Connecticut, which is on pace to receive nearly twice as many sexual harassment complaints as last year, some lawmakers worry about delays resolving those cases and others involving employment, housing and credit discrimination.

"If someone has gotten up the strength to come forward, I don't want that strength to be dissipated because of a system that's broken," state Sen. Mae Flexer said.

Flexer pushed unsuccessful legislation this year that would have given the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities funding to help fill empty positions, extended the deadline for victims to file complaints and required more companies to provide sexual harassment training.

Connecticut had 158 sexual harassment complaints filed in all of last year. Over the first six months of 2018, CHRO received 131, records show.

An agency spokeswoman says the uptick has not gotten to an "onerous level" yet, and that the staff is working hard to get cases out between a year and a year and a half.

But Michelle Dumas Keuler acknowledges there's been "a constant decline of staff" over the past decade.

As in many places, the complaints began piling up last year, when the movement against sexual harassment and assault took off after allegations against former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The state offices that enforce laws concerning various types of discrimination differ in their authority and scope of responsibility.

For example, Connecticut's human rights referees can award back pay and damages for emotional distress and attorneys' fees to those employees who choose to use the system.

In many states, complainants are required to file first with these agencies, even if they eventually bring their case to court a process that can take years.

Numerous cities and counties also have commissions on civil rights, human rights and fair housing.

Connecticut attorney Nina T Pirrotti, who specialises in employee rights cases, says she has personally seen an uptick in sexual harassment cases in her law practice since the relatively recent resurgence of the #MeToo movement, which was founded over a decade ago by Tarana Burke, a New York civil rights activist.

"If my experience is any reflection of the larger picture, I would not be surprised if the CHRO has also experienced an increase in the number of sexual harassment cases it processes," she said.

She further added how there could be an additional strain on CHRO resources particularly in situations where employees are self-represented, or pro se, and are more likely to remain with the CHRO throughout its investigation, fact-finding and public hearing phases.

For employees represented by a lawyer, they often go through just the early stages of processing the complaint with CHRO before dealing with the matter in court or settling it.

In Idaho, a consistent uptick in sexual harassment allegations filed since October has burdened the state's Human Rights Commission, which hasn't seen a staff increase in decades.

"These are very personal and very emotional issues, and an increase in resources is absolutely going to be paramount in the future," said Lourdes Matsumoto, a Boise-based attorney who filed a high-profile discrimination tort claim involving sexual and racial harassment against the Idaho state controller's office last year.

She said the increase in complaints reflects a crisis of workplace sexual harassment.

The timing of the flood of new harassment cases has been "particularly bad" for the Maine Human Rights Commission, Executive Director Amy Sneirson said.

Even before, the agency was taking nearly two years to issue some decisions because of understaffing, she said.

To handle the workload, tasks are shifted around the small staff, with everyone doing more than one job.

"We would like to be faster. We would like to be faster and better, but without adequate staffing, it's nearly impossible," Sneirson said.

In February, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed a supplemental budget that included USD 250,000 to hire two staff members and one investigator at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to handle the rising sexual harassment complaints.

And beginning in late summer or early fall, the New York City Commission on Human Rights will launch its new unit dedicated solely to investigating sexual harassment matters.

The city is investing USD 300,000 to hire four new staff members who will handle the growing number of complaints, commission spokesman Seth Hoy said.

Sexual harassment claims filed with the agency increased by 43 per cent over the last two years, with 117 filed in 2016-17, compared with 82 in 2014-15.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Shiv Sena corporator took a pig inside neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and placed it on the table of a medical officer Monday (September 3) in protest against the pig menace in his locality.

Thergaon corporator Sachin Bhosale claimed that he had written many letters to the civic body requesting them to take action, but to no avail.

"Entire PCMC (Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation) area is facing pig menace. In Thergaon, this problem has become a big issue. I have been writing to PCMC commissioner since the last one year, but no action was taken," he claimed.

Bhosale said he placed a pig inside a sack and placed it on the table of medical officer Dr Anil Roy.

When contacted, Dr Roy said the PCMC is taking adequate measures in this regard.

"A contract was given to one agency to catch 1000 pigs in three months, but they did not catch even 500 pigs so PCMC refused the payment to the contractor," he explained.

Dr Roy termed Monday's incident as a major security lapse.

"I have written to the commissioner about the security lapse," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that a single window system would be in place to process the applications seeking permission for installation of Lord Ganesh idols and taking out processions for the upcoming Vinayaka Chathurthi festival.

The government accepted the suggestion for the single window clearance made by Justice R Mahadevan earlier for ensuring a trouble-free process.

"In cities, the respective jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner of Police will receive the applications and in rural areas, it will be the Deputy Superintendents of Police," state Advocate General Vijay Narayan said.

He made the submissions before Justice Mahadevan who was hearing a batch of petitions seeking relaxation of conditions imposed by the government on installation and immersion of idols.

Agreeing to relax the condition to get temporary electricity connection, the A-G submitted that the organisers can take power supply from a neighbouring house or a shop, provided they get a written consent.

As to the restrictions on height of the idols and vehicles used for processions, it was agreed that reasonable conditions could be applied.

Recording the submission, the judge made it clear that illegal tapping of electricity would not be tolerated.

The judge then said he would pass appropriate orders incorporating all the submissions Wednesday.

The conditions imposed by the government included application with the appropriate authority at least one month prior to the event, ban on use of bullock carts, and tapping power from houses and shops.

Claiming that many of the conditions were impractical, the petitioners approached the high court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held talks with her Uzbek counterpart Major General Abdusalom Azizov on Tuesday on ways to deepen defence and security cooperation between the two countries.

Officials said that a number of proposals to expand cooperation between armed forces of the two countries were discussed in the meeting.

Details of the decisions taken at the meeting were not immediately available.

The overall ties between India and Uzbekistan are on an upswing.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited the central Asian country last month during which both sides decided to enhance cooperation in areas of trade and economy and defence and security.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Six people were killed Tuesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in ongoing unrest, as protesters rally against economic woes and the dire state of public services.

"Six demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded," said Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of the government's human rights council in Basra province.

Security forces "directly opened fire on protesters," he said.

Medical sources previously said two demonstrators were killed on Tuesday as thousands of people rallied outside the local government headquarters in Basra.

During the protests, some people in the crowd hurled Molotov cocktails and fireworks at the government building, while security forces responded with tear gas and by firing shots into the air.

Around 15 members of the security forces were injured in the clashes, the medical sources said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said an investigation had been launched into the death of another protester the day before. Addressing his weekly press conference in the capital Baghdad, Abadi reasserted he had ordered "no real bullets are to be fired, in the direction of protesters or in the air".

Mekki Yasser Ashur died after being shot during protests, his family said Tuesday during his funeral march.

Protesters accompanied his coffin through the streets of Basra until the government building, before being dispersed by tear gas.

During the procession some armed civilians fired shots into the air and hailed Ashur as a "martyr".

Police and military cordons had been put in place, blocking numerous roads, while Basra's hospitals were filled with protesters bringing in people wounded in the clashes. Basra's human rights council chief said tension was high in the city and "the shops have shut a lot earlier than usual".

Tamimi warned of further escalation "if the government's doesn't respond to the demands of demonstrators".

The government has already announced an emergency plan in response to the protests, while promising billions of dollars in investment for southern Iraq.

But protesters are wary of such pledges from the outgoing administration, as Iraqi lawmakers are in the process of forming a new government after May's election.

Political corruption has also fuelled protests, which erupted in Basra on July 8 before spreading across southern Iraq and reaching the capital.

A litany of social problems -- from unemployment to electricity cuts -- have also been a central complaint of demonstrators.

Iraqis have also called on authorities to clean up the water supply, with pollution blamed for putting 20,000 people in hospital in Basra province alone.

Protests had died down recently but since Friday large numbers have taken to the streets again. Since early July, 21 people have been killed in protests across Iraq. At least one of those was shot dead by security forces, while authorities have accused "vandals" of infiltrating the rallies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Skoda Auto India Tuesday announced the appointment of Zac Hollis as Director Sales, Service and Marketing.

Hollis, who is currently head of sales China region at Skoda Auto, Czech Republic, will take charge with effect from November 1, 2018, the company said in a statement.

He will report to Skoda Auto India Managing Director Gurpratap Boparai, it added.

Hollis will replace Ashutosh Dixit, who will take on an international role within the Volkswagen (VW) Group, the company said.

His appointment comes at a time when Skoda Auto India has been entrusted to lead Volkswagen group's India 2.0 project.

In July this year, VW group had announced an investment of 1 billion euro (around Rs 7,900 crore) between 2019 and 2021 as part of its latest strategy to enhance presence in India.

Commenting on the appointment, Boparai said, "His (Hollis') experience and expertise in developing markets like China will help us immensely to implement the India 2.0 strategy for Skoda Auto India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Electronics giant Sony India on Tuesday said it expects the share of revenue from the premium segment to rise 30-35 per cent over the next two to three years.

"Premium products' share of sales would be 20-25 per cent now for Sony India and this should rise to 30-35 per cent in a couple of years... say in 2-3 years," Sony India Managing Director Sunil Nayyar said here today on the sidelines of unveiling the company's festive offerings here.

Nayyar, the first Indian to head the company operations in the country, said he is hopeful that all product categories will show signs of robust growth, including audio and digital imaging businesses, besides the staple television category, which tops the India revenue with 60-65 per cent share.

He said Sony India is trying to raise the premium image, but at the same time, attempting to make such products affordable for consumers.

"We are partnering with companies that offer financing schemes to make purchases more affordable," Sony India Sales Head Satish Padmanabhan said.

The electronics major is also working on manufacturing 65-inch televisions in India and hopes this to be a reality over the next six months.

At present, up to 55-inch televisions are being sourced from Indian OEMs.

Once the 65-inch TVs get made in India, they will be more affordable, officials said.

In television, Sony categorises 55-inch and above as premium, priced around Rs 1 lakh and beyond.

Sony India had recently said it was planning to raise local sourcing to 55 per cent in the current fiscal, up from the existing 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, with the upcoming festive season, the total sales was expected to be close to Rs 300 crore in Bengal, a rise of 27 per cent over last year, the officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police S P Vaid Tuesday said the state police has been fighting a proxy war for decades and any speculative reporting, which can affect the morale of the cops, should be avoided.

"@JmuKmrPolice has been fighting a proxy war for decades which requires a lot of courage & determination of the men & officers of JKP. Speculative articles which undermine their morale should be avoided," he said in a tweet.

Vaid was responding to TV channel reports that the Union Home Ministry was not "satisfied" with the state police and was looking for a replacement for Vaid.

"As regards to transfer, it's routine matter & prerogative of the govt," he added.

The Home Ministry also put the speculations to rest, saying it has commended the work done by the Jammu and Kashmir Police on more than one occasion.

"MHA has denied reports that it is unhappy with Jammu & Kashmir police. On more than one occasion, MHA has commended the work done by J&K police and the valiant sacrifices made by the men & officers of J&K police. There is no question of any dissatisfaction," a spokesperson of the MHA said in a tweet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A major political slugfest broke out in Tamil Nadu Tuesday over the arrest of a woman student who raised slogans against BJP onboard a domestic flight with DMK and other opposition parties condemning it even as a Tuticorin court granted her bail.

As the BJP and its state unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, on whose complaint the woman was arrested, came under fire for "crushing" freedom of expression, the ruling AIADMK defended the police action, saying if such conduct was allowed, political leaders could face a security issue.

A night after her arrest, 28-year-old Louis Sophia, a student of a Canadian university on a visit to her native Tuticorin, was granted unconditional bail by a court in the district headquarter town.

Soundararajan and the student, who travelled to Tuticorin by the same flight last night from Chennai, were involved in an altercation after landing at the airport, a video of which was aired by TV channels.

Tamilisai is heard telling the student and the other people at the arrival lounge that a plane was no place to raise slogans.

"It (inside of a flight) is not a public forum....how can you expect me to keep mum when she shouts 'down with BJP's fascist government' looking at me? Is it freedom of expression?" she asked.

The arrest triggered outrage, with DMK President M K Stalin slamming the BJP state chief and questioning her tolerance to criticism.

"The central BJP government is crushing freedom of expression and the state government is aiding it. This is regrettable," he said in a statement.

Condemning Sofia's "hasty arrest", he recalled the Supreme Court's observation on the recent arrest of Left-wing activists that dissent was a "safety valve" in a democracy.

"In a democratic country, a citizen can criticise not just the BJP government but that of any party and the state BJP chief's action amounts to infringing on that freedom," he said.

MNM founder-president and actor Kamal Haasan, AMMK's TTV Dhinakaran and CPI-M Politburo member G Ramakrishnan also denounced her arrest.

However, defending the arrest, senior AIADMK leader and state Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar accused the woman of seeking publicity and said she could have opted for more democratic avenues to express her views.

"One can express their opinions or stage a protest in democratically approved places, can speak from a platform. Such avenues should be used to exercise freedom of expression. But some do such things for publicity for self-promotion," he told reporters in Chennai.

He said an aircraft or airport was a public place under the jurisdiction of the Centre. "No democrat would accept someone raising slogans there or behaving in a way not in keeping with democracy," the minister said.

"If this practice is allowed, no leader can go to a railway station or airport. One group will shout slogans against Stalin inside the airport. This will end up becoming a security issue for political leaders," he said.

Dhinakaran claimed the student raising slogans against "fascist BJP" was reflective of the mood of youth. He said the BJP needed a course-correction.

He also took a swipe at the AIADMK government, criticising it for the 'haste' in detaining the student.

Actor-politician Haasan said all politicians were liable to be arrested if raising slogans and criticising in public was a crime.

Unfazed by the criticism, Soundararajan defended her action and alleged that Sophia's remarks and gestures indicated that some organisation could be behind her.

Speaking to reporters in Chennai, she asked if other political leaders were okay with someone raising such slogans against them, especially on a flight.

Taking a dig at the DMK, she said its cadre had once attacked the BJP office here over a VHP leader's remarks against former chief minister the late M Karunanidhi at the height of the controversy over the Sethusamudram navigation channel project in 2007.

"Will you tolerate if someone raises slogans against you on a flight. Will the same leaders remain quiet if they are faced a with a similar situation?" she asked.

There are "appropriate" forums to exercise freedom of expression, she said and demanded that Sofia's background be checked.

Police said a case had been registered against Sofia under Sections 505(1)(b) (intent to cause fear or alarm) and 290 (public nuisance) of the IPC and section 75(1)(c) of the Tamil Nadu City Police Act.

"We will question the passengers and crew as well since the incident happened on board the flight," a police official said.

While being taken to the prison last night, the woman complained of uneasiness and was admitted to a hospital.

After third Judicial Magistrate S Tamilselvi allowed her bail application, the woman was discharged from the hospital today evening and sent home, police said.

Meanwhile, Sophia's father has lodged a counter- complaint against Soundararajan and her supporters, accusing them of holding out threats.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)On the eve of Teachers' Day, Tata Power and animal rights body PETA India have joined hands to provide humane programme material to teachers of 250 schools across the country.

In a statement, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India said its programme material and accompanying video are now available to teachers for students aged between 8 years and 12 years on Tata Power Club Enerji webpage.

The humane programme aims to foster kindness, empathy, and respect among students. Compassionate Citizen is PETA India's version of the group's US programme for humane -- Share the World -- which teaches children to be kind to animals.

This programme can easily be included in the school curricula via language arts, science, and social studies and when teaching about environmental issues and values while it is also perfect for use in eco and animal rights clubs in schools, the body said in the statement.

"As part of its ground breaking corporate social responsibility initiative, and just ahead of Teachers' Day on September 5, Tata Power has teamed up with PETA India to help teachers at 250 schools across India access materials from the group's humane education programme, Compassionate Citizen, in order to help foster kindness, empathy, and respect for others in their students," the body said.

Compassionate Citizen is endorsed by the Animal Welfare Board of India, the Central Board of Secondary Education, and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan schools, the statement read.

It has been voluntarily used by 1.67 lakh schools, reaching nearly 59 million children across India.

Many states including Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana have issued circulars asking schools to integrate the programme into their official curricula, it pointed out in the statement.

"It is said that when you teach a child to be kind to a mouse, you do as much for the child as you do for the mouse," said PETA India manager, education and youth outreach, Puja Mahajan.

PETA India said it is well documented by psychologists, sociologists, and law-enforcement officials that acts of cruelty to animals by children are often a precursor to violence towards humans.

The Compassionate Citizen programme is a comprehensive interdisciplinary curriculum that includes a 23-minute video featuring inspiring animal stories, amazing facts, easy-to-understand analogies that help students take someone else's point of view, and age-appropriate information on ways that kids can save animals.

"It touches on stopping bullying, helping the environment, saving wild animals, taking good care of animal companions, and much more.

"The material is currently available in English. It will soon be available in Hindi, and can be translated into other languages when there is significant demand," the body added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A teenager who had entered a house to allegedly steal valuables, was lynched by locals in northwest Delhi's Mukundpur in the early hours Tuesday, following which three people were arrested, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Aslam Khan said the 16-year-old boy had entered a house to steal valuables, but was caught by the owner and beaten to death by some locals.

A case has been registered at the Bhalaswa Dairy police station in this regard. Three of the accused have been arrested while three others are absconding, the police official said.

The boy's family claimed that he was not a thief and there was some other reason behind his lynching.

During inquiry, it emerged the incident happened at 3.30 am but the police were informed around 6.30 am.

"Around 6.30 am, a PCR call was received about an incident of theft. It is being inquired why was the call made after three hours," another officer said.

The teenage boy belonged to Khagaria district in Bihar and had come here around a fortnight ago, an officer said, adding his mother is a homemaker and stays in Bihar, while his father works as a labourer in Noida.

In July, a 31-year-old suspected thief was beaten to death in north Delhi's Burari.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A teenager, who had entered a house to allegedly steal valuables, was lynched by locals in northwest Delhi's Mukundpur in the early hours of Tuesday, following which three people were arrested, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Aslam Khan said the 16-year-old boy had entered the house to steal valuables, but was caught by the owner and beaten to death by some locals.

A case has been registered at Bhalaswa Dairy police station for the lynching of the youth. Three people accused of lynching the youth have been arrested while three others are on the run, the police official said.

The accused have been identified as Nand Kishore, Raj Kishore, Triveni, Deshraj, Sant Lal and Sohan Lal.

Police have also registered a case of theft against the deceased.

Police were told that the boy was accompanied by two others when he came to the Mukundpur house for allegedly committing a theft. A woman resident of the house was awakened by some noise and she saw three boys on the second floor of the house.

Two others fled from there but the teenager was caught and beaten to death by locals, the police said.

The boy's family claimed that he was not a thief and that there was some other reasons behind his lynching.

During inquiry, it emerged the incident happened at 3.30 am but the police were informed about it around 6.30 am.

"Around 6.30 am, a PCR call was received about an incident of theft. It is being inquired why was the call made after three hours," another officer said.

The teenaged boy belonged to Khagaria district in Bihar and had come here around a fortnight ago, the police said, adding his mother is a homemaker and stays in Bihar, while his father works as a labourer in Noida.

His elder brother works as an electrician and the victim was also getting trained in repairing electronic items.

After the incident, police were deployed in the area to ensure no untoward incident was reported. The post-mortem was carried out at the Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital and the body was handed over to family members.

In July, a 31-year-old suspected thief was beaten to death in north Delhi's Burari.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One more person was arrested Tuesday for allegedly kidnapping and raping a class 9 girl in a moving car in Gautam Buddh Nagar, police said.

The girl was on her way to relieve herself outside Roshanpur village in the district on August 27 when three men abducted and raped her in the car. They later dumped her near the village, according to the police.

Two accused were held the same day, they said, adding 19-year-old Monu, the third person involved in the crime, was arrested Tuesday.

"On a tip-off, Monu was held from his house in Astauli village of Dankaur area this morning. He was absconding since the day of the crime," Station House Officer (SHO) at Dankaur Police Station Farmood Ali Pundir told reporters here.

He was driving the hatchback in which his friends and main accused Ajay Singh Gujjar and Surendra Singh Gujjar raped the minor, Pundir said.

Ajay and Surendra have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 367 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape). Monu has not been charged for rape but for his complicity in the crime, he said.

They have also been charged under relevant sections of the Prevention of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The car used in the crime belonged to Monu's father, the SHO said, adding it was seized.

Monu has been remanded in judicial custody, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A revamped continental trade deal must include a dispute resolution mechanism, Canadian Prime Minister said Tuesday, pushing back on the US demands to get rid of binational panels to challenge anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

"We've said from the very beginning that we need a dispute resolution mechanism like Chapter 19 and we will hold firm on that," Trudeau said in Vancouver on the eve of the resumption of talks with the United States.

"We will not sign a deal that is bad for Canadians, and quite frankly, not having a Chapter 19 to ensure that the rules are followed would be bad for Canadians."US President Donald Trump has shown signs of impatience with the war in Afghanistan, according to a new book written by one of America's top journalists Bob Woodward, a media report said Tuesday.

Titled "Fear: Trump in the White House", the eagerly-awaited 448-page volume is scheduled to hit book stores on September 11 and claims to give an insider's account on the White House working and decision-making process in Trump's presidency.

A report on the book, along with some excerpts, were published by 'The Washington Post' Tuesday.

According to the report, Trump has shown impatience with the Afghanstan war, which is now America's longest war, and in one of the meetings with his top aides accused the military leadership of losing the war.

"At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisers for 25 minutes, complaining that the United States was losing, according to Woodward," the report said.

Trump did not give any interview for this book and when he called Woodward for it, the renowned author had already completed his manuscript.

"The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you," Trump told them, according to the book.

"They could do a much better job. I don't know what the hell we're doing". He went on to ask, "How many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?"



According to the report, in his book, Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trump's handling of the North Korean nuclear threat.

"One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a preemptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran," the daily reported.

Woodward, an associate editor at The Washington Post, writes that Trump during his meetings has repeatedly questioned the rational of massive US military spending against North Korea.

Woodward writes that the book is drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses that were conducted on "deep background", meaning the information could be used but he would not reveal who provided it. His account is also drawn from meeting notes, personal diaries and government documents, the report said.

With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, author Woodward reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump's White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies, according to the book publishers.

He draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents.

The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump agreed Tuesday to meet with South Korea's President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this month in New York, the White House said.

Moon, who discussed with Trump efforts to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea, told the US president he was sending a special envoy to Pyongyang Wednesday to meet with Kim Jong-Un, the North's leader, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"They agreed to meet later this month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York," she said of Trump and Moon.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A metropolitan court here Tuesday convicted two 'Indian Mujahideen' operatives of murder and terrorism for the 2007 Hyderabad blasts where two powerful explosions ripped through a popular eatery and an open air theatre, killing 44 people and wounding 68, prosecutors said.

Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge (in- charge) T Srinivas Rao pronounced Aneeq Shafique Sayeed and Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chowdhari guilty in the 11-year-old case, but acquitted two other accused Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash and Mohammed Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik for want of evidence.

The prosecution has now decided to seek capital punishment for the convicts.

All the four are natives of Maharashtra.

The quantum of punishment as also the judgement on the fifth accused Tarik Anjum, accused of harbouring the perpetrators in New Delhi and other places, will be pronounced on Monday.

"The prosecution proved the case against Aneeq Shafique Sayeed and Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chowdhari and they were convicted. The quantum of sentence against them will be pronounced next Monday," Special Public Prosecutor C Seshu Reddy told reporters after the verdict was pronounced inside a special courtroom at Cherlapalli Central Prison.

The courtroom was out of bounds for media.

The detailed judgement is likely to be available in 2-3 days, Reddy, who represented the counter-intelligence wing of the Telangana Police that probed the case, said.

Two synchronised blasts had rocket Gokul Chaat, a popular eatery, killing 32 people and leaving 47 injured, and an open air theatre in Lumbini Park close to the state secretariat where 12 people died and 21 wounded.

Three other accused including IM founder Riyaz Bhatkal, his brother Iqbal, and Amir Reza Khan are absconding. The Bhatkal brothers of Karnataka are believed to have taken shelter in Pakistan.

"Three others are absconding and we will proceed with the case against them once they are caught," Reddy said.

Barring Anjum, all seven were charged with involvement in the two blasts as also the recovery of an unexploded bomb from under a foot overbridge in Dilsukh Nagar area.

According to another Public Prosecutor K Surender, Sayeed and Chowdhari were found guilty of carrying out the blasts and convicted under various sections of the IPC including 302 (murder), besides provisions of the Arms Act, and the anti-terror law--Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The survivors and family members of the victims, meanwhile, sought capital punishment for the perpetrators.

Chander Nayak, one of the victims who lost an eye in the blast, said he was disappointed with the acquittal of two of the accused and demanded that the state government appeal against their acquittal in the High Court.

"Under the Indian law, the highest punishment is hanging. I want those convicted to be hanged. Also, the government should seize all the properties of those convicted and distribute it among the survivors and the families of the deceased," Nayak, who held a placard that read 'Telangana CM should help the victims', said.

B Anjaiah, who lost his daughter and two other close relatives, also wanted the convicts to go to the gallows.

"It has been a nightmare for me...My daughter, who was just 14 then, and two of my close relatives lost their lives. I hope the perpetrators will be hanged," he told PTI.

Syed Rahim, who was injured in the eye when the blast rocked 'Gokul Chat', also wants the perpetrators to hang.

Premchand Vijayvargiya, one of the promoters of the popular eatery, who lost his four relatives and two workers, said he wanted "the sternest of punishments" for the perpetrators.

As the survivors and families of the victims sought death for the culprits in one voice, the BJP felt trial in terror cases should be fast-tracked.

"Justice for those killed came quite late. Trial in such cases needs to be fast-tracked," BJP spokesman for Telangana Krishna Sagar Rao told PTI.

"(Trial of) Such cases should be speeded up. Fast track courts should be set up. There will be fear if judgements come in a limited period. Speedy justice should be done," said P Sudhakar Reddy, deputy leader of the Congress in the Telangana Legislative Council.

AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said the judgement did not bring a sense of closure or justice to the families of the victims.

"FAROOQ & SADIQ have been in prison from 2009 & after 9 years Court finds them NOT GUILTY acquits them & their Lawyer ABDUL Azeem tells me evidence was circumstantial & eyewitnesses who where found after 1 yr of offence No closure/Justice for victims families Pain continues," Owaisi said on Twitter.

All the Indian Mujahideen operatives who faced trial were arrested by Maharashtra police's AntiTerrorism Squad in October 2008. Around 170 witnesses were examined during the trial and arguments concluded last month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The ruling BJP in Uttarakhand on Tuesday accused the Congress of being "anti-development", days after a leader of the opposition party alleged that the state government was wasting money by holding roadshows in different cities across the country and abroad in preparation for an investor's summit.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was in Singapore Monday to invite investors to participate in the summit to be held here on October 7 and 8, which would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

State BJP's media head Devendra Bhasin said on Tuesday, "A responsible party like Congress should have placed development over and seen some positivity in the chief minister's efforts to bring investors to the state."



"Negative remarks of Congress leaders about the upcoming summit shows they are anti-development," he said.

Accusing the Congress of doing nothing for Uttarakhand when in power, Bhasin claimed all the industrialisation in the state took place because of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who gave it a special category status and an industrial package soon after its creation.

"Vajpayee always generously helped the state to grow without ever caring that it was a Congress-ruled state at that time. That shows the BJP has always placed development over politics," he said.

Senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana had recently accused the state government of blowing away lots of money over holding roadshows in different cities in the country and abroad in the name of preparing for the summit.

"At a time when the people of the state are battling the effects of heavy rains, the chief minister and his officials are spending crores on foreign visits in the name of investors' summit," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A first-of-its-kind meeting of worldwide civil society organisations to present policy proposals to a historic meeting of G20 Ministers, including from india, will be co-chaired by UK-headquartered Varkey Foundation in Argentina on Wednesday.

Leading organisations such as Plan International Canada, International, and the Harvard School of will deliberate on the world's most pressing educational challenges and present their findings to education ministers from around the world, including Indian minister of state for higher education Satya Pal Singh.

"Our fervent hope is that the G20 ministers will listen to our policy recommendations because the institutional knowledge of civil society organisations, often acquired over decades and combined with extensive on-the-ground experience, means we have insights that could be of huge benefit to ministers as they try to ensure that every child is given their birthright a quality education," said Vikas Pota, chairman of the Varkey Foundation, set up by Indian-origin entrepreneur Sunny Varkey.

"In particular, our policy recommendations address the ever-increasing role that technology is playing in young people's lives, recognising that in the educational environment of the 21st century, online learning can offer great benefits, from providing an instant source of information to allowing students to connect with their peers across the world.

"But without proper guidance and safeguards, the omnipresence of technologies such as social media can also see children exposed to false information, mental health issues or even radicalisation.

While the G20 has met regularly since its inception in September 1999, this week marks the first time all G20 education ministers will hold their own summit on its sidelines.

Representatives from civil society organisations will meet the President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, and present their recommendations to the ministers in charge of education affairs in their respective countries with the aim of influencing G20 deliberations to help develop an action plan on how best to solve the world's deepening education problems.

Esteban Bullrich, Senator from Buenos Aires and Argentina's former Minister for Education, who will be co-chairing the meet with the Varkey Foundation, said that education ministers gaining a place at the table for the first time under Argentina's presidency of the G20 was "deeply significant".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UN Security Council will meet Friday to address the situation in Syria's Idlib, where Russian warplanes are carrying out strikes against rebel forces, US ambassador Nikki Haley said.

The United States, currently holding the presidency of the Security Council, is calling the meeting to discuss the possibility that Syrian forces with Russian support will deploy chemical weapons against the rebels and civilians in the area, Haley told a Tuesday press conference.

"What you are seeing is the president (Trump) saying to Iran, Russia and Assad, don't go there. Do not let a chemical attack happen on the people of Idlib," she said.

"If chemical weapons are used, the United States will respond.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Taking strong note of frequent leakage of question papers of competitive examinations, the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC) said Tuesday it will prepare "at least two sets of question papers" as a corrective measure.

UPSSSC Chairman C B Paliwal said this just two days after the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force arrested 11 people for their alleged role in the leakage of question papers for tubewell operator recruitment test, which was to be held on Sunday.

"We are planning to have at least two sets of question papers so that in case of leakage of a particular set, another can be given to the examinees," Paliwal told PTI here.

He said that the commission is mulling introduction of two sets of examinations -- screening and mains -- in the near future.

"A proposal will be sent to the state government suggesting two sets of examinations -- screening and mains. This will help in weeding out chances of possible leakage of question papers in the future," Paliwal said.

In the past, leakages of question papers of various examinations were reported from the most populous state of the country, earning it a bad name and giving a tough time to both the job aspirants and police.

On July 29, as many as 51 people were arrested by the UP Police from different parts of the state for facilitating cheating during a recruitment examination for assistant teachers.

On June 18, as many as 19 people were arrested for allegedly aiding cheating through hi-tech devices, such as spy mics, and placing "solvers" impersonating aspirants in the Uttar Pradesh police constable recruitment examination.

Police said solvers are generally bright students who enter examination centres with forged documents having superimposed photographs.

On August 23, 2017, seven members of a gang allegedly involved in leaking a question paper of the online examination for sub-inspectors were arrested by the STF.

The online examination for sub-inspectors from July 7 to July 31 at 97 centres across the state was cancelled after the question paper was leaked on social media.

When a comment in this regard was sought from Rahul Srivastava, Additional Superintendent of Police (PRO to DGP), he told PTI Tuesday that the onus of conducting a foolproof examination lies on the department concerned.

"However, if the department takes police on board before the test is conducted, then the racket is busted before the examination itself. This was the case with the examination pertaining to assistant teachers," he said.

Whenever any question paper leakage has been detected, the racket was busted within 24 hours, he said, adding, "If we get any intelligence input pertaining to question paper leakage, we act immediately."



In March 2015, the UP government had cancelled the provincial civil services preliminary examination after an exam paper was leaked on WhatsApp. The STF had arrested three persons in connection with the leak.

In June 30, 2013, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested seven people from Delhi and Muzaffarnagar for allegedly leaking question papers of constable recruitment examination in the Railway Police Force.

In May 2011, the UP STF had claimed that its officials were already having the AIEEE question papers with them hours before the countrywide exam for engineering course was due to begin. The question paper was being sold for Rs 6 lakh each.

A nationalised bank clerk posted in Jaunpur was arrested in this connection from Lucknow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Victims of the twin blast that occurred in 2007 at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park here, seek capital punishment for culprits of the ghastly incident.

A local court here Tuesday convicted two Indian Mujahideen operatives Aneeq Shafique Sayeed and Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chowdhari and acquitted two others in the case.

The quantum of sentence for the convicted Indian Mujahideen operatives will be announced next Monday.

Chander Nayak, one of the victims who lost an eye in the blast said he was disappointed over the acquittal of two of the accused and sought the state government to appeal against their acquittal in the High Court.

"As per the Indian law the highest punishment is hanging. I want those convicted to be hanged.

And also the government should seize all the properties of those convicted and distribute it to the victims," Nayak said holding a placard which read Telangana Chief Minister should help victims.

Nayak, then 18 years old, went to Koti area to buy some old books and was injured in the blast.

"I lost my right eye. I have no job now. Government should help us. Government should approach High Court seeking punishment for those two acquitted in the lower court," he added.

B Anjaiah, who lost his daughter and two other close relatives in the blast said he expects capital punishment for the culprits.

He works in the sales department of a local paper.

"It is like a nightmare for me.. My daughter, who was just 14 years then, and two of my close relatives lost their lives. I hope the perpetrators will be hanged," he told PTI



Syed Rahim, who suffered eye injuries in the blast at Gokul Chat said, "The culprits should be hanged."



He lost one of his eyes and is still suffering from vision-related problems.

The Telangana government gave him Rs 5 lakh as compensation.

"The police also should seriously look for those still at large," he said.

Another victim, Sadasiva Reddy, who was pursuing engineering when the incident took place, also expressed the same



His injuries are so severe that he barely walks and talks due to the impact.

Premchand Vijayvargiya, one of the promoters of the popular outlet at Koti said four of his relatives and two of his workers were injured in the blast leaving the family in trauma.

"The culprits should be given toughest of toughest punishment for the act they committed," he said.

The eatery was closed for about three months after the incident as police took over the shop for collecting and preserving evidences and the shop also needed a make over.

The near simultaneous blasts at Gokul Chat killed 32 people and left 47 injured, while 12 others died and 21 were injured at the open air theatre at Lumbini Park, a few metres away from the state secretariat in the blasts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vince Vaughan has revealed that he had encouraged actor-director Mel Gibson to join the cast of "Dragged Across Concrete".

The 48-year-old actor has earlier worked with Gibson on his 2016 directorial "Hacksaw Ridge".

Vaughan said he had a word with Gibson about the S Craig Zahler's film to which the veteran actor gave a positive reply.

"I had worked with Mel on 'Hacksaw' and had overlapped doing 'Brawl [in Cell Block 99'] with Zahler. He came and talked about this other movie, and Mel was the name that he recommended for the character of Ridgeman.

"They sent it to Mel, and I mentioned it to him. Thankfully Mel really responded to it. He's such a terrific filmmaker, and I think Zahler is such a terrific filmmaker."



"Dragged Across Concrete", a crime thriller, follows two officers (Vaughan and Gibson), who get suspended when a video of their strong-arm tactics gets wide attention. They then descend into the criminal underworld to exact vengeance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The September 5 protest by workers and farmers at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi will not be the last rally, organisers said Tuesday, warning that they would intensify their struggle against the "anti-people" policies of the Centre.

The rally - Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh March - is being organised jointly by CITU, AIKS and AIAWU, organisations and unions affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

"This is the first time...after Independence that farmers and workers will jointly participate in a rally against the government," CITU general secretary Tapan Sen told reporters, adding, "And it will not be the last one of our efforts."



"We will announce the second phase of our struggle and war against the government, whose anti-people policies are affecting the poor people of our country. This government is only making policies keeping in mind the interests of the corporate and the rich," Sen said.

Last week, the organisers said they were expecting more than three lakh people from across the country at the rally.

Preparations for the rally had been under way for several days but incessant rain over the last few days threw all that into disarray, damaging the makeshift shelters at Ramlila Maidan, the venue for the protest. However, the thousands of participants who have come from all over the country appeared confident that the rally would be successful in highlighting their issues of concern.

Punik Narayan Rau, 70, has come from Nashik.

Rau said he was part of the "Long March" of farmers from Nashik to Mumbai earlier this year. The march of farmers was led by All India Kisan Sabha and was, among other demands, for proper implementation of Maharashtra government's loan waiver scheme.

Rau said he was disappointed with Maharashtra government.

"The BJP government in Maharashtra fooled us. I have come to Delhi to raise my voice against the anti-farmer policies of the Centre. I will not stop till I get the right price for my crops," he said.

Swaroop, 25 and from Kerala, said he had seen more rains in his home state Kerala this monsoon season.

Along with his three friends, he covered the distance on motorbikes.

"Me and my friends travelled from Kerala to Delhi in seven days crossing many states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telegana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh meeting farmers on our way.

"We realised that the state of farmers is seriously bad. We told them that the time has come to raise our voice against the government's policies," Swaroop said.

The farmers and workers, participating in the rally, want remunerative prices for crops as per the Swaminathan Committee recommendations, debt waiver of all farmers and agricultural workers, minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 per month for workers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A lawmaker of the ruling in Maharashtra has apparently told youngsters he would "kidnap" the girl they like even if she says no to their proposal.

Ram Kadam made the comments at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency in Mumbai Monday night.

"You (youngsters) can meet me for any work," he is heard in a video clip as telling the crowd, mainly comprising the youth.

Kadam went further, saying he has received requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their proposal.

"I will help, 100 per cent. Come (to me) with your parents. What will I do if parents approve? I will kidnap the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he is heard telling the crowd.

Kadam is also heard sharing his mobile number with the crowd.

When asked about the video clip, Kadam said his comments have been distorted.

However, his remarks drew sharp reaction from the NCP, which said the comments brought to fore the "Ravana-like" face of the ruling party.

Maharashtra spokesperson Nawab Malik said Kadam was speaking about abducting girls.

"What Kadam said has revealed the Ravana-like face of the Kadam said he would abduct a girl for a boy. Therefore, he should be called as 'Ravana' Kadam," Malik told reporters.A Maharashtra BJP MLA has told youngsters he would "kidnap" the girl a boy likes even if she says no to the proposal, a controversial remark that drew sharp reactions from ally Shiv Sena and opposition parties.

Ram Kadam made the comments at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency in Mumbai Monday night.

"You (youngsters) can meet me for any work," he is heard in a video clip as telling the crowd, mainly comprising the youth.

Kadam went further, saying he has received requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their proposal.

"I will help, 100 per cent. Come (to me) with your parents. What will I do if parents approve? I will kidnap the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he is heard telling the crowd in Marathi. Kadam is also heard sharing his mobile number with the crowd.

When asked about the video clip, Kadam said his comments were distorted.

Shiv Sena sought Kadam's apology and asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state's home minister, what action would be taken against the MLA for making a statement that "threatens safety of girls".

The Congress called for Kadam's arrest, while the NCP said his comment brought to the fore "Ravana-like" face of the ruling party.

Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said the MLA offering to marry off girls "against their will" meant the lawmaker believed that "marriage is like forming government".

"Ashamed and disgraced that he sits in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra- a land of culture & women liberty," he tweeted.

"Not just an outright apology from him, but I'd want to know from the Home Minister of Maharashtra what action will be taken for openly making such statements that threaten the safety of girls and offering safety to those wanting to kidnap them," he added.

Opposition Leader in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said Kadam's remarks were unfortunate and condemnable. "The state government should immediately arrest him," he said.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said, "Cases should be filed against Kadam if a girl is kidnapped in Maharashtra as the MLA himself is encouraging their kidnapping."



"He should apologise. I am sure women members of the Assembly will pose questions to him," Patil said.

State NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Kadam was speaking the language of abducting girls.

"What Kadam said has revealed the Ravana-like face of the BJP. Kadam said he would abduct a girl for a boy. Therefore, he should be called as 'Ravana' Kadam," Malik told reporters here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 33-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly posing as a police personnel and extorting money from another woman here in Maharashtra, a police official said Tuesday.

The accused, Aparna Manohar Mohare, posed as a policewoman and contacted the 20-year-old victim in Mumbra here last Wednesday, claiming that an offence of kidnapping and theft was registered against the latter at the Kalyan police station.

Mohare allegedly demanded Rs 7 lakh from the victim to save her from arrest in the case, Thane police spokesperson Sukhada Narkar said.

The accused finally settled the deal at Rs 1 lakh and took Rs 10,000 initially from a relative of the victim, Narkar said.

The victim filed a complaint following which police Monday arrested Mohare from Shiravane village in Navi Mumbai, she said.

A search was on for the woman's associate who used to accompany her, Narkar said.

The accused was booked under various IPC sections, including 389 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 171 (wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent) and 506 (criminal intimidation), she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Youth wings of 12 opposition parties, including the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, launched Tuesday a united front to fight against several decisions of the ruling dispensation, IYC president said.

It is the need of the hour to project a united face against the government for upcoming general elections, Indian Youth Congress president Keshav Chand Yadav told reporters here.

"The biggest challenge is rising unemployment and how the government has completely failed to work on it. Second is corruption through Rafale or Mudra loan. Thirdly, communalism is threatening the unity of the country," said Sabir S Ghaffar, a leader of the Muslim League Youth.

"Our main aim is to unite all youth political platforms to oust this communal, anti-democratic and anti-citizen government led by the BJP. We want to oust it and to fight for the people's rights as promises that were made have not been fulfilled.

"Things have come to such a standpoint that people now want 'bure din' instead of 'acche din'," he added.

National president of Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha Vikas Yadav said the youth front would launch a number of protests across the country against the government's "failed" policies.

"We are planning to hit streets from September 28 where we will raise all issues which the government has not been able to fulfil," he said.

The 12 parties that have joined hands are Indian Youth Congress, Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, Rastriya Lok Dal, Rashtrawadi Congress, All India Muslim League, All India Forward Bloc, Democratic Youth Federation, CPM Youth Federation, Rashtriya Janta Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Janta Dal Secular.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and David HenryZURICH/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc's longtime Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach will retire in March, to be replaced by Mark Mason, CFO of the institutional clients group, the third-largest U.S. bank told employees on Tuesday.Gerspach, an accountant, joined Citigroup in 1990 and became CFO in July 2009. He became known for fielding analyst questions about the company's irregular progress in divesting businesses, satisfying new capital rules imposed by regulators and failing to meet financial targets.He also had to answer for problems that ...(Reuters) - Fortis Healthcare Ltd co-founder Shivinder Singh said on Tuesday he had filed a lawsuit against older brother Malvinder Singh, alleging "oppression and mismanagement" at their joint businesses.Shivinder, who has decided to break business ties with his sibling, said the case, which also accuses former chief of financial services firm Religare Enterprises Sunil Godhwani, was filed in the National Company Law Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body for corporate governances.The case comes in the wake of financial troubles at the group businesses RHC Holding, Religare Enterprises and ...SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese retailer JD.com Inc's stock fell nearly 3 percent in premarket trading on Tuesday after the firm's CEO was arrested in the United States on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct and later released.Richard Liu, who founded the firm in 1998, was arrested by police in the U.S. city of Minneapolis on Friday and released the next day before returning to China. U.S. markets were closed on Monday.Minneapolis police said on Sunday that "an active investigation" was under way. A Minnesota-based lawyer for Liu said on Monday that the Chinese magnate denied any wrongdoing and ...By Arjun Panchadar and Adam JourdanSHANGHAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Chinese retailer JD.com Inc's stock fell as much as 7 percent on Tuesday, hitting an 18-month low after the company's chief executive officer was arrested in the United States on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct and later released.Richard Liu, who founded the firm in 1998, was arrested by police in the U.S. city of Minneapolis on Friday and released the next day before returning to China.Minneapolis police said on Sunday that "an active investigation" was under way. A Minnesota-based lawyer for Liu said on Monday the ...It's confirmed! Apple Inc is set to roll out its latest lineup of products, more importantly, the new version of iPhone on September 12 at the Steve Jobs Theater in the company's Cupertino, California campus. "Gather Round," said the invite on Apple's website. Beyond the iPhones, Apple has been working on updated AirPods, an AirPower wireless charger, a new Apple Watch, and revamped iPad Pro tablets for this year, according to several reports.

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Digital EditorThe Google India office is seeing unprecedented action these days as it ups the ante in the country, including making an aggressive play for the next wave of internet users hailing from the tier II cities and beyond. The buzz is that it is bringing back former employees and relocating existing ones to put together a strong leadership team.

According to The Economic Times, this is perhaps the first time in the company's 15-year journey in India that it has made so many key appointments in senior leadership roles. To begin with, Sajith Sivanandan, former managing director of Google for Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and new emerging markets, has relocated to Bengaluru as the head of payments and access service in India.

Similarly, Pankaj Gupta, the founder-CEO of Halli Labs - a Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence startup that the company acquired in July last year - has been appointed as director of engineering, Next Billion Users, Google India.

Then, Ambarish Kenghe, the co-founder and former product management lead for Google's Chromecast based at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, who moved on to Myntra as chief product officer in 2015, has been wooed back. Kenghe will now be leading product development for the payment app Google Pay (previously Tez).

The internet giant is also casting its net wider to attract talent. For instance, Munish Seth, Facebook's former regional head-APAC (Asia Pacific) for connectivity solutions, has joined Google as the new country director for Android. This underlines Google's growing focus on the Google Play ecosystem in India. Seth, who had also spearheaded Facebook's Express WiFi programme to digitally connect villages in India, is now responsible for driving partnerships with handset makers and original equipment makers (OEMs) in the country.

Interestingly, while Google India is busy beefing up its top management, the other Silicon Valley behemoth Facebook has been missing a top boss since last October. Its subsidiary WhatsApp has also drawn flak from the government for lacking a local set-up in India.

Google's focus on personnel comes at a time when it is betting big on the growth of India's digital payments ecosystem. "One instance of that is the leadership team we are putting in place in India. A team that has a wealth of experience and deep understanding of India and the next billion users," Caesar Sengupta, Google's general manager of payments and vice-president for Next Billion Users, told the daily.

At the same time, the company is focussing aggressively on building new products and features specifically for India. After all, despite the digital divide, India boasts the second highest active internet user base with 1 out of 3 people online.

Take Project Navlekha, one of the many new features announced at the company's fourth edition of 'Google for India' event last month. Google is working with the 100,000+ offline Indian language publishers on this project, which allows them to easily start their website and publish on a branded domain with a few simple clicks. The effort is to make more vernacular content available online.

In addition, the company has introduced Marathi language besides English and Hindi on Google Assistant to make it more relevant to Indians. It also plans to introduce seven more Indian languages soon. The Assistant will now automatically understand when you talk in different languages, so you can switch between Hindi and English seamlessly.

"The three big things that capture the behaviour of this new Internet in India are voice, video and vernacular," Rajan Anandan, vice-president (South-East Asia and India), Google, had said in his keynote address at the flagship event. According to him, voice is emerging as the preferred model of input for new Internet users in India and they have seen 270% year-on-year growth in voice searches. "Vernacular, or majority of Internet users today are Indian language users. And this number is expected to reach 500 million over the next two years," Anandan had added.

Furthermore, a recent study that Google released along with Bain & Company and Omidyar Network estimated 370 million non-internet users across India's affluent socioeconomic strata and 620 million across the mostly-untapped lower income segments. And Google wants to be ready to tap that massive opportunity.Swiggy is working on its third fundraising round in the year so far amid increasing competition in the food tech space, which posted a 15% quarterly growth in the number of daily orders through 2017. According to The Economic Times, the online food-delivery platform has held discussions with a host of investors to raise $500-700 million, a significant portion of which China's Tencent Holdings wants to contribute. This reportedly could turn out to be the WeChat owner's biggest cheque in India's food tech space.

The buzz last month was that Swiggy was in talks with new investors as well as existing ones - including South Africa's Naspers Ltd, China's Meituan Dianping, US-based hedge fund Coatue Management and DST Global - to raise up to $500 million. But now, given the unprecedented interest it is receiving from global investors, the Bangalore-based start-up is thinking bigger.

A source with direct knowledge of the negotiations told the daily that discussions on the investment size and valuation have progressed significantly north in the last three weeks. "The funding size under discussion is around $650 million, with Naspers looking to invest $200-250 million," this person added.

The other suitors lining up include growth equity firm General Atlantic, hedge funds Tybourne Capital and Hillhouse Capital, and SoftBank. The daily added that while the startup has been in talks with the latter since last November, it is not clear whether the Japanese behemoth will participate in the upcoming fundraising round or invest independently at some point.

If things go to plan, Swiggy is looking at a valuation of $2.5-3 billion. "However, the talks are yet to take definite shape and will take another 3-4 weeks to crystallise," the source added.

This development comes a little over two months after Swiggy's $210 million Series G round in late-June, which propelled it into the much-coveted unicorn club. It has raised a total of about $465 million so far, but it isn't the only player aggressively building up a war chest. Also vying for a larger slice of the red-hot food delivery pie - expected to touch $4 billion in 2020, according to RedSeer Consulting - is arch rival Zomato.

To stay ahead of each other, both the companies are expanding their geographical reach and trying to make inroads into each other's strongholds. Swiggy is looking to establish a strong foothold in North India, where Zomato holds sway, while the latter is looking to do the same in the Swiggy-dominated southern cities. Both players are not only offering discounts but are also trying to rope in restaurants exclusively by cutting down on the commission they get. To this end, both the companies are burning cash to the tune of $18-20 million per month and, hence, have been raising funds more frequently.

Furthermore, Swiggy also needs funds to fan its ambitions in the hyperlocal delivery segment. The company is planning to start delivery for categories like medicines, groceries and flowers in their diversification strategy. The buzz is that the service would also include a customer-to-customer pick-up and drop service. To see this plan to fruition, the company has already taken its first step by acquiring Scootsy, an on-demand delivery service based in Mumbai.

In fact, this was the 11th deal in the mergers and acquisitions space since January 2017, as per data from Tracxn, a startup research platform. And more such deals are in the pipeline.Amid a series of allegations over the Rafale deal, the Narendra Modi government has rejected a proposal by Russia to make the Adani Group a partner for a joint venture to manufacture the modern AK-series assault rifles, which are meant for the Indian Army. The proposal to make Kalashnikov Concern's AK-103 rifle -- the third generation of the Kalashnikov assault rifles and a thorough upgrade of the world known AK47/AKM -- was floated after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited Russia in April.

Though Russia has proposed to manufacture the assault rifles as part of a joint venture, India has turned down the proposal as both the countries failed to decide upon their eligible private partners. The proposal says that only a Russia company having an experience in manufacturing AK-47 series is eligible for the project. However, the country had proposed make the Adani Group as its Indian partner for the project.

After no consensus over the private player, the Indian Ordnance Factories could also become the production agency for the project. The AK-47 is currently used by the Indian Army, police and paramilitary forces but its production was stopped after the World War 2.

Just like AK-47, the AK-103 rifle also uses the same 7.62x39 round and polymer parts to reduce its weight. The AK103 has plastic folding buttstock that ensures convenience on a march, during transportation and landing operations. The weapon can even fire with buttstock folded. It can carry a 40-mm under-barrel grenade launcher or a knife-bayonet. Currently, AK-103 is used by the Indian Navy's Marine Commando Force in limited quantity.

The Congress has repeatedly accused the Modi government of 'favouritism' and 'non-transparency' over the Rafale deal with France. Under the deal between India and France, India would buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, and as part of the offset obligation, the French Dassault Aviation would invest 100 million euros in India to make the components for the fighter jets and Falcon civilian aircraft.

(Edited by Manoj Sharma)04 Sep 2018, 3:06 PM

Rupee hits new all-time low against US dollar

The Indian rupee slumped 16 paise against the US dollar to trade at a life-time low of 71.37 in early trade on Tuesday. The fall in Indian currency is due to the strong demand for the US currency. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange, the local currency opened at a record low of 71.24 against a dollar, down from its previous close of 71.21, and weakened further to trade at a fresh low of 71.37, down 16 paise.

Airlines' losses could reach up to $1.9 billion this year: CAPA report

Airlines in India could post a combined loss of up to $1.9 billion this financial year, aviation consulting firm CAPA India said in a report on Monday evening. The report said full-service carriers like Air India and Jet Airways might see huge losses due to rising fuel costs, depreciation of the rupee and low airfares. The loss forecast for the 12 months ending March 31 is up from an estimated $430 million to $460 million.

CAPA said that barring Interglobe Aviation Ltd's IndiGo, none of the airlines have strong enough balance sheets to comfortably withstand higher costs and lower yields.

Delhi, UP, other states may face power disruption due to coal supply issues

Power supply to northern states like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and a few in eastern India - Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal may face disruption as fuel supply to 4,200 MW of generation capacity that feeds these states has fallen sharply heightening the risk of a shutdown from events like heavy rain. According to reports, Coal India's supply has fallen to 40,000 tonnes or less a day from about 55,000 tonnes in states like Jharkhand due to heavy rains.

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp down in India, US

Facebook and its other social media platforms Instagram and WhatsApp temporarily went down late on Monday in India, the US, Canada and various other countries. In a statement issue later, Facebook said a networking issue has led to the temporary outages.

Within an hour of the outage across the social media platforms, thousands took to Twitter to complain. Some users reported having problems signing in, posting, commenting and updating their newsfeeds on Facebook. Others reported having issues as Facebook messenger would not load. On Instagram, users said they couldn't access recent posts or messages while those using WhatsApp said they couldn't connect to the service or send and receive messages. In an error message on its site, Facebook said: "Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue. The hashtag #FacebookDown was trending on Twitter.The United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees (UFRBOE) has deferred the two-day mass casual leave on September 4 and 5 after discussion with the RBI management.

In a statement issued on Monday, UFRBOE said: "Consequent to series of meeting between top management of Reserve Bank of India with unions, the forum has decided to defer the programme of mass casual leave scheduled on September 4 and 5 to first week of January, 2019 in response to the bank's request to give some more time to resolve the demands."

RBI employees had earlier rejected Governor Urjit Patel's request to withdraw their two-day mass leave programme. The employees of the central bank are demanding an option for contributory provident fund (CPF) retainers to switch over to pension scheme, and grant of additional provident fund (APF) to those recruited in the bank from 2012.

The forum had threatened that if the issue lingered, then they would resort to flash strike for two days.

The mass casual leave programme was likely to have paralysed operations of RBI and other major lenders across the country. Reacting to the call of two-day leave, all India Reserve Bank Employees Association General Secretary Samir Ghosh had yesterday said that the move would seriously affect RTGS & NEFT operations in the banks.North Indian states such as Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal are staring at likely power disruptions due to shortage in coal supply in monsoon season. According to a report in the Economic Times, these states are vulnerable to disruptions as fuel supply to 4,200 mw of generation capacity that feeds north Indian states has fallen sharply, increasing the risk of a shutdown in event of heavy rain.

State-run Coal India's supply has fallen because the mine which was supplying coal to NTPC's large plants in the east has almost run out of stock, the report said. The state-owned firm accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production.

"Coal India's supply from Rajmahal mines in Jharkhand has fallen to 40,000 tonnes a day from about 55,000 tonnes. On a rainy day, the supply halves. At NTPC's Farakka plant, stocks have plummeted to 4,000 tonnes from 2.5 lakh tonnes almost two months ago," the ET quoted a senior NTPC official as saying.

At the Kahalgaon plant, stocks tumbled to 45,000 tonnes from 5 lakh tonnes two months ago, forcing the company to scale down generation levels to 60 per cent and 80 per cent at Farakka and Kahalgaon power plants respectively from around 90 per cent for both plants, the official told the business daily.

According to the report, the issue has been escalated to the central government which is monitoring the situation.

Earlier this year, the Coal Ministry had ruled out any possibility of dry coal shortage in the upcoming monsoon season and said that it had sufficient stocks to meet the demand of power plants. The ministry, however, had stressed that it expected power plants to lift their requirement in time to avoid any shortage which was witnessed last year after the rainy season.

Last year, power plants were hit by coal shortages which affected power production in some states. However, the then coal secretary Susheel Kumar said that the coal shortage had happened because power plants had regulated their intake.

In October last year, the Karnataka government had asked the Centre to ensure adequate supply of coal and early allocation of a coal block in Odisha to meet the severe fuel shortage faced by power units. In the same month, Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam had said that power generation at thermal power stations had reduced by 2,700 MW due to shortage of coal, forcing it to resort to load shedding in the state.

This year in July, Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal asked Coal India to focus on meeting coal demand, particularly from the power sector. Owing to a sharp rise in coal demand from the power sector, Coal India was finding it difficult to meet the demand despite steady rise in supply to the sector. Goyal had called for better coordination between Coal India and Railways to ramp up supplies. He also asked state-owned mining company to plan for the next fiscal for better production and supply.

Coal India registered a 15.2 per cent growth in coal production during the first quarter ended June 2018 to 136.87 million tonne while supply to power plants also jumped by 15.4 per cent to 122.84 million tonne.

(With inputs from PTI)Chinas stock market regulator has proposed relaxing requirements for infant biopharmaceutical, security and microchip companies looking to list on the Chinese mainland, in an effort to support the countrys drive to develop its high-tech capabilities.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) published a raft of documents on Friday suggesting that the State Council, Chinas cabinet, do away with rules requiring that companies in the sectors become profitable before listing on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

Regardless of their potential, biopharmaceuticals, security surveillance and microchip companies often struggle to make a profit in their first few years as they focus on the research and development of an advanced product, rather than sales. The CSRCs proposals would allow them to attract additional investment in their nascent years. The documents do not provide details on how the changes might be implemented in practice, however.

The proposals give momentum to suggestions made during the two sessions, Chinas annual meeting of its top legislative and advisory bodies, that more be done by financial markets to support tech development. It also supports the governments wider effort to upgrade Chinas high-tech manufacturing capabilities as part of its Made in China 2025 program, in a pivot away from intensive, low-end manufacturing and infrastructure-led growth.

The CSRC suggestions complement efforts by regulatory authorities to encourage Chinas overseas-listed tech giants to also list on the domestic stock marks through its Chinese depositary receipts (CDRs) program. Around 26 Chinese tech companies have sold $8.5 billion new shares through IPOs as part of the CDR trial program that launched this summer, although it was something of a letdown when tech leaders such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc. failed to reach agreements with regulators in time for the launch.

The CSRC rules show that the government is looking to capitalize on the vast potential of Chinas medical tech industry, with the domestic market expected to rise from $122.6 billion in value in 2017 to around $175 billion by 2022, according to health-care company IQVIA. Biopharmaceuticals, which includes innovations such as such using big data for gene sequencing, are expected to experience major growth, with financing in the global medical industry rising 57% year-on-year in 2017 to 151.1 billion yuan ($22.1 billion), according to industry platform vcbeat.net.

However, even if the State Council approves the CSRCs suggestions, domestic bourses may struggle to attract companies lured by the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The Hong Kong exchange has already relaxed profitability requirements, but also provides much more concrete guidelines on other key areas for biopharmaceutical firms, such as requiring that companies looking to list first qualify for clinical trials for their drugs or medical devices. The Hong Kong exchange also has the advantage that it is much easier for firms listing there to offer equity incentives for foreign talent whom the infant company might want to attract, whereas it is much harder to do so on the Chinese mainland, according to industry experts.

In contrast, efforts to encourage security and chip companies to list on the domestic bourses may prove more successful, as such companies often rely on government procurement contracts and may therefore be more easily influenced by the government. For example, security companies such as camera-maker Xiamen Meiya Pico Information Co. Ltd. look to the government as a major potential customer.

Contact reporter Ke Dawei (daweike@caixin.com)Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.Bank of India has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Safai Karmachari. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here.

"Applications are invited from the casual / temporary workers who are working at various Branches / Offices of the Bank in terms of one-time relaxation approved by the Bank's Board on 01.03.2013 for the post of Safai Karmnachari-Cum-Sepoy in the Bank. Similarly, the candidates from open channel/market may also apply (as per extant guidelines)," reads the official notification.

Selected candidates can earn up to industry standards. The last date to apply for the government job is Sep 15, 2018.

Bank Of Maharashtra Recruitment 2018 For 59 Specialist Officers And CA

Bank Of India Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Safai Karmachari Organisation Bank of India Educational Qualification Class 10 pass out Experience Freshers can apply Skills Required Cleaning skills Job Location Vidarbha (Maharashtra) Salary Scale Not mentioned Industry Banking Application Start Date August 30, 2018 Application End Date September 15, 2018

Age Limit: 18 to 26 years

Also Read: Manage Banking At Odisha State Cooperative Bank

How To Apply For Bank Of India Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for Bank of India Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the Bank of India official website.

Step 2: Click on the Career tab on the home page.

Step 3: The list of notifications will be displayed on the screen.

Step 4: Click on the link that reads, Recruitment in the sub-staff Cadre i.e Safai Karmachari cum Sepoy -in Bank of India, Vidarbha Zone.

Step 5: On the pop-up window that opens, click on the link for application form.

Step 6: The application form will be displayed on the screen. Save it to your computer and take a printout of it.

Step 7: Send the applications to Bank of India.

Bank Of India Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address

Superscribe on the envelope, "Application for the post of Safai Karmachari" and send it to:

Human Resources Department,

Vidarbha Zonal Office,

District- Wardha -442001.

Follow the link - https://www.bankofindia.co.in/pdf/Notice-Safai-Karmachari-2018-19-Vidarbha-Zone.pdf to read the detailed official notification.The Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) has released a recruitment notification for the posts of Extra Assistant Commissioner, Employment Officer, Assistant Public Relation Officer, Excise Inspector, Secretariat Assistant and Information Assistant. The notification was released for a total of 62 vacancies.

The selection of the candidates will be based on a written exam and an interview. The pay scale of the candidates varies from one post to another. Candidates who meet all the prerequisites can apply for the post between September 10 and October 10, 2018.

NPSC Vacancy Details

Extra Assistant Commissioner: 15 vacancies

Employment Officer: 01 vacancy

Assistant Public Relation Officer: 01 vacancy

Excise Inspector: 04 vacancies

Secretariat Assistant: 40 vacancies

Information Assistant: 01 vacancy

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Extra Assistant Commissioner, Employment Officer, Assistant Public Relation Officer, Excise Inspector, Secretariat Assistant and Information Assistant. Organisation Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) Educational Qualification Bachelors degree in any discipline from a recognised university Job Location Nagaland Salary Scale Pay Level - 08 to 13 of the pay matrix Application Start Date September 10, 2018 Application End Date October 10, 2018

Age Limit

The minimum age limit is 21 years and maximum age limit for the candidates is 30 years as on January 1, 2018. The upper age limit is relaxable by 5 years for candidates belonging to the SC/ST category.

Click here for the official notification.

How To Apply

Candidates have to visit the official website of Nagaland State Portal (https://nagaland.gov.in) to apply online. The details of the online application form (eForm) will be available soon on the commission's website . The examination fee is INR 300 excluding INR 10, which is the convenience fee.

TPSC Recruitment 2018: Apply Online For 177 Personal Assistant VacanciesUttarakhand Public Service Commission (UKPSC) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Economics and Statistics Officer. Fourteen vacancies are now open.

Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. The selection process consists of a written test and an interview. The application fee can be paid online.

Selected candidates can earn up to INR 45000 per month. The last date to apply for the government job is Sep 19, 2018.

Uttar Pradesh Government Invites Applications For Scholarships From Students

UKPSC Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Economics and Statistics Officer Organisation Uttarakhand Public Service Commission Educational Qualification Master's degree or diploma in statistics or relevant field Experience Freshers can apply Job Location Uttarakhand Salary Scale INR 15600 to INR 45000 per month Industry Civil services Application Start Date September 1, 2018 Application End Date September 19, 2018

Age Limit 21 to 42 years Application Fee INR 185

Also Read: WBPSC Recruitment 2018 For 957 Sub-Inspectors: Apply Before Sep 18

How To Apply For UKPSC Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for UKPSC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the UKPSC official website.

Step 2: On the home page, under the login screen, click on the link to register as a new user.

Step 3: The registration form will be displayed on the screen. Enter your details in the fields provided.

Step 4: Enter the captcha code.

Step 5: Generate the OTP and enter it.

Step 6: Follow the subsequent pages to complete the registration process.

Step 7: Use your credentials to login and complete the application process.

Follow the link - http://ukpsc.gov.in/files/advertisement_Economic_and_Statistical_Officer_1.pdf to read the detailed official notification.Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (UKPSC) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Lecturer. Those who have a specialised qualification in Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Physics, Chemistry, Math, Biology, Political Science, Economics, History, Geography, Sociology, Commerce, Agriculture or Psychology can along with BEd can apply.

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 40000 per month. The last date to apply for the government job has been extended from Sep 25, 2018 to Oct 10, 2018.

UKPSC Recruitment 2018 For 14 Economics and Statistics Officers

UKPSC Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Lecturer Organisation Uttarakhand Public Service Commission Educational Qualification Master's degree in relevant field along with BEd Experience Freshers can apply Skills Required Communication skills Job Location Uttarakhand Salary Scale INR 40000 per month Industry Civil services Application Start Date September 4, 2018 Application End Date October 10, 2018

Age Limit 21 to 42 years Application Fee INR 135 Selection Process Written exam and interview

Also Read: Uttar Pradesh Government Invites Applications For Scholarships From Students

How To Apply For UKPSC Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for UKPSC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1 Log on to the UKPSC official website. Step 2 Click on the registration button under the login form. Step 3 The registration form will be displayed on the screen. Enter your details in the fields provided. Step 4 Enter the captcha code. Step 5 Click Generate OTP. Enter it in the field provided and follow the subsequent pages to complete the registration process. Step 6 Go back to the home page and login using your credentials. Submit the details and complete the application process.

Follow the link - http://www.ukpsc.gov.in/files/Lect_2018_Final_18.pdf to read the detailed official notification.Being an HR is no child's play. More than the actual responsibilities, the real challenge for an HR is to bridge the gap between the company and that of the employees. While the HR has to be accessible to the employees and ensure that all their rights are being adhered to, they will also have to ensure that the company is running in a profit and that it is able to extract maximum work out of the employees. Being true to both sides is indeed a challenge and many HR executives find themselves struggling to meet the ends.

While there are a set of definite rules and regulations pertaining to employee rights, the same cannot be said on overall employee management. This makes the task of employee management an even graver one for most people.

In order to assist you through this difficult task and help you become an HR manager who is not just the favourite of the people but also that of the company, here are 5 tips and tricks.

1. Communicate Clearly

As an HR, one of your main roles is to communicate with the employees about what needs to be done about rights and roles. Try to be as clear about these as possible. Do not beat about the bush in your conversations. It is transparent communication on your part that will lay the basis of mutual respect and openness in your team.

This will allow the work to be completed in a much more effective manner. Make it a point to encourage feedback from your employees. This type of two-way communication will enable both the parties to improve what they do and that will lead to the betterment of the company at large.

Also, try to sit down with your employees and have an in-depth conversation about what is bothering them. Such brainstorming sessions will enable effective employee management.

2. Develop And Empower

You cannot aim to be a good HR manager if you just sit in your cubicle all day. You should step forward and come in contact with your employees in such a manner that you are able to offer professional advice, guidance and mentorship to them. Instead of pointing out their flaws in public, you should walk up to them and discuss the same in great detail.

Understand that your duty does not end with merely telling them what they lack. You should be ready to walk the extra mile and work in close association with your employees to chalk out what needs to be done to get rid of that shortcoming.

3. Appreciate And Reward

At any given day, positive motivation works better on an individual as compared to that of negative motivation. Thus, instead of blaming a person for something that they have done wrong, try to look for someone who has done the same task exceptionally well and try to reward the person.

That will make other employees also want to get the reward and in the process, they will try to put in their best. However, make sure that the recognition they get is timely and genuine in nature. If recognition is bestowed upon someone who does not really deserve it, its impact on the team will be very negative.

Thus, while this is one of the easiest ways to motivate your team, make sure that you are conscious of whom to reward and whom not to.

4. Create A Positive Environment

The environment that a person lives in has a major say in their overall productivity. If a person is continuously told that they are bad at what they do or there is no scope of professional growth for them there, they will naturally feel demotivated and will not even want to put in their best. This will result in losses for the company.

Thus, if you want to get work done by your employees in an effective manner, the first and foremost step would be to create a positive environment in the office where everyone helps one another. For this, you may consider engaging the employees in team-building activities like taking them out for team excursions, trips and team lunches once in a while.

This will not just enable them to connect better with each other but it will also help beat the stress and create a positive environment in the office.

5. Boost Employee Engagement

One of the primary duties of an HR manager is to try to ensure as much employee retention as possible (since that helps the company cut down on costs). One of the most important tricks to retain employees would be by engaging in employee involvement.

This is done to make the employees feel important and instil in them a sense of belonging. You can initiate this by bringing about a feeling of empathy towards them and trying to involve them in the decision-making process. Make conscious efforts to try to avoid imposing your opinions on them.

Other than employee retention, the other advantage of employee engagement is that it will lead the employees to have a more positive take about their work life. Naturally, this will lead to happier employees who will in turn pave the way for happier customers and more revenue to the company.

Indeed, tackling people is an art and only those who are good at it will be able to get work done in an efficient manner. Although most of the responsibilities of an HR are picked up over time, we hope the aforementioned tips were helpful for you.The European Union wont rush to enhance market access for financial firms outside the bloc, a senior German official said, pushing back against key U.K. government demands in the Brexit negotiations.

Expanding EU equivalence rules, which can open the single market to non-EU firms, to new areas such as banking is unlikely anytime soon, said Levin Holle, director general for financial-markets policy at the German Finance Ministry. And any arrangement granting mutual market access for EU and U.K. firms would have to maintain full regulatory autonomy, including the right to unilaterally withdraw access at any time, he said.

Holles position, set out in an article in the Eurofi Magazine, is consistent with the line taken by Michel Barnier, the EUs chief Brexit negotiator. Barnier has said U.K. banks should face similar restrictions to U.S. institutions, which operate under equivalence arrangements. It runs counter to that of Theresa Mays government, however, and demonstrates how far apart the two sides remain.

The U.K. wants a more generous version of equivalence, whereby the EU deems a countrys rules and supervision to be as robust as its own, than other non-EU countries enjoy. Its concerned about the EUs ability to withdraw equivalence rights at short notice and with no consultation.

While the EU is adapting its equivalence rules to new developments such as Brexit, expanding its scope beyond the areas already covered probably wont happen quickly, Holle said. What could be achieved by end-2020, when a planned Brexit transition period ends, would be equivalence decisions under existing rules as they stand at that time, covering areas such as derivatives clearing, he said.

Holle also took issue with U.K. concerns about the role the European Court of Justice might play in resolving future disputes.

A dispute-settlement mechanism governed by an independent judicial body (and not the ECJ) deciding on disputes about regulatory principles would restrain both the regulatory sovereignty and the competence of the ECJ, and would therefore most likely not be acceptable for the EU, he said.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.Photo: The Canadian Press Lorne Grabher displays his personalized licence plate in Dartmouth, N.S. on Friday, March 24, 2017.

A court hearing for a retiree who is battling the Nova Scotia government over its suggestion that a licence plate bearing his family name supports sexual violence against women has been put off until next year.

Lorne Grabher has been trying to reinstate his personalized licence plate since it was revoked in 2016 by the Registrar of Motor Vehicles following an anonymous complaint.

Grabher's lawyer, Jay Cameron, says in a news release today that hearings scheduled for this week have been postponed until April 23 next year, due to a judge granting him additional time to review evidence from a Crown witness.

Earlier this year, Cameron had fought to strike a Crown report linking the plate, which reads "GRABHER,'' to derogatory comments about women made by U.S. President Donald Trump.

A judge partially granted Grabher's request to strike the report, saying the opinion expressed would need to undergo major revisions before it could be admissible in court.

Grabher first purchased the personalized licence plate as a gift for his late father around 1990, and he says it expressed family pride in their Austrian-German heritage.Photo: The Canadian Press Monica Lewinsky attends the Cannes Lions 2015, International Advertising Festival in Cannes, southern France.

Monica Lewinsky said Tuesday that she stormed offstage at a Jerusalem speaking event because of an interviewer's "off limits" question about former President Bill Clinton.

The former White House intern turned anti-bullying activist tweeted that there were agreed-upon parameters regarding the topics of her televised conversation Monday night with a well-known Israeli news anchor, following a conference speech she gave about the perils of the internet.

Lewinsky called Yonit Levi's first question about her relationship with Clinton a "blatant disregard for our agreement."

Levi, the main anchor of Israel's top-rated evening newscast, asked Lewinsky if she still expected a personal apology from Clinton over the fallout of the scandal of their affair 20 years ago. Lewinsky responded: "I'm so sorry. I'm not going to be able to do this." She then put down her microphone and walked offstage.

Levi reached out her hand and then anxiously followed Lewinsky offstage as some of the stunned audience awkwardly clapped. The confused hosts then rushed opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid onstage to keep the event moving along. A smiling Lapid, who plans to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the next Israeli elections, quipped: "Everything has happened to me but stepping in for Monica Lewinsky is a first. There is no way I'll be interesting enough in the next few minutes but we'll do our best."

In a tweet several hours later, Lewinsky said she had been misled.

"In fact, the exact question the interviewer asked first, she had put to me when we met the day prior. I said that was off limits," she explained. "I left because it is more important than ever for women to stand up for themselves and not allow others to control their narrative. To the audience: I'm very sorry that this talk had to end this way."

Levi's employer, the Israeli News Company, said it did its utmost to abide by all agreements made with Lewinsky.

"The question asked was legitimate, worthy and respectful and in no way deviated from Ms. Lewinsky's requests," said company spokesman Alon Shani. "We thank Ms. Lewinsky for her fascinating speech to the conference, respect her sensitivity and wish her all the best."or legendary GTA 6 He may be further away from his release than we expected. According to Rockstar Mag, the...U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told congressional Democrats Friday that she has no intention of taking any action or position when it comes to whether schools can use federal funds under the Every Student Succeeds Act to purchase firearms for teachers.

Let me be clear: I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the ESEA...Congress did not authorize me or the department to make those decisions, DeVos wrote in response to a letter from Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and dozens of other Democratic lawmakers.

.@BetsyDeVosED Let me be clear: I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the ESEA...Congress did not authorize me or the Department to make those decisions. pic.twitter.com/xbH8UTtZLZ  ED Press Secretary (@EDPressSec) August 31, 2018

The letter comes after the New York Times, and later, other media, said that DeVos was considering allowing states to use funding from the $1.1 billion Student Success and Academic Enrichments grants, or Title IV of ESSA, to arm teachers.

DeVos comments also come after a top official in her department, asked about arming teachers in an interview with the Associated Press , said states and local jurisdictions always had the flexibility to decide how to use federal education funds.

Frank Brogan, the 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 has said he thinks arming teachers could help prevent or handle school shootings. And DeVos said she thinks that districts should have the option of arming school staff, if they think thats whats right for them.

So what is DeVos really saying in this letter? The letter appears to make it clear that the secretary will not proactively issue guidance saying that it is okay for districts to spend their Title IV funds on guns or firearms training for teachers.

But, importantly, DeVos also did not say that she would stop a district from using federal funding to arm teachers, if the district decided that was the best use of its Title IV funding. Brogans comments to the AP suggest that the department believes this should be a local decision.

Thats in line with the reasoning of Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., an architect of ESSA. Alexander doesnt think arming teachers is a great idea. But he does think that ESSA, and particularly the portion pertaining to Title IV, is written flexibly enough that districts would have the option of spending their funds this way, if thats what they decide is best.

Scott, another ESSA author, has a different take. He notes that ESSA contains language defining drug and violence prevention programs as creating school environments that are free of weapons. That, he said, means that districts cant use the money to arm teachers or purchase firearms.

Scott clearly saw the letter as an indication that DeVos and company would allow districts to use ESSA funds to purchase firearms, even if the department wasnt planning to say so explicitly.

He called on his congressional colleagues to make it clear the funds cant be used this way.

Arming teachers will recklessly endanger both students and educators, Scott said in a statement. It is outrageous that Secretary DeVos will allow federal education funds to be spent putting guns in the classroom. If Secretary DeVos refuses to adhere to congressional intent and the administrations own policy regarding the purchase of firearms for school security, Congress must make clear that no taxpayer money can be used to arm Americas teachers.

Look for this issue to come up again. Congress is currently considering spending bills for fiscal year 2019, which generally impacts the 2019-2020 school year. Its possible that lawmakers will insert language clarifying whether districts can use Title IV to buy guns or train educators on how to use them. Scott, for one, appears to be all for it.

Which districts might be interested in using federal funding to arm teachers? Some educators from rural areas have told the Federal School Safety Commissionwhich was set up to make recommendations in response to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.that they support the policy. Thats because police would have to travel long distances to stop a shooting and may not arrive on time.

Were not willing to take that chance, Lake Hamilton, Ark., schools Superintendent Steve Anderson, who carries a gun at school, told the commission earlier this summer. We need someone to protect our kids.

But other teachers have said they dont think carrying a gun would make their schools safer.

You must understand how fast shootings happen and how chaotic and confusing it is. Theres no way to determine who and where the gunfire is coming from. Say I had a gun. Would I have left my terrified children? Never, said Abbey Clements, a 4th grade teacher for the Newtown public schools in Connecticut, who was teaching at Sandy Hook Elementary School the day in 2012 that 26 students and teachers were killed there.

Photo: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos speaks at a news conference on March 7, in Coral Springs, Fla., following a visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (Lynne Sladky/AP)

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .Nepal's banks loan US$140.5m to Hongshi Shivam Cement

04 September 2018

Hongshi Shivam Cement of Nepal has been supported by a consortium of five of Nepal's commercial banks who have approved credit of US$140.48m to the 6000tpd Nepal-China joint venture.



The joint venture required the loan to conclude financial closure of the new cement plant that begun trial production earlier this year. The banks involved include NMB Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, Prabhu Bank, Everest Bank and Nepal SBI Bank.



The project has already received approval to inject foreign direct investment (FDI) worth US$86.22m from the Investment Board, Nepal and the Central Bank. The Chinese company pledged FDI of US$359.18m in the project.



Lai Weiping, manager and director of Hongshi Shivam Cement, said: "We are delighted on the financial closure of the project, which makes Hongshi Shivam the largest cement factory in Nepal."

"We have recently received quality certificates for our cement from the Napali government. So we can now start commercial production of cement shortly," said Satish Kumar More, a director of Hongshi Shivam Cement.

ICR featured a plant report on the construction of the new Hongshi Shivam Cement plant in the ICR July 2018 issue.

Published underSOBOCE to invest further in El Puente

ICR Newsroom By 04 September 2018

Bolivias Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento SA (SOBOCE) is expanding the production capacity at its El Puente cement plant to meet the current and future cement demand in Tarija.



The modernisation of the works represents an investment of BOB49m (US$7.1m) to date and started with the installation of a new crusher, pre homogenisation, raw material storage and transport as well as a new 10MW electrical substation.



The cement producer will invest a further BOB25m in new bagging and dispatch systems.



In the 21 years the plant has been managed by SOBOCE, the company has invested more than BOB280m. Key projects included the expansion of clinker capacity and grinding capacity at El Puente and the installation of a premixed concrete plant.

Published underThe world's most prestigious pre-university chemical competition, the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), had its humble beginnings in a meeting of 18 competitors in 1968 Czechoslovakia. Now in its 50th year, the IChO50 (July 1929, 2018) was hosted collaboratively by two countriesCzech Republic and Slovakiaand it catered to 300 students.



To qualify for the IChO, secondary school students under 20 first compete nationally to decide on the four individuals that will represent their country. After months of preparation, aspiring Olympiads descend on the host country to tackle two challenging chemistry exams of a theoretical and practical nature. The number of points scored ultimately determines placement in the competition.

IChO50 Fact Box Hosts:

Czech Republic and Slovakia Date:

July 1929, 2018 Venues: University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic

Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia Participating: 300 students

256 accompanying mentors

76 countries Resources: 2 million cost (1 million/host country)

2 years preparation

> 50,000 pieces of lab glassware

4,000 pipettes

2,400 beakers

ca. 150,000 sheets of paper

800 pencils

400 pens

320 stirrer hotplates

250 IChO50 personnel

30 supervisors



From the very beginning, the annual IChO has inspired students to think independently and creatively about chemistry. Each IChO challenges participants to complete a theoretical and practical chemistry exam in which a range of topics are covered across the breadth of organic, inorganic, and analytical chemistry, and includes problems set to a university bachelor degree level. The responsibility of authoring these two exams falls on the organizer and is carried out by a team of talented chemists and educators.







Hosting IChO50: Two Heads are Better Than One

Hosting the IChO is a considerable commitment in which the country's Ministry of Education and an institute of learning (usually a university) join forces to provide the financial, practical, and technical expertise required for the competition. More than 30 countries have hosted the IChO, however, 2018 is the first year in which two countries have organized the event together.



Co-hosting the Olympiad was the dream of IChO50 Presidents Petr Holzhauser, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, and Martin Putala, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, who have been involved with the competition since they were students. The two friends hoped to bring IChO back to where it all began for its 50th anniversary and on the 100th anniversary of the first Czechoslovak Republic.



Hosting responsibilities were shared between two institutes over a 10-day program packed full of events and activities. The Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, was the venue for the exams, and the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Czech Republic, hosted the adjudication and the closing ceremony.

The IChO50 "copperhead" mascots bookended by IChO50 Presidents Martin Putala (left) and Petr Holzhauser (right). Picture credit: IChO team.







Setting the IChO50 Exam Problems

Each IChO tests the chemical knowledge and understanding of competitors with an entirely new set of questions and experiments. They are painstakingly prepared by a team of authors over many months. Authors have considerable creative license over their subject matter and are free to reference the history, geography, and culture of their host country, as well as contemporary problems in chemistry.



Petra Menova, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, head of the Czech Scientific Committee and supervisor of all Czech authors for IChO50, explains that several brainstorming sessions were needed to decide on the chemical context of the IChO50 questions. "We listed over 100 topics related to Czech science, history, culture, and geography," Menova says. "We then narrowed the list and worked on the ideas in more detail."



Finalizing the diverse range of problems posed in the IChO50 theoretical exam was particularly time-consuming. Topics ranged from DNA, fuel cell efficiency, and radioactive isotopes to metal coordination geometry, natural products, and medicine. A co-author on two of the theoretical questions, Ondrej Simunek, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, says: "Normally the very first draft of a problem differs a lot from its final version." The record breaker for IChO50 was theoretical Problem 8: Caryophyllene, with 30 iterations.



A 30-strong team of Czech and Slovak chemists spent a year and a half authoring and polishing eleven exam problems for the IChO50three in the practical exam and eight in the theoretical. For the benefit of the competitors, these were then translated into more than 50 different languages the day before each exam.







Worth Its Weight in Gold

At a cost of 2 million, IChO50 hosted participants and their accompanying mentors for ten days. Included in that price tag was the remodeling of the teaching laboratories at the Comenius University in Bratislava to ensure that they could accommodate 300 students, as well as personnel, raw materials, food, medical care, and the opening and closing ceremonies.



While every IChO is subject to budget restrictions, few would consider that this constraint extends to the design of the practical exam questions. During the Olympiad, 300 students performed identical experiments simultaneously, in 19 laboratories equipped for organic synthesismonitoring chemical kinetics and analyzing Slovakian mineral water. To keep costs down and save space, small-scale experiments and dilute solutions were necessary, and bulky or expensive instruments were unfeasible.



Erik Szabo, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, head of the team of authors for practical tasks in physical chemistry, calls the scale of the preparations "unimaginable for anyone who has not seen it". He describes regimental scale efforts in cleaning, labeling, and analysis, saying: "In organic chemistry, every sample of the starting materials must be weighed and labeled, and after the competition, every product must be dried, weighed, and analyzed for purity."

A fraction of the IChO50 glassware (left), calibrating 300 digital thermometers (middle), organizers carry out a test run of the exam (right). Picture credit: Petra Menova (left and right), Erik Szabo (middle).







A Closer Look at a Practical Problem: A Glowing Clock Reaction

(View "Problem P2: A glowing clock reaction" in the complete IChO50 practical exam)



In this problem, students examined the kinetics of a chemiluminescent reaction involving luminol and a redox catalyst. This property is well-known to fans of forensic TV dramas: When luminol and an oxidant are sprayed onto a bloody crime scene, the iron in blood causes luminescence.



The same phenomenon is observed with a redox catalyst such as Cu2+ and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), which was the foundation of this IChO50 exam problem (see Eq. 1). Introducing cysteine to this mixture reduces and binds copper, forming Cu+-cysteine until such a time when H 2 O 2 has oxidized all of the cysteine into cystine (see Eq. 2) and a luminescent flash of light is seen.



Students were asked to observe the time and temperature associated with chemiluminescence, and in doing so to determine the rate of cysteine oxidation. With these results, it was then possible to calculate the rate of consumption of cysteine, and the partial reaction order with respect to H 2 O 2 .



When first developing the problem, Szabo admits there was some doubt as to whether the chemiluminescence would be visible in normal daylight. "But we tried the reaction in a black test tube and that worked really well," he says.

Problem P2 required pipetting a solution of copper and H 2 O 2 , carefully lowering the copper solution into the luminol mixture, timing the reaction, and recording the temperature immediately after chemiluminescence. Picture credit: IChO team.

Chemical kinetics is a challenging topic for practical exams because it requires students to combine mathematical reasoning with careful physical measurements (such as temperature and volume) as they test their hypotheses about a system and determine which laws are governing it. Where kinetics are concerned, temperature is "troublesome," says Szabo, because it is so susceptible to change, and can in turn influence what happens in a chemical reaction. With this in mind, the IChO50 team designed an experiment that allowed students to monitor and record their reaction conditions individually.







A Closer Look at a Theoretical Problem: Caryophyllene

(View "Problem 8. Caryophyllene" in the complete IChO50 theoretical exam)



This problem immersed students in the field of natural product synthesis in pursuit of -caryophyllenea naturally occurring sesquiterpene found in small-leaved linden, the Czech national tree. Caryophyllene is an unusual natural compound because it contains a cyclobutane ring and a trans-double bond in a 9-membered ring.

The emphasis of the problem is on the chemistry of double bonds and the stereochemistry of products obtained through the reactivity of these bonds when they are contained within a cyclic structure. For example, ring strain in -caryophyllene makes the endocyclic double bond more reactive than the exocyclic. The nine-page problem also tested knowledge of common synthetic transformations, such as nucleophilic substitution, epoxidation, and ozonolysis. And students were asked to consider the reactivity of -caryophyllene with deuterated chemicals and to find the products of acid-catalyzed cyclization.

Students concentrating on the theoretical exam. Picture credit: the IChO team.







Post-Exam Euphoria

Once the exams are completed and marked, what rewards await Olympiad competitors? A grand ceremony in Prague's historic Rudolfinum celebrated success in Olympic style: 35 students received gold medals, 65 silver, and 95 bronze. Special awards also went to the top scores in the theoretical and practical exams, and in the overall competition. And once back home, it is not unusual for medal winners to be celebrated on a national level.



Aside from the immediate recognition that comes along with medals and prizesand a big party, of coursethere are also long-term advantages. IChO students often go on to become professional chemists and teachers of chemistry, as Holzhauser, Putala, Menova, Szabo, and Simunek themselves have done.



From Menova's point of view, the IChO is an event that opens doors into the future. For a brief time students share a formative chemical-themed experience with like-minded individuals, and such memories are enduring. "Many friendships are formed during the competition," she says, "and some last for years."

At the closing ceremony in Prague's historic Rudolfinum, medals were awarded in three bands; gold, silver, and bronze. The three overall winners (right) were Qingyu Chen (China) for the highest overall score, Aleksei Konoplev (Russian Federation) in second place, and Raymond Eugene Bahng (Republic of Korea) in third place. Picture credit: the IChO team.

Each day of the IChO50 is documented in Catalyzer magazine and more information can be found on Facebook and Instagram. A brief history of the IChO and the video screened at the closing ceremony of IChO50 are available on YouTube.



IChO50 problems and solutions, as well as event photographs, are published in ChemViews Magazine with the express permission of the IChO50 team.

Also of InterestHow to get digital access to the Chieftain

newsA Memphis pastor who uses profanity in his sermons says he doesnt believe the way he uses the words is swearing. Pastor Thaddeus Matthews of the Naked Truth Liberation and Empowerment Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee, told The Christian Post Thursday, "there is a difference in 'cussing' and 'cursing' as people say. The words that we use today like motherf****r, sh*t, da*n, were not words that were used in biblical times.

The pastor continues, "So I don't have an issue with the cussing. And the people that listen to me don't have an issue with the cussing, and I'm not trying to justify it to the traditional churchgoer."

Matthews sermons, which have titles that are adorned with profane words, have gained millions of views online. The pastor says he really doesn't "give a da*n" what traditional Christians think of his practice.

In an interview with The Christian Post Mathews said, "I find no reason to try to justify that. I'm a fisher of men. I go to people on their level. And you have to get past the cussing to get the message. The cussing has drawn the attention of millions around the country."

"The cussing pastor," as Matthews calls himself, had a longtime career as a controversial broadcaster in Memphis before starting his ministry about three years ago.

"I'm a controversial figure in Memphis, the pastor started, I've been in broadcast for nearly 40 years. So even prior to the ministry starting, we're going into our third year now, I've been a controversial person.

One of Matthews most viral videos is one where he tells women to stop having sex with men who refuse to work. The video has over one million views.

According to The Christian Post, Matthews plans to take his message to the street next month, in what he calls "The Bullsh*t From the Pulpit Tour."

Matthews desire to do this steamed from his want to push back against the "bullsh*t" happening in popular church culture, something he believes is causing many people to turn away from God.

"There's so much bullsh*t that's going on in the church in the traditional mindset. And the reason that people are leaving a view of believing in God is because they are believing in preachers, they are believing in churches, and preachers have set themselves up on pedestals and they are forgetting about the people. They're not giving people a message of hope," Matthews said.

"We're spending too much time talking about tithes and offerings but not talking about the needs of people in society. Why are people depressed? How do you get over depression? How do you have an abundant life?" he continued.

Matthews told the news outlet that he does not use certain words in church on Sundays, but merely uses the cuss words to grab peoples attention so he can share his faith.

"I don't call people from my pulpit motherf****r. But I don't have a problem with the word motherf****r. ... I don't give a damn what you think," he said.

"My point is not to make you comfortable because I'm gonna tell you some things about life that's not being told by your preacher on Sunday morning that's gonna make you uncomfortable."

Matthews concluded saying, "We have turned God into our own social ideas, our own political ideas and we have gotten away from His awesomeness. He says in His Word that there would be a new thing, and this is that new thing," he said of his ministry.

Photo courtesy:Unsplash/Stephen RadfordEmail Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Last month, Yazidis commemorated the genocide perpetrated against them in August 2014, when ISIS attacked the region around Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq on the border with Syria. Proclaiming its intent to destroy the Yazidi minority, ISIS killed an estimated 3,100 defenseless Yazidis  by shooting, beheading or burning them alive  during the course of a few days, while others died during ISIS' siege of Mount Sinjar, where many Yazidis fled after the genocide began. Another estimated 6,800 Yazidis were kidnapped  the women and girls were sold into sex slavery and young boys were forced to become fighters for ISIS. More than 3,500 of those kidnapped Yazidis are still missing today.

While the Yazidis were begging for help, the international community yawned and looked the other way. No social justice warriors found it in their hearts to spare a little justice for the six-year-old Yazidis being raped by grown Muslim men while their fathers and grandfathers were being summarily executed and their sisters and mothers taken away as sex slaves.

Four days after the genocide began, the Obama administration reluctantly ordered air strikes and air-dropped humanitarian aid. Since then, however, very little has been done for the Yazidis, who continue living abandoned and endangered lives of abject poverty.

This danger became evident when Turkey recently killed Zaki Shengali, an ethnic Yazidi and a senior leader in the Kurdish PKK, in an airstrike on Sinjar, as he was leaving a ceremony commemorating the genocide of Yazidis in the village of Kocho. Shengali saved thousands of Yazidis in August 2014, when he helped open up a safe corridor for them to escape Mount Sinjar. There has been no international condemnation of Turkey for the targeted assassination of a Yazidi convoy in Iraq. Turkey has said it will not allow Sinjar to become a "new Qandil," referring to a PKK stronghold in Iraq near the border with Turkey, and has announced that it intends to expand its airstrikes into Iraq and Syria. That leaves the Yazidis extremely vulnerable to being attacked, once more. The UN and others, however, as in the past, stand by in silence.

To this day, no ISIS fighter has stood trial for war crimes committed against Yazidis. Mass graves of the victims that need to be exhumed to secure evidence, remain unprotected in Sinjar. Instead, many former ISIS fighters are walking around freely as "refugees" in the West, where they are able to torment their former victims at their leisure. In Germany, a Yazidi girl named Ashwaq, who had escaped ISIS captivity, ran into one of her former tormentors who told her he knew everything about her. She fled back to Iraq, as the German police told her they didn't have "enough evidence" to prosecute the man. This encounter is not unique, but most Yazidi women and girls are too afraid to step forward.

Back in Sinjar, Ashwaq is unlikely to be able to create any kind of sustainable future for herself. The villages were destroyed by ISIS and hardly anything has been rebuilt. The area has not been de-mined, and returning Yazidis are still killed by remaining unexploded devices. Furthermore, aid donated by the international community is not reaching the Yazidis, as Iraqi politicians are reportedly refusing to disburse the needed aid funds to the area in and around Sinjar.

As Sinjar is currently dangerous and virtually uninhabitable with the added threat of potential bombardments from Turkey, Yazidis should be allowed to emigrate to the West. However, the UN does not prioritize helping Yazidi refugees. Take the UK as an example: In 2016, the UNHCR recommended 7,499 refugees to the UK, of whom only five were Yazidis. In 2015, out of 2,637 recommended refugees, 13 were Yazidis. In 2017, out of 7,060 recommended refugees, only seven were Yazidis. Reportedly, Yazidi survivors who fled to Turkey have to wait until 2022 just for an appointment with the UNHCR.

The international community has abandoned the Yazidis without so much as an afterthought and has left them, quite literally, to die. That is shameful and belies the claim to care for human rights.

Judith Bergman is a writer and political analyst based in Israel. She is a fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. @salomoncenterEmail Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Spoiler alert: it's easy to predict much of what will happen this week during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. That's because Democrats showed their hands almost immediately after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Court, when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took to the Senate floor to motivate his left-wing base.

"Nothing less than the fate of our health care system, reproductive rights for women, and countless other protections for middle class Americans are at stake," Schumer scare-mongered. He asked, "Will Republicans and President Trump nominate and vote for someone who will preserve protections for people with pre-existing conditions, or will they support a justice who will put health insurance companies over patients, or put the federal government between a woman and her doctor?"

Notice that these remarks make no reference to the Constitution. That's because the leader of the Senate Democrats wants the next justice to be a blue-state activist in a black robe.

Keeping that litmus test of policy outcomes in mind, you can expect Democrats to quiz Kavanaugh about his stance on specific issues looking for their own preferred outcomes. But the judge won't be at liberty to answer many of these questions, as that would compromise his independence on matters that may come before him as a justice.

Democrats will seize on Kavanaugh's impartiality and discretion around some questions by characterizing it as a dodge. But if Democrats are annoyed that Kavanaugh won't be able to answer some questions, they should remember the example set by one of their heroes, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

During Justice Ginsburg's own confirmation hearing in 1993, she explained, "It would be wrong for me to say or preview in this legislative chamber how I would cast my vote on questions the Supreme Court may be called upon to decide."

She added, "A judge is sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process." She was right.

Legal scholars Lori Ringhand and Paul Collins have estimated that Ginsburg refused to answer questions posed at her confirmation hearing about 10 percent of the time. Nonetheless, then-Senate Judiciary Chairmen Joe Biden supported her approach, telling the nominee during the hearing that "you not only have a right to choose what you will answer and not answer, but in my view you should not answer a question of what your view will be on an issue that clearly is going to come before the Court in 50 different forms, probably, over your tenure on the Court."

Remember Biden's encouragement of Ginsburg next week when Senate Democrats bemoan what they're sure to call Judge Kavanaugh's "lack of transparency"which is in fact impartiality and good judicial temperament.

There are two more things you should expect to see. First, Judge Kavanaugh will make clear that he is a mainstream judge with a record of fairly applying the law and adhering to the Constitution. He will do so by explaining his decision-making and opinions over the course of his 12-year career on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where he wrote over 300 opinions and had significant influence not just on his own court, but on Supreme Court decisions, too.

And you will see a remarkably calm and composed professional, someone who will not be intimidated by the posturing and politicizing of Senate Democrats, but who will also be respectful and patient. Judge Kavanaugh has spent much of his life in the lion's den: at Yale as an undergraduate and then as a law student, and in his stints teaching at elite law schools, he has often been a rare conservative on campus; and he faced hostile treatment from senators when they confirmed him to the D.C. Circuit, in 2006. Yet as his opinions and speeches make clear, Judge Kavanaugh respects those who disagree with him. He listens to their ideas, engages with their arguments, and answers them clearly and thoughtfully. So no matter how much Senate Democrats seek to misrepresent or fluster him, you'll see Judge Kavanaugh stay calm and articulate.

Polls show that Americans want the Senate to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Senate Democrats would be wise to focus on Kavanaugh's record during his hearingnot disingenuous questions.

Ken Blackwell was a Domestic Policy Advisor to the Trump/Pence Presidential Transition Team. He is a Senior Advisor to Securing America's Future Energy.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Male and Female God created us. That means He created masculinity and femininity as well. Lose one or the other, and bad things happen.

At UCLA, students recently formed the Toxic Masculinity Committeedesigned to help men understand, among other things, that their innate drive for aggression is a bad thing.

But is it? The women of Cypress, California, might disagree.

While shopping at the local Target store, Ismael Duarte noticed a man following his teenage daughter. When Duarte blocked him from getting any closer, the stranger walked away. Minutes later, Duarte spotted him againthis time the man was using his cell phone to try to film up the skirt of another young woman.

And that's when Duarte went into "protect mode." Duarte kicked the cell phone away, and pounced on the man, knocking him to the floor. The man scrambled to his feet and fled. But Duarte and his wife raced after him and used their own phones to photograph his car and license plate. Duarte called the police, and the man was arrested.

Now, as the father of a teenage daughter, I'm cheering Ismael Duarte's "aggression." You see, what gets lost in all the complaints about "toxic masculinity" is the fact that the very traits feminists associate with itaggression, ambition, and violencecan and often are used in a good cause. My concern is that we are going to end up with fewer men like Ismael Duarte because boys as young as five are being taught that there is something wrong with the biologically-influenced traits associated with masculinity.

As my friend and radio host Dennis Prager notes in a column titled "Is America Still Making Men?" one of the questions every society must ask in order to survive is, "How do we make good men?" If we fail to answer this question properly, we end up with men who "will likely do much harm." But men who are tutored from early childhood on how to "channel their drives in positive directions make the world a much better place." They learn to take responsibility for themselves, their families, their houses of worship, their communities, and their country.

But this doesn't take place automatically, Prager warns: Turning boys into good men takes work.

Tragically, Americans appear to have forgotten this lesson. For instance, modern feminism has attacked the very concepts of femininity and masculinity, insisting that boys and girls be reared in exactly the same way. Prager says boys are no longer allowed to have "masculine" toys such as play guns and toy soldiers. On the school playground, rough games like dodgeball have been banned.

Second, America has gone from a responsibility-centered culture to a rights-centered one. The result? Fewer men are willing to take on the life-long job of caring for a wife and children. Why should they, if life is all about them?

And sadly, cultural changes over the past 50 years mean that fewer boys have important male mentors in their lives to teach them how to be men.

If you're the father of sons, I hope you spend lots of time with them, teaching them what being a man is all aboutand maybe doing challenging stuff together, like hiking the Grand Canyon. And I recommend giving your sons a copy of Bill Bennett's "The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood."

Instead of trying to make men more like women, or labeling typical male traits as "toxic," we should help boys harness characteristics such as aggression, ambition, and yes, even violence, into proper channelssuch as working hard to support a family, racing into burning buildings to save childrenor protecting their daughters from predators in retail stores.

On a related subject: On a recent BreakPoint podcast, columnist Mona Charen talks with John Stonestreet about the disastrous consequences of modern feminism. Check it out at BreakPoint.org.5 issues that are rampant in the construction industry

* Partner Post

People are facing major challenges in the construction industry which is easily one of the fastest growing industries around the world today due to a growing population that is on the lookout for newer and better homes.

The industry is anticipated to continue to rise in the coming years with the growth rate expected to hit double digits in some countries. Things are great not just in America but other parts of the world as well including Dubai and many Asian countries that appear to be receiving some FDI as well in the form of investments in this field due to huge potential returns.

According to statistics, the US construction industry added 4.3% to the GDP which shows just how powerful it is.

If you're having thoughts about getting into the construction industry then you must be aware of five issues that are common in the industry.

Shortage of Labor

The construction industry is growing rapidly so are the problems. One of major issues that contractors have to deal with includes finding professional and well skilled workers.

Finding a skilled worker and providing jobs to deserving people is a big deal these days. A lack of professional and well-trained workers can have a negative outcome. This results in poorly constructed houses and buildings that are often unsafe as well.

This problem can be solved by offering more benefits to employees.

Slow Payments

Slow payments have been damaging the construction industries for the past few years. It has become a major concern for everyone associated with the industry since on late payment can cause several late payments.

This issue is usually faced by the small businesses but major companies can also be a victim. Delayed payment can cause cash flow issues and result in delays in payments of bills and other expenses, most importantly salaries.

Companies need to make payment schedules in order to regulate cash flow. This can help avoid problems and plan better. Many companies also turn to loans and other such options but they may not always be very reliable.

Cost Changes

Construction involves using different raw materials and machinery, the cost of which is not controlled by the contractor. Even a small change in cost can cause havoc for a company.

Cost changes should be addressed by the construction companies from the very beginning. Budgets and pay schedules should be set from the start so that no issues are faced later on.

Companies also have the option to ask for extra pay from clients if the contract allows so.

Delays

Subcontractors change orders to re-work on designs which can cause delays.

Delays also occurs when the cost rises for raw material that often require constructors to come u with a better plan and budget accordingly.

These delays can turn out to be very costly. Plus, delays can impact a company's image and result in a chain reaction as well where one delayed project can cause other projects to get delayed, too.

To overcome this issue teamwork, project planning and effective management solutions are required.

Safety

Wide range of activities are involved during construction which can be dangerous and risky for workers who have to handle a variety of tasks from lifting bricks to installing clamp on flow meters.

Whatever the job, the risk factor in this industry is always high. Hence, construction workers should be properly trained and be provided safety gear as well. This small step can be of great aid in the long-run.

While these issues are common, you can rise above the ocassion with proper planning.As children return to school, Christians are being urged to pray

Millions of children across the UK are heading back to school this week and although the start of the new academic year is an exciting time for many, there are also many challenges.

CARE is urging Christians to pray for students as well as their teachers. The organization's Prayer Co-ordinator Celia Bowring said: 'As term has started again it's impossible not to think of the potential difficulties that are going to arise for children, teachers and schools this upcoming school year.

'Hardly a day goes by without new stories appearing in the news about the challenges of cyber-bulling, loneliness among young people and so on.

'The importance of this stage of life for young people and children cannot be underestimated.'

A new report out from The Children's Society last week revealed the state of Britain's self-harming problem among children. The survey of 11,000 children found over a fifth (22%) of girls and nearly one in 10 boys (9%) said they had hurt themselves on purpose in the year prior to the questionnaire. The worst rates of self-harm were found among people attracted to the same or both genders, at 46%.

Matthew Reed, chief executive at The Children's Society, said the figures were 'deeply worrying.'

'Worries about how they look are a big issue, especially for girls, but this report shows other factors such as how they feel about their sexuality and gender stereotypes may be linked to their unhappiness,' he said.

A separate study released by the NSPCC last month found that on average, one child in every primary school class has been sent or shown a naked or semi-naked image online by an adult.

As children return to school, churches across the UK are being urged to cover them in prayer.

'We cannot ignore the struggles children in our community are going to be facing this term, but we can do something about it,' said Ms Bowring.

The call to prayer also includes teachers facing long working hours and burnout.

'Let's also remember the teachers and support staff who work long hours and often under considerable pressure,' said Ms Bowring.

'As Christians, we know that our prayers make a huge difference, so we thank God for all those individuals, groups and churches who get together and pray, both strategically and specifically for children, teachers and our local schools this week.

'This week let's commit to interceding for our local schools by covering them with prayer.'

Find out more about how your church can take part at http://www.prayforschools.org/Bishop of Reading announces retirement

The Bishop of Reading, Rt Revd Andrew Proud, has announced he will retire next year. His last official engagement takes place on Easter Sunday.

In a letter to clergy and parishioners, Proud wrote: 'It has been such a joy to ordain deacons and priests and see them grow and move on, and to have had the privilege of baptising and confirming so many.'

Before becoming Bishop of Reading in 2011 he served as chaplain of St Matthew's, Addis Ababa and was consecrated Bishop of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa in 2007.

Since returning to the UK he has been instrumental in introducing a major mission initiative, Partnership for Missional Church, to the diocese.

'Bishop Andrew has been an enormous gift to the Diocese of Oxford as Bishop of Reading,' said the Bishop of Oxford, Rt Revd Steven Croft. 'He has set humility, prayer, listening to scripture and the mission of God at the heart of his episcopal ministry.

'He has brought to the diocese a passion for the global Church, which has been threaded through every aspect of his leadership, and he has been a pastor and an encourager to many across the Berkshire Area.'

Details of the timetable for consultations and the appointment of Proud's successor as Bishop of Reading will be announced later this year.Secrets of her success: How has Ruth Davidson transformed Scottish Tory fortunes?

Unlike her predecessor as leader of the Scottish Tories, Ruth Davidson is a household name throughout the whole of the UK. Under her leadership, the Conservatives in Scotland have, finally, started to win seats, both at Westminster (remember the Tory wipeout in 1997, when they were left without a single MP north of the border?) and at Holyrood. She's young, she's out and proud, she's a Christian, she's from a working class background, she's an ex-military kickboxer.

She's also feisty and jolly and not afraid of speaking her mind  and already seen as a potential leader for the Conservatives throughout Britain, should she want the job. What kind of a person is she, and how has she achieved so much?

Before we get to that, though, she provokes a further question  why is she a Conservative? She once said before an election: 'I'm voting for a break for low-paid workers. I'm voting for schools that end inequality. I'm voting for more nurses in our hospitals. I'm voting for a local police force...' Yet, at that point, the Conservative austerity programme was still in full swing. How does she reconcile herself to that? Surely her kind of Conservativism, in which dedication to protecting the NHS in particular and supporting social justice in general, is no longer the kind that prevails in Westminster  if it ever did? And how did she manage to generate enough support, in a country where the Conservatives were loathed, to become effectively the leader of the opposition in the Holyrood Parliament, and to have more Scottish MPs in Westminster than Labour do, for the first time since 1959?

It was with this background of questions that I read Andrew Liddle's book, Ruth Davidson and the Resurgence of the Scottish Tories. Liddle is a good biographer and political writer, and he weaves her story around the story of the Conservatives in Scotland. Conservative support in Scotland was once a very powerful force. It had begun to decline before Mrs Thatcher decided to trial the Poll Tax there. In fact, 1997 was not their lowest point  the book charts their fall to an even smaller percentage of the vote in the first elections for the Scottish Parliament, where they gained a miserable 15.5 per cent.

Only the fact that the Scottish Parliament has a form of proportional representation meant that there were actual Conservative MPs elected. So the road back to electoral success of any kind has been long and hard, and Liddle charts it in detail  I found myself Googling the actual results, to see a clearer picture of the recovery.

One key issue that he brings out is that Thatcher seemed to represent a disdainful attitude towards Scotland, in which Scottish interests were not even worth considering. Cameron did little to dispel this, but Ruth Davidson is, clearly, pro-Scotland. Her vision for Scotland differs from Nicola Sturgeon's, but it is nevertheless genuine and heartfelt. Nor does it appear that, for Davidson, Holyrood is just a staging post in a career whose ultimate aim is Westminster. She's not there in Holyrood just to bide time before aiming at her real goal.

Ruth Davidson is different from most Conservative leaders and this might have been why she was chosen. After all, clearly the party had to do something different, as doing more of the same would result in the same poor showing. She stood out  she would do so in almost any party, but perhaps most of all in the Conservatives. Not that she has had an easy time as leader. She was emphatically not what many Conservatives in Scotland either wanted or expected. She had a hard fight, both within the party and at each election, to keep going, and she comes across in the book as admirable in her determination, her honesty and her humanity.

We now see her as the darling of the Conservatives, north and south, but in fact when she first became leader  having only just become a Member of the Scottish Parliament  she was resented. Those asked to meet with her would not turn up. There was, Liddle seems to be saying, a strong tradition of 'Buggins' turn'  that those who served the Scottish Conservative party loyally would eventually be rewarded by being put forward for election. Davidson stopped all that, insisting on a rigorous selection system that meant only those who met certain criteria were able to stand. This of course has brought her more enemies: it has also resulted in a new generation of politicians who owe their political loyalty to her, and were she to travel south, applying the same rigour to Conservative politicians at Westminster might result in some interesting by-elections (though it is doubtful that existing MPs would be de-selected).

There are other questions. She is said to be concerned about issues of social justice (as indeed is Theresa May) but, when questioned about the bedroom tax, Davidson apparently just shrugged. Are her principles perhaps not as important as we might hope? Liddle also questions the wisdom of a comment she made about Donald Trump, when she said 'I would back almost anyone over Donald Trump'  but then there comes a point, perhaps, when diplomacy should give way to honesty, to prevent certain kinds of behaviour from being seen as acceptable, if practised by the sufficiently powerful.

Speaking her mind has, perhaps, not always been wise politically  she had to rebuild her relationship with Boris Johnson, and she also once accused Andrea Leadsom of telling a 'blatant untruth'. But this is where her appeal lies. In an age when authenticity is so valued, Davidson seems to combine both honesty and appeal  she is herself, and we like the Ruth Davidson that we see.

Might she become leader overall of the Conservative Party in this country? Despite her reservations, she might one day be persuaded that this is where her duty lies  and ideas of duty still ring true with Davidson. Certainly, she is worth watching  and the book is definitely worth a read.

Andrew Liddle's 'Ruth Davidson and the Resurgence of the Scottish Tories' is published by Biteback.

Ali Hull is a freelance commissioning editor and book reviewer, and has spent more than 20 years working with books and authors.Telling a better story: How India's Christians are fighting for dignity for Dalits

There's quite possibly nowhere in the world where the religious landscape is as complex as it is in India. Hinduism is the dominant religion at nearly 80 per cent of the population, but there's a substantial Muslim minority  more than 14 per cent  with more than 8 million Christians and 6 million Sikhs.

But those numbers don't begin to do justice to the variety of India's faiths and to the way belief is woven into every part of life. To be an effective Christian pastor, evangelist and activist in India requires deep sensitivity to context alongside a resolute commitment to making a difference.

And it's not only the religious context. India is one of the most unequal countries in the world, as any tourist can see. Dazzling wealth  there were 17 new billionaires last year, and 70 new millionaires every day  sits alongside absolute destitution. Education, healthcare and opportunities are all unevenly distributed. Women are still deeply disadvantaged.

And the caste system, identified most obviously with Hinduism but present in Islam and Christianity as well, is at the root of some of the deepest and most pernicious forms of discrimination. 'Dalits'  formerly known as 'Untouchables', below the lowest rung of the caste ladder, and tribal people can experience discrimination that's damaging both practically and psychologically. It's not just that they are poorer, have worse health and die sooner  it's that they think they deserve it.

These are the contexts in which Joseph D'Souza, a bishop in the Church of the Good Shepherd and president of the All-India Christian Council, founded the Dalit Freedom Network to campaign for poor and marginalised people. It's just been renamed and is now the Dignity Freedom Network  and the new name is significant.

'We began to understand what Dalits are looking for. The clear, single most important outcome is dignity,' he tells Christian Today.

DFN consulted widely about the word 'dignity'.

'It was clear that it gives to the every human being the knowledge they were created in God's image,' D'Souza says. 'We have to figure out how to have a paradigm shift in our minds. The loss of dignity, the dehumanisation that tells them they are not equal to privileged castes because of their moral character, what they've done in a past life, etc  that is an assault on who you are as a human being. We need to reconstruct in our own minds and hearts that we are created in the image of God and that if we were the only ones in the world, Jesus would have died for us.'

It's a message, and a ministry, that is deeply attractive to India's Dalits. The Good Shepherd Church recognises that this presentation of the Jesus of the Bible resonates with the people. The church is known as a church that cares deeply about women's rights. So, says D'Souza, even upper caste women freely decide to love and follow Jesus.

Hinduism is one of the world's most ancient religions and caste dates back thousands of years. But another facet of the religious kaleidoscope is the rise of a particular kind of Hinduism during the last few years. It's nationalist, fundamentalist and intolerant  and it's propelled the BJP government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power. This assertive brand of Hinduism is behind anti-conversion laws in several states and a 'reconversion' programme aimed at turning Muslims and Christians  regarded as lapsed Hindus by extremists  back to what is claimed to be the faith of their ancestors. It's also seen outbreaks of violence directed at Dalits and Muslims accused of killing or eating cows, Hinduism's sacred animal  and in May last year the federal government attempted to ban the sale of cattle for slaughter altogether. It is already illegal in many Indian states.

As D'Souza says: 'In the last few years, radical groups have felt emboldened by those in power. The "mobocracy" is an increasing phenomenon and among its targets are Christians, Hindu intellectuals and Muslims.

'The demonisation of Christians has increased  In Jharkand there has been a massive clampdown on every NGO, many of them Christians. There is a propaganda machine that says Christians are involved in forced or fraudulent conversions. The language, the media are demonising Christians.'

The accusation of forced conversion, he says, is nonsense.

'The reins of political power are in the hands of Hindus. How is it possible, when they have had all the power since independence?

'There are anti-conversion laws in seven or eight states and there has not been a single conviction.'

The campaign against Christian organisations, he says, has had serious consequences: 'In the last four years, 20,000 NGOs have lost their licences and 1.25 million people have lost their employment.'

And more widely: 'Radicalised Hindus are banning the slaughter of cattle, Dalits are being flogged and lynched  the livelihood of millions is being destroyed.'

As well as helping mitigate the consequences of poverty and religious intolerance, DFN has a programme targeted at victims of ritual prostitution. For centuries, poor Dalits have dedicated their daughters as 'Devadasis' or sacred prostitutes. Though in theory the practice is banned, in the states of Odisha, Karnataka and Andra Pradesh there are estimated to be around 150,000 women who have grown up through the Devadasi temple system. DFN aims to help stamp out the practice and D'Souza says its teams have stopped nearly 1,500 dedications in the last five years. DFN workers are in touch with 10,000 prostitutes who have chosen leaders from among themselves.

'No society will accept them and the finance NGOs will give is not enough to support them,' D'Souza says. 'We offer vocational training and help them create small businesses. We go around festivals and challenge families, telling them what the law is  they take loudspeakers and say, "Don't offer your daughters, this is not legal."'

At the moment the Good Shepherd Church's anti-trafficking unit has placed highly vulnerable girls in 50 shelters. It's constructing another for 150 girls.

And at the root of all the discrimination faced by Dalits, he says, is caste. It's the caste system itself that has to change  and contrary to what's often argued, he believes it would not mean the end of Hinduism, which is more varied and adaptable than it might appear.

'The struggle for dignity and freedom is not going to end until Dalits throw off the shackles of caste in one way or another,' he says. It is the 'single biggest human rights issue in the history of the world'.

D'Souza's DFN is at the sharp end of helping improve life for people on the ground. He says: 'We want people to engage with our on-the-ground programme of Indian workers. Partner with us, graduate a new generation who dream of being police officers, doctors, politicians. We have 27,000 children in school, 10,000 of whom have no scholarships. We are trusting and praying that British Christians will get involved.'

In the West, there's sometimes even today a tension between evangelism and social action. India is proof that that conflict is absurd. In its schools and outreach projects, the church does not proselytise  'When the children grow up, what they do is between them and God. We don't ask them to come to church, that's proselytism,' says D'Souza. But the church still grows, because of the attractiveness of what it does for the lowest and weakest.

Dignity  the acknowledgment of every person's freedom, worth and potential  does not seem much to ask. But for those trapped in a system and a mindset that sees them as fundamentally inferior from the moment they're born, it's revolutionary.

For more about the Dignity Freedom Network click here.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoodsTrump 'very disappointed' with Turkish president over refusal to free Andrew Brunson

Donald Trump says he is 'very disappointed' with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his refusal to free US pastor Andrew Brunson.

Trump suggested in comments to Bloomberg News that he had expected Brunson to be freed after helping in the release of a Turkish citizen detained in Israel.

'I'm disappointed in him,' Trump told Bloomberg, adding that the issue was 'too dear to my heart.'

'I got somebody back for him,' he continued. 'I'm very disappointed in him, but we'll see how it all works out.'

Brunson spent over two decades working as a pastor in the southwestern city of Izmir. But his arrest two years ago has triggered a diplomatic crisis and strained relations between the US and Turkey.

The evangelical pastor was recently moved from prison to house arrest as he continues to fight espionage and terrorism-related charges in the courts. His most recent appeal was rejected.

The US has intensified pressure on Turkey to release Brunson, worsening the country's economic crisis by doubling tariffs on steel and aluminium, and placing sanctions on two Turkish ministers.

Last week, the American Center for Law and Justice, which is lobbying for Brunson's release, filed a submission with the UN Human Rights Council urging it to take action.

The submission stated: 'The U.N. has long stood to protect the human rights of all people. In intervening on behalf of Pastor Brunson, the U.N. will once again demonstrate its commitment to ensuring that freedom of religion exists for all people, regardless of their faith.'

On Monday, Turkey's top appeals court judge appeared to refer to the Brunson case without mentioning the pastor by name.

According to Hurriyet Daily News, Judge Ismail Rustu Cirit suggested foreign states need to respect Turkey's sovereignty in its rulings on foreign citizens.

'The only and absolute power that can rule on the arrest of a foreign citizen in Izmir and decisions about his trial are the independent and impartial courts, which use their judicial power on behalf of the Turkish nation,' Cirit said.

'Foreign states that claim to sustain ideals of democracy, human rights and the state of law should first respect the Republic of Turkey's sovereignty, which is protected by international law.'

The next hearing in Brunson's trial is scheduled for October 12.Firefighters battling a blaze in a steep river canyon in Tahoe National Forest are counting on nine large air tankers and seven helicopters to halt the spread of the North Fire.

The wildfire erupted Monday near Emigrant Gap and consumed about 500 acres, authorities said Tuesday afternoon, forcing the Placer County Sheriffs Office to empty and close several campgrounds. The California Highway Patrol also closed Interstate 80 ramps at Yuba Gap Road and Emigrant Gap Road.

Monday nights estimate placed the size of the fire at 650 acres, but new observations made Tuesday with the aid of GPS led officials to reduce the scope of destruction.

The North Fire is just 10 percent contained, officialssaid, and no estimate for full containment have been projected.

The blaze is burning on both sides of the North Fork of the American River, fueled by brush and timber in the steep, rocky terrain of the river canyon.

The fire started around 4:30 p.m. in the North Fork campground, south of Emigrant Gap, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

It spread quickly and by Monday evening the Placer County Sheriffs Office began evacuating the North Fork, Onion Valley and Tunnel Mills campgrounds on Texas Hill Road. The area around Lake Valley Reservoir was also evacuated, while the Sunflower, Lodgepole and Silvertip campgrounds were cleared.

Tahoe National Forest officials reported that hand crews, bulldozers and engines worked through the night establishing an anchor point and starting to flank the fire.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, said Michael Woodbridge, a Tahoe National Forest district ranger.

Flames were first spotted near a popular campground and swimming hole, Woodbridge said, raising the possibility that human activity could have started the blaze.

Several wildland fires ignited up and down California over Labor Day weekend, Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean said.

But crews were able to jump on them quickly, he added.

Two new fires were reported near Kelseyville in Lake County, but both were limited to fewer than 40 acres.

Heres a quick look at some of the other wildfires in California:

 The Hirz Fire, in Shasta County northeast of Redding, has burned through 46,051 acres. It is 60 percent contained. Fire crews are working to extend containment lines on the northeastern edge of the blaze.

 The Ranch Fire, the larger of two fires to make up the Mendocino Complex, the states largest-ever blaze, has consumed about 410,000 acres in Lake, Mendocino and Colusa counties, and is about 98 percent contained.

Fire crews are focusing their efforts on the north and east ends of the fire as well as extinguishing islands of flame inside the containment lines. Full containment is expected Sunday.

 The Carr Fire, Californias most-destructive fire in 2018, was fully contained Thursday night after torching 1,079 homes. The inferno, which burned nearly 230,000 acres, and whipped through Redding subdivisions, started July 23. Firefighters remain in the area, patrolling the lines to make sure the fire stays contained.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan3 1 of 3 HCA Houston Healthcare Show More Show Less 2 of 3 HCA Show More Show Less 3 of 3





HCA Houston Healthcare has completed the acquisition of North Cypress Medical Center, a 139-bed hospital at 21214 Northwest Freeway near Huffmeister in the northwest Houston area.

The hospital, founded by physicians in 2006, expands HCA's Gulf Coast network to 18 hospitals in the Gulf Coast division. The deal includes four freestanding emergency centers in Barker Cypress, Spring Cypress, Fairfield and Texas 249.WASHINGTON - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is speeding up its environmental reviews of LNG export terminals, a process that takes years and has come under increasing scrutiny in Washington.

The agency issued updated schedules for the environmental review of 12 liquefied natural gas export projects on Friday, including six in Texas. Among those listed were Cheniere Energy's Corpus Christi project, Freeport LNG's project in Brazoria County, and Sempra Energy's Port Arthur project.

"The commission has made significant strides in streamlining our regulatory processes to adapt to the increasing number, and greater complexity, of the LNG applications we have received," said FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre. "These process improvements have shortened projected environmental schedules in some cases by 9 to 12 months."

RELATED STORY: Senate to consider bill boosting U.S. LNG exports to Europe, taking aim at Russian gas

The agency says it has sped up the timeline for environmental review through a combination of bureaucratic changes, including the hiring of an outside contractor to assist FERC staff and requesting applicants themselves use third-party contractors to assist in the process. FERC also recently signed an agreement with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to work together on the review of LNG projects.

FERC was facing a backlog of permit applications for LNG terminals, with project approvals being delayed up to 18 months, Bloomberg reported in July.

That had drawn criticism from Republicans in Washington, particularly those from oil and gas producing states like Texas, who worried U.S. LNG could be losing ground to competitors in Australia and Qatar.

"FERC's announcement is welcome news to the state of Texas, the nation, and to our trade partners abroad," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. "I encourage FERC to expeditiously process and finalize the applications for these projects without any further delay."

Other LNG projects issued new schedules Friday were three terminals near Brownsville in South Texas, Texas LNG, Annova LNG and Rio Grande LNG. Also included was Driftwood LNG's proposed terminal outside Lake Charles, Louis., Kinder Morgan's Gulf LNG facility in Mississippi, the Jacksonville Eagle facility in Florida and the Alaska LNG project in Nikiski, Alaska.As oil markets show growing global supply concern, Iraq is signaling the jitters may be overdone.

Output from OPECs second-biggest producer has jumped to a record and is set to expand further, reflecting higher investment in the countrys southern fields following crudes rally.

Iraq has oil thats cheap and relatively easy to produce, Mustafa Ansari, a senior economist at Arab Petroleum Investments Corp., said in an interview in Muscat, Oman. Increased output from the south has more than compensated for a halt in production from the shuttered Kirkuk field in the north, he said.

The country pumped 4.64 million barrels a day in August, beating the previous high set two years ago, while exports matched peak levels from 2016, according to a Bloomberg survey and tanker-tracking data.

IN IRAN: Secret oil shipments could be Iran's workaround for sanctions

Oil has averaged more than $70 a barrel this year after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies curtailed output to eliminate a global glut. But with supply threats on the rise from Iran to Venezuela, theres mounting concern that the groups spare capacity now wont be sufficient be absorb any major supply shocks.

Buyers have already begun shunning Iranian barrels as the market prepares for the onset of fresh U.S. sanctions in November. Iranian oil exports fell 14 percent in August, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

It remains unclear whether OPEC will be able to absorb a potentially massive fall in Iranian oil exports due to the U.S. sanctions, Commerzbank AG said in a note on Monday.

The same day, Nigeria Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu sought to reassure, saying Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with Nigeria and Angola, can bring enough oil to the market to help meet shortfalls from Iran.

CUTBACK: Texas oil production falls for first time since Feb. 2017

Now add to that group Iraq, which is ready to ship more crude as soon as OPEC reaches an agreement on how members will share a collective supply boost, Alaa Al-Yasiri, acting director-general of the state-run Oil Marketing Co., said Wednesday.

Spare capacity is limited and thats creating volatility, Apicorps Ansari said. Iraq wants to take advantage of the situation in the market -- with prices supported by concern over Iran -- because they know that if they dont, other countries will.

--With assistance from Khalid Al-Ansary.

2018 Bloomberg L.P.The natural gas producer Southwestern Energy said Tuesday it is selling its core shale assets in Arkansas for nearly $1.9 billion in cash to a private equity-backed startup as the Spring company focuses on drilling in Marcellus and Utica shale plays in the Northeastern and Appalachian regions.

Southwestern was founded in Arkansas and its move to unload the play in its native state is a sign of the difficulties that natural gas companies have faced in recent years. Associated gas produced along with crude in oil fields such as the Permian Basin in West Texas is flooding the market and holding down natural gas prices. Southwestern plans to use much of the proceeds from the sale to Flywheel Energy, of Oklahoma City, to pay down its debt.

"It's challenging for gas-dedicated producers to compete," said Ethan Bellamy, an energy analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. "Gas-directed drillers have to be incredibly lean and efficient to compete today."

RELATED: Southwestern Energy to cut 1,100 jobs amid natural gas rout

Southwestern is selling 915,000 acres and more than 4,000 operating wells in the Fayetteville Shale, which stretches across the Arkansas border into Oklahoma, to Flywheel, which was founded last year with financial backing of the Los Angeles private equity firm Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors. The deal, which also includes pipelines, is expected to close in December.

"The sale of Fayetteville represents a pivotal and deliberate step toward fulfilling our promise to reposition Southwestern Energy to capture greater returns from our higher margin Appalachia assets," said Southwestern President and Chief Executive Bill Way. "We are pleased with the process, the outcome and the resulting valuation of this significant asset."

It's been rough for natural gas producers in recent years. The previous industry leader, Oklahoma's Chesapeake Energy, is now trading for just over $4 a share. Ultra Petroleum of Houston filed for bankruptcy and, after emerging, is now moving its headquarters to Denver this fall. It's stock is sitting just over $1 per share.

The nation's new natural gas leader, Pittsburgh EQT Corp, is growing and turning small profits, but its stock is still down more than 50 percent from mid-2014.

Southwestern is making money, again, earning a $51 million profit in the second quarter, after posting multibillion-dollar losses as recently as 2016. Southwestern indicated in February that it was considering unloading its Arkansas holdings.

Southwestern was booming in 2014 when it moved from Houston to its swanky headquarters in Spring. The stock traded at nearly $50 a share then, but is now just above $5 per share after falling another 5 percent on Tuesday. The stock has traded below $10 since January 2017, and the company cut well more than 1,000 jobs in 2016.

For the better part of the last 15 years, much of Southwestern's growth was focused in the natural gas shale play in Arkansas. In the last few years, Southwestern has expanded in the Appalachia shale plays, especially in Pennsylvania and West Virginia with plans to continue to home in on that region.Superintendent Darrell Myers gave a math lesson at the last board meeting. The subject wasnt as complicated as algebra, fractions, or even geometry. The Cleveland ISD superintendent did simple addition and subtraction demonstrating the state of the district and offering a compelling reason to leave the tax rate the same.

Before the teachable moment, former Cleveland mayor Niki Coats was at the school district meeting requesting they lower their tax rate. Coats believes the district has a fund balance thats too large and taxpayers could use the relief.

You probably could lower the tax rate, because of your substantial growth, you probably could but not until you get to the end of this calendar year, Coats said.

Coats point blank asked board members if they would be willing to call a special meeting when they know whether they will have a windfall if they would come back and lower the tax rate.

School board president Chris Wood said, Yes, most definitely.

But Myers said that it would include a caveat the rate of student enrollment growth.

Last year the district was on pace for 500 new students, which equals out to approximately an additional 24-25 new classrooms, more bus drivers, more teachers, and additional services that must be provided to educate that many new students.

But following Hurricane Harvey, a flood of more students continued to enroll, almost 20 per week, until February when it finally settled down and enrollment for the year blew up an additional 300 students, a total of 800much more than the district had predicted.

From May of this year until the start of school, the district has already added another 800-plus students and no one knows when the new arrivals will end.

The district is currently under 37.5 cents on debt service (Interest and Sinking Fund) and capped out on their Maintenance and Operations (M&O) budget at $1.04 per $100 valuation.

With rooftops only, the school district breaks even, Wood said.

The difference between residential and commercial is commercial usually pays a higher rate and they dont have students to educate so thats where the district can kind of get ahead a little bit. Its not a windfall by any means, he said.

Woods also explained that they had no control over the values set by the Liberty County Central Appraisal District.

As a district, we hire a firm to protest the values on behalf of our constituents to get them lowered, Wood said.

The board president also explained that they havent gone up on the M&O in 11 years.

Were taking what the CAD gives us each year and trying to do the best with what we have, he said.

With an average of about 800 new students every year the last four years, thats about a campus per year added to our district, he said. Thats about $30-$35 million per year. We cant build a new campus each year, he added.

Myers began with a brief history lesson on where school finance has evolved.

The system we had in 2005 was unconstitutional at $1.50 cap [per $100 value] and it was considered a state property tax. In 2006 during a Special Legislative session, the state legislature passed House Bill 1. The measure was supposed to bring property tax relief and compression, he explained.

Taxes at the time were $1.74 in Cleveland ISD and they were compressed to $1.04 for M&O.

They capped it at 50 cents for Interest and Sinking, or bond indebtedness.

Thats when that system went into effect, he said.

The CAD has audits by the Comptrollers Office and they set limits for how far out of confidence levels with their valuations which is about 97 or 98 percent, Myers said.

If the CAD is out of confidence levels with their valuations, they get a hickey, but they take money away from the school district for not meeting their taxing effort.

The driver on that side is the Comptrollers Office, he said. Why would they want to drive up your taxes?

That comes from school funding, Myers explained.

When we receive windfalls, when the values go up and we maintain a tax rate of $1.04, this year thats going to give us an additional $1.9 million, he said.

Last year, the district received $5,845 per student to educate them. This year, they will only receive $5,538.26, a loss of $306.74 per student because property values went up.

If you multiply that out, that comes out to about $1.9 million, he said.

Thats where the state takes it away, Myers said.

Myers said its the Comptrollers office and legislators who are driving the rise in taxes with the states share of funding going down while local taxpayers are shouldering more of the tax burden.

Im just as mad about it as anyone because Im also a taxpayer, he said.

Myers also explained why its a good thing the district has extra money in the bank.

Two reasons, he told those at the meeting, and thats Harvey and the embargo, or steel tariffs.

He explained the cost of labor has gone up because theres so much work available after Harvey and the steel tariffs have forced increases.

Our costs on those bond projects have now risen about 20 percent, he said.

Approximately $2 million will now be dedicated to the service center and another $3.5 million to the high school expansion out of the fund balance to compensate for the additional cost.

I can guarantee you when we get ready for the Plum Grove elementary project, it will also be over the original cost to build, the superintendent said.

While the school board and the superintendent said they would love to be able to reduce the tax rate, they just cant afford it facing the growth the district is experiencing.

The district had been saving money for future projects, but that will now be on hold while they deal with the growth.

While it looks like theres a big fund balance, its really not when you look at the expenditures this board is going to have to deal with over the next few years, Myers said.

The district also falls under the three-month rule which requires them to maintain enough money in their fund balance to cover running the district, payroll and any other expenses for a full three months.

That would take the districts unreserved fund balance down from $25 million to roughly $12 million. The additional expense on the new buildings, at least $7 million, will come from that $12 million and the district is still having to buy more portables out of the fund balance to provide classroom space for new students. The extra money is going fast.

Where we can save a dollar, we will, he said, because well need it.

dtaylor@hcnonline.comJoe Sample died and was laid to rest nearly three years ago. The Houston jazz legend had survived a pair of heart attacks, one in 1994 and another in 2009. But mesothelioma took him in Sept. 2014 at age 75.

Sample was buried at Paradise North Cemetery in Inwood. Then followed a period of three years where a proper headstone was created for a keyboardist who achieved crossover success and renown in the 1970s. The stone was placed at Sample's grave site earlier this summer. This past weekend, a ceremony marked its placement and the third anniversary of his passing.

It should be noted: The stone is a grand piece of work honoring a storied Houstonian.

Yolanda Sample, his widow, envisioned a marker honoring the greatness of her husband's career. She wrote beautifully about the process behind creating the marker. She described a trip to Austria on vacation, rather than traveling for a gig. Sample wanted to see the monuments to composers like Mozart and Beethoven.

"The trip was in essence a pilgrimage for Joe to experience Vienna. He wanted to feel and see what had inspired the masters to create the music. We walked through the city, visited historic sites, then drove to the countryside for lunch at a castle. He absorbed everything God had blessed Vienna with from the smell of the air to how the sunlight shone. God was speaking and Joe was listening."

Yolanda said she had a dream that directed her toward creating a headstone for Sample.

"The first stipulation was that the stone had to be the exact size and shape of a seven-foot grand piano. Although his preference was to play a nine-foot concert grand piano, this was the type piano Joe commonly used when performing."

True to that vision, the face of Sample's headstone is a towering top of a piano, with his name, and the description "Jazz Pianist and Composer." Beneath the keys etched into stone is a bit of sheet music for "True to You," and Sample's quote, "The most perfect song I've ever written."

On the backside of the stone appear the liner notes Sample wrote in 2002 for his album "The Pecan Tree" with a pecan tree carved into the rock.

Wrote Yolanda: "The music that he composed for that album showcased glimpses into his early life in Houston."

Though he first started playing music here, Sample traveled far from Houston to make his name. At Wheatley High School in the 1950s, Sample began performing in the Swingsters with local musicians like trombonist Wayne Henderson, saxophonist Wilton Felder and flutist Hubert Laws and drummer Stix Hooper. The group became the Modern Jazz Sextet at Texas Southern.

Sample recalled growing up in the Fifth Ward, where his parents would go to the la la dances before the music took on the name zydeco. He was around ten when they took him to see the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier.

"He had a band that was just as wonderful as the band Ray Charles had put together in the '50s," Sample told the Chronicle. "He was such a powerful player."

The Modern Jazz Sextet moved to Los Angeles and found a nurturing mentor in the Houston blues great Johnny "Guitar" Watson, who helped the members find session work when they weren't gigging together. The group became the Jazz Crusaders in the '60s, carrying on a bebop tradition before looking to push it in a different direction.

The Jazz Crusaders morphed into the Crusaders, one of the great crossover bands of the 1970s, who brought jazz to a pop audience, or a pop audience to jazz. (Sample talked about reuniting the band a few years ago here.)

Sample during that time also became a first call session pianist for all manner of recordings. He played with Albert King and B.B. King, Joni Mitchell and Blue Mitchell, Henry Mancini, Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Steely Dan. The list really is far too long for print.

Sample remained a prolific recording artist under his own name, too. He produced numerous wonderful recordings, though I'd recommend "Invitation" from 1993 as a point of entry for newcomers.

He eventually made his way back to Houston, and here became nostalgic for the music of his youth.

"Blues is like the white dust in the neighborhood from the oyster-shell streets," he told me. "It's a natural thing in this region. Certain things I can play with musicians from here that I cannot play with other musicians from Chicago or Seattle or Boston or New York. They simply do not feel it."

He talked at greater length about his connection to Houston in this feature, which was the last time I had the good fortune to talk to him.

That hometown vibe is echoed in Yolanda's comments about her husband's "The Pecan Tree" album and the notes he wrote for it.

"What Joe had written told the story of how growing up in Houston inspired and shaped his music," she wrote, "just as the great composers had been inspired by Vienna."Katys new emergency management coordinator, Gregory Goedecker brings eight years of experience in the emergency management field to his position, including a stint tracking people and resources in the aftermath of the April 20, 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon/BP MC252 drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

That explosion killed 11 workers, sank the rig and led to what is considered the largest oil spill ever.

Katy City Council on Aug. 27 authorized the mayor to sign an emergency management director/coordinator notification appointing Goedecker to the position. Mayor Chuck Brawner said Goedecker brings needed experience to the position.

He brings a high level of experience from the explosion of the BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico to five years as emergency management specialist with the City of Irving. He has a background and tools to train our staff to do a good job of making sure in a situation like Harvey or any natural or manmade disaster that hes very well-qualified to train staff and deal with the situation.

The overall goal is to build a culture of preparedness and resiliency in the city of Katy with citizens and with city personnel, said Goedecker, and to make sure our citizens are prepared as best as possible for the next disaster and to make sure city personnel also are prepared to handle it as best as possible.

Goedecker came to Katy from Irving for the challenge and excitement of running my own emergency management program. Those challenges includes flooding. Floodwaters entered 125 residential structures in the Katy area on Tax Day in April 2016 and 685 residential structures in August 2017 after Hurricane Harvey. He said he will study the lessons learned from Hurricane Harvey and what worked well and what didnt.

Im kind of starting from the ground up, said Goedecker, who said hes from Schulenberg and has family close by. Were moving closer to family. Married since 2011, he and his wife have two children ages 3 and 1.

His responsibilities include updating all the emergency operation plans and making sure the continuity of operation plans are good.

His goals include making sure the city staff is prepared to handle any natural or manmade disaster. He stressed training exercises with management staff for the next time a Harvey hits so that the city is ready to go.

When the city activates the emergency operation center, each city department has someone designated for the center, he said. Right now he said hes trying to get to know all the different departments.

When not working, spending time with family is important. With this line of work, you never know when the next disaster will happen, he explained.

Initially, he was planning to study meteorology and then started to consider geography. Looking to see what he could do with a degree in geography where a person studies map and weather, he discovered the field of emergency management.

He earned a degree in emergency administration and planning from the Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science from the University of North Texas.

The emergency management degree at North Texas is one of the best if not the best program in the country, he said. Lots of teachers have done work in the field. They have experiences in the field and then come back and teach new emergency management administrators.

His first job out of college was the BP oil rig. He was doing contract work and his contractor was hired by BP to help manage the incident.

Initially, he used company software to help track people and resources. He moved up eventually and became manager of the Mississippi command post in Gulfport between May 2010 and October 2011. I was out there a long time.

He succeeds Maria Galvez as Katys emergency management coordinator.

karen.zurawski@chron.comKaty Fire Chief Russell Wilson knew there was a problem when the rising floodwaters brought on by Hurricane Harvey began rushing toward the Katy Fire Department station at 1417 Avenue D.

The water actually started entering the station and I had to issue the order that we arent responding, Wilson said.

The fire departments contingent of firefighting vehicles such as ladder trucks and pumpers are perfectly adequate for dealing with a house fire but this deluge was something else completely. KFD trucks were simply not high enough.

You couldnt even see where the curbs were, Wilson said. We had a couple of booster trucks that are designed for grass fires but they werent high enough.

A few hours later, Katy residents with boats began showing up at the station and offering to help. Wilson gladly took them up on the officer.

I set up an operations field command right there in the station. That was the first time we were able to deploy anybody out of there since we had gotten trapped, he said.

One resident with an airboat that can skim across the surface of the water told Katy officials one of his rescue missions in the Old Katy area was especially tough.

He thought he had made a great mistake. His airboat was having problems dealing with the current and swift was that was coming down from the north  right down Avenue D, said Katy Mayor Chuck Brawner.

It wasnt until the Texas National Guard arrived with their trucks and fleet of boats capable of easily churning through high water that large scale rescues in the hardest-hit regions of Katy were able to be undertaken. Wilson would send the National Guard soldiers out into the flooded area along with a Katy firefighter to act as their guide.

The National Guard didnt know where to go, Wilson said.

Now the Katy Fire Department will be able to begin rescuing flood victims almost immediately. Soon after the waters began receding, Katy officials began looking into acquiring some of the equipment on their own. The city spent about $5,000 to pick up a powerful Army surplus truck that can ford flooded areas and about $13,000 on the kind of rubber Zodiac-type boats used in water rescue missions.

Weve also trained a number of our firefighters on swift water rescue, Brawner said, who called the investment well worth the money. I hope we never have to use it but at least we have taken the first step.

With the addition of the new equipment, Wilson said his firefighters are ready to respond to the next flood.

We can take that truck into a neighborhood and we can take that boat into a neighborhood, he said. Well start those operations immediately.

The truck wont only be sent into storage until a flooded, Wilson said. With the addition of a portable and self-contained firefighting apparatus called a skid unit, their elevated piece of army surplus will have a dual mission fighting grass fires in areas often inaccessible to other vehicles.

We can drive that into any field we want. We actually have the best of both worlds, Wilson said.

Brawner said it was important for Katy residents to know the fire department will be able to respond to the next flood.

I hope we never have to use it, Brawner said. But its really important for our citizens to know were going to be ready.

mike.glenn@chron.comVFW

Commander Don Byrne of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. Post 9182 has announced the kick-off of this years Youth Scholarships and Teacher Recognition.

The Voice of Democracy Scholarship provides local high school students the opportunity to compete for thousands of dollars in scholarships and a trip to Washington, D.C. Students must write and record a three-to-five minute essay on the selected theme using an audio CD or flash drive and present their recording, typed essay and completed entry form to their local VFW Post by Oct. 31. This years theme is Why My Vote Matters. Students begin by competing at the local Post level, then Post winners compete at the district level with the winner advancing to the state competition and that winner to national where first place is a $30,000 scholarship.Its official - the group that ranks universities reports that University of Houston is one of the top schools in the nation. The Princeton Review has published its rankings in the new edition of its annual "Best Colleges" book  The Best 384 Colleges: 2019 Edition, their flagship college guide.

With more than 120 undergraduate majors and minors, a 594-acre campus, and 45,300 students, the University of Houston is a world-class research institution and fixture in Texas education, The Princeton Review says.

For the book, the survey chooses 384 best colleges based primarily on outstanding academics. The Princeton Review also asks students at the schools what they really think about their experiences and then tallied the rankings on its surveys of 138,000 students (an average of 359 per campus).

Some of the student praise propelling UH to the top includes these comments:

Professors here are always prepared and make lectures interesting through effective teaching strategies that provide eye opening real-life information.

Careers are important to Cougars  there are many ties to local business and industry, including the chemical and space industries as well as the Texas Medical Center. The flexibility of my degree plan cannot be found in any other school 

The University of Houston is the epitome of the grand melting pot offering acceptance on all levels.

Recognition by the Princeton Review complements the Universitys reputation throughout the world as a leader in energy research, law, business and environmental education.

The Princeton Review is an education services company known for its test-prep courses, tutoring, books and other student resources. The company is not affiliated with Princeton University. Published annually since 1992, the book has detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores in eight categories as well as ranking lists of top 20 schools in 62 categories.Sixty-five Houston-area women trying to rebuild their lives will soon have a new tool to help them find a job or just call their own  a purse.

Residents at Belmont Village West University collected 65 purses and filled them with personal care items for women at The Womens Home and also raised more than $1,300 for the nonprofit through auctioning off some nicer purses.

Around 20 name-brand purses went to the highest bidders at the Purses with a Purpose Charity Auction held Thursday, Aug. 23, at Belmont Village.

Some of the senior living communitys residents decided they wanted to help other people, so a group called the Belmont Helping Hands was formed, said Activity Program Coordinator Tonya Marina. She said eight residents saw the project through from start to finish, coming up with the idea to gather handbags for women facing transition in their lives and then fill them with things they would need like toothbrushes, deodorant and shampoo.

As a social worker earlier in life, Sandi Bhatia, Belmont Village resident and Helping Hands member, said she spent a lot of time working with women like those at The Womens Home and understood how important something like a purse can be for a woman trying to get a job or get back on her feet.

Ive worked with a lot of women that were homeless and basically had nothing to their own name, Bhatia said. So purses might not sound like a whole lot to you or me, but to somebody who is living in a shelter and starting over, its a big thing for them to have something they can call their own.

Ruth Lane is also a Belmont Village resident and a Helping Hands member. She and her daughter had been collecting purses for years until her daughter passed away. When the idea of donating purses presented itself, Lane said her son brought her a box full of them.

I counted fifty purses in this box of all kinds, all colors, Lane said. Some were sporty, and some were dressy. I kept a few that were mine in the big collection, so I have some as remembrance.

Retail stores Elaine Turner and Macys Houston Galleria, stepped up to help the auction as well by donating several new handbags.

Creating and celebrating community organizations like The Womens Home is at the heart of Macys, and we are happy to participate in Belmont Villages Purses with a Purpose Silent Charity Auction with the donation of designer handbags, said Robert Beaupre, vice president store manager of Macys Houston Galleria.

Marina said for most of the Helping Hands members, serving homeless women came naturally because they had already spent time volunteering before they came to Belmont Village.

This project gave our residents great pride and a feeling of being a part of the greater community, she said.

Susan Cullen, Belmont Village resident and Helping Hands member, said she enjoyed the project because it was something that she and her peers could do to support others, even as they lived with and recovered from health issues in their later years.

It makes us be able to contribute something, not just think about getting better, Cullen said. Were contributing. Were not just getting better: were helping.

Since 1957, The Womens Home has been helping women reach stability in their lives and now also serves their families. With locations in Montrose and Spring Branch, it offers residential treatment, transitional housing, two permanent supportive housing programs and a center that provides support services focused on ending and preventing homelessness.

The women we serve are doing the hard work of turning their lives around, said The Womens Home CEO Anna Coffey. We provide a safe space for them to do that work, a community they can trust with resources they need.

She said efforts like Purses with a Purpose show the women that the community is behind them and encouraging them on to success.

Events like this with Belmont - outside support from people our clients don't even know is one more way to show these women they are not alone, that we believe in them and that they can affect change in themselves, Coffey said.

Coffey said The Womens Home is always in search of community supporters, volunteers and partners. For more information, visit www.thewomenshome.org or call 713-521-3150. To learn more about Belmont Village West University, visit www.belmontvillage.com/westuniversity.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.comAug. 24

An officer was dispatched to the 3800 block of Bellaire in regards to a theft that had already occurred.

An officer observed a vehicle traveling north bound in the 6600 block of Buffalo Speedway at a high rate of speed (64mph/30mph). A traffic stop was conducted and upon making personal contact with the driver, the officer observed several indicators the driver of the vehicle may have been intoxicated. After further investigation, The subject and was taken into custody for DWI.

At 10:25 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the 3100 block of Pittsburg, in regards to a minor accident / failure to stop and give information that already occurred.

Aug. 25

At 2:04 a.m., an officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 6100 block of Buffalo Speedway at a high rate of speed, 40mph in a posted 30 mph speed limit. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver was issued a citation for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and No Operators License. The driver was also enrolled in the Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program.

An Officer observed a vehicle traveling 48mph in a 30mph zone in the 6400 block of Buffalo Speedway. A traffic stop was initiated and upon further investigation, the driver of the motor vehicle provided the Officer with a false identity and was found to have outstanding warrants out of a neighboring police agency. The subject was placed into custody for the criminal offense of Fail to Identify.

An officer was dispatched to Houston Police Department southeast jail facility to pick up a prisoner in custody with outstanding West University Place warrants. The prisoner (Diego Gonzalez) was transferred to the West University Jail facility and booked without incident.

An officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby to speak with a complainant who stated that an unknown person hit his parked vehicle and failed to stop and give information. An offense report for Failure to Stop and Give Information was generated.

An Officer was dispatched to the West U PD in regards to found property.

An Officer was dispatched to the 1200 block of Commerce to take a subject into custody for outstanding warrants with the West University Place Police Department. The subject (Zachary Scott) was taken into custody and transported without incident.

At 8:28 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the 6500 block of Mercer in regards to a theft of vehicle by an auto transporter. After numerous failed attempts to get in contact with the driver, the owners of the vehicle wanted the vehicle reported stolen.

Aug. 26

An officer observed a vehicle traveling north bound in the 6300 block of Buffalo Speedway at a high rate of speed (40/30mph). A traffic stop was conducted and during contact, it was discovered that both the driver and passenger of the vehicle had open warrants issued through the Houston Police Department. An inventory of the vehicle revealed two small baggies containing a white powdery narcotic substance. The driver (Brittany Petters) of the vehicle claimed ownership of the substance and was subsequently charged for the offense.

At 6:50 a.m., an Officer was dispatched to the 3000 block of Amherst, in reference to a Burglary of a Building, which had already occurred.

An officer was flagged down in the 3100 block of Amherst in regards to a burglary of a habitation that had already occurred in the 3100 block of University.

An officer was dispatched to a residence located in the 3100 block of Jarrard in regard to a burglary of a habitation that had already occurred.

An officer responded to a burglary of a motor vehicle that occurred in the 3100 block of Amherst Blvd that had already occurred.  An officer was dispatched to the 8400 block of Chimney Rock regarding a subject in Bellaire custody for several open West University Warrants. The officer met with the Bellaire officer and a custody transfer was made. The subject was transported to the West University Place Jail where he was booked without incident.

An officer observed a subject walking along the sidewalk in the 5400 block of Buffalo Speedway who resembled that of an unknown burglary suspect captured on residential surveillance video, from a residential burglary occurring in the area earlier on this date. Contact was made with the individual and while conversing with him, the officer observed an object protruding from the subjects pant pocket. The officer asked about the object and was told by the individual that it was a plastic bag containing an illegal substance known as "Kush" or synthetic marijuana. The subject (Randy Willis) was taken into custody for further investigation related to the possession charge then later released. Further investigation is still needed to determine if this particular individual is the same as the person observed in the burglary incident.

Aug. 27

At 1:16 a.m., an Officer was dispatched to a motor vehicle accident in the 5900 block of Belmont. The Officer arrived on scene and noticed that the vehicle struck two legally parked vehicles in the 5900 block of Belmont. Contact was made with the driver and upon further investigation; the driver was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated and Possession of Marijuana.

At 11:37 a.m., officers were dispatched to 5300 block of Kirby, for a report of a forgery that just occurred.

An Officer was dispatched to the Houston Police Department jail in reference to a subject with outstanding warrants. The subject was taken into custody and booked on the warrants without incident.

At 12:06 p.m., an officer was dispatched to a case of fraud at a residence in the 2700 block of Talbot.

An officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 5700 block of Weslayan with expired registration. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver was arrested for Wrong, Fictitious, Altered, or Obscured Insignia.

Aug. 28

An officer observed a vehicle traveling northbound in the 6200 block of Buffalo Speedway fail to maintain a single lane of traffic. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated.

At 2:54 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in regards of a theft that had already occurred.

An officer observed a vehicle traveling northbound in the 6000 block of Buffalo Speedway with expired registration. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated.

Aug. 29

At 3:53 a.m., an officer observed a vehicle parked in the 6100 block of Community with a shattered drivers window. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that at unknown suspect(s) forced entry into the vehicle and took an item without permission.

An officer was patrolling the 4200 block of Rice and observed a vehicle with the drivers side front window shattered. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the vehicle had been burglarized. A report for Burglary of a Motor Vehicle was generated.

An Officer was patrolling in the 4100 block of Swarthmore when he discovered a motor vehicle with a shattered window. Upon making contact with the owner it was discovered that several items were taken from the vehicle. A report for Burglary of a Motor Vehicle was generated.

Officers responded to a burglary of a motor vehicle that had already occurred in the 4100 block of Swarthmore Street.

At 10:11 a.m., an Officer was dispatched to the 6400 block of Rutgers, in reference to a Burglary of a Motor Vehicle, which had already occurred.

An officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby in regards to a possible fraud incident.

An officer was dispatched to the 4100 block of Tennyson in regards to a Burglary of a Motor Vehicle that had already occurred.

Aug. 30

At 9:06 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby, in regard to a walk-in report of identity theft.

An Officer was dispatched to the 3700 block in reference to an abandoned childs stroller. Officer arrived and retrieved the stroller and placed it into storage for safekeeping.

Aug. 31

An Officer observed a vehicle traveling northbound in the 6300 block of Buffalo Speedway, with a defective headlight. A traffic stop was initiated and upon further investigation, it was discovered the driver was in possession of a useable amount of marijuana. The driver was subsequently released from the scene and enrolled into a Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program.

At 5:13 a.m., and officer was dispatched to the Harris County Sheriff Office IPC to retrieve a prisoner (Waleed Mushtaq) who has warrants with The City of West University Place Police Department. The Prisoner was placed in custody and transported to the West University Place Police Department jail without incident.Business developments in Deer Park include new services and restaurants

Mr. Appliance has opened an office in Deer Park to serve the Port of Houston region. This local appliance repair business, owned by Eric and Tracy Dumatrait (who is also a teacher at Carpenter Elementary School), provides service for residential or commercial kitchen and laundry room appliances. Visit www.MrAppliance.com/Baytown or call 346-787-5335.

The Cuban Cafe has opened at 1625 Center Street in the retail strip behind Iberia Bank. Owned by a local family , it offers authentic Cuban coffees, breakfast and lunch. This is the business second location; the original location is in Baytown. Find the cafe on Facebook or call 832-429-3273.

Hanna Services Social Media Consulting is now open in Deer Park, helping businesses find custom-tailored social media solutions. Owner Will Hanna can be reached at 979-415-4959 or www.hannasocial.com.

Brick Oven Pizza Company has opened at 3601 Center St. next to Planet Fitness. The menu includes pizza, salads, wings and subs.

Lone Star Taco will soon celebrate its five-year anniversary at 3811 Center Street in Deer Park, serving authentic regional Mexican tacos, burritos, salads and sides. Dishes feature names such as the Willie, the Waylon and the William Travis.

The Hampton Inn Deer Park recently received TripAdvisors Certificate of Excellence, awarded to hotels that have received superior traveler reviews on TripAdvisor over the past 12 months.Patriotic music accompanied by the sounds of hammers as the American Legion Post 411 in Conroe hosted its annual free hot dog giveaway on Labor Day, boasting activities for the whole family.

Every year since the Conroe American Legion 411 posts revival approximately six years ago, the members have worked to increase their membership and involve the community in their events on Memorial Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day to name a few.

We try to host this event either on the Fourth of July or Labor Day every year, Steve Merrel, commander of the Conroe American Legion 411, said. Things were a little tight around July 4th so we decided to host our hot dog giveaway on Labor Day this year. Everything that we provide is something we have worked to have donated to make this event great.

The Conroe American Legion 411 post was originally created in 1938 but up until the past six years, has been dormant.. Merrel along with a few other veterans started working six years ago to reorganize the post and have grown from a dozen members to close to 300 currently.

We are doing more stuff for the public; we try to build more things each for them and our veterans, Merrel said.

As they work to grow their public awareness, Merrel stated they are working to have either a public or inter-post event once a month.

We want all of our events to be open to the public and welcome to all veterans in the Conroe and Montgomery County areas to join our group, Merrel said.

In addition to the free hot dogs, Home Depot donated crafts for the children in attendance for them to build bookends, wooden boxes and wooden cars - allowing for them to learn the proper use of a hammer and how to paint.

This was a perfect event to enjoy with the kids especially since we can get them out of the house and keep them entertained with the crafts on a rainy day, Brenda Fleming, a member of the American Legion Post 411 said. Ever since we moved from Georgia, my husband and I joined the American Legion and our grandchildren and their friends have joined us for this Labor Day celebration and created different crafts.

Fleming joked the kids might have enjoyed the crafts more than the free hot dogs.

The posts current home is located within the Outlets of Conroe at 1111 League Line Road in Suite 144, but they are hoping to find a permanent home in the near future.

This post sat dormant for so long that a lot of people didnt even know it existed so were working to bring this ground back to the forefront and provide more events for our community, Merrel said. We pay rent at our current location but would love a permanent home. With that said, we are working toward a new location in the future which would allow for us to create the Ladies' Auxiliary and the Sons of the American Legion which consists of any kid who has a parent who served or is serving in the military and they work on community service. We are accepting any donations to make this dream a reality.

Several representatives with the Wreaths Across America program greeted guests and helped them with the purchase of wreaths for the National Cemetery for the Wreaths Across America program.

For more information or to donate, email Conroe411@yahoo.com.

jennifer.summer@hcnonline.comWhether you spend your time wrapping a microphone as a sound technician or rapping behind it as a performer, Visit Conroe wants your input.

Visit Conroe, the citys Convention and Visitors Bureau, has begun taking steps to certify Conroe as a Music Friendly Community in partnership with The Texas Music Office.

The Texas Music Office is based in the Office of the Governor and has for nearly 30 years served the Texas music industry.

According to information from Shannon Overby, director of Visit Conroe, the Texas Music Office serves as a clearinghouse for the Texas music industry, serving as a liaison between music businesses and government offices and agencies. The agency also publicizes significant developments within the industry and fosters the economic development of Texas music businesses and musicians.

The idea was brought to Overby by Frank Jackson of Smith Music Company which is based in Forth Worth.

Jackson grew up in Montgomery County and graduated from Oak Ridge High School.

Music has been a passion for me ever since I was a kid in high school, Jackson said. I realized I wasnt going to be a rock star so I thought Id help support some.

Jackson has 20-plus years in the local music business.

Music Friendly Community meeting Visit Conroe hosts an open meeting inviting all involved in the music industry in the community on Wednesday, Oct. 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Owen Theatre in downtown Conroe. Brendon Anthony, director of the Texas Music Office in Austin, will be present and explain the "Music Friendly Community' designation and answer questions. Call the Visit Conroe office at 936-522-3500 or email info@visitconroe.com for more information. See More Collapse

His goal in introducing the idea was to unite those involved in the local music community - including anyone from producers and promoters to musicians, road managers, sound technicians and instrument makers.

Were looking for anyone who has anything to do with music, from those who are wrapping a cable to those who are rapping behind the mic, he said.

Overby has been in the Conroe area since October and the element that attracted her and her husband to Conroe was the ability to hear live music every night of the week whether its in the downtown area, on Lake Conroe or at one of the Conroe-area breweries.

This will give us one more tool to be able to market our community, Overby said. This designation ties directly into the ideas that have been presented for the next phase of development in the downtown area.

Cities like Denton, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio have gone through the process to be named a Music Friendly Community.

Conroe would be the only community in the Houston area to have this designation.

Jackson first learned of the program when Fort Worth was named a Music Friendly Community. He knew several of the people who were associated with the Forth Worth board and felt like this designation was a great fit for Conroe.

The idea was first presented to Conroes Tourism Advisory Council. Overby said they received great feedback from the Tourism Advisory Council.

Then the idea was presented to the Conroe City Council in a workshop session recently.

Next an open meeting will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Owen Theatre on Metcalf Street in downtown Conroe. Everyone who is involved in music in Conroe is invited to participate in this meeting.

Brendon Anthony, director of the Texas Music Office, will be at the Oct. 3 meeting to explain the designation and answer questions.

According to Jackson, they area expecting more than 70 people to attend this meeting.

From that point, all it requires is a memorandum of understanding between the city and the Texas Music Office Overby said. The MOU has already been drafted and reviewed by the city attorney. What it says is that the Texas Music Office can market us and we can market ourselves as a Music Friendly Community.

This designation comes at no extra cost to the city.

An advisory council will be appointed to represent the Conroe community as a Music Friendly Community.

The CVB will act as a liaison between the Texas Music Office and this community. Twice a year the CVB will be responsible for updating a database of all the people in the community who are involved in music and upload it to the state database.

According to Overby, the finalization of the MOU is the end of the formality part and Conroe and the Texas Music Office can begin their partnership as soon as the city signs off on the MOU.

This will make Conroe more attractive for artists and offer more opportunities to expand or add on to the facilities and venues that we already have, Overby said. This has got some great potential.

For more information about the Texas Music Office visit https://gov.texas.gov/music. Call the Visit Conroe office at 936-522-3500 or email info@visitconroe.com for more information on Visit Conroe.Less than 24 hours after a serious two-vehicle crash involving an 18-wheeler truck and sedan at the intersection of Texas 249 and Woodtrace Blvd., the Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constables Office arrested another driver for excessive speeding.

On Thursday, the Precinct 5 Constables Office along with Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were called out to the scene of a crash where it was reported a sedan reportedly pulled out in front of an 18-wheeler truck.

The driver of the car was traveling eastbound on Woodtrace Blvd. and attempted to cross over State 249, failing to yield to the right-of-way of the truck, DPS Sgt. Erik Burse said. The car was t-boned by the truck and the driver was transported from the scene to Memorial Hermann-The Woodlands in very critical condition.

STRATEGIC MERGING? I cut in line on the freeway. So should you. [Opinion]

The following day, DPS troopers visited the hospital to check on the driver who was reported to be doing much better and recovering after suffering a few broken ribs.

On Friday, Precinct 5 deputies patrolling the area stopped a 20-year-old driver for traveling 103 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone. That driver was arrested and charged with misdemeanor reckless driving which carries a punishment up to 180 days in jail and a fine of $2,000.

After receiving multiple complaints regarding speeders on Texas 249 and because of these past two incidents, the Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constables office will increase their presence and traffic enforcement in this particular area.

STATS: How many drunken-driving crashes happened in your city in 2017

The Precinct 5 Constables Office will continue to vigorously enforce traffic laws in their precinct to make the roads safer for everyone traveling on them, Precinct 5 Chief Chris Jones stated. The intersection has been riddled with several major crashes recently with two this past week alone. The Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constables Office has stepped up enforcement in this area and will continue to do so going forward.

jennifer.summer@hcnonline.comAfter repaying a $7.8 million loan to Montgomery County, the Montgomery County Toll Road Authority is adding $110,000 in interest to that payment according to information from MCTRAs financial advisor.

Terrell Palmer, president of Post Oak Municipal Advisors, provided the amount to the MCTRA board, which is made up of the four county commissioners and county judge, last week. The board unanimously approved the amount to be paid to the county.

According to Palmer, with the repayment to the county, no county tax dollars have been used or pledged for the payment of the revenue bonds. Revenue bonds, unlike general obligation bonds, are repaid from the toll revenues raised by a project.

County Judge Craig Doyal said the project would help with the increasing traffic congestion in west Montgomery County. Doyal noted the county originally earmarked $10 million for MCTRA but the authority only used the $7.8 million.

Not only did we refund the taxpayer dollars involved, we came back with interest, he said. Montgomery County taxpayers will realize (get) at least $110,000 in interest and there will be no Montgomery County tax dollars in that project at all.

MCTRA is constructing a 3.6-mile portion of the Texas 249 toll road, a $76 million project, which is expected to open to traffic on Jan. 1, 2020, and net about $4.4 million that first year. The entirety of the project is referred to as the Aggie Expressway because it will connect Houston to College Station.

The project is being funding through revenues from tolls paid by motorists who use the toll road.

Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack, who has been a vocal opponent of the county building a toll road, asked County Auditor Phyllis Martin to confirm the county has been repaid in full. Martin said the $7.8 million has been repaid but there is an additional $500,000 to be repaid that was used for a toll road study during former County Judge Alan B. Sadlers tenure.

Doyal has maintained the Texas Department of Transportation does not have the funds to build the road and the road has always been planned as a toll road.

According to a traffic and revenue study, tolls will be $1.25 at the main lane toll gantry and 50 cents at the ramps. The toll will be escalated annually by 2 percent per year. The first toll increase would be .025 cents.

cdominguez@hcnonline.comHouston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital has been named one of Americas top 100 community hospitals by Beckers Hospital Review, a national trade publication.

Becker's Hospital Review compiles an annual list of leading community hospitals using data from a wide range of outside ranking and ratings organizations, including IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals, iVantage Health Analytics and The Chartis Center for Rural Health's Top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals, CareChex ratings, Leapfrog Group grades, Healthgrades awards and CMS stars.

The compilation recognizes hospitals that have achieved outstanding clinical quality and operational excellence while having a significant economic impact on their local communities.

This honor is special because it incorporates such a broad array of input from some of the nations most respected health care organizations, said Chris Siebenaler, CEO, Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital. To be included, a hospital must demonstrate excellence across a wide range of metrics and be a leader in the marketplace. This recognition is truly a testament to the commitment and dedication of our physicians, nurses and hospital staff and the work they do every day on behalf of our patients and our community.

Houston Methodist Sugar Land is one of just five Texas hospitals named to the 2018 list, and the only hospital in Fort Bend to be honored.

For more information about Houston Methodist Sugar Land, go to houstonmethodist.org/sugarland or call 281-274-7000. Visit our Facebook page at fb.com/methodistsugarland for the latest news, events and information.Needville Independent School District trustees unanimously approved the 2018-19 budget and 2019 property tax rate at a special Aug. 29 meeting.

The tax rate will drop slightly from $1.54 per $100 valuation to the districts calculated rollback rate of $1.539523. Assistant Superintendent of Finance Dovie Peschel explained that school districts cant set tax rates higher than their rollback rates.

However, Peschel said the average taxable value of a home in Needville ISD has risen from $175,708 last year to $187,075 this year.

Despite the negligible drop in the tax rate, the increase in property values translates to an increase of about $174 for the average homeowner, Peschel said.

I am so pleased that the NISD Board of Trustees has not had to increase our tax rate for the past five years, Peschel said. The last three years' tax rates have remained steady.

She said the boards conservative spending approach has allowed the district to remain financially sound, and the $30,398,021 balanced budget includes approximately $1.9 million allocated for construction, including renovations to the two-story section of the old high school for administrative offices.

Peschel said the budget should cover all of our needs for the 2018-19 school year, including instructional supplies and equipment, facility maintenance, the purchase of another new school bus, and salary increases for staff.

We were able to fund the Needville Middle School expansion this summer from cash reserves, she added.

Superintendent Curtis Rhodes praised Peschel and her staff, as well as trustees, for doing a great job and maintaining the conservative management we are known for, all the while providing a great environment for students and staff.

The state of Texas does not make it easy on public school districts, he added. It is now only funding about 35 percent of the total budget, which puts a burden on the local taxpayers; yet lawmakers continue to increase standards of accountability while expecting all public school districts to do more with less.WASHINGTON - Hours before the start of hearings on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, the lawyer for former president George W. Bush turned over 42,000 pages of documents from the nominee's service in the Bush White House, angering Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who issued what is certain to be a futile call to delay the proceedings.

"Not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow," Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted Monday evening.

Taylor Foy, a spokesman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, responded that "our review team will be able to complete its examination of this latest batch in short order, before tomorrow's hearing begins."

The hearings are scheduled for 9.30 Tuesday morning, with opening statements by committee members. No information was released on the subject matter of the documents and Bush's lawyer asked that they be kept from the public, made available only to committee members and staff.

Kavanaugh, appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by Bush, served the former president in the White House Counsel's Office from 2001 to 2003 and as staff secretary from 2003 to 2006.

William Burck, a lawyer representing Bush, said in a letter to Grassley that the 5,148 documents totaling 42,390 pages retrieved from the National Archives were to be treated as "Committee Confidential," with access limited to Judiciary Committee members and staff with no public availability, at least for the time being.

In the letter to Grassley, Burck said lawyers working on behalf of the former president would determine at a later date which of the documents are "appropriate for public release."

The Bush legal team had already turned over about 415,000 pages to the committee, with about 147,000 of them withheld from public view. President Donald Trump has claimed executive privilege to prevent release of more than 101,921 pages of records from Kavanaugh's tenure in the White House. Kavanaugh, as "an associate and senior associate White House counsel, dealt with some of the most sensitive communications of any White House official," including deliberations on judicial candidates, Burck said in a letter to the committee Friday.

The level of production of documents from Kavanaugh's White House days, both in the counsel's office and as Bush's staff secretary, has been a central point of attack for Democrats jousting with the White House and Republicans over the Trump's second Supreme Court nominee. Demands for documents from his staff secretary service have been rejected by Republicans.

Now-Justice Elena Kagan was the last Supreme Court nominee to have served in a White House. Christopher Kang, deputy counsel under Obama, told The Washington Post that Obama did not invoke privilege on any documents involving her work.

"Republicans know this has been the least transparent SCOTUS process in history," Schumer tweeted, "and the hearings should be delayed until we can fully review Judge Kavanaugh's records."

Foy countered that the volume of documents turned over dwarfs "the total Executive Branch material for the last five confirmed nominees combined."

The hearings are expected to last four days, so staffers and members will have more than a few hours to review the documents before any vote is taken on sending the nomination to the full Senate.The Houston areas hard-luck streak of soggy holidays continued Monday as storms drenched the region with as much as 10 inches of rain in some places, particularly along the coast, as flash flood watches were extended into Tuesday as more moisture is expected.

Just as on the Fourth of July, when downpours forced the city of Houston to cancel its outdoor celebration, Labor Day was mostly a washout for picnics and yard games. In Galveston, shin-deep water forced businesses on the citys main thoroughfare to close and detoured cruise ship passengers on a zig-zag route to leave the island.

Houston avoided the heaviest rainfall and its bayous, though swollen, stayed in their banks. But with the ground now saturated, rain forecast for the rest of the week could test the regions flood infrastructure, which remains weakened from Hurricane Harvey a year ago.

Its not going to take very long to see some high water locations and ponding, said Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for Harris Countys emergency management office.

About the only fortuitous news was that Tropical Storm Gordon, churning in the Gulf of Mexico west of Florida, appears it will spare Texas as it tracks toward Louisiana and Mississippi.

By mid-morning, water covered The Strand in Galveston, a five-block strip of shops and restaurants. Many remained closed until it receded. Further west, floodwaters formed a virtual moat around the Old City cemetery on Broadway, and a beauty supply shop laid down sand bags at the store entrance.

A high tide exacerbated the flooding, which was 6 to 10 inches deep in places, said Public Works Director Kyle Hockersmith. He called in his entire 86-person crew to barricade some streets and prepare for more rain in coming days.

"There's two locations where the flooding is severe enough to where smaller, low-profile vehicles will probably flood out," Hockersmith said. "It's all hands on deck."

At 11:30 a.m., bartender Bhuji Garcia waited for his first customer of the day at Murphy's Pub on 22nd Street, a block from The Strand. Each time a vehicle passed in the floodwaters, its wake lapped against the outside wall of the building.

"Anybody bold enough to come in through this, I'll take care of them," Garcia said.

Flooding closed much of Harborside Drive, the main route on the north side of the island, so Galveston officials directed disembarking cruise ship passengers on a different route to safely reach the mainland. Passengers trying to depart on cruises faced other problems.

Carmen Martinez of Houston made a parking reservation for her five-day cruise to Cozumel, but the lot was flooded. Dry lots offered only daily parking, leaving her scrambling for hours before her 4 p.m. departure. She made the cruise only after Carnival delayed its embarkation.

Shuttles from the parking lots to the cruise terminal were blocked by floodwaters and dumped passengers  and their luggage  blocks away, said David Robertson, co-owner of Sharkys Tavern on 25th Street.

People were dragging their suitcases in the water, Robertson said. I said hey, throw them in the back of my truck and Ill take you down there.

Over three hours, Robertson estimates he ferried 50 passengers in his Ford F-150 through water that was two feet deep in places. Others with high-water vehicles joined in the improvised free taxi service.

Wet forecast

A flash flood watch remained in place through noon on Tuesday for Chambers, Brazoria, Galveston and Matagorda counties. Slow-moving showers and thunderstorms could produce 4 to 5 inches of rain in some areas, causing additional flooding, according to the National Weather Service. The 10-day forecast for Houston includes a chance of rain each day.

Meteorologists expect Tropical Storm Gordon, the seventh named storm of the 2018 hurricane season and the first to enter the Gulf of Mexico, to miss the Texas coast.

Gordon whipped South Florida on Monday and is expected to strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall late Tuesday in Mississippi and Louisiana.

The National Weather Service has issued a hurricane warning from the mouth of the Pearl River eastward to the Alabama-Florida border.

Sanchez said Harris Countys emergency management is monitoring the storm closely, and is prepared to make hurricane preparations should Gordon juke forecasters and track west.

Theres a pretty good consensus on the forecast, Sanchez said. But wed be ready to pivot if it comes to that.

Staff writer Nick Powell contributed reporting.

zach.despart@chron.comA Houston woman was rushed to Herman Memorial after she was reportedly hit by gun fire during a drive-by shooting Monday in south central Houston, police said.

Around 7:43 p.m., Houston police were dispatched to a home in the 2500 block of Briley to investigate reports of a drive-by shooting. The victim, who was shot in the thigh, was alert when officers arrived and is expected to survive, police said.Near the beginning of each service at Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Church in The Woodlands, The Rev. Sarah Prickett strikes a match at the front altar in the churchs sanctuary.

We light the chalice, the symbol of our Unitarian Universalist faith, as a beacon of hope for all who seek justice, dignity and compassion, and in celebration of the life of truth and meaning that we share together, the congregation will say aloud together as Prickett transfers the flame from the match to the churchs chalice.

The flaming chalice, Prickett explained, is one of the most prominent symbols for the religion.

The communal message is that we are a light for truth, a place to be loved and a place where we help each other, Prickett said.

The chalice can have many manifestations; for example, it can be made out of wrought iron or be a clay pot, a Dixie cup or a silver bowl. Typically, however, it is a footed bowl with a stand that holds a candle or oil lamp.

The chalices we light in our congregations are all different, just like each of our congregations are all different, Prickett said.

It can also represent different things, such as the presence of justice and compassion or the search for a deep truth about the universe. However, Prickett said it has only been in the last 20 years or so that Unitarian Universalist churches began lighting chalices during services.

You might see all kinds of things (at a Unitarian Universalist service), but the thing you are most likely to see is a chalice, Prickett said.

According to Prickett, the chalice dates back to 1941, when the Unitarian Service Committee was working in Europe during World War II. As committee members were trying to rescue those stuck in Nazi-occupied territory, they needed official papers. So, a chalice was designed to be a seal on those official papers that represented ancient Greek, Roman and Christian traditions in addition to the light of truth and compassion.

The traditional chalice design has two rings around it with a slightly offset middle flame. The two rings represent the religions history: Unitarian Universalism is a result of the merging of two traditions in 1961.

Unitarianism is the belief that there is no Trinity  the father, son and the holy ghost  and instead only one singular God. Universalism is the belief that a loving god would not condemn anyone to suffer for eternity.

Today, the religion is non-creedal, meaning that members dont have one specific doctrine they adhere to. Rather, the belief they share is that everyone is here to make the world a better place to bring more justice and compassion.

We come out of a Christian tradition, but we also incorporate Buddhist teachings, Humanist teachings and prophetic words of men and women from all religions and no religions, Prickett said.

While Prickett joined the staff at Northwoods just last month, the church celebrated its 40th anniversary earlier this year. They have about 150 members.

I think the congregation is proud of having achieved a 40-year milestone. We have people with us now that are part of the original endeavor, and that gives the feeling of continuity, Prickett said. Its nice to look back on our history, but we also know that most of our history is ahead of us.BEIRUT - Russian warplanes in Syria bombed the country's final rebel stronghold Tuesday, a monitoring group said, ending a weeks-long period of uneasy calm there and raising fears that an all-out offensive would follow.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recorded more than a dozen strikes around the northern city of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province. In photographs from the area, plumes of dust and smoke could be seen rising from the edge of a residential district.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the arrest of one of his top critics over a failed mutiny more than a decade ago, in what observers see as his latest move to silence political opponents.

In a proclamation dated Aug. 31 that was published in the Manila Times' classifieds Tuesday, Duterte revoked an amnesty granted to Senator Antonio Trillanes for 2003 and 2007 coup attempts against former leader Gloria Arroyo. The order said the military and police should "employ all lawful means" to apprehend the former naval officer so he can be detained and stand trial.

Duterte is traveling in Israel and Jordan. In a briefing live-streamed from Jerusalem, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the amnesty was only granted because of Trillanes' close ties to Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino. Roque said the decision was "based on laws and facts."

Trillanes told reporters on Tuesday that amnesty is an act of Congress that can't be revoked through executive order.

"This is a clear case of political persecution," he said in a televised briefing. "It should be clear to everyone that Mr. Duterte is a dictator. He doesn't respect the institutions."

Trillanes becomes the second senator and fierce Duterte critic to face arrest after Senator Leila de Lima was detained in February 2017 on drug-trafficking charges, which she has denied. Days before the May 2016 election, Trillanes filed a plunder complaint against Duterte, who was then Davao City mayor.

Trillanes tried twice but failed to unseat Arroyo, who is now speaker of the House of Representatives and a Duterte ally. In July 2003, Trillanes led more than 300 junior military officers in taking over a hotel in Manila's business district, but surrendered later that day. In 2007, he tried a second coup attempt by seizing another luxury hotel district but it was similarly quashed by the armed forces.

Trillanes' amnesty was granted in 2011 by Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino, leading to his release from detention. He won a seat in the Senate in 2007 while campaigning from detention, and was re-elected in 2013.

Duterte's order said the amnesty was revoked because he didn't file an application for pardon and never expressed guilt for the crimes committed, as required by law. Trillanes on Tuesday denied that he violated any terms of the amnesty.

"This is a blatant attack on the critical and political opposition," said Antonio La Vina, a professor at Ateneo de Manila University.

Trillanes' amnesty was void from the start and he may be arrested anytime, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a televised briefing on Tuesday, adding that Trillanes should ask Duterte if he wanted clemency.

Duterte said a year ago that he would go after Trillanes, claiming that the lawmaker was bent on destroying him. "I will destroy him or he will destroy me. That's the way it goes," Duterte said Sept. 9 after Trillanes alleged that Duterte's son Paolo was involved in drug smuggling.

Trillanes said he would ask the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of Duterte's order, and will remain within the Senate premises, where he can't be arrested, until the issue is resolved.

Duterte last month named a new Supreme Court chief justice three months after his allies ousted former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, another vocal critic of his drug war, on the grounds that her appointment was illegal.

"We are living in a de facto martial law environment," Trillanes said on Tuesday, adding that Duterte's order come without a valid arrest warrant. "Mr. Duterte, someday, there will a reckoning for you."

--With assistance from Bloomberg's Cecilia Yap and Ian Sayson.Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant, envisions a global expansion into urban areas. It plans to open multiple stores in central Tokyo and eventually expand into Osaka, Ikea Japan K.K. President Helene von Reis said in an interview with The Japan News in Tokyo on Wednesday.

"Tokyo is so big, of course one shop is not enough. We will do many shops in Tokyo," the company's Japan chief explained. "Then we will move into Osaka. We have to start first and understand how this works in Tokyo." Earlier in the day, she said at a press conference, "We are working very hard to find the right sites in Tokyo ... hopefully I will be able to give you some good news before this year is over."The liberal insurgency inside the Democratic Party claimed another victory, with Boston city councilor Ayanna Pressley defeating veteran Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., on Tuesday with a message of generational change.

"You saw what I saw: That these times demanded more from our leaders and our party," Pressley told cheering supporters in Boston. "It's not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power. It matters who those Democrats are."

Capuano acknowledged the district's desires in remarks after early returns showed him losing his old political base to the challenger.

"Clearly, the district wanted a lot of change," Capuano said. "Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman."

Pressley, 44, is set to become the first black woman to represent any part of New England in Congress, as Republicans are running no candidate in Massachusetts' 7th Congressional District. Capuano, 66, who first won the seat in 1998, struggled to keep up with Pressley as she argued that a young and majority-nonwhite district needed a fresh voice in Congress.

Capuano becomes the second Democrat, and the fourth member of Congress, to lose a renomination battle in 2018, after the surprise defeat of Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Two other Massachusetts Democrats, Reps. Stephen Lynch and Richard Neal, easily defeated female challengers who ran to their left.

Republican voters, meanwhile, nominated Gov. Charlie Baker for a second term and picked state Rep. Geoff Diehl to challenge Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D. Democrats selected former state finance secretary Jay Gonzalez as their candidate for governor and were wrapping up a 10-way contest for the right to succeed Rep. Niki Tsongas, D.

But the Capuano-Pressley race, which split Massachusetts Democrats and national liberals alike, had drawn the most attention. Capuano has been one of the House's most reliably left-wing votes, especially on issues of war and defense funding. Pressley, a veteran Capitol Hill staffer long seen as a political star, had argued that she could lead "a movement" from the seat while Capuano was content to simply vote the right way.

Polling found a consistent lead for Capuano, who locked up endorsements from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and most local labor unions. But Warren and some other Democratic leaders stayed neutral in the race, while the Boston Globe and a number of local liberal groups backed Pressley. The challenger got a burst of attention after Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley with a similar message.

"Representation does matter," Pressley said in an interview while campaigning last week. "Many would just say: Your job is the vote. I'm saying that your vote is just one part of the job."

The primary flummoxed national Democrats, who saw a rising star in Pressley but a reliable and scandal-free congressman in Capuano. The congressman, who had run as an insurgent candidate himself when first winning the seat, had opposed the Iraq War, backed the Affordable Care Act and opposed efforts to deregulate banks.

But Pressley ran to Capuano's left on a few key issues, calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and for restoring voting rights to prisoners. She also gained an advantage over Capuano when the congressman groused that Democrats were becoming "balkanized" by racial identity.

"This is not just a blue wave; this is a movement that's coming to Congress," Ocasio-Cortez said in June at an appearance with Pressley, before either had won her race.

"When we had the Women's March, they thought that was a moment," Pressley said at the event. "We had signs that said: 'Today we run, tomorrow we march.' And they didn't believe it!"

Republicans never intended to contest the 7th District, which gave Hillary Clinton 84.1 percent of its vote in the 2016 presidential race and was previously represented by Democratic legends Tip O'Neill and John F. Kennedy. But the race to challenge Warren was crowded; Republicans spent a combined $8.4 million on the primary, even though polling has shown Warren ahead by 30 points or more against any of them.

Diehl was best known for helping to roll back a gas tax, and his campaign has sold Trump-style hats with the slogan "Make Warren Teach Again," promising to send her back to academia.

"There's a path to win here," Diehl said in an interview last week. "There's a Rust Belt here in Massachusetts, and people there feel the same way that people in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan felt in 2016."

Republicans had been far more confident at the top of the ballot, where Baker, a moderate who refused to support President Trump, easily defeated Scott Lively, an anti-gay-rights activist who pledged to become "the most pro-Trump governor in America."

The rest of Tuesday's primaries saw the same dynamic play out as it has elsewhere to mixed results, with candidates on the left challenging Democrats seen as too willing to compromise or too indebted to donors. In Massachusetts's 3rd Congressional District, which Tsongas has represented since 2007, 10 Democrats were competing to represent an increasingly diverse and liberal electorate; Trump won just 35.4 percent of its 2016 vote.

Dan Koh, a former chief of staff to Walsh, the Boston mayor, raised more than $3 million - more than any of the state's incumbent members of the House, except for Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D. But that hardly cleared the field.

Rufus Gifford, a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, and Lori Trahan, a former chief of staff to former congressman Marty Meehan, each raised more than $1 million. Juana Matias, who would be New England's first Latina member of Congress, picked up the endorsement of Justice Democrats and other liberal groups; Alexandra Chandler, an intelligence analyst who would be the first transgender member of Congress, lagged in cash but attracted national attention.

The winner of Tuesday's primary will face Republican Rick Green, the CEO of an online auto parts company who has partially self-funded his campaign. But despite Baker's popularity, national Republicans have not prioritized any of Massachusetts's House races, and they have no candidates in four of the state's nine districts.Almost two years ago, Rosemary Keji fled her village amid gunshots and screams, one of millions of South Sudanese escaping civil war. After returning last month, she's planting potatoes beside her wrecked house in Yei River state and vowing never to leave again.

The 28-year-old mother of two is one of a steady trickle of refugees coming back from neighboring countries after August's preliminary deal to end almost a half-decade of conflict. It's a sign of fresh hope that the latest peace bid will hold and the world's third-largest refugee crisis after Syria and Afghanistan may have turned a corner.

Refugees have arrived in the "tens of thousands," said Santino Bol Muoter, deputy chairman of the state-run Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, who's working with aid agencies to get an accurate count of people coming back. "What we are seeing are the people who are assessing the ground and establishing something before the rest can follow them."

Large-scale returns would mark a turnaround for the oil-rich East African nation, which in December 2013 plunged into a conflict that's claimed tens of thousands of lives and seen both sides accused of atrocities in violence that's often had an ethnic dimension. By July, almost 2.5 million South Sudanese were sheltering in neighboring countries including Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia, straining relief efforts. South Sudan has an estimated 12 million citizens.

Returning remains a big gamble. There's plenty of lingering mistrust between President Salva Kiir's government and rebels led by his former deputy, Riek Machar, according to Jacob Dut Chol, a political science lecturer at the University of Juba in the capital. The leaders signed an initial power-sharing deal in early August amid international pressure and other warring parties may feel left out, complicating its success, he said.

Kiir and Machar's engagement "has to be very high with a lot of commitment because if someone comes up to cause a rift between the two leaders we will see a scenario of 2016 at play between them again," he said by phone, referring to the failure of a previous attempt at peace.

Amnesty International is also casting doubt on the country's safety. In a report released Tuesday, the London-based group said South Sudanese authorities have arbitrarily arrested and tortured people, causing the deaths of some, even as they made repeated promises to release detainees. Amnesty has previously documented at least 20 deaths in detention between February 2014 and December 2016.

Those caring for the refugees say it may be too early to come back home. While there have been some "spontaneous" returns due to the pact, the country isn't safe enough to recommend repatriations, said Eujin Byun, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Refugee Agency in South Sudan.

Byaruhanga Godfrey, an official dealing with refugee issues for the government of Uganda -- the largest host with about a million people -- said they haven't been advising returns and those choosing to do so are acting on their own initiative.

That's what Moses Ojok, a 37-year-old farmer from the southern state of Torit, is doing. He fled to Uganda in early 2017 after armed men stormed his village, killing his elder brother. But he says life in a crowded refugee camp has been tough for his family.

"The solution is to return home where there's space for us all to work together," he said by phone from Pajok, his hometown. "If this peace will hold, then life is going to become better for us all."

Any enactment of the power-sharing deal won't happen until May at the earliest. Machar's rebels last week refused to sign the latest version of the pact, before relenting while submitting their reservations to regional mediators. Kiir and Machar are due to sign the final accord in Ethiopia this month.

It'll be their second attempt to form a transitional government since the war began. The first bid failed weeks into its enactment about two years ago as deadly fighting flared between factions in Juba and Machar eventually fled into exile. The violence spread to the once-peaceful Greater Equatoria region in the south, sparking the largest refugee exodus.

In addition, more than 1.8 million South Sudanese have fled their homes to seek shelter elsewhere in the country.

The chairwoman of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka, has said many returning refugees, especially in Equatoria, have found their homes and land occupied by other ethnic groups.

"Many feel frustrated at the government inaction of return of land and homes to the original owners," Sooka told reporters in Juba on Aug. 24. It's "going to be a major challenge in the country as peace implementation begins to take place," she said.

While some refugees may be making only brief visits to check the situation, Keji in Yei River is confident the lessons have been learned. She and son and daughter fled as gunmen went house to house in her village near Yei town, the regional capital, in December 2016. She returned from Uganda on Aug. 10, five days after the warring sides made their initial agreement.

"We have heard the message that the leaders have signed peace and won't be fighting," she said by phone. "I don't think we need to run again."Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made it clear that she believes districts have the flexibility to arm teachers using federal funds provided under the Every Student Succeeds Act . She said the department has no plans to issue guidance on the topic, or take action to encourage school districts to use ESSA funds this way. President Donald Trump has said arming teachers would make schools safer.

DeVoss statement opens up some key questions. Will Congress pass new legislation that bars states and districts from using the funds this way? And how many states will actually allow their districts to use federal funds this way?

Will Congress make changes to the law? Dont bet on it.

Democrats, including two ESSA authors, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., disagree with DeVos contention that ESSA already allows states and districts to use federal funds, provided under the flexible $1.1 billion Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, to arm teachers. They say that flies in the face of the language in the law defining drug and violence prevention programs as creating school environments that are free of weapons.

And Scott wants to pass new legislation to make sure its crystal clear that arming teachers with federal funds is prohibited.

If Secretary DeVos refuses to adhere to congressional intent and the administrations own policy regarding the purchase of firearms for school security, Congress must make clear that no taxpayer money can be used to arm Americas teachers, he said in a statement .

Murray is on the same page. She sent her own letter to that effect .

But making that change through a new law would likely need support from Republicans, and its not clear that they are interested.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the chairwoman of the House education committee, agrees with DeVos take that ESSA leaves this choice up to local districts.

Chairwoman Foxx believes Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants were intentionally designed to give states and local school districts the ability to determine and implement policies to serve their communities, according to a committee statement. Parents, students, and community members can and should make their views about school safety plans known to local leaders.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education committee, is on the same page.



Im not a fan of arming teachers, but the federal law says that states, not the federal government, should make these decisions regarding school safety and thats who I believe should make these decisions, he said in a statement. Specifically, the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 continues the Title IV block grant practice of giving to states, not the U.S. Education Secretary, authority to spend federal dollars in a way that creates conditions promoting school safety.

How many states may allow districts to arm teachers with federal funds? Thats tough to say right now.

Clearly, theres some interest out there. DeVos and her team have heard from districts in Texas and Oklahoma asking whether they can use funding under the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, a flexible block grant, to arm educators.

That pot of money, better known as Title IV of the law, can be used for a range of purposes, including arts education, Advanced Placement course fees, foreign language classes, computer, school safety, and more.

Currently, 19 states allow anyone with permission from school authorities to carry a weapon on K-12 school grounds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures . They are: Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Vermont.

And nine states specifically list school employees as exempt from their bans on firearms on K-12 school grounds, according to NCSL: Idaho, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

We reached out to all of those states to see if they plan to allow local districts to arm educators using federal funds.

Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, and Nevada each said that none of their districts had asked the question at this point. Richard Woods, the Georgia state chief, doesnt support using federal funds to arm teachers, but would leave the decision up to local districts, his spokeswoman said. (So far, no district in Georgia has asked about this either.) Texas does not plan to issue guidance to its districts on the topic, a spokeswoman said.

Utah hasnt gotten the question from any of its districts. Any decision would be up to the state board, which has yet to weigh in, said Mark Peterson, a spokesman.

Wyoming passed a law in 2017 allowing districts to arm school staff. But so far, only two districts have decided to take advantage of that law. So far, no district has asked whether it can use federal funding to purchase firearms or provide training to teachers, so the state hasnt yet come up with a policy in this area, said a spokeswoman for the Wyoming Department of Education.

And Missouri will allow its districts to use the funds to arm educators, if thats something its districts want to do, said Nancy Bowles, a spokeswoman for the state education department. Missouri is a local-control state, she said. If the federal government did not restrict the funds, Missouri districts would be able to use the money as they see fit. So far, no district has asked about using ESSA funds for the purpose, she said.

New York state leaders, though, are adamantly opposed to the idea, MaryEllen Elia, the commissioner, and her higher education counterpart, Chancellor Betty Rosa said in a statement.

Putting guns in classrooms with students is misguided and dangerous, they said. The U.S. Department of Education should not allow our federal education dollars to pay for weapons when that funding is intended for the teaching and learning of our children.

Arming educators isnt allowed under Connecticuts ESSA plan, said Commissioner Dianna R. Wentzell in a statement. She and Gov. Dannel Malloy sent DeVos a statement opposing the idea of using federal funding to put guns in schools.

Any real and serious discussion around school safety must focus on creating positive climates where students feel welcome, safe and ready to learn, not introducing dangerous weapons into our schools, Wentzell said.

In March, the Massachusetts Board of Education approved a resolution against arming teachers. Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, has taken other steps on school safety.

And Alaska is also prohibiting the use of federal money to arm teachers, for now.

No school districts in Alaska have currently asked for permission to use federal funds to arm teachers, said a spokeswoman for the states department of education. At this time, the department would not allow federal funds to be used to pay for the arming of teachers.

Were still waiting to hear back from other states and will update this post when we do.

Clarification: This post has been clarified to better reflect Georgia state chief Richard Woods views on using federal funds to arm teachers.

Julie Smith, right, a 3rd grade teacher at Hudson Elementary School, loads a magazine for her instructor during a concealed carry class for teachers in June at Adventure Tactical Training in Farmer City, Ill. The class was designed to help teachers feel less vulnerable in the wake of a number of recent school shootings across the country.

--David Proeber/The Pantagraph via AP

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.Educate Midland has released its baseline report, which serves as a starting point for our community narrative on education.

The report offers data  some new and much of it already seen  that will show how Midland ISD students are performing from cradle to career. It uses academic performance statistics that appear to go back to the 2015-16 school year, a time when Midland ISD appeared to hit rock bottom in terms of its academic performance rankings. It was around that time that certain progress measures showed Midland ISD ranked 199th of the largest 200 districts in the state (only Ector County ISD rated worse).

The report indicates that Midland ISD had 24,642 students, which at the time was around three-quarters of the student population inside Midland County, according to TEA statistics. Last week Midland ISD reported a student population of more than 26,000.

Other education indicators include starting points for kindergarten readiness, third-grade reading, fourth-grade math, Algebra I, high school graduation, college/career readiness and post-secondary enrollment.

This community-owned report will initiate dialogue and drive community action, and in the coming years, we will measure the progress of our story, the report states.

The 54 percent of Midland ISD students determined to be kindergarten ready was 5 percentage points behind the state of Texas average. The report states that 90 percent of a childs brain is developed in his or her first five years, and that what children learn before kindergarten can predict how well they do for th remainder of their school years. The community goal is to increase the number of kindergarten-ready students to 70 percent by 2019-2020.

The 66 percent of students who reached the passing standard for third-grade reading was 5 percentage points behind the state average. The reports states that 1 in 4 students who fall behind in reading by the end of the third grade stay behind for the rest of their time in school. The goal here is to increase the percentage of students proficient in third-grade reading to 80 percent.

The 63 percent of Midland ISD students who achieved the passing standard for fourth-grade math was 10 percentage points behind the state average. The report states that a student who does not succeed at this level will have trouble in math for the next four years. The goal here is to increase the percentage of students proficient in math by fourth grade to 80 percent.

MISD students reached the Algebra I standard at a 78 percent clip. That was 4 percent points behind the state average. The report calls algebra a gatekeeper subject and states that students who master Algebra I in middle school succeed in complicated high school-level math. The goal here is to increase the percentage of students proficient in Algebra I to 85 percent.

An 88.5 high school graduation rate is less than 1 percentage point behind the state average. High school graduates make at least $10,000 more annually than individuals who did not complete high school, according to report. The goal here is to increase the graduation rate to 95 percent.

College- and career-readiness is one of the areas where MISD students trail the most. The 62.1 percent rate trails the state average by nearly 14 percentage points. The report states that 58 percent of students who do not have to repeat coursework from high school end up earning a bachelors degree. By comparison, 17 percent of students who must catch up in reading end up getting a bachelors degree. The goal here is increase the percentage of college- and career-ready graduates to 80 percent.

The last indicator is college enrollment, which is the only one that MISD students out-performed the state average (53 percent to 49 percent). The report states that by 2020, 65 percent of jobs in the U.S. will require some post-high school education. It also states that two-year programs and technical certifications can provide a student an edge in the economy. The goal here is to increase the college enrollment rate to 65 percent.

Of adults (25 years and older) in Midland County, 17 percent did not finish high school, according to the report.

The report states that what occurred in the past impacts today and what happens today will matter in the future.

(We) will continuously aim for excellence as a unified front to make sure all students eventually achieve the education and career opportunities they desire and deserve.A man died Sunday morning after an unknown man dressed as a security guard dropped him off at a hospital in southwest Houston.

The victim arrived at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital in the 7600 block of Beechnut around 6:30 a.m. with an apparent gunshot wound, police said. He died a short time later, and authorities have not yet identified him.A series of brutal slayings in the Houston area over the past three months brought law enforcement together Tuesday in a public show of force against MS-13, a notoriously violent transnational street gang.

The spate of ruthless slayings, and several older homicides including two pending cases where the death penalty is being sought, thrusts Houston into the national debate over border enforcement as President Donald Trump has repeatedly held up crime by MS-13 gang members as a corrosive effect of illegal immigration.

On Tuesday, law officers from local, state and federal agencies gathered with prosecutors to announce the arrests of nearly a dozen alleged members of the MS-13 street gang. Four of those are accused of hacking a confidential informant to death with a machete in Cullinan Park in southeast Houston on June 6.

The grisly slaying was one of the five deaths since June in the Houston area resulting in the arrests of more than 20 MS-13 gang members and their associates, officials said. In two of the gang-related killings, authorities recovered two victims killed at separate times but buried within a hundred yards of each other in a wooded area near southwest Houston.

ALSO: D.A. to seek death penalty against 2nd alleged MS-13 gang member in informant slaying

"We all recognize that we have to bring a stop to this type of violence that's occurring not just in our city but in cities across the country," said Mayor Sylvester Turner. "Houston will not let any illegal, dangerous gang continue to threaten the peace and reputation of our city."

At a downtown press conference, Turner, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and others addressed the brutal slayings and the continuing gang violence.

"(These suspects) are absolutely the worst of the worst," Acevedo told reporters. "They have no respect for the sanctity of life."

Acevedo said there are about 20,000 total gang members in Houston, with approximately 400 in MS-13. He estimated that the Gulf Coast region of the state has a total of about 800 MS-13 members.

However, Acevedo said that small percentage accounts for a disproportionate amount of violence, including the five recent murders. He added that 11 people have been charged in the five cases while another 10 associates of the suspects have been jailed by federal immigration agents.

The majority of gang members charged are not U.S. citizens and are from Central America, court records show.

"MS-13 is a transnational gang," Acevedo said. "Transnational gangs bring a lot of crime into our community including human trafficking, drug trafficking and gun trafficking. And when they act out, they're extremely violent."

Ogg expressed hope that coordinated law enforcement operations would not only reduce the number of gang members in the area, but reign in the violence.

"They're taking down dozens of gang members," Ogg said. "Not just the murderers themselves, but their support units, and I think that's going to have a disproportionate impact. This is going to hurt them."

Recently, Ogg's staff announced they will seek the death penalty for two members of MS-13, including a suspected gang leader who allegedly ordered the hit of a police informant from his cell in the Harris County jail.

The fatal shooting of 16-year-old Estuar Quinonez on the night of June 13, 2016, made police suspicious that he was killed in retaliation for helping Houston police with an MS-13 case.

Omar Torres allegedly ordered the murder from inside the Harris County jail - where he was facing another murder charge brought in the brutal killing of Noe Mendez four months earlier.

Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez and four of his associates allegedly lured the teen to Buffalo Run Park in Missouri City and shot him in the head. Herrera-Hernandez and Torres are now facing the death penalty if convicted of capital murder in the case.

Lisa Collins, who is prosecuting the Missouri City murder case, is pursuing charges against about 50 MS-13 members.

She said the gang's penchant for brazen killings, especially using machetes, is intentional because it intimidates rivals and informants.

"The way that they are violent is unique to them," she said. "There are other groups that are just as violent, but in a more traditional sense, like using a handgun or doing a drive-by."

Collins said using a machete or ax or other unique murder weapon is a trademark, not just of the gang but of specific gang members.

"There is a hierarchy and, like all gangs, there is a need to promote your value, promote your worth, within the gang that often leads to violence," she said. "It takes a unique mind to kill someone with an ax or a machete. It's very personal."

She recently put three members in prison for decades for a violent carjacking and assault in 2015 on a southwest Houston street.

Anival Guevara, 32, who was convicted of driving a getaway car, was sentenced last month to 27 years in prison for his role in the death of Hector Daniel Diaz, 28, on Nov. 22, 2015.

Guevara, Giovani Antonio Herrera, 23, and Jonathan Steven Guevara, 21, gunned down Diaz after he jumped out of a sedan on Harwin Drive in southwest Houston.

Testimony during the trial showed they thought Diaz was a rival gang member, but Collins said he was not a gang member but a construction worker.

Jonathan Guevara was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Herrera entered into a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 40 years.

It is not clear why Diaz got into a car with the three men after leaving a club, but the killers were later caught on video drinking beer and laughing about him begging for his life.

The video was played during Jonathan Guevara's trial.

"When it was over, you could have heard a pin drop in the courtroom," Collins said. "It's just violence for the sake of violence."

On Tuesday, law enforcement gave new details in the arrests of 11 suspects in five recent slayings.

Four men have been charged with murder in the June 6 death of 25-year-old Victor Castro-Martinez, a police informant who was attacked with machetes.

Acevedo said Castro-Martinez was killed because he was in a rival MS-13 gang, not because he was an informant. Court records show he was actively helping HPD identify gang members and activities and was wearing a recording device when he was killed.

If he was killed because he was talking to police, he will be the second HPD informant who lost his life to MS-13. The 25-year-old was still wearing the recording device when his body was found in a wooded area of the park at 6700 Long Drive about 11:30 a.m. on June 7.

That recording led to the arrest of the four men over the past two weeks: Carlos Elias Henriquez-Torres, 18, Marlon A. Miranda, 19, Wilson J. Ventura-Mejia, 22, and Miguel Aguilar-Ochoa, 33.

The last suspect to be arrested in the Cullinan Park murder was charged last Friday.

Acevedo declined to say why police - who had fitted Castro-Martinez with a recording device to gather evidence on a rival gang - did not monitor him after he left to meet MS-13 gang members in the park. Court records show he sent police a text with his location when he arrived at the park, and police lost contact with him until they searched the park the next day and found his body.

On July 7, a gang member who wanted out of the gang agreed to take a beating in order to get out, Acevedo said. Once his former confederates got him into the woods in Liberty County, he was beaten in the head with a baseball bat and fatally slashed with a machete.

Two gang members, Waler Alexander Mejia and Jimmy Villolobes-Gomez have been arrested and charged.

On August 4, a man got into an argument at the La Union restaurant at 9598 Wilcrest was fatally shot after leaving the business. Two suspected gang members, Jairo Salvador Licona-Cardenas and a juvenile, along with the female getaway driver, Elida Lucia Jovel Medrano, have been arrested and charged with murdering the man.

There is an open murder warrant for another gang member who has not been located.

On May 4, a teenage girl who was an MS-13 associate, was killed and her body buried in a wooded area west Fuqua near Sims Bayou. Her body was located months later on August 30 and, Acevedo said, several gang members have been charged and jailed in her death. Their identities were not released.

Acevedo provided details of a fifth gang killing in June, saying only that a man was killed in Galveston and his body transported to Harris County where he was buried in a wooded area. At the time of the man's death, Acevedo and other law enforcement officials would say little about the slaying, and Tuesday's comments indicated a broader investigation is underway.

Galveston County authorities had earlier charged Luis Carbajal, 26, who also goes by the name Luis Ernesto Carbajal-Peraza, after he allegedly strangled and beat Christian Hernandez Fuenes Escobar to death in Galveston on June 7. Another man, Christian Rene Chavez-Chavez, 23, was also charged, accused of tampering with a human corpse.

At the time, investigators said Escobar's body was moved to Harris County after he was killed, according to court records.More than 20 members of the infamous street gang MS-13 have been arrested in connection with five deaths since June in the Houston area, according to city and county officials.

RELATED: Four MS-13 gang members accused of using a machete to kill an informant

It's just the latest string of arrests in Texas for the gang widely considered to be one of the most significant in the state, according to a gang threat assessment from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

In the assessment, MS-13 is among other "Tier 1" gangs such as Tango Blast, Latin Kings and the Texas Mexican Mafia. They pose the most significant threat in Texas because of their relationship with Mexican drug cartels, transnational criminal activity, a statewide presence and a "high propensity for violence," according to the assessment.

The assessment, published in 2017, singles out MS-13 as the most encountered gang illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley. Harris County had the highest reported membership for the gang in 2017, though statewide membership dropped to about 500.

RELATED: Trio of MS-13 gang members sentenced for 2015 slaying

The gang formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s as a way for Salvadoran immigrants to protect themselves from other street gangs, according to Texas DPS. They use Texas as a "transitional zone" for members passing through to the east coast, according to the agency.

See the gallery above to view other court cases and violent incidents tied to alleged MS-13 members in Texas this year.

Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.comA man at a south Houston hotel shot a woman early Tuesday after she allegedly tried stealing his pick-up truck and ended up crashing into another vehicle.

The two had just met and were headed to a hotel near Bellfort and the South Sam Houston Parkway. The man walked in to get a room around 4 a.m., then spotted the woman taking off in his truck, according to Lt. Larry Crowson of the Houston Police Department.A teenage murder suspect is on the run in North Texas - and authorities are asking for the public's help locating him.

Taymor Travon McIntyre, 17, is wanted for capital murder, according to the U.S. Marshals. He is described as 5-foot-7 and 124 pounds with black hair, brown eyes and a medium brown complexion.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.When I heard that the Village Voice was going out of business, I thought: Too bad. The Voice saved my life. On the other hand, what has it done for me lately?

That's a tad cold, but consider: my Village Voice died in 1974, and again in 1979. Ever since, Ive been reminding myself that newspapers are not causes, but conveniences. Hard as it may be on needy scribblers, papers last only as long as people want the services that they provide. I dont hold with the theory that The Walking Dead is really about newsprint in the twenty-first century, but theres no getting away from the fact that newspapers are instant artifacts. Buy a paper, and two hours later, the headlines havent changed, the way they do on a smartphone.

If location is the secret of real estate, then timing is the secret of starting a newspaperand the secret of selling it, too. The Village Voices three foundersEd Fancher, Dan Wolf, and Norman Mailertimed things exactly right. When the Voice hit the streets in 1955, its competition was The Villager, a great news source for bake sales and flower shows. The Voice focused on the disconnected segments of downtown arts and politics. Suddenly, the shadow world of Greenwich Village counterculture, with its roots in the nineteenth century, had a clearinghouse, a way of keeping in touch with the public and with each other.

Mailer bailed out early, but Fancher and Wolf realized that their skinny weekly had a potential readership that went far above 14th Street. Bohemians were old hat, but Beatniks were big news. There was a growing national counterculture that needed a newspaper, too, and the price was right: a one-year subscription cost $3.

Countercultures are populated by creative, energetic, idealistic paupers, and the Voice fit the bill; by the early 1960s, the paper was just getting by. Then it caught a break: a four-month newspaper strike shut down the New York dailies. Desperate advertisers flocked to alternative papers, including the Voice, which began reaching new readers and advertisers. From then on, the Voice made moneylots of it.

When I moved to New York in 1966, the Voice was thriving, a must-read for hippies, peaceniks, guerrilla-fashion fans, politicians, and a radical salad of activist organizations. The Voice classifieds were required reading, especially if you needed a place to live. That summer, I was working at a real estate office on Christopher Street. On Monday mornings, my job was to take a list of available apartments to The Villagers advertising desk. The boss believed that Villager readers (educated, employed, and sane) were a better bet than the oddballs who read the Voice.

Then, early one Wednesday morning, we were crossing through Sheridan Square when the boss stopped short. A big crowd had gathered around the newsstand, and they were waiting for the Voice. The paper was dated Thursday but distributed on Wednesday. Word had spread that Sheridan Square, directly across the street from the Voice office, was the first newsstand to get the paper. To have any hope of finding an apartment in the classifieds, you had to be first to call; to be first to call, you had to get your Voice at Sheridan Square. Around 10 a.m., circulation manager (and author of the Voices Wheels column) Dan List pulled up with a car full of papers hot off the Weiss Brothers printing press in Newark. The boss watched the crowd scrambling for papers and said, No more Villager. From now on, we advertise with the Voice.

By the time I started writing regularly for the Voice in 1968, the advertising department had grown enormously. Like other Voice writers, I knew the paper was making money, and that we werent being paid much. Selling one article to Esquire was the monetary equal of 20 articles in the Voice. Personally, I didnt care. My payback came from having the freedom to write what I wanted and to publish in other papers and magazines. Once my byline appeared in the Voice, I could give up day jobs and make a living at the keyboard. The Voice saved my life.

But nothing gold can stay. Fun has an expiration date, as Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf were well aware. To start and build the Voice, they had staked everything on a roll of the dice, and won: the paper had become a huge success. The Village itself, however, was no longer the only counterculture community in the city, and developers were knocking at the door. Voice city editor Mary Perot Nichols had defended the Village with passionate and powerful journalism. She had helped stop master builder Robert Moses from running a highway through Washington Square, and from building a six-lane expressway through SoHo.

But neither Nichols nor the Voice could stop the Village from changing in other ways. The definition of counterculture now included heroin and speed. Residents were complaining about noisy crowds on MacDougal Street and hippies in the parks. Hotter, hipper, cheaper neighborhoods, such as the East Village and SoHo, had sprung up, and they had their own weekly papers.

Now the old paper and its later giveaway versions are gone for good. The smartest business decisions that Fancher and Wolf made were to start the paper when they did and to heed Bernard Baruchs advice (I got rich by selling too soon) and to sell it when they did. The smartest thing that The Villager did was to make itself useful, going beyond bake sales and flower shows while continuing to cover local news. The Villager is still in business.

The Voice doesnt need an epitaph; its a victim not of failure but success. The culture wars that gave rise to the paper are over. Civil rights, experimental arts, cutting-edge music, new frontiers in theater and film, and the rise of feminism, gay rights, and the environment; overturning tradition-bound morals; radical politicsall have found a place in todays America. For years, the Voice debated these issues alone. Now the war is over, and the Voice has gone home.

Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesThe Charity Commission has ordered the closure of the a military charity which had been selling t-shirts with anti-Islamic slogans in its shops.

The regulator opened a statutory inquiry into 1st Knight Military Charity in November 2016 after an undercover BBC Scotland report showed a shop run by the charity selling t-shirts with anti-Islamic slogans.

Today the regulator published a report about its inquiry which says the Commission ordered the charity, which aimed to assist members of the armed forces and their dependents or carers, to wind up operations and it has now done so.

The inquiry concluded that there was misconduct in relation to offensive material available for sale at the charitys premises and offensive comments made by a trustee and volunteer recorded as part of the programme.

The Commissions report emphasises that a second trustee present at the time of the undercover recording failed to intervene or challenge the comments made.

It also says the offensive merchandise was ordered on more than one occasion, and the trustees did not seek to return or dispose of the stock.

The report says further t-shirts depicting Nazi symbolism were advertised for sale on the charitys online store.

Investigators carried out an unannounced visit to the charitys premises and found that the relevant materials from the BBC recording had been removed, however offensive and inappropriate merchandise was still displayed on the charitys online store in February 2017.

Wider concerns

The inquiry also found wider concerns about the charitys management and governance, including its provision of respite breaks for beneficiaries to bed and breakfast accommodation in Spain.

The Commission issued an order in December 2017 to direct the trustees to wind up and dissolve the charity, in the public interest and because it was unlikely that the charity could continue to operate beyond the end of the inquiry.

The trustees complied with this order on March 2018 and the charity was dissolved and removed from the register.

The charitys remaining 2,061.88 funds were transferred to another charity, identified by the Commission, which similarly provides support to wounded veterans and their loved ones.

Michelle Russell, the Commissions director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement, said: The public rightly expect charities to demonstrate the highest standards of integrity and conduct.

What we saw in this case fell short of that: not only was this charity mismanaged, we also saw evidence of behaviours and attitudes that have no place in charity.

The organisation has now wound up, and I am pleased that we have ensured its assets are redistributed by another charity.As any woman will tell you, sexism and gender stereotyping are not always overtin life, or in the media. Take the recent treatment of Massachusetts Congressional candidate Brianna Wu, who called out The Boston Globe recently for using an old photo depicting her as unprofessional, next to her two male opponents in suits. The Boston Globe apologized and changed the photo.

Angry. @BostonGlobe publishes a guide to the election. They choose pictures of my opponents wearing suits. They pick one of me from Gamergate where Im wearing a t-shirt and have bright anime hair. I literally did a photo shoot with them wearing a dress and heels a week ago. pic.twitter.com/6Wtlrfluz7  Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) August 29, 2018

Wu pointed out a problem that will surely confront each of the record-breaking number of women running for office in 2018: subtle, unintentional forms of sexist coverage in the media. Women make up nearly a quarter of nonincumbents running for congressional seats in 2018, compared to an average of only 16 percent in the previous two electoral cycles. The vast majority of these candidates are running as Democrats, and so far female Democratic candidates are outperforming their male counterparts by about 15 percent. At the moment, all signs point toward the coming of an electoral pink wave this November.

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Media coverage of female politicians often uses sexist language, and tends to focus more on family roles, appearance, and perceived womens political issues when covering female politicians. Women routinely face questions that male candidates nearly never encounter, like being asked to smile or to answer questions about work-life balance. Female politicians have been stereotyped in the media as ice queens or grandmas, and have been historically categorized into one of four roles: seductress, mother, pet, or battle-ax.

RELATED: Women and minorities are paid the least in newsrooms

Bluntly sexist language appears to be on the decline, and recent research has found that female congressional candidates are no longer covered differently by journalists nor punished by voters as a result of their gender. But what about subtler forms of sexist language? Could what adjectives journalists choose impact the popularity of particular politicians?

We conducted a study to find out if even subtle word choices could affect peoples attitudes about female candidates. By subtle word choices, we mean adjectives that might seem harmless but have been found by scholars to have gendered associations. Our study uses the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, created by psychologist Sandra Bem in the 1970s, which categorizes descriptive language into masculine, feminine, and neutral groupings based on how individual words are perceived by the public. Bem found that words like ambitious and assertive have been associated with masculinity, while words such as compassionate and loyal have been associated with femininity. (Even though the BSRI might seem somewhat dated, a recent meta-analysis found that it has been remarkably stable.) When journalists write about women running for political office, they might, consciously or not, choose gender-coded words to describe these candidates, and these descriptors might in turn affect how the public views these candidates.

To test whether these subtle word choices mattered, we asked 269 university students to read a newspaper article from The Globe and Mail about a small-town mayoral race. In different versions of the article, we changed the gender of the political candidate and the words used to describe them, but everything else about the articles was exactly the same: one version used feminine-coded descriptive language (words like compassionate and loyal), one used masculine-coded language (ambitious, assertive), and one used neutral language (friendly, adaptable). Readers were then asked to rate how qualified they thought the candidate was on a 10-point scale and to indicate how much they liked the candidate on a 101-point scale.

Such language choices, we found, do have an impact. A woman politician described with masculine-coded adjectives was seen as almost 10 percent more qualified and 7 percent more competent than a woman described with feminine adjectives. These effects might seem small, but they are substantively large, and might have serious implications for elections, especially at the local level, where people are less reliant on party cues and more reliant on their perception of candidates traits, such as competence.

The results got more interesting when we factored in the self-identified gender of survey respondents. We found that female respondents were much more likely to rate the female candidate described with feminine adjectives lower, and much more likely to rate the female candidate described with masculine adjectives higher. Female respondents saw the masculine-described female candidate as almost 15 percent more qualified than when she was described using feminine adjectives.

We also asked respondents to assess the gender of a politician featured in a news story that did not include any gender identifiers. The findings were striking: Nearly 80 percent of respondents assumed the candidate they read about was malea strong suggestion that a political profession might still be assumed to be a mans job.

For journalists, this finding should be a wake-up call. While we know little about the effects of subtle sexism in the descriptive language used in normal news coverage, our results suggest that superficially harmless language choices can potentially change how the electorate views certain politicians. While more research on the subject is needed, journalists should be aware that even small, seemingly stylistic writing choices might have an impact on public opinion.

ICYMI: I was torn in half by seeing my son dressed in a prison uniform

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Rachel Garrett and Dominik Stecula are the authors of this article. Rachel Garrett holds a BA Hons in Political Science from the University of British Columbia. She is currently a JD candidate at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. Dominik Stecula holds a PhD in Political Science from University of British Columbia. He is currently the Martin Fishbein Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow (nonresident) at the Centre For Public Opinion and Political Representation at Simon Fraser University.Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar for doing their jobs, were sentenced Monday to seven years in jail. The decision represents a severe blow to Myanmars attempt to emerge from years of military dictatorship and engage with the world as a democratic actor.

The two reporters were found guilty of violating Myanmars Official Secrets Act after receiving state documents in what appears to have been entrapment by police. Their reporting helped expose the murder of 10 Rohingya Muslim men by Buddhist villagers, Burmese soldiers, and paramilitary police, in an expose that was published after their December 2017 arrest.

The sentencing of the two journalists has sparked condemnation from press freedom advocates and governing bodies around the world. Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere, Reuters President Stephen J. Adler said in a statement. Calling the decision a major step backward in Myanmars transition to democracy, Adler added, We will not wait while Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo suffer this injustice and will evaluate how to proceed in the coming days, including whether to seek relief in an international forum.

RELATED: The absurdity of World Press Freedom Day: A brief history

US Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel said the sentencing was deeply troubling for everybody who has struggled so hard here for media freedom. The Committee to Protect Journalists Southeast Asia representative called the verdict a travesty of justice and will cast Myanmar as an anti-democratic pariah as long as [Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo] are wrongfully held behind bars.

The conviction of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo is only part of Myanmars crackdown against journalists reporting on government atrocities against ethnic and religious minorities in the country. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who serves as head of the countrys civilian government, has remained publicly silent about the case. Once a prominent political prisoner, her reputation has been severely tarnished by her unwillingness to speak out about the treatment of the Rohingya people or the jailing of the two journalists.

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With press freedoms under attack around the globe, the case of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo has become a symbol of excessive government crackdowns. Their sentencing marks a dark day for those who support a free and independent media. The Guardian reported that, as he was led to a police van in handcuffs, Wa Lone said, I have no fear. I have not done anything wrongI believe in justice, democracy and freedom.

Below, more on the sentencing of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and CJRs coverage of their case.

Worldwide response: Reuters gathered statements from press freedom advocates, government figures, and international bodies. It is clear to all that the Burmese military has committed vast atrocities. In a free country, it is the duty of a responsible press to keep people informed and hold leaders accountable. The conviction of two journalists for doing their job is another terrible stain on the Burmese government, said US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. We will continue to call for their immediate and unconditional release.

Reuters gathered statements from press freedom advocates, government figures, and international bodies. It is clear to all that the Burmese military has committed vast atrocities. In a free country, it is the duty of a responsible press to keep people informed and hold leaders accountable. The conviction of two journalists for doing their job is another terrible stain on the Burmese government, said US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. We will continue to call for their immediate and unconditional release. Defending the press: In May, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon examined the difficult task of defending journalists when the deck is stacked against them.

In May, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon examined the difficult task of defending journalists when the deck is stacked against them. From journalist to government mouthpiece: For CJR, Joshua Carroll wrote that, In Myanmar, journalists have sided with the military against the Rohingya.

For CJR, Joshua Carroll wrote that, In Myanmar, journalists have sided with the military against the Rohingya. A region in crisis: In Southeast Asia, the last decade has seen an unprecedented rollback of journalistic freedom due to rising authoritarianism and social medias amplification of hate speech, writes Mei Fong for CJR.

In Southeast Asia, the last decade has seen an unprecedented rollback of journalistic freedom due to rising authoritarianism and social medias amplification of hate speech, writes Mei Fong for CJR. On Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo: Shortly after the arrest of the two journalists, Antoni Slodkowski, Shoon Naing, and Thu Thu Aung described them as two book lovers dedicated to their craft.

Other notable stories:

Faced with a swift backlash, New Yorker Editor David Remnick cancelled Steve Bannons scheduled appearance at the magazines fall festival. Staffers and other invitees voiced their concerns shortly after Bannon was announced as a headliner, and Remnick said in a memo that he didnt want readers and staff members to think he was ignoring their concerns. Ive changed my mind, Remnick wrote. Theres a better way to do this.

The battle between Ronan Farrow and NBC spilled into public on Monday, as NBC News Chairman Andy Lack sent employees an analysis explaining why the network didnt move forward with Farrows reporting on Harvey Weinstein, arguing that the piece was not ready for air when Farrow left NBC in August of last year. Farrow responded, arguing that the memo from Lack contained false and misleading statements. I loved my time at NBC, Farrow wrote. Its a place filled with talented, dedicated journalists, many of whom have reached out to me in frustration. They are owed an honest accounting of what happened.

For CJR, David Uberti analyzes John McCains final piece of political stagecraft. Charting out a four-day procession from Arizona to Washington to Annapolis, choosing symbolic eulogists and pallbearers, the Arizona Republican sought to hearken back to a mythic era of politics, Uberti writes. And the Washington press corps lapped it up.

Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd laments the campaign to destroy the legitimacy of the American news media and urges journalists to start fighting back in a piece for The Atlantic. He argues that the current state of affairs is the result of a decades-long attempt by figures stretching from the Nixon administration to the executives at Fox News to impugn the credibility of the press, and that mainstream journalists erred in attempting to stay out of the fray. We not only failed to defend our work in real time from this onslaught; we helped accelerate the campaign to delegitimize the American press corps, Todd writes.

The Village Voice shut its doors on Friday, leaving New York without one of its iconic sources of news and culture. CJRs Alexandria Neason, a former Voice reporter, obtained audio of the alt weeklys owner informing staff of his decision. Today is kind of a sucky day, Peter Barbey, who bought the paper in 2015, said. Due to the business realities, we are going to stop publishing Village Voice new material.

ICYMI: NBC accused of impeding Ronan Farrows reporting

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.If youre already confused about what a blockchain is, or how it works, and what role you might play in a media industry powered by cryptocurrencies (whatever those are), then a new proposal that would use the blockchain to reengineer the advertising business might not be your cup of tea. A company called SocialFlow, however, thinks it is the future of a sustainable ad-based media industry. In a nutshell, SocialFlowwhich manages social-media campaigns for media companieswants to replace the ad business and its shady click and page-view model with a cryptocurrency-based universal attention token, which it announced this week.

Whether SocialFlow can convince enough media and advertising companies to adopt this new model remains to be seen (the company notes it has 200 clients, and says the content it distributes generates 9 billion clicks per year). But one thing that does become clear the more you read the companys proposaland similar proposals from other would-be blockchain offeringsis just how confusing, and even dehumanizing, the language used in these kinds of projects can be. The idea that your thoughtful perusal of a news story or touching human-interest tale will be converted into attention tokens is just the beginning. The whole thing feels like an exercise in commodification.

According to SocialFlows white paper, readers would earn tokens by consuming content (including ads) and then be able to use those tokens to pay for paywall access and other features. As the paper describes it:

User clicks on content published through the SocialFlow platform are expected to provide the initial basis for SocialFlows blockchain of attention. As Users click on these links, SocialFlow intends to have the Trib.al short link system generate a unique click ID and timestamp that will be hashed via a strong and well-tested one-way hashing algorithm, distributed to the blockchain at regular intervals. SocialFlow anticipates that Users will be able to replenish their tokens by engaging with brand content.

If you arent that excited about engaging with brand content in order to replenish your tokens, dont feel bad. And Im not trying to pick on SocialFlowlots of other blockchain-related services also sound like this. The idea of an attention token, for example, is already built into a new web browser called Brave, which was launched in 2016 by Brendan Eich, co-founder of Mozilla and creator of the Javascript programming language.

In a recent interview with the website set up to promote the token idea, Eich talked about how Brave uses machine learning. The key with machine learning is data feed quality, he said. Browsers are juicy: navigation, tab clusters, opener/openee relations, scrolling of content, form fill data. Plus info you volunteer when onboarding about demographics, brand loyalty, that stays on device. Not exactly the kind of thing that makes you feel warm and fuzzy about your role as a valued member of an ecosystem. For Brave and SocialFlow, you are mostly valuable as a data input for an algorithm.

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This isnt surprising for new ventures like these, especially ones that are based on the blockchain, since they are primarily designed by software engineers, who are used to seeing people, or peoples data, as inputs. But it does give the whole enterprise a soul-less quality. You know who else sees people primarily as inputs? Facebook. In a recent Medium post, David Auerbacha software engineerwrote about how the network has flattened human communication by forcing it into the little boxes demanded by its system, including emoji responses for like, sadness, etc. Why? Because real human communication is hard for computers to understand.

Maybe the way human beings interact does need to be re-engineered somehow, whether its by using the blockchain or some other system, because the way weve been doing it doesnt work any morethe media environment is broken in many ways, advertising first and foremost. But it would be nice if at least some of the humanity remained after the re-engineering process.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg.Planning for the caper involved finding the right man for the mission, organizing front organizations to dole out $3.5 million to ensure the job got done, and then creating a disinformation campaign to disguise their handiwork.

This wasnt the premise of a spy novel. Its what policyholders allege a unit of State Farm, the biggest U.S. auto insurer, did to get a friendly judge onto Illinoiss highest court so he could overrule a jury that ordered the company to pay $1 billion in damages.

More than a decade after the award was reversed in state court, customers will get another chance before a federal judge starting Tuesday, this time alleging a company conspiracy to block the payments. State Farm denies any wrongdoing, but the stakes are now higher. Plaintiffs are seeking more than $8.5 billion, which includes the original judgment handed down in 1999, plus 19 years of interest, and the tripling of damages under civil racketeering law.

In such cases, a final judgment can be devastating to even a deep-pocket defendant like an insurance company, said law professor David Logan at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. Just using the the word racketeering in a trial can be highly prejudicial to defendants, Logan added. But challenges have been generally unsuccessful.

U.S. District Judge David Herndon, who is presiding over the trial, in July rejected State Farms request to throw out the claim under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.

Triple Damages

Should State Farm lose, the federal jury in East St. Louis, Illinois, would determine the initial damages. Judge Herndon would determine how much interest should be paid, and the tripling of the award would be mandated by law.

In their original lawsuit, State Farm customers claimed they were given generic car parts of lower quality than original equipment over more than a decade, violating the terms of their insurance policies. In 1999, an Illinois state court jury awarded them $456 million for breach of contract, and the trial judge added $730 million in damages on a fraud claim. An appellate court reduced the verdict to $1.056 billion, but it was one of the largest class-action awards in U.S. legal history.

In 2004, Lloyd Karmeier, a Republican who had been a circuit judge in rural Washington County for almost two decades, was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court. A year later, the Illinois Supreme Court threw out the award, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case, seemingly ending the litigation.

New Hope

But policyholders found new hope in 2009, when the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in a lawsuit involving the coal-mining company Massey Energy Co., found that judges have to recuse themselves in some cases involving their top campaign contributors, said Bob Clifford, the plaintiffs lawyer.

Citing emails and other internal communications between State Farm and people working in the Karmeier campaign, including political groups that served as intermediaries, the plaintiffs argued that State Farm was the dominant player in recruiting the judge and funding his campaign.

The company sent its cash through advocacy groups that didnt disclose donors, which would enable State Farm to falsely deny its role in funding the campaign so that Justice Karmeier could participate in deciding the 1999 damage verdict if he were elected, lawyers for the plaintiffs said in court papers.

Ed Murnane, who was president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, and William Shepherd, an attorney for the insurer, were named in the lawsuit as taking part in the conspiracy to elect Karmeier to a vacant seat on the state high court. The insurer held a majority of the votes on the committee that controlled Murnanes compensation, the plaintiffs said in court filings.

New Appeal

After the Massey Energy case was decided, the State Farm customers asked the Illinois Supreme Court to reinstate the judgment, citing new evidence on the insurers efforts to elect Karmeier. The plaintiffs claim State Farm continued to conceal its actions and lied to the court in September 2011 by denying it contributed to the Karmeier campaign.

The appeal was rejected, and months later, the policyholders filed the new racketeering lawsuit in federal court. The plaintiffs are the same people who sued more than 20 years ago.

The Illinois Supreme Court election campaign of 2004, which saw Karmeier and his opponent spending more than $9 million, is considered the most expensive state court judicial race ever for a single seat, according to Alicia Bannon of the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, who studies state judicial election financing.

Outside Financing

In recent years, the prevalence of outside money in state elections has increased dramatically, Bannon said. Its become quite common that judges are hearing cases involving major campaign contributors.

Karmeier, 78, has been the states chief justice since 2016. He wasnt sued in the civil racketeering case, but he will be a witness in the trial. The judges office, citing court rules, said Karmeier was barred from commenting on pending litigation.

State Farm, based in Bloomington, Illinois, also declined to comment. In court filings, the company has denied any wrongdoing, contending that the plaintiffs are attempting to revive a long-dead lawsuit by filing a meritless RICO claim. It also denied any conspiracy, fraud or improper campaign financing.

Supporters of Karmeiers election didnt act as a corrupt association, but an amorphous group of persons and entities, State Farm lawyers said in an Aug. 21 filing. Plaintiffs can provide no evidence that the alleged association members had a common purpose of obtaining reversal of the Avery judgment or any other common purpose that continued after Justice Karmeiers election on Nov. 4, 2004.

Karmeier wasnt aware of any alleged financing by the insurance company, State Farm said.

On Merits

In the decision to reverse the verdict on appeal, the Illinois Supreme Court in 2005 found that the policy holders shouldnt have been combined together in a class action and that there was no evidence of fraud. That ruling was decided on its merits, with all six participating Illinois Supreme Court justices reversing the judgment, the company noted.

The unanimous vote doesnt indicate State Farm would have won anyway, said Clifford, the plaintiffs attorney.

Karmeier wasnt present for oral arguments on the appeal, but weighed in after he was elected, breaking a deadlock at the Illinois Supreme Court, Clifford said. Plaintiffs claim Karmeier knew State Farm was financing his election and that they were denied the right to be judged by a court that was uncontaminated by politics.

The case is Hale v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 12-cv-00660, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois (East St. Louis).

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.New Orleans is on edge and some offshore energy workers have been evacuated as Tropical Storm Gordon heads for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. Its expected to become a hurricane Tuesday, and threatens to spread flooding rains into the Mississippi Delta and Midwest later this week.

Gordon, with top winds of 65 miles (105 kilometers) per hour, was about 190 miles east-southeast of the mouth of Mississippi River, according to a National Hurricane Center advisory at 8 a.m. New York time. The center of the storm will move across the stern Gulf of Mexico Tuesday.

Strengthening is expected today, and Gordon is forecast to be a hurricane when it makes landfall along the north-central Gulf Coast, according to the NHC advisory. Rapid weakening is expected after Gordon moves inland.

On Monday, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell declared a state of emergency for the city to prepare for Gordon, according to an emailed statement from her office. She also ordered government offices to be closed on Tuesday. In 2005, a much stronger Hurricane Katrina caused flooding devastated the city, killed about 1,800 people along the Gulf Coast and left many areas uninhabitable for months.

Damage will could be as high as $500 million, said Chuck Watson, a disaster researcher at Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia.

A significant part of the damage will be uninsured, Watson said. So this is a non-event from an insurance industry perspective.

Storm Surge

A hurricane warning has been posted for the Gulf Coast from eastern Louisiana to the Florida-Alabama state line. In addition, a tropical storm warning covers other parts of eastern Louisiana to Morgan City and parts of northwestern Florida. A storm surge watch is in place along the coastline as Gordon could push water as much as 5 feet above ground depending on the tides.

Gordon will pass through the eastern edge of the Gulfs offshore oil and natural gas platforms where it will probably have little impact because it isnt that strong and will pass through the area quickly, said Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland.

At this point it looks really disorganized, Rogers said. It has a really short fuse here. By later this evening it will be in and out.

Crews were pulled off two platforms by the Anadarko Petroleum Corp. according to its website. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port said its watching Gordon closely, but there currently are no disruptions.

The region produces about 5 percent of U.S. natural gas and 17 percent of crude oil, according to the Energy Information Administration. In addition, onshore facilities account for about 45 percent of U.S. refining capacity and 51 percent of its gas processing.

Flood Warnings

In addition to wind and storm surge, Gordon could drop as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain across Louisiana and Mississippi, with as much as 12 inches in some isolated areas. Winds could peak at 75 miles per hour.

Gordon will probably break up later in the week and its remnants could bring rain to the Great Plains, as well as the Midwest, where it wont be much help for farmer preparing to harvest corn and soybeans, Don Keeney, senior agricultural meteorologist at Radiant Solutions.

They do not need the rainfall right now. Its going to be an issue for corn harvesting and beans, Keeney said. They are done growing so they need dry weather.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.A California-based trucking company and one of its drivers were accused of negligence Friday in a pair of lawsuits as investigators sorted through the wreckage from a deadly bus crash on a New Mexico highway. Eight people were killed and 25 injured, including three young children.

The Greyhound bus carrying nearly 50 people was headed west along Interstate 40 on Thursday when a semitrailer going in the opposite direction lost the tread on its left front tire and veered across a median and smashed into the bus, police said.

The front of the bus was mangled, the cab of the semi was flipped and the trailer was on its side as debris was scattered across the highway. Passing motorists stopped to help passengers climb out of the wreckage before authorities arrived.

New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas called them heroes, saying some pulled ladders from trucks to reach the bus windows.

For them to stop and get involved is amazing. I commend them, the chief said. To get ladders, to get into the bus to get people. Can you imagine?

Investigators with National Transportation Safety Board secured the vehicles for inspection and examined the crash scene Friday. They review factors such as driver fatigue, training, safety records and the condition of the roadway.

Unfortunately things of this nature occur and our job is to try to do what we can do to prevent them from happening again in the future, said lead investigator Pete Kotowski.

The legal complaints filed Friday allege negligence on behalf of the unnamed truck driver and JAG Transportation Inc. They cite data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that shows the company reported three crashes in the last 24 months.

Attorney Bryan Williams said there are concerns about proper maintenance and inspection of the trucks tires.

A woman who answered the phone at the companys office said no one was available to comment.

The plaintiffs are not named but one is from Arizona and the other is from Ohio.

The driver of the semi, a 35 year-old man licensed out of California, sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Authorities did not name him, saying he was not currently facing charges.

Officials at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque said nine patients remain hospitalized there, including three adults who are in intensive care, one of whom is in critical condition. Two infants are also in intensive care.

Some patients were expected to undergo surgery Friday and Saturday. While doctors declined to offer specifics, they said the patients had injuries that ranged from head trauma to spinal fractures and broken bones.

Several of them will have a long road of recovery ahead, said Sonlee West, director of the hospitals trauma unit. We have been in contact with family members of several of the patients, and several of them have been able to talk to their families.

Other passengers were being treated at hospitals in the Gallup area, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the crash site.

Authorities said Friday they were working on identifying those who were killed through fingerprints and other means.

Greyhound spokeswoman Crystal Booker said in a statement Friday that the company was cooperating with authorities and will also conduct an investigation of its own.

Tragically, a number of people have lost their lives, including our driver, who had 27 years experience with Greyhound. Our hearts are with all those affected by this incident, she said.

Authorities identified the bus driver as Luis Alvarez, 49, of Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

A pile of debris remained on the shoulder of the highway Friday, but transportation crews had yet to clear it because it contained evidence and belongings from the bus passengers.

(Associated Press writer Mary Hudetz in Albuquerque contributed to this report.)

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.The California Legislature voted Friday to allow power companies to raise electric bills to cover the cost of lawsuits from last years 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 companys 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.

Everybodys 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. Labors protected. Unfortunately, they forgot to protect customers.

California courts have ruled that utilities are entirely liable for damage caused by power lines, even if theyve 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 years wildfires in Northern Californias 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 dont 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&Es 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 its 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 Californias 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. Thats 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 its 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.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The city has received federal funding for a proposed widening of the Broadview Road-Oakes Road intersection.

Under an agreement approved by City Council in August, the Federal Highway Administration will cover 80 percent of the project costs, estimated at $396,000. The Ohio Department of Transportation will administer the funds.

City Engineer Gary Yelenosky said the city plans to seek bids for the project's construction in February, award a contract and start construction in April, and finish work in July. He said traffic will be maintained in all directions during construction.

The project will include the addition of left-turn lanes on both northbound and southbound Broadview at Oakes, which dead-ends into Broadview from the east. The southbound turn lane will lead to Oakes, while the northbound turn lane will lead to Danbury Senior Living.

This past April, Yelenosky said the new lanes are needed because the intersection is congested during rush hours. A driver waiting to turn left from southbound Broadview to Oakes can cause "major holdups," he said.

The lane additions were recommended by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency in a 2016 study.

The Broadview-Oakes project will also include new traffic signals and other improvements recommended by NOACA. They include:

Switching the traffic light to full operational mode all day instead of having the light flash yellow -- meaning proceed with caution -- and red -- meaning stop before proceeding -- at certain times. This would make it easier and safer for drivers turning from Oakes to Broadview during non-rush hours. Yelenosky said the light now flashes yellow on Broadview and red on Oakes during flashing mode.

Adding GPS timeclocks to traffic lights on Broadview at Oakes, Akins Road to the south and possibly Royalton Road to the north. The timeclocks would allow synchronization of the lights to keep drivers moving.

Enforcing the "stop-here-on-red" sign on Broadview northbound just south of Oakes. The sign is there to prevent drivers from blocking a fire station emergency exit driveway on Broadview. Drivers blocking the exit can increase emergency response times. New reflective pavement on Broadview and signs would also help.

Painting a new crosswalk across Broadview at Oakes to improve safety. Also, the project would include new pedestrian traffic signal heads and push buttons, along with curb ramps at Broadview northbound and Oakes westbound. New curbs and sidewalks would not be part of the project.

Installing vehicle detection in the Broadview-Oakes traffic light at the eastbound and westbound approaches and northbound and southbound left-turn lanes. This would allow the traffic signal to change based on vehicles electronically detected at the intersection.

Earlier this year, the city hired Euthenics Inc., a Cleveland engineering firm, for $44,332 to design the Broadview-Oakes widening.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 76-year-old man shot and wounded a 23-year-old woman during an argument and shoving match, police say.

The man was arrested and admitted shooting the woman, according to police reports. Formal charges have not been filed as of 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The shooting happened about 11 p.m. Monday at a home in the 600 block of Lakeview Avenue in the city's Glenville neighborhood.

The man was at his 43-year-old girlfriend's home when the woman's two daughters fought over a cellphone charging cord, according to police reports.

The man tried to step in and break up the fight, police reports say.

The 23-year-old woman told police the man shoved her and that she shoved him back. She said the man then said: "I got something for you," pulled out a gun and shot her in the left leg.

The man left and walked down the street. Police found him nearby with a revolver in his backpack that had four bullets and one fired bullet casing left in the chambers, according to police reports.

The man told police that the woman shoved him first and that she threatened to call friends who would attack the man, police reports say. The man admitted to shooting the woman.

The 43-year-old woman told police she witnessed the fight but not the gunshot, police reports say.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- A dog participating in a prison program has died, reportedly from blunt trauma, resulting in the animal rescue operation in charge of the dogs saying it will end the program.

Joseph's Legacy announced the death of the dog, Evie, in a statement on its Facebook page.

Evie was part of a program at the Warren Correctional Institution in Lebanon, Ohio, in which some inmates are allowed to train rescue animals. The program is closely monitored by prison staff, the group says.

But after Evie apparently was killed, the group says it will no longer allow dogs to go to the prison.

"I was very angry, very upset. I bawled. I couldn't understand," Katherine Hartung of Joseph's Legacy tells WLWT Channel 5.

The group says the dog was found unresponsive in a cell and a necropsy revealed it had died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen, which caused the liver to hemorrhage. Evie's kidney also was damaged.

"We got a nasty person if you can even call them a person," Joseph's Legacy president Meg Melampy tells Fox19. "And I can't even believe, you know, I mean she's an amazing dog ... you know, not that it's ever OK, but Evie? I mean she was so sweet."

Reports say officials with the Ohio Department of Corrections have not commented on the incident, which remains under investigation.PHOENIX (AP) -- Sen. John McCain's widow on Tuesday said former Sen John Kyl will fill her late husband's seat.

Cindy McCain made the statement on Twitter minutes before Arizona's Republican Gov. Doug Ducey was due to make the formal announcement.

Kyl, a Republican, is currently shepherding Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. His appointment may make it possible for him to vote for the nomination.

He is expected to be a placeholder, not running in 2020, when voters will get to decide who fills the remainder of McCain's seat through 2022. Then the seat will be up again for a full six-year term.

Kyl will be entering a narrowly divided senate where Republicans could gain or lose seats in November.

The GOP is hoping he'll be a more reliable partisan vote than McCain, whose opposition to a partial repeal of President Obama's health care law pitched the party into turmoil last year.

The choice will also have political consequences for Ducey. He's up for re-election this November against Democratic challenger David Garcia. For Republican voters who are on the fence about Ducey, a choice they dislike could cause them to withdraw their support for the incumbent or stay home on Election Day.

Kyl is a well-respected Republican in Arizona who spent 26 years representing the state before becoming an attorney and lobbyist.

He was able to avoid many of the battles with activists that complicated McCain's career and that of the state's other senator, Jeff Flake. Flake is retiring because his feud with Trump made his re-election impossible.

Filling McCain's seat marks a turning point in Arizona political history. That seat in particular has been held by two men who were heralded as giants of the Senate: McCain took the seat once held by Sen. Barry Goldwater after he had served in the House of Representatives.

McCain's office said an estimated 15,000 people came to see the late senator as he laid in state in the Arizona state Capitol for a public viewing several days after his death. Nearly 3,500 people gathered at the North Phoenix Baptist Church the following day for a memorial service where former Vice President Joe Biden spoke.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A man was wounded in the leg on the West Side in what is the third Labor Day shooting reported by police.

The most recent shooting occurred near the intersection of West 65th Street and Lorain Avenue in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, according to police. The unidentified victim was taken by ambulance to MetroHealth Medical Center in unknown condition.

Police did not say if any arrests were made or offer possible motives for the shooting.

At 4 a.m. Monday, a man and woman were wounded in a shooting on the East Side in the Glenville neighborhood.

The 36-year-old woman was shot in the arm while he 23-year-old man was grazed by a bullet.

At 4:15 a.m., a 27-year-old man was shot in the back in the Buckeye-Woodhill neighborhood.

No arrests have been made in either shooting.

To comment on this story, visit Monday's crime and courts comments page.MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A man reportedly drowned in a river Monday after he jumped in while trying to rescue a young boy who had fallen into the water.

The man and the young boy were fishing on a rock on the Mad River when the boy slipped in, Mad River Fire Chief Tim Wendling tells the Dayton Daily News.

The unidentified man jumped in to help the boy but did not resurface, reports say.

Bystanders who witnessed the incident were able to save the boy. Canoers found the man and removed him from the water.

Rescue workers performed CPR on the man but he died at the scene, according to WDTN Channel 2.

To comment on this story, visit Monday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 17-year-old boy suffered a fatal gunshot in the neck on Tuesday, police said.

The shooting happened about noon Tuesday on East 93rd Street and Sophia Avenue.

The teen went to a home near the intersection with two friends to meet up with someone, police said. Police officials did not say why the trio tried to meet up with the person.

The teen walked into the backyard of the home to meet the person. Witnesses reported hearing a single gunshot and seeing the teen run to the front yard clutching his chest, police said.

Someone drove the teen to the MetroHealth clinic on East 116th Street.

He was transferred to University Hospitals, where he died, police said.

No one has been arrested and no other information has been released.

It's the second homicide on Tuesday and the fifth homicide in Cleveland five days, staring with the Thursday fatal shooting of a man outside a New Tech West High School.

A 28-year-old woman was killed about 1 a.m. Saturday inside Club X-Rated and eight others were injured in the shooting, both inside and outside the downtown Cleveland strip club. The club was hosting an event for local rap artists, police said.

A 26-year-old man died about 8 a.m. Saturday in the 3200 block of West 82nd Street after being attacked by a group of men, police said.

A 35-year-old woman was killed about 1 a.m. while sitting in her living room, police said. Someone fired several gunshots at the home. Bullets ripped the home and hit the woman in the abdomen, killing her.

No arrests have been made in any of the five homicide cases.

There have been 84 homicides in Cleveland in 2018. There were 80 at this point last year.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A woman was killed early Tuesday by gunshots fired at a home in Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood, police said.

Rhonda Stearnes, 34, was shot just after 12:50 a.m. as she sat in a living room at the home on East 92nd Street near Stewart Avenue, police and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office said.

She died after being taken to MetroHealth for treatment.

No suspects have been identified in connection with the shooting, police said.

Investigators have not released any additional information about the shooting.

To comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments page.OLMSTED FALLS, Ohio -- Intoxicated driving, Columbia Road: Between the 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Aug. 24, a gas station employee watched a driver sleep behind the wheel of a car parked near a fuel pump. Police came and tested the driver, who was found to be intoxicated. He was arrested and taken to the jail in Strongsville.

Theft, Columbia Road: A resident told police Aug. 25 that a pair of antique fire hydrants had been stolen sometime in the last two days.

Trespassing, Columbia Road: On Aug. 26, a police officer went to a park and told a group of kids swimming in the river that that is not allowed.

Intoxicated driving, Columbia Road: Around 4:22 p.m. Aug. 29, a car drove through a fence at a private residence. Police tested the driver, who was found to be intoxicated. She was arrested.

Arriving at the jail in Strongsville, she told authorities that she had medical concerns. It was ultimately decided that she was healthy enough to be detained.

The driver was eventually picked up by her mother, and another person collected a dog that had been in the driver's car.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.By Trend





Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Captains Regent of the Republic of San Marino Stefano Palmieri and Matteo Ciacci.

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I cordially congratulate you and the people of your country on the occasion of the national holiday of San Marino, Republic Day, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

On this festive occasion, I extend my best regards to you and wish the friendly people of San Marino everlasting peace and prosperity.The race for Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill's coveted seat in Missouri is neck and neck, a new poll finds.

McCaskill leads Republican challenger Josh Hawley by 4 percentage points among likely voters when third party candidates are included, according to an NBC News/Marist poll released Tuesday. The senator garners 44 percent of support and Hawley draws 40 percent, while Libertarian Japheth Campbell and Green Party candidate Jo Crain get 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively. McCaskill's edge among likely voters falls within the poll's margin of error, signaling a tight contest in one of this year's most important Senate races.

In a separate question asking likely voters to decide between only McCaskill and Hawley, the candidates tie at 47 percent. Hawley, the state attorney general, has a 1 percentage point advantage among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup.

President Donald Trump may not help Hawley much in a state Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016. Forty-five percent of likely voters approve of the job the president is doing, versus 46 percent who disapprove, according to the survey.

In addition, the president's aggressive trade policy hasn't resonated with Missouri voters, according to the poll. Only 28 percent of likely voters believe tariffs  which Trump has imposed on major trading partners as he seeks new trade deals  protect jobs and help the economy. Meanwhile, 45 percent say the tariffs will raise the cost of goods and hurt the economy. Fourteen percent think the duties will not have much effect.

The survey results reaffirm why Republicans have made McCaskill one of their top targets this year. Defending a seat in a state Republican presidential candidates last lost in 1996, McCaskill is considered among the Senate incumbents most likely to lose in November.

Democrats hope to hold on to the seat as they try to stop the GOP from expanding its 51-49 seat majority in the Senate. They face a daunting task, as 26 Democrats and independents who caucus with them run for re-election this year. Only nine Republican Senate seats are on the ballot in November.

Money has already poured into Missouri. General election candidates and outside groups supporting them have spent $46 million on the race, second highest among Senate contests, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The pro-Democratic Senate Majority PAC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have led the way in outside spending.By Trend





Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani on Monday agreed to continue cooperation for peace and stability in Afghanistan, IRNA reported.

Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Salahuddin Rabbani called Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi today, and congratulated him on his appointment as Foreign Minister, a foreign ministry statement said.

It said expressing the greetings and best wishes of the government and people of Afghanistan for Pakistan, Rabbani said that he was looking forward to strengthen Pak-Afghan bilateral relations.

It added while thanking his Afghan counterpart, Foreign Minister reiterated that as close neighbors, peace and prosperity of the two countries are interlinked while highlighting the need to work together for achieving lasting regional peace.

The statement added both sides appreciated recent improvement in relations since the launch of Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) in May 2018. It was noted that the framework provided the most comprehensive institutional mechanism to discuss all mutual issues.

The two leaders agreed that the next round of APAPPS would be soon held in Islamabad. They also welcomed the holding of joint Pak-Afghan Ulema Conference in Islamabad, the dates for which are being finalized, the statement said.

The issue of closure of the Pakistan Consulate General in Jalalabad due to a security crisis was also discussed. Qureshi requested the Afghan Government for restoring the previous security arrangements existing till 28th August 2018, so that the Consulate Generals normal functioning could be resumed at the earliest.

The statement said Foreign Minister Rabbani reassured a positive outcome soon in this regard and mentioned his meeting with the Ambassador of Pakistan in Kabul yesterday.

Till resolution of the issue, Pakistan in the meantime would continue issuing visas to patients or students residing in the jurisdiction of the Consulates as an emergency measure, it said.

The statement further said Foreign Minister Rabbani also extended an invitation to Shah Mahmood Qureshi to visit Afghanistan at an early date, which he accepted.Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook Getty Images

A force for unity, then disunity

Facebook helped Libyans unite in 2011 to oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who for decades had forbidden people to buy fax machines or even printers without official permission. Even then, the platform was prone to abuse. A vicious hate campaign directed at suspected Qaddafi supporters, and which was fanned by incendiary social media posts, led to African migrants being jailed or lynched, and caused all 30,000 residents of a town called Tawergha to flee for their lives. Today, most Tawerghans live in refugee camps. "The social media echo chamber played out in deadly ways for them," said Fred Abrahams, an associate director at Human Rights Watch. Facebook's influence today is largely a product of Libya's dysfunction. The country has no central authority and most of its TV stations and newspapers are tied to armed groups, political factions or foreign powers like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Many Libyans spend long hours stranded inside their homes because it can be dangerous to go out. The electricity can be off for 12 hours a day. So they turn to Facebook to find out what's going on. "The phone might be the only thing that is working," said Jalel Harchaoui, a Paris-based analyst with North Africa Risk Consulting. "People are traumatized after the years of fake news under Qaddafi. They thirst for truth." Some 181 million people use Facebook every month across the Middle East and North Africa, the Facebook spokeswoman said. She replied to questions by email on condition of anonymity in line with Facebook policy, which the company said was mainly for security reasons. For Libya's armed factions, that reach makes the platform a powerful tool for propaganda and repression. In the eastern city of Benghazi, which is dominated by the strongman Gen. Khalifa Hifter, a special online unit affiliated with his militia, the Libyan National Army, scours Facebook for signs of dissent or for suspected Islamists. Some have been arrested and jailed, and others forced to flee the city, according to human rights groups. There are similar pressures in Tripoli, where the Special Deterrence Force, a militia led by a conservative religious commander, Abdulrauf Kara, patrols Facebook with a moralizing zeal reminiscent of Saudi Arabia's once-feared religious police. Last year his militia detained 20 participants in a Libyan version of Comic-Con, the comic book conference. The militants said they were outraged by photos on Facebook showing young Libyans dressed as characters like Spider-Man and the Joker. Some detainees said they were beaten in custody. In August 2017, a writer named Leila Moghrabi was hit by a blizzard of Facebook attacks over a collection of short stories and poetry she edited. "I wish you get killed, not arrested," read one typical message. Three Muslim clerics denounced Ms. Moghrabi in thundering sermons that circulated on Facebook; next came word that the Special Deterrence Force was coming to arrest her. She leapt into a car with her husband and children and drove to Tunisia, where they live in exile. "We literally left everything behind," she said by phone. Others never made it to the border. Jabar Zain, a 30-year-old activist who was prominent on Facebook, has not been seen since he was abducted by a militia in September 2016, according to Amnesty International, which said he was targeted because of statements he made on Facebook. Amnesty has documented several such cases. In 2014, suspected Islamists in Benghazi shot dead two secular teenage activists, Tawfik Bensoud and Sami al-Kwuafi, after their names appeared on a hit list that circulated on Facebook.

A fight foreshadowed

The fighting in Tripoli over the past week was the worst in years, leaving at least 47 people dead, including children, and over 130 wounded, according to health officials. At least 400 prisoners escaped from a jail on Sunday after inmates overpowered guards. The chaos poses a growing threat to the United Nations-backed unity government, which has declared a state of emergency in the capital. Online boasts and threats foreshadowed the fighting. Although Tripoli seemed calm this year, public unease grew toward the four big militias that control the city under the umbrella of the fragile unity government, which is headed by Fayez Seraj. The militia commanders are widely viewed as unaccountable and corrupt, using their access to the Central Bank to buy United States dollars at the official rate, which is five times cheaper than the street price. One commander, Haitham Tajouri, drew attention by posting photos to Facebook flaunting his lavish lifestyle  foreign vacations, designer suits and an armored S.U.V.  at a time when many Libyans were wallowing in economic hardship. Such ostentatious displays helped fuel resentments among rival groups seeking to share in the pie. They boiled over last week when a militia known as Kaniyat from a town called Tarhouna, 45 miles southeast of Tripoli, launched an assault on the capital. As Kaniyat's fighters engaged in artillery battles in the southern suburbs, it sought to tap into public anger by denouncing its rivals as the "Islamic State of public money" and promising to "cleanse" them from Libya. Libya's factions are motivated by more than what they see on Facebook, said Mr. Harchaoui, the analyst. But, he added, "it can be the final straw." On Monday afternoon, Facebook suddenly went down in Tripoli. The local internet provider, Libya Telecom and Technology, which insisted it had not blocked Facebook, said it was investigating.

Beating the moderatorsThe company started as an online retailer and only recently began opening stores, serving as a place for shoppers to try on the sneakers before buying and helping create more buzz around the brand. The company has since launched a new sneaker made out of tree fibers and flip-flops made out of sugar, along with a kids line called Smallbirds .

At more than 4,800 square feet, the new flagship location in New York's SoHo neighborhood on Spring Street will include a "service bar" for finding the right size, along with more room for customers to lounge. It will replace its temporary home on Prince Street, which was about 900 square feet and is closing later this week.

Allbirds, the shoe brand that won over Silicon Valley with its wool sneakers, has begun gaining momentum on the East Coast and is opening a massive new store in New York on Tuesday.

"Given how tactile our product and brand story is, it's important that we continue to create these opportunities to interact with customers," Allbirds co-founder Joey Zwillinger said. "Our goal is to continue to create retail spaces that allow customers to truly engage with the brand in an authentic off-line experience that embodies Allbirds' unique comfort and thoughtful design."

Allbirds plans to open eight more stores in the U.S. over the next year, including in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The company also said it's thinking about adding two locations overseas.

"There is and has been incredible pent-up demand for Allbirds around the world," Zwillinger said. "When we launched the brand, we were thoughtful to keep our distribution limited to the regions we felt we could service impeccably  the U.S. and New Zealand, our home countries."

Since then, Allbirds has grown into Australia and Canada.

As department stores and established retailers like Sears and J Crew begin to scale back their real estate footprints, e-tailers like Allbirds, Warby Parker, Casper, Everlane, Untuckit and Bonobos are really starting to grow. All of these brands are moving into much smaller spaces than have been the norm in retail, but they're succeeding in amassing loyal shoppers through social media, pop-up shops and sponsoring events or classes inside their stores.

Allbirds has raised $27.5 million, which has helped the company research and develop new, sustainable materials for its shoes, according to Zwillinger. It will also help the company move forward with its plans to open more stores, he said.Australia's technology, construction and health care industries all provide strong employment prospects for young professionals. But if you want to land the country's top growing job, you may just have to head back to the classroom. That's according to new research from jobs search site Indeed, which found that teachers are seeing explosive growth in job openings in the country. The study sought to determine Australia's best jobs, defined as those with good pay and strong demand from employers. After examining tens of thousands of job posts over the past three years, it found that "lead teacher" saw the steepest increase in new openings since 2014, placing it at the top of a list of 30 professions including tech developer and architect. Each of the positions listed offers an average base salary of more than 80,000 Australian dollars (almost $60,000), and more than half exceed 100,000 Australian dollars. Here's the breakdown of the full list:

Education

Hero Images | Getty Images

Lead teacher ranked as the profession with the most growing demand on the list following a recent shortage of senior level teachers with team leadership experience. Job postings for lead teachers shot up 1,907 percent between 2014 and 2017, causing average base salaries to rise to 92,723 Australian dollars. According to Indeed, a lead teacher can be expected to have a minimum of 2 years' teaching experience and should be comfortable developing lesson programs and guiding more junior staff.

Technology

Global technological disruption continued to impact Australia's jobs markets throughout the study, boosting postings for a number of lucrative tech-based professions. Full stack developer emerged as the most in-demand job on Indeed's list by the number of job postings (although demand for the role grew less than for a lead teacher in the last three years). Earning an average base salary of 101,751 Australian dollars, a full stack developer is expected to work on both the front and back end of app development. Other lucrative tech positions in this year's list included data scientist, technology assistant and information systems manager, some earning average base salaries of as much as 141,738 Australian dollars.

Construction

Sam Edwards | Caiaimage | Getty Images

Australia's construction and property market remained strong this year, recording a boost in job postings for a range of roles from survey technician to site engineer and electrical foreman. Overall, senior landscape architect came out as the role with the third most growth in job postings, recording a 599 percent surge in job openings since 2015. According to Indeed, a senior landscape architect working Down Under can expect to earn a base salary of 95,575 Australian dollars for leading a team of other architects, typically on large, civil engineering projects.

Health care

The country also continued to seek health care professionals, particularly in regional areas which have been hardest hit by skills shortages. Demand for nurses, with specialties including primary and maternity care, increased more than 150 percent over the past three years, leading to average base salaries of 93,995 Australian dollars. Growing health awareness more generally has also led to the emergence of a new profession: Wellbeing manager. Indeed recorded a 269 percent rise in the number of employers looking to pay upwards of 110,518 Australian dollars to individuals who can manage their employee wellness programs and keep their staff's health in check.

(Note: All figures in Australian dollars for above chart.) Indeed's managing director for Australia, Ricky Fritsch, said the prominence of tech-related roles in this year's list demonstrates the recent explosion in data use and its impact on the global jobs market. "Companies are becoming ever more reliant on the collection and use of data and those with the skills to manage and utilize it are in hot demand. The proliferation of online applications for instance had led to the rise of full stack developers, a role few would have heard of until recent times," he said. "It is also essential that businesses have systems in place to protect their sensitive data and this is creating new opportunities for the likes of IT security specialists and systems managers."On August 31st, California lawmakers voted to ban middle schools and high schools from starting before 8:30 a.m. The goal? Getting students to sleep in. According to the Associated Press (AP), the bill, known as SB328, was narrowly passed by the state legislature ahead of a midnight deadline and is expected to be signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. Once the bill is finalized, schools have three years to comply. Experts argue that later school times could improve student health, boost graduation rates and save the school system billions of dollars.

Some of the most successful people in the world stress that sleep is crucial to performing your best. Leaders like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Sheryl Sandberg all say that getting enough rest has helped them get ahead in their careers. For kids, sleep is even more important. Research from Harvard Medical School and other institutions indicates that inadequate sleep can lead to obesity, behavioral and developmental problems and depression in kids and young adults. But due to the increased prevalence of technology such as cell phones, tablets and computers, and an increased emphasis on time-consuming extracurricular activities, students today are staying up later. To make matters worse, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly 80 percent of California middle and high schools start before 8:30 a.m. Some studies suggest that as few as 20 percent of adolescents ages 11 to 17 get enough sleep on school nights.Even as the entrepreneur's career began to take off, the lessons he learned in "How to Retire by 35" inspired him to stick to his austere habits. "I didn't have a car that cost more than $200 until I was 25, I think," he says. "It was crazy." Cuban doesn't regret his beat-up rides and pasta dinners. At the time, his only focus was on preparing for the future and saving up enough so that he could retire comfortably. "It wasn't like I thought, 'Okay, I'm going to be super rich,'" he says. "I valued time more than anything. I wanted enough money to be able to travel, have fun and party like a rock star, but still live like a student. That was my motivation."European stocks finished Tuesday deep in the red, amid fears of a crisis in emerging markets and trade tensions between the U.S. and major economies.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 0.62 percent, while the French CAC 40 slumped 1.31 percent and the German DAX declined 1.1 percent. Most of Europe's peripheral bourses sagged, however Italy's FTSE MIB closed up 1 percent.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped to a two-month low during trade, finishing the session provisionally 0.7 percent lower, with almost all sectors seeing red.

Basic resources stocks were some of the biggest losers in Europe, with automotive stocks also under pressure, as fears lingered of a trade war between the world's two largest economies. A Bloomberg report last week suggested that the U.S. administration was on standby to inflict additional levies on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods as soon as this week. A sharp drop in metal prices on Tuesday also didn't alleviate pressure for mining stocks.

Banking was the only sector to post solid gains by Europe's close, amid a flurry of ratings upgrades. Spain's Caixabank and Italy's UBI Banca were some of the top sectoral performers, both jumping over 4 percent, after brokers upgraded and raised their price targets for the stocks.

In individual stock news, French reinsurance firm Scor soared 9.5 percent, making it Europe's top STOXX 600 gainer, after disclosing that it had turned down an 8.2 billion euro ($9.5 billion) takeover offer from privately held insurer Covea. Shares rose on speculation of a higher bid for the reinsurer.

Sticking with France, telecommunications group Iliad popped 6.62 percent, after Chief Executive Xavier Niel said in an earnings call that the firm would look to remain independent in the event of consolidation in the country's telecoms market. Niel's comments came after disappointing numbers showed the group had lost 200,000 mobile subscribers in the second quarter.

Denmark's Danske Bank led Europe lower, falling over 6 percent, following a report by the Financial Times about the lender's independent investigation into a money laundering scandal in Estonia. The newspaper reported that Danske Bank's investigation discovered $30 billion worth of Russian and ex-Soviet money poured into non-resident accounts through its Estonian branch within a single year.

And advertising giant WPP tumbled 6.26 percent, after releasing results for the first half of the year. The firm unsettled investors after it said the cost of returning to sustainable growth would result in a cut to its 2018 margin outlook. Newly appointed Chief Executive Mark Read is tasked with guiding the firm through a period of unprecedented change following the departure of Martin Sorrell.The next smash-hit product by Apple, which could push the stock far above its $1 trillion market value, will probably surround augmented reality, former Apple software engineer Ken Kocienda told CNBC on Tuesday.

"You can take your phone and you could point its camera at something in the world," said Kocienda, the developer of the on-screen keyboard on the original iPhone and the autocorrect feature.

Then it would "tap into the network  the hardware and software  and would all collaborate" to give information to users' screens, he added.

Augmented reality, or AR, has become a major focus for technology companies, including Apple and Alphabet's Google, which are racing to release AR tools to attract software developers to their platforms.

AR allows viewers to see information superimposed on their surroundings via their smartphones or other devices. It's the technology used in Nintendo's popular mobile game "Pokemon Go."

According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Apple's move into augmented reality could boost iPhone and App Store sales, resulting in as much as $8 billion in revenue for the tech giant.

Kocienda, who spent 15 years at Apple, including a stint as the principal software engineer for the iPhone, said on "Squawk Box" there's a sort of "ebb and flow" to progressions in technology and the paradigm shifts often take a while.

Despite the time it takes for innovations, Kocienda said, Apple still has the ability command prices for its products that other companies cannot.

He mentioned the success of the Apple Watch, which was introduced in 2015 and carries a price tag of around $300 to $400 for its most recent model.

Last quarter, Apple reported $3.74 billion in revenue from its "other products" division, which includes sales of Apple Watches, iPods and home products.

Last week, Apple announced it will reveal its latest lineup of products on Sept. 12, which will likely include a new line of iPhones and a new Apple Watch.

Kocienda joined CNBC following the release of his book "Creative Selection," which offers a behind-the-scenes look of Apple's creative process during the Steve Jobs era.Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, speaks with reporters during the White House Sports and Fitness Day event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, May 30, 2018.

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's top outside attorney in the Russia probe, has a message for administration officials who reportedly ripped the commander in chief in Bob Woodward's upcoming book: go find another job.

"If they said it, they should be questioning why they are there. Why don't they go get another job? That's the kind of disloyalty that leads to you leaving, not staying and undermining the president," Giuliani told CNBC in an interview.

Giuliani did note, however, that many of the events described in the book occurred before he joined the president's legal team. He is not a member of the White House staff.

Woodward's book, "Fear," which is due out Sept. 11, claims chief of staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and told colleagues that the president was "unhinged" and that "he's gone off the rails," according to The Washington Post.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the book "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad."

In a statement released by the White House, Kelly said: "The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true."Dutch prosecutors said on Tuesday they had settled a money laundering case with lender ING Groep for 775 million euros ($900 million).

Prosecutors said they blamed ING for violating the country's law on preventing money laundering and financing terrorism "structurally and for years" by not stopping customers' accounts from being used for money laundering from 2010-2016.

Prosecutors said ING had failed at its gatekeeper duties, by sometimes not identifying the ultimate beneficial owners of accounts and not noticing unusual transactions that ran through them.

"The result was that clients for years were able to make use of ING bank accounts for criminal activities pretty much undisturbed," a prosecution statement said.

"ING should have seen that the money streams that ran through those bank accounts possibly were coming from crime," prosecutors said.

Of the settlement, 675 million euros was intended as a fine and 100 million euros as disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, the country's financial prosecution office said in a statement.

ING said it deeply regretted its failures.

"Not meeting the required standards is unacceptable and ING takes full responsibility," it said in a statement.

"Even though our policies and procedures in the Netherlands resulted in us terminating the relationships with thousands of clients, it was not enough."

The bank said its executive board, headed by CEO Ralph Hamers, had agreed to forego any bonus for 2018.A leading group supporting the computer science for all push in U.S. schools wants everyone from vendors to investors to school districts to publicly commit to supporting improved accessibility for students with disabilities.

In their urgency to serve a lot of kids, a lot of people have been moving so fast that they might have forgotten about this piece, said Ruthe Farmer, the chief evangelist at the nonprofit CSforALL Consortium .

But its early enough that if we address this now, we can build a fully inclusive movement for expanded computer science education, she said.

For vendors and developers, Farmer said, that means taking steps such as putting captions on videos, ensuring compatibility with screen readers for visually impaired students and making sure all online materials are compliant with accessibility standards. The pledge calls for organizations that develop curricula, content, tools, and devices for computer science education to assess their existing tools, create an improvement plan, develop guidance on accessibility for educators, and make the issue a priority moving forward.

We want to make sure that anything built in the future is born accessible, Farmer said.

The Accessibility Pledge also asks school districts and state education groups to focus on acquiring computer-science content that is accessible, and to provide teachers with professional development on supporting computer-science students with disabilities, among other steps.

And the pledge calls on corporations and foundations supporting computer science education to ask themselves a series of questions, including, Is the program or content delivered accessible to students with a broad range of disabilities?

Such steps are especially important for K-12 schools now rushing to embrace technology, said Meredith Boyce, a 21-year old student at Piedmont Technical College in South Carolina, who has been blind since she was 14.

I wish [schools] would keep this in mind when theyre going 1-to-1, said Boyce, who serves on the Accessibility Pledges advisory board and was recognized in 2015 as a White House Champion for Change , for her work to improve technology accessibility.

If you give out technology, you need to keep up with what disabled students need, she said.

So far, a mix of more than 40 vendors, school districts, and state departments of education have joined the pledge, according to Farmer. A complete list will be unveiled next month at the CSforAll annual summit in Detroit.

The pledge wont be legally binding, Farmer said, but is meant as a challenge to the computer-science education community to come together and tackle a significant problem. There will be ongoing technical support, and CSforAll is currently trying to raise funds that will be used to provide mini-grants to smaller organizations that want their products and programs to be more accessible.

Ultimately, its about raising awareness, said Emma Koslow, a 17-year old high school senior from New Jersey, who is also on the Accessibility Pledge advisory board.

When most people think about minorities in computer science education, theyre thinking about women, said Koslow, who runs her own nonprofit organization dedicated to providing computer science tutoring to students with disabilities.

We should also be aware that people with disabilities exist and need help learning to code, she said.

See also:

for the latest news on ed-tech policies, practices, and trends.By Trend





Russian automakers are switching over to settlements in national currencies with Turkey for the supply of components, as such plans have been declared by a number of companies, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov told RIA Novosti.

Speaking about the automotive industry, the minister noted that the current volatility of the ruble reduces profitability of those companies which still lack proper level of localization, however, the companies aimed at a high level of localization and enhancement of the volume of export supplies, also depend on imported components to some extent.

"For example, the level of localization for the range of products of "AvtoVAZ" PJSC company, on average, is above 50%, but is not equal to 100%. Therefore, the presence of 10, 20 or 30% of imported components has a significant effect. Only the case of the Turkish lira is an exception, we are working separately in this direction now. We still purchase quite large volumes of components in Turkey, for example for AvtoVAZ and other companies, but we see less dependence here, and of course, we experience more dependence in the EU countries," Manturov said.

He said that Turkish manufacturers "are switching over to payments in the national currency with great pleasure."

Answering the question whether Russian car making companies are already paying for components in Turkish lira or are just planning to switch over to such settlements, Manturov said: "I will not tell now exactly whether our manufacturers have switched over to purchases in national currencies to date, because they are great in number, there are more than one hundred manufacturers. But at least a month ago, we talked with a number of manufacturers, they were planning to switch over in a little while."

"The transition to settlements in national currencies is always a risk hedging. The lira has weakened, the ruble has also weakened slightly. Such situation will be comfortable for us," the minister added.Americans held nearly $1.38 trillion in student debt at the end of 2017, according to the New York Federal Reserve. As young people's student loan debt continues to grow, many are wondering how to make smart choices when it comes to their education.

The best way to think about earning a degree is to consider how you plan to use your education to pay off that debt, according to Kevin O'Leary, personal finance expert and star of ABC's "Shark Tank."

"You have to think about education as an investment because it's going to cost you money and it's going to create debt for you" in many cases, O'Leary tells CNBC Make It.

That means picking a major that's going to have a "higher certainty" of landing a high paying job, he explains. For students seeking job security and high pay, O'Leary says the best major to consider right now is engineering.

"Today in America, if you want a job, become an engineer, any engineer." O'Leary says. "It's not the easiest college degree to get, but it's one with the most, and best, outcome for employment."

Indeed, STEM majors like mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science often are cited on lists of the most valuable college majors, the majors most likely to lead to jobs and even most popular majors. Other job market analysts agree engineering and high tech are fields that provide a solid return on investment.

"The easiest route [to making six figures] is major in computer science or engineering," Marc Cenedella, CEO and Founder of Ladders tells CNBC Make It. "The return on going into tech and being a technologist are extraordinarily high. We're still only graduating about 40,000 computer science grads in the country and the demand relative to the supply is extraordinarily out of balance."

Of course, with artificial intelligence and machine learning advances on the horizon, unless you are building the AI, demand for some such degrees may change. Because of that, technology entrepreneur and O'Leary's fellow "Shark Tank" investor Mark Cuban suggests studying ethics and rational thinking will someday be more valuable than learning to code.

"In 10 years, a liberal arts degree in philosophy will be worth more than a traditional programming degree," Cuban told AOL in 2017. That's because artificial intelligence will enable technology to become so smart it can program itself. Then, the job market won't value coders, but the high level thinkers that can solve a new era of problems around tech advancement.

"Artificial intelligence won't need you or I to do it, it will be able to figure out itself how to automate [tasks] over the next 10 to 15 years," Cuban explained.

And there are many paths to success. Some business leaders say college isn't the most important ingredient. "Shark Tank" investor Daymond John says the best thing you can do to succeed is take advantage of any opportunity around you, hustle and learn.

"Hunger is the key," John tells CNBC Make It. "I don't believe [college is] necessary for success."

As for O'Leary, he studied psychology and environmental science in college, and hoped to become a photographer or a musician. After having an admittedly tough time finding a job and heading to Ivey Business School at Western University to earn an MBA, O'Leary later made his fortune in the educational software business. Today, he's the chairman of ETF company O'Shares Investments and has seen successful exits from his "Shark Tank" investments. Plated, a meal delivery company O'Leary invested in, sold to Albertsons for $300 million in 2017 in what O'Leary says was the biggest exit on the show.

"You can become a poet or an artist or a writer and you never know," O'Leary says. "There's a lot of serendipity in life, you never know what your career path is going to look like."

Still, he argues you should maximize your chances of financially succeeding and paying off any student debt you accumulate: "If you're asking me what my top three picks are, you've got it: No. 1 engineering, No. 2 engineering, No. 3, go with engineering."

Don't miss: Kevin O'Leary reveals his most embarrassing money confessions

Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube!House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats on Tuesday to prepare for the possibility of taking control of the chamber.

The California Democrat wrote in a post-Labor Day memo to colleagues that the party should "Be Ready for the prospect that we will be in the Majority in January" after November's midterm elections. Pelosi said that committee ranking members and other Democratic members have started to draft legislation to follow through on the party's agenda that it outlined in recent months.

The House Democratic leader said the party has started to craft bills that would aim to cut health-care costs, boost pay and crack down on corruption. Pelosi added that Democrats should prepare to act on "measures that have bipartisan support" including legislation to shield young undocumented immigrants from deportation and to prevent gun violence.

The message comes about two months before the midterms, when Pelosi's Democratic Party hopes to flip the 23 GOP-held seats needed to take a House majority. Forecasters consider Democrats at least slight favorites to do so. They lead Republicans by more than 10 percentage points in an average of recent generic ballots asking Americans which party they would prefer, according to FiveThirtyEight.

President Donald Trump's poor approval rating relative to most of his recent predecessors is expected to help Democrats, and polls in key states have found that more voters want their ballot in November to provide a check on Trump rather than to boost the president's agenda.

Pelosi's message to Democrats does not mention Trump's name, or some Democrats' calls to impeach the president. Party leaders and swing district House candidates have avoided discussion about removing the president from office, as they worry it could energize Republicans in key races.

Democrats on the campaign trail have prioritized health care and wages, among other issues, as they try to win numerous swing districts currently represented by Republicans across the country.

As a slew of allegations of self enrichment and abuse of taxpayer funds hit the Trump administration earlier this year, Democrats unveiled a handful of proposals aiming to reduce the influence of lobbyists and donors, stop partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts and improve voter registration.

Corruption became more of a focus for the party following GOP Rep. Chris Collins' indictment on insider trading charges and Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter's indictment on alleged misuse of campaign funds.

Both lawmakers pleaded not guilty to the charges against them, though Collins suspended his re-election campaign.And the president once phoned Defense Secretary James Mattis to say "Let's f---ing kill him" after Syrian leader Bashar Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians, according to the book.

Trump also called Sessions "mentally retarded." The president was also the subject of insults. He was called "unhinged" and an "idiot" by his chief of staff, John Kelly, Woodward's book says.

According to the book, titled "Fear," Trump called Attorney General Jeff Sessions "a traitor," and complained "everybody's trying to get me" after he learned that Robert Mueller had been appointed special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election that sent Trump to the White House.

Legendary investigative journalist Bob Woodward has a new book about President Donald Trump's administration, and explosive excerpts, revealed by The Washington Post, paint a picture of a White House gripped by fear, loathing and chaos.

"Let's go in. Let's kill the f---king lot of them," Trump said in one of the highlights of the 448-page book that was described in an article Tuesday in The Washington Post, where Woodward has long worked. "Fear" is slated for a Sept. 11 release.

Woodward says in the book that he conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with participants and witnesses in the conversations he writes about. He also had taped notes, diaries and government documents.

The interviews were granted on the condition of "deep background," which according to Woodward meant that while he could write what happened, he could not reveal the sources of particular stories.

The Washington Post, in a separate article Tuesday, published a lengthy transcript of a call last month between Trump and Woodward, during which the president said, "I would've loved to have spoken to you" for the book.

Woodward replied that he had sought an interview with the president through about a half-dozen people, including senior presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway and White House spokesman Raj Shah.

"They don't tell me," Trump said.

Mattis is depicted in the book as being "particularly exasperated and alarmed" by having to tell Trump that "we're doing this in order to prevent World War III" to justify the presence of the U.S. military on the Korean Peninsula.

Mattis told associates that Trump "acted like  and had the understanding of  'a fifth- or sixth-grader,' " according to the book.

But Trump is quoted in "Fear" as being scornful of the intelligence of Sessions, a former Alabama senator whom he has long blamed for recusing himself in the Russian investigation, a step that led to Mueller's appointment.

"He's this dumb Southerner.  He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama," Trump reportedly said of Sessions.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment to CNBC when asked about the president's characterization of Sessions, who heads the department.

Woodward also writes that Trump exploded in a rage after a practice interview with his own lawyer John Dowd playing the role of Mueller, as they prepared for a potential sit-down with the special counsel.

"This thing's a goddamn hoax," Trump fumed, according to the book. "I don't really want to testify."

Dowd was sure that Trump would committ perjury if he did talk to Mueller, Woodward wrote.

But when Dowd told Trump, "Don't testify," warning that "It's either that or an orange jumpsuit," the president pushed back.

"I'll be a real good witness," Trump reportedly said.

"You are not a good witness," Dowd retorted, according to the book.

The attorney quit the day after their conversation.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in a prepared statement, said, "This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad."

According to the Post's account of the book, Kelly despaired of dealing with Trump, whom he called "unhinged" during discussions with colleagues in the White House.

"He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails," Kelly was quoted in the book as saying.

He added, "We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."

Kelly on Tuesday said, in a prepared statement: "The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true."

"As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: 'I spend more time with the President than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS. I'm committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration's many successes.' "

Kelly's statement referred to an earlier one he had made in May, after NBC News first reported that he had called Trump an "idiot."

Woodward reports that after Trump finally condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis  he initially claimed that "both sides" were to blame for violence during a white supremacist rally last year in Charlottesville, Virginia  he complained to aides, "That was the biggest f---ing mistake I've made."Very little spare capacity in the market leaves $90 for a barrel of oil a very likely prospect by November, one industry expert told CNBC.

Middle East oil ministers told CNBC Monday that they didn't believe oil prices would rise above even $80 in the near term, particularly given Saudi Arabia and Russia's pledge to up production.

But, Amrita Sen, a chief oil analyst at Energy Aspect, disagrees. She said potential disruptions threatening certain oil exporters' production capabilities  namely, economic turmoil in Venezuela, social unrest in an oil-rich area of Iraq and U.S. sanctions on Iran  could lead to a sharp increase in prices.

"The critical thing is that Venezuela's (production) continues to drop, Iran is finally falling and we had that big timing mismatch  OPEC had increased production too soon, now Iran is falling so the market is really, really tightening up very quickly," Sen told CNBC's "Street Signs" Tuesday.

"Iraq, Libya, Nigeria  All three are very, very unstable and only one of these protests really needs to go bad and production will come off," Sen said, referring to protests in Iraq's oil-rich south and potential further oilfield shutdowns in Libya.

"This is the issue we have  OPEC has already increased production and near-term capacity is very limited, I would say about 300,000 barrels per day. Russia is already maxed out (in terms of output), Iraq is maxed out, so that means if you have any other outage  We just don't have any spare capacity to absorb it. Immediately, the market will feel the shortage."Alex Karp grew up in a liberal household and considers himself a progressive. He voted for Hillary Clinton, and he lives and works in Silicon Valley.

Yet Mr. Karp, the chief executive of Palantir, has found himself increasingly at odds with his peers in the technology industry as it publicly distances itself from the government, particularly the Department of Defense, under President Trump.

Mr. Karp readily admits he would prefer that Mr. Trump didn't occupy the Oval Office. But he believes that Silicon Valley  already facing something of a crisis of user confidence over issues including privacy and foreign influence  is setting itself up for a fall.

"It's going to be a very significant problem for the Valley," Mr. Karp, who rarely speaks publicly, said in an interview in his Manhattan office.

"I don't know how you stand up and talk to a Marine or a special operator and explain to them how you have a piece of software that will allow them to come home  or more likely allow them to come home  and you're not going to allow them to use it," he said. "I think it's a nearly impossible argument to make outside the Valley without people being legitimately pretty upset."

Employees at companies including Google, Microsoft and Amazon don't see it the same way. Google, under internal pressure, abandoned its contract with the Pentagon on Project Maven, which used artificial intelligence software to improve the analysis of imagery from drones. Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, has faced opposition from workers who want the company to end a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And Amazon employees have objected to providing facial recognition technology to police departments and other agencies.

All of this has set off a quiet  but growing  debate across corporate America in the age of Trump: What does it mean to be a patriotic company when you vehemently disagree with your nation's leader?

More from The New York Times:

China's Internet Obsesses Over Arrest of JD.com Founder Richard Liu

Tech Giants Now Share Details on Political Ads. What Does That Mean For You?

India Pushes Back Against Tech 'Colonization' by Internet Giants

Within the technology industry, the debate has been couched as a "moral and ethical" one: "We believe that Google should not be in the business of war," employees wrote in a petition that led to the company's withdrawal from Project Maven.

In truth, the ethical arguments are a diversion. This is political.

And there is a real danger in letting politics undermine the storied relationship between the government and Silicon Valley  Hewlett-Packard built sonar, radar and aviation equipment for the government during World War II, for example  that has led to much of the innovation we enjoy today.

Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School and a member of the Defense Innovation Board, an independent federal advisory committee set up under President Barack Obama, said he believed that the partisanship that was contributing to the debate would ultimately stifle innovation.

"I worry that it will stall progress," he said. "Innovation has been fueled for decades by private-public partnerships. It smacks of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Even if you're not a fan of the president, you can still serve your country."

Mr. Karp, whose parents met at a civil rights demonstration, said he believed that American companies, including those in Silicon Valley, had a moral obligation to support the country and its military, no matter who was living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"We're proud that we're working with the U.S. government," he said.

Of course, Mr. Karp certainly has an interest in maintaining relationships between the government and the technology sector. Palantir, which uses technology to analyze vast troves of data, was founded with the help of $2 million from the Central Intelligence Agency's venture capital arm, and much of its business model was to use data to help the government in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. But that makes his willingness to be so forthright about his view of the president refreshing when his peers who may have similar views stay quiet.

"I obviously am very biased," he said. "I have a problem if I go to a cocktail party in Silicon Valley because they want to know, 'Is it true that your product is used to target terrorists?' Yes. And some people don't agree with that. That's fine, by the way. I don't expect everyone to agree with that."

His outspokenness is even more surprising given that a co-founder of Palantir is Peter Thiel, a serial entrepreneur who has publicly supported Mr. Trump.

"We didn't vote for the same people," Mr. Karp said without hesitation. "We're not going to vote for the same people."

Still, even if it is political allegiances that have prompted tech workers to push back, the ethical issues around artificial intelligence are not insignificant. Everyone from Elon Musk to Stephen Hawking has raised questions about technological warfare in the future. But we are still most likely decades away from those extreme kinds of worries being realized.

In fairness, the fears of some technology workers that their work will be used for ill do have a historical basis  in other countries. Ferdinand Porsche designed tanks for the Nazis, and Hugo Boss made their uniforms. Was that patriotism? Would it matter?

Reid Hoffman, who founded LinkedIn and sold it to Microsoft, where he now sits on the board, said there were real worries about how the government would use powerful technologies like artificial intelligence.

"I think that the majority of Silicon Valley people have a strong worry/reflex against weapons," said Mr. Hoffman, who is a member of the Defense Innovation Board with Mr. Grant. The Trump administration, he said, has "amplified" concerns over "possible bad government action."

But Mr. Karp said claims that a president could steer us toward an authoritarian world powered by artificial intelligence were too extreme.

"America is a complicated modern democracy with numerous checks and balances so that no one person has the ability to do insane things," Mr. Karp said. With government work, he added, "you're buying into the inherent fabric and structure of the country."

Lost in the conversation in Silicon Valley is its own history. The internet itself was originally funded by an arm of the Defense Department that is now called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. As recently as the Obama administration, Silicon Valley's biggest technology giants embraced roles advising the government.

But there is a difference between today's tech giants like Google and Facebook and those who turned the Santa Clara Valley into Silicon Valley. A bond with the government "was clearly not part of the founding of the consumer internet in any relevant way," Mr. Karp said.

It is a connection that should be better understood by the employees now pushing for it to be severed. Those bright minds are able to have this debate in part because of the work done by their predecessors.

And given the very real questions that have emerged about the benefits  or lack thereof  that the biggest tech companies truly offer society, those workers might want to rethink their position.

As Mr. Karp pointed out when we talked about the big technology companies, "If actually the narrative was 'We are helping also with our defense,' then people would understand the value of these other things" they do.

There could come a time when Silicon Valley wishes it was waving that flag.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday revoked amnesty given to an opposition senator involved in a failed coup 15 years ago and ordered his arrest, in what would be the second detainment of a senator critical of the president.

Senator Antonio Trillanes, Duterte's most vocal opponent, has repeatedly accused the president of asset concealment and backs complaints lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking his indictment over the alleged murders of thousands of criminals and drug dealers.

An executive order printed in the pro-Duterte Manila Times newspaper said amnesty given in 2010 to the former military serviceman was voided because he had not met the minimum requirements to receive it, including admitting his guilt.

The order instructed the justice department and armed forces to pursue criminal and administrative cases against Trillanes, while police and the military were ordered to arrest him and put him in detention to face trial.

Trillanes called it "a stupid executive order" and said he would not resist arrest or try to escape. "It's a clear case of political persecution," he told reporters at the Senate.

If Trillanes is arrested, he would be the second member of the 24-seat Senate to be detained under Duterte, joining Leila de Lima, a former justice secretary held for 18 months after being accused of facilitating drugs deals in national jails.

Both are critical of Duterte and his war on drugs and have led Senate enquiries into his role in alleged executions of criminals by police, both while president and when mayor of southern Davao City. Duterte denies wrongdoing.

The ICC in February started a preliminary examination into a complaint against the president, which accuses him of crimes against humanity.

Duterte is currently on an official visit to Israel and his spokesman was due to brief reporters there later on Tuesday.

Trillanes was granted amnesty by former President Benigno Aquino for involvement in a failed 2003 coup and mutiny in 2007.

Both incidents were against then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, an ally of Duterte who in July became speaker of the lower house.

"This incident, should be clear to everyone that Mr. Duterte is a dictator," Trillanes said. "He does not respect institutions. That is why we're like this: ordinary people are killed and critics are jailed."

Asked about arresting Trillanes, police spokesman Benigno Durana said any order given by judicial authorities would be complied with.Samsung will allow third-party developers to build apps for Bixby from later this year in a bid to boost the voice assistant's capability, the CEO of the technology giant's mobile division has told CNBC.

The news comes after Samsung announced the Galaxy Home smart speaker last month, its answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home and which will have Bixby built in, so users can ask it questions and request it to carry out tasks.

But Bixby is much newer than both its voice assistant competitors Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. As a result, Samsung wants to boost its use cases by opening up to developers.

DJ Koh, the CEO of Samsung's mobile unit, told CNBC that the company will release a software developer kit (SDK), as well as an application programming interface (API). The SDK will allow developers to make apps with Bixby, while the API will allow Bixby to be integrated with other apps.

Koh said that these updates would be released in November at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco.Samsung will unveil details of a foldable smartphone later this year, the CEO of its mobile division told CNBC, amid rumors that such a device was in the works. DJ Koh said that "it's time to deliver" on a foldable device after consumer surveys carried out by Samsung showed that there is a market for that kind of handset. Speaking to CNBC, Koh was tight-lipped on how the folding screen could work but ran through the design thinking of the upcoming smartphone, particularly how Samsung is trying to differentiate the experience from a tablet once it is unfolded.

Koh Dong Jin, president of mobile communications at Samsung Electronics, speaks during a media event in Seoul, South Korea. SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"You can use most of the uses ... on foldable status. But when you need to browse or see something, then you may need to unfold it. But even unfolded, what kind of benefit does that give compared to the tablet? If the unfolded experience is the same as the tablet, why would they (consumers) buy it?," Koh said at the IFA electronics show in Berlin last week. "So every device, every feature, every innovation should have a meaningful message to our end customer. So when the end customer uses it, (they think) 'wow, this is the reason Samsung made it'." The device may sound similar to a traditional flip phone which relied on a hinge to connect the two parts of the handset. But Samsung is likely to focus on creating an actual screen that bends. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that an upcoming foldable smartphone would use a single screen.

Koh hinted that more details of the device could be unveiled this year at the Samsung Developer Conference in November in San Francisco, but gave no indication of when a full launch would take place or when it might go on sale. The mobile CEO admitted that while the development process is "complicated," the company has "nearly concluded" it. The move comes as Samsung looks to reinvigorate growth in its mobile division which saw sales fall 20 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018. The South Korean technology giant is facing stiff competition from Apple and Huawei in the high-end of the market. A folding phone could differentiate it from its competitors and potentially allow it to charge a higher price for the unique device. Koh also told CNBC that the company is changing its strategy in the mid-tier smartphone market to pack lower priced devices with new technology in order to appeal more to millennials.

WATCH: Sony launches high-end smartphone that includes TV screenSpecial counsel Robert Mueller has offered to accept some written answers from President Donald Trump about Russia, NBC News confirmed with a person familiar with the matter.

Mueller's office agreed to receive written answers to questions about whether or not the Trump campaign worked with Russia in its efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.

The source told NBC that discussions are "moving in a positive direction."

This is the latest development in months-long negotiations between the two parties about a potential interview with the president.

The New York Times first reported the offer on Tuesday.

The Times reported that the letter, however, did not seek written responses to questions about whether Trump obstructed justice. It also did not say that Mueller was giving up on his pursuit of an interview with the president, the Times reported.

The special counsel and Trump's legal team have been negotiating a potential interview with the president for months.

Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a statement to NBC, "We have an ongoing dialogue with the office of special counsel and we do not discuss the contents of those discussions."Sweden's far-right anti-European Union party is poised to make big gains in the country's general election on Sunday, capitalizing on voter discontent over issues such as immigration, crime and health care. Voters in Sweden will head to the polls to elect a new parliament and government to succeed the Social Democrat-Green coalition that has run the country for the past four years. CNBC takes a look at all you need to know ahead of the election.

Why does this vote matter?

The latest opinion polls suggest that Sweden's main center-left and center-right political blocs are practically running neck-and-neck ahead of the vote. Yet, while the governing center-left bloc is set to secure slightly more votes than the four-party Alliance bloc, both groups are likely to fall well short of a majority. The center-left had 40.2 percent of the vote, and the Alliance 38.9 percent, according to a poll by Novus late last month.

A woman walks next to election posters of the leader of the Social Democrats and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven, Swedish Minister for Finance Magdalena Andersson (L) and Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom on September 1, 2018 in Stockholm. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND | AFP | Getty Images

Minority governments are not usual in Stockholm, but traditional parties are struggling to attract enough voters for one overarching reason: Sweden's Democrats. Having led some opinion polls earlier in the summer, the unaligned right-wing populist party is now expected to win around 20 percent of the vote. After Italy's election of a populist government in March, the performance of Sweden's Democrats is likely to be closely monitored all over Europe.

What are the key issues?

Once again, immigration has been propelled to the top of the political agenda for another European vote. "Sweden has experienced, by far, the largest per capita immigration in Europe over the past few decades, which makes migrant-related issues especially divisive," Hakan Frisen, head of economic forecasting at SEB, said in a research note. After the Scandinavian country received around 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015, the current center-left coalition radically tightened asylum laws. But Sweden's Democrats  a nationalist party with roots in the country's white supremacy movement  has continually attacked the administration for putting the generous welfare state at risk. "Although a large majority of both the general public and members of parliament now believe that the tightening of refugee policy implemented in late 2015 should be made permanent, many difficult questions remain, particularly with political tensions connected to strains on the schools, health care, social services system and housing supply," Frisen said.

People are pictured next to an election poster of Ebba Busch Thor, leader of the Christian Democrats Party in Sweden on September 1, 2018 in Stockholm. The general elections in Sweden will take place on September 9, 2018. Jonathan NACKSTRAND | AFP

In addition to immigration, violent crime is also a key issue. It follows a string of shootings and grenade attacks in recent months. On August 13, masked men set alight up to 80 cars in Gothenburg and other towns on Sweden's west coast, in what the police said appeared to be a series of coordinated attacks. In response to the arson attacks, Prime Minister Stefan Lovren told Swedish radio: "I am really furious, what the hell are they up to?" "Society will always act hard against this and we must continue to do so We will do what needs to be done to take care of it and go in hard against this crime," he added. Another electoral issue, which has had minimal support among voters, is a so-called "Swexit" vote. Sweden's Democrats have said they would seek to hold a referendum over whether the country should join Britain and leave the EU. Carl Bildt, the country's former prime minister, described the prospect of a "Swexit" referendum as "the biggest single danger to Sweden's future prosperity." Sweden's robust economic performance over the past few years has barely featured in this political campaign.

How does the parliamentary vote work?

The 349 lawmakers of Sweden's Riksdag are elected through a process of proportional representation. The vote will see 310 members of its parliament elected in 29 constituencies, with the remaining 39 divided up so each party's parliamentary representation is matched by the share of the national vote.

Who is likely to win?Accenture, a leading global professional services company, has been ranked first across eight key service categories in a new study in the GCC, surpassing other top consulting firms in the region for the quality of its business strategy offering.



Conducted by Source Global Research, the GCC Client Perception Study 2018 ranks the regions leading consulting firms based on client perceptions.



We have worked hard to differentiate our offerings, particularly in the business strategy space, where clients benefit from data-driven insights that enable competitive agility and drive growth, said Alexis Lecanuet, regional managing director of Accenture in the Middle East and Turkey.



Were pleased that our high rankings include a number of digital services. Our key focus is on designing and implementing transformative business solutions that help the worlds leading organizations succeed today while building for the future.



For the study, Source Global Research surveyed senior executives, directors and senior managers in the GCC responsible for buying substantial volumes of consulting services in the previous year to gauge how consulting firms stack up against their competitors in the eyes of current and prospective clients.



The respondents surveyed represent a wide range of industries and business functions, with more than two-thirds (68 percent) of them working in organizations that generate more than $500 million in annual revenue. The study is also based on qualitative research from interviews carried out in 2017 and 2018 with senior buyers of consulting in the GCC.



In recent years, the world has witnessed change at an unprecedented rate, said Alison Huntington, head of client & brand insights at Source Global Research. As with almost all sectors, this shift has greatly impacted the consulting industry and forced firms to adapt to meet changing customer demands. Companies are increasingly turning to strategy and consulting firms to navigate digital transformation and set up robust business strategies. We would like to congratulate Accenture for claiming the top spot.



In addition to ranking the highest in quality of its business strategy offering, Accenture was also recognized as:



 #1 for quality of its digital transformation services;

 #1 for overall quality of work in the GCC, according to prospects;

 #1 for quality of financial management services;

 #1 for quality of data & analytics services;

 #1 for value, according to respondents in an operations role;

 #1 for quality, according to respondents from the services industry; and

 #1 for quality, according to respondents in an IT role.



As a services business, were incredibly proud that our clients have recognized our efforts and prefer Accenture across these key categories, said Visar Sala, a managing director at Accenture who leads Accenture Strategy in the Middle East and Turkey.



Receiving such high marks for our work, particularly in business strategy, is truly an honour given the competitive landscape in the region. With many industries heading into uncharted territory, Accenture is helping to shape our clients growth strategy, combining our deep business insight with the understanding of how technology will impact industry and business models.  TradeArabia News ServicePaul Pester, the embattled chief executive of Britain's crisis-hit TSB Bank, is stepping down from his position, the lender said on Tuesday, paving the way for a new leader to reinvigorate the bank's shattered brand.

Pester served seven years in charge of the challenger lender, but was heavily criticized for his role in a botched IT migration earlier this year that caused widespread disruption for thousands of its customers.

Richard Meddings, current Non Executive Chairman of TSB, will take on the role of Executive Chairman with immediate effect in order to enable a full public search to commence for a new chief executive, TSB said.

"Although there is more to do to achieve full stability for customers, the bank's IT systems and services are much improved since the IT migration," Meddings said in a statement.

"Paul and the Board have therefore agreed that this is the right time to appoint a new CEO for TSB. Our goal is therefore to allow a full search to commence, without any distractions, enabling TSB to build for the future."

The lender was sold by Lloyds Banking Group to Spain's Banco Sabadell in 2015.Woodward is an editor at the newspaper, but the report says the book was obtained by the Post.

A new bombshell book by journalist Bob Woodward says Cohn took letters off Trump's desk that would have formally withdrawn the U.S. from the trade pact with South Korea and given notice of an intent to withdraw from NAFTA, according to The Washington Post , which published excerpts on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump might have pulled the U.S. out of trade agreements with South Korea as well as Canada and Mexico if a few pieces of paper hadn't gone missing from his desk thanks to former White House economic advisor Gary Cohn.

Cohn, a former president of Goldman Sachs, worked as director of the National Economic Council from January 2017 through March 2018, a post that put him in close contact with the president. His resignation came shortly after Trump announced the U.S. would be slapping tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from a variety of countries.

In an interview with Daily Caller on Tuesday, Trump denied Cohn or anyone had taken items from his desk. "That's false," the Daily Caller quoted him saying. "There was nobody taking anything from me."

The U.S. continues to be a party to both the South Korea agreement and NAFTA, though the latter is currently being renegotiated.

According to the Washington Post's account of Woodward's book, Cohn would tell an associate later that he took the South Korea letter off Trump's desk to protect national security and that Trump hadn't noticed it was missing, the report said.

He also swiped a draft notification letter prepared by former White House aide Rob Porter at the president's request to withdraw the U.S. from the North American Free Trade Agreement. But, the report said, Porter and others worried about the move triggering an economic and foreign relations crisis, so Porter talked to Cohn, who told him, "I can stop this. I'll just take the paper off his desk."

The White House released a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying, "This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad."

Read The Washington Post story here.The Bayer AG logo sits behind silhouetted members of the management board during the company's annual general meeting in Bonn, Germany, May 25, 2018.

Bayer is considering job cuts and outsourcing as part of a wide-ranging review of drug research and development that will last until at least November, a person familiar with the company told Reuters.

The prospect of "very tangible changes" contributed to a decision by key board members to extend the contract of Hartmut Klusik, the 62-year-old head of personnel, which was due to expire at the end of the year, the source said. That decision is due to be signed off by the full board in September.

The savings that Bayer  the inventor of aspirin and maker of Yasmin birth control pills  could make as part of the overhaul would give it financial wiggle room as it competes with larger rivals to buy the right to promising treatments from biotech firms.

Bayer, which is due to release second-quarter results on Wednesday, is under pressure from investors to make purchases or do licensing deals that they say are needed to ensure the long-term independence of the pharmaceutical division.

But any major external expansion is unlikely until after the review is complete, the source said.

A company spokesman declined to comment on Klusik, any potential job cuts or outsourcing.

An extension of Klusik's contract had been in doubt, two sources familiar with the company said. This is because drug production at Bayer's Leverkusen plant in Germany was found to be substandard by U.S. regulators in February and this fell under his remit.

Bayer has said it launched the R&D review  starting in January when drug development head Joerg Moeller was given additional control over research and discovery in January  to "seamlessly steer" R&D activities.

A new team, reporting directly to Moeller has just been appointed to help map out the new setup, a third source said.

The review will look at whether drug testing services should be outsourced to cheaper contractors. Labor representatives, who are worried about jobs moving outside the company, are involved in the talks, the first source said.WPP nudged its full-year net sales outlook higher on Tuesday after it reported a 0.3 percent rise in the first half helped by demand in Europe, as its new boss said he would lay out his new strategy by the end of the year.

The group's operating margin slipped however, down 0.4 points, and it is likely to stay at a similar level for the full year as it restructures.

The world's biggest advertising company, under new boss Mark Read who was appointed on Monday, said it now expected growth in full-year net sales to come in at a similar level to the first half, ahead of its previous prediction of no growth at all.Chinese conglomerate Tencent is likely to be one of the biggest investors for Indian online food delivery service Swiggy, which is looking to raise $500-700 million, reported The Economic Times

Swiggy has already held discussions with a host of investors and Tencent is keen on contributing a significant portion of the investment, ET reported on Tuesday.

The company is also in talks with existing investors like Naspers and SoftBank, the report said, adding that it is not clear if SoftBank may participate in the fundraise now or invest later.

The funding size under discussion is around $650 million, with Naspers looking to invest $200-250 million. However, the talks are yet to take definite shape and will take another 3-4 weeks to crystallise, a person familiar with the development told the paper.

An investment of such scale could value Swiggy at $2.5-3 billion, the report added.Norway-based Jotun, a leading paint manufacturer, has responded to market demand for a cargo tank coating that allows greater cargo flexibility, long-term performance and vessel utilisation with the launch of Tankguard Flexline.



Tankguard Flexline will be revealed at SMM, an international maritime trade fair to be held in Hamburg, Germany. The unique product is built on the Flexforce technology, ensuring excellent cargo resistance, quick port turnarounds and lengthy, and hence cost effective, maintenance intervals.



Marc Giesselink, global director - tank coating, Jotun, said: In the ultra-competitive tanker market optimal vessel flexibility, efficiency and utilisation are top of the wish list for our global customer base.



However, the aggressive nature of some cargo types, which can be absorbed into tank coatings, stressing and ultimately damaging them, as well as leading to lengthy ventilation periods after unloading, has, until now, been problematic. This has obvious knock on effects upon vessel availability and utilisation, he said.



Tankguard Flexline has been developed to solve this pressing industry problem, with its Flexforce technology designed for effective operation enabling vessels to carry critical and aggressive cargoes shipped in coated cargo tanks. That provides full flexibility, leading to full vessels and real business advantage for our customers, he added.



Jotuns Solvoxirane chemistry is at the heart of the solution. Standard tank coatings typically absorb low molecular weight, aggressive cargoes leading to swelling that stresses the structural network of the coating film, said a statement.



However, the composition of the Solvoxirane chemistry provides greater coating flexibility, minimising structural stress over repeated absorption/ desorption cycles. Faster desorption times also lead to decreased ventilation requirements, quicker turnaround and enhanced vessel earnings. Typically, one day saved on ventilation equates to $14,000 in increased earnings, it said.



The durable nature of Tankguard Flexline also extends maintenance intervals. Jotun states that prolonged coating lifetime can save up to $600,000 in maintenance costs on a typical tanker vessel, it added.



Jotun developed the new product after an approach from long-standing customer Stena Bulk, which was looking to shorten vessel turnaround times and enhance cargo flexibility for its IMOIIMAX fleet.



Johan Jawert, vice president commercial operations, Stena Bulk, said: Extensive trialling of the product has produced the results the firm has been searching for.



Using Jotuns Tankguard Flexline cargo tank coating enables us to carry an extensive range of products and chemicals, including methanol, with higher flexibility, capacity and durability. This improves our operational efficiency, he added.



Tankguard Flexline is made to order in selected colours - grey, green, and pink - and is now available worldwide. It was made with carefully chosen raw materials to ensure that workers, applicators and the environment are not exposed to unnecessary HSE risks, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceHave photos from the 2018 Labor Day Lift Off balloon festival? Share them with us on Instagram (co_gazette) or Facebook, or email them to digiA few years ago, with much fanfare, Google launched their wireless service called Project Fi. They had intentions of becoming a leader if not the leader in the wireless space. After all, they now had all three corners of the market in one company. So, why have we not heard much of their progress in the last few years?

Today, Google has Android OS, they have their own smartphones called Pixel and they now had the service called Project Fi, which is an MVNO and resells both Sprint and T-Mobile.

In fact, it seems Project Fi users already have what the customers of both Sprint or T-Mobile hope to get if the merger is approved. Namely, one unified network made up of both, automatically switching between the two carriers, depending which has the best connection at the moment. This sounded like Google would be successful in services with this strategy.

Google successful with Android, but not so much with Pixel or Project Fi

Project Fi started in 2015 and I think the entire industry was waiting to see whether this would make a huge impact on the industry or not. At that time, I said Google does not enter a space unless they can lead in that space. In fact, I said they typically transform the space and create a new space which is easier for them to lead in.

At the time I said it was an interesting idea for Google to enter all three areas of the wireless services space. If they were successful, they could really build and grow even more than they have already done. I said they had a strong brand name and that could help them achieve this goal.

However, I also said the chances of them having that level of success were not very good. While Google is super-successful with their Android, they are not so successful with their Pixel smartphones. At that time, I didnt know one way or another whether they would be successful in services. However, with their weak position in smartphones, I thought it would be an uphill climb.

Since that time, we have not heard much about this from Google. They are still successful with their Android, but not with their Pixel smartphone or their Project Fi services.

When it comes to moving into new segments, there are no guarantees of success. Just look at how other companies have tried and failed to enter this space.

Mobility leaders are AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint

The wireless industry is a funny place. Wireless carriers that have built a strong brand relationship with the customer base are the top performers. The top two carriers over the last decade have been AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, which together have the vast majority of the wireless marketplace. Next comes T-Mobile and Sprint who have two smaller slices of the wireless pie. These four carriers have the vast majority of customers.

So, is Project Fi stuck or can it begin to grow faster? Thats always possible. In fact, as we move forward there are other companies who have also entered the wireless space and seem to be doing well even though Google is struggling in this sector.

Comcast Xfinity Mobile started a year and a half ago and continues to win more market share every day. Charter Spectrum Mobile just started and has the chance to do the same thing. Next year, Altice Mobile will enter and have the same opportunity. These companies all market the same kind of MVNO services as Google Project Fi.

So, if Xfinity Mobile is doing well, why isnt Project Fi? Good question.

Xfinity Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, Altice Mobile new challengers in MVNO space

If I had to compare, I would say Xfinity Mobile is the leader in this suddenly growing MVNO space. Thats curious because Project Fi was started years earlier, in 2015 and could have been, should have been successful as well.

So, why is Google not as successful with Project Fi as Xfinity Mobile seems to be? Lets take a closer look at the differences between these two companies.

Xfinity Mobile does not advertise and market the same as other wireless competitors. They dont have a goal to lead the wireless industry. Instead, their goal is to strengthen their company, stabilize their own customer base and help them continue to grow. They see mobility as the fourth leg on their stool of wireless, pay TV, Internet and telephone.

Google comes at this wireless opportunity from a completely different direction. They dont get into any business unless they can lead. In fact, Google doesnt enter a space unless they can re-invent and expand it and lead that new space. This is the plan for their Android, Pixel and Project Fi operations.

However, as successful as Google has been in some areas, they struggle in others and always have. They have been trying to succeed at smartphones and services for years with little success. This reminds me of other companies who had the same problem.

Remember Microsoft decade long attempt to make progress in the wireless and smartphone industry. They failed year after year until they eventually gave up. Remember the Facebook phone or the Amazon.com Fire Phone launched around 2014. All were flops.

Easier for Google to lead if they create a new industry segment

So, why are companies only successful in certain slices of the wireless pie? Why are AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile the leaders in wireless network services? Why are Apple iPhone and Google Android like Samsung Galaxy leaders in the smartphone market?

I believe the reason is simple. It all has to do with brand and trust. Companies that succeed in their space have built strong brand relationships with customers who trust them. However, because a customer trusts them in one area doesnt mean they will trust them in another area.

Companies are successful because they build brand and trust

Companies in other spaces have built the same level of brand and trust with those very same customers. So, its not a matter of winning customers over. Its much harder to build a quality relationship with a customer and move them from another company to yours.

Its much easier to create a new segment and lead that area. Create a new slice of the pie and attract customers to that. Thats how Google has won in certain segments.

Thats the mistake they made with their Pixel smartphone and Project Fi wireless service. They didnt reinvent anything. They entered the competitive space and battled industry leaders in those segments and so far, they have lost.

Google thought the power of their brand name would carry them to success. They were wrong.

Google reinvented the search industry. Their search was better and faster than others like Yahoo when they launched. They also created other industry segments or vastly improved them which attracted users by the truckload. Their navigation and traffic app are just two examples.

They didnt invent the segment, they just improved it so much they won.

Google has tried and failed at many other areas as well. Do you remember their health search engine which they closed years ago? The product was great, but it was simply not a commercial success. They throw ideas against the wall and whatever sticks, they build.

Whats the future of Project Fi and Pixel?

So, whats the future of Project Fi and for that matter Pixel? There are two options. Continue to try or exit the space.

They have been trying for three years with Project Fi and many more years with their smartphones. To date, it doesnt seem to be getting the same traction as Comcast Xfinity Mobile which launched last year.

It could be a moderate success for Google but has not reached the kind of industry leadership they always shoot for. Based on that, I wonder whether Pixel or Project Fi will stick around.

It could stay with us and Google could continue to try and try again. Others like Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon tried and failed as well. Will they re-enter and try again? They could.

After all, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and others tried and failed years ago. Comcasts re-entry with Xfinity Mobile is successful today. Theres a lesson to be learned. Never give up.

So, who knows whether Project Fi will stick around or not. I think Google wants this to be successful because it can open more doors of success, growth and dominance for them. Well just have to wait and watch and see what happens next.Alibaba launches scholarship programme in SG, with support from NTU and EDB

Alibaba Group has launched the Alibaba Talent Programme in Singapore with support from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

The programme aims to equip postgraduate students with critical research and development (R&D) skillsets through gaining practical work experience on projects with Alibaba.

In a press statement released on Sept 3, NTU said the programme is open to Singapore citizens or Permanent Residents (PR) who graduated from any local university or one of the select top-ranked universities around the world. The first intake will start in January 2019.

As PhD students, the programme participants will spend part of their studies at one or more of Alibabas research facilities. This will provide the students with the opportunity to participate in exciting research projects led by Alibaba and universities here, supported with access to large data samples and valuable business scenarios from Alibaba.

Through this programme, which is supported by NTU Singapore and EDB, we want to identify and nurture the next generation of R&D talent from Singapore and further strengthen the research community here, said Xiangwen Liu, Senior Director of Alibaba Technology Strategy Department. Developing new and disruptive ideas is crucial, and we are committed to nurturing talent who would be the driving force of the next-wave of technology innovation.

Photo courtesy: NTU

Professor Lam Khin Yong, Co-Chair of Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute and NTUs Vice President (Research), said, As NTU transforms into a Smart Campus, we will develop and testbed many of these digital technologies, giving our students an opportunity to be involved in projects with industry relevance.

All our PhD students involved at the Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute will also have hands-on experience in developing and deploying systems critical for the smooth running of a Smart Campus and a Smart Nation.

The Alibaba Talent Programme is under the auspices of EDBs Industrial Postgraduate Programme (IPP), which seeks to equip postgraduate students with critical R&D skill-sets through practical work experience on projects with a local or multinational company in Singapore.

Mr Ang Chin Tah, Director of Infocomms and Media at EDB, said, We are delighted that Alibaba has chosen to partner Singapore in training a future generation of AI experts. This will help us deepen our bench of AI experts to create new cutting-edge technologies from Singapore.

Apart from the financing of their PhD studies, the programme participants will each receive a monthly stipend of S$5,000, with mentorship by a main supervisor from the enrolled university and a co-supervisor from Alibaba.

Outstanding scholars admitted to the programme will also have the opportunity to continue their journey with Alibaba as a permanent employee, among other compelling benefits.Cllr Alex Walker is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Milton Keynes Council.

I cant pretend I was looking forward to this years Local Government Association conference. The thought of more meetings in musty conference halls is hardly something to relish. But in a way I hadnt expected, those few days in Birmingham opened my eyes to something very exciting happening in parts of local government. Councils doing rather than debating what not to do, and all against the backdrop of Brums colossal regeneration.

One statement in particular that has stayed with me from the conference was from the impressive Irene Lucas CBE who at the end of a presentation on Sunderlands local industrial strategy stated people making decisions for the future are from the wrong generations. Then calmly, in front of a crowd of Councillors who were mostly aged 60+, played a google advert where a newborn baby googled how to cut its own umbilical cord and took a selfie with its shocked parents. It perfectly and powerfully reinforced the point she was making.

There are great people in local government. Advice from those with long experience has been important to me and Im grateful as a young group leader for the support Ive received. But the truth is we need a mix of experience, and we arent seeing enough young people coming through on the political side or via the officer route. The average councillor age is rising and I can fully appreciate why many perceive local government as a preserve of the old.

There are reasons why younger people find it hard to get involved. As a young person myself I have a lot of sympathy with individuals who choose not to. It can be seen as an unstable sector. For those who follow the political route it takes up a lot time when you want to focus on a full time career, or perhaps you want to start a family. Local politics can be seen as too partisan and sometimes council groups, no matter what party, can seem closed shops.

I think the nation has done pretty well engaging younger people in political debate in recent years. The referendums on Scottish independence and EU membership has helped to spark interest. But there is a bigger national challenge about engaging young people in political life. We need to do more to engage young people in the political and decision making process.

The reason for this that I believe is vital is because digital is changing the way we live our lives. Local government policy cant keep up and will never keep up, unless younger generations who are evidently excited by fast evolving technology, and see it all as an opportunity, are part of the decision making process.

The Local Digital Declaration, announced at the LGA conference by the Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak, is welcome. However, we need to be ambitious with how that funding and future funding is used. It was proudly launched with the quote: Whether its an app to report fly-tipping, or slick online services to pay your Council Tax, many local authorities are at the forefront of digital innovation. This is great, but we can do so much more, and no matter how much money is pumped into this or other initiatives, it needs the right people to shape how it is invested so we are not just improving websites, but actually integrating new technology into how a town or city operates, from waste management to public transport.

I am strongly of the opinion that the most successful Councils of the next decade will be those who can engage experienced minds with the creative and too often hidden talent of young people. That needs us in local government to better communicate the possibilities the future holds, and that despite the pressure Councils are under, we can still deliver innovative services. We also need to be more open. That means promoting diversity and inclusiveness, and encouraging political parties to give their talented younger members real responsibility, not just a bundle of leaflets. Youth and experience is the recipe for success.George Trefgarne is CEO of Boscobel & Partners and the author of Norway then Canada, a new strategy for avoiding a Brexit smash.

Nick Boles, the MP for Grantham, launched his campaign for a Better Brexit at the weekend, based on Britain falling back on membership of the European Economic Area (EEA), the so-called Norway option, and using that as a platform for then negotiating a proper Canada-style free trade agreement.

The EEA, to remind you, is a commercial treaty, signed in 1992, which promotes free trade between the European Union and the European Free Trade Association, made up of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Lichtenstein. It enables participation in the Single Market, but from outside of the EU.

Boles is a former Remainer, but he rejects the Chequers proposals as a humiliation and he is working with pragmatic Leavers, such as Lord Owen (and myself), to try and persuade his colleagues of the merits of the EEA as an alternative.

So far, the reaction to Better Brexit has been as expected, and much of it hinges on the legal position and whether the Government has been as candid as it should have been about the attractiveness of the EEA and how easy it is for us to fall back on it. Number 10 says the treaty will no longer operate from March next year because we are leaving the European Union. The implication is that this option is off the table already. It is Chequers or bust.

However, this is disingenuous, to put it mildly. And it is on this disingenuity that the scepticism of many Brexiteers towards the EEA hinges.

According to senior lawyers, notably Sir Richard Aikens, a recently retired Lord Justice of Appeal, the United Kingdom does remain a contracting party of the European Economic Area, having signed it in its own right. While we are leaving the so-called EU governance pillar, all we need to do is to apply to join the EFTA Pillar to make it operative. On top of this pillar sits the EFTA Court.

The EEA Treaty would have to be amended to make this happen. But if the EU tried to exercise a veto, it would be in breach of its good faith obligations to make the Treaty work, and we could appeal to international arbitration.

Contrary to another legal myth, the EFTA Court does not always do as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) says. The two courts do work together to create a homogenous area of law, but there are numerous times when the EFTA Court has disagreed with the ECJ. If we joined EFTA, we would probably have two of the five judges on the court.

The EEA not only delivers Brexit by being outside the jurisdiction of the ECJ and, for that matter, the Common Fisheries Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy. Norway and co also have input to single market legislation via the decision shaping process. They have rights of adaptation. And, in extremis, right of veto.

When he appeared on the Andrew Marr programme at the weekend, Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, said that he could not support Boless proposals because he wants to make sure we have control of our money and our borders. He appears to have been misled on important details.

The EEA does give us control over our borders. British passports would return. And while we would have to sign up to free movement of workers (my emphasis) we can effectively opt out of or limit it by invoking Articles 28 (3) or 112. Lichtenstein has already done so successfully since 1997 and restricts annual immigration from the EU to between two and three per cent of its population. The Home Affairs Select Committee also made this point in a report in July.

Nor is it correct that membership of the EEA does not give us control over our money. There is no obligation to join the euro. Nor are there compulsory contributions to the EU budget. Instead, EFTA members make agreed contributions to participate in specific EU programmes. Norway also provides grants direct to Eastern European nations to support their development. George Yarrow, an Oxford University economist (and intellectual father of Better Brexit), estimates Britains net payments to the EU would fall from 9 billion to around 1.5 billion.

How have we got into a situation where this important Brexit option, which is more attractive than the two-year Implementation Period, the Chequers proposals (even before they have been watered down by the EU), and the potential economic disruption of No Deal, has been neglected?

Here the plot gets murky. The Article 50 letter, sent in March last year, and which was only shown to the Ministers from the Department for Exiting the European Union with a few hours notice, conspicuously lacked giving 12 months notice to leave the EEA under Article 127 of the EEA Treaty. It has been suggested to me by a variety of sources that the Cabinet Office ministers who actually wrote the letter deliberately left out departing the EEA, intending to keep it as an option for the future.

Even if such a conspiracy theory is untrue and it was just a cock-up caused by the Prime Minister falling for the myths about the EEA (first circulated, ironically, by Remainers during the referendum), the fact remains that the Government has got itself into a position where it is trying to remove us from an important international treaty  and a vital Brexit option  either by subterfuge or by mistake. And Brexiteers have, for the most part, been taken in.

Assuming the No Deal/WTO rules outcome the hardcore Parliamentary Brexiteers favour is blocked by the Commons, as seems likely, and the only remaining options are Chequers or delaying Article 50, the true legal position in relation to the EEA and its provisions could suddenly become a serious controversy. The EEA may not be perfect, but is off-the-shelf, delivers Brexit, it works and gives us options. That is a start, is it not?Henry Newman is Director of Open Europe.

What will happen with Brexit? Its the political question of the moment. And its also somewhat unanswerable. Since the Governments botched handling of its Chequers proposals, the divides in the Conservative Party seem cavernous. Can a majority be found in the divided Commons for any sort of Brexit? Equally with Brusselss intransigence over the Irish border question, its possible that both sides will be unable to come to an overall agreement. However, some sort of deal on the terms of exit remains the most likely scenario. But we will know more about the future of Brexit in the months ahead.

Despite the profusion of new groups forming to oppose the Chequers plans and recent critical comments by Michel Barnier about those plans, the question of the UKs future relationship with the EU isnt actually directly crucial to Brexit itself. Parliamentarians in the UK may demand details of the future relationship to be spelled out (threatening otherwise to vote down the deal). But in terms of the negotiations, the only determinant of whether we leave with a deal, and hence with a transition or not, is getting the withdrawal agreement over the line. The withdrawal agreement  primarily about money, nationals and Ireland  is largely complete, but the issue of the Irish backstop remains unsolved.

Can it be solved? Perhaps not, and therein lies the risk of a no deal exit. As ever, part of the problem has been the UK Governments inaction and inability to make any sort of decision in a timely fashion. And part of the problem is also intransigence from the Brussels side, and a seeming refusal to recognise that imposing a hard internal customs border within the UK would be an impossibility for any political party. An additional complication is the absence of a functioning assembly in Northern Ireland.

The British Government has been saying for months that it will not accept a border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. But the penny only seemed to drop when the Government accepted an amendment to the Trade Bill to this effect which was originally proposed by the ERG. On this question, the Commons didnt even divide. When I spoke to London-based diplomats from EU countries before they went off on their summer break, there was some genuine shock that this amendment had ruled out various options for the Irish backstop, as if they hadnt quite grasped that even pro-EU MPs would not want Northern Ireland in an entirely separate customs regime from the rest of the country.

Dominic Raab has accelerated the pace of talks with Barnier over the last few weeks. His team will be working with their counterparts on the EU side to seek to find a way through on the Irish backstop question. Some argue that the UK can sign off on an undesirable version of the backstop, confident in the knowledge it wouldnt be used. But that seems a very risky strategy. On the other hand, the EU side are refusing to accept a backstop applying to the whole of the UK. So the options for a fudge are limited, even though one is sorely needed.

Theresa May will hope to press her case face-to-face with the EU leaders and to impress on them the risks of a no deal exit, for both sides. But, although she has been meeting EU leaders individually, the next opportunity for her to push for a breakthrough will come at the European Council meeting later this month in Salzburg. We shouldnt hold our breath, though, despite the desire of the Austrians (who hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union) to achieve some progress on the Brexit impasse.

Although a breakthrough then is unlikely, May will hope that the Governments Chequers plan will convince the EU that the UK is willing to compromise to deliver a good Brexit, and therefore that she should have some goodwill. She will surely remind the assembled leaders that she has already had her Brexit Secretary and Foreign Secretary resign, and her political space to move further is very limited.

The Prime Ministers next moment to turn on her charm will come at Octobers Council meeting. After that, theres the prospect of an emergency meeting to allow the leaders to meet again at some point in November. By then, the timetable will be getting tight, and the UK may have to begin to activate plans for a no deal exit  some aspects of these need quite a significant lead time. There also needs to be time to pass the relevant legislation through the Commons (allowing for a meaningful vote) and through the EU side, including the European Parliament. The Commons will be asked to vote on the withdrawal agreement which will spell out the terms of exit, plus include a political declaration on the future relationship. If the Commons votes it down then that would not in of itself stop Brexit  the Article 50 clock would still time out by April 2019, and the UK would be out but there would likely be no transition.

Its seem unlikely at this point that Parliament will have the opportunity to vote directly on Chequers itself, unless backbenchers and the Opposition engineer some sort of debate and then division on it. But that would be of limited effect. It might be possible for the Commons to try to amend the implementation legislation for the withdrawal agreement to rule out a Chequers-style arrangement with the EU, but its not clear what that would actually mean for the negotiations.

Over the weekend, Nick Boles launched a campaign arguing for the UK to leave the EU but temporarily to remain in the EEA. This so-called Norway then Canada option is attractive in various ways, and is also backed by Open Europe advisory council member George Trefgarne who is writing for this site this morning. However, whatever its attractiveness in policy terms (and I myself believed back in January 2017 that the UK should leave the EU in this manner), its hard to see how May could now make it work in political terms. Nonetheless, the possibility of the Government reaching for the EEA as an emergency off-the-shelf transition if all else breaks down should not be discounted, and it might have some attractiveness for Brexiteers keen to reset the negotiations.Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) has announced the launch of eight new oil listings following completion of the regulatory review.



A premier international energy futures and commodities exchange in the Middle East region, DME aims to provide oil producers, traders and consumers engaged in the East of Suez markets with transparent pricing of crude oil.



Among the new products offered by DME is the Oman Crude Oil/Platts Dubai Crude Oil Futures contract (code DOP) which helps customers match their hedging exposure for crude from Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest exporter of crude oil.



Saudi Aramco recently announced it is changing the way it calculates its Official Selling Price (OSPs) from 1 October, 2018, which will take the monthly average of DME Oman and Platts Dubai - creating a hybrid between the two major Asia benchmarks, said a statement from DME.



To complement the new crude oil hedging tool, DME is also listing the Oman/Dubai contract as a spread versus Brent futures and Asian refined products, it stated.



DME Chairman Ahmad Sharaf said: "The new listings are the next step in the natural evolution of the DME and exchange-traded products across the Asian markets, helping customers to hedge physical pricing exposure on both crude oil and refined products."



The new listings will complement DMEs current suite of products, which includes the flagship Oman Futures contract, along with Dubai and Brent/Dubai futures, he added.



Launched in 2007, DME has rapidly grown into a globally relevant exchange. Its flagship Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract is now firmly established as the most credible crude oil benchmark relevant to the rapidly growing East of Suez market.



It is a joint venture between Dubai Holding, Oman Investment Fund and CME Group. Global financial institutions and energy trading firms including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Shell, Vitol and Concord Energy also hold equity stakes in the DME.-TradeArabia News ServiceMany Conservatives have a sense of frustration that the Government is drifting along without a clear sense of its mission or a radical set of policies to achieve it. There are plenty of excuses, of course: The lack of an overall majority in the House of Commons. The Brexit bandwidth leaving little time for the Government to focus on anything else. But the main explanation is the difference in temperament between Theresa May and her predecessor David Cameron. A Cameron administration would always have a greater tendency towards reforming zeal than one headed by the instinctively more cautious May.

Given this scenario there are few Conservatives who will feel more frustrated than particular cabinet ministers. They come up with proposals and send them in to be signed off by Downing Street. It is not that they are rejected. If anything it is worse. The proposals just sit there.

Until a few months ago the only exception was Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary. He has proved himself a valiant eco-warrior. Rather than seeing Brexit as a burden and excuse for delay he has presented it in positive terms as an opportunity to enhance the countryside, reduce pollution, and improve animal welfare.

Then in April we saw the appointment of Sajid Javid as Home Secretary. His appointment was an indication of the weak position May was in  doubtless she would have preferred someone like James Brokenshire or Karen Bradley who would have been more malleable. Anyway Javid thus became the first Asian, indeed the first from any minority ethnic group, to hold such high office. However since then he has become more noticed for getting things done. When Margaret Thatcher (of whom Javid was a huge fan) became Prime Minister there was much comment about her being the first woman in the job. In retrospect Thatcher being the first woman PM was one of the less important aspects about her  it was what she accomplished that mattered. Javid has already made his mark  including changes in the direction to Mays tenure at the Home Office.

This morning The Times reported:

Sajid Javid is planning a significant extension of stop-and-search powers in his latest challenge to Theresa May and her legacy as home secretary.

Mr Javid wants officers to be able to stop anyone suspected of carrying acid without a good reason. At present police can do so only when they have evidence that a person is about to cause an injury.

The home secretary is also pushing for police to be able to stop and search people carrying laser pointers or drones. The changes expand powers that Mrs May sought to curb before she became prime minister.

The move is likely to boost Mr Javids law and order credentials and marks his latest departure from Mrs Mays policies in the Home Office. Since his promotion in April he has rejected her immigration cap for doctors and nurses and lifted the ban on the medicinal use of cannabis oil.

Mrs May made her restrictions on stop and search a centrepiece of her time as home secretary after discovering that young black men were seven times more likely than young white men to be stopped by police. She issued guidelines in 2014 that by March 2016 had cut stop-and-search rates by 28 per cent. She also resisted changes subsequently.

For years crime has been falling. But last year saw an overall increase  including alarmingly sharp increases in certain categories, notably a 30 per cent increase in robbery. Under normal circumstances the Government would have faced greater political challenge over those statistics. However Labour are not well placed to do so. In London, where the Labour Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has responsibility, the increases have been particularly bad  an issue which leaves him vulnerable moving towards the 2020 Mayoral election. Nor can Jeremy Corbyn, or Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, easily present themselves to the public as robust and champions in the fight against crime. Yet for Javid to ensure the crime rate starts falling again is a key test.

Then there is immigration. Javid is described as taking a more liberal stance than May. Broadly speaking that is true  and given that he was appointed after the Windrush scandal that is hardly surprising. But it is a bit more complicated than that. Nick Timothy wrote in The Sun this morning of his suspicion that the Chequers proposals would not end free movement with the EU. He thinks that phrases in the White Paper about a youth mobility scheme and other specific mobility areas could be codes that would allow it to continue.

Javid was a (most reluctant) Remain supporter in the referendum. But he is now emphatic that free movement must end  an issue he has reportedly clashed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, over. It is not only an issue of how open or restricted immigration should be but whether EU nationals should get preferential treatment. It could be justified as part of a free trade deal  as it could for India or Australia on anywhere else. Other than that it would seem discriminatory and illogical.

Our survey indicates that Conservative members are pleased with Javids performance. It is still early days for him. However the latest pledge to strengthen stop and search will provide further encouragement.Our Survey. Mays summer offensive makes no impact. Over two in three Party members continue to oppose the Chequers plan.

Last month, 27 per cent of our Party members panel said that the Chequers proposals represented a good deal for Britain, and 68 per cent opposed them.

This month, those figures are 69 per cent and 23 per cent.

And then, 29 per cent said that they supported Chequers, and 67 per cent that they did not.

Those figures this month are 26 per cent and 69 per cent respectively.

If the survey is right, the Prime Ministers pro-Chequers summer offensive, complete with the wooing of Association Chairman and letters to Party members, has made next to no difference at all: indeed, the position for her has slightly worsened, if anything.

At any rate, the survey once again is remarkably consistent. It may of course be that it is over-stating the extent of activists hostility to Chequers, but it generally tends to be in the same territory as the occasional YouGov polling of them.We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds..The UAE has selected Hazza Ali Abdan Al Mansouri and Sultan Saif Hamad Al Neyadi as the first two Emirati astronauts in cooperation with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, a media report said.



The selection was made from 4,000 young men and women who have been tested for the UAE Astronaut Programme, which aims to qualify and prepare Emirati astronauts for scientific missions in outer space, reported Emirates news agency Wam.



One of the astronauts will fly into space next April as the first Emirati astronaut on a 10-day mission as part of the Russian space mission to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. The second astronaut will serve as a replacement.



Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said: "Hazza and Sultan represent a new stage for the UAE youth and raise the aspirations of new generations after them. Our dreams embrace space ... and we are proud of our youth, and our future is based on a solid scientific foundation.



"We have the only Mars probe programme in the region; our satellite industry has realised its full potential; we have UAE astronauts; we have a space industry worth AED20 billion, and we have aspirations without limits... when given the opportunity, Arabs can reach for the stars."



He concluded by saying that the UAE is accomplishing outstanding achievements in the space sector and Emirati youth represent all Arab youth.



Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, congratulated Al Mansouri and Al Neyadi on passing the tests and demonstrating their abilities and capabilities in the space programme. He also wished them success in carrying out the scientific tasks entrusted to them.



Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed added that the achievements of Hazza and Sultan and their desire to provide a qualitative national addition reflect the aspirations of the UAE youth and their determination to reach the highest levels in all fields.



Sheikh Mohamed said: "As space has no limits, there are also no limits to our ambitions to accomplish greater achievements for our country."



He added that the UAEs goal, under the presidency of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to help the journey of humanity to space is part of its keenness to help advance the international efforts to serve humanity.



Al Mansouri and Al Niyadi reach the final stage of the competition out of 4,022 applicants, by completing six phases of medical, psychological and advanced tests and a series of interviews, in cooperation with NASA, as well as advanced medical tests by Roscosmos.



Thirty-four-year-old Hazaa Ali Abdan Khalfan Al Mansouri has a Bachelors Degree in Aviation Science and Military Aviation from the Khalifa bin Zayed Air College, has 14 years of military aviation experience, and has completed training programmes both inside and outside the country, including advanced courses on rescuing people from drowning, rotation training, acceleration up to 9Gs and red flag exercises in the US. In 2016, Al Mansouri qualified to be an aeronautical pilot and now pilots an F-16B60 aircraft.



Thirty-seven year old Sultan Saif Muftah Hamad Al Niyadi has a PhD in Data Leakage Prevention Technology from Griffith University in Australia that he had obtained in 2016, as well as a Masters degree in Information and Networks Security from the same university, a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Brighton University in the UK, and completed a general education programme in IT in the UK in 2001.



The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre launched the Emirates Astronauts Programme in December 2017 and created an e-registration portal for those who aim to be the first Emirati astronaut.The French source market contracted in 2017, shrinking to just over 503,000 guests from 574,000 the year prior, according to Remi Arca, chairman of Un Ocean de Croisieres, a major travel agency.

This can be attributed to the demise of CDF, which was the French brand, Arca said, in the 2019 European Regional Report by Cruise Industry News.

That shifted a number of budget-minded travelers to book land vacations in Tunisia and Morocco, he said.

At Selectours, a group of some 1,200 travel agents, demand is strong despite a lack of French-themed cruise capacity, said Valerie LaRoche, director of sales.

Weve seen a bit of a decline in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, but there has been a strong increase in Caribbean bookings despite the storms, she said.

For Arca, the Eastern Mediterranean has not done well.

That is due to the geopolitical problems we all know about, he said. But, destinations like the Arctic, Antarctica and Greenland have become very popular.

LaRoche said that packaging in onboard items with ticket purchases was a good move.

It is more complicated, but the cruise lines have provided information and trained us. Visiting ships and going to events are good opportunities to learn the product, she said. People are asking for free WiFi.

Arca said French passengers preferred an all-inclusive experience, which does come at an elevated price.

Despite the decline in passenger numbers, the average spend per ticket is going up, Arca continued.

While Ponant remains a leader on the luxury side in France, the French market is becoming more educated and more interested in all the high-end cruise lines, Arca said. However, they are doubtful about foreign-language ships.

"Language is still an obstacle, Arca said. You might be able to deal with life onboard if you arent a master at English, but it would be impossible to follow a shore excursion if you cant understand the guide.

French homeporting has also helped grow the source market, as guests can easily take high-speed trains to ships in Marseille and Nice, LaRoche said. There is also Le Havre serving Northern Europe with a heavy MSC Cruises presence.

Overall, cruises are a good money-maker for us and the satisfaction level is high, LaRoche added. Prices are steady with no significant increases, but we have seen pricing increases in the fly-cruise packages.

---

Learn more about the European cruise market in the 2019 European Regional Report by Cruise Industry News.

The 2019 European Regional Report outlines all European cruise brands and goes in-depth into growth strategies through 2027. Plus information on the major source markets and all key ports, as well as data sets and more. 120+ Page PDF.Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) has announced its partnership with five government organisations in Dubai to support the implementation of the second phase of the Dubai 10X initiative.



The initiative was launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai the city of the future, through new mechanisms of action.



Partners in the initiative include Government of Dubai Media Office, the Department of Economic Development, the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, DTCM, Smart Dubai Office, Dubai Electronic Security Centre, and Dubai Future Foundations initiative; the Dubai Future Accelerators.



Abdulaziz Al Jaziri, deputy CEO and chief of Projects of DFF highlighted that these strategic partnerships are an important addition and a qualitative boost to the Dubai 10X initiative. It includes collaborating with leading government entities in the second phase to implement 26 projects approved by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of Dubai Executive Council and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of DFF.



These projects were approved during the World Government Summit, held in February 2018, where Sheikh Hamdan directed them to convert these projects into pilot projects that improve the quality of community members.



"The initiative succeeded in providing a platform that brings together various government organisations in Dubai and gives them the opportunity to coordinate and collaborate among teams and unify visions and objectives to provide joint government services in line with the objectives of Dubai 10X. The initiative also contributes to launching new joint initiatives that support Dubai's vision in becoming a hub for innovation and government excellence," added Al Jaziri.



Partners will support the participating government entities and projects within the framework of DFFs full commitment to support all initiatives, projects and government efforts, and accelerate the pace of work. It also aims to improve quality and efficiency in all sectors of government work by adopting innovative ideas and encouraging creativity and non-traditional solutions to benefit society.



The second phase of the initiative is based on strengthening the cooperation of the Dubai 10X teams in various government organisations in Dubai through the exchange of experiences, skills, and resources, within a common framework aimed at introducing and launching joint initiatives covering key sectors affecting the quality of human life. These include: Health, emergency, community life, infrastructure, sustainability, education, among others.



In its second phase, the move aims to make a positive impact on community members in Dubai by shortening procedures, offering innovative government services and seeking solutions to challenges. This contributes to promoting Dubai's leading position as a global destination for the export of innovative models and methods of government work.  TradeArabia News ServicePrivacy is not absolute, said Five Eyes, and tech companies will either have to give the Five Eyes government alliance access to encrypted data, communications, and devices or else.

Or else what? According to the recently issued Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption, it seems the government intelligence alliance (representing the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand) is ready to bring the pain by pursing technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions.

That is but one statement that came after government representatives of the five countries met in Australia at the end of August. None of the statements issued specifically mention backdoors. In fact, Five Eyes calls encryption vital to the digital economy, a secure cyberspace and the protection of personal, commercial and government information. The five countries have no interest or intention to weaken encryption mechanisms.

But from there, its the same old song and dance. Baddies  such as criminals and terrorists  use encryption and end-to-end encryption, and keeping intelligence and law enforcement from accessing their encrypted data and communications makes it difficult to protect communities. Five Eyes says tech companies, device manufacturers, and carriers have a mutual responsibility to assist authorities to lawfully access data, including the "content of communications.

Privacy laws must prevent arbitrary or unlawful interference, but privacy is not absolute, Five Eyes said. The increasing gap between the ability of law enforcement to lawfully access data and their ability to acquire and use the content of that data is a pressing international concern that requires urgent, sustained attention and informed discussion on the complexity of the issues and interests at stake.

Five Eyes was disappointed that digital industry CEOs were not interested in attending the meetings and put emphasis on freedom of choice for lawful access solutions, but not freedom of choice to prevent access to encrypted communications.

The Governments of the Five Eyes encourage information and communications technology service providers to voluntarily establish lawful access solutions to their products and services that they create or operate in our countries. Governments should not favor a particular technology; instead, providers may create customized solutions, tailored to their individual system architectures that are capable of meeting lawful access requirements. Such solutions can be a constructive approach to current challenges. Should governments continue to encounter impediments to lawful access to information necessary to aid the protection of the citizens of our countries, we may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions.

Each Five Eyes jurisdiction will consider how best to implement the principles of this statement, including with the voluntary cooperation of industry partners. Any response, be it legislative or otherwise, will adhere to requirements for proper authorization and oversight, and to the traditional requirements that access to information is underpinned by warrant or other legal process.

Five Eyes' online safety requests

On top of all that, Five Eyes called upon the tech industry to meet public expectations regarding online safety by doing the following:Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, Smilow Cancer Hospital at Bridgeport and Yale Cancer Center will offer free prostate screenings 3:30 to 6:30 pm Tuesday, Sept. 25, in the MedEase ambulatory medicine unit at Bridgeport Hospital, 267 Grant St.

Screenings will be conducted by Bridgeport Hospital, Northeast Medical Group and Yale Medicine urologists and consist of a prostate-specific antigen blood test and digital rectal exam. Each screening will take about 15 minutes. To register, call 888-357-2396. Walk-ins are welcome. Free parking is available.With high humidity and temperatures expected to soar in to the 90s. some school districts plan early dismissals Tuesday.

The National Weather Service has a heat advisory for all of Connecticut until p.m.NEW HAVEN  Observing the opening of the new school year, Ned Lamont said on Tuesday that if elected governor, his administration would focus on Connecticuts public schools while reducing local property taxes.

During a news conference that was mostly an attack on his Republican opponent, Bob Stefanowski, Lamont demanded details on a tax-cutting strategy that he said could sharply slash school funding and lay off thousands of teachers.

I start by not creating a $9-billion hole which is what the elimination of the income tax would do, Lamont said of Stefanowski. Look, hes going to cut taxes for the wealthiest. Im going to provide a modest, targeted property-tax cut, which benefits the middle-class.

In reaction, Stefanowskis campaign said that by cutting taxes and reducing the size of government, the economy would grow, more jobs and people would move to the state and the ability to afford higher investments in schools would follow. Stefanowski agreed with Lamont on maintaining state grants; and encouraging vocational and technical school enrollment.

We need to restore local control, put power back in the hands of municipalities, who are more in tune with the needs of their communities, and ease the burden placed on them by the state, Stefanowski said.

Lamont said he wants to retain current levels of school funding, then move toward more funding. A key is to get the state budget completed by its annual spring adjournment date, in order to help local municipal and school officials with their planning.

Thats my first priority, said Lamont, a part-time instructor at Central Connecticut State University who has invited business leaders to discuss professions with students.

I think education funding should go to those towns and cities most in need, Lamont said. I know we have one of the few states in the country that has more administrators not in the classroom than teachers in the classroom. There are some ways that I can target some resources in the classroom to make a quality education equal opportunity for everybody.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter:@KenDixonCTNEW MILFORD  Several school districts in Connecticut have announced that students will be dismissed early Tuesday as the temperature remains warm.

Districts that have announced planned dismissals include: West Haven, Milford, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, Norwalk and Stamford.MILFORD  On arriving at 100 Raton Drive, in an industrial area surrounded by nice homes, you are met by a dreary warehouse with a simple sign that reads: Tribus Beer Co. over a tall garage door.

But, when you turn the corner, theres a craft beer lovers paradise: a cozy biergarten with tiny lights and flowers and just through the doors a 10,000-square-foot tap room with a cozy feel and brewery of shiny stainless-steel equipment.

Welcome to the citys first craft brewery and tap room.

You walk in and you forget everything, said Matt Weichner, 32, one of three friends who owns the newly opened brewery. Its been a lot of fun seeing the reaction when people come in and enjoy.

Since opening Aug. 11, business has been so great, Weichner said, that they cant brew fast enough to keep up with the total demand for kegs, including their restaurant distribution customers all the way to Stamford.

Its been so busy here, its hard to keep up, Weichner said. Its great to have more demand than supply.

They are open Thursday through Sunday and had some 1,200 visitors in one day for the grand opening and hundreds more on Sunday. They are open Labor Day from noon to 5 p.m.

But theres plenty of beer for the tap room and biergarten customers  and wine, hard cider and soda for those who visit and dont drink beer.

He and his partners/friends, Sebastian DAgostino and Sean ONeill, both 29, started the project a year ago, overhauling the once dilapidated warehouse themselves, building the bar and furniture themselves. They were supposed to open sooner, but there were delays in permits, which allowed them time to add nice details, they said.

Weichner and DAgostino met at the well-known and established New England Brewing Company, where they worked as head brewers.

The men have impressive beer-making credentials  Weichner went to brewing school in Munich, Germany, and Chicago and DAgostino in Berlin, Germany.

The departure from New England Brewing Co. was not only friendly, the two friends continue to collaborate with their former boss and even offer an IPA called Exit Interview to mark the departure. That beer is brewed by New England Brewing company.

ONeill works on the sales and marketing end of the business.

They picked the name Tribus because the Tri means three and the word indicates a tribe or notion of coming together.

We want to create a community where people come together, Weichner said. We want people to come here, create the relationship, show them who we are.

DAgostino, who works the brewery when the tap room and Biergarten are closed Monday through Wednesday, said its been great so far but long to get here.

Its a cool vibe to be around here, he said.

All the men live in Milford and emphasized they want their business to be part of the community and fundraising for organizations.

Weichner said they want to see their beer sold in downtown Milford  the current restaurant reach for their beer distribution is Stamford  and to close at 9 p.m., so they are more of a pre-dinner destination.

Many people come from 3 to 6 p.m., then go downtown and have dinner at Stonebridge, Elis, bin 100 or other restaurants.

Tribus doesnt sell food, but Friday through Sunday they have a different food truck on location and customers can also bring their own food.

They have different brews available at various times.

Shuga Mama is a tribute to the ladies in our life, who worked to pay bills and keep life going while they put the place together, Weichner said.

Appropriately, its an easy drinking IPA with nice citrus flavors and soft mouth feel.

Flow is a vibrant double IPA with tropical fruit taste, Fix is an easy drinking IPA, Bier, is an easy drinking pilsner and then there are brews called, FunkManFunkMan, Quest and Blank Check.

A sign by the bar reads: Good people drink good beer

The tap room and biergarten are family friendly and often there are children in the midst.

Theres a living room area of black leather couches made from pallets and a wide selection of games, including Connect 4, Apples to Apples, Trivial Pursuit and What do you meme? Theres shuffleboard too, and a space that meanders to a back area where hops are delivered, which has a few chairs and tables, as well as Ping Pong and Foosball.

Despite its size, theres something cozy about the taproom and brewery. Its soft industrial with a modern feel.

The men added some nice detail to the place while waiting for the permits and it gives the space an old soul feel.

They used their notes from brewing school to wallpaper a wall.

One of the main walls and another wall toward the bathrooms was painted by Hillhouse High School assistant principal John Tarka and displays a bold mural of intricate circle designs that the three owners consider to be tribal circles. The circles are have hop vines painted on them and the murals cascade onto the floor. Hops are used in making beer.

Tarka said the designs  his signature artwork  are his take on cultures and different ethnicities coming together.

Circle designs say, Were all really connected in this together, Tarka said, noting the guys at Tribus are about the community coming together.

The long bar of light oak is fronted with corrugated metal painted a custom gray, their logo is burnt into the area near the taps and they used a special process to burn the wood of the wall behind the bar

The logo by graphic designer Will Thresher, is two vertical lines with a third horizontal line across the top, representing the three partners and forming a T for Tribus.

The men even built extra bathrooms  theyre selling beer after all  and those too are pleasant and bright. A sign in one reads, I have a fever and the only prescription is Tribus Beer.

Even though demand for their beer is higher than they expected, the men arent running out to expand the brewery yet.

We want to grow naturally and be that local brewery, Weichner said.

For more information, visit the website TribusBeer.co.Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has completed the electrical connections and installation of smart metres at four projects, an electric vehicle charging station, and a Manarati smart pole at the Al Marmoom Reserve.



The completion of the work supports Dubais efforts to preserve the environment and promote sustainable development. The Al Marmoom Reserve, which provides a natural reserve for plants, animals, and local and migratory birds, aims to become the UAEs largest environmental tourist destination, attracting one million visitors annually. It features over 20 projects being implemented by nine government organisations.



Dewa is participating in the development of the Al Marmoom Reserve through six projects. The first will supply clean energy from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to help protect the environment and promote sustainable development. The second project involves the installation of solar panels on the rooftops of the Reserves facilities and connecting them to Dewas grid as part of the Shams Dubai initiative.



The third is the installation of electric vehicle charging stations as part of the Green Charger initiative to promote an uptake of electric vehicles. Another project provides state-of-the-art smart meters with advanced features that contribute to a smart and eco-friendly lifestyle.



The fifth project involves the installation of Manarati smart poles with innovative applications including charging electric vehicles, interactive screens, smart environmental sensors, and Internet access. The final project involves the development of an advanced water infrastructure at the Al Marmoom Reserve that meets the highest global standards, to ensure the readiness of Dewas network to provide water for all the projects in the Reserve.



Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dewa highlighted that the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, located within Al Marmoom Reserve, is the largest single-site solar project in the world with a total planned capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030. The Park is part of a three-dimensional approach towards achieving economic, social and environmental sustainability.



The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park will contribute to enhancing the efficiency of our natural resources and reducing the environmental footprint through the reduction of over 6.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year upon completion. The Solar Park also demonstrates Dewas absolute commitment to governance, work ethics, social responsibility and providing work opportunities for citizens and residents, he explained.



The Solar Park is likely to create 1,100 green jobs by 2020. Companies established by Dewa and private sector partners will focus on employing and educating Emirati youth, to directly benefit the community.



Dewa signed several agreements with different local and international bodies, institutions, and companies in research and development to establish the latest developments in energy, water and environment. These institutions include the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy, the Spanish National Renewable Energy Center (CENER), Kipco Korea, the United Arab Emirates University and Khalifa University, said Al Tayer.  TradeArabia News Service

In the Aug. 20, 2018 edition of the Connecticut Post, a headline blared across the front page, announcing that Attorney Russell Liskovs CHRO discrimination complaint against City Council members had been dropped.

The article states state officials have dismissed a municipal lawyers complaint accusing a handful of City Council members of religious discrimination and anti-Semitism. The reporter declares that Liskov, a member of the City Attorneys office, made the decision not to pursue the matter against Marcus Brown, Karen Jackson, Michelle Lyons, Eneida Martinez and Ernest Newton, after being urged to do so by unnamed individuals.

The article also states that Council members Pete Spain, Maria Valle and Rosalina Roman-Christy had previously apologized to him, in writing, which led Liskov to drop them from the complaint.

Buried half-way into the article, the reporter states a spokeswoman for the CHRO confirmed that the complaint against the other five council members had been reviewed and dismissed, but could not immediately confirm that it was Liskovs decision.

The article continues, with joyous quotes from Chief City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer and Council member Marcus Brown.

To paraphrase the late Paul Harvey, this letter is the rest of the story.

Pursuant to an FOI request, I obtained a copy of the CHRO Case Assessment Review (CAR) issued on Aug. 13. The purpose of the CAR is to determine if the complaint should be retained or dismissed. The review unequivocally states that the case was dismissed due to Liskovs failure to state a claim for relief.

Liskov, who has been rehired by Mayor Ganim and Meyer following his retirement, failed to prepare a complaint demonstrating how individual members of the City Council retaliated against him because of discrimination or anti-Semitism.

This resulted in the dismissal of his claim at a preliminary administrative stage. Liskovs only remaining recourse is a lawsuit.

Furthermore, as the review found, Liskov was unable to produce one shred of evidence supporting claims that members of the Ordinance committee attempted to affect his employment, or that the committees decision to subpoena him was based on religious affiliation.

There is a logical explanation for Liskovs inability to produce any evidence supporting his claim that his employment was at risk. The evidence simply does not exist.

Liskov is an employee of the executive branch of government, not the citys legislative branch. He, Meyer, Mark Anastasi and members of the city attorneys office answer to the mayor, not to the city council, as is painfully obvious to the most casual observer.

Furthermore, as the CAR established, Liskov did not even allege facts to support his bogus allegation of retaliation by the Ordinance committee.

The city council did not hire Liskov, and cant fire him.

In fact, there is not much the city council can do to the City Attorneys office. They simply accept the city attorneys opinions, or as in this case, they are threatened with litigation.

It is unfortunate that the Connecticut Post was unable to verify the rest of the story, before running a front page, above the fold article, announcing that Liskov magnanimously decided to sing the Disney Frozen song, to let it go.

City council members were provided outside counsel, at city expense, to defend these unfounded claims.

The City Attorneys office believes that the Bridgeport taxpayer is a bottomless pit.

The firm of Halloran and Sage represented most of the Council members and Howd and Ludorf represented Martinez.

How much did this abuse of legal process by a member of the City Attorneys office cost Bridgeport taxpayers? Will any member of the city council attempt to determine this cost and hold the City Attorney accountable for this waste of money?

Dont hold your breath. I have filed a request for this information pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. We know how the Freedom of Information Act works in Bridgeport.

I dont expect a prompt reply.

I will probably have to file a complaint with the FOI Commission to obtain information which in most Connecticut towns and cities is provided to a taxpayer as a matter of course.

But of course, this is Bridgeport.

Carmen Lopez

BridgeportCUNA recently announced that they intend to raise $100 million to fund and maintain a research-driven credit union awareness campaign initially dubbed, Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union.

I say, Bravo!

This couldnt come at a better time as bankers, through their associations, are ramping up their anti-credit union rhetoric focusing on the credit union tax exempt status. Apparently, their recent legislative defeats in Washington and Iowa have left them feeling irrelevant with their member banks. So, theyre now turning to making noise with the media so they can project to their members that, even though theyre losing on the policy front, they really are trying to beat down credit unions.

Wait  havent we seen this tactic before?

In fact, in June of 2004, Michele Heler wrote an excellent opinion piece in the American Banker publication titled, A Battle Banks Cant Win But Keep Fighting in which she called it the dirty little secret of bank lobbying. That is, that their credit union bashing is a waste of time and that fighting the credit union tax exemption is a battle that bankers know they cant win but know they must fight.

In a recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) opinion piece on August 15, Florida Bankers Association CEO Alex Sanchez opined that Credit Unions Shouldnt Get a Free Ride. It would seem the author lacks a bit of credibility on this subject given his title, but it his opinion piece is just the latest example of bankers taking to the airwaves now that they have again lost the policy battle in the aftermath of the recent significant tax reform package passed by Congress and signed into law by the president.

Perhaps the bankers should Open their Eyes to the realities of why credit unions are growing so fast and getting so large. Its because people like credit unions more than they like banks. The tax status isnt the bankers biggest problem. Their image and level of service are the real culprit. And I seriously doubt that the public, which includes the WSJ readership, will be sympathetic to the behemoth banking industrys call for the taxation and destruction of credit unions.

Tax policy is tied to corporate structure, not services or marketing tactics. Lawmakers understand this. That is why some 2,500 banking institutions with fewer than 100 shareholders essentially pay no taxes because they have opted for the Sub-S tax structure. This structure eliminates the double taxation of a C-Corp by passing earnings on to individual shareholders to be taxed at personal tax rates.

Bank lobbyists successfully lobbied for this structure option in 1996 even as they were fighting against the credit union tax exemption and seeking to limit access to credit unions through the federal lawsuit against the NCUA. The infamous H.R. 1151 Credit Union Membership Access Act overturned a Supreme Court decision that severely limited access to credit unions. That legal action was of course initiated by the banking industry and Congress saw fit to correct the problem because lawmakers on both sides of the aisle understand that the public needs credit unions.

Federal and state lawmakers in Washington and in state capitals have opened their eyes to the benefits of credit unions time and time again. They realize that any foregone federal tax revenues are more than offset by the financial benefits to middle class households and small businesses in our economy. This is especially true for those consumers and small businesses who are financially challenged and need access to fairly priced and trusted financial services. Its good tax policy  period.

And as we always say, if banks think the playing field isnt level, they can give up their C-Corp stock structure, their executive stock ownership and insider enrichment, and opt instead for the credit union model where earnings cannot be distributed to outside shareholders. The benefits of the banks stock structure flow right back to the boardroom and the corner executive offices. Of course, bankers will never level their playing field by opting for the credit union tax-exempt structure for that one reason.

So, bankers: Open Your Eyes to why credit unions exist and why consumers and small businesses are joining credit unions in record numbers: Its because they love credit unions and trust them more than they do banks.

The Get a Mac campaign was a television advertising campaign created for Apple by the companys advertising agency, TBWA. It ran from 2006 to 2009. That campaign reminds me of the problem faced by banks today. Credit unions are just cooler and more attractive than banks. I always hear people say that they love their credit union. When is the last time that youve heard someone say that about their bank?

In the case of the Mac, many people just like the functionality and user-friendliness better. Look at how Apple has done the same with the iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes and so many other products. Bankers could learn from this. Improve your products and services and stop carping about your competition and their tax status.

The Get a Mac advertisements in the campaign became easily recognizable because each ad followed a standard simple template: against a minimalist all-white background, a man dressed in casual clothes introduced himself as a Mac (Hello, Im a Mac.), while a man in a more formal suit-and-tie combination introduced himself as a Windows personal computer (And Im a PC.).

The two then acted out a brief vignette, in which the capabilities and attributes of Mac and PC were compared, with PC  characterized as formal and somewhat polite, though uninteresting and overly concerned with workoften being frustrated by the more laid-back Macs abilities.

The ads were playful and funny, but also aggressively competitive. However, they managed not only to make Apple the good guythe kindhearted Mac was always telling sad sack PC not to be so hard on himselfbut also got people to pay attention and care about the boring part of computing. Security, viruses, rebooting and even syntax errors became watercooler conversations.

That good-natured humor, along with the fact that competitive ads were easier if youre the little guy, worked to Apples advantage. It galvanized Mac loyalists with pride and inspired the PC user to take action in regard to their PC woes.

Back then, Apple was the David swatting at the Goliath PC industry. Of course, Apples good fortunes since then have become legendary.

There are amazing parallels that can be drawn in the credit union vs. bank messaging that were in the midst of as bankers once again ramp up their public relations campaigns against credit unions. I hope our industry exploits these differences with a well-coordinated Open Your Eyes campaign led by CUNA and state leagues.

Credit unions are the little guys taking on the Goliath banking industry. Our growing number of billion- dollar credit unions referenced in the WSJ opinion piece are taking on the growing number of trillion-dollar banks and theyre doing it along with much smaller credit unions who are better liked and more trustworthy than the bank competition. Today there are 5 U.S. banks with over 1 trillion dollars in assets. That number is essentially the total assets of all U.S. credit unions. And Chase has nearly 3 trillion in assets or three times the size of the entire credit union industry.

The CUNA Open Your Eyes campaign will help contrast credit unions in ways very similar to the Mac vs. PC ads that ran some ten years ago with such great success. And hopefully the research-based campaign and creative will spawn scores of state and local campaigns where the funding and advertising spend are all local. This will assure buy-in by credit unions and a greater likelihood of long-term funding success.

In my opinion, state and national credit union associations have four fundamental roles: Advocacy, awareness, solutions (including education) and compliance. Of course, at the very core, associations exist to help credit unions do things together that they cant do as effectively on their own. So, of course lobbying and promoting the industry should be at the top of the list. But the fact is, those two roles are intertwined because advocacy is a lot easier if those being lobbied understand the credit union difference.

CUNA and its state league partners are collaborating on how best to execute this bold vision. Led by CUNAs chief strategic communication officer, Douglas Kiker, this campaign will surely be a success. He is a great thinker and collaborator as he works with different constituencies in the industry to formulate vision and strategy by listening to all, processing input and then pivoting to the best execution plan.

Throughout my 30-year career as a state credit union association leader in Utah, Washington State and Michigan, I have always made cooperative awareness campaigns a pillar of our state league efforts with varying levels of success. In Michigan, for decades now, our credit unions have supported a multi-million-dollar campaign called CU Link that currently uses the theme, Theres Real Strength in Our Numbers. Were in the process of seeing how we can align this state campaign with the CUNA Open Your Eyes messaging beginning next year.

There are a few important principles that I have learned again and again as my teams, and more importantly, our credit unions, have planned and executed these awareness campaigns. I suggest the following five principles that I believe CUNA and credit unions should consider:

1. Research: Make the campaign messaging and success metrics research-driven. CUNA has done this and so have we in Michigan, in coordination with CUNA. Consumer perceptions vary from market to market and these differences need to be considered. In Michigan, perceptions of membership eligibility are already strong and positive. But our market does share the research-driven myths that credit unions are not as convenient or mobile-enabled.

2. Stay Local: In addition to the need for local messaging differences, a cooperative awareness campaign will be well-funded and sustainable if credit unions know that the ads will show up in their media markets. A successful campaign should assure that fundraising and spend are localized but by employing contemporary media mix strategies. Digital online advertising, social media and music streaming ads can all be localized just as with cable, radio, billboard and other traditional media. Incentives for tie-ins to credit unions own advertising can also be accomplished in order to leverage the cooperative campaign through individual credit union advertising.

3. Message Properly: Changing the master theme every few years is okay but it should allow for important sub-themes. Open your Eyes is a great theme today and it may endure for a number of years. But when it changes in a few years, its the research-based sub messages that really matter. Convenience, mobility, alignment with life decisions, trust, and value are just a few examples of why people should Open their Eyes to a credit union.

4. Know the Audience(s): Realize that the target audiences include existing members, credit union leaders and policymakers, not just potential members. This ties directly to broader advocacy efforts. Awareness is directly linked to advocacy for associations. When lawmakers and staffers and community leaders hear and see our ads, it will help them understand that the credit union difference and tax status benefits their constituents and needs to be preserved.



Similarly, share of wallet with existing members is enhanced through cooperative advertising. Savvy credit union marketers know that expanding the relationship and service usage with existing members is easier and more important than onboarding new members.



And like it or not, if credit union leaders and staff dont see and hear the ads in their markets and on their computer screens, they will be less likely to continue funding the campaign.

5. Keep it Voluntary: Resist the temptation to make participation mandatory through dues assessments. Many state campaigns have failed by making participation mandatory, especially when tough economic times return. A good cooperative campaign can stand on its own merits. And like with all cooperative endeavors, whether PAC giving or grassroots lobbying, not all credit unions or state leagues have to participate to make the awareness campaign a success.



Success is defined by incremental gains, market by market, year over year. That is how it always works in our credit union industry. Great ideas spread and success grows. If the value proposition and execution are right, credit unions will engage and drive success voluntarily. A hallmark of our movement is cooperation through united association efforts.

CU Solutions Group is a national CUSO that provides services to credit unions in areas of technology, marketing and HR performance solutions. Specific to marketing, CUSG works with a progressive marketing company named Focus IQ to assist credit unions with their marketing and branding.

In Michigan, the Michigan Credit Union Leagues CU Link Awareness campaign is driven by Focus IQ in cooperation with CUSG. They help with the research, creative and media buy execution as well as integration campaigns with individual credit unions. They understand the five principles above and have helped the Michigan credit union community achieve success metrics like 51 percent population penetration and a market share of consumer household deposits of almost 20 percent.

Most important, when we poll Michigan consumers, they are twice as likely as bank customers to say that they would refer their credit union to a friend or family member. Likewise, they are roughly twice as likely as bank customers to say they trust the credit union is looking out for their financial wellbeing. Thats incredibly powerful data and it is in part driven by Michigans multi-decade, well-funded and sustainable cooperative awareness campaign.

As the war of words ramps up yet again between banks and credit unions, our credit union community needs to support the CUNA vision for helping everyone to open their eyes to credit unions. This means not just the credit union value proposition, but also the reasons for the credit union tax-exempt status. And the public messaging helps strengthen our lobbying communication strategies.

Sadly, the bankers will continue to fight a battle that they cant win, to eliminate the credit union tax exempt status. But this will only be true if we, as advocates for the credit union model, support the right mix of lobbying and communication strategies so that what is right for people and our economy can triumph over the self-serving money interests of the banking industry.

</ifraCredit union marketers are notorious for R & D (rip off and duplicate) as evidenced by the proliferation of shiny happy people on their websites and me too products and pricing. Most credit unions will say their differentiation is their service, which, if you think about it  cannot be if everyone else is saying the same thing. Very seldom these days does a credit union brand stand out. Great brand names have been dropped for synthesized non-words that mean nothing. For the most part, weve become pretty generic.

But today I read an article that made my heart sing. The article is titled O Bee Credit Unions pub-themed branches might just be a sneaky genius. I knew about O Bee Credit Union from having lived in the Pacific NW most of my life. I even had the pleasure of speaking at an All Staff Day several years ago. So I know they have a fun spirit and respect and honor their past. And their past is beer.

The Olympia Brewing Company was founded 122 years ago in Tumwater, Washington. Through a series of consolidations, it was acquired by Pabst Brewing Company and the Tumwater brewery was closed in 2003. Most credit unions would merge, change their name, run from their heritage in an effort to tell the world that now Anyone in Washington can join. O Bee changed their charter so that anyone in the state could join, but they did not change who they are, and where they came from. Instead, they cranked it up.

In 1955, Ted McGill, a worker in Bottle House A heard about credit unions and thought it was a good idea so he persuaded his co-workers to form The Olympia Brewing Company Employees and Family Credit Union. Ted was afraid he would have to write out that long name so he called it O Bee. In the early years, Ted WAS the credit union. He would walk around the brewery and accept deposits and put them in his shirt pocket. When he got home and his wife Vi would sit at the kitchen table and post the books and make the deposits. Their modest dining room served as the first branch of O Bee until 20 years later when they opened their first physical branch.

So back to the article I read, O Bee credit union opened a new branch that is basically a museum to their founders. The branch features local brewery beer taps and brass railings along the teller counter and windows. Wooden hop barrels, brick walls, hand-painted murals and historical images of a brewery, along with a chalkboard menu with specials, are design elements to give the feel of a tasting room.

This is part of a growing trend in banking to try and make branches look like something other than branches. Branches are being tricked up with living room furniture, fireplaces, coffee stationsbut in the spirit of R & D soon that will be the norm and everyone continues to be the same. Not O Bee Credit Union. Only they can claim their history and they are smart to use this as a differentiator. No one will copy it!

Too many times I will go to a credit union website and not even see a tab for the history. And even more often Ill see an About US tab only to read the boring We are a not-for-profit financial institution serving people who live, work or worship in blah blah blah..who cares?

Its so important that we do not forget our history and tell the story and honor those hard working individuals that made the credit union possible. Today many credit unions stories talk about historical growth, a number of branches, added products and services. Thats not a story, thats a financial statement. O Bee Credit Union made a big statement, that the work that Ted did still matters and Tumwater Washington would not be what it is today without the brewery.Republicans sweep row office seats

The longtime prothonotary and treasurer for Somerset County lost their seats Tuesday night to Republican challengers.Saudi Aramco has awarded the first large-scope integrated services contract for its Marjan oilfield  the first of three major offshore expansions in Saudi Arabia, and the companys largest upstream development project this year  to Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE).

Under the contracts terms, BHGE will provide drilling services, coiled tubing services and drilling fluids engineering services in Marjan.

Mohammed Y Al Qahtani, senior vice president of Upstream at Saudi Aramco, said: The Marjan oilfield is one of the major upstream developments this year that will contribute to the kingdoms oil production strengths, helping maintain capacity and meet domestic and global demand. We are pleased to work with BHGE as a partner with proven offshore drilling strengths and technologies.

Lorenzo Simonelli, chairman, president and CEO, said: We are honoured to win the integrated services contract from Saudi Aramco, which highlights our strong performance track-record in Saudi offshore operations. BHGE is a leader in providing offshore drilling, and we understand the requirements of our customers. With a significant number of wells, the Marjan expansion requires proven and efficient technology, matched by digital competencies that BHGE can deliver, which will make the operations seamless. All our solutions for Marjan are designed to achieve the best outcomes that meet Saudi Aramcos goals.

Under the contract, BHGE will commence work this month with an aim to increase the fields capacity. BHGEs provision of drilling services will include logging-while-drilling, reservoir navigation services, and rotary steerable services. - TradeArabia News ServiceWEST CHESTER  Lisa Saxes thefts from her employer were not a just-this-one-time, Ill-pay-it-back-as-soon-as-I-can, I-just-need-the-money-to-pay-the bills embezzlement scheme.

Rather, according to the prosecutor who handled the sentencing hearing for Saxe before Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey R. Sommer on Tuesday, it was a series of multiple thefts over a significant period of time, in a number of ways that left the company for which she worked imperiled financially and betrayed psychologically.

This was a long, slow bleed, said Assistant District Attorney Christopher Miler, in urging Sommer to exceed the normal state sentencing guidelines in punishing Saxe for the thefts, which totaled more than $230,000 over a 10-year period. You are looking at someone who did this for a very long period of time. This is fairly egregious example of thefts from a locally owned, family business.

It makes me sick to my stomach, Miller declared.

Sommer, in handing down his sentence for the 49-year-old former resident of Claymont, Del., noted that Saxes thefts were not simply from the company for whom she worked as office manager and bookkeeper, William Cohen & Sons of Thorndale. They amounted to thefts from all of her co-workers and their families, since they were all made worse by the companys sour financial position due to her excessive pilfering in one form or another.

This really is a theft from many individuals, Sommer stated. It is not a victimless crime. Its the same as going in there with a gun and robbing them with a .45.

Sommer sentenced Saxe to five to 14 years in state prison, just shy of the 5 1/2 year minimum that Miler had recommended. He also ordered restitution of $167,000, the amount that is left from what Saxe paid the firm back before she pleaded guilty in October 2017.

The delay in the sentencing came because after she entered her guilty pleas of counts of theft by unlawful taking and access device fraud, Saxe ran away, telling not even her husband and two daughters where she was going, Miller said. She had reportedly sold her house to have funds to pay back what she owed the Cohen company, but used the money instead to fund her flight. She was eventually arrested by authorities in Texas in June.

Officials of the company, a 68-year-old family owned firm that sells trucks and truck parts, told Sommer in statements about the impact of the thefts not only in financial but personal terms. Saxe had come to the company as an entry-level worker, but worked her way up the company ladder by endearing herself through her work to the late company president, Jacob Cohen.

Jacob Cohen treated Saxe like a member of the family, entrusting its finances with her and showing his appreciation by taking her for family dinners, his nephew Alan Cohen said in court. Jacob Cohen died before finding out that Saxe had been stealing rom the firm on a regular basis, using the money to feed a gambling habit that saw her run up losses of more than $800,000, Miller said.

She was arrested in August 2016 by Detective Sgt. Christine L. Cusick of the Caln Police Department after being confronted with her thefts. She gave herself unauthorized salary raises, unearned commission checks, and even upgraded her health insurance benefits to help pay for family medical care. All the while she was using the funds to gamble at area casinos.

We had complete trust in her, Alan Cohen said. She knew that she had a level of trust and that she would be able to get stay with all her illegal acts for a long period of time. It is hard for me to express how hurtful this has been for me.

Said Michael Cohen, another member of the family company, Lisa knew how much she could get away with because (the family) trusted her completely. They never looked over her shoulder.

Alan Cohen said that when the Great Recession hit in 2008, the company had to lay off workers because they did not have cash on hand to tide things over  the result of Saxes thefts.

Reading from a prepared statement, Saxe seemed to minimize what her thefts had wrought, apologizing for the inconvenience and hardship I may have caused.

You treated me like family, and I betrayed your trust, Saxe said, seated before Sommer and next to her attorney, Julia A. Theobald of the Ciccarelli Law Firm of West Chester. Id like to be given the opportunity to make up for the pain and hardship I caused.

Sommer seized on her description of her crimes impact as an inconvenience.

Stealing $250,000 isnt an inconvenience,' he said. An inconvenience is failing to show up for work on time.New advisory committees are usually appointed when a new government takes over. Thats why it is a bit surprising that the present government decided to appoint a new Prime Ministers Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) in its penultimate year in office. By the time the council meets, deliberates on the vast agenda it has been charged with and comes up with some meaningful advice, it will be time for a new government. Advisory councils on economic affairs and climate change were set up in the first year of the present governments tenure.

In any case, it is better late than never that we have a panel of experts to advise the government and the prime minister on issues relating to science, technology and innovation. However, this does not imply that there was an "advisory vacuum" in science and technology until now. We have had the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) and the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C). In addition, there was Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister which was defunct and now stands disbanded along with SAC-C.

The government has decided to set-up a new Prime Ministers Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council. (Photo: Reuters)

The PSA and advisory committee to the cabinet together have been working on almost all the terms of reference assigned to the PM-STIAC for several years. Incidentally, several of the members of the new council were associated with SAC-C too either as members or special invitees.

If the new council is serious about its job, it should refrain from reinventing the wheel but should begin where earlier councils have left. For instance, several terms of reference of the new council relate to commercialisation of indigenous technologies and greater application of science and technology by other Union ministries as well as states. A number of significant research-industry initiatives were triggered and catalysed by earlier councils.

These include setting up of Centres for Nano-Science in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and IIT Bombay; implementation of the high precision grinding machine tool project funded by the Department of Heavy Industry at IIT-M for machine tool development projects on a costsharing basis with industry; preproject activities by a consortium of research institutes for building Advanced Ultra Supercritical thermal power plant; Department of Commerce initiative of identifying technologically upgradable engineering goods for electric motors, industrial valves, and biomedical devices. Detailed recommendations also exist on some of the vexing issues such as mobility of scientists among scientific departments, national laboratories, etc; retaining young talent in scientific research and attracting scientists from foreign institutions.

The new council should fast-track its mandate on reforms and come up with a set of recommendations before the term of the present government ends. (Photo: PTI)

The new council can make itself relevant and useful if it can focus on one of the overarching terms of reference  suggest reforms and measures to strengthen various aspects of science and technology organisations. Indian research and academic R&D bodies need fundamental reforms. They need to be freed from bureaucracy and governmental intervention. The council should fast-track its mandate on reforms and come up with a set of recommendations before the term of the present government ends. Though the council is a closed group, it should keep its working transparent and make it as democratic as possible.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

Also read: How India has been drawing international chefs of reputeJordan's Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) welcomed over 900,000 passengers in July, marking a significant increase of 5.7 per cent compared to July 2017 and setting an unprecedented record for previous July results.



According to statistics released by Airport International Group - the Jordanian company responsible for the rehabilitation, expansion and operation of QAIA - a total of 918,207 passengers travelled through QAIA in July compared to 868,614 in the same month last year.



During the same period, aircraft movement (ACM) figures also rose by 6.3 per cent, with handled cargo witnessing a decrease of 11.8 per cent.



Throughout the first seven months of 2018, QAIA received a total of 4,802,725 passengers, registering a 7.2 per cent rise in year-to-date (YTD) passenger numbers compared to the same period last year. As for ACM and cargo YTD figures, QAIA marked a 2.0 per cent growth and a 0.6 per cent drop to come in at 44,063 movements and 60,642 tons respectively.



We are pleased to observe such great results for July and look forward to what the next five months of this fruitful year will bring, especially with us recording yet another historic milestone. As so, we remain wholly committed to delivering an exceptional travel experience that further cements QAIAs standing as the Kingdoms prime gateway to the world, said Kjeld Binger, CEO of Airport International Group. - TradeArabia News Service

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Read MoreGulf Air, Bahrains national carrier, has appointed Vincent Coste as the airlines new chief commercial officer.



Kresimir Kucko, Gulf Air chief executive officer welcomed Coste to his new post and shared the airlines Board of Directors and executive management teams well wishes and confidence in the added value Coste will bring to Gulf Airs commercial business.



Coming with a wealth of aviation business experience, Coste spent 25 years in various commercial roles with airlines in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joins Gulf Air from his recent post as chief commercial officer in Kenya Airways where he spent the last two years stimulating the commercial operations of the airline and establishing a new business model for greater commercial benefits.



Coste joins Gulf Air at a significant time in the airlines history. The airlines executive management has defined 2018 as the #YearOfChange as it involved many changes to the business such as new brand, new livery, new fleet, new uniform, new destinations and a new strategy.



By end of 2018, the airline will receive five Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and one Airbus A320neo aircraft in total. The new and highly anticipated fleet entry, the airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, serves Gulf Airs double daily London Heathrow service and five weekly flights to Casablanca, offering increased capacity and enhanced, superior onboard products and services. The national carriers incoming aircraft orders will ensure it maintains one of the youngest fleets in the region while building upon its award-winning reliability, on-time performance and product and service standards. - TradeArabia News Service

The following companies are subsidiares of Barnes Group: AS Monterrey S. de R.L. de C.V., Adval Tech - Foboha Mold Making Business, Associated Spring (Tianjin) Company Ltd., Associated Spring (UK) Ltd., Associated Spring Asia Pte. Ltd., Associated Spring Corporation, Associated Spring Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Associated Spring Raymond (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Associated Spring Raymond GmbH, Associated Spring do Brasil Ltda., Barnes Airmotive Malaysia SND. BHD., Barnes Financing Delaware LLC, Barnes Group (Bermuda) Limited, Barnes Group (Delaware) LLC, Barnes Group (Germany) GmbH, Barnes Group (Scotland) Limited, Barnes Group (Thailand) Ltd., Barnes Group (U.K.) 2 Limited, Barnes Group (U.K.) Limited, Barnes Group Acquisition GmbH, Barnes Group Canada Corp., Barnes Group Finance Company (Bermuda) Limited, Barnes Group Finance Company (Delaware), Barnes Group Holding LLC, Barnes Group Luxembourg (No. 1) S.a r.l., Barnes Group Luxembourg (No. 2) S.a r.l., Barnes Group Spain S.R.L., Barnes Group Suisse Industries GmbH, Barnes Group Switzerland GmbH, Barnes Industrial Group India Private Limited, Barnes Korea Ltd., Barnes Molding Solutions (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., Blitz F16-34 GmbH, Curtis Industries, Curtiss Industries (U.K.) Limited, Di-Dro Manifold System Product Line, Euro Stock Springs & Components, Foboha (Germany) GmbH, Foboha Holding GmbH, Forward Industries LLC, GF Controls GmbH, Gammaflux, Gammaflux Controls Inc., Gimatic, Gimatic Automation Engineering (Changshu) Co. Ltd., Gimatic Automation India Pvt Ltd. , Gimatic Automation Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Gimatic Balkan d.o.o. Beograd  Savski Venac, Gimatic Czech Republic s.r.o., Gimatic France S.a.r.l., Gimatic Japan Limited, Gimatic Korea Limited, Gimatic Nordic A.B., Gimatic Otomasyon Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Gimatic Polska sp. z o.o, Gimatic S.r.l., Gimatic Sisteme RO SRL, Gimatic Sistemi industrijska avtomatizacija d.o.o., Gimatic Spain S.L., Gimatic Vertrieb GmbH, Gimatrade S.r.l., Heinz Haenggi Gmbh Stanztechnik, Industrial Gas Springs, Industrial Gas Springs Group Holdings Limited, Industrial Gas Springs Inc., Industrial Gas Springs Limited, Kar Products, Kratz-Wilde Machine Co, MTM S.r.l., Manner Hong Kong Limited, Manner USA Inc., Orflam - Nitropush Product Line, Otto Manner, Otto Manner GmbH, Otto Manner Immobilien GmbH, Otto Manner Innovation GmbH, Premier Farnell - KENT Division, Priamus System Technologies, Priamus System Technologies GmbH, Priamus System Technologies LLC, Raymond Distribution-Mexico S.A. de C.V., Resortes Argentina S.A., Ressorts SPEC SAS, Seeger-Orbis GmbH & Co. OHG, Service Plus Distributors, Sign Holdings Limited, Spectrum Plastics Molding Resources, Stromsholmen AB, Synventive Acquisition B.V., Synventive Acquisition GmbH, Synventive Acquisition Inc., Synventive Acquisition UK Ltd., Synventive Acquisition Unlimited, Synventive B.V., Synventive Fertigungstechnik GmbH, Synventive Holding B.V., Synventive Holding Limited, Synventive Holding SAS, Synventive Molding Solutions, Synventive Molding Solutions (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Synventive Molding Solutions B.V., Synventive Molding Solutions Canada Inc., Synventive Molding Solutions Co. Ltd., Synventive Molding Solutions GmbH, Synventive Molding Solutions Inc., Synventive Molding Solutions JBJ Private Limited, Synventive Molding Solutions K.K., Synventive Molding Solutions LDA, Synventive Molding Solutions LLC, Synventive Molding Solutions LTDA., Synventive Molding Solutions Limited, Synventive Molding Solutions Pte Ltd., Synventive Molding Solutions SAS, Synventive Molding Solutions SL, Synventive Molding Solutions s.r.o., Synventive Parent Inc., Teledyne Fluid Systems, The Wallace Barnes Company, Thermoplay, Thermoplay Brasil Sistemas de Injecao Ltda, Thermoplay Deutschland GmbH, Thermoplay France S.a.r.l., Thermoplay Hot Runner Systems (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Thermoplay India Private Limited, Thermoplay Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Thermoplay S.p.A., Thermoplay U.K. Ltd., Toolcom Supplie, Windsor Airmotive Asia Pte. Ltd., and manner Japan Co. Ltd..Ad All Marijuana Stocks New this week - 249 interested

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Cannabis investors have been burned in the past by big name companies that saw their stock values skyrocket overnight, only to plummet back to earth when the challenge of turning a profit proved too difficult. Experts say key to making money with cannabis stocks is to invest in smaller companies with a track record of success.The following companies are subsidiares of Canon: Axis AB, Axis Communications, Axis Communications AB, BriefCam, Canon (China) Co. Ltd., Canon (Schweiz) AG, Canon (Suzhou) Inc., Canon (UK) Ltd., Canon Anelva, Canon Australia Pty. Ltd., Canon Bretagne S.A.S., Canon Business Machines (Philippines) Inc., Canon Canada Inc., Canon Chemicals Inc., Canon Components Inc., Canon Dalian Business Machines Inc., Canon Deutschland GmbH, Canon Electron Tubes & Devices Co. Ltd., Canon Electronics Inc., Canon Europa N.V., Canon Europe Ltd., Canon Financial Services Inc., Canon Finetech, Canon Finetech Nisca Inc., Canon France S.A.S., Canon Hi-Tech (Thailand) Ltd., Canon Hongkong Co. Ltd., Canon IT Solutions Inc., Canon Inc. Taiwan, Canon India Pvt. Ltd., Canon Information Systems Research Australia Pty. Ltd., Canon Italia S.p.A., Canon Machinery Inc., Canon Marketing Japan Inc., Canon Medical Finance Co. Ltd., Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Canon Medical Systems Europe B.V., Canon Medical Systems Manufacturing Asia Sdn. Bhd., Canon Medical Systems USA Inc., Canon Middle East FZ-LLC, Canon Nederland N.V., Canon Opto (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Canon Prachinburi (Thailand) Ltd., Canon Precision Inc., Canon Research Centre France S.A.S., Canon Ru LLC, Canon Semiconductor Equipment Inc., Canon Singapore Pte. Ltd., Canon Solutions America Inc., Canon System and Support Inc., Canon Tokki Corporation, Canon U.S.A. Inc., Canon Vietnam Co. Ltd., Canon Virginia Inc., Canon Zhongshan Business Machines Co. Ltd., Canon Zhuhai Inc., Fukushima Canon Inc., Harbour IT Pty. Ltd., Kite, Kite.ly, Milestone Systems, Milestone Systems A/S, Miyazaki Canon Inc., Molecular Imprints, Molecular Imprints Inc., Nagahama Canon Inc., Nagasaki Canon Inc., Oce Printing Systems G.m.b.H. & Co. KG, Oce-Technologies B.V., Oita Canon Inc., Oita Canon Materials Inc., Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, Virtual Imaging, and lifecake.One of the largest school districts in Georgia is turning its bus drivers into teachers who command rolling classrooms.

The drivers are helping to teach elementary school students sight words through a new program that began this year in the Fulton County school district.

Sight words are words like the and you, words that you cant easily sound out and young children are encouraged to memorize.

What we want is to be considered a true part of the school system, said Vickie Cross, the districts director of transportation operations who came up with the idea.

The program aligns with the districts goal that all 3rd graders be able to recognize 250 to 300 sight words and read on grade level.

If you cant read, you cant succeed, said Cross.

Through the program, a new sight word is introduced on the bus each week. The word is printed on a magnetic sign that goes up at the front of the bus. After the week is over the word goes on the ceiling of the bus and another word takes its place at the front. The words will get increasingly difficult each week and are divided into three 12-week periods.

Cross says her granddaughter introduced her to the idea of sight words last fall when she was reading her a goodnight story. Cross was surprised that the girl knew so many of the words, and she says the kindergartner told her it was because they were sight words.

This started Cross on a quest to learn more about sight words and how she could help other kids learn them. She reached out to High Point Elementary Principal Carrie Pitchford for help, and Pitchford provided her with information that she used to develop the program.

Increasing Exposure

The pilot program began at four elementary schools this school year including High Point Elementary in Sandy Springs, a city about 16 miles north of Atlanta.

The more exposure we can give our kids the better, said Pitchford. It can do nothing but help.

About 20 percent of the students at her school are learning English as a second language, and Pitchford says visuals such as the magnetic signs are good learning tools for them.

By all accounts, the bus drivers have really embraced the program. Pitchford says some of them have made up songs about the words and others ask students to use them in a sentence before getting on and off the bus, which helps to keep older elementary students who should already know the words engaged.

In addition to placing the sight words in their school buses, the participating schools are also hanging up the words in their cafeterias to give students even more exposure to what Pitchford calls the basis of reading.

You just have to learn them, said Pitchford. You cant use a strategy. You cant use a skill to be able to break it down. Its just memorization. The more sight words you know, then the more that you can actually start to understand stories, the more that you can read.

The transportation department spent $1.30 per magnetic sign to fund the program, which came out of its existing budget.

In November, the pilot program is set to expand to all 55 elementary schools in the district. Each elementary school requires an average of eight to 10 buses to transport students.

Photo: Students sit on a school bus at Mimosa Elementary in Roswell, Ga. Courtesy Fulton County School District.For some reason, Colonel Langs recent essay reminded me of the plight of labor unions in the United States. Derided today by all except those union laborers who have gained entry to the great middle class through their hard work and membership in those unions, the American labor union movement is near extinct. It wasnt always so. A textbook used in one of my Jesuit high school American history classes was written by a Dominican priest and chaplain general of the French Resistance during World War II, Raymond Leopold Bruckberger. His book, Image of America, first published in France in 1958, is a paean to America by a disillusioned European. His last chapter, in particular, sticks in my mind to this day Samuel Gompers and Lenin - More and More and All or Nothing. Its quite thought provoking. I still take it off the bookshelf and read it from time to time. If you can find a copy in a bookstore or library, I recommend reading it.

Gompers was an immigrant to America during the middle of our Civil War. He was a son of Dutch Jews and worked, as his father did, as a cigar maker. He became a champion of the working man. In my religion, I am a workingman, and in every nerve, in every fiber, in every aspiration I am on the side which will advance the interests of my fellow workingmen. But he was not a socialist or anti-capitalist. He also said, The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit. His contributions to the American nation and people were in the spirit of working together and compromise.

The following is the last section of an essay Gompers wrote in 1910 entitled The Significance of Labor Day. I find it especially appropriate for this Labor Day and our discussion of Colonel Langs E Pluribus Unum no more.

*************************

At no time in the history of the world have the workers demonstrated more clearly their purpose not only to be just, but to demand justice. They realize that without organization in this day of concentrated wealth and industry their lives and their liberties are doomed. They have organized, and are organizing, with greater rapidity than ever. The earnestness of their expressions, the sincerity of their actions, the solidarity of their movements, the fraternity which they engender, all bespeak a brighter future for all who toil, for all who are dependent upon them.

Our labor movement has no system to crush. It has nothing to overturn. It purposes to build up, to develop, to rejuvenate humanity.

It stands for the right. It is the greatest protestant against wrong. It is the defender of the weak.

Its members make the sacrifices and bear the brunt of battle to obtain more equitable and humane conditions in the everyday lives of all the people.

It may be true that here and there a setback is encountered in the battle of labor; but it is simply a skirmish, for the grand army is ever moving onward and forward. One column in our ranks may be defeated, yet it is only a retreat for greater organization, better preparation for a more propitious time.

Splendid as has been the progress in organization and federation within the recent past, yet there is much to do to convince the yet unorganized workers that their duty to themselves, their wives and children, their fellow-workers, their fellow-men is to organize and help in the great cause. We must win or regain the confidence of the indifferent, negligent, or ignorant non-unionists, to impress on his mind that he who will not stand with his brother for the right is equally responsible with the wrongdoer for any wrong done. The excuse and justification for tyranny is the servility and indifference of the slaves.

By the organization of the workers we not only quicken the conscience of those inclined to the wrong, but we create a healthier public opinion regarding the great cause for which we stand. Hence, our fellow-unionists, rank and file, officers, organizers, leaders, in fact all, are devoting themselves unfalteringly and persistently to the work of bringing the non-unionists within the fold of organization.

The workers can be free. Justice and right can and must be proclaimed, established, and maintained.

The full realization of these principles and potent purposes can come only by the work, and if necessary, the sacrifices, of the hosts of unionists through whose earnest effort must be fulfilled the mission to unite the world of workers and usher in the dawn of that bright day of which the poets have sung, philosophers dreamed, and the workmen struggled and yearned to achieve for the human family.

by Samuel Gompers, September 4, 1910

TTG

https://books.google.com/books/about/Image_of_America.html?id=lmN07jNQHOsC

https://www.whatsoproudlywehail.org/curriculum/the-american-calendar/the-significance-of-labor-dayWall Street analysts have given Invesco CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust 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 Invesco CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust 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 Invesco CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust 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 Invesco CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust 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 iShares 5-10 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares 5-10 Year Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Praxair, Inc. produces and distributes industrial gases. It operates through five segments: North America, Europe, South America, Asia, and Surface Technologies. The company offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene. It also supplies wear-resistant and high-temperature corrosion-resistant metallic and ceramic coatings and powders to the aircraft, energy, printing, primary metals, petrochemical, textile, and other industries. In addition, the company offers electric arc, plasma and wire spray, and high-velocity oxy-fuel equipment; and distributes hardgoods and welding equipment purchased from independent manufacturers. It serves various industries, such as healthcare, petroleum refining, manufacturing, food, beverage carbonation, fiber-optics, steel making, aerospace, chemicals, and water treatment. Praxair, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Danbury, Connecticut.

Read MoreSasol Ltd. is a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of liquid fuels, chemicals, and low-carbon electricity. It operates through following segments: Mining, Exploration and Production International, Energy, Base Chemicals, Performance Chemicals, and Group Functions. The Mining segment secures coal feedstock for the Southern African value chain, mainly for gasification, but also to generate electricity and steam. The Exploration and Production International segment develops and manages oil and gas exploration and production in Mozambique, South Africa, Canada, and Gabon. The Base Chemicals segment involves the marketing of commodity chemicals based on the group's upstream Fischer-Tropsch, ethylene, propylene and ammonia value chains. The Performance Chemicals segment markets commodity and differentiated performance chemicals. The Energy segment sells and markets liquid fuels, pipeline gas, and electricity. The Group Functions segment includes the head office and centralised treasury operations. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Read MoreSunTrust Banks, Inc. operates as the holding company for SunTrust Bank that provides various financial services for consumers, businesses, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit entities in the United States. It operates in two segments, Consumer and Wholesale. The Consumer segment provides deposits and payments; home equity and personal credit lines; auto, student, and other lending products; credit cards; discount/online and full-service brokerage products; professional investment advisory products and services; and trust services, as well as family office solutions. This segment also offers residential mortgage products in the secondary market. The Wholesale segment provides capital markets solutions, including advisory, capital raising, and financial risk management; asset-based financing solutions, such as securitizations, asset-based lending, equipment financing, and structured real estate arrangements; cash management services and auto dealer financing solutions; investment banking solutions; and credit and deposit, fee-based product offering, multi-family agency lending, advisory, commercial mortgage brokerage, and tailored financing and equity investment solutions. This segment also offers treasury and payment solutions, such as operating various electronic and paper payment types, which comprise card, wire transfer, automated clearing house, check, and cash; and provides services clients to manage their accounts online. The company offers its products and services through a network of traditional and in-store branches, automated teller machines, Internet, mobile, and telephone banking channels. As of December 31, 2018, it operated 1,218 full-service banking offices located in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. SunTrust Banks, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Read MoreTBC Bank Group PLC, through its subsidiaries, provides banking, leasing, brokerage, and card processing services to corporate and individual customers in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. The company operates through Retail; Corporate; and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises segments. It offers various current/settlement accounts, and term deposits; mortgage, consumer, retail, and corporate loans, as well as loans for micro, small, and medium enterprises; credit cards, credit lines, letters of credit, and guarantees; and money transfer and currency exchange services. The company also provides motor, life and personal accident, property, health, and other insurance products; investment, brokerage, and corporate finance solutions; and card processing, leasing, PR and marketing, real estate management, asset management, computer and software, e-commerce, and postal services. In addition, it offers internet and mobile banking services. The company operates through a network of 157 branches; 1,570 automated teller machines; 25,163 point of sale terminals; and 3,905 self-service terminals. TBC Bank Group PLC was founded in 1992 and is based in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Read MoreTelefAnica Deutschland Holding AG provides integrated telecommunication services to private and business customers in Germany. It offers voice, data, and value-added services in mobile and fixed line networks; access to infrastructure and services for its wholesale partners; and digital products and services in the fields of Internet of Things. The company provides its products and services through a network of independently operated franchise and premium partner shops, and online and telesales channels, as well as indirect selling channels, such as partnerships and co-operations with retailers. It markets its products and services under the O2, Blau, AY YILDIZ, Ortel Mobile, FONIC, netzclub, and TArkeiSIM brand names. As of December 31, 2020, TelefAnica Deutschland Holding AG had approximately 47 million customers. The company was formerly known as TelefAnica Germany Verwaltungs GmbH and changed its name to TelefAnica Deutschland Holding AG in September 2012. The company is based in Munich, Germany. TelefAnica Deutschland Holding AG is a subsidiary of Telefonica Germany Holdings Limited.

Read MoreDeutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.

Read MoreCoreLogic, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides property information, insight, analytics, and data-enabled solutions in North America, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Property Intelligence & Risk Management Solutions (PIRM) and Underwriting & Workflow Solutions (UWS). The PIRM segment combines property information, mortgage information, and consumer information to deliver housing market and property-level insights, predictive analytics, and risk management capabilities. It also offers proprietary technology and software platforms to access, automate, or track the information and assist its clients with decision-making and compliance tools in the real estate and insurance industries. This segment primarily serves commercial banks, mortgage lenders and brokers, investment banks, fixed-income investors, real estate agents, MLS companies, property and casualty insurance companies, title insurance companies, government agencies, and government-sponsored enterprises. The UWS segment combines property, mortgage, and consumer information to provide comprehensive mortgage origination and monitoring solutions, including underwriting-related solutions, and data-enabled valuations and appraisals. This segment also provides proprietary technology and software platforms to access, automate, or track the information and assist its clients with vetting and onboarding prospects, and meeting compliance regulations, as well as understanding, evaluating, monitoring property values. It primarily serves mortgage lenders and servicers, mortgage brokers, credit unions, commercial banks, fixed-income investors, government agencies, and property and casualty insurance companies. The company was formerly known as The First American Corporation and changed its name to CoreLogic, Inc. in June 2010. CoreLogic, Inc. was incorporated in 1894 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Read MoreWilliam Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November, 6th. The construction company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.07. The construction company had revenue of $466.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $487.15 million. William Lyon Homes had a net margin of 3.04% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 6.98%. William Lyon Homes's revenue was down 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.68 earnings per share.

View William Lyon Homes' earnings history.Deckers Outdoor Corp. engages in the business of designing, marketing, and distributing footwear, apparel, and accessories developed for both everyday casual lifestyle use and high performance activities. It operates through the following segments: UGG Brand, HOKA Brand, Teva Brand, Sanuk Brand, Other Brands, and Direct-to-Consumer. The UGG Brand segment offers a line of premium footwear, apparel, and accessories. The HOKA Brand segment sells footwear and apparel that offers enhanced cushioning and inherent stability with minimal weight, originally designed for ultra-runners. The Teva Brand segment focuses on the sport sandal and modern outdoor lifestyle category, such as sandals, shoes, and boots. The Sanuk Brand segment originated in Southern California surf culture and has emerged into a lifestyle brand with a presence in the relaxed casual shoe and sandal categories. The Other Brands segment includes the Koolaburra by UGG brand. The Direct-to-Consumer segment comprises of retail stores and e-commerce websites. The company was founded by Douglas B. Otto in 1973 and is headquartered in Goleta, CA.

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. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.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..Antofagasta plc, through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the exploration, evaluation, development, and mining of copper properties in Chile and internationally. It operates through Los Pelambres, Centinela, Antucoya, ZaldAvar, Exploration and Evaluation, and Transport segments. The company explores for copper concentrates containing by-products, such as molybdenum, gold, and silver; and copper cathodes. It holds a 60% interest in the Los Pelambres mine; a 70% interest in the Centinela mine; a 50% interest in the ZaldAvar mine; and a 70% interest in the Antucoya mine located in Chile. The company also provides rail and road cargo, and other ancillary services. In addition, it offers rail and truck services to the mining industry in the Antofagasta Region. The company was incorporated in 1888 and is based in London, the United Kingdom. Antofagasta plc is a subsidiary of Metalinvest Establishment.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.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JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company. It provides financial and investment banking services. The firm offers a range of investment banking products and services in all capital markets, including advising on corporate strategy and structure, capital raising in equity and debt markets, risk management, market making in cash securities and derivative instruments, and brokerage and research. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking, Corporate and Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, and Asset and Wealth Management. The Consumer and Community Banking segment serves consumers and businesses through personal service at bank branches and through automated teller machine, online, mobile, and telephone banking. The Corporate and Investment Bank segment offers a suite of investment banking, market-making, prime brokerage, and treasury and securities products and services to a global client base of corporations, investors, financial institutions, government and municipal entities. The Commercial Banking segment delivers services to U.S. and its multinational clients, including corporations, municipalities, financial institutions, and non profit

Read MoreBNP Paribas SA provides a range of banking and financial services in France and internationally. It operates through two divisions, Retail Banking and Services, and Corporate and Institutional Banking. The company offers long-term corporate vehicle leasing, and rental and other financing solutions; and digital banking and investment services, cash management, and factoring services to corporate clients, as well as wealth management services. It also provides credit solutions for individuals under the Cetelem, Cofinoga, Findomestic, AlphaCredit, and Opel Vauxhall brands; savings and protection solutions, including insuring individuals, and their personal projects and assets; and asset management, private banking, and real estate services. In addition, the company offers global market services, including investment, hedging, financing, research, and market intellingence across asset classes; security services comprising clearing, custody, and asset and fund services, as well as corporate trust, and market and financing services; and corporate trade and treasury, debt financing, specialized financing, strategic advisory, mergers and acquisition, and equity capital market services for institutional and corporate clients. The company was formerly known as Banque Nationale de Paris and changed its name to BNP Paribas SA in May 2000. BNP Paribas SA was founded in 1848 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

Read More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The following companies are subsidiares of Quest Diagnostics: AmeriPath, AmeriPath Cincinnati Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Cleveland Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Consolidated Labs Inc. (FL), AmeriPath Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Hospital Services Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Indianapolis PC (IN), AmeriPath Kentucky Inc. (KY), AmeriPath Lubbock 5.01(A) Corporation (TX), AmeriPath New York LLC (DE), AmeriPath Texas Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Tucson Inc. (AZ), American Medical Laboratories, American Medical Laboratories Incorporated (DE), Associated Clinical Laboratories L.P. (PA), Associated Clinical Laboratories of Pennsylvania L.L.C. (PA), Athena Diagnostics, Athena Diagnostics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics, Blueprint Genetics FZ-LLC (UAE), Blueprint Genetics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics Oy (Finland), California Laboratory Associates, Cape Cod Healthcare - Business, Celera, ClearPoint Diagnostic, Clearpoint Diagnostic Laboratories LLC (TX), Cleveland HeartLab, Cleveland HeartLab Inc. (DE), Clinical Laboratory Partners, Colorado Pathology Consultants P.C. (CO), ConVerge Diagnostic Services, Consolidated DermPath Inc. (DE), DFW 5.01(a) Corporation (TX), DGXWMT JV LLC (DE), Dermatopathology of Wisconsin S.C. (WI), Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma LLC (OK), Diagnostic Pathology Services Inc. (OK), Diagnostic Reference Services Inc. (MD), ExamOne Canada Inc. (New Brunswick), ExamOne LLC (DE), ExamOne World Wide Inc. (PA), ExamOne World Wide of NJ Inc. (NJ), Focus Diagnostics, HemoCue, Hoffman M.D. Associated Pathologists Chartered (NV), Institute for Dermatopathology Inc. (PA), Isabella Street Urban Renewal LLC (NJ), Kailash B. Sharma M.D. Inc. (GA), Kilpatrick Pathology P.A. (NC), LabOne, LabOne LLC (MO), LabOne of Ohio Inc. (DE), Laboratorio de Analisis Biomedicos S.A. (Mexico), Lancet Labs, MACL, Med Fusion LLC (TX), Med fusion, MedPlus, Mid America Clinical Laboratories LLC (IN), Nomad Massachusetts Inc. (MA), Nuclear Medicine and Pathology Associates (GA), Ocmulgee Medical Pathology Association Inc. (GA), Pathology Building Partnership (MD) (gen. ptnrshp.), PeaceHealth Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories PLLC (WA), Q Squared Solutions Holdings LLC (DE), Q Squared Solutions Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (China), Quest Diagnostics Brasil Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Domestic Holder LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics HTAS India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Health & Wellness LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Incorporated (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (MD), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NV), Quest Diagnostics India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Infectious Disease Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics International Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics International LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Investments LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Ireland Limited (Ireland), Quest Diagnostics LLC (CT), Quest Diagnostics LLC (IL), Quest Diagnostics LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Massachusetts LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Mexico Holding Company Trust (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Mexico S de RL de CV (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute (CA), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute Inc. (VA), Quest Diagnostics Receivables Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Subsidiary Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics TB LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Terracotta LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Venture LLC (PA), Quest Diagnostics Ventures LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics do Brasil Ltda. (Brazil), Quest Diagnostics of Pennsylvania Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics of Puerto Rico Inc. (PR), Quest HealthConnect LLC (CA), ReproSource, Reprosource Fertility Diagnostics Inc. (MA), Solstas Lab Partners, Sonora Quest Laboratories LLC (AZ), Specialty Laboratories Inc. (CA), Summit Health, UMass Memorial Medical Center - Anatomic Pathology Outreach Laboratory Business, Unilab Corporation, and Unilab Corporation (DE).The following companies are subsidiares of JinkoSolar: Canton Best Limited, Jiangxi Photovoltaic Materials Co. Ltd., Jinko PV Material Supply Sdn. Bhd., Jinko Solar (Malaysia) SDN BHD., Jinko Solar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Australia Holdings Co. Pty Ltd., Jinko Solar Canada Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Denmark ApS, Jinko Solar Import and Export Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Japan K.K., Jinko Solar Korea Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Technology SDN.BHD., JinkoSolar (Chuxiong) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Chuzhou) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Shangrao) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Sichuan) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Switzerland) AG, JinkoSolar (U.S.) Inc., JinkoSolar (U.S.) Industries Inc., JinkoSolar (US) Holdings Inc., JinkoSolar (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Yiwu) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar GmbH, JinkoSolar Hong Kong Limited, JinkoSolar International Development Limited, JinkoSolar Investment Limited, JinkoSolar LATAM Holding Limited, JinkoSolar Middle East DMCC, JinkoSolar Technology (Haining) Co. Ltd, JinkoSolar Trading Private Limited, Jinkosolar Household PV System Ltd., Poyang Ruilixin Information Technology Co. Ltd., Rui Xu Co. Ltd., Wide Wealth Group Holding Limited, Xinjiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Yuhuan Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., and Zhejiang Jinko Trading Co. Ltd.. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.The following companies are subsidiares of CVS Health: @Credentials Inc., ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. Ltd., Aetna ACO Holdings Inc., Aetna Asset Advisors LLC, Aetna Behavioral Health LLC, Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health of California Inc., Aetna Better Health of Florida Inc., Aetna Better Health of Kansas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Better Health of Missouri LLC, Aetna Better Health of Nevada Inc., Aetna Better Health of North Carolina Inc., Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma Inc., Aetna Better Health of Texas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Washington Inc., Aetna Capital Management LLC, Aetna Card Solutions LLC, Aetna Corporate Services LLC, Aetna Dental Inc., Aetna Dental of California Inc., Aetna Financial Holdings LLC, Aetna Florida Inc., Aetna Global Benefits (Asia Pacific) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bahamas) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bermuda) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Europe) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Middle East) LLC, Aetna Global Benefits (Singapore) PTE. LTD., Aetna Global Benefits (UK) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits Limited (DIFC UAE), Aetna Global Holdings Limited, Aetna Health Holdings LLC, Aetna Health Inc., Aetna Health Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Aetna Health Insurance Company, Aetna Health Insurance Company of Europe DAC, Aetna Health Management LLC, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, Aetna Health of California Inc., Aetna Health of Iowa Inc., Aetna Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Health of Ohio Inc., Aetna Health of Utah Inc., Aetna HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Aetna Holdco (UK) Limited, Aetna Holdings (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Inc., Aetna Insurance (Hong Kong) Limite, Aetna Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Aetna Insurance Company Limited, Aetna Integrated Informatics Inc., Aetna International Inc., Aetna Ireland Inc., Aetna Korea Ltd., Aetna Life & Casualty (Bermuda) Ltd., Aetna Life Assignment Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC, Aetna Multi-Strategy 1099 Fund LLC, Aetna Network Services LLC, Aetna Partners Diversified Fund LLC, Aetna Pharmacy Management Services LLC, Aetna Resources LLC, Aetna Risk Assurance Company of Connecticut Inc., Aetna Rx Home Delivery LLC, Aetna Services (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Aetna Student Health Agency Inc., Aetna Ventures LLC, Aetna Workers Comp Access LLC, Alabama CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Alaska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, American Continental Insurance Company, American Drug Stores Delaware L.L.C., American Health Holding Inc., Arbor Drugs, Arizona CVS Stores L.L.C., Arkansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Badger Acquisition LLC, Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC, Badger Acquisition of Minnesota LLC, Badger Acquisition of Ohio LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Company, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Beauty Holdings L.L.C., Best Care LTC Acquisition Company LLC, Busse CVS L.L.C., CCI Foreign S.a R.L. (R.C.S. Luxembourg), CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Claims Administration Corp., Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care Workers Compensation Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Rehabilitation Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. LLC, Delaware CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Delaware Physicians Care Incorporated, Digital eHealth LLC, District of Columbia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., E.T.B. INC., Echo Merger Sub Inc., Eckerd Corporation of Florida Inc., Employee Assistance Services LLC, Enloe Drugs LLC, Enterprise Patient Safety Organization LLC, EntrustRX, Evergreen Pharmaceutical LLC, Evergreen Pharmaceutical of California Inc., Express Pharmacy Services of PA L.L.C., FOCUS HealthCare Management Inc., First Health Group Corp., First Health Life & Health Insurance Company, First Script Network Services Inc., Florida Health Plan Administrators LLC, Garfield Beach CVS L.L.C., Generation Health L.L.C., Geneva Woods Health Services LLC, Geneva Woods LTC Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Management LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Alaska LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Washington LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Wyoming LLC, Geneva Woods Retail Pharmacy LLC, Georgia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., German Dobson CVS L.L.C., Goodhealth Worldwide (Asia) Limited, Goodhealth Worldwide (Global) Limited, Goodyear CVS L.L.C., Grand St. Paul CVS L.L.C., Grandview Pharmacy LLC, Group Dental Service Inc., Group Dental Service of Maryland Inc., Health Care Management Co. Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssuance Pennsylvania Inc., Healthagen LLC, Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Life and Health Insurance Company, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, MetraComp Inc., Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare LLC, NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky Inc. (Oh, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Holdings Inc., NeighborCare Inc., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services Inc., NeighborCare Services Corporation, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Holding Company, Omnicare Inc., Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania East LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Holdings Inc., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Pt. Aetna Global Benefits Indonesia, Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Spinnaker Bidco Limited, Spinnaker Topco Limited, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare L.L.C., Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.Danone S.A. operates in the food and beverage industry in Europe, Noram, Latin America, the Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. The company operates through three segments: Essential Dairy & Plant-Based, Specialized Nutrition, and Waters. It produces and distributes yogurts; milk products; coffee creamers, drinks, and beverages; plant-based products; and ice creams, desserts, and nutritional powdered protein products under the Actimel, Activia, Alpro, Aptamil, Danette, Danio, Danonino, evian, Nutricia, Nutrilon, Volvic, as well as under the licensed brands, including International Delight, Dunkin' Donuts, and Bailey's. The company also offers specialized nutrition products for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, infants, and young children under the Aptamil, Nutrilon, Gallia, Cow & Gate, BlAdina, Bebelac, Olvarit, and Happy Family Organics brands. In addition, it provides tube feeding products under the Nutrison name; oral nutritional supplements under the Fortimel and NutriDrink names; and hypoallergenic products for children with allergies primarily under the Aptamil ProSyneo, Aptamil Pepti Syneo, and Neocate Syneo names. Further, the company offers water with natural fruit extracts, fruit juice, and vitamins under the evian, Volvic, Aqua, Mizone, Bonafont, Villavicencio, Villa del Sur, Hayat, Sirma, Fontvella, LanjarAn, Salus, Aqua d'Or, and Zywiec Zdroj brands. It distributes its products through retail chains and traditional market outlets; convenience stores; hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies; and e-commerce. The company was formerly known as Groupe Danone and changed its name to Danone S.A. in April 2009. Danone S.A. was incorporated in 1899 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

Read MoreDowDuPont Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in agriculture, materials science, and specialty products businesses in the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company's Agriculture segment produces, and sells hybrid corn seed and soybean seed varieties; sunflowers, wheat, alfalfa, canola, cotton, rice, and sorghum; silage inoculants; and crop protection products that include weed control, disease control, and insect control. Its Performance Materials & Coatings segment manufactures and sells architectural paints and coatings, and industrial coatings; performance monomers and silicones; standalone silicones; and home and personal care solutions. The company's Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure segment offers ethylene oxides, propylene oxide derivatives, cellulose ethers, redispersible latex powders, and acrylic emulsions; sustainable solutions; and chlorine and caustic soda. Its Packaging & Specialty Plastics segment provides ethylene, and propylene and aromatic products; and polyolefin elastomers and ethylene propylene diene monomer rubbers. The company's Electronics & Imaging segment offers materials and systems for mobile devices, television monitors, personal computers, and electronics. Its Nutrition & Biosciences segment provides specialty ingredients, as well as cellulosic- and alginates-based pharma excipients; and enzymes, biomaterials, biocides, and antimicrobial solutions and process technologies. The company's Transportation & Advanced Polymers segment offers engineering resins, adhesives, lubricants, and parts for transportation, electronics, healthcare, industrial, and consumer end-markets. Its Safety & Construction segment provides engineered products and integrated systems for construction, worker safety, energy, oil and gas, transportation, medical device, and water purification and separation industries. The company was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Midland, Michigan.

Read MoreDArr Aktiengesellschaft, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mechanical and plant engineering company worldwide. The company's Paint and Final Assembly Systems segment plans, builds, and modernizes paint shops and final assembly lines for the automotive industry; and supplies products and processes for various process stages in paint shop technology. It also provides supply control and conveyor systems, as well as air supply and exhaust-air systems; consulting services; and assembly and test systems for medical devices. The company's Application Technology segment offers technologies for the automated spray application of primers, and base and clear coats; and systems used for paint supply, quality assurance, and process control and evaluation. It also provides sealing technology for sealing seams, underbody protection, and injecting insulating materials in cars; glueing technology for fitting windows, glass roofs, cockpits, and tanks; and technology for paint application products. The company's Clean Technology Systems segment offers exhaust-air purification for the chemical, pharmaceutical, carbon fiber production, printing/coating, woodworking, mining, energy, oil and gas, and packaging industries, as well as to vehicle and lithium-ion battery manufacturers, automotive suppliers, and decentralized power plant operators. Its Measuring and Process Systems segment provides balancing and diagnostic systems; and systems for the automated filling of refrigerators, air-conditioning systems, and heat pumps with refrigerants. The company's Woodworking Machinery and Systems segment offers woodworking machinery and systems, such as panel cutting systems, through-feed saws and drilling machines, sanders, edge-banding machines, CNC processing centers, and handling and storage systems for use in furniture industry and woodworking trade, and timber house construction. DArr Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Canada 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 Canada 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 Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..GlaxoSmithKline Plc is a healthcare company, which engages in the research, development, and manufacture of pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines, and consumer healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceuticals R&D; Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. The Pharmaceuticals segment focuses on developing medicines in respiratory and infectious diseases, oncology, and immuno-inflammation. The Pharmaceuticals R&D segment focuses on science related to the immune system, the use of human genetics and advanced technologies, and is driven by the multiplier effect of Science x Technology x Culture. The Vaccines segment produces pediatric and adult vaccines to prevent a range of infectious diseases including, hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, polio, typhoid, influenza, and bacterial meningitis. The Consumer Healthcare segment develops and markets brands in the oral health, pain relief, respiratory, nutrition and gastro intestinal, and skin health categories. The company was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Middlesex, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreGuyana Goldfields Inc. provides exploration and production of gold. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of gold mineral properties. The company also owns and operates gold drilling rights. The company was formerly known as Chiboug Copper Company Limited and changed its name to Guyana Goldfields Inc. in January 1995. Guyana Goldfields Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As of August 25, 2020, Guyana Goldfields Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited.

Read MoreH&R Block, Inc. engages in the provision of tax preparation and other services. The firm offers assisted income tax return preparation and related services through a system of retail offices operated directly by the company or by franchisees. It also develops and markets DIY income tax preparation software online, as well as through third-party retail stores and direct mail; and provides DIY tax services, including federal and state income tax returns, access to tax tips, advice and tax-related news, use of calculators for tax planning, and error checking and electronic filing. In addition, the company offers Refund Transfers and H&R Block Emerald Prepaid Mastercard, which enables clients to receive their tax refunds; Peace of Mind extended service plans; H&R Block Emerald Advance lines of credit; Tax Identity Shield that provides clients assistance in helping protect their tax identity and access to services to help restore their tax identity; refund advance loans; H&R Block Instant Refund; and H&R Block Pay With Refund services. The company was founded by Henry W. Bloch and Richard A. Bloch on January 25, 1955 and is headquartered in Kansas City, MO.

Read MoreMcDermott International, Inc. provides engineering, procurement, construction and installation, and technology solutions to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through five segments: North, Central and South America; Europe, Africa, Russia and Caspian; the Middle East and North Africa; Asia Pacific; and Technology. It designs, engineers, and constructs upstream offshore oil and gas facilities, downstream oil and gas facilities, gas-fired power plants, liquefied natural gas import and export terminals, atmospheric and refrigerated storage vessels and terminals, water storage and treatment facilities, pipe and module fabrication, hydrocarbon processing facilities, pipe fabrication and manufacturing, and refining and petrochemical facilities. The company also provides gas processing, refining, petrochemical and coal gasification technologies, as well as a supplies catalysts, equipment, and related engineering services. It serves national, integrated, and other oil and gas companies, as well as producers of petrochemicals and electric power. McDermott International, Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreMidstates Petroleum Company, Inc. engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in the United States. The company's operations are primarily focused on exploration and production activities in the Mississippian Lime. As of December 31, 2018, its assets consisted of approximately 102,198 net acres in the Mississippian Lime trend in Woods and Alfalfa counties of Oklahoma. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI India ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI India ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Japan 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 Japan ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The Arizona state supreme court ruling last week that threw out a school funding ballot measure set for November has lit a match under an already combustible midterm election.

The states high court lon Aug. 30 said the language of Proposition 207, a ballot measure that would have asked voters to provide $690 million more to schools through a tax on the states wealthier residents, was confusing to voters and didnt adequately explain its fiscal impact.

State teacher activists and Democratic candidates for state office immediately pounced on the ruling as unfair and partisan.

The stakes for the governors race in Arizona just changed utterly and irrevocably, said David Garcia, a professor of education and an outspoken progressive who beat the more moderate candidate Steve Farley in the states Democratic primaries last week. We must elect pro-public education candidates up and down the ballot.

Earlier this spring, Democrats in the state used statewide teacher walkouts to bring attention to stagnated funding from the Republican-controlled state legislature which they say has left schools unable to provide students with basic services.

During rallies at the capital, they passed around petitions supporting Proposition 207, and Garcia, who was then seeking the Democratic nomination, walked through the crowds, passed out, flyers and took selfies with teachers. But the activists worried that that energy wouldnt be able to carry them into November.

The ruling Thursday lit up dormant social media pages and sparked teacher protest.

Teachers are still reeling, Alexis Aguirre, an Osborn School District teacher told the Arizona Republican during a protest outside the states supreme court in Phoenix. All of those days and hours getting signatures and walking to houses with my toddler and my son knocking on doors, and theyre not letting the will of the people decide. They robbed us of that.People smugglers are taking greater risks to ferry their human cargo toward Europe as Libyas coast guard intercepts more and more boats carrying migrants, increasing the likelihood that those on board may die during the Mediterranean journeys, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday. As The Epoch Times writes in the article Migrant Trips Across Mediterranean Fall, but Risks Rise, thats one of the key findings from a new UNHCR report about efforts to reach Europe. The report, titled Desperate Journeys, said that even though the number of crossings and deaths has plunged compared to recent years, the voyage is more deadly in percentage terms for those who venture across. It said that 2,276 people died last year while trying to cross, or one death for every 42 arrivals.

This year, its 1,095 deaths, or one out of every 18 arrivals. In June alone, the proportion hit one death for every seven arrivals. On the Central Mediterranean route so far this year, there have been 10 separate incidents in which 50 or more people died  most after departing from Libya. Seven of those incidents have been since June alone, UNHCR said.

The reason the traffic has become more deadly is that the traffickers are taking more risk, because there is more surveillance exercised by the Libyan coast guards, said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCRs special envoy for the central Mediterranean. They are trying to cut the costs: It costs them more to keep those people here longer in their warehouses, under captivity.

Libyan authorities intercepted or rescued 18,400 people between August last year and July this yeara 38-percent increase from the same period of 2016 and 2017. Arrivals by sea from Libya to Europe plummeted 82 percent in those comparable periods, to 30,800 in the more recent one.

UNHCR says a growing worry these days is deaths on land by people trying to get to Libya in the first place, or getting stuck in squalid, overcrowded detention centers: Many get returned there after failing to cross by sea to Europe.

The problems after disembarkation (is that) those people are sent back to detention centers, and many disappear, Cochetel said. Many are sold to militias, and to traffickers, and people employing them without paying them.

He said the drop in departures means that traffickers attempt to monetize their investment, which means they have to exploit more people. That results in more cases of slavery, forced labor, prostitution of those people  because they (smugglers) want to make money on those people.

Would-be workers and migrants are still pouring into Libya: Some are fleeing injustice, abuse or autocrats in their home countries further south in Africa. Others are looking for work in the oil industry or agriculture.

I think you have more deaths on land, Cochetel said, referring to treks across the desert in Sudan, Algeria, Chad and Niger. Many people in Libya are reporting having seeing people dead in the desert on the way to Libya.

In Libya, instability continues even seven years after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi. French medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said Friday that fighting between rival militias in Tripoli, the capital, has endangered the lives of people trapped there and worsened humanitarian needsespecially at migrant detention centers.The following companies are subsidiares of CIT Group: 1143986 Ontario Limited, 1244771 Ontario Limited, 3918041 Canada Inc., 544211 Alberta Ltd., 555565 Alberta Ltd., 555566 Alberta Ltd., Baliardo Limited, C.I.T. Leasing Corporation, C2 Aviation Capital LLC, CBG LJB 21 LLC, CCERU Finance LP, CFHE Funding Company LLC, CIT Aerospace (Australia) Pty Ltd, CIT Aerospace Asia Pte Ltd., CIT Aerospace Belgium Sprl, CIT Aerospace Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, CIT Aerospace Holdings (France) SAS, CIT Aerospace International, CIT Aerospace International (Aruba) A.V.V., CIT Aerospace International (Australia) Pty Ltd., CIT Aerospace International (Bermuda) Limited, CIT Aerospace International (France) Sarl, CIT Aerospace International Leasing II, CIT Aerospace LLC, CIT Aerospace Sweden AB, CIT Asset Management LLC, CIT Aviation Finance I (France) Sarl, CIT Aviation Finance I (Ireland) Limited, CIT Aviation Finance I (UK) Limited, CIT Aviation Finance I Ltd., CIT Aviation Finance II (France) Sarl, CIT Aviation Finance II (Ireland) Limited, CIT Aviation Finance II (UK) Limited, CIT Aviation Finance II Ltd., CIT Aviation Finance III Ltd., CIT Bank N.A., CIT CBK Funding Company LLC, CIT CBK Funding Inc., CIT CLO Holding Corporation, CIT CLO I Blocker Inc., CIT CLO I LLC, CIT CLO I Ltd., CIT Canada Finance LP, CIT Canada Finance ULC, CIT Capital Aviation (UK) Limited, CIT Capital Finance (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Capital Securities LLC, CIT Capital USA Inc., CIT Cayman Coconut Palm Leasing Ltd., CIT Cayman Sandy Keys Leasing Ltd., CIT Communications Finance Corporation, CIT Credit Group USA Inc., CIT Equipment Finance (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT FSC Eighteen Ltd., CIT FSC Nineteen Ltd., CIT Finance & Leasing (Tianjin) Corporation, CIT Finance & Leasing Corporation, CIT Finance LLC, CIT Financial (Alberta) ULC / Services Financiers CIT (Alberta) ULC, CIT Financial (Barbados) SRL, CIT Financial (Hong Kong) Limited, CIT Financial II (Barbados) Srl, CIT Financial Ltd./Services Financiers CIT Ltee., CIT Financial USA Inc., CIT Funding (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Funding Company LLC, CIT Funding LLC, CIT Funds LLC, CIT Group (Hungary) Financial Servicing Limited Liability Company "under voluntary dissolution", CIT Group (NFL) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Group (NJ) LLC, CIT Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd (In Members' Voluntary Liquidation), CIT Group (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Group Finance (Ireland), CIT Group Holding (Germany) GmbH i.L., CIT Group Holdings (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Group Holdings B.V., CIT Group Inc., CIT Group Italy Srl in liquidazione, CIT Group SF Holding Co. Inc., CIT Healthcare LLC, CIT Holdings (Barbados) SRL, CIT Holdings B.V., CIT Holdings Canada ULC, CIT Home Lending Securitization Company LLC, CIT Insurance Agency Inc., CIT Leasing (Bermuda) Ltd., CIT Leasing (Germany) GmbH i.L., CIT Lending Services Corporation, CIT Lending Services Corporation (Illinois), CIT Loan Corporation, CIT Malaysia One Inc., CIT Maritime Leasing LLC, CIT Mezzanine Partners of Canada Limited, CIT Millbury Inc., CIT Rail Holdings (Europe) SAS, CIT Rail LLC, CIT Railcar Funding Company LLC, CIT Small Business Lending Corporation, CIT Strategic Finance Inc., CIT TRS Funding B.V., CIT TRS Holdings B.V., CIT TRS Subsidiary B.V., CIT Technology Financing Services Inc., CIT Trade Finance Funding Company LLC, CIT Transportation Holdings B.V., CRE CT 21 OTHER LLC, CRE CT 27 OTHER LLC, CRE FFBC LLC, CRE LJ 21 OTHER LLC, CRE LJ 27 OTHER LLC, CRE LJ 4800 Riverside LLC, CRE LJ CA 2 LLC, CRE LJ CA LLC, CRE LJ CP ESCONDIDO LLC, CRE LJ TX LLC, Canadian Income Partners I Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners II Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners III Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners IV Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners V Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners VI Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners VII Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners VIII Limited Partnership, Capita Corporation, Capital Direct Group Inc., Centennial Aviation (Bermuda) 1 Ltd., Centennial Aviation (France) 1 SARL, Centennial Aviation (France) 2 SARL, Centennial Aviation (Ireland) 7 Limited, Direct Capital Corporation, Direct Capital Funding III Company LLC, Direct Capital Funding V LLC, Education Loan Servicing Corporation, Emerald Funding (Netherlands) C.V., Emerald Holdings C.V., Financial Freedom Acquisition LLC, IMV 11 PALM LLC, INDYMAC VENTURE LLC, Jessica Leasing Designated Activity Company, MEX CIT SERVICIOS S. de R.L. de C.V., Madeleine Leasing Designation Activity Company, Memphis Peaking Power LLC, Millennium Leasing Company I LLC, Millennium Leasing Company II LLC, NACCO (U.K.) Limited, NACCO GmbH, NACCO Rail Ireland Limited, NACCO S.A.S, Nacco Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Newcourt Financial Espana S.A., North Romeo Storage Corporation, ONEWEST VENTURES HOLDINGS LLC, OWB REO LLC, OneWest Bank N.A, OneWest Investments II LLC, OneWest Investments LLC, OneWest Resources LLC, PL Servicing LLC, Rita Leasing Designated Activity Company, The CIT GP Corporation III, The CIT Group Securitization Corporation II, The CIT Group/Business Credit Inc., The CIT Group/Commercial Services Inc., The CIT Group/Corporate Aviation Inc., The CIT Group/Equipment Financing Inc., The CIT Group/Equity Investments Inc., The Capita Corporation do Brasil Ltda, The Equipment Insurance Company, and Worrell Capital Limited.Premier African Minerals Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mining, exploration, evaluation, development, and investment of natural resource properties on the African continent. The company explores for tungsten, lithium, tantalum, fluorspar, xenotime, zinc, nickel, uranium, gold, specialty minerals, limestone, potash and limestone, and rare earth metals. It holds interests in various properties located in Zimbabwe, Togo, Benin, and Mozambique. The company was formerly known as G&B African Resources Limited and changed its name to Premier African Minerals Limited in April 2012. Premier African Minerals Limited was founded in 2007 and is based in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

Read MoreDespite the repeated statements by the NATO leadership that the issue of admission of Ukraine to the alliance is not on the agenda even in the medium term, Kiev is constantly talking about the membership in this organization, Zond Novosty agency reports. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavel Klimkin, became another speaker who voiced this statement. In a live television broadcast at the local ICTV channel, he stated that the military bases of the North Atlantic alliance may appear on the territory of the country before the joining NATO.

The statement itself seems to be a consequence of President Petro Poroshenko's intentions to make amendments to the Constitution, according to which the Basic Law will prescribe a pro-Western course of Kiev with the integration aspirations in the EU and NATO, and at the same time the article about the basing of the Black Sea Fleet will be excluded. The Verkhovna Rada, where the proposed amendments were sent, improvised immediately, proposing to consider the option of replacing the Russian fleet with the military bases of the North Atlantic bloc. And Pavel Klimkin has already polished the sounded ideas.

"Before our accession to NATO and before our accession to the EU, we will change the Constitution ... We will spell this out in our Constitution, there is a European court, it will also be spelled out in the system of our courts," Klimkin said, essentially confirming that the issue of the NATO bases placement may well be reflected in the Ukrainian Constitution.

The main question - when it can happen - remains without answer. For example, the alliance itself is vague about this issue as it requires the full compatibility of the Ukrainian armed forces with the bloc's forces, the economy of the state and GDP must correspond to the level of the economies and GDP of the alliance members, the absence of contradictions between the local legislation and the laws of the NATO states, the comparability of the standard of living, the development of democratic standards, etc are necessary. And perhaps, the main thing is a desire of the populations majority.

Ukraine is far from all this. And things look blue with the populations desire. According to the data of all polls conducted until recently, the desire not to join the alliance prevails. However, Kiev does not consider this as a problem. Eventually, despite the obvious public sentiments, in 2014 the Ukrainian parliament legislatively refused the non-bloc status, and two years later the next amendments to the Constitution made it clear where Kiev still wanted to move.

But not everything depends only on the will and actions of the Ukrainian authorities. Experts assign Kiev at least 20 years to create the prerequisites for admission to NATO. But still, there are certain admonitions - what will be the relations with Russia by that time, what will happen to the Donbass and Crimea? It's no secret that the countries with the territorial problems are not welcomed in NATO - the alliance does not want to be dragged into a long-term smoldering conflict. Especially, if Russia participates in it, whether directly or not. Plus, Russias stance on the issue of NATO expansion at the expense of Ukraine and Georgia. As Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a recent interview to the Fox News, Moscow's reaction to such a scenario will be extremely tough. This statement was heard in the West.

Based on the current realities, the statements and actions of Ukrainian officials can be regarded as another attempt to tease Moscow. Or just check its reaction. Especially due t the fact that Kiev recently received a pass from the United States.

What is involved here is the funeral of Senator John McCain, that until the moment when only the members of the family and the closest relatives remained near the coffin, were like a certain show or a demonstration of intentions. However, as the American press writes, the deceased himself had a hand in this by scribbling the script of his funeral and leaving a room even for a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was to stand next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. This, according to McCains aim, would symbolize the thesis of the West and the United Statess loyalty, in particular, to its allies. The testament was executed - Poroshenko was standing next to the secretary general, and after that, it seems, he decided to reflect in a peculiar way the farewell parting words of the American senator in the Ukrainian Constitution.The following companies are subsidiares of World Fuel Services: AHT Services LLC, ANY-G B.V., ANY-G Services B.V., AVCARD Holding Company (BVI) Ltd., AVCARD Services (BVI) Ltd., Advance Petroleum LLC, Air Petro Corp., Alta Fuels Llc, Alta Transportation LLC, Altitude Ventures Holding Inc., Amelia Holding AB, Amsterdam Software B.V., Ascent Aviation Group Inc., Associated Petroleum Products, Associated Petroleum Products Inc, Avinode AB, Avinode Aktiebolag, Avinode Group AB, Avinode Inc., Baseops International Inc., Bergen Energi AB, Bunkerfuels, CarterEnergy Corporation, Casa Petro S.R.L., Chrome Club Inc., Colt Aviation Holdings LLC, Colt International, Colt International Europe SARL, Colt International LLC, Colt International das Americas Servicos de Aviacao Ltda., Colt Risk Management Services LLC, Ecuacentair Cia. Ltda., Energie-Tankdienstgesellschaft Bremen mbH, Falmouth Oil Services Limited, Falmouth Petroleum Limited, Gib Oil Limited, Hellenic Aviation Fuel Company S.A., Henty Oil Limited, Henty Shipping Services Limited, Indianhead Oil, JCP Brazil LLC, K T M Inc., KTM Inc, Kinect Consulting LLC, Kinect Energy AS, Kinect Energy Denmark A/S, Kinect Energy France Sarl, Kinect Energy Germany GmbH, Kinect Energy Green Services AS, Kinect Energy Hungary Kft, Kinect Energy Inc., Kinect Energy Markets AS, Kinect Energy Netherlands B.V., Kinect Energy Pty Limited, Kinect Energy Spot AS, Kinect Energy Sweden AB, Kinect Energy UK Limited, LFO Holdings Limited, Lakeside Oil Company Inc, Linton Fuel Oils Limited, MH Aviation Services (Pty) Ltd., MS Europe B.V., MS Lebanon LLC., MS Technology Solutions Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, MSTS Consorzio, MSTS Holding LLC, MSTS Payments LLC, Marine Energy, Multi Service Aero B.V., Multi Service Comercio S. de R.L. de C.V., Multi Service Egypt, Multi Service Holding B.V., Multi Service Middle East FZ-LLC, Multi Service Pre Paid Solutions B.V., Multi Service Private Label B.V., Multi Service Pty Limited, Multi Service Singapore PTE. LTD., Multi Service Technology Solutions, Multi Service Technology Solutions Inc., Multi Service Technology Solutions Inc. / Jordan LLC, Multi Service US Holding LLC, NCS Fuel IQ Limited, NCS UK Holding Co. Limited, NCS US Inc., Nature Port Reception Facilities Limited, Nordic Camp Supply ApS, Nordic Camp Supply B.V., Nordic Camp Supply Estonia OU, Norse Bunker AS, Oil Shipping (Bunkering) B.V., Oil Shipping Korea Limited, Orchard (Holdings) UK Limited, Orchard Energy Limited, PAPCO Inc., PAX Distribution LLC, PT Oil Shipping Trans Indonesia, PT Servicios de Guatemala Limitada, Papco, PayNode AB, Pester Marketing Company, Petro Air Corp, PetroServicios de Costa Rica S.R.L., Petromundo Internacional S.R.L., Redline Oil Services Limited, Resource Recovery of America Inc., SchedAero Inc., Schedaero AB, Servicios Auxiliares de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios Ecuatorianos de Energia-Secsa CIA. LTDA, Servicios WFSE Ecuador C.L., Servicios de Combustible Atlanticos S.R.L, Shell Oil Gibraltar, South Minnesota Lubes, TGS Petroleum Inc, TM Hawkins Brazil LLC, Tamlyn Shipping Limited, Tank and Marine Engineering Limited, Texor Petroleum Company, The Hiller Group Incorporated, The Lubricant Company Limited, Tobras Distribuidora de Combustiveis Ltda., Tramp Group Limited, Tramp Holdings Limited, Tramp Oil & Marine (Argentina) S.R.L., Tramp Oil & Marine (Chile) Limitada, Tramp Oil & Marine Limited, Tramp Oil (Brasil) Ltda., Tramp Oil Germany GmbH, Tramp Oil-Schiffahrts-und Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co., Trans-Tec Mundial S.R.L., U.S. Energy Engineering Inc., U.S. Energy Services Inc., UVair fuel business, WF Lubricants S.L., WFL (UK) II Limited, WFL (UK) Limited, WFL Mozambique LDA, WFS & J Company Limited, WFS (Guam) Limited, WFS Agencia de Naves Limitada, WFS Commercial Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., WFS Danish Holding Company I ApS, WFS Danish Holding Partnership K/S, WFS UK Holding Company II Limited, WFS UK Holding Company III Limited, WFS UK Holding Partnership II LP, WFS UK Holding Partnership III LP, WFS UK Holding Partnership LP, WFS US Holding Company I LLC, WFS US Holding Company II LLC, WFS US Holding Company III LLC, WFS US Holding Company IV LLC, WFS US Holding Company IX LLC, WFS US Holding Company V LLC, WFS US Holding Company VI LLC, WFS US Holding Company VII LLC, WFS US Holding Company VIII LLC, WFS US Holding Company X LLC, Watson Petroleum, Western Aviation Products LLC, Western Petroleum Company, Wilhelmsen Marine Fuels (WMF), World Fuel CX LLC, World Fuel Capital Limited, World Fuel Cayman Holding Company I, World Fuel Cayman Holding Company III, World Fuel Cayman Holding Company IV, World Fuel Cayman Holding Company V, World Fuel Commodities Services (Ireland) Limited, World Fuel Gas and Power Limited, World Fuel PG Trading Limited, World Fuel Services (Australia) Pty Ltd, World Fuel Services (Bahamas) LLC, World Fuel Services (Costa Rica) Limitada, World Fuel Services (Denmark) ApS, World Fuel Services (Hong Kong) Limited, World Fuel Services (KG) LLC, World Fuel Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., World Fuel Services (New Zealand) Limited, World Fuel Services (Panama) Limited Liability Company Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, World Fuel Services (Singapore) II Pte. Ltd., World Fuel Services (Singapore) Pte Ltd, World Fuel Services (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, World Fuel Services (Taiwan) Limited, World Fuel Services (Uruguay) S.A., World Fuel Services Argentina S.R.L., World Fuel Services Aviation Limited, World Fuel Services Belgium BVBA, World Fuel Services CZ s.r.o., World Fuel Services Canada ULC, World Fuel Services Chile Limitada, World Fuel Services Company LLC, World Fuel Services Corporate Aviation Support Services Inc., World Fuel Services Europe Ltd., World Fuel Services European Holding Company I Ltd., World Fuel Services Finance Company S.a.r.L., World Fuel Services France SAS, World Fuel Services Inc., World Fuel Services International (Panama) LLC, World Fuel Services Italy S.r.L., World Fuel Services Japan G.K., World Fuel Services Kenya Limited, World Fuel Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., World Fuel Services Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited, World Fuel Services Peru S.R.L., World Fuel Services Private Limited, World Fuel Services Regulatory Holdings LLC, World Fuel Services Trading DMCC, World Fuel Services Turkey Petrol Urunleri Dagitim Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, World Fuel Singapore Holding Company I Pte Ltd, World Fuel Singapore Holding Company II Pte Ltd, and Yacht Fuel Services Limited.Sogou, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of search and search-related services. The company offers its users general and vertical search services through its website sogou.com and mobile search application. Its products and services includes the Sogou Input Method, which is the Chinese language input software for both mobile and PC. It is also at the forefront of AI development. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.

Read MoreSuncor Energy Inc. operates as an integrated energy company. The company primarily focuses on developing petroleum resource basins in Canada's Athabasca oil sands; explores, acquires, develops, produces, transports, refines, and markets crude oil in Canada and internationally; markets petroleum and petrochemical products under the Petro-Canada name primarily in Canada. It operates in Oil Sands; Exploration and Production; Refining and Marketing; and Corporate and Eliminations segments. The Oil Sands segment recovers bitumen from mining and in situ operations, and upgrades it into refinery feedstock and diesel fuel, or blends the bitumen with diluent for direct sale to market. The Exploration and Production segment is involved in offshore operations off the east coast of Canada and in the North Sea; and operating onshore assets in Libya and Syria. The Refining and Marketing segment refines crude oil and intermediate feedstock into various petroleum and petrochemical products; and markets refined petroleum products to retail, commercial, and industrial customers through its other retail sellers. The Corporate and Eliminations segment operates four wind farm operations in Ontario and Western Canada. The company also markets and trades in crude oil, natural gas, byproducts, refined products, and power. The company was formerly known as Suncor Inc. and changed its name to Suncor Energy Inc. in April 1997. Suncor Energy Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreDays after Doha, one of Ankara's closest allies in the Gulf region, pledged $15 billion in direct investment in Turkey, Qatar's private sector has also turned to the country as five major conglomerates are looking to invest $300 million.

As Daily Sabah writes in the article Qatar's five major conglomerates turn to Turkey for investments, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (above) visited Ankara last month in an apparent show of support for Turkey, pledging $15 billion in direct investments in the country that found itself embroiled in a crisis with the U.S. Now that Qatari businesspeople have set their sights on Turkey for individual investments, Ahmet Hasan, the general manager of Royal Link, which manages the investments of Qatar Holding, Essa, Nora Rasit Al Doosori, Al Sumeiti and Rasit El Kubeysi, said that if an office for investors is established in Qatar, private sector investment could reach $50 billion.

In a statement to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, Hasan said the people of Qatar are "quite willing" to invest in Turkey. "The sheikhs and bosses, who are the owners of the five major companies that I consult, are willing to invest in Turkey in every field, from energy to agriculture and real estate," he continued. "We do research all over the country. We initiated our first acquisition with a wallpaper factory in Adana. In addition, a huge tract of land was purchased for the production of dried fruit. Now, we are in talks to get a site of villas." Hasan added that the same names will invest $300 million in the first phase.

TTR Investment Chairman Fatih Tataroglu said Turkey's support for Qatar won great sympathy in the region, peaking with the struggle against the U.S, adding that the Qatari companies are seeking Turkish partners under the directive of Al Thani. "Qatar has launched an industrialization campaign. Investors are in talks with the potential partners in Turkey. Soon major partnerships will emerge with great investments to provide employment for thousands of people," Tataroglu said.

Qatar Holding LLC is mostly investing in factories through the acquisition of industrial lands. The company has investments in energy, agriculture and industry.

Rashid El Kubeysi is one of Qatar's leading businesspeople investing in renewable energy. He is looking to buy agricultural land from Turkey and open a factory.

Essa stands out as one of Qatar's leading electrical construction and engineering companies.

Noora Rashid Al Dosari has farmland projects in Turkey, with 110,000 square meters of agricultural land in Manisa.

Al Sumaity has a 43,000 square meters of land in Manisa with projects in the field of agriculture.

In June 2017, a handful of Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, abruptly severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and imposed a blockade on the tiny Gulf country, accusing it of supporting terrorism. The Qatari government has denied the accusation, blasting the blockade as unjustified and a violation of international law. Amid the rift, Turkey has provided increased support to Qatar, boosting food and other exports to meet any shortages.

Days after Al Thani's visit, Qatar and Turkey's central banks signed a currency swap agreement to provide liquidity and support for financial stability. The agreement, which was signed by the heads of the two central banks, will establish a two-way currency exchange line, the statements by the two banks said. The deal will facilitate trade between the two allies as the Turkish currency is battered by a deepening spat with Washington, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) said.

The swap agreement was signed over Turkish lira and Qatari riyal and concluded with an overall limit of $3 billion, according to the CBRT, who said the core objective of the agreement is to facilitate bilateral trade in respective local currencies and support the financial stability of the two countries.

The row between Ankara and Washington escalated when U.S. President Donald Trump decided to levy sanctions on Turkish ministers Suleyman Soylu and Abdulhamit Gul on Aug. 1 and also increase tariffs on imported steel from Turkey by 50 percent and aluminum by 20 percent, respectively, while threatening the country with more sanctions over the legal case of pastor Andrew Brunson. The pastor is under house arrest in Turkey on charges of links to the Gulenist Terror Group (FETO) and the PKK, a U.S.-designated armed terrorist organization. In retaliation, Turkey increased the tariffs on certain U.S. goods up to 100 percent and more.KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation produces and sells a range of containerboards, corrugated products, and specialty paper products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Paper and Packaging, and Distribution. The Paper and Packaging segment offers containerboards consisting of linerboard and corrugated medium to manufacture corrugated containers for packaging products; and corrugated products. It also offers specialty paper products, including kraft paper, such as multiwall paper used to produce bags for agricultural products, pet food, baking products, cement and chemicals; specialty products comprising shingle wraps, end caps, roll wraps, and dunnage bags; and lightweight paper. In addition, this segment provides saturating kraft paper under the Durasorb trade name for use in construction, electronics manufacturing, and furniture manufacturing industries; and unbleached folding carton board under the Kraftpak trade name to integrated and independent converters in the folding carton industry. The Distribution segment distributes corrugated and other specialty packaging products consisting of stretch films, void fills, carton sealing tapes, and other specialty tapes. KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.

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Bhd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malta Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Messtechnik GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Mexico City S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Middle East Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Milano Srl, Thermo Fisher Scientific NHK Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Holdings, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway Holdings AS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway US Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Operating Company LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 C.V, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Panama I Cayman Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Peru S.R.L., Thermo Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific SL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Financing LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Holdings Australia LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific South Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific SpA, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg I S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Investments Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Switzerland Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific TR Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Taiwan Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific West Palm Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Wissenschaftliche Gerate GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Worldwide Investments (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific eCommerce Solutions LLC , Thermo Fisher Senior Canada Holdings LLC, Thermo Foundation Inc., Thermo Gamma-Metrics Holdings Pty Ltd., Thermo Gamma-Metrics LLC, Thermo Gamma-Metrics Pty Ltd, Thermo Holding European Operations LLC, Thermo Hypersil Ltd, Thermo Hypersil-Keystone LLC, Thermo Informatics Asia Pacific Pty Ltd., Thermo Instrument Controls de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Thermo Kevex X-Ray LLC, Thermo Keytek LLC, Thermo LabSystems Inc., Thermo LabSystems S.A., Thermo Life Science International Trading (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Thermo Life Sciences AB, Thermo Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo MF Physics LLC, Thermo Measurement Ltd, Thermo Measuretech Canada Inc., Thermo Neslab LLC, Thermo Nicolet Limited, Thermo Onix Limited, Thermo Optek (Australia) Pty Ltd., Thermo Optek Limited, Thermo Optek S.A., Thermo Orion Inc., Thermo Portable Holdings LLC, Thermo Power Corporation, Thermo Process Instruments GP LLC, Thermo Process Instruments L.P., Thermo Projects Limited, Thermo Quest S.A., Thermo Radiometrie Limited, Thermo Ramsey Italia S.r.l., Thermo Ramsey LLC, Thermo Ramsey S.A., Thermo Re Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Pte Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Sdn Bhd, Thermo Scientific Portable Analytical Instruments Inc., Thermo Scientific Services Inc., Thermo Securities Corporation, Thermo Sentron Canada Inc., Thermo Sentron Limited, Thermo Shandon Inc., Thermo Shandon Limited, Thermo Suomi Holding B.V., Thermo TLH (UK) Limited, Thermo TLH L.P., Thermo Trace Pty Ltd., Thermo-Fisher Biochemical Product (Beijing) Co. Ltd., ThermoLase LLC, ThermoSpectra Limited, Trek Diagnostic Systems LLC, Trek Diagnostic Systems Ltd., Trek Holding Company II Ltd., Trek Holding Company Ltd., Trex Medical Corporation, USB Corporation, Union Lab Supplies Limited, United Diagnostics Inc., VG Systems Limited, Westover Scientific Inc., ZAO PE Biosystems, eBioscience GmbH, eBioscience Ltd, eBioscience SAS, and picoSpin LLC.Wall Street analysts have given El Paso Electric 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 El Paso Electric wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Unum Group is engaged in providing financial protection benefits. It operates through the following segments: Unum US, Unum International, Colonial Life, Closed Block and Corporate. The Unum US segment comprises of group long-term and short-term disability insurance, group life and accidental death and dismemberment products, and supplemental and voluntary lines of business. The Unum International segment engages in the operations of UK business, which includes insurance for group long-term disability, group life, and supplemental lines of business that include dental, individual disability, and critical illness products; Poland business primarily includes insurance for individual and group life with accident and health riders. The Colonial Life segment includes insurance for accident, sickness, disability products, life products, and cancer and critical illness products. The Closed Block segment consists of individual disability, group and individual long-term care, and other insurance products no longer actively marketed. The Corporate segment refers to investment income on corporate assets and other corporate income and expenses not allocated to a line of business; and interest

Read MoreXcel Energy, Inc. operates as a holding company, which engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity. It operates through the following three segments: Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility and All Others. The Regulated Electric Utility segment generates, transmits and distributes electricity primarily in portions of generates, transmits and distributes electricity in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. In addition, this segment includes sales for resale and provides wholesale transmission service to various entities in the United States. It also includes commodity trading operations. The Regulated Natural Gas Utility segment transports, stores, and distributes natural gas primarily in portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan and Colorado. The All Others segment engages in steam, appliance repair services, nonutility real estate activities, processing solid waste into refuse-derived fuel and investments in rental housing projects that qualify for low-income housing tax credits. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.

Read MoreItalian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini intends to meet with Tony Blair in Rome, advising on the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline project, which is designed to transport natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, Interfax writes with a reference to The Guardian. ''The Italian far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, will meet the former British prime minister Tony Blair in Rome to discuss controversial plans to extend a gas pipeline that will run from Azerbaijan to Puglia in southern Italy''. The date of this meeting is not specified in the article.

Blair's position

Blair has worked as a consultant on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline since 2014, which is the pet project of Azerbaijans strongman president, Ilham Aliyev. Blairs office did not offer any direct comment on the reason for the meeting, but Salvini said he was willing to hear from Blair on the pipeline, and other issues. Blairs strong views on the dangers of populism make him an unlikely choice to persuade Salvini of the value of the pipeline. Blair has toned down his commercial lobbying since heading up his new Institute for Global Change, a movement dedicated to combating populism and its causes. He said in a recent speech that the simplistic solutions provided by rampant nationalism of the kind advocated by Salvinis League could lead to a return to 1930s fascism.

Opinions within the country

The governing Italian coalition between the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the League is divided on the gas pipeline issue. In July, Salvini said he would support the pipeline project, claiming it would help drive down gas prices in Italy, where there was little competition in the energy market. The south of Italy needs infrastructure, he said. We need to move forward. A few days later, Barbara Lezzi, the M5S minister for the south, responded, saying: We do need infrastructure: we need roads, schools, train stations, but suggested that the building of the pipeline would be useless and harmful. Luigi Di Maio, Italys deputy prime minister and leader of M5S, said: The party has not changed its mind over the building of the pipeline.

It was reported in May, that the Five Star Movement is actively fighting the construction of the Trans Adriatic gas pipeline. In late April, three representatives of the movement - Senator Daniela Donna and Congressmen Leonardo Donno and Diego de Lorezis - filed a complaint at the prosecutor's office against TAP AG, which is engaged in the construction of the gas pipeline. Their first claim is to encircle the construction zone with a three-meter fence, that is according to the representatives of the Five Star Movement, is a violation of the Italian law on the preservation of the landscape. In addition, 448 olive trees were temporarily transplanted due to the construction of the gas pipeline, and this was done in April, and not in January and February, as indicated in the documents.

According to the representative of the TAP, the company did not violate any laws, and the suspension can last about two weeks, which will not affect the deadlines for the final delivery of the project, scheduled for 2020. The total length of the TAP is 878 km, of which 550 km will pass through the northern part of Greece, 215 km through the territory of Albania, 105 km through the Adriatic Sea and 8 km through Italy. The project is designed to transport natural gas from the Shah Deniz field in the framework of the Stage-2 of its development through Greece and Albania to Western Europe. The co-owners of the project are the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (20%), BP (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagas (16%) and Axpo (5%).Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Gholamhossein Dehghani who is currently in Moscow attending the conference dedicated to counteraction to illegal arms supplies in light of the fight against international terrorism, met with UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yuri Fedotov, Mehr news agency reported.

The event is being held in Moscows World Trade Center where representatives of 21 countries and heads of counterterrorism units of 11 international organizations have confirmed their participation. Dehghani and Fedotov met on the sidelines of the conference on Monday.

During the meeting, Fedotov called for expansion of ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran in the area of countering the smuggling of narcotics and drug trafficking in the region. He also called for strengthening the UNODC office in Tehran.

The two sides also discussed bilateral cooperation in areas of countering narcotics smuggling and exchanged views on terrorist activities.Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze met with Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, InterPressNews reported.

As InterPressNews was informed by Prime Minister's Press Office, at the meeting the sides stressed the importance of opening the first European school in Georgia, which gives students of six countries a chance to gain knowledge and receive Bachelor's Degree in European Studies.

The Prime Minister noted that education is an important priority for the government of Georgia and thanked the EU for implementation of this project.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar met with newly-appointed U.S. Special Representative in Syria James Jeffrey on Tuesday in Ankara to discuss developments in Syria, Daily Sabah reports.

The two were expected to discuss the looming military operation in northwestern Idlib and Syria's political process.

Akar told Jeffrey of Turkey's discomfort with the PKK's Syrian branch People's Protection Units (YPG) operating in the region. The U.S. has provided continued military support to the YPG terrorist group.US president Donald Trump has warned Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his allies against a reckless attack on Idlib province, Irish Times reported.

It comes after Irans foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the start of a visit to Damascus that terrorists must be purged from Syrias Idlib and the entire north-western province returned to government control.

But the US president said on Twitter that President Bashar al-Assad of Syriamust not recklessly attack Idlib Province.

He added: The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!Turkey deployed more military vehicles to its southeastern province of Kilis near the Syrian border early Sept. 4, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

A total of eight trucks loaded with tanks and howitzers passed through Kilis in the direction of the Elbeyli district on the Syrian border.

The military vehicles were transferred under security measures to troops on the Syrian side of the border, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking with the media.

Security sources told daily Hurriyet the M-60 tanks were sent to the border as part of Ankaras contingency plan to contain a new refugee wave over the Syrian regimes looming assault on Idlib, a northwestern Syrian province that remains as one of the last strongholds of the opposition.

The tanks are also equipped with close distance observation systems to monitor migrant movements.The Moscow publishing house Khudozhestvennaya Literatura with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation has published the fourth volume of 'The Paris archive (1919-1940) by Alimardan Topchibashi.

This volume contains documents and materials concerning last years of Topchibashi's life and activities of his successors in 1935-1940, when radical changes occurred in the life of Caucasian migrants in Europe due to non-aggression pact between France and the USSR and accession of the USSR to the League of Nations.

In 1931-1934, Alimardan Topchibashi worked on development of the Caucasian Confederation project. Due to deteriorating health, he was forced to stop active political work, but he continued to work on development of principles of a future Caucasian state that will emerge after liberation of Caucasus from the Bolsheviks.

By the end of his life, more than anyone else, he realized that liberation of peoples of Caucasus and creation of an independent states is possible only after measures to counter imperial manipulation will be implemented.

Documents on his work in the Azerbaijani delegation in Paris in 1935-1940 were preserved thanks to his son, Alekper Topchibashi, who became secretary of the delegation in 1936. He preserved his father's archive, including copies of all his letters, notes, memorandums, which wrote using both his own name and aliases.

These documents are an important source on history of the national liberation movement of Azerbaijan and Caucasus in general during this period.

Alimardan Topchibashi was the Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first deputy of the Russian State Duma, an Azerbaijani politician and diplomat. After the February Revolution of 1917 he led the Azerbaijan National Committee.

After the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was proclaimed, he became the ambassador to Armenia, Georgia and the Ottoman Empire, and later became the minister of foreign affairs. He headed the delegation of the Republic at the Paris Peace Conference.

But after the Bolshevik takeover of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic he decide to stay in Paris, where he died on November 8, 1934.Throughout 2018, the Faculty of Health will be highlighting 200 health achievements from our Facultys rich history of teaching, scholarship and service. This feature is part of our Dal Health 200 series. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to learn more.

A therapist works with a young patient (Provided photo)

In 1996, Dalhousie University and the Kuwait Ministry of Health signed a $30 million contract that led to the establishment the Kuwait-Dalhousie Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Centre (KDPRC).

Then School of Physiotherapy director Dr. Lydia Makrides was the Dal lead on the project that brought an interprofessional team of 43 Canadian, British, Australian and South African health professionals and their families to Kuwait. Their aim was to improve the standard of rehabilitation care in Kuwait through education, service and research. The multidisciplinary team included physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, psychologists, a nurse and an exercise physiologist who collaborated and exchanged ideas with their Kuwaiti counterparts.

As Centre director, Physiotherapy professor Dr. Gail Dechman and the team worked with the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health to help establish a high standard of rehabilitation care for the country. As part of this initiative, Canadian experts travelled to Kuwait for two-week periods, offering intensive workshops in various clinical areas.

While the project ended in 2000, its had a lasting impact. For the people of Kuwait, enhanced rehabilitation care and for the Dalhousie team, the social and cultural experiences continue to resonate.Teachers in Seattle will be in the classroom tomorrow, signaling an end to a contract dispute. But over 1,000 miles away, teachers in Los Angeles are still heading toward a strike.

On Friday, the Seattle teachers union and the city school district reached a tentative contract agreement to avoid a strike, which educators had voted to authorize earlier in the week. Teachers will see their salaries increase by 10.5 percent, according to the Seattle Times . Teachers in more than a dozen other districts in Washington state have either authorized strikes or started them in a wave of contract disputes.

Theres an additional $2 billion in the state budget for teacher salaries, which has created a once in a lifetime opportunity for teachers unions to negotiate for higher compensation, the Washington Education Association has said. The money was allocated after a 2012 state supreme court case, which found that Washington was not adequately funding public education. The court has ordered the state to give districts money so they can increase teachers base salaries this fall.

Currently, teachers in at least six school districts in Washington are on strike, according to the WEA. Several others are in negotiations. The Seattle Times reported that in the districts that have settled contract agreements, teachers have seen sizeable salary bumps as much as 25 percent.

See also: Teacher Strikes: 4 Common Questions

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, 98 percent of teachers union members voted on Friday to authorize a strike if the union and the school district cant come to an agreement. The two sides must still meet with a state mediator, and then take several other steps before union members are legally allowed to strike. Some watchers, including a union member writing in the Los Angeles Times , have predicted the union will go on strike in October.

Los Angeles teachers have been without a contract for a year. The union is asking for a teacher pay raise, class-size reductions, and more school nurses, librarians, and restorative-justice advisors. School district officials have said they agree with the unions demands on principle, but there isnt enough money in the budget to pay for these changes.

According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based think tank, the Los Angles district has lower teacher salaries than most surrounding districts. NCTQ also compared Los Angeles, which is the second-largest school district in the country, to the nine other largest districtsL.A. has relatively competitive starting salaries, but the pay becomes less competitive as teachers gain seniority.

The last teacher strike in Los Angeles was in 1989. The teachers union president has said he is inspired by the wave of recent widescale teacher protests, walkouts, and strikes. This spring, teachers in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and West Virginia all walked out of their classrooms, causing schools to shut down.

Image: Hudsons Bay High School American sign language teacher Danna Claborn responds to support from drivers while joining fellow striking teachers in Vancouver, Wash., on Aug. 29. Amanda Cowan/The Columbian via APThe RAAF Amberley Heritage Centre took delivery of a new prize on August 28th with the arrival of a Commonwealth CA-19 Boomerang. Prior to her arrival the Boomer had been a fixture since 2007 at the Australian Army Flying Museum in Oakey, about seventy five miles west of Amberley, in Queensland, Australia. The beautifully restored Boomerang incorporates parts from several examples, as is true for all survivors of the breed, but her identity belongs to A46-206.

A46-206 rolled off the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporations production line at the famous Fishermans Bend plant in Melbourne, Victoria during June, 1944. She initially went to the No.1 Aircraft Depot at RAAF Laverton, before joining RAAF 83 Squadron on July 27th, 1944. A46-206 received the squadron codes MH-Y at this point, along with nose art entitled Milingimbi Ghost. Already obsolescent by the time she entered service, 206s flying days were brief in Royal Australian Air Force service, which relegated the fighter to storage with No.6 AD at Oakey on March 28th, 1945. The RAAF officially struck her off charge on November 15th, 1948. A local farmer named John Woods acquired her dismantled remains, and hauled them off to his farm along with A46-81, which was in a similar condition. A46-206 lingered on at Woods farm until collected by Bill Martin for the Darling Downs Aviation Museum in about 1980. Martin began a static restoration on the airframe, but sold the project on to Guido Zuccoli in 1985.

It was with the late Guido Zuccoli that A46-206s future fully bloomed. He was the man behind her restoration, and the resurrection of the entire type owes much to this mans singular dedication. Zuccoli collected the mortal remains of at least half a dozen other Boomerangs during his life, and made some progress with the project before contracting Sanders Aircraft in Chino, California to complete the effort back in the early 90s. However, the first project which the Sanders completed for Zuccoli was a Boomerang replica, with some original parts from A46-139 based upon a T-6 Texan airframe (both types having derived from the NA-16). Nicknamed Phooey, the replica flew for the first time in July, 1991, which was the first time that any Boomerang of any stripe had flown since shortly after WWII.

With the experience gained building up Phooey, Sanders Aircraft turned themselves towards the more accurate restoration of A46-206. She flew again for the first time at Chino on June 12th, 1992, albeit with modified T-6 wings, rather than true Boomerang units. Zuccoli brought the Boomer back to Australia later that year, and made the types triumphant first flight in the land of her birth on October 3rd. Zuccoli had some new outer wings built up in Brisbane which were authentic to the original CAC CA-19 design. She flew again with these units on January 14th, 1994. Tragically Guido Zuccoli, a beloved character and leading light in the foundation of the Australian warbird movement, died in the crash of his newly restored T-6 on March 6th, 1997. Following Zuccolis death, his wife Lynette kept and maintained the majority of their vintage aircraft collection, which also included a Fiat G.59 and Hawker Fury ISS amongst other treasures. She formed the restoration and maintenance company Aerotec in 1998, a company which is still going strong to this day. In 2007, Lynette Zuccoli donated Boomerang A46-206 to the Australian Army Flying Museum, which proudly displayed the aircraft in their hangar until the recent move.

While the Boomerang has not flown in at least 15 years now, and is unlikely to again, it will bring the story of this important Australian type to a much larger audience at her new home, which is just outside the major port city of Brisbane, Queensland.

Many thanks to Don Beenwu for the recent images, and to Phil Buckley for bringing us the story!This page may be updated if the event is repeated

Past Event - Saturday, October 02, 2021 This page may be updated if the event is repeated

Free Event

Fun for the kids in Beavercreek! The Beavercreek Township Fire Department will host their annual Fire Prevention Open House.

Try A Truck & Fire Department Open House - Oct 2

This event brings out the kid in everyone! Climb on a variety of vehicles including a police car, snow plows, front-loaders and of course our fire trucks! There will be demonstrations using the Jaws of Life, face painting, kid's gear try-on, and more!

Try a Truck allows kids of all ages to have the experience of seeing up-close a variety of vehicles. The Beavercreek Fire Department Open House also allows visitors to check out fire equipment and meet their mascot Sparky!As we inch closer to the festive season, promotional offers on new car purchases start becoming more lucrative. Speaking of which, Honda Cars India has announced The Great Honda Fest. While the discounts and offers are a monthly affair, this initiative includes monthly lucky draws which started from 1 September 2018 and will continue till 7 November 2018. The grand prize of this lucky draw is an all expenses paid trip to London and Paris.

All the billing and documentation should have been completed within the designated period to avail the offer. The offer is applicable on all Honda cars including the Brio, Jazz, Amaze, WR-V, City, BR-V, CR-V and the Accord Hybrid.

For more details, heres Hondas official press release.

Press Release:

HCIL kicks off The Great Honda Fest

Exclusive Festive Delight for New Honda Car Buyers

Exciting offers & exotic trip to London and Paris for winners

New Delhi, September 1, 2018: Honda Cars India Ltd., leading manufacturer of passenger cars in India, today announced its annual celebration The Great Honda Fest for all customers who plan to buy new Honda cars this festive season. The promotion will run across all Honda dealerships from September 1st- November 7th, 2018. Customers can avail exciting offers and a chance to win a fully paid trip to London and Paris*.

Speaking about the exciting offer, Mr. Rajesh Goel, Sr. Vice President & Director, Sales & Marketing, Honda Cars India Ltd, said, To add to the festive galore this season, we are happy to delight our valued customers with exciting offers. We would like to invite all customers to be a part of the Great Honda Fest celebration and this is the best time to buy a Honda car.

To participate in The Great Honda Fest, the customers would need to register at the HCIL website www.hondacarindia.com within the specified period post the purchase of their Honda car. The contest is more exciting with monthly lucky draws along with a grand prize of a fully paid trip for winners to London and Paris*. The offer will be valid for customers who have bought any Honda car between September 1st- November 7th, 2018 and have the received the delivery till November 30th, 2018. The selection of winners will be through random computer selection, from the valid entries received for the contest under the supervision of appointed auditors.

* Terms and Conditions apply

Recommended: India-bound 2019 Honda Civic Facelift Revealed

Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho.The devastating floods in Kerala have led carmakers like Hyundai and Volkswagen to lend support to their customers across the state.

The devastating floods in Kerala have led carmakers like Hyundai and Volkswagen to lend support to their customers across the state. The latest to join this list is Honda India, which announced its support to the cause on August 31. The Japanese carmaker says it will offer a discount of 50 per cent on labour costs and 10 per cent on spare parts. Moreover, theres an additional exchange support for non-Honda cars as well. For speedy assistance, Honda has upped its roadside assistance network and streamlined the supply of key spare parts to its service centres. The offers are over and above the regular benefits available at Honda service centres.

Hyundai and Volkswagen are giving free roadside assistance and special benefits on spare parts. The Korean automaker has gone a step ahead and has contributed Rs 1 crore towards Kerala Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

Heres Hondas official statement

Press Release

Honda Cars India pledges support to its customers in Kerala

New Delhi, 31 August, 2018: In the wake of the devastation caused by unprecedented rains and floods in Kerala, Honda Cars India Ltd. (HCIL) today announced extensive service and sales support to its customers through its dealership network in Kerala.

HCIL will offer 50% discount on labour and 10% discount on parts on the customer liability for repair of Honda vehicles damaged in the floods. Additional well trained technicians and service advisors would be available at the dealerships in Kerala to extend full support to customers, who are still trying to rebuild their lives.

As part of Sales Support, HCIL has announced an additional Exchange support for flood affected cars for both Honda & Non - Honda customers. An additional Loyalty support is also being offered to Honda customers for their flood affected Total Loss cars. These special support measures are being offered over and above normal consumer scheme in the market.

Mr. Rajesh Goel, Sr. Vice President & Director, Sales and Marketing, Honda Cars India Ltd. said, Honda Cars India Ltd expresses its solidarity with the people of Kerala as they try to rebuild their lives after the devastating floods. As a measure of our support to our customers in Kerala, whose vehicles have been damaged by flood waters, we will offer full sales and service support to them. Special teams of service advisors and technical experts have been set-up to coordinate insurance claim and repair. These pro-active measures will significantly reduce lead-time for various services and repair.

Honda Cars India has also arranged to provide quick roadside assistance to its valuable customers and also streamlined its supply chain of key spare parts to ensure speedy repairs and faster turnaround time. The team of experts will also offer technical advice and necessary service consultation with faster assessment of key technical issues in a vehicle.

Recommended: Volkswagen India To Support Flood-affected Customers In Kerala

Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho.The debt-ridden national carrier Air India on Monday has recieved Rs 2,100 crore from the government as guaranteed borrowing, said the Civil Aviation Ministry.

Mumbai: The debt-ridden national carrier Air India on Monday has recieved Rs 2,100 crore from the government as guaranteed borrowing, said the Civil Aviation Ministry.

R N Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, was qouted saying, "Air India gets Rs 2,100 crore government guaranteed borrowing", as per reports from ANI.

Earlier, the disinvestment plan of Air India was stalled, due to no interest shown by any bidder. The carrier's debt burden was more than Rs 48,000 crore at the end of March 2017. So far, the airline has received more than Rs 27,000 crore worth equity infusion.

Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey had said that the government had expectation of better participation for the stake sale plan of the debt-ridden airline. He also said that the government is re-thinking on the strategy of stake sale. In the current fiscal, Air India has recieved an equity infusion of Rs 650 crore.

(With Inputs from Agencies)Amazon India Tuesday said it's platform will also be available in Hindi, as the e-commerce major aims to bring the next 100 million shoppers online. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Amazon India Tuesday said it's platform will also be available in Hindi, as the e-commerce major aims to bring the next 100 million shoppers online.

The launch will enable shoppers in India to enjoy the ease and convenience of Amazon's shopping experience in Hindi, Amazon India Vice President, Category Management Manish Tiwary told reporters here.

Customers can read detailed product information, find deals and discounts, place and pay for their orders, among other things, he added. At launch, the Hindi experience -- which will also allow Amazon to tap into newer audience ahead of festive season sale -- is available on the Amazon mobile App on Android and mobile website.

"Launch of the Hindi shopping experience is a significant step towards bringing the next 100 million customers online. This first Indian language launch will enable crores of Hindi-preferring customers across India to shop in their preferred language," he said.Lockheed Martin will build wings for its F-16 combat plane in India with its local partner, Tata Advanced Systems Limited, an executive at the US company said on Tuesday. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: Lockheed Martin will build wings for its F-16 combat plane in India with its local partner, Tata Advanced Systems Limited, an executive at the US company said on Tuesday.

Lockheed is bidding for a contract to supply the Indian air force with 114 combat planes, which must be all manufactured locally under Prime Minister Narendra Modis flagship Make in India programme.

However, Vivek Lall, vice president of strategy and business development at Lockheed, said the proposed Indian production of the F-16 wings would not be contingent upon the company winning the order for the planes.

Producing F-16 wings in India will strengthen Lockheed Martin strategic partnership with Tata and support Make in India, the company said in a statement.New Delhi: Shamika Ravi, member of the Prime Ministers Economic Advisory Council has said that despite the governments reforms push, much more could have been done over the last four years when the NDA government of Prime Minister Modi has been in power. She observed that Modis election was on the development plank and there was the promise of economic reforms. However, liberalisation did not match up to the expectations.

In an interview to PTI, Ravi, who is also a senior fellow at Brookings India, said, I think the country had an appetite for big bang economic reforms. We could have done a lot.

The Modi government introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST), Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and considerably eased the foreign direct investment regime in four years, Ravi said.

The government could have done much more, she said and added On the economic front, Modis election, I think, was a mandate for development & economic reforms.

Starting with ITDC Hotels, Air India, in fact we had list of PSUs that we should have definitely pushed ahead (for stake sale), Ravi observed. Stating that there was a thriving private airlines business in India, she questioned the governments intention of reviving Air India. I have lesser faith in government to run businesses. What is the business plan for turnaround of Air India and why should we do it? We have a thriving private airlines business in this country, she noted.

On the ongoing global tariff wars, Ravi said that its a great opportunity for India. We should be stepping up and trying to fill the gap, she observed.

On March 9, US president Donald Trump imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminum items following which China and the European Union hit back by imposing retaliatory tariffs against the US products. Noting that India had to compete in the global market, Ravi said the country would have to make its corporate tax rate equivalent to countries like Vietnam.

Despite the fact that there is push back in globalisation everywhere, markets today are far more unified and interlinked than they have ever been. To compete with countries like Vietnam, of course our taxes have to be reduced, the EAC-PM member said.BSE Sensex lost about 155 points to close at an over two-week low of 38,157.92.

New Delhi: The benchmark BSE Sensex on Tuesday lost about 155 points to close at an over two-week low of 38,157.92, falling for the fifth session in a row following sustained foreign fund outflows, surging global crude oil prices and tumbling rupee against dollar.

The Indian rupee on Tuesday crashed to a fresh record low of 71.54 against the US dollar intra-day, weighing on investors sentiment. A widespread selling emerged in consumer durables, PSUs, infrastructure, realty, FMCG, telecom, utilities, power, metal, auto, healthcare, banking, oil and gas, capital goods and finance.

Among the losers were Asian Paints, SBI, Adani Ports, HUL, Coal India, IndusInd Bank, Vedanta, Tata Motors, Hero Motocorp, Bharti Airtel, Yes Bank, ONGC, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, M&M, ITC, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, PowerGrid, L&T and Sun Pharma, shedding up to 3.49 per cent.

However, IT firms Infosys, TCS and Wipro were among the top gainers in the Sensex pack, buoyed by the fall in the Indian rupee's value. Tata Consultancy Services also on Tuesday became the second Indian company to attain a market valuation of over Rs 8 lakh crore mark following surge in its share price. During the afternoon trade, the IT major's market capitalisation (m-cap) stood at Rs 8,01,550.50 crore on the BSE.

The 30-share Sensex had soared 206.04 points to hit a high of 38,518.56 in early trade but gave up its gains following a widespread sell-off, which dragged it down to 38,098.60, with the benchmark equity gauge set for its longest string of losses in more than three months.

The gauge finally ended at an over two-week low of 38,157.92, down 154.60 points or 0.40 per cent.

This is its weakest closing since August 17 when it had finished at 37,947.88. It had lost 584.11 points in the previous four sessions.

The broader NSE Nifty closed lower by 62.05 points, or 0.54 per cent, at 11,520.30, after hovering between 11,496.85 and 11,602.55.

Sentiment remained weak on sustained capital outflows by foreign funds after an investor lobby group named AMRI (Asset Management Roundtable of India) said on Monday that the immediate impact of the new Sebi KYC norms, if not amended, would flush out USD 75-billion FPI investment from the country within a short time-frame. The organisation also warned that it would have severe impact on stocks and rupee.

However, taking strong objection to these claims, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday said, "It is preposterous and highly irresponsible to claim that USD 75 billion FPI investment will move out of the country because of Sebi's circular issued in April 2018."

Brokers said rising global crude oil prices, which went past the USD 78 per barrel mark and plunge in the rupee's value and sustained foreign fund outflows weighed on market sentiment.

Asian stocks ended mixed and Europe opened lower amid continuing concerns about stability in emerging markets and prospects of escalating international trade disputes. Besides, emergency austerity measures in Argentina highlighted turbulence in emerging markets.

Investors also noticed Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) that was released on Monday and showed growth in India's manufacturing sector moderated in August as domestic demand softened.

The Nikkei India Manufacturing PMI stood at 51.7 in August against 52.3 in July. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) net sold shares worth a net of Rs 21.13 crore and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also sold equities to the tune of Rs 542.12 crore on Monday, as per provisional data.Of late, Kangana Ranaut-starrer Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. First, it was reported that the films director Krish walked out of the film after having a tiff with Kangana over creative issues, prompting the actress to take on the directorial mantle. Secondly, actor Sonu Sood left the project mid-way because of the actress' high-handedness. The latest rumour to hit the film is that even the story writer K.V. Vijayendra Prasad has walked away due to differences with Kangana.

However, Vijayendra Prasad dismisses all the reports and states that all is well within the unit. I am very much part of Manikarnika; I have given the story. All are in touch with each other and the crew is working as a cohesive unit. The films shooting is done and a few patchwork scenes are being shot. All the reports about me walking out are absolutely baseless, he clarifies.

Responding to reports that director Krish walked away from the epic drama, the Baahubali writer slams them as untrue. Krish hasnt walked away from the project; he has professionally and successfully completed the film.

They are shooting a few patchwork scenes for enhancing the film. Since Krish has a Telugu film to direct (the NTR biopic), he informed Kangana about the same and she was kind enough to understand his prior commitments, says Vijayendra Prasad, adding, In fact, Krish asked her to shoot for the patchwork scenes without him, which Kangana is doing. Shes keeping him updated about all the activity; both of them are in regular touch.

Sonu Sood

Meanwhile, sources close to Krish also slammed the rumours about the director exiting the project. Krish has completed shooting for the film. Soon after, Kangana came up with enhancements to the script which she felt would elevate the films emotional appeal. But since Krish had already committed to a Telugu film, he expressed his unavailability to direct those scenes, which Kangana is directing now. Both of them have high regard for each other; and mutually agreed to go ahead with their respective commitments. Together, they will take a final call on what scenes are to be retained on the editing table, says a source close to the director, adding that Sonu Sood walked away from the project because of multiple issues. Apart from having a tiff with Kangana about her competence, the actor also has had issues with the filmmakers on various aspects.

HT01/06Mumbai: Abhishek Bachchan is excited about his next release with none other than director Anurag Kashyap. Much before he made his big Bollywood debut, Abhishek Bachchan, trained as an assistant director on the sets of films like Mrityudaata and Major Saab, to understand the way films were made.

Two decades later, the star, stepped into the shoes of an AD, just for a day , this time for Anurag Kashyap's Manmarziyaan. The actor enjoyed Kashyap's style of filmmaking so much that on his day off, he decided to step in and assist his director on the set.

Recalling the incident director Anurag Kashyap said, We shot scenes with Abhishek at a busy place like Ahuja Lassi Centre in Amritsar. It was a crowded street and I had told him that we would shoot him wearing a turban, with hidden cameras and sound equipment. Abhishek agreed and he loved the experience. By the end of the schedule, he had begun to ride on scooters and bikes around the city and was game for such shoots. He was in such a great mood that one day, when he didnt have a scene to shoot that he decided to assist me. He controlled an entire dhaba full of people for the shot. Since people knew it was him, they tried to get close and take pictures. He even promised to take pictures with all of them once the shot was canned. He took charge of the entire scene so well, I think he was a good AD to have on the set.

Manmarziyaan is presented by Eros International and Aanand L Rai. Produced by Aanand L Rai and Phantom Films, this Colour Yellow Production hits the theatres on 14th September.Kolkata is the city of joy for some and the city of dreams for others but for Anumol, it has been a city she had been dreaming of visiting since her school days. She had satisfied her longing for the city by seeing Kolkata through the eyes of acclaimed filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Rituparno Ghosh, and Mrinal Sen, etc. Oh yes, not to forget the Kolkata that the famous writer Madhavikutty laid bare in her novels.

So when Anumol finally landed in Kolkata, all these images kept whirring in her mind like a kaleidoscope. Now on her fourth day in the city, Anumol says with astonishment, All I see is light everywhere I go! The pooja festival is coming up next month and the entire city is getting decked up. The stamp of the British rule can be seen in its Victorian buildings and I am so happy to be here! One can almost hear the glee in her voice from across the distance and picture her doing a little tap dance.

But Anumol is not in the city as a tourist; rather she is in work mode. The talented actor has crossed borders to Bong land to play the lead in a Bengali film titled Obhimani Jol (Walking over Water) directed by Kolkata-based National Award filmmaker Josh Joshy Joseph. The director had watched Anumols Malayalam film Valiya Chirakulla Pakshikal directed by Dr Biju at the Kolkata International Film Festival and was impressed by her performance.

He explains, I was on the lookout for a person like Anumol for Obhimani Jol. So he got her number through a common friend Sohini Dasgupta and got in touch with her. Anumol, who always had a deep respect and love for Bengali films, could not have asked for a better launch pad. She explains, Since the industry was new to me, I checked Joshys profile and found that he had proved his mettle through his national awards. After listening to his narration, I understood that it is a content-driven film too!

Joshy adds, Although the shooting schedules are divided into painfully long gaps for aesthetic reasons, Anumol decided to wait and that kind of commitment is rare. Anumol plays the role of a Malayali living in Kolkata and though it is a Bangla film, there are English and Malayalam bits in it. The shooting of the film has started in Kolkata and she shares, The narrative is very intense with realistic elements. I had the opportunity to see the footage of what I shot and felt it was very raw and real. I have to travel all over India for the film and I am so excited about that. She also shares her view that Bengali and Malayalam films are similar with regard to the appearance of the female actors and their body type. At least that is what I feel, she feels.

Along with the numerous film-related meetings and shooting, Anumol has managed to sneak in some time to discover the charms of the city that has always enthralled her. And yes, she also squeezed in time to do a photo shoot for designer Ayush Kejriwal. No doubt, Kolkata is the city of joy for her!The differences within the Movie Artistes Association (MAA) are now out in the open. On Monday, Sivaji Raja, President, MAA, Vice President Srikanth and Treasurer Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao held a media conference to clarify the allegations against them.

When asked why secretary Naresh didnt attend the meeting, Srikanth replied, We requested him to come for this meet, but he didnt want to come as he is busy with his shooting.

The actor agreed that his friend Vijay had introduced the event organiser to them for the Chiranjeevi event in the US. Surprisingly however, he said that it was the first time they were organising an event, and did not know how to go about it. Thats why we didnt call for any tenders, explained Srikanth, even though everyone knows that Sivaji Raja started off as an event manager.

And how could they expect only Rs 1 crore when an actor like Chiranjeevi was part of the event? We never did an event in the US, so we did not have any idea about it, said Srikanth, justifying that they wanted to hold the event only in the US.

Interestingly, they also dragged Chiranjeevi into the issue. We kept updating Chiranjeevi throughout this tour, so he knows how it went, asserted Sivaji Raja and Srikanth.

Meanwhile, Paruchuri Venkateshwara Rao insisted there were no differences between the members. Apart from staunchly denying that the event organisers transferred Rs 80 lakh to a benami account belonging to Sivaji Rajas group, they also denied that they got another Rs 45 lakh from the organisers for getting some actors to the US.

Naresh, secretary, MAA

Meanwhile, Secretary Naresh clarifies: I am available and there is no shoot today. We held an executive committee meeting wherein a majority of the people asked for a fact finding committee. However, Sivaji Raja did not agree for it. He is single-handedly trying to run the organisation, says Naresh. As a secretary, I feel the responsibility of investigating this scam. The three point agenda was to constitute a committee, hand over the office to the secretary and give full powers to the general secretary for the smooth functioning of MAA, explains Naresh, adding that the Sivaji Raja group acted like rowdies in the meeting.

Sivaji Raja used very bad and unparliamentary language and also abused the journalists. While a majority of the members came to a conclusion, Sivaji Rajas group didnt agree for it. The very fact that he does not want an enquiry shows that something is wrong and fishy, asserts Naresh, revealing that Srikanth did in fact, call him.

We agreed that its better to go for elections. I told Srikanth that if I attended the media conference as general secretary, I would have to reveal everything. Moreover, there are allegations against Sivaji Raja, so I did not want to sit next to him, says Naresh.

But why did he sign on the agreement of the Chiranjeevi event as secretary? Yes, I did. But they hurriedly told me that Chiranjeevi agreed to come and that the President has already signed on the document. I simply went along with them, says Naresh, adding, They agreed to pay Rs 1 crore for that event, which they did. But people cautioned me that something was going wrong. Thats why I didnt go on the US tour. Now I have proof that some of the people in MAA are involved in this scam and thats why I demand a committee to enquire about it.

HT02The awareness regarding natural or organic ingredients and products is ever increasing and there is an increased acceptance for such products.

Madhurima Ramakrishna and Ramakrishna Gopal from Bangalore are busy providing natural solutions for skin and hair care for everyone through their brand Aroma Essentials.

Armed with a degree / diploma in Cosmetology and Aesthetics, Madhurima set out to make homemade cosmetics and skin products to treat her own acne condition which soon became a germinating business idea for the two and now, their products are a combination of Aromatherapy and Botanical Extracts that seem to have found a loyal fan base.

In conversation, the due talk about their most popular products, consumer demographic and their five year plan.

Madhurima Ramakrishna and Ramakrishna Gopal

Which regions your products are most popular in?

M: While we have a pan-India presence, owing to the fact that we started our operations from Bengaluru, bulk of our customers are from the south of India.

However my personal opinion is that it all depends on the specific requirements of an individual (irrespective of region) and to what extent we are able to support and help them, is the more significant aspect that makes us and our products popular and acceptable

What are the demographics of your consumer?

R: It has been our good fortune that we have had customers of all ages. Typically our customers are between the ages of 18 to 45 years. But we have our toddler customers (few months old) as well who have taken a liking to our baby care range of products. Our recently launched range of pet care products is also finding favour with parents of our four-legged furry friends

What is the scope for market expansion for organic beauty brands in India?

M: There are a few businesses that I believe would never go out of vogue and Skincare is one of them.

I personally feel that there is enough room in the market for brands that want to create a niche and at the same time, make relevant, effective and affordable products.

What is the price point of your products?

R: Our range starts from INR 125 and can go upto INR 1450 for the published catalogue items. Customised products are priced as per the specific requirements and the inputs that go into making them.

M: Our aim to make the most reasonable products and make them available in quantities that could cater to the requirements of customers, from every strata of society. However, in some cases, our products might seem pricier, due to the sheer expensive nature of the ingredients that go into making them. We make every effort not to compromise on the quality or quantity of the essential oils and other ingredients that go into our products.

What products of yours are in high demand?

R: It is very difficult to name our best selling products but here are a few that I can mention based on the number of orders as well as the reviews of our customers:

Carrot sun block

Facewashes  Orange and Tomato

Day and Night serums

Hair Revitalising mask

Hair Growth Blend

Baby Ubtan (scrub) and soap

Onion Cleanser bars

As a startup, how have you managed to compete with well-established beauty brands in India?

R: Madhurima (Founder) personally believes that while it is good to have certain products that are staple and help in sustenance of the brand, we also need to address customers specific skin and hair conditions and make relevant products.

We ensure that we talk to our prospective and existing customers and understand their exact requirements, consider any pre-existing conditions etc. before suggesting the best products for them. In many cases, we also make customised products for people with specific conditions, which dont necessarily form part of our published Catalogue

Our family (clients) believes that this is our USP and what clearly distinguishes us from the others and has helped us gain a strong footing in this industry dominated by MNC brands

What is the average shelf life of your products?

M: We do not use any artificial preservatives to lengthen the shelf life of our products. Hence we typically ask our customers to refrigerate products such as body butters, hair masks etc.

The typical shelf life is between 3 months to 2 years, but depends on the weather conditions as well. In order to address this issue, we provide quantities as little as 25 gms which typically last for 15-20 days of normal usage and hence does not necessitate any special storage requirements.

How much does organic certification matter for Indian consumers?

R: The Indian customer is very well read and is conscious of the impacts of chemical ingredients in beauty products and on the environment.

The awareness regarding natural or organic ingredients and products is ever increasing and there is an increased acceptance for such products. Also the benefits that accrue to the individuals as well as to the environment is a very critical aspect that adds to the demand for such products.

M: While certification might make it easier for newer or smaller brands to penetrate the market, I personally believe that it is the products and the resultant benefits that would really hold a brand in good stead over the years.

How are you intending to scale up in the next 5 years?

M: Essentially, our products are hand-made and as such there is an inherent limit on the scale of operations. However, we are trying to address this through a combination of measures like succession planning, automating certain aspects of product preparation and packing, launching a website, opening of experience stores where folks can walk-in, sample our products and buy them off the counter etc.By Sep. 02, 2018

Evenings Upstairs at McLib will host Ghostly Tales with Kentucky Storytellers



Tales From Bloody Breathitt - Ghosts of Appalachia will be presented by Jerry Deaton, author and filmmaker at McCracken County Public Library on Thursday, October 4, from 7 - 8 pm.





In this presentation ,Deaton will share some of his stories and talk about folklore and literature from around Appalachia.





Deaton is an author, filmmaker and playwright from Frankfort, Ky. Jerry has published two books on his home county of Breathitt, including Appalachian Ghost Stories; Tales from Bloody Breathitt, and Kentucky Boy, My Life in Twenty Words.

PADUCAH -this fall.Furthermore, in April, searches for designer Jenny Packham more than doubled when Kate appeared outside the Lindo Wing in a red Packham smock dress for Prince Louis's debut.

It seems that the Duchess of Cambridge has taken the crown as this years top royal influencer, beating the royal newcomer, Duchess of Sussex.

The result is on the biggest impact on shopping habits, according to eBay's annual UK Retail Report.

Her maternity style while pregnant with Prince Louis ensured she generated more online searches on eBay than any other royal over the past year.

It turns out that search for tailored maternity coats tripled in November 2017, while Kate was expecting her third child.

Furthermore, in April, searches for designer Jenny Packham more than doubled when Kate Middleton appeared outside the Lindo Wing in a red Packham smock dress for Prince Louis's debut.

Throughout the year, Kate's go-to choices Jenny Packham, Alexander McQueen and Seraphine saw a 20 per cent upsurge in searches year-on-year, with as many as 43 searches every hour.

On the other hand, Meghan Markle, who is known for her signature boatneck necklines, came a close second.

Her fashion influencing power peaked at her wedding in May, when the Givenchy dress she wore to marry the Duke of Sussex led to a more than 60 per cent increase in searches for the designer on eBay, hitting 55 an hour.

Speaking about the survey results, Rob Hattrell, UK vice president of eBay, said that while Meghan was clearly the focus of the fashion pages this year, Kate's distinctive style has long been a hit with shoppers on eBay since her wedding in 2011.

Princess Charlotte, who was top in 2017, came third, with the flower crown she wore as a bridesmaid at Meghan and Harry's wedding prompting a 60 per cent increase in searches for similar products on eBay.co.uk.

The Queen also made it into the top five royal style influencers.The success of the process could offer hope for saving species like the tiger and snow leopard, both of whom are threatened by extinction, say researchers. (Pixabay)

Scientists say that the birth of the worlds first test-tube lion cubs could mark an incredible breakthrough for saving highly endangered big cats.

The news follows a lioness giving birth to two cubs in South Africa, a male and a female, created through artificial insemination.

The success of the process could offer hope for saving species like the tiger and snow leopard, both of whom are threatened by extinction, say researchers.

The pioneering research was carried out by a team of experts at the University of Pretoria, who conducted the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) for big cats.

They harvested the sperm of a male lion, which was placed inside the lioness and she gave birth to two healthy cubs three and a half months later.

Both cubs, who were born at the Ukutulu Game Reserve and Conservation Centre, have been given a clean bill of health.

According to Professor Andre Ganswindt of the University of Pretoria Mammal Research Institute said, loss of habitat and other pressures created by human activities have severely affected big cats.

The South African study examined artificial insemination protocols for the female African lion, but the research could be used as a baseline for other endangered large wild feline species as well.

The project's main researcher Dr Isabel Callealta said, 'The next step is to continue looking for the right protocols for the large feline species which is good news for endangered big cats.

She further added, This was a world first for lions and now we start a journey and the idea is to improve or knowledge and understanding of the big cats and move the research quickly forward.

There are thought to be less than 4,000 tigers left in the wild in Asia and less than 7,000 snow leopards in the mountains of Central Asia and as few as 300 Iberian Lynx in Spain.

In Africa there are 18,000 lions left in the wild thanks to successful conservation and breeding.According to Narsingi police, the victim is a resident of Shaikpet. She along with her husband and a four-year-old daughter migrated to the city from a village in Rangareddy district about five months ago.

Hyderabad: A 26-year-old woman, a daily wage earner, was reportedly sexually assaulted by a labour contractor, who offered her work at an under construction site in Narsingi. Three days after the incident, the woman lodged a complaint with the police, who have registered a case of rape.

According to Narsingi police, the victim is a resident of Shaikpet. She along with her husband and a four-year-old daughter migrated to the city from a village in Rangareddy district about five months ago.

Ravi, 36, a native of Pebber in Mahabubnagar, also lives in Shaikpet. He works as a mason and also as a labour contractor. He met the victim three days ago and offered to provide her work at an under-construction building in Alakpur Colony.

The same evening Ravi took the woman to the top floor of the building and sexually assaulted her. The woman did not tell her husband about the incident. But on Sunday, she told her husband and they went to the police station and lodged a complaint. Following the complaint, a case has been registered under section 376 of the IPC, the police said.The body was recovered and sent for post mortem examination to Osmania General Hospital, where the forensic doctors confirmed that the death was due to strangulation, but not caused by the accident.

Hyderabad: In order to take revenge on her husband, a postal department employee, and claim his death benefits, a woman from Vanasthalipuram hatched a plan to eliminate him with the help of his driver.

The accused duo, who tried to stage the death as an accident, was arrested within 24 hours of the complaint. They were sent to judicial remand by the police on Monday.

On Sunday morning, the Vanasthalipuram police received a complaint from one Kethavath Chandru Nayak, that a road accident had taken place near Gurramguda crossroads at around 2.30 am, in which one person identified as Keshya Naik, 43, was found dead in an MUV (TS 07 UE 2221) and another person who was driving the car received mild injuries.

The police team on rushing to the crime scene, found the damage that occurred due to the accident seemed little. The left portion of the MUVs bonnet had hit the electricity pole and Naik did not receive any external injuries.

The body was recovered and sent for post mortem examination to Osmania General Hospital, where the forensic doctors confirmed that the death was due to strangulation, but not caused by the accident.

Vanasthalipuram sub-inspector Ch. Sudhakar said, On inspecting the crime scene, we understood that the death of Naik was not due to the accident, but it was clear that he had been killed and the accident was to stage a drama. The doctors after the autopsy also confirmed it. Car driver Sabavath Vinod, 23, of Nandinavanaprthi village was taken into custody and on questioning him, the facts surfaced.

The sub-inspector said that Naik, who was a Grade I officer in the Department of Posts, got transferred from Begumpet to Medak, about a month ago. He was married to one K. Padma, 32, about 20 years ago, but the couple did not have any children.

About 10 years after his first marriage, Naik married another woman and was blessed with a son and a daughter. On coming to know this, Padma lodged a complaint at Thripurama police station, and the case has come up for trial at Nindamanur Court.

Meanwhile, Padma who was feeling upset that her husband was not taking care of her and giving her any money, shared her grief with Vinod, who was working as a part-time driver with Naik.

On Monday morning, Vinod and Padma were caught by the police at Injapur and were questioned, during when they revealed about their plot to eliminate Naik.

During her conversation with Vinod, Padma said that if her husband died, she would get a job on a compassionate basis and also get cash benefits from the government as she was the nominee. Vinod then asked her to give `10 lakh to eliminate Naik, to which Padma agreed and gave an advance of Rs15,000.

Accused Vinod took Naik to a bar on Saturday night and made him drink alcohol heavily. After driving the car for a distance, he locked it and strangulated Naik, then rammed the car into an electricity police, to stage the death as an accident, the sub-inspector said.Hyderabad: The former president of the Nigerian Association in Bengluru is allegedly the kingpin behind the drug cartel running in Hyderabad involving African natives, investigations by the State Excise and Prohibition departments revealed on Monday.

Eves alias Hamza, the Nigerian kingpin, operates from Bangalore and runs the trade by sending poor African students to Hyderabad, Goa and other cities as peddlers to sell cocaine, MDMA and other contraband drugs.

The kingpin, who runs the cartel from Bangalore, targets students from Africa with financial problems and lures them into the business, AES Enforcement, N. Anji Reddy said.

"He has been trapping students and using them to sell drugs in Goa, Hyderabad and other cities. The operation and network was unearthed based on the confession of a BBA student arrested by our officials in Hyderabad," said the official, adding that Hamza was absconding and efforts were on to arrest him at the earliest.

North african national arrested with cocaine

Excise Enforcement officials arrested a 30-year-old North African who is a BBA student, after a raid near Bible House and seized 15 grams of cocaine and two mobile phones from him. Preliminary inquiries revealed that he was sent from Bangalore by Hamza to sell narcotic drugs here.

The arrested was identified as Vtindn Guessan Yves, 30, a resident in Bengluru and native of Yaunde town in Ivory Coast police said. He was spotted during a routine check while he was moving around suspiciously near Bible House and was picked up by the officials, who found 15 grams of cocaine and two mobile phones in his possession, said N. Anji Reddy, assistant sup-erintendent of excise enforcement.

When questioned, he confessed that he worked for the kingpin Hamza in Bangalore and was sent to Hyderabad, like several others, by him. He also said that he had a roomate, Obum, a Nigerian, and that he had travelled to the city with him.In the midnight of Sunday, high tension was created at Thotlavalluru police station of Krishna district. An engaged couple scheduled for marriage divided because of the groom's spying on the bride and suspecting her character.

Vijayawada: A groom suspecting the bride created a furor and led to her registering a case against him. In the midnight of Sunday, high tension was created at Thotlavalluru police station of Krishna district. An engaged couple scheduled for marriage divided because of the groom's spying on the bride and suspecting her character.

Divya, daughter of Meruga Nagarjuna of Royyuru village of Thotlavalluru mandal, Krishna district was engaged to Naga Srinu son of Arise Rama Rao of Nibhanupudi village on 22nd June at her residence. Both work at private jobs in Vijayawada. The girl's family gave one lakh rupees as dowry to the groom. The marriage was scheduled for the night of 2nd September, but the groom absconded.

As per local reports, after the engagement, Divya and Srinu jointly went to shop. They were also speaking to each other frequently on phone. One night, Srinu could not reach Divya's mobile all night. Suspecting something, he installed a spy app in her mobile without her knowledge and tried to know her call and chat details.

Divya felt insulted and after arguments, the issue became serious. Naga Srinu refused to marry Divya unless he was given access to her call and chat details. He even demanded a medical test to prove her virginity.

Furious with his comments, Divya lodged a complaint against him for spying on her phone and insulting her. Despite their families' attempts at a compromise, Naga Srinu is ready to face a case. A case has been registered at Thotlavalluru police station in the presence of the both the groups.On Monday, Paritosh registered a complaint with Sadashivnagar police, who arrested Arun, Lakshman and Rakshith and produced them before a magistrate.(Representional Image)

Bengaluru: A 22-year-old law student was allegedly assaulted by the staff of a bar and restaurant located on New BEL Road in Sadashivnagar police station limits, early Monday.

The victim has been identified as Rutwick Paritosh, a resident of M.S. Ramaiah Nagar and a law student, hailing from Bihar.

Police said that on Sunday night, Paritosh along with his friends went to the bar and ordered alcohol and dinner. The incident took place at about 12.30 a.m.

A senior police official told Deccan Chronicle that as there was delay in serving dinner, Paritosh questioned the waiter, identified as Arun. Despite assurance of serving soon, it got delayed even further. Paritosh lost his cool and questioned the two waiters, identified as Arun Kumar and Lakshman, and this led to heated arguments. Meanwhile hearing the commotion, a bouncer, identified as Rakshith, intervened and told Paritosh to back-off. In his complaint, Paritosh charged that Rakshith allegedly grabbed a beer bottle and hit him on his head.

However, a police official privy to the probe said there was a fight in the bar and in a fit of rage Rakshith had pushed Paritosh, following which he sustained injuries. On Monday, Paritosh registered a complaint with Sadashivnagar police, who arrested Arun, Lakshman and Rakshith and produced them before a magistrate. Later, the trio was released on bail.New Delhi: Days after the GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2018-19 was pegged at the highest in three years, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar on Monday lashed out at former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan for a succession of ills, including the declining growth rate over the last three years. Pinning the blame squarely on Rajan's policies as Governor of the entral bank, Kumar said the economic growth was declining due to rising NPAs in the banking sector.

"There was a trend of declining growth and why was the growth declining? The growth was declining because of the rising non performing assets or bad loans (NPAs), the non-performing assets in the banking sector. When this government came into office, those figures were about Rs 4 lakh crore. It rose to Rs 10.5 lakh crore by the middle of 2017. The NPA rose and the GDP growth rate declined because under the previous governor (Raghuram) Rajan, they had instituted new mechanisms to identify stressed or non-performing assets and these continuously continued to grow up which is why the banking sector stopped giving credit to the industry," Rajiv Kumar said.

"In fact, in some cases like MSMEs, credit growth shrank. Even in the large industries, the growth of credit came down to measly 1 per cent in some quarters," claimed the Niti Aayog vice chairman. "This has been the highest de-leveraging of commercial credit to the industry in India's economic history," Kumar said, while adding that this is what is being compensated by the government by ramping up of public capital expenditure.Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Tuesday sent a letter to the Union government recommending the name of most senior judge, Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor. (Photo: File | PTI)

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Tuesday sent a letter to the Union government recommending the name of most senior judge, Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor.

Justice Gogoi, the second senior-most judge in the Supreme Court, will take charge on October 3 as the next Chief Justice of India.

CJI Misra retires a day before, but since October 2 is a holiday, October 1 will be his last working day.

CJI Mishra's formal recommendation keeps up the tradition of naming the most senior Supreme Court judge being made Chief Justice of India after the retirement of the incumbent one.

Following convention, Union Law Ministry had, a few days ago, asked CJI Misra to recommend his successor.

The letter will enable the President to appoint Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India.

Justice Gogoi will be the Chief Justice till November 17, 2019. He will be administered the oath of office by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi was among the four judges who, in January, criticised CJI Misra in an unprecedented press conference and accused him of misusing his role of assigning cases as the Supreme Court's Master of the Roster. He is currently hearing the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) case.

He was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2012.GHMC claims that they have 150 fogging machines but it is not found to be sufficient as the estimated requirement is of 300 fogging machines. Fogging is done on rotation basis in areas and often the area that has undergone the treatment will get the next chance only after three months. There is only one machine for one circle.

Hyderabad: The city is in the grip of dengue cases, with 15 to 20 cases being detected in every circle of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation but not recorded by the authorities. There are 30 circles of GHMC in Hyderabad and there is gross under reporting of these cases, allege corporators. The concept of dry day on Friday is not being followed and that is adding to the woes with breeding continuing despite the information and awareness programmes.

The state health department in the city is not having its regular epidemiology meetings as the officials are busy with the eye screening camps of the governments Kanti Velugu scheme. A senior health official in the Hyderabad circle explained, The regular meetings between the GHMC and the state Health Department are not being held. In these meetings, the identified points of dengue were discussed and follow-up action recorded. The initiative taken by both departments would ensure that people at the ground level were complying with the rules of dry day due to checks. Even the regular spraying on one day of the week is not being carried out.

With staff crunch in the health department, only statistical records of the dengue cases, which are being detected and self-reported by hospitals, are being maintained. Corporators, of both the ruling party and the opposition, have raised a hue and cry over the increasing dengue cases in the city. A senior general physician at Begumpet, on condition of anonymity, explained, Those who stay close to open nalas, tanks, lakes and Musi have a severe mosquito problem due to the sewage waters. But these are further compounded with water stagnation in overhead tanks, fish ponds, flowerpot trays etc. which become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Dengue mosquitoes breed in clean water and it is important that the dry day regime be followed strictly across all homes. But it is not being done. Instead, when doctors report cases, they are being blamed for sensationalising the issue and scaring the people.

Precautions like wearing full sleeves, using mosquito repellents and not allowing fresh water to stagnate in containers around the house are important to control dengue. There is a need for both government effort, in terms of fogging which is not being adequately carried out, and community participation, lack of which is adding to the menace.Man injured after travel app confusion on I-24 results in another accidentBENGALURU: Members of iChange Indirinagar, the vocal, prolific residents group which has, of late, been protesting the proposed demolition of the BDA complex in their area, were mollified when Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwar paid them a visit on Monday morning during his inspection rounds.

The proposed redevelopment of the complex, which will require 175 trees to be felled, has met with the wrath of civic activists. The issue is no longer in our hands, he said to the media.

The tender process for the new building has been completed and work is about to begin. It is at this stage that residents have approached us. We will try out best to do the needful without causing any inconvenience to the residents.

Indiranagar residents are against the new proposed shopping complex by BDA because it would result in 171 trees been axed, which would be in violation of National Green Tribunal (NGT) regulations regarding lake buffer zones.

The North East Monsoon, which, according to the Indian Meteorological Department, will bring heavy rainfall over Bengaluru, was the crux of the inspection. Dr Parameshwar instructed officials to plan ongoing civic work bearing the rain in mind, as flooded roads and overflowing drains bring the city to a standstill.

While much of this has been attributed to civic bodies functioning like silos, independently of each other, Dr Parameshwar expressed the need to form a committee that will coordinate between the various civic agencies. Dr Parameshwar began his rounds by inspecting a storm water drain that passes through Koramangala and C.V. Raman Nagar. The canal, which was filled with sewage, connects a few lakes. He instructed officials to desilt the canal before the monsoon.Ranchi/Patna: Jailed RJD president Lalu Yadav, currently admitted in a Ranchi hospital for medical assistance, has complained about poor hygiene, mosquito menace and barking by stray dogs and requested he be shifted to another ward, a close aide of the former chief minister said on Monday.

RJD lawmaker and national general secretary Bhola Yadav told PTI that an application has been submitted to the director of the RIMS hospital, where Lalu Yadav is admitted, with the plea that he be moved to the 100-bed paying ward, which at present has only three patients.

"We have cited the reasons also for making such a request. The waste pipe of a toilet close to his ward is clogged, emitting foul smell. This imperils the health of our leader who suffers from infections," Lalu Yadav, a close confidant of the RJD chief, said.

Bhola Yadav, who has been beside the RJD supremo for most of the time since he was sent to jail in December last year, said the lack of hygiene also leads to the menace of mosquitoes which is another potential health risk, "especially in the rainy season. Besides, there is also the problem of excessive noises."

"The post-mortem house is nearby which attracts a large number of stray dogs. Their barks and howls is a nuisance and cause immense discomfort to the septuagenarian," the RJD lawmaker said.

The lawmaker also said that being a diabetic, Lalu Yadav needs to go for regular walks, but the location of the cardiology department ward where he is lodged is "not suitable" for that.

"We have, therefore, requested that he be shifted to the paying ward, which is newly built and comparatively more clean and tidy. We hope the authorities will not have a problem with that since we are ready to pay the room rent and other charges. We did that when Laluji was admitted to AIIMS earlier this year," Bhola Yadav stated.

After spending a few months out of the jail, the RJD supremo surrendered before a CBI court in Ranchi on August 30 upon the expiry of the provisional bail granted to him by the Jharkhand High Court for medical treatment.

Lalu Yadav had recently undergone a fistula operation at a Mumbai hospital. A heart patient, he is also said to be suffering from kidney ailments.

Meanwhile, the RJD supremo's expression of discomfort at the Ranchi hospital has drawn snide remarks from the ruling JD(U) in Bihar.

"Now you have begun to fear dogs and mosquitoes. The people of Bihar had feared a lot while you were in power," JD(U) lawmaker and spokesman Neeraj Kumar tweeted, alluding to the crime rate during the 15-year-long rule by Prasad and, subsequently, his wife Rabri Devi for which the RJD has been drawing flak over the years.The bridge, which passes above the railway tracks, collapsed around 4:30 pm and vehicles crashed on the slums located next to the bridge. (Photo: Deccan Chronicle)

Kolkata: A portion of Majerhat Bridge, connecting Behala with New Alipore, at Taratola in south Kolkata collapsed on Tuesday afternoon. At least five people are feared to have been killed and several trapped under the debris, according to unconfirmed sources.

The death toll is likely to rise.

Eastern Command sources revealed that three Army columns have been put on standby.

The bridge, which passes above the railway tracks, collapsed around 4:30 pm and vehicles crashed on the slums located next to the bridge.

Soon after the incident, Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar and other officers were rushed to the spot. Kolkata Mayor and Fire and Emergency Services minister Sovan Chatterjee also rushed to the site.

Four NDRF teams along with fire brigade personnel were pressed in the rescue operations.

A fire official said that nearly 20 people were rescued.

Till the reports last came in, nine persons have been admitted to SSKM Hospital which is the nearest to the spot.

(Photo: Deccan Chronicle)

A survivor, Sisir Chakraborty, recalled, "I was travelling in my car. I was reading a magazine. Suddenly I felt a massive jerk before finding a long queue of cars ahead of mine."

He added, "People were running away in panic. Some of them said the bridge has collapsed. What I realised was that a block of the bridge which is above a slum caved in."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is in Darjeeling, said, "Although I am here, my heart is there. None of us wants to stay here anymore. But there is no flight available now. Moreover, it takes around 4 hours to reach Siliguri."

When asked about the death toll, she said, "Even if one person dies, it is unfortunate. I have directed the administration to take necessary steps for the search and rescue operation. A detailed probe will be conducted into the incident to know how it happened. I have asked the administration to report back to me about the developments."

The mishap comes two years after the collapse of an under-construction Vivekananda Flyover in north Kolkata which claimed over two dozen lives.Chennai: Stepping up its pressure on the BJP Government to come out with the price it signed for the Rafale fighter aircraft, the Congress on Monday insisted it would use all possible options, such as moving the courts, to bring out the truth in the deal.

The party, however, said it expected the Modi administration to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to go into the deal with France for acquiring 36 Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force. It has been the Congress charge that the BJP Government escalated the cost of each aircraft to Rs 1,670 crore from Rs 532 crore agreed to during the UPA rule merely to benefit Reliance Defence of Anil Ambani, which it says has not even built a bicycle so far.

All options are open for us. We are open to any (method) to bring out the truth in the Rafale deal. Our president Rahul Gandhi has been seeking a JPC probe into the Rafale deal, Rajasthan PCC chief Sachin Pilot told reporters at the state Congress headquarters, Satyamurthi Bhavan, here. His press conference was part of the Congress elaborate, nationwide, media blitzkrieg against the Modi Government on the Rafale deal.

Our prime minister said the IAF is in dire need of the fighter jets and hence the number was reduced to 36. Our question is who did he consult? Did he consult the Cabinet Committee on Security? Why should the tax payers pay `1,138 crore more for each aircraft that the UPA had fixed at `532 crores? Why does the government want to spend `40,000 crore of the tax payers money for just 36 aircraft? asked the former Union Minister.

He demanded to know why the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with 70 years of experience in the field ignored and the contract given to Reliance Defence that was incorporated as a firm just 12 days back. And if there was urgency, why not even a single aircraft has arrived in India till today?

Accusing the PM of hiding behind the confidentiality clause, Pilot said the BJP Government has not followed the mandatory requirement of Defence Procurement Procedure for price discovery through the instrumentalities of Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) and Price Negotiation Committee (PNC). When the French President himself says the price can be disclosed to the Indian Parliament, why is the government not willing to make it public? We agree that the technology cannot be made public for reasons of national security but what stops the government from making the price known to its people? he asked.

The mask of the BJP has fallen off. The Narendra Modi Government is knee-deep in corruption, said Pilot, while alleging that the BJP regime has failed to deliver any of the promises made during the 2014 Lok Sabha poll. He also repeated the Congress demand to know why the NDA Government allowed economic offenders Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi to escape.Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is taking more than four-and-a-half years to complete the four lane road under the railway bridge at East Anandbagh, Malkajgiri. Residents complain that since then the road is closed, it is causing great inconvenience to the colony people. They also stated that even after minister K. Taraka Rama Rao gave word in April, when he came to inaugurate a nearby construction, that he would soon look into the issue, work has hardly commenced. Colony associations have sent repeated appeals through mails regarding the work.

Mr Ramalingeswara Rao, a resident of East Anandbagh, said, The much-awaited construction started very recently, but it hasnt moved any further than digging up of roads and that too was filled up in the recent rains. The major festival of the colony, Vinayaka Chavithi, is about to begin, and residents are worried about how the situation would be in these half dug roads works.

Mr Suresh Kumar, general secretary, Anand Bagh Residents Welfare Association, stated, Our colony road has been closed for this RuB. From then on, traffic has become very slow for the past four years due to closure of roads. School children, citizens and women are finding it difficult to cross the road. Business has also come to halt due to this. And recently a mechanic injured himself while trying to use this road and the vehicle also got damaged. Nothing substantial has been done regarding this problem on the ground.

The colony association members say that all the four departments are involved in the work- Electricity, Water Works, Roads and Buildings and GHMC, of which, Water Works has done the most irresponsible job. We don't know why the roads have been removed and re-carpeted so many times for the pipeline work. Its better if all the departments sit together, coordinate and work properly. they said.

When contacted, Mr. N Raghu Prasad, Zonal Commissioner, said, The road work is now being handled by the Railways and the work is slow as one needs to be careful with the railway track. It will speed up eventually.

A GHMC official also mentioned that now they were working on a new improved plan for the project and the work would finish within two years as the funds had also been allocated for the same. The residents even took to twitter regarding the issue in order to gain the attention of authorities concerned. A tweet from Pendyala Chakrapani, reads, L&T could complete Metro project in a committed time with dedication 5 to 6 years, whereas a very small project like constructing a railway under bridge at East Anand Bagh still not completed even after five years. Hats off to GHMC team for their commitment.In July, Hanan, a 21-year-old college student was trolled for selling fish to pay for her education and look after her family. (Photo: File)

Thiruvananthapuram: A man barged into the ICU of a private hospital where Hanan Hamid, the Kerala student who met with an accident was admitted on Monday, and went live on Facebook.

In July, Hanan, a 21-year-old college student was trolled for selling fish to pay for her education and look after her family.

Hanan sustained a serious spiral injury after she met with an accident on Monday when the car she was traveling in rammed into an electric post at Kodungallur in the Thrissur district of Kerala.

The man, identified as Rajesh Raman, a native of Methala village in Kodungalloor, breached the security at the Medical Trust hospital in Ernakulam and forced his way into the ICU to make viral content, Manorama News reported.

Standing by her hospital bed, the man went live on Facebook and posed several questions to Hanan to try and get her to speak to him.

Within minutes the live video went viral and many users condemned his insensitive behaviour.

According to the report, the man in the live video could be seen posing questions to Hanan on her injuries. A visibly upset Hanan mumbled a few answers while gesturing him to stop. The Facebook page of man shows that he had done the live for a popular page on social media that posts viral videos.

Upon realising that the man had barged in the ICU, hospital staff immediately raised an alarm and called the police. So far, no formal complaint has been filed against the man.

Meanwhile, the Kerala government has said it will ensure Hanan gets good treatment. A statement from the state government said the Chief Minister's office and Industries Minister EP Jayarajan had spoken to the hospital and asked them to provide the best treatment and the government will help in whatever way it can.Malyalam superstar Mohanlal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to brief him about the social works his organisation is carrying out.

New Delhi: Malyalam superstar Mohanlal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to brief him about the social works his organisation is carrying out. However, the meeting followed by Mohanlals Facebook triggered speculations that the actor is likely to contest 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Kerala as BJP candidate.

The 58-year-old actor posted that he met PM Modi on the auspicious day of Janmashtami and briefed him about ViswaSanthi Foundation and our multifaceted social initiatives.

He (PM Modi) has assured all support and offered to participate in the Global Malayalee Round table that can formulate futuristic solutions for a New Kerala, the post further said.

Later, addressing a press conference, Mohanlal also said that the Prime Minister had assured all possible assistance for Kerala, where the worst floods in a century killed nearly 300 people and displaced thousands of others.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter on Tuesday morning and praised the wide range of social service initiatives being taken by Mohanlal calling them extremely inspiring.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful meeting with @Mohanlal Ji. His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring. pic.twitter.com/f3Dv3owHUV  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 4, 2018

According to several media reports, BJP is likely to project Mohanlal as partys candidate from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, which is being held by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

Though BJP has managed to increase its vote share in the southern state, it has not been able to make a major electoral impact. Given these circumstances, the addition of Mohanlal is expected to give the party the desired boost to woo the voters in a state where it does not have many prominent faces.Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu said that in addition to petrol prices, the rupee value would also touch Rs 100 against one US dollar. (Photo: File)

Amravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu criticised the Narendra Modi-led government on Monday for a continuous rise in fuel prices and said that petrol would be sold at Rs 100 per litre. The Chief Minister said that in addition to petrol prices, the rupee value would also touch Rs 100 against one US dollar.

In the wake of the Reserve Bank of India's report on demonetisation, Chandrababu Naidu said the Centre was unable to "properly manage demonetisation."

"What have we achieved from demonetisation? We are seeing the condition of banks today. Big notes should be abolished. What is the need for having Rs 2,000 note? The Modi-government could not properly manage demonetisation," he said, adding that he doesn't have any problem if digital currency comes fully into existence, "but there needs to be proper balancing between digital and physical currency," he added.

Chandrababu Naidu also said cash shortage was still prevalent in many parts of the country, adding that the recent growth in India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was a result of the "basic strength" of people, and "not due to NDA's achievements."

"(Prime Minister) Modi is not disciplined, it is inability. Even today, cash shortage is prevailing in ATMs. Nation's growth rate came down after NDA came into power. If the Centre is disciplined, why is corruption taking place? Why are banks getting insolvent? Modi is not eligible to speak about sincerity, truthfulness, and discipline," he noted.

With regards to schemes and measures implemented during his tenure as Chief Minister, Naidu said that efforts were channelised towards increasing the earthen water table.

"Our efforts are turning fruitful. This year, almost 2,000 TMC of Godavari water flew into the sea. Projects on Krishna river - Srirsailam and Nagarjuna Sagar - are fully filled up. 12 projects are ready for inauguration in September. We will inaugurate three projects in October and one in November, Naidu said, adding, "As of now, we have spent Rs 58,024 crore for irrigation projects, mostly in Rayalaseema and North Coastal regions."A PIL filed in Bombay HC seeks action against senior IPS officer Parambir Singh and other cops who briefed media on case against some activists arrested over alleged Maoist links. (Photo: File | PTI)

Mumbai: A PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, seeking action against senior IPS officer Parambir Singh and other police officials who briefed the media on their case against some prominent activists arrested over their alleged Maoist links.

Singh, state Additional Director General (Law and Order), along with the Pune police had addressed the media in Mumbai on the case on August 31.

During the press conference, Singh had read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists. He claimed that the police had "conclusive proof" to link the Left-wing activists arrested in June as well as last week to Maoists.

Read: Activist's letter spoke of 'Rajiv Gandhi-type ending for Modi-Raj': Pune cops

Activist Sanjay Bhalerao, who claims to be a witness to the Bhima Koregaon violence, filed criminal public interest litigation (PIL) in the HC seeking action against Singh and the other policemen.

The petition sought the high court to initiate action against Singh and the other police officers who held the press conference and disclosed "crucial and vital information" pertaining to the case. It also urged the court to direct the state government to take action against the police officers under Article 311 of the Constitution under which a civil servant can be dismissed for misconduct.

According to the petition, on March 19 this year, the Pune police had filed an application seeking permission to carry out searches at the residences of some activists.

Police sought for the application to be heard in camera on the ground that if the names of the accused persons were disclosed, then there was likelihood that they would destroy evidence.

"The magistrate on March 19 allowed police's request for in-camera proceedings," the PIL, filed through advocate Nitin Satpute, said.

"Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Parambir Singh and other police officers, who were present at the press conference, disclosed crucial information with regard to the case. The police officers acted against the order passed by the magistrate court," it added.

The petitioner alleged that the probe carried out by the Pune police was politically motivated and with malafide intentions.

On Monday, the high court, while hearing another petition seeking an NIA probe into the case, raised questions over the press conference and said police should not have addressed the media when the Supreme Court was seized of the matter.

Also Read: Case sub-judice: Bombay HC questions police press brief on activists arrests

Police had arrested activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut in June while probing the alleged Maoist connection with the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31 last year.

Police had alleged that inflammatory speeches at the event led to violence at Koregaon Bhima near Pune on the next day.

Last Tuesday, police had arrested five more Left-wing activists -- Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navalakha -- from different places in the country.

The apex court later ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6.Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had said he has been authorised by the party to take a final call on the issue. (Photo: File)

Hyderabad: The Congress in Telangana on Monday claimed that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao may have dropped his plans to go for early Assembly elections in the state after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Election Commission (EC) did not back his idea.

There has been speculation in recent days that Chandrasekhar Rao may recommend dissolution of the Assembly, favouring clubbing of the state elections along with that in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram later this year.

But, on Sunday, keeping the suspense alive, the Chief Minister had said he has been authorised by the party to take a final call on the issue.

Also Read: Will retain power, won't surrender to Delhi, says KCR at mega rally

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesperson Sravan Dasoju said, "on early polls, Modi and EC have not given him (Rao) permission. As a result of that, he has gone back; he actually wanted to dissolve the House and he had told so to many of his close aides".

Charging Chandrasekhar Rao with being a 'katputhli' (puppet) and 'slave' of PM Modi, he said the Chief Minister's "remote control" is with Prime Minister, who did not say 'yes' to his idea of early poll.

"It (early Assembly polls in Telangana) does not (now) look like a possibility," he said, adding update electoral rolls would be ready only by October-end. "How is that before the electoral roll is finalised, he (Rao) can call for a schedule?"

Telangana Assembly elections are unlikely to happen by November-December, he said, adding, PM Modi and Chandrasekhar Rao, however, may advance Lok Sabha and assembly elections, respectively, due in April-May next year, by one or two months and club the elections in the four States.

On the Chief Minister's statement on Sunday that the people of the state should not become "slave to Delhi parties," Sravan Dasoju said Chandrasekhar Rao himself has become a "slave" of PM Modi, pointing to his support to the Centre on demonetisation and GST, and to NDA nominees in the elections to the post of President and Vice-President.

Chandrasekhar Rao had on Sunday said, "Just like in Tamil Nadu, we should also make sure that power is vested in our hands for self-respect rather than Delhi leadership dictating our state... don't become slaves to Delhi parties".

Sravan Dasoju termed this type of promotion of "Tamil Nadu" model as "day-dreaming" by Rao.

Before the 2014 Assembly polls, Chandrasekhar Rao coined the slogan "Bangaru Telangana" (golden Telangana), and is now trying to evoke "anti-Delhi kind of sentiment," he alleged.Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 29, 2018 | PADUCAH

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 29, 2018 | 05:08 PM | PADUCAH

Police are warning residents again that they should lock their vehicles and hide or remove their valuables.



Paducah Police say they are investigating a series of thefts from vehicles on Martin Circle, which is just off Lone Oak Road. All of the thefts took place overnight, and all of the vehicles were unlocked. Electronics, money, firearm accessories, purses and backpacks were taken.



Police also say a 2003 Honda Pilot was stolen after it was left unlocked with the keys in it. The SUV was recovered Wednesday morning in a wooded area near South 23rd and Barnett Streets.



Anyone with information on these thefts is asked to contact Paducah Police at 270-444-8550 or Crime Stoppers at 270-443-TELL, or use the new "WKY Crime Stoppers" app, which is available at Google Play or the Apple Store.Lois Sofia was arrested after the plane landed in Tuticorin and Tamilisai filed a complaint with the airport police. (Photo: File)

Tuticorin: A day after a student was arrested at the Tuticorin airport for shouting "fascist BJP government down down" on a flight in the presence of Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan, she has been released on bail on Tuesday.

Tamilisai, who was on the flight and complained against the woman and had said: "She was not an ordinary passenger; I suspect some extremist organisation behind her."

Lois Sofia, a research scholar in Canada, and Tamilisai, were on the flight to Tuticorin.

On boarding the flight, she saw Tamilisai in the same flight, prompting her loud reaction. Sofia, said to have strong political opinion against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to one of the passengers, started shouting hysterically, fascist Modi government down down.

Also Read: Lady held for sloganeering against BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan on flight

Tamilisai, however remained cool inside the flight, but politely asked later whether her in-flight behaviour was decent, after both got down at Thoothukudi airport at around 12 noon. The PhD scholar, however without any expression of remorse, justified that she has the freedom of speech.

This arrogant attitude of Sofia, irritated the supporters of the BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan, who surrounded the lady and her mother and demanded an apology.

The young lady, however, refused to apologise, despite her mother advising her to do so.

Sofia was arrested after the plane landed in Tuticorin and Tamilisai filed a complaint with the airport police. A video recorded at the airport shows the BJP leader asking angrily: "How can she shout like that? This is not a public forum."

#WATCH BJP Tamil Nadu President Tamilisai Soundararajan got into an argument with a co-passenger at Tuticorin airport. The passenger who has now been detained had allegedly raised 'Fascist BJP Govt down down' slogan #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/TzfyQn3IOo  ANI (@ANI) September 3, 2018

Sofia has been charged with creating "public nuisance" and "causing fear to the public in the flight and at the airport".

According to reports, the student's father AA Sami, a retired government officer, has also filed a police complaint against the Tamil Nadu BJP chief and a few others for "criminal intimidation". That case has not been registered by the police yet.

Sami said he and his wife had received their daughter at the Chennai airport and were flying with her to Tuticorin. When they arrived at Tuticorin, he said, his daughter was surrounded by men and abuses were thrown at her. The family was reportedly kept in a room for safety.

Sofia, a writer and a mathematician, is a close relative of advocate Athisayakumar, one of the leading activists in the anti-Sterlite movement. According to reports, she had earlier participated in campaigns against the Sterlite Copper Plant in Tuticorin and the Chennai-Salem eight lane expressway.

DMK Chief MK Stalin slammed the police action against Sofia and demanded her release. Stalin said he too would repeat her slogan and asked: "If you'd put behind bars all those who raise such slogans, how many lakh people would you jail?"New Delhi: Locals lynched a 16-year-old boy, who had entered a house to allegedly steal valuables in Northwest Delhis Mukundpur in the early hours of Tuesday. Following this, three people were arrested. DCP (Northwest) Aslam Khan said the accused had entered a house to steal valuables but was caught by the owner and beaten to death by some locals. A case for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at the Bhalswa Dairy police station in this regard on Tuesday.

Three of the accused have been arrested while three others are absconding, the police official said. The arrested accused were identified as Nand Kishore, Raj kishore, and Triveni while the absconding were identified as Deshraj, Sant Lal, and Sohan Lal. Three of these are brothers while the rest are neighbours.

However, according to media reports the victims family claimed that he was not a thief and there was some other reason behind the lynching.

During inquiry it surfaced that the incident had taken place at 3.30 am. But the police was informed around 6.30 am. Around 6.30 am a PCR call was received about an incident of theft. It is being inquired why the call was made after three hours, another officer said. The teenage boy belonged to Khagaria district in Bihar and had gone to Delhi around a fortnight ago, an officer said. He added that the formers mother is a homemaker and stays in Bihar while his father works as a labourer in Noida.Hyderabad: In a setback to the Essel-Zee Groups Subhash Chandra Foundation, the AP government on Tuesday informed the Hyderabad High Court that it has decided not to accept the proposal of the Group to takeover the AgriGold Group of companies by paying Rs 4,000 crore in a phased manner.

CID additional DG Amit Garg filed an affidavit before a division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice S.V. Bhatt pursuant to its direction on August 3, 2018, to spell out the stand of the state government on the proposal of the Essel Group.

The bench directed the petitioners and the state government to spell out their stand on the proposal while dealing with petitions by the depositors and agents who were seeking a CBI probe into the fraud allegedly committed by AgriGold companies.

Mr. Garg told the court that the apprehension of the state was that the Essel Group was seeking to enter into the shoes of the AgriGold Companies through the approval of the court on the promise of repaying all the depositors slab- wise over a period of four and a half years which was difficult to believe having regard to the conduct of the Essel Group in this issue and experience of the State in the PIL.

While citing various contradictory statements made by the Essel Group in this case, the CID chief reminded that the Essel Group (intervener) at one stage decided to withdraw his move to takeover the properties claiming that it was not feasible to them and later the intervener taken U-turn and filed another affidavit for taking over the assets of the AgriGold.

He submitted that the AP government was also apprehensive that if this proposal were to be accepted as it is or with modifications, if any, it would result in a situation where the state will reach a point of no return and would be dependent on the intervener having entered into an understanding and lapse if any would only further complicate the issues and situation with the interest of the depositors taking a back seat.

The petitioners in their affidavit told the court that the change of stand by the intervener has caused huge confusion among the depositors all over India and the time and money proposed by the intervener is not at all acceptable to the petitioner and depositors.

While suggesting certain modifications for the proposal of intervener, the petitioner submitted that since the CID has found that Agrigold properties are generating more than a Crore per month for seven properties and that money must be recovered and it should be deposited in the bank account of this court.

Senior counsel P. Sri Raghuram appearing for the Essel Group submitted that they would file reply on the affidavits of petitioner and the state government.

Stating that they are still interested in taking the properties of the company, the government has misunderstood their proposal for making it as a partner in the joint venture.

While directing the Essel Group to come out with concrete proposal , the bench posted the case to September 17.Police said the unidentified miscreants chopped two trees, both nearly 30 years old, left behind the branches and decamped with the trunk. (Representional Image)

Bengaluru: In what can be seen as a glaring security lapse, unidentified miscreants cut down two sandalwood trees from the high security Seven Minister's quarters on Sankey Road in High Grounds Police station limits on Monday night.

The incident took place at Social Welfare Minister Priyank Kharges official quarter (number 6), near Shivananda Circle. The minister was allotted the quarter recently and is yet to occupy it.

Police said the unidentified miscreants chopped two trees, both nearly 30 years old, left behind the branches and decamped with the trunk.

The High Ground police have registered a case and formed a team to nab the accused. They are verifying the CCTV footage to establish their identity.

The theft came to light while police were patrolling the area came across the left over stumps and other remnants. Investigations reveal that there were more than three thieves.

They had allegedly kept a close watch of the area and carried out the theft after ensuring that the security guard was absent, said a police official.

He further added that is only one security guard to guard the quarter as no one was residing in it. On Monday morning when he was not around, the miscreants sneaked into the compound and carried out the theft.

Police suspect that people who work in these quarters may have a role in the crime. "We suspect that the accused might have gained entry posing as construction workers. The police have summoned them for questioning," the officer said.

This quarter was earlier allocated to former minister T.B. Jayachandra. Mr Kharge has not moved in yet as renovation work is in progress.

The adjacent quarters are occupied by Ministers Ramesh Jarkiholi and Bandeppa Kashempur, and high court judge Justice S.N. Sathyanarayana. The police have deployed more guards in the Seven Minister's quarters.

Sandalwood thefts in the city have been happening regularly and in many cases they take place in high security areas such as army camps and other government establishments.

The thieves often hoodwink security personnel to carry out the crime.New Delhi: After receiving negative feedback from its core vote-bank  the upper castes  over its overdrive to woo the Dalits and OBCs, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sent out a message to Thakurs, Brahmins and the Vaishyas  do not make the same mistake you did in 2014 by not backing Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP for a second term at power. Modi governments recent measure to bring in a legislation to overturn the Supreme Courts order on the SC/ST Act seems to have triggered the dissent among the saffron partys core vote-bank, which feels that the apex courts order had infact made sure that the Act was not misused against them.

BJP top brass, including party chief Amit Shah , Arun Jaitley, Ravishankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman and others, held a meeting on Tuesday apparently to discuss the issue. In an indication that the issue could create problems for the BJP, former Union minister and senior leader Kalraj Mishra asked the government managers to reconsider its legislation against the apex court's order.

Sources disclosed that the BJP top brass has been receiving strong reaction on the issue, with party leaders complaining and urging that the BJP leadership needs to address the issue at the earliest. Sensing the gravity of the issue, the saffron party has activated its leadership and also its social media team to keep an eye on such dissent and also try to placate the upper caste votebank, which seems to be miffed over aggressive wooing of the Dalits and the OBCs.

This newspaper had reported recently how saffron partys poll managers in poll bound state of Madhya Pradesh are desperately trying to assuage Brahmin and

Vaishyas, who together account for nearly 10 per cent of the total population and are miffed with the ruling BJP over the same issue.

In an embarrassment to the Shivraj Singh Chouhan led BJP in the state, Rajput organisation Karni Sena, took the responsibility of the incident when a shoe was hurled at the chief minister, for which he had blamed the opposition Congress. Karni Sena had organised a event in Gwalior against the governments legislation on the SC/ST Act. The BJP leadership has asked its senior leaders in all states, particularly those in the Hindi heartland to hold parleys with groups and representatives of the upper castes who are miffed and make them understand about the electoral compulsions to reach out to the OBCs and Dalits.Chennai: A 15-year-old boy orphaned by the murder of his widowed mother at Ayanavaram last Friday, has found shelter under the benevolent wings of the local Assistant Commissioner of Police. ACP Balamurugan will be the new guardian of the distraught kid staying at a government hostel and pursuing class eight at a school at RA Puram.

I have informed the hostel that I will be the boy's guardian since he lost his mother. I will be bringing him home during the weekends and returning him to the institution in time for school on Monday, said Balamurugan, expressing the hope he would be able to push his adoption application past the long red-tape so that the boy could become a proper and permanent member of my family, forever.

The ACP discussed the kid's tragedy with his wife as well as his two children son aged 14 and daughter aged 7 and they readily accepted his proposal that the bereaved boy should be brought home and be part of their family. My family not only supported when I broached it but also expressed great happiness. My wife said this kid is God's gift to us, even as fate had delivered a cruel blow to him, Balamurugan told Deccan Chronicle, proudly sharing his new 'family portrait' of the three kids.

Parimala, 33, was working as maid in a few houses at Ayanavaram following her alcoholic husbands death about 10 years ago.

Unable to meet the expenses of educating her only son, she had admitted him to a government-aided school run by Chennapuri Annadana Samajam at RA Puram. She was content to meet the kid, the apple of her eye, during the weekends and would boast to people in her neighbourhood, including the understanding employers, that she would soon be delivered from her poverty and misery by her son after getting educated and securing a great job.

But fate had other plans for Parimala. A quarrelsome neighbour in a fit of anger over some petty issue, stabbed her on August 31.

She died on the spot. Police nabbed the killer and remanded him in custody.

Her son was in the hostel at that time and was not aware of the tragedy, until ACP Balamurugan broke the sad news much later, at the Ayanavaram police station where the kid was taken.

After they briefed me about the murder, my officers pointed me to this kid seated on a bench in a corner and said he was her son. They answered in the negative when I asked them if the boy knew. They had merely given him biscuits and coffee and made him squat quietly. I took him aside and explained what happened. He was stunned by grief and then he broke down weeping, recalled Balamurugan.

I decided I should provide the kid with a proper shelter and concluded there could be no better place than my own home, where he would have a brother and a sister; and a

mother. I did not want that kid to grow up thinking hes been orphaned by a killers cruelty and

he should retaliate by evolving as a cruel human himself. My wife and I decided we must heal the kids wounds and we can do that only by love, said the ACP.

For now, the officer is registering himself at the Samajam as the kids guardian and he hopes to soon overcome the legal hurdles to secure full-scale adoption so that the boy integrates seamlessly into the family. He is an intelligent boy. We feel confident he will come up in life, if given a chance, said Balamurugan.Hyderabad: With only a day left to take a decision on dissolving the state assembly in the cabinet meeting to be held on September 6, political developments indicate that early polls may be on the cards.

The Telangana government's Chief Secretary S K Joshi, its Chief Advisor Rajiv Sharma, Assembly secretary V Narasimhacharyulu and CMO Secretary Narasinga Rao met Governor ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday. Later, the state's Chief Electoral Officer Rajath Kumar met the Chief Secretary.

The ruling TRS is conducting another huge public meeting at Husnabad on September 7, which will be attended by the Chief Minister. It is from here that Mr Rao started his successful election campaign in 2014. The thinking is that after dissolving the assembly on September 6, Mr Rao will kickstart the election campaign the next day.

The TRS has decided to hold 100 meetings in the next 50 days in the name of "Praja Aseerwada Sabha" (People blessing meeting). On the directions of Mr Rao, Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and Finance Minister Etela Rajendar have started organising the Husnabad public meeting.

The TRS has announced its first candidate for the coming assembly elections and Mr Rao is discussing early elections with party seniors at his farm house.

Meanwhile, the state Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy held a meeting at Gandhi Bhavan with the TPCC election committee on the possibility of early elections. Telugu Desam General Secretary and IT Minister Nara Lokesh and BJP leader Muralidhar Rao have announced that they are ready to face early assembly elections.

According to sources, at the meeting of the Chief Secretary with the Governor along with Chief Advisor to government Rajiv Sharma, Assembly secretary Narasimhacharyulu and CMO Secretary Narasinga Rao, the discussion was about the procedure for dissolution of the assembly. Sources close to Chief Minister Rao said that the cabinet meeting will be held on September 6 to take a decision on dissolution of the assembly.

Mr Sharma has met the central election commissioner and attorney general in Delhi.

TS Chief Electoral Officer Rajath Kumar said if early elections are held in Telangana the Election Commission of India will decide on the course of action. He said it will be like in by-elections. There is as yet no intention of linking the voters' list with Aadhar cards as this issue is pending in the court, he said. He has asked the Chief Secretary to fill the vacancies in the CEO.

The TRS has announced its first candidate, for the Jagityal assembly constituency.

TRS MP K Kavitha along with minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav announced that Sanjay Kumar was the TRS candidate for Jagityal, presently represented by Congress MLA T Jeevan Reddy.

TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that about eight lakh new voters have enrolled this year but, surprisingly, there are 21 lakh less voters in the voters list. He said party leaders will hold meetings at constituency level on September 7 to verify the voters' list and on September 9 there will be meetings at division, mandal, town and village level.

Telugu Desam General Secretary and Minister Nara Lokesh said that the Telangana TD is ready to fight early assembly elections. He said even though some leaders have left the party, the cadre has remained with the party. He said regarding alliances, the party politburo will take a decision,

BJP leader Muralidhar Rao said his party is ready to face early elections in Telangana. He said BJP national president Amit Shah will tour Telangana soon. He said that they will take up yatras against the TRS at mandal level soon.Kochi: The High Court on Tuesday asked the government to fix specific guidelines for giving compensation to the flood-affected people. The compensation should be based on scientific and transparent yardsticks, the court observed while hearing petitions connected with the flood issues. It asked the government to submit its views by September 19.

The compensation should be assessed based on the value of losses and priority, the court said. Those who have suffered minor and major losses should not be treated with the same yardsticks. It asked on what basis an announcement was made about fixing Rs 4 lakh as compensation. It suggested that if required, the government should not hesitate to seek expert opinion on the matter.

Stressing the importance of transparent and scientific criterion for assessing the damage, the court said that pre and post-flood satellite images could be used for assessing the intensity of the damage and the value. The court was interested in helping the government for efficiently handling the situation. Otherwise, the government in the days to come will be overwhelmed by complaints and allegations, it said.

The recommendation of Mr Jacob P. Alex, the amicus curiae appointed to help the court in connection with the flood-related complaints, has also been taken into account for making the intervention, the court said.

Mr Jacob P. Alex recommended to consider the petitions classified into categories such as flood relief, rehabilitation, compensation, cause of the disaster, repair of dams and steps needed to be taken.

The government told the court that the compensation to the dependants of those killed in flood-related incidents will be disbursed by Friday. The cabinet sub-committee has decided that close family relatives of the missing persons will be provided with the compensation.Hyderabad: Thirty-six per cent of the 13,118 people who received benefits under the Rajiv Gandhi Aarogyasri Scheme for hemodialysis, left after six months as they could not afford the expenses of travel, associated medical conditions, loss of income and caregiver burden, according to a study carried out by United Andhra Pradesh from 2008 to 2012.

The total number of people who received treatment in the four-year period increased from 2.9 crores to 12.2 crores. The study covered 13,118 people from the united state of Andhra Pradesh to understand what barriers they faced in the publicly funded free treatment scheme.

The study assessed the data and tried to track these patients who had left mid-way to understand why the treatment was not completed. It was found that 10 per cent of the patients died and others who did not continue had financial and associated medical reasons, which did not allow them to come to the public health centres for free treatment.

Public funding of dialysis programs was a good beginning as it addressed the poor survival rate of kidney patients and met their unmet medical needs for kidney failure. Professor Vivekanand Jha, executive director of the George Institute for Global Health which carried out the study explained, The public funding allowed people to access expensive treatment for kidney failure but it has not been able to address all barriers to ensure long term success. The number of beneficiaries increased steadily but the survival rates were sub-optimal and not as significant as expected. This is because the drop-out rate without medical reasons was found to be high.

In the interaction, it was found that people had problems bearing the cost of transport, cost of caregiver, medical expenses due to the associated medical conditions and also loss of income. The total cost of the treatment was estimated as $ 63.2 million according to the claims of expenses under the scheme during the four-year period.New Delhi: The issue of oil imports from Iran, the proposed S-400 missile deal with Russia, stock-taking on the proposed Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) pact that will enable sale of armed drones by the US to India, matters relating to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, the situation in the Indo-Pacific region vis-a-vis China as well as matters relating to Indias concerns on proposed immigration curbs in the US that affect Indian professionals working there are all expected to figure during the forthcoming 2+2 dialogue at the foreign and defence ministerial level in New Delhi on Thursday. Sources also said that India would take its decisions independently in line with its national interests.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Jim Mattis will reach India on Wednesday evening for the dialogue being hosted by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on September 6. The 2+2 dialogue on Thursday will be preceded on that day by separate bilateral dialogues at the foreign and defence ministerial level before the four dignitaries together discuss various issues of regional and global importance. Then they will together call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, symbolising the proximity and strength of Indo-US ties.

While the proposed S-400 missile deal with Russia is officially not on the agenda, sources did not rule out a discussion on it if the American side raised the matter.

In the wake of sanctions by the US on Russian military exports, the US is concerned about the proposed Indo-Russian deal, although it may consider giving India a one-time waiver. New Delhi is expected to cite its security requirements for the missile system and press for a US waiver to escape sanctions. India is expected to convey clearly to the US that it is an energy import-reliant country and that any alternatives to Iranian crude oil will first need to be considered for its pricing, as it could otherwise have an adverse impact on the Indian economy.

In the wake of the US piling on pressure on countries across the world to stop importing oil from Iran altogether or face sanctions, Indias ties with Iran and its strategic implications on the Chabahar port project is also expected to be discussed. Sources also said that there would be stock-taking on the COMCASA, a proposed pact on encrypted American defence technologies. This is in the wake of raging speculation whether any announcement on inking of the pact will be made or not.

Policy in the Indo-Pacific region with special emphasis on Chinese military assertiveness is also expected to be one of the major subjects of discussion. The decision of the US to give Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 status to India is also being welcomed by New Delhi, as this would mean that 90 percent of dual-use items (that which can be used for both defence and civilian purposes) no longer require licensing.

On the visa front, India is in touch with the US administration to save both the H1B and H4 visas. The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialised fields. The H-4 visa relates to work permits for spouses of H1-B visa holders. Both visas are of significance to Indian professionals and their spouses residing in the US.

On the issue of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, New Delhi has welcomed the recent announcements made by the US in which three Pakistan-based terrorists and terror financiers have been named as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDTG). New Delhi is hoping for more such moves by the Trump administration that is cracking down hard on the failure of Islamabad to crack down on terrorism aimed at its neighbours.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) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) 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(12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1)New Delhi: Noted Malayalam actor Mohanlals meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday have triggered speculations that the BJP, keen to gain foothold in the state, could give the superstar a Lok Sabha ticket from Thiruvananthapuram. Political observers feel that considering the actors massive popularity in the state, if he joins the BJP, the saffron party could be in with a chance of opening its account in Kerala during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

There are even speculations that the RSS is learnt to be the main stimuli behind Mr Lals meeting with the Prime Minister. The Sangh is desperate to establish the BJPs presence in the state, where during the 2016 assembly polls, it had for the first time ever, managed to win a seat and also garnered 15 per cent vote share.

Also buoyed with its successes in the north-eastern states, the BJP is hoping that it would be able to repeat the formula in Kerala too, observers said. Meanwhile Mr Mohanlal said on social media regarding his tete-a-tete with Mr Modi, that it was a wonderful meeting.

The actor said he briefed the Prime Minister about the social work his organisation is carrying out. The Prime Minister said it was wonderful meeting the actor. His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring, Mr Modi tweeted. The actor said on his FB page that he briefed him about ViswaSanthi Foundation.Hyderabad: Union Minister Ramdas Athawale made a sensational comment on Tuesday. The minister said the TRS would win the contest in early elections are held to the Telangana Assembly. Mr Athawale belongs to Republic Party of India, an ally of the NDA.

The Union minister, who was on a visit to Nizamabad district visit on Tuesday, also said that Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao would become the Chief Minister again.

Mr Athawale said that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao was striving hard for the welfare of the people.

While the BJP is at loggerhead with the TRS in Telangana, the Union Ministers comments have irked the allies.Lucknow: A student of Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) course in Ram Manohar Lohia University in Faizabad has been issued an admit card with a photograph

of superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Amit Dwiwedi is a student of Ravindra Singh Mahavidyalaya in Gonda district, which is affiliated to the Ram Manohar Lohia University.

Mr Dwiwedi had filled his second-year examination form, but when he received the admit card, he was surprised to find a photograph of Mr Bachchan pasted on it. However, the youth has been allowed to take his examination after submitting additional documents. The college administration argued that the error was probably caused by the student himself or the Internet cafe from where he filed the form online. The student is taking the examinations and we have informed the principal of the exam centre. Efforts will be made that a correct mark sheet is issued, said Gurpendra Misra, an official of the college.Chennai/Tuticorin: Louis Sophia, the 28-year-old research scholar arrested for shouting anti-BJP slogans on board a flight to Tuticorin, was released on unconditional bail by a court on Tuesday, even as a fierce political battle broke out in Tamil Nadu and on the social media with the DMK and other opposition parties condemning the arrest as "yet another example" of saffron intolerance towards dissent and a threat to freedom of expression.

While the BJP hit back arguing that freedom of expression does not permit breaking law by shocking the passengers inside an aircraft, the AIADMK defended the police action in arresting Sophia.

"Freedom of expression does not mean you can say anything, anywhere. There are designated places where one can express views, even strongly dissenting views. That's permitted in democracy, but not the conduct of this person (Sophia) on a flight", said senior state minister D. Jayakumar, who is convinced that Sophia did her in-flight act "only for media publicity".

"If you allow this sort of sloganeering inside an aircraft, you could next witness demonstrators shouting slogans and preventing leaders of any party from entering public places even to discharge their duties. Political leaders could then face security threat", said the minister.

He was particularly annoyed with DMK chief MK Stalin slamming the BJP and its state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan for Sophia's arrest and remand custody.

"The central BJP government is crushing freedom of expression and the state government is aiding it. This is regrettable," he said in a statement. Condemning Sofia's "hasty arrest", Stalin recalled the Supreme Court's observation, on the recent arrest of Left-wing activists, that dissent was a "safety valve" in a democracy. "In a democratic country, a citizen can criticise not just the BJP government but that of any party and the state BJP chief's action amounts to infringing on that freedom," said the DMK chief.

BJP state secretary K T Raghavan rubbished the DMK attack, arguing: "Will Stalin permit it if someone shouted at Karunanidhi's Samadhi at Marina saying here rests a man who wrecked the Tamil race? And then claim he is only exercising his freedom of expression? She (Sophia) violated law, breached peace inside the aircraft in a threatening manner. And our leader (Tamilisai) responded in a proper and legal manner in lodging a police complaint. You (DMK) support the law-breaker and slam the one who went by norms".

MNM founder-president and actor Kamal Haasan, AMMK's TTV Dhinakaran and CPI-M Politburo member G Ramakrishnan also denounced Sophia's arrest as an assault on the freedom of expression. Some said Dr Tamilisai could have acted in "a mature and magnanimous manner" by calling Sophia aside after the arrival at Tuticorin and "counseled her in a soft manner". That way, she might have even changed the 'hostile attitude' of the woman, they argued. It's unlikely that the debate will die down in a hurry.

Obtaining bail in the public nuisance case registered against Louis Sophia for disrupting peace inside the aircraft and at Thoothukudi airport by shouting, Fascist BJP government down down, has given no relief to the girls family, as the BJP will object to the bail granted by the higher court. BJP advocates also demanded registering a case under civil aviation rules (CAR).

Magistrate Ms. Tamilselvi took up the bail plea submitted by 16 lawyers on Tuesday for Louis Sophia. The latter was remanded to custody and was made to stay the previous night at the Thoothukudi government medical college hospital as a patient so as to keep her from jail.

Before granting her bail, the magistrate condemnd Sophias father for her unruly behaviour. He was asked to advise his daughter in the future.

The girls father Dr A A Samy, who seemed confident on Monday evening when his daughter was brought to the court, however, looked frightened on Tuesday. While coming out of the court after obtaining bail for his daughter, Dr Samy expressed his apprehension that the Thoothukudi police might try to impound his daughters passport. He said, We surrendered the old passport which was already expired and have the renewed new passport in a safe place.Employees of the Nizam Museum housed at Purani Haveli in Hyderabad's Old City were in for a shock when they opened the museum on Monday morning. Apart from finding a broken air vent, almost 20 ft above the floor, they discovered a broken showcase from which an impressive three-tiered tiffin box, made entirely of gold and studded with diamonds on its knob was missing, along with a gold tea cup and saucer, and a gold spoon. While authorities havent found much evidence through the museum's CCTV footage, they have managed to conclude that the robbers made their way in from behind the building through the 2ft wide airducts, slinking down with the use of a rope and stealing only this particular gold set and nothing else.

A BATTLE OF TRUSTS

The set is part of the Nizams Silver Jubilee Trust, which is chaired by Prince Muffakham Jah, the erstwhile Nizam Mukarram Jahs younger brother; while Purani Haveli itself is part of a trust that is chaired by Mukarram Jah himself. The space for the museum has thus been leased by one trust to another, making it very difficult to point out which party is responsible for the poor security standards that allowed the theft to happen. A source close to the Nizams family spoke to us on the condition of anonymity saying, This is probably the handiwork of someone who had been visiting the museum often. There are so many more valuable items that are part of the collection, so its a mystery why the thieves chose just this particular showcase and its objects. Thefts have happened before, there was an Alam E Mubarak, a ceremonial jewelled item, studded with diamonds and emeralds that was stolen several years ago which is why its surprising that we haven't been able to learn from our mistakes and upgrade the security around such exhibits.

Scheherazade Javeri, the wife of former GPA to the Nizam, Sadruddin Javeri says, These articles should never have been kept in that dilapidated building. Theres no proper security there and we knew it would one day lead to a theft. Its just surprising that it's taken so long. Also the GPA holder for the late Princess Manolya and now Princess Niloufer, Javeri explains, "I reached out to the trustees for a list of the items that are part of the trust, in relation to Princess Niloufers inheritance, but never got a reply from them. They've always been tight-lipped about the items. This lack of transparency is what causes such disasters. Many believe that the Silver Jubilee Trust Collection should have rightfully been displayed at the Chowmahalla Palace Museum, which has far better security and organisation when compared to Purani Havelis and that the tussle between trusts had led to this fragmented display.

Lost forever

Tales of the Nizams jewels are almost legendary now, but people on the inside are of the view that very little is known about the full extent of the treasures. Lots of pieces were initially taken out of the country in the 70s, says a renowned antique dealer from Mumbai, adding, We had even heard of the Nizam disposing a 1 kg gold Mohur in Switzerland. There were emeralds, Golconda diamonds, a small tea set carved out of rubies, a priceless Baburnama. A giant spinel with the names of Mughal Emperors engraved on it is now with the Al Sabah Collection in Kuwait. That item was originally from Hyderabad. Apart from the jewels there were several other historically important items  collections of miniature paintings gifted by royals through the centuries, carpets, Qurans from the Middle East theres a huge market for these items even now.

With museums in the Middle East competing among one another, Mughal and Nizami items have become even more desired nowadays. Islamic art and jewellery has never before had such demand, thanks mainly to the Qataris, Kuwaitis and Saudis, who are all in a mad-dash to hoard up as many pieces they can get their hands on. There were entire sets of Jadau items, boxes, oudh and ittar daans, kalam daans, everything was studded in diamonds and emeralds, covered in priceless enamel work, says the dealer. Much of it has found its way to the Middle Eastern Museums, he says.

MUSEUMS UNDER ATTACK

While they are not so common, thefts at museums have seen a rise in the past few years. Several European institutes including the KODE Museum in Norway, the Chateau De Fontainebleau in France and the Swedish Royal Residence in Stockholm have all been burgled in the last decade, regardless of the state-of-the-art security measures they had in place.

The security in India is very lax, says a family member of an ex-GPA holder of the Nizams, Earlier we would make sure that everything was locked and kept in strongholds, now that things are kept out on display, people know what to look for and how to form a plan. No one knew what items there were in the collection before. Then they displayed the Nizams Jewels and put them at the RBI in Delhi; the media hyped the jewellery, a legend was created so obviously thieves will come. This particular robbery looks more like a haphazard job. There's no way they can sell the items on the market. No auction house will touch them. Only a private collector can buy them, and even then they will hesitate since it's become such a high-profile incident now. My only hope is that the thieves don't melt the gold and sell it; these are priceless items because of their historic importance, otherwise the gold is worth around Rs 60 to Rs 70 lakhs today. Due to its Nizami heritage the set could fetch anywhere between Rs 50 crore and Rs 100 crore depending on how badly the buyer wants it." With the authorities on the case under tight pressure, many are optimistic that the tiffin set that the Nizam never used, but kept aside in a trust, will soon be found. Until then some serious questions need answering about the state of affairs of Hyderabad's cultural assets and how strongly we are willing to protect them.Hyderabad: Eleven years after the twin blasts in Hyderabad that claimed 44 lives and left over 68 persons injured, a special court convicted two persons in the case. Two others were acquitted for lack of evidence. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on September 10. A total of seven persons were accused in the three cases  the blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat Bhandar, and the unexploded bomb found at Dilsukhnagar. The judgment in another case pertaining to giving shelter to the prime accused Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, in which Mohammed Tareeq Anjum Ahsan is an accused, will be delivered on Monday.

The court convicted Akbar Ismail Choudhary and Aneeq Shafeeq Sayeed. They were found guilty of planting bombs at Lumbini Park and Dilsukhnagar Venkatadri theatre. Riyaz Bhatkal, who is accused of planting the bomb at Gokul Chat Bhandar is still absconding. The court acquitted Farookh Sharfuddin Tarkash and Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik for want of evidence in all three cases. Of the seven persons charged in the three cases, police arrested Farookh Sharfuddin Tarkash, Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik, Aneeq Shafeeq Sayeed, and Akbar Ismail Choudhary. Three others  Iqbal Bhaktal, Riyaz Bhaktal and Anwar  are absconding.

The court appreciated the work of the prosecution and convicted two persons. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Monday, September 10, K. Surender, counsel representing the investigating agency told this newspaper. No one has been given a copy of the judgment yet; once we get it, we will go through it and take the next appropriate step, he said. Defence counsel Shaik Saifullah Khalid said that two of the four persons charged were acquitted.

The judgment was pronounced at the Cherlapally Prison on the city's outskirts amidst tight security. The police had made elaborate security arrangements and the media was not allowed inside the jail premises since morning. At11.30 am, the public prosecutors briefed the media about the case. The judgement was originally to be delivered on August 27, but was deferred by Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge T Srinivas Rao, stating the judgment is not ready as it is a voluminous case. The accused were charged under Section 302 (murder) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Explosive Substances Act.Bhopal: BJP MLA Uma Devi Khatik, whose son threatened to kill Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, has apologised for her sons remarks and said the party has nothing to do with the incident.

Speaking to reporters, the BJP lawmaker, who represents Hatta assembly seat in the Legislative Assembly, said that her son will have to go to jail and she herself has taken him to the police station.

This is no way to behave. He (her son) will have to go to jail. I myself brought him to the police station. My party has nothing to do with this, Uma Devi said.

On Monday, Uma Devis son Prince Lalchand Khatik threatened to shoot Scindia.

"Jyotiraditya Scindia, you have Jiwajirao's blood running in your veins who killed Jhansi ki Rani. If you step in Hatta then I will shoot you. Either you will die or I will," Lalchand said in a Facebook post.

Also Read: Either you will die or I will: BJP MLAs son threatens Jyotiraditya Scindia

His remark comes ahead of Scindias visit to Hatta district for a rally on September 5.

The police arrested Prince Lalchand after by Youth Congress leader Anurag Vardhan Hazari filed a complaint against him.

Condemning the post, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh said the incident showed the "real face" of the BJP and RSS. State unit Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi demanded that the government strengthen Scindia's security if needed.

(With inputs from agencies)RECENTLY, the Swedish foreign ministry released a handbook pertaining to its feminist foreign policy initiative and made it available online as a guide for those interested in gender equality. It is an inspirational document with valuable information about how Sweden created its feminist foreign policy under foreign minister Margot Wallstrom in 2014, how it changed from top-down policy to becoming part of the entire Swedish Foreign Service, and the results it has achieved.

Feminist foreign policy applies a systematic gender equality perspective throughout the whole foreign policy agenda, the handbook states. It is structured to increase womens rights, representation and resources in every aspect of its operations. It uses a facts-based approach, pointing out the hard numbers and statistics behind systemic inequalities between men and women in each of the three Rs, while remaining grounded in the fourth R  the reality of where these girls and women live, which is a nod to the feminist concept of intersectionalism.

The policy was met with great resistance when it was launched four years ago. Critics said it was unrealistic and hypocritical, pointing out Swedens participation in global arms sales and its abstention from voting against Saudi Arabias election to the UNs womens rights commission in 2017. Even the use of the word feminist to describe a foreign policy was considered provocative.

Ms Wallstrom and her colleagues, Isabella Lovin, minister for international development cooperation, and Anne Linde, minister for EU affairs and trade, did not back down. They outlined six external objectives: globally, the foreign ministry would promote womens full enjoyment of human rights; freedom from violence; participation in conflict resolution and peace-building; political participation and influence; economic rights and empowerment; and sexual rights and reproductive health. The ministry created an organisation to implement the policy, a 10-year national strategy to prevent and combat gender-based violence, and a new structure for sub-goals.

Today, the ministry reports an increase in actions aimed at bringing about true gender equality  through structural change and an increase in girls and womens visibility  wherever Swedens foreign interests lie. Action plans for womens rights and empowerment have been built in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Colombia, Liberia, Syria, Mali and Myanmar. Positive masculinity has been promoted in the Democratic Republic of Congo to address sexual violence by militias against Congolese women. Canada and France have followed Swedens example with feminist foreign policies of their own.

When Swedens feminist foreign policy was first introduced, I wrote in support of it for Quartz. I argued, the seemingly disparate fields of feminism and foreign policy may not be mutually exclusive. Traditionally, foreign policy has been formulated and enacted by men, but as more women join diplomatic circles around the world, they bring their perspective and concern for women into their countries international stances and actions.

Such foreign policy had to be encouraged to grow organically, not imposed, especially in countries where social and religious conservatism have an almost unbreakable hold over governance. The Swedish foreign ministry has followed through with their commitment to intersectionality, provinsg that feminist foreign policy is not merely a Western intervention, but a true effort to co-create a new way of enacting foreign policy globally.

Could Pakistan ever include the principles of inclusion and gender equality into progressive social reform in the same areas as Swedens focus? It remains difficult to break Pakistans traditional power structures, built as they are on a patriarchal status quo.

By arrangement with Dawn

H10Sundays massive Hyderabad rally by Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao is a clear show of strength and presages an early Assembly election there, though the matter was left for the CM to decide and announce. Since Assembly elections are due in November-December in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, if KCR chooses to go to the people early for tactical reasons, Telangana could join this group of states, and not until May 2019 when the Assemblys term expires.

It must be seen if such a decision, if it materialises, has a knock-on effect in Andhra Pradesh, from where Telanagana was carved out. Even if that doesnt happen, Assembly polls in five states  covering the northern part of the country as well as the South and the Northeast  are apt to give a sense of a mini-general election before next years Lok Sabha polls.

There has already been political speculation for some time that a few other states too may choose to hold polls. Bihar, Odisha and J&K have been mentioned in this regard, possibly even Maharashtra.

The Centre is apt to become involved in this dynamic as the top BJP leadership will have to take a call for some states, and has a position of influence in others. KCR too met Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, leading to speculation that state polls were discussed.

If Assembly polls are actually held in states besides the original four, the BJP, its opponents, and non-BJP parties that arent exactly in the Opposition camp, will be quickening the tempo of work, including stitching up coalition partnerships to the extent feasible.

H10For a fractious coalition that marked its first 100 days last week with barely a whimper, the outcome of urban local bodies elections is not only an unexpected bonus for Karnataka CM H.D. Kumaraswamy, but a pointer that the coalition cant be written off yet, and 2019 may not be quite the cakewalk the BJP hopes.

The Congress and JD(S) fought separately but made sure friendly contests didnt split the vote, the main aim being to keep the BJP out of as many urban bodies as possible. Congress leaders, including those kept out of the Cabinet, cheered as the party emerged on top, with 946 of 2,709 wards. It also made inroads into the Mumbai-Karnataka region, a traditional BJP bastion.

The JD(S) held on to its turf in Old Mysore, winning only 345 wards, finishing third. But even that wasnt a dampener as, thanks to the pre-poll pact, the JD(S) and Congress will share power in Mysuru and Tumakuru. The BJP, which regained power in Shivamogga and won a total of 875 wards, up from 683 in 2013, has less to smile about. State chief B.S. Yeddyurappas remark that the local elections cant be an indicator of the peoples mood was a tacit admission that as divided as the coalition is, it deprived the BJP of a chance to wrest power in urban areas where it traditionally held sway, and made inroads into the Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions.In recent days, there have been some reports emanating from China that a good quantity of the new Rs 2,000 notes were printed in Chinese security presses on a job-work basis. Since counterfeiting was supposedly a major concern of the suspicious minds in the Prime Ministers Office, the cost of this is yet to be estimated or felt.

When he made that dramatic announcement on November 8, 2016 extinguishing all existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, Narendra Modi stated three major objectives of this sudden and draconian announcement. The first was to force black money back into the formal system. The second was to filter our counterfeit notes, and the last to cut off terrorist funding. In November 2016, the total currency in circulation was Rs 17.97 lakh crores, 86 per cent of which was in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

It was hailed by the governments drumbeaters as a stroke of Prime Minister Modis genius that would result in a bonanza of Rs 3-4 lakh crores to the RBI. The governments propaganda machine even showed clips of old notes being dumped in rivers and wells. The picture being painted was of the corrupt and tax-evaders being scared out of their wits and just dumping the cash. But the people of India are made of sterner stuff, and today 99.3 per cent of the extinguished cash has come back to the RBI and it is still counting.

In 2016 there was indeed a problem with counterfeits. In 2014-15 these rose by 22 per cent to almost six lakh pieces. In 2015-16, of the counterfeits detected, 415 were in Rs 500s, 35 per cent in Rs 100s and the rest in 1,000s. These are notes in flow, and the assumption was an equal number was sitting in dormant stock. Consider this against the fact that in April last year there were 1,646 crores of Rs 500s and 1,642 crores of Rs 100s in circulation. They were still small change, not distorting the system by much. A better way could have been found to filter them out by an orderly exchange of high-value notes.

And as for terrorism in Kashmir and Naxalism in central and eastern India, there is no hard evidence of such activities abating. Now the government has let us know that the cancer has spread to urban areas and Urban Maoists were planning to buy 400,000 under-the-barrel grenade launchers. Clearly, imaginations are running riot or the problems have become bigger. It is more likely the former.

By taking out that much money from the market, Narendra Modi inflicted a huge pain on an economy where 98 per cent of all transactions, accounting for 68 per cent of the value, are in cash. At any given time about 150 million workers in the informal sector are daily wage earners and are still paid in cash. With the abrupt sucking out of 86 per cent of the cash, it was this cohort who bore the brunt of the assault. The vacuuming of the cash led to huge job losses and tens of millions just went back to their villages. The economic costs have been estimated to be at least Rs 225,000 crores, or 1.5 per cent of GDP that year. But let us look at some official data to understand the huge cost inflicted.

In the past few days, government spokesmen and their phalanx of increasingly desperate drumbeaters in the media have been exulting over Q2 GDP growth having touched 8.2 per cent. The Q2 quarter is always the high GDP growth quarter. This is mostly because government and private expenditures are rushed through to beat the year-ending closure of the books. The Q2 growth in 2015 was 8.4 per cent. The Q2 growth in 2016 was 8.1 per cent. As a matter of fact, Q1 2016 clocked 9.1 per cent, suggesting that we were heading north that year. Following the self-inflicted injury of demonetisation, Q2 growth in 2017 plummeted to 5.6 per cent. Now Q2 2018 growth has clawed back to 8.2 per cent.

It just means we have resumed on the old track and that lost a year and at least Rs 225,000 crores on a harebrained diversion. Some economists, Dr Manmohan Singh being notable among them, actually estimate the net loss in the year that followed to be around two per cent of GDP, taking it closer to Rs 300,000 crores.

The physical and mental anguish to the 150 million daily wage families can never be measured. How can you measure the pain of hungry children and agonised parents? But there are other costs that can be quantified. It is estimated that the cost of printing replacement notes, reconfiguring the ATMs and the logistics of rushing through the printing of new notes and transporting them to the banks was around Rs 40,000 crores. In recent days, there have been some reports emanating from China that a good quantity of the new Rs 2,000 notes were printed in Chinese security presses on a job-work basis. Since counterfeiting was supposedly a major concern of the suspicious minds in the Prime Ministers Office, the cost of this is yet to be estimated or felt.

The question that should matter most now is whether the incidence of black money in our economy has come down. Sure, income-tax collections have spiked a bit. But that is mostly because of the back pay and new pay due to the generosity of the Seventh Pay Commission that gave 2.35 crore government employees a 24 per cent across-the-board hike. All government employees are now in the tax-paying bracket.

The number of IT returns had been growing at a good pace since 2010. Following demonetisation in November 2016, the returns filed for 2017-18 increased by 99.49 lakhs to 6.84 crore taxpayers. This was 16.3 per cent more than the addition of 85.52 lakhs returns filed in 2016-17.

This is quite logical considering that the economy has been growing by about seven per cent for many years and that, according to Oxfams estimates, 73 per cent of the growth has been accumulating with the top one per cent. It is also known that this one per cent also accounts for 58 per cent of Indias wealth. So why should it come as a surprise that the number of taxpayers too has been increasing?

Finally, the big question that still remains, is why did the government go after the cash component of black money when it only accounts for about five per cent of total tax-evaded income. The rest is held in cash abroad, in land and property, jewellery and gold. Unearthing this will take some doing, and in doing so the officialdom and its political masters will only generate more black money. And consider this  as much as 55 per cent of the FDI investment coming in (about $44 billon last year) is actually Indian-owned money round-tripping its way back from the economy it fled from. Is the government now going the look at this gift horse in the mouth, by asking these ECBs (external commercial borrowings) to declare their origins?

H11Most people are curious about why Satya Pal Malik was sent as the new governor of Jammu and Kashmir. The general reaction is Malik, who? Inst-ead of a bureaucrat or a retired general, which has been the norm in J&K for some time, why a career politician now? When you lift the hood and inspect the power train, you realise theres a method in this decision.

Fade to black.

Rewind to December 8, 1989, after much tumult and controversy with a V.P. Singh-led National Front government recently in place, an earth-shattering event has taken place. Home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeeds daughter Rubaiya has been abducted by JKLF militants. Top leaders of the erstwhile Jan Morcha arrive at Mr Sayeeds house, where he is inconsolable as Arun Nehru, Arif Mohammed Khan and Satya Pal Malik are trying to convince him to appear on national television to say that Rubaiya is the nations daughter and it is imperative that she must be set free immediately. But a tearful Sayeed has lost all reason to think, overcome by extreme emotion, for obvious reasons. He refuses to do anything, stunned, struck by inertia.

Just six days earlier Mufti Saheb had taken the oath as the first Kashmiri Muslim to become Indias home minister, in the V.P. Singh government. Not knowing what was to follow. On a parallel level, the JKLFs Asfaq Majid Wani wanted to do something spectacular in the Kashmir Valley and was restive. His charter was to kickstart the revolution, but he didnt know where to begin. Watching the oath-taking of Mufti Saheb, he thought of an audacious PLO-type plan to rattle the new government. The original plot conceived by Wani was to kidnap the Muftis son, reportedly a doctor in Srinagar. But once a proper recce was carried out, the son turned out to be a daughter: Dr Rubaiya Sayeed. After 122 hours in captivity, and against the wishes of then J&K CM Farooq Abdullah, five top separatists were released for Rubaiya. It became a watershed moment for Kashmiris as India was brought to its knees. Since then, the trajectory in Kashmir has been southwards.

Earlier, in what was a politically significant year 1989 this cataclysmic event ushered in an ignominious end. An imperilled Rajiv Gandhi found he was surrounded by enemies from within. Reshuffling his Cabinet, he expelled his cousin Arun Nehru and perceived ulcer V.P. Singh from the Congress, pressured Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and fellow Doon School alumnus Arun Singh to resign. Bofors was snowballing and the alleged betrayers V.P. Singh, Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammed Khan unfur-led the banner of revolt against the Rajiv Durbar. Muzaffarnagar in western UP became Ground Zero, a la Gunfight at OK Corral, as the troika hit the ground running backed by two Congress heavy-hitters MPs Satya Pal Malik and Ram Dhan. V.C. Shukla made up the list of high-profile Congress dissidents. At a massive show of strength where cries of Takht badaldo, taj badaldo, baimaano ka raaj badaldo (Change the throne, change the crown, change the rule of corrupt); Gali gali mein shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai (The slogan in every

lane is that Rajiv Gandhi is a thief); and Mr Clean, Mr Clean, gandi kyon hai tope machine (Mr Clean, why is not the gun Bofors clean?) rent the air, Satya Pal Malik spoke first in that raucous atmosphere, highlighting communal hatred and its impact on Meerut and the areas in and around the city. The same Malik was an integral part of the team that toppled Rajiv Gandhi.

The short point being that Satya Pal Malik knows the Mufti family well, ergo, including Mehbooba Mufti, till recently CM of the state before the BJP pulled the plug. On his arrival in Srinagar, Malik was received by Farooq Abdull-ah, who only days earlier had sho-uted Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Jai Hind at the Hazratbal Masjid on Id. Yes, I am trying to connect the dots on why Malik? The point being, I think, that Malik knows both the National Conference and the PDP leadership very well. So has the BJP, with its muscular approach which led to the Valleys ruin over the last four years, decided to course correct? The default mechanism was to send the jackboots trooping into south Kashmir.

Now let me introduce another deadly element into this game of thrones. Malik studied at Meerut with national security adviser Ajit Doval, something that Malik himself has revealed, and which was not known about Doval at all. Malik is in fact a socialist, a Lohiaite, and as he said at his alma mater Meerut College just last year when he visited as Bihar governor, he would always prefer to be remembered as a socialist. Interestingly, NSA Ajit Doval, who is handling Jammu and Kashmir, was also a law student at the same Meerut College, a connection that often counts in politics. There is no mention of it in Dovals published profiles. So is he the NSAs candidate for an iron fist-velvet glove approach in J&K, where a dialogue from within the Governors House will be a real possibility? A dialogue with the principal political players and perhaps the separatists as well. A human touch after the endless bloodletting.

On Sunday, a proactive Malik met defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Raj Bhavan. With the killings and abduction of policemen and their families on the rise, the militants have resorted to new atactics in the Valley. Obviously, the meeting between the minister and the governor must have assessed the security situation on the Line of Control and the states hinterland, in the main South Kashmir, the epicentre of violence.

This comes after a BJP delegation led by state party chief Ravinder Raina met the governor on Saturday over issues related to the states development. Issues related to a significant number of roads, bridges and other development works in the state was also raised by the group.

The governor also met home minister Rajnath Singh recently to discuss the forthcoming elections to local bodies in the state. Given the climate of violence in the Valley, it is imperative that these elections to choose 4,130 sarpanches and 29,719 panches expected later this month are held in a transparent and peaceful manner. The election to local bodies was last held in 2011 after a long hiatus.

These were supposed to be held in 2016 but could not take place due to the five-month-long unrest in the Valley after the killing of Hizbul militant Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016.

It is clear the so-called muscular policy predicated on Islamophobia and Muslim-bashing has been consigned to the rubbish heap for now. A political appointee means a political solution could be on the anvil, something the Valley craves for. Contrary to popular perception, Satya Pal Malik is not a Sanghi, but a socilaist, a huge admirer of Sheikh Abdullah and Ram Manohar Lohia.

The Valley is currently roiled by the legal challenge in Supreme Court to Article 35A, which lets the state legislature define permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir, giving them certain rights and privileges, and prevents non-residents from acquiring immovable property. Rumour-mongering in the Valley peaked last week when the court turned refused to hear this contentious matter.

Pertinently, Governors Rule can last only six months, after which the President directly rules the state. Perhaps that is why Satya Pal Malik is trying to build faith frantically. Stand by for some sort of breakthrough shortly, at least in terms of all-party deliberations where the Unified Commands inputs are duly considered.Ten years ago Google launched its Chrome browser on September 1, 2008. The browser has since then undergone a lot of upgrades and updates to boast a sizeable chunk of the market.

At the time of the launch, Google Chrome was labeled as a 'fresh take on the browser' and the company believed it would add value for users and help drive innovation on the web. Quite rightly so, today there are more Chrome users, 60 percent as per the latest numbers, than any rival browser's.

As The Verge reports, Google Chrome was originally launched as a Windows-only beta app before it was extended to support Linux and macOS a year later.

From being a sum of components from Apple's WebKit rendering engine and Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome is now looking at a future of becoming one whole platform in itself. It is already powering Chrome OS and Google is continuously releasing new apps and features to make it more efficient.

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.Lenovo has launched a line up of products at the IFA 2018 in Berlin via its Lenovo Tech Life 2018 event. The array of devices consist of consumers PCs, Chromebooks, commercial PCs, gaming products, smart home essentials and AR-related product.

Lenovo smart home essentials is a new range of connected devices that are meant to offer a simple, one-stop shop for a smarter, more intelligent home. Lenovos family of connected home essentials - and the recently launched Lenovo Smart Display - signal the companys growing and multiplatform AI ecosystem.

The Lenovo Link app serves as a centralized control center to set up and manage all applicable devices. Users can control specific groups of devices at once or automate them to make certain actions at specific times during the day. Lenovo smart essentials include smart plug, smart camera and smart bulb.

Lenovos premium Yoga consumer PC portfolio is powered by 8th Gen Intel Core processors. The Yoga C930 is Lenovos flagship Windows 10 consumer 2-in-1 laptop, debuting the rotating sound bar with Dolby Atmos Speaker System. It supports Dolby Vision HDR and a Garaged Pen that charges in its compartment.

Powered by Qualcomms latest Snapdragon 850 mobile computing platform, the Yoga C630 WOS has integrated LTE Advanced Pro5 with up to 25+ hours of local video playback, as claimed by Lenovo.

Lenovos new ThinkPad X1 Extreme comes with NVIDIA GeForce graphics and the 8th Gen Intel Core processors featuring integrated Gigabit Wi-Fi, which includes Core i9.

The multi-monitor support enables multitasking and RapidCharge technology charges the battery up to 80 per cent in just 60 minutes, as per Lenovo. It gets 4K Adobe RGB color gamut display with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio.

Jedi challenges will receive a Dark Side Expansion, a new, free content update that allows fans to play through new challenges as Kylo Ren  dueling Yoda, Rey and more in AR.

Other new Lenovo products launched at the IFA 2018 include Yoga S730, Yoga Chromebook, Lenovo Chromebook C330, Lenovo Chromebook S330, Lenovo L27 Monitor, Lenovo Legion Y530, Laptop with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 upgrade, Lenovo Legion T730 and C730 level up and Lenovo Legion 15.6-inch Recon Gaming Backpack.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.The first smartphone which will showcase this revolutionary technology will perhaps be named as Galaxy X. (Representative Image)

Samsung has undoubtedly made its mark in the premium smartphone segment with its efficient devices in the Galaxy S and Note series. The company is known to roll out some never-seen-before stuff in the market  like the first phablet and curved edge display phone. Once again, Samsung is expected to do the same by introducing its foldable smartphone which is expected to come out next year.

The concept has been in talks for a long time and, now that its arrival is nearing, we have stumbled upon this report that the South Korean brand will be sharing the foldable display technology with Chinese brands OPPO and Xiaomi. The company wants to establish the ecosystem of this new type of smartphone and ultimately it will be the sole supplier of the tech. No doubt, sharing this mechanism will result in Samsung giving rise to its own competitors but it will be earning hefty revenue by supplying the foldable panels.

Samsung has been mostly tight-lipped about the foldable smartphone technology while giving us just a few hints about it being in the works. This year, we came to know that Samsung representatives had unveiled the concept in some meeting but no photos or details emerged about the hardware. The first smartphone which will showcase this revolutionary technology will perhaps be named as Galaxy X, as per earlier reports.

While OPPO has been launching a bunch of interesting products in the market, Xiaomi has become an undisputed player with its feature-packed and affordable smartphones. When the brands start receiving foldable displays from Samsung, they may emerge as tough contenders owing to their popular amongst the masses. If speculations are to be believed, Samsungs foldable device is nearly ready and it might be going through its final stages of development.

(Via)

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.Head on to Xiaomi's official website to purchase this handset.

Xiaomis Redmi Note 5 Pro is one of the hottest selling devices on our shores and if there was one more reason to purchase this device, Xiaomi has just given us it. The brand has launched a new Red Redmi Note 5 Pro and it is available in limited quantities. The Red model is available on Xiaomis official website with the 4GB/ 64GB variant selling for Rs 14,999 and the 6GB/ 64GB version selling for Rs 16,999.

Redmi Note 5 Pro - Red Edition now on sale on https://t.co/cwYEXeds6Y. Limited stocks only. RT to win F-codes.

Get yours now - https://t.co/HPepJvGvdy pic.twitter.com/l2i4Xyw29D  Redmi India (@RedmiIndia) September 4, 2018

The Redmi Note 5 Pro boasts of 18:9 aspect ratio while the screen measures 5.99-inch supporting full-HD (1080x2160p) display. The smartphone works on an OctaCore Snapdragon 636 SoC mated with Adreno 509 GPU.

For snapping pictures, the Redmi note 5 pro utilises a pair of cameras including 12MP primary sensor along with 5MP secondary sensor at the rear which is added with a fingerprint sensor. The 20MP Sony sensor has been incorporated for clicking selfies.

The connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS/ A-GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, and Micro-USB along with 4G VoLTE. As for the storage options, it comes in 4GB and 6GB RAM variants while the 64GB internal storage being common for both. The phone runs on a hefty 4000 mAh battery.

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.Will the next Samsung A series smartphone come with four rear cameras? (Representational Image)

It appears that Samsung will not be satisfied by just aping Huawei and launching a smartphone with a ripple-rear camera; instead, the brand is now rumoured to be upping the ante and will launch a smartphone with four rear sensors.

As per a tweet by Ice universe, the serial Samsung leakster, the South Korean brand is readying to launch a smartphone with quadruple sensors.

Samsung

Camera Camera Camera Camera  Ice universe (@UniverseIce) September 2, 2018

In a related report by GSMArena, this smartphone will not feature in the Samsungs Note series or S series and not even from their rumoured Galaxy F series which is said to be the brands foldable smartphone.

As of now, it is unclear as to which series this handset will feature in as Ice Universe has not revealed any further details. However, GSMArena posits that it should be from the brands A series and it the phone they think will have it is the A9. The A series handsets are usually unveiled in the previous year and go on sale at the beginning of the year.

The report goes on to state, Since the current A-series have dual front cameras it's not hard to imagine that the next gen will also pack dual rear ones as they often inherit Galaxy S flagship features.

Disclaimer: The above report is completely based on online rumours and leaks from the respective sources. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Deccan Chronicle and/or other staff and contributors to this website.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.The USD 50 billion corridor that connects Kashgar in western China with Gwadar port in Pakistan, spanning 3,000 kilometres, passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. (Photo: ANI)

Washington: A group of US senators has warned that Pakistan is likely to face debt distress due to rising current account deficit and external obligations linked to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC. The new government in Pakistan led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has already indicated it may pursue a bailout by the International Monetary Fund. Analysts have raised concerns that Pakistan may use the bailout money to repay CPEC debt.

Sixteen US senators including David A Perdue and Patrick Leahy have written to Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Secretary of Treasury Steven T Mnuchin expressing concern over bailout request by countries that fall in China's debt trap.

"These financial crisis illustrates the dangers of China's debt-trap diplomacy and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to developing countries, as well as the national security threat they pose to the United States," the senators said in their letter.

The Centre for Global Development has estimated that of the 68 countries hosting BRI-funded projects, 23 are at risk of debt distress, and in eight of those countries, future BRI-related financing raises serious concerns about sovereign debt sustainability.

"It is also found that Chinese behaviour as a creditor has not been subject to the disciplines and standards that other major sovereigns and other multilateral creditors have adopted collectively, and in the process, debt levels and dependence on China are rising," the senators said, citing Sri Lanka as an example, which was promised a bailout of USD 1.5 billion by the IMF in 2016.

As financially strapped countries negotiate with China to free themselves of mounting debt, Beijing has extracted onerous concessions, including equity in strategically important assets.

The senators wrote: "In Djibouti, for instance, China has provided more than USD 1.4 billion in infrastructure funding, equivalent to 75 per cent of Djibouti's GDP. Most of that capital comes in the form of loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. The most recent IMF assessment stresses the extremely risky nature of Djibouti's borrowing program, noting that in just two years, public external debt has increased from 50 to 85 per cent of GDP, the highest of any low-income country."

"As Djibouti increases its dependence on China, there are fears that China will gain control of the Doraleh Container Terminal, further consolidating China's influence in the critically strategic region," the letter said.

Last year, the Sri Lankan government, after being unable to repay over USD 1 billion of Chinese debt for construction of Hambantota Port, granted a Chinese state company a 99-year lease on the facility.

There are concerns that given Pakistan's growing Chinese debt, the same could happen at Gwadar Port in Pakistan.

The USD 50 billion corridor that connects Kashgar in western China with Gwadar port in Pakistan, spanning 3,000 kilometres, passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.Bengaluru, Indias tech hub, has seen the highest increase in office rental values in Asia-Pacific during the second quarter of 2018, overtaking other global cities.

The office rentals have gone up 7% in the three months ended June compared to the previous quarter in the Central Business District (CBD) in Bengaluru. The rise in prices was mainly on account of tight supply and increased demand from corporates in the IT/ITeS and co-working space.

With this, Bengaluru has overtaken other global cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney in Asia-Pacific region, global property consultancy Knight Frank data revealed.

According to the Asia-Pacific Prime Office Rental Index released by Knight Frank on Tuesday, the office rental values in Bengaluru touched $18.4 per sq metre (1 sq metre is 10.764 sq feet) for the quarter ended June 2018. However, on a year-on-year basis, Bengaluru witnessed 8.5% rise in office rentals.

Though rentals in Bengaluru's CBD had stagnated in the previous two quarter, heightened occupier demand from co-working and IT/ITeS segments caused many developers to charge a premium for available spaces, Knight Frank said.

For the other markets in India such as Mumbai and Delhi NCR, rental growth was generally flat this quarter. The Mumbai market witnessed stable rentals although the outlook in terms of rental growth remains positive.

Incidentally, Bengaluru is the only Indian city to figure in the list of top global cities in Asia-Pacific that has seen a rise in rental values. Two other Indian cities- Mumbai and NCR - have not seen any rise in rentals during the second quarter.

Among other global cities, the Central 5 Wards area in Tokyo has seen a 5.5% rise in office rentals, CBD area in Melbourne has witnessed 4.6% rise, followed by 4.2% increase in CBD area of Sydney.

Over the next one year, prices are expected to go up further in Bengaluru and Mumbai, while they may remain at same level in NCR.

Shortage of quality spaces has led to a 7% quarter-on-quarter rental growth in Bengalurus Central Business District (CBD) in Q2 2018. Corporate occupiers are jostling for quality space within the tightly supplied CBD and off-CBD districts, with many of them navigating the issue by pre-committing to upcoming supply, said Arvind Nandan, Executive Director - Research, Knight Frank said.

During the first half of 2018, Bengaluru has absorbed 3.7 million sq feet of office space.Team Mangalurus Cock Fight, popularly called Korida Katta kite, will be an attraction at the International Kite Festival at Dieppe in France from September 8 to 16.

Speaking to reporters, Sarvesh Rao, the team convener, said that artist and environmentalist Dinesh Hollas artwork has been selected as the official poster of Dieppe Kite Festival. Of the different posters designed by artists from the US, Canada, Australia, and European countries, Dinesh Hollas artwork was selected, he added.

Through the poster, I have touched the issue of global warming and a solution needs to be found to check global warming, he said.

Team Mangaluru, a hobby group of kite makers and flyers, has been attending the kite festival at Dieppe since 2006. Holla and Rao of the team will be attend the show with the teams creativity kites this year.

He said that during the procession, the duo will wear the traditional headgear Muttale, to introduce the Tulu Nadu culture.

The said kite Cock Fight kite is six-foot tall. The orange and green in the kite symbolically represent the setting Sun and the Western Ghats, said Holla.

Holla said that Halakki art exhibition and live demonstration of Western Ghats Tribal theme art, will have a special emphasis on Halakki community leader Sukri Bomme Gowda and her folk songs; will be held on the occasion.

A total of 46 framed artworks will be exhibited. The artworks will explain the culture, lifestyle, and tradition of the tribal community. The 46-metre canvas will be made available for sale at the venue and part of the fund raised through the sale will be used for the education of tribal students in the Western Ghats, he said.

Holla added that all the 48 participating countries at the festival will prepare a unique artwork on Save Water and Forest to be handed over to the organiser to create awareness on increasing deforestation and the shortage of water.

The team will present the traditional Thuppe model (for preserving paddy) as a memento to the mayor of Dieppe and organisers of the Kite Festival.

Rao said, We find it difficult to get vegetarian food in Dieppe. The only food that lasts for 10 days is Avalakki (flattened rice) prepared by Indra Bhavan Hotel at Balmatta. We take a small quantity of it and eat it with curd.

In 2016, when we went we had taken Avalakki from Indra Bhavana and Jolada roti from North Karnataka. The vegetarian food in France does not suit us. We have to only depend on bread, he said.August 2018 marks 10 years of the introduction of a new constitution to introduce multi-party democracy in Maldives. Political stability in the atoll state has been patchy since. Within a few years, Maldives faced a constitutional crisis that saw the exit of Mohamed Nasheed, the first elected president under the new constitutional arrangement. In 2013, Nasheed was defeated in the presidential polls that election observers considered not so fair. President Abdullah Yameen has not settled down since then due to a constant tussle with other branches of the government executive and legislature. As a result, rule by emergency has become the order of the day.

How does political instability in Maldives impact India-Maldives relations, especially in a national security context? There are at least two issues that impinge on Indias relations with Maldives: Islamic radicalisation and the increasing role of China in the island state. Firstly, over the past decade or so, the number of Maldivians drawn towards Islamic State and Pakistan-based madrasas and jihadist groups has risen.

Protests by Islamists bearing IS flags are widespread on the island. About 200 Maldivian citizens have reportedly been fighting along with IS. In terms of proportion to population, this number is quite high compared to other Muslim-majority South Asian countries. Evidently, political instability and socio-economic uncertainty are the main drivers that have fuelled Islamic radicalism in the atoll state.

Pakistan-based jihadist groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) have exploited these fault lines through its charitable front organisation, Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq, to establish a foothold especially in southern Maldives in the garb of relief operations post-2004 tsunami.

Developments in West Asia and the Af-Pak region have also influenced Maldivians towards radicalisation. The youth, who return from their religious studies in Pakistani madaris controlled by various jihadist groups and from Saudi Arabian madaris, return not only with radical ideas, but also with jihadi connections. The madrasa-educated youth are indoctrinated to wage jihad in trouble spots like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Chechnya. These battle-hardened Maldivians help to recruit Maldivian youth for Islamic militant groups based in these areas.

New Delhis national security managers therefore need to worry about the migration of Indian terror groups like Students Islamic Movement of India and Indian Mujahideen to Maldives. Also, the LeT could seek sanctuary in these remote islands to launch terror attacks on India. So the concern is, how to deal with Islamic radical forces that have gained political influence in our neighbourhood.

Strategic 'pearl'

Moreover, Chinas strategic footprint has lately increased and Maldives has emerged as an important pearl in Chinas String of Pearls construct in South Asia. Given Maldives strategic location in the Indian Ocean, Beijing has been vying for a naval base in the atoll to ensure the security of its maritime traffic which transports the flow of critically-needed energy supplies from Africa and West Asia through Indian Ocean waters.

Today, the Chinese make the maximum number of visits to the Maldives, given Beijings keen interest to develop infrastructure in the Ihavandhoo, Marao and Maarandhoo islands. During Chinese President Xi Jinpings visit in 2014, the Maldives agreed to become a partner in Chinas Maritime Silk Route, the maritime half of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

China has provided grants and soft loans to Maldives to build a bridge from its capital Male to the airport, named the China-Maldives friendship bridge.

Also, Chinese companies are involved in airport development and have been awarded contracts for resort development. This includes the strategically important Feydhoo Finolhu island near the capital.

Therefore, the current political dispensation in Male believes that it will be to the detriment of the Maldives to not engage with China. Amendments to the Maldivian constitution in July 2015 allowed foreigners to own land, including investments over a $1 billion for projects where 70% of the land has been reclaimed. Looking at the parameters, China is the obvious beneficiary. Chinese nationals now account for the largest tourist arrivals on these islands.

Indias concerns stem from the increasing Chinese strategic presence in the Indian Ocean region. Though the Maldivian government under Yameen has reassured India that the Chinese presence in its atolls is purely economic, the concern of places turning into bases is genuine. In the process, Beijings largesse to Male has neutralised New Delhis economic diplomacy with the island state that has encouraged Maldives to play the China card against India.

Over the years, India has bailed Maldives out of political and social crises ranging from the 1988 coup attempt to rushing drinking water to the island in December 2014. However, with the rise of China, which has transformed the regional strategic environment, India has to respond to new realities. The major challenge for Indias diplomacy is how to balance relations with its neighbours without any compromise on its core security interests.

(The writer is Associate Professor, Department of International Studies and History, Christ Deemed-to-be University, Bengaluru)Results of the urban local body (ULB) polls have been bitter-sweet for the BJP: While the party has lost ground in some of its strongholds, it has made inroads where it was traditionally weak.

A comparison of the results of the 105 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) announced on Monday with those of 2013 reveals that BJP has substantially improved its performance. The party has gained 214 seats more compared to 2013.

The Congress tally has come down by 82 and that of the JD(S) by 28, compared to the previous elections.

The saffron party has made inroads in JD(S) strongholds like Hassan, where it has won 21 seats in the five ULBs that went to polls  the City Municipal Councils of Hassan, Arsikere and Town

Municipal Councils of Channarayapatna, Sakleshpur and Holenarsipur (the party had secured only five seats in

2013).

It has made substantial gains in ULBs of Chitradurga and Davangere districts. For instance, the party had failed to open its account in Hosadurga TMC in Chitradurga district in 2013, but this time secured 14 of the 23 seats.

In Channagiri TMC, Davangere district, the party had won only one out of the 23 seats and now, has improved its tally to 10.

But, BJP insiders feel the performance in ULB polls is not satisfactory to achieve its target of winning at least 20 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats next year.

Though the two polls are fought on different parameters, the partys performance in strongholds like Chikkodi and Hukkeri has sent alarm bells ringing. In Hukkeri TMC, the BJP had made a clean sweep winning all the 23 seats in 2013, but this time its tally has come down to eight.

In the ULBs in Haveri district, the party won 43 seats, compared to 66 bagged by the Congress.

Party insiders point out that it was a divided BJP that went to polls in 2013. Leaders B S Yeddyurappa and B Sriramalu had formed their own parties - KJP and BSR Congress, respectively.

The partys image had taken a beating with the fight for oneupmanship resulting in indifference towards governance.To the Times:

Its unfortunate that it took the death of a great man to show us the kind of a nation we should be.

John McCains funeral was attended by Americans of every political persuasion (except one, of course) and demonstrated to the world that our strength lies in our union and in our esteem for those who are able to rise above petty quarrels in the pursuit of our ideals.

And there was no truer sentiment than the one expressed by McCains daughter Meghan. In her eulogy to her father she said, The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again, because America was always great.

Make America Great Again proposes to tell us that somewhere along the way America stopped being great, a notion invented by a man who thinks a great nation is one who separates children from parents; a man who threatens to abandon our NATO allies unless they pay up; and a man who believes that among those carrying burning torches and wearing Nazi symbols are some fine people; and a man who would have much to explain to Thomas Jefferson, who said many times that Our Liberty cannot be guarded than by freedom of the press.

In the Aug. 30 edition of this paper, one follower wrote the following comment: The Democrats really make me laugh. They want to impeach the greatest president weve had (are you sitting down?) since Abraham Lincoln.

Such is the misguided fervor of drinking tainted Kool-Aid.

Larry Owens, Prospect Park

Gas standards

To the Times:

The auto industry is between a rock and a hard place. They have lobbied the Trump Administration to relax the strict Obama-era fuel efficiency standards to increase fuel economy to 54.5 mpg for model years 2022 through 2025. The Trump Administration rationale is that it would be too expensive to implement and people would hold on to their older, less fuel-efficient vehicles longer. They want to flat line fuel economy for models produced in 2021 to 2026 to standards set to 2020.

California has always been in the forefront of auto efficiency standards given the impact climate change has had on their state. They received a waiver from the Clean Air Act to set their own stricter standards. Other states, including Pennsylvania, adhere to Californias stricter rules creating an awkward marketing situation. Now the Trump Administration wants to revoke their exemption.

The Attorneys General in Pennsylvania and 18 other states are legally challenging the rollback pending a 60-day public comment period. Let your voices be heard and submit a comment at http://bit.ly/CleanCarsComment until October 23.

Mary Ann Mack, PhoenixvilleEditor's note: A version of this was previously published on the author's website.

The galaxy Messier 33 is a beautiful spiral star-city that is relatively close and therefore huge from our viewpoint, but it has such low surface brightness that it can be hard to find by telescope. M33 is also unusual for other reasons, including that a New General Catalog object resides within it.

A quick explanation of the Messier (M) and New General Catalog (NGC) numbers:

 Charles Messier, 1730-1810, who served as chief astronomer at the Marine Observatory, Paris, searched diligently for comets, eventually discovering more than a dozen, NASA notes. He was so successful that King Louis XV called him the "comet ferret." He thought he was onto one when he studied a fuzzy object, not a star, but then realized it was motionless and could not be a comet. So he began listing non-stars, that weren't comets, that searchers shouldn't bother with  NASA says these were termed "objects to avoid."

The first of these, Messier 1 or M1, was the Crab Nebula, the remains of a supernova in the constellation Taurus. In 1054, Chinese astronomers recorded a bright new star in that position, which eventually faded from view  the supernova explosion. Since Messier's first notation of an object to avoid, the Messier catalog has grown to number 110. M110 is a dwarf elliptical galaxy gravitationally tied to M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy. Far from avoidable nuisances, Messier objects are among the brightest and sometimes most interesting targets that astronomers can observe from the Northern Hemisphere. As you'd expect, with the limitations of 18th century telescopes, they're among the easiest deep-space objects to examine.

 In 1786, Sir William Hershel and his sister Caroline Hershel began their own catalog, which eventually included 2,500 objects. John Hershel, William's son, expanded the project into the New General Catalog with 5,079 listings of star clusters, galaxies, nebulas and supernova remnants. As discoveries brought better information, the catalog was updated and corrected. The latest version is the "Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue" by Wolfgang Steinicke, with 13,226 entries. It's not the only list, but NGC numbers are commonly used by astronomers.

The Messier objects are incorporated as NGC objects, with new numbers. To confuse matters further, several NGC-numbered features actually are inside other NGC objects.

That's the situation with M33 (also designated NGC 598). The galaxy is the only Messier object in the small Triangulum constellation, which is defined by a triangle of three moderately bright stars. The constellation has been recognized since the time of the ancient Greeks.

M33, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and our own Milky Way are members of the local group of galaxies, according to NASA. M33 may even be a satellite of Andromeda. In billions of years, the trio will "all undergo mutual close encounters and potentially mergers." Astronomers agree the Milky Way and Andromeda will merge; if all three mash up, the result would be a monster elliptical galaxy. M31 is 2.5 million light-years away. Estimates for M33's distance center around 2.7 million light-years.

After Andromeda, M33 is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. At 50,000 light-years across, about half the diameter of the Milky Way, it hosts only a tenth as many stars  40 billion, as opposed to 400 billion for our galaxy. It is tilted largely toward us.

Although close enough that it appears four times the size of the moon, Messier 33 has low surface brightness, making it difficult to spot with a small telescope or pair of binoculars.

"Now for a word of warning: even if youre staring right at the Triangulum Galaxy, its still possible to miss it," Bruce McClure and Deborah Bird posted last November on EarthSky.org. "You wont see the galaxys stars at all. Sometimes, this galaxy looks almost transparent, like a water spot on a window. The small blob in your binocular field might resemble an unwashed spot on an otherwise clean window. If youve never seen this deep-sky object before, its hard to know what to look for.

"Once you finally spot the Triangulum Galaxy, you may wonder how you overlooked it so many times before."

An astonishing feature of M33 is that, unlike most other large galaxies, it apparently doesn't host a supermassive black hole at the center. An article published in The Astronomical Journal, November 2001, tells the tale with its title, "M33: A Galaxy with No Supermassive Black Hole."SALT LAKE CITY  Theirs was the kind of relationship many people dream about.

Thats why many people werent surprised when Amy Moffat, 28, and Stephen Graham, 30, got married earlier this month.

It was a real, real love affair. This was a true love story, said John Moffat, Amy Moffats father.

In an interview from his California home, John Moffat talked about their beautiful wedding that was held on the Sundance side of Timpanogos.

She was holding hands with Stephen, but the other hand was tightly held around his arm, as if, Ive got you now and Im not letting you go, he recalled.

They had their whole lives together, she from Provo and he from Riverton, until they were in Washington earlier this week and died in a car crash.

Police in Washington say Amy Moffat was driving, fell asleep, overcorrected and rolled their pickup truck. They both died at the scene.

Even though they were both wearing their seat belts, the force of the crash was just too much.

Her father is asking drivers to get rest, dont drive tired, and if you feel like youre drifting asleep, dont try to push your way through.

He doesnt want any other parents to get the same news he received.

How many of us have driven like that when we thought we shouldve pulled over? Please pull over. Take a rest, find a hotel and get a room for the night, he advised.

Its a message officials with the Utah Department of Transportations Zero Fatalities program cant stress enough.

You definitely dont want to get the phone call that a crash has happened, said Kristen Hoschouer, a safety outreach administrator with the program.

Hoschouer said drowsy driving is one of several safety concerns the state officials have.

So far this summer, 96 people have died on Utahs roads for all sorts of reasons. Thats 13 more than last year.

Overall this year, Utah has had 179 fatalities, which is three more than this time last year.

Its one of the most dangerous things you can do all day is get behind the wheel, and so, really, just focus on that, Hoschouer said.

Thats what the families of Amy and Stephen Graham are now asking  to be safe.

Her father says if there is anything positive about such a terrible crash, its that at least one of them didnt get the news he got.

My wife and I were discussing how difficult it would have been if one of them survived and had to go their lives without the other, he said.SANDY  When Lora Lee Mock started her professional recruiting business, she had the good fortune of knowing enough to get it up and running on her own with little previous entrepreneurial experience.

In fact, she has done so well that she's kept it going and financially prosperous for 41 years.

However, she recently recognized that there was still more she needed to do to "stay relevant" in a technologically advancing business climate that was taking an emotional and mental toll on her.

"I felt like I was getting burned out and tired and bored with my business and my life and needed a refresh," she explained. It was that realization that prompted Mock to enroll in a newly created program aimed at helping established local small businesses reach their greater potential. The decision was reinvigorating, she said.

"I've really looked at my business in a whole different spin and created new positions, new opportunities and new growth that I was (previously) letting sit on the table," she said. The lessons she has learned through the program have helped her business develop in new ways that should be prosperous for years to come, she said.

"(Businesses) need to adapt to what is important in this economy and the world as we know it today," Mock said.

The Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce announced last week the launch of the KeyBank Business Accelerator Academy  a hands-on program for existing business owners that provides knowledge to help them expand their enterprises by creating and managing a customized, three-year strategic growth plan. The program is underwritten through a $120,000 grant from KeyBank to the Sandy Chamber Economic Development Foundation.

As the signature program of the Sandy Chamber Business Institute, the academy provides practical business education, a supportive business network and access to capital and contracting for companies, explained Greg Summerhays, president and CEO of the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce.

"This really is for existing companies that have been in business for at least two years, to help them to grow," he said. "They have (already) achieved some level of success. We want to now take them to the next level."

The chamber is partnering with education provider Interise to offer a curriculum that is taught by a professional business instructor. The curriculum has helped thousands of companies nationwide increase their annual revenue and create jobs, he said.

Small businesses are the foundation of our economy and our local business community, yet there are relatively few resources available to help established small business owners learn and connect with each other, he said. We are proud to launch a program to help fill this void by offering small business owners courses, mentoring and peer-to-peer learning to help their businesses grow and thrive."

Primarily funded by the KeyBank grant, the academy is run by the Sandy Chamber Economic Development Foundation through the Sandy Chamber Business Institute. Companies apply for entry into the program, Summerhays explained. If selected, they a pay $500 tuition fee but half that money is refunded if they share some data on their experience in the program with the chamber's institute, he added.

The KeyBank Business Accelerator Academy will give small business owners the knowledge and connections they need to take their businesses to the next level, said Terry Grant, president of KeyBanks Utah market. We are proud to support this important work and look forward to watching program participants implement their growth plans and expand their businesses.

Launched as a semiannual program, the inaugural cohort includes 20 local businesses owners who attend classes over a 13-week period, Summerhays said. Applications are being accepted for the next session scheduled to begin in January, he added.

"What we hope to do is get the word out more about this (program) and as there is enough demand for this type of program, we can scale it up and grow it to the point where we're serving and meeting the demand of these small businesses," he said.

For online business owner Chris Holt, this program provides the opportunity to get out of his comfort zone behind his desk and learn ways to boost his company's bottom line.

"I already have a master's in business, but this class forces me to step away from the (day-to-day operations of) my business and think strategically," he said. "There are a lot of things you learn from other business owners like pitfalls and problems they might have already gone through or they have 'out of the box' ideas that I wouldn't think of."

He said being exposed to new ideas and having the ability to network with other entrepreneurs is particularly advantageous to a small business owner.

"It's a great program that anybody can benefit from whether you have been in business for a year or 10 years," he said.SALT LAKE CITY  During the sweltering summer of 1829, the angel Moroni appeared to Mary Whitmer and showed her gold plates containing an ancient record, making her a de facto witness to the Book of Mormon.

That lesser-known story is included in an official church history for the first time, the engaging first volume of a new official history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Saints: The Standard of Truth, 1815-1846," went on sale Tuesday and is available free online.

The book is deliberately full of stories about women's contributions and directly addresses challenging portions of church history, said church leaders and historians. The goal was to create an accurate but arresting and relevant narrative history that would appeal to readers, especially young adults, who can learn from the achievements, failures, questions and struggles of Joseph Smith and hundreds of other early church members.

"It's a page-turner," Elder Quentin L. Cook, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and an advisor to the Church History Department, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

"'Saints' is accessible, accurate and compelling," said Elder Dale G. Renlund, also of the Twelve and a church history advisor.

"I think it's a pretty remarkable achievement on several fronts," said Patrick Mason, the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University, in a telephone interview. "It reads more like a novel than a history book. So on the one hand, it's accessible, but on the other hand, it deals with tough issues in church history. It's another example of the church and the Church History Department talking about tough issues."

The "Saints" project, which will grow to four volumes, is the first multi-volume, official church history published since 1930. Tuesday's news conference introducing the book at the Church History Library came five days before Elder Cook will talk about it and field church history questions from young adults in a worldwide Face to Face devotional on Sunday at 6 p.m. MDT.

Storytelling

The first sign of the book's storytelling begins with the opening of Chapter One, which shows a volcano exploding in Indonesia in 1815 and describes the worldwide effect, including how it shaped the circumstances of the family of young Joseph Smith.

The boy's stops and starts between age 14 and the First Vision and age 24 when the church is formally organized may feel familiar to many young men and women and young adults, as he experiences tremendous highs and gut-wrenching lows  including a direct rebuke from God.

"We were very aware in writing the book that we were writing about young people," said Lisa Olsen Tait, a historian and writer in the Church History Department. "This church was founded and built by very young people. I'm glad that comes through in the narrative. We felt it was important to show that in all its messiness and beauty."

The book purposefully portrays Joseph Smith and others in 3-D to help people relate to them, said Matt Grow, director of publications for the LDS Church History Department. Showing people grow and mature through trials is another goal of what will be a four-volume series.

"That's why we want to focus on characters who recur," Grow said. "We want these characters who can be in multiple scenes so you can see that growth over time, individual growth and growth in the church. We really hope this can be inspiring, that people can identify with these characters. You never know who's going to identify with what character, so we want to have a broad range of experience, people who struggle with family issues, people who struggle in their faith, people who struggle with depression, the whole gamut of issues that we face as humans. The Latter-day Saints in the past faced the same issues, and we should be able to identify with them and find some strength in their stories."

Elder Renlund said Joseph Smith is presented as "a regular human being with the challenges he would have faced at that time and going through those things. That genuine completeness of his character we believe is very helpful."

Tackling topics

Volume One tackles subjects in church history that church leaders have more fully addressed in recent years with the release of gospel topics essays written by historians.

Elder Steven E. Snow, a General Authority Seventy and the Church Historian and Recorder, said he'd wait six-and-a-half years for the first book to hit the shelves. One reason was to see it build on the Gospel Topics essays about 11 complex topics in church history. The essays were first published on lds.org by the First Presidency from November 2013 to October 2015.

Snow said "Saints" covers a period in church history that has generated questions that caused some people to question the church or leave it altogether, questions addressed in the essays.

"We've tried to include these issues in the story in very transparent and open ways," Elder Snow said. "When you read about them in the context of the whole story they seem understandable."

Topics covered in the essays that appear in the narrative history of "Saints" include the multiple versions of the First Vision, Joseph Smith's use of a seer stone in a hat as he translated the Book of Mormon, the introduction of plural marriage and Latter-day Saint violence in Missouri.

"We tell the story of the interaction of Joseph and Emma and the difficulty as plural marriage began and how they worked through those issues together and how hard that was in the early days," Elder Snow said. "We're pretty open about Emma's reactions. Sometimes she was warm to it. Other times she was ice cold to the idea of plural marriage. We try to tell that story in an accurate way that I think people can identify with."

Mason, the Claremont historian, said the book handles the topics very directly. In fact, he said any criticism of the first volume is likely to come from people who think it included too much.

"Nobody's going to be able to accuse them of hiding it on the website like some did with the Gospel Topics essays," he said. "They've priced it so it's accessible, they've published the first seven chapters in the Ensign and it's free on the website."

For Snow, the history is well-rounded.

"I think it's a hopeful story, even though it's full of tragedy and difficulties and loss, but it's also full of triumph and joy. It's like life."

Women's voices

Mary Whitmer was toiling to fill the needs of her husband, eight children and three visitors that hot summer of 1829  Joseph Smith, who was in the middle of translating the Book of Mormon in her home, his wife Emma and his scribe, Oliver Cowdery  when a visitor appeared.

"You have been very faithful and diligent in your labors," Moroni told her. "It is proper, therefore, that you should receive a witness that your faith may be strengthened."

The story will be a surprise to many church members, Tait said, but it's place in the book is important.

"This makes it part of the narrative part of the church's story about itself, and that's significant," she said.

Church leaders said women's contributions and experiences were important.

"You can't tell the story of this church," Elder Renlund said, "without talking about the women of the church, who have been among the most faithful and consistent to the converts to the Restored Gospel that this dispensation has ever seen."

"I'm very pleased that so many women's voices are being heard," Elder Cook added.

It was no accident.

"We set out very deliberately to make sure a lot of women were represented," Tait said, "that women's voices were present, that women's experiences were present, that women's perspective was part of the story. It's very exciting. I think and I hope it will mean a lot to young women and women throughout the church to see the experiences of our fellow female Saints."

What's next

This is the third time the church is publishing a multi-volume church history. The first, The History of the Church by Joseph Smith, was published beginning in the 1840s. The second, the Comprehensive History of the Church by B.H. Roberts, was published in 1930.

"Saints" is available as a paperback book for $5.75 through Deseret Book and at store.lds.org. The entire text also can be found free online at saints.lds.org and in the church history section of the Gospel Library app. The book will be published in 14 languages by year's end and is now available as an audio book in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Elder Cook said three more volumes in the "Saints" project are planned  "No Unhallowed Hand," about the church's pioneer era, "Boldly, Nobly, and Independent," about the first half of the 20th century, and "Sounded in Every Ear," about the global growth of the church to the present. The books all will have a portrait of a temple on the cover. The final book will have three different covers, one portraying a temple in South America, another in Africa and the final in Asia.

Grow said readers who want to dig deeper than the narrative can read the endnotes in the back of the book or find them online and follow hyperlinks to the digitized original sources. He said the church is publishing 116 church history topics referred to in the endnotes covering themes, people, places, events and recommendations for further reading.

That will be enough to provide new information even for students of church history.

"I learned things reading the book," Mason said. "There were little nuggets, there were stories and vignettes I didn't know."SALT LAKE CITY  Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Tuesday he was sorry Judge Brett Kavanaugh is having "to go through some of the nonsense that's about to come your way" during the Senate hearing on his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

As Hatch gave his opening statement on the first day of the confirmation hearing for the federal appeals court judge nominated by President Donald Trump, protesters repeatedly interrupted.

"These people are so out of line they shouldn't be in the doggone room," a frustrated Hatch said at one point, earlier asking that a woman he labeled a "loudmouth" be removed because "we shouldn't have to put up with this kind of stuff."

The senator, retiring after 42 years in office, noted in his statement that this was his 15th and final Supreme Court confirmation hearing. He said he's participated in the confirmation of more than half of all federal judges and every current justice.

Hatch said he got to know Kavanaugh well during his first confirmation to the federal bench in 2004 and now views him as one of the nation's most-distinguished judges, hearing more than 1,000 cases and writing more than 300 opinions.

But Democrats, Hatch said, can't admit Kavanaugh is a good judge and "have to turn the volume up to 11 and try to paint you as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Anyone who actually knows you knows that's ridiculous."

Hatch assured Kavanaugh that the public, too, "will see soon enough that your are a smart, decent, normal person who just so happens to have been nominated to the highest court in our land."

The confirmation process, expected to last through the week, got off to a chaotic start with Democratic senators attempting to block the proceedings because the White House continues to withhold documents about Kavanaugh.

Majority Republicans pushed on, but protesters interrupted throughout the morning, shouting their opposition to Kavanaugh one by one before police removed them from the hearing room.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that while senators have to ask hard questions of a Supreme Court nominee, they should not ask how he or she would rule on a specific case.

Lee said history shows that the committee has created a "norm in which members demand that nominees speak about specific cases in return for favorable treatment"  something most have resisted.

That approach "might do a disservice to the country," Lee said, creating the expectation that judges are supposed to be outcome-oriented, which "undermines the very legitimacy of the courts themselves."

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart, who has served on the federal bench in Utah since 1999, called the hearing "most uncomfortable" to watch because it reinforces his concern that the Supreme Court has become too political and too powerful.

"The Supreme Court has become such a supreme power in this country," Stewart told KSL Newsradio Thursday, calling the high court "a key determiner of how we live in America."

Stewart, a chief of staff to former Gov. Mike Leavitt, said his judicial confirmation drew a lot of attention and put a lot of pressure on him as a Republican appointee by then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. But it went well, he said, crediting Hatch.

The success of today's Supreme Court nominees is "purely a matter of who controls the Senate," Stewart said, with "tremendous political pressure being brought on both sides of the aisle" and million of dollars spent by interest groups.

The Democrat running for the Senate seat now held by Hatch, Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, said she has not yet decided how she would vote on Kavanaugh if she had the opportunity.

"As a current elected official, on any given issue I take in all of the available information prior to making a decision. I believe the Senate hearings to be an important part of the process," Wilson said.

She said she objects "to our delegation's immediate and lock-step support" of Kavanaugh, the president's choice for what is widely seen as the deciding vote on the nine-member court split between liberals and conservatives.

A spokeswoman for Mitt Romney, the Republican in the Senate race, referred reporters to a July tweet by the former 2012 GOP presidential nominee about Kavanaugh.

"Esteemed by his colleagues, faithful to the Constitution, a record of thoughtful decisions, and already confirmed for the DC Circuit. Brett Kavanaugh has the right stuff," Romney tweeted after Trump announced his pick.SALT LAKE CITY  Utah Gov. Gary Herbert is urging every single registered boat owner in Utah to decontaminate their vessel upon leaving Lake Powell, warning of an increasingly critical problem threatening the state's water supply.

"You are on the front lines of Utah's battle against a dangerous and invasive species known as quagga mussels," he wrote in letters mailed in August.

"The situation at Lake Powell has grown increasingly serious, and I need your help. If not handled correctly, these mussels may threaten our water supplies and popular recreation areas."

Nathan Owens, the aquatic invasive species program coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said state employees personally inspected 400 boats departing Bullfrog Marina at Lake Powell on Labor Day.

Although those inspections may only take a few minutes, when boaters are all leaving at the same time, Owens said the wait times can become long.

"They may have to wait 30 to 45 minutes," he said. For professional decontamination, some boaters have waited as long as four or five hours.

"Although the wait to decontaminate your boat as you leave Lake Powell may be inconvenient to your summer plans, I urge you to follow through with the above-mentioned precautions," Herbert wrote. "Failing to do so creates a serious threat to Utah's water supply as the mussels will transfer into our drains, clogging our pipes and blocking our precious water supply."

Owens said the low water this year at Lake Powell is making the situation worse  even boats that have only been in the water for a few hours get contaminated with the quagga mussels.

"A big part of it is this low water. They are getting knocked off surfaces they have been stuck to and are floating in the water. While some of them are dead, others are not. They get sucked up into boats filling their ballast tanks," Owens said.

This year, state inspectors found more than 120 instances in which boats were contaminated with the quagga mussel, and 100 of those boats were quarantined.

Multiple contaminated boats have tried to launch at key water supply locations, including Jordanelle and Deer Creek, Owens said, but were stopped by inspectors.

The thumbnail-size pest ruins boats and piping for water delivery systems and pose major threats to hydroelectric dams.

Utah spends about $3 million a year on its invasive mussel program, with $700,000 devoted exclusively to Lake Powell, Owens said, noting the state has one of the most aggressive inspection programs in the West.

"The big thing is they can clog up water delivery systems really effectively," Owens said. "Once they clog them it is really difficult to keep those systems clean and flowing. It becomes ongoing maintenance indefinitely."

As of July 30, state employees had inspected more than 144,000 watercraft statewide. Of those, 4,700 boats had not met the time-specific requirements for dry time and had to be decontaminated.

Complex boats with ballast tanks and inboard motors must be dry for 30 days. Others have a wait time of 18 days.

Quagga mussels are a native of Eastern Europe and only have a life span of three to five years.

A U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Report notes, however, that they spawn all year if conditions are favorable, potentially as many as six cycles.

Each cycle produces between 30,000 and 40,000 eggs and sperm.

Since the quagga was first detected at Lake Mead in 2007, the bureau has worked with multiple states in the lower Colorado River system to address the threat.

At Hoover Dam, more than $10 million will be or has been spent to control the infestation of quagga, according to the report.WEST JORDAN  A woman who was supposed to be watching an autistic child was arrested over the weekend for investigation of being intoxicated after the boy was found wandering alone by a gas station.

Debbie Shorten, 61, of South Jordan, was arrested for investigation of child abuse, intoxication and lewdness.

Sunday evening, West Jordan police were called to a gas station near Airport Road and the New Bingham Highway on a neglect call. Police say the gas station attendant noticed a 12-year-old boy was going in and out of the store a lot and didn't seem to have any parental supervision.

The boy had no verbal skills, could not communicate with officers and "repetitively attempted to run toward New Bingham Highway and Airport Road, two busy roads in West Jordan, however he was stopped by officers on scene," a Salt Lake County Jail report states. "The child could (be) hit by a car and been injured or killed if he was not continuously watched."

After staying with the boy for about 90 minutes, officers took him to the Christmas Box House.

Later, South Jordan police received a call of a lost child that matched the boy's description, according to the report. The boy was taken to the Division of Child and Family Services where one of the case workers recognized him.

When police made contact with Shorten, "it appeared the suspect was intoxicated due to her slurred speech, poor balance, poor memory and no recollection of losing the child. It appears that while intoxicated she was caring for a child. This is when she lost him, causing police to be called. She was unaware for approximately two hours the said child was no longer in her vehicle," the report states.

Shorten works for CTA Community, a nonprofit group that offers support to people with developmental disabilities such as autism. A CTA spokesman on Tuesday said his group was just looking into the allegations to find out what happened and declined comment.

Court records show Shorten was also cited for improper lookout on Sunday and was involved in an injury accident. It was not immediately known when on Sunday that happened. She was issued two other traffic citations in June, including one for negligent collision, according to court records.SALT LAKE CITY  A former employee of a Sanpete County gun manufacturing company accused of stealing gun parts was scheduled to be in court Wednesday.

Matthew Bart Malstrom, 21, of Ephraim, was charged in 6th District Court with 15 felonies on Aug. 22, including 12 counts of theft of a firearm, a second-degree felony; and three counts of burglary, a third-degree felony.

Malstrom worked for Christensen Arms Inc. as a night shift machinist in Gunnison. In May, the company discovered several firearm parts were missing from its inventory, according to charging documents.

"After conducting an internal investigation, they discovered these parts included several firearms receivers as well as various other gun parts," the charges state.

It was also discovered that iPods and cash were missing from the company's art department, according to court documents. Police discovered an unauthorized entry by Malstrom into the art department, but did not have any further evidence against him at the time, the charges state.

Then, on Aug. 14, a man trying to sell a rifle online received some texts from a man named "Matt," the charges state. But because of the nature of the messages, the man contacted Christensen Arms. Matt said he had "some Christensen Arms actions to trade. He further stated he had barrels, muzzle brakes, carbon fiber bi-pods and various other gun parts to trade," the charges state. "Matt texted  photographs of two different Christensen Arms bolt-action receivers and wrote in the texts that he has titanium, stainless, short- and long-action receivers to trade."

When the company looked at the pictures, it "discovered the actions in the photograph are 'blems' that would never have been sold to the public. The action in the photograph would not have passed quality control," according to court documents. "The action shown in the photograph shows a serial number that corresponds with an action that never passed quality control and was slated for destruction. This action would never be sold to the public and could not have been legally obtained without an employee sales record and ATF paperwork."

Police went to Malstrom's apartment to serve a search warrant and found "a closet full of gun parts," the charges state.

"We recovered approximately 180 items totaling approximately $42,461 worth of Christensen Arms product, tools, ammunition, and electronics. Included in the items were 12 firearms and 8 class 3 suppressors," the officer wrote in his report.

Police also indicated in court documents that possession of the suppressors could lead to federal charges.SALT LAKE CITY  A Colorado woman suing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because she claims it covered up her alleged 1984 rape by a former Missionary Training Center president, stood up Sunday during a fast-and-testimony church meeting in Chandler, Arizona, to record and publicly restate her allegation against the man in his home congregation.

The church responded Tuesday, expressing disappointment that McKenna Denson had disrupted the worship service.

"Once each month, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints participate in a worship service that includes an opportunity for members to share their testimonies of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and his gospel," spokesman Eric Hawkins said. "It is disappointing that anyone would interrupt such a worship service to bring attention to their own personal cause.

"Recording and posting of these disruptions on social media to seek public attention and media coverage, sadly, shows an unfortunate lack of respect for others," he added. "We respectfully request that those with personal grievances find other means to communicate their messages than disrupting the sanctity of a worship service."

Denson's statement was videotaped by her supporters and fellow critics of the church and posted on YouTube.

Reached by phone on Tuesday, Denson declined an interview request made by the Deseret News.

During the meeting, as seen on the video, Denson directly criticized church leaders and said, "In order to keep the church safe, we need to hold sexual predators accountable, whether they are pedophiles or whether they are rapists like Joseph Bishop." Bishop was in the congregation with his son.

Last month, a federal judge dismissed Denson's lawsuit against Bishop because her claims had expired under the statute of limitations. The judge also dismissed three of her four claims against the church. Her final remaining claim is that the church allegedly hid Bishop's predatory sexual behavior. The judge ruled that the statute of limitations on that allegation did not begin until she confronted him in December 2017 and learned of the alleged concealment.

Her lawsuit claimed Denson made 10 reports about the sexual assault to various LDS leaders over the years without learning if any investigation had taken place.

The church again denied that allegation last week when it filed a response to the final charge with the court. The church again asserted that Denson's claims are barred by the statute of limitations, the long delay in asserting her claims and the First Amendment.

"He allowed one claim to remain so the parties can investigate its merits," Hawkins said last week. "We remain confident in the legal system to evaluate these claims and determine the truth. As the church has repeatedly stated, there can be no tolerance for abuse."

The YouTube video posted Monday began by showing Denson and church critic Mike Norton sitting on a couch. Norton said, "McKenna, want to do anything fun today?" Denson responded, "Well, it is fast Sunday." They both smile and clink their mugs.

The video then cuts to them walking up to the chapel and singing a "Mister Rogers'" song with Norton saying they don't want Bishop to be their neighbor.

The video later showed Denson standing in the meeting. After she expressed love and confidence in Jesus Christ, she claimed the church protects sexual predators and pedophiles.

When a local church leader stood to ask her to leave, she said, "My name is McKenna Denson. I approve this message." She also claimed the leader assaulted her when he steered her from the podium while saying, "This is not the place for you to share this. Come on."SALT LAKE CITY  Art and literature will intersect with college savings during the annual my529 Make Your Mark bookmark design contest.

The annual contest is held every September during College Savings Month to raise awareness among Utah families about the importance of investing for future college or vocational school expenses. It is sponsored by Utah's college savings plan, my529, and StepUp to Higher Education, an outreach initiative that empowers Utah students and their families to prepare for college.

Eight winners in kindergarten through 12th grade will each receive a $1,000 college savings scholarship for their winning designs.

A panel of judges, including Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and first lady Jeanette Herbert, will select two winning bookmark design entries from each of four grade categories. Scholarship recipients will be notified in mid-October. All decisions by the judges and my529 are final.

In addition to receiving $1,000 my529 college savings scholarship accounts, each winner may see his or her artwork professionally reproduced and distributed statewide at my529 events.

Entries must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct 1. Utah students are eligible to enter if they are enrolled in a Utah school or are home-schooled. Parents are not required to own a my529 account.

Entrants must submit an original bookmark design on the official entry form found at my529.org. Address information and a complete set of contest rules and restrictions are detailed on the back of the official entry form. Only one entry per student is allowed.

The contest is not open to previous Make Your Mark winners or children of an adult employed or affiliated with the Utah State Board of Regents, Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority, my529, StepUp to Higher Education, or their advertising agencies.Cookie banner

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By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.Gali Guleiyan Review: A Film Par Excellence, Shakes You From Within!

My Verdict - With Superlative Performances, Debutante Director Dipesh Jain Brings Forth Cinema Extraordinaire!

4.5 out of 5 stars

There is good cinema, outstanding cinema and then there is Galli Guleiyan. It is a cinema par excellence. I hugely detest the usage of the terms art film and commercial film. For me a film is a film is a film. Every film is made for the people by the people and is of the people. Every single person who goes to a cinema hall has a conscience of his or her own, an understanding of his or her own, has a power of discernment of his or her own and we cannot take that away from them. This movie is one of those that plays with the very psyche of the viewing public! That is the very essence of this film.

Khuddoos played by Manoj Bajpayee is a loner who is lost in his own world. In the lanes and bylanes of Old Delhi. Amidst the pigeon-holed existence, is his life, that is shattered, battered and bruised. His mental condition is pale and his countenance mirrors languor, debility and exhaustion! An exhaustion for the constant quest of liberation, an exhaustion from the relentless struggle of getting out from the very mesh of alleys he is so much a part of  His mind body and soul is piqued by the claustrophobia surrounded by dense match-boxed dwellings!

He is tired of his very existence. But now, he suddenly finds a reason, almost as though with a lightning bolt that strikes him and he just devotes his very being into that. Anyone who starts watching the film will have a big question mark in his/her head! The very grammar of cinema has been used in a very beautiful manner in the narrative!

Khudoos gets to know about a teenaged boy Iddu (Om Singh) who is not really in good terms with his father (Neeraj Kabi) who never forgoes a pretext to upbraid him and sometimes even beats him up mercilessly! It is because of his mother (played with utmost restraint and character by Shahana Goswami) that he gets away at times. Iddus only respite is his friend in whom he confides every ordeal he is face with! His friend is there with him through thick and thin.

Khuddoos makes it a point to rescue the teenager from the clutches and if not, at least tries to safeguard him from his merciless father. Unfortunately, is not quite well-equipped with the wherewithal necessary! First thing, he is a drunkard, he barely recognises his way back home, he gets lost almost every night in the meandering by-lanes of the area. Every single soul in the area detests his existence and wants him to die. Well, notwithstanding these weaknesses in him, he plants a few CCTV cameras to keep a track of everything (not to much effect though)!

The teenager is mad at his father. He is mad for his fathers nonchalance towards his family, he is mad because he has seen his father getting sexually intimate with another woman (not once but a number of times, it is evident because he climbs up the parapet and then leans over to get a clear view of the room with a practised aplomb) he is mad at his father because, when his mother is about to deliver, his father wasnt there near her and his brother was a stillborn! (his teenage mind conveniently dismisses any other complication that could have been the reason for the miscarriage. He blatantly blames his father on his face!) He is unable to bring out the reality of his father into open, perhaps because of his age, due to the paucity of words perhaps or may be because of the fear of judgement. There are so many psychological layers that the viewer has to interpret very closely to understand! The writing is fabulous!

And finally when it is all too much than he can bear, his storming, outraged, immature, teenaged mind goes beyond sanity and does something irrevocable! Khuddoos realises something ominous, something sinister is happening and he tries to stop it with all his might, but it is TOO LATE!

The usage of allegory, the play of the sub-conscious, the conversation between the Id, Ego and the Super-ego is tremendous in the film. The Id is represented by the instincts of the teenager, his likes and dislikes, his desire to leave the town forever, his hide-out in an abandoned mansion. His ego is his reality (the situation he is in, no matter how much he tries, his reality is in those very lanes and bylanes and there is no escape and finally what his heinous actions are. The super ego is represented by the older Khuddoos who desperately tries to get Iddu away from the situation because he knows the end will be really bad (which he fortells Agar Mai uski Madad Na Karu, To uske saath Kuch bohot Kharab Ho Jaega If I dont come to his rescue, something really bad will happen to him)

It doesnt feel as though this is director Dipesh Jains first film. His usage of the cinema language is deep. His usage of visual metaphors and allegories are not to be seen in any film nowadays! SUPERB!

Manoj Bajpayee is tremendous. He is just TOO GOOD! Needs must I say anything about him? He is an actor nonpareil. He is so good that you find yourself feeling claustrophobic at times. His portrayal of the forlorn, all the time in a drunken stupor Khuddoos gives a sense of Deja vu to the viewers! The mininal usage of the background score was beneficial for him because his performance was highlighted even more. The restaurant scene where he bursts out at the owner for not being allowed to eat peacefully even after paying for the meal was ULTIMATE!

Shahana Goswami is so restrained and so full of character that it feels as though you as a viewer are a silent spectator and you can literally see her in front of you, the sense of watching her on screen is not there. It is like she is right there in front of you. Neeraj Kabi too is very good as the stern father, he has his fallacies and is sexually involved with the other woman.

Ranvir Shorey who plays Khudoos friend is a relief to the dark tone and mentality of the film. He plays his character with such a charm that it makes you feel what an underrated actor he is. His character rescues Khuddos from all the atrocities he gets himself into and lends a feel-good factor to the film. This is Om Singhs first film but he plays the role of the distressed teen with an aplomb that makes one feel he is more than seasoned! His friend played by Arbaaz Khan too did a great job!

The cinematography by Kai Miedendorp is like a cherry on the cake! His camera work makes the viewer feel the claustrophobia of Old Delhi, its dingy, labyrinthine alleys are brought to life, like never before! The usage of colour tones as well is worth mentioning here, the scenes involving the teenager Iddu and Khudoos are deliberately done in a sombre to dark tone, and on the contrary whenever Ganeshi (Ranvir Shorey) enters the frame, the tones are much brighter and more lit up; giving a sense of relief to the eyes! This has been done deliberately to subtly highlight the mindset, the psychological conditions and the worlds they belong to!

All in all, the film gradually sucks you in, it makes you a part of the milieu and you desperately would want to get out of it. It is a film whose effect stays with you for a long time after you have left the theatre!Megha Akash Teamed Up With Sundar C Simbu's Film

It was earlier reported that Sundar C and Simbu are teaming up for a film. And now, Megha Akash has also been called on the board. The actress has been roped in to play the female lead in the film. Well, the flick is said to be a remake of the Telugu hit Attarintiki Daredi.





The film is all set to go on floors from this month. It is said that the makers met Megha recently and signed her on for the project. Moreover, they are yet to lock the rest of the cast, though. Major portions of the film will be shot in Hyderabad, and the first schedule will begin by month-end. Interestingly, this film is a first of sorts for Sundar C  he is teaming up with Simbu and Megha for the first time.





Other than this, the filmmaker is also working on the period magnum opus Sangamithra. On the other hand, Simbu is filming for Venkat Prabhus Maanadu, while his film with Mani Ratnam, Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, is ready for release. Meanwhile, Megha is shooting for Gautham Menon-Dhanushs Enai Noki Paayum Thota.





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Source:newsjizz.comGoogle is celebrating its 20th birthday on September 4 and it is fascinating to know that a 20-year-old (or should we say youngster) has answers to almost all the questions in the world. From its foundation in a Menlo Park garage in 1998, to the gigantic headquarters in Mountain View, Google has evolved a lot through its 2 decade-long existence. Once just a search engine, the $852 billion company is now a leader in digital advertising, software, as well as hardware. On Google's 20th anniversary, here are some interesting and fun facts to get you better aquainted with the company that touches millions of human lives every day. Happy Birthday Google!

1 Google was basically an academic project that was started by its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The two graduate students at Stanford had no background in entrepreneurship but had to launch the company because investor Andy Bechtolsheim gave them a $100,000 cheque, and they couldn't deposit without creating an incorporated company. The founders first workplace was the apartment and garage of a friend called Susan Wojcicki in Menlo Park, California. Wojcicki was Google employee number 16 and is now CEO of YouTube.

(From L to R) Google CEO, Sundar Pichai; Union IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad;

Telecom Secretary, Aruna Sundararajan and Google's India VP, Rajan Anandan.

2 The founders wanted to name their site Googol which is the name of the number consisting of a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The term was picked to signify that the search engine will give users an infinite amount of information on the web. But a misspelling resulted in Google and it stuck. Today, Google processes over 3.5 billion Search queries each day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.

3 When Google was first launched, it entered in an already competitive world where search giants like AltaVista, AskJeeves and Yahoo! were flourishing. Google became a priority because it had a better quality of search and a simple, ads-free home page. Soon Page and Brin tried to sell Google for $1million to Yahoo, Altavista and Excite but they all turned down the offer. Yahoo was offered the company again in 2002 for $5 billion but it wanted the company for $3 billion only to be rejected by the owners.

4 The company went public in 2004 and its shares traded at an opening price of $85 valuing the company at $27 billion. Reportedly, about 900 of its employees became millionaires overnight. Today, Google shares are traded at $1,231 and the company is valued at $852 billion.

5 According to CNN Money, Google offers many death benefits to its employees. If an employee dies while he or she is still working for the company, then their better half will receive 50 percent of the salary for a decade after the partner has died.

Source: Google blog

6 In 2009, Google announced that it rented 200 goats to mow the grass in its current headquarters. The company regularly rents 200 goats for a week at a time from California Grazing to keep the grounds and parks maintained. Google also owns the domain names of common misspellings of its own website's name, including gooogle.com, gogle.com and googlr.com.

7 A supporter of an environment-friendly approach, by 2011 Google had already invested $850 million in clean energy, including $168 million in a solar power plant in Mojave Desert in California and $100 million in the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon.

8 The Sundar Pichai-led company also launched Project Loon to provide internet connectivity to people across the Earth by suspending solar-powered radio equipment from networks of helium-filled balloons floating at a height of 20 km above sea level.

9 Google acquired more than one company a week on average in 2010 and 2011. Since 2015, Google and fellow companies come under an umbrella company called Alphabet, which has 80,000 employees.

Source: Visual Capitalist

10 Google accounts nearly 90 per cent of all internet search requests which include the ones made from YouTube. It faces tough competition in Russia with Yandex search engine, and in China where Baidu has largest market share. Googles Android is the largest mobile operating system and market research firm International Data Corporation has claimed that Android OS is expected to clock nearly 85 percent market share by the end of 2018.It seems like a bunch of Samsungs older devices are in line to be updated to Android Oreo. Turkish website, Guncel Miyiz has posted a roadmap for devices tipped to receive the update. According to the website, devices like the Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime, Galaxy J7 Pro, Galaxy J7 2016 and even tablets like the Galaxy Tab A will be updated to Android Oreo by the end of the year. You can see the entire list of the devices on the website here.

According to the list, the first phase of rollouts will occur in September, followed by subsequent rollouts in October, November and December. It should be noted that the updates for the tablets will only happen in December.

Regardless of when the updates will happen, its good to know that Samsung is supporting its mid-rage devices, even after two years of launch. A couple of months back, it was reported that Samsung managed to pip Xiaomi in the race to ship the most number of devices in India in Q2 2018. The report noted the success of Samsung in the quarter could be attributed to its J series of devices, notably its refreshed line-up.

The current development should be good news for not just those who previously purchased a Samsung mid-ranger, but also to new buyers as who have purchased a J series device. Hopefully, Samsung will continue the trend and offer the Android Pie update on its current mid-range line-up as well.During an interview last month, CEO of Samsungs Mobile Division, DJ Koh confirmed that the company is developing a smartphone with a foldable display, called the Galaxy F and is keen to be the first to deliver it to the market. Adding to this information, Koh has now hinted that more details of the device could be unveiled this year at the Samsung Developer Conference that will take place from November 7-8 in San Francisco.

According to CNBC, Koh told the publication that Samsung will release a foldable smartphone this year and it's time to deliver on a foldable device. He says the decision was taken after Samsung carried out consumer surveys which showed that there is a market for that kind of handset. Samsung is reportedly focusing on how to make the phone in unfolded state different from a tablet.

You can use most of the uses ... on foldable status. But when you need to browse or see something, then you may need to unfold it. But even unfolded, what kind of benefit does that give compared to the tablet? If the unfolded experience is the same as the tablet, why would they (consumers) buy it?, Koh was quoted as saying. So every device, every feature, every innovation should have a meaningful message to our end customer. So when the end customer uses it, (they think) wow, this is the reason Samsung made it, he added.

Samsung is not the only company which is testing these waters. Apple and Huawei are also working on smartphones with foldable displays. According to Wamsi Mohan, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Apple may launch a foldable iPhone in 2020 that could potentially double up as a tablet but Huawei is reportedly looking to launch the device by the end of 2018. The company had filed the patent for a foldable phone at WIPO (World Intellectual property Organization). This could force Samsung to hurry with the launch of the Galaxy F if it wants to be the first company to unveil a smartphone with foldable display.

Samsung

Camera Camera Camera Camera

 Ice universe (@UniverseIce) 2 September 2018

Meanwhile, famous leakster Ice Universes tweet on a Samsung smartphone has left people in a state of confusion. The leakster hinted that Samsung may launch a smartphone with four cameras. It could be possible that the South Korean giant may incorporate two cameras on the front as well as at the back. Since, companies have already started to sport three cameras on the back of a smartphone (Huawei P20 Pro), Samsung could also be the first one to launch four rear cameras. There are already some reports which are claiming that Samsung and LG may launch phones with five cameras.

Cover photo courtesy: GSMArenaAnil Agarwal all set to take Vedanta Resources private

Vedanta Resources chairman Anil Agarwal is all set to take the London-listed miner private by 1 October, as promised, as his familys Volcan Investments trust, which holds about two thirds of the groups shares, has received acceptance from over 92 per cent of its shareholders.

The announcement by the family trust on Monday is seen as a step as a prelude to a potentially broader deal with bigger miner Anglo American.

The Volcan Investments trust, which held about two thirds of Vedantas London-listed arm before it announced a roughly $1 billion buyout offer in July, said holders of 26 percent of shares had agreed to sell.

Volcan is now reported to hold or has received acceptances for 92.31 per cent of Vedantas shares. The offer would remain open for acceptances from shareholders until further notice.

Agarwal has said he wanted to buy out the London listing, which is dwarfed by Vedantas Indian operation, to simplify the companys structure. Analysts and fund managers have said the move could also reduce the scrutiny the company has received as a result of leaks and fatalities.

Industry players have speculated too that Agarwal, who holds almost 20 percent of Anglo American, wants some form of tie-up with the global miner, and they see the move on Vedanta Resources as a step to creating a more sellable group.

Reports had earlier said of Vedanta taking over Anglo American after Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan, formerly head of Johannesberg-listed AngloGold Ashanti, took over as CEO of Vedanta Resources.

Agarwal, who is Anglo Americans biggest shareholder through his family trust, has played down speculation he is seeking a tie-up with Anglo.

However, he has indicated that he wants to grow Vedanta into a major diversified player.

Volcan had been expected to face some shareholder resistance to the buyout.

Vedanta has copper mines in Zambia while Vedanta Zinc has operations in South Africa and Namibia. A tie-up with Anglo American would give Vedanta access to diamonds, copper, platinum, coal, iron ore, nickel and manganese markets.China offers to invest $60-billion in Africa amidst BOR woes

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday pledged $60 billion in new development financing to African countries with "no political strings attached", as China tries to ward off criticism that its huge investments in mostly small developing countries are pushing them deeper into debt with no actual benefits from those investments.

China is looking to Africa to invest its massive cash balances in a move to increase its access to the vast emerging markets and resources in the continent and boosting Beijings image and influence abroad.

Pledging $60 billion in new development financing, Xi told African leaders that China's investments on the continent have "no political strings attached", even as Beijing is increasingly criticised over its debt-heavy projects abroad.

The new investments  to be made over the next three years  comes on top of $60 billion funding Beijing offered in 2015, at the start of a two-day China-Africa summit that focused on his cherished Belt and Road initiative.

China has already invested billions of dollars in African and Asian countries for roads, railways, ports and other major infrastructure projects. But these projects are now seen as unworthy by the recipient countries themselves as these have only increased their overseas debt.

But Xi said, China's cooperation with Africa is clearly targeted at the major bottlenecks to development. Resources for our cooperation are not to be spent on any vanity projects, but in places where they count the most.

However, Xi admitted there was a need to look at the commercial viability of projects and make sure preparations are made to lower investment risks and make cooperation more sustainable.

Belt and Road, Xi said, is not a scheme to form an exclusive club or bloc against others. Rather it is about greater openness, sharing and mutual benefit.

Announced at the start of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), the $60 billion investments are targeted at eight initiatives over the next three years, in areas ranging from industrial promotion, infrastructure construction and scholarships for young Africans.

He also offered a concession for Africa's least developed, heavily indebted and poor countries by exempting them from debt they have incurred in the form of interest-free Chinese loans due to mature by the end of 2018.

A study by the Centre for Global Development, a US think-tank, found serious concerns about the sustainability of sovereign debt in eight Asian, European and African countries receiving Belt and Road funds.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa defended China's involvement on the continent, saying FOCAC refutes the view that a new colonialism is taking hold in Africa as our detractors would have us believe.

During a visit to China last month, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed warned against "a new version of colonialism," as he cancelled a series of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects worth $22 billion.

Ahead of FOCAC, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, currently the chair of the African Union, also dismissed the concerns, telling the official Xinhua news agency talk of "debt traps" were attempts to discourage African-Chinese interactions.

Nations across Africa are hoping that China's enthusiasm for infrastructure investment will help promote industrialisation on the continent.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will oversee the signing of a telecommunication infrastructure deal backed by a $328-million loan facility from China's Exim bank during his visit, his office said.

Mr. Xi said Belt and Road complies with international norms, and China welcomes the participation of other capable and willing countries for mutually beneficial third-party cooperation.

China has provided aid to Africa since the Cold War, but Beijing's presence in the region has grown exponentially with its emergence as a global trading power.

Chinese state-owned companies have aggressively pursued large investments in Africa, whose vast resources have helped fuel China's transformation into an economic powerhouse.

While relations between China and African nations are broadly positive, concerns have intensified about the impact of some of China's deals in the region.

Djibouti has become heavily dependent on Chinese financing after China opened its first overseas military base in the Horn of Africa country last year, a powerful signal of the continent's strategic importance to Beijing.

Locals in other countries have complained about the practice of using Chinese labour for building projects and what are perceived as sweetheart deals for Chinese companies.

The concerns are likely to grow as countries in other parts of the world  especially Southeast Asia  begin to question whether Chinese aid comes at too high a price.

"Time has come for African leaders to critically interrogate their relationship with China," an editorial in Kenya's Daily Nation said Monday.India may offer relief to loss-hit domestic airlines: report

The government is working on a relief package for Indias battered airline industry that is struggling under the weight of heavy fuel costs and static air fares. Airlines are finding it difficult to recover from past losses in the worlds fastest-growing aviation market amidst intense competition and high fuel costs.

After two of the countrys oldest and biggest carriers, Jet Airways and state-owned Air India, reporting heavy losses, an aviation consultancy forecasts will lose up to $1.9 billion this financial year, mainly from rising costs and low fares.

A Reuters report quoting Rajiv Nayan Choubey, secretary to the civil aviation department, said help to cut airline costs was on the way, but without giving details of the measures planned.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the International Aviation Summit in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, consulting firm CAPA India in a report on Monday said the challenges for the airlines include high fuel taxes and a goods and services tax on maintenance operations that makes domestic work uncompetitive.

It forecast an industry loss of up to $1.9 billion in the financial year ending 31 March, up from a January estimate of a loss of $430 million to $460 million, the difference fuelled largely by a weakening rupee and a rise in oil prices.

CAPA estimated that Indias airlines, including Air India, need an additional $3 billion of capital in the near term to shore up balance sheets.

Choubey on Tuesday said the government would offer Air India state-guaranteed borrowing worth Rs2,100 crore, along with an equity infusion of Rs860 crore.

If we do not support Air India, there may be a value erosion, NewsRise quoted Choubey as saying.

The government has so far been unable to attract bidders for sale of a 76 per cent stake in the airline.

Airlines in India have ordered hundreds of new aircraft  both from Airbus and Boeing Co  even as the struggle to stay profitable.

Airlines are flying at near full capacity, filling nearly 90 per cent of seats and the number of domestic passengers have more than doubled over the past four years, mainly because of cheap fares.

Indian carriers offer one of the worlds cheapest airfares and unless this situation improves and fares become remunerative to airlines, losses will continue to haunt domestic carriers.

While it is easy to find Indian passengers who want to fly, its very difficult for airlines to make money, said Alexandre de Juniac, director general of the International Air Transport Association.Cash-strapped parents in and around Belleek, could be forced into paying an extra 50 per week just to keep their children in education, it has emerged.

The news emerged during an early morning march in Belleek as up to 45 parents and children walked on 2 km march on the footpath.

It is a further 1.2 miles from the end of the footpath in Corry to St Marys High School on the B 52 road, that is full of bends, overhung with trees and busy with cars and commercial vehicles.

The parents were protesting at the decision of the Education Authority to remove concessionary passes from children who live beyond the three-mile limit from the school.

Angry parents only found out about the decision in the last week of August.

ne parent Fionn Travers said:

If we take a taxi it costs 10 per day and that is a total of 50 per week which is an enormous financial strain.

And that is in addition to paying dinner money and of course this is a very expensive time for parents getting their children ready for school.

They are asking us to take risks with our childrens lives on a road that is clearly unsuitable.

We want to show the EA that the road is clearly unsafe and I would not even cycle it myself or walk it and it is too far and too dangerous.

The purpose of our march here today is to show just how dangerous this road can be.

I dont drive and I work and my husband works abroad so the only alternative is to get a taxi.

A taxi costs 10 per day and that is 50 per week and 400 per month, which is a crippling financial blow by any standards.

And it is hard to get a taxi as they are often booked out.

She added:

My daughter Fionn is in First Year, this is our catchment school.

She would not be mentally fit to be travelling to school in Enniskillen, she is a very sensitive child.

And what should be a big milestone of starting secondary school has been overshadowed by trying to find transport for her.

We are doing it day by day and are in limbo."Mercedes-Benz has revealed the first of up to 10 new pure electric models currently under development at its engineering headquarters in Germany and planned for sale before the end of 2025 with the unveiling of its eagerly-awaited EQ C.

Key rival to the newly-introduced Jaguar I-Pace, soon-to-be-revealed Audi e-tron Quattro and an upcoming production version of the BMW iX3 concept, the new five-seat SUV is the first electric-powered Mercedes-Benz model to be placed into series production, following on from limited volume B-class Electric Drive and SLS Electric Drive.

According to Mercedes-Benz, it boasts a combined 300kW and claimed 450 km range in initial EQ C 400 guise, as pictured here.

The four-wheel drive EQ C, which will also compete against the Tesla Model X, is based around the existing GLC  alongside which it will be produced, although such are the changes to its platform to accommodate a new electric drivetrain, battery and safety measures for added absorption of crash forces in the event of a severe side impact that Mercedes-Benz describes its high-strength steel and aluminium body structure, which is known under the internal codename MEA1, as being largely bespoke.

Stylistically, the new Mercedes-Benz model leans heavily on the early Generation EQ concept first revealed at the Paris motor show in 2016.

Although not quite as contemporary in appearance, the definitive production car, set for right-hand drive Australian deliveries in 2019, retains the same basic shape and five-door layout of the earlier concept, albeit with altered detailing in a choice of two different lines.She: Its a green machine not an excitement machine. Though in saying that, the Prius is comfortable and handles well. The suspension is good and bumps are well absorbed. However it does a better job in the urban jungle than the motorway, where you do get tyre noise.

The finicky gear selector did take some getting used to and the clunky foot brake feels archaic in a car that is trying so hard to look and feel futuristic.

What is impressive though is the the safety offering, Steve.

He: Yes, Dani, for the latest model Toyota added its Pre-Collision Safety System which includes lane departure warning with steering input, automatic high beam and active cruise control as standard. That goes along with the passive safety items which includes seven airbags.

So, whats the final verdict, Dani?

She: I think the Prius is reasonably priced, with great safety features but the technology is getting old. Theres much more choice in the hybrid segment these days and I think the new Hyundai Ioniq will emerge as the Prius biggest threat in the coming months.

He: Yes, Hyundai has copied the Prius quite faithfully with the Ioniq, almost matching it spec-for-spec. But the South Korean brand has gone two steps further and will offer the Ioniq with both plug-in hybrid and fully electric powertrains too. Thats something I think Toyota needs to do if they want to keep the Prius image as the poster green car hero.

Personally Id prefer to buy a Corolla Hybrid, it looks nicer to my eye and benefits from all the same technology as the Prius.

2018 Toyota Prius price and specifications

Price: From $34,990 plus on-road costs

Engine: 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol electric hybrid

Power: 72kW (petrol), 53kW (electric)

Torque: 142Nm (petrol), 207Nm (electric)

Transmission: CVT automatic, front-wheel-drive

Fuel use: 3.4L/100kmBlackrock displayed the best it has to offer from the heart of its community and business during the three hour visit from the judges in the Bank of Ireland National Enterprise Town Awards 2018.

The three judges were taken on a packed tour of some of the initiatives that led to Blackrock being shortlisted for an award alongside Dundalk and Dunleer.

Blackrock, is in the medium size town category, and Larry Magnier of Blackrock Tidy Towns said:

We arranged for a whole range of community and voluntary groups who work in the village to be on hand to brief the judges on the huge variety of initiatives undertaken here.

It would be impossible to have covered them all in detail in the time available, so we concentrated on a number of key ones with an opportunity for the judges to get more information on others if they require it.

Among the locations they visited were the promenade where they saw various Tidy Towns initiatives, met new businesses who explained why their enterprise was supported in Blackrock, they saw the Fishermans House where it is hoped to develop a Maritime Museum and they met some of the people, young and old, who enjoy the community centre and park.

They even got the chance to sip locally brewed coffee.

Larry said, The community spirit in Blackrock is second to none, and all sectors - voluntary, sporting and business - have always worked together for the benefit of the village as a whole.

We genuinely feel that Blackrock has so much to offer due to its vibrancy, its physical location by the sea and proximity to Dundalk, and its range and variety of shops, pubs, restaurants and cafes

Winning an Enterprise Town Award would be a huge boost to all sectors here, and would vindicate the approach they have been taking to make Blackrock a top location to live in, to do business in, and to visit, he added.

Paula Harmon, Bank of Ireland Head of County Louth said, The judges were extremely impressed by what they experienced in each of the towns. It was very evident that an enormous level of work went into each of the visits and all of those involved across Dundalk, Dunleer and Blackrock should feel very proud indeed.

With judging taking place across the country it is fantastic to see such a high calibre from across Louth and I know everyone is really looking forward to seeing the outcome at the Awards night in November.

Thomas McEvoy, Head of Enterprise at Local Enterprise Office Louth said:

"The vibrant enterprise and community spirit in each of the towns was clearly evident to the judges, who were very impressed with the business and community leaders they met on their visit to Louth.

"Louth County Council through its Local Enterprise Office is delighted to have worked with the teams in Dundalk, Blackrock and Dunleer who made a magnificent effort presenting the very best of their locality and the rich entrepreneurial spirit that thrives in the county."In time for its 25th anniversary, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is expanding its popular triennial exhibition, Bay Area Nowa showcase of our region's most innovative artiststo include notable architects and designers whose visions take aim at solving some of our most pressing urban dilemmas.

Joining the curation of painters, photographers, sculptors, and mixed media artists in this eight iteration of the exhibit are four local firms that are thinking beyond buildings, parks, and homes to consider "how ideas surrounding civic engagement, personal identity, solutions for climate change, or waste allocation can manifest themselves within the work, and propel the practice forward," says YBCA's Martin Strickland, who curated this portion of the exhibition.

Meet the brains who are building the future of the Bay Area.

Modem Kathryn Moll and Nicholas de Monchaux of Modem. (Courtesy of YBCA) Helmed by married couple Kathryn Moll and Nicholas de Monchaux (also an associate professor of architecture and urban design at U.C. Berkeley and director of the Berkeley Center for New Media), Modem is a young practice that works on both ends of the scale of traditional architecture. On the one hand, says de Monchaux, "we do a lot of collaborations with artists." On the other, he continues, "we do a lot of work on themes of resilience and designing for climate change; community-focused work at the very large urban scale." These are common themes in the individual work of both architects. "We think about everything from the scale of ecology to the scale of software," says de Monchaux. "That's something very particular to the Bay Area." Launched in Oakland in 2017, Modem's projects are diverse: For Mills College Art Museum's Archaeology in Reverse (Sept. 8 through Dec. 9), the pair created sculptural installations to highlight the architectural space of the galleries; for the Resilient by Design Challenge, they developed "iconic and implementable solutions to climate change and sea level rise." For Bay Area Now 8, Modem has produced a 22-by-8-foot map of the Bay Area that is composed of typewritten text; changing degrees of density in the words relate to various geological and climate hazards. The lines themselves have been culled from Craigslist-type internet postspeople seeking rides, or missed connectionsthat give a little glimpse of Bay Area life at the micro level. "We bring a lot of humor to the work that we do," says Moll. "In this case, even though we are fundamentally doing a drawing and mapping project, we are having a laugh at the same time." // modem.work

Nemestudio Mete Somnez (left) and Neyran Turan of Nemestudio at work on their Bay Area Now installation. (Mark Mahaney/YBCA) There's a two-fold character to Nemestudio's work. It's a kind of a "pendulum," says Neyran Turan, Nemestudio partner and assistant professor of architecture at U.C. Berkeley, between mundane everyday practices and architectural details and larger questions of the environment and urbanism. She and Mete Sonmez, her partner in work and life, came up together as architecture undergraduates in Istanbul, Turkey, and later studied at Harvard Graduate School of Design. After they completed their degrees, the pair moved to Houston and launched Nemestudio, making a name for themselves there in design competitions and through commissions like the 2014 LV House, a low-income housing initiative in which they improved upon the classic "shotgun" home.

Since 2016, Nemestudio has called the Bay Area home, and their work continues to make waves here and abroad for its juxtaposition of major environmental issues with architectural materiality.

In a recent installation at the Galata Greek School in Istanbul, called "Nine Islands," they addressed consumption of building materialsin Turan's view, many people tend not to think about where those materials come from or what their lifespan may be before they ultimately end up as wasteyour marble countertop, from a quarry in Italy, may last just 20 years, as an example.

A rendering of Nemestudio's affordable LV House.

For Bay Area Now 8, Nemestudio is again tackling the issue of waste in a massive, triptych-like drawing representing a 19th century salon in their installation Our Junk, Their Ruin. In the piece, buildings and forms are made from e-waste and plastic garbage from the ocean. "The project really talks about a time in the future when waste is more abundant than resources; and an imaginary setting for architects where inspiration would come from waste," says Turan. "It's almost tragic and humorous. When you see the project, it's pleasing and nice, but slowly it gets you." // nemestudio.com

The Urban Works Agency The Urban Works Agency team members (left to right): Janette Kim, Christopher A. Roach, Antje Steinmuller, Neeraj Bhatia. (Courtesy of YBCA) Ostensibly, The Urban Works Agency, initially formed in 2008, is an academic platform based at the California College of the Arts. But, as its name suggests, the mission here goes far beyond academia. The Agency encompasses student classes, seminars, and studios, but it also develops independent research projects and collaborations with San Francisco nonprofits, city agencies, and the public. It's "almost like a think tank," says assistant professor Neeraj Bhatia of the group of architects who come together here, outside of their private practices, to examine big-picture questions such as, the environment, city planning, and housing affordability, and how it all relates to the way Bay Area people live. "Our mandate right now is to really engage students into real world problems, and we are actually producing work and putting it out into the city," says Bhatia, pointing to projects such as the recent "Berlin Multiplicities," in which students explored drawing as a format for engaging the public in conversations about the contemporary urban space. The group also recently participated in the Resilient by Design Challenge aimed at strengthening the Bay Area's resilience to sea level rise, severe storms, flooding, and earthquakes, and two exhibitions "The City + the City" and "Urbanism from Within" in partnership with the San Francisco Planning Department and SPUR, . In their contribution for Bay Area Now 8, The Urban Works Agency looks at the decision-making process in A Seat at the Table. // urbanworks.cca.edu

Hyphae Design Laboratory Brent Bucknum and Daniel "Fletch" Fleischer of Hyphae Design Laboratory. (Courtesy of YBCA) Over the last decade, Oakland's Hyphae Design Laboratory, founded by Daniel "Fletch" Fleischer and Brent Bucknam has been looking at connections between people, urban design, and ecology to determine ways to reinvent cities as more robust ecosystems. At the intersection where these factors meet lies a common need: sanitation. "I often call that the great equalizer," says Bucknum. "Everyone is peeing and pooping every day. In our built environment, it's one of the more dramatic impacts we have." Experiments in sanitation show up throughout Hyphae's portfolio, from an early project that used human urine to run an algae bioreactor that consumed exhaust to a 2014 project called the Pplanter, a public urinal that used bamboo to breakdown the pee. Bucknum calls this "tactical urbanism," practical interventions that solve urban problems using design and technology. More recently, Hyphae has begun to examine human health in urban ecosystems. They are currently collaborating with the University of Louisville in Kentucky and the Nature Conservancy to study how greening a neighborhood might improve the cardiovascular health of residents. Hyphae's project for Bay Area Now puts these two conceptssanitation and human healthtogether with an installation that will collect urine from galler goers, analyze it biochemically, and produce health metrics within a few minutes. The remaining urine will then be processed into fertilizer and drinking water. It's an installation that challenges the idea of what is a useful urban resource. "Even though we look at urine as waste, it's a very informative print-out or receipt of our health," says Bucknum, and one that can provide solutions, not just challenges, in the built environment. // hyphae.net

// Bay Area Now 8, Sept. 7, 2018 through Mar, 24, 2019; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. (SoMa), ybca.org.Stadium rock returns to Dundalk on Saturday 8th September when Bon Jovi tributeers 'Slippery When Wet' play the Spirit Store again.

The boys performed twice at the same venue last year and made a strong impression before a very good attendance. Since then they have been touring the country, and, fresh from a recent triumphant, barnstorming performance at Warrenpoint's 'Skylite Room', Slippery When Wet are now riding the crest of the wave as Ireland's top Bon Jovi tribute band. Having a history that now spans more than 25 years, Bon Jovi has performed more than 2,600 concerts in 50 different countries for tens of millions of fans. Bon Jovis hits, which include Runaway, Livin on A Prayer, You Give Love a Bad Name, Wanted Dead or Alive, Its My Life, and Have a Nice Day, to name a few, have stood the test of time and appeal to generations of music lovers.

Slippery When Wet have been formed with the express intention of paying tribute to this world-renowned band and reproducing the music of Bon Jovi the way it was meant to be played, and in a manner that delivers a true Bon Jovi Experience.

Tickets are available from the Spirit Store and usual outlets. Doors open at 8 pm on Saturday the 8th of September.

READ MORE: Louth singer Alice to launch her new EP "Rise" in An Tain in DundalkCuppas at the ready - Gogglebox Ireland returns tomorrow night, Wednesday 5th September at 9pm on Virgin Media One. Back for a fourth season, Irelands most opinionated TV viewers will give their thoughts on some of the most memorable TV of the past week.

In episode one, viewers will be introduced to our newest family, Mum Deirdre Murphy and daughter Aine Flynn who hail from Courtlough, Co. Dublin.

Aine plays an active role in running the family business, an adventure centre and clay pigeon shooting grounds. When Deirdre, aka Nana Dee is not chasing around after eleven grandchildren, she works as a psychotherapist.Deirdre and Aine describe themselves as being similar to the Gilmore girls, except older and Irish! Their Favourite shows include: Game of Thrones, Home of the Year, Gilmore Girls, Love Island, Room to Improve and This is Us.

Aine is on the Irish Clay Pigeon shooting team and trains two or three times a week. Clay pigeon shooting has been in her family for many years, with her grandfather going to the Olympics in Montreal in 1976. She is also the mother to two young children.

Gogglebox Ireland airs Wednesday 5th September at 9pm on Virgin Media One.

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Microsoft on Monday said it has torpedoed a pair of websites designed to steal credentials from visitors to two Republican Party think tanks.

The malicious websites were among six the company took down last week. A group of hackers affiliated with the Russian military created the sites, according to Microsoft. The group apparently was the same group that stole a cache of email from the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign.

A U.S. court order allowed Microsoft to disrupt and take control of the domain names for the websites. The names were crafted to spoof the domains of legitimate websites, including the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute, both well-known GOP think tanks.

"Attackers want their attacks to look as realistic as possible, and they therefore create websites and URLs that look like sites their targeted victims would expect to receive email from or visit," explained Microsoft President Brad Smith.

Microsoft has used the court order tactic 12 times in the past two years to take down 84 websites associated with the Russian hacking groups known as "Strontium," "Fancy Bear" and "APT28," Smith noted.

Party-Neutral Hackers

The domains Microsoft took offline indicate Fancy Bear has been broadening its target pool, Smith said. In addition to the GOP think tanks, which have been outspoken in their criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, four domains referenced the U.S. Senate, which hasn't been a friend of Putin either.

Microsoft's Digital Crime Unit had no evidence the cashiered domains were used in any successful attacks, Smith was careful to note, nor did it know the identity of the ultimate targets of any planned attack involving the domains.

The attack on the Republican think tanks is consistent with past behavior by Russian hacking groups, said Ross Rustici, senior director of intelligence services at Cybereason, an endpoint security company in Boston.

"If you look at Russian targeting, they always attack organizations that are critical of Putin and his regime," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Both nonprofits highlighted by Microsoft have been consistently critical of Putin and his regime, so it doesn't surprise me at all that they would be targets of Russian hacking attempts," Rustici said. "The Russians don't care which side of the aisle their target's on. They're looking to take down anybody that's critical of Putin."

Sowing Confusion, Conflict and Fear

Cyberattacks are nothing new to the International Republican Institute.

"IRI has been targeted in the past and has taken proactive steps to defend ourselves from these types of cybersecurity threats," said President Daniel Twining.

"This latest attempt is consistent with the campaign of meddling that the Kremlin has waged against organizations that support democracy and human rights," he noted. "It is clearly designed to sow confusion, conflict and fear among those who criticize Mr. Putin's authoritarian regime."

The Hudson Institute believes the Russian attack was meant to disrupt the organization's democracy-promotion programs, particularly those aimed at exposing kleptocratic regimes, said spokesperson Carolyn Stewart.

"This is not the first time authoritarian overseas regimes have attempted to mount cyberattacks against Hudson, our experts, and their friends and professional associates," she said. "We expect it will not be the last."

Low Risk, High Reward

Despite Microsoft's recent successful efforts to crack down on malicious Web activity, significant challenges lie ahead.

"It's not that difficult to spoof these sites all over again," said Parham Eftekhari, executive director of the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a cybersecurity think tank in Washington, D.C.

"That's why this tactic is so appealing. It's low risk, high reward," he told TechNewsWorld.

"The success rate for spearphishing emails is 10 to 20 percent. That means that out of 100 employees, 10 to 20 of them are opening and responding to a lure that gives an attacker access to a network," Eftekhari pointed out.

"It's very easy to register things that are very close to legitimate companies or think tank names and use them for phishing attempts," said Cybereason's Rustici. "Unless you're monitoring all the possible permutations, it's easy to miss these."

Reducing Election Meddling

Microsoft's efforts could have a very disruptive impact on a the hackers' efforts, said Mounir Hahad, head of the threat lab for Juniper Networks, a network security and performance company based in Sunnyvale, California.

"It takes a lot of effort to build credible stories with credible websites and have enough visibility for those websites to actually draw traffic," he told TechNewsWorld. "The perpetrators cannot just duplicate their content elsewhere because a lot of technology is pretty good at identifying similar content, knowing what's fake and blocking it."

Operations like Microsoft's could help reduce election meddling in the upcoming mid-term elections, but not completely eliminate it, said Hahad.

Swaying election results may be only part of a long-term strategy that includes compromising candidates, he suggested.

"Having spyware on a candidate's phone or laptop may actually turn out to be advantageous for an adversary when the candidate is elected versus trying to elect someone more favorable to their positions," said Hahad.

Risk of Distrust

There has been progress in lowering the risk of election meddling since 2016, said the ICIT's Eftekhari.

"There's been a significant increase in awareness between the presidential election and now," he noted. "There's also been progress by DHS and the states in improving election infrastructure."

Although there have been headline-grabbing reports about voter machine hacking, those hacks require physical access to a machine, which makes them highly unlikely.

"The bigger risk is the threat to the integrity of an election an adversary can create by sowing seeds of distrust of the Democratic process in the minds of voters," Eftekhari said.

There's also the eternal problem of change.

"We're very good at fighting the last war, but the Russians are very good at evolving their game," Cybereason's Rustici said.

"I suspect if they're going to do a psychological operation around the elections, the way they do it will be different than what they did in 2016," he added. "How effective the defenses we've built for what they did in 2016 will be for those attacks is yet to be seen."

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.



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Facebook earlier this week pulled the plug on the official page for Alex Jones, host of Infowars and noted conspiracy theorist. YouTube quickly followed, removing Infowars and Jones' videos.

Facebook's move followed Apple's decision to pull five of Infowars' six podcasts -- including the "Alex Jones Show" and "War Room" -- from the iTunes and Podcasts apps. Spotify previously had removed several episodes of Jones' show from its service.

Facebook removed four pages related to Jones and Infowars for "repeated violations" and for "glorifying violence," as well as for using "dehumanizing language" to describe certain groups of people -- including immigrants, transgender individuals and Muslims -- in violation of its hate speech policies.

As a result, the Alex Jones Page, the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page were unpublished, while Alex Jones' personal account was suspended as well.

YouTube said that Jones' violations of its Terms of Service and Community Guidelines were grounds for termination of his accounts.

About Face(book)

Facebook previously had faced scrutiny over why it allowed Jones to maintain a presence on the social network. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company's tolerance of Jones was based on "free speech" considerations, in an interview with Recode last month.

However, in the wake of the bans enacted by Spotify and Apple, Facebook did an about-face and pulled the plug.

This isn't the first time that a controversial figure has been silenced in the media. ABC canceled comedian Roseanne Barr's eponymous sitcom earlier this year in response to comments she made on Twitter, which were widely viewed as racist. Nearly 50 years ago, CBS canceled The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, largely for the duo's satirical criticism of the Vietnam War.

However, in the case of Barr and the Smothers Brothers, it was network executives who took issue with the entertainers, whereas in the case of Jones it was third-party services that banned his content.

"The platforms are not engaging in censorship or curtailing free speech," maintained Chris Olson, CEO of The Media Trust, a digital risk management firm.

"In fact, the platforms have helped Alex Jones' audience grow," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"Having said that, regardless of the medium -- online or print -- when rhetoric leads to substantiated real-life harm or harassment, platforms need to enforce rules they've set and their users have agreed to," Olson added.

Pulling the Plug

Jones' situation differs for other reasons.

"When TV producers decided to cancel the shows of the Smothers Brothers and Roseanne Barr, they were making business decisions involving employees and their impact on the network's audiences," said Olson.

At the time CBS -- rightly or wrongly -- apparently felt the Smothers Brothers' political leanings, at least as reflected in their increasingly edgy skits, were diverging from those of their traditional audiences. Barr's tweets this summer created a PR crisis for ABC.

"By contrast, Facebook, YouTube, Apple and Spotify aren't only making a business decision to please their users -- they are in some ways also influencing standards," suggested Olson.

"The platforms have standards and policies to ensure they are not infringing any laws," he added.

"Users enter an agreement with the platforms with expectations that they will be both protected and limited by those standards and policies," Olson pointed out. "These standards are important, because -- unlike network audiences -- platform users actively engage with other users through the platform. They aren't passive viewers. Rules of engagement are therefore necessary, and they should be enforced."

Is It Censorship?

Unlike broadcast TV, which utilizes the public airwaves, the Internet largely remains unregulated, at least in terms of what can be said or posted. Instead of government oversight -- such as the FCC monitoring broadcasters for adhering to community standards -- it is up to the companies that host content to determine where lines should be drawn.

"With traditional media -- newspaper, magazine, television, radio -- the advertisers' also police their own content," said social media consultant and author Lon Safko.

In the case of Jones, it hasn't been his political leanings on controversial issues that have cast him in the proverbial crosshairs so much as his rhetoric -- and the fact that much of his content, particularly the advancement of conspiracy theories, arguably belongs in the realm of "fake news."

One notable example led to a lawsuit against Jones, brought by the parents of Noah Pozner, a victim of the Sandy Hook massacre that took place in 2012. Jones has infamously maintained that the shooting was a hoax devised by the government to promote stronger gun controls.

For some, however, the Internet companies' decisions to ban Jones have raised alarms.

"This is a different symptom of the same disease that we have been discussing: censorship," Safko told the E-Commerce Times.

"We should be extremely careful before rushing to embrace an Internet that is moderated by private companies by default," said the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Civil Liberties Director David Greene.

"While high-profile cases of highly offensive content being taken down garner much attention, content moderation continues to silence voices in marginalized communities around the world that struggle to be heard in the first place," he told the E-Commerce Times.

There is a great deal of other content online that many might find far more offensive than Jones' diatribes -- notably pornography. Facebook, Apple and other mainstream sites don't host that type of content either.

Still, it hasn't been driven onto the Dark Web.

"Google nearly made the decision about six months ago to remove all porn sites from their indexing. That would have been a bad decision," suggested Safko. "If someone wants to see it, they have a right to, and, if they don't want to see it, they don't have to."

Slippery Slope

There is no shortage of people ranting on their digital soapboxes across social media and other sites, so it isn't clear whether Jones is just the first to face such a widespread ban or if the tech giants will be the ones that determine who should be silenced and whose voices should be heard.

"The ban on Alex Jones shows the slippery slope between managing widespread hoaxes online and censoring popular content," said Marcus Messner, professor of journalism at the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"These companies react to the public's demand to manage the flow of hoaxes and misinformation online, especially on social media," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"Those in power will inevitably exploit established systems," warned EFF's Greene, "and those who actually make the moderation decisions will inevitably make awful mistakes."

Of course, Alex Jones is not the only person who has been affected by content management efforts. Many other sources of misinformation have been pulled from various sites as well.

However, the Jones ban "raises the issue of what is protected under free speech in the social media space, which we currently allow to be defined by these companies," said VCU's Messner.

"Platforms that choose to moderate must be transparent and accountable about their moderation decisions, their decision-making standards must be clear and applied consistently, and they must provide some avenue for meaningful appeal," said EFF's Greene.

Not a Free Speech Issue

Jones and others have suggested that the bans against him raise a First Amendment issue, but that is not technically correct. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects against abridgment of free speech by the government. Companies post their own terms of use and guidelines, and they are justified in banning those who violate the rules.

How Facebook and the other tech companies respond to violent or abhorrent rhetoric that might come from entities with a different political leaning no doubt will be scrutinized.

"This situation calls for better guidelines for the fight against so called 'fake news' that Internet companies then can apply in a consistent manner," said Messner.

Otherwise, the divisions in the country could be reflected online as well.

"It's gotten to the point where the owners of the media turn their outlet into a personal opinion platform," suggested Safko.

Really a Fake News Issue

What this issue could boil down to is one not of free speech but truthful speech as Internet companies work to combat the spread of fake news or other disinformation. Neither fake news nor purposeful disinformation would be protected by the First Amendment, in any case.

"It's interesting that the tech giants have been blamed for the spread of fake news and are now being accused of censorship," observed The Media Trust's Olson.

If Jones merely had offered his opinions, rather than presenting his content as facts, he might not be treated any differently than the plethora of talking heads who appear on various cable news channels each evening.

Jones utilized Internet services to cultivate a mass following online. Those same services are the ones that have muted him. The question is not so much whether they had the right do so, but whether they were making good business decisions.

"Much of the world is on these platforms, so if people somehow felt alienated, the user numbers would not have exploded over the years," remarked Olson. "In fact, virtually anyone of any political stripe will find a community in these platforms."

Peter Suciu has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2012. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile phones, displays, streaming media, pay TV and autonomous vehicles. He has written and edited for numerous publications and websites, including Newsweek, Wired and FoxNews.com. Email Peter.

As schools prepare to face increased accountability for bringing down rates of chronic student absenteeism, a new report reveals the scale of the task.

Nationwide, about 1 in 7 students was chronically absent, missing at least 15 school days during the 2015-16 year, according to an analysis of the most recent federal data that was released last week by the reseach-and-advocacy groups Attendance Works and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Of those nearly 8 million students, 52 percent were concentrated in schools where chronic absenteeism rates topped 20 percent.

And the problem varies geographically. In eight states and the District of Columbia, more than 20 percent of students were chronically absent, a state-by-state breakdown found. The problem was worst in Maryland, where 29.1 percent of students missed 15 or more days of school.

When you have high and extreme levels of chronic absence, its an alert that additional support is needed to make sure students have the resources they need to be in class and to thrive, said Hedy Chang, the executive director of Attendance Works.

Role of ESSA

Levels of chronic absenteeism will soon be more accessible to the public and, consequently, a big concern for many schools.

Thats because the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal education law that replaced No Child Left Behind, requires schools to list chronic absenteeism rates on their state report cards, which must be posted by December 2018.

That law also sought to broaden definitions of school success by requiring states to include at least one additional indicator, beyond traditional academic factors, in their accountability systems.

After seeking public input and debating a range of possible indicators, 36 states and the District of Columbia included rates of chronic absenteeism in their plans.

Every state set its own definition of chronic absenteeism. Some chose a fixed cap on the number of days a student could miss. Others adopted the definition favored by groups like Attendance Works, which suggests students shouldnt miss more than 10 percent of class days.

Setting a percentage, rather than a fixed number, allows schools to track students missed school time throughout the school year, giving a moving indicator that can alert them early if there is a problem, attendance advocates argue.

The elevation of absenteeism in policy follows years of drumbeating for the cause by advocates at the state and national levels.

When states were tasked with updating their accountability plans, groups that had pushed for an increased focus on attendance at the local level were naturally positioned to speak up in those conversations, Chang has said.

We believe this is a bit of a watershed moment, Chang said, adding that people have long misunderstood whether or not this was even an issue.

Whole-School Solutions

Absenteeism rates include school days missed for any reasonexcused or unexcusedincluding illness and disciplinary issues like suspensions.

That means reducing absenteeism will require a whole-school approach that may include an examination of discipline policies, encouraging academic engagement to keep students motivated to show up, and coordinating resources to tackle non-academic factors that keep students out of school, like illness or a lack of transportation.

Districts that have tackled the problem have launched large advertising campaigns that encourage families to focus on attendance; theyve worked with local celebrities and athletes to record student wake-up calls; and theyve paired students with mentors who helped them with both academic and social issues.

Schools have also provided wraparound services, hosted free flu shot clinics on site, and coordinated with local providers to provide mental and physical health care to low-income students.

As states considered absenteeism, some groups, like local teachers unions, argued that it was a tall task to ask schools to tackle so many non-academic factors. Others suggested absenteeism rates would merely serve as a proxy for poverty, which is outside of a schools control.

Some have also expressed concerns that districts may skew their data related to attendance or suspensions to meet goals and reduce their absenteeism rates.

In Washington, D.C., for example, an investigation by the state superintendent of educations office found an increasing incidence of students graduating despite missing a large proportion of instructional days at school in violation of district policy.

That report followed investigations by local media, like a Washington Post story that found schools underreporting suspensions to drive down discipline rates.

Success Stories

The Attendance Works and Everyone Graduates Center analysis found that, nationwide, schools with high concentrations of poverty were also more likely to have high rates of chronic absenteeism.

Among schools where more than 75 percent of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches, 17 percent had rates of chronic absenteeism that topped 30 percent, the report shows. And an additional 17 percent had rates between 20 percent and 29.9 percent. By comparison, just 4 percent of schools where fewer than 24 percent of students were low-income had chronic absenteeism rates above 30 percent.

Native American, Hispanic, African-American, and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students are also disproportionately represented among chronically absent students.

Absentee rates were extremely high at schools focused on special education. At about half of those schools, more than 30 percent of students missed at least 15 school days. Twenty-seven percent of vocational schools had that level of chronic absenteeism, along with 47 percent of alternative schools.

Schools shouldnt see high rates of poverty or out-of-school challenges as destiny, said Robert Balfanz, the director of the Everyone Graduates Center.

Even if you look at the highest poverty level, you will see in most states, a number of schools that have really low rates of chronic absenteeism, he said. Thats a signal that there are some bright spots and success stories.

States can explore those success stories to determine what works and what can be replicated in other schools, Balfanz said.

Along with the report, the organizations promoted a data tool created by the Hamilton Project at The Brookings Institution that allows users to search data by geographic area and demographic group.

States shouldnt seek to penalize schools that fall short on attendance, Chang said. Rather, they should use the data to identify where they can target support and resources to fix the problem.

The history of attendance in this country has been looking at attendance as a matter of compliance which is, in fact, the opposite of what we know works, she said. What we know works is taking a positive, problem-solving approach.

Related VideoSchool dress-code controversies have been trending on the web in recent months, fanning a controversy over whether schools are enforcing the rules in ways that discriminate against girls.

In one of the latest episodes, a viral video initially meant to instruct students on the dress-code policy at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas, drew intense criticism last month for depicting only girls as rule violators. In St. Louis, Oakville High Schools principal is captured on video apologizing to parents after telling female students they should not show off their bodies for fear of distracting male classmates. And a Roman Catholic school in New Orleans came into the internet spotlight when a 6th grader was forced to leave the classroom, in tears, for having braided hair extensions, which were against the schools hair policy.

Schools with strict dress codes often claim that such regulations prevent in-class distractions, create a workplace-like environment, reduce pressures based on socioeconomic status, and deter gang activity. However, in an age of #MeToo and easy internet access, controversy is increasingly cropping up over whether excluding students from the classroom for violating dress codes is worthwhile, and whether such rules are disproportionately enforced against girls, and especially those of color.

The website Change.org now says its hosting more than 400 open petitions against individual school dress codes. The majority have been created by students, and many of the petitions titles assert that their schools dress codes are sexist or unfairly enforced.

These rules arent neutral: many target girls, and especially black girls, by regulating skirt length and headwraps, a report on school dress codes in the District of Columbia that was compiled by the National Womens Law Center states. And the rules arent applied equally, either. Students report that black girls, and especially curvier students, are disproportionately targeted.

Lost learning time

Nationwide, 53 percent of public schools enforced a strict dress code during the 2015-16 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But, data on whos being punished for dress-code violations and how the penalties are being meted out are harder to come by. The study by the NWLC takes a rare quantifiable look at the issue.

Released in April, it examines the experiences of 21 black girls who attend or attended 12 District of Columbia schools, including charter schools, and analyzes districtwide student-discipline data.

In the one-on-one interviews, all of the girls reported experiencing or witnessing dress-code enforcement in their schools. Common punishments for those violations included missing class time or facing suspension, as a result of hair, makeup, or clothing styles that were deemed inappropriate. Since the reports release, two of the schools have made changes to their dress policies.

"[Dress codes] sit at that intersection where they impact girls differently; they impact black girls differently, said Nia Evans, the NWLCs manager of campaign and digital strategies and education. And when you add discipline to it, its really a disaster.

The concern is that students who may already be struggling academically fall farther behind in class when they miss too much time serving suspensions, changing clothes, or waiting while administrators measure their skirt lengths. Nationwide, African-American girls are 5.5 times more likely than their white counterparts to be suspended from school, but its not clear what proportion of those punishments stem from dress-code issues.

Adrienne Dixson, a professor of education policy, organization, and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, believes dress codes can prevent self-expression among students. Additionally, girls of color, who are more likely to wear styles such as braids, hair extensions, and Afros, are more likely to be disciplined, as the Louisiana 6th grader was.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, dress codes are legal as long as they do not treat boys and girls differently, force students to conform to sex stereotypes, or censor particular viewpoints. (This includes protection for transgender, non-binary gender, or any other students who may choose to dress in nontraditional ways.)

In some cases, the protests from students and parents are making an impact.

Victoria Schantz was a senior last year when the Womens Empowerment Club at Indian Trail High School in Kenosha, Wisc., decided to take on the districts dress code.

Schantz, who posted about the protest on the ACLUs website, readily joined in, remembering feeling objectified by her teachers after having been pulled out of class for her clothing, given temporary clothes, and sent home to change on multiple occasions. One day, after being sent home twiceonce for wearing a shirt deemed inappropriate and a second time for wearing leggings and a baggy shirtthe school called her mother to tell her that Schantz would have to spend the rest of the day completing her classwork alone in the office.

After reviewing 3,000 petition signatures and discussing the issue at six board meetings and two working sessions, the board agreed with Schantzs club and created a more lenient dress code, which will be implemented this year. Changes include allowing students to wear yoga pants and leggings.

Schools responses

Like the Kenosha district, many of the schools that have found themselves in the internet spotlight so far this year have issued apologies or scaled back their dress-code policies.

Marcus High Schools principal admitted that the video, which was an alternative for the annual fashion show that informs students of appropriate attire, absolutely missed the mark by featuring only girls. Oakville High Schools principal apologized to parents at an open house for her comments about girls distracting boys, promising that she will issue a similar apology to students during the school day; however, an official public statement had not been released as of press time.

Following a lawsuit brought against Christ the King Parish School by the Louisiana 6th graders family, the policy prohibiting hair extensions has been rescinded.

While some schools have responded to dress-code controversies with a more lenient dress code or by switching to uniforms, others, such as Alameda High School in California and Evanston Township High School in Illinois, decided instead to reform their codes completely.

The new dress code in Evanston begins by stating that it supports equitable educational access and does not reinforce stereotypes. The code outlines that students cannot wear clothes that depict hate speech, illegal items, or profanity; clothes that reveal undergarments (aside from visible straps or waistbands); and accessories that could be considered dangerous.

Essentially, students must wear a shirt, pants, dress, or skirt, and shoes, all of which do not pose a threat to another student or staff member. Everything else is fair game.

We wanted students to know that your body is your body, and we want you to feel proud and comfortable in your own skin, said Superintendent Eric Witherspoon, who helped reform the dress code.

The new dress code was implemented this past school year and, according to Witherspoon, the school has not received any negative feedback.

The school did not fall apart, education kept going on, and students did not become more disrespectful, Witherspoon said. We have students of all different races, body shapes, gender expressions, and backgrounds, and the great thing is that they now are able to express themselves.

Social media posts raise equity questions about dress codes

A flurry of social media posts raise equity questions about schools enforcement of dress codes:

#ICYMI: A #Jacksonville mom is upset after her third grader is told to cut his hair before coming back to school. He is in private school. The school says the hair was against its dress code. #NEWS4JAX #Jacksonville #FloridaNews #haircut #dresscodepolicy pic.twitter.com/MoUrLi5ZtX  Destiny McKeiver (@DestinyM_TV) August 22, 2018

Here's a longer version of Principal Janet Kellerman apologizing to parents for a "sexist" remark about dress code. The video is courtesy a parent inside the assembly at an open house meeting.

MORE: https://t.co/5H4reIGv4g pic.twitter.com/ZPEsq705FR  Chris Davis (@ChrisDavisMMJ) August 24, 2018Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has vetoed a bill that would have raised the minimum salary for full-time public school teachers to $40,000 within five years.

Legislators approved the bill in May, saying it would help attract and keep more teachers.

Rauner said he vetoed the bill last week because minimum pay is an inefficient way to compensate teachers and is an unfunded mandate on districts. The Republican governor said districts should consider steps such as merit pay and extra money for teachers in difficult-to-staff schools or subjects.

State law lists the minimum salary for a teacher at $9,000, which took effect in July 1980.Aimee Viana sat next to President Donald Trump in February 2017, joining a panel of parents and teachers gathered for a White House listening session with newly appointed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

That West Wing meeting foreshadowed a 12-month period in which Viana, who introduced herself to Trump as a parent and former educator from Cary, N.C., and her husband, Jose Viana, landed high-profile roles as political appointees in the Trump administration.

The Vianasthe Miami-born children of Cuban immigrants with ties to influential Trump boostersnow lead a federal office and initiative designed to create educational opportunities for immigrants and Hispanic children, whom, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, now represent a quarter of the nations public school students.

Just three months after the listening session, Trump appointed Jose Viana as an assistant deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, where he oversees the office of English-language acquisition and a $60 million budget.

The following February, the education secretary installed Aimee Viana as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, where shes charged with coordinating efforts to address the needs of the nations nearly 13 million Hispanic students.

The Vianas assumed their new duties at a time when their respective offices face uncertain futures.

The White House initiative has not convened a meeting of its advisory commission in the 19 months since Trump took office.

And, the office of English-language acquisition, or OELA, could soon be restructured as part of an effort by DeVos to revamp the entire education department. The talk comes amid concerns from civil rights and advocacy groups that the federal education department has already failed to ensure equity for the nations 5 million English-learners.

In an administration that has alienated large swaths of the Latino populationwith its immigration policies, response to Puerto Ricos devastation by Hurricane Maria, and push to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programimmigrant advocacy and civil rights groups have praised the Vianas as allies, but some have questioned how the husband-and-wife team landed the prestigious posts at such a critical time.

While the Vianas were relative unknowns inside the Beltway before their arrival, they are related to one of Washingtons most prominent power couples.

Jose Vianas sister, former Fox News contributor Mercedes Schlapp, is the director of strategic communications at the White House, where she has served as a senior member of Trumps staff since September 2017. Her husband, Matt Schlapp, is an influential lobbyist and the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

When I watch them on television defending me, nobody has a chance, Trump said of the Schlapps during his February 2017 speech at the conference as he thanked them for being fantastic friends and supporters.

The Education Departmentwhich declined Education Weeks request to interview the Vianassaid the Schlapps connection to the Trump administration played no role in the appointments of either Jose or Aimee Viana.

Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill said DeVos connected with the Vianas through a network of education policy experts, reformers, and grassroots leaders shes developed over the last 30 years.

Real-Life Experience

The Vianas started their careers in the Miami-Dade County, Fla., public schools, where Jose first worked as an English-language-learner teacher and Aimee began as a paraprofessional while still a college student.

After leaving South Florida, the couple spent close to a decade in North Carolina, carving out careers with regional and statewide influence.

Aimee Viana served in the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., working as a principal at two diocesan schools, including one recognized as a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in 2010. She later joined the bishops executive staff, overseeing a half-dozen offices and missions, including Hispanic ministry and outreach services for 54 counties in the eastern half of the state.

Her combined experience in administrative roles along with her field experienceworking directly with administrators, teachers, and students in a variety of educational settingsmakes her an exceptional talent who could create a positive impact on Hispanic Americans, Catholic Diocese of Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge, who led the Diocese of Raleigh during Aimee Vianas time there, wrote to Education Week in an email.

Before coming to Washington, Jose Viana spent eight years as an administrator at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, helping the children of migrant workers overcome academic hurdles, such as frequent moves and cultural and language differences, that can prevent them from doing well in school.

Like many of the students theyve served throughout their careers, Aimee and Jose Viana began school as English-language learners.

Jose's own mother fled to the United States from Cuba while pregnant with him, after the Castro regime detained his father as a political prisoner.

So many of the children we worked with were in families in challenging situations with immigration or challenging situations with just being in a new country, said Sonja Williams, who worked alongside Viana at the Migrant Education Program in North Carolina. He knows that. Hes seen it firsthand. He brings that real-life experience.

Between his stints in Miami-Dade and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Jose Viana worked as an assistant principal in the Durham, N.C., public schools, where he established a districtwide parent group designed to address the academic challenges faced by Latino children from low-income families, according to his education department biography.

Until last week, that same biography indicated that he had a masters degree in educational administration, which a department spokeswoman said Viana earned from Florida Atlantic University in 2006. But the university has no record of issuing him a degree. The Education Department has since changed the page to reflect that he earned a certificate, not a degree, in educational leadership.

DeVos talk of restructuring OELA, which Jose Viana now manages, has faced questions from Democratic members of Congress, who wrote in a letter to the education secretary that any move to diminish the office only further highlights a continued concern about this administrations vitriolic rhetoric about individuals in this country who speak another language.

Several of Jose Vianas predecessors have also expressed concern about the future of the office.

With the growth of languages in our public schools, [OELA] needs to be a voice on its own, said Maria Hernandez Ferrier, who led OELA for several years during the George W. Bush administration. She also spent six months as the acting director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics during the Bush administration.

These are more than just symbolic roles. They have to be decision makers at the table, said Hernandez Ferrier, the president emerita of Texas A&M University, San Antonio.

Changing Times

But even ardent supporters of the Vianas question their influence in an administration seen as increasingly hostile to immigrant and Hispanic families.

If they get the support of the secretary and have the secretarys ear ... it will do [DeVos] well, said Santiago Wood, the executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education. "[The Vianas] bring a lot of strength and depth to the jobs. But Im not certain if theyre going to get the support necessary  to do anything that is going to make a difference.

The state of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, commissioned by former President George H.W. Bush in 1990, may be a prime example.

During the Obama administration, the group focused on reducing the Latino dropout rate and advocating for legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for some undocumented students. The initiative also changed its name during that era, dropping the reference to Hispanic Americans in favor of just Hispanics.

We felt that saying you had to be a citizen in order to work with us to improve the country was a limiting factor, said Juan Sepulveda, who led the initiative during the first term of the Obama administration.

Transition Period

The presidents advisory commission has not met since Trump took office, the last chairman, Miami-Dade College President Eduardo Padron, told Education Week through a spokeswoman.

Each administration appoints its own commission, so a transition period occurs between administrations, said Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill.

In a prepared statement sent to Education Week, White House Deputy Secretary Lindsay Walters highlighted the nations record-low unemployment rate for Hispanics and wrote: The President looks forward to appointing individuals to his Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics to continue building on these successes for American communities, and ensure many have access to the education needed for good-paying jobs.

In that February 2017 White House parent-teacher listening session, President Trump discussed the plight of poor and disadvantaged students, how failing schools have shortchanged African-American students, the merits of school choice, and the national spike in autism diagnoses, but did not mention Latino students during those public comments.

For some, it came as no surprise.

Those of us who where there in the Obama administration feel its unfortunate that we werent able to continue to build on what we felt were huge successes, said Sepulveda, now a professor of urban education at Trinity University in San Antonio. While we feel bad thats not continuing, I just keep hearing President Obama in my head saying, Thats what happens when you have elections and a new administration takes on new priorities.Rehabilitated Guillemot to be released back in wild

A wildlife charity group on the Isle of Man will release a rehabilitated bird back into the wild today.

Manx Wild Bird Aid will release a Common Guillemot onto Fenella Beach in Peel.

The bird was found in an emaciated and weak state on Jurby Beach in early August and brought into the charity's centre.

Since then volunteers have been feeding and rehabilitating the bird.2018-09-04

Maeci

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Enzo Moaveri Milanesi, is closely following the evolution of the situation in Libya. The ministry has repeated Italy's full support for the legitimate Libyan institutions and for the UN Action Plan for Libya. Italy condemns all acts of violence and calls on all parties to reach a peaceful and negotiated solution.

Tonight Minister Moavero held a long telephone conversation with the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Libya (SPSG), Ghassan Salameh. The SPSG gave his personal evaluation of recent events and of the actions to overcome the tensions and the current instability.

Minister Moaevero and the UN Special Representative will speak again in the next few days to maintain a productive exchange of information and work on possible actions to support the peace process in Libya.

Minister Moavero is also planning to contact his counterparts from the countries most affected by the Libyan crisis ahead of the organisation of an International Conference in Italy in the autumn.New York, NY (August 31, 2018)--New work from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons sheds light on how dopamine receptors signal within cells, opening the door for more targeted--and more tolerable--therapeutics to treat an array of neuropsychiatric disorders.

The study's findings have been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The central nervous system's dopamine receptors play a critical role in a variety of neural processes, including motor control, learning and memory, and reward. The focus of this study, the dopamine D2 receptor (D2R), is an important target in the treatment of disorders such as schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. Drugs used to treat these conditions either block or activate these receptors to address dysfunctional receptor signaling. Antipsychotic drugs that target D2Rs, however, can have many unpleasant side effects, including weight gain, involuntary movements, and decreased motivation.

Scientists know that D2Rs send signals through two main pathways within cells--either by activating G proteins or by G-protein independent arrestin-signaling. Recent studies of opioid receptors--targeted for pain relief--suggest that it may be possible to maintain the therapeutic effects while avoiding negative side effects, such as respiratory depression, by selectively activating the G protein signaling pathway. "We asked whether these signaling pathways might also lead to different behavioral effects at the D2R, and whether this might provide a new approach to improved antipsychotic drugs with fewer side effects," says Dr. Jonathan Javitch, Lieber Professor of Experimental Therapeutics in Psychiatry and professor of pharmacology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

In order to determine whether the two pathways regulate different behaviors, the researchers examined mice that were engineered to carry a mutated D2R that only facilitated the arrestin pathway. In these mice, the mutant dopamine receptor restored motor function just as the non-mutant form of the receptor does, indicating that arrestin recruitment can enhance motor function on its own. In contrast, motivation was enhanced only by wild-type D2R. "This finding was quite exciting as it indicates that the activational component of motivation that enhances locomotion is regulated by a different intracellular mechanism than the reward driven directional component," says Dr. Christoph Kellendonk, associate professor of pharmacology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "For the former, arrestin signaling is sufficient whereas the latter requires activation of G-proteins."

"These results offer the exciting possibility that therapeutic approaches targeting specific D2R-mediated signaling pathways could not only treat psychosis, but also avoid some of the adverse side effects experienced by patients taking the existing, less targeted medications," says Javitch.

###

The study is titled "Arrestin recruitment to dopamine D2 receptor mediates locomotion but not incentive motivation."

The other authors of this paper are Prashant Donthamsetti, PhD (CUIMC), Eduardo F. Gallo, PhD (CUIMC), David C. Buck (VA Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health & Science University), Edward L. Stahl (Scripps Research), Ying Zhu (CUIMC), J. Robert Lane (CUIMC), Laura M. Bohn (Scripps Research), and Kim A. Neve (VA Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health & Science University).

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health DA044696, MH093672, DA009158, MH54137, DA022413, MH107648, Merit Review Award BX003279 from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Biomedical Laboratory Research, and Development, and by the Lieber Center for Schizophrenia Research, and by the Hope for Depression Research Foundation.

The authors report no financial or other conflicts of interest.

Columbia University Department of Psychiatry

Columbia Psychiatry is among the top ranked psychiatry departments in the nation and has contributed greatly to the understanding and treatment of brain disorders. Co-located at the New York State Psychiatric Institute on the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center campus in Washington Heights, the department enjoys a rich and productive collaborative relationship with physicians in various disciplines at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Columbia Psychiatry is home to distinguished clinicians and researchers noted for their clinical and research advances in the diagnosis and treatment of depression, suicide, schizophrenia, bipolar and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and childhood psychiatric disorders.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Irving Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.BOSTON -In 2014, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a law requiring a 1:1 or 2:1 patient-to-nurse staffing ratio in intensive care units (ICU) in the state, as guided by a tool that accounts for patient acuity and anticipated care intensity. The regulations were intended to ensure patient safety in the state's ICUs, but new research led by physician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published today in Critical Care Medicine found the staffing regulations were not associated with improved patient outcomes.

"We hypothesized that Massachusetts ICU nurse staffing regulations would result in decreased complications and mortality for critically ill patients when compared with patients admitted to ICUs across the country unaffected by Massachusetts regulations," said lead author Anica C. Law, MD, core faculty at the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and staff physician in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at BIDMC. "But we did not identify improvements in patient outcomes associated with the state's nursing requirements."

The research team examined records from 246 medical centers nationwide, comparing patient outcomes in Massachusetts' six academic ICUs with outcomes in 114 out-of-state academic ICUs before, during and after the state mandate was implemented.

The Massachusetts regulations mandated 1:1 or 2:1 patient-to-nurse ratios, based upon patient acuity and anticipated care intensity. Academic ICUs were required to comply with the new regulations by March 31, 2016, while all other hospitals had until January 31, 2017. Analyzing tens of thousands of ICU admissions records, Law and colleagues focused on the change in mortality rates for patients in Massachusetts' academic ICUs before and after the mandate was implemented, compared with patients hospitalized in out-of-state hospitals; other analyses looked at changes occurring at community, non-academic ICUs and among a group of the sickest patients who received support from a ventilator. The team also analyzed the rate of complications, including central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, hospital-acquired pressure ulcers and patient falls with injury.

The researchers found modest increases in ICU nurse staffing ratios in Massachusetts before and after the mandates implementation, demonstrating a change from 1.38 patients per nurse to 1.28 patients per nurse. However, these increases were not significantly higher than staffing trends in states without state-mandated ICU staffing regulations, suggesting nurse staffing increases in Massachusetts could not be attributed to the state legislation. Law and colleagues also found that risk of mortality and risk of complications in Massachusetts' ICUs remained stable after the law's implementation, with no significant difference in trends compared to out-of-state hospitals.

"Our results suggest that the Massachusetts nursing regulations were not associated with changes in staffing or patient outcomes," said Law. "The modest changes in nurse staffing we saw in Massachusetts - approximately one extra nurse per 20-bed ICU per 12-hour shift - remained unassociated with changes in hospital mortality."

###

In addition to Law, co-authors include Jennifer P. Stevens, MD, MS, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Samuel Hohmann, PhD, of Viziant Center for Advanced Analytics; and senior author Allan J. Walkey, MD, MS of Boston University School of Medicine and Boston University School of Public Health.

This work was supported, in part, by grants from National Institute on Aging (1F32AG058352 to Law); Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (5K08HS024288) and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (to Stevens); and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1R01HL136660, K01HL116768) and Boston University School of Medicine Department of Medicine Career Investment Award (to Walkey). Law's institution received funding from the National Institute on Aging; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. She received support for article research from the National Institutes of Health. The remaining authors have disclosed that they do not have any potential conflicts of interest.

About Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and consistently ranks as a national leader among independent hospitals in National Institutes of Health funding.

BIDMC is in the community with Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, Anna Jaques Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Lawrence General Hospital, MetroWest Medical Center, Signature Healthcare, Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare, Community Care Alliance and Atrius Health. BIDMC is also clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and Hebrew Rehabilitation Center and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Jackson Laboratory. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit http://www.bidmc.org.Washington, DC, September 4, 2018 - Positive long-term outcomes, such as a reduction in child disruptive behavior and increased parental skills, have been reported in a new study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). For a large number of families, screened from the general population, internet- and telephone-assisted trainings that target disruptive behavior in children at age 4 decreases the likelihood of such disruptive behavior occurring. The program was effective 24 months after initiation.

Preschool children with disruptive behavior show significant functional impairment at home, daycare, school and in community settings. A number of studies have shown that this type of behavior has untoward, long-term, harmful consequences, including mental and physical health problems, crime, substance abuse, and increased risk of suicidality later in life. Untreated disruptive behavior disorders are some of the most costly early childhood psychiatric disorders. Parent training is one of the most effective approaches for the psychosocial treatment of disruptive behavioral problems in young children. However, no previous Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) has been conducted on an intervention offering remote or internet-assisted parental training and population-based screening. This study reports on two-year outcomes from preschool children with disruptive behavioral problems who were randomized to receive either an 11-week internet-assisted parental training or an educational control condition. The study is unique, in part, due to its use of a population-based screening to facilitate enrollment and due to its long-term follow-up period with an assessment at 24 months which had a very low attrition rate.

Altogether, 730 of the 4,656 four-year-old children who attended annual child health clinic check-ups in Southwest Finland met the criteria for high level disruptive behavioral problems. 464 parents participated in the 11-week Strongest Families Smart Website (SFSW) intervention program, or an educational control (EC) group. When the SFSW and EC groups were compared between baseline and after the 24-month follow-up, the primary outcome of the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) externalizing score showed significantly higher improvements in the SFSW group (effect size 0.22; p<0.001). In addition, most of the child psychopathology measures, including aggression, sleep problems, anxiety, and other emotional problems decreased significantly more in the SFSW group than in the EC group. Similarly, parental skills increased more in the SFSW group than in the EC group.

Interestingly, children in the SFSW group made significantly less use of child mental health services than the EC group during the 24-month follow-up period (17.5 percent vs. 28.0 percent).

"Our findings address some key public health challenges in delivering parent training programs," said lead author Andre Sourander, MD, PhD, of the University of Turku, Finland, and leader of the research group.

"When traditional parental training requires referral to clinical services, it often results in substantial delays, and older children are more likely to require adjunctive treatment to parental training. Studies have identified that internet-assisted treatment programs may offer certain benefits over traditional interventions: these include high levels of support; greater accessibility; convenience; and reduced costs. Studying feasibility and effectiveness of digitalized child mental health interventions is important because of the global shortage of skilled staff who can address child mental health problems."

According to Dr. Sourander, the parents were highly motivated and continued their involvement in the training program. Most importantly, the treatment effects were maintained until two years. Identifying children at risk in the community at an early stage enabled local government services to provide an effective parent training program for a large number of families, including many who would not have participated in clinic-based services.

###

Notes for editors

The article is "Two-Year Follow-Up of Internet and Telephone Assisted Parent Training for Disruptive Behavior at Age 4," by Andre Sourander, MD, PhD, Terja Ristkari, RN, MNSc, Jukka Huttunen, BM, Susanna Hinkka-Yli-Salomaki, PhLic, and Marjo Kurki, PhD, University of Turku, Finland; Patrick J. McGrath, OC, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS, and Patricia Lingley-Pottie, BNRN, PhD, Centre for Research in Family Health, IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; and Charles Cunningham, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Faculty of Health Science, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.07.001). It appears in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, volume 57, issue 9 (September 2018), published by Elsevier

Dr. Sourander is a Professor of Child Psychiatry at the University of Turku, Finland, and an Adjunct Professor at the Division of Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York. He is the principal investigator in several psychiatric longitudinal birth cohort studies, clinical cohort studies, and RCTs. Dr. Sourander is leader of the Awareness, Prevention and Early Interventions (APEX) Consortium funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) at the Academy of Finland. The APEX program aims to develop, study effectiveness and implementation of interventions increasing mental health literacy and digitally delivered interventions in child and adolescent mental health.

Copies of this paper are available to credentialed journalists upon request; please contact Mary Billingsley at mbillingsley@aacap.org">mbillingsley@aacap.org or +1 202 587 9672. Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Andre Sourander, MD, PhD, Department of Child Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Lemminkaisenkatu 3 / Teutori 3.krs, 20014 University of Turku, Finland at +358 50 365 3447 or andre.sourander@utu.fi.

About JAACAP Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) is the official publication of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. JAACAP is the leading journal focusing exclusively on today's psychiatric research and treatment of the child and adolescent. Published twelve times per year, each issue is committed to its mission of advancing the science of pediatric mental health and promoting the care of youth and their families.

The Journal's purpose is to advance research, clinical practice, and theory in child and adolescent psychiatry. It is interested in manuscripts from diverse viewpoints, including genetic, epidemiological, neurobiological, cognitive, behavioral, psychodynamic, social, cultural, and economic. Studies of diagnostic reliability and validity, psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatment efficacy, and mental health services effectiveness are encouraged. The Journal also seeks to promote the well-being of children and families by publishing scholarly papers on such subjects as health policy, legislation, advocacy, culture and society, and service provision as they pertain to the mental health of children and families. http://www.jaacap.orgRochester, MN, September 4, 2018 - There is a strong seasonal pattern in seeking cardiovascular health information on Google, with higher search activity during winter months, according to a new study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Investigators also found that US states with higher deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) have higher CVD-related search volumes compared with regions with lower CVD mortality. By integrating artificial intelligence in healthcare research, the data generated by online cardiovascular health searches could be leveraged in the future to estimate disease activity in the community.

"By showing that seasonal and geographic interest in seeking CVD health information correlates with findings in real-world data, we show that Internet search-query data could potentially provide real-time information on CVD in the community," explains lead investigator Nilay Kumar, MD, of the Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA.

CVD is the number one cause of death worldwide, and more than 600,000 people die from CVD in the United States every year. There is a clear seasonal trend of CVD, which has been described in many countries, with the highest incidence during the colder winter months. This pattern has been previously described for sudden cardiac death, heart failure, heart attacks, and abnormal heart rhythms. Similarly, it is well established that there are geographic differences in the rate of CVD and deaths due to CVD. For example, the southern US has higher rates of CVD-related mortality per unit population compared with other regions of the US. For this reason, in medical circles the Southern US is often referred to as the "stroke belt."

Investigators hypothesized that during seasons of high risk for CVD, Internet search activity to seek information on CVD would be higher than during seasons in which the risk of CVD was lower. Similarly, they hypothesized that areas of the US with the highest rates of CVD mortality would have a greater population-level interest in searching for information on CVD than areas with lower rates of CVD mortality.

To address these two questions, investigators obtained data from Google Trends, which is a repository of online search query data made publicly available by Google. Using over ten years of search query data for 28 search terms related to CVD, they found that search volumes were 15 percent higher in the winter compared with the summer in the US and nearly 50 percent higher in winter compared with summer in Australia. They also found that US states with higher rates of CVD mortality had higher Internet search activity with respect to CVD.

The significance of this research is that, in the current digital era, increasing rates of computer and smartphone ownership and increasing rates of high speed Internet access mean that vast amounts of data are generated as a result of everyday activities, such as searching the Internet and use of social media. When aggregated for the entire population, these data may provide insights into the population's interest in certain topics. Peaks in interest in certain healthcare-related topics may be driven by disease activity at the level of the community, say the investigators.

"The key is to use big data, such as search query volumes, to augment traditional methods of CVD surveillance by providing real-time insights into population interests and behaviors," adds senior investigator and co-author Carl J. Lavie, MD, of the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School, The University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA. "The failure of Google Flu Trends to predict the 2013 influenza outbreak should caution us not to fall victim to the so-called 'big data hubris,' but rather use it as one of the tools in our armamentarium for disease surveillance. Future artificial intelligence algorithms may incorporate passively generated data such as search query data or other forms of 'big data' to generate real-time predictions of CVD at the community level."

In an accompanying editorial, Joseph G. Murphy, MD, and R. Scott Wright, MD, of the Department of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA, equate these findings with a "canary in the coal mine" metaphor with the potential for using aggregated search data to alert public health authorities to trends in CVD mortality.

"The 21st century canary will not be an unfortunate caged bird used to alert humans to environmental toxins but instead will be a virtual reality program triggered by individual Web searches and social media postings collected in aggregate and analyzed by public health authorities to facilitate the early detection of symptoms and diseases gathered on a nearly instantaneous basis," they comment. "The use of such a program would allow better targeting of resources and tools designed to reduce morbidity and mortality and empower individuals to live healthier and more productive lives.

Dr. Murphy and Dr. Wright predict that Internet search engines and social media postings will not only act like the proverbial "canary in the coal mine" in the early detection of disease, but also "sing like a canary" in the dissemination of important public health warnings.

###A radio telescope in outback Western Australia has been used to observe radiation from cosmic rays in two neighbouring galaxies, showing areas of star formation and echoes of past supernovae.

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope was able to map the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies in unprecedented detail as they orbit around the Milky Way.

By observing the sky at very low frequencies, astronomers detected cosmic rays and hot gas in the two galaxies and identified patches where new stars are born and remnants from stellar explosions can be found.

The research was published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, one of the world's leading astronomy journals.

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) astrophysicist Professor Lister Staveley-Smith said cosmic rays are very energetic charged particles that interact with magnetic fields to create radiation we can see with radio telescopes.

"These cosmic rays actually originate in supernova remnants--remnants from stars that exploded a long time ago," he said.

"The supernova explosions they come from are related to very massive stars, much more massive than our own Sun.

"The number of cosmic rays that are produced depends on the rate of formation of these massive stars millions of years ago."

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are very close to our own Milky Way--less than 200,000 light years away--and can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye.

ICRAR astronomer Dr Bi-Qing For, who led the research, said this was the first time the galaxies had been mapped in detail at such low radio frequencies.

"Observing the Magellanic Clouds at these very low frequencies--between 76 and 227MHz--meant we could estimate the number of new stars being formed in these galaxies," she said.

"We found that the rate of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud is roughly equivalent to one new star the mass of our Sun being produced every ten years.

"In the Small Magellanic Cloud, the rate of star formation is roughly equivalent to one new star the mass of our Sun every forty years."

Included in the observations are 30 Doradus, an exceptional region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud that is brighter than any star formation region in the Milky Way, and Supernova 1987A, the brightest supernova since the invention of the telescope.

Professor Staveley-Smith said the results are an exciting glimpse into the science that will be possible with next-generation radio telescopes.

"It shows an indication of the results that we will see with the upgraded MWA, which now has twice the previous resolution," he said.

Furthermore, the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will deliver exceptionally fine images.

"With the SKA the baselines are eight times longer again, so we'll be able to do so much better," Professor Staveley-Smith said.

###

Original Publication:

'A Multi-Frequency Radio Continuum Study of the Magellanic Clouds. I. Overall Structure and Star Formation Rates', published in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on September 4th, 2018. Available at http://www.icrar.org/cosmic-rays

More Information:

The MWA

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is a low frequency radio telescope and is the first of four Square Kilometre Array (SKA) precursors to be completed.

A consortium of partner institutions from seven countries (Australia, USA, India, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and China) financed the development, construction, commissioning, and operations of the facility. The MWA consortium is led by Curtin University.

ICRAR

The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia with support and funding from the State Government of Western Australia.

Multimedia:

Images and video available from http://www.icrar.org/cosmic-rays

Contacts:

Professor Lister Staveley-Smith (ICRAR / The University of WA)

Ph: (+61 8) 6488 4550

E: Lister.Staveley-Smith@icrar.org

Dr Bi-Qing For (ICRAR / The University of WA)

Ph: (+61 8) 6488 7729

E: BiQing.For@icrar.org

Pete Wheeler (Media Contact, ICRAR)

Ph: +61 423 982 018

E: Pete.Wheeler@icrar.orgTokyo - Water is strange in many ways. Some of its chemical quirks are familiar, such as expanding when it freezes to ice. A lesser-known curiosity, which it shares with just a few other liquids, is the "fragile-to-strong" transition. Explaining this behavior, which relates to how cold water flows, has long been a source of debate. Now, a convincing explanation has been put forward by researchers in Tokyo.

When liquids cool, their dynamics slow down and they become viscous. For most liquids, the rate of slowing is constant as a function of temperatureand these are known as strong liquids. For "fragile" liquids, however, the rate continually increases as the temperature drops. Water is unusual in this regard--it is fragile at room temperature, but strong at low temperatures, where its rate of increasing viscosity hits a peak.

This fragile-to-strong transition is rather elusive, occurring only in the supercooled regime, below water's usual freezing point. Early models tried to link it to glassy dynamics, as supercooled water is known to be a glass-former. However, a team led by The University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) proposes a two-state theory, in effect modeling water as a mix of two co-existing liquids.

Mathematically, the strong/fragile distinction rests on the Arrhenius law for dynamical processes--strong liquids obey this law, but for fragile ones, the rapid increase of viscosity is "super-Arrhenius". As reported in the journal PNAS, the IIS team amended this view by considering water to consist of two states, termed "fast" and "slow", which are structurally different, but both obey Arrhenius dynamics.

"We simulated water by molecular dynamics and looked for structural patterns," explains study co-author Rui Shi. "H2O molecules always assemble into tetrahedra, but we saw that some of these local structures were highly ordered, others less so." The disordered states correspond to fast water, and dominate at high temperature, while the well-ordered slow state takes over as the sample cools.

Crucially, the equations derived from the two-state model successfully predict the fragile-to-strong crossover. This happens well above the glass transition point - glassy behavior seems to be a red herring as far as this issue is concerned. The fact that fast water has Arrhenius, rather than power-law, dynamics also resolves faulty predictions based on earlier attempts to link water's fragility to certain aspects of its phase diagram.

"Fragile water may be an illusion. The apparent transition is an artefact of the temperature-dependent balance of two strong liquid states," says lead author Hajime Tanaka. "The presence of two states reflects water's tendency to form local structures, which is easier at low temperature. In fact, other liquids with a fragile-to-strong transition, like silica, also show local ordering. We propose that this, rather than any glassy behavior, is what distinguishes them from true fragile liquids."

###

The article, "Origin of the emergent fragile-to-strong transition in supercooled water," was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences at DOI:10.1073/pnas.1807821115.

About Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo

Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo is one of the largest university-attached research institutes in Japan.

More than 120 research laboratories, each headed by a faculty member, comprise IIS, with more than 1,000 members including approximately 300 staff and 700 students actively engaged in education and research. Our activities cover almost all the areas of engineering disciplines. Since its foundation in 1949, IIS has worked to bridge the huge gaps that exist between academic disciplines and real-world applications.Cognitive scientists at Lund University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have demonstrated that experimentally induced changes in political attitudes can last over time. Notably, participants' who verbally motivated these "false attitudes" exhibited the largest changes. This is the first time a lasting effect of the choice blindness phenomenon has been observed.

In the study, a total of 372 participants completed a survey on healthcare, education, and environmental policy issues. Afterwards, half of them were asked to simply verify their answers, whereas the other half was asked to also give underlying arguments for their views. However, they were unaware that some of their answers had been manipulated by the experimenters and shifted to the opposite side of the spectrum. Only about 50 % of these manipulated answers were corrected by the participants, and the rest were accepted as being their own.

"This is in line with previous results using choice blindness to influence ideological attitudes", says Petter Johansson, one of the researchers behind the study. "But a critical question of interest to us was whether this attitude shift would persist, despite us not giving any further arguments or encouragement for the new position".

To investigate this, at the end of the experiment the participants were asked to complete a second survey with new questions, which also included the questions that were previously manipulated. They then returned after one full week to complete a follow up, again including the manipulated questions.

The results showed that when participants initially accepted the manipulated responses as their own, their attitudes later on shifted significantly in the direction of the manipulation. However, responses to questions that had not been manipulated kept the same position throughout all the questionnaires.

"This is of particular interest given that it's the first time lasting attitude change from choice blindness has been shown. Importantly, it shows how false beliefs, and feedback about those beliefs, can powerfully shape the interpretation and memories about one's political opinions". Philip Parnamets, researcher at Karolinska Institutet, points out.

"It seems that part of what it might mean to hold a political attitude is to be able to draw on memories of having stated that attitude. In a sense, me being against tax cuts might result from me remembering having expressed that attitude previously. Using our manipulation, we are able to alter the participants beliefs about themselves, and we find that this leads them to change their attitudes," he explains.

When comparing those participants that only verified their answers with those who also gave supporting arguments, the researchers found that both groups exhibited lasting opinion changes, but that the effect was much larger for the participants who provided arguments.

"When people argue for a manipulated answer, we know that regardless of what they say, it cannot possibly be the reason for their original choice. This type of confabulation has hardly been studied outside the clinical context, but perhaps it is something we constantly do in our ordinary lives", main author Thomas Strandberg says.

"We also found that people who started to argue for a manipulated answer, but then suddenly stopped to correct it, still modified their opinions somewhat. These smaller shifts need to be further investigated, but it suggests that even seemingly innocuous amounts of confabulation can impact our attitudes", he continues.

"On a more positive note, in the current political climate of increasing polarization and ideological hostility, our study shows that people truly have the potential to be flexible in their political views. All that is needed is a way, like choice blindness does, to invite people to reason openly, and unleash their own powers of argumentation", Thomas Strandberg concludes.

Footnote: The study was entirely anonymous. After the experiment, the researchers explained to the participants exactly how and why their answers had been swapped, and they gave their consent to be included in the study.

###New Rochelle, NY, September 4, 2018--As people with cancer use social media to find and develop support systems, a new study looks at YouTube content to determine what kinds of videos elicit an empathetic response from viewers. Researchers have pinpointed several qualities among video diaries that garner the most support from commenters. The study and how it can be applied in a clinical setting are discussed in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website through October 4, 2018.

In the article entitled "Vlogging Cancer: Predictors of Support in YouTube Cancer Vlogs," coauthors Brent J. Hale, Amy L. Gonzalez, and Marie Richardson of Indiana University's Media School, completed a content analysis of 69 videos and 869 associated comments. Video blogs, known as vlogs, that centered the person with cancer as the protagonist who discusses their diagnostic experience, the problems they encountered, and their personal growth, yielded the most empathetic responses from viewers. This kind of support has already been linked to positive health and recovery outcomes. Interestingly, researchers found that pleas to get a checkup yielded fewer comments of support.

"YouTube currently reaches more young adults in the U.S. than any cable network. Vlogging may provide a powerful channel to foster active engagement for those who, because of their illnesses, might lack the ability to engage outside of the home. " says Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California and Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium.

###

About the Journal

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies. Complete tables of contents and a sample issue may be viewed on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Games for Health Journal, Telemedicine and e-Health, and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.Nightingale Health, the Finnish innovator of an internationally recognized blood biomarker technology for studying chronic diseases, will perform large-scale metabolic profiling of the Mexico City Prospective Study cohort by analyzing the biomarker profiles of blood samples from a cohort of 150,000 study participants. Contracted by the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, Nightingale will provide novel biomarker data to accelerate research into the chronic disease risk of Hispanic populations.

Nightingale's acclaimed biomarker profiling technology measures metabolic biomarkers that recent studies have found to be predictive of future risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many other common chronic diseases. Until recently, technological constraints and prohibitive costs have prevented the analysis of comprehensive biomarker data from large-scale population collections. Nightingale's technology now makes this viable by measuring over 220 metabolic biomarkers from a single blood sample.

Jonathan Emberson, Associate Professor, Medical Statistics and Epidemiology in the Nuffield Department of Population Health, said: "The Mexico City Prospective Study provides researchers with a unique opportunity to investigate the major causes of death in a Hispanic population. Biomarker profiling will allow us to better understand how lifestyle, environment and genetics combine to cause diseases such as cardiovascular disease in a population with high levels of obesity and diabetes."

Nightingale will perform the assays within 12 months allowing researchers to start investigating the novel dataset promptly.

"The chronic disease burden is global. Therefore, it's essential to study populations across the globe capturing ethnic and socio-economic differences that underlie disease risk," said Teemu Suna, CEO and Founder, Nightingale Health. "Nightingale's analysis of metabolic profiles from this cohort of 150,000 will facilitate the evaluation of effective prevention strategies and treatments for the local population. We believe that this novel initiative is a concrete step towards making chronic disease prevention a global effort."

Nightingale has also recently announced a major initiative to analyse the biomarker profiles of 500,000 samples from the UK Biobank.

###

Media contact:

Teemu Suna, CEO & Founder

Nightingale Health

teemu.suna@nightingalehealth.com

+358 40 196 1669

Nightingale Health:

Nightingale Health Ltd. is the innovator of an internationally recognized NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) metabolomics technology, supplying biomarker analysis services for human serum, plasma, urine and umbilical cord blood samples. By measuring biomarkers from multiple pathways in a single experiment, Nightingale equips biomedical researchers with comprehensive insights into the effects of lifestyle factors and future disease risk, accelerating breakthroughs in precision medicine. The company is investing and working towards integrating its technology into clinical practice to bring about precision medicine, helping to empower patients to follow their own well-being and take proactive steps to stay healthy.

For more information, please visit https://www.nightingalehealth.com

The Mexico City Prospective Study

The Mexico City Prospective Study was established by the Mexican Ministry of Health in coordination with the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, part of the Nuffield Department of Population Health, at the University of Oxford and includes 150,000 middle-aged adults (including 100,000 women and 50,000 men) recruited between 1998 and 2004. Study participants provided information about their lifestyle and disease history, along with supplying blood samples and physical measurements (including blood pressure, BMI, weight, waist and hip circumference). All participants have continued to be tracked for mortality through linkage to Mexican national mortality databases, with a follow-up resurvey of 10,000 participants between 2015 and 2018. The Mexico City Prospective study is the largest collection of blood samples linked with prospective tracking of disease events in a Mexican-American population.

For more information, please visit https://www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk/research/prospective-blood-based-study-of-150-000-individuals-in-mexico

The Nuffield Department of Population Health

The Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH) is a world-leading research institute, based at the University of Oxford, that investigates the causes and prevention of disease. NDPH has over 500 staff working in a number of world-renowned population health research groups, including the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), the Cancer Epidemiology Unit (CEU), the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU) the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention (CPNP) and other groups working on public health, health economics, ethics and health record linkage. It is also a key partner in the new Oxford University Big Data Institute.

For more information, please visit https://www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/PORTLAND, Oregon -- Doctors have long known that in the months after a heart attack or stroke, patients are more likely to have another attack or stroke. Now, a paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology explains what happens inside blood vessels to increase risk - and suggests a new way to treat it.

Heart attacks in mice caused inflammatory cells and platelets to more easily stick to the inner lining of arteries throughout the body - and particularly where there was already plaque, according to the paper. As a result, these sticky cells and platelets caused plaque to become unstable and contribute to blood clots that led to another heart attack or stroke.

But the study found treating mice that had experienced a heart attack or stroke with the powerful antioxidant apocynin cut plaque buildup in half and lowered inflammation to pre-attack levels.

"Knowing that newer forms of antioxidants such as apocynin can lower the risk of a second heart attack or stroke gives us a new treatment to explore and could one day help reduce heart attacks and strokes," said the paper's corresponding author, Jonathan R. Lindner, M.D., a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the OHSU School of Medicine.

Lindner penned the research paper with colleagues from OHSU, Scripps Research Institute and Bloodworks NW.

The researchers discovered the sticky cells and platelets by using unique forms of ultrasound imaging they developed to view molecules on the lining of blood vessels.

This research could help explain why the recent Canakinumab Anti-inflammatory Thrombosis Outcomes Study, also known as the CANTOS clinical trial, found an anti-inflammatory drug already approved to treat juvenile arthritis also reduced the risk of a second heart attack in trial participants by 15 percent.

Lindner and his colleagues are further studying how the relative stickiness of remote arteries affects the risks for additional heart attacks and strokes and are also evaluating new therapies beyond antioxidants.

###

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01-HL078610, R01-HL130046, R01-HL091153, R01-HL11763, HL42846, HL78784), NASA (grant 14-14NSBRI1-0025) and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

REFERENCE: Federico Moccetti, Eran Brown, Aris Xie, William Packwood, Yue Qi, Zaverio Ruggeri, Weihui Shentu, Junmei Chen, Jose A. Lopez, Jonathan R. Lindner, "Myocardial Infarction Produces Sustained Pro-Inflammatory Endothelial Activation In Remote Arteries," Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Aug. 28, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2018.06.044

VIDEO: https://news.ohsu.edu/2018/09/04/antioxidant-reduces-risk-for-second-heart-attack-stroke

Video caption: Video recorded through a microscope shows platelets (bright white orbs) moving through mice blood vessels and adhering to the vessel lining. New research from Dr. Jonathan Lindner and others explain how inflammatory cells and platelets more easily stick to the inner lining of arteries - particularly where there was already plaque - after mice had experienced a heart attack or stroke. Those cells and platelets caused plaque to become unstable and contribute to blood clots that led the mice to have another heart attack or stroke.

Video credit: OHSU

Links:

* Jonathan Lindnder, M.D., https://www.ohsu.edu/providers/jonathan-r-lindner/46A15E53D09F45EE9CE4DA620C3DD61A

* OHSU Knight Cardiovascular Institute: http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/heart-vascular/Rice University atomic physicists have verified a key prediction from a 55-year-old theory about one-dimensional electronics that is increasingly relevant thanks to Silicon Valley's inexorable quest for miniaturization.

"Chipmakers have been shrinking feature sizes on microchips for decades, and device physicists are now exploring the use of nanowires and nanotubes where the channels that electrons pass through are almost one-dimensional," said Rice experimental physicist Randy Hulet. "That's important because 1D is a different ballgame in terms of electron conductance. You need a new model, a new way of representing reality, to make sense of it."

With IBM and others committed to incorporating one-dimensional carbon nanotubes into integrated circuits, chip designs will increasingly need to account for 1D effects that arise from electrons being fermions, antisocial particles that are unwilling to share space.

The 1D implications of this standoffishness caught the attention of physicists Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and J.M. Luttinger, whose model of 1D electron behavior was published in 1963. A key prediction of Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) theory is that exciting one electron in a 1D wire leads to a collective, organized response from every electron in the wire.

Stranger still, because of this collective behavior, TLL theory predicts that a moving electron in 1D will seemingly split in two and travel at different speeds, despite the fact that electrons are fundamental particles that have no constituent parts. This strange breakup, known as spin-charge separation, instead involves two inherent properties of the electron -- negative charge and angular momentum, or "spin."

In a study online this week in Physical Review Letters, Hulet, University of Geneva theoretical physicist Thierry Giamarchi and their colleagues used another type of fermion -- ultracold lithium atoms cooled to within 100 billionths of a degree of absolute zero -- to both verify the predicted speed that charge waves move in 1D and offer confirmation that 1D charge waves increase their speed in proportion to the strength of the interaction between them.

"In a one-dimensional wire, electrons can move to the left or to the right, but they cannot go around other electrons," said Hulet, Rice's Fayez Sarofim Professor of Physics. "If you add energy to the system, they move, but because they're fermions and can't share space, that movement, or excitation, causes a kind of chain reaction.

"One electron moves, and it nudges the next one to move and the one next to that one and so on, causing the energy you've added to move down the wire like a wave," Hulet said. "That single excitation has created a ripple everywhere in the wire."

In their experiments, Hulet's team used lithium atoms as stand-ins for electrons. The atoms are trapped and slowed with lasers that oppose their motion. The slower they go, the colder the lithium atoms become, and at temperatures far colder than any in nature, the atoms behave like electrons. More lasers are used to form optical waveguides, one-dimensional tubes wide enough for just one atom. Despite the effort needed to create these conditions, Hulet said the experiments offer a big advantage.

"We can use a magnetic field in our experiment to tune the strength of the repulsive interaction between the lithium atoms," Hulet said. "In studying these collective, or correlated electron behaviors, interaction strength is an important factor. Stronger or weaker electron interactions can produce wholly different effects, but it's extraordinarily difficult to study this with electrons because of the inability to directly control interactions. With ultracold atoms, we can essentially dial the interaction strength to any level we want and watch what happens."

While previous groups have measured the speed of collective waves in nanowires and in gases of ultracold atoms, none had measured it as a function of interaction strength, Hulet said.

"Charge excitations are predicted to move faster with increasing interaction strength, and we showed that," he said. "Thierry Giamarchi, who literally wrote the book on this topic, used TLL theory to predict how the charge wave would behave in our ultracold atoms, and his predictions were borne out in our experiments."

Having that ability to control interactions also sets the stage for testing the next TLL prediction: The speed of charge waves and spin waves diverge with increasing interaction strength, meaning that as electrons are made to repel one another with greater force, charge waves will travel faster and spin waves will travel slower.

Now that the team has verified the predicted behavior of charge waves, Hulet said they next plan to measure spin waves to see if they behave as predicted.

"The 1D system is a paradigm for strongly correlated electron physics, which plays a key role in many things we'd like to better understand, like high-temperature superconductivity, heavy fermion materials and more," Hulet said.

###

Hulet also is a member of the Rice Center for Quantum Materials. Giamarchi is a professor of condensed matter physics at the University of Geneva and a permanent member of the French National Center for Scientific Research.

Additional study co-authors include Rice graduate student Ya-Ting Chang; former Rice graduate students Tsung-Lin Yang, the study's lead author, and Zhenghao Zhao; former Rice visiting student researcher Chung-You Shih; and former University of Geneva research scientist Pjotrs Grisins. The research was supported by the Army Research Office's Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The DOI of the Physical Review Letters paper is: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.103001

A copy of the paper is available at: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.103001

Related research from Rice:

Ultracold atom waves may shed light on rogue ocean killers -- April 28, 2017 http://news.rice.edu/2017/04/28/ultracold-atom-waves-may-shed-light-on-rogue-ocean-killers/

Simulating superconducting materials with ultracold atoms -- Feb. 23, 2015 http://news.rice.edu/2015/02/23/simulating-superconducting-materials-with-ultracold-atoms/

Ultracold disappearing act -- Nov. 2, 2014 http://news.rice.edu/2014/11/02/ultracold-disappearing-act/

One-dimensional window on superconductivity, magnetism -- Sept. 29, 2010 http://news.rice.edu/2010/09/29/one-dimensional-window-on-superconductivity-magnetism-2/

Rice physicists find reappearing quantum trios -- Dec. 11, 2009 http://news.rice.edu/2009/12/11/rice-physicists-find-reappearing-quantum-trios-2/

Rice awarded $5M for light-based crystal simulator -- Sept. 23, 2009 http://news.rice.edu/2009/09/23/rice-awarded-5m-for-light-based-crystal-simulator/

Ultracold test produces long-sought quantum mix -- Dec. 22, 2005 http://news.rice.edu/2005/12/22/ultracold-test-produces-long-sought-quantum-mix/

Rice physicists observe new 'atom wave' phenomena -- May 1, 2002 https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-05/ru-rpo043002.php

This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,970 undergraduates and 2,934 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.Our understanding of visible matters we called things on Earth, in terms of invisible atoms and molecules, comes from the theory of equilibrium statistical thermodynamics, a part of physics and physical chemistry. Distinguishing things from beings, or dead matters from living organisms, is the next fundamental question that puzzles people. In English language, "living things and their activity" is called "life" (Oxford Dictionary), which is itself "a characteristic that distinguish physical entities or physical body that have biological processes from those that do not" (Wikipedia). The effort to find answers to "what is life" has focused for decades on identifying the "physical body" with the biological characteristics or the characteristic unique to the "living matters". Following and narrating the laws of physics and chemistry, two key notions that have emerged as essential are E. Schrodinger's neg-entropy and I. Prigogine's dissipative structure. These concepts, together with many others, explained some facets of "life". But the line that distinguishes things from beings is always vague, or maybe impossible to draw.

S. Bai and H. Ge at Peking University, together with H. Qian at University of Washington, proposed to ask a different question: Instead of "what is life", they tried to answer what could be an entity that is not just a thing, the matters defined in the equilibrium statistical thermodynamics. Their line of reasoning yielded a new hypothesis on how a "live" process could spontaneously emerge, and they identified one of the earliest hallmarks along the evolution path from things to beings.

Extending the notion of neg-entropy and dissipative structure, Bai et. al. introduced a chemical kinetic view of individual molecules and stable molecular complexes and their populations called kinetic species. It is known from physical chemistry that the individual entities, e.g., molecules and molecular complexes, come and go with different lifetimes, but the populations can exist through a dynamic balance called nonequilibrium steady state (NESS). They identified that the earliest "live" process is likely embedded in a special interaction between a pair of carbon-based components under a particular, corresponding environmental conditions. The interaction leads to an inter-molecular-force-bond complex (IMFBC) that couples two separate chemical processes: One is the spontaneous formation of the IMFBC driven by a decrease of Gibbs free energy as a dissipative process; while the other is the disassembly of the IMFBC driven thermodynamically by free energy input from the environment. The two chemical processes coupled by the IMFBC were originated independently and considered non-living on Earth, but the IMFBC coupling of the two can be considered as the earliest form of metabolism; it is no longer a "thing": This might be the first landmark on the path from things to a being (Figure 1). The dynamic formation and disassembly of the IMFBC, as a composite individual in a population, follows a principle designated as "... structure for energy for structure for energy ...", the cycle continues, so is life as a phenomenon. More importantly, by introducing the notion of individual kinetic entities with variations within a population, an important ingredient of Darwinian thinking, evolutionary narratives can start even at a molecular level. The paper suggests that with additional features derived from this starting point, the IMFBC-centered "live" process spontaneously evolved into more complex living organisms with the characteristics currently known.

The authors pointed out three key points among many differences between their view and other conceptual frameworks: The first is that the essence of a living system is specific interactions of the specific components under particular environment; the second is that the intermolecular force(s) are most important; and the third is that the environment is an indispensable component of a living system. Interestingly, these simple thoughts have a logic consistence and continuity with the epic scenario presented in a recent investigation by E. Smith and H. J. Morowitz (The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth: The Emergence of the Fourth Geosphere. Cambridge University Press, 2016): Based on a sophisticated analysis of geochemical status and the chemical synthesis feasibility, they arrived at the conclusion that carbon metabolic cycle is the origin of emergent life on Earth.

###

See the article:

Bai SN, Ge H, Qian H (2018) Structure for Energy Cycle: A unique status of Second Law of Thermodynamics for living systems. Sci. China Life Sci. doi: 10.1007/s11427-018-9362-y

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11427-018-9362-yMicrobes such as bacteria in the ocean, which mediate the microbial carbon pump (MCP), was reported to substantially influence the carbon cycle of the Earth system. These tiny unicellular organisms, probably smaller than 1 micrometer (1/150 of a single hair tip), are playing a disproportionately big role in a process so-call 'carbon sequestration'. In this process, they take up labile organic carbon produced by phytoplankton, transfer into the recalcitrant form that can resist from degradation for thousands of years, and eventually remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They act functionally as a "pump" in sucking anthropogenic greenhouse gases into the ocean interior as a butter and thus regulating the global climate. Therefore, the MCP is considered an "invisible hand" behind the vast oceanic dissolved carbon reservoir.

However, the MCP was yet to be fully understood. In particular, this important process has not been quantified using a comprehensive physical-biological coupled model of a regional ocean. A recent paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, attempted to address this issue. A multidisciplinary group from Xiamen University, University of Delaware, and Fuzhou University conducted the study with the support from '973' project - 'Processes and mechanisms of carbon sequestration by microbial carbon pump in the ocean'.

In this research, a state-of-the-art regional ocean model was deployed, which was capable to simulate the physical and biological dynamics in the ocean. The MCP processes were explicitly simulated, and, henceforth, a variety of MCP properties in time and space can be better depicted and understood in the South China Sea. Averagely in the South China Sea, the carbon sequestration rate of MCP was estimated to be about 1/6 of another better-understood biological carbon sequestration process, namely the biological pump.

Moreover, one of the many benefits of such a modeling system is that the future state of the ocean can be projected quantitatively given the condition of a changing environment. In this case, the model was simulated with the scenario that sea surface temperature increased for two- and four-degree centigrade warmer than the current state. It is found that the importance of MCP in sequestrating oceanic carbon under global warming may be further highlighted because the smaller planktonic organisms favorable for MCP is less vulnerable to the reduced nutrient supply in the projection. In the four-degree warming scenario, the rate of carbon sequestration by MCP compared with that from biological pump may raise several (~2%) percent, which can be remarkable considering the delicate balance of the microbial food web and carbon cycle and the extremely long age of the recalcitrant carbon it produces. Since the oceanic dissolved organic carbon pool largely formed through MCP contents as much carbon as the atmosphere, the changes in MCP might significantly modify the balance between these two reservoirs. The results of this study even imply the potential of geoengineering with the concept of MCP. Surely, before any engineering on the earth system, furthermore studies on this big player in the carbon cycle should be carried out.

The first author, Dr. Wenfang Lu notes that this study is, as commented in the peer-review, the 'first' and a 'timely' attempt to simulate the MCP process in the China Sea. Although the simulation is somewhat in an early stage, the important message we can learn is the controlling environmental factors of the spatial and temporal distribution of MCP. It provides a groundwork upon which future studies can build.

###

This work was primarily supported by the National Basic Research Program (Grant No. 2013CB955704), and the National Program on Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction (Grant No. GASI-03-01-02-05). It was also partially supported by the SOA Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction Project (Grant No. GASI-IPOVAI-01-04), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41630963, 41476007 & 41476005).

See the article: http://engine.scichina.com/publisher/scp/journal/SSTe/doi/10.1360/N072018-00063Triumph Gold Corp. (CVE:TIG) (OTCMKTS:TIGCF), is a mineral exploration company currently focussed on its 100% owned Freegold Mountain Project, Yukon. This road accessible property is located in the Dawson Range gold-copper belt, host to the Casino Copper deposit, the Coffee gold deposit and the Klaza gold prospect. Triumph Gold Corp has a leadership team with a collective history of exploration success as well as capital raising ability.The scientists of the flagship university develop the concept of inhabited space. Two projects directly related to future construction on the Moon are developed at the university

Before the station appears on the Moon surface, it is necessary to build experimental uninhabited artificial stone objects. To create stone structures on the Moon, the scientists suppose to use regolith - fragmentation lunar soil.

"We propose to use the developments which are now at our disposal on the Moon," says Anton Rakov, PhD in Architecture, a member of the Designers Union of Russia, an associate professor of the Innovative Design Department of Samara Polytech. He adds that it is a matter of fusing the lunar soil with the help of directional solar energy onto the surface. The stone obtained from regolith is the ideal material in the lunar environment. Dr. Rakov mentions that after improving the available technology of 3D printing, they designed a model of a robotic complex - heliolithography laboratory for construction production.

Anton Rakov's heliolithograph, consisting of two blocks, will focus the sunlight with the help of four mirrors and sinter the lunar soil in hard stone details. Regolith and objects derived from it can be moved by a special manipulator. Artificial lunar stones will be used for constructing protective structures over production facilities, power plants and residential modules located on the surface of the Moon.

One part of the lunar development concept is a larifuga or walking architecture. "Larifuga" translated from Latin means "a tramp". This is an interdisciplinary invention of designers and IT specialists of Samara Polytech.

Architects Anton Rakov and Julia Ratieva calculated an innovative scheme for converting rotary motion into steps. The mechanism, made on its basis, is a free platform, located on walking piers. The structure was called KC-13.

The developers drew inspiration in the wildlife. KC-13 reflects nature: the mechanism was created on the basis of the structure of the mammals, reptiles and insects' limbs. In some modifications, the object is set in motion only with the help of human muscular strength, in others electric motors are installed. Nowadays such mechanisms are made of plywood; in the future the use of metal and concrete is planned.

"The project has grown out of a social problem", explains Anton Rakov, PhD in Architecture, a member of the Designers Union of Russia, an associate professor of the Innovative Design Department of Samara Polytech. "Graduating from the university and starting their own business, young professionals face the issue of renting. It is expensive, but there is no guarantee of a stable income. Hence the need for a special, charge-free object that does not create inconvenience to others, and if necessary, could move freely from place to place". Mobile facilities on wheels, the scientist believes, are not always suitable for such use, in addition, they need an engine and have difficulties with maneuverability and patency. In this sense, walking designs look more promising.

Such mobile objects exist only in the form of prototypes. However, in the nearest future, the construction of the first walking office is expected which should solve the problem of shortage of cheap office space for young companies and for freelancers.

Recently, Samara Polytech student Artem Brazhnikov has perfected the larifuga. Now it can be controlled with a joystick.

A team of scientists led by an engineer, PhD, assistant professor of "Chemistry and Technology of Organic Nitrogen Compounds" Department Alexander Pyzhov invented the original technology of manufacturing a protective dome of a lunar habitable station and created a simulator of regolith.

Taking basalt from the South Ural field as a basis, scientists obtained a prototype of the lunar soil in the laboratory, and bricks formed from it were baked in a microwave oven. Such a mass of regolith will withstand only the dome structure, which scientists suggest to erect with the help of a pneumatic decking. In the crater inflatable balloon resembles a balloon, and is covered with bricks from the regolith. Above, the shell is covered with a layer of lunar soil and protected from direct hit of meteorites by another layer of blocks. With the construction will be able to cope robots.

###Media coverage following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami that caused widespread destruction in northeastern Japan helped raise the profile of a previously 'invisible' part of the population - women who come from other countries to marry Japanese men. The coverage led to some, but not all, women gaining more recognition from their communities, according to joint research from Japan and New Zealand.

There are an estimated 400,000 'marriage-migrant' women in Japan, according to government and academic reports. They are often recruited by international marriage agencies to fill population gaps in rural regions. Migrants use the opportunity to escape poverty and violence in their home countries, but can often become 'invisible' in their new country. The language barrier and no connection to their own ethnic groups cause isolation and loneliness. Existing research shows that the migrants report domestic violence to social service organisations more than Japanese women. However, policy makers have failed to take action given that these issues take place within the household and marriage migrants are generally invisible.

Sunhee Lee of Tohoku University in Japan, and Shinya Uekusa of the University of Auckland in New Zealand interviewed 60 of these marriage migrants living in the regions hardest hit by the tsunami, including Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. Their aim was to understand how visibility changed for the women after the disaster.

When the news media at home and abroad featured the migrants' unique struggles and efforts to support their family and community during that time, religious groups and ethnic organisations reached out with relief goods for the whole community. This in turn boosted the social recognition and resources for those migrants as they become the point of contact for aids, created their own networks, and received appreciation from villagers.

"Ironically, the devastating disasters have been empowering for them, and many of them became visible, particularly for their specific vulnerabilities and resilience," the researchers say in their study published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

However, the spotlight also led to some backlash. One participant said that her neighbours would criticise her 'famous' status when journalists or researchers visited for an interview - a statement corroborated by a social worker.

The women interviewed for the study came from China, Korea and the Philippines, and ranged between 30- and 60-years-old. They have lived in Japan between 11 years and 30 years, and had varying levels of Japanese language competency.

The researchers note it was "extremely difficult" to find Chinese and Korean wives to speak with after the disaster, "such was their invisibility in Tohoku's rural communities." The team speculate that women with limited Japanese language skills became even more dependent on their Japanese families in the emergency, leading them to be further isolated. The researchers plan to further investigate the experiences of women who remained invisible.

Of those Chinese and Korean women who they did interview, the researchers learned that a common survival strategy was to intentionally make themselves 'invisible', by using Japanese names, isolating themselves from their ethnic networks, and staying within their home and community. Other migrant wives from various backgrounds including China, Korea and Philippines integrated with their host family by fulfilling gendered cultural norms, such as being submissive, taking care of children and elderly family members, doing housework and helping with the family business, typically farming and fishing.

Previous research has tended to attribute challenges faced by migrant women to their individual circumstances, rather than cultural norms, gender inequality and discrimination. The researchers hope that by further understanding how these broader societal factors disenfranchise migrant women, then policy makers can develop strategies to improve conditions for marriage migrants.

###This database has been created by the Historiography and History of Religions research group from UC3M, under the leadership of Ancient History professor Jaime Alvar, in collaboration with the university's Library Service. The project enables the classification and geo-location of a set of archaeological pieces related to the goddess Isis, recovered from the three provinces of Roman Hispania (Baetica, Lusitania and Tarraconensis) between the 1st cent. BCE and the 3rd cent. CE.

Part of its innovation is its magnitude, as it triples the number of pieces registered on this topic from previous catalogues: "The main advantages are that it provides direct access to ground-breaking information and the immediate update of datasheets." There is no need to wait for a new paper edition. What is more, the geo-location allows any abnormal distribution of materials to be observed. Practically the entire centre of the Iberian Peninsula has no findings, since they are mainly concentrated on the Catalan coast, in Occidental Andalusia and the capital of Lusitania, Merida", explains Jaime Alvar.

One of the aims of this research is to analyse the conditions of the reception of cultural change and the re-appropriation process of ancient rituals: "How do different sociocultural strata of a community which has been invaded and cross-cultured as a consequence of the Roman conquest act?" You can see how active oligarchies are in the process of generation of social change, or how dominated social groups are less interested in it", Alvar points out.

The development of the database has been carried out in two stages: an initial stage of design, development, inclusion of content and processing of images, and a second stage of geo-location through a personalised Google map where the location of each of the items is determined. "We have created a kind of dialogue between the database and the geo-location, in such a way that if you access the description of the piece you can click on the link and go to the map to see where it was located and where it is being stored" notes Inmaculada Muro, in charge of research support for the UC3M Humanities Library.

With regards to the Library's collaboration on the project, Teresa Malo, manager of the UC3M Library Service, stresses that the libraries "are no longer simply a warehouse storing knowledge but have rather become a factor in the spreading of knowledge".

The database updates and expands on what is covered in Jaime Alvar's book Los cultos egipcios en Hispania (2012) (Egyptian cults in Hispania), with the advantages of the digital environment: "It allows you to update, modify, correct, delete or add information to the existing datasheets or to other new ones, so that the user can know how recent the data they are viewing is", Jaime Alvar concludes.

In its initial stages, this tool was designed to facilitate the work of specialists in the subject. However, the general public's potential interest in it was later identified: "Some colleagues from the Faculty have already mentioned to me that they had found districts they have an emotional connection with on the map, which lead them to look at which materials had been found in that place. That is to say, it is also entertaining for a non-expert", Alvar comments.

###

This research is being developed within the framework of the "Oriental Religions in Spain" (ORINS) project, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competition, for the publication of online catalogues of the cults of the gens isiaca, of Mithras, and of Mater Magna in Hispania. What is more, they have collaborated with the ARYS Association: Antiguedad, Religiones y Sociedades (Antiquity, Religions and Societies), the Institut de Sciences et Techniques de l'Antiquite de l'Universite de Franche-Comte (ISTA) and the Dykinson publishing house as co-editor.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTV3yoM5_g0A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol has shown that ancient global warming was associated with intense rainfall events that had a profound impact on the land and coastal seas.

The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which occurred about 56 Million years ago, is of great interest to climate scientists because it represents a relatively rapid global warming event, with some similarities to the human-induced warming of today.

Although there have been many investigations of how much the Earth warmed at the PETM, there have been relatively few studies of how that changed the hydrological cycle.

This newly published work shows that rainfall increased in some places and decreased in others, according to expectations, but that much of the world experienced more intense and episodic (or 'flashy') rainfall events.

Lead author Dr Matt Carmichael from the University's Schools of Chemistry and Geographical Sciences, said: "With the same climate models used to study future climate change, we studied how a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations would affect rainfall patterns on a world with Eocene geography.

"This increased the overall global precipitation - warmer air holds more water. But it also changed the pattern and frequency of extreme events.

"The tropics became wetter and the incidence of extreme events increased, by as much as 70 percent in some tropical regions.

"In other places, total annual precipitation and the number of extreme events became decoupled; in other words, they became drier, with less frequent but more extreme events. All of this illustrates the complexity of how global warming will affect our local, regional and global rainfall patterns."

Co-author Professor Rich Pancost from Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, explained how these findings agree with a range of geological and chemical features of the Palaeocene-Eocene global warming.

He said: "This warming event is associated with major changes in how soil and sediment were eroded and moved around the landscape.

"In many places, river systems that had been transporting silt or sand became associated with fist-sized rocks or even boulders; and more sediment was transported to and buried in coastal margins. In some locations, the rate of sediment accumulation increased by a factor of ten. But at the same time, there is also evidence that these systems became more arid.

"Our climate simulations reconcile this for many locations, showing an increase in aridity with fewer but more intense rainfall events. Those events were likely responsible for increased energy in these systems, moving around more material and larger objects. Ultimately it flushed more sediment to the ocean, causing eutrophication, blooms of algae and in some cases hypoxia."

Co-author Professor Dan Lunt from the School of Geographical Sciences added: "There are many similar events in Earth history, where warming appears to have been associated with changes in rainfall and sedimentary systems.

"Although we have not investigated them here, it is very likely that our results are translatable - because the physics that underpins them remains the same. Thus, the collective body of research confirms that global warming in the past and the future will be associated with more 'flashy' rainfall, with implications for flooding and water management."

Professor Pancost said: "Past climate has lessons for our future. Not only do the models show evidence for more intense rainfall events - with all of the implications that entails - but they are consistent with all of our other data.

"In fact, they explain inconsistencies in our other data and confirm some long-established hypotheses. In doing so, they foreshadow our potential future with complex and dramatic changes in rainfall, more flooding and more soil erosion."

###Heavily traumatized people such as refugees fleeing war, torture and natural catastrophes may not necessarily develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new study reveals.

Researchers worked with a group of refugees - half suffering from PTSD, the others not - and asked them to suppress neutral memories. Results showed that participants who struggled to control these thoughts were more likely to show symptoms of PTSD.

The research raises the question of whether the ability to control memories protects against developing PTSD or if the condition causes an impairment in an individual's ability to control their memories?

Experts at the University of Birmingham, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, the University of Konstanz and Berlin's Max Planck Institute for Human Development worked with 24 refugees from a range of European, African and Asian countries to complete the study, which is published in Scientific Reports.

They found that the more severe the PTSD symptoms, the more difficult refugees found suppressing neutral memories. Their study also indicated that efforts to forget the memories caused problems in remembering non-traumatic experiences.

The research indicates that PTSD patient's problems in suppressing traumatic memories relates to dysfunctional gamma frequency activity in the brain - a discovery that could help to shape more effective treatments.

Dr Simon Hanslmayr, Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Birmingham, commented: "Difficulties experienced by people with severe PTSD symptoms when attempting to suppress bad memories is linked to the ability to regulate gamma frequency brain activity.

"This novel biomarker could help identify risks posed to PTSD patients by memory suppression techniques and assist in adapting and developing psychotherapeutic methods. Our study certainly raises concerns about unwary use of memory suppression in treating PTSD sufferers."

The researchers note that more research is needed into the effects of traumatic stress in refugees. This would help to develop effective medical strategies to deal with the immediate health and socioeconomic challenges posed by high numbers of refugees.

Dr Gerd Waldhauser, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at Ruhr University Bochum, commented: "Refugees and asylum seekers are often excluded from medical treatment or do not seek help. They are often unable or unwilling to take part in deamanding cognitive neuroscience studies, making data such as ours precious in understanding a rarely-studied population with abundant mental health problems."

PTSD is a disorder characterised by the recurrent and uncontrollable intrusion of traumatic memories. Patients tend to try to suppress these intrusions which can aggravate the condition's symptoms and cause further emotional distress.

Researchers worked with a group of 24 refugees, who took part in a series of tests whilst being observed with magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain imaging technology which registered the different frequencies of brain activity they exhibited.

###

For more information, please contact:

Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0) 121 414 8254 or +44 (0)782 783 2312 or t.moran@bham.ac.uk. For out-of-hours enquiries, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165. Notes for editors

The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world's top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.

'The neural dynamics of deficient memory control in heavily traumatised refugees' - Gerd T. Waldhauser, Martin J. Dahl, Martina Ruf-Leuschner, Veronika Muller-Bamouh, Maggie Schauer, Nikolai Axmacher, Thomas Elbert, & Simon Hanslmayr is published in Scientific Reports.

The paper can be accessed at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-31400-x Please feel free to include a link to the paper in any online news article.

The research was funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Young Scholar Fund of the University of Konstanz, the European Research Council, the German Research Foundation, the Wolfson Society and the Royal Society.US Southern literature? Isn't that something to do with Huck Finn, rocking chairs on the porch, mint juleps and evil plantation owners? Not necessarily. Literary scholar Martyn Bone from the University of Copenhagen redefines the genre in a new book that traces literary routes to Denmark.

Southern literature has a special place in the American literary tradition. It appears on most reading lists in English or American literary studies, in US universities as well as across the rest of the world. Southern literature is defined traditionally as writing that takes place within the US South and/or is written by (white) writers from the region; according to the critical tradition, its usual subjects include race, religion, class, the meaning of family and community, and regional history.

"During the last 15-20 years, there's been a distinct break from these established understandings of southern literature. Researchers associated with the 'New Southern Studies' have taken revisionist approaches that also go beyond a narrow focus on the geographical South itself," explains Martyn Bone, associate professor of American literature at the University of Copenhagen and a specialist in US southern and African American writing.

He has recently published a book, Where the New World Is: Literature about the US South at Global Scales, in which he challenges and expands upon the usual categories of US southern literature.

From the established canon to contemporary relevance

"In the book I try to situate US southern literature in broader, transnational contexts, and to look beyond the familiar regional canon that revolves around figures like William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. For that reason, I focus on texts that are written by authors who were not themselves born in the South, or that take place only partly in the region. I believe that allows different approaches to thinking about 'southern literature," explains Martyn Bone.

"I'd insist too that in order to understand the US today, one must examine what happens - and has happened - in the US South. Problems with issues like racism and immigration in the United States now often eerily recall earlier 'southern' conflicts over slavery, segregation, and xenophobia. One could say that in the book I use the U.S. South as a case study to consider broader issues in the US over the last eighty years or so - not least as they also involve today's globalized world."

Echoes of slavery

Bone's book pays particular attention to the significant rise in immigration since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which transformed the US generally and the US South in particular. Can one continue to talk about a distinctive US southern literary canon when the region is being reshaped and influenced by all that is happening not only nationally but also globally, and when its population is being transformed by immigration from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia?

"The South is being reshaped so much by immigration and related issues that I don't think one can continue to talk complacently about a distinctive regional literature. 'Southern literature' - or as I rephrase it in my book's subtitle, 'literature about the US South'--is also about Vietnam, the Caribbean, Australia, California, and even Denmark. One of my former colleagues at the University of Mississippi, Leigh Anne Duck, has coined the phrase 'Southern studies without "the South"' as a way to signal the imperative for scholars to move beyond cliched ideas of the region."

Martyn Bone's work also tries to challenge traditional or stereotypical associations of southern literature as old-fashioned and bound up with tradition:

"In academia and especially in American Studies, literature about the US South has for many years not been seen as especially fashionable or 'sexy.' Yet this literature is overflowing with important, interesting, and relevant subjects such as immigration, globalization, and racism. In contemporary writing about the South, we see not only the familiar Jim Crow racism that we think we know, but also the forms of discrimination and prejudice experienced by, for example, Asian immigrants. This includes encounters and tensions between immigrants and the traditional victims of racism, African Americans. That the novels I discuss in my book take place only partly in the US South, and that they also encompass other countries and states within the US, is central to challenging tired assumptions that 'southern literature' is regional and backward looking. Of course, there still exist powerful books that take place in rural Mississippi (though even they now often feature African or Asian immigrants!). But the novels that I'm most interested in show how our established understandings of the South and its literature shift once we analyze how such novels themselves shift scales between the regional, national, and global."

Challenging the southern myth

In Where the New World Is, Martyn Bone writes about the ways in which immigration to the US South has changed over the last two hundred years, and focuses on a range of novels published since the 1920s by mostly non-southern authors, and which take place both within and beyond the South. Such novels challenge the conventional idea of the US South as a place that was and remains untouched by migration and globalization.

"The novels I consider cover a period of about eighty years since The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. They include books by significant figures including Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Russell Banks, as well as lesser known writers like John Oliver Killens and Erna Brodber. They are all authors, however, who have written about race, migration, globalization, and immigration; they have all located the US South in larger national and transnational networks. It is true that, until fairly recently, there was little voluntary immigration to the US South, because few immigrants wanted to move to a region defined by slavery, segregation, and poverty. However, since 1965, immigration patterns have changed significantly; hence I also consider writers like Monique Truong, Lan Cao, and Ha Jin who write about Asian American immigration to the U.S. South from Vietnam and China."

The Danish connection

One of the chapters in Where the New World Is concentrates on Nella Larsen, nowadays regarded as one of the central figures in The Harlem Renaissance. Larsen was the daughter of a white Danish immigrant mother and a black man from the Danish West Indies; she was born and lived mostly in the United States. Larsen was not a native southerner, but she studied and worked in the South, and her novel Quicksand (1928) begins and ends in the region. However - and this is significant - Quicksand also takes place in Chicago, New York, and Copenhagen, where the protagonist Helga Crane lives for a period--much like Larsen herself did.

"Wherever Helga finds herself, she experiences racism. When I first read Quicksand fifteen years ago, after taking a job at the University of Copenhagen, I began to think about the ways in which the novel destabilized definitions of southern literature - and, for that matter, Danish literature," declares Martyn Bone.

###

Contact

Dr. Martyn Bone

Associate Professor of American Literature

and Coordinator, Center for Transnational American Studies

University of Copenhagen

Mobile phone: + 45 50 57 18 39

E-mail: bone@hum.ku.dk

Press officer Pernille Munch Toldam

Faculty of Humanities

Mail: pmunch@hum.ku.dk

Phone: + 45 29 92 41 69It is common knowledge that practicing gratitude is a healthy habit. But when it comes to writing letters of thanks to people who have made a difference in your life, the excuses pile up quickly.

You worry you will sound trite or cliche. It feels socially awkward. You think that the other person already knows that you are grateful, and that your letter of thanks won't really make a difference.

Not so. New research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds that people significantly underestimate the positive impact a letter of gratitude has on its recipient.

In the study, "Undervaluing Gratitude: Expressers Misunderstand the Consequences of Showing Appreciation," Chicago Booth Professor Nicholas Epley and University of Texas at Austin's Amit Kumar discover a wide gap between how little senders think their letters of gratitude will affect the recipient and the high level of happiness the recipients feel upon reading the letter.

"There's so much talk in the world--both in academic literature and in the popular press--that expressing gratitude is good for you," says Kumar, a postdoctoral researcher at Booth at the time of the research. "But that doesn't seem to line up with how often people are actually articulating their appreciation in daily life. So, we wanted to find out why--what are the barriers holding people back?"

In a series of four experiments, the researchers asked participants to write a letter to another person who had a touched their life in a meaningful way. The researchers asked the letter writers to predict how surprised, happy and awkward the recipients would feel, then they followed up with those recipients to measure how they actually felt.

The results, published in the journal, Psychological Science, find that participants systematically miscalculated how much people appreciated being thanked.

"Expressers significantly underestimated how surprised recipients would be about why expressers were grateful, overestimated how awkward recipients would feel, and underestimated how positive recipients would feel," the researchers write.

The researchers also find that the letter writers were unduly concerned about their ability to express their gratitude skillfully. While the writers worried about choosing the right words, the recipients were happy simply by the warmth of the gesture.

"It suggests that thoughts about how competently people can express their gratitude may be a barrier to expressing gratitude more often in everyday life," says Kumar.

###They aim to improve projections of sea level rise by accounting for how freezing sediment influences the sliding speed of glaciers

EUGENE, Ore. -- Sept. 4, 2018 -- Accurate projections of sea level rise require sophisticated models for glacier flow, but current approaches do a poor job capturing the physical processes that control how fast glaciers slide over sediments, according to University of Oregon researchers.

In a new study, the UO team, led by postdoctoral researcher Colin Meyer, offered a theoretical approach that helps to shed light on what they call the dirty, dark undersides of glaciers and improve the modeling of ice flow.

Detailed in a July article in the journal Nature Communications, the approach captures how the amount of sediment frozen to a glacier's base varies with the underlying water pressure, melting rate and particle size. It helps account for resulting changes in frictional resistance to glacier sliding.

To illustrate their theory, the UO researchers noted that regardless of the size or weight of a glacier, sliding accommodates ice flow that is driven by gravity and adjusts surface slopes so that friction at the bed never exceeds more than about 1 bar of stress.

"This is a longstanding problem," Meyer said. "If we want to forecast what glaciers are going to do in the future, we have to talk about the place that we can't see: the interface between the ice and the bed."

Formulations dating from the early 1950s attributed this upper stress limit to the plastic-like nature of ice deformation. In their paper, however, the UO researchers noted that 50 percent of all glaciers, including those that move the most ice off land in Greenland and Antarctica into the sea, are sliding.

The earlier explanation for 1 bar of frictional stress was based on observations by Paul Mercanton, a Swiss geophysicist, in 1950 and the analysis of John Nye, now professor emeritus at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, in 1952.

"Nye's work carried the caveat that the formula only works for non-sliding areas," said Alan Rempel, a professor in the UO's Department of Earth Sciences and the paper's senior author. "It's not the complete story. It only applies if the glacier is stuck."

Using their new theory, which combined mathematical analysis with satellite data and geological evidence from regions previously covered by ice sheets, the UO team matched the 1 bar limit. The result provided confidence that freezing sediments is the physical process that controls the friction of the ice-sediment interface. The importance of freezing sediment, Meyer said, will be influential in developing more accurate ice flow models.

The theory's incorporation of freezing sediment provides a more complete view of glacial movement, Rempel said. "It focuses on the sliding and should help scientists accurately find the velocity of an advancing or receding glacier."

"If we want to understand how fast sea levels are going to rise, we need to know how fast the ice sheets are going to disintegrate," Meyer said. "We need to understand the role of friction at the base of a big glacier. Does water lubricate the interface or is the glacier frozen to the sediments? This friction sets how fast glaciers can flow."

The rate of sliding, Rempel said, is key to understanding impacts on sea level.

"The hypothesis that we've pushed forward is that the physics of how glacier ice interacts with its bed is exactly the same physics as how ice interacts with dirt in the world around us," Rempel said. "What we've looked at are conditions under which ice will just slide over dirt versus when ice sinks into and takes the dirt along with it."

Incorporating frozen sediment into sliding laws, Rempel said, will lead to more accurate projections of sea level rise based on glacier-related conditions.

###

Anthony S. Downey, who was an undergraduate student during the project, was a co-author on the paper. He has since graduated and will begin graduate school this fall at California State University, Northridge.

The National Science Foundation supported the research.

Sources: Colin Meyer, postdoctoral researcher, Department of Earth Sciences, colinrmeyer@gmail.com, and Alan Rempel, professor, rempel@uoregon.edu

Note: The UO is equipped with an on-campus television studio with a point-of-origin Vyvx connection, which provides broadcast-quality video to networks worldwide via fiber optic network. There also is video access to satellite uplink and audio access to an ISDN codec for broadcast-quality radio interviews.

Links:

About Alan Rempel: https://pages.uoregon.edu/rempel/

About Colin Meyer: https://earthsciences.uoregon.edu/profile/cmeyer8/

Department of Earth Sciences: https://earthsciences.uoregon.edu/The education available to thousands of Mexico's poorest school children will be significantly improved thanks to a new mobile tutoring program designed by experts at the University of Surrey

The education available to thousands of Mexico's poorest school children will be significantly improved thanks to a new mobile tutoring programme designed by experts at the University of Surrey.

Ciro Avitabile, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Surrey, researched and designed the programme in remote schools in Mexico. Working with World Bank and the National Council for Education Development (CONAFE), Mr Avitabile's research found that when training and ongoing support for mobile tutors was increased, the children in poor communities had better reading, writing and maths skills. CONAFE has now adopted the recommendations across all of its programmes in Mexico.

There are currently 120 million children who are out of school worldwide, many of them living in rural areas. Even when they are in school, children in rural areas learn much less than their urban peers. To tackle this problem, in 2009 CONAFE in Mexico started a mobile tutoring programme to boost the quality of education in remote regions. The programme aimed to close the gap between the education received by those in urban areas in comparison to rural areas and was also triggered as part of the 2015 Education for All (EFA) goals for universal access to education (UNESCO 2015).

There are many challenges in CONAFE schools, where teachers are non-professionals who are usually local secondary school graduates receiving very basic training and only a small monthly allowance. The mobile tutors in the initial programme were recent university graduates who were hired to provide educational support services. They were each assigned two communities, where they were expected to spend two weeks per month in each community over two years. They provided pedagogical support to teachers and one-to-one tutoring to the poorest performing students, encouraging parental involvement through home visits.

Initially the programme did not lead to improvements in learning so, in 2014, Mr Avitabile's research team worked with the World Bank to develop and implement a new mobile tutor framework. A pilot study was designed to assess the effectiveness of the new tutoring framework in reducing the drop-out rate of students and improving their reading and mathematics skills. The study, funded through the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF), started in September 2014 and continued through a second school year ending in spring 2016.

The research took place in schools that had never received tutoring before in Chiapas, a notoriously poor region of Mexico and featured two treatment groups and one control group. The first treatment group was implemented in 70 schools, where higher paid tutors were assigned to provide better monitoring to communities where they spoke the same language. The second treatment group was implemented in 60 schools and included all the changes made in the first group, but tutors received two weeks instead of one week of training and also had bi-monthly meetings with other tutors to support them. Another 100 schools served as a control group and didn't receive any tutoring programme.

In the schools where the mobile tutors received extra training and bi-monthly meetings, the progression rate from primary school to lower secondary school rose by 14 per cent, compared to students in the control group. Student reading, mathematics and socio-emotional skills, tested two years after the start of the pilot, also improved compared with the control group. Overall, students in schools that received the standard tutoring programme showed some improvements over the control group but not as substantial as those in schools where tutors had the extra training and peer-to-peer meetings.

Mr Avitabile said: "As a researcher, when you start an impact evaluation, you always hope that your results will contribute to improving people's lives. Nevertheless, I was truly surprised by how quick CONAFE was to implement the recommendations based on our study's conclusions. It is not only about finding policies that work, but those policies have to be cost effective and have the impetus behind them to succeed, otherwise they will never reach the communities who will ultimately get the most benefit from them."

The results of Mr Avitabile's evaluation have led to important changes to the programme, which came into effect in 2017. Training material used in the pilot intervention was adopted throughout the programme, peer-to-peer meetings have been introduced, and training was increased from one week to 10 days. In addition, preference is being given to hiring and assigning mobile tutors who speak local languages.

The results were presented to the World Bank and to other government agencies in Mexico. CONEVAL, an autonomous and highly respected independent evaluation institute in Mexico, agreed on financing a follow-up data collection in order to assess whether the positive effects would continue over time.

###

Read Ciro Avitabile's full research blog.

Read more about research at the University of Surrey's School of Economics.A mechanism for how the disease ALS evolves has been discovered at Umea University, Sweden. The discovery concerns how proteins with a defect structure spread the deformation to other proteins. This according to results in a new thesis. The discovery can open up for novel pharmaceutical developments in the future.

"We've been able to identify two different types of protein aggregates with different structures and propagation abilities. One type gave rise to a more aggressive disease progression, which shows that these aggregates are the driving force in the development of ALS," says Johan Bergh, doctoral student at the Department of Medical Biosciences at Umea University, Sweden.

Together with the ALS group at Umea University, Johan Bergh has developed a method of investigating protein aggregates formed in ALS, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. With this new method, it has then been possible to identify the particular protein aggregates that are driving in the emergence of ALS.

The protein that has been targeted is superoxid dismutas-1, SOD1. It has long been known that mutations in that protein can cause ALS. The goal of the research team was to investigate the way in which the protein contributes to the disease.

In several diseases afflicting the nervous system, such as in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease, new studies show that some proteins assume an abberant structure. Misfolded proteins aggregate and provoke other proteins of the same kind to assume the same structure. In this way, the disease spreads step by step into the nervous system.

"Using the new method, we have shown and confirmed through animal models that the development of ALS follows the same principle as for other severe nervous disorders. Protein aggregates function as a template that healthy proteins stick to and cause the disease to spread," says Johan Bergh.

In animal models, agregates of the SOD1 protein from animals, as well as humans, have been shown to induce ALS disease. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease which afflicts approximately 250 people annually in Sweden. Although the disease has been known for over 100 years, there is still only one medicine with a disease delaying effect available in Sweden.

"Through our new method, I hope that in the future, drugs will be developed specifically aimed at attacking these protein aggregates. Hopefully, research teams focusing on similar diseases will adopt the method. However, we are in an early phase, and developing drugs is a long-term process," says Johan Bergh.

Johan Bergh has a degree in biomedicine and is a medical doctor at Umea University. He is now completing his doctoral studies at the Department of Medical Biosciences, started in 2010.

###

Commences Drilling of TCC4 Uranium Prospect

Brisbane, Sep 4, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Alligator Energy Limited ( ASX:AGE ) (Alligator or the Company) is pleased to advise that its exploration team and drilling contractor (DDH1) have commenced exploration drilling operations at its TCC4 uranium prospect in the Alligator Rivers Uranium Province (ARUP) in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.Highlights- The TCC4 prospect represents Alligators most advanced untested undercover uranium target with a large strongly coherent geochemical pathfinder anomaly, significant SAM geophysical anomaly indicative of alteration, and favourable stratigraphy of the Cahill Formation unconformably concealed by sandstone;- Drilling operations commenced on Monday 3rd September on the first line of four planned lines to be tested;- The planned drill program consists of up to 3,000 metres or up to 10 holes, varying from 250 to 400 metres deep;- Drilling will be a combination of RC pre-collars through the main part of the sandstone cover, with diamond cored tails through the target horizons;- The exploration team will undertake rapid and ongoing evaluation of geology, lithology, alteration and any mineralisation encountered during drilling to enable real-time modification of the program based on results;- Samples will be sent away for assay once a reasonable quantity of core has been obtainedThe TCC4 prospect represents the most advanced undercover uranium potential in AGE's tenements, with identification of underlying Cahill Formation geology (hosts both the Ranger and Jabiluka deposits), along with overlapping SAM geophysics and geochemical sampling indicators.Alligator's Acting CEO Greg Hall commented; "Our exploration team has done an excellent job in preparing access, setting up support systems and readying sites for drilling in rapid time. All procedures, safety and environment protocols have been followed and are in place for drilling."The Company will be sending samples away for assay during drilling operations and will report results once assays have been completed. Any important findings during drilling may be reported if considered of significance under ASX rules."Drilling plan for TCC4 ProspectAlligator Energy has the second largest exploration tenement holding in the uranium prospective ARUP region in Arnhem Land. After several years of work, the TCC4 prospect (refer location Figure 1 in link below) contains the most advanced quality uranium target outlined by the Company's proprietary pathfinder and modified SAM undercover exploration techniques (together our R&D exploration IP). The location is adjacent to other uranium occurrences drilled by Alligator and others in previous exploration campaigns.AGE believes the TCC4 prospect represents the best complete undercover target with close similarities to the major uranium deposits of the Alligator Rivers Uranium Province. While uranium prospects occurring at surface may have been eroded over time, those which may exist under the sandstone cover have the best chance of being complete and of economic size.A significant drilling program is required to test the concept, and a drilling program of up to 3,000 metres drilling is now underway.At a recent exploration planning workshop, Alligator's geologists, consultants and exploration experienced Board members reviewed the full status of work compiled on TCC4 to date and the recommended drilling locations. In particular, Alligator recently completed an up to date reprocessing of the original raw SAM data using the latest data processing techniques. This has re-affirmed the SAM targeting, and clearly showed the less resistive zones indicative of alteration patterns seen from major uranium deposits in the area. The data was reviewed along with the existing geochemical pathfinder results to aid in finalising drill targeting.The TCC4 prospect is located adjacent to two historical and previously drilled (by AGE and others) uranium prospects - South Horn and Mintaka. Both of these prospects are exposed within the valley structure to the south and east of TCC4 and contain intersections of uranium mineralisation associated with the dolerite present in that area (refer Figure 2 in link below).In 2017, during compilation of the latest geochemical pathfinder isotope results, it was found that this area was coincident with an area of low resistivity which underlies the sandstone at TCC4 as determined by the SAM geophysics. Along with this a nearby historical drill hole indicates that the Cahill Formation is also coincident with the low resistivity geophysical anomaly. (refer Figure 3 in link below).Figure 4 in link below shows the updated highlighted SAM conductor geophysics in the TCC4 area, along with isotope anomaly envelope and the four preferred drill lines designed to test Alligators R&D exploration IP targets.To view figures, please visit:About Alligator Energy Ltd

Alligator Energy Ltd (ASX:AGE) is an Australian, ASX-listed, exploration company focused on uranium and energy related minerals, principally cobalt-nickel.

Alligator's Directors have significant experience in the exploration, development and operations of both uranium and nickel projects (both laterites and sulphides).A large genomic analysis has linked certain DNA mutations to a high risk of relapse in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, while other mutations were associated with better outcomes, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of British Columbia.

The knowledge could help predict which patients are most likely to have their cancer return and spread, and could help guide treatment decisions. It also opens the door to developing more aggressive treatments for patients with the newly identified high-risk mutations.

The study appears Sept. 4 in the journal Nature Communications.

The researchers analyzed tumor samples from more than 2,500 patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, one of the most common forms of the disease. These cancer cells have receptors that bind to the hormone estrogen in the nucleus of the cell and drive tumor growth.

More than 266,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer each year, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 70 percent of cases are estrogen receptor positive.

ER positive breast cancer patients have a number of treatment options that block the estrogen receptor to stop tumor growth. Such hormonal therapies are effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy and radiation. But some tumors develop resistance to these treatments, mutating in ways that fuel growth independent of the presence of estrogen. These types of mutations are of great interest because they are responsible for the majority of deaths due to breast cancer.

"We would like to help doctors identify patients who are likely to do well versus those who are likely to have a recurrence," said first author Obi L. Griffith, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and an assistant director of The McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine. "Those with mutations that are associated with a good prognosis may need less intensive therapy than they might otherwise receive. But if a patient's tumor has mutations linked to high risk of relapse, it's useful to know that early so they can be treated with more aggressive therapies or even potential investigational therapies that could be targeted to their specific mutations."

The new study confirmed past work showing that relatively common mutations in genes called MAP3K1 and TP53 had opposite effects on tumor aggressiveness. Patients with MAP3K1 mutations did well, while those with TP53 mutations were likely to have a recurrence. The study also identified three genes -- DDR1, PIK3R1 and NF1 -- with relatively uncommon mutations that were associated with cancer recurrence and spreading.

"Although mutations in DDR1 and NF1 are considered rare, they are associated with early relapse, which makes them much more common in patients who unfortunately die from the disease and, thus, could be critical therapeutic targets," said Matthew J. Ellis, MB, BChir, PhD, of the Baylor College of Medicine. "Their identification also gives us very important molecular clues into the nature of aggressive tumor behavior."

"It is likely that these genes will now be included in gene panel tests, particularly when clinical trials are developed that target these mutations," Ellis added.

One unique element of this study was the age of the samples. Many were over 20 years old, allowing the researchers to know the full history of how the patients fared. But unlike more recent cancer sequencing studies, neither healthy tissue nor blood samples from those patients were collected or stored alongside the tumor. That means the old tumor samples couldn't be compared with normal DNA from the same patients. Comparing the DNA of healthy tissue versus tumor tissue in the same patient can help identify mutations driving the cancer.

According to co-first author Nicholas C. Spies, a graduate student in Griffith's lab, scientists now have enough healthy genomes sequenced to be able to compare, on a broad population level, normal genomes to cancer genomes and use big data bioinformatics methods to pull out the mutations likely to be driving cancer, even in old samples that can't be directly compared with healthy DNA from the same patient.

The researchers also pointed out the importance of continuing to sequence cancer genomes.

"With all the breast cancer sequencing that's been done, it's tempting to think we've found everything of importance," Griffith said. "But this study tells us there is still more to discover."

###

This work was supported by a Susan G. Komen Promise grant, number PG12220321; a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Recruitment of Established Investigators award, grant number RR140033; the McNair Medical Institute; Susan G. Komen; the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) award, number W81XWH-16-0538; a Komen CCR award, number CCR16380599; the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute to the NCIC Clinical Trials Group, grant numbers 021039 and 015469; and by the National Cancer Institute, grant numbers NIH NCI K22CA188163 and NIH NCI U01CA209936.

Griffith OL, Spies NC, Anurag M, et al. Prognostic effects of somatic mutations in ER-positive breast cancer. Nature Communications. Sept. 4, 2018.

Washington University School of Medicine's 1,300 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.UPDATE: Exchange rate analysts at Barclays, in a brief to clients on Wednesday 5th September, noted that "the Australian dollar squeezed higher following stronger-than-expected domestic second quarter GDP data. Once again however, the AUD/USD rally was met with supply ahead of 0.7240 resistance."

AUD/USD exchange rate fell further after the RBA meeting gave little hope of any policy change. The heavy falls in 2018 were blamed on dollar strength rather than AUD weakness. GBP fails to regain the 1.3 level as the Brexit process enters the end-game.

The Australian dollar is back under pressure after the RBA meeting passed without any surprises and gave little hope for the bulls. AUDUSD is trading at new 2018 lows.

Rates were held at 1.5%, which was widely expected. The accompanying statement had few changes from the previous one, although there were some upbeat passages on the economy. Some may have hoped for a more hawkish tone given the AUDs slide in recent months and this perhaps explains the move lower since the meeting.

Westpac bank continue to have a dovish expectation for rate hikes, with no change forecast through 2020. The statement contained plenty positives, but always counter-balanced these with words of caution or potential negatives.

The Governor confirmed the central growth forecast for GDP growth to average a bit above 3 per cent in 2018 and 2019. Positive business conditions were noted but once again, one continuing source of uncertainty is the outlook for household consumption.

The rhetoric around the labour market was a little more upbeat. The unemployment rate at 5.3% was described as the lowest level in almost six years. Reports of skill shortages were noted and while wages growth was described as quite low, it has picked up a little recently. However despite that more positive assessment, the forecast for the unemployment rate remains unchanged to settle at 5 per cent over the next couple of years,reported Westpac.

There were some comments on the Australian dollars recent weakness, but this was mostly blamed on dollar strength, with the official line it has depreciated against the USD along with most other currencies. It seems the RBA is quite happy to see the AUD trade at these levels.

Uncertainty Pressures GBP

The other big forex news this week came out of the UK, with the continuing Brexit saga taking a new twist. Brexit hard-liners are organizing themselves to oppose the proposed deal before it is fully formed, and this opposition is bound to ramp up the closer we get to a formal deal being reached. Even when and if that happens, the deal will still go before parliament for a vote, likely in early 2019. Here is ING on this complex, and pivotal, process,

There are seven months to go until the UK formally leaves the EU, and there are a number of big questions still unanswered. The biggest of them all, of course, is whether a deal will be agreed in time to avoid the UK crashing out of Europe on World Trade Organisation terms? But even if a deal is reached, will the UK parliament vote in favour of it  and when will we know for sure that no deal has been averted?

They go on to conclude,

We think parliament will approve the deal with relatively few roadblocks. In addition to raising the odds of 'no deal', attaching tricky amendments could also put pressure on Theresa May to call another election. While she would not take such a decision lightly given her party's position in the polls, and it would also require two-thirds of MPs to agree, the Prime Minister may view this as the only option if there is no majority in Parliament for the final agreement.

With so much uncertainty over the process, GBP will struggle to find a sustained bid. GBPUSD tried to regain the important 1.3 level but was pushed back strongly. Yet headlines have the potential to go both ways, with positive steps forward likely to have more effect now that so much bad news has been priced in by the falls.Privacy Settings

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Convertible Loan Agreement - Issue Price 20 Cents

Perth, Sep 4, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Venus Metals Corporation Limited ( ASX:VMC ) (Company) has entered into a convertible loan agreement dated 3 September 2018 with Bazco Pty Ltd (Bazco), an entity controlled by Mr Barry Fehlberg, an Executive Director of the Company, pursuant to which Bazco will advance A$400,000 (Principal) to the Company (Convertible Loan). Further details of the Convertible Loan are set out below.Matthew Hogan, the Company's Managing Director said "Venus is delighted to be receiving these funds on behalf of Mr Fehlberg, which it intends to use to rapidly advance the Youanmi Vanadium Project. We believe this demonstrates the Board's confidence in the Project. The Project is an exciting prospect for the Company and we look forward to commencing a drilling program to support the commissioning of a scoping study. Mr Fehlberg has a deep understanding of vanadium ores and extraction going back twenty years to his pioneering work at Julia Creek. His support for the Company through this loan agreement is testament to his belief in the success of the Youanmi vanadium project".The Convertible Loan has been negotiated on arm's length terms, and the Company is not required to provide any security for the Convertible Loan. The Convertible Loan will accrue interest at a rate of 8% per annum. The Convertible Loan is repayable on the date that is 12 months following the date of advancement of funds (Repayment Date).On or at any time prior to the Repayment Date, the Company may elect to: (a) repay the Principal in cash; or (b) subject to shareholders approving the conversion under the ASX Listing Rules (Shareholder Approval), issue up to 2,000,000 fully paid ordinary shares in the Company, ranking equally with the then existing shares (Shares) at an issue price of $0.20 per Share in satisfaction of the Principal. Any interest accrued on the Principal will be repaid in cash. Shareholder Approval will be sought at the Company's 2018 Annual General Meeting.If Shareholder Approval is obtained prior to the Repayment Date and provided the Convertible Loan has not already been repaid or converted, Mr Fehlberg may only elect to convert the Convertible Loan into up to 1,000,000 Shares at an issue price of $0.20 per Share, with the balance of the Convertible Loan and any interest accrued to be repaid in cash or converted at the election of the Company.About Venus Metals Corporation Limited

Venus Metals Corporation Limited (ASX:VMC) is a West Australian based Company with a focus on gold and base metals exploration. The Company aims to increase shareholder value through targeted exploration success on its projects.

The Company's major gold project is the Youanmi Gold Mine, located 500km north east of Perth. The Youanmi Gold Mine is now jointly owned by Venus Metals (30%) and Rox Resources Limited (70%) (OYG JV); Indicated and Inferred Resources of the mine is 1.7 million ounces of gold.

Exciting new discoveries at the Youanmi Gold Mine have been made at the Grace prospect in footwall granites where very high grades of free milling gold have been intersected, including 25m @34.7g/t Au from 143m (RXRC 287) and 13m @60.49 g/t from 181m (RXRC 239). The Grace Prospect may substantially add to the Youanmi Gold Mine resources.

Annual Report to Shareholders

Brisbane, Sep 4, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - State Gas Limited ( ASX:GAS ) provides the Company's Annual Report to shareholders.Review of operations2017-18 can truly be said to have been a formative year for State Gas. From little more than a shelf company at the beginning of the period, having acquired its interest in the PL 231 Gas Project in the prior year, the Company underwent an Initial Public Offering, listed on the ASX on 10 October 2017, and commenced operations. Lucy Snelling joined in February 2018, and subsequently James Crowley was engaged as Chief Operating Officer, starting on 2 July.Our focus for 2017-18 has, as outlined in the Prospectus, been the PL 231 Gas Project. Since the ASX listing State Gas has:- Conducted field surveys to investigate access and pipeline routes within the PL 231 permit;- Conducted short term tests of historic wells on the permit, confirming the potential ofthree existing wells to produce good flows of pipeline quality gas;- Reprocessed and interpreted as much existing seismic for the northern area of the permitas possible, identifying new gas targets in the north west of the permit and below thealready discovered gas pool in the Cattle Creek Gas Sands to the west of Primero-1. StateGas has commissioned further reprocessing and interpretation of the limited amount ofseismic in the southern area with the results to become available in Q3 2018;- Made application for a pipeline survey licence (granted in August 2018) to assist in the investigation of a potential pipeline route to enable gas to be sold to market;- Investigated commercialisation options, holding discussions with potential customers, engineering, infrastructure and facilities suppliers, and transportation providers to explore options for commercialisation and indicative costs;- Commenced formal joint venture governance and activities with our 40% joint venture partner in the Reid's Dome gas project;- Commenced planning for a three well drilling program to investigate the north west gas target identified by the seismic reprocessing, appraise the known gas pool in the Cattle Creek Formation and the newly identified lower target near Primero-1, and investigate the potential for coal seam as well as conventional gas in the Reids Dome beds. The objective of the program is to obtain information that, together with the flow tests, will enable the independent certification of reserves; and- Established relationships and commenced negotiations with landholders and Aboriginal parties for the permit to enable the proposed drilling activities.We are looking forward to drilling the three initial targets in the coming months and obtaining the first new drilling data since 2006.While the PL 231 Gas Project is our focus we have also monitored the market for other opportunities which may be of interest to State Gas and its shareholders.With our increasing knowledge base surrounding the Reid's Dome gas project and the initial drilling program about to commence, we are excited about the prospects for State Gas for the 2018-19 year.To view the full report, please visit:About State Gas Limited

State Gas Limited (ASX:GAS) is a Queensland-based developer of the Reid's Dome gas field, originally discovered during drilling in 1955, located in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland. State Gas is 100%-owner of the Reid's Dome Gas Project (PL-231) a CSG and conventional gas play, which is well-located 30 kilometres southwest of Rolleston, approximately 50 kilometres from the Queensland Gas Pipeline and interconnected east coast gas network.

Permian coal measures within the Reid's Dome Beds are extensive across the entire permit but the area had not been explored for coal seam gas prior to State Gas' ownership. In late 2018 State Gas drilled the first coal seam gas well in the region (Nyanda-4) into the Reid's Dome Beds and established the potential for a significant coal seam gas project in PL 231. The extension of the coal measures into the northern and central areas of the permit was confirmed in late 2019 by the Company's drilling of Aldinga East-1A (12 km north) and Serocold-1 (6 km to the north of Nyanda-4).

State Gas is also the 100% holder Authority to Prospect 2062 ("Rolleston-West"), a 1,414 km2 permit (eight times larger than PL 231) that is contiguous with the Reid's Dome Gas Project. Rolleston-West contains highly prospective targets for both coal seam gas (CSG) and known conventional gas within the permit area. It is not restricted by domestic gas reservation requirements.

The contiguous areas (Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West), under sole ownership by State Gas, enable integration of activities and a unified super-gasfield development, providing economies of scale, efficient operations, and optionality in marketing.

State Gas is implementing its strategic plan to bring gas to market from Reid's Dome and Rolleston-West to meet near term forecast shortfalls in the east coast domestic gas market. The strategy involves progressing a phased appraisal program in parallel with permitting for an export pipeline and development facilities to facilitate the fastest possible delivery of gas to market. State Gas' current focus has been to confirm the producibility of the gas through production testing of the wells.Gail Rubin, CT, is author and host of the award-winning book and television series, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Dont Plan to Die, Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die.

Rubin is a Certified Thanatologist (that's a death educator) and a popular speaker who uses humor and films to get the end-of-life and funeral planning conversation started. She "knocked 'em dead" with her TEDx talk, A Good Goodbye. She provides continuing education credit classes for attorneys, doctors, nurses, social workers, hospice workers, financial planners, funeral directors and other professionals. She's a Certified Funeral Celebrant and funeral planning consultant who has been interviewed in national and local print, broadcast and online media.

Known as The Doyenne of Death, she is the event coordinator of the Before I Die NM Festival. She also hosts A Good Goodbye Internet radio show and produces Mortality Minute radio and online video spots. Her YouTube Channel features more than 450 videos!

Rubin is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, Toastmasters International and the National Speakers Association New Mexico Chapter. Her speaking profile is available at eSpeakers.com.

Gail Rubin has been interviewed about funeral planning issues in national and local broadcast, print and online media. Outlets include The Huffington Post, Money Magazine, Kiplinger, CBS Radio News, WGN-TV, and local affiliates for NPR, PBS, FOX, ABC-TV, CBS-TV and NBC-TV.

Sign up for a free planning form and occasional informative newsletter at her website, AGoodGoodbye.com.Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Markets were fired up last week after the United States and Mexico agreed on new trade rules. The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) Index reached an all-time high and finished the month of August up about 3 percent, reported Michael Sheetz, Thomas Franck, and Alexandra Gibbs of CNBC.

During the latter half of last week, though, the S&P 500 gave back some gains. A hitch in the giddy-up of trade talks between the United States and Canada caused the index to stumble. Damian Paletta, Jeff Stein, and Heather Long of The Washington Post explained:

"High-stakes trade negotiations between the White House and Canadian leaders unraveled Friday, a major setback in President Trump's effort to redraw the North American Free Trade Agreementthe United States and Canada have interwoven economies, with integrated supply chains and vast amounts of trade. The value of goods and services sold between the two countries last year reached $673.1 billion, making Canada the United States' largest export market for goods."

The United States exported about $341 billion of goods and services to Canada in 2017, according to The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative website. Our top exports to Canada during 2017 included:

Services ($58 billion)

Vehicles ($52 billion)

Machinery ($43 billion)

Electrical machinery ($25 billion)

Agricultural products ($24 billion)

Mineral fuels ($20 billion)

Plastics ($13 billion)

Trade talks are expected to resume next week.WASHINGTON  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is speeding up its environmental reviews of LNG export terminals, a process that takes years and has come under increasing scrutiny in Washington.

The agency issued updated schedules for the environmental review of 12 liquefied natural gas export projects on Friday, including six in Texas. Among those listed were Cheniere Energys Corpus Christi project, Freeport LNGs project in Brazoria County, and Sempra Energys Port Arthur project.

The commission has made significant strides in streamlining our regulatory processes to adapt to the increasing number, and greater complexity, of the LNG applications we have received, said FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre. These process improvements have shortened projected environmental schedules in some cases by 9 to 12 months.

The agency says it has sped up the timeline for environmental review through a combination of bureaucratic changes, including the hiring of an outside contractor to assist FERC staff and requesting applicants themselves use third-party contractors to assist in the process. FERC also recently signed an agreement with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to work together on the review of LNG projects.

RELATED: Alamo plan approved by management committee

FERC was facing a backlog of permit applications for LNG terminals, with project approvals being delayed up to 18 months, Bloomberg reported in July.

That had drawn criticism from Republicans in Washington, particularly those from oil and gas producing states like Texas, who worried U.S. LNG could be losing ground to competitors in Australia and Qatar.

FERCs announcement is welcome news to the state of Texas, the nation, and to our trade partners abroad, said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. I encourage FERC to expeditiously process and finalize the applications for these projects without any further delay.

Other LNG projects issued new schedules Friday were three terminals near Brownsville in South Texas, Texas LNG, Annova LNG and Rio Grande LNG. Also included was Driftwood LNGs proposed terminal outside Lake Charles, Louis., Kinder Morgans Gulf LNG facility in Mississippi, the Jacksonville Eagle facility in Florida and the Alaska LNG project in Nikiski, Alaska.Joe Goscinski knows A Midsummer Nights Dream inside and out.

Hes seen it, of course, and studied the text. He estimates that hes heard actresses deliver Helenas monologue about unrequited love at hundreds of auditions. And hes been in the play twice, once playing Demetrius and once playing Lysander.

What he wanted from the cast of Classic Theatres staging, which he is directing and which opens Sept. 7, was something fresh.

At the read-through, I said that I want to hear the play, said the New York-based theater artist. I want to hear what this play is. And I want to hear something and I want to learn something new every time I listen to it.

Thats his goal for the audiences experience of the play, too.

I always say to the actors, You want to activate the listeners ear. You want to create an effect in there. Because most people have seen Midsummer, have heard it before, he said. Its one of the most done Shakespeare plays, and I want people to see our play (as if theyre seeing it) for the first time.

The romantic tale is set in an enchanted forest over the course of an evening in which an argument between fairy royalty (Sam Mandelbaum and Carolyn Delinger) impacts various humans who stray into the woods. That includes two human couples Lysander (Tyler Smith), Helena (Kacey Roye), Demetrius (Hunter Wulff) and Hermia (Jordon Acker)  with complex connections. And it includes the Rude Mechanicals, a group of tradespeople rehearsing a play they intend to stage in honor of a human royal wedding.

Shakespeare in San Antonio "A Midsummer Night's Dream" isn't the only bit o' the Bard playing in San Antonio this fall. Here's what else is coming up: "Much Ado About a Midsummer Night's Dream": Playwright Scott McDowell, who blended elements from "Alice's Adventures in Oz" and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to fine effect in his serial "Queen's Castle," is mashing up elements of Shakespeare. Sept. 21-Oct. 13, Overtime Theater. Info, 210-557-7562; theovertimetheater.org. Shakespeare on the River: Magik Theatre's annual offering will again bring a production by Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre to the Arneson Theatre at La Villita. The company will perform a trimmed-down take on "Much Ado About Nothing." Nov. 15-17. Info, 210-227-2751; magiktheatre.org. "Scenes, Sonnets and Soliloquies": Allie Smith and Nikki Young have blended sonnets and moments from a handful of Shakespeare's plays for a family-friendly show. Nov. 10-11, Morgan's Wonderland. Info, 210-495-5888; morganswonderland.com. Deborah Martin See More Collapse

Related: Ethan Hawke tells a Texas story in his new movie 'Blaze'

In Goscinskis staging, the show will be up and running the instant that the house opens, 30 minutes or so before the first line is spoken. The cast will be onstage, though not in character, improvising all sorts of mute interactions. The house music will include nature sounds, including bird song.

At a rehearsal a little more than two weeks before opening, Goscinski devoted about 30 minutes to the scene. He asked the actors to take some of their cues for their movements from the music. When it makes sense to do so, he said, they also can engage a bit with audience members, acknowledging them as a new presence in their midst.

At rehearsal, it evoked a feeling of having stumbled upon something magical. The idea is to depict nothing less than various ideas of love, which is central to the play.

People may not understand right away what were doing when they walk in, he said. Because we have a mystical world which, to me, reflects the uncertainty and the different world that we get into when were in love  that its kind of this abstract thing, and what an apparently irrational and whimsical thing it is when we fall.

The show kicks off Classics 11th season.

It marks the first time that Goscinski has worked with the company. Executive and Artistic Director Kelly Hilliard Roush is a longtime friend and colleague and has been trying to arrange things so he could do something here for a while, she said. He happened to have some free time that aligned with the Midsummer schedule, and so he said yes to directing it and to teaching a few workshops.

He didnt choose the play, but he was glad to have another chance to work with it.

I love the show, he said. There are some of Shakespeares comedies that Im not as crazy about, but this one I am.

Related: Seguin gets swept up in WWI anti-German treason trial in new play 'Will's War'

Immediately after the show opens, he will be headed back to New York. He has to prep for a new semester of classes at the famed Stella Adler Studio of Acting, where he teaches voice and speech.

Thats the way it is a lot of times with professional directors  youre there for opening night, and then youre no longer employed, he said.

Ideally, his work will be done by then, anyway.

Everythings in place, but then its out of my hands, he said. Its pushing the boat off from the shore and off the shoreline  lets see if it floats. Thats up to them.

A Midsummer Nights Dream opens on Sept. 7. It can be seen at 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 30, Classic Theatre, 1924 Fredericksburg Road. $18 to $33 at classictheatre.org; 210-589-8450.

dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN

Deborah Martin is an arts writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinENIncreasingly frequent major storms and heavy flooding havent deterred population and industrial growth along the Texas coast, with last years Hurricane Harvey only the latest demonstration of a need for better structures and engineering, experts say.

This fall, the University of Texas at San Antonio launches a doctoral program in civil engineering to respond to the demand.

It will include studies in coastal engineering, a more complicated area of the field involving an understanding of how high-velocity winds and waves behave and their impacts on buildings, said Adolfo Matamoros, a professor and the programs director.

In the past, the coastal region wasnt as populated. The cost and damage of a large hurricane was not as scary as it is today, Matamoros said. We owe it to our state to prepare.

About 20 students have enrolled in the program, more than triple what Matamoros said administrators hoped for in its first year. In April, the university will open a 15,000-square-foot, $10 million facility for testing large-scale structures such as bridge and building components.

The program is expected to also advance UTSAs pursuit of an elite designation that could unlock millions in state dollars from the National Research University Fund.

For years, engineering firms could pretty well predict how many professionals would be needed in their communities as they tracked municipal growth. Rarely did they find themselves hurting for more civil engineers, said John Michael, the former chairman and president of Corpus Christi-based Naismith Engineering Inc. before it merged with Hanson Professional Services Inc., where he is a senior vice president.

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But the shale energy boom in Texas has driven population and industry growth in the past decade, along with the need for buildings, roads and the infrastructure to protect them from natural disasters. Just this May, the U.S. Census Bureau declared San Antonio the fastest-growing city in the country. Mayor Ron Nirenberg said then that the city needed to act quickly to accommodate the surge.

Right now, universities arent producing enough civil engineers to meet that need, Michael said.

Its a challenge. Every engineer who graduates with a degree in civil engineering will find a job and have multiple offers, he said, citing the struggle as a reason his company merged with a national firm, to be able to tap into its resources around the country.

Adding to the demand is the response to Hurricane Harvey. Cities up and down the Texas coast are re-examining their flood plans and infrastructure. Voters in Houston last week approved a $2.5 billion bond to fund flood-protection projects.

Engineers were already busy, said Michael, who has lived in Corpus Christi 38 years. What Harvey tells us is we better be paying attention to the need for better drainage and flood control because our day will come.

The states National Research University Fund, which awards millions of dollars to universities that are approaching national research prominence, requires recipient schools to award 200 doctoral degrees annually. UTSA graduates earned 112 doctoral degrees in the 2016-17 school year and 128 the year before, according to the universitys Office of Institutional Research.

Related: UIW president, after first year, is forging plans for university

To get a Ph.D. in civil engineering before, San Antonio students would have had to look elsewhere, Matamoros said, with the closest programs in Houston or Austin.

But the new program also attracted coastal engineers like Salman Sakib, who obtained his masters degree in civil engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he published research from that part of the coastline, one of the countrys most vulnerable. Before deciding on UTSA, he considered the University of Florida and an ocean science engineering program at Georgia Tech.

Sakib started pursuing a Ph.D. in environmental science and engineering last year, but transferred to civil engineering. Currently, he receives funding to study how sediment moves in rivers and how the formations of riverbeds change over time.

In Houston during Hurricane Harvey, rivers were not flowing normally as the level of the Gulf of Mexico surged.

Understanding rivers helps us also with future predictions, like how rivers will behave, Sakib said. That will also help us prevent natural disasters like flooding.

Sakib, who is originally from Bangladesh, dreams of having his own environmental and water resources engineering firm, likely in Texas. It is the hope of UTSA administrators that students will want to stay in the Texas workforce, like Sakib plans to.

We are creating a pipeline for a vibrant civil engineering community, Matamoros said. Harvey was a very eye-opening event because it showcased some of the bigger challenges that we face and the losses we can incur if we dont approach them the right way.

Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralvaLakehead, Calif.-- The Shasta County Sheriff's Office arrested a 53-year-old man after he reportedly chased his mother and sister with a 10-inch butcher knife.

The Sheriff's Office got the call at 4:15 p.m. earlier Monday evening from 72-year-old Lucille Cristiani.

She stated her son, Richard Cristiani, was threatening to kill her and her daughter.

The Sheriff's Office and the California Highway Patrol surrounded their home off Coleman Street.

For about 30 minutes, Richard refused to come out. The Sheriff's Office then deployed their K9, Thor.

Richard was booked into the Shasta County Jail for assault with a deadly weapon, terrorist threats, elder abuse and resisting a Peace Officer.To the San Antonio Fire Department paramedics attempting to calm Alfred Trevino last week, he was another patient on a busy afternoon who was having trouble breathing.

Without warning, the 33-year-old man jumped into the paramedics ambulance, locked them out and then allegedly led police on a frantic pursuit from one side of town to another during rush-hour, officials said.

This was just a patient that got agitated and made a very fast maneuver, SAFD spokesman Woody Woodward said. It was one of those bizarre, weird situations.

SAFD Chief Charles Hood said Thursday that while no protocols were broken, the department is considering two products to secure ambulances. Of particular concern, Hood said, is when both paramedics are treating a patient in the back of the ambulance, leaving the cabin open and personnel and patient vulnerable.

One of the devices being considered is a safety lock by Kussmaul Electronics which interacts with the ignition switch of an ambulance.

Related: Arrest 'imminent' in Centro embezzlement case, McManus says

The device allows paramedics to leave the ambulance running without a key in the ignition switch, but turns off the engine if any attempts to operate it are made without the key inserted.

Ambulances are not locked and left running for several reasons, officials said, the most important being that each unit has medical and electronic equipment in need of power.

A second option under consideration is an anti-theft system by Tremco Emergency Products that requires a hidden button to be pressed before the vehicles gear can be shifted from park.

The pursuit of the stolen ambulance began Aug. 28 in the 3500 block of Goliad Road on the Southeast Side. The chase continued up Interstate 37 and then onto Interstate 10.

By the time the incident ended on I-10 near Loop 410 on the Northwest Side, three other vehicles were damaged by the ambulance. According to authorities, damage to the ambulance itself was estimated at $16,000.

Related: About 20 Bexar County agencies band together to improve mental health care

Trevino was charged with theft of a vehicle, intoxication assault, and possession of a controlled substance, police said. He was denied bail and remains in custody.

If we had suspected there was some sort of dangerous situation, we would've approached the situation differently, Woodward said.

When paramedics know they are responding to a dangerous situation, such as a shooting or other type of assault, officials said they wait for police to tell them the scene is safe.

No timeline is set for adopting either of these security options, fire officials said, because both would need field-testing.

Woodward said they want to make sure that neither option under consideration will prevent other SAFD personnel from moving the ambulance when both paramedics are busy with a patient.

We dont want to do anything that will decrease our ability to respond to patients as fast as we can, Woodward said. Its a difficult solution, but we think we'll find the right one.

jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSAThe worst of Tuesday mornings flooding in Bexar County is over, but the National Weather Service says isolated thunderstorms could drop another two to five inches of rain in Medina and Uvalde counties through Wednesday and continue to douse the area through the end of the week.

The overnight deluge closed roads, left stalled vehicles and prompted rescues, but showed a silver lining: the Edwards Aquifer, which was about 15 feet below normal before the rain, rose several feet, to a reading of 647 feet above sea level Tuesday at 3 p.m.

San Antonio is now in Stage 2 water restrictions because of the dry summer  with the goal being a 30 percent reduction over normal use  but the big rain probably staved off the looming need for Stage 3 and its 35 percent reduction, said Jim Winterle, director of modeling and data management for the Edwards Aquifer Authority.

It was very good timing, Winterle said.

RELATIVE: Florida child killed by falling tree as Gorden strikes land

And in the right place. The heaviest concentrations fell precisely where runoff recharges the aquifer, the citys main water source. More than nine inches of rain was recorded around Stone Oak Parkway, and more than eight inches between Shavano Park and Camp Bullis, according to the NWS website.

The 6.67 inches of rain observed Monday at the official gauging station at San Antonio International Airport easily beat the citys previous record for Sept. 3 of 1.76 inches, set in 1889. But the random intensity of Tuesdays storms bypassed the airport, leaving it with only .82 of an inch, far short of the 1942 record of 4.69 inches.

Firefighters responded to a total of 63 calls for high water rescues from Monday night to Tuesday morning, and had to enter the water to save victims at four of those locations, said Joe Arrington, a spokesman for the San Antonio Fire Department.

Four or five drivers became stranded on Basse Road while trying to pass under U.S. 281, very near a flood gauge sign that ominously shows how quickly that low-lying area can become a river.

There were reports of dangerous high water around Interstate 10 and Loop 410 and Wurzbach Parkway on the Northwest Side, as well as near Loop 1604 and U.S. 281, including the TPC Parkway.

Bexar Countys flash flood alert expired at noon Tuesday, said NWS meteorologist Yvette Benavides.

RELATED: San Antonio reacts to overnight downpours, weather alerts and wet commutes

Theres nothing severe in our (computer) models for the next few days, she said, but the passing of the unstable system should still bring isolated brief storms, including a cluster of them developing Tuesday afternoon in Atascosa and Brooks counties.

Well have some gusty winds, highs in the upper 80s or low 90s, but a little break from the 100s of last week.

What caused it all were moisture-laden, low-pressure weather systems from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico colliding over South Texas. Meteorologists at the NWS who saw the smashup coming and evaluated it with various computer models think they pretty much nailed the forecast, predicting six to seven inches of rain, tapering off through Wednesday afternoon.

Some of the heaviest rain came in northern Bexar County, such as Helotes, Shavano Park and Hollywood Park, and in the northern reaches of Medina and Uvalde counties, where the exposed limestone of the aquifers recharge zone feed directly into the massive underground formation that sustains residents, farmers and businesses throughout an 8,000 square mile area.

The recharge zone itself covers 1,250 square miles in a curving band from Hays County west to Kinney County. Most of San Antonio, however, does not sit atop the recharge zone, but rather, the artesian zone, which doesnt return nearly as much rain runoff to the Edwards.

As residential lawn watering and agriculture demand for water taper off after late August, the aquifer usually rebounds throughout the fall and early winter, Winterle said.

And thats a good thing, because in a normal year, he said, San Antonio uses about 700,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot covers an acre to a depth of one foot, and Winterles math totals 700,000 acre-feet as enough to cover the whole city up to your knees, a depth of 2.5 feet.WASHINGTON  When Democratic objections threatened to upend Tuesday's contentious hearing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was there to help keep the GOP proceedings on track.

Cornyn, acting as the Republican wing man to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, accused Democrats of resorting to "mob rule" as they repeatedly interrupted the hearing to press for sensitive White House documents that they say the Republicans are holding back.

"I would suggest that if this were a court of law, that virtually every member on the dais on that side would be held in contempt of court because this whole process is supposed to be a civil one where people get to ask questions and we get to get answers," said Cornyn, who has emerged as a Senate point man on President Donald Trump's hotly disputed Supreme Court nominee.

The day's hearing, one of the most discordant in recent memory, also featured an impassioned defense by Texas Republican Ted Cruz, who accused Democrats of focusing on procedural issues over substance in an effort to block the nomination and re-litigate the 2016 election.

"Tellingly, we've heard very little today from Democratic senators about the actual substance of Judge Kavanaugh's judicial record," said Cruz, who faces a re-election challenge in November from Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke. "It is, at the end of the day, an attempt to distract and delay."

Cruz, a national conservative leader, and Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, both serve on the Judiciary panel, playing leading roles on the nomination process for federal judges.

A NATIONAL STAGE: Kavanaugh on Supreme Court would give Texas a 'green light' for conservative causes

The Kavanaugh hearing, rendered more chaotic amid frequent outbursts from protestors, came under immediate challenge from California Democrat Kamala Harris, a potential 2020 presidential candidate. "We have not been given an opportunity to have a fair hearing," she interjected as Grassley spoke.

As Grassley sought to move along, Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal called for the hearing to end.

"Mr. Chairman, if we cannot be recognized, I move to adjourn," he said, calling the session a "charade and mockery of our norms."

Blumenthal, joined by Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, another potential 2020 contender, could not get Grassley to hold a vote on a motion to adjourn.

Other Democrats chimed in, questioning why Grassley was going along with a White House claim of executive privilege to withhold thousands of documents pertaining to Kavanaugh's years as White House Staff Secretary during the presidency of George W. Bush.

They also demanded more time to review 42,000 new pages of White House documents that were released Monday night. "It does not pass the giggle test," said Vermont U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, one of the panel's ranking Democrats.

Grassley and other Republicans emphasized that Kavanaugh's long judicial record, which includes 300 opinions, has given Democrats ample material to review. Cruz, lamenting what he called the morning's "political circus," noted that, altogether, Kavanaugh's nomination has been accompanied by 511,948 pages of records  more than all of the last five Supreme Court nominees combined. Most of the documents being withheld, he said, concern Kavanaugh's handling of Bush White House records that he didn't' author.

"They say nothing, zero, about Judge Kavanaugh's views," Cruz said.

Democrats, however, say the confidential records could reflect on Kavanaugh's handling of issues pertaining to abortion, same sex marriage, and enhanced interrogation techniques that some liken to torture  all issues at the forefront of Bush's presidency.

Cruz, one of Trump's most stalwart champions on Supreme Court nominees, including that of Justice Neil Gorsuch, said the Democrats appear to be seeking sensitive White House papers that they know are unlikely to be publicly released.

"They're making a demand they know is impossible to meet," Cruz said, adding that the confidential records are "utterly irrelevant" to understanding Kavanaugh's beliefs.

Cornyn, defending Grassley and Kavanaugh from the Democratic onslaught, had predicted a combative hearing on Fox News, saying it would be "a contest ... for the most ridiculous thing people will say about this nominee."

Unless Democrats can peel off one or two Republicans, there appears to be little they can do to block the Kavanaugh nomination, despite widespread concerns that he could become the pivotal vote to reverse the 1973 Roe v Wade decision upholding abortion rights.

On that front, the partisan lines appear to be well drawn in the Senate, with the possible exceptions of Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both Republicans who generally support abortion rights.

Democrats signaled that they will have many more questions about Roe v Wade, as well as Trump's remarks over the weekend chiding Attorney General Jeff Sessions for indicting two GOP lawmakers just before the midterm elections  an attack many saw as an effort to politicize the Justice Department.

Cornyn, meanwhile, questioned the Democrats' efforts to drag out the Kavanaugh hearings, which could stretch several more days.

"I am disappointed that despite his exemplary qualifications and outstanding record, so many of our colleagues across the aisle have announced their opposition even before he was nominated," Cornyn said. "The level of disingenuousness and hyperbole, even by today's standards, is extraordinary."WASHINGTON  Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., accused Republicans of conducting a charade and a mockery on opening day of confirmation hearings for President Donald Trumps Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, demanding Republicans cut off the proceedings until Senators can review records of the nominees work for former President George W. Bush.

Between objections of Blumenthal and interruptions of more than a dozen protesters, three days of hearings got off to a tumultuous start  underlining the high stakes of vetting a justice who, if confirmed, would likely tip the nations highest court in a firmly conservative direction.

After Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, rebuffed Blumenthals attempts to delay the hearings, Blumenthal appealed to the 53-year-old D.C. federal appeals court judge himself to call a halt to the proceedings.

You have been nominated by that very president who has launched an attack on Department of Justice, the rule of law and law enforcement at every level, Blumenthal said in his opening statement, referring to President Trumps Labor Day Tweet questioning why Attorney General Jeff Sessions didnt delay indictments of two GOP lawmakers until after the 2018 election. At the end of this dark era, when the history ...(is written), the heroes will be the independent judiciary and the free press.

Blumenthal led off Tuesday morning with what appeared to be a planned move by minority Democrats on the committee to derail the hearings, at least temporarily.

We have been denied real access to the documents we need to advise and consent, which turns this hearing into a charade and mockery of our norms, Blumenthal said.

A Republican member, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, branded the Democratic tactics mob rule, drawing a rebuke from Blumenthal.

Far from mob rule, were simply asking for respect here, Blumenthal said.

Meanwhile, protesters punctuated the proceedings with shouts from the back of the hearing room.

Brett Kavanaugh is an enemy of womens rights!, one protester chanted as police officers removed her. Another protester brandished a sign: Roe - yes, Kav-nope. Chants of dump Kavanaugh, dump Kavanaugh, dump Kavanaugh, rang out through closed doors into the hearing room even after protesters were removed.

Animating the strategy of Blumenthal and other Democrats were bitter memories of Republicans in 2016 denying a hearing for President Obamas Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. When Trump won the presidential election that year, he filled the vacancy left by the death of conservative stalwart Justice Antonin Scalia with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch.

So instead of a court tipping in a liberal direction, the court is just one vote away from tipping in a solidly conservative direction. Kavanaugh, a judge on the D.C. federal appeals court, would replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan who often became the swing vote in hot-button cases, including abortion, campaign finance and same-sex marriage.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, turned down Blumenthals effort to adjourn the hearing by saying such a motion could only be made behind closed doors in executive session. Grassley rebuffed Blumenthals motion to go into executive session.

At issue was the question of how much documentation should be provided on Kavanaughs service as staff secretary and associate counsel in the Bush White House. Blumenthal and other Democrats insisted only about 9 percent of documents relevant to Kavanaughs White House service had been turned over. About 42,000 of those pages were furnished to the committee Monday night, only hours before hearings were to begin.

And about 142,000 of those pages were ruled committee confidential, meaning Senators can review them but cannot refer to them in questioning Kavanaugh nor release them to the public.

Grassley countered that the Democrats document demands were little more than a smokescreen, and that more than 400,000 pages have been turned over.

Senators have more documents from Kavanaugh than any nominee in Senate history, Grassley said.

Blumenthal dismissed the documents on Kavanaugh as full of junk.

Blumenthal and other committee Democrats tried appealing to Grassleys sense of fairness and respect for the rights of the minority party, whether it be Republican or Democrat. Blumenthal quoted back a Grassley statement that full disclosure and transparency  sunshine  is the best disinfectant in the political realm.

But ultimately, the hearing settled down to sparring over the expected controversial topics of Kavanaughs record and legal viewpoints.

I will not cast a vote more important than this one, said Blumenthal, Connecticuts former state attorney general and U.S. attorney who already has declared his opposition to Kavanaughs confirmation. Whats at stake here is the rule of law.

Blumenthal, who is scheduled to get his first round of questions to Kavanaugh directly on Wednesday afternoon, took aim at the nominee nonetheless.

The conservative Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society are the ones who have nominated you, Blumenthal said, referring to Trump drawing his Supreme Court nominees from lists prepared by the two organizations. Youve done everything in your power to show those groups you will be a loyal soldier on the Supreme Court. 

In questioning Wednesday, Blumenthal and the other Democrats are expected to express doubt over the legitimacy of the nomination overall, since legal clouds are gathering over Trump.

Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Trumps 2016 campaign connections to Russia gathered steam last month after his prosecutors won conviction of New Britain native Paul Manafort on tax evasion and bank fraud chargers. Also, former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to charges related to pre-election payments to two women with whom Trump allegedly had sexual relationships. In the plea, Cohen said Trump directed him to make the payments  a possible campaign finance violation.

Grassley and the committees Republican majority are skirting the fact it was Trump who nominated Kavanaugh. Their focus is on Kavanaughs extensive legal experience, including 12 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, often cited as the nations second most influential court after the U.S. Supreme Court.

He is a judges judge, said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.

dan@hearstdc.comIt is not shocking that the millions of dollars poured into HIV/AIDS research over the past several decades has led to more knowledge, better medications and better treatment methods for these illnesses.

But what might be surprising is that all that money has helped researchers learn more about a variety of other illnesses ranging from heart disease to certain cancers, and about hepatitis and, potentially, flu and Zika viruses.

On Tuesday, the National Institutes of Health released a report showing that, since the first AIDS cases in the United States were reported 37 years ago, the NIH has invested more than $69 billion in the understanding, treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, according to the NIH release.

This not only means HIV/AIDS is not the death sentence it once was, but it has led to better understanding of the bodys immune system  specifically the role that the immune cells destroyed by HIV can play in thwarting other illnesses.

Obviously, the extensive research done in the HIV area has led to (improved understanding) of different viruses, and of ways to attack these viruses, said Dr. Goran Miljkovic, an infectious disease physician at Bridgeport Hospital.

About HIV/AIDS

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. HIV destroys the white blood cells that battle infection, weakening the bodys immune system and putting patients at risk for serious infections. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, and not everyone with HIV develops AIDS.

The illness is often spread through unprotected sex with an infected person, but can also be spread through sharing needles during drug use or coming into contact with the blood of an infected person.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1987  the first year HIV was listed as a cause of death on death certificates  through 2015, 507,351 people died from causes related to HIV.

In Connecticut, the state Department of Public Health reports that since 1981, 21,543 HIV cases have been reported, and roughly 10,000 people in the state are living with the illness today.

Data show the number of new HIV cases nationwide has declined in recent years. The CDC reported that in 2015, there were an estimated 38,500 new HIV infections in the United States  down from 41,800 five years earlier.

While there is no cure, there are medications to fight HIV. Those with the illness can now live relatively long lives with regular antiretroviral therapy which can slow the damage caused by HIV.

Far-reaching impact

But the research focusing on the damage done by HIV/AIDS  and on possible therapies  has enlightened doctors about other illnesses. For instance, the inflammation that typically happens in HIV patients can lead to heightened risk of heart disease. The NIH said researching ways to combat the inflammation led doctors to learn more about the role of inflammation in heart patients who dont have HIV.

Perhaps even more significant, efforts to develop drug therapies for HIV provided a model for drug development that eventually led to the discovery of other antiviral drugs such as those that can be used to cure hepatitis C infections.

That is huge, said Dr. Zane Saul, chief of infectious disease at Bridgeport Hospital.

Theres definitely been a clear benefit when it comes to hepatitis C, he said. Were not talking about treating  were talking about curing.

Techniques used in the development of other HIV therapies also are being explored to combat other viral diseases, including Ebola, the mosquito-borne Zika virus and the flu.

Miljkovic said the far-reaching implications of the research into HIV isnt shocking, but it is important.

All of this knowledge is cumulative and is helpful (in learning more about) other viral illnesses, he said.The research conducted in conjunction with Pensions & Investments, a leading U.S. investment newspaper, shows the top 20 funds account for 41.1% of the AUM in the ranking, marking a slight increase from 40.3% in the previous year. Emerging markets have become more prominent in the rankings in recent years, with the Employees Provident Fund (India) a new entrant into the top 20 in 2017. A total of four new entrants from emerging market countries have entered the top 20 over the last ten years, from Asia (3) and Africa (1). Roger Urwin, global head of investment content at Willis Towers Watson, said: The increased number of the largest funds originating from emerging market regions is reflective of a longer-term trend, with a great deal of progress being made in terms of governance structures and resiliency. These countries are especially interesting to monitor as they are typically in the earlier stages of maturity and can continue to adapt and develop their investment models. Commenting on the findings, Bob Collie, head of research for the Thinking Ahead Group added: This is a period of extraordinary change for large pension plans, driven by a confluence of factors. Its not just demographic change and the changing global economic balance; its not just changes in social expectations, politics, sustainability, or regulation; its not just technology. Its all of these, and its the way the changes compound one another. Many of these organisations are fairly young and have grown rapidly. This puts a spotlight on their governance and how they operate. Among the top 300 funds, defined contribution (DC) assets increased during 2017 by 17.6% whilst defined benefit (DB) assets grew 13.5%. DB assets accounted for 64.7% of the disclosed total AUM, (down from 65.5% in 2016). The share of reserve funds (those set aside by a national government against future liabilities) saw a slight increase at 11.8% (11.5% in 2016), whilst hybrid funds (those with both DB and DC components) accounted for less than 1% of the total. Whilst the longer-term shift from DB to DC is widely understood and remains unchanged, it is striking that DB assets continue to grow and form the majority of the total assets. We see the hybrid market as an interesting area of the landscape to watch, with its growth expected to continue as asset owners shift away from traditional DB strategies, Urwin added. Sovereign and public sector pension funds account for 68.6% of the total assets, increasing by 0.2% from 2016. North American funds remain the largest region in terms of AUM, accounting for 42.3% of all assets in the research, followed by Asia-Pacific (27.3%) and Europe (26.5%). North America shows the fastest annualised growth during the period 2012/17 at 6.2%, slightly outpacing Asia-Pacifics 6.1% and Europes 3.8%. A total of 26 new funds entered the top 300 over the last five years, with the U.S. contributing the greatest net number of new funds (9). The U.S. continues to have the largest number of funds within the top 300 ranking (133), followed by the U.K. (25), Canada (18), Japan and Australia (both 17). On a weighted average for the top 20 funds, assets are predominantly invested in equities (46.3%), followed by fixed income (36.1%), and alternatives and cash (17.6%). Looking at the allocations by region, APAC funds had the largest allocation to fixed income (52.5%) and North American the largest allocation to alternatives (34.8%). Top 20 pension funds (US $ millions) 1. The Thinking Ahead Group is the executive team to the Institute

2 . As of March 31, 2018

3. As of March 31, 2017

Mortgage banker: Dave Stambone

Home type: Single-family, owner-occupied purchase in Ridgefield

Home value: $464,000

Loan amount: $450,000

Loan terms: Conventional, 30-year-fixed, 4.625 percent, no points.

Backstory: A first-time home buyer was in the process of shopping around for a mortgage when she was advised to call Stambone by her Realtor to obtain a pre-approval.

The purpose of becoming pre-approved is to determine an individuals maximum buying power in order to purchase a home. This is a necessary component that must be done prior to viewing homes with a real estate agent.

Additionally, a pre-approval letter from a mortgage professional is required by the real estate agent listing a home when accepting offers on behalf of a seller. The letter limits the risk of a deal falling through and increases a buyers credibility. A thorough review of income, assets and credit must be considered when deciding what someone may qualify for.

Stambone arranged a time to meet to discuss her situation in detail. The buyer and her family were bursting at the seams and ready to leave their small apartment in the city for country living.

Although the buyer was interested in learning about first-time home buyer programs, she was concerned she and her husband may not qualify based on their high level salaries. The other lenders she spoke to said they would not qualify for a first-time buyer program since their joint income exceeded 100 percent of the area median income. They had no intentions of leaving their positions in the city and planned on commuting each day from Ridgefield.

However, Stambone and his bank offered a special program for first-time buyers with no income limit.

A first-time home buyer is defined as an individual who meets all of the following requirements: (1) Is purchasing the mortgaged premises (2) Will reside in the mortgaged premises as a primary residence (3) Had no ownership interest (sole or joint) in a residential property during the three-year period preceding the date of the purchase of the mortgaged premises.

In order to qualify, at least one borrower must be a first-time home buyer. The program is limited to only a 30-year fixed rate loan. The property must be one unit (condo, single-family or planned unit development) and a primary residence. Financing is available up to 97 percent of the purchase price and $453,100 loan amount.

Mortgage insurance is required with down payments less than 20 percent and is automatically removed when the home has reached a 78 percent loan-to-value ratio. Refinancing is not required to remove mortgage insurance.

At last, the couple closed on their home in 30 days with 3 percent down and obtained a low fixed rate mortgage. The family is now enjoying their new life in suburban Connecticut and appreciative of Stambone and his teams assistance.

Dave Stambone,

Total Mortgage Services,

203-240-9611,

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Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Enel Generacion Chile wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The 2018 report, which looks at the attitudes of 1,800 global senior decision makers from non-IT functions to risks to the business and the value of information security, reveals that UK businesses would have to spend on average 1 million to recover from a breach. While the UK compares poorly to other markets like the US and Singapore (53 per cent) when it comes to insuring against both information security breaches and data loss, it still fares better than Benelux (27 per cent) and the Nordics (23 per cent in Sweden; 28 per cent in Norway). The UK also ranks second from last for having dedicated cyber insurance, alongside Germany (29 per cent) and just above Benelux (27 per cent). Just six per cent of respondents in the UK say their company insurance covers only for information security breaches, while 11 per cent are covered only for data loss. However, the fact that nearly half (45 per cent) of those surveyed do not know if their company insurance covers either of these is a concern, given that it is the highest figure for any of the countries in the report and well above the global average of 23 per cent. Kai Grunwitz, Senior VP EMEA, NTT Security, comments: With estimated annual losses from cyber crime now topping $400bn (291bn) according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, you would hope more organisations would be beating a path to insurers doors. But while the insurance sector is certainly seeing growth in the number of policies being taken out to cover such losses, its an issue that many senior decision makers are not on top of." According to figures, the number of insurers now offering cyber insurance via Lloyd's of London has leapt to more than 70, nearly double the number a few years ago, while insurance giant Allianz predicts that global cyber insurance premiums will grow to $20bn by 2025, up from around $3-4bn currently. According to the 2018 Risk:Value report, half of respondents in UK organisations believe that the failure to maintain or apply updates to existing IT systems would or could invalidate their company insurance, while 37 per cent point to lack of compliance with industry regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in May. While 63 per cent of respondents in the UK say they have an incident response plan in place, and another 18 per cent are in the process of implementing one, 38 per cent agree that lack of an incident response plan could or would also invalidate their company insurance. Incident response is a basic requirement of best practice security and is even more important with the GDPR mandating 72-hour notifications following a breach. The GDPR and NIS Directive both require organisations in one way or another to follow best practices in cybersecurity, threatening huge fines of up to 17 million or four per cent of global annual turnover for non-compliance. NTT Securitys Kai Grunwitz adds: While cyber risk insurance should be put in place to help mitigate the potential fallout of a data security breach, a policy must not be seen as a get out of jail free' card. Cyber insurance must be complementary to an effective risk-based information security strategy, not a replacement for it. You wouldn't expect your house insurance provider to pay out if you were burgled when the doors and windows are left unlocked. So don't expect a payout  or indeed an insurance policy  if you haven't put in place the right processes and policies.

Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Switzerland 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 Switzerland ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

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View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The Boeing Co. is an aerospace company, which engages in the manufacture of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space and Security; Global Services; and Boeing Capital. The Commercial Airplanes segment includes the development, production, and market of commercial jet aircraft and provides fleet support services, principally to the commercial airline industry worldwide. The Defense, Space and Security segment refers to the research, development, production and modification of manned and unmanned military aircraft and weapons systems for global strike, including fighter and combat rotorcraft aircraft and missile systems; global mobility, including tanker, rotorcraft and tilt-rotor aircraft; and airborne surveillance and reconnaissance, including command and control, battle management and airborne anti-submarine aircraft. The Global Services segment provides services to commercial and defense customers. The Boeing Capital segment seeks to ensure that Boeing customers have the financing they need to buy and take delivery of their Boeing product and manages overall financing exposure. T

Read Moreby Dan Tursky | Mon, Sep 3rd 7:56pm EDT

Scooter Gennett was 2-for-4 with a solo home run and a double in a Reds 5-1 loss to the Pirates on Monday.

Fantasy Impact:

Gennett essentially accounted for all of Cincinnati's offense in this one, the solo shot being the only run the Reds would score on Monday. For Gennett, he continues to tear at the plate as he is now 9-for-17 (.529) over his past four games. He will carry his season-long .320 average with 20 home runs and 82 RBI into Tuesday's matchup against Joe Musgrove.It is September now, and what will happen in grain markets has happened. Now comes the time of year when it is hard to imagine any real change in prices as we finish the crop year.

There has been no talk recently of any real stress on the corn crop, for example. We had no extended heat period, no dry talk in the markets. The corn crop chugged on, and early ideas are for the crop yield to be even better than expected.

Locally, the soybeans look the best they have ever been, based on my nonscientific, roadside surveys.

For example, the field across from my house, on unimproved, untiled, thin Ashtabula County clay loam, is headed toward the best crop of beans I have seen in the 44 years I have been watching it. The parts the deer have not harvested will probably crank out 70 bpa.

The market mover this Tuesday morning, after the long weekend, is actually wheat. December Chicago wheat futures are now down 15 cents. The only real news is that the Russians have decided to not limit exports. Their exports set a record pace for the month of August. I am not impressed that this is all the reason for the drop, but maybe we are just looking for news, and this fit the bill.

No weather news

Certainly there is no weather news, and there has not been all summer. Well, no negative news, at least. The summer has been nearly ideal for most of the Midwest. Every week we hear of forecast rain and comfortable moisture levels. We never had any extended hot and dry period like sometimes stresses the crops. August has seen us with perfect rain and temperatures for filling the soybeans.

The good weather has extended the bad price picture. Big crops are getting bigger in forecast, and this is the third big crop in a row. The only difference between this year and last is that there are more acres of soybeans and fewer of corn.

The record corn yield will still make up the difference in the crop, so our carryout continues to grow. I dont think the E-15 promotion is going to bail us out of this one.

Global news

With no weather worries, the market focuses on foreign trade news. For example, it was reported this morning that the Argentine government is planning a 10 percent export tax on wheat and corn, simply to recover some of the losses from the recent Peso meltdown. This is an attempt to counteract the effective cheaper price as expressed in dollars.

Soybean news has focused on American and Chinese difference that have resulted in lower soybean prices. Again this week there were losses in soybean prices. Those losses were blamed on disappointing progress in trade talks.

According to CHS Hedging this morning, our 2018-2019 soybean exports to China will drop to 84.67 mmt, down 10 mmt from last year. This is not actually as big as one would think, from the disastrous price changes. The biggest problem is not the volume, but the resulting price.

Compare this to the estimate that Brazil will send 71.06 mmt to China, and Argentina will send 7.5 mmt.

Last week our government announced the first round of compensatory payments to American soybean farmers in the hope that rural America will not pay for foreign trade decisions as they have in the past. (Review last weeks column for details.)

Looking at prices, this Tuesday morning we have December corn futures down a penny at 3.64. The recent high was at 3.88 1/2 the last day of July, so we have lost almost a quarter in a month.

November soybeans are now 8.40 1/2, down three cents. We were 9.22 1/4 for a high the end of July, and we had a low of 8.28 3/4 the end of August.

I guess the good news is we are 12 cents up from the end of August. The bad news is, we have seen a range of nearly a dollar in one month.

As I mentioned, this Tuesday morning sees us down 15 cents on December wheat futures, at 5.30 1/2. We had a high a month ago at 6.13 and a low of 4.90 in between. That pretty much defines volatility, and that much price change is unusual for this time of year.A farming group has urged levy board the AHDB to improve accountability by holding more open meetings and act more transparent on its board appointments.

The comments come as Defra announces a review into the operation and performance of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

AHDB derives the bulk of its income from a statutory levy generated from the farming community, which delivers around 60 million per annum and is spent across six sector boards.

The government review is a joint 10-week exercise covering England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The request for views will close on 9 November.

The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has now weighed in on the issue, saying "hard-working farmers" need to be "reassured" that the 60 million per year is money well spent.

While the organisation is not calling for the abolition of AHDB, it said more could be done to improve accountability, such as holding more open meetings of its full and sector boards, and provide greater transparency on board appointments.

A regular poll of levy payers to determine whether the board should continue in its current form, become voluntary or cease to exist altogether is also needed, the TFA highlighted.

TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn said: The key criteria which must be central to this review is how we measure the value that AHDB delivers to the industry as a whole.

As we move into the post Brexit era, which will present both opportunities and challenges for the UK agricultural industry, it is vital that every penny of the budget at the disposal of AHDB is used to drive the sustainability, resilience and profitability of UK agriculture and horticulture.

The review will look at the AHDBs purpose and priorities, its strengths and where improvements need to be made.

To submit views please complete the online survey by 9 November. Defra will also be running a number of workshops in the coming weeks.Drones have captured footage showing the extent of a wildfire that burnt hundreds of hectares of farmland in North Wales for four weeks earlier this summer.

The fire on Mynydd Llantysilio, began in July, at the height of this summers heatwave.

Initial surveys reveal that 247 hectares (610 acres), the size of about 247 rugby pitches, has been burnt and there is little vegetation left in the area.

The mountain is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and provides grazing areas for local farmers.

It is also an important heather moorland habitat, and is home to rare birds like the black grouse and the curlew.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) worked with North Wales Fire and Rescue Service (NWFRS) to cut back vegetation and create fire breaks to try and stop the fire spreading.

The groups will now work together with landowners and farmers to assess the damage, and plan what needs to be done to try to restore the area to its former glory.

Nick Thomas, Operations Manager for North East Wales NRW said: Mynydd Llantysilio is really important to both people and wildlife and over the last five years we have worked with Denbighshire County Council, local farmers and others to improve the vegetation for wildlife and grazing.

The thin mineral soil is normally covered by heathland vegetation like heather, bilberry and gorse.

There are also some pockets of deeper peat that have been particularly badly affected by the fire. In places it has been completely burnt away, exposing a sandy sub-soil and rock.

Mr Thomas added: We anticipate that some heathland plants will grow back from roots that have survived the fire or from the seeds. However, the peatland areas are likely to take much longer to re-vegetate and some areas may not recover naturally."

Mynydd Llantysilio is common land. It is part of the Berwyn and South Clwyd Mountains Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The wildfire follows news a similar situation for farmers on Saddleworth Moor, West Yorkshire who are left facing bills running into tens of thousands of pounds after around 5,000 acres of their land was turned into "black desert" due to a devastating fire.EU farming organisations have been urged to lobby their governments to ensure a sensible Brexit agreement that benefits all those in the agri-food supply chain.

The Country Land and Business Association's (CLA) President, Tim Breitmeyer has written to members of the European Landowners Organisation (ELO) analysing the trade implications of a no deal for agriculture.

He urged his counterparts in EU member states to engage with government departments to stress the effects of a no-deal scenario for both UK and EU farmers in the agri-food supply chain.

Commenting on the letter, he said farmers and other rural businesses "rely heavily" on frictionless trade and movement of goods across EU borders.

A future relationship which imposes barriers to trade or excludes agri-food would put at risk farming businesses both here and in the EU and have a devastating impact across our wider rural economies," Mr Breitmeyer said.

I have written to farming colleagues across Europe encouraging them to put pressure on their own governments so that the UK and EU can come to a sensible withdrawal deal.

He added: It must be in everyones best interest to guarantee free trade post-Brexit, so that all involved in the agri-food supply chain can continue to benefit.

'Significant uncertainty'

The letter from the CLA President sets out the trade implications for the UK and EU if no deal has been reached.

Under such a scenario, the UK would have to trade under World Trade Organisation (WTO) Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status with the EU automatically applying its external common customs tariff on UK exports.

Mr Breitmeyer said this would cause "significant uncertainty" in the market place, leading to "negative economic consequences" in the short to medium term.

The imposition of customs controls could also lead to increases in costs in the supply chain for both exports and imports, with a probable tariff equivalent cost of over 4%.

Costs on goods such as meat will be substantially higher at more than 10%, Mr Breitmeyer added.

This would be under a backdrop of government policy chasing cheap food and retailers desire to keep prices low, which could put significant downward pressure on producer price in certain sectors, most notably for lamb.

Lastly, global factors suggesting a reduction in growth in China and South East Asia in 2019 and the imposition of US tariffs on Chinese goods could lead to a global recession in 2020, thus exacerbating the adverse impacts of a no deal Brexit.The National Farmers' Union President has said the new Livestock Information Programme is "pivotal" in bringing the livestock sector together.

The Traceability Design User Group (TDUG) has given a key update to the industry on the programme, with support from government, food chain and farming groups.

TDUG  which was formed last year and now represents 23 organisations across the meat and livestock sector  held an event to update key stakeholders in London on Monday (3 September), including Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Rural Affairs, Lord Gardiner.

It follows an announcement by Defra in April about the go-ahead of the service, hoping to provide the foundation for some of the "best farm-to-fork traceability in the world".

'Once in a generation'

NFU President, Minette Batters said the UK has a "once in a generation opportunity" to drive change with the Livestock Information Programme.

We believe that the LIP will put in place a foundation that we can build on to bring our sector together, connecting producers, markets and processors," Ms Batters said.

"It will enable risk-based trading and for us to evidence the quality of our products.

For the first time, the livestock sector will be able to lead the way in British agriculture, building a national system that provides powerful insight from which they can drive better profit through cost reduction, maximising price through provenance and securing the markets that best suit their products.

She added: It really is a pivotal time for the Programme and Im thrilled to see such great progress enabled by the partnership across the industry.

'Unique opportunity'

The new service hopes to add value for the livestock sectors, as well as providing a statutory service that will better protect against disease and bolster trade negotiations.

John Cross, livestock farmer and TDUG Chairman said: We are in an unprecedented position where the ambitions and needs of government and industry are totally aligned and this is a unique opportunity to achieve something incredibly smart together and make the UK meat and livestock industry world-class.Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryMadhuri Dixit shoot scenes with Sanjay Dutt for Karan Johar's Kalank ! | FilmiBeat

Ever since we've heard that Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit would be reuniting onscreen after a gap of 21 years for Abhishek Varman's ambitious project 'Kalank', we just can't keep calm. The duo have been a part of various blockbuster films like 'Khalnayak', 'Saajan' and 'Thaanedaar'. Not just that, back then there were strong whispers about an alleged romance blossoming between them, though time and again, both Sanjay and Madhuri refuted these reports. It was even said that the actors parted on an ugly note after their alleged break-up.

Recently, there were reports floating in the media that Sanjay and Madhuri will not be having any scenes together in Kalank. Well folks, it turns out they were mere rumours.

Rejoice, Sanjay Dutt-Madhuri Dixit Fans While rumours were rife that Sanjay and Madhuri will not be having any scenes together in Kalank, a Mumbai Mirror report stated that the actor-duo shot their portions together, last week, at Chitrakoot Grounds in Andheri. Sanjay & Madhuri Shoot For A Few Dramatic Scenes Together A source from the film's team further told Mumbai Mirror, "Sanjay and Madhuri shot a couple of dramatic sequences together over three days with co-stars Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt." There Was No Awkwardness Between The Rumoured Ex-Lovebirds According to the source, there was no awkwardness between the former co-stars and the scenes went off smoothly. Director Abhishek Varman Plans To Wrap Kalank By November-End The source further told the daily, "Next up, Madhuri is scheduled to shoot her grand mujra song, choreographed by Saroj Khan and Remo D'souza, from September 5 to 7, while Sanjay is yet to wrap up his portions as well. All major scenes will be completed by the month-end." A Starry Cast Kalank brings together Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Sonakshi Sinha and Aditya Roy Kapur in one frame and that's one of the reasons why it is touted to be one of the most awaited films of 2019.

Earlier while speaking about the film, producer Karan Johar said, "Kalank has been an emotional journey for me! A germ of an idea that I had nearly 15 years ago...a film that was in a pre production stage helmed by my father...am now proud to pass it onto the extremely capable and visionary hands of our director Abhishek Varman! A beautifully structured story by Shibani Bathija and an exceptionally fluid narrative and screenplay by Abhishek."

Kalank is slated to release on 18th April, 2019.First Woman To Step On The Moon!

If Neil Armstrong was the first man to put his step on the moon, Anushka Sharma is the first woman to do so, apparently! All thanks to Sui Dhaaga!

Awwww So Cute!

Here, a real-life Anushka Sharma is seen petting a reel-life Anushka Sharma along with her husband Virat Kohli.

Even Gandhiji Is Not Spared!

Anushka Sharma's Sui Dhaaga memes can date way back to the freedom struggle in the 1940s as well.

What A Creativity!

The person who made this meme should be given the 'Meme Ratna' award for creativity in unusual circumstances.

Mount Rushmore

Even the former Presidents of the USA are not spared from the Sui Dhaaga memes, folks!

Statue Of Liberty

From India to New York, Anushka Sharma's memes have travelled a long way!

The Struggle Is Real!

The picture and the caption say it all, peeps!

Run For Your Life!

Sui Dhaaga memes are really one of the most hilarious movie memes ever made, folks! Don't you agree?

Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah

Trollers are having a field day with Anushka Sharma's Sui Dhaaga pose and the memes are just endless.

The Rock

Even the WWE wrestler - The Rock - is stunned with Anushka Sharma's Sui Dhaaga pose.

3 Idiots

If 3 Idiots were not enough, Anushka Sharma has been meme'd into the fourth one.College Authorities Blamed The Student For The Big B Photo!

The members in the college administration washed their hands clean from the blunder by pinning the blame against the student himself, and stated that the student or the internet cafe might have done the goof up.

But Who Is To Be Blamed For The Error?

Gurpendra Mishra, a senior official of the college, said, "Amit is a regular student of our college and has filled his examination form. It is possible that he or the internet cafe from where he filled up the form committed the error. There is also a possibility that University might have erred."

His Marks Sheet Will Have His Own Photo!

"He will be taking his exams. We have informed the principal of the exam centre and will take efforts so that the correct mark sheet is issued to the student," confirmed Gurpendra Mishra.

This Is Not The First Time

In April 2018, a student in Bihar collected her hall ticket just to see her picture replaced by a woman in a bikini. The upset student complained to the higher authorities and the correct admit card was issued immediately. The college blamed the University for the goof up, and the agency that printed the hall ticket gave a written explanation to the student and apologised for the mistake.Nimrat Kaur Calls It Fiction!

Nimrat Kaur cleared the air as well and called the rumours a work of fiction. She took to Twitter by saying, "Fact: I may need a root canal. Fiction: Everything else I read about me today. More facts: Fiction can be more hurtful, monday blues exist and I love ice cream. Here's to trash free happy days ahead."

How Did All This Start In The First Place?

A report in Pune Mirror stated that Ravi Shastri and Nimrat Kaur are in a relationship and the whole issue snowballed from there. Twitterati was filled with Ravi Shastri and Nimrat Kaur pictures and the others picked it up.

Luxury German Car Expo!

Ravi Shastri and Nimrat Kaur met in the year 2015, as they were roped in by a luxury German car brand to launch its new fleet of cars every year. They posed alongside the latest models at various such car expos and got to know each other well.

So, There You Go!

So, there you go, folks! Both Ravi Shastri and Nimrat Kaur confirmed that there's not an ounce of truth to the rumours and have finally settled the matter in a day's time.A few months ago, the Movie Artists Association (MAA) banned actress Sri Reddy for stripping in public and talking about casting couch in Tollywood. This action received a lot of flak and MAA was ultimately forced to revoke her suspension. Now, the organisation is once again in the news for a shocking reason. As it so happens, actor Naresh has apparently accused the MAA President Shivaji and actor Srikanth of misusing the funds collected during the MAA shows in the US. And, needless to say, this has created a great deal of buzz in the industry.

During a press conference, Srikanth opened up about the allegations and offered to quit the organisation if anyone could prove that he was indeed involved in corrupt practices.

"50 Members of MAA attended US Event of Chiranjeevi garu. This is the biggest event ever conducted by the Association. We received the agreement amount from the US organizer and that's what matters the most. Whether if the Organizer earns profit or incurs loss, MAA will have nothing to do with it. When My Name appeared in media reports, I asked General Secretary Naresh to issue a clarification by attending the press meet but he didn't come. I won't visit MAA Office again and cancel my membership as well if anyone could prove there is a shortage of at least 5 paisa of the Agreement Amount. That's my open challenge! Are those who made allegations ready to make the same challenge," he added.

Interestingly, Naresh too held a PC and stated that he was in favour of constituting a Fact Finding Committee to look into the matter. He added that, barring Shivaji and his group, everyone else was in favour of setting up the said committee. Naresh also made it clear that he had already briefed Chiranjeevi about the controversy and was waiting for him to revert.

Based on these developments, it is quite clear that there is a rift in the MAA and all is not well. This is a developing situation and it'll be worth watching what happens next.















PLEASE NOTE: The following article doesn't reflect the views of The Canadian or its writers





Are you an average guy who likes to abuse his wife?





After all, I'm Jamaican. I can't help myself.





Let me tell you about a great experience I had with an Ottawa cop who helped me abuse my wife and kept my meddling son from stopping me.





His name is Detective Robert Griffin of the Ottawa Police.





Back in 2015, I thought that I was in trouble when social service workers wanted to check and see how my wife was doing.





The social service workers were going to testify against me with my son in Court about how I been keeping basic medicine and other stuff they wanted to deliver to my wife.





That's when Detective Robert Griffin saved the day.





He marched down there like any guy who shares my views on the right of a man to do what he wants in his home, and told those social service workers to back off.





Too bad that my wife can no longer walk, talk or write. Hey, it's not my fault she can't take some action.





She kept crying to see her son.Give me a brake!! But thanks to the moral support of Detective Robert Griffin and his friends down at the Ottawa Police that will never happen.Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial shows statistically significant efficacy based on both clinical and endoscopic endpoints

Rapid onset of efficacy with 3.2-fold improvement in clinical remission rate and 4.5-fold in mucosal healing compared to placebo

ABX464 50mg daily for two months was safe and well tolerated

Convenient once-a-day oral regimen for a severe and chronic disease, globally affecting >2.7 million diagnosed patients with high unmet medical need1

First-in-class mechanism of action, triggering up-regulation of the anti-inflammatory microRNA miR-124

Ready to proceed to phase 2b clinical trial

Webcast today at 4pm CEST/10am ET

Regulatory News:

Abivax (Euronext Paris: FR0012333284 ABVX), a biotechnology company harnessing the immune system to develop a functional cure for HIV, as well as treatments for inflammatory/autoimmune diseases and cancer, today announced topline results from its Phase 2a clinical trial, ABX464-101. This clinical trial was conducted in 32 patients for induction treatment of moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC), refractory to anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies or corticosteroids. In summary, the topline data indicate that ABX464 was safe, well-tolerated, and demonstrated statistically significant efficacy based on both clinical and endoscopic endpoints in this study. The mechanism of action of ABX464 is triggered by an increased expression of miR124, which is a potent anti-inflammatory microRNA.

The final 8-week top-line data from this study are as follows:

Study Measures at Week 8 ABX464 Placebo Clinical remission: 35% 11% Mucosal healing (central read endoscopy): 50% 11% Clinical response: 70% 30%

The difference between ABX464 and placebo in colorectal mucosal healing was statistically significant (p<0.03). Furthermore, the onset of the therapeutic effect of ABX464 was rapid, with a difference of the reduction of the partial Mayo score1 between ABX464 and placebo being observed at the first assessment following treatment for two weeks, which became significant (p<0.02) at eight weeks (likelihood ratio CHI-square test). Similarly, the difference of the reduction of the total Mayo score2 after eight weeks was statistically significant (p<0.03).

Calprotectin, the best studied biomarker in ulceratice colitis, was markedly reduced (4.4-fold) in patients who received ABX464 in comparison to placebo (1.6-fold) after 4 weeks of treatment.

Prof. Dr. Severine Vermeire, M.D., Head of the IBD center at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, former President of the European Crohn's and Colitis Organization and Principal Investigator of the study, said: "Even with the introduction of biologic treatments in recent years, there is still a large unmet medical need in ulcerative colitis, as too many patients do not respond or stop responding to treatment. This well-conducted clinical study provides evidence of a robust and consistent efficacy signal of ABX464 across all clinical and endoscopic endpoints as well as on biomarkers evaluated. These results are very promising and we fully endorse the further development of this exciting new oral compound both in ulcerative colitis as well as in other inflammatory diseases including Crohn's disease."

ABX464-101 was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2a study evaluating the safety and efficacy of ABX464 50mg given orally once-daily for two months in subjects with moderate-to-severe active ulcerative colitis who have failed on immunomodulators, anti-TNFa, vedolizumab and/or corticosteroids. This clinical study was conducted in 15 centers in six European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Poland. Twenty-nine of the 32 recruited patients, randomized 2:1 to receive ABX464 as a once daily oral tablet or placebo, have completed the study per protocol, which employed state-of-the art technologies for monitoring potential treatment effects, including numerical recording of the colonoscopies with centralized reading.

As observed in the other studies with ABX464, the product candidate was considered to be safe and well tolerated in ABX464-101. No severe adverse events attributed to ABX464 were reported in the trial.

The full clinical trial data will be presented at upcoming international scientific conferences, as well as submitted for publication in a leading medical scientific journal.

In four countries, patients who completed the ABX464-101 study had the option to roll over into study ABX464-102, a 12-month open-label follow-up study. 22 patients were enrolled in this maintenance study. Similar to the induction study ABX464-101, ABX464 was safe and well tolerated to date in this ongoing study. A further analysis of interim data from ABX464-102 is scheduled and will be reported in the coming months.

Dr. Jean-Marc Steens, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Abivax said: "These results have exceeded our expectations given the statistically significant, strong efficacy already observed in this phase 2a study, in patients refractory to available therapies including anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies. They validate our hypothesis that ABX464 novel mechanism of action would result in potent anti-inflammatory properties in patients. Like other chronic inflammatory diseases, ulcerative colitis is a debilitating disease that greatly affects patients' quality of life and warrants expensive innovative therapies. We look forward to developing and potentially market ABX464 as a well-tolerated oral treatment for this large patient population.

Ulcerative colitis is a debilitating inflammatory bowel disease in adults and children, with limited therapeutic management options for many patients. It is estimated that close to 1 million patients with ulcerative colitis live in the United States, 650.000 in the EU and >2.7 million globally. Pharmaceutical sales for this disease in the major global markets3 are estimated to be around $5.5 billion in 2017. For IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), which includes both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, the sales in the major global markets are estimated to be around 15 Billion for the same period. The financial potential of treatments in the anti-inflammatory space are exemplified by anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies (Humira, Remicade, Simponi) with estimated global annual sales of $30 billion, including at least $2.5 billion for ulcerative colitis4

"These impressive clinical trial data are indicative of the potential for ABX464's unique mechanism of action to safely and effectively bring substantial clinical benefit to patients who are not adequately helped by currently available therapeutics and are struggling from the devastating consequences of this inflammatory disease," said Prof. Dr. Hartmut Ehrlich, M.D., Chief Executive Officer at Abivax. "Based on these exciting results, Abivax will initiate, without delay, a phase 2b dose-ranging study in Europe, with potential input from US KOLs and FDA on study design. Furthermore, these data strongly encourage us to pursue phase 2 clinical trials in other inflammatory indications including Crohn's disease."

A detailed presentation of these top line results will be run by the Management of ABIVAX during a conference call from 4 to 5 p.m. CEST/10 to 11 am ET on Tuesday, September 4th, 2018 (phone number table appended).

About ABX464

Inflammation is a cornerstone of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), more specifically in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. When evaluated in a mouse model of IBD, ABX464 demonstrated a long-lasting effect in preventing the typical symptoms of inflammatory colitis, including histological improvements5. A ten-fold increase of miR124, a micro-RNA with potent anti-inflammatory properties in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was observed. ABX464 was shown to target the cap binding complex (CBC), which is a novel mechanism of action for anti-inflammatory drugs. By ABX464 binding to the CBC, it reinforces the biological functions of this complex in cellular RNA biogenesis including splicing. Therefore, the molecule acts inside injured immune cells to preserve the integrity of newly synthesized RNA. ABX464 enhanced the expression and splicing of a single long non coding RNA to generate the anti-inflammatory miR-124. This work was conducted by the cooperative laboratory between Abivax and the CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) in Montpellier, France, headed by Prof. Jamal Tazi.

WEBCAST PRESENTATION

Abivax senior management will host a webcast and teleconference today at 4:00 pm CET (Paris time) 10am ET (NYC time), to discuss these clinical results and address questions.

Attendees can participate using the following coordinates:

Confirmation code: 1766735

Country Phone France 0805 101 278 Belgium 0800 38625 Belgium, Brussels +32 (0)2 400 6926 China 400 120 8590 France, Paris +33 (0)1 76 77 22 57 Germany 0800 101 1732 Germany, Frankfurt +49 (0)69 2222 2018 Hong Kong, Hong Kong +852 3018 4588 Japan 0120 705 126 Japan, Tokyo +81 (0)3 4563 0405 Netherlands 0800 265 9169 Netherlands, Amsterdam +31 (0)20 703 8261 United Kingdom 0800 279 7204 United Kingdom, Local +44 (0)330 336 9411 United States, Brooklyn +1 929-477-0448 United States/Canada 888-254-3590

To access the presentation: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/w9fv6njz

The UK local number +44 330 336 9411 should be used as International Dial in number

About ABIVAX (www.abivax.com

ABIVAX is mobilizing the body's natural immune machinery to treat patients with viral infections, autoimmune diseases and cancer. A clinical-stage company, ABIVAX leverages its antiviral and immune enhancing platforms to optimize candidates to cure HIV and treat inflammatory bowel diseases, as well as liver cancer. ABIVAX is listed on Euronext compartment B (ISIN: FR0012333284 Mnemo: ABVX). More information on the company is available at www.abivax.com/en. Follow us on Twitter @ABIVAX_

1 Company estimate based on GlobalData

2 The partial Mayo Score is composed of stool frequency, rectal bleedings and the physician's global assessment.of disease severity.

3 The total Mayo score is composed of the 3 parameters listed above, plus mucosal appearance at endoscopy

4 US, Germany, France, Uk, Spain, Italy, Japan

5 Source: Global Data (2017)

6 K Chebli et al., The Anti-HIV Candidate ABX464 Dampens Intestinal Inflammation by Triggering Il-22 Production in Activated Macrophages. Nature Scientific Reports 2017, DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-04071-3

DISCLAIMER

This press release contains forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates with respect to certain of the Company's programs. Although the Company believes that its forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates are based on assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that have been deemed reasonable, such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. A description of these risks, contingencies and uncertainties can be found in the documents filed by the Company with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers pursuant to its legal obligations including its registration document (Document de Reference). Furthermore, these forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates are only as of the date of this press release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. ABIVAX disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, forecasts or estimates to reflect any subsequent changes that the Company becomes aware of, except as required by law.

This press release is for information purposes only, and the information contained herein does not constitute either an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe securities of the Company in any jurisdiction, in particular in France. Similarly, it does not give and should not be treated as giving investment advice. It has no connection with the investment objectives, financial situation or specific needs of any recipient. It should not be regarded by recipients as a substitute for exercise of their own judgement. All opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. The distribution of this document may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions. Persons into whose possession this document comes are required to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180903005339/en/

Contacts:

Abivax

Didier Blondel, +33 1 53 83 08 41

Chief Financial Officer

didier.blondel@abivax.com

or

Media (EU)

ALIZE RP

Aurore Gangloff Caroline Carmagnol

+33 1 44 54 36 66

abivax@alizerp.com

or

Investors

LifeSci Advisors

Chris Maggos, +41 79 367 6254

chris@lifesciadvisors.com

or

Media (US)

LifeSci Public Relations

Mike Tattory, +1 (646) 571-4362

Mtattory@lifescipublicrelations.comSTOCKHOLM, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As previously announced an international conference call for investors and analysts will be held today, the 4th of September, 2018 at 3:00 pm CET.

Please see attached file for the presentation that will be used in the scheduled international conference call.

The dial-in number is: Standard International Access +44 (0) 20-3003-2666, Stockholm+46 (0) 8 50520424, Berlin +49 (0) 30-3001-90612, Copenhagen +45-3272-9273, New York +1-646-843-4608, Norway Local Oslo +47-2-156-3318, Paris +33 (0) 1-7037-7166, Rome +39-06-83360400, Washington DC Local number +1-202-204-1514. The meeting code is Corral Q2.

For further information, please contact:

Magdalena Patron

Investor Relations Manager

Tel: + 46 (0)10-450-10-00

Email: magdalena.patron@preem.se

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/corral-petroleum-holdings-ab/r/investor-call-q2-2018-presentation,c2607224

The following files are available for download:Tim Davies Appointed Managing Director, UK

STRATFORD UPON AVON, WARWICKSHIRE, UK, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Westchester Publishing Services, an employee-owned, US-based pre-press services provider, is pleased to announce the opening of its new UK office, and the appointment of a UK Managing Director.



Tim Davies, who joined Westchester Publishing Services in February 2018 as Interim Director, UK has been successful in further expanding Westchester's reach with UK publishers, and has been named Managing Director, UK. As Westchester continues to grow its UK presence, the company has opened an office in Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire.

Paul Crecca, President stated, "As Westchester Publishing Services enters its fiftieth year in business, and our list of client publishers who are based in the UK and Europe continues to grow, we recognised the importance of having an office located in the region to provide the level of consultative support that is the hallmark of Westchester. Our editorial and production services, which are available from the US, UK, and India have proven themselves to be an engaging alternative to the offerings of other suppliers which have previously been accessible to UK publishers."

Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer, additionally noted, "Westchester Publishing Services has achieved significant growth in the UK and Europe in recent years, and the opening of our UK office demonstrates further proof of our commitment to this important market. Tim's industry experience and knowledge of UK publishers has been instrumental in determining the opportunities Westchester should be pursuing, and I am confident with his appointment as Managing Director, UK, that will continue to be the case."

Tim Davies, Managing Director, UK commented, "It's become very clear, very quickly, that Westchester's tailored editorial, design and project management services represent an efficient and cost-effective solution for UK and European publishers of all types; whether trade, academic, educational or children's. This is an exciting time in Westchester's international development and I'm delighted to have been given the opportunity to be part of it."

Tim will be attending a number of publishing industry events in the coming weeks, including the Independent Publishing Group's Autumn Conference, The Bookseller Children's Conference, and Frankfurt Book Fair. For additional information, or to set an appointment, kindly email at: info@westchesterpubsvcs.co.uk .

About Westchester Publishing Services:

Founded in 1969, Westchester Publishing Services is the only US employee-owned company concentrating in editorial, composition, design, and digital conversion services. Westchester Publishing Services has been a trusted partner to the US publishing industry for decades with clients including Macmillan, Harvard University Press, W.W. Norton, The MIT Press, Bloomsbury, and UCL Press. In 2014, Westchester Publishing Services became a 100% employee-owned company through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). In 2017, Westchester Publishing Services launched Westchester K-12 Publishing Services, based in Dayton, Ohio, to serve the needs of educational publishers. In 2018, Westchester Publishing Services opened an office in the United Kingdom to serve publishers in the UK, and Europe.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - M2 Cobalt Corp. (TSXV: MC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that during the completion of its phase 1 exploration program at Bujagali and associated infill sampling, it has discovered 6 additional large-scale anomalies with highly anomalous rock and soil samples and has also expanded the foot-print of its Waragi anomaly.

Highlights are as follows:

BUJAGALI

4 additional large-scale geochemical anomalies have been discovered within the Bujagali property, 2 of which are along the same stratigraphic horizon as the Company's existing Waragi anomaly;

Numerous high-grade cobalt and copper samples collected;

Fifty-one (51) rock grab samples contain between 0.1% and 1.75% Co. Thirty-nine (39) rock grab samples contain between 0.1% Cu and 0.81% Cu. One hundred and forty-one (141) soil samples contain between 100 and 1310 ppm Co (0.13% Co) and 236 soil samples contain between 100 and 547 ppm Cu;

The footprint of the Company's Waragi copper-cobalt anomaly has been expanded to over 1km by 900m.

The new anomalies are within the same exploration license as, or the adjoining license to, the Waragi anomaly;

Together with Waragi, these additional anomalies potentially represent a new, regional Katanga-style sediment hosted, copper-cobalt play;

Full details of sizes of the anomalies and rock and soil samples are set out in the table below. Maps showing the location and details of these anomalies can be found on the Company's web site at www.m2cobalt.com/index.php/projects/Bujagali

BUJAGALI - BOMBO

Infill sampling, following the discovery of a large ultramafic body at Bombo through the Company's previously announced trenching program, has added an additional anomaly to the northwest, increasing the total size of the Bombo anomaly from 1.2 km by 0.9 km to approximately 2.2 km by 1 km;

An additional, separate geochemical anomaly (Bombo Central) has been discovered to the East of the Bombo property within the same exploration license;

Bombo NW expands on the most westerly trench dug at Bombo during the trenching program which had mineralization in the ultramafic of 0.19% Ni and anomalous Co over 95 metres (the length of the trench), including 20 metres at 0.22% Ni and 0.51% Cu and 1 metre at 0.91% Cu;

Certain additional infill sampling results for Bombo NW and Bombo Central, including rock samples, are pending;

Full details of sizes of anomalies and rock / soil samples collected to date are set out in the table below. Maps showing full details of the infill results can be found on the Company's web site at www.m2cobalt.com/index.php/projects/Bujagali

Table 1: Anomaly Highlights

Anomaly Name Approximate Size Highlights Ongoing Work Waragi 1 km by 0.9 km

(Cobalt in soil) 35 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.11% Co (up to 1.47%). 31 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.1% Cu (up to 0.5%). Up to 965 ppm Co and 547 ppm Cu in soils. Grid extension; high resolution ground magnetics; VTEM Interpretation; Ground IP Survey Nile Size to be determined Pending Results 14 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.1% Co (up to 1.75%). 8 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.2% Cu (up to 0.81%). Up to 1310 ppm Co and 489 ppm Cu in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics; Ground IP Survey Club 2 km x 1.7 km|

(Cobalt in soil) 1 rock grab with 0.2% Co. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics Ridge 1.6 km x 1.0 km

(Cobalt in soil) 1 rock grab sample with 0.63% Co and 0.1% Cu; 1 rock grab sample with 0.23% Cu. Up to 99 ppm Co and 179 ppm Cu in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics Bell 2 km by 1.2 km

(Cobalt in soil) Up to 130 ppm Co and 183 ppm Cu in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics Bombo (including Bombo NW)* 2.2 km by 1.0 km

(Nickel in soil) 9 rock samples contain greater than 0.1% Ni (up to 0.15%); 8 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.1% Co and 0.1% Cu (up to 0.65% Co and 0.6% Cu). Up to 1665 ppm Ni, 1640 ppm Cu and 660 ppm Co in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics; VTEM Interpretation; Ground IP Survey Bombo Central 2.1 km by 1.0 km

(Nickel in soil) Up to 849 ppm Ni, 274 ppm Cu and 483 ppm Co in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics

*No trenching results included.

**Rock grab samples are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades on the property.

Dr Jennifer Hinton, Head of East Africa Operations stated, "we are delighted with the work completed to-date by our work crews and operational teams. To have discovered extensive cobalt, copper and nickel mineralization and so many large-scale anomalies across our very large asset package in a 6-month time-frame is a major achievement.

Given the work completed to-date, which is on time and under budget, we are now positioned to commence an initial phase of drilling on several key targets to further delineate these anomalies and test mineralization at depth. At the same time, given the size of our anomalies at Bujagali and the development of a potential Katanga-style regional copper-cobalt play, we will also undertake additional geophysics and geochemistry for further definition and to enable us to select the best initial drill collars."

Simon Clarke, CEO stated, "our Phase 1 work program has delivered excellent results with surface sample results up to 1.75% Co, 0.91% Cu and 0.26% Ni. This program has positioned us to commence an initial drilling phase as we look to achieve our corporate objectives of discovering and developing world class cobalt (and associated minerals) assets with large-scale potential which are based outside the DRC."

Quality Assurance

All rock and soil samples were sent to ALS Chemex South Africa (Pty) Ltd., an independent and fully accredited laboratory in South Africa ("ALS") for analysis for gold multi-element Induction Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy ("ICP"). M2 Cobalt also has a regimented Quality Assurance, Quality Control ("QA/QC") program where at least 10% duplicates and blanks are inserted into each sample shipment.

About M2Cobalt

M2 Cobalt Corp. is focused on discovering and developing world-class cobalt assets (and related minerals) to help address the growing deficit in the supply of cobalt. The Company has a large, highly prospective land package in the Republic of Uganda, East Africa bordering historic production and on the same mineral trends as some of the major mines in the neighboring DRC where over 60% of world cobalt supply originates. Uganda is a stable country with a growing economy looking to re-energize its historic mining industry. The Company has a highly experienced management team and board of directors, which has been involved in funding and advancing resource projects globally. The Company also owns licenses over 2,800 hectares of land in the Cobalt Camp in Ontario, Canada. Further information on the Company and its projects can be found at www.m2cobalt.com

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dean Besserer, P.Geol., the Technical Advisor of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

For further information, contact Simon Clarke at sclarke@m2cobalt.com or Andy Edelmeier at andy@m2cobalt.com

On behalf of the Board,

M2 COBALT CORP.

Simon Clarke, Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "anomaly, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and other similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to exploration work to be undertaken in Uganda, the reliability of third party information, and certain other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations.COLOGNE, Germany, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

MMDSMART to showcase and present its MessageWhiz mobile messaging platform at largest digital marketing event next week

For the first time, MMDSmart will be exhibiting at the Dmexco Digital Marketing Expo and Conference 2018 to be held in Cologne, Germany from September 12 - 13, 2018. An industry leader in the rapidly growing A2P Messaging market, it will be introducing its innovative smart messaging platform, MessageWhiz to the digital marketing industry.

In an additional note, highlighting the importance and relevance for the industry, it also announced that Ira Cohen, MMDSmart's VP of Business Development and Marketing was invited to present a seminar at the event on "SMS Marketing: Washed Up Tech or Wave of the Future?"

Since launching earlier this year, the MessageWhiz platform provides a single address for information about enterprise SMS, messaging related news and articles, usage tips on how to maximize messaging campaigns, tutorials, industry use cases, and white papers. It also serves as an entryway to the self-service messaging portal and provides access to the API and other integration tools.

"In less than a year, MessageWhiz has brought unprecedented success for campaigns using the SMS channel for promotional messages, re-targeting, and customer retention with our customers reporting increased conversion of as much as 40% from previous campaigns. We're excited to showcase MessageWhiz on the biggest stage in the digital marketing world at DMexco and be able to show digital marketers the value of including SMS in their marketing mix.", remarked Arie Frenklakh CEO of MMDSmart.

According to a report released in 2017, the global spend for A2P (Application to Person) messages which are sent from a web application, browser or CRM software, and are widely used in industries such as financial services, brand marketing, retail and travel is expected to reach USD 70 billion in 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 4%.

Using MessageWhiz smart messaging, brands send SMS campaigns which have been optimized increasing their conversion success. With access to many routing options, via MMDSmart's carrier business, the platform identifies the singular route that achieves the highest conversion rate. Unique engagement tools are used to increase consumer engagement, and the conversion API crunches real time conversion data, analyzes all the components, and recalibrates the campaign to achieve the targeted results. It is also the only messaging solution with performance-based billing options including revenue share, CPI, CPA, CPL and other no risk payment models which are common in the digital marketing world.

Mr. Cohen's seminar session will take place on September 12th, 2018 at 12 pm in Seminar Room 3 at the Koeln Messe. At the seminar, he will discuss an industry survey which revealed that marketers expect additional features to actively engage SMS as a tool in their campaigns and will discuss how new technologies and models, such as optimized messaging, NLP and AI, RCS and performance-based billing are changing the way that SMS can be used in marketing campaigns. He will also present marketing use cases from the retail, financial, travel industry, and gaming industries.

MMDSmart will also be participating this month in the Asian Carriers Conference in Cebu, Philippines from September 4- 7, and the Wholesale World Congress in Madrid on September 19-20. Companies or partners interested in meeting company executives at DMexco or the other events, should contact Ira Cohen, VP of Business Development and Marketing.

About MMDSmart

Founded in 2007, MMDSmart Ltd, the smart messaging pioneer, provides smart communications solutions to organizations of all sizes. Its offering includes voice, fax and chat solutions. Its unique enterprise SMS platform MessageWhiz, is the first results driven enterprise messaging solution that significantly enhances any organization's customer communications and marketing activities. With headquarters in Tel Aviv, regional offices in London, Hong Kong and Kiev, and a development center in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, it is focused on providing the highest quality communications solutions to its partners and clients, which include many tier 1 companies from more than 100 countries. As it expands its global scope, its initial mission and commitment remains the same; MMDSmart - Connect. Engage. Smile.

Links:

DMexco Expo: https://bit.ly/2oBzDmR

DMexco Seminar: https://dmexco.com/conference-guide/stages/seminars

MMDSmart: http://www.mmdsmart.com/

MessageWhiz: https://messagewhiz.com/

Wholesale World Congress 2018: http://www.wholesalecongress.com/wwc-wholesale-world-congress/

ACC: http://www.asiancarriersconference.com/

Contact:

Ira Cohen

ira@mmdsmart.comDMDmodular will construct RAD's Patented Modular Healthcare Solutions Throughout Europe.

AVENTURA, Florida, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RAD Technology Medical Systems (RAD) is pleased to announce they have an agreement with DMDmodular near Krakow, Poland to provide modular healthcare facilities throughout Europe. DMDmodular Ltd. will be an exclusive manufacturer of RAD's patented modular healthcare solutions.

RAD is a leader in modular healthcare construction based on their innovative approaches to sophisticated medical therapeutic, diagnostic and surgical facilities including Cancer Radiotherapy, Chemotherapy and Surgical Sterilization.

DMDmodular was exactly what RAD was looking for in a manufacturing partner. They provide off-site modular construction technology and specialize in planning, designing and construction. Their central European production facility is located in the outskirts of Krakow, Poland making most of Europe easily accessible.

Executives from RAD and DMDmodular recently met to discuss strategies and plan for several projects together. "We are very excited to be working with DMDmodular in Europe," said John Lefkus, President of RAD. "Having a manufacturing footprint in Europe will allow us to better serve the market there and accelerate deployment of radiotherapy facilities to hospitals and cancer centers throughout the region."

DMDmodular CEO, Ewelina Wozniak - Szpakiewicz agreed; "We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with RAD and expand our core hospitality, housing and hotel business into the healthcare market. The RAD solutions are unique in the industry and their confidence in our growing organization is genuinely appreciated."

RAD has a family of international patents and an experienced global team which clients can rely on. With the dramatic changes in medicine, RAD believes Building at the Speed of Medical Innovation will help both patients and manufacturers of state-of-the-art therapeutic solutions benefit from the timely and flexible modular approach RAD offers. With facilities and medical equipment available for lease, private providers can expand without capital demands and government providers can obtain new services without debt impairment.

About RAD Technology Medical Systems, LLC

RAD Technology Medical Systems is a design-build construction company that provides revolutionary modular building systems for the healthcare industry. These turn-key solutions are factory fabricated eliminating the need for lengthy on-site construction and can be temporary, interim, or permanent. For more information, please visit www.radtechnology.com or contact RAD at info@radtechnology.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738166/RAD_Technology_DMDmodular.jpgSAN FRANCISCO, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global variable frequency drive (VFD) market size is expected to reach USD 33.10 billion by 2025, according to a study conducted by Grand View Research, Inc., posting a CAGR of 6.7% during the forecast period. Growing awareness and demand for energy efficiency, favorable government norms and regulations, and rising technological advancements are likely to provide a fillip to the market. Integration of VFDs with electric drives enable end-users to control the speed and torque of drives. It thereby, helps in increasing their operating efficiency and concurrently reducing the energy consumption.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg )



A large number of VFD manufacturers such as ABB, Ltd., Danfoss Global, Siemens AG, and Schneider Electric SE are developing differentiated products on the basis of functionalities, along with integrated sensors, to maintain their strong foothold in this price sensitive arena. Asia Pacific is projected to dominate the market during the forecast period due to improving economic conditions and rapid industrialization. Additionally, increasing commercial activities are augmenting the market in the region.

Stringent government regulations mandating the use of energy efficient devices, along with increasing energy prices, are also encouraging deployment of VFDs across multiple market domains. Additionally, rising investments in promoting energy efficiency are escalating the growth of the variable frequency drive market.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (AC, DC, Servo), By Power Range (Micro, Low, Medium, High), By Application (Pumps, HVAC, Conveyers), By End-Use, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025" at:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/variable-frequency-speed-drives-vfd-vsd-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

AC VFDs offer easy integration and low maintenance cost. Therefore, the segment is expected to emerge as the leading as well as the fastest growing segment over the forecast period

Demand for VFDs is estimated to increase in the pumps application segment owing to increasing penetration of these drives in hydraulic operations across the oil & gas and wastewater industries.

Latin America is anticipated to be the fastest-growing region over the forecast period due to spiraling adoption of VFDs across emerging industrial sectors in the region

is anticipated to be the fastest-growing region over the forecast period due to spiraling adoption of VFDs across emerging industrial sectors in the region Some of the prominent industry players are ABB, Ltd.; Siemens AG; Schneider Electric SE; Rockwell Automation; Inc.; Danfoss Global; and WEG.

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Medium And High Power Motors Market - The medium and high power motors market size was estimated at USD 51.57 billion in 2014.



The medium and high power motors market size was estimated at in 2014. Flexible Electronics Market - The global flexible electronics market is expected to reach USD 87.21 billion by 2024.



The global flexible electronics market is expected to reach by 2024. Industrial and Commercial LED Lighting Market - Industrial and commercial LED lighting market size was estimated at USD 21.53 billion in 2014 and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period.



Industrial and commercial LED lighting market size was estimated at in 2014 and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. Smart Demand Response Market - The global smart demand response market size was estimated at USD 5.57 billion in 2014.

Grand View Research has segmented the global variable frequency drive market based on product type, power range, application, end-use, and region:

Variable Frequency Drive Product Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) AC Drives DC Drives Servo Drives

Variable Frequency Drive Power Range Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Micro Low Medium High

Variable Frequency Drive Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Pumps Electric Fans Conveyors HVAC Extruders Others

Variable Frequency Drive End-Use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Oil & Gas Power Generation Industrial Infrastructure Automotive Food & Beverages Others

Variable Frequency Drive Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) North America U.S. Canada Europe U.K. Germany Asia Pacific China Japan India South Korea Latin America Brazil Mexico MEA



Explore the BI enabled intuitive market research database,The Grand Library, by Grand View Research, Inc.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com



Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.comSAN FRANCISCO, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global green cement market size is expected to reach USD 37.75 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 8.5% over the forecast period. Stringent environment regulations, coupled with rapid advancements in the Asia Pacific construction industry, is contributing to the market demand.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg )

North America is the largest revenue-generating region for the green cement market, followed by Europe owing to the presence of regulatory bodies such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). Moreover, the regions are characterized by higher adoption of sustainable solutions to avoid negative environmental impact.

Green cement is an eco-friendly substitute for traditional cement. It can reduce carbon emissions at construction sites by 40%. There is no fixed formula or method to manufacture green cement. However, various researchers and market players have developed different ways to manufacture green cement. California-based Calera Group has developed a Portland cement substitute where calcium carbonate obtained from seawater is mixed with carbon dioxide.

Key application areas of green cement market include residential, commercial, and industrial. In terms of volume, residential sector was the largest application area in 2015 and held 44.2% market share. Growing urbanization in emerging economies such as India and China with demand for environmentally safe buildings is expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Green Cement Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Residential, Commercial, Industrial), By Region (North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America, MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2024" at:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/green-cement-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

The global green cement market is anticipated to reach 227,366.3 kilo tons by 2024

In terms of revenue, the residential segment is projected to ascend at a CAGR of 8.5% over the forecast period

The commercial application dominated the global green cement market with a share of over 28% in 2015

Countries such as China and India are anticipated to observe promising growth during the forecast period

and are anticipated to observe promising growth during the forecast period Major market players are either start-ups focusing solely on green cement or established players gradually switching to green cement manufacturing

Some of the key market participants are CEMEX, China National Building Material Company Limited, Calera Corporation, HeidelbergCement AG, and LafargeHolcim.

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Geomembrane Market - The global geomembrane market size was 809.9 million square meters in 2015.

The global geomembrane market size was 809.9 million square meters in 2015. Environmental Health And Safety Market - The global environmental health and safety market size was USD 49.8 billion in 2015 and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period.

The global environmental health and safety market size was in 2015 and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. Roofing Materials Market - The global roofing materials market size was estimated at USD 105.4 billion in 2015 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% from 2016 to 2025.

The global roofing materials market size was estimated at in 2015 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% from 2016 to 2025. High Temperature Insulation Market - The global high temperature insulation market size was valued over USD 3.84 billion in 2016 and is expected to exhibit an estimated CAGR of 7.5% from 2013 to 2020.

Grand View Research has segmented the global green cement market report on the basis of application and region:

Green Cement Application Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Residential Commercial Industrial Others

Green Cement Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) North America U.S. Europe Germany Asia Pacific China India Indonesia Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa



Explore the BI enabled intuitive market research database,The Grand Library, by Grand View Research, Inc.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com



Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.comNeustadt an der Aisch (ots) -- Querverweis: Bildmaterial ist abrufbar unter http://www.presseportal.de/bilder -Since January 2017, Onlineprinters has acquired more than 400,000 new customers and is now proud to welcome the millionth customer. "One million customers - this number stands for an abundance of creative printing products we have implemented for our customers over the past 14 years," says Dr. Michael Fries, CEO of Onlineprinters, and unveils the art print "Customer Globe" that has been randomised with the "Mosaic" software by the technology partner HP in collaboration with the gyro advertising agency. 1,000 individual copies of it will be produced and presented to the long-standing customers. "Nowadays, there are no limits to creativity in online printing. Our art print stands for the diversity of our customers and their projects. Each of one thousand printed copies of the series is based on the same draft, yet it is one of a kind," as Dr. Michael Fries puts it.International share of sales keeps growingToday, Onlineprinters mainly delivers its products to business customers in more than 30 European countries. The company achieves some 30 percent of its total turnover in Germany operating as diedruckerei.de. Between 2012 and 2014, the turnover abroad becomes increasingly more significant for the online print shop. This can be explained by continued international growth efforts that started back in 2008. With the acquisition of the UK market leader Solopress, and with LaserTryk - the market leader in Scandinavia - joining the Onlineprinters group, Onlineprinters now ranks among the top 3 online print shops in Europe. The CEO considers this international focus to be the driving force behind Onlineprinters' success.People from 40 nations work together to make Onlineprinters a success: "Wherever many nationalities come together, it only works with tolerance and respect. This is what our corporate culture is about," emphasises Dr. Michael Fries.About the companyThe Onlineprinters Group, which operates under the brand name of diedruckerei.de in Germany, is one of the leading online print shops in Europe. Employing a staff of more than 1,400, Onlineprinters produced 3 billion+ printed advertising products last year. More than 1,500 print products including business cards, letterheads, flyers, catalogues, brochures, large-format advertising systems and more are sold to one million customers in 30 European countries. Internationally, the provider of online print services is known under the brand name of Onlineprinters. British market leader Solopress and LaserTryk, the Scandinavian number one, are members of the Onlineprinters Group.Originaltext: Onlineprinters GmbH digital press kits: http://www.presseportal.de/nr/75635 press kits via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_75635.rss2Contact: Onlineprinters GmbH Patrick Piecha Head of Press & Public Relations press@onlineprinters.com Phone: +49 9161 62 09 807 Mobile: +49 174 30 77 250NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO US NEWSWIRE SERVICES, NOR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Letter of Intent Signed with Raptor Resources for Morocco Subsidiary

DIDCOT, UK / ACCESSWIRE / September 4, 2018 / Altus Strategies Plc (AIM: ALS) (TSX-V: ALTS), the Africa focused exploration project generator, announces that it has signed a Letter of Intent with Raptor Resources Ltd ("Raptor") whereby Raptor may earn up to a 100% interest in Atlantic Resources Ltd ("Atlantic") a wholly owned subsidiary of Aterian Resources Ltd ("Aterian"), the Company's wholly-owned Moroccan focused exploration subsidiary.

Highlights:

Letter of Intent with Australian incorporated private company Raptor Resources Ltd

Raptor to earn up to a 100% interest in Altus's Morocco focused exploration subsidiary

Altus to receive equity in Raptor, an initial cash payment and a net smelter return royalty

Raptor intends to list its shares on the Australian Stock Exchange ("ASX")

Agreement subject to conditions precedent, final documentation and regulatory approval

Altus will remain the operator during the initial earn inperiod

Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus, commented:

"Our Letter of Intent with Raptor is in line with the Company's strategy of making and monetising discoveries in Africa, while building a valuable portfolio of royalty interests. Raptor will have the option to acquire up to a 100% interest in our Moroccan focused exploration subsidiary, which is currently advancing four copper and other base metal projects. In return Altus will receive an upfront cash payment, equity in Raptor and a royalty on the initial projects vended-in. The deal remains subject to final documentation and fulfilment of a number of conditions by Raptor, including the intended listing of Raptor's shares on the ASX by 31st December 2018.

On completion of the proposed deal, this will mark our third transaction with an ASX listed Company, which include a joint venture on an Altus gold exploration project in southern Mali with Resolute Mining Ltd and a joint venture on an Altus bauxite exploration project in Cameroon with Canyon Resources Ltd. Altus is presently in discussions with Canyon in respect of vending-in the joint venture project in to Canyon, in exchange for further Canyon equity plus a royalty. We presently hold 8M shares in Canyon, which have a current market value of approximately 1.2M / C$2.1M / A$2.2M. We look forward to updating shareholders in due course".

Qualified Person

The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus. A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), he also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines (Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and has over 19 years of experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules and National Instrument 43-101 under the rules of the TSX.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

For further information you are invited to visit the Company's website www.altus-strategies.com or contact:

Altus Strategies Plc Steven Poulton, Chief Executive Tel: +44 (0) 1235 511 767 E: info@altus-strategies.com SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Richard Morrison / Soltan Tagiev Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 SP Angel (Broker) Richard Parlons / Jonathan Williams Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0471 Blytheweigh (Financial PR) Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall / James Husband Tel: +44 (0) 20 7138 3204

About Altus Strategies Plc

Altus is a London (AIM: ALS) and Toronto (TSX-V: ALTS) listed, diversified and Africa focused mineral exploration project generator. Through our subsidiaries we discover new projects and attract third party capital to fund their growth, development and ultimately exit optionality. This strategy enables Altus to remain focused on the acquisition of new opportunities to be fed into the project generation cycle and aims to minimise shareholder dilution. Our business model is designed to create a growing portfolio of well managed and high growth potential projects and royalties, diversified by commodity and by country. Altus currently has eighteen projects in six commodities across six countries. We aim to position our shareholders at the vanguard of value creation, but with significantly reduced risks traditionally associated with investments in the mineral exploration sector.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programs on schedule and the success of exploration programs. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date of this news release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Altus Strategies Plc















I'm a Jamaican living in Ottawa, Canada, and I can't barely put in words just how ashamed I am of my people in this city.





You want to know about what kind of person the typical Jamaican is, read what I have to say -- and know about the place I sought to escape from in my journey to Canada.







Unfortunately, "my people" who have come to this country have sought to keep true to their ways on the island, and that's where my dear friend Dezrin's story begins.







Since April 2015, Dezrin Carby-Samuels has endured unspeakable abuse and assault by her husband and with the support of Ottawa Police Detective Robert Griffin Jr.





I wished that Dezrin was never born a Jamaican because the Jamaican community is the only community that I know that could ever turn their back on such a woman.





If Dezrin was born from some other Caribbean island, white, South Asian, Muslim or any other community I can think of this would have never have happened.





For starters, my fellow Jamaicans in Ottawa are among the saddest of all Jamaican communities across Canada.





The first thing which worked against Dezrin getting any help from all the supposed Jamaican friends and relatives she has not only in Ottawa, including her cousin in Kanata; her so called "brother" in Richmond Hill and the rest of her extended family in the States is that Jamaicans think that whatever bad happens to you in life happens because "God" wanted it to happen. Therefore, who are they to interfere in "God's plan"?





That's why there's not welfare system in Jamaica or other kinds of social support there that we in Canada take for granted.





So, as you can see, Dezrin's could never rely on her fellow Jamaicans.





The second thing that is going against Dezrin is that she's not only Jamaican. She is also a woman.





Many people think that Muslim men are chauvinistic because of women who ware hejabs in their culture and the "shariah" laws.





If you think that, let me tell you about the typical Jamaican man and their place in Jamaican society.





In Jamaican culture, the man is "King of the House" which literally means men can commit routine sexual abuse, assault and torture without neighbours blinking an eye.





When I used to live in a very affluent part of Jamaica in Kingston, the man living in the house beside me would lock-up in his wife in the house so she couldn't leave and beat her up most every day. Yes, he developed a locking system to do that.







You might wonder how I would know this?





The wife's cries and screams every day and her confessions to me when he "allowed" her to venture outside.





This went on for years until I left for Canada.





That's the power that a Jamaican man has over his woman and even when he's in Canada he expects the same.





And last but not least, the third thing that Dezrin has going against her is that much of her so-called "middle class" Jamaican friends are so busy being paid informants by certain members of the police and other "shadow organizations" that they dare not seek to oppose a dirty cop like Detective Robert Griffin who could seek to cut-off their access to money as paid informants digging-up petty dirt against each other. How much Dezrin may be tortured by a dirty cop is of no interest to them.





Do you think that Italians, Lebanese and other such communities in Canada would sacrifice one of their own to the likes of a dirty cop? Of course they wouldn't. Such communities have too much respect for one of their own - a characteristic which Jamaican don't have. "My people" have been selling out each other since slavery.







Thanks for Dezrin's husband having connections to local police, he has been able to continue the same kind of assault against Dezrin.





Horace, who is Dezrin's husband, first got Detective Robert Griffin to prevent the son from visiting his Mom since April 2015 even though she desired it.





Within weeks of enduring assault and torture under the supportive eye of Ottawa Detective Robert Griffin, Dezrin lost the ability to walk, talk and write.





When Raymond, Dezrin's son, got social workers from the Nepean, Rideau, and Osgoode Resource Centre to intervene to help Dezrin, Horace blocked them from checking on Dezrin.





And all this was with the support of who I now know is a very dirty cop - Ottawa Detective Robert Griffin.





This low life cop ignored the cries of Dezrin for her son.





Raymond turned to all of Dezrin's friends and relatives in the Jamaican community and they refused to "get involved".





Fred Carby, who is a now retired and formerly prominent dentist who lives in Richmond Hill also refused to get involved. What a nice guy, huh?







Raymond told me that this was particularly shocking because his Mother told him that Fred made a promise to 'Granny' to promise her to always be there for Dezrin.





But like other Jamaicans, he too repeated that "It's Horace's house so what can he do?"





Raymond told Fred about the note his Mother had wrote him back in April 2015 that "Dad Abuses Me".





Like the typical Jamaican male, he basically reacted "So, what? Men will be men. It's a man's right to discipline his wife. It's Horace's house, and, "I won't interfere."







Horace like the typical Jamaican man is violent. Did you know what Horace did when his son had expressed concern for his abuse against Dezrin? Back on 29 January 2013, Horace sprung from the kitchen table where he was sitting, and held a knife to his son's stomach. His son grabbed then knife to protect his vital organs and in the process his little finger was almost severed. Horace refused to call the ambulance for what he had done and Dezrin was too much in shock.





Raymond had to dial his phone for 911 with one hand as the other hand kept bleeding and was taken into emergency reconstructive surgery.







Horace like to threaten his son and even his wife sometimes with a machetti he keeps in the house that's about one metre long.







Fred's own high regard for defending the place of the Jamaican man "in his own home" was apparently more important than preventing his sister from having been subjected to unspeakable abuse which transformed Dezrin from an able-bodied woman to a woman who began to smell of feces and who was assaulted and abused to the point of becoming disabled from that maltreatment.







Dezrin Carby-Samuels has been wronged by the very community who she has sought to serve having become a nurse after graduating from University College in Kingston, Jamaica.





Dezrin was one of the first black registered nurses to ever be hired by a Canadian hospital after leaving Jamaica in the 1950's.





Dezrin paved the way for the hiring of other Jamaican nurses in Canadian hospitals having worked at hospitals in Toronto, Guelph and in Vancouver.







I am ashamed of the Jamaican community having turned it's back against Dezrin. I'm ashamed to be Jamaican.





Many people know of Jamaicans as having a culture of great food and with celebrations like the Caribbean festival in Toronto.





But under this facade is a Jamaican culture which turns its back on the plight of their own whether the growing masses of the poor in Jamaican or whether it's a kind hearted person like Dezrin who continues to suffer under the malice of Horace that is being perpetuated by an apparent pathetic psychopath who has no business being a police officer.





I hope in writing this that broader Canadian society and civilized people of the world will call the Ottawa's Police Chief Charles Bordeleau and demand the resignation of Ottawa Police Detective Robert Griffin for his apparent support to conditions of abuse for more than three years.





In the above video, you will hear Detective Robert Griffin seeking to leave a message for Raymond. Later, Raymond was assaulted by Detective Robert Griffin in broad daylight at his Kanata home. The plain clothed Detective Griffin demanded that Raymond not tell anyone about Dezrin's abuse.





So, there you have it folks. This cop didn't want to stop Dezrin from being abused. He apparently just wanted to make sure that Raymond who reported the abuse wouldn't communicate that abuse to friends or family.





Thankfully, Raymond ignored this illegal assault and threatening behaviour of this police operative and has sought to defend his Mother from the abuse that he has witnessed.







I also hope that Canadians demand that their local TV and other newspapers start getting the journalists to help spread further awareness of Dezrin's plight.





Thanks to my fellow Jamaicans, Dezrin has become bed-ridden. She can't run. She can't hide or escape.





In the above photos you will see what Dezrin looked life when she was still abled-bodied back in April 2015, at what she looked like when she was rendered disabled by Horace's and Detective Robert Griffin's apparent "House of Torture" in Dezrin's own home in Kanata.







My fellow Canadians and other civilized people, let us rally for Dezrin and liberate this disabled woman from her "Hell on Earth" courtesy of Ottawa Detective Robert Griffin and my pathetic fellow Jamaicans which include her own brother and her abusive spouse.





Send PayPal donations to help Dezrin's son efforts to liberate his Mom to agoraottawa@yahoo.com. Raymond has been waging a court battle for more than three years with absolutely no support from Jamaicans including her "loving" brother Fred Carby who has turned a blind eye to the situation.





You can hopefully help make a different. No donation is too small. Even $1 would be very much valued as a show of support.









Tilting the climate to a "hothouse Earth" state can only be prevented if we understand how the Earth is breathing, states ICOS, the Integrated Carbon Observation System. Standardised long-term observations on how greenhouse gases circulate between land, air and sea increase our knowledge on how carbon pollution and nature's processes influence the climate change. This is crucial when deciding on actions to slow down the global warming.



HELSINKI, Finland, Sept. 04, 2018that the combined consequences of 10 already ongoing climate change processes could cause a domino effect and lock the Earth in an extremely hot state, "hothouse". Examples of such processes are loss of sea-ice, dying of boreal forests and permafrost thawing. The scientists argue that once a certain threshold is crossed, stabilising the Earth we know today might not be possible anymore regardless of our actions.

Many of these 10 climate change processes are linked to the way carbon circulates between land, air and sea. They all also have tipping points that once passed, lead the Earth into a new irreversible state. There might even be more of such tipping points than what the scientists have found so far. To understand the ongoing processes and to recognize new ones, a comprehensive Earth observation system is needed

We need standardised observations across the countries and even continents

"We need data from observations to understand the complex processes behind these tipping points. Since greenhouse gases drive climate change, it is critical to understand how these gases circulate, what produces them and what reduces their amounts in the atmosphere. Key to this understanding are observations, which follow the highest standards, span over tens of years and across the countries and even continents. Well organised research frameworks ensure that scientists and societies have this data at their disposal," says

Dr. Werner Kutsch, Director General of ICOS Integrated Carbon Observation System.

ICOS facilitates greenhouse gas measurements in Europe, where 12 participating countries have jointly built a network of over 130 stations observing greenhouse gases across the continent. ICOS data provides a comprehensive view on the greenhouse gases produced by humans, but also of their natural sources and sinks.

"A comprehensive view is crucial since, in the end, the atmosphere is integrating everything. This study alarms us, but also confirms that we are on the right track to observe natural ecosystems as well as human pollution. Being unique in uniting atmospheric, ecosystem and ocean observations, ICOS confirms the European leadership in greenhouse gas observations," states Dr. Kutsch.

Dr. Kutsch is therefore looking forward to the 3rd ICOS Science Conference held in September in Prague, Czech Republic, where leading scientists of the greenhouse gas research field from all over the world will meet. Besides purely scientific and technical topics, the attendees will also discuss how we can close the gap between science and policy-makers to ensure the Earth is steered away from a potential threshold before it is too late.

Caption texts for the pictures:

Forests are greenhouse gas sinks, and measurements of the carbon circulation between the air and land are carried out with equipment placed high on towers above forests. Dr. Bart Kruijt at the ICOS station in Loobos, The Netherlands.

For more information

Dr. Werner Kutsch, Director General

ICOS, Integrated Carbon Observation System

Phone: +358 50 4484598

Email: werner.kutsch@icos-ri.eu

Katri Ahlgren, Head of Communications

ICOS, Integrated Carbon Observation System

Phone: +358 40 3502557

Email: katri.ahlgren@icos-ri.eu

Press Accreditation to the ICOS Science Conference, Sep 11-14, in Prague:

Please contact Katri Ahlgren, details above.

The Integrated Carbon Observation System, ICOS, is a European-wide greenhouse gas research infrastructure. ICOS produces standardised data on greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, as well as on carbon carbon circulation between the atmosphere, the earth and oceans. This information is being used by scientists as well as by decision makers for predicting and mitigating climate change. The ICOS data is based on the measurements from 134 stations across 12 European countries. The international organization is financed by its member countries.

Webpage: www.icos-ri.eu Twitter: https://twitter.com/icos_ri

ICOS Science Conference held September 11-14, in Prague Czech Republic. The ICOS conference gathers more than 300 scientists to discuss the scientific topics around greenhouse gas measurement and climate change. The themes of the conference vary from purely scientific sessions to ones related to the Paris Agreement and other policy making. www.icos-ri.eu/science-conference

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/66763ae9-8a80-41ab-a2ea-978b36c02863RICHMOND, VA / ACCESSWIRE / September 4, 2018 / MTY Food Group Inc. ("MTY" or the "Company") (TSX: MTY) announced today that one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries has signed an agreement to acquire most of the assets of the sweetFrog franchise system ("sweetFrog premium frozen yogurt") (www.sweetFrog.com), for an estimated consideration of USD $35 million.

"sweetFrog is an exciting brand serving premium quality frozen yogurt and will fit perfectly within our portfolio of brands , " said Jeff Smit, COO of MTY's U.S. operations. "We are extremely happy about everything this brand has to offer and the growth potential ahead."

"With an executive of Jeff Smit's caliber leading U.S. operations, MTY is the perfect organization to lead sweetFrog during its next chapter of success. I am excited to see what Smit and his team of restaurant industry experts can do as we become the largest sweetFrog multi-unit franchisee , " said Patrick Galleher, Chairman & CEO of SweetFrog Enterprises, LLC and Managing Partner of Boxwood Capital.

sweetFrog currently has 254 franchised locations and 78 corporate-owned locations. Of those 332 restaurants, 324 are located in the United States and 8 are located internationally. As part of the deal, the current 78 corporate-owned locations will transition to franchised locations under current ownership. In the last 12 months, sweetFrog generated over USD $92 million in system sales.

The transaction is expected to close within 30 days of this news release but remains subject to multiple conditions customary for a transaction of this nature. There is no assurance the transaction will be completed as described above, or at all, or that the anticipated closing date will materialize.



The acquisition of sweetFrog will solidify MTY as a dominant force in the frozen treat category and represents another major milestone for MTY as it continues to expand its presence in the United States.

Following the closing of the transaction, MTY expects to consolidate operations and run the franchising platform from its U.S. headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona under the leadership of Jeff Smit

MTY Food Group Inc.

MTY Food Group Inc. is a Canadian public company ( TSE : MTY ) headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. MTY has grown to become a North American market leader in the casual, fast casual and quick service restaurant dining industry and now franchises over 70 different concepts with approximately 5,400 locations. Excellence, devotion and innovation are the key values that drive the success of MTY Group (www.mtygroup.com).



About sweetFrog Frozen Yogurt:

Founded in 2009, sweetFrog (http://www.sweetfrog.com) is one of the fastest growing self-serve frozen yogurt brands in the United States. With a wide selection of premium frozen yogurt flavors and fresh toppings choices, sweetFrog was named Best Frozen Yogurt in the USA by The Daily Meal in 2014 and 2016. sweetFrog prides itself on providing a family-friendly environment where customers can enjoy soft-serve frozen yogurt, ice cream, gelato and sorbets with the toppings of their choice.

About Boxwood Partners, LLC:

Boxwood Partners, LLC (www.boxwoodpartnersllc.com), together with its affiliate Boxwood Capital Partners, is a merchant banking firm based in Richmond, Virginia. Boxwood Partners combines a unique blend of senior-level transaction advisory, business operating experience, and proven process execution skills to give its clients a distinct advantage in the market. The firm's extensive relationships within the global finance communities (including U.S. and international private equity groups, corporations, hedge funds, and lenders) and other important transaction-related service providers such as consultants, attorneys, and accountants ensure that the firm's clients receive the attention, service, and results they deserve.



For more information about MTY Food Group, Inc., please visit https://mtygroup.com.

For more information about sweetFrog Frozen Yogurt, please visit http://www.sweetfrog.com.

For more information about Boxwood Partners, please visit www.boxwoodpartnersllc.com

Contact:

J. Patrick Galleher

Phone: (804) 343-3441

Email: pgalleher@boxwoodpartnersllc.com

Source: Boxwood Partners, LLC. & sweetFrog EnterprisesThe new collaboration aims to develop novel breakthrough therapy approaches applying principles of immune modulation to infectious diseases

Immuno-infection is a new focus area of Boehringer Ingelheim's Research Beyond Borders (RBB) department, which explores emerging science and technology beyond the company's core areas of focus

Boehringer Ingelheim and Tsinghua University will establish a Joint Research Center for Immuno-Infection for new therapy concept exploration as a joint undertaking that will coordinate collaboration between scientists from the partners and with other academic groups

Boehringer Ingelheim and Tsinghua University in Beijing announce a collaboration aiming to research and develop immunological therapies for infectious diseases. Scientists will work in the Boehringer Ingelheim-Tsinghua University Joint Research Center for Immuno-Infection to harness the mechanisms of immune modulation to combat infectious diseases. The collaboration brings together the leading expertise of Tsinghua University in infectious disease research and immunology with Boehringer Ingelheim's experience in the development of novel therapies for patients suffering from diseases with high unmet medical need and its comprehensive research and development programs in cancer immunology and immune modulation.

Infectious diseases such as lower respiratory tract infections (e.g. bacterial/viral pneumonia) and tuberculosis are amongst the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In China, chronic hepatitis B and tuberculosis are of high prevalence and associated with high mortality. Although pathogen-directed treatments and vaccinations have greatly reduced the impact of infectious diseases in past decades, they continue to be a major challenge for health. Increasing levels of resistance threaten the effectiveness of many anti-microbial drugs. No new antibiotic classes were developed during the past three decades and many treatments fail to achieve cure, resulting in large numbers of patients at risk due to long-term persistent infections.

Similar to cancer, many pathogens may inhibit or modulate their host's immune system and thus circumvent immune defense. Immune system activating therapies, which have brought a major therapeutic breakthrough in cancer may open similar transformative opportunities for infectious disease treatment.

"Value through innovation has been the driving force of Boehringer Ingelheim to meet the unmet medical need for patients, and to better serve society", said Professor Zheng You, Vice President of Tsinghua University. "For Tsinghua University, innovation is one of the most important aspects we pursue, and this is the basis and synergy for this partnership."

Professor Chen Dong, Dean of School of Medicine at the Tsinghua University says, "We look forward to combining Boehringer Ingelheim's leading competencies in immune oncology and immunology and the discovery and clinical development of new therapeutic agents with our leading expertise and strength in anti-infective therapy research and especially in immune modulation, for patients suffering from diseases with high unmet medical needs."

"The joint scientific hub gives our scientists the opportunity to work hand in hand with the outstanding scientists from Tsinghua University to discover novel treatment approaches in the field of immunology and infectious diseases," explains Clive R. Wood, Ph.D. Senior Corporate Vice President, Discovery Research at Boehringer Ingelheim. "This partnership has the potential to open new approaches for currently untreatable infectious diseases."

"Our collaboration with Tsinghua University is a further expression of our strong commitment to supporting research and development in China, and acknowledges the leading position China has achieved in many scientific areas", said David Preston, President and CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim Greater China.

This collaboration is an initiative of Boehringer Ingelheim's Research Beyond Borders (RBB) and Cancer Immunology and Immune Modulation Research Departments. Immuno-infection is a new focus area for Boehringer Ingelheim's RBB department, which also focuses on gene therapy, regenerative medicine and the role of the microbiome in human health and disease.

With the new collaboration, Boehringer Ingelheim further expands its activities in the growing biomedical innovation hot spot of China. By combining a focus on cutting-edge science with a long-term view, the company aspires to develop the next generation of medical breakthroughs to improve the lives of patients suffering from diseases with high unmet medical needs.

For notes to editors, please visit:

http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/new-partnership-develop-novel-treatment-approaches-against-infectious-diseases

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005401/en/

Contacts:

Boehringer Ingelheim

Dr. Reinhard Malin

Head of Communications, Innovation Unit

Boehringer Ingelheim Corporate Center GmbH

Media PR

P: +49 6132 77-90815

press@boehringer-ingelheim.comGlobal Environmental Engineering Firm Names New Director of Mid-Atlantic Operations

CHICAGO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Greeley and Hansen, a global civil and environmental engineering, architectural, and management consulting firm, has named Eyad Mizian as the new Managing Director of the firm's Mid-Atlantic Operating Group.

Mizian has over 25 years of experience in leading engineering teams in the planning, design, and construction of complex water and wastewater projects for major capital improvement programs in the U.S. and United Arab Emirates. In addition, he has specialized expertise in both national and international environmental policies and water industry regulations. He most recently served as Vice President and Client Account Manager with Louis Berger, where he managed large teams to complete major projects and programs for various water utility clients primarily in Maryland, Washington DC, and New Jersey.

In his new role as Managing Director at Greeley and Hansen, Mizian will lead the firm's efforts to expand business operations in the Mid-Atlantic region with a focus on building solid partnerships with utility clients and developing sustainable solutions to address their long-term needs. He will also direct the overall business operations for multiple Greeley and Hansen office locations in the Mid-Atlantic.

"Eyad is a results-oriented leader with vast management experience and technical knowledge in delivering successful water infrastructure improvement programs," said John C. Robak, President. "His client-focused approach and proven leadership ability will be vital in helping to position our firm for continued strategic growth in this key Mid-Atlantic market."

A registered Professional Engineer and Attorney at Law, Eyad holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Rhode Island, an MS in Civil Engineering from Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, and a Juris Doctor in Law and Government from Widener University, Harrisburg, PA. He is a member of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Metro Washington DC, serving on the Water Infrastructure Committee.

About Greeley and Hansen

Greeley and Hansen is a leader in developing innovative engineering, architecture, and management solutions for a wide array of complex water, wastewater, and related infrastructure challenges. The firm has built upon over 100 years of proven civil and environmental engineering experience in all phases of project development and implementation to become a premier global provider of comprehensive services in the water sector. Greeley and Hansen is dedicated to designing better urban environments worldwide. http://www.greeley-hansen.com/new.htm

For more information, contact:

Nancy Stankus

312-558-9000

nstankus@greeley-hansen.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738199/Mizian_Eyad_photo_final.jpgAssays pending for drill holes B-18-06 and B-1 8 -07 . Multiple mineralized intercepts

Upcoming drill ing to test Idaho #1 Vein. Past production of 935,000 oz gold @ 39 gpt

Upcoming drilling to test shallow Zebra Zone. Historic drill hole assayed 40 gpt / 10.5 m

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - Rise Gold Corp. (CSE: RISE) (OTCQB: RYES) ("Rise Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the on-going diamond core drilling at the Idaho-Maryland ("I-M") Gold Project.

Rise Gold has recently completed drill hole B-18-06 and drill hole B-18-07 is expected to be completed within several days. Both holes intersected multiple veins and assay results from these drill holes will be released over the upcoming weeks.

Exploration drilling at the Brunswick portion of the Idaho-Maryland Gold project has been highly successful with numerous gold bearing veins intersected and previously released in 2018 on January 3rd, June 28th, July 23rd, and August 7th. Previously released drill results included 12.2 gpt gold over 14.9 m in drill hole B-17-01, 22.4 gpt gold over 5.2 m in drill hole B-18-05, and 23.7 gpt gold over 4.5 m in drill hole B-18-05. A summary of drill highlights released-to-date is presented in Table 1 and Figure 1.

Rise Gold is moving to a new drilling position to test several important targets that have not been drilled to-date.

Rise Gold will test the down-dip extension of the bonanza grade Idaho #1 Vein. Past production of the Idaho #1 Vein is estimated at 935,000 oz gold at an average mill head grade of 38.6 gpt gold; historic channel samples on the lowest level of this vein include 481 gpt gold over 1.2 m, 142 gpt gold over 2.5 m, and 21 gpt gold over 4.5 m.

Rise Gold will be testing the shallow Zebra Zone Target, which is located approx. 320 m below surface. A historic drill hole in this area assayed 40 gpt gold over 10.5 m. The Zebra Zone is a unique area of the Brunswick mine where gold and quartz veins are hosted in a large block of black slates.

TABLE 1 - Previously Released Drill Intercept Highlights from B-17-01 to B-18-05*

BRUNSWICK CONFIRMATION HOLES (B1600L-B2300L) Hole From

(m) To

(m) Gold

(gpt) Intercept

Length

(m) Estimated

True Width

(m) Vein Figure

Ref B-17-01 638.9 653.8 12.2 14.9 7.8 B1 A Including 643.7 646.5 62.7 2.7 B1 Center Including 645.0 645.6 266.0 0.6 B-18-04 516.9 521.0 8.0 4.1 3.0 B32 C Including 516.9 518.0 23.0 1.1



B-18-02 578.4 582.8 7.9 4.4 1.0 - 3.4 B116 or B1 C B-18-03 516.6 518.6 6.0 2 1.7 B1 East D B-18-04 711.9 715.2 5.1 2.3 1.8 B18 E B-18-04 625.2 628.0 4.0 2.8 2.1 B10 F B-18-04 637.0 640.0 4.4 3 2.3 B10 G BRUNSWICK EXTENSION HOLES (B2300L-B3280L) Hole From

(m) To

(m) Gold

(gpt) Intercept

Length

(m) Estimated

True Width

(m) Vein Figure

Ref B-18-05 978.1 983.3 22.4 5.2 2.6 B40 H Including 978.1 979.3 93.2 1.2 B-17-01 1111.6 1126.8 4.5 15.2 ? ? I Including 1112.1 1113.6 40.6 1.5



B-18-05 748.3 763.6 2.6 15.3 11.0 B41 J B-18-05 667.9 671.4 5.9 3.5 2.0 B6 K Including 670.3 671.4 13.0 1.1 B-18-05 682.9 690.4 2.4 7.5 4.1 B6 L B-18-05 899.6 905.5 2.5 5.9 3.4 B39 N IDAHO DEEP DRILLING (~1 km BELOW MINE) Hole From

(m) To

(m) Gold

(gpt) Intercept

Length

(m) Estimated

True Width

(m) Vein Figure

Ref B-18-05 1590.1 1594.6 23.7 4.5 3.2 IB30 M Including 1593.6 1594.0 230.0 0.4 B-18-05 1887.5 1890.4 10.9 2.9 2.0 IB50 O Including 1889.4 1889.9 61.0 0.5

* Details of drill intercepts in previous Rise Gold news releases in 2018 on January 3rd, June 28th, July 23rd, and August 7th.

FIGURE 1 - Long Showing Previously Released Drill Results





To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2255/38432_a1536018280191_82.jpg

Quality Control and Assay Methods

Rise has implemented a quality control program for its drill program to ensure best practice in the sampling and analysis of the drill core. This includes the insertion of blind blanks, duplicates and certified standards. HQ- and NQ-sized drill core is saw cut with half of the drill core sampled at intervals based on geological criteria including lithology, visual mineralization, and alteration. The remaining half of the core is stored on-site at the Company's warehouse in Grass Valley, California. Drill core samples are transported in sealed bags to ALS Minerals analytical assay lab in Reno, Nevada.

All gold assays were obtained using a method of screen fire assaying. This procedure involves screening a large pulverized sample of up to 1 kg at 100 microns. Any +100 micron material remaining on the screen is retained and analyzed in its entirety by fire assay with gravimetric finish and reported as the Au (+) fraction result. The -100 micron fraction is homogenized and two sub-samples of 30-50 grams are analyzed by fire assay with AAS finish. If the grade of the material exceeds 10 gpt the sample is re-assayed using a gravimetric finish. The average of the two results is taken and reported as the Au (-) fraction result. All three values are used in calculating the combined gold content of the plus and minus fractions.

About Rise Gold Corp

Rise Gold is an exploration-stage mining company. The Company's principal asset is the historic past-producing Idaho-Maryland Gold Mine located in Nevada County, California, USA. The Idaho-Maryland Gold Mine is one of the United States' greatest past producing gold mines with total past production of 2,414,000 oz of gold at an average mill head grade of 17 gpt gold from 1866-1955. Historic production at the Idaho-Maryland Mine is disclosed in the Technical Report on the Idaho-Maryland Project dated June 1st, 2017 and available on www.sedar.com. Rise Gold is incorporated in Nevada, USA and maintains its head office in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Benjamin Mossman

President, CEO and Director

Rise Gold Corp.

For further information, please contact:

RISE GOLD CORP.

Suite 650, 669 Howe Street

Vancouver, BC V6C 0B4

T: 604.260.4577

info@risegoldcorp.com

www.risegoldcorp.com

Benjamin Mossman, P.Eng, CEO of Rise Gold, is the qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Historic production at the Idaho-Maryland Mine is disclosed in the Technical Report on the Idaho-Maryland Project dated June 1st, 2017 and available on www.sedar.com.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur.

Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions related to certain factors including, without limitation, obtaining all necessary approvals, meeting expenditure and financing requirements, compliance with environmental regulations, title matters, operating hazards, metal prices, political and economic factors, competitive factors, general economic conditions, relationships with vendors and strategic partners, governmental regulation and supervision, seasonality, technological change, industry practices, and one-time events that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information contained in this release. Rise undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements or information except as required by law.Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - Maple Gold Mines Ltd. ("Maple Gold" or the "Company") (TSXV: MGM) (OTCQB: MGMLF) (FSE: M3G) is pleased to provide a highlights summary of the 2018 drilling campaign now that all assays have been received. The 2018 winter drilling campaign included 21,122 metres of diamond drilling from 52 holes and 1,471.3 metres from 57 short top-of-bedrock Reverse Circulation (RC) holes for a total of 22,593 metres.

Approximately 70% of the total meterage was within or near the known Resource Area, defined as the 6.3 km by 1.8 km corridor including the outline of the Micon 2018 conceptual pits, and also including any known mineralized zones extending beyond the resource. The Douay NI 43-101 resource contains 479,000 indicated ounces averaging 1.59 g/t Au and 2,759,000 inferred ounces averaging 1.02 g/t Au, all using a 0.45 g/t Au cut-off grade (Micon 2018).1 Some of the Resource Area drilling in 2018 was focused on aggressive step-out targets, particularly where gaps in the drill-hole distribution could allow the discovery of new zones with potential to add ounces and bring the Company a step closer to connecting and linking up surrounding mineralized zones. The balance of the meterage (~30%) was dedicated to begin exploring the greater 377 km property package and generate new greenfield targets (shallow RC drilling), while also testing two existing greenfield target areas (NE Syenite and NW Greenfield target areas) with a first phase of diamond drilling. The following sections outline highlights from the various areas drilled in the 2018 campaign along with initial interpretation and analysis.

Resource Area: Central Resource Area (Porphyry Zone infill/step-out): 29 drill-holes (11,735 metres)

This drilling mainly focussed on confirming along strike and down-dip (or up-dip) continuity of existing zones, in particular in areas with lower density of drill-holes.

Highlighted results (true-widths estimated to be approximately 90% of down-hole length):

DO-18-216: 52m @ 3.53 g/t Au (including 21m @ 7.87 g/t Au) within broader ~150m halo of lower grade material; DO-18-203: 19m @ 0.88 g/t Au [see press release May 2, 2018]. These zones extend from surface to over 300m vertical depth.

DO-18-229: cut several mineralized zones, including 12m @ 1.90 g/t Au, 8.5m @ 3.80 g/t Au and 5.5m @ 1.94 g/t Au, all of which form part of a broader envelope of mineralization that extends to surface; DO-18-234: numerous mineralized zones, including 7m @ 1.47 g/t Au and 27.9m @ 0.66 g/t Au; DO-18-230: multiple zones, 24m @ 0.75 g/t Au (including 7m @ 1.17 g/t Au) and 4.8m @ 1.25 g/t Au, these zones also extend to surface [see press release June 26, 2018]

DO-18-247: cut several mineralized zones, including 21m @ 3.49 g/t Au, including 6.0 m of 9.32 g/t Au; DO-18-254: cut 27.5 m of 1.25 g/t Au, including 2.1 m of 5.36 g/t Au; DO-18-244: cut several mineralized zones, including 7m @ 2.06 g/t Au and three others over one g/t Au. All of these zones extend to surface [see press release July 9, 2018]

Summary: The assay results from drilling in the central part of the Porphyry Zone (including DO-18-216) support the Company's concept of multiple higher-grade zones or shoots within the Porphyry Zone, demonstrate the continuity of this style of mineralization in the central part of the Porphyry Zone, and open the possibility of increasing grades at depth.

Highlighted results from the east-central part of the Porphyry Zone (DO-18-247, DO-18-254 and DO-18-244) targeted an area with lower drill density and intersected significantly higher grades than adjacent holes, indicating that grade may increase at depth in this area.

Drilling in the western half of the Porphyry Zone (i.e. west of DO-18-216) confirmed the presence of a broad (90- to 130-metre true width) halo of gold mineralization, extending several hundred metres along strike and mainly hosted in syenites (DO-18-229, DO-18-230, DO-18-234).

Resource Area: NW Zone, NW Gap Area (including new Nika Zones): 11 drill-holes for 4,528 metres

Drilling focused on an area with low drill density between the NW, Douay West and Porphyry Zones (the NW Gap Area), where several scattered higher grade intercepts had previously been obtained, mainly outside of the existing conceptual pits, where additional drilling could confirm continuity of these intercepts and expand the existing conceptual pits.

Highlighted results (True widths are estimated to be approximately 90% of down-hole lengths):

DO-18-217: 17m @ 1.08 g/t Au within broader ~100m halo of lower-grade mineralization [see press release April 23, 2018]; DO-18-218: 50m @ 1.77 g/t Au with excellent continuity and up-dip extension open to surface [see press release May 14, 2018]; DO-18-227: 5m @ 2.32 g/t Au on the southeast edge of an existing (Micon 2018) conceptual pit [see press release June 11, 2018]; DO-18-241: 12m @ 1.78 g/t Au confirming eastern continuity and extension of gold mineralization from DO-18-218 [see press release July 26, 2018]

Summary: Drilling in the NW Gap area was very successful, with the discovery of several new zones of mineralization (the Nika zones). There are large bodies of syenite in this area, which together with initial interpretation of trace element patterns, appear to indicate this area may represent one of several intrusive-hydrothermal centers forming part of the Douay Resource. As is also the case for the Porphyry Zone, higher-grade intervals are surrounded by broad lower-grade haloes. Additional drilling is required to further define these new mineralized zones, along strike and up-dip and down-dip.

Maple Gold's VP, Exploration, Fred Speidel, stated:"Nearly three-quarters of the winter 2018 drill program focused on building on the core area of the project and we have been pleased with the successes there. We were not only able to extend key mineralized areas within the known deposit area, but also discovered new gold zones (Nika) and overall have made solid progress in the established Resource Area. Over the coming weeks and months our technical team will be updating our models as we progress towards the next resource estimate at Douay."





Fig. 1: Distribution of Resource Area and greenfield drill-hole locations, including shallow top-of-bedrock RC drilling

To view an enhanced version of Fig. 1, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3077/38438_a1536036131871_61.jpg

Greenfield Drilling: Shallow RC drilling (1,471.3 metres), NE Syenite (2,869 metres) and NW Greenfield (1,991 metres)

The shallow 2018 reverse circulation (RC) drilling generated three (3) new geological targets in the westernmost part of the Douay Project. The new targets are located approximately 35 km west of the Resource Area, and are within a block of about 38 km of ground that was staked by the Company in late 2017. Very limited historical exploration work has been documented here; this shallow exploration drilling represents the Company's first phase of work in this area and was designed to provide initial bedrock and overburden data to permit vectoring towards targets for additional exploration work and potential core drilling in subsequent campaigns.

An initial review of the assays from core drilling results received for both the NW Greenfield and NE Syenite areas showed encouraging anomalies in several pathfinder elements that can be associated with gold in the Resource Area; these geochemical anomalies deserve further surface work with the objective of vectoring in on and refining future drill targets in these areas.

The Company completed 1471.3 metres of RC drilling in 57 shallow holes in two areas: the western area and the south-central area (see Fig. 1, inset). In the more favorable western area, three separate gold-in-till anomalies were obtained, with 25, 35 and 21 gold grains in till samples; a more subtle fourth anomaly with 16 gold grains also occurs adjacent to the best of the first three, thereby augmenting and confirming that target. Background for this area is approximately 0 to 5 gold grains per till sample. Bedrock geochemistry for these and adjacent holes shows several different alteration styles, some of which are similar to alteration in the Resource Area and others more indicative of a volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) style of mineralization such as the nearby Joutel and Estrades deposits. The average overburden thickness in this western area was 27.9 metres. Additional follow up work is planned for this area and is expected to include an IP survey in an effort to firm up potential new discovery drill targets.

Maple Gold's VP, Exploration, Fred Speidel, commented: "Results from initial core drilling in higher risk (but also potentially higher reward) greenfield areas are sufficiently encouraging to warrant further exploration, with positive geological and geochemical indications in all three areas tested."

Speidel added: "Shallow RC drilling is a cost-effective exploration tool for new target generation in areas with glacial cover that allows us to obtain important information about both bedrock and glacial overburden geology and geochemistry. There are encouraging indications for both gold and base metals in the western area, where overburden thickness was shown to be less than expected. We will build on the data we've received from this work in an attempt to vector in towards new greenfield targets for future drilling campaigns."

Fig. 2: Compilation map for RC drill program, westernmost part of property only, on regional magnetic gradient base map. Gold, copper and base metal intercepts from historical drill-holes.

To view an enhanced version of Fig. 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3077/38438_fig2.jpg

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical data contained in this press release was reviewed and prepared under the supervision of Fred Speidel, M. Sc, P. Geo., Vice-President Exploration, of Maple Gold. Mr. Speidel is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Speidel has verified the data related to the exploration information disclosed in this news release through his direct participation in the work.

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC)

Maple Gold implements strict Quality Assurance ("QA") and Quality Control ("QC") protocols at Douay covering the planning and placing of drill holes in the field; drilling and retrieving the NQ-sized drill core; drill-hole surveying; core transport to the Douay Camp; core logging by qualified personnel; sampling and bagging of core for analysis; transport of core from site to the analytical laboratory; sample preparation for assaying; and analysis, recording and final statistical vetting of results. For a complete description of protocols, please visit the Company's QA/QC page on the website at: http://maplegoldmines.com/index.php/en/projects/qa-qc-qp-statement

About Maple Gold

Maple Gold is an advanced gold exploration company focused on defining a district-scale gold project in one of the world's premier mining jurisdictions. The Company's 377 km Douay Gold Project is located along the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone within the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt in northern Quebec, Canada. The Project has an established gold resource2 that remains open in multiple directions, with excellent infrastructure and several large scale operating mines within this prolific mining district. Maple Gold has now completed a significant winter drill campaign to expand on the known Resource Areas and test new discovery targets within the Company's 55 km of strike along the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone. For more information please visit www.maplegoldmines.com.

ON BEHALF OF MAPLE GOLD MINES LTD.

"Matthew Hornor"

B. Matthew Hornor, President & CEO

For Further Information Please Contact:



Mr. Joness Lang

VP, Corporate Development

Cell: 778.686.6836

Email: jlang@maplegoldmines.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively referred to as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation in Canada, including statements about the prospective mineral potential of the Porphyry Zone, the potential for significant mineralization from other drilling in the referenced drill program and the completion of the drill program. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding timing and completion of the private placement. When used herein, words such as "anticipate", "will", "intend" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are based on certain estimates, expectations, analysis and opinions that management believed reasonable at the time they were made or in certain cases, on third party expert opinions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, and uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual events, results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future events, results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Maple Gold Mines Ltd.'s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company's website at www.maplegoldmines.com. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

1 (Micon 2018) 479,000 ounces at 1.59 g/t Au (Indicated category) and 2,759,000 ounces at 1.02 g/t Au (Inferred category), using a 0.45 g/t Au cut-off grade. Please visit www.maplegoldmines.com or the Company's SEDAR filings for a copy of the Micon 2018 report.

2 (Micon 2018) 479,000 ounces at 1.59 g/t Au (Indicated category) and 2,759,000 ounces at 1.02 g/t Au (Inferred category), using a 0.45 g/t Au cut-off grade. Please visit www.maplegoldmines.com or the Company's SEDAR filings for a copy of the Micon 2018 report.SOS LAB, a LiDAR development company focusing on core technology for self-driving cars, plans to present its differentiated hybrid LiDAR system, the SL-1, at the AutoSens Conference in Belgium from September 17 to 20.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005181/en/

SOS LAB, a LiDAR development company focusing on core technology for self-driving cars, present its differentiated hybrid LiDAR system, the SL-1, at the AutoSens Conference in Belgium from September 17 to 20. SOS LAB's long-range, hybrid scanning design combines the advantages of the widely-used motor scanning system with a solid-state MEMS mirror, and will be offered at a much lower price point compared to traditional LiDAR products on the market today. The SL-1 has already received international acclaim and was awarded top prizes at both the Seoul International Invention Fair in 2017, and the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival in 2018. (Photo: Business Wire)

The event will feature other global leaders in the LiDAR industry such as Velodyne and Blackmore, and will offer the chance for companies to showcase their latest technological developments and breakthroughs. SOS LAB's revolutionary hybrid LiDAR product has already won multiple international awards, and is expected to establish new standards in the industry and solidify SOS LAB's standing as a major player in the field.

SOS LAB's long-range, hybrid scanning design combines the advantages of the widely-used motor scanning system with a solid-state MEMS mirror, and will be offered at a much lower price point compared to traditional LiDAR products on the market today. The SL-1 has already received international acclaim and was awarded top prizes at both the Seoul International Invention Fair in 2017, and the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival in 2018. The demand for autonomous vehicles is predicted to expand rapidly in the coming years, and SOS LAB's SL-1 is expected to play an important role in the popularization and accessibility of self-driving cars.

In addition to the SL-1, SOS LAB offers two other LiDAR products designed to integrate safe, effective, and affordable LiDAR technology into various industries: the GL-3 for factory automation and robotics, and the TL-3 for security and automatic doors. SOS LAB is also focusing on combining hardware-based sensors and AI-based object recognition and tracking technology using 3D point cloud LiDAR data, and plans to provide LiDAR data space/object recognition solutions for self-driving vehicles.

According to CEO Jiseong Jeong, "SOS LAB's vision is to become a LiDAR company that keeps ahead of the competition through excellent performance and affordable price points. We strive to innovate unique solutions to the problems combatting the industry today in order to properly address consumer concerns and meet worldwide demand."

In the coming weeks, SOS LAB will also participate in TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, and the International Digital Economy Expo in China, and is speeding up efforts to advance global business through programs in Tianjin and Tokyo.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005181/en/

Contacts:

SOS LAB

Cheonji Moon, +82-62-973-5051

info_global@soslab.coADARA is part of the Japanese government's digital marketing enhancement plan

TOKYO, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The world's richest travel data co-op, ADARA (HQ in Palo Alto, CEO: Layton Han) has announced that they will be providing a digital marketing & analytics platform, ADARA Impact, to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). This deal gives JNTO access to ADARA's proprietary destination measurement and analytics tool, ADARA Impact. JNTO will receive insights on their various digital marketing campaigns targeting inbound travelers, including searches and bookings for flights and hotels, and search and purchase behaviors of foreign tourists visiting Japan. With this, JNTO will work to enhance the effectiveness of digital marketing efforts and execute a digital marketing plan that grows the Japanese travel market.



ADARA Impact is powered by ADARA's data co-op of first party search, booking and loyalty data from 200+ global travel brands, including hotels, airlines, car rental companies and online travel agents. The unparalleled quality, depth and scale of the travel data in the co-op will provide JNTO and various National Tourism Boards with valuable reports and actionable insights that will help them direct their digital marketing campaigns for maximum effect.

ADARA Impact will provide JNTO and DMOs with visibility on how many travelers interact with their destination ads, content and websites, and whether or not they search, book, and ultimately visit destinations in Japan. Having this insight enables real-time content and messaging optimization to increase the number of visitors, room nights, and spending in all destinations across Japan.

ADARA providing JNTO with ADARA Impact will aid the Japanese Government's goal of increasing global inbound travel to 40 million annual visitors by 2020 and 60 million by 2030. The Japanese government is also targeting an 8 trillion JPY increase in revenue from these efforts by 2020. "ADARA Impact" will significantly help the achievement of these goals by ensuring government funds are used efficiently to fuel efficient marketing campaigns, build effective websites, and measure marketing campaigns. There is also scope for even larger-scale marketing campaigns in the future.

Layton Han, CEO, ADARA, commented: "The partnership with JNTO is a great example of how sharing data safely and securely between disparate but linked data-sets helps to unlock actionable insights that would otherwise remain hidden in silos in individual companies. ADARA Impact will help JNTO drive visitation to Japan and achieve long term tourism goals and we are delighted to be part of it. ADARA is dedicated to the Asia-Pacific region and we are continuing to grow and scale internationally there."

By joining the co-op alongside so many other local partners, JNTO's data will help further elaborate on traveller behavior in this dynamic market. The partnership with JNTO will be an invaluable asset to destination marketing organisations and travel brands, promoting travel to, from and within Japan.

About ADARA

ADARA empowers the world's leading travel brands to grow the industry together. Built on the world's richest travel data co-op, ADARA offers people-based insights for travel companies. Clients get a value-based understanding of their relationship with their customers, with travel patterns, trends and behavior from more than 750 million monthly unique traveler profiles across more than 200 of the world's top travel brands. ADARA delivers a unified view of consumer behavior, and critical insight with Customer Yield (Value) Intelligence that encompasses 3 core pillars - Learn, Act, Measure - to drive measurable outcomes at the customer level.

Website: https://adara.com/

ABOUT JNTO

Founded in 1964, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) offers information about Japan in order to promote travel to and within the country. JNTO also sponsors a Goodwill Guide Program, through which around 47,000 bilingual volunteers aid visitors from abroad; throughout Japan there are 77 Systematized Goodwill Guide groups. JNTO manages 20 offices in major cities around the globe, through which they maintain important tourism-related promotions. Each overseas office is in charge of promoting travel and tourism to Japan. They offer a wide range of information regarding transportation, accommodations, shopping, and events information.

Website: https://www.japan.travel/en/

David Morrow

david.morrow@adara.com

+1 650-338-6505

An infographic accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d3aedc2e-4a51-4a50-948a-1a092c8a554aSignaling MakeMeReach's official launch to the United States, recognition includes dedicated Google engineers to work alongside MakeMeReach's technical team to accelerate platform integrations

Perion Network Ltd. (NASDAQ: PERI) announced today that MakeMeReach, its growing social ad tech subsidiary that empowers agencies and advertisers to fully optimize their social campaigns, received today the official Google Premier Partner Badge. This certification allows MakeMeReach to integrate Google Ads Suite into its existing tech stack and marks the company's official launch in the United States. This recognition also comes on the heels of MakeMeReach's recognition as a proud partner of Facebook Marketing, Twitter and Snapchat.

Looking towards 2019 and beyond, the certification from Google represents a major expansion in strategy and vision for MakeMeReach; advertisers will now gain a broader, more fully-informed perspective on the online journeys of today's digital consumers.

MakeMeReach now lets clients unite the power of social and search advertising into one platform-with the strategic goal of maximizing cross-channel campaign performances. This unified platform is advanced through the deep partnership between MakeMeReach and its sister company, Undertone, Perion's platform for synchronized cross-platform digital branding.

Undertone's integration of singularly effective creative advertising and AI-driven media have made it an essential partner for the world's most prominent brands and advertisers. As the larger digital advertising ecosystem continues to evolve and innovate, the integration between MakeMeReach and Google, as well as Undertone's membership in the Coalition for Better Ads, are important towards fostering a more transparent and trusted advertising environment.

"Consumers' online buying habits and buying journeys are complex and interdependent, no longer attributable to a single ad impression. They must be understood in terms of a succession of touchpoints and complementary messages distributed across social networks and other channels-of which Google is the leader," said Pierre-Lou Dominjon, President of MakeMeReach "We recognize that advertisers must understand the impact of their ads within their overall strategy and can no longer afford to analyze and optimize online ad campaigns in silos. This integration of Google will help give them the tools and insights they need on both social and search advertising channels."

About MakeMeReach

Founded in 2009 and acquired by Perion Network Ltd. (NASDAQ: PERI) in 2015, MakeMeReach is a growing social ad tech company empowering agencies and advertisers to elevate and evaluate their campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Google at scale.

Learn more at www.makemereach.com.

About Undertone

Undertone, a subsidiary of Perion Network Ltd. (NASDAQ: PERI), sits at the intersection of creative, data, and distribution, delivering award-winning creative experiences for the world's leading brands. Through its synchronized digital branding solution, Undertone delivers cohesive stories that reach consumers across the most important touchpoints, screens, and platforms. Undertone's solution eliminates fragmentation and ensures brand messaging is synchronized and perfectly aligned with campaign KPIs-always with beautiful creative and in brand-safe environments.

Learn more at www.undertone.com.

About Perion Network Ltd.

Perion is a global technology company that delivers advertising solutions to brands and publishers. Perion is committed to providing data-driven execution, from high-impact ad formats to branded search and a unified social and mobile programmatic platform. More information about Perion may be found at www.perion.com. Follow Perion on Twitter @perionnetwork.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains historical information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to the business, financial condition and results of operations of Perion. The words "will", "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views, assumptions and expectations of Perion with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Perion to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, or financial information, including, among others, the failure to realize the anticipated benefits of companies and businesses we acquired and may acquire in the future, risks entailed in integrating the companies and businesses we acquire, including employee retention and customer acceptance; the risk that such transactions will divert management and other resources from the ongoing operations of the business or otherwise disrupt the conduct of those businesses, potential litigation associated with such transactions, and general risks associated with the business of Perion including intense and frequent changes in the markets in which the businesses operate and in general economic and business conditions, loss of key customers, unpredictable sales cycles, competitive pressures, market acceptance of new products, inability to meet efficiency and cost reduction objectives, changes in business strategy and various other factors, whether referenced or not referenced in this press release. Various other risks and uncertainties may affect Perion and its results of operations, as described in reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including its annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the SEC on March 27, 2018. Perion does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Source: Perion Network Ltd.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181016005600/en/

Contacts:

Perion Network Ltd.

Investor relations

Hila Valdman

+972 (73) 398-1000

Investors@perion.comOssianix, Inc. today announced a research collaboration and option agreement with Novo Nordisk to deliver therapeutic molecules in diabetes and other metabolic diseases across the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) to the brain.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ossianix will use its patented single domain VNAR antibodies to deliver a predefined number of therapeutic agents of Novo Nordisk. Novo Nordisk will be responsible for the development and commercialization of the therapeutic products.

Ossianix will receive upfront, pre-clinical, clinical and commercial milestone payments, R&D funding, as well as product royalties from Novo Nordisk. In addition, Novo Nordisk has a buyout option for each product on pre-agreed financial terms.

Financial details of the agreement are not being disclosed.

Dr. Frank Walsh, CEO of Ossianix, stated: "We are very excited to be working with Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company with 95 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. Ossianix's single domain VNAR antibodies BBB platform is capable of delivering high levels of therapeutic products to the central nervous system utilizing the transferrin receptor. We look forward to developing a successful collaborative relationship with Novo Nordisk on drug targets in the CNS associated with diabetes and metabolic disease which are areas of huge medical need."

"We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Ossianix, who has developed a unique platform for delivery of proteins and peptides to the brain using their proprietary blood-brain-barrier shuttle technology. In combination with our experience in disease biology, the projects that we will collaborate on hold potential to make a real difference for people living with diabetes and other metabolic diseases," said Dr. Marcus Schindler, Senior Vice President, Global Drug Discovery at Novo Nordisk.

About Ossianix

Ossianix is a privately held research company based in Philadelphia, PA with research laboratories in the UK. It develops novel biopharmaceuticals for a number of therapeutic areas including CNS.

Ossianix's patented single domain VNAR antibody synthetic phage libraries have been used to isolate BBB translocating modules to endogenous transport systems such as the transferrin receptor. This so called "Trojan Horse" approach has favorable characteristics including the ability to deliver biologics to the brain parenchyma at therapeutic doses with excellent long lasting pharmacokinetic properties.

The company utilizes this versatile single domain shark VNAR scaffold to engineer unique differentiated products in a variety of therapeutic formats for different types of Biologics. Its lead product is a brain penetrant CD20 antibody for multiple sclerosis and cerebral lymphoma.

The company was founded by former senior executives from Wyeth and Pfizer, Drs. Frank S. Walsh, Corey S. Goodman and J. Lynn Rutkowski.

For more information please visit www.ossianix.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005403/en/

Contacts:

Ossianix, Inc.

Frank S. Walsh, CEO

USA: +1 484-767-2843

UK: +44 7722 455 831

walsh@ossianix.com6th edition of the campaign supports 10 non-profit partners and includes a broader range of electronically traded products

Citi (NYSE: C) has launched the 6th edition of its annual e for Education campaign, a global corporate social responsibility initiative which has raised over $22.5 million for education-focused non-profits since 2013.

During the 9-week campaign, Citi's Foreign Exchange and Local Markets business will donate $1 for every $1 million traded with Citi via a broad range of electronic platforms including Citi's proprietary platforms- Citi Velocity for institutional clients and CitiFX Pulse for corporate clients. For the first time this year, the campaign will include local market bonds, in addition to FX.

Since its inception in 2013, Citi's e for Education campaign has supported over 250,000 youth globally and contributed to the success of several key initiatives supporting youth education, including the development of more than 400 schools across more than 20 countries worldwide. This year, Citi has expanded the number of non-profits with three additional partners, Malala Fund, Place2Be and Reach the World, bringing the total of non-profit organizations supported by the campaign to 10:

Civic Builders : develops high-performing charter schools where need is greatest across the U.S

: develops high-performing charter schools where need is greatest across the U.S EMpower : supports at-risk youth in emerging market countries

: supports at-risk youth in emerging market countries Fallen Patriots : provides college scholarships and educational counselling to North American children who have lost a parent in the U.S. military

: provides college scholarships and educational counselling to North American children who have lost a parent in the U.S. military Malala Fund : invests in education programmes and breaks down the barriers preventing more than 130 million girls around the world from going to school

: invests in education programmes and breaks down the barriers preventing more than 130 million girls around the world from going to school Place2Be : enhances the wellbeing and prospects of children and their families by providing access to therapeutic and emotional support in schools

: enhances the wellbeing and prospects of children and their families by providing access to therapeutic and emotional support in schools Reach the World : makes the benefits of travel accessible to classrooms, inspiring youth to become more curious, confident global citizens

: makes the benefits of travel accessible to classrooms, inspiring youth to become more curious, confident global citizens Room to Read : focuses on increasing literacy and gender equality in education in low-income countries

: focuses on increasing literacy and gender equality in education in low-income countries SkillForce : uses veterans' skills to help young people flourish at school in the UK

: uses veterans' skills to help young people flourish at school in the UK Teach First : trains and support committed individuals to become inspirational classroom leaders in low-income communities across England and Wales

: trains and support committed individuals to become inspirational classroom leaders in low-income communities across England and Wales Uncommon Schools: starts and manages 52 public charter schools serving 18,000 students in the US to prepare low-income students to graduate from college

"Reach the World's virtual exchange programs help impoverished and isolated youth to become curious, confident and compassionate global citizens who are prepared to thrive in today's global economy", Heather Halstead, Founder and Executive Director of Reach The World, said. "Thanks to Citi's e for Education campaign, Reach the World will expand its service to three states in rural America, and lay the groundwork for service to five countries worldwide."

In addition to the donations raised on the back of electronic trading activity, Citi clients and employees also support the selected non-profits through a series of educational activities including CV clinics, mock interviews, trading simulation, visits to the trading floor, career symposiums, financial literacy workshops and economics lessons.

"We are pleased to expand the scope of Citi's e for Education campaignand welcome additional partners to further support youth education in the local communities we operate in," Nadir Mahmud, Citi's Global Head of Foreign Exchange and Local Markets said. "With an estimated 260 million children failing to acquire basic literacy skills worldwide1, we have a crucial responsibility to invest in the next generation by facilitating access the essential resources that young people need to realize their full potential."

Additional information about the campaign may be found at www.ciitfx.com/e4e

Notes to Editor

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

Additional information may be found at http://www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com/| Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi.

___________________________

1 Unesco Global Education Monitoring Report

For more information on direct impact of education levels on economic wellbeing, please refer to Citi's Research GPS report: Education Back to Basics

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005509/en/

Contacts:

Citi

London

Capucine Boncenne

capucine.boncenne@citi.com

+44 (20) 7508-9355

or

New York

Scott Helfman

scott.helfman@citi.com

+ (212) 816-9241

or

Hong Kong

James Griffiths

james.a.griffiths@citi.com

852-2868-7668Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - Iconic Minerals Ltd. ("Company" or "Iconic") (TSXV: ICM) (OTC: BVTEF) (FSE: YQGB) has hosted a field inspection by Global Resource Engineering of Denver, Colorado who are conducting a NI 43-101 compliant resource study of the Bonnie Claire Project ("Project" or "Bonnie Claire"). Bulk samples of the sediments from BC1801 have been collected as the hole was drilled and shipped to St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp ("St-George") of Montreal for further metallurgical testing. Additional shallow drilling will soon be conducted to find shallow lithium-rich sediments for further bulk testing using heavy equipment.

Global Resource Engineering ("GRE") visit to Bonnie Claire, which commenced on August 24th , toured the greater property area, inspected drill sites and surface sample locations, checked drill logs against chip trays, as well as taking samples of both surface salts and drilled sediments to check against the results. GRE is primarily using the three deep drill holes, BC1601, BC1602 and BC1801, that were drilled on the Project, to calculate a resource estimate on Bonnie Claire. The three drill holes are located 1.6 kilometers (1.0 miles) to 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) apart, each contain +300 meters (+1,000 feet) of sediments with an overall average grade greater than 1,000 ppm lithium. GRE also visited the area south of the Project's drill holes and studied a broad region of linear surface lithium highs found by surface grid salt sampling. This area, along with one shallow drill hole ("BC1701") completed in 2017, has potential for near-surface lithium-rich sediments and possible lithium brine. An NI 43-101 resource report can be expected to be completed by GRE in 3-5 weeks.

Bulk samples of the sediments taken from the third deep hole ("BC1801"), have been shipped to St-Georges in Montreal for further metallurgical testing. This work will be used to determine the optimal economically feasible method of recovering lithium, and additional commercially viable elements derived from the Bonnie Claire sediments. Results from St-Georges tests are estimated for completion within five weeks.

Final exploration plans are being formulated for five 90 meters (300 feet) deep drill holes to test shallow lithium-rich sediments under linear surface lithium highs at Bonnie Claire. If successful, the area will become a source for further bulk sampling for pilot plant studies, requiring large amounts of sediment. In addition to the ongoing metallurgical work and shallow drilling the longer-term plan is to drill one deep core hole up to 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) deep to determine the vertical extent of the lithium-rich sediments. After the core hole is drilled, ten to fifteen deep mud-rotary holes, spaced roughly 1.6 km (1.0 miles) apart, are planned to greatly expand the soon to be reported resource.

The Bonnie Claire Lithium Property Characteristics:

The Property is located within Sarcobatus Valley that is approximately 30 km (19 miles) long and 20 km (12 miles) wide, the associated drainage basin is larger than the drainage basin at Clayton Valley to the north. Quartz-rich volcanic tuffs, that contain anomalous amounts of lithium, occur within and adjacent to the valley. Geochemical analysis of the local salt flats has yielded lithium values up to 340 ppm. The gravity low within the valley is 20 km (12 miles) long, and the current estimates of depth to basement rocks range from 600 to 1,200 meters (2,000 to 4,000 feet). The current claim block covers an area of 35 km2 (13.5 mi2) with potential to be underlain by lithium-rich sediments.

Richard Kern, Certified Professional Geologist (#11494) and CEO of Iconic is the Qualified Person who has prepared and reviewed this press release in accordance with NI 43-101 reporting standards.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

SIGNED: "Richard Kern"

Richard Kern, President and CEO

Contact: Keturah Nathe, VP Corporate Development (604) 336-8614

For further information on ICM, please visit our website at www.iconicmineralsltd.com. The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com

Forward Statement: This news release includes certain forward-looking statements or information. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Iconic expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - PowerBand Solutions Inc. (TSXV: PBX) (OTCQB: PWWBF) (FSE: 1ZVA) ("PowerBand" or the "Company"), a leading online auction and remarketing platform to buy and sell used vehicles, is pleased to announce, further to its news release of July 10, 2018, the closing of its acquisition (the "Transaction") of 1070879 B.C. Ltd., operating as LeadSource Canada ("LeadSource"), pursuant to a definitive share purchase agreement.

Based in Kelowna, B.C., LeadSource is a next-generation automotive private sale event marketing company. LeadSource integrates its proprietary consumer conquest methodology with the latest in advanced database mining techniques to harvest qualified, in-equity sales leads through its customer contact centre. LeadSource provides training to the dealership's staff and orchestrates all aspects of the multiday private sales events ("Events"), resulting in a dynamic and transparent customer experience that is unlike any other current offering in the marketplace.

The Transaction was completed by the purchase of all outstanding securities of LeadSource by PowerBand in consideration of:

$60,000 cash; an additional $20,000 cash in the event PowerBand completes 100 Events within 18 months from closing of the Transaction; and an additional $20,000 cash in the event PowerBand completes an additional 50 Events (for an aggregate of 150 Events) within the same 18 month period.

In order to trigger either $20,000 milestone payment, the Events completed by PowerBand must meet strict income and margin qualifying requirements.

Furthermore, concurrent with and as a condition of the completion of the Transaction, PowerBand is pleased to announce the engagement of Paul Mountney, founding principal and President of LeadSource, as General Manager of PowerBand, directing LeadSource's Event business as part of the larger PowerBand team. In addition to his base salary, commissions and standard benefits, Mr. Mountney may earn up to 37,500 common shares of PowerBand each year based on the strong performance of the newly integrated LeadSource Event business.

Kelly Jennings, Chief Executive Officer of PowerBand, stated: "We are very pleased to have completed the acquisition of LeadSource, and welcome Paul to his new role with PowerBand. Paul and PowerBand's team have developed an extremely efficient and effective national platform for lead generation and Event execution, which will benefit substantially from the implementation of PowerBand's instant LiveNet Auction system. Customers looking to trade in their used vehicle at the Events will be able to watch live bids for their vehicle appear on the dealership's showroom display, providing the confidence that the industry's top buyers are providing them with the best available, real-time, price for their trade-in. The acquisition of LeadSource is part of PowerBand's long term plan to provide dealers and consumers with an efficient solution by eliminating unnecessary middlemen from the sales process. We look forward to generating shareholder value through this accretive acquisition".

Paul Mountney, General Manager of PowerBand responsible for Events, stated: "We are thrilled to have completed the Transaction and eagerly anticipate complimenting PowerBand's substantial industry contacts, experience and powerful LiveNet Auction system with our proprietary national targeted Event model."

About PowerBand Solutions Inc.

PowerBand Solutions Inc. is a technology provider listed on the TSX Venture Exchange that is developing solutions for automotive and other industries that drive efficiency and transparency in the marketplace. PowerBand has developed and commercialized a leading-edge online auction platform that increases revenues and profit margins for its automotive dealership, Original Equipment Manufacturer, commercial fleet and rental company customers. PowerBand's remarketing platform, the PowerBand Exchange, incorporates the industry's latest auction technologies, inventory management, market intelligence, and appraisal processes.

For further information, please contact:

Patrick Piette, Investor Relations

416-526-9911

ppiette@powerbandsolutions.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the Company and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by Canadian securities law.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.Announces Increase in Private Placement

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - Asterion Cannabis Inc. ("Asterion" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has entered into a consulting agreement with White Sheep Services Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of White Sheep Corp. ("White Sheep"), whereby White Sheep's President and Chief Executive Officer, Hamish Sutherland, has been appointed as the Company's Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Sutherland has a successful track record within the cannabis sector. His past achievements and contributions include holding the position of founding Chief Operating Officer of Bedrocan Cannabis Corp. (subsequently acquired by Canopy Growth Corporation), delivering over $750 million in investor value and overseeing the building and commissioning of a 52,000 square foot state of the art automated facility in suburban Toronto.

Mr. Sutherland's duties as Chief Operating Officer of the Company will include being involved in the development and operations of the Company's planned 4.3 million square foot greenhouse cannabis production facility in Queensland, Australia (the "Queensland Facility"), which will be automated and powered by renewable energy and is expected to have annual cannabis production capacity in excess of 500,000 kg.

"This is a great opportunity to advance an historic project with the ability to change the quality of lives throughout the island continent in full partnership and consultation with the Australian Department of Health," stated Hamish Sutherland.

"We are delighted to have Mr. Sutherland join Asterion," said Stephen Van Deventer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "Mr. Sutherland's exceptional experience, including seven years working with Austrade (the Australian Trade and Investment Commission) and five years in legal Canadian cannabis operations, combined with the vision of the Asterion founders, has the potential to create real financial value for Asterion and its shareholders."

Increase in Private Placement

The Company also announces that due to the amount of interest expressed by investors, the previously announced non-brokered private placement of up to 10 million units (each, a "Unit") at the price of CAD $0.50 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to CAD $5 million will now be increased to 20 million units, for aggregate gross proceeds of up to CAD $10 million (the "Financing"). The terms of the Units will remain the same as previously announced (see news release dated July 10, 2018).

About White Sheep

White Sheep is a commercial operator and strategic investor in global cannabis assets with direct operational expertise in building successful, large-scale, automated cannabis grow facilities and meeting regulatory and compliance standards. Over the past 20 years, the White Sheep team has created billions of dollars in investor value across multiple industries, including over $750 million in the cannabis industry alone.

About Asterion

Asterion is a Canadian cannabis company with operations in Australia, specializing in organic medical cannabis with a goal of becoming an industry leader in next generation cannabis products. The Company is focused on the future of precision agriculture and aims to produce the highest quality, genetically uniform cannabis strains, at an affordable price.

The Company is led by a team of highly experienced executives with over 120 years of combined experience in medical cannabis, renewable energy, capital markets, and other highly relevant sectors across North America, Oceania, Europe, Africa and Asia.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Stephen Van Deventer"

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Deanna Kress

+1-778-999-6063

info@asterioncannabis.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations and orientations regarding the future including, without limitation, the services to be provided by White Sheep and Hamish Sutherland, the construction and operations of the Queensland Facility, the completion of the Financing, the Company's anticipated business plans and its prospect of success in executing its proposed plans. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "plans", "expects", "may", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "proposes" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors including, but not limited to, the ability of the Company's Australian subsidiary to complete its acquisition of the land required for construction of the Queensland Facility, the receipt of the required approvals for the construction and operation of the Queensland Facility by the Australian Government and the inability of the Company to execute its proposed business plans and obtain the financing required to carry out its planned future activities, and the success of White Sheep and Hamish Sutherland in carrying out their engagement with the Company. Other factors such as general economic, market or business conditions or changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting the biotechnology or medical cannabis industry and delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals, may also adversely affect the future results or performance of the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, unless required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the statements, beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that those statements, beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions will prove to be accurate. Readers should consider all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to other periodic reports provided by the Company from time-to-time.

Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly, are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - PreveCeutical Medical Inc. (CSE: PREV) (OTCQB: PRVCF) (FSE: 18H) (the "Company" or "PreveCeutical"), announces that, during its soluble gel ("Sol-gel") drug delivery research and development program (the "Sol-gel Program"), it has successfully optimised the conditions for extracting cannabinoids from one of its cannabis strains and developed a proprietary method for the accurate and precise quantification of cannabinoids present in the extract (the "Extraction Protocol").

The Extraction Protocol's accuracy and precision was validated against eight commercial cannabinoid standards over a broad concentration range. The typical quantification of cannabinoids in the plant material provided by the Company's licensed producer, Aurora Cannabis Inc. ("Aurora"), falls well within this concentration range, meaning the Extraction Protocol can now be directly applied to the four other Aurora cannabis strains used by the Company in the Sol-gel Program.

The Company anticipates that the Extraction Protocol will expedite the creation of a library of chemically fingerprinted cannabinoid extracts, each with a complementary cannabinoid composition. After generating the library, each unique extract will be optimised and incorporated into the Sol-gel technology. The Company intends to generate a range of cannabinoid-based Sol-gel formulations (each, a "CBD Sol-gel Formulation"), each with a distinct, well-defined cannabinoid composition profile.

The CBD Sol-gel Formulations, when used with the Company's custom Sol-gel applicator (the "Sol-gel Applicator"), will enable prolonged delivery of cannabinoids to patients' central nervous systems. The Company's medicinal cannabis division expects to be able to offer a broad product range that can be tailored to specific medical conditions. For example, the Company is currently developing a CBD Sol-gel Formulation with a cannabinoid composition designed to decrease patient anxiety (see news release dated August 8, 2018).

PreveCeutical's Sol-gel Applicator is currently in development. The Company's research partner, the University of Queensland, has received several prototypes for the Sol-gel Applicator from the Company's manufacturer, and has been assessing their performance in the Sol-gel Program.

About PreveCeutical

PreveCeutical is a health sciences company that develops innovative options for preventive and curative therapies utilising organic and nature identical products.

PreveCeutical aims to be a leader in preventive health sciences and currently has five research and development programs, including: dual gene therapy for curative and prevention therapies for diabetes and obesity; the Sol-gel Program; Nature Identical peptides for treatment of various ailments; non-addictive analgesic peptides as a replacement to the highly addictive analgesics such as morphine, fentanyl and oxycodone; and a therapeutic product for treating athletes who suffer from concussions (mild traumatic brain injury).

PreveCeutical sells CELLB9, an Immune System Booster. CELLB9 is an oral solution containing polarized and potentiated essential minerals extracted from a novel peptide obtained from Caribbean Blue Scorpion venom. This product is available on the Company's website.

For more information about PreveCeutical, please visit www.PreveCeutical.com, follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PreveCeuticals and Facebook: www.facebook.com/PreveCeutical.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Stephen Van Deventer"

Chairman, CEO and President

For further information, please contact:

Deanna Kress

Director of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

+1-778-999-6063

deanna@PreveCeutical.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations and orientations regarding the future including, without limitation, the completion of the Sol-gel Program, the utilisation of the Extraction Protocol, the development of the Sol-gel Formulations and the Sol-gel Applicator, the creation of a library of chemically fingerprinted cannabinoid/THC extracts, the efficacy of the Company's products, matters related to the Company's current and planned research and development programs, including the Sol-gel Program, the Company's anticipated business plans and its prospect of success in executing its proposed plans. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "plans", "expects", "may", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "proposes" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors including, risks and uncertainties relating to the inability of the Company, to, among other things, obtain any required governmental, regulatory or stock exchange approvals, permits, consents or authorizations required, including Canadian Securities Exchange acceptance of any planned future activities, commercialise therapeutic and diagnostic technologies, execute its proposed business plans, pursue business partnerships, complete its research programs as planned and obtain the financing required to carry out its planned future activities. Other factors such as general economic, market or business conditions or changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry, may also adversely affect the future results or performance of the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, unless required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the statements, beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that those statements, beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions will prove to be accurate. Readers should consider all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to other periodic reports provided by the Company from time-to-time. These reports and the Company's filings are available at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly, are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements.Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alternate Health Corp ("Alternate Health" or the "Company") (CSE:AHG) (OTCQB:AHGIF), an international corporation that provides software solutions for the medical cannabis industry, today announced that the Company has entered into a software-as-a-service agreement with Liberty Health Sciences ("Liberty"), a premiere producer and dispenser of medical cannabis in the U.S., to provide e-commerce and digital transaction services in the Florida market.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738575/Alternate_Health_Corp__Alternate_Health_signs_agreement_with_Lib.jpg

"FlorPass has received tremendous response from our physician partners in Florida and we are pleased to be working with Liberty to bring new and innovative solutions to our rapidly expanding patient population," says Dr. Michael Murphy, Chairman and CEO of Alternate Health. "Our team has developed a truly unique system and, through the agreement with Liberty, we are positioned for excellent growth in the Florida market."

Liberty Health Sciences and Alternate Health were granted approval by the Florida Department of Health to implement FlorPass as the state's first online shopping portal for medical cannabis equipped with a digital transaction system. Patients will now have the ability to browse medical cannabis products, make purchases and arrange delivery through the FlorPass secure online portal. FlorPass is the patient management software of choice for many of the state's leading cannabis clinics and physicians, representing nearly 6,000 medical cannabis patients.

"We are proud to partner with a market leader and innovator like Alternate Health to provide best in class ecommerce access to the quality, value, and industry-leading expertise of our Liberty brands and services," said George Scorsis, CEO of Liberty Health Sciences. "Our customers will now have online access to our growing product line with easy to navigate search capabilities, including filtering by brand and price. FlorPass is the perfect solution for us to deliver on our promise of exceptional user experience without sacrificing functionality or security."

FlorPass charges a transaction fee based on a percentage of sales through the system's e-commerce platform. Alternate Health anticipates strong revenues based on the growing patient base and Liberty's strong brand presence across the state.

"The Florida Department of Health's approval of FlorPass represents a turning point for accountability and compliance in medical cannabis sales throughout the state," adds Dr. Murphy. "FlorPass provides state regulators and health officials access to the most comprehensive data analytics, with transparent tax reporting and unmatched security protocol."

FlorPass is a blockchain-enabled software platform that manages the end-to-end transactions involved in providing safe access to medical cannabis to eligible patients. The system is accessible by the patient, certified doctors and licensed dispensaries, linked through a seamless interface, and is used to facilitate online purchases of medical cannabis and provide enhanced medical treatment recommendations, with a focus on improving patient outcomes.

About Liberty Health Sciences Inc.

Liberty is the cannabis provider committed to providing a trusted, high quality cannabis experience because of our genuine care for all cannabis users and a focus on operational excellence from seed to sale and beyond. Liberty's stringent investment criteria for expansion maximizes returns to shareholders, while focusing on significant near-and mid-term opportunities while keeping consumers' well-being at the forefront of what we do. Liberty has an extensive background in highly regulated industries and leverages its commercial greenhouse expertise to drive low-cost production. For more information, please visit: www.libertyhealthsciences.com.

About FlorPass

FlorPass is the U.S. equivalent of Alternate Health's cornerstone CanaPass Cannabis Compliance technology. Alternate Health's CanaPass system is currently live nationwide in Canada through a partnership with National Access Cannabis ('NAC'), Canada's largest chain of medical cannabis clinics. Alternate Health's agreement with Liberty to use FlorPass is based on a fee calculated as a percent of total transactions made in the system and has been established for an initial period of 6 months with an automatic renewal period of 1 year unless either party opts to terminate.

About Alternate Health Corp.

Alternate Health Corp. (CSE: AHG) (OTCQB: AHGIF) Alternate Health has established multiple arms-length operations within the medical cannabis industry, each of which drives consumers, data and strategic opportunities to the company's other verticals. This sophisticated cross-integration of the company's enterprises has positioned Alternate Health as one of the only cannabis companies that delivers consistent revenue and intellectual property without growing, manufacturing or distributing the cannabis plant. Through its software solutions, data analytics, and patented delivery systems, Alternate Health's goal is to be the global authority on scientific and clinical support for cannabis in regulated markets. Alternate Health is well positioned to reinvest internal operating cash flow in its platform over the long term, creating an attractive investment profile for its shareholders.

Alternate Health resides in the cannabis sector along with companies like GW Pharmaceuticals, AXIM Biotechnologies Inc., Canopy Growth Corporation, and Aphria Inc. Alternate Health is differentiated from other cannabis companies by its focus on ancillary services for patients, healthcare professionals and regulatory providers rather than selling a commodity. For more information about Alternate Health Corp., visit www.alternatehealth.ca.

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's future operations, business prospects, anticipated lab sample increases and potential revenues, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Investor Relations Contact: Jim Griffiths, Director, 1.416.607.5757, j.griffiths@alternatehealth.caPHILADELPHIA, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

SEMrush, an online visibility management and content marketing SaaS platform, announced today, on its 10th anniversary, the release of its Competitive Intelligence 2.0 toolkit.

With the product upgrade, marketers will now receive a full stack of marketing insights in all areas of competitors' digital marketing strategy including SEO, SEM, Paid Advertising, Content, SMM and PR. SEMrush Competitive Intelligence 2.0 is also tailored to needs of business development managers, sales teams and affiliate managers, who will be able to evaluate new markets' feasibility when developing go-to-market plans and quickly evaluate the potential of new partners and prospects (as well as better convert them into profitable deals).

"A top-notch product is our first priority. When we work on any SEMrush tool, we first of all check if we ourselves will be happy to use it. The competitive intelligence 2.0 is a comprehensive and smart toolkit that can help businesses to be ahead of their competitors and drive the business growth," says Oleg Shchegolev, CEO and co-founder of SEMrush. "The 2.0 update is built with users' feedback and requests taken into account. No one else in the industry can provide the high-quality data that we've got."

With 10 years of consistent growth, SEMrush attained a landmark achievement of more than 2,000,000 users. By ?onstant collecting of feedback from those users, SEMrush realized how important it is to upgrade the Competitive Intelligence toolkit with the new quality and quantity of data: now, marketers will be able to discover and analyze competitors' marketing strategy and tactics from all marketing angles: from their website efficiency and traffic sources, social media monitoring, content marketing tactics, and even pay-per-click advertisements.

"SEMrush client Booking.com needed to catch up with the rest of the players in one of the most competitive markets who had already embraced SEO. As there was previously no data, SEMrush was useful for benchmarking against successful websites and identifying where opportunities lay."

After 10 years of operation, SEMrush obtained data that currently encompasses 190 countries, 400+ million web domains and 8 billion keywords; its capabilities makes it the most comprehensive suite for businesses around the world. Being the trusted data provider for leading media outlets and 25% of Fortune-500 companies, SEMrush brings its users opportunities to analyze strategies, evaluate businesses' and partners' potential and to provide market insights with just one click. The official release of the Competitive Intelligence 2.0 toolkit will be presented at Inbound 2018, taking place September 4-7.

www.balloupr.com

Contact: Abigail Smith, T: +44(0)203-735-8750, M: +44(0)7494-507-474, abigail.smith@balloupr.comOneSource Virtual (OSV), a leading Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) and professional services provider, today announced that its chief executive officer, Trey Campbell, has been appointed to its Board of Directors.

Campbell first joined OneSource Virtual as president and chief operating officer in 2016 and assumed the role of chief executive officer in 2017. He has since assembled a robust leadership team that has driven technology innovation and programs directed towards quality optimization and delivery efficiency.

"Trey's proven record of success and his unparalleled industry knowledge will further strengthen OSV's board," says Brian Williams, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-founder of OneSource Virtual. "We're impressed by what he's been able to accomplish in just one year as CEO, and the leadership team he's built shows his commitment to our customers. We feel like we have all the pieces in place to continue delivering the best service in the ecosystem to our customers."

During his tenure, Campbell has also increased OSV's global reach, including expansion of its EMEA and BPaaS businesses. Additionally, OneSource Virtual has continued to focus on its customers' success with new communications programs, real-time data management, and a strong focus on service quality and reliability.

Campbell's addition as a member of the Board of Directors will allow his leadership and expertise in customer relations to be felt throughout the upper echelons of OSV's governance team, further reinforcing the customer at the center of OneSource Virtual's focus.

Campbell came to OSV as a veteran services and technology executive with more than 30 years of sales, operations, technology, and management experience. During that time, he worked with top-tier service providers including Exult, AonHewitt, Accenture and NGA HR, where he served in positions ranging from head of sales to president and CEO.

About OneSource Virtual

Founded in 2008, OneSource Virtual is a pioneer of Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) and supports the automated delivery of solutions exclusively for Workday. OneSource Virtual's services empower organizations of all sizes by encouraging HR to become a strategic partner within the organization, aligning to business growth and scaling by demand through Workday deployment, consulting, training, and in-application payroll administration, benefit administration, finance and accounting outsourcing and application management services. OneSource Virtual is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with European headquarters in London, United Kingdom and processing centers in Mesa, Arizona and Derry, Northern Ireland. For more information, please visit www.onesourcevirtual.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005170/en/

Contacts:

OneSource Virtual

Tristan Desinor, 469-351-2580

tdesinor@onesourcevirtual.comBEIJING, Nov. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hainan Airlines Holding Co., Ltd. ("Hainan Airlines") recently announced the addition of Chongqing-Paris and Shenzhen-Paris non-stop services to their international network, to commence on December 19 and 21, 2018, respectively. Following the launch of the Xi'an-Paris route, these two new services will be Hainan Airlines' second and third direct flights between mainland China and Paris. The Chongqing-Paris route will be serviced by an Airbus deluxe wide-body aircraft, with two round trip flights weekly, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, while a Boeing 787 Dreamliner will service the Shenzhen-Paris route, with two round trip flights weekly, on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Hainan Airlines already operates several international direct flights from mainland China to Europe, including Xi'an-Paris, Chongqing-Rome, Beijing/Shanghai-Brussels, Beijing-Edinburgh-Dublin-Beijing, Beijing-Dublin-Edinburgh-Beijing, Changsha-London, and Shenzhen-Madrid/Brussels/Zurich/Vienna routes, creating a rapid transit network complemented by intermodal connections. The new Chongqing-Paris and Shenzhen-Paris services will help expand Hainan Airlines' network in Europe, strengthen the connections between China and France, as well as boost the cooperation and exchange between the two countries.

The services will provide a higher level of convenience to passengers travelling between China and Europe with Chinese travelers being able to continue on to North Africa, West Africa and South America from Chongqing, Shenzhen and Xi'an by transiting in Paris, Brussels, Madrid and London, while European travelers can easily reach resorts in South China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand via a transfer in Shenzhen, Chongqing, Shanghai or Beijing.

Hainan Airlines' Chongqing-Paris Flight Schedule (All times are local):

Flight No. Aircraft Schedule Departure City Departure Time Arrival Time Arrival City HU717 A330 Wednesday/Saturday Chongqing 1:30 am 6:20 am Paris HU718 A330 Wednesday/Saturday Paris 1:00 pm 6:30 am+1 Chongqing

Hainan Airlines' Shenzhen-Paris Flight Schedule (All times are local):

Flight No. Aircraft Schedule Departure City Departure Time Arrival Time Arrival City HU757 B787 Wednesday/Friday Shenzhen 1:15 am 7:15 am Paris HU758 B787 Wednesday/Friday Paris 11:35 am 6:25 am+1 Shenzhen

Note: Specific timetables can be confirmed on Hainan Airlines' official website.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/721051/Hainan_Airlines_logo.jpgGURUGRAM, India, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and continual investments from public and private sectors, rise in aging population will increase the demand of telemedicine in Switzerland .

. Rising cost of healthcare will contribute to the increase in the revenues of telemedicine market in the country in coming years.

Telemedicine services will be more reliant on cloud-based compared to the web-based as the data or details of every patient is stored on the cloud while treatment. Artificial intelligence will be the future trend in the Tele-Medicine. There will also be more emphasis placed on the use of connected devices which can be continuously monitored at Tele-Medicine Center and required action can be taken. There is a scope that virtual hospitals might come into the picture which will be a central hub and where the patients could be treated via telemedicine.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661352/Ken_Research_Logo.jpg )



Companies will enhance their services in order to compete in the market. Medgate will develop more follow-up services for stroke and epilepsy in coming years. Clinical robots are expected to be popular technology in the telemedicine market in future as they will help the specialists to visit their patients regardless of the location. Moreover, the specialists will be able to connect with the patient and X-ray or laboratory reports simultaneously. Personalized telemedicine applications can be made in future for both the patient and the doctor, which will be customized according to the requirements of the customers. Moreover, there will be better integration of EHR software

Radiology has been used effectively in the telemedicine market and fields such as dermatology, mental health and stroke care are also being used heavily. In future, other fields might explore telemedicine further such as psychiatry, neurology and others. Moreover, psychological ailments will become a big challenge for Swiss healthcare which will further increase the demand for tele-psychology.

Analysts at Research Forecast in their latest publication "SwitzerlandTelemedicine Market Forecast to 2022 - By Service Platform (Tele Home & M-Health and Tele Hospital), by Technology Platform (Software and Hardware) and by Clinical Applications (Tele Consultation, Tele Dermatology, Tele Pathology, Tele Neurology and Others)" believe that promoting better regulations, providing access to patient's long term medical records, partnering with universities and corporates offices will aid the telemedicine market.

Switzerland Telemedicine market is expected to register positive CAGR of around 12.4% during the period 2018-2022 in terms of revenue. Providing better data security and adopting different marketing techniques to creating awareness is expected to have positive impact on the overall telemedicine market.

Keywords

Switzerland Telemedicine Market

Switzerland Telemedicine Revenue

Telemedicine Software Companies Swiss

Tele Clinic Market Switzerland

E-Health Market Switzerland

Tele Home Services Market Switzerland

Tele Hospital Services Market Switzerland

M-Health Services Industry Switzerland

Tele Pathology Market Switzerland

Tele Dermatology Industry Switzerland

Tele Neurology Market Switzerland

Tele Consultation Market Switzerland

Data security Telemedicine Switzerland

Consultation Process Telemedicine Services

EHR Market Switzerland

Trends Switzerland Telemedicine

Issues Switzerland Telemedicine

Government Regulations Switzerland Telemedicine

Reimbursement System Switzerland Telemedicine

Competition Switzerland Telemedicine

Business Model Players Switzerland Telemedicine

Switzerland Telemedicine Future

Medi24 Business Model Swiss

Medgate Revenue Streams Switzerland

SWICA Telemedicine Platform

Swiss Telemedicine Center

Products Covered:

By Type of Service Platform

Tele Home & M-Health

& M-Health Tele-Hospitals & Clinics

By Technology Platform:

Software

Hardware

By Clinical Applications

Tele Consultation

Tele Dermatology

Tele Pathology

Tele Neurology

Others (Tele radiology, Tele Cardiology, Epidemiology, Prescription Counseling, Surgical Applications, Cardiology and Dentistry)

Companies Covered:

Telemedicine Service Companies:

Medi24

Medgate

SWICA

DigitalMedLab

Eedoctors

DrEd

OnlineDoctor

Swiss Telemedicine Center

Telemedicine Software Companies

Comacrh Healthcare

Patient Journey App

Connected Health Tech Solutions

Verklizan

Team Scope

AMD Global Telemedicine

Portavita

Blackford Analysis

Cupris Healthcare

Care Zapp

Philips Healthcare

Telemedicine Hardware Companies

AMD Global Telemedicine

Tele Health Solutions

Global MED

Avizia

Cupris Healthcare

OJBio

InTouch Health

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UK Telemedicine Market Outlook to 2022 - by Services (Tele Home & M-Health and Tele Hospital), by Technology Platform (Software, Hardware and Telecom), by Clinical Applications (Tele Cancer Services, Tele Radiology, Tele Pathology, Tele Neurology, Tele Psychology and Others)

The report provides a comprehensive analysis on the UK telemedicine services and technology platform Market. The report covers introduction and genesis, market size, market segmentation by service platforms (Tele Home & M-Health and Tele Hospital), by type of technology platform (Software, Hardware and Telecom), by type of clinical applications (Tele Cancer Services, Tele Radiology, Tele Pathology, Tele Neurology, Tele Psychology and Others) and by delivery mode (Cloud Based and Web Based).

Sweden Telemedicine Market Outlook to 2022 - By Technology (Software and Hardware) and By Services (Service Platform-Tele Hospitals & Clinics, Tele Home and M-Health and By Clinical Application -Tele Consultation, Tele Radiology, Tele Assistance, Tele Pathology, Tele Psychology and Others)

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the status of telemedicine services and technology market in Sweden. The report focuses on telemedicine services market by Clinical application (Tele Consultation, Tele radiology, Tele Assistance, Tele Pathology, Tele Psychology and Others), by service platform (Tele Hospitals and Clinics, Tele Home and M-Health).

Netherlands Telemedicine Market Forecast to 2022 - by Services and Technology, By Clinical Applications (Tele Psychiatry, Tele Dermatology, Tele Assistance, Tele Consultation and Others)

The report covers various aspects including introduction and genesis, market size by revenue, market segmentation by service platform (Tele Home & M-Health and Tele Hospital), by technology platform (Software and Hardware) and by clinical applications (Tele Psychiatry, Tele Dermatology, Tele Assistance, Tele Consultation and Others). The report also covers Value Chain Analysis in Netherlands telemedicine market, Government regulations, Case Study on successful telemedicine service provider, PEST analysis, along with analyst recommendation and macroeconomic variables.

Contact Us:

Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing

Ken Research Private Limited

Ankur@kenresearch.com

+91-9015378249

Prompting 1 for 10 Reverse for Shares

TUCSON, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / September 4, 2018 / ABCO Energy, Inc., (OTC PINK: ABCE) announced that they have signed an S1 financing agreement with Oasis Capital, LLC, a large capital funding firm for a $5,000,000 offering that will sell our common stock at 85% of the market price. The initial financing is slated to take place in late September or early October as soon as the registration documents are cleared with the SEC. This common stock offering will be the first we have been able to bring to completion.

The funding will be utilized to provide working capital to complete our $1,500,000 backlog, retire expensive debt and provide funding for acquisitions and mergers. We have been negotiating for acquisitions with solar product and service providers, air conditioning and refrigeration service providers and LED lighting providers in the Western states.

"As of August 31, 2018, we had common stock outstanding of 492,054,727 shares, which prompted the capital financiers to request a 1 for 10 reverse to 49,205,473 shares, which should result in an easier and more manageable market," said Charles O'Dowd, CEO of ABCO. "Since we have a desire to return to the OTCQB and need to retain a $.01 stock price, the reverse will assist in this goal. We have not been near this number for 2 years and believe it is better for all of our shareholders to be on the OTCQB and to rid our company of the deep discounts prevalent with convertible debentures."

ABCO Energy is in the Photo Voltaic (PV) solar systems industry, the LED and energy efficient lighting business and is a dealer for a solar powered air conditioning system. The Company plans to build out a network of operations in major cities in the USA to establish a national base of service operations centers. This combination of services, solar PV, solar HVAC systems and LED lighting provides the Company with a solid base in the growth markets of renewable energy applications. We currently operate in Tucson, Arizona and provided installation and services to other cities from our Tucson offices. The Company plan is to expand to more locations in the Western States in the next year as funding becomes available.

Safe Harbor Statement

Note: Certain statements in this news release may contain "forward-looking" information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-5 under the Securities Act of 1934 and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than the statements of fact, included in this press release may include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. ABCO undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances or to reflect unanticipated events or developments.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Charles O'Dowd

Email: info@abcoenergy.com

SOURCE: ABCO Energy, Inc.The UK-based REST Trial of the Hemolung RAS is now the world's largest trial of extracorporeal lung support.

ALung Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of low-flow extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO 2 R) technologies for treating patients with acute respiratory failure, announced today that over 250 patients have been enrolled in the UK-based REST Trial, a landmark pivotal study of its Hemolung RAS in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The REST Trial is now the largest ever prospective clinical study of extracorporeal lung support. ALung's Hemolung RAS, a minimally invasive artificial lung device which removes carbon dioxide independently of the lungs, is the exclusive ECCO 2 R technology being used in the trial.

The global incidence of acute respiratory failure exceeds 1 million cases per year. Many patients with respiratory failure require the assistance of a ventilator to provide life sustaining oxygenation and carbon dioxide removal. Unfortunately, the injured lung is susceptible to additional damage by the positive pressure exerted by the ventilator, leading to additional injury, complications, and increased mortality.

"In patients with ARDS, it is crucial that ventilator settings be reduced so that the lungs can rest and heal," noted Dr. Steve Conrad, Medical Director at ALung. "The REST Trial is important because it will provide definitive evidence as to the ability of extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal to facilitate potentially safer mechanical ventilation in these critically ill patients."

The UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded the 1120-patient study entitled "pRotective vEntilation with veno-venouS lung assisT in respiratory failure The REST Trial" with 2.1 million. The research is jointly led by Queen's University and Belfast Health and Social Services Trust under the direction of investigators Professor Danny McAuley and Dr. James McNamee of the Centre for Experimental Medicine at Queen's University Belfast. ALung is providing Hemolung systems and treatment kits to more than 40 hospitals participating in the study.

"We are very excited to see the REST Trial reach this important enrollment milestone," said Peter DeComo, Chairman and CEO of ALung. "ALung is committed to generating high-quality clinical evidence for ECCO2R, and I would like to thank the trial leadership team for all their hard work and dedication to this effort."

The Hemolung RAS received European marketing clearance (CE Mark) in 2013 as the world's first fully integrated Respiratory Dialysis system. In addition to the REST Trial, ALung is conducting the US-based VENT-AVOID Trial, a pivotal trial of the Hemolung RAS in patients with severe acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. ALung is the only company pursuing two major pivotal trials to validate the safety and efficacy of extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal therapy.

More information about the REST Trial

UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) REST Trial Project Website

This project 'REST' was funded by the NIHR HTA programme (Project Number: 13/143/02)

About ALung Technologies

ALung Technologies, Inc. is a privately-held Pittsburgh-based developer and manufacturer of innovative lung assist devices. Founded in 1997 as a spin-out of the University of Pittsburgh, ALung has developed the Hemolung RAS as a dialysis-like alternative or supplement to mechanical ventilation. ALung is backed by Philips, UPMC Enterprises, Abiomed, The Accelerator Fund, Allos Ventures, Birchmere Ventures, Blue Tree Ventures, Eagle Ventures, Riverfront Ventures, West Capital Advisors, and other individual investors.

For more information about ALung and the Hemolung RAS, visit www.alung.com.

The Hemolung RAS is an Investigational Device and limited by United States law to investigational use.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, which, if not based on historical facts, involve current assumptions and forecasts as well as risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from the results or events stated in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, certain events not within the Company's control. Events that could cause results to differ include failure to meet ongoing developmental and manufacturing timelines, changing GMP requirements, the need for additional capital requirements, risks associated with regulatory approval processes, adverse changes to reimbursement for the Company's products/services, and delays with respect to market acceptance of new products/services and technologies. Other risks may be detailed from time to time, but the Company does not attempt to revise or update its forward-looking statements even if future experience or changes make it evident that any projected events or results expressed or implied therein will not be realized.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005572/en/

Contacts:

ALung Technologies, Inc.

Scott Morley, +1-412-697-3370 ext. 208

Senior Vice President of Market Development

smorley@alung.comLONDON, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Saturday 1st September marked the annual BacktoHogwarts celebration, where hundreds of Wizarding World fans from across the nation journeyed to King's Cross to join in on the infamous Platform 9  countdown. However, for a number of fans this was a magical experience like no other.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738489/Wizarding_World_Fans_Travel_To_London.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738488/Knight_Bus_experience_Wizarding_World.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738490/Wizarding_World_Fans.jpg )

A selection of Wizarding World fans from across the UK who have always dreamed of going BacktoHogwarts journeyed down to London in their very own Knight Bus, inspired by the mode of transport from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as part of a magical trip.

Starting off in Manchester, the Knight Bus fan experience toured around the country, picking up superfans along the way to transport them directly to Platform 9  in time to witness the countdown. The magical-inspired Knight Bus was decked out with special Wizarding World surprises for the fans, from deluxe beds covered in Harry Potter bedsheets and a screening of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, to delicious feast-worthy snacks.

But, the surprises didn't end there

Once the Knight Bus arrived at its King's Cross destination, the fans were able to join hundreds of fans for the 11am countdown to the Hogwarts Express' departure and were surprised by some very special stars of the Wizarding World:Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law.

Finally, to complete the Wizarding World experience and add a final bit of magic, the fans were taken on a spellbinding tour around Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter.PUNE, India, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

ReportsnReports.com has announced the addition of the "Global Pleurisy Market Research Report 2018" published in "Sep 2018" and available in its growing Parts Supplier business intelligence and data database.

This report focuses on the global Pleurisy status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Pleurisy development in United States, Europe and China. Global Pleurisy Market Report 2018 market research provides industry overview and analysis with 2025 Pleurisy market forecasts as well as company profile, product picture and specification with capacity production, price, cost, production value and more for major manufacturers.

Complete report on Pleurisy market spread across 94 pages, providing analysis of 08 major companies supported with 196 tables and figures is now available at https://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/1636576-global-pleurisy-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025.html.

Companies profiled in this Pleurisy market research include - Scanlan, Sontec Instruments, Pilling Surgical, Integra LifeSciences, Olympus Corporation, Delacroix-Chevalier, Myra, Wexler Surgical and others.

Pleurisy is a condition in which the pleura - a membrane consisting of a layer of tissue that lines the inner side of the chest cavity and a layer of tissue that surrounds the lungs - becomes inflamed. Pleurisy causes sharp chest pain (pleuritic pain) that worsens during breathing. A variety of underlying conditions can cause pleurisy. Treatment of pleurisy involves pain control and treating the underlying condition.

The diagnosis of pleurisy is made by the characteristic chest pain and physical findings on examination of the chest. The sometimes-associated pleural accumulation of fluid (pleural effusion) can be seen by imaging studies (chest X-ray, ultrasound, or CT).

This is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Pleurisy market. The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Pleurisy market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are also discussed and manufacturing processes and cost structures analyzed. Pleurisy market import/export consumption, supply and demand figures and cost price and production value gross margins are also provided.

Order a copy of Global Pleurisy Market Report 2018 market research at https://www.reportsnreports.com/purchase.aspx?name=1636576.

This 2018 Pleurisy market report focuses on global major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity production, price, cost, production value and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Pleurisy market development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered. With 196 tables and figures 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 Pleurisy market.

In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Pleurisy are as follows:

- History Year: 2013-2017

- Base Year: 2017

- Estimated Year: 2018

- Forecast Year 2018 to 2025

Some of the tables and figures provided in Global Pleurisy Market Report 2018 research report include:

Table Global Capacity (Unit) of Pleurisy by Types 2013-2018

Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2013

Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2017

Table Global Production (Unit) of Pleurisy by Types 2013-2018

Figure Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2013

Figure Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2017

Table Global Revenue (M USD) of Pleurisy by Types 2013-2018

Figure Global Revenue Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2013

Figure Global Revenue Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2017

Table Global and Major Manufacturers Capacity (Unit) of Pleurisy 2013-2018

Table Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers 2013-2018

Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers in 2013

Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers in 2017

Table Global and Major Manufacturers Production (Unit) of Pleurisy 2013-2018

Table Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers 2013-2018

Figure Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers in 2013

Figure Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers in 2017

Table Global and Major Manufacturers Revenue (M USD) of Pleurisy 2013-2018

Explore more reports on the Pharmaceuticals market at https://www.reportsnreports.com/market-research/pharmaceuticals/.

On similar lines, ReportsnReports.com has another study titled Neuropathic Pain - Pipeline Review, H1 2018 that is spread across 470 pages and supported with 500 data tables and figures. The Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Neuropathic Pain - Pipeline Review, H1 2018, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Neuropathic Pain (Central Nervous System), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.



The Neuropathic Pain (Central Nervous System) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Neuropathic Pain and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Pre-Registration, Phase III, Phase II, Phase I, Preclinical, Discovery and Unknown stages are 2, 4, 25, 28, 110, 24 and 3 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Phase I, Preclinical and Discovery stages comprises 1, 33 and 2 molecules, respectively.

Neuropathic Pain (Central Nervous System) pipeline guide helps in identifying and tracking emerging players in the market and their portfolios, enhances decision making capabilities and helps to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage. The guide is built using data and information sourced from Global Markets Directs proprietary databases, company/university websites, clinical trial registries, conferences, SEC filings, investor presentations and featured press releases from company/university sites and industry-specific third party sources. Additionally, various dynamic tracking processes ensure that the most recent developments are captured on a real time basis.

With 500 tables and figures 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. at Read more at https://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/1553660-neuropathic-pain-pipeline-review-h1-2018.html.

The study objectives of this report are:

- To analyze and study the global Pleurisy capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);

- Focuses on the key Pleurisy 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.

About Us:

ReportsnReports.com is your single source for all market research needs. Our database includes 100,000+ market research reports from over 95 leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over 5000 micro markets. With comprehensive information about the publishers and the industries for which they publish market research reports, we help you in your purchase decision by mapping your information needs with our huge collection of reports. We provide 24/7 online and offline support to our customers.

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Paris - September 4, 2018 - Sanofi has reached a civil settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fully resolving the SEC's investigation into possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The settlement relates to an investigation by the SEC and U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of certain local activities outside the United States and France, namely, in Kazakhstan, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian territory during the period 2006 to 2015. As part of the settlement, the company neither admits nor denies it engaged in any wrongdoing.

Under the terms of the settlement, Sanofi has consented to pay $25,206,145 and has also agreed to a 2-year period of self-reporting on the effectiveness of its enhanced internal controls and anti-bribery and corruption compliance program. In announcing the settlement, the SEC highlighted Sanofi's full cooperation with the investigation as well as its strengthened compliance actions.

As disclosed on March 7, 2018, in the company's annual report (SEC Form 20-F and French "Document de Reference"), the DOJ has also completed its related investigation and has declined to pursue any action.

"Sanofi requires all our employees to act with integrity and to follow the highest standards of conduct. We have worked diligently to strengthen our compliance program worldwide and we are pleased the DOJ and SEC recognized these efforts and our close cooperation," said Olivier Brandicourt, Sanofi's Chief Executive Officer."We will continue to strengthen internal controls, anti-bribery and corruption compliance programs, and our oversight and training of teams worldwide. Conducting our activities in an ethical way is something that our company takes very seriously."





About Sanofi







Sanofi is dedicated to supporting people through their health challenges. We are a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health. We prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments to fight pain and ease suffering. We stand by the few who suffer from rare diseases and the millions with long-term chronic conditions.







With more than 100,000 people in 100 countries, Sanofi is transforming scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around the globe.







Sanofi, Empowering Life





Media Relations Contact

Jack Cox

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 77 46 46

mr@sanofi.com

(mailto:mr@sanofi.com)

Investor Relations Contact

George Grofik

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 77 45 45

ir@sanofi.com

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Sanofi Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "plans" and similar expressions. Although Sanofi's management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sanofi, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including post marketing data, decisions by regulatory authorities, such as the FDA or the EMA, regarding whether and when to approve any drug, device or biological application that may be filed for any such product candidates as well as their decisions regarding labelling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such product candidates, the absence of guarantee that the product candidates if approved will be commercially successful, the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives, risks associated with intellectual property and any related pending or future litigation and the ultimate outcome of such litigation, changes in applicable laws and regulations, the impact of cost containment initiatives and subsequent changes thereto, as well as those discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by Sanofi, including those listed under "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in Sanofi's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017. Other than as required by applicable law, Sanofi does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.





About Sanofi

Sanofi is dedicated to supporting people through their health challenges. We are a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health. We prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments to fight pain and ease suffering. We stand by the few who suffer from rare

Press Release (http://hugin.info/152918/R/2214245/864065.pdf)



This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Sanofi via Globenewswire

The battle for Asia - the most important ride-hailing market in the world - continues despite Uber's partial exit

LONDON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent mobility study on regional ride-hailing markets finds that 16 billion ride-hailing trips were completed worldwide in 2017 and forecasts 24 billion completed trips by the end of 2018. The recent report by ABI Research, a market-foresight advisory firm providing strategic guidance on the most compelling transformative technologies, analyzed the number of ride-hailing trips completed by users in different regions and evaluated market shares for each region. The results showed that just over 70% of ride-hailing trips were completed in Asia alone, with the next biggest markets being North America and Latin America, with only 5% of trips being completed in Western Europe due to stricter regulation.

"The sheer size of the Asian ride-hailing market has prompted numerous companies, both local and foreign, to try and establish a foothold in the local markets," says Shiv Patel, Research Analyst at ABI Research. "In direct contrast to Western Europe and North America, vehicle ownership is relatively low in Asian markets due to the large expense and impracticality for consumers in large cities. This has spurred the growth of dynamic ride-hailing services, where the average cost of a trip can be as low as US$0.10 per mile. This low cost combined with a favorable regulatory environment has really helped foster the use of ride-hailing services."

It hasn't been all success stories for those operating in Asia, however. Some foreign companies, such as Uber, have struggled in the region, leading to its exit out of China and South-East Asia. Uber's withdrawal from the region, however, has helped create extra opportunities for local players, as they look to establish themselves and expand within the region and globally. For instance, Didi Chuxing has used Uber's exit to establish a strong leading market position in China, with over 90% market share of the largest ride-hailing market in the world. Players in South-East Asia such as GO-JEK and Grab, have used the withdrawal of Uber to step up investment and expansion in the area. Ride-hailing in Indonesia, the largest market in South-East Asia and the fourth largest market ride-hailing globally, after China, India and the United States, has recently seen fierce competition driven by increasing investment and expansion in the country.

"The Indonesia market was once a three-way race between Uber, GO-JEK, and Grab. However, with a slowly decreasing market share in the region, Uber decided to withdraw from the market, selling its assets to Grab. Grab used aggressive investment over 2017 and the acquisition of Uber's South-East-Asian operations to develop a dominant market-leading position (by the number of trips) in the Indonesian ride-hailing market," explained Patel. "Our research showed that at the beginning of 2017, Grab had just 30% market share of the Indonesian ride-hailing market, while local rival GO-JEK had a commanding 58% of the market. By the end of June 2018, Grab had made an impressive turnaround, establishing a 62% market share of the ride-hailing market - a direct result of its aggressive investment and expansion in Indonesia over 2017, which was further helped by its acquisition of Uber's business in the region in 2018."

However, it's not all doom and gloom for Uber in the region. The company still has a strong market share in India, the third largest ride-hailing market globally. Uber was found to have a 46% market share in the country, just behind local rival Ola Cabs, who recently announced it was taking on Uber in the U.K, one of Uber's strongest markets.

"Overall, the results showed that ride-hailing is growing at a remarkable pace and that Asia is the key market underpinning this growth. Uber's exit out of the large Asian ride-hailing markets will be a painful pill to them to swallow. Despite this setback, Uber is still the only company to have leading market positions across different global markets (Latin America, North America, and Western Europe). However, as Asian ride-hailing players start to build significant scale on their Asian operations, Uber must be prepared to face competition from not only local players in European and Latin America markets but also from the likes of Ola Cabs, Didi Chuxing, and Grab as they look to expand beyond their core home markets," Patel concluded.

These findings are from ABI Research's Vehicle and Mobility Market Data report. This report is part of the company's Smart Mobility & Automotive research service, which includes research, data, and Executive Foresights.

About ABI Research

ABI Research provides strategic guidance for visionaries needing market foresight on the most compelling transformative technologies, which reshape workforces, identify holes in a market, create new business models and drive new revenue streams. ABI's own research visionaries take stances early on those technologies, publishing groundbreaking studies often years ahead of other technology advisory firms. ABI analysts deliver their conclusions and recommendations in easily and quickly absorbed formats to ensure proper context. Our analysts strategically guide visionaries to take action now and inspire their business to realize a bigger picture. For more information about ABI Research's forecasting, consulting and teardown services, visionaries can contact us at +1.516.624.2500 in the Americas, +44.203.326.0140 in Europe, +65.6592.0290 in Asia-Pacific or visit www.abiresearch.com.

Global

Deborah Petrara Christopher Leary Tel: +1.516.624.2558 Tel: +1.516.624.2544 pr@abiresearch.com pr@abiresearch.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/276887/abi_research_logo.jpgRTView Cloud for Middleware Monitoring extended to include TIBCO Integration Middleware

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SL Corporation, the leader in TIBCO middleware monitoring since 2004, is proud to announce today the availability of RTView Cloud for TIBCO middleware monitoring at TIBCO's annual customer conference TIBCO NOW 2018. SL is once again a Platinum Sponsor at TIBCO NOW 2018, the largest gathering of TIBCO customers, partners and experts and takes place this year on September 4-6, 2018 in Las Vegas, NV.

With RTView Cloud, TIBCO users are able to maximize uptime for critical applications and services with centralized views of their monitoring and alert information across multiple technologies, whether deployed on-premise or on any of several Cloud platforms. With dozens of pre-defined alerts and pre-built monitoring displays, users can quickly deploy a powerful monitoring service without the time, skill and expense necessary to build or configure their own monitoring applications.

The new RTView Cloud designer provides additional capability for users to create, collaborate, and publish custom monitoring displays from a browser and without the need to do any programming. This enables TIBCO support teams to offer custom displays to their end users that provide them with the exact metrics they need in the exact way they would like to see them.



RTView Cloud features a completely new user interface with responsive design to support multiple screen sizes and mobile devices.

Data security with RTView Cloud is enhanced through the use of a hybrid architecture which ensures all monitoring data stays securely behind the firewall. Performance metrics and alert data are accessed directly from users' browsers and never pushed out to the Cloud.

TIBCO technologies monitored with the RTView Cloud service include:

TIBCO EMS

TIBCO BusinessWorks 5/6

TIBCO BusinessEvents

TIBCO ActiveSpaces

TIBCO ActiveMatrix

TIBCO FTL

TIBCO Adapters

SL also provides monitoring for other integration middleware vendors and complementary technologies including Oracle database, VMware Hosts, Apache Kafka, and Solace.

"SL has been providing RTView monitoring for TIBCO for more than 15 years. Most of our projects have been for large, on-premise, distributed TIBCO implementations. Now, as more and more companies adopt Cloud and hybrid architectures, we are pleased to offer the RTView Cloud service which enables TIBCO support teams and architects to consolidate all of this information in a single subscription-based platform," said Praful Bhayani, VP of Strategic Projects and Business Development at SL Corporation.

To learn more about TIBCO Monitoring, please visit the SL website at www.sl.com. For a free 30-day trial of RTView Cloud, please visit http://rtviewcloud.sl.com/register.

About SL Corporation

SL is a San Francisco Bay Area-based software company that develops real-time monitoring, visualization and diagnostic software for Global 1000 and mid-market companies whose businesses depend on complex, high-performance applications. The company has deep expertise in the monitoring and management of custom, distributed applications running in heterogeneous middleware environments.

Press Releases, RTView, SL in the News

Contact:

Gia Hodges

Ghodges@sl.com

415-927-8500

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738743/SL_Corporation_Monitoring_For_TIBCO.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/446255/SL_Logo.jpgWashington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a telecommunications expense management company for its use of fraudulent accounting practices that artificially boosted company revenues between 2013 and 2015. Four former members of the company's senior management team were also charged for their roles in the alleged misconduct.

As alleged in the complaint, Tangoe Inc., formerly a public company headquartered in Connecticut, improperly recognized approximately $40 million of revenue out of the total of $566 million reported between 2013 and 2015. In some instances, Tangoe allegedly reported revenue prematurely for work that had not been performed, including service prepayments, and for transactions that did not produce any revenue at all. The SEC alleges that Donald J. Farias, a Tangoe executive, falsified business records, some of which were provided to Tangoe's external auditors to support revenue recognition decisions.

"Without accurate financial reporting our public markets cannot function fairly or efficiently," said Paul G. Levenson, Director of the Boston Regional Office. "We are committed to protect the investing public against illegal accounting tactics that artificially boost company performance."

The SEC's complaint, filed in federal court in Connecticut, charges Tangoe, its former CEO Albert R. Subbloie, former CFO Gary R. Martino, former vice president of finance Thomas H. Beach, and former senior vice president of expense management operations Donald J. Farias. Each is charged with violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. Tangoe, Subbloie, Martino, and Beach have agreed to settle the SEC's charges without admitting or denying the allegations. They agreed to pay penalties in the amount of $1.5 million, $100,000, $50,000, and $20,000, respectively. The settlement is subject to court approval.

The SEC's case is being handled by Xinyue Angela Lin, Deena R. Bernstein, Trevor Donelan, and Paul G. Block of the Boston Regional Office.Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. (TSX: AVL) (OTCQX: AVLNF) ("Avalon" or the "Company") is pleased to report the discovery of a new lithium pegmatite on its 100% owned Separation Rapids Lithium Property near Kenora, Ontario. The new discovery, named the Snowbank Pegmatite, occurs on the Paterson Lake claims acquired by Avalon in 2017, approximately four kilometres northwest of the main Separation Rapids lithium deposit. It was discovered in a large outcrop area traceable for over 100 metres along strike (open under overburden at both ends) averaging 6 metres wide. Like the main deposit, the lithium occurs primarily in the ore mineral petalite, which occurs as large crystals up to 15 centimetres in diameter. Individual channel samples have yielded assays of up to 2.51% Li 2 O over 1.1 metres, indicating that petalite comprises approximately 50% of the mineral content in the rock sampled.

The Snowbank Pegmatite was discovered in the course of a summer geological mapping and geochemical sampling program on the Paterson Lake claims, following up on other known petalite pegmatite occurrences in the area. The new discovery illustrates how challenging even coarse grained petalite can be to recognize in the field (due to its similar appearance to common feldspar) and how much potential there may be for more discoveries in the Separation Rapids area to extend the life and production capacity for the new operation planned for the main deposit. Next steps will include a first phase drilling program tentatively planned for winter 2019.

Following the discovery, a preliminary channel sampling program was carried out, focused on the petalite mineralized areas, with results compiled in the table below. The main Snowbank Pegmatite zone is up to 9 metres wide, but pinches and swells with some sections bifurcating into two to three smaller parallel dykes from 1 to 3 metres in width, for a combined average width of 6 metres, over the 100 metre long exposure. Individual dykes exhibit classic pegmatite zoning features, with an internal assemblage of coarse petalite, potassium feldspar, albite and quartz, flanked by narrow albitic border and wall zones. Three channel samples collected from the petalite mineralized sections of the main Snowbank Pegmatite zone average 1.40% Li 2 O, while three other parallel dykes, also sampled, locally host similar mineralization over narrower widths.

Highlights include lithium values of 1.53% Li 2 O over 2.6 metres in channel 1A; 1.61% Li 2 O over 2.3 metres in channel 2B; and 1.07% Li 2 O over 2.9 metres in channel 4A - comprising six out of 11 analysed samples. The channel samples are all close to right angles to the strike of the pegmatite and thus approximate true widths. The values can be compared with the 0.6% Li 2 O cutoff grade and 1.4% Li 2 O resource grade at the main Separation Rapids lithium pegmatite deposit. The three channels are distributed over a strike length of just over 30 metres, with spacing averaging about 10 metres, in one discrete pegmatite dyke. Visible petalite is exposed continuously for about 100 metres. Sampling methods and analysis details are included as footnotes to the table below.

Avalon's Paterson Lake claims, contiguous with the claims and mining lease hosting the Separation Rapids lithium deposit, host three previously-known pegmatite occurrences: the Glitter, Wolf and Rattler (of which the Glitter is known to contain petalite). These occurrences fall within the same geological structure that hosts Avalon's main Separation Rapids deposit. The new Snowbank Pegmatite is located two kilometres southeast of the Glitter and four kilometres northwest of Separation Rapids, with potential for more petalite pegmatite discoveries along this minimum six kilometre trend.

The next steps for advancing Avalon's knowledge of the Snowbank Pegmatite, along with the nearby Glitter, Wolf and Rattler pegmatite occurrences, are further rock sampling, possibly accompanied by trenching, and finally drilling. Avalon now has multiple drill targets on the western part of the property that would be most easily accessed in winter.

The Paterson Lake claims are located in the traditional territory of the Wabaseemoong Independent Nation of Whitedog, Ontario. Engagement is ongoing with local Indigenous communities, provincial regulators and municipal government.

The technical information included in this news release has been reviewed and approved by the Company's Vice President, Exploration, Dr. William Mercer, P. Geo (Ont), who is a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.

About Avalon Advanced Materials Inc.

Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. is a Canadian mineral development company specializing in niche market metals and minerals with growing demand in new technology. The Company has three advanced stage projects, all 100%-owned, providing investors with exposure to lithium, tin and indium, as well as rare earth elements, tantalum, niobium, and zirconium. Avalon is currently focusing on its Separation Rapids Lithium Project, Kenora, ON and its East Kemptville Tin-Indium Project, Yarmouth, NS. Social responsibility and environmental stewardship are corporate cornerstones.

For questions and feedback, please e-mail the Company at ir@AvalonAM.com, or phone Don Bubar, President & CEO, at 416-364-4938.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to statements about the potential that there may be for more discoveries in the Separation Rapids area to extend the life and production capacity for the new operation planned for the main deposit, that next steps will include a first phase drilling program tentatively planned for winter 2019, that the next steps for advancing knowledge of the Snowbank Pegmatite along with the nearby Glitter, Wolf and Rattler pegmatite occurrences would be further rock sampling, possibly accompanied by trenching, and finally drilling, and that Avalon also now has multiple drill targets on the western part of the property that would be most easily accessed in winter Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "potential", "scheduled", "anticipates", "continues", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "scheduled", "targeted", "planned", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" or "will not be" taken, reached or result, "will occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Avalon to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made. Although Avalon has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expected results described in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to market conditions, and the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses as well as those risk factors set out in the Company's current Annual Information Form, Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure documents available under the Company's profile at www.SEDAR.com. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Such forward-looking statements have been provided for the purpose of assisting investors in understanding the Company's plans and objectives and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Avalon does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Table 1: Results of Channel Sample Analysis, Snowbank Pegmatite, Separation Rapids Property

Channel number Sample number Length (m) Li 2 O (%) MAIN PEGMATITE Channel 1A 2.60 1.53 including W860205 1.30 0.99 and W860206 1.30 2.08 Channel 2B

2.30 1.61 including W860209 1.20 0.78 and W860210 1.10 2.51 Channel 4A

2.90 1.07 including W860213 1.30 0.90 and W860214 1.60 1.21 PARALLEL PERIPHERAL PEGMATITES Channel 1B W860207 1.20 1.19 Channel 2A W860208 0.88 0.43 Channel 2C W860211 0.48 0.84 Channel 3 W860212 0.62 0.08 Channel 4B W860215 1.07 1.64

NOTESThe "Turkey B2C E-Commerce Market 2018" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

B2C E-Commerce in Turkey expanding

Turkey B2C E-Commerce Market 2018 details the trends and sales data in this country. The report indicates that online retail sales in Turkey are prepared for rapid expansion.

Mobile and social media shopping contribute to growth of online retail in Turkey

Growth rates in the double digits are forecast for continued expansion of online retail in Turkey, where the current share of total retail sales is less than 5%, well below the online to total retail ratio of leading European markets. The report points to mobile commerce as a factor in the expansion, as over half of Turkish online shoppers bought through a handheld device last year. A similar share of online buyers placed orders through social media. Growing Internet and online shopper penetration rates help drive expected increase in B2C E-Commerce in Turkey.

Expansion of online retail fuels competition among merchants

The expansion of Turkey's online commerce has attracted the attention of international players. Alibaba reached an agreement to acquire local online seller Trendyol and Amazon reportedly plans operations in the nation for 2018. The leading online merchants in Turkey in 2017 included Hepsiburada and N11, though these and other online specialists face competition from the increasing multichannel offerings of established retailers, helping overcome the barriers of concern over online payments and preference of in-person shopping cited in the report.

Other details of online sales included in report

The publication includes details on the payment methods accepted in online shops of the top 100 retailers in Turkey plus data on shopper preferences, indicating for example that apparel is the top product category in online shopping, followed by household goods.

Questions Answered in this Report

How fast was B2C E-Commerce growing in Turkey in 2017 and what is the projection for 2018?

What are the main online retail trends in Turkey?

Which are the preferred product categories and payment methods of Turkey's online shoppers?

What are the top E-Commerce websites in Turkey in 2018?

Which payment methods have the highest acceptance in Turkey's B2C E-Commerce?

Companies Mentioned

Aksoy Holding A.S.

American Express International Inc

Bizim Toptan Satis Magazalari A.S.

Carrefoursa Carrefour Sabanci Tic. Mer. A.S.

D-Market Elektronik Hizmetler Tic. A.S.

Defacto Perakende Tic. A.S.

Dsm Grup Danismanlik Iletisim Ve Satis Tic A.S.

Dogus Planet Elektronik Ticaret Ve Bilisim Hizmetleri A.S.

Flo Magazacilik Ve Pazarlama A.S.

Gen-Pa Telekomnikasyon Ve Iletisim Hizm. San. Tic A.S.

Koton Magazacilik Tekstil San. Ve Tic. A.S.

Lc Waikiki Magazacilik Hizmetleri Tic. A.S.

Migros Tic. A.S.

Teknosa I Ve Dis Tic. A.S.

Visa Inc.

Ebay Inc

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/37gdnv/turkey_b2c?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005904/en/

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Related Topics: E-BusinessOrganic baby food company, Bubs Australiahas announced CEO, Nicholas Simms is stepping down, but will remain with the company until October 2018 when his contract ends.Bubs Founder and Managing Director, Kristy Carr will take over the top job.The company says the board and Mr Simms were of the view that the time was right to transition the leadership to Mrs Carr.The move comes after a successful repositioning of the business from a private entity to a top 500 listed company.Chairman, Dennis Lin says the appointment signals the business has entered into its next phase of development, having achieved the establishment of its growth platforms ahead of schedule.Shares in Bubs Australiaclosed 6.29 per cent lower to 67 cents yesterday.By Stanley Carvalho and Hadeel Al Sayegh ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) said it is in early merger talks with Union National Bank and Al Hilal Bank, which could potentially form a lender with $113 billion in assets. Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates, has been revamping its economy and pressing ahead with consolidating state-owned entities after two years of low oil prices weighed heavily on its revenues. Two of Abu Dhabi's top banks were merged last year to create First Abu Dhabi Bank with total assets of $175 billion, while two of its big sovereign wealth funds were also combined

By Stanley Carvalho and Hadeel Al Sayegh

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) said it is in early merger talks with Union National Bank and Al Hilal Bank, which could potentially form a lender with $113 billion in assets.

Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates, has been revamping its economy and pressing ahead with consolidating state-owned entities after two years of low oil prices weighed heavily on its revenues. Two of Abu Dhabi's top banks were merged last year to create First Abu Dhabi Bank with total assets of $175 billion, while two of its big sovereign wealth funds were also combined.

ADCB, majority owned by the Abu Dhabi government, said in a disclosure to the Abu Dhabi Securities Market that it is in talks with UNB and separately with unlisted Al Hilal Bank. If it goes ahead, a merger of the three could create an entity with $113 billion in assets, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The statement from ADCB followed a Bloomberg News report of the talks which said that a potential merger could create the Gulf's fifth biggest bank.

Talks with both UNB and Al Hilal are at a very preliminary stage, ADCB said, adding that they may not result in a deal.

UNB and Al Hilal representatives did not respond to calls, while the Abu Dhabi government did not reply to an email.

While ADCB, the second largest bank in Abu Dhabi and UNB are both majority government owned, Islamic lender Al Hilal Bank is fully-owned by the Abu Dhabi government.

Consolidation has also hit the banking sectors of other Gulf countries. Bahrain's Ahli United Bank is in merger talks with Kuwait Finance House, which could be the first cross-border tie-up between Gulf banks in recent years,

Meanwhile, Saudi British Bank and Alawwal Bank have also agreed a merger to create Saudi Arabia's third-biggest lender, in a $5 billion deal that marks the first major banking tie-up in the kingdom in two decades.

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Alexander Smith)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.The government has guaranteed borrowing of Rs 100 crore to Air India, said RN Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) according to a media report.

After finding no takers for the beleagured Maharaja, the government is coming to its aid once again. The government has guaranteed borrowing of Rs 2,100 crore, said RN Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) according to a media report.

#NewsAlert | @airindiain gets Rs 2,100 crore Government guaranteed borrowing: RN Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) pic.twitter.com/ebm4gMd7Zi  News18 (@CNNnews18) September 4, 2018

Recently, a senior government official had ruled out the disinvestment of loss-making. Sources quoted a senior government official who told a Parliamentary panel that disinvestment of Air India will not happen in "near future".

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture -- headed by TMC leader Derek O' Brien -- had sought details about funds infused by the government into Air India, which has been making losses for long.

Responding to a question about the disinvestment plan for Air India, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said, "not immediately, not in new future", a member who attended the meeting told PTI.

The proposed strategic stake sale of debt-laden Air India failed to take off in May and the government is now working on ways to revive the fortunes of the airline.

According to the sources, various members sought details about taxpayers' money infused into the carrier in the last few years.

A Turnaround Plan (TAP) as well as a Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP) were approved for Air India by the previous UPA regime in 2012.

Under these plans, the airline is to get budgetary support amounting to Rs 30,231 crore over a ten-year period and also equity support for the payment of principal/ interest of the non-convertible debentures.

So far, the airline has received more than Rs 27,000 crore worth equity infusion. The carrier's debt burden was more than Rs 48,000 crore at the end of March 2017.

As per the disinvestment plan, which did not elicit any preliminary bids, the government had proposed to offload 76 percent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players.

The transaction would have involve Air India, its low cost arm Air India Express and Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd. The latter is an equal joint venture between the national carrier and Singapore-based SATS Ltd, according to the preliminary information memorandum.

Air India will very soon get funds from the government for its day-to-day operations and will even place orders for a couple of aircraft, the government official said.

The decision was taken at the high-level meeting convened by Union Minister Arun Jaitley. The meeting was attended by Piyush Goyal, who has been temporarily given the charge of finance ministry, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and other senior officials of finance and civil aviation ministries.

"The airline is posting operational profits. None of the flights go empty. With all the cost efficient mechanism in place, we will continue improving its operational efficiency. There is no need to rush in for disinvestment as of now," the official told PTI.

The government is looking at turning around the company to ensure that it makes profits on overall basis before going in for listing.

"Certain conditions have to be met before listing a company. Once Air India fulfills those, we will go in for an initial public offering and subsequent listing," the source said.

In June, the cash-crunched Air India, which delayed salaries for three months in a row, had sought an additional funding of around Rs 2,000 crore from the government to tide over the situation. "We have requested the government to restore equity infusion in the airline, which was stopped because of the proposed disinvestment. We are seeking an additional Rs 2,000 crore funds to deal with the present situation," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The airline was expecting these funds in July when the government moved the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2018-19 in the Monsoon session of Parliament, a senior company official had said.

--With PTI inputsReliance Infrastructure-Astaldi had earlier bagged the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Rs 7,000 crore project on a competitive bid basis. The consortium had emerged the most competitive bidder with their bid of Rs 6,993.99 crore.

New Delhi: Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) said on Tuesday that its consortium has inked a MoU with Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for the Rs 7,000-crore Versova-Bandra Sea Link Project in Mumbai.

"Reliance Infrastructure Limited - Astaldi SpA (Italy) Consortium signed an agreement with MSRDC today for construction of prestigious Versova-Bandra Sea Link Project in Mumbai," the company said in a statement.

Reliance Infrastructure-Astaldi had earlier bagged the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Rs 7,000 crore project on a competitive bid basis. The consortium had emerged the most competitive bidder with their bid of Rs 6,993.99 crore.

The other bidders in the fray were L&T-Samsung and Hyundai Development Company-ITD, it said in a statement adding that the tender for the construction of the second sea link in Mumbai on EPC basis was floated by the MSRDC.

With a length of 17.17 km, Versova-Bandra Sea Link is three times the length of the existing Bandra-Worli Sea Link, which is 5.6 km, the statement said.

Reliance Infrastructure EPC CEO Arun Gupta said, This project will further propel Reliance Infrastructure as a premier EPC company in India. Our partnership with Astaldi S.p.A, the third biggest construction player in the world in bridges, will help us create a truly world-class mega infrastructure project for Mumbai.

Reliance Infrastructure - Astaldi has to commission the project in five years from the appointed date.

However, the company said that owing to the monsoon, the work would be completely stalled for three months each year.

The largest order executed by Astaldi SpA is Izmit Bay Bridge (Gebze-OrhangaziIzmir Motorway Project) in Turkey with $7 billion (Rs 45,500 crore) investment for the entire project, the statement said.

Besides, Astaldi has also executed the Western High-Speed Diameter Motorway in Saint Petersburg in Russia with Euro 2.2 billion (Rs 17,600 crore) contract value, it added.

The project has a 12-km section with 5.3-km viaducts on the sea and two cable stay bridges, which was opened to the traffic in December 2016.LONDON (Reuters) - British authorities are preparing to deport a former UBS trader jailed for the country's biggest fraud which cost the Swiss bank $2.25 billion, his spokesman said on Monday. Ghanaian citizen Kweku Adoboli was released from prison on probation in 2015 after serving half of a seven-year sentence, but he has now been detained pending his deportation

LONDON (Reuters) - British authorities are preparing to deport a former UBS trader jailed for the country's biggest fraud which cost the Swiss bank $2.25 billion, his spokesman said on Monday.

Ghanaian citizen Kweku Adoboli was released from prison on probation in 2015 after serving half of a seven-year sentence, but he has now been detained pending his deportation.

His case made global headlines when he was arrested in 2011 and tried in 2012 over the huge losses to UBS, caused by trades far in excess of his authorised risk limits which he had pretended to hedge by booking fictitious off-setting trades.

The 38-year-old was detained on Monday following a routine visit to a Scottish police station, his spokesman, Nick Hopewell-Smith, said via email.

Hopewell-Smith added that he understood Adoboli had now been moved to an immigration removal centre and that the interior ministry had indicated its intention to deport him to Ghana on or after Sept. 10.

"It is still hoped that the (interior minister) will have the common sense not to deport an individual that is so obviously an asset to our community," Hopewell-Smith said, referring to Adoboli's work which includes campaigning for cultural change in financial services.

Adoboli, who has lived in Britain since he was 12 but does not have citizenship, has been appealing against a 2014 order by British authorities that he should be sent back to Ghana as a foreign criminal.

An interior ministry spokesman said in a statement it does not routinely comment on individual cases. However, he added: "Foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them."

Adoboli says he is remorseful and should be allowed to stay in Britain because of strong personal ties in the country and the public interest in his advocacy work.

Regulators banned him from working in the financial services industry in 2015, while UBS was fined 29.7 million pounds ($38 million) for systems and control failures.

($1 = 0.7763 pounds)

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Alistair Smout; editing by David Stamp)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.In the first quarter of FY19, IDBI bank's asset quality ratios deteriorated with GNPAs and NNPAs at 30.78 percent and 18.76 percent, respectively

Mumbai: Rating agency Icra Monday said it has placed long-term ratings for Rs 4,286.20 crore upper tier II bonds programme and Rs 1,708.80 crore Basel II compliant perpetual bonds of IDBI Bank on Rating Watch with Developing Implications (RWD).

"The ratings on the upper tier II bonds and Basel II compliant perpetual bonds are placed on RWD due to the deterioration in the capital adequacy ratios, which were below the regulatory levels," Icra said in a release on Monday.

Maintaining the capital ratios above regulatory levels is critical for servicing the banks Basel II debt capital instruments.

In May 2018, the rating agency had highlighted the banks weak capital ratios and had noted that it would require a regular capital infusion from the government to keep its capital ratios above regulatory levels.

In June 2018, IRDAI approved life insurance major LIC's proposal to take over 51 percent stake in IDBI.

LIC is proposed to increase it's stake to 51 percent from 7.98 percent, through fresh capital infusion and secondary market purchase.

On August 28, 2018, LIC has given in principle approval to infuse capital in the bank, raising its shareholding to 14.90 percent, before the acquisition of majority ownership from the government.

"The transaction, which would raise the capital ratios to the regulatory levels in the immediate term and thereby enable the servicing of the Basel II capital instruments, requires the approval of the bank's shareholders," the rating agency said.

In the first quarter of FY19, the bank's asset quality ratios deteriorated with GNPAs and NNPAs at 30.78 percent and 18.76 percent, respectively.

Its profitability remains under pressure with compressed net interest margins (NIMs) and net interest income (NII) coupled with high credit costs.

The rating agency said the banks profitability, and consequently, its capital position is expected to remain weak.

The outlook may be revised to stable if there is a significant improvement in its capitalisation, solvency and asset quality indicators.

The ratings, however, may be downgraded if the bank is unable to raise sufficient capital in a timely manner to augment the capital adequacy ratios, thereby impacting its ability to service its debt capital instruments, it said.Antigua has assured India that its law enforcement agencies are observing Choksi's movements.

The Antigua and Barbuda government will, this week, examine India's request seeking extradition of alleged fraudster Mehul Choksi, days after New Delhi submitted a second such appeal to the Caribbean nation, a media report said.

The Antigua government has assured India that its law enforcement agencies are observing his movements, The Economic Times reported.

Choksi is a citizen of the Caribbean country.

The Indian High Commissioner in Guyana, Venkatachalam Mahalingam, visited St. John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda on 30 August, for the third time in recent weeks, to meet senior government officials on Choksi's extradition, Antiguan media reported.

Mahalingam was reportedly received by the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, and both held extensive discussions on the extradition of the fugitive Indian businessman.

Browne was accompanied by senior officials of his country, including Attorney-General 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 Antigua News Room.

The website claimed that Mahalingam submitted a second extradition request from 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 took place after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through the Ministry of External Affairs, wrote a letter to authorities in Antigua, asking them to arrest Choksi, who controls Gitanjali Gems.

A massive scam was detected by Punjab National Bank's (PNB) officials earlier this year, after Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi allegedly cheated the lender to the tune of two billion dollars.

India is trying to bring back Choksi from Antigua under the provision of a law of the island nation, which provides for the extradition of a fugitive to a designated Commonwealth country.

With inputs from ANIA 70-year-old retired police sub-inspector was beaten to death by goons in Allahabad due to a land dispute on Monday.

A 70-year-old retired police sub-inspector was beaten to death by three men in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad over a land dispute on Monday. CCTV footage of the incident shows Abdul Samad Khan being beaten mercilessly as he falls off his bicycle, while he tried to shield himself from the blows. Khan was taken to the hospital after the attack, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

The attack took place in broad daylight in the Shivkuti police station area of Allahabad. The footage of the gruesome attack has gone viral as several people are seen passing by while the accused  Junaid, Mohammed Yusuf, and one other  were beating Khan with sticks, but none of them stopped to help. Some people even turned back after witnessing the attack instead of pausing to help the old man. The police have filed an FIR against Junaid and at least nine others.

NDTV reported that Mohammed Yusuf was arrested by the police on Tuesday. The Allahabad High Court took suo motu cognisance of the case on Tuesday, and questioned the Uttar Pradesh government over the arrest of all the accused.

The Indian Express quoted Superintendent of Police (city) Brijesh Kumar Srivastava as saying, According to the investigation so far, these people had some property dispute related to a house and had an argument before. The incident was on Monday morning when Khan was going on his bicycle and was attacked by Mohammad Yusuf, his brother Mohammad Sebu and relative Ibne. He was beaten badly with canes and was left on the street. He was then taken to a nearby private hospital where he died in the evening."

Khan's brother, Abdul Wahid, claimed that the accused, Junaid, is a land-grabber and was after a piece of land owned by Khan. "Many in our locality have complained to the police about him in the past but there has been no action. He continues to threaten people in the area and act with impunity," Wahid said. According to reports, Junaid has at least 10 cases against him at the local police station.

The high court has asked the police to submit a detailed report, and will hear the case on Wednesday.Popular actor Mohanlal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brief him about the social work his organisation is carrying out. The prime minister said it was wonderful meeting the actor Monday.

New Delhi: Popular actor Mohanlal met prime minister Narendra Modi to brief him about the social work his organisation is carrying out. The prime minister said it was wonderful meeting the actor on Monday.

"His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring," Modi tweeted on Tuesday.

Sharing details of his meeting with the prime minister, the actor said on his Facebook page that he briefed him about ViswaSanthi Foundation and its multi-faceted social initiatives.

"He has assured all support and offered to participate in the 'global Malayalee round table' that can formulate futuristic solutions for a new Kerala," he wrote. He said the prime minister's Office also appreciated the organisation's vision to set up a cancer care centre to cater to the needs of the underprivileged.Asia Argento was accused of sexually assaulting her former co-star Jimmy Bennett.

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown episodes featuring actress Asia Argento have been pulled out by CNN following the sexual assault allegations made by musician Jimmy Bennett against the actress.

A source told TMZ that the network will discontinue the telecast of the travel and food show's past episodes which included Argento, until further notice. The episodes include one from Season 8 called Rome, another from Season 10 called Southern Italy: The Heel of the Boot and a final one from Season 11 called Hong Kong.

Argento also got expelled as a judge from the twelfth season of the show X Factor Italy after shooting seven episodes.

A report by The New York Times obtained the legal documents in which actor Jimmy Bennett claimed that Argento assaulted him in a California hotel when he was only two months past his 17th birthday; the age of consent in California is 18.

Argento and Bennett co-starred in 2004 film The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, which she also wrote and directed. Bennett, a 7-year-old at the time, played Argento's son.

She has denied assaulting Bennett, saying the actor wanted to extract money from her after her name came up in the Weinstein scandal. She said rather than facing a court battle at a time when she was already dealing with a public case, her then-boyfriend, late chef Anthony Bourdain, decided to pay off Bennett.

(With inputs from agencies)Rawat said that if the armed forces don't keep pace with time and the manner in which social media is moving forward, then it will be 'fire-fighting' to keep up with time.

New Delhi: Army personnel cannot be denied the use of smartphones, Chief of Army Staff Bipin Rawat said on Tuesday, underlining that social media can be used for psychological warfare and to combat proxy war, insurgency and terrorism.

He said a study was being undertaken for the restructuring of the Army headquarters as an organisation was needed in place at all levels for leveraging social media.

Referring to a mobile app designed for the welfare of soldiers and officers, Rawat said if applications are being created for them then how can they be denied the use of smartphones. He added that if the armed forces don't keep pace with time and the manner in which social media is moving forward, then it will be "fire-fighting" to keep up with time.

Delivering a keynote address on 'Social Media and the Armed Forces' to a gathering of senior officials from the three armed services, Rawat said social media can be leveraged for psychological warfare and deception not just in conventional warfare, but also in combating proxy war insurgency and terrorism.

He said: "For doing this, we need to have an organisation in place at all levels. It is in the backdrop of this, we have undertaken a study in the Army headquarters for restructuring the headquarters within. How do we, then, ensure that the social media platform becomes an important adjunct of our information warfare strategy? Do we need a Directorate General of Information Warfare? Can we amalgamate some of our existing resources and ensure that social media becomes a part and parcel of our life in the Army?"

Armed forces personnel are not encouraged to use smartphones because of the sensitivity of their job. Referring to this, Rawat said if the usage of smartphones cannot be prevented then at least the individual should be taught how to use it in the right manner. "If you want to bring some discipline, then you (should) have the means of imposing that discipline. In case, there is no means to impose that discipline, then it is of no use passing order and instructions which can be implemented," he said.

The Army, Rawat said, is developing a mobile application Armaan to benefit the soldiers, the officers the JCOs and their families in reaching out to various fora and coming out with their problems and seeking answers to it. "If we are creating our own apps, then how can we deny the usage of smartphones to our soldiers? Smartphones are here to stay. We must learn to utilise them to our advantage," he said.Bhupinder Singh Hooda strongly denied there was any kind of land scam in Haryana during his tenure.

Jaipur: Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda strongly denied there was any kind of land scam in Haryana during his tenure.

"There has been no land scam under my rule in Haryana. In fact, I have not bought even an inch of land in Haryana in my working tenure. I got the land I have as a legacy from my father," he said while addressing a press conference here in Rajasthan on Tuesday.

Hooda and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra were booked on Saturday by Haryana Police for alleged irregularities in land deals in Gurugram.

An FIR was registered at Kherki Daula police station in Gurugram.

Hooda said it is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has devised the plot to name him. The government in Haryana is working with a vengeance, he added.

"Despite being Chief Minister of Haryana for 10 years, I did not indulge in vengeance against any party. However, it is clearly evident that BJP government is playing vendetta politics," he added.

He said although the ML Khattar government has formed a special commission to probe the land scam which is yet to submit its report, the BJP government has filed the FIR, he alleged.

This act symbolises how frustrated the government has become. It is taking such measures to divert people's attention from the Rafale jet deal, said Hooda.

Had there been a strong proof on the land scam, he and Vadra would not have been allowed to roam freely, he added.

He also questioned the Centre's silence on the questions being raised over the Rafale deal signed with France by the Narendra Modi government.

He demanded that the Centre should form a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe thoroughly the Rafale issue so that people can know the truth, he added.In October 2017, Karabi Das approached the MEA seeking information on expenses incurred on the prime minister's foreign visits in 2015-16 and 2016-17, along with the list of people travelling with him. No satisfactory information was provided to the applicant, following which he approached the CIC

New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to disclose the names of those private individuals who have travelled with prime minister Narendra Modi on foreign tours.

In October 2017, Karabi Das approached the MEA seeking information on expenses incurred on the prime minister's foreign visits in 2015-16 and 2016-17, along with the list of people travelling with him. No satisfactory information was provided to the applicant, following which he approached the CIC.

The ministry demanded Rs 224 for providing the information which was deposited by the applicant, activist Subhash Agrawal, who represented the applicant during the hearing, told CIC chief RK Mathur.

In its submissions during the hearing, the ministry said no other data is maintained in consolidated form regarding the visits of the prime minister except date and place of visit and the expenses incurred on chartered flights.

The ministry also told the commission that it will look into the matter with regard to the payment of Rs 224 and will provide updated information. "List of private persons (not linked with security) who travelled with the prime minister of India at government expenditure should be provided to the appellant redacting names of other officials," Mathur ordered.A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said it would hear the plea on 6 September when the petition filed by Thapar and four others will come up for hearing.

New Delhi: A Pune-based man, who had lodged an FIR in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence that led to the arrest of five human rights activists, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking that he be made a party in the plea filed by historian Romila Thapar and four others.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said it would hear the plea on 6 September when the petition filed by Thapar and four others will come up for hearing.

The plea filed by Tushar Damgude sought that he be made a party in the pending case as it was he who had lodged the FIR in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence.

The top court had earlier ordered that the five human rights activists would be kept under house arrest till 6 September observing that dissent was the "safety valve" of democracy.

While granting relief to activists Varavara Rao, Arun Farreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bhardwaj and Gautam Navalakha, the top court did not consider the vehement opposition of Maharashtra government challenging the locus of the petitioners, Thapar and four others, seeking relief on their behalf, and calling them "strangers".

The Maharashtra Police had arrested them in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave  'Elgaar Parishad'  held on 31 December, 2017 that had later triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village. The state had challenged the petitioners' locus, dubbing them as "strangers".

The plea, by Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpandey and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala, has sought an independent probe into the arrests and their immediate release.

Prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, while activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Farreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha was arrested from New Delhi.Over 1,400 people, including 488 in Kerala, have lost their lives due to rains, floods and landslides in 10 states so far in the monsoon season.

Pressure mounts on Gujarat government as Hardik's fast enters 11th day: Support poured in for Patidar leader Hardik Patel who is on an indefinite fast seeking reservation for his community and a farm loan waiver entered the 11th day on Tuesday. Leaders including, Congress' national spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has appealed to the 25-year-old Patidar leader to end his fast. Meanwhile, the BJP government in Gujarat is yet to intervene in the matter.

Hardik had on Monday released his will pledging and said that he won't allow doctors to conduct his medical check-up "until the police stop harassing people visiting his residence". Sola civil hospital has deployed a fully-equipped ambulance--'ICU on Wheels'--at the venue of the fast, the hospital said in a statement.

FIR lodged against student for shouting 'down with fascist govt' at BJP leader: Sofia Lois, a student from the University of Montreal, Canada, who was travelling in the same flight with BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan raised anti-BJP slogan in the flight, The News Minute reported. Following this, Soundararajan was seen losing her cool at the Thoothukudi airport and she later lodged the complaint with the police. An FIR has been registered against the student on Soundararajan's complaint. Meanwhile, Lois' father has filed a counter-FIR against the BJP cadre and alleged that they were behaving in a vulgar manner with the student.

Over 1,400 lives lost due to rains, floods so far this monsoon: Over 1,400 people, including 488 in Kerala, have lost their lives due to rains, floods and landslides in 10 states so far in the monsoon season. According to the ministry's National Emergency Response Centre (NERC), 488 people have died in Kerala and 54.11 lakh in 14 districts have been severely hit by rains and floods, the worst in a century. As many as 254 people have died in Uttar Pradesh, 210 in West Bengal, 170 in Karnataka, 139 in Maharashtra, 52 in Gujarat, 50 in Assam, 37 in Uttarakhand, 29 in Odisha and 11 in Nagaland. Forty-three people have been missing  15 in Kerala, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, five in West Bengal, six in Uttarakhand and three in Karnataka, while 386 have been injured in rain-related incidents in the 10 states.

Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department has predicted heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over northwest Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, East Rajasthan and east Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Gangetic West Bengal.

Rupee free fall continues: The rupee on Monday crashed to yet another historic low of 71.21, losing 21 paise at the close against the US dollar as nagging concerns over rising crude oil prices and trade war tensions continued to hurt Forex market sentiment. The rupees previous record low was 71, marked on 31 August. The rupee has fallen around 11 percent in 2018 making it the worst-performing currency in Asia.

US Open quarterfinals begin from Tuesday

In Men's singles: Defending champion Rafael Nadal will face 24-year old Dominic Thiem, one of only three men to defeat him in 2018, while USA's John Isner will take on Juan Martin del Potro in the final eight. Isner is the only American man left as he attempts to become the first home winner since Andy Roddick in 2003.

In Women's singles: Six-time champion Serena Williams booked a quarter-final date with eighth seed Karolina Pliskova. Defending champion Sloane Stephens sets quarter-final rematch against Anastasija Sevastova

Deepika Padukone in next xXx film, confirms director

Deepika Padukone, who made her Hollywood foray with the Vin Diesel-starrer xXx: Return of Xander Cage, will return to the franchise for its fourth instalment, according to its director DJ Caruso. Caruso, on Twitter, welcomed Chinese singer-actor Roy Wang to the "xXx" family on Monday. A social media user then asked: "What about Deepika Padukone. Will she be part of the film?"  "Yes," replied Caruso, confirming that the actress will be back in the action-packed franchise.Viduthalai Ciruthaigal Katchi general secretary D Ravikumar has long held the view that the term 'Dalit' is subjective  as in, an ideological position taken consciously by one.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has asked private channels to refrain from using the word Dalit. media may refrain from using the nomenclature Dalit while referring to members belonging to Scheduled Castes, in compliance with the directions of the Honble Bombay High Court, and the Constitutional term Scheduled Caste in English and its appropriate translation in other national languages should alone be used for all official transaction, it has said in an advisory.

Even as caste-related atrocities continue to hog headlines, Dalit intellectuals face threats to their life and have been arrested and branded Urban Naxals across the country, this diktat has left many in the media as well as Dalit activists with a feeling that the government is wading into an unnecessary controversy.

On this new directive to not use the word Dalit, former MLA and Viduthalai Ciruthaigal Katchi (VCK) general secretary D Ravikumar says, When Buta Singh was the chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, he told the government to not use the word Dalit, ten years ago. That fizzled out after disapprovals from within and outside the system. SC is a nomenclature issued by the government. Maybe they can use it for their own legal purposes. Even within the legal framework, the scope of the word SC is limited. Lets take the example of the Atrocities Act, for instance. If someone uses a caste name as a slur against an individual, they do not call that person, Hey SC, they use the sub-caste name.

Ravikumar adds, It shows a clear lack of understanding of the word Dalit on their part. Dalit is not a substitute word for Schedule Caste. It stands for the annihilation of caste. It is not a caste identity but the identity of casteless persons.

Of late, the VCK general secretary has also been receiving a threat to his life. Intelligence agencies have told me that my name figures in a diary belonging to Amol Kale, he says. Kale is said to be the mastermind behind the murder of Gauri Lankesh.

He has long held the view that the term Dalit is subjective  as in, an ideological position taken consciously by one.

In 2008, in fact, he wrote a note for the then Readers Editor of The Hindu, K Narayanan when the newspaper was at the receiving end of a legal notice asking it to stop using the word Dalit.

In the note that he shared with me for this interview, Ravikumar had said, It is true that the National SC/ST commission has suggested that the word Dalit not be used in official communication and a few state governments have acted on this. The commissions view is that the term is unconstitutional. What we must realise is that the Constitution is not a lexicon. It cannot delimit social and cultural usage In India, the bureaucracy and administration have to keep pace with the times. The use of the official term Scheduled Castes does not in any way clash with the social/ academic/ literary/ media use of the term Dalit. The two are independent. Some observations in this context: statutes are enacted to maintain law and order not to interfere in the affairs of language. So looking at the statutes to decide the fate of a word is incorrect Dalit leaders have used many words to call themselves.

"Pandit Iyothee Thass (1845-1914) a leader of Tamil Dalits had used casteless Dravidians and Original Buddhists. He criticised the usage of the word depressed class in his writings. Ambedkar used several words  depressed class, untouchables and minorities, and also on a few occasions the term Dalit. A well-known scholar of the Dalit movement and literature Eleanor Zelliot has stated in her introduction to Vasant Moons autobiography Growing up Untouchable in India: The most recent nomenclature for ex-untouchables is Dalit; a term meaning downtrodden or broken down but used with pride as self-chosen name that reflects no idea of pollution and can include all who identify themselves as oppressed by the caste system. Dalit came into currency in the 1970s in movements that took names such as Dalit Panthers and Dalit literature and now is the preferred name for those (such as Vasant Moon) who want to free themselves from the concept of pollution and from the patronage of Gandhian ideology. So the etymological meaning of the word Dalit is not important here as much as its functional meaning. It is a subjectivity chosen by those who want to annihilate caste system; it is not an identity. Choosing subjectivity is a conscious act. But the Hindu caste system wants to reduce the subjectivity into an identity by making the word as a mere replacement for Scheduled Caste or Untouchable We must oppose any attempt to ban the word Dalit. At a time when the Australian prime minister apologised to the nation for the atrocities perpetrated on the aborigines, and at a time when in Canada the state has apologized for the oppressive policies Native Americans (First Nation people) were subjected to till as late as the 1970s, we in India seem to be involved to be quibbling over non-substantive issues.

The VCK general secretary finds the government advisory bizarre.

It is very strange that they dont want us to use a word we want to call ourselves, he adds, The government cannot create a lexicon and tell us what word we can use and cant. Yes they can issue directives to not use hateful speech, but this is not an abusive word. It doesnt spread hatred. Thats like saying women cant call themselves feminists, how ridiculous does that sound? Not all women are feminists. Being a woman is an identity, but being a feminist is a subjective ideological position adopted by women.

Ravikumar also thinks that its impractical to implement an order like this anyway and sees this as an attempt to encourage the sub-caste identity, not just among dominant castes but even among the marginalised castes.A teenager who had entered a house to allegedly steal valuables, was lynched by locals in northwest Delhi's Mukundpur area.

New Delhi: A teenager who had entered a house to allegedly steal valuables, was lynched by locals in northwest Delhi's Mukundpur in the early hours of Tuesday, following which three people were arrested, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Aslam Khan said the 16-year-old boy had entered a house to steal valuables, but was caught by the owner and beaten to death by some locals. A case has been registered at the Bhalaswa Dairy police station in this regard. Three of the accused have been arrested while three others are absconding, the police official said.

The boy's family claimed that he was not a thief and there was some other reason behind his lynching. During inquiry, it emerged the incident happened at 3.30 am but the police were informed around 6.30 am.

"Around 6.30 am, a PCR call was received about an incident of theft. It is being inquired why was the call made after three hours," another officer said. The teenage boy belonged to Khagaria district in Bihar and had come here around a fortnight ago, an officer said, adding his mother is a homemaker and stays in Bihar, while his father works as a labourer in Noida.

In July, a 31-year-old suspected thief was beaten to death in north Delhi's Burari.The petitioner accused the Maharashtra police of contempt, saying that the very officers who said that no information about persons and evidence of the case much be leaked, were themselves revealing confidential details of the arrests in the press conference.

A petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court, asking for contempt action against Maharashtra Police officers who took a press conference on 31 August over the arrests of alleged Naxal sympathisers.

According to India Today, the petitioner is a Dharavi resident who claims to be witness to the Bhima Koregaon violence. He was quoted as saying that the very officers who, in the lower court in Pune, said that no information about persons and evidence of the case much be leaked, were themselves revealing confidential details of the arrests in the press conference. The petitioner claimed that this is contempt on the Maharashtra Police's part, adding that they must be reprimanded.

The High Court on Monday had also criticised the Maharashtra Police on the arrest of five activists, for holding the press conference when the matter is sub judice. The move came after a writ petition was filed on 31 August, seeking to restrain the Pune Police from probing the case and demanding an NIA inquiry. The plea also seeks the suspension of ACP Shivaji Pawar from the Swargate Division of the Pune Police.

The Maharashtra Police also received condemnation from retired judges and lawyers. Senior counsel Mihir Desai had expressed shock over the manner in which the state police machinery undertook the press conference. "Reading out documents which are supposed to be part of the evidence against the accused persons is wrong. The police have not given the said documents to the court or the defence lawyers," Desai said.

Additional Director-General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh in a press conference held on 31 August, 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 (Narendra) Modi Raj". Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991.A fire broke out at an industrial unit near Somwar bazar at Malad west in Mumbai. Eight fire fighting engines and three jumbo tankers were rushed to the site and the blaze was brought under control.

Mumbai: A fire engulfed an industrial area in suburban Malad Tuesday morning, but no casualty was reported, a civic official said.

The blaze erupted in a commercial unit near Somwar Bazar in the Bombay Talkies industrial area around 11.30 am, he added.

Eight fire fighting engines and three jumbo tankers were rushed to the site and the blaze was brought under control, the official said.

"The fire broke out at 11.27 am and our control room was informed at 11.50 am. No casualty or injury was reported in the mishap," he said.

Mumbai police personnel, ambulance and officials of the civic ward concerned also reached the site, he said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the official said.

Local Congress MLA Aslam Sheikh demanded that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) come up with a comprehensive plan to check the increasing fire incidents in

the megacity.

On 22 August, a fire broke out on the 12th floor of a high-rise residential building in Dadar area, killing four people and injuring 16 others.

On 27 August, a fire engulfed a three-storey residential building in Parel area, but there was no casualty.A Hyderabad local court is likely to pronounce on Tuesday its verdict in a case related to twin bomb blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in Hyderabad in 2007

Hyderabad: A Hyderabad local court is likely to pronounce on Tuesday its verdict in a case related to twin bomb blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in Hyderabad in 2007 that claimed 44 lives and left 68 injured. On 27 August, Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge T Srinivas Rao postponed the judgment in the case to 4 September.

The Counter Intelligence (CI) wing of the Telangana Police had investigated the case and arrested five accused, all alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives. The agency had filed four charge sheets against the five accused and also named two other absconding accused, Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal. Those arrested  Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chowdhari, Aneeq Shafique Sayeed, Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash, Mohammed Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik and Tarik Anjum  were produced before the court on 27 August through video conferencing from Cherlapalli Central Prison, where they are currently lodged.

The trial against five accused in the case was shifted to a court hall located on the premises of Cherlapally Central Prison from a court located in Nampally Court complex in June. The accused were charged under section 302 (murder) and other relevant provisions of the IPC and sections of Explosive Substances Act in connection with the twin blasts on August 25, 2007, and also with regard to the recovery of an unexploded bomb found under a footover bridge at Dilsuknagar area.

According to the prosecution, Aneeq Shafique Sayeed allegedly planted the bomb at Lumbini Park while Riyaz Bhatkal planted the bomb at Gokul Chat while the unexploded bomb was planted by Ismail Chowdhari. Tarik Anjum is accused of giving shelter to the other accused after the blasts. The near simultaneous blasts at the popular eatery Gokul Chat killed 32 people and left 47 injured, while 12 others died and 21 were injured at the open air theatre at Lumbini Park, a few metres away from the state secretariat in the blasts.The Pompeo-Mattis visit is part of the first-ever '2-plus-2' dialogue which was decided upon during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States last year

The visit of the winsome twosome of the US' secretaries of state and defence to New Delhi should be a cause for some cautious celebration in India. After all, its not everyday that such a powerful duo arrives to set the future tone for India-US relations, even while making rebuking noises to Pakistan. Make no mistake. This is a visit that recognises the importance of India for many reasons, not all of them good for New Delhi. But it is important, and the problem arises from the fact that its success depends on not just a capricious president, but a Congress that is out for blood.

The visit itself is part of the first-ever "Two-plus-Two" dialogue which was decided upon during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States last year. This proposal of getting the Defence and Foreign Ministers of both sides to meet was in itself was recognition of an expanding US-India relationship. Getting these two principals on both sides has been difficult, resulting in entirely foreseeable delays, but with clearly a full table of discussions lying ahead. It is however entirely typical of Indian and some foreign media outlets to focus on one of the most irrelevant issues in the relationship  which is the 'mimicking' of the Indian prime minister by Donald Trump. Remember that this is a president who called Kim Jong-un his best bud and insulted the Canadians.

The best thing the Ministry of External Affairs can do is deliver a message through a talking head on television or any public forum to suggest that Trump learn a bit of Hinglish to better appreciate the nuances of our concerns and interests. Anyway, both US secretaries will be in damage control mode on that issue.

There are some signs of this already. The "cancellation" of some $300 million in military aid to Pakistan on the eve of the visit to Islamabad, is a signal to both countries. This is yet another marker in a further deterioration of US- Pakistan ties, even though Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is making light of it. Last month, the US also suspended military training  which is another blow, since Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of aid under the head of International Military/Education Training (IMET). Military aid also includes counter-narcotics assistance, and bilateral and multilateral exercise support. All of that was meant to improve Pakistan's capability to fight terrorism. As the recent escalated violence in Afghanistan indicates, that is clearly not happening.

In most peoples opinion, this is a move that should have been made years ago. However, it is worth noting aid continues comes under various other heads. The Department of State's budget request for the present fiscal year for instance, includes a request for $200 million in Overseas Contingency Operations to strengthen societal resilience to violent extremism; and expand private sector-led inclusive economic growth, including pursuing private-public partnerships with both US and Pakistani firms to provide improved access to and quality services for its citizens, implement political and economic reforms, and foster a more inclusive and tolerant environment".

As a comparison, Bangladesh gets $80 million. Economic aid also continues. Aid is a tool that can be reversed or increased at any time of the US' choosing. The present cut may please Indians, but some of US pique may also come from the somewhat less-than-diplomatic acts of the new government. For instance, the Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif's visit was followed by Pakistan supporting the "principled stance" of Iran on the now-cancelled nuclear deal. That was the foreign minister again. Qureshi is certainly making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Meanwhile, the two-plus-two dialogue between India and the US is meant to expand the "strategic relationship" rather than focus on signing of any specific defence deals. As all the world is now pointing out, the US has already taken a small but significant step in this direction by changing the designation of the Pacific Command changed to an "Indo-Pacific Command". Thats not just a soporific for bilateral consumption. It means a definite step towards making combined exercises easier in the naval domain. With the logistics agreement (LEMOA) already signed, the US side will want the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) signed as well, to expedite interoperability.

In simpler words, the US would want Indian forces to be able to not only operate seamlessly alongside its own, but also open up vital Indian ports/airports for logistical arrangements. Thats where the trouble is likely to start. India is wary of antagonising China for more reasons than one, and there is no doubt that Beijing will be watching the progress of this strategic dialogue closely. Foreign policy mandarins have gone the extra mile to propitiate China. Reversing this at a time when US sanctions on trade, oil imports from Iran and defence buys from Russia are on a list of serious irritants will be at the root of Indian reservations.

Not all of these are insurmountable. The Iran oil sanctions issue has been circumvented before, with both sides giving room to the others interests to the extent possible. Sanctions on Russia by an irate Congress are another matter. Indias defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already indicated that India will go ahead with the S-400 missiles deal, adding rather tartly that US law does not apply to India. India is already buying a huge tranche of defence equipment from the US which includes the two deals signed recently for surface to air missiles for a billion dollars, and a government-to-government deal for 24 naval helicopters. In the future is the attractive prize of Lockheed F-16s, all of which could bring the US some $18 billion in total in this fiscal year, assuming all goes well .

There is a lot more on the horizon, and Congressmen are well aware of this. In May, US Congressmen were questioning the secretary of state as to how the US proposed to take the relationship with "the most populous democracy" forward at a faster rate. At another level, the India-US business relationship is also growing. As The New York Times had reported, Walmart and Amazon are both investing heavily in India, while the number of Indian students in the US increased to 186,000 hitting double-digit growth for the fourth consecutive year. India is far too big a resource for the US, and a businessman president is not going to risk that. Pressure for more concessions on trade will continue, although this will be the focus of the commerce ministers' dialogue, rather than the present one. Meanwhile, India has to work through the many Congressmen who are willing to find a way to avoid dragging India into what is essentially a US-Russia tangle as far as the defence relationship is concerned.

This is a testing time for Indian diplomacy, requiring a delicate balancing between a suspicious China and a US looking for a more solid alliance, not to mention the already deep resentment within Moscow at a historical ally drifting into the arms of a longtime opponent. Then there is also the reality that Imran Khan's Pakistan will try its utmost to mend fences with the US, and play the China card for all it's worth.

The two keys to the relationship are simple.

First, charm mightily as he may, Imran cannot deliver US objectives in Afghanistan. The Pakistan Army will never allow it, and it knows well that the US still needs some hand holding in Afghanistan. India can and should uptick its development assistance, with an eye on delivery and not theatricals. One key issue here is implementation of the envisaged air corridor with different Afghan cities, and possible assistance in coming elections. India has to be seen to be playing a key stabilising role, and this includes providing as much information on Indian assistance as possible. At present, the website of the Indian Embassy in Kabul is completely deficient, reflecting statements that are more than two years old. Marketing our assistance is as important as delivering it.

The second issue is obviously that of China. It has been said that too much caution can be a dangerous thing, especially when playing poker. Translated into foreign policy, that means giving up the historical attachment to non-alignment  even while the term itself is no longer politically acceptable. To get a good hand, India has to be seen to be drawing closer to the US, even while using the time-honoured language of non-alignment in joint statements. In other words, a new non-alignment with muscular characteristics. Go play!The dialogue is a good chance to take stock of the areas of cooperation, agreement and disagreement between India and the US.

It is as important to understand what the inaugural 2+2 dialogue between India and the US isnt, as it is to grasp what it is. To begin, the talks that will finally get under way on Thursday after two delays in 14 months since announcement, are not the occasion to unfold a laundry list of complaints, sign defence deals, declare grand strategies or conspire against any third nation.

The talks seek to institutionalise the progress in bilateral ties within a stable framework and add another stratum to the burgeoning strategic partnership. The dialogue may also serve to operationalise Indias status as a major defence partner of the US. Finally, exchange of ideas at the highest level provides both sides the opportunity to prevent irritants from becoming impediments in the relationship. Smoothening the rough edges is vital for a stable partnership, perhaps more so than even opening new areas of cooperation.

If shared security interests and values form the lynchpin of a closer bilateral embrace, the foundation for the two-plus-two meetingthat according to a US state department readout is expected to focus on strengthening strategic, security, and defense cooperation as both countries jointly confront global challengesrests on an assumption that India and the US have moved past the need to find areas of commonality. The primary goal of the high-level exchange, therefore, is to deliver concrete outcomes that may serve to tighten the partnership.

Though the trajectory of bilateral ties remains upward and linear, it is worth remembering that pace of engagement might differ. Asias security architecture imposes some unavoidable constraints on India. It shares a volatile border with Pakistan and an unstable border with China. Both nations play the regional game of containing India. New Delhi would have learnt from Doka La that a naked adversarial position against China, given its size, scope and intent, is unwise.

Similarly, Indias relationship with Iran is rooted in civilisational connect, energy needs and connectivity projects. Ties with Russia, for instance, have become almost entirely transactional but the nature and depth of Indias military-technical cooperation with Moscow (centred on import of high-end technology, upgradation and maintenance of existing military equipment) is such that an abandonment is unrealistic.

As Brookings India fellow Dhruva Jaishankar wrote in Hindustan Times, India still needs Russia for military spare parts just as Moscow needs New Delhi for revenue. There are certain technologies that Russia is willing to providesuch as nuclear-powered submarinethat the likes of the United States never will. The defence relationship will therefore remain vital for the foreseeable future.

It is unreasonable for the US to expect a fast and complete alignment of its domestic and foreign policy objectives with that of Indias. There has been a notable realignment in Indias stance on Iranian oil or Russian defence equipment (with US fast moving up the ladder on both counts) but New Delhi might not be ready (or able) to move as quickly on certain issues related to mutual strategic and security interests as the US would like it to. Moreover, its political system and colonial past prevent India from moving fast on contentious issues, such as signing of foundational military cooperation agreements with the US. Progress on Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA): where irrational fears dominate public discourse and create political impediments have been slow.

The upcoming dialogue is a good chance to take stock of the areas of cooperation, agreement and disagreement.

A brief primer on the outcomes and challenges is in order.

Outcomes:

Some progress is expected on COMCASA, though recent media reports suggest that signing on the dotted line may not actually happen during the talks. What we may expect is for the agreement to get an in principle approval that will pave the way for eventual formalisation. India had signed Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), the first of the three foundational military cooperation agreements, in the same way. Signing of COMCASA, where the US has made some India-specific adjustments, might open the route for Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA): the third foundational pact that allows both countries to share sophisticated satellite data for navigation and missile targeting.

Indias fears on COMCASA are mostly an overreaction borne out of its Cold War hangover. If the US wants to spy on Indian communication network, it shall do so with or without India signing the agreement. As ORF fellow Abhijit Singh wrote in Livemint, For India, in fact, the more damaging prospect is that of the absence of a pact, depriving its military of high-tech equipment from the US. There could be solid progress on counter-terrorism. Media reports indicate that officials from both sides are working on a draft related to anti-terror cooperation in intelligence sharing, terror financing and cyber security.

We may also expect some announcement on cross posting of officials at the US Defence Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) and Indias recently created Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) to work on joint development projects, as reported by The Hindu.

Apart from this, we may see the setting up of a hotline between Nirmala Sitharaman-James Mattis and Sushma Swaraj-Mike Pompeo, the placing of an Indian Navy liaison officer at the US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in Bahrain and a pact between both sides to share intelligence on movement of vessels in the Indian Ocean region, according to The Indian Express. Apart from these enablers, we may also see some formal statements on maintenance of free and open Indo-Pacific, the cornerstone of US security arrangement with India, and some declaration on infrastructure initiatives.

A final outcome could be augmentation of the 2+2 format between different levels of the government on both sides so that the dialogue process could be replicated and continued at lower levels. That frees the framework from falling prey to scheduling issues at the top. The ministerial dialogue could be restricted to an annual format.

Irritants

Much has been written about the US sanctions on Russia that have put Indias purchase of high-end anti-aircraft missile defence system from Russia in direct line of Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Some experts such as Ashley Tellis, who served as a top diplomat in the George W Bush administration and is now the senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, have argued that India needs to recalibrate its approach on buying the S400 Triumf surface-to-air missile (SAM) system.

Tellis wrote for Carnegie that India essentially has three choices: 1) Scuttle the deal with Russia 2) Defer payment for the deal and wait for a change in circumstances and 3) Cut a deal with Trump by moving to acquire major defence deal so that the US president becomes agreeable to carve out a waiver for India.

Despite the threat of sanctions, India has reiterated that the purchase of five SAM from Russia at a cost of $6 billion shall not be cancelled, leading the US to caution India that it should not expect an automatic waiver.

This position will need walking on eggshells and careful diplomacy, much as India would need to make a convincing case about continuing its energy partnership with Iran (albeit at a lower scale) post-sanctions deadline. New Delhi could, for instance, point out to the US that shunning of Iranian oil could have adverse effects on Indias efforts in Afghanistan where the US wants India to do more. If Iran plays truant, then India cannot reach landlocked Afghanistan since the only other route through Pakistan remains inaccessible for India.

These give and takes (expect some more on issues related to trade from the US side and strict visa regime from India), however, do not take away from the larger picture best described by former Indian diplomat Lalit Mansingh to The New York Times. The thinking inside and outside government has changed radically, with China now seen as our biggest threat And if you look at China as a threat, you look around to see who can help us to defend against China. And its the US.

This geopolitical realitynot to speak of a shared value systemwill override other concerns and script an increasingly stronger strategic relationship. Talks may speed up the process.Kerala is battling an outbreak of a bacterial disease that authorities suspect has killed dozens of people since mid-August after the worst flooding in a century.

New Delhi: Kerala is battling an outbreak of a bacterial disease that authorities suspect has killed dozens of people since mid-August after the worst flooding in a century.

A health ministry spokesman said as of Sunday there had been nearly 200 confirmed cases of what is locally called rat fever - the waterborne disease leptospirosis transmitted via the urine of infected animals, with symptoms including muscle pain and fever.

The surge in cases comes after torrential rain beginning on 8 August, flooded almost the entire state, killing hundreds of people, destroying thousands of homes and causing at least 200 billion rupees ($2.81 billion) worth of damage. The health ministry began distributing preventive medicine last month and warned about the outbreak of leptospirosis and other waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera, Health Minister KK Shailaja told reporters. Local media reported three leptospirosis deaths on Monday.

The victims had unfortunately not taken preventive medicine, the minister said. Overall, nine deaths from the disease have been confirmed, but the number may rise to over 40 pending full medical reports, the ministry spokesman said.

Fast Infection

Leptospirosis rarely spreads from person to person and can be treated with common antibiotics. In the past week, we have seen about 30 deaths in Kozhikode and Wayanad, said Mohammed Javeed, internal medicine specialist at a private hospital in Kerala, referring to two of the worst flood-affected districts on the states southwest coast.

Javeed said the state has leptospirosis cases every monsoon season as paddy fields fill with water, increasing the chance of infection for farmers, especially through wounds such as cuts.

Of particular concern, however, is that some of the victims this year did not have usual symptoms such as mild jaundice, blood in urine or bleeding spots on the skin, he said. This time it is a fast, progressive infection, Javeed told Reuters. The recent deaths indicate clearly the threat of an epidemic.

Medical professionals are continuing to dispense preventive medicine in the form of tablets which need to be taken once a week for a month, Javeed said.Kerala announced that it won't host any function that involves huge sums of money for a year and would divert the funds earmarked for such events to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government announced on Tuesday it won't host any function that involves huge sums of money for a year and instead divert the amount for flood relief.

The cancelled events include the much-acclaimed International Film Festival of Kerala, held every December, besides state school youth festivals.

Officials say Kerala has suffered a damage of Rs 30,000 crore in the worst floods to hit the state in a century.

A government order said that no government department would host any festival for a year.

The funds earmarked for all such cancelled events would be diverted to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

Till Monday, the fund had received Rs 1,036 crore. Kerala Ministers are soon leaving to 14 countries to raise money from public contributions.A 38-year-old Navy officer has been arrested in Kerala on charges of raping a woman, police said Sunday.

Kottayam: A 38-year-old Navy officer has been arrested in Kerala on charges of raping a woman, police said Sunday. The woman's father had lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that the Navy officer raped his daughter after making a false promise to marry her.

Murali Kumar, a chief petty officer of Navy in Mumbai, was arrested and remanded in judicial custody yesterday, police said. He has also been charged under the SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act. The victim in her early 20's alleged that Kumar raped her when she had gone to meet him at a hotel in Kerala last week. He had allegedly invited her to the hotel room, police said. The incident came to light when the woman was admitted to a private hospital near here, police said.

Kumar, a two-time Mr Asia title holder and eight-time Mr India title winner, allegedly befriended the woman through social media. Police said they would file a report with naval authorities on the incident.Kolkata bridge collapse LIVE updates: In wake of the bridge collapse in Kolkata, Home Minister Rajnath Singh took to Twitter to update about the incident. 'Four NDRF teams have already reached the spot. One more team is on the way. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured,' he said in a tweet.

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Ten to twelve people are feared trapped in Kolkata after a portion of the Majherhat Bridge collapsed, according to several media reports.

Taking to Twitter, TMC MP Derek O'Brien said that disaster management teams are working in Kolkata for the rescue and relief efforts.

She further said that the state government will take all measures to ensure rescue operations are go well. She added that providing relief to the injured is the priority.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is currently in Darjeeling, said that she has I ordered an investigation into the bridge collapse.

According to an eyewitness, a bus also fell into a nullah after the bridge collapse. There were some passengers inside it.

Nine people who were injured in the incident have been shifted to SSKM hospital. A total of 25 people have been rescued so far. Railway services have been affected due to the bridge collapse.

Minister Firhad Hakim, who is at the spot of the Majerhat bridge collapse, said all those who were trapped have been rescued. "It was a 40-year-old bridge. As of now, there are no deaths, but search operations are underway."

Hakim had earlier said that all those trapped had been rescued, and they would focus on initiating a technical inquiry now. "If I knew how the bridge collapsed, I would have an engineering degree," he said.

West Bengal urban development minister Firhad Hakim, who is at the spot, said there was no need to call the army to help with the rescue operations. "This is not such a big situation that the army needs to be called in," he told reporters.

"The state government should take complete responsibilty of this collapse," he added.

BJP leader Mukul Roy blamed the West Bengal government for the bridge collapse in Alipore area. "They are saying beautification of city is on, but repair work of old constructions is not on her (Mamata Banerjee) mind," he said.

Some of the passengers inside the bus have sustained injuries. A team of police is trying to take them out of the bus.

A part of the Majerhat bridge between Taratala and Mominpur collapsed around 4.30 pm, a fire official told IANS.

Rains are likely to affect the operations being undertaken to rescue victims of the Majerhat bridge collapse.

According to the police, 15 people have been rescued and rushed to the SSKM hospital.

For those wanting to take northward journey, they can go use this route: Hastings > CGR > Taratala. For those who want to travel southward, they can use this diversion: DH Road > Taratala > CGR Road.

Taking to Twitter, actor Renuka Shahane said that the civic bodies in India need to "step up" and "take firm steps". "Corruption in municipal corporations is a huge issue. Also shouldn't there be some limit to the amount of digging of roads for infrastructural work? Hope there are no casualties," the actor wrote.

In a tweet, BJP leader Arvind Menon said, "Extremely distressing news and terrible tragedy hit Kolkata as 2 bridge collapse in less than 2.5 years."

According to secretariat sources, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee likely to return from Siliguri on Wednesday morning,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted in wake of the bridge collapse in Alipore. "The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," he said in the tweet.

Speaking on the bridge collapse, West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi said, "There was a report on a pit here for quite some time, I don't know whether PWD noted it. PWD and railway administration had the responsibility to maintain it. The matter requires investigation."

Train services along the Circular Railway and Sealdah-Budge Budge line were temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure after a portion of the Majerhat bridge collapsed.

According to unconfirmed reports, one person has died due to the bridge collapse in Kolkata's Alipore area.

The police have confirmed one death in the Majerhat bridge collapse. Fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue operation work said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble. The injured have been admitted to SSKM and CMRI hospitals, the police said.

Hitting out at the TMC government, West Bengal BJP vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose said that the Majerhat bridge which caters to heavy traffic was "overdue in maintenance". " Why can't we take precautionary measures to avoid such a disaster," he said.

West Bengal health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said she had heard about the death of five people in the Majerhat bridge collapse, but it has yet to be confirmed.

State health minister says reports of five deaths yet to be confirmed

Speaking to India Today, CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said, "I don't know what is happening. I don't know why they are hesitant to call the army." He said that the state administration was incapable of handling the situation on its own and requested Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to act according to the requirement of the situation.

In a tweet, President Ram Nath Kovind, "Sorry to learn of the partial collapse of the Majerhat bridge in Kolkata. Thoughts and prayers with the bereaved families, and with those injured in the tragic incident."

Several personnel belonging to the Central Armed Police Forces have reached the site to assist in rescue operations.

In wake of the bridge collapse in Kolkata, Home Minister Rajnath Singh took to Twitter to update about the incident. "Four NDRF teams have already reached the spot. One more team is on the way. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," he said in a tweet.

Lashing out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BJP leader Babul Supriyo said that even though several reports said that 4-5 people have died due to the bridge collapse, the TMC chief said (initially) that no casualties have taken place.

According to ANI , Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in view of the Majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata. She apprised him of the ground situation, and Singh assured Banerjee of providing Central assistance if needed.

The police have confirmed one death in the Majerhat bridge collapse. Fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue operation work said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble. The injured have been admitted to SSKM and CMRI hospitals, the police said.

Shocking incident of Majerhat Bridge collapse in Kolkata today. A bridge which caters to heavy traffic was overdue in maintenance! Why can't we take precautionary measures to avoid such a disaster. Speedy recovery to the injured,condolences to the bereaved families.

Hitting out at the TMC government, West Bengal BJP vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose said that the Majerhat bridge which caters to heavy traffic was "overdue in maintenance". " Why can't we take precautionary measures to avoid such a disaster," he said.

West Bengal health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said she had heard about the death of five people in the Majerhat bridge collapse, but it has yet to be confirmed.

State health minister says reports of five deaths yet to be confirmed

Speaking to India Today, CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said, "I don't know what is happening. I don't know why they are hesitant to call the army." He said that the state administration was incapable of handling the situation on its own and requested Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to act according to the requirement of the situation.

Sorry to learn of the partial collapse of the Majerhat bridge in Kolkata. Thoughts and prayers with the bereaved families, and with those injured in the tragic incident #PresidentKovind

In a tweet, President Ram Nath Kovind, "Sorry to learn of the partial collapse of the Majerhat bridge in Kolkata. Thoughts and prayers with the bereaved families, and with those injured in the tragic incident."

Several personnel belonging to the Central Armed Police Forces have reached the site to assist in rescue operations.

The bridge collapse incident in Kolkata is a extremely tragic. Four NDRF teams have already reached the spot. One more team is on the way. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured.

In wake of the bridge collapse in Kolkata, Home Minister Rajnath Singh took to Twitter to update about the incident. "Four NDRF teams have already reached the spot. One more team is on the way. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," he said in a tweet.

It's an extremely saddening incident & even more saddening is that even though it has been confirmed from several places that 4-5 people have died, the Chief Minister is saying that no casualties have taken place: BJP's Babul Supriyo on Majerhat bridge collapse. #Kolkata pic.twitter.com/DwutctxDzj

Lashing out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BJP leader Babul Supriyo said that even though several reports said that 4-5 people have died due to the bridge collapse, the TMC chief said (initially) that no casualties have taken place.

According to ANI , Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in view of the Majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata. She apprised him of the ground situation, and Singh assured Banerjee of providing Central assistance if needed.



Kolkata bridge collapse LIVE updates: In wake of the bridge collapse in Kolkata, Home Minister Rajnath Singh took to Twitter to update about the incident. "Four NDRF teams have already reached the spot. One more team is on the way. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," he said in a tweet.

Hitting out at the TMC government in West Bengal, CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said, "I don't know what is happening. I don't know why they are hesitant to call the army." The police have confirmed one death in the Majerhat bridge collapse. Fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue operation work said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble. The injured have been admitted to SSKM and CMRI hospitals, the police said.

Visiting the site of bridge collapse in Alipore, West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi said that the structure deserved better maintenance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted in wake of the bridge collapse in Alipore. "The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," he said in the tweet.

According to the police, 15 people have been rescued and rushed to the SSKM hospital. BJP leader Mukul Roy blamed the West Bengal government for the bridge collapse in Alipore area. "They are saying beautification of city is on, but repair work of old constructions is not on her (Mamata Banerjee) mind," he said.

A portion of the Majerhat bridge in Kolkata's Alipore area collapsed on Tuesday. Several people as well as vehicles are feared trapped in the debris.

According to reports, five people have been killed in the bridge collapse, but there is no confirmation on the toll. Rescue and clearance operations are underway, and the Kolkata Port Trust authority has been roped in to help.

Banerjee said the state government will take all measures to ensure that rescue operations go well and prioritise providing relief to the injured.

According to an eyewitness, a bus fell into a canal after the bridge collapsed with a few passengers inside, who sustained injuries.

The Garden Reach-Majerhat flyover in South Kolkata acts as a thoroughfare for people living in Behala area.On Monday, Lois Sofia, a post-doctoral research scholar in Mathematics on a flight from Chennai to Tuticorin, raised anti-BJP slogans in the presence of the party's Tamil Nadu unit president, Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan. Could Soundararajan have handled it differently? Most certainly, yes. Politicians are expected to have a more thick skin when confronted with dissent.

Is the word 'fascist' part of your vocabulary?

If it is, you are not an "innocent" person in the BJP book. In fact, you could even be a "terrorist".

On Monday, Lois Sofia, a post-doctoral research scholar in Mathematics on a flight from Chennai to Tuticorin, raised anti-BJP slogans in the presence of the party's Tamil Nadu unit president, Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan. 28-year-old Sofia, who was on her way home from Canada, shouted "fascist BJP government down, down'' after the flight landed in Tuticorin and Soundararajan was taking out her luggage from the overhead cabin.

A verbal altercation followed thereafter at the Tuticorin airport between Sofia and BJP activists who had come to receive their leader. Sofia was arrested and sent to judicial custody for 15 days, after a formal complaint by the BJP chief with the airport police. IPC sections 505 (statements amounting to public mischief), 290 (public nuisance) and section 75 of the Tamil Nadu city police act were slapped on Sofia. She was granted bail on Tuesday.

Soundararajan later told The Indian Express that no innocent girl will use the F-word, as in fascist.

"I questioned her. She replied that she has the right to freedom of expression. She shouted that slogan and used the word 'fascist', raising her fist and all. I thought I should not ignore a terrorist so I filed a petition,'' said Soundararajan.

This brings us to the question whether it was Sofia who crossed the line or Soundararajan with her lack of tolerance.

According to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rules on handling of unruly/disruptive passengers, what Sofia committed, was a level one offence which is defined as disruptive behaviour through physical gestures and verbal harassment. It says that the incident shall be referred by the airlines to an internal committee which shall consist of a retired district and sessions judge as chairman and two representatives from a different airline and from a passenger or consumer association as members. It further says that the internal committee shall decide the period for which the passenger is to be barred from flying and pending its decision, the airline may ban for a period not exceeding ten days.

When the law is clear on the process to be followed, why did the Tamil Nadu Police jump the gun and arrest Sofia? Was it because a VIP was involved and her party was determined to prove a point?

Could Soundararajan have handled it differently? Most certainly, yes. Politicians are expected to have a more thick skin when confronted with dissent. If a mere slogan can offend you, the problem is not so much with the dissenter but with the politician. What the BJP chief decided to do is to show her political clout. And send the message that the BJP will not tolerate a word against its government.

In April, at the height of the discord over Cauvery issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was greeted during a visit to Chennai with black flags and black balloons and 'Go Back Modi' trending on social media. Should the prime minister have reacted like Soundararajan did?

This goes against what Modi has said publicly in the past that "this government should be criticised because criticism makes democracy strong". Soundararajan's behaviour is in contrast to what Justice DY Chandrachud of the Supreme court said last week that dissent is the safety valve of democracy and if you muzzle democracy, the pressure cooker will burst.

But examine closely and you realise that there is a pattern.

Soundararajan's colleague, Union minister of state for finance Pon Radhakrishnan on many occasions has referred to the presence of naxals, terrorists and Muslim fundamentalists in Tamil Nadu. It is the same figment of imagination that Soundararajan displays when she calls anyone who raises a slogan with a clenched fist a possible 'terrorist'. Given Sofia's background as a research scholar, it won't be long before she is branded an Urban Naxal.

In fact, a beginning has already been made. Soundararajan made a reference to Sofia's writings against the Sterlite plant in Tuticorin, indirectly suggesting that she has an anti-establishment mindset. In May this year, 13 residents of Tuticorin were shot dead by the district police when they were protesting demanding the closure of the "polluting plant''.

What Soundararajan does not realise is that the criticism was not personal or abusive but was a political statement against a party. Imprisoning anyone who goes public with a contrarian view is hardly the way a democracy is meant to function.

Has the BJP leader shot her party in the foot, at least in Tamil Nadu? If the social media is any kind of barometer to go by, Soundararajan was seen to have overreacted. Within hours, several hashtags denouncing the BJP were trending. For a party that hopes to have the lotus blossom in Tamil Nadu, for the moment, it has invited muck on to itself.Louis Sophia, a Tamil Nadu student who was arrested at the Tuticorin airport on Monday for raising 'anti-government slogans' in front of Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, has been an active left-wing voice on social media

Lois Sofia, a Tamil Nadu student who was arrested at the Tuticorin airport on Monday for raising 'anti-government slogans' in front of Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, has been an active left-wing voice on social media. The girl, who is a doctoral student of Physics at the University of Montreal in Canada, had covered the recent Sterlite issue and the protests against Chennai-Salem eight-lane highway project extensively, as a writer.

As per her account, when she saw that Tamilisai was on board her flight, she tweeted that she wondered if she will be "kicked off the flight" if she shouts "Modi-BJP-RSS' fascist government, down, down". The tweet, however, has now been deleted from her account.

Sofia, who belongs to Thoothukudi, is a close kin of advocate Athisayakumar, who was one of the leading activists in the anti-Sterlite movement, Deccan Chronicle reported.

She has was arrested from the airport by the Pudukottai Police and has been sent to a 15-day juridical custody. A case under IPC sections 290 (creating public nuisance), 505 (1)(b) for causing fear to the public in the flight and at the airport and under section 75 of the Madras City police act, has been filed against her.

However, the police did not rule out the possibility of her act being "politically motivated". According to the Deccan Chronicle report, the police suspects that as she is a Dalit (from Devendra Kula Vellala community), her act might have been a ploy to direct Dalit group anger against the BJP in the state. This angle was put forth by the police as the incident happened while the BJP chief was on her way to participate in a party function at Tenkasi, where around t 1,000 Dalits from various parties were to gather.

Meanwhile, Sofia's twitter activity reveals that she has been a vocal critic of the Central government and had even tweeted in solidarity against the recent arrest of five activists by the Pune Police. Apart from criticising the state police and government for its atrocities and collective failure during the Sterlite protests, Sofia has also raised voice for Dalit rights and women safety. She also supported student activist Valarmathi, who had alleged molestation by a cop in plain clothes, but was branded as a "Naxal-sympathiser" instead.Tamil student, Lois Sophia, who was arrested on Monday for raising 'anti-BJP slogans' at the Tuticorin airport and remanded 15-day judicial custody, has been granted bail on Tuesday

Tamil student, Lois Sophia, who was arrested on Monday for raising 'anti-BJP slogans' at the Tuticorin airport and remanded 15-day judicial custody, has been granted bail on Tuesday, CNN News18 reported. Sophia's parents had said that they will move a higher court in case she doesn't get relief from the Thoothukudi court.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu BJP president, Tamilisai Soundararajan, in whose presence Sophia had raised the slogans, clarified her stand in front of the media earlier on Tuesday. Justifying her action to file a complaint against the girl, Tamilisai said people need to look into Sophia's background. "Everyone needs to understand her background as well. I did not do any wrong. I did not speak in the flight, I only filed a complaint once I reached the airport," she said.

Narrating the incident, Tamilisai alleged that the student was was "raising slogans mid-air which raised safety concerns for the co-passengers and cast doubts on her background". She further claimed that the girl's family filed a complaint hours after the incident, while she filed her complaint with the airport authority as soon as she landed. "They interrogated her and took action accordingly", Tamilisai said.

"If someone enters your house and screams at you, will you tolerate? If a person sitting next to other politicians on a flight raises a slogan against their party, will they stay quiet?" Tamilisai asked. "There is a place to do all this", she remarked.

Sophia had called the BJP government at the Centre fascist after which the BJP leader and the student got into a quarrel once they arrived at the airport's arrival lounge in Tuticorin. The altercation was caught on a camera.One person was killed and around 20 were injured after the Majerhat bridge collapsed in South Kolkata's Alipore area.

Kolkata: Opposition parties in West Bengal on Tuesday alleged that the Trinamool Congress-led government's "callousness towards the repair of old bridges" was the main reason behind the collapse of a portion of the Majerhat bridge.

Governor Keshav Nath Tripathi, who visited the site, described it as "a big disaster". "I have come to see the rescue work. It is a big disaster. I heard that maintenance of the bridge is entrusted with the Public Works Department (PWD) and the railways. The matter required to be inquired," he told reporters.

The over 50-year-old bridge in South Kolkata caved in around 4.45 pm during rush hour, claiming one life, trapping several people and crushing several vehicles.

"It is really unfortunate that the bridge has collapsed. But the fact is the state government is solely responsible for the bridge collapse. The issue of repair of the old bridges is not at all in the agenda of TMC government," senior BJP leader Mukul Roy said.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury demanded an answer from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and PWD Minister Firhad Hakim. "Earlier in 2016, we had witnessed a bridge collapse (at Burrabazar). This incident proves that the state government has yet to learn its lessons. The state government should give an answer," Chowdhury said.

Reacting to the allegations, Hakim said this is not the appropriate time to indulge in "politics over the incident".

The chief minister, who is on a visit to Darjeeling, has ordered an investigation into the Majerhat bridge collapse by Chief Secretary Malay Dey. Mamata also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to the injured.Taking a dig at Manipur University Vice-Chancellor AP Pandey, who ordered a ban on two associations at the institute, former Manipur chief minister OIbobi Singh sought to know Monday if the HRD ministry was consulted before the issuance of the notification.

Imphal: Taking a dig at Manipur University Vice-Chancellor AP Pandey, who ordered a ban on two associations at the institute, former Manipur chief minister O Ibobi Singh sought to know Monday if the HRD ministry was consulted before the issuance of the notification.

The senior Congress leader also asked Pandey to clarify if he has received orders to rejoin office as vice chancellor on 1 September. Pandey, who was sent on leave on 2 August over allegations of irregularities, issued a notice Saturday to announce that he has resumed his charges. In the statement, he also said that "Manipur University Teachers Association (MUTA) and Manipur University Staff Association (MUSA) were hereby being banned with immediate effect as the Manipur University Act 2005 does not have provisions for existence of employees' bodies".

The students, teachers and staff members, who had been demanding the VC's removal for over three months now over alleged financial and administrative irregularities, threatened to intensify their protests Sunday if action was not taken against him. The agitators had called off their 85-day-long agitation on 23 August after signing an agreement with the HRD ministry, which formed a fact-finding committee last month to look into their allegations. The state government, too, had requested the agitators on several occasions to have faith in the HRD committee.

Ibobi told reporters on Monday that both the state and the central governments have made a "mockery of the issue". "When the institute was made a central university during the UPA rule, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi assured the state that every burden will be borne by the Centre," he said.

In a related development, Assistant Registrar H Tonsin Marring wrote to Manipur DGP Sunday, asking him to ensure that no untoward incident takes place at the institute or its vicinity in view of the fresh threats issued by the agitators. Academic activities resumed at Manipur university on 24 August, following the suspension of the strike which lasted for almost three months.

In a statement, the protesters said Sunday that they would not allow Pandey to enter the university and claimed that the notification issued by him was "null and void". No state government official, however, could be contacted for their reaction on the matter.An Indian Air Force fighter jet MiG-27 crashed near Jodhpur's Deolia village, reports have said. The plane crashed during a routine mission and the Air Force has said that a court of inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident, reported ANI.

An Indian Air Force fighter jet MiG-27 crashed near Jodhpur's Deolia village, reports have said. The plane crashed during a routine mission and the Air Force has said that a court of inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident, reported ANI.

The aircraft, which had taken off from Jodhpurs airbase, crashed near a field and burst into flames but the pilot was able to eject from the jet safely, reported India Today. Large crowds had gathered on the field near the crash site.

Local police and fire brigade reportedly arrived at the spot in the village where the jet crashed.

However, this is not the first crash reported this year. In June 2018, a MiG-21 fighter plane had crashed in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra and the pilot was found dead.

In November 2017, another IAF MiG-27 fighter planes tyre burst while landing, after which it got stuck on the runway at Jodhpur airport, The Times of India had reported.The NDA government has asked state and Central departments to avoid the nomenclature 'Dalit' when describing members belonging to Scheduled Castes for all official transactions.

Editor's note: This article was originally published as an exclusive on 4 April. It is being republished in light of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issuing an advisory to all private satellite TV channels, urging them to refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for people belonging to Scheduled Castes in compliance with a Bombay High Court directive.

New Delhi: The NDA government has asked state and Central departments to avoid the nomenclature 'Dalit' when describing members belonging to Scheduled Castes for all official transactions. The directive was issued just days before the matter related to certain provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes came up in the Supreme Court on 20 March. The apex court ruling had triggered massive protests across the country by Dalit organisations and Monday's Bharat Bandh ended in violent clashes that saw nine people killed. In a letter to the chief secretaries of state governments and Union Territories, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on 15 March, 2018 said that they should use 'Scheduled Caste' and its translation in other languages.

The letter reviewed by Firstpost said: "All the state governments/UT administrations are requested that for all official transactions, matters, dealings, certificates etc, the constitutional term, 'Scheduled Caste' in English, and its appropriate translation in other national languages should alone be used for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes notified in the Presidential Orders issued under Article 341 of the Constitution of India."

The letter, that has been marked to Central ministries, the Union Public Service Commission, Election Commission of India, cited an order passed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Gwalior bench. The court, in its order dated 15 January, 2018 in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Mohanlal Mahor, had said that 'Dalit' is mentioned in the Constitution.

"that the Central government/state government and its functionaries would refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for the members belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as the same does not find mentioned in the Constitution of India or any statute."

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment also argued that Ministry of Home Affairs on 10 February, 1982 had shot off a missive to the states to issue instructions to the authorities empowered to issue Scheduled Castes certificates, not to insert the word 'Harijan', but to only mention the caste to which the person belonged and which had been recognised as a Scheduled Caste under the Presidential Orders. Two years later on 18 August, 1990, the Ministry of Welfare (now Social Justice and Empowerment) had requested the state governments to use 'Scheduled Caste' and its translation.

Article 341 of the Constitution says, (T)he President may with respect to any state or Union Territory, and where it is a state, after consultation with the governor thereof, by public notification, specify the castes, races or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races or tribes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Castes in relation to that state or Union Territory, as the case may be."

"Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Castes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any caste, race or tribe or part of or group within any caste, race or tribe, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification."

According to the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, "Dalit" refers to ones caste rather than class; it applies to members of those menial castes, which have born the stigma of "untouchability" because of the extreme impurity and pollution connected with their traditional occupations. The organisation also said that Dalits represent a community of 170 million in India, constituting 17 percent of the population.

Eminent Dalit thinker Chandra Bhan Prasad told Firstpost, "The word 'Dalit' triggers some kind of fear in the government. People don't want to call themselves Scheduled Castes, but 'Chamar' and 'Dalit'. The government argument that it does not find mentioned in the Constitution is misleading. The term 'Dalit' symbolises uprising against wrong policies. By erasing this nomenclature, the government is trying suppress the angry voices from depressed classes."The NIA registered a suo motu case on 1 October, 2016, based on information regarding activities of some youths, who had the intention of furthering the objectives of the proscribed terrorist group in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

New Delhi: A court in Kerala has framed charges against six youths, alleged to be Islamic State terrorists, for trying to carry out terrorist activities in parts of southern India, according to an official statement issued Tuesday.

A suo motu case was registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 1 October, 2016, based on information regarding activities of some youths, who had the intention of furthering the objectives of the proscribed terrorist group in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the NIA said in a statement.

The youths "had got together and formed an Islamic State terror module named Ansarul Khilafa-KL over social media platforms and had made preparations to carry out terrorist attacks against prominent persons, including judges, police officers and politicians, and also against foreign nationals and rationalists," it said.

The probe agency arrested six members of the terror module on 1 October, 2016, when they had organised a meeting at Kanakamala in Kannur district of Kerala, it said. Subsequently, another member of the module was arrested in February 2017, after his deportation from the UAE.

In this case, on 5 October, 2016, the NIA also arrested Islamic State operative Subahani Haja Moideen alias Abu Jasmine, who had travelled to Iraq and Syria in April 2015 and fought for the Islamic State, the NIA said. Moideen returned to India in September 2015 and continued his activities in support of the organisation in India, it said.

The NIA filed a charge sheet against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Rashad NK, Safvan, Jasim NK, and Shajeer Mangalassery under various sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) on 29 March, 2017. A separate charge sheet was filed against Moideen under these Acts on the same day. A supplementary charge sheet was filed against accused Moinudheen PK under the UAPA and the IPC in August last year.

Now the special NIA court in Ernakulam on Monday framed charges against Manseed Muhmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Rashad NK, Safvan and Jasim NK, the NIA said. The case has been posted to Thursday for framing of charges against Subahani Haja Moideen and for finalizing the trial schedule, it said.

The regular trial of the case is expected to commence from 26 September, 2018, the probe agency said.A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and KM Joseph said entertaining Col Purohit's petition at this stage might impact the ongoing trial in the case. The bench, however, granted Purohit the liberty to raise his contentions before the trial court and said it is not expressing any opinion on his petition.

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to pass a stay order on the framing of charges by the lower court against Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case. The high court has asked the trial court to investigate the validity of the sanction for prosecution against Purohit under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The Supreme Court also refused to entertain Purohit's plea seeking a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into his alleged abduction, illegal detention and brutal torture in the case, ANI reported.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Naveen Sinha and KM Joseph said entertaining the petition at this stage might impact the ongoing trial in the case. The bench, however, granted Purohit the liberty to raise his contentions before the trial court and said it is not expressing any opinion on his petition.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Purohit, told the bench that the issue raised by Purohit in his plea has to be looked into. Since the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is seized of the matter, the agency can look into it, Salve said.

The bench, however, asked him to raise the issue before the trial court.

According to CNN News18, the Bombay High Court's move comes after the trial court, on 29 August, had rejected Purohit's plea to defer the framing of charges in the case.

Purohit had filed a petition against the lower court's decision to go ahead with the framing of charges in the case. His petition was asking for a stay on the proceedings until the court decides on the issue of the applicability of UAPA.

As per a report from The Times of India, a bench of Justices SS Shinde and Mridula Bhatkar have set 1 October as the date of the final hearing in appeals filed by Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni and Sadhvi Pragya.

Purohit is among the key accused in the 2008 Malegaon bombing case, in which seven people were killed and nearly 100 injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle went off at Malegaon, a town in Nashik district of Maharashtra, on 29 September, 2008. After nine years in prison, Purohit got conditional bail from the Supreme Court in 2017.

With inputs from PTIPresident Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday urged the youth not to get carried away by the instantness of technology, saying they must continue to work hard without the expectation of immediate reward.

Nicosia: President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday urged the youth not to get carried away by the instantness of technology, saying they must continue to work hard without the expectation of immediate reward.

President Kovind, who was in Cyprus on the first leg of his three-nation visit to Europe to continue India's high-level engagements with European countries, delivered a lecture at the University of Cyprus on 'Youth, Technology and Ideas: Shaping the Contours of the 21st century'.

He unveiled the bust of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore at the University.

Technology has opened a whole new world of learning and has made it easier to accomplish tasks, he said.

"You should, however, not get carried away by the instantness of technology. You must continue to work hard without the expectation of immediate reward," Kovind said.

The pursuit of excellence should be the key factor that should dominate the minds of future generations, he said.

"I am in Cyprus for the first time and have been captivated by the warmth of the Cypriot people. Our two nations share very special ties.

"As we move deeper towards the technology world, we must create open source platforms for communities and countries to access the fruits of science and technology. Access, equity and inclusion should remain key to developing and deploying technologies," the president said.

He said that digital classrooms have made learning more inclusive and interactive.

"Students sitting across different continents engage in a classroom. The catchment area of ideas and cultures involved in education has grown manifold," he said.

Chemistry today is not being taught with just books but with sounds, visuals and digital experiments. E-books and education apps have acquired a new salience, he said.

"We must dwell on what the Fourth Industrial Revolution promises. It is a force multiplier for development and growth. Yes, it will disrupt conventional jobs  but with advances in artificial intelligence, life-sciences and energy, many more opportunities would be created," Kovind said.

India has the third-largest scientific and technical manpower in the world with over 4,000 doctorate degrees awarded annually, he said.

The patents filed by Indian start-ups have gone up 15 times in 2017; from 61 in 2016 to 909, he said.

"We are committed to sharing our technology platforms with those who need them. We are making our space technology available for rural development in Madagascar and bringing the fruits of telemedicine to many across the globe," Kovind said.

He said that a far greater challenge for youth would be how they manage climate change and the environmental stress.

For the present generation, this challenge amounts to dealing with variability in weather patterns, flash floods and forest fires, he said.

"As we move towards a knowledge-based society, skilling and retraining will acquire center-stage of policy making and business development. In India, we have undertaken a massive programme to skill 150 million people over the next few years," he said

On Monday, India and Cyprus signed two agreements on combating money laundering and cooperation in the field of environment as President Kovind met his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades and held wide-ranging talk.

Apart from Cyprus, Kovind will visit Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

This is his first overseas state visit in the second year of his presidency.The NGT had on 9 August allowed Vedanta to enter the administrative unit inside its Sterlite copper plant.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined urgent hearing on a plea by the Tamil Nadu government challenging the National Green Tribunal's (NGT) order allowing mining major Vedanta group access to the administrative unit inside its closed Sterlite copper plant at Tuticorin in the state.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud said it will hear the plea next week. The state government had on 14 August moved the Apex court against the NGT order.

The NGT had on 9 August allowed Vedanta to enter the administrative unit inside its Sterlite copper plant, observing that no environmental damage would be caused by allowing access to the administrative section. The tribunal, however, had said the plant would remain closed and the company would not have access to its production unit and directed the district magistrate to ensure this.

The Tamil Nadu government had on 28 May ordered the State Pollution Control board to seal and "permanently" close the mining group's copper plant following violent protests over pollution concerns.

Sterlite's factory had made headlines in March 2013 when a gas leak led to the death of one person and injuries to several others, after which then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had ordered its closure. The company had then appealed to the NGT, which overturned the government order. The state then moved the Supreme Court against it and the case is still pending.

The Supreme Court had then ordered the company to pay Rs 100 crore as compensation for polluting the environment. After Sterlite announced its plans to expand the Tuticorin plant, locals started fresh stir that continued for over 100 days, culminating in the 22 May police firing on protestors that claimed 13 lives and left scores injured.Several upper caste groups in Madhya Pradesh have brought thousands of youths together for a massive rally in Gwalior on Tuesday. The protest is a sign of their ire with the BJP-led Centre for working to bring back stringent clauses of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Several upper caste groups in Madhya Pradesh have brought thousands of youths together to rally against the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in Gwalior on Tuesday. The groups have alleged that the BJP-led Centre is working to bring back stringent clauses of the Act.

Due to the lobbying of the central government to make amendments to the 'diluted' Act, resentment among anti-reservationists has been increasing in Madhya Pradesh's sensitive Chambal-Gwalior region. The Supreme Court, on 20 March, diluted the stringent provisions for arrests under the Act, to make sure there were no "false implications". The two-judge bench of Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit had said that there were "instances of abuse" of the Act for various reasons.

The Supreme Court's decision saw widespread protests from SC/ST organisations in April, resulting in violence and the death of at least eleven people. The Centre was under pressure to overrule the apex court's verdict during the Monsoon Session of Parliament in July.

Aaj Tak reported that for the rally on Tuesday, the Kshatriya Mahasabha, Gurgaar Mahasabha, and Parshuram Sena Swabhiman Sammelan organisations are to hold the rally at the Phool Bagh Maidan in Gwalior. Section 144 has been imposed in various parts of the state, and is expected to remain till 6 September.

The authorities are on high alert, fearing counter-protests by SC/ST groups. News18 reported that the organisers of the rally, are expecting around 15,000 to 20,000 people at the venue. Gagan Tiwari, youth wing head of Sanadhya Sabha, said, We have asked the administration to identify anti-social elements which might make attempts to disrupt law and order during our peaceful protest."

According to the report, another organiser Manmohan Sharma claimed that the Centre's move to reverse the dilution marred the social harmony and brotherhood in the state. Sharma said various organisations, including Karni Sena, Parashuram Sena, Jaat Mahasabha, Pal Sabha, Prajapati Samaj, Vaish Samaj, Kshtriya Mahasabha, Yadav Mahasabha, Gurjar Mahasabha and others, have extended support to the protest.

On Saturday, Rajya Sabha MP Thawar Chand Gehlot, accompanied by senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, faced public anger in Guna as locals surrounded him and raised slogans, according to reports. Similarly, on Sunday, footwear was flung close to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan while he was addressing a public gathering.

Among the prominent voices calling for overturning of the Supreme Court's decision, is the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janashakti Party (LJP). On 28 July, Chirag Paswan, had said that its support to the BJP was issue-based and had sought a law to restore the stringent measures of the Act. Protecting interests of these communities was at the root of the LJP's tie-up with the BJP in 2014, he had said.

Earlier in July, the BJP had asserted that it would not allow dilution of the SC/ST Act "at any cost" and lambasted Opposition parties for "spreading rumours" that the Narendra Modi government was planning to scrap reservations for backward classes.

The party also sought to highlight the 'pro-Dalit' character of the Sangh Parivar, recalling the close association of Hindutva ideologue Dattopant Thengadi with Babasaheb Ambedkar, and the prime minister's thrust on construction of toilets, thus eradicating manual scavenging carried out by those belonging to the depressed classes.

With inputs from agenciesSeveral contradictions between speech and practiceregarding centrism, student politics, Hinduism, government policy and the NSUIwent largely unanswered in the polemics of Shashi Tharoors prose of idealism

Congress leader and former external affairs minister Shashi Tharoor spoke to a jam-packed audience at Koyna Hostel mess in Jawaharlal Nehru University on Sunday. The topic of the programme was centrist politics. A lot of questions were raised regarding the relatively rosy picture he painted of the Congress, Indian history, Hinduism and the NSUI (Congress student wing). He attempted to answer them, but the contradictions in his discourse were glaring.

This year in JNU has marked a new era in campaigning malpractices by big parties. Despite the partial electoral code of conduct being in place, top political leaders have been visiting the campus to campaign. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) took 600 students to Parliament to meet Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice President of India, who urged them to support the party. They then called the three BJP chief ministers of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh for a talk in a bid to appeal to the students of those areas.

The NSUI, in turn, called former minister P Chidambaram and then Tharoor. Never in the history of the campus have so many political bigwigs descended to interfere in student elections and campaign for their respective student wings: undermining the free and fair process in an election where independent candidates have the right to a level playing field.

Tharoor utilised a microphone and a speaker system: for which the ABVP (when they called three BJP chief ministers of North East states) and the NSUI (when they called Chidambaram) received show-cause notices. At the end of the programme, Tharoor openly urged the students present (far outnumbering the NSUI crowd: the biggest public meeting this year) to vote for the NSUI, feigning ignorance over how the student organisation functions in campuses across India and a clear violation of electoral rules.

However, several contradictions between speech and practiceregarding centrism, student politics, Hinduism, government policy and the NSUIwent largely unanswered in the polemics of Tharoors prose of idealism:

1. Liberal and Left propaganda has been an abject failure over the past decade. Being someone who has done research on the RSS and the BJP : their success lies in their long-term propaganda and not simply in calculated electoral engineering. How does the soft Hinduism today followed by half the Congress party and offered by its chief Rahul Gandhi (who was projected as "Krishna avatar" in Gujarat, and now as a "Shiva avatar" is leaving on the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage) come off as "centrist politics"?

2. Fascism is a reaction to the status quo. Is soft Hinduism the alternative rather than a proper socio-economic agenda?

3. How does the Congress expect to counter the BJP without a progressive policy agenda? On universal free public healthcare, on universal school and higher education, on caste discrimination and atrocities, on discrimination and hate crimes against Muslims, Christians, people from North East and tribals? And how about a higher minimum wage, decent housing, removing hunger, unemployment, and implementing gender justice?

4. What does the Congress plan to do with the findings of the Sachar Committee report (which shows the economically dismal state of most Muslims) if it comes to power?

5. Does being centrist mean not taking a stand? What are your views on the new blasphemy law introduced by Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab?

6. A progressive platform will unite an ideologically loose mahagathbandhanand might put some of the Opposition alliance partners in better light in the public eye than their current personasas well as give the alliance some policy credibility. Simple electoral mathematics, Oppositional politics/grandstanding and social engineering will not be a solution. What dream will you sell to the Indian people: as the Modi era has become more about retail politics?

7. Where does the Congress stand on the role of intellectuals and students in this country, and how does it plan to foster them in this era of anti-student, anti-intellectual government policy?

8. If the Congress is pro-intellectual and pro-ordinary students, shouldn't senior Congress leaders have a role to play in combating the lumpenism, money-and-muscle power of the NSUI, that mirrors the ABVP in campuses such as Delhi University? The SFI presidential candidate in DU was attacked by NSUI goons just the other day.

9. As an intellectual, how does one "resist the vindictive and parochial politics" of some sections of the NSUI itself: such as distributing alcohol and biryani in 2013 in JNU?

10. What are your thoughts on Kancha Illiah Shepherd's critique ("Swami Shashi", published in Caravan) of your book "Why I Am A Hindu"? Whether appropriating and reclaiming Hinduism, asserting that caste is not part and parcel of the Hindu pantheon is a losing electoral strategy and a revisionist socio-intellectual history? Is reclaiming Hinduism not tantamount to a final discarding of the Nehruvian legacy?

11. If the NSUI is secular, why did one of their last year's central panel candidates sign a letter as Hostel president asking for Najeeb's expulsion from hostel, with no mention of the attack on him? Where did the current NSUI president stand on this issue back then? Even Najeeb's mother made a strong complaint to the NSUI National president Firoz Khan regarding this. Why does the Congress not bring them to book?

12. The current discourse from the Opposition is that we are expected to unite in the face of saffron authoritarianism, but should we not hold Congress leaders, such as Kapil Sibal, who in his stint as Human Resource Development Minister introduced the disastrous FYUP system in Delhi University, accountable for the damage caused to public higher education institutions during their tenures? And the neo-liberal economic policy of the Congress that the BJP has only built upon and extended to favor monopoly capital? Not to mention how progressive intellectuals were branded as Naxal-sympathisers by former home minister P Chidambaram as well as the sheer number of Muslim youth wrongfully implicated in false terror cases.

The performance was flashy and the delivery was smooth: But major questions still remain that must be addressed by Opposition leaders to the youth of this country, and for the Congress to explain to the nation at large.

The author is a PhD researcher in Modern and Contemporary History at Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.And yet, every time the community has fought back and reasserted its rights in a dominant upper-caste society, they have managed to reunite under the canopy of the term 'Dalit' rather than any other nomenclature that the non-Dalits may have tried to ascribe to the society.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on 4 September. It has been republished in light of the Press Council of India's ruling against a Ministry of Information and Broadcasting advisory seeking to stop the use of the word 'Dalit' in the media. The PCI decided against the advisory saying "a blanket ban was neither advisable nor feasible".

The Information and Broadcasting ministry's advisory urging media to refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for people belonging to Scheduled Castes is seemingly benign at the surface. But at its roots is a rather longstanding aversion of those in power to let the word Dalit take root as a distinct identity of the millions of lower-caste Indians, oppressed through the centuries.

History shows that the ideological bent of the party or the alliance in power does not really matter. Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress (in pre and post-Independence India) have flinched at the sound of the word when it raised its head. The effort always has been to come up with an alternative name to strip the narrative of the word Dalit.

And yet, every time the community has fought back and re-asserted their rights in a dominant upper-caste society, they have managed to reunite under the canopy of the term 'Dalit' rather than any other nomenclature that the non-Dalits may have tried to ascribe to the society.

Then the timing of the government's advisory in the backdrop of the pushback from the Dalits' rights activists, the massive protests against the various atrocities on the members of the community, and the recent agitation over the demand to upturn the Supreme Court judgment 'diluting' the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act raises questions.

'Dalit' and 'Scheduled Caste'

The word Dalit comes from the Hindi word dalan, meaning oppressed or broken. Alternatively, or legally, or as the Government of India may now have them called, Dalit is basically a caste defined in Constitution under Article 341, listed as the Scheduled Castes.

The term Scheduled Castes was first used by British in the Government of India Act, 1935, which first categorised the lower castes under 'Depressed Classes'.

However, the problem with the government's decision to replace the word 'Dalit' with Scheduled Caste is that certain members of the community don't like to identify with the term. Some members argue that they like to identify as a Dalit, but they have actively opted out of the benefits of reservation offered by the State. Hence, they don't feel it is right to club them under the listed 'Scheduled classes'.

Then there is the thorny issue of reservation. The argument stands that the increased emphasis on the word Scheduled Caste will give rise to a sense of alienation and in turn trudge deeper the animosity between the upper and the lower caste.

Gangadhar Pantawane, a Dalit writer from Maharashtra defines Dalit as a notion of change and revolution. The Dalits belief was humanism instead of sacred books, heaven, and hell as it made them a slave to other castes. "What is Dalit. To me, Dalit is not a caste. Dalit is a symbol of change an revolution. The Dalit believes in humanism." ".. Dalitness is a matter of appreciating the potential of one's total being.

It is because the term takes on an emancipating, unabashed acceptance of a troubled past that the community has preferred to take on this term, rather than being called Harijans.

Even Ambedkar, early on in his writings in English, espoused the use of the terms "depressed classes" and "broken men", which could translate into Dalit. But later he assertively stuck to the usage of 'Dalit' when Mahatma Gandhi tried to replace the term with a more generic Harijan (or children of God).

From Dalits to Harijans to Dalits

The term Harijan is said to have first figured in the hymn Vaishnava jana by Narsinh Mehta. Many believe that Gandhi's attempt to promote the usage of word was to avoid the stigma associated to other terms like bhangi and chamar, directly relegating the members of the community to the menial jobs they were forced to do over centuries.

However, the usage of Harijan led to an argument between Gandhi and Ambedkar as the latter wanted to represent Dalit as a separate community, while Gandhi was in favour of granting them equality but keeping them within the bounds of Hinduism. Gandhi asked Non-Dalits to use Harijan instead of Antyaja in 1932.

The term fell out of use as many Dalit intellectuals argued that it was a farcical euphemism that stands to weed out the use of a derogatory term, without righting the wrongs of centuries and criticising the basic tenets of Hinduism, which promoted caste system since the Vedic age. Ambedkar himself opposed the use of the word and many Dalit rights' activists till date view the term with derision. They argue that the word 'Harijan' still singles out the members of the community rather than integrate them, and if singling out was the effect then the nomenclature should also reflect the years of oppression faced by the community.

However, Gandhi's insistence on the usage of the term Harijan perhaps stemmed from a will to keep the Dalits tethered to the Hindu religion amid increasing anti-Hindu voices within the community

As historian Ramchandra Guha points out in his article for The Telegraph, Gandhi did not start using the term Harijan until 1932, when Ambedkar was made to yield on his demand for a separate electorate for Dalits and sign the Poona Pact. Gandhi insisted that the Dalits can be given larger representation in the legislature but they must remain part of the larger Hindu electorate. However, it was not until the 1970s that the term singularly and indistinctly came to be attached with the oppressed class' identity and their political aspirations.

The Dalit Panther Movement

After the death of Ambedkar, the first Dalit movement to create a stir was the Dalit Panthers Party founded in the 1970s in Maharashtra's then Bombay. Its method of fixing instant accountability with the upper caste, in ways that were sometimes undemocratic, caught the imagination of Dalits in Maharashtra who were facing atrocities despite the Constitution outlawing inequality and caste-based discrimination.

The Panthers published the organisations manifesto in 1973 and given a new definition to the term Dalit: " Dalits are members of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Neo-Buddhists, the working people, landless and poor peasants, women, and all those who are being exploited politically, economically and in the name of religion."

JV Pawar, one of the founders of the organisation, in an interview with The Wire, said "No violence ever took place. No one was beaten up, killed. Once we asked the headman to drink water from the Dalit well, but just when he was about to, we stopped him, because he had learned his lesson."

He described the methods implied at the time as something that ensured immediate grievance redressal, rather than a long drawn process and wait for the authorities to act against the dominant upper caste. The Panthers were also associated with the 1974 riots of the BDD chawl, when Pawar and his associates were arrested for asking the Dalit community to boycott elections. However, a sporadic violence broke out and continued for three days, with the Shiv Sena (then Naik Sena) joining in the rioting.

The group was later disbanded as it disintegrated due to infighting and individual ambitions, but the movement heightened the sense of pride in the Dalit identity,

Many Dalit writers of the time started using the word Dalit instead of previously used Achchuta, or oppressed in their poems, essay and stories expressing their aggression and aspirations. Ambedkar himself had chosen depressed classes and broken men in his writings, even when the term Dalit existed and was sometimes used in social discourse.Negotiations for the mega-trade deal RCEP will continue in 2019 as more rounds of talks are required to sort out issues pertaining to goods and services, Suresh Prabhu said.

New Delhi: Negotiations for the mega-trade deal RCEP will continue in 2019 as more rounds of talks are required to sort out issues pertaining to goods and services, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said Tuesday.

Trade ministers of 16 members of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) met last week in Singapore to review the progress of negotiations.

The mega trade pact aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.

Prabhu said that India, in the Singapore meeting, emphasised on three important issues, including establishing linkage of services to goods negotiations as the agreement is a comprehensive one and not focus only on goods.

The services sector is a key area for India as the segment accounts for about 55 percent of the country's GDP.

He said that it is an economic partnership agreement and services must be an integral part of it.

"The RCEP negotiations will not end in 2018. It has been agreed at the level of leaders... it will go in 2019 as well and we will have opportunity to work on all the issues," the minister told reporters.

He also said that there are 16 countries in the group and from among these, India does not have free trade agreements with Australia, New Zealand and China.

With the rest of the members, including Japan and ASEAN countries, India already has a trade agreement.

India has stated that "we cannot negotiate through RCEP route with these three countries and we have to separately negotiate with them," he said while adding that "India's insistence have been accepted and now we will be negotiating with China, Australia and New Zealand separately along with RCEP negotiations."

Prabhu said that the leaders in Singapore have also accepted the demand of India for having 20 years implementation period of the agreement.

The commerce ministry will also hold discussions with stakeholders on the inclusion of products.

RCEP comprises 10 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners  India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The talks, which were launched in Phnom Penh in November 2012 have dragged on as the member countries want an agreement over the removal of customs duties on the maximum number of products traded between them. However, countries like India have certain reservations on this as the grouping includes China, with which New Delhi has a huge trade deficit.

Indian industry and exporters are apprehensive about the presence of China in the grouping. They have stated that lowering or eliminating duties for China may flood Indian markets with Chinese goods.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the ministry said that trade ministers in Singapore tasked the negotiators to go into the details of ASEAN's "non-paper on trade in goods market access negotiations".

In the meeting, the Indian commerce minister reiterated the need for providing adequate flexibilities on various elements of the non-paper, such as exclusion, reduction, staging and deviations.

"Accordingly, it was agreed that member countries will intensify bilateral pairing process on requests and offers... these elements and determine the ambition level of each country to the mutual satisfaction," it said.

The ministers directed that the negotiations on all these issues will be intensified during the 24th RCEP Auckland Round from 17-24 October.

India is looking for a balanced trade agreement as it would cover 40 percent of the global GDP and over 42 percent of the world's population.UPSSSC chairman said this just two days after the Uttar Pradesh STF arrested 11 people for their alleged role in the leakage of question papers for tubewell operator recruitment test.

Lucknow: Taking strong note of frequent leakage of question papers of competitive examinations, the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC) said on Tuesday it will prepare "at least two sets of question papers" as a corrective measure.

UPSSSC chairman CB Paliwal said this just two days after the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested 11 people for their alleged role in the leakage of question papers for tubewell operator recruitment test, which was to be held on Sunday.

"We are planning to have at least two sets of question papers so that in case of leakage of a particular set, another can be given to the examinees," Paliwal told PTI. He said that the commission is mulling introduction of two sets of examinations  screening and mains  in the near future.

"A proposal will be sent to the state government suggesting two sets of examinations-screening and mains. This will help in weeding out chances of possible leakage of question papers in the future," Paliwal said.

In the past, leakages of question papers of various examinations were reported from the most populous state of the country, earning it a bad name and giving a tough time to both the job aspirants and police.

On 29 July, as many as 51 people were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police from different parts of the state for facilitating cheating during a recruitment examination for assistant teachers. On 18 June, as many as 19 people were arrested for allegedly aiding cheating through hi-tech devices, such as spy mics, and placing "solvers" impersonating aspirants in the Uttar Pradesh police constable recruitment examination. Police said solvers are generally bright students who enter examination centres with forged documents having superimposed photographs.

On 23 August, 2017, seven members of a gang allegedly involved in leaking a question paper of the online examination for Sub-Inspectors were arrested by the STF. The online examination for Sub-Inspectors from 7 July to 31 July at 97 centres across the state was cancelled after the question paper was leaked on social media.

When a comment in this regard was sought from Rahul Srivastava, Additional Superintendent of Police, he told PTI on Tuesday that the onus of conducting a foolproof examination lies on the department concerned. "However, if the department takes police on board before the test is conducted, then the racket is busted before the examination itself. This was the case with the examination pertaining to assistant teachers," he said.

Whenever any question paper leakage has been detected, the racket was busted within 24 hours, he said, adding, "If we get any intelligence input pertaining to question paper leakage, we act immediately."

In March 2015, the Uttar Pradesh government had cancelled the provincial Civil Services Preliminary Examination after an exam paper was leaked on WhatsApp. The STF had arrested three persons in connection with the leak.

On 30 June, 2013, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested seven people from Delhi and Muzaffarnagar for allegedly leaking question papers of constable recruitment examination in the Railway Police Force.

In May 2011, the Uttar Pradesh STF had claimed that its officials were already having the AIEEE question papers with them hours before the countrywide exam for engineering course was due to begin. The question paper was being sold for Rs 6 lakh each. A nationalised bank clerk posted in Jaunpur was arrested in this connection from Lucknow.The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday inducted Rotavirus vaccine in the routine immunisation programme to protect 57 lakh children in the state from diarrhoea.

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday inducted Rotavirus vaccine in the routine immunisation programme to protect 57 lakh children in the state from diarrhoea.

Launching the vaccine, state Women and Child Welfare Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the government was of the firm opinion that the vaccine will play a monumental role in bringing down infant mortality rate in the state. "Rotavirus can cause extreme diarrhoea in children and can even be fatal in some cases. I am extremely happy that we have inducted the Rotavirus vaccine in the routine immunisation programme, which will protect our children from this deadly virus," she said.

A media workshop was conducted on the occasion to sensitise the participants on the importance of the work so they can spread awareness and educate the masses about the importance of the vaccine, an official release said.

Emphasising on the importance and use of the vaccine, National Immunisation Officer Dr AP Chaturvedi said, "All newborns must be administered the vaccine in a three-dose schedule over six, 10 and 14 weeks along with five drops of Pentavalent one, two and three vaccine."

With this launch, Uttar Pradesh becomes the 11th state to introduce the vaccine as part of the routine immunisation programme, ensuring complete prevention from Rotavirus. The vaccine was first introduced in the country in the routine immunisation programme in 2016 in Odisha and subsequently expanded to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Jharkhand, Principal Secretary Medical Health and Family Welfare, Prashant Trivedi said.

"We will see a a significant drop in the infant mortality rate in Uttar Pradesh after the launch of this vaccine," he said. Director General, Family Welfare, Dr Neena Gupta said, "More than 2.1 crore doses of Rotavirus vaccine have been administered to children till May 2018. We will be protecting 57 lakh newborns every year against Rotavirus diarrhoea with the introduction of the vaccine."

Available data indicates that Rotavirus accounts for nearly 40 percent of moderate to severe diarrhoea in children below the age of five resulting in approximately 78,000 deaths in the country, Director, National Health Mission, Pankaj Kumar said.

Amit Mehrotra from UNICEF said in recognition of the global Rotavirus disease burden, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended inclusion of Rotavirus vaccine the National Immunisation Programme of all countries. In 95 countries, where Rotavirus vaccine has been introduced, a significant reduction in hospitalisation and death due to Rotavirus has been recorded, he added.The Shiv Sena sought BJP MLA Ram Kadam's apology for purportedly saying he would help boys abduct girls if they rejected their advances.

After making it to the headlines on Monday over some incredulous comments, BJP MLA Ram Kadam attempted to backtrack on Tuesday. In a widely-shared video, Kadam purportedly said he would help "abduct" a girl a boy likes even if she refuses his advances

"You can meet me for any work," he is heard addressing the crowd of mainly youngsters at a Dahi Handi event in Mumbai Ghatkopar area.

Kadam claimed he has received requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their advances. "I will help you 100 percent. Come (to me) with your parents. What will I do if parents approve? I will abduct the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he is heard telling the crowd in Marathi, sharing his mobile number, as well.

The controversial remark circulated in the video on social media drew sharp reactions from BJP's ally in Maharashtra Shiv Sena as well as Opposition parties. The Shiv Sena has sought an apology from Kadam and asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take action against the MLA for making a statement that "threatens the safety of girls". The Congress called for Kadam's arrest, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said his comment brought to the fore the "Ravana-like" face of the ruling party.

However, the BJP MLA from Ghatkopar claimed that his comments had been distorted. Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, Kadam said he had meant that every youth, irrespective of their gender, should marry after taking their parents into confidence.

"If there was something objectionable, the journalists there would have heard it. They didn't (report it) because they heard the entire speech and not just watch a short video. Opposition leaders are making a 40-second clip viral on Twitter. That's creating a wrong impression."

Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray said Kadam offering to marry off girls "against their will" indicated that the lawmaker believed "marriage is like forming a government". He tweeted:

One BJP MLA has offered from a stage to help boys kidnap girls and marry them even against the will of the girls. I guess he believes marriage is like forming a govt. Ashamed and disgraced that he sits in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra- a land of culture & women liberty  Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) September 4, 2018

Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said Kadam's remarks were unfortunate and condemnable. "The state government should immediately arrest him," he added.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said: "Cases should be filed against Kadam if a girl is kidnapped in Maharashtra as the MLA himself is encouraging their kidnapping. He should apologise. I am sure women in the Assembly will pose questions to him."

Maharashtra NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, "What Kadam said has revealed the Ravana-like face of the BJP. Kadam said he would abduct a girl for a boy. Therefore, he should be called 'Ravana Kadam.'"The selection committee will set up a search panel for recommending names for the appointment of the anti-graft ombudsman, the Lokpal, and its members.

New Delhi: The Congress has boycotted the Lokpal Selection Committee meeting for a fifth time this year, asserting that it would continue to do so until the leader of the single largest Opposition party is given the status of a full-fledged member in the panel.

The leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, conveying his decision on Tuesday's meeting of the panel.

The selection committee will set up a search panel for recommending names for the appointment of the anti-graft ombudsman, the Lokpal, and its members.

"The government continues to invite me as a special invitee to the Selection Committee meeting despite being aware of the fact that there is no provision under section 4 of the Lokpal Act, 2013. Accepting this invitation to attend as a 'special invitee' without rights of participation, recording of opinion and voting in the procedure would be violative of both the letter and spirit of the Lokpal Act.

"I am therefore, forced, once again to respectfully decline the invitation to attend the meeting of the Selection Committee until the leader of single largest Opposition party is conferred the status of a full-fledged member as envisioned in the Lokpal Act, 2013," Kharge said in his letter to the prime minister.

The Congress is the single largest Opposition party in the Lower House.

Kharge has boycotted the previous meetings of the selection committee which is chaired by the prime minister.

He had sent letters to the prime minister rejecting the invitation extended to him to attend the meetings of the Selection Committee held this year on 1 March, 10 April, 19 July and 21 August as a "special invitee".Congress said that the action against the woman was 'completely uncalled for' and noted that it was the second such incident in a week's time, after the arrest of five Left-wing activists, that the authorities were acting against voices of dissent.

A day after 28-year-old Lois Sofia was arrested for shouting anti-BJP slogans in front of the saffron party's Tamil Nadu unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, the Congress lashed out at the NDA government and said that there was an "undeclared Emergency" in the country under BJP's rule.

"Fascism was on full display when a young lady traveling from Chennai to Tuticorin hit a raw nerve when she allegedly shouted 'Down with fascist BJP government,'" Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said at a press conference.

"On a display of unbridled arrogance, the BJP president of Tamil Nadu lodged a complaint against the girl, and she was sent to 15 days' judicial custody," he said. "If this is not undeclared Emergency, then what is? This was not only an assault on freedom of speech and expression, it was an assault on the Constitution of India."



Tewari said that the action against the woman was "completely uncalled for". He noted that it was the second such incident in a week's time, after the arrest of five left-wing activists, that the authorities were acting against voices of dissent.

"This is a pattern that is repeatedly being played out since 2014. It started with the assault on the students of Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, the unfortunate suicide of Rohith Vemula, derecognition of Periyar study circle in IIT Madras," he said. "Stopping the screening of a Kashmiri film, vilification campaign of Jawaharlal Nehru University. There are many such instances. If you question the BJP, you are anti-national. If you question the government, you're a traitor. Is this the India that we want?"

He asserted that the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 would be a battle for the "soul of India". "The battle for 2019 is going to be between fascism represented by BJP and democracy represented by progressive and pluralistic forces in the country. 2019 is going to be a battle, not just to replace the government but for the very soul of India," he said.

Tewari also targeted the Centre over the issue of hike in petrol and diesel prices. "BJP says hike in price of fuel will benefit the state governments. We don't want people to suffer just to fill state coffers. This is not how Congress governments work," he added.Support from Opposition parties have poured in for Patidar leader Hardik Patel whose indefinite fast for Patidar reservation and farm loan waiver entered the tenth day Monday. HD Deve Gowda also extended his support to Patel. In a letter that he tweeted on Monday, Gowda said, 'I request @narendramodi to intervene immediately and save the life of young Patidar leader in the interest of Backward Classes and community.'

Support from Opposition parties have poured in for Patidar leader Hardik Patel whose indefinite fast for Patidar reservation and farm loan waiver entered the tenth day Monday. The BJP government in Gujarat is yet to intervene into the matter. Congress' national spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil has urged the state government to talk to the quota spearhead to break the deadlock.

Meanwhile, former prime minister and JD(S) leader HD Deve Gowda also extended his support to Hardik. In a letter that he tweeted on Monday, Gowda said, "I request @narendramodi to intervene immediately and save the life of young Patidar leader in the interest of Backward Classes and community."

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gowda wrote: "I learnt from media reports that youth leader Hardik's health condition is deteriorating by the day, as the fast enetered 10th day. It is also reported that he released his will, which is a matter of serious concern. I request to intervene in the matter immediately..."

Giving the example of his own prime ministerial tenure, national president of JD(S) said, "During my tenure, Jat community in Rajasthan presented a a memorandum asking reservation under Other Backward Classes category citing economic backwardness. Following which I have appointed a Commission to look into the issue of according reservation to Jats in Rajasthan..."

I am very much pained to learn that health condition of @HardikPatel_ is deteriorating as the fast entered 10th day. I request @narendramodi to intervene immediately and save the life of young Patidar leader in the interest of Backward Classes and community. pic.twitter.com/KLP90KPnAP  H D Devegowda (@H_D_Devegowda) September 3, 2018

Gowda asked Modi to constitute a commission which would look into the issue of Patidars in Gujarat. Gowda also wrote to Hardik and urged him to end his fast.

Dear @HardikPatel_ I appreciate your courage and concern in fighting aggressively for farmers' loan waiver and reservation for Patidar community. I urge you to stop the hunger strike immediately as your services are needed for this country to fight further for good causes. pic.twitter.com/c1ECxeiOZe  H D Devegowda (@H_D_Devegowda) September 3, 2018

The former prime minister, however, was one of many Opposition leaders who supported the Patidar leader's fast. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) extended his support to Hardik over the farm loan waiver demand.

Extending his support, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav has appealed to the 25-year-old Patidar leader to end his fast.

Hardik-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) has announced that two main religious bodies of Patidars -Umiya Mata Sansthan and Khodaldham - have extended their support to the quota leader.

In the last nine days, leaders and representatives from various political parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) have visited Hardik at his residence, the venue of his fast near Ahmedabad, and extended their support.

After meeting Hardik, Gohil slammed the BJP government for not intervening into the matter.

"Hardik is fighting for farmers. His fight is for the betterment of Gujarat and its people. It is very unfortunate that the state government is not even ready to talk to him. I urge the government to establish a dialogue with Hardik and try to make him end his fast as soon as possible," the senior Congress leader said.

Gohil expressed his displeasure over huge deployment of police personnel outside the residence of Hardik.

He claimed that some local leaders who were accompanying him were prevented from entering the premises by the police personnel, at the behest of the BJP government. "...What kind of democracy is this? If the BJP does not stop such activities, the law and order situation may get deteriorated and the BJP will be solely responsible. If the people of Gujarat awaken, it will become difficult for the BJP to deal with it," he said.

Hardening his stand, Hardik said that he won't allow doctors to conduct his medical check-up "until the police stop harassing people visiting his residence".

Sola civil hospital has deployed a fully-equipped ambulance  'ICU on Wheels'  at the venue of the fast, the hospital said in a statement. Hardik on Sunday had released his "will" in which he divided his property among his parents, a sister, 14 youths killed during the quota agitation in 2015 and a' Panjrapole' (shelter for ill and old cows) near his village.

Hardik had launched his hunger strike on 25 August  the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in Ahmedabad that had turned violent. He is demanding a loan waiver for farmers and quota for Patidars in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Class category.The BJP's accusation comes days after a Congress leader alleged that the Uttarakhand government was wasting money by holding roadshows in different cities across the country and abroad.

Dehradun: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttarakhand on Tuesday accused the Congress of being "anti-development", days after a leader of the opposition party alleged that the state government was wasting money by holding roadshows in different cities across the country and abroad in preparation for an investor's summit.

Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was in Singapore on Monday to invite investors to participate in the summit to be held here on 7 and 8 October, which would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

State BJP's media head Devendra Bhasin said on Tuesday, "A responsible party like Congress should have placed development over politics and seen some positivity in the chief minister's efforts to bring investors to the state."

"Negative remarks of Congress leaders about the upcoming summit shows they are anti-development," he said.

Accusing the Congress of doing nothing for Uttarakhand when in power, Bhasin claimed all the industrialisation in the state took place because of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who gave it a special category status and an industrial package soon after its creation. "Vajpayee always generously helped the state to grow without ever caring that it was a Congress-ruled state at that time. That shows the BJP has always placed development over politics," he said.

Senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana had recently accused the state government of blowing away lots of money over holding roadshows in different cities in the country and abroad in the name of preparing for the summit. "At a time when the people of the state are battling the effects of heavy rains, the chief minister and his officials are spending crores on foreign visits in the name of investors' summit," he had said.Reuters

Amazon.com on 4 September launched a Hindi version of its mobile website and app for Android smartphones in a bid to make deeper inroads into Indias fast-growing e-commerce market, stepping up its battle with Walmarts Flipkart unit.

None of Indias other leading e-commerce portalsFlipkart, Snapdeal, or Paytm Mallcurrently have a local language version of their apps or websites, and the move to launch a Hindi app and website could give Amazon access to tens of millions of new customers in Indias small towns and villages.

What we believe is, Amazon.in in Hindi is a critical step to actually address the next 100 million customers, Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Category Management at Amazon India told reporters at a news conference.

Amazon is looking to win over the next 100 million customers in the country, its India head Amit Agarwal told Reuters in April. The countrys e-commerce market is tipped to grow to $200 billion in a decade, according to Morgan Stanley.

Flipkart, along with its fashion units Myntra and Jabong, is slightly ahead of Amazon in Indias online retail, according to Forrester estimates.

Amazon also has plans to support more local Indian languages on its shopping app and mobile website and will also extend the service to mobile platforms beyond Android, said Kishore Thota, Amazon Indias head of customer experience and marketing, without giving a timeline.Reuters

Amazon is in talks with Chile to house and mine massive amounts of data generated by the countrys giant telescopes, which could prove fertile ground for the company to develop new Artificial Intelligence tools.

The talks, which have been little reported on so far and which were described to Reuters by Chilean officials and an astronomer, are aimed at fuelling growth in Amazon's cloud computing business in Latin America and boosting its data processing capabilities.

President Sebastian Pineras center-right government, which is seeking to wean Chiles $325 billion economy from reliance on copper mining, announced last week it plans to pool data from all its telescopes onto a virtual observatory stored in the cloud, without giving a timeframe. The government talked of the potential for astrodata innovation, but did not give details.

The government did not comment on companies that might host astrodata in the computing cloud.

Amazon executives have been holding discussions with the Chilean government for two years about a possible data center to provide infrastructure for local firms and the government to store information on the cloud, an official at InvestChile, the governments investment body, told Reuters.

For at least some of that time, the talks have included discussion about the possibility of Amazon Web Services (AWS), hosting astrodata, astronomer Chris Smith said, based on email exchanges he was part of between AWS and Chilean Economy Ministry officials over the last six months. Smith was at the time mission head of AURA observatory, which manages three of the U.S. federally-funded telescope projects in Chile.

Jeffrey Kratz, AWSs General Manager for Public Sector for Latin American, Caribbean and Canada, has visited Chile for talks with Pinera. He confirmed the companys interest in astrodata but said Amazon had no announcements to make at present.

Chile is a very important country for AWS, he said in an email to Reuters. We kept being amazed about the incredible work on astronomy and the telescopes, as real proof points on innovation and technology working together.

The Chilean telescopes can benefit from the cloud by eliminating the heavy lifting of managing IT, Kratz added.

AWS is a fast-growing part of Amazons overall business. In July it reported second-quarter sales of $6.1 billion, up by 49 percent over the same period a year ago, accounting for 12 percent of Amazons overall sales.

Star-gazing to Shop-lifting

Chile is home to 70 percent of global astronomy investment, thanks to the cloudless skies above its northern Atacama desert, the driest on earth. Within five years, the South American country will host three of the worlds four next-generation, billion-dollar telescopes, according to Smith.

He and Economy Ministry officials leading the Chilean initiative to store astrodata in the cloud saw potential in more Earth-bound matters.

The particular tools developed for the astrodata project could be applicable for a wide variety of other uses, such as tracking potential shop-lifters, fare-evaders on public transport and endangered animals, Julio Pertuze, a ministry official, told Reuters at the event announcing Chiles aim to build a virtual observatory on the cloud.

Smith added that the same technology could also be applied to medicine and banking to spot anomalies in large datasets.

Amazon, whose founder and largest shareholder Jeff Bezos is well known for his interest in space, already provides a cloud platform for the Hubble Telescopes data and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia.

As Amazon explores the potential in Chiles astrodata, tech rival Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, is already a member of Chiles Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will be fully operational in Cerro Pachon in 2022. Google also has a data center established in the country.

Justin Burr, senior PR associate for AI and Machine learning at Google, declined to comment on any Google plans around astrodata or its involvement in other telescope projects.

Separately, a Google spokeswoman said last week that the company will announce expansion plans for its Chilean data center on Sept. 12.

Giant Database

Smith said that what the Chileans are calling the Astroinformatics Initiative - to harness the potential of astrodata - could enable Amazon Web Services access to the research that astronomers are doing on projects like the LSST.

We are going to have to go through a huge database of billions of stars to find the three stars that an astronomer wants, Smith said, adding that was not too different from searching a database of billions of people to find the right profile for a targeted advertisement.

So a tool that might get developed in LSST or the astronomical world could be applicable for Amazon in their commercial world.

Since speaking to Reuters, Smith has moved on from his job heading AURA to a new position at the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Amazons role in the astrodata project would also give it an entry into a market where it is seeking to expand. Amazon - which controls nearly one-third of the global cloud computing business, ahead of rivals Microsoft Corp and Google - has struggled to lure public institutions in Latin America, including research facilities, to store their data online instead of on physical machines.

AWS declined to provide any information on the size of its regional business in Latin America.

Economy Minister Jose Ramon Valente said at last weeks announcement, Chile has enormous potential in its pristine skies not only in the observation of the universe but also in the amount of data that observation generates.tech2 News Staff

It has been only a week into the Google for India event, and the California-based company has begun aligning its interests deeper in the subcontinent by appointing country heads for its payments and Android department.

According to a report by the Economic Times, Sajith Sivanandan who was the director of Google Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines will take over the charge for Google Pay in India and will be based out of Bengaluru. Additionally, Ambrish Kenghe, former chief product officer from the Flipkart-owned Myntra, will head the product development department of Googles rechristened UPI-based payments system, Google Pay. Kenghe formerly led the product management team of Googles Chromecast at Google.

Other new India-specific appointments are have been made in the Next Billion Users and Android department.

Pankaj Gupta, founder and former CEO of Halli Labsan AI startup in India, will join Google as the director for engineering in the Next Billion Users. Halli Labs, a Bengaluru-based startup was taken over by Google, last year.

Meanwhile, Munish Seth will reportedly join as India director for Android. Previously, he was working with Facebook.

Recently, Google announced its investment in India during the Google for India event. It included various projects and expansion plans specifically for India.Indo-Asian News Service

Microsoft on Tuesday announced it has selected seven Indian grantees for its $50 million "AI for Earth" programme aimed at empowering people and organisations to solve environmental challenges through the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The seven recipients will receive access to Microsoft Azure Cloud and AI computing resources, in-depth education and technology trainings on these tools and additional support as their projects mature.

India now has the third largest number of "AI for Earth" grantees, after the United States and Canada.

"From the Microsoft Research Lab in Bengaluru to the Digital India initiative at the corporate level, we have seen a focus on initiatives like wildlife conservation, water sustainability and agriculture for small-holder farmers, among others, which are of significant importance to a large population in a geography like India," said Lucas Joppa, Chief Environmental Officer, Microsoft Corporation and Lead for Microsoft AI for Earth.

Launched in July 2017, the focus areas of the five-year programme are climate change, agriculture, biodiversity and water.

The "AI for Earth" programme has chosen Indian Institute of Technology and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad in the agriculture category.

IIT, together with the Technical University of Munich, is designing a low-cost tool for monitoring plant health in resource-limited regions.

ICRISAT is using AI, cognitive services and cloud computing to enhance pest forecasting and prediction models and farm advisory services to enable sustainable agriculture production in developing parts of the world.

In the field of biodiversity, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru is developing an AI-enabled tool to document and quantitatively assess the abundant habitats and rich biological resources in the North-East.

Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi is working on an intelligent tool for identifying and locating monkeys in human habitats, helping researchers implement more effective population control.

In the field of climate change, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune is using both smart meter and socio-economic data to develop an AI-enabled prototype for smart meter data analytics, thus helping improve energy management for utilities and consumers.

Selected in the field of water, India Institute of Science, Bengaluru is developing a scalable solution using data analytics and machine learning under its Eqwater project to ensure equitable water distribution in India's large cities.

Also selected in the water category, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune is developing Smart Environment Information and Management System (SEIMANS) to monitor and predict water, air and soil conditions for a variety of smart city applications.

"We congratulate the recipients and are excited by the potential for advances in AI and sustainability that will benefit India and the world," said Keshav Dhakad, Group Head, Microsoft India.

In about a year, "AI for Earth" has grown from 20 grantees to 147 in more than 40 countries, with $1.1 million of Azure Cloud credits awarded till date.

"I think what's special about India is that it has a large workforce that has the technical skills to take advantage of the tools that we're trying to put in people's hands," Joppa noted.tech2 News Staff

Setting up goals for the new year, OnePlus in a cryptic announcement on Weibo has marked the date 15 January on a phones calendar for the year 2019.

Though the post does not say much about OnePlus agenda for 2019, as per recent rumours we may get to see a 5G smartphone, or as some predict a OnePlus 6T smartphone.

Despite so many odds, we would like to put our bet on a 5G smartphone. The OnePlus chief Peter Lau at the Mobile World Congress said that the OnePlus was planning to work with US mobile carriers to unveil a 5G smartphone by 2019. Some speculate that it could be the successor to the OnePlus 6 and would be named the OnePlus 7.

Among the smartphone makers, a race is going on to become the first 5G smartphone in the world. While Samsung has quietly stepped out of the race, as Samsung chief, DJ Koh made it clear at the Samsung Unpacked event in August, Xiaomi, on the other hand, is gearing to ace the race. According to The Verge, Xiaomi's product manager confirmed the 5G support, where he revealed the picture showing a 5G smartphone.

While there are rumours that the 15 January launch could be the OnePlus 6T, but the Chinese smartphone maker is mostly known to launch the T-version in November. Both the OnePlus 3T/5T were launched in November, therefore it is quite unlikely that a OnePlus 6T would be launched as late as January.tech2 News Staff

In its effort to expand its brick and mortar presence in the country, OnePlus has inaugurated another offline authorised store in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The store is the first in Gujarat and the sixth in the country. Currently, OnePlus has two operational large format stores, one in Chennai and another in Bengaluru, plus six authorised stores, including the one in Ahmedabad, that are located at Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai.

In an interview with The Hindu Business Line, OnePlus Indias general manager, Vikas Agarwal said, India contributes about one-third of our global revenues of US $ 1.4 billion (2017). This is the largest and fastest growing market for us. India is going to become our second headquarter after Shenzhen, China. After online, we plan to increase our offline presence in India by opening large-format experience stores as well as small format authorised stores across key cities.

OnePlus opened its first authorised offline store in India in January this year.

Further, as of now, the production of OnePlus devices in India is outsourced to a factory in Noida, however, reportedly, OnePlus is now planning to set up its own R&D facility with focus on product development. All components including Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are also manufactured in India. We started making in India with the OnePlus 6 model from June onwards, said Agarwal.

OnePlus also launched its flagship "Experience Store" in Bengaluru last year for the OnePlus community to experience products as well as collaborate and share new ideas. Additionally, in September 2017, the company partnered with several Croma stores to provide easy access to OnePlus products.tech2 News Staff

Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 130th birth anniversary of the German-born painter, sculptor and choreographer, Oskar Schlemmer.

Among many of his achievements, Google notes his contribution to ballet, showing a bulbous mechanical figure standing in a ballet pose wearing a metallic mask. This, as stated in Google's blog post, was to reflect on a particular work of his, called Triadisches Ballett or Triadic Ballet, where the performers were transformed into geometrical figurines.

The production premiered in Stuttgart in 1922 and involved three dancers, 12 movements, and 18 costumes to showcase an innovative approach to ballet. This, Google claims, "broke with all convention to explore the relationship between body and space in new and exciting ways." Even Schlemmer himself described the performance as artistic metaphysical mathematics, and a party in form and colour.

In fact, Schlemmer's work is known to have greatly inspired artists like David Bowie.

Born in 1888, and the youngest of six children, Schlemmer studied art in Stuttgart under landscape painters Christian Landenberger and Friedrich von Keller. After this, he moved to Berlin for a short while in 1910, only to return to Stuttgart soon after to study further.

After World War I, Schlemmer worked at Walter Gropiuss avant-garde Bauhaus School in Weimar in the mural-painting and sculpture departments, before moving to the theatre workshop.

He then worked in Berlin until 1933 until he was forced to resign over pressure from the Nazis. His work was even featured in the Nazi Degenerate Art exhibition in 1937.

The final years of his life and most of his later creations were marred by the Nazi regime. Schlemmer eventually died in 1943.tech2 News Staff

For some time now we have been hearing new developments for the Galaxy X or Galaxy F foldable smartphone from Samsung. Recently during the launch of the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung Mobile CEO DJ Koh had confirmed that the product was indeed under development.

However, he has remained mum as to when this highly-elusive smartphone will be making its way to the markets. The device has been delayed for quite some time to be honest, as the rumours of the device have dated back to nearly two years.

The last development, as per a report by The Inquisitr, was that Samsung has apparently had a closed-door meeting where working prototypes of the Galaxy X were revealed.

Now it would seem that Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi and Oppo could be looking to beat Samsung to the foldable phone. South Korea-based ETNews has said that Samsung is actually selling its foldable displays to Oppo and Xiaomi.

While it's not news that Samsung is a very big supplier of OLED panels used in smartphones around the world, the supply of foldable displays might make Samsung's position even stronger in the market. Though Oppo and Xiaomi might beat it to the foldable smartphone market, Samsung will still be making a lot of money through selling the displays to its competitors.

Recently some new renders show the expected Galaxy X (or F) in three different positions, one when completely folded, one when partially folded at an angle and another when it is completely straightened out.

From what can be made of these renders, the display cannot be folded flat, even when the handset is closed. There is a foldable hinge in the middle which is reminiscent of the Microsoft Surface Book.Indo-Asian News Service

As Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey gets ready to testify before the US Congress on 5 September, reports have surfaced that he is personally weighing in on high-profile decisions to ban controversial accounts, frustrating some employees.

According to a report in Wall Street Journal on Monday, Dorsey overruled a decision by his staff to ban the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

He also reportedly "instructed his employees to let alt-right provocateur Richard Spencer keep one of his Twitter accounts after the trust and safety team kicked him off the platform in 2016". Twitter's Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, however, disputed the report.

"Any suggestion that Jack made or overruled any of these decisions is completely and totally false," Gadde was quoted as saying in a statement.

Facing the heat from conservative commentators and lawmakers over the alleged censoring of Republicans on Twitter, Dorsey has been called to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about algorithms and content monitoring.

According to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, "Social media platforms are increasingly serving as today's town squares. But sadly, conservatives are too often finding their voices silenced". "One-sided conversations are an affront to the public mission that serve as the foundations for these social media platformsincluding Twitter," he said in a statement in August.

Later, Dorsey will also testify about election security along with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and a representative from Google before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

In an interview with CNN, Dorsey said Twitter needs more resources to enact rules aimed at tackling heated political rhetoric on its platform. He said Twitter did not take action against radio host Jones until reports came in, pointing out that he violated Twitter's policies.

"As we receive reports, we take action," Dorsey said.

After facing protests on its platform, Twitter had temporarily banned the account of Jones.

US President Donald Trump also tweeted about the issue. "They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won't let that happen," tweeted Trump.Agence France-Presse

More than 38,000 pigs have been culled across China, state media said on Sunday, as the world's largest pork producer scrambles to contain an outbreak of African swine fever.

The disease has been discovered in five Chinese provinces, the official Xinhua news service reported, quoting statistics from the country's ministry of agriculture.

China reported its first case of the disease in August in northeast Liaoning province.

Since then the disease has moved south, with cases discovered as far as 1,000 kilometres away, raising concerns it could infect pig farms across the country.

Although the virus has continued to spread, a spokesman for the agriculture ministry said it is "generally under control," Xinhua reported.

Last week, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned the disease could spread to other parts of Asia.

African swine fever is not harmful to humans but causes haemorrhagic fever in domesticated pigs and wild boar that almost always ends in death within a few days.

There is no antidote or vaccine, and the only known method to prevent the disease from spreading is a mass cull of the infected livestock.

Beijing said an emergency plan had been launched and control measures taken to halt the spread of the disease.

The FAO warned in May of the risk of the spread of African swine fever from Russia.

Around half of the world's pigs are raised in China, and the Chinese are the biggest consumers of pork per capita, according to the FAO.Indo-Asian News Service

A Japanese start-up linked to the University of Tsukuba is set to launch small satellites with commemorative titanium plaques carrying love messages into space by the end of 2019, the company said on 3 September.

Those interested would be able to engrave messages of their choice on the plaques, which would be 1.8 centimetres long and 0.8 centimetres wide, set to be carried to space aboard the satellites and orbit around the Earth for around two years before being destroyed, Efe reported.

Around 10 centimetres in size, the CubeSat satellites would be able to carry up to 600 pure titanium plaques and would be transported to the International Space Station (ISS) by a rocket of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

In the ISS, the astronauts stationed there will take photographs of the ultra-small satellite which would be then sent to the couples to prove that their messages have reached space, Warspace CEO Toshihiro Kameda said.

The start-up had planned to offer this service exclusively to the couples getting married at a hotel in Tsukuba, in Ibaraki prefecture, for the price of $270, but in the face of growing demand, it decided to expand its offer and set up an online order facility in September.

Although they have not determined the number of people interested in the service yet, couples from Japan, the US and Taiwan have contacted the company.

The minisatellites and the plaques would be destroyed after two years by burning up when they come in contact with Earth's atmosphere, said Kameda, a professor who teaches the mechanics of materials at the University of Tsukuba.

If this service receives a good response, Warspace would expand its business and will send out more commemorative objects into space which would later return to Earth, the head of the project said.Agence France-Presse

South Africa on Monday declared an official end to the world's worst recorded listeria outbreak after it killed 216 people and sickened more than 1,000 since early 2017.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said no news cases had been recorded over the past three months.

"The conclusion is that the outbreak of listeriosis in South Africa is over," the minister told a news conference.

Health officials announced in March that they had traced the outbreak to an Enterprise Food plant, 300 kilometres (185 miles) northeast of Pretoria, and immediately ordered a nationwide recall of affected processed meat products.

Motsoaledi said it has not been established yet how the listeria emerged at the factory.

At least 216 people died during the outbreak, according to the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

A total of 1,060 people contracted the disease, which is caused by bacteria from soil, water, vegetation and animal faeces which can contaminate fresh food, notably meat.

The United Nations had said South Africa's listeriosis outbreak was believed to be the largest-ever worldwide.

Regional countries in southern, western and eastern Africa imposed a ban on imports of chilled meat imports from South Africa.

The infection mainly affects children and has an incubation period of up to 70 days, making it difficult to track.

Contamination in humans can result in flu-like illness, infection of the bloodstream and, in severe cases, infection of the brain which can prove fatal.

Motsoaledi called for hygiene standards to be raised to avoid further outbreaks.Pakistans delusion stems from a congenital need to pursue parity with India at all times and on all fronts. Back in 1965, prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had vowed that If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry. But we will get one of our own.

At the height of the Cold War, when Pakistan was busy shopping for the 'Islamic Bomb' in Europe's retail nuclear market and had managed to enrich a small amount of uranium, the US had turned a blind eye to Islamabad's nuclear weapons programme. As former R&AW chief Vikram Sood writes in his book The Unending Game, Ronald Reagan, the then US President, had said: "I just don't think it's any of our business".

Despite full knowledge of the programme, Reagan "used the ambiguously-worded Pressler Amendment to continue to certify that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear bomb to get Congressional clearance for funds of the jihad" (in Afghanistan against Soviet troops), former spymaster Sood recounts in his book on espionage. Indias concerns didnt matter. Pakistan was the blue-eyed boy who could do no wrong.

That tactic of arming insurgents to fight Americas war in Afghanistan has come full circle. As the US fights an unwinnable 17-year war in Afghanistan and struggles with Pakistan's double game, nothing captures the changed bilateral equation more than US secretary of state dropping by in Islamabad to meet the newly elected Pakistani government during a stopover before arriving in India for the inaugural 2+2 dialogue.

Pakistans military-controlled media tried to find consolation that Mike Pompeo will be accompanied by the US military chief. General Joseph F. Dunfords inclusion in the delegation dispels the impression that this was not a proper visit but just a stopover, wrote Dawn, which like its peers seems to have fallen in line after Pakistans powerful military ran a "campaign of fear" against media in the run-up to general elections.

Pakistans delusion stems from a congenital need to pursue parity with India at all times and on all fronts. Back in 1965, prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had vowed that If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry. But we will get one of our own. This need for parity is borne out of an existential crisis that leads Pakistan to define own existence in relation to India and, to quote Husain Haqqani, look at the whole world through the prism of antipathy towards India.

The inaugural 2+2 dialogue between India and the US, for instance, has generated insecurity in Islamabad that its arch-rival is institutionalizing the progress in bilateral ties with its Cold War ally. The US tilt away from Pakistan towards India  a process that has sped up during the Donald Trump administration  also reminds Islamabad (or more accurately the military generals in Rawalpindi) that it went a tad too far in the double game and oversold its strategic advantage to the US.

If there is insecurity in Pakistan over Indias growing ties with the US, the Donald Trump administration would view it as a success. It is fashionable to think of Trump as the emperor of chaos. On Pakistan, he has implemented a much-needed policy correction. The Trump administration has ended US strategic altruism towards a deceptive and treacherous ally and introduced a penalty-and-reward system that raises the cost of Pakistans perfidies. It isnt a replacement of carrots with sticks. If Pakistan is getting more of US cosh than cash of late, the fault lies with its behavior. It is pointless to blame Washington for trying to secure its interests.

In scheduling Pompeos Pakistan trip almost as an add-on to the historic 2+2 talks with India, the Trump administration is sending a message to Pakistan that geopolitical necessities cannot solely determine the course of diplomacy. It is more rewarding to display responsible behavior than trying to encash duplicity. This isnt to say that India-US relationship is not without its share of irritants.

India and the US will have to navigate road bumps and reconcile seemingly irreconcilable positions arising out of US sanctions against Russia and Iran, but when both sides meet the focus is on maximizing achievements than managing threats  a condition that defines recent US ties with Pakistan. This is a fundamental shift, exemplified and reinforced in myriad ways.

The Trump administration has taken a blunt approach to diplomacy instead of relying on tacit sleights and implied admonitions. It has made clear that in meeting the new Pakistan government, the Pompeo-led delegation would be discussing meeting our common foe, the terrorists and make that a primary part of the discussion, as Mattis told reporters during Tuesdays briefing at Pentagon.

The focus on terror being the primary part of discussion is aimed at heightening Pakistan governments self-created embarrassment over the controversy that arose from Pompeos congratulatory call to Imran Khan on 23 August. Following the telephonic conversation, the US Department of State released a statement that Pompeo raised the importance of Pakistan taking decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan and its vital role in promoting the Afghan peace process.

What followed reveals the denial that has set inside Pakistan establishment. Pakistan rejected the statement. Its foreign office claimed that the US readout that mentioned terrorists operating in Pakistan is not representative of the facts. The US stood by its statement, shared a transcript of the statement with Islamabad and Pakistan government was finally forced to climb down from the denial, and sought to bury the issue.

In this backdrop, US Department of Defenses decision on Tuesday to cancel the $300 million aid to Pakistan over its ostensible failure to crack down on terrorists have added to the friction. It adds to the impression that Trump administration is more willing than its predecessors to employ coercive tools against Pakistan to modify its behavior. The fact that the announcement was timed with Pompeos visit (where he is expected to focus on terror) should tell us that Trump administration is becoming impatient with Pakistans recalcitrance.

"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 said. The Pentagon will reportedly spend the $300 million on other urgent priorities if approved by Congress. This amount is in addition to the $500 million from Coalition Support Funds (CSF) already withheld earlier this year, taking Pakistans net loss to $800 million.

Pakistan has bristled at the cancellation of funds, claiming that it was not an aid but reimbursement for its role in US war on terror.

The $300 million is neither aid nor assistance  it is the money Pakistan spent from its resources against militants and in the war against terrorism. This is the money they (US) are supposed to reimburse, but now either they are not willing or unable to pay back, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the media.

This breakdown isnt a sudden development. In May, the US slapped travel restrictions on Pakistan diplomats working at the embassy in Washington. Pakistan took stricter retaliatory steps. . In June, the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) grey-listed Pakistan over its role in financing global terror. The move was pushed by the US. In August, the US started scrapping Pakistani officers from a coveted training and educational program that have been a hallmark of bilateral military relations for more than a decade.

These are calibrated steps, aimed at maximising pressure on Pakistans security establishment. The Trump administration understands that it needs Pakistans help. During a recent think tank event in Washington, a top Pentagon diplomat admitted that there is no question we need Pakistans help in encouraging, persuading, pressuring Taliban to come to the negotiating table. But Randall Schriver was quick to add that the Trump administrations decisions on curbing assistance and putting constraints on our relationship with Pakistan were a means to try to persuade them to adopt that course and use their influence on the Taliban.

This strategy will work only if Pakistan perceives non-compliance with US objectives to be riskier than rewarding. It may reflexively tilt even more towards China. Yet Beijings grand strategy of a connected Eurasia through BRI is incumbent on a peaceful resolution of Afghanistan war. This outcome sits at odds with Pakistan that equates peace in Afghanistan with an erosion of its geopolitical advantage.

As the theatre unfolds, Pakistan might be pushed to make some hard choices, especially if it is forced to approach the IMF (where the US wields disproportionate influence) for funds to save its failing economy. It depends on whether Trump is able to stay the course.

For the US, a lesson from Cold War is evident. Stable diplomatic ties are forged through mutual interests, shared values and honest adjustments. Marriages of convenience rarely work, more so if fractures within ties remain unaddressed and glossed over.Myanmar has freed Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from jail as part of a move to pardon thousands of prisoners. They were convicted for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act.

Editor's Note: First published on 8 September, 2018, this article is being re-published in the wake of Myanmar's decision to release Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from prison.

***

Time and again, Myanmar's government appeared at risk of blowing its prosecution of two young journalists who had exposed a massacre of 10 Muslim men and implicated security forces in the killings. On 20 April, a prosecution witness revealed in pre-trial hearings that police planted military documents on Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in order to frame them for violating the countrys Official Secrets Act. That admission drew gasps from the courtroom.

A police officer told the court that he burned notes he made at the time of the reporters arrest, but didnt explain why. Several prosecution witnesses contradicted the police account of where the arrests took place. A police major conceded the secret information allegedly found on the reporters wasnt actually a secret.

And outside the courtroom, military officials even admitted that the killings had indeed taken place.

These bombshells bolstered central assertions of the defence: The arrests were a pre-planned and staged effort to silence the truthful reporting of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

In the end, the holes in the case were not enough to stop the government from punishing the two reporters for revealing an ugly chapter in the history of Myanmars young democracy. On Monday, after 39 court appearances and 265 days of imprisonment, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Yangon northern district judge Ye Lwin ruled that the two reporters had breached the secrets act when they collected and obtained confidential documents. Delivering his verdict in the small courtroom, he said it had been found that confidential documents discovered on the two would have been useful to enemies of the state and terrorist organizations.

After the verdict was delivered, Wa Lone told a cluster of friends and reporters not to worry. We know we did nothing wrong, he said, addressing reporters outside the courtroom. I have no fear. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom.

The prosecution of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo has become a landmark press freedom case in Myanmar and a test of the nations transition to democratic governance since decades of rule by a military junta ended in 2011. The military, though, still controls key government ministries and is guaranteed 25 percent of parliamentary seats, giving it much power in the fledgling democracy.

During the court hearings, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and leaders from several Western countries had called for the reporters release. After the verdict, Scot Marciel, the US ambassador to Myanmar, said the ruling was deeply troubling for everybody who had struggled for media freedom in the country. Im sad for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and their families, but also for Myanmar, he said.

Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J Adler said the two reporters had been convicted without any evidence of wrongdoing and in the face of compelling evidence of a police set-up. The verdict, he said, was a major step backward in Myanmars transition to democracy.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not respond to requests for comment about the verdict.

A week before the ruling, United Nations investigators said in a report that Myanmars military had carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with genocidal intent, and that the commander-in-chief and five generals should be punished. The report also accused the government of Aung San Suu Kyi of contributing to the commission of atrocity crimes by failing to shield minorities from crimes against humanity and war crimes. Myanmar has rejected the findings.

Suu Kyi, the countrys de facto leader who spent some 15 years under house arrest during the junta era, has made few public statements about the case. In a rare comment in June, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate told Japanese broadcaster NHK that the reporters werent arrested for covering the violence in western Myanmar. They were arrested because they broke the Official Secrets Act, she said.

The act dates back to 1923, when Myanmar - then known as Burma - was under British rule. The charge against the reporters carried a maximum sentence of 14 years. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were found guilty under Section 3.1 (c) of the act, which covers obtaining secret official documentation that might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy.

At the time of their arrest in December, Wa Lone, now 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, now 28, were working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers during an army crackdown in Rakhine State in the west of the country. The violence has sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, where they now live in vast refugee camps.

The United States has accused the government of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority who are widely reviled in this majority-Buddhist country. Myanmar says its operations in Rakhine were a legitimate response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya insurgents.

Reuters published its investigation into the massacre on Feb. 8. An account of the killing of eight men and two high school students in September in the village of Inn Din, the report prompted international demands for a credible probe into the wider bloodshed in Rakhine.

The story and its accompanying photographs provided the first independent confirmation of what took place at Inn Din. Two of the photos obtained by the reporters show the men kneeling, in one with their hands behind their necks and in a second with their hands tied behind their backs. A third picture shows their bodies, some apparently with bullet wounds, others with gashes, in a blood-stained, shallow grave.

Sleep Deprived

The prosecution of the reporters put Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, in the glare of an uncomfortable global spotlight. Hailed as a champion of democracy for standing up to the junta, Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in 2010. Her party won a general election in 2015 and formed Myanmars first civilian government in more than half a century in early 2016. Her cabinet includes three generals, however; in a speech last month, she called these military men all rather sweet.

Earlier this year, veteran US politician Bill Richardson said Suu Kyi was furious with him when he raised the case of the Reuters journalists with her. Richardson, a former Clinton administration cabinet member, resigned in January from an international panel set up by Myanmar to advise on the Rohingya crisis, saying the body was conducting a whitewash and accusing Suu Kyi of lacking moral leadership. Suu Kyis office said at the time that Richardson was pursuing his own agenda and had been asked to step down.

As leader of the opposition, Suu Kyi had criticised the juntas treatment of journalists. In 2014, she reportedly described as very excessive a prison sentence of 10 years with hard labour handed down to four local journalists and their boss. They were found guilty of trespassing and violating the Official Secrets Act, the same law used to prosecute the Reuters reporters. While there are claims of democratic reform, this is questionable when the rights of journalists are being controlled, the local Irrawaddy newspaper quoted her as telling reporters in July 2014.

A government spokesman did not answer calls by Reuters seeking comment on Suu Kyis statement.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on the evening of Dec. 12. During hours of testimony in July, they described that night and the interrogations that followed. They told the court that their heads were covered with black hoods when they were transported to a police interrogation site. They testified they were deprived of sleep for three days during their grillings. At one point, Kyaw Soe Oo said, he was punished and made to kneel on the floor for at least three hours. A police witness denied that the reporters were deprived of sleep and that Kyaw Soe Oo was forced to kneel.

Describing the night of their arrest, Wa Lone said he and Kyaw Soe Oo were detained almost immediately after being handed some documents at a restaurant by a police lance corporal he had been trying to interview for the massacre story. The policeman had invited Wa Lone to meet and Kyaw Soe Oo accompanied him, Wa Lone testified.

When the two reporters exited the restaurant, they were grabbed by men in plain clothes, handcuffed and shoved into separate vehicles, they both testified. As they were driven to a police station, Wa Lone recalled in court, a man who appeared to be in charge called a senior officer and told him: Weve got them, sir.

The interrogation centred on the journalists reporting and their discovery of the massacre, not on the allegedly secret state documents, Wa Lone told the court. One officer, he said, offered possible negotiations if the massacre story wasnt published. Wa Lone said he rejected the overture.

At one point, Wa Lone testified, the police chastised him for reporting on the Rohingya. You are both Buddhists. Why are you writing about kalars at a time like this? They arent citizens, Wa Lone recalled being told. Kalar is a slur widely used in Myanmar to describe Muslims, especially Rohingya and people of South Asian origin.

It was two weeks from the time of their arrest before Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were allowed contact with their families and lawyers.

In late December, they were sent to Yangons Insein Prison, a colonial-era building that became an emblem of the former military juntas repressive rule. For decades, dissidents were held alongside murderers, thieves and drug dealers. Suu Kyi spent a brief period there.

I found out my cell was built in 1865. It was used for the prisoners before they were killed, Wa Lone told a colleague before one court hearing, amused to have discovered he was living on a Victorian-era death row.

Thumbs-up sign

The first hearing came on 27 December, which was overcast with a few specks of drizzle. Some reporters had gathered outside the courthouse before dawn in case police tried to rush through the proceedings. Many from local media wore black T-shirts in solidarity with the Reuters reporters.

Wa Lones wife, Pan Ei Mon, mouthed quiet prayers between interviews with journalists. Kyaw Soe Oos sister, Nyo Nyo Aye, kept near her side, barely speaking.

When a white Toyota police van swung into the yard, Pan Ei Mon and Nyo Nyo Aye pushed through scrambling photographers and hugged the two men as they were led into the courthouse. Within minutes, the court extended their remand for 14 days. An application for bail was refused on Feb. 1.

After that, the two reporters were put in a pick-up truck almost weekly to make the roughly half-kilometre journey to Yangons Northern District Court, a dilapidated two story red-brick building. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo would arrive at court handcuffed. Holding his hands clenched and at chest-level, Wa Lone looked like a boxer entering a ring, smiling and giving a thumbs-up sign for the cameras.

If there was a break in proceedings, the men were allowed to join their families in a side room, where they were fed and hugged. Kyaw Soe Oos daughter, Moe Thin Wai Zan, now three, would cling to her father. From time to time, he carefully lowered his handcuffs over her head and peppered her face with kisses.

Wa Lones wife, Pan Ei Mon, sat as close to her husband as she could during the hearings. She gave birth to a girl, the couples first child, on 10 August.

The courtroom could hold around 40 people and was invariably packed with family, friends, reporters and foreign diplomats. Sparrows flitted through gaps above the saloon-style doors and nested in the rafters; a cat sometimes wandered through the court. From a nearby room sounded the clacking of an old-fashioned typewriter. Power cuts were routine, and during the humid summer, the room warmed quickly as the single ceiling fan slowed to a halt. In a familiar drill, a court official would hustle spectators aside to fetch a generator and lug it into a hallway, where it chugged until the session was over.

Flanked by policemen, Wa Lone would often make an impassioned statement to the media outside court after hearings. On the day the court charged the reporters, he raised his voice and spoke quickly: For us, no matter what, we wont retreat, give up or be shaken by this. I would like to say that injustice will never defeat us.

Police said Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were caught in Yangon with secret information about the operations of security forces in Rakhine, the state where the Inn Din massacre took place. The reporters, they said, were detained after being searched at a traffic checkpoint by officers who didnt know they were journalists.

But early in the proceedings, the police version of events began to fray. At a hearing on 1 February, a police major, who led the team of arresting officers, conceded that the information in the documents had already been published in newspaper reports. It was one of many inconsistencies to surface during testimony from the 22 witnesses called by the prosecution.

The precise location and circumstances surrounding the arrests emerged as a key point of contention in court. The police said the reporters were stopped and searched at a traffic checkpoint at the junction of Main Road No. 3 and Nilar Road by officers who were unaware they were journalists - not at a restaurant, as Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo testified.

One prosecution witness, civilian official Kyaw Shein, supported the police on the location of the arrests. Then, in a moment of courtroom drama, defence lawyer Than Zaw Aung reached through the wooden bars of the witness stand and turned over Kyaw Sheins left hand, which the witness had been glancing at while giving testimony. On it were written the words Thet Oo Maung - the official name of Wa Lone  and below it, No. 3 Road and Nilar Road junction. (It is common for people in Myanmar to use more than one name, as Wa Lone does.)

Asked if someone had told him to write down the address where police say the arrest took place, Kyaw Shein said no. He wrote on his hand because he was forgetful, he said.

'Entrap him and arrest him

On 10 April, in a move that acknowledged the truth of the Reuters report on the Inn Din massacre, the army announced that seven soldiers had been sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour in a remote area for participating in the killings.

Ten days later, the states case against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo appeared to suffer a setback when the court heard the reporters version of events - astonishingly, from a prosecution witness. They had in fact been arrested as they left a restaurant still holding in their hands documents they had just been given by police officers as part of a plan to ensnare them, said Captain Moe Yan Naing of the paramilitary 8th Security Police Battalion.

Before the reporters were arrested, Wa Lone had interviewed several members of Battalion 8 about the army crackdown in Rakhine. At least three police officers told him that the unit supported military operations there.

Moe Yan Naing testified that he was interviewed by Wa Lone in November, and had himself been under arrest since the night of Dec. 12. Earlier that day, he said, he had been taken to Battalion 8s headquarters on the northern edges of Yangon. When he arrived, he said, he found himself among a group of several policemen who were believed to have given interviews to Wa Lone. They were interrogated about their interactions with the Reuters reporter.

Moe Yan Naing told the court that police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko, who led an internal probe into what the reporters had been told, ordered an officer to arrange a meeting with Wa Lone that night and hand over secret documents from Battalion 8.

Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko gave the documents to a police lance corporal and told him to give them to Wa Lone, Moe Yan Naing testified. When Wa Lone left the restaurant, the general continued, the local police were to entrap him and arrest him, according to Moe Yan Naing. He told the court he witnessed Tin Ko Ko giving these orders.

Police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko told the police members, If you dont get Wa Lone, you will go to jail, Moe Yan Naing said.

This officer spoke based on his own feelings, police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe told Reuters, referring to Moe Yan Naing.

In the days following his testimony, Moe Yan Naings wife and three children were evicted from police housing in the capital city of Naypyitaw, and he was sentenced to one year in prison for violating the Police Disciplinary Act by having contact with Wa Lone. The prosecution sought to have Moe Yan Naing declared an unreliable witness. Nevertheless, Judge Ye Lwin declared he was credible. The captain returned to court two weeks later - this time in shackles and wearing a dark blue prison uniform - to give further testimony.

A police lance corporal, who met the reporters in the restaurant moments before they were arrested, contradicted Moe Yan Naings account of a set-up operation. Naing Lin, the lance corporal, denied giving the Reuters reporters secret documents to incriminate them. He also denied calling Wa Lone to invite him to a meeting on Dec. 12. During cross-examination, though, defence lawyer Than Zaw Aung said phone records showed that Naing Lin had called the journalist three times on that day.

In the end, the defences ability to punch holes in the prosecutions case proved to be insufficient ammunition. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oos exposure of atrocities against a despised minority had put them on a collision course with Aung San Suu Kyi, the generals and their nations Buddhist majority.

This article was first published on in.reuters.comSuu Kyi was once a staunch advocate for the free press and a darling of the foreign media. During her long years of house arrest under the former junta  which choked the media inside Myanmar  it was foreign correspondents who carried her message of peaceful defiance to the outside world.

Myanmar: The jailing of two Reuters journalists shreds what remains of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's reputation as a rights champion, critics say, after she failed to come to their defence or speak up for the persecuted Rohingya minority.

Suu Kyi was once a staunch advocate for the free press and a darling of the foreign media. During her long years of house arrest under the former junta  which choked the media inside Myanmar  it was foreign correspondents who carried her message of peaceful defiance to the outside world.

Glowing profiles burnished her image, with comparisons made to the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. Suu Kyi remains adored inside Myanmar. Supporters of her democracy battle say she has limited control over the military, which ceded full control in 2015 after almost 50 years in power.

But her response to the Rohingya crisis has sent her international reputation into a tailspin. Former friends and supporters have looked on aghast at her lack of criticism of last year's military campaign against the Rohingya. UN investigators last week said that campaign was pursued with "genocidal intent".

Monday's conviction of two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and their seven-year sentence has sent a chill through Myanmar's already embattled press community.

Yet throughout the trial Suu Kyi has been unmoved by calls to intervene, or even criticise the court case.

'Traitors"

Bill Richardson, a US diplomat and until recently a Suu Kyi confidante, alleges that she denounced the two journalists when he tried to raise their plight in person.

"Suu Kyi's response was filled with anger, referring to the journalists as traitors," the former New Mexico governor told AFP. Shortly after the set-to in January, Richardson quit his position on an international advisory body into the Rakhine crisis, labelling it a whitewash.

Another person at the same meeting said there was shouting and a "charged atmosphere". "In that heated exchange I wouldnt dismiss that the word was used," said retired Thai lawmaker and ambassador Kobsak Chutikul, who was secretary for the panel and who also later resigned.

"It would have fitted the emotions and sentiments at the time," he added. Since sweeping to power three years ago, Suu Kyi's relationship with the press has been fraught.

Prosecutions of journalists and media intimidation more redolent of the junta years have been common. Around 20 journalists were prosecuted in 2017, many under a controversial online defamation law. At the same time Suu Kyi has been accused of backing misinformation and distorted reports about the Rakhine crisis.

State media published by the Suu Kyi-controlled Ministry of Information has continuously echoed the military line, rejecting allegations of atrocities against the Rohingya as "fake news".

That has put her at odds with a mountain of evidence and an international community calling for justice. "To say that Aung San Suu Kyi's star has faded is a massive understatement," said Matthew Burgher from free speech advocacy group Article 19.

Powerless or accomplice?

Suu Kyi's defenders say her hands are tied by an army that still controls all security matters as well as 25 percent of parliamentary seats. The stateless Rohingya are also a deeply unpopular cause among the Buddhist-majority public in Myanmar, where Islamophobia has surged in recent years.

That reality gives Suu Kyi little political incentive to defend the Muslim minority  or reporters who write about their plight. But some analysts note a transformation in Suu Kyi in recent months, from trying to avoid talking about them to supporting the military's kickback against "terrorists".

At a speech in Singapore last month she referred to generals in her cabinet as "rather sweet". UN investigators have accused the army of genocide. "We who are living through the transition in Myanmar view it differently from those who observe it from the outside and who will remain untouched by its outcome," she said.

Given that an appeal could take years, the best hope for early release for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo may be a pardon from President Win Myint, a key aide to Suu Kyi.

Aaron Connelly, a Myanmar expert at Australia's Lowy Institute, said the notion that Suu Kyi is powerless to counter the military's excesses is a "myth" since she uses her political leverage on issues she deems worthy. "Unfortunately, she does not consider the safety and dignity of Rohingya to be among them," he added.Kyaw Hla Aung was given the award this year for his fight against injustice and advocating on behalf of the Rohingya people.

Washington: Aurora Prize laureate Kyaw Hla Aung, a noted lawyer and activist from Myanmar, on Tuesday announced that he would donate his $1 million award money towards humanitarian relief work among Rohingya refugees.

He was given the award this year for his fight against injustice and advocating on behalf of the Rohingya people.

The money will be distributed among three international organisations  Mdecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and MERCY Malaysia  providing medical aid and assistance to Rohingya refugees across South East Asia, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative (AHI) has announced.

MSF, UK, will receive $400,000, while MERCY Malaysia and the ICMC will get $300,000 each. This initiative will benefit around 3,75,000 Rohingya refugees, a media release said. The AHI, founded on behalf of the Armenian genocide survivors, seeks to help those in urgent need of basic humanitarian aid. MSF is directing the funds to further advance the emergency response in the Balukhali makeshift settlements in Bangladesh, the AHI said. The organisation estimates that it will benefit approximately 2,50,000 Rohingya refugees, it said.

MSF has hugely increased its operations in response to the unfolding of the humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar where several Rohingyas, who fled their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine state, are living. Our team of more than 2,000 staff is running 10 health posts, four Primary Health Centres and five inpatient health facilities. "This potential support comes at a crucial time, especially as the Monsoon season approaches and with it the likelihood of devastating flooding and landslides in the camps, MSF executive director Vickie Hawkins said.

The ICMC is allocating its share of the Aurora funds to two initiatives directed at empowering Rohingya refugees in Klang Valley and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. It also aims at improving damaged infrastructure at the Kutupalong Camp settlement in Bangladesh. The ICMC estimates that over 20,000 people will benefit from these projects.

We would use the Aurora award to advance our work with Rohingya and other refugees in Malaysia and elsewhere, Secretary General, ICMC, Monsignor Robert J Vitillo, said.

MERCY Malaysia will use its share of the funds to provide primary and maternal health care, and operational support to Rohingyas by collaborating with the Rakhine State Health Department in the Sittwe IDP camps and Kyauktan village. MERCY Malaysia estimates that over 1,00,000 Rohingya people will benefit from this initiative.LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's exit from the European Union could tip public opinion in Scotland in favour of seeking independence, an opinion poll showed on Sunday. Scotland voted against independence in 2014, but a subsequent referendum on leaving the EU has reignited debate over its long-term future as one of Britain's four constituent parts alongside England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In 2016, a majority of Scottish voters backed staying in the EU, while Britain as a whole, voted to leave, meaning that Britain is now due to leave the EU on March 29 2019.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's exit from the European Union could tip public opinion in Scotland in favour of seeking independence, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.

Scotland voted against independence in 2014, but a subsequent referendum on leaving the EU has reignited debate over its long-term future as one of Britain's four constituent parts alongside England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

In 2016, a majority of Scottish voters backed staying in the EU, while Britain as a whole, voted to leave, meaning that Britain is now due to leave the EU on March 29 2019.

The poll showed that if Britain leaves the EU as planned, 47 percent of Scots would vote for independence at another referendum on Scotland's future. That compared to 43 percent who would vote against independence and 10 percent who did not know how they would vote.

If Britain remained inside the EU and a Scottish independence referendum were held, the poll showed opinions were reversed, with 43 percent backing Scottish independence under those circumstances, compared to 47 who were against it.

The poll was conducted by Deltapoll, a member of the British Polling Council, which interviewed 1,022 Scottish voters. The poll was commissioned by Best for Britain, an body campaigning for Britain to keep an open mind on retaining its EU membership.

The British government says that the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence settled the question.

(Reporting by William James. Editing by Jane Merriman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's U.S. Supreme Court pick, descended into chaos on Tuesday, as Democrats protested about Republicans blocking access to documents concerning the nominee's White House work more than a decade ago.

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's U.S. Supreme Court pick, descended into chaos on Tuesday, as Democrats protested about Republicans blocking access to documents concerning the nominee's White House work more than a decade ago.

With Democratic senators repeatedly interrupting the Judiciary Committee's Republican chairman Chuck Grassley at the outset of the hearing and dozens of shouting protesters removed one by one by security personnel, the session quickly became a ruckus.

"This is the first confirmation for a Supreme Court justice I've seen, basically, according to mob rule," Republican Senator John Cornyn said, a characterization Democrats rejected.

"What we've heard is the noise of democracy," Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said.

News photographers clicked pictures of a smiling Kavanaugh - the conservative federal appeals court judge picked by Trump for a lifetime job on the top U.S. judicial body - as he entered the hearing room with family members. But moments after Grassley opened the session, Democrats decried the withholding of the documents and asked to have the proceedings adjourned.

Protesters, mostly women, took turns yelling as senators spoke, shouting, "This is a travesty of justice," "Our democracy is broken" and "Vote no on Kavanaugh." Demonstrators voiced concern about what they saw as the threat posed by Kavanaugh to abortion rights, healthcare access and gun control.

"We cannot possibly move forward. We have not had an opportunity to have a meaningful hearing," Democratic Senator Kamala Harris said. Democratic Senator Cory Booker appealed to Grassley's "sense of decency and integrity" and said the withholding of the documents by Republicans and the White House left lawmakers unable to properly vet Kavanaugh.

Grassley called the Democrats' request to halt the hearing "out of order" and accused them of obstruction. Republicans hold a slim Senate majority and can confirm Kavanaugh if they stay united. There were no signs of Republican defections.

If confirmed, Kavanaugh is expected to move the court - which already had a conservative majority - further to the right. Senate Democratic leaders have vowed a fierce fight to try to block his confirmation. Democrats signalled they would press Kavanaugh on abortion, gun rights and presidential power when they get to question him on Wednesday in a hearing due to run through Friday.

Republican Orrin Hatch accused Democratic senators of political opportunism, noting, "We have folks who want to run for president," though he did not mention any by name. There has been speculation Booker and Harris might consider 2020 presidential runs.

Hatch grew visibly irritated as protesters interrupted him.

"I think we ought to have this loudmouth removed," Hatch said.

Trump nominated Kavanaugh, 53, to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on June 27.

Democrats have demanded in vain to see documents relating Kavanaugh's time as staff secretary to Republican former President George W. Bush from 2003 to 2006. That job involved managing paper flow from advisers to Bush. Republicans also have released some, but not all, documents concerning Kavanaugh's two prior years as a lawyer in Bush's White House Counsel's Office.

Republicans have said Democrats have more than enough documents to assess Kavanaugh's record, including his 12 years of judicial opinions as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

STARING STRAIGHT AHEAD

Kavanaugh sat, fingers intertwined, quietly staring ahead at the committee members as protesters in the audience screamed while being dragged out of the room. He occasionally jotted notes on paper.

"A good judge must be an umpire - a neutral and impartial arbiter who favours no litigant or policy," Kavanaugh said in written remarks released in advance of the hearing. "I don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences."

As the hearing paused for a lunch break, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter who was killed in the Parkland, Florida high school mass shooting in February, tried to talk to Kavanaugh but the nominee turned away. Video of the encounter was shared widely on social media.

There is a long history of heated fights over U.S. Supreme Court nominations, with anger in both parties. But the Democratic frustrations that boiled over on Tuesday had been simmering for more than two years.

Democrats have accused Senate Republican leaders of stealing a Supreme Court seat by refusing to consider Democratic former President Barack Obama's nominee to the high court Merrick Garland in 2016, allowing Trump to fill a Supreme Court vacancy instead.

Republicans also last year reduced the margin for advancing Supreme Court nominations from 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to a simple majority in order to force through the confirmation of Trump's first high court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

Grassley sought to turn the attention to Kavanaugh's qualifications, calling him "one of the most qualified nominees - if not the most qualified nominee - I have seen."

The Senate is likely to vote on confirmation by the end of September. The court begins its next term in October.

The hearing gave Democrats a platform to make their case against Kavanaugh ahead of November's congressional elections in which they are seeking to seize control of Congress from Republicans.

Liberals are concerned Kavanaugh could provide a decisive fifth vote on the nine-justice court to overturn or weaken the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide.

Kavanaugh is likely to be questioned about his views on investigating sitting presidents and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and Trump's campaign.

"I find it difficult to imagine that your views on this subject escaped the attention of President Trump, who seems increasingly fixated on his own ballooning legal jeopardy," Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a frequent Trump critic, said he shared Democratic concerns about how Kavanaugh sees the U.S. government's separation of powers and the rule of law.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung, Amanda Becker, Lisa Lambert; Editing by Will Dunham)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday announced a whopping $60 billion in new development financing for the African nations as he sought to refute criticism that the massive funding under Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) drawing the countries into a debt trap

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday announced a whopping $60 billion in new development financing for the African nations as he sought to refute criticism that the massive funding under Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) drawing the countries into a debt trap.

The funds  announced on top of $60 billion that Beijing offered to the African nations in 2015  will be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies. The finances to be made under the BRI include $15 billion grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, $20 billion credit lines, setting up of a $10-billion special fund for development financing and a $5 billion-special fund for financing imports from Africa, Xi said at the start of a two-day Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) attended by the 53 heads of the African states and organisations. The African nation heads and their officials gathered at the Great Hall of People to attend the meeting and gave a standing ovation to Xi as he made the financial commitments.

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 the Africa summit. The inaugural 2006 summit was held in Beijing and followed by another one in 2015 at Johannesburg. At the Johannesburg summit, Xi announced $60 billion in funding support for infrastructure development in Africa. "Africa is an extension of the Belt and Road development historically and naturally and an important participant in the initiative," Xi said.

Xi said China will implement eight major initiatives with African countries in the next three years and beyond, covering fields such as industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, and green development. A China-Africa economic and trade expo will be set up in China and Chinese companies will be encouraged to increase investment in Africa. Chinese companies are also encouraged to make at least $10 billion investment in Africa in the next three years, he said. He said that China will carry out 50 agricultural assistance programs, provide emergency humanitarian food aid amounting to USD 147 million to African countries affected by natural disasters, and send 500 senior agricultural experts to Africa.

He also said that China will work with the African Union to formulate a China-Africa Infrastructure Cooperation plan and support Chinese companies in taking part in Africa's infrastructure development by way of investment-construction-operation or through other models. China's growing clout in Africa has drawn criticism that more African nations are getting to Chinese debt trap. The only African country still remained outsides Beijing's fold was the tiny kingdom of Swaziland which is still with Taiwan spurning China's overtures

Speaking against criticism that China don't match its public announcements with the spending on the ground, Xi said China has honoured its 2015 promise to provide Africa with funding support totalling $60 billion. The financing has been either delivered or arranged, he said. The Chinese projects in Africa include the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and Kenya's standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Nairobi besides major highways and bridges connecting various countries.

In an apparent dig at the criticism that China is driving smaller countries into its fold with debt trap diplomacy by doling out huge loans, Xi said China followed a "five-no" approach in its relations with Africa  No interference in African countries' pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions, no interference in internal affairs, no imposition of China's will, no attachment of political strings to assistance and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation. "No one can undermine the great unity between the Chinese and African people," he said. In a bid to refute criticism that China is importing only raw materials from Africa, Xi said Beijing will increase imports, especially non-resource products, from Africa and support African countries in participating in China International Import Expo being held in November in Shanghai.By Lisa Barrington and Dan Williams BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli planes targeted military positions in Syria on Tuesday, but Syrian air defences confronted and downed some of the rockets, Syrian state news agency SANA reported. Citing a military source, SANA said that Israeli aircraft had targeted 'our military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama'

By Lisa Barrington and Dan Williams

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli planes targeted military positions in Syria on Tuesday, but Syrian air defences confronted and downed some of the rockets, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

Citing a military source, SANA said that Israeli aircraft had targeted "our military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama".

"The enemy missiles were dealt with and some of them were shot down," SANA said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment.

Israel has carried out scores of military strikes in Syria during the civil war there, against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies which are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

On Tuesday a senior Israeli official said Israel has carried out more than 200 attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last two years. Israeli officials have rarely detailed specific operations.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said several explosions had been heard in the areas around Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyoun near Hama city and around the coastal city of Tartous, targeting areas with Iranian military facilities.

The Observatory's head Rami Abdulrahman said the attack had also targeted around the coastal city of Baniyas for the first time, with two rockets hitting around one kilometre from an oil refinery.

Syrian state television said air defences downed five rockets.

According to Syrian state television, the head of a hospital in Masyaf said one person had died and four had been wounded. The head of a hospital in Baniyas said eight had been injured as a result of the strikes.

SANA said the planes had come at a low altitude from west of neighbouring Lebanon's coastal capital Beirut.

Reuters journalists in Beirut heard unusually loud aircraft sounds shortly before the strikes were reported in Syrian media.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen news said Israeli fighter planes released countermeasures against anti-aircraft fire "and withdrew towards the sea at the same time as the sounds of explosions were heard in Hama countryside."

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Dahlia Nehme in Beirut and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Peter Graff)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed in an explosion at a South African munitions depot in Somerset West, near Cape Town, but the cause of the incident was still unknown, a fire and rescue official said on Monday. The blast occurred at Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) depot, a joint venture between Germany's Rheinmetall Defence and South Africa's state-owned arms maker Denel. 'I can confirm that eight people are dead,' said Theo Layne, a fire and rescue spokesman.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed in an explosion at a South African munitions depot in Somerset West, near Cape Town, but the cause of the incident was still unknown, a fire and rescue official said on Monday.

The blast occurred at Rheinmetall Denel Munition (RDM) depot, a joint venture between Germany's Rheinmetall Defence and South Africa's state-owned arms maker Denel.

"I can confirm that eight people are dead," said Theo Layne, a fire and rescue spokesman.

The cause of the blast was not known, he said.

Police could not be reached to comment.

RDM said in a statement that an explosion occurred at one of its buildings, but it could not confirm whether there were any injuries or fatalities.

"We are currently investigating the matter," it said.

RDM manufactures and supplies selected munitions and explosive related products for armed and police forces in South Africa and around the world.

Rheinmetall holds a 51 percent stake and Denel has a 49 percent shareholding.

(Reporting by James Macharia and Tiisetso Motsoeneng, editing by Ed Osmond)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Israeli demonstrators gathered outside President Reuven Rivlin's residence prior to Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's arrival to protest his visit and the arms sale.

Jerusalem: Dozens of Israelis are protesting against Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's visit to Israel's president.

The demonstrators gathered outside President Reuven Rivlin's residence Tuesday prior to Duterte's arrival.

Waving Israeli flags and blowing whistles, they chanted "shame, shame, shame. We will not be silent and we will not agree to the selling of weapons."

Israel has sold assault rifles to the Philippines national police force in the past and a major arms sale is reportedly on the agenda.

Human rights lawyer Itay Mack says the international community will eventually announce that Duterte is "responsible for crimes against humanity."

Duterte, the first Philippine president to visit Israel, is known for his profane outbursts and has been accused of committing human rights abuses in his deadly anti-drug campaign.

He's generally received a warm welcome.For years, the West chose to overlook Jalaluddin Haqqanis patronage of jihadist causes  and the plain language of his speeches  in the pursuit of tactical ends.

Brothers, thundered the stocky, thick-bearded man on the stage, know that we will not lay down our arms when Afghanistan has become free. We will fight with and help Muslims in India and Kashmir to get their freedom from the Hindus, we will rescue the Palestinians from the cruelties of the Jews; we hope that God, through us, will rescue the Muslims of Balkh, Bukhara, Tashkent and Samarkand from the yoke of the Russians. We ask that God will care for our arms until the defenceless Muslims of the world are rescued."

The man who spoke at the Harkat ul-Jihad e-Islamis convention in Gujranwala that day in 1988 passed away in Pakistan on Tuesday after a long illness. Jalaluddin Haqqani will be remembered as the man who built the so-called Haqqani network, the jihadist group that is now the Talibans most feared fighting arm.

But that is not Haqqanis true significance: As much as the better-known Osama bin Laden, among his closest friends, the Afghan jihad leader was an architect of the global jihadist movement, building the foundations that allowed it to grow into this century.

Events that took place before Haqqanis birth in 1939 were to shape his destiny. In 1920, inspired by the example of Turkeys Kemal Ataturk, King Amanullah Khan, sought to modernise Afghanistan. He decreed the end of purdah, the seclusion of women, and set up co-education schools. Perhaps more important was the order that sought an end to the exemptions south-eastern tribes had long enjoyed from conscription, and the central penal code. The kings actions enraged both tribal conservatives and the clerics.

In 1924 and in 1928, the Zadran and Karlani tribes revolted against the king. His successor, Nadir Shah, was forced to roll back the reforms. Led by the clerical networks of Mirza Ali Khan and Fazal Wahid, ethnic Pashtuns meanwhile flocked to what is North Waziristan to battle imperial Britain.

Khwaja Muhammad Khan, Haqqanis father, had made a small fortune trading with both Afghanistan and British India  a fortune that would pay for education of his four sons at the Dar ul-Ulum Haqqaniya, whose alumni include Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, who died in 2015, key jihadist ideologue Fazl-ul-Rehman and the Uttar Pradesh-born head of Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, Sana-ul-Haq.

In 1957, when socialist-leaning prime minister Mohammad Daud Khan reignited the conflict with the south-eastern tribes over purdah, Khans children began to be sucked into the Islamist resistance against Kabul and, inexorably, into jihadism.

Following the declaration of an Afghan republic in 1973, Pakistan prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto authorised the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, better known as ISI, to begin funding Islamist insurgents in Afghanistana measure intended to retaliate against Kabuls support for ethnic-Pashtun and Baloch nationalists his government savagely repressed. Financed, by some accounts, by the United States, Bhutto authorised the Frontier Corps Brigadier Naseerullah Babar, later defence minister of Pakistan, to train up to 5,000 jihadists to take on the Afghan state.

As soon as Daud declared the establishment of the Republic, the Haqqani network recorded in its 1989 magazine, Manba al-Jihad, or Fountainhead of Jihad, Maulvi Sahab Jalaluddin Haqqani declared jihad in the village of Nika, Zadran, and raised the flag of jihad there. He was joined, the magazine recorded, by some ulema [clerics] and Taliban [religious students]."

The jihadist campaign against the Afghan state was crushed in 1975 but four years later, Soviet tanks would cross the Amu Darya, and the defeated Islamist guerrillas would reshape the world.

From the outset, the Haqqanis distinguished themselves from other anti-Soviet jihadists by welcoming volunteersand just cashfrom across the world.

If the Islamic world truly wants to support and help us, Jalaluddin Haqqani told the Abu Dhabi newspaper Al-Ittihad in 1980, it should permit its men and young men to join our ranks. There is a tendency in most of the Islamic countries which wish to help us to present aid and food as a kind of jihad. Some even think that this is the best kind of jihad. This, however, does not absolve the Muslim of the duty to offer himself for the jihad.

This declaration, Vahid Brown and Don Rassler have noted in their seminal book on the Haqqani network, The Fountainhead of Jihad, was made years before Abdullah Azzam would issue his revolutionary fatwa on the individually obligatory (fard ayn) nature of supporting the Afghan jihad.

Five years before Azzam would establish the Maktab al-Khidmat in Peshawar, the genesis of Al Qaeda, the men who would go on to become significant in Osama bin Ladens organisation were already training at the Haqqanis base at Zhawara -- a sprawling structure with a hospital, engineering workshops, arms dumps and even a hotel for visitors.

In 1979, the Egyptian journalist Mustafa Hamid, who would go on to be one of Al Qaedas ideologues, came on board. Thousands of other foreigners followed, from the Arab world, Tajikistan, Chechnya -- and Kashmir.

The end of the war against the Soviet Union saw the Haqqani network increasingly make its resources available to jihadists fighting India. Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the Lashkar-e-Taibas military chief, learned his craft fighting with the Haqqani network in Loya Paktia, as did the Harkat-ul-Mujahideens Fazlur Rehman Khalil. The organisation claimed to have trained thousands of fighters for the jihad in Kashmir -- and that was not its sole aim.

Jihad continues to be a sacred duty until the infidels are defeated throughout the world, Haqqani declared in 1991. God will not bless us for our past jihad. To win his blessings, we have to continue jihad until the end.

In the pre-9/11 world, this project was unabashedly embraced by many. In 1991, Haqqani even received an official state reception from the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Zayed Sultan al-Nahyan.

Frustrated by the infighting among its Afghan proxies, the ISI began to back the Taliban in 1993. The new turn threatened the Haqqanis. Taliban fighters even surrounded the home of Haqqanis brother, Ibrahim, and demanded the surrender of their forces in Loya Paktia.

Eventually, a deal was reached, with the Haqqanis agreeing to serve as the Talibans vassals in the region, as long as their businessesscrap metal, narcotics, and protection levies on transportwere protected.

Even though he served the Taliban as minister of borders and tribal affairs, Haqqani is known to have opposed several Taliban directives -- among them, banning music and imposing long beards. These edicts were less-than-rigorously enforced around Khost. Rebellions broke out around Khost when Taliban sought to suppress a local egg-throwing festival.

Though jihadism is often associated with neo-fundamentalist Salafism, it is important to note that the Haqqanis drew legitimacy from orthodox Deobandi tradition and cultural conservatives. Haqqani jihadism was primarily political -- not theological.

Osama bin Ladens return from Somalia to Afghanistan in 1996 gave the Haqqanis some access to cash but it was clear the outfit was being marginalised by the Taliban. Left with only 300 fighters it seemed destined for oblivion.

Haqqani, several accounts have it, was less than pained by the Talibans eviction from power after 9/11 and sought to broker a deal with the United States. None, however, was on offer. He was pushed, moreover, by former ISI chief Lieutenant-General Mahmud Ahmed not to surrender his friend, Osama bin Laden. In an interview at the end of 2001, Haqqani vowed to retreat into the mountains and begin a long guerrilla war to reclaim our pure land from the infidel.

From 2003 on, the Haqqani network reemerged as the most important fighting element in the Taliban -- this time, backed by the ISI, which saw it as a valuable tool to rein-in a sometimes less-than-cooperative Taliban leadership. The network offered the Taliban cash, weapons, and access to safe zones controlled by ethnic-Pashtun warlords. Haqqani, in turn, became the second-most important figure in the insurgency.

In 2008, the outfit began receiving global attention after the July suicide-attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, an attack the Central Intelligence Agency found was carried out with the direct involvement of ISI attackers. Three years later, the Haqqanis staged the largest-ever coordinated attack on Kabul since 9/11; their operations have continued since, ever-increasing in scale and violence.

The Haqqanis, former United States military chief Admiral Mike Mullen said, had become a veritable arm of the ISI.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, serving as the Talibans deputy chief as his father lay ill and with the United States eager to negotiate its way out of Afghanistan, must be sensing power awaits him in the not-too-distant future.

For years, the West chose to overlook Jalaluddin Haqqanis patronage of jihadist causes  and the plain language of his speeches  in the pursuit of tactical ends. It continues to endure the consequences. The death of the global jihads grandfather ought to be a time to pause and reflect on the price that will have to be paid for making the same mistake again.The founder of the Haqqani network, one of Afghanistan's most effective and feared militant groups, has died after a long illness, their allies the Afghan Taliban announced Tuesday

Kabul: The founder of the Haqqani network, one of Afghanistan's most effective and feared militant groups, has died after a long illness, their allies the Afghan Taliban announced Tuesday.

Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose son Sirajuddin Haqqani now heads the brutal group and is also the Taliban's deputy leader, died "after a long battle with illness", the Taliban said in a statement.

Jalaluddin "was from among the great distinguished Jihadi personalities of this era," the Taliban said in the English version of its statement posted on Twitter.

He was an Afghan mujahideen commander fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s with the help of the US and Pakistan.

Jalaluddin gained notoriety for his organisation and bravery, garnering attention from the CIA and a personal visit from US Congressman Charlie Wilson.

A fluent Arabic speaker, Jalaluddin also fostered close ties with Arab jihadists including Osama Bin Laden who flocked to the region during the war. Later, Jalaluddin became a minister in the Taliban regime.AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A man who stabbed two American tourists at Amsterdam's central station last week says he chose his victims at random and was motivated by perceived insults to Islam in the Netherlands, Dutch prosecutors said on Monday. The man, identified by RTL Nieuws as Jawed S., is a 19-year-old Afghan with residency in Germany, who traveled to Amsterdam to carry out an attack because of what he thought were repeated insults to God, the Koran and Islam's Prophet Mohammad, prosecutors said in a statement. The man mentioned the name of lawmaker Geert Wilders, but not the cartoon contest Wilders had planned to hold mocking Mohammad, which the politician cancelled last week due to security concerns.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A man who stabbed two American tourists at Amsterdam's central station last week says he chose his victims at random and was motivated by perceived insults to Islam in the Netherlands, Dutch prosecutors said on Monday.

The man, identified by RTL Nieuws as Jawed S., is a 19-year-old Afghan with residency in Germany, who traveled to Amsterdam to carry out an attack because of what he thought were repeated insults to God, the Koran and Islam's Prophet Mohammad, prosecutors said in a statement.

The man mentioned the name of lawmaker Geert Wilders, but not the cartoon contest Wilders had planned to hold mocking Mohammad, which the politician cancelled last week due to security concerns.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.The reality is that until Afghanistan stabilises, American pressure on Pakistan is not likely to diminish. And the prospects of it happening soon are remote.

The announcement of the cancellation of more than $300 million of aid to Pakistan just before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's Wednesday visit to Islamabad was not something Prime Minister Imran Khan would have expected while beginning his government's engagement with the US. Imran is still learning how to balance Pakistan's complex and competing foreign policy priorities.

Pompeos forthcoming visit, to be accompanied by General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the first high-level dialogue between Washington and Islamabad since Imran assumed office following the recently-held General Election. The cancellation of aid is a continuation of the bitter saga of fundamental clashes in terms of expectations and interests between the US and Pakistan, further reflecting the frustration of the Donald Trump administration in its apparent inability to force Rawalpindi to rein in the Afghan insurgency.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Kone Faulkner made the unpalatable statement: "Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy the remaining $300 million was reprogrammed." The cancelled aid was to come from the Coalition Support Funds (CSF) established to help Pakistani counterterrorism and to secure its borders with neighbouring Afghanistan. It will bring the total amount withheld from Pakistan under the CSF to $800 million since early this year when Trump, through a tweet, launched a scathing criticism against Pakistan for betraying the US. A few days later, the US announced the suspension of around $2 billion in security aid to Islamabad.

The current tension between the US and Pakistan is not new to the Trump administration but represents a long-standing problem between the two countries, as both have used the opportunistic alliance to pursue their own strategic agendas. The underlying reason for the latest US decision is Pakistans long-standing support for the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network in Afghanistan against American and NATO troops. Through its military-intelligence establishment, Pakistan has long maintained both overt and covert ties with militant and Islamist groups of all hues for securing strategic depth in Afghanistan. This is largely driven by its historic enmity with neighbouring India, seeking to counter Indias influence on the western border.

As a result of suspension of American military aid combined with continued pressure on Islamabad, there is dwindling Pakistani support for American aims in South Asia, engendering in Pakistans common people and elite the perception that China is now their all-weather friend. What has further boosted this relationship is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is an essential component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as part of Chinas grand strategy to gain access to far-flung regions and to broaden its power base around the world.

Although the US has not completely rejected the CPEC, Defence Secretary James Mattis has categorically stated that Washington cannot support connectivity projects that raise sovereignty concerns, clearly echoing the view of New Delhi, which is opposed to the CPEC because it passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Surely, the US is not happy at its top strategic rival deepening its strategic footprint in Pakistan. Over the years, China has increased the amount of military aid to Pakistan. As per one estimate, more than 60 percent of Pakistan's military equipment came from China in 2016, with less than 20 percent coming from America.

However, the fundamental contradiction in US-Pakistan relations is that no party is willing to terminate this partnership, preferring to maintain a working relationship. The US views its relationship with Pakistan primarily through the Afghan lens as it needs to ensure that NATO supply lines on Pakistani soil remain open to pursue its objectives in Afghanistan. Moreover, it is not in the interest of the US to see a nuclear-armed and a politically volatile Pakistan turning totally hostile to American interests. On the other hand, Pakistan also values its historic partnership with the US, in particular the prestige and the sophisticated weaponry that comes with it. And despite the public rhetoric, Pakistans corridors of power do not want to rock the boat as they are not unaware of the cost of antagonising the US beyond a point. The Pakistans military establishment cannot think of losing American friendship, howsoever expensive it may have become to maintain.

Imrans views on foreign affairs seem to be fairly consistent with those of Pakistans military establishment: His sympathetic attitude toward violent non-state actors, his desire to resolve the Kashmir issue, his uncritical support to Pakistans partnerships with China and Saudi Arabia are clear manifestations of Islamabad and Rawalpindi being on the same page. The only difference is America. Before being appointed prime minister, Imran did not spare any opportunity in expressing his strong opposition to American military presence in Afghanistan, while often criticising the US about using Pakistan as a client state.

Once, he got so carried away as to suggest shooting down of US drones targeting terrorists along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border if he became the prime minister. But the Pakistani military is keen to continue its association with the Pentagon and does not support the idea of discarding the US. Imran is also not interested in arguing with the powerful military so early. Therefore, as prime minister, he is maintaining that Pakistan is interested in having better ties with the US with the caveat that it should be based on mutual benefit: "We want a relationship with America that benefits both the countries, that it is a balanced relationship, and God willing, we will try our best for that balanced relationship."

The trouble is that there are no signs yet of any balance in the relationship. The Pompeo visit is already marred by a controversy over a telephonic conversation on 23 August between Pompeo and Imran. A description of the call released by the State Department said that Pompeo raised the importance of Pakistan taking decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan and its vital role in promoting the Afghan peace process. But Pakistan's Foreign Office rejected the statement released by the State Department: Pakistan takes exception to the factually incorrect statement issued by US State Dept on todays phone call between PM Imran and Secretary Pompeo. There was no mention at all in the conversation about terrorists operating in Pakistan. When the State Department was asked to immediately correct the statement, the latter stood by its version and asserted that there would be no correction.

Obviously, Pakistan is not happy with the latest cut in military aid. Islamabad desperately needs Washington's backing for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to ease its dire economic condition. If the government is left with no other option but to seek the IMF help, it needs the Trump administrations favour. The US has the largest share of votes at the IMF. Realising its precarious economic circumstances, Pakistan has decided not to overreact.

Adopting a largely conciliatory tone, Pakistans foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi reminded the US that the cancelled amount was not aid but the expenses incurred in the fight against terrorism: "It is not a cut in any aid, it is not assistance. This is our own money that we have used for improving regional security situation and they had to reimburse it to us." The intent of this statement was to underline the fact that both were official allies in fighting terrorism. Deviating from the pre-election anti-American rhetoric, Qureshi emphasised that Pakistan wanted good relationship with the US. The new government seems to have realised to its discomfiture that bravado will not work under present circumstances.

The US move was widely expected as the Pentagon has been trying hard to put pressure on Islamabad to prevent the Afghan Taliban from using Pakistani soil for engineering terror attacks across Afghanistan. In order to deflect some of the pressure, Pakistan is building relations with Russia and there have been significant developments in that direction. Trumps decision to suspend military assistance to Pakistan has resulted in the US suspending training and educational programs for Pakistani military officers, allowing Russia to come further closer to Pakistan. Last month, Moscow agreed to open the doors of its military academies to train Pakistani military officers.

At a time when the Afghan Taliban is trying to maximise its advantage on the battlefield in order to win greater concessions from the US at the negotiating table, the Trump administration is rightly demanding that Pakistan play a more positive role in facilitating the political dialogue in Afghanistan.

Pakistan must stop pursuing counterproductive strategies and instead work towards the common international goal of ending the Afghan war. But it is easier said than done since the overall aims set by Washington and Islamabad are driven by divergent perspectives and contradictory expectations. For the US, everything boils down to how Rawalpindi can help the Pentagons war efforts in Afghanistan. For Pakistan, everything is about minimising the so-called threat from India. That India is a close strategic partner of the US does not help matters for Pakistan. It will not escape Rawalpindis attention that Pompeos next destination is New Delhi where he will also be joined by Mattis.

The trust deficit between the US and Pakistan is too deep to be overcome by one high-profile visit. Looking beyond the current frictions, future prospects of US-Pakistan ties do not look bright. The reality is that until Afghanistan stabilises, American pressure on Pakistan is not likely to diminish. And the prospects of it happening soon are remote.Myanmar military apologised for the 'mistaken' photo but it did not mention the photograph incorrectly captioned as showing Rohingya entering Myanmar when the picture was of them leaving.

The Myanmar military issued a rare apology on Monday, acknowledging that two photographs it published in a book on the crisis over the Rohingya Muslim minority were "published incorrectly".

Reuters published an exclusive report on Friday revealing that two of the pictures in the book that aimed at illustrating the armys account of last years events in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine, were, in fact, archive pictures of different conflicts, and one was posted with an incorrect caption.

The erroneous publication of the photographs comes amid a series of government steps against what it has seen as media abuses, including a report on army activity in an ethnic minority guerrilla zone and the flying of a drone in the capital, Naypyitaw.

On Monday, a court jailed for seven years two reporters from Reuters on a charge of violating a secrets law.

Reuters found that two of the photographs in the military book on the Rohingya crisis were actually taken in Bangladesh and Tanzania and a third was falsely labelled as showing Rohingya entering Myanmar from Bangladesh, when in reality the picture was of refugees leaving Myanmar.

The militarys official newspaper, the Myawady Daily, issued a statement on Monday from its publishing arm, which produced the book Myanmar Politics and Tatmadaw: Part I, apologising for two of the photographs.

It was found that two photos were incorrectly published, the publishing arm said in a statement carried by the newspaper, referring to the photograph from Tanzania and another showing victims of Bangladeshs 1971 war of independence.

We sincerely apologise to the readers and the owners of the photographs for the mistake, it said.

It did not mention the photograph incorrectly captioned as showing Rohingya entering Myanmar when the picture was of them leaving.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay and military spokesman Major General Tun Tun Nyi could not be reached for comment.

The armys department of public relations and psychological warfare published the book in English and Burmese in July.

Heinous

Of the 80 images in the book, most were recent pictures of army chief Min Aung Hlaing meeting foreign dignitaries or other officials visiting Rakhine.

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.

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 Myanmars own Ministry of Information.

The Myawadys publishing arm, in its statement, made no mention of an alteration of images.

The prime minister of neighbouring Bangladesh, where about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from a Myanmar military crackdown launched after Rohingya insurgent attacks in August last year, denounced the use of the photographs when she was asked in a news conference about them.

What Myanmar has done is simply heinous. They have lowered their reputation, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a news conference in Dhaka on Sunday.

They are diminishing their position in the international arena.

The 117-page book gives the armys account of the crackdown last year which led to reports of mass killings, rape, and arson.

Much of the content is sourced to the militarys True News information unit, which since the start of the crisis has distributed news giving the armys position, mostly via Facebook.

The book is on sale at bookstores across the commercial capital of Yangon.Her one public reference to the Reuters journalists during the court casetelling Japanese broadcaster NHK that the pair had broken the official secrets actwas criticised by rights groups for potentially prejudicing the verdict.

Yangon: A global outcry over the jailing of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar has been greeted with silence by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a stony response that an official defended Tuesday as a reluctance to criticise the judiciary. Journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested while reporting on atrocities committed during the violent expulsion by the military of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims last year.

A Yangon court on Monday found them guilty under the Official Secrets Act and handed them each seven years in prison, sparking outrage from the UN, EU and USall of whom supported Myanmar's emergence from decades of junta ruleas well as media and rights groups. Suu Kyi, who was herself subjected to house arrest for some 15 years, relying on foreign media to highlight her plight, has been widely-condemned for her silence on the case and verdict, which has posed the sternest test in recent years to free speech in the country.

Aung Hla Tun, a former Reuters journalist who now works for the government as deputy Minister of Information, defended the Nobel Laureate's reticence. "Criticising the judicial system would be tantamount to contempt of court," he told AFP, explaining her silence so far. "I don't think she will do it." Lawyers for the pair will appeal the verdict while ultimately the country's president, a close ally of Suu Kyi, can pardon prisoners.

In April the president granted 8,500 jailed people an amnesty, including 36 deemed political prisoners. But there were still some 200 others, including the two Reuters journalists, facing trials linked to political activities, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said at the time. Erstwhile Suu Kyi advocates overseas have been left dismayed by her attitude to their case so far.

Her one public reference to the Reuters journalists during the court casetelling Japanese broadcaster NHK that the pair had broken the official secrets actwas criticised by rights groups for potentially prejudicing the verdict. Former confidant and member of her advisory board on the Rohingya crisis US diplomat Bill Richardson alleged she also denounced the two reporters as traitors during a heated exchange at the beginning of the year.

While the case has horrified the West, the response within Myanmar has been muted. Several papers marked the jailing of the pair with '7 Day News' publishing a large black rectangle on its front page and the Myanmar Times running a full front page photo of the pair calling the verdict "a blow to press freedom". But the case has not garnered wider public attention, despite its implications for press freedom in a country, whose emergence from junta rule has been contorted by the violence in Rakhine.A Myanmar government official defended the silence of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the arrests of two Reuters journalists by saying that criticising the judicial system would be tantamount to contempt of court.

Yangon: A global outcry over the jailing of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar has been greeted with silence by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a stony response that an official defended Tuesday as a reluctance to criticise the judiciary.

Journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested while reporting on atrocities committed during the violent expulsion by the military of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims last year.

A Yangon court on Monday found them guilty under the Official Secrets Act and handed them each seven years in prison, sparking outrage from the UN, EU and US  all of whom supported Myanmar's emergence from decades of junta rule  as well as media and rights groups.

Suu Kyi, who was herself subjected to house arrest for some 15 years, relying on foreign media to highlight her plight, has been widely-condemned for her silence on the case and verdict, which has posed the sternest test in recent years to free speech in the country.

Aung Hla Tun, a former Reuters journalist who now works for the government as deputy Minister of Information, defended the Nobel Laureate's reticence.

"Criticising the judicial system would be tantamount to contempt of court," he told AFP, explaining her silence so far. "I don't think she will do it." Lawyers for the pair will appeal the verdict while ultimately the country's president, a close ally of Suu Kyi, can pardon prisoners.

In April the president granted 8,500 jailed people an amnesty, including 36 deemed political prisoners.

But there were still some 200 others, including the two Reuters journalists, facing trials linked to political activities, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said at the time.

Erstwhile Suu Kyi advocates overseas have been left dismayed by her attitude to their case so far.

Her one public reference to the Reuters journalists during the court case  telling Japanese broadcaster NHK that the pair had broken the official secrets act -- was criticised by rights groups for potentially prejudicing the verdict.

Former confidant and member of her advisory board on the Rohingya crisis US diplomat Bill Richardson alleged she also denounced the two reporters as traitors during a heated exchange at the beginning of the year.

While the case has horrified the West, the response within Myanmar has been muted.

Several papers marked the jailing of the pair with '7 Day News' publishing a large black rectangle on its front page and the Myanmar Times running a full front page photo of the pair calling the verdict "a blow to press freedom".

But the case has not garnered wider public attention, despite its implications for press freedom in a country, whose emergence from junta rule has been contorted by the violence in Rakhine.YANGON (Reuters) - A Myanmar judge's verdict on Monday jailing two Reuters reporters for seven years over a breach of the country's official secrets acts was 'deeply troubling', the U.S.

YANGON (Reuters) - A Myanmar judge's verdict on Monday jailing two Reuters reporters for seven years over a breach of the country's official secrets acts was "deeply troubling", the U.S. ambassador to the southeast Asian nation said.

"I'm sad for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and their families, but also for Myanmar," Scot Marciel said.

"It's deeply troubling for everybody who has struggled so hard here for media freedom. I think one has to ask will this process increase or decrease the confidence the people of Myanmar have in their justice system."

Britain's envoy to Myanmar said he was "extremely disappointed" by the decision.

"Speaking on behalf of the British government, but also on behalf of European Union member states, we are extremely disappointed by this verdict," said Britain's Ambassador Dan Chugg.

"Freedom of expression and rule of law are fundamental in a democracy, and this case has passed a long shadow over both today.

"The judge has appeared to have ignored evidence and to have ignored Myanmar law. This has dealt a hammer blow for the rule of law."

(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Writing by Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Philip McClellan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.A Myanmar judge on Monday found two Reuters journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years, in a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country.

A Myanmar judge on Monday found two Reuters journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years, in a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country.

Following are the reactions of prominent names on the arrest of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

US ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel: Im sad for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and their families, but also for Myanmar. Its deeply troubling for everybody who has struggled so hard here for media freedom. I think one has to ask will this process increase or decrease the confidence the people of Myanmar have in their justice system.

British ambassador to Myanmar Dan Chugg: "Speaking on behalf of the British government, but also on behalf of European Union member states, we are extremely disappointed by this verdict. Freedom of expression and rule of law are fundamental in a democracy, and this case has passed a long shadow over both today. The judge has appeared to have ignored evidence and to have ignored Myanmar law. This has dealt a hammer blow for the rule of law.

Federica Mogherini, spokeswoman of the European Union high representative for foreign affairs and security policy: Todays court decision...undermines the freedom of the media, the publics right to information and the development of the rule of law in Myanmar. Their sentencing and imprisonment under the Official Secrets Act of 1923 for covering allegations of serious human rights violations in Rakhine State also serve to intimidate other journalists who will fear harassment and undue arrest or prosecution for merely doing their jobs. Media freedom and critical journalism are essential pillars of democracy. A free press has a key function in promoting transparency and holding democratic governments to account. The prison sentences of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo should be reviewed and the two journalists be released immediately and unconditionally.

Stephen J Adler, Editor-in-Chief, Reuters: Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere. These two admirable reporters have already spent nearly nine months in prison on false charges designed to silence their reporting and intimidate the press. Without any evidence of wrongdoing and in the face of compelling evidence of a police set-up, todays ruling condemns them to the continued loss of their freedom and condones the misconduct of security forces."

This is a major step backward in Myanmars transition to democracy, cannot be squared with the rule of law or freedom of speech, and must be corrected by the Myanmar government as a matter of urgency. We will not wait while Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo suffer this injustice and will evaluate how to proceed in the coming days, including whether to seek relief in an international forum.

Tirana hassan, Amnesty Internationals director of crisis response: These convictions must be quashed, and both men immediately and unconditionally released. This politically motivated decision has significant ramifications for press freedom in Myanmar. It sends a stark warning to other journalists of the severe consequences that await should they look too closely at military abuses. This amounts to censorship through fear.

Brad Adams, Asia Director, Human Rights Watch: The outrageous convictions of the Reuters journalists show Myanmar courts willingness to muzzle those reporting on military atrocities. These sentences mark a new low for press freedom and further backsliding on rights under Aung San Suu Kyis government.

Frederick Rawski, Asia Pacific director, International Commission of jurists: The courts decision effectively punishes these two courageous journalists for exposing human rights violations, following a grossly unfair trial. The decision is a miscarriage of justice that inflicts needless suffering on them and their families, threatens freedom of expression, damages Myanmars global standing, and undermines its justice institutions all at once.

Shawn Crispin, Southeast Asia representative, committee to protect journalists: Todays ruling...on bogus charges marks a new press freedom low for Myanmar. The process that resulted in their convictions was a travesty of justice and will cast Myanmar as an anti-democratic pariah as long as they are wrongfully held behind bars. We call on Myanmars civilian authorities to immediately release the journalists.

Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, media adviser to Bangladeshs prime minister Sheikh Hasina: This has once again proved the Myanmar government has been pursuing the suppression of the freedom of expression and freedom of media. It is now an open secret that any media or any person who wants to reveal the atrocities of the Myanmar army and administration against the Rohingya people will face persecution by the Myanmar government. We strongly condemn this and demand the release of the Reuters journalists and a halt to any further persecution of any media person in Myanmar.

Mohib Ullah, Rohingya leader in Kutapalong refugee camp in Bangladesh: This is not justice. I would like to see them free as soon as possible. They did nothing wrong.

Thant Myint-U, Myanmar historian and commentator: A tragic day for media freedom and an intimation of whats to come.

Aung Htun Oo, media trainer, Yangon journalism school: The world of Myanmar news media is now in darkness...I understand this is trying to silence journalists so that they do not dare to say anything in the future.Pakistan's Airport Security Force on Monday penalised its young female staffer for lip-synching to an Indian song while wearing a cap with the country's flag on it.

Lahore: Pakistan's Airport Security Force on Monday penalised its young female staffer for lip-synching to an Indian song while wearing a cap with the country's flag on it.

The video of the song had gone viral on social networking platforms, prompting the authorities to order a probe into the matter.

The Airport Security Force (ASF) has withheld increments and perks for two years of the 25-year-old female staffer's service for violating the code of conduct.

The officials also warned her of strict action if she is found involved in any other violation in the future. The ASF administration has also warned its staff not to indulge in any controversial activity on social media.

The authorities took action after the electronic media ran the video, criticising her for lip-synching to an Indian song while wearing the cap with Pakistani flag on it. The staffer has been working at the Sialkot airport, some 100 kilometres from Lahore, for the last two years.

Last month, a video of a Polish girl dancing on a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane to celebrate the country's Independence Day went viral. Draped in the Pakistani flag, Eva zu Beck did her own rendition of the popular Kiki challenge. The country's anti-graft body National Accountability Bureau has launched investigation into the matter.Saying both Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa were on the same page on internal and external security issues, the Minister said Pakistan was quite clear 'that India has no role to play in Afghanistan'.

Islamabad: Pakistan does not agree with the US view that India has a role to play in bringing peace to Afghanistan, information and broadcasting minister Fawad Chaudhry has said.

Saying both Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa were on the same page on internal and external security issues, the minister said Pakistan was quite clear "that India has no role to play in Afghanistan".

The new prime minister and the Army chief have held detailed discussions on various issues. The News International on Monday quoted Fawad as saying that the US wanted to give a role to India in Afghanistan but Pakistan was not in agreement.

But both Islamabad and Washington agreed that the US should leave behind a stable Afghanistan, he added, quoting from the deliberations in the meeting. At the same time, Pakistan wanted good relations with all the countries in the region.

The Minister said that while a section of India wanted to make Pakistan weak, the other section wished to peacefully co-exist with Islamabad, the daily said.

He said that with Lok Sabha elections due next year in India, the Indian leadership might not be inclined to respond positively to Pakistan's desire for talks to resolve various issues.Pakistans new foreign minister said he will 'have exchanges' with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over Washingtons cancellation of a $300 million disbursement for the Pakistani military when he visits Islamabad

Pakistans new foreign minister said he will "have exchanges" with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over Washingtons cancellation of a $300 million disbursement for the Pakistani military when he visits Islamabad on Wednesday.

Adopting a tougher line with an ally that US President Donald Trump considers unreliable, the United States halted the disbursement of Coalition Support Funds due to Islamabads perceived failure to take decisive action against Afghan Taliban militants operating from Pakistani soil.

The United States has now withheld $800 million from the CSF so far this year.

The latest move comes just as the less-than-one-month-old government of Prime Minister Imran Khan faces a looming balance of payments crisis that could force it to seek a fresh bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or other lenders.

"On the 5th, the American (secretary of state) Pompeo will be arriving, and we will have a chance to sit down with him. There will be exchanges," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters late on Sunday night.

"We will take our mutual respect for each other into consideration and move forward," he added.

Qureshi argued that the US was not justified in cutting the $300 million because it was intended to reimburse Pakistans military for money spent fighting the Taliban and other militants threatening US troops in Afghanistan.

It is not aid. It is not assistance, which was suspended. This the money, which we have spent. This is our money. We have spent it, Qureshi said. We did it for our betterment, which they had to reimburse.

Officially allies in fighting terrorism, Pakistan and the United States have a complicated relationship, bound by Washingtons dependence on Pakistan to guarantee a supply route for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

US officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of playing a double game, by covertly providing safe havens for Afghan Taliban insurgents and fighters from the Haqqani group, who are waging a 17-year-old war against Afghanistans US-backed government.

Pakistan consistently denies providing safe havens for the militants.

In an editorial on Monday, Pakistans English-language Dawn newspaper railed against the Trump administrations decision to halt the disbursement of funds.

The US has delivered an object lesson in how not to conduct diplomacy, Dawn newspaper said in an editorial on Monday.

It went on to speculate whether Pompeo would try and bully the Pakistani leadership during his visit or if he will be deployed in a more traditional good cop diplomatic role.

Pompeo will be accompanied by top US military officer, General Joseph Dunford, for talks with the Pakistani leadership.

Relations between the new Pakistani government and Washington got off to a rocky start last month when Qureshi publicly disputed that Pompeo had brought up the thorny issue of terrorist havens in a phone call with Prime Minister Khan.

The Pakistani side later downplayed the issue after Washington shared a transcript of the call, Pakistani media reported.

The Trump administration a year ago resolved to take a tougher line with Pakistan than previous US administrations.

In his first tweet of 2018, Trump slammed Pakistan, saying the country has rewarded past US aid with "nothing but lies & deceit." Washington announced plans in January to suspend up to roughly $2 billion in US security assistance to Pakistan.Awan, while stepping down, said the rule of law of must start from himself. He said he has forwarded his resignation to the prime minister.

Islamabad: Babar Awan, adviser on parliamentary affairs to Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan resigned Tuesday after the anti-graft agency registered a corruption case against him, in the first jolt to the government. Awan, while stepping down, said the rule of law of must start from himself. He said he has forwarded his resignation to the prime minister.

"Just reached PM House to tender my resignation from Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Rule of Law begins with me. Thank you, Insafians for standing by me always. I will never let you down," Awan wrote in a tweet. The resignation of Imran's close aide came hours after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a corruption case against Awan regarding a delay in Nandipur Project in the Accountability Courts in Islamabad.

Geo News reported on Sunday that Awan was questioned by the anti-graft body for three hours over allegedly delaying the Nandipur Project. Qouting sources, the report said that a team of the NAB's Rawalpindi chapter, led by Deputy Director Asma Chaudhry, questioned the 60-year-old Senator from Punjab province for keeping the project's file "away" for months, leading to a loss worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer.

The delay was caused during the tenure of Pakistan Peoples Party-led government at the Centre from 2008 to 2013, with Awan then serving as minister for law and justice, Geo News reported. The former federal minister for water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, along with other officers of the ministry, also faces a corruption case for delay in the same project, the report said.

The corruption cases were filed after a commission, constituted on the direction of the Supreme Court, held officers of the Ministry of Law and Justice responsible for the delay, it said. Imran, who was sworn-in as prime minister last month, has vowed to root out corruption and cut down government expenditure to overcome the serious financial difficulties faced by Pakistan.Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent the duration between 1989 and 2010 in some form of detention as a result of her work to bring democracy in the then-military ruled Myanmar.

A Myanmarese court sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in jail for breaching a law on state secrets in a landmark case that has been largely seen as a test of progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country.

The judge hearing the case against the two journalists  Wa Lone (32) and Kyaw Soe Oo (28)  said that they had breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents. The two were detained in Myanmar in December 2017.

The verdict comes amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in western Myanmar in August 2017.

More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to UN agencies. The two reporters, who were investigating the killing by the security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest, had pleaded not guilty.

Suu Kyi under criticism

The jailing of two Reuters journalists shreds what remains of Suu Kyi's reputation as a rights champion, critics say, when she failed to come to their defence after she did not speak up for the persecuted Rohingya minority. During her long years of house arrest under the former junta  which choked the media inside Myanmar  it was foreign correspondents who carried her message of peaceful defiance to the outside world.

However, her response to the Rohingya crisis has sent her international reputation into a tailspin. Former friends and supporters have looked on aghast at her lack of criticism of last year's military campaign against the Rohingya. In August, UN investigators said that campaign was pursued with "genocidal intent".

Bill Richardson, a US diplomat and until recently a Suu Kyi confidante, alleges that she denounced the two journalists when he tried to raise their plight in person. "Suu Kyi's response was filled with anger, referring to the journalists as traitors," the former New Mexico governor said.

Prosecutions of journalists and media intimidation more redolent of the junta years have been common. Around 20 journalists were prosecuted in 2017, many under a controversial online defamation law. At the same time Suu Kyi has been accused of backing misinformation and distorted reports about the Rakhine crisis.

State media published by the Suu Kyi-controlled Ministry of Information has continuously echoed the military line, rejecting allegations of atrocities against the Rohingya as "fake news". That has put her at odds with a mountain of evidence and an international community calling for justice.

The Guardian quoted a report that said at least 38 people had been charged with online defamation since April 2016, most under the infamous Article 66D of the Telecommunications Law. Reporter Maung Maung Tun, who was slapped with defamation rights in December 2016, said, I feel very disappointed, very sad, he says. Now it is getting worse than before in terms of freedom of press and freedom of speech. For the state media, the minister [of information] has changed but nothing else has changed.

Laura Haigh, Amnesty Internationals Myanmar researcher, said, They dismiss reports of rights abuses as fake news and allegations of sexual violence as fake rape, yet at the same time are not allowing independent journalists full and unfettered access to the area.

Those who do report on the situation face threats and intimidation which has had a chilling effect on press freedom and has led some media workers to self-censor," she said.

The Guardian report quotes Maung Saungkha, poet and activist: " Saungkha likens the desire for free speech in his country to the thirst for water after a long drought. The quantity poured out since the new government took power would not make up even a litre, he says with a wry smile, tapping an empty bottle on the table of a cafe. Just one cup."

Suu Kyi and freedom of speech

The year 2012 was apparently an eventful year for Suu Kyi as she travelled abroad to accept her Nobel Peace Prize, speak to the British Parliament, meet with the then-President Barack Obama and receive the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington DC, Suu Kyi hailed the importance of free speech in a piece for The Guardian. Titled 'The Fight for Freedom begins with Freedom of Speech', Suu Kyi highlighted the importance of speech and wrote, "When speaking out against existing wrongs and injustices is disallowed, society is deprived of a vital impetus towards positive change and renewal.

Censorship laws that ostensibly protect society from iniquitous influences generally achieve little that is positive. The most usual result is a pervasive atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that strangles innovative thought."

She further added that "It has been rightly pointed out that what is most important is not so much freedom of speech as freedom after speech." Using the example of "long years of authoritarian rule" in Myanmar, she said that members of the "movement for democracy" had been punished for "speaking out in protest against violations of human rights".

She said, "The few who spoke out were articulating the silent protest of the many who had been cowed into submission." In conclusion, Suu Kyi said that, "An advocate of freedom of expression is necessarily also a practitioner."

Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent the duration between 1989 and 2010 in some form of detention as a result of her work to bring democracy in the then-military ruled Myanmar. She was hailed as an icon of peace even in a situation of oppression. Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but was able to receive in only in 2012.

In 1947 after her father, a freedom fighter was assassinated Suu Kyi left Myanmar only to return to the country in 1988. It was at this point that Myanmar was in political upheaval against the military rule and Suu Kyi felt compelled to stay and put up a peaceful fight for democracy. BBC reported that, in a speech in Rangoon in August 1988, she said, "I could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on," and got involved in leading the revolt against the then-dictator, General Ne Win.

Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in 1989 and was released in November 2010. In 2015, her party National League for Democracy won the first openly contested elections in a landslide victory.

In recent years, she has faced criticism due to her response to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state, and her denial of 'ethnic cleansing' of the Rohingya Muslims of the state.By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump plan to discuss North Korea during the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month, Moon's office and the White House said on Tuesday, amid lacklustre progress on the North's nuclear issues

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump plan to discuss North Korea during the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month, Moon's office and the White House said on Tuesday, amid lacklustre progress on the North's nuclear issues.

Moon and Trump spoke for 50 minutes by telephone on Tuesday, a day before Moon's special envoys were due to visit Pyongyang to discuss a third summit to be held this month between the liberal South Korean leader and his North Korean counterpart.

The planned inter-Korean summit follows Trump's cancellation of a visit to Pyongyang by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month after Pompeo received a belligerent letter from a senior North Korean official.

Moon and Trump agreed in their call "to explore the idea of meeting in person on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly and having in-depth consultations on strategies and how to cooperate on the peninsula issues," Moon's office said in a statement.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Moon briefed Trump on his plan to send a special envoy to Pyongyang on Wednesday to meet Kim.

"They agreed to meet later this month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York," she said.

Kim vowed during his unprecedented summit with Trump in June in Singapore to work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, but the two sides have made little headway towards that goal.

Earlier on Tuesday, Chung Eui-yong, chief of the national security office at Seoul's presidential Blue House, said he would deliver a letter from Moon to Kim when he visits the North, without elaborating on its contents.

Chung said he wanted to discuss with Pyongyang officials ways to achieve the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul will continue to push for a joint declaration of an end to the 1950-53 Korean War this year with the United States, Chung told reporters.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones and James Dalgleish)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Gina Cherelus (Reuters) - The leading edge of Tropical Storm Gordon hurled rough surf, gusty winds and heavy rain at parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday afternoon, hours before it was due to make landfall, possibly as a hurricane, forecasters said. The storm caused global oil prices to rise after two oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) - The leading edge of Tropical Storm Gordon hurled rough surf, gusty winds and heavy rain at parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday afternoon, hours before it was due to make landfall, possibly as a hurricane, forecasters said.

The storm caused global oil prices to rise after two oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated.

Gordon was due to come ashore late on Tuesday near the border between Louisiana and Mississippi, and drop as much as 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in areas still recovering from last year's powerful hurricanes, the National Hurricane Center said.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency.

Winds of about 65 miles per hour (105 km per hour) in the afternoon were expected to reach hurricane force of at least 74 mph (119 kph) by the time storm reaches the Gulf Coast.

"Im asking all residents to do their part in getting ready for this storm," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement. "The Citys absolute number one priority is to ensure the safety of our residents."

Beaches around Mobile, Alabama, were being washed by storm-driven waves on Tuesday morning, said Stephen Miller, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

"We're expecting an increase in winds," Miller said in a telephone interview. "We could see flooding."

Outer rainbands of the storm were producing gusty winds and heavy rain along the coast of the western Florida Panhandle, the National Hurricane Center said in an afternoon advisory.

Sea levels could rise as much as 5 feet (1.5 m) from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama, forecasters said.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told South Mississippi residents to be prepared to evacuate.

GET READY

As of Tuesday afternoon, Gordon was about 130 miles (205 km) south-southeast of Mobile, Alabama, about 145 miles southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi, and heading west-northwest, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Chuck Lamey, owner of Pops Pizzeria in Biloxi, Mississippi, said he planned to close by 3 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. on Tuesday before the storm hits land.

"We're hoping to open at regular time tomorrow at 11 o' clock, but if it's still a threat we'll postpone the opening," Lamey said. "We want the employees to be safe and have time to prepare."

U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms on Monday, and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of U.S. crude oil and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the ports of New Orleans and Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, may have to close within 48 hours.

Last year, hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing widespread destruction and thousands of deaths.

Gordon was expected to weaken rapidly after moving ashore, forecasters said.

The Inn at Ocean Springs and The Roost Hotel in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, had guests planning to ride out the storm, said Kristin Smith, general manager of both hotels.

"A lot of guests are real comfortable sticking it out in our rooms," Smith said in a telephone interview. "Any of our guests who feel like they want to go home we encourage them to follow their instincts."

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by Frank McGurty, Toni Reinhold)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.US senators have said that Pakistan is at risk of debt due to rising current-account deficit and external debt obligations caused by the CPEC, in a letter written to the secretary of state Michael Pompeo and secretary of treasury Steven Mnuchin.

Washington: As newly elected government in Pakistan, headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, is willing to pursue an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, a group of United States (US) senators have asserted that Islamabad is at risk of debt distress due to rising current-account deficit and external debt obligations caused by the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

David Perdue, Patrick Leahy and 14 other US senators have written to the secretary of state Michael Pompeo and secretary of treasury Steven Mnuchin while expressing concern over bailout request by countries that fall in China's debt trap. "This financial crisis illustrates the dangers of China's debt-trap diplomacy and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to developing countries, as well as the national security threat they pose to the United States," said the senators in their letter.

The Centre for Global Development has estimated that of the 68 countries currently hosting BRI-funded projects, 23 countries are at risk of debt distress, and in eight of those countries, future BRI-related financing raises serious concerns about sovereign debt sustainability.

"It is also found that Chinese behaviour as a creditor has not been subject to the disciplines and standards that other major sovereigns and other multilateral creditors have adopted collectively, and in the process, debt levels and dependence on China are rising," said the senators by citing an example of Sri Lanka, which was promised a bailout of $1.5 billion by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2016.

As financially strapped countries negotiate with China to free themselves of mounting debt, Beijing has extracted onerous concessions, including equity in strategically important assets. Further, Beijing has reportedly used economic pressure to affect foreign policy decisions.

The senators wrote, "In Djibouti, for instance, China has provided more than $1.4 billion in infrastructure funding, equivalent to 75 percent of Djibouti's gross domestic product (GDP). Most of that capital comes in the form of loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. The most recent IMF assessment stresses the extremely risky nature of Djibouti's borrowing program, noting that in just two years, public external debt has increased from 50 to 85 percent of GDP, the highest of any low-income country."

"As Djibouti increases its dependence on China, there are fears that China will gain control of the Doraleh Container Terminal, further consolidating China's influence in the critically strategic region," the letter added.

Last year, the Sri Lankan government, after being unable to repay over $1 billion of Chinese debt for construction of the Hambantota Port, granted a Chinese state company a 99-year lease on the facility.

There are concerns that given Pakistan's growing Chinese debt, the same could happen at Gwadar Port in Pakistan.

The US senators, who have also addressed their letter to defence secretary James Mattis wrote, "In China's String of Pearls strategy for the Indo-Pacific, Gwadar and Hambantota are important footholds that if converted into naval bases will enable the PLA Navy to maintain a permanent presence in the Indian Ocean."Venkaiah Naidu during his first visit to US will address the Indian diaspora at an event which will commemorate the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's speech at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

Washington: In his first visit to the US as vice president, M Venkaiah Naidu will address people of Indian origin in Chicago at an event to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's speech at the Parliament of Religions in 1893.

The event will be held on the last day of the World Hindu Congress, which begins on 7 September and ends 9 September.

"The vice president is coming to the programme organised to commemorate the 125th anniversary speech of Swami Vivekananda in Chicago in 1893," convener, WHC, Abhaya Asthana, said on Monday.

The WHC, held every four years, is expected to be attended by over 2,500 Hindus from more than 80 countries and is being organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America.

Unlike the WHC for which participants have to pre-register, the event to commemorate Vivekanada's speech is open to the public.

In his address, Naidu is likely to talk about the relevance of teachings of Vivekananda in the contemporary world and how his preaching could be useful in addressing major global and societal problems.ADEN (Reuters) - Yemenis file into a makeshift cinema for the first time since fighting broke out in their city of Aden more than three years ago - and watch some of their own story reflected back at them on the projector screen. The film they have come to see is 'Ten Days Before the Wedding' - a gripping drama about a young couple from the southern port city whose marriage plans are nearly derailed by the country's civil war and other troubles. It is the first film publicly screened there since the conflict erupted, and the first local Yemeni production in years.

ADEN (Reuters) - Yemenis file into a makeshift cinema for the first time since fighting broke out in their city of Aden more than three years ago - and watch some of their own story reflected back at them on the projector screen.

The film they have come to see is "Ten Days Before the Wedding" - a gripping drama about a young couple from the southern port city whose marriage plans are nearly derailed by the country's civil war and other troubles.

It is the first film publicly screened there since the conflict erupted, and the first local Yemeni production in years.

The story rings true for the audience of men and mostly veiled women, sitting on chairs in a hall which is normally used for real-life weddings and other events.

"We lived through each stage of the movie, which talks about each one of us, so we felt as though the film represented us and we were a part of it," says audience member Nour Sareeb.

The story follows the romance between Rasha and Mamoun and branches out to cover broader issues including the country's economic collapse and the prospects of rebuilding after violence.

Characters wrestle with falling incomes, rising prices and the problems of raising a dowry.

"We've all suffered because of the war, it has affected us all, but we all have ambition and hopes that the country will get better. We all aspire to be happy in this country," Nour adds.

"WE ARE WITH YOU"

Yemen has been devastated by a conflict in which President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi's government, backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, is fighting to drive the Iran-aligned Houthi group out of the capital Sanaa and other cities it seized in 2014.

Violence dropped off in Aden after pro-government fighters recaptured it from Houthi forces in 2015, though battles erupted again earlier this year as southern separatists fought government troops nominally on the same side of the larger war.

The threat of attacks by militants remains, including some from hardline groups opposed to the Western-tinged world of cinema. And economic decline exacerbated by a weakening currency triggered protests this week that paralyzed activity in Aden and nearby areas.

In such an environment, finding investors for the film was not easy, says director Amr Gamal.

"We had to oppose these ideas that make you fear producing anything in the arts and we had to strive and work hard," he tells Reuters.

"We met with the production team and decided to do it after everyone's agreement. They all told me 'We are with you,' and we were surprised to find that the people in the street supported us," he adds.

The film premiered in Aden during last month's Eid al-Adha Muslim festival and has been running ever since.

The United Nations says the war has created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, and rights groups say both sides have inflicted indiscriminate violence. More than 10,000 people have been killed, while hunger and disease have spread.

(Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Shares of Tahoe Resources (NYSE: TAHO) can't seem to find a bottom. The gold and silver mining stock tumbled 23.1% in August, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, hitting multiyear lows.

From a big quarterly loss to yet another blow to its flagship mine to a protest at another mine to some contract workers getting abducted (yes, you read that right), Tahoe Resources' problems spiraled out of control last month.

So what

To start, when Tahoe reported its second-quarter earnings on August 1, one number that stood out was nil silver production. The miner's key silver mine, Escobal in Guatemala, was mothballed last year after the suspension of its license following a legal embroglio involving the Ministry of Energy and Mines. When fully operational, Escobal produced nearly 20 million metric tons of silver annually between 2014 and 2017.

As a result, Tahoe suffered a loss of $15.6 million in Q2 compared with a profit of $33.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The miner's gold production was decent at 103,000 ounces, but its all-in sustaining cost soared nearly 15% to $1,060 an ounce.

The key takeaway from Tahoe's earnings report? There are no signs of its flagship mine, Escobal, restarting anytime soon.

In fact, just weeks after its earnings release, Tahoe announced a layoff of 200 employees at subsidiary Minera San Rafael, which runs the Escobal mine. With that, Tahoe has now laid off 70% of its workforce at the mine. The miner even reported an incident of abduction of 12 security contract workers at Minera San Rafael later in August. While the workers were released, the event reiterated how unconducive Guatemala is for any mining company. It's unfortunate that Tahoe depends almost entirely on the region for its business.

To rub salt in its wounds, Tahoe suspended operations at one of its gold mines, La Arena in Peru, starting August 31 after a protest by locals.

Now what

Tahoe Resources is expanding its gold production and expects to produce 500,000 ounces in 2019. The miner also remained cash flow positive in Q2 and ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $69.7 million. That's not too bad, but with Escobal's fate in limbo, losses piling up, and disruptions cropping up at some mine or another at regular intervals, Tahoe could soon face a liquidity crunch.

In short, there's no visibility whatsoever in the mining company's future, especially given its huge stake in the troubled Guatemala, making Tahoe Resources a stock to avoid at all costs.Vincent PetersIt's been sixteen years, but Kelly Clarkson is still thanking fans for allowing her to have "A Moment Like This."

On September 4, 2002, Kelly was crowned the very-first winner of American Idol. In a tweet Tuesday, she wrote, "16 years ago today the people of America changed my life and I will be forever grateful & appreciative."

Since her victory, Kelly's gone on to become a multi-platinum selling, chart-topping Grammy winner and a TV personality, as well as a wife, mother and stepmom of four. That's in addition to being a figure of female empowerment and a pop music icon. Amazingly, she's managed all this while maintaining her down-to-earth, everywoman image.

Notably, in that same tweet, before she mentioned American Idol, Kelly also gave a shoutout to Nike for tapping Colin Kaepernick as one of the faces of its 30th anniversary campaign.

"Thank you @Nike for simply backing what you believe in," Kelly wrote. "One of the best parts about this country is the freedom we have to express ourselves."

Responses to Kelly's tweet ranged from fans celebrating her American Idol win, to those thanking her for the Nike support, to those decrying her supposed "anti-patriotism."

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.



In Montreal, Canada, over the weekend, New City Gas hosted both Yellow Claw and YOOKie for a huge and extremely bass-heavy show.

Unfortunately for YOOKie, their set was cut short after the duo were accused of going "too hard".... Um, what?

YOOKie took to Twitter to address the situation:Posted on: September 4, 2018 2:42 PM

The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has strongly condemned people who militantly present falsehoods about the Communion, despite knowing that what they are saying is untrue. Dr Idowu-Fearon made his comments as he gave his annual report to the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council, at the start of their four-day meeting in London. The Secretary General told the Committee members that listening to what is going on in the Communion has been very encouraging.

He highlighted a number of areas of what he called rumours and gossip, including the decision to move the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council from Brazil to Hong Kong. The decision was taken, he reminded the Standing Committee, after the then-Primate of Brazil, Bishop Francisco de Assis da Silva, said that his province could not host the meeting because of economic, political and provincial difficulties. We owe it to him to let people know the truth, he said. Please tell people the true story before spinners go to work.

He also dismissed allegations that the Anglican Communion had gone back on what the Primates requested at the end of their January 2016 meeting, when they agreed consequences on the US-based Episcopal Church over its decision to change its canons on marriage. Everything asked for in the communique, has been done, he said.

The Secretary Generals report was an overview of the Anglican Communion and the work of the Anglican Communion Office, he said. Many of the areas would be covered in more depth over the course of this weeks meeting.

Speaking about the meeting of Anglican Bishops, due to take place in Canterbury in 2020, he praised the work of Lambeth Conference Chief Executive Phil George, and said: The momentum of expectation for the conference is building and is being evidenced through the engagement with Primates in the regional meetings held so far. The regional Primates Meetings, held throughout this year and next, are being held to help set the agenda for the Lambeth Conference.

As we move towards the Lambeth Conference there are consistent reminders that it is more than a unique gathering of bishops and their spouses, he said in his report. Like all Lambeth Conferences there is enormous opportunity and expectation: the whole Anglican Communion, the wider Christian Church, other faith communities and the secular world will all be looking to the Conference to deliver a refreshed vision for being Gods Church in Gods World.

On the Primates meeting, he said that between the January 2016 and October 2017 Primates Meetings, there were 16 new Primates. And, since the October 2017 meeting there had already been a further seven new Primates, with more elections due before the Lambeth Conference.

This rate of change in provincial leadership across the Communion creates a significant challenge in terms of the building of relationships and sharing of the journey taken by Primates together over the past few years, he said. At the same time it provides great opportunity for Provinces to review their position, identify strongly with their peers and ensure maximum involvement in the global issues and initiatives being taken across the Communion.

The report addressed a number of issues, including education and understanding in the Communion, ecumenical dialogues, finance, growth, provincial ambitions, and the state of the Communion.iVOOMI announces its online-only smartphone brand Innelo in India News oi-Priyanka The company also plans to will invest $10 million in the initial first year of its operations.

Chinese smartphone maker iVOOMi announced the launch of its 'India-first' sub-brand Innelo, to cater to the diversified needs of the smartphone buyers in India.

With an online-first focus, Innelo has tied up with Amazon India to be its exclusive online partner. The company also plans to will invest $10 million in the initial first year of its operations.

Ashwin Bhandari, CEO, Innelo India says: "We are delighted to bring our sub-brand Innelo to India. With a vision to capture the premium smartphones and accessories market, we aim to bring high-end technology products and offer them at pocket-friendly prices. With Innelo, we intend to become a sustainable, youth-centric technology conglomerate; creating products for India, in India."

The new brand will be backed by supply chain, operations and service infrastructure of iVOOMi in the Indian market with sales being skilfully supported by a dedicated network of 500+ service centers across the country.

"The brand's products are tailor-made to suit the Indian audience and environment. These products would be launched in the price segment of 7K to 13K. We are in India for the long run and will affirmatively contribute to the 'Make in India' initiative. Currently, the company's products would be assembled and packaged in India", he added.

The company plans to launch its 1 Smartphone, featuring a Notch Display, designed for the urban and young audience of the country.

Furthermore, the product range would include smartphones, smart accessories, and more.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsOnePlus 6 gets OxygenOS open beta based on Android 9 Pie News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu OnePlus 6 to soon get the stable version of the update.

OnePlus 6, the current generation flagship from the Chinese company is one of the smartphones to get the Android 9 Pie update soon after its launch. Now, the device has received the latest iteration of OxygenOS open beta update based on Android 9 Pie under the open beta program.

With the Android 9 Pie update, this smartphone gets features such as navigation gestures, a new user interface, system customizations and many other new features. The update also brings support for a new Do Not Disturb mode along with adjustable settings, accent color customization, and a new Gaming Mode 3.0, claims the official OnePlus forum.

As it is a beta update, the company has issued a warning that some applications might not function as intended while running this beta version. It also adds that the Google Pay service will not work right now and the Google Play Store might display a "Device is not Certified by Google" warning.

How to update to Android 9 Pie

If you use the OnePlus 6 and want to get the Android Pie update, then you should visit this link and download the custom ROM upgrade package. Doing so, copy the file to the mobile storage and visit Settings  System updates  Local upgrade (the top right icon)  click on the installation package and immediate upgrade.

Stable Android 9 Pie update

Given that the Android 9 Pie beta update is available for the OnePlus 6, we can expect the stable build to be rolled out soon. We already know that after this smartphone, the previous generation models including OnePlus 5, 5T, OnePlus 3 and 3T will get the Pie update.

Android 9 Pie changelog

Android Pie, the latest iteration of the OS is available in the beta phase since March. This update comes with a slew of improvements, battery saving optimizations, new personalization features and tools to track the time spent by the users on the device.

Moreover, this latest version of Android addresses the recent trends such as the gesture-based navigation system. It also comes with a new gesture-based navigation system and gesture-based shortcuts as well. For now, this is touted to be the most personalized version of the OS.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsVivo V11 Pro poster reveals the design and launch offers of the smartphone News oi-Karan Vivo is all set to launch its upcoming smartphone in India on September 6. Ahead of the official launch, a promotional poster has been spotted on a retail store revealing the launch offers.

Vivo is gearing up to launch its V11 Pro smartphone soon in India, and the launch date is scheduled for September 6. The smartphone will be launched at an event in Mumbai. Now the company has released a poster which not only confirms the design of the Vivo V11 Pro but also the kind of offers customers will receive with the phone.

Vivo V11 Pro design

A poster of the device has been spotted on a retailer's shop which hints that there could be two variants launching on September 6, called Vivo V11 and V11 Pro.

As you can see in the poster, that both the smartphone comes with a full-screen display, along with a Waterdrop notch on the top. The front panel is dominated by the display and the rear panel comes with a dual camera setup stacked vertically on the top left corner of the phone. The leaked poster also confirms that the Vivo V11 Pro will come with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

Vivo V11 Pro offers

If you see the bottom of the poster, you can get some launch day offers for the Vivo V11 Pro. The offers include EMIs option which starts from Rs 1,733 per month. Buyer will also get a one-time screen replacement for Rs 999 within first six months.

HDFC bank credit and debit cardholders will receive a flat Rs 2,000 cashback. The Reliance Jio subscribers will receive benefits of worth Rs 4,050. The smartphone is expected to be available on both Amazon India and Flipkart.

Vivo V11 Pro rumored specifications,

According to rumors, the Vivo V11 Pro is expected to flaunt a 6.41-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Display, along with a Waterdrop notch on the top. The smartphone is said to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC, clubbed with 6GB RAM, and 64GB internal storage, and support for up to 256GB microSD card.

The smartphone is expected to sport a dual rear camera with the combination of 12-megapixel + 5-megapixel at the back along with an LED flash. On the front, the smartphone houses a 25-megapixel selfie camera backed by Artificial Intelligence.

The Vivo V11 Pro is said to be fueled by a 3,400mAh battery and supports dual-engine fast charging. It is said to run on Android 8.1 Oreo-based Funtouch OS 4.0 out-of-the-box.

Source

Best Mobiles in IndiaPosted on: September 4, 2018 2:22 PM

[ACNS, by Kenyi Dube in Juba] The national youth coordinator for the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) has died after being shot while travelling to Yei. Thousands of young people gathered at the house of Joseph Kiri yesterday (Monday) to pay their respects for the youth worker and evangelist, who was killed just days after the Primate of South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, said more needed to be done to turn a peace deal on paper into peace on the ground.

In addition to his work with the ECSS, Joseph Kiri worked for a church humanitarian organisation Across. He was shot near the village of Limbe, a few kilometres away from Yei, when unknown gunmen targeted his NGO vehicle. He was travelling to Yei to deliver field reports for Across, where he worked as a nutrition officer.

The Executive Director of Across, Elisama Wani Daniel, said that Kiri died instantly after being shot in the chest as the vehicle was sprayed with bullets. His driver, Maliamungu, managed to escape and ran to a military base at Limbe. Soldiers rushed to the scene of the attack and recovered Kiris body, which was being transferred to the capital Juba, today.

In a Tweet, the Primate of South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, said that he and his wife, Mama Joyce, were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of the Provincial Youth Coordinator, Joseph Kiri, in an ambush on Lainya  Yei road yesterday.

Our prayers are with his family. We ask all parties to respect the ceasefire.

The Provincial Secretary of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, John Augustino Lumori, described Kiri as a talented, sound and vibrant youth. He described his death as a very big loss to the entire Episcopal Church of South Sudan.

Many senior church leaders have condemned the barbaric act done to innocent civilians in a humanitarian car. They have urged all those holding guns countrywide to respect civilians who are unarmed as well as humanitarian agencies.

Recently a United Nations peace-keeping soldier from Bangladesh was killed in a similar act, after armed men shot from the bush on humanitarian conveys. The shooting was condemned by the UN humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan.

Despite the signed cessation of hostilities in Khartoum between the parties to the conflict, there has been little sign of the parties showing their commitment to what they have signed.

Additional reporting by Gavin Drake in LondonPresident of Rwanda: FOCAC held at a time when cooperation is needed more than ever

People's Daily Online

(People's Daily Online) 17:14, September 03, 2018

The China-Rwanda cooperation is a "productive partnership" that benefits both countries, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Sunday, Sept. 2, in the run-up to the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

"We have benefited a lot from China's support in our social and economic programs, and that has continued to strengthen the partnership between China and Rwanda," Kagame explained during an interview with People's Daily Online.

Mr. Kagame is also serving as the rotating chair of the African Union (AU) this year. He said he's happy to do his part to help bring African countries and China closer together under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), noting that this year marks the 5th anniversary of the BRI's launch.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is a very good concept where each country involved finds a place for its own development in areas like industrialization, infrastructure and green economy. The progress made for all players has been so far so good. We will continue to play our own role to make sure we contribute to the overall development framework," Kagame said.

Kagame expects the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit to help both African countries and China identify areas of required improvement. "We need to do more and do better than we have already achieved in the last several years," Kagame said, adding, "FOCAC can show the world how countries can work collaboratively at a time when issues like trade protectionism continue to brew."

This year's summit is themed "China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation."

Kagame notes that "no matter the distance, we are driven by the same aspirations: development and stability. We should do what we can to make sure the world we live in is taken good care of."

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FOCAC provides opportunities to discuss key priorities: Sierra Leone's foreign minister

People's Daily Online

By Joseph S. Margai (People's Daily Online) 18:02, September 03, 2018

Sierra Leone's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr. Alie Kabba, has said that the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) provides an excellent opportunity for both Chinese government and its African counterparts to sit down together and discuss key priorities.

Dr. Kabba, who spoke to this journalist in an exclusive interview in Beijing on Sep 2, 2018, explained, "the 2018 Beijing summit of FOCAC is a way of deepening ties between Africa and China."

"We are confident that at the end of FOCAC, we are going to emerge stronger and better in terms of the relationship and cooperation between Africa and China. China has always been a good friend of Africa. For us in Sierra Leone in particular, we have established a relationship of over 47 years with China. So, our presence here is an affirmation of the deep standing friendship between our two peoples," he said.

The Foreign Affairs minister said he expects that during this FOCAC summit, several areas of cooperation will be covered, adding that China is very active in all key areas in Sierra Leone's economy, agriculture, infrastructure, communication, education, health and electricity.

He also stated that the FOCAC summit is going to build on previous achievements, noting that he's confident that this particular summit will lay the foundation for significant engagement and cooperation between Africa and China.

Dr. Kabba, who was part of the delegation during President Xi Jinping's meeting with Sierra Leonean president, Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, and also signed several agreements, said President Bio's state visit was a momentous occasion for the two leaders to meet.

"The meetings were very productive, and I was able to sign four agreements. Those agreements reflect wide areas of cooperation between the two countries. They include agreements on fisheries, agriculture and education, and when you look at those agreements, you can sense a deeper relationship between China and Sierra Leone," he said. He added that President Bio has prioritized the relationship between his country and China since he took over office.

He noted that Sierra Leone, under the leadership of President Bio, is going to continue to be a friendly nation and to count on China to fill in the void regarding development.

China has witnessed great development in all areas, which is evident when visiting its municipalities and provinces, where people no longer wish to move to the country's bigger cities as they have everything they need at home.

Asked if he thinks such development would work in Sierra Leone in order to decrease rural-urban migration, which would subsequently decongest the country's cities, Dr. Kabba said President Bio has always said that his delegation came to China to learn from the Chinese experience.

"That is why we are joined by our Minister of Planning and Economic Development, to understand how China has been able to make great strides in such a short time since her reforms and opening up. We have visited places to see for ourselves, we now have an idea of how to manage growing population, and also responsibly manage the environment, while investing smartly in the economy to lift people out of poverty," he noted.

He added that they are learning a great deal from the state visit and there are essential elements that they hope will be applicable in Sierra Leone.

"I'm sure that in the coming years in Sierra Leone, we will see a lot of these lessons reflected in our development priorities, especially in the areas of planning, how we are going to manage the growing population of our cities, and also the infrastructure that we need to connect our people together," he stated.

In the area of people-to-people exchange between China and Sierra Leone, the foreign affairs minister said the fact that Sierra Leoneans have been able to engage with their Chinese counterparts to share ideas is a welcome thing.

"Every year, China provides scholarships for our well-deserving students to come and study in Chinese universities. The Chinese also have opportunities to go to Sierra Leone. We have medical corps that visit the country on a yearly basis, to provide medical assistance in the healthcare sector. I can also say that throughout the year, we have short training opportunities for technical cooperation between us," Minister Kabba said.

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Israel will act 'unilaterally' on Gaza Strip, West Bank issues: Lieberman

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 05:34PM

Israel's minister for military affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, says negotiations with Palestinian authorities on the situation in both besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied west Bank are pointless and that Tel Aviv should act on the Palestinian issue in both regions "unilaterally."

"I'm aware of all the negotiations and all the mediators and everything going on there. The negotiations, regardless of whether they're on Ramallah or Gaza [City], won't lead us anywhere," he said at a press conference at Jerusalem al-Quds on Monday, referring to the capital cities of the West bank and Gaza Strip, respectively.

Lieberman's comments came as Egypt and the United Nations are working to hammer out a lasting ceasefire between the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, which has been running the Gaza Strip since 2006, and the Israeli regime after months of tensions and violence in the occupied territories.

"All the negotiations have led us to a dead end, therefore we need to act on the Palestinian issue -- regarding Ramallah and Gaza -- unilaterally, and define the reality unilaterally, according to our understanding," Lieberman added.

Tensions have been running high along the Gaza fence since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests, dubbed "The Great March of Return," demanding the right to return for those driven out of their homeland by Israel.

The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds. Israeli fire has so far taken the lives of more than 170 Palestinians since March 30.

Israel conducts regular air raids on Palestinians in Gaza under the pretext of hitting Hamas targets. The Gaza Strip has also been under an inhumane Israeli siege since 2007, causing a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty. Tel Aviv has waged three wars on the coastal enclave since 2008, including the 2014 offensive, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead.

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UNRWA head says millions of Palestinian refugees 'cannot be simply wished away'

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 01:59PM

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has warned that millions of Palestinian refugees "cannot simply be wished away," hitting back at a controversial decision made by the United States to cut off its aid to the support agency.

"I express deep regret and disappointment at the nature of the US decision," UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl said in an open letter to Palestinian refugees and the agency's staff in which he pledged its operations would continue.

"No matter how often attempts are made to minimize or de-legitimize the individual and collective experiences of Palestine refugees, the undeniable fact remains that they have rights under international law and represent a community of 5.4 million men, women and children who cannot simply be wished away," he added.

Krahenbuhl's comments came three days after the US State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, referred to the aid program as "irredeemably flawed," adding that the US administration had "carefully reviewed" the issue and "will not make additional contributions to UNRWA."

Hours after Nauert's remarks, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas lambasted the decision as a "flagrant assault" against Palestinians.

Last month, the State Department also announced that Washington had canceled over $200 million in funds for the Palestinian Authority, leading Palestinian officials to denounce the move as "blackmail."

The US, which roughly provided one-third of UNRWA's budget, suspended $65 million of the $125 million in aid it planned to contribute to the program back in January. Krahenbuhl said some Persian Gulf states had injected funds but UNRWA still needed more than $200 million. It is, however, not yet clear which states have received the green light to partly compensate for the Agency's budget deficit.

Washington's move against UNRWA forced Krahenbuhl to start a fundraising appeal, to which Belgium was the first to respond, offering a generous $23 million.

A few months later, Qatar, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, Korea, Mexico, Slovakia, India and France also pledged $100 million in new financing to UNRWA after an emergency donor conference held in Rome back in March.

UNRWA was originally set up in 1949 to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war in the Middle East mainly through providing them with humanitarian aid. It was initially established as a temporary agency, but it has continued to provide support for Palestinian refugees for the better part of six decades.

It currently supports more than five million Palestinians across in besieged Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, providing them with health care, education and social services. Most are descendants of the roughly 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation.

Separately on Monday, UNRWA opened its school year as scheduled in Lebanon. Studies in UNRWA-run schools in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip got under way on Wednesday.

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US receives advanced air defense radar from Ukraine

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 10:10AM

The US Army has received an advanced air defense radar system it bought from Ukraine, after a firm allegedly linked to Russia tried to block the sale.

The US Army Contracting Command center in Orlando, Florida received the 3D mobile radar system from through the Ukrainian state company SFTC "Progress," according to the ImportGenius, an Arizona-based company which tracks import/export activity at various shipping docks.

The 36D6M1-1 radar, developed by Ukraine's state-owned Scientific and Production Complex "Iskra," is a designed to be used in modern automated air defense system and anti-aircraft missile systems.

The 3D radar's main function is to detect low flying air targets under active and passive jamming. It can also be used to control military and civilian air traffic.

Defense Blog, the first website to report the story, wrote Monday that the US Army was going to analyze the system and probably use it to simulate opposition force (OPFOR) equipment in training.

Dubbed "Tin Shield" by NATO, the highly mobile radar system has been used in variants of the Russian air defense system S300.

Many countries including Iran, China and Russia are currently operating different iterations of the air defense system.

Defense Blog wrote that a company "associated with Russia" had tried to block Iskra from selling the system to the US, on the grounds that it had failed to pay royalties for using patented technologies.

Russia is known to have developed sophisticated radar technologies for its air defense systems, enabling them to detect and target aircraft and missiles of various types in lower and higher altitudes.

The US, on the other hand, has struggled to develop battle-tested system that can offer the same level of protection.

The vulnerability of American missile defense systems became apparent December last year, when Yemeni Scud-type missiles were able to bypass US-made Patriot missile shields and land in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.

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China unilaterally increasing military activities in disputed sea: Japan defense chief

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 09:02AM

The Japanese defense chief claims China is "unilaterally" stepping up its military activities in the East China Sea, which has been the subject of a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo.

China "is unilaterally escalating its military activities in the sea and aviation spaces around our country. This has become a significant concern for our country's defense," Itsunori Onodera said on Monday at an annual gathering of the top brass of Japan's military.

Beijing's military measures, he added, include carrying out new airborne operations around Japan and running a nuclear submarine near disputed East Coast isles.

He said Japan faced a tough security environment, with China and Russia stepping up military activity and North Korea posing "imminent threats."

China and Japan have been in a long-lasting territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea referred to as the Diaoyu Islands by Beijing and Senkaku by Tokyo.

Ties between the two sides deteriorated after Tokyo nationalized part of the resource-rich islands in 2012.

China maintains that it has indisputable sovereignty over them. The Japanese government, instead, regards them as a part of its territory.

Onodera's comments could worsen the diplomatic tensions with China ahead of a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next month.

Abe is expected to make efforts to improve diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Beijing by proposing new trust-building measures and exchanging security assurances between the sides.

On Sunday, media quoted Abe as saying the relationship between the two trade partners had returned to a "normal track."

The Japanese defense minister further said Moscow is flexing its military muscle as it is preparing for its biggest military drill since the cold war era and is taking powerful weapons, including ground-to-air missiles, to the disputed Southern Kuril islands.

"We are seeing movement to again push forward its military activities in the Far East," he said.

Onodera also reaffirmed Tokyo's stance on North Korea, saying the country poses a "serious and imminent threat" to Japan despite its latest detente with the South and the US.

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Trump says Arabs can fund UNRWA on US terms: Report

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 07:11AM

After cutting money to the UN refugee agency helping Palestinians, the United States now says Persian Gulf Arab states can plug the gap provided that they meet the new guidelines set out by the Trump administration.

According to Israel's Channel Two, American officials have informed Israel that any further funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) would be on US terms.

The US announced on Friday that it will no longer support UNRWA, saying the agency needed to make unspecified reforms as it called on Palestinians to renew "peace" talks with Israel.

Channel Two said that US officials have allegedly allowed Persian Gulf states to fund UNWRA projects in the short term, but the ultimate plan is to close down the agency once and for all.

"US approval for funding would include any future sponsors to UNWRA committing to redefining the status of the agency, as well as the definition of Palestinian refugees, with the ultimate aim of eventually closing down the agency," it said

It is not yet clear which Persian Gulf states have received the green light to partly compensate for UNRWA's budget deficit of $217 million, which has deepened a cash crisis at the agency in the wake of President Donald Trump's decision.

UNRWA supports more than five million Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, providing healthcare, education and social services.

Most are descendants of the roughly 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled a 1948 war that led to Israel's creation.

Palestinian refugees have reacted with anger to the US decision, warning that it would lead to more instability in the Middle East.

Independent observers say the US decision is in line with implementing the Israeli agenda to unilaterally take the Palestinian right of return off the table.

To Palestinians, the right of return is central to their cause and they see the US decision as a new policy shift aimed at undermining it.

Trump had already angered Palestinians by his December recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's "capital" and axing more than $200 million in bilateral aid for Gaza and the West Bank.

Founded in 1948, UNWRA was established to deal with the mass displacement of Palestinians to Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt following the establishment of the Israeli regime.

Since then, the descendants of those Palestinians who continue to be displaced have benefited from several UNRWA initiatives, including educational facilities.

According to UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness, the agency provides health clinics, schooling for 526,000 refugee children and food assistance to 1.7 million people - a million of them in Gaza.

The Washington Post cited officials familiar with the decision as saying that the US redefinition of Palestinian refugees would reduce the current five million figure to fewer than a tenth of that number because it would exclude the descendants.

Israel has warmly welcomed the decision, with Transport Minister Yisrael Katz saying "the American decision is full support for Israel's position, which completely rejects the right of return for the Palestinians."

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African leaders in China for third summit on cooperation

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 06:05AM

Beijing is hosting African leaders for a high-level summit aimed at strengthening China-Africa relations, with the discussions expected to mainly focus on President Xi Jinping's "new Silk Road" initiative.

The third Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be held in the capital, Beijing, on Monday and Tuesday, with more than 50 African leaders in attendance.

The two-day "mega event" is co-chaired by President Xi and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa.

According to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Xi will use the summit as an opportunity to outline a "specific vision on building a China-Africa community with a shared future, and announce proposals and measures... to strengthen China-Africa cooperation."

South Africa's Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who also attends the summit, said on Sunday that the participants are looking for ways to "advance common growth and development."

High on the agenda is Beijing's multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project, which is also known as the "new Silk Road."

The trade infrastructure project, announced by President Xi in 2013, envisions the construction of railways, roads and ports across the globe to connect China by land and sea to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

The plan, however, has many critics, who believe the project could bury African nations under debt to China, calling it Beijing's "debt trap."

Beijing, however, explains that loans provided under the Belt and Road initiative are not a "trap," arguing that when it comes to "the debt problem, there really is not that much Chinese debt in Africa."

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the current chair of the African Union, has also rejected the "debt trap" allegations, saying they are attempts to discourage African-Chinese interactions.

"Another perspective... is that those criticizing China on debt give too little," he told the official Xinhua news agency.

China has already provided many countries in Asia and Africa with billions of dollars in aid and loans for roads, railways, ports and other major infrastructure projects.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, President Xi reiterated the pledge to provide $60 billion in financial support to Africa in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies

China will also expand its imports from Africa, especially for non-resources products, and will facilitate African financial institutions' bond issuances in China, Xi added.

The Asian country has been Africa's biggest trading partner over the last decade. It has been investing $3 billion a year in Africa over the past few years.

According to its economic data, trade between China and African countries rose 14 percent last year to $170 billion four times Africa's trade with the United States.

Speaking at a business forum ahead of the summit, Xi said Chinese funds are not for "vanity projects" in Africa but are to build infrastructure that can remove bottlenecks in the continent's development.

"Inadequate infrastructure is believed to be the biggest bottleneck to Africa's development," he added.

President Xi meets UN chief

The forum is also being attended by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who arrived in Beijing for his third trip to the country on Sunday.

Guterres met with President Xi ahead of the summit the same day, when he described China-Africa relations as a "central part of South-South cooperation."

He praised Beijing for its commitment to supporting "multilateralism."

Guterres said the UN is willing to strengthen dialog and cooperation with China to build a rule-based multi-polar world and encourage other countries to participate in the Belt and Road initiative.

Xi made no direct mention of the trade tensions with the United States, referring instead to "unilateralism and protectionism rearing its head."

"We are willing to use practical actions to drive all parties to jointly adhere to trade liberalization and facilitation and build an open world economy," Xi added.

The US president has imposed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of imports from China, accusing Beijing of intellectual property theft, obstructing US businesses, and being responsible for America's 375-billion-dollar trade deficit with China.

China, which has also imposed its retaliatory tariffs on US goods, has blasted American unilateralism and filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Washington's moves.

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U.S. Soldier Killed In Afghanistan In 'Apparent' Insider Attack

RFE/RL September 03, 2018

A U.S. service member has been killed and another wounded in an attack in eastern Afghanistan, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission says.

A statement said the "apparent insider attack" occurred on September 3, adding that the service member who died was the sixth American to be killed in Afghanistan this year.

Insider attacks, in which members of Afghan security forces or assailants dressed in Afghan uniforms fire on coalition troops, have become less common in recent years.

"The sacrifice of our service member, who volunteered for a mission to Afghanistan to protect his country, is a tragic loss for all who knew and all who will now never know him," said U.S. General Scott Miller, the new commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The statement did not give the identity of the soldier.

It said that said the wounded service member was in a "stable condition."

The attack comes nearly two months after a member of a U.S. Army training unit was shot dead by an Afghan soldier in the southern province of Oruzgan.

Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Around 14,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan.

Miller assumed command of NATO forces in Afghanistan on September 2, replacing U.S. General John Nicholson.

"To be successful, we must continually learn and adapt to the enemy and the environment," Miller said at a ceremony at Resolute Support's headquarters.

"There is no room for status quo," he added. "We cannot afford to be complacent."

The Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO combat troops in 2014.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-soldier-killed-in-afghanistan -in-apparent-insider-attack/29468815.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Armenian PM Downplays Problems In Russian Relations

RFE/RL's Armenian Service September 03, 2018

YEREVAN -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has downplayed problems in Yerevan's relations with Moscow, describing them as a "work process in its natural course."

Answering questions from citizens in a live Facebook broadcast late on September 2, Pashinian also announced his upcoming visit to Moscow, during which he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He gave no indications of the date of the planned meeting but said it will take place soon.

"This will be our third meeting, and...we will discuss numerous issues that are on the agenda of our relations and will find solutions to numerous problems," Pashinian said.

"I don't mean to insist that all possible problems will be solved, but I can surely say that our natural cooperation continues," he added.

Some analysts suggest that Russia was irked by several moves by the new Armenian government that included the prosecution of former President Robert Kocharian and several other senior former officials on charges related to the deadly postelection crackdown on opposition protesters in 2008.

Among those charged with "overthrowing the constitutional order" is Yuri Khachaturov, a former deputy defense minister who currently chairs the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization.

In July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denounced the prosecutions, arguing that they ran counter to the new Armenian leadership's earlier pledges not to "persecute its predecessors for political motives."

In August, Pashinian, who played a key role in the 2008 protests as an opposition figure, said Moscow should "adapt" to the new political realities of Armenia.

Speculation about souring Armenian-Russian relations increased last week when the Kremlin's official website said Russian President Putin called Kocharian on August 31 to congratulate him on his 64th birthday.

The Kremlin reported no other details of the phone call that came two weeks after Kocharian pledged to return to active politics and challenge the current Armenian government.

In another development, the Russian Interfax news agency reported on August 31 that Moscow had refused to extradite to Yerevan a former Armenian defense minister, Mikael Harutiunian, who is thought to live in Russia, on the grounds that he is also a Russian citizen.

However, a spokesman for Armenian prosecutors denied the report, saying that they were unaware of Harutiunian's whereabouts.

Harutiunian is wanted in Armenia on charges stemming from his alleged role in the 2008 postelection crackdown.

In a separate development on September 3, Armenia's parliament speaker, Ara Babloyan, expressed hope that Armenia will receive contracts from the Syrian government for reconstruction projects.

Babloyan made the remarks during a meeting with Syria's ambassador to Armenia, Mohammed Haj Ibrahim.

Backed by Russia and Iran, forces loyal to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are preparing an offensive in Idlib Province, the last stronghold of fighters opposed to Assad.

That has put Russia and Iranian firms in a position where they are expected to get contracts from the Syrian government for reconstruction projects in the war-torn country.

The United States and its allies say reconstruction assistance should be tied to a process that includes UN-supervised elections and a political transition in Syria.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/armenian-pm-downplays- problems-in-russian-relations/29467625.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Taliban Wants Direct Peace Talks With Afghan Government - Reports

Sputnik News

20:14 03.09.2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The news come after earlier announcement of Afghan Foreign Ministry it would not attend the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan on September 4. Currently, Taliban commander Sher Agha stated that the negotiating sides should be represented by Afghans.

Taliban* movement is in favor of direct peace negotiations with the Afghan authorities without waiting for the participation of other parties, Taliban commander Sher Agha said Monday.

"Peace negotiations should be among Afghans and for Afghans. We should not wait for Pakistan, Iran, Russia, or America to bring peace to Afghanistan," he said, as quoted by CNN.

In August, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi told Sputnik that Kabul would not attend the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan on September 4. Later, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Kabul would take part in talks in Moscow or elsewhere if the Taliban showed willingness for peace talks. The conference was later postponed, while the new date has not been set yet, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Afghanistan has been experiencing significant political, social and security-related instability for decades, as various terrorist organizations continue to stage attacks against civilian and military targets.

*Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia

 Sputnik

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Rwanda Wants Russia to Sign Deal on Air Defense Systems ASAP  Ambassador

Sputnik News

12:46 03.09.2018(updated 15:15 03.09.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Sofya Grebenkina  Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Rwanda where he discussed the provision of the African state with Russian air defense systems. It led to current Rwanda's desire to sign an agreement on supplies as soon as possible, Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, Rwanda's ambassador to Russia, told Sputnik.

"There should be an agreement between Rwanda and Russia on air defense systems I am sure as soon as possible the air defense, the air protection, will be signed between the two countries. The ball is now on the Russian side. We are now waiting for a reaction from our counterparts," the ambassador said.

Mujawamariya pointed out that the agreement would give an opportunity to Rwanda to use Russian experience in ensuring air security.

"The main thing is our air security, and Russia has experience. We have a need and Russia has experience," she noted.

The ambassador added that the countries would also expand cooperation on other security issues.

In June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his visit to Rwanda said that Moscow and Kigali were discussing supplies of Russian air defense systems to the African state with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo.

According to Mushikiwabo, Russia could play a crucial role in peacekeeping on the African continent. The official also noted that Lavrov's visit to the African country was an important step in relations between the two countries.

 Sputnik

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Progress made but Lake Chad crisis is not over, says UN relief chief, urging greater support for region

3 September 2018 - Despite improvements in the humanitarian situation in the Lake Chad region, millions continue to remain dependent on lifesaving assistance, the top United Nations relief official said on Monday, urging greater international support for the region to safeguard the progress achieved.

"There is still a big humanitarian crisis. [It is] not over despite the progress we have made," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock told a high-level humanitarian conference on the region.

Last February, meeting at a UN-backed conference in Oslo, Norway, donors pledged over $650 million towards emergency assistance programmes in 2017 and beyond. These resources helped achieve a significant scale-up in the humanitarian response, reaching more than six million people with assistance, and averting a famine in northeast Nigeria.

However, humanitarian needs continue to grow and so do the resources needed to respond. Of the $1.58 billion required for 2018, only about $600 million (38 per cent) has been received (as of 25 July).

"The appeal we had on the humanitarian response plan this year has been generously financed but not to the degree where any of us can be comfortable that we can meet the needs of the people we can reach, still less of those we are still trying to reach," added Mr. Lowcock, urging additional funding and resources.

Some ten million people across the four countries  Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger  remain dependent on assistance. At the same time relief workers face severe challenges reaching the worst affected due to Boko Haram violence, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Overcoming the 'perpetual cycle' of urgent needs and lifesaving responses

Alongside life-saving humanitarian response, addressing the underlying cause is vital to ensure lasting solution to the crisis, highlighted the UN relief chief, noting the need to scale up longer-term resilience and development assistance as well as promoting stabilization.

"If we can make more progress with peace building, good governance, the creation of jobs and education opportunities  and the respect of human rights  we work indeed with the underlying issues and this is what we need to do," he said.

Organized by OCHA and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) together with the Governments of Germany, Nigeria and Norway, on 3-4 September in Berlin, the conference seeks to maintain the momentum from last year's Oslo conference and increase and expand international support.

It is expected to reinforce an approach combining the response to immediate humanitarian needs with addressing the root causes of the crisis in a way that leads to sustainable, resilient development.

Sectoral requirements

Of the sectors desperately needing resources is education, an area that often lacks funds in humanitarian emergencies.

With some one thousand schools reported to have been closed or rendered non-functional due to violence or unrest across the region, ensuring access education "can be both life-sustaining and life-saving," said Manuel Fontaine, the Director of Emergency Programmes at UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in a news release on Monday.

"Education supports children and young people's lifelong learning. It gives them the necessary skills to build a better future for themselves and their families, and to contribute to peaceful and prosperous communities. Yet too often overall humanitarian education funding is lacking in emergencies."

UNICEF has called for $41.7 million to meet the education needs of children in the crisis but has received just 8 per cent of this amount in the first half of 2018.

Other sectoral priories include food security and nutrition; emergency shelter and non-food items; protection; health; water, hygiene and sanitation; and early recovery.

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China Pledges Fresh $60B to Africa, says No Political Strings Attached

By Bill Ide September 03, 2018

Beijing is pledging to extend new funding of $60 billion to Africa, aimed at areas from industrial enhancement to infrastructure. China also says it will wipe clean the debt for certain African countries when interest-free loans come due later this year.

President Xi Jinping made the pledge Monday during the opening ceremony of the triennial Forum on China Africa Cooperation in Beijing.

He did not say which countries would have their debt absolved, but the move appeared to be the latest effort by Beijing to deflect concerns about debt levels on the continent and the risks of "debt trap diplomacy."

Speaking to leaders from more than 30 African countries at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Xi said China's investment and engagement on the continent would continue, with no political strings attached to Beijing's investments in Africa.

"China-Africa cooperation must give Chinese and African people tangible benefits and successes that can be seen, that can be felt," Xi said.

China has denied it is engaged in debt trap diplomacy and Chinese state media have argued that concerns raised in Western media and by politicians are nothing but sour grapes.

According to data from John Hopkins University's China Africa Research Initiative, China has already loaned around $125 billion to the continent between 2000 and 2016. That has led to high debt risks in countries like Djibouti  where China recently opened its first overseas military base  and Zambia.

Xi did not say which countries China would extend debt relief to, but he noted they would be Africa's least developed, heavily indebted and poor as well as small island developing countries that have diplomatic relations with China.

Xi said during the next three years and beyond, China would carry out eight major initiatives with African countries. The initiatives include infrastructure connectivity, green development, and health care, as well as peace and security.

Xi said China would set up a China-Africa peace and security fund and that a total of 50 "security assistance" programs will be carried out, such as U.N. peacekeeping missions, fighting piracy and combating terrorism.

Breaking down the $60 billion China pledged to extend, Xi said $15 billion of those funds would be for aid, interest free and concessional loans, $20 billion would be set aside for as a new credit line, $10 billion for China-Africa development and five billion for imports.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke after Xi at the opening ceremony and said the Forum on China Africa Cooperation should work to balance the structure of trade between the continent and China.

When FOCAC last met in 2015, African leaders and those in China set a goal to double trade to $400 billion by 2020. Trade between Africa and China in 2014 was at $220 billion. It has since dipped and last year continued a slow recovery to $170 billion.

Ramaphosa urged China to focus more on the nature of and quality of its investments in Africa and not just natural resources. He said Xi has expressed his commitment to addressing the issue.

"Much of what is exported from Africa is raw materials and primary product. Much of what is imported from China is finished goods," he said. "We are exporting to China what we extract from the earth. China exports to us what it makes in its factories."

He said that limits the ability of African countries to get the full value out of their natural resources and create work for their people.

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Yemeni missile targets Saudi Aramco oil facility in Jizan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Doha, Sept 4, IRNA -- Yemeni Army and popular committees targeted Saudi Arabia's Aramco oil facility in Jizan on Monday.

Yemeni resources announced that the successful attack was carried out using Badr 1 missiles.

Strike on Jizan took place two days after successful attack by the Yemeni forces on Saudi Arabia's frigate in the province, which killed a number of Saudi military and mercenaries.

Yemeni Navy has announced that it has hit a Saudi Arabian frigate in Jizan coastlines in response to the killing of Yemeni fishermen in a recent Saudi-led air raid on fishing boats near the island of Akban in Yemen's western province of Hudaydah.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing the country's Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Some 15,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression.

More than 2,200 others have died of cholera, and the crisis has triggered what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

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Daesh Loses 90% of Its Revenue in Four Years - Russia's Security Service

Sputnik News

17:40 03.09.2018(updated 17:44 03.09.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Amid declining profits, the Daesh terrorist organization* has reportedly started to invest in legal businesses to keep on financing its activity, head of the Federal Security Service's (FSB) intelligence information and international relations service, Sergey Beseda, said Monday.

Profits of the Daesh terrorist organization in Russia have gone down 90 percent since 2014 to $200 million  $300 million a year, Beseda said.

"If we compare those financial receipts that were in 2014 and were estimated at about $3 billion, then now ISIL [Daesh] militants manage to get $200-300 million a year," Beseda said at an international conference on efforts to counter illegal arms supply in the context of the fight against international terrorism.

He said the Daesh started investing money in legal businesses to finance its further activity.

In addition, Daesh is training and redeploying sabotage and terrorist groups to Europe, Central Asia, and Russia, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO RATS) executive committee deputy head Dzhumakhon Giyesov revealed on Monday during international conference on efforts to counter illegal arms supply in the context of the fight against international terrorism.

"The successful suppression of hotbeds in Syria forced the remaining militants to redeploy and their leaders to activate their foreign affiliates. Special structures created by ISIL [Daesh] recruit, train and redeploy sabotage and terrorist groups to Europe, Central, Southeast Asia and Russia," Giyesov said.

Earlier, Russian envoy to the UN Vasily Nebenzya stressed that Daesh made a series of attempts to invest money "into legitimate business ventures abroad."

He also noted that the terrorist group was losing access to the rich oil and natural gas deposits in the country as a result of successful military operations implemented by the Syrian Arab Army and its Russian allies.

In April, media reports stated that Daesh had managed to seize oil fields in the province of Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria, which was its former key stronghold, with the group using its oil fields to raise funds for its terror state.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia

 Sputnik

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Roscosmos Head Offers to Continue Rocket Engines Supply to US Despite Sanctions

Sputnik News

19:49 03.09.2018(updated 20:19 03.09.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - At the same time, Russia stated that it was prepared to supply rocket engines to China, Russian state space corporation Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin told reporters Monday.

Even though sanctions have been previously imposed on Russia, the state is ready to continue supplying rocket engines to the United States, Russian state space corporation Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said.

"We expect that talks with the United States will continue. We believe the country's political leadership supports us and, despite sanctions, it is necessary to continue exporting high-tech products. If our US colleagues have such [desire], these supplies will continue," Rogozin said.

He said the US can't build rocket engines similar to the Russian ones in terms of price and quality.

He also noted that the rocket engines will be sent to China, at the same time stressing that agreements at the governmental level might be needed in order to protect the intellectual property.

"If we are supplying them to the United States, why cannot we supply them to friendly China. Yes, of course, as a finished product with the required serial production," Rogozin said.

 Sputnik

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Microwave weapons suspected in 'sonic attacks' on US diplomats: Report

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 06:49AM

US scientists and doctors increasingly suspect unconventional microwave weapons caused over three dozen American diplomats and their families to fall sick in recent months in Cuba and China, according to a report by US media.

Douglas Smith, the director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said microwave weapons are now considered a main suspect, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Smith told the Times that a medical team that examined the diplomats is increasingly sure they suffered brain injury.

"Everybody was relatively skeptical at first," he was quoted as saying, "and everyone now agrees there's something there."

The victims reported hearing intense high-pitched sounds in their hotel rooms or homes followed by symptoms that included nausea, severe headaches, dizziness, fatigue, hearing loss and sleep problems.

The Times said there were many unanswered questions as to who might have carried out the attacks and why. Neither the State Department nor the FBI has publicly pointed to microwave weapons as the culprit.

Cuba has firmly denied any role in, or knowledge of, the incidents.

The US in September 2017 recalled more than half of its staff from the US embassy in Havana and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington after holding Cuba responsible for either carrying out the attacks or failing to protect American officials.

In June 2018, the State Department announced it had sent home US government personnel from China after they reported eerily similar incidents.

In the 1960s, the United States and the former Soviet Union began to explore microwaves' potential use in unconventional weapons, according to the Times.

The newspaper said the Pentagon warned in 1976 that Soviet research on microwaves showed potential for "disrupting the behavior patterns of military or diplomatic personnel."

The Times said it is not known if Washington deploys such weapons but reported that the US military has also researched weapons applications of microwaves, with the US Air Force winning a patent on an invention shown to beam comprehensible speech into an adversary's head.

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India to Convey to US Plans to Go Ahead With Purchase of Russian S-400 - Reports

Sputnik News

10:30 03.09.2018

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - India plans to convey to the United States at their first "2+2" ministerial talks later this week that New Delhi will go ahead with the procurement of Russia's S-400 Triumph air defense systems despite Washington's objections and sanctions threat, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported, citing sources.

New Delhi, in particular, plans to ask Washington not to impose sanctions over the purchases of Russian air defense systems taking into account the long history of defense industry cooperation between Russia and India, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

"India has almost concluded the S-400 missile deal with Russia, and we are going ahead with it. Our position on the issue will be conveyed to the US," a high-ranking source told the PTI.

The US-India ministerial talks will take place on September 6 in New Delhi.

In July, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that talks between India and Russia on the delivery of the S-400s have reached a final stage. If the purchase contract is finalized, India will become the third country after China and Turkey to buy the Russian air defense system.

Later in August, US Assistant Secretary of Defense Randall Schriver said that the purchase of the S-400 air defense system was "troubling" for the United States for a number of reasons.

Shriver could not clarify whether the US government waived potential sanctions that would be applied under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) if India were to complete the purchase. However, the official acknowledged that India was a friend of the United States and New Delhi could make its own decisions.

 Sputnik

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IAEA's reports in post-JCPOA era reveals Iran's honesty: Official

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Sept 3, IRNA -- Head of Majlis Research Center Kazem Jalali said on Monday that the International Atomic Energy Agency's reports on Iran's nuclear program in the post-JCPOA era are indicative of Iran's honesty.

In a meeting with Parliament Speaker of Flanders region in Belgium Jan Peumans, Jalali described Iran-Belgium cooperation as desirable, stressing the need for promoting mutual cooperation.

Describing parliamentary diplomacy as an approach in line with boosting bilateral and multilateral ties, he said that parliamentary dialogue between the lawmakers will pave the way for promoting cooperation between the countries.

The meeting can also help enhance interaction between Iran and Belgium and Flanders region, Jalali said.

"Flanders is an influential region in Europe with industrial and economic potentials," he said, the region's capacities can be used for exchanging science and technology between Iran and Belgium.

Referring to Iran's 110-year-old history of lawmaking, Jalali said that Iran is one of the forerunners in legislature and boasts of valuable experience in the field.

"Democracy and republicanism have a long record in Iran, as it occupies a higher position in the region and Asia in this respect," he said.

Criticizing US approach to the JCPOA, the Tehran MP said Washington's violation of the JCPOA attests to the fact the US is not trustworthy and lack spirit for talks.

Following US exit from the JCPOA, Europe should show its compliance with the landmark deal and take practical steps in line with saving it, Jalali said.

Peumans, for his part, expressed pleasure with his meeting with the Iranian delegation, saying, "That's a great honor for us to host lawmakers from a cultured and civilized country such as Iran."

Stressing the need for strengthening interaction between the two countries, he said Flanders boasts of great potentials which can be used to promote mutual cooperation.

Describing Iran as civilized and cultured country in the world, Peumans called for promoting scientific and cultural relations with Iran in different fields.

Jalali heading a parliamentary delegation is visiting Flanders for talks with officials of European, Belgian and Luxemburg parliaments.

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"US Concern about Iran's Missile Transfer to Iraq Utterly Ridiculous"

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Mon / 3 September 2018 / 13:26

Tehran (ISNA) - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi has hit back at US State Secretary Mike Pompeo for expressing concern over a false report on transfer of Iranian missiles to Iraq.

"The US state secretary's expression of concern over the alleged transfer of Iranian missiles to Iraq and violation of UN Security Council 2231 Resolution is really awkward and an attempt to deceive public opinion," Qassemi told ILNA.

"The US State Secretary has not only deceived public opinion over a baseless issue such as transfer of missiles, but is citing a resolution that has nothing to do with such invalid issues," Qassemi said.

The interesting point is that the US has cited a resolution that has been breached by itself, he went on to say.

Stressing the need for the US to refrain from interfering in Iraq's internal affairs, Qassemi said that "the US military presence in the region is the main cause of instability and insecurity in this region."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is the main actor in creating stability and security in this region and it is on the front line of the battle against terrorism and extremism," he said.

"Today, Iran and Iraq have best-ever ties and the US divisive policies cannot hamper long-standing historic, cultural and political relations between the two countries," he said.

End Item

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Khatam Al-Anbia air defense base placed at front line of confronting Iran's enemies

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Mon / 3 September 2018 / 12:33

Tehran (ISNA) - The Commander-in-Chief of Iran's Armed Forces, Ayatollah Khamenei met with a group of commanders and officials from of the Khatam Al-Anbia Air Defense Base of the Army on Sunday.

At the meeting, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution called the air defense base a very crucial part of the Armed Forces, placed at the frontline of confronting the enemies of Iran.

He then stressed the importance of accelerating the capabilities of the base and the Air Forces staff.

During the meeting, which was organized on the anniversary of the National Day of Air Forces, Ayatollah Khamenei asserted, "In terms of political calculations, there is no chance of a military war; however, the armed forces must accelerate their human and equipment capabilities day by day, through vigilance, efficient and agile management, remembering that every step they take toward reinforcing the Armed Forces capabilities, is a good deed and an act of worship to God the Exalted".

Also at the meeting, the Commander of Khatamol-Anbia (s.a.) Army's Air Defense Base, Brigadier General Alireza Sabahi-Fard presented a report of the measures taken and the programs planned by the base.

End Item

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Khamenei Urges Iran Armed Forces To Bolster Capabilities

RFE/RL September 03, 2018

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on his country's armed forces to bolster their defense capacities, while also playing down the possibility of war breaking out.

Khamenei, in comments to military commanders, "emphasized that based on political calculations there is no likelihood of a military war but added that the armed forces must be vigilant...and raise their personnel and equipment capacities," his official website said on September 2.

The remarks came a day after Iran announced plans to increase its ballistic- and cruise-missile capacity and acquire modern jet fighters and submarines amid rising tensions with the United States.

Khamenei's website said the meeting with military commanders took place to mark Iran's Air Defense Day.

A war of words has intensified with the United States since President Donald Trump pulled out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with six world powers.

Trump complained that the deal was not tough enough and that Tehran was violating the spirit of the accord by continuing to develop ballistic missiles and by supporting militant activity in the region. The deal gave Iran some relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

The United States and its Western allies have also demanded that Iran end its military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country's seven-year civil war.

And Reuters on August 31 cited three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources, and two Western intelligence sources in reporting that Iran had sent short-range ballistic missiles to its Shi'ite militia allies in Iraq and is developing capacity to allow them to build missiles there.

Tehran has denied it has transferred missiles to Iraq or that it is assisting insurgents in the region and has said its nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes.

Separately, Iranian state media reported that British Minister of State for the Middle East Alistair Burt held talks in Iran on September 2 as Tehran said European states should take action if they wanted to save the nuclear deal.

Iran has called on the European signees -- Britain, France, and Germany -- to help Tehran offset some of the financial damage caused by the U.S. pullout of the deal and the reimposition of sanctions.

The move has been deepening a financial crisis in Iran that has sent its currency tumbling, leading to increased antigovernment street protests in many cities.

Further U.S. sanctions are due in November, including measures to prevent Iran from selling oil.

"It is time for the Europeans to act in addition to voicing their political commitment," IRNA quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying.

"These measures may be costly, but if countries want to reap benefits and if they believe the nuclear accord is an international achievement, they should be ready to keep these achievements," he added.

A day earlier, Iran dismissed comments by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian that Iran "cannot avoid" entering talks on its ballistic-missile arsenal, its nuclear plans, and its role in wars in Syria and Yemen.

State media reported that Zarif had spoken by phone with Le Drian, saying they discussed bilateral ties, the nuclear deal, and regional issues.

Before his visit, Burt said, "As long as Iran meets its commitments under the deal, we remain committed to it as we believe it is the best way to ensure a safe, secure future for the region."

Britain is also seeking the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker and project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

She was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport and is serving a five-year sentence after being convicted of plotting against the Iranian government, a charge denied by her family and the foundation.

With reporting by Reuters, IRNA, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-khamaenei-military- capabilities-nuclear-deal-trump/29467403.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Japanese Oil Wholesalers 'Prepare To Suspend' Iranian Imports

RFE/RL September 03, 2018

Japanese news media are reporting that the country's major oil wholesalers are preparing to suspend crude imports next month.

Jiji Press agency and Kyodo on September 3 reported that the action comes in response to U.S. sanctions against Tehran and threats they could be extended to companies doing business with Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump in May pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and almost immediately began reimposing sanctions against Tehran.

Washington has said it will reimpose sanctions on Iran's oil exports and banking sector in early November, with the goal being to bring other countries' imports of Iranian oil down to zero.

Jiji Press said it appeared Japan will be unsuccessful in its efforts to get a waiver from Washington that would allow it to continue importing oil from Iran.

That has forced Japanese oil companies to prepare to suspend Iranian imports and look for ways to switch to other Middle East producers, Japanese media report.

A Trade Ministry official confirmed to AFP that Japan had requested a waiver but declined to comment further.

A spokeswoman for crude wholesaler Showa Shell Sekiyu told AFP that the company will "observe a government decision" on Iranian oil imports but would not provide specifics.

Other wholesalers declined to comment.

Japan is reliant on outside sources for energy, importing 80 percent of its oil from the Middle East in recent years.

The Japanese government said Saudi Arabia is Japan's largest supplier of crude at 39 percent. Iran is sixth at about 5 percent.

In August, Iran's oil minister said that French oil-and-natural-gas company Total had "officially left" Iran in the face of the U.S. threats.

U.S. sanctions have had a major impact on Iran's economy, leading to public discontent and putting pressure on President Hassan Rohani's government.

With reporting by AFP, Jiji, and Kyodo

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/japan-firms-prepare -suspend-iran-oil-imports/29467434.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Israel Hints It May Target Alleged Iranian Ballistic Missiles Deployed in Iraq

Sputnik News

15:27 03.09.2018(updated 15:34 03.09.2018)

Tehran earlier rejected media reports that it was delivering short-range ballistic missiles and associated technology to Shiite militias in Iraq, calling the claims "false and ridiculous."

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Israel would not limit itself to Syria if it felt the need to deal with "Iranian threats" in the region.

"We are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria, and regarding Iranian threats, we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory. This also needs to be clear," Lieberman said, speaking at a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday, according to Reuters.

Asked directly whether Israel might target Iraq, Lieberman responded: "I'm saying that we will handle any Iranian threat, no matter where it comes fromIsrael's freedom is total. We retain this freedom of action," the minister said.

On Sunday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it was "astonished" over earlier media reports about Iran's alleged movement of missiles to Iraq, stressing that the claims were "without evidence."

Baghdad's statement came on the heels of a sharp rebuke over the rumors by Tehran, with the Iranian Foreign Ministry calling the information "unacceptable and false" and saying it was aimed at "perpetuating political threats against Iran."

Iran, which has a strong domestic missile industry and is thought to possess over 1,000 short and medium-range missiles in its arsenal, is prohibited from transferring these weapons to third countries under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. Tensions between Israel and its US ally on one side and Iran on the other escalated earlier this year after Washington pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Late last month, Reuters reported, citing anonymous Iranian sources as well as unnamed Iraqi and Western intelligence officials, that Tehran has allegedly supplied "a couple dozen" short-range ballistic missiles and the means for their production to Iraq over the past several months as a deterrent against possible foreign aggression.

 Sputnik

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Japan to Suspend Iran Oil Imports Over US Pressure - Reports

Sputnik News

06:20 03.09.2018

Japan's major oil companies are preparing to halt all of the crude oil imports from Iran in October due to fears Washington will sanction countries importing Iranian crude, AFP reported Monday, citing Jiji Press agency.

According to AFP, Tokyo has been seeking a waiver that would allow it to continue importing Iranian oil, however, it appears unlikely to win one. "We've been saying we will observe a government decision [on Iranian oil imports], but we can't comment further as we don't disclose information on individual trades," a spokeswoman for wholesaler Showa Shell Sekiyu told AFP on Monday.

A senior Japan's trade ministry official told AFP on Monday that Tokyo had raised the issue of a waiver in talks with Washington, however, he declined to reveal more details.

In August, Japan's Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko said that Tokyo would hold further negotiations with the United States to be granted exemptions from recently reimposed sanctions against Tehran and its trade partners.

According to local media, Japanese major oil companies, however, are researching ways to increase imports from elsewhere to make up the shortfall. Crude oil imports from Iran reportedly accounted for just 5.3 percent of the country's total imports but Japan relies heavily on oil supply from the Middle East for its energy security.



During the previous anti-Iranian sanctions period, Japan, together with South Korea, had secured waivers allowing them to bypass the restrictions and buy a limited volume of Iranian oil.

The US administration in May withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which eased restrictions on the Islamic Republic. Washington has said sanctions on oil trade would be back by November 4 and also urged foreign firms to phase out operations in Iran or face sanctions.

 Sputnik

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Iraqi parliament holds first session since May election, fails to elect speaker

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 06:11PM

The Iraqi parliament has held its first session since May's national election, which signals important progress in forming a new government, but failed to elect a speaker.

The 329-seat body convened for the first session within its fourth legislative term on Monday after Iraq's main political parties announced two rival alliances capable of forming a government.

Lawmakers following senior cleric Muqtada Sadr and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's lead said days earlier they had created an alliance that would give them a majority bloc at parliament.

A rival grouping led by commander Hadi al-Amiri and former premier Nouri al-Maliki also announced it had formed its own alliance, asserting it featured the lion's share of the seats at the legislature.

During the Monday session, parliamentarians were supposed to elect the speaker and two deputies but with competing political blocs each claiming to hold a majority, the election of a speaker was complicated and no vote was held on the appointments.

The temporary leader of the assembly said it would remain in session until Tuesday.

Millions of Iraqis voted on May 12 in their first parliamentary election since the defeat of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, but a contentious recount process delayed the announcement of final results until earlier this month.

Sadr's Sairoon bloc came first in the polls, while the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance led by Amiri, and Abadi's Nasr finished second and third. A bloc led by Maliki ended in the fifth place.

The recount was called due to allegations of electoral fraud. The procedure delayed the process of government formation by three months, but confirmed the primary results with little change.

The Iraqi politics has long been vulnerable to the differences lying along the country's major ethnic and sectarian fault lines.

Any new government has to move quickly to address the country's chronic woes, including the poor quality of basic services as well as political and economic mismanagement. It would also have to face the mammoth task of rebuilding the country following three years of struggle against Daesh.

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Daesh terrorists attack northern Iraqi village, seven people killed

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 12:45PM

At least seven people have lost their lives when remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group launched an attack against a residential area in Iraq's oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language Baghdad Post news website that the extremists attacked the village of Albu Shaher on Monday, carrying out the act of terror.

The source added that the Takfiris have fled the village, and a counter-terrorism operation is underway to capture the perpetrators.

Separately, twelve Muslim worshippers sustained gunshot wounds when Daesh militants stormed a mosque in Hekna village, which is near al-Shirqat town and about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Mosul, Sunday night and opened fire indiscriminately.

Eight Daesh terrorists captured west of Mosul

Meanwhile, Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan announced in a statement on Monday that eight Daesh militants had been arrested during a clean-up operation west of Mosul.

The statement noted that one of the militants "was working in the terror group's so-called Security Department, while the others were working in the Soldiers Department. They were arrested in the al-Islah al-Zera'ie district."

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, pledged on June 30 to hunt down Daesh terrorists across Iraq after a series of attacks and abductions carried out by the terrorist group.

"We will chase the remaining cells of terrorism in their hideouts and we will kill them, we will chase them everywhere, in the mountains and the desert," Abadi said.

Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the Arab country on December 9, 2017.

On July 10 that year, the Iraqi prime minister had formally declared victory over Daesh in Mosul, which served as the terrorists' main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha'abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.

Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 last year.

Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.

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Iran says will work with any government formed in Iraq

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 10:23AM

Iran says it will work with any government which is formed in neighboring Iraq after two political factions created an alliance that would give them a majority bloc in parliament.

"We will work with any government linked with any political party and faction in Iraq, because the two countries are neighbors and must cooperate and work together," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi told reporters in Tehran.

"What matters to Iran is the realization of what the Iraqi people want," he added.

His comments came a day after lawmakers following senior cleric Muqtada Sadr and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said they had created an alliance that would give them a majority bloc in parliament to form a government.

Parties led by leader of Badr Organization Hadi al-Amiri and former premier Nouri al-Maliki also said they had formed their own alliance, which featured the lion's share of the seats at the legislature.

The 329-seat legislature is to come together on Monday to elect a speaker and launch the government formation process.

Divisive US policies

Late Sunday, Qassemi hit out at "absolutely ridiculous" allegations made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of Iranian transfer of missiles to Iraq.

The spokesman said Washington will not succeed in hampering longstanding relations between Tehran and Baghdad through its divisive policies.

His made the remarks after Pompeo expressed "deep concern" over reports of Iran allegedly moving ballistic missiles to Iraq. "If true, this would be a gross violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of UNSCR 2231," Pompeo tweeted.

Speaking to ILNA news agency, Qassemi dismissed the "utterly ridiculous" remarks as an attempt to deceive public opinion.

"Interestingly enough, Pompeo has referred to a totally irrelevant resolution which has been already breached by the US itself," the Iranian spokesman said.

The UN Security Council Resolution 2231 endorsed a nuclear deal in 2015 between Iran and world powers. Tehran says the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal in early May 2018 is a violation of that resolution.

Qassemi urged the US to refrain from meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq, saying the US military presence is indeed the main cause of instability and insecurity in the Middle East.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is the main source of stability and security in this region and is in the front line of the battle against terrorism and extremism," he went on to say.

Qassemi said Iran and Iraq have best-ever relations today and the US divisive policies cannot hamper longstanding historical, cultural and political relations between the two neighbors.

The missile transfer claim was first made by Reuters, prompting Iran to vehemently reject it. "The report is solely aimed at creating fears among regional countries" and in line with Iranophobic policies, Qassemi said Saturday.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry on Sunday said it was "astonished" by the report.

"The ministry confirms that all Iraqi state institutions are committed to Article 7 of the Constitution, which states that Iraqi territory should not be used as a base or passage for any operation targeting the security of any other state," it said.

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Iraq factions announce alliances to form new government

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 01:28AM

Iraqi political factions, which did best in the country's May parliamentary elections, announce separate alliances within the legislature, which they claim enables them to form the country's new government.

On Sunday, lawmakers following senior cleric Muqtada Sadr and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's lead said they had created an alliance that would give them a majority bloc at the Parliament.

A rival grouping led by commander Hadi al-Amiri and former premier Nouri al-Maliki responded by saying it had formed its own alliance, asserting it featured the lion's share of the seats at the legislature.

The 329-seat legislature is to come together on Monday to elect a speaker and launch the government formation process.

Sadr's Sairoon bloc came first in the polls, while the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance led by Amiri, and Abadi's Nasr finished second and third. A bloc led by Maliki ended in the fifth place.

A recount was called after the polls due to allegations of electoral fraud. The procedure delayed the process of government formation by three months, but confirmed the primary results with little change.

The Iraqi politics has long been vulnerable to the differences lying along the country's major ethnic and sectarian fault lines.

Any new government has to move quickly to address the country's chronic woes, including the poor quality of basic services as well as political and economic mismanagement. It would also have to face the mammoth task of rebuilding the country following three years of struggle against the Daesh Takfiri terror group.

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Iraq's Muqtada Al-Sadr Forms Parliamentary Majority Bloc

Sputnik News

04:50 03.09.2018(updated 04:55 03.09.2018)

After three years of war with Daesh and three months of a vote recount, Iraq can now form a new government and begin the process of rebuilding.

Sixteen political groups in Iraq, including those of Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr and outgoing Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, reached an agreement Sunday to form the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament.

This agreement, reached just before the first session of the Iraqi Parliament on Monday, gives Al-Sadr the exclusive right to form a government.

Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, reportedly backed by the West, is also a part of the coalition. Al-Abadi is purportedly interested in extending his position into a second term, but as he is no longer the only candidate from the alliance, it is uncertain whether he will succeed.

"If the alliance holds, it means that Iran and its allies have failed to take the lead in shaping Iraq's political landscape and would have to join the Al-Sadr alliance if they want to be part of the next government," Arab News reported.

Al-Sadr, who positions himself as a nationalist and a fighter against US and Iranian influence in the country, has, according to reports, plans to create parliamentary blocs, a move which is reportedly intended to break the cycle of corruption and conflict that has plagued Iraqi politics.

While the first bloc would be responsible for the formation of an administration and a government, the other would act as opposition and would oversee the performance of the government. Both blocs are expected to include Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.

"The ruling coalition will form the government in all areas, including the positions of the president and the speaker, so we seek to achieve a complete separation between the [political] forces that will be with us and the forces that will be in the opposition," a senior Al-Sadr negotiator told Arab News.

"We will not repeat the previous scenario and we will not allow any forces to participate in the government and in the opposition at the same time."

On Monday, the nation's new parliament will hold its inaugural session during which it must elect a speaker as well two deputy speakers, the Daily Mail reported. Following that, the parliament will have 30 days to elect a new Iraqi president, a position that goes to a member of the Kurdish minority with at least two-thirds of the vote. The new president will then have 15 days to task the largest parliamentary bloc to form a new government.

The new government will face the task of rebuilding Iraq after three years of war with Daesh terrorists. The vote took place in May, but a recount process delayed the results for three months.

 Sputnik

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Libya declares state of emergency in Tripoli amid deadly clashes

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 05:05AM

Libya's internationally-recognized government has announced a state of emergency in the capital, Tripoli, and its outskirts, which have been the scene of deadly clashes between rival militia groups over the past week.

"Due to the danger of the current situation and for the sake of the public interest, the presidential council declares a state of emergency ... to protect and secure civilians, public and private possessions and vital institutions," the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) said in a statement on Sunday.

At least 39 people, including civilians, have been killed and some 100 others wounded in the street battles, which broke out last week between the armed groups in Tripoli and those from another city over control of the capital.

The statement further urged the rival militia groups to end the clashes and respect a ceasefire, which was declared on Thursday but was quickly breached.

Jailbreak in Tripoli

Taking advantage of the mayhem, some 400 prisoners escaped from Ain Zara prison in Tripoli on Sunday.

"The detainees were able to force open the doors and leave," as fighting was underway near the facility, police said in a statement, without specifying what crimes the escapees had committed.

Guards were unable to prevent the jailbreak as they feared for their own lives, the statement added.

Separately, a missile fell on the al-Fallah camp for the displaced Tawergha people on Sunday, killing two and wounding seven, including two children.

Another rocket hit the Waddan Hotel in central Tripoli near the Italian Embassy on Saturday. Three people were injured, staff said.

State oil firm NOC confirmed one of its diesel depots used to supply a power station had been hit by a rocket on Saturday.

In a statement on Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all parties to immediately cease hostilities and abide by the ceasefire agreement.

Libya plunged into chaos in 2011, when the country's long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in a NATO-backed uprising.

The North African country is currently split between two rival governments in the east and west, each backed by an array of rival militias.

The Tripoli-based GNA is recognized by the UN as the official government. The other government, known as the House of Representatives, is based in the eastern city of Tobruk and has the support of forces loyal to military strongman General Khalifa Haftar.

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UN human rights chief calls on Myanmar to free Reuters jailed reporters

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 04:06PM

The new UN human rights chief has called on Myanmar to free two Reuters journalists jailed for their reporting of the military's ethnic-cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims in the Southeast Asian country.

Michelle Bachelet in a statement on Monday in the Swiss city of Geneva said that she was "shocked" by Myanmar's jailing of the two journalists for seven years and called for their immediate release.

She stressed that their trial was "travesty of justice". "The trial was a travesty of justice, so I will urge the Myanmar government to release them as soon as possible, immediately."

"Their conviction follow[s] a legal process that clearly breached international standards," the former Chilean president said on her first day as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"It sends a message to all journalists in Myanmar that they cannot operate fearlessly, but must rather make a choice to either self-censor or risk prosecution," she noted

Elsewhere in her statement, she also urged Myanmar to free all other journalists detained for exercising their freedom of expression.

Journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were detained in December last year after reporting on the killings of 10 Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar military in the northwestern state of Rakhine.

Judge Ye Lwin convicted the journalists on Monday of being guilty for breaching a law on state secrets when they collected and obtained confidential documents.

The court's ruling on Monday prompted reaction from the United Nations, the European Union, the US, Human Rights Watch as well as press freedom advocates, who have long been calling for the reporters' release.

Separately, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Knut Ostby earlier said that the two journalists should be released.

"Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo should be allowed to return to their families and continue their work as journalists," Ostby said, adding, "We continue to call for their release."

Britain has also called for the "immediate" release of the journalists, saying the verdict had "undermined freedom of the media."

"We are extremely disappointed with this verdict and sentencing and we call for the journalists to be released immediately," a spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May said.

Britain's Minister for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field said in a statement that he was "extremely disappointed" by the verdict, calling it a "bad day" for Myanmar.

"They provided valuable reporting on abhorrent human rights violations in Rakhine state, and I have consistently called for their immediate release, including directly with the Burmese (Myanmarese) government," the minister said.

"Journalists must be free to carry out their jobs without fear or intimidation," he added.

Myanmar's government has been under intense pressure over the violent military crackdown on the Muslim community, which has forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

The UN has described the clampdown campaign -- which has seen random killings, gang rapes and arson attacks -- as the "textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

The world body's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said in a report last week that the country's commander-in-chief and other generals should stand trial for "genocide" and war crimes against the Rohingya minority group.

The mission has also said the de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi should have resigned over her silence on the campaign of terror.

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Myanmar sentences Reuters journalists to 7 years in jail, prompts reactions

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 07:43AM

A court in Myanmar has sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years behind bars for what it called "breaching" a state secrets act while reporting on the military's ethnic-cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims, a ruling that quickly drew harsh criticisms from all over the world.

Journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were detained in December last year after reporting on the killings of 10 Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar military in the northwestern state of Rakhine.

Judge Ye Lwin convicted the journalists on Monday of being guilty for breaching a law on state secrets when they collected and obtained confidential documents.

"The defendants ... have breached Official Secrets Act section 3.1.c, and are sentenced to seven years. The time already served by the defendants from Dec. 12 will be taken into consideration," the judge said.

The two have, however, pleaded not guilty. They once told the court that two police officials had handed them papers at a restaurant moments before other officers arrested them. One police officer had also testified that the restaurant meeting was a set-up to entrap the journalists.

Asked about their conviction, Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay mostly declined to comment, saying Myanmar's courts were independent.

The government of Aung San Suu Kyi has been under intense pressure over the violent military crackdown on the Muslim community, which has forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

The UN has called the clampdown campaign -- which has seen random killings, gang rapes and arson attacks -- as the "textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

The world body's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said in a report last week that the country's commander-in-chief and other generals should stand trial for "genocide" and war crimes against the minority group.

The mission has also said Suu Kyi should have resigned over her silence on the campaign of terror.

The de facto leader, however, has constantly been trying to justify the atrocities against the persecuted ethnic minority and even defended the country's military on a number of occasions.

Reactions flow in

The court's ruling on Monday prompted reaction from the United Nations, the European Union, the US, the Human Rights Watch as well as press freedom advocates, who have long been calling for the reporters' release.

In a statement, the UN's resident and humanitarian co-ordinator in Myanmar Knut Ostby said the world body had "consistently called for the release" of the journalists, and that "a free press is essential for peace, justice and human rights for all."

"We are disappointed by today's court decision," he added.

In turn, US Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel called the verdict as "deeply troubling," while British ambassador Dan Chugg said he was "extremely disappointed."

"This has dealt a hammer blow for the rule of law," Chugg said on behalf of his government and the European Union.

Reuters editor-in-chief, Stephen Adler also issued a statement, saying "Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere."

Dozens of journalists and activists took to the streets in Yangon in support of the Reuters journalists on Sunday.

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US Condemns Myanmar Conviction of 2 Journalists

By Ken Bredemeier, Richard Green September 03, 2018

The U.S. sharply condemned Monday's conviction of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar and their seven-year prison terms for violating the country's secrecy laws, calling it "deeply troubling" and a "major setback" in the Southeast Asian country's efforts to promote democratic reforms.

Journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested last December after meeting with two police officers at a restaurant in Yangon and given a stack of documents. They were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, which was enacted in 1923, when Myanmar was called Burma and was under British colonial rule. Both men have denied asking for the documents.

The U.S. Embassy in Myanmar said the "clear flaws" in the case against the journalists "raise serious concerns about rule of law and judicial independence in Myanmar."

U.S. Ambassador Scot Marciel told VOA the verdict was sad for the journalists and their families. But moreover, he said, "It's sad for people who worked so hard here to promote media freedom. I think one has to ask whether this process will increase or decrease the confidence that the Myanmar people have in their justice system."

He added, however, "It's really for the Myanmar people to assess that."

The two journalists were covering the brutal military campaign in Rakhine state that has driven nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims across the border into Bangladesh since last August. They were focused on the massacre of 10 Rohingya by police and soldiers in the village of Inn Din.

'We are still fighting for them'

After their sentencing, the handcuffed journalists were held by police outside the court by their arms as they spoke briefly to reporters before being put in a police vehicle and taken away. Protesters momentarily blocked the police vehicle's path as it left the court.

Thura Aung, Wa Lone's brother, said, "We are still fighting for them and we will keep on going. We have to be strong to support them. ..."

Defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said the verdict would be appealed and that it was "very disappointing for all of us. It is bad and has bad effects and is bad for Myanmar, our country, for democracy, for rule of law and for the freedom of press, freedom of expression. It has very bad effects, this verdict has very bad effects on all those things."

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said in a statement Monday, "It is clear to all that the Burmese military has committed vast atrocities. In a free country, it is the duty of a responsible press to keep people informed and hold leaders accountable.

"The conviction of two journalists for doing their job is another terrible stain on the Burmese government. We will continue to call for their immediate and unconditional release," Haley said.

International outrage

The arrests of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have sparked international outrage among free speech and human rights activists, who saw the case as Myanmar's first real test of freedom of expression after embracing democracy in 2016 after decades under repressive military rule.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for the immediate release of the journalists.

"Their conviction follows a legal process that clearly breached international standards," Bachelet said in a statement. "It sends a message to all journalists in Myanmar that they cannot operate fearlessly, but must rather make a choice to either self-censor or risk prosecution."

In a statement, the U.S. embassy called for their immediate release and for the Myanmar government "to end the arbitrary prosecution of journalists doing their jobs."

"The American people have long stood with the people of Myanmar in support of democracy, and we continue to support civilian rule and those advocating for freedom, reform, and human rights in Myanmar," the embassy statement said.

British Ambassador Dan Chugg, who attended the court hearing, said, "Speaking on behalf of the British Government and EU member states, we are extremely disappointed with this verdict and sentencing. This case has cast a long shadow over freedom of expression and the rule of law in Myanmar."

He said, "In any democracy, journalists must be free to carry out their jobs without fear or intimidation; this verdict has undermined freedom of the media in Myanmar. The verdict has also struck a hammer blow for the rule of law. We have attended the trial throughout and we believe that the judge has ignored the evidence presented to him as well as ruling against Myanmar's own laws. This is a bad day for Myanmar and we call for the journalists to be released immediately."

WATCH: Reuters Editor-in-Chief Discusses Sentencing of Myanmar Journalists

Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler denounced the verdict, telling VOA that the journalists' arrest was "a blatant set-up," and with no normal, legal due-process during court proceedings, their convictions were not surprising.

"It seemed like an effort to prevent them from reporting on a very powerful story they were working on about a massacre of 10 individuals," Adler said. "I think the goal was to stop them from reporting but also to deter other journalists from looking too closely at what was going on."

Adler said the two reporters have "done absolutely nothing wrong except doing journalism in the public interest."

Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International's director of crisis response, said, "Today's appalling verdict has condemned two innocent men to years behind bars. This politically motivated decision has significant ramifications for press freedom in Myanmar. It sends a stark warning to other journalists in the country of the severe consequences that await should they look too closely at military abuses. This amounts to censorship through fear."

Knut Ostby, the United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, said the world body was "disappointed" in the court's decision.

VOA's Ira Mellman contributed to this report.

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Pakistan To Discuss U.S. Military Payment Cut During Pompeo Visit

RFE/RL September 03, 2018

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says he intends to speak with U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo about Washington's decision to cut $300 million in U.S. payments to Pakistan's military.

Qureshi said he will raise the issue on September 5 when Pompeo and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, visit Islamabad.

"We will sit with [Pompeo], present our point of view and exchange ideas," Qureshi told reporters late on September 2.

Qureshi argued that the money was not "aid," as described by Washington, but a payment to reimburse Pakistan for costs in a joint campaign against terrorism.

"This $300 million was neither any aid nor assistance," he said. "This is the money which Pakistan has already spent in the fight against terrorism through its own resources, and they were to reimburse it to us."

The Pentagon announced on September 1 that will cancel $300 million in military aid to Pakistan due what the United States says is Islamabad's lack of action against militants.

Pentagon spokesman Kone Faulkner said the funds would be reallocated to "other urgent priorities" if approved by Congress.

Earlier in 2018, another $500 million in payments to Pakistan was revoked by the U.S. Congress from so-called Coalition Support Funds (CSF), bringing the total amount of funds withheld to $800 million.

At the start of 2018, President Donald Trump suspended CSF payments to Pakistan along with aid under other programs.

Trump earlier in 2018 wrote on Twitter that the "United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools."

"They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!" Trump tweeted.

Pakistan rejects allegations it is not doing enough to fight terrorism and that it provides safe havens for militants operating in Afghanistan.

With reporting by dpa, Dawn, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-to-discuss-u-s-military- payment-cut-during-pompeo-visit/29468030.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Pakistan Slams US Aid Cuts: 'It Was Our Money' for Losses in War on Terror

Sputnik News

12:52 03.09.2018

This weekend, the Pentagon decided to strip Islamabad of $300 million in security assistance over its perceived failure to confront militants within its borders. The White House earlier accused Pakistan of proving safe havens for militant groups operating in Afghanistan, which Islamabad denied.

The $300 million fund earlier scrapped by the Pentagon was not aid but compensation from the US for the damage that Pakistan suffered in the war against terror, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday, as quoted by the Karachi-based daily The News International.

"It was not aid. It was our money which was spent on the country's participation in the US war against terrorism," he said.

"Pakistan has sacrificed thousands of lives and spent huge amounts from their own resources against terrorism and now the US had to reimburse that amount under the Coalition Support Fund."

The statement comes ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Pakistan on Wednesday and after the Pentagon moved to cancel its so-called Coalition Support Funds to Pakistan. "Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy the remaining $300 (million) was reprogramed," a Pentagon spokesman said on Saturday.

The Pentagon's decision to scrap the multimillion package was announced after the US State Department suspended at least $900 million in aid to Pakistan in January, echoing Donald Trump's accusations that the country had responded to past assistance with "nothing but lies and deceit.

Last year, the US State Department claimed in its annual report that Islamabad was providing shelter to insurgent groups operating in neighboring Afghanistan and didn't limit their ability to threaten US interests in Afghanistan, which Pakistan denied.

The United States started the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban* following the September 11 attacks. Despite losing outright control of the country during the initial invasion, codenamed Operation Enduring Freedom, the Taliban regrouped to resist the US-backed national government. Ever since, the country's political, social and security situation has remained unstable due to the ongoing insurgency.

The Haqqani* militant group is an offshoot of Taliban which allegedly enjoys safe havens in northern Pakistan, across Afghanistan's southeastern border.

*The Taliban and the Haqqanis are terrorist groups outlawed in Russia

 Sputnik

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Syrian Government Has Every Right to Liquidate Terrorists In Idlib - Lavrov

Sputnik News

11:44 03.09.2018(updated 13:21 03.09.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - It is impossible to tolerate the situation in Syria's Idlib province indefinitely, it is necessary to separate the armed opposition from terrorists, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The Russian Foreign Minister stressed during his speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) that "there is no place for terrorists in Syria, and the Syrian government has every right to seek their liquidation on its territory."

"We are now taking the most active effort, together with our Turkish colleagues, together with the Syrian government, and with the Iranians as participants in the Astana format, to split the armed normal opposition forces from the terrorists 'on the ground,'" Lavrov said.

On August 25, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that terrorists of the Tahrir al-Sham group (affiliated with the Jabhat Nusra* terror organization, banned in Russia) were preparing a provocation in Syria's western Idlib province to accuse Syrian government forces of using chemical weapons against civilians.

Earlier in August, the UK, the US and France said that they "will respond appropriately to any further use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime."

'Hats Off' to UK's Ability to Use Skripal Case to Sway EU, US Policy on Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that he admired the ability of UK diplomatic officials to influence the European Union's and the United States' policies toward Russia over the latter's alleged role in the Salisbury poisoning incident earlier this year, given the looming Brexit.

According to Lavrov, even though the United Kingdom is set to withdraw from the European Union by March 29, 2019, it has still managed to persuade some EU member states to expel Russian diplomats over the country's alleged responsibility for the poisoning attack in the UK city of Salisbury, as well as influence the United States to introduce new sanctions on Russia in connection with the incident.

"I sincerely take my hat off to the UK diplomats who manage to influence the EU policy toward Russia, and the US policy as well, in a period when their country is leaving the European Union," Lavrov told students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

He went on to say that London had managed to "persuade two-thirds of the European Union to expel one, two, or three Russian diplomats after the United Kingdom [did the same]," despite the fact that the bloc initially demonstrated a "moderate" reaction to the Salisbury incident.

When commenting on the United States' sanctions on Russia that came into force on August 27, Lavrov said that the country "had decided to run ahead of London."

"I think that this showcases the UK diplomats' ability to persuade, and let those who can do the dirty work take the lead," he said.

The minister went on to say that the deterioration of Russian-UK relations was a "sad story," since nothing "irreparable" had, in fact, happened.

The United Kingdom has repeatedly accused Russia of being responsible for the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, which took place in Salisbury on March 4.

While Russia has denied these allegations, saying that the UK side failed to provide sufficient proof, London has repeatedly called on its partners to step up pressure on Russia. From the United States, this came in the form of sanctions.

US Sanctions

Moscow will not leave the US sanctions imposed in connection to the poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the United Kingdom unanswered, but the response would not be necessarily a mirror one, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated.

"Of course, we will not leave this without response, it will be announced. This will not be necessarily a mirror response. I believe that a mirror response is not always the optimal option," Lavrov said.

The minister stressed that the latest US sanctions were introduced against Russia based on "absolutely false allegations."

On August 8, the US administration announced new sanctions against Russia, consisting of two packages, over its alleged use of chemical weapons in the poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK city of Salisbury in March.

The first package of sanctions, which in particular, includes a ban on deliveries of dual-purpose electronic devices and components to Russia, took effect on August 27.

Russia does not accept the illegitimate steps taken by the United States on a number of issues, including the Iranian problem, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Israeli-Palestinian settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated.

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Washington is taking "simple, direct" actions which have little to do with diplomacy.

"We do not accept the illegitimate steps taken by Washington, that, I would like to repeat once again, undermine many important achievements, including in the Iranian problem that had been settled through an unprecedented document, the questioning of the need to be a member of the World Trade Organization, let alone the US stance on the Palestinian-Israeli settlement," Lavrov said.

According to Lavrov, US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo understood that better relations with Russia were in the US interest.

"Personal contacts are of significant importance. I was present at the meeting between [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin with President Trump, I held talks with Secretaries of States [Rex] Tillerson and Pompeo. Those are people who, in my opinion, understand the need to get along with us in the interest of the United States, as they say themselves," Lavrov told students of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

US Favors Language of Blackmail, Ultimatums

The United States is willing to use the language of blackmail and ultimatums in international relations instead of diplomacy and dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted.

"There is a group of countries, a small group, led by the United States, which does not want a dialogue. It wants to use the language of dictate, ultimatums, blackmail instead of diplomacy. We see this everyday," Lavrov said while addressing students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Lavrov recalled that Washington was "revising everything," starting from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the Paris climate agreement, and ending with its stance on the World Trade Organization, which it was calling an outdated organization.

Each US administration has been committed to the principle of "America First," but the current government under President Donald Trump was adhering to it in the "most rigid and aggressive" way, Lavrov said, adding that everyone who refused to obey the will of the United States fell victim to sanctions, ultimatums and threats.

"In Washington, it has become a sort of bad form to speak positively about normalizing relations with Russia," the minister said recalling that US Sen. Rand Paul was "ostracized" in the United States after his recent visit to Russia.

Lavrov also said that Moscow was open for dialogue, despite Washington's ongoing policy of sanctions and restrictions.

According to media reports, the second round of sanctions, expected to roll out in November, may include scaling back diplomatic relations between the two countries, suspending flights of Russian airline Aeroflot to the United States and almost completely ceasing US exports. According to the US State Department, Russia could avoid these measures by assuring it will never use chemical weapons in the future.

EU Understands Necessity of Eurasian Integration to Stay Competitive

The European Union is starting to understand the importance of Eurasian integration in order to remain competitive, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated.

"We, in the Eurasian Economic Union [EAEU] and in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation [SCO], rely on [what's going on in] reality, we try to promote the projects that virtually ask to be implemented today. Thus, we ramp up a potential for further integration by taking practical steps that all the participants have agreed on We favor the idea of these processes involving the EAEU, SCO and ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] member states, and we are constantly emphasizing our readiness to hold the doors open for the European Union," Lavrov told students.

The minister added that "voices" were being raised in the European Union claiming that it would be difficult for the bloc to remain competitive in the modern world, given the "increasingly stiff" and sometimes even "unfair" competition.

Russia is a member of the EAEU and SCO alliances, which aim to promote intergovernmental cooperation among Eurasian states. While the SCO is cooperating closely with the ASEAN on a number of issues, the EAEU also seeks to deepen trade relations with East Asia.

*Jabhat Nusra, also known as Al-Nusra Front is a terrorist group banned in Russia

 Sputnik

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CBL Properties today announced the retirement of Gus Stephas, CBLs EVP  chief operating officer, rounding out a nearly 50 year career in the real estate industry.



On behalf of CBLs board of directors, employees and business partners, I would like to recognize and thank Gus for his dedication and contributions to CBLs success over the years, stated Stephen Lebovitz, CBLs chief executive officer.



Gus has contributed to CBL and the shopping center industry in innumerable ways throughout his multi-decade career, continued Mr. Lebovitz. Gus has been an integral part of CBL since its formation, helping to hone the Companys reputation as a first-class manager of market-dominant centers. His innate understanding of the business and his financial expertise have lent a beneficial perspective to CBLs leasing and operations, leading to a stronger and more efficient organization. Gus is also known for his gregarious management style, which has energized the organization with a spirit of comradery and clearly demonstrated his passion for the industry and CBL.



Mr. Stephas retirement will conclude a nearly 50 year career in the real estate industry, including 40 years with CBL and its predecessor company. Mr. Stephas joined CBLs predecessor company as controller at its formation in 1978. He was promoted several times throughout his career and in 2010 was named executive vice president and chief operating officer. Prior to joining CBL, he was affiliated with the shopping center division of Arlen Realty as an accountant and later as assistant controller. He relocated from the New York metropolitan area to Chattanooga in 1970 as part of the merger of Arlens shopping center division with Independent Enterprises, a Chattanooga-based developer of shopping centers.



The effective date of Mr. Stephas retirement will be Dec. 31. Over the next few months, he will assist in the transition of responsibilities to other members of CBLs executive team, including CBLs EVP  Operations Mike Harrison.





Army destroys terrorists' bases in Hama northern countryside

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Sept 3, IRNA -- Syrian Arab Army units destroyed bases for Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists and its affiliated groups in northern and northwestern countryside of Hama province near the administrative borders of Idleb province, the last major stronghold of terror organizations.

SANA's correspondent in Hama said on Monday that an army unit positioned in the surroundings of Jourin town targeted with artillery and machinegun fire fortified positions and movements of the "Turkistani Party" terrorists at the outskirts of al-Ziyara town, destroying several of their bases and leaving a number of terrorists dead or injured.

The correspondent said another army unit targeted with artillery fire a fortified position for terrorists in the surroundings of al-Latamneh town, destroying it and killing and injuring a number of terrorists. Abdo Hamad al-Habinb was identified among the dead terrorists.

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Russia to continue supporting Syria in combating terrorism

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Sept 3, IRNA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that his country will continue to provide support to Syria to combat terrorism and to reach a political solution to the crisis in it based on the Security Council's resolution no. 2254.

In a speech at the International Relations Institute in Moscow on Monday, Lavrov underlined the necessity of eliminating terrorism in Idleb city, saying "It is impossible to allow the status quo to remain as it is today," SANA reported from Moscow.

He indicated that terrorist groups positioned in Idleb continually violate the cessation of hostilities agreement and they continue their provocations against the Syrian Arab Army.

Lavrov added that these terrorist groups use Idleb as a basis for preparing terrorist attacks and to launch drones towards the Russian Air Base in Hmeimim in Lattakia countryside.

He said that Russia cooperates with the Syrian state in the reconstruction and it will continue to provide aid to achieve the recovery of economy and infrastructure.

Lavrov asserted that Russia is cooperating closely with its allies across the world to achieve security and stability and to solve the international crises on the basis of dialogue in a way that would guarantee the interests of all the parties.

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Iranian, Syrian FMs meet in Damascus

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Mon / 3 September 2018 / 16:17

Tehran (ISNA) - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem held a meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday.

During the meeting, the officials discussed bilateral issues and the latest developments in Syria, immigrants, regional issues, need for continuation and reinforcement of Astana meeting, expansion of economic cooperation, involvment of Iranian companies in the reconstruction of Syria, cooperation in international organizations specially the United Nations and Yemeni crisis.

At the meeting, Mr. Zarif stressed that Iran would continue its support for Syrian government in its fighting against terrorist groups.

He emphasized that upcoming trilateral summit in Tehran between Turkey, Russia and Iran will follow the previous route of the talks assisting to take new more steps toward the final solution for Syria's crisis.

Walid Muallem, for his part, thanked the Islamic Republic of Iran for supporting Syria in its fight against terrorist groups and demanded the continued support of Tehran.

End Item

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Iran optimistic about trilateral summit in Tehran over Syria

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Mon / 3 September 2018 / 15:46

Tehran (ISNA) - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi announced Monday that the trilateral summit in Tehran between Turkey, Russia and Iran will be held following the Astana talks.

Citing Astana talks as a successful process, Qassemi said, "The summit can follow the previous route of the talks assisting to take new more steps toward the final solution for Syria's crisis, fight against terrorism and restore peace and stability to the war-torn country".

Hoping for a successful and efficient summit, he also declared that he is "optimistic" about the result of the talks in Tehran.

Answering a question about the subjects which are due to be discussed during the negotiations between the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey, Qassemi said, "The trilateral summit between the countries that have important and influential roles in Syria can't be limited to one issue. Certainly they will discuss international issues and bilateral and trilateral cooperation as well as issues on mutual interests in addition to Syria's recent developments".

Rejecting recent claims about Iran's interference in Iraq's domestic affairs, Qassemi said, "We respect Iraqi people's choice and cooperate with any government from any wing and party because we are neighbors and we must cooperate with each other. As we've said before, preserving Iraq's independence and territorial integrity is an important and critical issue for us".

Reacting to the recent controversies over Iraqi tourists in Tehran ahead of Arba'een and Muharram mourning ceremonies, the spokesman said, "I think Iran's enemies are trying to undermine Iran's foreign relations with its neighboring countries and fail Iran's foreign policies in its interactions with the neighboring states".

Insisting that Iran's principal policy is not interfering in other states' domestic affairs, Qassemi added, "We are in a constant contact with Iraq over various fields and any issue between the two countries will be solved through dialogues between Iraqi and Iranian officials".

End Item

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Iran will continue support for Syria's fight against terrorism: Zarif

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 01:37PM

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Islamic Republic will continue to support Syria in its fight against terrorist groups.

Zarif made the comments in a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem in Damascus on Monday ahead of a planned summit of Iranian, Russian and Turkish presidents in Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will host his Turkish and Russian counterparts Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, respectively, on September 7 in an attempt to find ways to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.

The three presidents have previously held summits in the Russian resort city of Sochi in November 2017 and in the Turkish capital, Ankara, in April.

Zarif and Muallem also discussed regional issues and the latest developments in Syria, including the return of the displaced people to their homeland.

The top Iranian and Syrian diplomats stressed the importance of strengthening economic cooperation and the participation of Iranian firms in the reconstruction of war-ravaged Syria as well as cooperation in international organizations, particularly the United Nations.

Muallem hailed Iran's support for his country in the battle against terrorist groups and called on Tehran to continue its cooperation with Damascus in this regard.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.

Iran has been offering military advisory support to Syria at the request of the Damascus government, enabling its army to speed up its gains on various fronts against terror outfits.

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami was in Damascus last week and signed an agreement on defense and technical cooperation designed to ensure the continued presence and participation of Iran in Syria's reconstruction.

In a meeting with his Syrian counterpart, General Ali Abdullah Ayyoub, in Damascus on August 26, Hatami warned of extra-regional countries' plots to sow discord in Syria and vowed the Islamic Republic's full support for the war-ravaged country in a bid to preserve its territorial integrity and improve its stability.

"Iran will spare no effort to maintain Syria's territorial integrity, because security in the country will help [improve] regional stability," the Iranian defense chief added.

A senior Iranian commander said on August 28 the country's military advisors will maintain their presence in Syria, giving more details about the military cooperation agreement reached between Tehran and Damascus.

"The continued presence of Iranian (military) advisors in Syria was one of the points of the defense and technical agreement between Tehran and Damascus," Iran's military and defense attache to Damascus, Brigadier General Abolqassem Alinejad, said.

Syria will start reconstruction process in cooperation with Iran, Russia: PM Khamis

In a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis said the reconstruction process of his country would start in cooperation with friendly countries, particularly Iran and Russia.

Zarif also said the two countries' embassies should prepare the ground for the participation of Iranian private firms in the reconstruction of Syria.

The Iranian foreign minister and Syrian premier called for the exchange of economic delegations in a bid to boost cooperation.

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Iran FM in Syria, says Idlib must be cleansed of terrorists

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 10:05AM

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that Idlib in northwestern Syria must be cleansed of terrorists and returned to the government fold as he arrived in Damascus for key talks.

"Terrorists operating in the remaining parts of Idlib must be cleansed, and the region be returned to the people of Syria," Zarif told reporters on Monday upon arrival in the Syrian capital.

As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attempts to turn military success into postwar reconstruction, foreign-backed terrorists in Idlib remain the last major hurdle to the program.

The Syrian army gears up for a major offensive to retake the last terrorist stronghold, but it is facing threats of being hit by the US and its allies if a chemical attack takes place in the province.

Russia and Syria say staging a false flag chemical attack has been in the works for some time by militants and British "special forces" in order to give the US a pretext to hit the government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the situation in Idlib Province could not be tolerated indefinitely.

Speaking in Moscow, the top diplomat said the Syrian government had every right to wipe out militants in Idlib, Interfax news agency reported.

Lavrov had earlier called the Idlib-based terrorists as an "abscess" which needs to be taken out before harming thousands of civilians who live there.

In a joint press conference with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh, Lavrov said last Wednesday that terrorists holed up in the city were using ordinary people as human shields.

"So, from all standpoints, this abscess has to be liquidated," the Russian foreign minister said.

For months, Syria has been planning the decisive operation in Idlib, the last of its provinces that still remain under the control of militants.

Presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are due to meet in Iran for a third summit on Syria on September 7. On Wednesday, Zarif made a previously unannounced visit to Ankara and held "fruitful" talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who attended the meeting, said bilateral ties and Syria were on the agenda.

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 Russia.

Zarif said on Monday, "Syria's territorial integrity must be preserved, all ethnic groups must collectively start the reconstruction process, and the displaced must return to their families."

The Iranian foreign minister was due to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Prime Minister Imad Khamis, and his counterpart Walid al-Muallem.

Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami was in Damascus last week and signed a "defense and technical agreement" designed to ensure the continued presence and participation of Iran in Syria's reconstruction.

Tehran has provided steady military advice to Syria in its seven-year fight with terrorists. On Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the support, including Iran's military advisory presence in Syria, will continue.

"Iran will remain a supporter of the Syrian government in its efforts to remove terrorists,and continue its advisory role and help the Syrian government in the upcoming Idlib campaign," he told a weekly news briefing in Tehran.

Qassemi said the Syrian government "has the right to fight against terrorists and purge them entirely from its territory."

"Idlib is a complicated issue as it is the last stronghold of rebels operating against the Syrian national government, and is also home to terrorist elements," he said.

"As part of its battles and victories over terrorists, the Syrian government is resolved to end the plague [of terrorism] in this province as well," he added.

The spokesman said the imminent Idlib offensive has worried "certain sponsors of terrorists" who have launched "a massive propaganda campaign" to forestall the purge.

Qassemi also touched on the upcoming summit of President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, President Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran, saying it can definitely help return peace, stability, and security to Syria.

Nevertheless, "it is not logical to assume that a single summit would resolve a longstanding issue like that of Syria, but a political solution is still the only possible way," he added.

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Iranian Foreign Minister In Damascus Ahead Of Idlib Offensive

RFE/RL September 03, 2018

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Damascus on September 3 for talks with President Bashar al-Assad and other Syrian officials ahead of an expected military offensive by Syrian government forces in Idlib Province, the last opposition stronghold in Syria.

The visit also comes days before a summit between the leaders of Russia, Iran, and Turkey to discuss the Syrian conflict, now in its eighth year.

During their meeting, Zarif and Assad "asserted that the pressures from some Western states on Syria and Tehran will not deter the two countries from continuing to defend their principles," the Syrian president's office said in a statement.

Zarif earlier met with his Syrian counterpart, Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, to discuss political and military developments "in preparation for the tripartite summit," according to Syria's Foreign Ministry.

"They shared identical views on the importance of strengthening bilateral coordination and political discussions in the coming phase," a statement said.

Zarif also held talks with Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis, who told Iran's minister that Syria's reconstruction plans would be carried out with the help of Iranian and Russian companies, Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported.

Backed by Russia and Iran, Assad has vowed to defeat the opposition fighters in Idlib if they do not surrender to Syrian government rule.

Fars quoted Zarif as saying in Damascus that "the remaining terrorists in the remaining parts of Idlib must be cleaned out and the region should be placed back under the control of the Syrian people."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow on September 3 that Syrian government forces had the right to "liquidate terrorists" in Idlib.

Syrian, Russian, and Iranian officials often refer to any armed opponent of the Damascus government as a "terrorist."

But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on August 31 that Washington would consider an assault in Idlib by Assad's forces as an escalation of Syria's war.

The State Department has also warned that Washington would respond to any chemical attack carried out by Syrian government forces.

With some 3 million people now living in Idlib and the surrounding area, United Nations officials have warned that a government offensive could displace 800,000 people.

The Kremlin on September 3 confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would travel to Tehran on September 7 for talks with the leaders of Iran and Turkey about the situation in Syria.

Zarif said in Damascus that those talks also would focus on the battle against remaining militant groups that are fighting government forces in Syria.

Zarif said the talks would be "a continuation of the three-way political round" that examines "the methods of how to confront extremist and terrorist groups, like Tahrir al-Sham."

Tahrir al-Sham, which includes the Al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, is the most powerful militant alliance in Idlib Province.

Last week, Iran's defense minister travelled to Damascus and signed an agreement on military cooperation between the two countries.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, Interfax, TASS, and Fars

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iranian-foreign-minister-in- damascus-ahead-of-idlib-offensive/29468361.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Terrorists Should Be Expelled From Syria's Idlib Province - Iranian FM

Sputnik News

10:16 03.09.2018(updated 13:03 03.09.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has arrived in Damascus to hold talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem and President Bashar Assad, the Iranian Foreign Ministry stated on the Damascus-Tehran bilateral relations and the Syrian crisis settlement.

"Mohammad Javad Zarif has arrived in Damascus with a political delegation at the official invitation of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem for talks and consultations with his counterpart, as well as with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis," the ministry said in a statement posted in Soroush messenger.

Terrorists should be expelled from the Syrian province of Idlib, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, during his visit to Damascus.

"A process of complete terrorism elimination is underway in Syria, the remaining terrorists, including those from the Jabhat Nusra [terrorist organization, banned in Russia] should be expelled from Idlib," Zarif was quoted as saying by the by the state-run IRNA news agency.

This visit takes place on the eve of the meeting of the Presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey, which is scheduled for September 7 in Tehran, the Iranian press reports.

Last week, Iran's defense minister signed an agreement for defense cooperation between the two countries with his Syrian counterpart during his visit to the country.

Iran, alongside Russia and Turkey, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria.

The situation in Idlib has recently escalated amid reports on terrorists preparing a false-flag chemical attack against civilians, set to provoke western nations into launching a military action against the Syrian government, which they have already accused of chemical attacks against civilians. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, talks on the creation of humanitarian corridors enabling civilians to flee the province are underway, and the information on the possible attack has been transferred to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and United Nations.

 Sputnik

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Turkey detains over dozen officers over affiliation to Gulen movement

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 3, 2018 04:43PM

Turkish Naval Forces have arrested more than a dozen officers on suspicion of affiliation to a movement led by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Ankara government accuses of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suspects were detained in the capital Ankara, and that they are believed to have contacted Gulenists via payphones and prepaid mobile phones.

The sources added that the group consists of one major and 12 non-commissioned officers.

On August 31, Turkish security forces detained 23 suspected Gulenists in two separate nationwide operations.

Six former military pilots were among those arrested, while the rest were Turkish Air Forces personnel.

During the 2016 botched putsch, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed a few hours later.

Ankara has since accused Gulen of having orchestrated the coup. The opposition figure is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating the country's institutions, particularly the army, police and the judiciary.

Gulen has denounced the "despicable putsch" and reiterated that he had no role in it.

"Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless and politically-motivated slanders," he said in a statement.

The 77-year-old cleric has also called on Ankara to end its "witch hunt" of his followers, a move he says is aimed at "weeding out anyone it deems disloyal to President Erdogan and his regime."

Turkish officials have frequently called on their US counterparts to extradite Gulen, but their demands have not been taken heed of.

Turkey, which remains in a state of emergency since the coup, has been engaged in suppressing the media and opposition groups suspected to have played a role in the failed coup.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in Turkey on suspicion of having links to Gulen and the failed coup. More than 110,000 others, including military staff, civil servants and journalists, have been sacked or suspended from work over the same accusations.

The international community and rights groups have been highly critical of the Turkish president over the massive dismissals and the crackdown.

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UK Army's Armored Vehicles in Afghanistan Break Down Over Heat - Reports

Sputnik News

16:04 03.09.2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The UK army's Foxhound armored vehicles in Afghanistan give out roughly once a week because of overheating, the UK Times newspaper reported.

The risk to the soldiers is increased if they have to get out of the car, the UK Times newspaper reported, citing Major Andy Brown of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

"That's why we wear personal protective equipment. It's not a gamble, it's a calculated risk. Like any piece of kit, there have to compromise," the officer was quoted as saying.

According to Brown, the car issues had not impacted the operations. However, another source, an infantry sergeant, told the newspaper that the troops had had "quite a few problems with them."

Army engineers have reportedly been able to resolve some of the issues. The cars are left in the shade when out of use to keep them cool.

Brigadier Simon Humphrey, commander of British forces in Afghanistan, called the vehicles reliable and stressed he had never had any issues with them.

An army spokesman reportedly pointed out that the cars had "saved lives," but did not give details on how often they broke down when out on a mission.

The UK troops in Afghanistan contribute to an international anti-terrorist mission. Afghanistan has been plagued with instability and security threats for years.

 Sputnik

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Ukraine-NATO Joint Military Exercises Begin In Western Region Of Lviv

RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service September 03, 2018

KYIV -- Ukraine has begun joint military exercises with 10 NATO countries in western Ukraine amid ongoing tensions with Russia over Moscow's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists.

The Rapid Trident 2018 drills officially opened on September 3 at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyy National Ground Forces Academy in the western region of Lviv.

Taking part are about 2,200 troops from 14 countries, including the United States and nine other NATO member states. The maneuvers are scheduled to continue until September 15.

For Ukrainian forces, the exercises will involve 350 units of military equipment. The Ukrainian Border Guard Service and Ukrainian National Guard troops will take part in the drills for the first time.

The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, said at the opening ceremony that all countries participating in the maneuvers "stand in solidarity with Ukraine for Ukrainian security, Ukrainian sovereignty, and Ukrainian territorial integrity."

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has described Rapid Trident maneuvers as "a culmination of multinational training exercises, conducted annually, that serves as the validation for Ukraine's Ministry of Defense under the recommendations of allied and partner nations."

Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Moscow's biggest military exercises since 1981 are to be held between September 11-15 in eastern Russia with the participation of China and Mongolia.

With reporting by UNIAN and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine- nato-joint-military-exercises-begin-in -western-region-of-lviv/29468400.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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FIAT Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) may have overestimated Alfa Romeos appeal globally, but FCA Australia president and CEO Steve Zanlunghi says the Italian brand is performing to expectations in the competitive luxury segment.

Speaking exclusively to GoAuto, Mr Zanlunghi said Alfa Romeo sales would grow in line with the expansion of the Stelvio range  the brands first SUV  after the introduction of the base petrol and diesel grades earlier this year.

We havent fully launched the Stelvio line-up yet, so we think there is potential upside there, he said.

Were in the process of launching the Ti, which is more of a performance version. Then right after that is going be the Stelvio QV  that's going be your real top-end AMG fighter.

But those havent launched yet, and I think when they do launch that will give us some additional growth, continued growth.

Year to date, Alfa Romeo has sold 756 units, a 27.5 per cent increase over the same period last year, with the new Stelvio contributing 182 sales to the brands tally.

However, Alfa Romeos top seller on 368 units remains the Giulia mid-size sedan that was launched in early 2017 with the flagship 375kW/600Nm 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6-powered Quadrifoglio Verde (QV) before the model range grew to include other variants.

Mr Zanlunghi revealed the percentage mix of high-end versions and entry-level grades skewed heavily towards the former, but the Stelvio may not follow the same pattern.

Left: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Australia president and CEO Steve Zanlunghi

When we launched Giulia, we launched with the high-end (variants) first, so we launched with QV, and what we call the Veloce which is kind of what the Ti would be to Stelvio, he said. The mix that we saw come in  it blew us away because it came in with the top two areas of the line-up, came in at about 60 per cent, 60-65 per cent.

We didn't anticipate that. We thought it was going be more towards a little bit the lower end, but the product plan was already locked in for the Stelvio where we launched first with the base versions, and now we're getting the performance versions (that) we know we have pent up demand.

I think that (variant mix of Giulia) was a little bit rich, were being a little more conservative on it (variant mix of Stelvio). But trust me, if that mix comes in that way, well all be happy.

As for whether the Stelvio will outpace the Giulia given the Australian market preference for SUVs over sedans, Mr Zanlunghi said: No, I wouldnt say that, I wouldnt make an assumption.

Wed like to achieve our targets and if its number one, or Giulias number one, happy days.

Looking at to the other Alfa Romeo models, the Giulietta small hatchback has slipped 17.5 per cent to 189 sales in the first seven months of the year, while the 4C mid-engined sportscar has accrued 17 new registrations, up 6.3 per cent year on year.

With standalone dealer showrooms introduced with the launch of the Giulia, Mr Zanlunghi said he will look to expand the number of retail outlets in line with expected sales growth.

So 17 dealers, and then were going to look to expand ... here in areas that we dont have representation that will not encroach on the existing dealer network, he said.

When we launched the Alfa Romeo network, we kind of pruned back what the car network was. Initially, we had 12, then we expanded to 14, now were at 17, and were only expanding with dealers that are going to make the investment in the brand.

Mr Zanlunghi confirmed he is happy with how the Italian marque is travelling locally, but former FCA chief operating officer Sergio Marchionne told investors in early June that the soft relaunch of Alfa Romeo in 2015 was a misstep, revising its 2018 global sales targets from 400,000 to around 130,000.

Did we do it right? Did we execute it properly? The answer is no, Mr Marchionne said at the time. I think the way in which we entered the market and what we expected the market to do in response were totally misjudged, so it has taken us a lot longer to fix it.

I think that the period of time we got between now and 2022 and the product intervention  will make sure that we get there.

Alfa Romeos five-year plan  announced at the time by Mr Marchionne  will see new versions of the 8C and GTV sportscars, as well as a new-generation Giulietta, join the existing line-up.

Mr Marchionne said: If you had to ask me today  would I do it again? I surely would not do it the same way, but I certainly would take on the venture again and I think we would be a lot more careful in terms of estimating our capabilities of industrialising the technological solutions we put in place.

The Road to Recovery podcast seriesFIAT Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Australia remains committed to its namesake brands despite a significant 42.3 per cent sales downturn in the former, including Abarth, and the latter only offering the single 300 large sedan.

Speaking exclusively to GoAuto, FCA Australia president and chief executive Steve Zanlunghi staunchly stood behind the Italian brand saying he is absolutely, 100 per cent behind Fiat.

The reason that the Fiat brand is down is, a big piece of it is because we had supply issues on the 500X, he said.

The whole first, probably four or five months of the year, we were out of 500Xs, and the only ones that we had were aged stock. Now we had some supply come in, and I'm sure you saw that we're launching  a refresh of the 500X here in the near future  so that should help as well.

Year-to-date sales of the Fiat 500 and Abarth-fettled 595 are up 6.5 per cent to 472, while the 500X small SUV is significantly down 73.8 per cent to 154 units.

As for the remainder of the range, the Mazda MX-5-based Abarth 124 Spider is down 56.6 per cent to 96 sales, while the discontinued Panda hatchback has accrued one new registration in 2018.

Fiats facelifted 500X was revealed last week in Europe, sporting new-look head- and tail-lights, redesigned front and rear bumpers, updated powertrains, boosted safety equipment, and a reworked instrument cluster and steering wheel.

However, Mr Zanlunghi said Fiats go-fast Abarth brand had begun hitting its stride since an update in November when the company cut pricing by as much as $8000 on some 595 variants.

When you look at where were at between the 500 and the Abarth 500, for the first time now ever over the last three months, weve seen the Abarth 500 now outsell the city car 500, he said. So its really starting to take hold here, the performance piece of it.

Now it brings it (Abarth 595) down closer to the 500 and ... the performance in it is just amazing, so its worth, absolutely worth the step.

As for expansion of the Fiat range, the Italian brand also sells a Mitsubishi Triton-based Fullback ute in some international markets, but Mr Zanlunghi shot down hopes of the pick-up contender touching down on local soil.

Weve got a partner that industrialise that vehicle for us, he said. And right now that contract does not cover Australia.

But we do recognise that this is the third-largest ute market in the world, that one-tonne pick-up, and we are constantly doing studies of how we can get into that market and get a piece of it.

As such, the first FCA group ute to be offered in Australia is expected to be Jeeps Wrangler-based pick-up that is likely to materialise in production form next year.

With the Fiat Professional Scudo discontinued, Mr Zanlunghi would not be drawn on the likelihood of its replacement, the Renault Trafic-related Talento, being introduced in Australia, but sales of the Ducato large van have hit 640 units, a 6.3 per cent year-on-year increase, while the small Doblo is steady at 51 units.

Meanwhile, local Chrysler sales are up 1.3 per cent to 159 on the back of the sole 300 model offering.

Although rumours swirled that FCA would put the Chrysler brand out to pasture in the lead up to an investor meeting in early June, then chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne pledged to carry on with the American brand, focusing on its home market.

Mr Marchionne also revealed the Fiat brand would concentrate its efforts in Europe with new models including a fresh 500e electric hatch and wagon, as well as a hybrid 500X.

Mr Zanlunghi said: The purpose of that meeting was to talk about our global brands.

But by no means does that mean were pulling out, cancelling or pulling the plug. In fact, we just recently had some good market meetings with our dealers where I confirmed that the Chrysler brand and the Fiat brand arent going anywhere from Australia, he said.

The Road to Recovery podcast seriesTORONTO, Sept. 04, 2018 - Black Iron Inc. (Black Iron or the Company) (TSX: BKI; OTC: BKIRF; FRANKFURT: BIN) management are pleased to announce that the Company has received a formal proposal from Ukraines government to lease to the Company a plot of land connected to the Companys Shymanivske iron ore body (Shymanivske or the Project) for the location of the Projects processing plant, tailings and waste rock. This marks a significant milestone in the Projects development and further demonstrates Ukraine governmental support for the mine to be constructed.



The parcel of land being proposed is owned by Ukraines central government and is currently being used by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) for training purposes. The land is similar in size and to the layout used in the Companys November 2017 PEA (see About Black Iron below for additional details) for location of the processing plant but differs for the tailings and waste rock stockpile locations by being located further to the south. Black Iron management is currently analyzing the suitability of this land from a social and technical standpoint. To secure rights to this land, Black Iron needs to agree on a compensation package with the MOD and Ukraines central government that is sensible for all parties. Discussions of this nature have already started with senior government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Kubiv with support from Canadas Embassy to Ukraine.

As part of developing the Project, Black Iron also needs to secure surface rights for its Shymanivske ore body from the Kryvyi Rih City Council who own this land. The City council has offered to lease a portion of this land to Black Iron and the signing of a lease is pending Black Iron (i) finalizing discussions with Ukraines central government on the MOD parcel of land, and (ii) Black Iron finalizing an agreement with a neighbouring mine, Central Ore Processing (YuGOK), on the previously agreed relocation of their mine service garage.

Black Iron management are also pleased to report that several steel mills and trading houses have expressed strong interest to buy the ultra high-grade pellet feed product expected to be produced from the Project. Many of these groups have signed confidentially agreements to review the Project in greater depth and some have completed site due diligence visits over the last two months. Discussions are currently ongoing with select parties to enter into an offtake agreement in which they will secure the rights to purchase Black Irons product over a period of time in exchange for a meaningful investment to help fund construction of the Project.

Although benchmark iron ore prices have recently declined slightly on the back of the United States announcing tariffs with numerous countries on steel, grade premiums for higher iron content products remain strong. According to Metal Bulletin, as of August 29, 2018, the price for 62% benchmark fines was US$67.27 per tonne and higher grade 65% iron content fines are selling for US$94.50 per tonne for product delivered to China. The current selling price for 68% iron content pellet feed, similar to what Black Iron expects to produce from the Project, are significantly higher than the price used in the PEA. The strong economic returns expected to be generated by the Shymanivske Project re-enforce the unique opportunity Black Iron presents by not having to build high cost rail, powerlines or a port as is required with majority of the other iron ore development projects globally. As noted in Black Irons press release dated May 2, 2018, highly regarded market analysis firm, CRU, recently ranked the Project as the lowest position on the business cost curve (i.e. normalized operating costs) and second lowest capital intensity undeveloped pellet feed iron ore project globally.

About Black Iron

Black Iron is an iron ore exploration and development company, advancing its 100% owned Shymanivske project located in Kryviy Rih, Ukraine. The Shymanivske project contains a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimated to be 646 Mt Measured and Indicated mineral resources, consisting of 355 Mt Measured mineral resources grading 31.6% total iron and 18.8% magnetic iron, and Indicated mineral resources of 290 Mt grading 31.1% total iron and 17.9% magnetic iron, using a cut-off grade of 10% magnetic iron. Additionally, the Shymanivske project contains 188 Mt of Inferred mineral resources grading 30.1% total iron and 18.4% magnetic iron. Full mineral resource details can be found in the NI 43-101 compliant technical report entitled Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Re-scoped Shymanivske Iron Ore Deposit effective November 21, 2017 (the PEA) under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Shymanivske project is surrounded by five other operating mines, including ArcelorMittal's iron ore complex. Please visit the Companys website at www.blackiron.com for more information.

The technical and scientific contents of this press release have been prepared under the supervision of and have been reviewed and approved by Matt Simpson, P.Eng., CEO of Black Iron, who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

For more information, please contact:



Matt Simpson

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +1 (416) 309-2138

info@blackiron.com

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, opinions and estimates of the date such statements are made based on information available to them at that time, including those factors discussed in the section entitled Risk Factors in the Companys annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2017 or as may be identified in the Companys public disclosure from time to time, as filed under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the Project, the accuracy of the findings of CRUs study, the mineralization of the Project, the results of the PEA, the realization of the PEA, the expectations of future cash flows, the expected economics forecast, the geo-political climate in Ukraine, the Companys ability to obtain the requisite land and surface rights for the Project and other requisite permits or approvals, the Companys ability to obtain adequate financing, and future plans for the Companys development. Generally, forward looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of current exploration activities; other risks of the mining industry and the risks described in the annual information form of the Company. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.SHERMAN OAKS, Sept. 04, 2018 - via NEWMEDIAWIRE - Petroteq Energy Inc. ("Petroteq" or the "Company") (TSXV: PQE) (OTC: PQEFF) (FSE: A2DYWC), a fully integrated oil and gas company, announced today that it will be presenting at the 20th Annual Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference, sponsored by H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC. The conference is being held on September 4-6, 2018 at the St. Regis New York Hotel in New York City.

Event: 20th Annual Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference

Date: Thursday, September 6th

Time: 3:00pm ET

Mr. David Sealock, Chief Executive Officer of Petroteq, will be presenting the corporate overview and discussing the Company's recent highlights which include its finalized continuity testing at its Asphalt Ridge facility, a non-binding LOI to pursue additional acreage and resources in Utah and other updates. Mr. Sealock will be available for one-on-one meetings with registered investors during the conference.

About Petroteq Energy Inc.

Petroteq is a fully integrated oil and gas company focused on the development and implementation of a new proprietary technology for oil extraction. The Company has an environmentally safe and sustainable technology for the extraction of heavy oils from oil sands, oil shale deposits and shallow oil deposits. Petroteq is engaged in the development and implementation of its patented environmentally friendly heavy oil processing and extraction technologies. Our proprietary process produces zero greenhouse gas, zero waste and requires no high temperatures. Petroteq is currently focused on developing its oil sands resources and expanding production capacity at its Asphalt Ridge heavy oil extraction facility located near Vernal, Utah. In addition, the Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary PetroBLOQ, LLC, is seeking to develop the first blockchain based platform created exclusively for the supply chain needs of the oil & gas sector. For more information, visit www.Petroteq.energyand PetroBLOQ.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. and Canadian securities laws. Words such as "may," "would," "could," "should," "potential," "will," "seek," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, including: continuous operations of the facility; pursuit of additional acreage and resources in Utah pursuant to a non-binding LOI and the Company successfully developing block chain technology for the oil and gas industry, are intended to identify forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that there is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, based on information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information, including: the plant producing as expected by the Company and the Company having the funds (through cash flow or financing) to fund the expansion of its plant as projected; the current non-binding LOI to pursue additional acreage and resources in Utah evolving into a definitive agreement; and PetroBLOQ successfully developing and implementing a blockchain-based supply chain management system. While forward-looking statements are based on data, assumptions and analyses that the Company believes are reasonable under the circumstances, whether actual results, performance or developments will meet the Company's expectations and predictions depends on a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results, performance and financial condition of the Company to differ materially from its expectations. Certain of the "risk factors" that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation: uncertainties inherent in the estimation of resources including whether any reserves will ever be attributed to the Company's properties; PetroBLOQ not having the expertise and/or funds necessary to develop and implement a blockchain-based supply chain management system; PetroBLOQ not being able to develop the blockchain technology to completion; blockchain technology not being adopted by the oil and gas industry; changes in laws or regulations; the ability to implement business strategies or to pursue business opportunities, whether for economic or other reasons; status of the world oil markets, oil prices and price volatility; oil pricing; state of capital markets and ability by the Company to raise capital; litigation; the commercial and economic viability of the Company's oil sands hydrocarbon extraction technology, the SWEPT technology, the S-BRPT technology, and other proprietary technologies developed or licensed by the Company or by Accord GR Energy Inc., which are of experimental nature and have not been used at full capacity for an extended period of time; reliance on suppliers, contractors, consultants and key personnel; the ability of the Company and Accord GR Energy Inc. to maintain their respective mineral lease holdings; potential failure of the Company's business plans or model; the nature of oil and gas production and oil sands mining, extraction and production; uncertainties in exploration and drilling for oil, gas and other hydrocarbon-bearing substances; unanticipated costs and expenses, availability of financing and other capital; potential damage to or destruction of property, loss of life and environmental damage; risks associated with compliance with environmental protection laws and regulations; uninsurable or uninsured risks; potential conflicts of interest of officers and directors; and other general economic, market and business conditions and factors, including the risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's disclosure documents, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com.

Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law.

While the Company has announced a non-binding LOI for additional acreage, there can be no assurance that one or more viable transactions will result or successfully conclude in a timely manner, or at all. Additional information will be released by the Company as it occurs.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.







CONTACT INFORMATION

Petroteq Energy Inc.

Alex Blyumkin

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (800) 979-1897

Vancouver, September 4, 2018 - Iconic Minerals Ltd. ("Company" or "Iconic") (TSXV: ICM) (OTC: BVTEF) (FSE: YQGB) has hosted a field inspection by Global Resource Engineering of Denver, Colorado who are conducting a NI 43-101 compliant resource study of the Bonnie Claire Project ("Project" or "Bonnie Claire"). Bulk samples of the sediments from BC1801 have been collected as the hole was drilled and shipped to St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp ("St-George") of Montreal for further metallurgical testing. Additional shallow drilling will soon be conducted to find shallow lithium-rich sediments for further bulk testing using heavy equipment.

Global Resource Engineering ("GRE") visit to Bonnie Claire, which commenced on August 24th , toured the greater property area, inspected drill sites and surface sample locations, checked drill logs against chip trays, as well as taking samples of both surface salts and drilled sediments to check against the results. GRE is primarily using the three deep drill holes, BC1601, BC1602 and BC1801, that were drilled on the Project, to calculate a resource estimate on Bonnie Claire. The three drill holes are located 1.6 kilometers (1.0 miles) to 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) apart, each contain +300 meters (+1,000 feet) of sediments with an overall average grade greater than 1,000 ppm lithium. GRE also visited the area south of the Project's drill holes and studied a broad region of linear surface lithium highs found by surface grid salt sampling. This area, along with one shallow drill hole ("BC1701") completed in 2017, has potential for near-surface lithium-rich sediments and possible lithium brine. An NI 43-101 resource report can be expected to be completed by GRE in 3-5 weeks.

Bulk samples of the sediments taken from the third deep hole ("BC1801"), have been shipped to St-Georges in Montreal for further metallurgical testing. This work will be used to determine the optimal economically feasible method of recovering lithium, and additional commercially viable elements derived from the Bonnie Claire sediments. Results from St-Georges tests are estimated for completion within five weeks.

Final exploration plans are being formulated for five 90 meters (300 feet) deep drill holes to test shallow lithium-rich sediments under linear surface lithium highs at Bonnie Claire. If successful, the area will become a source for further bulk sampling for pilot plant studies, requiring large amounts of sediment. In addition to the ongoing metallurgical work and shallow drilling the longer-term plan is to drill one deep core hole up to 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) deep to determine the vertical extent of the lithium-rich sediments. After the core hole is drilled, ten to fifteen deep mud-rotary holes, spaced roughly 1.6 km (1.0 miles) apart, are planned to greatly expand the soon to be reported resource.

The Bonnie Claire Lithium Property Characteristics:

The Property is located within Sarcobatus Valley that is approximately 30 km (19 miles) long and 20 km (12 miles) wide, the associated drainage basin is larger than the drainage basin at Clayton Valley to the north. Quartz-rich volcanic tuffs, that contain anomalous amounts of lithium, occur within and adjacent to the valley. Geochemical analysis of the local salt flats has yielded lithium values up to 340 ppm. The gravity low within the valley is 20 km (12 miles) long, and the current estimates of depth to basement rocks range from 600 to 1,200 meters (2,000 to 4,000 feet). The current claim block covers an area of 35 km2 (13.5 mi2) with potential to be underlain by lithium-rich sediments.

Richard Kern, Certified Professional Geologist (#11494) and CEO of Iconic is the Qualified Person who has prepared and reviewed this press release in accordance with NI 43-101 reporting standards.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

SIGNED: "Richard Kern"

Richard Kern, President and CEO

Contact: Keturah Nathe, VP Corporate Development (604) 336-8614

For further information on ICM, please visit our website at www.iconicmineralsltd.com. The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com

Forward Statement: This news release includes certain forward-looking statements or information. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Iconic expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Yet Another U-Turn From Naidu!

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the most controversial decision of his government  demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes on November 8, 2016, it was Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu who was in the forefront in supporting it.

In fact, Naidu went on to claim then that it was he who had suggested to Modi to ban high value currency so as to prevent black money.

He was even appointed as convenor of the committee constituted by the Centre on promoting digital economy and he went on propagating people not to indulge in cash transactions but go in for digital currency.

Now that he has come out of the NDA and has turned a bitter critic of Modi, the TDP president has taken a complete U-turn on demonetisation and digital currency.

At a press conference held at Amaravati on Monday, Naidu went hammer and tongs at Modi for miserably failing on the economic front.

Naidu wondered what Modi had achieved by going in for demonetisation.

Every citizen of the country has suffered a lot due to demonetisation. Even now, liquid cash is not available and people are not able to draw money from ATMs, he said.

He claimed that he had suggested banning of currency of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denomination and printing of more Rs 200 and Rs 100 notes so as to help the common man, besides recommending digital currency for higher transactions.

But the NDA government had done exactly opposite to what I had suggested as the convenor of digital economy. I demand that the Modi government ban Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes at least now and make smaller currency available for the people, he said.

He alleged that the economy had collapsed in the last two years of Modi regime.

The growth rate has fallen. People have lost faith in the banks, as the non-performance assets went up abnormally. The deposits in the accounts of Swiss Banks have gone up. There is no financial discipline in the country now, Naidu said.

Click Here for Latest Direct-to-OTT Releases (List Updates Daily)If you are looking for a truly prominent horse property of elegance and grandeur with a world-class barn of 12 stalls, look no further than the two properties that make up June Hill Farm. They are so special and unique that they are too good to be in just one community: The properties are a  mile from each other: The main propertys address is in Greenwich while the smaller home is in Stamford.

The two properties encompass 23.4 magnificent acres and is a true treasure, according to co-listing agent June Rosenthal of William Pitt Sothebys International Realty.

Its a piece of Ireland. Its the kind of property they have in that wonderful country. Its that special, Rosenthal said.

The horse barn, she said, is located between the two homes.

You can see everything from the horse farm, Rosenthal said. Its a natural space. There are hills; its not all straight flat land. Its a rare equestrian family estate and is a truly picturesque fantasy.

The main property, located at 23 Carrington Drive in Greenwich, is 8,800 square feet and has a finished lower level, main level and second level. It also has a wraparound porch around the whole house on the main level, but Rosenthal said, you can walk out to it from every room.

The lower level features a media and recreation rooms. It also has a bath and walkout.

Details Addresses: 23 Carrington Drive, Greenwich; 242 June Road, Stamford Price: $9.950 million Rooms: 19 Features: Two homes comprise this property which includes a horse barn, a solarium and a professional observatory. Schools: (In Stamford): Roxbury Elementary, Cloonan Middle, and Westhill High School. See More Collapse

The main level, Rosenthal said, has a huge entryway where everything is so big. Walk to the left and there is a large living room, fireplace and lots of windows.

Its a colonial with a contemporary flair, Rosenthal said.

Also, on the main level is a dining room also with large windows. Then, there is the stand-out kitchen, which has stainless-steel appliances and an eating area to sit six comfortably. There is an open area to the family room from the kitchen, Rosenthal noted. The family room, she said, has a fireplace and windows throughout. There are five fireplaces in total on the property. This level also includes an office den that can be used to work or relax, Rosenthal said. There is also a powder room.

The second floor has four bedrooms including the master suite. The spacious master has a fireplace, windows and a balcony. The master bath Rosenthal said, is as luxurious as you would want in a young (12-years-old) home.

The 242 June Road home in Stamford is 2,800 square feet. The 1950s home features a main level and second level. It comes complete with a solarium on the main level and three bedrooms including the master on the second level.

The property also has a professional observatory that is great for people into astronomy, Rosenthal said. In addition, she said, the land also has a hill with more than 30 trees of multiple varieties including apple, peach, plum and pear. There are also blackberry and raspberry bushes.

Listing agents: June Rosenthal, William Pitt Sothebys International Realty, (203) 536-7470, jrosenthal@wpsir.com and Linda Sentementes, William Pitt Sothebys International Realty, (203) 940-0275, lsentementes@wpsir.com.After the reports coming in that Huawei is working overtime to be the first smartphone manufacturer to bring a truly foldable smartphone, Samsung might have all the reasons to speed up the production of its flexible handset.

In an interview, Samsung's mobile division CEO confirmed the company is looking to introduce its first foldable Galaxy as early as this year. Reportedly, the firm made a survey asking consumers if they want a foldable smartphone and the answers were positive. So here's another reason.

This statement contradicts the initial rumors of a foldable Galaxy being announced early next year but it comes in line with the production schedule of the foldable OLEDs.

Koh didn't disclose anything specific about the device. He only said that Samsung Developers Conference 2018, which is set for November 7-8 in San Francisco, could be when the announcement takes place. Moreover, Koh promised that the device will have added functions when it's unfolded so it can give a reason for early adopters to buy it. Earlier this year, a promise was made that it won't be a gimmick but a real finished product.

We can now only wait and see how the story unfolds, if you'd excuse the pun.Samsung may let you disable the Galaxy Note9's Bixby button by the end of the month

The Galaxy Note9 ships with Samsung's Bixby 2.0, and this newest version of the virtual assistant doesn't let you fully disable the very controversial Bixby button that sits on the left side of the device underneath the volume keys.

That may however change, and pretty soon - by the end of this month, in fact. Through a Twitter exchange between a concerned Note9 user and Samsung's arm in Germany we find out that the company is apparently preparing a software update that will let you fully disable the Bixby key.

This is said to be released (at least in Germany) by the end of September. If the info that Samsung's German social media team has is accurate, then you might only have a few more weeks of putting up with the button and its associated function. Afterwards, you can just pretend it isn't there, with accidental presses not resulting in Bixby's activation.

Via



Haiti - Economy : The fight against corruption, only a slogan in Haiti





In its latest newsletter, the Franco-Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CFHCI) stresses that the fight against corruption is being conducted very seriously in many countries of the world including : in Brazil business Lula Da Silva and Dilma Roussef, in the Dominican Republic the Odebrecht case, South Korea, the Park Geun-Hye and Lee Myung-bak cases, in Panama the Ricardo Alberto Martinelli case, in Peru the Pedro Pablo Kuczynski case and in El Salvador the cases Antonio Saca and Cristina Kirchner, "in Haiti, the battle against corruption remains a slogan, a promise, an ideal..."



"From one power to another, from one regime to another, bad practices are not sanctioned. Corruption has become a normal social fact. Haiti remains poor and impoverished while some personalities of the public and private sector, enriched by corruption. It has become more than urgent that this evil be penalized to dream of succeeding in building a modern and just economy."



CFHCI stresses how corruption has negative economic and social consequences "Corruption creates poverty and inequality. When money is diverted, stolen or wasted, it is hospitals and schools that can not be built, it is agriculture that is not funded and supervised.



Corruption tarnishes the image of the country and scares away investors. We can not be surprised when the Dominican Republic manages to capture 25 times more Foreign Direct Investment than Haiti each year https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24971-haiti-economy-$375m-investment-in-2017-an-illusion-record.html .



Corruption adds to administrative procedures and makes the state dysfunctional. Corruption creates inflation through overbilling. It leads to the bankruptcy and closure of many companies that can no longer resist against others who benefit from corruption and unfair competition.



Corruption deprives the state of hundreds of millions of dollars on the border, in ports and in the payment of direct and indirect taxes (smuggling and tax evasion). Several studies conducted by the World Bank and the Private Sector Economic Forum show more than 400 million dollars lost by the State each year on the border [...]"



HL/ HaitiLibre

















Havre Police Department

A Friday at 2:27 p.m. caller at Northern Montana Hospital reported a cat bite.

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Travis Granger of Auburndale, Florida, 29, was arrested on a charge of driving with a suspended or revoked driver's license, during a vehicle stop on First Street at 3:35 p.m. Friday.

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Darryl Anthony Bigleggins of Hays, 52, was arrested on a Justice or City court warrant after a caller reported Friday at 8:10 p.m. an intoxicated man laying on the ground next to a U.S. Highway 2 Northwest business.

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A caller asked Friday at 10:33 p.m. for assistance with the man causing a scene at a First Street business.

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A Third Street caller reported Friday 11:19 p.m. a vehicle hit a trailer.

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Cole Phillip Wakefield of Havre, 32, was issued a summons at the police station Saturday at 7:42 a.m. on a charge of criminal contempt related to a 24/7 Sobriety Program AMS remote breathalyzer violation.

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Everett Dale Windyboy of Havre, 65, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and trespass to property. A Second Street caller reported Saturday at 3:30 p.m. people had been partying through the night and one partier was passed out on the ground, and officers found Windyboy passed out at 3:47 p.m. passed out in the Second Street alley.

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Kim Alan Ironbear of Havre, 46, was arrested on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, disorderly conduct and "other," after an officer reported at 4:19 p.m. Saturday he would be out with a man urinating in the Third Street alley.

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Kenny Anton Anderson of Havre, 52, was arrested on charges of driving without insurance, open container violation, careless driving, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving under the influence and resisting arrest, after a caller reported Saturday at 6:16 p.m. a man who had just pulled into a First Street business had been speeding through a residential area.

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An arrest was made during a 6:22 Saturday vehicle stop, but no details were given on the charges.

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A caller at the hospital reported a dog bite Saturday at 11:21 p.m.

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Jennifer Rose Beston of Rocky Boy, 33, was arrested on a charge of theft and on a Justice or City court warrant, after a caller reported suspicious activity at a First Street West business Sunday at 1:12 a.m.

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Waldron Wayne Crows Breast Jr. of Harlem, 48, was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after an officer investigated suspicious activity Sunday at 1:54 a.m. at a First Street establishment.

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Jadelynn Fourstar Clancy of Havre, 19, was arrested on charges of minor in possession and social host violation; Emanuel D. Sanchez of Havre, 19, was arrested on charges of MIP and obstructing a peace officer or other public servant; and Tori Jean Snell of Hays, 19, Geno Valdez Menard of Havre, 20, Conner Owen Spraker of Havre, 19, and Aariana Marie Horn of Havre, 19, were each issued a summons on a charge of MIP, after a caller on Jefferson Avenue made a noise complaint Sunday at 2:01 a.m.

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A Fourth Street caller reported Sunday at 10:15 a.m. his pool sticks had been stolen from his vehicle.

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A McKinley Avenue caller reported Sunday at 3:39 p.m. that property was stolen out of the back of his pickup truck.

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Tyler Jordan Cook of Big Sandy, 28, was arrested on charges of expired registration and no insurance and on a Justice or City court warrant, during a vehicle stop on First Street West Sunday at 4:05 p.m.

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A vehicle crash was reported Sunday at 6:18 p.m. on Third Street.

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Officers serving a warrant on 17th Street made an arrest. but no details on the charges were provided.

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Colorado James McConnell of Havre, 19, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and MIP after a disturbance was reported on First Street at 11:10 p.m. Sunday.

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A First Street caller reported an assault Monday at 4:19 a.m.

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A burglary was reported on Pine Drive at 4:34 a.m. Monday.

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A vehicle crash was reported on First Street at 10:37 a.m. Monday.

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A Fourth Avenue caller reported Monday at 11:34 a.m. an engagement ring and wedding band were stolen out of his truck during the night.

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A caller at a First Street business asked Monday at 12:52 p.m. to speak with an officer about underage drug use and parties.

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Travis Kyle Wilson of Havre, 28, was arrested on two Justice or City court warrants on First Street at 4 p.m. Monday.

Hill County Sheriff's Office

Jessica Laura Wetsit of Havre, 39, was arrested on a state District Court warrant at Hill County Detention Center Friday at 1:14 p.m.

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Glenda Jane Wells of Box Elder, 44, was arrested on a charge of shoplifting, after a caller at a U.S. Highway 2 West business reported a shoplifter Friday at 2:07 p.m.

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Lyyah Lee of Browning, 19, was issued a summons on a charge of shoplifting and Sara Leigh Dipasquale of Browning, 42, was arrested on charges of shoplifting, driving with a suspended or revoked driver's license and criminal mischief during a Friday 7:03 p.m. vehicle stop at U.S. Highway 87 and Road 40 South, after a caller at a U.S. Highway 2 West business reported shoplifters loading their car at 6:55 p.m.

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Ryan Devris Haas of Havre, 37, was arrested on a charge of DUI during a vehicle stop at Wilson Avenue and 10th Street Saturday at 12:30 a.m.

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Michael Scott Morsette of Fort Hood, Texas, 35, was arrested on two Justice or City court warrants Saturday at 10 a.m. on Main Street in Box Elder.

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Kaleb Emanuel Freyholtz of Hingham, 28, was arrested on a charge of driving with a suspended or revoked driver's license during a vehicle stop on First Street West Saturday at 2:14 p.m.

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A Havre 14-year-old was issued a summons on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief after a caller at a U.S. Highway 2 West business reported suspicious activity at 7:51 p.m. Saturday.

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A caller on Wildhorse Road reported finding what looks like drug paraphernalia Saturday at 9:47 p.m.

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A caller in Beaver Creek Park reported Monday at 1:07 p.m. a 4-year-old boy was bit by a dog.

Fire Department

Emergency personnel responded to two calls Saturday, one call Sunday and four calls Monday.

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Firefighters responded to a vehicle fire Saturday at 2:33 p.m. on the 900 Block of Third Avenue, fire was extinguished before firefighters arrived on the scene, but they double-checked the vehicle before leaving the scene.

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Firefighters responded to a call Sunday at 3:20 p.m. on the 600 Block of Main Street. Someone reported a gas odor from the boiler at a BNSF Railway office. Firefighters found no leak but NorthWestern Energy was called to the scene to confirm.

Havre Animal Shelter

This morning the shelter held one medium-hair cat and six medium-hair kittens with gender listed as "unknown," one medium-hair female cat and one short-hair female cat.

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The shelter also held this morning a 1-year-7-month-old male German shepherd, a 2-year-1-month-old female pit bull terrier-German shepherd cross, a 2-year-1-month-old male Pekingese-dachshund cross, a female 7-month-old Rottweiler-Australian cattle dog-blue heeler cross and a 1-year-10-month-old female Australian cattle dog-blue heeler-German shepherd cross. The shelter also had five 13-week-old Rottweiler-shepherd cross puppies.Supporting fundraisers start this week

People brave the rain to participate in Havre's third annual Suicide Awareness Walk in 2017. The 2018 walk is scheduled for Sept. 13.

The Fourth Annual Suicide Awareness Walk is being held to increase awareness of mental health issues and decrease barriers for getting help on mental health issues in the area, said Suicide Walk Committee Chair Amber Spring.

The theme this year, Spring said, will be #bethe1to.

"Be the one to reach out," she said. "Be the one to ask if people are suicidal. Be the one to know the warning signs. Be the one to ask for help."

The Suicide Awareness Walk will start Thursday, Sept. 13, at the Montana State University-Northern clock tower behind Cowan Hall, with pre-event activities starting at 6:30 p.m. Speakers will start at 7 p.m. and will be directly followed by a 1-mile walk around campus, circling back to the clock tower.

Spring said one reason for the Suicide Awareness Walk is to increase awareness about people struggling with depression and suicide within the county and to reduce the stigma about suicide. Another is trying to encourage people not to be scared to ask if people are suicidal and to spread awareness of warning signs showing if someone is suicidal, she added.

The walk is organized by a committee of eight people, who are either professionally or personally affected by suicide, appointed by the Hill County Mental Health Local Advisory Council. The committee begins planning the event at the beginning of summer.

The walk will also be promoting the Local Advisory Council-sponsored mental health first-aid and its youth mental health first-aid courses.

Spring said the event will have involvement from Havre High School Key Club, a high school service organization connected to Kiwanis. The club has assisted with the walk for several years as a service initiative. She added that the club has also worked at the high school to increase awareness around suicide.

The walk gives people who have been affected by suicide the opportunity to speak about that experience, Spring said, and for others to share in that with them and begin healing.

"People in the community that are interested in sharing their stories to have that opportunity, too," she said.

She added that the event will be free, with T-shirts free to all those who participate. Spring said she would also like to expand the event in the future, to have some suicide awareness and prevention throughout the entire year.

Spring said all donations received after the walk will go toward contributing to future events.

Community sponsorships have increased, she added, with many local businesses sponsoring the event.

Spring said new to this year's walk is "Pints for Prevention," events in which every drink at participating local breweries and the distillery will be donated to the cause.

This week, from 4 to 8 p.m. Crawford Distillery will be participating in "Pints for Prevention" Wednesday and Triple Dog Brewing Co. will participate Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m.

Also Thursday, Taco John's will also be doing "Crunch for the Cause" with 50 percent of every order will going to the cause when the customer mentions suicide awareness from 5 to 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 11, Old Station Brewing Co. will be participating in "Pints for Prevention" from 4 to 8 p.m. with Bergren Transmission and Auto matching the donations collected.

The day of the walk, Sept. 13, Pizza Hut will also offer, all day, a donation of 20 percent of the cost of every order, dine-in or carry out, to the cause when the customer mentions suicide awareness.

Spring said one of the reasons for having this event is to offer a resource that can help raise awareness within the community, the state and the nation.

She added that the Suicide Hotline now has a texting feature, so people in crisis can text 741-741 and receive support through texts.

"In the state of Montana, we continue to be in the top three states in the United States with the highest rates of suicide, and we also know that we are affected by a lot of other risk factors," Spring said. "For instance, we are rurally located, have a lack of mental health providers for some people on the Hi-Line. We also have a difficulty accessing mental health services."

She added that this is important because this part of the state has an even higher rate of suicide than the state average.

"What we know is that the more that we can increase awareness of services and give training to the layperson about how to ask about suicide, (the) more that we can reduce the stigma and encourage people to ask for help," Spring said.In Australia and New Zealand, digital transformation like this is critically important. A recent survey found Australian and New Zealander CHROs to be lagging behind their global counterparts. For example, 16% of local HR leaders say they havent implemented technology to improve HR outcomes, whereas in Japan, only 2% arent using technology for HR.

Moreover, less than half (47%) of HR leaders in Australia and New Zealand say that the HR function is a driver of digital transformation at their company, significantly lower than regional competitors such as Singapore (64%) and Japan (65%).

Around the world HR is seen as a strategic business function, with 78% of global CHROs believing HR strategy is an important differentiator for the company, yet in ANZ this falls to just 51%.

Because of this, Australian and New Zealand companies are struggling to retain talent, with only half of HR leaders (51%) saying they are successful at doing so, despite 82% saying it is a top strategic priority for the business. Digital experiences outside of work have made life simpler, easier and more convenient. Todays top talent is demanding the same at work.

The best way to start digital transformation is to create a knowledge base. But, where do you start acquiring all of the information that is relevant to creating this base?This includes employers advocating for broader legislative change, in the criminal arena, similar to the stance many employers took in last year's marriage equality debate. For example, a new offence similar to Tasmanian laws on emotional and economic abuse and the UK's recent controlling or coercive behaviour offence (s 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 (UK)) could provide that a person (A) commits an offence if: (a) A repeatedly or continuously engages in behaviour towards another person (B) that is controlling or coercive, (b) at the time of the behaviour, A and B are in a domestic relationship, (c) the behaviour has a serious effect on B, and (d) A knows or ought to know that the behaviour will have a serious effect on B. "Controlling" or "coercive behaviour" could then be defined with non-exhaustive examples. Creating a new offence along these lines could better acknowledge the complex nature of domestic violence and assist employees and employers in recognising the various types of domestic violence.

Other actions immediately open to employers include:

 providing all employees with access to psychological support through Employee Assistance Programs

 directing employees to referral pathways such as safe steps, National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service, Mensline, Lifeline, Kids Helpline, Relationships Australia, and Family Relationship Advice Line

 training HR and managers in appropriately responding to domestic violence and offering referral optionsResearchers at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) and Simon Fraser University (SFU), in partnership with University of British Columbia (UBC) and Western University, have developed a novel way for dating hibernating HIV strains, in an advancement for HIV cure research. Published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study confirms that dormant HIV strains can persist in the body for decades.

If you cant identify it, you cant cure it. This research provides further essential clues in the pursuit of an HIV curewhich will ultimately require the complete eradication of dormant or latent HIV strains, said Dr. Zabrina Brumme, Director, Laboratory with BC-CfE and co-author on the study. Scientists have long known that strains of HIV can remain essentially in hibernation in an individual living with HIV, only to reactivate many years later. Our study confirms that the latent HIV reservoir is genetically diverse and can contain viral strains dating back to transmission.

In order to eradicate HIV from a persons body, you first need to know the characteristics of HIV in the latent reservoir, said Dr. Art Poon, Assistant Professor at Western Universitys Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, also a co-author on the study. We are providing a method for better measuring the timeline of virus latency and evolution within an individual living with HIV.

By creating family trees of viruses using a technique called molecular phylogenetics, we can reconstruct the evolutionary history of HIV within a person, said Brad Jones, a PhD student with the University of British Columbia (UBC) at the BC-CfE and the first author on the study. In essence, we created a highly calibrated time machine that gives us a specific time stamp for when each dormant HIV strain originally appeared in a person.

Dormant HIV strains, which have integrated their DNA into that of the bodys cells, can persist for years and are unreachable by antiretroviral treatments and the immune system. They can reactivate at any time, which is why HIV treatment needs to be maintained for life.

Through advances in antiretroviral therapy, an individual living with HIV can now live a longer, healthier life on treatment. Treatment works by stopping HIV from infecting new cells. On sustained treatment, individuals can achieve a level of virus that is undetectable by standard blood tests. An undetectable viral load means improved health and that the virus is not transmittable to othersthe concept behind Treatment as Prevention.

Previous research had already revealed that the HIV reservoir was genetically complex. With our method, we can now understand that complexity with greater granularity, pinpointing exactly when each unique HIV strain originally appeared in a person, said Dr. Jeffrey Joy, Research Scientist at the BC-CfE and co-author on the study.

In order to date dormant HIV strains within the viral reservoir, researchers needed to compare these strains to those that evolved within an individual living with HIV over the entire history of their infection.

This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in partnership with the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) and the International AIDS Society (IAS) through its support of the Canadian HIV Cure Enterprise (CanCURE), as well as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) through its support of the Martin Delaney BELIEVE Collaboratory.

MEDIA CONTACT: Crystal Mackay, Media Relations Officer, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, t. 519.661.2111 ext. 80387, c. 519.933.5944, [email protected] @CrystalMackay

About Western

Western delivers an academic experience second to none. Since 1878, The Western Experience has combined academic excellence with life-long opportunities for intellectual, social and cultural growth in order to better serve our communities. Our research excellence expands knowledge and drives discovery with real-world application. Western attracts individuals with a broad worldview, seeking to study, influence and lead in the international community.

About the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) is Canadas largest HIV/AIDS research, treatment and education facility, nationally and internationally recognized as an innovative world leader in combating HIV/AIDS and related diseases. The Treatment as Prevention (TasP) strategy, pioneered by BC-CfE, inspired the ambitious global UNAIDS 90-90-90 to end AIDS as a pandemic by 2030. The BC-CfE is applying TasP to therapeutic areas beyond HIV/AIDS, including viral hepatitis, through Targeted Disease Elimination (TDE). The BC-CfE works in close collaboration with key stakeholders, including government, health authorities, health care providers, academics and the community to reduce disease burden and increase health care sustainability.

Western UniversityParents are spending up to 20pc of their income on childcare per child - and those in Dublin and East Leinster are among the worst hit.

A major think tank has warned that the amount of after-tax income spent on childcare in the years before children enter the State-subsidised pre-school scheme is a "substantial burden".

It costs the average family 12pc of its income for a childminder or creche to look after a three-year-old child, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute and Pobal.

This becomes 16pc for lone parents and 20pc for low-income families.

They say the burden is even bigger for larger families, as the figures are based on costs for just one child.

Families in Dublin pay 18pc more a week than those living in the Border region, for example.

Paying for childminders to work in the family home is the most expensive option, at 6.13 an hour.

Creches and nursery schools charge an average 4.82, with childminders based outside the family home the cheapest option at 4.76 an hour.

Expensive

The report notes that Ireland is one of the most expensive places in the world when it comes to childcare.

It says that the OECD found we have one of the highest costs as a portion of income for pre-school children.

The researchers conclude that greater Government support to bring down childcare costs will increase the number of mothers in employment and give the State a tax boost.

The report reveals that:

Parents in Dublin, East Leinster and other urban areas are paying the most. However, the researchers did not calculate how much of their income they are paying above the average 12pc.

Women work fewer hours because of childcare costs.

More than half - 54pc - of families use creches.

A further 23pc of families entrust their children to the care of relatives.

A significant 45pc of these families pay their relatives to mind their children - and the average cost is 90 a week.

The report says the average spend on childcare "poses a significant barrier" to employment for women.

Children's Minister Katherine Zappone said it would take a number of budgets to correct "decades of underinvestment".A student who threatened to "mess up the faces" of gardai and boasted that he could have them shot "went a bit mad" after drinking vodka.

Daniel O'Flaherty (19) also made threats to attack the officers' families.

He had been drinking vodka on the night in question, Dublin District Court heard, and his behaviour was "absolutely ridiculous".

Judge Bernadette Owens ordered O'Flaherty to donate 250 to the Garda Benevolent Fund.

Judge Owens said gardai were entitled to be able to do their job without being threatened repeatedly.

The defendant, of Rowlagh Crescent, Clondalkin, admitted before Dublin District Court to threatening and abusive behaviour.

A garda witness gave evidence that officers were on mobile patrol when they came across O'Flaherty at 11.30pm last July 26.

The defendant was highly intoxicated, was waving his hands in the air and had started to take off his shirt.

Trouble

Gardai spoke to O'Flaherty, who was immediately aggressive towards them and said he could get them shot.

He also threatened to "mess up their faces" and that he could attack gardai and their families.

O'Flaherty had a bottle of vodka in his hand at the time. The court heard he had never been in trouble before.

Defence solicitor Fergal Boyle said O'Flaherty was studying IT and hoped to follow a career in this field.

The defendant usually "sticks to beer" but on this night he had been drinking vodka, was intoxicated and appeared "to have gone a bit mad", the solicitor said.

Mr Boyle said O'Flaherty wished to apologise to gardai.

His "remorse was genuine", Mr Boyle added, and there was no excuse for his behaviour on the night.

He asked the judge to leave O'Flaherty without a conviction, saying it would have ramifications for his career.

Judge Owens adjourned the matter to a date next month, saying she would leave O'Flaherty without a conviction if the money was in court.A Dublin grandfather stabbed to death at his home last month has been remembered as a man who saw good in everyone and whose care for people in his life was paramount.

Gerry Fortune (63) was killed at his home in Rutland Grove, Crumlin, on August 19.

His son David (31) has been charged with his murder.

At St Bernadette's Church in Crumlin yesterday, Mr Fortune's family, neighbours and colleagues at St James's Hospital where he worked as a care assistant were all prayed for.

"The shock of Gerry's death has stunned the whole community," said Fr Brian Lawless.

"For all who knew Gerry, a man full of life and vitality, this occasion has an air of unreality about it. We cannot believe what has happened, and for his family also it is a most difficult and tragic event."

Mourners heard how Mr Fortune was a man who took pride in his appearance.

Symbols of his life brought to the altar were his Brylcreem and his comb, his toothbrush and toothpaste and his shoe polish and brush.

"Gerry was someone who could always be depended upon. A father and grandfather who loved his family. They were the centre of his life," Fr Lawless said.

Speaking of his work at St James's Hospital, he added: "Those acts of kindness and generosity were the reality of his daily living and speak volumes about the kind of person that Gerry was. Gerry went far beyond the remit of his work."

At the end of the mass, Mr Fortune's daughter, Leona Lambe, told a story she had learned while reading through her father's personal belongings after his death.

Mr Fortune had written about growing up the son of a soldier in Inchicore. He had six sisters and two brothers and they lived in a two-bed house.

"My father's wages weren't great, we lived poorly," he wrote.

Outlook

Ms Lambe said her father had once given the local rag man his mother's favourite coat, for which he was given two ball-oons and a whistle in exchange.

Mr Fortune's parents were going on a rare night out and his mother was so happy, until she found out where her coat was.

Another family member said: "Gerry was a kind, caring man. He once said to me no matter who it is, man, woman or child, there is always some goodness inside of them. This was Gerry's outlook through life."When Collegiate High sophomore Sasha Hitachi applied for a masterclass with renowned Swiss flutist Emmanuel Pahud, she did not expect to have her dream of performing with him come true. "I was going up against college students getting Masters and Doctorates," she explains, but "I didn't know when another opportunity like this would come again."

Ms. Hitachi was one of only six applicants from the region selected to play in a prestigious event earlier this year at the University of Georgia.

Ms. Hitachi was the first student to perform, playing the Ibert Flute Concerto. Despite natural nerves accompanying a performance in front of professionals and strangers, she describes it as a wonderful experience. It also bolstered her confidence in a subsequent competition a few months later: I wasnt nervous at all. I was thinking, If I can stand in front of Pahud and several hundred people and play this piece, then this isn't anything to be worried about.

Ms. Hitachi also credits her enrollment in Collegiate High as being instrumental in the pursuit of her musical passions. The flexibility of college faculty and her schedule have allowed her to travel, compete, and practice. I am so appreciative of where I am now, especially since I can keep up with school and still be involved in other extracurricular activities.

Ms. Hitachi has finished this particular once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but she hopes more are on the horizon. She plans to continue competing and applying to conservatories. I would like to learn as much as I can, she says. I am going to keep trying to better myself and my playing.

For more information about Hamilton County Collegiate High at Chattanooga State Community College, visit https://www.chattanoogastate.edu/early-college/collegiate-high or call 697-4492.How many COVID tests do you think Meritus has done? Here's the answerRespected Manchester United Jose Mourinho gets a suspended jail sentence for greed

Just one more reason to admire and respect Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho: hes earned one-year suspended sentence (two six-month prison sentences) in a long-running tax fraud case with the Spanish government. Spains El Mundo newspaper says Mourinho has been fined 2m.

The graceless manager stood accused of failing to pay over 3m in undeclared image rights earnings for 2011 and 2012. At the time he was manager of Real Madrid. Mourinho disputed the claim.

He wont got to prison. Any sentence of under two years for a first offence can be served on probation.

But what does it mean for the all-important Manchester United brand? Tax evasion, especially when youre stinking rich, is not a good sell. But then, United are all about the money so look out for The Brand finding an official tax efficiency partner and a club tour of The Cayman Islands

Anorak

Posted: 4th, September 2018 | In: manchester united, Money, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink(ANSA) - Berlin, September 4 - The League-5 Star government will have a long life if it "respects its duties towards Italians", Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told Deutsche Welle Tuesday.

Asked if it would last more than a year, Salvini said "yes, it will, I think this government will have a long life if it respects its duties towards the Italians." Regarding his own role in the executive, Salvini said "I'm happy I can finally take part in what is happening.

"It's not easy. Italy is a great country, and it must face important challenges. But I was tired of being in the opposition."(ANSA) - Milan, September 4 - Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, have secured three important projects to provide new cable connections for offshore wind farms in France.

Eolien Maritime France (a joint venture between the French company EDF Energies Nouvelles and the Canadian company Enbridge) awards Prysmian with the design, supply and installation of inter array cables for the two offshore wind farms, Fecamp and Courseulles-sur-Mer owned by EMF and wpd offshore, located off the North France coast.

The contracts worth over 200 million are expected to proceed in early autumn for these two prestigious wind farms.

A third project, for the Saint Nazaire wind farm also owned by Eolien Maritime France, with a value for Prysmian in excess of 20 million, is in the process of being secured in a consortium between Prysmian and Louis Dreyfus Travocean.

In the words of Hakan Ozmen, EVP Projects BU, Prysmian Group: "These new important awards confirm that we have all the capabilities to achieve our ambitious growth targets in the offshore wind farm market. Our investments have strengthened both our production capacity and installation capabilities and the market is showing its confidence in us." Within these projects, Prysmian will provide 33 kV three-core submarine cable systems with XLPE insulation with a total for the three wind farms of around 345 km of cables.

The Fecamp project will involve connecting 83 WTGs with a total capacity of 498 MW, while Courseulles-sur-Mer will connect 75 WTGs with a total capacity of 450 MW. Cable, accessories and terminating services shall be provided by Prysmian for the 80 WTGs for the 480 MW capacity of Saint Nazaire.

These projects will lead to the construction of France's first large-scale offshore wind farms. Prysmian will rely on the strategic and immediately available facilities of General Cable's subsidiary NSW. Cable cores will be manufactured at the Group's centre of excellence in Montereau-fault-yonne, France, and then assembled and finished in Nordenham, Germany, providing the French market with Prysmian's state-of-the-art cable systems manufactured locally.

On Fecamp and Courseulles-sur-Mer, Prysmian will be the turn-key solution provider and shall both supply and install all inter-array cables between the WTGs, making available strategic installation assets and high value-added competence and know-how, whilst ensuring a tighter control over the entire supply chain. Delivery and commissioning of the cables are expected during the period 2020-2022, depending on the individual project timelines.

"These awards represent an important milestone for Prysmian as they are related to the first major projects in this market and they show that our ambition of becoming a one-stop service provider covering the entire supply chain is credible and sustainable," added Alessandro Panico, Sales Team Manager - Offshore Wind, Prysmian Group.

These projects come at a very important time for the Group, which has secured offshore wind projects for over 650M in 2017-2018.

Eolien Maritime France and wpd offshore are waiting for the decision of the French Council of State about the appeal against the projects authorizations to start construction.

The Prysmian Group is world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry. With almost 140 years of experience, sales exceeding 11 billion (pro-forma as of 31.12.2017), about 30,000 employees in over 50 countries and 112 plants, the Group is strongly positioned in high-tech markets and offers the widest possible range of products, services, technologies and know-how.

It operates in the businesses of underground and submarine cables and systems for power transmission and distribution, of special cables for applications in many different industries and of medium and low voltage cables for the construction and infrastructure sectors. For the telecommunications industry, the Group manufactures cables and accessories for voice, video and data.

(ANSA) - Rome, September 4 - The government on Tuesday held a summit on the Libya crisis and migrants as militia fighting continued in the Libyan capital Tripoli and the empty US embassy was set on fire.

All the ministers concerned took part in the summit, with Premier Giuseppe Conte presiding.

The government has already ruled out any Italian military intervention, even by its special forces.

Militia fighters are moving closer to the UN-backed government in Tripoli and the crisis may well have a knock-on effect on migrants leaving for Italy.

Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said Italy must be the protagonist of stabilisation in the Mediterranean.

He said, referring to France, "the incursions of others who have economic interests must not prevail over the common good which is peace.

"I, too, am willing to run some risks and soon return to Libya".

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi on Tuesday phoned the president of the Libyan presidential council, Faez al-Serraj within the framework of action aimed at improving the situation in Libya, the foreign ministry said.

Moavero confirmed to the Libyan PM "Italian solidarity and support for the Libyan people and for its institutions in this phase of great difficulty, ravaged by armed clashes in the capital Tripoli", the foreign ministry said.

Moavero on Monday confirmed to the chairs of the parliamentary foreign affairs committees that he was immediately at the parliament's disposal to report on the overall situation in Libya, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

European Union member States should give up their own national agendas in Libya, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Tuesday.

"The European Parliament must make its voice heard on the crisis in Libya in the next plenary session," he said.

"Only by acting in a united way can we work for peace and stability.

"The member States must stop promoting their own national agendas, damaging all European citizens".

The position of the EU member States is united on Libya, a spokesman for the European service for external action said Tuesday, answering a question on Italy's charges against France.

"The member States of the EU have a united position on Libya," he said.

Yesterday High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini spoke to UN special envoy Ghassan Salame to whom she assured "the full backing on the part of the EU" to find a "long-term solution" via a "political process", the spokesman said when asked how the EU intended to act.

Libya is "without doubt" the new peril for Europe with regard to ISIS, Rita Katz, the head of terror-monitoring website SITE, told ANSA Tuesday.

"Last year ISIS no longer existed in Libya, it had zero suicide operations," she said.

"This year there have been a dozen already all over the country".

Katz added that "some of the fighters in Iraq and Syria have been able to return".

The death toll from more than a week of fighting between armed groups in Tripoli has climbed to at least 50 people, including civilians, Libyan authorities said Tuesday, as the UN voiced alarm over the fate of detained migrants and Libyans already displaced by years of unrest since Muammar Gheddafi's ouster in 2011.

Fighting erupted last week when the Seventh Brigade, militias which hail from Tarhouna, a town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Tripoli, attacked southern neighborhoods of the capital. The Tripoli Revolutionaries' Brigades and the Nawasi Brigade - militias which support the UN-backed government - have come to the city's defence.

In addition to those killed, another 138 people, including civilians, have been wounded, the health ministry said.

In a rare high-level engagement by India in an increasingly pivotal region, President Ram Nath Kovind is on a visit to Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

Long seen as an area of competing Russian and western interests, central and eastern Europe (CEE) has not always featured prominently in Indias foreign policy agenda. Despite trips to 11 western European countries since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to visit central or eastern Europe. In part, this is because economic and people-to-people links remain weak. The region accounts for only 1.2% of Indias exports. While Indian investment is slowly growing  consider Apollo Tyres $557-million investment in a greenfield facility in Hungary in 2017  it is still modest. Despite these constraints, the CEE countries appear keen to bolster business ties with India in agriculture, energy, transportation, cyber security, and information technology.

While Indian engagement with the CEE to date has been mostly economic, it is natural that it should start assuming a strategic character as well, not least because of Chinas sustained outreach. In July, Bulgaria hosted the seventh 16+1 Summit, a meeting of central and eastern European leaders with China that saw participation from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the Baltic States, Albania, and six former Yugoslav countries.

Since its initiation in 2012, the 16+1 framework has been somewhat controversial. Although Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stated that the mechanism is not a geopolitical tool, many western European officials have raised concerns about Beijing using the body to drive a wedge between the European Union and some of its member states, 11 of whom are participants.

For Beijing, the regions true significance lies in Europe being the endpoint of the network of infrastructure projects that comprise Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While many European leaders initially welcomed Chinese investments as part of BRI, some have started to express doubts. British Prime Minister Theresa May recently emphasised that China needs to adhere to global standards. Similarly, French President Emmanuel Macron has argued: The ancient Silk Roads were never only ChineseIf they are roads, they cannot be one-way. But despite the considerable coverage  and growing anxiety  over BRI and 16+1 in Europe over the past few years, a few realities need to be kept in mind about Chinese engagement with the CEE.

First, as in other regions, there are significant gaps between the amounts of Chinese investment promised and the amounts delivered. A special $11.15 billion fund established by China has not been tapped, grand plans for a Budapest-Belgrade railway line have been derailed for potentially violating EU tendering rules, and talk of China financing a new airport in Warsaw appears to have lost steam. Meanwhile, Chinas economic relations with western Europe dwarf those with the CEE states. Beijings largest trade relationship in the region is with Poland, but its exports there are still less than a quarter of its outgoing trade to Germany. The disparity applies equally to investment. In the UK alone, China has been involved in deals worth over $70 billion, compared to just $3.3 billion in the nine CEE states for which reliable data is available.

Nonetheless, regional leaders point to the dire need for infrastructure investment from China, and cite the successful completion of Chinese-backed projects such as the Pupin Bridge in Serbia and highways in Macedonia. Officials from these countries also argue that the 16+1 format is the only means for smaller countries to engage bilaterally with Beijing. In private, diplomats from the region reveal concerns about the impact of Chinese investments on trade imbalances, the levels of associated debt, and political strings being attached. For instance, Montenegros debt to China has increased substantially over the course of the construction of a recent highway.

Beyond the gap between promises and delivery, there is also immense variation in Chinas economic relations with the CEE countries. As of 2015, Hungary was the largest recipient of official Chinese financing, while other countries had received negligible sums. Among non-EU states, Serbia has been the largest recipient, while Chinese investment in the Baltic States has been relatively insignificant. Similarly, while Chinas exports have increased across the region, its trade with the likes of Bosnia and Herzegovina or Albania remains marginal.

Finally, despite the relatively modest economic impact of 16+1 and the variation in relations, China is already beginning to demonstrate its political influence in the region. For example, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro have supported Chinas controversial claims to the South China Sea. Similarly, Hungary has sometimes been outspoken in calling for China to be recognised as a market economy, a position at odds with the rest of the European Union.

The scepticism of Chinas efforts naturally presents opportunities for India. Indeed, in one area in which India is carving out a normative leadership role for itself (in terms of sustainable connectivity), central and eastern Europe may well be an area of promise, one in which India can support efforts by the European Union and others. But the main obstacle, other than scale, is the lack of exposure and knowledge about opportunities in each others countries among business communities in India and the CEE states. Greater political engagement can help to rectify some of that.

Dhruva Jaishankar is fellow, and co-author Yamini Sharma was an intern, with Brookings India, New Delhi

The views expressed are personalAt least ten people suffered minor injuries on Monday after a corrosive liquid was hurled on the victory rally of Congress Inayatullah Khan in Tumkur after the results of the elections to urban local bodies in Karnataka were announced, police said.

Few people felt a little allergic and were taken to a hospital. Doctors said the liquid might be some low-intensity acid like a bathroom cleaner. All ten people had minor injuries, Tumkur superintendent of police Divya Gopinath said.

Police are investigating the case. So far, nobody has been arrested and no one has lodged a complaint, the officer said.

The results of the elections held for 105 urban local bodies in Karnataka pointed to the resilience of the Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) alliance, which is currently in power in the state, although the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made clear inroads in the southern regions of the state.

The BJP is in the leading position in Bagalkote, Belagavi, Chamarajanagar, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere and Udupi districts. Voters put the Congress in the saddle in Bellari, Bidar, Gadag, Haveri, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Mysuru, Raichur, Uttara Kannada, and Yadgir. The JD(S) is in the leading position in its traditional strongholds, including Hassan, Mandya and Tumkur.Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to visit South Korea next week for a twin city agreement with its capital city Seoul. He is likely to sign a number of agreements between the two cities.

This is his first bilateral visit to a foreign country since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government came to power in 2015.

Kejriwal is scheduled to depart on September 11 and return by September 14.

The visit was planned on the invitation of the mayor of Seoul. A twin city agreement between Delhi and Seoul is likely to be signed. The agreements would cover different subjects including pollution control, drinking water, public transport, education and urban development, media advisor to the CM said on Tuesday.

As chief minister, Kejriwal went on his first official foreign tour in 2016. He then visited the Vatican City in Rome to attend the sainthood ceremony of Mother Teresa.

In January this year, the AAP government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Fukuoka Prefectural Government of Japan with the environment and air pollution, culture, tourism, heritage, education and youth exchange being the areas of focus.(ANSA) - Rome, September 4 - The government is set for a summit on the Libya crisis and migrants at around 17:00 Tuesday, government sources said Tuesday.

All the ministers concerned will take part in the summit, the sources said.

Premier Giuseppe Conte will preside, they said.

Militia fighters are moving closer to the UN-backed government in Tripoli and the crisis may well have a knock-on effect on migrants leaving for Italy.

Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said Italy must be the protagonist of stabilisation in the Mediterranean.

He said, referring to France, "the incursions of others who have economic interests must not prevail over the common good which is peace.

"I, too, am willing to run some risks and soon return to Libya".

Ahead of secretary of state Mike Pompeos visit to Islamabad on September 5 with the American military chief, the US has signalled it is serious about its demand that Pakistan crack down on terrorists operating from its soil and choke their funding. This has come in the form of a move to cancel the payment of $300 million as reimbursement from the US Coalition Support Fund for Pakistans expenses on the war on terror, mainly in support of operations by foreign forces in Afghanistan.

This is in addition to the cancellation of another payment of $500 million from the Coalition Support Fund earlier this year and the suspension of security aid worth nearly $2 billion in January on the orders of President Donald Trump. Mr Trump had famously accused Pakistan of providing only lies and deceit for $33 billion in aid over nearly two decades, and recent remarks by top US officials indicate the thinking of the Trump administration hasnt changed. Defence secretary, Jim Mattis, said last week the primary part of discussions between Mr Pompeo and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Joseph Dunford, and their Pakistani counterparts will be the need to act against terrorists. Furthermore, the US seems in no mood to relent, despite Pakistans assertion it is playing a key role to end the fighting in Afghanistan. This is largely because of the large amount of information in the public domain about the continuing activities of groups such as the Haqqani Network and the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership is based in Pakistan. For India, Pakistan-based groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to be a concern, with videos recently shared on social media showing JeM operatives openly raising funds during Eid-ul-Azha despite Pakistan being placed on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force for failing to curb terror financing.

Pakistans leadership is expected to argue in meetings with US officials that it can still play a central role in ending the war in Pakistan, but this can only happen if it stops backing and providing safe havens to top commanders of the Taliban and Haqqani Network. Except for a token reference to the 2015 National Action Plan for terrorism, Pakistans new Prime Minister Imran Khan has given no hint of what he plans to do to counter terror. The US must stay the course so that Pakistans support for the Taliban doesnt allow the militants to strengthen their position in Afghanistan.A first-of-its-kind meeting of worldwide civil society organisations to present policy proposals to a historic meeting of G20 Education Ministers, including from india, will be co-chaired by UK-headquartered Varkey Foundation in Argentina on Wednesday.

Leading organisations such as Plan International Canada, Education International, and the Harvard School of Education will deliberate on the worlds most pressing educational challenges and present their findings to education ministers from around the world, including Indian minister of state for higher education Satya Pal Singh.

Our fervent hope is that the G20 ministers will listen to our policy recommendations because the institutional knowledge of civil society organisations, often acquired over decades and combined with extensive on-the-ground experience, means we have insights that could be of huge benefit to ministers as they try to ensure that every child is given their birthright - a quality education, said Vikas Pota, chairman of the Varkey Foundation, set up by Indian-origin entrepreneur Sunny Varkey.

In particular, our policy recommendations address the ever-increasing role that technology is playing in young peoples lives, recognising that in the educational environment of the 21st century, online learning can offer great benefits, from providing an instant source of information to allowing students to connect with their peers across the world.

But without proper guidance and safeguards, the omnipresence of technologies such as social media can also see children exposed to false information, mental health issues or even radicalisation.

While the G20 has met regularly since its inception in September 1999, this week marks the first time all G20 education ministers will hold their own summit on its sidelines.

Representatives from civil society organisations will meet the President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, and present their recommendations to the ministers in charge of education affairs in their respective countries with the aim of influencing G20 deliberations to help develop an action plan on how best to solve the worlds deepening education problems.

Esteban Bullrich, Senator from Buenos Aires and Argentinas former Minister for Education, who will be co-chairing the meet with the Varkey Foundation, said that education ministers gaining a place at the table for the first time under Argentinas presidency of the G20 was deeply significant.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)Terming the alleged diversion of money invested by homebuyers in Amrapali as a serious case of fraud, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would order a forensic probe into the accounts and transactions involving the real estates directors, former directors and their kin.

A bench of justices Arun Misra and UU Lalit said they would get to the root of the matter. If money has been siphoned off, be rest assured, any person responsible will be firmly dealt with. Its a serious kind of fraud which has been done in this, justice Misra noted, while asking additional solicitor general Maninder Singh to suggest names of auditors who can undertake the task.

Singh, who appeared for the Bank of Baroda, said a forensic audit by his client of Amrapalis transactions showed there was more to it than meets the eye.

The courts observations came after the groups former statutory auditor told the court that money was diverted by nine companies to buy shares in 37 other companies. The auditor, Anil Mittal, appeared before the court on Tuesday and revealed details of his audit.

Mittal said he had conducted an audit of the accounts till 2015 and he found that over Rs 2,900 crore invested by homebuyers was diverted to buy shares in 37 companies. Speaking on accounts after 2015, Mittal said he did not get any balance sheets of the period.

We want to know where the money has gone. We want all audits and want a complete inquiry, Justice Lalit remarked after hearing Mittal. The judge took exception when companys advocate Gaurav Bhatia defended non-supply of documents, saying they were voluminous and in the process of being compiled

Why are you saying this? Do you want your premises sealed? Next time we will not wait to hear you, the judge said. Justice Mishra said:  We know its a little difficult but we will retrieve the money.

Need Rs 8,500 cr to complete work

The National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) submitted its proposal to undertake construction of unfinished projects of Amrapali. Additional solicitor general Pinky Anand, appearing for NBCC, said Rs 8,500 crore would be required to complete the work.

The NBCC chairman, present in the court, said Rs 6,462 crore could be realised from various sources, including the homebuyers.

The shortfall of Rs 2,038 crore can be raised by selling unused floor space index (FSI), he said. On being asked if NBCC can put in money, the chairman replied in negative. We will be project manager, the chairman said.

Bhatia suggested public auction of the list of unencumbered properties of Amrapali to raise the money. The lawyer was then asked by the court to file a separate affidavit giving details of unencumbered properties and asked the NBCC to also be ready to raise funds.Army chief, General Bipin Rawat assured action against Major Leetul Gogoi, who was allegedly found entering a Srinagar hotel with a Kashmiri woman, according to the crime he has committed.

I had clearly said that any case of moral turpitude and corruption will be dealt with in a very stern manner. The Court of Inquiry has recommended that we should go in for a court martial.

If it is related to moral turpitude, then we will take action accordingly. If it is something else, the punishment will be (according) to the crime he has committed, Gen Rawat told reporters in New Delhi in response to a question on Maj Gogoi, who was indicted Maj Gogoi for fraternising with a local woman at a Srinagar hotel and being away from his place of duty by the Court of Inquiry in August.

Maj Gogoi, who had set off a row last year after tying a civilian to a bonnet of his vehicle to deter stone pelters during the Srinagar parliamentary bypoll, was detained by police in May following an altercation when he was allegedly trying to enter a Srinagar hotel with the 18-year-old woman.Justice Ranjan Gogoi is likely to take over as the 46th Chief Justice of India (CJI) after the current CJI, Dipak Misra, recommended him as his successor to the government on Tuesday, according to officials familiar with the development.

Justice Gogoi, 63, who is likely to be sworn in on October 3  a day after justice Misra retires  is the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, and justice Misra has stuck to convention by putting his name forward to the Union ministry of law and justice for its assent.

Justice Gogoi will have a tenure of 13 months  till November 17, 2019.

An official at the ministry confirmed that the letter had been received.

Justice Gogoi was elevated to the Supreme Court in April 2012 after serving as chief justice of the Punjab & Haryana high court. A native of Assam and the son of former Assam chief minister Keshab Chandra Gogoi, he will be the first CJI from Indias Northeastern states.

Justice Gogoi was one of the four senior-most judges of the court who had called an unprecedented press conference this January, when they had publicly raised concerns about the administration of the court and the formation of benches for the allocation of important cases. The other three were justices Jasti Chelameswar  who has since retired  MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph.

There had been some speculation in the higher judiciary if the move would lead to justice Gogoi not being recommended as the next CJI.

When asked about the issue, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said in June that the governments intention on the appointment of the next chief justice of India should not be questioned.

Prasad wrote to CJI Misra last week to recommend the name of his successor. As per the existing Memorandum of Procedure governing the appointment of the chief justice of India, a recommendation letter from the incumbent is sent a month before his date of retirement.

According to clause 2.2 of the memorandum, the law minister then presents the recommendation to the Prime Minister who advises the President in the matter of appointment. In case there is any doubt about the fitness of the judge whose name has been recommended, the memorandum provides for consultation with other judges.

As per convention, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court has to be appointed as the next chief justice of India.

Born in 1954, justice Gogoi joined the Bar in 1978 and practised as a lawyer in the Gauhati high court until he was appointed as a permanent judge in the court on February 28, 2001. He transferred to the Punjab & Haryana high court in September 2010 and was named its chief justice in February 2011.

Over the last few weeks, justice Gogoi has been at the forefront of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam as the head of the bench -- its other member is justice RF Nariman -- hearing cases involving the list that will differentiate Indian citizens from illegal immigrants in the state.

Speaking at an Indian Express event in July, justice Gogoi had said that independent journalists and sometimes noisy judges were democracys first line of defence.The Gauhati high court on Monday quashed constitution of the KN Saikia commission that had held former chief minister Prafulla Mahanta responsible for secret killings of family members of ULFA militants almost two decades ago.

The court called the constitution of the commission illegal because it violated Section 3 of the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1952. The commission of enquiry was constituted even as another commission was still enquiring and had not been dissolved, said Rajib Baruah, Mahantas lawyer. The Commission, set up by the Congress government headed by Tarun Gogoi in 2005 to probe a series of killings between 1998 and 2001, had indicted the then chief minister Mahanta who also had the home portfolio. There is enough evidence to show that the then home minister (Mahanta) was at the helm of these extra judicial killings, the commission said in its report submitted in 2007.

We have been fighting for 17 years. Finally we have got justice, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said, while reacting to the courts verdict. According to Baruah, the commission was initially asked to enquire into 11 cases but its scope was widened to 32 cases.

KN Saikia commission had found how there was evidence of a nexus between the police and the surrendered ULFA militants, who where used as executioners by the police.

Victims who were mostly shot in the dead of the night were either family members of ULFA militants or had some connection with them.

The series of killings saw as many as four commissions of enquiry with Mahantas government constituting Safikul Haq commission, followed by Mira Sarma commission, JN Sarma Commission and then the Saikia commission.

The Court took note of how the JN Sarma Commission was still functional when the government illegally appointed another commission, Baruah said.

For the Congress, Secret Killings was a big issue for its 2001 campaign and Tarun Gogoi has been raking it up since to target the Asom Gana Parishad and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.A Hyderabad court on Tuesday convicted two men of involvement in the twin bomb blasts of August 2007 that left 44 people dead and over 50 injured in Hyderabad. One of the explosions took place in a crowded eatery and the other at a public park near the secretariat.

Second additional metropolitan sessions judge T Srinivasa Rao, at a special courtroom in Cherlapally Central Prison, convicted the first two accused -- Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chowdhari and Aneeq Shafique Sayeed. Their sentences will be pronounced on Monday, prosecution lawyers said.

Two other accused  Mohammad Sadiq Israr and Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash -- were acquitted for want of evidence. Judgement against a fifth suspect, Mohammad Tareeq Anjum, who allegedly sheltered those who had planted the bombs, would be given on Monday, the lawyers said.

Telangana polices counter-intelligence (CI) wing investigated the case and arrested the five men, who were suspected to be linked to the banned Indian Mujahideen (IM), in 2010. In all, eight people were charge-sheeted in the case. The remaining three accused  Riyaz Bhatal, Iqbal Bhatkal and Amir Riza Khan -- are still at large.

The bomb explosions at Gokul Chat Bhandar, a popular eatery in the Koti area, and Lumbini Park, a recreation centre in front of the state secretariat, took place on August 25, 2007. Thirty-four people died at the eatery and 10 in the explosion at Lumbini Park, which took place within a few minutes.

The suspects were charged under section 302 (murder) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Explosive Substances Act in connection with the twin blasts and also the recovery of an unexploded bomb found under a foot overbridge in Hyderabads Dilsuknagar area.

Hyderabad police had, in all, filed three charge-sheets running into over 1,100 pages. Nearly 170 witnesses were examined and cross-examined during the trial.

The judgement brought no cheer to the survivors. We expected that all the five accused would be convicted. But two of them managed to get acquitted. We want the Telangana police to move the high court with strong evidence, so that the acquitted, too, would be punished, said 30-year old R Chandu Naik alias Chander, who lost one of his eyes in the bomb blast at Gokul Chat Bhandar.

Chander said it was unfortunate that the prosecution had taken 11 years to prove the involvement of just two suspects. Even if the convicted get the death sentence, I am sure they would not be hanged immediately, as they would move the high court, then Supreme Court and finally for the Presidents pardon. We do not know how long the trial would go on, he said.

Syed Raheem from Khammam, who also lost his vision partially in the explosion at Gokul Chat Bhandar, said the suspects should be given capital punishment. I am still facing the trauma of the bomb explosion and I will have to face it for the rest of my life, he said.

Hyderabad MP and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi said there had been no justice for the victims families even after 11 years of the blasts and their pain continues.

Farooq and Sadiq have been in prison from 2009 and after nine years, the court finds them not guilty and acquits them. Their lawyer Abdul Azeem tells me the evidence was circumstantial, he tweeted.The CPI(M) will probe charges of alleged sexual harassment filed against legislator PK Sasi by a young woman leader on Tuesday after the central leadership directed the state unit to look into the issue.

The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DFYI) leader filed a complaint with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury two days ago after the state leaders allegedly tried to hush up the complaint.

Yechury confirmed he had received the complaint and forwarded it to the state unit for necessary action. The woman had also sent a letter to politburo member Brinda Karat.

Reports have said that the politburo was upset with the way the state unit handled her complaint, which she lodged two weeks ago. There are also allegations that the victim was offered money to withdraw her charges against Sasi.

Sources in the party said the woman had approached senior leaders, saying she had evidence, including audio tapes, against the legislator. She has said in her complaint that she was harassed by Sasi for more than a year.

It is a serious issue. The legislator has invited enough embarrassment to the party and he will have to pay for it, said a senior party leader, who did not want to be identified.

The partys Palakkad district committee will meet on Tuesday to decide the fate of the MLA.

However, the legislator from Shornur in Palakkad district denied the charges and accused his opponents of hatching a conspiracy to defame him.

I heard it from the media. I have no idea how such allegations cropped up. It seems there is a conspiracy to end my political career, Sasi said adding he will reveal more details after some time.

The DFYIs state leaders called on party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Tuesday acted strongly against a party functionary for welcoming expelled DMK leader MK Azhagiri at the Chennai airport, suspending him for bringing disrepute to the party.

The action against M Ravi, the area secretary of Velacherry in Chennai, came hours after he welcomed Azhagiri, who is set to hold a rally here on Wednesday.

Ravi is being suspended from the DMK for bringing disrepute to the party, DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan said in a statement. The 96-year-old leader is a contemporary of the recently deceased party patriarch M Karunanidhi and had facilitated the smooth coronation of his son MK Stalin as party president last month.

Azhagiri, who is Karunanidhis eldest son, but was expelled from the party in 2014, is upset with his younger brother Stalin for not letting him rejoin the party, in spite of his protestations of loyalty and a public statement that he is ready to accept his leadership.

The Azhagiri camp criticised the action against Ravi.

Is conducting a peace rally for DMK leader M Karunanidhi an anti-DMK activity that invites suspension from the party, tweeted Durai Dhayanidhi, son of Azhagiri in response to the suspension. He also shared the pictures of posters put up by Azhagiri followers allegedly being removed by Stalins supporters.

Meanwhile, PM Mannan, a former deputy mayor of Madurai and a loyalist of Azhagiri told reporters that Annan Anja Nenjan (Azhagiri) will prove his might in Chennai on September 5, when thousands of cadres will throng the capital.

A leader of the Congress, which is an alliance partner of the DMK, also said that Azhagiri should be taken back into the party.

Azhagiri will teach a fitting lesson to his younger brother. All these days Azhagiri was against Stalin, but now he has openly accepted Thalapathi (Stalin) as the DMK leader. If Karunanidhi was alive, he would have forgiven Azhagiri. With by-polls approaching, the party should accept Azhagiri into the party, the Congress functionary, who did not wish to be named, said.A letter was sent to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik demanding Rs 50 crore ransom, following which an inmate of Bilaspur district jail was identified as its sender, a police official said Monday.

In the letter, the prisoner, Pushpendra Nath Chouhan (40), had demanded Rs 50 crore from Patnaik, Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Arif Sheikh said but refused to divulge the content of the letter and the exact threat mentioned in it, asserting the matter was under investigation.

He said the letter, sent through post, was received by the Odisha Police on August 25 who in turn informed their Bilaspur counterparts Sunday.

The Bilaspur Police swung into action after being alerted, following which the officials identified and interrogated Chouhan, who hails from Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh and was currently serving jail term in dacoity and murder cases since 2009, Sheikh said.

Chouhan has confessed to have writing the letter to Patnaik, the SP said, adding that his objective was only to garner public attention.

On Sunday, Odisha Additional Director General (Intelligence) in a letter informed Bilaspur police about the threat letter written to Patnaik, he said.

Bilaspur Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Chandrakar interrogated Chouhan yesterday, he said.

As per preliminary investigation, Chouhan is mentally unstable, Sheikh said.

He said police will conduct a detailed investigation and send a report to the Odisha Police who will take further action in the matter.

Additional SP Chandrakar said Chouhan told him that he had a habit of writing such letters and had sent a similar communication to a district collector of Odisha in the past.

Chhattisgarh Director General (Jail) Girdhari Nayak visited Bilaspur Jail Monday and directed the authorities to probe the matter.(ANSA) - Rome, September 4 - The government is set for a summit on the Libya crisis and migrants at around 17:00 Tuesday, government sources said Tuesday.

All the ministers concerned will take part in the summit, the sources said.

Premier Giuseppe Conte will preside, they said.

Militia fighters are moving closer to the UN-backed government in Tripoli and the crisis may well have a knock-on effect on migrants leaving for Italy.

Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said Italy must be the protagonist of stabilisation in the Mediterranean.

He said, referring to France, "the incursions of others who have economic interests must not prevail over the common good which is peace.

"I, too, am willing to run some risks and soon return to Libya".

European Union member States should give up their own national agendas in Libya, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Tuesday.

"The European Parliament must make its voice heard on the crisis in Libya in the next plenary session," he said.

"Only by acting in a united way can we work for peace and stability.

"The member States must stop promoting their own national agendas, damaging all European citizens".

The position of the EU member States is united on Libya, a spokesman for the European service for external action said Tuesday, answering a question on Italy's charges against France.

"The member States of the EU have a united position on Libya," he said.

Yesterday High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini spoke to UN special envoy Ghassan Salame to whom she assured "the full backing on the part of the EU" to find a "long-term solution" via a "political process", the spokesman said when asked how the EU intended to act.

Libya is "without doubt" the new peril for Europe with regard to ISIS, Rita Katz, the head of terror-monitoring website SITE, told ANSA Tuesday.

"Last year ISIS no longer existed in Libya, it had zero suicide operations," she said.

"This year there have been a dozen already all over the country".

Katz added that "some of the fighters in Iraq and Syria have been able to return".

The government has finalised a more liberal agriculture trade policy to bring about predictability and enable exports to more markets, an official said on Monday, requesting anonymity.

The new policy, likely to be presented before the Cabinet soon, seeks to free up most commodities other than staples  from pulses to potatoes  from frequent export bans, the official said. Processed food items and organic produce would be totally deregulated and made freely exportable under the framework, which is similar to the countrys three-year foreign trade policies.

Indias agricultural exports grew five times from about $8.7 billion in 2004-05 to $42.6 billion during 2013-14. This however plunged to $33 billion in 2016-17.

India often uses policy measures to restrict farm trade, particularly exports, to control domestic prices. These measures include the so-called minimum export price for traders, often set higher than international prices so that traders are discouraged from selling abroad. This is done to shore up local supplies and cool prices.

However, economists have warned these frequent export bans bring unpredictability in international farm trade, ultimately hurting farm incomes.

In March, the commerce ministry had floated a draft national agriculture export policy in line with the governments target of doubling farmers income. It had sought to boost agricultural exports from $30 billion currently to nearly $60 billion by 2022. The current proposal takes that process forward.

The farm exports policy, which is set to be approved by the Prime Ministers Office, will be a comprehensive one. Under it, infrastructure and rules are to be eased for over 50 export-oriented farm clusters, already identified by the agriculture ministry and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.

The policy talks about the need to standardise taxes in local markets for export-oriented produce. For instance, local market taxes vary widely for basmati rice, a key export commodity. It is 4% in Punjab and Haryana and 1.6% in Rajasthan. For pulses, the fees are 1% in Maharashtra and 2.5% in UP. These are like implicit taxes on the farmer, although technically farm income is free from taxes, the official said.

The policy talks of branding Indias farm products as produce of India, akin to the Make in India programme for the manufacturing sector. It proposes round-the-clock single-window clearance of perishables export items.

The governments Doubling Farmers Income (Volume IV) plan states that Indias current farm exports policy does not promote agricultural trade but is mainly used to control prices in the domestic market.

A three-year ban on non-basmati rice exports during 2008-11 amid a rice glut had led to a notional loss of $5.6 billion, said the draft version of the new policy released earlier for consultation states.

Take for instance, the potato price crash of 2017. To rein in prices, the government had imposed a minimum export price on potatoes, put the commodity under the Essential Commodities Act and also allowed duty-free imports. This choked exports and caused domestic prices to crash amid a potato glut of 48 million tonnes.

Since there is a clear trend of a glut in several commodities and domestic prices are low, finding long-term export markets is key to improving farm incomes, said economist SR Sudhakar, a former professor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.

Sudhakar, however, said such a policy wouldnt succeed without resolving more complex problems such as liberalised land-leasing laws and coordination with states, since agriculture lies in the domain of state governments.Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Tuesday said he had spoken to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi about reinvigorating Saarc, noting that Bimstec could not be an alternative to the grouping of Bay of Bengal states.

Oli said he raised the issue with Modi on the margins of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) Summit in Kathmandu last week.

Delivering a speech in Parliament, he said: We want to make Saarc a vibrant organisation. We have some misunderstandings in Saarc but we should not remain stuck here. But one thing is clear  that Saarc is not an alternative to Bimstec.

The fourth Bimstec Summit in Kathmandu generated considerable speculation about the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), whose fate has hung in the balance since 2016, when India decided to pull out of a summit to be hosted by Pakistan following a string of terror attacks. Since Saarc works by consensus, the summit could not be held. Since then, India has shown little interest in taking forward the Saarc process and indicated that the Saarc Summit in Pakistan cannot go ahead till Islamabad takes decisive action against terrorists operating from Pakistani soil.Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa tried to reach out to his Indian counterpart, Gen Bipin Rawat, to initiate talks but was rebuffed, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, though a person in New Delhi familiar with the matter denied any such outreach.

The outreach was initiated by Bajwa, seen as more moderate on India than his predecessors, months before Pakistans general election on July 25 as the powerful military was concerned about the countrys international isolation and faltering economy, the Times reported.

Citing unnamed Western diplomats and a senior Pakistani official, the report described Indias response to the overture as tepid. Pakistan had offered to resume talks with India on the Kashmir issue, stalled since 2015.

Indian Army officials did not comment when they were asked to respond to the report.

However, a person familiar with the matter said, The army is not aware of any such outreach by the Pakistan Army. It has certainly not happened at the level of the headquarters.

Bajwa and Rawat served almost simultaneously in a UN peacekeeping mission in Congo almost a decade ago and get along well, the Times cited diplomats as saying. Bajwa, who has said conflict between the two sides can only be resolved through dialogue, tried to reach out to General Rawat to initiate talks but the effort was stymied by what one diplomat called a system mismatch.

Pakistans military controls foreign and security policies, which is not the case in India. The Indian Army could not agree to a peace deal without the civilian governments approval, the report said.

The report said a key objective for Pakistan in reaching out to India is to open barriers to bilateral trade, which would give Islamabad more access to regional markets. Pakistans military sees the battered economy as a security threat, because it aggravates insurgencies.

We want to move forward and we are trying our best to have good ties with all our neighbors, including India, Pakistans information minister Fawad Chaudhry told the Times.

As General Bajwa says, regions prosper, countries dont. India cannot prosper by weakening Pakistan.

Diplomats in Islamabad said Pakistans outreach might also be driven its Chinese allies. China, which is investing $62 billion in an economic corridor, has prodded Pakistan to stabilise its border with India.Sharad Kalaskar was one of the two shooters who allegedly killed anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar in August, 2013, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a Pune court Tuesday.

The court remanded him in the central probe agencys custody till September 10.

The other alleged shooter, Sachin Andure, is now in judicial remand.

Kalaskar is an expert in weapon handling and was involved in making of bombs, the CBI told Judicial Magistrate (First Class) SMA Sayyad.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Kalaskar was the other shooter, who fired two bullets at Dabholkar along with Andure (who allegedly fired one round), said CBI lawyer Vijaykumar Dhakne.

The agency wanted his custody to probe his role in the conspiracy further, Dhakne said.

The conspiracy was hatched by Virendra Sinh Tawde (already arrested), Kalaskar and others, he said.

Defence lawyer Dharmaraj Chandili opposed the demand for CBI custody of Kalaskar.

According to the CBIs charge sheet against Tawde, two men, named Sarang Akolkar and Vinay Pawar, were the shooters who killed Dabholkar, but now the agency has changed its tune, he said.

The CBI has not yet recovered the firearms and the two-wheeler used in the crime, the defence lawyer pointed out.

Kalaskar was arrested last month by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with an alleged conspiracy to carry out blasts in the state.

The ATS had claimed that during interrogation, Kalaskar revealed that he and Sachin Andure were involved in the Dabholkar murder, following which it tipped off the CBI which arrested Andure.

The CBI took Kalaskars custody from the ATS on Monday.

The agency has also claimed that two men arrested in the journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case by Karnataka police were also involved in the Dabholkar murder conspiracy.

The CBI arrested the two -- Rajesh Bangera and Amit Digvekar -- in the Dabholkar case last week.

While Dabholkar was killed in Pune on August 20, 2013, Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017.A research scholar arrested for calling a senior Bharatiya (BJP) Janata Party leader a fascist in a Tuticorin-Chennai flight was given bail on Tuesday as her father accused the police of harassment.

S Lois Sophia, 28, allegedly shouted down, down, fascist BJP, down, down when she saw Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, president of BJPs Tamil Nadu unit, on the flight. She allegedly repeated her comments when she saw Tamilisai at Tuticorin airports baggage collection point after the flight landed. Sophia and Tamilisai are seen quarrelling in a video shot in the airport. Police officials are seen trying to calm down Tamilisai in the video.

Sophia, who studies in the University of Montreal, Canada, was sent to 15 days of judicial custody after Tamilisai filed a complaint against her with the airport police.

My daughter did not make any derogatory comments against the BJP leader. She just criticised the party. It is not a personal attack. Earlier police said that they will release her in the night, but they later asked me to get bail from court, said Sophias father Samy, a doctor in Tuticorin, on Tuesday.

Tamilisai said she felt threatened by Sophia. While Sophia raised slogans against me in the aircraft, I remained calm. However, even when she repeated the same outside, I felt that I was insecure. I am also having my own rights and privacy, so I lodged a complaint against that girl, Tamilisai told journalists.

DMK president M K Stalin protested Sophias arrest. If the police want to arrest people for criticising BJP, they have to arrest more than a lakh. I too say this: fascist BJP down, down, Stalin said in a tweet.

TTV Dhinakaran, rebel AIADMK leader and RK Nagar MLA, criticised the police too. It is clear that the BJP government has disappointed the youngsters in the nation. Though Sophias father lodged a complaint against Tamilisai, the police have reacted only for Tamilisais complaint, Dhinakaran said in a statement.An uneasy calm prevailed at the Mirchpur village on Monday as the police met village elders of the Jat community to exhort them to give up those convicted in the caste violence case of 2010.

The Delhi High Court had sentenced 12 persons to life imprisonment on August 24, in an April 21, 2010 incident that took place in the village after a group of villagers belonging to upper caste had allegedly torched over a dozen houses belonging to Dalits, in which 17-year-old physically-challenged girl and her aged father Tara Chand were charred to death.

The trigger for the mayhem was said to be a dispute between upper caste men and a Dalit man over a barking dog.

As the high courts deadline for the convicts to surrender ended on September 1, the court has now issued arrest warrants against them and directed the Haryana Police to nab the convicts before September 5.

Rajat Kalsan, advocate of the victims, said, Not even a single one of them surrendered, hence the Delhi High Court has directed the police to arrest them all by September 5.

A Dalit resident of the village, requesting anonymity said, Earlier, all those convicted could be seen in the village, but soon after the verdict came out, all of them disappeared.

He further said that over 40 Dalit children have fled the village since the incident, fearing for their lives. A family also reached Hisar at Dalit leader Vedpal Tanwars farmhouse, seeking refuge, he said. Though the village is constantly under police supervision, yet the Dalit families are not free from fear, he added.

Sources in the village said almost all the convicts are the only breadwinners of their families and they may move the Supreme Court against the high court verdict.

Meanwhile, sources in the police said the Mirchpur police post SHO, Ranbir Singh, and Narnaund police station SHO Sadhu Ram called a meeting of the elders at the police post to enquire about the whereabouts of the convicts.

When some mediapersons reached the police post to talk to the elders, they refused to talk to them and even maintained distance. Hansi SP Vijender Vij said, Teams are working round the clock. If they dont surrender, the police will take appropriate action to comply with the high court orders.

HC order on August 24

Advocate Rajat Kalsan said the Delhi High Court had convicted 33 persons in the case and sentenced 12 to life imprisonment. Out of them, three are in jail while nine are still at large. Those convicted were identified as Pawan, Kulwinder, Karanveer, Pradeep, Rajpal, Pradeep, Ranbir, Jogel, Sanjay, Satyawaan, Ramphal and Rajender.

Demands for victims

A key witness in the case, Satyawan Singh, said, The BJP government had announced land for the victims. We want that the land be provided soon without any hassles and with proper facilities. Besides, we also seek a government job to make ends meet.

Case timeline

April 21, 2010: A 70-year-old man and his 18-year-old physically-challenged daughter burnt alive allegedly by a mob of over 100 people belonging to the Jat community at Mirchpur village of Hisar district. Over 150 Dalit families flee the village and take shelter at a Temple in Delhi after their houses were torched.

August 2010: Haryana police arrest the accused after the Supreme Court pulls it up.

December 8, 2010: SC transfers the case from Hisar to Delhi to ensure fair trial on the plea of families of victims.

December 23, 2010: Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau starts hearing and asks Haryana government to appoint special public prosecutor to conduct the trial.

January 9, 2011: Court orders transfer of the accused to Tihar from a Hisar jail. A total of 98 accused shifted. Out of 103, five are juveniles and one is out on bail.

January 15, 2011: Jat community, to which accused belong, protests the transfer of case, seeks fresh probe.

January 20, 2011: CBI asked to take over the probe.

February1, 2011: Court orders deployment of CRPF at Mirchpur village to protect prosecution witnesses.

March 10, 2011: Trial court passes order on charge against 97 persons.

September 24, 2011: Trial court convicts 15, acquits 82 persons.

October 31, 2011: Three convicts get life term, five awarded five year jail and remaining seven released on probation.

2012: Convicts, victims and state move Delhi HC against their conviction and sentencing.

October 6, 2012: One accused who was earlier absconding, acquitted of all charges by trial court.

May 16, 2018: HC reserves verdict on the appeals.

August 24, 2018: HC upholds conviction and sentence of 13 convicts, reverses acquittal of 20 and convicts them.A section of an over 50-year-old bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed on Tuesday evening, killing one person, trapping many others, and crushing several vehicles, police said.

The Majerhat bridge in the crowded Alipore area caved in around 4.45pm during rush hour. It runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, the vast area of the south-west suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.

Opposition leaders blamed lack of maintenance by the state Public Works Department (PWD) for the collapse, while chief minister Mamata Banerjee ordered a probe and said that those whose negligence caused the disaster would be punished.

Police confirmed the death of one person and said 19 others, including two women were injured. The injured have been admitted to SSKM and CMRI hospitals, the police added. Fire brigade and army personnel engaged in the rescue work had earlier said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble.

The victim was identified as Soumen Bag, 21, a resident of Silpara in Behala.

Four cars, a minibus and a two-wheeler plunged below as a section of the bridge fell. Cracks could be seen in other parts of the structure.

There was a temporary office of construction workers under the bridge. Contacts could be established with two of them, who were safe. We are worried about anyone who might be trapped underneath, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was in Darjeeling on Tuesday.

A probe will be done by a committee headed by chief secretary Malay De to find out the cause of the collapse. Action will be taken against those whose negligence caused the accident. No one will be spared, she said, adding: It is a crime.

Read: My car began sinking: Survivor describes the moment Kolkata bridge collapsed

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who went to the spot, said a probe was necessary.

He... urges the agencies responsible for maintenance of all the bridges in the state to do a thorough examination of the bridges and take corrective measures to maintain those properly, a statement released by his office said.

In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the collapse deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest, he said.

Home minister Rajnath Singh said he spoke to the CM and assured her of all help from the Centre. Five teams from the National Disaster Response Force were already on the spot and one more was on its way, he added.

Opposition leaders lashed out alleging lack of maintenance and indifference on the part of the state government.

It is a responsibility of PWD to conduct structural audit of bridges on a regular basis. It is clear that it was not being done. A government that cannot save peoples lives and property has no right to rule, said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.

People stand next to the wreckage of vehicles at the site of a bridge that collapsed in Kolkata. (Reuters Photo)

PWD was in charge and it was indeed a question of lack of maintenance and monitoring. But this is not the hour to apportion blame, said the Left leader in the state assembly, Sujan Chakraborty. The leader of the opposition in the assembly Abdul Mannan also suggested that the reason for the collapse appeared to be a maintenance issue.

Five construction workers and two cooks were below the bridge. One of them made a telephone call and appealed for rescue, a construction worker told TV channels.

As night fell and rain began, additional arrangements were made for rescue and the area was lit up. Cranes, iron cutters and drills were brought in to remove the debris. Nearby areas had been dug up for Metro rail construction and construction material were seen strewn all over the place.

Rail services below the bridge were stopped immediately apprehending the section on top of the tracks might cave in too. The tracks connecting Sealdah and Budge pass below the bridge.

In 2016, a 60-metre section of an under-construction flyover in north Kolkatas Girish Park area had collapsed, killing 27 people and injuring 90 others.

(With agency inputs)One person was killed, 19 others injured and around eight people feared trapped as after a portion of a bridge collapsed in south Kolkata on Tuesday evening, authorities said.

A part of the central section of the structure caved in, leading to a few cars, two-wheelers and a bus on the section plunging down.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who confirmed one death, expressed apprehension about the fate of five-eight people who may be buried in the rubble as a section of the Majerhat Bridge on busy Diamond Harbour Road collapsed around 4.45 pm.

Nineteen injured people have been admitted in two city hospitals, she told the media in north Bengals Darjeeling, reported IANS.

Expressing concern over the incident,she said her government will initiate a probe into the cause of the collapse.

We have heard one person died so far, she said, adding steps are being taken on an emergency footing to rescue those who are trapped.

We have heard that four-five labourers used to stay in a temporary tin shed under the bridge. If they were there during the collapse, it is possible that something unfortunate may have happened to them. However, all the pedestrians and passengers in the public and private vehicles could be rescued. We are concerned about the lives of five to eight people who might have got trapped underneath.

Union minister Babul Supriyo, however, said that it was confirmed from several places that four or five people have died, according to an ANI report.

Terming the collapse deeply unfortunate, prime minister Narendra Modi, in a tweet, said: My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest.

West Bengal governor Kesari Nath Tripathi, who visited the accident site in the evening and offered condolence to the family of the deceased, told media that the cause of the collapse should be inquired into.

He (the governor) also urges the agencies responsible for maintenance of all the bridges in the state to do a thorough examination of the bridges and take corrective measures to maintain those properly, said a press statement issued by the Raj Bhavan.

Top officials including Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar rushed to the spot following the incident.

Five teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been sent to Kolkata for rescue operations, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said in a tweet, adding while four NDRF teams comprising about 180 personnel have already reached the spot, another team is on its way.

Personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force were also on the spot.

Eyewitness Sisir Chakraborty said that his vehicle was on the bridge when it collapsed and his driver immediately stopped the car and asked him to get off.

When I stepped out the entire structure was shaking. Some construction workers rescued at least five persons, he said, adding there would have been a bigger disaster if the portion over the railway lines with high tension wires had collapsed.

One man at the site told reporters that they heard a loud sound in the evening and the power supply in the area had gone off. They came to know a section of the bridge had collapsed and rushed to help the police who had rushed to the spot.

Another person on the spot alleged that the rescue operations had begun late. He said they had no idea of the casualties had seen there were motor cycles and other vehicles trapped in the debris.

The accident severely hit transport services connecting the areas in the south-western part of the city and South 24 Parganas district, affecting thousands of commuters in the peak evening hour, reported PTI.

A Kolkata Traffic Police officer said traffic movement through Diamond Harbour Road in Taratala area has been suspended following the incident, while traffic from various parts of South 24 Parganas and Behala area in the city were being diverted from Diamond Park area. Movement of traffic towards south-west Kolkata and South 24 Parganas were being diverted from Kidderpore and through Port area and Circular Garden Reach Road, he said.

Train services in Circular Railway and Sealdah-Budge Budge line have been suspended as precautionary measure, Eastern Railway spokesman R N Mahapatra said, adding that the collapse of a portion of the bridge over railway tracks occurred in the adjacent areas of Circular Railway line at Majherhat had damaged a signal post on the track.

The last time a flyover collapsed in the city was on March 31, 2016, when a nearly 500 feet section of an under construction structure caved in at the citys trading hub of Burrabazar killing 27 persons and injuring about 80.

On March 3, 2013, a curved section of a flyover at Ultadanga in Kolkata connecting VIP Road and E M Bypass collapsed when a goods truck was passing. However, a disaster was averted as the incident happened around midnight.Traffic was hit on the Shimla-Kalka highway after heavy rains in the past 12 hours triggered landslides on Tuesday. The road stretch connecting Tuttikandi to Dhalli was damaged due to a landslide.

Shimla was lashed by heavy rain, which resulted in flooding of nullahs near Shanan close to Dhalli. The debris that flowed along with the water blocked the road.

Police diverted the traffic via Dhalli and Sanjauli. However, trucks carrying apples were stranded on the bypass for more than 12 hours.

Heavily loaded vehicles are prohibited from plying on the circular road.

It has been 11 hours and we are stuck here, said Gharsi Ram, a truck driver from Haryana, who had loaded a truck of apples from Theog for Delhi last evening.

 The road was opened for light motor vehicles. However, we are not allowing trucks to move forward as it will result in traffic jam, said SP Omapati Jamwal.

Shimla town received 31.6 mm of rain during the last 12 hours, while Dharamshala received 32.3 mm of rain.Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the most senior Supreme Court judge set to be the countrys next chief justice, will be the first from the north-east where he had started legal practice as a lawyer 40 years ago.

The soft-spoken judge made national headlines early this year when he, along with three other judges, went public in a move unprecedented in Supreme Court history, and said they had issues with the way in which the chief justice was allocating cases and running the court.

The quartets decision to address the rare press conference was seen as a bold move by the judges in the legal circles. More so for justice Gogoi, as he was in line to be the next Chief Justice of India and it could have jeopardised his chances for his elevation.

It did not.

On Tuesday, Chief Justice Dipak Misra recommended to the government that the top courts senior-most judge who had openly criticised his decisions just seven months ago, should succeed him.

Justice Gogoi, who has earned a reputation for bluntly speaking his mind, had just a few months ago described independent journalists and sometimes noisy judges as democracys first line of defence.

In this lecture, he had also suggested that the judiciary should certainly be more pro-active, more on the front foot.

I will even go ahead to say that the institution, at all levels, needs to become more dynamic in the matters of interpretation of laws, explained the judge, described as noted jurist Soli Sorabjee as independent, intelligent and courageous.

In the courtroom, Justice Gogoi created quite a flutter in 2016, when he issued contempt notice against a retired judge of the court justice Markandey Katju.

Justice Katju had, in a Facebook post, criticised the top courts verdict in the Soumya rape and murder case that held the accused guilty of rape but not murder. The judgment was authored by a bench headed by Justice Gogoi.

Justice Katju appeared in the court of Justice Gogoi and apologised for the Facebook post, thereby ending the matter.

Justice Gogoi has also been hearing the contentious National register of citizens in Assam case.

He along with justice Nariman are seen to be instrumental in the preparation of the NRC in Assam.

It was by the orders of Justice Gogoi that NRC for Assam is being prepared.

The first draft of the NRC has been published and over 4 million people have been left out of the draft.

The case is still pending in the court and the recently directed the centre to draw up a standard operating procedure to deal with the claims of 40 lakh persons excluded from the National Register for Citizens (NRC) prepared to identify residents of Assam and weed out illegal migrants.At least 50 killed in Libya since clashes began Including 19 civilians

(ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 4 - At least 50 have been killed and 138 injured in a week of fighting in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, local media quote health ministry sources as saying. The fighting broke out on August 27. The UN mission in the country has said that at least 19 were civilians, including women and children. (ANSAmed).



With Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra officially recommending Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor, the latter is all set to become the next CJI. He will be the first chief justice of the apex court from the northeast.

In his home state Assam, where Gogoi has made headlines for hearing the contentious issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is being monitored by the Supreme Court, former colleagues and friends recall him as a soft spoken but tough judge.

The Gauhati High Court was where Gogoi first practised as a lawyer from 1978, when he joined the Bar. He was elevated as a judge in February 2001 when he was a little over 46 years old.

Interestingly, Justice J Chelameswar and Justice MB Lokur who, along with Justice Gogoi and Justice Kurian Joseph held a press conference in January to air their grievances over the way the CJI was allocating cases  were Justice Gogois colleagues at the Gauhati High Court.

Born in Upper Assams Dibrugarh in an illustrious family  his father Keshab Chandra Gogoi served as the Congress-led governments chief minister of Assam in 1982 for a little over two months at the height of the Assam agitation against illegal immigrants Gogoi is the second of five siblings. He did his schooling in Dibrugarhs Don Bosco School before joining St Stephens College in Delhi University where he studied history.

He was a tough taskmaster. If you promised to get something done by 8 am on a Saturday, an excuse that you had a late night on Friday would not cut ice with him, said a former colleague who worked with him at the Gauhati High Court, but did not want to be named.

Gogoi started his legal practice in the chambers of senior counsel JP Bhattacharjee, whom people describe as a prominent lawyer of his time.

But he set up his own office once Bhattacharjee moved to Kolkata a few years later.

He was designated a senior counsel at the high court in 1999.

This former colleague describes Gogoi as a workaholic and someone who was not fond of joining clubs but would either work or spend time with his family. He did not take up too many cases, said Ashok Saraf, another senior counsel at the Gauhati High Court who has known and worked with Justice Gogoi. Monetary consideration was never a big deal for him, he said. The former colleague recalls how Gogoi as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) was instrumental in ensuring the then Tezpur Mental Hospital was upgraded to a proper research institute. He became the talk of town again when he appeared for then chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in a letter-of-credit scam being investigated by the CBI.

In his home town Dibrugarh, where Justice Gogoi was never a member of the Bar, the local Bar association still calls him guardian of the Bar. He was instrumental in making sure we got a new building, said Ajit Borgohain, President of the Dibrugarh Bar Association.A retired policeman was mercilessly beaten with sticks by three men on a street in Allahabads Teliyarganj locality on Monday. The brutal attack, caught on a CCTV camera, shows the retired police sub-inspector being attacked 49 times in 90 seconds. It also shows how some passers by didnt intervene.

By the time Abdul Samad Khan was taken to the hospital by his family, it was too late. He died.

Khan did try to resist the attack, initially. But the 70-year-old was clearly no match for the goons.

The retired sub-inspector was on his bicycle when a man in a red shirt comes and starts attacking him with a stick in a narrow lane.

Khan falls to the ground and tries to shield himself but the assault continues. In the CCTV video clip, several people on foot, cycles and on two-wheelers are seen passing by, slowing down and leaving after taking a look.

Shortly afterwards, two more men are seen joining in the attack and soon Khan even stops resisting and takes the blows.

The footage shows the men assaulting the retired policeman left sitting against the wall, critically wounded, as the men escape. Khan was later taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

A case has been registered on a complaint of Khans daughter who has implicated 10 people in the case, Brijesh Srivastava, the Allahabad city police chief said.

Five people have also been arrested, mostly members of the prime suspect Junaid Kamal, who has several cases registered against him.

Both sides are related to each other and locked in a property dispute. The history-sheeter Junaid Kamal and his brother Javed, named in the FIR, are among those on the run. Teams of Crime Branch and Shivkuti police are carrying out raids to nab all accused, Srivastava added.

But two judges of the Allahabad High Court who took note of reports of the retired police officer being thrashed to death werent impressed. Chief justice DB Bhosale and justice CD Singh, took the Uttar Pradesh government to task for the inability of the police to arrest the prime suspects. The judges asked why the police had not been able to arrest them despite CCTV footage of the incident. The police has been ordered to submit a report on Wednesday outlining the on the steps taken to arrest them by Wednesday.Six persons, including two children, died in West Bengals Cooch Behar district when the SUV in which they were travelling hit a truck from behind past Monday midnight.

Four persons died on the spot while two succumbed at Mathabhanga sub divisional hospital. Four others who are critically injured, including two children, are being treated in different hospitals.

A Bolero carrying labourers from Tufanganj and Samuktala hit a truck on State Highway 16 at Bhogramguri, near Golakata, Gopalpur gram panchayat under Mathabhanga police station, said Subhendu Mondal, sub divisional police officer of Mathabhanga.

Four adults, including two women, died on the spot, said Mondal.

The deceased were identified as Ajay Sonar (32), his wife Payro Munda and their two-year-old daughter, Ratna Munda (45), her daughter (4) and Khagen Rava (35).

The deceased and those injured are residents of different villages under Samuktala police station in Alipurduar district. They were going to Siliguri to work a brick kiln as labourers when the accident happened.

The site is 20 km away from Mathabhanga sub divisional town and more than 660 km from Kolkata. Frequent road accidents have taken a toll on the state government and chief minister Mamata Banerjee is monitoring a campaign for road safety.A woman student shouted anti-BJP slogans in front of the partys state unit chief, Tamilisai Soundararajan, on board a domestic flight Monday and she was whisked away by police after landing here.

Soon after the BJP leader and the student arrived at the airports arrival lounge here from Chennai, a quarrel ensued, which was caught on a camera.

Tamilisai is heard telling the student and the people who gathered at the lounge that a flight was no place to raise slogans.

It (inside of a flight) is not a public forum....how can you expect me to keep mum when she shouts down with BJPs fascist government looking at me? Is it freedom of expression? she asked.

The woman is said to be a student at an Australian university and she is on a visit to her native district here.

Later speaking to reporters, Tamilisai said that the manner in which the student was shouting slogans she felt that there was a threat to her life.

The TN BJP chief said when she asked the woman (on arrival at the lounge) if it was appropriate to raise slogans inside a flight, the student started shouting that she had freedom of expression.

The BJP leader said she has lodged a complaint with police, adding they should enquire if some outfit was behind the students action. The words the student used is not expected of an ordinary passenger, she said.

DMK chief , meanwhile, in a tweet said he too would say that Down with BJPs fascist regime, and asked how many people would the government be able to arrest. He said the student must be released forthwith.

The student was reportedly arrested, but there was no official confirmation.Around one crore poor families in Rajasthan will get a Rs 1,000-aid from the state government to buy smartphones using which they can remain informed of welfare schemes and avail benefits as per their eligibility.

Launching the Bhamashah Digital Parivar Yojana on Tuesday, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje said the subsidy of Rs 1,000 will be given to card holders in two instalments.

The government will give a first instalment of Rs 500, using which card holders will be able to buy a smartphone. Those who buy the smartphone will get the second Rs 500 instalment using which they will have to get the internet connection.

The government has tied up with a telecom provider which will provide the phones at Rs 500. The state will also track the use of funds online.

We have ensured that poor people on touch of a button can know about the governments welfare schemes. This is Bhamashah Digital Parivar Yojana that will benefit one crore card holders, Raje told a gathering of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, sanitation workers, and differently-abled people at a Mukhya Mantri Jan Samvad (Chief Ministers Dialogue with People).

Congress spokespersons Archana Sharma said the government was announcing populist schemes in election year as they are desperate.

Its a gimmick in election year, she said, questioning how users could renew their connections, and drew comparisons with the Ujjwala scheme in which not more than 20% were able to get a second refill.

Generated 16 lakh jobs in 5 years: Raje

The CM also claimed that her government had generated employment for 16 lakh people in the last five years.

We have given 3.25 lakh government jobs including 1.35 lakh jobs in pipeline. When we took over, teachers vacancies were 50%. Soon, it will be reduced to 2%. Then, ITIs and skill development provided to people that has enabled them to land private sector jobs, we have given 16 lakh jobs. If one considers self-employment under PM Mudra loan yojana, we have given more than 40 lakh jobs in five years, she claimed.

Raje also distributed motorised tri-cycles to differently-abled people.

She also announced Rs 2 lakh interest-free loans for barbers, cobbler, carpenter, plumber for skill development. The interest on the loan will be paid by the government.

The CM said her government had spent Rs 114 crore to waive off loans up to Rs 2 lakh taken from SC-ST Finance Corporation of those people who were not capable of paying off the loan. She distributed loan waiver certificates to some beneficiaries.

The chief minister also launched a scathing attack on the Congress for questioning the event.

People do not understand what the beneficiaries are getting. Thats why some of these have been assembled so that anyone can understand and people can tell the poor that you can benefit from this scheme too, she said.

The chief minister, during her 25-minute speech, repeatedly mentioned that the government was doing inclusive development works taking along all the 36 communities irrespective of caste and religion.

We need your love and your trust to build a new Rajasthan, she said and mentioned that the government had inherited the economy in bad shape with a debt of about Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

Did we say we are bankrupt? Some people do this drama. The government is never short of funds, but there is lack of will power, Raje said indirectly taking a dig at the Congress.

Had the Congress done so much work in the last 50 years what her government did in last 5 years, Rajasthan would have been a leading state, she said.

But I promise you, in the coming years, we will become a leading state. We need your help, your love, your trust, she said.

The chief minister claimed that her government built 80 lakh toilets in five years while 25 lakh toilets were built in Rajasthan in 50 years.

By March 2019, I am confident there will be no place in Rajasthan that will not be ODF, she said.The Congress and its ally, the Janata Dal (Secular), overtook the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the elections for Karnatakas 105 urban local bodies, which were seen as a test for the coalition government formed in May following a hung verdict in the assembly polls.

The Congress said the result reflected the voters confidence on the coalition government and the BJP claimed that the outcome highlighted peoples dissatisfaction against the unholy alliance between the JD(S) and the grand old party.

After the Congress emerged as the single largest outfit in the local body polls, it said the Karnatakas citizens have accepted the policies of the Congress-JD(S) government in the state.

People of Karnataka have once again reposed their faith in Congress by making it the No.1 party in Urban Local Bodies. People have accepted development policies of Congress+JDS Govt & have rejected Jumlas of BJP. Many thanks to every @INCKarnataka worker! Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted.

The president of Congress state unit Dinesh Gundu Rao thanked the voters. These results are heartening for the party, and all talks of the Congress becoming weaker have been proved to be untrue, he said.

Rao said it was made clear before the polls that the Congress and JD(S) would form alliances wherever there was a hung verdict. If we had contested together, the BJP would have lost everywhere but we respected the sentiments of our party workers and contested the elections independently, he said.

Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said that voters in the cities supported the coalition government. City voters normally vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but with the outcome of this result (it indicates that) even city voters have shown full support to the coalition government led by the Congress and the JD(S), Kumaraswamy said.

Kumaraswamys father and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda also spoke on the same lines saying, We have succeeded. The JD(S) and the Congress will go together to keep the BJP at a distance.

Of the 105 ULBs, the Congress won a clear majority in 37 ULBs, the BJP in 31 and the JD(S) in 12, according to the state election commission. The Congress-JD(S) combine won majorities in 12 other ULBs, while 13 of them threw up hung mandates. Elections were held for three city corporations, 29 city municipal councils (CMC), 52 town municipal councils (TMC) and 20 town panchayats (TP).

Out of the 2,664 wards across 22 districts, the Congress won 982 wards, with the BJP coming a close second with 929 seats and the JD(S) a distant third with 375 wards, official figures showed. The others, including 329 independent candidates, bagged the remaining seats. Elections for the remaining seats, totalling to more than 2,300, are likely be held early next year.

The BJP continued an impressive performance in the coastal districts, winning seven of the 15 ULBs. In the central districts, the BJP won five of the seven ULBs. The party performed better compared to the previous ULB elections in 2013. In the previous polls conducted for 4,976 seats, the Congress had bagged 1,960 seats and BJP and JD-S 905 seats each.

The Congress performed well in its stronghold in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, where it won 13 of the 24 ULBs. In the Mumbai-Karnataka region, too, the Congress managed to pip the BJP, winning majorities in 18 of the 38 ULBs, against the BJPs tally of 13.

The JD(S) swept the southern region, winning 12 of the 21 ULBs. It continued impressive performances in the districts of Hassan and Mandya, winning eight of the 10 ULBs.

BJP president Amit Shah said his partys performance was stupendous and that the outcome highlighted peoples dissatisfaction against the unholy alliance between the JD(S) and the Congress.

I heartily thank our sisters and brothers of Karnataka for their trust and continued support for the BJP. I want to assure the people of Karnataka that this opportunistic alliance in state wont come in the way of PM @narendramodi and BJP working for the betterment of the state, Shah tweeted.

The BJPs state president BS Yeddyurappa also said the partys showing was impressive. We have substantially increased our tally in hundreds of ULBs across the state. This is proof of the BJP continuing to enjoy the support and confidence of the people, he said.

Yeddyurappa also blamed Karnatakas ruling coalition partners for its defeat in the state civic polls held across 22 districts. The BJP should have won more seats but we could not perform the way we wanted to because of the Congress-JD(S) coalition, Yeddyurappa said.

He said his party, however, is confident of winning a majority in the Lok Sabha election scheduled to be held next year. The outcome of this ULB elections is neither an indication nor trend-setter for the Lok Sabha elections. Parliamentary elections are fought on a different note, he said.

Yeddyurappa also highlighted his partys victory in the Shivamogga city corporation. In the three city corporations of Mysuru, Shivamogga and Tumakuru, the BJP performed the best, though it could only manage a majority in Shivamogga, its traditional stronghold.

Just wait for a month and see what happens to this government, he said.Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday slammed the union government for unprecedented hike in prices of petrol and diesel and expressed his anguish over the opposition parties for not hitting the streets over the issue.

Petrol, diesel and gas prices are rising and are hitting all time highs daily. Why are opposition parties not hitting the streets? What are they waiting for? Sinha, who has been critical of governments economic policies said in a tweet.

The former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders remarks came a day after the prices of petrol and diesel, already at unprecedented levels in the country, rose for the 10th consecutive day on Tuesday.

In the national capital, petrol was sold at Rs 79.15 per litre, up from Rs 78.84 on Sunday.Although chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) will be inaugurated in 2019, aviation secretary RN Choubey on Tuesday said it will take another three years for the first flight to take off from the airport. Choubey was speaking at an aviation summit held in Delhi

He said, We are optimistic that it [airport] will be operational by September 2021. We are trying to push for an earlier deadline.

In March, Fadnavis had told the assembly that first terminal of NMIA and runway was expected to be ready by the end of 2019. He made the statement while replying to supplementaries put up by Jayant Patil (NCP), to the main question raised by Prithviraj Chavan (Congress).

Officials privy to the development said along with Ulwe river diversion, hill blasting for levelling of land is underway. The issue of land acquisition is being worked on. Around 40% of the villagers have vacated, and the remaining villagers are expected to move out of their ancestral villages after Ganeshotsav.

The NMIA is being constructed after the citys Chhatrapati International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (CSIA) was declared saturated, with hardly any slots for additional flights. This is because the city airport has cross runways and can operate flights only on one runway at a time. The Mumbai airport handles over 48 flight movements per hour and has broken records of handing over 1000 flights in 24 hours, which is maximum number of flights handled by any single runway airport.Seventeen women, including five minor girls, have been rescued by police in Bihars East Champaran district from alleged sex and human traffickers, who managed an orchestra group, officials said.

Police said the women and girls were rescued after raids at two places in Balwa Rai village near Mahnava Bazar under Turkaulia police station limits of the district, about 195 km north of Patna, on Monday morning.

Altogether, 12 persons have been arrested and 17 women hailing from Nepal, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha were rescued. Further investigations are going on, sub-divisional police officer of Motihari (Sadar) Murali Manohar Manjhi said.

Sources in the police said the raids were carried out after information about the presence of two Nepali girls in Turkaulia, who had gone missing from Mumbai.

During an interrogation, the rescued girls alleged that orchestra group organisers used to exploit them sexually, a police official said on the condition of anonymity.

Last month, police had arrested one Motilal Yadav, the owner of an orchestra band, on the charge of subjecting a girl to sexual abuse. They also rescued six girls, all from Ghughali in West Bengal, during a raid in Dipau village of East Champaran district on August 24.

The National Crime Records Bureaus (NCRB) data for 2016 show more than 8,000 cases of human trafficking were reported in India in that year and 23,000 victims, including 182 foreigners, were rescued. Of the total 15,379 victims in these cases, 9,034 (58%) were below the age of 18 years, stated the latest NCRB statistics on crime.

The bureau has said 63 people are rescued from human trafficker every day on across the country. Human trafficking, prohibited under Article 23 (1) of the Constitution, includes forced labour, sexual exploitation or prostitution, domestic servitude, forced marriage, begging, adoption, child pornography and organ transplant.Actor Salman Khan launched Bigg Boss 12 in Goa with his trademark towel dance, quotable quotes and details of the reality show. At the launch event, the actor was asked about rumours that suggested Katrina Kaif may co-host Bigg Bosses 12 with Salman. The actor replied, Katrina must have spread those rumours herself.

According to a report in Pinkvilla, the actor added, She was asking me that this time it is jodis? I said, yes. She said Then I should do it. When I asked why, she said that you do your impromptu thing and I will follow and stick to the script. When I asked her price for this, she said we will keep it equal, whats your price is my price!

I think I will marry Bigg Boss, says Salman Khan on the launch of shows 12th season

Bigg Boss season 12s theme is vichitra jodis and speaking about who is his vichitra jodi, Salman said, Sanjay Dutt and me. We hosted season 5 together. So, he is the best choice for me. Also taking you back, I will choose Shah Rukh Khan. Not many know that SRK was the original choice of Bigg Boss. But he had a shoulder injury and so it came to me. I thank him for this.

Katrina and Salman are working together on Ali Abbas Zafars directorial Bharat. Their look from the film was recently released and they looked gorgeous together. Katrina and Salman returned from Malta after they completed their second schedule for the film.

This is the second time Salman and Katrina are working with Ali Abbas Zafar. The trios last film together, Tiger Zindagi Hai, was a big hit.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreTurkey sends military reinforcements to Idlib M60 tanks arrive, will be monitoring refugee flow

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, SEPTEMBER 4 - Turkey has in recent hours sent more military reinforcements to the border with Syria to be used in the northwestern province Idlib, against which there is an ever-growing threat of a vast offensive by the Syrian regime backed by Russia and Iran. At least 8 lorries transporting M60 tanks and artillery arrived over the night between Monday and Tuesday in the Elbeyli district of the Kilis border province.



They will later be transferred by Turkish troops already present in Idlib with 12 observation posts set up in recent moths as part of the Astana process with Moscow and Tehran.



The Turkish objective, Hurriyet quotes military sources as saying, is to control possible refugee movements towards its borders. (ANSAmed).



Salman Khan launched Bigg Boss 12 on Tuesday at a press conference in Goa. The actor, who is returning as the host of the show for the sixth time, was present along with Bharti Singh and her husband Harsh Limbachiya to speak about the show and what audiences can expect from the upcoming season. Here are the 10 interesting things the actor said about his association with Bigg Boss and his relationship with the contestants.

Salman Khan on marrying Bigg Boss

Salman Khan arrived at the event in a boat and performed to the song, Jeene Ke Hain Char Din. The first thing the actor spoke about was his marriage, or rather the persistent questions he faces in this regard. Salman said, They ask me lame questions like when are you getting married? I am thinking of getting married to Bigg Boss because he is just a voice.

Salman Khan at the launch of Bigg Boss 12. (IANS)

Bigg Boss 12s vichitra jodis

He then spoke about all the kind of vichitra jodis that are likely to enter Bigg Boss 12. There are so many kinds of jodis. Naagin-sapera, boy-boy, girl-girl. There is no Aadhaar to enter Bigg Boss; only criteria that the jodi has to be vichitra.

Salman Khans relationship with Bigg Boss

Salman said, Bigg Boss has been my longest association with a project. Its one of the biggest properties on television.

Salman Khan arrives to launch the 12th Edition of Big Boss at Coco Beach, in North Goa. (IANS)

Bigg Boss vs Dus Ka Dum

Speaking about why Bigg Boss worked for him in comparison to Dus Ka Dum, the actor said, Dus Ka Dum comes just 2 days in a week. Bigg Boss is a weeklong project. The contestants drama adds to the overall rating.

Salmans connect with Bigg Boss

Salman also revealed that he watched every episode twice and said, So I tend to build a relationship with everyone.

On Shah Rukh Khan

Salman Khan also spoke about Shah Rukh Khan and sharing screen space with him. The actor said, I will work with him if we get a good script. He was kind enough to appear in Tubelight. And I will also be seen in Zero.

Salman Khan revealed that Shah Rukh Khan was supposed to host Bigg Boss originally. (IANS)

Bigg Boss was first offered to SRK

He was also asked who would be his vichitra jodi and the actor responded, Sanjay Dutt and me. We hosted season 5 together. So, he is the best choice for me. Also taking you back, I will choose Shah Rukh Khan. Not many know that SRK was the original choice of Bigg Boss. But he had a shoulder injury and so it came to me. I thank him for this.

Salmans fees for Bigg Boss

He was also asked about why there was not much news about the size of his pay check this year. While Salman dodged the question, showrunner Raj Nayak said, because of demonetisation.

On Priyanka Chopra

He also took a dig at Priyanka Chopra who backed out of working in Bharat. When asked about chances of Priyanka as one of the contestants and said, Nahi, woh nahi hai, engaged hai, you all know na?

On female actors

Speaking of female actors in the industry now, Salman said, Female actors are doing quite well. I just hope woh hume peeche na chhod de (I hope they dont leave us behind).

Bigg Boss 12 will premiere on September 16 and the reality show will air Monday to Friday at 10:30 pm. The Weekend Ka Vaar episodes will air at 9 pm.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreA blind woman said an Uber driver abruptly left her on the side of a Rio de Janeiro street last week after loudly berating her over her request that he turn down the cars air conditioning, the latest safety incident involving the ride-hailing firm.

Nathalia Santos, 26, a Rio native who runs a popular YouTube channel about her life as a blind woman, said she was unable to ascertain her location after being expelled from the car or get to her destination.

He stopped the car, started shouting at me and said blindness was my punishment, she wrote on Instagram about Thursdays incident, which highlighted concerns over Ubers training and vetting of drivers, particularly with regard to conduct toward passengers with disabilities.

Uber said the driver has been permanently banned from working for it.

Uber considers this behaviour to be unacceptable, the company said in a statement. We regret the whole incident and have already been in touch with the rider.

The drivers identity has not been made public.

The incident comes at a time when Uber is spending resources on security, having pledged $60 million to open a safety centre in Sao Paulo after a series of incidents in which both passengers and occasionally drivers were harmed or threatened.

Brazil is profitable for Uber, unlike the company as a whole, and is its second-largest market after the United States.

Santos said Uber had called to apologize, but had not offered any monetary compensation.

In Latin America, users in several Mexican cities and in Montevideo, Uruguay can request drivers who have received special training for people with disabilities, but those services are unavailable in the rest of the region.

Its never been easier for the elderly or for people with disabilities to use Uber, reads Ubers Brazilian website. But it offers no specific resources.

Santos said on Monday she did not think what happened to her was an isolated incident.

Ive been receiving many messages from people like me who say they have suffered through similar experiences, she told Reuters, such as drivers who arent cordial or sympathetic, when its precisely due to the hostilities of public transportation that people use the app.

She said she no longer uses Uber, and is relying on her family for transportation.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)NASA is exploring the feasibility of commercialising the agencys operations in low Earth orbit to lower its costs while its eyes turn toward the Moon and Mars, the media reported.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has unveiled an Advisory Council committee that will explore some of these plans, which could include product endorsements from astronauts and even selling the naming rights to rockets and other spacecraft, the Engadget reported.

According to Mike Gold, head of the Committee, the committee would also consider scrapping obsolete regulations to let US astronauts support private activities aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Companies should not have to turn to Russian cosmonauts for private operations, suggesting that astronauts could even be involved in filming ads, he was quoted as saying.

Gold said the possibilities could include having NASA receive reimbursement when commercial space companies sell spots on spacecraft heading for the ISS, and leveraging those funds for access or services on future private-sector space stations.

Our companies should not have to turn to Russian cosmonauts to execute commercial operations, Gold was quoted as saying by the GeekWire.

When new industrial substance are created, commercial experiments conducted, or even advertisements filmed, American astronauts should lead the way.

While Bridenstine stressed that he did not know if this kind of commercialisation was possible (hence the committee), he noted that the move might help NASA compete with private spaceflight companies.

The US has a shortage of military pilots precisely because they can make more money with airlines, the administrator argued  there could be a similar problem if theyre tempted away by the likes of SpaceX  a California-based private aerospace manufacturer.

Bridenstine also noted that this could spread NASAs influence in pop culture, the report said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ONPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday revoked amnesty given to an opposition senator involved in a failed coup 15 years ago and ordered his arrest, in what would be the second detainment of a senator critical of the president.

Senator Antonio Trillanes, Dutertes most vocal opponent, has repeatedly accused the president of asset concealment and backs complaints lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking his indictment over the alleged murders of thousands of criminals and drug dealers.

An executive order printed in the pro-Duterte Manila Times newspaper said amnesty given in 2010 to the former military serviceman was voided because he had not met the minimum requirements to receive it, including admitting his guilt.

The order instructed the justice department and armed forces to pursue criminal and administrative cases against Trillanes, while police and the military were ordered to arrest him and put him in detention to face trial.

Trillanes called it a stupid executive order and said he would not resist arrest or try to escape.

Its a clear case of political persecution, he told reporters at the Senate.

If Trillanes is arrested, he would be the second member of the 24-seat Senate to be detained under Duterte, joining Leila de Lima, a former justice secretary held for 18 months after being accused of facilitating drugs deals in national jails.

Both are critical of Duterte and his war on drugs and have led Senate enquiries into his role in alleged executions of criminals by police, both while president and when mayor of southern Davao City. Duterte denies wrongdoing.

The ICC in February started a preliminary examination into a complaint against the president, which accuses him of crimes against humanity.

Duterte is currently on an official visit to Israel and his spokesman was due to brief reporters there later on Tuesday.

Trillanes was granted amnesty by former President Benigno Aquino for involvement in a failed 2003 coup and mutiny in 2007.

Both incidents were against then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, an ally of Duterte who in July became speaker of the lower house.

This incident, should be clear to everyone that Mr. Duterte is a dictator, Trillanes said.

He does not respect institutions. That is why were like this: ordinary people are killed and critics are jailed.

Asked about arresting Trillanes, police spokesman Benigno Durana said any order given by judicial authorities would be complied with. Flash

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali on Sunday ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).





Xi said Ethiopia is an important partner of China in Africa, and the two countries have established a comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.





China supports Ethiopia in pursuing a development path suited to its own national conditions, appreciates its active participation in the building of the Belt and Road, and is willing to maintain the momentum of high-level exchanges, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, support each other on issues involving respective core interests and major concerns, strengthen communication and coordination in international and regional affairs, and safeguard common interests of both sides as well as other developing countries.





Abiy said China is a reliable friend in the course of Ethiopia's development, and China's precious assistance has always been crucial to his country's economic restructuring and achievements. He thanked China for its massive support.





Ethiopia cherishes the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries, and hopes to learn from China's experience in governance, deepen the bilateral relations, actively participate in the building of the Belt and Road, broaden bilateral exchanges and cooperation, and strengthen coordination in international affairs, Abiy said.Ceasefire reached in Libya Through UN mediation. Sarraj forms a crisis committee

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 4 - Libyan militias in conflict in Tripoli have reached a ceasefire agreement after a mediation effort by the UN's special envoy Ghassan Salame, UNSMIL announced with a tweet.



Meanwhile, the Presidential Council of Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Al Sarraj's Government of National Accord has "decided to form a crisis committee, in session until the return of stability" in Tripoli, to "follow developments in Tripoli and create necessary security and administrative measures", said a public decree on the Facebook page of the prime minister's information office.



It said the committee will be under the direction of Sarraj and will bring together the interior minister, finance minister, and foreign minister, as well as local entities, the defense undersecretary, and the undersecretary for migrants.(ANSAmed).



Opinion Article

4 September 2018

Imagine for a moment that you have many projects on your plate. Not hard to picture, is it? You know this is a great time to give members of your team opportunities to shine. Shanice and Randall come to mind as the ideal people to lead two new initiatives. These two had "star quality" written all over them when they first came on board.

Advertisements

Shanice is creative and thinks outside the box. You ask her to come up with four ideas to promote your hotel's meeting space for the next two quarters. Randall loves processes and he excels at meeting and beating goals. The regional office asked you for input about how to speed up the front desk registration process and make it an "outstanding customer experience"; the perfect job for Randall.

You tell Shanice and Randall they are free to plan and execute their projects. You give them deadlines, budgets, and resources they can use. And off they go. But, honestly, do you let them go? Or do find yourself not being able to relinquish control? Do you tell Shanice that if it were you, you would focus on building your plan to attract out-of-state clients versus local businesses? Do you subtly suggest to Randall that the problem he needs to focus on is long lines, not customer experience like the regional office recommends?

Before you know it, you're slipping in more than guidance and advice. You inhibit authentic behavior rather than encourage it.

It's hard not to offer advice and to tell others how to do something, especially when you have a vision of what success looks like. Relinquishing control is hard. Think about this: people shine best when we allow them to use their talents and strengths freely; when we give them opportunities to be their authentic selves.

What do you do when they come to you seeking advice and guidance? Challenge yourself and them by asking them what they think the answer is to the problem; what would they do, what do they think the ideal solution is? Help them formulate a plan or walk them through scenarios that have different outcomes and let them choose the best course of action.

Managing authenticity is possible. Do people on your team need guidance? Absolutely. Do they need direction? Of course.

You hired Shanice and Randall for a reason. Why did you hire Shanice and Randall in the first place? Your instincts about them gave you insights into the potential they could deliver. They had strengths that made them the ideal people to add to your team. So, give them the freedom, space, and most of all, your permission to be who they are. Let their authentic selves shine through.

We're not talking about giving them the keys to the kingdom or blank checkbooks. Proper oversight and management are an art. The art of leadership is knowing when to step in and when to get out of the way.

Try the D.I.N.E. model. Here is how it works.

Develop - Give your people the tools they need to be successful. Seems simple, right? The key is to give them the tools with enough guidance to ensure they know how to use them. Show them how to use the tire iron to loosen the lug nuts and then let them loosen the lug nuts themselves.

Immerse - Put people in places where they are likely to be able to use their strengths to succeed. We don't teach swimmers how to swim by having them run laps on a track; we put them in the pool! Put your people in meetings, on projects, and situations that naturally speak to their talents. Not sure what that looks like? Ask them.

Nudge - Sometimes your people need a bit of encouragement (don't we all?). A gentle push, an affirmative word, or the nod of your head and a smile is all they need to open the door to let their talents shine. Point them in the right direction and let them go.

Explore - When you do the first three (develop, immerse, and nudge), you both get the chance to explore the possibilities and potential positive outcomes. When you open yourself to trust and allow your people to be their authentic selves, imagine where they will take you. You want them to succeed and they want to flourish. What a coincidence. Let it happen.

 2018, Roger Wolkoff

Have your employees complained about a micromanaging boss? Does your leadership or organization need help communicating and learning how to develop or increase trust? If you answered yes to both or either of these questions then you need to work with Roger Wolkoff. Roger will help you and your employees discover how authenticity improves communication, ups productivity, and positively influences culture. Visit https://www.rogerwolkoff.com/ to get the help that you and your organization needs.Each year, Scandic serves between 11.5 and 13 million eggs at its hotels, with the majority already from free-range hens, and from September 2018, the hotel will begin to gradually phase out eggs from caged hens in all products.

Scandic Hotels has decided to stop using eggs from caged hens. Each year, Scandic serves between 11.5 and 13 million eggs* at its hotels, with the majority already from free-range hens, and from September 2018, the hotel will begin to gradually phase out eggs from caged hens in all products.

A large share of the eggs served at Scandic today come from free-range hens, but egg is also sometimes an ingredient in many of the prepared foods. This is why Scandic has now introduced a cage-free egg policy for its suppliers to ensure that the products Scandic buys from them contain only cage-free eggs.

I'm extremely happy that we've made the decision to stop using eggs from caged hens. This is a natural step in our constant work to operate more sustainably. We always try to make conscious choices based on the impact a decision has on the environment and animal welfare, says AnnSofie Lanner, Acting Director of Sustainable Business at Scandic Hotels.

According to Djurens Ratt, an animal rights organization in Sweden, about 12 percent, or just over one million, of the hens in Sweden are caged, although the number is steadily decreasing as more consumers and companies are choosing eggs from cage-free hens.

For us at Djurens Ratt, this is great news. With its cage-free egg policy, Scandic is truly demonstrating that the company leads the way in its sector. This decision will make a difference for many hens, says Nathalie Soderstrom, who is responsible for corporate relations at Djurens Ratt.

The decision to introduce a cage-free egg policy is part of Scandic's ongoing work to operate more sustainably. In the past, Scandic has made improvements to its food and beverage offering to contribute to a more sustainable world, for example, by serving vegan options at breakfast and Fairtrade products as well as introducing initiatives to reduce food waste.

The new policy will apply at all Scandic hotels. Eggs, and products containing eggs, from caged hens will be gradually phased out between September 2018 and 2020, with the exception of hotels in Norway where they will be completely phased out by 2022.

*eggs in all forms, including whole eggs, liquid egg products and cooked eggs

Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe

 2021 Hotel News ResourceDespite a general effective date of January 1, 2020, there are 5 steps that anyone doing business in California should take now to avoid problems under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the Act) when it becomes effective. As a follow up to his original article explaining the important provisions of the Act, my partner Bob Braun provides us an important update on recent regulatory activity concerning the Act and provides practical guidance on what needs to be done now.

Despite a general effective date of January 1, 2020, there are 5 steps that anyone doing business in California should take now to avoid problems under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the Act) when it becomes effective. As a follow up to his original article explaining the important provisions of the Act, my partner Bob Braun provides us an important update on recent regulatory activity concerning the Act and provides practical guidance on what needs to be done now.

To read Bobs original article about the Act, click California Adopts the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.

Update: California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 - 5 steps to take NOW to avoid trouble by Bob Braun

Recent regulatory developments

Late last week, the California legislature published proposed technical amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. These amendments reflect almost two months of lobbying by both consumer and industry groups. In addition, the FTC has received a number of complaints that the Act, along with other proposed state actions, would create confusion in an already-fragmented approach to privacy and security in the United States.

5 steps to take now

While the changes in the Act and attacks on the Act continue to create uncertainty, businesses need to consider immediate steps to avoid the significant penalties for non-compliance. Businesses must be in full compliance on the effective date of January 1, 2020. It will not be adequate to start compliance efforts on that date.

In particular, there are 5 steps that businesses need to take to ensure compliance by the effective date:

Create a standardized approach for handling consumer requests for personal information. Develop procedures for responding to consumer requests. Develop data collection and processing tracking procedures to understand what data is collected, where it resides, how it is maintained, and who is responsible for it. Analyze the legal basis for collecting and processing personal information  businesses will need to explain their legal rationale for exemptions to the consumers right to have their information deleted. Review their public-facing website disclosures, including adding a description of consumers rights under the Act, listing the categories of data collected and a conspicuous link titled Do Not Sell My Personal Information.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 addresses many of the concerns and requirements of the EUs General Data Protection Regulation. Companies that take prompt action to comply with the California Act and the GDPR will likely gain a substantial advantage over competitors who wait.

JMBMs Global Hospitality Group has worked with hotel companies to establish procedures and policies to achieve GDPR compliance, and we are also assisting clients to prepare now for compliance with Californias new privacy law. For additional information, contact Bob Braun (rbraun@jbmb.com, 310.785.5331) or Mike Gold (mgold@jmbm.com, 310.201.3529).

Bob Braun is a Senior Member of JMBMs Global Hospitality Group and is Co-Chair of the Firms Cybersecurity & Privacy Group. Bob has more than 20 years experience in representing hotel owners and developers in their contracts, relationships and disputes with hotel managers, licensors, franchisors and brands, and has negotiated hundreds of hotel management and franchise agreements. His practice includes experience with virtually every significant hotel brand and manager. Bob also advises clients on condo hotel securities issues and many transactional matters, including entity formation, financing, and joint ventures, and works with companies on their data technology, privacy and security matters. These include software licensing, cloud computing, e-commerce, data processing and outsourcing agreements for the hospitality industry.

In addition, Bob is a frequent lecturer as an expert in technology, privacy and data security issues, and is one of only two attorneys in the 2015 listing of SuperLawyers to be recognized for expertise in Information Technology. Bob is on the Advisory Board of the Information Systems Security Association, Los Angeles chapter, and a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Contact Bob Braun at 310.785.5331 or rbraun@jmbm.com.

This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer, signing off. Please contact us if you would like to discuss any issues or development that affect your hotel interests. We would like to see if our experience might help you create value or avoid unnecessary pitfalls. Whos your hotel lawyer?

Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe

 2021 Hotel News ResourceWhile many people in the United States have already heard about California legislation, which is similar to GPDR legislation, that has been taken into effect in June this year, a lot of them dont know what it exactly refers to and how and whether it will affect them.

While many people in the United States have already heard about California legislation, which is similar to GPDR legislation, that has been taken into effect in June this year, a lot of them dont know what it exactly refers to and how and whether it will affect them.

While this GDPR legislation is still a rather new law, it doesnt mean that people shouldnt be closely informed about it, especially if they are involved in the hospitality industry.

So, if you are a hotel owner in the United States and want to make sure that you are doing everything the right way and want to find out more about the connection between GDPR and hospitality, keep on reading as we will provide you with some insightful details you should be taking into consideration.

What is GDPR?

General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR for short is a regulation that was issued by the European Union and it refers to the protection of each and every individuals privacy and data, as well as how businesses (regardless of the type) are allowed to use, manage or share someones personal data.

Since this regulation applies to any individuals personal data regardless of their place of residence and their nationality as long as they are on the territory of the EU countries, it becomes clear how practically each and every online service can be affected by it, even if its outside of this territory.

Does GDPR apply to hotels in the US?

The new GDPR legislation applies to all hotels around the world, and it is no different for the hotels in the US  so, if you are a hotel owner in the US, you need to know what GDPR for US hotels actually means in order to follow the rules accordingly and prevent any unfortunate scenarios from happening.

There is a close connection between GDPR and hospitality  each hotel in the United States (and anywhere in the world, of course) that has customers who come from the territory of the EU need to do their business in accordance with this legislation.

In which ways does the GDPR affect your hospitality industry business?

There are 6 ways the GDPR applies to your businesss data policy:

1. Getting consent from your customers  every person who visits your hotels website needs to know in which exact ways their personal data will be used in the future. That is why such an explanation needs to be included in the Terms of service section of your website.

2. Data access  Your customers need to know who will have an access to their personal data. In addition, when this data is no longer needed, it needs to be deleted from the system.

3. The accuracy of the data  All personal data needs to be up to date at all times and updated on a regular basis.

4. Data accountability  Your hotel is fully responsible for utilizing GDPR-compliant tools.

5. Data portability  Every customer needs to be allowed to ask for you to provide them with a readable format which will include all the personal data they have previously shared with your business.

6. Data minimization  Your website needs to gather only the minimum amount of an individuals personal data needed to make arrangements.

How to make sure you are following the GDPR for US hotels

The first and the most important thing to do is to update your websites Terms and conditions and Privacy policy sections in accordance with the rules included in the GDPR. It goes without saying that your website needs to be highly secured by using an SSL encryption.

In addition, you need to make sure that your website visitors will allow you to use cookies. Also, provide them with an ability to delete their personal data.

What is more, you need to make sure each one of your website visitors provide you with their consent to use their personal data.

To conclude, these are the most essential things you need to know about the GDPR and hospitality if you are a hotel owner in the US. Make sure you are following these rules, and you wont have any legal problems whatsoever.

Book Your Demo Here

About the Author

Deepak Chauhan  VP (Cloud Solutions)

Deepak is responsible for marketing and positioning of "mycloud" platform and is a veteran in the hotel software industry with over 25 years' experience giving him a strong understanding of the product requirements in the industry. He has very rare mix of working in operations of various hotels and chains for over 10 years and then co-founding a software product and service company, servicing 5 star hotels and chains for 14 years.

Deepak has led the development and marketing of cloud based hospitality systems to meet the specific, business objectives of small and mid-size properties across the globe and has worked closely with a diverse group of hoteliers and hotel technology vendors.

About mycloud Hospitality

mycloud (award-winning hotel software) has been developed by Prologic First, an independent, private company with over a decade and halfs experience delivering end to end technology solutions to the hospitality industry across the UK, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Prologic Firsts WISH brand is used across 30 plus countries by over 1,600 clients representing the whos who of the industry. Some of our most popular and most adopted solutions like WISH, Touche & Web ProlIFIC. Our technological leaders and best in class solutions in the market place, offering some of the most advanced features to hospitality professionals.

Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe

 2021 Hotel News ResourceOn Sunday night, several residents in an apartment complex on the east side of San Bernardino were shot during a dice game. As reported by CNN, ten people were shot, and three of the victims are currently in critical condition. San Bernardino Police Captain Richard Lawhead told the news outlet that police received panicked calls reporting gunfire on Sunday at 10:45 PM PT. Once officers arrived, they found "at least 10 victims down," Lawhead noted.

"We believe that there was an exchange of gunfire," the Police Captain continued. "I can tell you multiple shots were fired, I don't want to guess how many. We do have some people that have been transported to the station for investigative purposes so we hope that they will yield information for us." Lawhead didn't exclusively state that gangs were involved, but he hinted at their involvement.

"My brother-in-law could hear bullets flying past our house," stated witness Alysa Marie. She told CNN that she heard 15-20 gunshots. "He was outside at the time of the shooting," Marie continued. "About five minutes later, the helicopter was circling around our street, talking on the loudspeaker saying to put down the weapons, for the people who were on the ground to get up and get to safety and to let the law enforcement do their job."Lil Pump just shared pretty startling news with his fans on Instagram. According to the rapper himself, he has effectively violated his probation and is likely to serve a few months in prison as a penalty. Pump got straight to the point in a video message signalling his departure. He warned that for the next little his management will be subbing in for him on social media. Pump was arrested in Miami for driving without a valid license. His attorney has stated on record that he believes his client was racially profiled by the arresting officers.

"Y'all seen what happened in Miami," Pump explained. "I got arrested..I'm on probation in LA. I violated my PO so I've got to go in and do a couple months. I've got some crazy ass sh*t dropping while in here." Pump didn't detail how he broke curfew so to speak, but it doesn't beg for much of an explanation. When you're on probation, you are typically confined to your community, and prohibited from travelling.

Pump is likely not overly concerned that he will lose any momentum while in the bing, since his work is reportedly going to be staggered by those out in charge by his handlers and his record company. Keep it locked for updates on the developing story.(ANSAmed) - ZAGREB, SEPTEMBER 4 - A group of Croatian divers recently found a safe possibly containing a treasure of tens of millions of euros in the remains of the Italian flagship King of Italy, which sunk in the Adriatic in 1866 in the celebrated Battle of Lissa (Vis in Croatian).



The news was reported by Croatian media, citing head diver Lorenzo Marovic of Lissa.



According to a 150-year-old legend, at the time the ship sank, it was carrying gold to support the costs of the provisional Italian government in Dalmatia, in the event of an Italian naval victory against Austria during the Third Italian War of Independence.



Marovic and his group of divers found the safe, but no one knows what is actually inside.



He requested a permit from the superintendency and the Croatian Culture Ministry to undertake two more exploratory dives.



"Given that the King of Italy lies 115 metres deep and dives can last up to five hours, we need special equipment and very experienced divers," Marovic said.



"We don't know what's in the safe, but I believe in any case it should be brought to the surface," he said.



In the event the legend is true, and in the safe there truly are hundreds of gold coins worth 250,000 lira at the time of the sinking in 1866, which would now be worth tens of millions of euros, Marovic would receive 10% of the treasure.



The rest would belong to the Croatian Culture Ministry, from which Marovic now awaits the issuing of a permit to extract the safe, which will most likely come next summer.



In spring 2005 it was Marovic who also discovered the remains of the King of Italy, seven miles off the northeastern shore of the island of Lissa.



On July 16, 1866, the Italian fleet sailed from Ancona headed to Lissa, where it planned to disembark, and bombard forts on the island's hills.



Four days later, however, on July 20, 1866, the Austro-Hungarian naval squad arrived, under the command of Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff.



Thus began the Battle of Lissa, which ended in a dramatic defeat for the Italian fleet.



The King of Italy was rammed and sunk, with 27 officers and 364 non-commissioned officers and sailors missing at sea, and 167 men rescued.(ANSAmed).

Smokepurpp recently joined forces with Complex's Joe La Puma at Stadium Goods in New York City for a brand new episode of "Sneaker Shopping."

During their visit to the sneaker consignment shop, Smokepurpp flexed his knowledge of all things sneakers, talked about wearing Yeezys and other exclusive kicks in high school and going to Sneaker Con and flipping sneakers when he was younger. Smokepurpp also reflected on how he camped out for the iconic "Black Cement" Air Jordan 3s when they released on Black Friday in 2011, his favorite Nike LeBrons and KDs, and the few pairs of Nike SB Dunks that have eluded him over the years.

At the end of his visit to Stadium Goods, the Smokepurpp walked out with two new pairs of kicks, the Off-White x Air Jordan 1 "UNC" and the black Off-White x Nike Air Presto, for a grand total of $2,111.62.

Check out the full episode in the video embedded below.2 1 of 2 William Luther /Staff file photo Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Michael Ciaglo /Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less



The Permian Basin has been the hottest shale play in the U.S. for years, according to a new report.

More than $90 billion of deals were made in the Permian Basin between January 2013 and July 2018, making it the most active play when looking at acquisitions and divestitures.Houston celebrities did not let the Labor Day weekend rain ruin their holiday plans.

This was especially the case for Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander and supermodel Kate Upton who made appearances at the fourth annual Grand Slam Adoption Event Sunday outside Minute Maid Park.

The event helped raise dog adoption awareness.

"It was kind of a non-starter if we didn't love dogs in our relationship," Verlanded said at the event. "It was kind of a natural progression."

A GOOD CAUSE: Astros' Justin Verlander, Kate Upton raise awareness for dog adoption

Now Playing: FOX 26 News Reporter Randy Wallace Video: Fox 26 Houston

Other Houston celebrities like Elizabeth McIngvale, daughter of Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, escaped the rain this past weekend at Moraine Lake in Alberta, Canada.

Swipe through and see how other Houston celebrities spent their Labor Day weekend.

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Tickets for one of the most popular parties on the city's social calendar go on sale later this week.

The Houston Zoo's annual Feast with the Beasts event, now in its 13th year, is slated for Friday, Nov. 2 with '90s alt-poppers Everclear providing the music.

CH-CH-CHANGES: See how the Houston Zoo has evolved over the past 100 years

Feast With the Beasts combines the best beer, wine, and food that Houston restaurants have to offer with a night out at the zoo.

Ticket pre-sale for this year's event begins at 9 a.m. on Thurs., Sept. 6, starting at $109 for zoo members and $119 for non-members. On Sept. 21, the price raises by $10 to $119 for zoo members and $129 for non-members.

Special VIP tickets run $219 and allow guests to access the Bud Light VIP Party with access to the African Forest area of the zoo.

NEW DIGS: The Houston Zoo's two female black bears move into an expanded habitat

Headlining musical act Everclear are best-known for such '90s radio rock staples such as "Santa Monica" and "Father of Mine."

Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images

The rain or shine Feast with the Beasts was launched in the fall of 2006 to raise money for the non-profit Houston Zoo. At first there were just about 30 area restaurants on the menu. That number has nearly doubled in the past decade making it a sought-after ticket.

Encounters with certain animals are scheduled throughout the evening. This event is open to guests 21 and older so the kids will need to stay home.

With Feast with the Beasts fast approaching that means that the Houston Zoo's other big seasonal attraction, TXU Energy's Zoo Lights, is just around the corner.

Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.comPostino Wine Cafe, a runaway hit since it opened in April at Heights Mercantile, is expanding in Houston with a second restaurant planned in Montrose.

The new Postino will make its home in the former Montrose Mining Company, 805 Pacific, the longtime gay bar that closed in September 2016. It is expected to open in early 2019.

The Phoenix-based Postino, known for its affordable wine selection and assorted bruschettas, opened in the spring at Heights Mercantile, 642 Yale. At the time, co-founder Lauren Bailey said she was so impressed by the Houston market that she strongly suggested she was looking to expand operations in the Bayou City.

"We've fallen in love with Houston. Since we first opened our doors in the Heights neighborhood, we found ourselves drawn to Montrose time and time again," Bailey said. "Montrose checks every box that gets us excited: civic pride, a robust arts scene, diversity, authenticity, and an incredible history that speaks to our values."

Sommelier's Pick at HoustonChronicle.com: Brent Karlicek of Postino Wine Cafe

Postino, founded 18 years ago, is a company that builds its restaurants in historically significant buildings. The company takes its name from the Italian word for postman, which references the former mid-century post office in Phoenix that was the brand's first restaurant. Like the Heights Mercantile building (a former distribution center for the Pappas family restaurants), the former Montrose Mining Company space caught Postino's eye.

"Walking into the old Montrose Mining Company  such a storied space that's been a neighborhood gathering space since the 1970s  gave us goosebumps," Bailey said. "Something just felt right, and we're thrilled to honor its historic legacy, the neighborhood, and the people who have come before us."

Alison Cook at HoustonChronicle.com: Postino serving some of Houston's best bruschetta

The 3,500-square-foot space will feature eclectic decor similar to the Heights store, and the same menu of bruschetta options, sandwiches, soups and salads to accompany a unique list of wines by the glass and bottle. The restaurant is known for its daily deal of $5 glasses of wine from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Follow him on the podcast BBQ State of Mind to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture.When those first fat drops of summer rain fall to the hot, dry ground, have you ever noticed a distinctive odor? I have childhood memories of family members who were farmers describing how they could always smell rain right before a storm.

Of course rain itself has no scent. But moments before a rain event, an earthy smell known as petrichor does permeate the air. People call it musky, fresh  generally pleasant.

This smell actually comes from the moistening of the ground. Australian scientists first documented the process of petrichor formation in 1964 and scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology further studied the mechanics of the process in the 2010s.

Petrichor is a combination of fragrant chemical compounds. Some are from oils made by plants. The main contributor to petrichor are actinobacteria. These tiny microorganisms can be found in rural and urban areas as well as in marine environments. They decompose dead or decaying organic matter into simple chemical compounds which can then become nutrients for developing plants and other organisms.

A byproduct of their activity is an organic compound called geosmin which contributes to the petrichor scent. Geosmin is a type of alcohol, like rubbing alcohol. Alcohol molecules tend to have a strong scent, but the complex chemical structure of geosmin makes it especially noticeable to people even at extremely low levels. Our noses can detect just a few parts of geosmin per trillion of air molecules.

During a prolonged period of dryness when it has not rained for several days, the decomposition activity rate of the actinobacteria slows down. Just before a rain event, the air becomes more humid and the ground begins to moisten. This process helps to speed up the activity of the actinobacteria and more geosmin is formed.

When raindrops fall on the ground, especially porous surfaces such as loose soil or rough concrete, they will splatter and eject tiny particles called aerosols. The geosmin and other petrichor compounds that may be present on the ground or dissolved within the raindrop are released in aerosol form and carried by the wind to surrounding areas. If the rainfall is heavy enough, the petrichor scent can travel rapidly downwind and alert people that rain is soon on the way.

The scent eventually goes away after the storm has passed and the ground begins to dry. This leaves the actinobacteria lying in wait  ready to help us know when it might rain again.

Tim Logan is Instructional Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Get the Gray Matters newsletter. It can alert people that rain is soon on the way.In a clash that has surfaced in federal courthouses across the country and a recent Houston case, a collection of judges have held it is their duty to set conditions of release for accused sex offenders despite a strict law that limits their discretion.

The constitutional conflict hinges on whether judges or lawmakers should decide how these defendants live their day-to-day lives after they are arrested. It touches on public safety, just treatment and whether the judiciary or legislative branch should determine bail conditions for a category of people accused of crimes involving children.

The ongoing dispute flared up locally in April when U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ordered court officials to remove the ankle monitor of a man named Sam Robinson who had just admitted to engaging in a sexually explicit video chat involving a child. The tracking device Robinson had been wearing was excessive, Hughes said, since the teenage girl in the streaming internet exchange was halfway around the world in the Philippines.

Like other judges, Hughes bristled at the notion that his duty to set bond was being usurped by a 2006 sentencing law that mandates inflexible conditions of release in child pornography and child sexual assault cases. Like others on the bench, he noted that the defendant before him had not been accused of having any physical contact with a child.

He looked at pictures, Hughes told a prosecutor who objected to him removing the tracking device. You have no evidence he ever molested a child.

The move by Hughes reflects a steady trend among a small collection of federal judges who have ruled that the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act is overly restrictive. The George W. Bush era act expanded the role of the federal government in handling sex crimes involving minors in order to protect children from sexual exploitation and violent crime, to prevent child abuse and child pornography, to promote Internet safety, and to honor the memory of Adam Walsh and other child crime victims. Legal journals note that the Walsh amendments were tacked onto the bill just seven days prior to its passage without substantive debate or legislative findings.

BAIL SUIT: Appeals court halts portion of Harris County bail fix

Judges like Hughes have said that legislators were overreaching by mandating bond conditions, stripping them of the ability to make common sense rulings in cases where they found a defendant did not pose a flight risk or a threat to minors in the community.

Hughes order raises a question the lower courts have been posing one small ruling at a time: whether it is constitutional to mandate electronic monitoring, curfews or other release conditions across the board for people accused of having or accessing child pornography. These are people who are not accused of having inappropriate physical contact with children, so, the argument goes, what threat do they pose to the public safety?

Electronic monitoring is not optional under this provision. Defendants do not have a right to put on testimony, examine witnesses or present evidence to contest whats called their presumption of dangerousness.

The million-dollar question is whether the additional Adam Walsh requirement of electronic monitoring in all cases with no judicial discretion is constitutional, said Richard Kuniansky, a former federal prosecutor in Houston who defends people accused of accessing child pornography. The courts appear to be in conflict on this issue.

U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, a tough-on-crime Humble Republican, backed the Adam Walsh act when it passed in 2006. He said while bail has historically been the responsibility of judges, the legislative mandates in the law seem reasonable.

However, the issue is whether or not making them mandatory by law violates the protections under the 8th Amendment by infringing on the defendants rights to due process before an impartial magistrate, Poe said.

If the high court finds that it is in violation of the Constitution, then only this particular section of the Adam Walsh Child Safety Act will be ruled unconstitutional, leaving the rest of the law rightfully intact, he said.

JUDGES IN REVOLT

In the dozen years since the Adam Walsh law passed, a federal judge in El Paso made a ruling similar to Hughes, and lower court judges in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New York and Washington have also concluded that the automatic imposition of electronic monitoring was unconstitutional.

In terms of appeals rulings, lower court judges within the 2nd circuit have repeatedly found the law violated the constitution in New York case. However, the 8th and 9th circuit courts have reversed such judicial holdings on appeal in Iowa and Montana.

Under the Bail Reform Act of 1984, judges could tailor the terms of pretrial release to each defendant. However, the 2006 Walsh amendments, named after a Florida boy abducted from a shopping mall and brutally murdered, added mandatory conditions for releasing defendants on bail pending trial. In essence, Congress eliminated the ability of judges to make a case-by-case determination about whether each defendant posed a flight risk or a danger to the community.

Federal judges in multiple jurisdictions have held that the Walsh amendments violated the equal protection and due process clauses and the separation of powers doctrine, which gives the judiciary discretion over court matters.

Samuel I. Jacobson, a federal public defender involved in a Brooklyn child pornography case, told the court in 2016 that seven out of nine trial courts had determined the Adam Walsh requirements amounted to excessive bail, 11 out of 14 found it violated due process and four out of five found it violated the separation of powers doctrine, according to a transcript of the hearing.

"The Adam Walsh act restricts liberty interests without giving a defendant any opportunity to demonstrate that those limitations on liberty are unnecessary," said U.S. Magistrate Viktor V. Pohorelsky, who presided over the Brooklyn case.

The New York magistrate found the law violated due process. He said he was "troubled by the notion that Congress...is encroaching on what is, as one court has said, a quintessential judicial function."

The prosecution appealed this ruling and a district judge imposed electronic monitoring on other grounds, without addressing the constitutional question.

In another case, a Missouri magistrate judge found there was no harm in assessing how much of a threat a particular defendant posed. The judge lifted the electronic monitoring requirement for a man charged with possessing and receiving child pornography, finding the public interest is in no way diminished by conducting an individual evaluation.

In El Paso in 2008, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone found the bond conditions for a defendant who failed to update his sex offender registration under Adam Walsh were more stringent than what is required to achieve the governments objectives, and they imposed a great risk that an arrestee will be deprived or his liberty erroneously.

NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY

Hughes, a 76-year-old sharp-tongued maverick appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, is no stranger to controversy.

In the Robinson case, a man had pleaded guilty to receipt and possession of pornography after directing a woman in the Philippines through an online app to have sexual contact with a teenage girl on a live video feed. During a search of Robinsons home, FBI agents found 750 images and 127 videos depicting children engaging in sex acts.

Hughes noted that Robinson, 43, who worked from his Porter home as an oil and gas consultant, hadnt touched anyone. Kimberly Ann Leo, the prosecutor, said the ankle monitor was required by law because Robinson had a sexual interest in children.

Its not illegal to have a preference for children, Hughes said. Its illegal to act on it.

Hughes said the Walsh act and similar laws take away all judgment or attempt to.

Have you read this book? Hughes asked the prosecutor. Its not Maos Little Red Book, its the Constitution of the United States. I have paper copies free if you would like to read it. But it talks about cruel and unusual punishment and reasonable bond. What utility is there to having him on an ankle monitor?

Adam Walsh

02:49 PM

all names cq

Federal judges butt heads with U.S. lawmakers over legality of ankle monitors for nonviolent suspects

A 2006 law compels judges to use electronic monitoring for people accused of downloading child pornography, even there's no evidence they are a danger to a child.

Houston

By Gabrielle Banks

Staff Writer

In a clash that has surfaced in federal courthouses across the country and a recent Houston case, a collection of judges have held it is their duty to set conditions of release for accused sex offenders despite a strict law that limits their discretion.

The constitutional conflict hinges on whether judges or lawmakers should decide how these defendants live their day-to-day lives after they are arrested. It touches on public safety, just treatment and whether the judiciary or legislative branch should determine bail conditions for a category of people accused of crimes involving children.

The ongoing dispute flared up locally in April when U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ordered court officials to remove the ankle monitor of a man named Sam Robinson who had just admitted to engaging in a sexually explicit video chat involving a child. The tracking device Robinson had been wearing was excessive, Hughes said, since the teenage girl in the streaming internet exchange was "halfway around the world" in the Philippines.

Like other judges, Hughes bristled at the notion that his duty to set bond was being usurped by a 2006 sentencing law that mandates inflexible conditions of release in child pornography and child sexual assault cases. Like others on the bench, he noted that the defendant before him had not been accused of having any physical contact with a child.

"He looked at pictures," Hughes told a prosecutor who objected to him removing the tracking device. "You have no evidence he ever molested a child."

The move by Hughes reflects a steady trend among a small collection of federal judges who have ruled that the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act is overly restrictive. The George W. Bush era act expanded the role of the federal government in handling sex crimes involving minors in order "to protect children from sexual exploitation and violent crime, to prevent child abuse and child pornography, to promote Internet safety, and to honor the memory of Adam Walsh and other child crime victims." Legal journals note that the Walsh amendments were tacked onto the bill just seven days prior to its passage without substantive debate or legislative findings.

Judges like Hughes have said that legislators were overreaching by mandating bond conditions, stripping them of the ability to make common sense rulings in cases where they found a defendant did not pose a flight risk or a threat to minors in the community.

Hughes' order raises a question the lower courts have been posing one small ruling at a time: whether it is constitutional to mandate electronic monitoring, curfews or other release conditions across the board for people accused of having or accessing child pornography. These are people who are not accused of having inappropriate physical contact with children, so, the argument goes, what threat do they pose to the public safety?

Electronic monitoring is not optional under this provision. Defendants do not have a right to put on testimony, examine witnesses or present evidence to contest what's called their "presumption of dangerousness."

"The million-dollar question is whether the additional Adam Walsh requirement of electronic monitoring in all cases with no judicial discretion is constitutional," said Richard Kuniansky, a former federal prosecutor in Houston who defends people accused of accessing child pornography. "The courts appear to be in conflict on this issue."

U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, a tough-on-crime Humble Republican, backed the Adam Walsh act when it passed in 2006. He said while bail has historically been the responsibility of judges, the legislative mandates in the law seem "reasonable."

"However, the issue is whether or not making them mandatory by law violates the protections under the 8th Amendment by infringing on the defendant's rights to due process before an impartial magistrate," Poe said.

"If the high court finds that it is in violation of the Constitution, then only this particular section of the Adam Walsh Child Safety Act will be ruled unconstitutional, leaving the rest of the law rightfully intact," he said.

JUDGES IN REVOLT

In the dozen years since the Adam Walsh law passed, a federal judge in El Paso made a ruling similar to Hughes', and lower court judges in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New York and Washington have also concluded that the automatic imposition of electronic monitoring was unconstitutional.

At the appellate level, lower court judges within the 2nd circuit have repeatedly found the law violated the constitution in New York case. However, the 8th and 9th circuit courts have reversed such judicial holdings on appeal in Iowa and Montana.

Under the Bail Reform Act of 1984, judges could tailor the terms of pretrial release to each defendant. However, the 2006 Walsh amendments, named after a Florida boy abducted from a shopping mall and brutally murdered, added mandatory conditions for releasing defendants on bail pending trial. In essence, Congress eliminated the ability of judges to make a case-by-case determination about whether each defendant posed a flight risk or a danger to the community.

Federal judges in multiple jurisdictions have held that the Walsh amendments violated the equal protection and due process clauses and the separation of powers doctrine, which gives the judiciary discretion over court matters.

Samuel I. Jacobson, a federal public defender involved in a Brooklyn child pornography case, told the court in 2016 that seven out of nine trial courts had determined the Adam Walsh requirements amounted to excessive bail, 11 out of 14 found it violated due process and four out of five found it violated the separation of powers doctrine, according to a transcript of the hearing.

"The Adam Walsh act restricts liberty interests without giving a defendant any opportunity to demonstrate that those limitations on liberty are unnecessary," said U.S. Magistrate Viktor V. Pohorelsky, who presided over the Brooklyn case.

The New York magistrate found the law violated due process. He said he was "troubled by the notion that Congress...is encroaching on what is, as one court has said, a quintessential judicial function."

The prosecution appealed this ruling and a district judge imposed electronic monitoring on other grounds, without addressing the constitutional question.

In another case, a Missouri magistrate judge found there was no harm in assessing how much of a threat a particular defendant posed. The judge lifted the electronic monitoring requirement for a man charged with possessing and receiving child pornography, finding "the public interest is in no way diminished by conducting an individual evaluation."

In El Paso in 2008, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone found the bond conditions for a defendant who failed to update his sex offender registration under Adam Walsh were "more stringent than what is required to achieve the government's objectives," and they imposed "a great risk that an arrestee will be deprived or his liberty erroneously."

NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY

Hughes, a 76-year-old sharp-tongued maverick appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, is no stranger to controversy.

In the Robinson case, a man had pleaded guilty to receipt and possession of pornography after directing a woman in the Philippines through an online app to have sexual contact with a teenage girl on a live video feed. During a search of Robinson's home, FBI agents found 750 images and 127 videos depicting children engaging in sex acts.

Hughes noted that Robinson, 43, who worked from his Porter home as an oil and gas consultant, hadn't touched anyone. Kimberly Ann Leo, the prosecutor, said the ankle monitor was required by law because Robinson had "a sexual interest in children."

"It's not illegal to have a preference for children," Hughes said. "It's illegal to act on it."

Hughes said the Walsh act and similar laws "take away all judgment or attempt to."

"Have you read this book?" Hughes asked the prosecutor. "It's not Mao's 'Little Red Book,' it's the Constitution of the United States. I have paper copies free if you would like to read it. But it talks about cruel and unusual punishment and reasonable bond. What utility is there to having him on an ankle monitor?"

The prosecutor argued against removing Robinson's electronic ankle bracelet but the government did not appeal the judge's ruling to take it off. At his sentencing, set for Sept. 10, Robinson faces up to 20 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick declined to comment about the ruling or how the Adam Walsh amendments had altered bond conditions in child pornography cases. Robinsons lawyers declined to comment. Hughes also declined to speak about the case or the Walsh law.

INTELLECTUAL DISCONNECT BETWEEN BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

But several attorneys unconnected to the case shared their input after reviewing a transcript of the Robinson hearing.

Joseph Magliolo, a former federal prosecutor who is a criminal lawyer, described Hughes as a constitutional guy.

What sets him off is when he believes regulations or rules interfere with a persons constitutional rights, when Congress is mandating some rule about someones freedom, he said.

I just think everything should be discretionary and left to a judge on a case-by-case basis, said Houston attorney Neal Davis, who defends clients in child pornography. Thats why theyre judges.

Houston attorney Sean Buckley, who wrote a book on federal criminal law, said he agrees with Hughes view on congressional overreach.

There is a constant tension between Congress and the federal judiciary for a number of reasons, he said. Buckley said, (It) is exacerbated by an intellectual disconnect between the two branches of government.

Unlike a judge who is well-versed in the details of defendants case, Buckley said members of Congress would have no premonition of the specific facts of an actual case or an actual defendant when devising restrictive rules about how a (federal) judge can grant or deny bail and impose conditions of bail.

Theres another possible outcome, according to Jacobsons argument two years ago in a Brooklyn courtroom. The defense lawyer said there was very little case law on the matter, because minor bail rulings by judges rarely come before appeals courts.

I think the reason you seeso few opinions in these cases is that the government just decides not to appeal, Jacobson told the judge. They dont want to set bad law on these cases, so instead we end up litigating it judge by judge.

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.A series of brutal slayings in the Houston area over the past three months brought law enforcement together Tuesday in a public show of force against MS-13, a notoriously violent transnational street gang.

The spate of ruthless slayings, and several older homicides including two pending cases where the death penalty is being sought, thrusts Houston into the national debate over border enforcement as President Donald Trump has repeatedly held up crime by MS-13 gang members as a corrosive effect of illegal immigration.

On Tuesday, law officers from local, state and federal agencies gathered with prosecutors to announce the arrests of nearly a dozen alleged members of the MS-13 street gang. Four of those are accused of hacking a confidential informant to death with a machete in Cullinan Park in southeast Houston on June 6.

Now Playing: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Police Chief Art Acevedo were joined by several law enforcement partners in announcing additional arrests of MS-13 gang members in other violent crimes in the Houston area. Video: Houston Police Department

The grisly slaying was one of the five deaths since June in the Houston area resulting in the arrests of more than 20 MS-13 gang members and their associates, officials said. In two of the gang-related killings, authorities recovered two victims killed at separate times but buried within a hundred yards of each other in a wooded area near southwest Houston.

ALSO: D.A. to seek death penalty against 2nd alleged MS-13 gang member in informant slaying

"We all recognize that we have to bring a stop to this type of violence that's occurring not just in our city but in cities across the country," said Mayor Sylvester Turner. "Houston will not let any illegal, dangerous gang continue to threaten the peace and reputation of our city."

At a downtown press conference, Turner, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and others addressed the brutal slayings and the continuing gang violence.

"(These suspects) are absolutely the worst of the worst," Acevedo told reporters. "They have no respect for the sanctity of life."

Acevedo said there are about 20,000 total gang members in Houston, with approximately 400 in MS-13. He estimated that the Gulf Coast region of the state has a total of about 800 MS-13 members.

However, Acevedo said that small percentage accounts for a disproportionate amount of violence, including the five recent murders. He added that 11 people have been charged in the five cases while another 10 associates of the suspects have been jailed by federal immigration agents.

The majority of gang members charged are not U.S. citizens and are from Central America, court records show.

"MS-13 is a transnational gang," Acevedo said. "Transnational gangs bring a lot of crime into our community including human trafficking, drug trafficking and gun trafficking. And when they act out, they're extremely violent."

Ogg expressed hope that coordinated law enforcement operations would not only reduce the number of gang members in the area, but reign in the violence.

"They're taking down dozens of gang members," Ogg said. "Not just the murderers themselves, but their support units, and I think that's going to have a disproportionate impact. This is going to hurt them."

Recently, Ogg's staff announced they will seek the death penalty for two members of MS-13, including a suspected gang leader who allegedly ordered the hit of a police informant from his cell in the Harris County jail.

The fatal shooting of 16-year-old Estuar Quinonez on the night of June 13, 2016, made police suspicious that he was killed in retaliation for helping Houston police with an MS-13 case.

Omar Torres allegedly ordered the murder from inside the Harris County jail - where he was facing another murder charge brought in the brutal killing of Noe Mendez four months earlier.

Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez and four of his associates allegedly lured the teen to Buffalo Run Park in Missouri City and shot him in the head. Herrera-Hernandez and Torres are now facing the death penalty if convicted of capital murder in the case.

Lisa Collins, who is prosecuting the Missouri City murder case, is pursuing charges against about 50 MS-13 members.

She said the gang's penchant for brazen killings, especially using machetes, is intentional because it intimidates rivals and informants.

"The way that they are violent is unique to them," she said. "There are other groups that are just as violent, but in a more traditional sense, like using a handgun or doing a drive-by."

Collins said using a machete or ax or other unique murder weapon is a trademark, not just of the gang but of specific gang members.

"There is a hierarchy and, like all gangs, there is a need to promote your value, promote your worth, within the gang that often leads to violence," she said. "It takes a unique mind to kill someone with an ax or a machete. It's very personal."

She recently put three members in prison for decades for a violent carjacking and assault in 2015 on a southwest Houston street.

Anival Guevara, 32, who was convicted of driving a getaway car, was sentenced last month to 27 years in prison for his role in the death of Hector Daniel Diaz, 28, on Nov. 22, 2015.

Guevara, Giovani Antonio Herrera, 23, and Jonathan Steven Guevara, 21, gunned down Diaz after he jumped out of a sedan on Harwin Drive in southwest Houston.

Testimony during the trial showed they thought Diaz was a rival gang member, but Collins said he was not a gang member but a construction worker.

Jonathan Guevara was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Herrera entered into a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 40 years.

It is not clear why Diaz got into a car with the three men after leaving a club, but the killers were later caught on video drinking beer and laughing about him begging for his life.

The video was played during Jonathan Guevara's trial.

"When it was over, you could have heard a pin drop in the courtroom," Collins said. "It's just violence for the sake of violence."

On Tuesday, law enforcement gave new details in the arrests of 11 suspects in five recent slayings.

Four men have been charged with murder in the June 6 death of 25-year-old Victor Castro-Martinez, a police informant who was attacked with machetes.

Acevedo said Castro-Martinez was killed because he was in a rival MS-13 gang, not because he was an informant. Court records show he was actively helping HPD identify gang members and activities and was wearing a recording device when he was killed.

If he was killed because he was talking to police, he will be the second HPD informant who lost his life to MS-13. The 25-year-old was still wearing the recording device when his body was found in a wooded area of the park at 6700 Long Drive about 11:30 a.m. on June 7.

That recording led to the arrest of the four men over the past two weeks: Carlos Elias Henriquez-Torres, 18, Marlon A. Miranda, 19, Wilson J. Ventura-Mejia, 22, and Miguel Aguilar-Ochoa, 33.

The last suspect to be arrested in the Cullinan Park murder was charged last Friday.

Acevedo declined to say why police - who had fitted Castro-Martinez with a recording device to gather evidence on a rival gang - did not monitor him after he left to meet MS-13 gang members in the park. Court records show he sent police a text with his location when he arrived at the park, and police lost contact with him until they searched the park the next day and found his body.

On July 7, a gang member who wanted out of the gang agreed to take a beating in order to get out, Acevedo said. Once his former confederates got him into the woods in Liberty County, he was beaten in the head with a baseball bat and fatally slashed with a machete.

Two gang members, Waler Alexander Mejia and Jimmy Villolobes-Gomez have been arrested and charged.

On August 4, a man got into an argument at the La Union restaurant at 9598 Wilcrest was fatally shot after leaving the business. Two suspected gang members, Jairo Salvador Licona-Cardenas and a juvenile, along with the female getaway driver, Elida Lucia Jovel Medrano, have been arrested and charged with murdering the man.

There is an open murder warrant for another gang member who has not been located.

On May 4, a teenage girl who was an MS-13 associate, was killed and her body buried in a wooded area west Fuqua near Sims Bayou. Her body was located months later on August 30 and, Acevedo said, several gang members have been charged and jailed in her death. Their identities were not released.

Acevedo provided details of a fifth gang killing in June, saying only that a man was killed in Galveston and his body transported to Harris County where he was buried in a wooded area. At the time of the man's death, Acevedo and other law enforcement officials would say little about the slaying, and Tuesday's comments indicated a broader investigation is underway.

Galveston County authorities had earlier charged Luis Carbajal, 26, who also goes by the name Luis Ernesto Carbajal-Peraza, after he allegedly strangled and beat Christian Hernandez Fuenes Escobar to death in Galveston on June 7. Another man, Christian Rene Chavez-Chavez, 23, was also charged, accused of tampering with a human corpse.

At the time, investigators said Escobar's body was moved to Harris County after he was killed, according to court records.Maureen Sullivan / Contributor

An 11-year-old girl is safe from an attempted kidnapping after her dog bit the attacker in the leg on Sunday morning.

Pasadena Police said a man grabbed the girl by the arm and tried dragging her into a dark grey SUV near Willow Oaks Circle in central Pasadena.Hundreds of Syrian refugees to return from Lebanon, SANA 200 civilians heading for the border

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, SEPTEMBER 4 - Hundreds of Syrian refugees are getting ready to return to Syria in the coming hours as part of transfers organized by the Lebanese security services in cooperation with the government in Damascus, reported the Syrian state-run SANA and the Lebanese NNA news agencies on Tuesday. Sources said that 200 civilians including many women and children are heading towards the border with Syria at the Abbudiye crossing from the northern Lebanese port town of Tripoli.



They will be transferred to Homs in central Syria.



Lebanese security services have organized other refugee transfers from the Shabaa and Nabatiye area in southern Lebanon and from Metn, a region near Beirut. In recent months, Lebanese authorities announced their intention to coordinate with Damascus to facilitate the return of thousands of Syrians to their home country. Over a million Syrian refugees have made their way to Lebanon since 2011, compared with a native population of just under four million. (ANSAmed).



A prominent federal judge quietly resigned from the board of directors at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center this year after the Houston Chronicle and ProPublica detailed a high rate of patient deaths and unusual complications following heart transplants at the hospital.

Carolyn Dineen King, a senior U.S. Circuit Court judge, confirmed that she stepped down from the St. Luke's board on May 30, two weeks after the investigation was published. King joined the board in January 2014 and chaired the committee that oversees quality and patient safety at the hospital.

A reporter asked King, 80, if she quit because she hadn't been fully informed by the hospital about problems in the heart transplant program. She responded: "I don't want to talk about it any further than what you just laid out, what you've acquired. I don't really want to get into it."

In a follow-up email, King said it would inappropriate to discuss St. Luke's business since she no longer serves on the board.

HEART FAILURE: At St. Luke's in Houston, patients suffer as a renowned heart transplant program loses its luster

On May 16, the Chronicle and ProPublica published the first in a series of stories about the famed heart program. In recent years, the stories revealed, the program performed an outsized number of transplants resulting in deaths or unusual complications while continuing to market itself based on its storied past. Several top physicians left the program after raising concerns, including a couple of cardiologists who started sending some of their patients to other hospitals for transplants.

In a written response, St. Luke's said King was the only board member who resigned this year. Marilyn Gerry, a hospital spokeswoman, said administrators took steps to "correct and improve" the heart transplant program during the past three years and kept board members informed of their progress.

"We shared periodic updates with the board and various committees over this time, and began providing additional updates and further details over the past year as board members wanted more information about our ongoing progress," Gerry wrote.

The hospital also noted that a special committee of the board, appointed after the ProPublica and Chronicle investigation was published, is focused on improving the heart transplant program and "committed to ensuring the high level of excellence that everyone envisions at Baylor St. Luke's."

Marc Shapiro, chairman of the St. Luke's board, praised King in a written statement and said he was pleased that she remains on the board of Baylor College of Medicine, which co-manages St. Luke's as part of a joint venture with the hospital.

"Judge King has made significant contributions to our hospital over many years," Shapiro wrote. "Our entire organization benefited enormously from her wisdom and insight."

Hospital leaders did not address the reasons for King's resignation in its responses to questions.

A DEATH IN SLOW MOTION: A heart transplant, a medical mishap and a drawn-out end

In the past, boards that govern nonprofit hospitals were primarily concerned with the financial health of their institutions. But increasingly, according to health policy experts, boards are taking a more active role in monitoring and improving the quality of care and patient safety.

Dr. Arnold Epstein, a professor of health policy and management at Harvard University, said it's essential that board members are fully informed about a hospital's performance. Epstein has conducted research that shows hospitals with boards that aggressively monitor outcomes and set goals to improve them score better in health care quality metrics.

"The board should be identifying areas of care in need of improvement and setting annual performance goals," Epstein said. "And, oh by the way, Mr. CEO, your salary is going to be partially dependent on how you perform on this."

King's resignation had not been disclosed publicly, and although many nonprofit hospitals list their board members online, St. Luke's does not. The hospital provided the list on Thursday after reporters asked for comment on King's resignation.

King, appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in 1979, is a prominent figure in Houston, where she has volunteered for several educational and health care organizations. She was the first female chief judge of the 5th Circuit and was appointed by the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist to the executive committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which oversees the federal court system. She chaired that group from 2002 through 2005.

St. Luke's officials previously have said problems with the heart transplant program were confined to 2015, when seven out of 21 heart recipients died within a year of their transplants. But the program has struggled in other ways since then: Multiple heart transplant recipients have suffered unusual complications, including two who had major veins stitched closed during surgery, according to physicians and other health care professionals who spoke to ProPublica and the Chronicle. Another patient's heart transplant failed this year after operating-room equipment malfunctioned during a key stage of surgery.

On June 1, two days after King's resignation, St. Luke's administrators voluntarily suspended the heart transplant program to study what led to two additional patient deaths in May but then reopened it two weeks later, saying they had made policy and staff changes. Days later, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it would cut off federal funding to the program on Aug. 17 because the hospital failed to demonstrate it had done enough to improve outcomes.

Following the federal termination, St. Luke's is no longer allowed to bill Medicare and Medicaid for heart transplants, a move that could lead private insurance companies to follow suit. The deadline to appeal Medicare's decision is Sept. 14, but hospital administrators have not said if they plan to do so.

The program is continuing to treat patients, hospital officials said. As of Friday, 84 people were listed as awaiting heart transplants at St. Luke's.

***

This story is the result of a collaboration between the Chronicle and ProPublica, an independent nonprofit newsroom based in New York. Mike Hixenbaugh is an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle. Charles Ornstein is a senior editor at ProPublica.

Tell us your story

Are you an employee, patient or a family member of a patient at the Texas Medical Center? We'd like to hear from you about your experience. Please fill out this confidential questionnaire.A Houston heart surgeon whose practices recently have been the subject of stories by the Houston Chronicle and ProPublica filed a lawsuit this week against the news organizations alleging defamation.

Dr. O.H. "Bud" Frazier brought the suit in Harris County District Court, challenging a May story that examined concerns with the doctor's conduct, as well as one last month addressing criticism of the first article. The suit also names the stories' authors, reporters Mike Hixenbaugh of the Chronicle and Charles Ornstein of ProPublica, as defendants.

Frazier, a famed heart transplant surgeon at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center and the Texas Heart Institute, asserts that the articles included errors and misleading statements "calculated to falsely portray Dr. Frazier as an inhumane physician."

"We have seen the complaint in this case, although we have not yet been served," said Richard Tofel, president of ProPublica. "We think the lawsuit lacks merit, and we intend to defend it vigorously."

HEART FAILURE: At St. Luke's in Houston, patients suffer as a renowned heart transplant program loses its luster

Nancy Barnes, executive vice president and editor of the Chronicle, said: "The Houston Chronicle stands behind the reporters on this story, and our journalism, and we will defend our work vigorously."

The articles involving Frazier were part of a larger series, "Heart Failure," jointly reported by the Chronicle and ProPublica.

The first article about Frazier, the transplant program's founding surgeon, revealed that he had been accused of violating research rules and skirting ethical guidelines. A hospital investigation found that Frazier and his team implanted experimental heart pumps in patients who didn't meet medical criteria for clinical trials. The findings were viewed as serious enough that St. Luke's reported the research violations to the federal government and repaid millions of dollars to Medicare.

In his lawsuit, Frazier calls the hospital's decision to repay the money "ill-advised" and criticizes St. Luke's findings of research violations. He also says that he was motivated by saving lives, not by money.

Other stories in the series detailed how St. Luke's heart transplant program has in recent years performed an outsized number of transplants that resulted in deaths or unusual complications.

St. Luke's temporarily suspended heart transplants in June to review two patient deaths; it reopened the program two weeks later. Medicare has since announced that it intends to cut off funding for St. Luke's heart transplant program in August, citing shortcomings that have not been corrected.

Ryan Gabrielson is a reporter at ProPublica.The air leak-causing hole on the International Space Station discovered last week was not the result of speeding space debris, Russian officials now say, but likely an errant drill held by an unsteady hand.

"It is too early to say definitely what happened," Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos, told the state-run news agency TASS on Monday. "But, it seems to be done by a faltering hand. ... It was done by a human hand  there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface."

On Tuesday, Russian officials told another state-run news agency, RIA Novosti, that they were investigating how the defect  found Aug. 30 on the Soyuz spacecraft  occurred, whether it was intentional and if other Soyuz modules currently in development also have defects. The Russian Soyuz is the only spacecraft that ferries astronauts to and from the station.

The next Soyuz flight to low Earth orbit, where the station flies, is scheduled for Oct. 11 and will carry one NASA astronaut, Nick Hague. It's not yet clear how this discovery will impact that flight.

"Now it is essential to see the reason, to learn the name of the one responsible for that," Rogozin said. "And we will find out, without fail."

The Soyuz has been the only way to get to the orbiting laboratory since 2011, when NASA's space shuttle program was shuttered. The upper section of the Soyuz, where the hole was detected, does not return to Earth.

NASA said in a statement Tuesday that officials were confident the Russians will find what caused the leak via a Russian State Commission.

"International Space Station partners all participate in multiple reviews prior to every major station activity to assess and ensure the safety of all crew members," NASA said. "Our Russian partners have demonstrated their human and technological resilience many times throughout the history of their efforts in human spaceflight."

Keith Cowing, editor of NASA Watch, a website devoted to space news, said he expects NASA officials will request a comprehensive safety review if they have not done so already.

"This should cause NASA to be very concerned," Cowing said. "To me the issue isn't that the damage happened, it's that someone at the manufacturer tried to cover it up."

It also reinforces the need for commercial crew vehicles, he added, which currently are being developed by Boeing and SpaceX. However, both companies continue to fall behind production schedules.

"It's not because I don't think the Russians know how to build a spacecraft," Cowing said. But "having an alternative is the difference between having Americans there or not. If there's more than one vehicle up there, there's always an option."

Micrometeorite hit debunked

The hole astronauts discovered in the Soyuz spacecraft, measuring a fifth of a centimeter in diameter (the thickness of a penny), is a perfect circle followed by a trail of scuffs and scratches. The image was released in a NASA video that the space agency later deleted.

The picture of the hole instantly reminded Cowing of his very poor drilling skills, so much so that he said he was surprised Russian officials didn't drop the idea of a space debris impact sooner.

"Immediately, this looked like a drill bit bounced or did something wrong," he said. "A micrometeorite hit would have formed a different shape."

Still, Russian design engineers initially thought the air leak  first discovered Aug. 29 while the astronauts slept and repaired with an epoxy-based sealant the following day  was the result of a small rock particle, or "micrometeorite," hitting the station. Impacts from micrometeorites, commonly known as space junk, happen all the time, but the space station's numerous shielding elements generally prevent serious damage from occurring.

That theory now has been rejected, Rogozin told TASS Monday, adding that "the spaceship's hull was evidently impacted from inside."

If left unchecked for 18 days, the air leak could have resulted in total air loss for the station.

Cowing suspects the flub was a mistake by a Russian employee too embarrassed to bring it up and that it should be relatively easy to figure out who caused it. But the more important question, he added, will be if that person worked on any other parts of the Soyuz that might be needed for the astronauts to return home safely.

The upper section of the Soyuz burns up during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, "so I doubt this is an issue for the safe return," Cowing said.

"But was the guy who made the mistake also involved in similar things in the descent module? Do they now need to do an on-orbit inspection?"

The space station, which rotating crewmembers have called home since 2000, has experienced problems in the past. In 2004, an air pressure drop was caused by a leaking flex hose in the U.S. laboratory, CNN reported at the time. And another air leak occurred on the U.S. side in 2007, Scientific American reported.

Over the years, the space station also has been plagued by numerous ammonia leaks and computer problems.

The most recent air leak problem also could be an issue of quality control, Cowing said: Was the spacecraft properly tested? Why was it certified for flight with this defect? Could other Soyuz models have the same problems?

NASA, in its statement, said it supports the Russian investigation.

"At the end of the day, NASA can say we don't feel that its safe for our astronauts to fly," Cowing said. "But what's the consequence?"

The answer? Cut off access to the science laboratory in the stars.

Limited options

After the federal government shuttered the space shuttle program in 2011, U.S. astronauts had only one option when it came to ferrying to the space station: Paying Russia to launch from the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

So, if NASA deems that the Soyuz is unfit for space travel, its astronauts would be grounded until Boeing and SpaceX's vehicles can rocket safely into the stars.

"NASA can say we're not going to fly people, but where does that leave us?" Cowing said. "The guys on orbit will stay there a long time, and the people who were going to be launch are not going to be launched."

The commercial vehicles would solve that problem, he added, and would provide several options to both visit and return from the station in case one of the vehicles broke down.

"If you have more than one vehicle up there, there's always an option," he said. "Having two additional ways to get people to the station, if nothing else, provides back ups."

There is a hiccup in this plan, however. Both companies are behind schedule.

Boeing and SpaceX were awarded NASA contracts totaling $6.8 billion in 2014 to build their own crew spacecrafts and conduct missions to the space station. Both initially were expected to launch crewed test flights this year, but the schedules of both companies have slipped to 2019.

These delays are not just a problem given the recent air leak, they're a problem in general, jeopardizing the U.S.'s access to the station.

NASA currently pays Russia $81 million per seat on the Soyuz spacecraft  a cost that includes the seat, the training, the spacesuit, and a search and rescue team, among other things  but that arrangement is scheduled to end soon. The last Soyuz flight carrying Americans is set to launch in late 2019 with a return in early 2020. Commercial vehicles may not be ready in time.

But Brandi Dean, a spokeswoman with NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the agency "is continuing to assess multiple scenarios to ensure continued U.S. access to the International Space Station."

"The agency is working closely with its commercial and international partners and is preparing for potential schedule adjustments normally experienced during spacecraft development," she added.

Federal officials are currently discussing ending support for the space station in the near future, eliminating funding by the end of 2024 and handing its operations over to commercial companies by 2025. That plan  which NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine admitted last month August might not be feasible  must be approved by Congress.

Both NASA and Russian officials are monitoring the air pressure on the station, but the patch put in place Thursday still is holding. Russia will continue to investigate the leak.

"It is a matter of honor ... to find the one responsible for that, to find out whether it was an accidental defect or a deliberate spoilage and where it was done  either on Earth or in space," Rogozin told TASS on Monday.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.The hole that caused an air leak on the International Space Station last week was not caused by space debris, Russian officials said this week, but rather an errant drill held by an unsteady hand.

It "was done by a human hand -- there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface, said Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos, told state-run news agency TASS on Monday. "We don't reject any theories."

Russian officials now have launched an investigation into all Soyuz and Progress spacecrafts, to determine if they, too, have defects, according RIA Novosti, another state-run news agency.

The Russians' Soyuz has been the only way to get to station since 2011, when the space shuttle program was shuttered. The upper section of the Soyuz, where the air leak-causing hole was detected, luckily does not return to Earth.

The next Soyuz trip to the space station is scheduled for Oct. 11, when NASA's Tyler Hague and Russia's Aleksei Nikolaevich will be ferried to the station. It is not yet clear how this discovery will impact their mission.

NASA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. But Keith Cowing, editor of NASA Watch, a website devoted to space news, said he expects agency officials will request a comprehensive safety review, if they have not already, before proceeding.

"This should cause NASA to be very concerned," Cowing said.

When the hole measuring a fifth of a centimeter in diameter (about the thickness of a penny) was discovered last week, design engineers initially thought it was cause by a small rock particle, or "micrometeorite," hitting the station.

Impacts from micrometeorites, commonly known as space junk, happen all the time, but the space station's numerous shielding elements generally prevent serious damage from occurring.

That theory now has been rejected.

"The spaceship's hull was evidently impacted from inside," Rogozin said. "However, it is too early to say definitely what happened."

Russian officials still are investigating the incident.

"It is a matter of honor for Energia Rocket and Space Corporation to find the one responsible for that, to find out whether it was an accidental defect or a deliberate spoilage and where it was done -- either on Earth or in space," Rogozin said. "Now it is essential to see the reason, to learn the name of the one responsible for that. And we will find out, without fail."

More concerning that the hole's existence itself, Cowing said, is the fact that a mistake was made and it was covered up -- or slipped through the cracks.

"To me the issue isn't that the damage happened, it's that someone at manufacturer tried to cover it up," he said. "The fact that this happened, that it was somehow covered up, that the Soyuz launched regardless, that the leak happened and that this Soyuz is identical to others in use" is worrisome.

NASA can say it doesn't feel safe sending its astronauts into space on the Soyuz, he added, but there are consequences to that decision.

"Where does that leave us?" he said. "The guys on orbit will have to stay there for a long time, and the people that are going to be launched are not going to be launched. They have to use one of these spacecraft to send people home."

The air leak was discovered Wednesday night while the six astronauts on board slept, but flight controllers decided it was small enough that they did not need to be awakened. After tracing the leak to a tiny hole on the Russian side of the orbiting laboratory, cosmonauts plugged the hole with an epoxy-based sealant by noon Thursday. The patch job was finished Friday, and crewmembers got back to their regular work aboard the station.

The patch still is holding, according to data from NASA and Russian officials.

If left unchecked, the air leak could have resulted in total air loss for the station in 18 days.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.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 GOP.

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 GOPs continued rightward shift and white-Southern-Christian brand.

This, in turn, led to a new story that cast Asian-Americans as a natural constituency in an emerging Democratic majority  one tributary among many in the multicultural river washing white hegemony away.

The term model minority often gets thrown around (and deplored) in discussions about Asian-Americans, and whats interesting is that both narratives Ive just described traffic in versions of that trope. The older narrative portrays Asians as the hardworking, industrious natural conservatives who dont need handouts (in contrast with other immigrants, other minorities). The newer narrative casts them as the liberal coalitions noblest group  willing to put solidarity with fellow minorities above the economic concerns that might tempt them rightward, and willing to accept, for the greater good, a system of racial preferences that benefits others more than them.

This idea informs a lot of liberal arguments about the Harvard lawsuit, which tend to portray conservative critics of affirmative action as tempters invading the multicultural Eden, and urge Asian-Americans to maintain their model-minority purity and resist the lure of mere meritocratic self-interest.

But in addition to the whispering conservative serpent, the Harvard lawsuits liberal critics increasingly have an Asian scapegoat too  specifically recent Chinese immigrants who hang out on WeChat, the popular social-media app, which a Vox writer complains has become an echo chamber for stories of anti-Asian discrimination.

For liberals these are the Bad Asians, putting their tribal resentments ahead of the racial-progressive cause. Which makes it striking that they are also the demographic being celebrated in Crazy Rich Asians, a movie that begins with a sequence in which Chinese-expat gossip spreads from New York to Singapore via, you guessed it, WeChat.

The only certain takeaway from this complexity is that the new liberal model-minority image, like the old conservative one, is likely to break down with increasing Asian numbers, influence, diversity and power.

Where strong Asian support for affirmative action endures in this new landscape, it will probably be as part of a more consciously ideological progressivism  one adopted by some second-generation Asian-Americans, as Reihan Salam suggested recently in The Atlantic, as a distinctive means of assimilation to the American cultural elite.

Where Asian support for racial progressivism breaks down, meanwhile, there are two possibilities. There could be a real swing back rightward among some Asian voters  a possibility that the Trump White House obviously entertains, but which can only happen if the Republican Party finds a way to lose its Trumpian aura of white identity politics and bigotry.

Perhaps more plausibly, Asian-Americans who reject affirmative action could begin to form their own centrist bloc within the Democratic Party, one that pulls the party back toward a kind of 1990s-style Clintonism, in the opposite direction from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Or both things could happen, within different parts of the Asian-American community  with Chinese-Americans tilting more Republican and Indian-Americans staying firmly on the center-left.

But no matter what, this weeks multiplex-courthouse convergence isnt an anomaly. Its a hint of both Asian-American influence and Asian-American divisions yet to come.

Douthat is a New York Times columnist.NGO says Russian jets strike targets in Idlib First deaths in government bombing

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, SEPTEMBER 4 - Russian jets and Syrian military aircraft have started bombing targets in the Idlib region, the last anti-regime stronghold, near the border with Turkey in northwestern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).



It said civilians have been killed in the airstrikes, which have been concentrated along the administrative border between the regions of Latakia and Idlib.



At the moment, attacks are focused on the area of Jisr ash Shaghur west of the capital of Idlib, from which the Turkish-influenced region that also borders Aleppo takes its name.(ANSAmed).



John Yoo has an unusual vantage point on two key questions that will burn through the Senates confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, which begin Tuesday.

The first: How much power does the Constitution give the president? And, more important: How much power does Kavanaugh believe the Constitution gives the president?

In particular, this president.

While the loudest and most passionate arguments at the confirmation hearings will be over abortion rights, the debate over presidential power could have more immediate ramifications. That debate could someday determine the fate of President Trump, as the investigation into whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia grinds on toward a possible showdown in the courts.

`

Yoos vantage point is unusual because of a pair of biographical details: Hes a longtime friend of Kavanaugh and a lifelong Republican who loathes Trump.

Yoo thought so little of Trump that he considered voting for a Democrat for the first time in his life. Yoo called the Republican nominee a demagogue before the 2016 election, and he still worries about the damage Trumps lack of impulse control could wreak, especially when it comes to national security.

I wont say who I voted for, but I didnt vote for Trump, Yoo said on my Its All Political podcast, recorded in his office at the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he is a constitutional law professor and expert on presidential power.

Yoo, 51, is best known for his willingness to stretch Oval Office power to its most lethal limits. When he worked in the Department of Justice in the months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Yoo wrote a legal memo that President George W. Bushs administration used to authorize what it called enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding on terror suspects in U.S. custody.

Many  including the late GOP Sen. John McCain  called those techniques torture. Some still think Yoo should be prosecuted as a war criminal for crafting the memo. Protesters still heckle Yoo wherever he speaks. He remains unapologetic, believing that the president has broad powers to act in the name of national security.

I love it. I love that they hate me, Yoo said of his critics.

The most important thing is that if youre getting criticism and feedback and protests, you should be more forthright and explain it, Yoo said. And the worst thing would be to allow people to shut down different points of view.

That brings us to Kavanaugh, Bushs former staff secretary whom he later appointed to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Some Democrats worry that Kavanaugh, like his Yale Law School classmate Yoo, believes that a president packs an extraordinary amount of executive power.

But Kavanaughs critics are not worried about Trump using that power to reinstate waterboarding  even though the president has said he approves of a lot more than waterboarding. Democrats are more immediately concerned that Kavanaugh wont think Trump has to comply with a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to talk about the 2016 campaign and many, many associated issues.

They also worry that Kavanaugh wont think Trump, as a sitting president, should have anything to answer for in the Michael Cohen case. Trumps ex-lawyer said the president directed him to violate federal campaign laws by ordering him before the 2016 election to pay hush money to women he allegedly had sexual affairs with.

Yoo said people shouldnt worry about Kavanaugh going easy on Trump.

I would bet money  a lot of money, actually  that Kavanaugh would say that the president doesnt have any immunity from things he did before he was president, Yoo said.

And what if Trump refuses to answer a subpoena from Mueller? Does Kavanaugh agree with the precedent set by the courts Watergate-era ruling that Richard Nixon had to comply with a subpoena to turn over the Oval Office recordings that, in the end, doomed his presidency?

I would expect Kavanaugh to uphold that, too, Yoo said.

Democrats are dubious. They point to a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article in which Kavanaugh wrote that presidents shouldnt have to respond to civil lawsuits and criminal investigations until they leave office.

Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the presidents focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people, Kavanaugh wrote. And a president who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as president.

That sounds a lot different from what Kavanaugh was saying a decade earlier. Back then, he was an attorney on special prosecutor Kenneth Starrs team investigating then-President Bill Clinton for various scandals.

Kavanaugh aggressively argued that the president should have to testify before a special prosecutor. He even drew up a list of 10 explicit questions to ask Clinton about his alleged sexual interaction with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, including, If Monica Lewinsky says that you had phone sex with her on approximately 15 occasions, would she be lying?

Yoo reads Kavanaughs mixed signals on executive power differently. He pointed out that in the law review article, Kavanaugh also agreed with the Supreme Courts 1997 Jones vs. Clinton decision. In that case, the court ruled that the Constitution didnt protect a president from responding to lawsuits, a ruling that Kavanaugh wrote may well have been entirely correct.

That dispute aside, Yoo suggested that senators ask Kavanaugh a deeper constitutional question during the confirmation hearings about presidential power. A question that truly would test its limits  and Trumps willingness to shatter them.

What would happen, Yoo said, if the Supreme Court were to rule that Trump must comply with a subpoena to testify, and Trump says, Go screw yourselves. Im not going to do it?

Then what?

Even Nixon ultimately complied with the courts demand that he turn over the Watergate tapes. But Nixon, who had served in the House and Senate and as vice president, believed in the institutions of government. At least at some level.

Im worried that Trump does not have that background, Yoo said. Nixon is starting to look better and better by contrast these days.

Thats small comfort to Democrats watching this weeks hearings, knowing they dont have the votes to derail Kavanaughs nomination. It is another reminder that the 2016 election had far-reaching consequences, for Trumpers and Never Trumpers alike.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliIf it's September in the 21st century, it must be time for Apple to unveil new iPhones. Last week, the company with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion invited journalists and analysts to its spaceship-shaped headquarters on Sept. 12 in Cupertino, Calif., to hear its latest news.

As always, the rumor mill has been gyrating wildly for some time, and if history is any guide, much of what Apple CEO Tim Cook will show off at the Steve Jobs Theater has already been leaked. In fact, on the day invitations went out, the Apple news site 9to5Mac posted what appear to be official images of the next iPhones and the fourth-generation Apple Watch.

The highest-profile rumors about Apple's upcoming 2018 iPhones are that there will be three models and that they will all be iPhone X-style, with face recognition and no home button. If true, this means the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were the last new iPhones to have a home button, a signature feature since the device was introduced in 2007.

COMING SOON: Apple unveiling revamped iPhone lineup on Sept. 12

When the iPhones 8 and X were released last year, I opted for the 8 Plus. I wanted the larger-sized model - particularly after my 7 Plus was stolen in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico - and I was not quite ready to give up a home button. My wife chose an iPhone X to replace her iPhone 6.

This was fine with me. I could enjoy one more year with a home button, and watch her either sink or soar without one. It turns out, happily for her, that it was the latter. When I ask her now if she misses having a home button, or if it was hard for her to get used to its absence, she says: "No, not at all."

I got myself onto the iPhone Upgrade Program, so I can get a new iPhone each year if I like, and I will be updating when the 2018 devices are available, probably around Sept. 21, if Apple is true to its history. According to Bloomberg and many other sources, I'll have three models to choose from.

Now Playing: Later this year, Iphone users in the US will be able to share their exact location with first responders when they call 911. Veuer's Natasha Abellard (@NatashaAbellard) has the story. Video: Veuer

An update to the current iPhone X. The original X will be updated with a faster processor and an improved camera.

A Plus-sized version of the iPhone X. Given the popularity of the Plus line of iPhones, it makes sense that the next step would be for an oversized version of the X. Supposedly, this big iPhone is 6.5 inches, and while that sounds like a massive device, it probably won't be much bigger than the iPhone 8 Plus. If you measure the screen of a current Plus device, it's 6.5 inches on the diagonal. Since the iPhone X design is almost bezel-free, the larger X will not be a hulking device - or, at least, it probably won't be much bigger than the older Plus phones. It will just be all screen.

NEW MACS: Apple planning new low-cost MacBook, pro-focused Mac mini

A less-expensive, 6.1-inch iPhone X. The original iPhone X's price tag, which started at $999, drew plenty of criticism, but the device sold well enough to help make Apple the first U.S. trillion-dollar company. While iPhones are premium products, Apple does tend to throw a bone to the lower end of the market. Rumors call for a 6.1-inch-screen iPhone with a standard LED display, instead of the pricier OLED screen found on the iPhone X. Costs will also be cut with a single-lens camera, rather than the two-lenses of the iPhone X. It will still be an iPhone X-style front, complete with the top-of-screen notch that hosts the Face ID recognition camera, but it will reportedly lack 3D Touch, which presents a set of menus when you press hard enough on an object on the screen. It also will have an aluminum, rather than a stainless steel frame, and will come in a variety of colors.

The Bloomberg story also reports on a restructuring of pricing. The plus-sized iPhone X will become the $999 device. The updated iPhone X will be reduced in price to $899. And the 6.1-inch iPhone will sell for $699.

And none of these will have a home button.

That doesn't mean you won't be able to buy an iPhone with a home button. Typically, Apple keeps an older model around to be the budget offering. Look for the iPhone 7 or 8 lines to become that offering this year.

I'll probably opt for what is being dubbed the iPhone X Plus, because I do like the larger size. But I will miss having a physical button. For one thing, Apple's Touch ID - which uses a fingerprint for unlocking an iPhone - is typically faster than Face ID on the iPhone X. Of course, Face ID is likely to get a speed bump on the upcoming line of iPhones, too.

OBSOLETE: Your older Mac won't run macOS Mojave. Now what?

The home button has been an endangered species for a while. Starting with the iPhone 7, the home button wasn't really a physical button, but rather a Touch ID sensor with a tiny vibrator called the Haptic Engine to provide the sensation of a button press. This allowed the iPhone to be a little thinner, and provide more room inside for a larger battery.

And lest you think vanishing physical buttons are only an issue with smartphones, I can tell you from personal experience that they're not.

When I had to replace the infotainment system in my 2014 Toyota Corolla recently, I wound up buying a Kenwood model that has no knobs for volume or tuning. This apparently is common with touch-screen car audio. Yes, there are a row of buttons below the screen, one of which you can program put the device to sleep, and there are volume up/down buttons. But the lack of a traditional knob gets old fast.

Physical controls on electronics may detract from a clean, sleek design, but they're simple and intuitive. Gestures are one more variable to learn. I'll make the leap to a buttonless iPhone, and I'll probably get used to it quickly.

But I'll miss the physical button, because that type of user interface just makes sense.

Dwight Silverman is the technology editor for the Houston Chronicle and the grillmaster for the TechBurger tech news site. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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.Uber faced accusations of discrimination and sexual harassment, while Volkswagens ongoing emissions scandal has been linked to an alleged dictatorial culture.

Uber attempted to overturn its toxic workplace culture through internal investigations, multiple firings as well as a change in CEO. The situation remains dire and recently it faced a new probe by a US government agency.

At VW, the decision to cheat on emissions testing was deliberate but employees were afraid of speaking up against management. The stifling environment was allegedly created by former CEO Ferdinand Piech who frequently dropped threats of firing people for underperforming.

As for Google, despite claiming various awards for having the best company culture, it was recently revealed through internal surveys that its employee communication platforms were rife with bullying and harassment.

Uber and Volkswagen continue to deal with hefty legal battles despite its best efforts. Google however introduced a new HR policy in July to improve the way employees communicated with each other.Starbucks partners have a passion for service both in and out of their stores, said Virginia Tenpenny, vice president of global social impact at Starbucks and executive director of The Starbucks Foundation.

The program powers that passion through philanthropy and partnerships to have the greatest impact, Tenpenny said.

Some 200 employees applied for the six-month initiative, which will run in partnership with non-profit volunteer group Points of Light.

The initiative aims to inspire greater community involvement among employees, while promoting a positive work experience in the company, she said.

When employees are engaged in communities and they feel connected, theyre going to stay with Starbucks longer, Tenpenny told CNN.Preparing for a Trebling of Passengers

Delhi - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on the government of India to maximize the potential contribution of aviation to Indias development by addressing infrastructure constraints that limit growth and government policies that impose excessive costs on aviation.



Growth forecasts for India indicate a trebling of passenger demand by 2037 when some 500 million people are expected to fly to, from or within India. Already aviation supports 7.5 million Indian jobs and US$30 billion of GDP (1.5% of the economy).

Global connectivity that only aviation can provide is a critical driver of all modern economies. The financial struggles of Indias airline industry put the stable development of connectivity at risk. And Indias carriers are suffering a double-whammy of steeply rising fuel costs and the decline in the value of the Indian Rupee. The rise in fuel costs is particularly acute for Indian carriers for which fuel makes-up 34% of operating costswell above the global average of 24%.

While it is easy to find Indian passengers who want to fly, its very difficult for airlines to make money in this market. Indias social and economic development needs airlines to be able to profitably accommodate growing demand. We must address infrastructure constraints that limit growth and government policies that deviate from global standards and drive up the cost of connectivity, said Alexandre de Juniac, IATAs Director General and CEO.

De Juniacs remarks came in an opening address to the International Aviation Summit in Delhi, co-hosted by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the Airports Authority India (AAI) and IATA. The joint Summit commemorates the approaching milestone of 50-straight months of double digit domestic growth for Indian aviation.









Infrastructure

Indias aviation infrastructure has benefitted from significant upgrades in recent years. It is clear that India has the capacity to develop effective infrastructure. But the job is not done. Passenger numbers will grow. And infrastructure must not be a bottleneck in fulfilling the needs of travelers and the economy, said de Juniac who called for work in four priority areas:

Develop a comprehensive and strategic masterplan for Indias airports. The infrastructure issue is critical for Indias future. Band-Aid solutions will not do the job, said de Juniac.

The infrastructure issue is critical for Indias future. Band-Aid solutions will not do the job, said de Juniac. Remove all obstacles to successfully open Navi Mumbai as quickly as possible. Urgent relief is needed for Mumbais severe capacity bottleneck.

as quickly as possible. Urgent relief is needed for Mumbais severe capacity bottleneck. Modernize airport processes using technology in line with global standards. The DigiYatra initiative will make a significant step in the right direction with digitally connected airports, passengers, systems and flights. In line with this, IATA encouraged the Indian government to support the broad implementation of IATAs One ID initiative which uses biometric identification (similar to Indias Aadhar identity card) to save time by eliminating the need for repeated document checks in airports.

The DigiYatra initiative will make a significant step in the right direction with digitally connected airports, passengers, systems and flights. In line with this, IATA encouraged the Indian government to support the broad implementation of IATAs One ID initiative which uses biometric identification (similar to Indias Aadhar identity card) to save time by eliminating the need for repeated document checks in airports. Flexibly use military airspace to expand airspace capacity for civil operations. This was successfully demonstrated with the opening of a conditional airway through restricted airspace over Bhuj and should now be expanded to more areas.



IATA also noted its concerns on government proposals for concession contracts at newly developed greenfield airports. We believe that it makes no sense to fix a per passenger yield at the outset of a concession contract that is set to run for four decades. Flexible parameters should be set that are regularly reviewed by a regulator. And we know from bitter experiences in Brazil, Australia and elsewhere that selecting the company that simply proposes the highest bidder does not yield good long-term results, said de Juniac.

Regulation

IATA also encouraged the government to look at ways to improve Indias competitiveness by aligning with global standards and reducing excessive government imposed costs.

Zero-rate GST for international travel in line with ICAO principles and international obligations.

Create a more competitive market for jet fuel by:

Adding domestic uplift of domestic jet fuel to the GST framework with full input tax credit allowed



Removing fuel throughput fees in line with global best practice



Creating competition with common-use open-access infrastructure, and



Regulating transparency in pricing of jet fuel



Reducing excise duty on fuel

Collaboration

There are many priorities in fostering the economic and social development of India. Fundamental issues of eradicating poverty, ensuring quality education, providing health care and safe drinking water are massively important agenda items. Creating a better environment for aviation to do business can and will progress the nuts and bolts of Indias development day to day. Safe, secure and sustainable air links make our world a better place. That is why I call aviation the business of freedom. And the government and industry share a privileged responsibility to work together for its success, said de Juniac.

Read the IATA Economics report on Indias Air Transport Sector (pdf)

Read Alexandre de Juniac's full speech



For more information, please contact:

Corporate Communications

Tel: +41 22 770 2967

Email: corpcomms@iata.org

Notes for Editors:

More monsoon rains in the Philippines as brewing storm gathers strength

Rains brought by the habagat or southwest monsoon are expected over large swaths of the Philippines as a low pressure area or brewing storm off Luzon gathers strength, the state weather bureau said Tuesday.



The brewing storm was formed from the trough or extension of Typhoon Maymay (international name Jebi), which brought rains over the weekend and left the country on Sunday, said PAGASA meteorologist Ariel Rojas.



The LPA may intensify into a storm after 24 hours and will be named Neneng if it enters the Philippine area of responsibility, he told radio DZMM.



Both the LPA and Jebi, which is heading to southern Japan, have no direct effect in the country, said Rojas.



Most parts of the country will experience generally fair weather in the next 3 days, except for the western section of Luzon and Visayas, where the habagat is prevailing, he said.



The habagat on Tuesday will bring scattered rains over Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Zamboanga and ARMM, said PAGASA.

 2018 ABS-CBN Corporation

Theme(s): Others.NAPLES - Lasting conflict and political crises in Syria, Libya and Yemen will be one of the themes at the center of the fourth edition of Med Dialogues in Rome November 22-24.

In the three countries, the cumulative impact of growing violence, government failure and deadlock in peace talks has contributed to spreading instability that - stretching from the Middle East to North Africa - is tearing apart the Mediterranean area. The reflection in Rome will start from the fact that the longstanding crises affecting the country are far from being resolved and, despite the fact that they are intrinsically different, in all cases external bodies could be decisive for future developments. The focus will be in identifying possible ways to manage the situation, seeking to elaborate a long-term solution.

Tropical Storm Gordon threatens Gulf Coast; hurricane warning in place

by Doyle Rice and Jorge L. Ortiz

September 03,2018 | Source: USA TODAY

After pounding South Florida with heavy rain and strong winds Monday, Tropical Storm Gordon is gaining strength and taking aim at the Gulf Coast.



The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning from the mouth of the Pearl River, which separates southern Mississippi from the easternmost part of Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida border.



Gordon formed into a tropical storm near the Florida Keys early Monday as it headed west-northwest at 17 mph. The storm is expected to reach hurricane strength when it hits the Gulf Coast by late Tuesday night. From there, it is forecast to move inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Wednesday.



Rolling past the west coast of Florida, some 95 miles from Fort Myers by 8 p.m. EDT, Gordon had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph. The storm is expected to gather strength while making its way through the Gulf of Mexico.



Parts of the Gulf Coast could get up to eight inches of rain through Thursday.



The hurricane center also issued a storm surge warning, meaning possible "danger of life-threatening inundation,'' for late Tuesday for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama.



The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves, the center said.



Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Monday and said 200 National Guard troops will be deployed to the southeastern part of the state.



Although Louisiana lies just outside the hurricane warning area, authorities in New Orleans issued a voluntary evacuation order for areas outside the citys levee protection system, including the Venetian Isles, Lake Saint Catherine and Irish Bayou areas.



Strong wind gusts, battering waves, above-normal tides, minor coastal flooding, flash flooding and a couple of isolated tornadoes and waterspouts will be the main threats from the storm, AccuWeather said.



Parts of the northern Gulf Coast could see 3-6 inches of rainfall Tuesday into Wednesday, from southeast Louisiana into far southern Mississippi and far southern Alabama, according to the Weather Channel. Localized totals of six inches or more are possible in some areas.



The storm should make landfall with winds of about 60 mph. However, it could still reach hurricane status, which would be 74 mph, AccuWeather said.



"Any strong tropical storm has the potential to strengthen to a hurricane even when that storm may only spend a day or two over warm waters," AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.



Miami Beach police said via Twitter that the Labor Day holiday was NOT a beach day because of rough surf and potential rip currents. Red flags flew over Pensacola-area beaches in Floridas Panhandle, where swimming and wading in the Gulf of Mexico were prohibited.

Theme(s): Others.China-Africa cooperate on sustainable infrastructure, illegal wildlife trade

September 03,2018 | Source: CGTN

Senior delegates from China and Africa highlighted the need for more collaboration to ensure minimum damage to the environment while developing mega infrastructure projects. They also discussed an enhanced monitoring system to combat illegal wildlife trade in African countries during a side-event at the 7th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sunday.



Some of the proposed major highways and railway lines in African countries would go through dense forests, which might affect wildlife. "In recent years, companies have adopted an environmentally friendly approach like constructing elevated roads and railway lines to ensure safe passage to wild animals," Xu Ling, acting chief of China's TRAFFIC office, told CGTN.



Experts at a "China-Africa Cooperation for Sustainable Development" event hosted jointly by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Center for African Studies at Peking University recommended the need for creative solutions along with mandatory environmental clearance before initiating such mega projects.



During a presentation, officials from Chinese customs said they are always on high alert to trace the transport of endangered animal parts.



A recent TRAFFIC report revealed, altogether, ivory weighing 45,000 kg, more than 1,900 kg of rhino horns, and 131,564 reptiles were seized at various ports and airports between 2009 and 2017.



The data also revealed that the top six airports by seizure count are located in four countries -- China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia.



In recent months, Chinese authorities are sending Short Message Service alerts to Chinese tourists visiting Southeast Asia regarding the ban on wildlife products. Non-profit organizations are also extensively advertising in various airports, railway stations and other exit points about the ban.



China is also planning to involve private tour operators to raise awareness about wildlife protection among domestic and international tourists. Delegates held that similar steps should be initiated globally.



"Public commitment from both sides in 2015 made encouraging steps to address wildlife crime and the profound impacts it has on many sections of society," said Dr. Taye Teferi, TRAFFIC's Policy and Partnership Co-coordinator for Africa.



"But the bottom line remains: further effort is needed to catalyze measurable change on the ground in Africa. TRAFFIC hopes meeting will result in fresh impetus and identify available technical and financial resources to address effectively these persistent threats to Africa's people and its wild biodiversity and secure the long-term benefits of its natural resources."



However, China's ongoing crackdown on wildlife trade, according to wildlife experts, is not enough to protect endangered animals in Africa from poaching.



"China has already banned the domestic trade of ivory and rhino horns, but laws in many African countries are not stringent enough to control this illegal trade," Xu added. "African countries and China need to work together to prevent illegal wildlife trade."



Wildlife experts called for more capacity building programs from African wildlife rangers and customs department to control both poaching and trade.



During the 2015 FOCAC summit and meeting held in South Africa, the Johannesburg Action Plan (2016-2018) was adopted. The meeting culminated in commitments by China and 50 African member states to work jointly to combat illegal trade of fauna and flora products and to collaborate on sustainable forest and fisheries management.



"Clearly, there are major opportunities to support sustainable development in African countries through Chinese investment and mutual cooperation between FOCAC partners to ensure compliance with legal and sustainable trade regulations," Xu added.



(Cover Image: A Chinese wildlife ambassador takes a photo with her smartphone of charred ivory pieces on November 11, 2015, at the Nairobi National Park, the site of a historic first-burning of tonnes of ivory stockpiles from poached elephants 26 years ago.

 2018 CGTN. Beijing

Theme(s): Others.MADRID - The Spanish government will double its humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, following the United States' decision to pull funds from UNRWA, the UN agency that allocates material assistance to five million Palestinians in the world.



The announcement came from Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Borrell at a press conference in Madrid with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad Maliki.



Borrell said it is a "symbolic gesture" because "our contribution, going from one million to two million, is still very far from what the United States brought".



Maliki said, "The United States have shown that they wish to be part of the problem, not the solution".



"It demonstrates an adverse stance towards Palestine and sends the message that it is adopting the Israeli position relative to the conflict," he said.



Regarding the solution proposed by Washington to create a federation between Palestine and Jordan, Maliki said the US wants to "impose this plan with coercion and sabotage".



"You can't speak about a federation between two sovereign independent states while our territory is occupied militarily by Israel," he said.(ANSAmed).Trump warns Syria against causing another tragedy Calls on Russia and Iran, 'attacking Idlib would be a mistake'

(ANSAmed) - WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 4 - US president Donald Trump on Monday warned the Syrian regime in a tweet not to cause another humanitarian tragedy in Syria. ''President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.



Don't let that happen!,'' the tycoon wrote. (ANSAmed).



Imperial Valley News Center

U.S. Engagement in the Pacific

Washington, DC - The United States sees the Pacific Islands as an essential part of the free and open Indo-Pacific region and we are committed to the Pacific Islands future security and prosperity. As a demonstration of our commitment, the United States  through more than 17 departments and agencies  committed more than $350 million in FY 2017 to our engagement with the Pacific Islands via projects, assistance, and operations that directly benefit the over 10 million people of the region.

The United States partners with the Pacific Islands to tackle global and regional challenges, including promoting regional security and stability, advancing sustainable growth and prosperity, addressing environmental challenges, providing assistance for natural disasters, and strengthening our people-to-people ties.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinkes participation in the Pacific Islands Forums (PIF) Forum Dialogue Partners (FDP) meeting, leading an interagency U.S. delegation, reflects sustained United States commitment to the region, our Pacific Island partners and the U.S. territories in the Pacific. The U.S. Department of the Interior is responsible for administering United States assistance to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau under their respective Compacts of Free Association with the United States.

Securing the Pacific

The United States is a committed security provider and partner with the Pacific Islands. Our partnership dates back to the bloody battles of World War II on the shores of Tarawa, Pelelieu and Guadalcanal, where Pacific Islanders and Americans alike sacrificed for our collective security. Today, the United States is responsible for security and defense matters in and relating to Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands under their respective Compacts of Free Association with the United States. Citizens from these three countries serve in the U.S. military at high rates, and the Marshall Islands hosts a U.S. military garrison on Kwajalein Atoll.

Security Cooperation: U.S. bilateral security cooperation assists Pacific Island nations to better ensure their own security, to contribute to global peacekeeping operations, and to respond to disasters and other crises. Earlier this month, United States Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Philip Davidson announced the U.S. would provide harbor security assistance in support of APEC Leaders Week. In August, Secretary Pompeo announced at the ASEAN Regional Forum that the U.S. will provide $290 million in Foreign Military Financing to strengthen maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and peacekeeping capabilities across the Indo-Pacific region. Today, Secretary Zinke followed up on the announcement by specifying the United States intention to commit $7 million in Foreign Military Financing for Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Tonga, which will support training, equipment, and other security cooperation priorities identified with these countries. The United States also provides a combined $750,000 annually in International Military Exercise and Training (IMET) funding to Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa to support training and capacity building for military and police forces, and the Nevada National Guard conducts exchanges and training with Tonga under the State Partnership Program. To further support capacity building for Pacific defense and law enforcement professionals, the United States is committed to working with the Government of Australia to support the development of their new Australian Pacific Security College.

Maritime Security: Across the Pacific, the United States is a key partner on maritime security through U.S. Coast Guard and the Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) shiprider agreements with 10 Pacific Island countries, which allow local law enforcement officers to embark on U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy vessels, in order to observe, protect, board, and search vessels suspected of violating laws or regulations within their Exclusive Economic Zones or on the high seas. The United States and Fiji plan to sign a shiprider agreement shortly, and the United States is also working to finalize agreements with Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard will hold a five-day training course for Pacific Island shipriders aimed at combatting illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Tonga participated in the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2018) exercise and Fiji has been invited to join the next RIMPAC exercise in 2020. The United States also supports maritime security through participation in the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agencys regional surveillance operations, high seas boardings, and inspections and other activities under the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. Australia, France, New Zealand, and the United States cooperate as the Quadrilateral Defense Coordination Group to coordinate maritime security efforts in the region, including joint operations.

Maritime Boundaries: As part of our commitment to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific, where all nations respect the rule of law and sovereignty, the United States is working with our Pacific Island neighbors to resolve outstanding maritime boundaries. We signed a maritime boundary treaty with Kiribati in 2013 and with the Federated States of Micronesia in 2014. These treaties received advice and consent from the U.S. Senate on July 28, 2018 and are now with the President for ratification. The United States has also successfully concluded negotiations with the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga on a new maritime boundary treaty, and expects to sign the treaty in the near future.

Enforcing UNSC Sanctions: The United States supports efforts by the Pacific Islands to fully implement UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea. To help Pacific Island leaders meet the commitments they made at the PIF in 2017, we are supporting regional capacity building for Pacific shipping registries, in partnership with Australia, New Zealand, and the PIF Secretariat. The first workshop held July 2-3 in Suva, Fiji, focused on performing due diligence to ensure vessels registered or applying for registry do not have any links to the DPRK. It has already led to increased information sharing amongst the Pacific Islands. We will hold a follow-up conference in November to continue to build technical capacity in this area and address key shipping security issues.

Enhancing Law Enforcement Cooperation: We welcome efforts in the region to enhance information sharing on security and law enforcement concerns to combat IUU fishing and tackle transnational crime, including the initiative led by Australia to establish a new information sharing network/fusion center for the region. The Pacific Islands face a multitude of transnational crime threats, including illegal fishing, financial crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, gang activity, and cybercrime. The United States partners with regional bodies and governments in the Pacific Islands region to enhance law enforcement cooperation through a number of mechanisms, including by improving information sharing, providing investigative support, and building capacity through training and mentoring. In 2018, the U.S. Department of State launched a new $750,000 program with the International Organization for Migration to work in Papua New Guinea to institutionalize victim-centered investigations and prosecutions and to build local capacity to provide comprehensive protection services to survivors of human trafficking. Later this year, the Department of State will also support anti-trafficking in persons training and technical assistance for Fijis police and public prosecutors.

Economic Development

When the United States invests in the Pacific Islands, we do so as a partner committed to a shared future that advances national sovereignty, regional cooperation, and trust. This occurs when infrastructure is physically secure, socially responsible, and financially viable. To attract much needed private sector capital, Indo-Pacific countries must prioritize transparency, anti-corruption, and responsible financing. At the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a number of regional programs in support of these goals, including the Infrastructure Transaction and Assistance Network.

Supporting Pacific Infrastructure: To further our commitment to the Pacific Islands, today Secretary Zinke announced the United States intends to join the Pacific Regional Infrastructure Facility (PRIF) with an initial contribution of $2 million to support technical assistance on infrastructure investment planning and research into the key infrastructure challenges facing Pacific Islands. U.S. membership at PRIF will also enable us to better coordinate the over $350 million in assistance the United States provides to the Pacific Islands annually.

Unlocking the Power of the Private Sector: Government spending alone will not be enough to address the development needs of the Pacific Islands. The United States wants to foster private sector-led growth and unlock the power of the free market for sustainable development in the Pacific. This is why we are investing in efforts to share U.S. expertise with the Pacific Island countries in areas of economic opportunity, such as fisheries and tourism. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will travel to Fiji and Papua New Guinea in October to explore how the Pacific Islands can better utilize their market access to the United States under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

Cooperating on Fisheries: Fisheries are a lifeblood of Pacific Island economies and a cornerstone of U.S.-Pacific cooperation. The United States and 16 Pacific Island parties agreed to adopt amendments to the 1987 Treaty on Fisheries in December 2016, and have been working together on implementation since then. On August 28, the President Trump sent the recent amendments to the Treaty to the U.S. Senate in the next step of the U.S. ratification process. This is the first treaty package sent by this Administration to the Senate, reflecting the importance of our relationship with the Pacific Islands. The Treaty supports millions of dollars in commercial fishing activity, $21 million in related economic assistance, and broad cooperation between the parties and stakeholders in support of sustainable fisheries and shared interests. We are also investing in efforts to support Pacific Island fisheries businesses. We will support a third round of the Fish 2.0 business competition, which has connected Pacific Island entrepreneurs in sustainable fisheries with training, mentoring, and investors from the United States. This year, Fish 2.0 will partner with the Government of Australia to host training workshops and a regional investor forum, enabling new opportunities for Pacific Island businesses to integrate into regional and global supply chains.

Revitalizing the Tourism Sector: Tourism is another major economic driver and job creator in the Pacific Islands. To better support this vital sector, we are renewing a U.S.-Pacific Islands Tourism Exchange program launched last year by the Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the East-West Center, for emerging tourism leaders from the region. The programs goal is to invigorate Pacific island economies by increasing the capacities of mid-level tourism professionals in the private and public sectors and civil society organizations. The first group of participants arrived in Hawaii in the spring of 2018. The participants spend approximately six weeks in the U.S. for individually-tailored fellowship placements with organizations in Hawaii and participate in the Professional Fellows Congress in Washington, D.C. Two subsequent groups of U.S. participants will travel overseas to the Pacific Islands to spend approximately two weeks with their foreign counterparts in their workplaces and communities.

Protecting the Environment

The United States recognizes the importance the Pacific Islands place on the pristine environment of the Blue Pacific region. We partner with the Pacific Islands on a range of activities to ensure that the natural resources of the Pacific are sustainably managed to support generations of future Pacific Islanders. The United States is proud to be a contributing member to the Pacific Community (SPC), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), and to support their regional work to protect the environment and manage oceanic and coastal fisheries resources.

Protecting Natural Resources and Combatting Invasive Species: The United States is working with the Pacific Islands to research and combat harmful invasive species in recognition of the toll invasive species take on fragile environments and economies. Last month, the Department of the Interior announced over $2 million in grant funding under the Office of Insular Affairs Coral Reef and Natural Resources initiative to protect coral reefs and also to combat invasive species which had been identified as a priority for 2018. Among other projects, these funds protect against the spread of the Little Fire Ant, Wasmannia auropunctata, infestation on the island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia; harmful black rats and mangrove monitor lizards in Ulithi Atoll, Yap, Federated States of Micronesia; the Crown of Thorns Starfish, Acanthaster planci, on coral reefs in Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia; and the invasive flowering vine, Merremia peltata, in Palau. A separate initiative to combat the Brown Tree Snake on Guam and to prevent its spread to Hawaii and the larger Micronesia region received $2.8 million in FY2018.

Employing Scientific Research: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), part of the Department of the Interior, also works to research and combat invasive species throughout the Pacific. In FY2017, USGS supported risk analysis of freshwater invasive species in Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. In Niue, Fiji, and Solomon Islands, an international team including the USGS is surveying native and invasive reptiles and amphibians as well as invasive mammals and ants, and will produce an integrated report for the host government and identify locations of national significance for consideration as parks/reserves. In addition to invasive species, USGS conducts research into a number of challenges and opportunities impacting ecosystems in the Pacific islands, including water resource management, mangrove resilience, endangered species, offshore minerals, and sea level rise. For example, recent USGS research into Aedes and Culex mosquitoes, two disease vectors that are common on Pacific Islands, recently demonstrated how rat eradication can lead to local Aedes extinction at the Palmrya Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. This success informs future research on mosquito eradication opportunities elsewhere that could reduce human disease or avian malaria in endemic Pacific island birds.

Combatting Ocean Acidification: Ocean acidification poses a threat to ocean ecosystems, which are a source of tourism, fisheries revenues, and food security for the Pacific Islands. To increase our understanding of this phenomenon, in 2016 the United States announced the Enhancing Capacity for Ocean Acidification Monitoring and Mitigation (OAMM) program. OAMM is a public-private partnership of government, civil society, and private stakeholders focused on building capacity of scientists in the Pacific Islands and Latin America to monitor ocean acidification and to assess the impact of seagrass restoration on local ocean chemistry. Through this project, the United States aims to increase worldwide coverage of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON). OAMM has leveraged additional support for capacity building activities that helped expand the reach of the project. Since its launch, OAMM has hosted two science training workshops at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji; trained 23 scientists from 10 Pacific Islands countries; created and procured customized equipment kits for scientists in 7 countries; helped develop monitoring plans for 7 countries; created an e-learning space for kit recipients through the Ocean Acidification Information Exchange, and awarded three mentorship scholarships.

Building Resilience

USAID helps nations cope with changing environmental conditions, while improving lives and building a more sustainable, equitable future for all. USAID raises the capacity of Pacific Island communities, civil society, governments, and regional institutions to mitigate the impact of, and prepare for, natural disasters. Community-level projects serve as models for national governments, regional institutions, and other donors and stakeholders. USAID has strengthened resilience in 77 communities across nine Pacific Island countries by improving small-scale community infrastructure and building local capacity for disaster mitigation and preparedness. USAID has also awarded 28 grants to civil society organizations across 10 countries that support locally driven and innovative initiatives. In FY 2017, these grants expanded the adaptive capacity of more than 7,000 people to implement best practices in priority areas such as disaster risk management, coastal resource and forest management, sustainable agriculture, and livelihood development. At the national and regional levels, USAID fortifies the capability of governments and regional institutions to access global funding that will be used to boost their environmental resilience and natural resource management, as well as their ability to manage projects in a transparent, accountable, and effective manner. This approach will help solidify nations sovereignty, while also supporting greater self-reliance. USAID is currently helping eight Pacific island countries to secure more than $330 million in international funds.

Disaster Assistance

USAIDs Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance supports disaster response and risk reduction programs across the Pacific region. As part of the Compact of Free Association Act of 2003, USAID implements disaster relief and reconstruction assistance in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). In the event of a U.S. Presidential Disaster Declaration in these two countries, USAID and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) may provide direct relief, or rebuild housing, selected public infrastructure, and utilities. In 2015, for example, Typhoon Maysak destroyed houses, crops, and public infrastructure in FSMs Chuuk and Yap States. With funding from FEMA, USAID trained over 1,500 Micronesians to help complete repairs or reconstruction of 422 new houses and 153 public buildings, such as schools, clinics, and community centers.

People-to-People Ties

The United States also works to build relationships with the peoples of the Pacific through nurturing future leaders, building capacity, and supporting cultural ties.

Nurturing Future Leaders: The United States is committed to working with the next generation of Pacific leaders and will support the sixth Young Pacific Leaders conference. This Department of State program gathers emerging leaders from Pacific Island nations to discuss issues of regional concern. The program features a small grants competition for participants to transform ideas into action. Program participants and prior conference alumni compete for up to 12 small grants up to $10,000 each along the four YPL pillars: education, environment and resource management, civic leadership, and economic and social development. The full list of 2018 winners of the grants can be found here: https://nz.usembassy.gov/u-s-state-department-announces-2018-young-pacific-leaders-grant-recipients/

The U.S.-South Pacific Scholarship Program, also sponsored by the Department of State, was established by the United States Congress in 1994 to provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate degree study in the U.S. to students from the sovereign island nations of the South Pacific in fields important for the regions development. Current funding supports approximately three new scholarships annually for citizens from 11 South Pacific nations.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) separately supports several programs to develop future leaders in the three freely associates states -- Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Palau -- and in the U.S. island territories. For FY2018, DOI has committed over $1 million to support the participation of insular area high school students in the Junior State of America and Close Up Programs. DOI has also separately provided technical assistance funds to promote robotics programs for high school students and teachers in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau. Through a contract with the Graduate School USA, DOI also funds the Executive Leadership Development Program, a one-year program of personal and professional development for mid-level professionals from the U.S. territories and freely associated states.

The Department of States EducationUSA provides academic advising to students across the Pacific and strategic guidance to U.S. higher education institutions seeking to engage these student audiences. In FY18, the Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs provided $41,800 to support EducationUSA activities in the Pacific. The networks activities in the sub-region are coordinated by the EducationUSA Regional Educational Advising Coordinator based in Seoul, Republic of Korea. According to the annual Open Doors report, 510 students from the Pacific studied in the United States in the 2016-17 academic year.

Fulbright Programs: Through the Department of States Fulbright Visiting Student Program, applicants from nine Pacific Island countries compete regionally for fully funded scholarships for one- or two-year masters degree programs in the United States. American candidates also apply for Fulbright grants to conduct research in the region. Last year the Department of State supported three Fulbright students from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa for graduate study in the United States. Three U.S. Fulbright students conducted research in Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa. The Fulbright Specialist Program awards two- to six-week grants to American scholars and professionals who carry out collaborative projects at the request of host institutions. In FY 2018, the Department of State will provide over $5,000 for one Specialist to travel to Papua New Guinea to train professors and students in business-case writing at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Cultural Preservation: The Department of State, through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), will provide a $375,000 USD grant for the preservation of the Nan Madol World Heritage site in the Federated States of Micronesia. Since 2001, AFCP has awarded a total of $1.2 million in grants to support 27 cultural heritage preservation projects in the Pacific Islands. The Historic Preservation Offices in all U.S. territories and in the three freely associated states also collectively receive approximately $3 million annually from the Historic Preservation Fund which is administered by the Department of the Interiors National Park Service.

Science and Technology: The United States facilitates numerous placements of American Embassy Science Fellows (ESFs) in the Pacific Islands. ESFs are dispatched by the Department of State from U.S. government technical agencies for one to three months and provide advanced scientific expertise to U.S. embassies and host countries, allowing the United States and its partners in the Pacific to advance American interests while supporting key mutual national security, economic, and/or scientific goals. In 2017-2018, ESFs undertook projects across the Pacific Islands in a variety of disciplines, including oceanography, fisheries, marine sciences, renewable energy, and health.

Health Initiatives: The Department of States Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) funded a number of local initiatives combatting the spread of mosquito borne illnesses. This included support for teacher-training on the Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) science mosquito protocol for teachers in Fiji, and a program to educate youth on mosquito borne illnesses, monitoring, and vector surveillance in Koror, Palau. The Department of State hosted a 2-day TechCamp in Auckland, New Zealand which brought together 40 health communicators, health and business professionals, government officials, and community leaders from seven Pacific countries to increase their organizational capacity and develop tech solutions to help them expand public health communications about mosquito-borne diseases in the region. Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, Tonga, and Fiji received small grants for follow-on projects including using the CDC EpiInfo App for data collection and SMS mobile messaging to engage lab workers. In addition, OES selected the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau as implementation countries for its new GLOBE Zika Education and Prevention Project. The two-year project, in partnership with NASAs GLOBE program, brings together public health professionals and citizen scientists to improve the tracking and control of mosquitoes and reduce disease.Imperial Valley News Center

Late Summer Baby Boom at San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Escondido, California - An almost three-week old African elephant calf rests from his daily activities at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The young male elephant, named Umzula-zuli, was born August 12, 2018.

Theres been a late summer baby boom at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, eliciting lots of oohs and aahs from visitors of all ages. Guests visiting the Park might be able to see more than 100 exotic baby animals, including the elephant calf, a giraffe calf, greater one-horned rhino calves, scimitar horned oryx calves, a Grevys zebra foal and kangaroo and wallaby joeys. There are also new calves for the herds of wildebeest, Thomsons gazelles, East African elands, gemsbok and Kenya impalas, plus pink-backed pelican and Guam kingfisher chicks. Safari Park visitors may see the baby animals and all the Safari Park has to offer from an African Tram Safari, a Caravan Safari or private Cart Safari.

Since 1969, more than 37,600 animals have been born at the Safari Park, including 23,000 mammals, 12,800 birds, 1,500 amphibians and 40 reptiles. The Safari Parks successful breeding programs help conserve numerous species, many of which are threatened or endangered, like the scimitar horned oryx, the California condor and the Sumatran tiger.

Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is made accessible to children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the internet and in childrens hospitals nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global.Imperial Valley News Center

President Donald J. Trump Wants This to be a New Year of Shalom, Salaam, Peace

Washington, DC - In Judaism, the word peace is found in the common greeting Shalom Aleichem. In the Muslim world, As-Salaam-Alaikum, or peace be with you, is similarly used. The Jewish High Holy Days are upon us and in the machzor (the prayer book for the High Holy Days), the word Shalom appears throughout the liturgy, which emphasizes the importance of peace.

As the Jewish community prepares to celebrate the holidays of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the Muslim community just completed its holiday of Eid al-Adha (the Festival of the Sacrifice), one of the holiest holidays on the Muslim calendar.

These holidays, and the common greetings of well wishes shared throughout the world each day, inspire us to keep striving to improve each others lives and to never yield in our hope for a time of peace.

Over the past 19 months, in pursuit of seemingly distant and elusive peace between Israelis and Palestinians, I have been fortunate to have had many powerful experiences with people in the region. Israelis and Palestinians, young and old, secular and religious, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, are uncertain about the prospects for peace, and their skepticism is certainly warranted. Despite well-known challenges, the people of the region and their dedication to the pursuit of peace have inspired me. People frequently approach to ask me to thank President Donald J. Trump for returning the hope of peace to the region and for bringing its pursuit back into everyday conversation. The people understand that this is an extraordinary challenge, full of evolving complexities, but they support this noble goal.

In my meetings with leaders in the region, they too point to a potential path for peace. The Middle East has changed dramatically since this conflict began decades ago. What seemed impossible only a few years ago is possible now. Tomorrow even more is possible.

In 1983, when I first traveled to the region, the prevailing stance of the Arab world (with the exception of Egypt) was, as it had been for decades, aggression and war with Israel. Some 35 years later, however, there is a different reality. Confronted with an emboldened, aggressive Iran outside their borders and populations (including Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza) eager for economic opportunity within, most leaders understand now that Israel is not the problem  indeed, the Jewish state could be part of their solution.

We are, of course, clear-eyed about the many uncertainties that lay ahead of us. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not, as many have claimed, the core conflict of the region. Solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not solve other conflicts in the region, including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, terrorists in the Sinai Desert in Egypt, a tragic, continuing civil war in Syria, war in Yemen, Hezbollah (a terrorist organization sponsored by Iran) in Lebanon, instability in Libya, and an Iranian regime that oppresses its own people and foments terrorism around the world. But that does not make resolving this conflict any less important.

As President Trump has said, ultimately it is up to Israelis and Palestinians to make the hard decisions to achieve a comprehensive peace agreement. At the time of this writing, the Palestinian leadership refuses to engage with us. Such refusal began when President Trump made his bold, courageous and historic decision to recognize the reality that Jerusalem has been and will remain the capital of Israel. The leaderships unwillingness to engage is disappointing and only hurts the Palestinian people that they claim to serve. It is unfortunate that the Palestinian leadership condemns a peace plan they have never seen, and refuses to engage on a possible path forward for all Palestinians. This approach will only cause the Palestinian people to fall further and further behind their neighbors.

Despite these challenges, my experiences over the past 19 months illustrate that among ordinary people and many regional leaders, the desire for peace is real and powerful. We owe it to Israelis and Palestinians to continue our efforts in the pursuit of peace. They deserve better than what they have now.

This Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I will pray for an enduring solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I will pray for calm and tranquility for those in the region of Gaza  both Israelis and Palestinians who suffer from Hamas malign activities. I will pray for the Goldin and Shaul families, that Hamas will return Hadar and Oron to them. I will pray for the Mengistu and al Sayed families, that Hamas will return Avera and Hisham to them. I hope you will join me in these prayers.

May God bless us with a year of contentment, good health, sustenance, happiness and tranquility. May God spread the tabernacle of shalom, salaam, peace over the United States of America, its allies and friends.

Jason Dov Greenblatt serves as Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations. This op-ed was published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on September 3, 2018.Imperial Valley News Center

Novel intervention halves rate of death among people living with HIV who inject drugs

Washington, DC - An intervention designed to facilitate treatment for HIV and substance use was associated with a 50 percent reduction in mortality for people living with HIV who inject illicit drugs, a study has found. In addition, the people who received the intervention were nearly twice as likely to report being in treatment for HIV and substance use after one year as those who received their national standard of care. They also were about twice as likely to have suppressed their HIV to undetectable levels after one year. The intervention consisted of psychosocial counseling along with guidance and support navigating the healthcare system. These findings were reported today in the journal The Lancet.

People who inject drugs often have high rates of HIV infection, poor access to and use of treatment for HIV and substance use, and high mortality in the United States and globally. Needle sharing among people who inject drugs is the main route of HIV transmission in some parts of the world.

People living with HIV who inject drugs often encounter multiple obstacles to beginning and adhering to treatment for HIV infection and substance use, said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. This study demonstrates that providing guidance and counseling can help such individuals overcome barriers to starting and staying in care and treatment, leading to a significantly higher rate of HIV suppression and a much lower rate of death.

NIAID co-funded the study with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), also part of NIH. The NIH-funded HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) implemented the trial, called HPTN 074.

People who inject drugs and are living with HIV have potentially fatal co-occurring conditions, yet they and their at-risk partners often face different and confusing care delivery systems, said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. This study shows that integrated interventions, including help from systems navigators, can dramatically reduce mortality for both conditions.

None of the few new HIV infections in the trial occurred among the injection partners of people living with HIV who received the study intervention. Scientists could not draw a firm conclusion about the impact of the intervention on HIV transmission through injection drug use, however, because the study was not statistically powered to measure that effect.

HPTN 074 took place in three countries with HIV epidemics driven by injection drug use: Indonesia, Ukraine and Vietnam. The study team enrolled 502 men and women ages 1860 years who are living with HIV and inject drugs, and 806 HIV-uninfected men and women who inject drugs with them (injection partners). At least one injection partner of every person in the study living with HIV enrolled. The people living with HIV were assigned at random to receive either the national standard of care for HIV infection and substance use or the standard of care plus an integrated and flexible intervention designed to facilitate treatment. The study participants were followed for one to two years.

Study participants assigned to receive the intervention were immediately referred to local health-care providers for anti-HIV therapy to treat their infection, prevent sexual transmission of HIV, and potentially prevent HIV transmission via needle sharing. In addition, each participant who received the study intervention was assigned a systems navigator who helped the participant identify and overcome structural barriers to starting and staying in care and treatment for HIV and substance use. Such barriers could include unfamiliarity with how to enroll in medical care for HIV or difficulty keeping treatment-related appointments. Finally, psychosocial counselors helped each study participant overcome their unique psychological obstacles to starting and staying in treatment, such as lack of interest in therapy, difficulty establishing a medication-taking routine, or stigma.

In addition, all study participants, including the HIV-uninfected injection partners, received their countrys standard of care for people who inject drugs. This typically included referral for treatment of substance use; referral to needle/syringe exchange programs, if legal and available; injection risk reduction counseling; sexual risk reduction counseling; HIV counseling and testing; and referral for diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis B and C viruses, and tuberculosis, as appropriate. Those study participants living with HIV who received only the standard of care also were referred to local health-care providers for anti-HIV therapy according to national guidelines for when to start treatment.

At the end of the study, 15 percent of participants with HIV who had received the standard of care had died, compared to seven percent of participants with HIV who had received the intervention, corresponding to a 53 percent reduction in mortality.

Some 26 percent of deaths among study participants who had HIV were considered clearly HIV-related, and 3 percent were due to drug overdose. Among the 42 percent of deaths with unknown cause, 24 percent occurred among people whose immune systems were in poor health. Non-HIV-related medical events caused 21 percent of deaths overall, and trauma and suicide accounted for the remaining eight percent.

After one year, 41 percent of study participants who received the intervention had undetectable levels of HIV in their blood, compared to 24 percent of participants who received only the standard of care. Also, 72 percent of study participants who received the intervention reported being in treatment for HIV at the end of one year, compared to 43 percent of those who received only the standard of care. Forty-one percent of study participants who received the intervention reported being in treatment for substance use at the end of one year, compared to 25 percent of those who received only the standard of care.

The intervention in this study had a remarkably positive impact on people living with HIV who inject drugs, said Protocol Chair William C. Miller, M.D., Ph.D. It was designed to be scalable to other settings, and we hope that it can help this important population worldwide. Dr. Miller is professor and chair of the Division of Epidemiology at The Ohio State University College of Public Health in Columbus.

Previous studies have demonstrated that when a person takes anti-HIV medication that suppresses the amount of virus in the blood to undetectable levels, it both protects the health of the individual and prevents sexual transmission of the virus. Whether viral suppression also prevents HIV transmission through needle sharing with injection partners remains unknown. The HPTN 074 study was not designed to determine whether the intervention would reduce the rate of HIV infection among injection partners of the participants living with HIV, but rather to determine the feasibility of a larger study that could measure this effect. In HPTN 074, seven injection partners of participants living with HIV who received only the standard of care became infected, while no injection partners of participants living with HIV who received the study intervention became infected. This result is promising, according to the investigators, but because the overall HIV incidence among injection partners was so low, a larger clinical trial to test the effect of the study intervention on HIV transmission among injection drug users would not be feasible.

Given the success of the study intervention at reducing mortality and increasing the rates of both participation in treatment and viral suppression, investigators have offered the intervention to all the HPTN 074 study participants living with HIV. In addition, all participants living with HIV are being followed for a second year to determine whether the positive effects of the intervention are maintained.Imperial Valley News Center

Genetics and pollution drive severity of asthma symptoms

Washington, DC - 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."

Grant Numbers: ZIDES102465, ZIAES102605More patients survive sudden cardiac arrest with new EMS technique

Washington, DC - A new study showed that a change in the type of breathing tube paramedics use to resuscitate patients with sudden cardiac arrest can significantly improve the odds of survival and save thousands of lives. More than 90 percent of Americans who experience sudden cardiac arrest die before, or soon after, reaching a hospital.

During resuscitation, opening the airway and having proper access to it is a key factor for the survival of someone who goes into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital, said George Sopko, M.D., M.P.H., program director in the NHLBIs Division of Cardiovascular Sciences and coauthor of the study. But one of the burning questions in prehospital emergency care has been, Which is the best airway device?

Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, this study is the largest of its kind to test oxygen delivery methods used by firefighters, emergency medical service (EMS) providers and paramedics. It is the first to show that a particular airway intervention can positively affect patient survival rates. The findings were published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This study demonstrated that just by managing the airway well in the early stage of resuscitation, we could save more than 10,000 lives every year, said Sopko.

EMS providers treat the majority of the 400,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year. For more than three decades, their standard-of-care technique for resuscitation has been endotracheal intubation  the insertion of a plastic tube into the trachea to maintain an open airway. They use this technique in hopes that mirroring the care given by in-hospital physicians will produce better patient outcomes.

While identical to techniques used by doctors in the hospital, intubation in these severe and stressful prehospital settings is very difficult and fraught with errors, said Henry E. Wang, M.D., professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Wang was the studys lead author.

Today, however, new devices such as laryngeal tubes, offer simpler alternatives to opening and accessing an airway. These tubes are easier to use, and the trial showed that cardiac arrest patients treated with this alternative had a higher survival rate.

Usually caused by a heart attack, sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly or unexpectedly stops beating, cutting off blood flow to the brain and other vital organs. The vast majority of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home, and only about 10 percent of people survive, according to the American Heart Association.

The Pragmatic Airway Resuscitation Trial was a multicenter research study conducted by the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (link is external). It compared survival rates among 3,000 adults with cardiac arrest who were treated by paramedic crews from 27 EMS agencies, in Birmingham, Alabama; Dallas-Fort Worth; Milwaukee; Pittsburgh; and Portland, Oregon. Approximately half of the patients received the newer laryngeal tube treatment, while the other half received traditional endotracheal intubation.

Overall, patients in the laryngeal tube group had significantly better outcomes. For instance, 18.3 percent of patients survived three days in the hospital and 10.8 percent survived to reach hospital discharge. For the group with traditional endotracheal intubation, the survival numbers were 15.4 and 8.1 percent, respectively. Also, the proportion of patients surviving with good brain function was higher in the laryngeal tube group.Slovakia National Day

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "On behalf of the government of the United States, it is my pleasure to congratulate the people of the Slovak Republic as they celebrate Constitution Day.

"This is a historic year for Slovakia, as we commemorate both the 25th anniversary of Slovak independence and the centennial anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia. We are proud of the contributions of the United States and Slovak-Americans to the establishment of Central Europes first democracy, including through the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918 and President Woodrow Wilsons Fourteen Points. One hundred years later, we are proud to call Slovakia an important friend, partner, and Ally of the United States.

"I look forward to working with the government and people of Slovakia in pursuing our shared priorities in the years to come."Uzbekistan Independence Day

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "On behalf of President Trump and the American people, I warmly congratulate the people of Uzbekistan as you celebrate 27 years of independence on September 1st.

"Over the past 27 years, the United States and Uzbekistan have partnered to promote regional stability in Central Asia. This past year I met President Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his historic visit to Washington, representing a new era of strategic partnership between the United States and Uzbekistan. We have seen our people-to-people ties grow as the Government of Uzbekistan registered the American Councils for International Education, the first American non-governmental organization to be registered in Uzbekistan in over 15 years.

"The United States remains committed to supporting the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Uzbekistan. We look forward to continuing our people-to-people ties and strong partnership to promote Uzbekistans stability, prosperity, and regional engagement."San Marino National Day

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: 'On behalf of the government of the United States of America, I congratulate the Sammarinese people as you celebrate the Founding of the Republic of San Marino. As the worlds oldest surviving republic, San Marino has stood for more than a millennium as a beacon of democratic principles and self-governance.

"The United States values its partnership with San Marino and looks forward to continuing our strong relations."Secretary Pompeo's Call With Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo spoke with Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok about the August 31 attack in Amsterdam Central Station that injured two U.S. citizens. The Secretary expressed appreciation for the quick response of Dutch law enforcement to the attack and assistance given to the victims and their families.

Dutch and U.S. law enforcement are cooperating in the investigation, and the Secretary and Foreign Minister reiterated their commitment to stand together in our common fight against terrorism in all forms.President Donald J. Trump on Argentina

Washington, DC - "This morning, I spoke with President of Argentina Mauricio Macri and reaffirmed the United States strong support for Argentina during this trying time for them. Argentina is a long-time strategic partner of the United States and a major non-NATO ally. President Macri is doing an excellent job with this very difficult economic and financial situation.

"I have confidence in President Macris leadership, and I strongly encourage and support his engagement with the International Monetary Fund to strengthen Argentinas monetary and fiscal policies to tackle the countrys current economic challenges." ~ President Donald J. TrumpLet's talk about billionaires--especially unusual, bootstrapped, secretive philanthropic-minded billionaires who describe themselves consistently as nerds.

It's a small group. Its leader: the Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

He's been in the news recently after donating $1 million to the progressive magazine Mother Jones. That's in addition to $20 million to the journalism program at CUNY earlier this summer, and millions for other journalism, veterans, and election protection organizations.

I first met Newmark in 2011 when I was writing for the military newspaper Stars & Stripes, and he was putting up serious money for veteran causes. But I didn't realize then just how financially successful he'd been until I saw these recent reports on his philanthropy activity.

That's partly because Newmark, now 65, is scrupulous about not saying anything about his personal finances. (One published estimate, based on a bit of forensic analysis in Forbes last month, puts him at well over $1 billion.)

It's likely that most of his stake is still in Craigslist, which is just as reclusive, but which analysts think pulls in about $1 billion a year, with a 75 to 85 percent profit margin. That means it's an extraodrinary cash cow.

And to put it all in perspective, and appreciate just how different Newmark is compared to all of the other billionaire tech entrepreneurs floating around Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, you need remember two points:

First, the fact that Craigslist is basically bootstrapped, and that it wasn't originally supposed to be a company.

It grew originally from a single email that Newmark sent to to 10 or 12 people, as he told Inc.'s Jon Fine in 2016. He was 42 at the time, and had been working as an engineer at Charles Schwab (after 17 years at--wait for it--IBM).

And second, what life was like in 1995, when that first email went out:

Jeff Bezos had just moved to Seattle. He hadn't launched Amazon yet.

Mark Zuckerberg was in 5th grade. Monica Lewinsky hadn't even become a White House intern.

The #1 song in America was "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio.

There was no PayPal. If you won an auction on eBay, you had to mail a check.

Newmark had literally no idea that the site could ever be so successful at first. And why would he?

He says its spare, old-fashioned design was mainly a result of his own limitations as a designer back when the whole thing launched. ("I didn't know how to do fancy," he told Fine.)

Perhaps most amazing is that when he did start to see the potential, he took an honest personal inventory and decided that he wasn't the best person to lead the company he'd created.

He recruited and hired Jim Buckmaster in 2000, and let him take over as CEO.

"I was able, to some extent, to divorce my ego from my CEO role. And I'd had a lot of lessons," Newmark said in his Inc.com interview. "I'd seen micromanagement be a big problem in the tech industry. I just saw lots of situations where people screwed up by interfering with people who could do the job."

That's really the story. No capital raises, no talk about disruption, no rush to find an exit.When it comes to the world of baking, Candace Nelson, Founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, has created a slew of firsts: the first cupcake bakery, the first cupcake ATM and the first cupcake truck. She shares what it takes to remain relevant after a decade of success.

LM: Let's start by giving me a snapshot of you and the company.

CN: I founded Sprinkles Cupcakes in 2005 and wrote a New York Times Best Seller called "The Sprinkles Baking Book." I have a new Netflix show that premiered in July called "Sugar Rush" and served as a judge on Food Network's "Cupcake Wars" for 10 seasons. Given my clear obsession for carbs, I opened a Neapolitan-style pizza restaurant in Brentwood, California last year and am working on its second location. I'm a mother of two boys and my husband, Charles, is also my business partner.

Sprinkles was the world's first cupcake bakery and is credited with starting a worldwide cupcake craze. Our cupcakes - and our iconic Red Velvet - have inspired long lines of devoted Hollywood stars and serious epicureans alike. We bake fresh daily in small batches throughout the day using only the finest ingredients. We have over 20 bakeries across the country, in cities that include Los Angeles, New York City, Austin, Dallas and Chicago. Most of our bakeries now also serve cookies and ice cream, and several have a Cupcake ATM - a 24/7 high-tech machine which dispenses cupcakes any time of the day!

LM: Tell us your origin story. Why you? Why did you start this company?

CN: I was working in investment banking and after the dot com bust, I found myself out of a job. As a child, I had always loved to bake and decided to test my passion to see if it was more than just a hobby. I enrolled in pastry school in San Francisco. Upon graduating, I began a custom cake business out of my house. I soon came to realize that special occasion cakes were, by definition, rare orders. Having been brought up in the tradition that dessert should be a daily indulgence, the idea for Sprinkles was born! I worked on the recipes, finding a location (landlords were not very enthusiastic about the idea of a cupcake bakery back then), tracking down vendors and creating the brand for two years before opening our first 500 square-foot bakery on a sleepy street in Beverly Hills.

LM: What was your favorite part about starting Sprinkles?

CN: Creating a product which is part of people's most special moments, big and small - from marriage proposals to an afternoon treat with grandma. It is also pretty touching to see high school guests come into Sprinkles who I remember as toddlers when we first opened!

LM: You've been successful for over a decade. Many copycat cupcake bakeries have come and gone. Why do you think Sprinkles has been so successful and been able to withstand the test of time?

CN: I believe in never being satisfied and resting on your laurels. At Sprinkles, we had a lot of momentum behind us as the world's first cupcake bakery. But as others began replicating our concept around the word, we needed to work even harder to separate ourselves from the pack. By continuously innovating (creating the world's first cupcake truck, the world's first Cupcake ATM and new product lines) and by building a brand (partnering with Williams-Sonoma to distribute our cupcakes mixes nationwide and investing in public relations), we were able to stay exciting and relevant. Equally important, we always put our product and guest experience first by investing in ingredients and in our employees.

LM: Was there a point you can remember that made you feel like, yes, this is it, I've made it?

CN: We had been open for a few months, and my husband Charles and I were literally sleeping on the bakery floor some nights after 18-hour work days. It was true #startuplife! One afternoon, we got a call from Harpo Studios asking if we could be in Chicago the next morning with 300 cupcakes for The Oprah Winfrey Show. We said "yes!" not knowing how we were going to get it done. But when Oprah calls, you know you've made it. Needless to say, we revved up our mixers, bought some red-eye tickets and hand carried all those cupcakes onto the plane. A couple months later when the episode aired, our business increased by 50%!

LM: Tell me about the Sprinkles ATM and what drove that innovation.

CN: I was pregnant with my second son and had a late-night pregnancy craving. Even as Sprinkles' founder, I couldn't get my midnight cupcake fix! I thought, "there has to be a way," and so the concept of the Cupcake ATM was born. We spent two years perfecting it before launching in 2012.

LM: What is your take on the future of Sprinkles? What's next?

CN: As we plan for the future of Sprinkles, we are committed to putting our guests first and want to make sure we are continuing to create an environment that connects with them. This comes through love and creating phenomenal freshly-made products using the finest ingredients, such as sweet cream butter, pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, fresh bananas and carrots and more. Sprinkles and our chef, Charles Craig, are constantly working on innovative new flavors. This can be seen through some of our recent partnerships, such as Tito's Handmade Vodka, and our Royal Wedding cupcake, with many more to look forward to. We are also in an exciting position, offering an assortment of freshly baked goods in addition to our cupcakes, such as, cookies, ice cream, brownies and the newly introduced Layer Cakes. We are also excited to have just launched the Bake Box that is perfect for all your entertaining needs. Look out for much more to come!All parents like to read about how to help children become high-achievers or how to maximize the productivity of the school week. But a group of 65 parents in Iowa took reading and learning to another level on behalf of their school districts' students, and did so with great leadership and entrepreneurialism.

They went back to school (literally) in an attempt to change the moniker that local kids had given their beloved city, "Cedar Crapids." Parents and local leaders alike went through a typical school day, complete with classes, bells, desks, and note-passing (and hopefully without vaping) and learned something important.

They found the kids could be spending their time in more relevant ways--ways different from traditional school and that would better prepare them for the future.

So, as a Ted talk featured on ideas.ted.com detailed, they pooled their efforts and ultimately created a program called "Iowa Big"--designed to make learning much more meaningful for students. In it, students can choose from a variety of multi-disciplinarian, real problems in the community to work on instead of just cramming for a book-driven exam.

The school started in 2013 with just a dozen students and now has an enrollment of over 200 students (with a waiting list to get in). Kids attend their regular school part-time and blend it with several hours a day in Iowa Big where they connect with over 100 businesses, non-profits, and policy groups to work on real problems facing those businesses/the community.

It's no walk-in-the-park escape from grades for the kids. As co-founder of Iowa Big, Troy Miller, put it:

"Students develop their work plan, organize it into tasks, and learn and do what's required to make progress. Individually or as teams, they work on their own for long stretches. Faculty track progress and hold them accountable for completing work, not class attendance or checking off boxes."

Real work, real-world problems to solve, real accountability and real stakes = a really strong incubator for future leaders and entrepreneurs.

While the unmistakable core of the school day for these students is community work, that doesn't mean they leave the school ill-prepared for college. 97 percent of the 500 graduates to date got accepted into the college of their first choice, not to mention the quality of internships and summer jobs they got along the way (according to the Ted talk).

Case in point, Shawn Connally, the other co-founder of the school shares stories of stark contrast, like that of an Iowa Big student named Kyle. Kyle got a hefty paying summer job as a full-time data scientist writing code to analyze business data for a local company.

By the way, Kyle has an "F" in Computer Science on his transcript to show for his traditional school-based exposure to the subject.

So why aren't more school districts trying such experiments? On that Miller says it's fear:

"It's fear--fear of change, fear of what it will mean for college, and a lack of vision. I don't think it's going to come from within the school. The community needs to step up and say: Our students are not being prepared the way they need to be."

Which leads us to what you can do to bring more meaningful, community-based work into your child's portfolio of schoolwork.

How you can bring a little "Iowa Big" to your child's school experience.

I'm certainly not suggesting school districts everywhere are delinquent in their attempts to better prepare kids for the future nor am I suggesting that you have to take on the scope of what Cedar Rapids parents did here.

Start by understanding what enrichment efforts are already underway at your child's school and contribute. You can further affect change by rallying local businesses and non-profits to contribute worthy projects and connect them to your school's children. You can get help from School Retool (a Stanford University non-profit) to learn how to conduct innovative experiments that change standard school approaches.

You can even rally a like-minded group of fellow parents and community leaders to "go back to school" to get a fresh perspective on the state of the union and then use that as a platform for crafting positive improvements.Horror film A Quiet Place may be getting a sequel but John Krasinski is still unsure whether hell return to direct.

Krasinski  director, co-writer and star of the ambitious horror which is one of the years most profitable films  has revealed he can see himself allowing somebody else to direct the follow-up which Paramount has officially dated for 15 May 2020.

I could totally see myself handing over the reins to someone else, he told The Independent. Its really just about finding the right story."

He continued: "I know Paramount announced it and really want to do one. I really credit them with allowing us to very gently get in the water; its really nice of them to do because a lot of places would just make it. Were really trying to find a story that feels very connected [to the first one].

A Quiet Place follows a family that is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing. Krasinski appeared in the film alongside his real-life wife, Emily Blunt  something he says made [their] marriage stronger.

When asked if the sequel could focus on an entirely new set of characters within the universe, Krasinski agrees.

Its certainly something weve been talking about, he says. And I appreciate you say that its the world because, for me, I certainly loved these characters and this experience, but I loved the idea that when you create a situation, everyone has to deal with it. Its interesting to see how everyone else is faring.

Krasinski, no stranger to television having starred in the US remake of The Office as well as Amazons new series Jack Ryan, also acknowledged that an anthology series akin to Charlie Brookers Black Mirror could be a really great idea.

The best films of 2018 (so far) Show all 17 1 /17 The best films of 2018 (so far) The best films of 2018 (so far) The Guardians From its slow-burning beginning, The Guardians develops into an epic melodrama. Its a wartime story in which, for a change, the men are relegated to supporting roles. It follows in a tradition of French rural family sagas like Jean De Florette or Manon Des Sources. The landscapes and the changing seasons play as much of a part in the story as the main characters. The best films of 2018 (so far) Dark River Dark River offers little such consolation. It has some lyrical and delicate moments but the mood is generally overwhelmingly bleak and lugubrious. Incest and abuse dont leave much space for any comic interludes. This is a powerful film with a grinding intensity about it. Light relief it isnt but Dark River still has quite an impact. Alamy The best films of 2018 (so far) Zama Late on in Argentinean director Lucrecia Martels startling, highly original new feature, Zama, a character who has just had both his arms cut off, is advised to shove your stumps in the sand  if you dont bleed out, youll survive. Its a grisly, darkly humorous moment in a film that continually surprises us with both its brutality and its lyricism. The Match Factory The best films of 2018 (so far) The Breadwinner The most dispiriting aspect of this otherwise enrapturing Oscar-nominated animated feature is that its storyline still seems so current. The film depicts an Afghan society in which women dont have a face. It is set during the Taliban rule, which lasted from the mid-1990s until late 2001, but this doesnt feel like a period piece. Seventeen years after the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan following the US invasion, the plight of women in the country appears hardly to have improved. GKIDS The best films of 2018 (so far) BlacKkKlansman Spike Lees work sometimes risks sensory overload. He fires off so many different ideas and storytelling styles that audiences can become bamboozled by his scattergun approach. BlacKkKlansman is one of his very best films because the digressions are as entertaining as ever but dont get in the way of the main story. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Early Man Much of the pleasure in Aardman films has always lain in their gently ironic, Alan Bennett-like humour. They take very exotic characters and subject matter but then deal with them in a matter-of-fact fashion. They make a virtue out of their own relative modesty. Early Man isnt the flashiest animated feature that youll see this year but it is certainly the most likeable. The best films of 2018 (so far) Isle of Dogs Like all of Wes Andersons work, Isle Of Dogs is very stylised, very offbeat and characterised by its extremely dry and often ironic humour. This Japanese-set stop-motion fable is also gorgeous to look at  packed full of intricate visual detail. It deals with some weighty themes (ethnic cleansing, fascism and corruption) but does so in an idiosyncratic fashion. The best films of 2018 (so far) Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri Writer-director Martin McDonagh has a host of award-winning plays behind him but his movies havent always lived up to his stage work. This one certainly does. It shares some of the dark and nihilistic humour found in McDonaghs previous film, Seven Psychopaths. The best films of 2018 (so far) A Quiet Place In an era of wearisome poltergeist movies, haunted house stories and torture porn, A Quiet Place is a refreshingly pared-down and very original affair. Director John Krasinski relies on editing, sound effects and off-screen action to crank up the tension. We do see the creatures from time to time, sometimes even in extreme closeup. They are very grotesque, bigger versions of the polyp-like succubus which exploded out of John Hurts stomach in Alien. However, the most terrifying moments here come when the humans are waiting for them to appear, desperately hoping that they wont. Paramount Pictures The best films of 2018 (so far) Lady Bird Lady Bird is one of the best American coming-of-age films since Barry Levinsons Diner. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, it offers an utterly winning mix of humour, poignancy and sharp-eyed social observation. Gerwig approaches her subject matter with the same tenderness and affectionate irony with which the adolescent Lady Bird regards Sacramento. Gerwig also shows Lady Birds heroism as the young heroine strives against the odds to become the very best version of herself she can be. A24 The best films of 2018 (so far) Phantom Thread If Phantom Thread is indeed Daniel Day-Lewiss final film as an actor, he is going out on a wondrously bizarre note. This must be the oddest film in his career, one in which he gives a typically commanding but very idiosyncratic performance. Almost everything here is jarring  but generally in a very positive way. The best films of 2018 (so far) First Reformed It is not so long ago that Paul Schrader seemed to be giving up on cinema. The American writer-director (whose credits include Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Affliction) had taken to making movies like the sour Hollywood satire The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan and the cartoonishly violent Dog Eat Dog, shot cheaply, aimed at a VOD audience. The former had a montage of closed-down movie theatres. In interviews, Schrader struck a gloomy note about the future of the industry. This is why First Reformed is so refreshing. This is not just Schraders best film in a very long while. It is also a re-affirmation of the directors belief in the medium. Rex The best films of 2018 (so far) The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde goes to ruin in Rupert Everetts debut feature as director. Everett also wrote and stars in the film, giving a grandstanding performance as the Irish writer at the end of his life, after his release from prison, where he has been doing hard labour for gross indecency. This is a moving and surprising biopic that squeezes out every last drop of pathos from its subject matter. BBC Films The best films of 2018 (so far) Black Panther Black Panther is not only one of the most entertaining recent superhero films but has an intelligence and a political dimension that such inchoate offerings as Suicide Squad and Justice League completely lacked. It is an action movie which touches on Pan-Africanism and which owes as much to Malcolm X as it does to Batman or Captain America. Marvel Studios/Disney The best films of 2018 (so far) Sicilian Ghost Story Sicilian Ghost Story is a genre-bending affair that combines elements of teen romance, gothic psycho-drama and political thriller. It is loosely based on a true story of a boy called Giuseppe Di Matteo whose father, an ex-member of the Sicilian Mafia, turned grass against his erstwhile associates. The Mafia responded by kidnapping Giuseppe and keeping him in captivity for nearly 800 days. Altitude The best films of 2018 (so far) First Man First Man is all about understated heroism. Its affecting precisely because Armstrong (played with quiet intensity by Ryan Gosling) doesnt feel the continual need to boast about his mission. The film is a tearjerker but a very subtle one. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Dogman Dogman is one of the best Italian films of recent times, a modern day neo realist fable that bears comparison with the great work of Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica et al. Its main character, the dog groomer Marcello (Marcello Fonte), is a wonderful creation: loveable, vulnerable, seedy and comic all at the same time. Curzon Artificial Eye

In the meantime, would he direct a Black Mirror episode should Brooker enlist his services?

Done. Absolutely. Oh my God, I love that show.

You can read the full John Krasinski interview here. Tom Clancys Jack Ryan is available on Prime Video now.John Boyega may have conquered sci-fi with Star Wars, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and Attack the Block  but now he's on to a whole new genre: horror.

Deadline reports the actor will executive produce the UK fantasy-horror A Spriggan, from writer-director Keir Burrows, through his Upper Room Productions banner.

The film is currently in the process of finding its cast and it's unknown whether Boyega himself may appear in the film. It's already acquired the talents of VFX supervisor Neil Corbould, who has previously worked on Rogue One, Gravity, and Gladiator.

A Spriggan is set to follow "a recently widowed mother who returns to her fathers isolated hotel only to find a sinister folklore presence haunting the land."

A part of Cornish faery lore, spriggans are said to be relations of the trolls of Scandinavia, depicted as grotesque, old men with large, child-like heads. As folklore creatures are wont to do, they can often be found in old ruins, cairns, and barrows guarding buried treasure.

Im really excited to be joining A Spriggan and the team behind it," Boyega said. "In my producing projects, Im looking for film-maker driven, world-building, cinematic pieces, and have found in Josephine Rose another producer who shares that creative vision and commercial ambition."

"Were looking forward to working with Keir Burrows to explore the monsters of real-life through a dark, twisted, fairy-tale world of the Spriggan."

The actor is currently shooting Star Wars: Episode IX.

Follow Independent Culture on Facebook for all the latest on Film, TV, Music, and more.British peoples concern over climate change hit the highest level in almost a decade amid the record-breaking heatwave which swept across Britain this summer, a new poll has revealed.

While many people took the opportunity to enjoy the hot weather, the unprecedented temperatures also appear to have led many to worry about what caused it.

The poll by Opinium showed 60 per cent of British adults think climate change made the heatwave stronger or more likely to happen.

It also revealed almost a third of respondents (30 per cent) now describe themselves as very concerned about climate change  higher than any poll since 2008. A further 42 per cent said they are fairly concerned.

The soaring summer heat surpassed the record set in 1976 in England and daytime temperatures regularly rose above 30C across the country throughout June and July.

The dry conditions had a significant impact on farms, with warnings food prices could rise in the coming months. There were also record A&E admissions over the summer.

Meanwhile temperatures across the northern hemisphere were also anomalous. Sweden recorded its hottest July in over 260 years, and was forced to issue an appeal for international aid as wildfires ravaged swathes of forest above the Arctic Circle where temperatures exceeded 30C.

The heatwave which enveloped northern Europe was made twice as likely due to the effects of climate change, according to an international team of scientists from the World Weather Attribution network.

But climate change writer Leo Barasi, author of The Climate Majority: Apathy and Action in an Age of Nationalism, who developed the Opinium poll, suggested the impact of the heatwave in the UK was still yet to be fully realised and concern could soon increase further.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

He told The Independent: In the UK we have just had this heatwave which most people link with climate change  concern has gone up, but it hasnt completely rocketed. Its a bit of a double-edged thing  they believe it was definitely a sign of climate change, just as the science says, but most peoples experience of it was not unequivocally awful  not like a massive forest fire or a terrible hurricane. Some people quite enjoyed it.

But what we will start getting are the consequences of it  food prices being higher, data from hospitals showing the effects of the heatwave, and farmers having problems with feed for their animals.

He added: If theres a penny dropping about the heatwave, then its when the effects start to hit people.

The research also indicated that climate change is among the top five issues the public, particularly younger people, want politicians to talk about more  ahead of prominent issues like Brexit, the economy and education, though behind health, immigration, housing and crime.

Recommended UK hotter than it has been for 100 years due to climate change

Dr Jonathan Marshall, head of analysis at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, told The Independent: Public awareness of the effects that climate change is having now is in tune with the science, which has shown that emissions from human activity made this summers heatwave twice as likely to occur.

This is also not the first time that the fingerprints of climate change have been seen on extreme weather events in the UK, with devastating storms that caused hundreds of millions of pounds in damage in 2015 made 40 per cent more likely by climate change.

He added: As more of these events occur in the UK, public support for action to cut emissions is likely to continue to swell.

A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told The Independent: We are taking robust action to ensure our country is resilient and prepared for the challenges a changing climate brings.

Our long-term plan for climate change adaptation sets out ongoing work and investment to make sure food and water supplies are protected, businesses and communities are properly prepared and the right infrastructure is in place.Political leaders should take action to avoid the global cataclysm facing mankind, according to a letter signed by 200 people, including some of the world's most famous actors, artists and scientists.

Urging them to act firmly and immediately in the face of the greatest challenge in the history of humanity, the letter penned by actress Juliette Binoche and astrophycist Aurelien Barrau said: We are living a global cataclysm. Global warming, drastic decrease of living spaces, collapse of biodiversity, pollution of soil, water and air, rapid deforestation: all the indicators are alarming."

Published in French newspaper Le Monde, it added: At the current rate, in a few decades, there will be almost nothing left. Humans and most living species are in a critical situation.

A host of Hollywood A-listers, including Bradley Cooper, Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Rampling added their signatures to the letter, along with prominent scientists such as climatologist Jean Jouzel, mathematician Mikhail Gromov and physicist Carlo Rovelli.

Collapse is underway, the letter said, adding that a sixth mass extinction was taking place at unprecedented speed.

However, it said that it was "not too late to avoid the worst."

It added: "We therefore consider that any political action which would not make the fight against this cataclysm its concrete priority would no longer be credible. We consider that a government that does not rescue what can still be its primary and claimed objective cannot be taken seriously. We propose the choice of politics - far from lobbies - and potentially unpopular measures that will result.

 Nicola Sturgeon mocks Donald Trump over climate change ahead of UK visit

It's a question of survival. It cannot, in essence, be considered secondary. Many other fights are legitimate. But if it is lost, none can be led.

Binoche and Mr Barraus call for action came just days after the Nicolas Hulot, Frances environment minister, quit live on air over Emmanuel Macrons record on green issues. Mr Hulot said he no longer wanted to give the impression that were up to standard on these issues and so I am deciding to quit the government.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

In an emotional address, the long-time environmentalist said his tenure had been an accumulation of disappointments. He also claimed he felt all alone in pushing for environmental priorities in government.

Experts have warned human are indeed ushering in the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth.

Writing in a special edition of the journal Nature last year, scientists warned that mammals, birds and amphibians are currently becoming extinct at rates comparable to the previous five mass extinctions when cataclysmic forces  such as massive meteorite strikes and supervolcano explosions  wiped out vast swathes of life, including the dinosaurs.

Full list of signatories:

Isabelle Adjani, actress; Laure Adler, journalist; Pedro Almodovar, filmmaker; Laurie Anderson, artist; Charles Aznavour, singer; Santiago Amigorena, writer; Pierre Arditi, actor; Niels Arestrup, actor; Ariane Ascaride, actress; Olivier Assayas, filmmaker; Yvan Attal, actor, filmmaker; Josiane Balasko, actress; Aurelien Barrau, astrophysicist (Institut universitaire de France); Nathalie Baye, actress; Emmanuelle Beart, actress;Xavier Beauvois, filmmaker; Alain Benoit, physicist (Academy of Sciences); Jane Birkin, singer, actress; Juliette Binoche, actress; Benjamin Biolay, singer; Dominique Blanc, actress; Gilles Boeuf, biologist; Mathieu Boogaerts, singer; John Boorman, filmmaker; Romane Bohringer, actress; Carole Bouquet, actress; Stephane Braunschweig, director; Zabou Breitman, actress, director; Nicolas Briancon, actor, director; Irina Brook,director; Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, actress, filmmaker; Florence Burgat, philosopher; Gabriel Byrne, actor; Cali, singer; Sophie Calle, artist; Jane Campion, filmmaker; Isabelle Carre, actress; Emmanuel Carrere, writer; Anne Carson, author and professor; Michel Casse, astrophysicist; Laetitia Casta, actress; Bernard Castaing, physicist (Academy of Sciences); Antoine de Caunes, journalist, filmmaker; Alain Chamfort, singer;Boris Charmatz, choreographer; Christiane Chauvire, philosopher; Jeanne Cherhal, singer; Francois Civil, actor; Helene Cixous, writer; Isabel Coixet, filmmaker; Francoise Combes, astrophysicist (College de France); Francois Cluzet, actor; Gregory Colbert, photographer, filmmaker; Bradley Cooper, actor; Brady Corbet, actor; Beatrice Copper-Royer, psychologist; Marion Cotillard, actress; Denis Couvet, ecologist; Camille Cottin, actress;Clotilde Courau, actress; Franck Courchamp, Ecologist (European Academy of Sciences); Nicole Croisille, singer; David Cronenberg, filmmaker; Alfonso Cuaro, filmmaker; Willem Dafoe, actor; Philippe Decoufle, choreographer; Sebastien Delage, musician; Vincent Delerm, singer; Alain Delon, actor; Catherine Deneuve, actress; Claire Denis, filmmaker; Philippe Descola, anthropologist (College de France); Alexandre Desplat, composer; Manu Dibango,musician; Herve Dole, astrophysicist (Institut universitaire de France); Valerie Dreville, actress; Diane Dufresne, singer; Sandrine Dumas, actress, director; Roman Duris, actor; Lars Eidinger, actor; Marianne Faithfull, singer; Pierre Fayet, physicist (Academy of Sciences); Ralph Fiennes, actor; Frah (Shaka Ponk), singer; Cecile de France, actress; Stephane Freiss, actor; Thierry Fremaux, festival director; Jean-Michel Frodon,critic, teacher; Marie-Agnes Gillot, star dancer; Pierre-Henri Gouyon, biologist; Julien Grain, astrophysicist; Anouk Grinberg, actress; Mikhail Gromov, mathematician (Academy of Sciences); Sylvie Guillem, star dancer; Arthur H, singer; Ethan Hawke, actor; Christopher Hampton, scriptwriter; Nora Hamzawi, actress; Ivo Van Hove, director; Isabelle Huppert, actress; Agnes Jaoui, actress, filmmaker; Michel Jonasz, singer;Camelia Jordana, singer; Jean Jouzel, climatologist (Academy of Sciences); Juliette, singer; Anish Kapoor, sculptor, painter; Mathieu Kassovitz, actor; Angelique Kidjo, singer; Cedric Klapisch, filmmaker; Thierry Klifa, filmmaker; Panos H. Koutras, filmmaker; Lou de Laage, actress; Ludovic Lagarde, director; Laurent Lafitte, actor; Laurent Lamarca, singer; Maxence Laperouse, actor; Camille Laurens, writer;Bernard Lavilliers, singer; Sandra Lavorel, Ecologist (Academy of Sciences); Jude Law, actor; Patrice Leconte, filmmaker; Roland Lehoucq, astrophysicist; Gerard Lefort, journalist; Nolwenn Leroy, singer; Peter Lindbergh, photographer; Louane, singer; Luce, singer; Ibrahim Maalouf, musician; Vincent Macaigne, director, actor; Benoit Magimel, actor; Yvon Le Maho, Ecologist (Academy of Sciences); Andrei Makine,writer of the French Academy; Abd al Malik, rapper; Sophie Marceau, actress; Virginie Maris, philosopher; Andre Markowicz, translator; Nicolas Martin, journalist; Vincent Message, writer; Wajdi Mouawad, director; Nana Mouskouri, singer; Jean-Luc Nancy, philosopher; Arthur Nauzyciel, director; Safy Nebbou, filmmaker; Pierre Niney, actor; Helena Noguerra, singer; Claude Nuridsany, filmmaker; Michael Ondaatje,writer; Thomas Ostermeier, director; Clive Owen, actor; Corine Pelluchon, philosopher; Laurent Pelly, director; Raphael Personnaz, actor; Dominique Pitoiset, director; Denis Podalydes, actor; Apple, singer; Martin Provost, filmmaker; Olivier Py, director; Susheela Raman, singer; Charlotte Rampling, actress; Raphael, singer; Regine, singer; Cecile Renault, astrophysicist;Robin Renucci, actor; Jean-Michel Ribes, director; Tim Robbins, actor; Muriel Robin, actress; Isabella Rossellini, actress; Brigitte Rouan, actress, filmmaker; Carlo Rovelli, physicist (Institut Universitaire de France); Eric Ruf, director of the Comedie-Francaise; Celine Sallette, actress; Rodrigo Santoro, actor; Marjane Satrapi, filmmaker; Kristin Scott Thomas, actress; Albin de la Simone, musician; Abderrahmane Sissako, filmmaker; Marianne Slot,producer; Patti Smith, singer, writer; Sabrina Speich, geoscientist; Marion Stalens, director; Kristen Stewart, actress; Tom Stoppard, playwright; Peter Suschitzky, chief operator; Malgorzata Szumowska, filmmaker; Bela Tarr, filmmaker; Gilles Taurand, scriptwriter; Alexandre Tharaud, musician; James Thierree, dancer, choreographer; Melanie Thierry, actress; Daniele Thompson, filmmaker; Melita Toscan du Plantier, press secretary;Jean-Louis Trintignant, actor; John Turturro, actor; Helene Tysman, pianist; Pierre Vanhove, physicist; Karin Viard, actress; Polydoros Vogiatzis, actor; Rufus Wainwright, singer; Regis Wargnier, filmmaker; Jacques Weber, actor; Wim Wenders, filmmaker; Sonia Wieder-Atherton, musician; Bob Wilson, director; Lambert Wilson, actor; Jia Zhang-ke, filmmaker; Elsa Zylberstein, actress.Half of the two billion corals lived across Australias Great Barrier Reef in 2015 are believed to have died in the three years since then, according to a new study.

A major heatwave caused mass coral bleaching in 2016, wiping out 30 per cent of its shallow-water corals in the nine months between March and November that year.

Since then, smaller bleaching events have continued and the corals have continued to die out. In the summer of 2017, unusually warm waters hit the reef again, triggering further bleaching in areas which had survived the previous years heatwave.

The Great Barrier Reef harbours extensive areas of deep coral reefs which are much more difficult to study and were previously considered a refuge from higher water temperatures near the surface.

But the new research demonstrates the 2016 mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef was not restricted to shallow depths, but also affected deep reefs more substantially than scientists had estimated.

Published today in the journal Nature Communications, the study provides evidence both shallow and deep reefs are under threat from mass bleaching caused by warming waters.

Lead author of the research, Dr Pedro Frade, from the Centre of Marine Sciences at the University of Algarve, said the team was astounded to find bleached coral colonies down to depths of 131 feet (40m) beneath the oceans surface.

It was a shock to see that the impacts extended to these dimly lit reefs, as we were hoping their depth may have provided protection from this devastating event, he said.

The team also used remotely operated vehicles to study corals 328 feet (100m) beneath the waves.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

Then they conducted surveys during the height of 2016s bleaching across a number of sites on the northern Great Barrier Reef. Overall, they recorded the major bleaching or death of almost a quarter of corals at the deep sampling points, while confirming previous reports of impacts on close to half the shallower corals.

Impacts on the deep reefs were severe. They found 40 per cent of coral was bleached and six per cent dead at 40 metres. This was a lesser impact than at shallower depths where 6069 per cent of coral was bleached and 812 per cent dead at 525 metres.

The authors reported they had observed the upwelling of cold water had given deeper reefs some protection in the early summer, but this cooling effect was lost by late summer when upwelling stopped.

Unfortunately, this research further stresses the vulnerability of the Great Barrier Reef, said Dr Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from The University of Queensland, where the study was conducted. We already established that the refuge role of deep reefs is generally restricted by the limited overlap in species with the shallow reef. However, this adds an extra limitation by demonstrating that the deep reefs themselves are also impacted by higher water temperatures.

Coral bleaching is linked to global warming and occurs when stresses from higher water temperatures cause the corals to expel symbiotic photosynthetic algae, draining them of all colour and eventually causing them to die.

Bleaching is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon, spelling disaster for coral reefs across the world.

Earlier this year a study also published in Nature found the Great Barrier Reef is unlikely to recover from the devastation caused by the 2016 heatwave.

Many areas of the reef still appear to be slowly dying and replacement of dead corals takes in excess of a decade. Some estimates have predicted that 90 per cent of the worlds corals could be dead by 2050.Japanese whalers have exploited a loophole to kill over 50 minke whales this year in an area of Antarctica set aside for special protection, according to new analysis from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Conventional fishing is banned in the Ross Sea marine protected area, but vessels are able to harvest whales throughout this zone under the banner of scientific whaling.

Analysis of an International Whaling Commission (IWC) scientific paper by the WWF emerged as Japan chaired the IWCs annual meeting in Brazil.

Recommended Krill fishing industry backs massive Antarctic ocean sanctuary

Japan is pushing for an end to restrictions so it can restart full-scale commercial whaling.

Hunting whales for profit has been banned since 1986, but Iceland, Norway and Japan have granted themselves special exemptions that mean they can continue killing the marine mammals.

In 2014 the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan should revoke all existing permits for scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean.

However, the nation simply issued itself a new permit that allows it to kill 333 Antarctic minke whales every year and this will continue until 2027.

After analysing IWC data, WWF found that dozens of whales had been taken in the 1.55 million square kilometre area of the Ross Sea which is intended as a conservation zone.

Krill and thousands of other species are protected in this part of the Ross Sea, so it is shocking and absurd that minke whales are not, said Rod Downie, polar chief adviser at WWF. The banner of so called scientific whaling used to justify killing whales in a protected area needs to stop once and for all.

 Three trillion tonnes of ice have been lost from Antarctica since 1992

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which includes Japan and the European Union, set aside the marine protected area in 2016 to protect krill, penguins, seals and whales.

However, it does not control whaling in the region. Now WWF is calling on the IWC and CCAMLR to work with the Japanese government to close the loophole that allows minke whales there to be targeted.

People around the world who celebrated this historic ocean sanctuary will be shocked by the killing of whales within its boundaries, said Chris Johnson, senior manager of WWFs Antarctic programme.

Journey to Antarctica Show all 8 1 /8 Journey to Antarctica Journey to Antarctica Penguins on Curverville Island Reuters Journey to Antarctica Seals on a beach in Half Moon Bay Reuters Journey to Antarctica Penguins in Neko Harbour Reuters Journey to Antarctica A Greenpeace boat sails in Andvord Bay Reuters Journey to Antarctica An iceberg floats in Selvick Cove Reuters Journey to Antarctica A krill fishing ship with unknown nationality in Half Moon Bay Reuters Journey to Antarctica Waves break on Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise at the Drake Passage Reuters Journey to Antarctica A whale swims in Selvick Cove Reuters

Only the IWC can close the loophole that enables whales to be harpooned in a protected area. CCAMLR needs to step up and take a role in working closer with IWC to ensure that happens. It is a travesty that Japan can go into an ocean sanctuary and harpoon whales.

Over 30,000 whales have been killed since the moratorium was brought in, and environmentalists are determined to prevent any further loosening of the ban at the meeting in Brazil.Sara Iftekhar, a 20-year-old law student from West Yorkshire, is set to become the very first Miss England contestant to wear a hijab while competing in the final stages of the beauty pageant.

Shes currently studying for a law degree at the University of Huddersfield and holds the title of Miss Huddersfield 2018.

While there have been previous instances of Muslim women who wear hijabs taking part in the Miss England contest, Iftekhar will soon be the first to reach the finals while doing so.

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If the law student is named Miss England 2018, shell then represent the country at the Miss World contest, the longest running international beauty pageant in the world.

This years Miss World pageant is taking place on December 8 in Sanya, China and will be the 68th iteration of the competition.

Iftekhar will find out whether shes reached the global contest after she takes part in the Miss England pageant in Nottinghamshire today and tomorrow.

The women taking part in this years Miss England contest have been encouraged to raise money for the charity Beauty with a Purpose, which was founded by Miss World Chairwoman and CEO Julia Morley.

Iftekhar has explained her motivation for taking part in Miss England on the GoFundMe page that she set up for the charity, which raises money for underprivileged children around the world.

I participated in Miss [England] 2018 in order to show that beauty doesnt have a definition, everyone is beautiful in their own ways, regardless of their weight, race, colour or shape, she wrote.

A number of people have expressed their admiration for Iftekhar on social media and their opposition to some of the discriminatory comments that shes received.

Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Show all 8 1 /8 Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features

People are angry over a Muslim winning Miss England? Personally, Im happy to see diversity. Celebrate her beauty! one person wrote on Twitter.

Another person wrote: Fantastic that this years Miss England finals will have a Muslim student wearing the hijab for the first time. Great to celebrate the beauty in our diversity.

Taking part in beauty pageants isnt Iftekhars only fashionable pursuit, as she also created her own clothing business at the age of 16.

Earlier this year, model Halima Aden made history by becoming the first hijab-wearing model to appear on the cover of British Vogue in the publications 102-year history.Google's hit Art Selfie tool has launched outside the US, meaning people in the UK can now find out whether they look more like the Laughing Cavalier or the Girl with a Pearl Earring.

The feature comes with Google's Arts and Culture app and has been available in the US since earlier this year, allowing people to find their doppelganger among thousands of famous artworks.

"Travel through artworks and discover which ones look most like you," the app explains. "This new, experimental feature uses computer vision technology to compare your selfie with faces in 1,000s of historical artworks."

11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Show all 11 1 /11 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Easter Eggs There are a lot of Easter Eggs hidden in Chrome, and more and more are discovered each year. One of our favourites is the dinosaur game. The next time you fail to connect to the internet on Chrome, tap the spacebar. Its also worth Googling barrel roll, zerg rush, super mario bros (and clicking the question mark graphic), festivus, recursion, askew and atari breakout (and then clicking Images). 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Pin tabs If you tend to browse with a lot of tabs open at once, you can clear up the clutter by pinning the ones youre least likely to close. Right-click them and select Pin Tab. Theyll automatically shrink and slide left. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Save battery You can save some battery life by sacrificing performance. In Settings, scroll down to the System section and uncheck the box reading Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed. We wouldnt recommend having this feature enabled all the time, but it could come in handy if youre nowhere near a charger. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Browse faster There are loads of Chrome Extensions available, but one of the most useful is Googles Data Saver. It compresses the pages you visit to reduce data usage and speed up loading times. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Make multiple profiles If you use multiple Google accounts, for work and for personal use, for instance, you can keep your bookmarks and browsing history for each account separate by creating individual profiles. Go to Settings, Manage People and Add Person. This is also handy for when you lend your computer to a friend, and you dont want them to have access to your internet history. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Downloads Many users would prefer it if Chrome downloaded files straight to the desktop, but by default it sends them to your Downloads folder. You can change this by going to Settings, opening the Show Advanced Settings menu, clicking Downloads and choosing your preferred destination. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Extra info To see cookies and permissions for every site you visit, click the View Site Information symbol on the left-hand edge of the omnibar. It will also let you quickly control things like Popup and Location settings. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Task manager You can quickly find out which pages are using up the most memory and slowing down your browsing experience by opening the burger menu, going down to More Tools and opening the Chrome Task Manager. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Calculator When youre online and need to do a quick sum, you dont have to hunt down your computer calculator or whip out your phone. Just type it into the Chrome omnibar and hit Enter. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Startup If theres a certain set of pages you always open when you turn your computer on, you can get Chrome to open them automatically when you launch the browser. In Settings, click Set Pages in the On Startup section, and choose the ones you want. 11 hidden Google Chrome features you didn't know existed Search Gmail from omnibar You can search your gmail inbox directly from the omnibar by going to Settings, Manage Search Engines, scrolling to the bottom and pasting https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#apps/%s into the box on the right-hand side.

People have been sharing their results on social media, though not all of the likenesses are very flattering.

Testing out the feature involves downloading the Google Arts & Culture app from either Google Play or Apple's App Store, opening it, and scrolling down to the Art Selfie section. Then it's simply a matter of taking a self-portrait on your smartphone and letting Google's technology to find your lookalike.

Google claims that despite requiring selfies to be sent through its computer servers, user privacy is not compromised.

"When you take a photo with this feature, your photo is sent to Google to find artwork that look like you," the company says. "Google won't use data from your photo for any other purpose and will only store your photo for the time it takes to search for matches."

The Google Arts & Culture app lets you find your art twin (Google)

The Google Arts and Culture app has been downloaded more than 5 million times through the Google Play app store and is one of the most popular downloads in the Education category.

The aim of the app is to democratise art by providing access to thousands of top exhibits around the world through a smartphone.

Google Arts and Culture teamed up with over 1,200 museums, galleries and institutions in 70 countries to make the exhibits available to everyone online.

"Be your own curator by finding your favourites, creating your own collections and sharing them with friends," Google explains on the apps Google Play page.

"Travel anywhere with tours of iconic sites, famous buildings and natural wonders, on your screen or in VR. Learn something everyday."Mystery continues to swirl around a hole found in the outside of the International Space Station.

Last week, Nasa and the Russian space agency scrambled to fix a leak in the floating laboratory that was causing air to slowly rush out of the space station. The crew on board eventually plugged up the gap with epoxy, fixing the problem at least temporarily.

Initially, astronauts and other experts had suggested that the hole had been caused a by tiny rock that would have hit the space station and ripped a hole in it. "This leak seems to have resulted from a micrometeoroid impact," tweeted ISS veteran Scott Kelly in one representative tweet.

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

But strange reports are now emerging that suggest the leak could actually have been caused by a human. Russian reports citing anonymous sources suggest that the problem could have existed from the time the Soyuz capsule headed up to the International Space Station, and might have been treated with a temporary fix that has recently come undone.

Nasa has only said that the Russian space agency has "has convened a commission to conduct further analysis of the possible cause of the leak".

Recommended Nasa and Russian space agency look for fix for leaking space station

Russian news agency TASS reported that the boss of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said the theory that the hole was caused by an impact had been discounted.

"We are considering all the theories," Dmitry Rogozin, according to TASS. "The one about a meteorite impact has been rejected because the spaceships hull was evidently impacted from inside. However it is too early to say definitely what happened.

"But, it seems to be done by a faltering hand it is a technological error by a specialist. It was done by a human hand - there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface. We dont reject any theories."

He said that problem could have happened by accident or on purpose, and either on Earth or in space. A full investigation is being mounted to find the person responsible, TASS reported him as saying.

Both Nasa and Roscosmos stressed throughout the leak that the astronauts were in no immediate danger, and had been allowed to continue sleeping once the drop in pressure was recognised.

Once they were awake, astronauts worked with experts on the ground to find the hole and then to plug it up  initially, simply by placing a finger over the hole. Once it was fixed, pressure appears to have stabilised and the astronauts on board have gone back to their usual schedule.

The leak was traced back to the orbital part of the Soyuz capsule, which docked on the side of the International Space Station when it arrived. It is that capsule that astronauts are set to use to come back down to Earth, and work is ongoing to ensure the rest of the craft is safe.The desire for a larger bottom is becoming more popular, with the number of so-called Brazilian butt lifts more than doubling in the last five years.

However, a recent high profile case  which involved a doctor in Miami who was banned from operating after the death of a patient during surgery  highlights the risks associated with having this procedure. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Brazilian butt lift (BBL) has the highest rate of death of all aesthetic procedures.

What is a Brazilian butt lift?

Some people have a BBL for aesthetic reasons, but many have it after losing lots of weight, serious disfigurement after pelvic trauma, or experiencing practical problems, such as holding up trousers.

The procedure involves taking fat from areas of the body where its not wanted and transplanting it into the glutes to enlarge them.

To be successful, a fat graft needs nutrition and so has to be injected into tissue that has a blood supply. Fat can survive if injected into other fat, but up to 90 per cent of it can be absorbed if it is. Fat has more chance of staying in place if it is inserted into muscle  but this is where the risk lies.

Injecting fat into the buttock can easily lead to serious problems if done incorrectly. These include a fat embolism  when fat enters the bloodstream and blocks a blood vessel. In the lungs, for example, it blocks oxygen from entering the bloodstream, while in the brain it can cause a stroke. Both can be fatal.

The volume of fat is also important. Most surgeons consider 300ml  slightly less than a can of soda  to be a safe amount. However, some more experienced surgeons use a much larger volume of fat that may be measured in litres.

Why is the mortality rate so high?

A 2017 survey of 692 surgeons from across the world investigated the rate of mortality among patients undergoing BBL. Throughout their careers, the surgeons reported 32 cases of death from a fat embolism and 103 non-fatal cases, but there are probably many more that remain unreported.

The worst jobs for your health Show all 10 1 /10 The worst jobs for your health The worst jobs for your health 10. Surgical and medical assistants, technologists, and technicians Overall unhealthiness score: 57.3 What they do: Assist in operations, under the supervision of surgeons, registered nurses, or other surgical personnel and perform medical laboratory tests. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to disease and infections: 88 2. Exposure to contaminants: 80 3. Exposure to hazardous conditions: 69 The worst jobs for your health 9. Stationary engineers and boiler operators Overall unhealthiness score: 57.7 What they do: Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers, or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 99 2. Exposure to hazardous conditions: 89 3. Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 84 The worst jobs for your health 8. Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators Overall unhealthiness score: 58.2 What they do: Operate or control an entire process or system of machines, often through the use of control boards, to transfer or treat water or wastewater. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 97 2. Exposure to hazardous conditions: 80 3. Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 74 The worst jobs for your health 7. Histotechnologists and histologic technicians Overall unhealthiness score: 59.0 What they do: Prepare histologic slides from tissue sections for microscopic examination and diagnosis by pathologists. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to hazardous conditions: 88 2. Exposure to contaminants: 76 3. Exposure to disease and infections: 75 The worst jobs for your health 6. Immigration and customs inspectors Overall unhealthiness score: 59.3 What they do: Investigate and inspect people, common carriers, goods, and merchandise, arriving in or departing from the US or between states to detect violations of immigration and customs laws and regulations. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 78 2. Exposure to disease and infections: 63 3. Exposure to radiation: 62 The worst jobs for your health 5. Podiatrists Overall unhealthiness score: 60.2 What they do: Diagnose and treat diseases and deformities of the human foot. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to disease and infections: 87 2. Exposure to radiation: 69 3. Exposure to contaminants: 67 The worst jobs for your health 4. Veterinarians, veterinary assistants, and laboratory animal caretakers and veterinary technologists and technicians What they do: Diagnose, treat, or research diseases and injuries of animals and perform medical tests in a laboratory environment for use in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases in animals. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to disease and infections: 81 2. Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 75 3. Exposure to contaminants: 74 The worst jobs for your health 3. Anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and anesthesiologist assistants Overall unhealthiness score: 62.3 What they do: Administer anesthetics or sedatives during medical procedures, and help patients in recovering from anesthesia. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to disease and infections: 94 2. Exposure to contaminants: 80 3. Exposure to radiation: 74 The worst jobs for your health 2. Flight attendants What they do: Provide personal services to ensure the safety, security, and comfort of airline passengers during flight. Greet passengers, verify tickets, explain use of safety equipment, and serve food or beverages. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 88 2. Exposure to disease and infections: 77 3. Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 69 The worst jobs for your health 1. Dentists, dental surgeons, and dental assistants Overall unhealthiness score: 65.4 What they do: Examine, diagnose, and treat diseases, injuries, and malformations of teeth and gums. May treat diseases of nerve, pulp, and other dental tissues affecting oral hygiene and retention of teeth. May fit dental appliances or provide preventive care. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 84 2. Exposure to disease and infections: 75 3. Time spent sitting: 67

Fat embolism was recently identified as the leading cause of death in aesthetic surgery. The estimated death rate from fat embolism may be as high as one in 3,000 for BBLs. A 2015 study of deaths from BBL surgery concluded that they probably occur as a result of gluteal blood vessels becoming damaged during the procedure, allowing fat to enter the bloodstream. The authors recommended that buttocks lipoinjection should be performed very carefully, avoiding injections into deep muscle planes.

Deaths in the US have caused concern. In one recently reported case in the US that led to death from a fat embolism, surgeons believed injections had been made into superficial fat, but at post-mortem fat was found in the heart and lungs. There was also some evidence of damage to gluteal blood vessels.

However, it should be noted that fat is also injected into muscle for some breast enhancement surgery, with no reported deaths. This suggests that there are other factors involved in the high mortality rate among BBL patients.

Most of these deaths appear to have been caused by inappropriately qualified practitioners working in non-approved facilities, including homes and garages. One Brazilian celebrity plastic surgeon, known as Dr Bumbum, was recently charged with murder after the death of a patient at his home during surgery.

Other post-surgery problems, such as gangrene and sepsis, can also be fatal.

Is it worth the risk?

The potential risk of death from a fat embolism has to be weighed against the benefits, especially in cases where there are physical and functional benefits to having the surgery. In the case of the Brazilian butt lift, perhaps the risks outweigh the benefits.

Nevertheless, in a celebrity and beauty obsessed society, the procedure remains popular, despite the risks. So it is important that surgeons make the risks of the procedure very clear to anyone considering it. Patient safety should always be the top priority. And surgeons need to do more to increase the safety of the procedure and lower the unnecessarily high mortality rate.

Jim Frame is a professor of aesthetic plastic surgery at Anglia Ruskin University. This article first appeared on The ConversationPublic Health England (PHE) is urging adults over the age of 30 to check their heart age via an online test that will enable them to see how at risk they are of having a heart attack or stroke.

The call for taking the test comes after PHE revealed that four-fifths (78 per cent) of adults in England had a heart age higher than their real age.

Doctors have subsequently warned that those with a heart age higher than their real age are at risk of an early grave or ending up very disabled later in life.

Professor Jamie Waterall, national lead for cardiovascular disease at PHE, said: "Millions are at risk of cardiovascular disease but don't know it, putting themselves at real risk of suffering ill-health or dying younger.

"Knowing your heart age is a simple way of finding out whether you're at risk of a heart attack or stroke.

"By making important lifestyle changes you can reduce your risk before it's too late."

So, how easy is it to find out your heart age? It turns out, there are a variety of ways:

1. Take PHEs Heart Age Test 

The Heart Age Test is an online tool created by the NHS, PHE, UCL and the British Heart Foundation.

It consists of 16 questions, asking for your age, height, weight, gender, ethnicity and post code among other factors. It also takes into consideration lifestyle risk factors such as smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol.

You must be over the age of 30 to take the test and must not have a history of cardiovascular disease.

If your heart age is higher than your real age, the tool will give you advice on how to lower it. It will also give you a percentage which reveals your chance of having a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years.

Thus far, the test has been completed more than 1.9 million times.

The Heart Age Test is available free online here.

2. Get tested by Cardiac Risk in the Young

Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) offers a free heart screening programme to aimed at those aged 14 to 35.

Formed in 1995, CRY is a charity which supports young people diagnosed with potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions by developing screening programmes and funding medical research.

The organisation is funded by families whose members have been affected by deaths due to cardiac-related diseases; the screenings are available across the UK and can be booked online.

Usually taking no longer than 15 minutes, each screening will comprise of a medical history questionnaire and an ECG (electrocardiogram).

Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Show all 10 1 /10 Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Subarachnoid vessels The runner-up image came from Matt MacGregor Sharp, a PhD student at the University of Southampton. The super-high resolution image shows a normal artery at the surface of a rats brain and was taken with a powerful scanning electron microscope. These subarachnoid vessels supply blood to the brain and also act like a drain to remove toxic waste products. Matt Macgregors team are trying to show that failure to remove waste by these vessels is one of the underlying causes of vascular dementia. The researchers took the image using a technique called freeze fracture, where tissue or cell samples are frozen and then split apart to reveal the hidden layers within the sample so they can be studied in extreme detail. Sitting above the brown brain tissue, the artery appears blue, and its surrounding layer, the pia mater, is shown in purple. Matt MacGregor Sharp, University of Southampton, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Explosive beginnings Winner: Endothelial cells line all blood vessels in the body, forming a barrier between the circulating blood and the vessel wall. They also help to protect blood vessels from damage and release important chemical messengers which help to control blood pressure. The winning researcher, Courtney Williams, is a Masters student and PhD candidate at Leeds University. Her lab are developing new ways to map the growth of new blood vessels within their surrounding landscape in 3D. Understanding the complex secrets of blood vessel formation could be harnessed to boost the regrowth of damaged blood vessels after a heart attack, and halt blood vessel growth when its counterproductive. Courtney Williams, Leeds University, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize A snapshot of platelet production - Reflections of Research Supporters Favourite This image from Abdullah Obaid Khan, a PhD student at the University of Birmingham, won the supporters favourite. What look like precious jewels are actually platelets forming within the bone marrow. Platelets are the smallest of our circulating blood cells with a hugely important role in preventing bleeding. However, they also play a role in the formation of clots, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Abdullah Obaid Khan and his team are studying rare bleeding disorders. Abdullah Obaid Khan, University of Birmingham, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Cardiac collagen web - Shortlist This colourful image shows the web-like, network of the smallest blood vessels in the heart  the microvessels. Magenta marks the outer collagen layer of the vessels; while orange marks their inner lining and blue the cell nuclei. Dr Neil Dufton, Imperial College London Dr Neil Dufton, Imperial College London, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Heart to Heart - Shortlist This piece shows four ventricles (from a mouse) arranged into the shape of the hearts four normal chambers. The researchers have used fluorescent markers to recognise certain proteins and created the image using of hundreds of images assembled together. Dr Elisa Avolio and Dr Zexu Dang, University of Bristol Dr Elisa Avolio and Dr Zexu Dang, University of Bristol, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Loving artery - Shortlist This image shows a cross section of an artery and the different layers which make up the artery wall. Affiliate Professor Silvia Lacchini, University of Glasgow Silvia Lacchini, University of Glasgow, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Oxidative inkblot - Shortlist This colour explosion shows one of the culprits in cardiovascular disease  an enzyme called NADPH oxidase. The enzyme is considered Janus faced because it is important in health, as well as disease. This picture shows the active enzyme in patients who have high blood pressure. Dr Livia de Lucca Camargo, University of Glasgow Dr Livia de Lucca Camargo, University of Glasgow, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Neon skeleton - Shortlist This image shows the developing blood vessel system of a two day old zebrafish embryo. The researchers used gene enhancers (the on-off switches of genes) to switch on fluorescent markers in different types of endothelial cells  the important cells which line all blood vessels. All blood vessels switch on the red marker, while the veins also switch on the green marker, resulting in yellow veins and red arteries. Dr Svanhild Nornes, University of Oxford Dr Svanhild Nornes, University of Oxford, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Calcium reef - Shortlist This image shows calcium in blood vessel cells from people who have high blood pressure and resembles Australias Great Barrier Reef. Dr Rheure Alves-Lopes, University of Glasgow Dr Rheure Alves-Lopes, University of Glasgow, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research Under the skin  best of the British Heart Foundation 2018 image prize Budding blood vessels - Shortlist This image shows the growing blood vessels in the mouse retina. In red you can see all the blood vessels and in yellow/green you can see the blood vessels that are actively growing (a process called sprouting). PhD candidate Kira Chouliaras, University of Oxford Kira Chouliaras, University of Oxford, British Heart Foundation - Reflections of Research

Afterwards, the doctor will sit down with the patient to talk patients through the results.

If anything has been picked up, the patient will be fast-tracked to other doctors for treatment.

According to data collected by CRY, 1 in 300 people screened will have life-threatening cardiac conditions.

For more information on heart screenings offered by CRY, visit their website here.

3. Visit a specialist screening clinic

There are of course a number of clinics across the UK that specialise in cardiac screening who will be able to offer you a comprehensive examination.

However, these will most likely come at a fee, which will vary depending on how thorough a result you want.

Private charities, such as Heart for Life, also offer screenings across the country and these can be booked online however, there will also be a charge.Is this goodbye to manuka honey?

The health benefits of Irish heather honey are comparable to those of manuka honey, a new study claims.

Manuka honey - which can cost around 40 for a small jar - has been lauded in recent years for its medicinal nature: it has high antioxidant, antibacterial, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory properties.

However new research suggests that the far cheaper Irish honey could provide just as great a health boost.

In the study, conducted by Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin, researchers concluded that Irish honey contains just as many powerful antioxidants (called phenolic compounds) as its pricier counterpart.

The antioxidants are beneficial to our health because they help prevent damage occurring in the bodys cells, and it's also been found to be effective in fighting infection and promoting healing.

The conclusions were drawn after researchers were donated 131 honey samples from beekeepers across Ireland. The samples were a mix of multi-floral honeys (some urban, some from rural locations), ivy honeys, oilseed rape honeys and three were heather honeys.

They found that Irish heather honey had the highest total phenolic content (and thus was highest in antioxidants) of all the honeys tested - and even higher than manuka honey.

In addition, the researchers found that multi-floral honeys produced by urban bees with access to a wide range of flowers contained more antioxidants than honey produced by rural bees.

A possible explanation for this difference is that there is greater flower diversity and abundance surrounding hives in urban areas.

Professor Jane Stout of Trinity College Dublin explains: Finding a difference in honey composition between urban and rural hives probably reflects the difference in flower availability in urban and rural areas in Ireland.

The researchers also concluded that darker honeys tended to be higher in antioxidants than paler ones, however the darkest honey tested, ivy honey, still had a lower total phenolic content than heather and manuka honeys.

Being able to quantify that Irish honeys have a high phenolic content, and particularly that the content in Irish heather honey is comparable to manuka honey, is very exciting for us, says Dr Blanaid White of Dublin City University.

Our research shows that Irish honey is a high-quality product and something that we should really value. Interest in beekeeping and honey production is growing in Ireland, and we are delighted to be able to support it.Two men smuggled a huge picture of themselves into a branch of McDonalds after they realised there were no Asians in the posters on the walls.

University of Houston students Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo found a lack of Asian representation in McDonalds advertising, so they decided to take matters into their own hands.

The duo took a picture of themselves holding a McDonalds burger and fries on their university campus, before editing the picture to mimic the style of the posters in the fast food restaurant.

Once the poster had been delivered from the printers, the next challenge was getting it into the branch of McDonalds in Houston, Texas.

Maravilla, who is of Filipino heritage, found a McDonald's uniform in a thrift shop, so he bought it. He added a badge (with the name Jeff Bergara and the title of regional interior coordinator), a tie and a walkie-talkie, and he was ready to pull off the stunt.

I wore a jacket covering my uniform and waited until the coast was clear from any employees, Maravilla explains in his video documenting the whole process.

Once the coast was clear, I would take off my jacket and I would tell Christian and Cassandra [Batang, another friend who was helping] how to position it.

The team waited in McDonalds for over an hour before the right opportunity presented itself, but when it did, they acted swiftly, sticking the poster on the wall in a matter of seconds.

Theyd applied an adhesive to the back of the poster that would make it easy to take the picture off the wall, as they were conscious of not vandalising the restaurant.

The trio rapidly left the restaurant, with Cassandra revealing she was shaking.

Oh my god, guys, said Maravilla. Mission accomplished! It was all so very exciting.

The poster was put up on 13 July and has stayed up since, seemingly without anyone from McDonalds realising how it had come to be.

Maravillas tweet about the poster has gone viral, racking up over 730,000 likes and garnering thousands of replies from people impressed by the stunt.

I can't remember seeing something that made me this happy in a long time, wrote Tom Segura.

This is iconic, added another Twitter user.

Although it was fun, Maravilla has a serious message behind the stunt: All races deserve recognition, he says.Amazon has become the second publicly traded company in the US to be valued at a $1 trillion, just weeks after tech giant Apple became the first to reach the historic milestone.

The company's stock price rose 1.7 per cent in trading on Tuesday morning, to $2,050.50 per share, putting its market value at just over $1 trillion. Together, Amazon and Apple now make up more than 8 per cent of the entire value of the S&P 500, according to CNN.

The achievement was not an unexpected one for the Seattle-based company, the value of which has more than doubled in the last year alone. In the 24 years since its founding, the company has capitalised on a growing demand for online shopping, while amassing a powerful trove of data on its Prime subscription service members. It now generates $178bn in revenue each year.

The company has gone from being an online marketplace to a movie and television producer, e-book publisher, and cloud storage centre. It has partnered with brick-and-mortar retailers like Whole Foods, and created a popular, digital home assistant named "Alexa". Its search for a second headquarters recently set off a frantic bidding war between more than 200 cities, states, and regions across the continent.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Amazon's success has also made its CEO, Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world  something progressive Senator Bernie Sanders took shots at during a Labour Day event on Monday.

We have one person whose wealth is increasing by $250 million every single day, while he pays thousands of his workers wages that are so low that they are forced to go on food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing, Mr Sanders said, according to MyChamplainValley.com.

The company hit back with a statement claiming Mr Sanders had spread "misleading statements" about employees' pay and benefits, noting that the average hourly wage for full-time associates at the company's fulfilment centres  including cash, stock, and incentive bonuses  was over $15 per hour.

"We encourage anyone to compare our pay and benefits to other retailers," the company said.

 Amazon Prime day launches July 16

It was not the first time the nearly 600,000-person company has been criticised for its employment practices. Much scrutiny has been placed on Amazon's treatment of its fulfilment centre employees, who complete online orders in physical warehouses around the world.

A 2015 expose from the New York Times revealed how even the company's white-collar employees are often worked past their breaking points. The company responded by calling the article "sensational" and saying it had misrepresented the company.

Amazon has also found a frequent critic in President Donald Trump, who recently accused the company of everything from failing to pay its fair share of taxes to using Mr Besos's ownership of the Washington Post to lobby for its interests.

In an interview published by Business Insider in April, Mr Bezos welcomed the criticism  from Mr Trump and others.

Amazon is now a large corporation and I expect us to be scrutinised," he said at the time. "...I think its true that big government institutions should be scrutinised, big non-profit institutions should be scrutinised, big universities should be scrutinised. It just makes sense.The retailer of Muji products is considering moving its European headquarters out of the UK because of Brexit, in what would be at least the second such shift by a Japanese company.

Ryohin Keikaku, which sells everything from furniture to kitchenware under the Muji brand, is weighing Germany as the most likely site for a new European base, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, who didnt want to be identified because the plans arent public. It isnt clear how many of the roughly 50 employees based at its London offices would move if the company goes ahead with the relocation, the person said.

As a company were reviewing the risks from Brexit and always considering all available options, a spokesperson for Muji, which has 12 UK stores, said by email. We have not made a decision on moving our office since no new location has been decided on.

The plans indicate a wider move away from the UK by Japanese companies after Panasonic announced last week its switching its European headquarters from the UK to Amsterdam because of Brexit. The electronics maker said potential tax complications are another factor behind its planned move to the Dutch capital.

A lack of clarity over the UKs future relationship with the European Union has provoked a number of companies to move headquarters or open new manufacturing and distribution hubs on the continent to avoid potential trade barriers.

After the divorce, companies could be forced to pay tariffs to import and export goods between the UK and EU. Japanese companies, with significant interests in the UK in industries ranging from car-making to semiconductors, have signalled particular concern.

Japan and the EU signed a new trade agreement in July that lowers barriers on the movement of goods and services between the two economies. The UK probably wont benefit from the deal, which was five years in the making, once it leaves the EU.

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

Beyond Brexit, Japanese companies are facing a tax quandary in Britain as the government continues to lower UK corporate rates.

Under Japanese rules, if a subsidiary is paying less than 20 per cent tax in another country it could be subject to taxes in Japan. The measure is an attempt to prevent companies from using tax havens to avoid payments. Panasonic cited the potential for the UK to be labelled a tax haven in the future because of its 19 per cent rate, which will be lowered to 17 per cent in 2020.

BloombergMark Carney told MPs on Tuesday that he was willing to stay on as governor of the Bank of England beyond his planned departure date in order to smooth the Brexit process.

Mr Carney had planned to step down in June 2019 after six years in Threadneedle Streets top job, two years fewer than BoE governors normally serve.

But, asked by MPs on the Treasury Committee whether he would stay, Mr Carney said: Even though I have already agreed to extend my time to support a smooth Brexit, I am willing to do whatever else I can in order to promote both a smooth Brexit and effective transition at the Bank of England.

The chancellor and I have discussed this. I would expect an announcement to be made in due course.

The comments come after mounting speculation in recent days that the Treasury would like Mr Carney to stay on in his role, providing more continuity during uncertain economic times. There are fears that few candidates will put themselves forward for the job as the Brexit negotiations reach a critical stage.

Mr Carney warned that a no-deal scenario would lead to rising prices and falling real incomes. He added that there were limits to what the Bank could do to mitigate those effects.

He said: Its likely that the real income squeeze will return for households across the country.

You cant avoid that medium-term impact on real incomes, he added.

Mr Carney said: We would look to do what we could do to support and ease that adjustment, but there are limits.

It is quite an extreme scenario and it is very easy to see a case where those (Bank of England) tolerances could be breached and policy would have to be tighter, not looser.

A decision by Mr Carney to extend his stay at the Bank could prove controversial. The governor has been accused by Brexit supporters of politicising his office by warning of the dangers to the UK economy of leaving the EU without a deal.

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

Others have expressed concern that the decision on Mr Carneys future appears to be taking place behind closed doors.

Andrew Sentance, a former member of the BoEs Monetary Policy Committee, told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday that the speculation about Mr Carneys future was not very good for the credibility and independence of the Bank of England.

Mr Sentance said: It seems like the appointment of the governor is something that is happening between the chancellor and the governor, and is not happening in a transparent way.

It seems an awful lot is happening in this appointment process behind the scenes and that is not good in terms of the independence of the Bank of England.Pupils in France have been banned from using their mobile phones during school hours after a new law has been passed prohibiting their use.

Students in both primary and middle schools up to the age of 15 will now have to leave their phones at home or switch them off.

From now on they will only be able to use them in cases of emergency.

Recommended France to bring in total ban on pupils using mobile phones in school

Education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said the law aimed to help children focus on lessons, to socialise better and to reduce social media use. It is also designed to fight online bullying and prevent thefts or violence in school.

Currently in the UK, it is up to the school to decide whether phones should be banned.

But a new poll released as pupils return to school suggested that almost six in 10 (59 per cent) UK parents think students should not be allowed to carry their mobiles around the school grounds.

However, of the 2,022 parents surveyed by Internet Matters, 27 per cent said phones should be permitted during breaktime, while 34 per cent said they should be permitted during lunchtime.

Cyberbullying was also found to be a cause of concern for eight out of 10 respondents, with 68 per cent worried about their child feeling the strain of having the latest device.

Back to school: children attend class around the world Show all 30 1 /30 Back to school: children attend class around the world Back to school: children attend class around the world Yemen A student stands in the ruins of one of his former classrooms Unicef/Clarke for UN Back to school: children attend class around the world Mali Sitan Doumbia, 5, plays with her friends at the Early Childhood Development Center in Mali Unicef/Keita Back to school: children attend class around the world Democratic Republic of the Congo Teacher Edouard Kabukapua, 28, accompanies his students as they sing on their way to their class in a temporary tent school in Mulombela village, KasaA region, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has deteriorated dramatically over the past year. A surge in violent conflict in the KasaA and Eastern regions has forced many people from their homes, including in the Kasai region. Unicef has scaled up integrated health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), nutrition, education, protection in the country Unicef/Tremeau Back to school: children attend class around the world Democratic Republic of the Congo Tshiela, 10, sits in what was once her school, before residents fled the fighting Unicef/Tremeau Back to school: children attend class around the world Cameroon Students learn with the help of a computer tablet provided by Unicef at a school in Baigai Unicef/Prinsloo Back to school: children attend class around the world Syria Saleh*, 15, made the trip from his village in southern rural Aleppo to sit his final Grade 9 exams. He missed a year of schooling when violence escalated in his village Unicef/Al-Issa Back to school: children attend class around the world Malawi Students sit in their classroom at Makankhula Full Primary School in Dedza district. This outdoor classroom is not by choice, and is typical of Malawi's rural schools, where the lack of resources results in many young students learning under a tree. The primary school faces many challenges such as only having 16 teachers and a handful of classrooms for over 1,200 children Unicef/Brown Back to school: children attend class around the world Sudan Sunlight is filtered by reed walls as it streams into a classroom as students attend a mathematics class at the Upper Nile primary school in the Protection of Civilians Unicef/Hatcher-Moore Back to school: children attend class around the world Syria A child packs up his notebook at a make-shift school in rural Dar'a Unicef/anonymous Back to school: children attend class around the world Yemen Students play chess in Nosaibah School for Girls in Sana'a, Yemen Unicef/Fuad Back to school: children attend class around the world Democratic Republic of the Congo Students attend a class in a temporary tent school set up by Unicef Unicef/Tremeau Back to school: children attend class around the world Yemen Students sit under a tree as a teacher leads a class in Bait Al Faqueeh Unicef/Obadi Back to school: children attend class around the world Sudan Displaced children study in a tent classroom at the primary school in the Protection of Civilians Unicef/Hatcher-Moore Back to school: children attend class around the world Jordan A boy plays in the Unicef-supported Makani centre in Irbid Unicef/Shennawi Back to school: children attend class around the world Cote dIvoire Overcrowded class at a primary school in Gonzagueville. Unicef partnered with Conceptos Plasticos, a Columbian company that produces buidling materials with recyclable plastics, to build classrooms in this overcrowded preschool and primary school where in some classes there are more than 100 children, some of them as little as 3 years old In CAte d'Ivoire, many children do not access to education for lack of infrastructure in their community. Unicef/Dejongh Back to school: children attend class around the world Yemen Students listen to their teacher during a class held in a Unicef tent school, after the Aal Okab school which they used to attend was destroyed in June 2015, in Saada, Saada Governorate, Yemen Unicef/Clarke for UN Back to school: children attend class around the world Central African Republic Gracia Rita, 13, is in her last year of primary school at the Combattant School in Bangui Unicef/Sokhin Back to school: children attend class around the world Mali Fatoumata Ouattara, a Mama Yeleen - a model mother trained in early childhood development (ECD), watches children during a drawing and colouring session with children at the Early Childhood Development Center in Mali. The Mama Yeleen initiative is promoted and supported by Unicef and its partners Unicef/Keita Back to school: children attend class around the world Yemen Students gather outside the Nosaibah School for Girls in Sana'a, Yemen. Nearly half a million children have dropped out of school since the 2015 escalation of conflict in Yemen, bringing the total number of out-of-school children to 2 million. Unicef/Abdulhaleem Back to school: children attend class around the world Sudan Pupils sit in a classroom during lessons at the Upper Nile primary school in the Protection of Civilians site in Bentiu, South Sudan Unicef/Hatcher-Moore Back to school: children attend class around the world Malawi Binafrey Viera (center) enjoys being in class at an ECD center at Luwani Refugee Camp in Malawi Unicef/Chikondi Back to school: children attend class around the world Bangladesh Rohingya refugee Anjali, 8, attends a class at a Unicef-supported learning centre at the Balukhali makeshift settlement, in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar Unicef/Sujan Back to school: children attend class around the world Central African Republic A community teacher (centre in blue) plays with children in the playground at the child friendly space in Ndenga village. The village hosts a away from Kaga Bandoro, program for local children formerly associated with the anti-balaka armed group Unicef/Sokhin Back to school: children attend class around the world Yemen Fatima Abdullah Abduoh, 12, attends a Unicef child friendly space. Fatima lost her elder sister to an illness during the conflict Unicef/Fuad Back to school: children attend class around the world Central African Republic Jospin stands in front of the blackboard in a classroom at the MINUSCA site in Kago Bandoro, Central African Republic Unicef/Sokhin Back to school: children attend class around the world Yemen A student attends class. Almost three quarters of public school teachers have not been paid their salaries in over a year, putting the education of an additional 4.5 million children at grave risk Unicef/Fuad Back to school: children attend class around the world Uganda Pupils of Bright Centre Early Childhood Development Centre, in Zone One, Block IV, Bidibidi refugee settlement in Yumbe district in northern Uganda, sing and play in their classroom Unicef/Bongyereirwe Back to school: children attend class around the world Cote dIvoire Students in class at a primary school in Gonzagueville. less than seven children out of ten go to primary school. In Cote dIvoire, UNICEF distributes school kits to children and supports the Ministry of Education by building schools and training teachers. Unicef/Ddejongh Back to school: children attend class around the world Sudan South Sudanese refugees children playing with their locally made toys together with a caregiver at reception Bright ECD Centre, Yumbe District Unicef/Sibiloni Back to school: children attend class around the world Sudan A child points out letters of the alphabet on a blackboard in a tent for pre-school children at the primary school in the Protection of Civilians UNICEF/Hatcher-Moore

Psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos said: Children who are starting secondary school are going from being a big fish in a little pond to a little fish in a big pond and they are suddenly having to find their way. On top of that, they have all these new communication tools and kids are starting to interact online  which can be very different from the face-to-face interactions theyre used to.

Unless parents take the time to outline the differences of communicating online and offline, and prepare them for how things can be misconstrued online  they run the risk of feeling isolated or even bullied.

Additional reporting by Press AssociationThe government should introduce a new visa that allows international students to work in the UK for a longer period after they graduate, university leaders say.

An enhanced post-study work offer is needed to send a more welcoming message to overseas students looking to study here, the Universities UK (UUK) said ahead of its conference this week.

Under the visa proposals, graduates would be sponsored by a university to gain work experience in the UK for up to two years on a more flexible basis than currently permitted by the tier 2 visa.

Employers could miss out on talented, skilled international graduates who help to fill skills gaps in the country  such as engineering, technology and medicine  if the new visa is not introduced, university leaders have warned.

They added that UK institutions could fall down the global league tables based on popularity with international students - the country is currently second - if changes are not made soon.

Recommended International students wrongly kicked out over cheating speak out

In 2012, the government scrapped the post-study visa - which allowed international students to work in the UK for two years after graduation - as part of a crackdown on abuse.

Countries such as Australia, Canada and the US have seen the number of international students enrolled in education increase significantly (45 per cent, 57 per cent and 40 per cent respectively) since 2011, while the UK has seen an increase of only 3 per cent, UUK said.

These countries - which compete with the UK for international students - have more welcoming visa policies. For example, the US and Canada offers international graduates the opportunity to stay and work for up to three years after graduation, and Australia for up to four years.

Since the government scrapped the post-study work visa in 2012, international students in the UK have just four months following the end of their studies to find a job with a tier 2 sponsor.

The number of overseas students remaining in the UK to work following their studies has fallen significantly since the closure of visa. In 2011, the numbers of students transferring into work visas was 46,875, compared to 6,037 in 2016  a fall of 87 per cent.

Professor Sir Steve Smith, vice-chancellor at the University of Exeter and chair of UUK's international policy network, told The Independent: The UK as a country needs to make it absolutely clear that international students are absolutely welcome and the UK is open for business.

Now is the time - when we are 29 weeks away allegedly from Brexit - for the UK to make a grand statement about welcoming a new era where global talent can come to this country, study, work afterwards and thereby deal with the number one issue of the UK economy which is productivity growth with those skilled workers entering the workforce.

He added: It is not Brexit in terms of the details of Brexit - it is the image, the hostile environment. I have never met anyone who I have talked to who isn't coming to the UK because of the details of Brexit - it's 'is the UK welcoming?

What we are trying to do is put our offer on a par with our major competitors and to say that despite the trials and tribulations of Brexit, the UK and its universities are one of the great systems in the world.

We see no reason why that system should not be open to talented individuals. Especially when we now know that they come to study, maybe stay on a little bit to work, and then leave.

If the visa is not introduced, Sir Steve added that the UK could lose its place in the world as a leading destination for international students  and a number of university courses in science and technology would struggle to recruit as they are largely dependent on international students.

Vivienne Stern, director of Universities UK International (UUKi), added that they could see damage to their research system if fewer international students decide to do masters and PhDs in the UK.

Under the visa, all higher education institutions registered as Tier 4 sponsors would be able to sponsor their graduates to search for and gain work experience for up to two years without restriction on job level or salary, and without an employer sponsorship requirement.

The call comes as a poll from Comres, of more than 4,000 British adults, reveals nearly three quarters (72 per cent) think international students should be able to stay in the UK post-graduation for at least a year to gain work.

Stephen Isherwood, chief executive at the Institute of Student Employers, said: "Allowing talented international students to work for a period post-study in the UK will help employers, large and small, to fill skills gaps."

Student news in pictures Show all 34 1 /34 Student news in pictures Student news in pictures South Korean policemen detain a student demonstrator during a protest against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye EPA Student news in pictures South Korean policemen detain student protestors during a protest against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. The protesters demanded that the parliament takes steps to impeach President Park Geun-Hye EPA Student news in pictures Filipino demonstrators face off with anti-riot police during a protest near the US Embassy in Manila, Philippine EPA Student news in pictures Hundreds of protesters including Indigenous People, students and militant groups marched towards the US Embassy to protest against the presence of US military troops and condemning the violent dispersal which left at least forty people hurt including twenty police officers and three people who were run over by a police van EPA Student news in pictures A federal judge in Mexico has ordered that a once-fugitive police chief be held on charges of kidnapping in the disappearance of 43 students Student news in pictures A man holds up a photograph of a missing student with a caption reading 'We are missing 43,' during a meeting marking the 25-month anniversary of the disappearances of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero, in Mexico City. A federal judge in Mexico has ordered that a once-fugitive police chief be held on charges of kidnapping in the disappearance of 43 students AP Student news in pictures Miguel Perez, an intern student from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, puts away his cell phone before walking into the operating room at the Dr. Isaac Gonzalez MartInez Oncological Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Once they complete their general surgery training, many residents are moving to the United States in search of better wages, one of the main factors linked to the current shortage of specialists in the Island Student news in pictures Fewer EU students have applied to start university courses in the UK next autumn. There was a 9% fall in the numbers who had applied for courses, according to admissions service UCAS. PA wire Student news in pictures University students protest against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela. Masses of protesters jammed the streets of Venezuela's capital on the heels of a move by congress to open a political trial against Maduro, whose allies have blocked moves for a recall election AP Student news in pictures University students protest against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela AP Student news in pictures Thousands, most of them high school students, march during a demonstration in Madrid, Spain, on a one day strike to protest about the country's education law that increases the number of annual exams AP Student news in pictures Students gather on the west mall to confront the Young Conservatives of Texas student organization over a controversial bake sale on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at the University of Texas-Austin sparked the protest with an affirmative action bake sale. The club encouraged students to buy a cookie and talk about the disastrous policy that is affirmative action Student news in pictures Donald Parish Jr, right, confronts Electrical and Computer Engineering senior Dewayne Perry over a controversial bake sale on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at the University of Texas-Austin sparked the protest with an affirmative action bake sale. The club encouraged students to buy a cookie and talk about the disastrous policy that is affirmative action AP Student news in pictures Brigham Young University announced that students who report sexual assault will no longer be investigated for possible violations of the Mormon-owned school's strict honor code that bans such things as alcohol use AP Student news in pictures Students of secondary education march to protest against the final examinations and LOMCE (The Improvement Quality Education Law) law, after a call by trade unions, in Murcia, Spain EPA Student news in pictures South African police have used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of protesters who had marched to the parliament building to call for free university education, where the finance minister was giving a budget speech AP Student news in pictures Police break up student protests outside the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters Student news in pictures South African Policemen fire rubber bullets at student protestors in Cape Town, South Africa AP Student news in pictures A student protestor is hit by a rubber bullet in Cape Town, South Africa AP Student news in pictures An injured student is helped by colleagues during protest outside the parliament during South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's medium term budget speech in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters Student news in pictures Plaintiffs and bereaved families of elementary school students killed in the tsunami that followed a major earthquake in northeastern Japan in 2011, show banners that say 'victory in a suit filed with the Sendai District Court' in Sendai. A Japanese court ordered municipalities to pay $13.7 million dollars to families of school children who were swept away to their deaths by the 2011 tsunami Getty Student news in pictures A group of student at Ewha Womans University calls for a thorough investigation into those involved in years of engagement with state affairs backstage by Choi Soon-sil, a personal confidante of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, at the school's front gate in Seoul, South Korea EPA Student news in pictures Students raise placards during a strike action called by the student union, in Madrid against university entry exams Getty Student news in pictures Libyans throw a newly graduated student into a fountain as they celebrate during the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Libyans celebrate as they attend the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Libyans celebrate as they attend the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Thousands of Thai Catholic students take part in mourning tributes and in singing the Thai Royal Anthem to honour late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Saint Dominic School in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Student news in pictures Students of Silpakorn University paint portraits of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the university campus in Bangkok Getty Student news in pictures A student of Silpakorn University paints a portrait of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the university campus in Bangkok Getty Student news in pictures St Andrews University students take part in a foam fight known as Raisin Monday in the Lower College Lawn behind St Salvator's Quadrangle following the Raisin Weekend PA wire Student news in pictures St Andrews University students take part in a foam fight known as Raisin Monday in the Lower College Lawn behind St Salvator's Quadrangle following the Raisin Weekend, an annual tradition where student 'parents' inflict tasks on the unfortunate first-years they have adopted as 'children' as part of a mentoring scheme PA wire Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) in Havana, Cuba Reuters Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) take part in a practice in Havana, Cuba Reuters Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) wait in line to enter a classroom in Havana, Cuba Reuters

Yinbo Yu, international students officer at the National Union of Students (NUS), said: We know these restrictive visa controls are putting international students off UK universities and believe it is a key step to making them feel welcomed in the UK again.

However, it is clear the immigration system requires a complete overhaul, with international students removed from immigration legislation altogether.

We must show that our global education system is protected post-Brexit and make clear that international students are not unwelcome visitors.

A Home Office spokesperson said:

There is no limit on the number of genuine international students who can come to study in the UK.

We recognise the cultural and financial contribution which international students make to the UK which is why we have developed an excellent post-study offer.

Graduates can stay if they get a graduate level job, get an internship or apply to set up a business in the UK.

"Completing PhD students are also able to stay for an additional year to gain work experience or set up as an entrepreneur.Britains biggest insulin supplier has said it is building up a four-month stockpile to ensure that diabetic patients are not left without vital medications in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Danish Novo Nordisk supplies just over half of the UKs insulin and says it is significantly increasing reserves as the prospect of crashing out of the EU without a deal draws closer.

Diabetes charities have warned lives could be put at risk without reliable supplies of insulin as the UK imports all its stocks of the medications.

The government announced last month that it had advised companies to build up a six-week stockpile of medications against the event of no deal being reach, despite claiming this was an unlikely prospect.

However, Novo Nordisks statement indicates firms are going well beyond these minimums. The firms 16-week stockpile will double its seven-week reserves and should be in place from January in advance of the UKs scheduled departure date on 29 March 2019. Fellow insulin manufacturer French firm Sanofi has already pledged to hold a 14-week stockpile, increasing reserves by nearly a third.

Our first commitment is to ensure that patients treated with our medicines remain unaffected in the event of a no-deal Brexit, said Pinder Sahota, corporate vice president of Novo Nordisk UK.

Our decision to increase stock is in line with the technical notices and guidance published by the government to industry.

The Independent is leading a campaign to ensure the public gets a Final Say on the event terms of UKs exit, and leading medical organisations have highlighted the serious health risks that need to be addressed first.

Leaked civil service plans have shown how food and medicines in parts of the UK could run out within days unless a deal is in place, as additional delays and custom checks at Dover throw freight logistics into chaos.

If prime minister Theresa May, herself a type 1 diabetic, is unable to agree a transition arrangement by March then the European Medicines Agency will deem the UK a third country.

This will mean more stringent checks on imported medicines until the UK gets its own systems in place for quality and assurance monitoring.

The government is already preparing to turn the M20 into an overflow car park to manage queues at Dover and logistical disruption increases the chances of insulin stocks  which must be kept chilled  being spoiled.

Despite these risks, the government is adamant that it will not give the public any vote on the terms of Britains exit.

Dan Howarth, head of care at Diabetes UK, said: This further commitment from Novo Nordisk will no doubt reassure those people with diabetes who rely on the insulin this company produces.

Insulin and other diabetes medication arent optional extras for the millions of people in the UK who rely on them. Its incredibly important that the companies involved in their production and distribution, and those involved in guaranteeing their entry into the UK, work together so that supply continues uninterrupted.A tiny star deep in our galaxy could offer clues about how our Earth came to be.

The little star was first examined by young astronomer Yuki Okoda. What she might find could shed light on the very origins of our solar system.

But the baby sun is so far away, and so small and cool, that it might also turn out to be completely unknown.

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

What's more, it is hidden behind a cloud of gas and dust that surrounds it, meaning that what little light it sends out is getting hidden.

That cloud and dust is also what makes the young star so exciting, however. Scientists tried to explain the strange light that was showing up in the grainy images of the star  and did so using a model that suggested it was covered with the disc of material.

"The greatest academic challenge I've faced was trying to make sense of grainy images. It's extremely difficult to know exactly what you're really looking at," says Okoda, who was alerted to the strange data by University of Tokyo assistant professor Yoko Oya. "But I felt compelled to explore the nature of the structures Dr. Oya had seen with ALMA, so I came up with a model to explain them."

Eventually that material could become a protoplanetary disc. And from that there will eventually form a planetary system just like our own solar system.

"We can't say for sure this particular disk will coalesce into a new planetary system," explains Oya. "The dust cloud may be pushed away by stellar winds or it might all fall into the star itself, feeding it in the process. What's exciting is how quickly this might happen."

By tracking that process and trying to learn more about the star, the astronomers could come to learn more about planets like our own Earth form. And they will be able to understand what happens around such small and dim stars.Police could be given enhanced stop and search powers under new laws being planned by the government following a nationwide rise in violent crime.

A public consultation on changes to the reasonable grounds needed to legally justify searches will be launched in the coming days, The Independent understands.

Sajid Javid, the home secretary, is targeting acid, drones and laser pointers used to target aircraft, which are not encompassed by the current law.

It comes as police forces across England and Wales reverse a long-term decline in the use of controversial stop and search powers amid alarm over a wave of stabbings and shootings.

Some senior police officers say constables have become reluctant to use the measure because they fear racism accusations in the wake of figures showing black people were being disproportionately targeted.

Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said that the success rate for searches was the same across races and that around a third of searches find banned items in London.

Section one stop and search powers are essentially for weapons, drugs and stolen property, she told LBC radio.

 Angela Rayner on London stabbings: 'Its not just about the police... but its about the wider public services'

Acid isnt classified at the moment so an extension of the power to this would be very helpful for us and I would be all in favour for it.

I think the home secretary is suggesting two other things  drones being one of them. We have to keep up with the times drones are sometimes used by criminals or by people who have posed a threat to us, and officers should potentially be able to look for them.

Asked about statistics showing black and minority ethnic people are four times more likely to be stopped than white people, Ms Dick said powers were being used in an intelligent way against the people who cause most harm.

Recommended Black people now eight times more likely be stopped and searched

We are trying to protect the most vulnerable people and that is young black boys, she added, saying young black men were statistically more likely to be both the victims and perpetrators of stabbings.

Police are investigating Londons 99th homicide of the year after a 22-year-old man was shot dead in a cemetery on Monday morning, but insist that violent crime is stabilising overall.

The use of stop and search fell in England and Wales from a peak of 1.5 million in 2008/09 to around 304,000 in 2016/17  the lowest number since current data records began 16 years ago.

Merseyside Police Chief Constable Andy Cooke drew a link between the dramatic decline and rising violent crime.

Because there are less police officers, and because they know theyre more reluctant to engage in stop-search, criminals feel safe carrying knives and guns around, he told The Independent.

We need to put the fear back on the criminal and take the fear off the community.

Sajid Javid, home secretary, is distancing himself from restrictions put on stop and search by Theresa May in 2014 (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA)

Mr Cooke, whose force has increased the number of stop and searches carried out by 50 per cent over the past year, said the tactic had been unfairly demonised, causing officers to fear official complaints.

The vast majority of searches are done for absolutely the right reasons to target criminals and it is irrelevant if they are black, or white or Asian, he added.

The senior officer argued that laws should be strengthened to allow police to use prior criminality  which is not currently reasonable grounds  to legally justify a search.

If were aware of people involved in gun or knife crime I think we should be able to stop and search them, he said.

Some would say its unfair if theyve served their sentences but for me its about protecting our communities.

Simon Kempton, operational policing lead for the Police Federation, commended the aim of the reported proposals but said enhanced powers will be of little use if there arent the officers to exercise them.

The simple fact is that the policing in this country has  as a result of austerity  been stripped back to the stage where we are often only able to provide a reactive service, he added.

In 2016/17, people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups were just under four times as likely to be stopped and searched compared with white people.

A watchdog found that 94 per cent of examined incidents had reasonable grounds or resulted in objects including drugs, weapons, stolen goods or evidence of other crimes being found.

The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Show all 21 1 /21 The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Oluwadamilolda Odeyingbo Oluwadamilolda Odeyingbo, 18, was killed in a fight in Chislehurst on 10 January 2018 Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Hasan Ozcan Hasan Ozcan, 19, was stabbed to death on the Gascoigne Estate in Barking on 3 February 2018 Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Sabri Chibani Sabri Chibani, 19, was stabbed fatally in the chest in Streatham on 11 February 2018 Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Promise Nkenda Lord Promise Nkenda, 17, was stabbed to death in Canning Town on 14 February 2018 Facebook The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Lewis Blackman Lewis Blackman, a 19-year-old rapper from Kentish Town, was stabbed to death in Kensington on 18 February 2018 Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Abdikarim Hassan Abdikarim Hassan, 17, was stabbed to death near his home in Camden's Peckwater estate on 20 March - less tahan two hours before another man was stabbed to death nearby Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Kelvin Odunuyi Kelvin Odunuyi, a 19-year-old rapper known as DipDat and Lampz, was shot dead in Wood Green on 8 March Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Lyndon Davis Lyndon Davis, 18, was chased down and stabbed to death in Chadwell Heath on 14 March Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Tanesha Melbourne-Blake Tanesha Melbourne, 17, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Tottenham on 2 April PA The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Amaan Shakoor Amaan Shakoor, 16, was shot dead in Walthamstow on 2 April Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Israel Ogunsola Israel Ogunsola, 18, was stabbed to death in Hackney on 4 April Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, a 17-year-old rapper and aspiring architect, was shot dead in a Kennington Street on 5 May Handout The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Jordan Douherty Aspiring rapper Jordan Douherty died of his injuries outside a birthday party in Romford on 23 June Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Katrina Makunova Katrina Makunova, 17, was stabbed to death in Camberwell on 12 July 2018 Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Latwaan Griffiths 18-year-old Latwaan Griffiths was fatally stabbed on 25 July and died in hospital after being thrown off the back of a moped in Camberwell Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Guled Farah Guled Farah, 19, was shot in Walthamstow on 22 September Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Ethan Nedd-Bruce Ethan Nedd-Bruce, 18, died after he was shot outside a party at a flat in Greenwich, south-east London, on 22 October. He had also been stabbed, but the gunshot wound was the cause of death. Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Jay Hughes Jay Hughes, 15, died was fatally stabbed outside a chicken shop in Bellingham, south-east London, on 1 November Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Malcolm Mide-Madariola Malcolm Mide-Madariola, 17, was found suffering from a stab wound outside Clapham South Tube station on 2 November Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 John Ogunjobi John Ogunjobi, 16, died in front of his parents after he was stabbed in Greenleaf Close, Tulse Hill, on 5 November Metropolitan Police The teenagers murdered in London in 2018 Aron Warren Aron Warren, 18, was found stabbed in a flat block in Greenwich on 8 December and died at the scene Metropolitan Police

But a report released in December warned that searches of black, Asian and ethnic minority people were still disproportionate and threatening public trust and confidence in the police.

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found that black people are at least eight times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched, even though it is statistically less likely for drugs to be found.

Its report said police forces have not sufficiently explained the disparity, which suggests that the use of stop and search on black people might be based on weaker grounds for suspicion than its use on white people.

Recommended Spike in robberies and murders as fall in crime ends

The National Police Chiefs Council said forces have made good progress on using stop and search legitimately, fairly and more effectively since reforms were introduced in 2014 by the then home secretary Theresa May.

Nobody wins when stop and search is misapplied, the future prime minister said at the time. It is a waste of police time. It is unfair, especially to young black men. It is bad for public confidence in the police.

Her successor Amber Rudd supported the increased use of stop and search to combat rising violent crime before her resignation earlier this year, but said there was no need to change the law.

Any alterations would have to be approved by parliament and could be made to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

It currently gives police the power to stop and search people and vehicles with reasonable grounds for suspecting that they will find stolen or prohibited articles.

Items listed in the Act include weapons, drugs, items to be used to commit crimes, or banned fireworks.

A Home Office spokesperson said: As outlined in the serious violent crime strategy we are looking at ways to strengthen police powers to identify individuals carrying corrosive substances.Tens of thousands of people have urged the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry to drop Shell as a sponsor from an upcoming event.

The announcement that the museums new exhibition, Electricity: the spark of life, would be supported by the oil giant sparked controversy among local groups.

Critics described the decision to partner with the company as a sign that for the museum money is more important than tackling climate change.

Recommended Shell predicted dangers of fossil fuels and climate change in 1980s

Specifically, they have highlighted the role that fossil fuels play in driving global climate change and the role that oil companies have played in the phenomenon.

A petition with over 57,000 signatures has been handed to the museum as the Manchester Science Festival, which includes the new exhibition.

The action comes after emails released under a freedom of information request revealed that many organisations had expressed doubts about the sponsorship and three pulled out entirely.

One of those was Manchester group Carbon Coop, which was due to host a series of events over the course of the festival.

Making the decision to campaign against an organisation that you have worked with is not easy, said Laura Williams, a member of campaign group 38 Degrees and Carbon Coop. The museum is meant to be a place to show the positive role that technology could play in transforming our world. Their decision to take sponsorship from Shell is a betrayal of this.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

Figures including natural history broadcaster Chris Packham and Manchester-based climate scientist Professor Kevin Anderson have supported the campaign.

A museum dedicated to science education should not be helping promote any company that is actively exacerbating this planetary emergency until they show a serious proactive drive to switch to renewables, said Packham.

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In addition to the petition, which was handed to museum by a group of local children and parents, 77 artists, campaigners, politicians and local organisations signed an open letter to museum director Sally MacDonald, calling for the sponsorship to be dropped.

The action is part of a wider movement calling for an end to oil sponsorship of cultural institutions.

Last week the Van Gogh Museum and two other Dutch museums announced they would end their sponsorship deals with Shell following efforts by local campaigners.

A spokesperson for the Museum of Science and Industry: Each year the Manchester Science Festival works with over 160 partners to produce around 120 events across Greater Manchester. We can confirm that following the confirmation of Shell as a sponsor for the exhibition Electricity: The spark of life, which is part of the festival programme, three of our partners chose to withdraw their proposals for events at this years festival. We respect their decision and continue to have discussions with some of those partners about possible future collaborations."The GMB union has called for a fresh Brexit referendum because the promises made during the first vote are not the reality we are facing.

Britains third biggest union delivered a huge boost to the campaign for a public vote on Theresa Mays exit terms by throwing its weight behind the push.

It will pile pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to switch Labours official policy in favour of a further referendum, ahead of an expected showdown at the partys annual conference this month.

Recommended Unite shies away from backing new Brexit referendum

The Independent has launched its own petition for a Final Say referendum, which has already been signed by almost three-quarters of a million people.

In a video statement, Tim Roache, the GMBs general secretary, condemned the mess this government is making of Brexit when there is so much at stake.

As trade unionists, when we negotiate a pay deal with an employer, we go back to our members and ask them if theyre happy with it, he said. Whether they want to accept or reject it

Thats what people deserve now, because the promises that were made during the referendum campaign are simply not the reality we are facing.

Mr Roache said people had voted for change, but added: They did not vote for economic chaos or to put jobs and hard won rights on the line.

Thats why GMB supports your right to decide what sort of Brexit, is the right Brexit. Thats why we support a public vote on the final deal.

People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Show all 30 1 /30 People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Rex People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young protestor shouts as she takes part in the People's Vote demonstration against Brexit Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A protester's pro-EU t-shirt EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Gina Miller and Caroline Lucas EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Tens of thousands of people march through London EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Demonstrators at the People's Vote March Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal 'Two months too young to decide on my future' REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young girl joins in the march PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal An EU flag is draped across the statue of Winston Chruchill in Parliament Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Vince Cable MP, Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller, Tony Robinson and Caroline Lucas MP join with crowds PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Crowds gather on Pall Mall PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A man resembling Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, joins EU supporters Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People gather in Trafalgar Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller and Tony Robinson PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the 'People's Vote' march REUTERS

The GMB, which has 620,000 members, backed remaining in the EU at the referendum, although it admitted its members were divided.

It is one of the three big unions  alongside Unite and Unison  that hold influence over Labour, not least because of its significant funding to the party.

It is the first of the three to explicitly back a further referendum, although the Royal College of Nursing, Community and the transport workers union, the TSSA, also support one.

The GMB decision comes exactly two months after Unite, Labours biggest union backer  led by Len McCluskey, Mr Corbyns close ally  shied away from backing a fresh referendum.

Conference delegates instead endorsed a weaker statement, where Unite remains open to the possibility of another EU referendum depending on political circumstances.

Up to 200 local Labour branches will attempt to make a further Brexit referendum official party policy at the conference in Liverpool, starting on 23 September.

Mr Corbyn hopes to force the prime minister into another general election if her Brexit deal is rejected by parliament this winter, or if she fails to strike any agreement at all.

However, the party has been edging closer to backing a referendum, with both John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, and Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, insisting it must remain an option.

The issue will also be debated by the union movement in Manchester next week, at the TUC conference.

Responding, Brandon Lewis MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party, said: Rerunning the referendum would take us all back to square one.

Jeremy Corbyn should stand up to his union paymasters and rule out a second referendum once and for all.Ukip has urged Britons not to join the armed forces until after Brexit because they are under a foreign military command.

Gerard Batten, the partys leader, was branded ridiculous after reacting with fury to UK soldiers on operations in Bosnia wearing the European Union flag on their uniforms.

No one should now join the British army until we have left the EU and this has all been reversed, Mr Batten said.

Our soldiers are no longer fighting for Queen and Country but under a foreign military command.

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"Our ancestors, the heroes of The Armada, Waterloo, Trafalgar, Passchendaele, El-Alamein, and others too numerous to mention, did not fight so that their descendants could serve under the flag of a foreign power.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: For goodness sake, this is ridiculous. Wed have lost the war if wed have refused to work with our allies.

But Mr Batten said it was only after the UK left the EU that we will be able to rebuild our military into a force which serves the interests of our nation first and foremost. Meanwhile, British men and women should vote with their feet and not join the armed forces.

Key Faces of UKIP Show all 11 1 /11 Key Faces of UKIP Key Faces of UKIP Nigel Farage Getty Key Faces of UKIP United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Migration spokesman Steven Woolfe addresses supporters and media personnel in central London Getty Key Faces of UKIP Robert Kilroy-Silk, former television presenter and newly elected member of the European Parliament for the UK Independence Party (UKIP), shows a placard against the European Constitution in front of the Houses of Parliament Getty Key Faces of UKIP Mark Reckless, Director of Policy Development addresses party members during the UK Independence Party annual conference at Doncaster Racecourse Getty Key Faces of UKIP Gerard Batten MEP poses with protesters outside parliament Creative Commons Key Faces of UKIP Diane James gives an address at the UKIP Autumn Conference in Bournemouth Getty Key Faces of UKIP Douglas Carswell MP speaks to party members and supporters during the UK Independence Party annual conference Getty Key Faces of UKIP Suzanne Evans, Deputy Party Chairman of UK Independence Party (UKIP) speaks during the launch of UKIP's election manifesto Getty Key Faces of UKIP Peter Whittle, the UK Independence Party Member of the London Assembly, is interviewed in central London Getty Key Faces of UKIP MEP Mike Hookem during a visit to Concept Metal Products & Co Ltd Getty Key Faces of UKIP Paul Nuttall, Deputy Leader of the UK Independence Party speaks at a Say NO, Believe in Britain debate at Carn Brea Leisure Centre in Pool near Redruthon Getty

The comments come as Ukip still struggles to rebuild after imploding over the past three years, losing no fewer than three leaders.

It was forced to turn to members to raise emergency funding to meet huge legal bills which threatened the party with bankruptcy.

Mr Batten is an interim leader  having vowed to resign by next April, serving just one year  but has claimed his party is "now safe" after raising more than 300,000 from supporters.

An MOD spokesperson said: It is untrue to suggest this is the first time our soldiers have worn EU badges, just as it is untrue to say they dont wear the Union Flag. They have worn both since the mission in Bosnia And Herzegovina began in 2004, much like UN and NATO operations where the respective badges are on uniforms.The Metropolitan Police is to investigate a number of Labour members over potential antisemitic hate crimes.

Specialist officers will look into whether party members broke the law when making a series of offensive comments about Jews.

Cressida Dick, the Met Police commissioner, said she would ask hate crime experts to investigate after being presented with evidence of Labour members appearing to call for Jews to be murdered.

She told LBC: "We take hate crime very seriously.

"If somebody makes an allegation to us, absolutely we will take it seriously, we will scope it, we will see if a crime has taken place.

"I will pass this to my experts to deal with. We'll see if a crime has been committed."

It comes after the radio station was handed a dossier of antisemitism cases that were considered by Labour's disciplinary Disputes Panel.

They show people thought to be Labour members making a series of highly offensive comments about Jews.

In one post, a member wrote: "We shall rid the Jews who are a cancer on us all."

Referring to Jewish people as "devils" and suggesting the Red Sea would be an "ideal destination" for them, they added: "No need for gas chambers anyway as gas is so expensive and we need it in England."

Another person called for a Jewish MP to "get a good kicking".

A third wrote: "One cannot understand the state of the world without understanding Jewish power, and one cannot understand the nature of Jewish power until one understands the nature of Jewish thinking."

And a sitting Labour councillor was accused of inflicting "ten years of hell" on a child, including calling him "Jew boy".

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

LBC showed 45 cases to the Met's former hate crime chief, Mak Chishty, who said at least 17 should be investigated as race-hate incidents. A further four should be investigated for potentially criminal hate crimes, he said.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: The Labour Party has a robust system for investigating complaints of alleged breaches of Labour party rules by its members. Where someone feels they have been a victim of crime, they should report it to the police in the usual way."

It comes as Labour's ruling executive meets to decide whether to adopt in full the internationally-recognised definition of antisemitism that has been at the heart of the party's bitter internal dispute in recent months.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) will vote on whether to incorporate in Labour's code of conduct all 11 examples of antisemitism listed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Police were stationed outside the party's central London headquarters ahead of the meeting, as pro-Corbyn protesters opposing the IHRA definition were met by a rival group of activists clad in Israeli flags. Close Tensions high outside Labour Party headquarters ahead of anti-Semitism meeting

Labour has decided to adopt the internationally recognised antisemitism definition at the heart of a row that has engulfed the party for months.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) met to vote on whether to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition in Labour's new code of conduct.

Labour previously said it would adopt the definition but omit several of the IHRA's examples of antisemitic behaviour, most notably one which relates to claiming the creation of a state of Israel is a "racist endeavour".

But the NEC reversed its earlier decision and agreed to adopt the full definition and the accompanying 11 examples. but add a number of clarifications about what it deems to be antisemitic behaviour in relation to criticism of Israel.

But it announced it had also approved a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

The announcement came after debate raged for hours at a meeting of Labours ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), prompting suggestions that no agreement would be possible.

Jeremy Corbyn promised the NEC action against antisemitism, solidarity with the Jewish community and protection of Palestinian rights, in a further consultation on Labours code of conduct, a statement said.The carcasses of 87 elephants, killed and stripped of their tusks by poachers, have been discovered near a wildlife sanctuary in Botswana, a charity says.

The fresh and recent remains were discovered close to the protected Okavango Delta wildlife sanctuary by the Elephants Without Borders, which conducted an aerial survey for the Botswana government.

The conservation charity said the alarming rate of poaching deaths was the biggest seen anywhere in Africa.

But the government branded the figures "false and misleading", insisting Elephants Without Borders reported finding 53 carcasses, not 87.

"Of the aforementioned 53 reported, a verification mission between July and August established that the majority were not poached but rather died from natural causes and retaliatory killings as a result of human and wildlife conflicts," it said in a statement.

Survival International, a charity dedicated to tribal peoples, also expressed scepticism about the figures, claiming there is a "clamour" for rearming Botswanan wildlife guards, some of whom the charity has accused of "abuses against local people" and "extrajudicial killings".

Botswana has an estimated 130,000 elephants, the most of any country in Africa and was long viewed as a rare refuge for the creatures.

But the southern country is coming under increasing threat from poachers, who are increasingly killing elephants in the southern African country after wiping out large numbers in nearby Zambia and Angola, Elephants Without Borders said.

A similar census in 2014 found just nine carcasses, according to Mike Chase, the charitys group director. The reported increase in elephant poaching in Botswana could reflect a trend in which poachers move into new territories as conditions become more difficult in regions where they usually operate.

Those conditions could include a dearth of elephants to kill after widespread poaching, or crackdowns on trafficking syndicates in some cases.

Tanzania's Selous region, for example, was heavily hit by elephant poachers but recent data indicates that the killing has slowed. Even so, killings intensified around the same time in Mozambique's Niassa reserve to the south, which is linked to the Selous by a wildlife corridor.

 Elephants exported illegally from Laos to China for the tourist industry

The fight against elephant poaching has made some gains, including a ban on the ivory trade in China, the world's biggest consumer. But experts say the rate of annual elephant losses still exceeds the birth rate, and the encroachment of human settlements is reducing the animals' range.

Botswana, with a population of just over 2 million people, suffers some human-wildlife conflict but has more space than many other countries for animals to roam. Kenya, for example, has a population 25 times larger and is almost as big as Botswana in geographical size.

Botswana's security forces have also had a reputation  and faced criticism from neighbouring countries  for allegedly being quick to open fire on suspected poachers, including Namibians and Zimbabweans who were killed after illegally crossing the border.

Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants Show all 11 1 /11 Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants The treatment of captive elephants in Kerala is branded 'India's shame' World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants 'Elephants' in chains World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants At the Indian High Commission World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants Protesters wore black World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants The protesters were fighting to open the world's eyes to the hidden crisis, urging people to use the hashtag breakthechains World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants Campaigners came in elephant masks World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants Outside the High Commission, India House World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants 'Elephants' in chains World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants World Animal Protection Campaigners call on Indian PM to end torture of captive elephants World Animal Protection

President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who took office in Botswana this year, has taken steps to reduce the use of military weapons in operations against poachers.

While the move may have alleviated tension with Botswana's neighbours, conservationists believe it could be providing an opening to emboldened ivory traffickers.

The government denied disarming poachers had had an impact on poaching. "The withdrawal of weapons from [the Department of Wildlife and National Parks] has not created any vacuum in anti-poaching operations as the anti-poaching unit in DWNP continues to play a pivotal role in combating wildlife crime through other strategic interventions," it said.

Poachers have targeted old bull elephants that presumably have the heaviest tusks, killing them when they go to drink at seasonal water sources, Mr Chase said.

"A clear order has been put out for tusks of a specific weight, and I suspect such large ivory is in heavy demand, considering that there are few large tuskers left in Africa," he added.

Additional reporting by APResidents of the US gulf states are bracing for the onset of Tropical Storm Gordon, which could become the first Atlantic hurricane to make landfall this season.

Gordon was expected to strike near Mississippi on Tuesday, according to the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC). The storm, which has sustained wind speeds of up to 65 mph (100 km/h), could bring life-threatening flash floods and storm surges to much of the north-central Gulf Coast this week.

A hurricane warning was in effect from the northern coast of Mississippi to the border of Alabama and Florida on Tuesday afternoon, while a tropical storm warning extended westward into Louisiana. The NHC also issued a storm surge warning from Louisiana to Alabama, suggesting there could be a serious inundation of water from the coastline.

Recommended Tropical Storm Gordon warnings issued for parts of South Florida

The NHC predicted four to eight inches of rain to fall over the surrounding states, with a maximum of 12 inches hitting some areas.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Florence  the third Atlantic hurricane of the 2018 season  was making its way over the Atlantic Ocean. The storm was located more than 1,000 miles from Lesser Antilles on Tuesday morning, and posed no threat of landfall through the weekend.

Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Show all 20 1 /20 Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Crew chief Kenney shelters under the blade of an HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit preparing to take off during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Isla Grande, Puerto Rico, October 6, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico An HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit takes off behind Crew Chief Alexander Blake and his fellow soldiers during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Morovis, October 5, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Crew member Bynum stands in tropical rain as a HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit prepares to take off during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Isla Grande, October 6, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot Chris Greenway receives a hug from a woman thanking him for water as he works with the First Armored Division's Combat Aviation Brigade during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Verde de Comerio, October 7, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico A man carries a case of water away from an HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter after soldiers working with 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit dropped off relief supplies during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Jayuya, October 5, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Crew chief Alexander Blake from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit loads water into a helicopter during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Isla Grande, October 5, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Residents wait for soldiers in UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from the First Armored Division's Combat Aviation Brigade to deliver food and water during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in San Lorenzo Reuters Bringing aid to Puerto Rico An HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit lands in a field to avoid lightning during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Manati, October 5, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Residents hold their hands aloft to signal that they need water as UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from the First Armored Division's Combat Aviation Brigade fly past during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, near Ciales, October 7, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Tropical rain splashes on a runway as HH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit wait for weather to clear during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Isla Grande, October 6, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Pilot Eldwin Bocanegra Torres speaks with residents isolated by landslides in the mountains after unloading water and food from a helicopter during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, near Utuado, October 10, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Residents stand in front of wind-damaged trees as they wait for soldiers in UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from the First Armored Division's Combat Aviation Brigade to deliver food and water during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in San Lorenzo, October 7, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico The contents of a home are seen from the air during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria near Utuado, October 10, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Thomas looks out of the window of an HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit, loaded with relief supplies, during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria in Isla Grande, October 6, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico A message written on the rooftop is seen from the air during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria near Humacao, October 10, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico A HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit lands in a field during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria in San Sebastian, October 6, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Sergeant First Class Eladio Tirado, who is from Puerto Rico, looks for a landing spot for a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from the First Armored Division's Combat Aviation Brigade, during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria near Ciales, October 7, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Boys carry water away from an HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter after soldiers working with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit dropped off relief supplies during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Jayuya, October 5, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Sergeant First Class Eladio Tirado from the First Armored Division's Combat Aviation Brigade, who is from Puerto Rico, speaks with residents as he helps during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in San Lorenzo, October 7, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson Bringing aid to Puerto Rico Residents peek through a fence at helicopters from 101st Airborne Division's "Dustoff" unit that had parked in a locked field during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria, in Lares, October 6, 2017 Reuters/Lucas Jackson

Several schools in the gulf states cancelled classes on Tuesday in anticipation of Gordon making landfall. The governors of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana declared states of emergency, with Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards saying he would deploy 200 National Guard troops to the southeastern part of the state, according to the Associated Press.

The storm was expected to move in a northwestern direction after making landfall, moving inland over the lower Mississippi Valley on Tuesday night and early on Wednesday. It was just 145 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River on Tuesday morning, according to the Washington Post, moving forward at 15 mph. Forward motion was expected to slow slightly after the storm made landfall.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency urged residents of affected areas to finish their preparations quickly on Tuesday, and to keep an eye on updates throughout the day.

"This is a life-threatening situation," the NHC said. "Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions."President Donald Trump has lashed out at NBC News, arguing once again that the US government should reconsider the networks broadcast license  a move that would be almost impossible to follow through on.

The suggestion betrays a lack of understanding of the Federal Communication Commissions (FCC) power, and of the presidents ability to influence decision making in that independent regulatory body.

Mr Trump's comments come as the president has ramped up his attacks against the media in recent weeks and months. He has frequently called the press the "enemy of the people", and lashed out at the Boston Globe and others for pushing back on rhetoric that vilifies the so-called Fourth Estate.

The president's tweet suggests action against NBC that Mr Trump does not immediately have sway over.

The network, for instance, does not have a single broadcast license  its hundreds of affiliates across the country own those licenses. Revoking all of those licenses would not be a simple process, and would not come without protest from industry leaders and possibly the public.

Plus, Mr Trump cannot immediately influence the work of the FCC, which is an independent regulatory agency. The president himself designated the members of that panel, but would only be able to lobby FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and other commissioners. He cannot directly order them to revoke a broadcast license.

President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media Show all 16 1 /16 President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "You are fake news!" Then President-elect Trump directed this insult to CNN's Jim Acosta while refusing him a question at a press conference on January 11 2017. The President-elect's anger was due to the publishing by Buzzfeed of unverified memos that implicated Michael Cohen in Russian collusion. CNN had reported on a briefing of Obama and Trump on the memos by US intelligence chiefs, but knowing the content to be unverified had not revealed it AFP/Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth" President Trump said this of journalists during a visit to the CIA on the the day following his inauguration. His claim of having the largest crowd of any inauguration ceremony in history had been debunked and he clearly wasn't happy Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "Failing New York Times" President Trump commonly addresses the New York Times in this way, contrary to its increasing profit margins and expanding global readership. He is pictured here in the midtown Manhattan office of the paper Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "Enemy of the American People" President Trump has since repeated the claim that such news outlets are the enemy of the people, often after they break negative stories about him President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "They have no sources" Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 24 2017, President Trump suggested that a Washington Post article with 9 sources was "made up". The article in question exposed how then National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence over a phone call to a Russian ambassador. That the article was "made up", while highly doubtful at the time, seems even less likely since Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the same phone call Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media Access denied for major publications Protesters gathered outside of the New York Times office after Trump's White House barred a number of publications from attending a press briefing on February 24 2017. Just hours after the President had again denounced the media, then Press Secretary Sean Spicer denied access to news outlets such as CNN and the New York Times, while permitting Breitbart News, CBS, Fox and others AFP/Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "#FNN" On July 2 2017, President Trump tweeted an edited clip from his Wrestlemania XXIII appearance in which the CNN logo had been imposed onto the face of his wrestling opponent Vince McMahon. CNN is a common target for President Trump and here he suggests that he is getting the better of the network through his repeated attacks President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "The most powerful TV show in America" On July 27 2017, President Trump quoted a New York Times article about Fox & Friends. The President is known to watch Fox & Friends every morning, often tweeting about matters discussed on the show, leading to speculation over its influence on his outlook and policies Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "It's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write" In a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on October 11 2017, President Trump suggested that the press ought not to be allowed their constitutionally secured freedom. He added "people should look into it", suggesting that he also doesn't respect the protection of sources. At the time, he was angry at an NBC report claiming that the President had expressed a desire to return the size of the US' nuclear arsenal to its 1960s height, a claim that he and others in his administration dismissed as fake news AFP/Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "negative (Fake)" In a tweet on 9 May 2018, President Trump conflated negative reporting about him with fake news President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "I didn't criticise the Prime Minister" In a press conference with the Prime Minister on his visit to Britain, President Trump disputed claims published in the Sun that he had criticised Mrs May's Brexit strategy Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "Horrible, horrendous people" At a Republican rally in Pennsylvania on August 3 2018, President Trump deemed all journalists in attendance "horrible, horrendous people". He later denounced the "fake, fake, disgusting news" for falsely reporting that he was late to his meeting with the Queen when visiting Britain AFP/Getty President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media Trump's rhetoric "very close to inciting violence" In an interview with the Guardian on 13 August 2018, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein suggested that President Trump's attacks on the press are "very close to inciting violence". Zeid singles out the President's repeated claim that the fake news (negative coverage) media is the "enemy of the people" as dangerous Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "anonymous source" = fiction President Trump claimed that any report citing anonymous sources is fiction. The protection of sources is a vital matter of press freedom, without it a potential source's fear of repercussions could lead them to withhold important information President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "You are a rude, terrible person" At a press conference in the wake of the midterms, President Trump clashed with CNN's Jim Acosta when he asked about the President's use of language during the campaign Reuters President Trump's most shocking attacks on the media "I would never kill Journalists" For any journalists frightened by President Trump's attacks on the press, perhaps you can take solace in his words from a campaign rally in Grand Rapids on December 21 2015. Responding to remarks over Vladimir Putin's handling of journalists, Trump stated: "I hate some of these people, but I'd never kill them... I'll be honest - I would never kill them. Uhhh lets see.. no, I never would" Getty

Harold Feld, a senior vice president at the advocacy group Public Knowledge, told Axios last year that it is unlikely Mr Pai or others would have any interest in taking orders from the president's Tuesday morning tweets.

"Trump can't order the FCC to do it, the FCC wouldn't want to do it, and even if they did poke around they couldn't really do anything other than poke around and demand documents based on what precedents are," Mr Feld said in October, when Mr Trump also attacked NBC and suggested a re-examination of the broadcast licenses

Mr Trump has made attacking the media a fixture of his presidential rhetoric, and has found more bogeymen in the national press corps to attack than just NBC.

Soon after his 2016 election, the then president-elect reacted to reports that online actors including Russian trolls had worked to subvert the US election in his favour  in other words, actual "fake news"  by co-opting the phrase and repeatedly chastising a CNN reporter during a press conference, saying that news channel peddles in "fake news".

The attacks have had a tangible effect, and have forced news organisations to reevaluate their security plans. Meanwhile, reporters focused on the White House have faced an increasingly vitriolic public at Trump campaign events.

After a high profile attack on the media, the FBI just last week arrested a man who repeatedly threatened Boston Globe employees  including at least one instance where he said he would shoot a reporter in the head. The Globe took a lead role in coordinating editorials at newspapers across the country arguing that the press is not the "enemy of the people" as Mr Trump has claimed.Joe Biden said that everything is at stake in the upcoming midterm elections, where Democrats will be looking to take back control of Congress from the Republicans.

We're in a fight for the soul of America, said the former US vice president. Its about time we restored dignity to work, its about time we start talking to each other like were civilised, and deal with one another with respect. Thats what this is about, Mr Biden added in what was a likely comment on President Donald Trump's more combative style.

As for a more personal battle with Mr Trump, Mr Biden has said that he would decide whether he will run for president in 2020 by January.

When asked on Monday by a MSNBC reporter whether his presence at the labour day parade in Pittsburgh was political, Mr Biden said it had nothing to do with his political future.

Ive known these guys my whole life, he said. Id go anywhere with these guys. These are the guys that brought me to the dance, as the saying goes. Its called loyalty.

Mr Biden, a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, has long championed support for labour unions and workers rights.

When asked what his advice would be to Democrats as Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh are set to begin 4 September, Mr Biden said stay in the room.

 Joe Biden pays tribute to John McCain in emotional eulogy

The Trump administration has received criticism after the White House and the Justice Department have determined to withhold more than 100,000 documents of Mr Kavanaughs record during his time as staff secretary to former President George W. Bush.

Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Show all 15 1 /15 Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden watch Barack Obama's farewell speech on 11 January. Obama called Biden his 'brother' Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years US President Barack Obama speaks alongside US Vice President Joe Biden about the Affordable Care Act AFP/Getty Images Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama Getty Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years President Obama listens to Joe Biden speak of his work on defeating cancer on 18 October in the White House Reuters Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years U.S. President Barack Obama is applauded by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden while delivering his final State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in Washington Reuters Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years U.S. Vice President Joe Biden interjects as President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a reception for the 25th anniversary of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics at the White House in Washington REUTERS Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Obama and Vice President Joe Biden react after a heckler was removed for their extended interruption (Reuters) Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) as Vice President Joe Biden looks on Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Barack and Michelle Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden observing a moment of silence outside the White House to mark the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Getty Images Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Barack Obama and Joe Biden putt on the White House putting green Getty Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years President Barack Obama and Joe Biden in April 2013 AFP/Getty Images Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years January 1, 2013: U.S. President Barack Obama winks as he arrives with Vice President Joe Biden (L) in the briefing room Reuters Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House May 1, 2011 in Washington, DC Getty Images Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Vice-President Joe Biden, right, confirmed that the US was looking at ways of taking legal action against Julian Assange - back in December 2010 GETTY IMAGES Joe Biden and Barack Obama through the years Joe Biden, left, and retired military officers watch President Barack Obama sign orders to close down the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2009 GETTY IMAGES

Senate Democrats have filed several Freedom of Information Requests (FOIR) for records concerning the Supreme Court nominees time at the White House.

Stay in the room, demand answers and keep pointing out that they have not been given the material thats expected of the committee, Mr Biden said.Representatives from almost every country in Africa dined with Xi Jinping on Monday night as they attended what is believed to be the largest gathering of African heads of state ever staged outside the continent.

They had plenty to toast, after Chinas President Xi pledged new infrastructure investments in their countries of $60bn (46bn) spanning the next three years.

The latest investment is in addition to the $60bn pledged back in 2015, and promises to continue the remarkable growth of China-backed building projects across the African segment, known as the Belt and Road Initiative.

China now far outstrips the economic clout and engagement in Africa of either the US or Europe, and its involvement has inevitably sparked criticism.

Malaysias prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, warned against what he called a new version of colonialism last month when he cancelled a $20bn Chinese-backed rail project.

And in his speech addressing leaders at Beijings Great Hall of the People, Mr Xi appeared to acknowledge these concerns, saying Chinese investment came with no political strings attached.

China does not interfere in Africas internal affairs and does not impose its own will on Africa, he said. More than 1.3 billion Chinese people and more than 1.2 million African people have always pursued a shared future.

We respect Africa, love Africa and support Africa.

Since Mr Xis announcement, African heads of state have similarly sought to play down any suggestion that Chinas interests are in anything other than mutual economic growth.

Zimbabwes newly elected president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, hit out at critics of China in an interview on state TV.

There is now a transition to a new world order and those who dont see it are blind, he said.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africas president, said the Forum on ChinaAfrica Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing was working towards a vision that has been crafted in Africa, by Africans of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa.

FOCAC refutes the view that a new colonialism is taking hold in Africa, as our detractors would have us believe, he added.

Rwandas Paul Kagame, the current African Union chairman and a fierce critic in the past of foreign aid, said he considered China to be a more respectful partner than either Europe or America.

The relationship between Africa and China is based on equality, mutual respect and a commitment to a shared well-being, he said. Our growing ties with China do not come at anyones expense.

Some experts are not so sure. The International Monetary Fund warned in April that at least 40 per cent of low-income countries in Africa are either in debt distress or at high risk. Since the last FOCAC forum in South Africa in 2015, a number of countries have attempted to restructure their debt.

But Chinese officials have previously denied taking part in so-called debt trap diplomacy, and on Monday Mr Xi said government debt from Chinas interest free loans due by the end of 2018 will be written off for indebted poor African countries.

Unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, Mr Xi warned, an apparent reference to an ongoing trade war between his country and Donald Trumps America.

China-Africa cooperation under the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) is a way to common prosperity that brings benefits to both our peoples.

The only African country not represented in Beijing at the summit, which continued on Tuesday with meetings between business leaders and entrepreneurs, was newly-renamed eSwatini, formerly Swaziland.

Thats because it is now the only nation left in Africa still conducting diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the self-ruled territory claimed by China. Beijing refuses to do business with any country that maintains ties to Taipei  business which the rest of the African continent has decided it cannot afford to lose.The founder of Afghanistans powerful Haqqani network, one of Afghanistans most feared militant groups, has died at the age of 72, the Taliban has announced.

Jalaluddin Haqqani was once an ally of the US in its fight to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, but went on to become a close friend of Osama bin Laden and in 2012 the US declared the Haqqani network a terrorist organisation.

Haqqani died in Afghanistan on Monday after years of ill health, a Taliban spokesperson told the Associated Press. He had been paralysed with Parkinsons disease for the past 10 years and long ago handed over operational control of the Haqqani network to his son, Sirajuddin.

Recommended Taliban kill 17 Afghan soldiers after storming army base

Considered the most formidable of the Taliban's fighting forces, the Haqqani network has been linked to some of the more audacious attacks in Afghanistan.

And with Sirajuddin Haqqani in operational charge, it was not immediately clear what direct impact the elder Haqqani's death would have on the insurgent movement.

"If his excellency Haqqani Sahib has departed us physically, his ideology and methodology continue to endure," a Taliban statement said.

The Haqqani networks unusual history began when Jalaluddin Haqqani, educated at a deeply conservative madrassa in Pakistan, agitated against Afghanistan's monarch, King Zahir Shah, in the 1970s.

During the 1980s, when Washington backed an uprising against the communist government in Kabul and its Russian allies, it was Haqqani's military prowess that brought him attention from both the US and Pakistan. He received money and weapons from the US and his was among a number of Islamist groups that defeated an invading army from Moscow.

Haqqanis network joined forces with the Taliban when they overran Kabul in September 1996, expelling a mix of feuding mujahideen groups whose battles had left the capital in ruins.

Since then, the network has been among the fiercest foes fighting US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, and has become known for its complex, well-organised attacks as well as targeting civilians and carrying out high-profile kidnappings.

In August 1998, American cruise missiles targeted Haqqani's base in a failed attempt to kill bin Laden. Several Pakistani militants affiliated with the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen group were killed in that attack.

In November 2001, when the Taliban were routed from Kabul, Haqqani was ordered by Mullah Omar to lead its Arab fighters to safety.

Haqqani developed close ties with Pakistan's intelligence service, known by the acronym ISI, as well as Pakistani militant groups, many of whom were being groomed by the ISI to fight India in the disputed Kashmir region.

US and Afghan officials have said the network, based in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, operated with the support of ISI. Its a charge that has been rejected by Pakistan, which instead points to Haqqanis early links to the US.Jalaluddin Haqqani was a leading Mujaheddin commander in the war against Russian occupation in Afghanistan. He was also the man who recruited Osama Bin Laden into jihad, helped al-Qaeda plan attacks on the west, and founded an Islamist group responsible for thousands of deaths in murderous attacks.

The death of Haqqani, aged either 71 or 72, after a long illness will not change the tapestry of terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he was based. He had since long retired, handing over control of the group to his son Sirajuddin. However, his name is in the public domain at a time when the US administration is taking a tough stance with Pakistan for the backing it has given to Islamist extremist groups, cutting funding to the Pakistani military by $300m (233m).

Jalaluddin Haqqani had been a prime beneficiary of this support, with his group repeatedly accused of acting under the direction of the Pakistani secret police, ISI. The former head of the US military, Admiral Mike Mullen, was just one of a series of senior western officials making the accusation, describing the Haqqani network as a veritable arm of the Pakistani secret state.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo will arrive in Islamabad on Wednesday to hold talks with the government on this issue. The countrys newly elected leader, Imran Khan, was warned in his first call to Washington as prime minister that the US intends to maintain pressure on Pakistan on the issue of terrorist support. The Pakistani government initially denied that the matter had been part of the conversation, but backtracked when the US published a transcript of the call.

In his very first tweet of 2018, Donald Trump charged that Pakistan has rewarded massive US aid with nothing but lies & deceit. Plans were announced that month that up to $2bn of aid to the Pakistani military would be suspended by Washington. Pakistan denied being a safe haven for the Haqqani network.

Under Jalaluddin, the network had carried out repeated attacks in Afghanistan. One in 2009 on a CIA base in southern Afghanistan, Camp Chapman, which killed 10 people, was was paid for and organised by the Pakistani ISI, according to the Americans. Pakistan has repeatedly denied the claim. The aim, it was alleged, was to disrupt the hunt for Osama bin Laden, who was later killed by US forces in his hideout at the Pakistani military garrison town of Abbottabad.

The suicide bombing, the deadliest against the CIA in a quarter of a century, featured in Zero Dark Thirty, the Oscar-winning film about the hunt for bin Laden. There is a degree of irony that before becoming a ISI client Jalaluddin Haqqani was a CIA asset in the war against the Russians, receiving cash and weapons.

The attacks have continued under Sirajuddin Haqqani, who as well as heading the network is the deputy leader of the Afghan taliban. One of most deadly attacks recently was in Kabul in January, in which 103 people were killed by a bomb placed in an ambulance in the centre of the city.Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, has ordered the arrest of his fiercest political opponent in congress after voiding an amnesty given to the senator.

Antonio Trillanes IV condemned the withdrawal of the pardon awarded to him after his involvement in an unsuccessful uprising, but said he would not resist arrest.

After senate leaders refused to allow his arrest in congress, Mr Trillanes said he would initiate a standoff with officers waiting outside by holing up inside the senate building.

We're living basically in a de facto martial law environment of the '70s kind, he told reporters, in reference to the martial law declared by dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1972 - considered a dark chapter in Philippine history.

Several opposition politicians have also offered their support for the 47-year-old former navy officer, who was detained for years before his election to the senate, for his involvement in three military uprisings between 2003 and 2007 protesting corruption.

Military spokesman colonel Edgard Arevalo said Mr Trillanes: will be reverted to his status as active military personnel subject to military law and military discipline, adding he may be tried in a military court.

Several young military officers received amnesties for taking part in the failed coup under Mr Dutertes two presidential predecessors, although only Mr Trillanes has so far seen his pardon revoked.

Opposition senator Antonio Trillanes IV is facing arrest over a historic attempted coup (AP)

The senator said his lawyers would petition the Supreme Court to fight the move by the president, who is currently on a visit to Israel.

They're bending the law to be able to do their political objective, which is to persecute the political opposition, Mr Trillanes added.

Opposition senator, Franklin Drilon, said any attempt by the government to pursue rebellion and coup-related cases against Mr Trillanes would amount to double jeopardy.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque told reporters in Israel that the move against Mr Trillanes was not political persecution, adding that the government was just enforcing the law.

 Seven of Rodrigo Duterte's most controversial quotes

Mr Duterte has openly expressed anger against Mr Trillanes, who has accused him of large-scale corruption and involvement in illegal drugs, allegations the volatile president denies.

Another opposition senator, Leila de Lima, has been detained after being accused by Mr Duterte of involvement in illegal drugs.

A former human rights commission chief, she had previously investigated the president's alleged role in extrajudicial killings when he served as mayor of Davao City.

Another Duterte critic, Maria Lourdes Sereno, was ousted by fellow justices from the Supreme Court in May after the government alleged that her appointment by Duterte's predecessor was legally flawed and petitioned for her removal.

Additional reporting by APRussian and Syrian fighter jets have reportedly attacked two dozen locations in opposition-held Idlib in northwest Syria.

According to local media, the operation began just before lunchtime on Tuesday and involved Russian Sukhoi Su-24Ms and Su-34s jets, which were supported by Russian ships in the eastern Mediterranean.

The warplanes bombarded countryside around Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the rebel enclave of Idlib, after no airstrikes there for three weeks, killing 13 civilians but no fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

For Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the defeat of rebels in the northwestern province would mean breaking the last major stronghold of active military opposition to his rule after seven years of conflict. A number of nations, including the US with President Donald Trump being vocal, have warned against the offensive.

Troops loyal to President Assad have massed around the area for weeks, and it seems likely a ground assault will follow.

Half of Idlibs three million people have already fled from their homes to other parts of Syria, according to the United Nations, and any offensive threatens further displacement.

The attack came just hours after Mr Trump warned Russia, Syria and Iran against attacking Idlib.

Writing on Twitter, the US president said hundreds of thousands could be killed: The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy.

The White House followed that up with a statement saying that Washington was closely monitoring the situation and that any offensive by Syria would be reckless. The statement added that if Syria used chemical weapons as it had in the past then the US and its allies would respond swiftly.

Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Show all 13 1 /13 Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian protester waves a flag of the opposition as during a protest against the regime and its ally Russia, in the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan in the north of Idlib province AFP/Getty Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters from the recently-formed "National Liberation Front" stand guard over a trench as rebels prepare defensive positions in anticipation for an upcoming government forces offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters pile-up sandbags AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian rebel fighter looks through an embrasure in a make-shift bunker AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters walk through a trench AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian protester waves a flag of the opposition AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian rebel fighter stands guard over a trench AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian government minister said the siege of Idlib would probably be resolved by force. Military action is more likely than reconciliation, Ali Haidar told Russias Arabic-language Sputnik news agency. Damascus uses the term reconciliation for the negotiated rebel surrenders that have taken place in some areas.

Idlib is different from other regions because of the large numbers of fighters, Mr Haidar said. However we cannot say there is no gateway to reconciliation.

Any offensive could spark a wider confrontation with Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, whose army has set up observation posts along the Idlib front lines to deter fighting.

Turkeys Hurriyet daily newspaper reported that Turkish armed forces were reinforcing the Idlib border with M60 tanks.

Idlibs dominant rebel faction is Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadi alliance spearheaded by al-Qaedas former official affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, though other insurgent groups are also present.

On Tuesday, Steffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Syria, warned against dramatic moves. He urged Russia and Syria to continue to negotiate with other major players in the region, Turkey and Assad-ally Iran, as part of upcoming talks.

We still believe the political process should not be hostage to anything, otherwise there will always be an excuse used by anyone to postpone everything else, he said. Leaders from the three nations are due to meet in a three way summit in Tehran on Friday.

Russia has rejected both Mr Trumps and Mr de Misturas warnings, and has said the west has deliberately closed its eyes to the nature of the anti-Assad forces who remained in Idlib.

Speaking at a daily press conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Idlib as a terrorists nest that threatened Russian troops deployed in the province.

The situation undermined the peace process and threatened to destabilise Syria, he claimed.

Just to speak out with some warnings  without taking into account the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria  is probably not a full, comprehensive approach, he said.

Last week Mr de Mistura said Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda, both of which the international body designates as terrorists, had an estimated 10,000 fighters in Idlib.

Russian networks carried Mr Peskovs carefully crafted comments, but they remained silent on the growing reports of the Russian airstrikes well into the evening of Tuesday. State media news agencies carried a brief summary of reports of the airstrikes.

Russias Ministry of Defence has so far declined to comment.

Reuters contributed to this reportThe US and Russia have exchanged barbed words ahead of an operation in rebel-held Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in Syria.

Donald Trump had warned Russia, Syria and Iran that they would be making a grave humanitarian mistake if they go ahead with an assault on Idlib. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov meanwhile accused the White House of a one-sided approach that threatened to destabilise the region.

Speaking at his daily press conference, Mr Peskov said that Mr Trump's warning failed to take into account "the potential for further negative consequences in Syria." He claimed Idlib had become a "nest of terrorists" who had become a "threat" to Russian forces temporarily based in the region.

President Bashar al-Assad and his allies have been amassing a huge military presence near to rebel-held Idlib, where opposition fighters and Islamist groups are holding out among a population of around 3 million people.

Mr Trump tweeted on Monday night that Syrias President Bashar al-Assad must not recklessly attack Idlib Province.

He added: The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy.

The UN said last week it was bracing for the most horrific tragedy in Idlib and dubbed it a dumping ground for fighters and civilians who have been pushed out of successive pockets of opposition-held territory.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, warned as many as 800,000 people could be displaced if the fighting does begin.

In his tweet, the US president went one step further, suggesting hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. That might seem unlikely, given an estimated death toll of between 400,000 and half a million for the entire seven-year duration of the Syrian civil war.

Nonetheless, Syria and its allies have been ramping up the aggressive rhetoric towards Idlib. Mr Trumps tweet came as Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the start of a visit to Damascus that "terrorists must be purged from the province and the entire of Idlib returned to government control.

"Syria's territorial integrity should be safeguarded and all tribes and groups, as one society, should start the reconstruction process, and the refugees should return to their homes," Mr Zarif said.

He met with Mr Assad and his foreign minister Walid al-Moallem, who is just back from a visit to Moscow.

The visit comes days before the leaders of Iran, Turkey, and Russia are expected to meet in Iran to discuss the situation in Idlib.

During their meeting, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif discussed the agenda of the summit in Iran.

A statement from Mr Assad's office said Iran and Syria "had similar views on the different issues" to be discussed. It provided no further details.

Mr Zarif said it was necessary to consult "with our Syrian friends" ahead of the 7 September summit, according to the Fars news agency.

Iran has lent crucial military and economic support to Mr Assad throughout the civil war and the discussions are expected to focus on the decisive battle for Idlib.

Mr Assad has vowed to defeat the opposition in its last refuge in the north-western province if the rebels do not surrender to government rule.

Nearly half of the people currently living in Idlib have already been displaced more than once by the civil war.

Tens of thousands fled there after surrendering, choosing to relocate to an opposition-held area rather than risk reprisals or forced conscription at the hands of the government.

In their meeting on Monday, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif also discussed what they called "western pressure" on their two countries, in apparent reference to the US sanctions on Iran and calls for limiting Iran's role in Syria.

"War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Show all 20 1 /20 "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria A child injured by an IED explosion in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Children riding a bicycle among destroyed buildings in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Entire neighbourhoods in Raqqa are damaged beyond repair Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the house where seven members of the Badran family were killed in a Coalition strike on 18 July 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the house where seven members of the Badran family were killed in a Coalition strike on 18 July 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Members of the Badran family killed in three separate Coalition air strike on 18 July and 20 August 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria The city of Raqqa in northern Syria has become hardly recognizable to those who try to return after months battle between US-backed forces and the Islamic State terrorist group for control of it. The city has no running water or electricity and homes, business and public squares are mere rubble and debris Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Fayad Mohammed and his daughters Wafa, Fadda and Tamam; Ammar al-Faris; Reem al-Maddad, Yusra Abd-al-Aziz, and baby Razqiya Habib; Jasim Hamal and Salem Hamad. They were among the 16 civilians killed in Coalition air strikes on 12 October 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Men wait by the side of the road for casual labour in Raqqa. Many end up clearing partially destroyed or damaged buildings, a very risky endeavour as many building were mined by IS and civilians are frequently killed and injured by mines Amnesty "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite images showing the Aswad familys building before it was destroyed in a Coalition air strike which killed eight civilians, five of them children, on 28 June 2017 CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the Aswad familys building after it was destroyed in a Coalition air strike which killed eight civilians, five of them children, on 28 June 2017 CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Amal Othman, 13, and her brothers Ammar, 8 and Mahmoud, 17; and Jamal Aswad, 41  four of the eight victims killed in a Coalition air strike on 28 June 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Low-income district west of the Jezra intersection on the western outskirts of Raqqa city destroyed by the Coalition shelling started in June 2017 Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Ali Hassan Nafa; Mahdia Hashish and her husband Hussein Ali; Hussein Hashish, Mohammed Hashish and Hussein Ibrahim Hashish, and Mohammed Ali Hashish Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Harat al Badu, a built up area in central Raqqa, next to the stadium. It was the scene of the final battle in the city between SDF/Coalition forces and IS Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Map showing where the Badran, Hashish, Aswad and Fayab families were living before the coalition air strikes Unosat /Amnesty International

Israel has grown nervous of Iran's growing presence in Syria and threatened to prevent a build-up of pro-Iranian forces near its frontiers with Syria.

Russia, another Syria ally, and Damascus have also said that Western countries are preparing to carry out strikes against Syria ahead of the Idlib offensive. They claim such threats were part of the West's attempt to undermine Syria's drive to restore control over all its territories.

The US and France have warned an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisis and that a chemical attack in Idlib would prompt a western retaliation.

In the statement from the Syrian president's office, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif said that resorting to "threats and pressure reflect the failure of those countries to realise their plans for the region after Syria and Iran confronted them".

Additional reporting by APA gay couple were left very disappointed after being told only one of them could board a flight early with their 19-month-old child  even though straight families were allowed to board together.

Jeff Cobb, his husband and his daughter were flying from San Francisco to Taipei with EVA Air on 1 September when the incident occurred.

As parents travelling with an infant they joined the priority boarding queue, but were told that only one parent was eligible to board the plane early.

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Cobb wrote on Twitter: My husband and I were told only one of us could join our 19-month-old in the family boarding group of EVA Air 27 from SFO on 9/1/18.

I explained we were both the fathers of the child, and they said it was their policy that only one parent can board and the other has to wait in the normal line. Not having flown EVA before, I accepted it and let my husband and child go while I boarded later.

However, when Cobb eventually boarded, his husband said the policy didnt seem to extend to heterosexual couples.

When I met him on the plane, he said there were many other (straight) families all boarding together, said Cobb. Im very disappointed that the EVA ground staff at SFO thinks its OK to separate same-sex families during boarding.

I will definitely not be flying this airline again after this incident.

EVA Air has since apologised and described the incident as a misunderstanding. A spokesperson for the airline said: EVA Air and most especially our San Francisco International Airport team sincerely apologise to all the passengers affected by this incident.

It is our policy that passengers travelling with infants can have priority boarding.

The policy does not limit the number of accompanying adults or specify the relationship to the infant.

This unfortunate incident was due to misunderstanding.

The spokesperson added: Our San Francisco ground-handling agent understood that only one parent could board with an infant.

We have apologised to our passengers and reminded our airport staff and agents about our priority boarding policy so that we can prevent this kind of incident from happening again.Ryanair has accused NATS, the British air traffic control service, of blatant discrimination against London Stansted Airport and says it is submitting a formal complaint to the European Commission.

Europes biggest airline claimed that data published by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on 1 June proved Stansted was being discriminated against, while Heathrow and Gatwick were given preferential treatment.

The CAA figures show that Stansted Airport experienced 52 per cent of all ATC delays caused by NATS in the London area between January and March 2018; Heathrow had 0 per cent of NATS delays in that time period and Gatwick had 10 per cent.

Ryanair, whose main UK base is London Stansted, claimed the discrepancy was down to the failure of NATS to supply adequate ATC staffing and airspace resources, saying this had wreaked havoc this summer on both Ryanair and London Stansted flight schedules, with 2018 shaping up to be the worst year on record for ATC disruptions at the Essex airport.

Ryanair and Stansted are clearly being discriminated against by the UK airline owned ATC provider NATS, said Ryanair COO Peter Bellew. These disruptions are unfair and unacceptable, and we call on the UK Dept of Transport and the EU Commission to take urgent action to ensure that the UK ATC provider (NATS) is fully staffed and treats each London airport fairly.

NATS dont have enough staff. Ryanair is today submitting a formal complaint to the European Commission and the UK CAA over this blatant discrimination against Stansted Airport and Ryanair.

He added: The situation is particularly bad at weekends where NATS are hiding behind adverse weather and euphemisms such as capacity restrictions when the truth is they are not rostering enough ATC staff to cater for the number of flights that are scheduled to operate."

The CAA says it has not yet received a formal complaint.

As announced in August 2017, following an industry complaint about NATS, we undertook a full investigation using investigatory powers under section 34 of the Transport Act 2000, and no formal breach was found," said a spokesperson. "However, if a new complaint was received we would consider how to respond accordingly.

The CAA report shows that Stansted had the highest percentage of ATC related delays caused by NATS, followed by Luton (30 per cent), Gatwick (10 per cent), City (8 per cent) and Heathrow (0 per cent).

However, NATS roundly denies discriminating against any airport or airline.

A NATS spokesperson said: Ryanair performance this summer cannot be blamed on UK air traffic control.

The figures Ryanair quote from the beginning of the year coincide with the introduction of new technology that affected the number of flights in and out of Stansted during that period. Luton airport was similarly affected at that time and other airports were affected at other times over a seven-month period.

All airlines and airports were notified of the timetable in advance and understood the new technology will help us increase capacity safely in the future.

NATS says that Ryanair made similar accusations in 2016, which were investigated by the CAA  the final report found no evidence that NATS unduly preferred or discriminated against any party.

The spokesperson added: Adding extra controllers to the Essex airspace will not make a difference. Additional aircraft cannot fly in that area safely without redesigning the airspace which requires consultation with those affected on the ground.

Ryanairs complaint comes as the low-cost airline announced its traffic figures for August 2018. Despite cancelling almost 550 flights, up from just 27 cancellations in August the previous year, passenger numbers grew 9 per cent to 13.8 million.

Ryanairs Kenny Jacobs said: Regrettably, over 100,000 Ryanair customers had their flights cancelled in August because of repeated ATC staff shortages in the UK, Germany and France, and one day of unnecessary pilot strikes.

Ryanair, together with other European airlines, calls for urgent action by the EU Commission and Governments to correct these ATC staff shortages which are disrupting the travel plans of millions of Europes consumers this summer.The number of Britons visiting Spain dropped 5.6 per cent year on year in July, as holidaymakers returned to cheaper destinations like Turkey and Egypt.

According to official data from Spains statistics agency INE, the total number of tourists to Spain decreased for the first time in nine years, falling 4.9 per cent year on year to 2.2 million in July.

July is an important month for summer tourism to the country, with visitors coming to enjoy its beaches, historic towns and lively cities.

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The tourism industry is a key one for Spain. It accounts for around 11 per cent of the economy and employs more Spaniards than any other industry. Spain is the second most visited country in the world, according to the latest United Nations World Tourism Organisation Tourism Highlights report, ahead of the USA and trailing France.

In 2017, Spain welcomed 81.8 million international visitors, second after France, according to the UNWTO report released last week. Spain is also second for international tourism receipts, with $68bn spent by visitors in 2017.

Over the first seven months of 2018, there was a gradual climb in the number of international visitors. The number inched up by 0.3 per cent to 47 million, the lowest growth rate in eight years.

Spains international visitor drop comes as Turkey is experiencing a resurgence in tourism, with tour operator Thomas Cook reporting a 63 per cent year on year jump in bookings to Turkey for 2018. British holidaymakers are finally returning to the country following a series of attacks and an attempted military coup in 2016. The Turkish lira recently reached an all-time low against the pound, making it a better value destination for visitors from the UK.

The tourism industries in Egypt and Tunisia are also gradually picking up.In whatever time she has left, Theresa May faces two major challenges.

One seems undeliverable: at this moment, youd have to be on a fairly spectacular acid trip to picture her finessing any Brexit through the Commons or past the country.

The other, however, looks more achievable. This PM must ensure that Boris Johnson is not the next.

People laughed at Boris when his ambition first became obvious. But as with Bob Monkhouse, helmsman of Family Fortunes long before Stanley Johnson monetised the bloodline on Im A Celebrity, theyre not laughing now. This is lethally serious.

If only there were a recent precedent of a metropolitan elite underestimating a mendacious, egomaniacal chancer with an arrestable offence masquerading as a hairdo? In its absence, were on the cusp of a leadership challenge from someone whom a more serious democracy, such as Toytown, wouldnt entrust with the post of undersecretary of state for cleaning PC Plods helmet.

How close he is to launching the coup, and how viable it would be, is unclear. So often has Baby Trump  I know it sounds like tautology; just think of a toddler cuddling a Tiny Tears doll  knocked on the No 10 door and run away that its tempting to dismiss this latest intervention as another round of Knock Down Ginger.

This one, confided to readers of his Telegraph musings, seemed deranged even for him, as he delved into professional wrestling for a wicked conspiracy. The whole thing is about as preordained as a bout between Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy, he wrote of Brexit. Younger readers may know nothing of those British precursors to Hulk Hogan and The Rock. But, thanks to WWE, they will be familiar with expertly choreographed wrestling bouts with fabricated outcomes. Does that sound like Brexit to you? Does anything here look meticulously rehearsed? Do you discern the hint expert choreography in all the punch drunk staggering across the Brexit ring?

 Boris Johnson ridiculed by Kenyan president: 'The bicycle guy'

Theres method in his madness, of course. Step one, when youre trying to incite the headbangers rage, is to feed the addiction to the sense of betrayal, which is the drug of choice for those at both extremes of the mainstream political spectrum. Whether its Corbyn cultists dreaming of deselecting ideological traitors, or Brexit ultras fantasising about the purifying power of the no-deal bonfire, they live for it.

Boris knows this. If anything has the flavour of wrestling moves in this waking nightmare, its his ritualistic use of the language of surrender to put May in a half nelson from which she cannot wriggle free.

Boris isnt a half Nelson, or a quarter Churchill. Where they rescued their country, he would burn it for power. Hed burn up galaxies for that. But he is a danger, and if and when the leadership challenge comes, its a sure thing the threat of deselections will cross the floor of the House. Tory constituencies will come under pressure to ditch MPs who refuse to back the standard bearer of the Brexit far right.

If Boris gets into the two candidate runoff against a moderate such as Sajid Javid or Jeremy Hunt, he wins. This scenario being at least as mortifying to May as to anyone else on nodding terms with sanity, her last and greatest duty is to stop Boris even at the cost of her own political life.

For a vicars daughter, the literary reference point is Judges 16:29, in which Samson brought down the temple roof to destroy the Philistines as well as himself.

But sticking with wrestling analogies, a more recent episode from western fiction will suffice. I refer to Sherlock Holmes taking out Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. It is true (spoiler alert) that due to popular demand, Conan Doyle resurrected Holmes. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall, he tells Watson in The Empty House. I have some knowledge of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. But originally, in The Final Problem, Holmes calculated the cost of his life as a bargain to take Moriarty down with him and save his country from its worst menace.

Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Show all 10 1 /10 Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines The Sun, March 9 2016 This wholly false headline merited the first ruling by IPSO (the press regulator) under clause 1 of the revised Editor's Code of Practice. Clause 1 makes specific reference to newspapers printing "headlines not supported by the text" Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Mail, November 4 2016 In perhaps the most notorious front page of the past few years, the Mail derides the High Court judges who ruled that parliament must have a vote on whether to trigger article 50 and start the Brexit process Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Express, November 4 2016 In the Express' take on the same story, they manage to incorporate the Union Jack, allude to First World War propaganda, invoke memories of Churchill and, of course, state "Brexit means Brexit" Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines The Sun, March 29 2017 The Sun marked the day on which Mrs May triggered article 50 by projecting a huge and terrible pun on to the Cliffs of Dover Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines The Sun, April 4 2017 Referencing their notorious eurosceptic headline from 1990 (See: Up Yours Delors), the Sun stokes the flames of the brief Gibraltar dispute, a dispute in which Spain, the supposed aggressors, only joined to note that there was "no need for it" Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Mail, April 19 2017 This headline followed Mrs May's snap election announcement, which gave the Mail hope that dissenting opinions on Brexit would disappear Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Mail, December 14 2017 In recent months, the Mail has often forgone catchy headlines in favour of rambling rants, this is an early example aimed at Tory Brexit rebels Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Mail, January 31 2018 This headline (?) takes aim at the Lords over their repeated amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines The Sun, June 12 2018 On the day that the EU Withdrawal Bill is to be debated in the Commons, the Sun offers two choices to MPs, desperately including all conceivable imagery that might make Brits feel patriotic, which apparently includes the Loch Ness Monster Brexit: 10 of the most ridiculous headlines Daily Express, June 12 2018 On the same day, the Express lets MPs know what the consequences of the vote may be

Accepting that delivering a strong and stable Brexit  or any Brexit  is plainly beyond her, May must identify stopping Boris as her final problem. Downing Street statements about his lack of new ideas wont cut it. Its long been apparent that he doesnt have any old ideas.

She cannot rely on the common sense or decency of her MPs. The majority know Boris for what he is, and plenty actively hate him. But under duress from local parties, with opinion polls citing him as their best hope of holding their seats, they are capable of sending his name to the members. You need only glance at the cowardice of congressional Republicans to appreciate the career politicians capacity for indecency. You need merely recall that 15 years ago Tory MPs put Iain Duncan Smith into the final two to gauge their common sense.

God knows what Mays solution to the Boris problem might be. It could be timing her departure for maximum impact on his prospects and making a resignation statement itemising her fears in brutal detail. If it came with the risk of doing time under the Official Secrets Act, or worse still losing the automatic peerage, she could declassify his MI5 file. That ought to do it.

Whatever it takes, she must know, if she didnt before, that she and Boris are engaged in a deathly grapple on the edge of a terrifying abyss. If she can find a way to take him over it with her, she wouldnt come back. But she would leave with honour, dignity, and the eternal gratitude of a nation that would at least be able to know itself as slightly less terminally gullible than the United States.Jeremy Corbyns supporters are celebrating a clean sweep of Labours internal election for places on the partys National Executive. All nine places elected by party members went to candidates on the slate organised by Momentum, the leaders fan club.

It was an impressive result but also consistent with the idea that we have passed Peak Corbyn. The share of the vote won by Momentum candidates was down from last time, and Eddie Izzard  standing as an independent, non-factional celebrity  came within a whisker of winning a place. He came within 2,500 votes of the 70,000 won by the lowest placed Momentum candidate, Peter Willsman.

Willsman was re-elected despite being dropped from the Momentum slate four days after the voting started, when the recording of him at a National Executive meeting was made public. In it, he ranted against rabbis falsifying examples of antisemitism in the Labour Party  but, by the time the recording emerged, many people had already voted.

What the results also showed was that non-Corbynites still attract a large minority of the votes. Two years ago, when Corbyn won his second leadership election, Owen Smith, his challenger, won 38 per cent of the members vote. Since then many non-Corbynites have left the party and yet it seems they still make up a quarter to a third of the membership.

Corbyn supporters will accuse me of clutching at straws  and that is exactly what you would expect a Blairite to do. But they might also realise how hard it will be for them to keep up their enthusiasm for another three years.

Of course, it is better from Corbyns point of view that he has kept his grip on the National Executive. He will need it this afternoon when it discusses the plan to adopt the International Holocaust Memorial Alliance definition of antisemitism, with all its examples in full but also with a codicil confirming the right of Labour members to criticise the government of Israel. Momentums decision to fudge its position on a final say Brexit referendum at Labours annual conference in Liverpool at the end of this month may also be helpful in getting over that awkward bump.

 Frank Field says he would return to the Labour party with Jeremy Corbyn as leader: 'Why should I leave the party?'

But victory brings pressure to secure further advances, and that starts to take Corbyn into more difficult territory. His supporters control of the National Executive means that plans are likely to go ahead to make it easier to deselect non-core-group Labour MPs. This is more exciting to many Momentumites than having to decide their position on Brexit, but it is a double-edged sword. They think the media are biased against them anyway, but the one thing that would guarantee damaging headlines for Corbyn would be a series of internal battles between now and the next election to get rid of Labour MPs. Some of them may (unlike Frank Field) resign to fight by-elections, and if they are popular enough locally they might even win them.

Internal party democracy is mostly just a slogan for factional advantage, although the case for easier deselections is strong. Party members ought to be allowed to choose parliamentary candidates who would at least be prepared to say they want Corbyn to be prime minister.

But the trouble it would cause in practice would ensure that Labour had not just passed Peak Corbyn, but was on the downward slope.Arguably the most important reform that followed the financial crisis was the power to claw back bonuses paid for successes that turned out to be failures. Naturally it is disappointing that it took global financial Armageddon for people to work out that hoodwinking your bosses in to believing everything was going great, and taking vast payments for your genius when you in fact know its all about go tits up is just not right.

Still, change came in the end. The pit now is that 10 years after ripping that particular badge of shame from the Citys lapel, the government is now only too happy to wear it itself.

That Londons new Crossrail train service, to be known as the Elizabeth Line, will now open at least nine months late is deeply disappointing. Hundreds of thousands of commuters have for several years now been almost counting down the days until the misery of their daily commutes are transformed by this bright, new, fast thing of wonder.

But what is not disappointing, but infuriating, is the hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money, paid to Crossrail executives for, yes, successes that have now been shown to be failures.

If, for example, Andy Wolstenholme, the former Crossrail chief executive, had worked for JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs, the hundreds of thousands of pounds paid to him in performance related bonuses would be fished out of his bank account and dropped back into the public purse where it belongs.

And why is that? Because hoodwinking your bosses, in this case the people, in to believing everything is going great and taking vast payments for your genius when you in fact know its all about go tits up is simply not right.

In July of this year, it was announced that 800,000 was paid in bonuses to senior Crossrail managers, at the same time it was forced to announce it had overspent its budget by 600m, and, we must presume, at the very same time said senior managers were coming up with strategies on when and how to reveal the news that Crossrail was not going to open on time.

We can only presume this, by the way, we cannot know for sure, because it is one of three questions Crossrail has not provided an answer for despite having been given 24 hours and multiple requests to do so. It also will not say precisely what Mr Wolstenholmes performance related bonuses have been for. It will not say in what way Mr Wolstenholmes performance, on a project that is approaching 1bn over budget and opening a year late, has been deemed to have exceeded expectations.

We must also presume that Mr Wolstenholmes hundreds of thousands of pounds for failure cannot be clawed back, because this is the third question which Crossrail has not answered after several requests.

In the private sector, this grotesque reward of failure is infuriating enough, and that is with private money. In the public sector, it scarcely bears repeating that only last years performance related pay for Crossrail bosses is around 40 times the annual pay of an NHS nurse.

Nurses do not, by the way, receive performance related bonuses, not even for comprehensively failing in their jobs.

That Britains rail network is in chaos is no secret. But actually, the countrys reputation for delivering on large scale infrastructure projects on time and on budget has been significantly rehabilitated since the unqualified triumph of the Olympic Games. Since then, British companies, many of the same ones delivering Crossrail, have been sought the world over. That Crossrail will not open in time does, in fact, come as a shock. It also deals a significant reputational blow to the nation, and those who have overseen it have been overpaid for doing so.

The Elizabeth Line, when it opens, will be a terrific success. But the grotesque rewards for those who have been paid to fail should make us even more angry as a train that arrives a whole year late.When footage of a turtle with a plastic straw lodged its nostril went viral in 2015, people around the world were happy to start ditching plastic straws. Its inspiring to see so many people choosing to make small changes, with the environment in mind.

The anti-straw movement has shown the power of the individual in influencing the market; consumers are saying no to plastic straws, and companies are beginning to listen. Worldwide, more bans are taking off. Starbucks has pledged to ban plastic straws by 2020, while McDonalds is to replace them with paper straws in all its UK branches. New York City is also considering banning plastic straws in eateries.

Ways to reduce your single-use plastic Show all 6 1 /6 Ways to reduce your single-use plastic Ways to reduce your single-use plastic Plastic water bottle for a reusable beverage container Instead of continually buying drinks in plastic bottles you can switch to a reusable beverage container and reduce your single-use of plastics. Selfridges' Bobble 550ml filtered water bottle costs 12.95 and includes a replaceable carbon filter that filters water as you drink, removing chlorine and organic contaminants in the process. You can buy it from selfridges.com Getty/Selfridges Ways to reduce your single-use plastic Coffee cup for a Travel coffee mug It is estimated that the UK throws away around 2.5bn disposable coffee cups a year and almost all are incinerated, exported or sent to landfill because their plastic lining makes them expensive to recycle. The new Latte Levy in the UK means there will now be a 25p charge on every disposable coffee cup bought by consumers. Pret A Manger announced that it will double its discount to 50p in an effort to reduce waste. By swapping to a reusable cup you will be able to help cut the cost of disposable coffee cups. This Keep Cup Brew, cork edition, travel cup in Fika is just one of the many available to purchase. It fits under most commercial coffee machines, is splash-proof and ideal for transporting your coffee whilst on the go. You can buy this particular cup for 19.99 from trouva.com. Getty/Trouva Ways to reduce your single-use plastic Plastic bags for reusable cloth bags An eco-friendly alternative to an ordinary plastic bag is this lightweight shopping bag. It comes with a practical pillowcase pocket and features a black and white ink splatter design. Convenient and durable it also has a matte black spring clip to attach it where you need it. You can buy this from paperchase.co.uk for just 5.00. Getty/Paperchase Ways to reduce your single-use plastic Coffee pods for a pot of coffee Cut your plastic coffee pod usage with a cafetiere. This Barista and Co, 3 Cup Gold Cafetiere, from Habitat offers a simple way to brew and serve in style. Made from borosilicate glass and plated stainless steel with an ergonomically designed handle, the cafetiere is built to last and a pleasure to use; a fine metal filter produces a smooth coffee that retains its natural oils. You can buy it for 30 from habitat.co.uk. Getty/Habitat Ways to reduce your single-use plastic Balloons for eco-friendly decorations Instead of using plastic balloons at your party try swapping them for some eco-friendly bunting. Handmade in Scotland, the bunting comprises thirteen brightly coloured pennants which spell out the words 'Happy Birthday', and uses lettering that has been printed onto 100 per cent recycled card. Included is 11ft of natural jute twine to hang the pennants on, and everything comes packaged in a cello bag. You can buy this bunting from Little Silverleaf on notonthehighstreet.com for 12.50. Getty/notonthehighstreet Ways to reduce your single-use plastic Plastic straw for a reusable bamboo one Swap plastic straws for reusable ones made of bamboo. These straws are handmade in Bali and crafted by local balinese artisans. Made of organic and natural materials they are the best eco-friendly alternative to plastic, steel or glass straws. You can purchase them from Bali Boo on Amazon.co.uk for 13.99. PA/Bali Boo/Amazon

This anti-plastic movement is important. The world consumes plastic in alarming quantities  320 million tons are produced every year. Unfortunately, the plastics we throw away end up in landfill and the natural environment  plastics dont fully degrade, they just erode into smaller pieces, known as microplastics. These microplastics contain toxins which can kill or maim sea creatures when ingested, while uneroded plastic debris can destroy marine habitats and cause animals grave bodily harm.

Straws are something anyone can give up easily without having it affect their lifestyle, said Diana Lofflin, the founder of California-based strawfree.org. But can we really save marine life without radically changing our lifestyles?

While the anti-straw movement should be lauded for its role in raising public awareness about plastic pollution in our oceans, some commentators have criticised it as ableist, given the independence straws allow some disabled people.

Another growing concern is that the movement might encourage complacency. Theres more to plastic waste than straws. Estimates from five years of beach cleaning on US coastlines suggest that there are up to 8.3 billion straws on global coastlines. A crazy figure, but it equates to about 0.03 per cent of all plastic in the ocean. This begs the question  where is all the rest of the plastic coming from?

One of the greatest overall threats to marine wildlife and sources of marine plastic, according to Australian scientists Chris Willcox and Denise Hardesty, is fishing gear  this includes nets, fishing lines and buoys. According to a more recent survey, at least 46 per cent of the rubbish found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a major ocean plastic accumulation zone between California and Hawaii, comes from discarded fishing nets.

 This all-women team are tackling plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean

Entrapment in nets intended for other species, and in gear left behind by fishing boats is the prime threat to marine turtles, said diver and underwater photographer Francis Perez. His photograph of a loggerhead sea turtle entangled in abandoned fishing gear off the coast of Tenerife won first prize in the nature singles category at World Press Photo 2017. Its a beautiful, albeit distressing picture to look upon.

I hope that it raises public awareness about plastic pollution, and about what we are doing to our oceans. Everybody empathises with sea turtles  had it been another marine creature, perhaps a shark, it probably wouldnt have got so much attention. My friend and I first checked to see whether the turtle was okay  it wasnt injured, so after taking the photo and a short video, we cut it loose.

Overfishing causes harm beyond the discarded nets and buoys which make up a sizeable proportion of marine plastics, and its apparently inevitable given our insatiable desire for fish suppers.

Today, around 90 per cent of the worlds fish stocks are exploited. More locally, about 41 per cent of assessed fish stocks are subject to overfishing in the northeast Atlantic. Its estimated that we kill between 1 to 2.8 trillion fish each year, more than all the humans that have ever existed.

Yet taking too much does not just reduce or endanger target fish stocks  it also means that we are reducing the food supply for other marine life. The unsustainable overfishing of bluefin tuna in the Strait of Gibraltar, for example, has threatened orcas that migrate to the region to feed by dramatically reducing their main food source.

Unsustainable practices like trawling also haul out more sea creatures than they intend to  and then throw them back into the sea dead or dying. Bycatch mortalities include dolphins, marine turtles, juvenile fish, sharks and seabirds. WWF estimates that about 40 per cent of fish caught worldwide are caught unintentionally.

In July this year, a viral tweet from a university student questioned why people stop using straws to save fish, but wont stop eating them to save them. It was funny, but also a valid question. Is the straw ban fuelled by compassion towards marine life, or rather a desire to safeguard a food source?

Marine Conservation Society UK recommends that those who do eat fish make an informed choice and look for the most sustainable options, such as those that are green-rated on its Good Fish Guide.

It seems to me that taking fish off our plates is the best way to save marine life. Banning straws is just the beginning.There are many misconceptions about Muslim women who wear the hijab: that were oppressed, forced to cover our hair by male relatives; that were submissive, and incapable of being integrated into life in the western world. These misconceptions are perpetuated everywhere: from articles in newspapers condemning women for covering their hair or faces (or for wearing different kinds of swimwear), to the one-dimensional depictions of Muslim women on TV.

Muslim women are not a monolith, there isnt one way to for us to be, and we certainly dont embody the stereotypes that are foisted on us. In the past few years, Ive been heartened to see Muslim women taking control of our own narratives and being visible in the public eye. Younger hijab-wearing women can turn on the TV and see Fatima Manji covering the news on Channel 4, or Nadiya Hussain presenting a show on the BBC.

Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Show all 8 1 /8 Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features Muslim fashion designer features hijabs at New York Fashion Week Anniesa Hasibuan show, runway, Spring Summer 2017, New York Fashion Week Rex Features

They can go onto YouTube and get fashion tips from Dina Tokio, and other hijab-wearing fashion and beauty bloggers. They can even watch the Olympics and see athletes like Zahra Lari or Ibtihaj Muhammad compete while wearing headscarves. I was starved for representation like this as a young girl, and it means the world to me that I can see people who look like me in the public eye.

Sara Iftekhar, a 20-year old law student from Huddersfield, is now ensuring that young Muslim women also get to see someone who looks like them competing in a beauty pageant, and its a beautiful thing. Muslim women who wear the hijab are so often othered because we dont conform to conventional ideas about beauty  society tells is that by choosing to cover our hair, or dressing in a modest way, weve given up our right to be considered beautiful.

When we are allowed to be beautiful, we are caught between two extremes: either by being fetishised by people who like the idea of unveiling us, or being told by others that were only beautiful because were covered. In both of these situations, were not allowed the chance to define beauty in our own way.

This is why Iftekhars decision to compete for the Miss England title this year is so important. Here is a vibrant, confident young woman who is proving, on a huge platform, that beauty comes in many forms, that Muslim women in hijabs can be beautiful, and that we can own our beauty, alongside other definitions of beauty.

Alongside other pioneers like Halima Aden, whose modelling career was kick-started by her involvement in the Miss Minnesota beauty pageant, Iftekhar is changing the perceptions of hijab-wearing Muslim women and what were capable of.

I started wearing the hijab for political reasons. I wanted people to see me as a visibly Muslim woman in all of the spaces I was in. I wanted people to get used to the sight of a Muslim woman at the front of a lecture theatre; in a Polar Research Institute; grabbing drinks at the end of the day with colleagues; at rock music festivals  I wanted to show people that Muslim women belong in all of these places.

Iftekhar is doing just that, but on a huge scale  shes proving that hijabi women belong in the spaces we choose to occupy. The fact that shes reached the Miss England finals is something that should be celebrated by the Muslim community, and by women at large, because the more definitions we have for beauty, the more women we can represent.Denis Naughten refuted the idea that the post office was central to rural communities (Brian Lawless/PA)

Communications Minister Denis Naughten has told a committee that the planned closure of 159 post offices across the country was required as the entire postal network almost collapsed last year.

The minister said that 97 weeks ago I was presented with a future for An Post that was uncertain and extremely bleak.

He said: I was determined the company would not go under on my watch because of the failure to act by successive governments.

I could have sat on my hands and ignored it and let hundreds of post offices continually close.

The minister listed declining mail volumes, eSubstitution and the move to online payments and online banking as major impacts on the sector.

No minister wants to be in the position I am in today, but I've decided we need to have a viable future for the post office networkDenis Naughten

Mr Naughten added: If politically we shirk decision-making, we potentially ultimately will have no post office network at all.

No minister wants to be in the position I am in today, but Ive decided we need to have a viable future for the post office network.

These are not decisions that have been taken lightly or without good reason.

At the last general election, postmasters came and asked for a modernisation plan for the post office, were doing that, and redundancy package, were doing that, and a look at new services, which is happening at the moment.

The minister added that it is longstanding policy that postal services will not be directly subsidised by Government.

Mr Naughten appeared before the meeting of the Communications, Climate Action and Environment Committee to answer questions on the restructuring plan, worked out between An Post and the Irish Postmasters Union (IPU).

The plan has been criticised by some over the anticipated impact on rural Ireland, with some saying the Government had failed in its commitment to rural life.

The minister refuted the idea that the post office was central to rural communities.

He said: The post offices were the nucleus of the community in the past but I dont believe that today.

We have not seen new innovative services in the post office, we dont see young people using services in the post office.

That can only be done by modernising the post office network.

The changes will affect post offices in Carlow, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Tipperary and Wexford.

The meeting was attended by representatives from An Post, the Post Office Networks and representatives of An Post mailing centres.

Seamus Maye, chairman of the Public Banking Forum of Ireland, urged the Government to think outside the box in relation to saving the post office network.

He said: Irelands post office can become a core plank of rebuilding Ireland, but the current narrative is all wrong, we can at the stroke of a pen turn it into a thriving multi-service provider.

The current An Post proposals are bizarre and ill thought out, and would see the destruction of one of our best institutions.

Going forward, we need to think outside the box to avoid wanton destruction of our post office network.

Tom OCallaghan, leader of the forums post office unit, said that the Government is attacking its own national asset.

Some of the committee members agreed with the suggestion of a community bank being run by An Post to offer loans to small businesses and low-income households who would be turned away from pillar banks.

The committee heard the cost of setting up such a bank would be around 160 million euro.

We have an opportunity to do the right thing for the first time ever, Mr OCallaghan added.Sinn Fein is developing policy for a 32-county health service to protect Irish health services affected by Brexit.

Speaking on the second day of the partys think-in event in Co Cavan, Louise OReilly TD said that in the context of Brexit, the issue of how health services will be affected is one that keeps coming back.

Health spokesperson @loreillysf said Sinn Fein want a 32 county health service thats free at the point of delivery and based on need and not ability to pay pic.twitter.com/16ekW5Lkjn  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) September 4, 2018

She said: We are developing policy on a 32-county health service, which is available for all the citizens on this island.

Disease does not recognise borders, our health service shouldnt.

We have been discussing the level of cooperation that exists currently and how we can deepen and develop that.

We launched our 32-county womens health policy document recently, and last week we also launched policy related to nursing and how we will tackle recruitment and retention crisis.

We will not have a health service if we dont have the personnel to deliver it.

This government have failed time and time again, they have let our nurses down.

We see Fianna Fail protect the government and they believe nurses are very well paid.

We dont believe that, pay has to be central to recruitment and retention issue.

We also have to deal with role development, opportunities for promotion, time off for study, cover for maternity leave, all these issues have to be dealt with.

In context of a 32-county health service, what we want to see is the development of a health service for people when they need it, based on need and not on ability to pay.

The most recent report on recruitment and retention issues in the health sector found that in nursing and midwifery departments difficulties exist in meeting workforce requirements in specific areas.

The report also recommended that Specialist Qualification Allowance currently paid to nurses and midwives who acquire post-graduate qualifications should be increased by 20%.

Commenting on the release of the Report, the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform, Paschal Donohoe said: There are many viewpoints on the issues.

There is a commitment between public service employers and staff representatives to meet within four weeks to discuss implementation of the Report.

It is important that this process is adhered to and that space is afforded to reflect on the details and engage in that process.

The announcement comes after Sinn Fein members gathered to discuss their vision of a new Ireland  what that means in terms of Brexit, the economy and Irish Unity at the partys annual think-in.

Speaking at the Sinn Fein National Think-In @conormurphysf said the Good Friday Agreement must be fully honoured and protected pic.twitter.com/WQ5QvTgjjr  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) September 4, 2018

Over the course of the two days, party representatives discussed the upcoming budget in the 26 counties and how the partys alternative budget might bring about shared prosperity, lift the burden from ordinary people and address the health and housing crises.

Also addressed is the issue of powersharing in Northern Ireland, of which Sinn Feins Conor Murphy has accused the British government of adopting a policy of drift in order to protect their interests in the confidence and supply agreement with the DUP.Glamping has proven to be a popular diversification for some farmers, although there are plenty of other options open to businesses

Diversification is not for everybody. Growing food is still the core business of most farmers but there are certainly areas on all farms that we know are not delivering a productive or sustainable return, and there is an increasing number of alternative options.

However, diversification ventures often require a different set of skills and resources than those needed for the farm business.

There is now a real mix of farmers looking into how to diversify their business away from core farming, from the biggest farms in the country right down to landowners with just 10 acres. Many people focus on the more standard diversifications such as glamping, but there are also more innovative enterprises, such as on-farm restaurants, artisan food and renewable energy.

Adding value through diversification is going to be key to support the future viability of small-farm businesses. With such a wealth of options out there, which ones are best suited to your existing enterprise and budget? Farmers really need to think carefully about what type of enterprise they choose. If you're going to do it, you've got to get up to it every day and want to do it forever.

Key considerations in farm diversification

 What are your key interests and what are your skills?

 Why are you contemplating a diversification project? If your reason is to make money you have to know if the project will deliver the best use of your time and money.

 Why are you choosing a particular type of farm diversification enterprise? Very often people can get an idea into their head but do not consider whether the project is suitable for the location. The project must also suit your own skillset and you need to recognise competition in the area.

 Determine whether the proposed new enterprise fits in with the existing farm business. It's often useful to start a new business off small and test the water before you build and invest to a higher level.

 Identify your customer base and determine exactly what they want. You need to know how you are going to reach out to your customer base. This can be effectively done through social media instead of a physical presence. There is no substitute for spending time on understanding and identifying your target customer.

 How willing are family members to get involved in a new business enterprise? It will be important to have regular family meetings and to respect various perspectives on a planned diversification.

 Timelines should be developed and deadlines set regarding decisions relating to a new diversification. These deadlines should be narrowed down to a shortlist and you need to move forward with plenty of research towards the planned dates.

Typical mistakes

1 It's important for somebody to take control of a project and not assume that someone else will take responsibility and make it happen. Any new project should become a mission which you take control of.

2 Not getting key decision makers on your side. If you don't convince key project decision makers such as banks, builders, relatives, LEADER companies and local authority planners about the merits of your project, it could grind the venture to a halt.

3 Very often there is not enough effort invested in research. A new diversification project can often mean entering a much more competitive market than traditional agriculture, such as retail. It's important to build an understanding of how things work.

4 Not taking time to examine the financials. Very often people start big and then decide to shrink the project before they decide to build it back up again.

5 Neglecting the core farming enterprise while trying to develop the diversification project. It is imperative to hold family meetings in order to discuss family farm matters and to ensure that resources are being devoted to the farming enterprise.

Best diversifications

The best diversifications complement the existing farm business by improving the cashflow and improving the profitability. A good diversification will also remove the volatility which can exist in many farming sectors.

However, alternative ventures can be a drain on time and money from the main core farming business.

The most important thing is to forward plan by thinking ahead and looking at every aspect of the project before making a commitment, and seeking appropriate advice.Politicians have called on Agriculture Minister Michael Creed to introduce a low cost loan scheme and to campaign for greater factory price fairness to help farmers weather the storm of the recent drought and fodder crisis.

Members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, TDs and senators held a meeting ahead of schedule with Minister Creed today to discuss how farmers with fodder shortages should be supported in the coming months.

Fianna Fail TDs Jackie Cahill and Charlie McConalogue said it was disappointing that Minister Creeds Department havent introduced the 25m low cost loan scheme promised in last years budget.

Its disappointing that low cost loans still havent been put on the table. We need them as quickly as possible. We are now in a situation where there will be a huge demand for fodder. We need low cost finance and cant leave it to the banks, said Mr Cahill.

If we dont do it our whole industry will crumble and we have to ensure that the money gets to those who need it. Farmers are often accused of crying wolf but this is an immense crisis putting them under huge pressure.

Mr Cahill also called for the Beef Forum to be reconvened to discuss the recent drop in factory prices.

As soon as the drought hit in late June factories dropped prices. Theyre predicted to be cut again next week. Theres no reason that factory prices should be pulled the way they are, he said.

In my view the cuts are unjust. If a Beef Forum was ever justified, it is now. Factories need to show if these prices are warranted, they cannot be allowed to exploit the situation. Fairness in prices is the least we can demand when farmers are under this pressure.

Minister Creed said his Department is working to develop a long term capital finance scheme and added that in many cases Irish factory prices stand up in comparability to prices paid to farmers to the EU but acknowledged that it was adding pressure to farmers during the current crisis.

Minister Creed also said that introducing an insurance scheme under CAP post 2020 should be introduced to help farmers cope with possible crises in the future.

Ulster Banks Ailish Byrne said that the institution has noticed a modest increase in demand for working capital, while Bank of Irelands Sean Farrell urged farmers to take advantage of the 100m fodder crisis fund which it launched this week.The head of law firm McCann FitzGerald's Brexit Group, John Cronin, has been elected President of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber is made up of businesses active in cross-border and east-west trade between Ireland and the UK, putting its members at the front line of Brexit.

Mr Cronin succeeds long-time Aviva executive Eoin O'Neill as chamber president.

Mr Cronin said maintaining strong two-way ties to the UK was the priority for the group.

"The maintenance of focus on the value of the two-way trade between Ireland and the UK is key to the Chamber and we wish to play a role in shaping a successful future for such trade irrespective of Brexit and its possible outcomes."Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (Richard Drew/AP)

VETERINARY firm Dechra Pharmaceuticals was the biggest faller among FTSE mid cap stocks yesterday, tumbling more than 21pc. This was its biggest one-day loss since 2003.

Dechra Pharma dropped after it said it would implement a plan to navigate a hard Brexit, adding that the measure may result in 2m (2.21m) of additional expense.

Analysts at Investec said that while Dechra's preliminary results were ahead of their expectations, they were introducing some caution into their forecasts to reflect the potential impact of accounting standard changes, sanctions on Iran and a hard Brexit.

Elsewhere, European shares ended little changed yesterday as worries about US trade policy and concern over emerging markets weighed on stocks after Asian markets closed lower.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 0.05pc to 382.46 points. Activity was subdued as US markets were closed for Labor Day.

Stocks in Europe showed little reaction to a report that eurozone manufacturing growth had declined to its slowest pace in nearly two years.

London's FTSE 100 ended up 0.8pc, while the Iseq index was 0.20pc higher at 6,787.38. A weaker pound provided an accounting boost for British blue chips.

Italian banks gained despite the rating agency Fitch reducing its outlook for Italy to negative on Friday.

Belgian nappy manufacturer Ontex fell 19.5pc after rejecting a proposed cash offer for its outstanding shares from the private equity firm PAI Partners, saying it undervalued the company.THE High Court has approved the appointment of inspectors to investigate concerns about the conduct of the affairs of Independent News & Media (INM).

Their inquiry into a major data breach and other serious matters at the countrys largest media group could begin as early as Thursday.

In a judgment today, the President of the High Court said the appointment was justified and in the public interest. Mr Justice Peter Kelly also said circumstances surrounding two proposed business transactions were suggestive of an unlawful purpose directed to the benefit of INMs largest shareholder, Denis OBrien.

He postponed the making of final orders until Thursday to allow INM consider his judgment, which comprehensively found in favour of an application by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE). The issue of costs, which are being sought by the ODCE, will also be dealt with at Thursdays hearing.

INM had objected to the appointment of inspectors, saying the measure was disproportionate and would have a damaging impact on the company and its employees.

However, Mr Justice Kelly rejected these arguments in a 76-page ruling. The appointment of inspectors is a serious matter and such a sledge hammer should not be used to crack a nut. What has been disclosed in the evidence before me is no nut, he said.

The appointment of inspectors to ascertain the truth of what has allegedly gone on in the company is well justified and is not disproportionate.

The judge said the corporate watchdog had investigated concerns at INM but quite a few questions remain to be answered and ODCE director Ian Drennan considered that nothing less than court appointed inspectors would be able to get to the bottom of matters. The ODCE began its inquiries after receiving a protected disclosure from then INM chief executive Robert Pitt in November 2016.

In it, Mr Pitt alleged he was put under pressure by then INM chairman Leslie Buckley to pay an inflated price for Newstalk, a radio station owned by Mr OBrien. The deal was ultimately abandoned

He also raised concerns about a proposal, later dropped, for the payment of a 1m success fee to a company owned by Mr OBrien in connection with the sale of INMs shares in Australian media group APN.

Whilst the Newstalk acquisition and the APN transaction did not ultimately lead to any loss to the company, the circumstances surrounding them are certainly suggestive of an unlawful purpose directed to the benefit of Mr OBrien directly or indirectly and to the detriment of the company, Mr Justice Kelly said.

A further protected disclosure by Mr Pitt in August last year prompted the ODCE to investigate a major data interrogation, directed by Mr Buckley, where large amounts of data were removed from INMs premises in 2014 and given to outside companies.

ODCE inquiries subsequently uncovered a list of 19 people, including journalists, whose names are believed to have been used during searches of the data.

Mr Justice Kelly said the actual purpose of the data interrogation remains unclear but is certainly suggestive of the companys affairs being conducted for a purpose that is unlawful.

The judge said a free press was a cornerstone of a functioning democracy.

Journalists communications have a particular importance in that regard. Thus, allegations of the accessing of journalists communications by unauthorised third parties raise issues of particular public interest, he said.

That anybodys private data would be wrongfully accessed is a serious matter but in the context in which that was allegedly done in the present case it is even more so.

The company occupies a dominant position in the media sector in this country and there is an obvious public interest in its proper governance.

It is in the public interest to discover everything about, in particular, the data interrogation issue so as to find out if there were wrongdoings carried on by the company in the conduct of its business or by persons connected with its management.

In a statement issued this evening, INM said: "The Court has indicated its intention to make the order on Thursday, 6 September 2018 at 10.00 a.m. subject to the Company having an opportunity at that time to make submissions to the Court. The Board will consider the terms of todays decision and the action that the Company might take in the interests of the Company and its stakeholders.

"The Board and the Companys management intend to remain focused on the business and ensuring that the Groups operations continue, so far as possible, to be conducted as normal."LIC is in the process of picking up additional 7 per cent stake in IDBI Bank through preference shares.

LIC has been looking to enter the banking space by acquiring a majority stake in IDBI Bank.

New Delhi: The LIC board on Tuesday said it has taken a decision on the modalities of increasing stake in debt-ridden IDBI Bank to 51 per cent.

The process is to be completed, so the board took necessary decisions, said Economic Affairs Secretary S C Garg, who is also a member of the LIC board. The time table has been decided and an open offer is being explored; "either exemption or not, that is for Sebi to decide," he said after the meeting.

Meanwhile, LIC is in the process of picking up additional 7 per cent stake in IDBI Bank through preference shares.

With this, its total holding in the bank would rise to 14.9 per cent. At present, LIC holds 7.98 per cent stake in the public sector bank.

The stake hike will help the lender meet the immediate capital requirement that will enable IDBI Bank to meet the regulatory norms at the end of second quarter.

In August, the Union Cabinet had approved LIC's proposed acquisition of up to 51 per cent stake in debt-ridden IDBI Bank.

The bank, in which the government holds 85.96 per cent stake, had posted a net loss of Rs 2,409.89 crore in the quarter ended June 2018. It had posted a gross non-performing asset (NPA) of about Rs 57,807 crore.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India board, at its meeting held in Hyderabad in June, had permitted LIC to increase its stake from 10.82 per cent to 51 per cent in IDBI Bank.

As per current regulations, an insurance company cannot own more than 15 per cent in any listed financial firm.

LIC has been looking to enter the banking space by acquiring a majority stake in IDBI Bank as the deal is expected to provide business synergies despite the lender's stressed balance sheet. With the culmination of the deal, LIC will get about 2,000 branches through which it can sell its products, while the bank would get massive funds of LIC.A LEADING drugs firm has confirmed a 40m investment at its Cork plant with the creation of 51 jobs.

BioMarin unveiled plans to develop a new drug product filling facility at its plant at Shanbally outside Ringaskiddy in Co Cork.

The investment will bring BioMarin's workforce to more than 400 people at Shanbally.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney said it was further proof of the attractive nature of Ireland for industrial investment.

BioMarin envisages that the investment will allow it to cope with the global demand for treatments for rare genetic disorders impacting children.

"This announcement is an exciting development for BioMarin, a company which has thrived in the Cork biopharmaceutical cluster," Minister Coveney said.

"This investment will not only bring opportunities for regional employment, but also positive knock-on effects for the local economy.

"It demonstrates the success of the Government's commitment under the Regional Action Plans for Jobs to provide quality jobs in regional locations.

"I congratulate BioMarin on its success to date and look forward to welcoming future announcements as it continues to further develop its plant here in Cork."

Planning for the new BioMarin facility will be lodged with Cork County Council within weeks.

BioMarin's executive vice- president Robert Baffi said it was an exciting development for the firm.

"The introduction of fill finish capacity at Shanbally provides for fully integrated manufacturing, from bulk to drug product onsite," he said. "This expansion assures that an increasing amount of our commercial products will be manufactured at the site."

The news was welcomed by IDA Ireland.

Meanwhile, homecare provider Bluebird Care is to create 450 jobs in its 26 offices around the country.

The roles being created are both full and part-time.

The jobs will vary from clinical nurse managers to care assistants, and will add to the group's 1,800 employees already in place.

"We are committed to providing high-quality, safe and effective care in our client's own home which is, more often than not, their preferred place of care," Brian MacGoey, MD of Bluebird Care, said.

"Our unique and dynamic working environment allows for rewarding and flexible employment opportunities for potential key staff. With this in mind, we are delighted to begin recruiting caring and compassionate people to join the Bluebird Care team."

Yesterday's announcement comes on the back of the company securing tenders to provide care for older people in all nine community healthcare organisations across Ireland.

Bluebird Care was set up in Ireland in 2007 to provide accessible, quality, safe care for individuals of all ages and varying degrees of ability.

As well as providing care for older people, the company also provides care for children and adults with complex care needs.

In its annual report last year the company reported growth of 20pcBank of Ireland has reversed a decision to cut cash counter services in a large number of branches.

The move last year to reduce the level of cash counter services in branches led to huge controversy.

The Consumers' Association hit out at the bank, accusing it of ignoring its responsibilities to customers.

It was responding to the fact that large numbers of branches restricted counter services, with customers forced to use self-service machines for lodging and withdrawing cash.

The changes affect 100 branches which used to have counter services for half a day.

But in a major U-turn, Bank of Ireland has now said the 100 branches are reverting to a full-day counter service.

All-day counter services will be put in place in 164 branches by the end of the year.

This is up from 61 branches currently.

The reversal appears to have been due to a decision taken by Francesca McDonagh, who took over as chief executive from Richie Boucher.

She has instituted a number of changes to the running of the bank that her predecessor had put in place.

These include deciding to invest funds in upgrading the branch network.

The announcement in June last year that Bank of Ireland would reduce its cash services led to widespread criticism.

Age Action was among the groups hitting out at the decision as it was seen as a change that would affect older people the most.

Now Bank of Ireland is not only changing tack, but is also increasing the number of employees in branches and contact centres as part of a strategy to have more people in customer-facing roles.

It said in a statement that it was reacting to customer feedback in returning to full-day cash services in branches.

The bank said none of its branches is cashless.Eir has signalled the end of the copper landline in Ireland with a 1bn plan to replace them with fibre lines throughout the country within five years.

"Thats where were moving to," Eir chief executive Carolan Lennon told Independent.ie.

"In the future, copper will be removed. Weve kicked off early discussions with Comreg about the future of copper."

Ms Lennon was speaking as Eir released financial results showing a 2pc fall in annual revenue to 1.27bn and a 2pc rise in its Ebitda earnings to 531m.

The company is currently in the final stages of laying down 330,000 fibre-to-the-home broadband connections in rural parts of Ireland under an agreement with the government.

However, it is now moving to replace copper landlines in cities and urban areas with a new fibre upgrade plan for 1.4m additional homes and businesses.

"We havent had a product to compete with cable in some parts of the country," said Ms Lennon.

"If you look at our market share, were under-indexing in those [urban] parts of the country.

"We believe we can take market share there. When were finished, well have 1.73m homes and businesses, around 76pc of the countrys premises."

The bulk (542,000) of the remaining premises are due to receive fibre broadband under the state-subsidised National Broadband Plan (NBP).

The government is due to announce a contract with Enet for the NBP this month.

The number of active Eir copper landlines into homes has fallen to 654,000 from around one million six years ago.

But despite signalling its intention to wind down its copper network, Eir must set timetables in conjunction with the telecoms regulator, Comreg.

"Were a regulated entity and so all of this has to be done under agreement with Comreg," said Ms Lennon.

"So while copper will be removed in future, its when that happens thats at issue."

Ms Lennon also said that the company will increase the number of mobile sites it has around the country by 25pc and look to introduce 5G mobile services in 2019, while admitting that the exact services have not yet been decided.

She also said that Eir will not voluntarily reduce the price it charges Enet to access infrastructure needed to support the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan.

"No, our prices are regulated," she said.

"The only prices were discussing are those currently set by the regulator. Its up to Comreg whether they want to look at the price. Those prices are set on the cost of maintaining ducts and poles in rural Ireland, which is expensive."

Both Enet and the government are unhappy at what they say is the prohibitive cost of accessing crucial parts of the countrys telecoms infrastructure in order to make the National Broadband Plans capital costs proportionate.

However, Ms Lennon said that Eir "remains committed to supporting the remaining bidder enet in making Eirs infrastructure ready and available for the delivery of the NBP and is "allocating significant resources in order to provide this support", mostly through access and liaison with executives, designers and planners.

Ms Lennon was speaking as Eir released financial results showing a 2pc fall in annual revenue to 1.27bn and a 2pc rise in its Ebitda earnings to 531m.You might have been forgiven for thinking Our Lives in Property: Oxmantown Road (RTE1, last night, 9.35pm) was going to be just another property-ladder or fixer-upper show, all talk of pre-crash versus post-bubble price tags, or some rehash of house-buying horror stories.

In fact, in the telling of the story of this quiet street of 200 houses nestled near Dublins Phoenix Park, houses that have changed hands a thousand times since being built in 1901, we quickly got to see into the heart of a warm Stoneybatter community  real lives, hopes and dreams, hatched and nurtured behind what might otherwise seem to be just another street of all but identical doors.

It was soon clear that this wasnt really a documentary about property, about the winners and losers of boom and bust, at all  rather, it was about real people of all incomes and backgrounds, living and breathing in close proximity, and coping with the increasing diversity of inhabitants around them, in what seemed like it could be a microcosm of any street or any town in Ireland.

Born and reared natives, hipsters, blow-ins and foreigners, young families and pensioners, all had their turn to share heartfelt histories and insights for the place in which they have lived, the changes they have seen, whether it be since the 1960s or in just the past five years, the personal journeys and losses experienced behind those redbrick walls, regardless of parlor or open-plan.

And so, we wandered to the shops with Joe Melligan, whose roots are embedded in this street. Joe recalled children playing outside. Its quieter now, he said sadly.

He could spot the blow-ins: new people put their bins by the wall, he said, old residents by the kerb. The new ones dont clean the step outside, old ones do, and the old ones use clothes lines.

I dont know how these new people dry their clothes, said Joe.

We met the young parents new to the street and enjoying everything on their doorstep. Sandras dad was originally from around the corner and she always wanted to live here. When the crash came, she and her partner Brendan were suddenly able to buy what had been unaffordable.

In the end, its just a two-bedroom townhouse, Sandra mused. But its a fantastic road.

South African Jaco scrimped and saved the 30,000 down-payment for his DIY fixer upper. His pride in his accomplishment was poignantly evident as we saw him Skype his mama 8,000 miles away, then show her around his latest improvements via laptop camera.

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Devina, a self-confessed blow-in, was told by friends to be careful because the area was rough.

Rough around the edges, maybe, she laughed now, but thats part of the appeal.

Devina kept a photo of her parents at the door of her house on the day she first collected the keys. In just a couple years, that photo became their memorial card.

Seeming somewhat flummoxed by the influx, the Stone family railed (with no little humour]: You ask a hipster, where are you from and they say [affecting a posh accent] Stewny-batter... [then, in pure Dub] Youre not from Stoneybatter! Im from Stoneybatter!

Their parents paid 2,300 in 1969 for their house, their dad working in Dublin Zoo for nearly 46 years.

People had dogs and cats, we had a ring-tailed lemur!

The one thing every resident we met on Oxmantown Road had in common, from yuppies or renters to Grace, who has lived on the street for 88 years, is their deep affection for the small, few rooms in which they live within the terraces that make up this community.

On the face of it, Our Lives in Property might have pretended to be some sort of sociological history of buying and renting habits. Where it succeeded as more than that was in bringing real heart right to the doorstep to greet us  a reminder, perhaps, that behind every for sale sign, theres more than just financial figures on a property scale, but lives lived in a place that has been lived in and loved.The son of TV chef Rachel Allen faces a Garda investigation after he was arrested following the seizure of cannabis worth almost 30,000.

The seizure followed a Garda raid after a joint Garda-Revenue operation when a Customs and Excise officer at Portlaoise Mail Centre became concerned about a parcel destined for a specific Cork address.

In a joint statement last night, Rachel Allen and her husband, Isaac, said they were "absolutely devastated" at the detention last week of their son, Joshua (18).

The chef said the family were issuing a statement purely because of the "frenzy of inquiries" in relation to Joshua from the media.

"He has been arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs (marijuana) with intent to supply them to others," she said.

"He has admitted his guilt immediately and co-operated fully with the Garda.

"A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and when formally charged Joshua will be pleading guilty at the first opportunity. We are absolutely devastated at this turn of events.

"Our son is 18 years old, has never been in trouble with gardai, and has made a huge mistake, which will have profound consequences for him."

She said the family were appalled at what was involved - but needed to support their son in whatever action he now faced.

"We do not in any way condone his actions, in fact, we utterly condemn them, but it is not for us to condemn him," she said.

"We must now try to look after our son and our family the best way we can.

"We would ask that the legal process would be allowed to proceed to deal with this matter, without interference, and that we would be allowed to deal with this, like any other parents in a similar position," she said.

The raid was ordered over a suspicious package which arrived at the Co Laois postal centre labelled "clothing".

It bore a US postmark and was addressed to a specific location in east Cork.

Rachel Allen is the 'face' of the famous Ballymaloe cookery and tourism empire.

Ballymaloe, arguably Ireland's best-known cookery school, was founded by Myrtle Allen who died last June.

It was one of the first restaurants in Ireland to secure a Michelin star.

For many years, Ballymaloe was fronted by Darina Allen, the mother of Rachel's spouse, Isaac.

Two years ago, Rachel branched into the restaurant trade herself with a bistro opened on Cork's Washington Street named after her.

The bistro is currently undergoing a major refit in a bid to broaden its appeal.The GDP growth rate for April-June quarter of 2018-19 has been recorded at 8.2 per cent.

New Delhi: Days after GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2018-19 was pegged at its highest in three years, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar on Monday blamed former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan for the slow down in the economy over the last three years.

Delinking the economic slump with demonetisation, Mr Kumar squarely lay all the blame for the successive fall in economic growth and rising NPAs on the former RBI governor, though he remained vague in his explanation.

There is no evidence to show a direct link between demonetisation and the economic slowdown, Mr Kumar said, calling it a false narrative.

This is a false narrative. Leading people like P. Chidambaram and our former PM (Manmohan Singh) added to this, he said.

If you look at the statistics on growth rate in the post-demonetisation period, the growth rate came down not because of note ban but because there was a declining trend for the last six quarters. Starting from last quarter of 2015-16, the growth rate had come down for six successive quarters. There was a trend of declining growth, and why was growth declining? Growth was declining because of the rising non-performing assets or bad loans (NPAs) in the banking sector.

When this government came into office, those figures were about Rs 4 lakh crore. It rose to Rs 10.5 lakh crore by the middle of 2017. The NPA rose and the GDP growth rate declined because, under the previous governor (Raghuram) Rajan, they had instituted new mechanisms to identify stressed or non-performing assets and these continuously continued to grow, which is why the banking sector stopped giving credit to the industry, Mr Kumar said while speaking to news agencies.

Mr Rajan, during his tenure as RBI governor, had identified major NPA accounts that were affecting the banking system, especially the finances of public sector banks. As a result of this, state-owned banks started streamlining lendings to such defaulters, which resulted in regulation of the entire lending process.

Mr Rajan left the RBI on September 4, 2016. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on November 8, 2016.

The Niti Aayog vice-chairman said that the industry, which drives the nations economy, was not getting money from the banks, leading to sluggishness in the market and decline in GDP growth rate.

In fact in some cases, like the medium and small scale industries, their credit actually shrank. There was a negative growth in some years. And, then even to the large industries, the growth of credit came down to one per cent or 2.5 per cent and in some quarters even negative.

This has been the instance of historically the highest deleveraging of the commercial credit to the industries in Indias economic history. Never has there been seen such a consistent year-upon-year deleveraging of credit. This is the cause for the slowdown of the growth. And this is what has been compensated by the government by the ramping up of the public capital expenditure, Mr Kumar said.

The new mechanisms introduced by the former RBI chief, which the Niti Aayog vice-chairman referred to, had come as a wake up call for banks, who became more cautious while offering loans, experts told this newspaper.

But saying that these very mechanisms led to banks stopping credit to the industry, which in turn led to declining growth rate and rising NPAs is too vague an explanation, an industry observer said.

The GDP growth rate for April-June quarter of 2018-19 has been recorded at 8.2 per cent. Over 8 per cent of quarterly growth was registered last time in the first quarter of 2016-17. So, after eight quarters, Indian economy grew at over 8 per cent.

The GDP growth rate had dipped to 5.7 per cent in what seems to have been the bottoming out of the economy. The latest GDP growth rate was attributed to the good quarterly performance to 13.5 per cent growth in the manufacturing sector and near 9 per cent in the construction sector.

The Economic Survey projected that Indian economy would achieve growth rate of 7-7.5 per cent during 2018-19.After the Government announced in June that Drew Harris was to become the new Garda Commissioner, PSNI chief constable George Hamilton paid a glowing tribute to his departing deputy.

Mr Hamilton described him as a man of "unfathomable strength, humility and grace" and said that he felt privileged to have had Mr Harris serve as his deputy chief for almost four years.

Recalling his 34 years' service as a police officer in both the RUC and the PSNI, Mr Hamilton said that Mr Harris had been driven by a commitment to protect the most vulnerable in the community.

He added that he had no doubt that would continue to be Mr Harris's ambition as Garda Commissioner.

The new boss of An Garda Siochana confirmed that commitment in his first public comment following his attestation in Kevin Street divisional headquarters in Dublin's south inner city yesterday morning.

Throughout its history, he noted, the Garda had played an important role in Ireland, and its emphasis on community policing had created strong bonds with the people.

He pledged that he would be particularly focused on ensuring that his officers would do all they could to protect the vulnerable.

Mr Harris is a vastly experienced police officer and has held a series operational commands as well as completing a two-year secondment with the UK inspectorate of constabulary in Scotland.

For much of his career, he managed to avoid public controversy and preferred working away in the background to achieve the goals he had been set in each appointment.

Mr Harris is married with four grown-up children and joined the RUC in 1983.

He emerged as a rising star as the force transformed into the PSNI in 2001.

He has a BA in politics and economics and a Masters in criminology from Cambridge University. He has also undergone courses in strategic command, leadership in international counter terrorism, and completed the FBI national executive institute programme for senior officers.

He was appointed PSNI assistant chief constable in charge of crime operations in 2006 and served there for eight years before being promoted to the rank of deputy chief constable.

During that time, Mr Harris built up a close working relationship with senior members of the Garda, particularly those involved in the security and intelligence section, and was known here as the "go to" man whenever the Phoenix Park was seeking help from the PSNI in cross-Border operations against terrorism and serious crime.

His responsibility for all intelligence gathering, operations and analytical support meant regular contact with his counterparts in the Garda.

At the same time, Mr Harris acted as the PSNI liaison officer with the British security agency MI5.

He has personal experience of the evil of terrorism. His father, Alwyn, an RUC superintendent, was murdered when the Provisional IRA planted a Semtex bomb under his car as he was on his way to church with his wife for a Harvest Thanksgiving service in October 1989.

Fr Denis Faul described Mr Harris as exactly the kind of officer on whom a trustworthy police force could be built.

The Irish Government will be hoping that the superintendent's son will live up to that description of his father three decades later.Paul Mooney with singer Alesha Dixon at Flormar Irelands first birthday party in 2016. Photo: Brian McEvoy

A Dublin-based beauty entrepreneur has been ordered to pay 29,335 to the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland within seven days.

Paul Mooney, the former CEO in Ireland of global cosmetics brand Flormar, appeared before Dublin District Court today in relation to monies owed to the MIBI arising out of a personal injury claim against him.

Mr Mooney, a father-of-two and owner of companies The Cosmetic Outlet and Madison Makeup, was driving without insurance when he was involved in a road traffic accident in September 2011.

The MIBI, a not for profit organisation that was established to compensate victims of road traffic accidents caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles, pursued Mr Mooney for costs of 50,116.85, with the cosmetologist initially claiming he could not afford to pay this amount.

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However, the MIBI's legal team argued the Statement of Means provided by Mr Mooney did not provide an accurate reflection of his financial position.

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He was subsequently ordered to sell two of his cars, a Toyota Rav and a Mercedes CLA 180.

The two vehicles were recently sold for a combined 28,335 and judge Michael Coghlan ordered for this amount to be discharged within the next seven days, along with a monthly payment of 1,000.

Judge Michael Coghlan previously warned the beauty expert that if the cars were not sold by today, September 4, he would be "facing Mountjoy".

Youre running out of chances, youve been audacious in your evidence to say the least, he added.

Judge Coghlan thanked both legal teams "for your great patience" today, as the matter has been ongoing for the last year.

Mr Mooney must now make monthly payments of 1,500 from October 11 to discharge the rest of the monies owed.THE probe into allegations John Gilligan tried to smuggle more than 20,000 in a suitcase is following "international lines of inquiry", a court heard today.

A prosecuting lawyer also told District Judge Nigel Broderick at Antrim Magistrates Court today that while the investigation against 66-year-old Gilligan is in its early stages, the file has been assigned to a PPS officer and cops have a mobile phone to be examined.

There are international lines of inquiry to be pursued, said the lawyer.

Appearing at Antrim Magistrates Court via videolink from Maghaberry Prison, Gilligan confirmed his identity and that he could see and hear the court, telling the clerk yes I can, thank you very much.

Gilligan, from Greenforth Crescent in Dublin, is in custody accused of attempting to remove criminal property from Northern Ireland on August 23 this year.

It is understood the charge arises after officers from the National Crime Agency arrested the pensioner at Belfast International Airport and seized 23,000, which the Crown claim arises from crime.

In a statement the UK National Crime Agency said 23,000 in cash was recovered at the scene and said in a statement at the time: National Crime Agency officers in Northern Ireland have today charged a man with money laundering offences.

Gilligan initially appeared at Coleraine Magistrates Court last month when he was refused bail and remanded into custody.

In court today while the prosecution sought an adjournment for four weeks, defense solicitor Jim McGinnis asked for the shortest possible adjournment so that momentum is maintained.

Mr Gilligan is 66 and he doesnt enjoy good health, said the solicitor revealing that since he was remanded to Maghaberry he has already had to be taken to hospital.

He was badly injured during an attempt on his life in 2014 when he was shot six times, Mr McGinnis told the court.

Judge Broderick said he would have to recuse himself from hearing the case because before taking up his position on the bench, I was previously a partner in a firm that represented Mr Gilligan in the Special Criminal Court therefore it would not be appropriate for me to rule on the case.

The judge said he would adjourn the case for a week but that in the meantime, he had e-mailed the resident judge in Coleraine Magistrates Court to see if he would take the case on while still keeping it in this county court division.

He told the PPS and defence lawyers however that judge is currently on annual leave and may not have access to his e-mail.

With Gilligan remanded back into custody to appear again next Tuesday, Mr McGinnis asked for him to be held back for a video-link consultation.Kamil Rozyneck and Kinga Pelc at Lady Dixon Park just days before the accident

A motorist whose careless driving caused the death of his girlfriend in a south Belfast car crash has been given 160 hours community service.

Kamil Rozynek, 24, had only passed his test weeks before the two-car collision in May 2015 which claimed the life of 21-year-old Kinga Pelc.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard the exact reasons for the fatal accident on the Annadale Embankment may never be fully established.

But Deputy District Judge Joe Rice told Rozynek the victim's family had suffered "immense and immeasurable" loss.

He said: "It's a tragic case, everybody accepts that.

"It came from careless or inconsiderate driving, probably arising from a momentary lapse of attention."

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Rozynek, of Beechmount Avenue in the city, was behind the wheel of a Renault Megane which crashed into a four-wheel drive vehicle travelling in the opposite direction.

Ms Pelc, a Polish national who had been living in Belfast at the time, had been a front seat passenger in his car.

She was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital, but died later from her injuries.

Rozynek was also knocked unconscious in the collision, as well as suffering a broken leg and trauma.

A woman and her adult daughter who had been in the other vehicle also received hospital treatment.

Engineering experts who examined the scene were unable to provide an explanation for Rozynek's sudden loss of control.

Prosecution counsel Natalie Pinkerton said Rozynek told police he couldn't recall what had happened in the lead up to the crash.

But earlier this year he pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.

It emerged in court that he had passed his test two weeks before the accident.

As the victim's mother listened at the back of the court, a defence barrister offered Rozynek's "genuine, sincere and heartfelt apologies" to her family.

Chris Sherrard said: "He's very conscious of the fact there's nothing he can do or say to bring back the deceased.

"It's a tragic, tragic incident."

Submitting that his client poses no risk of harm to the public, Mr Sherrard contended that the case was in the bottom category of the relevant offending.

Now a married father-of-two, Rozynek works as a production operative in Belfast.

Judge Rice agreed that his level of culpability was on the "low side", but also acknowledged the suffering and consequences for Ms Pelc's family.

Imposing 160 hours community service, he also disqualified Rozynek from driving for 18 months.A marine expert has sought to reassure the public that the danger of shark attacks in Irish waters is minimal after a man was bitten by a Blue Shark while fishing off the coast of Cork.

Angler Robert Malcolmson suffered serious injuries on Saturday when a shark he had landed turned on the line and bit his lower arm.

Mr Malcolmson received a four-inch gash to his arm and was rushed to hospital having been brought to shore by an RNLI lifeboat.

His wounds were cleaned, stitched and bandaged and he resumed his fishing trip the next day.

Dr Maurice Clarke, a specialist in marine ecosystems and sharks at the Marine Institute in Galway, has sought to reassure the public that this was a freak incident but those fishing must remember that they are still dealing with a wild, unpredictable animal.

(Blue Sharks) are quite frequent in Irish waters, its a freak incident really and it illustrates what can happen when youre working with a wild animal, Dr Clarke told Independent.ie.

Blue Sharks are a regular visitor to Irish waters, especially in the summertime when water temperatures are just right, above 15C, for the sharks.

Its nothing new, theyve always been coming to Ireland in the summer months. I would put peoples mind at rest by saying theyre an oceanic shark, they dont come in shore, there hasnt been any reports of an attack - although strictly speaking this wasnt an attack in the sense that the shark had been caught by anglers.

Dr Clarke says that sharks have far more to fear from humans than we have from them.

Last week, an Irish Navy ship, the LE William Butler Yates, detained a Spanish registered vessel found to have more than a tonne of shark fins onboard, Dr Clarke says this is equivalent to at least 1,000 sharks.

Blue Sharks are prized for their fins, especially in China where they are used to make shark-fin soup.

The Blue Shark has very big fins, its not very valuable to eat as its full of ammonia but the fins are highly valued in China for the shark-fin soup which is a delicacy out there. What happens is they take the shark onboard, cut the fins off and throw the, often live shark, back into the sea. Thats terrible in its own right and very wasteful.

Whats interesting about this, and first of all wed like to wish Mr Malcolmson a speedy recovery, is that it illustrates that the Blue Shark is under much greater pressure from humans - as the detaining of the ship in Castletownbere shows.

There is also no danger posed to humans by the true man-eating sharks of legend - like the Bull Shark and the Tiger Shark - because they are just are not in our waters at all, so nothing to worry about there.

There is also no fear of a Great White Shark patrolling our seas, though it is theoretically possible because it can live in cold waters, because it has been more or less totally exterminated (in European waters) by man.

Sharks are currently fighting a battle for survival on many fronts. Over fishing, plastic waste and climate change pose a very real threat to the animals and when it comes to man vs shark: The score card is very much skewed towards man, Dr Clarke said.New Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has described himself as Irish and and is not sure how much of an outsider he is in taking charge of the force.

He said today he was a police officer from the island of Ireland. He has worked closely previously as a senior PSNI officer with members of An Garda Siochana.

He is now here to lead the garda organisation, Mr Harris said at his first press conference today after taking up office yesterday morning.

Mr Harris said he was a public servant and that meant he had a duty to ensure that gardai protected the society they had sworn to serve.

He said the Gardai are a well resourced force and he intends to carry out a full review of whether these resources are being implemented efficiently.

It was too early to say at this stage whether he needed more resources but when it came to "standing up to politicians" he would "speak truth to power".

Before deciding on future resourcing, he had to be satisfied if the current budget was being spent correctly and used in the best way possible.

Mr Harris defended his role at the Smithwick tribunal into allegations of collusion between a member of the Garda and the Provisional IRA, leading to the murder of two senior RUC officers, Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan.

He said it was duty to give evidence, which was examined and cross examined at the tribunal, and the judge then drew his conclusions, which he accepted.

Mr Harris said he understood that the conclusions might have caused significant hurt to gardai based in Dundalk and elsewhere.

But he pointed out that he worked himself in the Border region and was aware that the vast majority of gardai were people of integrity and there were many fine, dedicated gardai policing the Border area.

Dismissing suggestions he might bring in his own team from elsewhere, Mr Harris said An Garda Siochana was now his team and he intends to lead it for the next five years.

Asked what were his views when he looked at the controversies that had engulfed the force in recent years and led to the retirements of two past commissioners, he said that obviously one of his thoughts was "I'll have a go at that".

Mr Harris said the greatest terrorist threat on the island came from dissident republicans and gardai would continue to focus on those groups while the international terror threat should be judged as long term and tackled on an European basis in co-operation with other European forces and Europol.

He acknowledged that Brexit would pose a big challenge as the existing criminal justice treaties would disappear.

He was anxious to co-operate with the PSNI to secure the Border and prevent any potential increase in activities from organised crime or terror gangs.Child killer John Clifford is unlawfully at large after failing to return to Maghaberry Prison

A notorious Northern Ireland child killer John Clifford is unlawfully at large after failing to return to Maghaberry Prison.

Clifford (56) had been released on Sunday to attend an appointment but failed to return when expected.

His offences include murder, indecent assaults and cruelty to children.

He was originally jailed in 1989 for murdering his niece Sue Ellen.

Clifford raped and strangled the eight-year-old, before leaving her on a deserted railway line in 1988.

He was freed in 2005 but thrown back behind bars in 2007 for breaching the terms of his probation.

Inspector Paul Noble said: We have initiated enquiries to locate John Clifford. He is described as being 1.75m tall with green eyes and fair hair. He is of medium build with a fresh complexion. When last seen he was wearing a black beanie style hat, heavy black coat, grey trousers and black dress shoes.

"He was last seen using a distinctive three-wheel mobility scooter bearing the registration plate EXZ4974.

Members of the public or anyone with information about his whereabouts should contact us immediately on 101.

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Prison Service said: The Prison Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding the abscondment of John Clifford. At this time we are focused on returning him to custody and we would ask anyone with information to contact the PSNI immediately.

If you see anyone matching this description please call your nearest police station or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.Joe McHugh, Minister of State for the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands (Niall Carson/PA)

The number of visitors to the National Library of Ireland (NLI) has fallen to its lowest in four years as collections go digital, new figures have revealed.

In an annual review of the 140 year old institution, figures showed 197,000 people visited the library last year down 20pc on the 247,000 who visited in 2016.

In the past decade, the highest number of visitors was recorded in 2014 when 270,000 visited the library of record's exhibitions and research rooms.

Director of the NLI, Dr Sandra Collins said the move towards digital and online media had impacted visitor levels at the library and brought about new challenges to make collections accessible to the public.

Digitisation is a really massive game changer for libraries. It is something we need to challenge ourselves on as well because we dont want to close our doors.

It is something I think libraries around the world are watching now, she explained.

It is about taking the challenge of the digital time and still staying true to our really fundamental ethos which is about collecting materials and making them available.

Historical publications, newspapers, journals as well as e-publications, photographs and films are collected and preserved by the NLI.

The library is also home to an exclusive collection of literary and historical artifacts including the recently donated letters between Irelands most famous writers, James Joyce and WB Yeats.

In 2017, it received more than 14,000 new books while also archiving over 300,000 websites, some of which are not available elsewhere.

Almost 14,000 digital images were created last year in an initiative to bring the librarys catalogue to an online audience.

Earlier this year, the government announced additional funding would be made available for renovations at the National Library under Project Ireland 2040.

An additional 10m was also announced under the new proposals to digitise national collections at the NLI as well as the National Archive.

Junior Minister for Gaeilge, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Joe McHugh said the library also played a vital role in preserving the Irish language which he said it was doing in style.

The library was making the Irish language relevant in style by offering Irish language events and tours to schools around the country, he said.

I am completely impressed with the amount of effort and ingenuity youre bringing to opening your doors both electronically, digitally and physically to young people and schoolchildren.

Learning is not just a classroom based process anymore it makes it relevant, it makes the Irish language relevant. It makes it come alive.

When you bring tourists through the door, history comes alive and the language doesnt just become a communication tool.

I think we can have a complete analysis as to where we went wrong with the Irish language down the decades, he added.

A new Seamus Heaney exhibit which opened at the Bank of Ireland building last month is expected to boost visitor figures over the coming months.It is suspected that the explosives were meant for illegal fishing activity, police said.

Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is an illegal practice of using explosives to stun or kill fish for easy collection.

Mumbai: A huge cache of explosives, including detonators and gelatin sticks, was seized from Maharashtra's Raigad district and two people were arrested in this connection, a police official said Tuesday.

Around 965 detonators, 46 gelatin sticks and some other material were seized on Monday after a raid at the house of Mohammad Umar Jahir Kazi at Dhalghar village in Mangaon tehsil of the coastal Raigad district adjoining Mumbai, he said.

It is suspected that the explosives were meant for illegal fishing activity, he said.

Kazi, 48, was arrested following the seizure, he said. On further inputs, another person, Shantilal Chokalal Gadri (32), was arrested from Hatkhamba village in the state's Ratnagiri district.

Gadri was suspected to be selling the explosives illegally to Kazi, he said. Some fishermen were injured recently in a blast while they were engaged in fishing activity in the Arabian Sea, Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar told PTI.

While investigating the case, police got information about Kazi and another person who was selling these explosives illegally for fishing activity, he said.

Accordingly, raids were conducted and the two men were nabbed, he said. "We have recovered gelatin sticks and detonators and arrested the two persons under the Explosives Act and the Explosive Substances Act," Paraskar said, adding that a probe was underway.

Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is an illegal practice of using explosives to stun or kill fish for easy collection.TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has written to Fianna Fail seeking an agreement that there will not be a general election until the summer of 2020.

In a forthright letter, Mr Varadkar told Micheal Martin that his government will not be able to function unless there is clarity about its longevity.

He said doubts over when the next election might would weaken Irelands hand in Brexit negotiations.

I am writing to you to seek confirmation that you are willing to re-commit to the Confidence and Supply Arrangement for the remainder of this Dail. I suggest that in the interest of certainty we agree a General Election date for the summer of 2020, the letter states.

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Mr Varadkar says it is his strong view that a government cannot act in the best interests of the people if it is living on borrowed time.

A government cannot function if it does not know if it will last from week-to-week or month-to-month, if it does not know what will happen to its programme and legislative agenda the day after Budget Day or the day the Finance Bill is passed.

Such uncertainty weakens our hand in Brexit talks, domestic negotiations, and of course those opposed or resistant to reform are simply more likely to wait us out. Such a scenario would not be in the interest of citizens, taxpayers, or users of our public services, he wrote.

The 10-page letter outlines why Mr Varadkar believes Fine Gael has lived up to the unprecedented Confidence and Supply deal which was struck more than two months after the 2016 election.

He admitted the Government is struggling to make sustainable improvements to public healthcare.

And, while there is now some cause for optimism, the housing crisis persists with a shortage of new homes for first-time buyers and increased numbers of people living in emergency accommodation. Without doubt, there is more to do.

Mr Varadkar adds that the economy is powering ahead at a much faster rate than projected and we are approaching full employment.

There are now some concerns about overheating with growing downside economic risks due to international developments, such as changes in the international corporation tax landscape, and the possibility of disruptions to the global trading system, he says.

In response Mr Martin has published his own letter replying to the Fine Gael leader and says the missive from Mr Varadkar paints an incomplete picture.

He has ruled out beginning the talks ahead of the Budget and said will discuss the review process afterwards.

It is plain for all to see that there are still serious deficiencies, particularly regarding the the emergency in housing and the crisis in our health services, Mr Martin.

Mr Martin also said other deficiencies including the tone and extent of certain briefings were not mentioned in the letter.

He hit out at the suggestion that the Government cannot function without clarity on its longevity, writing it would be extraordinary if we were to agree that ministers could not be expected to do their jobs without advance assurances of a compliant Dail.

He said his party has fully honoured its part in the agreement in the face if significant provocation.

He signs off the letter urging Mr Varadkar to contact him directly if there are any difficulties between now and Budget day.

Mr Varadkar had earlier also sent his counterpart a list of items which he would like to see included in a new Confidence and Supply Arrangement.

The list includes:

-On a phased basis, USC and PRSI will be merged.

- Raising the higher entry point for income tax to 37,500 by 2020

- Auto-enrolment pension to be in place by 2022

- Put 2.5bn in the Rainy Day Fund

- Moderate increases to Property Tax

- Increase old age pension by at least the rate of inflation

- Resolve issues over pay for new entrants to public sector jobs

- Apply rent increase restrictions to student accommodation

- Negotiated a new GP contract

- Increase third level funding by 50m

- Increase carbon taxes

- A Dublins Citizens Assembly to examine options for local government reform

Fianna Fail has called the request for talks to renew the Confidence and Supply Agreement as a distraction and a "kite" that should be allowed to fly away with the wind.

Its just a distraction away from the real issues, the partys communication spokesperson Timmy Dooley said.

The parties are set to meet this week to discuss Budget 2019, which is just five weeks away.

"The Taoiseach wants to talk about confidence and Supply while are just about to begin discussions on the Budget, Mr Dooley said.

When asked if with Brexit looming the discussions should be brought forward on the deal, which was agreed before the UK voted to leave the European Union, Deputy Dooley said: Lets get fiscal security in place here... when the fiscal confidence is in place then lets deal with the political issues about whether or not were going to have an election or when its going to take place or what the next set of priorities are.

The party are fully engaged on Brexit, he added, referring to a meeting today between Mr Martin and Michel Barnier.

The Taoiseach knows we are engaged on that, he is attempting to distract from the really important discussions and hes attempting to use it as a ruse to get you talking about elections, he added.Puppy love: Artist Kevin Sharkey and his dog Spooky at Kilkenny County Council offices, where he was seeking support for the presidential election. Photo: Dylan Vaughan

Presidential hopeful Sean Gallagher is "proud" of his Fianna Fail roots but has insisted he is an independent candidate for Aras an Uachtarain.

Making his first public appearance since entering the race, the businessman admitted to fundraising for Fianna Fail in the past. However, he said the issue, which dogged him during the latter stages of the 2011 campaign, was all above board.

Mr Gallagher effectively claimed that RTE cost him the presidency seven years ago by allowing false accusations about fundraising to be levelled at him during the final TV debate.

"I should have stated that night that fundraising is part of the work of every political party, that the fundraising I was involved with was in line with the rules laid down under the standards in public office and was on behalf of the governing party in this country to support their campaign for the Lisbon Treaty."

He told reporters "a dogmatic, repeated, confrontational, false accusation caused me to stumble momentarily".

A Twitter account with a user name similar to that of the official Martin McGuinness campaign, but not linked to Mr McGuinness, said a man who claimed he had given a 5,000 cheque to Mr Gallagher would appear at a press conference the next day. Prior to the row Mr Gallagher had been favourite to win the election. He has since sued RTE over 'Tweetgate' and received "substantial damages".

While making a pitch yesterday to Leitrim County Council for a nomination for October's election, the 'Dragons' Den' investor apologised to the 500,000 people who voted for him in 2011. He said he wanted to "honour their trust" by putting his name forward for a rerun with Michael D Higgins.

"What happened in that studio on that night changed the outcome of the presidential election. On that evening, I let myself down and I let you, the members of this council, down and for that I'm truly sorry," he told councillors.

Within an hour of the meeting, councillors from both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail placed motions seeking to support his bid. He is all but guaranteed to get a formal nomination when Leitrim councillors meet again next Monday.

Meanwhile, fellow Dragon Gavin Duffy turned up the political heat on Mr Gallagher by accusing him of trying to lock out nominations after securing the backing of Meath County Council.

Mr Duffy also said Mr Gallagher was becoming the "quasi Fianna Fail" candidate.

He claimed Mr Gallagher was trying to "lock out" a Fianna Fail vote without even attending council meetings.

"As it approached, he felt he wanted to do it again and then he's been working very meticulously behind the scenes - and Sean loves that in politics, working behind the scenes with Fianna Fail, you know, trying to lock out nominations without even going to the council chambers and so on," he told the Irish Independent.

Mr Duffy got the nomination with the help of votes from nine Fine Gael councillors, who party headquarters have told to back Mr Higgins "unconditionally".

However, there was some surprise when a number of Fianna Fail councillors supported Mr Gallagher, who has not made a presentation to the council.

"Actually what they did is they forced Fine Gael to vote and now Fine Gael probably will be voting. So it's true democracy at work but sometimes you can overplay the politics," said Mr Duffy.A junior minister in Eoghan Murphy's department has insisted the 'posh boy' accusations levelled at Fine Gael will not put voters off the party.

Carlow-Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan, who is minister with responsibility for local government, said the charges levelled at the party and individual ministers are unlikely to resonate with "open-minded" Irish people.

He was speaking as his embattled colleague has faced both internal and external criticism over his so-called 'posh boy' image at a time when the Government is struggling to tackle the national housing crisis.

The Housing Minister will face a motion of no confidence when the Dail returns, but it will not pass as Fianna Fail has ruled out supporting it.

Mr Murphy has consistently defended his policies and insisted they are working as supply is going up.

The Dublin Bay South TD has faced fierce criticism over his propensity to share personal images on his social media and for being pictured in his swimming shorts when the housing crisis was being discussed in the Dail.

However, Mr Phelan told the Irish Independent the party is a broad group and the criticism does not bear out.

"There's a lot of comment about it, but a lot of it doesn't bear up. Fine Gael has always been a broad group but I think it's as broad now as it's ever been. It's not surprising when the party is doing well that all sorts of charges are put up against individual ministers or the Government, but 'posh boy' wouldn't sit well with most Fine Gaelers, it just doesn't reflect the reality,.

"I wouldn't consider myself posh and most of the people in the party wouldn't and I don't think it matters.

"I think the more personalised stuff of that nature just turns off the public. Irish people have an open-minded approach to people in general, regardless of their background.

"I just don't see it as an issue... I don't think Irish people pay much attention to people's backgrounds really," he added.

After months of discussion in Sinn Fein about bringing the motion of no confidence in Mr Murphy forward, the party has decided to table it. However, it is unlikely to pass due to Fianna Fail's stance.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald accused the Government of "failing" the homeless, those who are renting and people striving to own a home.

She pointed to homeless figures approaching 10,000 and compared it to the population of Longford town.

She branded the situation a "crisis" and a "scandal" and said "it's time for minister Eoghan Murphy to go".

Ms McDonald challenged Fianna Fail to support the motion, but Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin was quick to say his party will not be supporting it.

"Motions of no confidence or motions won't build a single house," he said.

"We are going to focus on the Budget, to get a prioritisation around housing, and to get a prioritisation around health."

Mr Martin told RTE his party will abstain from the vote as part of the confidence and supply agreement.

But he criticised the Government's record on housing.

He said "there simply has to be more construction", more funding for social and affordable housing and accused the Government of failing to meet its own targets, highlighting a shortfall in the promised number of 'rapid-build' units.

Mr Murphy said: "We are in a minority Government situation so Sinn Fein should spend its time between now and the Dail coming back getting the majority of parliament to back their big housing plan.

"The reason it is not doing that is because it does not have one."From Kilkenny's 'medieval mile' of meandering lanes to a bog land nature reserve in Co Offaly, the public is being asked to vote on Ireland's most cherished place.

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Ireland has short-listed 10 destinations around the country.

Now the institute - a professional body for town planners both here and in the UK - is asking people to decide which place on the shortlist ranks as 'Ireland's Best Place'.

"The competition has reminded us of the passion we have for places we love," Marion Chalmers, chair of RTPI Ireland said.

"The finalists, places clearly loved by the public, have been protected, carefully planned or improved by the planning system."

The shortlist comprises of:

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Abbeyleix, Co Laois;

Cobh, Co Cork;

Cork city centre;

Dingle, Co Kerry;

Grand Canal Square in Dublin;

Great Western Greenway, Co Mayo;

Greystones, Co Wicklow;

Kilkenny city centre;

Lough Boora Parklands, Co Offaly

and Tully Cross, Co Galway

Participants can cast their vote until Friday, October 12.

Colin Coyne, who runs his late grandfather's Paddy's pub in Tully Cross, said there are many reasons why the idyllic seaside village on the Renvyle Peninsula should get the nod.

The village, situated on the Wild Atlantic Way in Connemara, is "a little gem," according to Mr Coyne.

"It's local. It's friendly and when you find it, you know we're here," he said.

The village boasts a collection of nine replica thatched cottages and a church with stained glass windows by renowned artist Harry Clarke overlooking the village square.

The village also hosts the annual Connemara Mussel Festival every May bank holiday.

The pub, which also doubles as the local undertakers, has the unique distinction as "the last pub before Manhattan," he said.

"For such a small village, it's buzzing," he said.

But according to Seamus Fitzgerald, a local farmer and councillor in Dingle, Co Kerry, his town is the best in the land.

The fishing village on the Dingle Peninsula boasts sandy beaches, rugged hiking trails and is home to Fungie, a bottlenose dolphin whose close interaction with locals and visitors alike over the past 30 years has earned him celebrity status.

According to the RTPI, "planners have made good use of the fishing village's natural environment to enhance the place while respecting its historical architecture and community ethos".

But for Mr Fitzgerald, the place has a unique feel.

"Dingle has a magic to it that I just can't describe," he told the Irish Independent. "I suppose it's the scenery, the mountains and the ocean. It's like an island.

"There's great spirit and a real 'can-do' attitude,

"It also has the best pubs in the world."

The fact it's in the Gaeltacht and has a thriving maritime industry - as well as great live music sessions - are also some of its qualities, he said.

But for expatriate Bostonian Kathleen Kelleher, Greystones, in Co Wicklow, is the place to be. The town's ex-mayor said the former fishing village has "everything you could imagine," including a stunning harbour and marina as well as a slew of local amenities and easy access.

For a full list of nominated places or to register your vote online, go to www.rtpi.org.uk. People can also email their votes at contact@rtpiireland.org or vote via Twitter at #RTPIIrelandsBestPlaces.So this is big school. I've been waiting for ages to start big school. I'm here a week now. I thought it would be brilliant, but it's kind of ordinary. I've been in playschool already and it's kind of like that.

Some of the other kids are still crying every morning. Maybe they know something bad about this place that I don't know. Or maybe they just miss their mammies.

I think Muinteoir must know that. She often brings them up to sit next to her. My big sister told me I'd be fine. She says that Muinteoir is lovely and that I'd better enjoy it now because some of the other Muinteoirs are really cross.

Mam took some time off work last week so she was able to bring me to school every day and collect me. She never did that in playschool so it was really cool that she did it this time. She even came right into the class the first day. I watched her talking to Muinteoir and the two of them were smiling. I liked that. I always know when Mam likes someone. Her eyes smile as well as her mouth. If Mam likes Muinteoir then she must be OK.

I don't know about all this sitting down quietly though. That's hard to do. Even at lunchtime we have to sit at our table until it's our turn to collect our lunchboxes and our drinks. There's a lot of waiting in turn in big school; and we have loads of work to do. It's really tiring.

I've met so many people too. There are 32 of us in the class. I don't even know everyone's name yet. Well I do, but I forget. I forget lots of things. I often forget, especially when Muinteoir asks me a question.

It's not that I don't know the answer, but I think I'm just shocked when she speaks to me and I don't know what to say. I'm not normally shy, but you'd think I was if you saw me in school.

I don't know who to play with yet either. I keep watching the other boys and girls trying to work out who is friends with who. Some of them already know each other from playschool. My best friend didn't come to my new school. That was a pity. I really miss her. I don't know who'll be my best friend here. I hope I find someone.

I love it when we can go home. Not because I get to go home. I go back to the creche, but I'm in the afterschool group now and that feels really grown up. I like the creche. It's familiar, if you know what I mean. I feel like I can relax a bit when I get there. It's like I always have to be on alert when I'm in big school. I never really know what to expect.

I wish I could just chill out when Dad eventually collects me in the evenings. But it's mad busy then too. My sister does her Irish dancing two nights a week now, so often we're back out in the car and all I want to do is sleep!

When I try to tell Mam about it she just gets cross with me and tells me to "stop moaning" and "the world doesn't revolve around you, you know". Apparently it revolves around my big sister.

I wish Mam and Dad knew how tired I was. I wish they could take more time off work and just mind me. Like the first week. That was brilliant to just come straight home. I bet Mam wouldn't be so cross then. It's all just so busy and so different. I find it really hard.

Actually, I think I'm over big school. I'd just like to go back to things being like they were before. That was much easier.

As imagined by David ColemanIt's been a long time coming, but the world's first direct flight from London to Sydney finally has a launch date: 2022

More more details of how the 20-hour flight will operate have surfaced, too.

Qantas last year challenged both Boeing and Airbus to design an aircraft suitable for the ultra long-haul journey, dubbed Project Sunrise, and the Australian airline's CEO Alan Joyce says they've managed to do so.

"We're now comfortable that we think we have vehicles that could do it," he said in a statement.

The 10,573-mile flight would exceed the distance flown on its longest current non-stop route, London to Perth - an 8,991-mile slog which takes around 17 hours.

The longest direct flight in the world, incidentally, is currently Qatar's 9,032-mile route between Doha and Auckland, but as of October 2018, Singapore Airlines will beat that with the introduction of its Singapore to Newark (New Jersey) route, clocking in at 9,537 miles.

Both fall short of the proposed Qantas London-Sydney service.

Qantas is weighing up two models - the Airbus A350 and Boeings 777X - for the job of carrying 300 passengers half way across the planet.

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Either would be customised to meet the demands of such a lengthy flight, with Joyce stating: Were challenging ourselves to think outside the box. Would you have the space used for other activities - exercise, bar, creche, sleeping areas and berths? Boeing and Airbus have been actually quite creative in coming up with ideas.

Project Sunrise has ambitions to make most of the world reachable non-stop from anywhere else and has been heralded by Joyce as "the last frontier in global aviation."

Despite risks that passengers would find these mammoth flights too unbearable to prove commercially viable, Qantas' Heathrow to Perth route, which launched in March, has proven a resounding success, with a spokesperson for the Australian carrier saying last month that it was "definitely exceeding our expectations.

This opens up a wealth of other viable opportunities.

Where else could we fly direct from the UK?

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Qantas has already mentioned New York, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro as far-flung destinations that will would be reachable in one hop from the east coast of Australia as part of Project Sunrise.

From London, in terms of mileage, that would make it possible to fly to Melbourne direct, and the islands of Fiji; as well as, in the opposite direction, Ushuaia at the tip of Argentina, where cruises depart for Antarctica.

It would also be a doddle - should the non-stop model prove popular - to establish direct flights from London to popular destinations like Bali, which while already possible to reach without a layover, don't currently operate.

In the future, perhaps even further afield. London to Auckland in New Zealand, at distance of 11,404 miles, is about as far away as you can get.

The worlds longest commercial flights

Singapore-Newark, Singapore Airlines, 9,537 miles (launching October 2018) Doha-Auckland, Qatar Airways, 9,032 miles London-Perth, Qantas, 9,010 miles Dubai-Auckland, Emirates, 8,824 miles Los Angeles-Singapore, United Airlines, 8,770 miles Houston-Sydney, United Airlines, 8,596 miles Sydney-Dallas, Qantas, 8,578 miles Manila-New York, Philippine Airlines, 8,519 miles Doha-Sao Paulo, Qatar Airways, 8,498 miles San Francisco-Singapore, United Airlines & Singapore Airlines, 8,446 miles

What's the history behind Project Sunrise?

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The flights are so-named as a nod to the famed 'Double Sunrise' services flown by the Australian carrier across the Indian Ocean during the Second World War, when passengers would witness two dawns from the cabin. Joyce has described his airlines ambitions as the antidote to the tyranny of distance.

He has also stated of the project: The biggest challenge is not just to fly the distance. We have aircraft that can do that already. The challenge is flying the distance with a full load of passengers, their luggage, as well as freight. We know the Dreamliner is capable of that on a 17-hour trip. But to extend the flight to 21 hours will take some extensive research and innovative thinking.

The aircraft we choose will be a core element of our international fleet for a long time. Thats why we want an aircraft that can give us the same operational efficiencies whether it flies Sydney to London or Sydney to Hong Kong.

Read more:

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Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]With its vast canyons and towering skyscrapers, glistening oceans and twinkling neon, the USA inspires curiosity as much for its natural wonders as its man-made creations.

This is a country that continues to captivate tourists  from the back-packers and surfers to the shopaholics and ravers. Last year alone, 558,000 Irish tourists journeyed to the USA or Canada. Visiting America may be the trip of a lifetime but thanks to Click&Go, it wont take you a whole lifetime to afford it. The Irish travel operator offers trips all over the world to suit any budget  and their USA deals are particularly attractive.

If you thought that a big USA holiday was out of your price range, better think again and start packing those bags! Partnering with Aer Lingus and accommodation providers (from cheap and cheerful hotels to swanky boutique hotels), Click&Go can offer you the whole holiday at a cost that wont break the bank. Thats flights, a place to stay, taxes and charges all wrapped up in a neat bundle.

Our advice? Make a bee-line for the following incredible cities first.

1. New York, New York

Why go? Do we even have to explain this one? This is the city. The Big Apple is widely considered to be one of the best cities in the world. Its noisy, busy, exciting, a melting pot of cultures and it really is true what they say  it never sleeps. You can grab a pizza slice at 4.10am  if the mood takes you  and still get the subway home.

Anything you want to do or see is possible in New York. The grid system of the streets makes it super easy to navigate  even for clueless tourists. And, contrary to the stereotype, New Yorkers tend to be quite friendly.

Cinematic references: When Harry Met Sally. Taxi Driver. Breakfast at Tiffanys.

Top attractions: Take a boat out on New York Harbour to see the Statue of Liberty from the water. Climb to the top of the Empire State Building and look at the city laid out below. Go thrift shopping in Brooklyn. Catch some jazz in Harlem. Get lost in Central Park.

Food, food, food: The best bit about New York is the exploring. Your favourite restaurant will probably be somewhere you just stumble upon. Take a bite out of it all  from street vendor hot dogs to Michelin-starred cuisine.

2. Orlando, Florida

Why go? Home to Disneyworld, Universal Studios and umpteen carnivals and water-parks, Orlando is paradise for kids of every age. And when you tire of all the adrenalin-fuelled rides and blaring music you can seek sanctuary on the swamps  and say hello to the resident alligators.

Cinematic references: Saving Mr Banks. The Florida Project.

Top attractions: Take on the hurtling Big Thunder Mountain ride in Disney World. Get your magic wand at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Fly over the swampy wilderness in an air-boat.

Food, food, food: Your favourite fast-food is bigger and better in Florida. Feast on chips, burgers and ice-cream sundaes that are the size of your head.

3. Las Vegas, Nevada

Why go? A theme park for hedonism, this is where adults come to play and misbehave. The extensive number of casinos, super-clubs and strip joints means this sprawling desert city has even sparked its own tagline What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Whether youre a poker fanatic, a dance-music obsessive or are just looking for somewhere to blow off steam with your friends or partner  Vegas is the place.

Cinematic references: The Hangover. Showgirls.

Top attractions: On the strip, everything clamours for your attention. Grab a cocktail at the infamous Bellagio. Hit up a pool party at the Cosmopolitan. Or try your hand at some blackjack in one of the many casinos. For something a little different, why not visit the Neon Museum and see where all those luridly bright flashing signs wind up.

Food, food, food: The Las Vegas strip is fit to bursting with world-renowned, 5-star hotels. You can find any dish under the sun here. But remember theres more to Vegas than the strip, so explore some of the local haunts too like Jammyland, which rustles up Jamaican food from a renovated truck garage.

That was only a taster  just a teeny, tiny taster  of all the cool stuff waiting for you in the USA. But before you go anywhere, be sure to check out the Click&Go website and browse the selection of amazing hotels available for you to book in top destinations.

Short on cash upfront? It gets better. Click&Go offer a low booking deposit of 100. Yes, really 100. Secure your flights and accommodation and then pay off the trip in instalments. This is holiday planning the stress-free way. America here you come!

Sponsored by:Scindia was scheduled to visit Upakasi in Hatta during his Parivartan Yatra scheduled to be held on September 5.

Bhopal: Son of a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party MLA in Madhya Pradesh threatened to shoot senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia if he dared to enter a village in Damoh district, falling under his mothers constituency.

The threat posted in the Facebook wall of P.L. Khatik, son of Hatta MLA Uma Devi, late on Monday evening, warned Mr Scindia not visit Upakasi village in the district.

I will shoot you if you dare to enter Upakasi, the Facebook post said. His threat sparked an outrage in political circle here forcing her mother to take him to the local police station for surrender.

Later, the MLAs son apologised for the post, which was immediately deleted from his FB wall, but went viral after being tagged by several Congress leaders in their respective Facebook accounts.

The police said the accused has been booked under appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Mr Scindia was scheduled to visit Upakasi in Hatta during his Parivartan Yatra scheduled to be held on September 5.Pippa Middleton arriving with husband James Matthews at the Sacred Heart Chuch in Glengarriff where the wedding of Camilla Campion-Awwad took place. PIc Steve Humphreys 1st July 2017

James Matthews and Pippa Middleton seen arriving at Wimbledon for Men's Semi Final Day on July 12, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Neil Mockford/GC Images)

Pippa Middleton and James Matthews arrive at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Pippa Middleton and her husband James Matthews are seen attending the french open at Roland Garros on May 27, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Pierre Suu/Getty Images)

Pippa Matthews and James Middleton applaud Kyle Edmund after his win on centre court on day four of the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon

Pippa Middleton and new husband James Matthews are seen getting on a water taxi in Sydney harbour during their honeymoon. Picture: Splash News

Pippa Middleton and husband James Matthews are making the most of their time together before becoming a family of three with a babymoon in Tuscany.

The 34-year-old, whose sister Kate welcomed her third child with Britain's Prince William in April, is soaking up the sun with her hedge fund manager other half with a luxury holiday, including stay at the plush Hotel Il Pellicano. Pippa, who is due to give birth in October, was pictured proudly displaying her baby bump in a red bikini as she joined James for a once in a lifetime trip to one of the most picturesque parts of Italy.

"She's clearly blissfully happy and as a couple, they look very much in love," a source told Hello! magazine, which published a set of the pictures. "They took bikes and went for lunch by the port. The bikes were electric as the area is quite hilly and I don't think she could have managed otherwise."

Pippa, a noted fitness fanatic, has been regularly pictured keeping up her exercise regime with bike rides around her home in London's Chelsea or swimming at most opportunities - a tip she likely picked up from her sister.

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From personal experience, Id confidently say I find it has been the most enjoyable and rewarding form of exercise since I found out I was expecting,," she wrote in her Waitrose column earlier this year.

"Its comforting to know that its safe throughout pregnancy, and you dont need to adapt and change too much (unlike most other sports). Its so good for you that you could swim every day  as long as you dont overexert yourself  right up until the end of the third trimester."

"Its also one of the most therapeutic ways to work out, particularly when you become less mobile, and it helps prevent your shoulders rounding forwards  a common symptom as your belly expands. It can also offset the tendency for your pelvis to be out of alignment."

Meanwhile, the couple are said to have decided against finding out the sex of their baby before the birth, which is usually more of a royal tradition. On the other hand, James's brother Spencer and his wife Vogue Williams have confirmed they are expecting a baby boy and the Irish tv presenter is several days past her due date, thanking her partner for "keeping me happy and being a great support" as she grows increasingly uncomfortable before the birth.

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Former English football player David Beckham and his wife Victoria arrive to attend the draw for UEFA Champions League football tournament at The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on August 30, 2018. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

Former English football player David Beckham and his wife Victoria arrive to attend the draw for UEFA Champions League football tournament at The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on August 30, 2018. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

Singer Victoria Beckham arrives to attend the draw for UEFA Champions League football tournament at The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on August 30, 2018. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

Former English football player David Beckham and his wife Victoria arrive to attend the draw for UEFA Champions League football tournament at The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on August 30, 2018. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

Victoria Beckham has broken her silence about those ever pesky divorce rumours surrounding her 19-year marriage to husband David.

The fashion designer (44) covers the October issue of British Vogue with two options, one in which she is flanked by her four children - Brooklyn (19), Romeo (16), Cruz (13) and Harper (seven) - - and another where she poses lovingly alongside her long-term love, with just a hint of Harper in the top corner. It was not only the perfect setting, but timing, to address the ongoing public fascination in their marriage.

In June, the couple were plagued, seemingly out of nowhere that their marriage was over and a divorce announcement was imminent, however after a 24-hour social media storm, a spokesperson for the couple vehemently denied the clams. Three months later, Victoria is ready to address the speculation head-on, as she simply put: "It's all about the family unit. We are much stronger, the six of us, than we would be if we were individuals. We respect that family bond and that is key."

"We both realize that we are stronger together than we are as individuals. Would either of us be in the position that we are in now had we not met and been together all those years ago?"

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She went on to describe the rumours as "unfair", not only to them, but to the "wider effect on the people around us" without specifically mentioning their children, although it's hard to imagine who else she might be referencing.

The spread will presumably put a stop to the conjuncture and also further signifies her predisposition as a master of reinvention.

And while she is no stranger to the pages of the international style bible, her latest turn allowed her to show off not only her multi-dimensional personal brand, but also showcase still new editor-in-chief Edward Enninful's vision for the magazine's future. It was a perfect marriage of the magazine's print and digital products, with the as-expected glossy images in print, but also an accompanying behind the scenes video which saw VB completely take the piss out of her Spice Girls wardrobe.The red cloak and white bonnet have become an international symbol for womens rights (Lydia Wheeler/The Hill/Twitter)

From Argentina and Ireland to the United States, protesters across the world have been donning a red cloak and a white bonnet.

Fans of Margaret Atwoods 1985 novel The Handmaids Tale, and the recent Emmy-award winning series of the same name, will recognise these protesters as handmaids.

The distinctive look was visible on Tuesday at the Senate Building in Washington DC, as hearings began for Brett Kavanaughs bid to join the Supreme Court following his nomination by Donald Trump.

Women protest Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to SCOTUS over Roe v. Wade in handmaids tale costumes pic.twitter.com/MRR1EMKcGz  Alexandra Limon (@AlexLimonNews) September 4, 2018

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the US and Kavanaugh, 53, is a controversial nomination, particularly due to his views on abortion  last year writing a dissenting opinion that would have denied an abortion for an immigrant teenager in federal custody.

It is against this factor of Kavanaughs appointment that women have been wearing the clothes of The Handmaids Tale.

Atwoods novel is set in a dystopian future where the United States has become Gilead, a totalitarian society where women are treated as property of the state and forced into sexual servitude.

A pregnant handmaid ready to stop Kav. #CancelKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/LI5AyvCgG3  melissa cancel student debt byrne (@mcbyrne) September 4, 2018

Protesters with Demand Justice dressed as handmaids stand outside Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing room. They are protesting his views on abortion. #SCOTUSKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/oQY7CN3fYD  Lydia Wheeler (@WheelerLydia) September 4, 2018

The harrowing subjugation depicted in The Handmaids Tale is now being used by women to protest against abortion laws across the world.

The red cloak and white bonnet have become an international symbol for womens rights, particularly with regards to abortion.

As far back as May 2017, just a month after the release the first series of Hulus screen adaptation, protesters gathered in the red garb in Texas state Capitol to protest against anti-abortion bills.

A month later, more women gathered gathered outside the Capitol Building in Washington amidst funding cuts to Planned Parenthood, the US reproductive healthcare organisation.

The symbol was also used in Ireland by members of ROSA (Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism & Austerity) prior to the nations historic referendum vote on abortion in 2018.

Handmaids again appeared in London in June 2018, as part of protests against Trumps visit to the UK.

Thousands of miles away, women in Buenos Aires wore the same dress in July as they called for abortion to be decriminalised in Argentina.

One of the protesters even read from a letter written by Atwood herself, who supports the Argentinians efforts.

Nobody likes abortion, even when safe and legal, the Canadian author wrote. But nobody likes women bleeding to death on the bathroom floor from illegal abortions, either. What to do?

Where will the handmaids appear next?Reuters journalists Wa Lone (left) and Kyaw Soe Oo, who claim they were framed by police. Photo: Reuters

A court in Myanmar yesterday sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison in a ruling denounced as a new low for press freedom since Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi rose to power in 2016.

Wa Lone (32) and Kyaw Soe Oo (28) had pleaded not guilty to violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, claiming they were framed by police while investigating allegations of the massacre of a group of Rohingya men by the military.

As they were led to a police van in handcuffs, Wa Lone shouted: "I have no fear. I have not done anything wrong. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom."

It comes just a week after the publication of a damning UN report that called for Myanmar's senior generals to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in Rakhine state, home of the Rohingya minority. Myanmar, also known as Burma, rejects the charges.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's civilian leader and former global human rights heroine, was singled out by UN investigators for failing to use her "moral authority" to stop the military's extreme violence against the Rohingya, which has caused more than 700,000 to flee their homes.

The conviction of the journalists seeking to expose military atrocities against the Muslim minority dealt a serious blow to hopes that her election to government after years of house arrest would herald an accelerated transition to full democracy from military rule.

Stephen Adler, Reuters editor-in-chief, said: "This is a major step backward in Myanmar's transition to democracy, [and] cannot be squared with the rule of law or freedom of speech and must be corrected by the Myanmar government as a matter of urgency."

The journalists were arrested in December while reporting on the September mass killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in the village of Inn Din.There are veteran Washington Democrats having this recurring nightmare: First, they capture control of the House of Representatives on November 6. Then, they celebrate. Then, chaos ensues.

The odds are strongly in favour of a Democratic House triumph in the midterm elections. That's why a dozen or so current members of the party are already angling for a leadership post in the next Congress. The current top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi of California, has been an effective leader but seems to have become a political albatross as more Democrats, under pressure from Republicans and their own left wing, pledge to vote against her as House Speaker.

If her support continues to wane, the consequences for Democrats could be serious. It's hard to exaggerate the importance of leadership of a Democratic caucus filled with members who have never been in the majority or shown legislative prowess. The House is likely to be the only US government body that the Democrats control, and will shape ferocious battles with President Donald Trump, maybe including impeachment, that will set the stage for the next presidential election.

The qualities that make a good congressional leader are often misunderstood. Successful Speakers, from Sam Rayburn in the 1940s and 1950s to Tip O'Neill, Pelosi and John Boehner a generation later, all possess keen political instincts and the discipline and subtlety of judgment to harness them. Bomb-throwers like Newt Gingrich, Speaker from 1995-1999, and policy specialists like the current Speaker Paul Ryan have failed.

Other requisites are the ability to craft an agenda that keeps cohesion and protects marginal incumbents; to be tough and, in these times, to be an effective public voice.

Pelosi meets all these requirements except one: excelling in the public role. So would the No2 Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland. But if the clamour is for a new, fresh face, it wouldn't work to replace a 78-year-old woman with a 79-year-old man. There may be younger Democrats with the potential to rise to the challenge, but few, if any, have yet demonstrated the skills required.

The House majority party has the power to control the legislative calendar. With Trump in the White House and the Senate in Republican hands, expectations for legislative accomplishments will be low. But liberals will demand actions that may not sit well with new Democrats from places like Kentucky or Texas, and with a slim majority, they won't be able to afford to lose anyone. Without smart and experienced leaders to navigate that conflict, the Democrats are unlikely to stay in power for long.The BSP is compiling incidents of atrocities on Dalits that have taken place in the BJP regime.

The BSP, apparently, wants to build atrocities on Dalits into a major poll issue for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and dilute the BJPs Hindu First campaign.

Lucknow: The Bahujan Samaj Party has hit upon a new idea to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is making inroads into its Dalit vote bank in Uttar Pradesh.

The BSP is compiling incidents of atrocities on Dalits that have taken place in the BJP regime. These include the Bhima-Koregaon incident, the suicide of Rohith Vemula, Una killings and similar incidents in Uttar Pradesh. These incidents will be printed in a booklet form and BSP volunteers will then take them for distribution into Dalit populated areas.

The volunteers will also interact with Dalit voters and explain to them these incidents in detail  particularly top those who are not literate.

The BSP, apparently, wants to build atrocities on Dalits into a major poll issue for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and dilute the BJPs Hindu First campaign.

The idea is to inform Dalits about the real intentions of the BJP, in whose regime atrocities on Dalits have increased manifold. The BJP is trying to mislead Dalits in the name of Hindutva but when it comes to caste discrimination, the BJP does not practice what it preaches, said a BSP functionary.

In this campaign, the BSP will focus particularly on the youth who are comparatively more politically aware and literate than the older generations.

In targeting the youth, the BSP also aims at nullifying the growing influence of the Bhim Army on Dalit youth in western Uttar Pradesh.

Interestingly, the BSP list of atrocities on Dalits does not include the Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar who has been languishing in jail since June last year on charges of instigating violence in Saharanpur.

The BSP has been maintaining a studied silence on its relationship with the Bhim Army. It has neither supported the Bhim Army and neither has it opposed it.

A senior BSP leader admitted that the party had failed to address the young Dalit voters in the past few years which had led to electoral reverses.

There is a whole new generation among Dalits and we ignored them which led to losses in 2012 and 2017 assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha polls. This time, we are focusing on the youth and we want to tell them how the BJP has misled them, the leader said.

The BSP, this time is fighting for its survival and revival. The party had won 80 seats in 2012 assembly polls and then drew a blank in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In 2017, the BSP could win only 19 seats.

If the party fails to win a sizeable number of seats in the next Lok Sabha elections, it may lose its relevance as a political force in Uttar Pradesh. For this, it is important for the BSP to prevent any erosion in its vote bank.President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defense secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes sidestepping instructions to limit what they see as his damaging and dangerous behavior.

Excerpts from the book, entitled "Fear" and written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, which has not yet been released, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Mr Trump's 20-month-old presidency.

The book portrays Mr Trump as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Mr Woodward says amounts to an "administrative coup detat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch.

According to the book, Mr Trump told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Mr Assad assassinated after the Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.

Mr Mattis told Trump he would "get right on it," but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Mr Assad personally.

Mr Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Mr Trump acted like "a fifth- or sixth-grader," according to the book.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this or other aspects of the excerpts. The Pentagon declined to comment.

Bob Woodward, who gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, talked to top aides for the book with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, the Post said.

Among his other revelations: former top economic adviser Gary Cohn stole a letter off Mr Trump's desk that the president planned to sign that would withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea.

Mr Cohn, who tried to rein in President Trump's protectionist impulses, also planned to remove a similar memo that would have withdrawn the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Mr Woodward wrote.

"I'll just take the paper off his desk," Mr Cohn told another White House aide, according to the book.

The United States remains part of both trade agreements as it negotiates new terms.

'WORST JOB' EVER

Other aides insulted Mr Trump behind his back. Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and said "We're in Crazytown ... This is the worst job I've ever had."

Donald Trump treated top aides with scorn, the book says, telling Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was past his prime and calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded."

Donald Trump has grown paranoid and anxious over an ongoing federal inquiry into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, prompting aides to compare him to former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, Mr Woodward reported.

Mr Trump's former lawyer, John Dowd, conducted a mock interview with Trump to convince him that he would commit perjury if he agreed to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, the book says.

Donald Trump did not speak with him until the manuscript was complete, the paper said. "So I have another bad book coming out. Big deal," Trump told Woodward, according to a transcript of a telephone call released by the Post.Tropical Storm Gordon is continuing to strengthen and is expected to become a hurricane later on Tuesday when it hits the central US Gulf Coast.

Gordon formed into a tropical storm near the Florida Keys early on Monday as it lashed the southern part of the state with heavy rains and high winds.

The storm was centred 230 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, forecasters said early on Tuesday morning. Maximum sustained winds were recorded at 65mph.

BREAKING: Tropical Storm #Gordon has formed near south Florida. New tropical storm warnings posted for the Keys and south Florida. pic.twitter.com/8bV3E3lMmM  The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) September 3, 2018

A hurricane warning was put into effect for the area stretching from the mouth of the Pearl River in Mississippi to the Alabama-Florida border.

As much as eight inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf states through to late Thursday.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said the storm is also expected to bring life-threatening storm surge to portions of the central Gulf Coast.

A storm surge warning has been issued for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama. The warning means there is danger of life-threatening inundation. The region could see rising waters of 3-5 feet.

The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves, the centre said.

Louisiana Gov John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency on Monday and said 200 National Guard troops will be deployed to south-eastern Louisiana.

The storms predicted track had shifted slightly east as of Monday evening, meaning Louisiana is currently just outside the area under the hurricane warning.

But the south-eastern part of the state remains under a tropical storm warning and residents need to be prepared for the storm to shift west, Mr Edwards said.

This storm has every possibility to track further in our direction, Mr Edwards said during a news conference on Monday evening.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell held an afternoon news conference and said the city has the pumps and the power needed to protect residents.

But authorities issued a voluntary evacuation order for areas outside the citys levee protection system, including the Venetian Isles, Lake Saint Catherine and Irish Bayou areas.

Miami Beach Police said via Twitter that the Labour Day holiday was NOT a beach day, with rough surf and potential rip currents.

Red flags flew over Pensacola-area beaches in Floridas Panhandle, where swimming and wading in the Gulf of Mexico was prohibited.

The National Weather Service said conditions were possible for tornadoes in the affected parts of South Florida on Monday night.Recently Janhvi Kapoor poised the cover of Vogue magazine for her first ever photoshoot and she looked stunning. Later she shot for a magazine along with her co-star Ishaan Khatter. these two rocked their sizzling chemistry and won the hearts of the audience.

The latest photoshoot of Jhanvi for Grazia where she will be seen posing under the sun. Janhvi Kapoor gives out some major star vibes as she shoots for the magazine cover in Singapore and it will be hard to take your eyes off her.

Check out some unseen videos and photos from the shoot:Good landlords in India are hard to find. You know, the kind who are concerned only with the rent and keeping everything fixed? Yeah, theres very few of those. You will, however, find landlords who are all about whats happening in your house, provide moral lectures and do very little for the upkeep of the house that you have to inhabit.

At the end of it all, its somehow still your fault. These 9 people recount the times they were asked to move out by their landlords and you may just thank your landlord after reading these stories:

1. I was renting a flat with a friend who had shifted to Delhi from New York for a fellowship. One fine day, we come home to our landlady talking about how our house was dirty again and the television wasnt working. We never even switched on the television. Moreover, our house help would come for cleaning in the evening since we were both working. We asked her how she would know all of this since only we had the keys to the house. She said she goes in for regular inspection daily. Imagine our horror at not being informed about these regular inspections beforehand! She asked us to move out by the end of the month.

tenor

2. So, my flatmates and I were without water for seven days. Seven whole days of no water in the bathroom or kitchen. Our landlord just wouldnt do anything. His excuse being that he is an office-going family man and has no time. We got a plumber to fix it. We got an electrician to look into it. It all cost a lot of money and we were miserable. Eventually, our landlord opens the door to the terrace where all the overhead tanks were kept and turns out someone had stolen our water connection. The landlord was absolutely surprised by this and said we need to move out immediately because the house suddenly felt unsafe to him. Of course the fact that we had been through so much trouble and it was us who eventually discovered that stolen water connection was nothing.

tenor

3. The last house where I stayed was owned by an old woman and her son who must be in his late thirties. Once while I was having a bath, I noticed that the son had made a hole into one of the walls of the bathroom and was looking at me. I obviously went straight to the lady who offered me all my security back as long as I move out within a week. I took my money and left.

tenor

4. I threw a housewarming party and two of my friends started making out in the balcony. The neighbours called the police and the very next day, my landlord evicted us. I havent thrown a housewarming party for this house.

tenor

5. The last and only time I ever got evicted from a place was unfortunately not my fault. An old friend connected me to a colleague of hers when I needed a flatmate. We met and she seemed like a decent girl who talked at length about how she is all about doing the right thing and is the appointed adult in her college group. My friend assured me she is very responsible as a person. We took the flat together. However, the rent was always late even though she went to expensive places to drink. She bought expensive sarees not below at least four grand but never paid the househelp. She also liked to order things online from the best brands but the newspaper man would always be begging our landlord to pay him. Our landlord had had enough of it and asked us to move out after about six months.

tenor

6. Back when I got my first job, I was on the shift system. I barely even stayed home. Hence, when the landlady told me to never get non-veg food home, I just agreed because I practically didnt live in my house. However, one day, work was too heavy and I skipped dinner. I got myself a chicken burger from an all-night delivery and just took it home. My landlady discovered the pack in my garbage and asked me to move out.

tenor

7. When I was in college, I started a band with my mate. We all moved in together and would jam till late at night. When our landlord asked us to move and he did this very respectfully, we were annoyed and frustrated. We hated every bit of it and even blamed him. However, now that were all adults, we sort of get his point and were just happy he was nice enough to let us stay for a month instead of overreacting to the situation. We did, back then, make even more noise during that one month and I dont know about my friends but I feel bad about it.

tenor

8. Our landlord and landlady had some differences regarding the rules for us. We were two girls who had just one year left at college. However, we were shown the house by the landlord and handed over the security along with a month's rent to him. A couple of days later when the landlady was visiting, she was very unhappy to see our male friends over. She made a scene, scolded us and asked our male friends to get out. We called the landlord who said having male friends over was totally cool. This whole difference between opinion between the wife and husband went on for a bit till the landlady asked us to move out. She didn't even return us the security.

tenor

9. This couldn't be called eviction because it happened before we moved in. However, put us into a lot of trouble. I decided to rent a place closer to my office to save all the money spent on traveling. A couple of colleagues were going to join me and we spent about three weeks looking for a perfect house for working people. Meanwhile, we were all serving our notice period at our previous rented places. Our landlord seemed like a decent guy and we paid the security, brokerage and a month of rent before shifting in. However, a day before we had to move in, he asked us to submit photos of our mothers and sisters. When we asked him why he would require those, he simply said because we were not supposed to have girls over. Suddenly, out of the blue, he decided to come up with these new rules. We told him we won't have girls over but we couldn't submit photos of our mothers and sisters. He got really weird after that and told us not to move in. Luckily, the broker was nice enough to show us houses within the same budget but really, finding a new house was a mess. Not to mention how difficult it was to get our money back from this creepy landlord.

tenorThousands of women on Tuesday braved heavy rains and marched towards the Parliament Street protesting the Modi governments ever-widening indifference towards violence against women, unemployment and hunger.

The women responded to the call of All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) expressing concern over rising violence against women, especially girl child.

The women sang and danced and raised slogans of Narendra Modi Sarkar ab hosh mein aao and they only grew louder. Thousands of working-class women were seen protesting and demanding their basic rights.

Facebook

"AIDWA with a membership 1.12 crore women in 23 states, expresses its serious concern about the spate of rising hate crimes and violence, fear, unemployment, and hunger. It pledges that the women are not going to stay quiet anymore," the AIDWA said in a statement.

The main issues addressed in the Rally were the alarming increase in violence and brutality against women, especially girl children, growing unemployment, food security, the grim issue of starvation and malnutrition and the escalating communal and casteist attacks with the political patronage of the RSS and the BJP.

AIDWA said that with the political patronage of the BJP-RSS, there has been a spurt in the number and brutality of such incidents against women.

The protesters said that the Modi regime promised two crore jobs per year, but has not provided jobs to even two lakh per year. On the contrary, demonetisation has resulted in the loss of 90 lakh jobs between October 2016 and October 2017.

The women who came to participate in the rally will stay over and also join the workers-peasants rally the next day, on 5th September, is organised by the CITU, AIKS and AIAWU.Despite receiving 28 per cent deficient rain in the north-eastern states, the seven sisters are floating in the water. The Union Home Ministrys National Emergency Response Centre released data on Monday that showed 1,400 people have died from rain and flood-related causes since May 28, which makes this monsoon one of the most destructive ones in the recent past.

The country is still recovering from the massive damage caused by the Kerala floods where close to 488 people have died and hundreds have been displaced. Financial aid poured from all parts of the world for the victims, however, the aftermath of the calamity has thrown the state back to almost 20 years.

Rat fever outbreak has killed an additional 27 people and snakes have entered homes from inundated areas. As China issued a flood-warning in low lying areas of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh due to swelling of Tsangpo river across the border, we take a look at the flood-ravaged situation in all the north east states:

1. Assam

Photo: PTI

The state has already been hit by two waves of flood since June to August this year. A third wave may hit the state any time. Close to 50 have died and more than eight lakh have been affected in 22 districts of the state so far, the Times Of India reported. The Tsangpo river which is called the Brahmaputra in Assam is already flowing above the danger mark.

According to All India Radio, at least 15,000 people have been affected by flash floods in Assams Golaghat and Dhemaji districts. 1,400 villages in 23 districts like Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Nalbari, Biswanath, Udalguri, Barpeta, Chirang, Dima Hasao districts with many other have been affected due to the floods. With 23 per cent deficit, Assam witnessed 975.2 mm rain as compared to the normal of 1236.1 mm till date.

2) Arunachal Pradesh

Siang river in Arunachal was also flowing above the danger mark. The district administration had already issued a red alert warning people not to venture into the Siang river for fishing, bathing and other activities due to the unusual high tides.

While low-lying areas of the bank river were facing a threat of flood in the valley especially, Mobo circle in the district, the Indian Air Force rescued 19 people from a flooded island, at Jampani under Sille-Oyan circle on August 31. Interestingly, Arunachal which is often cited as Indias hydroelectric powerhouse is facing a shortage of water due to deficient rains.

Photo: PTI/ IAF rescuing flood hit victims in East Siang

In July this year, the Hindu reported that around 200 rivers and streams had dried up in the state followed by a drastic decline in the states forest cover. Rainfall is essential in the state where agriculture is the main source of income.

However, on September 01, PTI reported that the water levels in the Siang river had started receding due to improvement in the weather. Reportedly, around 1,000 families were affected at Mebo, local legislator Lombo Tayeng had said on Thursday. The State witnessed the highest deficit of 34 percent rainfall, recording 936.3 mm rainfall (actual) against the normal average of 1,423.8 mm.

3) Nagaland

Nagaland has received 10 per cent less rainfall this year. The State has received 1011.4 mm rainfall as against the normal of 1124.6 mm, reported The Pioneer. 12 people have died and severe damage has been caused to life and property. Even though Chief Minister, Niephiu Rio has sought Rs 800 crore as financial relief to help the flood battered state, ironically districts like Kiphire, Peren, Wokha and Phek is facing a rain deficiency between 35 percent to 83 percent this monsoon.

Photo: PTI/ Children walking past the landslide area in Phek district of Nagaland

As road communications were snapped, 50,000 people across 530 villages remain isolated from the rest of the state, NDTV reported. An inter-ministerial team will be present in the state until September 08 to take stock of the damages and Prime Minister Modi assured Rio that all possible help will be provided to the state.

Though currently, no sort of financial help has arrived due to which the CM was forced to tweet for help. Reportedly, landslides at 359 locations have broken roads across the states. Although, the Indian Air Force has been air-dropping relief material in the remote locations on the Myanmar border like Peren, Noksen, Noklak, Tobu, Phokhungri, Wuzu, Pongro and Seyochurig.

4) Meghalaya

Meghalaya sheltering one of the wettest places on earth also witnessed a deficient monsoon this year. It received a rainfall of around 1381.3.2 mm as against the normal average of 2362.8 mm. Mawsynram, the wettest place on Earth, and Sohra, the second wettest too observed 28 percent deficit rainfall this year.

On Friday evening, a flood warning was issued to the Deputy Commissioners of West Garo Hills, South West Garo Hills and North Garo Hills. The Garo hills district lie very close to the Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, and Kamrup (rural) districts of Assam.

The Garo hills are susceptible to flood situations when the Brahmaputra and its tributaries are in a vulnerable situation. According to a local media report, at least 57 villages have been affected by flood in Selsella and Tikrikilla development blocks of the West Garo hills.

Photo: PTI/Rain water being pumped out in Guwahati, Assam

Reportedly, 1,550 hectares of land under sali paddy crop was destroyed and the agriculture department estimated a loss to the tune of Rs. 917.6 lakh. The flood has already affected the Majhipara - Solairtek embankment and villages in the Selsella block including Bhaitbari, Rajabala, Bholarbitha, amongst others are currently flooded.

Manipur and Tripura also recorded a rain deficiency of 53 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. According to the Pioneer, only Sikkim and Mizoram have received normal rainfall this monsoon. Sikkim received 1624 mm rain against the normal average of 1468 mm while Mizoram received 1452 mm rain against the normal of 1370 mm.

Photo: PTI

Though Kerala floods received worldwide attention, Assam and nearby places arent getting the adequate attention though it is rocked by furious floods year after year. All Assam Students Union organising secretary Pragyan Bhuyan told TOI, We want to draw New Delhis attention to the fact that we have been asking the Centre to treat Assam floods and erosion as a national disaster so that a holistic scientific intervention is made and the sufferings of people are addressed.

Round the clock survey is being carried out, disaster management teams are being prepared and response centres and proper supplements are being requisitioned to deal with the grave situation.Jairam Ramesh also asked why PM Modi did not take up the matter with his counterpart in Singapore where coal import transactions took place.

'It is clear that after four years, no result of the probe has come because favourite industrialists are involved in it. If you act against the industrialist, then the government will fall,' he said. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday accused the central government of shielding its "favourite" industrialists in an alleged scam in import of coal worth Rs. 29,000 crore and demanded a "fair and impartial" probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) in a time-bound manner.

Senior party leader Jairam Ramesh also took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking why he did not take up the matter with his counterpart in Singapore where the coal import transactions took place.

Mr Ramesh said PM Modi has met the Singapore PM three times in as many years after the probe began. He also accused Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of being silent on the issue, while remaining vocal on others.

"In October 2014, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) revealed about a scam on coal import and a probe was initiated on the over-invoicing of import of coal," Mr Ramesh claimed

On March 31, 2016, the DRI said 40 companies are involved in this scam and it is worth Rs. 29,000 crore, the Congress leader alleged.

The DRI, he said, also issued letter rogatory to Singapore seeking its help to access documents lying with overseas branches of the SBI bank where coal import transactions took place.

But the probe has remained stalled, he said, adding that showcause was issued against four out of the 40 companies by the DRI.

"It is clear that after four years, no result of the probe has come because favourite industrialists are involved in it. If you act against the industrialist, then the government will fall," he told reporters in Delhi.

"The four companies are owned by favourite industrialists," Mr Ramesh alleged, and named a few business houses who were allegedly issues notice by DRI.

"A Special Investigation Team (SIT) should investigate the scam as has been demanded in September 2017 in a PIL filed by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan's NGO in the Delhi High Court and it should be time-bound.

"All obstacles coming in the way of DRI should also be removed and the government should hold discussions with Singapore to make the documents available to DRI," the Congress leader demanded.

Mr Ramesh alleged that a business house had moved the Singapore High Court to stop sharing of documents available with SBI Singapore branch with the DRI, though the plea was quashed recently.

It has now moved the Bombay High Court to restrain the DRI probe, he claimed.

Mr Ramesh said 70 per cent of the coal imports into the country happen through the companies of this business house.

He also displayed a letter dated May 20, 2016 where Revenue Secretary Hashmukh Adia had requested the then SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya to share the documents with DRI.

However, Ms Bhattacharya refused to do so saying it was against Singapore law, Ramesh said expressing his dismay over her refusal.

Referring to an FIR filed by the CBI against some officers of NTPC and others in connection with the investigation, he asked as to why the "big players" involved in the "scam" are being spared.Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of Haqqani Networks, one of the deadliest Taliban affiliates has died of prolonged illness, the Afghan Taliban has confirmed.

Jalaluddin was from among the great distinguished Jihadi personalities of this era, AFP quoted the Taliban as saying.

Reuters

The 79-year-old who began as anti-Soviet jihadists founded the Haqqani Networks in the 70s and later joined hands with the Taliban when they were in power.

The Haqqani Networks has consistently targeted foreign presence in Afghanistan, including the US and NATO troops.

AFP

The Haqqanis have also targeted Indian interests in Afghanistan including multiple terror attacks.

The deadliest of them being the 2008 suicide bomb attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, which killed 58 people and injured over 150 others. India had alleged that the attack was carried out by the Haqqanis on the behest of Pakistan.

AFP

The 2014 terror attack on the Indian consulate in Herat, Afghanistan also blamed on the Haqqani network.

Jalaluddin, who was known to be close to the political and military leadership in Islamabad used to enjoy their patronage.

AP

Even when Pakistan launched a full-fledged crackdown Operation Zarb-e-Azb against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Haqqani's, were shielded despite US pressure.

One of Jalaluddin's sons, Nasiruddin Haqqani who was a key financier of the network was killed by unknown assailants in the outskirts of Islamabad, on 11 November 2013.After Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra recommended the Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor the road has been cleared for him to take charge as the 46th Chief Justice of India. Read More.

Here's More Top News For The Day:

1) IIT BHU Decides To Teach 'Adarsh Bahu' Course To Future Engineers, Why On Earth Is It Needed?

Taking up the challenge to have certified aadarsh bahus in the country, the IIT department of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has come up with a three-month course to train women to become the ideal daughters-in-law in collaboration with a private entity. Read More.

2) Two Indian Mujahideen Men Convicted For 2007 Hyderabad Twin Blasts Which Killed 44 People

A court in Hyderabad has found two alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives guilty in the 2007 twin bomb blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in Hyderabad which killed 44 lives and left 68 injured. Read More.

3) Despite Facing 28% Deficit Rainfall, Heres How North-East Is Dealing With Flood-Battered Districts

Despite receiving 28 per cent deficient rain in the north-eastern states, the seven sisters are floating in the water. The Union Home Ministrys National Emergency Response Centre released data on Monday that showed 1,400 people have died from rain and flood-related causes since May 28, which makes this monsoon one of the most destructive ones in the recent past. Read More.

4) 70-YO Retired Cop Beaten To Death In Broad Daylight In Allahabad, Nobody Stopped To Save Him

A retired policeman was assaulted with sticks by a group of men on a street in Uttar Pradeshs Allahabad. Appallingly, while he was beaten no one came forward to stop the assault and help the 70-year-old man. Read More.

5) Govt Claims That 100 Million Indians Are Using Digital Payment Since Demonetization

The finance ministry officials, on Monday, said that monthly digital transactions have crossed 300 million marks through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and digital payment will soon become a norm in the country. Read More.Setting an example of communal harmony, Hindus, and Muslims of Agra's Kheriya Mod locality come together to celebrate the festival of Janmashtami. This tradition of jointly celebrating the festival has been going on in this locality for about 15 years.

Md. Shadil Quereshi, a local resident told ANI, "We start preparations several months in advance and all Hindu-Muslims work very hard for it. From decoration to the set-up we all work together on all aspects.

BCCL/Representational Image

We believe that there is no religion or caste in celebrating the festivals. We have been doing this for around 15 years and we want our children to continue the same. We want that Hindu-Muslim lives affectionately all across the country in this same way."

Harishankar Shukla, president of the regional market committee that organizes the festival in the locality, said that they want to spread a message of love and brotherhood through this effort.

"Our basic thought is that everyone in society must live with love and brotherhood. Throughout the year we organize different festivals which are celebrated together. If everyone in society lives cordially with love and affection than only nation will progress. We have been celebrating Janmashtami in this way for the last 15 years. Everyone works together for this occasion," he told ANI.

ANI

In accordance with the theme of Hindu-Muslim unity, the banners put up for the occasion of 'Janmashtami' portray Lord Krishna on one side and the Islamic symbol of crescent and star on the other.With the increasing invasion of gadgets and Internet into our lives, it's natural for kids to easily fall prey to digital distractions -- something that can hamper their development, affecting their performance in school and elsewhere.

Taking note of this trend, France has enacted law that bans children under the age of 15 from using their personal phones in school. Today that law came into effect.

According to a Reuters report, France's education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said the new law is aimed towards helping children focus on lessons at school and not be hooked to their smartphones all the time. Not just focusing on classes, but the phone ban inside school premises will help children to socialise better and get off overwhelming social media use.

France's law to ban phones in school is also aimed at fight online bullying in school. And also reduce social anxiety and peer pressure surrounding the need to flaunt the latest and greatest smartphone at school.

There are some exceptions to the blanket ban of phones inside school premises, especially for students with disability and cases of emergency.

reuters

Should India do something similar?

While there is no such law in India which prohibits kids from using smartphones in school, the decision is left up to individual schools to evaluate and act upon. Most schools, at least till class 10, do restrict the use of phones inside the classrooms here in India, but when has that stopped tech-savvy kids from smuggling devices inside and break some rules?

Also just banning the use of phones in school and letting kids have an unsupervised go at it won't really create real change, as far as taking away children's digital distractions is concerned. Parents should take adequate measures to curb their children's time on the smartphone, too.First Brazilian human 'Luzia' - a 12,000-year-old fossil - perished in a raging fire on Monday. The fire that ripped through Rio de Janeiro's treasured National Museum, destroyed the first human fossil found in Brazil, in the southwestern Minas Gerais state in 1970.

Luzia was considered to be the jewel in the crown and cultural pride of the museum's collection of 20 million valuable pieces. "Luzia is a priceless loss for everyone interested in civilization," Paulo Knauss, director at Brazil's National History Museum, told AFP.

afp According to a report by news agency AFP, using her skull, researchers at Britain's University of Manchester had managed to produce a digital image of her face, which was used as the base for a sculpture displayed in the museum that went up in smoke on Sunday night. afp According to a quote by Estado de S.Paulo newspaper of Katia Bogea, President of the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage, this tragedy was somehow expected, and major budget cuts for the irreparable cultural loss were to be blamed for it.

Considered the most important natural history museum in Latin America, the National Museum, which celebrated its bicentenary in June, was particularly renowned for its palaeontology collections.

*With inputs from AFPThe Internet can be a lovely place filled with instances that will restore your faith in humanity and this heartwarming picture of a flight attendant helping an elderly woman is doing just that.

The picture shows a flight attendant from Philippines crouching low and spoon-feeding an elderly woman her meal.

A photo of the flight attendant was shared on Facebook by a certain user named Rina Sheryl Estabillio-Dajao.

In the post-Dajao. wrote, Whoever she is, may the Lord bless you a thousand fold and make you the cabin crew of the century.

Soon after the picture went viral, the flight attendant's identity was revealed. Rina Sheryl Estabillo - Dajao put out another Facebook post with a heartwarming letter addressed to the woman named Chet.

Dear Chet, finally found you! Just want to say that you are a gem, wrote the netizen. Weve seen enough toxic news over the internet the past few months, and seeing your act of kindness towards an elderly is more than enough to give us HOPE that there are still people like you who will still DO THE RIGHT THING even if no one is watching.

Chet was showered with praises for going above and beyond her call of duty and showing kindness to the lady.When the schools reopen, kids and parents both look forward to the academic year, after a long summer holiday. A kindergarten school in south-east China, however, had a bizarre way to welcome students. The school is facing a lot of flak as it organised a pole dancing performance to welcome students after the summer holidays.

Xinshahui Kindergarten school in Shenzhen had invited parents as well as children for the welcoming ceremony, a woman was seen dancing around a pole placed in the courtyard of the school. This shocked the parents who took to social media to express their anger. Some of them are even planning to withdraw their children from the school and get their fees back.

Who would think this is a good idea? We're trying to pull the kids out of the school and get our tuition back. They wouldn't give us the number of the company that owns the school, but looking into that. pic.twitter.com/vEdIhuq774  Michael Standaert (@mstandaert) September 3, 2018

According to a report by Washington Post a huge stage was set up on the courtyard and in front rows children aged three to six were standing. Looking at the pole dance, boys were seen laughing while girls were standing frozen, before parents started taking their children away.

The principal hung up on my wife when she called after saying it was "international and good exercise" ... okay, yeah for adults maybe, but not 3-6 year old kids. pic.twitter.com/OAw8S5ihzX  Michael Standaert (@mstandaert) September 3, 2018

Not just the performance, but the school compound also had the advertisements for pole dancing around the courtyard. This inappropriate dancing did not go down well with parents, and there were several reactions on social media about this.

Here are reactions to this viral video on Twitter:

Yhey banned Winnie the Pooh and Doramon but this ok?  yoshida shoin (@yoshidashoin1) September 3, 2018

Insane ! Private schools in Asia are a big business. Be aware.  IBreathForArt (@IBreathForArt) September 3, 2018

Youd also have to ask what the hell the girl dancing was thinking bustin sexy moves in front of kids. Its not an exercise routine pole dance; its a girly bar pole dance (a mate told me. Honest)  Andrew Mountford (@mumphLT) September 4, 2018

That's not appropriate for young children! I would be mad and take my kids out if there instantly!! What a dumb teacher!  Shelley (@Shelley75939387) September 3, 2018Shootin' the Bull Swift Trading Company - 1 hour ago It is believed for the moment that the Fed action today was the minimalist that could have been done and save face that they did something.

Cocoa Prices Slide as Ideal Weather Should Boost Cocoa Yields Barchart - Wed Nov 3, 1:36PM CDT Dec ICE NY cocoa (CCZ21 ) on Wednesday closed down -33 (-1.34%), and Dec ICE London cocoa #7 (CAZ21 ) closed up +1 (+0.06%). Cocoa prices on Wednesday extended this week's sell-off down to 3-month lows... CCH22 : 2,473s (-1.36%) CAH22 : 1,681s (-0.53%)

Investors bet big on climate fight but motives questioned AP - Wed Nov 3, 12:43PM CDT GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  Governments and big investors announced fresh plans Wednesday to pour trillions of dollars into , reflecting the financial world's growing embrace of efforts to fight climate... $SPX : 4,660.57 (+0.65%) $DOWI : 36,157.58 (+0.29%) $IUXX : 16,144.50 (+1.08%)

Cotton Futures Off their Lows Barchart - Wed Nov 3, 11:41AM CDT Prices tried to extend the correction earlier in the Wednesday session, but cotton is back in the black for midday. Gains are limited to 105 points so far, but still more than 3 cents off their contract... CTK21 : 89.48s (+3.77%) CTH22 : 115.44s (+1.41%) CTZ21 : 118.82s (+1.34%)

Corn Extending Pullback Barchart - Wed Nov 3, 11:41AM CDT Following the turnaround Tuesday pullback, Wednesday markets are down another 4 3/4 to 7 1/2 cents for midday Wednesday. IHS Markit, formally Informa, revised their estimated 2021/22 U.S. corn yield... ZCZ21 : 564-0s (-1.57%) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.4650 (-1.68%) ZCH22 : 572-2s (-1.55%) ZCZ21 : 564-0s (-1.57%)

Wheat Markets are Giving Back More Barchart - Wed Nov 3, 11:41AM CDT Midday wheat futures are down for midday, whether from routine profit taking or caution ahead of the FOMC meeting and related interest rate announcements. SRW futures are 8 1/2 to 12 cents in the red.... ZWZ21 : 781-0s (-1.33%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.3078 (-1.43%) KEZ21 : 790-6s (-0.94%) KEPAWS.CM : 7.7014 (-0.95%) MWZ21 : 1044-0s (-2.93%)

Hogs Up By Triple Digits Barchart - Wed Nov 3, 11:41AM CDT Wednesday hog futures trading has lean hog futures $0.85 to $1.10 higher @ midday. USDAs National Average Base hog price for Wednesday was 33 cents higher to $60.69. CMEs Lean Hog Index for 10/29... HEZ21 : 75.950s (+2.29%) HEJ22 : 82.675s (+1.66%) KMZ21 : 94.400 (+1.51%)

Soy Market Mostly Lower through Midday Barchart - Wed Nov 3, 11:41AM CDT Soybean prices are 10 to 13 1/2 cents lower at midday. Meal prices are $0.10 to $2.20/ton. Soybean oil futures 88 to 105 points weaker. IHS Markit is calling for a national 51.5 bpa soybean crop. USDA... ZSX21 : 1231-4s (-1.00%) ZSPAUS.CM : 12.0262 (-0.87%) ZSF22 : 1244-2s (-0.96%) ZSX21 : 1231-4s (-1.00%)Churhat is the assembly constituency of Congress leader Ajay Singh Rahul, who is also the leader of Opposition in the assembly.

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday accused the Congress of instigating an attack on him and challenged Ajay Singh Rahul, the constituencys MLA, to fight him in the open, in the electoral battle instead.

Late on Sunday night, stones were pelted at Mr Chouhans chariot while he was campaigning in Patpara village, under Churhat Assembly constituency. No one was hurt, but a windowpane of the vehicle was damaged, police said. The Congress has denied any involvement in the attack.

The attack has clearly established that Congress is baying for my blood. They (Congressmen) can kill me. But I am not going to be cowed down by such an act of cowardice by them. We may have ideological differences, but there is no place for violence in democracy. Everyone has right to go to the people to express ones views. Madhya Pradesh has never witnessed such an incident earlier. It is not good for democracy and not good for Congress, he told reporters here on Monday.

Churhat is the assembly constituency of Congress leader Ajay Singh Rahul, who is also the leader of Opposition in the assembly.

Accusing the CLP leader of instigating Congress-men to attack him, Mr Chouhan said, I challenge him (Ajay Rahul Singh) to fight me in electoral battle ground. I am servant of people and no force can stop me from approaching them directly. I have come thus far on the strength of my hard work, unlike him who acquired his position because of his father (late MP chief minister Arjun Singh).

I am physically weak but I wont be bogged down by your deeds. The people of the state are with me, the chief minister added.

Ajay, however, said no Congressman was involved in the incident, terming it a well-thought-out conspiracy to defame him and the people of Churhat.

As many as 50 people, including local block Congress committee president Ram Vilash Patel, Sidhi district Congress IT cell chief Pankaj Singh, and local youth Congress leader Ranjana Mishra have been arrested in this connection.

State home minister Bhupendra Singh on Monday claimed that there was a conspiracy to kill the chief minister because of the huge public response his ongoing Jan Ashirvad Yatra was receiving in the state.

The Congress has started a new politics of violence. The Congress knows it cannot come to power in the state due to Chouhan. That is why Congress leaders are hatching conspiracies to kill Chouhan All those who were arrested in connection with the incident are Congressmen close to the CLP leader, he said.

The arrests have been made on the basis of eyewitness accounts and more arrests cannot be ruled out, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said, adding that Mr Chouhans security has been ramped up.

While some Congress leaders accused the BJP of running a smear campaign against the party, MP Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Kamal Nath condemned the attack and called for an impartial probe into the incident.

Appropriate action will be taken by the party if any Congressman was found to be involved in the incident, he said.

They are claiming the arrested accused are Congress office-bearers. The home minister, please give us details of the accused with their positions in the Congress, state Congress spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta said.

The chief minister is touring the state to canvas support for the ruling BJP ahead of year-end Assembly polls. The BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003 and is seeking a record fourth term in the state.A data science and consumer marketing expert with more than 25 years of experience has joined a Sydney-based global insurer to further develop its data-analytics capability.

In his new role as IAGs chief analytics officer, Bora Arslan will lead the analytics program in IAG Customer Labs and oversee the 70-person team to drive the future strategic direction of the analytics and artificial-intelligence functions within the group.Chairman Eric Dodd said Eders extensive leadership and sector experience ideally complements the expertise of the companys board members and will be of great value to Integrity as it progresses from new entrant to established market player.

Eder was with Munich Re Group for 36 years, the last decade of which he spent as managing director for Australasia. He also held various directorships and adviser roles in the insurance and reinsurance companies and served as a director of the Insurance Council of Australia and ANZIIF.

McCrea has 25 years of financial-services experience, including as head of operations at Clearview Wealth. Little, previous national manager for product policy at ANZ, brings extensive expertise in product development and strategy to Integrity.

Integrity already offers group insurance and is set to pilot its retail products with a group of 50 specialist insurance advisers in mid-October.The transaction will also expand TALs distribution footprint with a 20-year strategic alliance agreement to sell its life insurance products through Suncorps distribution network.

The deal is expected to be completed around the end of 2018.

This acquisition will enable TAL to extend our specialist experience to Suncorps existing life insurance customers and partners, while opening up new opportunities for TAL, said Brett Clark, TAL group CEO and managing director. This acquisition will enhance TALs scale and capability across the retail, group and direct segments, and opens up important new distribution channels. It provides us with a strong base for continued growth and reflects our ongoing commitment to offering Australians a range of life insurance options to meet their diverse needs. Over the next few months we will finalise planning for transition and integration of our businesses.

TAL will be able to offer all of Suncorps life-insurance products including term life, income-protection, and funeral insurance in addition to its current offerings. The life insurance specialist will also maintain its Asteron brand after the sale.ONeill, who came onboard Swiss Re in 1998, has served as CEO for UKI since 2016  returning to London at the time after taking on senior roles in Zurich, Singapore, New York, and Cape Town from 2002. He was with Liberty Group in Johannesburg prior to joining the reinsurer.

I would like to thank Frank for his tremendous commitment and contribution to Swiss Re over the last 20 years, commented Russell Higginbotham, CEO Reinsurance EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) at Swiss Re. We wish him every success in his future endeavours.

Swiss Re said the hunt for ONeills successor has been initiated. In the meantime the firms head of life & health UKI Peter Elliott will be in charge.We are excited to welcome Nephila to the Markel team, said Richard Whitt, co-CEO of Markel. Frank Majors and Greg Hagood have built the industrys preeminent and longest-tenured insurance-linked securities manager. With a proven 20-year track record of success, they bring with them an incredibly experienced and talented team and a culture of creativity, innovation and excellence that exemplifies the Markel style. The addition of Nephila to Markels insurance, reinsurance, insurtech, fronting, and existing insurance-linked securities capabilities will enhance and strengthen the breadth and depth of Markels offerings to policyholders, producers and investors.

As the industry continues to evolve, we believe the resources and expertise from both platforms will provide meaningful benefits to our investor base, as it combines the investment independence of a 20-year, stand-alone insurance-linked securities manager with the additional resources of a well-respected and strongly rated insurer, Hagood said. We are excited about leveraging these joint resources on behalf of our investors in the years ahead.

According to Whitt, the combined assets under management between Nephila and Markel CATCo will stand at about US$19 billion, representing 20% of the insurance-linked securities space.

With this transaction, Markel is set to become the largest manager of funds in this sector, he said.Certain areas of the industry still feel grim, added Schipper, but we should acknowledge the accomplishments that have been reached so far.

There is a lot of work to be done, but I think we can stop for a second, enjoy the view and keep going, knowing that there are more women that are moving into important senior positions outside of just traditional human resources and marketing, and thats happening on every level, whether its MGUs, whether its insurance companies, whether its brokers, Schipper said.

In larger carrier organizations especially, C-suites continue to be dominated by men, said the Tangram president, while more traditional service staff roles are populated with women, though Schipper is herself evidence that a movement to diversify boardrooms and corner offices is underway. As other women make their way into positions of influence, they have the power to change the industry from within and affect the complexion of senior leadership.

To ensure that change is here to stay and guarantee it will continue into the future, younger women in college, as well as new graduates, need to see the value in the insurance industry.

[We need] to get to women earlier so they recognize that there are tools available to help them manoeuvre, outsmart, and advocate as they move through their careers, Schipper noted. They also need to see insurance as a place where they can grow, they can earn a lot of money, they can have a stable career, and they can also be mothers, be wives, and have time to pursue other interests. It is a career unlike many other industries where you can have the best of a lot of things at the same time without the compromises.

Schipper added that she hopes the Women in Insurance event will inspire women to make a move that could put them on a path to success in the industry.

Any time you have an event, you hope you light a match  that there is inspiration that leads to action  and I think for me personally, my biggest call to action would be women leaving that room with the confidence to take some leap or some risk that maybe they hadnt been willing to take or encourage somebody else to do the same. I think we operate from a much safer place in our brains, we emotionally talk ourselves out of things, and I want to push women to be more courageous with themselves and with others.

Rekha Schipper is the chairperson for Women in Insurance Los Angeles on October 11. For more details and to register, click here.The 2017 drama kicked off when Hurricane Harvey barrelled into states on the Gulf Coast, triggering widespread damage and flooding, including an estimated $125 billion losses in Texas alone. The city of Houston felt the brunt of the storm, with 36 lives lost and more than 150,000 homes flooded. Key takeaways from this event include understanding and acknowledgement of the citys flood risk, and the importance of emergency planning, according to Higgins.

Last year was a reminder that Houston is very vulnerable to flooding  and Harvey demonstrated that to the extreme, Higgins told Insurance Business. The city has grown so much in the last 20 years and there are no formal zoning laws, which means the ability to take water and move it where it needs to go is very limited. Theres also a lot of hardscape in Houston filled with concrete and asphalt, so the city is going to be vulnerable to flooding for many years to come.

Even if they dont get another Harvey, any kind of big rain event is going to result in flooding, so its important for the insurance industry to remind clients with a facility or an account in Houston (or anywhere near a flood zone) to be diligent and put together a flood emergency plan for that location.

Shortly after Harvey, Hurricanes Maria and Irma dealt two of the deadliest blows on record to the island of Puerto Rico. CNN reported last week that Puerto Rican officials admitted the death toll from Hurricane Maria is 46 times higher than the 64 deaths they previously reported, at an estimated 2,975 fatalities. While mourning the storms many victims, the island has been frantically trying to repair and re-build vital infrastructure, but the destruction caused by the deadly storms was truly devastating.

The hurricanes that impacted Puerto Rico were absolutely devastating to the island, Higgins said. Theyre still in the recovery process and a lot of the infrastructure has been cobbled back together, which means that if another major hurricane were to hit Puerto Rico this year, the damage could be immense.

Theyre only now getting power back to remote areas in Puerto Rico. If a hurricane hits Puerto Rico this year, their infrastructure is very vulnerable right now, so we would expect power to be interrupted for a very long time. Thats why we have reminded our insureds on the island to have back-up power supplies, to be prepared and to test their emergency generators regularly.Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.The TMC Birbhum district president, was presiding over a meeting in Aushgram assembly constituency on Sunday when purported video was shot.

Mandal is the party's observer in three assembly constituencies - Mangalkot, Ausgram and Ketugram - in East Burdwan district. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Kolkata: Senior Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mandal courted controversy yet again as he was caught on camera purportedly instructing his party workers to get a party rebel and a woman BJP leader arrested on a false case of possessing cannabis.

Anubrat Mandal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Birbhum district president, was presiding over a meeting in the Aushgram assembly constituency in neighbouring Burdwan East district on Sunday when the purported video was shot.

He is the party's observer in three assembly constituencies - Mangalkot, Ausgram and Ketugram - in East Burdwan district.

The video went viral Sunday night and kicked up a political storm in the state with the opposition accusing the ruling Trinamool of using the police to settle the score with the opposition.

Under the anti-narcotics law, a minimum jail term of six months is awarded for possessing up to 1 kg of cannabis, while the punishment for possessing a larger quantity could lead to prison term of up to 20 years.

"Arrest the man whom we have excluded from the five-member committee. Also, that woman, that plump one. What's her name? The one owning a garment shop, get her arrested too. She is a BJP worker. Can you control them? Tell me if you can control them, otherwise we will arrest them in a cannabis case and put them behind bars," Anubrat Mandal was purported heard instructing party workers in the video clip.

Bengal Agriculture Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Ashis Bandopadhyay was also present in the meeting.

The five-man committee, which was mentioned in the clip, is the one formed by the district unit of the Trinamool Congress to look after the development work in the constituency.

Reacting to Anubrat Mandal's threat, Sangita Chakraborty, a BJP leader in Aushgram, said the video clip proves how the TMC uses police to settle the score with political opponents.

"This is how political opponents are being put behind bars in the TMC regime. What do they mean by cannabis case? Does that mean all the cannabis cases against politicians of opponent parties are false and fabricated?" she questioned.

Asked for his reaction to Anubrat Mandal's assertion, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said he had not seen the video and so he could not comment on it.

The vice-president of the TMC's Birbhum district, Avijit Sinha, said the video had been "fabricated" to malign Mondal and the party. "We feel that the video that has gone viral is a fabricated one. It has been done to malign the party," Sinha said.

Anubrat Mandal had courted controversy in July 2013 when he asked his supporters at a public meeting in Birbhum to hurl bombs at the police and burn down houses of rebel TMC candidates in panchayat elections.

Ahead of the 2016 assembly election in the district, the Election Commission had taken note of his controversial comments and put him under 24-hour surveillance.

The BJP and the CPI(M) said the video was an example of how police were being used by the TMC to stifle dissent in the state. "We have been saying this (using the police) for a long time and now this video has proved how police are being used to attack us. The people of the state will give a befitting reply," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.

CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty also expressed similar view and demanded that action be taken against Anubrat Mandal.

The TMC had won all the 42 district council seats in Birbhum in the May rural polls in West Bengal without any contest.The ban was finally lifted a month later, March 22, but resulted in business loss for the fisheries.

A statement from the Tohoku Defense Bureau said that more than 180 members of a fisheries cooperative in Aomori Prefecture will seek a total of 93.23 million yen for the suspension of their fishing operations.

The Mainichi reported that under the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement, America should shoulder 75% of the total damages caused by its military in the performance of official duties in Japan in cases where the US alone is responsible.

Japans Defense Ministry will first examine the validity of the cooperatives claim and negotiate with the US before it finalizes the amount of compensation to be paid.When insurance experts are asked what they see as the most important emerging risk for the property/casualty insurance industry, their consensus is cyber in some form.

While cyber obviously poses tremendous risks, some experts are also eyeing a variety of other emerging risks. These include risks inherent in government and insurance policies, not to mention blockchain, urban transportation, coastal property, retail deliveries and recreation.

1. D&O Privacy

The new Facebook lawsuit suggests that privacy-related concerns may already represent a potential new source of corporate liability exposure. The advent of the EUs General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) will magnify these possibilities. While predictions of this kind are always tricky, it may be that privacy related issues may represent an emerging and growing area of potential directors and officers (D&O) liability exposure. It is important to note that these kinds of privacy concerns involve not just new age behemoths like Facebook that are hoovering huge volumes of personal information. Many companies are capturing vast amounts of client and customer information, many of them in traditional industries  think how much your airline, your pharmacy, your credit card company, even your electric utility know about you. Of course these companies are mining this information for their marketing efforts and pricing analyses. These companies may well be sharing this information with collaborators, joint venture partners, third-party vendors, and so on. The recent developments at Facebook not only show the problems that can arise with the use of this kind of information, but also underscore how claims that this kind of information was mishandled can lead to bad publicity, a corporate crisis, and even significant D&O litigation. I could be wrong, of course, but I think we will see more D&O litigation in the future involving privacy issues. Indeed, the advent of the GDPR could significantly increase the likelihood of these possibilities.  Kevin M. LaCroix, The D&O Diary and executive vice president, RT ProExec, a division of R-T Specialty

2. Government Actions

The greatest industry vulnerability is constantly evolving governmental actions. Government imposition of retroactive liability or limits on the ability of the marketplace to price risk can threaten marketplace stability. Industry security is also impacted by the effectiveness of government security policies preventing terrorist attacks  particularly cyber warfare. PCI is ever vigilant, working with policymakers to prevent or at least help our members mitigate and manage the next asbestos, superfund, or 9/11 solvency threat. Our members are also very focused on the current technology race that is driving massive insurer investment in IT and changing business strategies and platforms to meet escalating consumer expectations. Emerging government and technology risks intersect in the cyber world, with PCI members chief risk officers most worried about aggregate losses and direct company exposure to a large-scale cyberattack.  Robert Gordon, senior vice president, Policy, Research and International, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America

3. Sandbox Trap

Regulation of insurance. Some traditional carriers are pushing for laxation of rules and momentum exists for creating regulatory sandboxes for new companies and distributors. For the legacy companies pushing for laxation, Id suggest one should be careful of what one is wishing for. Reasonable but strong regulation protects companies often against themselves, and it protects consumers from companies that might find ways around quality capitalization, disclosure, and quality coverages.  Chris Burand, founder and owner, Burand & Associates, agency consulting

4. Tax Accounting

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act took effect on Jan. 1, 2018, and has had an immediate impact on accounting professionals because of the large overhaul on the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. I think it has produced two primary risks for an increase in claims: advisory-related risks associated with fully educating clients and managing client expectations and increased risk of error in the preparation of the tax return itself. Both of these risks stem from the accountant needing to fully understand the new tax code changes and apply them accurately.  Catherine Putman, underwriting director for Portfolio Management, Bond & Specialty Insurance at Travelers

5. Regulation Fragmentation

Regulatory fragmentation from state to state in the area of data and cyber security. There are many differences between EUs General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and emerging U.S. state regulations. GDPR provides provisions around processing personally identifiable data (PII) of people residing in the EU, regardless of country citizenship and location. These data controllers can be EU firms or firms operating in the EU from other jurisdictions and must demonstrate technology, process and organizational compliance. The PII definition is broader than definitions of the same concept used in the U.S. and covers almost anything that can be attributable to a person. The cost and confusion for international reinsurers will only increase as more state regulations emerge.  Mitchell Wein, vice president of Research and Consulting, Novarica

6. Policy Deficiencies

I believe the most important emerging risk is increasing deficiencies in insurance policies themselves, especially in personal lines. Because of dominant industry advertising, consumers are being led into thinking the only real difference between insurance companies is the price of their policies. Compounding that is the emergence of insurtechs that tout they can place your insurance in seconds by asking only a few (or even one) questions. Clearly, they are competing only on price and so-called convenience. At some point, insurance providers will be operating about as efficiently as they can when it comes to sales and underwriting. At that point, the only way to compete on the basis of price will be to address the loss cost component of premiums. I believe were seeing that right now and the easiest way to do that is to reduce the coverage in the insurance product and/or engage in more restrictive claims practices. Buying policies that dont cover much is itself a risky proposition.  Bill Wilson, founder and CEO, InsuranceCommentary.com

7. Irrelevant Policies

One of the biggest emerging risks is whether insurers will be able to adapt quickly and effectively to dramatic societal changes threatening to breach traditional policy boundaries and lines of business. To remain relevant for buyers operating in the sharing, virtual and gig economies, carriers will need to adapt policy language to account for the blurring of lines between commercial and personal use of property and time as well as among individual product lines. They also need to create new coverages or adjust existing policies to address new exposures in cyber risk, 3D printing, robotics and the use of drones, as well as increasingly alarming climate-related risks.  Sam Friedman, Insurance Research Leader, Deloitte Center for Financial Services

8. Fundamental Auto

The fundamental changes to autos and the auto business in the next decade will provide opportunities and threats to the auto insurance business. Private and commercial auto insurance accounts for more than 40 percent of overall property/casualty direct written premium. Private and commercial auto insurance margins are constantly under pressure. Technology will confluence with planned auto industry movements toward mobility-as-a-service versus vehicles as products. Driver assistance technology with lidar, radar and other sensors provides greater safety in select situations, but concurrently increases the danger of drivers failing to pay attention. Even where safety is enhanced, the proposed lighter vehicles and increased miles driven create challenges to established pricing models. Ride sharing, ride-on-demand and fully automated vehicle business models are largely based on the premise of doing away with individual ownership of vehicles, which would impact personal auto insurance. Fundamental premises of who the driver is, state licensing and registration, and legal liability will be transformed by these developments, which will also impact insurance products and services.  Tom Karol, general counsel-federal, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies

9. Unprotected Assets

Digital assets already have more value than physical ones. Since the Andreessens famous article Why Software Is Eating the World 10 years ago, this change has become evident. However, insurance solutions that answer the need for protection of digital assets are not here yet. Obviously, cyber liability insurance is answering one part of these needs and will continue to grow, but I dont think it is addressing all of the enormous needs of protecting digital assets. The higher the digital asset relevancy, the bigger and more articulated the need to protect it. I consider this the single most important emerging risk for P/C insurance professionals, so I would not be surprised to see an insurer create a business line dedicated to digital assets both in personal and commercial lines.  Matteo Carbone, founder and director, IoT Insurance Observatory

10. Risky Playgrounds

Architectural Digest magazine reports there is a new movement to bring risk back into parks and playgrounds. Childrens playgrounds, with features including spiked nails and steep drops, have been gaining popularity in the UK and are coming to the U.S. Educators are claiming that purposeful risky play promotes resilience and builds more self-reliant young people, the article says. Public playgrounds are being designed to actively present that risk. What that looks like  playgrounds with access to saws, knives, loose bricks and two-by-fours, and fire  is something that might sound alarms for some parents here in the litigious U.S., the author writes. The designed risk movement is getting support in the U.S. from architects and designers, according to Cheri Ruane of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. Her firm designed a park in a Boston neighborhood that includes elevated concrete piers that children traverse to experience moving across uneven surfaces, plus a high tree house and a high, long slide. Parks in New York, Houston, Minneapolis and Santa Clarita have also followed the trend.  Elizabeth Wallace, Architectural Design, Inside the Rise of Risky Playground Design

11. Dockless Scooters

Electric scooters are popping up in urban areas across the country. In some locations, the firms  Bird, Lime, Spin and others  have flooded sidewalks with their scooters, following the ask for forgiveness, not permission tactic of early Uber. Users pay through an app with a credit card and do not have to return the scooters to a particular location. There have been complaints of scooters abandoned on sidewalks and in doorways. Some cities have moved to ban them, if only temporarily, until rules are in place. Cities are balking, but the trend is taking hold. Injuries are growing. Dr. Natasha Trentacosta of Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles said she is seeing injured patients on a daily basis, including some who need surgery at least once or twice a week. Personal injury lawyers have taken note. Bloomberg reported people hurt riding or hit by scooters in San Francisco and Los Angeles have been calling legal firms to file claims. Personal injury law firm Omega Law Group in Beverly Hills reports getting five calls a week for scooter accidents since April. Most of the calls come from riders hit by reckless motorists who are not used to sharing the road with the small scooters, the firms website says. Another firm told Blomberg that while riders hit by cars may have a strong cases, pedestrians injured by scooters on a sidewalk are often out of luck because there is no insurance company to sue.

12. Driving Deliveries

Europes agency for workplace health and safety (EU-OSHA) thinks the rising demand for fast and free home and work delivery of retail goods needs monitoring. Purchasers are expecting faster deliveries and more accurate delivery times but are not willing to pay the price, which is bound to impact delivery driving. First, the increase in e-retail means there are more driving jobs, including gig economy drivers who tend to use private cars to fulfil deliveries. There is a link between business driving and increased musculoskeletal disorders rates (especially lower back pain). Possibly compounding this are health risk factors for drivers, including: compromised employer terms and conditions related to gig economy drivers; long working hours, possibly resulting in driver fatigue; and increased performance demands linked to fast delivery and specific delivery times. While improvements in delivery vehicle and equipment design and the introduction of driverless vehicles may help alleviate health risks, these could take years to be mainstream.

13. Compliance Witnesses

New research from corporate consultants at Gartner indicate that employees who witness misconduct are twice as likely to leave an organization. Twenty-nine percent of employees observed at least one compliance violation at work in 2016 or 2017, according to a Gartner survey of more than 5,000 employees. Fifty-nine percent of those who observed a compliance violation were actively looking for a new job, compared with 29 percent who did not witness bad behavior. While attrition is not an obvious area of concern for compliance executives, it should be, says Brian Lee, compliance practice leader at Gartner. Employee misconduct and the failure of compliance to address it plays a considerable role in motivating employees to leave their current organization. Lee also says that the departure of key employees should be deemed a warning of possible underlying compliance-related issues. Employee attrition costs large organizations millions of dollars each year and the loss of a particularly conscientious employee can be debilitating, not just to culture and morale, but to employee productivity, according to Gartner.

14. Coastal Communities and Property Values

Recent studies suggest that the threat of rising seas is undermining property values in coastal communities. Researchers at the University of Colorado and Pennsylvania State found that homes with exposure to the sea sold for 6.6 percent less than unexposed homes. Harvard University researchers found that properties at higher elevations were appreciating faster than properties at lower elevations. Insurance Journal has reported that, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, accelerating sea level could put more than $1 trillion in property at risk by the end of the century. The report shows Florida has roughly one million homes and $351 billion in decreased property values at risk of chronic flooding by centurys end, followed by New Jersey (250,000 homes), and New York (143,000 homes). Nearly 175 U.S. coastal communities may see 10 percent or more homes at risk of chronic flooding by 2045. Places that could be hit hardest include Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey and North Carolina.

15. Smart Contracts

While smart contracting based on digital ledger or blockchain technology holds great promise for the insurance industry, it isnt without risks. Locke Lord attorneys Christopher Barth and Theodore Augustinos, writing in Insurance Journal, point out that some of the benefits of blockchain  immutability, transparency and decentralization  also present concomitant risks. For example, if an insurer inadvertently discloses nonpublic personal information subject to privacy protections over the blockchain, there is no control-alt-delete button enabling a do-over. Further, remedial efforts will be hampered by the permanency of the disclosure and its widespread distribution. Ross Nodurft, risk management leader at One World Identity, reminded a PLUS audience this year: One reason you have to be careful is because garbage in, and garbage out. You are going to build up an identity thats either private or its wrong, he said. So, you have to be careful about whats going in during the initial creation and verification when using blockchain for identity.

Topics Carriers Cyber Trends Legislation USA Auto Tech Europe Property Casualty PropertySometimes emerging risks are hiding in plain sight. As was the case for the man who was seriously injured when he fell through the floor in a museum in Portugal. The exhibit was designed to look like a hole in the floor and, as he came to discover, it actually was a hole in the floor. Security later installed ropes around the exhibit.

Risk assessment is not always rational or based on facts and information. One classic example is the public fearing nuclear power over driving a car, even though car accidents are responsible for far more deaths and injuries than nuclear plants. Part of the explanation is that the public is familiar with car accidents while nuclear power is not well understood. This same dynamic may be reflected in todays questioning of fully autonomous driving due to a handful of accidents over human-controlled driving, which accounts for 40,000 fatalities a year.

Experts tend to have more information than the general public when assessing emerging risks but they, too, are human and their approach can also be influenced by social, emotional and cultural factors, not to mention by their field of expertise.

Insurance Journal decided to ask a number of P/C insurance experts about emerging risks. The question was: What do insurance experts see as the most important emerging risk for the property/casualty insurance industry?

Insurance Journal chose to define an emerging risk as one that is new and not yet widely recognized or perhaps recognized but not well understood.

The responses were varied. Some saw macros issues; other worried about micro events. To the extent there is any consensus, it is that cyber is the greatest emerging risk  but everyone seems worried about a slightly different aspect of cyber.

In addition to polling hand-picked experts, Insurance Journal looked at its own reporting and at industry white papers and research for ideas. Its a continuous, not a once-and-done, exercise.

Why attempt to create a list? Because insurance professionals are in the business of advising and protecting people against uncertainty and of transforming risks into opportunities. You have to start somewhere.

The 21 emerging risk results from the experts, and from additional research, start on page 18. We hope you will emerge a more informed and entertained insurance and risk professional.

Topics TrendsThe New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance is investigating the marketing and sale in New Jersey of insurance sponsored by the National Rifle Association for potential violations of state insurance laws.

The Department is examining Overland Park, Kansas-based Lockton Affinity LLC for potential violations related to the marketing and sale of NRA-sponsored insurance as a broker under the Carry Guard Program.

It is also examining Chicago-based Illinois Union, a member of the Chubb group, for potential violations in its role as the underwriter of the insurance product.

We take compliance matters seriously and will work with state regulators to address any concerns, a Lockton spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Insurance Journal. Lockton has been in business for more than 50 years, and our commitment to regulatory compliance and doing whats best for our clients is unwavering.

The NRA Carry Guard Insurance Program is advertised as personal firearms liability insurance, including self-defense insurance, for those who lawfully carry firearms and their families, including protection against civil liability, the cost to defend against civil and criminal legal actions and immediate access to attorney referrals. The coverage is advertised as including supplementary payments as needed for bail and criminal defense legal retainer fees, among other costs.

New Jersey law requires insurance companies selling to residents within the state to comply with specific requirements, said Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner Marlene Caride in a press release issued by the Department. The Department has reviewed findings by the New York Department of Financial Services associated with the marketing and sale of Carry Guard insurance in New York and is examining the marketing and sale of this product in New Jersey to determine if, and to what extent, this activity violated state insurance laws.

Indeed, The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) in May fined Chubb Ltd. and its subsidiary, Illinois Union Insurance Co., $1.3 million for underwriting the NRA-branded Carry Guard insurance program in violation of New York insurance law, as previously reported by Insurance Journal.

Through a consent order with DFS regarding the Carry Guard program, Chubb previously consented to certain violations of New York law governing the sale of policies in the states excess lines market, according to an emailed statement from Chubb at the time.

Chubb recognizes its responsibility to ensure that its policies comply with New York law, according to the statement. Chubb at all times intended and believed its coverage to be in full compliance with New York law. Chubb believes that this settlement is the best way to resolve the coverage questions raised by the department and is fully committed to cooperating with the department to remediate any issues or concerns regarding the Carry Guard program.

The Chubb settlement came after Insurance Journal also reported in May insurance broker Lockton would pay a $7 million fine for administering the Carry Guard program through its Lockton Affinity subsidiary, which is a licensed excess line broker in New York. The settlement with Lockton was considered the first in New York regulators broader investigation of the matter.

Among the findings in the New York Carry Guard investigation was that the NRA, which does not have a license from NYDFS to conduct insurance business in New York, actively marketed and solicited for the Carry Guard program through a website, email and direct mail, among other channels.

In an amended version of a federal lawsuit filed in May, the Virginia-based NRA said it lost insurance coverage after New Yorks enforcement actions against companies underwriting Carry Guard. It said the Cuomo administration was persuading other insurers to avoid doing business with the NRA. Cuomo has said the state is filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The NRA is not licensed to sell insurance in New Jersey. In a preliminary investigation by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, it found that Lockton marketed and sold Carry Guard insurance (certificates) to New Jersey residents, and that coverage remains in force in the state.

The department has contacted both Lockton and Illinois Union. The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance is also investigating the marketing and sale in New Jersey of other firearm-related insurance programs for potential violations of state insurance laws.

Topics New York Illinois New Jersey Chubb LocktonA Texas jury awarded damages of $242 million to a Dallas family after finding that defects in the familys Lexus sedan caused injuries to their two children during a rear-end collision, the law firm representing the plaintiffs said.

The Dallas County jury award includes more than $143.6 million in punitive damages. Jurors found the actions of Lexus-maker Toyota Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Sales amounted to gross negligence, the Law Offices of Frank L. Branson said in a statement. The September 2016 collision involved the familys 2002 Lexus ES 300 sedan. The 3-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter of Benjamin and Kristi Reavis were in child safety seats the back seat.

According court documents, the rear impact caused the front seats to fail and collapse back into the childrens seats and the two children suffered traumatic brain injuries that will require lifelong care. The $242 million award includes $92 million in compensatory damages for the children; and $6 million for the parents.

Toyota said it would consider its options. While we respect the jurys decision, we remain confident that the injuries sustained were the result of factors specific to this very severe collision, not a defect in the design or manufacturing of the 2002 Lexus ES300, a Toyota spokesman said in an emailed statement.

The jury found Toyota Motor Corp. 90 percent responsible, and both Toyota Motor Sales and Honda Pilot driver who caused the rear-end collision 5 percent responsible. Court records show the $143,600,400 in punitive damages was apportioned as follows: Toyota Motor Corp.  $129,600,000; Toyota Motor Sales  $14,000,400.

Topics TexasA train crash into a tour bus that killed four in Mississippi last year stemmed from the railroad and the city failing to improve an unsafe rail crossing, federal safety regulators concluded last month.

The March 2017 crash also injured 38 Texas tourists when their bus got stuck on a steep Biloxi rail crossing and was hit by a CSX Corp. freight train.

The National Transportation Safety Board found that the probable cause of the crash was the failure of CSX Transportation and the city of Biloxi to coordinate and take action to improve the safety of the Main Street grade crossing, a high-profile vertical crossing on which motor vehicles were known to ground frequently.

Meeting in Washington Aug. 9, the NTSB also issued 11 recommendations for preventing future crashes that focus on railroads and governments doing more to evaluate rail crossings that are so steep they pose safety risks.

Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel said the city would review the findings to see what additional measures we can take to improve the safety at crossings. However, Creel said, the city cant afford to rebuild its 29 crossings, all of which are steeper than current road-design guidelines.

A CSX spokesman said the company was reviewing the NTSBs recommendations.

The board concluded that the tour bus drivers decision to take a scenic route along U.S. 90 and use a commercial GPS mapping system played no role in the accident. Although the GPS system contained information about the high-profile crossing, the driver wouldnt have realized how steep the back side of the crossing was until it was too late, investigators said.

Problems have existed at the Main Street crossing for decades but seemed to get worse after CSX maintenance raised the track elevation in 2014, the NTSB said.

The board recommended that railroads, traffic engineers and regulators develop guidance for when states and localities should ban trucks, buses and other at-risk vehicles from high-profile crossings. Biloxi banned trucks, buses and recreational vehicles from the Main Street and some other crossings after the crash.

The board also recommended that railroad and highway groups develop specific criteria to determine when an existing crossing is so unsafe that it should be rebuilt, closed or have its risks comprehensively mitigated.

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said he feared that with railroads, state transportation agencies and local governments all sharing responsibility for rail crossings, it might not be clear who is in charge.

Every entity might think that a specific hazard is somebody elses responsibility, Sumwalt said.

Board staff members said the current standard warning signs, which show a low-boy trailer striking a railroad track, may be of negligible value. Sumwalt suggested drivers of buses and other trucks may not perceive those signs as applying to them.

Findings emphasize better communication, saying the Mississippi Department of Transportation should do more to monitor crossing safety statewide, the city of Biloxi should share records of vehicles getting stuck with the state and railroads should share records of vehicles getting stuck with all states.

The NTSB also recommends that railroads and transportation agencies coordinate on any track maintenance with the potential to increase track elevation.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics MississippiChristopher Gardner, chairman of the Board of Governors of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Floridas insurer of last resort, has resigned.

Gary Aubuchon, formerly vice chair, has been appointed interim chair by Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.

Gardner notified Patronis and Florida Gov. Rick Scott of his resignation on Aug. 13 in letters to both, saying, the time has come for me to retire from my service on the board.

Gardner, currently the CEO of Hub International and based in Orlando, cited many achievements since he was appointed to the board by Scott in 2011, including successful depopulation efforts and the elimination of assessments on Florida residents. He was named chairman by former CFO Jeff Atwater in 2013.

Collectively, I believe I speak for the Board and the entire team at Citizens when I say we are very proud of what we have accomplished, Gardner said.

In a statement announcing Gardners resignation on Aug. 22, Patronis said, The work he and the Board have done over the last several years helped change Citizens for the better. His skills and expertise, including understanding the concerns and bringing the perspective of insurance agents to the table, were invaluable.

Citizens President, CEO and Executive Director Barry Gilway, praised Gardners work on the board and as chairman.

Under his leadership, Citizens has returned to its rightful role as the states insurer of last resort and is in the best financial position ever to serve our policyholders and protect Floridians from the burden of assessments, Gilway said.

Per Florida Statute, Floridas CFO appoints the chair of the Citizens Board. Patronis said to ensure a smooth transition and avoid a gap in leadership during peak hurricane season, he was appointing Aubuchon as interim chairman.

Gilway said Aubuchon, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives who was appointed to the Citizens Board in 2013, has been a major contributor to the board both as a vice chairman and as leader of the Citizens Claims Committee.

Patronis did not indicate when a permanent chairman would be selected for the position.

Topics FloridaThe former owner of multiple property/casualty insurance operations in northern Illinois has been sentenced to more than four years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution for insurance fraud.

U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala on Aug. 15 sentenced Todd J. Fendler, 42, of Rockford, Illinois, to 50 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release.

Fendler, formerly a licensed insurance producer who owned Surplus Market Solutions LLC, Northern Underwriting Managers Inc., Northern Illinois Insurance Billing Services and Northern Illinois Insurance Agency Inc., also was ordered to pay $965,879.63 in restitution to his victims.

Fendler pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud on Jan. 17, 2018, following a lengthy investigation into alleged activities intended to defraud more than 100 former insurance clients. At one point, Fendler faced an indictment that charged him with 19 counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud in connection with his alleged fraudulent schemes. He was first indicted in March 2017; an indictment handed down in August 2017 superseded the previous indictment.

Complaints filed by former clients of Fendler and his insurance organizations with the Illinois Department of Insurance and the Missouri Department of Insurance alleged that Fendler and his company had a pattern of wrongly debiting funds from client accounts electronically, via Automated Clearing House (ACH) withdrawals, without authorization. Accounts were allegedly debited even when premiums had previously been paid or the policy had been cancelled.

Even after having had his producer licenses revoked in 2014 and 2015 by the Illinois and Missouri insurance departments, Fendler continued to operate his businesses by taking advantage of legal appeals processes. In July 2016, Anjali Julka, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Insurance, told Insurance Journal that while the licenses of NUM and that of its owner Todd J. Fendler were revoked, the revocation orders had been stayed by operation of law.

Reporting on Fendlers sentencing, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Illinois said a written plea agreement confirmed Fendler obtained bank account information from businesses and individuals who had applied for insurance policies through Fendlers companies. He then used victims bank account information to create fictitious electronic checks purportedly issued by the victims and payable to Fender and his companies.

Fendler made unauthorized electronic withdrawals from client bank accounts, as well as bank accounts of insurance agents and agencies with which he did business.

Fendler and NUM at one time advertised with Insurance Journal and its affiliate, MyNewMarkets.com. IJ first became aware of the situation via complaints submitted to both sites that mirror those described in the indictment and plea agreement.

The U.S. Attorneys Office and of the U.S. Postal Inspection investigated Fendlers case.

The sentencing was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Craig Goldberg, Inspector-in-Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John G. McKenzie and Scott R. Paccagnini represented the government in its case against Fendler.

According to the Rockford Register Star, Fendler still faces charges in Jasper County, Missouri, for allegedly passing bad checks.

Topics Agencies USA Fraud Missouri IllinoisSection 5(a) of the Illinois Workers Compensation Act provides the damages an employer must pay for work-related injuries. It specifies a worker injured in the line of duty cannot sue her employer or its other employees.

That prohibition is easy enough to apply where one employee is injured by the negligence of another, or of the employer, at the business premises or on a job site. But what happens to the notion that the Act is the only available recovery when the employee is hurt at a public location and a third party is at least partially to blame? How much exclusivity can an employer expect in those circumstances?

In Peng v. Nardi, Kouk, and Guan, a case recently decided by the First District Appellate Court, Peng, a restaurant worker, was injured in a collision between the van in which she was a passenger and vehicles operated by Nardi and Kouk. In addition to those two, Peng sued Guan, who was driving the van, and Royal, the owner of the restaurant where she was employed. Guan also worked at the restaurant.

The van, a 15-seater, had been provided by Royal to transport employees like Peng to and from the restaurant. Not only did Royal provide the van, it paid Guan extra to drive it. Moreover, Royal covered Guans expenses. Royal also set limits on Guans use of the van; for example, he could not use it for personal errands and was to leave it parked when he was not transporting Royals employees.

Peng argued that regardless of whether Royal provided the van, her presence in it had nothing to do with her job duties. She stressed that: 1) she was not required to use the van to get to work; and, 2) was not on the clock (and therefore uncompensated) as she travelled in it.

The court rejected Pengs arguments under the authority of Section 5(a). Applying the Exclusivity Provision to the facts at hand, the court concluded that by providing a vehicle for transporting workers to and from the job, Royal had sent (Peng) home on a small ambulatory portion of the (business) premise. The operative facts, according to the court, showed Royal controlled petitioners transportation and had thus expanded the risk of the workplace.

So Royal avoided its employees lawsuit, but, as an employer, was it completely insulated from all civil liability? That issue was not squarely addressed by the Peng court, but the opinion of the Illinois Supreme Court in Ramsey v. Morrison (1997) takes it on. The worker, Ramsey, was hurt when the truck in which he was a passenger collided with a vehicle operated by Morrison. Ramsey sued Morrison who in turn filed contribution actions against Baker, the driver of the truck, and Auto Repair, Auto. The evidence demonstrated that Auto was the employer of both Ramsey and Baker and that, at the time of the crash, the two were engaged in job connected duties.

In considering whether Morrison was owed contribution by Baker or Auto, the Supreme Court first noted that by virtue of the exclusivity language of Section 5(a), neither owed any recovery to Ramsey separate from what was available under the Workers Compensation Act. Likewise, Baker, driving the truck in discharge of his job duties, was protected even from Morrisons claim for contribution. However, as against Auto, the court held Morrison could recover contribution in a limited amount on the basis of the negligence of its employee Baker. The court concluded though that Autos liability to Morrison could not exceed the amount of the workers compensation benefits provided to Ramsey.

Thus, the scope of protection afforded an employer under the concept of workers compensation exclusivity extends only so far. In cases where one of its employees negligently injures another as they pursue job-related tasks, the employer is safe from civil liability to the worker, but not to a third party whom the injured worker sues.

Topics Auto Workers' Compensation Illinois RestaurantBJP strategists believe the massive gathering at Odia Parv was a clear indication of peoples growing love for the party.

Surat(Gujarat): A huge turnout at Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhans Odia Parv or Odia festival at Surat has alarmed the ruling BJD in Odisha.

Nearly a fifty thousand peopled turned out to witness the inaugural session of the two-day Odia Parv. Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani inaugurated the event.

Nearly seven lakh Odias, most whom hail from the Odisha chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaiks Ganjam district, are living in Surat. BJP strategists believe the massive gathering at Odia Parv was a clear indication of peoples growing love for the party. During elections, the BJD leaders visit Surat to woo Odias. The local Odia leaders here return to Odisha and actively participate in the campaign process, ensuring massive victory for the BJD that won 116 of the 147 seats in the 2014 assembly polls.

Though the BJP leaders tried to portray the Odia Parv as a just a cultural event to organised for the Odias,  political analysts however maintained that it was in fact a show of strength in reply to the BJDs continuous exercise to hold on to their vote bank in Surat.

A few days before, senior BJD leader accompanied by a party MLA from Ganjam district had visited Surat to woo the Odias ahead of the 2019 assembly elections.

Add to the success of the Odia Parv, the overwhelming presence of as many as 600 prospective inve-stors at the Investors Conclave held here by the Union petroleum and natural gas ministry has also worried the BJD leaders. The investors promised over `17,000 crore investments to textile and plastic sectors.

In Bhubaneswar, senior BJD leader and Odisha industry minister Ananta Das sought to downplay Dharmendras investors conclave and said no investment would be possible without the state governments support and cooperation, - dropping hints that the BJD was not going to cooperate with the BJPs efforts.

Notably, the Union PNG minister Mr Pradhan had on Sunday made a fervent appeal to investors of Gujarat to invest in Odisha, especially in textile and plastics sectors, assuring them of consistent and adequate supply of required raw materials by IndianOil Corporations (IOCL) Paradip oil refinery unit.

Besides raw materials, Odisha has necessary infrastructure, including two ports at Paradip and Dhamra, railway connectivity and road networks that will facilitate the development of the two sectors, said Mr Pradhan.A former motor vehicle operator for the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been charged with making false statements to obtain federal employees compensation, according to a complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Joseph Penatello was arrested and expected to make his initial appearance Friday afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scanlon.

Richard P. Donoghue, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Matthew Modafferi, special agent-in-charge for the United States Postal Service and Office of the Inspector General (USPS-OIG), announced the arrest.

As alleged, the defendant was employed at flea markets at the same time he falsely claimed to be incapable of working for the Postal Service due to a medical condition, Donoghue stated in a press release issued by the United States Department of Justice. Such disability scams are nothing less than stealing from our taxpayers and will not be ignored.

According to the complaint, Penatello began receiving workers compensation benefits in 2001 after he sustained a neck and back injury while working for the USPS. In order to continue receiving those benefits, between March 2014 and April 2018, Penatello submitted documents to the Department of Labor falsely claiming that he was totally disabled and unable to work due to his medical condition.

Penatello also falsely claimed that he was not earning any income. However, on more than 20 occasions between 2014 and 2018, USPS-OIG special agents video-recorded him working as an organizer at flea markets in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The video also showed Penatello engaging in strenuous activities, such as carrying heavy objects, standing for long periods of time and driving a motor vehicle.

On one occasion, Penatello told an undercover special agent that he runs flea markets five days per week and up to 12 hours per day. During the relevant time period, Penatello received more than $160,000 in workers compensation benefits.

The charges in the complaint are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. If convicted, the defendant faces a statutory maximum of five years imprisonment.

The governments case is being handled by the Offices General Crimes Section. Assistant United States Attorney Erin Reid is in charge of the prosecution.

Source: United States Department of Justice

Topics USA Abuse Molestation New YorkFrench reinsurer SCOR SE spurned an 8.3-billion-euro ($9.6 billion) unsolicited takeover offer from its biggest shareholder, Covea, which said its still interested in pursuing a deal. SCOR shares climbed the most in almost a decade.

Covea, a French mutual insurer that already has an 8.2 percent stake in SCOR, said Tuesday that it offered to buy the remaining stock for 21 percent more than the companys previous closing price. SCOR responded that the bid is fundamentally incompatible with its strategy of staying independent.

Covea said that it withdrew the offer after SCORs board met Thursday and refused to enter talks, but reiterates its interest in a friendly transaction with SCOR. The other shareholders in SCOR will get a chance to have their say at an investor day in Paris on Wednesday.

An acquisition of SCOR would help Covea almost double its premium income and diversify its business beyond home, auto, life and health insurance coverage. Insurers and reinsurers have become popular acquisition targets, both for competing firms and private-equity buyers, who are targeting such assets in search of higher returns.

AXA SA, the largest French insurer, earlier this year agreed to purchase XL Group Ltd. for $15.3 billion. Apollo Global Management has increased its stake in reinsurer Catalina Holdings Bermuda Ltd. amid a broader insurance push, and Carlyle Group has been expanding its team to do more deals in the sector.

Attractive Valuations

Pricing pressure in the reinsurance industry is weighing on profits at companies like SCOR, overshadowing a drop in natural-catastrophe claims. Still, an earnings stream is emerging in European reinsurance that should be less cyclical than in the past, and valuations in the sector look highly attractive, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Edward Morris wrote in a note Aug. 29, upgrading SCOR to overweight.

SCOR climbed as much as 10 percent to 39.15 euros, below the bid price of 43 euros, and was up about 9 percent as of 1:30 p.m. in Paris. Before Tuesday, the shares had gained 5.7 percent this year, outpacing the 1.7 percent gain by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.

The offer was to be financed with existing resources and with committed debt provided by Barclays Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG, Covea said. Thierry Derez, Coveas chief executive officer, sits on SCORs board of directors.

Covea is an unlisted insurer whose brands include GMF, MAAF and MMA, and most of its business is in France. The deal would increase Coveas premium income to more than 30 billion euros.

With assistance from Francois de Beaupuy.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Mergers Carriers Reinsurance FranceSpecialist corporate insurance broker Verlingue announced it has acquired independent UK broker ICB Group. Financial details of the deal were not released.

With the acquisition of Egham, England-based ICB, Verlingue triples its size in the UK market. It helps to position the group  and its UK subsidiary Finch  as one of the main UK independent insurance brokers with premiums of 130 million ($167.6 million), 175 employees and five locations, Verlingue said.

Verlingue said the acquisition:

Consolidates the presence of Verlingue and Finch in the UK, a priority country for Verlingue, with a large number of medium-size companies and large corporations.

Provides ICB Group and its clients with a gateway to Europe and, more broadly, worldwide opportunities through the largest international network of independent brokers Worldwide Broker Network (WBN).

The intention is for ICB Group and Finch to work collaboratively to further their strengths and to identify best practices in order to build a common entity for the benefits of clients, staff and profitable growth, said Verlingue, which is headquartered in Quimper, France.

Verlingue has the ambition of being a leading family owned independent broker in the UK, and the combination of ICB and Finch will create a great platform from which to build, said Jacques Verlingue, chairman of Verlingue and its parent company, Adelaide Group. ICB is one of the leading independent brokers in the UK with a similar ethos to Verlingue. We see the potential to amalgamate the entrepreneurial spirit and talents of ICB and Finch as a great opportunity for both teams, their clients and their partners.

Since the buyout from IAG in 2012, ICB Group has continued to expand and develop into one of the most successful and leading brokers in the UK, commented Neil Campling, CEO of ICB Group. Our client base has also expanded and developed both in terms of size, but also in the demands and level of sophistication they require.

Taking the sensible view that ICB has to evolve in order to remain relevant to clients, Campling explained, as client have expanded, many of our larger clients now have an international dynamic to their business and so we need to ensure we are in a position to be able to service them appropriately.

As part of this, we believe it is essential that we can continue to trade effectively across the EU post Brexit. Joining Verlingue helps ICB meet these various needs and puts our business in what we believe is the right position for the future, he added.

Mike Latham, managing director of Manchester, England-based Finch, said: We are delighted to welcome ICB Group to the Verlingue family. We see the skills, location and breadth of services that ICB offer to be hugely complimentary to that of Finch. The greater scale which the ICB team will bring will enable us to collectively forge a company that will be a leading player in the UK independent broker market.

About Verlingue

Specializing in business protection, Verlingues stated strategy is to seek out new growth drivers in Europe. The broker has 20 locations in France, the UK and Switzerland with 30 percent of its revenue generated internationally. It aims to increase this figure to 50 percent. In 2016, only 5 percent of its turnover come from international business.

Source: Verlingue

Topics Mergers Agencies Europe FranceFrances AXA Group moved a step closer to closing on its acquisition of XL Group as Nw York insurance regulators have given their approval of the deal.

New Yorks Department of Financial Services (DFS) on Friday announced it had approved an application by AXA Group, including AXA SA, to acquire XL Insurance Co. of New York and XL Reinsurance America. Each is a New York domestic stock property/casualty insurance company, which requires DFS approval for the proposed change of control.

Approval of the deal is still subject to other regulatory approvals and closing conditions. Insurer XL Groups shareholders have already approved the deal. The transaction is expected to be completed before the end of this year.

New York Superintendent Maria T. Vullo said DFS approved the acquisition as satisfying the requirements of the states insurance law.

This acquisition further demonstrates the strength of New Yorks insurance market and the commitment that significant companies have to New Yorks robust market and strong regulation, Vullo said in prepared remarks.

DFS said AXA has given assurances regarding its plans of operation as well as ongoing DFS supervision.

AXA has secured financing for the 12.4 billion euros ($14.9 billion) acquisition of XL Group and is not dependent on the issuance of any additional debt.

At the end of 2016, the AXA Group of companies was the worlds largest insurance group, and based on its 2017 annual report, had total assets of 870 billion euros and gross revenues of 98.5 billion euros. In May, AXA Equitable Holdings, which encompasses AXAs American operations, raised $2.75 billion in an initial public offering.

The New York XL companies that will be acquired provide significant reinsurance capacity in the U.S. insurance market. Based on their 2017 annual reports, XL Insurance Co. of New York and XL Reinsurance America combined have total assets of $6.2 billion and $981.3 million in gross revenues.

While AXA is acquiring the XL companies by means of a merger, they will be maintained within a new division within AXA. AXA has said intends to preserve the XL assets and maintain the current XL business model such that there will be no significant changes to the XL companies U.S. business.

Upon completion of the transaction, the combined operations of XL Group, AXA Corporate Solutions (AXAs large commercial property/casualty and specialty business) and AXA Art will be led by Greg Hendrick, currently the president and chief operating officer of XL Group, who will be appointed CEO of the combined entity and join AXA Groups management committee. This division twill be called AXA XL.

Hendrick will report to AXA Group Chief Executive Officer Thomas Buberl.

XL Groups Chief Executive Officer Mike McGavick will become vice chairman of AXA XL and special adviser to Buberl to advise on integration-related and other strategic matters.

Related:

Topics Mergers USA New York Property Casualty AXA XLUber Technologies Inc. and its former Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick defeated a lawsuit claiming the company swept illicit business practices under the rug that cost investors billions of dollars.

U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. in Oakland, California, on Friday agreed with Ubers and Kalanicks bid to toss the class-action claims by a Texas citys firefighter pension fund while allowing the fund to revise and refile the complaint.

The lawsuit does not specifically tie any particular misrepresentation by defendants to a decline in Ubers stock price, Gilliam wrote in his ruling. Instead it lumps together scandals and asserts a vague and attenuated connection to the devaluation of Ubers stock, he said.

The Irving, Texas-based fund alleged in its September 2017 complaint that the startup and its ex-CEO failed to reveal at least six instances of malfeasance while successfully soliciting billions of dollars in private investment. Kalanick was ousted as CEO in June 2017 after a series of allegations that the ride-hailing company had engaged in misconduct.

The case is Irving Firemens Relief & Retirement Fund v. Uber Technologies Inc., 17-cv-05558, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation Profit Loss Sharing Economy RidesharingTexas Workers Compensation Commissioner Cassie Brown has turned in the keys to a secure warehouse that the Division of Workers Compensation (DWC) has used since 1992 to store injured employee claims. The 24,000-square-foot building that housed rows and rows of floor to ceiling racks, filled to the brim with claim files, now sits empty.

Two years ago, DWC began a massive project to digitize injured employee claims files going back 26 years. The project saves DWC $300,000 a year in storage costs, improves data security, and makes it faster and easier to fulfill records requests from the public. Until now, as many as two million claim files were only available on paper.

From the very beginning, the goal was to use new ideas and approaches to improve customer service while reducing costs, Brown said in the agencys announcement. This project has done both.

All of DWCs individual claims files are now available digitally.

Source: TDI-DWC

Topics Texas Workers' CompensationCalifornia lawmakers passed legislation to help utility giant PG&E Corp. pay for billions of dollars in potential liabilities from wildfires that ravaged Northern California wine country last year.

The state Assembly and Senate approved a wide-ranging plan Friday that includes directing regulators to limit how much PG&E shareholders would cover from the 2017 fires that killed dozens of people. The bill now heads to the desk of Governor Jerry Brown, who has supported helping PG&E dodge fiscal distress.

The move is a key victory for PG&E, which may owe as much as $17.3 billion from the blazes. The utility owner raised the prospect of bankruptcy as it lobbied lawmakers for help and has lost more than $11 billion in market value in the last year. While the bill doesnt go as far as PG&E wanted toward alleviating its liabilities, it could help ease Wall Streets concerns.

The bill is a common-sense 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, PG&E said in a statement.

The measure would allow PG&E to sell bonds backed by customer bills to cover costs from last years wildfires if regulators determine the utility incurred those expenses by acting in a reasonable manner.

If regulators decide PG&E didnt act reasonably and has to cover fire costs on their own, regulators would have to conduct a stress test to determine how much the utility can pay without going bankrupt. PG&E could charge ratepayers for costs above that amount, even if those expenses were due to negligent behavior.

The legislation provides watered-down relief for utilities, said Thomas Claps, a research analyst for Susquehanna Financial Group, in a research note before Fridays vote.

California investigators have already named PG&E power lines and other equipment as the source of 16 fires last year. In 11 of those instances, investigators said they found evidence that PG&E violated safety laws. Officials havent released the results of a probe into the most destructive of the 2017 California wildfires, which combined destroyed thousands of homes and killed 44 people.

PG&E was joined by other California utilities in lobbying lawmakers for financial help in the face of what they say is a growing threat from wildfires. Brown had proposed relaxing a state law that holds utilities liable for damages if their equipment is found to have caused a blaze, even if they followed safety rules. But lawmakers rejected that idea.

In addition to allowing utilities to float bonds to cover wildfire costs, the bill headed to the governors desk calls for improved forest management and increased utility spending on grid infrastructure. Backers say it strikes a balance between protecting ratepayers and shielding PG&E from financial harm.

This is about protecting ratepayers, not helping utilities, State Senator Bill Dodd, a Democrat from Napa and co-chair of the conference committee, said in a statement before the vote. The fact of the matter is ratepayers would be hurt in a utility bankruptcy.

Critics, on the other hand, said the bill amounted to a giveaway to PG&E.

This is a bailout in sheeps clothing, said Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network, before the vote. PG&E gets to bill for costs resulting from negligent and even criminal behavior.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Legislation Wildfire OklahomaLondon, UK, September 4, 2018Trireme Insurance Group, the international subsidiary of U.S. Risk Insurance Group, LLC, is pleased to announce that it has acquired MGB Insurance Brokers Limited (MGB). MGB will operate alongside Triremes existing London brokers, Oxford Insurance Brokers and James Hampden International.

Founded in 2001, and headquartered in London, MGB is a Lloyds broker specializing in placing professional indemnity risks for companies in the construction, consulting, accounting, insurance, and other industries.

Randall Goss, Chairman of Trireme Insurance Group, said, MGBs approach to its partner brokers and clients is very similar to U.S. Risks. They value client service and building a long-term relationship by demonstrating their expert knowledge of their market segments. We are thrilled to have them as part of our group.

Nick Bender, Joint Managing Director of MGB, said, Glenn Gostling and I are delighted to join the U.S. Risk family of companies. We believe their entrepreneurial culture matches up very well with ours, and we are excited to be able to both supplement our offering to current brokers and clients and to expand our client base through the U.S. Risk network of agents.

About U.S. Risk Insurance Group, LLC

U.S. Risk, LLC ( www.usrisk.com ) is a leading international specialty lines underwriting manager and wholesale broker headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Operating 16 domestic and international branches, it offers a broad range of products and services through its affiliate companies, which include U.S. Risk Underwriters, U.S. Risk Brokers, U.S. Risk Solutions, Oxford Insurance Brokers Ltd. (UK), James Hampden International Insurance Brokers Ltd., (UK), Antarah FZE (UAE), and UNIS A.G. (Zurich).

Media Contact

Randall Goss

Chairman and CEO

U.S. Risk Insurance Group, LLC

randall@usrisk.com

800-232-5830

Topics Mergers Agencies USA LondonWhat Is a Closing Entry?

A closing entry is a journal entry made at the end of accounting periods that involves shifting data from temporary accounts on the income statement to permanent accounts on the balance sheet. Temporary accounts include revenue, expenses, and dividends, and these accounts must be closed at the end of the accounting year.

Key Takeaways: A closing entry is a journal entry made at the end of the accounting period.

It involves shifting data from temporary accounts on the income statement to permanent accounts on the balance sheet.

data from temporary accounts on the income statement to permanent accounts on the balance sheet. All income statement balances are eventually transferred to retained earnings.

1:29 How to Make a Closing Entry

Understanding Closing Entries

The purpose of the closing entry is to reset the temporary account balances to zero on the general ledger, the record-keeping system for a company's financial data.

Temporary accounts are used to record accounting activity during a specific period. All revenue and expense accounts must end with a zero balance because they are reported in defined periods and are not carried over into the future. For example, $100 in revenue this year does not count as $100 of revenue for next year, even if the company retained the funds for use in the next 12 months.

Permanent accounts, on the other hand, track activities that extend beyond the current accounting period. They are housed on the balance sheet, a section of the financial statements that gives investors an indication of a companys value, including its assets and liabilities.

Any account listed on the balance sheet, barring paid dividends, is a permanent account. On the balance sheet, $75 of cash held today is still valued at $75 next year, even if it is not spent.

As part of the closing entry process, the net income (NI) is moved into retained earnings on the balance sheet. The assumption is that all income from the company in one year is held onto for future use. Any funds that are not held onto incur an expense that reduces NI. One such expense that is determined at the end of the year is dividends. The last closing entry reduces the amount retained by the amount paid out to investors.

Income Summary Account

Temporary account balances can either be shifted directly to the retained earnings account or to an intermediate account known as the income summary account beforehand.

Income summary is a holding account used to aggregate all income accounts except for dividend expenses. Income summary is not reported on any financial statements because it is only used during the closing process, and at the end of the closing process the account balance is zero.

Income summary effectively collects NI for the period and distributes the amount to be retained into retained earnings. Balances from temporary accounts are shifted to the income summary account first to leave an audit trail for accountants to follow.

Recording a Closing Entry

There is an established sequence of journal entries that encompass the entire closing procedure:

First, all revenue accounts are transferred to income summary. This is done through a journal entry debiting all revenue accounts and crediting income summary. Next, the same process is performed for expenses. All expenses are closed out by crediting the expense accounts and debiting income summary. Third, the income summary account is closed and credited to retained earnings. Finally, if a dividend was paid out, the balance is transferred from the dividends account to retained earnings.

Important Modern accounting software automatically generates closing entries.

Special Considerations

If a companys revenues are greater than its expenses, the closing entry entails debiting income summary and crediting retained earnings. In the event of a loss for the period, the income summary account needs to be credited and retained earnings reduced through a debit.

Finally, dividends are closed directly to retained earnings. The retained earnings account is reduced by the amount paid out in dividends through a debit, and the dividends expense is credited.Trump ordered the reimposition of economic curbs after withdrawing US from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.

India wants to continue buying oil from OPEC member Iran as Tehran is offering almost free shipping and an extended credit period. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: India is allowing state refiners to import Iranian oil with Tehran arranging tankers and insurance after firms including the country's top shipper Shipping Corp of India (SCI) halted voyages to Iran due to US sanctions, sources said.

New Delhi's attempt to keep Iranian oil flowing mirrors a step by China, where buyers are shifting nearly all their Iranian oil imports to vessels owned by National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC).

The moves by the two top buyers of Iranian crude indicate that the Islamic Republic may not be fully cut off from global oil markets from November, when US sanctions against Tehran's petroleum sector are due to start.

President Donald Trump ordered the reimposition of economic curbs after withdrawing the United States from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. No one trading with Iran will do business with America, he said.

"We have the same situation (as most Western shippers) because there is no cover, so we cannot go (to Iran)," an SCI official told Reuters.

New Delhi turned to the NITC fleet after most insurers and reinsurers had begun winding down services for Iran, wanting to avoid falling foul of the sanctions given their large exposure to the United States.

SCI had a contract until August to import Iranian oil for Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), two sources familiar with the matter said.

Eurotankers, which had a deal with MRPL to import two Iranian oil cargoes every month, has also said it cannot undertake Iranian voyages from September, the sources said.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to talk to the media about commercial deals.

"The shipping ministry has given refiners permission to buy Iranian oil on a CIF (cost, insurance and freight) basis," a government source said.

Under a CIF arrangement, Iran would provide shipping and insurance, enabling Indian refiners to continue purchases of the country's oil despite the non-availability of cover from Western insurers due to the restrictions imposed by Washington.

The move would benefit Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and MRPL, which plan to lift Iranian cargoes during the rest of the fiscal year ending on March 31.

India wants to continue buying oil from OPEC member Iran as Tehran is offering almost free shipping and an extended credit period.

State refiners, which drove India's July imports of Iranian oil to a record 768,000 barrels per day, had planned to nearly double oil imports from Iran in 2018/19.

Unlike their private peers, India's state-run refiners need government permission to import oil on a delivered, or CIF, basis. Federal policy requires them to favour Indian insurers and shippers by buying only on a free on board (FOB) basis.

The permission for CIF purchases applies only to existing annual contracts with Iran, the government source said.

India, Iran's top oil client after China, will finalise its strategy on crude purchases from Tehran after a meeting with top US officials this week, a senior government official told Reuters last week.

SCI, Eurotankers, the shipping ministry, MRPL, IOC and BPCL did not respond to Reuters emails seeking comment.September 4, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) A BMO Capital Markets report reviewed this Australian company's year-end numbers.

In an Aug. 23 research note, analyst Edward Sterck with BMO Capital Markets reported that South32 Ltd.'s (S32:ASX; S32:LSE) fiscal year 2018-19 (FY18) earnings surpassed expectations and that the company has an advantage over its peers.

"Overall, South32 remains possibly the best positioned of the diversifieds, with a product mix that has been less impacted by the financially driven selloff in the exchange-traded commodities," Sterck wrote.

The analyst relayed South32's FY18 financial results and reviewed guidance for FY19 and FY20. As for FY18 revenue, the company generated US$7.5 billion, which was in line with BMO's forecast. EBITDA was $2.5 billion, which was about 1% higher than BMO's projection.

Underlying earnings totaled US$1,327 million. This exceeded BMO's estimate by 5%, mostly due to lower taxes.

As for specific division performance, the standouts were Met Coal and RSA Thermal Coal, whose EBITDA exceeded BMO's estimate by 42% and 11%, respectively.

In contrast, Aluminium and Alumina's EBITDA came in under BMO's target by 6%, due to high input costs of pitch and coke, a circumstance affecting all producers. Despite the miss, Aluminum and Alumina's FY18 EBITDA surpassed that of FY17 by 41%.

At fiscal year-end, South32 had US$2.0 billion on the balance sheet, a US$0.06 billion increase since H1 FY18E. The company's final dividend for the year was US$0.065 per share, slightly below BMO's US$0.067 per share forecast.

As for FY19 guidance, it remains the same. Maiden FY19 production targets for Illawarra are 1% lower than BMO's forecast, and FY20 targets are 11% lower. Overall FY20 maiden guidance is 3% below BMO's estimate on average.

Projected FY19 capex and costs are up. The new capex figure, US$840 million versus BMO's US$620 million, includes US$100 million for Hermosa and additional capital for Illawarra and Worsley.

Maiden FY19 costs are 3% higher than BMO's number, but lower costs are anticipated at GEMCO, Worsley and Illawarra. Those, though, would be offset by the increases elsewhere.

BMO has an Outperform rating and a 2.50 per share target price on South32. Its current share price is around 1.94.

Disclosure:

1) Doresa Banning compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise reports as an independent contractor. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following company mentioned in this article is a billboard sponsor of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees.

3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article.

Disclosures from BMO Capital Markets, South32, August 23, 2018

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES

Analyst's Certification

I, Edward Sterck, hereby certify that the views expressed in this report accurately reflect my personal views about the subject securities or issuers. I also certify that no part of my compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this report.

Analysts who prepared this report are compensated based upon (among other factors) the overall profitability of BMO Capital Markets and their affiliates, which includes the overall profitability of investment banking services. Compensation for research is based on effectiveness in generating new ideas and in communication of ideas to clients, performance of recommendations, accuracy of earnings estimates, and service to clients.

Analysts employed by BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and/or BMO Capital Markets Limited are not registered as research analysts with FINRA. These analysts may not be associated persons of BMO Capital Markets Corp. and therefore may not be subject to the FINRA Rule 2241 restrictions on communications with a subject company, public appearances and trading securities held by a research analyst account.

Company Specific Disclosures

Disclosure 9C: BMO Capital Markets makes a market in South32 in Europe.

For Important Disclosures on the stocks discussed in this report, please click here.

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspBy Padraig Hoare

Tanaiste Simon Coveney has said he is hopeful that more than 650 jobs at Aughinish Alumina in Limerick can be secured following crippling sanctions on its Russian owner by the US.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs said the US Administration had been very helpful in relation to the preservation of the jobs at the plant near Askeaton.

Aughinish Alumina is owned by Russian firm Rusal, which is majority-owned by En+, a company controlled by Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, who was targeted by the US because of his purported ties to the Kremlin.

In all, 450 staff and 220 contractors are employed at Aughinish Alumina, which has been described as one of Limericks best employers.

The US Treasury has extended the deadline to investors to divest interests in the Rusal to October 23. Mr Derispaska has been told he must relinquish control of his stake but is still understood to be reluctant to do so.

Minister Coveney said: We have been raising the Aughinish issue for months now, and our ambassador and our team in Washington are very active on it. I have also been active on it, as have Ministers Pat Breen and others.

It is a really important issue for the Midwest, it is a huge employer, and the impact of US sanctions on certain Russian individuals is, in turn, impacting of the future of Aughinish, and we are trying to resolve that issue. I have to say, the US has been very helpful so far on trying to find solutions on that issue.

The FBI and Department of Justice attempted to turn Mr Deripaska into a US intelligence asset between 2014 and 2016, according to a New York Times report.

Mr Deripaska is said to have refused and alerted the Kremlin about the American attempts to flip him.

His allies claim the sanctions are a result of his refusal to co-operate with the US authorities.By Joe Mayes

Mark Read is stepping out from the shadow of WPP founder Martin Sorrell as the British advertising companys new chief executive, and he has a clear message: Change is coming.

There are no sacred cows, Read said in an interview, shortly after WPP confirmed his appointment.

In an unusually lengthy statement, Read promised renewal and a different style that would be inclusive, respectful, collaborative, diverse.

That is a thinly-veiled criticism of the approach of his former boss, who earned a reputation as abrasive to downright bullying.

The industry is up against increasingly powerful digital rivals and battling declines in spending by consumer goods companies.

His resume hardly suggests a clean break for WPP: Read joined as a corporate development manager in 1989, three years after Sorrell founded the advertising group, and has stayed put for most of his career apart from a period outside the company in the 1990s.

As a past head of strategy and head of digital at WPP, Read is partly responsible for where the worlds largest ad company is today.

While he may not take a hatchet to Sorrells legacy, Read, 51, has made some symbolic moves in recent months as WPPs interim head of operations: Selling some minority stakes, such as in digital ad company AppNexus and Latin American tech firm Globant, and making plans to move WPPs head office from its longstanding headquarters in Londons high-class Mayfair district.

Investors will get a further taste of his approach later today, when WPP reports interim financial results.

Some restructuring seems likely, with Read saying he may look to reduce the number of brands.

There are more than 100, ranging from creative agencies Ogilvy and J Walter Thompson to media houses Wavemaker and Mindshare.

We may not need as many of them as we had in the past, Read said.

WPP shares, which had been up slightly, have fallen 28% in the last two years.

Read will be paid an annual salary of 975,000 (1.08m) plus the opportunity for bonuses.

His pay is set to be lower than Sorrells.

BloombergBy Padraig Hoare

A $43m (37m) investment by US biopharmaceutical firm BioMarin that will see more than 50 jobs created has been hailed as exactly the kind of economic growth needed in Cork.

The California-headquartered producer of drugs for rare diseases said the investment would see the workforce at Shanbally near Ringaskiddy increase to more than 400 by 2020.

The firm, which bought the site from pharmaceutical company Pfizer, came to Cork in 2011.

It said the new investment would enhance its manufacturing, packaging and labelling capability.

A planning application will be submitted in the coming weeks, said BioMarin, and it is anticipated an additional 100 jobs will be created onsite during the construction.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney said the firm committed to Cork during a difficult economic period post-recession.

In 2011, when many of us were wondering what the future of the Irish economy was, BioMarin purchased this site from Pfizer at the time. Working with the IDA, they have now built over the last eight years an extraordinary presence here.

By the end of 2020, there will probably be over 400 people on site, and will have invested over 200m, and that is after purchasing the site.

"The technology and skillset here are second to none, and that is why they keep winning more business here.

"This is exactly the kind of economic growth we want here in Cork, and is another reminder as a platform for research and trade, that Ireland is really in a very good place, he said.

The firms executive vice-president Robert Baffi said: During our seven years of operations at Shanbally we have seen tremendous growth at the site.

"This expansion assures that an increasing amount of our commercial products will be manufactured at the site.

BioMarin develops and commercialises medication for patients with serious and life-threatening rare and ultra-rare genetic diseases in 70 countries.

Its portfolio consists of seven commercialised products, while it has multiple clinical and pre-clinical products.

Mr Baffi said it was anticipated that further development would take place in the coming years, with 10 acres of undeveloped space at the Shanbally site.

A quarter of BioMarins operations now take place in Ireland, he said.

The firm had revenues of $1.31bn in 2017.A decision on whether to allow a huge new salmon farming operation in Bantry Bay may not now be made until next summer.

The Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board (ALAB) was due to make a decision on the application by this October, having signalled last December that it would request a string of new reviews in relation to the proposed development off Shot Head, including a new environmental impact statement on the risk of sea lice infestation and assessments regarding any potential impact on the otter, seal, and wild bird population in the area near Bantry.

However, in a letter issued to those opposing the salmon farm, and Marine Harvest, the company which applied for the development, ALAB said it could be June 30, 2019, before a decision is reached.

The case involves an appeal lodged with ALAB following the granting by the Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine of aquaculture and foreshore licences to Braden Farad Teo, trading as Marine Harvest of Fanad, Co Donegal.

An oral hearing last year was halted over a technical issue and in April this year ALAB sought submissions from the various parties and has now revised the timeframe for its decision.

In the letter, ALAB said: It is the intention of the Board that the Appeal will be determined by it as soon as practicable and by no later than June 30, 2019.

Alec ODonovan of the Save Bantry Bay group said opposition to the plan is still as strong as ever and that it was a complicated matter that needed time.

A spokesperson for Marine Harvest said: While respecting ALABs mandate and independence, Marine Harvest Ireland wishes to place on record its disappointment that a final decision still hasnt been reached on an application which the company originally applied for to the Department of Agriculture in 2011.

Seven years later, we are told that the decision wont be taken until the middle of next year at the earliest. It sends out a very negative message to the Irish aquaculture sector and doesnt provide any of the certainty which is necessary for those seeking to invest and create employment in the industry.

Those who end up bearing the brunt of this inaction and suffering most are our workers who dont have the certainty and security of regular work because we cannot grow enough fish.

The spokesperson said the Agriculture Minister, Michael Creed, had been asked to address the serious bottlenecks in the aquaculture licencing system in an independent report commissioned by his department and Marine Harvest those recommendations implemented to break the never-ending cycle of unnecessary delays.

The spokesperson added that the company has earmarked 22m for investment in Irish sites and the countrys failure to meet aquaculture targets could result in lost income of 1.3bn by 2020 if no tangible, progressive action is taken by the department.Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has been handed a budgetary nightmare with the organisation more than 30m in the red and Garda HQ warning that corrective action must be taken immediately.

The latest Commissioners report shows that up to 25m of the overspend is due to overtime and related costs.

After just a day in the job, the new commissioner faces a mounting headache, knowing that cutting overtime would impact on crucial preventative and investigative policing, including operations against feuding gangs.

In a separate, but related, warning, the report said investment needed to be put in place to deal with three critical policing and security areas  infrastructure, personnel and technology  to deal with the possibility of a hard Brexit.

Mr Harris was sworn into office early yesterday, just after midnight, becoming the first person to have served in a foreign police force to head An Garda Siochana. The 53-year-old former deputy chief constable of the PSNI is the third commissioner in four years.

The main garda staff associations welcomed his appointment and praised one of his first actions, which was to tour the streets of Dublins north inner city and chat to members on the ground.

However, the new Garda chief has been presented with the stark financial situation confronting the force.

The Commissioners report for July 2018 was compiled by his office under his predecessor, acting commissioner Donall O Cualain, now retired.

The report, sent to the Policing Authority, said the force had overspent 31.1m in the first seven months.

This continuing trend of excess expenditure is very concerning as the Vote [budget] is in serious danger of exceeding budget, it said.

Corrective action across all subheads which are recording excess expenditure must be implemented immediately.

It said 58.4m has been spent on overtime, 14.8m in excess of the budget. In addition, overtime expenditure at the Garda College was 0.7m over budget.

In addition, travel and subsistence, in part driven by additional overtime, as well as training and development and garda maintenance was 9.5m in excess of budget. This meant, in total, the force was up to 25m in the red through overtime, related costs and training.

John Jacob, general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, said this presented the new commissioner with a number of predicaments.

Under current garda numbers, preventative policing, particularly in Dublin in tackling gangland, is done through overtime, he said. If the commissioner wants to maintain that he will have to spend on overtime.

Likewise, our investigative capacity is through overtime as young gardai dont have the skills and knowledge for investigative work. So, if you want to reduce overtime, you will have to reduce investigative and preventative policing.

Mr Jacob also said that if you train members they have to be covered by others, incurring overtime. But he noted every year the gardai have to seek supplementary budgets and said Commissioner Harris would now be expected to make that case.

The report also shows recorded violent property crime is up 7% in the first half of this year, with notable increases in robberies and aggravated burglaries.More than 9,200 people signed a petition calling on Dublin City Council to call a halt to its plans to sell off the Magdalene laundry site to a Japanese hotel chain.

Tokyo Inn has offered the local authority 14.5m for the two-acre site and plans to build to a 350-bed hotel, student accommodation, and shops. It also plans to build 60 apartments for social housing. The plans also include a permanent memorial to the women who worked in the laundry until its closure in 1996.

In recent weeks, Dublin City councillors have received numerous calls from campaigners to halt its plans to sell the site.

Elizabeth Coppin, who was in three separate Magdalene laundries, wrote to councillors begging them to think carefully before you vote on selling this historical building.

Do all of you individually and collectively want to be known as the councillors who sold an important part of Irish history? she wrote. I cant see the logic of another hotel. Dublin has plenty of them.

Ms Coppin asked councillors to think carefully before you vote.

Think of the thousands of Irish women who were enslaved and lived a life of abuse when in this laundry, she said. Any of the women held captive in this laundry could have been a relative of yours. It could have been your mother, sister, grandmother, daughter, or wife. Show compassion, humanity, and respect for the women enslaved in the laundry by voting against the sale of this building.

Social Democrats councillor Gary Gannon, who tabled a motion to halt the sale, said selling the site would be an act of cultural vandalism.

We spent long enough brushing issues we didnt like under the carpet  we cannot continue to do that, he said. We cannot learn from our history without facing up to our past to abuses which society tolerated, and to abuses which continue to impact on those who were institutionalised in laundries, in industrial schools, and those who continue to live with the impact of clerical sexual abuse.

Ending Clergy Abuse, a worldwide organisation of survivors and human rights activists calling on the Catholic Church to end abuse, also wrote to councillors urging them to halt the sale.

This site must be preserved as a permanent public memorial of the brutality and injustice perpetrated upon vulnerable girls and young women by the Irish state and the Catholic Church, the group said.

This is not only important to remember the victims of the Magdalene laundries, but all other victims of abuse in Catholic institutions in Ireland and around the world.

In a museum, similar to war museums and Holocaust memorials, present and future generations can learn about this horrific history and work on a better future where this will not be allowed to happen again. Please let this site become a place of speech and remembrance of the suffering of so many.Part of a Cork city centre quayside has been branded TentsVille after up to a dozen homeless people pitched their tents in the area.

Cork Simon and Cork City Council both said their homeless outreach workers have engaged, and continue to try to engage, with the people living in the various tents which have been pitched on the wharf, inside the railing along St Patricks Quay, on the northern channel of the river Lee.

However, they said the tent dwellers have turned down offers of emergency shelter. They said tearing down the tents and leaving people, many with complex needs, without shelter, would probably create more problems in the long-term.

Cork Simon also said it had helped a man and woman who had been living in a small tent on the quayside to secure housing in an apartment three weeks ago.

Work is ongoing to engage with the others, a spokesperson said.

In July, Fine Gael councillor and former lord mayor Des Cahill said the makeshift encampment presents a poor image of the city. He called for the tents to be classed as litter and torn down.

The nameless man living in a marque tent on Patricks quay.

This isnt a housing issue and they need to be taken down immediately, he said.

The man who spent several months living in a large white marquee-style structure on the quayside has declined several offers to speak publicly about his circumstances.

He says his name is No Name and he has described his living quarters as Freedom Wharf.

However, several more smaller tents have sprung up alongside his structure in recent weeks.

In a statement last night, Cork City Council said there is bed capacity in the citys homeless hostels.

Therefore, tent dwellers are visited by the Simon outreach team and Cork City Councils outreach worker very regularly and invited to avail of the options available, said the councils housing directorate.

The consistent response is one of non-engagement and a wish not to interact with any services.

Staff are told that this form of accommodation is a personal choice the people concerned have made. Furthermore, they are not asking to be housed.

A spokesman for Cork Simon said their outreach workers have received a similar response from the tent dwellers.

He said the charity adopted a policy some time ago of not distributing tents to those in need  instead offering a place in either the Simon shelter, or in one of the citys two other shelters run by other agencies.

He said their outreach team visits the tent dwellers regularly to see if they are OK and that they are reminded regularly of the various shelter options.

Some do avail of our day service, but they have chosen not to avail of the shelter, he said.

We will continue to offer beds in the emergency shelter and hopefully work with them to where they can start to avail of those services.

* Read more on this issue in tomorrow's Irish ExaminerBy Tom Tuite

A father-of-seven caught with 43,000 sedative tablets hidden in M&M sweet wrappers at Dublin Airport has been ordered to carry out community service work to avoid six months in jail.

Joseph Anthony Roche, 41, from Drumcairn Parade, Fettercairn, Tallaght, Dublin 24 was prosecuted by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) the agency which regulates medicines in Ireland.

He appeared again at Dublin District Court today to face two charges under the Irish Medicines Board Act that on October 28, 2016 at Dublin Airport he kept for supply white oval tablets containing or comprising of the medicinal product Zopiclone, without authorisation of the HPRA, and that he unlawfully placed them on the market.

The case commenced prior to new regulations brought in last year stating that Zopiclone would in future be subject to control under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The prosecution had been ordered to provide disclosure of evidence and in March he had pleaded guilty to the charges.

The court had then agreed to an adjournment for a probation report on Roche to be prepared.

Evidence was given by HPRA inspector Alan Smullen.

He agreed with prosecution solicitor Ronan ONeill that Roche had been stopped by customs officers at Dublin Airport.

He had arrived back from Spain where the sleeping tablets had been bought.

During a search 43,000 Zopiclone tablets with a street value of 86,000 were seized.

They had been found in M&M packets.

Judge Brennan heard Roche had seven children and three of them were dependants.

He had claimed he had not realised the quantity of tablets and the court heard he suffered from health problems.

Roche, who is on disability allowance, had no prior criminal convictions, Judge John Brennan had noted.

He was furnished with a probation report today which found Roche was suitable for community service.

Pleading for leniency, defence counsel Rory OConnor said the report was positive.

He asked the judge to affirm the order he had indicated at an earlier stage, 200 hours of community service.

Judge Brennan agreed that the pre-sentence report was positive.

He noted Roche had no prior convictions and the defence pleas for leniency.

Roche, dressed in jeans and a hooded top, did not address the court.

Judge Brennan ordered him to carry out 200 hours community service instead of six months in prison.

Warning Roche that, You are being given a chance, he told him he would have no hesitation in imposing the sentence if he did not comply with the directions of the Probation Service in carrying out his community service.'Telanagana CM's 'remote control' is with PM, who did not say 'yes' to his idea of early poll,' said Cong's Sravan Dasoju.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had said he has been authorised by the party to take a final call on the issue. (Photo: File)

Hyderabad: The Congress in Telangana on Monday claimed that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao may have dropped his plans to go for early Assembly elections in the state after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Election Commission (EC) did not back his idea.

There has been speculation in recent days that Chandrasekhar Rao may recommend dissolution of the Assembly, favouring clubbing of the state elections along with that in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram later this year.

But, on Sunday, keeping the suspense alive, the Chief Minister had said he has been authorised by the party to take a final call on the issue.

Read: Will retain power, won't surrender to Delhi leadership, says KCR at mega rally

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesperson Sravan Dasoju said, "on early polls, Modi and EC have not given him (Rao) permission. As a result of that, he has gone back; he actually wanted to dissolve the House and he had told so to many of his close aides".

Charging Chandrasekhar Rao with being a 'katputhli' (puppet) and 'slave' of PM Modi, he said the Chief Minister's "remote control" is with Prime Minister, who did not say 'yes' to his idea of early poll.

"It (early Assembly polls in Telangana) does not (now) look like a possibility," he said, adding update electoral rolls would be ready only by October-end. "How is that before the electoral roll is finalised, he (Rao) can call for a schedule?"

Telangana Assembly elections are unlikely to happen by November-December, he said, adding, PM Modi and Chandrasekhar Rao, however, may advance Lok Sabha and assembly elections, respectively, due in April-May next year, by one or two months and club the elections in the four States.

On the Chief Minister's statement on Sunday that the people of the state should not become "slave to Delhi parties," Sravan Dasoju said Chandrasekhar Rao himself has become a "slave" of PM Modi, pointing to his support to the Centre on demonetisation and GST, and to NDA nominees in the elections to the post of President and Vice-President.

Chandrasekhar Rao had on Sunday said, "Just like in Tamil Nadu, we should also make sure that power is vested in our hands for self-respect rather than Delhi leadership dictating our state... don't become slaves to Delhi parties".

Sravan Dasoju termed this type of promotion of "Tamil Nadu" model as "day-dreaming" by Rao.

Before the 2014 Assembly polls, Chandrasekhar Rao coined the slogan "Bangaru Telangana" (golden Telangana), and is now trying to evoke "anti-Delhi kind of sentiment," he alleged.Organisations are experiencing gender fatigue when it comes to implementing gender diversity in the workplace, a leading HR expert has claimed.

Carol Kulik, research professor of Human Resource Management at the University of South Australia Business School, told a breakfast briefing for HR professionals yesterday that despite a sense of urgency from external pressures for organisations to implement gender diversity, the opposite is happening and progress may have plateaued.

It is getting hard to generate enthusiasm in organisations with regard to gender diversity and many businesses are experiencing gender fatigue, she said. It is hard to keep gender diversity issues on the boil and thats a shame.

Prof Kulik was speaking at a briefing organised by the Human Resources Research Centre (HRRC) at the Cork University Business School (CUBS) at UCC, to coincide with the CUBS-hosted Irish Academy of Management Conference.

HRRCs Ronan Carbery said organisations with women in senior management roles have higher sales and higher levels of creativity and innovation.

However, Prof Kulik said that, despite policies that should have eased the problem of gender balance, progress may be plateauing, and that visible increases in gender diversity at the top may be masking deeper, systemic, gender inequality.

The question today in Ireland is not whether women can or should work  the question is whether the work women do is valued as much as the work that men do and whether womens work is as likely as mens to lead to senior management roles, she said.

In Australia, Prof Kulik explained, women account for 28% of the representation on company boards while the figure in Ireland is 16%  which had been the rate in Australia four years ago. Research also shows when there are fewer females on company boards, the gender pay gap in organisations was much greater by up to 50%.

David Stanton, minister of state at the Department of Justice and Equality, told the briefing he has seen a culture change in how business is done in Leinster House following an increase in the number of female TDs and senators.

It is much more common for mixed groups of female and male politicians to sit down together to discuss issues and to work collaboratively to devise solutions, he said.

Our priorities have broadened too, to accommodate the interests of women as well as men.

However, Mr Keating said the Constitution still refers to the State recognising a womans life is played out in the home.

In addition, over a third of women in the Irish workforce have considered leaving or left their professional positions due to opportunity inequalities in their company, he said.

Gender parity is not just the right thing to do; as we have seen today it also makes business sense. Organisations that have females in senior management roles have higher sales, and higher levels of creativity and innovation.

The conference was one of two in Cork in recent days that could boost the local economy by 1.75m.Students are being warned to take control of their own safety when looking for rented accommodation.

More than 50,000 students are expected to attend third-level for the first time this month, with thousands more returning.Independent News & Media, INM, has said its board and the companys management intended to remain focused on the business and ensuring that the Groups operations continue, so far as possible, to be conducted as normal.

The company were responding to today's High Court decision to grant the ODCEs application for the appointment of Inspectors to INM.

In a statement this evening the company said: "The High Court of Ireland has today indicated its intention to make an order appointing Mr Sean Gillane SC and Mr Richard Fleck CBE as inspectors under section 748 of the Companies Act, 2014 to inquire into and report on certain issues relating to the conduct of the affairs of the Company.

"These issues include the accessing by third parties of the Companys data from 2014, the proposed acquisition in 2016 by the Company of Newstalk Radio and other matters that were the subject of disclosures made by Mr Robert Pitt, the Groups former CEO, to the Company.

"The inspectors would also report on whether Mr Leslie Buckley, the former Chairman of the Group, disclosed information to third parties in breach of market abuse or other applicable law and whether there have been any breaches of law arising from any of these matters and the Companys response to the disclosures made to it.

"The Court has indicated its intention to make the order on Thursday, 6 September 2018 at 10.00 a.m. subject to the Company having an opportunity at that time to make submissions to the Court. The Board will consider the terms of todays decision and the action that the Company might take in the interests of the Company and its stakeholders.

"The Board and the Companys management intend to remain focused on the business and ensuring that the Groups operations continue, so far as possible, to be conducted as normal.

Michael Doorly, interim group chief executive of Independent News and Media (INM) pictured arriving at the Four Courts today. Picture: Paddy Cummins/IrishPhotodesk.ie

In another statement the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement said inspectors Mr. Richard Fleck, CBE and Mr. Sean Gillane, SC would investigate the various matters set out in their Terms of Reference as determined by the Court.

The ODCE said that in doing so, the Inspectors will have at their disposal the wide range of powers provided to them under the Companies Act 2014 and the principal matters to be investigated as indicated by the High Court, include:

 The interrogation of INMs data;

 The proposed acquisition by INM of Newstalk radio;

 The proposed payment to Island Capital of a success fee associated with the disposal of INMs shareholding in APN;

 The Independent Review process; and

 Possible breaches of Market Abuse Regulations.

Welcoming the decision of the President of the High Court, the Director of Corporate Enforcement, Mr. Ian Drennan said the ODCEs application for the appointment of Inspectors followed a lengthy and wide- ranging investigation that identified several issues of serious concern relating to INM.

He went on: "That investigation was initiated on foot of a protected disclosure made to the ODCE. The initial scope of the investigation was subsequently broadened in response to the receipt of a further expression of concern.

"The ODCEs investigation was conducted over a period of approximately 15 months. Over the course of the investigation, a total of 33 statutory requirements for the provision of documents, explanations and assistance respectively were served on INM and on several other parties.

"This resulted in the ODCE assembling a substantial volume of documentary evidence, including email and text message communications. Following a review of the materials assembled over the course of the investigation, the ODCE identified a number of matters of serious concern relating to INM.

"While extensive use was made of the ODCEs statutory powers, a point was reached where, in the ODCEs assessment, the further progression of this investigation necessitated the deployment of the more powerful investigative tools reserved by law to High Court Inspectors.

Mr Drennan went on to say it was on that basis that an application for the appointment of Inspectors to the company was lodged with the High Court on 23 March 2018.

"INM subsequently took Judicial Review proceedings in the High Court seeking to quash the ODCEs decision to seek the appointment of Inspectors. In taking those proceedings, INM argued that the ODCE had been under an obligation to consult with the company prior to making an application to the High Court for the appointment of Inspectors.

"In a judgement delivered on 1 June 2018, Mr. Justice Seamus Noonan rejected that argument and dismissed INMs application. Todays judgment by the President of the High Court indicating his intention to grant the ODCEs application means that the investigation will now be further progressed by Court-appointed Inspectors.

"The Inspectors are vested with significant statutory powers not available to the ODCE, including the powers of compellability and examination of relevant persons on oath.

Mr. Drennan went on to point out that the investigation commenced following receipt of a protected disclosure.

"The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 is an important piece of legislation that provides a statutory framework within which workers can raise concerns and disclose information regarding potential wrongdoing while enjoying protections against penalisation (such as suspension, dismissal, demotion, disciplinary action etc.).

"In this case, protected disclosures were made both internally within INM and directly to the ODCE. The protections afforded by the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 were a key factor in facilitating the ODCEs investigation of the issues that have led to the judgment delivered in the High Court today." he concluded.

The matter is due back before the President of the High Court on Thursday, 6th September, at 10am when an application for costs by the ODCE will be considered and also to allow INM time to consider the judgement.

- Digital DeskInspectors should be appointed to one of Ireland's largest media groups, a judge has said.

Independent News and Media (INM) owns several newspapers including the Irish Independent and the Belfast Telegraph.

The High Court in Dublin heard an application by corporate watchdog, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), to have inspectors appointed.

The media company opposed the move on grounds that it could damage its business.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly rejected the objections of the company's board and accepted the appointment of the inspectors was in the public interest.

He said: "I believe this to be a case where an interim report from the inspectors should be provided."

The ODCE took the court action.

The judge added: "The director has averred that during the course of his investigation he has uncovered evidence to suggest that there may have been unlawful sharing of the company's inside information with third parties outside of the company as well as unlawful sharing of the company's confidential information."

It follows an alleged data breach within the firm in 2014 involving 19 people.

Mr Justice Kelly agreed not to make a final order in the case.

He said he would allow INM to consider the judgment and the court will sit again on Thursday morning.By Ray Managh

The appointment of inspectors to Independent News and Media today was described by High Court President, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, as well justified and not disproportionate.

He said the appointment of inspectors was a serious matter and while such a sledge hammer should not be used to crack a nut what has been disclosed in the evidence before me is no nut.

Judge Kelly appointed top criminal lawyer Sean Gillane SC and British company law lawyer Richard Fleck CBE.

From Thursday, when the courts orders will come into being, the two experts - working on behalf of the States corporate watchdog  will have power to conduct a major inquiry into Independent News and Media and the handling of its affairs by its directors.

The Director of Corporate Enforcement had sought the appointment of the Inspectors, a move that had been strongly opposed by INM.

In his 76-page reserved judgment today Justice Peter Kelly said the evidence heard by him related to four different matters - an interrogation of company data involving staff and former employees; the proposed acquisition of Newstalk by INM; an Independent Review Process and Market Abuse Regulations.

He said the application for the appointment of inspectors arose from a detailed investigation conducted by the ODCE into allegations contained in disclosures both by former Group Chief Executive Robert Pitt and Ryan Preston Group Chief Financial Officer.

An investigation had been conducted by the ODCE whose director considered that nothing less than court appointed inspectors would be able to get to the bottom of matters which were of concern to him.

Judge Kelly said that in 2014 back-up tapes of computer data were removed from the companys premises and taken to a company outside the jurisdiction where it had been sieved through over a period of months.

This operation had been directed by Mr Leslie Buckley, Company Chairman, and other members of the Board had not been aware of the interrogation of tapes at the time.

The Judge said that during the course of the interrogation, data appeared to have been searched against the names of no fewer than 19 individuals including journalists Rory Godson, Maeve Sheehan, Brendan OConnor and Sam Smyth; two members of the Inner Bar, Jeremiah Healy SC and Jacqueline OBrien SC; former board and staff members Joe Webb, Karl Brophy, Mandy Scott, Vincent Crowley, Donal Buggy, and the late James Osborne.

Also included were Andrew Donohue, Mark Kenny, Jonathan Neilan, Harriet Mansergh, Jenny Kilroy, Nick Cooper and Ann Marie Healy persons who may be regarded as having acted adversely to Mr Denis O'Brien, chief shareholder in INM.

The rights and entitlements of some or all of these 19 people may have been transgressed in a most serious way by this activity, the judge said.

He said that even to this day it was not clear whether the data removed and taken out of the company was copied and, if so, if the copies were retained by those responsible for or benefitting from the interrogation.

Mr Justice Kelly said the ODCE Director had stated that during the course of his investigation he had uncovered evidence to suggest there may have been unlawful sharing of the companys inside information with third parties outside of the company as well as unlawful sharing of the companys confidential information.

Justice Peter Kelly

He said the company had commenced proceedings against Mr Buckley seeking damages for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, misrepresentation, breach of contract and wrongful interference with the economic interests of the company.

He had been told that while there may have been a breach of the data protection legislation it had been a breach committed by Mr Buckley and not the company.

Judge Kelly said the ODCE Director contended the inspectors should be appointed in the public interest, to ascertain facts previously unknown and even though such an appointment may have negative consequences for the company.

He said a review of relevant case law demonstrated that the public interest was ensuring the maintenance of proper standards of probity and good governance in companies was one of the major matters which ought to be taken into account.

In the case before the court there was a further dimension to the public interest because of the nature of the business which was carried on by the company.

A free Press is a cornerstone of a functioning democracy. Journalists communications have a particular importance in that regard. Thus allegations of the accessing of journalists communications by unauthorised third parties raise issues of particular public interest, Judge Kelly said.

He said that anybodys private data would be wrongfully accessed was a serious matter but in the context in which this had allegedly been done was even more so. The company occupied a dominant position in the media sector in the country and there was an obvious public interest in its proper governance.

It was, as pointed out by the late Shanley J. a legitimate objective of the State to lay bare dishonest stratagems which may have infected the affairs and governance of the company.

It was legitimate for the Director to see to it that the issues identified were investigated and, if found to have happened, dealt with effectively.

Having regard to the evidence which has been placed before me I am of the opinion that the issue of the public interest in this case is one to which I must afford considerable weight, Judge Kelly said.

Dealing with the companys argument on the negative consequences resulting from the appointment of inspectors he said INM alleged it had suffered and would continue to suffer financial harm and reputational damage.

The appointment of inspectors was always likely to cause damage to a company but the court was not convinced that the consequences were as serious as suggested.

I find it difficult to accept that the Board believes that INMs very survival would be jeopardised if there were a general erosion of confidence, including a loss of advertiser and supplier confidence in the INM group such as would follow the appointment of inspectors, Judge Kelly said.

As to reputational damage it seemed to the court that a good deal of that had already occurred as a result of what had been disclosed already.

It was a matter of public knowledge that the companys former chief executive Mr Pitt and chief financial officer Mr Preston regarded what had been taking place in the company so seriously that they made protected disclosures.

The High Court President said that from what had been disclosed to the court in evidence the appointment of inspectors to ascertain the truth of what had allegedly been going on in the company was well justified and not disproportionate.

He said the Director sought appointment of inspectors to investigate and report on the affairs of the company as the court should deem fit in its acceptance of the inspectors terms of reference apart from the exclusion of one particular term ruling out the necessity for a roving investigation of the company

Judge Kelly said he felt there should be provision for an interim report to the court by the inspectors and postponed the making of his orders until Thursday morning when he will deal with a number of issues including the matter of costs.Update 4pm: New Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has attempted to quash concerns about his links to British intelligence services, saying he has reported wrongdoing by security forces on "many occasions".

On his second day in the role, the 53-year-old addressed concerns about his key role within MI5 - saying that he always worked to "prevent and detect" crime.

The former deputy chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was asked about his previous roles as he takes the lead role in An Garda Siochana.

"I've always been a police officer, it has always been my responsibility to prevent and detect crime and I have always done that," he said.

"If any time I have ever found any wrongdoing of any nature, involving anyone and in this case which finger points towards wrongdoing by security forces, it would be my responsibility to report that to Police Ombudsman and I have done that on many occasions where I felt there was wrongdoing."

Commissioner Drew Harris at a sit down introductory press briefing in Garda HQ this morning, 4th September 2018. pic.twitter.com/gG63lh67Gt  Garda Info (@gardainfo) September 4, 2018

Mr Harris addressed the media for around 30 minutes on Tuesday at the Garda Headquarters in Phoenix Park in Dublin.

He referred to a number of concerns that have been raised following his appointment to the role of Commissioner.

A number of survivors and victims of Loyalist attacks questioned his suitability because of his previous role in the PSNI and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

"I'm very aware of the concerns some have raised, throughout my policing career I have acted with impartiality, I have brought many loyalist terrorists to justice and I have secured convictions - and these crimes have been atrocious crimes and I have been diligent and persistent in the investigation of those," he added.

"I understand the hurt that remains with those victims. I can assure them of my integrity in what I was doing as a PSNI officer and RUC officer."

Mr Harris is the first Garda Commissioner to be appointed from outside the State.

New Garda Commissioner Drew Harris arrives for a press conference (Liam McBurney/PA)

"I'm not sure how much of an outsider I am really. I'm a police officer, I'm from the island of Ireland and have worked for the benefit of people of Ireland.

"I'm here to lead the organisation."

He added that he believes politicians are "fully behind" him in his role as commissioner.

When probed further about his intelligence regarding terrorist murders in Ireland and his obligation to pass on information, he said that he has "no other" intelligence to share with the Gardai.

He added: "That obligation would have been a live obligation with the PSNI. Intelligence is constantly exchanged between both police services or via the security service.

"I could highlight numerous cross-border operations where we exchange very sensitive intelligence and work very closely on joint operations and that prevented many terrorist outrages and very serious organised crime.

"The matters I was aware of with PSNI are always dealt with properly."

New Garda Commissioner Drew Harris addressing the gathered media (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Harris said that dissident republicans remain the biggest threat on the island of Ireland and are "determined" to carry out attacks.

He raised a number of areas he will focus on over the coming years - including the threat from dissident republicans, organised crime and the threat from international terrorists.

He also spoke of his plans to address how Garda Siochana is spending its budget and how it will deal with Brexit.

"This is an area of focus, our planning process is under way. Not all of the responsibility of Brexit, of whatever nature, will fall to Garda Siochana, but we have to be concerned with police-to-police cooperation at a local level with PSNI and how we secure border areas and we have to be aware of organised crime," he added.

- Press Association

Earlier: Dissident republicans 'remain the greatest threat' to Ireland, says Garda Commissioner

The new Garda Commissioner says dissident republican groups remain the biggest threat to the island of Ireland.

Drew Harris has given his first press conference where he discussed garda resources, organised crime and Brexit.

The former deputy chief constable of the PSNI took up the job early yesterday morning.

Commissioner Harris say republicanism is one of his major concerns.

"They remain the greatest threat on the island of Ireland. They pose a threat and continue to do so," he said.

"There's been a lot of success against them, a lot of that threat has been eroded and diminished but we are very aware that these people are full of intent and determination to carry out attacks."

Earlier: 'I am Irish': Garda Commissioner says he is not an outsider

Update 12.10pm: The new Garda Commissioner says he does not view himself as an outsider.

Drew Harris has given his first press conference where he discussed garda resources, the Hutch Kinahan feud and the threat of republicanism.

The former chief constable of the PSNI is the first external candidate to become head of the gardai.

He says he views himself as one of team.

"Yes I am Irish," he said.

"I'm not sure how much of an outsider I am really.

"I'm a police officer, I joined a police organisation. I'm from the island of Ireland.

I've always worked for the benefit of the people of Ireland and worked very closely with An Garda Siochana in that respect as well.

Digital DeskCelebrity chef Rachel Allen has said that her familys priority is to look after her 18-year-old son following his arrest in connection with the seizure of 30,000 worth of cannabis.

In a statement last night, Rachel and her husband Isaac said the family was absolutely devastated and confirmed Joshua is co-operating with gardai and has admitted his guilt.

We are absolutely devastated at this turn of events, said Ms Allen. Our son is 18 years old, has never been in trouble with the gardai, and has made a huge mistake, which will have profound consequences for him.

We do not in any way condone his actions. In fact, we utterly condemn them, but it is not for us to condemn him.

We must now try to look after our son and our family the best way we can.

The Irish Examiner reported on Saturday that a teenager has been detained in the Shanagarry area of Cork following a joint Garda-Revenue operation, involving both local and national units.

The operation was put into place after Revenue officers at the Portlaoise Mail Centre detected a suspicious package.

Some 1.5kg of herbal cannabis, with an estimated street value of around 30,000, was found concealed in a parcel labelled as clothing, which had originated in the US and was destined for an address in Cork.

Revenue contacted gardai, and a controlled delivery operation was co-ordinated by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and the Divisional Drugs Unit based in Anglesea Street Garda Station in Cork.

The teenager was subsequently released without charge and a file is being prepared for the DPP.

Ms Allen confirmed the teenager in question is her son. She said she wanted to issue a statement in response to, and to hopefully alleviate, the frenzy of speculation in relation to Joshua, the eldest of her three children.

He has been arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs (marihuana) [sic] with intent to supply them to others, she wrote.

He has admitted his guilt immediately and co-operated fully with the gardai.

A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and when formally charged Joshua will be pleading guilty at the first opportunity.

We would ask that the legal process would be allowed to proceed to deal with this matter, without interference, and that we would be allowed to deal with this, like any other parents, in a similar position.

Some 109 drug detections have been made by Revenue officers in Portlaoise Mail Centre this year.

In 2003, Rachel Allens father-in-law, Tim Allen, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service and agreed to pay 40,000 to a charity after he was caught with images of child pornography on a computer.Calling Raje's campaign a 'helicopter yatra', Gehlot asked why was the CM scared of mingling with the common people of the state.

Jodhpur: AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot on Monday asked Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje what account of herself was she giving by travelling in a helicopter for her 'gaurav yatra'.

She should apologise to the people (during the yatra) for not doing any work in these five years, even though the people gave her a massive mandate, Gehlot said.

Mr Gehlot arrived in Jodhpur on Monday, two days ahead of the 'sankalp rally' of Congress which will be held in Pachpadra village of Barmer district.

Calling Raje's campaign a 'helicopter yatra', Gehlot asked why was the CM scared of mingling with the common people of the state.

The former Congress CM accused Raje of spreading terror through the gaurav yatra and creating a curfew-like environment in the state by stopping protesting persons from raising black flags at campaign venues. Reportedly, persons were barred from staying on roofs and balconies of their houses when Raje's meetings were being held in the vicinity, which Gehlot referred to as curfew-like environment. People wanted to see her and meet her. Why is she so scared? What kind of democracy is this, Gehlot questioned.

He also held her responsible for delaying the refinery project for four years in the name of reviewing it and slammed her for re-laying the foundation stone.

Today there is only a wall in the name of refinery construction. Had it not been delayed, the refinery would have taken full shape by now, Gehlot said. Holding her responsible for delaying and aborting a number of projects across the state, Gehlot said every section of society is angry with her.Presidential challenger Sean Gallagher blames an RTE TV programme for changing the outcome of the 2011 race for the Park, but denies being bitter about the controversy.

The former Dragons Den panellist launched an attack on the broadcaster as he made his first public appearance since announcing his second attempt to get elected. He appealed for nominations to enter the race.

The Cavan businessman was speaking at Leitrim County Council, where councillors put forward motions to nominate him to get on the ballot paper for the election. He spoke after the meeting about RTEs apology and court settlement with him over the 2011 Frontline debate.

I think the recent High Court action and RTEs apology speak for themselves, said Mr Gallagher. I believe that the Frontline programme changed the 2011 election. Im not drawing a conclusion as to what it is. All I am doing is putting the facts out there of the RTE High Court apology.

He thanked those who had voted for him before and also apologised to those who supported him, including councillors, over his failings.

I could have and should have done better, but the circumstances of a dogmatic, repeated, confrontational, false accusation caused me to stumble momentarily, he said. And for that, I regret and I am sorry.

The RTE TV debate drew controversy over a false tweet read out to Mr Gallagher relating to his previous role as fundraiser for Fianna Fail. Mr Gallagher said this threw him on the night.

However, he denied he is still bitter.

It is not about anger or annoyance, said Mr Gallagher. It is about setting the record straight. It isnt about me, it is about anybody who stands for election in public office has to have the confidence that they will be treated fairly by the national broadcaster.

He said he is running again as an Independent candidate, proud of his Fianna Fail background.

The council will reconvene next Monday and decide on motions to nominate Mr Gallagher.

During the meeting with councillors, Mr Gallagher pledged to prioritise raising concerns about the marginalised. He outlined initiatives to support the disabled, including a work placement scheme. The arts would also be prioritised and he pledged to visit Irish peacekeepers abroad if elected.

Fellow Dragon Peter Casey also attended the meeting. He said Irelands neutrality is outdated as he called on the country to align itself with Nato.

I think neutrality is an outdated concept in this 21st century that we are in, said Mr Casey. We have to align ourselves with the international community. We are obviously European and we have alliances with America.

Mr Casey also said that, if elected, he would give US president Donald Trump a warm welcome when he visits Ireland in November. Mr Casey also proposes selling passports to the diaspora for 300 for each document. This potentially could raise hundreds of millions of euro, he said.

Celebrity impersonator and pro-life candidate Sarah Louise Mulligan said she would donate part of the presidents salary to crisis pregnancy agencies if elected.

Former airline worker Patrick Feeney called for active tourism measures and new rail routes, which he pledged to promote if elected.Update 4.15pm: Sinn Fein is developing policy for a 32-county health service to protect Irish health services affected by Brexit.

Speaking on the second day of the partys think-in event in Co Cavan, Louise OReilly TD said that in the context of Brexit, the issue of how health services will be affected is one that keeps coming back.

She said: We are developing policy on a 32-county health service, which is available for all the citizens on this island.

Disease does not recognise borders, our health service shouldnt.

We have been discussing the level of cooperation that exists currently and how we can deepen and develop that.

We launched our 32-county womens health policy document recently, and last week we also launched policy related to nursing and how we will tackle recruitment and retention crisis.

We will not have a health service if we dont have the personnel to deliver it.

This government have failed time and time again, they have let our nurses down.

We see Fianna Fail protect the government and they believe nurses are very well paid.

We dont believe that, pay has to be central to recruitment and retention issue.

We also have to deal with role development, opportunities for promotion, time off for study, cover for maternity leave, all these issues have to be dealt with.

In context of a 32-county health service, what we want to see is the development of a health service for people when they need it, based on need and not on ability to pay.

The most recent report on recruitment and retention issues in the health sector found that in nursing and midwifery departments difficulties exist in meeting workforce requirements in specific areas.

The report also recommended that Specialist Qualification Allowance currently paid to nurses and midwives who acquire post-graduate qualifications should be increased by 20%.

Commenting on the release of the Report, the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform, Paschal Donohoe said: There are many viewpoints on the issues.

There is a commitment between public service employers and staff representatives to meet within four weeks to discuss implementation of the Report.

It is important that this process is adhered to and that space is afforded to reflect on the details and engage in that process.

The announcement comes after Sinn Fein members gathered to discuss their vision of a new Ireland  what that means in terms of Brexit, the economy and Irish Unity at the partys annual think-in.

Over the course of the two days, party representatives discussed the upcoming budget in the 26 counties and how the partys alternative budget might bring about shared prosperity, lift the burden from ordinary people and address the health and housing crises.

Also addressed is the issue of powersharing in the North, of which Sinn Feins Conor Murphy has accused the British government of adopting a policy of drift in order to protect their interests in the confidence and supply agreement with the DUP.

- Press Association

Earlier: Sinn Fein open to flying Union Jack over Leinster House to achieve united Ireland

Sinn Fein remain open to the suggestion of flying the Union Jack over Leinster House to achieve a united Ireland.

Asked if he could envisage the day when the Union Jack would fly over Leinster House, Pearse Doherty said he doesn't think it would come to that but that a discussion was needed to accommodate those of a Unionist tradition in a new Ireland.

Speaking in Irish at his party's think-in in Cavan, the Sinn Fein deputy Dail leader said: We need a conversation about symbolism, for the million people who identify as British and who believe deeply in their identity.

In this new Ireland, it is important that those symbols are part of this new Ireland.

He added: "This is not just a question for Sinn Fein, but other parties in the South should come together to discuss this what kind of united Ireland there will be.

He also said polls show there is a majority in favour of a united Ireland in the context of Brexit negotiations.

Earlier: Sinn Fein predict 'inevitable' United Ireland could cost island 500,000 jobs

Update 9.54am: Thousands of public sector jobs would be lost if there is a United Ireland.

That is according to a draft document from Sinn Fein, which says unity across the island is inevitable.

New details in their 'Irish Unity - An Activists Guide' predict that as many as 200,000 jobs in the north and 300,000 in the south would go.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald

However, the document also claims it would lead to a more efficient service under one agency dealing with Government instead of two.

Sinn Fein's David Cullinane says it is an exciting opportunity for people to debate what kind of society we want.

"I think it's inevitable that we will have a United Ireland," he said.

"All of the social changes, demographic changes show that we're moving in that direction, opinion polls show that we're moving in that direction, and we have to start planning.

We have to start planning for not just a United Ireland but the type of United Ireland that collectively we want.

Digital DeskSinn Fein president Mary-Lou McDonald will absolutely march against the visit of Donald Trump whose politics she has described as sexist, misogynistic and racist.

The White House has announced that President Trump will travel to Ireland in November, however, further details of his trip will not be released until closer to the time.

Speaking at her partys two-day think-in in Cavan, Ms McDonald said she would take part in any planned protests against the visit but also would be willing to meet President Trump to give her views on his policies.

His attitude to women, to immigrants and most recently the decision to pull funding from Palestinian refugees is just abhorrent.

Would I meet him? You bet I would. Maybe the question is whether or not he would wish to meet me.

This type of politics that President Trump espouses needs to be challenged at every level, it needs to be challenged on the streets, it needs to be challenged directly, should such an opportunity arise, face to face.

Asked if she would personally take part in any protest marches she said: Absolutely, we have no truck with sexist, misogynistic or racists politics, whatever the source of that politics.

Ms McDonald said Sinn Fein has a long-standing policy of solidarity with the Palestinian people and the need for a peaceful resolution in the Middle East.

She said Sinn Fein respect the fact that Mr Trump is the democratically elected president of America but added that her party would challenge politics and policies that they believe to be wrong.

We believe that President Trump is wrong, wrong and wrong again on all of the issues that I have itemised, said Ms McDonald.

The Sinn Fein president said she had not been given an invitation to meet President Trump when he visits Ireland but said that the nature or intent of his trip is not clear as of yet.

We dont know the nature of the visit, is it related to Brexit, is it something got to do with the impasse in the North, is it simply a geographic coincidence with his attending an event in France? So all of that has to be ascertained.

The one thing I am sure of is the politics and policies of President Trump will be challenged out on the streets and thats absolutely as it should be and Sinn Fein will be part of that.

Turning to the Irish presidential election, Ms McDonald said the people should decide who is president and not Fianna Fail or Fine Gael.

Sinn Fein have said they will put forward a candidate and that person will be announced on September 16.

The actions we take, the decisions we make and the alliances we build will determine the shape of a new and united Ireland. That includes the presidential election, she said.

The Sinn Fein leader said the presidential race would be an opportunity to hold a national conversation adding that the next president should unite our nation in all its diversity and difference.

We believe that the people should decide who is president. It is not in the gift of Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. It is the peoples president. And there will be a Sinn Fein candidate in the field, she said.Campaigners have called on the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to explain why it buried evidence on illegal birth registrations it was given by the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) in 2015.

It comes as the Irish Examiner revealed yesterday that the States regulatory body for adoption sent three reports on illegal birth registrations  including a spreadsheet of 90 cases  to the department in 2015, three years before the St Patricks Guild illegal birth registrations scandal broke.

Campaign groups have reacted angrily to the news and have questioned why no action was taken in 2015 on foot of detailed information supplied by the AAI.

Paul Redmond of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Homes Survivors (CMABS) said he was appalled that Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone had access to this material in her department and accused her of burying the truth.

This is a disgusting breach of trust and has once again put innocent lives at risk by damning them to giving fake medical histories to doctors, said Mr Redmond. Minister Zappone needs to resign immediately as it is clear she is incapable of doing her job in an honest and transparent manner. Survivors lives matter.

Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) said it was simply not true for the department to persist in claiming that the discovery of 126 illegal birth registrations in the files of the former adoption agency St Patricks Guild represents the only cases in which clear evidence of incorrect registrations has been found.

Members of ARA and similar advocacy groups such as the Natural Parents Network of Ireland have consistently flagged the criminal act of illegal adoptions committed by various adoption agencies with various Minister for Children, commencing in 2001 with Mary Hanafin, through Brian Lenihan, Barry Andrews, Frances Fitzgerald, and James Reilly up to Katherine Zappone in 2017, said Ms Lohan. We have provided testimonies and evidence from adopted people and their natural parents on same to no avail.

This paper has previously reported that the Department of Children was told about illegal birth registrations by the AAI as far back as in 2011, and again in 2013. The 2015 information provided to the department by its regulatory body included a detailed breakdown of some 90 cases which it felt constituted illegal birth registrations.

The department has claimed this information related to cases where the appearance of irregular activity suggested the possibility of an incorrect registration having occurred, before pointing out that the 126 cases found by Tusla this year were confirmed cases of illegal birth registration.

The 126 cases currently being dealt with by Tusla were confirmed, once a rigorous process was completed to ensure that the State could be as sure as possible that these individuals births were, in fact, illegally registered, said the department.By Gordon Deegan

A van driver for a Dublin based transport firm who failed to show for work on his "fed-up days" has been awarded 2,000 for his unfair dismissal.

In the case, the CEO of the transport company sacked the driver in May of last year after he had not shown up to work for eight working days and "three fed-up" days over a three month period.

The man has successfully sued for unfair dismissal at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) which has also ordered the company to pay the man 879 in unpaid wages along with the 2,000 unfair dismissal award.

In his claim for unfair dismissal, the van driver argued that there was no reason to dismiss him.

He said that he was never put through a disciplinary process and had no previous warnings.

The van driver said that he missed a few days and called them his "fed-up days".

He said that when he turned up for work on May 15th at 7am, his boss told him that he had no work.

According to the firm, the worker agreed with his employers perception that he was unhappy and disillusioned with the job and accepted that he could not continue to just not show up for work when he did not feel like coming in.

The employer stated that the driver accepted that his job was in danger.

Finding that the man was unfairly dismissed, WRC Adjudication Officer, Marie Mulcahy stated that irrespective of the actions of the driver or the degree of wrongdoing, the employer "must follow fair procedures".

Ms Mulcahy said that the driver "was deprived of any process conforming to the requirements of natural justice.

"There was no advance notice that dismissal was being contemplated, no process, no right of representation offered and no appeal procedure provided.

Ms Mulcahy stated that the driver contributed to his dismissal by withholding information from the employer regarding his return to work where his employer had to engage an alternative employee and previous instances of un-notified absences.

The employer told the WRC that it was with-holding the 879 in unpaid wages as 12 TVs under the care of the driver went missing while he was transporting them for a client to an An Post mail centre on April 29th 2017.

The transport firm alleged that a Garda raid of the drivers home uncovered 12 TVs on the week commencing May 3rd 2017,

The company alleged that CCTV footage showed the driver and his son loading 72 TVs into the drivers van but offload only 60 TVs to the mail centre.

The company stated that the owner of the TVs was seeking 2,400 in compensation for the missing TVs.

The employer was unaware of the missing TVs incident when dismissing the driver and stated that that incident alone would have led to his dismissal.

However, Mr Mulcahy stated that 879 deduction in wages was unlawful and ordered that the company pay the driver the amount within 42 days.

Ms Mulcahy said that "it is for the Gardai and judicial bodies to investigate the complainants actions on April 29th".Black 47 has an Irish man wreaking havoc among those who evicted his family during the Famine, writes Esther McCarthy.

Its a movie about the most devastating event in Irish history, a story that would be a huge challenge to bring to the big screen. Little wonder, then, that Black 47 director Lance Daly was amazed the Great Famine had never been

dramatised in cinema  but says after making the film, he could understand why.

Set during the worst year of the Famine, Dalys project drew a starry cast and widespread interest. But it was by far the most ambitious and large-scale movie he has ever taken on.

Im always overly optimistic and naive going into these things and think: Oh we can do it. Well overcome that. And in this case it was definitely a list longer than any we could anticipate, he said.

Its simple  all of the things that you would think are tricky are in it. Its an ensemble cast. We have children and animals. Weve a movie in two languages (various characters speak in Irish throughout the film). We have real gunpowder, stunts.

"Then we have the Famine and the responsibility of getting that right, which sort of grew as we were doing it. The dread of how awful it would be to do something about something so important thats never been done, and miss the mark.

Daly, whose previous movies include the comedy Lifes a Breeze and the widely praised drama Kisses, has largely hit the mark with Black 47.

A revenge thriller which seeks to entertain while never forgetting the tragedy at its roots, the film centres on Feeney, an Irish soldier hardened by fighting for the British army overseas.

On returning home to the west of Ireland in 1847, he is horrified by the devastation and disorder that has left his mother starved and his brother hanged as the Famine takes its grip.

Enraged, he sets about avenging their deaths, working his way of the hierarchy of those he feels are responsible. Hannah (Hugo Weaving), an experienced tracker who used to fight with Feeney in Afghanistan, heads a team tasked with stopping him.

The cast also includes Jim Broadbent, Cork actress Sarah Greene, Barry Keoghan and Stephen Reas canny Conneely, who at one point surveys the striking landscape and dryly says: Maybe people would place more value on beauty if they could eat it.

Hes quite adept at surviving in a way, says Rea of his character. Hes hanging in with the Brits and hes getting a meal at the very least. But hes also observing and maybe absorbing the history to explain it later. There were people who said: Dont let them come through our townland when they were walking to the boat. Dont let them near us.

But he does mark the card of the landlord about his responsibility in a nice way.

HELL AND CONNACHT

Rea vividly remembers filming on location in Connemara and Wicklow during the winter months. Did the tough conditions help give a sense of time and place?

You always need good acting, and Im not convinced bitter cold provokes good acting! It may provoke a kind of internal fury, he smiles.

Its fine, because its over now, and the miracle of seeing it transformed into a wonderful film. The greatest shot in the movie, I think, is when the carts roll out of the yard laden with grain, going to the seaports, and the people are standing there starving. Thats just it, you know? That just says it all, really.

I dont know how anybody survived if you were in 1847, added Daly of that period. If you put me out fully clad now, up a mountain somewhere in Connemara, Id die overnight. I still find it a stretch to figure out how human beings could suffer that much.

Throughout the making of the film, Daly felt a growing sense of responsibility to those who lived, died and emigrated during that time.

The Famine wasnt a totally chaotic time. A lot of the historians were at pains to say to me: There was no breakdown of law and order. It was just people quietly starving, and dying, and leaving.

"There are flare-ups of resistance, which is what this film is about. But actually the story of The Famine is essentially one where the rule of law was enforced mercilessly and people just slowly lost the strength to resist. Its at that point that you realise youre nearly starved and you cant really fight back.

Theres two ideas - you either tax somebody really heavily and give them loads of services, or you leave people alone but they kind of have to fend for themselves. In this case, you tax people really heavily and you give them no services and they have to fend for themselves.

The relationship between the British and Irish is more in the film, I would like to think, depicted as the relationship between rich and poor. The divide is more along class lines.

"Theres also rich Irish people who profit, I tried to do all the shades. I think were very moderate. Its just that the essence of the story is essentially very political. What was important to me was not to seem so biased that it undermined the story. The injustice of it tells its own.

[media]https://youtu.be/bt_lnhguHpg[/media]

ANGRY WRATH

As Feeneys hit-list increases, more and more foes feel the wrath of his fury. Again, the director makes interesting choices here, often opting to show the build-up and aftermath of a violent act rather than the violence itself. Its something he thought a great deal about.

Its probably a question of balance. Its a question I was constantly asking myself: whats important in doing this film? Just as we have people suffering from famine and from fever, to not be voyeuristic about that.

It would just seem a little odd to me to be voyeuristic about the violence, or in some way to fetishise the violence, you know? I think its the results of the violence or the implications of it that are really whats important.

I think (its about) the moment when he sees his time is up, and were on his eyes, were not on the actual

violent act.

Daly says a revenge story was the most interesting way to bring this film to the big screen, but always felt a responsibility towards this terrible time in our history.

Its sort of sacred ground. Theres a history to this story thats sacred ground and weve tried to treat it so. If you suddenly appear to be mercenary in some way, trying to advance your filmmaking or the reach of your audience, then youre monopolising something that belongs to everybody, I think. Youre sort of aware this is every Irish persons story, not just mine, to tell.

Black 47 opens in cinemas today.By Donal OKeeffe

The Lambert Puppet Theatre in Monkstown, Co Dublin, home to beloved childhood characters such as Bosco, Judge, and Mr Crow, is to be sold, sources close to the Lambert family have told the Irish Examiner.

The Lambert Puppet Theatre, which is located on substantial premises, had been closed this summer, and attempts to contact Liam Lambert, who has owned the theatre since 2010, proved unsuccessful.

Some members of the Lambert family are understood to be very unhappy at the decision to sell the premises.

The Lambert Puppet Theatre was founded in 1972 by puppeteer Eugene Lambert, with his wife Mai. Mr Lambert was a regular fixture on RTE from the early 1960s, devising and producing the puppet series Murphy agus a Chairde, and he co-created and co-starred in Wanderly Wagon (1967-1982).

Wanderly Wagon proved a favourite with generations of Irish children. The magical caravan was piloted by the cowardly OBrien, played by Lambert, and the kindly Godmother, played by Nora OMahoney, and was populated by puppets such as Judge, Mr Crow, and the Squirrels, voiced by the 10 Lambert children. Frank Kelly played recurring villain Doctor Astro, and his sidekick Ssneaky Ssnake.

Eugene Lambert died in 2010, aged 81, and the theatre passed to his son Liam.

The puppet theatre had to be extensively rebuilt following an August 2015 arson attack.

Bill Golding, who played Wanderly Wagons original lead, Rory, said he was profoundly sorry to hear of the planned sale.

I simply cannot imagine Dublin history or theatre without the Lambert family. I really hope this is not the end of the puppet theatre, he said.

Conor Lambert, owner of Carrick-on-Shannon-based company Custard Pie Puppets, said a call from the Irish Examiner was the first he had heard of the sale.

Im very disappointed, and I can only hope the proceeds will go toward a new theatre, he said. It was Wanderly Wagon that built that place.

"And it was all of us who built it. I think puppetry in Ireland is overdue a revival, and with my own puppetry, I try to keep my fathers legacy alive. Ill just have to try that bit harder now."

Attempts to contact Miriam Lambert, who works independently as a puppeteer, were unsuccessful.

Paula Lambert, who plays the puppet Bosco, and who begins a nationwide tour in October, said she did not have sufficient information to comment.From junior infants in their spanking new uniforms to third-level students returning after a summer of travel, there is no getting away from the back-to-school feeling in the air.

If the autumn air is prompting you to think about learning something new, the good news is there have never been more opportunities to do so, and options to suit even the tightest budget.

A first port of call for adults looking to learn a new skill should be your library or council office.

They will have information on any courses starting soon in your area and courses on everything from furniture-making to keep fit, beginners bridge to embroidery are available in almost every county.

Many schools and colleges make use of their premises with short courses in the evenings, usually at very reasonable prices.

An eight or 10-week course will fill the shorter winter evenings and learning (and practising) a new skill or hobby is a low-cost pastime, allowing your budget to recover after the ravages of the summer holidays and back-to-school spending.

The internet has also opened up a world of learning, much of it available at no cost at all.

I have written before about the wonderful world of Massive Open Online Courses and the range continues to grow.

These courses first started appearing in the 2000s and have since developed into an enormous online resource of classes on almost every subject under the sun.

One of the earliest and most popular providers is Irish website Alison. Founded in Galway in 2007, it is now one of the worlds largest free learning platforms.

Its mission statement is to make it possible for anyone, to study anything, anywhere, at any time, for free online, at any subject level.

It has more than 1000 courses in categories that include health, humanities, languages, maths, IT, lifestyle and business.

Selecting the right area of study is just one part of finding your perfect course.



Once you know what type of study you want to engage in, the next step is to find a course that builds on your current knowledge & learning.



Explore Alison's Study Areas: https://t.co/R6rTIqGjir  Alison - Empower Yourself (@Alison_Learning) August 31, 2018

Students can choose from short certificate courses that only take 2-3 hours to complete and longer diploma courses, which are designed to give a more extensive understanding of a subject area.

For people who want to master a subject there are also learning paths, a combination of niche courses chosen by experts.

Alison courses are self-paced, so you can proceed at your own speed, which is a comfort if it is your first time studying in a while.

Alison is just one provider, there are many others, often backed by prestigious colleges with global reputations.

Stanford graduates established Coursera, which has gone on to educate millions for free, while Futurelearn, whose courses I have completed in the past, is an offshoot of the Open University.

Other websites worth checking out include Udacity, EdX and Open Learn.

These do not just offer academic subjects, they offer many courses to allow you to learn more about a particular area of interest.

For example, right now on Future Learn, the University of Strathclyde is offering a free course for anyone interested in the increasingly popular area of genealogy.

Always dreamed of learning a new language? Join one of FutureLearn's free language courses and take the next step to a bilingual life: https://t.co/rW59CU8ZWl pic.twitter.com/AYLUAb1ktd  FutureLearn (@FutureLearn) August 16, 2018

The six-week course, which asks you to commit to four hours of study per week, aims to help develop an understanding of basic genealogy techniques and how to communicate a family history.

Other courses on offer allow you to delve subjects as diverse as how to write your first song and the art of forensic facial reconstruction.

If you would like to focus on courses to help you in the world of work, it is worth looking into the range on offer from Springboard+.

The Government-backed initiative offers free courses at certificate, degree and masters level leading to qualifications in areas where there are employment opportunities in the economy.

It was once aimed solely at jobseekers or those returning to work after a break but now courses are also available to those currently in work.

If you are employed you will have to make a contribution but it is only 10% of the course fee.

Springboard has a whole host of courses just getting underway but there are still some accepting applications for later in the autumn or in January.

Deal of the week

If a new study area is needed at home head to Woodies to take advantage of its sale.

The Irish-owned DIY retailer is running back-to-school specials on a host of office furniture.

They have four desks on offer, all at half their original price.

Depending on your needs you can get a simple oak desk for 40 or a tempered glass tabletop desk for 70.

Pick of the range is the Zoe 3 Drawer Desk with oak finish for 65, down from 129.99.

It has stools to accompany the desks from 9.99 or folding chairs from 16.99.

Also included in the sale are a range of shelving units from 17.50, rising to 32.50.

If your room needs a lick of paint in preparation for the new furniture, Woodies also have Dulux paints on offer at the moment, selling two 2.5 litres tubs in a range of colours for 40.

All special offers are available online and in the companys 35 stores.

If there are any consumer issues that youd like Grainne to address or if you have problems that Grainne could help with, she can be contacted at makingcents@examiner.ieLois Sofia, a research scholar in Canada, and Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, were on flight to Tuticorin.

Lois Sofia was arrested after the plane landed in Tuticorin and Tamilisai filed a complaint with the airport police. (Photo: File)

Tuticorin: A day after a student was arrested at the Tuticorin airport for shouting "down with Modi, BJP-RSS fascist government" on a flight in the presence of Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan, she has been released on bail on Tuesday.

Tamilisai, who was on the flight and complained against the woman and had said: "She was not an ordinary passenger; I suspect some extremist organisation behind her."

Lois Sofia, a research scholar in Canada, and Tamilisai, were on the flight to Tuticorin.

On boarding the flight, she saw Tamilisai in the same flight, prompting her loud reaction. Sofia, said to have strong political opinion against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to one of the passengers, started shouting hysterically, fascist Modi government down down.

Tamilisai, however remained cool inside the flight, but politely asked later whether her in-flight behaviour was decent, after both got down at Thoothukudi airport at around 12 noon. The PhD scholar, however without any expression of remorse, justified that she has the freedom of speech.

This arrogant attitude of Sofia, irritated the supporters of the BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan, who surrounded the lady and her mother and demanded an apology.

The young lady, however, refused to apologise, despite her mother advising her to do so.

Sofia was arrested after the plane landed in Tuticorin and Tamilisai filed a complaint with the airport police. A video recorded at the airport shows the BJP leader asking angrily: "How can she shout like that? This is not a public forum."

#WATCH BJP Tamil Nadu President Tamilisai Soundararajan got into an argument with a co-passenger at Tuticorin airport. The passenger who has now been detained had allegedly raised 'Fascist BJP Govt down down' slogan #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/TzfyQn3IOo  ANI (@ANI) September 3, 2018

Sofia has been charged with creating "public nuisance" and "causing fear to the public in the flight and at the airport".

According to reports, the student's father AA Sami, a retired government officer, has also filed a police complaint against the Tamil Nadu BJP chief and a few others for "criminal intimidation". That case has not been registered by the police yet.

Sami said he and his wife had received their daughter at the Chennai airport and were flying with her to Tuticorin. When they arrived at Tuticorin, he said, his daughter was surrounded by men and abuses were thrown at her. The family was reportedly kept in a room for safety.

Sofia, a writer and a mathematician, is a close relative of advocate Athisayakumar, one of the leading activists in the anti-Sterlite movement. According to reports, she had earlier participated in campaigns against the Sterlite Copper Plant in Tuticorin and the Chennai-Salem eight lane expressway.

DMK Chief MK Stalin slammed the police action against Sofia and demanded her release. Stalin said he too would repeat her slogan and asked: "If you'd put behind bars all those who raise such slogans, how many lakh people would you jail?"Drew Harris is quietly spoken. That much has been made clear by people close to him.

But that does not mean he will be low-key in his actions, they say.

Will he be an inspirational leader and rally the troops with speeches? No, I doubt it, said one source. But dont mistake that for lack of authority. He is steely and if he wants something done, he wants it done.

In his speech, after his swearing in, the new commissioner came across as a genuine and straight-talking person. He also laid down a number of markers.

The reason for the dead-of night-swearing-in, he said, was that he was anxious just to get on with this right away and wanted to reflect the reality that policing was a 24-hour service.

Referring to the presence of garda leadership and frontline members at the

ceremony, he said he wanted to underline the connection between leadership and those patrolling at night at the coalface.

He wanted to focus on tackling crime and protecting and serving the communities and particularly wanted to protect the vulnerable. He would also continue the reform process and create an accountable and open police service.

But can he do both, or will the reform monster devour his time and energy, away from tending to the coalface?

REFORM

When he went to his office after the swearing in, he might have baulked at the reading list handed to him.

He might have glanced at the piles of documents and reports towering against the entire length of the wall, many of them the thickness of telephone books.

But where does he start?

Does he go back to the mother of all Garda inquiries, the Morris Tribunal, and its five weighty tomes?

Does he concentrate on Sergeant Maurine McCabe and dive into the various penalty point investigations and the Cavan/Monaghan Division cases, with the Guerin and OHiggins reports? That could lead him to the Disclosure Tribunal, reporting next month.

Does he look at the strained Garda relationship with GSOC, and the Cooke (bugging) report, and decide whether or not to drop himself into the Ian Bailey case.

He probably doesnt need to go over the Smithwick report for reasons touched on in the Irish Examiner last Saturday.

He might be tempted to read the Fennelly report into the retirement/forced retirement of former commissioner Martin Callinan by the Government.

He will probably examine the landmark Garda Inspectorate publications: the Crime Investigation report of 2014 and the Changing Policing in Ireland report 2015.

These have laid the foundations of the Garda reform programme  which in turn led to the Gardas own five-year Modernisation and Renewal Programme (MRP).

The inspectorate also published its Child Sexual Abuse report last year.

Then there are the various reports last year into the breath test and FCN scandals, one internal and another external by Crowe Howarth on behalf of the Policing Authority.

He will need a handle on many of these issues when he starts attending the public meetings of the Policing Authority, which is tasked with monitoring the reform programme.

In the authoritys last report to the justice minister it effectively brought the Garda MRP to a temporary halt, saying it had fundamental flaws, and called for an urgent review.

But, just as he starts studying, the big one will land on his desk  the report of the Policing Commission. That report, due in around two weeks, is supposed to set out a model for the future of the organisation.

As someone who was in the RUC when the Patten Commission report was published and the PSNI was born, Mr Harris will have some idea of what to expect.

In October, he will have his first meeting with the Oireachtas Justice Committee, followed soon after by the Disclosure Tribunal Report.

Then will come the internal report into the Juvenile Diversion Programme, which is investigating how thousands of juvenile offenders appeared not to have been sanctioned.

But as he tries to grapple with many tentacles of reform, he has to keep the streets safe.

COALFACE

After the ceremony, Commissioners Harris tour of Dublins north inner city, which has borne the brunt of the murderous Kinahan cartel onslaught against the wider Hutch criminal group, and chats to members on the street, sent out the right signal and went down well with frontline garda associations.

His pointed reference to the importance of the connection of garda leadership and the frontline at his

inauguration would also have scored points with garda staff associations.

Last Mays Garda Cultural Audit, which conducted a survey of members, found there was a disconnect

between senior and junior ranks. That audit also found that lack of frontline supervision of rank and file gardai was a critical gap and posed a significant risk for the organisation.

It also said there was a need to fix the basics, including the garda uniform, proper vehicles, modern technology and training.

Gardai, and not just at the frontline, want the commissioner to beat the drum on resources to Government, said one experienced garda representative.

The commissioner may also have to do things that may not go down well with all members, including a proper performance management system, redeployment of gardai, effective disciplinary processes (an issue raised in the Disclosure Tribunal) and reduction of allowances.

At Garda HQ level, Commissioner Harris pointed comment that he was not bringing in his own team, as has been suggested elsewhere as a necessity to reform the organisation, would have gone down well.

Some senior officers said the commissioner will also need to have the bottle to stand up to what some of them see as excessive demands on the organisation, by the Government, the Policing Authority, the Garda Inspectorate and Oireachtas.

There needs to be a realisation at what can be done and the capacity of the organisation and he needs to be able to say that clearly, said one senior HQ source.

Commissioner Harris joins at a time of rapid recruitment, of roughly 800 per year, which, after retirements, is supposed to bring garda numbers to 15,000 by 2021, along with a targeted 4,000 civilians and 2,000 Garda Reserves.

The recruitment has yet to make a significant difference on the ground, particularly in terms of regular units and serious problems remain (though processes are underway) in relation to having sufficient numbers of

sergeants to supervise and guide both new recruits and inexperienced gardai.

Commissioner Harris repeatedly referred to communities and the most vulnerable in his two public comments (appointment and swearing in) so far.

Garda surveys still show the majority of people do not believe there are enough gardai locally and three out of 10 said community relations with the police were poor.

Various figures show a rise in most crime categories, with garda data also showing that detection rates have fallen, in some cases significantly.

He has ongoing issues regarding the quality of crime statistics to sort out too.

He will have learned of garda successes against organised crime  preventing assassinations, seizing firearms, freezing assets and convicting key players.

But, as we report today, the gardai are 31m in the red after just seven months, most of it down to overtime. That means corrective action in Garda HQ-speak under his watch. Either that or he demands  and gets  more money.

In his speech, he said he had taken the top job at a fortuitous time and that he had been very lucky in his policing career.

He may need that lucky streak to continue.It was a bit like Mass in the old days. People might talk if you werent seen there, writes Michael Clifford

They came not to praise the closures, but to bury them. Leinster House is a ghost town this time of year, but the Oireachtas communications committee was overflowing with members and other parliamentarians who wanted to get their spake in.

It was a bit like Mass in the old days. People might talk if you werent seen there.

And yesterday it was vital that these mostly rural TDs and senators were not just seen but heard loudly

decrying the closures of 160 post offices.

The attendance and the tone adopted by most parliamentarians reflected how emotive this issue is. Since the announcement, there has been much despair expressed in some of the affected areas. There has also been the usual description of the closures as an attack on rural Ireland.

A succession of TDs and senators put it to Communications Minister Denis Naughten and An Post head David McRedmond that they know not what they are doing.

Just to be on the safe side, every representative got a mention in for the closures in their own constituency.

Margaret Murphy OMahony, from Cork South West, spoke for many of her colleagues when she name-checked the impact on her constituency.

There are now four communities in West Cork that the heart is taken out of, and theres 12 in Cork in total, she said.

Naughten and McRedmond repeatedly made the point that they are propping up, rather than attacking, rural Ireland.

This is the only postal service in the world that is expanding services, said Naughten.

He pointed out that he was one of only five TDs who made a submission to the Kerr report which set out a way forward for the post office network two years ago.

McRedmond pointed out that there are more post offices in the country than Garda stations, libraries, Spars, or Centras.

For eloquence in defence of rural Ireland, the most plaintive cry came from Danny Healy-Rae: Ye are tearing the heart and the guts out of these communities. Thats what yeve done. Yere finishing these people as a community.

All of the rural representatives echoed the call. Undoubtedly their feelings on the matter are genuine, the pain they expressed as real as the first-hand accounts they have received from those most affected by the closures.

Numerous suggestions about how the closures could be avoided were put forward. But the point was repeatedly made by those under fire that the postmasters and postmistresses in the affected offices decided of their own free will to take the exit package.

Both Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail are to table motions when the Dail resumes in an attempt to have the closures reversed, but in most of those cases, its difficult to see anyone taking up the slack.

Probably the most telling comment came from city boy Eamon Ryan of the Green Party.

He told the minister that a new developmental model for rural Ireland is required.

Earlier, an alternative Ireland was set out by members of the public banking forum of Ireland. These men appealed to the parliamentarians to think outside the box.

The forum, headed up by businessman Seamus Maye, has been pushing hard for the last few years for a community style bank. Models of public bankings from Germany and New Zealand, which operate within local communities, were set out. The idea makes perfect sense, but was cut down in a Government report published after the Dail had risen for the summer break in July.

Quite obviously, many of the boys and girls on the committee yesterday hadnt done their homework because a succession of questions could be answered by perusing the admittedly thick report.

Much support for the concept was expressed. But in the great tradition of the Oireachtas, great ideas take flight on a gust of wind over the short journey from committee rooms to Government Buildings.

Taking a leap with a public banking system for rural Ireland would appear to be beyond the imagination of the Cabinet.

Maybe things have to get a little worse in rural Ireland before somebody decides that some fresh thinking is required.European security currently rests essentially on the Nato alliance and the principle of mutual defence, and on cooperation between national intelligence services working to prevent violence against people and national assets.

But in an era when threats come from domestic extremists as well as hostile state and non-state actors seeking to undermine democratic institutions, this is not enough.

In recent years, intelligence sharing has stymied countless terrorist plots by Islamist extremists and far-right groups. But failures to share intelligence across borders have also resulted in horrendous attacks in Brussels, Manchester, and other cities.

Belatedly, European security services have also begun to focus on the threat that Russia poses to liberal democracy.

Over the course of recent election cycles, the Kremlin has proved successful at compromising democratic processes and polluting public discourse.

Making matters worse, the rise of far-right populists in key countries is undermining the security apparatus needed to counter Russian aggression. Intelligence sharing requires mutual trust, but the alliances that once provided the basis for trust are under increasing strain.

This is evident across Europe.

In Germany, the former head of intelligence recently suggested to Bild that Austrias intelligence services cannot be trusted so long as the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) is a governing coalition partner.

After all, in February, the FPO interior minister made the extraordinary decision to order a police raid on

Austrias main domestic intelligence agency, removing files and sensitive information.

The FPO has had a cooperation pact with Russian President Vladimir Putins United Russia party since 2016. Most worryingly, the agreement provides for information sharing on issues relevant to bilateral and international relations.

If there is reason to believe that information is being transferred from Vienna to Moscow, then Austria could be cut off from a large amount of data essential for tackling extremism and terrorism. And yet that would undermine the security of all Europeans.

In Italy, the far-right League party, which governs in a coalition with the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), has also entered into a cooperation agreement with United Russia. And the Leagues leader, interior minister and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, opposes EU sanctions against Russia, has been photographed wearing Putin T-shirts, and is a regular visitor to Moscow.

In Hungary, where both Salvini and the American alt-right proselytiser Stephen Bannon have been welcomed with open arms by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Russian intelligence services have reportedly maintained close ties with far-right groups for years.

Moreover, Orban and his Fidesz party control most of the media, which uncritically disseminates Russian state propaganda.

Finally, in Poland, Antoni Macierewicz, who was ousted as defence minister in January, has been accused of maintaining ties with pro-Kremlin far-right groups and the Russian gangster Semion Mogilevich.

While in office, Macierewiczs attempts to reorganise the army and Ministry of Defence led Polands Nato allies to question whether the country could be relied on to counter Russia.

In all of these examples, far-right populists are not just causing friction between national intelligence services; they are successfully politicising the very institutions and legal instruments upon which European security depends.

For example, just as the Kremlin politicises Interpol to harass its political opponents abroad, Polands ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has used its veto power as an EU state to ban one of its critics, the Ukrainian human-rights activist Lyudmyla Kozlovska, from entering the EUs Schengen area.

It is absurd to think that a human-rights activist could be barred from the EU for criticising one government while far-right white nationalists like Bannon can freely traipse around the continent fomenting extremism and

Islamophobia.

EU authorities must investigate the Polish governments motives to ensure that the EUs security architecture is not being exploited for political purposes.

Since invading eastern Ukraine and annexing Crimea in March 2014, Putin has waged a complex hybrid war against the West, combining information and cyber warfare with active special operations to disrupt European institutions.

To that end, the Kremlin is actively supporting European populist movements and political parties and their

efforts to exploit historical tensions and create divisions within the EU.

Such divisions play directly into Putins hands. A divided West with less intelligence cooperation is at greater risk of attack and more vulnerable to domestic extremism and distrust in democratic institutions. Putin would like nothing more than to turn the EU into a living hell.

How should concerned politicians and citizens respond?

For starters, it is clear that the EU needs its own comprehensive inquiry into Russian interference in European affairs, along the lines of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation in the United States.

Russian financing of European populist groups must be tracked and exposed, and its hybrid-war operations within the EU must be shut down.

Moreover, Europol should be given the power it needs to pursue those who are subverting European interests.

Europe needs its own FBI  a law- enforcement and counter-intelligence agency that can work across borders and alongside national-level authorities.

Nothing, however, can replace a well-informed citizenry.

In these dark days for democracy, we must all demand accountability from our governments, and insist that the rule of law and our cherished institutions be maintained.

Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, is president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE) in the European Parliament.Go away and cop yourself on.

That is the non-diplomatic version of what Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, writes Political Editor, Daniel McConnell

The party leaders met in July to discuss the progress of the confidence and supply agreement, amid annoyance from Fianna Fail members.

Their gripe was with attempts by Mr Varadkar and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to force Mr Martin into a new deal over the airwaves.

Mr Martin made it clear he would only consider talks on a new deal once Budget 2019 was concluded. Officials such as his deputy leader, Dara Calleary, hinted there was some willingness to consider extending the deal.

For whatever reason, Mr Varadkar and Fine Gael werent listening to Mr Martin  the Taoiseach wrote to him on August 31 seeking talks ahead of the budget.

In his letter, Mr Varadkar said the budget was less than six weeks away and that the Government cannot work in the interests of the people if it is living on borrowed time.

A government can not function if it does not know if it will last from week-to-week or month-to-month, he wrote. Such uncertainty weakens our hand in Brexit talks, domestic negotiations, and of course those opposed to reform are simply more likely to wait us out. Such a scenario would not be in the interests of citizens, taxpayers, or users of our public services.

Mr Martin, a stickler for process, insisted the deal was for three budgets and he will stick to this, despite taking flack from his own party.

He said you cant agree a new deal when one third of the deal is yet to be agreed.

Mr Martin said he does not see a reasonable basis for the statement in your letter that government cannot function if it does not know if it will last from week-to-week or month-to-month.

This has no grounding in our constitutional system and was not raised as an issue when the arrangement was negotiated. Indeed, it would be extraordinary if we were to agree that Ministers could not be expected to do their jobs without advance assurance of a compliant Dail, wrote Martin.

His justice spokesman, Jim OCallaghan, went further, accusing the Taoiseach of seeking to cause instability to force an general election before Christmas.

Such hi-jinks drew short shrift from backbenchers in both parties. Fine Gael TD John Deasy told the Irish Examiner: Everyone is talking about the same thing. It is time to cut a deal and move on.

A day of high drama and we are still two weeks from the start of the Dail term.Whatever happened to the Action Plan for Rural Development; namely, Realising our Potential which was launched by the Government in January 2017?

And where is Pat Spillane, who is supposed to be overseeing this National Plan?Three people are believed to have been injured in a "noxious substance" attack in west London, Scotland Yard has said.

A spokesman said: "Police were called at approximately 2.09pm to reports of a noxious substance attack on Westbourne Grove.The Pest from the West is coming. Evelyn Cusack, Joanna Donnelly, we need you back at your posts.

You got us through the last big crisis, and youve had a quiet summer, with just a bit of drought to worry about. But theres a big storm rising, and its time for our saviours to be back in front of the microphone.

We all remember the Beast from the East, dont we? I know it seems like ages ago, because of the unbelievable summer we had, but the Beast from the East hit us as February turned into March.

Never in the history of Ireland did so many of us have to take evasive action for days on end, and there was a national shortage of white sliced pans that drove us all into a frenzy.

Well, the Pest from the West is on its way later this year, and its time, I reckon, to stock up on the sliced pans again.

I can only imagine Taoiseach Leo Varadkars face, when his officials told him the other day that US president Donald Trump had decided to visit Ireland in November. The acronym FFS cant have been far from his lips.

Having just come through a papal visit that had potential political disaster written all over it, and having handled it brilliantly, Varadkar surely must have thought this was the last thing he needed.

Its not as if we sent for Trump. I know theres a sort of standing invitation, originally issued by former taoiseach Enda Kenny, and repeated by Varadkar  any president of America is a friend of ours, kind of thing  but there are times when we all say be sure to drop in for a cup of tea, when were secretly hoping there wont be a knock at the door. Now Trumps decided to drop in.

And hes not even telling us exactly when hes coming. Hes going to France on November 11 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War. Hes either going to drop in on us a day or so before that visit, or a day or so after.

To make matters even more bizarre, President, Michael D Higginss term expires on November 10, and the next president is due to be inaugurated on November 11.

If the Pest from the West arrives before the 11th, receiving him in the Aras could well be the last thing Michael D does. It could, on the other hand, become almost the first duty of the new president to deal with this visitor.

You can now expect every candidate for the Irish presidency (there seem to be about 40 of them so far) to be asked how theyre going to deal with Donald Trump on their first day in office.

So, the comb-over president is going to have an influence on our presidential election even before he lands on our shores.

The likelihood is that the Government will seek to ensure the Pest from the West doesnt arrive until at least the inauguration is over, so that theres no possibility he will invite himself to Dublin Castle on the big day.

But that does mean that, in the highly unlikely event that one of the others gets elected, the Donald is going to be meeting someone with as little expertise in international diplomacy as he has.

What about the rest of us? How should we react? Already, theres talk of massive protest. The activists who flew a giant balloon of Trump over London have taken up an invitation to reinflate in Dublin.

Government ministers are talking about boycotting him and joining any protest on the street.

Well, heres my suggestion. Theres only one way to get under the skin of this guy, to really annoy him, and thats to ignore him. Completely, and totally.

You only have to look at his behaviour over the past weekend to see what a petty, small-minded man this Pest from the West is.

He wasnt invited to be the centre of attention at John McCains funeral, after years of mocking him.

In McCains dying days, the president of America could have put aside his political differences and tried, at least, to make his peace.

Its what most people do when they hear someone is dying a painful death. But not Trump.

The flag flew at half-mast over most American public buildings, in honour of one of the countrys most distinguished citizens, for a week.

The American flag files at half-mast at the White House (AP)

Trump had the flag on the White House raised to its full height again after half a day, and only agreed to lower it again under pressure. As McCain lay in state, Trump went to play golf. And tweeted.

Over the weekend, it seemed as if he was tweeting every couple of minutes. All of his tweets were about himself.

Himself and black people who liked him. Himself and opinion polls that looked better than other opinion polls. Himself and fake news.

He was like a child in the corner  while the grown-ups were talking about serious stuff  and he was screaming: Look at me. Im over here and if you dont pay attention to me, Im going to scream and scream until youre all really sorry.

Much has been written about the narcissism at the heart of Donald Trumps personality, that overwhelming need to be at the centre of attention.

If youve ever known a true narcissist, youll know only too well that they will do anything  no matter how cruel or heartless  to command attention. Trump shows all the signs of that.

Hell enjoy all the extra attention if theres a protest on the street. It wont bother him if a few ministers refuse to pay respect.

Hell dismiss any opposition as petty spite, and tell the world that the true Irish loved him.

The only thing hell hate is silence. So, thats what we should give him.

If theres a motorcade, it should speed through empty streets. If theres a State reception, it should take place in an empty ballroom.

Protests against Trump at Davos earlier this year

We shouldnt boycott this visit. We should ignore it. We should stock up with sliced pans  and OK, a few cans, if you have to  and bunker down at home.

Youll probably find that the US Secret Service will insist on most of the places hes likely to go being cordoned off anyway, so your employer might be persuaded to treat the event as they all treated the Beast from the East.

Be safe, they told us then. Stay at home. Mind your loved ones, and well all get back to normal when it has passed.

The Pest from the West will be the same. Its going to be an ugly couple of days.

But our political masters will do whatever business they have to do to maintain an important relationship between our two countries.

As for the rest of us, we should just batten down the hatches. Stay warm, stay dry, stay indoors.

And, with any luck, the Pest from the West will blow away in a day or two.The order comes after the Bombay High Court asked the ministry to consider issuing a direction to media to stop using the word dalit.

Sources stated that the I&B ministry is unlikely to issue any advisory on its part and is expected ask the PCI to take a call on the issue. (Representational image)

New Delhi: In an advisory to the media, the Union information and broadcasting ministry has asked them to refrain from using the word dalit and instead use Scheduled Caste to refer to the community. The order comes after the Bombay high court asked the ministry to consider issuing a direction to media to stop using the word dalit.

Media should refrain from using the word dalit while referring to the members belongining to the Schedule Caste community in compliace with the directions of the Bombay High Court and the constitutional term Schedule Caste in english and its appropriate translation in other regional languages should alone be used for all official transaction, matters dealing, certificates etc., for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes notified in the Presidential orders issued under Article 341 of the Constit-ution of India, the I&B ministry advisory to the electronic media said.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court had recently asked the ministry and the Press Council of India to issue directives to the media to abstain from using the word dalit in reports. Sources stated that the I&B ministry is unlikely to issue any advisory on its part and is expected ask the PCI to take a call on the issue. It is understood that the PCI advisory on the issue is expected within a month.

The Modi government had also recently issued an advisory in which the use of dalit was barred in official communication. In the March circular, the BJP government had asked all state and Central government departments to avoid the nomenclature dalit for citizens belonging to SC/ST.

The Central government/state governments and its functionaries would refrain from using the nomenclature dalit for the members belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as the same does not find mention in the Constitution of India or any statute, the directive stated.Asia Myanmar Army Apologizes for Mistaken Photos in Book on Rohingya Crisis

Rohingya refugee women hold placards as they take part in a protest at the Kutupalong refugee camp to mark the one-year anniversary of their exodus in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, August 25, 2018. / Reuters

YANGON  The Myanmar military issued a rare apology on Monday, acknowledging that two photographs it published in a book on the crisis over the Rohingya Muslim minority were published incorrectly.

Reuters published an exclusive report on Friday revealing that two of the pictures in the book that aimed at illustrating the armys account of last years events in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine, were in fact archive pictures of different conflicts, and one was posted with an incorrect caption.

The erroneous publication of the photographs comes amid a series of government steps against what it has seen as media abuses, including a report on army activity in an ethnic minority guerrilla zone and the flying of a drone in the capital, Naypyitaw.

On Monday, a court jailed for seven years two reporters from Reuters on a charge of violating a secrets law.

Reuters found that two of the photographs in the military book on the Rohingya crisis were actually taken in Bangladesh and Tanzania and a third was falsely labeled as showing Rohingya entering Myanmar from Bangladesh, when in reality the picture was of refugees leaving Myanmar.

The militarys official newspaper, the Myawady Daily, issued a statement on Monday from its publishing arm, which produced the book Myanmar Politics and Tatmadaw: Part I, apologizing for two of the photographs.

It was found that two photos were incorrectly published, the publishing arm said in a statement carried by the newspaper, referring to the photograph from Tanzania and another showing victims of Bangladeshs 1971 war of independence.

We sincerely apologize to the readers and the owners of the photographs for the mistake, it said.

It did not mention the photograph incorrectly captioned as showing Rohingya entering Myanmar when the picture was of them leaving.

Myanmar government spokesman U Zaw Htay and military spokesman Maj-Gen Tun Tun Nyi could not be reached for comment.

The armys department of public relations and psychological warfare published the book in English and Burmese in July.

Heinous

Of the 80 images in the book, most were recent pictures of army chief Min Aung Hlaing meeting foreign dignitaries or other officials visiting Rakhine.

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 color image taken in 1996 of refugees who had fled the genocide in Rwanda.

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 Myanmars own Ministry of Information.

The Myawadys publishing arm, in its statement, made no mention of any alterations of images.

The prime minister of neighboring Bangladesh, where about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from a Myanmar military crackdown launched after Rohingya insurgent attacks in August last year, denounced the use of the photographs when she was asked in a news conference about them.

What Myanmar has done is simply heinous. They have lowered their reputation, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a news conference in Dhaka on Sunday.

They are diminishing their position in the international arena.

The 117-page book gives the armys account of the crackdown last year which led to reports of mass killings, rape, and arson.

Much of the content is sourced to the militarys True News information unit, which since the start of the crisis has distributed news giving the armys position, mostly via Facebook.

The book is on sale at bookstores across the commercial capital of Yangon.Burma China Complicit in Blocking Aid to Kachin Refugees: Report

Nearly 2,000 IDPs arrived at Shait Yang Village in Laiza District, an area controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in January 2017. These IDPs moved from the Zai Awng and Hkau Shau camps in Waingmaw Township. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  A rights groups report has claimed Chinese involvement in the Myanmar governments blocking of humanitarian assistance to war refugees on the Myanmar-China border where government troops and Kachin armed groups have been fighting.

China made their position particularly explicit that humanitarian aid organizations should not be provided access to displaced populations on the Myanmar-China border, equating these organizations with western powersnamely the United States government, a recent Fortify Rights report said.

The report said that since the previous government organized peace-talks between Myanmars military and ethnic armed groups, Chinese representatives in the meetings reportedly insisted that aid organizations not operate on the border areas in Kachin State.

A new report They Block Everything based on 195 interviews in Kachin state over the last five years [2013-2018], revealed how Myanmar authoritiesparticularly the militaryhave weaponized the denial of humanitarian aid in Kachin State for years. It claims China plays a role in helping Myanmar authorities to put aid restrictions on Kachin refugees.

Since 2011, when armed conflict between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) resumed, the Myanmar government and military restricted access for humanitarian organizations to refugees in Kachin State especially access to internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in KIA-controlled areas. An estimated 120,000 people have been displaced from their homes since 2011 due to the armed conflict in Kachin State.

There are 140 IDP camps in Kachin State and 40 percent of displaced people are living in areas controlled by the KIA and related groups.

According to the report, from June 2017 to June 2018, the government of Myanmar approved approximately five percent of 562 applications for travel authorization to government-controlled areas by international humanitarian organizations.

Since 2015, some aid workers have reported government-imposed restrictions on particular types of aid, including medical supplies. As a result of the restrictions, local humanitarian aid workers rely on suppliers in China to obtain aid for the estimated 40,000 IDPs residing on the Myanmar-China border, the report said.

The report also says all activities in China relating to the IDPs are unofficial, while transporting aid over the China border presents a high risk of being arrested by the Chinese authorities. Mostly, aid workers have to avoid checkpoints, as China has increased patrols and checks for transporting humanitarian aid to the Kachin refugees. Chinese suppliers also face risk, particularly when authorities perform surprise checks of their offices.

Mary Tawn, a director of local relief agency Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN) based at the China-Myanmar border told Irrawaddy, China has seriously cautioned Kachin refugees against crossing their border. They put more restrictions on us; now we cant even legally carry soap to the IDP camps.

As patrols increase near the border, we have to make meeting points where we can receive IDP supplies. We cant carry any aid supplies legally. They dont understand that we are aid workers for refugees, she said.

We try not to take risks in some conditions. Sometimes we have to negotiate with Chinese suppliers to send supplies [like medical aid and hygiene supplies] on their own to us, she added.

According to the report, Chinese soldiers have also forcibly returned Kachin refugees back to Myanmar since the war in Kachin State resumed in June 2011. In 2013 Chinese soldiers burned down a Kachin refugee camp called Layin in Yunnan Province.

The report said China has failed to provide protection to Kachin refugees who seek protection, food, medicine and healthcare in Yunnan Province, and Chinese border guards have committed human rights violations against Kachin refugees by forcing them back into conflict zones in Kachin State.

In 2012, China only gave three days for some 30,000 Kachin refugees to move back across the border into Kachin and Shan states, Mary Tawn said.

In December 2017, China blocked Kachin refugees who suddenly fled from intense fighting near their IDP camps from crossing the border, she said.

Stray ammunition frequently dropped in the camps. It was an urgent need to move all the people during the fighting. After the fighting ended, they intended definitely to go back to the camps. But China didnt allow the IDPs to stay on their side even for a short time. IDPs did not dare to go back to the camps and so old people, women and children had to sit near the river [at the border] that night, she added.

The relief agency said, according to the Chinese governments policy, they are not allowed to accept Kachin refugees who flee from random fighting.

They said when fighting happens in the [border] cities, and all the people no longer can stay they will accept us all together, Mary Tawn said.

U Hka Li, a spokesperson for Kachin Baptist Convention, one of the largest humanitarian aid providers in Kachin State, also confirmed to The Irrawaddy that IDPs in KIA-controlled locations suffer food shortages frequently as aid supplies are not allowed to pass through China territory.

U Hka Li said, We have to find some other ways to buy rice for the IDPs since we cant transport it legally through China.

Kachin refugees in China face exploitative treatment by employers, difficult working conditions and also forced labor by Chinese soldiers while fleeing from armed conflicts, the report said.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in February, Myanmar authorities restricted humanitarian access to Tanai Township where an estimated 900 people were living in four churches. The authorities also restricted humanitarian access to the Ndup Yang IDP camp in Sumprabum Township in Kachin State.

U Hka Li said that Sumprabum and Tanai camps are under restricted access since two months ago. Aid workers are still not allowed to transport supplies there, especially food.

In April and May 2018, a consortium of 19 humanitarian aid organizations called on the Myanmar authorities and military to guarantee civilians safe passage out of conflict areas, and lift restrictions on humanitarian assistance in Kachin state.

The Irrawaddy requested an interview and sent questions to the Chinese embassy in Myanmar for a response regarding Chinas involvement in blocking humanitarian assistance for Kachin refugees but the communication officer did not respond.Burma Lawmaker Demands Accounting of Dam Maintenance Funds after Bago Flood

The Swar Creek Dam on Aug. 31, after its spillway burst. / Mar Naw / MPA

NAYPYITAWLawmaker U Tin Tun Naing grilled the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation about last weeks fatal dam burst in Bago Region, during Mondays session of the Union Parliament.

The lawmaker expressed doubts that the ministry had conducted the proper annual maintenance work on the dam.

At least seven people were killed after the dam on Swar Creek in Bagos Taungoo District was breached on Aug. 29.

This shows that annual maintenance work was not carried out, U Tin Tun Naing told reporters on Monday during a break in the parliamentary session. Parliament was meeting to discuss the national planning bill for fiscal 2018-19.

The lawmaker claimed that an average of around 70 billion kyats was allotted annually from the government budget to maintain dams and reservoirs across the country.

For fiscal 2018-19, 69 billion kyats had been allocated for the purpose, he said.

So after the Swar Dam incident, there is a question. Is that money being used properly  is it really being used for maintenance work? he asked.

When asked to comment on the issue by The Irrawaddy, Agriculture Ministry deputy permanent secretary U Myo Tint Tun said the ministry conducts regular maintenance on the dam, but the spillway had been unable to withstand unusual rainfall.

Unlike previous years, it was submerged under nearly 2 feet of water this year. The spillway could not bear the weight and burst, he said.

According to statistics issued by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement on Aug. 31, seven people were killed, three are still missing and more than 5,000 residents of Yedashe, Taunggu, Oktwin and Kyauk Gyi townships in Taungoo District were affected by flooding of the Sittaung River after the bursting of the dam.

Yedashe Township was hardest hit, with 185 houses completely destroyed. More than 300 houses and 10 monasteries were damaged.

The flooding also damaged parts of the Swar Creek Bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, as well as the old Yangon-Mandalay road and the railroad between the cities.

Lawmaker U Tin Tun Naing asked the ministry to disclose its maintenance expenses for the Swar Creek Dam over the past five fiscal years.

Concerned ministers will be required to answer lawmakers questions after they finish discussing the national planning bill for fiscal 2018-19.Burma Local Condemnation for Reuters Journalists Verdict

Journalists in Mandalay show their solidarity with, and call for the release of Reuters journalists Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, who were convicted to seven years imprisonment on Monday. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

MANDALAY  Nine Myanmar journalist networks issued a joint statement on Tuesday condemning the verdict of the two Reuters reporters and urging the government to do everything possible to achieve justice.

The statement said that since the reporters were framed and unjustly sentenced to seven years in prison, the government must act in accordance with the law and serve justice, as the verdict is a threat to press freedom.

The government must do everything they can according to the law for the justice of the jailed Reuters reporters and promote freedom of press which is dramatically declining, said the statement.

The statement also said that press freedom is declining under the governance of the ruling party, the National League for Democracy, as since they took up office in April 2016, there have been a series of lawsuits against news agencies and journalists causing fear in journalists who are doing their job.

In the face of the international community, Myanmar has become a country where the standard of press freedom is declining and the government should see this as a threat which affects the countrys transition towards democracy, said the statement, highlighting the verdict of the two Reuters reporters under the Official Secrets Act on Monday.

The statement was signed by the Myanmar Journalist Network, Myae Latt Journalist Network, Magway Journalist Network, Taunggyi Journalist Association, Chin Media Network, Southern Myanmar Journalist Network, MJN (Ayeyarwaddy), Myanmar Women Journalists Society and Monywa Journalist Network.

The Myanmar Press Council (MPC) also issued a statement on Tuesday, saying the sentencing of the two journalists neglects the Constitution and existing media laws.

Sentencing the Reuters reporters with a 1923 colonial-era law, which cruelly oppresses journalists, is neglecting the Constitution and the existing media laws, said the statement from MPC.

This incident not only affects the right to information but also the flow of information to the people, which could seriously affect the image of the country, the statement added.

News of the verdict has become headline news for many local media outlets and sparked disappointment and sadness among journalists across the country.

On Tuesday, nearly every privately-run newspaper in Myanmar made the Reuters case front page news. The 7Day Daily newspaper also showed its solidarity with the jailed reporters by putting a black column at the center of the front page of the Tuesday issue.

However, this was not the case for state-owned papers: the story was tucked inside the three newspapers published by the Ministry of Information.

Many local journalists showed their solidarity and disappointment by changing their Facebook cover photos and profile pictures to those of the two reporters, Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, featuring the text Journalism is not a Crime or Free Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

Journalists in Mandalay and Pyay took to the streets to show their solidarity with the reporters.

In Mandalay, about 30 local journalists wearing black got together and went to Maha Muni Pagoda to pray for the release of the jailed reporters on Monday.

In Pyay, on Tuesday, demonstrators held a campaign expressing their condemnation of the sentencing of the two journalists and urging the government to free them immediately. It was led by local journalists with the participation of political activists and university students.

Meanwhile, journalists across the country are collecting signatures for a petition that will be sent to President U Win Myint calling for the immediate release of the reporters. They expect to gather 20,000 signatures from across the country from journalists, political activists and other people who want justice and freedom of the press.Burma TNLA Puts Abducted Shan Woman on Trial

Nang Mo Hom is taken away from her home in Namhkam Township, northern Shan State by TNLA members on Aug. 17, 2018. / Facebook

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  The Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) said on Monday it had put on trial a Shan woman whom it took from her home at gunpoint last month in Namhkam Township, northern Shan State.

Nang Mo Hom is being tried in the TNLAs central court for allegedly obstructing its troops as they performed their duties, the group said.

Five TNLA troops arrested Nang Mo Hom at gunpoint on Aug. 17. Since then she has not been able to meet her family, despite demands for her release by local civil society groups. A Shan political party, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), on Aug. 27 sent a letter to State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi requesting that she intervene, in her capacity as the head of the National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC), to assist Nang Mo Hom.

The TNLA said in a Sept. 3 statement that Nang Mo Hom had been charged under its own authority with obstructing its troops as they attempted to collect customs duties, and that her actions had resulted in the death of one of the officers.

TNLA spokesman Mai Aik Kyaw told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF)/TNLA court would hear the case against the woman, who was charged by the group under Article 333 of Myanmars Criminal Code. When it came time to hand down a verdict, the spokesman said, the TNLA court would try to make it a public hearing held before members of the public, including the family of the woman. He did not say when the verdict was expected.

Mai Aik Kyaw said Nang Mo Hom had committed a crime under the law as enforced by the TNLA. He was referring to an incident in July 2017 when two TNLA soldiers were attacked by the Myanmar Army for allegedly extorting money from local businesses in Namhkam Township.

Relatives of Nang Mo Hom said the TNLA had been extorting money from them for two years until July 2017, when one TNLA soldier was shot dead and another arrested and imprisoned in Lashio Prison after demanding 1 million kyats from the family.

The TNLAs announcement on Monday raised eyebrows, with observers asking how an organization that itself operates outside the countrys laws could justify putting a woman on trial for breaking its laws.

Addressing this point, Mai Aik Kyaw said, As we are an armed group and not a ceasefire group, we cannot seek justice at the official township court. Therefore, they arranged their own justice, he said.

The hearing is ongoing. On the day of the verdict we will invite her [Nang Mo Homs] family and relatives to attend, he told The Irrawaddy.

SNLD spokesman Sai Leik raised doubts about the legitimacy of the move. The question is whether they have the legal and judicial authority, Sai Leik said, adding that, as the TNLAs administration lacks legitimacy, how can we acknowledge their judgment?

We do not recognize their judiciary, which is illegal and run by an illegal organization, Sai Leik said, adding that the SNLD, as a registered political party, cannot directly communicate with TNLA and had therefore sought the NRPCs intervention.

However, the NRPC is unlikely to be able to intervene in the case. As with most affairs in conflict-torn Shan State, such issues usually require the involvement of the armed forces, on both the government and the ethnic groups sides.

Sai Leik told The Irrawaddy the NRPC had not responded to their request yet, though it was submitted over a week ago.

The Irrawaddy was unable to contact NRPC vice chairman Dr. Tin Myo Win, who is also chairman of the Peace Commission and the governments chief negotiator with the ethnic armed organizations. Other members of the commission contacted by The Irrawaddy declined to comment.

Sai Leik called for an end to the fighting in Shan State, especially in the north, saying the TNLA and its allies had deliberately turned the area into a war zone in order to protect their interests.

If things are allowed to develop in that direction, the chances of peace will get more remote, and this only harms the public, and social tensions between the ethnic groups will only escalate, the SNLD spokesman said.

Since the TNLAs abduction of the Shan woman, a war of words has erupted among Facebook users supporting either the Shan or Taang, who accuse each others armed forces of human rights violations. It is hard to verify whether individual social media users are actually Taang or Shan, however.

Taang National Liberation Army, Shan State, abductions, extortion, communal conflictBurma Yangon Animal Shelters Required to Apply for Licenses

Stray dogs at an animal shelter in Yangon. / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Animal shelters including those that shelter stray dogs are required by the new Yangon municipal law to apply for a license, according to the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC).

According to the municipal law enacted in 2018, shelters have to apply for licenses to operate, Dr. Hla May Oo, assistant section head of the veterinary and abattoir section of the YCDC, told The Irrawaddy.

Operating an animal shelter without permission is punishable by a fine of 100,000 to 500,000 kyats under the new municipal law. A second-time violation carries a prison sentence of up to six months.

The city municipality did not issue licenses for animal shelters before the enactment of the new municipal law, so all existing shelters and pounds will have to apply for licenses, said Dr. Hla May Oo.

Daw Shu, the founder of a pound that currently is taking care of some 400 stray dogs in Yangons Shwe Paukkan, said she is ready to apply for a license for her shelter.

I will pay the tax if Im asked to do so. I dont have the heart to leave behind all these dogs, said Daw Shu, who established the pound in 2013.

Ma Zin Mar, a dog lover who makes regular donations to animal shelters, suggested that authorities make regular inspection of animal shelters to ensure they comply with rules and regulations.

They are closely connected with the health of humans. Humans can contract diseases from them. So, [authorities] must make sure rules and regulations are obeyed at animal shelters, she said.

There have been reports on social media that some people run sham pounds and cheat money from donors.

Though it is charity work, we must make sure the way they operate meets charity procedures, said Mingalar Taungnyunt Township lawmaker U Hla Htay of the Yangon regional Parliament, who also took part in drafting and reviewing the new municipal law.

Concerned rules and regulations are in the process of being drafted, he added.

There is only one pound for stray dogs managed by the YCDC in Yangon, which is located in Hlaingtharyar Township.

Yangon has a stray dog population of more than 120,000, said YCDC, which either sterilizes or immunizes them against rabies in four downtown townshipsLanmadaw, Pabedan, Kyauktada and Latha.

The new municipal law signed by the Yangon Region chief minister on June 28 will take effect as of October 1. Meanwhile, the YCDC is educating the public.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.Travel Hidden History: Century-Old Monasteries in Mandalay

The 123-year-old Shwe In Pin Monastery (officially Second Shwe In Pin) standing impressively with its unique ancient design and engraved tiers. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Mandalay is one of Myanmars most culturally rich cities and home to a number of listed historic monasteries, some of which are over 100 years old and remain in good condition as an example of ancient architecture.

There are some well-known monasteries that are already popular with tourists in Mandalay and can become quite busy. To avoid the well-visited monasteries and take in the designs in peace and quiet, you can visit these monasteries which are less well-known but still beautiful.

Second Shwe In Pin Monastery

There are a total of three monasteries in the Shwe In Pin collection in Mandalay and this one is technically called Second Shwe In Pin Monastery but people know it as simply Shwe In Pin. It is located on 89th Street between 37th and 38th streets in Maha Aung Myay Township.

The monastery is 123 years old and it was built by two wealthy Chinese merchants. While the compound of the monastery is really big, the entrance is a bit small so look carefully as it is easy to miss.

Once you enter the monastery compound, you have to take off your shoes. Even in the morning, the compound is peaceful and quiet. After walking a few steps, youll see the big, beautiful Shwe In Pin Monastery standing impressively before you.

The whole monastery is made entirely of teak wood. The roof of the monastery was built in tiers and the entrances of the building, walls, windows, doors are decorated with engravings. These engravings feature beautiful figures of people, dragons, birds, nats (spirits), flying horses and some flying humans too. All of the lines were created with a lot of detail giving it a unique elegance. It is really impressive ancient architecture.

The monastery was made using a total of 156 marble columns and the structure was originally four large separate rooms connected by a walkway.

It has a total of eight gates (the entrances are designed like gates) but some of them are really worn and not open. Visitors can go into the main monastery hall through a number of open gates. Be careful with your step because the teak floors are really old and might be weak.

In the hall, there is a big Buddha statue and some monks still worship here. The whole building is beginning to deteriorate and needs restoration works as soon as possible.

As a whole, the details of the design were just mind-blowing and I couldnt say anything except Its so beautiful. I recommended you see it with your own eyes while you are in Mandalay.

Mahar Min Htin Monastery

Mahar Min Htin Monastery was donated by Mahar Minla Minkyaw U Min Htin in 1852. It is 165 years old and located near the famous Maha Muni Pagoda in Maha Aung Myay Township.

This monastery was originally built at Ava (now called Inwa) in 1852 and was moved to Mandalay in 1876. In the beginning, the monastery was built with a total of 426 teak columns but only 143 of them are left since its relocation. This means the original structure in Ava was probably three times bigger than what we see today. New wood columns have replaced the empty spots.

The monastery is famous for its huge size, ancient architectural design and a few engravings. It is uniquely set surrounded by three small moats.

It has two main entrances but can only be entered through one as the other is badly damaged. Many parts of this monastery are damaged and have to be restored as soon as possible by architects specializing in historic design.

Kyay Myin Monastery

Kyay Myin Monastery is another wooden one and has been standing for 140 years. It is located on 62nd Street and the entrance is at the end of a narrow lane off the street.

The original owner was the Yanarpo Ywar Sar but it was restored by King Mindons queen named Queen Kyay Myin so people have been calling it Kyay Myin Monastery.

The monasterys roof is three-tiered and the kinnara and kinnari (mystical half-human half-bird couple), belu (ogre) engraving works on the entrance stairs are really impressive and surely the highlight of the monastery.

It is still in use and monks are living in the building. Visitors can go inside and see some old furniture styles of the previous century as well as some sculptures. This one is also a worthy place to visit when in town.

Kin Wun Min Gyi Monastery

This large wooden monastery was built in 1879 by Kin Wun Min Gyi U Kaung. It is located in East Daywun Quarter in Maha Aung Myay Township.

U Kaung was a chief minister during the reigns of King Mindon and Thibaw. During King Mindons reign, he visited Europe and went to cities across England, France and Italy as an ambassador. This European trip inspired the design he used for Kin Wun Min Gyi Monastery and has made the building famous to the present day. It is one of the only monasteries in a Western style of the 18th and 19th centuries and doesnt have the usual tiered roof.

The building is now closed and no longer in usable condition but you can ask for the key from the monks who stay in the building compound and observe the interior structure and artwork.

The interesting parts of this building are its huge dimensions and the use of tall wooden pillars. Some parts of the building have been damaged over time but some ancient engraving work still remains. The inside of the monastery is really dusty but the spiral stairs and big doors are beautiful.

Pyi Min Thar Monastery

Pyi Min Thar Monastery is similar to the monastery mentioned above, with a few ancient engravings at the stair entrance. It still used by the monks.

The special things about this monastery are the many ancient Buddha statues and historical artifacts kept here. There are ornamental thrones and their backdrops, book cabinets, lacquer boxes, teak boxes with Jataka inscriptions, packs of palm-leaf inscriptions, gilded glass mosaics, ancient brass bells and traditional art depicting lotus buds.

Mostly, the door is kept closed by the monks but you can ask them to study the things inside. This is a great place to observe some of Myanmars historic Buddha statues and other ancient artifacts.

It was built in 1839 by the Prince Pyi, and the 179-year-old monastery can be found near 78th Street.Twenty persons have been injured in the accident.

Kolkata: Two years after the under-construction Vivekananda Flyovers collapse in north Kolkata claiming more than two dozen lives, another disaster struck the city on Tuesday afternoon when a portion of Majherhat Bridge at Taratola collapsed reviving the horror and exposing the lack of maintenance once again. While unconfirmed sources put the death toll at five, chief minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed the death of one person only. The toll, however, is feared to rise. Twenty persons have been injured in the accident.

Four teams of the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed in the search and rescue operation following a plea by the Mamata Banerjee government. Three columns of the Indian Army soldiers have also been put on stand-by mode, according to sources in the Eastern Command headquarters at the Fort William.

Expressing his grief over the accident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest.

The ill-fated bridge passes over the circular railway network and a canal. A heavy downpour lashed the city barely an hour before the disaster, which took place at around 4.40 pm.

A minibus, five cars, including the one of a judge at a city court, and three two-wheelers were passing over the bridge. All the vehicles fell down as a large portion of the bridge got dislodged. With a deafening sound the collapsed part fell diagonally into the canal and on some huts where a group of construction workers were putting up for the nearby Joka-BBD Bag Metro railway project. Several people fell trapped.

A signal post on the railway track was also damaged. Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar and other officers rushed to the spot with large contingent of police personnel. Kolkata Mayor and fire and emergency services Sovan Chatterjee also visited the spot. The fire brigade, disaster management group and civil defence personnel jumped to the search and rescue operations.

According to the Kolkata Police, 21 injured persons were rescued. Among them 11 were admitted to SSKM Hospital while 10 others at CMRI. Later one of the injured, Soumen Bag of Sealpara in Behala, died at SSKM Hospital. But the rescue personnel suspect of more people still lying trapped under the collapsed portion. A survivor, Sisir Chakraborty, recalled, I was reading a magazine while travelling in my car.

He said, Suddenly I felt a massive jerk before finding a long queue of cars ahead of mine. People were running away in panic. Some of them said the bridge has collapsed. What I realised was that a block of the bridge which is above a slum caved in. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee who was in Darjeeling on an official visit ordered a probe into the accident. She is returning to Kolkata on Wednesday morning.

She said, There is a report of one persons death. Even a single death is unfortunate. I am monitoring the situation. I have asked the administration to take necessary steps for the search and rescue operation. No one wants an accident. A detailed probe will certainly be conducted to know how it happened and why. Right steps will be taken. If negligence is found, action will be taken.

Ms Banerjee explained, Criminal action will be taken if anyone is found guilty. I have asked the police to report back to me about the developments time to time. Although I am here, my heart is there. None of us wants to stay here anymore. But there is no flight available now. Also it takes around 4 hours to reach Siliguri from here. So I will return tomorrow.Tuesday, September 4th, 2018 (12:55 pm) - Score 2,458

A number of UK based telecoms operators and broadband ISPs, such as BT, Openreach, Vodafone, Virtual1 and Hyperoptic, have recently been named as finalists across various categories in Total Telecoms 2018 World Communication Awards, which seeks to recognise innovation and excellence in global telecoms.

This year will mark the WCAs 20th anniversary and its anticipated that roughly 800 senior industry executives will be in attendance from across the world, albeit with around 65% of those coming from Europe. The good news is that UK based broadband and communication providers seem to be reasonably well represented at this years event.

In particular we note that JT (Jersey Telecom), Hyperoptic and the Scottish Government (Digital Scotland) are all up for the Broadband Pioneer Award, while Virtual1, JT and Openreach are also up for the Best Network Transformation award among others.

A Spokesperson for the WCA Judging Panel said: This year the judges were really impressed with the quality and scope of the entries. Whether youre talking about the emergence of 5G mobile networks, full fibre broadband rollout or smart city and industry initiatives, its an exciting time to be involved in the global telecoms sector. Its been a really challenge to whittle down such a comprehensive list of entries into the shortlist that we are releasing today.

The operators named as finalists for the event will be judged by a large panel of experts in the telecoms industry, including the bosses of various analyst/consultancy firms, regulators, university professors and a few heads from other providers etc.

The winners are expected to be announced during the Total Telecom Congress event on 31st October 2018, which is being held at the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane Hotel.Network vendor Juniper Networks is working to simplify things for its enterprise customers as they move into a multi-cloud world.

Juniper Networks chief executive Rami Rahim  who joined the company as employee number 32 and worked on Juniper's first product  said there was "way too much complexity" in networks and IT systems, and this is costing billions in lost productivity, "in some cases downright crippling companies".

But Juniper was built on the idea of solving hard problems, and Rahim said the plan is to "shift complexity from our customers to us".

"Cloud and multi-cloud are the next big chapter" for IT as a whole, he said, and with Contrail Enterprise Multicloud "we've democratised the era of cloud operations... it is dead simple to use."

Juniper chief product officer Manoj Leelanivas said 50% of enterprise applications were expected to be running in the cloud by 2020, and Juniper had a role to play in simplifying the IT world.

Contrail Enterprise Multicoloud is an open alternative to other vendors' proprietary approaches such as ACI and NSX  one that can be used with private or public clouds, and from bare metal servers to containers.

"We are going on a standards-based path. We are not doing anything proprietary," he said.

Contrail Enterprise Multicloud provides a common platform for orchestration, visibility and control, Leelanivas told iTWire.

Juniper has multiple customers who have their own data centres as well as using public clouds such as AWS and Azure. Large enterprises want multi-cloud-ready data centres that can burst into the cloud when necessary to meet peak demands (moving entirely to public cloud is too expensive, he observed).

And where an organisation doesn't have its own data centre, Contrail Enterprise Multicloud allows it to move workloads between public clouds.

In either situation, it saves customers from paying what Leelanivas called the "VMware tax".

The plan is to extend Contrail Enterprise Multicoloud to campus and branch networks. Campus networks need unified security and a mechanism to accommodate best of breed wireless providers (such as Aerohive, Aruba and Ruckus), while branch networks are often seen as chokepoints calling out for the delivery of multiple functions through one  possibly multi-vendor  platform.Google has refused to patch a vulnerability in older versions of Android that allows malicious attackers to track and locate smartphones, unless users upgrade to the latest version, or Android Pie.

The vulnerability was reported by security vendor Nightwatch Cybersecurity, who said it could be utilised to "uniquely identify and track any Android device" and also to "geolocate users".

Nightwatch said it had reported the flaw to Google back in March and that the company said it would only fix the issue in Android 9 or Pie. Older versions would not be patched, according to Nightwatch's advisory.

While users have been advised to upgrade to Android 9, that is not possible for anyone apart from those who use Google's own Pixel phones as every manufacturer customises Android and has to issue fixes and upgrades themselves.

Detailing the issue, Nightwatch said in its advisory: "System broadcasts by Android OS expose information about the users device to all applications running on the device. This includes the Wi-Fi network name, BSSID, local IP addresses, DNS server information and the MAC address.

"Some of this information (MAC address) is no longer available via APIs on Android 6 and higher, and extra permissions are normally required to access the rest of this information.

"However, by listening to these broadcasts, any application on the device can capture this information thus bypassing any permission checks and existing mitigations."

The company said forks of Android, like FireOS which runs the Amazon Kindle, were also affected by the vulnerability.

"Because MAC addresses do not change and are tied to hardware, this can be used to uniquely identify and track any Android device even when MAC address randomisation is used," Nightwatch said.

"The network name and BSSID can be used to geolocate users via a lookup against a database of BSSID such as WiGLE or SkyHook. Other networking information can be used by rogue apps to further explore and attack the local WiFi network."

The company said the issue could be replicated on anyone's device by following these steps:Microsoft will drop support for Transport Layer Security versions 1.0 and 1.1 in Office 365 at the end of October, the company has announced, saying the change will provide the best-in-class encryption.

In an advisory, the company said it was likely that there would be many dependencies and connectivity considerations that had to be taken into account, before use of TLS 1.2 was possible in Office 365.

TLS is a cryptographic protocol that provides communications security over a computer network.

One poster to the Linux Users of Victoria mailing list said video conferencing equipment installed at his workplace for use with Skype 4 business as part of an Office 365 migration did not use TLS 1.2 and hence did not work.

Senior Linux developer and network consultant Russell Coker told iTWire that such impacts were likely to be few and far between.

"I don't believe that there will be any great impact," he said. "When we discussed this on the LUV list in 2016 the case for supporting older versions of TLS was not strong and the incidence of such old software will have decreased since then.

"However a follow-up post to the list mentions newly released hardware that doesn't support TLS 1.2 so it will cause problems for some people."

The Microsoft advisory said there were three scenarios for which one needed to plan:

Lync/Skype client connectivity to Office 365;

On-premises server integration w/Office 365; and

Third-party integration with Skype for Business Online.

The advisory provides detailed advice about possible issues and how to avoid them.

"Now that Microsoft has officially dropped support for older and less secure protocols there's no reason for anyone else to support them for general use (i.e. for a website supporting random visitors)," Russell said.

"But I expect some people running intranet servers will keep supporting older systems."

The advisory said: "Your organisations environment may be comprised of various networking or security devices that may include proxy servers and load balancers, or other networking components. Be sure to validate TLS 1.2 supportability, test carefully, and contact the vendor if needed."This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.When the accused were questioned, they revealed that the fins were often removed from sharks while they were alive.

Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted a racket where shark fins were being exported  amounting to hunting of schedule 1 specie  and seized 8,000kg of fins worth nearly Rs 50 crore from Mumbai and Gujarat. The fins were to be exported to China and Hong Kong, officials said. Four persons were arrested. Acting on information that various species of shark were under attack for export of prohibited fins, DRI teams on Saturday carried out raids and seized around 8,000kg of shark fins meant for illicit export.

A DRI officer said, The seized material was to be misrepresented and declared as dried ray skins, dried marine products and fish maw among others. Nearly 3,000kg of shark fins were seized from a godown at Sewri and later, an additional 5,000kg was seized from a godown at Veraval. Wildlife inspectors confirmed the confiscated items to be shark fins.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the seized fins were to be exported to China and Hong Kong for preparation of a delicacy called shark fin soup, a soup which is part of Vietna-mese and Chinese cuisines and is considered a luxury in Chinese culture with one bowl of shark fin soup costing over USD 100.

When the accused were questioned, they revealed that the fins were often removed from sharks while they were alive. The fishermen opted to keep just the fins as they constituted only five per cent of a sharks weight and threw away the rest of the sharks body to save space on their boats.

Meanwhile, the sharks thrown back into the ocean were unable to swim in the absence of fins and typically sank or died of suffocation or were eaten up by larger marine predators.Career Center Rolls Out Platform for Jobs and Internships

Sept. 4, 2018

Hart Career Center staff members pose with the Handshake hand outside the Career Center.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  Illinois Wesleyan Universitys Hart Career Center has recently implemented Handshake, an online career services management system that gives students a one-stop source for jobs and internship postings, on-campus interviews, career fairs and other resources.

Handshake offers opportunities for every student from all majors by connecting them to over 250,000 employers all across the world, said Hart Career Center Director Warren Kistner 83. Using a robust and user-friendly interface, this platform aligns students with opportunities that will be of interest to them.

Handshake, which has replaced Illinois Wesleyans former platform Titan CareerLink, is currently used by more than 500 universities worldwide.

By building a professional Handshake profile, students can make themselves available to peers, alumni and potential employers, and in turn, students can express interest in specific opportunities based on type of work, location and other factors.

Handshake utilizes machine learning-based technology to match students with opportunities based on their interests and skills, which in turn provides the Hart Career Center  recently ranked 20th in a nationwide list of Best Career Services by The Princeton Review  with valuable information when mentoring students.

Illinois Wesleyan alumni are specifically invited to post their job and internship opportunities on Handshake, helping to ensure that each and every IWU student has a myriad of paths to lead them to success in any career.

The Hart Career Center will host Handshake Orientation, an opportunity for students to learn how to utilize the new career services management system, on Thursday, Sept. 6 at 4 p.m. in Room 129 of The Ames Library.

By Rachel McCarthy 21Court says, revealing information pertaining to the case is wrong.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday pulled up Maharashtra police for holding a press conference and revealing information pertaining to five left-wing activists arrested in Bhima-Koregaon violence, last year. The accused are now under house arrest in Pune in the wake of a Supreme Court order. Justice Shinde and Justice Bhatkar of the Bombay high court said, How can an investigation officer reveal investigation details when matter the is sub judice in the Supreme Court? And revealing information pertaining to the case is wrong. The court also said how the police could read out such documents, which may be used as evidence in the case.

Pune police had arrested activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut in June while probing the alleged Maoist connection with the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31 last year.

Inflammatory speeches at the event led to violence at Koregaon Bhima near Pune on the next day, police had alleged. Last Tuesday, police arrested five more Left-wing activists  Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navalakha  from different places in the country.

The Supreme Court later ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6.

On Friday, Additional D.G. Parambir Singh held a press conference and alleged that the accused has Maoist and Naxalite links. Meanwhile, the accuseds lawyer informed the court that approval of the Central government is necessary when UAPA is invoked against the accused and accused are ready to intervene in the petition. The HC then asked the petitioner to give a copy to the accuseds lawyer.

The high court was hearing a petition filed on Friday by one Satish Gaikwad, who claims to be a victim of the Koregaon Bhima violence. He sought a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the case. Gaikwad urged the high court to restrain the Pune police from further probing the case, and stay the investigation.ScM student Jaime So is leading a new direction of research for the Mugnier Lab with the Emergent BioSolutions Fellowship.

"I want people to become confident, competent scientists and thinkers, because these are skills that are useful outside of sciencethey are skills that are useful in life." Monica Mugnier, PhD

Many masters students come to the Bloomberg School with hopes of working closely with faculty to gain hands-on experience before applying to doctoral programs. Jaime So, a second-year ScM student in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, has not only found this kind of coefficient partnership with assistant professor Monica Mugnier, shes landed an opportunity to lead her own project in the lab.

After earning a bachelors degree in microbiology from the University of California Santa Barbara, So was looking to gain more experienceboth in the lab and in the classroombefore applying to PhD programs. Thats when she found the master of science program in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.

One year into the program, So received the departments 2018 Emergent BioSolutions Fellowship, a $5,000 award given to one ScM student each year to pursue a project in a faculty members lab. The fellowship recognizes students who are conducting thesis research on a disease of global public health importance. Masters and PhD students apply every spring by submitting a two-page proposal on the research theyre hoping to pursue and must receive a recommendation from the principal investigator. For So, that research took place in the Mugnier Lab where PI Monica Mugnier, PhD studies African trypanosomes, single-celled parasites that cause diseases in humans and animals in sub-Saharan Africa.

Its not unusual for Bloomberg School students to work closely with faculty, but in Mugniers lab, So has the unique opportunity to lead her own projectdeveloping the protocol, sequencing the genes and morewhich will lay the groundwork for future research by Mugniers team.

So and Mugnier share more about their work, why opportunities for students working in a lab are important, and how Sos current project with Mugnier could lead to breakthrough research.

Whats the focus of the Mugnier Lab?

Monica Mugnier: Theres a human variant of African trypanosomiasis, which causes African Sleeping Sickness, and then an animal variant of the disease, which is a huge problem because it infects livestock. The estimated economic burden of the disease to sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be over $4 billion a year. Its a huge problem in terms of food security and economic development.

What were focused on is the main mechanism of immune evasion in African trypanosomes [which cause the disease]. These parasites are covered in a dense coat of a single protein called variant surface glycoprotein (VSG). They can switch out what the coat looks like, so theyre essentially changing disguises. In their genomes, they have thousands of different options. Were broadly interested in understanding these wardrobe changes because they allow the parasites to sustain a long-term infection. If the parasite couldnt do this our immune systems could handle it.

What Im looking at with Jaime is T. vivax, a trypanosome that is little bit different in that it seems like its coat might be less densely packed than the others. We think there might be a better chance of development of a vaccine against this parasite. Jaime is sequencing the transcriptomes of T. vivax parasites from infected cattle to better understand their surface coats.

T. vivax is very relevant because, unlike the other African trypanosomes, it can be transmitted by any biting flies. T. vivax is also found in South America with the potential to spread even further.

Jaime, what led you to pursue a lab rotation with Monica in the Mugnier Lab?

Jaime So: I was really interested in immunology, and there arent many labs that focus on that. Monicas research is all about VSGs which are things that these parasites use to totally evade the immune response, and I said, Wow, thats sick! The description about her lab also mentioned learning how to code, and Ive always thought it was valuable for biologists to know how to do bioinformatics and coding.

Whats this experience been like for you?

JS: I am largely independent and expected to figure things out for myself, which I like. Its nice having that kind of confidence. What I appreciate most about this lab specifically is how I'm responsible for all of my own work, but am encouraged to always ask questions no matter how simple. I find it valuable that someone is always easy to reach if I need clarification, even if my problem turns out to be because I typed 'G' instead of 'X' on my script.

Our lab is small, and everyone is working on something so different, but theyre an expert at it. We can all still work together even though we have these different projects, and none of us are really dependent on each other. Theres no hierarchy; everyone is on equal footing.

Monica, you have several students working in your lab. Why do you feel its important to give students these opportunities?

MM: For me, the value is about the experience of really learning how to think through a problem and solve it. Another thing thats important is to encourage students to think for themselves in a way that they can learn how to have ideas.

I want people to become confident, competent scientists and thinkers, because these are skills that are useful outside of sciencethey are skills that are useful in life.

Whats the most rewarding part about working with students?

MM: Whats most exciting is watching people realize that they can do things that I ask them to do. Im often saying, Just figure it out, and I can see that theyre frustrated and then I see them say, Oh, I can do it!

Jaime So, an Emergent BioSolutions fellow, has worked in your lab for almost a year. Whats her role?

MM: Jaime is leading her project. This is a pilot to get an idea of whats going on in samples we collected by Theresa Manful Gwiras group at the University of Ghana. They collect blood samples from herds of Cattle in Ghana and then ship us RNA extracted from the blood samples that are infected with T. vivax so we can do sequencing.

Jaimes job is to process the samples, send them for sequencing and analyze the data.

How does the Emergent BioSolutions fellowship help you, Jaime, and the Mugnier Labs research, Monica?

JS: I feel ownership over the project, as opposed to when I was an undergrad. The independence really gives you the confidence to say, I can really do this, I can figure things out for myself now. I dont need to have my hand held.

MM: I wanted Jaime to get this award because I think she needed to know what a good student she was. I think her biggest weakness is not realizing how smart she is.

Its also nice to have some options. With this extra money, if Jaime has an idea and she wants to try some off-the-wall experiment to test it, we can do that. Thats the kind of experiment that really leads to breakthroughs.

Jaime, what do you hope to accomplish during the next year of working on this project?

JS: Its mostly about the experience. I dont know what were going to find. Its fun to sequence things and explore them, but the data sets are massive, and I may not have time to really, really get into it.

How will the findings from Jaimes research benefit the lab?

MM: Its a new direction for the lab. We have a foundation of expertise in certain aspects of antigenic variation, and now were saying, Can we apply the things that weve done in one type of African trypanosome to another? Its going to be really great to have this data set. Its brand new. No one has done this before.

Theres a lot of potential, but we dont know whats going to happen, so its also fun to talk about.

- Interview by Marisa Russell

Interested in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology?

Learn MoreManila (CNN Philippines Life)  Before you head out to watch the historical epic Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral, you might want to brush up on the lives of the important Filipino figures during the Philippine-American war. Take this quiz!

References:

Vol. 5 of the Readers Digest Kasaysayan series

History of the Filipino People by Teodoro Agoncillo

Online sources: Malacanang, National Historical Commission of the Philippines, Time Magazine, Philippine-History.orgEight fire fighting engines and three jumbo tankers were rushed to the site and the blaze was brought under control.

The blaze erupted in a commercial unit near Somwar Bazar in the Bombay Talkies industrial area around 11.30 am. (Photo: Twitter | @ANI)

Mumbai: A fire engulfed an industrial area in suburban Malad on Tuesday morning, but no casualty was reported, a civic official said.

The blaze erupted in a commercial unit near Somwar Bazar in the Bombay Talkies industrial area around 11.30 am, he said. Eight fire fighting engines and three jumbo tankers were rushed to the site and the blaze was brought under control, the official added.

"The fire broke out at 11:27 am and our control room was informed at 11:50 am. No casualty or injury was reported in the mishap," he said.

Mumbai police personnel, ambulance and officials of the civic ward concerned also reached the site, he said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the official said.Reddit Email 95 Shares

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  AFP reports that President Trump is cautioning the Syrian regime against launching an all-out assault on the last remaining rebel stronghold of Idlib Province. He also said that Russia and Iran would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part.

It is hard to take the humanitarian part too seriously. This is a man who in 2016 promised to carpet bomb ISIL, which is pretty much what Russia plans to do to the HTS (Committee to Liberate the Levant, formerly Nusra Front), with its links to al-Qaeda.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

Obviously, Trump did not actually send out this tweet, given its articulate grammar and lack of misspellings plus the lack of phrasal emoticons (sad!). It is an expression of the public position of his national security team NatSec Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and possibly Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. It isnt Trumps policy. For one thing, the tweet mildly criticizes Russia, which Trump almost never does. The foreign policy team also doesnt really care about civilians in Idlib, but just doesnt want to see another military victory for which Iran is partially responsible, which strengthens Tehran in the Levant (which detracts from unilateral Israeli power in the region).

Moreover, the tweet is toothless. Trump has already announced that he wants out of Syria. (Why are we still there?! he is alleged to have fumed earlier this summer). He initially seems to have wanted to pull out by the beginning of October so that Republican lawmakers could run on having defeated ISIL and gotten out of Syria. He appears to have been convinced to delay that withdrawal, though who knows?

Further, Trump has already said that he thinks Syria would be better off with a strongman like Bashar al-Assad in control.

In any case, the US is not actually in a position to stop an Idlib campaign. Its primary allies in Syria, the Kurds of the northeast, are as eager as the Assad regime to see an end put to the fundamentalist Arab Muslim militias of the northwest, who have made no secret of their hatred for the secular-minded leftist Kurds and who have closely cooperated with Turkey in ethnically cleansing Kurds from the western canton of Afrin. So the US cannot deploy its Kurdish proxies to stop an Idlib campaign. In fact, it may be that members of the YPG Kurdish militia will actually join in on the side of the regime, Iran and Russia.

The US only has a couple thousand special operations personnel in northeastern Syria, who are frankly irrelevant to any Idlib campaign in the northwest. The US Air Force is not going to interfere in an operation of the Russian Federation Aerospace Forces in northwest Syria, which is not an American sphere of influence.

Mind you, despite the cynical game of public relations being played by the Trump team, the prospect is horrifying, of a massive assault by Syrian armor and artillery, Shiite militias from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, and Russian fighter jets on a rural province where 3 million people, the bulk of them refugees, are huddling. While a significant proportion of Idlib is held by extremist militias and Brett McGurk has admitted that it is the biggest concentration of al-Qaeda fighters since 9/11, the 3 million civilians are not extremists, and perhaps 40% of the militias arent either.

The looming Idlib campaign will likely replicate the vast destruction and loss of life of the Mosul campaign, where it was the US that gave air support to the Iraqi army.

This business of re-subduing national territory that went into rebel hands by a frontal assault and intensive bombardment, producing high civilian casualties and destruction of entire city districts, is a horrible recrudescence of total war tactics from World War II.

I very much doubt that the large orange man in the White House is relevant to any resolution of this looming catastrophe.

It would be better, as the Crisis Group argues, if a negotiated settlement could be reached.

It is pie in the sky, but political compromise would be a better outcome for Syria. It would be better for the country if Turkey could sideline the HTS and then the regime negotiated a decentralization of Syria with a federal constitution that accommodated the religious conservatism of Idlib and the Bukchenist Left Anarchism of the northeastern Kurds. Syria needs a framework for working out political disputes peacefully, through elections (the ruling Baath Party does not believe it would win, but Id wager theyd get a majority, given the alternatives).

A heavy-handed Putinist attempt to restore a one-party state in Syria, as though it were a big Chechnya, is more likely in the medium and long term to produce either chronic instability or a generation of zombie-like and debilitating stagnation than a genuine social peace.

But, none of the sides in this seven-year-old conflict have demonstrated a taste for compromise, with the possible exception of the Kurds. The Syrian, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers have indicated that they think the rebels in Idlib are all terrorists and must be purged for the sake of the peace of the region.

I have a sinking feeling that Very Bad Things are about to happen in northwest Syria.



Bonus video:



?? Syrian FM threatens all-out assault on Idlib | Al Jazeera englishThe festival which marks birth of Lord Krishna, was celebrated across Mumbai, including areas like Ghatkopar, Dadar, Lalbaug and Bhandup.

One Govinda died and 150 others injured in separate incidents in Mumbai and suburbs. (Photo: Twitter | @ANI)

Mumbai/Thane: Even as Dahi Handi festival was celebrated with gaiety Monday, one Govinda (reveller) died and 150 others injured in separate incidents in Mumbai and suburbs, the police said.

In Thane district neighbouring Mumbai, 13 Govindas, including two children--one a 10-year-old and other 12-year-old--suffered injuries, a Region Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) official said.

He said the injured Govindas were admitted to different hospitals in Thane and Kalwa.

In Mumbai, Kush Khandare (20) suffered an epileptic attack when he climbed the first layer of a human pyramid in Dharavi in Central Mumbai this afternoon, police said. He was taken to Sion Hospital where doctors declared him dead before admission, a senior police officer said. The deceased was a resident of a chawl in Dharavi.

In separate incidents in the island city and suburbs, 150 Govindas suffered injuries, the officer said.

The festival, which marks the birth of Lord Krishna, was celebrated with enthusiasm across Mumbai, including in areas like Ghatkopar, Dadar, Lalbaug and Bhandup. The dahi handi ritual is part of the Janmashtami festival in Maharashtra, where youngsters (called Govindas), dressed in colourful attire, make human pyramid to reach an earthen pot containing buttermilk and suspended in mid-air, and break it. Religious institutions, political leaders and Govinda mandals took part in the dahi handi celebrations which were marked by frequent chants of "Govinda aala re" (Govinda has come).Reddit Email 158 Shares

Damascus (AFP)  Irans foreign minister met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday in a surprise visit to Damascus ahead of a looming regime offensive against the countrys last rebel stronghold.

Mohammad Javad Zarifs trip to war-ravaged Syria also comes just days before a top-level tripartite meeting in Tehran to discuss the Syrian conflict, now in its eighth year.

On Monday afternoon, he met Assad to discuss issues on the agenda for the tripartite meeting, according to the Syrian presidencys account on the Telegram messaging app.

Zarif also met with Syrias prime minister and its chief diplomat Walid Muallem on Monday.

A statement by Syrias foreign ministry said Zarif and Muallem discussed political and military developments in preparation for the tripartite summit for guarantors of the Astana process.

Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored a negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in Syria.

The presidents of the three countries are due to meet in Tehran on Friday to discuss the conflict.

Last year, they had designated Idlib province in the northwest as a de-escalation zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire.

But Syrian government forces are now massing around the province, which has become the last rebel bastion in the country.

Idlib is held by a complex array of rebels and jihadists, many of whom have been blacklisted as terrorists by world powers.

Russia and Iran have insisted that jihadist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault.

Iran will remain a supporter of the Syrian government in its efforts to remove terrorists from its land, and it will continue its advisory role and help the Syrian government in the upcoming Idlib campaign, Iran foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said.

Tehran has provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011.

Iranian Defence Minister Amir Hatami was in Damascus last week and signed a defence and technical agreement designed to ensure the continued presence and participation of Iran in Syria.

Featured Photo: AFP/File / ATTA KENARE. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif listens during a meeting in Tehran on August 8, 2018.VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tahoe Resources Inc. (Tahoe or the Company) (TSX: THO, NYSE: TAHO) reports that it has learned through a Guatemalan Constitutional Court Press Conference held today that the Constitutional Court reversed the Supreme Courts decision to reinstate the Escobal mining license of Tahoes Guatemalan subsidiary, Minera San Rafael (MSR). We understand that the Constitutional Courts resolution orders that the Escobal mining license will remain suspended until the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) completes the ILO 169 consultation with the Xinka communities in the region of the Escobal mine. At this time, the Company does not have a timeline for completion of MEM's ILO 169 consultation. However, in the similar case of OXEC, MEM completed the consultation within 6 months.

The Constitutional Court is expected to issue a formal resolution in the next several days. Upon review of the written ruling, the Company will provide further updates.

About Tahoe Resources Inc.

Tahoe Resources is a mid-tier precious metals company with a diverse portfolio of mines and projects in Canada, Guatemala and Peru. Tahoe is led by experienced mining professionals dedicated to creating sustainable value for all of its stakeholders through responsible mining. The company is listed on the TSX (THO) and NYSE (TAHO) and is a member of the S&P/TSX Composite, the TSX Global Mining indices and the Russell 2000 on the NYSE.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the US Exchange Act, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or in releases made by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, all as may be amended from time to time, and "forward-looking information" under the provisions of applicable Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects, is expected, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, believes, or variations or comparable language of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, "should", might or will be taken, occur or be achieved or the negative connotation thereof. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to the Guatemalan Constitutional Courts announcement of a formal resolution regarding Escobals mining license, the requirement that MEM complete ILO Consultation before the mining license can be reinstated, and the Companys plans for further updates.

Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include the timing for completion and results of the proposed ILO 169 Consultation with the Xinka communities in the region of the Escobal mine.. Assumptions, risks and uncertainties are discussed in more detail in our public filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, on EDGAR at www.sec.gov or on the Companys website at www.tahoeresources.com.

Although management has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Except as otherwise indicated by the Company, these statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any disposition, monetization, merger, acquisition, other business combination or other transaction that may be announced or that may occur after the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about managements current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of the Companys operating environment. The Company does not intend or undertake to publicly update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as, and to the extent required by, applicable securities laws.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- East Africa Metals Inc. (TSX-V: EAM) (East Africa Metals or the Company) is pleased to announce it has received Draft Model Agreements (DMAs) from the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas (the Ministry) for the Companys Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Projects, located in the Tigray National Regional State of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Ethiopia).

The delivery of the DMAs indicates the Ministry has approved the permit application and advanced the permitting process to the next stage. The DMAs set out the rights and obligations of both parties with respect to the development and operation of the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Gold Projects and, once executed, will result in the issuance of the Mining License for each project.

This is another important milestone for East Africa Metals and our efforts to establish mining operations in Ethiopia, said Andrew Lee Smith, East Africa Metals CEO. The issuance of the DMAs for the Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Projects by the Ministry represents an important permitting milestone and the Company looks forward to further discussions with the Ethiopian government to conclude the process. Once issued, the Company will have three permitted mining projects within a 15-kilometre area of influence.

The Company is currently reviewing the DMAs and expects to respond to the Ministry after compiling an assessment of the documents. In anticipation of the pending development program, the Company is currently engaged in Project Financing discussions with potential financiers and development partners.

Mato Bula Gold Copper Project (see news release dated April 30, 2018):

Post-tax NPV of US$56.6M for base case using US$1,325 /oz Au, US$3.00/lb copper and US$17.00/oz silver, at an 8% discount rate.

Payback of pre-production capital in 3 years from start of production.

C1 cash operating cost of US$412/oz Au including all on-site costs and AISC cost of US$620/oz Au calculated with all on-site and off-site costs, TCRC charges, sustaining costs and net of by-product credits.

Average annual metal production of approximately 34,750 ozs gold, 1.67 million pounds copper and 4,780 ozs silver.

Pre-production capital cost of US$54.2M million including contingency of 38% on direct costs and 26% on total of direct and indirect costs.

Open pit mining utilizing drill blast, trucks and shovels, waste stripping ratio of 9/1.

Processing rate of 1,400 t/day using conventional crush/grind comminution, gravity concentration and flotation to produce a copper-gold concentrate. In addition a gold bearing pyrite concentrate will be produced and treated off-site by Carbon in Leach (CIL) technology.

Life-of-mine metal recoveries of 86.4% for gold, 87.4% for copper, and 50% for silver.

Concentrate grades average approximately 132 g/t gold, 25.5% copper and 28 g/t silver.

Minimum 8-year mine life, based on proposed open pit depth of 190 metres.

Significant potential exists to extend mine life as drilling has identified mineralization along strike and to 370 metres down dip.

Da Tambuk Gold Project (see news release dated April 30, 2018):

Post-tax NPV of US$13.0 M and IRR of 28.6% for base case using US$1,325 /oz Au and US$17.00 /oz silver, at 8% discount rate.

Payback of pre-production capital in 1.9 years from start of production.

C1 cash operating cost of US$420/oz Au including all on-site costs and AISC cost of US$642/oz Au calculated with all on-site and off-site costs, TCRC charges, sustaining costs and net of by-product credits.

Average metal production of approximately 24,000 ozs gold per year and 6,000 ozs silver per year.

Pre-production capital cost of approximately US$34.1 M including contingency of 36% on direct costs and 26% total of direct and indirect costs.

Underground trackless mining utilizing ramp access, cut and fill and open stope mining.

Processing rate of 550 tonnes per day using crush/grind comminution, gravity concentration and CIL technology.

Average life-of-mine metal recoveries of 93% for gold and 50% for silver.

Minimum 4-year mine life based on mining plan depth to 200 metres below surface.

Excellent potential to extend mine life as drilling has intersected significant mineralization to 260 metres down dip.

More information on the Company can be viewed at the Companys website: www.eastafricametals.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Andrew Lee Smith, P.Geo., CEO

For further information contact:

Nick Watters, Business Development

Telephone: +1 (604) 488-0822

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.eastafricametals.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "forecast", "project", "budget", "schedule", "may", "will", "could", "might", "should" or variations of such words or similar words or expressions. Forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company as at the date of such information and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: early exploration; the ability of the Company to locate financing for the projects; mineral exploration and development; metal and mineral prices; demand for the metals and minerals; availability of capital; accuracy of the Company's projections and estimates, including the initial mineral resource for the Adyabo, Harvest and Magambazi Projects; timely approvals of mining licence/permit applications; timely approvals of exploration licence extensions applications; interest and exchange rates; competition; stock price fluctuations; availability of drilling equipment and access; actual results of current exploration activities; government regulation; political or economic developments; foreign taxation risks; environmental risks; insurance risks; capital expenditures; operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities; personnel relations; the speculative nature of strategic metal exploration and development including the risks of diminishing quantities of grades of reserves; contests over title to properties and/or projects; and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, as well as those risk factors set out in the Companys managements discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2017 and for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and the Companys listing application dated July 8, 2013. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including but not limited to: Mato Bula and Da Tambuk Projects estimated project economics; the ability to carry on exploration and development activities; the timely receipt of any required approvals; the ability to obtain qualified personnel, equipment and services in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the ability to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner; and the regulatory framework regarding environmental matters, the renewal or extension of exploration licences, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The Company does not update or revise forward looking information even if new information becomes available unless legislation requires the Company do so. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Core Gold Inc. ("Core Gold" or the "Company") (TSX-V: CGLD, OTCQX: CGLDF) is pleased to announce that further to its June 5th, 2017 and January 19th, 2018 news releases, its local subsidiary Elipe S.A has been deemed in corporate good standing by Ecuadors government once again.

This reactivation of Elipe S.A allows Core Gold to regain total control of all operations including financial and administrative operations, and to appoint the General Manager of Elipe S.A. The reactivation of Elipe S.A also releases the Company from the previously announced payment plan as described in a May 31st, 2018 news release by the Company.

Keith Piggott, CEO of Core Gold commented, the release of Elipe S.A from liquidation is a major achievement for our team. As investors may remember, we took over this company with Elipe S.A in liquidation. Now just under twenty four months later we have completed the local remediation of the subsidiary through a diligent dedication to honoring our payment agreements with the government institutions, former employees and suppliers.

Accendo Banco debt facility update

As per the Companys December 1st, 2017 and May 31st, 2018 news releases, the Company executed a term sheet with Accendo Banco (formerly known as Investa Bank S.A.) (Accendo) to arrange a senior debt facility for up to USD $15,000,000. The original expected closing date for the debt facility was March 31st, 2018.

As per the advice received from Accendo and the Companys legal advisors, however, the senior security over assets required of the Accendo facility was not feasible to be put in place in Ecuador before the previously announced closing date of on or before March 31st, 2018.

This delay was due to a longer than expected timeline for restoration of the Companys local subsidiaries into good standing by the local liability holders government appointed representative as part of its commitment to normalize payables and stabilize operations at Elipe S.A.

As Elipe S.A has now been pulled out of liquidation and restored to good standing, Core Gold management and Accendo are exercising their best efforts to progress documentation and advance towards closing of the debt facility, and the Company will provide an update in due course.

About Core Gold Inc.

The Company is a Canadian based mining company involved in the mining, exploration and development of mineral properties in Ecuador. The Company is currently focused on gold production at its wholly-owned Dynasty Goldfield project and continued development at its legacy Zaruma mine. Mineral is treated at the Companys wholly-owned Portovelo treatment plant close to the Zaruma mine operations. The Company also owns other significant gold exploration projects including the Linderos and Copper Duke area in southern Ecuador all of which are on the main Peruvian Andean gold-copper belt extending into Ecuador.

For further information please contact:

Keith Piggott, CEO

Suite 1201  1166 Alberni Street

Vancouver, B.C. V6E 3Z3

Phone: +1 (604) 345-4822

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cautionary Notice:

This news release contains statements which are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking information which are prospective in nature. Such information in this news release includes statements regarding the Company's plans to close the Accendo debt facility. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause Core Golds actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Important risks that could cause Core Golds actual results to differ materially from Core Golds expectations include, among other things: the risk that, as a result of market conditions, due diligence or other factors, the Company will be unable to complete the Accendo debt facility in a timely manner or at all; risks relating to the actual results of additional exploration activities and mine operations; fluctuating prices in metals and other commodities; possibility of accidents, equipment breakdowns, labor disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in operations; exploration cost overruns; the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; currency fluctuations; availability of capital and financing to maintain the Company's operations and plans; general economic, market or business conditions; regulatory changes; timeliness of government or regulatory approvals; and other risks detailed herein and as disclosed in the Companys filings as available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Other than in accordance with regulatory obligations, Core Gold is not under any obligation and Core Gold expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Vancouver, BC (FSCwire) - 92 Resources Corp. (the Company) (TSX.V: NTY) (OTCQB: RGDCF) (FSE: R9G2) is pleased to announce that it is has entered into an Option Agreement (the Agreement) with Osisko Mining Inc. (Osisko) to acquire up to a 75% interest in twenty-eight (28) claims directly adjoining the Companys 100% owned Corvette Property. The claims comprise the eastern portion of Osiskos FCI Property (the FCI Property). Both properties (collectively, the Corvette-FCI Property) are located in the James Bay Region of Quebec, approximately 10 kilometres south of the all-season Trans-Taiga Road and powerline infrastructure corridor.

The combined Corvette-FCI Property encompasses the entire prospective spodumene-bearing pegmatite trend, currently defined by the CV1, CV2, CV3, and CV4 pegmatites, which occur over a strike length exceeding 3 kilometres. Collectively, the Company now controls more than fifteen (15) kilometres of prospective strike length. A map depicting the area is presented at the link below:

The prospective trend is highlighted by the CV1 Pegmatite where reconnaissance sampling in 2017 returned 3.48% Li2O in grab sample, with exploration in 2018 resulting in two new spodumene-bearing pegmatite discoveries termed CV3 and CV4 (see news releases dated October 5th, 2017 and August 13th, 2018). Assays from the 2018 channel sampling and prospecting program will be reported shortly.

Company President & CEO Adrian Lamoureux comments: we are very excited to arrive at this agreement with Osisko for the FCI Property. We recognized early-on with the discovery of the CV1 and CV2 pegmatites, that it would be beneficial to consolidate the entire prospective trend. Today, I am very pleased to announce that we now have the ability to explore several kilometers of the prospective CV Pegmatite Horizon as one project. The Company is well-positioned to build upon the significant discoveries made to date and to advance the Corvette-FCI Project with the most upside possible for our shareholders.

In addition to the strong lithium potential, the FCI Property also includes the Lac Bruno Gold Showing, defined as a gold and sulphide-bearing amphibolite boulder with an assay of 38.1 g/t Au. The showing was discovered by Virginia Mines Inc. and highlights a boulder field in the area with a source yet to be located. Additional work was recommended up-ice of the discovery, within the Corvette-FCI Property, and has yet to be completed. The FCI Property also includes the Sericite Showing where a grab sample from a sulphide-bearing sericite schist returned 0.3 g/t Au, 150 g/t Ag, 1.89% Cu, 11.15% Pb, and 1.45% Zn. Although not a focus for the Company, the base and precious metal potential of the properties is evident and additional ground work is warranted.

Terms of Agreement

Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company may earn a 75% interest in twenty-eight (28) claims comprising Osiskos FCI Property by satisfying the following conditions, subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval:

Issuance of 1,000,000 shares upon closing date of the Agreement

Incurring $250,0000 in work exploration expenditures and issuing of 1,000,000 shares on or before the first anniversary date of closing

Incurring $800,0000 in work exploration expenditures on or before the second anniversary date of closing, upon which the Company would vest a 25% interest

Incurring $1,200,000 in work exploration expenditures on or before the third anniversary date of closing, upon which the Company would vest an additional 25% interest, for a total of 50% undivided interest in the FCI Property

Osisko will act as Operator of the FCI Property for the term of the 50% earn-in, with a Steering Committee of equal representation formed to provide advice and direction to the Operator. Upon completion of the 50% earn-in (third anniversary of TSX-V approval (or closing), a Joint Venture Corporation will be formed with the Company retaining an Option to acquire a further 25% interest, for a total of 75% undivided interest, though funding of the next $2,000,000 in exploration expenditures. The Company may become Operator upon notice to Osisko that it intends to incur the $2,000,000 in work expenditures for a final undivided interest of 75%. Osiskos remaining 25% interest may be further reduced through dilution if they elect to not fund their portion of subsequent exploration/development. If ownership falls below 10%, Osisko will have the right to convert this remaining interest into a 1% Net Smelter Royalty (NSR), of which, the Company retains the right to buy for $5,000,000 (cash or shares), and thereby, would obtain a 100% undivided interest in the FCI Property.

About 92 Resources Corp.

92 Resources Corp is a modern energy solution company, focused on acquiring and advancing strategic and prospective modern energy related projects. The Company currently holds four principal assets in Canada: the Corvette and Pontax lithium properties in Quebec, the Golden Frac Sand Property, BC, and the Hidden Lake Lithium Property, NWT, currently under option to Far Resources Ltd.

NI 43-101 Disclosure

Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P. Geol., of Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

For further information, please contact Adrian Lamoureux, President & CEO at Tel: 778-945-2950, E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.92resources.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

ADRIAN LAMOUREUX

Adrian Lamoureux, President & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward Looking Statements:

Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, expects and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Companys future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.Assays pending for drill holes B-18-06 and B-1 8 -07 . Multiple mineralized intercepts

Upcoming drill ing to test Idaho #1 Vein. Past production of 935,000 oz gold @ 39 gpt

Upcoming drilling to test shallow Zebra Zone. Historic drill hole assayed 40 gpt / 10.5 m

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - Rise Gold Corp. (CSE: RISE) (OTCQB: RYES) ("Rise Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the on-going diamond core drilling at the Idaho-Maryland ("I-M") Gold Project.

Rise Gold has recently completed drill hole B-18-06 and drill hole B-18-07 is expected to be completed within several days. Both holes intersected multiple veins and assay results from these drill holes will be released over the upcoming weeks.

Exploration drilling at the Brunswick portion of the Idaho-Maryland Gold project has been highly successful with numerous gold bearing veins intersected and previously released in 2018 on January 3rd, June 28th, July 23rd, and August 7th. Previously released drill results included 12.2 gpt gold over 14.9 m in drill hole B-17-01, 22.4 gpt gold over 5.2 m in drill hole B-18-05, and 23.7 gpt gold over 4.5 m in drill hole B-18-05. A summary of drill highlights released-to-date is presented in Table 1 and Figure 1.

Rise Gold is moving to a new drilling position to test several important targets that have not been drilled to-date.

Rise Gold will test the down-dip extension of the bonanza grade Idaho #1 Vein. Past production of the Idaho #1 Vein is estimated at 935,000 oz gold at an average mill head grade of 38.6 gpt gold; historic channel samples on the lowest level of this vein include 481 gpt gold over 1.2 m, 142 gpt gold over 2.5 m, and 21 gpt gold over 4.5 m.

Rise Gold will be testing the shallow Zebra Zone Target, which is located approx. 320 m below surface. A historic drill hole in this area assayed 40 gpt gold over 10.5 m. The Zebra Zone is a unique area of the Brunswick mine where gold and quartz veins are hosted in a large block of black slates.

TABLE 1  Previously Released Drill Intercept Highlights from B-17-01 to B-18-05*

BRUNSWICK CONFIRMATION HOLES (B1600L-B2300L) Hole From

(m) To

(m) Gold

(gpt) Intercept

Length

(m) Estimated

True Width

(m) Vein Figure

Ref B-17-01 638.9 653.8 12.2 14.9 7.8 B1 A Including 643.7 646.5 62.7 2.7 B1 Center Including 645.0 645.6 266.0 0.6 B-18-04 516.9 521.0 8.0 4.1 3.0 B32 C Including 516.9 518.0 23.0 1.1 B-18-02 578.4 582.8 7.9 4.4 1.0 - 3.4 B116 or B1 C B-18-03 516.6 518.6 6.0 2 1.7 B1 East D B-18-04 711.9 715.2 5.1 2.3 1.8 B18 E B-18-04 625.2 628.0 4.0 2.8 2.1 B10 F B-18-04 637.0 640.0 4.4 3 2.3 B10 G BRUNSWICK EXTENSION HOLES (B2300L-B3280L) Hole From

(m) To

(m) Gold

(gpt) Intercept

Length

(m) Estimated

True Width

(m) Vein Figure

Ref B-18-05 978.1 983.3 22.4 5.2 2.6 B40 H Including 978.1 979.3 93.2 1.2 B-17-01 1111.6 1126.8 4.5 15.2 ? ? I Including 1112.1 1113.6 40.6 1.5 B-18-05 748.3 763.6 2.6 15.3 11.0 B41 J B-18-05 667.9 671.4 5.9 3.5 2.0 B6 K Including 670.3 671.4 13.0 1.1 B-18-05 682.9 690.4 2.4 7.5 4.1 B6 L B-18-05 899.6 905.5 2.5 5.9 3.4 B39 N IDAHO DEEP DRILLING (~1 km BELOW MINE) Hole From

(m) To

(m) Gold

(gpt) Intercept

Length

(m) Estimated

True Width

(m) Vein Figure

Ref B-18-05 1590.1 1594.6 23.7 4.5 3.2 IB30 M Including 1593.6 1594.0 230.0 0.4 B-18-05 1887.5 1890.4 10.9 2.9 2.0 IB50 O Including 1889.4 1889.9 61.0 0.5

* Details of drill intercepts in previous Rise Gold news releases in 2018 on January 3rd, June 28th, July 23rd, and August 7th.

FIGURE 1  Long Showing Previously Released Drill Results

Quality Control and Assay Methods

Rise has implemented a quality control program for its drill program to ensure best practice in the sampling and analysis of the drill core. This includes the insertion of blind blanks, duplicates and certified standards. HQ- and NQ-sized drill core is saw cut with half of the drill core sampled at intervals based on geological criteria including lithology, visual mineralization, and alteration. The remaining half of the core is stored on-site at the Company's warehouse in Grass Valley, California. Drill core samples are transported in sealed bags to ALS Minerals analytical assay lab in Reno, Nevada.

All gold assays were obtained using a method of screen fire assaying. This procedure involves screening a large pulverized sample of up to 1 kg at 100 microns. Any +100 micron material remaining on the screen is retained and analyzed in its entirety by fire assay with gravimetric finish and reported as the Au (+) fraction result. The 100 micron fraction is homogenized and two sub-samples of 30-50 grams are analyzed by fire assay with AAS finish. If the grade of the material exceeds 10 gpt the sample is re-assayed using a gravimetric finish. The average of the two results is taken and reported as the Au (-) fraction result. All three values are used in calculating the combined gold content of the plus and minus fractions.

About Rise Gold Corp

Rise Gold is an exploration-stage mining company. The Company's principal asset is the historic past-producing Idaho-Maryland Gold Mine located in Nevada County, California, USA. The Idaho-Maryland Gold Mine is one of the United States' greatest past producing gold mines with total past production of 2,414,000 oz of gold at an average mill head grade of 17 gpt gold from 1866-1955. Historic production at the Idaho-Maryland Mine is disclosed in the Technical Report on the Idaho-Maryland Project dated June 1st, 2017 and available on www.sedar.com. Rise Gold is incorporated in Nevada, USA and maintains its head office in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Benjamin Mossman

President, CEO and Director

Rise Gold Corp.

For further information, please contact:

RISE GOLD CORP.

Suite 650, 669 Howe Street

Vancouver, BC V6C 0B4

T: 604.260.4577

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.risegoldcorp.com

Benjamin Mossman, P.Eng, CEO of Rise Gold, is the qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Historic production at the Idaho-Maryland Mine is disclosed in the Technical Report on the Idaho-Maryland Project dated June 1st, 2017 and available on www.sedar.com.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur.

Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions related to certain factors including, without limitation, obtaining all necessary approvals, meeting expenditure and financing requirements, compliance with environmental regulations, title matters, operating hazards, metal prices, political and economic factors, competitive factors, general economic conditions, relationships with vendors and strategic partners, governmental regulation and supervision, seasonality, technological change, industry practices, and one-time events that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information contained in this release. Rise undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements or information except as required by law.TORONTO, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GPM Metals announces that Paul Murphy will be stepping down as the Chief Financial Officer and Yajian Wang has been appointed to the position of CFO.

The board of directors and management expresses its appreciation to Mr. Murphy for his contribution to the Corporation and wish him well in all his endeavours.

About GPM Metals Inc.

GPM Metals is a zinc focused exploration company with offices in Toronto, Brisbane and Lima.

The Companys current holdings include the district scale Walker Gossan Project, NT, Australia, a joint venture with Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Limited; and the Pasco Project, Department of Pasco, Peru.

Both projects are advanced exploration properties with drill ready targets and have considerable potential to host significant zinc resources.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For further information contact:

GPM Metals Inc.

Peter Mullens, CEO

Suite 1101 141 Adelaide Street West,

Toronto, Ontario M5H 3L5

Telephone : (416) 628-5904

Telefax : (416) 628-6835

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release involves forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, financings and transactions being pursued, and all such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although the Company believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such forward-looking statements. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein.

We Seek Safe HarbourTORONTO, Sept. 4, 2018 /CNW/ - First Cobalt Corp. (TSX-V: FCC; ASX: FCC; OTCQX: FTSSF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the acquisition of 100% ownership and elimination of the outstanding royalty on the Iron Creek property in Idaho, USA.

Trent Mell, President & Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"Our outlook for the Iron Creek Project was instrumental in the decision to eliminate the outstanding royalty and acquire 100% ownership of the project at this time. Drilling has identified two broad zones of cobalt-copper mineralization that extend well beyond the historic resource area. The Company is fully funded to complete our work programs in the USA and Canada this year and into 2019. We anticipate releasing preliminary metallurgical work and the maiden resource estimate for Iron Creek in the next few weeks."

The Iron Creek Project was previously under lease to First Cobalt. Under the terms of the lease, First Cobalt was required to make monthly payments and the leaseholder retained a 4% royalty over future production, both of which could be eliminated through a one-time payment. First Cobalt and the leaseholder agreed to a 47% reduction of this payment to US$1.07 million, which has now been paid in full. As of June 30, 2018, First Cobalt reported a cash balance of $20 million and an additional $2 million in current assets. The Company is fully financed to complete all current work programs including over 30,000m of diamond drilling to further test the cobalt-copper mineralized zones.

Full ownership of the Iron Creek property and elimination of any future royalty payments streamlines future permitting and development activities and accelerates the mine planning process. The Company has begun a consultation process and collecting baseline data for future permitting requirements.

First Cobalt's Iron Creek property consists of mining patents and exploration claims with significant infrastructure including 600 metres of drifting from three adits and an all-weather road connecting the project to a state highway. Several inferred resource calculations were made in the 1980s and 1990s considering only the No Name Zone, where historic drilling was most dense.

One historic estimate (non-compliant with NI 43-101) by Noranda Inc. reported 1.3 million tons grading 0.59% cobalt and 0.3% copper, using a cutoff grade of 1% copper equivalent. A new NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate calculation is imminent. The Company expects the new resource estimate to realize wider true thickness of mineralization encountered by First Cobalt drilling than previously recognized by the historic calculation. The new resource estimate is expected to include additional lower grade material than the higher grade single zone of mineralization historically recognized. The initial resource estimate will include two zones of mineralization drilled in 2017 and early 2018: the No Name Zone and the Waite Zone (Figure 1).

In June, First Cobalt announced a $9M program intended to accelerate work programs at Iron Creek. Preliminary metallurgical work and the maiden resource estimate are nearing completion and are anticipated in the next few weeks. Throughout July and August, the Company operated three surface drills at Iron Creek (see July 12, 2018 press release) in order to extend the known mineralization along strike and bring a portion of the initial Inferred Mineral Resource estimate into a Measured and Indicated Resource category. This second resource estimate is expected in early 2019 (see June 11, 2018 press release).

Figure 1. Iron Creek bedrock geology based on mapping and historic drilling. Cobalt-copper mineralization zones outlined from historic and 2017-2018 drilling.





The No Name and Waite Zones are roughly parallel and dip roughly 75 to the north, remaining open along strike to the east and west, as well as down dip. To date, the Company has drilled over 520m of mineralization strike length and 250m of dip extension. The No Name Zone and the Waite Zone have true widths between 10m and 30m. Mineralization also occurs between the two zones as 1 to 5m pods. Additional mineralization has been encountered in the hangingwall and footwall of the zones and some holes in the 2018 program are intended to confirm the potential for additional mineralized zones.

Unlike much of the Idaho Cobalt Belt, the Iron Creek Project cobalt mineralization is associated with pyrite rather than minerals containing arsenic. Cobalt-copper mineralization occurs as semi-massive and disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite along stratabound bands within finely layered meta-sedimentary rocks consisting of interbedded argillite and quartzite. Thin veins of chalcopyrite also cut the bands and meta-sedimentary rocks. Quartzite units make up the hangingwall and footwall to the mineralized meta-sedimentary horizon. This stratigraphic sequence has been mapped at surface and by drilling to extend along strike for at least two kilometres.

Qualified and Competent Person Statement

Dr. Frank Santaguida, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. Dr. Santaguida is also a Competent Person (as defined in the JORC Code, 2012 edition) who is a practicing member of the Association of Professional Geologists of Ontario (being a 'Recognised Professional Organisation' for the purposes of the ASX Listing Rules). Dr. Santaguida is employed on a full-time basis as Vice President, Exploration for First Cobalt. He has sufficient experience that is relevant to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code.

About First Cobalt

As a vertically integrated North American cobalt company, First Cobalt's strategy is to explore, develop and refine material in North America for sale back into the American battery market. First Cobalt has three significant North American assets: the Iron Creek Project in Idaho, which has a historic mineral resource estimate (non-compliant with NI 43-101); the Canadian Cobalt Camp, with more than 50 past producing mines; and the only permitted cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials.

On behalf of First Cobalt Corp.

Trent Mell

President & Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "plans", "expects', "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance and opportunities to differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are set forth in the management discussion and analysis and other disclosures of risk factors for First Cobalt, filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although First Cobalt believes that the information and assumptions used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, First Cobalt disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Historic Estimates

First Cobalt considers the cobalt and copper tonnage and grade estimates above as historical estimates. The historical estimates do not use categories that conform to current CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves as outlined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and have not been redefined to conform to current CIM Definition Standards. They were prepared in the 1980s prior to the adoption and implementation of NI 43-101. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources and First Cobalt is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources. More work, including, but not limited to, drilling, will be required to conform the estimates to current CIM Definition Standards. Investors are cautioned that the historical estimates do not mean or imply that economic deposits exist on the Iron Creek property. First Cobalt has not undertaken any independent investigation of the historical estimates nor has it independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the accuracy of the information. First Cobalt believes that the historical estimates are relevant to guide exploration on the Iron Creek property.Jersey, England--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - Tethyan Resources plc (TSXV: TETH) ("Tethyan" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from its initial diamond drill programme at the Kizevak zinc-lead-silver project in Southwest Serbia. Tethyan drilled four holes for a total of 957.3 metres, targeting an area of anomalous zinc, lead and silver in soil located 1 km southeast of an historic past producing open pit mine (Figure 1). All assays have now been received and drilling has returned broad zones of polymetallic vein and breccia type mineralisation in all holes, with highlights including:

12.0 m @ 22.03 % zinc, 10.29 % lead, 167 g/t silver and 0.18 g/t gold for 35.09 % ZnEq (Hole KSEDD002, from 130 m)

43.0 m @ 4.30 % zinc, 2.49 % lead, 26 g/t silver and 0.21 g/t gold for 7.39 % ZnEq (Hole KSEDD001, from 193 m) including 13.1 m @ 11.28 % zinc , 5.05 % lead , 57 g/t silver and 0.32 g/t gold for 17.44 % ZnEq (from 221 m)

40.0 m @ 4.35 % zinc, 2.14 % lead, 27 g/t silver and 0.34 g/t gold for 7.37 % ZnEq (Hole KSEDD003, from 137 m)

22.2 m @ 2.95 % zinc, 2.41 % lead, 41 g/t silver and 0.18 g/t gold for 6.23 % ZnEq (Hole KSEDD003, from 160 m)

Holes were drilled on two sections 80 m apart with a spacing of 40 m between the holes. All holes intercepted significant mineralisation between 85 and 190 m below surface, and mineralisation remains open in all directions (Figures 2 and 3). Collar details are given in Table 1 and significant intercepts, including estimated true width intervals, are given in Table 2.

Fabian Baker, President and CEO of Tethyan commented, "We are delighted with the results of our first drill programme at Kizevak, which returned some exceptional grades over substantial widths. These first results are particularly encouraging as they are from only a small part of the large zinc, lead, silver, gold soil anomaly. We are immediately planning to commence induced polarisation and ground magnetic geophysical programmes as well as trenching to refine drill targets in advance of a second drill programme later this year."

Tethyan has already constructed and permitted seven additional drill pads at Kizevak to test over a total of 200 metres along strike from the recently completed holes. Tethyan is also preparing to submit samples from drill core for preliminary metallurgical test work to understand baseline zinc, lead and silver recoveries to concentrates, as well as gold deportment.

Table 1: Drill Collar Data

Hole ID Easting

(m) Northing

(m) Elevation

(m) Depth

(m) Azimuth

() Inclination

() KSEDD001 476507 4792486 912 257.60 225 -55 KSEDD002 476485 4792456 909 226.10 230 -53 KSEDD003 476431 4792507 896 212.60 230 -55 KSEDD004 476459 4792533 904 261.00 230 -60

Note: Coordinates are shown using the UTM WGS84 projection, Zone 34 Northern Hemisphere

Table 2: Significant Intercepts

Hole ID From

(m) To

(m) Apparent Width

(m) Zinc

(%) Lead

(%) Silver

(g/t) Gold

(g/t) Zinc Eq.

(%) KSEDD001 128.00 129.50 1.5 4.36 2.02 30 0.09 6.92 KSEDD001 160.00 181.00 21.0 1.02 4.68 60 0.17 6.69 including 161.00 166.60 5.6 1.50 16.13 213 0.19 20.51 KSEDD001 187.00 188.00 1.0 2.15 2.90 23 0.30 5.68 KSEDD001 193.00 236.00 43.0 4.30 2.49 26 0.21 7.39 including 221.00 234.10 13.1 11.28 5.05 57 0.32 17.44 KSEDD002 130.00 142.00 12.0 22.03 10.49 167 0.18 35.09 KSEDD002 188.50 189.50 1.0 1.73 3.64 26 0.41 6.16 KSEDD003 1010 101.50 0.5 9.42 3.94 51 0.14 14.20 KSEDD003 105.00 127.20 22.2 2.95 2.41 41 0.18 6.23 including 116.00 117.50 1.5 15.30 6.29 135 0.24 24.09 and 123.70 125.20 1.5 4.63 5.30 154 0.40 13.23 and 126.70 127.20 0.5 3.61 29.30 437 0.39 39.27 KSEDD003 137.00 177.00 40.0 4.35 2.14 27 0.34 7.37 including 151.20 154.00 2.8 18.34 5.49 77 0.45 25.54 and 166.30 168.00 1.7 17.08 10.94 126 1.82 32.41 KSEDD004 116.50 118.00 1.5 2.64 1.16 12 0.11 4.09 KSEDD004 159.80 181.00 21.2 1.75 0.74 6 0.13 2.74 including 167.10 170.60 3.5 6.09 2.23 17 0.22 8.77 KSEDD004 223.00 228.00 5.0 1.96 1.35 11 0.40 4.03 KSEDD004 248.50 251.00 2.5 2.47 0.02 27 0.34 3.63

Notes

Zinc Equivalent (Zinc Eq.) metal grade was calculated using assumed metal prices of $1250/oz gold; $16/oz silver; $2100/t lead and $2400/t zinc. Metal recoveries of 100% were applied in the metal equivalent calculations. Zinc equivalent (%) was calculated using the following formula: Zinc Eq. (%) = 100 x ((Au price (g) x Au grade) + (Ag Price (g) x Ag grade) + (Pb price x Pb grade/100) + (Zn price x Zn grade/100))/Zn price. Numbers may not add up due to rounding. The true thickness of mineralised zones is estimated to vary between 70 to 95% of apparent width. Due to currently limited drilling data, early stage of exploration, variable geometry of the mineralisation and lack of outcrop, the Company is currently unable to accurately estimate true widths.

Figure 1: Location of the four drill holes shown in relation to the zinc and gold

in soil anomalies and historic open pit mine.

Figure 2: Cross-section "A" showing results and geology for drill holes KSEDD001 and KSEDD002

Figure 3: Cross-section "B" showing results and geology for drill holes KSEDD003 and KSEDD004

Kizevak Project

The Kizevak Project is located in the Raska District which is prospective for porphyry copper-gold and polymetallic vein type deposits. Historic past producing mines at Kizevak and Sastavci produced lead, zinc and silver from open pits from the 1980s until the early 2000s when they ceased operation due to conflict in the region. Tethyan owns the Kremice exploration licence which surrounds third party exploitation licences over the Kizevak and Sastavci open pit mines. Tethyan's drill program targeted an area 1 km southeast along strike of the Kizevak open pit mineralisation.

The drill target was identified by Tethyan from geological mapping and soil sampling. Mineralisation is hosted in a steeply northeast dipping volcanic sequence comprising an upper <150m thick, polymict, coarse-grained, blocky volcanic breccia, which overlies an approximately 100 m thick, coherent, massive, fine-grained porphyritic andesite unit with minor interlayers of volcaniclastic rock. The andesite overlies a lower volcanic breccia in which the drill holes were terminated.

Mineralisation occurs as fault-hosted veins and vein breccias with broad zones of sheeted and fracture fill mineralisation in the footwall, hosted almost entirely within the andesite volcanic unit which is moderately to strongly clay-pyrite altered. The mineralised zone strikes southeast, dips steeply northeast, and is open in all directions.

Mineralisation comprises 0.5 to 6 m thick, steeply northeast dipping veins and vein breccias composed of coarse-grained, massive galena-sphalerite-pyrite-arsenopyrite-pyrrhotite with variable quartz, carbonate (calcite and rhodochrosite) and barite intergrowths. The andesite footwall of the veins is moderately to strongly fractured with carbonate-barite-galena-sphalerite-pyrite as fracture fill and sheeted veins, which occur in zones between 8 and 38 m wide (estimated true thickness). Individual veins within these zones are between 2 to 10 mm wide with a vein density of 0.5 to 5 vol. % per metre.

Rudnica Copper-Gold Porphyry Prospect

Work continues at the Rudnica copper-gold porphyry prospect, with a 1500 meters drill programme planned in Q4 2018. Drilling will be used to explore untested copper-gold-molybdenum soil anomalies coincident with moderate to high chargeability and high magnetic geophysical anomalies, in an area of leached and silica altered andesite with weak low temperature quartz veinlets which returned significant channel sample results including 40 m @ 0.21 g/t gold, 30 m @ 0.24 g/t gold and 10 m @ 0.26 g/t gold (see news release dated March 2, 2018).

About Tethyan

Tethyan Resources plc is a precious and base metals mineral exploration company incorporated in England & Wales and listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange. Tethyan is focused on the Tethyan Metallogenic Belt in Eastern Europe, mainly Serbia, where it is acquiring and exploring a portfolio of quality precious and base metals projects with known mineralisation and compelling drill targets. Tethyan emphasises responsible engagement with local communities and stakeholders, and is committed to proactively implementing Good International Industry Practice (GIIP) and sustainable health, safety and environmental management. More information can be found on our website: www.tethyan-resources.com.

Sampling Methods and Data Verification

Drill core samples were collected from half cut PQ and HQ diameter core, where the core was sawn along a pre-defined cutting line. Sample intervals were selected by the geologists based on geological criteria including presence of alteration and mineralisation, style of mineralisation and lithological contacts. Minimum sample lengths of 0.5 metres and maximum sample lengths of 2 metres were employed. Each sample weighed between 2 and 13 kg depending on the length of the sample and diameter of drill core. Sampling was only conducted on visually mineralised intervals, including 10 metres either side of the visually mineralised interval. Data verification was conducted by the Qualified Person including checking of detailed geological logs against core observations, core photographs and analytical results. In addition, digital data was verified using industry standard software to validate the drill database prior to entering data into the master database. No check assays have been conducted to date.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

The drill core sampling program and sampling protocols were supervised by Tethyan's Exploration Manager, Mr Andrew Tunningley MAusIMM(CP), who is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Quality Assurance is provided through provision of standard operating procedures for the collection and submission of samples as well as data handling and management. Quality Control is monitored through the insertion of one certified reference material sample and one blank sample per batch of 20 samples. One duplicate sample is also inserted per batch. All samples are securely transported from the project site to the ALS Global sample preparation laboratory in Bor, Serbia by ALS couriers. Sample pulps are then sent to ALS Rosia Montana, Romania by air freight for gold analysis by 30 gram fire assay with AA finish (code FA-AA23). Multi-element analyses are conducted by ALS Loughrea, Ireland using a highly oxidising digestion with ICP-MS finish (code ME-ICPORE). ALS's laboratories are ISO 2005 accredited, employ a Laboratory Information Management System for sample tracking, quality control and reporting, and are independent of Tethyan.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Tethyan's Exploration Manager, Andrew Tunningley, MAusIMM(CP), who is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Tethyan Resources Contact

Tethyan Resources plc

+44 1534 881 885

Fabian Baker (CEO)

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TSX Venture Exchange Disclaimer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the private placement, the use of proceeds. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends", "will be" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Tethyan to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, capital expenditures and other costs, and financing and additional capital requirements. Although management of Tethyan have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward looking information. Tethyan will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 4, 2018) - M2 Cobalt Corp. (TSXV: MC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that during the completion of its phase 1 exploration program at Bujagali and associated infill sampling, it has discovered 6 additional large-scale anomalies with highly anomalous rock and soil samples and has also expanded the foot-print of its Waragi anomaly.

Highlights are as follows:

BUJAGALI

4 additional large-scale geochemical anomalies have been discovered within the Bujagali property, 2 of which are along the same stratigraphic horizon as the Company's existing Waragi anomaly;

Numerous high-grade cobalt and copper samples collected;

Fifty-one (51) rock grab samples contain between 0.1% and 1.75% Co. Thirty-nine (39) rock grab samples contain between 0.1% Cu and 0.81% Cu. One hundred and forty-one (141) soil samples contain between 100 and 1310 ppm Co (0.13% Co) and 236 soil samples contain between 100 and 547 ppm Cu;

The footprint of the Company's Waragi copper-cobalt anomaly has been expanded to over 1km by 900m.

The new anomalies are within the same exploration license as, or the adjoining license to, the Waragi anomaly;

Together with Waragi, these additional anomalies potentially represent a new, regional Katanga-style sediment hosted, copper-cobalt play;

Full details of sizes of the anomalies and rock and soil samples are set out in the table below. Maps showing the location and details of these anomalies can be found on the Company's web site at www.m2cobalt.com/index.php/projects/Bujagali

BUJAGALI  BOMBO

Infill sampling, following the discovery of a large ultramafic body at Bombo through the Company's previously announced trenching program, has added an additional anomaly to the northwest, increasing the total size of the Bombo anomaly from 1.2 km by 0.9 km to approximately 2.2 km by 1 km;

An additional, separate geochemical anomaly (Bombo Central) has been discovered to the East of the Bombo property within the same exploration license;

Bombo NW expands on the most westerly trench dug at Bombo during the trenching program which had mineralization in the ultramafic of 0.19% Ni and anomalous Co over 95 metres (the length of the trench), including 20 metres at 0.22% Ni and 0.51% Cu and 1 metre at 0.91% Cu;

Certain additional infill sampling results for Bombo NW and Bombo Central, including rock samples, are pending;

Full details of sizes of anomalies and rock / soil samples collected to date are set out in the table below. Maps showing full details of the infill results can be found on the Company's web site at www.m2cobalt.com/index.php/projects/Bujagali

Table 1: Anomaly Highlights

Anomaly Name Approximate Size Highlights Ongoing Work Waragi 1 km by 0.9 km

(Cobalt in soil) 35 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.11% Co (up to 1.47%). 31 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.1% Cu (up to 0.5%). Up to 965 ppm Co and 547 ppm Cu in soils. Grid extension; high resolution ground magnetics; VTEM Interpretation; Ground IP Survey Nile Size to be determined Pending Results 14 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.1% Co (up to 1.75%). 8 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.2% Cu (up to 0.81%). Up to 1310 ppm Co and 489 ppm Cu in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics; Ground IP Survey Club 2 km x 1.7 km|

(Cobalt in soil) 1 rock grab with 0.2% Co. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics Ridge 1.6 km x 1.0 km

(Cobalt in soil) 1 rock grab sample with 0.63% Co and 0.1% Cu; 1 rock grab sample with 0.23% Cu. Up to 99 ppm Co and 179 ppm Cu in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics Bell 2 km by 1.2 km

(Cobalt in soil) Up to 130 ppm Co and 183 ppm Cu in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics Bombo (including Bombo NW)* 2.2 km by 1.0 km

(Nickel in soil) 9 rock samples contain greater than 0.1% Ni (up to 0.15%); 8 rock grab samples contain greater than 0.1% Co and 0.1% Cu (up to 0.65% Co and 0.6% Cu). Up to 1665 ppm Ni, 1640 ppm Cu and 660 ppm Co in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics; VTEM Interpretation; Ground IP Survey Bombo Central 2.1 km by 1.0 km

(Nickel in soil) Up to 849 ppm Ni, 274 ppm Cu and 483 ppm Co in soils. Infill grid; high resolution ground magnetics

*No trenching results included.

**Rock grab samples are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades on the property.

Dr Jennifer Hinton, Head of East Africa Operations stated, "we are delighted with the work completed to-date by our work crews and operational teams. To have discovered extensive cobalt, copper and nickel mineralization and so many large-scale anomalies across our very large asset package in a 6-month time-frame is a major achievement.

Given the work completed to-date, which is on time and under budget, we are now positioned to commence an initial phase of drilling on several key targets to further delineate these anomalies and test mineralization at depth. At the same time, given the size of our anomalies at Bujagali and the development of a potential Katanga-style regional copper-cobalt play, we will also undertake additional geophysics and geochemistry for further definition and to enable us to select the best initial drill collars."

Simon Clarke, CEO stated, "our Phase 1 work program has delivered excellent results with surface sample results up to 1.75% Co, 0.91% Cu and 0.26% Ni. This program has positioned us to commence an initial drilling phase as we look to achieve our corporate objectives of discovering and developing world class cobalt (and associated minerals) assets with large-scale potential which are based outside the DRC."

Quality Assurance

All rock and soil samples were sent to ALS Chemex South Africa (Pty) Ltd., an independent and fully accredited laboratory in South Africa ("ALS") for analysis for gold multi-element Induction Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy ("ICP"). M2 Cobalt also has a regimented Quality Assurance, Quality Control ("QA/QC") program where at least 10% duplicates and blanks are inserted into each sample shipment.

About M2Cobalt

M2 Cobalt Corp. is focused on discovering and developing world-class cobalt assets (and related minerals) to help address the growing deficit in the supply of cobalt. The Company has a large, highly prospective land package in the Republic of Uganda, East Africa bordering historic production and on the same mineral trends as some of the major mines in the neighboring DRC where over 60% of world cobalt supply originates. Uganda is a stable country with a growing economy looking to re-energize its historic mining industry. The Company has a highly experienced management team and board of directors, which has been involved in funding and advancing resource projects globally. The Company also owns licenses over 2,800 hectares of land in the Cobalt Camp in Ontario, Canada. Further information on the Company and its projects can be found at www.m2cobalt.com

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dean Besserer, P.Geol., the Technical Advisor of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

For further information, contact Simon Clarke at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Andy Edelmeier at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

On behalf of the Board,

M2 COBALT CORP.

Simon Clarke, Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "anomaly, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and other similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to exploration work to be undertaken in Uganda, the reliability of third party information, and certain other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations.During the press briefing, police claimed they had evidence to link Left-wing activists arrested in June as well as last week to Maoists.

Mumbai: A PIL filed in the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, sought action against senior IPS officer Parambir Singh and other police officials who briefed the media on their case against some prominent activists arrested over their alleged Maoist links.

Singh, state Additional Director General (Law and Order), along with the Pune police had addressed the media in Mumbai on the case on August 31.

During the press conference, Singh had read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists. He claimed that the police had "conclusive proof" to link the Left-wing activists arrested in June as well as last week to Maoists.

Also Read: Activist's letter spoke of 'Rajiv Gandhi-type ending for Modi-Raj': Pune cops

Activist Sanjay Bhalerao, who claims to be a witness to the Bhima Koregaon violence, filed criminal public interest litigation (PIL) in the HC seeking action against Singh and the other policemen.

The petition sought the high court to initiate action against Singh and the other police officers who held the press conference and disclosed "crucial and vital information" pertaining to the case. It also urged the court to direct the state government to take action against the police officers under Article 311 of the Constitution under which a civil servant can be dismissed for misconduct.

According to the petition, on March 19 this year, the Pune police had filed an application seeking permission to carry out searches at the residences of some activists.

Police sought for the application to be heard in camera on the ground that if the names of the accused persons were disclosed, then there was likelihood that they would destroy evidence.

Also Read: Arrest of activists: Bombay HC raps police for revealing evidence

"The magistrate on March 19 allowed police's request for in-camera proceedings," the PIL, filed through advocate Nitin Satpute, said.

"Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Parambir Singh and other police officers, who were present at the press conference, disclosed crucial information with regard to the case. The police officers acted against the order passed by the magistrate court," it added.

The petitioner alleged that the probe carried out by the Pune police was politically motivated and with malafide intentions.

On Monday, the high court, while hearing another petition seeking an NIA probe into the case, raised questions over the press conference and said police should not have addressed the media when the Supreme Court was seized of the matter.

Police had arrested activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut in June while probing the alleged Maoist connection with the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31 last year.

Police had alleged that inflammatory speeches at the event led to violence at Koregaon Bhima near Pune on the next day.

Last Tuesday, police had arrested five more Left-wing activists -- Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navalakha -- from different places in the country.

The apex court later ordered that the five be kept under house arrest till September 6.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mundoro Capital Inc. (TSXV: MUN, www.mundoro.com) ("Mundoro" or the "Company") reports an update on the Companys exploration activity and filing of its condensed interim consolidated financial statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and the related managements discussion and analysis of financial position and results of operations.

Update on Exploration Activity

In Serbia, drilling is ongoing at the Borsko license (Figure 1) which is sole-funded by Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ( JOGMEC ); this drill program of approximately 5,000 m aims to test: Target 1: lateral extension of the alteration and mineralisation intersected in drill hole 17-BJ-11 (15m @ 1.04 g/t Au and 6.9 g/t Ag) further to the east-northeast towards what has now been identified as IP chargeability anomaly; Target 5: a new target identified to test a shallower and stronger IP chargeability anomaly coincident with magnetic low anomaly at favorable structural intersection located 1,500 m north-northeast of Target 1; and Additional targets: identified by both structural interpretation and geophysical programs using CSAMT, ground magnetics, IP-Resistivity and gravity.

); this drill program of approximately 5,000 m aims to test: In Bulgaria, drilling has been ongoing at the Saje Project, which is sole-funded by a Private Mining Company ; approximately 1,000 meters has been completed in three drill holes with assays pending.

; approximately 1,000 meters has been completed in three drill holes with assays pending. In Serbia, Mundoro and Freeport-McMoran Exploration Corporation ( Freeport ) are at the planning stage for a field program to commence in Q4-2018 on the Freeport-Mundoro JV Project (Figure 1) which will be sole-funded by Freeport.



) are at the planning stage for a field program to commence in Q4-2018 on the Freeport-Mundoro JV Project (Figure 1) which will be sole-funded by Freeport. In Serbia, Mundoro has completed follow up geochemical analysis and ground geophysical surveys to further define the prospective targets on the Sumrakovac and Osnic licenses (Figure 1). Mundoro is planning for a small drill program on the Osnic license in Q4-2018 in order to upgrade the targets.

Update on Third Party Discussions

Mundoro has entered into the following transactions for its licenses in Serbia and Bulgaria:

an earn-in agreement with JOGMEC in which Mundoro has granted to JOGMEC an earn-in option on four of Mundoros Serbian exploration licenses: Dubrava, Padina, Borsko Jezero and Zeleznik located within the northern portion of the Timok Magmatic Complex in northeastern Serbia.

an earn-in agreement with Freeport, in which Mundoro has granted to Freeport an earn-in option on two of Mundoros Serbian exploration licenses: Savinac and Bacevica located within the southern portion of the Timok Magmatic Complex in northeastern Serbia. The earn-in agreement transaction with Freeport is subject to closing conditions as outlined in Click Here.

an option agreement with a Private Mining Company on Mundoros Saje Project located within the Zvezda license in southeastern Bulgaria.

The Company continues to have discussions regarding future joint ventures for Mundoros two Timok South licenses, Sumrakovac and Osnic, and licenses in Bulgaria. Although there are ongoing discussions, the Company cannot provide assurance that a transaction will be concluded as a result of these discussions.



Corporate Update

Highlights of the Companys quarterly results for the last eight quarters is as follows:

C$ Thousands Q2/18 Q1/18 Q4/17 Q3/17 Q2/17 Q1/17 Q4/16 Q3/16 Income Statement items: Exploration and project evaluation (838) (689) (1,438) (829) (997) (650) (864) (806) Recoveries from partners 498 465 1,290 532 311 547 499 382 Net Exploration and project evaluation (340) (224) (148) (297) (686) (103) (365) (424) Corporate expenses (1) (234) (185) (170) (202) (235) (201) (203) (149) Loss before other (expenses) income (574) (409) (318) (499) (921) (304) (568) (573) Other income (expense) (2) (149) 4 (114) (67) (97) (64) 1 9 Loss for the period (723) (405) (432) (566) (1,018) (368) (567) (545) Balance Sheet item: Cash & Cash Equivalents 4,856 4,452 3,522 2,674 2,120 2,054 1,568 1,307 1. Corporate Expenses include accounting and audit, corporate governance, corporate communication, and general and administrative expenses.

2. Other income (expense) includes share-based compensation, the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations, and the change in the fair value of the Companys investments.

Change in Chief Financial Officer



The Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Christopher Wong as Chief Financial Officer of the Company, effective September 1, 2018. Mr. Wong has over 20 years of experience in financial reporting, corporate controlling and accounting with private and public companies in the natural resources sector and technology sector. The Company would like to thank Avisar Chartered Professional Accountants and Mr. Anil Jiwani for their professional accounting services to Mundoro for the previous two years.

On behalf of the Company,

Teo Dechev, Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

About Mundoro Capital Inc.

Mundoro is a Canadian mineral exploration and development public company focused on building value for its shareholders through directly investing in mineral projects that have the ability to generate future returns for shareholders. The Company currently holds a diverse portfolio of projects in two European countries as well as an investment in a producing gold mine in Bulgaria and a feasibility stage gold project in China. The Company has earn-in agreements with: JOGMEC for the Timok North Projects, Freeport for the Freeport-Mundoro JV Projects, and an option agreement with a private company for the Saje Project in Bulgaria. Mundoros common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "MUN".

For further information please contact:

Teo Dechev, CEO, President and Director of Mundoro Capital Inc. at +1-604-669-8055

Qualified Person

Technical information contained in this Press Release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. G. Magaranov, P. Geo., Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This News Release contains forward-looking information and statements (forward-looking statements) under applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included or incorporated by reference in this News Release are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the completion of exploration work on any projects and licenses and results of that exploration work, the prospect of one or more joint ventures and other statements regarding activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", promising, encouraging or "continue" or similar words or the negative thereof. The material assumptions that were applied in making the forward-looking statements in this News Release include expectations as to the Company's future strategy and business plan and execution of the Company's existing plans. There can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which these forward-looking statements are based will occur. We caution readers of this News Release not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements contained in this News Release, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include general economic and market conditions, changes in law, regulatory processes, the status of Mundoro's assets and financial condition, actions of competitors and the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities. The forward-looking statements contained in this News Release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this News Release are made as of the date of this News Release and Mundoro undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise, except as required by law. Shareholders are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and for a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.TORONTO, Sept. 4, 2018 /CNW/ - Guyana Goldfields Inc. (TSX: GUY) (the "Company") is pleased to report the appointment of Ms. Lisa Zangari as the Company's new Chief Talent Officer effective as of September 10, 2018.

Ms. Zangari is a seasoned senior human resources executive with a long mining history that illustrates strong strategic management skills, a solid background in human resources and a 20+ year career focused on delivering high levels of employee engagement, performance and results.

Ms. Zangari has demonstrated a proven ability to build highly-competent, high-performing teams. Until recently, Lisa was founder and chief consultant to Epic Engagement, an executive advisory services firm. From 2014  2016, Mr. Zangari was the Chief Human Resources Officer for OpenText Corporation responsible for global people strategy and organizational development. Prior to this, Lisa was Senior Vice President, Human resources for IAMGOLD Corporation from 2009  2014 where she led the organizational design and talent planning to evolve the company from a centralized to regional model and to ensure critical roles had high-performing talent. From 2005  2009, Mr. Zangari was the Senior Vice President, Human resources for Kinross Gold Corporation and overlooked the global HR strategy and organizational development. Prior to this, Ms. Zangari held various human resources roles at Placer Dome Inc. over an 11-year duration. Ms. Zangari holds a Canadian Human Resources Executive designation (CHRE).

Ms. Zangari states, "I am thrilled to return to my mining roots and look forward to joining Scott and team as we take Guyana Goldfields to the next level of its success!"

About Guyana Goldfields Inc.

Guyana Goldfields Inc. is a Canadian based mid-tier gold producer primarily focused on the exploration, development and operation of gold deposits in Guyana, South America.

Forwarding-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are based on various assumptions.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals, the timing of the advance of the funds pursuant to the project loan facility to fund the development and construction of the Aurora Gold Project (the "Facility"), fulfilling all conditions precedent to the advance of funds pursuant to the Facility, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in GGI's annual information form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.Advancing potential for hosting a preserved high-grade brownfield porphyry system

Refining four conceptual Tier 1 scale targets

VANCOUVER, Sept. 4, 2018 /CNW/ - Kincora Copper Ltd. (the "Company", "Kincora") (TSXV: KCC) announces that SJ Geophysics Ltd. ("SJ") has been mobilized to complete a DC resistivity and induced polarization (IP), and magnetotelluric ("MT") geophysical survey at the Company's 100% owned East Tsagaan Suvarga project ("East TS"), in the Southern Gobi, Mongolia.

The East TS project is within 12 kilometres of the Tsagaan Suvarga open pit, >US$1 billion development project, in a confirmed fertile brownfield environment. SJ is a Canadian specialist geophysical group and was selected following a detailed review with specifications of the survey benefiting from Phase 1 exploration results. The survey will support detailed 3D inversions and integration with existing ground magnetic, gravity and drilling data to advance and refine current conceptual targets, which if successful, is expected to support Phase 2 drilling this field season.

Exploration to date includes supportive magnetic, gravity and resistivity surveys with spatial correlation to Phase 1 drilling (including copper-molybdenum assay results and magnetic susceptibility readings) underpinning four large-scale conceptual intrusive bodies. These Tier 1 scale targets sit within the Devonian age intrusion and the right structural setting for a series of porphyry orebodies on the eastern margin of the Tsagaan Suvarga Intrusive Complex ("TSIC").

On the western margin of the TSIC is Mongolyn Alt LLC's ("MAK") Serven Sukhait open pit development project, and associated southern exploration targets, where US$377 million of a US$1,089 million total capital cost has been incurred, supporting a project that is forecast to annually produce 316,000t of copper and 4,400t of molybdenum concentrate.

Peter Leaman, Senior Vice-President of Exploration, stated: "Kincora is following a proven systematic exploration approach at the prospective East TS project. The selection of SJ and design of the survey benefits from the significant experience the team has, including previous first hand experience at BHP when the last district scale exploration was undertaken in the region, and lessons learnt from the discovery and resource delineation phase at Oyu Tolgoi.

The SJ survey is anticipated to refine the current four large-scale targets, seeking to confirm coincident sulphide anomalies for Phase 2 drilling. A successful survey would support the conceptual target for East TS of a preserved series of mineralised intrusions. Such a setting is untested at the TSIC, with the Serven Sukhait pit exposed, similar to the open pit at Oyu Tolgoi where geophysics played a key role in the discovery of the high-grade undercover orebodies."

Specialist consultant geophysicist, Barry de Wet commented: "Exploration activities have clearly defined four interpreted intrusive bodies. These support Tier 1 scale targets, underpinned by favourable geological and geophysical characteristics in the correct structural setting and in a known fertile porphyry system. The intrusive complex clearly extends to the East TS targets, with the targeted intrusions typical of the Servin Suhait open pit.

The series of targets at East TS are the first brownfield Devonian targets being advanced in the Southern Gobi belt since the Oyu Tolgoi mineralized trend over a decade ago, where a similar limited outcrop and systematic approach resulted in significant exploration success."

Link to accompanying updated corporate presentation: Click Here

Background to the East Tsagaan Suvarga (East TS) project

Field season activities undertaken by Kincora, and proprietary knowledge of the region, supports the East TS porphyry target sitting in a brownfield environment on the interpreted eastern margin of the Devonian age Tsagaan Suvarga ("TS") intrusion, which hosts MAK's Serven Sukhait open pit development project and southern exploration targets on the western margin.

Mapping, infill soil sampling and drilling has confirmed the targeted fertile and Devonian age quartz monzonite and monzonite intrusion at East TS  the same environment that is found on the western margin of the intrusion. The identified demagnetised zones at East TS are thought to represent magnetite-destructive mineralized phyllic or argillic alteration and are inline with the Serven Sukhait open pit development project and southern exploration targets on the western margin of the same intrusive complex.

Half of the 14 holes from the maiden drilling program at East TS, for 3,452 metres, intersected the Tsagaan Suvarga Intrusive Complex ("TSIC"), with background copper and molybdenum having been noted to date drilled on the margin and/or top of the subsequently defined four large-scale conceptual intrusive bodies.

Figure 1: East Tsagaan Suvarga is a brownfield Devonian target beneath explorable cover





Age dating, green rock, petrographic, lithogeochemical and geochronological analysis have been positive, with infill ground magnetics and maiden ground gravity surveys completed post the first phase and maiden drilling program. The geophysical surveys, coupled with surface geology, confirm the margin of the TSIC, with the SJ survey looking to cover the most prospective areas on the eastern margin of the complex.

Activities to date support the East TS target being in the right geological, geophysical and structural setting to the Serven Sukhait open pit (307Mt @ 0.54% Cu resource) and southern exploration targets. Further encouragement is provided from both surface mapping and drilling that has intersected interpreted lower Carboniferous cover above the Devonian TSIC, which coupled with improved interpretations of key structural and fault features, supports the concept of a potential preserved Devonian complex. The latter is an analogue for East TS hosting a preserved high-grade orebody, or series of orebodies, as at the Oyu Tolgoi mineralized trend (which has a 26km structurally controlled strike).

With improved geological and geophysical knowledge, the contracted 3D DC resistivity / induced polarization (IP) and magnetotelluric (MT) survey will utilize SJ's proprietary Volterra acquisition system. The survey is planned for September to assist target sulphides within a 38km2 area of interest (6 km EW by 7.8 km NS). The four currently interpreted intrusions are conceptual, and large scale, with the SJ survey seeking to confirm coincident chargeability high and magnetic low anomalies at explorable depth to refine targets. If successful, the survey is expected to support potential second phase target testing drilling program in the autumn or early winter.

Figure 2: Four large-scale conceptual intrusive bodies at East TS





As announced in the August 27th, 2018, press release "Click Here", SJ will also complete a series of 6 North-South, DC resistivity and induced polarization ("IP") survey lines for 33.4 line kilometres, ahead of the proposed drill program at the Company's wholly owned Bronze Fox project. At Bronze Fox, the SJ survey will further refine targets to the west and advance pipeline of targets across second intrusive complex, with new infill and extension high-grade targets recently announced within western zone of the West Kasulu exploration target and newly identified southerly western zone.

Kincora engaged Barry de Wet as a specialist independent geophysical consultant to assist with planning, QAQC and interpretation of the upcoming SJ programs. Barry is the former chief geophysicist for BHP Billiton and the Ivanhoe Mines Group (including Ivanhoe Australia and HPX). He has considerable knowledge of the Southern Gobi copper belt through his experience at BHP Billiton, HPX and being a former board member of IBEX, and is uniquely positioned to assist with the current interpretations, design of the SJ survey and assist refine next stages of exploration at East TS and Bronze Fox.

Due to the association of sulphide minerals with the porphyry mineralization, IP is an extremely valuable mapping tool in the Southern Gobi copper belt, especially when used in combination with ground magnetics, gravity and geology. IP provides the potential to directly identify copper-bearing host rocks under post mineral sediments that cover the majority of the prospect area. As was the case with the discovery of Oyu Tolgoi, well designed IP surveys coupled with geological knowledge gained both from drilling and the available (limited) outcrop, was a key exploration tool for the discovery of the world-class Hugo Dummett and Heruga orebodies, which are also hosted in a series of Devonian age intrusions under post mineral cover in this Devonian belt.

The experience in the wider Southern Gobi copper belt, and at the Tsagaan Suvarga open pit and exploration targets, indicate that mineralized copper porphyry intrusions contain enough sulphide minerals to form both chargeable and conductive responses, with all economic mineralised systems in the region hosting a coincident chargeability high and magnetic anomaly.

A total of 67.8 kilometres of IP, resistivity and magnetotelluric data will be collected at East TS along lines spaced at 150m supporting detailed 3D inversions and integration with the existing ground magnetic, gravity and drilling data.

Discover Mongolia conference

Kincora is a proud sponsor and active participant of the 16th Discover Mongolia event this week in Ulaanbaatar, September 6th/7th, and is assisting facilitate an investor trip to Oyu Tolgoi and current Kincora activities in the belt. For further details on the conference please refer to:

Events section of the Kincora website: Click Here

"Investors' interest increased for "Discover Mongolia" summit": Interview with Sam Spring: Click Here

About Kincora

Kincora is a junior resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties, with a focus on Tier 1 copper-gold projects in Mongolia. For further information: www.kincoracopper.com.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information in this news release was prepared in accordance with the standards of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and was reviewed, verified and compiled by Kincora's geological staff under the supervision of Peter Leaman (M.Sc. Mineral Exploration, FAusIMM), Senior Vice-President of Exploration of Kincora Copper, who is the Qualified Person for the purpose of NI 43-101.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.In a statement published on August 24 in the capital Bangui, they restated their position, already expressed many times, that justice should not be sacrificed in the name of reconciliation. Political dialogue must not be an excuse to forget the victims and the atrocities that have been committed, declared Mathias Morouba, a lawyer for victims and president of the Central African Observatory of Human Rights. It is unthinkable that persons responsible for and complicit in the most serious crimes could obtain amnesty at the negotiating table. The government should reject this idea unconditionally.

The talks, whose date and place have not yet been announced, aim to put an end to the violence that has been tearing the CAR apart since 2013. According to several concurring sources, the armed groups demands include not only power sharing but also a general amnesty. And yet the amnesties decided at various points in the CARs history have not prevented the recurrence of bloody conflicts since independence from France in 1960. For us the red line is very clear: there can no longer be impunity for the perpetrators of crimes in the CAR and those responsible, said Joseph Bindoumi, president of the Central African Human Rights League.

Terrible abuses

The idea of an amnesty for serious crimes was clearly rejected by the 2015 Bangui Forum, a gathering of more than 800 representatives of civil society, community organizations, political parties and armed groups. The Forum recognized that the lack of justice in the country since 2003 was a main cause of the countrys recurrent crises. However, the armed groups invited to the upcoming talks are suspected of having committed all manner of abuses against civilians: murder, rape, sexual slavery, torture, looting, persecution and destruction of religious buildings. Some of these crimes could, according to the NGOs, be categorized as war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.

Pressure

Marking the first anniversary of his time in office on March 30, 2017, President Faustin- Archange Touadera added his voice to those of the civil society organizations. The people of the CAR have clearly expressed their will on this issue, he said. As of the Bangui Forum in 2015, there have been clear resolutions for zero impunity. And speaking on RFI he recalled that during the transition, a law was passed to create a Special Criminal Court. We are in the process of setting it up. The Prosecutor has recently been appointed. The judges will work within that framework, and the people are calling for reparation. And reparation means justice.

Will the President stick to that line even as certain member countries of the African Union calling themselves friends of the CAR are behind this demand of the armed groups. Will Touadera manage to resist pressure and be a voice for Central Africans who, in their vast majority, have been calling for years for justice?Two Reuters journalists accused of breaching Myanmars state secrets law while reporting on a massacre of Rohingya Muslims were jailed for seven years Monday, fuelling international outrage a week after the army was accused of genocide.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who have been held in Yangons Insein prison since their arrest in December, were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, a draconian British colonial-era law which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

The case, which sparked an international outcry, was seen as an attempt to muzzle reporting on last years crackdown by Myanmars security forces on the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.

Army-led clearance operations drove 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, carrying with them widespread accounts of atrocities  rape, murder and arson  by Myanmar police and troops.

The reporters denied the secrets charges, insisting they were set up while exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine village of Inn Din in September last year.

They had told the court they were arrested after being invited to dinner by police in Yangon, who handed them documents.

As they left the restaurant, the pair were detained for possessing classified material.

But Judge Ye Lwin was unmoved, also choosing to disregard a whistleblowing policemans testimony that corroborated their version of events.

The culprits intended to harm the interests of the state. And so they have been found guilty under the state secrets act, he told the packed Yangon court.

They are sentenced to seven years in prison each, he said.

Kyaw Soe Oos wife Chit Su Win wept after the judge delivered the verdict, collapsing on the ground in tears as she filed out of the sweltering courtroom along with other shell-shocked family members, reporters and diplomats.

The handcuffed pair, both Myanmar nationals with young children, gave brief but defiant statements on the court steps.

The government can detain us in the prison but dont close the ears and eyes of the people, Kyaw Soe Oo said.

Wa Lone, whose wife gave birth to a baby daughter less than a month ago, gave a defiant thumbs up to the massed ranks of reporters.

We will face it (the verdict) with stability and courage, he said, before the pair were bundled into a waiting police van and taken back to the notorious Insein prison.

 Genocide 

Defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said an appeal would be lodged as soon as possible against the verdict, which Reuters denounced as based on false charges.

Today is a sad day for Myanmar and the press everywhere, Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler said in a statement, adding that the outcome was designed to silence their reporting and intimidate the press.

The UN in Myanmar, the US, the European Union and EU members Britain and France condemned the verdict and reiterated calls for the reporters release, while rights groups added their voices to the chorus of outrage.

The ruling sends a stark warning to other journalists in the country of the severe consequences that await should they look too closely at military abuses, Amnesty Internationals Tirana Hassan said in a statement. This amounts to censorship through fear.

Frederick Rawski of the International Commission of Jurists described it as a miscarriage of justice following a grossly unfair hearing, citing the lack of evidence and violations of the right to a fair trial.

Reporters Without Borders condemned the sham trial and sentencing as a dark day for press freedom in Myanmar.

The army has published its version of events at Inn Din village, conceding the Rohingya men were killed while in custody but saying it was a one-off case of abuse by a mixture of security forces and ethnic Rakhine locals.

Mondays ruling comes a week after the release of an explosive United Nations-led study into abuses in Rakhine, accusing Myanmars army chief of heading a campaign of genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.

It also strongly criticised de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to use her moral authority to stand up for the stateless minority.

The same day, Facebook shut down the pages of Myanmars army chief Min Aung Hlaing and other military top brass, in what the company said was a bid to prevent them from further fanning ethnic and religious tensions.

As calls mount for Myanmars military leaders to face an international tribunal, they have remained defiant, insisting last years crackdown was a proportionate response to attacks by Rohingya militants on border posts.

But Suu Kyis reputation as a defender of human rights has been shredded by her refusal to speak out against the military for its handling of the Rohingya crisis or in support of the jailed reporters.

burs-rs/smYemens warring parties meet in Geneva Thursday for a new round of peace talks with little hope of a breakthrough in an ugly war between the Saudi-backed government and rebels linked to Iran.

They are the first public meetings between the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemens powerful Huthi rebels since 2016, when 108 days of negotiations in Kuwait failed to broker a power-sharing deal.

But the chance of face-to-face sitdowns between Hadis delegation and the rebels in Geneva are slim to none, Yemeni foreign minister Khaled al-Yamani told AFP.

And while the two sides are backed by rival regional powers, their respective patrons will not be present in Geneva.

The talks, overseen by United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths, are aimed at charting a path towards reviving formal UN-backed negotiations.

They will likely focus on a prisoner exchange deal and the fate of embattled Hodeida, the rebel-held port city at the frontline of the war.

Hanging in the balance is the fate of 22 million civilians, in a country where famine looms and a cholera epidemic is threatening a comeback.

 Low bar 

This war has been and remains an ugly war, said UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash, whose country is the senior partner in the Saudi-led coalition backing Hadis government.

We have seen civilians shot at, bombed, killed and unfortunately this is part of any confrontation.

Last month alone saw 66 children killed in air raids believed to have been conducted by the Saudi-led coalition.

Both camps have been accused by the UN and rights groups of failing to protect civilians.

Last month, UN-backed experts said all the warring parties have committed a substantial number of violations of international humanitarian law, many potentially amounting to war crimes.

Diplomats and Yemeni officials have set a low bar for the Geneva meetings, the first attempt by Griffiths to bring the warring parties together.

One US diplomat described them as low key with low expectations.

They are really not intended to be talks or negotiations but consultations that demonstrate the capability of the UN to bring the sides together, along with confidence building measures, the diplomat said.

 Eye on Hodeida 

All previous attempts to resolve the Yemen war have failed.

Griffiths is the UNs third Yemen envoy since 2014, when the Huthis overran the capital Sanaa and drove Hadis government into exile.

Hailing from the Muslim Zaidi minority, the Huthis had complained of marginalisation in Yemen long before the conflict erupted in 2014.

Riyadh and its allies joined the governments fight against the rebels in 2015, but the Huthis have clung to northern and western Yemen.

They regularly fire missiles at Saudi Arabia, which accuses its arch-rival Iran of providing the munitions.

In June, the UAE launched a major offensive to retake rebel-held Hodeida, the Red Sea city home to the countrys most valuable port.

Faced with escalating international criticism, the pro-government military alliance hit the brakes before reaching the densely-populated city.

But UAE minister Gargash has said that in order to shorten the war, pressure should be continued on Hodeida.

We are not willing to accept that there will be a strategic shift towards Irans favour by accepting also the Huthis domination of Yemen, he said.

The Huthis have reportedly offered to let the UN supervise the port, but the government and its allies have refused anything short of a full rebel withdrawal from both city and port.

 Arms sales 

UN Security Council Resolution 2216 recognises Hadi as the president of Yemen, calling on the Huthis to withdraw from the capital and elsewhere and to hand in heavy weapons.

The UN has also blacklisted the Saudi-led coalition for the killing and maiming of children.

The Saudi-led coalition has admitted to mistakes in an August 9 strike on a crowded marketplace in rebel-held Yemen that killed 51 people, according to the Red Cross.

International rights groups have frequently criticised the inaction of Washington, London and Paris against Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally and key arms customer for all three.

At least 6,660 civilians have been killed and 10,563 injured in Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition joined the conflict in March 2015, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN says the actual figure may be much higher.

strs-ras/ny/par/cebYemen, an impoverished country on the Arabian peninsula, has been mired in a deadly conflict between troops loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Shiite Huthi rebels since 2014.

The conflict escalated in 2015 after a Saudi-led coalition launched military operations in Yemen, helping the government to push back against rebels who had seized the capital and several provinces.

The violence has since has killed nearly 10,000 people and triggered what the United Nations has described as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

Heres a timeline of key events:

 Rebellion in Sanaa 

In July 2014, Huthis, who come from a branch of Shiite Islam and consider themselves sidelined after the 2011 uprising against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, launch an offensive from their northern stronghold of Saada.

They have opposed the government for the past decade and are backed by Iran, which denies military involvement.

In September, the rebels, allied to military units who have remained loyal to Saleh, enter the capital Sanaa.

They seize government headquarters and state radio after several days of fighting.

In October they seize the Red Sea port of Hodeida, then move towards the centre of the country.

On January 20, 2015, after two days of deadly fighting, the Huthis seize the presidential palace in Sanaa and surround the residence of Hadi, who flees south to Aden a month later.

 Saudi air strikes 

A Saudi-led coalition launches air strikes on the rebels in March 2015 to counter their advance on the south.

Hadi takes refuge in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

In July, Hadis embattled administration announces its forces have retaken the southern province of Aden in their first success since the coalition stepped in.

Aden becomes the countrys de facto capital.

By mid-August, loyalist forces have retaken five southern provinces, but struggle to secure them due to the presence of Al-Qaedas Yemen branch and the Islamic State group.

In October, government forces reclaim control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the worlds busiest and most strategically sensitive shipping routes.

 Negotiations fail 

In August 2016 UN-brokered negotiations in Kuwait between the government and rebels break down on several points, notably the withdrawal of rebels from several strategic towns and power sharing with the government.

 Rebels kill ex-president 

Splits emerge in the rebel camp in 2017, resulting in violent clashes and the assassination of Hadis predecessor and former Huthi ally, Saleh, by rebel fighters in December.

The rebels strengthen their grip on the capital.

Splits also emerge in the government camp, with fierce clashes erupting in Aden in January 2018 between southern separatists and fighters loyal to Hadi.

 Advance on vital port 

In December 2017, government forces make a breakthrough in efforts to reconquer the key port of Hodeida when they drive Huthi fighters out of a town en route called Khokha.

Hodeida is a vital entry point for the bulk of the countrys food and aid.

On June 13, 2018 government fighters, backed by Saudi and Emirati forces, launch an offensive on Hodeida city.

On June 20, they say that they have taken control of Hodeida airport on the southern outskirts.

 Heavy civilian toll 

Civilians, in particular children, have paid a heavy price during the conflict.

Several raids blamed on the coalition have killed civilians, including on a wedding hall in the town of Mokha in September 2015, killing 131 people. The coalition denies responsibility.

In October 2016, a coalition air strike at a funeral in Sanaa kills 140 people.

On August 9, 51 people, including 40 children, are killed in an attack on a bus in rebel-held northern Yemen.

The coalition admits that mistakes were made but insists the target was legitimate.

On August 23, a further 26 children are killed by coalition air strikes.

Days later, UN investigators highlighted possible war crimes in Yemen.Kansas State University and Schlumberger sign three-year agreement valued at $54 million

Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018



Abdelmoneam Raef, left, and Matt Totten, associate professors of geology at Kansas State University, will use Schlumberger software modules in research and teaching to address petroleum production problems in Kansas. | Download this photo.





MANHATTAN  Imagine viewing the Earth 300 million years in the past. Today, that observation would put you 2 miles under the surface of the planet.



Thanks to an agreement with Schlumberger  a worldwide provider of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production, and processing to the oil and gas industry  Kansas State University researchers in the geology department now have access to a suite of powerful tools to help them delve deeply into the past, when petroleum reserves were formed. The three-year agreement is valued at $18 million per year and provides the university access to the Petrel* E&P software and Techlog* wellbore software platforms; PetroMod* petroleum systems modeling software; and GeoX exploration risk, resource and value assessment software.



Matt Totten and Abdelmoneam Raef, associate professors of geology, said these tools will help the university address petroleum production problems in Kansas.



"Kansas has produced petroleum for a long time," Totten said. "We're still No. 8 in the country. But there have never been adequate models to describe the system  the environment in which the rocks, or reservoirs, were formed, how they were buried and the rate at which they were buried, and all of this influences production." Totten said.



According to Raef, more sophisticated information gathering and data integration are particularly important in Kansas, where many petroleum operators are small and don't have access to the technology



"We can offer cost savings and solutions to industry partners," Raef said. "We are working to develop our research in adopting advanced machine learning to better integrate oil and gas data."



Pamela Kempton, head of the geology department in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the partnership will not only benefit research and teaching at Kansas State University but also produce valuable information for Schlumberger.



"Our graduate students will benefit from the experience of using advanced tools, which will help them in the job market," Kempton said. "Our researchers also will provide feedback on the performance of the tools and offer ideas for improvements."



"This agreement highlights the outstanding work of the faculty and geology department," said Amit Chakrabarti, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "This group has achieved much, and with further investment in modernized facilities, it is poised to achieve a leadership position in teaching and research excellence."



Peter Dorhout, Kansas State University vice president for research, said the Schlumberger agreement demonstrates the high quality of the petroleum research program and the university's industry-friendly processes.



"Working with industry is key to the economic success of Kansas, and our team has realized an 80 percent increase in the number of industry-funded projects in the last six years," Dorhout said. "We're proud to add Schlumberger to our growing list of industry technology partners."



Totten and Raef said looking to the Earth's past brings a bright future for the Kansas oil and gas industry. Based on the Schlumberger agreement, they have already spoken to five companies that are interested in working with the geology department by providing data or supporting graduate students. They also foresee more efficient drilling with a smaller environmental footprint.



"With these tools, we can improve production significantly with less of a surface footprint," Raef said. "We can drill at one site instead of 10 or 15 drilling sites."





The three arrested are Kedar Sarkate, Nayan Mandle and Milan Kholapure.

Mumbai: A policeman was allegedly killed by three youths after they were reprimanded for loitering late in the night at Achalpur in Amravati district on Tuesday. Assistant sub-inspector Shantilal Patel (55) was returning home on his motorcycle after night patrolling when the three, while riding a bike hit him from behind with an iron rod around 3.30 am. Mr Patel was rushed to a hospital, but succumbed to injuries during treatment. The three arrested were drunk and were scolded by the patrolling team for loitering near the bus stand in the wee hours around 2 am, said Amravati superintendent of police Filip Zalke. The three arrested are Kedar Sarkate, Nayan Mandle and Milan Kholapure.During the press conference, Mr Singh had read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists.

Mumbai: A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Bombay high court on Tuesday, seeking action against senior IPS officer Parambir Singh and other police officials who briefed the media on their case against some Left-wing activists arrested over their alleged Maoist links.

Singh had addressed Press conference on August 31.

During the press conference, Mr Singh had read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists.

He claimed that the police had concreted evidence to link the Left-wing activists arrested in June as well as last week to Maoists.

The activist Sanjay Bhalerao through his lawyer Nitin Satpute filed a PIL.

Petition stated that police could have used this information as evidence but they disclosed it for publicity.

According to the petition, on March 19 this year, the Pune police had filed an application before the magistrate, seeking permission to carry out searches at the residences of some activists.

Police had sought for the application to be heard on camera on the ground that the accused would destroy evidence.

The magistrate on March 19 allowed police's request for in-camera proceedings. According to PIL police have violated the magistrate court's order.

The petitioner also alleged that the probe carried out by the Pune police was politically motivated and with malafide intentions.

Pune Police had arrested activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut in June while probing the alleged Maoist connection with the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31 last year. Last week,police had arrested five more Left-wing activists Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navalakha from different places in the country.

On Monday, the high court, while hearing another petition seeking an NIA probe into the case, raised questions that How can an investigation officer reveal investigation details when matter the is sub judice in the Supreme Court? And revealing information pertaining to the case is wrong". The court also said how the police could read out such documents, which may be used as evidence in the case. Police also claimed that arrested accused have links with Maoist and Naxalist.Its an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where youve been and whats happened. In the end, youre just happy you were there- with your eyes open- and lived to see it. ~ Anthony Bourdain

One of my strongest childhood travel memories is our family trip to Peru in 1987, during which I visited Machu Picchu for the first time. By some wonderful chance of fate, tourism to the magnificent site was almost non-existent when we were there, so we shared the extensive site with what felt like only a scattering of fellow tourists. We stayed at the small and simple Hotel Turista (long since replaced with a luxury lodge and huge tourist restaurant), at the top of the winding switchback road up to Machu Picchu, just a few short paces to the ruins themselves. Aged 15, I was thrilled to be allowed to explore on my own, clambering around the site with my precious SLR camera.

I loved picturing in my mind the city as it must have been in its heyday, after it was constructed as an estate for Pachacuti, the Inca emperor from 1438 to 1472. Its hard to imagine the sheer scale of effort needed to build this mountain-top city, deep in the mountains and forest.

Historians believe it was abandoned only a century or so after it was built  the Spanish conquest in 1532 introduced Smallpox which killed huge numbers of the native population, and although theres no evidence that the conquistadors ever discovered Peru, the disease may still have reached it via travelling Inca.

One day, I must try and find the film negatives from that trip!

My second trip to Machu Picchu was in 2005  I wanted Pete to see the beautiful sites of Peru. Our main trip was a wildlife-focused one to the Galapagos, but its such a long way from London to anywhere in South America that it made total sense to add Peru to the itinerary  thats my excuse and Im sticking to it!

I was worried that Machu Picchu might not live up to my memories, not least because the volume of tourists would be so very much higher. Certainly, on a visual level, a little of the magic of the site was diminished by all the people, tricky to exclude from photographs taken from most of the key viewpoints, not to mention the pedestrian traffic jams when traversing popular pathways and stairs. But I still found the site breathtaking, and loved being able to share it with Pete.

Angkor Wat is still on my ever-growing wishlist, as are many of the worlds most amazing places the Great Wall of China, Chichen Itza, and so many more.

Which place does this quote put in mind for you, and which places do you still dream of visiting?

This photo was taken on our 2005 trip to Peru, in the first few years after I switched from my film SLR to a digital one, making it far easier for me to find and browse through my photos from the trip and choose one to share!

More Kavey Eats Travel Quotes.

You are welcome to save or share via Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Please do not alter the image or crop out the attribution text.The MSRDC is also planning an additional connector from Bandstand in Bandra West.

Mumbai: In a relief to commuters, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is planning to extend the proposed 17.7 km Versova-Bandra Sea Link (VBSL) to Western Express Highway (WEH) in a bid to decongest the route. The route faces heavy traffic during peak hours and has lost the status of a highway, said Radheshyam Mopalwar, vice-chairman, MSRDC. On Saturday, the MSRDC signed an agreement with Reliance Infrastructure and Astaldi, an Italian company, to implement the project. The work is expected to start in October.

The VBSL has two connectors, one at Juhu Koliwada, which connects Otters Club at Juhu Tara Road, while the other one is at Nani Nani Park in Versova. We are planning to extend the connector from Otters club to Parle junction so as to connect the WEH. The connector from Versova will also be extended towards the Expressway. This is to unclog the Expressway, said Mr Mopalwar. The MSRDC is also planning an additional connector from Bandstand in Bandra West.

The sea link is expected to be operational in five years by September 2023, while the toll will continue till 2052.

The sea link will have more than one toll at different points, added Mr Mopalwar. The total engineering cost of the project is approximately Rs 7,000 crore.

We are very proud of having won this prestigious project, one of its kind in India. It will slash commute time from Worli to Versova from almost two hours to a mere 15 minutes, said Arun Gupta, Reliance Infrastructure Limited EPC, CEO.The BJP leader made a statement in front of the youth gathered on Monday during the Dahi Handi festival.

Mumbai: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ram Kadam from Mumbai's Ghatkopar constituency landed in controversy on Monday night after he reportedly promised the young men attending his Dahi Handi festival that he would kidnap the girl they liked provided they wanted to marry the girl. The Opposition has called the statement outrageous and demanded action against Mr Kadam. Woman activists have also condemned Mr Kadams statement. The BJP leader made a statement in front of the youth gathered on Monday during the Dahi Handi festival. But in his clarification Mr Kadam said that his statement was in response to the comment from the public and was not his view.

Mr Kadam organised a Dahi Handi festival in his Assembly constituency Ghatkopar (West) in Northeast Mumbai. He wanted to tell the gathered crowd there that he is readily available for the itinerary. He dictated his number to the public.

Then a youth said to him, Saheb, I propose to her but she is refusing. Please help me. (Someone shouts from crowd) But it's wrong. Kadam retorted: I will help you in this for 100 per cent if your parents say the girl is ok. Then (again noise from the crowd) ... I will pick her up and give her to you.

A video clip of this statement went viral on Tuesday. It has come as another embarrassment for Mr Kadam. When contacted, Mr Kadam gave his version of the controversy. I never wanted to say what is being interpreted. Somebody from the crowd shouted that whether I will pick the girl. I said, I would take permission of parents first. When the word permission is used, then how does picking the girl become a controversy? I didn't say forcefully picking. I said with permission, he clarified.

Meanwhile, the Opposition and women activists flayed the leader. Mr Kadam, this is King Shivaji Maharashtra. Youth here respect women. So nobody will come to you for help, slammed NCP state chief Jayant Patil. "Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also attended the festival there. Now, he should clarify whether we endorse this view," Mr Patil added. Opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil demanded action against Mr Kadam. "In the mythological period, Ravan had kidnapped Sita. But now, these people who use the name of Ram have thoughts of Ravan. This is sad. BJP must take action against him," demanded Mr Vikhe-Patil.

Woman activist Kiran Moghe said that the statement shows Mr Kadam's way of thinking. "This reveals the mindset of Mr Kadam. He sees woman as an object. This must be condemned and action should be taken against him," said Ms Moghe.



Meanwhile, the state government's minister of state for home Ranjit Patil distanced himself and his party from the controversy. "It's his (Mr Kadam's) personal view. Neither our party supports it nor government," said Mr Patil.

Mr Kadam has been a controversial MLA since he elected for the first time in 2009. Then he was Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MLA. He was accused in beating Samajwadi Party's Abu Azami in assembly during swearing in ceremony. He was suspended for two years from the house.

Mr Kadam was also accused in beating Police Inspector Sachin Suryavanshi in the assembly premises in 2012. He was accused with another MLA Kshitij Thakur.

He was also accused for beating political activists of Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh recently. That time, the protests were erupted across the state against him.Cyber experts warn that Germany, with its high level of technology expertise, is a attractive target for cyber attackers of all kinds.

A growing number of countries can hack into private computer networks and install malicious software to sabotage another countrys infrastructure, Germanys domestic spy chief said.

China, Russia and other countries continued to try to break into German companies computers to steal valuable industrial information, Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency, told a security conference. But intelligence officials are increasingly worried about so-called cyber bombs that could be planted in the network of an unsuspecting company and detonated later.

In the case of China, Russia, we clearly see measures like espionage, but it could also be sabotage with the goal of attacking companies in Germany - infrastructure firms in the widest sense - at some future point, Maassen said. That is a scenario that we view with concern.

Cyber experts warn that Germany - with its high level of technology expertise - is a particularly attractive target for cyber attackers of all kinds, including state actors.

A company could be completely oblivious to a cyber attack that had been used to plant malware - a cyber bomb, Maassen said. Then the bomb could shut down power networks, for example, perhaps during a time of geopolitical tension.

He said such attacks could come from a range of countries that have expanded their cyber expertise. In its annual report, the agency cited rapid strides in cyber technology by Iran, although it did not specifically spell out concerns about such sleeper attacks.

Germany is also increasingly concerned that China is seeking to gain dominant positions in key technology sectors by investing in German firms as part of it's larger Made in China 2025 drive, Maassen said.

That is a political project in which the government is spending a lot of money, not just to invest, but to buy information for its own technical progress, or to gain a position in specific areas that will make it impossible for others to continue developments there, he said.

Maassens remarks come amid a push by Germany and other European Union states to protect sensitive technologies from Chinese takeovers. In December, the BfV also warned about efforts by China to use fake LinkedIn accounts to recruit German business executives and researchers as spies.148 Shares Share

American medicine is in trouble, and the men and women who run our countrys medical societies are just the ones to save it.

Think about the trouble, the confusion, the upheaval. Some call it reform. Some call it progress. Some call it just more damn, unnecessary change. Health care is such a politically volatile phrase that its tough to have a civil conversation about whats working and what isnt. In Texas, Obamacare is a four-letter word, a label and a curse politicians use to kill ideas they dont like.

Everyones telling our doctors what to do: Government agencies and insurance companies and big hospitals and big pharma.

Patients are paying more and getting less  except theyre getting more fine print and more denials and more runarounds and more bills. They want their medical care fast and convenient and cheap. And theyre right. We need more well care and less sick care. We need less spending and fewer bills. We cant afford to take off a whole day to sit for hours in the waiting room with a feverish child.

American medicine needs and is heading toward a big disruption. Its up to Americas medical societies to make sure that disruption is good not just for some antiseptic Silicon Valley corporation. Its up to us to make sure that disruption is good for patients and for the physicians who care for them.

Disruptions are already rattling the foundations of our health care system. For example, the number of retail health clinics in this country grew by 445 percent from 2006 to 2014. Its not surprising. Overhead is low. Theyre open late. And the insurance companies and pharmacy chains reap all the profits.

If Uber and Lyft can disrupt transportation, if Warby Parker can disrupt eyeglasses, if Amazon can disrupt bookstores and then a whole lot more, lots of folks are going to continue to try to really shake up medicine. Thats going to happen  but medical societies need to make sure it happens right.

Disruptors rarely care about the destruction they leave in their wake. Aaron Montgomery Ward and Richard Sears didnt worry about the general store proprietors who lost business to their newfangled mail-order catalogs. Taxi drivers? They can slap Uber decals on the windows of their private cars  or be left in the dust.

But is that how we want to treat our physicians  with years and years of education and training and expertise?

Plenty of people  especially millennials, government types, and insurance companies  think technology can make our health care system more efficient and effective and affordable. Thats probably so. But the so-called automation thats being shoved down our physicians gullets today is making health care less efficient, less effective, and less affordable.

Physicians despise the electronic health records that take them away from patient care for more than half of their workdays. Now consider this. A recent Texas Medical Association survey found that 78 percent of physicians  men and women with a college degree and a doctoral degree and another three-plus years of specialized training  do their own data entry.

According to payscale.com, the mean hourly pay for data entry clerks in the U.S. this year is $12.52. Jim Madara, MD, the CEO of the American Medical Association, was right when he said, American physicians have become the most expensive data entry workforce on the face of the planet. What a waste. How frustrating.

Imagine the value medical societies would provide to our physicians if we devised a way to correct that. Imagine the loyalty we would build.

For everyone involved, it comes down to value. The consumers of health care  patients, employers, insurers, and taxpayers  demand value from physicians for their time and their money. Our member physicians demand value, in turn, from their medical societies.

Value, though, is in the eye of the beholder, or the shareholder, or the patient, or the member. Give them what they want  or pay the price.

But can our docs really do that?

Once it was pretty easy. When I was a kid, our pediatrician provided the value my parents expected with a house call and a frigid stethoscope laid on my fevered chest.

Insurance companies and government agencies today have a different expectation. They call it value-based care.

Our physicians can and should play the central role in setting that value equation. Individually, most of them cant. They dont have the clout to define value in a way that makes sense for their patients health  and for everyones money. They dont have the time or the training or the equipment or the capital to redesign their practices so that they always deliver that value and can vouch for it.

Thats where medical societies come in. We can, we should, and we often do organize those individual doctors into cohesive blocks that have the clout. Clout to stop the idiocy being imposed on them by elected officials, judges, bureaucrats, bean counters, and hospital administrators who have no idea how a physicians practice can and should run. Clout to bring the physicians and patients voices to the forefront of the health care value debate.

Plus, we teach our physicians how best to adjust to those changes. We provide them services that they trust to help them make those changes. We offer them guidance on the changes that are coming next so that they are ready and able to deliver physician-designed, patient-centric, value-based care.

And as medical society executives, thats our challenge. Be relevant. Be authoritative. Be effective.

Thats how we provide value that overcomes the obstacles posed by physician employers who have usurped our traditional roles. Thats how we overcome obstacles posed by a generation of physicians who seem association-averse. Thats how we overcome obstacles posed by hordes of consultants and e-services that are nimble enough to move quickly into the space we have inadvertently abandoned.

If every county, state, and specialty society provides that value consistently, diligently, doggedly, they will come. The members will come. We will no longer have to fight for our survival. We will be the disrupters who blaze a better path for our physicians.

We will be the disruptors who save American medicine.

Steve Levine is vice-president of communication, Texas Medical Association, and president, American Association of Medical Society Executives. This is an adaptation of his installation address, delivered at the AAMSE Annual Conference in July, 2018.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com438 Shares Share

Recently, a male physician made public a common, inaccurate, and appalling opinion: Women are paid less, because they dont want to work hard.

The comment, in the September issue of the Dallas Medical Journal, asserts that women are paid less, because they see fewer patients. This is because women physicians choose to or they simply dont want to be rushed. He writes that most of the time, their priority is something else  family, social, whatever.

Removing my subjective revulsion to the comments momentarily, they are plainly and objectively wrong. Women physicians are truly paid less than male counterparts, corrected for things like productivity and experience. This truth continues to be published in study after study (many of which were outlined in the Annals of Internal Medicine earlier this year. So, how does this inaccurate belief persist?

The comments speak to a basic misogynistic belief that women care more for and should be responsible for household and social duties. Should it be assumed that because I am a mother, I choose to work less and bake cupcakes for the PTA? Why is this same assumption not made for fathers in medicine? Frankly, you would be much more impressed with my skill in joint injection than you would be with my baking. My stay-at-home husband makes a delicious batch of cookies, though. Ask any woman in medicine, and she will tell you that she has heard comments like this before. With this seemingly unflappable belief, what real choice do women have but to do the lions share of unpaid work?

Should research, common sense, and self-reflection not be enough to shake your opinion in this matter, I invite you to visit me at my practice in Richmond, VA. when you do, you will observe a dedicated, hard working physician. You will find that I am the sole breadwinner for my family of five and that I work as fast, as hard, and as long as any of my male colleagues (who, as a side, are wonderful). You will meet my many talented female colleagues and mentors who are leaders in my institution and in their field. They work harder and longer than I do. You will find that anything you can do, we can do in high heels while hooked up to a breast pump. I extend this offer honestly and with hope that you may seek to understand the profound offense comments like these offer to women in our profession.

As with most stagnant opinions, they are unlikely to change without a direct challenge. May I humbly recommend that anyone still in disagreement have their salary reduced to the lowest paid female physician in their practice. Would a 20 percent pay cut be enough to raise you from your seat? What if in addition to this pay cut, you also had to bear children, provide them exclusive breast milk for a year, handle the household budget, chores, shopping, cooking, and conjure responses to questions such as, Why are you just a part-time daddy and not a full-time daddy like all the other dads in the neighborhood? If this should prove to be too much for you to handle, you may choose to leave medicine, and that would be fine. I would loathe to call a person with such noxious opinions a colleague for a minute longer.

Megan S. Lemay is an internal medicine physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com397 Shares Share

What is evidence? How do we gather evidence of patient harm? More importantly, what is the evidence that counts?

A research paper dating back to 2004 suggests that besides research evidence, clinical and patient experiences, as well as contextual information also constitute evidence. However, the only currency of science is data collected through systematic and rigorous research.

But when it comes to the business of medical error, the 3rd leading cause of death in the United Statesresearch is a vehicle that doesnt get us far enough. It lets us look through a straw at wicked problems  a term coined by Rittel and Webber to describe problems so complex and multi-faceted that science cant sufficiently address them. Policy, economics, climate change, and even some types of software design have all been dubbed wicked problems. Medical error has undoubtedly joined the ranks.

Research only allows us to sample brief instances in the patient care continuum. And because medical error is often a consequence of multiple little things that go wrong adding up to potential harm, sampling cant capture all of them. What is needed is continuity across the care continuum. Only the patient or their caregiver have this continuity. This is where stories come in.

I recently had a paper rejected from a reputable health care journal  my own story. The paper was a theoretical analysis of a prevented medical error (a misdiagnosis that called for an unnecessary medical procedure) during my fathers hospital stay  a case of decision-making bias based on a breakdown in the continuum of care. The paper was rejected for two reasons  one, being that the journal has already published similar stories (personal stories of harm or prevented harm)  and two, my story was not deemed plausible by one of the MD reviewers. Reasonable feedback. Except I wrote it exactly as it happened, plausible or not. The tricky thing about medical errorit is not just the plausible errors that happen. The errors that systems science is struggling with are the ones that are unanticipated  implausible, leaving us to feel like how could this have happened?

We need brave voices to tell stories of medical error. To do so, a mother, Sorrel King, joined forces with patient safety experts. After losing her 18-month old daughter to medical error in 2001 at one of the best hospitals in the US, Sorrel made it her mission to bring attention to avoidable patient harm. I heard her speak at the 2018 Human Factors Healthcare Symposium, a conference focused on safety and quality in health care. A heartbreaking reminder that one does have the power to create a platform where none existed and motivate change on a large scale.

No research effort can capture the complexity and the context of an actual lived experience of medical error sufficiently. A story like Sorrels can.

But such stories are not data, not to scientists charged with providing research evidence! We need to turn them into data. Promisingly, many medical journals accept stories, but stop short at exemplars rather than at demonstrating the prevalence and variety  and mostly importantly, the complexity of medical errors. The clinical picture of a patient has long been conceived as a story  a series of events connected through time, clinical and home settings, through clinicians, patients, and caregivers. And very importantly, about the capture and understanding of the context and complexity in which the patient story takes place. Thus, it is the format of a story that gives justice to the latent and active factors contributing to medical error. Through the mechanisms of telling stories and publishing them, we can turn them into data to fuel science in advancing patient safety efforts.

Elizabeth Lerner Papautsky is a psychologist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.comInternational visitors to Kilkenny spend less of their holiday cash in the county than holiday-makers to other counties, new figures show.



But Irish people coming to visit Kilkenny spent a little more here than many other counties in Ireland - showing the boost to the countys economy from domestic visitors for hen and stag parties and weekend festivals!



The Central Statistics Office, together with Failte Ireland, keep records of visitor number and their holiday spending, through passenger surveys.



Those figures can now tell us that in 2017 Kilkenny welcomed 315,000 foreign visitors. Between them they spent 55 million. While this is a great injection into the local economy the same survey figures show other counties with a much higher spend per tourist. For example visitors to Louth also spent 55 million - even though that county only had 172,000 international visitors.



Kilkenny is number eight on the list of counties that attracted foreign tourists last year, behind Dublin, Galway, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Limerick and Mayo.



When it comes to domestic tourism Kilkenny is only the twelfth most popular destination with Irish people. Last year 211,000 Irish people visited. Ahead of this county were Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Wexford, Mayo, Tipperary, Donegal, Clare, Wicklow and Waterford.



In a reverse of the habits of international visitors, Irish visitors spent a little more per-person in Kilkenny - 298,000 visitors spent 69 million. 327,000 visitors to Waterford spent 58 million; Wicklows 319,000 domestic visitors spent 49 million; and Kildare welcomed 286,000 visitors who spent 36 million.A number of families in Ballyhale will walk to school in protest tomorrow (Wednesday) as their children prepare to enter a second week with no seat on the schoolbus.

They are among the students who have been refused a concessionary ticket on the bus to the local national school this term, despite some of them having had a seat in previous years.

One local parent, John Drennan, has four children attending the school. None has been given a bus place.

Last Thursday morning, the four boys got up and dressed in their school uniforms, and Mr Drennan dropped them down to the bus stop. As their friends boarded they were left sitting there, because they have no tickets and the driver could not let them on board.

Speaking to the Kilkenny People, Mr Drennan, who is among those taking part in the walk, said the lack of communication as well as any headway was frustrating.

Theres been no progress up until now, nothing has changed, he said.

We still have no ticket. Its quite upsetting at this stage.

We would have been expecting something to have happened by now.

The Drennan family contacted Tusla themselves last week to inform them of the situation, and why the boys were not in school.

Everything takes so long, its quite disappointing. No one is even coming up with a suggestion or saying something can be done, or even cant be done, he said.

Mr Drennan is a busy farmer, and his children are at different stages in school, so they require three different collection times.

What many parents are hoping for now is a minibus to be provided even for just the morning to alleviate the situation.

Frustration too is growing with Junior Education Minister John Halligan, who parents  and Kilkennys own Minister of State John Paul Phelan  say has not responded to them or addressed their concerns.

Speaking to the Kilkenny People, Minister of State Phelan warned that if no progress is made ahead of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting in Galway on Thursday, matters would come to a head.

Asked whether he had heard from Minister of State Halligan on the issue, the Fine Gael TD said he had not at any stage, despite several attempts.

Deputy Phelan said it was not just him, but that colleagues from all over the country would be raising the issue.

It is particularly chronic this year and several will raise it, and I myself will be raising it, he said.

He added that the current system of allocating bus tickets needs to be tweaked to accommodate those who have previously had tickets but now lost them in the Bus Eireann lottery system.

For people who have made decisions about sending their kids to a school, and then to be told halfway through that you cant get the ticket youve had the last two or three years  I dont see why they cant be accommodated, he said.

A bit of common sense needs to be used.

READ MORE HEREEva Lynch of Thomastown was delighted to have her designs chosen for inclusion in an exhibition at the RDS library in Dublin which was hosted by The Advisory Committee on Sacred Art and Architecture for The World Meeting of Families.

The exhibition included print by Patrick Pye, sculpture by Cliodhna Cussen, stained glass by Phyllis Burke, paintings by Ann McKenna and several more artists. The competition theme was Religious Art in The Home and artists were asked to draw inspiration from any text from the Amoris Laetitia.

I chose simply The Good Seed as my starting point, and I wanted to convey the messages of social inclusion and community which were also apparent throughout the Amoris Laetitia. The seed motif, evident throughout all of my pieces, is comprised of little ovals which could represent the faces of a community gathered around a baby, or in a religious context, the twelve apostles gathered around Jesus.

The idea for my first piece was a Christening Capsule which would house any important certificates such as the birth or christening certificates, and in a separate compartment the candle. The domed amethyst lid of the capsule also functions as a candle holder," she said.

The materials used were silver, purple heart wood which was beautifully turned by Kilkenny wood-turner John Flynn, and amethyst.

The second piece was a wall font in silver and carved amethyst, and finally a silver and amethyst seed pendant which is available for sale from her online shop.

Eva also teaches jewellery-making. She hosts workshops where couples can make their own wedding rings and facilitates jewellery-making and sight-seeing tours of India, the next of which takes place in January 2019.

For more information on all of Evas work please visit www.evalynchdesign.com.UN and aid groups have warned that full assault on Idlib could spark humanitarian catastrophe not yet seen in Syria's 7-yr-old conflict.

'President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy,' Trump tweeted. (Photo: File)

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syria against launching an attack on the country's last rebel stronghold with the help of Russia and Iran, saying the offensive could trigger a "human tragedy."

"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," Trump tweeted.

"Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!"

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict.

Syrian government forces are now massing around the northwestern province of Idlib, which is held by a complex array of rebels and violent extremist fighters, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers.

Russia and Iran have insisted that extremist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault.

Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored a negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in Syria.

Last year, they had designated Idlib as a "de-escalation" zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire.

All the while seeking to pressure Turkey into reining in jihadists in Idlib, Damascus's main sponsor Russia has been sounding the war drums in recent days.

Tehran and Moscow provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said an all-out assault on Idlib and its catastrophic consequences could still be avoided.

Russia, whose air support would be crucial for the offensive to succeed, should understand that a bloodbath in Idlib would jeopardize its own political goals, according to ICG.

"By backing an all-out offensive, Russia risks undermining its long-term political objectives in Syria," ICG wrote in a nine-page briefing entitled "Saving Idlib from destruction."

US warnings ring hollow?

Despite Trump's warning, analysts believe the United States appears resigned to the likelihood of a final military victory by Syrian government forces.

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."

Trump said in April that "it's time" to bring American troops home from Syria -- once the jihadists of the ISIS 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.Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were investigating the killing of ten Rohingya. Now they have to serve a seven-year prison sentence for possession of secret documents. The controversial ruling represents a blow to the countrys legal system, to freedom of the press and to its democratic transition.

Yangon (AsiaNews)  After expressing their disappointment at the seven-year prison sentence inflicted on two Reuters reporters, journalists, human rights activists and the international community have demander their immediate release.

According to critics, the controversial ruling represents a major blow to the countrys legal system, to freedom of the press and to its democratic transition.

Since the arrest of the two journalists, many observers  including some MPs and members of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) of Aung San Suu Kyi  believe the whole thing was a police set-up.

In particular, U Win Htein, a leading NLD politician, expressed doubts, later confirmed by a witness during the trial: Wa Lone (32) and Kyaw Soe Oo (28) were enticed by agents who offered them "secret documents" before their arrest.

Police also said that they found information on the defendants phones about Pope Franciss apostolic visit to the country last year (27-30 November 2017), including details about security arrangements.

Defence attorney Ko Than Zaw Aung describe the verdict as "disappointing. This shows the critical situation facing democracy, freedom of expression and the rule of law in Myanmar, which is said to be undergoing democratisation.

For Aye Win, a former correspondent for the Associated Press, the sentence will have a very negative impact upon the dignity of the government. Which does not seem to consider [press freedom] as [a] builder of democracy. This is the complete reverse of democratisation. It is very disappointing.

In the same vein, Deputy Information Minister U Aung Hla Tun said he feels a little sorry for them, as I once worked as a journalist. But there is still hope for them. This is not the end. They still have a chance according to the law. They can appeal to the higher courts. I pray for them. Thats all I can say.

At the same time, he acknowledges that There are laws that restrict press freedom, which have been in force for years, and which are being reviewed now. On the other hand, journalists have to follow ethics. This is very important. And they must also have professional skills.

For some experts, the legal system is also at fault. According to U Sein Wn, training director ay the Myanmar Journalism Institute, the former "is severely paralysed. The message of the verdict is that, You should not seek the truth.

Sadly, This indicates that democracy is doomed and there is no press freedom in Myanmar, noted Ko Thalun Zaung Htet, a Myanmar Press Council member-elect. The NLD [National League for Democracy] has become authoritarian. Soon, we journalists will take to the streets.Russia resumed airstrikes after a three-week hiatus with at least ten warplanes. Trump warns Moscow and Damascus. In the province, rebel groups prepare their resistance amid doubts about Turkish support. If the city falls, we'll all end up in the cemetery, said a source in the besieged city.

Damascus (AsiaNews)  The joint Russian-Syrian offensive against rebel-held Idlib, in north-western Syria, began this morning with a series of Russian airstrikes.

Renewed fighting after a three-week hiatus is a signal that the Syrian regime and its allies are ready for a final push, raising concerns in the local Church and international organisations about the evolving situation, especially as it impacts on civilians.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), "Russian warplanes resumed bombing Idlib province after a 22-day pause. This comes after rebel units in Idlib hit government positions in neighbouring Latakia province.

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha. No details are available about casualties among anti-regime forces.

According to some diplomatic sources, the offensive against the rebel-held province is gearing up to be Russias largest air campaign of the year.

The mornings attack involved at least ten Sukhoi fighter planes carrying out more than 50 raids in the southern and eastern parts of the province, which is home to about three million people, a third of whom displaced from other parts of Syria.

Before the attack, US President Donald Trump issued a warning against Moscow and Damascus. On Twitter, the US leader warned Assad that he must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!

For their part, rebel groups appear to be getting ready for the government attack and willing to fight until the end to defend their stronghold.

Contrary to previous cases in Aleppo, Ghouta or Deraa where rebels worked out a deal with the Syrian regime to leave through humanitarian corridors, Idlib is their final stand. There is no escape route to any other part of the country.

"We have no other place to go, so it's clear that we will defend ourselves," said a fighter named Abdelrahmane, speaking to Lebanese French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour. In the area you can breathe an atmosphere that varies from anguish to optimism. I'm sure nothing will happen. The Turks are ready to send more reinforcements".

Despite such hope in Turkish support, Ankara is not likely to provide any military aid or even let the rebels cross into its territory given its current economic woes.

"Will there be a battle? When it happens, we will think about it and make provisions," said another rebel, Aya Fadel.

Today Idlib is home to displaced people from eastern Ghouta. One of them is Walid Awata, a doctor who lives in Afrin but provides his medical services throughout the province, including to rebel groups.

"Idlib is not like all other regions," he warns. "Today it is considered the soul of the revolution, because it is the last bastion, the last place on the chessboard. If it falls, we'll all end up in the cemetery."Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], Sept 04 (ANI): Mother of a woman, who was allegedly trafficked to Oman on the pretext of a job, has sought External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj's help to rescue her daughter.

The woman from Hyderabad is stranded in Oman and is being ill-treated by her employers. Last month, the family members of the woman had filed a First Information Report (FIR) in this regard at Amberpet police station of Hyderabad city.

In his complaint, victim's husband Shaik Jhangeer, said that he and his wife Parveen Begum met with a travel agent named Javeed for a job in Oman. Jhangeer alleged that Parveen, who left for Oman on February 21 to start her job, is being made to work in many houses as a maid and is also being beaten by her employer. He also claimed that his wife is not receiving any payment in lieu of her services.

Speaking to ANI Noorjahan Begum, mother of the victim, said, "We were told by the agent that my daughter will be working in a hospital. After reaching there she informed us that she is being made to work in a home as a maid. The situation of my daughter was fine for the first three months, but after that, her employers started torturing her and she is now forced to work in multiple houses. She is also not given food and is requesting us for immediate rescue."

Noorjahan also said that her daughter's health has become worse and no medical care is being provided to her in the foreign land.

The family of the victim also asserted that the agent who helped the victim in getting the job is absconding. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)The senator has repeatedly accused the president of asset concealment and denounced his war on drugs. He is the second Filipino senator to have an arrest warrant issued against him; the first one was for Leila de Lima. Redemptorist priest says death squads are after him.

Manila (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte (picture 1) has ordered the arrest of Senator Antonio Trillanes (picture 2), one of his main political opponents, over failed coups more than a decade ago.

In what many observers consider the president's latest move to silence dissidents, Duterte signed an executive order dated 31 August and published in todays Manila Times that revokes an amnesty granted to Trillanes for his role in two coup attempts in 2003 and 2007 against then President Gloria Arroyo.

Since Duterte came to power, Mr Trillanes has repeatedly accused the president of assets concealment and backed complaints against the president filed before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the murder of thousands of people in connection with his war on drugs.

In his order, the president directs the military and the police to employ all lawful means to apprehend the coup leader so that he can be recommitted to the detention facility where he had been incarcerated for him to stand trial for the crimes he is charged with.

Its a clear case of political persecution, Trillanes told a TV station. After This incident, [it] should be clear to everyone that Mr Duterte is a dictator, he added. He does not respect institutions.

The senator, who told reporters on Tuesday that amnesty is an act of Congress that cannot be revoked through executive order, becomes the second lawmaker and fierce Duterte critic to face arrest. Senator Leila de Lima was detained in February 2017 on drug-trafficking charges.

Civil society and human rights groups have complained for months about the presidents intimidation tactics against his critics.

The Catholic Church, which leads more than 83 million Filipinos, has been in the presidents crosshair. On several occasions, members of the clergy and nuns have been the object of intimidation, the latest example being that of Fr Amado Picardal (picture 3).

A Redemptorist priest and human rights activist, the clergyman is one of the people who spoke out against the Davao death squads, groups of policemen and vigilantes responsible for extrajudicial killings, during Dutertes stint (1988-1998, 2001- 2010, 2013-2016) as mayor of the southern Filipino city.

The priest, who says he "almost" became the victim of one of the death squads, has been in hiding at a secret location since mid-August, when staff at the Redemptorist monastery in Cebu reported seeing several suspicious individuals on motorcycles loitering nearby.

What is more, Fr Picardal reports that since last year, he has been receiving information that the infamous death squad was about to hit priests and that he was at the top of their list. In fact, three priests have been killed by unknown gunmen since the start of 2018.

They are determined to complete their project [of killing me]. Otherwise, they wont get paid, noted the clergyman, adding that a source told him that Malacanang (the presidential palace) ordered his assassination.Washington D.C September 04: As newly elected government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan is willing to pursue an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, a group of United States Senators have asserted that Islamabad is at risk of debt distress due to rising current-account deficit and external debt obligations caused by the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

David A Perdue, Patrick Leahy and 14 other U.S. senators have written to Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin while expressing concern over bailout request by countries that fall in China's debt trap.

"This financial crisis illustrates the dangers of China's debt-trap diplomacy and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to developing countries, as well as the national security threat they pose to the United States," said the senators in their letter.

The Centre for Global Development has estimated that of the 68 countries currently hosting BRI-funded projects, 23 countries are at risk of debt distress, and in eight of those countries, future BRI-related financing raises serious concerns about sovereign debt sustainability.

"It is also found that Chinese behaviour as a creditor has not been subject to the disciplines and standards that other major sovereigns and other multilateral creditors have adopted collectively, and in the process, debt levels and dependence on China are rising," said the senator by citing an example of Sri Lanka, which was promised a bailout of $1.5 billion by IMF in 2016.

As financially strapped countries negotiate with China to free themselves of mounting debt, Beijing has extracted onerous concessions, including equity in strategically important assets. Further, Beijing has reportedly used economic pressure to affect foreign policy decisions.

The senators wrote, "In Djibouti, for instance, China has provided more than $1.4 billion in infrastructure funding, equivalent to 75 per cent of Djibouti's GDP. Most of that capital comes in the form of loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. The most recent IMF assessment stresses the extremely risky nature of Djibouti's borrowing program, noting that in just two years, public external debt has increased from 50 to 85 per cent of GDP, the highest of any low-income country."

"As Djibouti increases its dependence on China, there are fears that China will gain control of the Doraleh Container Terminal, further consolidating China's influence in the critically strategic region," the letter added.

Last year, the Sri Lankan government, after being unable to repay over $1 billion of Chinese debt for construction of the Hambantota Port, granted a Chinese state company, a 99-year lease on the facility.

There are concerns that given Pakistan's growing Chinese debt, the same could happen at Gwadar Port in Pakistan. The U.S. senators, who have also addressed their letter to Defense Secretary James N. Mattis wrote, "In China's String of Pearls strategy for the Indo-Pacific, Gwadar and Hambantota are important footholds that if converted into naval bases will enable the PLA Navy to maintain a permanent presence in the Indian Ocean."

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)New Delhi, Sept 4: Congress president Rahul Gandhi faced flak back at home after a section of the Nepali private media claimed that he ate non-veg food in Kathmandu, enroute to the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) marked its dissent after the reports emerge, asking the Congress, along with Gandhi, to issue an apology to crores of Hindes whose "sentiments have been hurt by his insensitive approach" while being on the pilgrimage.

While the Congress denied the allegations, ambiguity prevailed on whether the Gandhi scion ate non-vegetarian food.

In a bid to end the controversy, the Kathmandu restaurant - Vootoo - issued an statement claiming that the Congress chief ate "only pure veg food" while halting for a meal.

"There has been plenty of inquiry from the media regarding the food ordered by Rahul Gandhi, President of Indian National Congress during his visit at Vootoo. We would like to clarify that he ordered pure veg items from the menu. Vootoo has not given any statement to any media regarding the food items ordered by him," said the statement issued by the restaurant.

This contradicts the reports in Nepali media, which alleged that Gandhi had ordered the Nevai dish plate, which includes chicken momos and chicken kurkure.

After the restaurant clarified, the Congress issued a statement accusing the BJP of politicising the incident for "petty political gains". Calling the controversy baseless, the party said the issue was raked up on the behest of BJP to defame Gandhi.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 04, 2018 10:17 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).New Delhi, September 4: Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday has reiterated that Major Leetul Gogoi will be dealt severely in the court-martial proceedings according to charges levelled by the court of inquiry against him. Talking to reporters, he said, I had clearly said that any case of moral turpitude and corruption would be dealt with sternly. A court of inquiry has been conducted which has recommended that we should go in for court-martial proceedings for whatever he has been found guilty of.

The Chief of Army Staff also said that Major Gogoi would be punished according to the crime he has committed. Earlier in May also Gen Rawat promised an exemplary punishment to Major Leetul Gogoi if he was found guilty of any offence. On May 23, along with Territorial Army man Sameer Ahmed Mall and a local girl were detained by Jammu and Kashmir Police following an altercation at the Hotel Grand Mamta as the staff refused to let her in. After questioning Major Gogoi and Malla were handed over to their unit, while the girl was handed over to her maternal uncle.

Action will be taken based on his guilt that emerges from this. If it's related directly to moral turpitude then we'll take action accordingly. If it is something else then a punishment will be given to him according to the crime he has committed: Army Chief on Major Leetul Gogoi pic.twitter.com/QBqrdeJmaz  ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018

A court-martial was ordered against him as Court of Inquiry (CoI) ordered against him finding that he has violated armys rule. According to official sources, the Indian Army officer has violated standard operating procedure by staying away from his place of duty without informing anybody and developing a relationship with a woman in a conflict zone.

Major Gogoi shot to fame last year after tying a local Kashmiri Farooq Ahmed Dar to a bonnet of his jeep in Budgam district in an attempt to save his convoy from stone-pelters. He was later awarded the Chief of Army Staffs Commendation card for his act.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 04, 2018 12:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Seoul, September 4: In a tragic incident, One worker was killed, while two others were injured when carbon dioxide leaked at a Samsung Electronics chip plant on Tuesday in Suwon, 34 km from Seoul. According to a report published by AFP, the three were found unconscious in the basement of the semiconductor factory. A 24-year-old man was declared dead in hospital, while and two others of 26 and 54 years of age remained unconscious.

According to the reports, all were employees of one of Samsungs suppliers and were inspecting the factorys gas-related facilities. The 24-year-old man was believed to have died because of suffocation due to a carbon dioxide leak. There is a vast semiconductor production compound of Samsung in Suwon. Police and fire authorities were investigating the exact cause of the incident.

It is not the first fatal incident which occurred at major companies in South Korea. In March 2014, one worker of a Samsung subcontractor was killed for a carbon dioxide leak in a Samsung facility in Suwon city. In a similar incident in January, four workers suffocated due to a gas leak at a steel factory owned by Posco in the southern city of Pohang. In August last year also, an explosion of a fuel tank in a vessel under construction at the headquarters of STX Offshore and Shipbuilding in the southern city of Changwon claimed lives of four workers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 04, 2018 05:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Chosen because it is the story of a family destroyed and then rebuilt. Director: we have taken into account the relevance of the topic. For the 23rd edition of the Festival, 323 films from 79 countries will be screened.

Busan (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The pain of a young woman, a family destroyed and rebuilt: This is the theme of "Beautiful Days", the film that tells the story of a young North Korean refugee and that next month will open the Busan International Film Festival.

The film, directed by Yun Jero, starring Lee Na-young (see photo), follows the steps of a woman who flees from North Korea to the South through China, leaving behind her husband and son. 16 years pass, and the woman meets the now grown up child, who nourishes a strong resentment towards her. "We have paid attention to four things, in terms of the advancement of the film's history - explains Jeon Yang-jun, executive director of the festival  although it talks about the disintegration of a family, in the end it tells a story of family reunification. We have taken into account the relevance of the topic ".

The 23rd edition of the Festival will be held between October 4-13 in five country cinemas, including the Busan Cinema Center, in Busan (325 km southeast of Seoul). 323 films from 79 countries will be screened, including the first of 115 productions, including 30 short films. The last work of the Hong Kong director Yuen Woo-Ping, "Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy", will close the festival.Sep 4, 2018, 1:52pm ET

Mercedes-Benz reveals 2020 EQC

The all-electric crossover is expected to have a driving range of around 200 miles.

Mercedes-Benz has finally revealed the 2020 EQC after a lengthy teaser campaign.

The EQC 400 4Matic is the company's first fully electric SUV and the first model to launch under the new EQ sub-brand, which stands for 'Electric Intelligence.'

A dual-motor drivetrain provides 402 horsepower and 564 pound-feet of torque delivered to both axles, with an estimated driving range of 'up to' 200 miles.

Drivers can expect to hit 60 mph from a stop in just 4.9 seconds, eventually topping out at an electronically limited 112 mph.

The EQC presumably has been benchmarked against the Model X 75D, which also carries a 4.9-second zero-to-60 mph time. Mercedes-Benz' range estimate falls short of the 75D's 237 miles, however, despite the EQC's larger 80-kWh battery.

The German automaker has adapted its Mbux multimedia system with various EQ-optimized features, including a new navigation system that considers remaining battery range and shortest charging times.

Production is scheduled to start next year at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen.A Bethlehem teenager is facing multiple felonies for allegedly stripping a juvenile girl naked at knifepoint, filming the girl and posting the video on social media.

Angel Carrasquillo Jr., 18, demanded $400 for damage to his car, and was driving around the city Sunday afternoon with the victim inside a van, when he led police on a high-speed chase and crashed, police said.

Carrasquillo took off on foot after the crash, but was eventually captured, according to police.

The victim, who is acquainted with Carrasquillo, was found in the back of the van, still unclothed, police said.

Carrasquillo, of the 1200 block of Center Street in Bethlehem, is charged with unlawful restraint of a minor, aggravated assault, filming a child in a prohibited sexual act, fleeing police, reckless endangerment, defiant trespass, making terroristic threats and driving with a suspended license.

His bail was set at $50,000, and he was sent to Northampton County Prison after failing to post the amount.

Police said they were initially called Sunday morning by the girl's father, to report Carrasquillo came to the home after being told to stay away.

Carrasquillo was already free on bail for allegedly burglarizing the residence, police said.

Records show Carasquillo was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, theft and receiving stolen property. He was free on 10 percent of $5,000 bail in that case, and was scheduled for formal arraignment on those charges later this month.

Carrasquillo reportedly told police he went to the home to drop off a cellphone, and an officer advised Carrasquillo he would be facing a defiant trespass charge since he was told to stay away.

The girl told police that later in the day, Carrasquillo picked her up at her home, and then drove her to a wooded area in the 900 block of East Market Street.

Carrasquillo forced the girl out of the van, took her clothes off while he held a knife, then recorded this girl with his cellphone, police said.

Carrasquillo also allegedly threatened to kill the girl's family.

The girl said Carrasquillo then continued to drive her around the city. The girl told officers she told Carrasquillo to let her go, but he refused, and she tried to yell out the window, put the van in park and kicked the windshield.

Carrasquillo posted the video on social media, where it was seen by the girl's family, who contacted police.

The family tried to arrange to meet Carrasquillo to give him the $400; Carrasquillo led officers on a high-speed chase in Bethlehem, ultimately crashing at Fritz Drive and Marvine Street authorities said.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Bethlehem police say they've caught the man responsible for a rash of indecent exposure incidents over the course of a week last month near the Lehigh University campus.

Pedro Alvira Lopez, 27, of the 500 block of Jackson Street in the city, was arraigned Tuesday on six counts of indecent exposure, six counts of open lewdness and six counts of disorderly conduct. District Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalez set bail at $75,000 and Lopez was sent to Northampton County Prison.

Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio says in a news release that the incidents happened between Aug. 17 and Aug. 24. He says police are looking for more potential victims.

Lopez, the chief says, was caught after an approximately 9:30 p.m. Aug. 24 encounter with one of the victims, who reported he was walking in the area of East Morton and Taylor streets when a man in a vehicle called him over to the vehicle.

The man exposed himself to the victim and started to masturbate, DiLuzio says. The victim reported the encounter to police and patrol officers later located the vehicle with Lopez inside. The victim identified Lopez as the exposer, the chief says.

An investigation determined that five other males were allegedly targeted by Lopez in similar encounters, the first of which occurred on Aug. 17.

Anyone who believes they were a victim of Lopez or know someone who may be, is asked to contact Bethlehem Police Department Detectives, Detective Moses Miller, at 610-865-7187.

Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.As of Thursday there were 196 children in the Easton Area School District who didn't have required immunizations or a medical plan to get them, the superintendent said Tuesday.

If the students don't have one or the other by Wednesday, they will be banned from district schools, John Reinhart said.

Pennsylvania requires all students have four doses of the tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis vaccine (one dose after the fourth birthday); four doses of the polio vaccine (the fourth dose after the fourth birthday and at least six months after the previous dose); two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; three doses of the hepatitis B vaccine, and two doses of the chickenpox vaccine, according to information provided by the district.

Students in grades seven through 12 must also have two doses of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine (the first dose given between 11 and 15 years of age and a second at age 16 or the entrance to 12th grade), and an additional dose of the tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis vaccine.

An email from Director of Student and Community Services Karen Trinkle said the "nursing team has worked hard to communicate and notify and support families. Weekly calls and personal contacts have been provided since the beginning of August."

Parents of those facing exclusion will receive another message that says "your child's records were audited and is in need of vaccines before they may begin the 2018-19 school year. Your child must receive the required vaccine(s) or present a medical plan prior to returning to school."

The families were given a five-day grace period after school started, Trinkle said in her email.

"Please contact your school nurse to make these arrangements, to avoid disruption of your child's education," the message to parents says.

If a student is told they may not return, the process is basic to get reinstated, Trinkle said.

"... Any student who has been notified of exclusion simply needs to provide a medical plan, which can include a date of a verified appointment, and those students shall be permitted to attend," she wrote.

There are exceptions, according to state guidelines, including medical reasons, religious beliefs and philosophical or strong moral or ethical conviction. Those students can be removed from school during an outbreak, the guidelines say.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.A 20-year-old Palmer Township man kidnapped a woman on Sunday from a gathering in the 1200 block of Butler Street in Easton, assaulted her and drove her to the Walmart in Lower Nazareth Township where she eventually escaped, city police report.

Raekwon Washington, 20, of Palmer Township. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Raekwon Kenneth Washington, of the first block of Freedom Terrace, is not in custody but faces charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, simple assault and harassment, records show.

The woman, who had a protection-from-abuse order against Washington, was at a friend's home when Washington walked by, grabbed her by both arms, picked her up and slammed her into a brick wall, police said after speaking to her.

He then forced her into a black vehicle and punched her in the eye, police said. She told an investigator that she screamed for Washington to let her go, but he held her arms and hands so she couldn't get out, police said.

Washington drove to the store at 3722 Nazareth Highway and wouldn't let her out of the vehicle, police said. While at the Walmart, she was able to get away and ran for help, police said.

Colonial Regional police brought her to Easton police who took her statement, court papers say. She had swelling to her right eye, bruises to her upper arms and scrapes and scratches to her back and left side, police said.

Washington was charged in February 2017 after violating a protection order held by a woman and fighting with police, records show. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, two charges were withdrawn and Washington was fined by the district court in Wilson Borough, records show. It wasn't immediately clear if that order involved the same woman.

An attorney who previously represented Washington couldn't immediately be reached to see if he was still Washington's lawyer and if he had any comment.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.The Northampton County coroner on Tuesday identified the truck driver who was struck and killed on Thursday morning next to his disabled truck on Route 33 South in Bushkill Township.

Andrii Diakov, 33, was a Ukrainian citizen who lived in Canada, Coroner Zachary Lysek said.

Diakov died from multiple blunt force trauma and his death was ruled an accident, Lysek said.

Pennsylvania State Police said Diakov, of Thornhill, Ontario, was on the shoulder of the highway when a 43-year-old Jefferson Township, Pennsylvania, man driving south at 9:04 a.m. in the right lane crossed into the berm and hit the trucker, police said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.by Nirmala Carvalho

The "Jesus Comforts You Trust" is located in the district of Tirupur. The police interrupted the annual festival and accused the organizers of noise pollution i. Sajan K George: "All the festivals in India are celebrated with loud music".

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Unknown criminals have damaged the property of a Christian mission in the state of Tamil Nadu, accusing it of celebrating too loudly. The vandalism took place between August 11 and 12, but the news only recently emerged. Commenting to AsiaNews Sajan K George, president of the Global Council for Indian Christians (GCIC), condemns the "vandalization of the properties of a Christian fund".

This is the "Jesus Comforts You Trust", a fund of the Christian mission located in Kangeyam, in the district of Tirupur. The Rev. Freeth John Knox reports that in the past the institute "bought an acre of land in Varadhappapalayam to build an orphanage. Later the structure was not built, while a representative building was created".

M. Saminathan, another pastor, reports that every year the fund celebrates the anniversary of ownership. This year the anniversary took place between August 11 and 12. "But the first day - he says - the police arrived, interrupted the celebrations and took away the musical instruments. Then they accused us of not having permission for the party and that the volume of the music was too loud. The agents later informed us that some residents of the village had reported the noise ".

The Rev. Freeth says that the next day "we went to the property and we found the main door smashed. Inside, everything had been vandalized, including musical instruments, electronic equipment and other things that the police had returned to us." "We suspect - he adds - that the incident was caused by those who filed a complaint about the volume of music. They want to put our religious practices at risk ".

Sajan K George laments: "The Constitution of India recognizes everyone's right to enjoyment, freedom and property [personal]. Unfortunately for the Christian minority, rights are a negotiable thing ". The Christian leader points out that in the country "all the ceremonies are celebrated with great fervor and enthusiasm, including music. This Christian ceremony was interrupted due to the alleged high volume. But on the streets we always see holidays with high music. In addition to being excluded from society, the Christian community is also threatened with noise pollution ".

The religious freedom of the tiny Christian community, concludes the president of the GCIC, "is threatened both openly and subtly, under the guise of noise pollution. In an official way, India is a secular nation in which everyone's faith, including that of minorities, should be respected. Instead, the reality [is very different], especially for Christians ".Electric Picnic holds a special place in the hearts of many Laois people as the festival has grown on Stradbally soil over the last 14 years and this year, a number of locals got to perform.

The festival has hosted some of the biggest music acts in the world from Groove Armada in 2004, Fatboy Slim in 2005, Arctic Monkeys in 2013 to The Prodigy in 2018.

While the headline acts play a huge role in the festival, many of the magic moments of the weekend are found in the intimate nooks and crannies of the Stradbally site.

A number of local acts from Laois were part of creating this magic, including 26 year old, Cat Turner, from Mountmellick who performed at The Art Lot stage on Saturday to a crowd of familiar faces.

It was great craic there were loads of Laois people there, even when I am playing in Galway there are Laois heads.

It was huge, Electric Picnic is a bucket list for all Irish musicians. I have seen my favourite bands at the Electric Picnic Main Stage and it is an odd feeling to come home to Laois to play, she said.

Brian OMahony of local band Pogueology said it was a huge honour to play the very last gig of the weekend at 02:20 am Monday morning at the Salty Dog stage.

It was a good night, we finished up around 03:30 am.

It was great, we had the real hardcore party goers, it was packed out. Id say it was our most enthusiastic crowd to date.

We were told when we got the slot that it was a special one as it is the last bash of the weekend and it was a huge honour to play the last gig, he said.

Alongside established bands like Pogueology were the young performers from Youth Work Laois, Cian Mac Gearailt and sibling act Eoin and Niamh OSullivan who performed music.

Glory Anumundu performed spoken word while Mark McCormack had a visual arts installation at the festival which represented the youth issue based art group Splatter.

Regional Director of Youth Work Laois, Clive Davis, said it was amazing to see young, local talent given a platform at the huge event.

It is absolutely amazing to see young Laois talent on stage at Electric Picnic and to highlight Laois talent in our own area.

We put a video of Cian Mac Gearailt on Facebook and it has over 12,000 views. Glory did spoken word, that was raw and emotional. It was lovely to see the work we do empowering young people, for them to be so comfortable on stage and hold a crowd, hopefully there are other young people out there saying that could be us, he said.

Portlaoise musician Joe S also performed at the Body and Soul Hurly Burly stage on Sunday.

PICTURES: Out and about at Electric Picnic 2018.

Electric Picnic announces expansion plans for 2019 as Dua Lipa the big hit of 2018.Laois man, Daniel Wolski, who was seriously injured when he fell off a wall while on holiday in Tenerife last month was flown home with medical assistance on Saturday.

Daniel (20) is now in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin and is starting rehabilitation. Daniel, who is Polish but has lived in Portlaoise since 2006, has undergone two serious surgeries since the fall on August 1, which caused instant paralysis in his legs. He spent one month in the Intensive Therapy Unit in a Tenerife hospital.

Original story: Fundraiser launched to bring Laois man home from Tenerife after holiday nightmare.

Daniel and his girlfriend, Sara ukaszewska, both work in The Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise. Sara has been by Daniel's side since the accident and told the Leinster Express that he could be transferred to Portlaoise hospital.

We are a bit disappointed because we were told that Daniel will need an intensive rehabilitation and he will have to be referred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NHR).

We were told that waiting times vary from weeks to months. For now he is staying in Beaumont Hospital and they will start rehabilitation there, he could be transferred to Portlaoise hospital because he could get same treatment here.

If he is discharged from hospital and we will still be waiting for a place in NRH we will more than likely try to find another alternative which would be a private clinic. Just trying to do everything we can to get him back on his feet. Especially that the prognosis is good, she said.

Sara thanked everyone who has donated to the online fundraiser which has raised almost 20,000.

The fundraiser is going so good, I still cannot get over the fact we have received such support from everyone. So many people have donated and shared our story. Literally lacking words to express how I feel. I am extremely grateful. It is amazing to learn there is so many helpful and amazing people out there, she said.

Daniels parents managed to secure a loan to bring him home and the fundraising will be used to pay off the debt once it reaches the 30,000 target.

DONATE HERE.

A fundraiser will be held in The Killeshin Hotel on Thursday, September 6 to raise funds for Daniel. Any coffee or cake bought in the hotels cafe on the day will be free and people will be asked to make a donation instead.

The hotel has organised a raffle with top prizes including overnight stays in a number of different hotels around the country and prizes from the local community. Enter the raffle on Thursday in the hotel and the winners will be picked on Friday, September 7.Laois charity Portlaoise Action to Homelessness (PATH) took advantage of the abandoned sleeping bags left behind after Electric Picnic at the weekend.

Volunteers collected 20 bin bags of sleeping bags from the Stradbally site.They have appealed to the public to help them wash and dry the sleeping bags so they can be donated to those sleeping rough.

PATH volunteers will have a stall outside Penneys in Laois Shopping Centre, Portlaoise this Thursday and Friday evening, September 6 and 7 between 7-8pm.

Anyone can go along and pick up some of the dirty sleeping bags, bring them home, wash and dry them and drop them back to PATH clean and ready to give to homeless people in Dublin city on their weekly trips.

PATH shared the appeal on Facebook.

We are looking for people to wash and dry sleeping bags for us. We have 20 bags like the one below full to the brim with sleeping bags.

We will be at Tesco shopping centre on Thursday and Friday between 7 -8 pm on both evenings. We will park up beside the Penny's entrance. Please come along and take as many as you would like even just 1 or 2 will be a big help to us and maybe ask a friend too!!

The PATH open evening is on tonight, Tuesday, September 4 at Portlaoise Leisure Centre from 8-9pm. All are welcome to attend to hear about the work PATH do and sign up to volunteer if interested. There will also be an opportunity to collect some of the dirty sleeping bags at the meeting tonight.

Separately to PATH, a Portlaoise man, Tom Duffy, who volunteers with a Dublin charity called Feed Our Homeless managed to collect a mountain of sleeping bags too. He is now looking for help washing and drying them. Anyone who can collect the sleeping bags in Portlaoise, wash and dry them can contact Tom on 0876271309.More support is needed for the 33 teaching principals in Kildare, according to a local TD.

The Oireachtas Education and Skills committee met last week for a two-day summer school special to discuss challenges facing schools and facing families.

Kildare South TD Fiona OLoughlin, chair of the committee, last week highlighted her concerns over growing pressures facing principals in Kildare.

I am extremely concerned over the number of teaching principals in Kildare and across the country who are under severe pressure, she said.

In Kildare, there are currently 33 teaching principals working on day-to-day administration for the school while teaching a classroom full of students.

Teaching principals work incredibly hard and the committee plan to put forward a proposal to the Minister for Education where one administration day will be allowed for teaching principals per week. The reason for this is so that a teacher can take the place of a principal while he or she attends to other matters in the school.

It is of the utmost importance that the students are not impacted by the school having a teaching principal and so work can continue on the one day per week where another teacher will step in to ensure the best learning environment for our youths.

The committee will be raising this with the Minister in the coming weeks and I will be pushing for his attending on this matter, concluded Deputy OLoughlin.

Meanwhile the meeting also brought up the budget issues facing schools, as some principals are being forced to ask pupils to bring toilet rolls with them because their schools are under such financial pressure.

The claim was made at the Oireachtas education committee meeting last Thursday which heard that State funding is falling well short of the real cost of education at primary and second level.

Deputy OLoughlin, herself a former teacher, said afterwards that she was aware of parents who were asked to provide essentials such as toilet roll on a regular basis.

She added that it is both unfair to parents and to schools who dont willingly put pressure on parents.

The committee heard from school management bodies and education partners that Government underfunding had reached crisis point and there was immense pressure on parents to fill the financial gap through voluntary contributions.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

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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.Commuters using the rail service from the south side of Dublin city will be able to get home quicker - without having to change trains.

They will be allowed to board the train at Grand Canal Dock, Pearse Street or Tara Street stations and travel straight home on the Kildare line without having to leave the train to board another.

Local TD James Lawless said that some additional services will come into use from September 10 when Irish Rail introduce a new timetable for the Kildare route.

He said there will a new timetable with additional services via the Phoenix Park tunnel to Grand Canal Dock in the mornings and, crucially, in the evenings is also on the way.

Dep. Lawless said: "I understand new services making use of the Phoenix Park tunnel are coming, most likely, in early December. Right now drivers are being trained following some industrial relations differences and will be ready for the new routes at the end of the year."Tesco has issued a recall on a popular food product sold at their Irish stores 'due to the presence of salmonella'.

The supermarket chain has recalled a batch of their organic almonds, which has a best before date of February 2019.

Anyone who purchased the product, which is 200g in size and has a batch code of L8004010, is being warned not to consume it and instead, to return it to their nearest Tesco store.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland issued the warning about the product on their website today.

Their message read: "Tesco Ireland is recalling one batch of its Tesco Organic Almonds, due to the presence of Salmonella. Tesco Ireland has issued in-store notices requesting customers who have bought the implicated batch not to consume it and instead, to return it to a Tesco store."

Salmonella is a bacterium commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals. It can also be found on raw meats, poultry, eggs and in unpasteurised milk.

Salmonella food poisoning (Salmonellosis) is an illness that can occur if live Salmonella bacteria enters the body. The bacteria can attach to the cells lining the intestines where they produce toxins and attack the intestinal cells.

According to the European Safe Food website, the symptoms of Salmonella food poisoning are diarrhoea, cramps, vomiting and fever. The incubation period is from 12-36 hours and the illness 'can be severe and admission to hospital may be necessary'.FINE Gael Senator Maria Byrne has welcomed new figures which show the number of people at work in Ireland is now almost 20,000 higher than it was before the crash.

Ms Byrne pointed to the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures which show that there are now 2.2 million at work in Ireland.

This surpasses the previous employment peak in 2007 by over 25,000, meaning that all of the jobs lost in the economic catastrophe suffered by this country have now been restored, the Senator claimed, Over 129,000 jobs have been created in every part of the country since this Government was formed in 2016.

Restoration of jobs lost in the crash was Fine Gaels principal aim when we took office at the peak of the employment crisis. There are over 74,000 more people at work since this time last year. Our enterprise-based economy is now creating over 1,000 jobs a week. Since the Government was formed in 2016, 58% of new jobs have been created outside of Dublin, Ms Byrne added.

The Fine Gael Senator said the improved jobs market now means 30,000 people in part time jobs have moved into full time jobs.

For the individual themselves, returning to work after a period of unemployment can boost a persons confidence and self-belief. It is also great news for communities across Limerick, as every job created has a positive knock on effect for local businesses and services, she added.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe added: We have now seen 24 consecutive quarters of employment growth and crucially, that employment remains broad-based, with annual gains recorded in most sectors and regions. With employment at its highest level ever recorded and the economy approaching full-employment we must also be alive to the capacity constraints that may present in some sectors, which could lead to overheating in the economy.

As set out in the Summer Economic Statement, the Government is mindful that budgetary policy is not pro-cyclical. We will adopt steady, incremental and sustainable policies that continue to deliver improvements in public services and a robust economy now and into the future, he added.According to Fr Andrea Lembo, new technologies "block affectivity". Information is exchanged but communication is not very deep. But it is not all bad: the new tools make it possible to reach people outside Japan.

Tokyo (AsiaNews)  One Japanese student in seven suffers from Internet addiction disorder, the Ministry of Health announced last Friday (31 August) with negative impact on their school results and day-to-day activities.

For Fr Andrea Lembo, PIME regional superior in Japan, the new technologies "block affectivity, and this gets amplified in Japan, becoming an excuse to avoid opening up."

A group of researchers led by Yoneatsu Osaki, professor of public health at Tottori University, last year surveyed 64,000 elementary and high school students in 103 schools.

Based on the data collected, some 930,000 students are addicted, mainly to online games or social networking sites, up by about 400,000 from the previous survey taken five years earlier. But the actual number could be higher because those absent from school were not among the respondents.

The results from the 2017 survey also show that Internet addiction is starting at a younger age, in early high school.

"In Japan, so many applications to communicate are available, said Fr Lembo, but there is a risk of isolation. This can be especially seen in kids who have a hard time connecting with others. Such tools are overused and this complicates interpersonal relations.

"Two thoughts come to mind. First, a lot of information is exchanged but little is shared. Chatrooms are highly developed but they require speed, short sentences and words are at a minimum. It is not very deep communication: it is only an exchange of information.

"I have reprimanded several of my kids who got together with a girl via chat and broke up via chat. They are afraid to look each other in the eye. Everything is exchanged online, but body language is lost.

"Humans are essentially the word, manifestation of a communication that is done through body language, visual, non-visual. This is diminished, and syndromes typical of the developed world in communication develop: isolation, shame, fear of public speaking, difficulty in expressing one's own feelings."

This becomes more complicated if we consider the Japanese language, "where the tone that is used is always the same", whilst "feelings are inscribed in the grammatical forms."

"The second thought is positive. The new means of communication are a world with its dangers, but one that makes possible broader networking and greater intercultural connections, outside ones country".

For the missionary, the new tools of communication should aim at "communication that makes sense".

For him, meetings between his guests and parish kids, separated by language, are one example. "Among young people, google translator can become a nice way to communicate, to overcome language barriers".GARDAI in Limerick are investigating after thieves broke into a house and stole a large amount of jewellery and the hard drive from the homes CCTV system.

Gardai said the house in Knocklong was broken into and the jewellery and a number of Play Stations were taken as well as the house CCTV hard drive, rendering it useless.

A spokesperson said the criminals got in by smashing the patio door in the incident, which occurred last Wednesday, August 29.

This house has CCTV but the hard drive was stolen by the criminals so that there is no way for Gardai to look at the recording and nominate a suspect, said the spokesperson.

CCTV is of great evidential value but only if the hard drive is kept safe. I recommend that a dummy hard drive is left near the CCTV screen and the real hard drive well hidden, added the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, gardai also said there were burglaries in Glin and Drumcollogher.

Gardai said they wanted to highlight these burglaries because of the time of day that they happened.

The burglary in Glinn happened between 11 and 4 on a Saturday afternoon and the burglary in Drumcollogher happened between 6 and 9 in the evening. In both cases the houses were unoccupied at the time, said the spokesperson.

The greatest deterrent for a burglar is that somebody might be home so leave on a radio or a TV if youre going out and have timers plugged in for lamps if you think you will be out after dark. Make sure that your windows and doors are locked and if you have an alarm be sure to set it, they added.AN elderly man in Limerick was duped out of 10,000 by a fraudster who claimed he was representing his broadband provider.

During an unsolicited phone call, the man, who is aged in his 70s, was informed his bank account had been hacked.

The man disclosed his account details to the caller in the mistaken belief that the money would be transferred to a secure account in Dubai.

He didnt realise that he had been a victim of crime until his bank contacted him the following day to say that they were investigating the unusual transaction of the 10,000 cash to Dubai, said divisional crime prevention officer Sergeant Ber Leetch.

As always, do not give your banking details to anybody over the phone. If you are asked for any details hang up the phone and call your bank yourself, they will soon tell you if you have anything to be concerned about, she added.The great satirist says he is "saddened" because the dialogue between China and the West is based only on trade, money and agreements. For Ling Cangzhou, China has "managed to deceive Western politicians".

Edinburgh (AsiaNews / RfA) - Yan Lianke, author of many international best-sellers, says that Western politicians in dealing with China, speak "only of trade, money and agreements", but do not make any pressure for the human rights.

Speaking in recent days at the International Book Festival in Edinburgh, he said he was "saddened" that foreign leaders prefer to turn a blind eye to ethical issues in order to save economic contracts when they make state visits to China.

Yan Lianke (see photo) is known for his satirical style. For example, in one of his books, "The Dream of the Ding Village", he laughed at the attempts to modernize the Chinese countryside, telling of the pushes of the farmers to offer themselves to sell their blood, with the result of an AIDS epidemic that leads to the disappearance of the inhabitants of a Henan village. Yan is also constantly targeted by censors. His latest book, "The day the sun died", could not be published in China, only in Taiwan.

Another writer, Ling Cangzhou, among the first signatories of Charter 08, the manifesto drawn up by Liu Xiaobo for the reform of Chinese society, commenting on the words of Yan, said: "Selfishness is part of human nature and a pile of Western politicians have been seduced by money ... China is masquerading in front of the world as the descendant of Confucius and does not seem a totalitarian regime ... [In this way] it has managed to deceive Western politicians".How AI knows what you buy and what you ought to buy





WHETHER you do your shopping online or in store, your retail experience is the latest battleground for the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning revolution.

Major Australian retailers have begun to realise that they have a lot to gain from getting their AI strategy right, with one currently recruiting for a Head of AI and Machine Learning supported by a team of data scientists.

The newly developed Woolworths division WooliesX aims to bring together a diverse group of teams, including technology, customer digital experience, e-commerce, financial services and digital customer experience.

All about crunching the data

To understand the opportunities and threats for all major retailers, its useful to understand why artificial intelligence is back on the agenda. Two crucial things have changed since the initial forays into AI decades ago: data and computing power.

Computing power is easy to see. The smartphone in your hand has millions of times more computational power than the bulky computers of decades ago. Companies have access to almost unlimited computing power with which to train their AI algorithms.

The other critical ingredient is the scale and richness of data available, especially in retail.

Artificial intelligence systems  especially learning techniques such as machine learning  thrive on large, rich data sets. When fed appropriately with this data, these systems discover trends, patterns, and correlations that no human analyst could ever hope to discover manually.

These machine learning approaches automate data analysis, enabling users to create a model that can then make useful predictions about other similar data.

Why retail is suited for AI

The rapidity of AI deployment in different fields depends on a few critical factors: retail is particularly suitable for a few reasons.

The first is the ability to test and measure. With appropriate safeguards, retail giants can deploy AI and test and measure consumer response. They can also directly measure the effect on their bottom line fairly quickly.

The second is the relatively small consequences of a mistake. An AI agent landing a passenger aircraft cannot afford to make a mistake because it might kill people. An AI agent deployed in retail that makes millions of decisions every day can afford to make some mistakes, as long as the overall effect is positive.

Some smart robot technology is already happening in retail with Nuro.AI partnering with grocery behemoth Kroger to deliver groceries to customers doorsteps in the United States.

But many of the most significant changes will come from deployment of AI rather than physical robots or autonomous vehicles. Lets go through a few AI-based scenarios that will transform your retail experience.

Your shopping habits

AI can detect underlying patterns in your shopping behaviour from the products you buy and the way in which you buy them.

This could be your regular purchases of rice from the supermarket, sporadic purchases of wine from the liquor store, and Friday night binges on ice cream at the local convenience store.

Whereas inventory and sales database systems simply track purchases of individual products, with sufficient data, machine learning systems can predict your regular habits. It knows you like cooking risotto every Monday night, but also your more complex behaviour like the occasional ice cream binge.

At a larger scale, analysis of the behaviour of millions of consumers would enable supermarkets to predict how many Australian families cook risotto every week. This would inform inventory management systems, automatically optimising stocks of Arborio rice, for example, for stores with lots of risotto consumers.

This information would then be shared with friendly suppliers, enabling more efficient inventory management and lean logistics.

Efficient marketing

Traditional loyalty scheme databases like FlyBuys enabled supermarkets to identify your frequency of purchase of a particular product  such as you buying Arborio rice once a week  and then send an offer to a group of consumers who were identified as about to buy Arborio rice.

New marketing techniques will move beyond promoting sales to customers who are already likely to buy that product anyway. Instead, machine learning recommenders will promote garlic bread, tiramisu or other personalised product recommendations that data from thousands of other consumers has suggested often go together.

Efficient marketing means less discounting, and more profit.

Pricing dynamics

The pricing challenge for supermarkets involves applying the right price and the right promotion to the right product.

Retail pricing optimisation is a complex undertaking, requiring data analysis at a granular level for each customer, product and transaction.

To be effective, endless factors need to be examined, like how sales are impacted by changing price points over time, seasonality, weather and competitors promotions.

A well-crafted machine learning program can factor in all of these variations, combining them with additional details such as purchase histories, product preferences and more to develop deep insights and pricing tailored to maximise revenue and profit.

Customer feedback

Historically, customer feedback was attained via feedback cards, filled out and placed in a suggestions box. This feedback had to be read and acted upon.

As social media increased, it became a platform to express feedback publicly. Accordingly, retailers turned to social media scraping software in order to respond, resolve and engage customers in conversation.

Moving forward, machine learning will play a role in this context. Machine learning and AI systems will enable for the first time bulk analysis of multiple sources of messy, unstructured data, such as customer recorded verbal comments or video data.

Reduction in theft

Australian retailers lose an estimated A$4.5 billion annually in stock losses. The growth in self-service registers is contributing to those losses.

Machine learning systems have the ability to effortlessly scan millions of images, enabling smart, camera-equipped point of sale (POS) systems to detect the different varieties of fruits and vegetables shoppers place on register scales.

Over time, systems will also get better at detecting all the products sold at a store, including a task called fine-grained classification, enabling it to tell the difference between a Valencia and Navel orange. Hence there would be no more mistakes in entering potatoes when you are actually buying peaches.

In the longer term, POS systems may disappear completely, as in the case of the Amazon Go store.

Computers that order for you

Machine learning systems are rapidly getting better at translating your natural voice into grocery lists.

Digital assistants such as Google Duplex may soon create shopping lists and place orders for you, with French retailer Carrefour and US giant Walmart already partnering with Google.

An evolving AI retail experience

As you move through life stages you get older, occasionally get unwell, you may get married, perhaps have kids, or change careers. As life circumstances and spending habits of a customer change, models will automatically adjust, as they already do in areas like fraud detection.

The current reactive system involves waiting for a customer to start buying nappies, for example, to then identify that customer as having just started a family, before following up with appropriate product recommendations.

Instead, machine learning algorithms may model behaviour, such as the purchases of folate vitamins and bio oils, then predict when offers should be sent.

This shift from reactive to predictive marketing could change the way you shop, bringing you suggestions you perhaps never even considered, all possible because of AI-related opportunities for both retailers and their customers.

This article was first published in The Conversation on 31 August, 2018, and is re-published here with kind permission.

About the authors: Associate Professor Gary Mortimer from the QUT Business School is a regular contributor to Australian Food News. He is an active researcher in the areas of food retailing, retail operations and shopping behaviour, particularly consumer behaviour in food retailing and shopping.

Prior to joining QUT, Dr Mortimer spent over 20 years working with some of Australias largest general merchandise and food retailers.

Electrical Engineering Professor Michael Milford from the QUT Science and Engineering Faculty is an expert conducting interdisciplinary research at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience and computer vision and is a multi-award winning educational entrepreneur.A large fire destroyed Brazil's National Museum Sunday (Sept. 2), ruining one of Latin America's most venerable cultural and research institutions and the 200-year-old home of more than 20 million artifacts, according to its website.

No one has been reported injured or killed in the blaze itself, but a number of priceless artifacts are believed to have been destroyed, according to CNN. The most famous of those artifacts was Luzia, the 11,000-year-old skull of a Paleoindian woman whose remains are the earliest discovered in the Americas. A number of irreplacable artworks and Egyptian mummies are also believed lost, though a full accounting is not yet possible, since investigators have yet to enter the building, according to The Guardian. [Photos: The Monkeys of Brazil's Atlantic Forest]

Katia Bogea, president of the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage, was quoted in the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper blaming the devastating loss on budget cuts resulting from a "crisis of values," as translated by AFP. Brazil's Rede Globo quoted the museum deputy director Cristiana Serejo as saying that about 10 percent of the museum's collection survived, and that the immediate problem leading to the out-of-control blaze was that the smoke detectors weren't working and the building's fire suppression systems were limited.

The skull of a young Paleoindian woman, named "Luzia," was dated as 11,000-11,500 years old. (Image credit: PNAS)

A crowd of protestors gathered in the wake of the blaze and blamed politicians for neglecting the museum, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. They indicated that funding had been redirected to other priorities, such as the 2016 Rio Olympics. The Herald reported that the crowd tried to enter the museum and was violently attacked by police wielding tear gas and batons.

One of the earliest videos from inside the museum appears to depict a hall almost entirely destroyed.

See more

Ash and rubble litter the floor, and a single, intact-looking artifact is visible in the frame: the largest meteor ever found in Brazil, which CNN reports weighs 5.86 tons (5300 kilograms) and was discovered in 1784.

Originally published on Live Science.A forecast of tropical-storm-force winds that may hit the Gulf Coast from Tuesday to Sunday (Sept. 4-9).

Tropical Storm Gordon is expected to intensify today, morphing into a hurricane just before it hits the Gulf Coast tonight (Sept. 4), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.

In anticipation, the center announced a storm surge warning, meaning there is "a danger of life-threatening inundation," along the coast from Louisiana to Florida, according to the NHC's morning briefing.

For now, Tropical Storm Gordon has winds blowing at 65 mph (100 km/hour), and its eye (the center of the storm) is located about 145 miles (235 kilometers) from the mouth of the Mississippi River, the NHC said. If Gordon's wind speeds reach 74 mph (119 km/h), the storm will be classified as a hurricane, according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. [Hurricane Season 2018: How Long It Lasts and What to Expect]

Right now, the tropical storm's outer rain bands are creating "squally weather" on the western Florida Panhandle, the NHC said. Weather conditions are expected to worsen over the next several hours, and the NHC didn't mince its words for people living along the coast, including from Shell Beach, in eastern Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama, an area that is expected to have a storm surge of between 3 and 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) above normal.

"This is a life-threatening situation," the NHC said. "Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions."

Gordon is also predicted to pour buckets of rain over the Gulf Coast  between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters)  through late Thursday (Sept. 6), the NHC said. This area includes the Florida Panhandle, southwest Alabama, southern and central Mississippi, southeastern and northeastern Louisiana, and southern Arkansas. Some areas may even receive up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain during this time, the NHC said.

This excessive rainfall "will cause flash flooding across portions of these areas," the NHC noted. In addition, Gordon may cause a "few tornadoes" to rip through this afternoon through tonight along the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, the NHC said.

Gordon may bring this risk of flash flooding along the Gulf Coast. (Image credit: NOAA;NWS/NCEP Weather Prediction Center)

Governors in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have declared states of emergency, according to NPR, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott asked for "Floridians and our visitors to remain vigilant," according to a statement.

Gordon is moving steadily at 15 mph (24 km/h) toward the coast, the NHC said. However, the storm is expected to weaken as it moves inland. The center will continue to release updates here.

The Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, typically peaks in September. Last year's monster storms included Harvey, Irma and Maria. This past May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that the 2018 hurricane season would be active but less intense than last year's, Live Science previously reported.

Original article on Live Science.Napoleon's historic defeat at Waterloo may have been spurred by a volcano that erupted two months earlier, and nearly 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) away.

During the decisive battle on June 18, 1815, in what is now Belgium, mucky, wet conditions mired Napoleon's armies and lent a strategic advantage to his foes. But the heavy rainfall that flooded Europe during May and June that year may have resulted from a significant atmospheric disturbance in April, when an Indonesian volcano named Mount Tambora erupted, according to a new study.

Erupting volcanoes can spew towering ash plumes into the stratosphere, the second layer of the atmosphere, which extends to 32 miles (50 km) above the surface of Earth. Over time, gases from the eruption can create aerosols  air particles  that diffuse solar radiation, which can temporarily affect global climate. But exceptionally powerful eruptions can also generate electrical forces that propel ash particles even higher  into the cloud-forming ionosphere, from 50 to 600 miles (80 to 1,000 km) above the Earth's surface, Matthew Genge, a senior lecturer in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at the Imperial College London in the U.K., reported in the study, which was published online Aug. 21 in the journal Geology. [The 11 Biggest Volcanic Eruptions in History]

Once in the ionosphere, electrically charged particles can further disrupt Earth's climate. And that's exactly what happened after the Mount Tambora eruption  it swiftly "short-circuited" the atmosphere and shaped weather in Europe, bringing Napoleon's army to its knees within months, Genge wrote in the study.

"The Year Without a Summer"

Mount Tambora's four-month-long eruption, which began on April 5, 1815, is the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history; it killed approximately 100,000 people on the island of Sumbawa, and deposited enough ash on the ground to collapse nearby buildings, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Scientists have long known that Tambora's eruption dramatically affected the global climate. The ash and airborne particles that it belched into the stratosphere circulated around the planet, leading to a drop in the average global temperature of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) during the following year. The gloomy, cold weather lasted for months in Europe and North America, and 1816 became known as "The Year Without a Summer," NCAR reported.

But it took months for those airborne particles to affect global weather, and it was previously thought that the unusually wet conditions in Europe during the spring of 1815 were unrelated to the volcano, Genge reported.

However, his recent findings about electrical forces in eruptions suggest otherwise. In simulations, Genge demonstrated that strong negative charges in a volcano's plume and in the particles would repel each other, pushing ash into the ionosphere.

"The effect works very much like the way two magnets are pushed away from each other if their poles match," Genge said in a statement.

Global weather data from 1815 is scanty, making it difficult to connect the 1815 eruption to subsequent meteorological disturbances, Genge wrote in the study. But more complete weather records from another powerful volcanic eruption in 1883  Krakatoa, also in Indonesia  showed signs of ionospheric disturbance and weather disruption shortly after the volcano erupted, Genge reported.

Electrically charged, levitating ash following Tambora's 1815 eruption thus might have affected weather in Europe within weeks, long before ash particles in the stratosphere darkened European skies during the summer of 1816, according to the study.

Original article on Live Science.Continuing service disruptions and productivity problems at the Port of Felixstowe following the implementation of a new terminal operating system in June has led to further losses of container shipping services from the UKs largest container port.

In a note to customers this week, MSC said it had been implementing a number of contingency measures to ease the impact of these interruptions on its customers, and had decided, together with its vessel-sharing agreement (VSA) partners, to suspend the Felixstowe call on its IPAK service between Europe and India Sub-Continent and replace it with a call at London Gateway.

The revised rotation means the MSC Athos will call directly at London Gateway instead of Felixstowe on 9 September, maintaining the services published transit times.

MSC in June, along with Maersk units Hamburg Sud and Seago, diverted some of its vessels away from Felixstowe due to severe congestion at the port, diverting eight vessels to London Gateway and Tilbury. And along with 2M partner Maersk, MSC also re-routed its TA2 service, which was switched from Felixstowe to Liverpool on a temporary basis.

Although the Port of Felixstowe said subsequent improvements had led to some services returning to Felixstowe, late last week CMA CGM also announced that it was reshuffling its EPIC 1 service connecting North Europe with the Indian subcontinent, also replacing Felixstowe with London Gateway, and suspending its Dunkirk call. Although it did not explicitly say the move was due to the ongoing operating issues at Felixstowe, these factors were implied in its stated reason for the change: a continued effort to provide our customers with reliable and efficient service.

The new rotation is: Southampton - Rotterdam - Antwerp - London Gateway - Le Havre - King Abdullah - Djibouti - Port Qasim - Nhava Sheva - Hazira - Mundra - King Abdullah - Gioia Tauro - Tanger Med  Southampton.

As reported last week in Lloyds Loading List, the continuing delays and disruptions at Felixstowe has led container line OOCL to switch the UK call on its North Europe-Turkey (NET) service from Felixstowe to Southampton. Announcing the change last week, OOCL said Felixstowe was continuing to suffer with severe operational delays, both shipside and landside, following the introduction in June of its new terminal IT system nGen. It said updates and improvements subsequently made by the port had so far not yielded the desired results and its North Europe-Turkey service was continuing to endure vessel delays.

In its most recent customer update on 24 August, the Port of Felixstowe said: There has been some positive progress in a number of areas in the last few weeks.

Quayside productivity continues to recover with corresponding improvement in container throughput, although the pace of progress is slower than we would have liked. The first of the services that diverted temporarily to other ports, the jointly-operated Seago, Hamburg Sud and CMA CGM Levant service, returned to Felixstowe on 23 August, and we are discussing with our shipping line customers welcoming back more services in the coming weeks.

Rail and road haulier performance are more stable. However, we are still working hard to minimise the number of rail misses.

The recent upgrades to the operating system have enhanced stacking logic, rail shuffles, the handling of vehicles through the Temporary Holding Area, and the flexible loading of empty containers to vessels. They also increase the efficiency of the container yard, which delivers wider benefits. There will be further upgrades in the coming weeks.

The first block of the Berth 9 Yard development was delivered on 20 August providing an additional 1,800 TEU of storage space which will help improve yard performance. A further 16,200 TEU of storage capacity will be introduced between now and early 2019.

As a result of the backlog of cargo built up in the last few weeks, the port said its Trinity quay was still congested, whereas Landguard was gradually returning to normal. In order to assist customers with any urgent containers, the port said it had opened the container yard for road haulage operations during the UK national holiday on Monday 27 August.

The port apologised to any port users continuing to experience delays or disruption, assuring them that we are maintaining our focus on productivity improvements. These improvements will ensure that all customers receive the level of service they deserve.An uncle and his nephew were recently rescued by law enforcement agents after the two became lost near San Ygnacio, according to Border Patrol.

The two were suspected of entering the United States illegally.Root

Something seemed fishy. Something was fishy.

When Margrethe Lauber and Susan MacLeod, excited to take advantage of New York's legalization of gay marriage, went to the Root town clerk to apply for a marriage license, they were told to make an appointment and come back later. They did.

Town Clerk Laurel "Sherrie" Eriksen still didn't seem ready for them when Lauber and MacLeod returned, asking them to wait for the arrival of another person. When the woman finally arrived, Lauber and MacLeod watched in confusion as a flustered Eriksen guided her, step by step, through the process.

Lauber and MacLeod began to realize what was happening. Eriksen didn't want her hands on their marriage license. She wanted somebody else to do it.

"It became surreal and awkward," said Lauber, a SUNY Cobleskill professor who has lived with MacLeod in Root since 2005. "We knew for sure that she did not want to do it for us."

That was six years ago. Last month, Dylan Toften and Thomas Hurd arrived at the Root town building, in rural Montgomery County, for a marriage license. When Eriksen refused them and told them to make an appointment, they also became suspicious that the clerk had an issue with their license.

Their suspicions were confirmed when Robert Subik, Root's town attorney, acknowledged that Eriksen has a religious objection to gay marriage and declines to process the licenses. She requires marrying couples to make an appointment, and, if they are gay, turns the work over to others.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

When Toften and Hurd complained about the discrimination on social media, their story reverberated around New York, gained widespread media attention and led the state Division of Human Rights to, at the request of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, launch an investigation into whether Eriksen has been violating the law.

Lauber and MacLeod were deeply upset when they heard  and they are regretful. If only they had spoken up six years ago, Lauber told me, maybe they could have spared Toften and Hurd from a painful experience.

"We should have done more so that they could enjoy their day," Lauber said.

It's hard to fault the women for not doing more. Though polls show that a strong majority of Americans approve of it now, gay marriage was controversial in 2012. And Root is a very small place, and Lauber admits to feeling some fear over what it might mean to be prominently gay and calling out a popular elected official.

"I wasn't interested in going to war with our neighbors," Lauber said.

The couple had another reason for staying quiet. Publicizing their treatment would have meant that their marriage, their happy occasion, would forever be tied to an ugly controversy. They didn't want that. Who would?

"I didn't want to make her part of our marriage," Lauber said. "The important thing was to get the license and not put her in the memory of our event."

Eriksen, re-elected without opposition last year, has declined to comment on the controversy. Town Supervisor Gary Kamp has not returned phone calls. According to the Daily Gazette, Kamp said in a statement read at the last board meeting that Eriksen has "always performed the duties of town clerk in a proper and professional manner."

That's wrong, because her refusal to give same-sex marriage licenses to gay couples is anything but proper. It's an unlawful violation of her oath.

Could a town clerk who is an animal rights activist cite moral objections to deny a hunting or fishing license? Of course not.

Don't confuse Eriksen's stance with the one taken by the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado and other business owners who oppose gay marriage. A town clerk is not running a private business. Eriksen is a government employee whose job includes issuing marriage licenses. This is not about religious liberty.

Eriksen's stance, said Lauber, is also not a good representation of what she and MacLeod, who are in their 50s, have found in Root. It is an individualistic, live-and-let live town. She doesn't want to take away her neighbors' guns, she said, and they don't want to take away her marriage license.

"I don't want people to trash Root," Lauber said. "We have really wonderful neighbors."

But this time, she isn't going to let Eriksen's discrimination pass. Lauber spoke out at the last Town Board meeting  the first she has attended  and she intends to keep doing so until Eriksen either resigns or changes her methods.

When two people are getting married, Lauber said, they are on a cloud. They're excited, euphoric even. But nothing ruins that feeling like a reminder that some still see your marriage as less worthy or being treated like a second-class citizen in your own hometown.

No government official has the right to make people feel that way, in Root or anywhere else.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchillCities seeking to open sites where illegal drug users are monitored to prevent overdoses responded defiantly Tuesday to a Justice Department threat to take "swift and aggressive action" against that approach to the nationwide opioid epidemic.

Plans for those "supervised injection sites" - under consideration in San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle and elsewhere - collided with a stern Justice Department warning issued last week, threatening to create a standoff between federal and local authorities like the confrontation over "sanctuary cities."

As they have before, some liberal-leaning cities trying to cope with conditions on their streets find themselves at odds with more-restrictive Trump-era policy and enforcement.

"Just as local governments had to lead during the HIV epidemic, cities like ours will be on the forefront of saving lives in the opioid crisis," James Garrow, a spokesman for Philadelphia's Department of Public Health, said in a statement Tuesday. "The federal government should focus its enforcement on the pill mills and illegal drug traffickers who supply the poison that is killing our residents, not on preventing public health officials from acting to keep Philadelphians from dying."

On the other side of the country, California state legislators and San Francisco Mayor London Breed, D, who lost a sister to a drug overdose, vowed at a news conference Tuesday to open a supervised injection site soon. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D, said the city would act "even if the federal government threatens us with criminal prosecution."

A bill to authorize San Francisco's plans passed the California legislature last week and is sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. The officials urged Brown, D, to sign it.

At supervised drug consumption sites, users are monitored by staffers equipped with the opioid antidote naloxone and with oxygen for quick response in the event of an overdose. The sites - some operate in Canada, some European countries and Australia - also may provide clean syringes, matches, cooking tins and other equipment that facilitates drug use. But they do not offer drugs or help users inject or smoke them.

Advocates contend that such sites have saved the lives of countless thousands addicted to drugs who would have used them anyway under less safe and sanitary conditions, although the most recent research has reopened the debate. They say the facilities also curb the spread of HIV and hepatitis C by limiting needle sharing. Researchers report that no one has ever died in a supervised drug consumption facility in the nearly 20 years that they have existed.

But in the United States, the facilities appear to violate a 1986 federal law aimed at crack houses. The law criminalized opening or running places where illegal drugs are knowingly used. That is the position that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein took in an interview with the Philadelphia radio station WHYY last Wednesday and in an opinion column in the New York Times the following day.

"Because federal law clearly prohibits injection sites," he wrote, "cities and counties should expect the Department of Justice to meet the opening of any injection site with swift and aggressive action."

Rosenstein did not spell out what that action would be, but he noted that violators face as much as 20 years in prison, large fines and forfeiture of property. The government also could seek a court injunction, he wrote.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice declined to comment Tuesday.

There are no official supervised injection sites in this country, though researchers have reported on a clandestine site that has been operating for about four years.

Public health advocates say the federal law was not intended to bar government or medical authorities from responding to emergencies - in this case, the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history. More than 72,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2017, led by more than 49,000 deaths from opioids, according to preliminary statistics released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Leo Beletsky, an associate professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University, said California's law would put the effort on "much more solid footing" legally. Action by the federal government against a site could set up a court test of whether cities and states have the right to control what is happening on their streets.

In April, a federal appeals court in Chicago ruled that the Trump administration could not withhold federal funds from cities, many led by Democrats, that decline to help the federal government apprehend illegal immigrants. In July, a federal judge in California largely rejected the Justice Department's effort to block California's "sanctuary state" laws.

Cities and states have also won battles against federal authorities in the past for the authority to distribute clean needles to drug users and to open medical marijuana dispensaries.

Advocates of supervised injection said the country is at a similar crossroads in the opioid crisis, a point where previously rejected ideas need to be considered.

"Many of us are hoping that the federal government, at some point, allows states and communities to try approaches they think will work locally with the population that's affected," said Jessie Gaeta, chief medical officer of Boston Health Care for the Homeless, which allows people who have used drugs off-site to come inside for medical monitoring. "In this case, with an unprecedented public health crisis on our hands, I think this is a case that warrants that kind of response from the federal government. If you think this could save lives, let's try it."Democrats will have plenty of material to draw upon when they question U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at his Senate confirmation hearings. What they won't have is leverage.

Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's pick to succeed the now-retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, is a good bet to shift the court to the right, perhaps sharply so. As a U.S. appeals court judge in Washington since 2006, Kavanaugh struck down federal regulations, backed gun freedoms and questioned abortion rights.

But with the hearings starting Tuesday, Democrats haven't been able to undercut Kavanaugh's status as a heavy favorite to win confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate. Both sides have pored through tens of thousands of pages of judicial opinions, speeches and documents, though Democrats say that includes just a small fraction of the material from Kavanaugh's five years as a top White House official.

"He is extreme even by the right-wing, far-right ideological standards of this administration," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters. "There will be sparks at this hearing."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in an interview he is "feeling good" about confirmation prospects. Republicans, who will reclaim their 51-49 Senate majority after Arizona's governor names a replacement for the late Sen. John McCain, are aiming to get Kavanaugh seated by the time the court formally opens its term on Oct. 1. Having ended the use of filibusters for high court nominees in 2017, they could confirm Kavanaugh without any Democratic votes.

The hearings start with opening statements Tuesday, followed by questioning of the nominee Wednesday and Thursday. The leading outside group supporting Kavanaugh, the Judicial Crisis Network, has already spent more than $4 million on television ads urging his confirmation.

Kavanaugh, 53, hasn't spoken publicly since he stood beside Trump at the White House on July 9. "A judge must interpret statutes as written, and a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent," he said then.

Democrats say those innocuous-sounding words mask a dangerous agenda, starting with abortion. Trump vowed during the campaign to appoint justices who would vote to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion-rights ruling.

On the appeals court this year, Kavanaugh dissented from a ruling that let an undocumented immigrant teenager get an abortion while in federal custody. In a speech last year he praised a dissenting opinion in Roe, crediting it with helping curb the "free-wheeling judicial creation" of constitutional rights.

"We have no reason to doubt that Kavanaugh fulfills that promise," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said to reporters. "If confirmed, Brett Kavanaugh would be the deciding vote to overturn or gut Roe v. Wade."

Two Senate Republicans who support abortion rights, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski, could determine whether Kavanaugh is confirmed and will announce their intentions after the hearings. Collins said last week that Kavanaugh told her in a private meeting he views Roe as "settled law."

Democrats say that, if confirmed, Kavanaugh would help protect Trump from investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York.

They point to Kavanaugh's suggestion two decades ago that the Supreme Court might have been wrong in 1974 when it unanimously forced President Richard Nixon to turn over secret White House tape recordings. Kavanaugh has separately called on Congress to pass legislation to shield sitting presidents from criminal investigations while in office.

"Will he cover for Trump?" said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who sits on the Judiciary Committee. "Is that why he's being put on the court?"

But Kavanaugh's broader record is more ambiguous. In 2016, he listed the Nixon ruling as one of the greatest moments in American judicial history. And by asking Congress to shield the president from investigations, he suggested that current law might not provide that protection.

His approach on federal regulation has been more consistent. He has reined in agencies on climate change, net neutrality and financial oversight. Kavanaugh signaled willingness to limit the so-called Chevron doctrine, under which judges often defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous federal statutes.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has thrown its support behind Kavanaugh, saying the confirmation vote will be part of its annual scorecard for senators.

"Judge Kavanaugh has a strong record of keeping federal regulatory agencies within their statutory limits," Chamber Chief Executive Thomas Donohue said in a letter to senators. "His opinions reflect a jurist who has thought carefully about federal statutes and America's broader regulatory structure."

According to an analysis by the consumer-rights group Public Citizen, Kavanaugh was involved in 101 business-related decisions that divided a three-judge panel 2-1. The group found that Kavanaugh sided with business interests 87 percent of the time.

Kavanaugh has shown "an overwhelming tendency to reach conclusions favorable to corporations and against the public interest," said Public Citizen President Robert Weissman.

Democrats say they haven't been able to fully assess Kavanaugh's nomination because they have received only about 6 percent of the relevant documents from his time in President George W. Bush's White House. Republicans disclosed Saturday that a lawyer for the Bush presidential library has directed about 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh White House records to be withheld, on grounds that include executive privilege at the request of the Trump White House. Democrats say that decision amounts to a cover-up.

Kavanaugh served in the White House counsel's office from 2001 to 2003 and then as staff secretary from 2003 to 2006.

Democrats are also likely to ask Kavanaugh about:

- Obamacare, which is under attack in a Republican-led lawsuit in Texas seeking to nullify a popular component. Trial is set to begin Wednesday.

- A 2009 opinion he wrote striking down a regulation that limited campaign spending by nonprofit groups.

- His work for independent counsel Kenneth Starr, whose report on then-President Bill Clinton's sexual relationship with a White House intern led to his impeachment.

- His 2011 vote to strike down a District of Columbia law that banned some semi-automatic rifles and required all firearms to be registered.

- Any role Kavanaugh played in developing the Bush administration's policy of allowing torture of suspected terrorists.

- Allegations that Kavanaugh misled Democrats during his 2006 appeals court confirmation hearing, when he said he had no formal role in formulating the administration's detention policy for suspected terrorists.

For Democrats, the challenge will be getting Kavanaugh to say anything of substance on specific legal issues. Since Robert Bork's provocative testimony helped doom his 1987 Supreme Court nomination, nominees have avoided providing much more than broad statements of legal philosophy and descriptions of past Supreme Court opinions.

Grassley says he anticipates Kavanaugh will make ready use of what has come to be known as the "Ginsburg rule." In her 1993 hearing, future Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she would offer "no hints, no forecasts, no previews" about legal issues that might come before the court.

"I don't think he'll make any statements other than that he'll take the Ginsburg rule that no hints, no predictions, no nothing, you can't ask me about anything that might come up 10 years from now because I don't know what it's going to be," Grassley said.

Grassley said he expects a party-line vote in the committee, where Republicans hold an 11-10 advantage, as happened last year when the panel advanced Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch.

Most senators have already taken sides. Among Senate Republicans, 38 already have said Kavanaugh has their vote, according to a tally by Bloomberg News. And among Democrats, 25 have definitely said they will vote "no."

Election-year politics will play a role as the confirmation goes forward. Three Senate Democrats up for re-election this year in states that Trump won in 2016 are under heavy pressure from constituents and outside groups to vote in favor of Kavanaugh. Those senators -- Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia -- supported Gorsuch last year.

All three have said they will wait until after this week's hearings to make their determination, as Collins and Murkowski have said. In addition, Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., says he's keeping an "open mind" about Kavanaugh and could back him.

Senior Republicans on the panel, including Orrin Hatch of Utah and John Cornyn of Texas, say they see their role as largely to support Kavanaugh and help him make the points needed to get through the process.

"I don't have a lot of questions of him, but I expect there will be a lot of things that come up that need to be corrected or clarified," said Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican leader. "I want to make sure the truth gets told and an accurate picture of his background and experience is reflected at the hearing."

--With assistance from Bloomberg's Steven T. Dennis.Senate Democrats criticized the withholding of documents ahead of Tuesday's start of confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, even as a top Republican predicted he would be approved by a healthy margin.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a tweet that the decision to hold back more than 100,000 pages of documents from Kavanaugh's work in President George W. Bush's administration was unprecedented for nominees and "has all the makings of a cover up." Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said only 6 percent of material requested will be released "if we are lucky."

"If he's so proud of his conservative credentials, show us the record, stand before us, trust the American people and they will trust you," Durbin said on "Fox News Sunday."

The Senate Judiciary Committee said Saturday that the release of records is nearly complete. But William Burck, a lawyer representing Bush in the document production, said in a letter released by the committee that after conferring with the White House and the Justice Department, some records would be withheld on the grounds of executive privilege.

According to the letter, the bulk of the documents withheld cover "deliberations and candid advice" about potential nominees for federal courts, while the remainder include substantive communications between Bush and his staff regarding executive orders and legislation. Kavanaugh "dealt with some of the most sensitive communications of any White House official," the letter said.

An assertion of executive privilege, used to block release of information to Congress, the courts or the public on grounds of national security or to protect private White House deliberations, can only be made by a sitting president. Trump's White House is asserting the privilege to protect communications of the Bush White House.

While Republicans have emphasized that more than 440,500 pages of material from Kavanaugh has been released, Democrats have fought for greater access to documents from his time as a lawyer in the Bush administration before being confirmed as a federal judge in 2006. Those documents, they say, would provide insights into his thinking on issues including abortion and presidential investigations.

"It's not normal," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who like Durbin is a Judiciary Committee member, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" about the withholding of documents. She added that documents she's seen raise "very interesting questions" about the nominee's views that she's unable to discuss.

Republicans said Kavanaugh's views can be better assessed by studying the more than 300 opinions he has written as a record as a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington.

"The Democrats have more than enough information to understand that this is a highly qualified jurist that should be the next Supreme Court justice," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "In an earlier time, 30 years ago, he would have passed unanimously."

Republicans in 2017 eliminated the 60-vote barrier to setting a vote for Supreme Court nominees, leaving Democrats without the tool of a filibuster to delay Trump's pick.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Judiciary Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that he believes Kavanaugh will be confirmed and may get as many as 55 votes.

Republicans hold 50 seats in the Senate but presumably will soon get another after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, R, nominates a successor to fill the vacancy left by the death of Sen. John McCain. Some Democrats facing re-election in November in states won overwhelmingly by Trump in 2016 are also likely to side with Republicans on Kavanaugh's nomination.

Kavanaugh's nomination to fill the seat held by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who stepped down at the end of the Supreme Court's term in June, has worried some senators concerned about his views on decisions such as Roe v. Wade in 1973, which established a woman's right to obtain an abortion.

Kennedy, viewed as a moderate and often a swing vote on the court, upheld abortion rights in a key 2016 decision that struck down a Texas law that could have forced many providers of the procedure in the state to shut down.

Graham said Kavanaugh "will give great deference, I'm sure, to Roe v. Wade. But it can be overturned like every other decision, but that will be up to the facts on the record."

In a separate appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Graham said that "precedent is important but it's not inviolate."

Durbin also raised concerns about Kavanaugh's views on presidential accountability, given the convictions of Trump associates stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion by the Trump campaign.

"There is a serious question whether this president, given the opportunity, will end the Mueller investigation," Durbin said. "We ask, of course, Judge Kavanaugh, what do you think, and he says it's hands off when it comes to a president during his term in office."

Asked whether Kavanaugh should recuse himself if confirmed from any cases that involve investigations of Trump, Johnson said it depends on the case but judges generally should be involved.

"I'm sure Judge Kavanaugh will follow the, you know, the guidelines and recuse himself in cases where he should," Johnson said.

Durbin said Kavanaugh was zealous while working for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, who led the Whitewater investigation of President Bill Clinton, but changed his mind after working in the Bush administration.

In a 2009 article for the Minnesota Law Review, Kavanaugh argued that civil and criminal investigations were "time-consuming and distracting" for a sitting president, and that congressional action was needed to defer them.

--With assistance from Bloomberg's Mark Niquette and Susan Decker.WASHINGTON - Joe Gomez didn't listen to his abuelita.

"What did I tell you, Joseph?" his grandmother asked him after Gomez's mistake made news. "What you're making is blood money."

Last year, Gomez, 32, left his job as a radio journalist to take a well-paid gig with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an organization that paints itself as moderate but has been called a hate group.

That's what worried grandma.

"She's not someone you mess with. She's one of those rough-and-tumble grandmothers," he said, chastised and repentant.

After months of hoping to prove her wrong, after working in a place where "spic" and "hola hombre" were allegedly part of the workday, he finally told his grandma she was right.

Gomez quit, and last week he filed a complaint with the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights over what he described as the toxic work environment at FAIR.

"I was very optimistic, I thought I could make a difference," Gomez said. "There was change to be made, but I couldn't do it."

This is more than a cautionary tale about listening to your grandma.

And it's also more than a Trump voter with buyer's remorse. Gomez isn't Latinx Omarosa. No book deal, so far.

The frightening kernel inside Gomez's story and the point he wants to make is the septic and contagious polarity of Washington and how little it has to do with the majority of Americans' thinking.

We are, primarily, a nation of moderates, no matter how flaming your Facebook feed looks. A whopping 42 percent of Americans polled by Gallup last year said they were politically independent. The same poll had 29 percent going Democratic and 27 percent Republican.

But you look at Twitter or get to Washington D.C. and it feels like Fort Sumter on the eve of a second Civil War.

Gomez said he did not find a moderate middle FAIR. Instead, according to the complaint he filed, he found himself in an extremist organization where jabs at people of color - like one woman who offered to smear mud on her face to look more like an immigrant - were more common than rational talk about immigration reform.

FAIR disputed Gomez's claim that he was treated unfairly.

"At all times Mr. Gomez was treated with dignity and respect at FAIR," said the organization's communications director, David Ray. "He was valued and sent around the country and given high-profile assignments."

Ray said that Gomez's formal complaint was the first FAIR heard about any problems and that its own investigation "reveals that his allegations against FAIR are, in all essentials, untrue."

Gomez said he started getting pushback at the job when he tried to say "illegal immigrant" on the air, rather than the "illegal alien" FAIR used. The bosses reprimanded him for not using their lingo, he said.

He stayed on, though. Not because he was a subversive leftie going undercover for the resistance - he's a Republican who voted for President Donald Trump.

When he worked as a correspondent for radio stations like NBC News, he talked to people across the country, at the border and in Mexico. And he found most folks had genuinely middle-of-the-road philosophies. They're not all "round 'em up and kick them out," he said.

"Ultimately, people do believe in some sort of moderate immigration reform."

But that's not what he found in the caustic world of extreme Washington politics.

"The organizations have polarized," Gomez said. "Not the people. And the polarizing is very frightening."

When he showed up at FAIR to interview, the folks there couldn't believe their luck, he said. A man named Gomez? That would be gold for a place like FAIR.

"In the interview, they told me: 'You know we're a hate group,' " Gomez said, referring to the designation given to the organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which FAIR disputes.

The group was founded in 1979 and has since had quiet ties to white supremacist groups, while looking moderate during at least 100 appearances by its representatives to testify before congressional hearings, according to the SPLC.

"FAIR's founder, John Tanton, has expressed his wish that America remain a majority-white population: a goal to be achieved, presumably, by limiting the number of nonwhites who enter the country," according to the SPLC's description.

Growing up in Colorado, with an African American father and Mexican American mother who were both in the military, Gomez said he was never stung by bigotry and didn't believe folks could be so extreme. His fourth-generation American world felt pretty colorblind.

And then he got to FAIR. And no matter how many appearances he made for them on TV, no matter how many pro-Trump tweets he sent and no matter how many times he went out for drinks with colleagues, he said they treated him like an outsider.

The harassment got so bad, Gomez said, that he saw a doctor and began taking medication for his anxiety-driven, uncontrollable shaking.

Then, according to his complaint, his bosses made fun of his shaking.

"The bottom line was that my last name was Gomez," he said. "And no matter how much money I made for them, they still saw the color of my skin."

Gomez is suing for lost wages. FAIR also takes issue with the money part of the complaint, couching the whole affair as a cash grab. Gomez said that if he gets any cash, he'll donate it to an advocacy group.

And yes. Go ahead, get it out of the way. He's heard all the "I told you so's" one man can take.

"I've heard it all," he said. You lay with dogs, you'll get fleas. You hang out with vipers, you'll get bitten. He knows he looked naive when to took the job.

He prefers to believe he was being optimistic.

He went to the West Virginia mountains over the long weekend to get away and breathe. And think. And plan.

Gomez would like to go back to work. But not for a newsroom. And not for a place that says it's moderate.

"Advocacy. I think I would like to do that," he said. "Because now I've experienced hate firsthand."

He still believes he can make a difference.

- - -

Dvorak is a columnist for The Post's local team who writes about homeless shelters, gun control, high heels, high school choirs, the politics of parenting, jails, abortion clinics, mayors, modern families, strip clubs and gas prices, among other things. Before coming to The Post, she covered social issues, crime and courts.New York

The one place a middle-class black business owner might least expect to be arrested on flimsy charges by the police would be at a popular restaurant he owns in the heart of Harlem.

But that's what happened to Clyde Pemberton, the owner of MIST Harlem, who along with two of his employees sued the New York Police Department last week in Manhattan federal court for false arrest and violating his civil rights. His lawyers say the entire incident reeked of racial bias and was an example of the kind of interactions with law enforcement that often strain the department's relationship with minority communities.

On June 1, 2017, Pemberton was holding a business meeting at his restaurant when he saw two women leaving the bathroom, dragging a third woman who was visibly unconscious across the room at 10:30 p.m., the complaint states. The women, who were all white, knocked over a stanchion of a rope blocking off a section of the restaurant to customers.

When Pemberton, now 68, walked over to the women to ask what was wrong and suggested the unconscious woman be placed in a chair, one woman punched him in the chest and referred to him with a racial slur, according to the complaint.

A second woman struck Pemberton's employee, Christian Baptiste, in the head with her purse, according to the lawsuit. Employees called 911 as the women continued to yell, push and kick employees, the lawsuit states.New York

Richard Carranza is eager to talk about segregation.

New York's new schools chancellor wants to talk about how the nation's largest school system is clustering the poorest children (mostly black and brown) in one set of classrooms, and the richest children (mostly white) in another set  and failing to live up to its progressive ideals.

He wants to talk about how school zones contribute to segregation and whether "gifted and talented" classes, where white and Asian students tend to cluster, ought to exist.

He says his ideas go further than finding ways to admit more black and Hispanic students to the city's most elite high schools, a proposal he and Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled in June.

But, as the first full school year of Carranza's tenure begins, the question is whether he will venture beyond what he calls "a values conversation" to effect large-scale citywide change.

If Carranza lives up to his vow to take on segregation, he will go up against powerful forces that have kept alive the historic paradox of New York City education: In one of the nation's most diverse and politically progressive cities, the schools are among the most segregated in the country.

Since the 1960s, research has shown that poor and nonwhite students perform better in integrated schools. In the South in the wake of the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, years of integration in the ensuing decades coincided with shrinking achievement gaps between black and white children.

Some of that progress has been lost in recent years, as judges lifted desegregation orders. Yet in cities from Cambridge, Mass., to Dallas, efforts to close the yawning achievement gap have led officials to experiment with programs aimed at giving more students access to the best schools.

In New York, racial separation in the city's schools has persisted, driven not just by residential housing patterns, but by policies designed to keep white and middle-class families from fleeing public schools. In-the-know parents can take advantage of school choice and gifted and talented programs. Some of the city's best schools admit only students with good academic track records, keeping those schools overwhelmingly white and Asian in a city where two-thirds of students are black or Hispanic.

In order to succeed, Carranza will need the full backing of de Blasio, who during his first term did not make integration a priority.

Before Carranza was hired in March, he had never run a school district even approaching the size of New York City, with its 1.1 million students.

He had been the mayor's second choice, after the first backed out on live television.Next time you go through airport security, it might be worth washing your hands afterward.

According to the results of a new study published by Finnish and British researchers, half of plastic airport security bins may carry viruses that cause respiratory infections.

The study, published last week in the BioMed Central Infectious Diseases journal, tested swabs from surface samples of the plastic bins at Helsinki Airport that were taken at three different times during the peak of the 2015-2016 flu season.

Four of the eight samples contained the rhinovirus or adenovirus, which both cause cold-like symptoms.

The lead authors of the article, who hailed from Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare and the University of Nottingham, concluded that the screening trays "appear commonly contaminated," and that they are one of the surfaces at an airport where passengers are most likely to pick up harmful viruses.

"We found the highest frequency of respiratory viruses on plastic trays used in security check areas for depositing hand-carried luggage and personal items," the scientists wrote in their journal article. "These boxes typically cycle with high frequency to subsequent passengers, and are typically seized with a wide palm surface area and strong grip."

The results, they said, demonstrated that airports can serve as a potential risk-zone for an "emerging pandemic threat" - a prospect that has already become a major concern in the aftermath of the 2002 SARS outbreak, and the 2014 Ebola epidemic.

And the preponderance of viruses on airport screening bins may be even more cause for concern among Americans, who are increasingly encountering TSA screeners instructing them to empty their food and snack items straight into the plastic bins.

At the conclusion of the study centered on Helsinki Airport, the researchers concluded that airports should offer hand sanitizer to travelers before and after each security checkpoint, and that the baggage trays should be cleaned and disinfected more frequently.

"This knowledge helps in the recognition of hot spots for contact transmission risk, which could be important during an emerging pandemic threat or severe epidemic," the scientists wrote in the article.

But plastic bins aren't the only place in airports where researchers found frequent presence of cold-causing viruses. On the buttons of the Helsinki Airport pharmacy's payment terminal, 50 percent of samples tested positive for the rhinovirus or the human coronavirus.

Of the samples taken at the desks and glass dividers at the airport's passport control checkpoint, one in three contained the rhinovirus.

And when the scientists repeatedly swabbed a plastic toy dog in the airport's children's playground, they found that the toy played host to cold-causing viruses a whopping 67 percent of the time.

In these cases, the scientists concluded, the best approach might be the simplest one: a good old-fashioned wipedown.

"Many cleaning agents, household (antibacterial) wipes and anti-viral tissues are able to rapidly render influenza virus nonviable, offering multiple simple possibilities and opportunities for reducing the risk of indirect contact transmission," the scientists said.

Frequent cleaning, they pointed out, is exactly the reason why an unlikely surface topped the list of the most virus-free spots in the airport: the toilet. Of the 42 samples taken on toilet lids, on the flush buttons, and on the door locks, there were zero samples where scientists detected the presence of a cold virus.

"No respiratory viruses were detected in a considerable number of samples from the surfaces of toilets most commonly touched, which is not unexpected, as passengers may pay particular attention to limiting touch and to hand hygiene, in a washroom environment," the scientists said.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 4)  The Philippine Navy warship that ran aground in the West Philippine Sea has been retrieved, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said Tuesday.

BRP Gregorio del Pilar, a Hamilton-class cutter which the Navy acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2011, "was successfully pulled out" shortly before midnight on Monday, the AFP said. The retrieval operations lasted for almost 10 hours.

AFP public affairs chief Col. Noel Detoyato earlier said there was "minimal damage" to the Philippine Navy's flagship, which was stranded last August 29 near Hasa-Hasa or Half Moon Shoal some 100 kilometers off Palawan. He said the hull and right propeller were slightly damaged, but all 117 crew members, including 15 officers, were safe and unharmed.

"Inspection was ongoing as at this time in preparation for the towing of the vessel to Subic," the AFP said.

Reports say China sent vessels to assist with the retrieval operations, something the AFP denied. "We did not ask for help from anybody... We can on our own, we can resolve this one," Detoyato earlier said.

The Hasa-Hasa Shoal lies within the West Philippine Sea  the smaller area of the South China Sea off the Philippines' western seaboard and within the country's 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The shoal is on the edge of the disputed Spratly archipelago, where China has raised tensions by transforming disputed reefs into islands.

The Philippines largely won a case against China before an international arbitral tribunal, whose ruling in 2012 invalidated Beijing's sweeping territorial claims in South China Sea. China has refused to acknowledge the landmark ruling and continues to claim the South China Sea in its entirety.

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly said the country cannot afford to go to war against China, but he promised to bring up the arbitral ruling with the East Asian giant during his term.Washington

President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday, suggesting the Department of Justice put Republicans in midterm jeopardy with recent indictments of two GOP congressmen.

In his latest broadside against the Justice Department's traditional independence, Trump tweeted that "Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department."

He added: "Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......"

The president's striking suggestion that the Justice Department consider politics when making decisions showed his disregard for the agency's independence. Trump has frequently suggested he views Justice less as a law enforcement agency and more as a department that is supposed to do his personal and political bidding. Still, investigators are never supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate.

Trump, who did not address the specifics of the charges, did not name the Republicans. But he was apparently referring to the first two Republicans to endorse him in the GOP presidential primaries.

Both were indicted on separate charges last month: Rep. Duncan Hunter of California on charges that included spending campaign funds for personal expenses and Rep. Chris Collins of New York on insider trading.

Both have proclaimed their innocence.

The Hunter investigation began in June 2016, according to the indictment. The indictment of Collins lays out behavior from 2017. He was also under investigation by congressional ethics officials.

Hunter has not exited his race, while Collins ended his re-election bid days after his indictment. Both seats appear likely to remain in GOP hands, but the charges have raised Democratic hopes.

A spokeswoman for Sessions declined comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump did not have any public events Monday. He briefly exited the White House to a waiting motorcade, but then went back inside without going anywhere.

Trump's tweet drew a scolding from Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice  one for the majority party and one for the minority party," Sasse said in a statement. "These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began. Instead of commenting on ongoing investigations and prosecutions, the job of the President of the United States is to defend the Constitution and protect the impartial administration of justice."

Trump has previously pressed Sessions to investigate his perceived enemies and has accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department.

He has also repeatedly complained publicly and privately over Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the federal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and RussiaThe Texas Department of Public Safety on Friday released aerial footage of a Bexar County car chase and shootout that left one man dead and a trooper injured.

The incident began around 3 p.m. Feb. 18 on FM 78 in Guadalupe County when a trooper pulled over 33-year-old Ernest Montelongo of San Antonio for an unspecified traffic violation.

Montelongo allegedly tried to give the trooper a false name, but the trooper caught the ruse and tried to arrest him. According to DPS spokesman Lt. Deon Cockrell, a scuffle between Montelongo and the trooper ensued, and Montelongo fled in his black Chrysler 300.

RELATED: Suspect in Bexar County shootout with DPS trooper dies; trooper 'doing well'

The aerial footage shows Montelongo speeding down Interstate 10 into Bexar County. Towards the end of the chase, Montelongo's front left tire gave out, slowing him down.

A trooper then used his squad car to block Montelongo on Graytown Road. The video shows Montelongo exit the vehicle and use the driver side door as cover, as he prepares to take a shot at the trooper.

The two face off for a few seconds, until Montelongo raises his weapon and fires, striking the trooper in the arm. Troopers returned fire, mortally wounding him.

A helicopter then took Montelongo to San Antonio Military Medical Center, where he died. The trooper was taken to University Hospital for treatment and he survived his injuries.

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On Saturday, August 4, three members of the One Warkworth Business Association, met with the Minister of Housing and Urban Development and Transport Phil Twyford. The One Warkworth presentation stressed the following points:

Prioritise budgetary allocations for Warkworth

Under the Unitary Plan, the population of Warkworth is to grow from the current 4000 to a number greater than 25,000, and the wider Warkworth area from 24,000 to more than 52,000 people within a relatively short period of time. Warkworth will be one of the fastest growth areas in New Zealand and as such requires immediate investment in infrastructure now to adequately provide for this growth. Government and Auckland Council cannot be reactive. They must prioritise budgets to ensure Warkworth infrastructure can cope with this growth.

Southern interchange

The Unitary Plan was adopted after the Puhoi to Warkworth State Highway 1 route and single northern off ramp was determined. But now that its apparent that the bulk of Warkworths new population will be to the south of the single northern interchange, an immediate commitment to a southern interchange is required. Land should be acquired and this work undertaken as part of the current Puhoi to Warkworth road construction project. This will avoid the cost of building then changing an existing structure. In the absence of a southern interchange, the bulk of Warkworths Auckland-bound traffic will need to travel north through the Hill Street intersection or try to negotiate the inadequate and troubled western connector route of Falls Road and Hudson Road.

Matakana link road

The Matakana link road should not be downgraded from the original four lane proposal (two each way) that was the subject of public consultation, to a two lane carriage way (one each way), as is now being considered. The road runs through and is to be the main route of entry and egress for the newly zoned 60 ha light industrial and commercial area. This is at present Warkworths largest industrial-zoned area and will be a significant place of employment and business and related traffic movements. At least three roads to the north and two roads to the south from this industrial precinct are to intersect with the Matakana link road, each needing either a light controlled intersection or a slip lane.

More land for local employment

Council have identified a need for more commercial and industrial-zoned land close to Warkworth. One Warkworth members have expressed a need for a large-scale industrial precinct, which will allow for sites of two to five hectares. In the absence of this precinct, existing businesses, who are large local employers, may relocate to other regions. On the other hand, the existence of such a precinct is likely to attract large-scale employers to the Warkworth area.

Chris Murphy, Chair

www.onewarkworth.co.nzA major new scheme aimed at stopping thousands of tonnes of sediment from flowing down the Hoteo River and into the Kaipara Harbour every year has been launched by Auckland Councils Healthy Waters department.

The five-year $2 million Hoteo Sediment Reduction Programme will focus on a 12km stretch of the Kourawhero Stream near Kaipara Flats, which is a hotspot for riverbank erosion and sediment production.

Project manager Dylan Clarke told a recent meeting of the Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group (IKHMG) at Kaiwaka that 32,000 tonnes of sediment travelled down the Hoteo every year, more than 70 per cent of which came from erosion of stream banks.

The new scheme, which is jointly funded by the Ministry of Environments Freshwater Improvement

Fund and Auckland Council, aims to reduce that amount by funding research and support for landowners, including fencing, planting, labour, and Geomorphically Effective Management Solutions  or, making sure the right plants are in the right place.

The first step will involve a full assessment of the stream in conjunction with landowners to identify where erosion is happening and options for remediation.

The project has a steering group that includes representatives from the Forest Bridge Trust, Beef + Lamb NZ, Million Metres Streams, IKHMG, Te Uri o Hau, Nga Maunga Whakahii and Ngati Manuhiri.

A community meeting about the project will be held at the Puatahi Marae at Glorit on Sunday, September 23 at 10am. RSVP dylan.clarke@aucklandcouncil.govt.nzStormwater pipes that flow out to Red Beach are being investigated by Auckland Council, which is concerned about contamination.

At a workshop on June 14, Councils Safeswim programme manager Nick Vigar talked with the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board about the results of water quality analysis at Red Beach. This information was discussed in confidence, however Hibiscus Matters has since ascertained that the concerns relate to possible contamination from stormwater pipes.

Mr Vigar says that the Safeswim website, launched last November, has provided more effective indications of water quality than previous sample testing methods.

Following concerns from the community of poor water quality indicated on Safeswim, our team worked with the Red Beach Surf Club to carry out additional testing of the beach, stream and stormwater pipes, from November 2017 to May 2018, he says.

Samples from stormwater pipes were collected in both dry and wet weather to identify potential sources of contamination.

Mr Vigar says that to date Council has collected nearly 100 water samples in stormwater drains upstream of the drains identified by the previous sampling.

We have now initiated further investigations of the local pipe network to locate the exact sources of contamination.

The sampling process and investigations are still underway and Council will update the local board once the definitive results and planned follow up actions are ready to share.

Local board chair Julia Parfitt says the new testing system is very comprehensive and can use DNA to ascertain whether bacteria such as e coli come from people or birds.

People had faith in the previous testing regime, but it was not very accurate, she says. Mrs Parfitt says all the beaches in the Hibiscus & Bays area are in the top third of safe beaches in Auckland, but that improvements are still needed.Local News, Health & Wellness, Press Releases, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: September 04 2018

18 AGs File Brief in Sixth Circuit En Banc Rehearing of Ohio Law that Would Defund Planned Parenthood and Other Health Service Providers that Perform Abortions.

New York, NY - Sept. 4, 2018 - New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood  leading a coalition of 18 Attorneys General offices  filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, challenging an Ohio state law that would defund Planned Parenthood and other health service providers that perform or promote abortions. The full appellate court will hear the matter en banc on October 3rd.

The Attorneys General argue that the Ohio law violates the First Amendment and Due Process Clause because the law imposes an unconstitutional condition on state grants that infringes on plaintiffs right to free speech, as well as plaintiffs right to provide access to abortion services, and their clients right to receive such services.

A womans fundamental right to make her own reproductive health choices is under attack across the country, said Attorney General Underwood. This Ohio law  like so many other regressive measures  tries to force health care providers to choose between protecting a womans right to reproductive health care, and providing other critical health services. My office will continue to fight back.

The amicus brief  filed in Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio v. Himes  was signed by a total of 18 Attorneys General offices, including New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

The brief highlights the fact that, since 2009 alone, 20 states have now passed laws or taken executive actions to prohibit family-planning and other public health funds from being awarded to Planned Parenthood affiliates and other providers of abortion services, even when those funds are specifically directed to support services that have nothing to do with abortion. The federal government has proposed the so-called Title X gag rule that would prevent health care providers who participate in Title Xs family-planning program from referring their patients for safe, legal abortions; and Congress has passed a resolution that encourages states to pass defunding measures, repealing a Department of Health and Human Services rule that prohibits states from denying federally funded family-planning grants for reasons unrelated to the entitys ability to provide family-planning services.

Ohios law, which was enjoined before it could take effect, would have prohibited the State from awarding public health grants to providers who perform or promote safe and legal abortions, even though the grants have nothing to do with abortion services. Those grants instead provide funds for other health services, such as education to prevent violence against women, screening for breast and cervical cancer, HIV and AIDS prevention, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and infant mortality prevention.

With defunding efforts of this kind proliferating around the country, the Attorneys General seek to ensure the availability of safe abortion services and other important public health services from accessible providers in each of their states, and to protect the right of providers to engage in constitutionally protected activity.School & Education, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: September 04 2018

Increased presence is part of ongoing efforts to ensure that everything is done to protect Nassau Countys schools, faculty, staff and students.

Hempstead, NY - Sept. 4, 2018 - Nassau County Executive Laura Curran today joined Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder to announce that the Nassau County Police Department will have a visual and strong presence next week, for the first three days of school.

This increased presence is part of the Curran Administrations ongoing efforts to ensure that everything is done to protect Nassau Countys schools, faculty, staff and students throughout the school year.

Today we are sending a message to our parents, faculty, staff and most of all, our students that their safety is the most important job we have, said Curran. And we will continue, behind the scenes, to do what it takes to keep them safe all year.

These efforts include Nassau Countys new School Safety Program, which works to provide the safest environment possible in our schools; enhanced 911 response through RAVE application implementation in schools, which expedites the police response time and connectively to technology used for security purposes; and the formation of the Commissioners Community Council (CCC), to further address the needs and concerns of Nassaus neighborhoods. There is one CCC in each of the countys 19 legislative districts.

In the last 50 years, thankfully there has not been one child that has died in a fire in any of the public-school systems in our country, said Ryder. And the reason is they train. The reason is they prepare. The reason is technology from fire suppression systems and mandated training drills and exercises. We need to mandate our schools to train. We will go to each school and train. We trained 450 principals and every superintendent in Nassau County on active shooter and we will continue to do so going forward this year.School & Education, Local News, Crime, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: September 04 2018

Drivers Urged to Watch for Students Walking or Biking, Follow Posted Speed Limits and Wait for Stopped School Buses.

Albany, NY - Sept. 4, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York State Police are stepping up patrols to crack down on dangerous drivers as students return to school. The Governor urged motorists to watch for students as they walk or bike to school, follow posted speed limits, and stop and wait whenever a school bus is stopped with its red lights flashing and its "stop" sign extended. This is the latest step in a series of safety measures the Governor has recently taken to get the school year off to a safe start.

"I urge every driver to take extra precautions now that school is back in session and students are returning to class," Governor Cuomo said. "The safety of New York's children is our top priority, and these precautions will keep students safe from harm, prevent traffic violations and hold reckless motorists accountable."

In addition to stepping up enforcement efforts, the State Police will also be partnering with AAA for their "School's Open - Drive Carefully" campaign. State Police will be displaying AAA's "School's Open" bumper stickers on all marked patrol cars. The purpose of the initiative is to raise driver awareness about pedestrian safety and to remind motorists to slow down and stop for school buses when their red lights are flashing.

Last month, Governor Cuomo signed an executive order to protect more than one million New York City school children from speeding vehicles. The Governor's action paved the way for the City to reinstate its school zone speed camera program after Senate Republicans failed to act to extend the speed camera law before the end of the legislative session. Studies have shown that after installing the cameras in 2014, 10 fewer children have been killed by motor vehicles each year - from 18 to 8.

Earlier in August, Governor Cuomo signed a bill strengthening the state's requirements for random drug and alcohol testing for all school bus drivers. The law also prohibits bus drivers from drinking alcohol at least eight hours prior to their shift, an increase from the previous six-hour limit.

Additionally, the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee along with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Transportation and State Police joined the Governor in urging caution as the school year begins. In April, more than 850 drivers statewide were ticketed for illegally passing stopped school buses during "Operation Safe Stop," a one-day enforcement effort. State Police and local law enforcement also issued 3,044 tickets for other traffic violations and made 89 arrests for offenses including drunk driving and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Here is a regional breakdown of tickets issued for Passing Stopped School Bus:

Statewide (Issued by State Police in various regions): 20

Capital Region: 5

Finger Lakes: 43

Long Island: 76

Mid-Hudson: 16

New York City: 691

Western New York: 7

Total: 858

The GTSC estimates that 50,000 motor vehicles illegally pass school buses every day across the State. Drivers convicted of passing a stopped school bus face a fine of $250 to $400 and five points on their license for a first violation. For three violations in three years, drivers face a maximum fine of $1,000, a revoked driver license for a minimum of six months and could face jail time.

While the one-day enforcement effort is meant to raise awareness of the importance of not passing a stopped school bus, police ticket motorists every school day for this offense. Drivers must stop whether they are approaching the school bus from the front or the rear. Furthermore, motorists must always stop for flashing red lights, even on divided and multilane highways and on school grounds.

Department of Motor Vehicles Executive Deputy Commissioner and Acting Governor's Traffic Safety Committee Chair Terri Egan said, "The number of tickets issued in just one day underscores the importance of continued enforcement and education about the serious consequences that passing a stopped school bus can have. Children should be able to get on or off the school bus without a distracted or hurried driver putting their lives at risk. We owe it to students and their parents to watch for those flashing lights and stop whenever we see them. Drivers should also look out for children walking or riding bicycles to school."

Paul A. Karas, Acting Commissioner of New York State Department of Transportation said, "It's back to school time and all across New York State families are getting ready for the beginning of the school year. One of the most important duties we have at the Department of Transportation is to ensure that school buses are safe for the children who depend on them every day. Safety is our number one priority, and I assure parents and caregivers that our inspections are always done with the utmost care and with child safety at the forefront."

State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II said, "State Police will be vigilant in keeping our roadways safe as our children head back to school. Drivers can do their part by obeying the posted speed limits in school zones, stopping when they see the flashing red lights of a school bus, and being mindful of children who are walking to school. I encourage all motorists to make safety a top priority by remaining alert and focused when they are traveling through neighborhoods and school zones during the school year and beyond."

Parents are urged to discuss school safety with their children, including teaching them to always look both ways when crossing the street and to look to the right when they step off a bus. Children should be taught if they drop something while getting on or off the bus they should never pick it up, and instead alert the driver and follow the driver's instructions to make sure the driver sees them.

Parents should also make sure their children's clothing and backpacks do not present a potential hazard. Jacket and sweatshirt drawstrings, backpack straps, scarves and loose clothing may get caught on the bus handrail or door. If you meet your child at the bus stop after school, wait on the side where the child will be dropped off, not across the street. Children can sometimes dash across the street to see their parents and forget the safety rule of looking both ways before crossing the street.

The NYSDOT inspects approximately 50,000 school vehicles as part of its inspection program. The school districts, private schools as well as many for-hire school vehicle contractors operate these school vehicles. More than 400 elements are examined during every inspection, which are done on a semiannual basis, including brakes, suspension, steering, exhaust, lights, tires, engine, seats, seatbelts, and the driver's compartment.

If a bus is labeled out-of-service because of a major defect, it cannot carry passengers until the defect is corrected and the bus passes re-inspection. In addition, required maintenance records, preventive maintenance program, and driver inspection reports are also checked.Ahoy, mateys!

Blackbeard the pirate is setting sail for Sunderland.

Mike's Maze at Warner Farm has created an 8-acre portrait of Blackbeard in a sea of corn. Blackbeard's flowing beard becomes the waves upon which sails his ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Organizers noted that the town of Sunderland and Warner Farm are celebrating their 300th anniversary, when founding farmers sowed seeds along the Connecticut River. The fall of 1718 marks the fateful date when the notorious pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach was captured and killed off the coast of North Carolina.

Mike's Maze opens on Saturday, Sept. 8, and continues through Nov. 4 at 23 South Main Street in Sunderland -- just a short distance from Interstate 91, exit 24.

Visitors can round out their maze adventure with a romp on the jump pad, a plunge down the whirlpool slides, and a ride on pedal-carts at Davey Jones Derby. Refreshments are available for purchase at the Corn Cafe.

General admission is $14, with discounts for students, seniors and children. Children under age 4 are free.SOUTH HADLEY -- John Kerry -- former secretary of state, five-term U.S. senator from Massachusetts and Democratic candidate for president -- will speak at Mount Holyoke College on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Kerry's hints about another White House run prompted a series of tweets from Donald Trump this weekend.

Vietnam veteran Kerry will be in conversation with Mount Holyoke vice president for academic affairs and dean of Faculty Jon Western and Carol Hoffmann Collins, 1963 professor of international relations, according to a news release. The talk is sponsored by The Odyssey Bookshop.

Kerry is doing media and making appearances to promote his new autobiography, "Every Day Is Extra".



According to the publisher, the book is "Kerry's passionate, insightful, sometimes funny, always moving account of his life. Kerry tells wonderful stories about colleagues Ted Kennedy and John McCain, as well as President Obama and other major figures. He writes movingly of recovering his faith while in the Senate, and deplores the hyper-partisanship that has infected Washington."

The book is out today, Sept. 4.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for the Mount Holyoke appearance. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. at Chapin Auditorium, Mary Woolley Hall, 50 College St. South Hadley.

The Odyssey asks people to click here to purchase one of the 200 tickets available. The $35 price includes a copy of the book. A limited number of seats may be available on the night of the event but entry is not guaranteed, according to the news release. Any open seats will be released at 7:25 p.m. to those waiting in line.

Books may be picked up at The Odyssey until Monday, Sept. 24, or at the will call table prior to the eventA man was arrested at Castle Island in Boston on Monday after he allegedly assaulted a young boy.

Massachusetts State Police troopers arrested Wilfin Medina, 29, after a mother accused Medina of attempting to abduct her 12-year-old son near the bathrooms at Castle Island in South Boston.

State Police responded to the area around 3:25 p.m. on the Labor Day holiday. The woman told police Medina was "behaving erratically" and "making bizarre and non-sensical statements" before she asked him to leave.

Medina then allegedly grabbed the arm of her 12-year-old son. The mother said she pushed Medina away and told him not to touch her son, and the suspect walked away toward a nearby playground.

Troopers found Medina and the woman confirmed he was the suspect. He was arrested and transported to State Police South Boston Barracks on charges of assault and battery, breach of the peace, and attempt to commit a crime.

Medina will be arraigned in South Boston District Court on Tuesday.SOUTHWICK -- A "serious motor vehicle accident" Monday has prompted the closing of College Highway from the Notch Travel Center to Congamond Road, police said on Facebook.

"The road will remain closed until further notice. If traveling in this area, please seek an alternate route. Thank you for your cooperation," said the Southwick Police Department post on Facebook.

Police weren't immediately available to comment.SPRINGFIELD -- Springfield public schools will close early Tuesday and all after-school activities are cancelled because of the heat, a spokeswoman said.

Temperatures are forecast to hit a high of 92 degrees Tuesday.

Schools will open at regular times but dismissal schedules are as follows, schools' spokeswoman Azell Cavaan said:

High schools, 11:05 a.m.

The Springfield Renaissance School, the Springfield Conservatory of the Arts and Duggan Academy, 11:05 a.m. This dismissal time is for grades 6 to 12 at Renaissance, the Conservatory and Duggan.

All alternative schools, 11:05 a.m.

Zanetti School and middle schools, 11:35 a.m.

Elementary schools, 12:10 p.m.

Schools open at various times, mostly between 7:20 and 8:50 a.m.

The bus schedule will be adjusted to fit dismissal times. Breakfast and lunch will be served, Cavaan said.You can't sign a document that doesn't yet exist.

Nonetheless, President Donald Trump, hoping to help Republican congressional candidates in November's midterm elections, has vowed to sign a newly revised North American Free Trade Agreement by Nov. 30. But what, exactly, he'd be signing remains a mystery. Because there's no new pact, except perhaps in his imaginings.

Here's what's known for sure, though:

The U.S. president has repeatedly called the existing, quarter-century-old pact "a disaster." This, despite the fact that economists agree that the three signatories -- the United States, Canada and Mexico -- have all added jobs because of the free-trade agreement.

But why let the facts get in the way when you can instead just make a bunch of noise?

International trade is remarkably complex. In building a car, to take but one example, the tens of thousands of parts can come from all across the globe, ensuring that there are fewer tariffs and lowering trade barriers eases the path for assembly -- and lowers the prices paid by consumers. Though the specifics can be astonishingly complex, the general concept is quite easy to fathom.

Which doesn't mean that Trump understands it.

On Friday, the United States and Canada missed a negotiating deadline, but vowed to continue talking this week. Plans now call for the U.S. and our neighbor to the north to wrap things up by month's end, which would allow publication of the text of the proposed new pact fully two months before Mexico's leader, President Enrique Pena Nieto, leaves office.

What could possibly go wrong?

Trump, of course, has said he's worked out a new agreement with Mexico, and would be willing to sign a two-nation pact. He's also said it would be just great for Canada to get on board -- as long as it does so in accordance with his terms.

Trump's idea of putting America first was always backward-looking, no more so than in terms of manufacturing. Global supply chains that were established years back, and maintained and nurtured over decades, have benefited consumers across the board.

As a candidate for president, the onetime real-estate mogul vowed to return manufacturing jobs to our nation's heartland, and beyond.

Wishing that we made things here, 1950s-style, is as unrealistic as hoping for a return of the clickety-clack of the office typewriter. Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake doesn't benefit a soul, except perhaps someone making a movie about the olden days.

Though our president seems actually to believe that he's some sort of master negotiator, a dealmaker nonpareil, there's exactly no evidence of this.

He's good at hurling insults, at making threats, at acting whacky. But actual deals? Not so much.

His so-called deal with Mexico may, in the end, turn out to have been as illusory as much of what he promised out along the campaign trail. And his efforts to strong-arm Canada may well lead nowhere at all.

None of this, however, will keep Trump from continuing to yack about this new, beautiful trade agreement that he'll say will soon enough be ready for his signature.

Don't hold your breath.Amherst residents Eric Nakajima and Mindy Domb are Democrats competing for the 3rd Hampshire District seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in Tuesday's primary election.

The district includes Amherst, Precinct 1 in Granby and Pelham.

Whoever wins likely will succeed state Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose, I-Amherst, who announced earlier this year he would not seek a second term. There are no Republican candidates for the seat.Two candidates will face off in the Democratic primary election for Hampden County Register of Deeds, a seat long held by the late Donald E. Ashe.

His son, Donald E. Ashe Jr., has launched a write-in campaign to challenge former state Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, now an assistant clerk in Hampden Superior Court.

While Coakley-Rivera pulled nomination papers on May 1, Ashe Jr. announced his intent to run for the seat after his father's death on July 10.

Ashe Sr. died amid his bid for a seventh six-year term.In Massachusetts, state officials found $9.6 million in restitution and penalties against businesses and employers who stole wages and exploited workers.

Attorney General Maura Healey released a 2018 Labor Day report this week that explores the findings of wage theft and other means of exploiting workers. Investigations were performed by the AG's Fair Labor Division, or those who enforce wage laws and the fair bidding of construction projects.

The report revealed wage theft and labor violations occurred across industries, and many by contractors based outside of Massachusetts. In fiscal year 2018, Fair Labor conducted 247 "field visits" across Massachusetts to investigate unfair pay practices, which found both civil and criminal violations in various businesses.

Healey said her office chose to prioritize wage theft in the construction industry last fiscal year, which resulted in nearly $1.5 million in penalties and restitution, according to the report. In that time Fair Labor issued citations or other assessments against 61 different employers in the construction industry.

Methuen's E.J. Paving Company, Florida-based contractor Southern Road and Bridge, LLC and J. Donlon & Sons Inc., which worked on a public works project in Medford, were among the "notable cases" listed in the report, all of which failed to pay workers properly in overtime pay or minimum wage.

The state also focused on unlawful child labor. Investigators report there were more than 800 child labor violations in the state last fiscal year that resulted in about $373,900 in penalties.

A case in West Springfield found Shreeji Group of Longmeadow LLC, which operates a Subway restaurant in Western Massachusetts, failed to pay a woman for her work throughout 2017, and employed that woman's 14-year-old daughter to work as well without securing a permit.

Some findings were shared at a breakfast with Attorney General Maura Healey and other officials on Labor Day.

"It should never pay to cut corners and cost people their lives. If companies endanger the working people of Massachusetts, they will be held accountable," Healey said in the report.BOSTON -- The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday upheld the state's authority to mandate aggregate, declining greenhouse gas emissions from power plants to comply with a 2008 climate change law.

"Its name bespeaks its ambitions," wrote Justice Scott L. Kafker for the court. "The Global Warming Solutions Act ... was passed to address the grave threats that climate change poses to the health, economy, and natural resources of the Commonwealth."

A coalition of electricity generators panned the decision, while the Conservation Law Foundation proclaimed "an unqualified win for climate leadership in Massachusetts."

The New England Power Generators Association and GenOn Energy, Inc. in 2017 sued the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, contending that it acted unlawfully in establishing a "cap regulation" for in-state power plants.

MassDEP had told the power sector to reduce its total carbon dioxide output from 9.1 metric tons in 2018 to 1.8 metric tons in 2050.

The cap regulation stemmed from a landmark 2016 case where teenagers sued MassDEP for its failure to comply with the state's climate law. Gov. Charlie Baker subsequently ordered the agency to create new regulations for "volumetric reductions" across all economic sectors.

In the case before the SJC, which originated in Superior Court, power plants argued that they are already regulated under a separate law. They asserted that MassDEP overstepped its authority, that a cap would actually increase emissions, and that a "sunset provision" of the law prohibits such regulation after 2020.

The seven justices said that the plaintiffs hadn't made their case.

"We conclude that none of these arguments is meritorious and, accordingly, uphold the Cap Regulation," the decision reads.

A spokesman for the region's power plants on Tuesday expressed disappointment, cited issues of fairness, and suggested the cap regulation would give an economic edge to dirtier, out-of-state plants.

"As went unrefuted throughout the case, with Massachusetts plants having their operations limited by this regulation, less efficient plants out of state will be dispatched to make up the difference," said Dan Dolan, president of New England Power Generators Association.

Dolan said Massachusetts power plants are proud of having cut carbon emissions by nearly 60 percent since 1990. He said transportation is a much bigger culprit when it comes to climate change, and remains largely unregulated.

"We're committed to continuing to do our share in meeting our environmental responsibilities, but it is now past time for Massachusetts to engage other sectors, as will be necessary to meet the economy-wide legal mandates," Dolan remarked.

Conservation Law Foundation president Bradley Campbell offered a different perspective.

"Carbon pollution poses a major threat to our environment, our health, and our economy, and the Court's opinion is a resounding call for the electricity sector to offer climate solutions rather than resistance and roadblocks," said Campbell. "CLF is pushing for strong climate laws and mandatory emissions reductions in every New England state."

The foundation had submitted briefs in support of MassDEP, and fought for the original 2008 climate law. The Global Warming Solutions Act requires that by 2050, in-state greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by at least 80 percent below 1990 levels.



The cap regulation is separate from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which is a multi-state, market-based cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions from power plants. It is also separate from the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard.

MassDEP spokesman Ed Coletta said the Baker administration "remains committed to ensuring Massachusetts residents and business are provided with reliable, cost-effective clean energy while reducing carbon emissions," and is pleased with the court decision.



The administration "looks forward to continuing statewide and regional efforts to implement a diverse energy portfolio, ensure environmental protection standards are met, and maintain system reliability across Massachusetts and New England," Coletta said.

Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.comBoston saw strong turnout as voters on Tuesday went to the polls across the state to cast ballots in the Massachusetts party primaries.

Springfield is seeing voter turnout on par with the state primary in 2016, according to the local elections official.

A day after Labor Day, there are contests for governor on both the Democratic and Republican primary ballots, while Congressional and State House races in the Boston area appeared to drive voters to their polling locations.

In the Massachusetts 7th Congressional District, which includes roughly half of Boston, as well as Cambridge, Somerville, and Randolph, incumbent Rep. Mike Capuano, is facing a challenge from Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley.

Top lieutenants of Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, including Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, are among the incumbents who like Capuano are attempting to fend off challenges from the left wing of the Democratic Party.

A three-way fight to take on Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November is underway between state Rep. Geoff Diehl, former Mitt Romney aide Beth Lindstrom and Winchester businessman John Kingston.

As of 3 p.m. in Boston, there were 49,345 ballots cast, putting turnout at 12.2 percent, according to city elections officials. Polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

The 3 PM Boston turnout update shows 49,345 ballots cast for 12.2% turnout. Continuing to show very strong turnout. Still not clear how predictive it will be of statewide turnout. But yes, Boston is going strong. pic.twitter.com/jqr58Npgcq  Steve Koczela (@skoczela) September 4, 2018

In Springfield, voter turnout was at 5.13 percent around noontime, putting the city on par with its numbers in the 2016 state primary.

The final turnout number that year was 12.83 percent, according to Gladys Oyola, Springfield election commissioner.

The Democratic primary races in the Springfield area to keep an eye on include U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who is facing a challenge from attorney Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, and incumbent state Sen. James Welch of West Springfield is facing a challenge from Amaad Isiah Rivera, a former aide to US Sen. Ed Markey.

The incumbent state representative, Democrat Carlos Gonzalez, is running a write-in campaign because he fell short in submitting the number of valid signatures needed to get on the ballot. His opponent is longtime social worker Ivette Hernandez, who is also waging a write-in campaign.

Citywide turnout numbers were unavailable in Worcester. A city elections official said they do not have the capacity to provide the numbers before polls close.

But Colin Novick, the warden for Worcester's Ward 9 Precinct 2, said the precinct has seen 10.4 percent.

The polling location for the precinct is Worcester State University's May Street Building.

The building also functions as the polling location for Ward 9 Precinct 1 and Ward 9 Precinct 3. Novick said Precinct 1 had 8.2 percent turnout and Precinct 3 had 7.6 percent turnout, though there aren't any hotly contested races on those precincts' ballots.Summary

Sexually transmitted infections are asymptomatic and often undiagnosed. Routinely screening and preventive measures are important for early identification, which can prevent severe complications and further transmission. An untreated STD results in several other chronic diseases including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), infertility, increased risk of HIV and other STDs. There are certain strains of HPV that are linked to cervical, penile, throat and anal cancers. Various types of STDs include:

 Gonorrhea.

 Syphilis.

 Herpes.

 Chlamydia.

 Hepatitis (HBV).

 Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

 Human Papilloma Virus (HPV or genital warts).

 Chancroid.

 Trichomoniasis.

Request Sample Report at https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3379297-global-markets-for-treatment-and-diagnosis-of-sexually-transmitted-diseases

Sexually transmitted infections are spread through sexual contact. These infections are primarily transmitted from one person to another via sexually transmissible bacteria, viruses and parasites. There are several STDs that can be transmitted through tissue transfer, blood products and from mother to child during childbirth or pregnancy. The disease symptoms vary from one person to another; in a few cases there might be no disease symptoms. Symptoms can be mild or acute from one individual to another. There can be severe consequences or long-term complications in individuals suffering from the disease.

A significant proportion of sexually transmitted diseases worldwide is caused by eight major infections: syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes, hepatitis B, human papillomavirus (HPV) and trichomoniasis. These diseases have a high prevalence, particularly in developing countries, and it can result in substantial productivity losses for individuals, and communities. In developing countries, sexually transmitted infections are among the leading causes of disability.

Report Scope

This report organizes information from diverse sources into a comprehensive report that includes sections on disease overviews, industry structure, diagnostic kits, treatment interventions, pharmaceutical products, emerging technologies, regulations, reimbursement and patents. The scope of this report includes an overview of the global market scenario for diagnosis and treatments of sexually transmitted disease with base year data of 2017, estimations for 2018 and forecast for 2019-2023 using projections of CAGR. Market data in value terms is provided at global, regional and country levels for disease areas and treatment by drug class. Market data for sexually transmitted disease diagnostics is provided for regional levels, with details on test types.

The report focuses on key sectional assessments for major disease areas such as chlamydia, genital herpes, HIV and hepatitis, among others, and provides detailed analysis of epidemiology, historic and current disease incidence trends, therapeutic interventions and diagnostic overview. It forecasts the global market by drug class for treatment of STDs and discusses market data for antibiotics, antivirals/antiretrovirals and other treatments. Diagnostic test types such as enzyme immunoassays (EIA) and ELISA, PCR, rapid diagnostics and others, are detailed with market data current and forecasts.

Market dynamics such as drivers, restraints and trends are discussed in the report. This report also involves regional market overviews for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. The regional overviews provide information on the epidemiology of sexually transmitted disease by country and region and also details market data for each region. The regulatory scenario is discussed for United States, Europe, Japan and China to provide an overview of the regulations for new drug launches and diagnostic kits. The reimbursement scenario is outlined for the United States, Europe, and Japan to provide an overview to our readers. Pipeline analysis and scenarios are discussed for major disease to provide details on the major pipeline developments. The competitive landscape discusses the major manufacturers involved in the sexually transmitted disease therapeutics market, key developments and product offerings.

View Detailed Report at https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3379297-global-markets-for-treatment-and-diagnosis-of-sexually-transmitted-diseases

Report Includes

 45 data tables and 53 additional tables

 An overview of the global market for diagnosis and treatments of sexually transmitted diseases

 Country specific data and analysis for United States, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, U.K., Spain, China, India, Japan, and Middle East and Africa

 Coverage of major disease areas, and a detailed analysis of historic and current disease incidence trends

 Discussion about market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and trends

 Information on the regulations for new drug launches and diagnostic kits for United States, Europe, Japan and China

 Detailed profiles of the major market players, including Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie Inc., Agilent Technologies, Inc., Biomerieux, Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Novartis Ag, Pfizer Inc., Promega Corp., and Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights

Chapter 3 Global Market Overview and Trends

Chapter 4 Disease Overview

Chapter 5 STD Diagnosis and Treatment Options

Chapter 6 The North American Market Breakdown

Chapter 8 The Asia-Pacific Market Breakdown

Chapter 9 Rest of World Market Breakdown

Chapter 10 Regulatory Structure

Chapter 11 Pipeline Analysis

Chapter 12 Competitive Landscape and Key Developments

Chapter 13 Company Profiles

About Us:

Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.

Contact Us:

NORAH TRENT

sales@wiseguyreports.com

Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (US)

Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, September 4, 2018

WPP said it posted organic net revenue growth in the second quarter of 0.7%, its first growth quarter since first-quarter 2017. Organic growth factors out the impact of M&A and currency fluctuations.

The company -- which confirmed Monday that Mark Read has been appointed CEO after a five-month search -- posted a slight decline (0.2%) in reported revenue in the second quarter to 3.9 billion ($5 billion), which followed a 4% drop in the first quarter. For the first half, revenue was down 2.1% to 7.5 billion ($9.6 billion).

After tax profits for the first half were up 11.3% to 705 ($905) million.

Estimated net new business billings for the first half were $3.2 billion. New assignments came from Adidas, Hilton, Mondelez, Office Depot and T-Mobile. The company also said it expanded relationships with Danone, Mars and Shell.

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The holding company posted an organic net revenue decline of 3.1% in North America, its worst performance by region for the second quarter. The best performance by region was Western Europe, where organic growth was 3.9%. The UK came in at 1.4% and the other regions combined averaged growth of 2.9%.

Read stated that the company has made progress in a number of important areas in the last few months, including the uptick in organic growth. He attributed the companys strong new business performance to having focused our efforts on providing more effectively integrated solutions to clients.

Read also said the company has divested of 15 companies (or stakes in companies) including Globant and AppNexus so far this year, generating 676 million in cash, and will continue to focus on the portfolio with an eye toward possible further divestitures.

We have accelerated initiatives that will simplify our organization, making it easier for us to manage and clients to access, Read said. He noted, for example, the opening of campus-type locations in New York and other cities where multiple agencies and specialist units are now housed.by Sara Guaglione , September 4, 2018

The Financial Times wants to have 1 million subscribers paying for its content next year.

The London-based paper revealed it has 930,000 paid subscribers today. Almost 80% of that number are digital subscribers, while the remaining 190,000 subscribers have a print-only deal, according to The Drum.

FT originally said it wanted to reach 1 million paying subscribers by 2020.

Last February, The Financial Times had about 850,000 subscribers, Around 60% of FTs revenue came from subscriptions and 40% from advertising at that time.

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Digital subscription is now up 11% year-on-year and overall subscription by 7%, per The Drum.

The Financial Times has a metered paywall that was set up in 2007. In the past decade, FT has experimented with different types of paywalls, such as giving a number of articles free per month to allow new readers to access the site for a $1 monthly fee.

Fiona Spooner, the FTs global marketing director B2C, told The Drum the key to a successful paywall strategy is to give people the content they want to consume to show them the value of a subscription.

For example, if users are reading about Brexit, FT would show them the Brexit coverage they could access if they subscribed.

The Financial Times is also pushing more aggressively into the U.S. The newspaper is offering a first click free strategy to readers in the States.

Separately, The Washington Examiner has hired Toby Harnden, bureau chief of Londons Sunday Times, to be its new managing editor. He replaces Philip Klein, who will take on a new role as executive editor. Previously, he was U.S. editor and Middle East correspondent of the Daily Telegraph.

Harnden will start at the website and weekly magazine October 1.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, September 4, 2018

Broadband providers in California will be prohibited from blocking or throttling traffic, charging higher fees for fast-lane service, and from exempting their own video streams from consumers' data caps, if a bill passed late last week is signed by Governor Jerry Brown.

The law, SB 822, which restores the Obama-era open internet rules, passed 27-12 in the California Senate and 61-18 in the Assembly. State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who sponsored the bill, calls it "the strongest net neutrality protections in the country."

Advocacy group Fight for the Future called the bill's passage "a major victory for Internet activists who harnessed massive public outcry to pass the bill and a resounding defeat for big telecom companies like AT&T and Comcast."

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The organization also predicted that other states will follow California's lead if the bill is signed.

Industry group USTelecom -- which has vowed to sue states that pass their own net neutrality laws -- is urging Brown to veto the measure. "The internet must be governed by a single, uniform and consistent national policy framework, not state-by-state piecemeal approaches," the organization stated.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission repealed the Obama-era net neutrality regulations, which explicitly prohibited broadband providers from blocking or throttling data and from charging higher fees for prioritized delivery. Those repealed rules also contained a "general conduct" standard that had been interpreted as prohibiting some forms of zero-rating -- or exempting material from consumers' data caps.

When the FCC voted to repeal the Obama-era regulations, the agency also said it was blocking states from crafting their own rules.

Various companies and net neutrality proponents, as well as 23 attorneys general, have asked a federal appellate court to invalidate the FCC's repeal of the rules as well as the block on state laws.

In addition to the legal challenge, officials in a number of states have attempted to impose their own net neutrality rules on providers. The governors of Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Montana, Hawaii and Vermont have signed orders requiring state agencies to contract only with providers that follow net neutrality principles. In Oregon, lawmakers passed a bill that prohibits state agencies from contracting with broadband providers that violate net neutrality principles. Washington state passed a more comprehensive net neutrality law that prohibits broadband providers operating in the state from blocking or throttling traffic and from charging companies higher fees for prioritized delivery.by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, September 4, 2018

Newly anointed WPP CEO Mark Read told financial analysts Tuesday that the company is conducting a comprehensive strategic review in order to reposition the firm to drive future growth.

Read made his comments at a presentation in London where the company reviewed first-half financial highlights that included -- for the first time in over a year -- modest organic growth.

Read noted that he has been busy meeting with clients over the past five months and that while they say they value what we do, there is some frustration that the holding company isnt working quickly enough to simplify its structure so that clients can better understand and access more easily all of the resources available to them via the holding company.

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We have the capabilities, said Read, who was appointed CEO on Monday after serving as co-chief operating officer since the departure of former CEO Martin Sorrell in April. Its really about connecting them. There are many things to do differently and better across the group.

The results of the review will be disclosed in December when the company expects to reveal a repositioning strategy and plans for improving under-performing assets like Kantar and a number of the companys creative agencies.

There has been some improvement in recent months, Read asserted, citing the organic growth improvement as well as the fact that WPP has won six of eight major new business pitches this year and three of four reviews where the company retained a major piece of business.

Part of the reason for that success, Read said, is that agencies within the organization are cooperating better to present clients with integrated offerings. The company believes more progress on that front can be achieved by co-locating agencies in updated facilities, as it has done recently in New York, Toronto and other locales.

Country managers will also play a more vital role going forward, Read noted, citing Portugal as an example that serves as a blueprint for future change. He noted that until recently the holding company had something like 30 different WPP agencies scattered in various offices. Now they are all housed in one building, communicating and cooperating more closely. It adds strength and power to the group, he said.

Some immediate priorities include a detailed review of creative agencies and the insights business (anchored by Kantar), which have come under a lot of pressure in recent years and devising a plan for improving growth in both divisions. Read noted that WPP has not ruled out operating Kantar in some form of partnership with an outside firm to unleash its full potential, although no decisions have been made yet.

By region, North America is the weakest performer right now, and fixing that situation is a top priority, said Read.

He acknowledged that the in-house trend is growing, but added that I dont think clients want to do it without help from the outside. For some it will be a blend.

In a note to investors, Pivotal Research senior analyst Brian Wieser wrote that the strategic review should present an opportunity for transformation of WPP.

At the same time, Wieser added, we think the company has the bulk of the assets, geographic presence and client relationships that it needs to return to revenue and margin growth. Changes seem inevitable, with fewer agency brands, for example, and some kind of change to the way in which Kantar is situated within WPP seems likely too, especially considering the expected auction for Kantars direct competitor Nielsen.

However, Wieser surmised, we think that growth will mostly be a function of execution in adapting to evolving client needs with investments around internal and external e-commerce, data and consumer experience-focused capabilities. We think it is particularly positive for WPP that its new CEO has extensive experience in these areas, which should be helpful for the company as it evolves going forward.by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, September 4, 2018

Google began restricting third-party tech support service ads worldwide, and plans to introduce a verification system in the coming months.

The program, announced Friday, aims to ensure that only legitimate providers can use Googles ad platform to reach consumers. Fraud led Google to restrict a variety of business categories to run ads in search, but some believe the search company is leaning too hard on some industries and not enough on others.

Chris Olson, CEO at The Media Trust, said scrutiny of search advertising and the need to require advertising buyers to be accountable will reduce problems. We dont applaud friction, but we do applaud taking steps to make it more difficult for bad guys to cause problems, he said. People dont expect tech support help ads to be fake.

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Overall, Olson said, it is important to have a list of digital advertisers -- and today one does not exist.

While The Media Trust and search marketers applaud Googles efforts, Jonathan Kagan, senior director of search at Cogniscient Media, a MARC USA company, believes Google tries to regulate the wrong industries. Kagan said a letter arrived this morning from Google outlining additional requirements to allow ads from the drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility of a very small hospital network to run in Google search.

After filling out what Kagan described as a 500-page document allowing his client to run ads in Google search, a more recent condition required an on-site physical inspection of the facility by a third-party company, LegitScript, which Google partnered with to certify addiction treatment facilities that want to run ads in its search results.

Were trying to save lives and [Googles] hindering this, Kagan said.

Other industries are being regulated too much, while others not enough, according to some. For example, cannabis could be considered one being too closely regulated not that many U.S. states have legalized it for recreational and medicinal purposes.

Kagan suspects its because its against federal, but not state laws, he said. Only Yahoo is the one that has shown an interest in running cannabis search ads," he added.

Kagan said Microsoft in 2016 invested in technology to track cannabis, but doesnt allow dispensaries to run search ads in Bing. In July of that year, Kind Financial announced that Microsoft would make Kinds Agrisoft Seed-to-Sale software available for sale on its cloud computing platform that services government clients.

In addition to rehab centers, Google has worked to set search ad guidelines on a variety of businesses such as payday loans and bail bond services. Now it has turned its focus to third-party tech support services.

Tech-support scams represent a major issue in search. "We've seen a rise in misleading ad experiences stemming from third-party technical support providers and have decided to begin restricting ads in this category globally," wrote David Graff, director, global product policy, in a blog post.

Graff acknowledges in the post that these efforts alone wont stop people from trying to game Googles online advertising platforms, but the changes will make it a lot more difficult.

In 2017, Google removed more than 3.2 billion ads that violated its advertising policies. The company estimates that is more than 100 bad ads per second.

In a report released in March, Google said it blocked 79 million ads across its network for attempting to send people to malware-laden sites, and removed 400,000 of these unsafe sites last year. Also on the list are 66 million trick-to-click ads, as well as 48 million ads that attempted to get users to install unwanted software.

Google announced the changes following a Wall Street Journal report that found people commit fraud by buying ads from Google and posing as authorized service agents for Apple.

One example provided points to the first results in a recent search results for the phrase Apple tech support. The search ads serve a link to Apple.com, along with a toll-free number, but the WSJ found the number didnt belong to Apple. Instead it belonged to a call center involved in tech-support scams.

Scams are on the rise, and not only at Google. The WSJ reports that Microsoft receives around 12,000 complaints about tech support scams monthly, up about 24% in 2017, and the Federal Trade Commission registered 45,000 complaints about online tech support fraud in 2016.New research has revealed that, contrary to traditional beliefs in the medical community, four- or five-drug combinations can be effective in treating infection with treatment-resistant bacteria.

Share on Pinterest Laboratory experiments and computational analyses reveal over 8,000 antibiotic combinations that can treat resistant bacteria.

Antibiotic, or antimicrobial, resistance occurs when bacteria or viruses  sometimes called superbugs  genetically mutate and become immune to drugs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) call the phenomenon an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society.

In the United States, antibiotic resistance is also a major public health concern. Every year, at least 2 million people in the U.S. contract a treatment-resistant bacterial infection, and more than 23,000 people die as a result.

Now, researchers may have come up with a strategy for tackling it. New research led by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) reveals that combining four or five antibiotics can prove surprisingly effective in killing off or slowing down the progression of drug-resistant bacteria.

The findings go against the prevalent view that such drug combinations are ineffective, or that mixing different antibiotics leads to the drugs benefits canceling each other out.

Pamela Yeh, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA, supervised the new study in collaboration with Van Savage, a professor of ecology, evolutionary biology, and biomathematics at UCLA.

Yeh comments on the findings, saying, There is a tradition of using just one drug, maybe two.

Were offering an alternative that looks very promising. We shouldnt limit ourselves to just single drugs or two-drug combinations in our medical toolbox. We expect several of these combinations, or more, will work much better than existing antibiotics. Pamela YehMen who have erectile dysfunction, prostate problems, or other urologic conditions are often at higher risk for depression and sleep disorders. Physicians need to screen for this and refer them for specialist care.

Share on Pinterest Men with urologic conditions such as erectile dysfunction are more likely to have depression and sleep disorders.

This was the main conclusion that investigators at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) came to after studying 124 men aged 54, on average, who were attending a clinic specializing in mens health.

The men completed detailed questionnaires about mental and general health, sleep, and urologic conditions, such as erectile function and ease or difficulty in passing urine, which could indicate prostate problems.

They had also filled in a questionnaire that is used to screen men at risk of low male sex hormones. The researchers then analyzed the mens responses against information held in their health records, which included results of laboratory tests and medical histories.

The analysis revealed an overall pattern of links between urologic conditions and mood and sleep problems.

A paper on the recent study now features in the International Journal of Impotence Research.

Commenting on the findings, first study author Arman S. Walia, of the Department of Urology at UCI, says that because non-urologic disease may negatively impact urologic disease, urologists should be aware of these associations when assessing the entirety of a patients disease burden.Advertisement

Investigators hypothesized that during seasons of high risk for CVD, Internet search activity to seek information on CVD would be higher than during seasons in which the risk of CVD was lower. Similarly, they hypothesized that areas of the US with the highest rates of CVD mortality would have a greater population-level interest in searching for information on CVD than areas with lower rates of CVD mortality. To address these two questions, investigators obtained data from Google Trends, which is a repository of online search query data made publicly available by Google. Using over ten years of search query data for 28 search terms related to CVD, they found that search volumes were 15 percent higher in the winter compared with the summer in the US and nearly 50 percent higher in winter compared with summer in Australia. They also found that US states with higher rates of CVD mortality had higher Internet search activity with respect to CVD.The significance of this research is that, in the current digital era, increasing rates of computer and smartphone ownership and increasing rates of high speed Internet access mean that vast amounts of data are generated as a result of everyday activities, such as searching the Internet and use of social media. When aggregated for the entire population, these data may provide insights into the population's interest in certain topics. Peaks in interest in certain healthcare-related topics may be driven by disease activity at the level of the community, say the investigators."The key is to use big data, such as search query volumes, to augment traditional methods of CVD surveillance by providing real-time insights into population interests and behaviors," adds senior investigator and co-author Carl J. Lavie, MD, of the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School, The University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA. "The failure of Google Flu Trends to predict the 2013 influenza outbreak should caution us not to fall victim to the so-called 'big data hubris,' but rather use it as one of the tools in our armamentarium for disease surveillance. Future artificial intelligence algorithms may incorporate passively generated data such as search query data or other forms of 'big data' to generate real-time predictions of CVD at the community level."In an accompanying editorial, Joseph G. Murphy, MD, and R. Scott Wright, MD, of the Department of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA, equate these findings with a "canary in the coal mine" metaphor with the potential for using aggregated search data to alert public health authorities to trends in CVD mortality."The 21st century canary will not be an unfortunate caged bird used to alert humans to environmental toxins but instead will be a virtual reality program triggered by individual Web searches and social media postings collected in aggregate and analyzed by public health authorities to facilitate the early detection of symptoms and diseases gathered on a nearly instantaneous basis," they comment. "The use of such a program would allow better targeting of resources and tools designed to reduce morbidity and mortality and empower individuals to live healthier and more productive lives.Dr. Murphy and Dr. Wright predict that Internet search engines and social media postings will not only act like the proverbial "canary in the coal mine" in the early detection of disease, but also "sing like a canary" in the dissemination of important public health warnings.Source: EurekalertJust a few days ago, Xiaomi President Lin Bin posted a render of the soon to come Mi MIX 3 on several social networking sites. The MIX 3 will be the company's next bezel-less smartphone, with a focus on the high-end internals as well as a premium design language.

Today, Xiaomi's Director of Product Management, Donovan Sung, has posted a real photo of the phone and revealed that it will support 5G.

The status bar on the phone has '5G+' written on it. The MIX-lineup has always been about the design, and bezel-less displays are at the heart of it. The series has always sported one of the highest screen-to-body ratios.

 Xiaomi

Sung also wrote on Twitter, We've successfully tested 5G data connections on Xiaomi phones, and we can't wait for the official rollout of 5G next year!. 5G download speeds are more than 10X faster than 4G speeds. What's everyone looking forward to the most?

In the past few months, we've seen OPPO and Vivo release phones that have a sliding camera mechanism. This addition lets the manufacturer remove the camera lens and sensor arrays from the top, and shift it behind the display. Hence, a notch is no longer required and the user ultimately gets a higher screen-to-body ratio.

 GadgetMatch

Even if we leave the technicalities out, a phone with barely any bezels and chin looks very futuristic. The MIX 3 is definitely at the final stage of development and with today's release, we also know it has reached network testing. What's interesting is, which chipset will be powering the MIX 3?

The current flagship Snapdragon 845 doesn't have 5G support, and to have it, the soon to launch Snapdragon 855 or the Qualcomm X50 modem will be required. However, Mi MIX 3 will not be the world's first-ever phone to have 5G capabilities, as the Moto Z3, launched in early August, offered an exclusive 5G Moto Mod.

 Moto Z3 5G/Motorola

The phone is set to be launched in October, and Sung said in his tweet, that the company can't wait for the official rollout of 5G next year.

Also, even if the phone is able to support 5G bands, carriers across the globe are going to need much more time to actually start operating the newer technology.N. KOTZIAS: It is a great pleasure, for Greek diplomacy and me personally, to be inaugurating the renovated historic Greek Consulate in Izmir. I am very pleased to have my counterpart the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlut Cavusoglu, with us here at the inauguration. In spite of the problems that exist between the two states, we have found, with Mr. Cavusoglu, a path of cooperation, friendship and joint action, wherever we can.

The restoration of this imposing building is the restoration of the past, the present and a creative future. The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs  in spite of the crisis we went through  has restored the historic buildings of Greek diplomacy, like this building here in Izmir, the Seferis building in Korce, our Embassy in Berlin. I want to announce here that we will also be laying the cornerstone for our Embassy in Ankara.

I want to thank those who worked for this day, our Consul General Mrs. Papoulias, all of our Consulates staff, our Ministrys Technical Service. I also want to thank the local workers who, through their craft, contributed to the renovation of this beautiful building.

I thank the Turkish officials for their presence. And I thank in particular Metropolitan Bartholomew of Smyrna. All these people, and first and foremost my counterpart Mr. Cavusoglu, will bring us the good fortune we need in developing the Consulates activities.

Izmir is a beautiful city, a city of dreams, of tragedy and creativity. It is the city where, once again, I meet with my friend the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, with whom we are working towards more creative and more productive relations between the two countries. We are both working not just for better relations between the two states, but also to support Turkey's European course.

Today, both our countries are headed by great leaders who, based on international law, can resolve the pending problems. For a common future with stability in the region. For a stable and developing Turkey and for a stable and developing Greece.

After many years, Greece is emerging from the crisis. We have stood by and continue to stand by Turkey against any kind of putschists, and we are certain that Turkey will find and maintain its economic stability.

Izmir is the city of the West here in Turkey. Turkey is a major power in Europe. Greece is the centre of Europes culture and historical heritage. God and Allah gave us the gift and, sometimes, the difficulty of being neighbours.

This Consulate is a Consulate of friendship and love between neighbours, and the presence of my counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, reaffirms this friendship and our striving for a joint, peaceful and stable future.

Mrs. Papoulias, thank you for all the work you did to get us here. And I thank our Ambassador, Mr. Mavroeidis, in this regard as well.

Mevlut, thank you very much for coming here in this -metaphorically and literally- hot atmosphere. It is an atmosphere like that of our warm hearts when we meet. I am pleased to be in Turkey again for our Consulate. Pleased to have you welcome me in your country, and to welcome you to our Consulate. Thank you very much for being here.

I thank everyone for coming.

JOURNALIST: (off microphone)

N. KOTZIAS: I very much thank my friend Mevlut. I thank Turkey for the hospitality it shows our diplomats. We do not host terrorists. What we always have in our country is the due process of Justice and of international law. This is what we believe our relations, our friendship, our shared course in Europe should be based on.

I always underscore that a European Turkey, a Turkey that is a member state of the European Union, will be the greatest gain for Greece. I cannot imagine the future of the European Union without this special connection with Turkey. But we mustnt wait for that day. The visa requirement for Turkish citizens must be waived much sooner, and our Consulate will have one less task to carry out.

It is Turkeys right that the agreements with Europe be implemented. Whatever we agree to, must be implemented by both sides.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 4)  President Rodrigo Duterte, who has compared his administration's drug war to the Holocaust, spoke against dictators who commit crimes against humanity.

The President visited Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, on Monday during his official visit to the country.

Duterte criticized Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Human rights critics previously likened Duterte's leadership style to that of the Nazi leader.

"I realized that war is insanity. And what happened here, in Europe especially under the Nazi. I could not imagine a country obey an insane leader. And I could not ever fathom the spectacle of a human being going into a killing spree, murdering old men, women, men, children, mother," he said.

In October 2016, Duterte said that he would "be happy to slaughter" drug addicts in the Philippines, like how Hitler massacred over six million Jews deemed "undesirable" during the Nazi Holocaust.

Related: Duterte decries Hitler comparison, but 'would be happy to slaughter drug addicts'

He said leaders should be overthrown at the at the first sign of dictatorship or tyranny.

"There is always a lesson to be learned and that despots and leaders who show insanity should be - well they should be disposed of at the first instance," he said.

Duterte also vowed to fight genocide.

"I would like to say that we are one in saying that it will not happen again and my country will be the first to voice such I said a massacre of a race just because of hate," he said.

During his visit to Yad Vashem, he signed the guest book, where he wrote, "Never again. May the world learn the lessons of this horrific and benighted period of human history."

Duterte previously said he needs to act like a "dictator" to move the country forward.

Related: Duterte defends 'dictatorship' style

Local and international human rights groups have criticized his administration for thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings in the anti-drug war and for attempts to silence groups and personalities critical of the government.MIDDLETOWN  A new biannual report by the Connecticut United Ways breaks down the stark reality of working families  some with heads of household juggling two full-time jobs  struggling to make ends meet.

According to the 2018 Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed Report for Connecticut, 40 percent (or 538,529) of Connecticut households  four out of 10 families  have income which falls below what is needed to pay for basic necessities of housing, food, child care, health care, technology and transportation.

Whenever we formally or informally raise the ALICE report in any kind of public setting, whether its at a specific workplace or forums on the shoreline, when you start to describe what ALICE is, people in the room or either totally ALICE or have been, or know people that are. It touches, or has touched, almost everyone, said Kevin Wilhelm, president and CEO of the Middletown-based Middlesex United Way.

Ed Bonilla, vice president of community impact, has spent the last year or so talking to people on the shoreline about ALICE figures and holding forums in each town. Bonillas presentations offersobering statistics.

I tell people, Did you go to your local coffee shop and get a coffee this morning  Dunkin Donuts or a convenience store? Most likely those folks are ALICE. We interact with them every day because theyre the ones that make our community run, such as home health aides and child care workers.

The estimates in this third two-year study are conservative ones, said Wilhelm, who said the percentage of families in the ALICE group is increasing.

We cant distinguish at this point is it increasing because there are more of them or is it increasing because the survival budget is based upon actual estimates of the cost for each region. Its very local and very custom, he said.

Among the number of families living in the Middlesex United Way service area, 7 percent, or 4,693, are living under poverty conditions, and 25 percent, or 16,834, are ALICE. Sixty-eight percent of families, or 44,940, live above the ALICE line in this area.

More for you Report: Many Connecticut households can't pay for basic necessities

Figures for 15 Middlesex County municipalities

Chester: 1,853, 31 percent

Clinton: 5,294, 34 percent

Cromwell: 5,631 26 percent

Deep River: 1,902, 37 percent

Durham: 2,650, 16 percent

East Haddam: 3,541, 28 percent

East Hampton: 4,951, 25 percent

Essex: 2,961, 25 percent

Haddam: 3,223, 18 percent

Killingworth: 2,479, 17 percent

Middlefield: 1,775, 25 percent

Middletown: 19,219, 44 percent

Old Saybrook: 4,201, 36 percent

Portland: 3,948, 29 percent

Westbrook: 2,839, 33 percent

Findings include ...

Despite working hard, 30 percent of Connecticut households (404,035) have earnings above the federal poverty line, but under a basic cost-of-living threshold.

It costs nearly $78,000 a year for a family of four with one infant and one toddler to pay for the basic needs in the household survival budget.

The value of this report is when youre looking at some of these smaller towns, when you look at the poverty numbers by themselves, theyre very low. People looking at that snapshot would say there are no poverty issues, Bonilla said.

Theyre working in fields where often compensation is minimum wage  such as the retail, fast food or hospitality industries.

A lot of the jobs that make these communities go, a large percentage of the folks that are working them, are struggling, he said.

Along the shoreline, residents of several communities live above the federal poverty level, but dont necessarily make enough to provide the essentials according to the ALICE Household Survival Budget. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services figures show a family of four would have to make above $25,000 to be above the poverty level, but the Household Survival Budget puts the familys basic expenses at more than $79,000.

Without this report, we cant talk about the financial hardships of people in these communities that are considered wealthy and well-to-do. People think of Old Saybrook and Westbrook: Their poverty rate is one percent, Bonilla said.

There, the combined ALICE and poverty is 33 percent. Youre talking over 30 percent of people in Westbrook  conservatively  are financially struggling. They cant afford to live in that community.

The federal poverty guidelines are not really designed to help these families yet, Wilhelm said.

During one recent forum, Bonilla said a gentleman who came to the presentation did so on his only night off from two full-time jobs. He raised his hand to share news that surprised even him.

He said, Oh, my God. Im ALICE, Bonilla said. His bedtime routine with his kids was to get on the phone. His wife would call him, hed say goodnight to the kids, and talk to them, and that was his interaction with the kids.

Financial hardships such as these  outside of what is traditionally considered impoverishment  have lasting repercussions.

It also affects family life, quality of life and has an intergenerational impact, he said.

This is really an advocacy tool to create awareness of the next group of people  were not normally shining a light on this population  people that are working and struggling to make ends meet, Wilhelm said. Normally the federal poverty guideline is what people talk about  thats where the resources (government, nonprofits, etc.) are going.

Parsing these statistics are part of a long-term strategy to find people living in such conditions, determine their needs and, as a community, move toward alleviating some of these families hardships, Wilhelm said. They are the classic  when people think of America, trying to make it on their own  that truly just might need a hand up as opposed to a hand out.

For information, visit middlesexunitedway.org. To download the report, go to alice.ctunitedway.org.

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or Twitter @cassandrasdis.Poor Elijahs classmate Darnley liked to make things up. Youd be minding your own business, and suddenly Darnleyd be telling everyone how all your clothes had burned up at the laundromat or what a great clarinet player you were. He lied so enthusiastically that you hated to dampen the mood by interrupting, Excuse me, but my friend has a screw loose.

One time, according to Darnley, Poor Elijah was walking home from a rousing Victorian poetry class when he encountered an elderly woman scuffling with a purse snatcher. Poor Elijah, brandishing a stainless steel meat tenderizer, had bravely charged the assailant and saved the day. Darnley had arrived just as the thug was fleeing.

Naturally, none of this ever happened. But for weeks people stopped Poor Elijah on the street. Oh yeah, theyd acknowledge with admiration. Youre the guy with the meat tenderizer.

Myths have a way of growing on us. The more you hear a statement presented wholeheartedly by earnest people, the more likely you are to believe it, whether its true or not. Youre also more likely to repeat it yourself.

After all, everyone wouldnt be saying it if it werent true.

Would they?

Now thats it back to school time, it might be helpful to examine some common school reform myths.

The world is changing at an unbelievable pace. No, its not. Its actually changing at a very believable pace. Every generation thinks its happening faster than ever. Imagine asking your grandfather if things had changed during his lifetime and having him answer, No, the world is exactly the way it was when I was born.

My grandfather came of age during World War I, got married during the Roaring 20s, raised his children during the Depression, and sent them off to fight the Axis powers during World War II. After that all, he had to adjust to was Joe McCarthy, Milton Berle, civil rights, civil disobedience, me, and Neil Armstrong.

Incidentally, people didnt call them the Roaring 20s because they were unimpressed.

Thoreau described his era as the hustle bustle 19th century. City planners once predicted that booming Denver would soon be buried under a mile of horse manure. Even The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman, confessed to being a little worried about his future.

Were all worried from time to time. But anybody who thinks our moment in time is unique when it comes to change needs to take a closer look at history.

Schools that served mom and dad cannot provide kids with the tools they need to make it in the 21st century. Why not? What exactly are these earthshaking tools  reading and writing and mathematics? Advanced math is important for the technological future, but only someone who doesnt know anything about calculus could possibly think everybody needs to learn it. Or that everybody can learn it. Either way, chemistry and calculus arent new to public schools.

Traditional education isnt forcing high-level coursework out of our schools. The fault resides more in the perverse reform notion that every student, regardless of ability, needs to learn in the same classroom at the same time. It lies in the smoke-and-mirrors deceit that somehow in a world of declining effort and rising expectations all students will succeed academically. The fault also lies in the staggering burden of nonacademic family and societal responsibilities that weve foisted on schools.

Yes, the workplace will continue to change, and vocational training needs to keep up. But reform proclamations that schools need to produce students who are literate, able to meet challenges, and skilled at problem solving shouldnt make the evening news. These arent objectives for the 21st century. Theyre objectives for any century.

Teachers need to be willing to try new methods. Most teachers arent unwilling to try new methods. The problem is theyre too willing. This is partly why schools and students are subjected to the never-ending cycle of nonsense that experts keep dreaming up.

Clearly, some teachers approve of the current fashions in reform, but many dont. Some arent comfortable publicly criticizing their schools. Others are outright afraid. Dont underestimate the pressure brought to bear on teachers to toe the reform line.

Americans support school reform. Many of us want our schools to change. The trouble is we dont want them to keep changing the same way they have for the past few decades. Unfortunately, educational deja vu is precisely what most reformers mean by change. They often propose to save us from their past and current follies by reintroducing them under other names.

When teachers and parents talk about change, we often mean changing back. Not that were pushing for children to memorize the worlds top 10 bauxite exporters. Were just looking for safe and orderly places where students learn to read and write and command the body of knowledge thats been handed down to us. If this view of learning sounds traditional, thats OK. After all, the human mind is a fairly traditional organ.

Were definitely not looking for more bankrupt bandwagon rhetoric that leaves real students out of the equation. Misguided theories and social agendas have plagued our reformed schools for the past 50 years.

Of course, before our schools can change, first we have to change. This is something we should talk about.

In the meantime, remember the myths. And dont believe everything you hear.

Peter Berger has taught English and history for 30 years. Poor Elijah would be pleased to answer letters addressed to him in care of the editor.The U.S. Navy recently intercepted a large cache of small arms, including hundreds of AK-47s, that were on a ship in the Gulf of Aden earlier this week, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News on Wednesday.

Sailors from the destroyer Jason Dunham boarded the ship and made the seizure. The incident was first reported by CNN.

U.S. officials have not disclosed from where the weapons shipment originated.

The Gulf of Aden connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean via the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Last month, Saudi Arabia's state oil company temporarily suspended oil shipments through the strait after Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen fired on two oil tankers, damaging one of them.

The shipments were resumed earlier this month after the Saudi energy minister vowed that the Riyadh-led coalition in Yemen's civil war had taken "necessary measures" to secure the shipments.

-- Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The VAs efforts to cut prescription rates for opioids have been backed up by encouraging new research showing success for the use of non-opioid alternatives in the treatment of some types of chronic pain.

"Many people do have expectations that opioids are just amazingly effective for pain. You know, it turns out that's probably not true," said Dr. Erin Krebs, a general internist and researcher at the Minneapolis VA Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research.

"We found in this trial no evidence that opioids were doing a better job for chronic pain than the non-opioid medications we already have on hand," said Krebs, who also is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota.

The VA's efforts to cut opioid prescriptions began well before President Donald Trump last October declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency.

"Nobody has seen anything like what is going on now" but "we can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic," Trump said at a White House East Room ceremony.

In line with the VA's commitment to curb opioid use, the VA in January became the only health care system nationwide to post prescription rates for opioids.

The data on opioids dispensed by VA pharmacies showed an overall and sometimes dramatic decrease in their use by veterans for treatment of chronic pain from 2012 to 2018.

At the Manhattan VA Medical Center in New York, the rate was cut in half, from eight percent to four percent; at the Fargo VA Medical Center in North Dakota, the rate went down from 11 percent to five percent; at the C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center in Florida from 15 to 6 percent; and at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center in California from 16 to 7 percent.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 72,000 drug overdose deaths attributable to opioids occurred in 2017.

Of that total, the sharpest increase resulted from the use of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (synthetic opioids), with nearly 30,000 deaths recorded, the CDC said.

The number of troops and veterans who succumbed to overdoses is difficult to determine, since the CDC and healthcare systems have different accounting methods, Krebs said in an interview last week. However, VA case studies indicate that veterans are twice as likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose compared to the general population.

The National Institutes of Health reached the same conclusion in a study on veterans' death rates from opioid "poisonings" in 2005 when the scope of the epidemic began to take shape in the national consciousness.

The objective of the study was "to describe the rate of accidental poisoning mortality in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) during fiscal year 2005" and "assess differences with rates observed in the general U.S. population," NIH said.

"After accounting for gender and age distribution, VHA patients had nearly twice the rate of fatal accidental poisoning compared with adults in the general U.S. population," the study found. "Opioid medications and cocaine were frequently mentioned as the agents causing poisoning on death records."

To gauge the comparative effectiveness of opioids and non-opioids in pain treatment, Krebs oversaw a study on long-term results.

Her work, called the Strategies for Prescribing Analgesics Comparative Effectiveness (SPACE) study, was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

"I wouldn't have been willing to bet much money on the outcome of this trial. This was a study where we really did not know how it was going to come out," Krebs said.

The study involved 240 patients, including 120 who received opioids, and 120 who were treated with non-opioids. She said 234 completed the year-long testing and follow-ups.

The test participants were experiencing chronic lower back and hip pain, and knee arthritis pain, which Krebs said were "the two most common reasons people take opioids long-term."

The non-opioids used in the study were individualized for each patient in the therapy that involved three stages for back, knee and hip pain, Krebs said.

The first step involved the use of acetaminophen and anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen, she said. The next two steps involved a mix of non-opioids including topical Diclofenac, topical Lidocaine, Gabapentin, and Nortriptyline.

In a follow-up email, Krebs said "most patients in the non-opioid treatment group received treatment with medications in step two or three because acetaminophen and anti-inflammatories didn't work well enough."

"We found in this trial no evidence that opioids were doing a better job for chronic pain than the non-opioid medications we already have on hand," Krebs continued.

The official conclusion of the study was that "treatment with opioids was not superior to treatment with non-opioid medications for improving pain-related function over 12 months ... Results do not support initiation of opioid therapy for moderate to severe chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis pain."

Krebs said high expectations for the effectiveness of opioid drugs are common across the general population, not just among veterans.

"So getting that word out is important," she said. "And not just getting the word out, but saying, 'hey, we do have effective existing treatments for pain and we have a lot of other options that certainly are safer and mostly, probably, work better as well.'"

These alternative treatments, she said, include exercise plans and other complementary therapies such as yoga and tai chi to work in combination with non-opioids for pain treatment.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the factors that led to the opioid epidemic are clear.

"In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies re-assured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates," HHS said. "Increased prescription of opioid medications led to widespread misuse of both prescription and non-prescription opioids before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive."

When asked if she agreed with the HHS assessment, Krebs said it was complicated.

"There's a lot of blame to go around, but I think that's kind of the generally accepted narrative," she said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the steps taken in the non-opioid trial.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date.ANN ARBOR, MI - The city of Ann Arbor has released a new set of drawings giving a better idea of what an Amtrak train station near the University of Michigan Hospital could look like.

They show a five-level parking deck for the station rising on the eastern half of what's now a city-owned parking lot along the south side of Fuller Road in Fuller Park as part of Phase 1, with the option of a sixth-level deck expansion in the future.

The western half of the parking lot would remain surface parking in Phase 1, but the parking deck also could be expanded to cover that area if there's demand. The city currently leases the parking lot to UM.

South of the parking deck, the drawings show a pitched-roof train station elevated above the railroad tracks, with an elevated walkway to East Medical Center Drive for hospital employees and visitors.

The words "Welcome to Ann Arbor" are shown on the south side of the parking deck to welcome arriving passengers.

The drawings show a bridge from the third level of the parking deck to the train station, which would include a vestibule and vending area, with stairs and elevators to get down to a rail platform along the south side of the railroad tracks.

The black-and-white elevation drawings also show a large public art sculpture outside the parking deck and a new roundabout at the intersection of Fuller Road and East Medical Center Drive.

The drawings, dated Aug. 17, were done by Neumann/Smith Architecture and Mitchell and Mouat Architects.

They're the latest products of the city's ongoing efforts to seek clearance from the Federal Railroad Administration for a new train station in Fuller Park to replace the Depot Street station.

The city has yet to release full-color architectural renderings of the envisioned station and parking deck.

"Note that these are preliminary engineering drawings and subject to change through the design process," City Administrator Howard Lazarus said in an email. "We hope to produce an architectural rendering at a later date."

The city has estimated a new train station and related facilities in Fuller Park could cost $86.2 million, most of which the city hopes would be funded by the federal government and other sources.

Eli Cooper, the city's transportation program manager, said the Phase 1 parking deck would have 539 spaces as currently planned, and there would be another 109 spaces in the surface lot, for a total of 648, and 150 of those would be reserved for park users.

The city has indicated 1,320 total parking spaces may be needed at the station in the future if Amtrak service on the Detroit-Chicago line is expanded from three to 10 daily roundtrips and if a separate commuter rail service between Ann Arbor and Detroit is implemented.

The latest drawings show the outer appearance of the parking deck would be a combination of brick, vertical metal panels and tempered glass, with a dedicated bus entry/exit off Fuller Road and a separate station parking entry/exit off Fuller Road, and a walk-in bus/bike station. Cooper said the fifth and potential sixth stories could be set back to make the structure less visually striking from Fuller Road.

The City Council voted 8-3 in January 2017 to approve a $2.14 million contract with Neumann/Smith Architecture for preliminary design and engineering services, as well as continuation of public engagement efforts, for the train station project.

Mayor Christopher Taylor and other city officials have been hopeful the city will be able to get the federal government to fund 80 percent of the costs of a new train station, leaving 20 percent to be covered by local partners, including the city and others.

Taylor said earlier this year that could include the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, University of Michigan, Greyhound and the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The council members who've questioned the train station project and have been in the minority when the council has voted in support of it in the past may have a few new allies on council come November.

What that will mean for the ability of the project to continue forward remains to be seen.

The City Council approved a resolution in October 2012 stipulating that construction of a new train station won't happen without a vote of the people and that the council would set a date for that vote either at or before the completion of a final design for the station.

Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, said there's going to be some more independent-minded people on council come November and he's not sure how they'd vote on continuing to spend money on the train station project, but it's his preference that it go to a vote of the people before any more local dollars are spent.MILAN, MI - Milan Area Schools canceled its first day of classes for the 2018-19 school year due to a power outage.

Multiple schools were without power the morning of Tuesday, Sept 4, the school district posted on social media.

Due to widespread power outages in Milan (including multiple schools without power), school is closed today, Tuesday September 4, 2018.  Milan Area Schools (@masbigreds) September 4, 2018

DTE Energy reported 26 customers in Milan had been without power since 11:43 p.m. Monday, and power is expected to be restored by 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. The cause of the outage is still under investigation.

Another 626 DTE customers southeast of Ypsilanti also lost power Monday night, and DTE expected their power to be restored Tuesday afternoon.ANN ARBOR, MI - Two Saint Joseph Mercy Health System hospitals in southeast Michigan will be under new leadership starting in October, the health care network announced Tuesday.

Bill Manns, of Detroit, will serve as the new president of St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor and Livingston.

Manns is the current president of Mercy Health Saint Mary's in Grand Rapids, a sister hospital of St. Joe's. The hospitals are part of a statewide health system known as Trinity Health.

Manns will transition to his new position once interim leadership is established at St. Mary's, the group said.

Manns, of Detroit, graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in organizational psychology and a master's degree in health services administration. He completed his administrative fellowship at St. Joe's in Oakland in 1992.

His 27-year career in health care administration has included operational roles at St. John Detroit Riverview and St. John Providence in Detroit. In 2005, Manns became chief operating officer of Alameda Health System in Oakland, Calif., where he helped lead a $23-million turnaround of the public hospital system.

Manns returned to Michigan in 2013 to become president of St. Mary's. During his tenure, he has overseen multiple hospital renovations including the construction of a $50 million new surgical suite, the opening of the Mercy Health Rockford Medical complex, the opening of numerous ambulatory sites throughout West Michigan and the current renovation of the maternity unit.

Manns succeeds David Brooks, who served as president of the two hospitals from August 2015 until April 2018. Alonzo Lewis has been serving as interim president and will continue at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor in his role as senior vice president of operations once Manns is in place.BAY CITY, MI -- A 29-year-old Bay City mom is accused of having a high amount of alcohol in her blood while driving with her two children in the vehicle and crashing into another woman's car.

About 5 p.m. on Aug. 13, Bay County Sheriff's deputies and Bay City police responded to a two-vehicle crash at the intersection of Lincoln Street and Cass Avenue in Portsmouth Township. They arrived to find a black Chevrolet Impala with heavy rear-end damage in the parking lot of Little Learner's Daycare, with a gray GMC Envoy with heavy front-end damage parked along the shoulder.

Police determined both vehicles were westbound on Cass when the Envoy rear-ended the Impala, court records show.

When officers arrived, medical personnel were treating the Impala's 76-year-old female driver, though her injuries were not specified in police reports.

Police identified the Envoy's driver as Dannielle D. Agee. Her front seat passenger was an adult female friend, while Agee's 10- and 6-year-old daughters were in the back seat, court records show.

In conducting their investigation, police spotted an empty fifth of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky on the Envoy's passenger floorboard. Agee told police the bottle was her friends, then said she drank some Fireball and Crown Royal the previous night, court records show.

Agee performed poorly on roadside sobriety tests, and a portable breath test showed her blood alcohol level to be at 0.189, police said.

In Michigan, a person is legally intoxicated when his or her blood alcohol level reaches 0.08.

On Aug. 28, Agee was arraigned on two counts of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated with an occupant younger than 16 and one count of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.

Agee is to appear for a preliminary examination Sept. 11.DETROIT - A man accused of killing a Detroit Police officer in a fatal hit-and-run crash a month ago is no longer facing a murder charge.

One count of second-degree murder was dismissed after Jonathan David Cole's preliminary examination before Detroit District Judge Kenneth King on Aug. 31, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.

Cole, 19, of Belleville, was initially charged with second-degree murder, reckless driving causing death and failure to stop at the scene of a crash causing serious impairment or death.

Detroit Police Officer Fadi Shukur was killed in the crash about 2:40 a.m. on Aug. 4 while authorities were dispersing a large crowd after a party at a banquet hall on McNichols Road in Detroit.

The reckless driving and failure to stop charges remain as Cole moves on to circuit court for trial.

"(King) dismissed the second-degree murder charge, finding that the only aggravating factor presented in the case was speed, and concluded there was insufficient evidence to bound over on second-degree murder," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

After being placed on life support following the crash, Shukur succumbed to his injuries on Aug. 15.

Cole fled the scene and later turned himself over to authorities, police said.

Prosecutors said they'll seek to reinstate the murder charge while the case progresses through the Wayne County Third Circuit Court.

Cole is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Sept. 9.(L to R) Francisca Vargas-Castillo and Leobardo Torres-Castillo

SANILAC COUNTY, MI -- A brother and sister have been arraigned on felony charges for the death of a 42-year-old woman found in Sanilac County's Buel Township.

Leobardo Torres-Castillo, 20, and Francisca Vargas-Castillo, 33, were arraigned Monday, Sept. 3, in Sanilac County District Court on charges of open murder and concealing the death of an individual.

Deputies with the Sanilac County Sheriff's Office were sent out shortly after 3:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, to the 3900 block of Aitken Road in Flynn Township after a man reported his girlfriend missing and finding blood in their residence.

The Michigan State Police Crime Lab was called in to assist at the scene as well as at a vehicle located later Saturday morning in Marlette from leads developed by deputies and detectives.

Law enforcement officials were eventually led to Buel Township, approximately 20 miles from the original scene, and found the woman's body.

The victim has been identified as Bricia Flores-Rivera. An autopsy performed Sunday morning determined her death to be a homicide, police said.

Police have not said how she died. Flores-Rivera and the suspects all worked at Goma Dairy Farm in Flynn Township.

Sanilac County Undersheriff Brad Roff said Torres-Castillo and Vargas-Castillo were taken into custody by deputies at the Aitken Road residence.

The sheriff's office was assisted in the investigation by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, Sandusky Police Department, Marlette Police Department, Croswell Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Marlette Fire Department, Croswell Fire Department, Sanilac County Drug Task Force, Sanilac County Aerosquad, Sanilac County Search & Rescue, Sanilac County Sheriff's Posse, and Sanilac Central Dispatch.

Both suspects remain in custody at Sanilac County Jail on a $1 million cash bond. They are expected back in court for a preliminary exam on Sept. 18.FLINT, MI-- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $250,000 to the Flint Housing Commission to place cameras in neighborhoods where crimes rates are high.

The award is part of the Capital Fund Emergency Safety and Security Grant. The money will be used to purchase and place security cameras that will be monitored by the Flint Police Department in an effort to reduce crime.

"These funds will be used to address safety and security needs impacting the residents of Flint to better combat crime near HUD-assisted communities," Michael Polsinelli, Midwest Michigan Field Office Director, said during a Tuesday, Sept. 4, press conference. "These fund will particularly be used at the River Park and Howard States developments."

The cameras will help residents at about 280 units between the River Park Apartments and Howard Estates developments, Polsinelli said. They will be installed in the next six months.

Flint Police Chief Tim Johnson said the funding is a blessing to the department as they were searching for available funding to increase surveillance.

According to Flint Housing Commission Executive Director Harold Ince, the cameras would be monitored by police at all times.

"It's going to be a tool in helping us achieve our goal of making our communities safer and making people want to live in affordable housing," Ince said. "The cameras will be connected to the Police Department's intel center, which will allow them to view the properties in real time, which will help reduce crime."

Mayor Karen Weaver said the grant aligned with the goals of the city, making it safer for residents.

"That's one thing we've been talking about is public safety and how important it is to the City of Flint and this has just enhancing Flint and making Flint safer," Weaver said.

Flint is one of two cities in the state to receive the grant.Inside Grand Castle apartments, the massive 522-unit building that rises nearly 200 feet into the air near I-196 in Grandville, there's no shortage of flourishes designed to make tenants feel like they're living in royalty.

There are plans for two fountains, one of which, near the building's entranceway, is expected to be topped with a large, glowing flame. The other, inside the building's courtyard, is expected to be 20-feet tall, carved from marble.

Elsewhere in the building, work is underway on a library, complete with a two-sided staircase, which, according to developer Roger Lucas, is modeled after one found in the Walt Disney classic film Beauty and the Beast.

On a nearby wall, there are plans for an 8-foot digital cuckoo clock.

Those quirky features will join other modern amenities, including a pool, fitness center, coffee shop, clubhouse and public lounges.

Lucas, a partner at Land & C0., the Wyoming-based firm leading the project, highlighted those features and others during a recent tour of the building, which is expected to begin accepting its first tenants by early- to mid-October. Initial plans called for the building to be completed last summer, but construction delays have pushed back the opening.

Despite the approaching move-in date, construction remains ongoing on a significant portion of the building. On a recent afternoon, workers could be seen installing insulation and dry wall on some units, while others worked on the building's smoke alarm system.

The building has not yet received its certificate of occupancy. And several of the signature amenities highlighted on the building's website are not finished. The project's overall cost is more than $50 million.

"The reality is we haven't finished it yet, and every day I have new problems," Lucas said. "It is nice to be this far, though. Being this far is a big deal. We're really down to the last pieces."

Between 80 and 90 people have reserved one of the 222 apartments that are expected to be completed within the next few weeks.

Completion dates for the remaining units, including a dozen top-floor, multi-story penthouses, some of which boast private decks with sweeping views of the Grand Rapids skyline, have not been set.

Grand Castle is one of the most unique residential developments to be built in the Grand Rapids area in recent memory. And residents have no shortage of strong opinions about it.

Many who have taken to social media have called it an "eyesore" that few people will want to live in.

Others, though, have praised the castle, saying it provides another housing option near downtown Grand Rapids and could help revitalize the nearby section of 28th Street SW. The apartments are aimed at middle-income residents and young professionals.

Lucas dismisses the criticism the project has generated.

"Don't move here, I don't care," he said, when asked about those who have mocked the building's design. "I don't like every building in Grand Rapids, but I don't tell them it's ugly. I just say I don't like it."

Pricing ranges from $700 to $875 for a studio apartment; $915 to $1,435 for a one-bedroom apartment; $1,380 to $4,500 for a two- bedroom apartment; and $1,650 to $2,200 for a three-bedroom unit.

The project has been a significant undertaking, Lucas said.

Once completed, the building -- modeled after the famed Neuschwanstein castle in southern Germany -- will be the second biggest castle in the world, he claims.

The structure is completely comprised of concrete -- more than 200 million pounds in all -- and steel. The inner walls were poured in place last using a proprietary method that required him to import a crew of 50 workers from Miami, Florida.

It includes a 750-space parking garage, and was built with some 2,700 "geo-piers" that were sunk up to 20 feet deep around the site to keep it from sinking more than 1.25 inches.

A life-size lion statue is expected to be mounted atop the peak of the castle, just shy of 200 feet. And Lucas also wants to build a stable on the grounds that would house miniature horses.

"I just think people would like that," he said. "It would be a fun amenity without too much hassle."

Lucas has long been a fan of castles, and has visited several throughout Europe. He has visited Neuschwanstein castle 11 times. He loves the history, the detailed architecture, the sense of wonder the buildings inspire.

His goal is to replicate, as much as possible, that experience with the Grand Castle.

"Every time I toured Europe, I always thought it was painful that they had all the castles and we didn't," Lucas said. "To me, that doesn't make sense."

Later, he added: "I think there's a huge selling thing here, and the huge selling thing is that girls want to be a princess and guys, well - the power thing."

Construction on the castle started in June 2016, with the initial opening date set for last summer. But that opening date has been pushed back multiple times, most recently to mid- to-late October.

The delays, in part, were caused by the expansion of the project. Initial plans called for 400 units but was later expanded to include 522 units, Lucas said.

"When you add 120 units, it takes a few minutes longer," he said.

Troy Zapolski, executive vice president of finance at Land & Co., added: "It's very complex construction, and Roger has delayed to make sure everything is right, to make sure everything is perfect."

As for when everything will be perfect and the whole building will be ready for occupancy -- that remains an open question.

"I'm sure we'll get done," Lucas said, "it's just a question of when."Lovily Johnson, left, is seated with her attorney, Jonathan Schildgen, as her murder trial begins Tuesday, Sept. 4, in Kent County Circuit Court in the 2017 death of her 6-month-old son.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Over parts of three days, Lovily Johnson left her 6-month-old son alone in a car seat - with only a bottle - in her sweltering attic bedroom, a prosecutor told jurors.

She allegedly ignored him while she slept downstairs on the couch, smoked marijuana and hung out with friends - and sought out air conditioning on those hot, summer days.

"I mean, this woman didn't put eyes on her son for 32 hours," Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker told a Circuit Court jury on Tuesday, Sept. 4.

Becker, in his opening statement, said the child, Noah, was long dead when Johnson, 23, finally checked on him. She called a man she considered a father figure to take her son to the doctor's office after she discovered the baby was not breathing.

Noah was dead when he showed up July 19, 2017, at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. A medical examiner is expected to testify he died of homicidal neglect.

"What really killed him was his own mother," Becker said.

Johnson is charged with first-degree felony murder and first-degree child abuse. Jurors could also convict her of second-murder murder or acquit her.

Her attorney, Jonathan Schildgen, said she was a young, single mother - living in a home for victims of domestic violence - caring for her younger sister and a 2-year-old daughter.

She was overwhelmed, he said.

Her son was born prematurely and was underweight. When she found her son dead, she panicked and didn't know what to do, her attorney said.

The baby could have died early on of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, or another cause, unrelated to actions by his mother, Schildgen said. His client was a "panic-stricken young mother confronted by authorities."

The child's body showed no signs of physical abuse, Schildgen told jurors.

"She loved her child. It's tragic, it's sad."

Wyoming police say Johnson told investigators that she was "just too busy" to feed and care for her son.

The temperature in the apartment was 90 degrees, police say. The boy was in his car seat from late July 17, 2017, to early July 19, 2017, at the apartment in the 2600 block of McKee Avenue SW in Wyoming.

The prosecutor said Johnson ate, drank, hung out with friends, went to the store, napped, smoked marijuana and sought out air conditioning "because it was a hot, summer day" but "did absolutely nothing" for her son.

Becker said Johnson showed no urgency after discovering her son was not breathing.

She called the friend for a ride, rather than an ambulance, and told him she had to take him to a doctor appointment. She did not say it was an emergency. She changed the dead baby's diaper and clothing before going.

Video will show her calmly walking into the hospital with her son in the car seat, "not running, not screaming, not charging in" as would be expected, Becker said.

He said that three weeks before the death, Johnson left her son in his car seat in the car while she went into a video store. She was told by Child Protective Services workers that a child should not be left alone in the car, and that he should sleep in a crib, not a car seat, Becker said.

The jury trial is before Judge Mark Trusock. There are nine women and five men on the panel, which will be pared to 12 jurors at the close of testimony.DELTA TOWNSHIP, MI - A Michigan motel was evacuated on Labor Day while authorities attempted to arrest a wanted man.

The hours-long ordeal took place on Monday, Sept. 3 when the Eaton County Sheriff's Office received a tip from Crime Stoppers that a wanted fugitive that was staying at the Motel 6 Motel in Delta Township.

Upon arrival, deputies were able to verify the room the suspect was staying in, but when they attempted to negotiate to get him out of the room, he did not cooperate.

However, he was eventually taken into custody. The motel had to be evacuated because of the nature of the suspect's warrants. No one was injured.

The man was turned over to the Lansing Police Department, who held hold the warrants for his arrest. His name has not been released.

The Eaton County Sheriff's Office was assisted at the scene by the Michigan State Police and Delta Fire Department.LANSING, MI -- House Democrats are accusing Republicans of a lackluster response to PFAS contamination in Michigan, pointing to stalled legislation that would establish a strict drinking water standard and little urgency among leaders in probing reports that state regulators ignored warnings about the crisis several years ago.

At the capitol Tuesday, Democratic caucus leaders said they will continue to raise the PFAS issue once the Legislature returns this week for a smattering of days until lame-duck session begins.

"We're going to be talking about it a lot because this is an important issue for the people of Michigan," said Rep. Christine Greig, a Democrat from Farmington Hills who serves as minority floor leader. "Are we going to hammer on it? Absolutely."

Democrats created a poster reading "265 Days of Inaction," a reference to time passed since Rep. Winnie Brinks, a Democrat from Grand Rapids, introduced a bill that would establish the nation's strictest limit for PFAS in drinking water, 5 parts-per-trillion (ppt).

Democrats also want an oversight hearing to probe why reports issued by scientists at the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Health and Human Services weren't acted upon or shared until PFAS become high-profile contamination issue.

Gideon D'Assandro, a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Tom Leonard, said Republican party leaders have instead focused on appropriating millions for state water testing and other "boots on the ground" efforts around emergency response.

More supplemental funds are coming, he indicated.

If a hearing is held, Greig said Democrats would like it to give rise to new legislation, help spur movement on the drinking water bill and help educate the public. Brinks' bill hasn't moved from the House Natural Resources Committee since its introduction in December.

Calls to committee chair Rep. Gary Howell, R-Lapeer, weren't returned Tuesday. Howell told Gongwer he wont move on the bill before the election, saying "I am not going to make this into a political football."

D'Assandro said Republicans plan to wait until statewide drinking water testing results are in "to get a sense of what the levels are before determining whether they are actionable." The state expects those results by the end of the year.

Oversight hearings are "definitely not a firm no," but the committee is focused in the short-term on a probe into allegations of mismanagement by Michigan Department of Health & Human Services over handling of child abuse and neglect cases.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Joseph Graves, R-Linden, confirmed that abuse case handling would be the committee's immediate focus. A PFAS hearing will have to wait.

Graves accused Democrats of "playing politics," saying the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is in the middle of testing drinking water and industrial wastewater for PFAS contamination, and that "once we get more data, more results, we'll hold a hearing."

Results from DEQ's statewide drinking water testing show that at least 1.5 million people have been drinking municipal water with some level of PFAS detection, although all systems besides the city of Parchment are below the federal safety threshold of 70-ppt the state has adopted.

Democrats and activist groups are questioning the adequacy of that threshold, pointing to studies that suggest the limit should be much lower and states like Minnesota, Vermont and New Jersey, which have enforceable drinking water standards below 70-ppt.

At the federal level, Congress is holding two PFAS subcommittee hearings this month, one in the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Sept. 5 and one in the Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management on Sept. 26.

In Lansing, Graves said "what's a safe level" of PFAS is "one of the questions we have." Others include "how do you measure this?" "How do you fix it?" "How do you clean it up?"

"It's not a straightforward measurement like lead would be because it's not on the charts," he said, apparently referencing the list of contaminates that are regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which does not include any of the PFAS family of compounds.

"There's no answers yet," he said. "The DEQ is and will be held accountable if needed but we need more answers from them. We're working with them."

On the PFAS issue overall, "we've heard a few things here and there, a little chatter," Graves said. "We're trying to hold an open line of communication with DEQ."

Graves suggested he might call DEQ in for a hearing "in October."

"At some point, we think we'll have enough information to bring them in and have them answer questions," he said. "We'll get that done." However, "I don't want a dog and pony show. As long as we have open communication with DEQ, I don't want to screw that up."

"Before I leave office, I want to bring them in."

Greig said she'd like to see movement before Election Day.

"We're talking about the health and safety of families in Michigan -- there shouldn't be an 'oh we can wait on this.' We've had this for 265 days. We've got to quit sitting on our butts," she said. "We've got to get up and moving on this. This has been linked to cancer, fertility and autoimmune compromises."

"To say it can wait until lame duck, I don't accept that."APOSTLE ISLANDS, LAKE SUPERIOR - When a Wisconsin couple with three young children set out on an adventure in an open-topped tandem kayak last week, experts say their Lake Superior island-hopping plan would have been challenging even for experienced paddlers.

It came to a tragic end when the wind picked up and their boat capsized in the Apostle Islands in western Superior last Thursday afternoon. Rescuers pulled the body of Eric Fryman, 39, of Loyal, Wis., from the lake later that night, along with the bodies of his three children: Kyra, 9; Annaliese, 5, and Jansen, 3.

Fryman's wife and the children's mother, Cari Mews-Fryman, 29, survived for hours in the cold water and was picked up by a search boat who saw her flashlight, according to the Associated Press.

When they were found, Mews-Fryman was fully clothed, but the children had been wearing only swimsuits, and Eric Fryman had on a pair of pants but no shirt, according to reports. Everyone had a life jacket on.

At the time their 13-foot kayak capsized, the air temperature was warm but Superior's water was in the 60s, authorities have said.

"I think hypothermia was a huge factor [in their deaths], especially for the children," Coast Guard Lt. Daniel Peters said, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

The family had set out for the four-hour kayaking trip between the Apostles' Madeline and Michigan islands about 1 p.m. Thursday. About three hours later, the kayak capsized and everyone landed in the lake.

According to the Star-Tribune, Eric Fryman and the three children began to swim toward Michigan Island while Cari Mews-Fryman was retrieving emergency supplies from their bag on the boat, including a cell phone and flashlight.

Using the phone, she was able to send a text to her sister with the words "911" and "Michigan island."

She quickly got separated from the rest of her family. She could hear them yelling and thought they'd reached the shore ahead of her, the Tribune reported. But they never did.

Local authorities, the U.S. Coast Guard and a research boat became involved in the search about 8:45 p.m. The Coast Guard sent a helicopter from its Air Station in Traverse City.

A boat captain said his crew spotted the woman's flashlight in the water, and when they pulled her aboard, she was hypothermic. He got word that one child's body had been found. Searchers found two other bodies overnight. The body of the third child was found the next morning, after storms went through the area.

"Her entire family was just erased," ship Capt. Joe Walters told the Star-Tribune about the mother his crew rescued. "And if she didn't have that flashlight, I don't think we would have ever seen her. It was black dark."

Bob Krumenaker, superintendent of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, said kayaks don't often use that area between the islands because strong winds and wave action make it too risky, the Associated Press said.The search for a source of PFAS contamination spreading in the Huron River across five Southeast Michigan counties points to Wixom, where city officials told the state in June that its wastewater treatment plant has been sending contaminated water into a tributary.

Test results from June 14 show that one version of the "forever chemicals" was found in effluent at 24 times the allowed amount in Michigan's surface waters.

The discovery comes as the state seeks tests from 95 municipal wastewater treatment plants with significant industrial processing. The goal: to determine whether plants are receiving PFAS pollution in influent, and discharging it into lakes and rivers where, in turn, the chemicals are getting into Michigan's drinking water systems.

Cities like Ann Arbor, Grayling, New Baltimore and East Tawas have reported the contaminant in their finished water at levels below the federal health advisory. Parchment, near Kalamazoo, learned this summer its levels were far above that number, prompting an emergency shut-down of the system.

It also comes as the state investigates PFAS contamination across the five-county Huron River Watershed that escalated Friday into a widespread "do not eat" fish advisory and signaled heightened concern about the chemical levels in southeast Michigan.

PFAS represents a group of water-repellent chemicals known as per- and poly-flourinated compounds, which have links to cancer, liver damage, birth defects and autoimmune diseases.

According to a letter sent Aug. 6 from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to the operator in charge of the Wixom wastewater treatment plant, PFOS at 290 parts per trillion (ppt) was measured in water discharged into Norton Creek in southwest Oakland County. The state allows up to 12 ppt.

The cause, according to documents obtained under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act by MLive.com, is an industrial plating facility. Test results sent to the city show that one of two Adept Plastic Finishing Inc. factories in Wixom sent high levels of the contaminant into the wastewater treatment plant. Documents of water testing at Adept's Plant 4 show a PFOS reading of 28,000 during a mid-May test. Adept received the results on June 19.

Meanwhile, the city had its effluent tested on June 14, with results reported to Wixom officials on June 25. In addition to the PFOS at 290 ppt, testing also showed the water was above recommended limits of 2 ppt for seven other PFAS chemicals. Among them were PFOA (9.7 ppt), PFHbA (380 ppt) and PFBA (180 ppt).

The city notified the MDEQ of those results on June 27, according to documents. It also is investigating the possible roles of other businesses in those totals and the totals for PFAS precursor chemicals.

Wixom City Manager Steven Brown did not respond to requests for comment on the test results.

"(W)e likely receive wastewater containing these substances from one or more customers," Brown said in an email that neither addressed specifics of the city's PFAS findings nor the city's actions since learning about the contamination flowing through its facility.

"(W)e have been sampling our wastewater treatment plant discharge, or effluent, to determine the level of these substances," he wrote. "We plan to continue to cooperate with MDEQ on this matter and be in compliance as regulations on these substances are modified and/or issued. "

Unclear is how long the contamination has been taking place, how high it may have reached and when the flow of PFOS into the wastewater treatment plant - followed by discharge into Norton Creek - will cease.

Adept representatives did not reply to requests for comment.

Adept manufactures chrome-plated plastics, including vehicle badges for the auto industry, and it operates two plants in Wixom. According to information submitted to the city by the company, Adept stopped using a PFOS-containing surfactant in 2015.

"To our knowledge there are no PFAS or PFOS chemistry in our building at this time," Adept told the city as Wixom staff sought to fulfill state requirements for identifying potential PFAS coming into its system.

So far, the MDEQ met with the city and what it called "their confirmed source" after issuing the letter about compliance. It's also working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the test results.

Those tests, said MDEQ spokesperson Scott Dean, will aid the state as it examines "some of the larger questions, such as whether the PFOS we are finding is residual from previous use (years ago) or if current chemical(s) ... either contain PFOS or precursors to PFOS that may break down during industrial processes."

The city must test its effluent monthly, according to the letter from the DEQ.

It continued: "Please know that although the DEQ ... expects to see ongoing progress, we understand that reduction of PFOS may take time, given the complexity of the issues and the emerging nature of this pollutant."

Meanwhile, the letter from the DEQ to Wixom was sent two days after the state issued a "Do not eat" advisory for fish downstream of Norton Creek, starting at Kent Lake in Kensington Metropark and extending along portions of the Huron River through Livingston County and northern Washtenaw County.

That warning was expanded twice, with the most recent advisory on Aug. 31 calling for people to avoid eating all fish from the Huron River, from Oakland County to Lake Erie. The full watershed covers 910 square miles.

Dean said the state has not yet identified the boundaries for the contamination.

So far, the state can't say the contamination originating in Wixom is responsible for the PFAS found in the fish, which had been taken from the water in 2017 and tested this summer at three to four times the maximum health limit.

"This is a question we're actively trying to answer," Dean said.

Identifying one source of the pollution offers hope for cleaning PFAS from the river, said Laura Rubin, executive director of the Huron River Watershed Council.

But it also makes the ongoing situation in the watershed frustrating, she said.

This seems the result of us having weak enforcement protocol, Rubin said. And, along with that, weak rules on how we ... allow toxic chemicals and pollution to come into our manufacturing processes.ST. IGNACE, MI - Authorities have recovered pieces of an airplane that witnesses said crashed in Lake Huron shortly after takeoff late Friday from the Mackinac County airport.

The body of the pilot remains missing. He has been identified as Ronald Dague, 64, an assistant district attorney in Milwaukee. According to reports, Dague was flying alone in the plane, on his way to neighboring Mackinac Island to pick up people there, when his plane went into the water.

Witnesses told police the plane was flying low over Horseshoe Bay when it turned on its side, then hit the lake's surface.

John Chisholm, Milwaukee County district attorney, released a statement on Dague's death, according to FOX Channel 6 in Milwaukee:

"Tragically, we learned that our colleague Assistant District Attorney Ronald S. Dague lost his life in an airplane accident last Friday night. Ron was a valued member of our General Crimes Unit and served with distinction in many capacities in the District Attorney's Office since 1992.

On behalf of the District Attorney's Office and all our colleagues in the criminal justice system, I extend my deepest condolences to Ron's family and friends at this difficult time. Ron was a gifted trial attorney, a devoted student of the law, and a passionate defender of equity, fairness, and justice. His advocacy helped build a safer community for everyone living in Milwaukee County."

By early Saturday, local authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard were searching for the crash site. Some wreckage was found.

On Sunday, the plane's engine and main cabin were found by divers, WLUC said.

Search and recovery efforts continue.

The FAA and NTSB are investigating the crash.A plan being considered by Republican lawmakers to short-circuit two proposals now slated for the November ballot would be a "blatant" violation of the Michigan Constitution, several legal experts say.

The two legislative initiatives in question are Michigan One Fair Wage, which would gradually raise Michigan's minimum wage to $12 an hour and include tipped workers; and MI Time To Care, which would mandate employers let workers earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.

Both proposals are strongly opposed by business groups. To keep them off the ballot, some lawmakers have proposed adopting the initiatives this week and then amending them during the lame-duck session after the November election.

Such amendments could potentially "gut" the proposals, attorney Mark Brewer said during a press conference today for the Michigan One Fair Wage Group. Brewer also is the attorney for MI Time to Care.

If lawmakers opt for the adopt-and-amend plan, they likely would need to pass the initial bills by Friday, Sept. 7, the deadline by which the Secretary of State must certify questions on the ballot.

Brewer said such a maneuver would violate Article 2, Section 9, of the Michigan Constitution, which lays out the rules for ballot initiatives.

"The constitution does not allow the Legislature to adopt and then change in the same legislative session," Brewer said. "That is not an option."

He said the point is underscored by a 1964 opinion by then-Attorney General Frank Kelley that says amendments to laws resulting from ballot initiatives could occur in "subsequent sessions."

Three law professors interviewed by MLive said that Brewer is correct.

"If they did it, it would blatant disregard for the constitution. It would be a clear violation of Article 2, Section 9," said Mark Totten, a Michigan State University law professor and former Democratic candidate for attorney general.

He said there is no definitive ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court, but that's only because the Legislature has never before attempted such a strategy.

"All you have to do is read the constitution," Totten said. "The text is clear."

Moreover, he said, it's just a matter of common sense.

"If it were permissible, the Legislature could do an end-run around ballot initiatives every time," Totten said.

He added the state constitution "reflects that people are uncomfortable with giving the Legislature the sole power to make laws. In fact, even just by talking about this, legislative leaders are showing we can't trust them to have that sole power."

Frank Ravitch, another MSU law professor, said the question is outside of his area of expertise. But, he said in an email, "I can say that what the legislature is trying to do sounds problematic given the text and historical application of the Michigan Constitution."

"Moreover, if this situation is addressed and opposed in an opinion by someone as highly regarded and knowledgeable as Frank Kelley, even if that opinion was written years ago, the legislature is likely overstepping its powers," Ravitch wrote.

Robert Sedler, a law professor at Wayne State University, said he also agreed with Brewer's interpretation.

"It would defeat the purpose of the initiative process for the legislature to turn around and amend the law at the same session," Sedler said in an email. "If the legislature wants to change the law, it must do it at the next legislative session."

Under state law, any amendments to a law approved as a ballot initiative would require the vote of three-quarters of state legislators. However, if legislators pass the proposals themselves, it would require a simply majority.

But waiting until next session to amend the laws could be a gamble: Because of term limits, Michigan will have a new governor next year and the composition of the Legislature is likely to change.

That's why lawmakers are eyeing the lame-duck session -- i.e., the period between the election and when new lawmakers take office.

"At that point, you have a Legislature that is unaccountable because you have a lot of people leaving and they're not seeking re-election," Brewer said. "I've seen a lot of damage done" during lame-duck sessions.

Added Brewer: "What I want to do is send a loud and clear message that if they adopt and amend" the minimum wage proposal this year, "we will sue. And we will win."JACKSON, MI - Converting a street for two-way traffic, downtown signage improvements and building a decorative wall for a new roundabout are among the topics to be discussed at the next Jackson City Council meeting.

Starting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 4, at 161 W. Michigan Ave., it's the group's first meeting since Aug. 14. Click here for a look at the full agenda packet.

If approved Tuesday, Washington Avenue will be converted to a two-way street between West Avenue and First Street. Currently, it's only open to eastbound traffic.

The stretch of Washington Avenue in the downtown loop was converted for two-way traffic earlier this year.

The project would cost $14,000, paid for by major street funds.

Also on Tuesday's agenda is a $39,500 engineering contract for a decorative wall and lighting at the new Kibby Road roundabout.

One of the larger items on the agenda is a $199,000 downtown street sign modernization contract. About 550 signs would be removed and replaced downtown, if passed.

New signs would be comparable to those installed on Michigan Avenue downtown in 2015, per the agenda packet.

Here's a few of the notable items on Tuesday's agenda, with their corresponding page number in the agenda packet for more details.JACKSON, MI - A tornado ripped through Jackson Sept. 1, but the county's sirens weren't activated.

No tornado warning was ever issued by the National Weather Service on Saturday night, which is why the county didn't activate the sirens, Jackson County Undersheriff Chris Kuhl said.

The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning in Jackson County around 7:50 p.m.

An EF-0 tornado with 65 to 80 mph winds, however, did blow through the west side of the city Saturday night, the NWS confirms.

It was one of nine confirmed tornadoes to hit Michigan between Tuesday, Aug. 28, and Saturday, Sept. 1.

"We're always reminding people that things can change very fast," Kuhl said. "You might have a severe thunderstorm warning that can change very quickly, and I think this was the case, here."

If the NWS sends out a tornado warning for anywhere in the county, all sirens are activated, Kuhl said.

If a trained weather spotter can confirm a funnel cloud, it's reported to the NWS and Kuhl said it's a judgment call for the county on whether to sound the sirens or not.

There were no reports of a tornado from weather spotters Saturday night , Kuhl said.

All of the county's 49 sirens are in working order, Kuhl said. The monthly test occurred at noon on Saturday.

Residents can sign up to receive free text or call alerts during emergency situations, like tornado warnings, through CodeRed.

Cleanup continues

Three days after the storm, cleanup is far from finished in the hardest hit areas.

City of Jackson Department of Public Works Foreman Randy Lybarger was out on Tuesday morning surveying damage and further work that needs to be done by the city.

Crews worked until 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, returned from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday and took Labor Day off, Lybarger said.

The goal Saturday night was to close obstructed streets, control flooding and tape off areas with downed lines, Lybarger said.

Only Oakdale Avenue remained closed as of 11 a.m. Tuesday morning. A large tree is still blocking the street between Brown and Higby streets.

Many tree service crews could be seen working along Brown Street and Higby streets, but damage stretched as far north as the Ganson and North streets area.

MLive/Jackson Citizen Patriot Multimedia Specialist J. Scott Park contributed to this report.Jalen Page

JACKSON, MI - Police are searching for a domestic assault suspect who shot at a Jackson officer early Sunday morning.

At 3:03 a.m. Sept. 2, Jackson officers were dispatched to the 1100 block of Adrian Street for a report of a domestic assault, police said. It was reported that a suspect, Jalen Page, 21, was walking from the area, they said.

About four minutes later, an officer saw Page a block away in the 1100 block of S. Milwaukee Street, police said. As the officer tried to make contact, Page shot a handgun toward the officer, striking the patrol vehicle, they said.

The officer was not hit, police said. The officer returned fire, but it is believed Page, who ran from the area through backyards, wasn't struck, they said.

A K-9 led officers to a residence in the 300 block of W. Biddle Street, police said. Police obtained a search warrant for the residence and were assisted in the search by the Michigan State Police Emergency Support Team, they said.

Police determined Page was not inside the residence.

Anyone with information on Page's whereabouts is asked to contact Jackson Police Det. Richard Burkart at 517-768-8770 or Crime Stoppers of Mid-Michigan at 855-840-7867.

The officer involved in the shooting was placed on leave pending an administrative investigation, per JPD policy.KALAMAZOO, MI -- Alarm clocks were buzzing and coffee pots were working extra early Tuesday for the first day of school in Kalamazoo.

"Welcome back," Linda Howard, principal at Lincoln International Studies School shouted to a bus full of children.

Standing among the students wearing a shirt that read, "Choose kind," Howard welcomed them to the new school year.

The shirts were worn by many members of the school's staff, Howard said.

"One of our building-wide goals is a positive school culture and climate," Howard said. "We want to start off strong and end strong."

The first full day of school is Wednesday, Sept. 5 for students across the district besides those attending Woodward School for Technology and Research and the Washington Writers' Academy. Chosen for the Summer Slide Reduction Pilot Program, Woodward and Washington students began their school year July 23.

Greeters that helped kick off the half day at Lincoln elementary school included Kalamazoo Valley Community College's new president Marshall Washington, Superintendent Michael Rice and Rev. Morris Brooks from the Mt. Zion Baptist Church.

Brooks returns to greet the students every year, he said. "We just want to get them off to a good start," Brooks said. "To let them know we are rooting for them."

Naomi Johnson, 6, caught the attention of the greeters walking up the school with a puppy following closely behind. The dog is going into first grade, just like her, she told Rice.

Johnson gave high fives and waved goodbye to her father, William, and the dog, Mia.

"I'll see you later," her father shouted from outside the school doors before walking toward home with the dog.

On the other side of town, students ready to start their time at El Sol Elementary, a dual-language program, filled the parking lot outside the school building.

Although not excited to go back to school, Jack Boothby, 8, enjoys learning Spanish, he said. His mother, Janelle, said she was excited for his time at school to begin, although summer was also fun.

"Summer's nice, but routines are good as well," she said.

El Sol Elementary is a good fit for her new third grade student, she said. The opportunity to learn Spanish and the smaller size of the school are both positives, she said. The school, which served just over 300 students last year, has a "family, community feel," she said.

The school grounds were full of students, some smiling for photos, others giving long hugs to parents before saying goodbye.

Superintendent Rice stood with students for pictures while offering both handshakes and high fives among the words of encouragement and excitement.

One of the many students lined up behind teachers awaiting the start of the school day was Kimberly Nunez, 8, who speaks Spanish at home and will learn English in school, she said.

Helping to translate the conversation for her mother, who doesn't speak English, Nunez said she is both excited and nervous to start third grade.

Across the parking lot, Kali, 5, clung to her mother's leg while Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell bent down to say hello. Despite her shyness, Kali is ready to start kindergarten, her mother Tiffany Burciaga, said.

She chose El Sol Elementary for her daughter because of the opportunity to learn a second language, Burciaga said.

"She's excited to learn Spanish," Burciaga said, "so she can teach us when she gets home."LANSING, MI -- U.S. and Michigan flags within the State Capitol Complex will be lowered to half-staff Wednesday, Sept. 5, in honor of former state Sen. Patricia Burkholz.

Birkholz, 74, died Thursday, May 3, of cancer.

Birkholz served three terms in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002 and then served two terms in the Michigan Senate. She was appointed director of the Office of the Great Lakes and Great Lakes Commission representative by Gob. Rick Snyder. She was appointed to the National Sea Grant Advisory Board by former President Barack Obama.

Birkholz served as Saugatuck Township trustee and Allegan County treasurer before serving in the Michigan Legislature.

"Patty was a great advocate for the environment and Great Lakes," Snyder said in a press release. "The work she did in office and for her community will continue to positively impact Michigan for years to come. Sue and I send our sincerest condolences to her family, friends and colleagues as they continue mourning the loss of this great Michigander."

The Michigan Senate will celebrate Birkholz's life and service in a remembrance Wednesday.

Michigan residents, businesses, schools, local governments and other organizations also are encouraged to display the flag at half-staff on Wednesday. When flown at half-staff or half-mast, the U.S. flag should be hoisted first to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff or half-mast position. The flag should again be raised to the peak before it is lowered for the day.MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - A judicial commission recently dismissed a complaint filed against Muskegon County Circuit Judge Kathy L. Hoogstra, clearing her of allegations that she verbally abused a county employee.

The complaint was originally filed in March with the state's Judicial Tenure Commission by Muskegon County Deputy Clerk Marcia Wilkes. The commission dismissed the claims as being without merit.

Hoogstra declined to comment on the dismissal. She is a judge in the 14th Circuit Court's Family Court division which hears cases on domestic relations, neglect and abuse and delinquency matters. She was appointed in 2013 and retained the seat in the 2014 election.

Wilkes claimed that Hoogstra verbally abused her in private and within earshot of her co-workers in response to a request from the clerk's office about a missing circuit court file.

"I was frightened and (Hoogstra) was wildly mad and kept going on like a crazy person," Wilkes wrote.

Neither Wilkes nor Hoogstra would comment on the complaint. However, in an email to the clerk's office provided to MLive, Hoogstra claimed Wilkes' request for the document was "unprofessional and offensive."

The Judicial Tenure Commission is an independent state agency responsible for investigating complaints of misconduct among state judges. The 11-person panel made up of lawyers and judges recommends discipline for judges to the Michigan Supreme Court, which rules on whether misconduct had occurred.

A representative from the commission declined to disclose when the body decided Hoogstra's case, saying it was considered internal information.

Sandra Vanderhyde, the 14th Circuit Court administrator, said she was notified about the decision on Aug. 7. The same day, Vanderhyde sent a memo to the county's judges, court staff and the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners announcing the dismissal.

"Judge Hoogstra has always maintained the highest professional standards of conduct in the workplace and wanted her colleagues to know the outcome of this case," Vandrhyde wrote in the memo that was read at the Aug. 7 county board meeting. "She is also very proud of the 14th Circuit Court's administrative staff and their colleagues in the 60th District Court and thankful for their hard work serving the people of Muskegon County."

The incident follows several workplace harassment allegations made against current and former Circuit Court employees. The county recently completed several workplace harassment seminars and training sessions for all county and court employees following the complaints of sexual harassment.UPDATE: Priest's sex assault convictions doesn't end investigation, prosecutor says

SAGINAW, MI -- In an eleventh-hour hearing, Roman Catholic priest the Rev. Robert J. "Father Bob" DeLand Jr. pleaded no contest to multiple charges that see him convicted of sexually assaulting several young males.

DeLand, 71, in the late afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 4, appeared before Saginaw County Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson and pleaded no contest to all seven charges he faced -- two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving injury and single counts of attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct, assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct, gross indecency between males, selling alcohol to a minor and distributing an imitation controlled substance.

The charges are divided among five files and involve three victims. The most serious crime is second-degree criminal sexual conduct, being a 15-year felony. The charge does not involve penetration and is limited to touching.

DeLand's trial on some of the charges was to begin with jury selection Wednesday morning.

By pleading no contest, DeLand did not verbally admit to having committed any crimes. Rather, Judge Jackson had to rely on police reports and court records to enter convictions on the record.

Jackson indicated he would sentence DeLand to one year in jail without the possibility of release on tether. This was based on sentencing guidelines that placed DeLand's minimum sentence in a range of 12 to 24 months. Deland also will receive a five-year probation term and will be required to register as a sex offender.

"We are satisfied that Mr. DeLand has been held accountable for all of his misconduct in all of the cases that we filed," said Saginaw County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Mark Gaertner.

Police first arrested DeLand on Feb. 25 at his home at 29 Mallard Cove in Saginaw Township. The following day, DeLand was arraigned on charges related to the molestation of a 17- and a 21-year-old male. The arrest stemmed from a months-long investigation by Saginaw Township and Tittabawassee Township police.

Police on March 22 executed search warrants and raided several Saginaw Catholic Diocese properties, including the Saginaw Township home of Bishop Joseph R. Cistone. Investigators arrested DeLand again on April 5 and the following day he was arraigned on charges related to allegations that he'd assaulted an 18-year-old male.

DeLand's victims testified in preliminary examinations held April 25 and 27. The 17-year-old said he had known DeLand as a hall monitor at his high school and that DeLand supervised his community service, to which he was sentenced after being convicted of minor in possession of alcohol.

The teen grew concerned when DeLand began constantly calling him on the phone. He would also step on his feet and grab his hands in the school hallways, make him promise to hang out with him and would offer to buy him things. The teen told this to his parents and then they contacted police in November.

The teen told police he felt DeLand was harassing him, he said. Despite not wanting to do so, he agreed to investigators' request to record his conversations with DeLand.

On Nov. 16, DeLand had taken him out of class, given him $20, hugged him, and touched his buttocks, the teen testified.

The teen said this made him feel "very uncomfortable and very angry. I wanted to punch him in the face."

DeLand also gave the teen multiple cigarette packs and eventually asked him to acquire ecstasy for him. The teen testified DeLand gave him $100 for the illicit drug.

The teen on Feb. 25 stayed at DeLand's condo and pretended to take an ecstasy pill, then faked the drug's effects, he said. At the time, he was equipped with a recording device and was being monitored by nearby police.

The priest massaged the teen's feet, chest, and back and put his hand on the teen's buttocks for a minute or two, the teen said.

The 18-year-old victim testified he and his father in May 2017 attended a community event conducted by DeLand at St. Agnes Catholic Church, 300 Johnson St. in Freeland.

At DeLand's request, the teen accompanied him into a coat room in the church. DeLand then reached toward the teen's genital area, but the teen managed to block him.

The oldest victim, now 22, testified DeLand had sexually assaulted him on Aug. 7 inside DeLand's condo. He said the two were drinking tequila before he blacked out and regained consciousness several times, once to DeLand kissing him and another to both of them standing with their pants around their ankles, with no memory of how they got that way.

During the preliminary examination, prosecutors played video footage of the 22-year-old calling DeLand from within a police station interview room and putting the priest on speaker phone.

In the footage, the man tells DeLand he needs "to talk about what happened that night. I'm not OK inside. I know you took advantage of me. I know you got me drunk on purpose. What did you do to me that night, Bob?"

"Well, OK," DeLand responds. "Here's what I... I don't know what happened. I know we were drinking that tequila and I can remember sitting out on the deck because I was getting a big charge out of you telling me to be quiet and you moved your hand and it was really funny. I don't remember going to bed. I don't remember you leaving. I don't remember what happened. I don't know what I did."

The man begins sobbing and his voice rises.

"You don't deserve to be a priest at all," he says.

"All I can tell you is I wish... I don't know what happened," DeLand replies. "You don't have to believe that and I can't force you to believe that."

The man says he remembers DeLand not having his pants on and calls him a liar.

"You can call me a liar, but I don't remember a thing," DeLand says. "I know you're having a rough time. I'm having a worse time. I'll tell you this much, I believe you when you say if I took advantage of you... I don't remember it, but I believe you. I know another thing -- I 'd never hurt you. I'm just so stupid. I guess, I guess... I don't know. I know I blacked out. I'm glad for this phone call; I've felt so terrible.

"I would never hurt you," DeLand continues. "I believe you because you're such a good person. I just feel awful. I mean, I really feel awful and I know there's nothing I can do to make it up. I just know I would not knowingly do this. I hope that I didn't take advantage of you."

"I don't care how you feel," the man says. "You literally broke me inside."

Separate from the criminal matters, DeLand is named in a civil lawsuit filed by attorney Todd J. Weglarz of Southfield firm Fieger, Fieger, Kenney & Harington on behalf of DeLand's youngest victim and an adult representative. Also named in the suit are the Saginaw Diocese and Bishop Cistone.

The suit alleges DeLand, 71, had groomed and molested a teenage boy. Cistone and the Diocese are named as defendants in the suit due to allegations that they knew of DeLand's alleged misconduct with minors but turned a blind eye to it.

DeLand is to remain free on bond pending sentencing, the date of which is pending.SAGINAW, MI -- A Saginaw man is recovering from a gunshot wound he suffered over the weekend, though he could soon face criminal charges.

The morning of Sunday, Sept. 2, police responded to a residence in the 1800 block of Division Street for a man reportedly having been shot. They arrived and spoke with a 39-year-old man, suffering from a wound to one of his legs, according to Michigan State Police Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser.

The man told police he had been shot by an unknown party while sitting in his car on Ojibway Island, though his wife gave police conflicting information, Kaiser said.

The wife ended up telling police her husband had had a gun registered to her and that he accidentally shot himself while getting into a car on the island, Kaiser said.

The man has at least one felony conviction on his record, meaning he's prohibited from having firearms. Police did not arrest the man, as he had to be hospitalized for treatment of his wound, Kaiser said.

Once police finish their investigation, they will forward their reports to the Saginaw County Prosecutor's Office for review and the possible issuing of charges.SAGINAW TWP, MI -- Students at Heritage High School got an extra day of summer as their first day was canceled due to a power outage.

On Tuesday, Sept. 4, Saginaw Township Community Schools posted an announcement on its website informing students, teachers and faculty that school would be closed due to a major power outage.

"Staff should report or stay home in accordance with district policy and their respective collective bargaining agreements," the message read.

All other schools in the district are open.

School officials could not be reached immediately for comment.Thirteen years after a pair of shoes worn by actress Judy Garland during the filming of the iconic "The Wizard of Oz" were stolen, authorities say they've found the infamous ruby red slippers.

The slippers disappeared from the Judy Garland museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota in August 2005. They were one of four pairs worn by the actress during the movie, according to CNN.

A burglar broke into the museum and took the slippers, leaving the family and the museum officials heartbroken. However, a tip received last year led detectives outside Minnesota and eventually to the slippers that were recovered earlier this summer.

The shoes were valued between $2-3 million but some experts thought they could fetch as much as $5 million at auction. However, being able to sell the items without being caught would have been difficult.

It had been rumored the stolen pair were thrown in a lake in Minnesota, but investigators proved that theory incorrect.

The slippers on display at the museum were there on loan from a private collector who agreed to allow them to be displayed. Accusations of an inside job have been made but thus far nothing has been proved to show that anyone involved with the museum stole the slippers or assisted in the theft.

Details about finding the shoes and possible arrests or suspects, have yet to be revealed, although the FBI is expected to share some information later Tuesday.Russia is questioning whether the cause of an air leak and pressure drop aboard the International Space Station was a "production defect or some premeditated action" after it was reported the hole was caused by a man-made drill.

AFP reports Roscosmos space agency chief Dimitry Rogozin made the comments, and added that "we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space." The Russian space agency has enlisted a commission to seek out "to identify the culprit by name."

NASA reports in a news release that the crew aboard the space station spent Thursday, Aug. 30 finding and repairing the leak in the upper section of one of Russia's Soyuz spacecrafts attached to the orbiting laboratory.

"Flight controllers at the Mission Control Centers in Houston and Moscow, meanwhile, continued to monitor pressure levels on the station following the patching of a small hole Thursday in the orbital module, or upper portion of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft," the U.S. space agency reports in the release.

"The Soyuz is docked to the Rassvet module on the Earth-facing side of the Russian segment. The tiny hole created a slight loss in pressure late Wednesday and early Thursday before it was repaired by Soyuz commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos."

--

NASA reports the leak was isolated to the hole found in the Soyuz spacecraft, which was two millimeters in diameter. Prokopyev is said to have used a gauze wipe to plug the hole, while the U.S. space agency confirms "cosmos has convened a commission to conduct further analysis of the possible cause of the leak."

"Throughout the day, the crew was never in any danger, and was told no further action was contemplated for the remainder of the day," the U.S. space agency reports.

The current crew aboard the International Space Station consists of two from Roscosmos, three NASA astronauts and one from Germany by way of the European Space Agency.

When your spaceship suddenly starts leaking air, you fix the hole with duct tape & a gob of epoxy. Nice save, @Space_Station crew! https://t.co/1Va8idShJw pic.twitter.com/pxSJY6eNhc  Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) August 30, 2018

The International Space Stations cabin pressure is holding steady after a repair was made to address a leak on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that had caused a minor reduction of pressure. More... https://t.co/qgxgPrtPDE pic.twitter.com/QQozo48sOP  Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) August 30, 2018

The crew aboard the International Space Station is conducting troubleshooting and repair work today after the discovery of a tiny leak last night traced to the Russian segment of the orbital complex. More... https://t.co/MbtYrlFuO0 pic.twitter.com/eAOa8tVadQ  Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) August 30, 2018The debate over freedom of the press flared up again when a volunteer from President Donald Trump's advance team blocked a photojournalist from taking a picture of a protester being led out of a recent event. On the other side of the partisan divide, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also caught flack for refusing to allow the press to attend a recent campaign event. Some argue politicians are within their rights to exclude the press from their events. Others say they are inhibiting a free press. What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

An AP News photojournalist caught the photo of the Trump volunteer blocking another photojournalist's camera lens as a protester was removed from the event.

One could argue that because it is an event put on by Trump and his administration, the campaign has the right to determine who is allowed to attend and what they are allowed to photograph.

Some journalists were quick to point out the irony of Trump decrying what he sees as censorship by the media, while also blocking that very same media from reporting stories to the public.

"We as a country cannot tolerate political censorship!" - @realDonaldTrump



Here's a shot of a Trump campaign staffer at the same Indiana rally blocking the lens of a camera aimed at a protester being removed.



Irony brilliantly captured by @AP's @evanvucci  pic.twitter.com/67E5PMBaH5  Marissa Parra (@MarParNews) August 31, 2018

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the upstart New York Democrat, recently faced criticism for refusing to allow the press to attend a town hall. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted the decision was made to protect her constituents.

Our community is 50% immigrant. Folks are victims of DV, trafficking, + have personal medical issues.



This town hall was designed for residents to feel safe discussing sensitive issues in a threatening political time.



We indicated previously that it would be closed to press.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 17, 2018

Some critics of blocking the press say its simply impractical -- reporters can pretty easily sneak their way into events. Additionally, it draws negative attention to the politicians, something they ostensibly don't want. Per Politico:

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.BBR Music Group After her stints opening for Sugarland and Keith Urban in September, Criminal hitmaker Lindsay Ell will kick off her first headlining tour next month in Indianapolis.

Im so excited to be teaming up with the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour for my first headlining run ever, Lindsay says. Its going be a show weve never done before and I cant wait for fans to see it!

Lindsay scored her first #1 in her native Canada with Criminal, which also cracked the top-20 in the U.S. Shes just released her follow-up single, Champagne.

Heres the complete list of dates for Lindsay Ells Monster Energy Outbreak Tour, with tickets going on sale Friday:

10/27 -- Indianapolis, IN, 8 Seconds

10/28 -- Decatur, GA, Eddies Attic

11/8 -- Pensacola, FL, Wild Gregs Saloon

11/9 -- Knoxville, TN, Cotton Eyed Joes

11/15 -- Columbus, OH, Tequila Cowboy

11/16 -- Lansing, MI, Tequila Cowboy

11/17 -- Grand Rapids, MI, The Stache

11/30 -- Asbury Park, NJ, Asbury Lanes

12/1 -- Mount Laurel, NJ, Prospectors Steakhouse

12/8 -- West Peoria, IL, Crusens

1/9 -- Dallas, TX, House of Blues

1/10 -- Houston, TX, House of Blues

1/16 -- San Jose, CA, Club Rodeo

1/17 -- Bakersfield, CA, Buck Owens

1/19 -- San Diego, CA, Moonshine Flats

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 4)  Regulators no longer required transport network company Grab to reimburse the per-minute charge that it said was unauthorized.

In an order penned Tuesday, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said Grab will not reimburse passengers for the previously imposed 2 per minute charge from June 5, 2017 to April 19, 2018.

"The order directing the respondent to reimburse the riders who were charged with 2/per minute from June 5, 2017 to April 19, 2018 is hereby reversed and set aside for lack of legal basis to support the reimbursement by way of rebate of future riders," the LTFRB order signed by Chairman Martin Delgra read.

However, Grab still has to pay the 10-million fine for collecting the fee without LTFRB approval.Commemorating Mexico's Independence from Spain

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Every September, known as El Mes de la Patria (The Month of Our Nation,) cities throughout Mexico host a series of colorful and patriotic festivities celebrating the first and most significant episode of the country's history - Mexico's Independence from Spain.

As Independence Day approaches, one sees more Mexican flags of various sizes, being sold on street corners. Buildings and balconies are festooned with green, red and white streamers - the colors of the Mexican flag, and there is a celebratory feeling in the air.

But September 15th, or the eve of Independence Day, is when the celebrations really begin with the traditional El Grito observance. Grito means "shout" or "cry." It commemorates the manner in which Miguel Hidalgo, considered the father of Mexico, publicly initiated what became the Mexican independence movement, in 1810.

This was in the town of Dolores, now renamed Dolores Hidalgo, in central Mexico. Hidalgo, a priest, gathered the people in front of the church on the plaza, where he gave a speech and rang the bell, and called the people to action.

In commemoration of Hidalgo's original Grito, the time-honored tradition is for Mexicans to gather in plazas in Mexican cities large and small to watch speeches and performances. As the clock begins to strike eleven, silence falls over the crowd as the Mayor steps onto the balcony of City Hall to ring the symbolic liberty bell and shout Vivas in honor of Hidalgo and other Independence figures.

The ceremony reaches the high point when the crowd joins in proudly shouting out the names of the heroes of Mexico's Independence. When the grito ceremony ends, the sky lights up with multi-colored fireworks, followed by performances by traditional Mexican dancers and musical groups.

The following day, September 16 is Independence Day in Mexico and is considered a patriotic holiday, or Fiesta Patria (literally, holiday of the Fatherland.) This day is marked by parades, patriotic programs, drum & bugle and marching band competitions, special programs on the national and local media outlets, and even concerts.

Stay tuned for a complete list of Fiestas Patrias events in Puerto Vallarta.Canara Bank | Bank reported higher profit at Rs 444.1 crore in Q2FY21 against Rs 364.9 crore, net interest income jumped to Rs 6,296 crore from Rs 3,129 crore YoY.

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Banks Board Bureau (BBB) has invited applications for the post of managing director and chief executive director of Canara Bank for a three-year term. The post of MD and CEO fell vacant at Canara Bank upon retirement of Rakesh Kumar Sharma on July 31, 2018.

Sharma served as the bank's MD and CEO since September 11, 2015. The three-year term begins from the date of taking charge and will be subject to the normal age of superannuation of 60 years, BBB said in an advertisement inviting the application.

To help assess the leadership competencies and potential capabilities of shortlisted candidates, an advisory firm may assist the bureau. The advisory firm will have no role in shortlisting. Shortlisted applicants will appear for interactions with the bureau.

"Based on the interactions, the Bureau will send its recommendation to the government," BBB said.

As eligibility criteria, BBB said Indian nationals, age 45 to 57 years, with an exemplary track record should apply with minimum 15 years experience in mainstream banking of which at least one year should be at the board level.

The candidates can fill in their application by September 21, 2018. Set up in 2016, the Banks Board Bureau is the advisory body formed by the government for selection of candidates for top-level board appointments.

The term of Bank of Baroda MD and CEO is also set to expire on October 12, 2018, however, it is likely that the government may give extension to incumbent P S Jayakumar based on the assessment of his three-year performance.

Jayakumar was one of the two selected candidates from the private sector and joined the state-owned bank in October 2015.Chinese internet giant Tencent has joined a queue of global investors eyeing shares in Indias online food ordering and delivery giant Swiggy.

Tencent is willing to invest a significant portion of $500-700 million in funds for the food delivery platform, reported The Economic Times quoting people aware of the development. The investment could value Swiggy at $2.5-3 billion, two of the sources told the paper.

In August, Swiggy had initiated talks with news as well as existing investors to raise up to $500 million, with the valuation coming out at $2.2-2.5 billion. In July, the firm had received at least one term-sheet with an estimated valuation of $2.5 billion, the report said.

Also read  Exclusive | Swiggy acquires on-demand delivery startup Scootsy

Global investors, including its existing backers such as Naspers, Chinas Meituan Dianping, US-based hedge fund Coatue Management and Russias DST Global, are expected to participate in Swiggys latest fundraising. Other suitors include growth equity firm General Atlantic and Chinese hedge funds Tybourne Capital and Hillhouse Capital.

The investors have been discussing the investment size and valuation of the company in the last three weeks, one person aware of the negotiations told the paper.

The funding size under discussion is around $650 million, with Naspers looking to invest $200-250 million, the person said.

However, talks are yet to take definite shape and will take another 3-4 weeks to crystallise.

Also read  Swiggy raises additional $210 million funding led by Naspers, DST Global

Swiggy has been also in talks with Japans SoftBank for a sizeable investment since November. It is, however, not clear whether the latter will participate in the Swiggys upcoming fundraising round or opt to invest independently later.

While Swiggy, Naspers, Meituan Dianping and DST Global did not respond to queries from The Economic Times, SoftBank, Tencent and Coatue Management declined to comment on what they termed as market speculation.

In the upcoming investment, Swiggys early investors could sell some of their shares in the company, the people mentioned above said.

So far, the firm has raised $310 million in 2018 with its previous fundraising in June catapulting it to the unicorn club with a valuation of $1.3 billion.

The third talk of raising funds in 2018 comes at a time when Swiggy has seen its monthly cash-burn jumping to $18 million to take on its rival Zomato, which spends over $20 million a month on discounts and cash backs to bump up order volumes.

Ant Financial-backed Zomato has been also looking to raise capital at frequent intervals as monthly cash-burn rates for these two aggregators have grown by over five times between April and July.

Experts say the capital rush is put to habit formation exercise, whereby, people get used to ordering food online.

Both Zomato and Swiggy are creating new habits on online ordering, especially in tier 2 cities and beyond. Inducing such behaviour obviously comes at an extremely high customer acquisition cost (CAC), Rahul Singh, president of National Restaurant Association of India told the paper.During a meeting with the visiting Jharkhand delegation headed by Chief Minister Raghubar Das, China's International department minister Sondh Thao Tuesday commended ease of doing business in the state which has a lot of potential for investment.

Thao said that though Jharkhand is a new state its growth rate is 8.2 percent which is highly appreciable. "The investment environment in Jharkhand, its growth rate, ease of doing business and the business environment are commendable," Thao, the Minister of International Department of Communist Party of China was quoated as saying by an official release issued here.

The Chinese minister said that there is a lot of potential for investment in Jharkhand. The Jharkhand delegation under Das is on a five-day tour of China starting September 1 to obtain information about latest technology.

Thao said that the population of both the countries is 256 billion, which is almost one-third of the world's population and presently holds 21 percent of the world's GDP, and the GDP rate can be strong if the two countries work together, the official release said.

The two countries can also have a very large partnership in World Trade, he said. Giving details about the Global Agriculture and Food Summit, 2018, which is going to be organized in Jharkhand on 29-30 November, the CM informed Thao that many companies related to Agriculture and Food Processing of the world will participate in the summit.

The Chief Minister also invited Thao to participate in the summit. The release said that bilateral relations have improved after the last visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China.Air India

The government is working on a relief package for the airlines to alleviate the impact of rise in cost pressure, according to civil aviation secretary RN Choubey. He was speaking on the sidelines of a conference organised by global aviation body International Air Transport Association. A double whammy of a weak rupee and high oil prices has hurt the Indian aviation sector badly last six months, with many airlines in red.

In less than five months, the rupee has weakened by more than 12 percent to almost 72 against the US dollar amidst a global rally by the greenback.

Similarly, crude oil prices have surged by more than half in a year to around $70 per barrel. Aviation turbine fuel, derived from crude, accounts for one third the cost of operations of an airline in India while the same is one-fourth for most airlines abroad.

Jet Airways posted a loss of Rs 1,323 crore on a total income of Rs 6,066.91 crore in June quarter. The company is currently under probe by various government agencies for various charges including siphoning off funds by promoters. The company had posted a loss in March quarter as well, to the tune Rs 1,036 crore.

Weighed by the twin impact of a weaker rupee and higher fuel costs as well as one-time provision, SpiceJet also posted a loss of Rs 38 crore in June quarter against a net profit of Rs 175 crore in the same period a year ago.

Rival InterGlobe Aviations net profit in the three months through June fell 97 percent to Rs 28 crore from Rs 811 crore a year earlier. If not for the finance income, income from sale and leaseback of aircraft and compensation by Pratt & Whitney, Indias largest airline company would have reported a loss. Pratt & Whitney compensated IndiGo in the said quarter for engine snags that led to the grounding of Airbus A320neo planes.

While the private sector awaits its dole, one for Air India is already on its way. News agency ANI quoted Choubey said as saying that Air India will raise Rs 2,100 crore in government-guaranteed borrowing. The loan will be extended by State Bank of India. He said the government had approved Rs 860 crore as equity infusion for the state-owned carrier for the ongoing financial year.

According to Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, the Indian airline sector is expected to report $1.65 billion-1.90 billion in losses in 2018-19, up from its own previous estimate of $430 million-$460 million. A higher estimated price of crude at $75-$80 per barrel and a depreciated rupee at 70-72 against the US dollar are the reasons behind the aviation consulting and research bodys sombre outlook for the Indian airline sector.Bankruptcy

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(An earlier version of this story inadvertently pegged UCO Bank's loans to Sunil Hitech as Rs 740 crore. That number has been updated to Rs 400 crore after clarification from the company.)

The slowdown in the business cycle, which has resulted in several companies being put on the block thanks to the governments bankruptcy law, may claim one more victim.

Infrastructure firm Sunil Hitech Engineers is likely to be put under insolvency proceedings on September 5. The petitioner: American Express, which claims Sunil owes it around Rs 45 crore for usage of corporate credit cards.

American Express had dragged Sunil Hitech to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in July. According to a source, Sunil sought 50 days to clear the payments and wanted to settle the matter out of court. But two weeks back, it came back and said it was facing difficulties raising money to repay the dues.

The NCLT will now admit Sunil Hitech into bankruptcy proceedings. Once admitted, an insolvency resolution professional (IRP) takes operational control from a companys promoters. The promoters get 270 days to find buyers for the company, a move that has to be approved by a committee of creditors (CoC). Failure to do so results in the company being liquidated.

Interestingly, UCO Bank, which is the largest lender to the engineering firm, having loaned around Rs 400 crore, is not leading the motion. However, the source Moneycontrol spoke to, who is close to Amex, says the credit card company expects UCO to support the petition.

An email to the company and a call to UCO Bank chief remained unanswered.

Other banks that have made loans to Sunil Hitech include Union Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and ICICI Bank.

The insolvency and bankruptcy law, passed in 2016, has kickstarted a fire sale of distressed companies, especially those in the infrastructure sector, whose loans have been declared as non-performing assets.

The Sunil Hitech stock, once dubbed as attractive by many high-profile investors, has tumbled over the past one year, falling from a high of Rs 22.6 (adjusted) to about Rs 2.8 low, a loss of about 88 percent.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached cash deposits worth Rs 25.44 crore of the company in a coal block case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The companys stock was also added to the additional surveillance mechanism (ASM) list put out by SEBI in June this year.

As per the companys consolidated financial statements, as of March 2018, it had a total debt of Rs 1,785 crore as opposed to equity of Rs 641 crore.No. 9 | WOW Air | Icelands low-cost carrier WOW Air took the ninth spot. The airline announced its entry earlier this month and it will start operating from December by offering direct flights to Reykjavik from Delhi.

WOW air, the Icelandic carrier which made headlines in May after announcing a return fare of Rs 26,999 from Delhi to the US, has appointed Kiran Jain as Managing Director for India.

Jain was most recently the Director for Commercial and Government Relations with AirAsia India. Earlier, she was the Head of Airline Marketing at Delhi International Airport.

WOW's flights will commence operations from New Delhi on December 7, 2018 with five flights a week, directly to Keflavik airport in Iceland that will connect to multiple destinations in North America and Europe.

It is our pleasure to welcome Kiran to our team and have her lead our operations in India. Kiran has great versatile work experience in the Indian market which I am sure will benefit and strengthen our presence in India," said Skuli Mogensen, CEO and Founder, WOW air.

Mogensen, an entrepreneur and investor, established the airline in November 2011. The purple airline flies with Airbus A320, Airbus A321 and Airbus A330 models.Rank 2 | Elon R Musk | Company: SpaceX and Tesla | Net worth: $136 billion | YTD change: Gain by $108 billion (Image: Reuters)

Elon Musk will not attend MOVE, a first-of-its-kind two-day summit on mobility being organised by Niti Aayog in the national capital.

While the government thinktank tried its best to have the maverick entrepreneur behind electric carmaker Tesla attend the summit, it met with no success, according to officials involved with hosting the event.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the mega event on September 7. The summit is expected to have over 1,200 participants from across the world.

It may be recalled that a few months back, a person had asked Musk on Twitter if he planned to visit India any time. The Tesla chief executive, a prolific user of the social media platform, had replied that he planned to do so this year. And hence the hope and the curiosity that he could use the summit to mark the visit.

Over the past few years, Musk has risen to become one of the world's foremost innovators, starting companies that make electric cars (Tesla) and solar panels (SolarCity), facilitate low-cost space travel (SpaceX) and promote advances in artificial intelligence and neurotechnology. He is also the brainchild behind Hyperloop, the promising technology that aims to make possible aircraft-speed travel in an on-ground pod network.

Those initiatives have come at a cost. Musk has come under fire from investors in publicly-listed Tesla amid a struggle to raise production. His decisions (a contentious take-private bid that was later called off), controversial public statements and a recent emotional interview, in which he confessed to taking sleeping pills, hint that all may not be well currently with Musk's emotional state of mind.

But much as India probably doesn't figure on Musks priority list, the Modi governments drive towards cleaner mobility and a more energy-efficient ecosystem may just impress him.

India has been at the forefront of implementing its commitment to the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. The country is also implementing the worlds largest programme of installing 770 million 20-watt LED bulbs across 100 cities by March 2019.

On the transportation side, the government aims to have only electric vehicles being manufactured by 2030 though that plan hasnt been concretised as yet.

Also read: PM Modi likely to announce roadmap for electric mobility this week

MOVE: Global Mobility Summit is expected to showcase the governments goals for vehicle electrification, renewable energy integration and job growth and also speed up Indias transition to a clean energy economy.

Participants include global and Indian leaders from across the mobility sector such as original equipment manufacturers, battery manufacturers, charging infrastructure providers, technology solution providers, representatives from the Indian government as well as foreign governments, various inter-governmental organizations, academia, and policy think tanks.

Research organizations, academia, think tanks and civil society will also be part of the summit. They will come together and engage with key stakeholders within the rapidly transforming global mobility landscape and to evolve a public interest framework.

Issues confronting the emerging ecosystem will be discussed based on thematic papers during the parallel sessions. State-specific subjects will also be discussed to evolve a shared, connected, zero emission and inclusive mobility agenda for the future.With 160 deals, IT and ITES was the busiest sector followed by manufacturing and healthcare (47). The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space was third, recording 41 deals. Let's take a look at the biggest mergers and acquisitions in India this year. (Representative image)

The board of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will convene today in New Delhi to discuss the structure and timeline of the stake purchase in IDBI Bank as well as steps to stabilise the latters bad loans.

A senior official told Moneycontrol, The structure and process of the stake acquisition will be discussed in detail today. While the board had met earlier, it was just to get a go-ahead on the IDBI Bank deal.

In June, LIC had expressed interest to purchase majority stake (51 percent) in the state-run bank. The insurer proposed to use funds from policyholders to acquire additional stake in IDBI Bank.

The insurance behemoth has received a nod from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), in-principal approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as well as the Union Cabinet for the deal a few weeks back.

However, the finer details of the deal are yet to be discussed. For instance, once LIC is a majority shareholder in IDBI Bank, the bank may be made a subsidiary of the life insurance company. Whether it will be merged with LIC Housing Finance or continue to exist as a separate listed entity will be discussed by the board today.

When it comes to IDBI Bank subsidiaries like IDBI Federal Life Insurance, it is not clear whether LIC will automatically become their promoter. This is another issue that will be discussed during today's board meet.

It is likely that LIC will appoint members to the bank's management team once the deal is complete. The changes to the management structure will also be discussed at todays meet.

While the deal is to acquire 51 percent in IDBI Bank, sources said the process will be completed in the December quarter. They added that the mode of additional stake purchase is not yet known.

Last week, LIC announced it will buy 14.9 percent stake in IDBI Bank through a preferential allotment.

The crucial task ahead for LIC once it acquires majority stake in IDBI Bank would be to turnaround the bank and help lower its non-performing assets (NPAs).

During Q4 FY18, IDBI Banks net loss stood at Rs 5,663 crore. Provisions for NPAs rose 77.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 10,773.30 crore.

In Q1 FY19, the bank reported a wider net loss of Rs 2,409.90 crore. The loss widened from Rs 853 crore registered in the same quarter a year ago due to a jump in NPAs and provisions.

Provisions during the quarter spiked over 157 percent to Rs 5,236 crore. It reduced by half from Rs 10,544 crore in the March quarter.

Once the modalities of the deal are finalised and approved by LIC and IDBI Bank boards, a final nod from the insurance regulator, RBI as well as the markets regulator will be needed.An Indian delegation comprising Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and leaders from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh is in Singapore to woo potential investors.

Chief Minister Rawat along with Punjab's Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Public Works Minister Vijay Inder Singla and Uttar Pradesh's Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana held a series of meetings with top Singaporean ministers.

They jointly led a delegation of 'Invest North' and met separately Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishna, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung and Communications and Information Minister S Iswaran.

The 'Invest North' summit is being organised by the Indian High Commission in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The CM and Indian ministers also met Surbana Jurong, the town planner which has done a master plan for Andhra Pradesh's Amaravati city.

Jurong's expertise was sought for the proposed township near Mohali, Singla said.

"We have 5,435-acre land through pooling scheme for the new township "Aerotropolis" for which we are now doing a conceptual plan," said Singla.

Expected to cost $2.6 billion, a detailed project report is underway for the Mohali Aerotropolis.

Addressing the "Professional Diaspora Connect", gathering, the delegation also gave an update on the smart cities, saying some were in planning while others were progressing towards project implementation.

Addressing some 200 members of the Indian business community, Badal said Punjab will be among the first to complete its smart city projects covering Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jallandhar.

"We are moving ahead in a significant way. Most of the infrastructure is being put up in the cities," said Badal.

Uttarakhand's Dehradun smart city project is in the planning stage, added Rawat. More than 50 delegates from the three states and CII are in Singapore pitching for investments.Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram Tuesday blamed the NDA government for rise in petrol and diesel prices, saying it was happening due to "excessive taxes". In a series of tweets, the former finance minister also demanded that petrol and diesel be brought under the GST immediately.

"Relentless rise in prices of petrol and diesel is not inevitable. Because, the price is built up by excessive taxes on petrol and diesel. If taxes are cut, prices will decline significantly," he said.

Chidambaram said the central government blaming the states is a "spurious argument".

"The BJP forgets that its boast that BJP is ruling 19 States. Centre and States must act together and bring petrol and diesel under GST. Congress demands that petrol and diesel be brought under GST immediately (sic)," he tweeted.

Petrol and diesel prices in the country touched their highest levels Monday mainly due to fall in rupee and a sharp rise in crude oil rates.

Petrol & Diesel Rates Nov 02, 2021 Petrol Rate in Mumbai Nov 02, 2021 Current Petrol Price Per Litre 116 116 View more Diesel Rate in Mumbai Nov 02, 2021 Current Petrol Price Per Litre 107 107 View more Show

Petrol price in Delhi rose to a record Rs 79.15 a litre and diesel climbed to a fresh high of Rs 71.15, according to price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

This follows a 31 paise/litre hike in prices on Monday. Rates have breached the previous high of Rs 78.43 a litre hit on May 28. On that day, the rate in Mumbai was Rs 86.24 per litre.

A litre of petrol in Mumbai costs Rs 86.56 on Monday.Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh met Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari Tuesday and urged him for expansion and upgradation of national highways in the state and development of roads in border areas.

Singh called for improving connectivity on the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway and the Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi highway.

The Punjab chief minister also discussed with the Union minister the relining of Rajasthan and Sirhind feeder canals.

"Met Nitin Gadkari ji to discuss the expansion and upgradation of National Highways in Punjab. Urged for development of border roads, Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway and Sri Anandpur Sahib-Temple Shri Naina Devi ji connectivity. Also discussed relining of Rajasthan and Sirhind feeders (sic)," Singh tweeted.

Gadkari also took to Twitter to say that the Punjab chief minister had called on him. "We discussed ongoing highway projects in the state," he said.Qatar Airways | Maintaining its place as the best airline in the world for the second year in a row, is Doha-based airline Qatar Airways. The airline is regarded to have high quality service and timely operations and claim processing. (Image: Reuters)

Qatar Airways will wait for "another 12 months" to decide on setting up an airline in India as it seeks clarity on "ambiguous" foreign ownership norms, its chief Akbar Al Baker said Tuesday.

The comments come less than three months after Baker said that the Gulf carrier would soon be moving an application to launch a full-service airline in India for domestic operations.

Baker, who has been Qatar Airways' Group Chief Executive Officer for over two decades, said that the rule of allowing foreign entity to own up to 100 per cent stake in Indian carriers is not very clear.

"What we are given to understand is that a foreign airline cannot own 100 per cent but a foreigner can. I don't know what is the difference between a foreigner and an airline," he said.

Speaking at a select media round table here, he said that if Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) owns 51 per cent and Qatar Airways has 49 per cent in an airline that is not allowed. "It is very ambiguous. Really the rule is not clear," he noted.

The QIA owns Qatar Airways.

Under Foreign Direct Investment norms, foreign airlines can only have up to 49 per cent stake in an Indian carrier.

On how long Qatar Airways can wait on India venture, Baker said, "We will wait for another 12 months but beyond that we will not be able to..."

"There is always an opportunity to invest in airlines in India. India is a huge aviation market.

"We will lose interest in time because you know we have a fund we would like to invest. If we don't invest in time, then we would have to invest somewhere else," Baker said.

It was in March 2017 that Baker first mentioned about its plans for a carrier in India. In February this year, he had said it plans to launch an airline in India with at least 100 planes.

According to Baker, the airline is open for partnership provided it gets a good local partner who is credible and financially sound.

Further, he said it does not matter whether it would be a majority or minority stake. "As long as it is a robust entity we don't have any problems to work with them," he added.

Making clear Qatar Airways' strategy, Baker said it does not want to go and invest in an airline just because they need funds.

"We need to invest in an airline that will give us return on investment, efficiently run and that has growth potential," he said.New Delhi: Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu speaks duing a conference on 'Promoting Scientific interventions for Transforming India through CSR', in New Delhi, on Tuesday, May 28, 2018. (PTI Photo/Kamal Singh)(PTI5_29_2018_000037B)

Negotiations for the mega-trade deal RCEP will continue in 2019 as more rounds of talks are required to sort out issues pertaining to goods and services, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said Tuesday.

Trade ministers of 16 members of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) met last week in Singapore to review the progress of negotiations.

The mega trade pact aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.

Prabhu said that India in the Singapore meeting emphasised on three important issues, including establishing linkage of services to goods negotiations as the agreement is a comprehensive one and not focus only on goods.

The services sector is a key area for India as the segment accounts for about 55 per cent of the country's GDP. He said that it is an economic partnership agreement and services must be an integral part of it.

"The RCEP negotiations will not end in 2018. It has been agreed at the level of leaders it will go in 2019 as well and we will have opportunity to work on all the issues," the minister told reporters here.

He also said that there are 16 countries in the group and in this India do not have free trade agreements with Australia, New Zealand and China.

With rest of the members, including Japan and ASEAN countries, India already has a trade agreement.

India has stated that "we cannot negotiate through RCEP route with these three countries and we have to separately negotiate with them," he said adding "India's insistence have been accepted and now we will be negotiating with China, Australia and New Zealand separately along with RCEP negotiations".

Prabhu said that the leaders in Singapore have also accepted the demand of India for having 20 years implementation period of the agreement.

The commerce ministry will also hold discussions with stakeholders on the inclusion of products.

RCEP bloc comprises 10 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners - India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The talks, which were launched in Phnom Penh in November 2012 have dragged on as the member countries want an agreement over the removal of customs duties on the maximum number of products traded between them. However, countries like India have certain reservations on this as the grouping includes China, with which New Delhi has a huge trade deficit.

Indian industry and exporters are apprehensive about the presence of China in the grouping. They have stated that lowering or eliminating duties for China may flood Indian markets with Chinese goods.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the ministry said that trade ministers in Singapore tasked the negotiators to go into the details of ASEAN's "non-paper on trade in goods market access negotiations".

In the meeting, the Indian commerce minister reiterated the need for providing adequate flexibilities on various elements of the Non-Paper, such as exclusion, reduction, staging and deviations.

"Accordingly, it was agreed that member countries will intensify bilateral pairing process on requests and offers these elements and determine the ambition level of each country to the mutual satisfaction," it said.

The ministers directed that the negotiations on all these issues will be intensified during the 24th RCEP Auckland Round from 17-24th October.

India is looking for a balanced trade agreement as it would cover 40 percent of the global GDP and over 42 percent of the world's population.Have a long-term outlook | Timing investment is logically impossible because the best entry and exit opportunities are known only in hindsight. No one can predict market movements with certainty. Therefore, it is important to allow your investments to compound over a long term.

IndiGrid, the country's first infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), Tuesday said it has completed the Rs 232-crore investment in Patran Transmission Company (PTCL).

The company had in February signed a definitive agreement with Techno Electric to invest Rs 232 crore in PTCL.

"This is IndiGrid's first investment in a third-party asset. We will continue to look at value accretive opportunities for such acquisition in future," its chief executive officer and whole-time director Harsh Shah said.

Shah said the company has set a target of Rs 30,000 crore of assets under management (AUM) in the next five years, which it wish to expand through such acquisitions.

The acquisition was done entirely through internal accruals and available debt headroom, according to him.

IndiGrid had raised Rs 250 crore in debentures through the e-bidding platform of BSE, making it the first ever bond issuance by an InvIT, which was used for funding the acquisition.

Post the placement, IndiGrid's net debt to AUM stands at 47 percent, Shah informed.

"Since listing last year, IndiGrid has expeditiously grown its portfolio of operational power transmission assets with low counterparty risks and long-term cash flows. This is the fourth value accretive acquisition in the last 12 months and is in line with target of reaching 12 percent portfolio equity IRR," he said.

IndiGrid has set a target of achieving distribution per unit (DPU) guidance of Rs 12 for FY19, he added.

PTCL project consists of a 1,000 MVA, 400/220 KV substation with 14 bays and LILO of both circuits of Patiala-Kaithal 400 kV double circuit triple snow bird line.

This inter-state project was awarded on a perpetual basis on build, own, operate and maintain model through competitive bidding.

IndiGrid has so far completed the acquisition of three assets from its sponsor, Sterlite Power Grid Ventures, namely RAPP Transmission Company at Purulia and Kharagpur Transmission Company and Maheshwaram Transmission.

It owns 16 independent revenue-generating elements, including 13 transmission lines of 3,361 ckms and three substations of 7,000 MVA capacity across nine states in India.live bse live

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The ready-to-drink, milk-based beverage space is likely to see heightened competition ahead among players such as Amul, Britannia Industries and Coca-Cola as ITC looks to foray into this space. The Kolkata-based multi-business enterprise is set to launch its new product range - Sunfeast Wonderz - next month, as per a report in The Economic Times.

As per the report, the company claims said its new product is different from existing beverages in the category as it contain real fruit pulp versus artificial flavours used in existing products.

ITC will manufacture the beverage range at its new facility in Kapurthala, Punjab, where it has invested in an aseptic pet facility, it said.

At first, the company will launch the product in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Later, the product is likely to be rolled out across the nation.

Asked about venturing into ready to drink milk beverages, Hemant Malik, Divisional Chief Executive  Foods at ITC, said the market for the product has seen "high growth in the recent past, with a paradigm shift to healthier beverages. We believe innovative offerings in this segment could have great potential in the future."

According to a survey conducted by global market intelligence agency Mintel, there was an increase in share of flavoured milk products in dairy drink introductions in India to 39 percent in 2017 as against 20 percent in 2012.live bse live

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Jindal Steel & Power is considering a breakup plan as part of a restructuring to trim its Rs 42,000-crore debt as well as boost investor's confidence in the company, reported Bloomberg.

The steel major is planning to split its steel, power and international businesses into three separate entities, chairman Naveen Jindal said in an interview. The plan, however, would need the approval of lenders, regulators and the board, Jindal added.

According to the breakup plan, the steel unit would include the coal mines, while the international business would include the Oman steel plant. The company will seek to progressively sell about 30 percent of the Oman unit, which may partly be achieved through an initial public offer, over two to three years.

The company plans to engage with potential buyers in December and hopes to conclude a deal by March.

The move comes after the steelmaker has come back from the brink of bankruptcy. The firm now wants to get its debt ratio down to two times pre-tax earnings, from about five times now, over the next four or five years, Jindal said in the interview dated August 30.

In FY19, the company aims to cut debt by 15 percent. We are going to be really, really conservative. There is no question of taking more debt, Jindal said.

The company's shares have risen 61 percent in the past year, owing to a global steel industry revival, making it the best performer on the 10-member S&P BSE Metal Index, the report said.

The restructuring of Jindal Steels coal mining operations in Australia may also be on the anvil, but theres no hurry. "Coal prices are very good, so if we get a good price, we can look at that," Jindal said.

In 2014, the Supreme Court had canceled most permits granted earlier to coal mine companies terming the allocations arbitrary and illegal and ordered producers to pay for the coal they had already extracted. This is one of the reasons that forced the company to borrow huge amounts to sustain additional levy.

We got into this situation because we had to borrow almost a billion dollars to pay the additional levy and then to complete the plant, Jindal said, adding that when such things happen, one has no option but to carry on and find ways to survive without it, which they have done successfully.live bse live

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The rupee on Tuesday touched a fresh record low of Rs 71.50 against the US Dollar for the second consecutive day in a row, and experts feel that the fall is not over yet and we could see fresh lows for the currency in the offing.

Most experts are penciling in a near-term target of Rs 72-73/USD for the rupee. Both local, as well as global factors, are weighing on the currency.

Globally, nagging concerns over rising crude oil prices and trade war continue to impact the forex market sentiment. Back home, the heightened risk associated with the swelling current account deficit due to rise in oil prices have contributed to the volatility.

Rupee breach beyond Rs 71/USD is not a surprise. The causative factors like the deficit, growth concerns, oil, FII outflows, etc. have been much commented on in the last few months, Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services told Moneycontrol.

While the rupee took 8 months since the start of this year to depreciate from 64 to 71, the depreciation of 2013 from 53 to 68.8 happened in just 5 months. The ongoing depreciation has the room till 73, but the journey till there is less likely to be steep, as ongoing trade war tensions and a higher likelihood of only a gradual US rate hike will ensure that we may not have any runaway rally in US dollar or weakness in rupee, he said.

James further added that this suggests stocks dips on account of weak rupee will be an investment opportunity. But, only as long as oil doesnt push above USD 80/bbl.

Impact on India Inc.:

Rupee depreciation will directly impact IT and pharma sector companies which earn most of their revenues in US dollars. However, some of the companies where cash flows are hedged may not benefit as much as the other players in the sector does.

On the other hand, companies which are dependent on imports especially the companies in oil and gas space will be adversely affected. In certain sectors, cross currency movements may impact profitability where imports are from countries where the currency has depreciated more than that of India, suggest experts.

For example, companies importing raw materials from China may get benefitted as Chinese currency, Yuan, has lately depreciated more than rupee.

Sectors where there are huge foreign currency loans - say infrastructure will get negatively impacted. Metals, too, have huge foreign currency loans but their exports may act as automatic hedge, Vineeta Sharma, HOR at Narnolia Financial Advisors told Moneycontrol.

Current fall in rupee is more to do with global issues, but if the crude price remains elevated despite deteriorating emerging market trade then it will be negative as India is large oil importer, she said.

Stocks to get impacted the most:

Analyst: Vineeta Sharma, HOR at Narnolia Financial Advisors

Some companies that may get positively impacted are Persistent Systems, Sun Pharma and Suven Lifesciences as sales are primarily exports and their operating business environment is also getting better.

On the negative side, airline companies like InterGlobe Aviation will get negatively impacted as fuel cost rises on account of INR depreciation.

Companies with high foreign currency debt like Adani Port where 50 percent of the debt is in foreign currency will be negatively impacted.

Analyst: Ritesh Ashar, Chief Strategy Officer at KIFS Trade Capital

OMCs: Negative Impact

For companies like BPCL and HPCL, crude oil is a raw material which they will have to buy at the higher price and their final selling products are various refined products like petrol, diesel etc.

The prices of these refined products may not necessarily increase by the same proportion as of the crude oil. As a result, the refining companies will start losing money.

Telecom companies: Negative Impact

Companies like Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, and Reliance Communication have foreign debts. Considering the fall in the domestic currency, the cost of financing will increase which will impact the profit margin of the company.

IT & Pharma: Positive impact

The positive impact will be seen in exporting companies and the majority of IT and Pharma companies are depended on their exporting business. IT stocks like TCS and NIIT Tech will be largely benefitted as their forex exposure are quite higher than the peers.

The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.8 | Infosys | Market Cap for the week ended October 30: Rs 4,51,753.23 crore crore | Loss during the week: 26,152.79 crore.

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Infosys share price rallied 4.4 percent intraday to hit a record high of Rs 748.50 Tuesday on buying demand from investors after the stock adjusted for bonus issue.

The country's second largest IT services provider announced the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of one equity share for every equity share held and a stock dividend of one American Depositary Share (ADS) for every ADS held, as on a record date.

The record date for the same is fixed as September 5, 2018.

The board of directors approved bonus issue on July 13 and shareholders' approval came in on August 22, 2018.

After the adjustment, the stock price halved from its previous closing value of Rs 1,434.25.

Earlier it adjusted for bonus issue in the ratio of one equity share for every share on June 15, 2015, December 2, 2014 and July 13, 2006. It also adjusted for bonus issue in the ratio of 3 shares for every share held on July 1, 2004.

At 12:57 hours IST, the share price was quoting at Rs 738.30, up Rs 21.17, or 2.95 percent on the NSE.

Meanwhile, the weakening rupee also boosted sentiment. In fact, it has been supporting not only to Infosys but also other technology stocks which are exporting their services to America.

The Indian rupee hit historic low of 71.37 against the US dollar today, depreciating more than 11.5 percent year-to-date.The Nifty is likely to open on a flat note on Tuesday following muted trend seen in other Asian markets. The index closed 98 points lower at 11,582 on Monday.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a flat opening for the broader index in India, a fall of 1 point or 0.01 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 11,629-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

Asian shares fell in early trade on Tuesday, amid growing concerns over escalating international trade disputes and as emergency austerity measures in Argentina highlighted turbulence in emerging markets, said a Reuters report.

The Indian rupee, on Monday, closed at a record closing low of 71.21 on the back of overseas fund outflows even as GDP data saw a robust growth for the April-June quarter of current fiscal.

Stocks in news:

VST Tillers Tractors Ltd's tractor sales drops nearly 50% in August 2018 on a YoY basis

Telecom major Vodafone Idea Limited Monday raised Rs 1,500 crore fund through non-convertible debentures on private placement basis -- first debt after its incorporation.

Kolkata-based cigarettes-to-cookie maker ITC plans to launch ready-to-drink, milk-based beverages that will compete with the likes of Coca-Cola, Amul and Britannia next month.

Idea Cellular allotted NCD worth Rs 1500 crore

Reliance Capital board meeting on September 11 to consider and approve the unaudited financial results of the Company for the quarter ended June 30, 2018.

Axis Bank: The lender allots over 2 lakh shares at Rs 2 each under its employee stock options scheme (ESOPs).

Jet Airways - ICRA revised long term rating to ICRA BB from ICRA BB+

Persistent Systems: The company has acquired Herald Tech.

Hotel Leela Ventures clarified on media report that company is in coordination with JM Financial has been evaluating various options for viable restructuring, Including sale/monetisation of non core assets, sale of hotels, or getting equity from a strategic investor for reduction of debt

Technical Recommendations:

We spoke to HDFC Securities and heres what they have to recommend:

Escorts Ltd: Sell| LTP: Rs 832| Target: Rs 777| Stop-Loss: Rs 880| Return 7%

Engineers India Ltd: Buy| LTP: Rs 135.50| Target: Rs 148| Stop-Loss: Rs 127| Return 9%

Wipro Ltd: Buy| LTP: Rs 309| Target Rs: 335 | Stop-Loss: Rs 293 | Return 8.4%

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is looking to partner with Ford Motor Co to enter emerging markets like Indonesia and Russia. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, M&M, told Mint that the company is exploring various aspects with Ford, including manufacturing, sourcing and engineering.

We are even looking at the retail aspect. But things are at an initial stage (in these markets) to conclude what aspect we will be partnering on, Goenka said.

The two companies had in September last year announced they were looking to forge strategic alliances to leverage Fords global reach and expertise and M&Ms scale in India. They are looking to combine their strengths as the automotive industry goes from strength to strength.

If the deal goes through, M&M would become the first Indian automaker to enter such a global alliance. Analysts predict positive results accruing from this partnership for both automakers.

Rakesh Batra, Partner at consulting firm EY, said India is an emerging regional manufacturing hub with an ability to serve other smaller regional markets. In this situation, Ford can bring its experience in distribution to these markets, combined with economies of scale in manufacturing in India, which would optimise the combined capacities of both partners, he added.

Tata Motors and Volkswagen AG had tried to arrive at a similar agreement but the same failed to take off after an initial agreement.

Recently, M&M Executive Chairman Anand Mahindra said the company plans to develop products on a global scale, working with unit Mahindra Automotive North America (MANA) and design firm Pininfarina.

At Monday's launch of Marazzo, the recently launched multi-purpose vehicle, Mahindra said the vehicle is a proof of the concept of the company's global R&D network working together to deliver world-class products. There are reports that the automaker has already started developing another vehicle at MANA.Canara Robeco Mutual Fund has appointed Krishna Sanghavi as head of equity with immediate effect, the fund house announced on September 4.

Sanghavi replaces Ravi Gopalakrishnan who quit the fund house in May.

He will manage equity funds, which form 45 percent of Canara Robeco Asset Management AUM.

Prior to joining Canara Robeco Mutual Fund, he was associated in leadership roles at AVIVA Life Insurance and Kotak Mahindra Group.

Sanghavi comes with more than two decades of experience in the financial services sector and has expertise in dealer finance, credit appraisal and credit risk management, business planning and fund management.

Canara Robeco Asset Management is a joint venture between Canara Bank and Robeco of the Netherlands, a global asset management company.

As of June 30, Canara Robeco Mutual Fund managed assets worth Rs 13,375 crore.Foreign exchange earnings totaled USD 24 billion in January-October 2019, with a growth (year-on-year) of two percent.

Pakistan's Supreme Court was on Monday informed that Pakistanis own properties and assets worth a whooping USD 150 billion in the United Arab Emirates.

A report complied by chartered accountancy firm A F Ferguson was submitted by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the court during the hearing of a case pertaining to the properties of Pakistanis in foreign countries.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar expressed surprise over the massive amount still parked abroad despite the amnesty scheme by the previous government which allowed declaration of the undocumented assets by paying a meager 5 percent tax. State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Tariq Bajwa told the court about a separate list of 225 Pakistani nationals who have properties in London.

Notices have been issued to the 125 people who have assets in the UAE, Bajwa was quoted as saying in a local media report. He said measures were being taken to recover the funds held abroad with the help of FIA, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and other agencies.

Expressing dissatisfaction on the progress of the case, the chief justice asked the attorney general Mansoor Ali Khan about the measures being taken by the new government to bring the money stashed abroad.

Khan assured the court that the new government was serious and a task force has been constituted under Prime Minister Imran Khan to address the issues. Noting that most of the amount was looted, Justice Umar Ata Bandial inquired why the authorities had not taken stern action against the individuals, The Express Tribune reported.

These individuals should be penalised for hiding the money, he said while addressing Chairman of Federal Bureau of Revenue Mohammad Jahanzeib Khan, the report said.Versova-Bandra sea link | The VBSL is an important part of the coastal road project, which plans to connect south Mumbai to the western suburbs through a series of tunnels, sea links and reclaimed roads. The project is expected to be completed by 2020.

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Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) said Tuesday that its consortium has inked an MoU with Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for the Rs 7,000-crore Versova-Bandra Sea Link Project in Mumbai.

"Reliance Infrastructure Limited - Astaldi SpA (Italy) Consortium signed an agreement with MSRDC today for construction of prestigious Versova-Bandra Sea Link Project in Mumbai," the company said in a statement.

Reliance Infrastructure-Astaldi had earlier bagged the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Rs 7,000 crore project on a competitive bid basis. The consortium had emerged the most competitive bidder with their bid of Rs 6,993.99 crore.

The other bidders in fray were L&T-Samsung and Hyundai Development Company-ITD, it said in a statement adding that the tender for the construction of the second sea link in Mumbai on EPC basis was floated by the MSRDC.

With a length of 17.17 km, Versova-Bandra Sea Link is three times the length of the existing Bandra-Worli Sea Link, which is 5.6 km, the statement said.

Reliance Infrastructure EPC CEO Arun Gupta said, This project will further propel Reliance Infrastructure as a premier EPC company in India. Our partnership with Astaldi S.p.A, the third biggest construction player in the world in bridges, will help us create a truly world class mega infrastructure project for Mumbai.

Reliance Infrastructure - Astaldi has to commission the project in five years from the appointed date.

However, the company said that owning to monsoon, the work would be completely stalled for three months each year.

The largest order executed by Astaldi SpA is Izmit Bay Bridge (Gebze-OrhangaziIzmir Motorway Project) in Turkey with USD 7 billion (Rs 45,500 crore) investment for the entire project, the statement said.

Besides, Astaldi has also executed the Western High Speed Diameter Motorway in Saint Petersburg in Russia with Euro 2.2 billion (Rs 17,600 crore) contract value, it added.Paytm Money Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of One97 Communications Ltd targets to sell mutual fund to around 25 million people in the next three to five years, according to a senior executive.

About 50 million investors will be invested in mutual funds by the next three to five years. In that 50 million, we want to have a majority share, so around 20-25 million people, Pravin Jadhav, whole-time director of Paytm Money told Moneycontrol over a telephonic interaction.

The company launched its app for mutual fund investments on Tuesday.

The company is offering systematic investment plans (SIPs) for as low as Rs 100 in some of the schemes as it targets individual investors sitting in Tier2-3 cities.



It has partnered with 25 asset management companies to offer direct plans of mutual funds.

The company claims that 850,000 users have already registered on the platform. According to Jadhav, out of this, 65 percent of the people are from beyond the top 15 cities of the country.

One97 Communications has committed an investment of $10 million in Paytm Money which it plans to invest by the end of the financial year 2019.

This money is being invested in technology, development of products, design, engineering and setting up the entire function.

Last week, One97 Communications added Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway on its cap table. While the company did not disclose the size of the deal, it is expected to be in the range of $300-350 million. Berkshire joins the list of key shareholders in Paytm  Ant Financial, SoftBank, Alibaba and SAIF Partners.

Access to wealth creation opportunities till today has been limited to a select few. With Paytm Money we want to democratise and bring mutual fund investments to millions of Indians, said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder, and CEO of Paytm.

Earlier this year, the company received the approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to act as an investment adviser. It aims to provide both investment advisory and execution services.

Jadhav said that the customers will be able to buy mutual funds directly from their bank accounts. They would not need to store money in the Paytm wallet.Cotton

Angel Commodities' report on Cotton

MCX Oct Cotton continue to trade lower on Monday to trade at 5 - weeks low on reports of improvement in acreage and lesser pest attacks in Maharashtra and good condition of cotton in main cotton growing states. Cotton acreage till last week was down by 1.9 % on year to 117.7 lakh hac compared to 119.9 lakh ha last year, according to the farm ministry data. Currently cotton futures are traded about 25% higher than last year prices. The USDAs FAS has projected India's cotton production to decline 1.7% on year to 365 lakh bales (1 ba le = 170 kg) due to delay in monsoon rains and fall in acreage. As per Commerce ministry data, cotton exports in June surged by 27.6% to 5.7 lakh bales as compared to last year. India is likely to export 70 lakh bales of cotton in 2018/19, down 30% from an earlier estimate due to low crops.

Outlook

Cotton futures are expected to trade sideways to lower due to improving acreage and weather conditions in top cotton growing states - Gujarat and Maharashtra. However, reports of pest attack may restrict production prospects may support prices in coming weeks.

For all commodities report, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Read MoreProperty consultant CBRE on Tuesday said the supply of retail space rose 27 percent during January-June period this year in seven major cities to cater the rising demand from domestic and foreign retailers.

In its latest report titled India Retail Market View', CBRE said the new supply of retail space increased to 1.9 million sq ft in the first half of 2018 as against 1.5 million sq ft in the same period last year.

The fresh supply came in Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR.

During the reported period, Chennai witnessed the launch of VR Mall (1 million sq ft), L&T Hyderabad Next and L&T Next Galleria (totalling 0.65 million sq ft) in Hyderabad, and 32nd Avenue (0.25 million sq ft) in Gurgaon.

In January-June 2017, Mumbai saw a supply of one million sq ft, Bengaluru (0.3 million sq ft) and NCR (O.2 million sq ft).

Global brands such as Dyson, Molton Brown, Berluti, American Eagle, Antony Morato, Daniel Wellington and Bath & Body Works entered India with their first stores becoming operational during this period.

International brands such as Tom Tailor, Miniso, Taco Bell, Mango, Marks and Spencer, H&M and Starbucks continued to expand operations by entering new markets across the country.

"The overall outlook for the Indian retail real estate market continues to be positive at the back of various policy reforms, entry of foreign players and increasing urbanisation," said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman, India & South East Asia, CBRE.

He said around 45 million sq ft of additional supply could be added during second half of 2018 across most major cities.

"With REITs in the offing, the focus on developing investment grade developments is likely to redefine the retail segment in India, he added.

On rentals, CBRE said trends varied across key high streets in major cities during January-June 2018.

Rentals appreciated in high-street markets such as Khan Market, DLF Galleria (NCR), Linking Road (Mumbai), MG Road and Aundh (Pune). Some high street locations in Bengaluru and Hyderabad also saw increase in rents.

On the other hand, rentals remained stable in most of the other high-streets across the country.Answer: Johnson & Johnson.

The Central government has constituted a five-member Central expert committee to recommend the quantum of compensation for patients who suffered from Johnson & Johnsons faulty hip implants.

The Central expert committee was formed based on the recommendations of an 11-member expert committee constituted in February 2017 under the Chairmanship of Dr Arun Agarwal that examined issues related to Johnson & Johnsons faulty ASR hip implants.

The Agarwal committee submitted its report early this year. The government, however, made it public only recently under pressure from patient groups and healthcare activists.

The Agarwal committee, among several things, recommended a compensation of Rs 20 lakh be provided to affected patients and advised forming Central and regional committees to facilitate patients in getting compensation.

The five-member Central expert committee will review the reports of the state level committees or applications submitted by affected patients based parameters such as the degree of disability and patient suffering on account of monetary loss due to loss of wages etc.

The only major change the government made was that it made all patients implanted with ASR without having revision surgery also eligible to seek compensation.

The Union Health Ministry wrote to all state governments to form state-level committees to enable patients implanted with faulty Johnson & Johnsons ASR hip implants to reach out to them with their cases.

Moneycontrol saw a copy of the letter written by RG Singh, Under Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which was circulated to all state governments.

The letter also asked state governments to issue advertisements so that affected patients can contact for relief.

The ASR hip implants made by DePuy, a division of US drug and medical devices giant Johnson & Johnson, were globally recalled in 2010 as it caused metal wear debris and an elevated release of cobalt and chromium beyond 7 parts per billion resulting in higher than normal parameters for revision surgeries.

Hip implants are used in hip replacement surgery. Johnson & Johnson is facing lawsuits from patient groups in various countries. In some countries, it has reached a settlement with patient groups by paying billions of dollars.

DePuy had earlier informed CDSCO that there were 4,700 ASR surgeries performed in India and just 882 patients could be traced. The status of over 2,300 patients remains untraceable.

Johnson & Johnson defended its action and said the priority is and always has been patient safety. The company said the ASR was imported and marketed in India and in various countries around the world, with all regulatory approval and permissions as were then applicable.

Since the voluntary recall decision was made, DePuy has worked to provide patients and surgeons with the information and support they need, including a reimbursement programme to address recall-related costs that was the first-of-its-kind worldwide, Johnson & Johnson earlier said in a statement.

Coming after unconscionable delay by CDSCO, which has prolonged suffering of patients, we hope the compensation mechanism is enforceable, said Vijay Vojhala, one of the patients from Mumbai who was implanted with faulty ASR hip implant.

It remains to be seen whether the compensation will be just compensation as recommended by the expert committee as the quantum is likely to fall much short of what J&J compensated patients in the US, Vojhala said.

Vojhala along with other patients have been fighting a prolonged battle to highlight the case.Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra

With just 20 working days to go before his retirement, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra is set to deliver verdicts in at least 10 important cases, including the sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, according to a report by The Hindustan Times.

CJI Misra will retire on October 2. As the day is a public holiday due to the Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti, October 1 will technically be his last working day. Media reports suggest that CJI Misra has recommended Justice Ranjan Gogoi as his successor.

CJI Misra will deliver verdicts in key cases in the Supreme Court, including petitions filed by social activists challenging validity of Aadhaar and the law enabling it.

The government has been ambitiously pushing the 12-digit unique identity number. A constitution bench of the top court had reserved the verdict in the case on May 10 after regular hearings that lasted 38 days across four months.

The bench, headed by CJI Misra is also expected to deliver its verdict on petitions demanding decriminalisation of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which criminalises homosexuality. The apex court had reserved the verdict in the case on July 17.

The Supreme Court is also expected to answer questions on whether a mosque is integral to Islam. A ruling in this case could come before the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute is taken up, the report suggests.

Senior advocate Gyanant Singh told the newspaper, The next few weeks are going to be very important for the country. The top court is set to adjudicate on many contentious issues that will determine not just the polity but also settle contentious social issues one way or other.

Its an unprecedented situation that so many judgments with far-reaching impact will be delivered, he added.

According to the report, the CJI Misra-led constitutional bench will also be taking up the question of whether women of a certain age group can be stopped from entering the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.

The bench had reserved its order on the issue after a non-governmental organisation (NGO) approached the apex court challenging the prohibition.

The top court is also expected to deliver its verdict in the case regarding a penal law that deals with adultery.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has been seeking a review of the 2006 judgement which restricts reservation in promotion in government jobs for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). A bench led by CJI Misra is likely to deliver a verdict in this matter as well.Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves as he embarks on a 4-day visit to Jordan, Palestine, UAE and Oman from New Delhi on Friday. (PTI)

The Central Information Commission has directed the External Affairs Ministry to disclose the names of those private individuals who have travelled with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on foreign tours.

Last October, Karabi Das approached the ministry seeking information on expenses incurred on the foreign visits of the prime minister in 2015-16 and 2016-17 along with the list of people travelling with him.

No satisfactory information was provided to the applicant following which he approached the commission.

The ministry had demanded Rs 224 for providing the information which was deposited by the applicant, activist Subhash Agrawal, who represented the applicant during the hearing, told Chief Information Commissioner R K Mathur.

In its submissions during the hearing, the ministry said no other data is maintained in consolidated form regarding the visits of the prime minister except date and place of visit and the expenses incurred on chartered flights.

The ministry also told the commission that it will look into the matter with regard to the payment of Rs 224 and will provide updated information.Selling it right | People usually prefer to sell their vehicle to someone they know, but the best owner is the one who quotes the highest price. This depends on its condition and your negotiation skills. A background check is advisable and never sell it to someone who does not have proper documentation in place.

Major relief for commuters is on the way. The state transport authority (STA) is looking at introducing motorbikes on rent to help them zoom past traffic jams, reported The Hindustan Times.

The Rent-a-Motorcycle scheme will also be cost-efficient for riders. As per the report, the vehicle will be offered at Rs 2-5 per kilometre or Rs 300-500 per day, depending upon the variants.

However, the Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Department does not allow such a facility. In talks with the publication, officials said their department was reluctant to issue two-wheeler renting permits primarily because of security concerns raised by the police in the past.

To overcome this, the STA, chaired by the transport secretary of Maharashtra, has tabled a proposal on the scheme in front of Mumbai Traffic Police (MTP). Once the authorities receive a nod from the MTP, it will allow two-wheelers to be available on rent.

According to law, two-wheelers can be offered on rent as per provision in section 75 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 and Rent-a-Motorcycle scheme 1989. The service providers receives licence with five years' validity, on which they can rent out bikes that run on fossil fuels and electricity.

Although the scheme is at its initial stage, the transport authority has already started getting several applications from various two-wheelers renting companies in the past few years, said the report. However, the applications are pending with the STA as the authority is waiting for the police report before taking any decision.IAF's MiG 27 crashes near Jodhpur, pilots safe - YouTube YouTube IAF's MiG 27 crashes near Jodhpur, pilots safe

A MiG-27 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in an agriculture field in Jodhpur's Banad area during a routine mission Tuesday morning, but no loss of life was reported with the pilot ejecting safely.

A Court of Inquiry will investigate the cause of the incident, defence spokesperson Colonel Sombit Ghosh said.

"The MiG-27 aircraft airborne from Jodhpur crashed during a routine mission today morning. The pilot ejected safely," he said.

The Russian-made single-seater tactical strike fighter crashed within minutes of taking off from the Jodhpur airbase. The pilot was taken to a hospital in an IAF helicopter.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jodhpur East, Amandeep Singh Kapoor told PTI that the incident occurred in Dangyawas police station area and no loss of life or property was reported.

"Police rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. IAF investigating team has also reached the spot," he said.

Eyewitnesses said that they saw two fighter jets flying together, but one of them suddenly took a turn towards the open field and crashed near Devalia village in Banad area.

"Two fighter jets were flying together, but suddenly one of them changed its course and took a turn towards the open area and crashed. We saw the pilot ejecting and he parachuted in to the agriculture field," Sunil Bishnoi, one of the eyewitnesses, said.

"We believe the pilot turned the aircraft towards the field in order to avoid the crash in a populated area," he said.The central government said on Monday that the IMD had issued necessary severe weather warnings for Kerala rains last month, refuting the charge that there were lapses on its part.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) representatives apprised the state authorities about the strong monsoon conditions with heavy rainfall activity in a meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan on August 9, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).

"Also the Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Disaster Management) was briefed orally over phone on all occasions. Member Secretary, SDMA (State Disaster Management Authority) was briefed on August 10. District collectors of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram were briefed on August 14. Briefings were sent to media also during this period," the statement said.

The MoES said the IMD had issued all necessary severe weather warnings through its office in Thiruvananthapuram and extended forecast range was issued two weeks in advance.

On August 30, the chief minister in the state assembly had said there were "lapses" on the part of the IMD's rain forecast during this period. The IMD had forecast an estimated 98.5 mm rain in the state between August 9 and 15.

But, the actual rain received was 352.2 mm, Vijayan said, adding he purpose was not to find fault with anyone.

Weather forecasts for five days and outlook for subsequent two days, which also include heavy rainfall warning and wind warning, were sent through e-mail to Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Disaster Management), SDMA, Navy, Special Marine enforcement, print and electronic media, the statement added.

Short and medium range forecasts (five days in advance) were also issued by the IMD unit in Thiruvananthapuram, it said.

The ministry said orange alerts, which mean authorities should prepare for action, were issued with effect from August 6 and applicable from August 8 onwards while red alert, which means authorities start taking necessary action, was issued with effect from August 9.

"Further, for showing the severity of rainfall intensity expected, heavy (7-11 centimetres in 24 hours) to very heavy (12-20 cm in 24 hours) rainfall warning for Kerala state was issued with effect from August 10 for August 14 with orange alert to Idukki and Alappuzha, red alert to Wayanad district.

"On August 11, heavy to very heavy rainfall warning was extended for August 15 with orange alert to Idukki and Wayanad districts," the statement said.

On August 14 again, heavy to very heavy rainfall warning was issued for that day and a day later with red alert and orange alerts for most of the districts, the statement said.

On August 15, extremely heavy rainfall warning was issued for Kerala state with red alert to all districts for August 16 and red for seven districts and orange for the remaining seven districts for August 17.

"It may be noted that the 'Red' alert is the highest alert for issuing heavy rainfall warning and no other alerting criteria than this is adopted by IMD. The weather bulletins issued from Delhi office also carried warnings for Kerala in 'Orange' and 'Red' colours about 2-3 days in advance of the event, advising the disaster managers to be alert and initiate action respectively," the IMD said.India and the United States are preparing for the first 2+2 dialogue slated to be held in New Delhi on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis will join External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the dialogue.

The 2+2 dialogue will replace the Strategic and Commercial Dialogue held between the foreign and commerce ministers of the two countries during the Obama administration.

It was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with US President Donald Trump in June 2017. The dialogue has been cancelled twice in the last 14 months before finally being scheduled for Thursday.

The two sides will focus on strengthening and expansion of strategic, security and defence cooperation between the two countries, not on signing of individual arms deals.

Whats on the table

Possible transfer of advanced defence technology in the future could increase if the two sides are able to complete work on the proposed Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA). COMCASA was earlier known as Communication and Information on Security Memorandum of Agreement.

According to a report by The Indian Express, COMCASA may get an in-principle approval if it is not signed by the two sides on Thursday.

Hotlines

The two sides are likely to announce establishment of at least one of the two hotlines. Earlier, a hotline was to be established between Swaraj and Pompeo. However, the two sides are now working to set up a separate hotline between Indias defence minister and US Defence Secretary.

Liaison officer at NAVCENT

India and the US are also likely to announce an Indian liaison officer at the US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in Bahrain.

NAVCENT functions in the Indian Ocean includes the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Some of the key US allies have liaison officers at the US NAVCENT.

Announcement of an Indian liaison officer at NAVCENT can be seen as the US official and military recognition as a major force in the Indian Ocean region.

F-16 jets

According to a report by Bloomberg, there are prospects of a potential deal to build advanced Lockheed Martin Corps F-16 fighter jets in India.

The report, citing an official, suggests that sale of US arms, associated parts and logistics support to India have grown from zero in 2008 to $15 billion in 2018. The amount could rise by an additional $3 billion by 2019.

Homeland security cooperation

Ahead of the dialogue, top homeland security officials of the two countries have worked on a draft plan related to six areas, including anti-terror cooperation in intelligence sharing, terror financing and cyber security, according to a report by Press Trust of India (PTI).

Senior officials deliberated on a draft work plan relating to the activities of the six sub-groups.

The six sub-groups formed under the Indo-US homeland security dialogue cover the areas of illicit finance, illegal smuggling of cash, financial fraud and counterfeiting, cyber information, megacity policing and sharing of information among federal state and local partners, global supply chain, transportation, port, border and maritime security, capacity building and technology upgrade, the PTI report added.

Threat of sanctions

However, the threat of sanctions loom large on the meeting.

Even as the two sides prepare to meet, the US may be planning to impose economic sanctions on India unless the government significantly reduces purchase of oil from Iran and cancels a planned purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia worth $6 billion.

A 2017 law imposed by US Congress requires the president to penalise countries make significant transaction with Russian defence sector, the Bloomberg report has suggested.

Indian officials have said the Russian arms deal will go ahead as planned as the new US law is not binding on India.9 | Chennai | Average annual growth: 8.17% (Image: Reuters)

The Madras High Court slammed public sector banks for granting crores of rupees as loans without sufficient security to several firms "when people are begging for educational and farm loans".

The court's stinging observations came when it was hearing a plea filed by the State Bank of India in the Rs 820 crore debt recovery proceedings against Kanishk Gold Private Limited seeking quashing of attachment proceedings by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the firm .

When the petition by the SBI's Stressed Assets Management branch came up, Justice R Mahadevan posed a host of questions to the counsel for the bank.

The court said it will issue necessary orders to arrest all the officials and persons involved in the "scam." "It is public money. The people are begging for education and farm loans after offering security.

"Do not try to safeguard the officials of the bank in this case and nobody can escape under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest Act, 2002 (also known as SARFAESI Act). We will set an example by passing order in this case to whole country," the court said.

The judge asked whether bank officers verified documents before sanctioning loan to the firm. "What is the total amount of loan sanctioned? What is the worth of properties offered for security?" it asked.

The court directed counsel for the ED, who filed a counter affidavit, to collect details about the "involvement of officials, investigate and file a report in detail."

The matter was posted for further hearing to September 17. The counsel for the SBI submitted that there was "dereliction" of duty on behalf of the officers who investigated the case.

In its counter, the ED said: "As per the forensic audit, there are misrepresentation/falsification of records, diversion of funds and disposal of the stocks by the company."

"The total loss caused to the banks due to the above fraud works out to the tune of Rs 824.15 crore (outstanding as on December 31, 2017 plus interest). The security available with banks to cover the said loss is to the tune of Rs 158.65 crore only, being realisable value of the immovable properties," it said.

The matter relates to the loan granted to the firm by the public sector banks, including the SBI, to the tune of Rs 700 crore which accumulated to Rs 820 crore with interest up to March 15, 2018.

The banks took action under the SARFAESI Act and took symbolic possession of nine properties. The SBI and its consortium banks also lodged a complaint before the CBI, it was submitted.

Bhupesh Kumar Jain, one of the directors of the firm, was arrested by the Directorate General of Goods and Service Tax Intelligence for alleged evasion of duty.

The ED director had passed an order freezing the properties during search and seizure under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency had also passed a provisional attachment order attaching all secured properties under the PMLA.

The SBI moved the court, submitting that by effecting the provisional attachment order, the ED had "scuttled the frantic efforts" of the banks from realising public money.

The ED counter said it is indicated that the bank officials failed to "exercise their due diligence before sanctioning and extending the bank loans to the borrowers named in the FIR registered by CBI, BS & FC, Bangalore,"

"Hence, it is not only case of NPA, but a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating, fraudulence by the said borrowers along with officials of the consortium of banks herein, and others and therefore the loan proceeds are nothing but proceeds of crime involved in money laundering.No plans for divesting or diluting shareholder's value, says Uday Kotak

One dead, 25 injured in Majerhat bridge collapse so far

JUST IN | Amazon briefly crosses the $1 billion market cap for the first time.

JUST IN | Shivinder Singh moves the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT) against his brother Malvinder Singh.

September 04, 2018 / 09:13 PM IST / 09:13 PM IST











September 04, 2018 / 10:19 PM IST That's all for today, readers. Thanks for staying on with our coverage of the day's action. Your enthusiasm encourages us to better our coverage every day. Do come back tomorrow for more news, views and insights.











September 04, 2018 / 09:32 PM IST JUST IN | Shivinder Singh moves the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT) against his brother Malvinder Singh.











September 04, 2018 / 09:20 PM IST JUST IN | Amazon briefly crosses the $1 billion market cap for the first time.











September 04, 2018 / 07:30 PM IST











September 04, 2018 / 07:20 PM IST One dead, 25 injured in Majerhat bridge collapse so far

The police confirmed the death of one person, while fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue work said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble, according to a PTI report.











September 04, 2018 / 06:21 PM IST











September 04, 2018 / 06:21 PM IST State minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said she has heard about the death of five persons in the incident but it was yet to be confirmed, according to a PTI report.











September 04, 2018 / 06:08 PM IST











September 04, 2018 / 05:26 PM IST











September 04, 2018 / 05:04 PM IST Portion of Majerhat bridge collapses in Kolkata

JUST IN | The Majerhat bridge in the Alipore area of Kolkata has collapsed. Official reports say six people have been injured. Rescue operations are underway.









India Pakistan

Pakistan will allow India to inspect the Kotri barrage in the lower Indus, while New Delhi has agreed to Islamabad's request for a special inspection of the hydroelectric projects in the Jhelum river basin, including the Kishanganga scheme, a Pakistani media report said.

The decision was taken during last week's meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission held in Lahore, the first official engagement between India and Pakistan since Imran Khan became Prime Minister on August 18.

"During the meeting both the sides agreed to conduct the general tours of inspection which could not be conducted since 2014," the Dawn newspaper reported.

"The Pakistani Commissioner for Indus Waters (PCIW) will visit the Chenab basin in the last week of September 2018, followed by a tour of Indian Commissioner for Indus Water (ICIW) to the Kotri barrage in the lower Indus," the report said quoting the minutes of the Permanent Indus Commission meeting held on August 29 and 30.

Kotri Barrage is a barrage on the Indus River between Jamshoro and Hyderabad in Pakistan's Sindh province. It was completed in 1955, and used to control water flow in the Indus river for irrigation and flood control purposes.

"Pakistan also urged India to arrange for the special tour of inspection of the projects in the Jhelum basin, including the Kishanganga hydroelectric project (HEP) which is pending since 2014, on which the ICIW gave his assurance to arrange the same promptly," the report claimed.

According to a senior Pakistani official, the inspection by a Pakistani team is likely to be held on the eve of the next meeting of the Commission.

"Since the talks between the two countries have been restored, Pakistani team may inspect the Kishanganga project on the eve of the next meeting of the permanent commission for the Indus waters in India or before this," he was quoted as saying in the report.

Islamabad had been objecting to the proposed Rs 5,882-crore run-of-the-river hydroelectric dam project in Bandipore in Jammu and Kashmir, claiming it would affect the flow of the Kishanganga River (called the Neelum River in Pakistan).

Pakistan had also raised concerns over the inauguration of the 330-MW Kishanganga hydropower plant by India during talks with the World Bank in Washington in June.

The two sides also agreed to undertake tours by their Commissioners in the Indus basin on both sides to resolve issues on the various hydroelectric projects (HEPs), including the Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnai in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Their (Indian experts') visit to Pakistan will be after our experts end the inspection of the Lower Kalnai and Pakal Dul projects, scheduled by the end of this month," the official said.

India and Pakistan signed the Indus Water Treaty in 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory.

Under the provisions of the Treaty, waters of the eastern rivers - Sutlej, Beas and Ravi - had ben allocated to India and the western rivers - the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab - to Pakistan, except for certain non-consumptive uses for India.

The treaty sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two countries regarding their use of the rivers. However, there have been disagreements and differences between India and Pakistan over the treaty.RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will be a keynote speaker at the World Hindu Congress, a gathering of Hindu leaders from across the globe in Chicago later this week, the organisers said.

More than 2,500 delegates from 80 countries are scheduled to participate in the three-day World Hindu Congress (WHC) in Chicago from September 7 to 9. Bhagwat in his keynote address is likely to focus on the theme of the conference Sumantrite Suvikrante or Think Collectively, Achieve Valiantly.

The RSS chief is expected to underscore the need of the Hindu community spread across the globe to unite and think alike for the good of the mankind, former IITIan Swami Vigyananand, and the brain behind the mega event, said.

"The idea of the WHC is to unite and gain strengthen for the Hindu society and with that look after the interest of the society as well as help other deprived, marginalised communities of the world," Swami Vigyananand told PTI in response to a question. He insisted that this is not a religious conference.

"The conference is neither religious, nor philosophical. The conference is focused on community issues. It is focused on issues that is relevant to the progress of any community in the modern time," Vigyananand said.

Over three days, more than 250 speakers along with over 2,5000 delegates from over 80 countries would hold brain storming sessions over seven parallel conferences: economic, education, media, organisational, political, and women and youth. These parallel conferences would also showcase the values, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit of the global Hindu community, he said.

The WHC is a global platform for Hindus to connect, share ideas, inspire one another, and impact the common good, said Abhaya Asthana, convener for the Congress. He is also the president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America

The congress offers Hindus an opportunity to introspect towards improvement and tap into our collective resources to seek tangible solutions to the most pressing issues of the 21st century, he said.

In addition to Bhagwat, other prominent speakers at the conference are likely to be the Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Ashwin Adhin (Vice President of Suriname), RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, MIT professor S P Kothari, Mohandas Pai, Anupam Kher, Raju Reddy, Swami Paramatmananda Saraswati, Chandrika Tandon, Prof Subhash Kak, and angel investor Raju Reddy.

Among top speakers as the economic conference are Mukesh Aghi, president of US India Strategic partnership Forum, former vice chair of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, Mahindra group president Dilip Sundram, Daniel Bryant from Walmart, Rajesh Sundaram from Federal Express, and Ed Monser from Emerson Electric.

Other prominent speakers at the conference are Anupam Kher, Vivek Agnihotri, Madhur Bhandarkar, Amish Tripathi, and Francois Gautier. On the eve of the Congress, renowned classical musician wife-husband duo of Kavita Krishnamurti and Dr L Subramaniam would perform live for the delegates.

Meanwhile, the newly formed Coalition for the Defence of the Constitution and Democracy has announced that it will hold a press conference in New York on September 6 to lodge its protest against the WHC.Tamilisai Soundararajan:bjp tamilisai soundararajan speech in karur ... Tamil News - Samayam Tamilisai Soundararajan:bjp tamilisai soundararajan speech in karur |       ...

A woman student shouted anti-BJP slogans in front of the party's state unit chief, Tamilisai Soundararajan, on board a domestic flight Monday and she was whisked away by police after landing here.

Soon after the BJP leader and the student arrived at the airport's arrival lounge here from Chennai, a quarrel ensued, which was caught on a camera.

Tamilisai is heard telling the student and the people who gathered at the lounge that a flight was no place to raise slogans.

"It (inside of a flight) is not a public forum how can you expect me to keep mum when she shouts 'down with BJP's fascist government' looking at me? Is it freedom of expression?" she asked.

The woman is said to be a student at an Australian university and she is on a visit to her native district here.

Later speaking to reporters, Tamilisai said that the manner in which the student was shouting slogans she felt that there was a threat to her life.

The TN BJP chief said when she asked the woman (on arrival at the lounge) if it was appropriate to raise slogans inside a flight, the student started shouting that she had freedom of expression.

The BJP leader said she has lodged a complaint with police, adding they hould enquire if some outfit was behind the student's action. "The words the student used is not expected of an ordinary passenger," she said.

DMK chief M K Stalin, meanwhile, in a tweet said he too would say that "Down with BJP's fascist regime", and asked how many people would the government be able to arrest. He said the student must be released forthwith.

The student was reportedly arrested, but there was no official confirmation.Representative Image

Moneycontrol News

A restaurant owner in UP who is also allegedly a fan of UP CM Yogi Adityanth has launched a Yogi thali - costing just Rs 10 - that will be available on the first day of every month for people belonging to economically weaker sections in Allahabad.

Allahabad mayor Abhilasha Gupta launched the subsidised meal service.

As per a report by Hindustan Times, this pocket-friendly meal available at a mini restaurant called Baba Da Dhaba near Attarsuiya locality in Allahabad will consist of rice, a seasonal vegetable, two tandoori rotis, dal, pickle and salad.

Dilip Kumar Kakay, owner of the restaurant and district president of Akhil Bharatiya Khatri Mahasabha said, We have named it in the name of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath because he is working for the welfare of the people of the state and people are really appreciating his efforts. The meal will be free for the differently-abled, saints and the poor and for others it will cost Rs 10.

The report quoted him saying that a part of the profit made on other days will be set aside to subsidise the Yogi thali. The owner also says that he has not asked for financial aid from anyone but people are free to donate food grains so that this initiative is made available on a daily basis.

Kakay, who also serves as the joint secretary of Jeev Kalyan Evam Shiksha Samiti mentioned that if the government supports him, he is willing to serve the Yogi thali at the Kumbh Mela 2019.

Atal Jan Ahar Yojna in Delhi and Deendayal Rasoi Yojana in Madhya Pradesh are some other canteens in India which provide subsidised meal facility to the underprivileged.The Gujarat government claimed on Tuesday that Patidar leader Hardik Patel's quota movement was a politically-motivated agitation with the backing of the Congress.

This is for the first time that the BJP government has reacted to the agitation of the 25-year-old, who has been on an indefinite fast for the last 11 days, demanding loan waiver for farmers and quota for Patidars in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

In a statement, Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said, "Patidar quota agitation is a political stir backed by the Congress. Ever since the agitation started three years back, we suspected that the Congress was behind it. Now, our suspicion has come true."

Saurabh said the Congress leaders who went to meet Hardik at his residence are those who are "anti-BJP and opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

"The quota stir is politically-motivated. The Congress needs to make its stand clear about reservation when the Supreme Court and various high courts have already made it clear that quota can not go beyond 50 per cent," the minister said.

He urged the quota-agitation spearhead to allow doctors to conduct his medical check-up. "We are also worried about his health. Our government wants him to cooperate with doctors," the BJP leader said, adding that a fully-equipped ambulance 'ICU on Wheels' and a team of doctors have been deployed at his residence.

Thanking the Patidar community for its "cooperation and maintaining peace" during the agitation, Saurabh said the government's door were open for talks. "Since this agitation is a politically-motivated one, it has to end through political means. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's government is committed to maintain peace in the state," he added.

Hardik had launched his hunger strike on August 25 the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in Ahmedabad which had turned violent that day in 2015.

He had Sunday released his "will" in which he divided his property among his parents, a sister, 14 youths killed during the quota agitation in 2015 and a panjrapole (shelter for ill and old cows) near his village.Vidhana Soudha Bangalore Bengaluru Karnataka Assembly Congress JD(S) BJP

Following closely contested local body elections in Karnataka, the Congress on Monday took control of majority of the urban local bodies (ULBs) by winning 982 out of 2,662 seats.

The Congress win also came from the northern region of Karnataka, where it had been battered during the assembly polls.

Rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came a close second, with 929 seats, in the election held on August 31.

Its state-level ally in the state and Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamys party Janata Dal (Secular), which had contested the polls separately, came a distant third with 375 seats.

Rest of the seats were won by Independents and other parties.

Independents and other parties put together won more seats than the JD(S).

Congress and JD(S) have now decided to tie up in local bodies where there was a hung house, further consolidating their political alliance.

Undeterred by his partys performance, CM Kumaraswamy told news agency ANI, Voters in the city usually vote for BJP but with the outcome of this result, now even they have shown full support for the coalition government led by Congress and JD(S).

Key takeaways for 2019

Having won 1,357 seats together, the ruling coalition of Congress and JD(S) seem to have a clear advantage over the BJP.

The numbers also suggest that the urban votes, which predominantly favoured BJP in the past, have now moved towards the Congress.

Observers suggest that the win is likely to reinstate both parties faith in the coalition for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

During the assembly polls in the state earlier this year, the incumbent Congress was reduced to 80 seats while the pre-poll JD(S)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance bagged 38 seats.

BS Yeddyurappa-led BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 104 seats in the 224-member assembly.

Congress and the JD(S) then forged a post-poll alliance to keep the saffron party out of power.

However, according to an analysis, had the two parties contested the assembly polls together, the alliance would have got a sweeping majority with 151 seats.

Following the assembly polls, analysts had also pointed out that a Congress-JD(S) combine could severely dent the saffron partys chances in 2019, if voters do not change their party preferences.

The general election is expected to take place in around seven months.

The BJP could be reduced to 6-7 Lok Sabha seats, while the Congress-JD(S) could bag 17 seats in the state in 2019, going by how votes were distributed among the three parties in the assembly election. The state has a total of 28 Lok Sabha constituencies.

According to a report by CNN News18, Congress vote share in urban areas grew from 31 percent to 36 percent in the polls held on August 31, while BJPs vote share shrank from 51 percent to 35 percent.

The JD(S)s vote share, however, fell from 18 percent to 14 percent.

Observers suggest that Congress performance in the urban body polls will only provide a fillip to its chances in the state, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Acknowledging the ability of the ruling alliance to dent its chances, even former chief minister and BJP state unit president BS Yeddyurappa on Monday said, The BJP should have won more seats but we could not perform the way we wanted to because of the Congress-JD(S) coalition.

Attacking the BJP, Congress said the people of Karnataka had accepted the development policies of the Congress-JD(S) government in the state and rejected the jumlas (rhetoric) of the BJP.Active presence on the social media is one of the eligibility criteria for the aspirants seeking to contest the upcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh on Congress tickets, a party functionary said Monday.

Madhya Pradesh is going to polls later this year along with Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

"It is essential for the candidates seeking nomination for the assembly polls to be active on the social media," state Congress' social media and IT president Abhay Tiwari told PTI.

He said the party won't consider the inactive aspirants eligible for tickets.

Explaining the logic behind this pre-condition, Tiwari said voters are active on the social media and can be accessed effectively through internet.

"The social media activity of ticket seekers will be gauged from their presence on Facebook, twitter and WhatsApp groups," he said.Tata Nano Gen X

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The electric version of Nano, which has been rebranded as Neo by manufacturer Jayem, has secured Rs 1.24 lakh in government subsidy.

This puts the fully electric car in the same bracket as the Mahindra e20 and the Tata Tigor EV.

Jayem Neo will most likely make its debut under a commercial agreement the company has with cab aggregator Ola.

Mahindra e20 is the only vehicle of the three that is sold to personal buyers. Tata Tigor is not retailed to private buyers as it is bought by government-owned Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) to ferry government officials in Delhi.

Tata Motors, Indias biggest automaker, has confirmed its agreement with Jayem Auto to supply body shells of the Nano for further engineering to the Coimbatore-based company. Jayem will make a host of additions including an electric powertrain and interiors.

While Jayem has remained extremely tight-lipped about its plans, sources said the supply agreement is for 1,000 Neos to Ola. The cars are still under development and there is no deadline yet for the retail launch for private buyers as yet, another source said.

The Neo is shorter but is wider and taller than the Mahindra e20, which is Indias cheapest fully electric car. The e20 is priced at Rs 7.46 lakh after the government subsidy of Rs 1.24 lakh. The Tigor also receives a subsidy of Rs 1.24 lakh and is bought at Rs 11.2 lakh by EESL.

The electric version of Nano brings a fresh lease of life to the troubled car. Sales in recent months have dipped to fresh lows. The model is now produced mostly on confirmed orders from dealers. Tata Motors said the Nano in current form cannot meet the new emission regulations in 2020, signalling that the mini car will be phased out.

Meanwhile, Chennai-based TVS Motor Company has also registered an electric three-wheeler with the government for a subsidy of Rs 61,000. The King Electric Lix, a battery powered autorickshaw, was first showcased by the company at the 2014 India Auto Expo.

The King Electric Lix can run for 80 km on a full charge at a cruise speed of 35 kmph. Top-speed of the vehicle is 45 kmph. It is powered by a 48V Lithium-ion battery with maximum power of 5.5kW. The vehicle takes three hours for a full charge.

Close on the heels of TVS is rival Bajaj Auto: the biggest three-wheeler manufacturer in the country. Bajaj Auto is looking to launch a fully electric three-wheeler next year, two years ahead of its earlier announced deadline.

The government is keen on pushing electric mobility in cities, primarily to reduce vehicular pollution. That is the reason why automotive companies are fast tracking the product development process of electric vehicles.Skoda Auto India Tuesday announced the appointment of Zac Hollis as Director  Sales, Service and Marketing. Hollis, who is currently head of sales China region at Skoda Auto, Czech Republic, will take charge with effect from November 1, 2018, the company said in a statement.

He will report to Skoda Auto India Managing Director Gurpratap Boparai, it added. Hollis will replace Ashutosh Dixit, who will take on an international role within the Volkswagen (VW) Group, the company said.

His appointment comes at a time when Skoda Auto India has been entrusted to lead Volkswagen group's India 2.0 project.

In July this year, VW group had announced an investment of 1 billion euro (around Rs 7,900 crore) between 2019 and 2021 as part of its latest strategy to enhance presence in India.Arvind Kejriwal AAP

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit South Korea later this month to sign agreements in various sectors including e-governance, transportation, climate change and smart city with the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The chief minister is expected to leave for South Korean capital Seoul on September 11 and conclude the visit on September 14, said a Delhi government official.

This will be the his first bilateral visit to a foreign country after becoming the chief minister of Delhi, he said.

In November last year, the Delhi government had signed a twin city agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Government for strengthening cooperation in the fields of e-governance, transportation, climate change and smart city.

The agreement - Establishment of Friendship City Relationship - was signed between Seoul Metropolitan Government led by Mayor Park Won Soon and Chief Minister Kejriwal.

Other areas of cooperation that the agreement proposed were environment, culture and tourism, education, waste water, solid waste management, public health and youth exchange, among others.A Thootukudi court granted bail to Lois Sofia, the 28-year old researcher studying in Canada, who was arrested after she shouted fascist BJP government down, down in a flight carrying Tamil Nadu state BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan.

Sofia was taken into custody after Soundararajan filed a complaint with the airport police.

Reacting to the arrest, DMK chief MK Stalin called the Tamil Nadu government anti-democratic and accused it of stifling freedom of speech.

The Tamil Nadu governments anti-democratic actions, against the right to free speech, are highly condemnable. She must be released immediately. How many people will be imprisoned if you arrest everyone who says that? I will also say it. BJPs fascist government down, down, Stalin said.

Actor-turned-politician and chief of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), Kamal Haasan, also spoke out against the arrest, saying the government should jail all netas if raising slogans is wrong.

If its wrong to raise questions and air criticism in a public place, then all politicians must be jailed why are politicians still roaming free? I say this realising I am a politician too, Haasan tweeted.

BJP reacts to Stalins criticism

BJPs Tamil Nadu spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy, however, dismissed the criticism and said the BJP has taken legal recourse. I dont understand why we are being criticised Shouting is misbehaviour and it is not allowed in an aircraft. Sofia was creating public nuisance, which is unlawful, Thirupathy told Moneycontrol.

Taking a dig at Stalin, Thirupathy said he should not teach tolerance to the BJP. When Stalin was travelling in a metro train in Chennai, he had slapped a person travelling along with him. During a procession, when a person wanted to take a selfie, Stalin had kicked that person. These people should not try to teach us what tolerance is and what it is not, Thirupathy said.

"Attack was pre-planned, Sofia part of May 17 Movement"

The spokesperson also claimed that the attack was pre-planned.

It is very important to note that the girl had tweeted that Soundararajan is inside the flight. It shows that this was a pre-planned attack, Thirupathy said. He also accused Sofia of having links with the May 17 Movement and other organisations.

You can see from her social media, she has been always abusive towards the government, Thirupathy said.China will almost entirely replace its soybean imports from the United States with Brazilian beans and other origins in the upcoming season, but may run out of the oilseed in early 2019, said an executive with a top crusher on Tuesday.

His forecast was one of the most bearish yet on the impact of the Sino-US trade war for American farmers.

Imports from the United States, typically China's No. 2 supplier, will plunge to just 700,000 tonnes in the 2018/19 season starting this month, said Guo Yanchao, deputy chairman of Jiusan Group. That compares with 27.85 million tonnes of US soybeans imported in the prior year.

Imports from Brazil will jump to 71.06 million tonnes, with the rest coming from Argentina, Canada, Russia and other countries, Guo told an industry conference. But supplies could run out by February or March next year, he warned, when Brazilian beans will be limited.China President Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping offered another $60 billion in financing for Africa on Monday and wrote off some debt for poorer African nations, while warning against funds going towards "vanity projects".

Speaking at the opening of a major summit with African leaders, Xi promised development that people on the continent could see and touch, but that would also be green and sustainable.

China has denied engaging in "debt trap" diplomacy, and Xi's offer of more money comes after a pledge of another $60 billion at the previous summit in South Africa three years ago.

Xi, addressing leaders at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, said the new $60 billion will include $15 billion of aid, interest-free loans and concessional loans, a credit line of $20 billion, a $10 billion special fund for China-Africa development, and a $5 billion special fund for imports from Africa.

Chinese companies will be encouraged to invest no less than $10 billion in the continent in the next three years, he said.

Government debt from China's interest free loans due by the end of 2018 will be written off for indebted poor African countries, as well as for developing nations in the continent's interior and small island nations, Xi said.

"China-Africa cooperation must give Chinese and African people tangible benefits and successes that can be seen, that can be felt," he said.

China will carry out 50 projects on green development and environmental protection in Africa, focusing on fighting climate change, desertification and wildlife protection, Xi said.

He pledged, without giving details, that China would set up a peace and security fund and a related forum, while continuing to provide free military assistance to the African Union.

Chinese officials have vowed to be more cautious to ensure projects are sustainable. China defends continued lending to Africa on the grounds that the continent still needs debt-funded infrastructure development.

Speaking earlier at a business forum, Xi said China had to be careful about where money was spent.

"China's cooperation with Africa is clearly targeted at the major bottlenecks to development. Resources for our cooperation are not to be spent on any vanity projects but in places where they count the most," he said.

Beijing has also fended off criticism it is only interested in resource extraction to feed its own booming economy, that the projects it funds have poor environmental safeguards, and that too many of the workers for them are flown in from China rather than using African labour.

'AFRICA KNOWS BEST'

Chinese officials say this year's summit will strengthen Africa's role in Xi's Belt and Road initiative to link China by sea and land with Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa through an infrastructure network modelled on the old Silk Road.

Xi said the plan, for which Beijing has pledged $126 billion, would help provide more resources and facilities for Africa and would expand shared markets.

China loaned around $125 billion to the continent from 2000 to 2016, data from the China-Africa Research Initiative at Washington's Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies shows.

State media has accused the West of sour grapes over China's prominent role in Africa and has angrily rejected claims of forcing African countries into a debt trap.

"In terms of cooperation with China, African countries know best," widely read tabloid the Global Times wrote in an editorial on Monday.

"Western media deliberately portray Africans in misery for collaborating with China and they appear to have discovered big news by finding occasional complaints in the African media about Sino-Africa cooperation," it said.

Every African country is represented at the business forum apart from eSwatini, self-ruled Taiwan's last African ally that has so far rejected China's overtures to ditch Taipei and recognise Beijing.

African presidents in attendance include South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt's Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Zambia's Edgar Lungu and Gabon's Ali Bongo.

There are some controversial guests.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, who has been in power for nearly 30 years, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes over killings and persecution in Sudan's Darfur province between 2003 and 2008.

Xi told him on Sunday that "foreign forces" should not interfere in Sudan's internal affairs, China's Foreign Ministry said. China is not a party to the court.

"China has always had reservations about the International Criminal Court's indictment and arrest order against Sudan's president. We hope the ICC can prudently handle the relevant issue," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.Showing his disregard for the Justice Department's independence, President Donald Trump tweeted that federal indictments against two Republican congressmen placed the GOP in midterm election jeopardy.

Trump again attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the tweet suggesting that the Justice Department consider politics when making decisions: "Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department.

Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff." Trump has frequently suggested he views the Justice Department less as a law enforcement agency and more as a department that is supposed to do his personal and political bidding.

Still, investigators are never supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate. Trump did not name the Republican congressmen, but he was apparently referring to the first two Republicans to endorse him in the GOP presidential primaries.

Both were indicted on separate charges last month: Rep. Duncan Hunter of California on charges that included spending campaign funds for personal expenses and Rep. Chris Collins of New York on insider trading.

Both have proclaimed their innocence. The Hunter investigation began in June 2016, according to the indictment. The indictment into Collins lays out behavior from 2017. He was also under investigation by congressional ethics officials.

Hunter has not exited his race, while Collins ended his re-election bid days after his indictment. Both seats appear likely to remain in GOP hands, but the charges have raised Democratic hopes. A spokeswoman for Sessions declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump did not have any public events Monday. He briefly exited the White House to a waiting motorcade, but then went back inside without going anywhere.

Trump's tweet drew a scolding from Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice  one for the majority party and one for the minority party," Sasse said in a statement.

"These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began. Instead of commenting on ongoing investigations and prosecutions, the job of the President of the United States is to defend the Constitution and protect the impartial administration of justice." Trump has previously pressed Sessions to investigate his perceived enemies and has accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department.

Trump has also repeatedly complained publicly and privately over Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the federal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia because he'd worked on Trump's campaign. Some of the issues Trump has raised have either already been examined or are being investigated.

The tension between Trump and Sessions boiled over recently with Sessions punching back, saying that he and his department "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations." Still, Sessions has made clear to associates that he has no intention of leaving his job voluntarily despite Trump's constant criticism. Allies, including Republican members of Congress, have long advised Trump that firing Sessions  especially before the November midterm elections  would be deeply damaging to the party.

But some have indicated that Trump may make a change after the elections. "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," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters recently.Israel signalled on Monday that it could attack suspected Iranian military assets in Iraq, as it has done with scores of air strikes in war-torn Syria.

Citing Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources, Reuters reported last week that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Shi'ite allies in Iraq in recent months. Tehran and Baghdad formally denied that report.

Israel sees in Iran's regional expansion an attempt to open up new fronts against it. Israel has repeatedly launched attacks in Syria to prevent any entrenchment of Iranian forces helping Damascus in the war.

"We are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria and, regarding Iranian threats, we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory. This also needs to be clear," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a conference hosted and aired live by the Israel Television News Company.

Asked if that included possible action in Iraq, Lieberman said: "I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesn't matter from where it comes ... Israel's freedom is total. We retain this freedom of action."

There was no immediate response from the government of Iraq, which is technically at war with Israel, nor from U.S. Central Command in Washington, D.C., which oversees U.S. military operations in Iraq.

Israel's Channel 1 television reported that in recent weeks the United States asked Israel not to attack in Iraqi territory. It said it had gleaned the information from "Western officials."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday he was "deeply concerned" by the reported Iranian missile transfer.

"If true, this would be a gross violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of UNSCR 2231," he tweeted, referring to a U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran. The Trump administration abandoned that deal in May, citing, among other factors, Iran's ballistic missile projects.

According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out air strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iran and its Lebanese ally, the Shi'ite Hezbollah militia.

These operations have largely been ignored by Russia, Damascus's big-power backer, and coordinated with other powers conducting their own military operations in Syria.

A Western diplomat briefed on the coordination told Reuters last year that, while Israel had a "free hand" in Syria, it was expected not to take any military action in neighbouring Iraq, where the United States has been struggling to help achieve stability since its 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Despite their formal state of hostilities, Israel and Iraq have not openly traded blows in decades.

In 1981, Israel's air force destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. During the 1991 Gulf war, Iraq fired dozens of Scud rockets into Israel, which did not retaliate, out of consideration for U.S. efforts to maintain an Arab coalition against Saddam.

Israel made a plan for its commandos to assassinate Saddam in Iraq in 1992, but the plan was abandoned after a fatal training accident.US President Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump on Labor Day hit back at Richard Trumka, president of the United States' largest federation of labor unions, after Trumka said on Sunday that the president's policies had hurt American workers.

Trumka, who is head of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), said on Fox News of Trump's policies: "Unfortunately, to date, the things that he's done to hurt workers outpace what he's done to help workers."

The AFL-CIO president cited changes to the tax code that encourage companies to outsource jobs, the administration's failure to produce an infrastructure program and its overturning of regulations, including some protecting health and safety.

On Monday, the national Labor Day holiday, Trump tweeted that Trumka had represented his union "poorly."

"Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the US itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly," Trump added.

In follow-up tweets, the president hailed economic growth, adding: "The Worker in America is doing better than ever before!"

A spokesman for Trumka, John Weber, declined to comment on Trump's tweets.

Trumka had also questioned Trump's Saturday tweet that there was no need to keep Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The president warned Congress not to meddle with the trade negotiations or he would terminate the trilateral trade pact altogether.

"It's pretty hard to see how that would work without having Canada in the deal," Trumka said on Sunday, noting that the economies of Mexico, the United States and Canada were heavily integrated.

Trumka, who met with Trump alongside other labor leaders last month to talk about trade issues, is a highly influential figure on trade issues and his support will likely be necessary for the passage of any legislation on trade promoted by the administration.

Democrats are working to get union members to vote in the Nov. 6 midterm congressional elections.

Former Vice President Joe Biden marched in a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh, campaigning on behalf of Democrats. "We're in a fight for the soul of America," he said. "It's about time we restore dignity to work."One worker was killed and two were injured when carbon dioxide leaked at a Samsung Electronics chip plant on Tuesday, the South Korean company said.

The three were found unconscious in the basement of the semiconductor factory in Suwon just south of Seoul, the firm said in a statement.

A man aged 24 was pronounced dead in hospital hours later and two others, aged 26 and 54, remain unconscious, Samsung said.

All were employees of one of Samsung's suppliers and were inspecting the factory's gas-related facilities, it added. "It is believed that the cause of death is suffocation due to a carbon dioxide leak," Samsung said, adding it was investigating.

Samsung the world's top maker of smartphones as well as memory chips operates a vast semiconductor production compound in Suwon.

Fatal accidents at major companies have made frequent headlines in the South, which has struggled to improve poor safety standards in factories.

In January four workers suffocated due to a gas leak at a steel factory owned by Posco the country's top steelmaker in the southern city of Pohang.

In August last year four workers died when a fuel tank exploded in a vessel under construction at the headquarters of STX Offshore and Shipbuilding in the southern city of Changwon.Pakistani lawmakers are voting to elect the country's 13th president on Tuesday, a race in which the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party's candidate Arif Alvi's victory has become almost certain after the Opposition parties failed to reach a consensus on a joint candidate.

Voting via a secret ballot started simultaneously in the Senate, the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta around 10 a.m. and will conclude at 4 p.m.

The National Assembly and the Senate members are voting inside the National Assembly hall, whereas the MPAs are doing the same in their respective provincial assemblies.

In Pakistan, the President is considered as a symbol of the federation and head of the state and exercises all powers on the recommendations of the prime minister.

Outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain's tenure ends on September 8. He had declined for re-election to a second 5-year term.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday completed preparations for the election.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has named Aitzaz Ahsan as its candidate. The third contender, Maulana Fazl ur Rehman, entered the fray after the Pakistan Muslim League-N refused to support Ahsan, who has in the past been a harsh critic of the jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party.

Rehman is the joint candidate of the PML-N, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and the National Party.

Since PTI controls the National Assembly and has majority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and has support of the ruling Party in Balochistan, its candidate Alvi is in strong position.

A dentist by profession, 69-year-old Alvi is one of the founding members of PTI. He served as the party's secretary general from 2006 to 2013.

He won the National Assembly elections from NA-247 (Karachi) during the July 25 polls. He was also elected member of the National Assembly in the 2013 general election. He reportedly stood by Prime Minister Imran Khan during his political career.

The results would be declared this evening.

The total strength of lawmakers of Senate, National Assembly and four provincial assemblies is 1,174 but as several seats are vacant, their existing strength is 1,121.

The voting system is complex, as the presidential elections are held on the basis of proportional representation to give equal representation to the four provinces.

Each lawmaker of Senate (104 members), National Assembly (342) and Balochistan Assembly (65) has one vote. But the vote of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies is determined on the basis of proportional representation and each assembly has been allotted 65 votes  equal to the total number of members in the assembly with the least members, that is, the Balochistan Assembly.

Accordingly, 5.70 Punjab parliamentarians makeup 1 vote, 2.58 in Sindh, 1.90 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while lawmakers in Balochistan, the smallest assembly, get one vote each.

Thus, according to the law, the president is elected by the Electoral College consisting of 706 votes of all lawmakers.

Dr Alvi is likely to win easily due to division in the ranks of the Opposition. Efforts by the Opposition parties to win each other's support continued till late Monday night.Russian President Vladimir Putin - FIFA World Cup 2018

Moneycontrol News

A TV series of one hour called 'Putin' on the President of Russia Vladimir Putin weekly activities, commenced on Rossiya 1 state television channel.

A report in The Guardian said that the first episode highlighted the Russian Presidents physique and his love for children apart from his willingness to "take responsibility" for the "necessary reforms".

But, amid the relentless praise for Putin, there was an unexpected mention of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Navalny was barred from the current years presidential campaign and has been blacklisted by state media.

The show was aired after thousands of people had marched near Red Square to protest against unpopular pension reforms. Currently, more than half of the Russian population are prepared to take part in protests against the governments plans to raise the national retirement age.

During a footage of a meeting between Putin and some students, a teenage boy called Yegor Ryabov was seen wearing a Navalny 2018 T-shirt partly covered and displayed it before the meeting with the president, although he was asked by security guards to cover it. This was an act of political disobedience, according to Ryabov.

TV Dozhd, an online opposition channel, drew a similarity between the Rossiya 1 show and the Soviet-era personality cult around Vladimir Lenin. Other critics also expressed their displeasure against the coverage on Putin. Rossiya 1 devoted more airtime to Putin than all the other candidates combined before Marchs presidential elections. However, the show did not mention anything about the protest.Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) has reportedly defaulted on a short-term loan worth hundreds of crores from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Since this was termed as bad debt or non-performing asset (NPA), SIDBI has reportedly asked one of its senior officials to resign owning responsibility for the default.

According to our sources, IL&FS has defaulted in repaying a short-term loan of Rs1,000 crore to SIDBI. At the same time, a subsidiary of IL&FS too has defaulted in repaying loan worth about Rs500 crore to the development financial institution.

As an immediate measure, SIDBI has asked Swaminathan Mallikarjun, its chief general manager in the risk management department, to resign for the bad debt from IL&FS.

Defaulting on short-term loan commitment that too from an infrastructure development and finance company with pan-India presence, is very serious issue. Nothing of this sort has happened before, our source says.

SIDBI's chairman and managing director, Mohammad Mustafa, is from the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) cadre and would like to take strict action in this matter. However, since SIDBI does not really have any security to invoke in its loan to IL&FS and the bankruptcy code as stated in the IBC does not apply to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), our sources say.

We sent a message to Hari Shakaran, vice chairman of IL&FS seeking his comment on these developments. We will update this article as and when we receive response from him.

Senior officials from SIDBI were not immediately available for comment. We will update this story as and when we receive their feedback.

Separately, ratings agency ICRA has downgraded to 'D' from 'C' bank debt of Rapid Metrorail Gurgaon South Ltd (RMGSL) for not making interest payment for August 2018 on time. RMGSL is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) sponsored by IL&FS Rail Ltd (IRL) with 65.0% stake and IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd (ITNL) with balance stake.



"The revision of RMGSL's rating takes into account the recent irregularities in debt servicing by the company. RMGSL has not paid the interest for the month of August 2018. The company's inability to generate sufficient revenues due to continued weak ridership on the project route had made it highly dependent on timely funding support from promoters. However, the promoter has not made available the required funds. As per the RMGSL's management, the company has represented to Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) for claims due to breach of provisions of the Concession Agreement," ICRA has said.



Total cost of the project was funded by a combination of debt of Rs1,500 crore and equity. The entire term loan of Rs1,500 crore has been sanctioned by a consortium of five banks with Canara Bank as the lead bank and an external commercial borrowing (ECB) loan lender. The project achieved commercial operations on 31 March 2017.All lenders treat their loans as assets. Also, the investments they have (some for statutory reasons and others for reasons of liquidity management) are called assets. The net profit, after meeting all costs and write-offs, would be the return on assets or RoA. This is another metric that analysts use; but, often, it could be a kind of hybrid one. A bank would get income from three...We had mentioned in Mondays closing report that Nifty, Sensex were under pressure. The major indices of the Indian stock markets suffered a correction on Tuesday and closed with losses over Mondays close. On the NSE, there were 414 advances, 1,351 declines and 305 unchanged. The trends of the markets in the course of Tuesdays trading are given in the table below:

A slump in the Indian rupee along with broadly negative global cues subdued the key Indian equity indices on Tuesday. The trade has been largely choppy after the indices opened on a positive note. According to market observers, selling pressure was witnessed in consumer durables, banking and FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) stocks so far.

The Reliance Infrastructure Ltd-Astaldi S.p.A.(Italy) consortium has bagged the project for the northern extension of the Rajiv Gandhi Bandra Worli Sea Link from Bandra to Versova, an official said here on Tuesday. The consortium has signed an agreement with the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for the Rs7,000 crore Bandra-Versova arm of the RGBWSL within five years. In the competitive bidding process, RInfra-Astaldi with its bid of Rs6,993.99 crore beat the L&T-Samsung and Hyundai Development Ltd-ITD to bag what is the country's single biggest urban infrastructure project. The MSRDC had floated the tenders for the construction of the second sea link on an EPC-basis to build the Versova-Bandra Sea Link, 17.17 km-long, or three times the existing 5.6 km-long RGBWSL. RInfra EPC CEO Arun Gupta said the mega-project will further propel the company as a premier EPC company in India. Reliance Infrastructure shares closed at Rs453.30, down 4.06% on the BSE.

Goldiam International has received its highest ever confirmed Export Orders worth Rs140 crore from its International clients for manufacturing of diamond studded designed gold jewellery. The order was to be delivered within 3 months. Goldiam International shares closed at Rs78.90, up 1.74% on the BSE.

Lupin's Tarapur API manufacturing facility has completed cGMP inspection carried out by the US FDA. The inspection closed with one observation of procedural type. The inspection focused on cGMP compliance and also on the safety of Lupin's Valsartan, Losartan and Irbesartan APIs. Lupin shares closed at Rs918.00, down 1.93% on the NSE.

Budget carriers IndiGo and GoAir offered low-fare tickets for travel during September 2018 to March 2019. Under the IndiGo offer, fares would start from Rs999 and the tickets would be available from September 3 to 6, the airline said in a statement. The airline would offer 10 lakh low-fare tickets. The sale would be valid for flights "across its network of 59 destinations" and for travel between September 18, 2018 and March 30, 2019, said the IndiGo statement. GoAir announced that it would offer low-fare tickets starting at Rs1,099 during September 3-5. The tickets would be valid for travel during September 3, 2018 to March 31, 2019. InterGlobe Aviation shares closed at Rs910.00, down 4.10% on the NSE.

Persistent Systems has acquired Herald Technologies Inc., an IT (information technology) services start-up in the US, for a cash consideration of US$ 5.2 million. The acquired business will strengthen Persistent's IP led offerings in the Healthcare domain and create a number of cross-sell opportunities. Persistent Systems shares closed at Rs842.05, up 0.59% on the NSE.

The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below:

The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below:Comitetul Judetean pentru Situatii de Urgenta s-a intrunit in aceasta dimineata (n.r. - marti, 04 septembrie 2018) si a aprobat Planul de masuri la confirmare in zona de protectie si cea de supraveghere ca urmare a confirmarii focarului de pesta porcina africana in gospodaria situata in extravilanul municipiului Galati, pe Calea Prutului nr. 87 ( Citeste AICI ), informeaza Institutia Prefectului judetului Galati.

"In urma confirmarii, pe 03 septembrie 2018, a prezentei virusului pestei porcine africane de catre Institutul de Diagnostic si Sanatate Animala Bucuresti  Laboratorul National de Referinta pentru Diagnostic si Sanatate Animala, s-au aplicat masuri de restrictie pentru circulatia persoanelor, animalelor, a produselor, subproduselor si a mijloacelor de transport. S-a instaurat, astfel, o zona de protectie in jurul focarului, de minim 3 km, pe raza localitatii Galati, extravilan catre Giurgiulesti pana la Port Docuri, si o zona de supraveghere in jurul focarului, de minim 10 km, care include zona de protectie, pe raza municipiului Galati, limita nord  Metro; vest  Bulevardul Train Vuia, Strada Nae Leonard, Strada Saturn; sud  Trecere Bac; est  granita cu Republica Moldova, I.C. Bratianu si Grindu (judetul Tulcea). In aceste zone, deplasarea si transportul porcilor pe drumurile publice sunt interzise, cu exceptia cazului cand sunt avizate de autoritatea veterinara; niciun animal domestic nu poate intra sau parasi o exploatatie fara autorizare; animalele sunt suspuse catagrafierii si supravegherii clinice de catre medicii veterinari etc. Se mentin filtrele de control si filtrele de dezinfectie, atat cele rutiere, cat si cele individuale din gospodariile care detin porci. Totodata, Administratia Porturilor Dunarii Maritime Galati va interveni cu mijloace specializate pentru recuperarea eventualelor cadavre de animale de pe fluviul Dunarea, la solicitarea Inspectoratului pentru Situatii de Urgenta si cu asistenta specialistilor Directiei Sanitare Veterinare si pentru Siguranta Alimentelor Galati. Conform prevederilor H.G. 1214/2009 modificata si completata prin HG 484/2018, proprietarii animalelor afectate vor beneficia de despagubiri. Facem precizarea ca pesta porcina africana nu afecteaza oamenii, neexistand nici cel mai mic risc de imbolnavire, acest virus avand, insa, impact la nivel social din punct de vedere economic", se arata in comunicatul Prefecturii.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 4)  The House of Representatives passed a bill expanding maternity leave to 100 days on its third and final reading on Tuesday.

Both houses of Congress are expected to meet soon to reconcile House Bill 4113 and its counterpart measure Senate Bill 1305. The Senate proposal was passed in March last year, and provides for 120 days of maternity leave.

READ: Senate approves bill for 120-day maternity leave

"I'm very happy to support 120 [days], but just to be sure that we consider the concerns of the employers sector, we should hear from [the Social Security System]," House Deputy Speaker and co-author of the bill Pia Cayetano told CNN Philippines' The Source.

"As a women advocate, I'm all for 120 -- but I just want to be sure that we can justify that."

Under the proposal, both the SSS and the employer will shoulder the employee's pay.

At present, the law only provides for 60 days in paid maternity leave for normal childbirth and 78 days for caesarean delivery. However, the International Labour Organization sets the standard at 98 days.

After its second reading last week, House Committee on Women and Gender Equality Chairperson Bernadette Herrera-Dy said small business owners were primarily concerned about how their operations would be affected by a longer leave. Cayetano has since said that employers' groups have lent their support to the proposal.

READ: Solon: Small businesses worry over effects of extended maternity leave

"Naturally since they represent employers, they will say that, 'Okay, this may be a little difficult...' but in the end, they expressed support. It's like, you gotta bite the bullet," said Cayetano. "This is for the workforce... It's for the family, but it's [also] for society."

The Philippines has also one of the shortest maternity leaves in the region. Southeast Asian neighbor Vietnam provides between 120 to 180 days of leave, Singapore provides 122 days, and Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand provide 90 days.Hell is a concept with which all Christians, and many non-Christians, are familiar. Hell is a place of eternal damnation, the domain of Satan. It is commonly depicted in artwork as having red walls and being filled with demons, torture and fire. This horrific place of torment is mentioned many times in the New Testament, but what does the Old Testament have to say about hell?

The concept of hell in the Old Testament is a subject of both interest and debate among scholars today. Some scholars claim that the more modern conception of hell, a place of torture and torment, is a product of the New Testament alone. Others claim that visions of hell existed in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.In a twist that is somewhat unusual with a document as old as the Old Testament, the issue is not primarily one of translation. Instead, the issue deals with context.The Old Testament was written in ancient Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in a mix of languages including Aramaic and Greek. As such, it is not surprising that the Old and New Testaments use different words to describe religious concepts. When it comes to describing what is commonly translated as hell in modern Bibles, the New Testament tends to use the word Hades in reference to the Greek understanding of the Underworld. The Old Testament, however, uses the Hebrew word Sheol. This is sometimes translated as hell in modern Bibles, but it is just as commonly translated as the grave, the pit or even left in the original Hebrew. The fact that these two words, Hades and Sheol, are not translated the same explains why many scholars feel that the two refer to different places or states of being.Given that both Hades and Sheol describe the land of the dead and the afterlife, it should not be surprising that the issue is not one of translation but of fleshing out a very complex cultural concept. After all, a person today could say the word afterlife to a group of people and find that all of them envision something different. This would be especially true if the group of people was from a variety of different cultures.Since no one knows for certain what the afterlife looks like, it falls to individual cultures and religions to flesh out the descriptions provided in various holy texts. As such, there are nearly as many different expectations of the afterlife as there are human cultures. This means that there is a very real possibility that the Hebrew Israelites who wrote the Old Testament had a vision of the afterlife that was very different from what Christians living in a society filled with Hellenistic and Roman influences would have pictured.While some people claim that the Sheol of the Old Testament is simply an older word for the same place as the modern understanding of hell, there is evidence that the concept of hell is actually a more recent invention. Sheol as described in the Old Testament seems to be less of a place of torment and more of a general underworld. For example, when Joseph's brothers lie to Jacob and claim that Joseph is dead, Jacob states that he "shall go down to my son a mourner unto Sheol." It seems odd that a father would automatically assume that his son had gone to hell or that he would take the idea so calmly if Sheol truly corresponded to the modern concept of hell. Similarly, Ezekiel seems to describe Sheol as a place, a location, rather than a threat. The "mighty chiefs...[have] helpers...[in] the midst of Sheol" and Isaiah describes Sheol as a place that could be visited. In this way, Sheol sounds far more like the Greek understanding of the Underworld than the modern concept of a fiery hell. In such a case, it would be best to translate "Sheol" as "the grave," and some translations do exactly that. They recognize that translating Sheol as "hell" or even "Hades," given the latter's modern association with the former, would give a very different picture than what ancient writers probably intended.In the Old Testament, Sheol does not serve as a place of punishment like hell. In some stories, it seems that Sheol is where all the dead, righteous and wicked alike will go when their lives are over. The righteous will be resurrected out of Sheol following Judgement Day, but the wicked will never reawaken. In other stories, Sheol seems to be extremely similar to the Underworld of Greek mythology. The greatest and most righteous join God in heaven, and everyone else is sent to Sheol. In Greek mythology, only the mightiest of heroes would go to Elysium, a version of heaven, while ordinary souls would spend the afterlife in the Asphodel Meadows. Those who were especially wicked would be banished to Tartarus, a place of torment much more like the modern conception of hell.Reconstructing a lost culture is difficult, and portrayals and understandings of the afterlife are based on culture as much as they are faith. As such, it is a matter of debate whether Sheol is better compared to the Asphodel Meadows of Greek mythology or the hell of later Christianity. It seems more likely that hell was a concept that evolved over time, but there is no way of knowing, unless some brave soul has figured out how to kick down the gates of Sheol and ask an ancient spirit what it is like on the other side.Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?

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Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing Corp. is bringing an estimated 1,100 jobs to South Carolina with the construction of a new headquarters building in Fort Mill.

The company broke ground last week on the planned headquarters building, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. The three-story, 150,000-square-foot headquarters is projected to cost $34 million.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who attended the groundbreaking, praised RoundPoint for bringing jobs to the state.If it seems like Texas shark fishers have been pulling in impressive catches more frequently this year than normal, there's a reason.

The Texas coast is typically known for murky water, but this year has had a number of days with clear water  the type preferred by both beachgoers and sharks such as the Tiger and Hammerhead.

The increasing number of catches both shark fishers and experts have reported hearing about is a likely result.

Click through the slideshow above to view some of those sharks caught off the Texas coast.

In May, a group of fishermen hooked and then released an 11-foot tiger shark at Padre Island National Seashore. In July, Poco Cedillo, of Corpus Christi, told mySA.com he and his friends made the catch of "multiple lifetimes" when they caught a 14-foot hammerhead, though the shark died before they could release it. In August, a South Texas man reeled in a 12-foot tiger shark, calling it a "once-in-a-lifetime catch."

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Shark Biologist Jonathan Davis said the agency doesn't track recreational fishing catches, but, anecdotally, he's noticed an increase in the number of shark catches he's heard about this year.

Davis said there is always a stream of clear water in the Gulf of Mexico, but it's usually further from shore. This year, storms and other weather movement pushed the clear water closer to the coast, bringing different types of fish and sharks with it.

RELATED: Massive shark catch off the coast of Texas wins fisherman $5,000

The clear water movement is a naturally occurring phenomenon that happens every few years, though Davis said it hasn't occurred near Texas for at least the last four or five years.

"Every time it happens, people think it's a crazy freak accident and the world's coming to the end," Davis said.

He speculated that an increase in the number of people fishing could also have contributed to more catches and said conservation efforts have helped rebound some species of sharks, increasing the number available to be caught.

Earlier this month, Matthew Zuniga, the South Texas man who reeled in the "once-in-a-lifetime catch," told mySA.com he'd seen an increase in both the size and number of sharks he and others had caught on the Texas coast in recent months. In addition to the 12-foot tiger shark, he also caught a 7-foot, 5-inch spinner shark and a 9-foot, 5-inch bull shark this year.

"It really shows that the conservation effort is starting to pick up along here," Zuniga said.

S. M. Chavey is a staff writer for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here. | sarah.chavey@express-news.net | 210-250-3122 | Twitter: @smchaveyHow to leapfrog your industry's disruption and future-proof Africa

Mann Made recently disrupted themselves before anyone else could with a rebrand that highlights their adoption of an exponential mindset, aimed at solving South Africa and the continent's grand challenges. Here's how what started out as a wedding video company by three brothers in 2000 has transformed into a storytelling, forward-thinking, 65-employee strong experiential brand agency that hosts the Singularity University South Africa Summit...

The Mann brothers - Mic, Shayne and Kevin.



The SingularityU SA Summit, taking place at the Kyalami International Convention Centre on 15 and 16 October this year is no everyday conference.



Instead, it aims future-proofing Africa, by embracing exponential technologies that will help to create economic, political and environmental sustainability in the future.







That ties in perfectly with Mann Mades refreshed standing as a brand experience company with the same aspirations.



More than just a cutting-edge new logo and name, this rebrand goes beyond the surface to how they think and do. Their massive transformative purpose or MTP, for example, speaks of the companys commitment to creating a global community of change-makers that bravely benefit all:







Here, Mic Mann explains the brothers almost two-decades-long business journey so far, and just how they plan to help co-create that revolutionary future for the continent.



Talk us through the context and process of rebranding to just 'Mann Made'. Talk us through the context and process of rebranding to just 'Mann Made'. The SingularityU SA Summit, taking place at the Kyalami International Convention Centre on 15 and 16 October this year is no everyday conference.Instead, it aims future-proofing Africa, by embracing exponential technologies that will help to create economic, political and environmental sustainability in the future.That ties in perfectly with Mann Mades refreshed standing as a brand experience company with the same aspirations.More than just a cutting-edge new logo and name, this rebrand goes beyond the surface to how they think and do. Their massive transformative purpose or MTP, for example, speaks of the companys commitment to creating a global community of change-makers that bravely benefit all:Here, Mic Mann explains the brothers almost two-decades-long business journey so far, and just how they plan to help co-create that revolutionary future for the continent.

Mic Mann.

Yes, you now have robots, 3D printers and VR consoles at your Sandton offices. What does that add to the company culture and average 'day of work'? Yes, you now have robots, 3D printers and VR consoles at your Sandton offices. What does that add to the company culture and average 'day of work'?

Amazing. So you effectively disrupted yourselves before anyone else could with the rebrand, and by thinking exponentially rather than linearly. Share a few tips for marketers to keep ahead of the pack over the coming months  without giving away your trade secrets, of course! Amazing. So you effectively disrupted yourselves before anyone else could with the rebrand, and by thinking exponentially rather than linearly. Share a few tips for marketers to keep ahead of the pack over the coming months  without giving away your trade secrets, of course!

Singularity University co-founder Peter Diamandis famously said that the day before you have an incredible breakthrough, the idea seems terrible.

You've also shifted focus beyond SA  how will the new London Mann Made X offering enhance what you're doing on the continent? You've also shifted focus beyond SA  how will the new London Mann Made X offering enhance what you're doing on the continent?

Thats for sure. Sounds like the future is bright! Lets take a step back now and reflect on a few of the highlights and challenges youve faced over the years as Mann Made. Thats for sure. Sounds like the future is bright! Lets take a step back now and reflect on a few of the highlights and challenges youve faced over the years as Mann Made.

In another example, back in 2005, we created a social media platform called Wapbits. The idea was for it to be the YouTube of mobile phones, especially as there are so many on the continent. While it had an immense possibility, it was too ahead of its time, due to the high cost of data in South Africa and poor internet penetration. We learned the importance of knowing the market and your clientele  business is not about a copy-and-paste mentality, its about context and solving needs.

Such a far-reaching insight. Lastly, why is it especially important to future-proof Africa? Such a far-reaching insight. Lastly, why is it especially important to future-proof Africa?

Leigh Andrews' articles About Leigh Andrews Leigh Andrews AKA the



Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen , is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews

Its the season of rebrands, just look at Cell C and Absa  we actually played an integral role in the Absa rebrand, as they are one of our long-standing clients.Weve come a long way from those humble beginnings back in 2000 when we started out shooting wedding videos to becoming a family of innovative storytellers, each of whom is passionate about telling our clients' brand stories through a variety of media.Were mavericks and always try to push boundaries, which is why in 2007 we branched out into live eventing, followed by brand activations as well as interactive web design and app development. Today, our portfolio of products and services also includes animation, virtual and augmented reality services, as well as social media campaigns.So in 19 years, weve grown our business to 65 employees, as well as over 150 freelancers, across four connected buildings in the Mann Made complex in Kramerville, Sandton. Mann Made has evolved into a brand experience company, which has worked with multinational companies, Fortune 500 businesses and has executed global events.Our real breakthrough came in 2015 when we produced two custom events for Singularity University. These changed the way we think about our business and the future.We immersed ourselves in the world of exponential technologies, bought 3D printers, invested in robots, augmented reality and artificial intelligence. Weve realigned our business mindsets and have restructured our focus to create a regional and global community of changemakers.The future of work is something that comes up regularly in the Singularity University programme and it seemed fitting that we needed to change with the times and growing trends.Thats why we rebranded  not just our name and logo, but the essence of how we think, what we do, and who we are. Our service offerings have leapfrogged beyond media production, which is why we have dropped media from our name.Our rebrand to Mann Made represents our new role in consulting to African businesses on how they too can leapfrog into the future by embracing exponential technologies and grow their profit margins 10x rather than 10%.When were travelling we join weekly meetings through the Beam robot, which can turn and interact with others in the room. This and other various augmented and virtual reality elements are an integral part of our SingularityU South Africa Summit, as well as our custom programmes  thats just how we roll.Our reception has a VR set up, which our clients can test out while they wait for a meeting. Our Mann Made family can develop their skills sets on the latest technologies and software, which means theyre always keeping pace with the newest technological developments.For example, when my brother Shayne couldnt find the correct housing for his GoPro in Johannesburg, instead of ordering it from overseas and waiting for it to be delivered, Ronnie Ho-Hip, head of animation at Mann Made, offered to 3D-print the solution in a matter of 30 minutes.And we could augment it to include additional features, too.We can also quickly 3D-print prototypes, just how we want them, with numerous iterations, which means we dont have to outsource the work. This drastically cuts down the waiting time and means we have the opportunity to revise the prototype until we have the best version possible.We like doing things differently and trying new things, which is why were launching the first virtual reality press conference on the continent at our SingularityU Insiders Insights launch in September.Embrace exponential technologies in your everyday work and life  its as simple as that! Try to imagine how your industry may be disrupted by exponential technologies and try to leapfrog it by developing new iterations of your business, sometimes its a case of redefining your business model.Keep that in mind, invest in research and development and know that not every attempt will lead to success, but it will help you refine your final service or product.Were hoping that London Mann Made X, which launches in mid-2019, will spearhead growth and investment opportunities for various startups across Africa that emulate the Singularity University mindset of creating abundance and positive change.We hope it will be a platform to showcase the innovative things Africans are doing and how they are leapfrogging, sometimes due to the very nature of the environment and the lack of certain infrastructure  instead of being seen as a challenge, its an opportunity.Starting with the positives, at Mann Made, weve had the honour of working with some of South Africas  and the worlds  largest multinationals and organisations, from Standard Bank and AbInBev to Samsung, MTN and Fiverr. Development Bank and the Human Rights Foundation are also among our clients.For example, in March we hosted the inaugural Oslo Freedom Forum, in conjunction with the Human Rights Foundation and The Nelson Mandela Foundation.It saw 10 human rights activists from around the world talking about womens, LGBTQI+, religious and political human rights, and we drew a crowd of policy makers, local activists, journalists, non-profits and active citizenry.Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba, was our honorary guest speaker at the closing gala dinner. We understand the necessity for such an event and have already committed to hosting #OFFinJoburg in 2019 and 2020.Another highlight was completing the Singularity University Executive Programme in the United States, which means were the official hosts of the SingularityU South Africa Summit  currently the only one of its kind on the continent.Its about embracing exponential technologies to help solve some of Africas grand challenges. The inaugural summit secured funding for a number of startups, sponsored numerous students, and cemented new business deals for positive social change.While there have also been numerous challenges along the way, we have used them to reassess our playing field, tweak the rules of the game and use the learnings to transform our future output. We were involved with an ill-timed record label that was disrupted by the likes of iTunes and Napster, as well as advert games, built around the brand - these both proved that timing is everything.Africa has the largest population of youth of any other continent, and this trend will continue well into the future. Essentially, this means that Africa is the future.Its also home. Many people still have the perception that Africa is behind in terms of various developments, but we hold the belief that the opposite is true, it offers the chance to be creative and innovative and try something new  to carve your way into the future.Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder reunite on-screen for the third time in "Destination Wedding," the refreshingly unconventional romantic comedy that accurately captures the beginning of a relationship: awkward and occasionally off-putting. The cuddling is cumbersome, the sex sounds are displeasing, and, frankly, the only advantage of showering with another person is to simply to sing loudly together.

In the recent release, Reeves (who plays Frank, a pessimistic intellectual) and Ryder (who plays Lindsay, a heartbroken optimist) meet at a wedding they probably shouldn't have attended. In the picturesque wine region of Paso Robles, California, they butt heads and bond over existential conversations about the horrors of traveling, the narcissism of weddings and the unlikelihood of love altogether. Yet after a ton of deadpan humor and lyrical dialogue, we hope they'll be the exceptions to their own rules.

"Destination Wedding" writer-director Victor Levin ("5 to 7," "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!," "Mad About You") chats about what it's like to craft an unsentimental rom-com. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Why the aversion to destination weddings?

A: I'm happy to go and honored to be invited, but there's a certain self-importance to it, is there not? It'd be one thing if you had to take a long, expensive plane ride to the bride or groom's hometown. I get that; people live somewhere. But my wife went to Scotland for a wedding in a castle. Nobody (in the couple was) Scottish, there's no earthly reason to go to Scotland for that - to Scotland they went!

To play the trumpet that loudly is, to me, just asking for trouble. You're not the first two people to get married! The future is promised to no one! Take it easy and accept your good fortune with humility! Unless you know you're going to have the all-time greatest marriage that's gonna last forever and go down in history to serve as an example to every other married couple for the rest of time, do it with a little modesty. That's just my opinion.

Q: A section begins by mocking the activities planned for a wedding weekend. Why include the chapter titles?

A: Well, to mark the passage of time. But also, because that Saturday really kills you. There's never a problem with the rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself or the farewell brunch. That's all fine. But it's the list of activities with which they fill out the weekend that drives me up the wall - they're sheer filler. I don't want to bungee jump; if I wanted to, I'd do that where I live. I certainly don't want to fly 3,000 miles to bungee jump, and I don't want to do it with those people I just met. At a certain point, it's like: Get married already! Why do I have to bungee jump for you to get married?

Q: "Destination Wedding" only has two speaking characters - an on-screen rarity. I felt like I was watching a play.

A: I like writing arguments, and this is effectively a 90-minute argument between these two. We've seen so many plays like this, but why can't a movie be just about talking? Part of the reason was financial, to make a movie at as low of a cost as possible so that it had the best chance of succeeding in the marketplace. Independent films are not a charity; we should not be costing our investors money for the privilege of expressing ourselves.

Q: What's the biggest difficulty of making a movie with just two speakers?

A: You're asking your actors to be relentlessly appealing because there's nowhere to go for a rest. And you're asking them to master a mountain of material. People may not realize how verbally gifted Keanu is - he's a virtuoso, linguistically. If you really listen to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," you see what I'm talking about: a person with an encyclopedic mind, who understands every syllable and delivers it like music. It may be a surprise to some of his fans, but he's just really good at this.

And Winona is a brilliant person - extremely well-read and superb in conversation, with all sorts of facts at her fingertips, and very aware of the melody and cadence of dialogue. And there's nobody more likable on-screen than Winona Ryder - she's just so lovable and you root for her. It was fun to put a certain amount of disappointment and cynicism into the psyche of her character, who remains so hopeful even as so many horrible things have befallen her in life. It becomes heroic to be hopeful when you've been hammered.

Q: The disappointment and cynicism is more than plentiful here, especially with Reeves's character.

A: But, you know, I love grumpy people, especially when there are good reasons for their grumpiness. He's not just some curmudgeon in the corner who is grumpy for grumpy's sake; he has a pretty carefully constructed philosophy. Likable characters don't necessarily have to say likable things.

If you feel you're getting the honest version of a person, a little grumpy is OK. I'd much rather have that than someone who might not be what they seem. These two may not be pleasant, or warm and welcoming, but at least you know who they are.

Q: This movie is made up of wide shots and long takes, versus the glamorizing close-ups of the genre.

A: These two people are sealed off from life and happiness - and certainly the festivities of this wedding - so putting them in a two-shot across the room from the rest of these people and staying there became a visual representation of their emotional prison. There are two close-ups at the end, because I wanted to earn it. I wanted to declare intimacy after an hour and a half - finally, the walls are knocked down, and we can come in a little closer.

Q: Wow, that sex scene! It's not a spoiler that there is one, right?

A: Not at all! I want people to know there is one, lest they think it's just two people sitting at a table talking for an hour and a half - which it mostly is, but there's also a sex scene and a mountain lion! We had (the sex scene) after the first take. They were so funny! I had never seen a scene in which people argue for 8 1/2 minutes while they're having sex. Framing it was a struggle, because it's not about watching them undress but because the conversation in that context is funnier. We settled on a shot where their heads and shoulders are left of frame, and the rest of it is the field.

Q: This movie captures what it's like to be single in the current climate when cynicism is more common and lifelong singlehood is actually quite attractive.

A: The reason the television (in Reeves' room) always has some version of the four talking heads on cable news, screaming at each other and not really hearing each other, is because that's what the world has become. We behave badly publicly and privately, when we're on TV or looking for a parking space. Rudeness is OK; it becomes acceptable to be mean to strangers and air all your grievances and be judgmental and shut down. The base level of compassion and kindness in our day-to-day lives has never been lower - that includes the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon and the near-bankruptcy of New York City.

It's hard enough to love each other, to fall in love and find a mate under the best of circumstances. But now, in this toxic, cynical environment, it's even harder. How are you supposed to deal with all of this grave disappointment? Do you curl up in a little ball, or do you put your head back in the chopping block and make yourself vulnerable and risk terrible injury yet again? Do you ever bet on the triumph of hope over experience? I think you do.

Q: With "Book Club," "Set It Up," "Crazy Rich Asians," "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" and more, this summer has been a rom-com renaissance. What's so great about this genre?

A: I don't think there's anything better that you can write about than love in its various forms: romantic, familial, fraternal, whatever you want. It's the best thing that humans are capable of. I enjoy never having to spend a second on the question: Is this goal-worthy? Because if the goal is to find the buried treasure or win the war or whatever, I guess those are worthy goals but only because the movie is telling you so. But love, in any movie that asks you to root for it, is a worthy goal based on life experience. And with society the way it is now, I think every story that trumpets something positive and life-affirming is good for us.Remnants of Tropical Storm Gordon could bring massive rainfall to west-central Illinois this weekend, depending on the course the storm takes when it reaches land and moves across the central U.S.

The storm was expected to hit Biloxi, Mississippi, Tuesday night as a hurricane with winds of 74 to 110 mph and be downgraded to a tropical storm by this morning.

The storm was already pounding western Florida with heavy rain Tuesday as it moved closer to shore. The Alabama and Mississippi coasts were under a hurricane warning, with forecasters saying the are could see a life-threatening 3 to 5 foot rise in waters.

Current projections have the storm cutting a swath across western Mississippi and into Arkansas as a tropical depression and then swinging into northwestern Illinois by Sunday.

The National Weather Service in St. Louis said a cold front that will stall over Illinois and Missouri about the same time could bring the potential for several inches of rain from Thursday into the weekend.

The forecasts Tuesday was calling for 3 to 4 inches of rain in a swath cutting through the region that included most of Greene, Macoupin and Sangamon counties.

Jacksonville was right on the cusp of the path where weather forecasters say 4 to 6 inches of rain are likely by the end of the weekend, although they cautioned that amounts are subject to change.

At the present time, it appears areas north of a Jacksonville to Danville have the potential for seeing 3 to 5 inches of rain through the upcoming weekend. Amounts of 2 to 3 inches are expected south of there, according to the National Weather Service in Lincoln.

The concern is heightened because of storms that last week brought 2 to 4 inches of rain to areas near and west of the Illinois River.

These locations correspond with the heaviest rain forecast and would be most susceptible to any flooding, according to the weather service. Elsewhere, flooding is also possible, especially if heavy amounts occur in a short amount of time.The growing trend of flexible working, and with-it flexible workspace, has gained a lot of recent coverage globally.

Image source: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The boom in flexible working

1. Meeting demand

Partnering with a flexible workspace provider

Offering a long-term lease

3. Managing the impact of IFRS16

In 2017, JLL released a report saying 30% of corporate real estate would comprise flexible workspace by 2030. Thats three in every ten buildings. In the same year, CBRE released its own report about flexible workspace, stating 71% of occupiers believe they are vital to delivering corporate real estate objectives, and the flexible office market is growing at 13% a year.But where is this boom coming from, and what does it mean for landlords?According to IWG, owner of Regus and Spaces in South Africa, there are a few reasons why flexible workspace has been taking off. The first is that technology has changed whats possible. Within two years, 80% of the worlds population will own a smartphone and 4G connections will represent 61% of the total (up from 34% in 2016). The cloud has grown exponentially, while artificial intelligence is helping us do daily tasks from a variety of sources. Indeed, over 50% of internet traffic could come from internet of things (IoT) sensors by 2025. Put simply, its now increasingly easy for a person to plug in and work from anywhere  and workers increasingly want to do so.Second, the ability to work whenever, wherever, helps boost personal productivity. Interactions with others in the right community or location can help spark great ideas, and the benefits of moving to new places keeps employees from falling into a rut  and having their productivity get stuck along with them. Finally, as employees see the potential upside to flexible working, businesses, too, are seeing gains. Financially, the cost savings of flexible working versus fixed real estate can range from 5% to 75%, while strategic scalability is becoming ever more important in our fast-paced world.For landlords, this boom means three key things for the way they view  and conduct  business in the era of flexible working.The best way landlords can ensure theyre keeping up with the workplace revolution is by joining in. This doesnt mean abandoning conventional leases completely of course, but rather by adding flexible workspace into their portfolio. Doing so will provide an option to tenants without removing the choice to have a long-term, traditional lease.One way to do this is splitting the project down the middle with a flexible workspace provider. This allows the same building to cater to businesses that may only be in the market for a flexible lease, as well as larger businesses interested in long-term contracts. Whats more, opening even a few floors in a classic office building that are designed for flexible working can help attract tenants that may become long-term customers with more traditional leases.Another way to do this is by flexible workspace providers meeting traditional landlords in the middle on lease terms, by signing a long-term lease and taking on the risk of the space. By committing to a ten-year lease, agile working companies can offer property owners the security of a long let while giving tenants the shorter-term, adaptable contracts they crave.Either way, partnering with flexible workspace providers can help traditional landlords make this leap. Agile office experts will be able to offer the service quickly and efficiently due to their experience in the area. Otherwise, traditional landlords face a steep learning curve when trying out the new model  and they may not be able to adapt quickly enough to meet demand. A strategic partnership can close this gap.All regional hospitals have been automated ...Microphone and US Flag View Photos

During the Democratic Weekly Address, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) stated that the tax bill, court rulings, and pension cuts are threats facing American workers.

Brown was Tuesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Im Sherrod Brown, Senator from Ohio, and dont you dare call our state the Rust Belt.

It demeans our workers, it devalues our work.

Think about what Martin Luther King said, All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance. He told the Local 1199 hospital workers union, No labor is really menial unless youre not getting adequate wages  something thats too often the case today.

All work has dignity. Thats what Labor Day is all about.

Each year on Labor Day, we honor the men and the women who built this country and who continue to power our economy to this day. I want to thank those workers, particularly thank the workers who arent able to spend today, this holiday, with families and friends at picnics and barbecues, because those workers dont have the day off. They work hard to support their families, too often with too little pay.

American workers are our greatest asset; they are the engine behind our nations success for generations  whether they punch a time sheet or make a salary or earn tips. Whether they work behind a desk or a restaurant counter, on a factory floor, on a construction site, or in a hospital.

Yet for too many of these workers, their hard work doesnt pay off. Corporate profits are up. Executive salaries have gone up dramatically. Stock prices have gone up. Workers are ever more productive. But wages have barely budged. In fact, under this administration, wages have actually declined.

These are Americans doing everything we ask of them, everything thats been asked of them. They get up every day, they go to work, they do their jobs, they hold up their end of the bargain  the bargain were supposed to have in this country.

But the corporations they work for dont pay them what theyre worth.

Wall Street rewards corporations that cut costs and Wall Street punishes companies that invest in their workforce. Too often, workers are nothing more than a line item in a budget  a cost to be minimized.

More businesses use temp workers and contractors and subcontractors. They pay lower wages, they provide less job security, fewer benefits, and almost no legal protections.

And workers get squeezed at both ends. Paychecks arent growing fast enough, yet workers budgets are stretched thin with the rising cost of darn near everything  housing, prescription drugs, college tuition, so much more.

We need to overhaul how we think about the American economy.

We know first of all, corporations dont drive the economy, workers do. We grow the economy from the middle class out, not from the top down. Might be interesting to know that just this week, the FDIC announced that bank profits have continued to skyrocket, yet middle class wages have shrunk.*

If work isnt valued, Americans cant earn their way to a better life for their families, no matter how hard they work.

Last years tax bill was an opportunity to reset our priorities by focusing on American workers, focusing on the businesses that invest in them. A bunch of Democrats, a bunch of us, had plans to cut taxes for millions of American workers and businesses that create jobs here in the U.S. We fought to expand the earned-income tax credit and the child tax credit that reward work to put more money directly into the pockets of working families.

We worked to cut taxes for businesses, but only those businesses that treat their workers well and keep jobs in the United States. We want to encourage them to create even more good-paying jobs in the US, instead of rewarding them for sending jobs overseas.

But of course we know what happened.

Special interests went to work, Republicans rejected the Patriot Corporation Act. The result was a GOP tax bill that, again, rewards multinational corporations that ship jobs overseas and, of course, rewarding their CEOs.

While the typical pharmacy worker or restaurant cook or cashier or janitor in Cleveland or Cincinnati or Dayton or Mansfield  while the typical worker is getting an average tax cut of just 30-something dollars a month, someone making $800,000 a year gets a $5,100 tax cut every single month.

The bill actually created a new set of incentives  get this  to reward corporations that outsource jobs. It basically says, it basically hands out a 50 percent off coupon to companies that shut down in Youngstown and move to Mexico. They pay 21 percent rate. Corporations if youre producing in Ohio in the United States, you move offshore, youll only pay 10.5 percent. It really is a 50 percent coupon off on their tax bill. Why would our government do that? Why would these special interests that run the Trump administration and the Congress possibly do that?

This tax bill, though, is far from the only threat American workers face.

Extremist judges, from the Supreme Court on, hand down decision after decision siding with corporations, choosing corporations over workers, corporations over  over  consumers, limiting workers power in the workplace.

The Supreme Court consistently stands on the side of large companies  companies that outsource jobs, instead of siding with workers. And its getting worse.

Right now more than a million and a half Americans live under the looming threat of drastic cuts to the pensions they earned over a lifetime of hard work.

Millions of Americans work long hours, but struggle to get by and dont feel like anyone notices or cares  a feeling captured pretty well by something my friend Ohioan Rita Lewis said.

Rita is the widow of the teamster Butch Lewis and she had become an advocate herself fighting for the pensions workers earned.

Rita said, Its like were invisible.

To the millions of American workers working too many hours for too little pay, let me tell you, you arent invisible to me, you are not invisible to Democratic officeholders in this country.

We see you. We hear you. We fight for you.

We fight for paid family leave. We fight for sick leave. We fight for overtime pay. We fight to give workers a say on the job. We fight to save Americas pensions. We fight for those small businesses that are helping in our pension system. We want to make it easy for everyone to save for retirement.

We work to encourage companies to invest in their greatest asset  you, the American worker. Thats what Democrats fight for on Labor Day. Thats what well fight for tomorrow. Thats what well fight for the rest of the year and next year too, every day throughout the year. Happy Labor Day to Americas great workforce  the American worker. Thank you so much.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.Washington, DC  Tuolumne County Supervisor Randy Hanvelt, and around 40 other county leaders from across the country, will be meeting with members of Congress and the Trump administration this week in Washington, DC.

Hanvelt is in the nations capital with members of the National Association of Counties, of which, we reported recently that he is the groups chairman of the Public Lands Policy Steering Committee. In that capacity, he has authored a new myMotherLode.com blog entitled Wildfires Underscore Need to Support the Frontlines.

He writes about the unique challenges local governments face to help maintain public lands. Roughly 77-percent of Tuolumne County is federally owned. He also writes about the importance of reauthorizing the federal Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act that was first passed in 1976 and is set to expire at the end of this month.

You can read the blog by clicking here.Oliver and Terry Holler During A Past Visit To Railtown 1897 View Photos

Jamestown, CA  Fans of the film Back to the Future III, which was filmed heavily in Tuolumne County, will be coming from around the world this weekend to celebrate it and raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research.

The organizers of the upcoming events in the Red Hills area, Columbia State Park, and Railtown 1897 are Oliver and Terry Holler. They were featured in news stories, and even a documentary film, years back, for their efforts to build a replica of the Delorean time machine seen in the film and travel to all 50 states to raise money for Foxs foundation. Of course Fox, along with Christopher Lloyd, starred in the classic movie. Many locals still tell stories about the pair visiting various businesses and restaurants around Sonora and Jamestown during the filming.

Shooting of the final film in the trilogy began in 1989 and a set was built in the Red Hills area to depict the fictional town of Hill Valley in 1885. It was utilized for other films in the few years that past, but it was unfortunately destroyed by wildfire around 1995. Another local filming location for Back to the Future III was Railtown 1897 (the site of various locomotive scenes).

Oliver Holler tells Clarke Broadcasting that they have received permission from Universal Studios to show the film this Friday evening from the site of the original set. There will be an outdoor movie studio constructed to replicate the Pohatchee Outdoor Theatre from the film. Tickets are very limited for Friday evening, and more information can be found by clicking here.

On Saturday evening there will be a Hill Valley Town Festival, similar to what was witnessed in the film, at Columbia State Park. It will include a dedication of the clock tower, numerous games and the Delorean time machine on display. There is no fee to enter the park on Saturday night but there will be various things to take part in for different levels of donations. Oliver adds, Theres a lot to do, and you can spend as much or as little as you like, but again it all benefits the Michael J. Fox foundation.

Then on Sunday, for a $200 donation, you can ride the Sierra #3 train used in the film and take a ride in the Delorean on the tracks. It is among various Back to the Future themed events planned for Railtown. Click here for more details.

When asked if he expects a big gathering of fans, Oliver replies, We know for a fact that we have Back to the Future fans coming from all over the world. We have people confirmed coming in from Russia, Scotland, Denmark, France, Poland and Arkansas.

He ended the interview by emphasizing, Well see you in the future.A Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang member has been arrested after Border Patrol agents apprehended a group of suspected undocumented immigrants.

READ MORE: Man receives life sentence for sexually abusing girlfriend's daughter

The arrest happened Tuesday when agents stationed in Hebbronville encountered the group in the Mestena Ranch walking through the brush. All nine were immediately arrested and taken into custody.

While they were in custody, a background check revealed one of them has an association with MS-13. He also had several tattoos indicative of Mara Salvatrucha membership.

Mara Salvatrucha is an international criminal gang that started in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and later spread to other parts of North, Central and South America. They are also thought to have a presence in several other countries worldwide.

READ MORE: Woman arrested for biting teenage brother after argument, LPD says

MS-13 is believed to be responsible for significant human, drug and weapons trafficking into the United States. They are known for their use of extreme violence to accomplish their illegal activities, and for retaliation, Border Patrol said.Covenant Health Plainview recently received some praise from the Texas Department of State Health Services for exceptional achievement in its immunization efforts.

State representative Josephine Lumines, MSN, RN visited the hospital on behalf of the Immunization Action Coalition to recognize Covenant Plainview's Women Services Department for its exceptional achievement.

Lumines said the hospital was named to the Hepatitis B Birth Dose Honor Roll for its noteworthy dedication to patient safety by establishing a policy to administer the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine to newborns prior to hospital discharge and achieving a coverage rate of 99 percent.

Covenant Health Plainview has been on the honor roll twice, once in 2017 and in 2016 where the hospital hit 100 percent coverage.

Lumines said the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine is critical to safeguarding all infants from the viral infection which can lead to chronic liver disease.

"We are so proud of your hospital," said Lumines as she spoke to Covenant Health Plainview staff.

Covenant Health Plainview women service's manager, Danette Howell, said the high coverage rate is mostly attributed to their nurse's dedication to educating the patient.

"The vaccine is available to everyone, of course the parent needs to sign a consent, but we talk to them about the benefits of the vaccine and what it's preventing. They get a really good education about the purpose of it."

The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) is funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The IAC say they work to increase immunization rates and prevent disease by creating and distributing educational materials for healthcare professionals and the public to enhance the delivery of safe and effective immunization services.

Lumines said newborns can contract the hepatitis B shortly after birth, so receiving the vaccine as soon as possible is ideal.Had his life been a song, it would have been Big John. If a folk tale, Paul Bunyan. If a military hero, pick your favorite, and hed have a lot of Joaquin Jackson in him.

And this veteran lawman charged with peace-keeping over a vast West Texas expanse bigger than some states was perhaps as colorful as Judge Roy Bean. (Bean, a justice of the peace with a courtroom in his saloon, is remembered for law west of the Pecos.)

Jackson resigned at the age of 57. Political correctness was taking a foothold, and he didnt like what he saw coming. A Texas Ranger from 1966-1993, he decided to open a private investigation office in Alpine, where he lived until his death this summer at age 80.

By all accounts -- many of which were shared following his July memorial service in Alpine -- he was as square a shooter as ever lived, although he never fired a fatal shot. He even befriended prisoners. Once, hearing Johnny Rodriguez singing from his cell, Joaquin arranged for him to meet music promoter Happy Shahan. Soon, Rodriguez was a sensation, named country musics vocalist of the year in 1973.

The lawmans lawman, Jackson was a beloved figure, vividly remembered for public service though 23 years removed from it. Some 500 people, many of them law figures, gathered in his memory.

A couple of notables - Gov. Rick Perry and renowned Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin -- spoke, as did the preacher at the local cowboy church.

Edward DeWees III, Joaquins third cousin, idolized his kin. He named his dog Ranger, and when he opened his San Antonio dream store a few years ago, the name honored his esteemed cousin: Ranger Firearms. To promote the store, Jackson drove to San Antonio to tape radio commercials.

It was DeWees who first understood why there were two small holes dug next to the grave of Shirley Jackson, Joaquins widow, who died three years ago.

One was to hold his cremains; the other, the cremains of Will, his spirited Schnauzer who died earlier this year after a lifetime of devotion. One vessel -- Joaquins cigar humidor -- held two bunches of cigars, two bottled libations, his ever-present alarm clock, a wooden cross, a bullet collection, a package of Natural American Spirit cigarettes and a figurine of a little white dog. The other held Wills collar and a fancy blue bandanna.

Jackson so embodied the spirit of Texas -- where words meant bonds and handshakes sealed them -- he played in numerous movies with such well-known actors as Tommy Lee Jones (Good Old Boys), Clint Eastwood (A Perfect World) and Robert Duvall (Wild Horses.)

Standing a full 6-5 and further defined by a mustache above his upper lip that became well salted to match hair above that had started out a deep black, Joaquin was a striking figure throughout his life. One fellow who knew him well said, Joaquin would charge hell with a handbucket. He embodied a quote which has no attribution: The knot is what binds us and forms the noose we cannot slip.

He served during an era when much had to be taken into ones own hands. He did so admirably.

Joaquin will be remembered for service rendered across the years, not just for a few words on a headstone. A new program to train students in the fight against terrorism is on the drawing boards at Sul Ross State University. It will bear the name Joaquin Jackson.

His is a name worthy of Googling. Dr. Walter Prescott Webb, one of Texas foremost historians, elevated Joaquin to legendary status in his writings about Texas. Webb respected him immensely.

Someone mentioned the one riot, one Ranger line, saying, For a really big riot, wed be best served if the Ranger was Joaquin. Jacksons photo adorns the cover of a 1994 Texas Monthly magazine. And the article therein provides vivid details.

Dr. Don Newbury is a speaker in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Comments/inquiries to newbury@speakerdoc.com. Phone 817-447-3872. Website www.speakerdoc.com.(Bloomberg) -- How do you stop President Donald Trump from pulling out of a trade deal? Remove the papers for doing so off his desk, apparently.

According to a Washington Post report, a new book on the Trump presidency by legendary journalist Bob Woodward includes details of how then-economic adviser Gary Cohn stopped the president from ordering an exit from Nafta and a trade deal with South Korea.

The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive resigned as head of Trumps National Economic Council earlier this year after failing to block new tariffs on steel and aluminum. But according to Woodward, he quietly saved the South Korea-U.S. trade agreement, known as Korus, when in 2017 he removed a letter off Trumps desk that the president planned to sign that would have ordered a U.S. withdrawal.

The stories in Woodwards book are wrong, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday. This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad, Sanders said. Cohn couldnt be reached for comment.

Cohn told a colleague that he stole the letter to protect national security, according to a copy of the book obtained by the Post, which is due for public release later this month. He also did something similar in the spring of 2017 when Trump was eager to pull out of Nafta.

At one point the president confronted Rob Porter, his staff secretary who had also taken a lead role in trade policy, over the failure to pull out of Nafta. Porter has since left the White House.

Tap, Tap

Why arent we getting this done? Do your job. Its tap, tap, tap. Youre just tapping me along. I want to do this, the Woodward book quotes Trump as saying.

According to the Post: Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from Nafta. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: I can stop this. Ill just take the paper off his desk."

Cohns intervention may have saved both Korus and Nafta. The U.S. last week announced it had reached a bilateral deal with Mexico to salvage Nafta and Washington on Wednesday is due to resume negotiations with Canada to stay in the pact. The administration also released the terms of a renegotiated Korus on Monday that makes what most trade experts consider to be only minor tweaks.

In a call with Woodward in early August, the president also seemed to have changed his tune on both. Im in the process of making some of the greatest trade deals ever to be made, Trump boasted, according to a transcript of the Aug. 14 interview with Woodward released by the Post.

(Updates with White House statement in fourth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Justin Sink.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shawn Donnan in Washington at sdonnan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Kennedy at skennedy4@bloomberg.net, Sarah McGregor, Randall Woods

2018 Bloomberg L.P.Either way you slice it, the home of one of San Antonios best sandwiches has plans for a new spot on the Northeast Side near the San Antonio airport.

Chef and owner Jorge Rojo said the new Ro-Ho Pork & Bread at 8617 N. New Braunfels could either be a second location for his restaurant, currently in operation downtown near West Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard and Santa Rosa Avenue, or a total move. Ro-Ho features a simple menu that focuses on pork carnitas served in nachos, tacos and in its torta ahogada, which was featured by the Express-News in April as one of five sandwiches to eat right now.The Democratic Republic of Congo's top court disqualified opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba from this year's presidential election because of his International Criminal Court conviction for witness-tampering.

The decision confirms the removal of a second key opponent from the race against President Joseph Kabila's anointed successor and increases the risk of protests by Bemba's supporters. It also raises questions about the credibility of the Dec. 23 vote in the cobalt-rich nation, which hasn't had a peaceful transfer of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

The Constitutional Court "confirms the ineligibility of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo for witness-tampering by resorting to corruption," according to a ruling broadcast on state television in the capital, Kinshasa, on Monday night. The electoral commission, known as CENI, initially excluded Bemba on Aug. 24, a decision that was unsuccessfully appealed by the major opposition party he leads, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo.

The court agreed with CENI that witness-tampering is a crime of corruption and therefore bars Bemba from standing for president under Congolese law. Bemba's party rejects this interpretation.

Kabila's ruling coalition has selected Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary as its candidate, ending months of speculation about whether the incumbent would seek to extend his 17-year rule and challenge a two-term limit imposed by the country's constitution. One of 15 Congolese politicians and military officials sanctioned in the past two years by the European Union, the 57-year-old Shadary is accused of human-rights abuses and undermining democracy.

An opinion poll published in July by New York University's Congo Research Group found that Bemba would come third in an election with 17 percent of the vote, two percentage points below businessman-turned-politician Moise Katumbi and Felix Tshisekedi, the head of the largest opposition group.

Congolese authorities refused to allow Katumbi, a one-time Kabila ally, into the country when he attempted to return in early August from two years of self-imposed exile to register as a presidential candidate.

Tshisekedi and Vital Kamerhe, who finished third in the last election in 2011, were authorized by CENI to participate in the election. Samy Badibanga, a Kabila prime minister, was readmitted on Monday after being ruled out by CENI, bringing the number of approved presidential candidates to 20.

Bemba, a vice president from 2003 to 2006, was acquitted of war crimes by the ICC in June and returned to Congo on Aug. 1 after a decade in detention.

Bemba finished second to Kabila in a presidential election in 2006. He was arrested in Belgium two years later and then sentenced by the ICC to 18 years in prison for murders and rapes committed in the early 2000s in the neighboring Central African Republic by fighters belonging to a Congolese rebel group he then led.KABUL, Afghanistan - A top leader of the Taliban, who was once an ally of the United States and later became one of its fiercest opponents in Afghanistan, has died, the Taliban announced on Tuesday.

The statement said that Mawlavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, leader of one of the most effective militant networks in Afghanistan, "passed away after a long battle with illness." It did not give an exact time or place of death.

Haqqani "was ill and bedridden for the past several years," the statement said. His sons long ago took over the day-to-day running of the network, and at a time of increased Taliban attacks on the government, his death is expected to have little impact.

Haqqani was among the main recipients of U.S. covert military and financial aid during the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet army in the 1980s. But he joined the radical Taliban movement after they took over the country in 1996.

When U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, he put his considerable military experience to fighting the Americans.

Hailing from a powerful Pashtun tribe in eastern Afghanistan, Haqqani had historical ties with some of the rich Arab nations and Pakistan, including its intelligence service. He set up his own front in the region and called it the Haqqani Network, even while still considering himself a member of the Taliban.

The network launched several high profile attacks against U.S. and Afghan troops. Now run by one of his sons, Sirajuddin Haqqani, it also has been behind a number of abductions of foreign nationals in Afghanistan.

Haqqani has lost a wife, four of his sons and several other family members in various U.S. airstrikes and attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan over the years.

One of his sons has been languishing for the past several years in an Afghan jail with a death sentence. The government, however, has reportedly hesitated to execute him because the network since 2016 has held captive two instructors who taught at American University in Kabul; one of them is an American citizen.

Haqqani's death was reported by Afghan government years ago, but it was never confirmed by the Taliban or his family members.

Observers, lawmakers and officials believe his demise will have no major impact on the mounting Taliban advances on the battlefield or on the efforts to revive stalled peace talks with the group.

Michael Kugelman, an expert on Afghanistan at the U.S.-based Wilson Center, also said that Haqqani's departure will not impact the current political or military situation in Afghanistan.

"Given how long he had been ill, his death won't have a big impact on the war. But still a major loss for the HQN [Haqqani Network]," he said in a tweet.

In its statement, the Taliban said Haqqani was one of the great figures of the movement that kept it united through the years.

"The actions and exploits of Haqqani Sahib and his untiring efforts to keep the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] united in the face of American invasion are golden chapters of history which future Islamic generations shall forever be proud of," it said.Arizona's governor picked former Sen. Jon Kyl, a Washington lobbyist and a Republican who left Congress in 2013, to temporarily fill John McCain's seat in the Senate, bolstering the chances for confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Kyl, 76, agreed to serve at least through the end of the year, Gov. Doug Ducey, R, told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. He hasn't committed to serving until 2020, when there would need to be a special election to fill the final two years of McCain's term.

Ducey announced his decision after a series of memorial services for McCain last week and his burial Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. McCain, a two-time presidential candidate, died Aug. 25 after a long struggle with brain cancer.

"I am deeply grateful to Senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years," Ducey wrote on Twitter. "Every single day that Jon Kyl represents #Arizona in the U.S. Senate is a day our state is well-served."

Kyl is a lawyer, who has been acting in recent weeks as the top liaison to the Senate on behalf of Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's nominee for the nation's highest court.

Kyl said in a statement: "There is much-unfinished business, including confirmation of President Trump's nominees for judicial and executive branch positions, and I look forward to getting to work on behalf of my fellow Arizonans."

Republicans have a very narrow majority in the 100-member Senate. Kyl would restore the 51st GOP vote.

If Kyl steps down at the end of the year, the governor would need to select another temporary replacement for the Senate seat, which was previously held by Barry Goldwater, a one-time Republican presidential candidate. Kyl has made clear that he won't run in the 2020 election, according to the New York Times.

Kyl served in the House before being elected to the Senate and serving three terms in that chamber, until leaving office in the beginning of January 2013. When Kyl announced he was stepping down, he said: "There's more to life than being a United States senator. I never anticipated I would be in public service for 26 years."

After leaving Congress, Kyl became a lobbyist.

He also has been conducting an internal review for Facebook Inc. amid allegations of anti-conservative bias in the company's treatment of content. Trump spent much of last week repeating the claim that Facebook and other social media companies censor conservatives.

The companies largely reject the accusation. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, is due to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday on foreign attempts to meddle in U.S. politics using the platforms, and is likely to face questions about the alleged bias.

Through his entire Senate career, he served largely in the national shadow of McCain. He rose through the party's Senate leadership ranks to become the No. 2 Republican under then Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is now majority leader.

McConnell on Tuesday praised Kyl's selection. "His constituents will be well-served by Jon's significant congressional experience and leadership," McConnell said in a statement.

Kyl's understated demeanor belied his role as one of the toughest opponents of former President Barack Obama's policies.

As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Kyl battled Obama to preserve President George W. Bush's tax cuts. On the Judiciary Committee and as a lawmaker from a state that shares a border with Mexico, Kyl had a key role in the debate over immigration law.

McCain's wife, Cindy McCain, who had been described by supporters as a possible choice to succeed her husband, tweeted her support Monday for Kyl.

"John Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's," she wrote, misspelling his first name. "It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."

For Ducey, who faces re-election in November, Kyl was both a safe and solid choice, said Stan Barnes, a GOP political consultant in the state.

"He's respected by a broad constituency in Arizona and revered by Republicans in Arizona," Barnes said. "Of all the scenarios of replacing the irreplaceable John McCain, the is the best scenario."

Dan Eberhart, the chief executive officer of Canary LLC, an oilfield services company, and a major Republican donor, said Kyl is a "very high quality, consensus pick as Gov. Ducey tries to appease the Trump and McCain factions of the Arizona GOP."

As of the end of the second quarter, Kyl served as an outside lobbyist through his law firm, Covington & Buring LLP, for at least one client, according to government disclosures. In recent months, though, his lobbying work with Northrop Grumman Corp., the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America trade group, Qualcomm Inc. and Georgetown University has ended, the disclosures say.

Kyl is considered an expert on water and natural resources issues. The Kyl Center for Water Policy is housed at the Morrison Institute at Arizona State University.

--With assistance from Bloomberg's Ben Brody.WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department on Monday in connection with the indictments of two GOP congressmen on corruption charges, saying they could hurt the Republican Party in the midterm elections.

"Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department," he said on Twitter. "Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time."

"Good job Jeff......" he added, in a sarcastic comment. Calling the agency the "Jeff Sessions Justice Department" is the president's ultimate insult, Trump advisers say.

Trump did not address the charges themselves or name the congressmen, but the tweet was apparently referring to the indictments this summer of Reps. Chris Collins of New York and Duncan D. Hunter of California, the president's two earliest congressional endorsers.

Collins was charged with insider trading, accused by federal prosecutors of tipping off his son about a biotechnology company's failed drug trial to avoid significant investment losses. The alleged tip-off took place not during the Obama administration, as Trump's tweet suggests, but in 2017, after Trump had become president.

Hunter was charged with using more than $250,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses, including family vacations, school tuition and theater tickets.

Collins has suspended his reelection campaign, while Hunter is running for reelection, alleging political bias by the Justice Department.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., criticized the president's tweet. "The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice - one for the majority party and one for the minority party. These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began," he said in a statement.

A few minutes after the tweet on Sessions, Trump added a second tweet attacking former FBI director James B. Comey, asserting that Democrats did not like Comey until Trump fired him in 2017.

"The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin' James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!"

The tweet on Sessions was an unusually harsh salvo, even for a president who sometimes expresses his thoughts on Twitter to the chagrin of his staff. The tweet indicated that his attorney general should base law enforcement actions on how it could affect the president and the Republican Party's electoral success. It also seemed to indicate that electoral popularity should influence charges.

There has typically been a separation between the White House and the Justice Department, but Trump has frequently disregarded those norms, giving orders to Sessions. Sessions recently pushed back, saying publicly that he will not allow political manipulation of the department.

Trump recently told Bloomberg News that he would keep Sessions as attorney general until after the midterm elections.

"Repeatedly trying to pervert DOJ into a weapon to go after his adversaries, and now shamelessly complaining that DOJ should protect his political allies to maintain his majority in the midterms, is nothing short of an all-out assault on the rule of law," former deputy attorney general Sally Yates said in a statement Monday.

Trump's attacks on Sessions - and his efforts to force his attorney general to quit his post after Sessions recused himself from the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election - are now part of an obstruction investigation into the president by special counsel Robert Mueller and his team.

Also under investigation is Trump's conduct in dismissing Comey, particularly why he fired him and whether he pressured him to be generous to Michael Flynn, the president's former national security adviser. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Trump stayed at the White House on Monday, watching television. He emerged earlier in the day, apparently about to join a waiting motorcade, before returning inside.

The White House had no comment on Trump's tweets but said he decided to not leave the White House and focus on trade calls.WASHINGTON - In a transcript of a conversation released Tuesday between author Bob Woodward and President Donald Trump, the commander in chief repeatedly complains that none of the half-dozen or so of his top aides and confidantes had passed along the journalist's request for an interview for his forthcoming book, "Fear," about the Trump presidency.

"I never got a call," Trump laments. "I never got a message. Who did you ask about speaking to me?"

The exchange between the two men reveals much, but nothing so interesting as the pathway one apparently needs to take to reach Trump's ear. So who knows the route?

Well, it's not adviser Kellyanne Conway. Woodward had lunch with her and the two apparently talked extensively about Woodward getting some facetime with Trump, per the transcript. Conway, who entered the conversation at one point, said she passed along the request but didn't take it to Trump directly.

Not deputy press secretary Raj Shah, who one would expect would be the most direct contact for a journalist. "I don't speak to Raj," Trump said. Ouch.

Not Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., or several other unidentified senators who Woodward says he spoke to about a possible interview. Graham mentioned it, Trump said, but only "quickly."

The sole way of reaching Trump, according to the president himself, is a woman named Madeleine. "Did you speak to Madeleine?" the president asked Woodward.

No, the journalist replied.

"Madeleine is the key," Trump said. "She's the secret. Because she's the person ..."

Trump didn't finish the thought, alas. But his description of Madeleine Westerhout, his 27-year-old executive assistant, piqued our interest.

Here's what we know about the surprisingly powerful aide: Westerhout first came to public attention in 2016 as the "greeter girl" for dignitaries visiting then President-elect Trump at Trump Tower. At the time, she was assistant to Republican National Committee chief of staff Katie Walsh. Previously, the College of Charleston grad had interned for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, been a volunteer coordinator for former South Carolina senator John Kuhn, and interned for former congressman John Campbell, R-Calif., according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

"Inside Edition's" headline about the brunette identified the "mystery woman" in front of Trump Tower's elevator cams as an "ex-fitness instructor," which the California native poked fun of on Twitter. "Love that I'm an 'ex-fitness instructor' but I only taught Pure Barre part time for a couple years ... my #1 priority has always been the RNC!" she wrote.

From her role with the transition team, Westerhout was among a slew of RNC staffers named to White House roles. Some of her fellow RNC alums haven't lasted at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer and Walsh have all since departed. But Westerhout's clout has only grown.

According to the most recent listing of West Wing staff titles and salaries, Westerhout makes $130,000. In addition to being Trump's "executive assistant," she also has the title of "special assistant to the president," a designation among the senior staff of the White House that ranks below "assistant to the president" (Conway is one) and "deputy assistant to the president" (Shah is in this group).

Other things we know about Westerhout from her Twitter feed: She's fashionable - and frugal. (She shared a purchase of suede bow-accented stilettos she scored on upscale consignment site Poshmark.) She's a Washington Capitals fan. And maybe a little into Prince Harry? "Meghan Markle living every American girl's dream right now," she wrote on the day of the royal wedding.

Trump is accustomed to having an underling who serves as his gatekeeper: For years, anyone wanting to reach Trump would do well to put in a line to Rhona Graff, his longtime personal assistant/secretary/lady Friday. "If I wanted to get something to Trump without calling his cellphone, I'd send it to Rhona," one Trump confidante told Politico in 2017.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 3)  The parents of Mary Jane Veloso have called on the Supreme Court (SC) to allow her to testify against her alleged recruiters from her cell in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

In a petition filed Monday, Cesar and Cecilia Veloso urged the SC to junk the Court of Appeal's (CA) previous decision blocking their daughter from giving a testimony in deposition in connection with the criminal cases in the Philippines against her alleged illegal recruiters Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao.

Veloso was arrested in an Indonesian airport in 2010 after 2.6 kilograms of heroin were found in her luggage. She was sentenced to death for drug offenses.

In 2015, however, Veloso was granted last-minute reprieve from execution by firing squad, following then President Benigno Aquino's appeal to turn her into a witness.

A Nueva Ecija court ordered the Philippine consulate in Indonesia to keep her deposition from her cell. But Veloso's alleged recruiters appealed to the CA to junk the decision, arguing that allowing Veloso to testify overseas violates Section 14 of the 1987 Constitution, stating that accused must meet witnesses face to face. The CA, in a resolution dated December 13, 2017, agreed with Sergio and Lacanilao.

On January 23, the Office of Solicitor General filed an appeal to reconsider the resolution, but the CA's former 11th Division, in a decision released June 5, junked the motion.

The CA argued that reconsidering the decision would disregard the Constitution.

But in their petition, Veloso's parents said reversing the ruling is not against the law.

"Seemingly, Mary Jane's case was judged on the basis of the a priori assumption that the lack of confrontation between a prosecution witness and the accused in the flesh will violate such accused's rights. This is not true. The deposition in issue is in fact not without precedent and finds support in American jurisprudence and rules," the petition reads.

Her parents further argued that such had "been allowed to further important societal interests, like protecting children victims of abuse from the trauma of meeting their abuser in court."

"To bar Mary Jane from testifying will prevent the prosecution from fully presenting their case by means of crucial material evidence, thereby denying the victim of her opportunity to finally be heard," the parents said.

They added that the issuance of the injunction "is a grave injustice."

"It is a curtailment of her right to be heard as well as the public's right to know the truth," the Veloso's said.

They also asked the SC to order the Nueva Ecija court to stop conducting further proceedings in the case pending resolution on the appeal.Schertz City Council spent a sizable portion of its Aug. 28 meeting wrestling with how that community should grow  and how to pay for it.

Following a special Aug. 3 council meeting and three community presentations, council members first held a sparsely attended public hearing and then a long debate over the citys proposed 2018-2019 $33 million budget.

The city staffs recommendation is to raise property tax rates in Schertz from the current 49.10 cents per $100 of assessed value to 51.46 cents. If passed, that rate  the highest that can be set without triggering a community vote  would mean a tax increase of approximately $52 on the citys average home value of $221,729, a fact that generated some angst on the council.

The problem, explained acting City Manager Brian James, is that in the last several years weve been so focused on keeping up with new growth and development, adding some expanded programs that the community wants. That has come at the cost of not keeping up our existing facilities.

Local roads dont get timely repairs, city parks need upgrades, equipment breaks and were struggling to find funds to fix all of it, he added. Schertz has issued debt in the form of certificate of obligation bonds for some of the funding, but, James said, we cant keep kicking the can down the road.

Its gotten to the point that we have to find a real cost-effective and sustainable way to deal with it, which is to really be able to put substantially more money toward maintaining our existing facilities, particularly parks, city buildings, streets and sidewalks.

The 51-cent tax rate would generate an additional $600,000 total to maintain the citys streets and sidewalks, parks and city buildings, City Finance Director James Walters said, pointing to a long list of maintenance projects that have been put off for lack of funding.

That part of the budget presentation came with some irony. The air conditioning unit serving council chambers had broken down, and a large blower in the back of the room vainly worked to provide relief from 100-degree temperatures outside. In addition, Walters noted, the air conditioner at the police department is also broken, and estimates are that it will take between $8,000 to $10,000 to fix it.

The citys budget situation has also been hit by a loss of revenues. In 2009, the Texas Legislature passed a bill eliminating all homestead property taxes for veterans with a 100 percent disability rating from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2011, the state extended that exemption to veterans spouses.

The original effect was minor, but in subsequent years, fast-growing communities near Texas military installations are finding the lost taxes an increasing problem. Walters estimated Schertz will lose as much as $1.4 million in property taxes this year because of the exemptions.

And, he added, a council-directed shift in police policy  moving away from ticketing motorists on IH-35 to increased neighborhood patrols  has cut those revenues in recent years, from $1.5 million in 2012 to an estimated $382,000 in 2019.

In the meantime, costs to provide established services continue to rise, Walter said, noting a new city fire station about to open and a 47 percent increase for electrical services over the past six years as examples. James added that the citys plan to increase employee compensation, begun last year, also had several years to go.

Council members said they understood the problem, but struggled to identify solutions that didnt include raising taxes or cutting popular city programs.

Councilman Scott Larson, comparing the citys finances with a typical homeowners, said Schertz has lists of things it needs and things it wants. Some of those wants, Larson said, can be cut to save money.

Among them, he listed elimination of the citys shredding events, closing two of the communitys three swimming pools and converting them into free splash pads, halting free lunches at the Schertz senior center for non-residents, not printing the citys monthly magazine and offering it only online, reducing the number of local parks and, finally, not creating any new parks, leaving land as dedicated undeveloped green space.

These proposals are not going to be popular. There are going to be people who kick and scream no matter what we do, Larson told the council. But the fact is we can actually improve the quality of our parks, improve the quality of our roads, and we could do it with a lower tax rate.

Councilman Mark Davis agreed with Larson that there were potential savings in the budget. But, he added, for the past five years, our tax rate has gone down in the city. To be honest, Im not sure that was the smartest thing to be doing. If we had maintained our tax rate at what it was five years ago, all the conversations were having this month (on the budget) probably wouldnt exist.

Councilman David Scagliola said if the new tax rate was set at its highest level, there would be no real incentive for the city to look for savings. And I havent found that theres a lot of emphasis in perhaps cutting back on some of these services, he added.

Mayor Michael Carpenter complimented council members for their thoughtful and respectful dialogue, and he encouraged them to meet with the acting city manager for guidance on setting the budget and tax rate.

A second public hearing and the first council vote on a 2018-2019 tax rate was scheduled for Tuesday (Sept. 4), after the Northeast Heralds press deadline. By state mandate, a second and final vote on the rate must take place at the Sept. 11 council meeting to allow the new budget to go into effect Oct. 1.A San Antonio man was arrested Sunday after he continuously harassed his ex-girlfriend, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

Robert Joseph Ortiz, 45, was charged with stalking after his ex-girlfriend called deputies on him multiple times, according to his arrest affidavit.SAN ANTONIO - Heavy rain caused flash flooding Monday night in northern Bexar County and extending into Comal County. Some areas had up to 9 inches of rain, and water rose on some roadways, including Interstate 10.

Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said via social media that parts of San Antonio had up to 6.07 inches of rain, which "smashes" the daily rainfall record of 1.76 inches from 1889.

Over 9 inches of rain was observed around Stone Oak Parkway, and more than 8 inches between Shavano Park and Camp Bullis, according to the NWS website.

HIGH WATER: Current Bexar County road closures

The weather service extended a Flash Flood Warning until 10:00 a.m. Tuesday for parts of Bexar and Comal counties. Another 1 to 2 inches of rain are possible. The flash flood warning is also active for Timberwood Park, Helotes and Hollywood Park.

Water rose around I-10 and Loop 410 and I-10 and Wurzbach Parkway on the Northwest Side. Flooding was also reported at Interstate 1604 and U.S. 281, including the TPC Parkway.

The City of San Antonio is reporting 25 street closures due to flooding as of 9:05 a.m.

Other places that could see flooding overnight include Canyon Lake, Fair Oaks Ranch, Bulverde, Shavano Park, Hollywood Park, Cross Mountain, Smithson Valley, Timberwood Park, Leon Springs, The Dominion, Hill Country Village, Grey Forest, Anhalt, Startzville and Scenic Oaks.

FORECAST: Wet week ahead for San Antonio

The weather service warns drivers to turn around and not drive through standing water, especially at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding.

As of 9:05 a.m., CPS Energy reported more than 5,602 customers without power in Bexar County. The largest zip code affected  78249 in the Northwest Side  reported more than 1,200 outages.

Officials said that excessive runoff from heavy rainfall will cause the flooding of small creeks and streams, country roads, farmland, and other low lying spots. Drivers are urged to seek an alternate route around flooded roads.

jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSAMichael Cohens decision to plead guilty for making hush-money payments on Donald Trumps behalf has raised the prospect that if Democrats take control of Congress, they might try to impeach the president over a matter completely unrelated to a perceived criminal conspiracy with Russia.

Good luck with that: Even if Democrats win back both the House and Senate, there is zero chance a two-thirds majority of senators will convict President Trump for paying off an adult-film star.

It would be the height of hypocrisy if Democrats tried to remove the president over allegations of illegality relating to extramarital affairs. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, congressional Democrats told us the private sexual conduct of a president does not matter, and that lying under oath to cover up a consensual relationship is not an impeachable offense.

Then-Rep. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said President Bill Clintons lies under oath about his sexual relationship with a White House intern might have been illegal, but declared the scandal a tawdry but not impeachable affair  right before heading off to a fundraiser with Clinton.

At the time, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., declared that the Starr investigation vindicates President Clinton in the conduct of his public life because were only left with this personal stuff and that Founding Fathers would say it was not for the investigation of a presidents personal life that we risked our life, our liberty, and our sacred honor.

But now that a Republican president is accused of covering up an affair, suddenly Democrats are channeling their inner Kenneth W. Starr.

Today, Democrats are outraged and appalled when Trump attacks special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and calls his inquiry a witch hunt. But back then, then-Sen. Joe Biden called the Starr investigation ... wait for it ... a witch hunt.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., declared Starr was out of control and accused him of having a fixation of trying to topple the president of the United States.

Rahm Emanuel, then a White House senior adviser, accused Starr of engaging in a partisan political pursuit of the president while White House special counsel Lanny Davis (who is now representing Cohen) said Starr was a desperate prosecutor who cant make a case on Whitewater and who should face possible removal because of his conduct.

The fact is, Democrats were not alone in their concern that an investigation into Whitewater morphed into a perjury probe against Clinton for lying about his relationship with Lewinsky. Many Republicans agreed that independent counsels had too much power. So in 1999, the GOP-controlled Congress, in its wisdom, let the independent counsel law expire. We were promised that investigators answerable to the Justice Department would be more focused on their original purpose.

Well, it seems like were right back where we started. Federal prosecutors were supposed to be investigating Russian collusion. Instead, we have an inquiry into the Trump Organizations finances and whether Trumps payments to Stormy Daniels violated campaign-finance laws. Both might be worthy of scrutiny but at least under the precedent Democrats set during the 1990s, they are not grounds for impeachment.

If Democrats do try to impeach Trump over anything but a criminal conspiracy with Russia, they will regret it. The president was legitimately elected by Americans who knew about his lecherous past and supported him anyway. Indeed, Trumps election was a direct result of the Democrats victory in the culture war of the 1990s. Republicans are now simply playing by the rules Democrats established. Millions of Americans absorbed the lesson that Clinton and his Democratic enablers taught us  that a presidents personal stuff, as Pelosi put it, does not matter  and chose Trump. They will consider any effort to impeach him over it an effort to invalidate their votes.

This does not mean Trump is out of the woods legally. Once he leaves office, Trump may have to face consequences for anything illegal he might have done. When Clinton left office, he was forced to give up his Arkansas law license for five years and paid a $25,000 fine as part of a deal with the independent counsel to avoid a perjury prosecution  which resulted in him being disbarred from practicing law before the Supreme Court.

If Mueller finds conclusive evidence that Trump entered into a criminal conspiracy with Russia, then by all means impeach away. But absent such evidence, the idea that Stormy Daniels is going to bring down Trump is a liberal fantasy. If Democrats are upset that they cannot remove Trump over this, well, sorry  they set the precedent.President Donald Trumps bigoted hatred of Latino immigrants has been clear from the beginning. Now his administration is aggressively persecuting Latino citizens as well.

It is hard to be shocked anymore, given the multiple daily outrages committed by Trump and his minions, but a report Thursday by the Washington Post was jaw-dropping: In the borderlands of southern Texas, the State Department is denying passports to hundreds and perhaps thousands of men and women who have official birth certificates demonstrating they were born in the United States.

In some cases, valid passports have been confiscated and revoked, their holders stranded in Mexico, unable to come home. In other cases, people have been arrested, sent to detention centers and slated for deportation. Imagine how they and their American families must feel  and how their distress must make Trump and his fellow xenophobes feel warm inside.

Denial of passports effectively renders the victims stateless  meaning they cannot travel outside the country, because they would not be re-admitted  and potentially vulnerable to being deported. Again, these are people who have government-issued birth certificates, long accepted as gold-standard proof of citizenship. The Trump administration simply doesnt see Latinos as full-fledged Americans.

The Post quoted a 40-year-old man named Juan  he didnt want his last name used for fear of being targeted  who has a birth certificate stating he was born in the Texas border city of Brownsville. He served his country for three years in the U.S. Army, then was a cadet in the Border Patrol, and now works as a Texas state prison guard. But when he applied to renew his passport this year, the State Department responded with a letter saying it didnt believe he was a citizen.

It is important to understand that for Americans who live along the border, a passport is a necessity. People flow back and forth across the Rio Grande all the time to work, make business deals, see family or perhaps just try out a trendy new restaurant.

There is a backstory: In the 1990s, several Texas midwives admitted accepting bribes to falsely claim that some Mexican infants were born in the United States. These same midwives, however, also delivered many more Latino babies, at least tens of thousands, who were legitimately born in the United States. From official records, it is impossible to tell the difference.

The Trump administration appears to be denying passports simply because the applicant is Latino, was born in south Texas and was delivered by a midwife  something the federal government explicitly promised not to do in a 2009 court settlement with the ACLU.

The administration claims there has been no change in policy. But the Post quoted immigration lawyers who say there has been a dramatic surge in passport denials.

In Juans case, the State Department demanded he produce documents including proof of his mothers prenatal care in the United States, his baptismal certificate and rental agreements from when he was an infant. He managed to find some of this obscure material  and yet his passport application was denied a second time.

A military veteran who served his country was told that it isnt his country after all.

Think how you would feel if this nightmare were happening to you. Like everyone else, you have no memory of the details of your birth. You only know what your parents have told you and what the official records say, all of which is almost surely true. Suddenly, because of your Latino heritage, your core identity is challenged and your right to live in the United States is threatened.

If the government had specific evidence that an individuals birth certificate was falsified, then we could have a debate about the right thing to do. But this administration is assuming that a person of a certain ethnicity, recorded as being born in a certain part of the country and meeting other unspecified criteria, is de facto not a citizen  and has the burden of proving otherwise.

At this point, the Trump administration has the burden of proving this is anything other than vile, unadulterated racism.

Trump launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers. His administration cruelly separated nearly 3,000 Central American children from their families and seeks to make their parents ineligible for asylum. His clear message to would-be Latino immigrants is: No admission.

And now, an equally blunt message for lifelong Latino citizens: Go away.

eugenerobinson@washpost.comRe: Unwelcome inspiration; Women recount disturbing encounters with S.A.s muse poet, front page, Aug. 19:

Lauren Carubas article refers to the governing metaphor common among artists  namely, the Muse.

To those unfamiliar with the Muse allusion, its important to understand the inherent power of creativity associated with it. As a controlling metaphor it can be a spiritual force, a tangible reality or both. In fact, poets and artists are part of that notorious company of travelers bound for Parnassus, the mythic home of the Nine Muses associated with the arts, particularly dance, comedy, history, astronomy, music, tragedy, idyllic and erotic poetry, epic and lyric poetry, and sacred hymns.

The burden of responsibility, therefore, is great because the artist, either consciously or subconsciously, realizes the burden of carrying the sacred fire of inspiration required for the work of the arts  regardless of discipline. It is historically and metaphorically an ancient source of inspiration and, if I may, propose a holy vocation.

Wield its power foolishly or recklessly, and the Muse can unleash serious and irreversible damage to the artist and those around its sphere of influence. The literary record contains copious accounts of poets, artists, musicians and writers who have met dire consequences after having misappropriated the gift.

While some do succeed. Many fail. But inevitably all pay a price.

That energy some call the Muse has many names, for it is impossible to be so casual as to think one can give it a simplistic label. That tangible-intangible force overflowing with inspiration led the Irish poet W.B. Yeats to proclaim, I went out into the hazel wood/because a fire was in my head in his The Song of Wandering Aengus. It haunted him so profoundly and majestically that solitude became his flame of inspiration.

Robert Graves, in his seminal book The White Goddess, asserts that true or pure poetry is inextricably bound to the ancient Western cult-ritual of the White Goddess. He delineates its historical context, its archaic origins and its divine manifestations through the language of poetic myth.

Aside from its derivative gender, Graves was careful to ascribe respect and temperament toward summoning her powers because such force would likely turn against the poet.

The Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca clearly understood this. He referred to true poetry as having duende, a dark energy interpreted as demon, daemon or even that impish spark of inspiration Lorca so purposefully expounded on and sought to capture in his own poems.

So how can these sources help readers understand the creative forces at work in this vocation called poetry? For one thing, the growth and exponential rate of its popularity has exploded over social media and publishing outlets across our nation. For the common reader, the Muse and its corollary, poetry, have become a fad and consequentially a cliche largely misunderstood.

Yet how many working poets have little or no knowledge of its underlying power and traditionally profound origins?

Poetry and the Muse combined can become a religious experience, and certainly a spiritual one. Its language has the power to build up and to tear down. Having the Muse is a gift  and those who brandish its might would do well to remember the awesome responsibility of respecting the temperament of the Muse.

Edward Hirsch in his book The Demon and the Angel notes that Edgar Allen Poe referred to that invisible force as imp of the perverse that suddenly propels one to do something puzzling and often unconscionable, to stare down into the abyss and, instead of backing off, plunge impulsively over the edge. That ever-present duende awaiting its summoner.

Fernando Esteban Flores is the author of Ragged Borders, Red Accordion Blues, and BloodSongs (Hijo Del Sol Press). He is the founder of Voces Cosmicas, an eclectic group of seasoned and emerging San Antonio poets. Visit his webpage, www.madwarbler.com.Alicia Padilla, the woman accused of embezzling $291,000 from Centro San Antonio, admitted to the crime and promised to pay back what she can, the San Antonio Express-News has learned.

The embezzlement caused a financial crisis at the public-private nonprofit, created to help beautify downtown San Antonio, and for a time threatened to cripple its operations.

The scandal also sparked finger-pointing over whether the organizations leaders and city officials should have detected the misconduct earlier.

Padilla, Centros office manager and staff accountant for three years, admitted to the embezzlement during a meeting in January with Centros legal team and accountants, according to Centros attorney, Michael Bernard, and Padillas own lawyer, David Christian.

She described the extent of her alleged crimes and revealed she had recruited her ex-husband to pose as an auditor in front of the nonprofits board, the two lawyers told the Express-News.

In reality, no audit had been conducted. At the January meeting, Padilla admitted she fabricated one to fool Centros executives and board, Bernard and Christian said.

Padillas statement was recorded by a court reporter, though she was not under oath. Centro provided it to investigators from the city, along with hundreds of pages of checks, bank statements and other evidence, Bernard said.

Christian said Padilla is willing to cooperate with the investigation being conducted by the Police Department and the Bexar County district attorneys office.

In an effort to cooperate and accept responsibility, she met with Centros representatives to explain to them that there was no PID money that was taken, Christian said.

By PID money, he meant property tax revenue that the city transfers to Centro to manage the downtown public improvement district, or PID.

Although it would be extremely difficult, Miss Padilla intends to pay the restitution back in full, Christian said.

An arrest in the Centro case is imminent, Police Chief William McManus said. He said the complex white-collar case involves reams of financial records. Three detectives are working on it full time, he said.

The case has broadened and likely will involve multiple charges and arrests, McManus said.

To read more about the controversy at Centro, click here to visit our subscriber website, ExpressNews.com.

Richard Webner is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rwebner@express-news.net | Twitter: @RWebnerQ: I recently flew from Dallas to Paris on American Airlines. I was traveling with my mother, who uses a wheelchair.

American Airlines usually allows me to sit with her. But on this flight, the airline gave us separate seats. I contacted the airline when we arrived in Paris and asked to be seated next to her. A representative helped me get two seats next to each other.

When I returned to the States, I found an $85 charge for the assigned seat. I didnt request, or authorize, this charge.

American Airlines wont refund the fee, saying that it costs more for preferred seating in economy class. Ive tried numerous times to get a refund, but the airline refuses. Can you help me?

Bo Bao, Sugar Land, Texas

A: American Airlines shouldnt have separated you from your mother. And it definitely shouldnt have charged you to sit with her on your return trip.

So why did it? In a word: money. American, like most other major carriers, charges for assigned seating. If you want a confirmed seat assignment before your flight, youll need to pay for it.

At the time of your request, all adjacent seating was either reserved for other customers, blocked to allow our airport personnel to handle unexpected seating issues that may arise on the day of departure, or they were part of our Main Cabin Extra or Preferred Seats travel options, an American representative explained in an email to you.

Maybe. But still, separating you from your mother  who was in a wheelchair  seems coldhearted. Fortunately, American has a Special Assistance department that you could have contacted before your departure: www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/special-assistance/special-assistance.jsp. They could have made arrangements to have you sit next to your mother.

You shouldnt have assumed that American would let you sit with your mother. We live in a time when children are separated from their parents, on a plane and off, so its important not to take anything for granted. Interestingly, Congress passed legislation to keep families together on planes, but the Department of Transportation hasnt created a regulation, which is necessary. So, for now, airlines can still separate families.

You handled this case by the book. You sent a brief, polite email to American, asking for a refund. You appealed to an executive. (I list the names, numbers and email addresses of the American Airlines executives on my nonprofit consumer-advocacy site: www.elliott.org/company-contacts/american.) The airline didnt move.

In this situation, although American is correctly following its policy, it is also doing something morally questionable. The airline didnt just separate you from your mother, but from a parent who needed special care. Thats cruel.

I contacted American Airlines on your behalf. It noted it has internal processes in place, both in the days leading up to the departure date as well as at the airport, to assist families in obtaining seating together, even if they didnt buy preferred seats. American refunded you the $85 fee.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Find travel tips at www.elliott.org. Email: chris@elliott.org Twitter: @elliottdotorg- A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta state, Chief Great Ogboru, is in the news again

- Ogboru, a former governorship candidate of the party in the state, says he is ready to liberate the state from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

- He also said President Muhammadu Buhari and many others in the APC are committed to the cause in Delta state

Five time governorship candidate in Delta state and APC chieftain, Chief Great Ovadje Ogboru, has described himself as one of those who would be liberating Delta state from the PDP in the 2019 general elections.

Ogboru stated this while addressing hundreds of APC supporters on Sunday, September 2, at Orerokpe, Delta state.

He said: The time for liberation has come and the chief of that liberation is no other person than our president, President Muhammadu Buhari who is our chief liberator because he is coming here leading a pack of liberators amongst whom are our comrade chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole himself, our super senator himself Ovie Omo-Agege and my very good self, Chief Ovadje Ogboru who is one of the liberators now.

With all of us joining hands with you, the liberation for Delta state indeed has started."

READ ALSO: APC members defy Oshiomhole's order, go on with Illegal meeting

Also speaking, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege in his address, appealed to the executives, elders and leaders of the APC to elect Ogboru as governor of the state come 2019, describing him as the only man who can win the state governorship election for APC.

His words: We all know that only one man can win the Delta state governorship election for APC is Chief Great Ovadje Ogboru.

I am not supporting him because he is an Urhobo man but because he is the only one that can win the governorship election for us.

Therefore, I and others have gone into the fight (APC crisis), won and lost and the stage is now clear by Gods grace to return Chief Ogboru as our APC nominee for governor and by Gods grace, the APC governorship candidate in 2019.

Chief Ogboru had paid a consultative visit to the senator, who represents Delta Central senatorial district, alongside senior members of the party in the state.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, in an earlier report on Legit.ng, Senator Omo-Agege advised people of Urhobo to ensure that they re-elect President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 general elections, saying that it is in the best interest of the Urhobo nation.

Omo-Agege, who made a consultative visit to leaders, elders, ward and local council executives of the APC Ughelli, Otu-Jeremi and Otor-Udu in Ughelli North, Ughelli South and Udu council areas of the state, stated that re-electing the president for a second term in office would attract more infrastructural development to Delta Central and Delta state at large.

Election 2019: Can Saraki be the Next President of Nigeria? on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Nigeria- Gunshots and explosion were reported from Maiduguri, Borno state

- The explosion was reporetdly close to Alau Dam, few minutes outside the metropolis

- Alau Dam serves 70% of the residents of Maiduguri town

Gunshots and explosions believed to be from Boko Haram insurgents reportedly took place near Alau Dam along Maiduguri-Konduga road, according to a report by a civilian Joint Task Force volunteer and a high ranking government official.

Vanguard reports that some group of insurgents on motorcycles were sighted by troops deployed around Alau Dam general area where they opened fire on the insurgents using Propelled Launchers and machine guns.

READ ALSO: PDP urges National Assembly to override Buhari on Electoral Act Amendment Bill

Alau Dam which is the source of drinking water to over 70% residents of the metropolis reportedly came under attack last month, but Borno state government denied the report.

It is not yet known if there were any casualties involved in this fresh attack by the insurgents.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Boko Haram insurgents are no longer in control of any part of the country.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

The president said this on Sunday, September 2, in Beijing, China, while stating some of the successes of his administration, as he addressed some Nigerians residing in the country.

He reportedly attributed the successes to operations of security agencies deployed to counterinsurgency in the northeastern part of the country.

Nigerian Air Force Operations Against Boko Haram | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Adams Oshiomhole said the APC adopted direct primaries to boost internal democracy

- According to him, this will reduce the corruption and manipulation associated with the delegates system

- He added that this will reduce the post primary crises in the party

The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, on Monday, September 3, said the party opted for the direct primary for the selection of its candidates for 2019 elections to boost internal democracy.

Oshiomhole, in an interview with The Nation, said the decision to conduct direct primaries will reduce the huge post primary crises that the party had experienced in the past.

He said: Party members are complaining that they have no role to play in the party, except voting during the general elections, like other members of the public.

READ ALSO: N1.6bn linked to me by EFCC was for church project - Jonathan's ex-aide

We also note that direct primary is free from the vices associated with the indirect primary. Direct primary cannot be manipulated. It is not prone to corruption.

We want to grow democracy. We want the party members to have ownership of the party. We want to give our members a sense of belonging."

He added that while governors are against the system, federal lawmakers are rooting for it.

Oshiomhole said: The governors who have commissioners, special advisers, SSAs, and local government chairmen are still afraid of direct primary. But, senators are rooting for it. Some senators are not in the good book of their governors. But, they can win at the direct primary if they are in the good book of their people in the party.

Legit.ng gathers that Oshiomhole, however, said that while direct primary will be used for the presidential nomination, it can still be reviewed for other layers of shadow elections at the state and federal levels, in consideration of the peculiarities of the state chapters.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) met in Abuja, just a few hours after the party leadership warned against the convening of the meeting.

Yekini Nabena, the party's acting national publicity secretary, had issued a statement in which he drew the attention to what he described as an illegal meeting scheduled to be held on Sunday, September 3, in Abuja by some party members.

In the statement, Nabena had said that the meeting was aimed at decrying the decisions made by the party regarding the modus operandi for the primaries to elect candidates ahead of 2019.

Nigeria Latest News: Buhari Reacts To APC Senators Betrayal on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- The deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, has declared his intention to represent his constituency for the fifth time

- Ekweremadu said his move to return to the Senate in 2019 is based on his people's desire

- He maintained that they have bought PDP nomination form and presented it to him already

Ike Ekweremadu, the senator representing Enugu west constituency, on Tuesday, September 3, declared that his people have presented to him the PDP nomination form for the Senate so that he can return to the upper house of legislature in 2019.

Vanguard reports that Ekweremadu who made this declaration in a statement maintained that he was persuaded by his people to return to the Senate.

He said: My people, the good people of Enugu west senatorial district, including the Enugu west peoples Assembly, members of the National Assembly, council chairmen, members of the Enugu state executive council, Enugu state chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, leaders of the PDP from Enugu West, among others gave me a surprise on Sunday, September 2.

READ ALSO: Panic as gunshots, explosions rock Maiduguri

They presented to me the PDP nomination form for the Senate, which they purchased for me, requesting that I return to the Senate in 2019.

My people, my primary employers have spoken. I have no choice than to humbly accept to run for the Senate again.

Instructively, only a Few weeks ago, I reflected on my past engagements with the people of Enugu west and I was satisfied that, by the grace of God, we were able to make so many improvements in the lives of our people.

I reflected on my next move and the available options. One option is to come back to you in Enugu and run my Foundation, which will give me opportunity to mentor young men and women in leadership.

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My people, my primary employers have spoken. I have no choice than to humbly accept to run for the Senate again.

Nevertheless, I believe that the beauty of democracy is the enlargement of the political space in which everybody is free to participate, bring and exchange ideas, and disagree in order to agree. Just yesterday, I got a call from a man who introduced himself as an engineer from Achi, but lives in Jigawa.''

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the Enugu state chapter of the APC said deputy Senate president Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP must leave the upper house of legislature in 2019.

Ekweremadu, the lawmaker representing Enugu west senatorial district, is currently serving his fourth term in the Red Chamber.

The state chairman of the APC Ben Nwoye said at the weekend that Ekweremadu would be thrown out of the legislature in 2019.

Lets talk about salaries of Nigerian senators - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit- The sum of $2.52bn has been pledged by participants at the Berlin Conference on Boko Haram, to fight the insurgent group

- The conference, focused on humanitarian assistance, civilian protection, crisis prevention and stabilisation for the region had sought to raise 1.56 billion dollars

- The UN humanitarian chief has however, cautioned that the crisis is not over

The international donor conference on Boko Haram holding in Berlin on Monday, September 3, pledged 2.52 billion dollars to help countries in the Lake Chad Basin to fight Boko Haram.

Germanys foreign ministry said the aid would be disbursed in the coming years to Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, where the jihadist group launched frequent suicide bomb attacks from its bases in Lake Chad, NAN reports.

Legit.ng gathers that the two-day conference, which is being attended by more than 70 states, international organisations and non-governmental organisations, raised 672 million dollars in 2017.

Mark Lowcock, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator and head, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, thanked donors for the generous donations.

READ ALSO: 2019 elections: Nigerian Army assures INEC of security

Lowcock said: Your contribution at the Lake Chad Berlin conference will help us deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance throughout the Lake Chad Basin. This support is crucial to ensuring that life-saving assistance reaches all those in need."

The conference focused on humanitarian assistance, civilian protection, crisis prevention and stabilisation for the region and sought to raise 1.56 billion dollars while Lowcock had projected more than one billion dollars.

Donations and pledges by countries were Germany, the host country, 265 million Euros and Norway, 125 million dollars. The others were United States, 420 million dollars; Switzerland, 20 million dollars; France, 131 million Euros; Belgium, 45 million Euros; Finland, 2.3 million Euros; and Denmark, 72.5 million.

The United Kingdom donated 146 million pounds; Canada, CAD, 68 million dollars; European Union, 231.5 million Euros; Luxembourg, 40 million Euros and Spain, 3.2 million Euros.

Lowcock said a famine was averted in the region last year largely due to international aid, but that millions of people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon were still in dire need of help.

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The UN humanitarian chief, however, cautioned that the crisis is not over. There are still 10 million people who need life-saving assistance. A quarter of the people we are trying to reach are displaced from their homes and the only means of staying alive they have is what is provided by humanitarian organisations."

Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that officials from Nigeria, Germany, Norway, and the United Nations converged on Berlin on Monday, September 3, for a pledging conference on Boko Haram.

The Berlin Conference, holding from September 3 to 4, was jointly organised by the three countries and the UN, and is one of the 2018 largest pledging conferences for the Lake Chad region.

Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng- Daddy Freeze has come for fans of Pastor Enoch Adeboye

- The media personality took to social media to condemn a church member who was spotted wearing a necklace with Pastor Adeboye's photo

- He argued that the display is referred to as idol worshiping

Popular On Air Personality Daddy Freeze who is known for his stand against some Nigerian pastors who he believes are misleading people, has taken to social media to condemn another religious issue.

The media personality shared a photo of a church memeber wearing a necklace that had Pastor Enoch Adeboye's photo on it.

According to the media man, the practice is a form of idol worship. He expressed that what the church member did is not Christian.

READ ALSO: Zimbabwean pastor stops wedding over twerking (video)

Read post below:

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However, there are no reports that Pastor Adeboye who is the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, knows anything about necklace with his photo on it.

Also, it cannot be confirmed that the photo on the necklace displays the image of Pastor Adeboye, as the photo is not clear.

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Meanwhile, this is not the first time Daddy Freeze would be condemning pastors for what they preach and practice. The controversial radio presenter had recently called out female pastor, Funke Felix-Adejumo, for telling her congregation to pay $1000 tithe.

Is it really appropriate for Christians to pay tithe? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- The PDP has been warned by a group of youths from the southeast against zoning the vice presidential slot to the southwest

- The group's warning was contained in a statement signed in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital

- It says the vice presidential slot of the party should be zoned to the southeast

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC) Worldwide has expressed displeasure over the alleged plot by some cabals in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to zone the vice presidential slot to the southwest zone against the interest of the southeast region.

The Sun reports that the group threatened that if the reports circulating in the media turns out to be true, it would help in burying the PDP in 2019.

Legit.ng gathers that the group, which warned that the patience of Ndigbo should not be taken for granted, expressed their displeasure in a statement signed by its deputy president general, Obinna Achuonye, and deputy national PRO, Alex Osaka.

READ ALSO: Following controversy trailing his action, acting DSS boss recalls redeployed officers

The statement read: The attention of OYC Worldwide has been drawn to a malicious report and nefarious plot that PDP had concluded plans to zone the vice presidency to southwest or south-south over the southeast quest to occupy the position in 2019.

This clandestine plot is barbaric, satanic and will never see the light of the day if it happens to be a reality. OYC insists that the national chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, should clarify this allegation immediately before Ndigbo, especially the youths.

We wish to remind the originators of this malicious plot against Ndigbo, that the Igbo have paid their price in PDP since 1999. Its morally wrong to return the vice presidency to either southwest or southsouth after the two political zones had occupied the highest office of the president in 1999 in the persons of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and in 2010, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, leaving southeast out in the cold.

Those claiming that southeast has the least voters registered, should remember the Igbo are everywhere in Nigeria and from our records, in 19 northern states, we have 12.5 million votes and 5 million votes in the southwest. And how can you compare southeast with only five states with southwest and south-south that have six states each?

Those claiming that no southeast governor is interested in funding the party are telling lies. Have these governors not been funding the party in their various states? PDP should name one of these governors the vice presidential candidate and see the massive support they will get across Nigeria.

If PDP will pick a newly elected governor of Adamawa, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in 1999 as vice presidential candidate to Obasanjo, and named also a newly elected governor of Bayelsa then in the person of Dr Goodluck Jonathan as the running mate to late Musa Yaradua, then a sitting governor of Kaduna in the person of Namadi Sambo to former president Jonathan as his vice president, then PDP should pick one of the southeast governors as the vice presidential candidate in 2019."

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Igbo Leaders of Thought (ILT), an umbrella of Igbo statesmen intelligentsia led by Professor Ben Nwabueze, told whoever was planning presidency for Ndigbo in 2023 that Igbo presidency was no longer on the cards of the nationality.

The group said that what would be more beneficial to Ndigbo and indeed all Nigerians is a restructured country, where presidency would become less attractive and no longer an instrument for ethnic jingoism.

Nigeria News: President Buhari's Return Will Teach Nigerians Sense | - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Governor David Umahi has called on the federal government to grant amnesty to public officers holders accused of looting

- Umahi said the approach would go a long way in the recovery of funds if it is implemented

- He, however, commended the federal government for its efforts to fight against corruption

Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi on Monday, September 3, called on the federal government to grant amnesty to political office holders accused of looting the nations treasury.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Umahi made the call in Abakaliki when he declared open the anti-corruption, ethics and integrity training organised by Anti Corruption Academy of Nigeria for local government officials in Ebonyi.

He expressed concern over the number of unresolved corruption cases and blamed the development on wrong approach by various anti-graft agencies.

READ ALSO: Former Kano state governor Shekarau set to return to APC ahead of 2019

According to him, Ebonyi is determined to inaugurate an anti-corruption office because corruption remains the bane of Nigerias underdevelopment. The federal government should, however, be commended for its visible efforts in the fight against corruption in the country.

The governor charged the anti-graft agencies to be resolute and firm in the discharge of their duties and resist political manipulation.

He said granting amnesty to individuals facing corruption charges would enable the government to recover stolen funds. He added that the fear of the anti-corruption agencies had sent several treasury looters into hiding their loot.

The governor said: We have so much of the looted funds either trapped in foreign banks, buried at cemeteries or underground and destroyed by termites.

He advised the federal government to negotiate with suspects to enable them to surrender at least 70 per cent of the looted funds or invest the entire loot in the country.

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The governor said the training was designed to enlighten participants on the most effective way to fight corruption and ensure the overall development of the state.

A representative of the acting chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Rose Okoduwa, said the training was intended to bring the anti-graft crusade closer to the grassroots.

He said: We intend using the local government officials as vehicles of social re-engineering. This will help to ensure that democracy dividend gets to the grassroots.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that Alhaji Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture who released the list claimed that those complaining that the list was too short did not understand that it was strategically released as a teaser.

Releasing the fresh list of alleged looters, in a statement issued in Lagos, the minister also said those complaining that the list was too short apparently did not understand that it was strategically released as a teaser.

He said: "At the press conference where the list was released, I did say it was a tip of the iceberg. Apparently, this does not mean anything to people whose style is to comment on issues they barely understand, or just to shoot down anything coming from the government.

Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit Newspaper- Senator Magnus Abe has warned minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, against imposing candidate on Rivers APC

- It was reported that Amaechi had endorsed Tonye Cole as the party's anointed candidate for 2019 governorship election in the state

- Abe said that Cole lacks requisite criteria to be APC's gubernatorial candidate for the next election

A governorship aspirants in Rivers state under the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Magnus Abe, has kicked against purported endorsement of the chief executive officer of Sahara Groups, Tonye Cole, by the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, as the party's candidate.

Legit.ng regional reporter in Port Harcourt, Tony Ihunwo, reports that Senator Abe said that Cole lacks requisites to be APC's gubernatorial candidate for 2019 election in the state.

Senator Abe, who represents the Rivers southeast made the declaration in Eleme, in Eleme local government area while opening a branch of his campaign office.

READ ALSO: Panic as gunshots, explosions rock Maiduguri

The senator who has fallen out of favour with the leader of party in the state, Rotimi Amaechi said while addressing his supporters that: If someone's leaders gathered together in Lagos to choose a person who will govern Lagos, with that there is no problem, but if they met in Lagos to choose a person who will govern Rivers state, that we will not agree.

He further said that, "If some APC leaders chose candidate in Lagos; that one is for Lagos, other leaders will choose theirs for Rivers."

Meanwhile, Abe's parallel secretariat in Port-Harcourt may have been rejected by the national leadership of the party as the latest official correspondence from the national secretariat of the party refused to recognize it.

It was gathered the letter of invitation made available to NAIJ,com regional reporter in Port Harcourt for the just concluded APC NEC meeting from the national chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomole and signed by the party's national secretary, Mai Mala Buni, was specifically addressed to the state chairman to Chief Ojukaye Flag Amachree and not Prince Peter Odike, the factional chairman of Abe's camp.

Abe insisted that though Cole might be favoured by some leaders, he does not meet the needed criteriat to govern the state

He said: "Qualification is the one you hold that says you can be aspire to be governor but when you want choose among people that have qualification, you must take the person has desired criteria. Part of criteria is those who suffered for the party and several contributions to the building of the APC in Rivers."

Meanwhile, Tonye Cole has resigned from Sahara Group, to go into active politics. He resigned from the management of the indigenous oil firm, to contest the Rivers state governorship election in 2019.

In a two-page statement, the company restated its apolitical stand, stressing that in line with the groups corporate governance policy, it neither sponsors nor backs any political party or actor in all of the markets it operates including Nigeria.

The statement came on the heels of media reports that Cole had already been endorsed as the preferred candidate of the ruling All Progressives Party, (APC) in Rivers State in the 2019 governorship election.

The statement said: The Sahara Group wishes to state for the record that as a non-political and non-partisan group, it is not affiliated to any political party in any country we operate in and does not engage in Nigerian politics. Coles decision to participate in active politics is his individual preference and choice to which he is entitled.

In accordance to Sahara Groups Corporate Governance Charter and International best practice which prohibits any of our key Management or Board members from partaking in active politics, promoting or supporting any particular political organization or ideology, Cole has resigned all his board appointments and day to day responsibilities for the Sahara Group companies and its affiliates with immediate effect."

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It was gathered that stakeholders of the party who said they were part of Cole's endorsement and not Amaechi alone are swelling by the day.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that ahead of the 2019 governorship elections, the minister of the transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, reportedly endorsed the founder of the Sahara energy resources limited, oil and gas, Tonye Dele Cole, as his preferred candidate to fly the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state.

Nigeria Election 2019: Kenneth Okonkwo Interview - Buhari will win | - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Nigeria- About 200 members of the APC recently defected to the PDP in Edo state

- The defectors were led by a former APC chairman in the locality, Peter Itabor Amarekhamhe

- The former APC chairman said they left the ruling party because several promises were not fulfilled

No fewer than 200 members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at Ogbonna in Estako Central local government area of Edo state, The Nation reports.

Legit.ng gathered that the defectors were led by a former APC chairman in the locality, Peter Itabor Amarekhamhe. According to him, they left the APC because several promises of the party were not fulfilled.

READ ALSO: Former Kano state governor Shekarau set to return to APC ahead of 2019

The former APC chairman stated that youths and women in the area have not benefitted from any of the empowerment packages of the federal government and promised to work for the victory of the PDP in the locality.

Chief Dan Orbih, the state chairman of the PDP, who received the defectors said the party would defeat Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in Edo north in 2019 general election.

Orbih said the defectors were disappointed with the harsh economic conditions and insecurity in the country and promised to provide a level playing field for the defectors.

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Legit.ng previously reported that the deputy-director of the Buhari Support Organizations(BSO), Chief Blessing Agbomhere and 26,318 members and supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Etsako central local government area of Edo state have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Agbomhere who worked for the election of Buhari said the poverty inflicted by the current administration had forced thousands of illegal migrants from Nigeria to cross the desert by trekking and sailing the Mediterranean Sea in inflated balloons to Europe.

Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, says he picked his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, to succeed him, in order to consolidate on his achievements

- The governor outlined his free and qualitative education programme as one of his landmark achievements

- He insisted that in eight years, his administration has achieved what all his predecessors, put together, could not

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo says he picked his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, to succeed him, in order to consolidate on his achievements.

The governor made the disclosure in a statement released by his chief press secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, The Sun reports.

Legit.ng gathers that Okorocha outlined his free and qualitative education programme as one of his landmark achievements.

He said the programme had produced remarkable results; pointing out that Imo state has continued to lead in JAMB applications for the seventh time and that the state has also continued to do well in West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams.

READ ALSO: Artisans to receive collateral-free N220bn CBN loan

He added that his administration has more than 1,000 verifiable projects to its credit, and challenged his critics to disprove him.

Onwuemeodo said: We have also been claiming and indeed, truthfully, that what Governor Okorochas administration has achieved in less than eight years have gone beyond all that those who had governed the state before him had achieved, when you put them together. Nobody has also challenged us or tried to fault our claims.

We have equally gone the extra-mile to say that anybody who feels that he has a contrary claim to ours should indicate.

And the best way to deal with such claims and counter-claims is for those concerned to itemise their claims, publish them for public consumption, while we also publish ours for comparative analysis.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Governor Rochas Okorocha said that the people of the state would miss his presence as governor when he hands over to his successor in 2019.

Okorocha said he had done enough for the people of the state and was sure they would miss him when he leaves office.

What is cooking in Imo state? - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng- Islamic teachers have been warned by Governor Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa, to stop sending their students to beg on the streets

- The governor decried the rate at which children continued to loiter the streets of major towns begging, saying that such would no longer be tolerated

- He also assured the citizens of the state that his government would continue to improve their lives

Governor Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa state has tasked Islamic teachers (malams) to stop sending their students to the streets to beg.

He said that the increasing rate of child beggars in the state was becoming worrisome, NAN reports.

Legit.ng gathers that the governor expressed this concern in Lafia on Monday, September 3, while addressing the newly employed 2,140 graduates and NCE holders as teachers. He decried the rate at which children continued to loiter the streets of major towns begging, saying that such would no longer be tolerated.

READ ALSO: 2019: Why I chose my son-in-law as my successor - Okorocha

The governor, however, said that in the interim, the state government would not sanction any child found begging. He said that the government would do everything possible to take them off the road.

He said that the government would soon put into use the Almajiri school that the federal government built in the state.

In addition to the Almajiri school, our government will also discuss with Islamic teachers (Malams) to see reasons with us and stop sending their students to the streets to beg.

Even if it means the state government giving the Islamic teachers in the state little allowances every month to keep their students off the streets, he said.

Al-Makura explained that government would take it upon itself to train those discovered to be interested in different skills. He also assured the citizens of the state that his government would continue to improve their lives through the implementation of positive policies until his last day in office.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, said that street begging by children has no basis in Islam and challenged those engaging in the act to find other means of earning a living.

Abubakar, who is also the president-general of Jemaatu Nasril Islam (JNI), stated this while presiding over the pre-Ramadan meeting of JNIs central committee which took place at the JNI headquarters, Kaduna.

Old woman begs govt not to destroy her house - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit- There are indications that Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the House of Representatives, will be getting a stiff opposition in his rerun bid

- This is as a lawmaker in the Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro federal constituency of Bauchi, Gashion Daniel Danna, has declared his interest to contest the seat against him

- Danna said that going by the fact that Dogara has been on the seat for three consecutive tenures, the area should produce another representative

A lawmaker in Bauchi, Gashion Daniel Danna, has declared his interest to contest the House of Representatives seat in the Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro federal constituency of the state in the forthcoming 2019 general polls on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Vanguard reports.

READ ALSO: Stop sending your students to beg on the streets - Al-Makura tells Malams

Speaking with newsmen on Monday, September 3, just after submitting his form at the secretariat of PDP in Bauchi, the 37-year-old lawyer said that Dogara, a native of the area, had been on the seat for three consecutive tenures, adding that on the ground of justice, Tafawa Balewa local government should be allowed to produce another flag bearer in the coming polls.

Danna said: The youths should be given the opportunity to hold elective positions in 2019 as they constitute over 60 percent of the countrys population. I took this bold decision because of the massive support I got from my constituency.

"For the past two years, I have visited all the wards and nooks and crannies of my constituency to meet with all relevant stakeholders. I am in the race because of the numerous calls from my people, asking me to contest for the seat due to my competence, zeal and ability to deliver.

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"I know that I am able to represent them very well. The State PDP Chairman Alhaji Hamza Akuyam, who was represented by state Vice Chairman Alhaji Haruna Musa Shitu, pledged to be fair and just to all aspirants, warning them against defecting to other political parties if they fail to win the primary election."

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that there were voiced opinions by political critics as to what influenced the victory of the PDP in the Bogoro local government area of Bauchi during the recent Senate by-election in the state's south senatorial district.

Although the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the polls in every other local government area in the constituency, the trend was broken in Bogoro, the federal constituency that Dogara had represented since 2007, with the PDP winning nearly twice as much votes as the APC in the local council.

Nigeria Election 2019: What are Bukola Sarakis chances against President Buhari? | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Newspaper- Nicholas Okoh, primate of the Church of Nigeria said western culture has influenced the practice in Nigeria through internet and satellite broadcasting

- Okoh noted that Nigerian youths are being deceived by the international media with values that are at variance with their culture

- He, however, said the country will not be pressured by the US or other western nations to legalise homosexuality in the country

Nicholas Okoh, primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), said homosexuality is hindering the nations progress by veritably poisoning the society.

Okoh made the comment in an interview with NAN in Abuja on Tuesday, September 4.

According to him, homosexuality is an unlawful act fed by disintegration of social values and cultures that should be discouraged in the interest of future generations.

READ ALSO: More than 100 APC members defect to PDP in Edo state

He said western culture had influenced the practice in Nigeria through internet and satellite broadcasting.

Homosexuality hinders the progress of a nation and such ungodly images should never be shown in Nigeria.

It is pertinent to note that the advent of satellite broadcasting has continued to pose a serious challenge to our traditional cultures, religious values and our identity as a people.

Our youths are now being deceived by the international media with values that are at variance with our culture and the teachings of our religion.

What is happening in the Nigerian society is a result of international influence and urbanisation. As people move from villages to the cities, they are detached from their ancestral authority, parents, chiefs and others.

Anti-social behaviours that used to be tackled are no longer tackled all because of modernisation; essentially, people are destroying themselves.

According to a 2017 survey by NOIPolls, there is a growing acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Nigeria.

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The survey compared attitudes towards LGBT people in Nigeria against a 2015 poll, and discovered a seven percent increase in the number of people who accept the practice.

During the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the same-sex marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) of 2014 was introduced.

The SSMPA bans gay marriage, same-sex amorous relationships and membership of gay rights groups and prescribes penalties of up to 14 years in prison. Since then, many have gone on trial for alleged involvement in homosexuality.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the Nigerian government made its stand on homosexuality known, and even stamped a 14-year sentence on whoever has been proven to be gay. This law, however, seems not to be functional going by the large numbers of citizens coming out to be homosexual.

The world is a global village and people are getting more aware of their sexual preference and also having sympathy for people with different sexual orientations.

In Nigeria for instance, more and more people are openly opposing the law that homosexuals would be jailed for 14 years.

Nigeria Latest News: Over 57 Suspected Gay Newbies Arrested by Police | Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng- A President Muhammadu Buhari support group has called for a review of the nomination forms for aspirants ahead of the 2019 election

- The group said the high cost of the nomination forms for aspirants is aimed at disenfranchising the electorates

The Buhari Youth Organisation (BYO), Lagos state chapter, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to review the nomination and expression of interest fees for aspirants contesting the 2019 general elections.

The group made the appeal in a statement jointly issued by Abdulwaheed Odunuga and Adekunle Aderibigbe, the state coordinator and general secretary of the group respectively.

According to the group, the fees being demanded by the ruling party from aspirants is a disenfranchisement weapon for genuine aspirants, especially youths.

Our youths deserve a platform to showcase their leadership prowess. We are calling for a prompt review of the high cost for nomination and expression of interest forms in other not to slam the doors at competent candidates who would not be able to afford the fees.

READ ALSO: Hundreds of APC members lead by former party chairman defect to PDP

This cost will subject such candidates to the mercy of looters or corrupt persons who will make them stooges while dictating the affairs for such candidates, the group said.

According to the group, the reputation built by President Muhammadu Buhari has drawn the attention of various world leaders to the country.

It said many supporters of the president were willing to donate to ensure he was returned as the president till 2023.

The group, however, said it would be difficult to replicate the gesture for other candidates who may not be able to raise such funds by crowdfunding within the limited time.

We are advocates of good governance and a government that belongs to everybody and nobody. We also believe APC is a listening progressive party that wants every Nigerian to have equal access and rights to opportunities.

The prompt review for fair fees will enable active participation of more members in the partys success in the 2019 general elections, the group said.

READ ALSO: Big blow for PDP as Shekarau makes move to defect to APC ahead of 2019

The APCs National Working Committee had proposed N55 million as the cost of the nomination and expression of interest forms for the office of president. This is higher than the N12 million being charged by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

For the Senate, APC aspirants will pay N 8.5 million as against the N3.5 million of that of the PDP for the same seat.

While for the House of Representatives, APC demands N3.8 million from its aspirants, PDP is charging N1.5 million.

APC governorship aspirants would cough out N22.5 million as against the N6 million charged by the PDP.

Aspirants for the state Houses of Assembly elections in APC would pay N 1.1 million as against PDPs N600,000.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hamidu Tafida, had appealed to Nigerians especially his supporters to help him buy the party's nomination form.

Tafida made the appeal in Jalingo while declaring his intention to contest the 2019 presidential election.

The presidential hopeful said the situation in the country required sacrifice by all citizens in order to get things right and overhaul the nation.

PDP's Magnificent 7 For 2019 Election - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Plateau elders have endorsed Senator Jeremiah Useni for governorship race ahead of 2019 elections

- Useni, who is representing Plateau south in the National Assembly, was a former minister of FCT under the late Head of State, Sani Abacha

- The elders said Useni's choice was through painstaking consultations and interaction with various interest groups including the aspirants

The senator representing Plateau south in the National Assembly and former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Jeremiah Useni (rtd), has received the endorsement of his people, Tarok nation, to contest for the 2019 governorship election in Plateau state on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

This Day reports that a statement signed by the chairman and the secretary of Tarok Elders Forum (TEF), Canon Selcan Miner and Danjuma Rimdan, respectively observed that: The emergence of plethora of eligible aspirants of Tarok extraction for the gubernatorial race in Plateau state has generated some concern within the generality of the Tarok people.

READ ALSO: Rivers APC crisis: Senator Abe kicks, says Amaechi's candidate can't be governorship candidate

The leader and elders have therefore engaged the different stakeholders and carried out broad consultation within and outside the Tarok nation, especially with the wider Plateau state family with a view to settling down on and putting forward a single aspirant to the good people of Plateau state for consideration and support.

Describing Useni as a quintessential and consummate public officer, infrastructural development guru with vast exposure on security management and peace-building strategies, Miner said his emergence was through painstaking consultations and interaction with various interest groups including the aspirants.

He said: The leadership of the Tarok nation places on record, the deepest respect and appreciation to all the Tarok aspirants for their cooperation and active participation in the process leading to the decision, especially those who presented themselves in person or were creditably represented at all the interactive sessions, and pray that history will give them a pride of place.

Other PDP aspirants from Tarok tribe include Ponyah Ibrahim, Chief Jimmy Cheto and Senator Victor Lar, among others.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that a disagreement occurred between members of the House of Representatives from Plateau state over a statement reportedly credited to Ahmed Idris Wase that over 300 persons were sponsored by politicians to Israel to learn to kill people.

PDP's Magnificent 7 For 2019 Election | - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng- A 35-year-old woman, Ronke Ajayi, has vowed to sell her belongings to ensue Buhari's re-election in 2019

- She said that Buhari's re-election would guarantee brighter future for her unborn children

- APC had proposed N55m for the purchase of presidential nomination form

A 35-year-old Ronke Ajayi has vowed to sell all her belongings in order to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari purchase the All Progressives Congress (APC) nomination form to contest 2019 presidential election.

Legit.ng gathered that she said that with President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo's re-election in 2019, the future of her unborn children is bright.

She believes Buhari deserves second term in office based on the achievements he recorded in the last three years of his administration.

READ ALSO: More than 100 APC members defect to PDP in Edo state

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) proposed N55 million for the nomination and expression of interest forms for its presidential ticket.

It also proposed N22.5 million for its governorship ticket but the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party later rejected the proposals, asking the NWC to review the proposition downward.

In the proposal, the nomination form for the presidency costs N50 million, while the expression of interest form goes for N5 million.

For the governorship ticket of the party, the nomination fee costs N20 million, while the expression of interest form cost N2.5 million. Also, other nomination and expression of interest forms for elective offices were reviewed upward.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

It was also reported that All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirants for the 2019 general elections kicked against the high costs of nomination and expression of interest forms. Some aspirants for various governorship, national and state assembly seats are on a collision course with the partys leadership over the issue.

The Next President of Nigeria. Who Will Win the 2019 Elections? | - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Governor Atiku Bagudu is not happy that the roads he fixed with N500 million have developed potholes

- Governor Bagudu warns that he would not take it lightly with any contractor who performs below expectation

- The governor reaction followed a complaint by a top traditional ruler in Kebbi state over the conditions of the roads recently repaired

The governor of Kebbi state, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, on Tuesday, September 4, got angry and issued a warning that his administration would sanction contractors who failed to adhere to job specifications.

I will not tolerate poor execution of work from any contractor, Bagudu said according to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

READ ALSO: Breaking: Senator David Mark joins presidential race ahead of 2019, set to pick PDP form

The governor reportedly gave the warning in Birnin Kebbi, a statement by his chief press secretary, Abubakar Dakingari, said.

The statement said the governor issued the warning after he received a complaint from the Emir of Zuru, Muhammadu Sami, on the poor execution of township roads by the contractors.

Governor Bagudu also faulted the state engineers for poor monitoring of ongoing projects across the state and warned them to live up to their responsibilities.

He appealed to communities to always report erring contractors to his office for appropriate action.

My administration is constructing 367 kilometres of road network throughout the state, with Sakaba- Dan-Kolo Road in Zuru Emirate as the longest.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

I am not happy about the rehabilitation of Maga-Ribah Road where the government expended more than N500 million but potholes have started resurfacing, he said.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the minister of information, Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, explained why the federal government decided to expand the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Vanguard reports.

The minister who was on an inspection of government infrastructural projects across Nigeria inspected two sections of the expressway: from Lagos to Shagamu Interchange and Shagamu Interchange to Ibadan.

Nigeria News 2018: Is Nigeria Truly the Poorest Country in The World? Omisore Speaks | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng- The death of a retired director in the ministry of information, Dominic Onyechi, has been mourned by both his family and the minister, Lai Mohammed

- An elderly member of the bereaved family, Fred Onyechi, disclosed that a valedictory court session will be held in Onitsha, Anambra, on Wednesday, September 5

- Mohammed recalled that that Onyechi was employed in 1982 at the then office of the president in Ikoyi, Lagos

The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, has condoled with the family of late Dominic Onyechi, a retired director in the ministry.

Mohammed made this known in a statement by Timothy Oyedeji, director of public relations and protocol in the ministry, on Tuesday, September 4, in Abuja, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

READ ALSO: More than 100 APC members defect to PDP in Edo state

According to him, the late Onyechi was in charge of publication production department, federal ministry of information and culture when he retired in August 2016.

The minister recalled that the deceased was employed in 1982 at the then executive office of the president, department of information, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Mohammed said the deceased rose through the ranks to become a director in 2012. While in active service, late Onyechi served at the headquarters in different capacities.

He later ventured into legal practice and became the management partner, Unity Chamber in Abuja on retirement in 2016, the minister said.

In a related development, the head of the deceaseds family, Fred Onyechi, said a Requiem Mass was held at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama, Abuja, at 4pm on Friday, August 31.

Fred said the occasion would be followed by valedictory court session in Onitsha, Anambra on Wednesday, September 5, at 9am.

According to him, lying in state has been arranged to take place at his residence, plot 38, Phase 1, Trans Nkisi Layout, Onitsha on Friday, September 7.

PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet!

Also, funeral mass will hold at Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Onitsha and he will be interred immediately. The deceased is survived by his wife, Mrs Nonyem Onyechi, two children and relations, he said.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng Lai Mohammed got guests at a wedding reception, on Saturday, August 25, in Ilorin roaring with laughter following his simultaneously funny and serious remarks.

The minister was the chairman at the reception of the wedding of Tolulope Ajibola and Kolapo Faleye, both petroleum engineers. Tolulope is the daughter Chief Simon Ajibola, a former senator who represented Kwara south in the National Assembly, while the grooms father is Olufemi Faleye also from Kwara.

How Lai Mohammed 'sold' Nigeria, Mercy Aigbe beaten, Amaechi now a whistleblower? On Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ngUsing state of the art CGI and the latest underwater technology and working alongside divers, wreck investigators and archaeologists, Ocean Wreck Investigation tells the stories of the final moments of ships and those on board.

Thursdays from 9:30pm AEDT.Tipperary has been left behind for too long, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald was told on her first visit to the county since assuming the presidency of Sinn Fein.

The trip, which was in anticipation of next months Budget, dealt with a host of groups so as gauge the main issues concerning people on the ground.

Ms McDonald and general election candidate Ciara McCormack travelled to Clonmel, Cahir, Tipperary Town, Thurles and Nenagh where they held meetings, met councillors and gave interviews to local media.

The groups they met included carers, childcare workers, teachers, retail and hospitality workers; those operating community development centres, and therapists and GPs at the coalface of drug addiction and mental health treatment.

Summing up the visit, Ciara McCormack stated this visit puts us on an election footing and ready to deal with the pressing challenges ahead.

Over the next year we expect to be inundated with activity as we deal with the budget, Brexit, and local and general elections.

Sinn Fein want to be a party of government; we know that the only agent for change is taking power and initiating a programme that can the deliver root and branch reform that is so desperately needed.

Too many people are struggling on low-wages, housing pressures and neglect from an uncaring government. This was very much reinforced for Mary Lou during her visit.

One thing she frequently remarked upon while journeying through Tipp is the widespread level of dereliction and economic malaise that is evident in our towns.

For too long Tipperary has been left behind. If we dont instal a pro-active and dynamic government then the rate of decline will continue unabated.

We need a broad and inclusive programme that offers a fair deal for all of society, whether that be workers and small businesses, renters and homeowners, rural Ireland and our towns.

No more so than Tipp is this alternative needed. Sinn Fein is the only credible party to offer that change.Eight Tipperary communities facing the loss of their post offices closely watched events in Leinster House today (Tuesday) as the Communications Minister appeared before a Dail committee hearing examining An Post's controversial voluntary retirement deal for rural post masters.

An Post CEO David McRedmond and MD Debbie Byrne also attended the Dail Communications Commitee hearing that Minister Denis Naughten appeared before.

The Committee hearing took place a week after An Post announced the final list of 159 rural post offices closing under the retirement package agreed between An Post and the Irish Post Masters Union.

The eight Tipperary communities facing the loss of their post offices under the deal are: Ballingarry, Newcastle, Clogheen, Gortnahoe, Littleton, Templetuohy, Coolbawn and Upperchurch. Save Our Post Office Action Groups have been formed in most of these communities.

They and other groups from throughout the country are expected to protest at the closure of their local post offices at the Dail when it resumes its sittings after the summer break later this month.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath was among the Rural Independent Group of TDs, who joined yesterday in condemning An Post's decision not to renew the post office service contracts in villages where a post master or post mistress takes up the voluntary retirement package.

He described the An Post/IPU voluntary retirement scheme as a "sneaky, dirty deal" and declared that An Post and the IPU had no mandate or authority to negotiate the closure of rural post offices.

Read full report in this weeks printed edition of The Nationalist in shops tomorrow.Four Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon jets have arrived at Icelands Keflavik Air Base, and from today (4 September 2018) they will help ensure the safety of Icelands airspace. Over the next few weeks, the Italian pilots will provide intercept capabilities and train together with the Icelandic Coast Guard and the NATO Control and Reporting Centre. The Italian jets will complement the air surveillance which Iceland executes with its four remote radar and communication sites.

This is the third time, after 2013 and 2017, that Italy deploys fighter jets for NATOs mission in Iceland. In addition to supporting the Nordic Ally, the mission offers a valuable training opportunity for the Italian Air Force, whose crews will practice in a unique geographical location and boost their skills to operate in an unfamiliar airspace.

Iceland does not have a full range of air defence assets, so this mission is executed by other NATO Allies. This ensures that Icelanders enjoy a high standard of airspace security. It also demonstrates the spirit of solidarity among NATO Allies.

Over the past ten years, nine Allies  Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal and the United States have deployed fighter aircraft on the mission in Iceland. Deployments typically last three to four weeks, and take place three times a year. This peacetime defensive mission is overseen by Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany, and controlled by NATOs northern Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem, Germany.The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, will travel to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia[1] on Wednesday, 5 and Thursday, 6 September 2018.

In Skopje, Mr. Stoltenberg will have meetings with the President, Mr. Gjorge Ivanov, the President of the Government, Mr. Zoran Zaev, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Ms. Radmila Sekerinska, the President of the Parliament, Mr. Talat Xhaferi and other high level officials.

The Secretary General will also visit the Stajkovci village  where, in 2016, soldiers and equipment from NATOs mission KFOR helped to clear roads and move debris following devastating floods.

Media Advisory

Thursday, 6 September

14:30 Secretary General joint press conference with the President of the Government

The press point will be streamed live on the NATO website.

Still and video images will be available on the NATO website afterwards.

Follow us on Twitter (@NATOPress, @NATODepspox and @jensstoltenberg).(Natural News) Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic empire, doesnt want to acknowledge that countless Catholic clergy are pedophiles who rape little boys. He similarly refuses to acknowledge the recent purge that took place in Pennsylvania, resulting in some 300 child-raping Catholic priests being nabbed as active participants in a massive pedophile ring.

Thats because Francis is a pedophilia denialist who pretends to be a servant of God  and who claims to be Jesus Christ in the flesh, in fact  but who actually works for Satan to cover up the horrific crimes of his demons who shamelessly steal the innocence of young children while posing as ministers of the one true faith.

Francis is a phony, in other words, and this was demonstrated once again during his recent trip to Ireland. A male victim of sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic priest asked Francis if he planned to investigate the allegations.

Are you, as the Holy Father and leader of the Vatican and worldwide church, going to have an investigation into all the cover-up and corruption? the man, named Damian, asked Francis. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people like me who want Francis to answer the question, and they want action, Damian told the U.K.s Channel 4 News.

Damian told the news outlet that Francis indicated to him personally that hes determined to root out this corruption and filth from the Catholic fold. But when later asked about the scandal publicly, Francis declined to comment, ignoring multiple allegations of sexual abuse by high-level Catholics such as Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., who was forced to resign from his position last month.

Damian also in denial, claims Roman Curia keeping Francis hands tied in addressing pedophilia problem

This lack of a public response by Francis after offering a private one to Damian would suggest that Francis is a hypocrite. But in Damians eyes, hes convinced that Francis is a very genuine person, indicating that he believed him as a person when posing the question and receiving the answer he did.

Its the so-called Roman Curia, the administrative institutions of the Holy See through which Francis conducts the affairs of the global church, that Damian believes is keeping Francis hands tied. Regardless, hes encouraging Francis to tell the world anyway, because the world will support him.

If you dont tell us the difficulties youre having, youll fall by this, Damian stated, these words intended as a direct warning to Francis to fess up, or else face the consequences.

Chances are that Francis knows full well whats going on, but is simply refusing to acknowledge it publicly for political purposes. Damian is perhaps affording Francis too much credit, which could be due to his own denial and cognitive dissonance in refusing to accept that fact that the Roman Catholic Church is systemically corrupt, from top to bottom.

Former Vatican envoy Carlo Maria Vigano seems to agree with this sentiment, having recently declared that corruption has reached the very top of the Churchs hierarchy, presenting an 11-page letter outlining why that was published in the National Catholic Register and a handful of conservative U.S. Catholic publications.

To this, Francis also refused to respond, stating, I will not say a word about that. I think that the communique speaks for itself.

The progressive National Catholic Reporter did respond to the allegations, but took the usual defensive, no-guilt approach.

Make no mistake. This is a coordinated attack on Pope Francis, the weekly news outlet claimed.

For more news on the satanic happenings within the Roman Catholic Church and elsewhere, visit Evil.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

WND.com(Natural News) Over the Labor Day weekend I got a chance to attend a Trump Rally in Evansville, Indiana. I was initially surprised by the long line of people waiting to get in. Who were all these people?

If you follow CNN and MSNBC, youd think that Trump would be speaking to a vacant room or a bitter arena packed with shouting protesters. But the people here were cheering in unison, smiles beaming from their faces.

Evansvilles Ford Center arena could hold 11,000 people. By the time I and thousands of others made it to the mouth of the building, we were told that the arena had reached its peak capacity. Instead of packing up and heading home, everyone outside turned to the big screen, awaiting the President of the United States.

As I looked around, this was unlike anything else Id seen in politics. This was a movement of historical proportions, a movement that couldnt be denied. These people hadnt begrudgingly voted for the lesser of two evils and moved on with their lives. So many people here were proud of their President, proud of the direction their country was heading. They were here tonight, nearly two years after the election, to cheer on a President that had brought on so many positive results with the economy and foreign policy. Yes, the President had signed a bill cutting taxes for Americans across the income spectrum. Yes, the President had destroyed the Obamacare fine that once burdened the poor and working class with outrageous taxes. Yes, Trump was renegotiating Americas trade deals, bringing back jobs and money to the United States, and giving the American people more opportunities.

Since the election, the mainstream media has repeatedly told us that this President is dividing the Nation, that he was nothing but a misogynistic, racist, xenophobe. I saw none of that here. People of all ages, race, and both genders were here, and they were proud of their country. As Trump explained: women, men, and all the minorities were enjoying the lowest unemployment rates in decades. The steel and coal workers of Indiana were crying tears of joy, thanking Trump for implementing national policies that brought their industries back to life.

I talked to business owners who were finally starting to see a reprieve after many of the regulations and Obamacare taxes were cut. I talked to people of all ages who were proud that this President was taking on the crime, the rapists, murderers, pedophiles, dictators, swindlers, and terrorists of the world. They were glad he stood by ICE, one of the toughest law enforcement groups in the country. They were glad he wanted a secure border, tough vetting for immigrants, and a safer country. These were reasonable, rational Americans who want the best for America.

Yet somewhere off in the background, I heard yelling. As I waded my way through the crowd, I saw a place where a small group of antagonists were protesting. As they shouted violent threats at the calm, collected majority, I began to wonder, How does this violent behavior change anyones mind? These werent just protesters. Some were violent provocateurs. A couple of arrests were made. The police instructed us to stay clear of them, knowing what this small group of animals were capable of. It was so evident now: the lunatic left is dividing this Nation, not Trump.

So we moved along, heads held high, proud of our country, proud that the President supports a free, independent press. I saw InfoWars pass by and gave them two thumbs up. They were recently censored by the tech giants Google, Facebook, etc., but InfoWars was here, still going strong, giving a more accurate picture of what is going on in Americas heartland.

It felt good to be in the energy of people who are proud of their country again. It felt good to stand up for whats right.

Sources include:

InfoWars.com

InfoWars.com

NaturalNews.com(Natural News) Gavin Newsom is running for Governor in California, and hes already bragging about his plans to drive the state into financial oblivion. The gubernatorial candidate just announced his plans to launch a universal healthcare program for illegal immigrants state-wide. In any other state, such an idea might send would-be voters running for the hills, but on the Left Coast, it seems anything goes.

In an interview on Pod Save America, Newsom recalled his time as the Mayor of San Francisco, a once-beautiful city that now more closely resembles a poorly kept port-a-potty. The current state of SF is nothing to write home about, but Newsom would like to expand the citys universal healthcare policy state-wide.

The only way in a state whose populations larger than 163 nations  Californias economy is larger than all but four nations, the fifth largest economy  to approximate a strategy for universal health care is with the support and concurrence of the governor, and thats frankly  its not an indictment  its just whats been missing in the past, Newsom contended.

I did universal health care when I was mayor, fully implemented regardless pre-existing condition, ability to pay and regardless of your immigration status. San Francisco is the only universal health-care plan for all undocumented residents in America, very proud of that, and we proved it can be done without bankrupting in the city. Id like to see that we can extend that to the rest of the state, he added.

California is a financial sinkhole

Whether or not the city was bankrupted is still up for debate. According to a March 2018 report, San Francisco is $10 billion in debt  not exactly the shining beacon of financial stability that Newsom makes it out to be. The trend of rising debts in SF is not new; in 2016, Truth in Accounting reported that the city was $16,400 in debt per taxpayer.

When ranked amongst the 20 most populous cities in the U.S., San Francisco has the fifth worst taxpayer burden, the organization reports further.

Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, commented, If San Francisco doesnt recognize its alarming entitlement obligations then the burden will be passed on to taxpayers. Our analysis of the citys financial reports indicate that the city continues to hide $509 million in pension debt despite the new accounting rule.

State Data Lab confirmed the sinkhole status of San Francisco earlier this year when the 2016 financial data for the city was released. The estimates indicate San Francisco taxpayers would need to pay the city $27,500 each to erase the citys mounting debt. Worse, the report indicates that the city is hiding its debts by using outdated pension data and obscuring healthcare liabilities.

In addition to crushing debt, the city streets are filled with human waste. All told, the San Francisco of today is not a pretty picture.

And Newsom would like to expand this to the rest of the state?

Illegal immigration is already costly

As a report from 2017 shows, illegal immigration is already costing the United States a pretty penny. In 2017, illegals cost America a record-breaking $135 billion. Between the free medical care they already receive, along with education, other government benefits and the cost of enforcing immigration laws  its no surprise illegal immigration is becoming a burden that is simply too heavy for the tax-paying citizens of the U.S. to bear.

While pro-illegal activists are quick to say that illegals pay taxes, the IRS reports it collected just $19 billion from illegal immigrants  a drop in the bucket compared to the $116 billion in slack American citizens are forced to pick up.

In just two years, Los Angeles county spent $1.3 billion on welfare payments for illegal immigrants. The delusional Left sees nothing wrong with giving American tax dollars to non-citizens  no matter what it costs their constituents. It is no wonder California is collapsing.

See more coverage of stories about the problems liberal policies are causing at Libtards.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyCaller.com

TruthInAccounting.org

StateDataLab.org(Natural News) Plants are a prime example that just because something cant move doesnt mean it cant harm you. Take the giant hogweed, for example. This large, invasive plant now terrorizes several states with its highly toxic sap that can cause serious injuries, including burns and complete blindness. Unfortunately, the giant hogweed shares its looks with many  some of which are completely harmless  plants, so knowing how to identify it is crucial to your safety.

The most distinct characteristics of giant hogweed are its size and its cluster of white flowers. These are the very same traits that caused its uncontrolled spread in the United States. Originally from Eurasias Caucasus mountain region, it was brought to the U.S. by naturalists as an ornamental plant in the 1900s.

The plant starts out small before it shoots up into its full size after about three to five years. Once it matures, it can spread up to 20,000 seeds over a radius of 30 feet. These seeds can travel farther with the aid of either water or air. Needless to say, it didnt take long before the plant spread to different areas, disrupting ecosystems and supplanting native plant species.

Today, it is listed federally as a noxious weed and has invaded areas in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, and most recently, Virginia.

But the nastiness of the giant hogweed does not stop at its being extremely invasive.

Although prolonged exposure to sunlight is still a major health risk, your skin has practically adapted to the ultraviolet (UV) radiation emitted by the sun. This is why you dont get sunburns just from sunning yourself for a few minutes. Exposure to hogweed sap, however, nullifies your skins natural sun protection via a condition called phytophotodermatitis, meaning light sensitivity caused by plants.

Exposure to sunlight after making contact with the plants sap can result in third-degree burns, as in the case of one teenager who accidentally chopped down a giant hogweed in his landscaping job. Alex Childress of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, was rushed to the hospital for severe burns on his face. If the sap gets into your eyes, you could go blind.

The key to protecting yourself from giant hogweed is to identify it. Unfortunately, it looks very similar to several other species, some of which are harmless and even medicinal, such as Queen Annes lace. Here are some characteristics to take note of:

Size  As its name suggests, the giant hogweed is indeed anything but small. It stands between seven and 14 feet tall, depending on its growth stage and whether it was cut or mowed.

 As its name suggests, the giant hogweed is indeed anything but small. It stands between seven and 14 feet tall, depending on its growth stage and whether it was cut or mowed. Flowers  The plant bears small, white flowers during early summer. These grow in 50 to 150 rays, which cluster in an umbrella that can be one to 2.5 feet across. Look-alikes, like the Queen Annes lace, typically have smaller flowers.

 The plant bears small, white flowers during early summer. These grow in 50 to 150 rays, which cluster in an umbrella that can be one to 2.5 feet across. Look-alikes, like the Queen Annes lace, typically have smaller flowers. Leaves  The giant hogweed has huge leaves that are jagged and can have a width of up to five feet. The cow parsnip, an almost-clone, has leaves that grow up to 2.5 feet across and is only up to six feet tall.

 The giant hogweed has huge leaves that are jagged and can have a width of up to five feet. The cow parsnip, an almost-clone, has leaves that grow up to 2.5 feet across and is only up to six feet tall. Stem  Among the giant hogweeds most distinct characteristics is its green stem thats mottled with purple splotches and coated with white hairs. Angelica, a species commonly mistaken for the giant hogweed, has a smooth purple stem. The poison hemlock, on the other hand, has a smooth and waxy stem with purple blotches, although this plant must also be avoided because of its sheer toxicity.

If you do get exposed to giant hogweed sap, the best thing to do is wash the affected area with soap and cold water immediately. You will then need to avoid the sun for at least 48 hours. If the sap made it to your eyes, rinse with cold water and protect your eyes with sunglasses.

Remember that contact with the sap could render your skin sensitive to sunlight for years. Its best to see a healthcare professional in the instance of a reaction. Finally, you will need to keep the affected area protected from the sun at all times.

Learn how plants interact with humans and their environment at Ecology.news.

Sources include:

GoodHousekeeping.com

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov

People.com

DEC.NY.gov 1

DEC.NY.gov 2(Natural News) Its no secret that Obamas CIA director, John Brennan, is no fan of POTUS Donald Trump, as he has made clear on Twitter and on cable news programs regularly.

Its also no secret to people who have taken the time to research Brennan that in the 1970s, as the Cold War with Russia was in full swing, Brennan actually voted for an American Communist Party candidate for president something that should have negated his ever becoming a staffer back in 1980, much less head of the countrys most powerful spy agency.

The president finally did justice and the American people a favor when he recently revoked Brennans security clearance. But according to a bombshell report, thats just the tip of the iceberg.

As noted by Teaparty.org, some believe that Brennan has been actively plotting against the United States for years, even allegedly playing a pivotal role in allowing the 9/11 hijackers inside the country:

Obama, Clinton, Kerry, Jarrettfar too many people in the previous administration had highly troubling ties to the terrorist state of Iran and in Obamas case, there is quite a bit of evidence pointing to the fact that he was a Muslim, a fact which remained in question throughout the entirety of his presidency and he did little to dispel by always referring to the Koran as The Holy Koran and the Bible simply as the Bible.

Obama points to his decades-long association with a Christian church in Chicago, where he lived and served as a state, then U.S., senator before becoming president. But the pastor of that church was Jeremiah Wright, whose fiery sermons can best be summed up as anti-white and anti-Republican, to say the least, and who was regularly critical of America in general.

There is even some speculation that Brennan may have converted to Islam at some point.

But theres more. According to Freedom Outpost, Brennan was the CIA station chief in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when the 9/11 hijackers were given visas to travel to the United States. There are even reports he gave the final approval for those visas.

In September 2014, a whistleblower named Greg Ford, a former military intelligence officer, told Ground Zero Radios Clyde Lewis that Brennan actually overrode CIA objections to the approval of those visas.

Brennan the key?

Ford said on the show: All 19 high jackers? Where did they get their visas stamped before they came to this country to launch 9/11? They got their visas stamped in the CIA station in Jeddah. And the second in command said, No way, absolutely we are not going to stamp those visas. And the fellow who was in charge, his name was John Brennan. He was the person who overrode those concerns and cautions and ordered those visas stamped in Jeddah.

Bombshell.

Freedom Outpost noted further that Michael Springman was, at the time, head of the American visa bureau in Saudi Arabia, a post he held during the Reagan and Bush administrations, from September 1987 through March 1989. He said during his time there he was ordered by higher State Department officials to hand out visas to applicants who were not qualified. He said the applications were for recruits of Osama bin Laden, who was fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and who was sending recruits to the U.S. for training by the CIA.

Springman made his incredible claims during an appearance at the National Press Club on June 10, 2002.

The National Review subsequently reported that none of the 9/11 hijacker visas were completed in the proper manner, turning the U.S. government into a travel agency for terrorists.

The magazine, citing an August 2004 report[.pdf] from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, said the visa applications for the 19 hijackers were replete with data fields left blank and questions that were not fully answered, and yet U.S. officials approved 22 of 23 visa applications for the hijackers.

Of the 15 Saudi terrorists, four of them received visas through the Visa Express Program in June 2001.

If it werent for John Brennan, 9/11 may never have happened, Freedom Outpost concluded.

Read more about Islamic terrorism against the U.S. at Terrorism.news.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

TeaParty.org

FreedomOutpost.com

NationalReview.comThought the Bay Area was expensive? Well, its getting worse.

A 1,200 sqft burned manufactured home in Oaklands Rancho San Antonio neighborhood is on the market for $350,000. You read that right.

According to Zillow, the three bedroom, two bathroom burned manufactured home at 1918 E 17th St. is described as ready for demo and rebuild.

The home caught the attention of several on Twitter after a user shared the listing.

https://twitter.com/frkearns/status/1036654383507755010

This is the most ridiculous thing Ive seen on Zillow, said Twitter user Garrett Oliver.

Zillow predicts the Rancho San Antonio neighborhood home values will increase up to 7.6 percent next year and the surrounding homes are proving that already.

An off-market home three doors down from the burnt manufactured home already has an estimated value of $1.29 million and other homes are not too far behind.Hundreds of union members took to the streets of San Francisco for a Labor Day protest Monday that resulted in dozens of arrests.

More than 500 Marriott employees marched to demand better pay from the hotel giant. The group marched to the Marriott hotel in Union Square, where an estimated 75 protesters were arrested for blocking traffic on Powell Street.

The protesters waved signs that read "One job is not enough," arguing Marriott employees arent making enough money to keep up with the rising cost of living in San Francisco. Among the workers protesting were hotel room cleaners, dishwashers and bellmen.

"One job would be enough if these greedy corporations would share some of the wealth," one protester said, adding that many of the workers need a second job to keep up.

The workers announced theyll be holding a strike vote soon, saying their contracts expired weeks ago and claiming Marriott is making negotiation nearly impossible.

"It took them four negotiations before they gave us a counter proposal, and then on the fifth negotiation, they gave us a proposal that is actually worse than what the union won five years ago," protester Nix Guirre said.

A Marriott spokesperson released the following statement Monday afternoon:

"Marriott Internationals strength is rooted in our core value of putting people first. We celebrate and thank our associates for their contribution on this Labor Day. We also respect our associates right to voice their opinions. Marriott International has longstanding and productive relationships with Unite Here and is negotiating in good faith and in a timely fashion to obtain the best outcomes for our associates and guests."

Editor's note: A previous version of this story referred to the incident as a walkout. The story has been updated.A bill banning gun and ammunition sales at the Cow Palace in Daly City has passed the California Legislature and awaits the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown.

Senate Bill 221, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, would ban such sales at the state-owned Cow Palace, which holds five gun shows a year.

Both the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed resolutions supporting the bill. In June, San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa called for a ban on such shows, just as a two-day gun show got underway at the venue.

Wiener said, "Our local communities have made it clear that we do not want gun shows in our cities and our neighborhoods, and I'm glad the legislature respects this reasonable desire."

The bill excludes gun buy-back events held by law enforcement agencies, which are essential programs for removing guns from the community.More than 1,000 Kaiser workers and supporters marched and rallied in Oakland Monday to protest planned job cuts at the health care giant, organizers said.

The march will started at Mosswood Park and headed toward the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center on MacArthur Boulevard. The action is not a strike, organizers said.

The cuts include outsourcing 96 pharmacy warehouse workers in Oakland and Livermore and outsourcing 43 licensed vocational nurses in San Francisco, Oakland, San Leandro, Santa Clara and Walnut Creek, according to SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.

In response, John Nelson, a Kaiser spokesman, provided the following statement:

"Its important for our members and patients to know that this informational picketing is not a strike and it does not impact our care delivery or operations. While this union is staging picketing, the physicians and employees of Kaiser Permanente will remain focused on the important work of delivering high-quality, affordable care to our members and improving the health of the communities we serve.

Kaiser Permanente is growing and adding jobs. As one of the largest private employers in California with more than 149,000 employees and 16,000 physicians, we have added more than 13,000 jobs in the state since 2015. We have more than 12,000 open staff positions and will continue to add many kinds of jobs, including blue collar jobs. The number of our employees represented by SEIU-UHW has grown by more than 8,000 over the same period.

We are disappointed that the current leadership of SEIU-UHW has chosen to mischaracterize Kaiser Permanentes strong commitment to labor and to pursue an adversarial, destructive approach to its relationships with several California health care systems. In fact, SEIU-UHWs approach stands in stark contrast to the productive, progressive relationships we have maintained with many other unions representing our employees."A man facing murder charges for allegedly killing his parents at their San Jose home back in 2016 plans to represent himself when his trial kicks off, according to an official with the Santa Clara County court system.

Hasib Bin Golamrabbi is expected to appear in court Tuesday morning for his first trial hearing, which will mostly be procedural. It is not exactly clear how court proceedings will pan out given Golamrabbi has turned down the services of legal counsel.

Golamrabbi is charged in the shooting deaths of his parents, 59-year-old Golam Rabbi and 57-year-old Shamima Rabbi, in their home in San Jose's Evergreen neighborhood back in April 2016.

Sources who witnessed the aftermath before police arrived told NBC Bay Area that chilling messages were written on the floor and wall near the bodies. One message allegedly read, "Sorry, my first killing was clumsy." Sources claimed another message allegedly ended, "I can't be like you, telling a lie. I can't love someone without telling them."

Sources told NBC Bay Area that Golamrabbi's parents, who were born in Bangladesh, did not approve of their son's sexual orientation.

Golamrabbi has a younger brother who was previously cleared of a murder charge in the case due to "insufficient evidence."

A San Jose man facing murder charges for allegedly killing his parents back in 2016 plans to represent himself, according to an official with the Santa Clara County court system.

Hasib Bin Golamrabbi is expected to appear in court Tuesday morning for his first trial hearing, which will mostly be procedural. It is not exactly clear how things will proceed given Golamrabbi has turned down has turned down the service of legal counsel.

Golamrabbi is charged with the shooting deaths of his 57-year-old mother and 59-year-old father in their home in San Jose's Evergreen neighborhood back in April 2016.

Sources who witnessed the aftermath before police arrived told NBC Bay Area that chilling messages were written on the floor and wall near the bodies. One message in black marker read," Sorry, my first killing was clumsy." Sources claimed another rant stated, "I can't be like you, telling a lie. I can't love someone without telling them."

Sources also told NBC Bay Area that Golamrabbi's parents, who were born in Bangladesh, did not approve of their son's sexual orientation.

Golamrabbi has a younger brother who was previously cleared of murder charges due to insufficient evidence.Since the passing of Arizona Sen. John McCain, there has been an outpouring of support from people around the world about how he impacted their lives. One of those people is a New Hampshire woman who left a lasting impression on the senator.

Youve likely heard McCain tell the story because hes told it hundreds of times  about the mother he met in Wolfeboro during a 2007 town hall meeting.

I would like to know, Sir, if you would wear this so that you can remember your mission and their mission in support of them, said Lynn Savage, who lived in Wolfeboro at the time.

I would be honored and grateful, McCain replied, as he took a black bracelet from Savage.

Savage now lives in Kentucky and spoke with NBC10 Boston via FaceTime on Monday.

I just thought, Well, if he will wear this and speak their names, theyll never be forgotten that way, she said.

Savage had just lost her 22-year-old son, Army Cpl. Matt Stanley, who was killed in action in Iraq in December of 2006.

Thank you for his service, McCain said that night. Yes maam, I will wear this, thank you.

After he put the bracelet on, from the Senate floor to family outings, he never took it off.

And at almost every event after that 2007 town hall, McCain would mention Savage and her son.

I wear his bracelet and think of him every day, McCain told the crowd at his 2008 nomination acceptance speech.

I was shocked, absolutely shocked, Savage said. Its not something I ever expected.

A politician who kept a promise that she says helped heal her broken heart.

He never let people forget that there was still a war going on and that not everybody made it home, Savage said.

And Monday, she said her heart was breaking again, as she mourns the loss of a man she calls Americas greatest patriot.

He was a good man, a good honest man, Savage said. We should be grateful and revel in the fact that he did walk this earth and made it a little bit better for everybody.

In McCains recently published book, he told the bracelet story again, writing, I will wear it for the rest of my life.

One of McCains closest friends tells us, he did.A hazmat scene at a Boston school has been resolved.

Authorities established a level 3 hazmat scene at Henderson Inclusion Upper School in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood at approximately 3:47 p.m. Monday.

According to Boston fire, they responded to a report of a minor spill of an uknown chemical. The hazmat team was able to mitigate the spill upon arrival. The spill was contained to a third floor classroom.

No injuries or damages were reported, officials said.

All air quality readings were within normal range, the Boston Fire Department said. A cleaning crew was on scene to ventilate the building.What to Know In a last-minute press conference, the mayor revealed he would not be seeking re-election after serving since 2011

The mayors announcement takes place as Officer Jason Van Dykes trial begins in the Laquan McDonald case

Emanuel said he and his wife decided to "write another chapter together" as their three children have left for college

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he will not run for re-election, making the bombshell announcement that he will not seek a third term during a last-minute press conference.

"This has been the job of a lifetime but it is not a job for a lifetime," Emanuel said.

The mayor said he and his wife Amy, who joined him at the podium for the stunning announcement, decided to "write another chapter together" as their three children have left for college.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces he wont be running for re-election.

"[Amy] and I look forward to writing the next chapter in our journey together," an emotional Emanuel said. "I will always be here for the future of this great city. Not as mayor, but in the most important role anyone can play - as a citizen."

His decision comes as the upcoming mayoral race began to take shape, with potential candidates already throwing their hats into the ring, including former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, who was fired by Emanuel in the wake of the release of dashcam video showing the fatal police-involved shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

The mayors announcement took place one day before the start of the trial for Officer Jason Van Dyke, who has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the 2014 shooting.

The Emanuel administration was compelled by a court order to release the dashcam video, which showed the white officer shooting the black teen 16 times as he appeared to walk away, more than a year after the shooting and only a few months after the mayor won re-election. His office came under scrutiny and some questioned whether politics played a role in the timing of the release. It also sparked a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Chicago Police Department's handling of the case.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he will not run for re-election. NBC 5s Mary Ann Ahern reports.

Before becoming mayor in 2011, the 58-year-old Emanuel was a Democratic congressman and White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama. He won a historic runoff against Jesus "Chuy" Garcia in his 2015 re-election campaign.

As mayor, Emanuel won some praise for his efforts to upgrade schools, including by adopting a longer school day. He also attracted companies to the city and took measures to ease crisis surrounding the worst-funded pension system of any major U.S. city.

But he was also accused of plowing ahead on policy changes without consulting others. He often reveled in his tough-guy reputation.

And while he's stayed quiet on his future plans, Emanuel - a prolific fundraiser - had been steadily adding to his war chest, with more than $7.5 million in his political committee as of the most recent reporting period ending on June 30. [[491904151, C]]

Numerous political leaders thanked Emanuel for his "service to our city" in wake of the announcement.

"As a mayor, a congressman, and my first White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel has been a tireless and brilliant public servant," Obama said in a statement following the news.

"Ive been blessed to call Rahm my friend," Obama's statement read. "Whatever he chooses to do next, I know hell continue to make a positive difference, just as he has throughout his career in public service. And Michelle and I wish Rahm and Amy all the best as they consider this next phase in their lives."

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Emanuel "left his mark."

"From the bottom of my heart, thank you, God bless you and God bless the people of Chicago," Emanuel said as he ended his announcement.What to Know In a last-minute press conference, the mayor revealed he would not be seeking re-election after serving since 2011

The mayors announcement takes place as Officer Jason Van Dykes trial begins in the Laquan McDonald case

Emanuel said he and his wife decided to "write another chapter together" as their three children have left for college

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's announcement Tuesday that he won't be running for re-election marked a big change for those in the upcoming race.

The political bombshell was a stunning shift for candidates already prepping for the 2019 election.

Is there another shoe thats going to drop here? former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy asked following the news. If you look at the way the present mayor got into office, it was handed up to him by the previous administration, and quite obviously there were deals cut. And there probably are deals cut right now.

Emanuel's decision comes as the upcoming mayoral race began to take shape, with potential candidates already throwing their hats into the ring, including McCarthy, who was fired by Emanuel in the wake of the release of video showing the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

The mayors announcement took place one day before the trial begins for Officer Jason Van Dyke, who has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder following the shooting, which in part sparked a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the Chicago Police Department.

These Are the Candidates Running for Chicago Mayor

Emanuel's office came under scrutiny when the dashcam video of the shooting, which showed the white officer shooting the black teen 16 times as he appeared to walk away, was released a year after it happened. Some questioned whether politics played a role in the timing of the release.

The case was poised to play a key role in the race.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces hes not running for re-election.

No deals were evident, at least not yet, in the wake of Emanuels announcement. But most of those in the already-crowded race insisted his decision will make little difference in their campaign strategies.

It doesnt change what were fighting for, and it doesnt change the needs of people in this city, said former Police Board chief Lori Lightfoot. We need to guarantee quality public schools and public safetyand nothing about that sense of urgency changes because of todays news.

Shortly after Emanuel broke the news, candidate Lori Lightfoot, former Chicago Police Board president, spoke to the public commending him for stepping up to take on a difficult job at a difficult time in our city.

Former public schools chief Paul Vallas echoed those no-change-in-strategy comments. After all, he said, the same problems exist today that existed before the Emanuel announcement.

We have a murder rate that exceeds Los Angeles and New York combined, he said. Chicago schools have lost 70,000 students over the last decade.

Community activist and candidate Ja'Mal Green praised Emanuel for "finally making a decision that's in the best interest of our city."

"We've got a lot of work to do and I think the fresh faces and fresh ideas in this unprecedented Chicago mayoral race will offer Chicagoans a chance to experience a greater Chicago," he said. "Much of the credit after this announcement goes to all of those activists and organizers who hit the pavement after the Laquan McDonald video each and every day protesting downtown, protesting the mayors house. Hundreds of protesters took charges over the last several years fighting against this establishment. Well, todays announcement, we attribute this success to them  all of those, even me. I took charges at the Taste of Chicago protest fighting for a new Chicago."

Community activist and candidate JaMal Green praised Emanuel for finally making a decision thats in the best interest of our city.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown noted the announcement came on her birthday, but she too said she has no plans to change her strategy going forward.

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel withdrawing out of this race today, does not change my strategy," she said. "I have always run for the office of mayor and for the people and not against Mayor Rahm Emanuel."

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown noted the announcement that Mayor Rahm Emanuelo wouldnt seek re-election came on her birthday.

Attorney and community activist Amara Enyia, who threw her hat into the ring for a second a time, called Emanuel's announcement "a testament to the will of the people of Chicago who clearly reject his leadership."

Vallas conceded that he hoped some of the Emanuel fundraising largesse might now blow his way, but he quickly noted that he always expected to be outspent. And, he said, he still believes the election will be about more than who raises the most cash.

Emanuel may have realized that, he said, which is perhaps maybe one of the reasons he decided to withdraw.

Indeed, McCarthy, perhaps the bitterest rival in the crowded club of Emanuel rivals, suggested that many potential supporters may now emerge from the political closets.

It makes it easier for people who were afraid of the bullying politics of City Hall to come forward and say were supporting you, he said. Im counting on support from people who were afraid of him, not people who were supporting him.

Its a safe bet. The phone lines were humming Tuesday, among those who had been sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what Emanuel would do.

Lightfoot said she knows that, but reminded the electorate she was already there.

Many of us have been out here for months, making our case to Chicagoans, she said. Anyone who decides to jump in and take advantage of todays political news--I think a fair question to ask them is, where have they been?After Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel unexpectedly announced that he would not seek a third term in office, several figures - including former President Barack Obama - shared their own reactions to the political bombshell.

Emanuel was Obama's first White House chief of staff when he took office in 2009, a role in which the former president said he was a "tireless and brilliant public servant."

"As a mayor, a congressman, and my first White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel has been a tireless and brilliant public servant," Obama said in a statement.

"His work to improve our schools is paying dividends by helping our teachers and students achieve faster academic improvement than students in 96 percent of Americas school districts," Obama continued.

"The announcement to establish universal pre-K in Chicago, on top of universal kindergarten, will give all our kids the best possible start. And his implementation of debt-free community college will help prepare all our young people for the new economy," he added. "With record job growth and record employment over his terms in office, Chicago is better and stronger for his leadership, and I was a better President for his wise counsel at a particularly perilous time for our country."

"Ive been blessed to call Rahm my friend," Obama said. "Whatever he chooses to do next, I know hell continue to make a positive difference, just as he has throughout his career in public service. And Michelle and I wish Rahm and Amy all the best as they consider this next phase in their lives."

Yet another former commander in chief shared kind words for Emanuel - former President Bill Clinton, in whose White House Emanuel served as an advisor.

"From the earliest days of my presidential campaign over a quarter-century ago, through my time in the White House; his service in Congress; as Chief of Staff to President Obama; and for eight vital years as Mayor, Rahm Emanuel has served with vision, purpose, principle, and impact," Clinton said in a statement.

"I believe he succeeded because he cares about people, policy, and politics. Even people who disagree with him strongly on some issues understand that," he continued.

"Rahm keeps score the right way: by the number of lives changed for the betterthe number of children getting pre-kindergarten; the number of young people going to community college tuition-free; and the number of new jobs and new businesses. He is proof that if you focus on the trend lines, not just the headlines, a public leader can make a lasting positive difference."

"Decades from now, the children who are starting pre-k today thanks to Rahm will be smarter, stronger, and better able to succeed in a rapidly chaining world. They will take their turn leading the city and our nation. That is truly an enduring legacy," Clinton's statement continued.

"He has decided to step aside after two exciting and exhausting terms and an undefeated record in elections. As George Washington taught us, voluntarily leaving office can be an act of service that strengthens our democracy," he added.

"As everyone knows, Hillary and I love Chicago for many reasons. It is a world-class city, with wonderfully diverse people, amazing strengths, and like all big cities, compelling challenges. Chicagoans were wise to pick Rahm Emanuel when they did. Now they must choose wisely again. Someone to continue addressing the challenges, maintain the strengths, and bridge the divides," Clinton said. "Hillary and I treasure our friendship with Rahm and Amy. With Zach, Leah, and Ilana, I know they will write a new chapter in their rich, eventful life of service."

Read more reactions below.

Sen. Dick Durbin:

"Rahm's record of public service spans Congress, the White House, and the fifth floor of City Hall in Chicago," Durbin said in a statement. "I have worked closely with him at every level of his public career. I always knew a call from Rahm was an invitation to join him in a bold, ambitious effort to make life better for those he served. It has been my honor to join him in these great ventures. Rahm has left his mark and I wish him and Amy the best in the days ahead."

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan:

Mayor Emanuel offered steady leadership through difficult times. His efforts to balance the budget, stabilize pensions, and make tough decisions consistently reflected his commitment to do what was best for the future of our city, not what was easy," Madigan said in a statement. "As Chicago continues to move forward and grow as an international city, we will remain grateful for Mayor Emanuels leadership.

Senate President John Cullerton:

Rahm Emanuel has been a tireless advocate for the City of Chicago," Cullerton said in a statement. "His commitment to education will be felt for generations to come, as will his positive influence on our great city. Im honored to have worked with him and proud to call him my friend. I wish him and his family the best in their next adventures.



Commissioner John P. Daley:

"Having lived in a family in which my father and brother both served as Mayor of Chicago I understand the challenges and rewards of the job," Daley said in a statement. "During his time in office Mayor Emanuel has worked tirelessly to improve the City of Chicago. His leadership has been integral to resolving many of the challenges Chicago has faced and his dedication and determination have served to improve Chicagos standing as a world-class city. I thank Mayor Emanuel, his wife Amy and their children for their service and commitment to our great city and I wish them continued success in the future."

Democratic Candidate for Governor J.B. Pritzker:

Mayor Emanuel has dedicated his life to public service and I want to thank him for his commitment to Chicago and to the nation," Pritzker said in a statement. "I also want to express my gratitude for his work expanding universal Pre-K, a priority that is personally important to me. Every elected official makes personal sacrifice to do this work and Mayor Emanuel honored the legacy of his family with his service to our city and our state. Illinois faces real challenges, and should I be elected governor, I look forward to working with the mayor in his final months in office and with new leadership to move our state forward.

Comptroller Susana Mendoza:

"Mayor Emanuel and I had some lively arguments when I first took office as City Clerk," Mendoza said in a statement. "But we respected each others work ethic and were united by our mutual love for the City and the people of Chicago. He made tough choices that needed to be made and I admire his conviction and force of will that drove him to see many projects through for the good of Chicago. Knowing that there's still so much more work to do and so many critical challenges that would require a 100 percent focus, his decision to not seek re-election means that Mayor Emanuel is putting the City before himself. I admire him for that. As Rahm said, 'It has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime.' I thank Rahm for his dedicated service to Chicago as its mayor and I hope we find a worthy successor."

Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey:

Were happy to hear that news. Mainly for what it means for the future of education in schools in our city," Sharkey said during a press conference following the announcement. "It was [Karen Pride's] willingness to stand up to Rahm and to call his policies out for what they were, which were harmful to students, harmful for people who live in the neighborhoods and harmful for our city. It was her courage in that area which really led the way for a political revolt. Which has ultimately led to Rahms political undoing. Rahm came in like a wrecking ball, but he couldnt wreck our love for the schools. This union takes credit for this mayors departure. Not by ourselves, on behalf of every parent whos stood by us when we said you couldnt close 50 schools, all across the city of Chicago, predominantly in black or brown neighborhoods. We look forward to political leadership thats going to take us in a direction where we can have revenue to fund our schools, educational justice for every schools child in the city of Chicago and we look forward to an elected school board.

Congressman Mike Quigley:

"Rahm Emanuels commitment to public serviceand the great people of Chicagois undeniable. I thank him for his tenacity and compassion, and I wish him and Amy all the best in their next endeavors. We should all take this opportunity and the days ahead to reflect on what the city of Chicago needs moving forward to become safer, stronger, and more secure. Right now, I am focused on strengthening our national security to defend against foreign threats, championing our environment to ensure clean air and water for all, and advancing overdue infrastructure improvements that keep us competitive," Quigley said in a statement.

Secretary of State Jesse White:

"I have been proud to work with Mayor Emanuel on many issues over the past eight years, and I have been impressed with his commitment to duty and love for this great city. The impact of his reforms, particularly with early childhood education, will positively benefit the city for years to come. I commend him for his record of public service and I am proud to call him my friend. I offer my best wishes and thanks to Mayor Emanuel and his entire family," White said in a statement.A Chicago police officer found dead in what authorities believe was a suicide over the Labor Day weekend has been identified as a 47-year-old man.

Steven Joseph Bechina, of Chicago, was found unresponsive in his vehicle Monday in downtown Chicago and pronounced dead at an area hospital, officials said.

The officer was found in the 0-100 block of North Des Plaines Street about 3:46 p.m., police said. He was taken by ambulance to Northwestern Memorial hospital.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi tweeted that the officers death was a suicide.

Devastating news as an on duty #ChicagoPolice officer has taken his own life this evening, the tweet read. The supervisor in our mass transit section was discovered unresponsive by fellow officers. Our hearts are heavy and deepest condolences are with his family and fellow officers tonight.

Another Chicago police officer took his own life in his squad car last July outside of a district station.

If you are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting "Home"to 741741.A Northwestern University graduate student was struck and killed by a stray bullet Sunday night in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side.

About 8:25 p.m., 25-year-old Shane Colombo was walking in the 7600 block of North Clark Street when he was caught in crossfire between two people, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiners office.

Colombo was struck in his abdomen and was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where was pronounced dead at 9:02 p.m., authorities said. He was from Sun City, California.

Colombo was planning to join Northwesterns psychology Ph.D. program as an incoming student this fall, according to a statement from university officials. He received a bachelors degree from San Francisco State University and was in the process of moving to Chicago from New York, where he was a researcher at Columbia Universitys Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab.

Our hearts and minds are with Shanes loved ones during this difficult time, Teresa K. Woodruff, dean of The Graduate School, and Adrian Randolph, dean of Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, wrote in a statement. We extend our deepest condolences to Shanes partner, Vincent, and all of his family members and friends.

The university made counseling services available to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and staff on Monday.

Area North detectives were conducting a homicide investigation.More than 1,500 children heading back to Connecticut schools came to the state fleeing Hurricane Marias destruction, but many cash-strapped districts are struggling to cover the unexpected cost of educating them.

A federal aid package is coming to help schools recover some of the costs, but NBC Connecticut Investigates has learned that the funding isn't enough for some school districts.

Katiria Rosarios family arrived in New Britain last November after Hurricane Maria dealt a fatal blow to the roof of their home in Dorado, Puerto Rico. The 12-year-old and two younger siblings enrolled in New Britains Consolidated School district, where Rosario needed help catching up.

At first, I didnt speak a lot of English, she said, but quickly improved after spending a third of each school day in English as a Second Language classes. New Britain also gave her 8-year-old brother Jadiel, who suffers from selective mutism, his first experience with special education.

Statewide, school districts absorbed more than 2,000 displaced students last school year. Many of them, like Katiria, headed to school with donated supplies and clothing, and headed home to hotel rooms and homeless shelters. New Britain expanded its bus route to pick Katiria and her siblings up during the months the family spent at a Days Inn in Berlin and the shelter at Saint Patrick  Saint Anthony Church in Hartford, as is required by law for kids in transitional housing.

The arrival of more than 450 displaced students at Hartford Public Schools amounted to an emergency situation for Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez.

It is more complex than just saying you require a teacher, you require transportation, she said.

The district added certified teaching staff and outreach services to help families grappling with a new language and unstable living arrangements.

We hired the folks that we needed and we paid overtime if we had to for staff to get the job done, Torres-Rodriguez explained, and that meant we were going to incur deficit.

School systems that welcomed students impacted by last years natural disasters should soon see nearly $360 million dollars in aid from the U.S. Department of Education. The lions share of the Emergency Impact Aid is going to Texas and Florida. Connecticut will get $10.6 million to divide amongst 47 school districts and independent schools.

NBC 4 NY

More than $2 million is intended for Hartford Public Schools, which spent over $3 million adding services. The state is chipping through a boost in Education Cost Sharing funding, but many districts will still come up short.

The aid amounts are based on a formula allocating $9,000 per child who is learning English. However, the average cost of educating a child in the U.S. exceeds $11,000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In Connecticut, the average cost per student is $19,000.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) sits on the Appropriations sub-committee that developed the aid package. He addressed the challenge facing schools here in a statement to NBC Connecticut Investigates, saying in part, Of course this is not good enough our state did the right thing in welcoming kids displaced by disaster, and the federal government has a responsibility to help offset the cost.

NBC Connecticut Investigates reached out to Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), who is chairman of that Appropriations sub-committee, asking how the funding amounts were determined, and his office declined to comment.

Overall, the number of students in Connecticut displaced by Hurricane Maria decreased by several hundred by the end of last school year to 1,734. With some schools in Puerto Rico closing due to declining enrollment, Torres-Rodriguez expects numbers in her schools may rise again.

Katiria is grateful for the extra help she had at school in New Britain.

The teachers help you a little bit in Puerto Rico, but here they help you a lot, she said.

A chain of support starting with a social worker at her school helped her family move in to their new home in East Hartford. Shes gaining confidence in her English and her future every day.

It will be better here, she said, better life.

See how much your school district may be receiving in Emergency Impact Aid here.Firefighters extinguished a fire at the Kleen Energy Plant on River Road in Middletown on Tuesday.

Fire officials believe it was an electrical fire. Middletown Mayor Dan Drew said the fire was inside of a wall in the insulation. It wasn't near any gas lines.

Firefighters were on scene carefully monitoring the situation after they knocked down the fire.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Durham Fire Department said they dispatched a tanker engine to the plant and had an engine providing station coverage in Middletown during the fire.Dozens of people were forced from their homes after a fire at a condominium complex in Stratford last week, and residents are still trying to figure out their next steps.

It was a lot. Everything that I worked for all these years is gone, said Rose Tinsley, who lived in the building at 685 Success Ave.

Video from a resident shows what some of the once homey units now look like five days after flames erupted. Debris covered the floors, the roof was destroyed by flames and powerful water hoses from the long fire fight. The property remains fenced off and a fire alarm inside still rings.

Officials said at least 50 people lived in the building at 685 Success Avenue in Stratford, which was heavily damaged by fire last week.

Tinsley lived in the complex for 18 years.

In the long term, I dont know. I have to take it day by day and see whats going on with that, she told NBC Connecticut.

Town leaders said donations for the dozens of displaced residents started pouring in over the holiday weekend.

We all came together because we knew we had to help these people out, said Stratford Public Safety Director Lawrence Chiccarelli.

The police station and nearby Sterling House have been holding donations while residents wait to return to their units to see if anything can be salvaged.

It was very destructive and Stratford hasnt had a fire this magnitude where so many people have been displaced at one time in at least the last 20 years that we know of, Chiccarelli said.

Its unclear whether anything will be saved from the property. But those who saw everything destroyed are hoping for the best.

You cant look backwards. You have to go forward. You just have to move forward. Theres nothing you can do at this point, Tinsley said.

Chiccarelli said donations will be accepted for the residents for one more day. Some may be allowed back onto the property Tuesday to salvage whatever belongings they can find.Groton public school students are returning to their first day of school following the Labor Day weekend. Of the ten schools in the district, students at Fitch High School are starting the academic year with splashes of color, by making the senior parking lot their canvas.

As part of the senior class fundraiser, seniors who paid $40 for a parking spot in the senior lot were allowed to decorate their space however they chose, and park there for the year. The school says painting the parking spaces is a way to build a new senior tradition in lieu of painting the field house. Senior Dan Gaiewski, one of the students who spearheaded this project, says the field house is structurally damaged. Gaiewski says the Class of 2019 student leadership had the idea to paint the parking lot since they were freshmen.

The seniors have been so excited, the kids have done a great job, says assistant principal Erin McGuire. It's just been a true community builder. They've even got some of the teachers excited about painting their own spots.

Of the $40, $10 covers the parking fee, while $30 will be used by the senior class to help pay for activities, like prom.

Down the road I hope I can still see this tradition and say yeah, I helped start that, says senior Dan Gaiewski. I think thats going to be cool because I get to leave a lasting impact on my school.

The colorful spots will be painted over in black at the end of the year. The last day for students to paint their spaces is Saturday.A former Hamden police officer has been sentenced for distributing steroids, according to the office of John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Madison resident Bryan Kelly, 46, was sentenced to three years of probation, with the first six months in home confinement with location monitoring, for distributing anabolic steroids. He was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service.

In December 2017, the Statewide Narcotics Task Force West searched a Hamden home and seized around 25,000 pills and 530 vials of anabolic steroids. Investigators found that the resident had text messages relating to Kellys purchase and dealing of the steroids. At the time, Kelly was a police officer with the Hamden Police Department. He has since retired.

According to court documents, Kelly purchased the steroids and distributed some to friends and colleagues.

Kelly pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids.Democrat Ned Lamont used the first day of school at a New Haven magnet school as the venue to attack Republican Bob Stefanowski over his plan to cut the income tax.

That plan, Lamont and his teacher union allies say, would amount to the biggest ever cut to education spending the state has ever seen.

"Well, I start by not creating a $9 billion hole which is what elimination of the income tax would do, Lamont said.

Stefanowski campaigned throughout the Republican gubernatorial primary on a pledge to repeal the income tax, which is the single largest source of revenue for all state spending. The income tax brought in more than $9 billion in revenue last year, accounting for roughly half of Connecticuts revenues.

Lamont says a tax cut like that could lead to skyrocketing property tax rates because municipalities would be forced to come up with ways to replace the revenue lost.

The Greenwich millionaire said his goals when it comes to education spending and budgeting are modest.

"We start toward the fully funding of ECS, Lamont said. We get a budget that's on time so schools like this can out together a budget and they know how many teachers there's going to be."

Fully funding Education Cost Sharing grants, known as ECS which is the formula the state uses to send money directly to cities and towns, would be an upgrade over recent years. School systems have described state funding as a sort of guessing game, not knowing how lawmakers and Gov. Dannel Malloy would spend money on the classroom.

Passing a budget on time is also significant, considering last year it took lawmakers until the end of October to pass a budget after stalemate that lasted the entire summer and into the autumn.

In a statement, Stefanowski pledged to maintain state grants to municipalities, which could be impossible if he goes through with phasing out the income tax. With less money being collected by the state, that leaves less money for the state to send to cities and towns to support education or any other program for that matter.

NBC Connecticut asked how Stefanowski could achieve flat funding with less revenue but never received a response.

Lamont also wants to cut revenue in the form of property tax cuts and relief, but its far less bold than Stefanowskis plan. Lamont has proposed cutting several hundreds of millions, rather than billions.

Stefanowski said of Lamonts education initiatives, His plan won't do us any good if there are no jobs for graduates and no one can afford to live here.

The first debate in the race for governor is Wednesday night at the University of Saint Joseph. Lamont will be in attendance with petitioning candidate Oz Griebel. Stefanowski has said he does not plan to participate.East Haven police have arrested a second person in connection to a pursuit in a stolen car that spanned multiple towns on Sunday.

Police said while on routine patrol, their license plate reader alerted officers to a stolen vehicle that had just passed. The vehicle, a gray BMW, had been reported stolen from West Haven on August 31.

A short time later, officers saw the vehicle traveling eastbound on Saltonstall Parkway towards Branford. An officer attempted to pull the vehicle over, but the operator ignored his signal to stop and fled toward Branford, leading officers in a pursuit.

Branford Police, who were already looking for the stolen vehicle, joined the pursuit that had entered their town. Police from both towns ended the pursuit after the stolen vehicle hit another vehicle at the intersection of West Main Street and Short Beach Road. The vehicle continued on and officers lost sight of it when it fled westbound on West Main Street and headed back towards East Haven.

When officers searched the area, they found the unoccupied, disabled BMW in the middle of the road on Frontage Road, under the I-95 overpass. Officers circulated the area and found the vehicle's passenger, later identified as 21-year-old Theresa Cogdell, near Pardee Place. After a brief foot chase, Cogdell was apprehended and taken into custody. She was charged with larceny and interfering with an officer. She was released on a $5,000 bond and will appear in court on September 12.

Troopers from Connecticut State Police responded to help apprehend the second suspect, later determined to be 20-year-old Jonathan Diaz-Moore. A trooper spotted Diaz-Moore on Pardee Place and a foot pursuit ensued. Officers said Diaz Moore fled through several backyards on Pardee Place before officers lost sight of him. Police relocated Diaz-Moore near apartments on Main Street, but lost sight of him again after he fled eastbound on Kimberly Avenue through backyards and over fences.

On Tuesday, East Haven Police said Diaz-Moore was taken into custody. He was turned over to his parole officer on a parole violation and is currently incarcerated. Officers said he will be charged with East Haven's charges once an arrest warrant affidavit is issued and served.

In addition to the charges in East Haven, police said Connecticut State Police has an active arrest warrant out for Diaz-Moore for escape in the first degree.A wave of sexual harassment complaints that accompanied the #MeToo movement is straining many of the state and local offices tasked with policing workplace discrimination of all kinds.

Places such as New York City and Massachusetts have added resources to deal with the surge in complaints, but human rights agencies elsewhere say their small staffs are struggling to keep up with growing caseloads.

In Connecticut, which is on pace to receive nearly twice as many sexual harassment complaints as last year, some lawmakers worry about delays resolving those cases and others involving employment, housing and credit discrimination.

"If someone has gotten up the strength to come forward, I don't want that strength to be dissipated because of a system that's broken," state Sen. Mae Flexer said.

Flexer, a Democrat, pushed unsuccessful legislation this year that would have given the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities funding to help fill empty positions, extended the deadline for victims to file complaints and required more companies to provide sexual harassment training.

Connecticut had 158 sexual harassment complaints filed all of last year. Over the first six months of 2018, the commission received 131, records show. An agency spokeswoman, Michelle Dumas Keuler, said that the uptick has not gotten to an "onerous level" yet, and that the staff is working hard to get cases out between a year and a year and a half. But she acknowledges there's been "a constant decline of staff" over the past decade.

As in many places, the complaints began piling up last year, when the movement against sexual harassment and assault took off after allegations against former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The state offices that enforce laws concerning various types of discrimination differ in their authority and scope of responsibility. For example, Connecticut's human rights referees can award back pay and damages for emotional distress and attorneys' fees to those employees who choose to use the system. In many states, complainants are required to file first with these agencies, even if they eventually bring their case to court  a process that can take years. Numerous cities and counties also have commissions on civil rights, human rights and fair housing.

Connecticut attorney Nina T. Pirrotti, who specializes in employee rights cases, said she has personally seen an uptick in sexual harassment cases in her law practice since the relatively recent resurgence of the #MeToo movement, which was founded over a decade ago.

"If my experience is any reflection of the larger picture, I would not be surprised if the CHRO has also experienced an increase in the number of sexual harassment cases it processes," she said, adding how there could be an additional strain on CHRO resources particularly in situations where employees are self-represented, or pro se, and are more likely to remain with the CHRO throughout its investigation, fact-finding and public hearing phases. For employees represented by a lawyer, they often go through just the early stages of processing the complaint with CHRO before dealing with the matter in court or settling it.

In Idaho, a consistent uptick in sexual harassment allegations filed since October has burdened the state's Human Rights Commission, which hasn't seen a staff increase in decades.

"These are very personal and very emotional issues, and an increase in resources is absolutely going to be paramount in the future," said Lourdes Matsumoto, a Boise-based attorney who filed a high-profile discrimination tort claim involving sexual and racial harassment against the Idaho state controller's office last year. She said the increase in complaints reflects a crisis of workplace sexual harassment.

The timing of the flood of new harassment cases has been "particularly bad" for the Maine Human Rights Commission, Executive Director Amy Sneirson said. Even before, the agency was taking nearly two years to issue some decisions because of understaffing, she said.

To handle the workload, tasks are shifted around the small staff, with everyone doing more than one job.

"We would like to be faster. We would like to be faster and better, but without adequate staffing, it's nearly impossible," said Sneirson.

In February, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed a supplemental budget that included $250,000 to hire two staff members and one investigator at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to handle the rising sexual harassment complaints.

And beginning in late summer or early fall, the New York City Commission on Human Rights will launch its new unit dedicated solely to investigating sexual harassment matters. The city is investing $300,000 to hire four new staff members who will handle the growing number of complaints, commission spokesman Seth Hoy said. Sexual harassment claims filed with the agency increased by 43 percent over the last two years, with 117 filed in 2016-17, compared with 82 in 2014-15.

Not all such agencies have seen a rash of complaints.

Frank Penela, a spokesman for the Florida Commission on Human Relations, said his agency was bracing for an influx of sexual harassment complaints, especially after the high-profile resignations of a senator accused of sexual misconduct and a Florida Public Service Commission member accused of touching a senator inappropriately. But to the agency's surprise, there hasn't been a glut of sexual harassment complaints.

"From a numbers standpoint," he said, "it's just not as prominent as it is in other places."

Associated Press writer Kimberlee Kruesi contributed to this report.Chicago VIP Ticket Sweepstakes

Official Rules

September 3, 2018  September 9, 2018

PRELIMINARY INFORMATION: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A purchase will not improve your chances of winning. Void outside the WVIT Terrestrial Geographic Viewing Area (defined below) and where prohibited. The Chicago VIP Ticket Sweepstakes (Sweepstakes) will begin on September 3, 2018 at 5:00 A.M. ET and end on September 9, 2018 at 10:00 P.M. ET (Sweepstakes Period). All times in the Sweepstakes refer to Eastern Time (ET). Odds of winning depend upon the number of eligible Entries (defined below) received. Sweepstakes is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws. PRIZE (DEFINED BELOW) DOES NOT INCLUDE TRANSPORTATION, ACCOMMODATIONS OR PARKING.

ELIGIBILITY: Open only to permanent, legal United States residents who are physically residing in the counties of Hartford, New Haven, New London, Tolland, Windham, Middlesex, Litchfield, and Fairfield in the state of Connecticut (collectively, the WVIT Terrestrial Geographic Viewing Area), and who are eighteen (18) years of age or older as of the start of the Sweepstakes Period. Officers, directors, and employees of Sweepstakes Entities (defined below), members of these persons immediate families (spouses and/or parents, children, and siblings, and each of their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside), and/or persons living in the same households as these persons (whether or not related thereto) are not eligible to enter or win the Sweepstakes. Sweepstakes Entities, as referenced herein, shall include WVIT, 1422 New Britain Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06110, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112 (collectively, Sponsors), Live Nation Connecticut, 95 South Turnpike Road, Wallingford, CT 06492 (Prize Provider), and each of their respective parent, subsidiary, and affiliate companies, and their administrative, advertising, and promotion agencies, and any other entity involved in the development, administration, promotion, or implementation of the Sweepstakes. Winner (defined below) must be available to attend Event (defined below), or Prize will be forfeited.

HOW TO ENTER: There are two (2) methods to enter the Sweepstakes:

1. ONLINE ENTRY: To enter the Sweepstakes, during the Sweepstakes Period, visit the WVIT Facebook page located at www.Facebook.com/NBCConnecticut (the Website), access the Click here for NBC CT Contests/Sweepstakes! tab and follow the provided instructions to complete and thereafter submit the entry form, which includes your full name, ZIP code, telephone number, and email address (Online Entry). A Facebook account is required to submit your Online Entry. If you do not already have a free Facebook account, you can go to www.facebook.com to create a free Facebook account.

2. E-MAIL ENTRY: To enter the Sweepstakes, during the Sweepstakes Period, send an email to WVITContests@nbcuni.com with Chicago VIP Ticket Sweepstakes in the subject line, along with your full name, telephone number, ZIP code and email address in the body of the email, in order to enter (E-mail Entry).

All Online and E-mail Entries will be collectively referred to herein as Entry or Entries. If you choose to submit your Entry via your web-enabled mobile device, data rates may apply. See your wireless service provider for details on rates and capabilities.

All Entries become the property of Sponsors and will not be acknowledged.

You may enter one (1) time per day through either method of Entry (i.e. either through the Online Entry or the E-mail Entry), for a total of seven (7) Entries, and may receive an additional thirty (30) Bonus Entries (defined below), for a total of thirty-seven (37) Entries during the Sweepstakes Period. Multiple Entries received from any person or email address beyond this limit will void all such additional Entries. Entries must be received before September 20, 2018 at 10:00 P.M. ET to be eligible for the Sweepstakes. Sponsors computer shall be the official timekeeper for all matters related to this Sweepstakes. Entries generated by a script, macro, or other automated means or by any means that subverts the entry process will be disqualified. Entries that are incomplete, garbled, corrupted, or unintelligible for any reason, including, but not limited to, computer or network malfunction or congestion, are void and will not be accepted. In case of a dispute over the identity of an entrant who made a potentially winning entry, Sponsors reserve the right to deem that the entry was made by the authorized account holder (or registered subscriber) of the Facebook account used to enter, or the authorized account holder (or registered subscriber) of the email address submitted at the time of Entry. Authorized account holder of a Facebook account is defined as the person who is assigned to a Facebook account by Facebook. Authorized account holder of an e-mail address is defined as the natural person to whom the email address is assigned by an Internet service provider, online service provider, or other organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted email address. Entry constitutes permission (except where prohibited by law) to use entrants name, Facebook user name, city, state, likeness, image, and/or voice for purposes of advertising, promotion, and publicity in any and all media now or hereafter known, throughout the world in perpetuity, without additional compensation, notification, permission, or approval.

Bonus Entries: After submitting your Entry, you will receive a pop up box allowing additional Entries into the Sweepstakes (Bonus Entries, each a Bonus Entry). You may receive five (5) bonus entries during the Sweepstakes Period for following @LiveNationCT on Twitter (Bonus Entry 1); five (5) bonus entries during the Sweepstakes Period for following @LiveNationCT on Instagram (Bonus Entry 2); five (5) bonus entries during the Sweepstakes Period for following @mysticaquarium on Twitter (Bonus Entry 3); five (5) bonus entries during the Sweepstakes Period for following @mysticaquarium on Instagram (Bonus Entry 4); five (5) bonus entries during the Sweepstakes Period for following @nbcconnecticut on Instagram (Bonus Entry 5); and, five (5) bonus entries during the Sweepstakes Period for following @nbcconnecticut on Twitter (Bonus Entry 6). Bonus Entries may only be redeemed one (1) time during the Sweepstakes Period, for a total of up to thirty (30) additional Entries per person during the Sweepstakes Period.

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WINNER SELECTION AND NOTIFICATION: On or about September 10, 2018, one (1) potential winner (Winner) will be selected in a random drawing by representatives of Sponsors from all eligible Entries received during the Sweepstakes Period. Sponsors will make two (2) attempts to notify potential Winner by the email address and/or telephone number submitted at the time of Entry. Sponsors may share potential Winners name and contact information with Sweepstakes Entities and/or any Prize Provider, as applicable, if necessary. Potential Winner may be required to execute and return an affidavit of eligibility, release of liability, publicity release (except where prohibited), and any other documentation that Sponsors may require (collectively, Sweepstakes Documents) within two (2) days of such notification. Noncompliance within this time period will result in disqualification, and, at Sponsors sole discretion an alternate potential Winner may be selected from the remaining eligible Entries. If potential Winner cannot be reached, is found to be ineligible, cannot or does not comply with these Official Rules, or if Prize or prize notification is returned as undeliverable, potential Winner will be disqualified and time permitting, at Sponsors sole discretion, an alternate potential Winner may be selected from the remaining eligible Entries.

PRIZE: There will be one (1) prize (Prize) awarded to Winner. Prize consists of the following: two (2) tickets for Winner and one (1) guest (Guest) to the Chicago concert, scheduled to take place on September 20, 2018 at 7:30 P.M. ET at the Toyota Oakdale Theatre, located at 95 S. Turnpike Road, Wallingford, CT 06492 (Event). Prize is subject to certain terms and conditions, as specified by issuer. Restrictions may apply. PRIZE DOES NOT INCLUDE TRANSPORTATION, PARKING, OR ACCOMMODATIONS. Winner must be available to attend Event or Prize will be forfeited.

Estimated Retail Value (ERV) of Prize is ninety dollars ($90). Actual Retail Value (ARV) of Prize may vary. Any difference between ERV and ARV will not be awarded.

All details of Prize will be determined by Sponsors in their sole discretion. Sponsors reserve the right to substitute Prize (or portion thereof) with a similar Prize (or Prize element) of comparable or greater value. All taxes and other expenses, costs, or fees associated with the acceptance and/or use of Prize are the sole responsibility of Winner. Prize cannot be transferred by Winner or redeemed for cash and is valid only for the items detailed above, with no substitution of Prize by Winner. If Prize is unclaimed within a reasonable time after notification from Sponsors, as determined by Sponsors in their sole discretion, it will be forfeited, and time permitting, an alternate Winner may be selected from the remaining eligible entries at Sponsors sole discretion.

Sponsors shall have no responsibility or liability for cancellations, delays, or any other change by any company or person providing any element of Prize, and are not responsible or liable for any expenses incurred as a consequence thereof. Date and/or time of Event is subject to change. Event is subject to cancellation. If Winner chooses to attend Event with no Guest, the remaining elements of Prize shall constitute full satisfaction of Sponsors Prize obligation to Winner and no additional compensation will be awarded. Guest may be required to execute and return releases of liability and, except where prohibited, publicity releases (collectively, Guest Documents), which must be returned with the Sweepstakes Documents, or Guest portion of the Prize will be forfeited. Guest must be eighteen (18) years of age or older as of the start of the Sweepstakes Period.

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DISPUTES: THE SWEEPSTAKES IS GOVERNED BY, AND WILL BE CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH, THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, AND THE FORUM AND VENUE FOR ANY DISPUTE SHALL BE IN NEW YORK, NEW YORK. IF THE CONTROVERSY OR CLAIM IS NOT OTHERWISE RESOLVED THROUGH DIRECT DISCUSSIONS OR MEDIATION, IT SHALL THEN BE RESOLVED BY FINAL AND BINDING ARBITRATION ADMINISTERED BY JUDICIAL ARBITRATION AND MEDIATION SERVICES, INC., IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS STREAMLINED ARBITRATION RULES AND PROCEDURES OR SUBSEQUENT VERSIONS THEREOF (JAMS RULES). THE JAMS RULES FOR SELECTION OF AN ARBITRATOR SHALL BE FOLLOWED, EXCEPT THAT THE ARBITRATOR SHALL BE EXPERIENCED AND LICENSED TO PRACTICE LAW IN NEW YORK. ALL PROCEEDINGS BROUGHT PURSUANT TO THIS PARAGRAPH WILL BE CONDUCTED IN THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK. THE REMEDY FOR ANY CLAIM SHALL BE LIMITED TO ACTUAL DAMAGES, AND IN NO EVENT SHALL ANY PARTY BE ENTITLED TO RECOVER PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING ATTORNEYS FEES OR OTHER SUCH RELATED COSTS OF BRINGING A CLAIM, OR TO RESCIND THIS AGREEMENT OR SEEK INJUNCTIVE OR ANY OTHER EQUITABLE RELIEF.

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT: For the name of the Winner, available after September 24, 2018 send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to be received by November 24, 2018 to: WVIT, Chicago VIP Ticket Sweepstakes, 1422 New Britain Ave, West Hartford, CT 06107, Attn: Dhurata Lluhani.

This Sweepstakes is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. Entrants are providing information to Sponsors and not to Facebook.The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends flu shots for children of all ages, citing higher effectiveness of the shot versus nasal spray. But for children who refuse needles, FluMist nasal spray is available.

Additionally, some evidence suggests Flucelvax and FluBlok, the only two egg-free vaccines on the market, may work better than the older vaccines grown in eggs. Dr. Richard Zimmerman, who advises the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Influenza Committee, said the major hospital group will only be buying egg-free formulations this year.

"The egg-free vaccines appear to have perhaps a 10 percent higher effectiveness over the traditional egg-based vaccines, Zimmerman said in an interview with NBC News.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend everyone over the age of six months get a flu vaccine but they "do not recommend one flu vaccine over another."A 24-year-old Dallas man died Sunday after an apparent accident on a rental electric scooter over the weekend.

Jacoby Stoneking was riding a Lime scooter early Saturday morning when he was injured.

Stoneking's father, Jack, told NBC 5 his son called a friend to say he fell off the scooter and asked to call a Lyft for him.

According to Dallas police, when the Lyft driver arrived at the intersection of South Munger Blvd. and Terry Street, Stoneking was unresponsive. The scooter was 160 yards away from him, broken in half. Police said there was no other debris in the road.

"Somebody had to see something," said Stoneking's father, as he checked neighbors for surveillance video. "The damage that was done to his body, that's not a scooter accident."

Stoneking believes a driver hit his son. Police are not investigating it as a crash or a hit-and-run.

"That was where he was laying," neighbor Edward Roblez told Stoneking as he pointed at the street corner outside his house. "I thought, 'oh, something must have happened to him.'"

Stoneking said his son wanted to be a doctor.

In death, he will help heal others through the gift of life.

"That's why we donated his organs, so that other people could have life," said Stoneking through tears. "He was all about life."

The family started a GoFundMe page to help with expenses.

On Monday afternoon, Lime released the following statement regarding the incident:Controversy continues to grow within the Catholic Church over the devastating priest abuse scandal. In his morning mass Monday, Pope Francis told parishioners silence is the best response to those seeking scandal and divisiveness.

But the Pope's words are only reinforcing calls for him to respond to mounting allegations.

Dr. Kathryn Rombs is an instructor of philosophy at the University of Dallas, and founder of the Catholic mothers' ministry, Mighty is Her Call. A mother of six herself, she knows how to deal with infighting among her children.

"It can be time to silence one or silence another so they don't foster the problem but when there is a true problem in my home, it's never the time for silence," said Dr. Rombs.

She sees the Catholic Church as an extension of her family and that family is in crisis.

"To the issue of abuse in this church, it is not time for silence," Dr. Rombs said.

Addressing parishioners Monday morning, Pope Francis said, "With people who seek only scandal, with those who look only for division," the best response is "silence, prayer."

This comes just over a week after an Archbishop accused the Pope of being involved in covering up priest abuse.

Also last week, Dr. Rombs joined a group of Catholic women who signed a letter calling for the Pope to respond to the growing scandal.

"It's time for proper investigation, Dr. Rombs said. We only want the truth. We clearly do not want scandal, we clearly want an end to this scandal that silence has caused."

Dr. Rombs was encouraged that the Pope added in his comments Monday that he is seeking discernment on when is the right time for silence.

She hopes his own prayers will lead him to answer the people.

"The people who are feeding the poor," Dr. Rombs said. "Those who are housing the homeless, these are the people who are going to say, we demand rectification of this problem and I think it's gonna happen."

Bishop Edward Burns of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas is also leading an effort to urge Pope Francis to call a worldwide gathering of clergy to address the sex abuse scandal within the church. Bishop Burns started a petition signed by both North Texas bishops and 21 priests.Some Oak Cliff residents are seeing red over the construction along I-35E. They said it's sending a steady stream of highway traffic through their small neighborhood, leaving behind a trail of damage.

Normally, you can take Beckley to access the interstate on-ramp to the north, but right now it's closed at east Yarmouth. Still, that isn't stopping drivers from taking a detour.

It's semi-trucks, big tractor trailers, here comes another one right now, said Gregory Bowden. When one vehicle goes, they all go.

Bowden is frustrated over drivers going rogue, cutting through his East Clarendon neighborhood, despite the signs reading local traffic only.

You see the telephone pole was totally taken out, power lost because semi-trucks are trying to navigate those turns, it's impossible, he said, pointing to damage along the newly repaved streets. You can see the tire marks and at the end of the block you can see all of the cracks in the cement.

The roadblocks on Beckley for utility, work mark just a small part of the construction being done for The Southern Gateway Project. The barricades may cause short-term headaches, but theyll hopefully lead to long-term relief. Over the next few years, crews will widen I-35E to five lanes in each direction in southern Dallas and add two reversible, non-tolled express lanes into and out of downtown to help with rush hour. Highway 67 will see improvements too. The project will mean permanent closures for some other ramps like the "Zang" exit that are no longer up to code.

But for Beckley, the closure is temporary. A Southern Gateway spokesperson says they've listened to complaints and recently added more signs warning "no outlet" and "local traffic only." The problem is, some drivers may be seeing them too late and dont want to backtrack.

Once you turn on Beckley, there's no way getting out, you have to come down these two streets, so why not close off Beckley entirely? Bowden asked.

The projects spokesperson said the answer isn't so easy, because of a church and other businesses in the area. So for now, some residents are left to worry.

My neighbor here just got hit down the street. The other neighbor, his boys almost got hit night before last, Bowden said.

Hes not the only one who hopes drivers pay more attention.

So far, there's no hard end date to the barricades on Beckley, blocking the on-ramp access, but the spokesperson said it should only be a few more months. The entire expansion is expected to complete by the end of 2021, including the infrastructure for a new deck park by the Dallas Zoo. Right now, drivers in the area can access the northbound lanes of 35E from either Twelfth Street or Ewing.

You can stay current on the latest roadblocks for The Southern Gateway project by signing up for text alerts or social media updates. Just click THIS LINK.Cody Gleason thought he came across a solid deal. He wanted to trade his Gibson Les Paul guitar in exchange for gold bullion.

A man came across his ad online and wanted to make the transaction happen. Gleason said the man assured him that the gold was real  he even used a magnet to prove it.

The next day, he took it to a local gold and silver shop and learned the trade was a scheme and the gold was fake.

"If I can do something to help other people not be susceptible to this kind of scam, that's what I'm going to do," he said.

His case was eventually picked up by the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, and about a month later, Gabriel Carter was arrested on a felony theft charge.

Court documents refer to Carter's actions as a scheme by exercising control over the guitar "namely by deception."

Even though charges had been filed, Gleason never thought hed see his guitar again. But, he recently got a call from the DA's office, which said they had something of his that hed want to see.

And just like that, he got his guitar back.

The Dallas County DAs office explained that because the case is still pending, they cannot provide a comment at this time.

We also reached out to Carters attorney, and we havent heard back.

Gleason told us when he was picking up his guitar, another man was there to pick up his guitar, too.

That man said he saw our first story, went to the police, and hes happy to have his property back.For many, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. But in the world of politics, it signifies that the campaign trail is just starting to heat up.

As such, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and his Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez opted not to take the holiday off -- and instead, spent Monday stumping in North Texas.

Valdez started the morning at the AFL-CIO breakfast in Dallas, a pro-union, Democrat-friendly event that attracts national, state, and local leaders.

The former Dallas County Sheriff told the crowd of about 600 she recognizes that she faces an uphill battle between now and November 6, but that "together, we're taking that darn hill."

Most scientific polls show her trailing Abbott by double digits. A recent NBC News / Marist poll gave Abbott a nearly 20 point lead.

Valdez says she's not focusing on poll numbers and is more concerned about the needs of everyday Texans.

"We continue to aggressively go out there and make sure that people hear our message," said Valdez. "When people hear our message, they vote -- because they know that we care about the everyday Texan and the things that are important to them. I think our current governor is out of touch with the everyday Texan."

Abbott, meanwhile, was in North Texas Monday, as well. He was with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other elected republicans and candidates at the Labor Day Rally and Victory Kickoff in McKinney. Abbott told the crowd to be involved this election season.

"We need you engaged, not just today, but every single day for the next eight weeks or so until early voting begins. For the next two months until election day on November the sixth. Your involvement is imperative," said Abbott.

He continues to out raise Valdez by wide margins.A female patient jumped out of an ambulance on a highway in the East Bay Monday morning before being struck and killed by a passing car, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The deadly collision happened in the area of the southbound Interstate 680 connector to westbound Interstate 580 on the border of Dublin and Pleasanton, according to the CHP.

Seventeen people were killed in vehicle crashes across California over the Labor Day weekend, and nearly 1,000 were arrested on DUI suspicion, according to the California Highway Patrol. Thom Jensen reports.

The CHP issued a Sig-Alert at 7:54 a.m. due to the connector ramp being blocked as a result of the collision, according to the CHP.

According to CHP, the patient who jumped out of the ambulance was being transported from Valley Care Hospital in Pleasanton to John George Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro.

The CHP says the woman got out of her restraints, overpowered a paramedic and jumped out as the ambulance was coming to a stop on a ramp connecting two highways. She was declared dead at the scene.

The shaken pickup truck driver said it happened fast: "I was making a turn, and the girl ran out this way and ran right in front of my truck," he said.

CHP Officer Josh Roberts says investigators are trying to figure out how the woman was able to jump out.

"Its not normal for somebody to break out of an ambulance or get out of an ambulance while its moving," Roberts said. "So we really have to figure out how that unfolded."

Officials said the woman earlier in the day was detained by police in Pleasanton for reckless driving and a confrontation with cops. Police said the woman tried to grab an officer's gun and a Taser was used to subdue her.

NBC Bay Area's Robert Handa and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Los Angeles Dodgers could be without their closer this weekend.

After a three-game series with the New York Mets in Los Angeles this week, the Dodgers will travel to Colorado for a three-game weekend series with the Rockies.

For precautionary reasons, the team's closer, Kenley Jansen, might not make the trip to the mile-high city.

Jansen told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com on Monday that the decision on whether or not to send Jansen for the pivotal series in Colorado is "being debated," after Jansen showed signs of an irregular heartbeat in Denver less than a month ago.

Jansen was rushed to the hospital for testing before that series with the Rockies, and ultimately was flown back to Los Angeles where he saw a cardiologist and was placed on blood thinners.

Jansen was moved to the disabled list and missed about two weeks. During that time, the Dodgers bullpen surrendered leads or ties in seven consecutive games without their anchor.

After learning from that experience, the team is now more equipped to deal with Jansen's absence after placing starting pitcher Kenta Maeda in the pen, trading for former closer Ryan Madson, as well as activating relievers Josh Fields and Zac Rosscup from the disabled list.

However, not having your All-Star closer when you go head-to-head with one of the team's fighting you for first place in the division could be damaging, but if the irregular heartbeat returns, losing Jansen for even longer could be debilitating.

"With Kenley and altitude and going to Denver, it's certainly going to be a conversation we're going to revisit during this series," said Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts on Monday. "The No. 1 priority that we're all aligned with on is that Kenley's health is first and foremost the priority. If there's any hesitation on his part or the doctors say the altitude can affect him in any way, then for us, it's a no-brainer to have him stay back. So we haven't made a decision yet. We'll have those conversations and make that decision in the next couple of days."

If it were up to Jansen, he would travel with the team to Colorado and be the closer. He told Gurnick he doesn't fear for his health if he returns to Denver, but is worried about what it would do to the team if he suffered another irregular heartbeat and had to go back on the disabled list during a pennant race.

After struggling in his first four appearances off the disabled list, Jansen is finally back to his old form, after recording two saves and a win in the Dodgers series victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks that helped them recapture sole possession of first place in the NL West.

Because of Jansen's atrial fibrillation that is expected to lead to a second offseason ablation surgery, it's likely Jansen will stay in Los Angeles this weekend and meet the team in Cincinnati, for the following series with the Reds.Two priests were arrested after allegedly performing sexual acts on each other in broad daylight on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, police said.

According to police, they received a call of lewd and lascivious behavior on Monday at 3:20 p.m. on the 1300 block of Ocean Drive.

When police arrived, they found Edwin Giraldo-Cortez, 30, and Diego Berrio, 39, performing sex acts on each other. An officer asked the passenger to lower his window when he noticed one of the passengers had his penis exposed.

Police said the acts were happening in full view of the public passing by on Ocean Drive, and the car did not have tinted windows.

The two men were arrested. Berrio is being charged with lewd and lascivious behavior and was held on $250 bond. Giraldo-Cortez is being charged with indecent exposure and lewd and lascivious behavior and was held on $1,500 bond.

Both men bonded out of jail by Tuesday night. Attorney information wasn't available.

The Archdiocese of Chicago said that Berrio is a pastor of Mision San Juan Diego in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Giraldo-Cortez was an extern priest from Soacha, Colombia, who served at St. Aloysius Parish in Chicago for one month.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of Chicago said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, who serves as the ninth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, immediately removed Berrio from ministry and withdrew his ability to minister.

The Archdiocese of Chicago also said it has told Giraldo-Cortez's home diocese in Soacha that Giraldo-Cortez will "not be granted additional faculties to minister."

"It is our responsibility to ensure those who serve our people are fit for ministry. We take this matter very seriously and will provide updates as they become available," the Archdiocese of Chicago wrote.Before the school year begins in Yonkers Public Schools, the youngest students board a school bus for life-saving lessons: they learn to board the bus, exit the bus in an emergency and they learn to buckle up.

"If they are required to wear a seatbelt in the car with their parents, they should be required to wear a seatbelt on the bus as well, said parent Genell Lloyd.

Sounds logical, but not the law, as the I-Team has learned. In New York State, school buses are required to have lap belts but it is up to each district if kids must wear them.

In Yonkers, pre-K, kindergarteners, and first grade students must wear seat belts, but after that, kids are on their own. Out of 733 school districts in the state, only about twenty of them require students wear seat belts, according to the New York Association for Pupil Transportation.

There are operational questions of who is going to make sure the kids are buckled in, said Peter Mannella, who serves as executive director. Who is liable if the kids arent buckled in?

Thats one reason the association is opposed to a bill in Albany that would make seat-belt use mandatory. But more importantly, it cites federal research that the size and design of large buses, not belts, best protect kids in a crash.

Its the safest way to get kids to school, said Mannella.

In May, just after a deadly school bus crash in New Jersey, in which all the students were wearing lap belts, the NTSB called for all new buses to have 3-point shoulder belts. Videos from seat belt manufacturers shows the life-saving difference in a rollover crash.

While New Jersey quickly moved to make shoulder belts the law, there has been no rush in Albany.

The current state of affairs is very lax, according to state Sen. David Carlucci (D-38th Senate District)

Carlucci has drafted a bill to mandate three point shoulder belts on buses and make it a law that all students wear it. But already there has been pushback.

It might be safer for kids, but we still have to argue through the logistics, said Mannella of the NY State Association for Pupil Transportation. Its not the industry saying we dont like seatbelts. Give us a chance to figure this out and the cost of them. It could be 10-12 thousand dollars more on a 120 thousand dollar bus already.

Parents in New York can call your school to ask about the seat belt requirements and talk to your kids about buckling up. Connecticut is one of the many states that does not yet require seat belts on buses.Facing widespread outrage, The New Yorker has dropped plans to interview Steve Bannon during its festival next month.

New Yorker editor David Remnick told The Associated Press in a statement shared Monday with the magazine's staff that he had changed his mind. The former Donald Trump aide and ex-chairman of Breitbart News was supposed to be a featured guest during a prestigious gathering that over the years has drawn some of the world's most prominent artists and public figures. This year's guests include Emily Blunt, Zadie Smith and Sally Yates, who Trump fired as deputy attorney general after she refused to back his initial ban on travelers from Muslim countries. The ban was advocated by Bannon, a senior White House adviser at the time.

"I've thought this through and talked to colleagues  and I've re-considered," Remnick, who has repeatedly denounced Trump and his administration, wrote of his decision on Bannon. "There is a better way to do this. Our writers have interviewed Steve Bannon for The New Yorker before, and if the opportunity presents itself I'll interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage."

Remnick also acknowledged that festival guests, unlike those interviewed on radio or for a print story, are paid an honorarium, along with money for travel and lodging.

In an email statement Monday, Bannon wrote that "After being contacted several months ago and with seven weeks of continual requests for this event, I accepted The New Yorker's invitation with no thought of an honorarium."

"The reason for my acceptance was simple: I would be facing one of the most fearless journalists of his generation. In what I would call a defining moment, David Remnick showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob," he added. Bannon also included a letter from Remnick, dated June 28.

"I would like to invite you to sit down with me for an informal, free-ranging discussion of the political movements redefining international and local politics. This would include, of course, your work abroad as well the upcoming midterms. There would be no need for prepared remarks, as we intend these events to be unscripted, lively, and spontaneous," Remnick writes, adding that "Naturally, the magazine would handle all your travel arrangements and accommodations; you would receive an honorarium; and you would also be invited to attend most other Festival events."

"We would be honored to have you," he writes at the end.

The New Yorker's announcement on Bannon came earlier Monday and was denounced by Roxane Gay, Jessica Valenti and many others. Gay tweeted that "the intellectual class doesn't truly understand racism or xenophobia. They treat it like an intellectual project, where perhaps if we ask 'hard question' and bandy about 'controversial' ideas, good work is being done." Filmmaker Judd Apatow had tweeted he would not attend if Bannon was interviewed. Kathryn Schulz was among the New Yorker staff writers who tweeted that they had informed Remnick directly about their objections.

Tweeted Patton Oswalt: "I'm out. Sorry, @NewYorker. See if Milo Yiannopoulos is free?" a reference to the far-right writer and speaker whose memoir was dropped last year by Simon & Schuster after numerous complaints.

In explaining his initial decision, Remnick wrote Monday that Bannon was well aware of their political differences. "The point of an interview, a rigorous interview, particularly in a case like this, is to put pressure on the views of the person being questioned."

"There's no illusion here," he wrote. "It's obvious that no matter how tough the questioning, Bannon is not going to burst into tears and change his view of the world. He believes he is right and that his ideological opponents are mere 'snowflakes.' The question is whether an interview has value in terms of fact, argument, or even exposure, whether it has value to a reader or an audience."

Meanwhile, Bannon is scheduled to appear Sept. 15 at The Economist's "Open Future" festival in New York City. According to The Economist, festival attendees will "discuss the most urgent issues of our time and remake the case for liberal values." At least one guest already plans to drop out. British writer Laurie Penny tweeted Monday that she "cannot in good conscience appear at an event which chooses to dignify a neo-nationalist like Steve Bannon."

Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.As the embattled archbishop of Washington asked parishioners attending a Sunday morning service to keep Pope Francis in their prayers, a man stood and yelled "Shame on you" before storming out.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl was celebrating Mass at the Church of the Annunciation to install Monsignor Michael Mellone as the parishs new pastor. Wuerl is facing a storm of criticism and calls for his resignation after a Pennsylvania grand jury report said he allowed priests accused of sexually abusing children to be reassigned or reinstated when he was the bishop of Pittsburgh.

During his post-Communion remarks, Wuerl asked the parishioners to forgive his own "errors in judgment" and to pray for Pope Francis.

"We need to hold close in our prayers and our loyalty our Holy Father Pope Francis," Wuerl said. "Increasingly its clear that he is the object of considerable animosity."

That's when Brian Garfield shouted, Shame on you! and then walked out of the church.

Wuerl continued, At each mass, we pray for him by name as we do so with our voices, so may we do so also with our hearts. Yes, my brothers and sisters, shame. I wish I could redo everything over these 30 years as a bishop and each time get it always right. Thats not the case.

Garfield, who is Catholic but not a parishioner of Annunciation, said he was upset at being lectured to by Wuerl and was surprised that more people didn't express the same outrage. He said his faith in God remains strong, but he cant say the same thing about his faith in the church.

However, one parishioner turned her back on the cardinal during the remarks.

Theres a tradition in the church, especially here in Washington, Mary Challinor said. There were protests in the late 60s and early 70s of people who, during the sermon in that case, would turn their backs to say, I am here, I am a member of the church, I am celebrating mass, but I dont agree with what is being said, and I dont agree with the policy, but I am here as a Catholic.

She said she doesnt think the church hierarchy understands what the scathing grand jury report released last month about rampant sex abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses really means to Catholics. The report accused Wuerl, 77, of helping to protect some child-molesting priests while he was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006.

I feel like these people who, in the evidence of the Pennsylvania report, allowed priests who were abusing children to continue in their ministry should no longer be in the church hierarchy, she said. They should be priests. We need every priest we can get, and I dont think they did this out of malice at all, but I think that they abused their position and I feel like they abused the responsibility that was given to them, I guess in Pennsylvania, as a bishop.

A statement posted on the archdiocese's website acknowledges the dissenters, but says "the Cardinal was also met with applause and expressions of support from the parishioners as he concluded his remarks. This sentiment was echoed as he greeted the faithful who approached him and expressed their prayers and support after Mass."

The Archdiocese of Washington is home to more than 630,000 Catholics and is considered an important power center for the church in the U.S. Wuerl has been ranked by commentators as one of the most influential of the 10 active American cardinals.

Some Catholics are calling for the resignation or removal of Wuerl, 77.

Wuerl has not been charged with any wrongdoing but is named numerous times in the grand jury report, which details instances in which he allowed priests accused of misconduct to be reassigned or reinstated.

Wuerl was born in Pittsburgh, attended Catholic University in Washington and received a doctorate in theology from the University of Saint Thomas in Rome. He joined the priesthood in 1966, was ordained a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1986, and served briefly as auxiliary bishop in Seattle before going to Pittsburgh.What to Know Ryan Pownall is accused of shooting and killing David Jones during a June 2017 traffic stop.

Pownall fired on Jones as he ran away after throwing away his gun, investigators said.

The criminal homicide charges faced by Pownall are a rarity for law enforcement in Philly.

A former Philadelphia police officer facing a homicide charged for allegedly shooting a man in the back as he ran away from the officer last year is being held without bail.

Ryan Pownall is accused of killing dirt bike driver David Jones after pulling him over on June 8, 2017 along Whitaker Avenue in the city's Juniata section.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced charges against Pownall on Tuesday after a grand jury report, the culminations of a yearlong investigation. Pownall is charged with criminal homicide, reckless endangerment and possession of a weapon of crime.

Krasner said his office had done a separate investigation to that done by the grand jury, resulting in the charges Tuesday.

Pownall was fired from the police department following an internal review. He turned himself over to authorities on Tuesday.

In the moments before the June 2017 shooting, Pownall was transporting three people to the department's Special Victim's Unit for an interview. Krasner said the officer pulled across traffic and into a parking lot after seeing Jones.

Family Photo

Pownall, a 12-year veteran of the police force at the time, patted down Jones and felt a gun in his waistband, police said.

A witness in back of Pownall's police vehicle watched Pownall pull his service weapon and warn Jones not to touch the gun, police said. The two men then briefly scuffled as Jones turned his back on Pownall and fled, investigators said.

Pownall attempted to fire his service firearm, but it jammed, Krasner said. Jones, who was also armed, threw away his gun and ran in the opposite direction of the weapon, according to authorities.

Surveillance video obtained by NBC10 appears to show Jones running away when he was shot.

"Video recovered from the scene shows that Jones was unarmed and he never turned toward Pownall or gestured in a threatening manner during his (running away)," Krasner said. "As Jones ran, unarmed, Pownall fired at least three shots toward Jones and traffic, hitting Jones twice in the back."

The entire deadly interaction lasted less than 30 seconds.

"Jones' death was not necessary to secure the apprehension of Jones," Krasner said.

Last September, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said the officer used poor judgment.

"Jones was running away from Pownall with nothing in his hands," Ross said.

Pownall broke department policy by making a traffic stop with witnesses in his vehicle, Ross said. Pownall also failed to notify police radio of the traffic stop or call for backup.

Pownall's attorney, Philadelphia-based attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr. said Jones didn't have a license for his gun.

Activists are protesting the deadly police shooting of a man riding a dirt bike in Philadelphia back on June 8. The Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office is handing the investigation of the death of David Jones.

Several activist groups held several demonstrations about the shooting, demanding answers in the case.

After a Black Lives Matter protest outside Pownall's home, the city police union president called the protesters a "pack of rabid animals."

Ross said some of the protests outside the officer's home were "out of bounds."

"Today is the day that the family of David Jones has been waiting for," said Isaac Gardner, one of the most visible protesters after Jones' shooting, said on behalf of his family. He added that they were excited for the charges, which they had not believed would happen.

According to police records, it was the second time Pownall was involved in an on-duty shooting where a suspect was struck in the back.

Carnell Williams-Carney was paralyzed in 2010 after Pownall and a second officer fired shots at him as he fled, hitting him once in the back. A federal jury ruled in a civil lawsuit that Pownall and the other officer were justified in opening fire.

Pownall was arraigned Tuesday afternoon and dneied bail, according to court records. A prelimary hearing was set for Sept. 19.

The Fraternal Order of Police called for the charges to be dropped and for Pownall to be reinstated on the force. They also called for Pownall to be allowed bail.

"FOP Lodge 5 and fellow officers stand in solidarity with Officer Pownall and his family," FOP President John McNesby said. "We promise a vigorous defense and expect Officer Pownall to be cleared of all charges and get his job back protecting the community."President Trump fired off a tweet criticizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department over the indictments of San Diego Rep. Duncan Hunter and New York Rep. Chris Collins Monday amid a series other tweets celebrating Labor Day, criticizing Iran and complaining about the Rigged Witch Hunt."

Although he did not mention them by name, the president referred the investigations of both men as Obama era and questioned the timing of the indictments just months before the midterms. Both congressmen have been under investigation for more than a year.

Collins, who represents Western New York, was arrested Aug. 8 on federal insider trading charges.

Hunter, who represents the 50th district in San Diego, was indicted along with his wife on Aug. 21 on charges of using campaign funds for personal expenses, including family vacations, groceries and school tuition.

The tweet read, Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

Hunters campaign has alleged the charges are politically motivated, citing that two of the prosecutors attended a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in 2016.

In front of reporters, he compared himself to the president, saying "this is the new Department of Justice. This is the Democrats arm of law enforcement."

Hunter says he plans to stay in the race and told reporters last week he looks forward to fighting the charges in court.

A poll that was done after Hunters indictment showed his support in the 50th district has remained steady, but that constituents would rather vote for any other Republican. In the poll, voters also questioned the timing of the indictments, echoing the presidents and Hunters claims the charges are political.

After the indictment, Hunter first seemed to blame his wife, Margaret Hunter, and then later said he wanted prosecutors to leave my wife out of it, continuing his campaigns suggestion that the charges are political. We know they're not after her they're after me, he told reporters last week. They want to flip the seat, so let's go to court let's have a trial and everybody will see everything.

Hunter's Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, has seized on the charges to boost his own campaign, but the former Obama Labor Department official has never run for office before and Hunter soundly won the primary 49 percent to Campa-Najjar's 16 percent.

In the latest poll, Hunter has an eight-point lead over Campa-Najjar: 47 to 39.

Hunter and his wife made their first appearance in court on Aug. 23, pleading not guilty to the charges. Hunter is scheduled to be in court again Tuesday.It was a shocking crime in a wealthy Washington, D.C., neighborhood. Firefighters responded to a 911 call for a house on fire, but inside they found the bodies of three members of the Savopoulos family and their housekeeper, tortured and murdered.

On Wednesday, jury selection begins in the trial of Daron Wint, the lone person charged in the gruesome 2015 crime, despite investigators repeatedly saying they believed multiple suspects were involved.

"Could there have been a second person? Well, from an investigative standpoint I want to know," retired FBI agent and profiler Clint Van Zandt told the News4 I-Team. "If I was the defense attorney, I would really jump on that, because then you're saying, 'Well, it's somebody else.'"

In advance of Wint's trial, the I-Team combed through hundreds of court records and uncovered several pieces of evidence previously unreported:

In addition to the Savopoulos family's mansion being set on fire in Northwest D.C. and their Porsche being found on fire hours later in Prince George's County, court records show a blue minivan known to be driven by Daron Wint was also found on fire in the days after the murders. The location where the Porsche was found is adjacent to an apartment complex where Wint and several family members lived. A key witness who spotted the Porsche during the hours in between when it left the mansion and was set on fire has added new details to his story to further suggest someone other than Wint drove the Porsche away from the scene. Another key witness in the case has a shocking connection to the suspect.

Victims' Car Found Near Where Suspect Lived

Detectives had been searching for the Savopoulos family's blue Porsche 911 for much of the afternoon of May 14, 2015. They knew someone had killed husband and wife Savvas and Amy Savopoulos; their young son, Philip; and the family's housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, and driven the car away from the mansion.

It was found early that evening ditched in a New Carrollton church parking lot. Court records show the burned-out Porsche still yielded evidence. And, later, so did its location.

"If you're going to burn a vehicle, you either have to have transportation to your next spot or you're going to walk there," said Van Zandt, who reviewed the details of the case for News4.

Van Zandt said suspects often ditch vehicles in areas familiar to them. So when investigators found DNA from a pizza crust at the mansion murder scene matched to Wint, the location of the burning Porsche mattered even more, Van Zandt said. If you walk down through the tree line behind that church parking lot, you end up in the apartment complex where public records show Wint and his family lived for years.

"You know investigators don't like coincidence, Van Zandt said. There's some link there."

Retired Metropolitan Police Department homicide detective Susan Blue-Stanton agrees; she actually visited the scene where the Porsche was found.

"Oh, very close," said Blue-Stanton. "It's an easy getaway, easy escape path."

Minivan With Connection to Suspect Also Burned

Blue-Stanton couldn't mask her sarcasm when the I-Team showed her yet another "coincidence"  never before made public  that investigators found a minivan with a connection to Wint on fire in the days after the murders.

"Well, isn't that odd that his car was also burned," said Blue-Stanton.

The blue 2002 Ford Windstar van was also found in Prince George's County, just a three-minute drive from the business where Daron Wint once worked, American Iron Works, where Savvas Savopoulos was the CEO. Prosecutors wrote in court records that police had arrested Wint while driving that same minivan less than two months before the murders.

"When we see the second vehicle was burned just like the first vehicle, that stuff starts to add up," said Van Zandt.

"That's a very helpful fact for the prosecution," added Glenn Kirschner, who recently retired as chief homicide prosecutor for the U.S. attorney's office. He didn't oversee the mansion murders case but reviewed the details for News4.

The I-Team found at least a dozen references to the blue minivan in the case file, including mention of a sealed search warrant and list of evidence investigators obtained from the van. Wint's defense attorneys unsuccessfully fought to keep prosecutors from using that evidence at trial. Prosecutors also noted at least seven surveillance videos from businesses near the intersection where the van burned.

"I have always been amazed at what ATF is able to determine from a scene that seems to be burned beyond recognition," said Kirschner. So that will be important evidence in the trial."

Key Witness Adds New Detail to Story

So will testimony from a key witness who told police he saw the family's Porsche being driven erratically on New York Avenue between the mansion murder scene and the parking lot where it was found on fire. That witness always described a driver who looked very different from Daron Wint: a black male with a thinner build and short, well-groomed hair.

But records show on July 31, 2018, that witness added another detail to his story. After he was interviewed by law enforcement, he saw a photograph of Savvas Savopoulos's driver, Jordan Wallace, on television and "thought the individual in that photograph resembled the individual he observed driving the blue Porsche."

Family of Victims' Driver Lived Near Suspect

Public records obtained by the I-Team show, for years, the Wallace family also lived in the same apartment complex right near Daron Wint and the location the burning Porsche was found.

"It's definitely worth looking into further and seeing if there's anything else that can tie anybody else to that house to those murders and just find out if there's something else," said Stanton-Blue.

That eyewitness added "that it was also possible that his mind was playing tricks on him," but prosecutors thought the information was important enough to include in the case file and share with the defense team.

The defense team has already stated publicly that it plans to defend Daron Wint by pointing to another suspect.

Records show police questioned Jordan Wallace as a possible suspect, even obtaining a search warrant for his vehicle and phone, but did not charge him with anything.What to Know Robin Conway, 64, was found in her yard on Sept. 3 with "significant injuries," police said. Her dog stood over her.

Conway had adopted the dog that police described as a pit bull just two weeks earlier.

It wasn't immediately clear what breed the dog was, or from where Conway adopted it.

Police in Maryland are investigating whether a woman found dead in her backyard was mauled to death by a pit bull she had recently adopted.

Robin Conway died after she was found with "significant injuries" on Labor Day outside her home in Columbia, Maryland, Howard County police said Tuesday. A family member found Conway injured at the home on Tamar Drive about 7:20 p.m., police said. The dog was standing over her.

The family member tied up the dog and called 911. When police and paramedics arrived, the dog was "barking and lunging on the leash."

Conway was pronounced dead at the scene. She was 64.

Outside Conway's home, animal control officers subdued the animal. It was later euthanized. A necropsy of the dog will be performed to determine if it had rabies or other medical issues.

Conway had adopted the pit bull from out of state just two weeks earlier.

A medical examiner will determine Conway's cause of death.

Animal control had not previously been called about any problems with the animal. Information on its breed and size was not released. Also, police said they do not have information on from where the pit bull was adopted.

The pit bull category of animals encompasses several breeds of muscular, block-headed dogs, including American Staffordshire terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers and American bulldogs.

Pit bulls are banned in neighboring Prince George's County, as well as in many apartment buildings and homeowners associations across the D.C. area. Entire rescue organizations in the region are devoted to finding homes for pit bulls.

Stay with News4 for more details on this developing story.A woman was killed in rural Maryland over Labor Day weekend as she tried to help a driver during a flash flood. The driver also was found dead.

The body of Melissa Anne Lehew was found Monday after she disappeared into a rushing river during a storm Friday evening, Maryland State Police announced Monday. Lehew was 34.

The man she tried to help, Daniel Samis, was found dead in his car Saturday morning. He was 67.

Witnesses told police a sedan got stuck on Broad Run Bridge in Churchville, Maryland, about 35 miiles northeast of Baltimore, about 6 p.m. Friday. Floodwater covered the entire car.

Lehew and a man got out of their car and tried to help using a rope. But Lehew fell and was swept over the bridge and into the rushing water of Broad Run.

The man with Lehew tried to find her and then called 911. As he was on the phone, the car stuck in the water tumbled over the side of the bridge.

Dive crews, K-9s and officers from across the region searched for the two missing people. Samis, of Abingdon, Maryland, was found about 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Lehew, of Darlington, was found about 1 p.m. Monday.

It wasn't immediately clear if Lehew and Samis knew each other.

Lehew was a mother of four, and the man with her was her boyfriend, his father told the Baltimore Sun.

Maryland State Police advised drivers to avoid roads during flash floods.Four more people in Massachusetts have tested positive for West Nile virus, bringing this year's total of human cases to nine.

State health officials said Tuesday that the new cases include a man in his 40s from Middlesex County who is hospitalized, a man in his 60s from Bristol County who is hospitalized, a woman in her 20s from Essex County who was released from a hospital and a woman in her 80s from Suffolk County who was released from a hospital.

No human deaths have been reported this year.

There were six human cases in the state last year.

The virus is spread by mosquitoes, and health officials say most people infected will have no symptoms. Severe and potentially deadly illnesses like encephalitis can occur in rare cases.Police have arrested a man who allegedly accosted a woman and her son in South Boston on Monday.

Wilfin Medina, 29, was arrested and booked on charges of assault and battery, breach of the peace, and the attempt to commit a crime.

Massachusetts State Police troopers responded around 3:25 p.m. for a report of an attempted abduction of a child near the Castle Island bathrooms.

The officers spoke to a woman who reported that a man she didn't know approached members of her family and was behaving erratically. She told police the man was making bizarre and non-sensical statements.

The woman, who has not been identified, said in her statement that she asked the man to leave but he did not and then allegedly grabbed the arm of her 12-year-old son.

She says she pushed the man away and told him not to touch her son.

The suspect then reportedly walked away in the direction of a nearby playground.

A state trooper who responded was able to locate a man matching the suspects description. The man had a large rock in his hand when the trooper approached him and claimed to know the woman and boy he had reportedly accosted. The suspect was placed into a police cruiser, and the woman then positively identified him, leading to his arrest.

Medina is expected to be arraigned Tuesday in South Boston district court. Its unclear if he has a lawyer.Game wardens in Vermont are urging people to keep their distance from wild animals, after an incident over the weekend they say led to the death of a moose.

The animal drowned in Lake Champlain, after swimming across the lake from northern New York, said warden Robert Currier of the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, who covers a multi-town district around Burlington.

Currier said moose are good swimmers, adding that it is not rare for the animals to cross bodies of water as the one did on Saturday morning.

However, the problem started when the moose arrived on the shore of South Hero, near the bike path, Currier said.

The warden told necn that people excited to see a moose up close inadvertently ended up scaring the animal, driving him back into the water when they gathered to take cell phone photos.

The exhausted moose was just no match for the wind-whipped swells on the lake that day, Currier said.

We could tell by watching the moose while it was swimming that the waves were affecting its breathing and affecting its ability to swim into shore easily, Currier recalled, describing what happened after the moose returned to the water after finding no place to go on shore.

Currier advised the public to avoid close encounters with wildlife, as tempting as it may be to approach animals to observe or photograph them.

A moose needs space, Currier said, adding that the same is true of all wild species. Allow it to feel comfortable in its environmentthat way, a situation like this doesnt occur again.

In September of 2016, necn witnessed a similar situation in Stowe, but with a better ending.

Folks had gathered around a tree, where two young black bears had climbed to the top.

Only after police sent away the crowd would the cubs climb down and run safely back toward the woods. That incident prompted a plea to the public about interacting with animals, from the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Its always a spectacle when people spot wildlife, the departments Tom Rogers said that day in 2016. The best thing you can do is kind of keep your distance and move on quickly. Enjoy it, appreciate it, take a photo, but then try to leave the area pretty quickly.

Rob Swanson is a longtime Vermont photojournalist who now works as a senior staff photographer for The Islander, a newspaper serving the Champlain Islands and distributed throughout the area.

Swanson is encouraging the community to appreciate nature from a distance, as he does, using his professional camera and years of journalism experience to capture images published by The Islander and on its Facebook page.

My mantra in nature photography is, Observe, dont harass, Swanson told necn Tuesday. We should all try to interact with nature safely; responsibly. An iPhoneto get a good picture, youve got to get close. And just because you can get close to a natural scene doesnt mean you should.

Warden Currier said the body of the moose was retrieved from Lake Champlain, and was freshly butchered, with the meat provided to agencies that help feed hungry families in the area.Four people were arrested and an officer was allegedly assaulted early Sunday morning in connection with a fight outside a Manchester, New Hampshire bar.

Police said an officer was outside of Glow Bar on Hanover Street at 1:35 a.m. when he spotted a woman assault another woman who had been sitting inside a parked vehicle.

When the officer tried to intervene, the suspect began to slap the officer's hands away while also "making several disparaging remarks" towards him. The woman, identified as 21-year-old Demi Shuman of Manchester, was arrested but not before allegedly punching the officer in the mouth with a closed fist.

Police said several others outside the bar refused to leave the area and interfered with the officer's attempt to arrest Shuman.

Also arrested were Roselyn De Jesus, 25 of Manchester; Eddy Assani, 19, of Manchester; and Luck Ndahigwa, 21, of Concord. Shuman was charged with simple assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest while the others were charged with refusing to leave the scene.

All were released on their own recognizance and are scheduled to appear in the 9th Circuit Court-Manchester on Oct. 10.A standing-room-only crowd packed the Lynnfield Center Water District's (LCWD) hearing room Monday demanding clean water.

"I can't drink the water, I can't do the laundry," said Lisa Lopez, who bought a six-bedroom Cape style home with her husband on West Tapley Road five years ago. "No effort has been made to look at my home. I've yet to hear what you plan to do about it."

The two dozen residents said they want answers to why the water in their homes is brown, and sometimes black, making it undrinkable, and ruining clothes in the washer. They asked what will be done and if there's a plan to remedy the problem.

"My water stinks of chlorine and I won't drink this terrible brown water that stains my clothes in the washer," said Stephanie Rauseo of Russet Lane, who brought photos of the discolored water for the three-member Board of Water Commissioners.

In the tiny room where the temperature reached over 80 degrees despite a window air conditioner, residents of Apple Hill Lane, Lowell and Main streets, and Cortland Lane, said they have been living with discolored water for years.

Established by the Legislature in 1939, LCWD is one of two water districts that serve Lynnfield. It produces and distributes water to more than 2,600 homes, businesses, and public buildings in the northwest two-thirds of the town. But neighbors say the panel has ignored their complaints.

Constance Leccese, the chairwoman, assured the crowd something was being done. She said in the short term, LCWD will pay up to $200 for the purchase and installation of a water filter that, she said, should alleviate the problem temporarily.

The long-range plan, she said, is a construction of a water treatment plant at a cost of up to $5 million that would have to be approved by a majority of voters.

"We acknowledge this is a problem," Leccese said. "That's the reason we are putting this rebate system in place now."

But many people in the crowd said a filter would need to be replaced once a week given the discolored water.

"I can tell you a filter won't last more than a week given the conditions in our homes," said one man. "Who will pay to replace them every week?"

Another resident suggested ratepayers not be charged for water or be given a substantial discount until the problem is solved. But that idea was rejected by Leccese.

Kenneth Burnham, water superintendent, said the reason for the discolored water is deposits of iron and magnesium. He insisted the water was ``safe,'' noting that tests submitted to the state confirmed the town's water meets all the criteria of the federal Safe Water Act. He said the best remedy is a new treatment plant which could take years to win voter approval and complete construction.

The other option is tying into the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which provides water and sewer services to 3.1 million people and more than 5,500 industrial users in 61 Greater Boston communities.

But the cost would be about $20 million, a tough financial pill for the community to swallow.

"We work for you and want to solve this," Burnham said.

But many of the residents were dissatisfied with the answers.

"Is there a Plan B if the $4 million is not approved by residents?" asked one woman in the crowd.

Burnham said there is no alternate plan.

For now, he said, they plan a high-velocity flush of the system, which should alleviate the problem. But he acknowledged the water pressure has not been sufficient enough to get the job done since many residents are violating the no outside water-use policy.

"We are collecting about $800 in fines weekly," he said.

But that response brought groans from the crowd.

"Are you serious," said one man. "How do you sleep at night?" asked another.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 4)  House Deputy Speaker Pia Cayetano defended herself on Tuesday for supposed silence on women's issues  at least, when it comes to the President.

Cayetano said she brings up her concerns in person when she meets President Rodrigo Duterte and her brother, Foreign Secretary Alan Cayetano, who ran for his Vice President.

"My brother is the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The President is my president. So if I have concerns, I take it up directly  in the same way that you have concerns with your company, you take it up directly," Cayetano told CNN Philippines' The Source.

"If you ask a lot of the secretaries who are his close companions, they know and they remember how I work with the President," she added.

The Taguig Representative and former senator has made a name as a women's advocate, pushing for measures such as expanded maternity leave and divorce. But some have pointed out that she keeps mum when Duterte makes controversial remarks, such as rape jokes.

The President drew flak for jokingly attributing rape to "pretty women." In June, he sparked outrage for kissing a married woman on the lips during a meeting with the Filipino community in South Korea. He also previously made a rape joke about an Australian missionary, threatened to shoot female rebels in their privates, and remarked on Vice President Leni Robredo's legs.

Cayetano also said that she was not as visible as she was when she was a senator, and she is still working for women behind the scenes.

When asked if she was quiet, Cayetano responded, "Nothing happened... I work in the House of Representatives. There are [about] 300 of us. It's not like in the Senate, [where] there's 24 of you that at any given time, you're going to be interviewed by reporters."

"We pass so many bills, a lot of which are pending in the Senate. But the House made effort on it," she added.

The remarks come as the House of Representatives is poised to expand maternity leave to 100 days. The bill, authored by Cayetano, is expected to be deliberated in a bicameral committee, which will reconcile a Senate counterpart measure that covers 120 days of paid leave.

Cayetano has also pushed for divorce, a controversial proposal in the dominantly Catholic Philippines. However, Duterte has expressed his opposition to the policy.

Cayetano admitted that she has not had a chance to discuss the issue with the President yet, but she explained Duterte was concerned divorce could leave women vulnerable if men want to leave a marriage.

"But the reality is  and I haven't had a chance to chat with him about it  a lot of women would want to just live in peace," said Cayetano. "Feeling ko, in the President's good intention to protect women, hindi pa niya siguro nakita yung part na iyon."

[Translation: I think, in the President's good intention to protect women, he hasn't seen that part (of the issue) yet.]

The divorce bill is pending at the Senate, where it faces an uncertain fate. The upper house is led by Senate President Tito Sotto, who is known to vote conservatively.

"[It's] a sensitive bill, we know very well that as election nears, politicians tend to shy away from more controversial issues," she added. "So that's why it becomes difficult to foresee that the Senate will pass it."

Cayetano is gearing up for a senatorial return in 2019. Surveys have pegged her as a frontruner in the race.IoT is being weaponized. The same sensors, networks and real-time data analysis used monitoring classrooms can morph into weapons for targeted killing. How do such malicious drones operate and what can be done to protest against their airborne threat?

Background

Here are three data-points of weaponized drones.

The recent assassination attempt on the President of Venezuela with drones. Aug 4, 2018. CARACAS, Venezuela  A drone attack caused pandemonium at a military ceremony where President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela was speaking on Saturday, sending National Guard troops scurrying in what administration officials called an assassination attempt. The use of drones to shoot down incendiary kites in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. IDF reservists to help; troops able to shoot down flying objects 40 seconds from detection Slaugtherbots . A video by the Future of Life Institute and Stuart Russell , a professor of computer science at Berkeley presenting a dramatized near-future scenario where swarms of inexpensive microdrones use artificial intelligence and facial recognition to assassinate political opponents based on preprogrammed criteria.

How do they work?

Drones are aerial IoT devices. Theyre mounted with sensors that relay their location, altitude and other sensor readings such as images to a back-end system or controller which determines what action the drone should take. Such drones have to remain within sight for a human control to operate them. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stipulates that Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) users must (1) Register their UAS with the FAA (2) Fly the UAS within visual line-of-sight. The examples above with the Venezuelan assassination attempt and shooting down incendiary kites both involve human controllers.

Commercial drones used are used to inspect pipelines for leaks. They can fly long distances looking for signs of an oil leak on their own and the images of leaks are easily recognizable. They can travel further because they do not require onboard power source for long range transmission with their pilot. Extending pattern recognition for oil leaks to facial recognition to identify a human target is not as big a hurdle as you would think. Chip technology is advancing so that small on-board chips could enable to a drone to find a target within a crowd on its own.

This isnt science fiction as The Perpetual Line-Up explains, the Government Accountability Office revealed that close to 64 million Americans do not have a say in the matter: 16 states let the FBI use face recognition technology to compare the faces of suspected criminals to their drivers license and ID photos, creating a virtual line-up of their state residents. In this line-up, its not a human that points to the suspectits an algorithm. The Verge reports a major recipient of AI funding in China is facial recognition. This technology is widespread in the countrys cities, used for everything from identifying jaywalkers to allocating toilet paper. More significantly, its also been embraced by the government as a tool for surveillance and tracking.

Similar artificial intelligence (AI) enables drones to operate autonomously. They can be programmed with a route or instructions and then navigate to the destination on their own. This makes it possible for a swarm of drones to operate collectively, without human operators.

Defensive strategies

How do you protect against such a smart weapon? Here are three possible defenses:

1. Block communications

Pilots communicate with their drone using a transmitted C2 link. WhiteFox Defense provides a RF counter-drone security which constantly surveys for these signals and analyzes them in real-time to determine the danger posed by a drone. This information can be used to lock out the drone pilot and mitigate the threat. This approach has limited value though, when a drone is operating autonomously and not in regular communications with it pilot as there is not signal to block.

2. Airspace monitoring

This approach resembles anti-virus software where network packets are compared against a list of known virus signatures to identify threats and block them. Unmanned Defence Specialists provides software that continuously displays real time airspace information and detects and identifies drones using "DroneDNA" pattern recognition. Defensive measures against hostile drones can be taken automatically with this information. These systems however, work best in areas with a known boundary and may not be suitable for protecting large areas.

3. Policy changes to weaponizing drones

The Future of Life Institute and Stuart Russell , a professor of computer science at Berkeley released the video Slaughterbots. The Future of Life Institute ( FLI ) is a volunteer-run research and outreach organization that works to mitigate existential risks facing humanity, particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence (AI). "This short film is more than just speculation; it shows the results of integrating and miniaturizing technologies that we already have... AI's potential to benefit humanity is enormous, even in defense, but allowing machines to choose to kill humans will be devastating to our security and freedom", explains Russell.

Paul Scharre author of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War disagrees with Russell. "Every military technology has a countermeasure, and countermeasures against small drones aren't even hypothetical. The U.S. government is actively working on ways to shoot down, jam, fry, hack, ensnare, or otherwise defeat small drones. The microdrones in the video could be defeated by something as simple as chicken wire.", explained Scharre also stated that Russell's implied proposal, a legally binding treaty banning autonomous weapons, "won't solve the real problems humanity faces as autonomy advances in weapons. A ban won't stop terrorists from fashioning crude DIY robotic weapons.

Summary

Just as the Industrial Revolution spurred the creation of powerful and destructive machines like airplanes and tanks that diminished the role of individual soldiers, artificial intelligence technology is enabling the Pentagon to reorder the places of man and machine on the battlefield the same way it is transforming ordinary life with computers that can see, hear and speak and cars that can drive themselves, reported the NYT . The new weapons would offer speed and precision unmatched by any human while reducing the number  and cost  of soldiers and pilots exposed to potential death and dismemberment in battle. The challenge for the Pentagon is to ensure that the weapons are reliable partners for humans and not potential threats to them.

Killer drones may not be here yet. But theyre closer than youd think.Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT  A man was shot in the face Monday evening in Bridgeport, according to police spokesman Av Harris.

The shooting took place in the area of Howard Avenue and Colorado Avenue just after 6 p.m., Harris said.Australias national science agency, CSIRO, partnered with world leader in medical gases, Air Liquide Healthcare, to reveal how the noble gases interactions with proteins could one day be used to treat a variety of health issues.

A visualization of a protein meshing with noble gases.

CSIROs Dr Aaron Thornton said proteins and a small group of chemically unresponsive elements, known as the noble gases, were the subject of the project.

Proteins play an essential role regulating a bodys tissues and organs, Dr Thornton said.

Hemoglobin, for instance, is the protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to where exactly in the body its needed.

We took a massive online database of 140,000 protein structures and used computer modeling to show how noble gases would interact with them at the molecular level.

While its been known through various preclinical studies that noble gases such as helium, neon, argon, krypton, and especially xenon have biological effects that could lead to medical discoveries, what exactly they do to the body and how they do it remain largely a mystery.

Until recently doing this would have required researchers to take a protein and see what chemicals affect it, Professor Dave Winkler from CSIRO and the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences said.

A laborious, time consuming and extremely expensive process.

Computer modeling though has allowed us to reverse the focus: take a chemical  the noble gases in this case  and see where it ends up meshing with a human protein.

Its allowed us to bring this complex biochemistry into sharp focus and turned biomedical pin the tail on the donkey into millions of potential leads instead.

Researchers can now take these leads and see if they can turn them into medical breakthroughs.

Each simulation has a million energy grid points and over 20TB of raw data was generated during the project.

So far CSIRO and Air Liquide Healthcare have found links that could potentially open up new research directions on new medical applications in a broad range of medical fields covering the central nervous system, inflammatory or metabolic disorders.

This is only the start, added Dr Thornton.

Weve created an intuitive, interactive online visualization platform to help medical researchers interact with the data and make their own discoveries.

Its an example of how CSIRO partners with industry to address research challenges, and help create a better future for everyone.

Source: https://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2018/Noble-questDr. R. Clinton Webb, Herbert S. Kupperman Chair in Cardiovascular Disease in the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, has been selected for the top award from the American Heart Association's Council on Hypertension.

Webb will receive the 2018 Excellence Award for Hypertension Research for his contributions to greater understanding and improved treatment of this major risk factor for heart disease and stroke that is listed among the top 15 causes of death by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Webb will be honored at the AHA's Joint Hypertension 2018 Scientific Sessions Sept. 6-9 in Chicago.

Dr. Paul K. Whelton, Show Chwan Health System Endowed Chair in Global Public Health at Tulane University, whose research focus includes the prevention and epidemiology of cardiovascular and renal diseases, and who has led numerous hypertension intervention trials, also will be honored by the AHA with the hypertension excellence award.

"Dr. Webb is a prolific investigator who more than 40 years after giving his first presentation on the dilation of blood vessels, remains passionately immersed in the field of vascular biology and hypertension," said Dr. David C. Hess, MCG dean. "His tremendous body of published, pertinent work and his unique style of mentoring the next generation of vascular physiologists make him an icon in the field of hypertension research."

Webb's research interests include a focus on the vascular smooth muscle cells that give blood vessels contractility, and changes that impact their function in hypertension, diabetes and male and female sexual dysfunction, as well as the mechanisms for normal contraction and relaxation of blood vessels.

He is principal investigator on a $9.4 million Program Project grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute exploring the vicious cycle of how high blood pressure damages cells which causes them to spill their contents - called damage associated molecular patterns, or DAMPs - which further fuels inflammation and high blood pressure.

Webb is associate editor of the American Journal of Hypertension and Pharmacological Research. He is serving his second term as a member of the editorial board of the AHA journal Hypertension, and is a member of numerous other editorial boards including the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension, Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Vascular Pharmacology and Cardiovascular Diabetology.

He has been corresponding author or coauthor on nearly 350 published scientific studies and nearly 120 additional reviews, book chapters and other publications. Webb has helped mentor 48 postdoctoral fellows, 73 PhD students, 89 graduate students, 13 medical students and 16 international students.

Five years ago, Webb was honored with the AHA Council on High Blood Pressure Research's Irvine Page-Alva Bradley Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the field of hypertension and for serving as a role model through service, research, teaching and training. His other top honors include the Carl J. Wiggers Award from the American Physiological Society in 2012 for a lifetime of outstanding and lasting contributions to cardiovascular research, and the AstraZeneca Award from the International Society of Hypertension that same year for his work in clinical pharmacology and therapy of hypertension. In 2004,he was the inaugural recipient of the Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award from the Women in Physiology Committee of the American Physiological Society.

Webb has twice chaired the Fall Conference Committee of the AHA Council on Hypertension, and currently serves on the Scientific Sessions Program Committee. He has been an abstract reviewer for the AHA for more than 30 years, and is a member of its Scientific Sessions Program Committee, International Mentoring Program and Ethnicity and Gender Working Group.

He chaired the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology in 2009, and since 2013 has served as that group's representative to the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Webb is a member of the Fellowship Committee of the American Physiological Society's Cardiovascular Section. He has served on numerous Special Study Sections/Special Emphasis Panels for the National Institutes of Health, including co-chairing the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Developmental Centers in Benign Urology last year and serving as an ad hoc member of the NIDDK Program Project Review Committee this year. He also served as an ad hoc member of the NHLBI Program Project Review Committee in 2017.

Webb earned a doctorate in anatomy from the University of Iowa in 1976. He completed postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan and the Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen Department of Medicine in Belgium. He joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1979 as an assistant research scientist, was named assistant professor the next year, associate professor in 1983 and professor in 1986. In 1996, he was a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico Department of Physiology and visiting research scientist at the Lovelace Institutes in Albuquerque.

He served as chair of the physiology department at MCG from 1999-2018, was named Kupperman Chair in 2006 and Regents' Professor in 2011.insights from industry Rupert Ecker CEO & Co-Founder TissueGnostics GmbH

Please give an overview of tissue cytometry and its relevance in cell analysis. How does it compare to flow cytometry?

Flow cytometry has been an established technique used in life science research, and also diagnostics, for more than five decades. If you search PubMed, there are hundreds of thousands of papers which have used flow cytometry as a technique of research and discovery.

Over the decades, flow cytometry has evolved to a technique that can quantify molecules on single cells, where today up to 20 or even more markers can be stained simultaneously and real marker profiling can be achieved.

The major limitation of flow cytometry is that it is only applicable to cells in suspension, therefore you cannot do a flow cytometric analysis of a solid tissue section. Researchers used to digest tissue blocks in an enzyme solution so that they got a single cell suspension, which could then be analyzed by flow cytometry.

One of the major drawbacks of this approach is that you lose any assignment to morphology. You may measure some cells in flow cytometry from a digested tissue block, but you never know where a particular cell came from, for example was it inside or outside a gland, inside the tumor area, close to the tumor area, or away from the tumor area.

The second big disadvantage is when you digest living cells in an enzyme solution, a process that takes 12 - 15 hours, the cells will respond to this digestion solution and can start expressing some markers or degrade others.

Therefore, measurements after 15 hours of digestion may be different to the original situation in the tissue. As part of my PhD thesis at the Department of Urology University of Vienna, I developed a prototype method on a confocal laser scanning microscope, which allowed the scan of tissue sections stained for multiple markers, followed by an automated analysis on the single cell level. Single cells are recognized typically over a nuclear marker, and then the software measures how much staining is associated with each cell. Staining obviously refers to molecular markers.

Several staining combinations mean several markers. And then we can achieve the same thing, a functional and phenotypic characterization of single cells, that flow cytometry does, but this analysis can be performed in a solid tissue section on a slide.

Even though flow cytometry can only be used on a small proportion of the human body because we are mainly made up of solid tissue sections, and not liquid, it has a giant place in the market worldwide. Tissue cytometry should actually be considered as a much wider market and not as an extremely small niche or special application.

What is the importance of the characterization and understanding of the interactions between cell populations in normal and diseased tissue?

Since the successful completion of the human genome project, we know that the human genome contains more than 30,000 genes from which tens of thousands of molecules are derived and build our cells. A human body consists of about 13 billion cells with each cell consisting of thousands of molecules of different species. This requires regulation in order to keep such an abundance of molecules and cells in homeostasis.

To achieve this goal, nature has designed regulatory networks that consist of different molecule species which interact with each other. There are so many networks each with many different components and types of molecules that make it up, that no network is completely known and understood today.

Researchers are constantly finding new molecules or functions for known molecules. Signal transduction and processing are examples of regulatory networks that take place in what are known as signal transduction cascades. This is subject of intense international research.

Whenever a disease occurs, for example an auto immune disorder like diabetes or a form of cancer, this means that somewhere there is an imbalance and the regulatory networks could not properly regulate the tissue, the cell, the organ, and finally homeostasis.

It is of critical importance for researchers to understand the difference between normal and diseased tissue, i.e. perform a comparison between normal tissue and different stages of disease, e.g. early/ pre-disease, or late stage of the disease. Understanding signal transduction cascades, and therefore regulatory procedures, on the molecular level implies that it is not enough to look on a single molecule or two because regulatory networks consist of dozens or even hundreds of molecules/markers.

Phenotypic characterization, or marker profiling, means measuring multiple markers at the same time and is the prerequisite for understanding the molecular mechanism that leads to a certain disease. And in turn, can lead to developing a specific therapy. This is the basic idea of what is called personalized medicine, or maybe a better word for it would be precision medicine.

A therapy made this way is not for a disease like lung cancer in general, but for a certain mechanism which leads to lung cancer. And lung cancer can be caused by different molecular mechanisms, by different genetic defects, by different molecular dysregulations. What we need to understand is the exact mechanism on the molecular level which has lead to lung cancer in that particular patient.

With the tools developed by TissueGnostics, multiple markers on single cells, and the interactions between those cells can be determined and quantified on an observer-independent level. Therefore, TissueGnostics doesn't offer anything less than tools for precision medicine.

What challenges do researchers face when trying to achieve quantitative assessment of cell populations in histological sections?

Flow cytometers analyze suspensions of single cells. Cells have to be resuspended before they can be analyzed. Still, there is always a degree of dublets or multiplets, which are cells sticking together and the flow cytometer cannot properly analyze as single events. They are normally rejected. On top of that, cells in suspension are always whole cells.

When analyzing monolayers of cells, normally a homogeneous cell population is used. It means all cells are of the same type, maybe from a single clone, and also the cells in culture are complete. This, however, is very different to a histological section.

First of all, a tissue section will always contain a variety of different cells, such as epithelial cells, muscle cells, nerve cells, blood vessels, tissue infiltrating leukocytes and maybe tumor cells at various differentiation stages. And on top of that, the histological section is a 2D slice that represents an actually three-dimensional object.

Another big difference between image cytometry and flow cytometry is that cells in suspension tend to be round. However single cells in their native environment, which is the tissue, have various shapes. While finding round shapes in an image is a rather trivial endeavour, which is easy to solve for computers, automated identification of hundreds of different shapes, many of which may occur in the same tissue and even in the same image is a real challenge. A challenge that TissueGnostics meets with its TissueFAXS cytometry platform.

Please give an overview of TissueGnostics and how you have paved the way for "tissue cytometry" research.

It all started in the 1990's with my Ph.D. thesis. I was trained as a cell biologist and did my masters and Ph.D. at the Department of Urology Medical University of Vienna. One of my first jobs was to manually outline, by using the computer mouse on microscopic images, what is a nucleus and the cytoplasm of each single cell  which had to be done for literally thousands of cells.

I did this from early morning to late evening for three weeks until I got tendonitis in my right hand and thought there must be a better way this can be done. This was the starting point of a development which years later led to the foundation of TissueGnostics.

This foundation took place in 2003 and in 2005 we founded our subsidiary TissueGnostics Romania, which is our main development branch. In 2007 our subsidiary in Los Angeles, TissueGnostics USA, was set up. In 2008 TissueGnostics was certified for ISO 13485, which is the main quality norm for companies working in the field of medical instrumentations and IVD (in vitro diagnostics). We also started to build up our international network of distribution partners.

We always had close collaborations with academia, both nationally and internationally. Over the years we conducted more than a dozen publicly funded collaborative R&D projects together with university partners, which were funded nationally here in Austria. And up to today we had become consortium partner in six big European funded international research projects. Among these are five Marie Curie European training networks.

Collaborations with academia are very important because the needs that arise are close to the market needs as well. As I am also trained as a software engineer on C++ and other computer languages, therefore I was able to develop the first prototype of our TissueFAXS cytometry software by myself. TissueGnostics used to be the first supplier of an image cytometry solution that works similarly to flow cytometry with interactive scattergrams that have cut offs and gates.

It is now well understood by the experts, technicians and the market that image analysis is a precious tool that can be used to convert images into data. The specific form of image analysis that we are doing is called image cytometry or tissue cytometry, because we are not only measuring the size of a cell or its diameter or its shape, but by quantifying the molecular marker expression per cell our tools allow the user to obtain a functional or phenotypic characterization of single cells. And those single cells are part of a tissue section or cell culture monolayer.

TissueGnostics has been a trend setter and helped to prepare the market, generating increased awareness in the scientific community that microscopic images are not just images, that the microscope is not just a very expensive photo camera, but it can be used as an instrument that generates scientific numeric data as well.

What imaging solutions do TissueGnostics provide to help researchers clearly identify cell function in tissue samples?

Our technology platform is called TissueFAXS. This name has been selected in similarity to the FACS (fluorescence-activated cell sorter), because our technology brings the idea of flow cytometry to the slide, to the tissue section.

TissueFAXS consists of high end microscopic imaging hardware. Our software links all the hardware components (microscope, scanning stage, cameras, fluorescence excitation devices, filters, spinning disc, slide loaders etc.), automates the scanning process (by providing algorithms for tissue detection, finding focus points, finding the focus position, calculation equilibration planes for focus, automated adjustment of settings etc.) and applies a variety of image cytometry algorithms to the virtual slides.

The latter  image cytometry  is our core competency and we use a set of algorithms that can identify single cells in tissue sections automatically. There are several approaches, but the main approach is that we take the nucleus as a master channel and then measure for each nucleus how much staining is associated with that nucleus inside the nucleus or around the nucleus in each of the color channels. The quantification is therefore done for each single cell, but inside the tissue can be any number of cells, even millions, that are identified and quantified.

We offer three major software packages for our clients. TissueQuest, which is the single cell analysis platform for fluorescent samples. HistoQuest, single cell analysis platform for immunohistochemical stains. The high-end software is called StrataQuest; this is our solution for contextual image cytometry. StrataQuest can go beyond the analytical capacity of TissueQuest and HistoQuest, and also have multicellular structures like vessels and glands identified automatically, and then correlate these histological entities with the single cell level.

We can offer solutions which automatically identify the tumor area as well as tissue infiltrating/ tumor infiltrating leukocytes. And our software can determine how many leukocytes, e.g. CD4 single- and CD4/FoxP3 double-positive cells are present, inside the tumor or outside the tumor in the stroma. And if they're outside, we can even measure how far are they away from the next tumor structure.

Especially for our StrataQuest platform we also offer apps, pre-defined analysis solutions. Upon request, TissueGnostics also offers the development of specific solutions of custom apps as a service. StrataQuest apps come with their own graphical user interface that shows a few control elements necessary to tweak the analysis process, which may change from sample to sample or from staining to staining.

Apps are the solution for those users who do not want to develop their own algorithms, who do not want to care about workflow design, but they just want to extract data of a specific staining. But StrataQuest is also a solution for those who want more flexibility to develop their own algorithm and it even offers an interface to link with MATLAB or to C++ libraries, which contain specific code for processing or segmenting images.

The name StrataQuest comes from the Latin word stratum, layer, or plural strata, layers, because StrataQuest offers analysis layers. In each layer we can analyze the same sample but under different aspects. For example, in the first layer, we identify the tissue area, in the second layer we identify the tumor, in the third layer we identify all nuclei, in the fourth layer we identify T-helper cells and measure the distance from the tumor area, in the fifth layer we could measure tumor activation markers, and so on. And then you can combine the segmentation results of the different layers; you get to an even more advanced read out.

With our software solutions we can address all kinds of user requirements from simple usage on many samples, which is a typical requirement for routine diagnostics, up to highly variable research questions where maybe every day a new question has to be addressed and a new solution has to be developed.

How are samples prepared for use in TG systems? Is it a long or difficult process?

No, not at all. In fact, there is not even a specific preparation procedure that needs to be followed in order to allow an analysis with our systems. Standard staining protocols, both for immunohistochemistry, as well as immunofluorescent stained samples can be used. Our TissueFAXS scanner records the signal, and our image cytometry solution quantifies it on a single cell level. No special procedure, no special reagents are required.

Our TissueFAXS platform can handle paraffin-embedded tissue as well as cryo-cut sections. It can work with cell culture monolayers, in chamber slides, on cover slips, in microwell plates. Our scanners even support oversized slides, e.g. when using big tissue sections. We have inverted systems which can handle slides but also well plates from six well up to 384 wells.

All our fluorescent systems can be equipped with a spinning disk confocal device, so we can offer whole slide confocal imaging.The latest member of our TissueFAXS family is an instrument called SPECTRA, which can be used to do multispectral imaging. TissueFAXS SPECTRA allows to increase the number of simultaneously stained markers and still have a clear separation.

In SPECTRA we use a liquid crystal tuneable filter that allows for the detection of images within specific wavelength intervals and make multiple images with lightly shifted wavelength intervals. This is a lambda stack, similar to the z-stack in a confocal microscope, which shows the same field of view at different focal positions.

The lambda stack is a set of images which show the same field of view in the same focus position, but at different spectral intervals. By the use of mathematics, generally known as spectral unmixing, it can be extracted how much of the total combined signal comes from fluorochrome 1, fluorochrome 2, fluorochrome 3, fluorochrome 4, etc. A particularly useful kind of option is that autofluorescence can be specifically detected and then turned off.

Spectral imaging is a very powerful tool to increase the number of markers, and at the same time get a more specific detection and it is important to remove background signals, autofluorescence, which is very often present, especially in the green domain of the spectrum.

How does your TissueFAXS software work with your instrumentation to achieve automated scanning profiles? Is it compatible with all TG products?

The TissueFAXS suite consists of four applications: the TissueFAXS acquisition and management software, which controls all the hardware components and automates the scanning process, and the other three applications, which I mentioned earlier - TissueQuest, HistoQuest, and StrataQuest. Virtual slides acquired by the TissueFAXS scanners and the TissueFAXS scanning software, are fully compatible with all of our applications. However, with the limitation that the software TissueQuest can only analyze fluorescent samples because it's the software for fluorescent stains, and HistoQuest can only analyze brightfield samples because HistoQuest is for brightfield only.

Our image cytometry solutions also support the virtual slides from major third-party slide scanners, hence our analysis applications are also available as standalone solution and can bring substantial added value to existing slide scanner installations.

There is also a TissueFAXS Viewer software that can be shared and is available free of charge to everyone. This can be used to open, view, and manage virtual slides scanned by TissueFAXS.

Finally, there is a TG Web Viewer application which allows you to upload virtual slides scanned with TissueFAXS directly from the TissueFAXS scanning software to a web server. Everyone, whom an administrator at the research institute or a hospital grants access, can view those virtual slides through a regular web browser worldwide over the internet.

In order to ensure reproducibility of both, the scanning and the analysis workflow, TissueFAXS engages Scanning / Automation profiles. While for brightfield samples the settings of the instrument are more or less always the same, there is a high variability in the case of fluorescent scanning. There are many different fluorochromes on the market, the specific detection of which will require adjustments in the excitation, the dynamic range, the filter and the exposure time etc. All the specific settings of the instrument that are required to generate an optimal image can be stored and reused in automation profiles.

When a user has a new experiment, a new batch of slides which have been stained with the same protocol to the previous samples, then identical settings for scanning are used in order to generate comparable data. This can be achieved and assured through the use of automation profiles.

What do you think the future holds for TissueGnostics imaging technology?

TissueGnostics will continue and expand its R&D efforts to supply the global scientific community with state-of-the-art solutions for advanced image and tissue cytometry. We do this as part of our international research collaborations, but also based on our internal strategic product development plan.

TissueGnostics has started its existence in the role of a trendsetter, and this is also the path that we want to follow into our future. An innovative spirit and continued investment into our R&D is both critically important and characteristic of TissueGnostics.

For decades, analyses of immunohistological as well as immunofluorescent samples have been manual, purely visual and often significantly biased.

With automation-based workflows for image cytometry of tissue sections and adherent cell cultures on the single-cell level, the products of TissueGnostics support our customers  the research scientists  to fight the reproducibility crisis.

With this, TissueGnostics provides state-of-the-art tools and solutions, which help pave the way towards precision medicine.

Where can readers find more information?

They can visit our website: TissueGnostics.com, our social media sites, we are on Facebook and Twitter, and of course in more than 850 reference papers published by our global user community. Everyone is invited to contact our offices in Austria, Romania, USA, Hong Kong, and Beijing, or any of our distribution partners around the globe, the complete list of which you find on our homepage.

About Dr. Rupert Ecker

Dr Ecker is the a Founding Associate and Chief Executive Officer of TissueGnostics GmbH, Vice President of TissueGnostics USA and Managing Director of TissueGnostics Romania. TissueGnostics is an Austrian company focusing on solutions for precision medicine by offering integrated solutions for high content and/or high throughput scanning and analysis of biomedical, veterinary and natural sciences microscopy samples.In recent years access to drugs and vaccines has been increasing in many African countries, but the systems for monitoring treatment effects and reporting side-effects require further development. Karolinska Institutet will now lead an international collaboration project on pharmacovigilance - drugs safety - in four countries in East Africa.

Those taking part in the project, known as PROFORMA, are researchers from Karolinska Institutet, researchers and experts from universities and regulatory authorities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, and some regional and international stakeholders in the field of drugs safety. The total project funding is EUR 6 million, of which the major part is provided by the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation-Horizon2020, via the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). Among other significant funding bodies is the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

"The main aim of this project is to strengthen the national infrastructures for drugs safety monitoring in our partner countries in Africa. This involves developing regulatory capacity for routine surveillance and reporting, and training of staff working in healthcare and medical services and regulatory authorities," says Dr Eleni Aklillu, senior researcher at the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and scientific coordinator for the project.

Right now, she is in Ethiopia attending the national kick-off meeting for PROFORMA.

PROFORMA is estimated to last five years. The project also involve training at Master's and postgraduate level and exchange of knowledge in general between researchers and experts.

"The increasing number of clinical trials and different types of mass drug administration and vaccination programmes in African countries underlines the need to strengthen pharmacovigilance infrastructure. One important tool is to improve collaboration between the Medical Universities and regulatory authorities in the countries concerned, and we've already made good progress in this area during the few months we've been working on the project," says Eleni Aklillu.Mothers diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have an elevated risk of developing postpartum depression symptoms, according to a new Finnish study.

Gestational diabetes mellitus refers to impaired glucose metabolism during pregnancy. Often, mothers with GDM have too high blood glucose levels, and this increases the risk of various adverse effects on the fetus. Moreover, GDM increases the mother's risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Postpartum depression symptoms are experienced by 10-15 percent of mothers after childbirth. The newly published study used the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to assess depression symptoms during the third trimester of pregnancy and eight weeks after delivery.

Postpartum depression symptoms were observed in 16 percent of mothers diagnosed with GDM, and in approximately nine percent of mothers without GDM. The researchers used statistical methods to adjust the results for other factors contributing to the risk of GDM and postpartum depression symptoms, such as maternal age at delivery, body mass index and depression symptoms experienced during pregnancy. The findings were reported in Journal of Affective Disorders.

Conducted by the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Helsinki, Kuopio University Hospital and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, the study pooled data from Kuopio Birth Cohort, which is an ongoing follow-up of women from the beginning of their pregnancy. Altogether, 1,066 mothers with no previous mental health issues were selected for the study.

"Psychological mechanisms may partially explain the observed association between GDM and postpartum depression symptoms," says Doctoral Student Aleksi Ruohomaki, the first author of the study. "Being diagnosed during pregnancy with a disease that might harm the fetus can be a stressful experience, which may predispose to depression symptoms."

"Furthermore, physiological mechanisms may also contribute to this association," adds Dr Soili Lehto, Group Leader of Kuopio Birth Cohort's mental well-being section. "Impaired glucose metabolism may increase cytokine mediated low-grade inflammation, which has also been associated with depression. Previous studies have also shown that type 2 diabetes predisposes to depression, and depression to type 2 diabetes".

Research evidence is scarce regarding the possible effects of GDM on postpartum depression symptoms, and the new Finnish study is an important contribution to this emerging area of research.A mechanism for how the disease ALS evolves has been discovered at Umea University, Sweden. The discovery concerns how proteins with a defect structure spread the deformation to other proteins. This according to results in a new thesis. The discovery can open up for novel pharmaceutical developments in the future.

"We've been able to identify two different types of protein aggregates with different structures and propagation abilities. One type gave rise to a more aggressive disease progression, which shows that these aggregates are the driving force in the development of ALS," says Johan Bergh, doctoral student at the Department of Medical Biosciences at Umea University.

Together with the ALS group at Umea University, Johan Bergh has developed a method of investigating protein aggregates formed in ALS, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. With this new method, it has then been possible to identify the particular protein aggregates that are driving in the emergence of ALS.

The protein that has been targeted is superoxid dismutas-1, SOD1. It has long been known that mutations in that protein can cause ALS. The goal of the research team was to investigate the way in which the protein contributes to the disease. In several diseases afflicting the nervous system, such as in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease, new studies show that some proteins assume an abberant structure. Misfolded proteins aggregate and provoke other proteins of the same kind to assume the same structure. In this way, the disease spreads step by step into the nervous system.

"Using the new method, we have shown and confirmed through animal models that the development of ALS follows the same principle as for other severe nervous disorders. Protein aggregates function as a template that healthy proteins stick to and cause the disease to spread," says Johan Bergh.

In animal models, agregates of the SOD1 protein from animals, as well as humans, have been shown to induce ALS disease.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease which afflicts approximately 250 people annually in Sweden. Although the disease has been known for over 100 years, there is still only one medicine with a disease delaying effect available in Sweden.

"Through our new method, I hope that in the future, drugs will be developed specifically aimed at attacking these protein aggregates. Hopefully, research teams focusing on similar diseases will adopt the method. However, we are in an early phase, and developing drugs is a long-term process," says Johan Bergh.On October 1, 2018, academics at Royal Holloway will be starting its annual Stoic Week and are asking people in the UK and beyond to join in and find their inner peace.

The idea behind the week is to give people an opportunity to see whether Stoic philosophy can help them lead a better life. In order to achieve this, a free online course with step by step exercises and audio meditations has been created and anyone wishing to take part can sign up here.

Participants will be provided with wellbeing questionnaires before and after the seven days, so they can measure their progress. Stoic Week consists of seven chapters, one for each day of the week.

It gives people the opportunity to join thousands of other participants around the world as they learn to apply Stoic concepts and techniques in their daily lives.

The week uses the teachings of the three well-known philosophers, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus.

Five top tips on being Stoic:

1. Acknowledge that you can't control much of what goes on in your life

2. See that your emotions are the product of how you think about the world

3. Accept that bad things are bound to happen to you from time to time, just as they do to everyone else

4. See yourself as part of a larger whole, not an isolated individual; part of the human race, part of Nature

5. Think of everything you have as not your own, but simply on loan, that one day will be taken back

John Sellars, a founding member of Stoicism Today project, and Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, said: "The Roman Stoics argue that much of our unhappiness is of our own making and the product of how we look at things, rather than the things themselves.

"In particular, they suggest we need to understand what we can and cannot control, and become accepting of those things that just cannot be changed.

The project which people can be part of in October will help them start to learn how to have Stoicism in their everyday lives and to start feeling happier about situations which may have historically held them back."

Last year, more than 7,000 took part in the online course during Stoic Week and on September 29th, a special event called Stoicon will be happening in London, and will be attended by people from around the world.Researchers at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin have described significant differences in the brain immune cells (microglia) of male and female mice.

Image Credit: royaltystockphoto / Shutterstock

Senior author Susanne Wolf says the findings need to be taken into consideration in future research into neurological and psychiatric disorders.

As reported in the journal Cell Reports, the researchers used brain slices and isolated cells to study the structure and function of microglia, the immune cells of the nervous system that protect against invading pathogens and injury.

"It turns out that the brains of male mice have more microglia," says Wolf, who adds that the cell bodies of male microglia are larger than the those seen in females.

The study also suggested that microglia in males act differently, being permanently at attention, ready to strike and keep order, according to Wolf.

Another difference was that the constant alertness of male microglia means they seem to wear out more quickly.

In female microglia, the proteins and genes involved in protecting the cells are more active, whereas in male microglia there is increased activity of the genes responsible for apoptosis (programmed cell death).

This means male microglia may be more vulnerable to environmental insults and quicker to induce apoptosis.

It almost seems as if the male cells are more willing to take risks than the female ones. They almost always react faster, but as a result they sometimes seem to put themselves in danger." Dilansu Guneykaya, First Author

Guneykaya adds that it is crucial that these differences be taken into account in future research on neurological, and especially, psychiatric disorders.

Wolf also stresses that researchers testing medications for the treatment of neurological disorders must be aware of the fact men and womens brains could respond very differently to the same agent.Kolkata: As the rush hour traffic moved over the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata on Tuesday, a section of the 50-year-old Majerhat bridge, that connects Behala to the rest of the state capital, collapsed, taking down cars, vehicles and buses along with it.

The major accident in the heart of Kolkata left citizens shocked as one person died and several others remained trapped under the debris for several hours before rescue workers could pull them out.

So far, official have confirmed 21 cases of injury. The injured persons have been taken to SSKM Medical College and Hospital and CMRI Hospital in the vicinity.

Fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue work had earlier said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble.

The Majerhat bridge in the crowded Alipore area caved in around 4.45 pm during rush hour. It runs over the Majerhat Railway Station. Apart from Behala, the collapsed bridge also connects vast areas of the south west suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.

As the Sun went down and it started pouring, additional lighting arrangements were made to facilitate the rescue work at night.

One minibus, four cars and a few motorbikes which were hit by the collapse were seen lying at the accident site till evening.

An eyewitness claimed that some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped under the debris.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is in Darjeeling for an official tour, said that rescue work was almost over and only a concrete slab remains to be cut to find out whether any person was trapped there.

Vehicles stuck on the section of Majerhat bridge that collapsed in Kolkata on Tuesday. (PTI Photo/Ashok Bhaumik)

She said there was a hut under the bridge where some labourers engaged in Metro rail construction work used to stay. "Had they been there during the time of accident, an unfortunate thing might have happened," she said.

Banerjee said that thousands of people pass through the area and the government has to probe the accident.

"A probe will be done by a committee headed by Chief Secretary Malay De to find out the cause of the collapse. Action will be taken against those whose negligence caused the accident. No one will be spared," she said.

She also announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,00 each to the injured.

Banerjee said she will visit the site on Wednesday, cutting short her North Bengal tour.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the incident as "deeply unfortunate" and hoped for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Governor K N Tripathi, who visited the site, described it as "a big disaster".

"I have come to see the rescue work. It is a big disaster. I heard that maintenance of the bridge is entrusted with the PWD and the railways. The matter required to be enquired," he told reporters.

NDRF DG Sanjay Kumar said earthmovers are being used for clearing the area.

"We have to take into account the safety aspect while clearing the debris", he said.

NDRF personnel have engaged sniffer dogs to trace any person trapped under the debris.

The 450 metre-long bridge was built in early sixties and maintained by PWD, a member of mayor-in-council in the city municipal corporation said.

Some locals alleged the collapse might have been due to the construction of Metro railway pillars nearby but this was not immediately confirmed by the experts.

Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, which is executing construction of the Joka-BBD Bag metro corridor passing through the vicinity of Majherhat bridge, said there is "no relationship of Metro construction" with the incident.

The bridge connects Behala to other parts of Kolkata. (Image: News18)

Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said the government would undertake technical inquiry after the rescue work is over.

Asked whether the committee which look after the old bridges had given fit certificate to the Majerhat bridge, the minister said, "I cannot confirm it".

The bridge collapse hit Circular Railway services and local train services in Budge Budge-Sealdah line inconveniencing a large number of commuters, an Eastern Railway spokesman said here.

The local train services were suspended from 4.45 pm, he said. The train services in the Budge Budge-Sealdah section at around 9 pm, an ER spokesman said.

The bridge collapse hit traffic movement to and from vast areas in south-west Kolkata and adjacent South 24 Parganas district during the peak evening hours.

Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien tweeted, "Watching scenes of Majerhat bridge #Kolkata collapse. Devastating. Rescue teams, disaster management teams, Police CP, fire fighters already reach spot. Locals join. Rescue operations on. Prayers for those affected. Difficult to gauge enormity of tragedy as yet looking at visuals."

Opposition parties blamed the Trinamool Congress government and said its "callousness towards the repair of old bridges" was the main reason for the collapse.

"It is really unfortunate that the bridge has collapsed. The state government is solely responsible for it. The issue of repair of the old bridges is not at all in the agenda of TMC government," senior BJP leader Mukul Roy said.

State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury demanded an "answer" from Chief Minister Banerjee and Public Works Department Minister Hakim.

This is the third bridge collapse in the city in five and a half years.

An under construction flyover had collapsed in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016 and had claimed 26 lives.

On March 4, 2013, a road bridge had collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city but there was no casualty.The former presidential yacht, Honey Fitz, is seen docked in West Palm Beach, Florida. The 93-foot wooden motor yacht was restored to the years when it was used by US President John F. Kennedy. The yacht was used by five US Presidents, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. (Image: Reuters)Move over Hawkeye, Pizza Dog could be the real star of the MCU's newest Disney Plus series

If Marvel Studios really wants fans to love their Hawkeye show, they'll give Pizza Dog his dueBrasilia : Brazilian President Michel Temer has said that his government is seeking funding from companies and banks to help rebuild the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro after it was destroyed by fire.

Education Minister Rossieli Soares said international help was also being sought and talks with the UN's cultural body, Unesco, were under way, the BBC reported.

Museum officials said almost 90 per cent of the collection has been destroyed. The staff of the 200-year-old museum have blamed the fire on years of funding cuts.

The museum housed one of the largest anthropology and natural history collections in the Americas. It included the 12,000-year-old remains of a woman known as "Luzia".

On Monday, Temer's office said he had held talks with officials from major Brazilian banks and businesses to examine ways to reconstruct the museum "as soon as possible".

Addressing reporters outside the ruined building, Soares said the federal government had set aside an initial $3.6 million to rebuild the structure and restore its collection.

A probe has been launched to establish the facts behind the monster blaze. However, Culture Minister Sergio Leitao told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper that the most likely causes were an electrical fault or a homemade paper hot-air balloon landing on the roof, the BBC said.

The fire started on Sunday evening, after the building -- a 19th century former royal palace -- closed for the day.

It is not yet clear if the museum was insured.Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionBRIDGEPORT - A North Carolina man was being held in leu of $400,000 bond after police said he raped twin Stratford girls.

Adam Palmer, 34, was arraigned in Superior Court Tuesday after being extradited from North Carolina.

Wearing a T-shirt that bore the words, Fear is for others, Palmer rocked back and forth on his feet as he stood before Judge Tracy Lee Dayton.

The allegations are incredibly serious and very troubling, the judge said, setting the bond and continuing the case to Sept. 18.

Palmer is charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a child.

Police said Palmer raped the two 5-year-old girls, daughters of his former girlfriend, in their Stratford home in 2013.

Palmer lured the two girls into a bedroom while their mother was out, telling them he wanted to play a game, police said. He then showed them a pornographic video and took turns raping them as the girls screamed in terror, police said.

Police said the girls later told a counselor what Palmer had done to them.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Many New Yorkers may be paying too much for prescription drugs because they are unaware of a state drug price website that lets the public compare pharmacy prices for frequently prescribed medications, according to a report.

The New York Public Interest Research Group says in a report released today many pharmacies are violating state law by not posting notices at checkout counters letting consumers know about the state Health Department's drug price website.

A NYPIRG analysis of prices on the website for six of the most frequently prescribed drugs found consumers can pay as much as $200 more for the exact same prescription depending on the pharmacy they use.

In Syracuse, for example, Nexium, a heartburn drug, ranges in price from a high of $348.97 to a low of $159.98 -- a $159.98 difference, according to the report.

NYPIRG found the biggest price disparity in Manhattan where Advair Diskus, an asthma drug, ranges in price from a low of $260 to $467.75, a $207.75 difference.

"These price differences ... underscore the financial threat posed to residents who lack prescription drug coverage," the report says. "For those individuals, checking the state's website can save a bundle. But that can only work if tey know of the website's existence."

A state law enacted in 2006 required the state Health Department to create the website. The law requires pharmacies to post notices about the website.

NYPIRG did a spot check of 29 pharmacies in Syracuse, Rochester, Queens, Nassau, Manhattan, Buffalo and Albany, and found only 12 of them displayed the required information.

NYPIRG said the state should audit pharmacies to see if they are complying with the law and require clear signage.

The non-profit consumer group also said the state should review the website to identify pharmacies that appear to be charging unusually high prices.

Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245Partying, unruly and irresponsible campers on three state-run campsites were asked to leave and issued tickets by state Forest Rangers over the Labor Day weekend.

Those incidents and others involving the rescuing of lost and injured hikers are reported below. All specifics were supplied by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

CAMPERS EVICTED

Town of Rockland

Sullivan County

Enforcement: "On Aug. 31 at approximately 10:15 p.m., DEC Mongaup Pond Campground staff contacted DEC's Central Dispatch about a loud, unruly group that would not comply with campground staff. New York State Police were notified and quieted down the group. At the request of the campground caretaker, Forest Rangers responded the next morning and evicted the campers. Summonses were issued for failure to obey campground staff, failure to keep a neat, clean and sanitary campsite, failure to obey quiet hours, and cutting down trees on state land."

Towns of Warrensburg and Fort Ann

Warren and Washington County

Public Safety/Enforcement: "Warren County Department of Health advised DEC of a dog bite that occurred at the Hudson River Recreation Area in the Lake George Wild Forest. On Aug. 31, a Forest Ranger following up on the complaint interviewed a group of three subjects with several dogs at their campsite. From information obtained from the complaint and observations at the site, the group was ticketed for allowing dogs to run freely on lands inhabited by deer. The group was evicted from the site for camping longer than permitted. The same group was encountered the next day by a different Forest Ranger at the Shelving Rock area of the Lake George Wild Forest and was evicted for camping without a permit."

Town of Inlet

Hamilton County

Enforcement: "On Sept. 1, staff at Limekiln Campground received multiple complaints from campers about a loud party, arguments with profanity, and unsafe vehicle operation in the early morning hours. Forest Rangers arrived and interviewed complainants and other campers from adjacent sites. The occupants of the offending site were awakened by Rangers and interviewed. The offending campers admitted to being loud and using profanity in the overnight hours. Forest Rangers issued an eviction notice and tickets were issued for failure to observe quiet hours in the campsite."

LOST HIKERS

Town of Elizabethtown

Essex County

Search: "At 7:50 p.m. on Aug. 29, DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a relative reporting two female hikers stranded after dark in the Giant Mountain Wilderness. The two hikers found themselves caught in a torrential downpour and were ill prepared when they ran out of daylight while descending from Rocky Peak Ridge. A Forest Ranger responded, located the pair, provided lights, and assisted them out to the trailhead safely by 10:30 p.m."

Town of Sharon

Schoharie County

Search: "On Sept. 1 at 9:04 p.m., Forest Rangers were requested by Schoharie County 911 to assist in locating a 15-year-old autistic male who had left his residence after an argument. The male had run off into nearby fields. Schoharie County Sheriff's Department, the county search and rescue coordinator, and Cobleskill Police Department personnel were already on scene with a K-9 team searching the area along with family members on ATVs when Forest Rangers were requested. Forest Rangers quickly assessed the resources present, organized searchers, made assignments, and requested State Police Aviation for helicopter-based infrared scanning technology. A passerby aware of the search effort reported seeing the subject on the side of the road and reported this sighting to the command post. The subject was located 2.4 miles from his last known location and returned to his home in good health."

Town of North Hudson

Essex County

Search: "At 3:05 a.m. on Sept. 3, a call came into DEC's Central Dispatch reporting a 31-year-old male hiker overdue in the Dix Mountain Range of the High Peaks Wilderness. The hiker's starting point and itinerary were not immediately known. A Forest Ranger was dispatched to locate the subject's vehicle and check trail registers. Additional Forest Rangers were requested to start trail sweeps at first light from all sides of the range, covering all possible exit points along the trail system. At 8:25 a.m., the subject was located by Forest Rangers covering the trails off Elk Lake Road. The hiker had underestimated the difficulty and time of the route and when located was tired but in good shape. As the hiker was still a considerable distance back to his starting point, he was guided to the closest trailhead and given a courtesy ride back to his vehicle.

INJURED HIKERS

Town of Hunter

Greene County

Rescue: On Sept. 2 around 5 p.m., a 25-year-old female fell on loose rocks while hiking in the area of Kaaterskills Falls. The subject was found by an assistant Forest Ranger working that area. The subject stated she had strained her lower right leg and was unable to bear weight. Forest Rangers and assistant Forest Rangers carried the subject out of woods to the Kaaterskill Falls trailhead. The woman declined further assistance and staff were clear by 7:30 p.m.

Town of North Elba

Essex County

Rescue: At 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 2, a radio communication from the Algonquin Peak summit steward to DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch reported an unstable lower leg injury near the summit of Algonquin in the High Peaks Wilderness. A 29-year-old male from Quebec, Canada, was descending the second highest peak in New York State when he took an injury-causing bad step. Weather prevented a helicopter rescue. Forest Rangers were dispatched to the Adirondack Loj for a carry-out. Assistant Forest Rangers were requested to assist along with the summit stewards from Algonquin and Wright peaks. By 5:45 p.m., the hiker had been assisted to a lower area and a break in the weather allowed a State Police Aviation helicopter to pick up the subject and deliver him to the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake.

Town of Inlet

Hamilton County

Rescue: At 5:04 p.m. on Sept. 2, DEC's Ray Brook Dispatch received a call through Herkimer County 911 reporting an 18-year-old female with an ankle injury near the summit of Black Bear Mountain in the Moose River Plains Wild Forest. The female hiker had made a bad step while descending the steep trail back to Route 28 and injured her ankle. Forest Rangers were sent to the scene to assist. Fire departments from Inlet, Eagle Bay, and Old Forge, as well as the Town of Inlet Police Department were also on scene to assist with the long carry-out. At 9:54 p.m., the injured hiker was back to the trailhead and on her way to a local hospital for further treatment of her injury.

Be sure to properly prepare and plan before entering the backcountry. Visit DEC's Hiking Safety and Adirondack Backcountry Information webpage for more information.The Energy Information Administration provides its monthly energy report which details historical and current US energy usage and emissions.

US overall emissions are below the yearly amount in 1993.

Increased use of Natural Gas has cut 50% more emissions since 2005 than wind and solar power combined.

EIAs National Energy Modeling System projects that U.S. gas generation capacity will increase nearly 45% over the next 30 years.

The U.S. had the highest overall decline in carbon dioxide emissions.

Between 2005 and 2017, the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions fell by 12.4% on an absolute basis and by 19.9% on a per capita basis. Many European countries experienced larger percentage declines of 20% to over 30%. Chinas carbon dioxide emissions increased by 50%, and Indias increased by 88%.

The World Bank has 2014 CO2 emissions per capita.

Country Tons CO2 per cap GDP per capita percent of USA USA 16.5 tons (100% GDP PPP per capita of USA) Canada 15.1 tons (93% GDP PPP per capita of USA) Japan 9.5 tons (67% GDP PPP per capita of USA) Germany 8.9 tons (85% GDP PPP per capita of USA) China 7.5 tons (24% GDP PPP per capita of USA) UK 6.5 tons (73% GDP PPP per capita of USA) Hong Kong 6.5 tons (74% GDP PPP per capita of USA) Italy 5.3 tons (64% GDP PPP per capita of USA) France 4.6 tons (72% GDP PPP per capita of USA) India 1.7 tons (10% GDP PPP per capita of USA)

A US level of per capita income and France level of nuclear energy usage would be half the US emissions level. France is almost half of Germany per capita emission level and 50% less than the UK per capita emission level.

France uses 75-80% nuclear power for electricity.The word entrepreneur evokes images of a small-business owner or one attempting to bring an invention to market, but that only begins to scratch the surface, said college professors who teach in the burgeoning field of study.

There is no textbook for entrepreneurship, Carl Scheraga, professor of business strategy and technology management at Fairfield University, said. They exist, of course, but that is not the way to teach entrepreneurship. You have to hit the streets and see what works and what doesnt.

Nor is there a tidy definition for the word.

Entrepreneurship is not a career, but a mind-set, Pauline Assenza, associate professor of management and small-business entrepreneurship at Western Connecticut State Universitys Ancell School of Business, said. We are not necessarily preparing students to open a business right after graduation. Entrepreneurship is also recognizing the opportunity to be who you are while working for someone else who is willing to pay you.

Entrepreneurial skills such as thinking creatively, being innovative and willing to take risks are highly sought after in the workplace, she added.

They identify a problem and take a creative approach to solving it, Assenza said.

While courses in entrepreneurship have existed for decades, demand has reached the point that nearly every college or university in the state offers coursework and have centers devoted to entrepreneurship and innovation. Many universities offer majors and minors in entrepreneurship.

Where stuff happens

The business management major at Fairfield University offers an entrepreneurship concentration in which students must complete two of the three courses: social entrepreneurship, technology ventures and managing a family business. Fairfield University also has an entrepreneur student club and Scheraga said the annual entrepreneurship competition, the Fairfield StartUp Showcase, is booming in popularity. The school is building a Center for Entrepreneurship in the Dolan School building that will open next year.

Western Connecticut State University offers two courses in entrepreneurship. Assenza is also the adviser for the student club ERIC, or Entrepreneurship Research Innovation Creativity. The schools new, state-of-the-art entrepreneur center is called ERIC @ The Garage, a nod to the many businesses that have started in a garage.

When you walk in you get the feeling that this is a place where stuff happens, Assenza said.

About 35 students take courses in entrepreneurship at WestConn, she said, and ERIC has more than 200 members from a wide variety of majors.

David Levinson, president of Norwalk Community College, recently signed a pledge with the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship, which commits the school to encourage economic growth through entrepreneurship. NCC offers courses that are open to students and the public alike through its Entrepreneurs Institute.

For the entrepreneur, the more they know to get started, the more likely they are to operate a successful company and avoid those sort of all-too-common kinds of failure, Stephen Mersereau, lead instructor for NCCs entrepreneur program, told Hearst Media Connecticut in a previous interview. Theres a tremendous amount of ideas and innovation and excitement, and what we want to do is help them translate it into a successful business.

The University of Bridgeports Student Entrepreneur Center at the Ernest C. Trefz School of Business is open to all UB students and aims to accelerate the successful development of start-ups. UB also offers a minor in small business management and entrepreneurship.

The University of Connecticut has robust entrepreneurial offerings through courses and the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

New mind-set

Scheraga said students are drawn to entrepreneurship because it creates career options and allows flexibility in their careers. Many students, he said, do not want to graduate and work for the same company for 30 or 40 years like previous generations.

The 2008 recession turned a lot of students toward entrepreneurship, Scherago said, as they watched their parents lose jobs they held for decades.

Theres been a psychological shift and I understand why, he said. A lot of graduates see themselves as independent contractors who will work somewhere for three to five years and then move on. Entrepreneurship is not just a guy building bicycles at his house. Its become very sophisticated.

Assenza agrees: What we have discovered is that students are very pragmatic. Most people become entrepreneurs and innovators to be able to take a risk. They also want to feel good about making a difference.

Anju Gautam is the president of the ERIC student club at WestConn. She came to the U.S. from Nepal three years ago and works with several nonprofit organizations to help address the homelessness crisis in her native country. The management major said her entrepreneurial skills help her collaborate and think creatively about reaching goals.

Everything we do here (at ERIC) empowers students. There are resources and support, said Gautam, who wants to start her own business when she graduates. You have to have a passion and enthusiasm. Whatever you do, you have to support the community. Businesses will thrive more if you help others.

Scheraga said entrepreneurship will play an increasingly important role in keeping the U.S. competitive in a global economy.

I hope that stays on the radar of politicians because it needs to be supported, he said.

The writer may be reached at cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338NEW HAVEN  A Rochester, N.Y.-based company has expanded its ultra-high-speed Internet service into several neighborhoods in the Elm City.

GoNetspeed has completed its initial build-out of fiber optic cable in the Beaver Hills, Edgewood and West River neighborhoods, said Tom Perrone, chief operating officer of the company. Perrone said the company installed more than 20 miles of fiber, which makes GoNetspeeds service available between 3,000 and 5,000 homes.

Construction of the companys fiber optic network began in spring. The neighborhoods were chosen, in part, because of their density and the lack of another ultra-high-speed provider serving them, he said.

The company is targeting a broad range of potential customers, Perrone said.

Were not the least expensive and were not the most expensive, either, he said. We like to think that were provding a terrific value to customers.

GoNetspeed is offering residential service plans starting at $50 for 100 Megabits per second, as well a $70 per month option for 500 Megabits and a 1 Gigabit per second offering for $90 per month. As an introductory offer, the company is waiving its installation fee, a $100 value, for New Haven customers who live in the areas where the companys new network is located.

GoNetspeed already has its service in place in select Bridgeport and West Hartford neighborhoods. Outside Connecticut, the company is also building a new fiber optic network in the suburbs surrounding Pittsburgh, Pa., Perrone said.

GoNetspeed is basing its Connecticut expansion plans on where consumers express the greatest demand, he said. The companys web site tracks the addresses and ZIP codes of individuals who search to see whether service is available, Perrone said.

Were really committed to growing here in Connecticut, he said. Theres a high-enough density of population that will allow us to continue to grow for a long time.

For a new neighborhood to be considered by GoNetspeed, the company needs to hear from at least 15 percent of the homes in a given area.

New Haven officials have been at the forefront of an effort that began in 2014 to attract private sector companies willing to bring ultra-high-speed Internet to Connecticut. Laurence Grotheer, a spokesman for Mayor Toni Harp, said GoNetspeeds service expansion into New Haven is consistent with our efforts to bridge a vexing digital divide in the city.

We look forward to continued improvement to digital capacity for the rest of the city, Grotheer said.

Connecticut Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz, whose office is overseeing the effort to expand ultra-high-speed Internet service in the state, said GoNetspeeds expansion in New Haven is just another strong indicator that Connecticut consumers are interested in having different options for broadband Internet service.

The more competition there is for consumers, for them to have choices, the better off we are, Katz said. Its really important for our state to have ubiquitous access to affordable high-speed broadband that is reliable and that touches every corner of out state.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.comBusiness email compromise is the bane of small businesses, because these phishing scams target companies with minimal processes, protocols and protections in place -- like those too small to have extensive cybersecurity budgets. According to the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center, business email compromise costs more than $675 million in damage in 2017, so the June arrests of 74 cyber criminals in the United States and abroad was a triumph for both large and small companies.

Even though one cyber gang has been taken offline, dozens remain. Earlier this year, the U.S. House Committee on Small Business warned small businesses that hackers are targeting and attacking them with the most sophisticated threats ever, and at an increasing rate. More alarmingly, committee members said, there is reason to believe hackers will continue to primarily target small businesses from now on.

Related: 4 Easy Ways to Protect Your Company From a Cyber Attack

The trickle-down effect of cyber crime

In March, a New York man pleaded guilty to defrauding a Virginia-based trade association out of more than $1 million. He used classic business email compromise tactics, such as mimicking the email address of a known travel vendor and asking the trade association to send future payments to a new account number. Obviously, his scheme worked -- at least for a time. But the question remained: Why would he target a trade association?

BEC is a sophisticated form of phishing, a cyber scam that tricks users into trusting illegitimate emails. A number of security measures can detect and flag these emails, and most large organizations already have them in place. By contrast, smaller organizations budgets are, well, smaller, and non-cybersecurity issues may take greater priority. As a result, few small businesses have the protocols, procedures and protections in place to red-flag phishing emails.

Small businesses should take immediate action to increase security measures against email compromise threats because, according to First Business Financial Services, 38 percent of victimized companies are SMBs in all industries. This attack method isnt abating, so taking precautions is your safest bet.

Related: 3 Biggest Cybersecurity Threats Facing Small Businesses Right Now

Ironclad security on a limited budget

Just because a small business knows its at risk of cyberattacks doesnt mean it can start multiplying its cybersecurity budget. Luckily, spending more is not as important as spending smartly. Targeted protections may not stop every attack, but they can stop the most common and the costliest. To prioritize business security, focus your efforts on these steps:

1. Implement email sender authentication standards.

Email is particularly vulnerable to spoofing and remains a leading security risk because users feel confident and secure in their inboxes. Business email compromise and other phishing schemes often spoof senders, but implementing authentication standards can protect against spoofing.

Start by putting in place standards that address email sender authentication. These include Sender Policy Framework, DomainKeys Identified Mail and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. Require the partners you do business with to also implement these email authentication standards.

2. Tap into outside experts.

Sender standards are effective, but they are also quite complex to implement and maintain. If protecting a companys security were easy, the FBI wouldnt have received more than 4 million complaints of internet crime between 2000 and 2017. For small businesses, the best solution is to seek out trusted providers or partners that provide useful tools to help in the implementation of these standards.

3. Take a multilayered approach to security.

Cyber scams are designed to bypass common security measures, and implementing sender authentication standards doesnt guarantee that the inbox is threat-free. Make sure layered security includes impersonation filtering to identify domains that are one character off from a trusted domain. Also, institute internal email filtering that can block external emails that look like they are from an internal user. Taking a layered approach aids in the identification of multiple techniques used in BEC attacks.

4. Create a process for authorizing wire transfers.

Confirm the legitimacy of any wire requests or changes to payment addresses. Call a verified individual or phone number. Do not use contact information from the email chain that's making the request.

5. Educate users.

In spite of all the available technology, users remain a critical line of defense. The more they recognize risks and understand threats, the more likely they are to avoid malicious emails and dangerous behaviors. Incorporate user education as a key way for to boost cybersecurity. According to recent reporting in the Wall Street Journal, one of the main reasons that employees resent attending cybersecurity training is that they are sent only when theyve made a mistake, so the training is construed as punishment. To combat this negative association, reward your employees for their good cybersecurity habits, too.

Related: 6 Tips to Stop Hackers from Stealing Your Data and Your Business

Small businesses arent just the most likely targets of cybercriminals; they are also the biggest victims. Larger companies can survive disruptions and can afford the recovery effort, but many small businesses cannot. With attacks on the rise, cybersecurity has become an existential threat to small businesses. Its imperative to adjust your security measures to keep your email inboxes -- and your business -- protected.

Related:

Do You Know Your Risk of Cyberattack?

This Is Why We Need To Focus More on Cybersecurity Strategy

Hacking Doomsday: Your Cyberattack Survival Checklist



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedRosh Hashanah, often called the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown on Sunday. It marks the start of the year in the Hebrew calendar and the beginning of the High Holy Days. These holidays fall on different days each year because the Jewish calendar is a lunar one. Did you know that Rosh Hashanah begins 163 days after the spring holiday of Passover?

Unlike Dec. 31, when many celebrate with parties and drinking, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the holiest days in the Jewish religion. The similarity of all holiday celebrations is food and, no matter what religion or culture, food has a symbolic meaning and provokes fond memories of childhood. The Jewish High Holidays are about reflection, and family and friends sharing meals. Apples dipped in honey symbolize a sweet new year. Pomegranates, a fruit filled with seeds, are eaten and symbolize that the New Year will hopefully be filled with merits.

Comfort food is sometimes thought of as being analogous to dishes served on the Jewish holidays; actually any holiday meal. And what comes to mind when we think of comfort food; hearty and rich, perhaps with too much fat, salt, and sugar. After reading The Healthy Jewish Kitchen: Fresh, Contemporary Recipes for Every Occasion, by Paula Shoyer (2017, Sterling Epicure, $24.95) you will be celebrating the Sweetness of the New Year with delicious, yet healthy recipes. She has taken favorite Jewish holiday comfort foods and reimagines them; more modern and lighter. The recipes utilize fresh, natural and seasonal ingredients, with many that are gluten-free and vegan, allowing anyone to enjoy the holidays without guilt.

The book features more than 80 recipes and includes Jewish classics as well as American and international trends that extend beyond the Jewish culinary world. Some of the recipes included: borscht, mango coleslaw, watermelon, peach, and mint gazpacho, salmon tartare; an alternative to gefilte fish, brisket Bourguignon, red quinoa meatballs with spaghetti squash, coq au vin blanc and chocolate quinoa cake - which was deemed by well-respected Food52 as a Genius Recipe and made by tens of thousands of people worldwide. Here is a recipe with a new twist on a traditional holiday dish, carrot tzimmis, one that I will be preparing, and a recipe for apple, squash, and Brussels sprout salad. For the recipe for caramelized apple strudel, to celebrate the sweetness of life and the New Year, visit https://bit.ly/2BWUhY5.

To all those who celebrate, Shanah Tovah, which means good year!

Tzimmis Puree

The headnote says, Not to make a whole tzimmis about it (tzimmis being Yiddish for a big fuss), but tzimmis, a stew of sweet potatoes, carrots, and dried fruit, is becoming one of those lost and forgotten jewels of Ashkenazi cuisine. I make it every Rosh Hashanah so my children know what it is. Here is my updated version, which truly tastes like my usual tzimmis, but is presented more elegantly as a French puree. Im planning to serve it on Thanksgiving as well.

1 tablespoon sunflower or safflower oil

1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 cup dried apricots

 teaspoon orange zest (from 1 orange)

1 cinnamon stick

2 cups water

Salt and black pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until translucent and just starting to color. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes, carrots, apricots, orange zest, cinnamon stick, and water and bring to a boil. Stir the mixture, cover it, and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the carrots and sweet potatoes are soft. Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes, covered. Remove the cinnamon stick and use either an immersion blender to puree the mixture until it is smooth, or transfer it to a food processor. Taste the tzimmis and add salt and pepper if desired. Serves 10-12.

Apple, Squash, And Brussels Sprout Salad

1 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons avocado, sunflower, or safflower oil, divided

3 cups butternut squash, cut into 1-inch cubes

3 tablespoons maple syrup

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

 teaspoon allspice

 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon water

1 red apple, unpeeled, chopped into -inch pieces

 teaspoon salt, or more to taste

 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the prepared Brussels sprouts on one side of a jelly roll or roasting pan and toss with 1 tablespoon of oil. Place the butternut squash cubes on the other side of the pan and toss with 2 teaspoons oil. Roast for 30 minutes, or until fork-tender. Let vegetables cool. Place the roasted vegetables into a large serving bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and the maple syrup, garlic, rice vinegar, allspice, cinnamon, and water. Pour over the vegetables and toss well. Add the apple pieces and toss again. Add salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.

What chef would you like me to interview? Which restaurant recipes or other recipes would you like to have? Which food products are you having difficulty finding? Do you have cooking questions? Send them to me: Stephen Fries, professor and coordinator of the Hospitality Management Programs at Gateway Community College, at gw-stephen.fries@gwcc.commnet.edu or Dept. FC, Gateway Community College, 20 Church St., New Haven, 06510. Include your full name, address and phone number. (Due to volume, I might not be able to publish every request. For more, go to stephenfries.com.)CULINARY CALENDAR

Bistro Classiques: through Sept. 15. Union League Cafe, 1032 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-562-4299. Celebrate the end of summer with traditional bistro dishes prepared with fresh ingredients from local farms. Three-course pre-fixe menu $74 per person with wine pairings, $49 per person without wine pairings. (Beverages, tax and gratuity not included) Menu at www.unionleaguecafe.com/menu.

BrewOn9: Sept. 7, 6 to 8 p.m. $15 includes crawl map, custom BrewOn9 mini tasting mug, unique food tastings and activity stations at select locations. Registration at Baobab Tree Studios, 71 Orange St., New Haven. Town Green District invites you to pregame the harvest season, crawling through 15 craft brew stops exploring the historic 9th Square neighborhood, enjoying Wine Thief-curated pours, select food tastings and beer-related crafts & activities. Some stops include Barcade, Skappo Merkato, Amoy's Cajun Creole, The Institute Library, Makehaven, Meat & Co. While they are not open for business quite yet, Trinity Bar & Restaurant will host a stop that evening at their outdoor patio area. $5 parking at Temple Street Garage all night when you get your parking pass validated at registration. Tickets at https://www.squadup.com/events/brewon9.

Hoptoberfest Beer and Wing Festival: Sept. 8, 1 to 5 p.m., Rotary Pavilion, Riverwalk, 100 Canal St., Shelton, 80+ craft brews and wings from local restaurants. $30 Advance tickets,$40 at the door. Must be 21 years to attend. Tickets at https://tickets.beerfests.com/event/Hoptoberfest.

Consiglios Cooking Demonstration and Dinner: Sept. 13 or 20, 6:30 p.m., Consiglios Restaurant, 165 Wooster St., New Haven, 203-865-4489 (reservations required), $75 (beverages, tax and gratuity not included).Pasta Making with Angelo Durante. Menu: farmer's market pappardelle, tomato, cucumber, red onion, goat cheese, homemade cheese angioletti with meat sauce, chocolate hazelnut biscotti. Tickets at http://www.consigliosrestaurant.com/cooking-classes/.

Worth Tasting Culinary Walking Tour: Sept. 15, 10:45 a.m., 4-hour culinary walking tour of downtown New Haven. 8-9 stops at some of New Havens favorites. You wont be hungry after this tour. Reservations required, tickets available here. 203-415-3519, $64.

New Haven Craft Beer Week: Sept. 15-23. This 9-day series kicks off with the Fuzzy Cask Crawl, inviting you to test your taste buds, visiting each location to compare cask variations of New England Brewing Co.s Fuzzy Baby Duck's IPA. Pick up your event passport at any of these participating locations: Barcade, Three Sheets, Cask Republic, The Beer Collective, BAR, The Hop Knot, Prime 16, Ordinary. For details: http://www.craftbeerweeknhv.com.

Beer & Oysters On the Sound: Sponsored by the New Haven Land Trust, Sept. 16, 4 to 7 p.m. Carousel at Lighthouse Point Park, 2 Lighthouse Road, New Haven. Beer from a selection of local breweries, Copps Island oysters, live music, food trucks, carousel rides and more. $35 in advance for general admission; $40 at the door. Includes beer tastings from each brewery and 6 oysters, plus a commemorative pint glass. Age 21+ only. Children and non-drinker tickets available. Info and tickets at https://newhavenlandtrust.formstack.com/forms/newhavenlandtrustbeer.NEW HAVEN  A New Haven man who sexually assaulted a woman in his car while he posed as a Uber driver has been sentenced to serve four years in prison.

Ahmad Bahjat, 31, a refugee from Iraq, probably will be deported to that country after he finishes serving his sentence, according to his attorney Hugh Keefe.

The crime occurred during the early morning hours of Jan. 31, 2016. The victim had left a New Haven bar and went to a parking lot designated for taxi and Uber cars, according to Hamden police. Bahjat drove her into Hamden but then stopped in a parking lot and viciously sexually assaulted her, police said.

Bahjat then drove the woman to the vicinity of her residence. She was able to flee from the car but left behind some personal items. Those materials were later seized by police as evidence against him.

But Bahjat had already left the country. Within a day of the attack, he took a flight to Toronto and then flights to Jordan and Turkey, police said. He was detained by authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport 12 days after the attack as he was trying to re-enter the country.

Bahjat has been held in lieu of $500,000 bail for the past 21/2 years. Because of that incarceration period, he will be eligible for release in less than two years.

He was sentenced under a plea deal. Keefe said of the arrangement, It was worked out over a long period of time between the prosecutor and the defense. The judge (Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford) gave it his blessing.

The prosecutor, Assistant States Attorney Karen Roberg, could not be reached for comment.

Keefe said of Bahjat, He was here on a refugee visa. He is not a U.S. citizen.

The sentence imposed by Clifford was 12 years, suspended after serving four years.

Before Clifford announced the sentence, he listened to detailed statements from the victim and her mother.

The defendants actions will always have an impact on my ability to trust others and to form relationships with men, the victim said in her written statement, which was provided to the New Haven Register by the Victim Rights Center of Connecticut.

I think there will always be a parcel of fear when I go out or when I am around men and I think that will be exaggerated if I ever have a daughter, she added.

She said she was raped for no reason, save for being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong fellow human being.

The victim recalled writhing futilely, asking it to please stop and to please go home and that I dont want to do this.

She also recalled Bahjat saying shhh, shhh, its okay baby, shhh. She said those words will forever ring in my ears like some curse on my sense of identity and autonomy.

Describing the long-term impact, the woman said: My protective exterior that once shielded my soul and spirit from pain was destroyed from the inside out. She said on that day she lost her sense of free will, freedom, choice and volition, compassion and connection, trust and understanding.

However, she added, The wost pain was not the actual rape but after the fact. She said, When he stopped jabbing inside me, almost two years of survival mode was triggered inside me. Soon a legal process would kidnap almost three years of my life, leaving my free will still at large.

Since the attack, she said, she has endured flashbacks and nightmares as well as drinking way too much at night to forget. She also described pulling at her hair, scratching herself and one time, cutting herself.

I began blaming myself for what I could have done differently, she said. If I just didnt drink that night, if I just didnt leave alone, if I was more responsible with getting a ride home, if I fought harder, etc.

But she said therapy and immeasurable support from my family and friends all helped to ease the pain and make it bearable to a degree where I could make sense of its white noise.

The victim said she hopes perhaps another survivor will read this and feel the connection that is so hard to feel again once you have been raped. But once you do begin to feel connection again, the pain dulls and the fragments of yourself begin to come together again.

As for Bahjat, she said, I dont think I will ever be able to forgive the defendant because I dont think rape merits forgiveness, especially when he had the gall to claim it was consensual.

Her mother in her statement described Bahjat as a truly evil, narcissistic and self-centered creature. She noted that after the violent assault, he fled the very country he came to for refuge.

But she praised her daughter for her courage and sheer bravery. She added, My daughter is no longer a victim. She is a heroic survivor and throughout all of this she has not lost her innate sense of kindness, trust and overall sense of curiosity and positiveness.

However, the mother said she had long looked forward to a day where justice would prevail and a punishment would be given to fit the crime. I dont feel in my heart that this has been done and this is very unsettling and frustrating.

She acknowledged, The final unsettling part is that I am not sure there is a punishment that exists that would meet my definition of enough.

The mother then said: I have one question for Ahmad and that is how would you feel if this crime was perpetrated on your daughter, sister, mother or friend?

She said there is a lot to be improved on concerning how the judicial system handles sexual assaults. As a culture, we must do more to prevent sexual crimes and one of the first steps is harsher penalties for convicted felons. A harsher penalty sends a stronger message that this type of aberrant behavior will not be tolerated. A sentence of four years just does not send a strong enough message.

The mother added, We must as citizens be more aware as we go about our daily lives to prevent and reach out to help and protect potential victims from sexual predators like Ahmad. Unfortunately, there are more like him but there are more of us that can do more to change the statistics going forward. I implore everyone to pay attention. See something, say something.

The mother thanked her daughters friends and other family members for their support. She also thanked the nurses and others at Yale New Haven Hospital, the Hamden Police Department (especially Detective William Onofrio), New Haven Superior Court prosecutors Roberg and Lisa DAngelo, Clifford and the Victim Rights Center of Connecticuts James Clark and Maura Crossin.

But the mother said the prosecutors had their hands tied throughout this entire process. They were held to a higher code than their counterpart, Hugh Keefe, who appeared to be allowed to file last minute continuances and abuse the system as he saw fit with no repercussions. This ultimately caused this case to drag out beyond what should have been allowed.

When asked for comment, Keefe said, Ive been at this for 50 years. If I had a dollar for every time a victim or a victims family commented negatively on me, Id be a rich man.

randall.beach@hearstmediact.comMIDDLETOWN  A new biannual report by the Connecticut United Ways breaks down the stark reality of working families  some with heads of household juggling two full-time jobs  struggling to make ends meet.

According to the 2018 Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed Report for Connecticut, 40 percent (or 538,529) of Connecticut households  four out of 10 families  have income which falls below what is needed to pay for basic necessities of housing, food, child care, health care, technology and transportation.

Whenever we formally or informally raise the ALICE report in any kind of public setting, whether its at a specific workplace or forums on the shoreline, when you start to describe what ALICE is, people in the room or either totally ALICE or have been, or know people that are. It touches, or has touched, almost everyone, said Kevin Wilhelm, president and CEO of the Middletown-based Middlesex United Way.

Ed Bonilla, vice president of community impact, has spent the last year or so talking to people on the shoreline about ALICE figures and holding forums in each town. Bonillas presentations offersobering statistics.

I tell people, Did you go to your local coffee shop and get a coffee this morning  Dunkin Donuts or a convenience store? Most likely those folks are ALICE. We interact with them every day because theyre the ones that make our community run, such as home health aides and child care workers.

The estimates in this third two-year study are conservative ones, said Wilhelm, who said the percentage of families in the ALICE group is increasing.

We cant distinguish at this point is it increasing because there are more of them or is it increasing because the survival budget is based upon actual estimates of the cost for each region. Its very local and very custom, he said.

Among the number of families living in the Middlesex United Way service area, 7 percent, or 4,693, are living under poverty conditions, and 25 percent, or 16,834, are ALICE. Sixty-eight percent of families, or 44,940, live above the ALICE line in this area.

Figures for 15 Middlesex County municipalities

Chester: 1,853, 31 percent

Clinton: 5,294, 34 percent

Cromwell: 5,631 26 percent

Deep River: 1,902, 37 percent

Durham: 2,650, 16 percent

East Haddam: 3,541, 28 percent

East Hampton: 4,951, 25 percent

Essex: 2,961, 25 percent

Haddam: 3,223, 18 percent

Killingworth: 2,479, 17 percent

Middlefield: 1,775, 25 percent

Middletown: 19,219, 44 percent

Old Saybrook: 4,201, 36 percent

Portland: 3,948, 29 percent

Westbrook: 2,839, 33 percent

Findings include ...

Despite working hard, 30 percent of Connecticut households (404,035) have earnings above the federal poverty line, but under a basic cost-of-living threshold.

It costs nearly $78,000 a year for a family of four with one infant and one toddler to pay for the basic needs in the household survival budget.

The value of this report is when youre looking at some of these smaller towns, when you look at the poverty numbers by themselves, theyre very low. People looking at that snapshot would say there are no poverty issues, Bonilla said.

Theyre working in fields where often compensation is minimum wage  such as the retail, fast food or hospitality industries.

A lot of the jobs that make these communities go, a large percentage of the folks that are working them, are struggling, he said.

Along the shoreline, residents of several communities live above the federal poverty level, but dont necessarily make enough to provide the essentials according to the ALICE Household Survival Budget. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services figures show a family of four would have to make above $25,000 to be above the poverty level, but the Household Survival Budget puts the familys basic expenses at more than $79,000.

Without this report, we cant talk about the financial hardships of people in these communities that are considered wealthy and well-to-do. People think of Old Saybrook and Westbrook: Their poverty rate is one percent, Bonilla said.

There, the combined ALICE and poverty is 33 percent. Youre talking over 30 percent of people in Westbrook  conservatively  are financially struggling. They cant afford to live in that community.

The federal poverty guidelines are not really designed to help these families yet, Wilhelm said.

During one recent forum, Bonilla said a gentleman who came to the presentation did so on his only night off from two full-time jobs. He raised his hand to share news that surprised even him.

He said, Oh, my God. Im ALICE, Bonilla said. His bedtime routine with his kids was to get on the phone. His wife would call him, hed say goodnight to the kids, and talk to them, and that was his interaction with the kids.

Financial hardships such as these  outside of what is traditionally considered impoverishment  have lasting repercussions.

It also affects family life, quality of life and has an intergenerational impact, he said.

This is really an advocacy tool to create awareness of the next group of people  were not normally shining a light on this population  people that are working and struggling to make ends meet, Wilhelm said. Normally the federal poverty guideline is what people talk about  thats where the resources (government, nonprofits, etc.) are going.

Parsing these statistics are part of a long-term strategy to find people living in such conditions, determine their needs and, as a community, move toward alleviating some of these families hardships, Wilhelm said. They are the classic  when people think of America, trying to make it on their own  that truly just might need a hand up as opposed to a hand out.

For information, visit middlesexunitedway.org. To download the report, go to alice.ctunitedway.org.

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or Twitter @cassandrasdis.HAMDEN  An area resident will climb to the roof of Africa in September to raise money for two charitable funds.

Kathleen Bonvicini, CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Communication in New Haven , will make the 19,340-foot ascent up Mount Kilimanjaro, Africas highest peak located in northeastern Tanzania. The money raised from her climb will benefit the Step Up Centre in Moshi,Tanzania and establish scholarships funds by the Institute for Healthcare communication for health care agencies and professionals.

I havent had a huge challenge like this, but psychologically Im ready for this, she said. What drives me the most is that its going to be for charity. I love those kids at the school I volunteer at.

Bonvicini said she has hiked the Grand Canyon and done hikes at higher altitudes in Colorado, but nothing comparable to Kilimanjaro.

Thats where you have to go into it with your eyes open, she said. Youre smart, do everything you can, get the proper training. But the psychological part too, the stick-to-it-ness, that runs in my blood. Thats in my DNA. My dad was like that, brother is like that, sister is.

I have this vision of helping the Step Up Center as well as the nonprofit I run hear to create some scholarships, so that adds even more sustenance to my will to do this, she said.

Bonvicini will return to Tanzania for her climb Sept. 17. She traveled there for the first time last year on a volunteer vacation where she taught English at the Step Up Centre, a non-government organization teaching math and English to children ages 3-6. She went there after she had gone though surgery for a cancer diagnosis, deciding in her recovery to give back because she had been given so much support.

It was on her trip that she had the idea to climb Kilimanjaro and do it for a good cause.

When I thought about climbing Kilimanjaro, I didnt immediately think of it as a fundraiser, but it was so natural it came soon after because theres so much need at that school, she said.

Bonvicini has a goal of raising around $25,000 for both charities and to date has achieved around $5,000 through her GoFundMe and Facebook pages. The money will help expand the school building and allow her nonprofit provide scholarships to health care professionals.

Bonvicini has been training for about three months in preparation for her climb, working with a personal trainer Kevin Gregory at the Edge Fitness of Hamden to condition her body for the journey. Gregory has been working on Bonvicinis upper body strength so she can carry her pack, core strength and stability, balance and, especially, ankle durability.

If you roll your ankle it wont spring back quickly, Gregory said. They dont recover that fast. You can tape them and brace them, but unless you have that underlying muscular tissue to be resilient, youll struggle.

The day-to-day travel through the mountains five ecological zones is part of what Bonvicini said she is looking forward to. On her way up, shell go through bushland, rain forest, a semi-alpine area, alpine desert and finally the arctic zone at the peak. The final ascent, characterized by ice and glacial and volcanic rock, is the most technically challenging part, she said. There is virtually no plant or animal life at this altitude and the oxygen level is half that of sea level.

In preparation, Bonvicini did as much research as she could on the mountain, including talking to avid climber Lew Nescott Jr., also of Hamden, who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in February, also for charity .

When youre undertaking something like this, you can read as much as you want, but talking to somebody is wonderful, especially somebody whos in the same age group, she said.

Nescott was 64 when he reached the top and Bonvicini will be 63 when she starts her journey. He was really encouraging, she said.

Similar to Nescott, Bonvicini also worked with Thomas Martin, associate professor of biomedical sciences at Quinnipiac University, to assess her maximum fitness ability and maximum oxygen comsumption.

We did baseline testing of her fitness and that was to help her come up with a training program with her trainer, Martin said. She was a wonderful person to work with and we gave her a fitness regiment to prepare for her climb.

As with all climbers who attempt Kilimanjaro, the biggest challenge facing Bonvicini is the altitude, Martin said, which can make people sick and unable to reach the summit. To increase her ability to reach the peak, Bonvicini is taking an eight-day trek instead of a five-day one, to give her body more time to adjust to the altitude.

I feel it. Im excited, Bonvicini said. Im nervous and Im probably more excited than nervous. Psychologically Im there. I think that is a really big part of it.

mdignan@hearstmediact.comWEST HAVEN  Even if money is tight right now, theres little to be gained by putting off paying your car taxes  and it certainly wont get any better if your car gets booted.

City officials are advising city residents who are behind on their motor vehicle taxes to pay up now, before West Havens periodic boot program resumes on Sept. 10.

Thats next Monday.

Residents with delinquent taxes after that date risk having their vehicles immobilized with a wheel-locking boot, officials said in a news release.

Weve done the boot for several years now and were going to continue it... said Mayor Nancy Rossi in a subsequent phone call. Unfortunately, I do get that some people have financial stress, but so do we.

In any case, I think its fair to let them know, she said.

Rossi said its unfortunate that the city had to raise taxes by one mill, and with the state Municipal Accountability Review Board working with the city, its likely West Haven will have to raise taxes further in the coming years.

But the more money we can collect from the taxpayers, the more tax dollars the city will collect so we will not have to raise taxes as much, she said.

She also said that paying taxes now, before the boot program revs up again, is better for residents because they dont have to pay the boot fee.

The city has hired TaxServ Capital Services LLC of Hartford to administer the program in cooperation with Vioalert Systems LLC of West Haven.

A vehicle-mounted ID system that is part of the boot program uses an infrared license plate scanner to target tax scofflaws. Vehicles are released of the boot once their owners pay all delinquent taxes and the additional boot fee.

The boot program is part of an aggressive tax collection campaign Tax Collector Dorothy Chambrelli has launched.

Please do not ignore your taxes; everyone must do their part, Chambrelli said. Your failure to pay negatively affects the entire city.

As part of the campaign, the city also is turning over delinquent business personal property tax accounts for collection, and notices on delinquent real estate and sewer bills will be mailed the first week in September, the release said.

Taxpayers can check to see if they owe any back taxes and pay online by going to www.cityofwesthaven.com. Click on Tax Collector under the Government heading.

Taxpayers also can also pay in person in the tax office on the first floor of City Hall, 355 Main St.

Taxes accrue additional interest on the first day of each month.Carol Kaliff /Hearst Connecticut Media

WEST HAVEN  Several school districts in Connecticut have announced that students will be dismissed early Tuesday as the temperature remains warm.

Districts that have announced planned dismissals include: West Haven, Milford, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, Norwalk, Simsbury, and Stamford.The body of a 31-year-old New Jersey man was recovered Monday morning after he apparently drowned in a lake at a state park in New York, an official said.

Scott Charlot, of Bogota was found at 10 a.m. near Harriman State Park's Skannatati Lake in an area where swimming is not allowed, New York State Parks spokesman Randy Simons said Tuesday.

State Park Police and dive teams from the New York State Police and Tuxedo and Stony Point fire departments searched for Charlot after witnesses reported he went under water Sunday.

The spokesman didn't say if Charlot was alone or with others.

While the investigation continues, the cause of death will be determined by the Rockland County Medical Examiner's Office.

The second-largest state park in New York, Harriman State Park is located in both Orange and Rockland counties and encompasses more than 47,000 acres. It contains 31 lakes and reservoirs.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Looking for America's best state park? Then you need to head to Ocean County.

Island Beach State Park is the best state park in the United States, according to a new ranking released by vacation planning website HomeToGo.

The Ocean County park, home to white sandy beaches and the Governor's beach mansion, topped a list of 18 state parks that included destinations from Hawaii to New York.

To make the rankings, HomeToGo created an initial list of the 100 most popular state parks in the U.S., based on the website's own search data. From that group of 100, a shortlist of 18 parks was created by rating the parks with a formula that combined Google ratings, cost of entry and parking, number of activities, number of bird species and average price of nearby accommodations.

That formula awarded Island Beach State Park 42.61 out of 50 possible points.

Though no other New Jersey state parks cracked the final list of 18, Liberty State Park was included in the top 100. The Appalachian Trail, which runs through multiple New Jersey state parks, also made the top 100.

National parks in New Jersey, like Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and Gateway National Recreation Area, were not considered.

Island Beach State Park isn't exactly a hidden gem. The park attracted 773,156 visitors in fiscal year 2017, making it the sixth most popular in the New Jersey state park system.

In it's ranking, HomeToGo called Island Beach State Park a "gorgeous state beach" and touted the park's "10 miles of undeveloped paradise."

Visitors to the park can spend their time simply chilling on the beach, or they can spend time more involved activities like kayaking and surf fishing. Birding is also popular at the park, which is recognized by the Audubon Society for its "incredible diversity of birds." Endangered species like the Piping Plover and Least Tern are known to be found at Island Beach State Park.

The New Jersey state parks service announced on Tuesday that Island Beach State Park will remain staffed with lifeguards and open for swimming on weekends through the end of September.

Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MSolDub. Find NJ.com on Facebook.New Jersey actress Piper Perabo was arrested for civil disobedience during the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

"I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings," Perabo, 41, tweeted on Tuesday. "Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I can't be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away."

In the video clip that accompanies her tweet, Perabo can be seen standing up at Kavanaugh's hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee after protesters, including Women's March co-founder Linda Sarsour, begin to shout. Perabo was ushered out of the room by law enforcement.

Perabo, an actress and activist who grew up in Toms River, starred in the 2000 film "Coyote Ugly" as Violet "Jersey" Sanford and has continued to work in film and TV in the years since, including in the ABC drama "Notorious." She has previously rallied to support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and has objected to Kavanaugh's stance on women's reproductive rights.

I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings.



Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I can't be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.#StopKavanaghpic.twitter.com/f3SG7gmVam -- Piper Perabo (@PiperPerabo) September 4, 2018

The Huffington Post reports that Perabo was among a group of protesters who were arrested at the Kavanaugh hearing on Tuesday. They included protesters from the activist group Code Pink, Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of the women's rights group UltraViolet, and Sarsour and Bob Bland, co-founders of the Women's March.

The Hill reports that 22 people were arrested on Tuesday at the Capitol for protesting the Kavanaugh hearing.

Some protesters standing outside the hearing dressed in red "handmaids" robes and white bonnets, emulating Margaret Atwood's (and Hulu's) "The Handmaid's Tale."

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.UPDATE: Israeli flying to bomb-detection training sparks airport panic with fake bomb in carry-on, cops say

The third level of Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport was temporarily closed Tuesday morning while police investigated a suspicious package, causing long security lines.

An Israeli citizen was taken into custody after Transportation Security Administration employees detected the item during a screening, according to Port Authority spokesman Scott Ladd.

He told police he was headed to a police training seminar in Panama City, Florida after arriving in Newark on a flight from Tel Aviv and that the material was to be used as part of the training, according to Ladd.

The Essex County bomb squad seized the device. The identity of the man has not been disclosed. The spokesman said he didn't yet know if the Israeli would be charged.

Photos on Twitter showed an extremely long line as passengers waited to pass through security before heading to gates to catch flights.

Others complained that neither United Airlines nor TSA employees have offered an explanation for the delays. At one point seven of nine screening lanes were closed, the Port Authority said.

#united #tsa mess in #ewr all security shutdown one line? How about communicating and prioritizing by flight time pic.twitter.com/6d2g7jv0c9  Paul Gentile (@TheHobbyGuy) September 4, 2018

Rene Schwartz-Burger described the situation in Terminal C as a "disaster," adding the TSA closed pre-check with "hundreds of people on line."

Terminals A and B operated normally, officials said.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.A motorcyclist was killed Monday morning after a crash with a car in Newark, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said.

The collision took place at the intersection of Montclair and Summer avenues around 9:57 a.m., the office said Monday afternoon.

The motorcyclist was rushed to a nearby hospital with severe injuries, but was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, authorities said.

The individual has not been identified, as police are still trying to locate his next-of-kin, the office said.

The crash is still under investigation by the county's Major Crimes Task Force.

Gianluca D'Elia may be reached at gdelia@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @gianluca_delia. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Gov. Phil Murphy has picked Essex County's surrogate -- a former municipal judge -- to take over as the county's acting prosecutor.

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore "Ted" Stephens II. (Essex County photo)

Theodore "Ted" Stephens II replaces Robert Laurino, a career trial attorney who was named acting prosecutor in June 2017 after his predecessor, Carolyn Murray, was appointed by then-governor Chris Christie to a Superior Court judgeship.

It was Laurino's second stint in the office's top position.

Stephens, a Seton Hall University School of Law graduate, worked as a corporate and municipal attorney prior to his appointment in 1994 as a city judge in East Orange. He was appointed as a municipal judge in Orange 10 years later, before mounting a successful campaign for county surrogate in 2011.

Stephens, a lifelong New Jersey resident who earns $122,024 as surrogate, was re-elected in 2016 for a five-year term. In that role, he oversaw the approval of wills, estates and adoptions in the county.

He was sworn in as acting prosecutor Tuesday.

In his new role as acting prosecutor, Stephens assumes responsibility for prosecuting serious crimes in a county home to the state's largest and most historically violent city.

Both of the last two attorneys to lead the county prosecutor's office served only on an acting basis.

The last Essex County prosecutor confirmed by the Senate was Paula Dow, a future state attorney general.

Stephens, in a statement, said he was "deeply honored" by the appointment.

"I look forward to working with law enforcement and the community to ensure that the vital mission of promoting safety and justice in Essex County will be performed in accordance with the highest standards of integrity, excellence, and service," he said.

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. congratulated Stephens in a statement.

"Ted has a long history of public service to Essex as an attorney, municipal court judge and Essex County Surrogate. This experience will serve him well as the top law enforcement officer in Essex County," he said.

Each county political committees will pick its own candidate to run for the surrogate position in the November election. The winner of that race will be elected to a full five-year term.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty.

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.

Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsIt's bad enough solicitors hound you on your phone, pitching their products or services with their annoying calls.

But they don't give up there. Those who don't work the phones hit the bricks, canvassing residential neighborhoods and knocking on the doors of homes at all hours to try to make a sale.

One South Jersey town has had enough and is about to give residents the power to halt the in-person sales assaults with a Do Not Knock Registry.

"I believe this will make our residents feel safer, as public safety is our number one priority," said Washington Township Mayor Joann Gattinelli. "The residents will now have the right to remove themselves from unwanted solicitation with the 'no knock' registry."

An ordinance introduced last month would amend current law dealing with solicitors to allow residents who don't want peddlers on their property to be able to ban them.

"There are residents who simply do not want people knocking on their door selling products," said Captain Kenneth J. Kennedy of the Washington Township Police Department.

A township resident, Kennedy says he'll be among those signing up to be on the registry.

Gattinelli said Washington Council Vice President Sean Longfellow suggested the registry to the mayor.

"I felt it was necessary to proceed since it is similar to the national Do Not Call Registry for telemarketing and in recent years there have been many stories in the news about solicitation scams on our seniors.

"We have had numerous complaints of unwanted solicitation," Gattinelli said. "I feel the registry best serves our senior residents, although it is meant for all."

The new law would allow residents of Washington Township, a community of about 48,000 in Gloucester County, to contact the clerk's office to be added to the list of those who don't want solicitors on their door steps.

The list will be distributed to any solicitors who apply and receive a license to peddle their wares or services -- a license that's required by township law.

For a "nominal fee," according to the proposed law, residents will also be able to get a sticker to put on a window near their door showing they don't want solicitors coming by.

Township law will also only allow legal soliciting between 10 a.m. and dusk Monday through Saturday.

Violators of the Do Not Knock Registry law will face a $1,000 fine for each offense and have their soliciting license revoked. They could also be barred in the future from receiving a new one, the ordinance says.

Kennedy said Washington Township has also prosecuted those caught soliciting without first opening a license from the town.

While local authorities receive complaints, the state does, too.

Many of those consumer complaints that the state receives and investigates involve industries that employ the use of door-to-door sales, including home improvement contractors and third-party energy suppliers, according to a spokesperson for the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.

The Division of Consumer Affairs acts proactively "educating consumers on how to spot and protect themselves from fraudsters who show up on their doorstep." The division offers a number of tips on how to keep from becoming the victim of consumer fraud.

Washington Township is among a growing number of towns in New Jersey acting to limit sometimes aggressive door-to-door solicitors.

Kenilworth has enacted a similar law, following in the footsteps of others in North Jersey and at the Jersey Shore.

Some towns are even considering taking the Do Not Knock Registry a step further, which would allow residents to sign up for a registry which would forbid the delivery of circulars and other similar items at their home.

A public hearing and expected adoption of the Washington Township measure is set for Sept. 12.

Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsJERSEY CITY -- A Hudson County man has filed a lawsuit against McDonald's alleging staff at the Hoboken fast food joint discriminated against him because he is black, telling him he could not eat his meal inside the restaurant.

The three-count lawsuit filed in Hudson County Superior Court accuses the Washington Street McDonald's of discriminating against Quan Dunlap, 47, based on his race. The complaint seeks a jury trial compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees and any other relief the court sees fit.

Dunlap, a Hoboken resident, works for the Hudson County Department of Public Works.

NAACP officials were on hand at a Hoboken press conference Tuesday morning to announce the lawsuit, which attorney Louis Zayas filed on Dunlap's behalf.

Dunlap had just finished his shift working for the Hudson County Department of Public Works when he stopped at the restaurant at Third Street and ordered food. He was told he would only be served if he did not stay in the restaurant, the suit alleges.

After getting his food, he told the worker he wanted to speak to a supervisor to ask why he was "singled out to eat his food outside of the McDonald's." He said he was told he could eat inside but he had to leave after 20 minutes because they were "getting complaints from regular customers about people like me," the lawsuit states.

He said he told he supervisor he lived in Hoboken, making him a regular customer. The supervisor told him she did not know where he lived, but he could only stay 20 minutes to eat his food, the suit alleges.

McDonald's did no respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

Dunlap said Tuesday morning that he was aware the restaurant had received complaints about homeless people loitering there. What he wanted to know was why a black man, carrying a backpack, who was not homeless and had just gotten off work was assumed to be homeless.

"I felt like they were making the hands of time turn back to when they had the whites in one section and the blacks in another," Dunlap said during the press conference across the street from the restaurant.

Zayas said his client's treatment demonstrated "unequal justice."

Gene Drayton, president of the Hoboken NAACP, added: "We want to make sure his civil rights are not violated and we will watch this case form the beginning to the end."

After the incident, Dunlap wrote a letter to Drayton telling him what happened and Drayton contacted Zayas. The suit does not state an amount being sought.

"This is not 1960 and this is not Jackson, Mississippi," said attorney James Lisa, counsel to the Hoboken NAACP.BAYONNE -- As the Peninsula City approaches its 150th anniversary, the Bayonne Board of Education is gearing up to make this school year one to remember.

With initiatives ranging from coding and robotics programs to changes regarding attendance rates, the Board of Education is working hard to provide the best for Bayonne's next generation when schools reopen Wednesday.

For Bayonne's 150th anniversary in March, students will be working on projects with the Bayonne Historical Society and the Bayonne Public Library. Social Studies Director Dan Ward expects teachers to incorporate the students' archived findings into lesson plans, scavenger hunts and interdisciplinary efforts in math.

Meanwhile, Ward expects Bayonne High School's Model UN program, which began two years ago, to continue to grow and thrive. Last year, its 32 students participated in the National High School Model UN Conference in Manhattan and captured the Award of Excellence for their second place finish.

"The Model UN program has grown from a tiny club to a class we offer called Global Citizenship, where model UN is embedded, and now we're even being recruited," Ward said. "Yale sent us an application to have our kids apply for their upcoming conference."

Elsewhere around town, the district's science department will begin providing coding classes specially designed for younger students. The current program, called Junior Robotics, is geared toward seventh and eighth grade students and will meet once a week after school. Students use Lego Mindstorm kits to build and code, and now fourth-grade students will get the chance to do so as well.

"The program fourth graders would be working with is called 'We Do,'" Science Director Tara Degnan said. "It falls right into the curriculum for the science department because they build and they code their projects by trying to solve a problem."

The program will kick off shortly after school reopens with each elementary school receiving six robot kits.

The district is also implementing a new phonics-based reading program called Foundations, for grades K through second.

"It's a fairly large initial initiative and this is something brand new to the district and we're really excited about it," said Mike Steinman, the assistant supervisor of special services.

An adaptive diagnostic tool will accompany the program to monitor the progress of not only the students, but teachers as well.

In addition to curriculum changes, the district plans on improving its average daily attendance and retention policy.

"These early years have a major impact and are a strong predictor of dropout and college success," said Dennis Degnan, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

In the past, students who failed one subject would still be promoted from between the fourth and eighth grades. This year, students may be retained in the case that they fail a subject. The Board plans on providing a tiered system of support with morning tutoring sessions as well as summer school to aid each student.

Regarding attendance, the district will now be looking at each individual student and chronic absenteeism as opposed to the attendance account of the school as a whole.

"We want students in school, that's the most important thing," Dennis Degnan said. "We're going to make that a major focus this year."JERSEY CITY  It doesn't look like the City Council and the Board of Education will host a joint meeting to discuss the looming payroll tax.

The idea was first floated in July by school board member Matt Schapiro to hear residents' opinion of the payroll tax, about which there has been little public discussion. The tax is intended to fund Jersey City's public schools in the wake of massive cuts in state aid expected between now and 2025.

But Council President Rolando Lavarro and Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas are both opposed to the idea of a joint session of the two bodies, which include 18 members total. Lavarro thinks the idea is "not feasible," while Thomas said he does not think it's legal for the two bodies to meet together.

"To have 18 politicians pontificating on an issue as crucial as school funding  I'm not so sure that's the most productive setting," Lavarro told The Jersey Journal, adding later that city and school officials are having "meaningful dialogue" about the proposed tax.

The plan would add a tax of up to 1 percent for any city business's payroll. Approved by state lawmakers in June, it gives the City Council the power to levy the tax, set the percentage (not to exceed 1 percent) and exempt the wages of Jersey City residents. School officials have said they were told the tax could generate between $40 million and $80 million annually for the school district.

Newark has a similar tax that brought the municipality about $50 million in 2017.

"I'm having no public discussions on anything related to payroll tax," Thomas told The Jersey Journal. "This is a law signed by the governor. It's for City Hall to implement ... we're not getting into this debate."

Thomas supports the payroll tax but has said the downside is it would not provide a consistent stream of revenue for the 30,000-student school district.

By 2025, the state will eliminate a form of education funding that will bring the district over $170 million this year. The payroll tax idea was dreamed up by state lawmakers to help offset those cuts. A major campaign backed by real-estate developers LeFrak is trying to convince council members to reject the tax. Council members have received hundreds of emails and letters from that campaign.

At Thursday's school board meeting, Schapiro made a motion to send a letter to the council inviting it to appear with the school board for a joint session on the payroll tax. The resolution was amended to direct the board's lawyer to speak to the city's lawyer and then the measure was defeated.

Thomas said during the meeting that he spoke to Lavarro and "asked him about the legality of a joint session and he said it's not possible to do that." Lavarro said on Twitter over the weekend that he did not recall saying it is illegal for the two boards to meet together.

On Tuesday, Schapiro told The Jersey Journal, "I can't force the Board of Education to engage with the City Council or the public but it will be impossible for the board to face our funding crisis without the active engagement of both."

Lavarro said the council will probably not vote on the payroll tax until after its Sept. 12 meeting.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY -- A 47-year-old Union City man has been charged with assaulting both his mother and his father during an incident on Thursday, authorities said.

The Kennedy Boulevard man allegedly punched his father multiple times in the face and body before wrapping his hands around the man's neck and choking him, the criminal complaint says.

The man's mother told police that he struck her with a speaker face plate, according to the complaint, which also states that she suffered a severe laceration to her leg.

Officers responded after receiving a 911 call and the man was arrested the same day, the complaint says.

The man, whose name was omitted from this report to protect the identities of his parents, made his first court appearance on the assault charges on Friday in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny.

At the hearing, the state moved to detain him through the course of his prosecution. A detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday before Hudson County Superior Court Paul DePascale in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City.There appears to be no question now that a fugitive whose remains were found last week on a New Jersey riverbank died after jumping from a Pennsylvania bridge almost eight months earlier and some 20 miles upriver.

Anthony J. Sisonick III (File photo)

The skeletal remains of 47-year-old Anthony J. Sisonick III were found Aug. 27 by a passerby on a Delaware River island near Frenchtown. Investigators verified his identity using DNA testing and dental records, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns III confirmed Monday.

Sisonick reportedly jumped into the frozen Lehigh River from the 150-foot Route 33 bridge in Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 3. A search failed to turn up any sign of him.

Palmer Township police detective Jim Alercia said there had initially been some doubt that Sisonick had jumped. "We weren't 100 percent sold" based on the river's conditions at the time, Alercia said Monday.

Kearns, the New Jersey prosecutor, said there doesn't appear to have been any foul play.

Sisonick, a Palmer Township resident, was wanted on charges of identity theft, forgery and theft when he disappeared. Alercia said Palmer police will cancel the warrant once they have more information from investigators.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.A 28-year-old Jersey City killer released from prison in January has been charged with critically wounding a man with a gunshot to the back in July, officials said.

Sharif Stewart, of Fulton Avenue near Garfield Avenue, was arrested in Providence, Rhode Island, on Aug. 23 by Rhode Island's Violent Fugitive Task Force based on a tip forwarded by Jersey City police, according to a press report and the criminal complaint.

He has been returned to Hudson County and appeared in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City on Friday on the charge of attempted murder in connection to the July 14 shooting, as well as weapons offenses including possession of a firearm by a felon, the complaint says.

Stewart was arrested on April 5, 2011, and charged with the March 6, 2011, fatal shooting of Gregory J. Johnson, 54, of Broadway in Bayonne.

Stewart and Johnson were at Wilkinson and Ocean avenues on the night of the homicide and Stewart shot Gregory in the back after a dispute triggered by a drug deal gone bad, former Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said at the time.

On Feb. 27, 2014, Stewart was sentenced to just under seven years for manslaughter and was released from prison on Jan. 20 of this year, according to state corrections records, which say he also has a conviction for resisting arrest and six drug convictions.

When Stewart appeared in court on Thursday via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny, the state moved to detain him through the course of his prosecution for the July shooting in Jersey City that left the victim in critical condition.

A detention hearing for Stewart will be held tomorrow in Hudson County Superior Court.The search for two missing three-foot tall N.J. candy legends that were reported stolen after a concert in August has been called off by State Police.

The Mr. Red and Mr. Yellow M&M display was returned Saturday, according to a State Police Facebook post.

State Police did not divulge any details of how the M&M candy display was returned, but thanked Live Nation, the PNC Bank Arts Center, and M&M Mars Corporation for helping locate the display.

The characters were on display during a KIDZ BOP concert at the Arts Center and are thought to have been swiped sometime after the show Aug. 19 or Aug. 20.

Something fun for your #LaborDay The New Jersey State Police Troop D Criminal Investigation Office is proud to... Posted by New Jersey State Police on Monday, September 3, 2018

Taylor Tiamoyo Harris may be reached at tharris@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ladytiamoyo.

Find NJ.com on Facebook.The $400,000 raised for a homeless veteran by a New Jersey couple through a highly-publicized GoFundMe campaign last year is gone, the man's attorney said Tuesday.

Johnny Bobbitt filed suit against the couple alleging they were withholding the money raised to get him back on his feet. The revelation that no money was left came during a conference call between attorneys in the case Tuesday morning, Bobbitt's attorney Christopher C. Fallon, Jr. said.

"There is no money left," Fallon said, adding that Bobbitt was "completely devastated" by the news. "Where the money went, I have no idea."

Kate McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, started the GoFundMe for Bobbitt in November 2017 after McClure ran out of gas on I-95 in Philadelphia. Bobbitt, who was homeless, gave her gas money and the couple later returned to find a way to help him.

Since then, the Burlington County couple has come under fire when Bobbitt claimed he had not received most of the money. He said he was forced to file a lawsuit to get access the remaining funds.

Ernest E. Badway, the attorney for McClure and D'Amico, did not immediately respond for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

Fallon said his client believed there was at least $150,000 left. That money was supposed to be frozen and transferred into a trust until the legal dispute was resolved

Fallon said he'd only heard the $150,000 amount when the couple appeared on Megyn Kelly Today show last week.

Before that, Fallon claimed the couple told the Philadelphia Inquirer that there was $200,000 left.

Today he learned that number is zero.

"That's a lot of money to go through to in just a short period of time," Fallon said.

The couple claimed they did not give the full amount to Bobbitt right away because he struggled with drug addiction and they feared he would blow it all irresponsibly.

Bobbitt told 6abc he had to ask McClure and D'Amico for access to every penny he needed, and the three would joke that the couple were like his parents.

"But the joke stops being funny after awhile," he said.

Badway, the couple's attorney, said they spent around $200,000 of the money on Bobbitt, including a $25,000 deposit for a bank account they helped him open. The couple said Bobbitt blew through that money in just 13 days.

Last week, Burlington County Superior Court Judge Paula Dow ruled in favor of a temporary restraining order on the funds, meaning McClure and D'Amico were to turn over the remaining cash to Bobbitt's attorneys to be placed in an escrow account.

Now after learning there is no money left to turn over, Fallon said they are making requests to review the couple's financial records. Fallon said he is unsure when the next court date will be after hearing this new development.

"We really have to take this one step at a time. We are going to follow up as best we can to follow where the money went," he said.

In the meantime, Fallon and his team are working to help Bobbitt get submitted into a drug recovery program to receive 28 days of therapy to tackle his problem with drug addiction, Fallon said.

In a statement Tuesday night, GoFundMe said the company deposited $20,000 "to a bank account created by Johnny's legal team to provide assistance during the investigation."

"We are working with law enforcement officials to ensure Johnny receives all of the funds raised on his behalf," the company said. "While we assist law enforcement with their ongoing investigation, GoFundMe is also working with Johnny's legal team to ensure he's receiving support while the remaining funds are being recovered."

Donors could receive a refund for donations if the company finds something improper, according to the statement, which pointed to GoFundMe's refund policy website.

Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find nj.com on Facebook.By Beverly Brown Ruggia

This past week, thousands of New Jersey parents proudly accompanied their children off to college. Sadly, Seth Frotman will not be along for the ride home after they graduate.





Since 2011, Frotman has worked for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on behalf of military veterans and students across the country. As the student loan ombudsman, he worked tirelessly with his staff to go after predatory lenders, returning $750 million dollars to borrowers who were wronged.

Frotman resigned last week, accusing Acting CFPB Director, Mick Mulvaney and the Trump administration of "siding with predatory lenders over consumers and enacting policies that will lead to 'far-reaching harm."

Almost a million New Jerseyans carry a combined $33.5 billion in student-loan debt. Collectively, student debt amounts to $1.5 trillion nationwide. The debt is owed by our children who are still in school or who have graduated. It is owed by seniors who have co-signed loans, or are struggling to pay off their own student loans. The borrowers include veterans, teachers, faith leaders, family members, our friends and our employees.

Many are low-income families who cannot to move into middle-class stability because of this heavy burden of debt. Some have amassed debt from predatory for-profit college loans that left them without a valuable degree or the ability to get a better job. Many have put off starting families or buying homes because they owe enormous debt dubbed "houseless mortgages."

College tuition continues to rise, and the abuses of student-loan servicers make the situation only worse. In 2017, the CFPB and several state Attorneys General sued Navient, one of the nation's largest student-loan servicers, for failing to put borrowers into income-based repayment plans for which they qualified. Instead, the company steered them into forbearance, which adds thousands of dollars in interest onto each student's debt. Clearly, Navient did not work in the best interest of its borrowers.

New Jersey has the responsibility and the right to take action against such practices.

The New Jersey Student Loan Ombudsman bill passed last year in both chambers, but was pocket-vetoed by then-Gov. Chris Christie. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau saw increase of 77 percent in complaintss from New Jerseyans about the student-loan servicing sector in 2017. The bill would protect borrowers from the abuses described in these complaints. Recognizing the urgency bill sponsors, state Sen. Sandra Cunningham, D-Hudson, and Assemblyman Gary Schaer, D-Passaic, reintroduced it early this year.

The Senate passed the bill (S1149) in February, which would license student servicers and give the state the authority to prohibit misrepresentations, payment misapplications and false credit reports. The bill also calls for an Office of Student Loan Ombudsman, in the Department of Banking and Insurance, with the authority to analyze, review and resolve complaints, educate student borrowers on their rights and responsibilities, and to recommend policies. Connecticut, Illinois and California have already passed similar legislation.

Despite a bipartisan letter from 30 state attorney generals, including New Jersey's, federal Education Secretary Betsy DeVos insists that only the federal government has authority over student-loan servicing. Passing the New Jersey Student Loan Ombudsman bill will help cement the right of states to address abuses.

Last month, Gov. Phil Murphy launched his free community college program. This bold new policy will allow many New Jerseyans to get the education they deserve. Passing the Student Loan Ombudsman bill will protect borrowers from deceptive, unfair and abusive treatment, as they work to repay student loans, helping them to move on to the lives they deserve.

With the U.S. Department of Education turning its back on student-loan borrowers and with the Frotman's departure from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, New Jersey needs to implement strong protections for student-loan borrowers. The student-loan debt crisis in this country does not amount to dreams deferred. It amounts to dreams destroyed. We call on the New Jersey Assembly to pass A455 right away and for the governor to sign the bill into law immediately.

Beverly Brown Ruggia is the financial justice advocate for New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA), the state's largest progressive coalition working for social and economic justice for all.A Rutgers employment equity office report concluded that a white professor violated school policy on harassment and discrimination for his stomach-growling Facebook rant about how "little Caucasian a--holes" made him "hate white people" because they were blocking access to his Classic Burger to go.

The University office, which launched the investigation after numerous complaints about the purported racist content, believes some punishment is in order for James Livingston, a highly-regarded professor of history. And clearly, the avalanche of public criticism supports that assessment.

It's hard to take any part of his rant seriously, however, as anyone who seeks to "hereby resign from my race" is engaged in social media blather, not the ethnological wisdom of a serious academic. And the claims that Livingston did damage to the university are dubious at best.

So Rutgers president Robert Barchi was wise to hit the pause button on this matter by asking university counsel to convene a group of First Amendment experts to examine the free speech implications of Livingston's rant.

As Barchi put it Friday, "We want to be as rigorous as we possibly can at arriving at conclusions with far-reaching implications as these have, which act on individuals' First Amendment rights or a faculty member's academic freedom."

The report conceded that Livingston spoke on a matter of public concern (gentrification) and that his speech was outside of his employee's job duties (on social media). But it also claimed Livingston's words brought "damage" and disruption" to the University because it rose to the level of harassment and discrimination.

Barchi is right to challenge that: "To call an exception to free speech rights based on this one factor of a 'disruption of the university mission' takes a very high bar," he said.

"Did he do damage to the university? What's more concerning to me is the damage we'd do to the university is if we don't tolerate free speech, and that we'll act against it with minimum provocation."

The "disruption" the report involved people complaining about the university "implicitly sanctioning racial bias against Caucasians," and "students...who say they are uncomfortable taking a class with him." That, it concluded, is proof Livingston "damaged the University's stated mission of inclusiveness."

Here's a solution to that discomfort: Don't take his class.

Even if students do enroll, they might be disappointed: There hasn't been any report of a student being stigmatized by Livingston's class, "and that's one of mitigating factors in my point of view," Barchi confirmed.

"This faculty member doesn't teach required classes," he added. "So if you don't agree with his publicly expressed opinion, I don't see why they would take a course with him. Students are free to stay out of his classes."

Yes, Livingston made a mistake. His real problem is that he's not funny enough: If he had been more nuanced and clever in making his larger point about gentrification, everyone would have moved on.

But they shouldn't. The issue is very complex, and you don't deal with it by smacking down a reputable professor. You deal with it with more discussion because "that's the role of a University," as Barchi sees it.

If the University is really interested in fulfilling its mission, it would invite Livingston to lead a symposium on gentrification, or perhaps one on "reverse racism." Then the students would learn something, because education requires more than black and white thinking.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and his Democratic colleagues sought to delay a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh, saying they have not received the documents they need to fully examine the U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

"What is the rush? said Booker, D-N.J., to support from spectators in the hearing room. "What are we trying to hide by not having the documents out front."

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, moved ahead with confirmation hearings Tuesday without giving the National Archives time to review documents from Kavanaugh's time in the White House, where he worked for President George W. Bush.

He refused to entertain Democratic requests to delay the hearings.

"We have said for a long period of time we are going to proceed on this very day," Grassley said. "We ought to give the American people the opportunity to hear whether Judge Kavanaugh should be on the Supreme Court or not."

Booker said the senators do not have the documents they need.

"This is not an attempt to delay," Booker said. "This is an an attempt to be fully equipped to do our constitutional duty, which everybody, Republicans and Democrats on the committee, take seriously. It is very hard to perform our role of advise and consent when we do not have a though vetting of the background of the candidate."

Booker is a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, took note of that during his opening statement.

"We have folks who want to run for president, who want their moment in the spotlight, who want that coveted TV clip," Hatch said.

Booker earlier urged the committee not to take up Donald Trump's nomination of Kavanaugh because the Supreme Court may have to weigh in on the ongoing investigation into whether the president's campaign colluded with Russia.

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that when he chaired the panel during the confirmation hearing of Elena Kagen, the committee received 99 percent of the records of her tenure in the White House. Kagen served as associate counsel under President Bill Clinton and solicitor general under President Barack Obama.

With Kavanaugh, it was 7 percent, with just 4 percent made public, he said.

"What is being done here is unprecedented," Leahy said. "What are we hiding?"

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Republican leadership that in an unprecedented action refused to consider Obama's nomination of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, complained about the Democratic dissent.

"This whole process is supposed to be a civil one where people get to ask questions and we get to get answers," said Cornyn, R-Texas. "That's the basis upon which we are to exercise our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent."

He said it was hard to take the Democrats' complaints seriously because "they've already made up their minds" to oppose Kavanaugh even before the hearing.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Gov. Phil Murphy, for the second time in as many months, used a powerful tool in his gubernatorial arsenal to exert his authority over a South Jersey board that has close ties to state Senate President Stephen Sweeney.

The governor vetoed meeting minutes of the South Jersey Port Corporation on Tuesday, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Murphy signaled he's willing to continue to veto the group's meeting minutes -- which effectively prevents the agency from taking any new action. The board last met on Aug. 28.

The governor, in his message to them, said the group "continues to approve the same resolutions and engage in actions that cause" him to have "significant concerns."

"The governor has serious concerns about the manner in which the South Jersey Port Corporation conducts business, including the procurement process used to hire outside counsel," Murphy spokesman Mahen Gunaranta told NJ Advance Media in a statement. "These concerns were raised repeatedly and not addressed, so the governor again exercised his veto power."

The South Jersey Port Corporation is mostly comprised of allies of Sweeney, with whom Murphy, a fellow Democrat, continues to lock horns even though both men say in public that they get along fine.

According to last month's veto, Murphy was mostly irked by agency's decision to renew a contract with its general counsel, Raymond Zane.

Zane is a Sweeney ally despite the nasty campaign between the two when Sweeney, D-Gloucester, ousted Zane from his state Senate seat in 2001. He continues to represent the board despite Murphy's rejection of their decision to retain him.

When Sweeney was asked if he had any reaction to the veto, he told NJ Advance Media, "No. None at all."

The agency didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the veto.

The South Jersey Port Corporation operates marine shipping terminals across seven counties.

New Jersey's governor has the authority to veto minutes of any of the state's hundreds of boards and authorities.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.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Topi Manner, Head of Personal Banking and member of Group Executive Management, will be leaving Nordea by the end of 2018 to join Finnair as the new CEO.

Topi Manner, 44, joined Nordea in 1997 and has held numerous key positions in Nordea Finland, among these CEO of Nordea Bank Finland Plc and Head of Banking Finland and Baltics. Since 2016 Topi has served as Head of Personal Banking across all markets, been a member of Group Executive Management and served as Branch Manager of Nordea Bank AB (publ), Finnish Branch. The search for the future Head of Personal Banking has begun  internally and externally. Topi will be staying on until the end of 2018 and will be joining Finnair 1 January 2019.

I am sad to see Topi leave us, but also proud that Nordea has fostered and developed such a talent for him to now take on the CEO position at a truly interesting and esteemed company like Finnair. Topi has over the past two decades contributed immensely to Nordea first in Finland and later at group level and has been a key contributor in our current end-to-end transformation. Topi has built a strong leadership team in Personal Banking in our four Nordic markets, says Casper von Koskull, Group CEO of Nordea Bank AB (publ).

After two decades at Nordea and in banking, I can look back and say that I am proud of what we have achieved together, building a future-proof bank. Leaving Nordea has been a very difficult choice. I have been with Nordea my whole adult life and my entire professional career and truly love the company. But the opportunity to take Finnair on the next leg of their corporate journey was irresistible. I will greatly miss the Nordea people and culture, says Topi Manner.

For further information:

Roberta Alenius, Head of Group External Communication, +46 702 707 217

DocumentsSep 3, 2018 NR

Victory Venkatesh and Mega Prince Varun Tej's F2 - Fun and Frustration has completed a couple of schedules in Hyderabad. The team flew to Prague for a major schedule there. A couple of songs along with an interesting action chase will be canned in this schedule.

All the lead actors will participate in this schedule. The team will fly to Bangkok for another schedule after coming from Prague. By the end of the Bangkok schedule, the movie will be complete except for some patchwork. Milky Beauty Tamannah will be romancing Venkatesh in the film while Mehreen will be pairing up with Varun Tej. Click the Movie button below for more info:

F2Sep 3, 2018 NR

Megastar Chiranjeevi's Sye Raa Team is shooting extensively in Hyderabad and now the team is heading to their first Overseas Schedule. They will be heading very soon to Georgia for the shooting of some heavy duty fight sequences.

We are told that DOP and director Surender Reddy is flying to Europe this week for location hunt. A training program will be held in Hyderabad close to two weeks to train the star cast for action sequences Chiranjeevi. Click the Movie button below for more info:

Sye Raa Narasimha ReddyThe reaction on social media was critical and a lot of the dismay and anger was directed at me and my decision to engage him, Mr. Remnicks note said. Some members of the staff, too, reached out to say that they objected to the invitation, particularly the forum of the festival.

He added, I dont want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that Ive ignored their concerns.

Mr. Bannon lashed out at Mr. Remnick, calling him gutless for rescinding the invitation.

The reason for my acceptance was simple: I would be facing one of the most fearless journalists of his generation, Mr. Bannon said in a statement to The New York Times. In what I would call a defining moment, David Remnick showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob.

Mr. Bannon, who is in Venice for the screening of a new documentary about him by Errol Morris, said that Mr. Remnick called him on Monday to say he could no longer accommodate him at the festival.

It was a swift and stunning turnabout for the festival, which is to take place in New York from Oct. 5 to 7.The cookies that called to me were so distinctive that even though they were on a back counter, I spotted them through an open door. They were made by Moko Hirayama, and they were in Mokonuts, the small, spare, breakfast-and-lunch-only restaurant that she runs with her husband, Omar Koreitem, in the 11th Arrondissement. Koreitem, whose first job out of culinary school was at the Michelin-starred restaurant Daniel in New York, and whose cooking is influenced by the places he has lived and worked  Lebanon, France, the United States and Britain  is in charge of all things savory, turning out elegant dishes in a kitchen the size of a van. And Hirayama (who grew up in Tokyo and San Francisco; went to college in New York, where the couple met; and kept a poster of a Pierre Herme macaron on the wall of her office when she was a lawyer) does all the baking of breads, chubby loaf cakes, flaky fruit crostatas and those cookies.

The cookies are thick and chunky, even pucklike; craggy and rough around the edges; neither dainty nor unreasonably large. Some are smudged with chocolate; some have sesame seeds; all bear the marks of the bakers hands. It was the ones with chocolate that interested me most. As an American baker, I knew that the inspiration for them must have been the classic chocolate-chip cookie, yet they were nothing like the usual. From their looks, I guessed theyd be good; I couldnt have guessed that theyd turn into a meditation on the genre.Trump himself may or may not have anything recognizable as a strategy. Even before his inauguration, some Beltway observers were declaring him an anti-strategic player, who rejected not only the content of Obama-era foreign policy but the entire project of expert-driven big-picture thinking. Others, of course, have argued that Trumps apparent lack of a strategy actually is his strategy  that he has adopted some variant of Nixons madman theory in both domestic and global affairs. According to that logic, unpredictability can be a virtue, trapping enemies and interlocutors in a reactive position, leaving them always trying to figure out whats coming next. But even madman theory requires some level of planning and consistency. Absent strategy, Senator Jeff Flake wrote in his 2017 book, Conscience of a Conservative, we are left with no theory, just the madman.

It may be that Trump doesnt think he needs much of a strategy, at least not for the bald task of staying in power. As the head of a party that controls all three branches of government in the worlds most powerful nation, he can flail around and contradict himself all he wants, and many people will still do his bidding. Its those with more limited means at their disposal  a category that currently includes not only Democrats but also just about anyone else engaged in political life  who may find that strategy has something useful to offer.

The original concept of strategy comes from the world of military affairs. It derives from a Greek word meaning generalship or the office or command of a general; it was an enterprise for the man in charge. In his classic midcentury book Strategy, the British military historian B.H. Liddell Hart defined it as the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy, distinguishing strategy from, on one side, tactics  the modes of actual fighting on the battlefield  and on the other, grand strategy, in which civilian leaders set high-level policy and coordinated the nations resources toward a collective goal.

For the United States, the golden age of strategic thinking is often dated to the early years of the Cold War, when big ideas like containment provided an overarching framework in which to make ground-level decisions. Thats when the State Department created the Policy Planning Staff under George Kennan, with the goal of taking a longer-term, strategic view of global trends, in the words of its current mission statement. The moment was, in many ways, tailor-made for strategic thinking. The stakes were high, the enemy was clear and the political establishment, Republicans and Democrats alike, largely agreed on the nations objectives; the main question was how to achieve them.During George W. Bushs very bad presidency, liberals would sometimes invoke Ronald Reagan with a sort of incredulous nostalgia, astonished that he seemed reasonable in comparison. More than once, I jokingly wondered if wed ever see a president so catastrophic that wed one day look back fondly on Bush.

Its not a joke anymore. On Saturday, the pre-Trump bipartisan political establishment gathered at the Washington National Cathedral to honor Senator John McCain, as well as the small-r republican and small-d democratic ethics he came to symbolize. At McCains request, both Barack Obama and George W. Bush eulogized him, their praise an implicit rebuke to the current president, who possesses none of McCains virtues or, for that matter, any virtues at all.

For many who detest Donald Trump, the spectacle of the countrys former leaders championing embattled American principles  principles once shared by even the bitterest political enemies  was fiercely moving. Esquire columnist Charles Pierce described it as a morality play shot through with Shakespearian portent and foreshadowing, a pageant of democracys vengeance. A New Yorker headline called the funeral The Biggest Resistance Meeting Yet.

On the left, there was an immediate backlash to this sentimental yearning for a deposed establishment. Some jeered what seemed like a complacent hope that when Trump is gone America can return to normal.Boy the last thing I want to do today is to go back to work. Enjoy this tidbit from my inbox and ease back into your schedules this week!

Grammy Award winning Megadeth bassist David Ellefson was inducted into the IOWA ROCK N ROLL HALL OF FAME over the weekend, in a ceremony Sunday in Okoboji, IA, presented by the Iowa Rock N Roll Music Association. David, a native of nearby Jackson, MN, spent his formative years, pre-Megadeth, performing on the club circuit in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Ellefson was inducted in the individual artist category, for his achievements both as a recording artist and performer, and as a producer, writer, and entrepreneur, including his work with EMP LABEL GROUP, ELLEFSON COFFEE CO, ETA - Ellefson Touring Agency, and the recently relaunched COMBAT RECORDS.

Growing up in Jackson, which is right on the border with Iowa, I spent as much time in Iowa, as I did in Minnesota. My mom was from Iowa, and really, so much of my life growing up was here. The Iowa circuit is where I really cut my teeth as a musician, before moving to LA and joining Megadeth, and its such an amazing honor to be recognized with the Iowa RNRHOF Class of 2018. After the Grammy win for Dystopia, it was really a cherry on top, to be recognized by my peers, and the great people back home, and to get to come back and participate in this amazing weekend says David.

The induction came with a permanent Ellefson exhibit on display in the Iowa Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame Museum, in Arnolds Park, IA, featuring one of Ellefsons personal Jackson KELLY BIRDsignature basses, which kicked off the weekend with Ellefson performing an intimate BASSTORYmasterclass on Saturday morning, and, with partner Thom Hazaert, judging the finals of the statewide IOWA ROCKS Battle of the Bands competition.

The induction weekend closed out with an All-Star Jam Sunday night, with Ellefson participating along with the rest of the 2018 inductees.The Trump administrations decision to eliminate funding for the United Nations agency that aids Palestinian refugees is shortsighted, the editorial board wrote.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.Its a moment of intense pain. We can only hope to recover our history from the ashes. Now, we cry and get to work.

MAURILIO OLIVEIRA, a paleoartist at the National Museum of Brazil, which burned down Sunday night.A recent 12-week study in JAMA Internal Medicine of 302 postmenopausal women found that estrogen (in the form of Vagifem, a vaginal tablet) was about as effective as a vaginal moisturizer (Replens) or a placebo tablet or gel in providing relief.

Estrogen is not some sort of miracle for everyone, though for some, I think its great, said Dr. Mitchell, who led the study. Dr. Lindau said of the treatments that were tested, the point isnt that they all did nothing, but they all did something.

Alternative therapies are popular, but there is no proof they work. Eating yogurt rich in probiotics, for instance, is a common remedy, but it does not change vaginal flora. It sounds like a good idea, said Dr. Mitchell, but the bacteria are not the same ones in the vagina, so that isnt going to help.

Websites sell marijuana douches or topical cannabinoids, the active ingredient in marijuana, that claim to lubricate the vagina. But no studies show they alter the vaginal microbiome or are effective, though high doses may get into the bloodstream and provide some relaxation, Dr. Mitchell said.

The MonaLisa Touch, a laser therapy, has been offered as a hormone-free way to reverse vaginal dryness, but there are no long-term randomized studies proving its efficacy for this purpose. We havent reviewed or approved these devices for use in such procedures, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the F.D.A. commissioner, in a recent statement.

Dr. Lindau added that painful intercourse may not always be a result of hormonal changes. Some women are dry from using too much soap. This hyper hygiene activity  too much washing and wiping  there is no good reason to use soaps, certainly not in the vagina or in the vulva, Dr. Lindau said.

Other women may have pain limited to the opening of the vagina that can be eased with a lidocaine ointment, a numbing cream. Painful intercourse may also be caused by spasms on the opening of the vagina or abnormal growths.RIO DE JANEIRO  The stately national museum, once home to Brazils royal family, was still smoldering at sunrise on Monday when scores of researchers, museum workers and anthropologists began gathering outside, dressed in black.

Some sobbed as they began taking stock of the irreplaceable losses: Thousands, perhaps millions, of significant artifacts had been reduced to ashes Sunday night in a devastating fire. The hall that held a 12,000-year-old skeleton known as Luzia, the oldest human remains discovered in the Americas, was destroyed.

Hundreds of residents joined them beneath an overcast sky that matched the national mood. They had come not only to mourn but also to protest Brazils near-abandonment of museums and other basic public services. Many saw the fire as a symbol for a city, and nation, in distress.

Its a moment of intense pain, Maurilio Oliveira, who has worked as a paleoartist at the National Museum of Brazil for 19 years, said as he stood in front of the ravaged building. We can only hope to recover our history from the ashes. Now, we cry and get to work.Those thoughts and his vivid imagination translated to his choreography: Each Taylor program afforded a world of dance; if you didnt like everything, well, that was just a reflection of the world. As dedicated as he was to form and structure, he was also a sharp social commentator, disdainful of the artificial. He wasnt pretentious. He chose dancers that looked like people.

I dont do autobiographical, he explained to me once.I dont really approve of that. I never thought about it until young people started getting onstage, and its supposed to be a dance concert and they kept telling us about their horrible mother or what a hard time they had and all of this true stuff, and I went: Oh, keep it to yourself. No, I dont do that. I make up dreams.

Dreaming was something he could do in Mattituck, where he owned an idyllic cottage on a cliff. Its living room overlooked the water, which, like one of Mr. Taylors dances, could create a dizzying multitude of sensations: tranquil, majestic, treacherous. When he described visiting the property in the 1970s for the first time, he said he didnt so much as glance at the house, but headed down to the water and looked up and down the beach. He called it Robinson Crusoe land. The man who sold it to him, he said, did so because their astrology charts were in alignment.

Was it true? Maybe. Mr. Taylor liked to tell tales. His voice would take on a tone of deep assurance as he said things like, No, really, Im not pulling your leg, but his stories were sometimes on the fishy side. He once told a journalist that he decided to make a dance to the Andrews Sisters after finding a record on the top of a trash can on the way to the studio. He tells the story in Matthew Diamonds documentary, Dancemaker (1988), adding: Thats a lie. I just said that to be funny. They printed it.

A friend pointed out that you cant mourn a man like Mr. Taylor because he left so much great work behind. You can miss him, though. The dances are one thing. His stories, like shared secrets, were glimpses of his mind; so were the art projects he did on the side. His Mattituck house was filled with them: handmade frames with mounted butterflies, crushed cans and footprints and handprints embellished with squashed bugs. I noted that in one you could still see all the bugs guts. He gave me a wide-eyed Yeah? but looked immensely pleased.

My favorite of those art projects was one he called James, and described as a trained circus mouse going through a hoop. It was actually a petrified mouse jumping through a bracelet. He had found the mouse in the basement, dead and frozen, he said. I didnt have to stuff it or anything, it was, like, dry.This book is a Norse Arabian Nights. Each section is a honeycomb. Stories are nested in stories and crack open to reveal rumor and anecdote, prose poems, tendrils of myth. This abundance isnt an empty show of virtuosity but rooted in Sjons belief in the power and obligation of old-fashioned storytelling (there are homages to great storytellers throughout; one character is named Halldora Oktavia, after the Icelandic novelist Halldor Laxness and the Mexican writer Octavio Paz).

John Berger and Susan Sontag once engaged in an affectionate and slightly prickly televised debate on the purpose of fiction. At one point, Berger tried to parse their central difference in opinion. You say you want to be carried away by the story, he said. I want the story to stop things being carried away into oblivion, into indifference. For Sjon, a third imperative presents itself. Stories renew the world. The earths biomass is stable, Loewe tells us in an epilogue. But the biomass of fiction is growing. It is made of some wondrous substance that does not belong to any of the planets three known realms  the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom or the mineral kingdom  and yet it receives all its nourishment from them, for fiction is part of mankind, and mankind is part of this world.

A consoling thought, but a dangerous one for the writer. Where Sjon occasionally loses the reader is when he extols stories for their sheer existence, when he basks in their plenitude and his proficiency. Like that clay baby, however, a story only becomes animated when carved and shaped, when life is breathed into it.

Sjon once claimed he would never write a thick book: I have always admired stories that cut to the bone without much ceremony. My stories are really boiled-down epics. Take Moonstone, a favorite of mine, a tight fable of cinephilia, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, gay hustlers and Icelandic independence. In comparison, CoDex 1962  vast, riverine  is bloated. It has been touted as Sjons masterpiece, but it lacks the compression, celerity and discipline of the previous novels  those scythes, whose language cut and gleamed. I missed their stylishness, their ability to evoke mystery, not just describe it.

CoDex 1962 raised me up, let me down and consumed me for the better part of a week. I can only echo Loewe, with gratitude, exasperation and awe. This books a bloody thief of time.(Want to get this briefing by email? Heres the sign-up.)

Good morning.

Heres what you need to know:

Supreme Court battle begins

Judge Brett Kavanaughs nomination has come to symbolize Republicans yearning to shape the future of the federal judiciary. His confirmation hearings begin today, and you can keep up with developments here.

A conservative stalwart who would replace the courts swing vote, Judge Kavanaugh, 53, would probably tilt the court to the right. We look at his likely role as a justice, and where he stands on major issues.

 Opponents will probably present the judge as a far-right extremist who would roll back abortion rights and protect President Trump from the threat of subpoena. Democrats have already protested the White Houses decision to withhold 100,000 pages of documents related to his work in the George W. Bush administration.The government has a cooperating witness, David Liew, who worked with Mr. Vorley and Mr. Chanu. Mr. Liew pleaded guilty in June 2017 to a charge of conspiracy and can provide testimony about his interactions with the defendants and how they tried to trick other traders.

Prosecutors can be expected to use electronic chats among the three traders to bolster their case. In one, Mr. Vorley wrote to Mr. Liew that their trading was cladssic [sic]/jam it, drawing the reply tricks from the master. In another exchange, Mr. Chanu wrote to Mr. Liew, u be careful sweetie.

Will a cooperating witness and those exchanges be enough to show a scheme to defraud? Perhaps not. There were two cooperating witnesses in Mr. Flotrons case, and the jury apparently discounted their testimony in acquitting him.

The futures market for precious metals is populated by sophisticated traders who understand that others are trying to game the system to generate profits. As I pointed out in a recent column, defrauding this type of trader may be much more difficult to prove because orders in the market may not actually mislead anyone.

Studies have shown that most orders are canceled, and traders thrive on trying to outsmart others by forecasting trends in the market. The question is whether the mere entry and cancellation of orders are enough to show that traders were actually misled and defrauded.

The government will face another challenge in pursuing a wire fraud case rather than the more narrowly drawn spoofing prohibition. Prosecutors will have to show that entering and canceling orders not just deceived other traders but also deprived them of property.

The Justice Department has taken an aggressive stance against traders entering orders that are quickly canceled. In addition to Mr. Vorley and Mr. Chanu, charges against five other defendants for spoofing are pending in Chicago and Houston. Mr. Flotrons acquittal may factor into the governments strategy for pursuing wire fraud rather than spoofing.

But there is the risk that a jury will not find enough evidence to say there was fraud rather than just an aggressive trading strategy. That might lead traders to push even harder to take advantage of others to generate profits.Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines  and the power-brokers who shape them.

__________

This may be the point at which investors have to start taking President Trumps trade wars much more seriously.

Fears about trade have at times weighed on stocks since mid-February when the Trump administration announced tariffs on steel and aluminum. But the Standard & Poors 500-stock index is up nearly 9 percent this year, and much of those gains have come in the past two months, a move that took the stock market to a record high last week.

The trade conflict between the United States and China may be on the verge of a sharp escalation. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Mr. Trump wanted to go ahead soon with tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese products, adding to those already imposed on $50 billion of goods.The United States, for its part, remains the worlds leading importer of what the researchers call embodied carbon. If the United States were held responsible for all the pollution worldwide that resulted from manufacturing the cars, clothing and other goods that Americans use, the nations carbon dioxide emissions would be 14 percent bigger than its domestic-only numbers suggest.

Between 1995 and 2015, the report found, as wealthier countries like Japan and Germany were cutting their own emissions, they were also doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide they outsourced to China.

Under the Paris climate agreement, countries are held responsible only for the emissions produced within their own borders. Experts have long debated whether that makes sense. Is it unfair that China and India are blamed for emissions that occur because theyre making goods for richer nations? What about the fact that they also benefit from having those factories and jobs?

The migration of industries like cement and steel overseas can also shift production to less-efficient factories governed by looser pollution rules. An earlier study that Dr. Hasanbeigi led at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that Chinas steel industry, on average, emits 23 percent more carbon dioxide per ton of steel produced than American and German manufacturers do. One big reason? Chinas power grid relies more heavily on coal.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, however, the outsourcing of emissions from wealthy countries to developing countries has started to slow. More recently, much of the growth in carbon outsourcing is occurring between developing countries, according to a recent study in Nature Communications.

Just as Chinas starting to deal with its emissions, its been pushing some of its more carbon-intensive activities into countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and India, said Steven J. Davis, a scientist at the University of California, Irvine and co-author of that study.

From a climate policy context, he added, its like a game of whack-a-mole.

The Unlikely Tax Solution

One possible solution to all this emissions shifting would be for all countries to work together to enact a global carbon tax that applied equally everywhere. But in the real world, that is unlikely to happen anytime soon. And, while some politicians like President Emmanuel Macron of France have suggested that Europe put its own carbon tax on imported products, that idea has not gained traction.Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are now admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God save the United States and this Honorable Court!

So begins the business day of the Supreme Court of the United States, as the court marshal calls attention to the seating of the justices.

The entry OYEZ (pronounced oh-YAY) has appeared in The New York Times Crossword a total of 46 times, yet it stumped a number of our solvers in the Friday, August 31 puzzle by Peter Wentz. Its possible that solvers were stumped by the wordplay in the clue: Court order? could mean an actual command from the court, but in this puzzle, it hinted at a charge to be quiet and pay attention.

OYEZ can be traced back to the 15th-century Anglo-French oyez, or Hear ye! and, before that, the 13th-century Old French oiez. It was uttered by the town crier, usually thrice, to call attention to a public announcement. Modern day usage, of course, is restricted to court protocol in the United States and United Kingdom.He went on a whim at first, David Williams said, just booked a flight from New York City, where he lives, to Springfield, Ill. He took his camera and giant flash to the Illinois State Fair. This was last summer, between freelance assignments, and the start of a project that Mr. Williams, 29, says will last at least another year: documenting the food culture of Americas state fairs.

Fairs provide this great escape from everyday life, he said. And I wanted to capture that, the joy of it on plates and sticks, at the end of forks, in cones. Mr. Williams spent eight hours on the midway that first day, looking for moments, capturing happiness and a little darkness, too.

The Illinois trip led to others: harvest-time visits to Maryland and Delaware, to Minnesota and upstate New York, to Texas, two- and three-day visits, long hours on the hunt. Mr. Williams wants to get to Washington State next summer, Florida this winter. Maine and Alaska await.The Affordable Care Act has survived numerous court battles and repeal efforts, but a new case is threatening the laws future once again. A federal judge in Fort Worth, Tex., will hear arguments Wednesday on whether to grant a preliminary injunction that would suspend the health law until the case is decided. He has also indicated that he might go straight to ruling on the merits of the case.

It focuses on whether the laws requirement that most Americans have health insurance is unconstitutional, but has much broader implications. The Justice Department made a highly unusual decision this summer: though it disagreed with the plaintiffs that the entire law should be struck down, it decided not to defend the individual mandate or several other central provisions, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions. That prompted a coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, to intervene to defend the law, saying that to pause it or invalidate key components would threaten the health care of millions of people.

Presiding over the case is Judge Reed OConnor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas, who was appointed by President George W. Bush. The judge has previously blocked Obama-era efforts to extend medical leave protections to same-sex couples and to include gender-identity discrimination as a form of sex discrimination under the health law.

Who brought this latest case and why?

The case is being brought by a group of 20 Republican state attorneys general and the governors of Maine and Mississippi. They argue that the law is unconstitutional and should be struck down.Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times.

Your child is dead, a victim of suicide after a short life long with struggle. Its been years  three, four, five or more. It was an indescribably painful loss that you handled by keeping it private.

Now, these years later, with no warning whatsoever, you get a call from a reporter with The New York Times. Hes asking questions for a story hes writing. Questions about your child.

That reporter was me, that thankless task among the more difficult in my more than 25 years in newspapers.

Early this year, in reporting a story about a high school teachers fatal heroin overdose in his schools bathroom, I contacted a fellow graduate from the same high school he had attended in upstate New York. Her name was Elizabeth Ianelli, and she said other alumni from the school were saddened but hardly surprised about the news  he was No. 89 and counting from the small school to die. Ms. Ianelli shared her running list of dead men and women.

I had to verify the people on the list had died, and how, and wanted to ask their families about their experiences with the school, the Family Foundation School in Hancock, N.Y.

Extremely uncomfortable calls followed, days and days of them. I felt like a split personality, with the best of intentions  writing a cautionary tale that might help other parents and their children  and, at the same time, aware that I was likely bringing great pain to the stranger on the other end of the call.

Speaking to a grieving parent for a breaking news story is hard enough, but this  opening an old wound for a piece of my own design  felt worse. But I felt it was important that this unsettling trend be marked, be held up to the light and examined.

One father thanked me for my interest, but declined to say more. Another, his voice shaking, promised to think about it. I never heard back from him.

A mother became flat-out angry at my premise, that the school was a common thread through an apparent spate of deaths, mostly by suicide or overdose. The idea of grouping together all these kids  they each have their own complications, she said.

Her daughter, she said, her voice rising, was to be remembered for her many successes in life and for the joy she brought to those around her, and not for the details of her suicide a year earlier.

I couldnt argue with her. I promised her the story was far from publication and that I would contact her again to talk about her daughters place, if any, in its writing.

Other parents reacted much differently. James Clemente, whose son Mark died of liver failure after years of hard living on the streets, seemed to relish the chance to tell a stranger about the young man. The two never lost contact, even when Mark was homeless in Manhattan: He would call me, How you doing? Im like, How are we doing? Were great.

Another student, Charles Rogers, was 20 when he took his life in 2015. His mother, Anne Moss Rogers, speaks about her loss much more than many parents in that situation, as an advocate for treating mental illness and depression in young people.

She said her work to educate people starts with language: Its died by suicide, she said. Its not committed suicide. Its not a crime. Its a public health issue.

She wrote a direct appeal online to people considering dying by suicide, imploring them to step back and ask someone for help, and thought about a title that would attract that troubled audience.

She wrote, How to Hang Yourself.

It begins: There is no rush to kill yourself right now. I am so sorry you feel so badly that you are looking up a way to die. She continued: I know my son looked up this phrase, too.

After a couple months of reporting, I called the daughters mother back. I was braced for another scolding, and was taken aback when she apologized for her earlier reaction.

She asked questions about my piece  many of them. She asked how her daughter would be described. Then she said, yes, you can use her name. You can use her picture, too.

I thanked her and hung up, done with those calls at last.The arguments that split the town in 1917 divide it still, but within the bounds of civility. The people playing deputies and those playing their victims arent really enemies, and their collaboration can be taken as evidence of healing. Recreating a civic tragedy requires a common sense of purpose. But the attitudes that led to the deportation have hardly disappeared. Labor and capital have yet to end their struggle, and the abuse of police power is far from a dead issue. Many of the Bisbee deportees had Spanish or Slavic surnames, and their removal has an element of ethnic cleansing. Deportation is as loaded a word now as it was a century ago.

Current politics hover over the movie, even though the people in it are reluctant to talk about their beliefs and affiliations. Instead, Mr. Greenes sympathetic method  you can feel him quietly listening and observing, leaving plenty of silence for his subjects to fill  allows the viewer to discover unstated ironies and resonances. And also, most of all, to appreciate the humanity of both the re-enactors and the long-gone figures they are impersonating.

Especially moving is the testimony of Fernando Serrano, a young man who grew up in Mexico and the United States and knew little about the deportation until he signed up for the re-enactment. His political awakening seems to happen before our eyes, as he connects his own life to past events. For others, the connection is more direct. Mel and Steve Ray are brothers who portray their own grandfather and great-uncle, one of whom was arrested by the other.

Dressing up in old-fashioned costumes and parading through town looks like fun, and its fun to see the modern residents of Bisbee get into character and commit to the spirit of the spectacle. And even though Bisbee 17 depicts a wholesome and harmonious community undertaking, it is a profoundly haunted and haunting film. What we are witnessing is not the commemoration of a past disaster but its reanimation. Every important thing this movie is about is still alive.Ive been watching Zephyr for a while now, and I am just so struck by her courage, her progressive values. She is uniquely independent at a time when her values really matter, Ms. McCray said in an interview.

I do not speak for all African-Americans, Ms. McCray said. But I do hope to inspire those who consider me a leader.

The endorsement brings together two women whose political careers could be seen as ascendant, especially by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Ms. McCray, who during Mr. de Blasios first term often deflected attention, has recently assumed a more prominent role, traveling around the country to promote her and her husbands work; she has said she is considering a run for office.

And Ms. Teachout, who for much of the race had ceded favorite status to Ms. James, was treated by her rivals at a recent debate as the putative front-runner, showing momentum that Ms. McCrays support may further fuel.

Ms. McCrays husband has not yet issued any endorsements in statewide races. His silence is widely perceived as something of a political hedge, especially in the governors race: While Mr. de Blasio has long been entangled in a bitter feud with Mr. Cuomo, and closely aligned with Cynthia Nixon  she was one of his most visible supporters in his 2013 bid for mayor  a public declaration for Ms. Nixon, who trails in the polls, could exacerbate the governors ire if he wins a third term.The experience of taking the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test  the sole means of getting into eight elite public schools in New York City  is one that students arent likely to forget. For some, it meant months or years of demanding test prep courses and practice drills. For others, it meant just showing up on the day of the exam  because, well, everyone else was taking it.

We asked readers to share their experience with the exam and if they would change the admission process, which has been criticized for not being representative of the overall student population in the citys school system. The schools, like Stuyvesant High School and the Bronx High School of Science, have a low number of black and Hispanic students and an overrepresentation of white and Asian students.

What we learned from the more than 700 responses we received was that the experiences and memories were as varied as the backgrounds of the students who took the test. However, there was one consistent theme  regardless of ones score: Students took the test for the opportunity for a brighter future.

With regard to changing the admissions process, the answers were split. Most readers did acknowledge there was a diversity problem at the schools, but few offered ways to solve it. As a new school year begins on Wednesday, we offer a selection of past stories and opinions about what should happen in the future.Nearly two years after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered an investigation into racial bias in New York prisons, no findings or recommendations have been released by the state inspector general.

A spokesman for the inspector general said the review is continuing, and he did not give a timetable for when the investigation would be complete.

A report by The New York Times that drew on 60,000 disciplinary cases from 2015 showed that black and Latino inmates were punished at twice the rate of white inmates. Black and Latino inmates were also sent more often to solitary confinement and held there for longer.

After The Timess report, Mr. Cuomo called the findings disturbing and said he was looking to the inspector general to recommend appropriate reforms for immediate implementation.SYDNEY, Australia  A states capacity to spy on its citizens has grown exponentially in recent years as new technology has meant more aspects of our lives can be observed, recorded and analyzed than ever before. At the same time, much to the frustration of intelligence agencies around the world, so has the ability to keep digital information secret, thanks to encryption.

Thats why the main intelligence agencies of the Anglophone world are now hoping that Australia will lead the charge in developing ways to get decrypt information at will, and to tap into data that was previously kept secret. A proposed law, the draft of which was released last month by the cybersecurity minister, is an aggressive step in that direction.

We should all be worried, because its not just criminals or terrorists who use encryption, but every one of us. We use encryption to buy things online, manage our finances, and communicate personally and professionally. Hospitals, transportation systems and government agencies use encrypted data. Creating tools to weaken encrypted systems for one purpose weakens it for all purposes. If Australia succeeds in doing so, it could be your bank account or your medical records that are compromised in the end.

This particular bill has been more than a year in the making. At the June 2017 meeting in Ottawa of the Five Eyes  the intelligence alliance made up of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand  Australia made a point of the need for states to find ways to overcome encryption. A joint communique that came out of the meeting noted that encryption can severely undermine public safety efforts and committed Five Eyes members to working with technology companies to explore shared solutions.New York is a big state with small politics. It is home to many of the most ambitious and inventive people in the world, but its governance is stunted by party hacks and special interests, petty rivalries and systemic corruption.

The Democratic primaries on Thursday, Sept. 13, provide some ground for hope. The damage being done by the Trump administration has reawakened New Yorkers to the importance of political participation. Recognizing this new spirit, energetic Senate candidates are promising real reform. Candidates for attorney general  in particular Zephyr Teachout, a national expert on corruption  are campaigning to clean up Albany and take on the Trump administration, and theyre well positioned to do just that.

Unfortunately, the top of the ticket offers less cause for enthusiasm.

In his two terms as governor, Andrew Cuomo has had significant accomplishments. But he has done little to combat the corruption in the Legislature and his own administration, and he has allowed the subway system, the foundation of the New York City economy, to rot. The case for change, at a time when so many New Yorkers yearn for change, is not hard to make.

Yet the actor and activist Cynthia Nixon was the only Democrat with the guts to take on Mr. Cuomo, his $30 million campaign war chest and his reputation for vindictiveness. She has campaigned on sweeping promises to address New Yorkers hunger for health care, housing and a fair criminal justice system.Colourful kites will fill the skies over Berrow beach this weekend when Beachside Holiday Park hosts a kite festival.

The organisers of Burnham-On-Seas Kite Festival have teamed up with the holiday park to hold the event on Saturday September 8th and Sunday 9th.

The event will run from 10am to 5.30pm both days and there will be flying from 79pm on the Saturday evening with an illuminated flight at 8pm with a DJ playing music.

Amarinth, a 50ft high kite, pictured below, will also be flying during the weekend. There are only five of these dragons in the world and this one made its first flight in the UK in May, so be prepared to be astonished, says organiser Gaynor Brown.

There will also be a huge bouncy city arriving in the field above the beach and stalls, displays and a Learn to Fly area.

At Beachside Holiday Park, novice kite flyers can try out their skills in the Learn to Fly area before making their way to the main display field.

Parking is on the beach with normal parking fees applying.By now, few might lift an eyebrow at President Trumps crusade to delegitimize his own Justice Department and, specifically, his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. It long ago became clear that Mr. Trump regards federal law enforcement  as he sees all of government  as a political tool to advance the interests of himself and of his party (assuming those interests align, of course; if not, the party is on its own).

Yet even by that debased standard, Mr. Trumps latest Twitter tantrum against Mr. Sessions, on Monday, set a new low, providing a kind of anti-civics lesson for the nation hes supposed to lead.

Two long-running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department, he wrote. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff.

With this latest outburst, the president has again laid bare his contempt for the rule of law. Mr. Trump does not even pretend to care about the allegations of corruption against the two lawmakers in question. His concern is only that they are very popular members who would have scored easy wins in November, if only Mr. Sessions had kept his fat mouth shut until after the midterms  or better yet, buried the allegations permanently.For example, when arguing over possible legal restrictions on abortion, it isnt legitimate within a democracy to appeal to religious principles that are not shared by all legitimate parties to the dispute. So, while the personhood of the fetus is in dispute among reasonable doctrines, the status of African-Americans, women, gays and Jews is not. To reject their status as fully equal members of the society would be unreasonable.

One of the essential principles of democratic government is freedom of thought and expression, and this extends to the unreasonable/intolerant as well as to the reasonable, so long as certain strict limits on incitement to violence, libel and the like are observed. Still, doctrines within the tent of the reasonable are accorded a different status within public institutions and civil society from those deemed outside the tent. This is reflected in the kinds of public support or reprobation representatives of the state and other civil society institutions (e.g., universities) display toward the doctrines or values in question.

To put it simply, we expect whats reasonable to get a fair hearing within the public sphere, even if many dont agree with it.

On the other hand, though we do not suppress the unreasonable, we dont believe, in general, that it has the right to a genuinely fair hearing in that same sphere. For instance, after the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Va., in August last year, students at my campus, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, were greeted in the fall with signs plastered everywhere that said Hate Has No Home at UMass. This was intended to let the Richard Spencers of this world know that even if it may not be right or legal to bar them from speaking on campus, their message was not going to be given the respectful hearing that those within the tent of the reasonable receive.

The alleged basis for claiming that B.D.S. advocates are anti-Semitic, and thus worthy only of denunciation or punishment, not argument, is that through their three goals listed in their manifesto they express their rejection of Jews right to self-determination in their homeland. This idea was put succinctly by Senator Chuck Schumer at the policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) in March, where he said, Let us call out the B.D.S. movement for what it is. Let us delegitimize the delegitimizers by letting the world know when there is a double standard, whether they know it or not, they are actively participating in an anti-Semitic movement.

B.D.S. supporters are delegitimizers, according to Schumer, because they do not grant legitimacy to the Zionist project. Some might quibble with this claim about the B.D.S. goals, but I think its fair to say that rejection of the legitimacy of the Zionist project is fairly widespread within the movement. But does this constitute anti-Semitism? Does this put them outside the tent of the reasonable?To the Editor:

Re Hailing McCain, 2 Presidents Diverge From a 3rd (front page, Sept. 2):

For a few minutes, I dared to dream that the America I love had reappeared. I saw the Washington National Cathedral memorial service for Senator John McCain on Saturday as a poignant flashback to how America used to be not so long ago: Democrats and Republicans actually sitting next to one another sharing tears and laughter as they offered eloquent and heartfelt remembrance and praise for a man who instinctively placed honor and principle above party.

Such a concept is, of course, totally alien to President Trump, who exhibits few if any signs of honor or principle. Thanks to the presidents lack of an invitation, the McCain memorial service was a profoundly welcome respite and (temporary, Im sure) antidote to the toxic politics that ooze from his White House.

Don Porter

Seattle

To the Editor:

As an antiwar protester in high school and college, a lifelong Democrat and someone who was often at odds with Arizonas longtime senator, I was surprised by my tears as I listened to former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama eulogize John McCain. Mr. McCain was a true American hero who embodied our countrys founding values, values that are lost to the tribal factions inhabiting the halls of Congress and the boastful bully who is the president.

Godspeed, Mr. McCain. The life you lived inspires me and hopefully many other Americans to live up to your legacy in a country that does not need to be made great again.There can be little doubt that Mr. Trump views the Justice Department as a tool to punish his political enemies and give his allies a free pass. He has also made it clear that he hates rats, praising the felon, Paul Manafort, who once ran his campaign for refusing to break by cooperating with law enforcement.

This is our new normal, and congressional Republicans have made it clear through their inaction that they will not remove Mr. Trump from office for obstruction of justice. That matters because the Justice Department has long concluded that a sitting president cannot be indicted (although for many legal scholars, that remains an open question). Mr. Mueller is likely to follow that guidance and submit a report to Congress instead of indicting the president for obstructing justice.

It is hard to imagine 19 Republican Senators voting to convict Mr. Trump for obstructing justice. In itself, that does not mean his presidency will survive until 2020 (or beyond), given the array of legal problems he now faces. After all, just two weeks ago, his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, told a judge under oath that Mr. Trump directed him to commit crimes. But obstruction appears to be the first existential challenge to the Trump presidency if reports that Mr. Mueller is preparing a report regarding obstruction are accurate.

On the surface, the Senates refusal to remove the president from office for obstructing justice does nothing to counteract the other legal problems that he faces, such as the investigation of Mr. Cohen that resulted in immunity for Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organizations chief financial officer.

Despite Mr. Trumps rhetoric and threats to impede the Mueller investigation, warnings from his team that his acts could create liability for him seem at times to have restrained the president. For example, Mr. Trump reportedly did not carry out his plans to fire Mr. Mueller in the face of pushback from Don McGahn, the White House counsel. More recently, the president did fire Mr. McGahn 11 days after reports emerged that the White House counsel had cooperated with Mr. Muellers investigation. But the president followed up  presumably because of warnings from Mr. Trumps attorneys  with corrective tweets claiming that the firing was not punishment for Mr. McGahns cooperation.He was responding to a question about Luzia, one of the oldest examples of human remains in the Americas. It may have been lost in the fire on Sunday night, and it was certainly damaged. But his reaction was to the extent of the loss, not the specimen itself.

As valuable as that specimen was to those who study the peopling of the Americas, it was almost trivial in comparison to the vast scope of the museum, which was a cultural and scientific treasure. Science museums are not only displays of what we have learned, but also chances to learn so much more from studying the specimens stored there.By voting, Americans abroad also encourage members of Congress to pay attention to issues that affect their lives, like double taxation, said Kym Kettler-Paddock, communications director for Republicans Overseas.

When Americans overseas do not vote, our issues do not get taken up by legislators, she said.

Heres how to make your voice heard.

Can I vote in the November midterms?

Yes. Most United States citizens 18 or older who live overseas are allowed to vote for federal offices like president, senator and representative, including in the midterm elections on Nov. 6. Some states also allow overseas citizens to vote on state and local races and initiatives. And no matter how long its been since you last voted, you can still do it.

How do I register?

To ensure that you stay on your states voting rolls, its a good idea to register and request your absentee ballot at the beginning of each calendar year and any time you change address. The registration form is called the Federal Post Card Application. The easiest way to fill it out is through websites like the government-run Federal Voting Assistance Program, the nonpartisan Overseas Vote Foundation or VoteFromAbroad.org, a nonpartisan site run by Democrats Abroad. All three sites will guide you through the process.

After youve finished, print, sign and date the form and follow the instructions for returning it. Some states allow voters to request ballots and return them by fax or email. You should also contact your local election office to make sure your ballot request was received.Now that access to Infowars is mainly through its website or app, Mr. Joness ability to reach new viewers is severely limited because they will no longer come across his videos while scrolling through Facebook or YouTube, said Monica Stephens, a geography professor at the University at Buffalo who has studied the spread of misinformation online.

This increases the likelihood Infowars is preaching to a filter bubble versus reaching new audiences, she said.

Another right-wing provocateur might present a cautionary tale for Mr. Jones: Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Breitbart editor. Mr. Yiannopoulos gained notoriety during the 2016 presidential race for his abusive language, and Twitter barred him that year for harassing the comedian Leslie Jones. He also lost his job at Breitbart after making glib remarks about pedophilia, and his public profile gradually faded.

Last month, Mr. Yiannopoulos lashed out at critics on Facebook, saying, I have lost everything standing up for the truth in America, spent all my savings, destroyed all my friendships, and ruined my whole life.

In an email, he wrote, Social justice warriors machinate to get speakers canceled, and social networks purge conservatives, for the same reason: no-platforming works.

Neither Mr. Jones nor Infowars responded to requests for comment.

Mr. Jones has long relied on Silicon Valley to distribute his message. His YouTube channel amassed 2.4 million subscribers and more than 1.6 billion views of nearly 36,000 videos it had posted since 2008, according to Social Blade, which tracks social media data. His success was due partly to YouTubes video-recommendation algorithm, which, in an effort to drive clicks, pushed many users to Mr. Joness clips.

The main Facebook pages for Mr. Jones and Infowars, meanwhile, had drawn 668 million views of their videos over the past three years, according to Tubular Labs.SAN FRANCISCO  When Apples market value crossed a trillion dollars last month, the reason was simple: It makes devices that a lot of people are willing to spend a lot of money on.

Now Amazon has become the second American company to cross that once-unimaginable line. Its shares rose as high as $2,050.50 on Tuesday morning, pushing it over $1 trillion in value, before immediately falling back and then ending the day at $2,039.51, below the $1 trillion threshold. Amazons founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos, is worth nearly as much as Bill Gates and Warren E. Buffett put together.

This time, the explanation is more complicated.

Amazon captures 49 cents of every e-commerce dollar in the United States. It employs more than 550,000 people and generates $178 billion in annual revenue. It sells everything from computing space to peanut butter to appointments with plumbers.

But the thing it has always sold the most  to investors, customers, the news media  is excitement.Lauren Yee and Jaclyn Backhaus are this years winners of the Horton Foote Prize, a biennial award that recognizes new American plays, one recently staged and one unproduced.

The winners will both receive $25,000 and a limited-edition photograph of Horton Foote, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of The Young Man From Atlanta.

Ms. Yee won the outstanding new American play award for Cambodian Rock Band, her music-infused piece about a Cambodian-American woman working to prosecute a Khmer Rouge prison warden. The womans father is a former guitarist who survived imprisonment under the regime and emigrated to the United States.

Image Jaclyn Backhauss India Pale Ale will receive its world premiere at Manhattan Theater Club in October. Credit... Horton Foote Prize

One of the best things about putting this piece on stage is having people fall in love with the music and fall in love with these characters, such that after seeing the show they go down a rabbit hole to listen to the music and really celebrate who these real artists were and learn a little bit about this history, said Ms. Yee in an interview.Dr. Bauer said policies could do better at using carrots and sticks, including taxes and subsidies, in these cases: There are more incentives and opportunities for people to consume unhealthy foods and beverages than there are for them to make healthy food and beverage choices.

Deep divides of race and income

Another theme that emerged was that we could do a lot more in addressing disparities across race and class.

Public health needs to take a leadership role in confronting and influencing the social, political and economic factors that determine population health, said Sandro Galea, the Robert A. Knox professor and dean of Boston Universitys School of Public Health.

The patterns of disease and death track along this nations deep divides of race and income, said Mary Travis Bassett, the former New York City health commissioner, who recently took a position at Harvard. She said America needed to divest in prisons and put that funding toward new systems of justice, better housing or universal child care.

The opioid crisis is one of Americas most urgent problems. Rhode Island has shown promise in being able to reduce overdose deaths by offering prisoners medications to treat addiction while theyre incarcerated and after theyre released.

Other initiatives can be tailored to meet the needs of various populations. Older and low-income residents of Boston have benefited from the receipt of specially formulated meals  such as those with soft food or with low cholesterol. According to a study in Health Affairs, those receiving such meals had fewer hospital admissions than those who didnt.

For others, housing assistance may be the most direct way to improve health. Thats why the Boston Medical Center  the citys principal hospital for low-income and underinsured residents  is investing in affordable housing and referring patients to community housing programs.WEITCHPEC, Calif.  For thousands of years, the Klamath River has been a source of nourishment for the Northern California tribes that live on its banks. Its fish fed dozens of Indian villages along its winding path, and its waters cleansed their spirits, as promised in their creation stories.

But now a crisis of opioid addiction is gripping this remote region. At the same time, the Klamaths once-abundant salmon runs have declined to historic lows, the culmination of 100 years of development and dam building along the river.

Today, many members of the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa tribes living in this densely forested area south of the California-Oregon border see a connection between the rivers struggle and their own.

Its no coincidence to me that this opioid problem and the river crisis are happening at the same time; when that resource is gone, it leads to a sense of despair, said Amy Cordalis, the Yurok tribes general counsel.Mr. Emanuel, who declined to be interviewed for this article, surprised many in Chicago when he called a news conference with less than an hours notice on Tuesday morning and said he would not seek another term. He did not explicitly mention the McDonald case, and Adam Collins, a spokesman for the mayor, said the trial was not a factor in the decision.

At the same time, only a few miles from City Hall, Officer Van Dykes final pretrial hearing was underway at the county courthouse. During a break, a sheriffs deputy casually informed lawyers and courtroom spectators of the mayors announcement; some reporters scrambled to leave to cover the story.

A large field of challengers had already lined up to run against Mr. Emanuel, and many had made gun violence, policing and the McDonald case central to their campaigns.

Much of the anger with Mr. Emanuel is focused on the 13-month period between Laquans 2014 death, which attracted little immediate news coverage, and the court-ordered release of the dash camera video in late 2015. In those months, Mr. Emanuel was elected to a second term as mayor and the Chicago City Council approved a $5 million settlement with the McDonald family. Even then, Chicago officials refused to release the video, saying it was part of a criminal investigation, until a judge ordered that it be made public over the citys objections.

As the images of Laquan crumpling to the ground set off marches through Chicagos downtown, protesters accused the mayor of keeping the video under wraps to help in a difficult re-election fight. Sixteen shots and a cover-up became a rallying cry.

Rahm Emanuels will was forced, said the Rev. Ira Acree, a critic of the mayor who leads a West Side church and who said trust in the police continues to recede.

Amid the protests, Mr. Emanuel pledged to equip all patrol officers with Tasers and body cameras, and he spoke in frank terms about inequity and distrust in the police.With Republicans holding only a 50-49 majority in the Senate, and a vote on Mr. Kavanaugh looming, the governor thought it was vital to appoint somebody who could immediately step in and represent the states interests, according to Arizona Republican officials familiar with the process.

Mr. Ducey and Mr. Trump did speak about the appointment, but the president was not told that the governor had picked Mr. Kyl until Tuesday, according to the officials. The president did not request any specific appointee, signaling only that he would like somebody he could work with. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader and a friend of Mr. Kyls, was told last week that his former colleague would be named.

Earlier this year, Mr. Kyl said Mr. Trumps style was boorish and that he was his own worst enemy. Asked about those characterizations at the news conference, Mr. Kyl said he stood by his remarks.

Mr. McCain and his family never offered Mr. Ducey any guidance on their preferences for the appointment. Since leaving the Senate, Mr. Kyl has been a lobbyist at Covington & Burling. He said Tuesday that his lobbying work would not impede his ability to serve, and Mr. Duceys aides indicated he would sever ties to his clients.

Mr. Kyls appointment would be only his latest trip through Washingtons revolving door. He was a lobbyist for an Arizona-based law firm before he won election to the House in the mid-1980s.

Covington had touted Mr. Kyls role as the Senates top Republican on the Subcommittee on Taxation and Internal Revenue Service Oversight, and taxation has been the issue that he lobbies on most frequently, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

His client list reflects his establishment pedigree. They include Freeport-McMoRan, the Arizona-based mining company; JW Aluminum, a manufacturer of aluminum products; as well as Georgetown University, and the American Council of Education, which represents colleges and universities.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.The marquee race in Massachusetts on Tuesday features two progressive Democrats battling it out to represent John F. Kennedys old congressional district, the Seventh, which includes most of Boston, Cambridge and other surrounding towns.

It is one of the last major Democratic congressional rivalries before the November elections and sets up a clash of change versus experience in a restless national political climate that has favored women and underdogs.

In this race, Ayanna Pressley, 44, the first black woman to serve on the Boston City Council, is challenging the incumbent, Michael Capuano, 66, who was first elected in 1998 and has brought home millions of dollars for much-needed projects. Ms. Pressley says she better reflects the district, the only one in Massachusetts in which a majority of residents are nonwhite. The state has never sent a black person to the House of Representatives.Some of the freshest details in the book involve Mr. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general who has been viewed as an anchor in Mr. Trumps cabinet. Mr. Woodward portrays Mr. Mattis as frequently derisive of the commander in chief, rattled by his judgment, and willing to slow-walk orders from him that he viewed as reckless.

In the North Korea meeting, during a period of high tension with the countrys leader, Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump questioned Mr. Mattis about why the United States keeps a military presence on the Korean Peninsula. Were doing this in order to prevent World War III, Mr. Mattis responded, according to Mr. Woodward.

In April 2017, after President Bashar al-Assad of Syria launched a chemical attack on his own people, Mr. Trump called Mr. Mattis and told him that he wanted the United States to assassinate Mr. Assad. Lets go in, the president said, adding a string of expletives.

The defense secretary hung up and told one of his aides: Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured. At his direction, the Pentagon prepared options for an airstrike on Syrian military positions, which Mr. Trump later ordered.

Mr. Mattis issued his own statement denying he ever used the contemptuous words that Mr. Woodward attributed to him. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, he said, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.

Mr. Woodwards reporting adds another layer to a recurring theme in the Trump White House: frustrated aides who sometimes resort to extraordinary measures to thwart the presidents decisions  a phenomenon the author describes as an administrative coup detat. In addition to Mr. Mattis and Mr. Cohn, he recounts the tribulations of Mr. Kelly and his predecessor, Reince Priebus, whose tensions with Mr. Trump have been reported elsewhere.

Mr. Cohn, Mr. Woodward said, told a colleague he had removed the letter about the Korea free trade agreement to protect national security. Later, when the president ordered a similar letter authorizing the departure of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mr. Cohn and other aides plotted how to prevent him from going ahead with a move they feared would be deeply destabilizing.Alabama is postured for a coastal wind and water event, but the key will be preparation of our citizens, said Brian E. Hastings, the director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. If you live in the coastal counties, especially in surge- and flood-prone areas, it is imperative that you get to a safe place by early afternoon and stay there through Wednesday morning.

Many schools closed Tuesday morning, and some districts announced that their classrooms would also be empty on Wednesday. The Mississippi Gaming Commission ordered coastal casinos to close, and the authorities imposed curfews in some places.

The city of Biloxi, Miss., ordered its harbors and marinas evacuated, affecting about 300 vessels. But local leaders were plainly trying to avoid prompting any wide panic.

Were asking people to do the same things that were doing: prepare, Mayor Andrew Gilich said in a statement. Theres no reason to be alarmed. Were being told to expect rain and wind, and were preparing accordingly. We expected our citizens to be doing the same.

It could have been a lot worse

Two things have kept Gordon from gaining more strength, according to Michael Brennan, chief of the National Hurricane Centers hurricane specialist unit. There is plenty of dry air over the gulf, he said, as well as wind shear, meaning winds that are blowing one way at one altitude and a different direction or speed at another. Dry air tends to suppress the warm updrafts that are characteristic of hurricanes, and wind shear can disrupt the storms structure.

Its over very warm water, Dr. Brennan said about Tropical Storm Gordon. If it was in an environment where there wasnt wind shear, it would have strengthened more than it has.

New Orleans watches warily

Although New Orleans, the economic and cultural center of the coast, is not expected to suffer a direct strike, the citys new mayor, LaToya Cantrell, issued an emergency declaration and a voluntary evacuation order for certain neighborhoods. A handful of Louisiana parishes handed out sandbags to residents.CAPE TOWN  Some of the elephant corpses had begun to decay, their skins dried stiff over bony carcasses. Others appeared to have been freshly killed, partly covered by bushes in an attempt to hide them from view.

The tusks of 87 animals, which were counted during aerial surveys over the past few months in Botswana, had been chopped off  evidence of what conservationists are calling one of the biggest slaughters in recent years.

Michael Chase, director of the charity Elephants Without Borders, which conducted the surveys, said he had never seen so many dead elephants in one go. After counting 48 during a single flight in August, Mr. Chase wrote in a report that the tally was indicative of a poaching frenzy which has been ongoing in the same area for a long time.

The numbers were expected to climb as the survey continues. But the results so far already signal a major escalation in elephant poaching, said Tom Milliken, a program manager at Traffic, a nonprofit organization that monitors wildlife smuggling.SEOUL, South Korea  President Xi Jinping of China will send a top official to North Korea this weekend to attend major national celebrations there, state-controlled media in both countries reported on Tuesday.

Li Zhanshu, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the head of Chinas rubber-stamp Parliament, will lead a delegation to Pyongyang, the capital, on Saturday as Mr. Xis special envoy, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency said. North Korea plans to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of its government on Sunday with large celebrations, including a military parade.

There had been speculation in recent weeks that Mr. Xi might attend the celebrations himself, in what would have been his first visit to North Korea. Mr. Xi has met three times this year with the Norths leader, Kim Jong-un, but always in China.

Yang Xiyu, a former senior Chinese official, said Mr. Xi might see little to gain from such a visit.(CNN)  Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced a $60 billion package of aid, investment and loans to Africa, against a backdrop of growing concern about rising debt distress from Chinese loans to the continent.

It's exactly the same amount Beijing pledged at the previous Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2015, and is in line with analysts' expectations that Xi would not vastly increase the amount of Chinese money flowing into Africa.

Over the past nearly two decades, the numbers coming out of FOCAC have generally risen with each event. The pledge in 2015 was three times the figure announced at the 2012 forum.

Jeremy Stevens, international economist for the Standard Bank Group, said many felt it would not be "politically appropriate" to pledge huge loans given concern that Africa is becoming overloaded with Chinese debt.

Stevens said Beijing's decision not to hike loans to Africa said it shouldn't be interpreted as a step back in relations.

"In reality is it's not -- it's a maturation and a natural evolution of the relationship," he said.

China-Africa 'Olympics'

Leaders of 53 African nations descended on the Chinese capital Monday for the start of the two-day summit, largely seeking financial support for their developing economies.

Since it was founded in 2000, FOCAC has become the "Olympics of China-Africa" relations, Steven said, and it has become customary for China to announce huge investment packages at the triennial gathering.

On Monday, Xi outlined eight major initiatives in Africa over the next three years, including plans to establish a China-Africa trade expo, provide one billion reminbi ($146 million) in food aid, extra imports to China from Africa, and a push for green development.

He also invited African business leaders to help his country in building the Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious collection of trade and infrastructure projects involving 68 countries.

Africa has borrowed about $130 billion from China since 2000, with loans generally used to finance infrastructure projects. Earlier this year, the IMF warned that the African continent is facing a debt crisis, with 40% of low-income countries now in debt distress or at high risk of this.

Scholars from the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University found that Chinese loans were not yet a major contributor to this debt distress for most nations. Zimbabwe, for example, still owes 77% of its national debt to the Paris Club. In Djibouti, however, China holds 77% of national debt, while Zambia's $6.4 billion in Chinese loans represents the lion share of its commitments.

Are China-Africa relations cooling?

China has now passed France, India and the United States as Africa's largest trading partner. But total trade between China and Africa slowed from $220 billion in 2014 to $170 billion in 2017, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, prompting concerns that relations might be cooling.

Janet Eom, a researcher at CARI, says this decline is mostly due to falling commodity prices. Given China's recent trade war with the United States, Eom said that Beijing's commercial relationships with African nations are likely to become "much more important."

In July, Xi visited Senegal, Mauritius Rwanda, and South Africa -- an itinerary that almost took him to the four corners of Sub-Saharan Africa -- showing that China still prioritizes diplomatic trips to the continent.

Private business delegations have arrived "in droves" at this year's FOCAC, said Stevens, and are pushing China to narrow their country's trade deficits with Beijing. "Chinese exporters are finding very fertile soil in Africa," he said.

"But when increased domestic demand is met by Chinese imports rather than increased capacity at home, it's not palatable from an African perspective."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "China's President Xi pledges another $60 billion for Africa."| BY Ricki Green |

Cargo Crew, Australias Modern Uniform company, is innovating a stale uniform industry with its latest campaign, created by TAKT.

Cargo Crew wanted to get businesses thinking about their uniforms from a modern, customer experience perspective.

The Modern Uniform campaign taps into the tech fear that businesses have of being left behind. The campaign focuses on corporate businesses, retail and hospitality, who have moved on from this old-school tech, but have missed upgrading their uniform.

Says Felicity Rodgers, founder and creative director, Cargo Crew: The old school technology was really interesting to source and photograph for the campaign. It brought back lots of memories, although some of the younger team members didnt know what the credit card slider was! It was a real reminder of how quickly businesses have had to adapt and how important the instore experience is, starting with a Modern Uniform.

The campaign includes:

 6 weeks street posters Melbourne & Sydney. August  September

 Film run across website, social channels and digital advertising

 In conjunction with the film production and stills shoot for print media, Cargo Crew engaged YouGov Galaxy to conduct one of Australias only and most up to date uniform market research.

Cargo Crew

Founder & Creative Director: Felicity Rodgers

Marketing & Channel Manager: Lucy Scriven

Production: Eve Bryant & Megan Edwards

Styling: Sarah Staggard

Creative Agency: TAKT

Creative Director: Annika Seidel

Photographer: Victoria Zschommler

Videographer & Editor: Dean LeverMANILA  President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the arrest of one of his most prominent critics in the Philippine Senate, declaring that an amnesty granted to the senator years ago over his role in two military uprisings was invalid.

The senator, Antonio Trillanes, a former naval officer, called Mr. Dutertes order the act of a dictator and said he would not resist arrest. If he is detained, he will be the second well-known Duterte critic in the Senate to be put behind bars.

If the ordinary folk are being killed, he is now jailing his critics, Mr. Trillanes said Tuesday, referring to Mr. Dutertes bloody crackdown on narcotics. That is the situation in the Philippines.

The presidents order, which was signed last week and made public on Tuesday, declares that the amnesty granted to Mr. Trillanes in 2010 by Mr. Dutertes predecessor, Benigno S. Aquino III, was void ab initio, or invalid from the start.NEW DELHI  A portion of a bridge in the Indian city of Kolkata collapsed on Tuesday, sending vehicles nose-diving into the wreckage, killing at least one person and possibly trapping several others, government officials said.

Witnesses said the bridge collapsed during late afternoon traffic in the upscale neighborhood of Alipore, in southern Kolkata, a dense metropolitan area with over 14 million residents.

At least 19 people were rushed to a local hospital with injuries.KABUL, Afghanistan  For the first time, the Taliban have confirmed the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, an American ally from the Cold War who later turned his weapons against the United States as the founder of the feared Haqqani militant network, behind some of the deadliest attacks of the 17-year Afghan war.

In their announcement on Tuesday, the Taliban gave no details on the timing of Mr. Haqqanis death. Throughout his 70s, he remained ill even as his followers continued in his name to stage huge bombings and suicide commando attacks in Afghan cities.

Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani was ill and bedridden for the past several years, the Taliban statement said.

Afghan officials have maintained that Mr. Haqqani has been dead for at least four years  an assertion confirmed by one aide to Mr. Haqqani in 2015  and that the Taliban have waited to use that news at some opportune moment.KATHMANDU, Nepal  When Geoffrey Chang, an Australian trekker heading to Mount Everest Base Camp, woke up with chest pain, his Nepali guide pushed immediately for a medical evacuation, saying he had a serious case of acute mountain sickness.

But the next morning, Mr. Chang was feeling better, and his oxygen levels had come back to acceptable levels, he said. His travel companion, Michelle Tjondro, asked the guide if they could simply rest that day or walk down like others with similar symptoms.

Thats when the red flags started to pile up.

The guide pushed aside those suggestions, continuing to press for a costly helicopter evacuation. Afterward, at a hospital marketed to foreigners in Kathmandu, Nepals capital, Mr. Changs passport was confiscated for several days, he said, and as the bill rose, a doctor told him his symptoms would need to be exaggerated in order to have insurance pay for his stay.Till the Indian elections, there cannot be an immediate betterment in bilateral relations, Mr. Chaudhry said. Indias military and its foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The new Pakistani government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sending strong signals in favor of talks, though it is the military that ultimately controls foreign and defense policy. If you take one step forward, we will take two steps forward, Mr. Khan said in his victory speech, addressing India. We need to move ahead.

With Mr. Khan in office, talks may have a better chance because he is seen as the armys man, diplomats in both Islamabad and New Delhi say. India sees Mr. Khans outreach as sanctioned by the military and believes he will clearly present General Bajwas demands and red lines.

That the military would initiate such a major foreign policy decision unilaterally, and before the elections, suggests it was confident that its preferred candidate, Mr. Khan, would win. Mr. Khan was sworn in as prime minister last month, in the wake of accusations that the army had intervened to back his candidacy.

Diplomats in Islamabad say Pakistans outreach may also be driven in part by the countrys Chinese allies. Beijing has prodded Pakistan to stabilize its border with India, hoping for greater stability as it pursues its regional economic ambitions. China is investing some $62 billion in Pakistan, mostly in large infrastructure projects through what is being called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of Chinas global Belt and Road initiative.In her fourth-floor apartment in central Rome, Emanuela Tripi awoke at dawn to the terrifying sounds of a home invasion. She crept into her kitchen and spotted the culprit  long white neck, red-rimmed eyes, yellow-webbed feet  stabbing its beak into a garbage bag.

Growing up in Sicily, Ms. Tripi always had a romantic vision of sea gulls, but now she was face to face with a predator that has aggressively colonized a city a good 20 miles from the sea. She threw a slipper. It ignored her. She lifted a second slipper. It cawed violently, took flight and charged.

Arrivederci, you win, she thought as she ran out of the kitchen, closing the door behind her.

As her cat cowered, wetting the couch, she banged on the door to scare off a bird she described as enormous, above my knee, as big as an American wild turkey. But it stayed like it was its place she said, until it was done eating and flew back out the window.

Romans have for years bemoaned the degradation of their city: the potholes, the burning buses, the unkempt parks and the uncollected garbage, stinking its streets and clogging its river.How many people are serving as informants is impossible to know: The only people who talk about recruitment pitches are those who balked.

Viktor Voronkov, the director of the Center for Independent Social Research in St. Petersburg, told the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta early this year that four members of his staff had told him of recruitment approaches by the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the successor of the K.G.B.

Contacted last week, he said he had not heard of any further attempts but assumed that many more of his employees had been approached. Believe me, it is rare that people report such things, he said, adding that many of those who are approached are asked to sign nondisclosure agreements.

A clear sign that the security services are again in the market for informers came in 2016 when Life, a Russian news service that is often used by the F.S.B. as a conduit for leaks, revealed that retired informers would receive state pensions in return for their service. In the past, that incentive had been offered only to full-time employees of the intelligence agency.

The principal incentive for serving as an informer, however, is rarely money but the promise that legal or other problems will suddenly go away.

Evgeny Shtorn, a 35-year-old sociologist born in Kazakhstan, recalled how, while working at Mr. Voronkovs research center in St. Petersburg, he was called to a meeting at the Federal Migration Service to discuss his application for Russian citizenship, which had just been rejected. When he went to the migration service office in December as requested, he was taken upstairs to an unmarked office with security cameras outside.

Mr. Shtorn was met there by a polite man who showed a card identifying him as an officer in the F.S.B. and who explained that he knew all about the failed citizenship application and pretended that he thought this decision very regrettable. He then very quickly shifted to questions about the research center, about foreign foundations and human rights organizations, Mr. Shtorn recalled.Mr. Corbyn is Labours most left-wing leader in decades, his politics forged in more than three decades of activism on the partys fringes. After he won the leadership in 2015, internal critics tried and failed to unseat him. Then, last year, Mr. Corbyn performed better than expected in a general election, consolidating his internal position and sending his opponents into retreat.

But Mr. Corbyns leadership presents problems for Labour. One legacy of his past is his ingrained skepticism about the European Union, which Britains far left once saw as a bankers club. During Britains 2016 referendum on membership, Mr. Corbyn did the bare minimum to help the campaign for a remain vote. Since then Labour has fudged its Brexit stance, managing more or less successfully to appease both pro- and anti-Europe factions within its ranks.

But it cannot postpone indefinitely the moment of decision. With the Conservative governments Brexit plan under attack from some of Mrs. Mays own lawmakers, Labours pro-Europeans, including some influential trade unions, are pressing Mr. Corbyn to shift policy and either embrace closer ties to Europe or call for a referendum on the terms of withdrawal.

All this comes as rumors swirl about Labour rebels joining a possible new centrist and pro-European party modeled on En Marche, the movement founded by President Emmanuel Macron of France.

But with an eye to the previous, disastrous split of 1981, no one is running for the exits; not now, at least. Some fear their hands may be forced, however. At Labours annual party conference this month, left-wing activists may press plans that could make it easier to remove lawmakers critical of Mr. Corbyn, whose leadership has attracted many new party members.

Giving these activists greater power over the selection of lawmakers could threaten the future of Mr. Corbyns critics, perhaps even inducing them to quit the party before they are driven out.MOSCOW  A Greek Supreme Court ruling Tuesday in a computer crime case may return to Russia, rather than extradite to the United States, a potential witness in the investigation into Russian hacking during the 2016 American presidential election.

The Greek police detained the man, Aleksandr V. Vinnik, last year on an American warrant that accuses him of running a Moscow-based Bitcoin exchange that laundered as much as $4 billion in illegal funds.

The warrant made no mention of election hacking. But Mr. Vinnik is accused of operating the exchange, BTC-e, at a time when, American prosecutors say, hackers used such funds to finance the electronic break-in at the Democratic National Committee and other targets. The practice was described in an indictment obtained by the special counsel investigating Russian election meddling, Robert S. Mueller III.

Mr. Vinnik has been languishing in a Greek jail cell since July 2017, when the authorities arrested him as he was vacationing in a small beachside village in northern Greece. It was one of a series of American moves against Russians described as cybercriminals as they traveled.CAIRO  When a new bout of fighting between rival militias engulfed the Libyan capital in recent days, badly shaking the fragile United Nations-backed government, some combatants picked up rifles and rocket launchers and headed into the streets.

Others logged on to Facebook.

As rockets rained on parts of Tripoli, hitting a hotel popular with foreigners and forcing the airport to close, and 400 prisoners escaped from a jail, a parallel battle unfolded online. On their Facebook pages, rival groups issued boasts, taunts and chilling threats  one vowing to purify Libya of its opponents.

Some keyboard warriors, as Facebook partisans are known in Libya, posted fake news or hateful comments. Others offered battlefield guidance. On one discussion page on Thursday, a user posted maps and coordinates to help target her sides bombs at a rivals air base.

From the traffic light at Wadi al Rabi, it is exactly 18 kilometers to the runway, which means it can be targeted by a 130 mm artillery, the user, who went by the handle Narjis Ly, wrote on Facebook. The coordinates are attached in the photo below.| BY Ricki Green |

Gateway Bank has today launched its new content campaign, entitled If your cafe was run by a big bank via integrated agency, Illuminate Communications.

The customer-owned bank engaged the comedic stylings of YouTube influencers Mark Reynolds and Tom Armstrong, to showcase some of bankings most common and frustrating customer service scenarios in a sketch-show style video.

The video highlights the absurdity of a few of the most common banking service standards that consumers are forced to put up with when dealing with big banks  including long phone wait times, hidden fees and charges, annoying technologies and more  by transposing these service expectations into a completely different setting  your local cafe.

Lexi Airey, chief customer officer at Gateway Bank, said the customer-owned bank is pleased to launch the new campaign with its creative partners.

Says Airey: Were excited to be working with Illuminate Communications and YouTube influencers, Mark and Tom.

The partnership makes sense for us as we establish our new brand as Gateway Bank, and were proud to be championing customer-owned, personalised banking with our new campaign.

At Gateway, were not claiming to be perfect, but we always go out of our way to deliver personalized service with a human touch, whether it be remembering your wedding anniversary, sending you a hamper for your new home, or one of our customer care consultants hand-delivering a deposit book to one of our older members. We understand its the little things that keep us connected.

In conjunction with the content campaign, Gateway Bank has also revealed findings of a study it commissioned into some of the pain points Australians found most frustrating about banking. Interestingly, the research found that Millennials arent as welcoming of technology and robots in banking as expected. Almost half (46%) of Millennials claimed that having to deal with technology/robots rather than a real person was very or extremely frustrating.

Meanwhile, 84% of Australians found hidden fees and charges to be incredibly frustrating. This frustration was followed by long phone wait times (79%) and speaking to numerous departments to resolve an issue (77%).LONDON  Syrian and Russian warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes on Syrias last rebel-held province on Tuesday, apparently ignoring a warning from President Trump and raising concerns that a large offensive against the densely populated area had begun.

The strikes on Idlib Province, in northwestern Syria along the border with Turkey, came as diplomats scrambled to avert what a United Nations official said could be a blood bath.

Syrias president, Bashar al-Assad, has vowed to fight until he regains control of the entire country, and his Russian and Iranian allies have been hinting that the battle for Idlib was imminent. About three million people live in the province, including more than a million who were displaced from elsewhere in Syria during the seven-year war.

The province also has an array of rebel forces including jihadists associated with Al Qaeda, which Syria and its allies say they must get rid of.A diplomat in the embassy said the explosion had been so small that no one there heard it or stopped working.

Image Smoke rising after the device exploded outside the embassy. Credit... Adel el-Adawy, via Associated Press

A video that appeared to come from a street-level security camera and was circulated by Egyptian and international news media showed a small explosion knock down a young man with a backpack as he walked by a cement barrier erected near the square. Another video published by state-owned Egyptian news organizations showed police officers removing the mans pants and escorting him away.

At around 1 p.m., the American Embassy said in a statement that we are aware of a reported incident on Simon Bolivar Street. It said people should exercise caution and stay away from the area.

About an hour later, the embassy announced that the police have finished their investigations and said, the embassy is resuming normal business.

The would-be bombers exact target and motives could not be determined.

Many Egyptians see the United States as a mainstay of support for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former defense minister who seized power in the summer of 2013. Washington tacitly accepted his takeover by declining to label it a military coup, and has continued to provide Egypt $1.3 billion a year in military aid.Facebook, Twitter and Google executives have been invited to testify in Washington on Wednesday about foreign influence campaigns and disinformation online ahead of the midterm elections in November.

The problem has been far reaching. Over the summer, Facebook announced the discovery of hundreds of fake pages and user accounts on its site. Some pages appeared to specifically target Americans with divisive messages, using the same tactics that Russian operatives did to influence voters during the 2016 presidential campaigns.

The latest influence campaigns also imitated posts by legitimate pages and groups on Facebook that advocate political beliefs, making it difficult to tell what was a genuine post and what was not. Lets compare some to see if you can tell the difference. Spoiler: It isnt easy.

One of these posts was from a genuine Facebook page that supports feminism, and the other was part of an influence campaign. Can you guess which post is from a fake page?

Resisters was a fake account that Facebook removed in July. Feminist News is a real Facebook page, as far as we can tell. (We asked Facebook to confirm the examples of real accounts used here are in fact authentic, and were told there was no apparent reason to suspect otherwise.)

The Resisters page existed for more than a year and described itself as online and offline feminist activism against fascism, according to Facebook and researchers at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab, which analyzes disinformation online and works with Facebook.

You may have guessed the post was from a fake page if you looked closely at the language: Girls make rules and you follow them. If you dont like it you live. End of the story.

Broken English is not a sure sign that a post is part of an influence operation. But grammatical errors were a common trait among the Russian ads Facebook disclosed in 2017  particularly the misuse of a and the, which dont exist in the Russian language.

Although Facebook has still not tied this page to Russia, the language used in its posts and several other factors suggest a connection. For one, a Russian account that Facebook removed in 2017 had been set as an administrator of the Resisters page, though for only seven minutes, Facebook said. Before being shut down, a Russian account had also shared an event created by the Resisters page with its followers.

And on Twitter, an account with the name ReSisters and the handle @resisteszunion was identified this year as one created by the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency.

The pages most notable activity was an effort to organize a counterprotest to a conservative rally. It created an Aug. 10 event titled No Unite the Right 2  DC to protest a planned white supremacist rally in Washington. The page coordinated with administrators of other Facebook pages, and persuaded five of them to share the event with their followers.

FacebookPresident Trump is racking up federal judicial appointments, and not just to the Supreme Court, where his second nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, is set for confirmation hearings this week. So far, he has filled 60 seats on the federal district courts, the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court.

Federal Judicial Seats by Party of Appointing President Other Republican Trump Vacant Democratic Other Rep. Trump Vacant Dem. Trump Trump 50% Note: Includes active judges only. Includes Trump appointees who were confirmed but have not yet started service. A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.s seat on the District Court for the District of South Carolina is shown as vacant, as he was confirmed on Aug. 16 to the Fourth Circuit.

Mr. Trump came into office with more than 100 judicial vacancies, and relaxed Senate rules on confirmations have allowed him to fill them quickly. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has said confirming Mr. Trumps nominees is his top priority.

Trump hasnt shifted the partisan majority of any individual appeals court

Appeals Court Judges by Party of Appointing President Other Republican Vacant Democratic Other Rep. Vacant Dem. When Trump took office Now Trump Trump 50% Note: Includes active judges only. Includes one Trump appointee who was confirmed but has not yet started service.

Mr. Trumps 26 appointments to the appeals courts have raised the overall number of Republican appointees, and if he fills the 13 existing vacancies, the majority of judges on the appellate level will have been appointed by a Republican president.

Composition of the Appeals Courts Court No. of seats When Trump took office Now 8th 11 7th 11 6th 16 5th 17 11th 12 4th 15 10th 12 District of Columbia 11 3rd 14 1st 6 Federal Circuit 12 2nd 13 9th 29 50% of active judges 50% Note: Includes active judges only. Includes one Trump appointee who was confirmed but has not yet started service.

But he has fallen short of flipping the balance of appointees on any individual court. He has strengthened the existing conservative majorities on four courts, but eight courts still count a majority of judges who were appointed by Democratic presidents. The 11th Circuit is now an even split.

Experts often look to the party of the appointing president to assess whether a judge might lean conservative or liberal. Although it is not an exact predictor of how a judge will rule on a given case, said Lee Epstein, a law professor and political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, it gives you some information. Professor Epstein said, In general, Democratic judges are more liberal than Republican judges, but not every judge and not every case.

Just as on the Supreme Court, Republicans and Democrats look to secure a majority of appointees on the appeals courts. Appeals cases are primarily heard by panels of three judges, and the makeup of an individual court affects the makeup of a panel. If you have a circuit that is one-third Republican and two-thirds Democratic, you would expect the panels to roughly reflect that composition, Professor Epstein said.

Trump is moving more slowly on the district courts

Mr. Trump inherited so many judicial vacancies thanks to Mr. McConnell's decision to all but block President Barack Obamas nominees starting in 2015. He has worked quickly to fill seats in the appeals courts, but when it comes to the district courts, which conduct trials for federal cases, he lags behind most of his recent predecessors with 33 appointments so far, though eight more are expected this week.

Judicial Confirmations by President Since Reagan

Appeals Courts District Courts

Trump could see fewer Democratic vacancies in the future

Over all, 134 vacancies remain on the appellate and district courts, and 74 nominees are pending. Mr. McConnell has said he hopes to confirm all pending nominees before the end of the year.

That would mean about one in seven federal judges would have been appointed by Mr. Trump. Yet Mr. Trump may not see many more Democratic vacancies to fill on the appeals court, which would give him the opportunity to flip courts, in the near future.| BY Ricki Green |

For the first time in over seven years, The Woolmark Company, the global authority on wool, is launching a global consumer awareness campaign via TBWA\Sydney to educate a new generation of consumers on the performance benefits of Australian Merino wool, focusing on breathable wool performance and athleisure wear.

The athleisure/activewear market is the fastest growing sector of the $1.7 trillion global textile business, and 90% of the worlds apparel wool is produced in Australia.

The campaign takes aim at the global tensions around our new obsession with synthetics and seeks to remind people that Merino wools natural qualities  breathability, odour control, moisture management  make it the original performance fibre.

The centrepiece of the campaign is a film that tells the story of a synthetic world that has forgotten how to live naturally. Instead of embracing natural fabrics, its people wear artificial, stifling clothing made from the coats of a strange new breed of synthetic sheep. Frustrated with this suffocating, fake world, the storys heroine seeks out the natural world hiding just beyond the smoggy horizon.

The film will launch across New York, San Francisco, London, Shanghai and Tokyo and will be supported by large format and street OOH in all but one of these metro cities.

Activations will include influencer-led fitness classes and Merino wool capsule collection launches from brand partners, including P.E Nation and Erin Snow, highlighting breathability.

Says Stuart McCullough, managing director, The Woolmark Company: A new generation of consumers are now expecting more from their purchases and Merino wools combined performance properties and eco credentials are primed to meet this expectation. Our global campaign reminds consumers of wools natural benefits, which cannot be matched by any other fibre.

Says Andy DiLallo, CCO, TBWA\Sydney: Live&Breathe is a big platform idea that can inspire innovation and communication for years to come.

Says Paul Bradbury, CEO, TBWA\Australia: Its not often we have the opportunity to produce global campaigns based in Sydney, we are very proud that we will play a part in promoting Australian Merino wool to a new generation of global consumers.

The campaign is also featured on the cover of the latest issue of Campaign Brief  together with an in-depth article. The issue also includes annual reports on TVC Post Production and Sound+Music. SUBSCRIBE NOW for only $44 per year.

The Woolmark Company

Managing Director  Stuart McCullough

Global Communications Manager  Laura Armstrong

Global Content and Creative Manager  Mitchell Oakley Smith

Senior Communications Manager  Anna McLeod

Junior Editor  Sophie Joy Wright

Creative Agency  TBWA Sydney

Chief Executive Officer  Paul Bradbury

Chief Creative Officer  Andy DiLallo

Chief Strategy Officer  Matt Springate

Creative Director  Kat Alvarez-Jarratt

Creative Director  Doug Hamilton

Pete Citroni  Art Director

Head of Production  Lisa Brown

Head of Design  Chris Mawson

Client Partner  Camilla Stapley

Business Director  Sarah Cornish

Producer  Madeleine White

Designer  Paul Hughes

Digital Designer  Razif Djamaluddin

Production Company  Goodoil Films

Director  Nathan Price

Executive Producers  Sam Long and Juliet Bishop

Art Director  David Mark Lee

DOP  Ginny Loane

Music  Squeak E Clean Productions LA

Sound Design  Beau Silvester TBWA\Sydney

Post Production  Alt.VFX

VFX Supervisor: Jay Hawkins

Executive Producer: Aborah Buick

VFX Coordinator: Jayce Attewell

Head of 2D: Matthew Chance

Editor  Peter Sciberras

Edit House  ARC EDIT

Assistant Editors  Damien Magee & Lucas Baynes

Editorial Producer  Olivia Carolan

Production Assistant  Raphaelle Said

Executive Producer  Joseph PerkinsHas 3rd wave started in India? Here's how many cases of AY.4.2 reported in country, so far

India reports 12,830 new COVID19 cases in last 24 hours; daily tally 10.36% less than yesterday

'2+2' talks: India hopeful of CAATSA waiver over S-400 deal with Russia

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

New Delhi, Sep 4: Among several other key issues set to be discussed during the '2+2' dialogue between India and the US, New Delhi is likely to push Washington for a waiver from CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act), which may come into affect if India goes ahead with the purchase of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia.

India is likely to go ahead with its purchase from Russia despite possibility of sanctions looming large. On one hand India wants these missiles to strenghthen defence capabilities, but at the same time does not want to sour relations with the US. India is said to be hopful that the Trump administration would grant exemption to India under CAATSA.

India hopeful of CAATSA waiver over S-400 deal with Russia, News 18 report said while quoting sources.

Also Read | 2+2 dialogue an 'opportunity to enhance India-US ties': Official

The US has imposed military sanctions against Russia under stringent CAATSA. This also extends to countries that engage with Russia in defence matters.

Last month, the United States had described India as an "all-weather partner" and noted that the coming 2+2 dialogue with New Delhi is an important opportunity to enhance engagement on a range of diplomatic and security issues.

An ANI report, while quoting sources, said the issues like counter-terrorism, designation of International terrorist organisations and individual terrorists, sharing of information and cooperation in Financial Action Task Force (FATF) could dominate the talks.

Also Read | Days ahead of 2+2 dialogue, US says no change to processing of H-1B visas

India would also ask for listing of more terror organisations as designated terrorist organisations, said reports..

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman would meet their United States counterparts Michael R. Pompeo (Secretary of State) and James Mattis (Secretary of Defence) for the inaugural US-India 2+2 Dialogue on September 6 in New Delhi.

India regards 2 +2 as highest political engagement with the US & diplomatic event this year, ANI report said while sources.

Also Read | S-400 missile deal: Will India be granted waiver from CAATSA?

Mattis and Pompeo would arrive in India tomorrow (September 5). Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will host dinner for James N. Mattis.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 14:00 [IST]Hyderabad rape case: The rapist will be caught and killed in encounter, Telangana minister

2007 Hyderabad twin bomb blasts case: 2 convicted, two others acquitted

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Hyderabad, Sep 4: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court on Tuesday convicted Aneeq Shafeeq Sayeed and Ismail Chaudhary in 2007 Hyderabad twin bomb blasts case. Two out of the five accused, Farooq Sharfuddin and Mohammed Sadiq Israr Shaik have been acquitted.

The Court will pronounce judgment on one more accused Tareeq Anjum on Monday, September 10. Accused Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal are absconding. All five accused are lodged in Charlapalli Jail and two people are absconding.

Timeline: 2007 Hyderabad twin bomb blasts case

Arguments and counter-arguments were completed on August 7. The court was supposed to pronounce its judgment today against four alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives for triggering twin bomb blasts that left 42 people dead in the city.

The trial against the four accused - Aneeq Shafiq Syed, Mohammed Sadiq, Akbar Ismail Choudhary and Ansar Ahmed Badshah Sheikh - was moved to a courtroom inside Cherlapalli Central Prison in Hyderabad from a courtroom at Nampally court complex in June.

Telangana man who raped minor and impregnated her, let off by elders with Rs 2.5 lakh fine

The counter-intelligence wing of Telangana Police had filed three chargesheets against the four men. In August 2013, the second Metropolitan Sessions Judge's court framed the charges against the "IM" operatives.

(With PTI inputs)To the editor:

The constant attention the media is providing to President Donald Trump leaves very little left over for the other major events in the world.

Many of our younger generation fails to realize that there are countries, cultures, and conflict beside our-long enduring political battles. The message from the MSM and the Democratic Party is that of a relentless crying child desperate for recognition all the while providing unending recognition for the GOP and President Trump.

To the honest and faithful Democrat where is their vision of hope? If such a vision is found who will be the standard bearer?

Crying children inspires no one, yet there is no Democratic political pacifier in sight. On the fringes one can see a few vocal hopefuls stamping their feet to be selected. Those stamping feet are only driving into the ground their hope for change.

Pass the hankies!

Joseph L. Kibitlewski, PhD.

Cape CoralOne sun, one world, one grid: PM Modi bats for global solar power grid at COP26 summit

PM Modi to meet officials of districts where vaccination drive has been sluggish

PM Modi expected to visit Bhopal to attend mega tribal convention on Nov 15

PM Modis warning at COVID-19 meet: If we relax then.

PM Modi to celebrate Diwali with Army jawans in J&K's Rajouri

48 per cent want PM Modi to return to power: I-PAC Survey

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

New Delhi, Sep 4: In an online survey conducted by Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), 48 per cent respondents picked PM Modi as the leader who they feel would take the country ahead, whereas Congress President Rahul Gandhi has bagged mere 11 per cent of the votes.

SP-BSP tie up is the coming together of two opportunist individuals: Anupriya Patel

Other leaders lag far behind compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Around 9.3% respondents picked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, followed by Akhilesh Yadav 7 per cent, Mamata Banerjee 4.2 per cent and BSP chief Mayawati 3.1 per cent.

According to reports, 57 lakh people from 712 districts voted in the survey that was open for 55 days.

The survey also listed 10 non-political personalities nominated by the people to join politics. Actor Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare top this list.

To conquer South, BJP mulls alliance routes

Baba Ramdev, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Kailash Satyarthi, Economist Raghuram Rajan, MS Dhoni, Ratan Tata, Raveesh Kumar and Sourav Ganduly were also nominated by the respondents.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 17:02 [IST]Bhima Koregaon Raids: PIL against top cop for disclosing evidence in press conference

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Mumbai, Sep 4: A PIL has been filed PIL filed in Bombay High Court seeking action against Param Bir Singh, ADG Pune Police, under contempt of court for disobeying the order of the Magistrate and disclosing evidence in a press conference. Matter to be heard on September 7.

Param Bir Singh displayed letters allegedly exchanged by some of the arrested activists on August 31st. He said that the evidence collected so far clearly establishes links of arrested activists with Maoist organisations.

Evidences show clear link between arrested activists and Maoists: Maharashtra Police

PB Singh, ADG, Maharashtra Police quoted a letter by Rona Wilson to comrade Prakash in the press conference.

Police 'concocted' letter to criminalise me, rights activist: Sudha Bharadwaj

However, 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".

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 19:27 [IST]Businessman in Kolkata shot at after his car was stopped by 18 men

West Bengal Class 10, 12 exams to be held in offline mode in March, April

BJP blames Mamata Banerjee govt for Majerhat bridge collapse

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Kolkata, Sep 4: BJP leader Mukul Roy blamed the West Bengal government for the bridge collapse in Alipore area.

"They are saying beautification of city is on, but repair work of old constructions is not on her (Mamata Banerjee) mind," he said.

"The state government should take complete responsibilty of this collapse," he added.

Kolkata: Part of Majerhat Flyover collapses; Several feared dead, rescue operations underway

Meanwhile, talking to reporters, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said that the government is constantly monitoring the situation and rescue and relief operations will be the first priority. The CM assured that the helpline will be set up soon.

Ensuring a detailed investigation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the relief and rescue work is the government's priority right now. "Police is investigating the matter, a detailed investigation will be done, our main focus right now is rescue and relief operations."

A portion of the arterial Majerhat bridge in Kolkata collapsed on September 4, a police source says. Several people have been feared trapped.

The Majerhat bridge connects the Kolkata City to Baj Baj Municipality.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 18:35 [IST]BJP workers finding it difficult to make people understand what necessitated passage of SC/ST Act

India

oi-Vinod

By Vinod

New Delhi, Sep 4: Enthusiasm of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers has suddenly dampened in states like Uttar Pradesh where party workers have been upbeat till very recently. The workers of the party are facing an uphill task of convincing people about the government decision on the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

A BJP office bearer in Uttar Pradesh told One India that two things are happening with the office bearer of the BJP. They have to reach out to people for different programmes of the party, but as soon as one approaches people they want an explanation on the SC/ST issue and the BJP's motive behind being so pro-Active when the matter was in the court.

The BJP leader said that the workers are so discouraged that they are now shying away from venturing out and the most interesting thing is that if you speak to the Scheduled Cast community in the state, there are no qualms in them to say that the government did not do anything on it. The community forced the government to do it. All these development could prove to be fatal in the election year.

Also Read | MP on high alert as upper caste groups set to protest amendment to SC/ST Act

As far as the Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribe community in the BJP is concerned, they too are in predicament as no one is ready to listen to them as well. Despite the fact that the issue figured in the meeting of BJP chief ministers with the PM and the party president, there is no solutions in sight for the BJP.

The BJP leaders at mandal and district level are unable to make people understand about this. They don't have answers to the questions of people. Another OBC office bearer of the BJP said that it is not the matter of just upper caste but MBCs, who have voted the BJP in a big way too are perplexed with this decision of the party. Forget about them not being happy but they are angry about this decision.

Sources said that feedback on this issue has been sent to the state and central leadership but solution is not in sight for the party and if mahagathbandhan happens rout of the BJP in the state is inevitable.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 12:04 [IST]Congress devises a new strategy to win over sections annoyed with BJP

India

oi-Vinod

By Vinod

New Delhi, Sep 4: The political slugfest between the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party is getting murkier by the day as the Congress has traveled from minority community has first right over resources of the country to Congress president Rahul Gandhi's temple darshan to Mansarovar Yatra to new avatar when party's key spokesperson saying that the DNA of the Congress is Brahmin while the BJP is emerging party of the fragmented caste groups like Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribes and Most Backward Classes instead of being the party of Hindus.

What happened to both the national parties? Political analyst like Rajvir Sharma said that the Congress wanted to take benefits of the anger of the upper caste votes mostly Brahmins. Congress had manageds to win just two seats in the last Lok Sabha elections in UP that was Amethi and Rae Bareily seats.

This area falls under the Awadh region of the state where population of Brahmin is little more than the average of the state. So by playing the Brahmin card, the Congress can be benefited in these districts. Over two dozens of seats are dominated by the community.

Sharma said that it was a well planned strategy of the Congress as in a worst situation when there was a Modi wave across the country, Rahul was able to win Amethi seat with the margin of around one Lakh votes that to against a TV star.

So if the Brahmin image is cultivated, the already miffed community may switch over to the Congress. The interesting story is that these numbers might not help the Congress to form the government at the Centre but they can definitely shatter the dream of Modi becoming the PM for the second time.

The BJP is in a fix by making amendment in the SC/ST Act as it was of the view that this would help win over SC votes but that is not happening on the contrary the upper caste got annoyed.

Sources in the BJP said that the general perception that where will the upper cast go except voting for the BJP is also changing. The community is so much angry that it can go for any of the options. It might vote against the BJP and possibly to the Congress or it might sit at home as it did in the by-elections of Gorakhpur, Phoolpur and Kairana.

Another political analyst Badri Naraya said that there was every chance that Brahmins and SC voting for the Congress in 2019 elections togather.

However, right away nothing can be said with certainty but the way things are moving in the state and the country Brahmins are disenchanted with the BJP and Congress could be one of the options.

Rajvir Sharma said that another trend is emerging that hold of Mayawati over SC is not as strong as before so some SC vote may also go here and there and Congress to might get good number of SC votes. So the Congress move to say having Brahmin DNA is a calculated move as it has nothing to loose.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 22:10 [IST]Finally, Gujarat govt steps in as Hardik's fast enters 11th day

India

pti-PTI

Ahmedabad, Sep 4: As doctors expressed concern over the health of Hardik Patel, the Gujarat government Tuesday stepped up its efforts to persuade the Patidar leader to end his indefinite hunger strike which entered eleventh day.

Hardik had launched his fast on August 25 for demands, including farm loan waiver and reservation for the Patidar community under OBC category in government jobs and education sector.

The BJP-led state government held a meeting with several key leaders of the Patidar community at Gandhinagar Tuesday night, hours after doctors expressed concern over the health of Patel who has lost almost 20 kgs of weight in the last eleven days. The doctors attached to the Sola civil hospital said Hardik had lost weight and should get admitted to the hospital.

After meeting Patidar leaders associated with six different bodies of the community, Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said the government's priority is to ensure that the Patidar leader calls off his hunger strike.

Revenue minister Kaushik Patel and Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja also spoke with Patidar leaders associated with Vishwa Umiya Foundation, Umiya Mata Sansthan and Khodaldham Trust among others.

"During the meeting, we conveyed that the government is worried about Hardik Patel. We appealed to the leaders to persuade Hardik Patel to end his fast.

The leaders have promised us that they would meet Hardik Patel in this regard," the energy minister said after the meeting. C K Patel, who led the delegation of Patidar leaders, told reporters that they would convey the feelings of the government to the 25-year-old quota spearhead.

"This is just a first meeting over many issues of Patidars. Such meetings will take place in the future too. The government showed a positive approach to many of our demands. We will meet Hardik to convince him to end his fast," he told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Saurabh Patel had claimed that Hardik Patel's quota movement was a politically-motivated agitation with the backing of the Congress.

Meanwhile, more support poured in for Hardik Patel Tuesday, as former Union minister Yashwant Sinha along with Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shatrughan Sinha met him at his residence near here and extended their support.

After the meeting, Yashwant Sinha announced that he would take Hardik's agitation, particularly with regard to farmers, to the national level.

"During my short meeting with Hardik, it has been decided that we will take this agitation to the national level and fight strongly. Not just Gujarat, we will take this movement to every corner of the country," Sinha told reporters.

"The issues on which Hardik Patel is holding fast have created an impact across the country. The issues are being discussed everywhere," he added.

While the former Union finance minister maintained that he and others were with Hardik in his "fight for farmers", he also opined that the government should pay attention to the demand of reservation. Responding to a query on caste quota, Sinha said the Union government should chart out a way forward as people from various communities who were outside the scope of reservation have demanded it.

"The Central government should think about this. It has formed a backward class commission. It should think on how to take this matter forward. As far as possible, we should try to work to improve (lives) of many communities who have lagged behind, as per Constitution," he said.

Shatrughan Sinha said their meeting with Hardik was not politically motivated. "We gathered here in a non-political capacity on the basis of humanity. We are here because our aim is to construct the temple of humanity. We have no objection on mandir-masjid (sic)," he said. He alleged that the BJP governments in Centre and Gujarat were not bothered even as the entire Patidar community was worried about Hardik. "When farmers' loans can be waived in other BJP-ruled states, why it cannot happen in Gujarat? Farmers must get justice. I appeal to the government to waive farm loans," Shatrughan Sinha said, adding democracy needs to be strengthened to fight autocracy.

Meanwhile, the state government Tuesday told the Gujarat High Court that it was not trying to suppress or "demoralise" the agitation of Hardik Patel. The government, in a written reply, said it was only trying to ensure that there was no violence such as witnessed during the Patidar quota agitation three years ago.

The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) led by Hardik Patel has moved the high court, alleging that police were not letting people enter the bungalow on the outskirts of Ahmedabad where the quota leader is on hunger strike since August 25.

Hardik had launched his hunger strike on the third anniversary of his mega pro-quota rally in Ahmedabad. He had on Sunday released his "will" in which he divided his property among his parents, sister, 14 youths killed during the quota agitation in 2015 and a 'panjrapole' (shelter for ill and old cows) near his village.

Apart from the Congress, leaders and representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Hindustani Awami Morcha (HAM) have visited Hardik at his residence and extended their support.

PTIGoogle celebrates Teachers Day with an animated doodle

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

As India celebrates Teachers Day today, Online search giant Google has marked the day with a cute animated doodle.

Teacher's Day is celebrated on the 5th of September in India every year and is marked in honour of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was born on the same day in 1888.

If you open the google homepage today, the doodle has a spinning globe, as it completes a round, there appear different icons denoting different subjects that we have learnt in our academics. So there are different icons for chemistry, maths, music, astronomy, in general, covering both educational as well as recreational activities. It covers all subjects with this small animated clip.

The significance of the day lies in the birthday of one of India's most famous and revered teachers, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Dr Radhakrishnan was a celebrated academic. He taught at Chennai's Presidency College and Calcutta University. In 1962 Dr Radhakrishnan became the second President of India.

It is said that Dr Radhakrishnan's students were keen to celebrate his birthday. However, he suggested instead of celebrating his birthday, it would be his "proud privilege" if the day was observed as Teacher's Day instead.

Since then students across India celebrate the day wishing their dear teachers today. Social media platforms are flooded with tributes to teachers.

While India celebrates Teachers' Day on September 5, World Teachers' Day is on October 5.When Pakistan was almost bombed out of recognition by the US

How CIA nutured Jalaluddin Haqqani as an asset?

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

New Delhi, Sep 4: The founder of the Haqqani network, considered as one of the most influencial terrorist group's in Afghnaistan-Pakistan region, Jalaluddin Haqqani is said to have died. Several US reports are claiming that he has indeed died. This assumes significance as even in 2015 it was reported that Jalaluddin had died, but later Taliban rubbished the reports.

Jalaluddin Haqqani rose to prominence with the American-backed mujahedeen rebels who fought the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan. He later allied himself with the Taliban when they took power in the 1990s.

CIA's involvement in the Soviet-Afghan War, fought between 1979 to February 1989, turned the course of history in the region. During that time, CIA covertly worked through Pakistani intelligence services to reach Afghan rebel groups (the mujahideen). Soviet troops occupied the cities and main arteries of communication, while the mujahideen waged guerrilla war in small groups operating in the almost 80 percent of the country that was outside government and Soviet control

Afghan insurgents began to receive massive amounts of aid and military training paid for primarily by the United States and Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf.

Amid all this Jalaluddin Haqqani rose as a prominent figure as he weilded significant influence in the region. He was a key US and Pakistani ally in resisting the Soviet-backed Afghanistan. Some news media outlets have even reported that Haqqani even received an invitation to, and perhaps even visited, President Ronald Reagan's White House.

[Jalaluddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani Network, dies]

The exact reason behind US' intervention in this entire matter is debatable. While some say it was intended primarily to improve U.S. relations with Pakistan, others say that it was to make the Soviets hurt. US wanted the Soviet-Afghan War to become "Soviets' own Vietnam".

After Soviet-Afghan war:

After the end of Soviet-Afghan war, Haqqani developed close ties with foreign militant financiers and leaders, including Osama bin Laden, the future head of al-Qaeda.

Following the capture of the Afghan capital, Kabul, by the mujahideen in 1992, Haqqani served as minister of justice in the interim cabinet formed by mujahideen leaders. In 1995 he allied with the Taliban movement, which captured the capital from the mujahideen the following year. He served as minister of tribal affairs under the Taliban government.

In October 2001, Haqqani was named the Taliban's military commander. He may have had a role in expediting the escape of Osama Bin Laden. Initially the Americans tried to woo him away from the Taliban. He refused their offers on the grounds that, as a Muslim, he was duty-bound to resist them, as "infidel invaders" just as he had the Soviets in earlier decades.

The Haqqani network:

In 2001 a U.S.-led invasion forced the Taliban from power. Leaders of the Haqqani network took shelter in the tribal regions of Pakistan and soon joined the reconstituted Taliban's insurgency against international forces and the government of Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai. Responsibility for directing the operations of the network was transferred from Haqqani, aging and reportedly ill, to his son Sirajuddin. The network has been blamed for a number of high-profile attacks, including bombings, assassinations, and commando-style raids on important sites in Kabul.

[Pakistan would chose Haqqani, Taliban over US: Experts]

Haqqani is reported to run his own training camps, to recruit his own foreign fighters, and to seek out financial and logistic support on his own, from his old contacts. Estimates of the Haqqanis's numbers vary. A 2009 New York Times article indicates that they are thought to have about 4,000 to 12,000 Taliban under their command while a 2011 report from the Combating Terrorism Center places its strength roughly at 10,000-15,000.

During a September 2011 interview, Sirajuddin Haqqani said the figure of 10,000 fighters, as quoted in some media reports, "is actually less than the actual number." Throughout its history the network's operations have been conducted by small, semi-autonomous units organized according to tribal and sub-tribal affiliations often at the direction of and with the logistical support of Haqqani commanders.

Other details about Haqqani's death were not immediately known, but Haqqani had been known to suffer from ill health. Rumors about Haqqani's condition had been circulating for years and his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is now a top leader in the Haqqani Network.Businessman in Kolkata shot at after his car was stopped by 18 men

If you cant control her, fix BJP leader in cannabis case says TMC leader

India

oi-Madhuri

Kolkata, Sep 4: Senior TMC leader Anubrata Mandal courted controversy yet again as he was caught on camera purportedly instructing his party workers to get a party rebel and a woman BJP leader arrested on a false case of possessing cannabis.

Mandal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Birbhum district president, was presiding over a meeting in the Aushgram assembly constituency in neighbouring Burdwan East district on Sunday when the purported video was shot.

Mandal is the party's observer in three assembly constituencies - Mangalkot, Ausgram and Ketugram - in East Burdwan district.

Also Read | TMC sends legal notice to Amit Shah for graft allegations against Mamata nephew

The video went viral Sunday night and kicked up a political storm in the state with the opposition accusing the ruling TMC of using the police to settle the score with the opposition.

Under the anti-narcotics law, a minimum jail term of six months is awarded for possessing up to 1 kg of cannabis, while the punishment for possessing a larger quantity could lead to prison term of up to 20 years.

"Arrest the man whom we have excluded from the five-member committee. Also, that woman, that plump one. What's her name? The one owning a garment shop, get her arrested too. She is a BJP worker. Can you control them? Tell me if you can control them, otherwise we will arrest them in a cannabis case and put them behind bars," Mandal was purported heard instructing party workers in the video clip.

State Agriculture Minister and TMC leader Ashis Bandopadhyay was also present in the meeting. The five-man committee, which was mentioned in the clip, is the one formed by the district TMC to look after the development work in the constituency.

Reacting to Mandal's threat, Sangita Chakraborty, a BJP leader in Aushgram, said the video clip proves how the TMC uses police to settle the score with political opponents.

"This is how political opponents are being put behind bars in the TMC regime. What do they mean by cannabis case? Does that mean all the cannabis cases against politicians of opponent parties are false and fabricated?" she questioned.

Asked for his reaction to Mandal's assertion, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said he had not seen the video and so he could not comment on it.

The vice-president of the TMC's Birbhum district, Avijit Sinha, said the video had been "fabricated" to malign Mondal and the party.

"We feel that the video that has gone viral is a fabricated one. It has been done to malign the party," Sinha said.

Mandal had courted controversy in July 2013 when he asked his supporters at a public meeting in Birbhum to hurl bombs at the police and burn down houses of rebel TMC candidates in panchayat elections.

Ahead of the 2016 assembly election in the district, the Election Commission had taken note of Mandal's controversial comments and put him under 24-hour surveillance.

The BJP and the CPI(M) said the video was an example of how police were being used by the TMC to stifle dissent in the state.

"We have been saying this (using the police) for a long time and now this video has proved how police are being used to attack us. The people of the state will give a befitting reply," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.

CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty also expressed similar view and demanded that action be taken against Mandal. The TMC had won all the 42 zilla parishad seats in Birbhum in the May rural polls in West Bengal without any contest.Protest in front of Mohanlal's house for reinstating Dileep in AMMA

Is Mohanlal joining BJP? Meet with PM sparks rumour

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

New Delhi, Sep 4: Popular actor Mohanlal on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brief him about the social work his organisation is carrying out. However, the meeting followed by Mohanlal's Facebook triggered speculations that the actor is likely to contest 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Kerala as BJP candidate.

"His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring," Modi tweeted Tuesday."

Sharing details of his meeting with the prime minister, the actor said on his Facebook page that he briefed him about ViswaSanthi Foundation and its multi-faceted social initiatives.

"He has assured all support and offered to participate in the 'global Malayalee round table' that can formulate futuristic solutions for a new Kerala," he wrote.

He said the Prime Minister's Office also appreciated the organisation's vision to set up a cancer care centre to cater to the needs of the under-privileged.

A report by Deccan Herald had stated that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) wants to field Mohanlal from a Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

According to the report, Mohanlal's meeting with PM Modi was part of an exercise to build a political image for the actor and has strengthened the speculation of the actor leaning towards the saffron party.

Mohanlal has also met Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayi before the latter left for the US for medical treatment.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 19:04 [IST]Businessman in Kolkata shot at after his car was stopped by 18 men

West Bengal Class 10, 12 exams to be held in offline mode in March, April

Majerhat bridge collapse: PM Modi expresses grief, calls incident deeply unfortunate

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

New Delhi, Sep 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted in wake of the bridge collapse in Alipore.

"The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," he said in the tweet.

A portion of the arterial Majerhat bridge in southern Kolkata collapsed Tuesday, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles.

As crowds gathered at the spot in congested Alipore locality, where mangled cars were buried under the debris of the bridge, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the first priority is to rescue the injured and those who are trapped.

The area has several under-construction buildings nearby.

Fire brigade, police and NDRF personnel are engaged in rescue work in the fading light.Businessman in Kolkata shot at after his car was stopped by 18 men

50-year-old Majerhat bridge in Kolkata collapses during rush hour traffic, one killed

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Kolkata, Sep 4: A portion of the 50-year-old Majerhat bridge connecting Behala to other parts of Kolkata collapsed on Tuesday evening, killing one person and injuring at least 19 others.Many more are feared trapped under the debris. The incident took place in Taratala area of Kolkata.

Police confirmed the death of one person and said 19 others, including two women were injured.

The injured have been admitted to SSKM and CMRI hospitals, the police added.

Fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue work had earlier said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble. Locals have joined the authorities in rescuing people trapped under the debris. Indian Army has also rushed a team to Kolkata.

The flyover connects Mominpur-Taratala areas of the city. Many vehicles are said to be buried under the debris. The flyover is said to be one of the oldest brifges in Kolkata.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered a high level probe into the matter. Banerjee has said that the state government is monitoring the situation.

"We are very worried. We are receiving information from the rescue team on ground (majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata). We want to go back as soon as possible. There are no flights in the evening, we are unable to do so..Our team is focused on relief and rescue work. Our priority is relief and rescue. Rest of the investigation will be done later," Banerjee, who is in Darjeeling, told the media.

Since the part of the bridge came crashing down on road, several people are trapped in their their vehicles which are buried under the debris.

Some reports hint that the flyover may have collapsed due to the structural failure.

It was a 40-year-old bridge. As of now there has been no casualty, but search operations are underway, let us wait: Firhad Hakim, West Bengal Minister on Majerhat bridge collapse. #Kolkata pic.twitter.com/n1x4lArKnk  ANI (@ANI) September 4, 2018

Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the incident as "deeply unfortunate" and hoped for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Governor K N Tripathi, who visited the site, described it as "a big disaster".

"I have come to see the rescue work. It is a big disaster. I heard that maintenance of the bridge is entrusted with the PWD and the railways. The matter required to be enquired," he told reporters.

The 450 metre-long bridge was built in early sixties and maintained by PWD, a member of mayor-in-council in the city municipal corporation said.

Some locals said the collapse might have been due to the construction of metro railway pillars nearby but this was not immediately confirmed by the experts.

This incident took place two years after a section of an under-construction flyover collapsed in the Burrabazar area of central Kolkata killing 28 people. Following the incident on March 31, 2016, the State government had set up an expert committee comprising former faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) to probe the incident.Prashant Kishor in viral video: With or without Modi, BJP will be centre of Indian polity for decades

BJP-ruled states slashes petrol, diesel rates further: New price to come into effect from today

Maharashtra BJP MLA promises to kidnap girls for men if they reject proposals

India

pti-PTI

Mumbai, Sep 4: A lawmaker of the ruling BJP in Maharashtra has apparently told youngsters he would "kidnap" the girl they like even if she says no to their proposal. Ram Kadam made the comments at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency in Mumbai Monday night.

"You (youngsters) can meet me for any work," he is heard in a video clip as telling the crowd, mainly comprising the youth.

Kadam went further, saying he has received requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their proposal.

"I will help, 100 per cent. Come (to me) with your parents. What will I do if parents approve? I will kidnap the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he is heard telling the crowd.

Kadam is also heard sharing his mobile number with the crowd. When asked about the video clip, Kadam said his comments have been distorted.

However, his remarks drew sharp reaction from the NCP, which said the comments brought to fore the "Ravana-like" face of the ruling party.

Maharashtra NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Kadam was speaking about abducting girls. "What Kadam said has revealed the Ravana-like face of the BJP.

Kadam said he would abduct a girl for a boy. Therefore, he should be called as 'Ravana' Kadam," Malik told reporters.

PTIModi has to follow Vajpayee to resolve Kashmir tangle: Mehbooba Mufti

India

oi-PTI

Srinagar, Sep 4: Terming resumption of dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad as "inevitable" for peace in south Asia, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the hand of friendship to his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan for skae of Kashmir.

The Peoples Democratic Party president also appealed to the Prime Minister to follow the steps of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to revive the peace process between the two neighbours.

Peace in south Asia will only be possible if it is ensured in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP president said, addressing a public meeting in border district of Rajauri.

Urging Modi to extend the hand of friendship to Khan and pick up the peace process from where Vajpayee had to leave it, Mehbooba said, "It will usher a new era of growth and tranquillity in the two countries."

If it's done, the people would no longer live in constant fears and heave a sigh of relief, she said.

She said opening new roads between "divided Jammu and Kashmir" and strengthening the people-to-people contact would lower the tension across the border.

Terming dialogue and reconciliation between India and Pakistan as "inevitable for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, Mehbooba said, "The two countries need to rise above ego and exhibit the political astuteness to help realise the people's dream of a peaceful and tranquil Jammu and Kashmir."

Asserting that economic packages alone would not usher peace in the Valley, she said consistent and earnest efforts aimed at taking youths into confidence are needed "to stop them from going adrift".

The economic packages alone are not going to resolve the issue. The roads, bridges and electricity are vital for the people, but unless there is dialogue aimed at the resolution of the conflict, no relief can be ensured for the masses, she said.

She said after the 2014 polls yielded fragmented mandate, PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided to form government with the BJP with "the sole motive to reincarnate the Vajpayee era" in the state and to stop the vicious cycle of unabated killings and violence.

As I told my father that the decision to join hands with the BJP has more risks than rewards and would decline party's popularity, he said he was ready to sacrifice everything including his life, if that resolves the decades-old conflict, Mehbooba said.

Her father was confident that the reconciliation and dialogue would be initiated, and the measures taken during Vajpayee's era would be replicated once again, she added.

However, when Prime Minister Modi addressed a rally in Srinagar on November 7, 2015 , he announced Rs 80,000 crore package but exhibited no willingness for a thaw between India and Pakistan for the peace in the state.

This disheartened everyone including the people who had come from far-flung areas to listen to him," she said.

The PDP chief said even after witnessing hurdles in his way, her father remained adamant to get the two countries closer and always pitched for the dialogue which were desperately needed for peace in the state.

When I took over as the Chief Minister and headed the state for two years and two months, I did not compromise on my stand and stood like a rock before the Central government to protect state's special interests.

Had I shown any laxity in my approach, the BJP would not have toppled the government. They did not succeed in any way to make me barter the interests of the state for petty power and I can tell you with all certainty that I kept the honour and dignity of my people intact," she said.

Referring to the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua district in January this year, Mehbooba said she went to New Delhi and made it clear that the PDP cannot be the part of the government unless the two ministers who had openly supported the rapists were sacked and a transparent probe was allowed.

As the Chief Minister of the state, I remained in the forefront to thwart attempts to intimidate Gujjars and Bakerwals in the state and took every measure to ensure that no one harms them, she said.

Mehbooba said preserving the secular character of the state has been the top most priority of the PDP since its inception.

PTI

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 23:46 [IST]RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat to address World Hindu Congress in Chicago

India

pti-PTI

RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat to address World Hindu Congress in Chicago

Washington, Sep 4: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will be a keynote speaker at the World Hindu Congress, a gathering of Hindu leaders from across the globe in Chicago later this week, the organisers said. More than 2,500 delegates from 80 countries are scheduled to participate in the three-day World Hindu Congress (WHC) in Chicago from September 7 to 9.

Bhagwat in his keynote address is likely to focus on the theme of the conference 'Sumantrite Suvikrante' or Think Collectively, Achieve Valiantly. The RSS chief is expected to underscore the need of the Hindu community spread across the globe to unite and think alike for the good of the mankind, former IITIan Swami Vigyananand, and the brain behind the mega event, said.

"The idea of the WHC is to unite and strengthen the Hindu society and with that look after the interest of the society as well as help other deprived, marginalised communities of the world," Swami Vigyananand told PTI in response to a question. He insisted that this is not a religious conference. "The conference is neither religious, nor philosophical. The conference is focused on community issues. It is focused on issues that is relevant to the progress of any community in the modern time," Vigyananand said.

Over three days, more than 250 speakers along with over 2,5000 delegates from over 80 countries would hold brain storming sessions over seven parallel conferences: economic, education, media, organisational, political, and women and youth. These parallel conferences would also showcase the values, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit of the global Hindu community, he said.

The WHC is a global platform for Hindus to connect, share ideas, inspire one another, and impact the common good, said Abhaya Asthana, convener for the Congress. He is also the president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America. The congress offers Hindus an opportunity to introspect towards improvement and tap into our collective resources to seek tangible solutions to the most pressing issues of the 21st century, he said.

In addition to Bhagwat, other prominent speakers at the conference are likely to be the Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Ashwin Adhin (Vice President of Suriname), RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, MIT professor S P Kothari, Mohandas Pai, Anupam Kher, Raju Reddy, Swami Paramatmananda Saraswati, Chandrika Tandon, Prof Subhash Kak, and angel investor Raju Reddy. Among top speakers as the economic conference are Mukesh Aghi, president of US India Strategic partnership Forum, former vice chair of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, Mahindra group president Dilip Sundram, Daniel Bryant from Walmart, Rajesh Sundaram from Federal Express, and Ed Monser from Emerson Electric. Other prominent speakers at the conference are Anupam Kher, Vivek Agnihotri, Madhur Bhandarkar, Amish Tripathi, and Francois Gautier. On the eve of the Congress, renowned classical musician wife-husband duo of Kavita Krishnamurti and Dr L Subramaniam would perform live for the delegates.

Meanwhile, the newly formed Coalition for the Defence of the Constitution and Democracy has announced that it will hold a press conference in New York on September 6 to lodge its protest against the WHC.

PTISC/ST commission orders Rs 8 crore compensation for 96 workers died cleaning drainages

India

oi-Vinod

By Vinod

New Delhi, Sep 4: On one hand the entire country was agitated over the SC/ST Act and the government buckled under pressure from the community to go against the SC decision and make amendment in it while on the other SC/ST commission managed to get Rs 8 crore compensation to 96 workers who had died while cleaning septic tanks and main holes of drainages.

Activists working against this practice say that this is an inhuman practice and assistance of technology was a better option. As per data available with the SC/ST commission close to 96 people have died working in hazardous condition in sewages and out of that 17 alone were from Delhi. The data goes up 74 in the past five years.

Chairman of the national scheduled caste and scheduled tribe commission Ram Shankar Katheria said these matters were registered between August 2017 and June 2018. The commission ordered paying Rs 8 crore compensation to several state governments and private units including Taj Group of Hotels. Katheria said that the effort of the commission has always been to get compensation to the family member of deceased as soon as possible. There is a Supreme Court guideline to provide Rs 10 lakh compensation to person dying while cleaning sewage. However, in some of the cases the state governments were not ready to cough out compensation money despite even after the Supreme Court order.

MP on high alert as upper caste groups set to protest amendment to SC/ST Act

Some of the state governments are having very casual approach about this as recently a cleanliness worker Somnath Sahu died in Anjora Village Panchayat of Chhattisgarh and the matter is still pending with the commission and the state government is arguing that Sahu came to work along with daily wage earners and died. So Gram Panchayat refused to accept him as its worker and denied compensation.

Katheria said that in most of the cases compensation has been given but hearing is continuing in some other cases but very soon order will be given for compensation in rest of the cases. He said that provision of compensation was there after imposing SC/ST Act.

In May this year five people fell severely ill due to poisonous gas at the time of cleaning of sewage plant at Taj Vivanta and two of them died. The SC/ST Commission ordered Rs 70 Lakh compensation. Taj Vivanta Group compliant the order and paid the compensation besides compensation it promised job to the affected family and free education to their children.

Activists working against this practice have been demanding use of machine for these things so human loss could be avoided.Separatists call for boycott of J&K panchayat polls

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Srinagar, Sep 4: The separatists of Kashmir have called for a boycott of the panchayat and municipal elections scheduled in the state of J&K from October 1 onwards.

The Joint Resistance Leadership said that the government of India wanted to thrust the elections on the people by deploying additional forces. " The government of India waned to thrust and enforce panchayat and municipal elections upon us through additional deployment of lakhs of forces under the pretext of lapse of developmental fund," the JRL said.

Amidst heavy security, dates of J&K municipal, panchayat polls announced

We want to convey to the government of India the loud and clear message by the people of Kashmir that they boycott any kind of participation in elections and instead demand right to self-determination, the JRL also stated.

The JRL said that the "enforced elections are nothing but another assault on people to harass them and cause them further inconvenience and agony". They said that any participation in these elections is propagated as a people's verdict in favour of India and hence they are used "as a means to dilute J&K disputed status and undo the holding of a referendum."Sonia ji unwell, Rahul Gandhi should take over as Congress chief: Siddaramaiah as party preps up for CWC meet

CWC: Sonia Gandhi likely to continue as interim chief till full fledged party elections take place

We must fight diabolical campaign of BJP/RSS ideologically: Sonia Gandhi at AICC meet

Sonia Gandhi's National advisory council was for supporting Naxalism: BJP

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

New Delhi, Sep 4: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday claimed that during the UPA regime, Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) was a "supporting ground for naxalites".

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused it of compromising national security for political opportunism. The NAC "embraced Naxalism" and was "ground for supporting Naxals" under Sonia Gandhi, he said.

Taking a jibe at Congress, Patra said, "They (Congress) should contact the Election Commission (EC) and tell them that we want to get renamed as INC (M) - Indian National Congress (Maoist)."

Patra alleged that senior opposition leaders like Digvijaya Singh and Jairam Ramesh extended support to people with "naxal links".

"Digvijaya Singh is getting very impatient, saying arrest me (sic). Digvijayaji and Congress party, your friends have already been arrested. Don't worry, the law will take its course. Enough's enough. There is nothing bigger than the law and the country," he said.

Patra also claimed that former union minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had written a letter to the Maharashtra Government to release Mahesh Raut, an activist who was arrested in for his "naxal links".

"Confusion, conspiracy and Congress are synonyms," Patra added.

Meanwhile, Singh came down heavily on the BJP spokesperson's allegations and dared the government to arrest him if the accusations were true.

"If the allegations are true, let the government arrest me. First, I was branded an anti-national, now a Naxal. So, come and arrest me in that case," Singh said.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 22:29 [IST]Tamil Nadu: Student who was arrested for shouting anti-BJP slogan granted bail

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Chennai, Sep 4: A Thoothukudi court on Tuesday (September 4) granted bail to the student who was arrested at the Tuticorin airport on Monday for raising 'anti-government slogans' in front of Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan.

Sofia Lois, the 28-year-old student from University of Montreal, Canada, was in the same flight as Soundararajan. As per reports, Sofia shouted the slogan "Away with the Fascist BJP Government" inside the aircraft and later at the baggage collection area too as she had gone to complaint to the airport manager.

She was arrested after the plane landed in Tuticorin and the BJP leader filed a police complaint. The arrest sparked an outrage among the activists and senior leaders of the state opposition. Senior DMK leaders even began a social media campaign backing Sofia.

DMK's president MK Stalin took to twitter and repeated Sofia's words and challenged that he be arrested.

"Sophia should be immediately released. You will have to arrest lakhs of people who raise slogans like this. I will also raise the slogan. "BJP fascist govt down down"," Stalin said on Twitter.

[TN: Woman arrested over anti-BJP slogan at airport]

Soundarrajan told reporters Sophia "had no right" to raise such slogans inside a flight and in front of co-passengers. She said she had suspicions about Sophia's background.

A case under IPC sections 290 (creating public nuisance), 505 (1)(b) for causing fear to the public in the flight and at the airport and under section 75 of the Madras City police act, was filed against her.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 12:29 [IST]TN: Woman arrested over anti-BJP slogan at airport

India

oi-Madhuri

Chennai, Sep 4: A woman was arrested on Tuesday for shouting slogans against the BJP in front of the party's state president, Tamilisai Soundararajan, triggering a political war.

28-Year-Old Lois Sofia, an Indian research scholar in Canada, and Soundararajan were coming to Tuticorin in the same flight. Sofia raised the slogan in the plane when the BJP leader, a co-passenger seated in the front row, came near Sofia to take her bag.

Sofia allegedly raised the slogan: "Down with Modi - BJP - RSS fascist government". She was arrested after the plane landed in Tuticorin and the BJP leader filed a police complaint.

Soundarrajan told reporters Sophia "had no right" to raise such slogans inside a flight and in front of co-passengers. She said she had suspicions about Sophia's background.

Sophia's father has come in her defence and said that she said "Fascist BJP down down" and moved away. It was, however, Soundarrajan and her supporters who rounded them up, he has alleged.

Meanwhile, newly-appointed DMK chief MK Stalin has condemned the arrest of Sophia. In a tweet, he has accused the Tamil Nadu government for failing to protect a citizen's freedom of speech. "Sophia should be immediately released. You will have to arrest lakhs of people who raise slogans like this. I will also raise the slogan. "BJP fascist govt down down"," Stalin said on Twitter.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 9:56 [IST]Prashant Kishor in viral video: With or without Modi, BJP will be centre of Indian polity for decades

BJP-ruled states slashes petrol, diesel rates further: New price to come into effect from today

To conquer South, BJP mulls alliance routes

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Sep 4: The BJP is looking at the alliance route in southern India to augment the numbers of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during the Lok Saha elections with its leaders saying that the party is keen to keep its options open in case it requires support from more parties to return to power in 2019.

In states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is working to ensure that it either goes to the polls in alliance with a strong regional party or keep its ties with them warm enough so that it can get their support if such a need arises.

Five states crucial for BJP in next Lok Sabha elections; party to devise new strategy

In the two remaining states of the south, the BJP has traditionally done well in Karnataka while alliances led by the Congress and the CPI(M) are the main forces in Kerala where the saffron party has been struggling to make its electoral presence felt.

With the BJP not a major force in any of these states except Karnataka, the party wants to maintain a degree of cordiality with regional parties in south India, a party leader said while giving the example of Tamil Nadu where it has refrained from going all out against the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

(DMK) despite maintaining warm ties with its Dravidian rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited an ailing DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi last year and had flown to Chennai last month following his death.

BJP sources said they are well-placed in Telangana where the ruling Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) has indicated that it may join hands with the saffron party with its supremo and state Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao keeping the Congress in his line of fire.

BJP strategy for 2019: For 100 per cent strike rate, candidate selection would be crucial

The BJP-led National Democratic Allaiance (NDA) had weakened in Andhra Pradesh after N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party walked out earlier this year but its managers believe that the YSR Congress, the main opposition in the state, will do well in the polls and may back it.

Both the TDP and the YSR Congress are founded on strong anti-Congress sentiments and would not be very comfortable in an anti-BJP alliance where the Congress would be a lead player, they said.

BJP president Amit Shah has been working to broaden his party's base in southern states but it remains to be seen how much it may improve its tally.

It had won 15 of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, two of 20 in Andhra Pradesh, one of 17 in Telangana, one of 39 in Tamil Nadu and none of 20 in Kerala in 2014.

(With agency inputs)Rajasthan: Air Force MiG 27 fighter jet crashes near Jodhpur, pilot ejects safely

India

oi-Madhuri

Jodhpur, Sep 4: An army plane crashed near Deoria village in Jodhpur of Rajasthan on Tuesday. Army personnel have been rushed to the spot.

An Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG 27 aircraft burst into flames after it crash landed in Jodhpur. The pilot of the plane had ejected safely.

MiG 27 aircraft crashed near Jodhpur during a routine mission. Indian Air Force in a statement said,'A court of inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident.'

Fire brigade and local police have arrived at the spot in Dewaria village where the plane crash landed.

Further details awaited.Urban Naxals threat to the unity of the country; involved in illegal mining and extortion

India

oi-Vinod

By Vinod

New Delhi, Sep 4: The issue of 'Urban Naxalism' is gradually weakening the country as Urban Naxals want to make onslaught on the country once they are able to weaken it. They are working on a particular design for over a decade so they are able to capture power by guerrilla attack as they don't believe in any institution, system and organisation.

Abhinav Prakash, Assistant Professor, Delhi University said that after Islamic State and Taliban, Naxalism is the third biggest threat to the world as per a report. These organization don't have any faith in Indian constitution which they call bourgeois constitution that was made by Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

How Christian missionaries are funding naxals, their urban friends to 'BREAK INDIA'

Prakash said that Urban Naxalism was started somewhere around 2009. But the most important thing that needs to be understood that no movement seeks to overthrow the government of the country even by violent means. They also want to destroy the constitution of the country as they don't want to fix it.

He said that Urban Naxals were trying to Balkanised India and by doing so they want to break it into pieces. Once this objective is achieved they will use their Gurilla army and to capture over it.

How Urban naxals, Khalistanis and ISI came together to break India

Nepal is the best example in the recent times. They are trying to infiltrate into peasants, students, Dalits and any other movement but they don't want to actually help them by offering any solution. They have hijacked the movement of tribals and now want to hijack Dalit movement.

Sandeep Mahapatra, a former president JNUSU, said, "They have created an eco-system for the Urban Naxalism and they don't believe in Parliamentary democracy. They straight away go to Supreme Court and wants to get things does as they wish to.

They say that terrorists are sitting in Parliament and we will demolish by arm struggle. There is a support base also. All these is available in their party document."

Bhima Koregaon: How urban naxals fanned the violence and instigated Dalits

A report was also prepared on Bastar which says Naxals are involved in extortion and their work and deeds are different. People in the area are troubled by them.

Political analysts say that as far as political parties in India are concern, every political party is enemy of Urban Naxals as they don't have any faith in Parliamentary democracy and given a chance they will liquidate them.

They are lead by their leaders sitting in jungle and once the leadership in jungle is destroyed, Urban Naxal will automatically be destroyed.

One of the member of the fact finding team that had gone to investigate rape in Jharkhand Suman Singh that there was a proper nexus between the Urban Naxals and people working in the tribal area. They want to break institution like government schools, hospital as nothing is working rather they are not allowed to work.

Message is inscribed on Pathalgadhi that Voter ID Card is not for tribals, actually People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) the frontal organisation of CPI (ML) is not allowing government system to work.

There are 80 students in government schools and 900 students in the missionary schools in the area where three women were raped on June 19, 2018.

They are involved in marijuana cultivation, illegal mining, extortion and other activities. They are threat to the unity of the country.We must leverage social media to our advantage: Army Chief

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

New Delhi, Sep 4: Chief of the Army Staff Bipin Rawat on Tuesday called for imposing discipline on the usage of social media in the wake of psychological warfare and deception by adversaries.

Also, the Army Chief denied the possibility of keeping the soldiers away from smart phones.

"We have received advice that we should advise our soldiers to stay away from social media. Can you deny a soldier from the possession of a smart-phone. If you can't prevent usage of smartphone, best to allow it,but important to have means of imposing discipline," Rawat said.

Also Read | Sitharaman, General Rawat visit Kashmir, review security situation

"Social media is here to stay, soldiers will use social media. Our adversary will use social media for psychological warfare and deception, we must leverage it to our advantage," he added.

On the tactical usage of Artificial Intelligence in modern warfare, Rawat said, "In modern day warfare, information warfare is important and within it, we've started talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI). If we have to leverage AI to our advantage we must engage through social media as a lot of what we wish to gain as part of AI will come via social media."

Also Read | Rajasthan: Army plane crashes near Jodhpur, pilot ejects safely

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 10:55 [IST]New ISI chief: Gen Bajwa showed Imran Khan who is the boss of Pakistan

Pakistan quietly allows Taliban-appointed diplomats to take charge of Afghan missions

Ahead of defence day, Pakistan nets 3 ISIS terrorists

International

oi-Madhuri

Lahore, Sep 4: Police in Pakistan claimed to have thwarted a terrorist attack planned on the upcoming Defence Day and said on Monday they have arrested three Islamic State militants in Punjab province.

Muhammad Iqbal, Usman Zia and Hasnain Muavia had plans to target an event on the Defence Day in Multan on Thursday, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police said.

On the Defence Day, Pakistan marks the anniversary of the 1965 war with India by holding nationwide ceremonies and special prayers.

Aslo Read | Indian Military to set up Defence Cyber Academy

A CTD official said that the three terrorists were arrested during a raid near Basti Shorkot in Multan, some 350 kms from here.

"The CTD personnel acting on intelligence information raided a house on the outskirts of Multan city and arrested the three suspects.

"Four hand grenades, explosive material and other weapons have also been recovered from their possesision," he said.

The arrested terrorists belong to the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) terror group.

A case under terrorism charges has been registered and the suspects have been shifted to an undisclosed place for interrogation.

Last month, the security agencies had arrested two ISIS terrorists from Multan. They had plans to bomb the buildings that house offices of Inter-Services Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau in Multan.

The Pakistani government often claims that there is no presence of ISIS in the country but at times the security agencies arrest suspects belonging to the dreaded terror group.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 10:27 [IST]Dismissing debt trap, Xi announces more aid for Africa

International

oi-Madhuri

Beijing, Sep 4: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday announced a whopping USD 60 billion in new development financing for the African nations as he sought to refute criticism that the massive funding under Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) drawing the countries into a debt trap.

The funds - - announced on top of USD 60 billion that Beijing offered to the African nations in 2015 - - will be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies.

The finances to be made under the BRI include USD 15 billion grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, USD 20 billion credit lines, setting up of a USD 10-billion special fund for development financing and a USD 5 billion-special fund for financing imports from Africa, Xi said at the start of a two-day Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) attended by the 53 heads of the African states and organisations.

The African nation heads and their officials gathered at the Great Hall of People to attend the meeting and gave a standing ovation to Xi as he made the financial commitments.

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 the Africa summit. The inaugural 2006 summit was held in Beijing and followed by another one in 2015 at Johannesburg.

USD 300 million not aid, it's our money, should reimburse: Pak counters US

At the Johannesburg summit, Xi announced USD 60 billion in funding support for infrastructure development in Africa.

"Africa is an extension of the Belt and Road development historically and naturally and an important participant in the initiative," Xi said.

Xi said China will implement eight major initiatives with African countries in the next three years and beyond, covering fields such as industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, and green development.

A China-Africa economic and trade expo will be set up in China and Chinese companies will be encouraged to increase investment in Africa.

Chinese companies are also encouraged to make at least USD 10 billion investment in Africa in the next three years, he said.

He said that China will carry out 50 agricultural assistance programs, provide emergency humanitarian food aid amounting to USD 147 million to African countries affected by natural disasters, and send 500 senior agricultural experts to Africa.

He also said that China will work with the African Union to formulate a China-Africa Infrastructure Cooperation plan and support Chinese companies in taking part in Africa's infrastructure development by way of investment-construction-operation or through other models.

China's growing clout in Africa has drawn criticism that more African nations are getting to Chinese debt trap.

The only African country still remained outsides Beijing's fold was the tiny kingdom of Swaziland which is still with Taiwan spurning China's overtures

Speaking against criticism that China don't match its public announcements with the spending on the ground, Xi said China has honoured its 2015 promise to provide Africa with funding support totalling USD 60 billion.

The financing has been either delivered or arranged, he said.

The Chinese projects in Africa include the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and Kenya's standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Nairobi besides major highways and bridges connecting various countries.

In an apparent dig at the criticism that China is driving smaller countries into its fold with debt trap diplomacy by doling out huge loans, Xi said China followed a "five-no" approach in its relations with Africa - - No interference in African countries' pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions, no interference in internal affairs, no imposition of China's will, no attachment of political strings to assistance and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation.

"No one can undermine the great unity between the Chinese and African people," he said.

In a bid to refute criticism that China is importing only raw materials from Africa, Xi said Beijing will increase imports, especially non-resource products, from Africa and support African countries in participating in China International Import Expo being held in November in Shanghai.

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Story first published: Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 6:52 [IST]When Pakistan was almost bombed out of recognition by the US

Pak would rather lose aid rather than turn in the Haqqani, Taliban: US expert

Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the Haqqani Network, dies

International

oi-Madhuri

Kabul, Sep 4: Taliban spox Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday has announced the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of Haqqani Network, member of Quetta Shura, instrumental figure in keeping Taliban together after death of Mullah Omar, father of Taliban Dy emir & military supremo Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to US Media reports. He reportedly died after suffering from a chronic illness.

"Just as he endured great hardships for the religion of Allah during his youth and health, he also endured long illness during his later years," SITE quoted the Afghan Taliban statement as saying.

Other details were not immediately known, but Haqqani had been known to suffer from ill health. Rumors about Haqqani's condition had been circulating for years and his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is now a top leader in the Haqqani Network.

Haqqani was the second most important figure in the Taliban and was even been credited with introducing suicide bombing in Afghanistan. He was the founder of the notorious Haqqani network based in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Haqqani originally founded the group as part of an anti-Soviet jihad. He was once funded by the CIA and lionised by some in the US.

Haqqani joined the Taliban government as minister for tribal affairs after they captured Kabul in 1996, fleeing after they were ousted in late 2001 and taking up arms again.Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah

Roddents do a 'Mission Impossible'; Police taken for a ride

Lucknow

pti-PTI

Muzaffarnagar, Sep 3: The police and bank officials of Indian bank in Shamli district were taken for a ride when the buglar alarm went off on Monday (Sep 3). Upon further inspection the police concluded that there was no robbery attempt but the real culprits were the rats.

The rats inside the bank had accidentally set off the burgalry alarm. As it was a holiday to the bank on the account of Janmashtami, no employees were present inside the bank. As soon as the alarm went off, the local residents informed the branch manager and the police who immediately rushed to the spot.

Nothing suspicious was found in the bank, barring some rats running around near the alarm system Circle Officer Ashok Kumar said.

For more Lucknow news Click Here.

PTI(CNN)  Two gay women have been caned in Malaysia amid a worsening climate for LGBT individuals in the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation.

The punishment of the two unnamed women took place Monday morning in Terengganu, a state to the east of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, according to rights campaigner Thilaga Sulathireth. The state is governed by Sharia law.

Each woman was lashed six times after being caught attempting to have sex in a parked car. They were also required to pay a fine of 3,300 ringgit ($800).

Sulathireth, who witnessed the caning along with around 100 other people, told CNN that it was a "public caning to all intents and purposes," and that one of the judges had said it was the first time a punishment of this kind had been open to the public.

Monday's punishment shows the religious right "flexing their muscles and making clear that the laws against LGBT activity will be enforced in their state," said Linda Lakhdhir, a legal adviser in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. Homosexual sex is illegal throughout Malaysia under colonial era criminal law.

The punishment follows a raid on one of Kuala Lumpur's only gay clubs, which saw around 20 men charged for "illicit behavior," and a brutal attack on a trans woman in a city close to the capital.

"It's very uncomfortable, (people are) feeling very oppressed right now. People are afraid because this is the first time that two women are being caned for sexual acts," said Numan Afifi of the Pelangi Campaign.

The punishment had not previously been used in the state of Terengganu for female homosexuality.

"We don't know what's going to happen in the future. That's the general feeling," said Numan.

The punishment, while handed down by the Sharia court, has the backing of PAS (The Malaysian Islamic Party, or Parti Islam Se-Malaysia), the dominant party in the state.

Despite several attempts, CNN was unable to contact either the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs or PAS, the political party in power in Terengganu.

Increasingly threatened

Campaigners said they were concerned about the impact of the punishment on the wider LGBT community. "In the past few years... we had seen an increase in state sponsored anti-LGBT rhetoric," said Thilaga Sulathireh, who works with the LGBT advocacy group Sisters for Justice. "What we're seeing now is not coming out of a vacuum. It's the result of years of anti-LBGT efforts."

In August, the country's Deputy Prime Minister, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told Malaysian media that members of the LGBT community should not seek to "glamorize" their lifestyle.

"Islam is the official religion (of Malaysia), whereby you have certain practices and it is there in black and white," said Ismail, before conceding that members of the LGBT community "have the right to practice whatever (it is) they do in private."

Activists like Sulathireh point to Ismail's comments as proof of the lack of government protection.

"In this climate there's been an increase sense of fear, people are a bit more careful, one of the things we've heard from the community is increased pressure from their families to be safe. We've been hearing cases of hate crimes and different kinds of aggression. This is part of an ongoing trend," said Sulathireh.

According to Sulathireh, trans women are among the most vulnerable in the LGBT community. Last year Justice for Sisters conducted a small study, interviewing 30 trans women, in which almost half documented cases of hate crimes.

"Being stared at, looked at, being catcalled. Then you have the physical side where people are attacked," said Sulathireh of the 12 hate crimes in the sample pool.

"These are largely (perpetrated) by young people, non-state actors. Sometimes their motives are clear, (but) in many of these cases that we documented, none of the trans women reported the cases to the authorities," said Sulathireh.

Exercising caution

The election of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in May this year had initially been welcomed by members of the LGBT community, but concern is now growing.

"We are seeing shrinking spaces in the new administration," Sulathireh told CNN by phone. "Just in the past 100 days we've seen different types of restrictions on LGBT people. It's very concerning.

The previous government, led by Najib Razak used the country's colonial era sodomy laws to target political opponents, including current leader of the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition, Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar, who was jailed for five years in 2015, walked free after being granted a pardon by the country's king in May this year. He has so far failed to speak out in support of LGBT rights.

Rights groups, including Amnesty have called on Anwar to do more to end discriminatory statements by officials and engage in constructively with LGBT organizations.

"It's a long-term project. Attitudes not going to change overnight. The Malaysian government has said that they want to create an inclusive society for Malaysia, one free of discrimination," said Rachel Chhoa-Howard, a researcher at Amnesty International.

"Part of promise of real change includes ensuring human rights are for all people in the country. Changing attitudes takes longer, (and) means ending discriminatory statements by government officials."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "'People are afraid': Gay caning stokes fear in Malaysia's LGBT community."Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Luxembourg financial regulator Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) has granted Link Fund Solutions a license to act as UCITS management company and authorised alternative investment fund manager.

According to a press release, the Link Fund Solutions third-party "Super ManCo", part of Link Asset Services, will provide its services to fund initiators from around the globe.

It will offer its clients state-of-the-art risk management as well as a comprehensive oversight and governance framework with solid local substance.

The move underlines Australian-owned Link Groups' growth strategy of targeting key European markets. With existing Luxemburg capabilities, the firm continues to build on its significant expertise in the UK and Ireland, Australia, and the Far East.

The release quoted Chris Addenbrooke, CEO of Link Group's Fund Solutions division in Europe, as saying: "This strategic move is the result of a long-term vision initiated in the UK and Ireland which led us to becoming one of the largest third-party independent authorised fund manager / ManCo in Europe. Luxembourg is a key jurisdiction for our clients' cross-border funds and enhancing our proposition in the region is a natural step for us."

Chris added: "Being independent and 100% focused on third-party clients is a key strength. We are confident our value proposition will enable us to achieve our ambitious gro......................

To view our full article Click hereLaxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Commodity trading advisors (CTAs) outperformed in the hedge fund space and delivered positive returns in the range of 2-3% depending on the benchmark.

Lyxor Asset Management in its weekly brief said that CTAs' long exposures to bonds and equities were both rewarding. From a regional perspective, their cautious stance on European equities was supportive but short positions on US bonds detracted as Treasury yields fell. Meanwhile, their long energy / short gold positions on commodities were a source of gains.

According to the Luxor's cross asset research team that prepared the report, global macro and L/S equity strategies underperformed.

Emerging-market (EM) macro hedge funds got hammered by Turkey's currency meltdown and its ramifications to the emerging-market forex (EMFX) space while others suffered on long positions on Nordic currencies which depreciated against both the USD and the EUR.

Meanwhile, L/S equity funds reduced their momentum bias and missed the recovery in this segment of equity markets. Merger arbitrage strategies also underperformed on the back of the widening of some deal spreads such as Rockwell Collins vs. United Technologies in the Aerospace/ Defense sector.

The report said that European investors bore the brunt of the market turmoil over the course of August. Turkey's currency crisis and the widening of Italian sovereign spreads translated into an underperformance of European assets versus the U.......................

To view our full article Click hereGerman Components Distribution remains on track

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Berlin, 31 August 2018  Stable but uninspired  this describes the German component distribution market during the second quarter 2018. Sales by companies registered with the Fachverband Bauelemente Distribution (FBDi e.V.) grew in the months April, May and June by 5% (compared with Q2/2017) to 949 million Euros. The order situation performed better, and with 1.04 billion Euros exceeded the billion Euro mark once again. With 1.09 the book-to-bill rate (order intake to revenue) remained on a high level.Broken down by technology the passive components grew strongest with 14.4% (reaching 137 million Euros), followed by electromechanics (7.7% growth to 100 million Euros) and semiconductors (2.8% to 654 million Euros). Power supplies recorded 13.7% growth to 27 million Euros, and displays lost 4.3% ending at 21 million Euros. Regarding the breakdown of sales there is slight changes: semiconductors 68.9%, passive components 14.4%, electromechanics 10.6%, power supplies 2.8% and others (sensors, displays, assemblies) 3.3%.Georg Steinberger, FBDi Chairman of the board: The effect of postponed orders due to the poor supply situation continues during the second quarter. Since mid of 2016 the orders have grown substantially stronger than the revenue, but do not have a recognizably adverse effect on the revenue growth. All this indicates that either the backlog is growing or the cancellations have increased. This will be reflected in the overall year 2018, we expect a moderate growth in the one single-digit range at the best.The trade dispute does not seem to have a significant impact on the overall German economic growth so far. Somehow the high technology market, by and large, seems to be uninfluenced of the political situation. Endogenous factors such as missing production capacities and shortage play a more important role.About FBDI e. V. (The FBDi e.V.  Fachverband der Bauelemente Distribution e.V. (Professional Association of Component Distribution), founded in 2003, is well-established in the German association community and represents a large portion of distributors of electronic components with operations in Germany. In addition to the preparation and advancement of numerical data and statistics concerning the German distribution market for electronic components, work group engagement and reporting on important industry themes (amongst others, education, liability and rights, traceability, and environmental themes) form essential pillars of the associations work. The FBDi is a member of the International Distribution of Electronics Association (IDEA)FBDi e.V., Nassauische Str. 65 A, 10717 Berlin;a.falke@fbdi.deMedia contact:Agentur Lorenzoni GmbH, Public Relations, Landshuter Str. 29, 85435 Erding;ph: +49 8122 55917-0, Beate Lorenzoni-Felber, beate@lorenzoni.deEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market is Expected to Exceed US$ 74.20 Billion by the end of 2026 | Global Key Players - TOTVS, Microsoft Corporation, Syspro, SAP, Unit4, Tally, Oracle, NetSuite, Focus Softnet, IBM

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market

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Marketprognosis.com Publish a New Market Research Report On Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software - Global Market Outlook (2017-2026) which contains global key players survey information and forecast to 2026.Overview of the Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market:Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software market is expected to grow from $34.10 Billion in 2017 to reach $74.20 Billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 9.0%. Factors such as improving operational efficiency and transparency within the organization and high penetration of cloud based deployment model are propelling the market growth. However, high installation price and the accessibility of open source applications are few factors inhibiting the market growth.Get a Sample Copy of this Report @Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is software that permits organizations to run their business processes. The role of ERP has transitioned from back office activities to the integration of business processes. It usually integrates all facets of an operation including product planning, development, manufacturing, sales and marketing in a single database, application and user interface.Based on deployment model, cloud deployment segment has a substantial growth in the market. This is attributed to the increase in adoption of cloud-based technologies coupled with growing scalability offered by these technologies. By application, Aerospace & Defense segment acquired significant growth during the forecast period. The major reason for this growth would be to maintain data transparency on real-time basis.Geographically, North America is dominating the market during the forecast period due to huge software implementation in business processes among organizations is propelling the region. Asia Pacific has emerged as fastest growing market owing to the rising manufacturing and semiconductor industry in emerging countries.Purchase this report online with Top Key Players Analysis and List of Tables & Figure @Major Key Players:1 TOTVS2 Microsoft Corporation3 Syspro4 SAP5 Unit46 Tally7 Oracle8 NetSuite Inc.9 Focus Softnet10 IBM Corporation and MoreMarket Segment by Types Covered:1 Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)2 Two-tier Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)3 Social Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)4 Mobile Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)Any Query? Ask to our Expert @This study answers to the below key questions:1 What will the market size be in 2026 and what will the growth rate be?2 What are the key market trends?3 What are the challenges to market growth?4 Who are the key players in this market?5 What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key players?In the end, this report covers data and information on capacity and production overview, production, market share analysis, sales overview, supply, sales, and shortage, import, export and consumption as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market.Table of Contents:1 Executive Summary2 Preface3 Market Trend Analysis4 Porters Five Force Analysis5 Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market, By Deployment6 Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market, By Type7 Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market, By Function Type8 Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market, By Application9 Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market, By End User10 Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Market, By Geography11 Key Developments12 Company ProfilingAbout us:We at Market Prognosis believe in giving a crystal clear view of market dynamics for achieving success in todays complex and competitive marketplace through our quantitative & qualitative research methods.We help our clients identify the best market insights and analysis required for their business thus enabling them to take strategic and intelligent decision.We believe in delivering actionable insights for your business growth and success.Contact us:ProgMark Pvt. Ltd.Thane  421501India.sales@marketprognosis.com+1 973 241 5193Orthodontic Supplies Market Demand, Growth, Share Assessments for the Regional and Country Level Segments

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Orthodontic supplies market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.3% during 2017  2023.According to the study, the global orthodontic supplies market is likely to grow from $3.4 billion in 2016 to $5.9 billion by 2023.The demand for orthodontic supplies is on a surge mainly due to increasing prevalence of oral diseases. Some of the most common oral diseases include dental cavities, periodontal diseases, oral cancer, malocclusions and other oral diseases and disorders. High prevalence of oral diseases depicts increased demand for orthodontic supplies. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 60% to 90% of the school children and nearly 100% of adults suffer from dental cavities. It has also been observed that, around 15% to 20% of adults aged between 35 to 44 years, suffer from severe periodontal (gum) disease.Access Detailed Report Summary at:The technologically advanced orthodontics products have transformed the orthodontic treatment procedures. Some of the recent advancements in orthodontic products include Invisalign, invisible range of invisible clear aligners, manufactured by Align Technology, Inc., which helps in moving the teeth without the use of braces, mini-screws, and mini-implants. Moreover, the other recent innovation has been the development of lingual braces, which are the hidden braces bonded behind the teeth rather than in front. Technologically, advanced orthodontic products offer various advantages over conventional products, which has led to their increased adoption by orthodontists and consumers for treating dental problem in children and adults, thereby driving the growth of the orthodontic supplies market.Download Report Sample at:As per the findings of the research, based on product, the fixed braces held the largest share in the global orthodontic supplies market, primarily due to their efficacy and precision in treating the irregularities in dental structure. Removable braces are expected to register the fastest growth in the orthodontics supplies market during the forecast period. The growth of the removable braces is primarily attributable to increase in the adoption of these braces by adults over traditional braces. Based on end user, children & teenagers are the larger end user in the orthodontic supplies market. Orthodontic treatments are more effective and successful in childhood or teenage as treatment at early age also prevents the development of serious problems, thereby leading to the larger adoption of orthodontic supplies at this age. The orthodontic supplies market for adults is expected to witness higher growth during the forecast period, mainly due to the increasing investment for the development of aesthetic braces and rising awareness about orthodontic treatment.Make Enquiry Before Buying the Report:Geographically, North America has been the largest market for orthodontic supplies, with the U.S. being the larger contributor to the regional market, as compared to Canada. The dominant position of the North American orthodontic supplies market is mainly attributable to high prevalence of dental disorders, along with the increasing urge in the people to look better, aesthetically. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 31.6% adults aged 20-44 years have untreated dental caries. Also, according to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD), around 86% of the patients underwent dentistry treatment to improve physical attractiveness and self-esteem, in 2015.According to the reports of an independent study of American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD), 86% of the patients underwent cosmetic orthodontics treatment to improve physical attractiveness and increased self-esteem in 2015.In March 2017, Dentsply Sirona Inc., introduced redesigned and reengineered GAC buccal tubes. The tubes deliver improved fit and bond strength as it has patented base that has been contoured to match the buccal surface. The introduction of these tubes is expected to reflect the input from the orthodontic community.Some of the other key players operating in the orthodontics supplies market include 3M Company, Danaher Corporation, G&H Orthodontics Inc., American Orthodontics, TP Orthodontics Inc., Rocky Mountain Orthodontics, Dentaurum GmbH & Co. Kg and DB Orthodontics Inc.About P&S IntelligenceP&S Intelligence, a brand of P&S Market Research, is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness.Contact:P&S IntelligenceToll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)International: +1-347-960-6455Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Market to Witness Huge Growth by 2024 | Leading Key Players: General Motors, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, and Toyota

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MarketStudyReport.com Adds New Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Market 2017  2024 research report providing information and data By Vehicle, By Distance, Industry Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Potential, Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast spreading across 250 Pages with table and figures in it.Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Market Research Report for the period of 2017-2024 that shows the growth of the market is rising at a Steady CAGR to 2024.Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Market is anticipated to surpass USD 9 billion by 2024; according to a new research report. Global fuel cell electric vehicle market share is projected to surpass 300 thousand units by 2024. Increasing research activities will pave the way for emerging technology and simultaneously reduce the product cost. Continuous technological developments along with OEMs investing in increasing production level to achieve economies of scale will result in price drop. Continuously increasing demand for advanced automobiles will boost the fuel cell electric vehicle market over the projected timespan.Request a sample of this premium report at:Ongoing research activities are focused on developing raw materials that will support in cost minimization and extending automobile life. High volume manufacturing and low cost will help make fuel cell vehicles more competitive with combustion engines by 2024.Passenger cars segment in fuel cell electric vehicle market is expected to witness significant gains at over 42% from 2017 to 2024. This can be attributed to increasing automobile production across the world and rising government initiatives. For instance, U.S. government plans to build hydrogen refueling stations across the country via H2USA public-private partnership coupled with auto producers support. In addition, California is investing USD 20 million annually until 100 stations are built for commercial purpose.E-bikes are predicted to hold approximately 23% of the overall fuel cell electric vehicle market volume share. With substantial number of e-bikes already on roads in China, its sales are surging in Europe particularly in northern countries of the region as per the European Cyclists Federation. These two-wheelers are available at affordable costs and serve the purpose for middle class population which will enhance the fuel cell electric vehicle market share over the projected time frame.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Long distance travelling automobiles from fuel cell electric vehicle market are projected to be valued over USD 880 million by 2024. The automobile producers focus on automobile advancements that will yield a mileage of over 300 miles coupled with development of internal fuel-cell components offering higher efficiency. For instance, Hyundai has plans to introduce long distance travelling hydrogen powered SUV yielding 9% efficiency boost as compared to its old-version models.Asia Pacific fuel cell electric vehicle market is expected to dominate the industry volume share over the projected time line. This can be credited to automobile production across the region, especially in developing economies such as China. China is observed to be the significant contributor in the regional revenue generation. Rising domestic demand along with increasing vehicle production will spur the country's share over the projected time span.North America fuel cell electric vehicle market was approximately worth at USD 173 million in 2016 and is anticipated to pose a CAGR of 41% over the forecast time frame owing to the presense of well-established players in the region. Moreover, strict rules and regulations along with government funds is boosting the industry over the study period.General Motors, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, and Toyota are among the prominent players in the fuel cell electric vehicle market share. Other notable players include Tata Motors, Volkswagen, Ford, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, and Mercedes. Mainstream auto companies focus on in-house developments to build a supportive supply chain.Table of Content:Chapter 1. Methodology and ScopeChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Fuel cell electric vehicle Industry InsightsChapter 4. Fuel cell electric vehicle Market, By VehicleChapter 5. Fuel cell electric vehicle Market, By DistanceChapter 6. Fuel cell electric vehicle Market, By RegionChapter 7. Company ProfilesRelated Report:2018 Top 5 Fuel Cell Players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and AfricaThis report studies the global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa, focuses on the top 5 players in each region, with sales, price, revenue and market share from 2013 to 2018. Over the next five years, projects that Fuel Cell will register a xx% CAGR in terms of revenue, reach US$ xx million by 2023, from US$ xx million in 2017.About Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Contact Us:Market Study Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:Blog:Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market 2017 Global Analysis By Key Players - Next IT Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Nuance Communications, rue Image Interactive, CodeBaby, Kognito, Medrespond, Welltok & More

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MarketStudyReport.com Adds New Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market 2017  2024 research report providing information and data By Technology, By End-User, Industry Analysis, Regional Outlook, Application Potential, Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast spreading across 105 Pages with table and figures in it.Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market size is set to exceed USD 1.5 billion by 2024; according to a new research study. Rising smartphone users worldwide coupled with increasing use of health apps and growing popularity of internet of things is set to drive health intelligent virtual assistant market growth. Mobile healthcare technology has gained immense popularity among populations all over the globe. The increased adoption of heath apps demonstrates the shift in trend in patient care; wherein service over mobile devices is being preferred over visiting the physicians.Growing popularity of internet of things is likely to further stimulate health intelligent virtual assistant business growth. The use of internet of things in healthcare has increased both the size as well as accuracy of medical data through variety of data collection, and expanded the reach of healthcare professionals beyond their limited facilities.Request a sample of this premium report at:Growing need to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of care will fuel health intelligent virtual assistant market growth. Promising improvements in healthcare infrastructure, patient experience will restructure the healthcare delivery over the coming years. To reduce the medical errors and improve the quality of healthcare has been the first preference of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).UK held considerable regional health intelligent virtual assistant market share in 2016 owing to adoption of advanced healthcare technologies. Rising penetration of the internet of things coupled with increasing regulation act related to communication and data should drive business growth in coming years.Japan health intelligent virtual assistant market attributed for over 30% of Asia-Pacific share in 2016, witnessing healthy growth over the forecast years. Increasing investment by market players for technological development and improved economic indicators should stimulate business growth. Growing aging population and rising uptake of intelligent virtual assistant solutions associated with healthcare should fuel the industry growth.Brazil held highest regional market share in 2016 witnessing lucrative growth over the forecast years. Rapidly growing economy and need for better healthcare should promote the adoption of health intelligent virtual assistant across different healthcare organizations.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Some of the prominent industry players offering unique and advanced products include Next IT Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Nuance Communications and eGain Communication. Other notable industry participants are True Image Interactive, CodeBaby, Kognito, Medrespond, Welltok and CSS Corporation.Table of Content:Chapter 1. MethodologyChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Industry InsightsChapter 4. Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market, By TechnologyChapter 5. Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market, By End-userChapter 6. Health Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market, By RegionChapter 7. Company ProfilesFor More Details on this Report At:About Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Contact Us:Market Study Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWeb site:Blog:Wireless Monitoring and Surveillance Market 2018 Global Leaders: Aruba networks, Micropower technologies, Panasonic, Honeywell, Axis communications, Bosch security systems, Pelco

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Market Research Future published a research report on Wireless Monitoring and Surveillance Market Research Report- Global Forecast to 2027  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.Wireless Monitoring and Surveillance Global Market - OverviewWireless monitoring and surveillance global market is growing at a significant pace. The major growth driver of wireless monitoring and surveillance market includes growing demand for better & more cost-effective security management, fast-moving growth of network video market and new strict government initiatives on technology compliance among others. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Wireless Monitoring and Surveillance is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is projected to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2022, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2016  2022).The study indicates that the demand for security and improved monitoring solutions has commended the need for better monitoring and surveillance devices. Wireless monitoring and surveillance devices play a significant role for the deployment of improved security systems. The wireless monitoring systems helps in monitoring such places where it is not feasible to include cables. Organizations manufacturing wireless security products also play an important role for monitoring and controlling the wireless operations.Get Sample of Report @The study indicates that wireless cameras as a security system are becoming very popular owing to their low connection prices. It has elastic installing options; wireless cameras can be mounted in places earlier unreachable to standard wired cameras. Addition to it the ease of use and suitability of access, wireless safety camera permits operators to control broadband wireless internet to offer seamless video streaming over-internet.The other aspects contributing to the growth of the Wireless Monitoring and Surveillance Market is increasing implementation of video analytics, increasing demand for installation of video surveillance, usage of high-definition cameras and growing need for security. Also, features such as scalability, flexibility and reliability are boosting the demand of the wireless monitoring and surveillance market. However, factors such as need for storage capacity, growing demand for high resolution pictures and privacy issues are hindering the growth of the wireless monitoring and surveillance market.Key Players:Some of the major players in Global Wireless Monitoring and Surveillance Market include Honeywell (U.S.), Axis communications (Sweden), Bosch security systems (Germany), Cisco systems (U.S.), Micropower technologies (U.S.), Pelco (U.S.), Aruba networks (U.S.), Panasonic Corporation (Japan), and D-link (U.S.) Corporation among others.Market SegmentationThe research report titled Wireless Monitoring & Surveillance Market issue by Market Research Future provides profound insights into various sections of the market. One of the most imperative amongst them is the segmental analysis. By component  Network nodes, servers, monitoring stations and digital cameras. By end users  Banks & financial institutions, transportation, government bodies (municipalities, law enforcement, and military), shopping malls & complexes and educational institutes. By technology  IP technologies and video.Comprehensive Regional AnalysisSome of the central regions that observe its presence are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.After an extensive analysis of the regional trends of all the regions above, the research analysts of MRFR concluded that North America governed the market from a geographical point of view. High adoption rate coupled with the rapid advancement of the security industry in this area drive the growth of this market.Europe comes second in line and holds the second most significant market share. It is expected to be the fastest growing region and will move ahead at an impressive CAGR throughout the forecast period.Get Complete Report @Industry NewsApril 26, 2018  McQ Inc., a leading firm that offers sensor technology & remote monitoring & surveillance services recently joined hands with FreeWave Technologies, an organization that specializes in networking solutions. Together they plan on providing their customers with robust low power video streaming services that will be highly helpful for various verticals of the industrial sector.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comInterceptor Missiles Market 2024 Comprehensive Analysis | Key Players  Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., Raytheon Co., Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems

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The newly released research at Market Study Report titled 2017-2024 Global Interceptor Missiles Market Report provides data, information, brief analysis, company profiles, statistics for past years and forecasts for next few years.Global Interceptor Missiles Market is expected to cross 3,000 units till 2024. Continuously increasing threat of attacks from rival countries has resulted in proliferating demand for interceptor missiles over the forecast timeframe. Multiple countries across the globe including Netherlands, U.S, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, etc., have purchased patriot interceptor missiles to strengthen their defense inventory, impacting the industry positively.Request a sample of this premium report at:Interceptor Missiles Market is estimated to surpass USD 14 billion by 2024. Industry is witnessing regular upgradations and innovations in interceptor missiles. For instance, HQ-19 is a significant upgradation of HQ-9 and has gained prominence in 2017. It is capable of targeting satellites and ballistic missiles in lower earth orbit and is featured with kinetic kill vehicle. Moreover, it can intercept the ballistic missiles from a range of 3,000 kms. These innovations are anticipated to induce immense growth potential to the interceptor missiles market over the coming years.Surface to air missiles are expected to capture maximum interceptor missiles market revenue share of more than 80% by 2024. Some of the benefits offered includes light-weight and portability which in turn will drive the industry demand. Water to air missiles will exhibit approximately 7% CAGR owing to rising adoption of these missiles in various countries across the globe for naval border protection.Countries across the globe have witnessed a considerable increase in their defense budget. For instance, in 2015, the defense budget of China was USD 131 billion, which was increased by 11% and crossed USD 145 billion in 2016 and was further increased by 7% in 2017. This will accelerate the revenue generation owing to their enhanced purchasing power for defense systems. However, high initial investment and high manufacturing costs may restrain new entrants from entering the interceptor missile market.Interceptor missiles of up to 125 kms range are anticipated to dominate the interceptor missiles market, generating a demand of over 2,000 units till 2024. Continuously increasing penetration of missiles conforming to this range such as PAC-3, Iron Dome, and SM-3, from MEA including UAE, Israel, and Saudi Arabia will primarily support the industry dominance. Interceptor missiles of range above 200 kms will exhibit over 18% CAGR in terms of revenue owing to rising deployment of advanced missiles such as HQ-19. Regular innovations in these missiles in countries such as China will further strengthen the industry penetration over the forecast timeframe.PAC-3 is expected to account for highest interceptor missile market share crossing USD 6 billion over the coming years. Proliferating demand of these missiles, especially in developed countries will primarily support the revenue generation. For instance, in January 2013, the U.S. army entered into several contracts worth USD 755 million for purchasing 168 PAC-3 missiles and associated services and equipment. HQ-19 will exhibit over 40% CAGR till 2024 owing to its continuously rising usage as an upgradation of HQ-9. Its enhanced features as compared to its counterparts will further support the industry growth till 2024.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., Raytheon Co., Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are among the major industry players. Regular product innovations is among prominent strategies implemented by these participants. For instance, in January 2018, Lockheed Martin made enhancements in Aegis missile that is anticipated to result in rapid detection of threats and reduction in reaction time.Interceptor missiles market research report includes in-depth coverage of the industry with estimates & forecast in terms of volume in units and revenue in USD million from 2013 to 2024, for the following segments:Interceptor Missiles Market by Technology:THAAD, PAC-3, SM-3, HQ-19, Iron dome, FD-2000, Patriot GEM-T, Aegis ashore, Aster.The above information is provided for the following regions and countries:North America, U.S., Canada, Europe, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Poland, Asia Pacific, China, India, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand.Table of Content: Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope Chapter 2. Executive Summary Chapter 3. Interceptor Missiles Industry Insights Chapter 4. Interceptor Missiles Market, By Surface Chapter 6. Interceptor Missiles Market, By Technology Chapter 7. Interceptor missiles Market, By Region Chapter 8. Company ProfilesFor More Details about this report:Related Report:Global Missiles and Missile Defense Systems Market Research Report 2018This report studies the global Missiles and Missile Defense Systems market status and forecast, categorizes the global Missiles and Missile Defense Systems market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China, and other regions (India, Southeast Asia, Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).About Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Contact Us:Market Study Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWeb site:Blog:Automotive alternator Market 2018-2022 | Demand, Technology, Innovation & Top Manufactures Research like (Valeo, Denso, Bosch, Remy, ISKRA, Mando, Mitsubishi, Hitachi Automotive, Magneti Marelli, Motorcar Parts of America etc.)

Automotive Alternator Market 2018

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Automotive Alternator Market 2018Automotive Alternator Market Share, Size, Trends, And Business Opportunity Analysis Report 2018 include historic data, with forecast data to 2023. Automotive Alternator Market report is helpful for future strategy development, and to know about Market Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, And Global market size, share, Growth, Trends, key players forecast to 2023Global Automotive Alternator Market Information by Type (Single Phase and Three Phase), by Technology (Belt-driven alternator and), by Vehicle Type (Passenger and Commercial) and by Region - Forecast to 2022Request for Sample Report Automotive Alternator Market@Global Automotive Alternator Market Information by Type (Single Phase and Three Phase), by Technology (Belt-driven alternator and), by Vehicle Type (Passenger and Commercial) and by Region - Forecast to 2022Market ScenarioAutomotive alternator is a generator which generates power to the electrical component of the vehicle. The increasing usage of electrical power in the cars and the rise in electrical and electronics device in the vehicles is expected to surge the market for automotive alternator. Moreover, increasing global demand for vehicles has a significant contribution in the growth of automotive alternator market. Asia-Pacific is estimated to have the largest market for automotive industry due to government initiated FDI for international automotive players, favorable economic conditions, and presence of major automotive manufacturing industries which in turn is expected to drive the demand in the automotive alternator market. The global automotive alternator market is expected to show a growth at CAGR of about 5.5% from 2016 to 2021.Key PlayersThe key players of Global Automotive alternator Market report include- Valeo, Denso, Bosch, Remy, ISKRA, Mando, Mitsubishi, Hitachi Automotive, Magneti Marelli, Motorcar Parts of America, Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., and Lucas Electrical.Market HighlightsThe increasing usage of electrical power in the cars and the rise in electrical and electronics device in the vehicles is expected to surge the market for automotive alternator. Moreover, increasing global demand for vehicles has a significant contribution in the growth of automotive alternator market. Asia-Pacific is estimated to have the largest market for automotive industry due to government initiated FDI for international automotive players, favorable economic conditions, and presence of major automotive manufacturing industries which in turn is expected to drive the demand in the automotive alternator market. The global automotive alternator market is expected to show a growth at CAGR of about 5.5% from 2016 to 2021.Asia-Pacific is the major regions for the automotive alternator market. Asia-Pacific is expected to be fastest growing market for the automotive alternator. Emerging economies like China, India, and South Korea are expected to drive the market due to government initiative in FDIs for international automotive players, increasing individuals disposable income & purchasing power is expected to drive the market for automotive alternator. It is followed by European region due to presence of biggest automotive players in the region.The report for Global Automotive alternator Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Complete Report Details Automotive Alternator Market@Table of ContentsREPORT PROLOGUEINTRODUCTIONRESEARCH METHODOLOGYMARKET DYNAMICSAUTOMOTIVE ALTERNATOR MARKET, BY TYPEAUTOMOTIVE ALTERNATOR MARKET, BY VEHICLE TYPEAUTOMOTIVE ALTERNATOR MARKET, BY REGIONCOMPANY LANDSCAPECOMPANY PROFILEMRFR CONCLUSIONAPPENDIXLIST OF TABLESTable 1 Global Automotive Alternator Market: By Type, 2014-2022 (USD Billion)Table 2 Single Phase: Automotive Alternator Market, By Region, 2014-2022 (USD Billion)Table 3 Three Phase: Automotive Alternator Market, By Region, 2014-2022 (USD Billion)Table 4 Global Automotive Alternator Market: By Vehicle Type, 2014-2022 (USD Billion)Table 5 Passenger Vehicle: Automotive Alternator Market, By Region, 2014-2022 (USD Billion)..LIST OF FIGURESFIGURE 1 Global Automotive Alternator Market SegmentationFIGURE 2 Forecast MethodologyFIGURE 3 Five Forces Analysis Of Global Automotive Alternator MarketFIGURE 4 Value Chain Of Global Automotive Alternator MarketFIGURE 5 Global Automotive Alternator Market: By Type, 2014-2022 (USD Billion).ContinuedAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR) and Market Research & Consulting Services.Address:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.comSubscriber Data Management at a Highest CAGR by Top Competitors (Ericsson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Nokia, Oracle, Amdocs Inc., Cisco, Computaris, Openwave Mobility Inc.)

Global Subscriber Data Management Market

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DatabridgemarketResearch brings to you a report on Global Subscriber Data Management Market which will keep you informed in this CAGR growing market by letting you know in-depth how the key players and brands are driving the market in the forecast period of 2018-2025.Global Subscriber Data Management Market report contains all the figures needed to excel the market like all the recent CAGR values for the historic year 2016, base year 2017 and for the forecast year 2018-2025. While also giving a deep knowledge about what the market definition, classifications, applications and market trends are. SWOT analysis can help tell the markets drivers and restrains.Download Free PDF Sample Report atThis report contains all the company profiles of the key players and brands that making moves such as developments, product launches, joint ventures, merges and accusations which affect the market, along with the company profiles the report also contains the Global Subscriber Data Management Market restrains and drivers which are derived through SWOT analysis.Major Market Competitors:Some of the major players of the global subscriber data management market are:- Ericsson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Nokia, Oracle, Amdocs Inc., Cisco, Computaris, Openwave Mobility Inc., Procera Networks, Redknee Inc., ZTE Corporation and others.For More Inquiry Contact us atGlobal Subscriber Data Management Market accounted for USD 2.02 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 18.3% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic year 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Table of Contents1. Introduction2. Market Segmentation3. Market Overview4. Executive Summary5. Premium Insights6. Global, By Component7. Product Type8. Delivery9. Industry Type10. Geography10.1. Overview10.2. North America10.3. Europe10.4. Asia-Pacific10.5. South America10.6. Middle East & Africa11. Company Landscape12. Company Profiles13. Related ReportsRequest for Detailed TOC:Major Market Drivers & Restraints: Need to reduce OPEX and enable cross network consolidation Increasing subscriber demand for LTE and VoLTE Deployment of internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) Movement of TELCOS towards NFV Complexity in design Lack of trust and privacy issuesMarket Segmentation:The global subscriber data management market is segmented on the basis of solution into:- Policy Management, Subscriber Data Federation, Identity Management and User Data Repository.On the basis of network type, the global subscriber data management market is segmented into:- Mobile Networks and Fixed Networks.On the basis of organization type, the global subscriber data management market is segmented into:- Large Enterprises and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).On the basis of deployment type, the global subscriber data management market is segmented into:- On-Premises and Cloud.Company Share Analysis: Global Subscriber Data Management MarketThe report for global subscriber data management market include detailed vendor level analysis for market shares in 2016 for Global, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America specifically. Also impact and development analysis of key vendors is registered in the market and factored on the basis of Vendor Positioning Grid Analysis which measures the vendors strengths and opportunities against present market challenges, measure providers ability to identify or satisfy present market needs, map providers market vision to current and upcoming market dynamics among others. The report also measures technology life line curve and market time line to analyze and do more affective investments.Access Full Report atAbout Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comGlobal Automotive Door Lock Market 2018 | Major Key Players  KiekertAG, Aisin Seiki Co.,Ltd., Mitsui Miningand Smelting Co.Ltd., Strattec Security Corporation, U-Shin Ltd. Analysis And Forecast : MI Reports

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Description :Automotive Door Lock-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Automotive Door Lock industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information. Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Automotive Door Lock 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Automotive Door Lock worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Automotive Door Lock marketMarket status and development trend of Automotive Door Lock by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Automotive Door Lock, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesRequest For sample Report @The report segments the global Automotive Door Lock market as:Global Automotive Door Lock Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Automotive Door Lock Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):Electronic Door LockNon-Electronic Door LockGlobal Automotive Door Lock Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)Passenger CarCommercial VehicleGlobal Automotive Door Lock Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Automotive Door Lock Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):Magna International Inc.KiekertAGAisin Seiki Co.,Ltd.Mitsui Miningand Smelting Co.Ltd.Strattec Security CorporationU-Shin Ltd.Shivani Locks Pvt. Ltd.Inteva Products,LLCBrose Fahrzeugteile GmbH& Co.Minda Vast Access SystemsComplete Report Details @Table Of ContentChapter 1 Overview of Automotive Door Lock1.1 Definition of Automotive Door Lock in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Automotive Door Lock1.2.1 Electronic Door Lock1.2.2 Non-Electronic Door Lock1.3 Downstream Application of Automotive Door Lock1.3.1 Passenger Car1.3.2 Commercial Vehicle1.4 Development History of Automotive Door Lock1.5 Market Status and Trend of Automotive Door Lock 2013-20231.5.1 Global Automotive Door Lock Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Automotive Door Lock Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Automotive Door Lock 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Automotive Door Lock by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Automotive Door Lock by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Automotive Door Lock by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Automotive Door Lock by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Automotive Door Lock by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Automotive Door Lock by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Automotive Door Lock by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Automotive Door Lock by Types3.2 Production Value of Automotive Door Lock by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Automotive Door Lock by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Automotive Door Lock by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Automotive Door Lock by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Automotive Door Lock5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Automotive Door Lock Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Automotive Door Lock Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Automotive Door Lock by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Automotive Door Lock by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Automotive Door Lock by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Automotive Door Lock Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Automotive Door Lock Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Automotive Door Lock Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 Magna International Inc.7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Automotive Door Lock Product7.1.3 Automotive Door Lock Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Magna International Inc.7.2 KiekertAG7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Automotive Door Lock Product7.2.3 Automotive Door Lock Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of KiekertAG7.3 Aisin Seiki Co.,Ltd.7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Automotive Door Lock Product7.3.3 Automotive Door Lock Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Aisin Seiki Co.,Ltd.7.4 Mitsui Miningand Smelting Co.Ltd.7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Automotive Door Lock Product7.4.3 Automotive Door Lock Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Mitsui Miningand Smelting Co.Ltd.7.5 Strattec Security Corporation7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Automotive Door Lock Product7.5.3 Automotive Door Lock Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Strattec Security CorporationContinued.About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Market Rise to a Valuation of USD 18.09 billion by 2023 | Akzo Nobel N.V., The 3M Company, Chugoku Marine Paints, Ltd., Nippon Paint Co., Ltd

High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Market

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Market Overview:A research study titled, High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings By Product (Epoxy coatings, Acrylic coatings, Urethane coatings, Other Products), End User (Oil & Gas, Marine, Construction, Tanks & Pipes, Power Generation, Other End Users) Forecast 2014 to 2023 published by Crystal Market Research, states that the Synthetic Zeolites Market is projected to be around $ 18.09 Billion by 2023.Major Eminent Players:The leading players in the High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Market are Akzo Nobel N.V., The 3M Company, Chugoku Marine Paints, Ltd., Nippon Paint Co., Ltd., Hempel A/S, Jotun A/S, PPG Industries Inc., and The Sherwin-Williams Company.Click to Request a Sample @Product Outlook and Trend Analysis:Based on product, the market is fragmented into epoxy coatings, acrylic coatings, urethane coatings, and other products. Epoxy coatings was the biggest portion, representing more than 55% offer of the worldwide elite hostile to high performance anti-corrosion coatings market in 2014. However, acrylic coatings are anticipated to help the market development amid the figure time frame as it is the quickest developing product portion.Industry Outlook and Trend Analysis:The High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Market was worth USD 11.54 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach approximately USD 18.09 billion by 2023, while registering itself at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.12% during the forecast period.High performance anti-corrosion coatings are propelled materials that are connected on metal and solid segments in different assembling plants that are presented to serious destructive environment. Epoxy coatings, acrylic coatings, and urethane coatings are significant item sections of the worldwide elite hostile to anti-corrosion coatings market. These coatings are extensively devoured in centre businesses. Oil and gas, tanks and pipes, development, marine and power age are significant end-clients of the superior hostile to anti-corrosion coatings market. Oil and gas held the biggest interest for superior hostile to consumption coatings in 2017. In any case, the power age fragment is required to make considerable development open doors for the superior hostile to consumption coatings market amid the conjecture time frame. Utilization of waterborne process innovation is probably going to be one of the potential substitutes for dissolvable borne covering frameworks in the elite hostile to anti-corrosion coatings market by 2023.For more information, click on the below link @Major Table of Contents:Chapter 1. IntroductionChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Market OverviewChapter 5.High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Market, By Product5.1.Introduction5.2.Global High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Product (2014-2018)5.3.Epoxy Coatings5.4.Acrylic Coatings5.5.Urethane Coatings5.6.Other ProductsChapter 6. High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Market, By End User6.1.Introduction6.2.Global High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Sales, Revenue and Market Share by End User (2014-2018)6.3.Oil & Gas6.4.Marine6.5.Construction6.6.Tanks & Pipes6.7.Power Generation6.8.Other End UsersTo be continued...Ask Questions to Expertise at @Regional Outlook:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Rest of Europe)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Rest of Asia-Pacific)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Rest of South America)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Rest of MEA)Reason to Buy:Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.Scrutinize in-depth Global High Performance Anti-corrosion Coatings Market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.To avail discount, please click on the link @About Crystal Market Research:Crystal Market Research is a U.S. based market research and business intelligence company. Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact Us:Judy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comGlobal Industry Research in Healthcare to Grow Digital Electronic Colposcope Market Analysis By Size, Share, Trends and Forecast 2018 - 2026

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Acumen Research and Consulting has announced the addition of the "Digital Electronic Colposcope Market Analysis - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 - 2026" report to their offering.The Digital Electronic Colposcope 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 Digital Electronic Colposcope 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. The study on Digital Electronic Colposcope Market Analysis - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 - 2026 provides analysis of China market covering the industry trends, recent developments in the market and competitive landscape. Competitive analysis includes competitive information of leading players in China market, their company profiles, product portfolio, capacity, production, and company financials. In addition, report also provides upstream raw material analysis and downstream demand analysis along with the key development trends and sales channel analysis. Research study on Digital Electronic Colposcope Market Analysis - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 - 2026 also discusses the opportunity areas for investors.Download Table of Content@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 Digital Electronic Colposcope MarketAnalysis Period 2015  2026Historic Data 2015  2016Base Year 2017Forecast Data 2018  2026Market Stratification Product Type, Application, GeographyRegional Scope North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa (MEA)Report Coverage Market Trends, Drivers, Restraints, Porter's Five Forces Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Player Profiling, Value Chain AnalysisMarket PlayersThe major players in the digital electronic colposcope market includesLutech Industries Inc.MedGyn Products Inc.OPTOPOL TechnologyOptomicAlltion Co. LtdMobileODT LtdGYNIUS ABLEISEGANG Feinmechanik Optik GmbHWallach Surgical Devices Inc.Xuzhou Pengkang Electrical Equipment Co., LtdPerlong Medical Equipment Co. LtdXuzhou Kejian Hi-tech Co. LtdCooperSurgical Inc.EDAN Instruments, Inc.Karl Kaps GmbHOthersOur expert team will assist and customize the report so that it best fit your exact requirement, Click Here@The major market segments of global Digital Electronic Colposcope Market Analysis - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 - 2026 market are as below:Market By Product TypeTrolley-Type Digital Electronic ColposcopePortable Digital Electronic ColposcopeMarket By ApplicationVulva DiseaseVagina DiseaseOtherMarket By GeographyNorth AmericaUSCanadaMexicoEuropeUKGermanyFranceRest of EuropeAsia-PacificChinaJapanIndiaAustraliaRest of Asia-PacificLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East and Africa (MEA)South AfricaSaudi ArabiaRest of MEAReasons to Buy this ReportThe 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 activitiesDevelop business strategies by understanding the market dynamics and developments driving the Digital Electronic Colposcope Market Analysis - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 - 2026Develop market-entry strategies and effective ways to sustain competitionCreate merger and acquisition opportunities by identifying the market players with the most innovative pipelinesIdentify the regional market potential which would further help in designing regional market strategiesUnderstand the competitive scenario in the Digital Electronic Colposcope Market Analysis - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends and Forecast, 2018 - 2026Take more informed business decisions by relying on the insightful opinions from industry expertsWhy Acumen Research and Consulting?Technically acclaimed Analysts with complete industry knowhowRobust research methodology followed by our publishers to arrive at market estimatesFocus on technology trendsExtensive repository of market research reports to meet our clients needsBased on extensive research, we provide clear view of real market scenario and help clients with making informed business decisionsAsk Query Here: frank@acumenresearchandconsulting.com or sales@acumenresearchandconsulting.comInquiry Before Buying@To Purchase this Premium Report@GlobalQYResearch () is the one spot destination for all your research needs. GlobalQYResearch holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Unit1, 26 Cleveland Road, South Woodford, London, E182AN, United KingdomBiological Safety Testing Market with Business Key Players  Lonza Group, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, SGS S.A., Wuxi Pharmatech (Cayman) Inc, Avance Biosciences Inc.,

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The report on Global Biological Safety Testing Market describes an in-depth study of the market aspects such as the product definition, growth rate and current size of the industry. A broad analysis of the consumer demands, futuristic growth opportunities, and prevailing trends are also drafted in the report.Get Sample Copy of this report:Biological Safety Testing prevents large-scale loss of biological integrity that focuses on ecosystems and human health. These preventive mechanisms include routine review of biosafety in the laboratory environment and strict guidelines to follow. Biosafety is used to protect against harmful accidents. Many laboratories dealing with biological risks use ongoing risk management assessment and enforcement processes for biosafety. Failure to follow such protocols may increase the risk of exposure to living organisms or pathogens. Human error and lack of skills can affect unnecessary exposures and damage the best safeguards set for protectionReporting provides a basic overview of the enterprise including definition, classification, application and enterprise chain structure. Biological Safety Testing Market analysis is provided to European markets, including development trends, competitive landscape analysis and key regional development status. Development policies and plans, as well as manufacturing processes and Bill of Materials (BOM) cost structures are discussed. This report also includes import / export consumption, supply and demand figures, costs, prices, sales and gross margins.Some of the leading Key Venders: Lonza Group, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, SGS S.A., Wuxi Pharmatech (Cayman) Inc, Avance Biosciences Inc., Bsl Bioservice, Cytovance Biologics, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Toxikon CorporationMarket research reports show that current market standards provide fair representation of market participants' recent strategy development and patterns. This report is used as an estimated business document that can help market buyers plan the next steps towards the future of the marketEarly buyers will receive up to 40% Discount on this report:Table of Content:Global Biological Safety Testing Market Report 2018Chapter 1 -Industry Overview of Biological Safety Testing MarketChapter 2-Manufacturing Cost Structure MarketChapter 3-Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants MarketChapter 4-Global Biological Safety Testing Overall Market OverviewChapter 5 -Biological Safety Testing Regional Market AnalysisChapter 6-Major Manufacturers Analysis of Biological Safety TestingChapter 7-Development Trend of Analysis of Biological Safety Testing MarketChapter 8 -Biological Safety Testing Marketing Type AnalysisChapter 9-Conclusion of the Global Market Professional Survey Report 2018Chapter 10- AppendixEnquiry before buying this report:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Jones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comOrganic Honey Market Projected To Reach US$ 150 Mn At 7.2% CAGR Till 2022 | Global Key Players - Glorybee Inc., Little Bee Impex, Madhava Honey Ltd., Wholesome Sweeteners Inc., Y.S. Eco Bee Farms, North Dallas Honey Company L.P.

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Global market for organic honey will continue to be influenced by rise in geriatric population, which significantly demands for products having nutritional benefits. In addition, implementation of standards for production of organic honey will further spur its demand by eco- and health-conscious consumers. This report, published by FactMR, provides in-depth analysis of the global Organic Honey Market for the forecast period 2017-2022, and offers key insights about future market direction.The scope of FactMRs report is to analyze the global organic honey market for the forecast period 2017-2022 and provide readers an unbiased and accurate analysis. Organic honey manufacturers, stakeholders, and suppliers in the global food & beverage sector can benefit from the analysis offered in this report. This report offers a comprehensive analysis, which can be of interest to leading trade magazines and journals pertaining to organic honey.You can Get Free Sample Report about Market Here -Organic honey is referred to honey produced by nectar obtained from bees, which were only fed with organically growth flowers. Various types of organic honey available in the market include clover honey, manuka honey, sourwood honey, buckwheat honey, rosemary honey, and dandelion honey.Market to Witness Consolidation Owing to M&As between Well-Established Players and Small BusinessesWith growing emphasis on leading healthy lifestyle, consumer preferences have inclined toward consumption of food products with natural ingredients, owing to concerns regarding chemical additives. This has significant positive influence on adoption of organic honey as well. With increased awareness about various types of organic honey, methods of its production, and health benefits are some primary factors driving adoption. All manufacturers who claim their product to be organic are required to comply with certain standards imposed by regulatory authorities, followed by a certification process to label their product organic. As certification for organic products is mandatory to ensure consumers about the product authenticity, small business face barriers in terms of cost. This is further resulting into consolidation of the market, as these small businesses are being eyed upon by well-established players for merger, or acquisition, for expanding their market presence. For example  Amazon recently announced its aim of acquiring Whole Foods Market, a supermarket chain with natural and organic food products, to boost its sales of organic honey.Manufacturers find it difficult to seek appropriate apiary sites favoring the organic honey standards. Higher transition time and capital is involved in production of organic honey. The production also includes other investments related to auditing, sampling, and certification. These factors might impede expansion of the market in the foreseeable future. Despite these challenges, FactMR has projected an impressive growth for the global organic honey market over the forecast period (2017-2022). Global sales of organic honey are estimated to exceed US$ 150 Mn by 2022-end.You can Browse Complete Market Report In-Depth Here -North America to be Fastest Expanding Market for Organic HoneyThe United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has mandated all manufacturers producing organic products to be USDA-certified, in order to label their products as organic. This might positively influence demand and sales of organic honey in North America. The region is expected to be the fastest expanding market for organic honey during 2017 to 2022.Manuka honey and buckwheat honey are anticipated to remain fast-selling types of organic honey. Revenues from sales of these two types of organic honey will account for over 30% share of the market during 2017 to 2022. Sourwood honey will register the lowest CAGR in the market through 2022.Organic Honey Sales for End Use in Food & Beverages to Register Robust Expansion through 2022Sales of organic honey for end use in food & beverages are projected to register a robust expansion, to surpass US$ 130 Mn in revenues by 2022-end. Revenues from end use of organic honey in pharmaceuticals & nutraceuticals will remain low, however sales in this end use segment is likely to witness a significant increase during the forecast period.Based on sales channel, Market Conditions for sales of organic honey in convenience stores and online sales will remain approximately similar throughout the forecast period. In terms of revenues, wholesaler/distributor will continue to be the largest sales channel for organic honey.In terms of packaging type, glass jars will continue to account for the largest revenue share of the market, and their sales are projected to rise at a CAGR of nearly 7% through 2022.Competition TrackingKey players identified by FactMR in its report on the global organic honey market include Glorybee Inc., Little Bee Impex, Madhava Honey Ltd., Wholesome Sweeteners Inc., Y.S. Eco Bee Farms, North Dallas Honey Company L.P., Heavenly Organics, LLC, Wedderspoon Organic Holdings, L.P., and Barkman Honey LLC.You can Buy This Market Report from Here -About FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized global market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact Us -FactMRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone @ +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.comWebsite:MRP Software 2018 Global Market Key Players  SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, E2 Shop System, TrueERP, ABAS USA  Analysis and Forecast to 2025

MRP Software Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3379679-global-mrp-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3379679-global-mrp-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025

www.wiseguyreports.com

WiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global MRP Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2018-2025 New Document to its Studies DatabaseThis report focuses on the global MRP Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the MRP Software development in United States, Europe and China.In 2017, the global MRP Software market size was million US$ and it is expected to reach million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of during 2018-2025.The key players covered in this studySAPOracleMicrosoft DynamicsE2 Shop SystemTrueERPABAS USAFishbowlSysproJobBOSSECi M1EpicorIQMSInfor ERPxTupleMIE Trak ProDeskeraProcessPro PremierRootstock SoftwareMRPEasyAdjutantRequest For Sample Report @Market segment by Type, the product can be split intoComputer-basedSaaSMarket segment by Application, split intoSmall BusinessMedium-sized BusinessLarge BusinessMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents:1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global MRP Software Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2013-2025)1.4.2 Computer-based1.4.3 SaaS1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global MRP Software Market Share by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 Small Business1.5.3 Medium-sized Business1.5.4 Large Business1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 MRP Software Market Size2.2 MRP Software Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 MRP Software Market Size by Regions (2013-2025)2.2.2 MRP Software Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities12 International Players Profiles12.1 SAP12.1.1 SAP Company Details12.1.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.1.3 MRP Software Introduction12.1.4 SAP Revenue in MRP Software Business (2013-2018)12.1.5 SAP Recent Development12.2 Oracle12.2.1 Oracle Company Details12.2.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.2.3 MRP Software Introduction12.2.4 Oracle Revenue in MRP Software Business (2013-2018)12.2.5 Oracle Recent Development12.3 Microsoft Dynamics12.3.1 Microsoft Dynamics Company Details12.3.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.3.3 MRP Software Introduction12.3.4 Microsoft Dynamics Revenue in MRP Software Business (2013-2018)12.3.5 Microsoft Dynamics Recent Development12.4 E2 Shop System12.4.1 E2 Shop System Company Details12.4.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.4.3 MRP Software Introduction12.4.4 E2 Shop System Revenue in MRP Software Business (2013-2018)12.4.5 E2 Shop System Recent Development12.5 TrueERP12.5.1 TrueERP Company Details12.5.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.5.3 MRP Software Introduction12.5.4 TrueERP Revenue in MRP Software Business (2013-2018)12.5.5 TrueERP Recent DevelopmentContinued.CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Address:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaTop Scenario: Petroleum Coke Market By Key Vendors: Shell, Valero Energy, ConocoPhillips, MPC 2018-2025

QyResearchReports

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https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-petroleum-coke-petcoke-sales-market-report-2018.htm

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Petroleum Coke to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) market status and forecast, categorizes the global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America).Petcoke (often abbreviated pet coke or petcoke) is a carbonaceous solid delivered from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes. Coking processes that can be employed for making petcoke include contact coking, fluid coking, flexicoking and delayed coking. Other coke has traditionally been delivered from coal.The major players covered in this reportShellValero EnergyConocoPhillipsMPCAsbury CarbonsExxonMobilAminco ResourceOthersFor more info, get sample report for FREE here:The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) sales, value, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);To analyze the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, to study the sales, value and market share of top players in these regions.Focuses on the key Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) players, to study the sales, 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 marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.Table of Contents1 Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Petroleum Coke (Petcoke)1.2 Classification of Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) by Product Category1.2.1 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Needle Coke Type1.2.4 Shot Coke Type1.2.5 Sponge Coke Type1.2.6 Honeycomb Coke Type1.2.7 Others1.3 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.1 Power1.3.2 Cement1.3.3 Aluminum1.3.4 Steel1.3.5 OthersBrowse Complete Research Report at:2 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.2.2 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Revenue and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.4 Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) (Volume) by Application3 United States Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.1.1 United States Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.2 United States Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.3 United States Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)3.2 United States Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)...List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Petroleum Coke (Petcoke)Figure Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales Volume Comparison (K Units) by Type (2013-2025)Figure Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017Figure Needle Coke Type Product PictureFigure Shot Coke Type Product PictureFigure Sponge Coke Type Product PictureFigure Honeycomb Coke Type Product PictureFigure Others Product PictureFigure Global Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) Sales Comparison (K Units) by Application (2013-2025)Figure Global Sales Market Share of Petroleum Coke (Petcoke) by Application in 2017Figure Power ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in PowerFigure Cement ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in CementFigure Aluminum ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in AluminumFigure Steel ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in Steel...About Us: QYResearchReports delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comLeprosy Vaccines Market to Witness Widespread Expansion During 2018 to 2028

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=1502

https://www.factmr.com/report/1502/leprosy-vaccines-market

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Leprosy is chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Leprosy is also referred to as Hansens disease. Leprosy affects the skin, mucosal surfaces of the upper respiratory tract, the peripheral nerves and the eyes. Leprosy can occur to the people of all ages from infant to geriatric. The exact reason for transmission of leprosy is not known but it is strongly believed that leprosy is transferred from a leprosy patient to a healthy person. The delay diagnosis of leprosy may cause some serious complication such as muscle weakness, erectile dysfunction, kidney failure, blindness, among others. The best way to prevent leprosy is to avoid contact with infected and untreated people and do vaccination with leprosy vaccines. Leprosy is a curable disease but it takes too much time to recover, hence doctors are prescribing the leprosy vaccines to infants. Leprosy vaccine was first introduced in 1921 by Dr. Albert Calmette and Dr. Cammille Guerin. BCG vaccine is the most commonly prescribed leprosy vaccines for the prevention of leprosy among the infants.Leprosy Vaccines Market: Drivers and RestraintsIncreasing prevalence of skin diseases is the primary factor driving the growth of Leprosy Vaccines market over the forecast period. Skin diseases such as leprosy and psoriasis are becoming common disease conditions in some of the countries in Asia-Pacific which is responsible for the robust growth of Leprosy Vaccines market. Rising government initiative and favorable reimbursement scenario for the Leprosy Vaccines will also propel the growth of Leprosy Vaccines market. On other hand, lack of awareness among people about leprosy vaccines will deter the growth of leprosy vaccines market to some extent. Additionally, the stringent regulatory scenario by FDA for the approval of vaccine will also be responsible for sluggish growth of the leprosy vaccines market during the forecast period.You can Get Free Sample Report Here @Leprosy Vaccines Market: SegmentationTentatively, the global leprosy vaccines market can be segmented on the basis of vaccine type, route of administration, distribution channel, and geography.Based on vaccine type, the global Leprosy Vaccines market is segmented as:BCGBCG + killed M. lepraeICRCMwHabanaVaccaeBased on route of administration, the global Leprosy Vaccines market is segmented as:OralInjectableBased on end user, the global Leprosy Vaccines market is segmented as:HospitalsAmbulatory Care CentersLeprosy Vaccines Market: OverviewThe leprosy vaccines market is expected to show exponential growth over the forecast period owing to rising patient pool of leprosy in Asia-Pacific. According to WHO, the prevalence of leprosy in 2015 was 176 cases per 10000 people. About 60% of world leprosy patients live in India. Therefore, India is the major market throughout the globe for leprosy vaccines. BCG vaccine is commonly prescribed by the physicians for Leprosy prevention, therefore by vaccine type BCG vaccine segment is expected to gain maximum market share over the forecast period for global leprosy vaccines market. But, BGC vaccine is not prescribed by the physicians in the U.S. because of the unproven effectiveness of the BCG vaccine as well as the low incidence of leprosy patients in America which is responsible for sluggish growth of leprosy vaccines market. Among all end users, ambulatory care center is the fastest growing segment in the global leprosy vaccines market due increasing number of vaccination in this end user facility.Report Analysis@Leprosy Vaccines Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global Leprosy Vaccines market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Asia-Pacific is expected to gain maximum market share for global leprosy vaccines in term of revenue owing to high patient pool of leprosy in India and China. After APEJ Leprosy Vaccines market is followed by Japan and Latin America owing to increasing awareness among the patient about Leprosy Vaccines in this regions. MEA is expected to grow at faster rate than other region for leprosy vaccines due to rising government initiative to for the awareness of Leprosy Vaccines. North America, Western Europe and Eastern Europe is the least lucrative market for Leprosy Vaccines due to lack of patient pool in these regions.Leprosy Vaccines Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players operating in the global Leprosy Vaccines Market are Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Organon Laboratories Lmt., Sanofi AG, GreenSignal Bio Pharma Private Limited, Merck & Co., Inc, and others.About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Follow us in Linkedin:Bra Cups Market 2018 - key Player Cosmo Lady, Aimer, Huijie, Embry, Wacoal Holdings,Triumph, Vivien Analysis & Forecast 2018 | MI Reports

Bra Cups Market 2018

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Description:Bra is a form-fitting undergarment designed to support a womans breasts. Convertible bra cups come in many shapes and sizes, but they all share the common goal of versatility.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Bra Cups in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, GlobalInfoResearchddle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Request For sample Report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversCosmo LadyAimerHuijieEmbryWacoal HoldingsTriumphVivienFast RetailingTutuannaPVHGunzeGlobalInfoResearchiowBYCMAS HoldingsHop LunP.H. GarmentGood PeopleGUJINVictorias SecretSBWSunfloraGokaldas ImagesLovableGracewellOleno GroupMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.)GlobalInfoResearchddle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversFull Cover Bra3/4 Cup Bra1/2 Cup BraMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoSpecialty StoresSupermarketE-commerceComplete Report Details @Table Of Content1 Market Overview1.1 Bra Cups Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Full Cover Bra1.2.2 3/4 Cup Bra1.2.3 1/2 Cup Bra1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Specialty Stores1.3.2 Supermarket1.3.3 E-commerce1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, GlobalInfoResearchddle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market DynaGlobalInfoResearchcs1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Cosmo Lady2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Cosmo Lady Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Aimer2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Aimer Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Huijie2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Huijie Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Embry2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Embry Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Wacoal Holdings2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Wacoal Holdings Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Triumph2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Triumph Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Vivien2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Vivien Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Fast Retailing2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Fast Retailing Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 Tutuanna2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Tutuanna Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 PVH2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 PVH Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 Gunze2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 Gunze Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 GlobalInfoResearchiow2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 GlobalInfoResearchiow Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.13 BYC2.13.1 Business Overview2.13.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.13.2.1 Type 12.13.2.2 Type 22.13.3 BYC Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.14 MAS Holdings2.14.1 Business Overview2.14.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.14.2.1 Type 12.14.2.2 Type 22.14.3 MAS Holdings Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.15 Hop Lun2.15.1 Business Overview2.15.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.15.2.1 Type 12.15.2.2 Type 22.15.3 Hop Lun Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.16 P.H. Garment2.16.1 Business Overview2.16.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.16.2.1 Type 12.16.2.2 Type 22.16.3 P.H. Garment Bra Cups Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.17 Good People2.17.1 Business Overview2.17.2 Bra Cups Type and Applications2.17.2.1 Type 12.17.2.2 Type 2Continued.CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.Smart Home Medical Device Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2018-2026

Smart Home Medical Device Market

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/111

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/111

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/toc/111

Post-discharge care plays an extremely important role in ensuring speedy and effective recovery of the patient. This is especially a matter of concern for the elderly as well as pediatric population who mostly spend their time at home and are usually dependent on someone else to ensure continued care. However, due to busy lifestyle of the populace in developed and emerging economies, post-discharge care is often hampered. This concern of family members as elderly people living alone is expected to favor growth of the market for smart home medical devices, such as fall detection system, bathroom sensors, monitoring and detecting systems and assisting systems. According to a Welfare Ministry Survey, in 2016, there were around 6.24 million people aged 65 and above were living alone in Japan. The increasing lonely deaths in the region is also a vital factor that is expected to favor the smart home medical device market.Request Sample Copy of this Business Report @Growing internet penetration favors growth of smart home medical devices market:Smart home medical device is latest and futuristic approach towards making life easier and secure. This revolutionary step by the medical devices company has affected the healthcare industry and the adoption rate for such technology in a positive way. While most consumers and healthcare organizations were skeptical about the technology, the scenario is rapidly changing, with higher adoption rate of such devices, a trend that is expected to continue over the forecast period. Furthermore, the wide availability of the smart home medical devices is a crucial block to fill the loop hole for acceptance of such devices and services. Easily available personal monitoring system and other electronic devices are expected to favor rise in adoption of smart home medical devices. Smart home basically defined as the residence that uses controllers to integrate the functions of the device installed at home. The controllers are connected through a computer that is connected via internet and the data of the respondent is recorded on cloud or on-premises data bank, which can be further monitored by the physician or caretaker accordingly.Download PDF Copy of this Business Report @Global smart home medical device market taxonomy:The global smart home medical device market is classified on the basis of following segments:Product Type:Detection and monitoring systemsAsthma detection kitGlucose monitoring systemOthers (blood pressure, weight variations)Back therapy kitDigital pillsWearableClothesWrist watchesAlert patchSmart contact lensOthersMattressBathroom accessoriesApplications:Medication ManagementGlucose managementDiagnosesTherapyAssistanceInfant careTelehealth managementOthers (feeding, voiding)Data StorageCloudOn-premisesModalityBenchtopWearableStandaloneAsk for TOC @About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comSexual Wellness Market 2018-2022: Market to Grow at a High CAGR to reach US$ 17530 million - Key Vendors are Church and Dwight, Doc Johnson, Karex Berhad, Lifestyles Holdco, LELO, Reckitt Benckiser

Sexual Wellness Market

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The Report Global Sexual Wellness Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants.Global Sexual Wellness Market Overview:Sexual Wellness market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 5.79% from 11250 million $ in 2014 to 13320 million $ in 2017, Sexual Wellness market size will be further expanded by 2022, The market size of the Sexual Wellness will reach 17530 million $.Request Report Sample@The demand for sexual products from emerging economies, increasing online retailers, growing incidences of AIDS/HIV and STDs and awareness about sexual wellness products are pushing strong market growth.On the Basis of Type, Based on Product segment, Sex toys industry has t gain more mainstream acceptance and availability.Regionally, Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest market which is led by India, China, Japan, and South Korea where sexual wellness products are popularity among users. Europe and North America witnessed to be the second and third largest market attributed by huge demand form premium sex toys and condoms along with water-based and silicone-based sexual lubricants.Purchase this premium research report with 118 Pages and No. of Table of contents, List of table atThe market is segmented and projected on the basis of major key players:1 Church and Dwight2 Doc Johnson3 Karex Berhad4 Lifestyles Holdco5 LELO6 Reckitt BenckiserThe Global Sexual Wellness Market is segmented into:The Market is segmented and projected on the basis of major Region Segmentation1 North America Country (United States, Canada)2 South America3 Asia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea)4 Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy)5 Other Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC)Grab Your Report at an Impressive Discount @The Market is segmented and projected on the basis of Product Type Segmentation1 Sex toys2 Condoms and contraceptives3 Personal lubricants4 Erotic lingerie5 OthersThe Market is segmented and projected on the basis of Industry Segmentation1 Retail stores2 Online platformsKey Questions Answered in this Report:1 What will the market size be in 2022?2 What are the key factors driving the Sexual Wellness Market?3 What are the challenges to market growth?4 Who are the key players in Sexual Wellness Market?5 What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key players?TABLE OF CONTENTS1 Sexual Wellness Definition2 Global Sexual Wellness Market Major Player Share and Market Overview3 Major Player Sexual Wellness Business Introduction4 Global Sexual Wellness Market Segmentation (Region Level)5 Global Sexual Wellness Market Segmentation (Type Level)6 Global Sexual Wellness Market Segmentation (Industry Level)7 Sexual Wellness Market Forecast 2018-20228 Sexual Wellness Segmentation Type9 Sexual Wellness Segmentation Industry10 Sexual Wellness Cost Analysis11 ConclusionAbout usBusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Media ContactBusiness Industry ReportsPune  Indiasales@businessindustryreports.com+19376349940Global Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Analysis, share, Key-Players- Microsoft, IBM, HP, Cisco Systems, Dell EMC, VMware & Forecast Insights Presented for the Period 2018-2025

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Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently broadcasted a new study to its broad research portfolio, which is titled as Global Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Analysis, share, Key-Players and Forecast Insights Presented for the Period 2018-2025 provides an in-depth analysis of the Software Defined Anything (SDx) with the forecast of market size and growth. The analysis includes addressable market, market by volume, market share by business type and by segment (external and in-house).The research study examines the "Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market " on the basis of a number of criteria, such as the product type, application, and its geographical presence.Download Sample Report #This report focuses on the global Software Defined Anything (SDx) status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Software Defined Anything (SDx) development in United States, Europe and China.Software-defined anything (SDx) is an important yet ambiguous term that refers to new changes happening in the IT world. It is a movement toward promoting a greater role for software systems in controlling different kinds of hardware - more specifically, making software more "in command" of multi-piece hardware systems and allowing for software control of a greater range of devices.The software-defined anything market based on vertical has been classified into telecom & ITES, BFSI, education, consumer goods & retail, logistics & warehouse, healthcare, government & defense, and others. The market for the healthcare vertical is expected to grow at the highest rate.The software-defined anything market based on deployment mode is divided into on-premises and cloud. The market for the on-premises mode is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The market for on-premise deployment mode is growing rapidly and gaining gradual momentum because of steady adoption in specialized end-use applications.North America is likely to hold the largest share of the market during the forecast period, growing at a significant CAGR. The North American software-defined anything market is driven by various factors such as technological advancements and early adoption of SDA-related technologies in this region.In 2017, the global Software Defined Anything (SDx) market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.The key players covered in this studyMicrosoftIBMHPCisco SystemsDell EMCVMwareCitrix SystemsNECFujitsuJuniper NetworksWestern DigitalMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoCloudOn PremiseMarket segment by Application, split intoTelecom & ITBFSIEducationConsumer Goods & RetailHealthcareGovernment & DefenseOtherMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze global Software Defined Anything (SDx) status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.To present the Software Defined Anything (SDx) development in United States, Europe and China.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.Download full Report with TOC #Table of Contents1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2013-2025)1.4.2 Cloud1.4.3 On Premise1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Share by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 Telecom & IT1.5.3 BFSI1.5.4 Education1.5.5 Consumer Goods & Retail1.5.6 Healthcare1.5.7 Government & Defense1.5.8 Other1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Size2.2 Software Defined Anything (SDx) Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Size by Regions (2013-2025)2.2.2 Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities3 Market Share by Key Players3.1 Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Size by Manufacturers3.1.1 Global Software Defined Anything (SDx) Revenue by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.2 Global Software Defined Anything (SDx) Revenue Market Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.3 Global Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)3.2 Software Defined Anything (SDx) Key Players Head office and Area Served3.3 Key Players Software Defined Anything (SDx) Product/Solution/Service3.4 Date of Enter into Software Defined Anything (SDx) Market3.5 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion PlansFor further Info. @@Enquire about this Report #About Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports of different sector like Software market research and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of industry reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News at:Diagnostic Testing of STDs Market : Growth, Capacity, Scope, Revenue, Key-Players, and Forecast until 2019

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Transparency Market Research has published a new report on the global diagnostic testing of STDs market. As per the report, the global diagnostic testing of STDs market is expected to expand at an 8.10% CAGR during the period from 2013 to 2019. The report, titled Diagnostic Testing of STDs Market  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013  2019, states that the global diagnostic testing of STDs market is expected to progress from US$65.9 bn in 2012 to US$108.5 bn by 2019.Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), as the name itself suggests, are diseases that spread through sexual contact. STDs are primarily caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites and majorly affects people of ages between 15 and 44 years. Globally, around 500 million new cases of STDs are registered yearly. Sexually transmitted diseases, if kept undiagnosed, may develop into critical complications for reproductive, maternal, and newborn health.Request a Brochure of the Report @The global diagnostic testing of STDs market is driven by the increasing incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. Some other factors expected to boost the global diagnostic testing of STDs market in the years to come are the implementation of national screening programs and favorable reimbursement for STDs. The global diagnostic testing of STDs market is expected to be affected by factors such as the large proportion of STD infected patients residing in out-of-reach areas and stringent government regulations for the market participants. However, factors such as niche opportunities for POC tests and increased number of national screening programs across all regions will propel the global diagnostic testing of STDs market in the coming few years. Declining visits to specialty GUM and STD clinics are expected to create more opportunities for private and public labs.The global diagnostic testing of STDs market is segmented on the basis of STD type, location, and region. Based on location, the global diagnostic testing of STDs market is classified into laboratory testing and point-of-care testing. At present, North America holds the highest share in the global diagnostic testing of STDs market, followed by Europe. Some of the prominent players in the global diagnostic testing of STDs market are bioMerieux, Becton Dickinson & Company, Danaher Corporation (Beckman Coulter), Hologic, Inc. (Gen-Probe), Roche Holdings AG, and Alere, Inc.Request a Sample of the Report @Based on region, the global diagnostic testing of STDs market is divided into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. By STD type, the global diagnostic testing of STDs market is classified into herpes simplex virus (HSV) testing, chancroid testing, human papilloma virus (HPV) testing, P&S syphilis testing, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing, gonorrhea testing, and chlamydia testing.HPV-caused cancer is a commonly found cervical cancer in women and HPV is a causative agent for approximately 99% women affected by cervical cancer. Every year, around 300,000 cervical cancer deaths are registered due to HPV. The HPV segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment of the global diagnostic testing of STDs market in the years to come, predicted to expand at a 70% CAGR from 2013 to 2019.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email:sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Injectable Drug Delivery Market 2017: Global Industry Top Key Players Pfizer, Baxter International Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, BD, and Terumo Medical Corporation

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According to ResearchForMarkets, the Global Injectable Drug Delivery market is expected to grow from $404.14 billion in 2017 to reach $1199.89 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 12.8%.Developments, product launches, joint ventures, merges and accusations are the moves that the top players in injectable drug delivery market are making which in turn affect the sales, import, export, and revenue and CAGR values.Increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, expansion in the biologics market and technological advances in the form of nanotechnologies are some of the factors propelling the market growth. However, growing injuries and the infections caused by needles is hampering the market growth.SOME OF THE KEY PLAYERS IN GLOBAL INJECTABLE DRUG DELIVERY MARKET AREBaxter International, Inc., ELI Lilly and Company, Terumo Corporation, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Pfizer, Inc., Gerresheimer AG, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Schott AG, Sandoz, Antares Pharma, Inc., Zogenix, Inc., Scandinavian Health Limited, Terumo Medical Corp., Ypsomed Holding AG, Unilife Corporation, Vetter Pharma-Fertigung GmbH & Co. KG and Nova Nordisk A/S.Request Free Sample Copy of the Report @Drug delivery is the method of administering a pharmaceutical compound into the body through different routes to achieve a therapeutic effect. Oral, injection-based, transdermal, and carrier-based are some of the types of drug delivery devices. Injectable drug delivery facilitates the rapid transport of a drug into the body by passing first-pass metabolism. It also helps in administering drugs in unconscious and comatose patients. It is used in conditions such as hormonal imbalance, cystic fibrosis, autoimmune diseases, pain, Wilsons disease, hemophilia, hepatitis C and ribose-5-phosphate isomerase deficiency.Based on formulation packaging, Ampules segment has a significant growth in the market owing to its good barrier properties as compared to other types of packaging. In addition they offer better protection at a lesser cost, ease of transportation and low costs of manufacturing are the factors driving the market in this segment.By Geography, North America was estimated to be the largest share for the market during the forecast period. The growth is attributed to the rising dominance of chronic diseases and the number of companies that are focused on collaboration and partnerships to ensure the availability of high-value products.Request for Report Brochure for Latest Industry Insights @The report includes market shares of Xyz market for global, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa.TYPES COVERED: Formulations DevicesFORMULATION PACKAGINGS COVERED: Cartridges Ampules Bottles VialsUSAGE PATTERNS COVERED: Immunization Curative Care Other Usage PatternsFACILITY OF USES COVERED: Home Care Settings Hospitals and Clinics Other Facilities of UseSITE OF ADMINISTRATIONS COVERED: Circulatory/Musculoskeletal System (Intravenous, Intracardiac, Intramuscular, and Intraperitoneal) Skin (Intradermal and Subcutaneous) Central Nervous System (Intracerebral and Intrathecal) Organs (Intravitreal and Intra-Articular)APPLICATIONS COVERED: Hormonal Disorders Autoimmune Diseases Cancer Orphan Diseases Cardiovascular diseases Neurology Addiction Respiratory Diseases Regenerative Medicine Oncology Other Therapeutic ApplicationsDISTRIBUTION CHANNELS COVERED: Retail Pharmacy Stores Hospitals E-CommerceEND USERS COVERED: Ambulatory Care Home Based Clinics/Physician Offices Other End UsersPlace a Purchase Order for Injectable Drug Delivery Market@Note: Any special requirements about this report, please let us know and we can provide custom report.About Research for Markets:Research for Markets indulges in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.Contact:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsTel: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)Email: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.comErectile Dysfunction Drugs Market Expected to reach USD 2.95 Billion with Booming CAGR | Changing Lifestyle and Increase in Lifestyle Disorders Favor the Growth  Says MRFR

Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market

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Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Information, By Products Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, Stendra, Zydena, Others, By End Users Hospitals, Clinics, Pharmaceutical Companies, Others - Forecast To 2023Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market - ScenarioInability to keep firm erection firm enough during sexual intercourse in known as erectile dysfunction. It is also known as impotence. It is a common medical disorder primarily affecting men older than 40 years of age. Stress and mental health concerns may worsen the problem of erectile dysfunction. Physical and psychological issues may also cause erectile dysfunction.Get Premium Sample Report Available @There is also an increase in the competition among the major market players. Patent expiry of number of blockbuster drugs, availability of counterfeit drugs and increasing manufactures of generic drugs in the market may result in the decline of erectile dysfunction drugs market. Global market of erectile dysfunction drugs is expected to reach USD 2.95 billion in 2023 from USD 1.65 billion in 2016 with a CAGR of approximately 6.5% during the forecast period 2017-2023.Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market - Key PlayersPfizer Inc. (U.S), Bayer AG (Germany), Eli Lily & Co. (U.S), DongA Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Apricus Biosciences Inc.(U.S), S.K. Chemicals Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Apricus Biosciences Inc. (U.S), Cristalia Produtos Quimicos Farmaceuticos Ltd. (Brazil), Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., (South Korea), Meda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (U.S), Vivus, Inc. (U.S), and others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global erectile dysfunction drugs market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market  SegmentationGlobal Erectile dysfunction drugs market has been segmented on the basis of product which includes Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, Stendra, Zydena and other drugs and on the basis of end users the market is segmented into Hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies and others.Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market - Study objectivesMain objective of this research is to provide information about erectile dysfunction drugs market, products and end users.To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next seven years of the various segments and sub-segments of the erectile dysfunction drugs market.Browse Complete Report @To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa.To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by products, by end users and its sub-segments.To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market.To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global erectile dysfunction drugs market.Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market - Regional AnalysisGeographically, the regional market is segmented into America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.The Americas account for the major share of the market owing to the presence of patient population, well-developed technology, and high healthcare expenditure. According to University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority, about 5 percent of men that are 40 years old have complete erectile dysfunction, and that number increases to about 15 percent of men at age 70. Mild and moderate erectile dysfunction affects approximately 10 percent of men per decade of life.Europe holds the major share of the market, which is majorly contributed by Germany, the U.K., and France. According to the UK Health Centre, 50 percent of men that smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have a higher chance of developing erectile dysfunction. Furthermore, as per a study recently presented at the European Association of Urology showed that erectile dysfunction isnt being treated very often, with only 25.4 percent of men in the being treated for the condition.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market owing to rapidly changing healthcare sector, and the presence of huge opportunities for the development of this market. However, the Middle East & Africa has the least share in the market owing to the presence of poor and slow developing countries, especially, in African region. The Middle East holds the major share of the regional market due to well-developed technology and high spending.MAJOR TABLE OF CONTENTS:1. Report Prologue2. Introduction3. Research Methodology4. Market Dynamics5. Market Factor Analysis6. Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market By Product7. Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market By End Users8. Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market By Region9 Competitive Landscape10 Company Profile11 Conclusion12 AppendixGet Exclusive Discount @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Reprocessed Medical Devices Market, By Technique, and Geography - Insights, Size, Share, Opportunity Analysis, and Industry Forecast till 2025

Reprocessed Medical Devices

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Reprocessed medical devices are single-use medical devices, which are recycled by disinfection, cleaning, remanufacturing, testing, packaging and labeling, and sterilization and various other steps to make a used medical devices back in service again. All reprocessed devices are originally labeled as single- use medical devices and need to meet the requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration such as, cleaning, sterility and functionality prior to use. Research publication related to medical devices market suggested that firstly medical devices reprocessing was mostly performed by hospital staffs within hospital setting without any proper guidelines. However, with the introduction of FDA reprocessing guidelines published in year 2015 by the U.S. department of Health and Services which provides recommendations for the formulation and scientific validation of reprocessing instructions for reusable medical devices, medical reprocessing was adopted all over the globe. Now mostly hospital outsource the single-used medical devices to get reprocessed by third party. Whereas, continuously increase in amount of medical waste and lack of proper disposal mechanism brings reprocessed medical devices into the market. And hence the reprocessed medical devices annually, around 95% are recycled rather than dumping it into landfills.Request Sample Copy of this Business Report @Furthermore, reprocessed medical devices are available in less cost than its original price thus reprocessed medical devices are cost effective with same efficacy as the new product with no threat to patient.Market DynamicsRise in incidence of cardiovascular disease due to increase in the prevalence of high blood pressure and diabetes worldwide is expected to favor the demand for reprocessed medical devices around the globe. As cardiovascular devices such as blood pressure cuffs, cardiac stabilization and positioning devices, catheters or general surgery devices can be reprocessed.In year 2015, according to World Health Organization (W.H.O) estimated that around 17.7 million people died due to cardiovascular disease worldwide. Furthermore, the majority of deaths are occurred in emerging economies due to high prevalence rate and lack of healthcare services in rural areas.Also, due to rising demand for minimally invasive treatment laparoscopy is the other factor leading to growth of reprocessed medical devices market in developed as well as developing regions. Where laparoscopic devices such as endoscopic trocars, components and harmonic scalpels.According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in year 2015 number of adults diagnosed by ulcers in the U.S. that was 6.1% of adult diagnosed with ulcers.Market TaxonomyThe report segments the global reprocessed medical devices market on basis of technique and geography. On the basis of technique, the market is categorized into laparoscopic devices, gastroenterology, general surgery, orthopedic devices and cardiovascular devices. Among these, the cardiovascular devices segment dominate the reprocessed devices market throughout the forecast period. On the basis of geography, the market is divided into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. Among all regions, North America contributes major market share supported by increased incidence rate of cardiovascular disease and growing inclination of the population towards minimally invasive procedures.Ask for Customization @Key features of the study:This report provides in-depth analysis of the reprocessed devices market and provides market size (US$ Mn) and Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) (%) for the forecast period (20172025)It elucidates potential revenue opportunity across different segments and explains attractive investment proposition matrix for this market. It provides valuable insights about market drivers, restraints, opportunities, new product launches or approval, pipeline products, regional outlook, and competitive strategy adopted by the leading playersIt profiles leading players in the global reprocessed medical devices market based on the following parameters  company overview, financial performance, product portfolio, geographical presence, key developments, and future plansInsights from this report would allow marketers and the management authorities of the companies to make informed decisions with respect to their future product launch, market expansion, and marketing tacticsThe global reprocessed medical devices market report caters to various stakeholders in this industry, including investors, product developers, distributors, healthcare companies, research institutes, medical devices companies, new entrants, and financial analystsStakeholders would greatly benefit in decision-making through the various strategy matrices used in analyzing the reprocessed medical devices marketDetailed SegmentationGlobal Reprocessed Medical Devices Market, By TechniqueLaparoscopic DevicesGastroenterologyGeneral SurgeryOrthopedic DevicesCardiovascular DevicesGlobal Reprocessed Medical Devices Market, By Geography:North AmericaNorth America Reprocessed Medical Devices Market, By Technique:Laparoscopic DevicesGastroenterologyGeneral SurgeryOrthopedic DevicesCardiovascular DevicesNorth America Reprocessed medical devices Market, By Country:U.S.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comLatest Report On High Speed Servo Motors Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players  Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Siemens AG, Kollmorgen, ABB ltd

High Speed Servo Motors Market

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High Speed Servo Motors Industry research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.Get FREE Sample Report Before Buying @UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on GlobalHigh Speed Servo Motors Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 147 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.High Speed Servo Motors Industry research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to theHigh Speed Servo Motors Industry global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2018  2023.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.The generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report forHigh Speed Servo Motors market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region-wise Analysis GlobalHigh Speed Servo Motors Market covers: North America Europe China Japan Rest APAC Latin AmericaThe Major players reported in the market include: Yaskawa Electric Corporation Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Siemens AG Schneider Electric Rockwell Automation Inc. ABB ltd. Delta Electronics, Inc. KollmorgenFor More Information, Please Visit https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/3366GlobalHigh Speed Servo Motors Market: Product Segment Analysis: AC Servo Motors/Drives DC Servo Motors/DrivesGlobalHigh Speed Servo Motors Market: Application Segment Analysis: Semiconductor Biotechnology/ Pharmaceutical OtherThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Overview of High Speed Servo Motors Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types Chapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry Chapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of High Speed Servo Motors Chapter 6High Speed Servo Motors Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 7High Speed Servo Motors Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of High Speed Servo Motors Chapter 9 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of High Speed Servo Motors Chapter 10 Marketing Status Analysis of High Speed Servo Motors Chapter 11 Report Conclusion Chapter 12 Research Methodology and ReferenceBuyHigh Speed Servo Motors Market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 Report along with complete TOC @High Speed Servo Motors Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market-driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real-time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real-time scenario.Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the GlobalHigh Speed Servo Motors Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 and its commercial landscape. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects forHigh Speed Servo Motors market analysis and forecast 2018-2023.Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.You can also ask for region wise market research report, as below: High Speed Servo Motors-Global Market Status & Trend Report 2013-2023 Top 20 Countries Data High Speed Servo Motors-North America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 High Speed Servo Motors-South America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 High Speed Servo Motors-Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 High Speed Servo Motors-EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 High Speed Servo Motors-Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 High Speed Servo Motors-China Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 High Speed Servo Motors-India Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 High Speed Servo Motors-United States Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500, East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.Clinical Perinatal Software Market Ready to Reach at ~7.2% with General Electric, Edan Instruments, Inc., Huntleigh Healthcare Limited, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V, K2 Medical Systems and More till 2023

Clinical Perinatal Software Market

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MarketResearchFuture.com Provide Premium Research Reports of every sector which is made by Professional Researcher with the fresh Content ever and this time Added Premium Research Reports on Global Clinical Perinatal Software Market 2023 Which is Belongs to the Life Science Category So it helps to Organizations to take Major Decisions and it also Help to Analysis of Market Growth.The Global Clinical Perinatal Software Market is growing at a steady pace and is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~7.2 % during review period 2017-2023.Key Players in the Global Clinical Perinatal Software Market:General Electric, Edan Instruments, Inc., Huntleigh Healthcare Limited, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V, K2 Medical Systems, PeriGen, Inc, Cerner Corporation, Trium Analysis Online, and others.Get Sample Copy @Market Scenario:The clinical perinatal software monitor health of fetus and pregnant women. It provides information about any complexity that may arise during the prenatal period, which helps to minimize the problems during the pregnancy.Increasing awareness and a rising birth rate & post-date pregnancy drive the growth of the market. Moreover, increasing healthcare expenditure, continuous development in technology, and increasing government support for research & development likely to boost the demand for the software. On the other hand, complex user interface and high cost of the software may slow the market growth over the assessment period.Key Findings:The Global Clinical Perinatal Software Market and is expected to reach USD 60 million by 2023.Integrated software segment on the basis of products holds the largest share of 75.8% of the market.Americas holds the largest market share of 39.2% of clinical perinatal software market and is anticipated to reach USD 93 million by the end of the forecast period.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region across the globe and expected to grow at a rate of CAGR 7.8% during the forecast period.The report gives a clear picture of the current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regionsSegments:Clinical Perinatal Software Market has been segmented on the basis of products, which comprises of integrated software and standalone software.On the basic of services, the market is segmented into implementation services, support & maintenance services, training service, customization services, and online resources.On the basic of deployed models, the market is segmented on-premises and cloud-based.On the basis of applications, the market is segmented into fetal monitor data services, workflow management, and patient documentation.On the basis of end users, it is segmented into hospital & clinics and maternity clinics.Get Premium Discount @Regional Analysis of the Global Clinical Perinatal Software Market:The Americas region accounted for a lion share of USD 65.31 million in 2016, owing to the well-developed technology, high healthcare expenditure, and the presence of the leading players.Europe is the second largest market that holds a noticeable share of the global clinical perinatal software market. The European market is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period owing to well-developed healthcare infrastructure and increasing investment in healthcare. Germany, the UK, and France contribute significantly to the growth of the European market.In Asia Pacific, rising number of hospitals, increasing need for better diagnostic methods, and demand for cost-effective treatment & diagnostics services are the key factors for the market growth.The Middle East & Africa is expected to show steady growth in this market due to low technology penetration and less availability of innovative healthcare technologies.TABLE OF CONTENTS1 Report Prologue2 Introduction2.1 Scope of Study2.2 Research Objective2.3 Assumptions & Limitations2.3.1 Assumptions2.3.2 Limitations2.4 Market Structure3 Research Methodology3.1 Primary Research3.2 Secondary Research3.3 Market Size Estimation3.3.1 Market Share Analysis3.4 Market Pricing Approach4 Market Dynamics4.1 Introduction4.2 Drivers4.2.1 Technological Development in the Perinatal Software4.2.2 Increasing Birth Rates and Postdate Pregnancy4.2.3 Increasing Adoption of Healthcare It4.3 Restraints4.3.1 High Cost of the Software4.3.2 Complexity in Operating the Software4.4 Opportunities4.4.1 Positive Approach of Government towards Healthcare Sector4.5 Mega Trends4.5.1 Increasing Popularity of Cloud-Based Deployment Model4.6 Macroeconomic IndicatorsContinued!Enquiry about Reports @Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSolar Trackers 2018 Global Market Key Players  Mahindra Susten, Convert Italia, NClave, SunLink, Grupo Clavijo, Solar Steel, Sun Action Trackers -Analysis And Forecast To 2023

Solar Trackers Market 2018

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Solar Trackers Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Solar Trackers  Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Description:The Solar Trackers market revenue was xx.xx Million USD in 2013, grew to xx.xx Million USD in 2017, and will reach xx.xx Million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of x.x% during 2018-2023. Based on the Solar Trackers industrial chain, this report mainly elaborate the definition, types, applications and major players of Solar Trackers market in details. Deep analysis about market status (2013-2018), enterprise competition pattern, advantages and disadvantages of enterprise Products, industry development trends (2018-2023), regional industrial layout characteristics and macroeconomic policies, industrial policy has also be included. From raw materials to downstream buyers of this industry will be analyzed scientifically, the feature of product circulation and sales channel will be presented as well. In a word, this report will help you to establish a panorama of industrial development and characteristics of the Solar Trackers market.The Solar Trackers market can be split based on product types, major applications, and important regions.Major Players in Solar Trackers market are:Mahindra SustenConvert ItaliaNClaveSunLinkGrupo ClavijoSolar SteelScorpius TrackersFirst SolarSoltecNEXTrackerSTi NorlandSun Action TrackersExosunIdeematecSunPowerArctech SolarPV HardwareArray TechnologiesRequest for Sample Report @Major Regions play vital role in Solar Trackers market are:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanMiddle East & AfricaIndiaSouth AmericaOthersMost important types of Solar Trackers products covered in this report are:Single Axis Solar TrackersDual Axis Solar TrackersMost widely used downstream fields of Solar Trackers market covered in this report are:UtilityNon-UtilityEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Content:Global Solar Trackers Industry Market Research Report1 Solar Trackers Introduction and Market Overview1.1 Objectives of the Study1.2 Definition of Solar Trackers1.3 Solar Trackers Market Scope and Market Size Estimation1.3.1 Market Concentration Ratio and Market Maturity Analysis1.3.2 Global Solar Trackers Value ($) and Growth Rate from 2013-20231.4 Market Segmentation1.4.1 Types of Solar Trackers1.4.2 Applications of Solar Trackers1.4.3 Research Regions1.4.3.1 North America Solar Trackers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.2 Europe Solar Trackers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.3 China Solar Trackers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.4 Japan Solar Trackers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.5 Middle East & Africa Solar Trackers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.6 India Solar Trackers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.4.3.7 South America Solar Trackers Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2013-2018)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Drivers1.5.1.1 Emerging Countries of Solar Trackers1.5.1.2 Growing Market of Solar Trackers1.5.2 Limitations1.5.3 Opportunities1.6 Industry News and Policies by Regions1.6.1 Industry News1.6.2 Industry Policies8 Competitive Landscape8.1 Competitive Profile8.2 Mahindra Susten8.2.1 Company Profiles8.2.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.2.3 Mahindra Susten Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.2.4 Mahindra Susten Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.3 Convert Italia8.3.1 Company Profiles8.3.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.3.3 Convert Italia Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.3.4 Convert Italia Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.4 NClave8.4.1 Company Profiles8.4.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.4.3 NClave Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.4.4 NClave Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.5 SunLink8.5.1 Company Profiles8.5.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.5.3 SunLink Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.5.4 SunLink Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.6 Grupo Clavijo8.6.1 Company Profiles8.6.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.6.3 Grupo Clavijo Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.6.4 Grupo Clavijo Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.7 Solar Steel8.7.1 Company Profiles8.7.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.7.3 Solar Steel Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.7.4 Solar Steel Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.8 Scorpius Trackers8.8.1 Company Profiles8.8.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.8.3 Scorpius Trackers Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.8.4 Scorpius Trackers Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.9 First Solar8.9.1 Company Profiles8.9.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.9.3 First Solar Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.9.4 First Solar Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.10 Soltec8.10.1 Company Profiles8.10.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.10.3 Soltec Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.10.4 Soltec Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.11 NEXTracker8.11.1 Company Profiles8.11.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.11.3 NEXTracker Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.11.4 NEXTracker Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.12 STi Norland8.12.1 Company Profiles8.12.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.12.3 STi Norland Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.12.4 STi Norland Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.13 Sun Action Trackers8.13.1 Company Profiles8.13.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.13.3 Sun Action Trackers Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.13.4 Sun Action Trackers Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.14 Exosun8.14.1 Company Profiles8.14.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.14.3 Exosun Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.14.4 Exosun Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.15 Ideematec8.15.1 Company Profiles8.15.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.15.3 Ideematec Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.15.4 Ideematec Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.16 SunPower8.16.1 Company Profiles8.16.2 Solar Trackers Product Introduction8.16.3 SunPower Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2013-2018E8.16.4 SunPower Market Share of Solar Trackers Segmented by Region in 20178.17 Arctech Solar8.18 PV Hardware8.19 Array TechnologiesContinued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Black Haircarenning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042The Afterlife Is A Fact And Near-Death Experience Research Gives Us The Proof Says Award-Winning Author Bernard Fleury

Author Bernard Fleury

http://www.intolifebylight.com

For nearly everybody, death is a primary fear. For many of us, this fear and sense of dread stem from our lack of knowledge about an event we will certainly face. In the past, faith was the only thing that could provide us with any sense of reassurance whatsoever. But now, thanks to modern science, we have real hope based on scientific evidence.What if we could find peace of mind in the face of inevitable death? What if we could gain assurance that a world of light and a Being of Light awaits us when we die? As the title of Bernard Fleury's book suggests, 'Near-Death Experience: Out of The Darkness Into The Light' is an account of the near-death experience that presents a sweeping overview of what this experience is - as reported by leading researchers in several major studies.The near-death experience has been documented at length and in detail in hundreds of books. Fleury agrees with Melvin Morse M.D., that near-death experiences are simply natural signs (not paranormal) that many scientists continue to ignore."Until October 2, 2015 my study of near-death experiences was primarily centered on the research of Raymond Moody M.D., Melvin Morse M.D., Pim Van Lommel M.D., Kenneth Ring Ph.D., and Bruce Greyson M.D., who developed a list of nine stages of the near-death experience," Fleury stated. "That list, plus Eadies Twelve Stages/Points in her personal near-death experience was the focus of my focused search for the light in the near-death experience.""Then I came across J. Steve Millers website. I saw his book, 'Near-Death Experiences As Evidence For The Existence Of God And Heaven'. He related vividly detailed stories from Dr. Pim van Lommels resuscitated patients in a Dutch Hospital regarding their trips to the other side. These are included in the ebook."During the same search to update my near-death information I found a researcher I was totally unacquainted with, P.M.H. Atwater who had been actively engaged in near-death research since 1978. She used an interview technique based on police investigations learned from her father. There are 3,000 adult experiencers and 277 child experiencers in her research base. This is covered in Chapter Two. She discovered four distinctive patterns of the near-death experience."I wrote this book as part of the Called into Life by the Light Series of five e-Books/Audio Books that present the phenomenon of light in the various ways it enters human life and experience. This e-Book/Audio Book presents the ways that a near-death experience that involves light affects the experiencers life forever."Nearly all of Bernard's books center squarely on the theme of Light as a Someone and a Something. He believes we are all Called Into Life By The Light. Life and Light are tied together. Lifelight describes their relationship best because both our without (our physical being) and our within (our spirit) are basically light in two different forms:1. Physical energy that occupies space, has weight, can be measured, and2. Psychic or spiritual energy which is a force that causes things to happen and, thus, real energy, but it does not occupy space, have weight, nor can it be empirically measured.Fleury has received high praise for his work from readers and reviewers. His 'Light' book series has received numerous 5-star rated reviews. He was chosen as one of 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading in the 2017 Book Awards. That honor came as a result of his appearance on The Authors Show. He was chosen from a field of hundreds of authors through a public voting process.Bernard Fleury is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below, or by email at bernlida@comcast.net. The Mind-Body-Spirit Connection in the Medicine of Light is available at online retail book outlets. More information is available at his website.Bernard Fleury is Professor Emeritus at Westfield State University and a Roman Catholic Permanent Deacon. He holds an A.A. degree in Classical Languages, a B.A. in History, a M.S. in Elementary Education with a minor in Philosophy, and an Ed.D. in Administration with a minor in Government. He taught in both the undergraduate and graduate divisions at Westfield State University for thirty years and was a Public School teacher and principal for thirteen years. He also served as Director of School Administration at Westfield State University, and as Director of Teacher Education, Academic Vice President, and President protem at International College of the Cayman Islands over a sixteen-year period. At present he is a corporator in the Westfield State University Foundation. He has also worn a third hat as an ordained Catholic Permanent Deacon for the past thirty five years.PO Box 1613Shallotte, NC 28459Embolic Protection Devices Market Outlook | Prominent Players: Abbott Laboratories, Cardinal Health, Medtronic, Boston Scientific

Embolic Protection Devices Market

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The Embolic Protection Devices Market size is set to exceed USD 1.8 billion by 2024; according to a new research study published by Global Market Insights, Inc.Rising prevalence of cardiac diseases along with shift towards minimally invasive procedures is likely to stimulate embolic protection devices market growth. According to American Heart Association, cardiovascular diseases are identified to be the most common cause of death globally, claiming more than 17 million deaths in 2013. Citing this, various companies strive to enter the market by developing devices to protect brain injuries during various cardiac procedures.Request for a sample of this research report @The demand for embolic protection devices is predominantly driven by the increasing adoption of minimally invasive heart procedures such as carotid artery stenting and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Moreover, growing awareness among physicians regarding risks of brain injuries during cardiovascular interventions should drive the market penetration of embolic protection devices.Increasing aging population has further contributed to rise in number of cardiovascular disease deaths globally. According to estimates, the percentage of population aged 60 and above is likely to reach to 1.6 billion by 2050. Since, aging is one of the significant factors responsible for cardiovascular diseases, the potential patient pool serves as a huge market opportunity for embolic protection devices in the coming years.Growing patient awareness regarding peripheral vascular diseases and coronary artery diseases stands to be another significant factor driving the embolic protection devices market. Various government bodies, educational and non-government institutes are engaged spreading awareness about diseases and its treatment by launching awareness programs.However, strict regulatory framework, and lack of notable reimbursement in certain countries may restrain embolic protection devices industry during the forecast timeframe. Moreover, increasing competition from new device manufacturers has created price competition, which may decrease the average selling prices in the years to come.Browse key industry insights spread across 120 pages with 61 market data tables & 10 figures & charts from the report, Embolic Protection Devices Market Size By Product (Proximal Occlusion Systems, Distal Occlusion Systems, Distal Filters) By Application (Carotid Artery Diseases, Coronary Artery Diseases, Peripheral Vascular Diseases, Others) Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE) Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 in detail along with the table of contents.Carotid artery diseases segment contributed largest share to the overall embolic protection devices market, mainly due to increase in the number of carotid artery stenting procedures. The adoption of minimally invasive procedures has led to popularity of carotid artery stenting over carotid endarterectomy. Further, increasing prevalence of carotid artery diseases should drive the segment growth during forecast period.Peripheral artery diseases segment represents a significant market opportunity, since this segment is less penetrated. Embolic protection is required to prevent blood clots travelling into blood stream during peripheral artery interventions.Distal filters are the largest revenue generators in embolic protection devices market owing to the advantages offered such as easy deployment, maintenance of antegrade blood flow, and non-interference with lesion visualization. Most of the manufacturers operating in this industry provide distal filter embolic protection devices.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @U.S. dominated the embolic protection devices market in 2016. The largest share of the region should be attributed to increasing aging population. People aged 65 and above are set to increase to 20% of U.S. population in 2030 from 13% in 2000. In addition, increased adoption of new technologies to reap immediate benefits and favorable reimbursement scenario should further propel embolic protection devices market.Japan was the largest embolic protection devices market in Asia Pacific region, followed by China and India in 2016. India and China are likely to witness lucrative growth during forecast period owing to rapid developments in healthcare infrastructure, increasing income levels, and presence of large patient pool of cardiovascular diseases.Prominent industry players include Abbott Laboratories, Cardinal Health, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Gore Medical, Claret Medical, Allium Medical, Innovative Cardiovascular Solutions, Edward Lifesciences, and Transverse Medical among others. In order to further strengthen its competitive advantage, the market players are investing into research and development of embolic protection devices for expanded clinical applications such as cerebral emboli protection and lower extremities procedures.Global Market Insights Inc. is a global market research and management consulting company catering to leading corporations, non-profit organizations, universities and government institutions. Our main goal is to assist and partner organizations to make lasting strategic improvements and realize growth targets. Our industry research reports are designed to provide granular quantitative information, combined with key industry insights, aimed at assisting sustainable organizational development.Global Market Insights, Inc.4 North Main StreetSelbyville, Delaware 19975 USAPhone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email:sales@gminsights.comSuccinic Acid Market Key Vendor Strategies | Key Players are Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Kawasaki Kasei Chemicals Ltd

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Succinic acid, also known as succinate is present in the tissues of animals and plants, where it plays a key role in the metabolic process. The name succinic acid is derived from the Latin succinum, meaning amber, and earlier it was also known as "spirit of amber." Succinic acid is either extracted from amber, manufactured synthetically or prepared through a fermentation process. Succinic acid is used as a supplement to treat arthritis and other pain as well as the hot flashes and irritability associated with menopause. Succinic is also used to some extent in the textile industry for shrink proofing wool and as a modifier for various processes such as improving dyeing ability of polyester resin, improving fire resistance, viscosity and stability of caprolactum.Succinic acid is used to make lacquers, resins, and other coatings as its use advances the hardness and flexibility of these materials and reduces drying times compared to similar products that use petrochemicals. It is also used in the manufacture of adhesives and sealants, dyes, in photography and in the manufacture of some polyesters. It is used as an additive to regulate acidity in foods and medicines for humans and animals.Download PDF Brochure @Succinic acid is widely used in the food and beverage industry as a pH and acidity regulator in various food production processes. In addition to this, it is also used in biodegradable solvents and lubricants, adhesive and powder coating, corrosion inhibition, for curing epoxy resins and as a plasticizer for polymers. In agriculture succinic acid is used as root stimulator for grapes, in seed treatment to enhance germination, as a component for barley seed antismut treatment, soil chelating agent and for accelerating and regulating plant growth.Succinic Acid Market Outlook  Increasing Pharmaceutical Applications to be the Major Market DriverAsia Pacific and North America are expected to be the most potential markets for plastic additives manufacturers. Asia Pacific is projected to witness relatively high growth in terms of value over the forecast period. This is mainly attributed to the anticipated growth in pharmaceutical industry, especially in developing countries such as China and India. According to IBEF, US$ 55 billion will be generated by the Indian pharmaceutical industry by 2026. In addition to this the growing medical tourism in India has boosted the growth of succinic acid market in the region. India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) is a Trust established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce in collaboration with the Government of India with the purpose of promoting and creating international awareness of goods manufactured in India.Various applications of succinic acid in pharmaceutical, inks and dyes are fueling the growth of succinic acid market, especially in Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Development of bio-based succinic acid for various applications is a key strategy adopted by the major players in the succinic acid market. BioAmber, a leading manufacturer of succinic acid which has application in the production of industrial lubricants, paints and coatings, cosmetics and personal care products, sealants, adhesives, artificial leathers, food and flavor additives, biodegradable plastics, nylons, dyes & pigments, phthalate-free plasticizers and pharmaceutical compounds. Some of the major companies operating in the global succinic acid market include Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Kawasaki Kasei Chemicals Ltd., BioAmber, Myriant , Reverdia (Netherlands), Succinity, Nippon Shokubai, , Linyi Lixing Chemical Co., Ltd, , Anhui Sunsing Chemicals, and Gadiv Petrochemical Industries Ltd.Why this is useful Report to youThis report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamicsIt provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growthIt provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to growIt helps in understanding the key product segments and their futureIt provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitorsIt helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsFor More Information @About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comTop Winning Strategies for 3D Printing Materials Market by 2022

3D Printing Materials Market

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3D Printing Materials Market Report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market is expected to garner $1,871 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 18.3% during the period 2016-2022.Get sample copy of this report:Top Investment in Pockets:In 2015, North America accounted for almost half of the global demand for 3D printing material and is expected to maintain its lead position throughout the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing region, with a CAGR of 19.1% during the forecast period owing to the economic and industrial developments happening in the emerging economies.The demand for 3D printing materials has witnessed tremendous growth, driven by the growth in sales of 3D printers (especially desktop printers), increased penetration in automotive, consumer products, aerospace and defense, healthcare, industrial sector, and others. 3D printing material market is in its development stage.Access full summary:All the industry players are investing immensely to find new commercial avenues for their product segments via strategic partnership and collaborations. Some of the major factors that drive the demand for 3D printing material includes expiration of key patents for 3D printers, availability of cheaper 3D printers, ease in prototype development, core and mold manufacturing, along with reduced complexities in manufacturing products or parts. However, factors such as toxicity to human beings and flora and fauna coupled with high cost of materials are expected to hamper the market growth during the forecast period. Growth in research and development, increasing industry collaboration, and increase in number of end-user industry will provide significant opportunities to the industry players across the value chain.Segment Review:In 2015, Polymers was the largest material segment in the global 3D printing materials market. However, metals segment is expected to witness highest CAGR of 24.4% during the forecast period owing to growing penetration in industries such as aerospace and defense, healthcare, industrial sector, and others. Growth in investment towards research and development, towards material innovation and development of low cost printers is expected to fuel the demand phase of the 3D printing materials marketIn 2015, automotive was the leading end-user segment with around one-fifth revenue share followed by healthcare and industrial sector. In automotive industry 3D printing material is primarily used for prototype development along with core and mold manufacturing.Make purchase enquiry:Key Findings of the 3D Printing Materials Market Aerospace & defense market revenues are expected to witness highest CAGR of 19.6% during the forecast period. Automotive and consumer product end-user segments together accounted for 40% of the global market in 2015 Polymers and metals segments together accounted for more than 90% market share in 2015. Automotive is the largest end user segment with around one-fifth market share in 2015. U.S. was the largest market in terms of demand for 3D printing materials in 2015. Powder form materials are expected to grow at a high CAGR of 19.7% during the forecast period.About UsAllied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact:Shriram Dighe5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb:Elevator Market To Surpass USD 130 Billion By 2025 | KONE Corporation, Otis Elevator Co., Orona S.C., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Fujitec Co., Ltd.

Elevator Market

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According to the report, hydraulic & pneumatic products accounted for one-fifth of the Global Elevator Market share in 2017. As these products are characterized with lesser maintenance & installation costs they are gaining significant momentum across the industrial sector. The segment is anticipated to record an annual growth rate of 3% over 2018-2025.Global Elevator Market share is expected to exceed USD 130 billion by 2025., says a new Global Market Insights, Inc. report highlighting the key industry trends across the product, end-user, and regional landscape. Mounting expenditure on construction and refurbishment projects will favorably impact lift market growth in the forthcoming years.Request for a Sample Copy of this Report @The residential building & construction sub-segment is expected to attain 5% CAGR over 2018-2025, owing to the robust development in residential buildings and complexes, especially across the developing economies such as Chile, Peru & Malaysia.Scope of the Elevator Market Report:Product landscape: Machine Room [MR] Traction, Hydraulic & Pneumatic, Machine Room-Less [MRL] Traction, OthersEnd-user landscape:Building & Construction: Residential, Commercial, InstitutionalIndustrialRegional landscape: Canada, Italy, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Japan, India, China, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South AfricaMake an Inquiry for Purchasing this Report@Huge investment in building renovation and construction activities will majorly fuel the North America elevator market growth. Frequent repair & maintenance activities of lift services and strict building and safety codes in the U.S. have further proliferated market demand. Estimates claim that North America elevator market is likely to expand at a CAGR of 3% over 2018-2025.The key players profiled in the elevator market report are Orona S.C., KONE Oyj, Fujitec Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Otis Elevator Company and its parent company - United Technologies Corp., Schindler Group, Thyssenkrupp Elevator Technology (Thyssenkrupp AG), Express Lifts ltd, Hitachi, Ltd., Glarie Elevator Co. Ltd., Hyundai Elevator Co. Ltd., Shenyang Yuanda Intellectual Industry Group Co., Ltd., Eita Elevator (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Eita Resources Berhad), Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corporation, Escon Elevators Private Limited. The companies have been profiled in terms of their SWOT analysis, product portfolio, and strategic outlookBrowse Report Summery @About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:3D CAD Market Detail Analysis Focusing on Key Players like Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, PTC, Siemens PLM Software, 3D Systems, BobCAD-CAM, Cadonix, CAXA

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3D CAD, or 3-dimensional computer-aided design, is technology for design and technical documentation, which replaces manual drafting with an automated process. Used by architects, engineers, and other professionals, 3D CAD provides an extra dimension to precisely visualize and share designs.This report studies the 3D CAD market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the 3D CAD market by product type and applications/end industries.Request for a sample copy of this report @The report offers a multi-step view of the Global 3D CAD Market. The first approach focuses through an impression of the market. This passage includes numerous arrangements, definitions, the chain assembly of the industry in one piece, and the various uses for the global market. This section also combines a full analysis of the different development plans and government policies that influence the market, its cost assemblies and industrialized processes. The second subdivision of the report includes analytics on the Global 3D CAD Market based on its size in terms of value and volume.Market Segment by Companies  Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, PTC, Siemens PLM Software, 3D Systems, BobCAD-CAM, Cadonix, CAXA, Graebert, Gstarsoft, IronCAD, OnShape, Robert McNeel & Associates, Schott Systeme, Tebis Technische Informationssysteme, TurboCAD, YFCAD, ZWSoft3D CAD Market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2018-2023, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Request for a Discount of this report @Market Segment by Type, coversOn-PremiseCloud BasedMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoCorporate EnterpriseHealthcareGovernment and DefenseEducationOthersFor More about of this report@Market Segment by Table of Contents:1 3D CAD Market Overview2 Manufacturers Profiles3 Global 3D CAD Market Competition, by Players4 Global 3D CAD Market Size by Regions5 North America 3D CAD Revenue by Countries6 Europe 3D CAD Revenue by Countries7 Asia-Pacific 3D CAD Revenue by Countries8 South America 3D CAD Revenue by Countries9 Middle East and Africa Revenue 3D CAD by Countries10 Global 3D CAD Market Segment by Type11 Global 3D CAD Market Segment by Application12 Global 3D CAD Market Size Forecast (2018-2023)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 Appendix3D CAD, or 3-dimensional computer-aided design, is technology for design and technical documentation, which replaces manual drafting with an automated process. Used by architects, engineers, and other professionals, 3D CAD provides an extra dimension to precisely visualize and share designs.This report studies the 3D CAD market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the 3D CAD market by product type and applications/end industries.Request for a sample copy of this report @The report offers a multi-step view of the Global 3D CAD Market. The first approach focuses through an impression of the market. This passage includes numerous arrangements, definitions, the chain assembly of the industry in one piece, and the various uses for the global market. This section also combines a full analysis of the different development plans and government policies that influence the market, its cost assemblies and industrialized processes. The second subdivision of the report includes analytics on the Global 3D CAD Market based on its size in terms of value and volume.Market Segment by Companies  Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, PTC, Siemens PLM Software, 3D Systems, BobCAD-CAM, Cadonix, CAXA, Graebert, Gstarsoft, IronCAD, OnShape, Robert McNeel & Associates, Schott Systeme, Tebis Technische Informationssysteme, TurboCAD, YFCAD, ZWSoft3D CAD Market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2018-2023, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Request for a Discount of this report @Market Segment by Type, coversOn-PremiseCloud BasedMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoCorporate EnterpriseHealthcareGovernment and DefenseEducationOthersFor More about of this report@Market Segment by Table of Contents:1 3D CAD Market Overview2 Manufacturers Profiles3 Global 3D CAD Market Competition, by Players4 Global 3D CAD Market Size by Regions5 North America 3D CAD Revenue by Countries6 Europe 3D CAD Revenue by Countries7 Asia-Pacific 3D CAD Revenue by Countries8 South America 3D CAD Revenue by Countries9 Middle East and Africa Revenue 3D CAD by Countries10 Global 3D CAD Market Segment by Type11 Global 3D CAD Market Segment by Application12 Global 3D CAD Market Size Forecast (2018-2023)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixThe major strategies adopted by the established players for a better penetration in the Global 3D CAD market also form a key section of this study. These strategies can be employed by the upcoming vendors for a better penetration in the market. The Global market on Incinerator has also been analyzed in terms of revenue. The market dynamics such as market drivers, challenges, opportunities, and trends have been presented coupled with their respective impact analysis. The impact analysis helps in gathering information on the future development of the market.About Us:Research Beam is a high end and wide online market for market research reports that contain detailed and rational market research. Research Beam is a one stop report destination that offers clients well drafted and accurately analyzed report with insightful data.We have a large database of quality and precise market research reports that will be very beneficial for your organization. Reports that we sell our authentic in nature and from reputed publishers, hence it can definitely help you with your growth opportunities. Research Beam will always make sure to bring most ethical and high quality reports. We value your relationship with us and look forward for a long term relation.Contact UsGlobal Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United States+1 (800) 910-6452help@researchbeam.comUltrasound Market Segmented by Top Manufacturers - GE, Philips, Siemens, Boston Scientific, Toshiba, Carestream, VisualSonics (Fujifilm SonoSite) and Mindray Schlenk

Ultrasound, Global Ultrasound, Ultrasound Market, Ultrasound Market Size, Ultrasound Industry, Ultrasound sales

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Bigmarketresearch.com Add New Global Ultrasound Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 to its research database. The report presents a deep study of the market growth factors and drivers. The report spread across 135 pages with table and figures in it.Ultrasound market is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is no different from 'normal' (audible) sound in its physical properties, except in that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies from person to person and is approximately 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz) in healthy, young adults. Ultrasound devices operate with frequencies from 20 kHz up to several gigahertz.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Ultrasound in global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Request for a sample copy of this report @Compared to the old generation of 2D ultrasound devices, 3D technology has added a dimension of depth, and 4D a dimension of depth and time. 3D and 4D ultrasound devices are becoming increasingly popular in Eastern Europe, especially in cardiology and obn ultrasound. The market for 3D and 4D is however not yet saturated there, mainly due to financial constraints. In other regions, such as Scandinavia, the reason for low market penetration of 3D/4D ultrasound is lack of acceptance among doctors. Research shows that doctors in Scandinavia do not consider 3D/4D ultrasound to provide more clinical value during diagnosis and are therefore quite reluctant. Convertors of images in older generation ultrasound units were based on hardware, which was built in the ultrasound device. The new generation uses external computers, which perform the scan conversion. This has resulted in an increase of calculation power of ultrasound devices and has led to major improvements in quality.Currently, the demand for handheld ultrasound devices is on the rise owing to the shifting trend towards home healthcare and remote patient monitoring to reduce hospitalization cost.The worldwide market for Ultrasound is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly xx% over the next five years, will reach xx million US$ in 2023, from xx million US$ in 2017Request for a Discount of this report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers  GE, Philips, Siemens, Boston Scientific, Toshiba, Carestream, VisualSonics (Fujifilm SonoSite) and MindrayUltrasound market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2018-2023, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers 2D Ultrasound3D & 4D UltrasoundDoppler UltrasoundMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into HospitalClinicOthersFor More about of this report:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Ultrasound market.Chapter 1, to describe Ultrasound Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Ultrasound, with sales, revenue, and price of Ultrasound, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Ultrasound, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Ultrasound market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Ultrasound sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceMarket Segment by Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Ultrasound Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 2D Ultrasound1.2.2 3D & 4D Ultrasound1.2.3 Doppler Ultrasound1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Hospital1.3.2 Clinic1.3.3 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving ForceRelated Report:Global Internal Urinary Catheters Market 2018 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023In urinary catheterization a latex, polyurethane, or silicone tube known as a urinary catheter is inserted into a patient's bladder via the urethra. Catheterization allows the patient's urine to drain freely from the bladder for collection. It may be used to inject liquids used for treatment or diagnosis of bladder ...About Us:Industry executives tend to keep a tab on their business competitors. This keeps them updated on strategic business activities and investment trends. Company profiles are crucial to participating players of interconnected verticals.Contact Us:5933 NE Win Sivers Drive, #205, Portland,OR 97220 United Statescall answer Direct:+1-971-202-1575call answer Toll Free:+1-800-910-6452email help@bigmarketresearch.comAn Extensive Report On Asphalt Pumps Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players  Johnson Pump, Viking Pump, Rotan Pump, Joh. Heinr. Bornemann, Ultra Pompe, Shanggui Pumps, Yuandong Pump, Yongchang Pump, Bolong

An Extensive Report On Asphalt Pumps Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players

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Asphalt Pumps Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.Get FREE Sample Report Before Buying @ https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/requested_sample/4471UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Asphalt Pumps Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 140 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Asphalt Pumps Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Asphalt Pumps Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2018  2023.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.The generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Asphalt Pumps market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region-wise Analysis Global Asphalt Pumps Market covers: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The Major players reported in the market include: Johnson Pump Viking Pump Rotan Pump Joh. Heinr. Bornemann Ultra Pompe Shanggui Pumps Yuandong Pump Yongchang Pump BolongFor More Information, Please Visit https://www.upmarketresearch.com/home/enquiry_before_buying/4471Global Asphalt Pumps Market: Product Segment Analysis: Gear Pump Screw Pump Rotary Vane Pump OthersGlobal Asphalt Pumps Market: Application Segment Analysis: Refinery & Storage Tank Asphalt Mixing Plant Road Construction Building, Coating and Seal MaterialsThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Overview of Asphalt Pumps Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types Chapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry Chapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Asphalt Pumps Chapter 6 Asphalt Pumps Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 7 Asphalt Pumps Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of Asphalt Pumps Chapter 9 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of Asphalt Pumps Chapter 10 Marketing Status Analysis of Asphalt Pumps Chapter 11 Report Conclusion Chapter 12 Research Methodology and ReferenceBuy Asphalt Pumps Market analysis & forecast 2018-2023 Report along with complete TOC @Asphalt Pumps Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market-driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real-time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real-time scenario.Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Asphalt Pumps Market Analysis and Forecast 2018-2023 and its commercial landscape. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Asphalt Pumps market analysis and forecast 2018-2023.Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.You can also ask for region wise market research report, as below: Asphalt Pumps-Global Market Status & Trend Report 2013-2023 Top 20 Countries Data Asphalt Pumps-North America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Asphalt Pumps-South America Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Asphalt Pumps-Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Asphalt Pumps-EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Asphalt Pumps-Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Asphalt Pumps-China Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Asphalt Pumps-India Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 Asphalt Pumps-United States Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United StatesAdapted from a recent online discussion.

Dear Carolyn: In a lot of ways my life is really great right now. I just got engaged, I've finished my graduate degree, and I'm finally going to therapy to address my lifelong anxiety.

But I'm still struggling, and I've realized now that I've gotten my degree, I have no idea what I want to do next, outside of other people's expectations. On top of that, my fiance -- who is in the mental health field -- thinks I might have undiagnosed ADHD, and preliminary reading matches up with the spaciness and absentmindedness and the general inability to focus on anything ever. (Somehow I managed to excel in my college classes without ever really doing the reading.)

I guess I just want some reassurance that this will pass, and things can get better. And some reassurance that my struggle is real, and that I'm not a weak pansy looking for an excuse for not living up to my potential.

-- Happy But ...

Hax: Wait -- since when is "living up to my potential" such an obligation that one needs an excuse not to?

You don't owe it to anyone to use your life in any particular way. Sure, there are obligations we all assume when we live in society (obey laws, not be a nuisance) and when we form relationships with other people (don't exploit others' affection for us, make a good faith effort to be the people we claimed to be, meet financial and child-rearing obligations) -- but there's a vast amount of flexibility within those boundaries.

If you went to grad school, for example, fully believing it was the right move for you, but you have since come to see that you were living out other people's vision for your life -- or if you just realized, oops, it's the wrong field for you -- then it would not be acting in bad faith to follow a different path.

Whether "this will pass," who knows. Probably. Most things do -- and then "that" will kick in.

So tend to your health, and breathe, and take the time you need to sort yourself out. The idea that life is linear is one that can't die soon enough. Age is linear, but the rest seems to work better if we embrace it as loopy. Both senses intended.

Dear Carolyn:

I have two best friends. They can happily hang out in a group but aren't close friends themselves.

Well, Friend X got married and that night Friend Y slept with X's younger brother. I know because Y told me. I also know it would really upset X, and she has asked me if I know anything, as she has her suspicions.

I feel like being a best friend requires loyalty and honesty. I want to keep Y's secret, but I don't want to lie or keep secrets from X. I can't see a way to stay out of it. Help?!

-- Stuck in the Middle

Hax: Best friendship also requires knowing when something isn't your business.

X: "Do you know anything?"

You: "I know this isn't my business."

If X presses you, then you hang on. "Seriously -- you're talking to me when you need to talk to your brother or Y."

If X's brother becomes Y's ex, I quit.

Email Carolyn at tellme@washpost.com, follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/carolyn.hax or chat with her online at 9 am PT each Friday at www.washingtonpost.com.

(c) 2018, Washington Post Writers GroupCrews made "significant progress" on battling the Hugo Road fire in Southern Oregon on Monday, enough so that fire officials planned to send home crews who had been rushed to help beat down the flames.

The roughly 199-acre blaze started Sunday night and Gov. Kate Brown declared the incident a conflagration, which freed up additional resources. The area is about 10 miles north of Grants Pass.

According to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the crew of more than 200 firefighters made enough progress on containing the perimeter of the fire that the marshal's office planned to start sending crews home on Tuesday.

The firefighters lined the entire perimeter of the blaze and containment was roughly 30 percent by 7:30 p.m.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Crews warned that residents could see smoke in the area this week as firefighters mopped up the remaining hot spots.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheenA 41-year-old Gladstone woman died Sunday night when a boat driven by her husband collided into another boat in a nearly head-on crash on a Clark County waterway.

Police said Natalia Zelenko died in the incident on the slough underneath the State Route 14 bridge in Camas. The slough is on the Washington side of Lady Island in the Columbia River.

Camas police said Andrey Zelenko, 39, was driving the boat with his wife in the passenger seat Sunday night just after 7:30 p.m. Officers responded and found two boats had collided "nearly head-on" underneath the SR14 bridge. Andrey Zelenko suffered critical injuries and was taken to PeaceHealth SW Medical Center, according to police.

John Shoaf, the 36-year-old driver of the other boat, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Both men cooperated with authorities and neither showed "obvious signs of impairment," according to a police statement, but the investigation is ongoing.

Six agencies responded to the incident, including Portland Fire and Rescue, the Port of Portland and the Portland Police Bureau.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheenKah-nee-ta Resort & Spa, the tribal-owned and operated getaway in Central Oregon, will close for good on Wednesday, making the long holiday weekend the last for the decades-old resort.

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Tribal Council voted last week to move forward with a previously announced plan to close the resort, ending speculation that the tribes could find a way to keep the facility and its 146 workers in business. The golf course will also close.

The resort sits on the Warm Springs Reservation 70 miles north of Bend. The confederated tribes include 5,300 members from the Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute tribes. On July 6, the company filed a federally required notice of its intent to close. Businesses with more than 100 employees are required to give a 60-day notice of closure.

According to a statement from the tribal government, the decision to close the resort was far from unanimous among the 11-member tribal council. Three members voted yes, five abstained from voting and the chairman did not vote, according to a statement.

The resort's Board of Directors had looked at other ways to bring in enough money to keep the resort open through fishing tourism, trophy hunting or from commercial film or photography on Mt. Jefferson within the reservation, but the Tribal Council decided against those options.

Councilwoman Carina Miller made the motion to proceed with closing the facility. "It is irresponsible to continue pouring money into an enterprise that has demonstrated over many years that it cannot generate enough revenue to cover expenses," she said, in an account posted by the tribes. She was joined by fellow councilmembers Valerie Switzler and Bridgett McConville in supporting the closure plan, according to the tribes

Kah-nee-ta opened in 1964.

The resort's website confirmed the closure Monday. "It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve the tourism community for over five decades," the tribes said. "We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the generations of families who visited our resort."

Staff writer Rebecca Woolington contributed to this report.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheenA Portland man with a history of harassing law enforcement and court officials pleaded guilty Tuesday to assaulting a federal officer.

The judge almost didn't accept the plea as Cyrus Andrew Sullivan, 35, denied the prosecution's allegation that he had elbowed Multnomah County sheriff's Deputy Tim Baker in the face and neck while in custody on a federal hold on June 28, 2017.

Cyrus Sullivan

Sullivan said he "didn't throw an elbow,'' but "nailed him right in the face'' with spicy chips he had been eating.

In a struggle that ensued, Sullivan suffered a broken arm but the deputy wasn't hurt, he argued.

Sullivan had run back to his cell on the second tier in the downtown Portland jail after learning that the deputies planned to return him to solitary confinement in "the hole.'' He closed the door behind him. When deputies couldn't convince Sullivan to put his hands through the small food portal of the cell door to be handcuffed, they opened the cell door.

Prosecutors still maintained he threw an elbow but also noted that Sullivan threw crushed Sriracha Dorito chips at the deputy, "using the spicy dust as a weapon, like pepper spray,'' according to a court document.

"I reacted in a way I regret now so I'm taking responsibility,'' Sullivan said, but continued to deny throwing an elbow. He suggested the deputy may have struck his elbow when he ran into the cell.

After brief huddles with his lawyers and the prosecutor, Sullivan clarified, "I struck him with chips. I assumed a threatening stance when he came in.''

Sullivan's lawyer Tiffany Harris says Sullivan threw chips, alternately described as "flaming hot tortilla chips,'' "scorching chips,'' or "super spicy chips,'' that are part of a special line of products exclusively sold in the jail commissary.

"Our investigation revealed that snack chips are often crushed up and used as a seasoning for the bland food on the jail's menu, though Mr. Sullivan denies the claim that the chips in question were crushed or turned into a weaponized powder,'' Harris said.

While prosecutors contend Sullivan caused physical injury to the deputy, Sullivan and his lawyers said law enforcement officials documented no injuries. The deputy didn't receive medical treatment or time off as a result of the encounter, Sullivan's lawyers argued.

In contrast, Sullivan suffered a fracture to his left humerus bone, between his elbow and shoulder, in the struggle with deputies that followed.

Sullivan is expected to be sentenced Nov. 28 to time served, followed by three years of supervised release. Under the plea deal, he will waive his right to appeal the sentence. Prosecutors also will dismiss an indictment that charged him with five counts of impeding a federal officer.

He's already served two years for threatening a woman in a dispute over his controversial stdcarriers.com website and extra time for violating his supervised release by creating a controversial website called copblaster that posted biographies and complaints against law enforcement officers, correctional guards and judges.

A federal judge in Arizona, U.S. District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps, was brought in to handle Sullivan's assault case after Sullivan sent an intimidating letter to the home of Oregon's U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez while in custody.

In the letter, Sullivan said he was handing out Hernandez's home address to other inmates like Halloween candy. In April, Hernandez delivered a severe rebuke to Sullivan, calling his letter a "disgusting, offensive and perhaps illegal'' way to influence the criminal justice system. Hernandez then recused himself from the case.

Sullivan's diagnosis of Asperger's disorder created "unique challenges'' in the jail environment, his defense lawyer wrote to the court.

"Mr. Sullivan has not had any mental health treatment since he was ordered detained last September and the absence of mental health services has exacerbated his symptoms and taken a toll on his overall functioning,'' Harris wrote.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonianA Midland County man has been sentenced to prison in a sexual assault case, with an earliest release date in 2020.

Dominique Herbert Tafel, 23, Hope, first was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a mentally disabled person. The incident occurred on Nov. 4 and 5 in Hope Township, court records show.(CNN)  Tens of thousands attended an anti-racism concert Monday in Germany's eastern city of Chemnitz, following a week of far-right and anti-fascist protests triggered by the fatal stabbing of a German-Cuban man.

City officials said the "#wirsindmehr" concert, which translates to "there are more of us," drew about 65,000 attendees. It featured some of Germany's most well-known musicians, including the punk band Die Toten Hosen.

"Thousands of people have been moving through the streets of Chemnitz, exploiting a senseless death for their own purposes and hunting people because of their origin or the color of their skin," the organizers wrote in a description of the event. "Racism should not be left uncontested on the street."

The concert, which organizers say is not a "festival or a party" but a chance to "show solidarity with all those who have been attacked by neo-Nazis," was to begin with a one-minute moment of silence in memory of Daniel H., the stabbing victim.

Images showed a large crowd at the concert, with some people waving rainbow flags saying "Peace" and "Love," and several with signs carrying anti-Nazi messages, such as, "No place for Nazis" and "Nazis, you shall not pass."

The concert was being held a day after Justice Minister Heiko Maas said that German society had become "too comfortable" and urged the "silent majority" to speak out louder against anti-immigrant voices across the country.

"Sometimes, we must get up from the sofa and open our mouths," Maas said in an interview with German newspaper BILD on Sunday, adding in a tweet: "When the Hitler salute is shown on our streets, that is a disgrace for our country. We must stand up against neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. The silent majority must at last become louder."

Maas was speaking during a second weekend of protests in Chemnitz that saw more than 11,000 people take to the streets according to state police  the biggest gathering since the death of the man identified by police as Daniel H.

Saxony state police said trains from the city of Leipzig, some 90 kilometers away, were at full capacity, as around 5,000 people commuted to the concert.

Following the 35-year-old's death last Sunday, rumors quickly began to swirl in right-wing segments of the online community regarding the identity of his killers. When police announced that an Iraqi and a Syrian man were in custody, those suspicions appeared to be confirmed.

Several days of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations followed in the biggest mobilization over immigration in Germany in recent months. Some protesters were photographed giving the outlawed Nazi salute and others were seen chanting racist slogans such as "Germany for the Germans" and chasing foreigners in the streets.

Fault lines between those who welcome and those who reject immigrants have been exposed and become entrenched, with right-wingers accused of exploiting Daniel H.'s death for their own agenda and the opposition criticized for dismissing the anti-immigrant protesters as "Nazis."

Thousands take to streets again

Among those marching on Saturday were thousands of supporters of the anti-immigrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and several prominent AfD politicians as well as members of the far-right, anti-Islam Pegida group and local right-wing extremist organization Pro Chemnitz.

Many of them had traveled from the nearby cities of Leipzig and Dresden, where support for the far right is also strong.

Thousands of anti-fascist protesters were also on the streets, calling for an end to incitement against Muslims and carrying placards with the words, "no place for Nazis."

Following criticism that they had underestimated the numbers likely to attend protests in Chemnitz last week, state police initially deployed more than 1,800 officers and a further 200 were relocated to Chemnitz during the demonstrations. According to police, 18 people were injured and 37 possible crimes are being investigated, including assault charges and property damage.

On Sunday, around 800 people took to the streets to march against racism after a call to action by the city's church community. Police said the event was "peaceful and free of trouble."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Thousands protest against far right at concert in Germany's Chemnitz."On July 22, 2011, lone wolf terrorist Anders Behring Breivik carried out the deadliest attacks that Norway had ever seen since the end of World War II. First with a car bomb in Oslo, and then with a series of gun attacks targeting a youth leadership camp on the remote Utya Island, the terrorist ultimately took the lives of 77 innocent people.

22 July is the film about those events. Described as a three-part story about the survivors of the attacks, the political leadership of Norway, and the lawyers involved, it graphically depicts the panic and chaos that descended on the country in the wake of the violence. The first trailer for 22 July, which premieres Oct. 19, 2018 on Netflix, is available belowbut we would caution that it does contain some disturbing imagery.

On some level, one has to question how many people truly want to watch a film based around a mass shooting. Should we trust Paul Greengrass, the director of The Bourne Identity (but also Captain Phillips, which is based on a true story) to accurately display the sequence of events and the twisted ideology of the killer? Or is the point of this story and this project as a whole to show how victims of such an event can repair their lives afterward? Watching the trailer, its not easy to tellespecially when the killer seems to be one of the main characters, and implies that its Norway on trial, and not him.

22 July will have its world premiere this week at the Venice International Film Festival. It heads to Netflix shortly thereafter, on Oct. 19, where it will probably cause a bit of a stirespecially considering that the pace of gun violence and mass shootings in the U.S. only seems to be accelerating.Apple's cloud-based file storage and syncing service, iCloud Drive, mostly concerns itself with Apple devices and apps, but you can use it in a web browser and on non-Cupertino-designed computers, too. iCloud Drive is the folder-syncing component of iCloudApple's overarching cloud service. Files automatically sync to all devices signed in to your account, including iOS devices, Macs, and Windows PCs, but not Androids. iCloud Drive lets you create folders for your files and provides online storage for Apple's productivity apps, including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. iCloud Drive is Apple-slick when it comes to design, but it's less capable than the competition from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, our PCMag Editors' Choice winners.

If you use Apple's devices and office productivity apps, iCloud Drive is an attractive choice, because it's tightly integrated with them on all supported platforms. It's so tightly integrated into the Apple ecosystem, in fact, that many people who use it may not realize they are doing so. It also works respectably on Windows computers and the web. However, if you use Android devices or you want a fuller-featured online productivity apps, you might be better off with Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.

Pricing and Plans

If you own an iOS device, Apple iCloud starts you off with 5GB of space, the same as OneDrive offers to all comers. Not only iCloud Drive files, but also other iCloud services count against your iCloud allotment, including photos and backups of your iPhone or iPad. If you don't own an Apple device, you get a paltry 1GB free. Paid accounts start at 99 cents per month, which buys you just 50GB, but for $2.99 you get 200GB, and $9.99 buys a whopping 2TB. Google equals those options with its Google One pricing plans.

A newer purchasing option is to sign up for an Apple One plan. This gets you access to other Apple digital media offerings, including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Arcade game streaming. Pricing starts at $14.95 per month for the Individual plan which includes those services with 50GB iCloud storage (which seems fairly skimpy for that price). The Family plan costs $19.95 per month and allows for up to five users with 200GB storage. The Premier plan costs $29.95 per month, gets you 2TB storage, and adds access to Apple News+, and Fitness+. The plans represent decent savings compared with purchasing the component services separately, but there's no discount for annual commitment as others offer, and if you're just in it for the online storage, they're not a bargain.

For comparison, Dropbox starts you out with only 2GB of space for free, while Dropbox Pro offers 2TB for $11.99 per month or $99 per year. SugarSync offers less space, with 250GB costing $9.99 per month. Box gives away a generous 10GB of space, but its paid plan for individuals costs $10 per user per month and comes with only 100GB of online storage.

Apple iCloud Drive is more closely comparable to Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive because it is part of a larger platform. Google's storage allotment starts with a free 15GB, but options and pricing plans get tricky because there are so many rules about what counts against your quota. The exceptions are mostly in your favor. Google-created documents, such as Google Docs and Sheets, don't count toward your space limit, though email attachments (including spam) do. Should you need more space in Google Drive, you can get 100GB for $1.99 per month, 200GB for $2.99, or 2TB for $9.99the same monthly price that iCloud charges.

OneDrive offers 5GB of storage for free. You pay just $6.99 per month for 1TB, and with that, Microsoft throws in a Microsoft 365 subscription to boot. That's an outstanding deal, since it lets you download the full Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications. The OneDrive Family Plan, at $9.99 per month, gives you five accounts, each with their own 1TB of storage and Office application downloads.

Getting Started With Apple iCloud Drive

Apple iCloud Drive requires at least Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, iOS 8, and Windows 7 for PC use. Apple doesn't offer iCloud Drive apps for Android, so needless to say it's less of a cross-platform solution than DropBox, Google Drive, or OneDrive.

Setting up iCloud Drive on a Windows PC is as simple as setting up any other syncing service. You download and install the iCloud control panel program, which creates folders under your main user folder for iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos. To start syncing, you create an account or sign in with an existing Apple ID. A system tray icon is also installed, from which you can open the special folders. These use custom icons rather than the standard folder icons. Any files you add to the iCloud Drive folder or its subfolders appear on all your other computers and iOS devices where you have iCloud Drive enabled and signed in to the same account.

On Macs, iCloud works a little differently, and it's less straightforward than more-standard syncing services. There is no app to install, for example, because iCloud Drive is baked into the operating system. A new Mac's setup walks you through configuring iCloud; otherwise, to enable it, you must go to System Preferences > iCloud and sign in with an Apple ID, and then select iCloud Drive. Once you've done this, an icon shows up in Finder under Favorites, similar to a folder or connected drive. It can also serve as a backup, if the Desktop & Documents entry is checked in Preferences.

You can drag files into this iCloud Drive, create sub-folders, and manage your local documents. If you use Pages, Numbers, or other Apple apps that leverage iCloud Drive for storage, you see folders for those apps' documents as well. What you don't see is other data that might be counting against your iCloud space, such as iPhone backups.

From the System Preferences section for iCloud, you can see how much storage you're using. Hover over any of the color-coded blocks on a storage progress bar, and you can see what's taking up that space. Within this setting, you can also choose to include or exclude the data associated with various programs installed on your computer, such as TextEdit, Preview, QuickTime Player, and iMovie. Photos are handled separately, under the iCloud umbrella rather than iCloud Drive, although there's nothing stopping you from uploading images to iCloud Drive, and they still eat up the same storage.

As mentioned at the outset, iCloud Drive is the file-syncing subset of iCloud proper. It's this separation between what's in iCloud and what's in iCloud Drive can cause some confusion. Photos, Contacts, Notes, and Reminders get backed up to iCloud, but data from TextEdit, iMovie, and Mail are in iCloud Drive. If most of us had to guess which apps stored their data in iCloud versus iCloud Drive, we'd fail miserably.

Another issue is how quickly the free allotment gets used up, especially if you've set your iPhone and a Mac to sync. It doesn't take long for the system messages to start popping up on phone and computer telling you you're out of storage, so either upgrade or stop uploading backups. Apple makes it hard for an iOS or Mac user to demur from purchasing a storage plan, especially if you're an iPhone user who likes to shoot Live Photos.

Versioning is missing from iCloud, aside from files you create in Apple's iWork productivity appsPages, Numbers, and KeyNote. Every other cloud storage, file syncing, and online backup service we've tested recently includes some form of file version saving.

iCloud Drive on the Web

On the web, iCloud Drive is one icon choice in iCloud.com's main menu. This is where you can view, download, and upload files that sync with any Apple devices you have and any other of your iCloud instancesfor example, PCs that have the iCloud utility installed or other web browsers open to your iCloud.com account.

But iCloud's web interface pales by comparison with either Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. Both of those offer powerful search, drag-and-drop file and folder organization, and right-click context menu options. iCloud Drive offers none of these important conveniences.

The main iCloud web interface shows you icons for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, the iWork apps, Photos, and iCloud Drive. iCloud Drive appears to be separate from those other apps, but all the documents and data you create with those other apps count against your iCloud storage limit.

From the web, you can open your iCloud Drive and see all the files you're syncing, including those that belong to Apple apps such as Keynote. You don't, however, see files in iCloud Drive for your photos, which is annoying, since they're likely to take up the most storage. Microsoft OneDrive lets you see your photos in a folder as well as in Photos view, so you can work with them as you would with any other file type; Google Photos doesn't charge you storage space for pictures under 16 megapixels, but the image files no longer show up in Google Drive since Google separated the two services in 2019.

You can download existing files, upload new files, and create new folders. If you want to create new documents from the web, you can, using the web versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Like Google Drive and OneDrive, iCloud Drive supports drag and drop for adding files from Finder or Windows' File Explorer.

You can't stream music stored to the cloud from this web interface as you can with the other two big platform services, as well as with Dropbox and IDrive. For music playing, you need to either download the files and play them with a local application or play them through the bulky iTunes desktop application, which can access them directly from the cloud.

A final (but big) issue: There's no search functionality in the web iCloud Drive app. Of all the 12 iCloud web apps, only Mail, Contacts, and Reminders have search boxes. Google and Microsoft both offer powerful search options across their online storage and syncing services.

Sharing Files

Google Drive and OneDrive both excel when it comes to sharing files stored in their clouds with friends and coworkers. Those services create download or document-viewing links, which in OneDrive's case can be password-protected or have an expiration date specified. With iCloud Drive, you can share folders, assigning either view-only or editing privileges. Sharing with iCloud always requires an Apple ID, even for viewingsomething not needed with Google Drive or OneDrive. Apple's Pages, Numbers, and Keynote productivity apps also offer document sharing and collaboration, which we'll discuss in the next section.

Online Editing

As with Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, iCloud includes online productivity apps with some collaboration capability. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote function pretty well, but they don't handle collaborative editing as well as the two big competitors do. For example, you can see revisions in an uploaded Microsoft Word document, but you can't edit documents with this revision tracking enabled. And though real-time co-editing is supported, in our testing it wasn't as responsive as other solutions, and it's not as clear who's typing than with Google Drive and OneDrive; you only see an insertion caret for the other users.

iCloud Drive on iOS Devices

Users of the other major syncing services are likely to find iCloud Drive on iOS devices an unfamiliar experience. On iPhones and iPads, Apple's cloud service is more like an invisible layer that only becomes visible to apps that have access to its repository. You can, however, see iCloud Drive in app form in the Files app introduced in iOS 11. From this app, you can preview standard document file types and send them to other apps that can open them. You can also play audio files (unlike in the web iCloud client) and view images.

We're happy to see that iCloud Drive on iOS can finally act as a download target for iOS browsers. This is enabled by the Files app, and it means that you can save any file type you find on the web, say, an .EXE file downloaded from Download.com, to iCloud when you choose Save to Files and then iCloud on an iPhone or iPad. This is a long-awaited feature, giving you the ability to share or transfer any type of file from your Apple mobile device.

One gaping difference from most cloud services is that Cloud doesn't offer any of the cross-web integrations that Box, Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive do. Dropbox and Google Drive in particular are strong in this area, integrating with nearly all of the popular web applications you can think of.

Seamless, But Not the Best

The original purpose of iCloud and iCloud Drive was to give Apple users a seamless experience for their Apple apps across all Apple devices, without having to even think about where the files live. In many ways, Apple has succeeded in that mission. The company has made strides in extending the service beyond that narrow brief, but iCloud Drive remains less straightforward and includes fewer conveniences than other file-syncing services. For most cloud storage, syncing, and online productivity collaboration scenarios, either Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, both Editors' Choice winners, serve you better.

Apple iCloud Drive 3.5 See It Free at Apple.com MSRP Free Pros Well-designed app and web interfaces

Compatible with Windows as well as macOS and iOS devices

Account includes 5GB storage when you buy an Apple device Cons Less straightforward than competing services

No search in web interface

No Android app

Collaborative editing lacks expected capabilities

No file versioning aside from iWork documents View More The Bottom Line The iCloud Drive file-syncing and storage service is worth using, especially if you're committed to Apple's ecosystem, but it doesn't quite measure up to the competition from Google and Microsoft.ProtonVPN offers a bunch of security- and privacy-focused features including an easy-to-use multi-hop feature, and support for TOR servers P2P file-sharing. The company has some good privacy policies and great speeds, but the price tag may cause you to wince.

ProtonVPN in brief:

P2P allowed: Yes, on specified servers

Yes, on specified servers Business location: Switzerland

Switzerland Number of servers: 249

249 Number of country locations: 19

19 Cost: Free, $48, $96, or $288 per year

Free, $48, $96, or $288 per year VPN protocol (default): OpenVPN

OpenVPN Data encryption: AES-256

AES-256 Data authentication: HMAC with SHA-256

HMAC with SHA-256 Handshake encryption: 2048-bit RSA

When you use a third-party VPN theres always a certain amount of trust you have to have in your service provider. Sometimes companies make that really hard by hiding who they are or basing themselves in exotic locations. Then there are services that make trust easierlike ProtonVPN, from the creator of ProtonMail.

ProtonVPN is a great choice for new users. It offers no guesswork about whos behind the service and offers helpful articles about what you should, and should not, expect from a VPN. It also posts an annual transparency report (as several other VPNs do), and explains the encryption it uses.

Note: This review is part of our best VPNs roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them.

IDG ProtonVPNs interface.

ProtonVPN for Windows starts by displaying a map of the world with green triangles signifying the countries where ProtonVPN has servers. If you prefer to use the VPN without the map, theres an arrow button on the top left to collapse it for a more smartphone-like interface.

On the left rail are your connection options. Theres a Quick Connect button at the top if you want ProtonVPN to choose the fastest server based on your current location. Otherwise, you can scroll down the list of countries.

IDG ProtonVPNs U.S. server choices.

For a deep dive into the country-specific servers, click on the downward facing arrow to the right of each country in the list. This will show you all the server options for that location. Theres a circle with a green indicator for each server showing its current capacity. You can also hover over the circle to find out the capacity measured as a percentage. If you see a P in a square next to a server that means its available only to premium subscribers; there are also TOR servers, and the symbol with two arrows indicates the server supports P2P file sharing.

Once youve connected, the map transforms showing a line to your virtual location and the home symbol at the top center of the map. Below the map youll see connection information such as session duration, up and down bandwidth volumes and speeds, as well as a bandwidth graph.

Features and services

ProtonVPN offers a number of extras depending on which level of service you have. The Secure Core feature is for Plus and Visionary subscribers only, for example. Secure Core is a multi-hop VPN connection where it uses two VPN connections before exposing you to the open internet. But unlike typical multi-hop implementations, Secure Core is a one-click affair where you choose the exit country and have minimal options for the first connection.

IDG ProtonVPNs Secure Core connections.

The first hop runs through either Iceland, Sweden, or Switzerland before shuttling you off to the country of your choiceonly 11 country locations support Secure Core exits. Depending on the country, you may have some choice as to where the first hop goes through, but many countries have only one of the three options. France only supports a first hop through Sweden, for example, while for Germany its Iceland.

ProtonVPN says Secure Core puts your traffic through privacy friendly countries first (Iceland, Sweden, and Switzerland). The aim is to protect a users privacy as much as possible and defend against network traffic monitoring. ProtonVPN says that this method makes it harder for an attacker to discover a users true IP address or attempt to match browsing activity to the user. Theres a fuller explanation on the ProtonVPN website. Secure Core must be explicitly activated at the top of the country list in the left rail.

ProtonVPN also supports Forward Secrecy, which uses one-time session encryption keys to prevent someone from stealing encryption keys from a following VPN session and using those to decrypt earlier sessions.

If TOR is your thing, ProtonVPN supports TOR connections over VPN on specific servers. Again, this feature is only available to Plus and Visionary subscribers.

There are also the usual VPN features such as DNS leak protection and an Internet Kill Switch that halts your internet access should the VPN connection drop.

IDG Creating a new profile in ProtonVPN.

If you want to use different VPN connections based on contexts such as home, work, or travel, ProtonVPN lets you set profiles using the tab in the left rail.

When creating a profile you can choose to use a standard server connection, the Secure Core feature, P2P servers, or TOR servers. You can also choose to use OpenVPN over UDP or TCP, and the specific server you want to use.

Beyond VPN configuration, ProtonVPN also touts the security of the data centers it uses in Iceland, Sweden, and Switzerlandthe privacy-respecting countries. These are a collection of data centers in former military bases, remodeled fallout shelters, and other hard-to-reach locations. The implication being these servers are physically, as well as digitally, secure.

ProtonVPN is available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Pricing is varied. The Basic plan gets you high speeds and supports two simultaneous devices for $48 per year. The Plus plan is $96 per year, lets you use the VPN on up to five devices simultaneously, offers the services top speeds, a larger number of servers, TOR, and the Secure Core feature.

The deluxe Visionary package costs a whopping $288 per year with all the Plus features, as well as a ProtonMail Visionary account.

Privacy, anonymity, and trust

ProtonVPN is managed by ProtonVPN AG, which is run by the same team that runs ProtonMailProton Technologies AG. The company offices are at Chemin Du Pre Fleuri 3 Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland. The CEO is Andy Yen, and the CTO is Bart Butler.

IDG The ProtonVPN interface with the map hidden.

ProtonVPNs privacy policy says the company doesnt track your browsing activity, your IP address, or bandwidth usage. The only thing ProtonVPN says it does track from specific accounts is the timestamp of your most recent successful login attempt. This is overwritten with every successful login. ProtonVPN says it keeps this information to protect user accounts from password brute force attacks. The timestamp does not include your IP address or location, only the time and date of your login, according to ProtonVPN.

If you use ProtonVPN on mobile, the company also tracks crash reports. ProtonVPN also tracks the geographic distribution of its users on an aggregated, global level. It uses this data to help allocate resources, counteract national attempts to block ProtonVPN, and for marketing purposes (ProtonVPN calls this outreach and growth initiatives).

For payments, ProtonVPN accepts credit cards, PayPal, cash via regular mail, or Bitcoin via direct wallet-to-wallet transfers. To sign up for an account, ProtonVPN requires a username, email, and password.Food & Wine magazine discovered what many central Pennsylvania shoppers already know about Karns Quality Foods.

The chain, while not the biggest in town, is revered as a "regional gem."

The magazine named it one of the top 10 "Secret Supermarkets You're Going to Love" as part of a list of best regional supermarkets.

"They are the real American supermarket heroes, the ones that do the most, year after year, without the benefit of the biggest spotlight," wrote author David Landsel.

Karns was praised for stocking Pennsylvania Dutch foods, from whoopie pies and potato bread to Lebanon bologna and chicken pot pie.

"Have we Americans ever been so obsessed with our many and varied regional cuisines? Probably not. There's one you won't find proliferating from coast to coast, not just yet, and that's Pennsylvania Dutch cooking --you know, tomato pie, shoo fly pie, whoopie pies, all of the pies, basically, including chicken pot pie, which isn't actually a pie. (Not the way they do it, anyway.) Happily, there's no great threat to this slice of very old American food culture--head to the part of Pennsylvania where it came from, and you'll find a very large group of people eating just like people around here always have. (It's a beautiful thing, truly.)This little-known cluster of stores--known best for their meats--in the Harrisburg area is an enthusiastic ambassador for the genre, offering up straightforward and delicious prepared foods, a stunning array of homegrown potato chip brands, all of the Lebanon bologna, the potato bread, and--rather importantly--some of the tastiest, fluffiest whoopie pies in the state."

Dave Karns opened the first store in 1959, and today the family-operated chain maintains eight stores throughout central Pa.WASHINGTON -- 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.

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.

READ MORE: Former State System chancellor confirmed to fill top post in U.S. education department

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."

READ MORE: Number of armed officers growing in US schools amid gun-control debate, study says

"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.

___

Maria Danilova of the Associated Press wrote this story. This story has been corrected to delete reference to Brogan saying agency will let states decide on use of federal funds to arm teachers."Nuts."

Those were the words - or word - of Gen. Anthony C. McAullife, acting commander the 101st Airborne Division, when asked by the Germans to surrender at Bastogne, Belgium, during World War II's Battle of the Bulge.

The 101st was able to hold Bastogne.

On Dec. 16 in 1944 Germany launched its last major offensive of World War II, known as the Battle of the Bulge.

According to www.history.com the Battle of the Bulge was "so-called because the Germans created a 'bulge' around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front."

"In December 1944, Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle's name. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's successful maneuvering of the Third Army to Bastogne proved vital to the Allied defense, leading to the neutralization of the German counteroffensive despite heavy casualties."

The Battle of the Bulge lasted until Jan. 25, 1945. American casualties were 20,000 killed, 20,000 captured and 40,000 wounded.MOUNT CARMEL - Coal could be coming out of the ground as early as next month at what is described as the largest current development in the commonwealth's anthracite region.

The rain has to let up for that to occur, Gregg Driscoll, president and chief executive officer of the Blaschak Coal Co., said Tuesday.

The company, based in Mahanoy City, is in the process of reopening an old surface mine north of Route 61 between Mount Carmel and Centralia in Columbia County. "We're excited about it," he said.

The state recently approved a $1 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant to help fund the project. The company sought $4.5 million.

Blaschak, owned by Milestone Partners Inc., a Radnor-based investment firm, expects to spend $13 million to reopen and provide equipment for the mine, Driscoll said. It already has invested a little more than $10 million, he said.

Preparation work includes removing material placed in the pit by the owner, Mallard Contracting, as part of a reclamation process, Driscoll said.

Blaschak has signed a 20-year-lease with the Helfrick family that owns Mallard and anticipates mining between 200,000 and 300,000 tons of ready-to-burn anthracite annually, he said.

READ MORE: To save Pa. coal mines, officials devised a preposterous plan: Build a 137-mile tunnel

The coal will come from what is known as the "mammoth vein" that is 80 feet thick, he explained. It is one of 13 or 14 seams of coal in the anthracite region, he said.

Between 25 and 30 United Mine Workers Union members earning in the range of $65,000 to $85,000 a year will staff the facility, Driscoll said. "It's a good living wage," he said.

Some of the employees are coming from a closed mine near Centralia, he said. It will provide them with continued employment, he said.

"Anthracite has been an important part of the economy and culture of the eastern mining region in Pennsylvania for 200 years," Driscoll pointed out.

"Anthracite is used differently from bituminous coals and has both energy and non-energy uses.

"We are excited about the future of anthracite mining and distribution in Pennsylvania and see continued growth as a real and meaningful economic and environmental benefit to the region," he said.

In announcing the grant, Gov. Tom Wolf said the mine will provide a considerable production of high quality anthracite coal for more than 20 years.

"As mining progresses, the land will be reclaimed and made available for alternative uses in the community," he said. "Wages for the created jobs more than double the median household income in the region."

Blaschak's goal is to leave the site looking better than when it arrived, Driscoll said.The Catholic Church may be in the business of saving souls, but amid the spiraling clergy sex abuse crisis, one pioneering legal mind thinks of the church as an organized crime organization.

That's the view held by David Hickton, a former U.S. attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Two years ago, shortly after the state Office of Attorney General released a scathing report on widespread clergy sex abuse in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Hickton sought to prove that the church was criminally responsible for the egregious crimes committed by priests on minors.

Hickton invoked a seldom-used but powerful federal law designed to combat organized crime.

He initiated a civil lawsuit against the diocese under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a federal law better known as RICO that has been used to prosecute mobsters, the Hells Angels and other criminal enterprises.

Then-Attorney General Kathleen Kane had just unveiled the findings of state probe that found a pattern of cover-up of sexual abuse of hundreds of minors by more than 50 priests and others associated with the church.

Hickton had recently prosecuted an Altoona-Johnstown priest, sentencing him to 17 years in federal prison for sexually abusing boys at a Honduras orphanage between 2004 and 2009. He was confident that a civil federal anti-racketeering lawsuit against the diocese would prevail in court and secure financial compensation for the victims.

Hickton didn't get far.

He left office, and the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, under pressure to stave off a looming legal battle, agreed to a settlement with federal prosecutors to put in place policies to more aggressively detect and prevent the sexual assault of minors by priests.

Had Hickton's design prevailed, it would have been one of the few times prosecutors broadly applied the federal law to the Catholic Church, which was then, as it is now, embroiled in a spiraling clergy sex abuse crisis involving thousands of victims and threatening to dismantle the nascent papacy of Pope Francis.

"I was stunned when it was reported...I was a pioneer?" Hickton recalls. "How in hell can we be first to do this, I thought."

Victims react to the release of the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, which found that more than 300 priests over the course decades had sexually molested thousands of minors across Pennsylvania.

In fact, in 1993, Steve Rubino, a New Jersey attorney invoked RICO in a suit against the Archdiocese of Camden and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, for their part in the coverup of the abuse of minors. Rubino's clients accused the defendants of obstruction of justice.

The case settled out of court.

Now a professor of law at University of Pittsburgh Law School, Hickton ponders the same question. In the wake of yet another blistering report on widespread clergy sex abuse across six dioceses in Pennsylvania, why have prosecutors - even victims - made little efforts to tap RICO?

"I've been asking the same question," Hickton said. "Everybody keeps talking about the need for legislation to open up the statute of limitations but I identify the civil RICO as a definite way to get redress for victims."

In fact, the answer is as complex as it is multi-faceted.

"It's not like it would have been easy," Hickton said.

The RICO statute features a slew of onerous and difficult requirements, most narrowly defined.

For instance, the government must prove the defendant is an enterprise and one that is engaged in two or more instances of racketeering activity, including: illegal gambling, bribery, kidnapping, murder, money laundering, counterfeiting, embezzlement, drug trafficking, slavery, among other crimes.

Prosecutors would have to prove that the church directly invested in, maintained an interest in, or participated in the criminal behavior affecting interstate, even foreign commerce. In other words, that it covered the crimes up.

Hickton argues that Catholic dioceses easily meet RICO criteria, including being defined as an enterprise. What's more, victims of clergy sex abuse could argue that the cover-up of the crimes and the protection of predatory priests (at times across state borders) on the part of church officials amounts to obstruction of justice and a violation of civil conspiracy laws.

"I simply believe that the sexual assault and obstruction of justice could establish racketeering," Hickton said.

The Catholic Church, then, and generally now, has mounted a stiff campaign to object to potential RICO actions, including arguing that it is not a criminal enterprise.

"They would quarrel that the pattern had changed in 2002 and they quarreled with being described as a racketeering enterprise," Hickton said. "But I advanced it. I thought I could prove it. I believe civil RICO is the vehicle that can be used to bring justice to these victims."

In 2002, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops established new policies to protect minors from predatory priests and to report those priests.

One of the most recent and high-profile cases involving federal anti-racketeering charges are the suits against Harvey Weinstein on behalf of multiple plaintiffs accusing him of sexual misconduct. RICO suits have also been filed against Miramax, and Bob Weinstein, Harvey's brother, and other members of The Weinstein Company's board of directors - all accused of complicity in facilitating and concealing a pattern of sexual misconduct and violence.

Beyond the burdensome requirements involved in a civil RICO, courts are generally cautious about turning state law claims into federal RICO cases. Most cases do not make it past the pleading stage.

Early in his career in the Western District, Hickton handled a RICO case involving a gang. The defense argued that that law was being applied so broadly to the point of misuse; defense attorneys argued that loosely associated drug dealers did not comprise an organized crime enterprise.

"I argued it was supposed to be used that way and no one defined it narrowly," Hickton said. "If people were arguing it is a misuse of RICO to use it as a platform to charge drug dealer, you might imagine that for the Catholic Church that is one moat around your castle. The idea that it would be used expansively is not in vogue right now."

Stewart Eisenberg, a Philadelphia attorney, knows first-hand the challenges of succeeding with a civil RICO.

After a 2005 investigation the Archdiocese of Philadelphia uncovered the now similar patterns of clergy sex abuse and cover-up across the sprawling archdiocese, Eisenberg filed a civil RICO suit on behalf of about 40 victims.

Eisenberg knew it was going to be a tough battle, and he was right.

The case was dismissed. The federal judge ruled that the case did not meet RICO criteria, but rather that it was a legislative problem and not an issue for federal courts. As with the current grand jury report, almost all the cases out of Philadelphia had expired statute of limitations.

"I'm never surprised at anything but I was disappointed," Eisenberg said. "I think it qualified. If the judge wanted to find basis, he could've found basis for fraudulent concealment to get around the statute of limitations."

Instead the court could find no basis for fraudulent concealment.

"People knew they were sexually abused at the time it happened," Eisenberg said, explaining the court's rationale. "Even though they were minors, and it was an event most put out of their minds for a long time. Some believed it never happened....because they were told that by the priest or their parents."

Beyond profound disappointment, his clients could not understand how the court could decide that that way.

No civil RICO cases were ever successfully litigated out of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia abuse crisis. One senior church official - Monsignor William Lynn - was convicted, but under criminal statutes. The former vicar of clergy, Lynn was the first senior U.S. church official to be prosecuted for child endangerment. He appealed with the argument that he didn't endanger children because he wasn't responsible for caring for specific children. He awaits a retrial.

Complex and esoteric international law virtually renders the Vatican, and the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, impervious to lawsuits involving clergy sex abuse. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

So if a successful federal anti-racketeering lawsuit is far-fetched, how about international legal action?

Afterall, the clergy sex abuse scandal embroils the 1.2-billion strong church on a worldwide level. Prosecutors have unearthed near-identical patterns of clergy sex abuse of minors and concealment by church officials in nearly every continent in the world. Recent scandals out of Ireland and Australia have even prompted legal inquiries at the national level.

But if prevailing with a federal RICO case has proven to be extraordinarily difficult for prosecutors, prevailing with an international legal action against the Catholic Church is likely to prove impossible.

"Courts treat each diocese as a free-standing corporation, independent of other dioceses and the Vatican," said Joseph Dellapenna, a retired Villanova University law professor who specializes in suing foreign governments.

"As long as they continue to do that it's going to be difficult. And if you wanted to sue the pope, you would have to show the personal involvement of officials in the Vatican in the wrongdoing and not just that they are a part of the Catholic Church and responsible for them."

Only nations can go before the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands. Most of those crimes involve war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The complexities entailed in a potential suit against the Vatican are compounded by esoteric international law: The Vatican City State is a sovereign state. But its complex governance is overseen by the Holy See, which sends ambassadors, or "nuncios" to countries around the world.

Yet while the Holy See is recognized by international law and diplomatic relations, an individual could not bring a suit against it at an international tribunal.

What about a country? Say the United States?

It's possible, but difficult, said Dellapenna. Explaining the complex and restrictive provisions regarding heads of states immunity and foreign immunities, is worthy of a law textbook.

Indeed, a senior member of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the late 1990s advised bishops dealing with allegations of clergy sex abuse in their dioceses to send damaging personnel files to the apostolic nuncio, the pope's U.S. representative in Washington, because his office had immunity that protected it against potentially dangerous legal actions.

"I think it's far fetched but it's possible," Dellapenna said. "You would have to persuade the judge that the Catholic Church was in it for the money. That's not a very powerful argument."

Yet another angle could be a TORT action that would show the church guilty of causing personal injury or death or loss of property.

"Again you run into the problem that you would have to show that the Vatican was directly involved and not just that it was a Catholic diocese involved," Dellapenna said.

The recent 11-page letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano seemingly throws a wrinkle in the mix.

A former Vatican ambassador to the United States, Vigano has accused Pope Francis of knowing and ignoring allegations of sexual misconduct by the embattled Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C. McCarrick resigned as cardinal last month, and in his letter, Vigano calls on the pope to step down for complicity in covering up crimes.

"If you can persuade the court to believe those allegations, maybe, but that letter has lots of holes in it," Dellapenna said. "If I were the lawyers I would want to get a lot more evidence than that letter."

Suffice it to say that a U.S. court can not order the pope - as long as he is not in the U.S. - to disclose evidence. Therefore, he is not subject to the discovery process in court.

Could a lawyer get evidence in another way? Say depose Vigano or other archbishops or bishops and force them to turn over evidence?

"These are long shots. It's not impossible," Dellapenna said of the probability of a lawsuit against the Vatican or pope prevailing. "But it's not very promising. It's been tried once or twice and it didn't go anywhere. They are at best long shots."

Since 2002, when the clergy sex abuse crisis first made national headlines in the Archdiocese of Boston, diocese after diocese has fended off lawsuits seeking steep compensations for victims. Many have established compensatory funds for victims; others have gone bankrupt settling suits.

Financial settlements in federal anti-racketeering cases are tripled in value and generous in covering expenses.

To date, some Catholic dioceses have signaled a willingness to create victims compensatory funds. The dioceses of Harrisburg, Erie and Allentown say they are open to the possibility of a reparations fund. Some advocates for victims have said a reparations fund would be an appropriate step to assist victims who were sexually assaulted by priests.

In the wake of the grand jury report released by Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and the Center for Constitutional Rights are urging federal authorities to launch a federal case against the church.

Signed in part by Tim Lennon, president of SNAP, the letter reads:

"It is long past time for the U.S. Department of Justice to initiate a full-scale, nationwide investigation into the systemic rape and sexual violence, and cover-ups in the Catholic Church, and, where appropriate, bring criminal and/or civil proceedings against the hierarchy that enabled the violations."PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A fired white Philadelphia police officer has been charged with criminal homicide for fatally shooting a black man in the back after a confrontation last year over a dirt bike.

The district attorney said Tuesday that former Officer Ryan Pownall is also charged with reckless endangerment.

Pownall had confronted 30-year-old David Jones for riding a dirt bike on a city street on June 8, 2017.

Prosecutors said that when Pownall frisked Jones he felt a gun, which led to a scuffle. Pownall then tried to shoot Jones but his gun jammed.

Surveillance footage showed Jones then putting his gun on the ground and running, and Pownall opening fire, shooting Jones in the back.

Police said last year that only Pownall's first attempt to shoot Jones was justified. Jones was dismissed from the department after the shooting last year.

The police union planned to comment on the charges later Tuesday.Anna Krolick, mother of Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer, passed away Saturday, the Diocese of Harrisburg announced Tuesday.

Krolick, who was 95, "passed peacefully," a statement from the diocese noted.

"The entire Diocese of Harrisburg offers its deepest sympathies to Bishop Gainer," the statement read.

A photo of Krolick was not immediately available for this report. PennLive will update the story once the diocese provides a photo of Krolick.

Krolick had been living in Harrisburg with her son since 2014, when he was installed 11th bishop of Harrisburg.

Gainer, a native of Pottsville, was installed in March 2014. He previously served as bishop in Lexington, Ky.

Krolick was a second generation Slovak; his father was third generation German. In 2014, Gainer told PennLive that his mother's Slovak traditions had impacted his childhood.

"I have very fond memories of Christmas Eve," he said at the time. "We would have the 'Vigilia' and my grandparents, who were very devout Byzantine Catholic, would put straw on the kitchen floor and under the table ... and there were 12 foods. We had a large group together on Christmas Eve. Everything had some symbolism to it. I still remember my grandmother would put two candles on the table and have two glasses with rice in it and the candles standing and I asked my mom what does this symbolize. She said it symbolizes your grandmother doesn't have candle holders."

Krolick had in recent years faced health issues, including Parkinson's and a stroke in 2000.

Gainer, an only child, said he first saw his father cry when he learned that his son wanted to become a priest.

"Actually, I kept my parents in the dark for quite some time," Gainer told PennLive in 2014. "They both thought I was going to Villanova or the University of Scranton. I had planned on engineering and got broadsided by the principal of my Catholic high school about the seminary. It started some turmoil. Should I be considering this? As it turns out I took the exam. I was accepted, but it was some time until I told my parents about it."

Gainer most recently has dealt with the findings of grand jury investigation that found widespread clergy sex abuse across six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, including his. Gainer was not named among priests credibly accused of child sex crimes.

Gainer in August released the names of 72 priests from his diocese who had been historically accused of child sex crimes. Gainer also took the unprecedented step to remove the names of all his predecessors dating to 1947 from diocesan buildings for their failure to properly deal with predator priests.

A Funeral Mass for Mrs. Krolick will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 8 at St. Catherine Laboure Catholic Church, 4000 Derry St., Harrisburg. A viewing will precede Mass, beginning at 9 a.m.

Condolences for Bishop Gainer should be directed to his office at the Diocesan Center - Office of The Bishop, Diocese of Harrisburg, 4800 Union Deposit Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111-3710.Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said Tuesday he plans to continue the gradual lift of a statewide lockdown at the 25 state prisons through this week.

if the number of new exposures to synthetic cannabinoids or other problem contraband continues to drop - and barring any other security-related setbacks - Wetzel said the lockdown could be fully lifted by next week.

That would mean a reopening of visitations and general mail processing for all inmates.

The prisons were placed on a lockdown last Wednesday, after a rash of incidents in August that left more than 30 corrections officers and other prison staffers feeling sickened after apparent exposure to smuggled drugs.

In many cases, the staffers were able to return to duty after being checked out. But in at least five instances, reactions were severe enough that the anti-overdose medication naloxone was administered as a precaution.

Some of the most onerous lockdown restrictions - including round-the-clock confinement of all inmates to their cells - were relaxed starting Saturday.

Wetzel, speaking on WITF-FM's "Smart Talk" Tuesday, said the gradual easing of restriction progressed well through the weekend, and plans are to continue the step-down.

"We have now gone about a day-and-a-half without an exposure (incident) which led to us really starting to increase out-of-cell time (for inmates)," Wetzel said.

"We'll continue to increase out-of-cell time certainly through this week and assuming we don't have any issues, then we'll look to get back to normal hopefully next week."

Wetzel stressed that plan will be revisited if drug exposures spike again or there are other disturbances within the facilities.

Meanwhile, DOC officials released a longer look Tuesday at the number of drug infiltration / exposure incidents they have been dealing with this year.

The compilation shows that there have been 29 similar incidents dating back to May 31, affecting a total of 58 prison staffers.

A total of six of those incidents had occurred through July, according to the department's incident reports.

The numbers started spiking on Aug. 3, with 23 incidents reported at eight prisons through Saturday, prompting the lockdown to help find short- and long-term solutions to the problem.

Drugs tests showed positive results in six of nine cases for which results are available: In four of those cases the substances involved were synthetic cannabinoids. The others involved fentanyl and amphetamines.As the temperature outside tops 90 degrees, a few central Pennsylvania schools have announced plans for early dismissals of schools that have no air conditioning.

Manheim Central School District has announced plans to dismiss students from Manheim Central High School at 11:05 a.m., and to dismiss students from HC Burgard elementary school at noon.

"After school activities will either be rescheduled until 7 p.m., moved to an indoor climate-controlled facility, or canceled," the district said on its web site.

The district plans to decide what to do about Wednesday classes no later than 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Temperatures in the 90s, with high humidity, are expected through much of the week.

The School District of Lancaster is planning for early dismissals for the next few days at its seven schools that are without air conditioning: Lincoln, Reynolds, Wheatland, Buchanan, Burrowes, Hamilton and Wickersham.

According to its website, students have the option of leaving at noon today. In this case, parents or guardian must pick up their children at school -- bus transportation will only be provided at regular dismissal time.

The schools will dismiss early Tuesday and Wednesday, with bus transportation provided for the early dismissals on those days. Lincoln, Reynolds and Wheatland will dismiss students at noon Tuesday and Wednesday; the other four schools will dismiss students at 12:30 p.m. on each day.

Students in air conditioned classsrooms will adhere to their normal schedule.

West Shore School District previously announced that Crossroads and Allen middle schools are closed today and tomorrow to allow the schools to address mold issues.Petoskey Marching Band brings home three grand champion awards

A one year hiatus in competing didn't stop the Petoskey Marching Band from scoring first place and grand champion awards in this year's competitions.Blood Moon, Brits climb new route up Tsaranoro Atsimo in Madagascar

04.09.2018 by by Planetmountain

Alan Carne, Calum Cunningham and Robbie Phillips have made the first ascent of Blood Moon (8a+, 700m) up Tsaranoro Atsimo in Madagascar.

The Tsaranoro mountains in Madagascar are like a gift that keep on giving. Ever since Germanys Kurt Albert and Bernd Arnold established the first routes in the massif in 1995, Rain Boto (7b+, 420m) and Lemurenschreck (7a +, 420m), the huge granite walls continue to attract climbers from all over the world in search of virgin rock. The most recent addition comes from Britains Alan Carne, Calum Cunningham and Robbie Phillips who, after a minor epic, successfully climbed a new route up Tsaranoro Atsimo.

After warming up - so to speak - with an onsight of the recently established Arnaud Petit & co classic Soavadia, the trio made a first foray up Tsaranoro Atsimo only to be thwarted by a section of completely blank rock. A few days later they returned to attempt a line between Mora Mora and Fire in the Belly and, over the next six days, they managed to forge their 700m, 13-pitch route. This tackles a completely independent line apart from the last two pitches which it shares with Mora Mora.

After the first ascent the trio returned for the first free ascent, but unfortunately Carne took a bad leader fall and broke his leg while on the wall, resulting in what Phillips has described as the most intense day of his life. With Carne in acute pain, Phillips kept his cool and prepared the rescue abseil system while Cunningham rappelled to the base of the wall and made the 1 hour return to the campsite in just 15 minutes to alert the locals who returned with a makeshift stretcher. Carne was carried down, transported to the nearest hospital and subsequently flown to La Reunion where he underwent surgery.

Although shaken from the ordeal, the two Scotsmen retuned to the peak a few days later. Over the next three days they proceeded to free the entire line, despite running out of water and food. The aptly namend Blood Moon weighs in at 8a+ and is described to planetmountain.com by Philips as "very beautiful, up arguably one of the best and most obvious features in the whole Tsaranoro. We were very lucky to get this one."4.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) raised the most troubling aspect of the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. Kavanaugh is a Republican partisan who will put Trump ahead of the Constitution.

Video:

Sen. Harris said:

Ill close by saying this, we have a system of justice that is symbolized by a statue of a woman holding scales. And she wears a blindfold. Justice wears a blindfold because we have said in the United States of America, under our judicial system, justice should be blind to a persons status. We have said that in our system of justice, justice should be blind to how much money someone has, to what you look like or who you love, to who your parents are and the language they speak.

And every supreme court justice must understand and uphold that ideal. And sir, should those cases become  come before you, judge Kavanaugh, I am concerned whether you would treat every American equally, or instead how allegiance to the political party and the conservative agenda that has shaped and built your career. I am concerned your loyalty would be to the president who appointed you, and not to the constitution of the United States. These concerns I hope you will answer during the course of this hearing. I believe the American people have a right to have these concerns. I also believe the American public has a right to full and candid answers to the questions that are presented to you during the course of this hearing. I will be paying very close attention to your testimony, and I think you know the American public will be paying very close attention to your testimony.

Republicans Are Trying To Hide Kavanaughs Partisanship

Unlike other nominees in the past, it is clear where Brett Kavanaughs partisan leanings lie. He was involved with the Republican impeachment of Bill Clinton. He worked in the Bush White House, and he is a darling of the far-right. Trump nominated Kavanaugh because of his views on presidential power, and that he will be a get out of jail free card for this president.

What Republicans are trying to hide by not releasing 102,000 pages of documents is that Brett Kavanaugh is out of step with the rest of the country. Kavanaugh isnt a call it down the middle nominee. He is an extremist who will set progress back by decades on numerous issues if he is confirmed.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.2.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Senate Republicans have gone so far as to demand that the Capitol Police do their jobs and arrest Americans who are pleading for their health care and reproductive rights at Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearing.

Video:

Sen. Orrin Hatch sounded more like he was nominating Kavanaugh for sainthood than discussing a potential Supreme Court justice when he was interrupted by a health care protester and said, .Anyone that knows you knows are you a decent person nominated to our land. So here are the facts, Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most distinguished judges. Mr. Chairman, I think we ought to have this loud mouth removed. I mean we shouldnt have to put up with this kind of stuff. I hope shes not a law student.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said, Now that we have quiet, Id like to explain that I advised two years ago that at my hearings, I expected the police to do their job and I expect the committee to go on.

Grassley was telling the police to arrest protesters at the Brett Kavanaugh hearing

Senate Republicans dont care that hundreds of millions of Americans might not be able to get access to health care if they have a preexisting condition and Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed. They dont care that women will lose the right to make their own health care decisions and have control over their own bodies.

Senate Republicans dont want to be bothered by the distraction of what the vast majority of Americans want. They are going to ram through the Supreme Court nominee of a president who has been implicated in multiple felonies. They have to flip that court. It doesnt matter that a conservative-leaning far-right Supreme Court wont match the direction that the country is moving in.

This Donald Trumps Republican Party and they dont care about what the people that they were elected to represent want, and if the majority does dare to speak out in a public forum, they could find themselves arrested.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.767 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Once again President Donald Trump is mad at Attorney General Jeff Sessions for doing his job. And once again the president  through his postings on Twitter  seems to be attacking the rule of law in this country.

In Trumps world its a bad thing that the U.S. Department of Justice  run by Sessions  has brought criminal charges against two Republican Congressman for their financial crimes. The reason he thinks its bad is that it could hurt the GOP in the midterm elections.

The president just cant seem to get it through his head that the job of the U.S. Attorney General is not to serve as his personal political hatchet man.

On Monday Trump once again attacked the beleaguered former U.S. Senator from Alabama on Twitter, writing:

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff.

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

Trumps comments are assumed to be referring to Rep. Duncan Hunter of California who was indicted on criminal charges for spending $250,000 of campaign funds for personal expenses and Rep. Chris Collins of New York who was arrested for illegal insider trading.

He did not say the two Republicans did anything wrong. He did not criticize the criminal behavior for which they are charged. Rather, he chose to criticize the law enforcement officials who are holding the Congressmen accountable for their misdeeds.

With this one tweet Donald Trump has demonstrated that he does not believe in the rule of law.

Perhaps Trump is also subconsciously afraid that the fate of the two Congressmen may soon be his fate as well. After all, if members of Congress arent protected from criminal prosecution by their positions, perhaps the President of the United States wont be protected either. Maybe his day of being indicted and possibly arrested is not too far into the future.

According to the Associated Press,

The presidents striking suggestion that the Justice Department consider politics when making decisions showed his disregard for the agencys independence. Trump has frequently suggested he views Justice less as a law enforcement agency and more as a department that is supposed to do his personal and political bidding. Still, investigators are never supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate.

Former deputy attorney general Sally Yates said in a statement Monday:

Repeatedly trying to pervert DOJ into a weapon to go after his adversaries, and now shamelessly complaining that DOJ should protect his political allies to maintain his majority in the midterms, is nothing short of an all-out assault on the rule of law.

What the president doesnt seem to realize is that all of his words and deeds are under the microscope and being examined to see if they constitute criminal obstruction of justice. Trumps attacks on Sessions are now part of special counsel Bob Muellers obstruction investigation. Every tweet he sends is counterproductive to the larger goal of proving that he has committed no crimes.

Trumps tweet was heavily criticized by Nebraska GOP Senator Ben Sasse, a member the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sasse wrote:

The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice  one for the majority party and one for the minority party. These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began. Instead of commenting on ongoing investigations and prosecutions, the job of the President of the United States is to defend the Constitution and protect the impartial administration of justice.

In his psychotic derangement the president is lashing out using the only platform that is open to him: Twitter. There is no one to tell him what not to say. There is no one to question what he writes. His tweets are an unfiltered view into his mind, and it is not a pretty sight.10.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Bob Woodwards new book on Trump contains an account of Trump mocking Southern accents and referring to Attorney General Jeff Sessions as mentally retarded.

The Washington Post obtained Woodwards new book and reported on this account:

A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a traitor for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessionss accent, Trump added, This guy is mentally retarded. Hes this dumb Southerner.  He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.

The President of the United States used the r-word to mock that people from the South speak, and he insisted that his attorney general was mentally disabled. Jeff Sessions is a former US Senator, whether or not you agree or disagree with Sessions, the one thing that was never questioned was his mental abilities or intelligence.

I dont believe in using the r-word in publication or any form of communication, but when the President uses such vile language, it needs to be placed into print for all of the country to see.

Donald Trump is mocking the same people who are some of his strongest supporters. Trump has no gratitude or loyalty. He believes that everyone who isnt rich like him or speaks like him is inferior.

Trump conned the South into voting for him, and despite his mocking, theyll probably vote for him again in 2020.

What we have in the White House currently is more than a bad president.

Trump is a vile human being who shouldnt be trusted with any authority or power, much less the Executive Branch of the United States government.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.Food editor and chief critic

Eating all of the chicken livers just as fast as I can.Cypress and tupelo swamps are part of the 11,000-acre Oakland Club tract in Berkeley County placed under a conservation easement in 2017. A small piece of the club will now be used as a demonstration forests to help heirs' property owners better manage forests. Provided/Jason Ayers/U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceYou have permission to edit this article.

Edit CloseMary Katherine, who also goes by MK, covers health care for The Post and Courier. She is also pursuing a master's degree in data science. She grew up in upstate New York and enjoys playing cards, kayaking and the Blue Ridge Mountains.Assistant Columbia bureau chief

Adcox returned to The Post and Courier in October 2017 after 12 years covering the Statehouse for The Associated Press. She previously covered education for The P&C. She has also worked for The AP in Albany, N.Y., and for The Herald in Rock Hill.David Slade is a senior Post and Courier reporter. His work has been honored nationally by Society of Professional Journalists, American Society of Newspaper Editors, Scripps foundation and others. Reach him at 843-937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.comEditorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.A screenshot taken from Democrat James Smith's first ad for the general election for South Carolina governor. Smith is shown on patrol during his combat Army deployment in Afghanistan a decade ago, part of the ad's theme about his commitment to service.Political Reporter

Caitlin Byrd is a political reporter at The Post and Courier and author of the Palmetto Politics newsletter. Before moving to Charleston in 2016, her byline appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times. To date, Byrd has won 17 awards for her work.Political Editor

Schuyler Kropf is The Post and Courier political editor. He has covered every major political race in South Carolina dating to 1988, including for U.S. Senate, governorship, the Statehouse and Republican and Democratic presidential primaries.Roseanne Barr has lived for decades in California, where she owns multiple homes. But the comedian, whose racist tweet about former President Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett got her fired from ABC and the revival of "Roseanne" canceled, says she is leaving the Golden State, at least temporarily.

Why? "Im sure its going to fall into the sea soon," she joked during a recent podcast interview with her friend Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

Barr will spend some time in Israel, she told Boteach. One goal, she said, is be far from Hollywood when "The Conners"  ABCs "Roseanne" spinoff  premieres without her on Oct. 16.

Barr said she was sorry for her Twitter remarks but told Boteach that she didnt like Hollywood and that her public apology had been a mistake.

"My friends told me at the beginning, Oh my God, you made a fatal mistake, and that is you apologized to the left and once you apologize they never forgive, they just try to beat you down until you dont exist," she said.

Barr said she struggled with depression and the cancellation of the "Roseanne" reboot "was a death to me."

She will go to Israel for a few months and "study with my favorite teachers over there," she said, adding, "I have saved a few pennies and Im so lucky I can go. Its my great joy and privilege to be a Jewish woman."Photo: Contributed

A shoplifter tried to run from police after being caught stealing from a store in Kelowna on Sunday.

Kelowna police officers were called to a retail store in the 400 block of Bernard Avenue at about 1 p.m., and were told a member of the general public performed a citizens arrest on the shoplifter.

During the arrest, the distressed individual alleged to have committed the theft, sustained a non-life threatening injury, said Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey.

RCMP arrived on scene and called in paramedics to treat the injury to the mans face.

As he was being treated, he fled on foot and was pursued by police.

ODonaghey says a foot chase ensued through downtown Kelowna and the man was taken into police custody on the waterfront, near Water Street and Doyle Avenue.

The 39-year-old man was transported to hospital for a full medical assessment and faces potential charges.A former Guam Army National Guard specialist who pleaded guilty nearly three years ago to defrauding the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program received a sentence of two years' probation on Tuesday by Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood of the District Court of Guam.

Jun H. Park also was ordered to pay restitution of $30,485. His 50 hours of community service were suspended because he's working two jobs. Park also was ordered to write a letter of apology to a brigadier general under whom he had served.

Park pleaded guilty in December 2015 to theft of government property and aggravated identity theft.

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Park's attorney, Peter Perez, countered that the case was a "real tragedy because the defendant is a good person and a soldier who got involved in a scheme with his superiors."

Park's former supervisor, who wasn't named, is still under investigation in the matter.

Post files indicate the G-RAP provided an incentive for the recruitment of new service members. If the prospect enlisted, $1,000 was paid to the person who submitted the recruit. A second $1,000 payment would be made after the recruit completed basic and advanced individual training.

Park's indictment in August 2015 stated he had received $26,000 in G-RAP payments in the account he set up, allegedly at the behest of his superior.

Perez said Park was trained to follow orders because he had a "commitment to country" and that he was "coerced by his higher-ranking officer."

Park's father, Yung Woon Park, said through tears that his son was an "exceptional soldier." His Baptist Church pastor, Don Eckert, also spoke on Park's behalf adding he was a "good soldier."

Park could have received a sentence of up to six months in jail and a $250,000 fine, but with no criminal history and the fact that he received an honorable discharge from the military, Tydingco-Gatewood agreed with the government and probation office's recommendation.

"You don't hear that very often in these G-RAP cases that the National Guard gave you an honorable discharge," Tydingco-Gatewood said. "That's a testament to who you are as a person," she said to Park, who was tearful.

Park had submitted 15 letters from various individuals supporting his sentencing request for leniency and also served in Afghanistan in 2008, Perez said. Perez also said Park still suffers from and is treated for PTSD.Photo: The Canadian Press A aerial view of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain marine terminal, in Burnaby, B.C., is shown on Tuesday, May 29, 2018.

Federal MPs on the natural resources committee will meet this afternoon for an emergency session to discuss last week's game-changing court decision to tear up federal approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

The meeting comes at the request of the three Conservatives and one New Democrat MP who sit on the committee.

A federal court last week ruled consultation with Indigenous communities was not robust enough for the approval to be valid.

The court also said the National Energy Board hadn't properly considered the impact of an increase in oil tanker traffic off the coast of British Columbia that will result from an expanded pipeline.

The same day, Kinder Morgan shareholders voted to approve the sale of the existing pipeline and other assets to the federal government for $4.5 billion.

Conservative natural resources critic Shannon Stubbs says the government needs to explain whether it took into account the risk this court decision would come down as it did when deciding the only way to get the pipeline built in the presence of investor jitters was to nationalize it.

"It is a crucial question," Stubbs said Monday afternoon, as she got off a plane to Ottawa to attend Tuesday's meeting.

She is hoping the committee will issue calls for both Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi and Finance Minister Bill Morneau to appear before it to explain how everything went so wrong and what their plan is now to fix it, but it's unlikely any of those questions will be answered Tuesday.

It's not clear yet whether Canada intends to appeal the decision or will instead endeavour to complete the consultations and considerations the court said were lacking.

The Trans Mountain pipeline carries crude oil and some refined products between Alberta and the B.C. coast. Kinder Morgan applied to build a second pipeline parallel to the first that will triple the capacity, and Canada's hope is much of that oil would end up in Asian markets.

Canada's reliance on the United States for its oil exports decreases the price Canada can get for its oil, an amount Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself says amounts to a $15 billion loss each year.

Ninety-nine per cent of Canada's oil exports go to the United States.WEST CHESTER-It has long been said that justice is blind. But can the blind deliver justice?

That question was asked last week in Common Pleas Court, where a jury hearing a Chester County mans driving under the influence case, included a blind man  a rare, if not entirely singular  occasion in courts not only here but across the nation.

The answer? Well, if you were the defendant, Clayton Ayers III of Wallace, the answer would likely be a resounding yes.

The jury of six men and six women found Ayers not guilty of DUI and related charges after about 4 1/2 hours of deliberations on Wednesday. Ayers contended that although he had been drinking the night in question, he had not been driving  even though police stated that they found him seated behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry in the driveway of his home on Fairview Road. He had been there only momentarily, he testified, as his wife tried to get him to drive her to the hospital for an emergency.

Those involved in the trial  the judge, and both the prosecutor and defense attorney  said they had not before seen a jury panel that included a blind person, nor had they heard of it occurring in the county.

Joseph P. Green Jr., the West Chester defense attorney who represented Ayers, said that in the 38 years he has been practicing law he had never had a blind juror serve on one of his trials across the region, nor had he seen a blind person called as a prospective juror. But he said that in the end, he welcomed the mans presence because it taught him something about the way to present a case at trial and the importance of the jury system.

I think we all learned something, Green said Thursday in an interview. I learned about accommodating different kinds of people in my presentation.

The matter is not a small issue in the national blind community. Instances of the sightless being dismissed from jury service are considered an affront to their dignity and their sense of citizenship, said a spokesman-of-sorts for the American blind.

We have long contended that blind people should be allowed to serve on juries, said Gary Wunder, the editor of the Baltimore, Md., based Braille Monitor, a monthly magazine published by the National Federation of the Blind. The difficulty is that anybody can reject people for jury service, whether we like it or not. Prosecutors will contend that they have evidence of a crime  a bloody photograph, a map of the crime scene  and they want people to see it. There are also issues of establishing a witnesss credibility through visual clues. But that doesnt mean that the evidence cannot be presented in a way to make it understandable to the blind, he said.

It really is a topic of concern, Wunder said in an interview from his home in Columbia, Md. Blind people are afforded accommodations by the community in their lives, he said, and we want to be responsible for giving back. We are willing to contribute. We want to be good citizens.

Judge Patrick Carmody, who oversaw Ayers three-day long trial, said that during routine juror questions in the selection process, the man  a West Chester resident who was accompanied by his service guide dog, a Gold retriever named Dante  was asked whether he could perform the tasks of a juror. (The man could not be reached for comment.)

The juror, said he felt comfortable serving, but it depended on the case and the nature of the evidence, Carmody said in an e-mail. He had once been on a jury panel before but was not selected. We have had many jurors with hearing problems in the past and we said that if any juror had trouble hearing through the trial to let us know. One of the jurors wore a hearing aid.

Neither attorney challenged the juror for cause, nor did they use one of their five peremptory challenges, in which they are not required to state a reason for excusing the juror from the panel. This was a little surprising, given the extensive number of visual exhibits  photographs, computer overlay maps indicating where cell phone calls were made from, that both sides had, especially the Commonwealth, the judge said.

Assistant District Attorney Bonnie Cox-Shaw declined to comment on the trial or the jurors participation, saying it would not be proper. She did say, however, that the man was very attentive.

Green said that he had considered using a challenge to remove the juror during selection, but dismissed it.

The first thing I thought was that it was really courageous of him to be there, Green said. Blind people dont usually get in a courtroom, he speculated, either because they are dismissed because of their disability or asked to be excused themselves due to it.

Then I asked whether he was the kind of person I wanted on my trial, and I paid attention to how he answered questions and how he acted when he was listening to people speak, Green said. Was he a disinterested listener, or was he an active listener. He was a very active listener. I thought he would be a fair juror, and that he could do it. Then I thought about whether I could do it  tailor his presentation of the case to the mans special circumstances.

Green, in his opening statements, often tells panels that he understands that people learn things in different ways. Sone use visual clues, some verbal. Green said after the trial that he increased the way he used detailed wording in his questions to make plain for the sightless man what was before the panel. I worked hard to be more descriptive, he said. Every second, I saw that he was paying attention.

During the trial, the juror was seated in the first seat, even though he was technically Juror No. 10, next to Dante, who was remarkably well behaved during the trial, often sleeping, according to Carmody. It was not out of line to move him, the judge said, since in the past we have had jurors who used wheelchairs so we have made accommodations for them, sitting them not in the bolted down jurors but making room for them.

After the jury reached its verdict, Carmody spoke to them, thanking all of them for their service.

To me, jury service is one of the duties of citizenship, like voting, that distinguishes America from so many other countries, he said. I told each of the jurors how proud I was of them.

Wunder said that he was not entirely surprised that the man had eventually been included on the jury and served it well.

I think that people can change their minds about people who are blind, he said. I think that people get the idea that we have the ability to be convinced by sound argument, just like everyone else.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.Today is the first day of the hearings on Brett Kavanaughs nomination. I will live blog it, for a while at least.

Today will feature opening statement. In other words, speeches. Tomorrow will feature questioning by Senators. In other words, speeches.

9:37 Sen. Charles Grassley brings down the gavel.

9:37 Sen. Kamala Harris immediately interrupts Grassley to whine about having just received documents.

9:39 Applause breaks out. This will be a circus.

9:39 Women in the audience are screaming hysterically. The police is removing them.

9:40 There is a motion to adjourn. Its Sen. Cory Bookers turn to whine now. Grassley is trying to gavel him down. Hes appealing to Grassleys sense of decency. What a phony.

9:41 Grassley is responding to Booker. He says Booker is taking advantage of Grassleys decency.

9:42 More shouting from the crowd. Grassley should clear the room  of Democrats too (just kidding).

9:45 The Democrats strategy is clear. They have nothing effective with which to beat Kavanaugh up, so its going to be all about the documents. All whining, all the time.

9:46 Grassley is responding to the whining. Hes explaining why documents are being withheld due to executive privilege. Some woman is screaming in the background.

9:47 Is it sexist to wonder why all of the screeching is coming from women?

9:50 Grassley has finished his defense and is welcoming Judge Kavanaugh who will introduce his family. Lets hope most of the screechers have been smoked out and removed.

9:52 Grassley is laying out the ground rules. There will be 10 opening statements by each committee member, with Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member, reserving the right to drone on longer. Then, there will be statements by the introducers. After that, Kavanaugh will be sworn in as a witness, followed by questioning by Senators, which will occur on Wednesday.

9:53 The Dems are renewing their motion, by Sen. Blumenthal, to adjourn. Not for the last time, one suspects.

9:55 They are making talking about their rights as litigants. I didnt know this was litigation.

9:56 Sen. Cornyn takes up the litigation point. He says if this were litigation, every member of the the other side would be held in contempt. Hes probably right.

9:59 Sen. Booker is complaining again. Hes creating sound bites.

10:00 Grassley has called on Sen. Feinstein to give her opening statement. Shes talking, not about Kavanaugh, but about President Trump. Theres a cloud over this administration, she intones.

10:03: Now shes whining about the treatment of Judge Merrick Garland. Weve been going for half an hour with nary a statement about Kavanaugh.

10:04 Finally, a statement about Kavanaugh. Feinstein says that Kavanaugh is the kind of nominee Trump wants. Duh!

10:05 Feinstein says we need to understand the frustration on her side of the aisle. We do, Dianne, and we love it.

10:06 Sen. Blumenthal, the insufferable liar, renews his motions to adjourn and/or go to executive session. Grassley denies them.

10:07 Blumenthal opines that the denial of his motion represents a stain.

10:09 More sound bites from Sen. Booker, another liar.

10:13 Sen. Kennedy wonders whether its necessary to be recognized by the chair before speaking. It hasnt been so far.

10:15 Sen. Tillis is reading a report about how the Democrats met over the weekend to plot a strategy of obstruction. He asks whether the Democrats deny this.

10:16 Dirty Dick Durbin responds, but not really. He admits that the Dems met and then renews the Democrats whining.

10:18 More hollering from the audience. Sickening.

10:20 Grassley is providing a lengthy response to complaints about documents. More documents have been made available than in any past nomination proceeding. Sound bites arent the Chairmans strong suit.

10:23 Grassleys response just leads to a response by ageless windbag Sen. Leahy. Grassley should stop arguing and give his opening statement.

10:25 Leahy says hes sorry to see the Senate Judiciary Committee descend this way. Im sure Grassley is too. It has been a slow and steady descent.

10:27 Grassley points out that nearly half a million pages have been provided.

10:28 Sen. Klobuchar is speaking now. Blah, blah, blah.

10:29 Sen. Cornyn agrees with the Dems that this confirmation hearing is unprecedented. Its the first one to which mob rule applies.

10:31 The main complaint today, for what its worth, is about the designation of many documents as committee confidential. This means they cant be made available to the public. Thats because of the highly sensitive nature of the documents.

10:34 Grassley is a sensitive guy. He takes offense to Cornyns claim that this is a mob rule hearing. Instead of taking offense, Grassley should exercise control and move the hearing along.

10:39 Grassley asks the Democrats if he may proceed to his opening statement. Why is he asking for permission? Just do it.

10:40 The Dems havent given permission. Instead, Sen. Harris is creating sound bites. She doesnt sound presidential. Bookers sound bites are more impressive.

10:42 Lizardly Sen. Blumenthal renews his motion.

10:43 He renews his motion again.

10:43 Grassley tries to give his opening statement, but Sen. Hirono interrupts him.

10:44 Booker interrupts again. Blah, blah, blah.

10:45 Booker invokes common sense. My common sense tells me that the Democrats are engaging in obstruction. It tells me that Kavanaughs work on the Judiciary plus half a million other documents provide enough information to evaluate this nominee.

10:47 Grassley finally just does it. He begins his opening statement. More hollering from the audience.

10:48 In a first, a man is hollering. A woman is hollering louder.

10:50 Grassleys statement is vanilla so far. Predictably.

10:52 More hollering. The left has done a great job of filling the audience with its adherents. Predictably.

10:53 Grassley is citing the Ginsburg rule. Its invoked to avoid answering questions about substantive law on the theory that the issue might come before the Supreme Court. Its a great tool for nominees and I expect Kavanaugh to invoke it quite a bit.

10:58 Its Feinsteins turn now. She says its important for people to understand how strongly they feel and why they feel that way. With Feinstein, its often about feelings.

11:00 Now Feinstein is giving a rousing defense of legalized abortions. This is he Democrats best play because its probably the only issue that might gain the traction necessary to peal off two Republican Senators, Sens. Collins and Murkowski.

11:03 Ill say one positive thing about this hearing. Al Franken isnt part of it.

11:04 Feinstein is also talking about guns. Kavanaugh has been strong on the Second Amendment. Feinstein claims that Kavanaughs views here are outside the mainstream and go further even than those of Justice Scalia. It will be interesting to hear how Kavanaugh responds when he finally gets the opportunity.

11:06 Some vulnerable Democrats are from states where gun rights are quite popular. In addition, Sen. Murkowski comes from such a state. So Kavanaughs strong support for gun rights isnt necessarily a negative in these proceeding.

11:08 Feinstein concludes her statement. I have to commend her on it. The statement was low on whining and high on substance.

11:09 Now, its Sen. Hatchs turn. He notes how well Kavanaughs opinions have fared with the Supreme Court. Thats a good point, particularly because that Court was ideologically balanced.

11:11 More hollering. There seems to be an endless supply of resisters in the crowd.

11:12 Hatch calls for the loud mouth to be removed. Grassley seems to be offended again. By Hatch, not by the loud mouths.

11:13 Hatch is forced to shout over the noise.

11:14 The Committee should consider closing hearings like these to the public. Since they are televised, theres no real need for a live audience.

11:16 Hatch cites the testimonials for Kavanaugh by (1) his former female law clerks  all of the ones not precluded by their employment from weighing in and (2) 40 or so members of the Supreme Court bar, including prominent liberals.

11:17 He now quotes Bob Bennett, President Clintons personal lawyer during the Whitewater/Monica days.

11:18 More screeching. These interruptions are good sound bites for Republicans. I wonder whether the mainstream media will show them on the nightly news.

11:19 Hatch says that anyone who claims Kavanaugh is outside the mainstream is writing half the country out of the mainstream. Great point.

11:20 Feinstein is recognizing a series of leftists in the audience. One of them is Al Sharpton.

11:22 Its Leahys turn now. He says hes going to introduce reality to the proceedings. The key reality is that he and his party are almost certainly going to be outvoted.

11:23 Leahy is focusing on Kavanaughs expansive view of executive power. Another valid issue to explore.

11:24 Leahy says Kavanaugh was a political operative before he became a judge. Actually, he was a prosecutor and the staff secretary at the White House.

11:26 Leahy reverts to whining.

11:28 Heres a first. A Democratic is being interrupted. Some woman is shrieking about abortion. Leahy isnt pleased.

11:30 What is being hidden, and why? This is the Dems mantra. Leahy repeats it, not for the first time.

11:32 The old man is repeating much of what he said during opening interruptions. And hes rambling on about the good old days. I remember them. Supreme Court nominees  liberal and conservative  were routinely confirmed on a bipartisan basis and with no grandstanding.

11:34 Leahy claims that the Senates vetting role is being discarded.

11:35 Now he claims that Kavanaugh misled the Senate during his first confirmation hearing. He promises to question him about this. It should be interesting, if nauseating.

11:36 Grassley calls Leahys claim that there is insufficient information to consider this nomination ridiculous.

11:39 Now, it Cornyns turn. He notes, as I did, that in the good old days judges were confirmed on a bipartisan basis. Thats because Justices werent yet viewed as policy makers. In fact, though, they already were that.

11:42 More hollering. Something about Kavanaugh not be qualified to run a laundromat, I think. Im confident he could run one, though he is surely overqualified for the job.

11:44 CSPAN says 20 protesters have already been arrested. That, I think, is the number of those removed. Lets hope they are arrested and prosecuted. I think theres a jail in the Capitol basement.

11:47 Durbins up. He calls the hollering the noise of democracy. Leahy didnt feel that way when he was interrupted.

Disrupting events that are part of the democratic process is not the noise of democracy. Its anti-democratic.

11:48 Durbin is using the interruptions as the basis for his claim that there are valid concerns over Kavanaugh. Thats ridiculous. There may be some, but the hollering doesnt prove this. Twenty people shouting doesnt prove anything except the over-the-top obnoxiousness of the shouters.

11:49 Unlike Leahy, Durbin seems fine with the increasingly thuggish nature of the Democratic left. Predictably.

11:50 Durbin is arguing that Kavanaugh shouldnt be confirmed because hes the nominee of Donald J. Trump. Would Durbin support Kavanaugh if Ted Cruz had nominated him?

11:52 I cant research this now, but I think Durbins claim that hollering at confirmation hearings is unprecedented is false. Certainly, hollering at Senate hearings is nothing new.

11:54 Dirty Dick now says that Kavanaugh is the nominee of the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. Theres a tension between this claim and the assertion that hes Trumps guy. If Durbin were truly concerned about the Trump angle, rather than just obstructing a GOP nominee, he would take comfort from the fact, if true, that Kavanaugh is the Federalist Societys guy.

11:57 Now, Durbin is accusing Kavanaugh of lying to him during his first confirmation hearing. This will make for some interesting questioning.

11:58 Durbin says he needs a clear answer to the question of whether the president is above the law. I predict Durbin will get an answer: No.

12:00 I think Durbin has just retired the smarmiest Senator award.

12:01 Sen. Lee has commenced his statement. He calls the suggestion that Kavanaugh misled the Committee absurd. Clearly, Kavanaugh and his supporters have an answer to the allegation.

12:03 Lee, who has a firm grasp of constitutional history, notes that confirmation hearings for Justices didnt begin until around 100 years ago. It was for the Brandeis nomination. There was the suggestion that anti-Semitism prompted this, Lee says. Brandeis, though, wasnt called to testify at the hearing.

12:05 Felix Frankfurter was the first nominee who appeared at a confirmation hearing. This was during the 1930s.

12:06 Lee now discusses the infamous Bork hearings.

12:07 Lee says were now at the point where nominees are asked by Senators to trade promises on how theyll rule in particular cases in exchange for a confirmation vote. Actually, were at the point where even a promise, if a nominee were unwise enough to give one, wouldnt produce a vote to confirm Kavanaugh from most Senate Democrats. (Sen. Whitehouse later effectively admits this).

12:10 Lee makes a strong point. Despite working in the Bush administration, Kavanaugh ruled against the Bush administration numerous times as a judge, says Lee.

12:11 Also, Kavanaugh almost never voted to overturn court of appeals precedent while he was on the D.C. Circuit. The only four times he did, the decision was unanimous, again according to Lee.

12:14 Now comes Sen. Whitehouse. Hes attacking the Roberts court (the Roberts Five) for going off on partisan excursions  i.e. voting as a bloc. Of course, the Ginsburg four votes as a bloc too. However, Whitehouse claims that the Roberts Fives excursions always favor corporate interests.

12:17 I think this means that Kavanaugh, if he votes with the Roberts Five, will be a mainstream judge.

12:18 It will be interesting to see whether Whitehouse discusses the legal merits  as opposed to who won  of any the decisions he deplores. He isnt doing so now. Maybe he will when he questions Kavanaugh.

12:22 It will also be interesting to see whether Whitehouse says anything about Kavanaugh in his opening statement. He hasnt so far.

12:23 It follows from Whitehouses statement that Kavanaughs nomination isnt important. The good guys are losing all the big cases 5-4 already. At worst, Kavanaughs ascension will keep the 5-4 decisions coming. No change, in other words.

12:27 Finally, we get to Kavanaugh. Whitehouse repeats the claim that Kavanaugh is a political operative.

12:28 Now, he refers to Kavanaughs record as judge. Again, its all about who has won, not the merits. I hope Whitehouse will engage Kavanaugh on the merits of his decisions. Man up, Sheldon.

12:32 At last we get to Ted Cruz, the star of the Committee in my opinion. I think there will be a lunch break after his turn. Mercifully.

12:34 Cruz says there has been very little said about the substance of Kavanaughs judicial opinion so far. I dont recall anything substantive being said about his opinions.

12:36 Cruz reminds us that the documents in dispute from Kavanaughs time as staff secretary are (1) documents authored by others (not Kavanaugh) for consumption by the president and (2) the most sensitive and confidential documents the president receives.

12:37 Cruz says the Democrats are demanding documents they know no president would produce and documents that have no real relevance to Kavanaughs fitness. Having nothing with which to defeat Kavanaugh, they want to relitigate the Bush administration.

12:39 Cruz makes a key point I should have made. The 2016 election, to an unprecedented degree, was about the Supreme Court. Both candidates were very clear about the kind of Supreme Court Justices they would appoint. Trump even published a list of those he would consider (interestingly, Kavanaugh wasnt on the original list, presented during the primary seasons, but he was on the list presented before the general election). [CORRECTION: I now see that Kavanaughs name wasnt added until November 17, 2017]

12:41 The electorate gave the nod to Trump in an election that, to a considerable degree, was a referendum on which types of jurists should be on the Supreme Court.

12:43 Now, Cruz is attacking the Democrats and liberal judges on issues like the Second Amendment, free speech, and religious liberty. In other words, the leftism of leftist jurisprudence.

12:45 This is making for good sound bites, perhaps the best of the day. I think Texas will like them.

12:47 Grassley has announced the end of the mornings proceedings. This will also end my blogging of opening statements, about half of which have now been presented.Over the weekend I noted the Wall Street Journal editorial decrying the wrong done to our friend Cleta Mitchell in connection with the Russia investigation(s). Cleta is the prominent Foley & Lardner partner and campaign finance expert. The Journal editorial is Anatomy of a Fusion smear (truncated but accessible here on Outline). That Fusion smear was planted in his accustomed style by Glenn Simpson with a few of his friends at McClatchy. I reached out to Cleta to ask if she had anything to add to the editorial. Indeed, she did. I posted her message to me here.

Cleta has followed up with me by forwarding a copy of the letter from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to her this past April. In the letter the committee requested records of her contacts with specified Russian and Russian entities. I have posted that letter here.

Cleta responded to the committee by letter dated May 8, 2018. I have posted Cletas letter below via Scribd. In her letter Cleta wrote: I have no information about any of the individuals referenced in your letter. Whatever stories Glenn Simpson, Dan Jones, and other operatives associated with FusionGPS, have told your staff about me, they are lying. They have made false statements regarding my knowledge, or role, or information in my possession related to the persons listed in your letter  none of whom had I ever heard of before reading their names in the erroneous news reports falsely accusing me of having some information that you now think I have. The story is false and you are wrong. I have nothing whatsoever to say on this topic other than it is a lie, completely fabricated and concocted by Glenn Simpson & Co. You should be pursuing them for perjury and for making false statements to congressional investigators. There the matter has come to rest.

In her message to me yesterday Cleta added this: We need to start demanding an END to the Mueller investigation. It has gone on long long enough. And they have YET to find a single shred of anything related to collusion with the Russians by the Trump campaign, which is supposed to be what this whole national nightmare ordeal was/is supposed to be about. Clearly, it is not about that and needs to be ended.

Cleta has also forwarded a copy of her correspondence with the McClatchy reporters on the story that peddled the line Glenn Simpson was selling. I hope to take that up next in this series.

09-03-2018 Redacted Response to Senate Intel Committee by Scott Johnson on ScribdFormer Secretary of State John Kerry has written a book: Everyday Is Extra. Margaret Brennan of CBS News must be one of the few who have read it.

This Sunday on Face the Nation, she pressed Kerry on his admission in the book that the U.S. paid a price for not enforcing President Obamas red line on the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. Kerry does some dancing, but ends up confirming his admission.

Its clear that Obama pulled the rug out from under his Secretary of State who, as Brennan reminded him, had been sent around the world to rally other countries into standing with the U.S., only to see Obama blink. Kerry told Brennan:

I thought we were going to go forward. I thought that weekend was the weekend. I expected the phone call to be telling me that he had decided we were striking that night or whatever was going to happen, and it wasnt.

As a result, Kerry said, the Obama administration lost credibility, making his job as a diplomat more difficult.

Its natural for Kerry, who is obsessed with diplomacy, to calculate the price of Obamas backing down in diplomatic terms, and that price must have been substantial. The Syrians paid the biggest price, however. As Brennan reminded him, they have been the victims of sarin gas attacks notwithstanding the deal Obama made with Putin in lieu of enforcing the red line.

But the biggest mistake Obama/Kerry made in Syria was refusing to establish and enforce a no-fly zone. Predictably, Russia filled the vacuum. They took control of the skies, inflicted unimaginable suffering on Syrians, created a refugee crisis that has Europe reeling, and enabled Assad to win the civil war.

Thats bad even for government work. It should be the main source of Kerrys regret.

The whole interview can be viewed below:



UPDATE: I forgot to mention that during the CBS interview, Kerry refused to rule out running for president in 2020. Somehow, I dont think Kerry fits the profile of a nominee of the contemporary Democratic party. Hes too old, too white, too male, and insufficiently socialist.

Nor would Kerry be the first choice of Democrats looking for old, white, insufficiently socialist males. That honor surely goes to Joe Biden.According to Goldstein Research, Rapid industrialization and booming retail industry are likely to contribute in the growth of barcode printers market in Asia-Pacific region. With growing establishments of production facilities and implementation of barcode printers in end-user industries, Asia Pacific barcode printer market anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 9.7% during the forecast period.

Barcode Printer Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 12:13:57

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99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527



Steve blade

Global Sales Manager

6465687747

email

https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/





# 648 Words

99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747

According to Goldstein Research, Rapid industrialization and booming retail industry are likely to contribute in the growth of barcode printers market in Asia-Pacific region. With growing establishments of production facilities and implementation of barcode printers in end-user industries, Asia Pacific barcode printer market anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 9.7% during the forecast period. Global barcode printer Market Outlook also includes product development, technological advancements and investment strategies adopted by major market players in order to expand their business across the globe. Leading companies are opting for mergers and acquisitions in order to diversify the product portfolio and to strengthen their position in barcode printers business. For instance, in 2014, ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES acquired Motorola Solutions Enterprise business for USD 3.45 billion.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, global barcode printer market can be segmented as follows:Based on Product Type Desktop Barcode Printer Industrial Barcode Printer Portable Barcode PrinterBased on Printing Technology Dot Matrix Laser Printing Thermal Transfer Direct Thermal Ink JetBased on Printing Resolution Below 300 dpi Between 301 to 600 dpi Above 600 dpiBased on Connectivity Wi-Fi Bluetooth Ethernet USBBased on End-User Manufacturing Transportation & Logistics Government Retail HealthcareBased on Geography North America (U.S. & Canada) Barcode printer Market {Market Share (%), Market Size(USD Billion)} Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina & Rest of Latin America) Barcode printer Market {Market Share (%), Market Size(USD Billion)} Europe (The U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden &RoE) Barcode printer Market {Market Share (%), Market Size(USD Billion)} Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) Barcode printer Market {Market Share (%), Market Size(USD Billion)} The Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, North Africa, RoMEA) Barcode printer Market {Market Share (%), Market Size(USD Billion)}Global Barcode Printer Market Outlook 2024 embodies a comprehensive overview of the global barcode printer market. On the basis of our painstaking study, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by product type, by printing technology, by printing resolutions, by connectivity, and by end users.Download Exclusive Sample Report:Further, for the detailed analysis, Global Barcode Printer Market Report encompasses the industry 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 SATO Holdings Corporation, TSC Auto ID Technology Co., Ltd., Toshiba TEC Corporation, Avery Dennison Corporation, Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., Honeywell International, BarcodesInc, Canon, Datamax-O'Neil Corporation, Fujitsu etc.Get More Information About Barcode Printer MarketThe major company profiles contain business strategy, major information, regional revenue distribution 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 barcode printer market trends along with the market forecast that will help industry 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 barcode printer market report What is the global barcode printer market Size by 2024 and what would be the expected growth rate of the industry? What is the overall revenue per segment and geography in 2015-16 and what would be the projected revenue per segment and region over the forecast period? What are the barcode printer market trends? What are the factors which are driving this industry? What are the major barriers to Barcode printer industry growth? What are the industry opportunities for the existing and entry level players? What are the recent developments and business strategy of the key players?Browse Similar Report:PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 14:03:02

Brazilian Radio Group, Sistema Globo de Radio, Chooses Tritons Advertising Platform and Programmatic Advertising Marketplace to Monetize Its Streaming Audio Content

CBN and Radio Globo Select Triton Digital to Monetize Its Streaming Audio and Podcast Content

Triton Digital

Kristin Charron, +1 514-448-4037

Kristin.charron@tritondigital.com

or

SGR - IN PRESS ASSESSORIA DE IMPRENSA

Barbara Lima, +55 21 3723-8092

barbara.lima@inpresspni.com.br

Triton Digital, the global technology and services leader to the digital audio industry, today announced that Sistema Globo de Radio (SGR) has selected Triton Digital to monetize its streaming audio and podcast content. Through this partnership, SGR will leverage the Triton Advertising Platform, Tap, to monetize their popular news, music and podcast content which reaches a combined audience of six million listeners per month. To support their monetization goals, SGR will also make their online audio inventory available in Tritons global programmatic marketplace, a2x, which will enable media buyers across LATAM and other parts of the world to reach their engaged listening audience through non-skippable, at-scale buys for the first time.

We are proud to work with Triton Digital and to leverage their powerful technology to monetize our streaming audio content, said Renata Gorini, Digital Development Manager at SGR. As global experts in the streaming audio space, we are confident in Tritons ability to support our podcast monetization strategies.

We are pleased to provide Sistema Globo de Radio with the technology they need to streamline their streaming audio advertising operations, and to obtain the most value from their online audience, said Benjamin Masse, Managing Director, Market Development & Strategy at Triton Digital. eMarketer estimates a mobile ad spend of $3.15 Billion in Brazil in 2019, which will create a tremendous opportunity for audio publishers to offer an engaged audience and immersive experience on mobile phones to agencies and marketers.

The Triton Advertising platform, Tap, is the industry-leading publisher ad server, designed to help audio publishers effortlessly monetize their content through real-time and personalized server-side audio ad insertion (SSAI), and dynamic replacement of over-the-air spots. The global audio marketplace, a2x, is the world's first programmatic buying marketplace for digital audio. The industry-leading marketplace enables buyers to execute highly targeted and brand safe audio ad buys across a highly engaged digital audience.

About Triton Digital

Triton Digital is the global technology and services leader to the digital audio and podcast industry. Operating in more than 40 countries, Triton Digital provides innovative technology that enables broadcasters, podcasters, and online music services to build their audience, maximize their revenue, and streamline their day-to-day operations. In addition, Triton Digital powers the global online audio industry with Webcast Metrics, the leading online audio measurement service, that makes it easy for advertisers and brands to determine the best destination and time to reach their target audiences. Through unparalleled integrity, excellence, teamwork, and accountability, Triton Digital remains committed to connecting audio, audience, and advertisers to continuously fuel the growth of the global online industry. For more information, visit www.TritonDigital.com.

About Sistema Globo de Radio

Sistema Globo de Radio (SGR) brings together Grupo Globos broadcasting radio networks. SGR radio stations offer programming in the following segments: popular talk, all news and music shows. Some of the most famous and prestigious brands in Brazil are part of its portfolio like Radio Globo, CBN, Sound! and BH FM. Added to these products, SGR has over 50 affiliates, thus, operating in Brazils major cities and reaching a relevant audience of at least six million people. It produces and offers audio content in multi-platforms, like websites and internet players, mobile apps or its social networks, connecting with and talking to different profile audiences.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005

CBN and Radio Globo Select @TritonDigital to Monetize Its Streaming Audio and Podcast ContentPR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 15:09:01

6th edition of the campaign supports 10 non-profit partners and includes a broader range of electronically traded products

Citi Expands e for Education Campaign

Citi

London

Capucine Boncenne

capucine.boncenne@citi.com

+44 (20) 7508-9355

or

New York

Scott Helfman

scott.helfman@citi.com

+ (212) 816-9241

or

Hong Kong

James Griffiths

james.a.griffiths@citi.com

852-2868-7668

Citi (NYSE: C) has launched the 6th edition of its annual e for Education campaign, a global corporate social responsibility initiative which has raised over $22.5 million for education-focused non-profits since 2013.

During the 9-week campaign, Citi's Foreign Exchange and Local Markets business will donate $1 for every $1 million traded with Citi via a broad range of electronic platforms including Citis proprietary platforms- Citi Velocity for institutional clients and CitiFX Pulse for corporate clients. For the first time this year, the campaign will include local market bonds, in addition to FX.

Since its inception in 2013, Citis e for Education campaign has supported over 250,000 youth globally and contributed to the success of several key initiatives supporting youth education, including the development of more than 400 schools across more than 20 countries worldwide. This year, Citi has expanded the number of non-profits with three additional partners, Malala Fund, Place2Be and Reach the World, bringing the total of non-profit organizations supported by the campaign to 10:

Civic Builders : develops high-performing charter schools where need is greatest across the U.S

: develops high-performing charter schools where need is greatest across the U.S EMpower : supports at-risk youth in emerging market countries

: supports at-risk youth in emerging market countries Fallen Patriots : provides college scholarships and educational counselling to North American children who have lost a parent in the U.S. military

: provides college scholarships and educational counselling to North American children who have lost a parent in the U.S. military Malala Fund : invests in education programmes and breaks down the barriers preventing more than 130 million girls around the world from going to school

: invests in education programmes and breaks down the barriers preventing more than 130 million girls around the world from going to school Place2Be : enhances the wellbeing and prospects of children and their families by providing access to therapeutic and emotional support in schools

: enhances the wellbeing and prospects of children and their families by providing access to therapeutic and emotional support in schools Reach the World : makes the benefits of travel accessible to classrooms, inspiring youth to become more curious, confident global citizens

: makes the benefits of travel accessible to classrooms, inspiring youth to become more curious, confident global citizens Room to Read : focuses on increasing literacy and gender equality in education in low-income countries

: focuses on increasing literacy and gender equality in education in low-income countries SkillForce : uses veterans skills to help young people flourish at school in the UK

: uses veterans skills to help young people flourish at school in the UK Teach First : trains and support committed individuals to become inspirational classroom leaders in low-income communities across England and Wales

: trains and support committed individuals to become inspirational classroom leaders in low-income communities across England and Wales Uncommon Schools: starts and manages 52 public charter schools serving 18,000 students in the US to prepare low-income students to graduate from college

Reach the World's virtual exchange programs help impoverished and isolated youth to become curious, confident and compassionate global citizens who are prepared to thrive in todays global economy, Heather Halstead, Founder and Executive Director of Reach The World, said. Thanks to Citis e for Education campaign, Reach the World will expand its service to three states in rural America, and lay the groundwork for service to five countries worldwide."

In addition to the donations raised on the back of electronic trading activity, Citi clients and employees also support the selected non-profits through a series of educational activities including CV clinics, mock interviews, trading simulation, visits to the trading floor, career symposiums, financial literacy workshops and economics lessons.

We are pleased to expand the scope of Citis e for Education campaign and welcome additional partners to further support youth education in the local communities we operate in, Nadir Mahmud, Citis Global Head of Foreign Exchange and Local Markets said. With an estimated 260 million children failing to acquire basic literacy skills worldwide1, we have a crucial responsibility to invest in the next generation by facilitating access the essential resources that young people need to realize their full potential.

Additional information about the campaign may be found at www.ciitfx.com/e4e

*****

Notes to Editor

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

Additional information may be found at http://www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com/| Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi.

___________________________

1 Unesco Global Education Monitoring Report

For more information on direct impact of education levels on economic wellbeing, please refer to Citis Research GPS report: Education : Back to Basics

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005

Citi Expands e for Education CampaignPR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 16:02:01

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Constellium N.V. (NYSE: CSTM) today announced that it will host an Analyst Day on Thursday, December 13, 2018 in New York City.



The Analyst Day will include a series of presentations by members of the Constellium management team beginning at 1:00 PM EST. A live webcast and replay of the event will be accessible from the company's website.

Space for the event is limited and advanced registration is required. Analysts and institutional investors interested in attending are encouraged to contact Constellium Investor Relations at investor-relations@constellium.com to register.

Agenda and webcast details to follow.

About Constellium

Constellium (NYSE: CSTM) is a global sector leader that develops innovative, value added aluminium products for a broad scope of markets and applications, including aerospace, automotive and packaging. Constellium generated 5.2 billion of revenue in 2017.

www.constellium.com

Ryan Wentling  Investor Relations

Phone: +1 (212) 675-5450

Investor-relations@constellium.com

Delphine Dahan-Kocher  Communications, NA

Phone: +1 443 420 7860

delphine.dahan-kocher@constellium.com

PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 22:23:47

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# 688 Words

Neel B+1-646-568-9980

According to a new report published by Polaris Market Research the global facades market is anticipated to reach USD 376 billion by 2026. Owing to the need to bring down the cost incurred in heating and cooling down the buildings, and for achieving power efficiency, the market for facades is gaining traction. Companies these days are also using composite materials which offer strength, and flexibility and can be used to give a good appearance to the buildings. All these factors are anticipated to drive the demand for facades and the market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period.Request For Sample Of This Research Report @ https://bit.ly/2oDSw8Q There has been a substantial rise in the commercial buildings development such as malls, offices, multiplexes, technology parks, hotels etc. in countries such as India, China and Brazil. These commercial buildings demand energy efficient solutions which are cost effective and can reduce the overall cost for air conditioning and heating. Construction companies are installing facades to achieve this, thus achieving large cost cutting. This has pushed the market for facades significantly.Browse Full Research Report with Table of Content @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/facades-market/ Ventilated facades market has the largest market share owing to the factors such as heat ventilation and soundproofing. On the other hand, basic materials such as glass and aluminum are favored in the market due to availability, light weight and cost. Composite materials are also being adopted in the market and are expected to push the market during the forecast period. There has been an increasing demand in green buildings and structures and government from many countries are focusing on building these green structures. Facades are used by different construction companies to achieve these goals.Request For customization @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/facades-market/request-for-customization In the recent years, the worldwide facade market has displayed a huge development. Pushed by the rising interest for alternative energy sources through business and private infrastructure development, the market has grown at a high pace. This is attributable to the most recent technical progressions, which prompted the boost of power saving facade materials. As a result, the market is presumed to expand extensively as the infrastructure activities are seen to be developing at a vigorous pace. Asia Pacific region is anticipated to have the largest market share followed by Latin America. This is majorly due to growing economies in these regions. The market in the Middle East region is also gaining traction owing to harsh climatic conditions and large construction projects which are being carried out in this region. North America and Europe have a considerable market share owing to redevelopment projects. Implementation and adoption of smart cities and smart buildings globally has significantly pushed this market.About us Polaris Market ResearchPolaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities.We mainly focus on aiding our customers with substantial competitive intelligence, helping them to secure a competitive advantage in the market and accomplish sustainable growth in different market domains. Adept with a highly competent, experienced and extremely qualified team of experts comprising SMEs, analysts and consultants, we at Polaris endeavor to deliver value-added business solutions to our customers. Through dedicated qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary market research and consulting assignments, we adeptly formulate competitive strategies to address business challenges for our clients through analyzing market trends and emerging technologies.Contact us-Mr. NeelPolaris Market Research30 Wall Street8th FloorNew York City, NY 10005United StatesEmail- sales@ polarismarketresearch.com Follow us- LinkedIn | Twitter | FacebookPhoto: GoFundMe

As kids across B.C. head back to school, an Abbotsford mother is still fighting to get her children back from their father, who is believed to have taken off with them to Lebanon.

Wissam Tarabichi is accused of taking Liam, 8, and Mia, 9, without permission back in March.

"If they ever see this, I want them to know that I'm going to die trying to get them home," Shelley Beyak told CTV.

Beyak met Tarabichi while working in Lebanon in 2006. They married, and moved to Canada in 2010, but later divorced.

"The kids spent half the time with him, half the time with me. It was really equal," Beyak said.

Until March 24, when Tarabichi took them to the U.S. for spring break. She hasn't seen them since.

Police say Tarabichi flew from Seattle to Paris, and then on to Lebanon. He is charged with two counts of contravention of a custody order.

But, "Family law matters in Lebanon, including child custody and divorce-related decisions, are settled according to local religious laws," the Canadian government says.

Global Affairs Canada couldn't comment on the case, but says consular officials are in contact with the family.

Beak says the government isn't doing enough and is working with a lawyer in Lebanon to bring her children home. An online fundraiser to help her cause has brought in more than $35,000.

 with files from CTV VancouverPR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 22:27:18

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+1-646-568-9980

e-mail

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# 727 Words

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The worldwide organic food and beverages market is growing due to increased awareness regarding healthy eating habits along with increasing obesity worldwide. Organic food is grown without the use of any chemicals, pesticides, hormones, or genetically modified organisms. It is also free from artificial food additives such as preservatives, artificial flavours, sweeteners, and colours. Most common organic products available in the market include fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, and dairy products. Organic food has higher levels of nutrition, antioxidants, zinc, iron, and vitamin C among others. Market players are also launching organic breakfast cereals, sodas, and cookies to meet the growing customer needs. On account of the antiquated methods used, organic food takes longer to produce and requires more care. Organic food is priced higher owing to specific methods used to grow in longer time. However, growing concerns of health among consumers is expected to supplement the growth of organic products. According to the Organic Trade Associations (OTAs) 2017 Organic Industry Survey, the sale of organic products generated around $47 billion in 2016 in U.S. as compared to $43 billion generated in 2015.Request For Sample Of This Research Report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-organic-food-and-beverages-market/request-for-free-sample The growing geriatric population along with increasing cases of age-related health conditions are expected to drive the market. There has been an increased awareness among consumers regarding health benefits, wellbeing, weight loss, and nutritional needs, which supplements the growth of this market. Increasing concerns regarding obesity related diseases such as diabetes has further fostered the adoption of these products. Additionally, increasing disposable income coupled with busy lifestyles of consumers encourage consumers to eat healthy. There has been an increased demand of premium, low-calorie organic products and health beverages in emerging economies of Asia-Pacific. Global players are expanding their business in this region to increase their customer base and improve the geographical outreach.However, high cost of organic food and beverages, and stringent government regulations to be followed by manufacturers of organic food and beverages are some of the factors hampering the global market.On the basis of geography, North America is expected to dominate the global market over forecast period. North America exhibits the highest obese population. Owing to the increased per-capita consumption of fast food over the years, the obesity has increased significantly among children as well as old people. In the recent years, there has been an increased awareness regarding weight loss and benefits of eating healthy, which has resulted in an increased demand for organic food and beverages. The increasing obese population, initiatives and funding by governments, and lifestyle changes primarily drive the growth of this market in North America. The number of memberships for health clubs and gyms has increased significantly promoting the growth of organic food in the region. The increase in obesity related diseases such as diabetes and hypertension along with high disposable income of consumers further propel the adoption of organic food and beverages.Request for an in-depth table of contents for this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-organic-food-and-beverages-market/ About us Polaris Market ResearchPolaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. We strive to provide our customers with updated information on innovative technologies, high growth markets, emerging business environments and latest business-centric applications, thereby helping them always to make informed decisions and leverage new opportunities.We mainly focus on aiding our customers with substantial competitive intelligence, helping them to secure a competitive advantage in the market and accomplish sustainable growth in different market domains. Adept with a highly competent, experienced and extremely qualified team of experts comprising SMEs, analysts and consultants, we at Polaris endeavor to deliver value-added business solutions to our customers. Through dedicated qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary market research and consulting assignments, we adeptly formulate competitive strategies to address business challenges for our clients through analyzing market trends and emerging technologies.Contact us-Polaris Market Research30 Wall Street8th FloorNew York City, NY 10005United StatesEmail ID - sales@ polarismarketresearch.com Follow us- LinkedIn | Twitter | FacebookAccording to Goldstein Research, Middle East steel rebar market is expected to reach USD 11.6 billion by the end of 2025, spurring at a CAGR of 6.5% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Growing rapid urbanization and growing investment in the construction sector to develop infrastructure and to speed up the economic growth by developing manufacturing sector especially in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE among others are driving the growth of Middle East steel rebar market.

Middle East Steel Rebar Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 09:45:46

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# 540 Words

99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747

According to Goldstein Research, Middle East steel rebar market is expected to reach USD 11.6 billion by the end of 2025, spurring at a CAGR of 6.5% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. Growing rapid urbanization and growing investment in the construction sector to develop infrastructure and to speed up the economic growth by developing manufacturing sector especially in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE among others are driving the growth of Middle East steel rebar market. Middle East Steel rebar market segmentation has been done on the basis of product type, steel rebar size, end-user, and geography. Based on product type, deformed steel rebar accounted for the lion market share of more than 65% of Middle East steel rebar market. Further, deformed steel rebar is expected to be the fastest growing segment at a CAGR of +7% during the forecast period. Middle East Steel Rebar Market is dominated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to the aggressive investment in infrastructure projects in the country. Whereas, UAE is witnessing rapid urbanization and industrialization and anticipated to be the fastest growing steel rebar market across the region, which is expected to expand at a CAGR of +9% during the forecast period.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationMiddle East Steel Rebar Market can be segmented as follows:By Product Type Mild steel bars Deformed steel barsBy Steel Rebar Size (mm) 6-12 14-20 22-32 40-50By End Users Infrastructure Housing IndustrialBy Country Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Steel Rebar Market Analysis, 2016-2024 United Arab Emirates (UAE) Steel Rebar Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Qatar Steel Rebar Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Oman Steel Rebar Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Kuwait Steel Rebar Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Bahrain Steel Rebar Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Jordan Steel Rebar Market Analysis, 2016-2024 Rest Of Middle East Steel Rebar Market Analysis, 2016-2024Download Exclusive Sample Report:Middle East Steel Rebar Market Outlook 2024 contains a detailed overview of the Middle East steel rebar market. On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by product type, steel rebar size, end-user, and geography.The Middle East Steel Rebar Market Report highlights the in-depth analysis of steel rebar market report that will help the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space. The competitive outlook of major Middle East players discussed in the Middle East steel rebar market report includes the business strategies, revenue distribution, financial analysis, product portfolio, R&D activities and investments.Major players of the Middle East steel rebar market discussed in the report are: Star Steel International LLC, Emirates Rebar Limited, Union Iron and Steel, Conares, Hamriyah Steel, Emirates Steel, Rajhi Steel Industries Co. Ltd., Watania Steel Factory Corp., Al-Rashed Steel, United Steel Industrial Co.,etc Further, Middle East Steel Rebar Market Report encompasses the major trends & opportunities, market dynamics and other growth factors of the market. The Steel Rebar Market outlook also comprises of key challenges, risk analysis, BPS analysis, SWOT Analysis and Market Attractiveness. The report also highlights the expert analysis to provide a complete overview of the market including the PESTLE analysis of each region and country.Browse Similar Report:PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 15:01:01

MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PaperCut, an innovative print management software provider that allows users to track, control, and enable more thoughtful printing, today announced it has joined the Google for Education Partner Program as a Premier Partner. This collaboration will deliver cutting-edge printing solutions for G Suite and Chromebook users.



The Google for Education Partner Program was designed to enable partners to sell, service, and innovate by leveraging the G Suite platform and products. With 20 years of experience in the education sector, PaperCuts collaboration with Google for Education is well suited.

Its something weve been working on closely with Google  giving schools a smooth Chromebook printing experience  so the collaboration makes a lot of sense. We feel like were solving this problem better than anyone right now, says PaperCut Senior Product Manager Willem Groenewald.





PaperCuts innovative BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) solution, Mobility Print, integrates with G Suite and lets users print easily and intuitively from any device via its native interface. Meaning, no third-party apps to install or manage.

PaperCuts solution has already delivered real-world results for clients like Dallastown Area School District (DASD), [With G Suite] I can push things out and know everyone will get that policy. It was the same with PaperCut. Within 10 minutes all of our Chromebooks had it I didnt deal with a single Chromebook printing issue all year, said John Lenhart, System Administrator at DASD.

The PaperCut team is also excited about what being a Premier Partner means for leveraging G Suite to keep delivering industry-defining solutions for users. Being a Premier Partner lets us innovate even further to take the frustration and waste out of everyday printing. Its great because staff and students can focus on what really matters: learning. I feel its only going to lead to more success stories for PaperCut and Google.

Our founder Chris was a part-time administrator at a local high school when the PaperCut sparkle appeared in his eye, Willem recalls fondly. He noticed overflowing paper bins, wrote a bit of code to help the school monitor things, and the rest is history.

Today, with 50,000 customers across multiple industries, the PaperCut resume has become far more accomplished. But as proud as PaperCut is today, the team is even more excited about the future potential of partnering with one of the worlds leading tech brands.

About PaperCut Software

Around the world, workplaces are wrestling with printing costs and print management complexity. PaperCut is solving those problems, one workplace at a time. Since 1998, PaperCut has helped 50 million users in 175 countries save trillions of pages of paper. With PaperCut in their print environment, IT managers solve their nagging print problems once and for all. How? Its two software solutions  PaperCut MF and PaperCut NG  are cross-platform and vendor neutral. That means they work with any printer and any operating system. Plus, both solutions feature ground-breaking technology such as mobility print, secure print release, and rich reporting tools. Businesses of all shapes, sizes and industry benefit from the control, security and financial and environmental savings that PaperCut software was built for. Learn more at www.papercut.com .

Media Contact

Rebecca Ballantyne

PaperCut Software

rebecca.ballantyne@papercut.com

+61 408 585 313Neovascular glaucoma, is the rare type of glaucoma, which is commonly associated with the diabetes.

Optometry Equipment Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 13:58:33

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

1001 4th Ave



Mr. Shah

CEO

2067016702

email

http://www.coherentmarketinsights.com





# 345 Words

1001 4th AveCEO2067016702

Rising prevalence of most common eye disease such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), cataract, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy are major driving factor for growth of the optometry equipment market. For instance, according to the data published in the Glaucoma Research Foundation (GRF) in October 2017, glaucoma accounts for around 10 million visits to physicians annually. Furthermore, in terms of health care expenditure, glaucoma cost around US$ 1.5 billion to the U.S. government, annually.According to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), more than 5.7 million people are suffering from sight-threatening eye conditions in the U.K. Moreover, 2 million individuals were suffering from sight loss in 2016, which is expected to rise by registering more than 2.7 million individuals by 2030. Moreover, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) data findings, in 2014, around 350,000 people were registered as blind or partially sighted, which includes 291,100 individuals from England, 34,500 in Scotland, 16,939 in Wales and around 8000 in Northern Ireland.Get The Holistic SAMPLE Of This Business Report:Increasing healthcare expenditures for treatment of sight loss, blindness, and sight-threating conditions are expected to propel demand for optometry equipment over the forecast period. According to the RNIB- Eye Health 2016 report, in the U.K., during 2016, sight loss, blindness and sight-threating conditions accounted for US$ 2.03 million, US$ 0.27 million, and US$ 5.7 million healthcare expenditures, respectively.Moreover, growing number of diabetic population and patients suffering with diabetes owing to get affected with diabetes eye disease, will expected to exhibit strong growth in optometry equipment market. Eye disease is the common complications in diabetes, which include glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and cataract. People with diabetes are twice as likely to develop glaucoma as compared to non-diabetics people. Neovascular glaucoma, is the rare type of glaucoma, which is commonly associated with the diabetes.Click To Reading More On Optometry Equipment MarketAbout Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 15:55:02

Travelers to benefit from convenient location next to connecting airline partners, recently renovated terminal and new customs facilities

Seaborne Airlines Improves Customer Experience at San Juans Luis Munoz Marin International Airport with Move to Terminal B, Concourse B

Silver Airways

Misty Stoller, 954-292-8169

mediarelations@silverairways.com

Seaborne Airlines is delighted to announce it is moving its main check-in counter and passenger boarding gates at San Juans Luis Munoz Marin International Airport to provide an enhanced customer experience for its domestic and international travelers.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005

Terminal Map  San Juan's Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (Photo: Business Wire)

Starting today, Seabornes main check-in counter will be located in Terminal B and arrival/departure gate will be located at Concourse B2A.

We are thrilled to be making this move that will provide an enhanced travel experience for our customers, said Seaborne Vice President of Airports Susana Castro. The new location is far more convenient for both nonstop and connecting flights on Seaborne and for those connecting to our code share and interline partners, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways. We appreciate the opportunity to upgrade our facilities at SJU and would like to thank our codeshare partners, Aerostar, and of course the hardworking men and women of Seaborne Airlines for making this possible.

Customers will benefit from the new central location that is more convenient and shorter walking distance between gates for travelers connecting to Seabornes interline and codeshare partners, as well as United, who are also located in or near Concourse B. In addition, the airports Terminal B completed a $130 million renovation in December 2014, which offers travelers a wide variety of restaurants and shopping options. Passengers arriving from international destinations will also experience the benefit of clearing immigrations and customs at the airports recently inaugurated customs facilities located in Terminal A.

With our recent acquisition by Silver Airways, there are many more exciting things on the horizon for Seaborne, our valued guests, our crew members, and the Caribbean communities we serve, added Castro.

About Seaborne Airlines

Seaborne has been operating in the Caribbean for over 25 years and is one of the largest regional carriers in the Caribbean with over 1,500 monthly flights. Seaborne serves San Juans Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, St. Thomas airport and seaplane base, St. Croix airport and seaplane base, Anguilla, Antigua, Tortola, Dominica, Saint Maarten, St. Kitts and Nevis with convenient online check-in and TSA pre-check offered in most destinations.

Seaborne was recently acquired by Silver Airways. The acquisition has brought together the two strongest independent regional airlines with similar Saab 340B fleets, complementary route networks, and common codeshare and interline partners. With the upcoming deployment of Silvers recently announced new fleet of state-of-the-art ATR-600s across both networks, the combined airline will have an expanded range, allowing it to better serve passengers and markets.

The combined airline continues operating Silver Airways route network in Florida, the Bahamas and beyond under the Silver Airways brand and Seabornes route network throughout Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Caribbean under the Seaborne name. The total fleet now consists of 31 aircraft, including Saab 340s and de Havilland Twin Otter seaplane aircraft. Silver is also the North American launch customer for the new eco-friendly ATR-600 aircraft in the U.S. For additional information, visit www.seaborneairlines.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005Taiwan Bottle Cages Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 11:24:03

Press Information

Goldstein Research

99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527



Steve blade

Global Sales Manager

6465687747

email

https://www.goldsteinresearch.com/





# 432 Words

99 Wall Street, Suite No:- 527Global Sales Manager6465687747

According to Goldstein Research, Taiwan bottle cages market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.1% over the forecast period, 2017-2025. The lack of space on the bikes, and the requirement of space to carry bottles along is propelling the growth of Taiwan bottle cages market. Taiwan bottle cages market segmentation has been done on the basis of material, cage type, and distribution channel. Based on material, fiber reinforced material (FRM) accounted for the largest market share of 39.2% in 2016 of the total Taiwan bottle cages market. Taiwan has a sufficient supply of FRM and its lightweight property keeps the total weight of the bike low, hence bottle cages of FRM have been majorly purchased as compared to other material bottle cages. Taiwan Bottle cages market is dominated by Central Taiwan region with a market share of 63.2% of the total Taiwan bottle cages market in 2016, due to the presence of a maximum number of the bottle cage manufacturers such as BEV International Corp., Karbona Parts Inc., and others.Browse Full Report:Market SegmentationOn the basis of our in-depth analysis, Taiwan Bottle Cages Market can be segmented as follows:By Material Carbon Fiber Reinforced Material (FRM) MetalBy Cages Type Aerobar Cages Frame Cages Rear CagesBy Distribution Online OfflineTaiwan Bottle cagesMarket Outlook 2024 contains a detailed overview of the Taiwan bottle cages market.On the basis of our in-depth analysis, the market can be segmented in terms of market segmentation by material, cage type, distribution channel, and geography.Download Exclusive Sample Report:The Taiwan Bottle cages Market Report highlights the in-depth analysis of bottle cages market report that will help the clients to assess their business strategies as per the competitive environment in the market space. The competitive outlook of major Taiwan players discussed in the Taiwan bottle cages market report includes the business strategies, revenue distribution, financial analysis, product portfolio, R&D activities and investments.Major players of the Taiwan bottle cages market discussed in the report are: International Corp., Karbona Parts Inc., Shuz Tung Machinery Industrial Co., Ltd., cherishing Enterprise Co., Ltd., Asia Bicycle Trading Company,etc.Further, Taiwan Bottle cages Market Report encompasses the major trends & opportunities, market dynamics and other growth factors of the market. The Bottle cagesMarket outlook also comprises of key challenges, risk analysis, BPS analysis, SWOT Analysis and Market Attractiveness. The report also highlights the expert analysis to provide a complete overview of the market including the PESTLE analysis of each region and country.Browse Similar Report:PR-Inside.com: 2018-09-04 08:08:03

TCL Wins Prestigious Display Technology Gold Award at IFA 2018

TCL Electronics

Siyang Wang, +86 755 3331 1958

siyang.wang@tcl.com

TCL, top three global television brand and leading consumer electronics company, has been honored by International Data Group (IDG) and German Industry & Commerce Co., Ltd (GIC/AHK) with the Display Technology Gold Award for its flagship QLED TV X8 at IFA 2018.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180903005

TCL QLED TV X8 awarded 'Display Technology Gold Award' by IDG and GIC/AHK (Photo: Business Wire)

We are thrilled to receive this award in recognition of our commitment to technological innovation in the TV industry and our expanding QLED TV product portfolio, said Shaoyong Zhang, General Manager of Product Center, Emerging Business Center and Smart Home Business Center, TCL Electronics.

The QLED TV X8 is TCLs latest 4K QLED TV, featuring Quantum Dot display technology with a wide color gamut of 157% BT.709. It includes Dolby Vision HDR imaging technology that delivers stunning picture quality. The X8 is also equipped with an industry-leading sound system, featuring technology from Onkyo and Dolby Atmos and an integrated AI soundbar that allows users to easily find content via voice control.

The X8 comes in a minimalist design, with its thinnest part measuring just 7.9mm. The adoption of full-screen design offers a wider viewing angle and the soundbar embedded in the base also provides a better sound experience for users.

In addition, the TCL UHD Smart TV Cityline Series C76 (55DC760 Model), the European version of the C6, recently won the Best Buy LCD TV 2018-2019 award from EISA and was launched in Europe in August.

In 1H 2018, TCLs overall LCD TV sales volumes reached 13,173,307 sets, an increase of 37.2% year-on-year. In overseas markets, TCLs LCD TV sales volumes rose by 44.4% year-on-year to 8,284,671 sets. Recently, TCL announced its entry into the UK market.

* Product features, specifications and local launch time differ in different regions.

About TCL Electronics

Headquartered in China, TCL Electronics Technology Holdings Limited (HKSE: 01070) is one of the leading players in the global TV industry, engaged in the research and development, manufacturing and distribution of consumer electronic products. TCL Electronics is striving to build a comprehensive ecosystem for smart TVs that provides users with a superior experience with its smart products and services.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180903005The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology has released 19 new high yield crop varieties to enhance agricultural production.

The National Variety Release Committee (NVRC) approved the release at its 26th meeting held at its secretariat at the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Ibadan.

NACGRABs Registrar and Chief Executive, Sunday Aladele, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Ibadan that an indigenous chicken breed was also approved for registration and release.

Mr Aladele said the chicken breed submitted by the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), was a dual purpose (egg and meat) livestock breed called FUNAAB Alpha Chicken.

The registrar said the chicken breed had performance characteristics such as body weight, egg weight and survivability surpassing those of existing Nigerian local chickens.

He said the Chairman of the NVRC, Oladosu Awoyemi, announced the release of the chicken breed and the 19 crop varieties out of the 21 submitted for consideration during the meeting.

Mr Aladele said the 19 crop varieties included one soybean (SC-SL01), five maize hybrids (P4226, P3966, P4063, WE3205and DKB350) and two maize varieties (AMANA-1 and AMANA  2).

Others, he said, were one sweet potato variety (Solo Gold), three groundnut varieties (SAMNUT 27, SAMNUT 28 and SAMNUT 29) and three sorghum varieties (SAMSORG 47, SAMSORG 48 and SAMSORG 49).

Mr Aladele said two cowpea varieties (SAMPEA 18 and SAMPEA 19) and two transgenic hybrid cotton (MAYCO C567 BGII and MAYCO C570 BGII) were also approved for release.

The NACGRAB boss said criteria used by the committee for release of the crops included characteristics such as high yield potential, good pod clearance and resistance to potato virus.

He said other characteristics were good standard, resistance to lodging, early maturity, tolerance to drought, excellent husk cover, high grain yield and tolerance to insect pests.

Mr Aladele said scientists, seed companies, research institutes, universities and breeders from Nigeria, India and Kenya attended the meeting.

He said some foreign participants also developed the newly released varieties for their countries. (NAN)Oil giant ExxonMobil on Monday decried a blockade mounted by its former employees around its facilities in Nigeria.

The oil firm said the activity threatens crude production and such disruptions to these operations have the potential to significantly impact revenues.

Reuters reports that the company, in a statement, said on Monday that the blockade was characterised by playing of loud music, defacing of company facilities and intimidation of personnel.

The company added that continued denial of access to production facilities could impact the companys ability to safely continue production operations.

This is coming after a six-week blockade by former workers at the oil facilities.

In July, the Lagos headquarters of ExxonMobil was shut down by the companys workers unions over the alleged dismissal of 860 security personnel without entitlement. The workers besieged the office of the oil company, protesting the sacking of workers, mainly Nigerians. The protesters accused the company of sacking the workers most of whom had worked with the company for over 22 years without regards for the rule of law.

Mobil Producing Nigeria, the ExxonMobil subsidiary that released the statement, produces over 550,000 barrels per day of crude oil, condensates and natural gas liquids.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigerias average production in the second quarter of 2018 was 1.8 million barrels per day. Officials at the oil company feared the blockade may affect the nation, which relies heavily on oil revenue.The Nigerian government on Tuesday said a whistleblower prompted an investigation into alleged infractions committed by telecoms group, MTN.

Reuters reports that an official of the Office of Nigerias attorney general made the disclosure Tuesday.

Ladidi Mohammed, head of asset recovery, told Reuters in a phone interview that an investigation was carried out by the central bank after the whistleblowers tip was received.

The Nigerian government last week ordered the telecoms group to repatriate $8.1 billion that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said was illegally sent abroad.

The fine comes two years after MTN, Africas biggest telecoms company, agreed to pay more than $1 billion to end a dispute in Nigeria over unregistered SIM cards.

The CBN said MTN repatriated the money based on illegally issued Certificates of Capital Importation (CCIs) with the connivance of Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Citibank and Diamond Bank between 2007 and 2015.

The apex bank said the affected banks would refund various amounts totaling N5.87 billion.

Standard Chartered was asked to refund N2.5 billion; Stanbic IBTC (N1.9 billion); Citibank (N1.3 billion and Diamond Bank (N250 million).

The banks were accused of committing flagrant violation of extant laws and regulations of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, including the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1995 and the Foreign Exchange Manual, 2006.

But a defiant telecom firm, in a reaction to the sanctions, said it will vigorously defend its position on the issue, describing the sanction as regrettable.

The South African telecoms giant in a statement issued on Tuesday said all dividend repatriation out of Nigeria was done on the basis of equity capital and with valid certificates.A 50-year old female hiker from Vancouver has been safely rescued after a challenging and complicated rescue that took seven hours to complete.

The woman is now recovering in Kelowna General Hospital for severe head and upper body injuries after she fell in a cave on the Skaha Bluffs Monday afternoon.

Penticton and District Search and Rescue were alerted by Victoria's Emergency Coordination centre just before noon on Monday that a 50-year-old female had taken a fall inside a cave near the Skaha Bluffs Climbing area which, located on the outskirts of Penticton City Limits near the Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park.

Early reports indicated that the female subject was inside the cave when she suffered the 25-foot fall. Two friends who were with the woman were able to climb out and call 911. While PENSAR was coordinating an air response local RCMP and Penticton Fire crews also arrived to help.

Rescue crews quickly determined that the woman was too far inside the cave so the B.C. Alberta Cave rescue team was called in to help.

14 cave rescue experts from Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland and the interior were flown into Penticton by aircraft from the Civil Air Search and Rescue association.

While waiting for the cave rescue experts, 20 members of the PENSAR Team along with 4 Penticton Fire Rescue Service members began preparing the rescue site with ropes, stretchers and medical equipment. The whole time they remained in contact with the injured woman.

It took almost 3 hours to prepare for the extraction but by 6 p.m. with more than 25 personnel on scene the slow and challenging extraction was well underway.

After an hour the woman was brought to the surface, she was then transferred to a stretcher and airlifted to Penticton Regional Hospital. Due to the severity of her injuries, the woman has since been transferred to Kelowna General Hospital.

SAR Manager Randy Brown says, "this was a complex event with lots of logistics and moving parts, however everyone had their eye on the objective and the teamwork was seamless."

Doug Munroe - Coordinator for Alta/BC Cave Rescue advised that this rescue was challenging, "all cave events are a challenge and complex especially when working in confined spaces as you have low visibility, unstable rock and then you add an injured subject to the mix and everything gets more complicated."

Brown added, "that at the day's end up to 50 rescue personnel were engaged from around the Province Monday. Local resources included 22 SAR members, several volunteer CASARA aircraft & pilots, 14 Cave rescue personnel who had arrived at scene (with at least another dozen en-route before being stood down) along with 4 Penticton Fire Rescue personnel, local Police and 2 local helicopter companies. A joint effort that had a successful conclusion.Air France has responded to several public complaints and media reports that Nigerian passengers, who were to board flight AF 104 in Paris en route Lagos were mistreated and neglected, the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has said.

The statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, Monday, showed that the response was as a result of the investigation on the incident which reportedly happened on July 18

The council said the airline provided material cooperation and information in response to interrogatories and requests from the Council.

Air France Flight AF I04, operated with Air Belgium, from CDG (Charles De Gaulle, Paris) to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos with a scheduled departure for 14:30hrs and estimated arrival time at LOS of 18:30hrs was initially delayed. Cancellation ultimately occurred at 14:15hrs because of damage to the aircraft during boarding.

There were 207 passengers on the scheduled flight; 23 business class passengers and 184 economy passengers. At the time of cancellation, there were limited re-routing solutions for the following reasons:

-There were limited flights still departing from other locations in Europe to Lagos the same day and at the time and point the cancellation occurred.

-There were potential visa issues with transiting passengers through other European countries that have transit visa requirements/restrictions.

-There were limited available seats on other carriers as the travel period is considered a busy travel season, the statement said.

CPC quoted Air France as saying they did all they could to ensure passengers were able to fly to Lagos, the same day or the next, on partner and non-partner airlines, considering visa restrictions.

The airline added that passengers continued or concluded their flights to Lagos in a fragmented but organised manner.

Some passengers were re-routed to Lagos via London with Virgin Atlantic Airways, on the same day or the next day, subject to seat availability on that airline.

A significant number of passengers were re-routed through Amsterdam and transferred to KLM the next day, July 19. Others were re-routed through Johannesburg, Nairobi and Casablanca on both July 18, and July 19. Air Frances flight on the next day, July 19, 2018 could only accommodate 65 passengers and same were transferred to that flight accordingly.

The last ten of the stranded passengers were lifted by Air France on its Paris to Lagos flight (AF 104), on July 20, the statement said.

The airline also said they made credible efforts to secure visas for passengers who did not have any to facilitate entry into Paris for hotel accommodation.

However, the statement showed that the efforts were largely unsuccessful as the French authorities declined.

The 134 passengers who had visas were transported at approximately 1730hrs to different hotels where the airline had secured reservations. For the 23 passengers without visas, Air France provided access to its elite waiting lounges for enhanced comfort and convenience.

As compensation, it noted, Air France has provided information to all affected passengers about eligibility for EUR 800 travel vouchers or EUR 600 in cash, including the process for receiving the cash or claiming the vouchers.

In the period while the delay/cancellation occurred, Air France provided meals or meal vouchers, and amenity packages to passengers.

In addition to its customary compensation noted above, Air France represents that it initiated its Collective Apology Process (CAP) immediately with an additional electronic voucher of EUR 200 which is separate and above the EUR 800 and 600 identified above.

All passengers who complete the cash refund, or voucher redemption processes will receive the stated compensation, the statement said.

According to the CPC, based on the representations made by the airline, and in furtherance of the investigation, the Council has made a call for comments and/or refutations from any passenger(s) who may dispute Air Frances account of this occurrence, or has experienced difficulty in securing compensation.

The council requested that such information be provided to the Council by email at contact@cpc.gov.ng or the Consumer Protection Department of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).A Nigerian photographer, Marianne Olaleye, has made the Portrait of Britain shortlist.

The Portrait of Britain is a foremost photography competition in the United Kingdom.

The British Journal of Photography organises the competition, which is all about inclusivity, celebrating differences and similarities.

The competition, now in its third year, received 13,000 entries from amateur and professional photographers alike.

Entries were judged by Simon Bainbridge, editorial director of the British Journal of Photography; Caroline Hunter, editor of the Guardian Weekend Magazine; Olivia Arthur, Magnum Photographer\; and Martin Usborne, co-founder of Hoxton Mini Press.

The organisers said a recurring theme in Mariannes photography, which shone through in her entries, is the candid nature of feminine beauty.

They added, She is a master who has also photographed men and everyday life on the streets. She believes that each person has a story to tell and so she aims to give them the centre stage while showcasing the universality and raw, natural beauty of women. This is while hoping that her images will play a role in improving media representations of beauty.

Some of the shortlisted photographers include Andrea Zvadova, who presents a work from her series about albinism and Christian Sinibadi, whose portrait depicts an east London rabbi.

Others include Curtis Gibson, who photographed fashion designer Zandra Rhodes and Samuel McElwee, whose image shows a young womans delighted expression when she opens her eyes and sees a pug puppy.

The 200 photographs shortlisted for the exhibition will also go to print in a Portrait of Britain book for the first time, which will be released on Thursday.

Portrait of Britain winners will have their work exhibited on JCDecaux screens on British bus stops, high streets and in train stations, as part of the biggest exhibition of contemporary portraiture ever held.

Maryannes clientele includes, Aftenposten-Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, LSE Africa Summit, FORWARD UK and Bridge Models among many others. Her work has been published in renowned international newspapers such as Aftenposten and The British Journal of Photography.

On her blog, Maryanne describes her kind of photography as simple and candid  a means of portraying people who demonstrate beauty not only in their physical appearance, but also in the relationship they have with their environment. Marianne hopes that her images will continue to play a crucial role in improving media representations of beauty.Two South African peacekeepers were wounded in a rebel ambush near the epicenter of an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo said the attack took place on the outskirts of the city of Beni and underscored the challenges authorities face in tackling a flare-up of the deadly disease in an active conflict zone stalked by dozens of armed groups.

But they cannot be sure the situation is under control due to difficulties accessing some areas.

The peacekeepers patrol was attacked in the town of Ngadi by militants believed to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Islamist group active in eastern Congo, said Florence Marchal, spokeswoman for the UN mission.

Two soldiers were wounded and their condition was deemed stable this morning, she told Reuters.

The current Ebola outbreak is believed to have killed 81 people since July and infected another 40.

Nineteen of those cases have been in Beni, a city of several hundred thousand people with close trading links to neighbouring Uganda.

The outbreak is Congos 10th since Ebola was discovered in 1976 in the countrys north, but the first to affect its densely-populated eastern borderlands.

The UN mission peacekeepers are providing near-daily escorts to the town of Oicha, where one case has been confirmed, World Health Organisation spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told newsmen in Geneva.

Parts of the 30 km stretch of road between Beni and Oicha are considered a red zone because of recurrent rebel attacks.

(Reuters/NAN)South Africas Parliament said on Tuesday that the probe into the naturalisation of the controversial Indian Gupta family should be finalised as soon as possible.

This matter has been in the public domain without resolution for too long, Parliaments Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs said.

The committee is thus intending to bring this matter to finality, said Committee Chairperson, Hlomani Chauke.

He said his committee has set aside three days to hold the investigation into the process followed in the naturalisation of the Gupta family.

Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Home Affairs, and Mkhuseli Apleni, former director general at the Department of Home Affairs, are among the people to be summoned by parliament, according to Chauke.

The two men allegedly handled the Guptas naturalisation application.

The minister said any addition to the list will be determined by what information is received from the initial hearings, scheduled for Wednesday to Friday.

Chauke said the committee has concluded the initial phase of the inquiry (collection of all relevant information) and has identified gaps which need to be clarified by certain people to assist the committee to arrive at a conclusion.

The committee considers it a must for the identified individuals to attend the hearings and will request Parliament Speaker Baleke Mbete to summon those that are not prepared to appear, Chauke said.

The wealthy Gupta family, which is embroiled in a series of corruption scandals in South Africa, was granted South African citizenship between 2002 and 2006 after entering South Africa in the early 1990s.

The Guptas are accused of collaborating with former president Jacob Zuma and some senior government officials in looting from the state coffers, known as state capture.

South African police have launched a manhunt for some of the Gupta family members, whose whereabouts remain unknown. (Xinhua/NAN)The wife of the Nigerian president, Aisha Buhari, has called on partners in the advocacy against HIV to scale up adolescent health information, saying this would help in the control and prevention of the disease across the world.

According to a statement by Suleiman Haruna, her director of information, Mrs Buhari made the call Tuesday at the China/Africa AIDS Prevention and Control Conference, which was organised by the First Lady of the Peoples Republic of China.

The event was on the sidelines of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, China.

Lamenting the high number of HIV patients in Nigeria and other African countries, Mrs Buhari said the only way to curb HIV/AIDS is by including health education for young people, as HIV has become a global public health issue.

She gave the example of Nigeria, which has studied the adolescent and young peoples challenges and developed a national HIV strategy that targets this population with context specific interventions.

It is undisputable fact that HIV continues to be a major global public health issue she said, and it is painful to note that adolescent and young people are among the high risk and vulnerable groups describing them as representing the future productive group of any society.

She charged stakeholders to take extraordinary measures to mitigate the contextual drivers of this epidemic among this special group if the dream of ending AIDS by 2030 is to be achieved.

Mrs Buhari also commended the idea of a joint action plan between relevant stakeholders in China and Africa in the combating the menace of HIV/AIDS.

In her remarks, First Lady of the Peoples Republic of China, Peng Liyuan, said the conference was another step forward in China  Africa relations, which creates historic opportunities for health cooperation.

She called on African countries to work with China in the fight against AIDS, deepen cooperation and continue to contribute to the health and well-being of their peoples.

Mrs Peng promised that starting from 2019, China will work with African countries and relevant international organisations on a three  year programme for adolescent preventive and community health programmes to raise awareness and help countries move towards the Sustainable Development Goal of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030.

She commended African countries for their massive and effective campaigns which have seen a rise in the number of patients receiving anti-retroviral treatment, lower death rates, and declining number of children with HIV/AIDS.

Many of you made tremendous effort to make this happen. I have nothing but admiration and respect for all of you, she said to the first ladies.

The event was attended by first ladies from 36 countries and the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Michel Sidibe.The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) on Tuesday accused the management of an oil and gas company along with its drilling subsidiary of victimising its members for alleged union activities.

NUPENG National President, Williams Akporeha, said Sterling Energy Exploration Company (SEEPCO) and its drilling arm, British Oil & Gas Limited (BOGEL) have displayed oppression and high handedness against members of the union in the companies, including illegal sack.

Mr Akporeha said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES that the companies have rejected all legitimate demands by their workers to be engaged in union activities.

The NUPENG president said after several years in the country, the two companies currently operating five drilling oil rigs in the Kwale area of Warri, Delta State, have continually not allowed workers to join the union.

Workers of these drilling rigs have overtly indicated their willingness and readiness to join the union of their choice and NUPENG has responded appropriately to the request of these workers with several requests for union recognition from the management.

Unfortunately, rather that following path of decency and global best practices, the management of Sterling Energy Exploration Company (SEEPCO) and its drilling arm, British Oil and Gas Limited have resorted to high handedness and violence through the use of military men and armed militias to forcefully evacuate over 2,500 workers from the five drilling rigs, the NUPENG president said.

Efforts to reach out to the firms through the contact us platform on their website were unsuccessful. Messages sent through that platform only displayed errors.

Meanwhile, the Mr Akporeha said his union has contacted the relevant authorities, particularly the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, to intervene and call the company to order.

Also, Mr Akporeha said the union has reported the matter to the Chief of Army Staff, Inspector General of Police, and the acting Director General of Department of State Security and other relevant stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to take steps to halt the brewing industrial relations crises in the state.

NUPENG finds it unfortunate and grossly unacceptable that these companies would be using brute force to dehumanise, terrorise, and victimise Nigerians in their own country.

As a responsible and responsive trade union organisation, we cannot and shall not fold our arms and watch our members being dehumanised and terrorised in the course of demanding for their legitimate rights recognised by labour rules and even International Labour Organisation charter.

To avoid further escalation of this current unhealthy situation and considering the collateral damage it might cause the nation, NUPENG is earnestly asking all stakeholders to call the management of these companies to order and direct them to follow path of decency and best practices by granting the legitimate wishes of the workers to freely associate and be unionised without any further encumbrance or limitations.

He said the union has already placed all its members on alert to respond at short notice to any call to withdraw their services nationwide in solidarity with their oppressed colleagues if this situation was not addressed immediately.

Although he reaffirmed members resolve to always pursue the path of peaceful relations with all employers in the oil and gas industry to entrench and sustain industrial harmony, NUPENG said it would not hesitate to firmly protect the interest of its members when their rights are being violated.The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has replied a presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, who criticised his stance on restructuring.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Osinbajo had spoken in the U.S. about restructuring not being Nigerias major problem.

It is about managing resources properly and providing for the people properly, that is what it is all about, the vice president said.

Mr Abubakar, also a former vice president, said Mr Osinbajo got it wrong.

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 said.

The vice president has now replied Mr Abubakar.

Mr Osinbajos reply is contained in a letter to the editor he signed and sent to PREMIUM TIMES by his office.

Read the full letter below.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, PREMIUM TIMES

RE: OSINBAJO GOT IT WRONG ON RESTRUCTURING-ATIKU

Dear Editor,

Kindly permit me a response to a piece in your publication, titled Osinbajo got it wrong on Restructuring, written, we are told, by my illustrious predecessor in office, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

First, let me say that I really would have expected Alhaji Abubakar to at least get the full text of my comments before his public refutal of my views. But I understand; we are in that season where everything is seen as fair game! He quoted me as saying that the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographic re-structuring.

Yes, I said so.

As the quote shows, I rejected the notion that geographical restructuring was a solution to our national problems. Geographical restructuring is either taking us back to regional governments or increasing the number of States that make up the Nigerian federation.

As we all may recall, the 2014 National Conference actually recommended the creation of 18 more States. And I argued that, with several States struggling or unable to pay salaries, any further tinkering with our geographical structure would not benefit us.

We should rather ask ourselves why the States are underperforming, revenue and development wise. I gave the example of the Western Region (comprising even more than what is now known as the South West Zone), where, without oil money, and using capitation tax and revenues from agriculture and mining, the government funded free education for over 800,000 pupils in 1955, built several roads, farm settlements, industrial estates, the first TV station in Africa, and the tallest building in Nigeria, while still giving up fifty percent of its earnings from mining and minerals for allocation to the Federal Government and other regions.

I then argued that what we required now was not geographical restructuring but good governance, honest management of public resources, deeper fiscal Federalism, and a clear vision for development.

On the issue of deeper fiscal Federalism or restructuring, I explained how the then Lagos State Government, led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, decided to fight for greater autonomy of States.

As Attorney-General at the time, it was my duty and privilege to lead the legal team against the then Federal government, in our arguments at the Supreme Court. I am sure that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would remember these cases on greater autonomy for States that I cite below, as he was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the time.

At the Supreme Court, we won several landmark decisions on restructuring Nigeria through deeper fiscal federalism, some of which our late converts to the concept, now wish to score political points on.

It was our counter-claims alongside those of other littoral States, that first addressed so comprehensively the issue of resource control. We agreed with the oil producing States that they had a right to control their resources. We argued, though unsuccessfully, that the Ports of Lagos were also a resource, which should enable Lagos State, in the worst case, to be paid the derivation percentage for proceeds of its natural resources. Years later, we also filed an action at the Supreme Court arguing that the Value Added Tax, being a consumption tax, should exclusively belong to the States.

Atiku Abubakar in Lagos

On the issue of who, between the Federal and State governments, should have authority to grant building permits and other development control permits, the Supreme Court, by a slim majority, ruled in our favour. It held that, even with respect to federal land, States had exclusive authority to grant building or other developments control permits.

In 2004, we created 37 new local governments in Lagos State. We believed that we had a Constitutional right to do so and that in any event, a State should have a right to create its own administrative units. Several other States joined us and created theirs.

The Federal governments response was to seize the funds meant for our local governments, thus strangulating States like Lagos, which had created new local governments. We challenged this at the Supreme Court. The court held that the President had no right under the Constitution to withhold or seize funds meant for the States. The allocations were not a gift of the Federal Government to the States. They were the Constitutional right of the States and local governments.

The court also agreed that States had a Constitutional right to create local governments, pursuant to section 8 of the Constitution, but that the creation remained inchoate until the National Assembly, by resolution, amended the existing list of local governments to capture the newly created LGs.

In response, we created by State Law, Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), to accommodate the newly created Local Government Councils until such a time as the National Assembly would complete the process. But the Lagos State Government took up the challenge to re-engineer its revenue service, making it autonomous. With innovative management, tax collection in Lagos became more efficient, and tax revenues continued to grow geometrically. Today, the State earns more IGR than 30 States of Nigeria put together!

Further, we contested the attempts of the then Federal Government to create supervisory authority over the Finances of Local Governments by the signing into law of the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation to Local Governments Act, 2005. The Supreme Court also ruled in our favour, striking down many provisions of the law that sought to give the Federal government control over local government funding.

I have been an advocate, both in court and outside, of fiscal Federalism and stronger State Governments. I have argued in favour of State Police, for the simple reason that policing is a local function. You simply cannot effectively police Nigeria from Abuja. Only recently, in my speech at the Anniversary of the Lagos State House of Assembly, I made the point that stronger, more autonomous States would more efficiently eradicate poverty. So I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer to Nigerias socio economic circumstances. That would only result in greater administrative costs. But there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscal Federalism and good governance.

Alhaji Atikus concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition. He says it means a cultural revolution. Of course, he does not bother to unravel this concept. He says we need a structure that gives everyone an opportunity to work, a private sector driven economy. Yes, I agree. These are critical pillars of our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), including our Ease of Doing Business Programme.

If, however, this is what he describes as restructuring, then it is clear that he has mixed up all the issues of good governance and diversification of the economy with the argument on restructuring.

Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.

Surprisingly, Alhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room  corruption. And how grand corruption, fueled by a rentier economic structure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favorable concessions to enrich themselves. This was a main part of my presentations the Minnesota Town Hall meeting.

In arguing for good governance, I made the point that our greatest problem was corruption. I pointed out that grand corruption, namely the unbelievable looting of the treasury by simply making huge cash withdrawals in local and foreign currency, was the first travesty that President Buhari stopped.

I showed the OPEC figures from oil revenues since 1990. In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigerias history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, less than 1/3 of what Jonathan Administration earned at the same period in that administrations life. Despite earning so much less, we are still able to invest more in infrastructure than any government in Nigerias history. The difference is good governance, and fiscal prudence.

In the final analysis, restructuring in whatever shape or form, will not mean much if our political leaders see public resources as an extension of their bank accounts. This, I believe, is the real issue.Controversy has continued to trail the resolution of the latest APC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in which direct primaries for elections in the party was deliberated on and adopted.

Direct primaries involves the participation of all party members in the selection of party candidates. Indirect primaries, on the other hand, involves use of delegates. Often party leaders at local levels, political appointees as well as elected officials are assigned to elect party candidates in indirect primaries.

At the end of the meeting, one of the participating governors said the party had resolved to adopt direct primaries for the presidential election and thrown other positions open, but the party through a statement made a counter.

Before NEC Meeting

Prior to the NEC meeting, the party, in a caucus meeting held on Wednesday, had resolved to either go for direct or indirect primaries as allowed by the party constitution.

The fact remains that the constitution of our party allows us to carry out our primaries and elections using direct or indirect primaries.

We cannot disagree with the constitution so either direct or indirect primaries, you are at liberty to justify the choice you want to pick, once it suits your purpose and in line with constitution as the state determines, Lagos State governor, Akinwumi Ambode said after the meeting.

However, some senators who are keen to keep their seats at the National Assembly raised alarm over the moves to hand-twist the party into adopting indirect primaries.

Some of them who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES alleged that the governors are ready to replace them with other candidates if the party goes for indirect primaries.

This set the tone for a tense NEC meeting.

Confusion Over Partys Choice

The NEC meeting on Thursday, rather than clarify and take a bold stand on the choice of primaries, brought more confusion.

First was the Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, who said the NEC adopted direct primary for only the presidential election as state elections will be subject to the peculiarities of the state.

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state

Mr Lalong said on the issue of mode of election, we all decided that for the (presidential) election, we are going into a direct primaries; but for other elections, there are two options.

But the general option is that we go in for direct option but any state that has a problem and will want to deviate is at liberty to write and following the normal process, with a resolution from the state executive to the national exco.

Same day, the party released a statement which corroborated Mr Lalongs position.

NEC resolved to adopt the Direct Primary option for the Presidential Primary.

The use of the Direct and Indirect Primaries shall however depend on the peculiarity and need of a given State.

In each case, the State Executive Committee (SEC) shall in consultation with candidates and other critical stakeholders of the Party in a given State identify and forward for the consideration and approval by the National Working Committee (NWC) for the mode of election 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.

This request for the selection of mode of election by any state, the party said, must be signed by majority of the Executive Committee in attendance at the meeting where such resolution is reached.

However, 24 hours after, the party released another statement which seems to counter its earlier position.

In a statement signed by Yekini Nabena, its Acting Publicity Secretary, the party said the NEC meeting adopted direct primaries for all elective positions.

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 latest statement cast a doubting shadow on the resolution of the NEC.

Parallel Meeting

Following the controversies, some party members and state chairmen who seem to be against direct primaries, met on Sunday.

The meeting, which held at Barcelona Hotel in Abuja on Sunday, was originally scheduled to hold at Transcorp but was changed after the party released a statement on the planned meeting, stating that whatever came out of that meeting would be null and void.

The meeting, as gathered, was to see how best to tackle the issue of direct primaries and kick against it so it is not imposed on states.

The former senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani

Reacting to the decision of the NEC and the several disagreement around it, the senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, on Monday said that indirect primaries breed corruption.

Mr Sani, expressed dissatisfaction with the idea of indirect primaries for other elective positions, as he took to his twitter account to say indirect primaries is an incubator for corruption.

If we fight corruption as a Government and condone it as a party, we become moral mullatoes. Indirect Primaries is a breeding ground for corruption, an incubator for corruption and a creche for corruption, Mr Sani tweeted.

Oshiomholes Clarification

In an attempt to clarify the lingering confusion on Monday, the APC chairman, Adams Oshiomole, said the party adopted direct primary for the selection of its candidates for next year elections to boost internal democracy.

Speaking to The Nation, he said the party decided to liberalise its shadow polls by making all registered members automatic delegates.

Party members are complaining that they have no role to play in the party, except voting during the general elections, like other members of the public.

National Chairman of All Progressives Congress, (APC), Adams Oshiomhole 03946/23/7/18/Ismaila Ibrahim/NAN

We also note that direct primary is free from the vices associated with the indirect primary. Direct primary cannot be manipulated. It is not prone to corruption.

We want to grow democracy. We want the party members to have ownership of the party. We want to give our members a sense of belonging.

States Choices

Despite the controversies, the varying interpretation of the meeting seem to favour the adoption of direct primary for presidential and open choice for the states.

In this kind of arrangement, the states are expected to make choices based on peculiarities and realities of the political terrain.

Already, a state has made its choice of direct primary.

In a statement sent to Tribune on Monday, the Shola Fulani-led executive of the APC in Kwara State said that it will adopt direct primaries in electing its candidates for all elective offices as directed by the NEC of the party.

However, that executive is no longer recognised by the partys headquarters which dissolved it after the defection of Senate President Bukola Saraki to the opposition PDP.

Mr Fulani, an ally of Mr Saraki, however, says he and his other executives remain in office and have challenged their dissolution in court.

The publicity secretary of Mr Fulanis faction, Dele Kayode, said the executive arrived at decision after its meeting in Ilorin on Monday, assuring all aspirants under its platform of a level playing ground.

Bukola Saraki, Senate President

This is to inform all members of Kwara state APC that after the meeting of the executive and stakeholders today, Monday, September 3, 2018, at the party secretariat, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

That direct primary will be adopted for the party primaries as directed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, the statement highlighted.A former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has replied Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on the raging debate over the need to restructure Nigeria.

Mr Abubakar, in a statement he signed, also accused Mr Osinbajo of attempting to revise history on the topic.

The statement by the opposition presidential aspirant comes hours after Mr Osinbajo in an open letter replied Mr Abubakar on the latters earlier criticism of the vice presidents statement.

In the letter, published by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Osinbajo accused Mr Abubakar of promoting a vague concept of restructuring.

Alhaji Atikus concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition, the vice president wrote.

In his response, however, Mr Abubakar outlines six steps he means when he talks about restructuring.

Read Mr Abubakars full statement below.

Restructuring Is a Necessity, Not an Option

By Atiku Abubakar

My attention has been drawn to a letter written to Premium Times in response to an essay on restructuring authored by me.

Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against geographic restructuring.

I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any term like geographic restructuring. It is a strange concept, not only because it is not what the restructuring debate is all about, but also because the words of the Vice President, which prompted my response were clear, unambiguous and unequivocal.

Mr. Osinbajo said, the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring. That I disagree with and so do many other Nigerians. If the Vice President has changed his stance, I welcome it, but we should not use one finger to hide behind semantics.

For the Vice President to say Alhaji Atikus concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition, is most unfortunate.

I have been very clear, detailed, and unambiguous about my ideas for restructuring. At several occasions, including, but not limited to my speeches at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (made in April this year and July 2017, respectively), I gave very clear and concise ideas about administrative, political and economic restructuring as followss:

Devolution of powers and resources to the states.

No state will receive less Federal funds than today as a result of restructuring

Matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them grow their internally generated revenue position.

The privatisation of unviable federal Government-owned assets.

A truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply.

Replacing state of origin with state of residence, and

Passing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business with minimal governmental interference.

I am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be described as vague. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it would be the idea of geographic restructuring whose meaning is hanging in the air.

Be that as it may, in his letter, Vice President Osinbajo then jumps from the topic of restructuring and goes on to say:

Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.

While what Professor Osinbajo says may be true or false, I must say that his dovetailing into the area of the economy does not explain certain facts such as the fact that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2017 that Nigeria lost 7.9 million jobs in the 21 month period under review.

If the Vice President cannot see that losing 7.9 million jobs in 21 months while creating 500,000 jobs is a deficit, then I do not know what to say to the honourable professor.

Professor Osinbajo also harps on about prudence in public finance, but he fails to show the wisdom in sharing out $322 million of Abacha funds to the poor only to take a loan of $328 million from the Chinese the very next month. Many Nigerians, myself included, see this as imprudence.

Finally, while the Vice President is not exactly correct when he says In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigerias history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, let us for the sake of argument say that he is right.

My response to Vice President Osinbajo is that while I was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2006, Nigerias Economic Management Team, of which I was a prominent member, paid off Nigerias entire foreign debt of $30 billion, at a time when we were earning one third of what the Buhari administration is currently earning from oil. So such arguments are puerile at best.

My advice to the Vice President is that he should choose whether he is for restructuring or whether he is against it and stick to his choice. This continuous prevarication, this approbation and reprobation, helps no one, least of all true progressives who know that Nigeria needs to be restructured and restructured soon.

Atiku Abubakar, Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007 is a presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party.Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has openly disagreed with President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to cede police establishment powers to state governments.

Mr Osinbajo said he had been a longstanding proponent of state police and, in fact, found the current federally-structured police system largely ineffective.

I have argued in favour of State Police, for the simple reason that policing is a local function, Mr Osinbajo said in a response to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar Tuesday. You simply cannot effectively police Nigeria from Abuja.

By this disclosure, Mr Osinbajo has distanced himself from Mr Buhari, who has long rejected the state police and other components of restructuring. The president believes there are no sound economic bases on which establishment of state police could be affixed, saying most Nigerian states are not financially upright to sustain internal police system.

How many states are able to pay their workers in time? And you add the police to them? People should look at this matter very well.

You cannot just give someone guns and ammunition, train him and refuse to pay him, you know what will eventually happen, Mr Buhari told the Voice of America in early May.

Mr Osinbajo has been sparring with Mr Abubakar, who is now seeking the presidential ticket of opposition Peoples Democratic Party to unseat Mr Osinbajo and Mr Buhari in 2019, over the perennial conversation around Nigerias current sovereign structure, which some have criticised as unfair, exploitative and unworkable.

Their arguments, which come as political activities for 2019 general election heat up, highlight the topical influence the restructuring agenda may have on the campaign trail.

Like most other functions of the federation, Nigerias Constitution accords exclusive control of the police to the central government. The need to dismantle this controversial arrangement is amongst the key fabrics of restructuring, and often at the heart of the debate, alongside resource control.

But while calls for restructuring have grown in recent years, debates over the essence of the cause have seen citizens draw divergent conclusions, and proponents are often dismissed as demonstrating dishonesty, shallowness or outright confusion.

But Mr Abubakar, perhaps the most visible campaigner for a restructured Nigeria today, insists he has clearly defined what constitutes restructuring, accusing his detractors of deliberately muddling up his position for political gains.

In yet another response to Mr Osinbajo as part of the debate on PREMIUM TIMES this afternoon, Mr Abubakar outlined six fundamental elements that define his restructuring Nigeria argument:

Devolution of powers and resources to the states.

Matching grants from the federal government to the states to help them grow their internally generated revenue position.

The privatisation of unviable federal government-owned assets.

A truly free market economy driven by the laws of demand and supply.

Replacing state of origin with state of residence, and

Passing the PIGD so that our oil and gas sector will run as a business with minimal governmental interference.

He noted that he had long held this position, accusing Mr Osinbajo of being mischievous when the vice-president accused him of being understandably vague.

I am hard pressed to see how these clear and specific ideas can be described as vague, Mr Abubakar said. One would have thought that if anything is vague, it would be the idea of geographic restructuring whose meaning is hanging in the air.

former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar

Mr Osinbajo sparked the debate when he addressed a gathering in the United States last week, during which he commented on restructuring Nigeria.

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, the vice president said.

Mr Abubakar immediately took issues with Mr Osinbajos characterisation of the debate, saying Mr Osinbajo demonstrated a lack of understanding of the core tenets of the concept.

But in his rebuttal, which the vice presidents office sent to PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday, Mr Osinbajo touted himself as a longstanding advocate of restructuring, buttressing his claim with a slew of comments and actions he had been involved in in the past.

Only recently, in my speech at the anniversary of the Lagos State House of Assembly, I made the point that stronger, more autonomous states would more efficiently eradicate poverty, Mr Osinbajo said. So I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer to Nigerias socio-economic circumstances.

That would only result in greater administrative costs. But there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscal federalism and good governance, he added.

A Wide Gulf

For the decades that debates around restructuring Nigeria have featured at the top of national concerns, including national conferences held to harmonise some of its components, calls for the actualisation have come predominantly from the south.

While critics of Mr Buhari said his reluctance to embrace the cause was because it could be politically-toxic for his re-election ambition, Mr Abubakars opponents are skeptical about his absolute commitment to the cause, especially as it remains hugely unpopular in his northern region.

Still, the divergent views of Mr Osinbajo and Mr Buhari on restructuring underscore their deep disparity in their belief systems, said political analyst Shola Olubanjo.

They have always been different, Mr Olubanjo told PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday afternoon. They only came together for political expediency and they will part ways as soon as their presidency is over.

Nigerians are showing interest that this disagreement is coming publicly, but what they should imagine are different takes they always have regularly on other key matters, Mr Olubanjo said. Those we may never know.

The analyst saw the raging arguments between Mr Osinbajo and Mr Abubakar as a plus for the 2019 elections, still.

It is a breakaway from the flimsy discussions that we have been seeing for too long, but I would appeal to that all parties to be sincere in their agenda for Nigerians, he said.(CNN)  UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced Monday that the Conservative government was planning a major crackdown on child abuse online, and said that tech giants must do more to combat the problem.

In a speech made at the London headquarters of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), Javid said it was his "personal mission" to tackle crimes such as online grooming and live-streaming of sexual acts on minors.

"The growth of the internet has given potential offenders who previously may have had no access to children the opportunity to meet and groom and abuse victims online on gaming sites and on social media and to get access to more abuse material than ever before," he said.

The Home Secretary also also accused large internet companies of being "a long way from where they need to be."

"Restrictions that are supposed to keep our children safe online are either not being enforced or do not meet expectations," he said. "I am not just asking for change, I am demanding it."

Javid's comments came in the wake of a National Crime Agency announcement that it had received 82,109 individual industry referrals for online child sex abuse, a rise of 700% since 2012.

Javid told the NSPCC that people were live-streaming abuse for as little as 12 ($15.4), even choosing the hair color and other characteristics of their victims. Live-streamed child sexual abuse was on the rise "thanks to increasing internet speeds, smart phone technology and the growing ease of which money transfers across borders," Javid said.

"Poor and desperate families in countries like the Philippines are being targeted by organized criminal gangs to allow their children to be abused on webcams in exchange for money."

Since 2015 the UK government had nearly doubled the number of officers in the NCA dedicated to tackling online child sexual exploitation.

In February, prolific offender Matthew Falder, who had preyed on 200 victims, was jailed for 32 years. The NCA said in one week recently, 130 people were caught, including ex-police officers and teachers.

The measures outlined by Javid include obliging technology companies to block child sexual abuse material as soon as they detect it, stop child grooming taking place on their platforms and shut down live-streamed child abuse.

He announced the UK government and Microsoft are to convene a meeting of industry experts in November to "challenge companies to work together to come up with tools to detect online child grooming which will then be offered for free to other companies."

In addition the UK government pledged an extra 21 million ($27.1 million) over the next 18 months to bolster the response of law enforcement agencies to these types of crimes and a further 2.6 million to collaborate with child protection organizations to improve understanding of offender behavior and prevent future offending.

Javid said his government will set out its plans for legislation in a forthcoming Online Harms White Paper.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "UK's Sajid Javid: Tech firms must do more to combat child sex abuse online."Photo: CTV

Police are asking for the public's help after a cat was thrown from a moving car and died.

Ontario Provincial Police say someone tossed an orange and white cat from the passenger side of a car around 5 p.m. Monday in Parry Sound, Ont.

They say the cat died from its injuries after it hit a concrete retaining wall.

Police are treating it as an animal cruelty case.

They say a witness said the vehicle may be a dark-coloured Honda.

Police say the cat had no name tag, but was wearing a pink and yellow collar.A former senate president, David Mark, on Tuesday provided reasons why he wants to be president of Nigeria.

Mr Mark, who represents Benue South at the Senate, picked his presidential nomination form from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat on Tuesday.

The lawmaker, the longest serving senate president in Nigerias history, joins a list of over a dozen aspirants to declare their intention to run for president under the PDP platform.

Irrespective of our political persuasions, it is incontrovertible that restructuring of the nation is an idea whose time has come, Mr. Mark said in a statement signed by his media assistant, Paul Mumeh.

I believe it will further strengthen our bond of brotherhood and unity more than ever before, because everyone would have a sense of belonging and live in harmony in any part of Nigeria without any fear of molestation and intimidation.

He said his blueprint tagged 730 will address critical areas of Nigerias national life.

He specifically promised to tackle poverty, unemployment and neglect which he said have forced some of Nigerias youth to undertake the very risky route of going through the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea in their quest for greener pastures in Europe.

The 730 economic model, he explained, is a strategy that will turn the economy around within two years.

We will concentrate on developing our infrastructure, delivering on affordable housing, roads, rails and power. We will focus on education and create a pool of highly trained citizens with excellent IT skills who will be employable as well as create jobs.

We will support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) as a matter of priority by providing interest free cooperative loans to produce optimally with appropriate technology which will be the main driver of the economy with attendant huge employment opportunities.

Mr Mark was senate president between 2007 and 2015.

He is the fourth of his Senate colleagues to declare his intention to be Nigerias president in 2019.

David Mark arriving the PDP Headquarters

Last week, his colleagues, Senate President Bukola Saraki, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Jonah Jang separately declared their intentions to run for the same seat under the PDP.

Apart from the three senators, Mr Mark is also expected to slug it out with other major PDP aspirants like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Governors Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto and Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe; as well as ex-governors Sule Lamido and Attahiru Bafarawa.The Nigerian government has slammed South African telecoms giant, MTN Group, with a $2 billion tax demand.

The new tax bill incurred by the telecom firm over the last decade comes amid controversies generated by the governments directive to MTN to hand over $8.1 billion it accused the firm of illegally sending abroad with the collusion of four banks.

MTN said it had been in talks with Nigerias Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, over concerns around tax compliance; but it was billed all the same.

The company in a statement said it was billed for importation of foreign equipment and payments to foreign suppliers, all spread across a period of about ten years.

In this process, his (the Attorney-Generals) office made a high-level calculation that MTN Nigeria should have paid approximately $2.0 billion in taxes relating to the importation of foreign equipment and payments to foreign suppliers over the last 10 years, MTN said.

The firm added, however, that its total payment of around $700 million over the 10-year period fully settled the amount owed under the taxes in question.

Reuters reports Tuesday that shares in the telecom firm dropped 5.6 per cent to 81.95 rand as at noon, bringing losses since last week to nearly 25 per cent. Last Thursday, the telecom firm was issued $8.1 billion demand over concerns around repatriation of funds.

The latest demands come two years after Africas biggest telecoms company agreed to pay more than $1 billion to end a dispute with Nigeria over unregistered SIM cards.

MTN, in its reaction, described the latest demands by Nigerian authorities as regrettable and disconcerting.

The company said it will continue to engage with the relevant authorities on all these matters, and we remain resolute that MTN Nigeria has not committed any offences and will vigorously defend its position.Five persons have been detained for unauthorised search conducted at the home of Edwin Clark, a prominent Niger-Delta leader.

Police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood said in a statement Tuesday night that the raid was illegal, and the Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris has ordered immediate apprehension of four officers and an informant who were identified as having participated in it.

The Inspector-General of Police is not aware and did not order the raid of the residence of the Elder Statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, Mr Moshood said while reacting to the Vanguards version of the story.

Consequently, Mr Moshood said, Mr Idris directed the detention and investigation of those involved.

The outcome of the investigation will definitely be made public, he said.

Mr Clark, considered one of the most influential leaders of the Niger Delta was a major backer of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan who lost the 2015 election to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Clark and other Niger Delta leaders, as well as some other Southern leaders, have since then been clamouring for a restructuring of the Nigerian federation.An Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates Court, Lagos, on Tuesday remanded in prison a 29-year-old man, Taiwo Akinola, for smashing a stabilizer on his sexagenarian-mothers head.

The accused is facing a attempted murder charge.

The Chief Magistrate, O.A. Komolafe, who gave the order, said the accused should be kept behind bars at Ikoyi Prison pending advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Earlier, police prosecutor Kehinde Omisakin told the court that the accused committed the offence on August 19 at 8.00 a.m. at No. 2 Raji Ajanaku St., Ayobo, a Lagos suburb.

Mr Omisakin said the accused had in a bid to murder his mother, Iyabo Fawole, 68, smashed an automatic voltage stabilizer and a wooden stool on her head.

The offence contravened Section 230 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The case has been adjourned until October 8 for mention.

(NAN)Umar Mantu, son of former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu, on Tuesday in Jos declared interest in contesting the Mangu/Bokkos Federal Constituency seat.

Mr Mantu, a 32-year-old lawyer, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), shortly after meeting with the Plateau State working committee of the PDP, said that he was motivated by an innate desire to serve humanity.

He decried the dearth of basic facilities in his constituency and promised to seek projects that would improve living standards.

I feel particularly perturbed at the poor quality of healthcare in my constituency. There are no good hospitals and the schools are in bad shape.

The youths are energetic and ready to work. They are educated and ambitious, but they have no opportunities.

The area is generally rural and the people are agrarian, but even basic fertilizer is lacking, making it difficult for the farmers to go beyond basic subsistence farming.

What I intend to do is to look at these potentialities and work out ways to explore them toward a better life for my people, he said.

On the persistent violence in Plateau, Mr Mantu blamed that on the massive indolence among youths, saying that hands usually available for such evil would be reduced if there were jobs for the youths.

Mr Mantu also emphasised the need for more education to enlighten people on the need for peaceful co-existence, pointing out that development would always elude the state if the chaos continued.

The aspirant also promised to work toward promoting mutual respect among the residents of Plateau.

There must be mutual respect along ethnic, tribal and religious lines; once there is mutual respect, there will be mutual confidence and mutual trust, he said.

Mr Mantu expressed confidence that he would pick the PDP ticket and win the general elections because he was representing the youth, who constituted a bulk of the voters in his constituency.

NAN reports that Mr Mantu will slug it out with the incumbent, Solomon Maren, for the PDP ticket.

Also in the race is former North-Central Zonal Director of the FRCN, Sylvanus Namang, as well as Danlami Jenka, a former director with the Bureau for Public Enterprises.

(NAN)The police in Cross River have arrested a couple for allegedly trafficking their two-year old first son to an agent in Port Harcourt in exchange for money.

The Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Inuwa, who presented the suspects to journalists on Tuesday in Calabar, said the couple were arrested on July 23 in Calabar after a report by the mother of the child, Magdalene Bassey.

Mr Inuwa explained that the mother of the child reported that her husband, Daniel Bassey, gave out the child to a trafficking agent for an undisclosed amount of money.

On July 23 2018, one Mrs Magdalene Bassey reported at Efut Divisional Headquarters in Calabar that her husband, Mr Daniel Bassey, took their first son to an unknown person in Port Harcourt through one woman called `Mummy.

The police immediately swung into action and arrested the suspect. During interrogation; the suspect revealed that his wife was a party to the transaction.

The duo are now in police custody to unravel the cause of this inhuman action and possible prosecution, he said.

The father of the child told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that said he gave out the child as collateral for N180,000 to help him pay his house rent .

I did it based on the debt of N21,000 I collected from a friend to pay my house rent.

There is no work in this rainy season and I am jobless. A guy from my area informed me that he knows a woman who lends money to people.

That my friend told me that I can give out the child as collateral to get the money without necessarily selling him.

The woman gave me N180,000 immediately after, she received the child.

After that, my mother in-law came and asked me of the child and I lied to her that I took the baby to my brother for holiday, he said.

The commissioner also presented 37 suspected armed robbers; 20 suspected cultists; eight suspects for unlawful possession of firearms and five suspects for murder, among others.

(NAN)Four years after Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped over 200 girls in Chibok, Borno State, four of those eventually released were listed among new intakes at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), an official said.

The new intakes, who were admitted for the universitys 2020 session include 168 fresh students, 20 post-graduate (diploma) students, 14 masters degree students and 16 doctorate degree students.

Addressing the matriculation ceremony, the president of AUN, Dawn Dekkle, pledged that the institution will provide the students learning opportunity that would expand their horizon.

To the parents, thank you for believing in the power of an AUN education. You can be confident that we are committed to the success of the bright young people you have entrusted to us. I want to remind you as parents and students of both new intakes and returning that the young scholars who study here are the reason why the university exists.

We take seriously our responsibility to educate this rising generation and look forward eagerly to take the day when you take your place as leaders of Nigeria or Africa and of the world, she said.

She announced that four of the new students are from the universitys New Foundation Programs (Chibok Girls Special Education Program) adding that the institution will continue to accord the needy special attention to the Chibok girls.

Earlier, the vice president of the university, Byron Bullock, advised the new students and those returning to shun all forms of anti-social behaviour within and outside the campus.A public advocacy organisation, Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, has filed a law suit against members of the National Assembly who have defected from one party to another.

EiE has asked the Federal High Court, Abuja, to declare the seats of the defectors vacant.

Some of the federal lawmakers who have changed parties include Senate President Bukola Saraki and former minority leader Godswill Akpabio. While Mr Saraki moved from the APC to the PDP, Mr Akpabio moved the other way.

In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/923/2018 filed on August 28, EiE argued that the defecting lawmakers circumscribe the freedom provided in Sections 39 and 40 of the Constitution, which guarantee the fundamental rights of expression, conscience and opinion as well as freedom of association.

The group also argues that in Abegunde vs Ondo State House of Assembly (2015) LPELR-24588(SC), the Supreme Court held that: the kind of division that would entitle a politician to defect as envisaged by Sections 68(1)(a) and (g) and (222)(a)(e) and (f) of the 1999 Constitution is such that results in factionalization, fragmentation, splintering or division that makes it practically impossible or impracticable for a political party to function as such will by virtue of the provision to Section 68(1), justify a persons defection to another party and the retention of his seat for the unexpired term in the House inspite of the defection. Otherwise, the defector automatically loses his seat.

EiE in partnership with #OfficeOfTheCitizen radio partners, is asking the court to give an order mandating the 53rd Respondent (Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately conduct bye-elections to fill the 1st to 52nd Respondents seats in the National Assembly.

It is also asking the court to grant consequential order(s) as the court may deem fit.

The suit on on EiEs behalf by its counsel, Olumide Babalola, reads in part: There is no division in the Respondents previous political parties that will justify defection to another party during the subsistence of their terms, we are of the respectful submission that the Respondents have voluntarily surrendered their seats in the National Assembly.

Having decamped from the political parties that sponsored their elections, defectors should resign from the National Assembly and seek a fresh mandate from the electorate.

In Kaduna State House of Assembly, the seats of two decampees have been declared vacant by the Speaker. This process should be implemented in the other 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit, as the case has not been assigned to a judge.

The groups Programme Officer, Dapo Awobekun, called for the swift response of the judiciary to the suit.The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Tuesday said it would deliver the Air Transport Licence (ATL) and the Aircraft Operators Certificate (AOC) to the new national carrier, Nigeria Air, in the next 90 days.

The Director-General, NCAA, Muktar Usman, a captain, who announced this at a news conference in Lagos, said the proposed December take off of the carrier was still feasible.

The Airline Transport Licence (ATL) is the highest level of aircraft pilot certificate.

Those certified as Airline Transport Pilots (unconditional) are authorised to act as pilot in command on scheduled air carriers aircraft.

On the other hand, the Air Operators Certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a National Aviation Authority (NAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes.

Mr Usman said, We still have more than 90 days to the end of the year, so, it is still feasible, all things being equal. I am just talking from the regulatory point of view.

He assured the flying public and Nigerians that the government was still working round the clock for a successful take off of the airline.

According to him, the government will continue to work effectively on the project until it is delivered to Nigerians at the stipulated time.

He noted that talks surrounding the proposed national carrier had reduced significantly because most Nigerians were beginning to understand and buy into it.

Mr Usman explained that the role of Transaction Advisers to the project was a gradual process, adding that the process so far had been transparent.

The government intention about the takeoff of Nigeria Air is to get the best for the flying public because Nigerians have been yearning for a strong and viable carrier.

We want a carrier that will meet the demands and potential of the domestic market, the regional market and the international market, he said.

The government, through the Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had on July 18, unveiled the name and logo of the new national carrier at the Farnborough Air Show in London, United Kingdom.

Mr Sirika had stressed that the government was fully committed to fulfilling the campaign promise made by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015 to establish a new national carrier like the defunct Nigerian Airways.

(NAN)The Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria will commence their fifth annual conference in Asaba, Delta State on Wednesday.

Discussions at this years conference will centre on media narratives on hate speech, fake news and political stability in Africa.

The conference will commence on September 5 and end the following day.

One of the aims of the association is to advance the scholarly study and practice of communication by promoting and facilitating the pursuit of excellence in academic research and professional practice in Nigeria.

It also aims to support the process of shaping communication scholarship, training and practice in Nigeria whilst complementing the work of other bodies with similar aims and building on the potentials of the field of communication in Nigeria, conscious of the needs of the country for critical inputs from communication scholars and professionals to shape a future that will promote growth and development through their activities.

Some of the topics to be discussed at the conference include: a presentation of a report on Understanding Nigerian Media and Elections through Research: Analysis of the 2015 Presidential Election Campaign Messages; Media Narratives as Bridges; Implications Of Hate Speech and Fake News Reporting On Nigerias Political Stability; Public Perception of Hate Speech Use and its Effects on Voters Choice: The Public Relations Perspective; Social Media Activism and Political Stability In Nigeria: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Hate Speech on Facebook and twitter; among other topics.

PREMIUM TIMES publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi, will make a lead presentation on the first day of the event on the topic: Facts, Truth and Knowledge: Journalism and the Ethical Community

The governor of the host state, Ifeanyi Okowa, would also be attending the conference as the chief host and giving a special address.

Former National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Director General, Tom Adaba and the Movie of Umiaghwa-Abraka Kingdom, Oria Abraka, L.O. Ararile, are the special guests of honour, while Joseph Edozien, the Asagba of Asaba, is the royal father of the event.Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 8:40 a.m.

A convicted killer who walked away from prison in Mission over the weekend has been recaptured.

The Correctional Service of Canada tweeted Tuesday morning that Michael Douglas Sheets, 48, has been recaptured.

No further details about his arrest were released.

ORIGINAL: 7:40 a.m.

A search is underway in British Columbia for a man who walked away from a minimum-security prison while serving time for a firebombing that killed two children in Calgary.

The Correctional Service of Canada says Michael Sheets was reported missing from the Mission Institution on Saturday.

The 48-year-old prisoner is serving a sentence of more than 14-years for manslaughter and arson for his role in the firebombing that killed a six-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister in 2004.

A release from the correctional service says an arrest warrant has been issued for Sheets, who may also use the name John Hala.

Sheets escaped from a Vancouver Island prison in 2015 but was quickly recaptured and was granted day parole last August.

A search also continues for another Mission Institution inmate  John Mackenzie  who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder when he did not appear for a head count on Aug. 7.The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) on Tuesday invited its members to the 14th All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC), scheduled for October 10  14, 2018, in Asaba, Delta State.

A statement signed by Victoria Ibanga, General Secretary, NGE, said that the gathering would afford editors the opportunity to discuss issues affecting the journalism profession and proffer solutions that would enhance its practice in the country.

It said that the 2018 edition, titled, Credible Elections, Sustainable Democracy and the Nigerian Media, had been designed with activities to ease off work-related stress.

The statement said slight changes have been made in membership dues and conference fees.

The annual membership due and conference fee are N15, 000 and N35, 000 respectively

We have also reviewed upward the membership registration fee (for new members) to fifty thousand Naira (N50, 000).

These changes were thoroughly thought through and are geared towards achieving self-reliance for the Guild, the statement said.

It advised members to pay their dues on or before September 30, 2018, to ease logistic operations.

The statement added that tellers or electronic transfer statements should be brought to the venue as confirmation of payment.

It urged members to make payments to the Guilds bank details as follows:

Account Name: Nigerian Guild of Editors,

Bankers: Zenith Bank Plc

Account Number: 1013695160.

(NAN)Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of aviation and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, has explained what transpired when he honoured a police invitation on Tuesday.

Mr Fani-Kayode arrived at the Force Headquarters at noon with his lawyers and supporters, PREMIUM TIMES learnt. The visit followed weeks of exchanges between him and the police.

He was first asked to turn himself in two weeks ago, but he wrote back through his lawyer, Kayode Ajulo, to explain that he would not be available at the initial date set by the police.

The politician asked that the invitation be postponed until September 4, a request the police yielded.

Left the Inspector General of Polices office after a cordial interview. The Police were courteous and professional, Mr Fani-Kayode said on his social media accounts Tuesday afternoon.

I was invited because of my essay titled Five Useful Idiots and The Spirit Of The Accursed Slave which was about Fulani hegemony and terrorism together with other write-ups. No regrets. I will hit harder and write more, he added.

Mr Fani-Kayode had been curious about why he was being sought by the police since the first invitation, saying he suspected the move could be part of recent crackdown on free speech by the police. The politician has been amongst top critics of President Muhammadu Buhari and his political party, the All Progressives Congress.

For years, he has used his personal website and social media platforms to circulate regular, and often charging essays about those persons in public and private lives.

One of his pieces for which he was invited is a late March series about Mr Buharis enablers whom he castigated as useful idiots and slaves.

It was not immediately clear whether the police are filing charges following the interrogation today. Both Mr Fani-Kayode and police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood were not available for comments when reached by PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday night.President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigerias partnership with China through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has resulted in the execution of vital infrastructure projects across the country, valued at over $5 billion.

The president disclosed this in Beijing, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

He added that the presidents disclosure was at the FOCAC Round Table meeting, attended by African leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He quoted Mr Buhari as listing specific projects executed through the Chinese support under FOCAC in the last three years to include areas of infrastructure and human capacity development.

According to the president, the Chinese support to Nigeria has also impressively addressed significant challenges in the areas of power, transport, agriculture and humanitarian assistance.

He said: For Nigeria, our partnership with China through the FOCAC platform, has resulted in the construction of the first urban rail system in West Africa. This $500 million project in Abuja was commissioned in July this year.

The president also cited the construction and operation of the first rail system in Africa that used modern Chinese standards and technology.

This 180-km rail line that connects Abuja and Kaduna was commissioned two years ago at a cost of $500 million.

Today, the rail line is functioning efficiently with no issues  indeed, a sign that Chinese technology is world class, he noted.

President Buhari said that, Nigeria is leveraging Chinese funding to execute $3.4 billion worth of projects at various stages of completion.

These he said include the upgrading of airport terminals, the Lagos  Kano rail line, the Zungeru hydroelectric power project and fibre cables for our internet infrastructure.

Furthermore, less than three months ago, Nigeria signed an additional $1 billion loan from China for additional rolling stock for the newly constructed rail lines as well as road rehabilitation and water supply projects.

The Nigerian leader said that the aforementioned projects had demonstrated the high level of consistency and commitment China had shown in boosting its relations with African countries under the umbrella of FOCAC.

I am optimistic that this Summit will offer new opportunities that would build on these past achievements.

Nigeria will continue to support the FOCAC initiative and also seek to key into the Belt and Road Initiative.

This according to him is as an additional Chinese mechanism to build further cooperation in our quest for infrastructural and economic development.

Mr Buhari dispelled insinuations about the so-called death trap by Chinese government on developing countries, insisting that Nigeria would be able to repay the loans.

These vital infrastructure projects synchronise perfectly with our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

Some of the debts incurred are self-liquidating. Our country is able to re-pay loans as and when due in keeping with our policy of fiscal prudence and sound housekeeping.

The president applauded China for its overall commitment to the ideals of FOCAC.

He acknowledged that since the launch of the Forum in 2000, China and Africa had strived to implement the declarations and follow-up action plans for the benefit of both parties.

He also commended President Jinping, his government and the people for successfully hosting the Beijing Summit aimed at further strengthening China-Africa partnership.

(NAN)Former Nigerian Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was in Ekiti State on Tuesday to consult with Governor Ayo Fayose on his presidential ambition.

Mr Abubakar is seeking the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party to contest next years presidential election.

While speaking in Ado Ekiti during the meeting, Mr Abubakar said allegations of corruption against him are false.

He was vice president under President Olusegun Obasanjo, from 1999 to 2007.

Mr Atiku fell out with his principal shortly after the 2003 elections which the PDP won. He was later accused of involvement in corrupt practices for which he was investigated by the Senate.

The Senate in 2006 carried out an investigation through an ad hoc committee of the Senate headed by Victor Ndoma-Egba, and in its report released in 2007, found him guilty of helping himself with funds belonging to the Petroleum Training Development Fund (PTDF).

Mr Abubakar consistently denied the allegations, accusing Mr Obasanjo and the Senate of political persecution and attempting to stop his ambition of becoming president.

In pursuit of his ambition, Mr Abubakar recently dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the PDP, and is one of the leading aspirants in the party.

He told delegates in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday to be united ahead of the 2019 general elections, saying PDP has a good prognosis to win the presidential poll if leaders exhibited extraordinary commitments.

I have always said that if they have any evidence of corruption against Atiku, please come forward. But nobody has been able to come forward, he said.

It will be his second time in Ekiti State since he returned to the PDP. He was received by Ekiti State prospective delegates as well as Mr Fayose.

He noted that he had a well packaged and distinct blueprint to develop the country if elected to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

He however, lamented that the country had sunk into more corruption in the administration of President Buhari, and that even during the civil war, Nigeria had not been as insecure as the country was in this dispensation.

I have come to appeal to you to support me in our partys convention. I have the programme that will best develop this country. I wish to appeal for your individual and collective support, he said.

He described Mr Fayose as a straight forward person, who spoke his mind when it mattered.

I like the way you do things. Youre brutally frank. You say your mind, its a very rare quality. So, I commend for who you are, he commended the governor.

We will stand by you and the party in Ekiti until you retrieve your stolen mandate, he said, referring to the July governorship election in the state won by the APC.

Mr Fayose called for unity of the members of the party, saying Mr Abubakar has what it takes to lead the country, praying that his efforts would not be in vain.

He also charged the party on unity, saying, the greatest problem PDP may have is if we dont go to that election as brothers and sisters.

The task before the PDP at this time is not about who has been in the party before and who is just joining. It is about rescuing Nigeria and its people from the calamity of this Buharis government, Mr Fayose asserted.

The PDP state chairman, Gboyega Oguntuwase, said we have an interest within this your project and by the grace of God, we want this your project to succeed. Nigeria shall laugh, Ekiti shall laugh.

Atiku is the option to a lifeless president. Hes not dead, but he is not somebody that can be counted to lead Nigeria to the promised land.The President of the Court of Appeal, Zaninab Bulkachukwa, has constituted an election petition tribunal for the August 18 by-election for the Takum 1 Constituency seat in the Taraba Assembly.

Aishatu Abubakar, the Secretary of the tribunal, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Jalingo.

Hon. Justice Bulkachukwa, in pursuant of paragraph 133 (3) (a) and (b) of the Electoral Act as amended, constituted the Taraba Assembly tribunal for the Takum 1 constituency by- election, she said.

Ms Abubakar said the deadline for the submission of petitions form the election would be midnight of September 8.

She urged aggrieved parties in the election to file their petitions on or before the deadline at the Sharia Court of Appeal complex in Jalingo.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Garba Ajiya of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared winner of the election.

(NAN)The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that more than 2,000 workers lost to insurgency in North East Nigeria were yet to get their benefits from their respective state governors.

The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said this while speaking at the Employment and Decent Work for Peace: National Feedback meeting organised by the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity (AFL-CIO) in collaboration with the NLC on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr Wabba said the congress would write the affected state governors in the region to demand that workers who were killed in the region as a result of insurgency got their benefits.

He said the number of workers who lost their lives to insurgency in the region was over 2,000 put together.

Mr Wabba said years after workers who were breadwinners for their families were killed, their families were yet to be paid their benefits.

He said teachers, local government and health workers were the most affected, stressing that orphans and widows who are victims of insurgency are merely surviving on contributions from unions.

According to him, 546 teachers, 101 health workers and six nurses have lost their lives in Borno alone since the commencement of the insurgency as at January 2016.

The labour leader said this figure was obtained from the American Solidarity Centre.

Mr Wabba expressed disappointment that the benefits were yet to be paid to the distressed families, saying: I am not happy that their benefits have not been paid.

We have lost more than 2,000 workers, teachers, local government workers and health workers, because they are usually the first line of casualties.

The ideology of the insurgents is that they dont believe in western education and therefore the first person to be the victim is the teacher, because he must be at the place of work to teach the pupil, he said.

According to him, most of them were killed in active service.

He however called on all the states that were affected to give priority to the benefit of those heroes that have died in active service.

We will write a formal demand to those governors to say that those workers that have died in active service should be paid their benefit, the NLC president said.

(NAN)Members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Borno and Adamawa states on Tuesday at separate events resolved to adopt indirect primaries to select candidates for next years elections.

The two states are governed by the APC.

The decisions were reached at their respective critical stakeholders meetings hosted by the APC.

In Borno State, the stakeholders led by the party chairman, Ali Dalori, met at the multipurpose hall of government house, Maiduguri.

The Borno meeting was largely attended by elected and key appointees of the ruling party .

Top members of the APC in Borno State such as Ali Modu-Sheriff, Babagana Kingibe, Kashim Imam, Abba Aji, Maina Lawan, and most of the gubernatorial aspirants were not at the meeting.

Those at the meeting include the three senators, all members of the House of Representatives from the state, all members of the Borno State House of Assembly alongside other appointees and cabinet members of the state government.

The gathering came barely 48 hours after the party in Borno became enmeshed in controversy involving the supporters of Governor Kashim Shettima and those of his immediate predecessor, Mr Modu-Sheriff, over alleged move by the latter to manipulate the primaries using the direct delegate system during the coming party primaries.

Tuesdays meeting which was slated for 2 p.m. commenced immediately after security personnel detailed at the gate carefully screened all those invited to the meeting. They used a copy of the invitees list handed to them by the APC secretariat.

The states Deputy Governor, Usman Durkwa, who was the highest office holder at the meeting, said he was there in his capacity as an observer.

The chairman of the party opened the session with a brief speech during which he emphasised the importance of the stakeholders meeting ahead of the coming APC primaries.

He said the meeting was a follow up to the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the APC during which, he said, states were given three options on how they could conduct primary elections.

We were given three options which include direct voting, indirect (delegate) system and consensus voting. And it is based on that that we in Borno have decided to come together as critical stakeholders to endorse the option we have chosen.

Shortly after that, various speakers spoke on the need to adopt the indirect delegate pattern of primaries.

A senator, Abubakar Kyari from Borno North, spoke on behalf of the other senators at the meeting; while Muhammed Monguno, a House of Representatives member, spoke on behalf of his nine colleagues at the lower chamber of the National Assembly.

The Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly spoke on behalf of the 27 members of the state legislature.

All of them cited insecurity and lack of up-to-date APC membership register as reason for supporting the indirect delegate system of voting.

To seal the decision taken at the meeting, another senator, Ali Ndume from Borno South, moved the motion for the stakeholders to adopt indirect primaries.

His motion was seconded by a female member of the House of Representatives, Asabe Bashir.

In Adamawa, stakeholders of the state chapter of the APC, led by the Secretary to Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, met in Yola on Monday to adopt the indirect party primaries option for all elected positions.

The APC NEC had last week adopted direct primaries to select the partys presidential candidate.

For other positions, the Adamawa APC said, indirect primaries guarantee free and credible primaries for the party in the state.

The APC scribe in Adamawa, Wafarniyi Theman, said in a communique issued at the end of the meeting that the SEC of APC resolved to adopt the indirect primaries, for Governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly primaries.

That the meeting was convened, in line with the section 12.8 of the party constitution, and not stakeholders meeting of party.

Speaking earlier, Mr Mustapha assured the persons at the meeting that stakeholders would not allow provocation to propel crisis in the party.

We would not allow any provocation, to propel us into crisis in the ruling APC in the state.

There is no opposition yet in APC in Adamawa State, as we are covered by the oath of allegiance of the party.

The APC had at the end of its NEC meeting in Abuja adopted direct primaries for all its positions but said states could request to use indirect primaries if so adopted at state meetings.All 23 members of the 24-member House of Assembly in Kwara, including the Speaker, have denied financial inducement for their recent defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The lawmakers are alleged to have each collected N15 million to defect from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to PDP on August 1.

But the 23 members, at plenary on Tuesday, denied being induced with money for their decision to quit the APC.

Each of the defected lawmakers, in their defence, described the allegation as unfounded and a calculated attempt to tarnish their names.

They said that no individual or group gave them N15 million as bribe prior to their defection to the PDP.

They accused the only APC lawmaker in the house, Saheed Popoola, as being responsible for the alleged rumour on social media.

The lawmakers claimed that their defection to PDP was purely on personal conviction devoid of any financial inducement.

However, Mr Popoola (APC  Olomu-Balogun) in his reaction, said he did not speak with any media on the alleged N15 million bribe.

Mr Popoola refuted the claim by his colleagues of being the author of the alleged rumour, and challenged them to produce evidence or testimonies against him.

Concluding debate on the matter, the Speaker, Ali Ahmad, urged his fellow speakers in states Houses of Assembly to resist the temptation of declaring vacant, seats of defectors in their states. (NAN)The Plateau State House of Assembly has extended the tenure of the Local Government Management Committee chairpersons by one month, citing insecurity in the state.

But the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against the development.

The extension followed the expiration on Tuesday of the one month extension made by the House on August 4.

It is the fifth time the State Assembly has extended the tenure of the chairpersons since Simon Lalong became governor.

The lawmakers who unanimously supported the motion for the extension, said it was based on the security challenges in some parts of the states.

Their stance is related to the recent attacks on some communities in Barikin Ladi and Jos South local government areas of the state where many were reportedly killed.

During Tuesdays plenary, Emmanuel Dakas, House majority leader representing Mangu South Constituency, raised the motion for extension.

The issue of insecurity should be our major concern. We should wait for security agencies first. So in order not to allow a vacuum in the LGAs, I call on the honorable members to support the extension with one month, he said.

Ibrahim Hassan, a lawmaker and Chairman House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, after the plenary shed light on the development.

The last time we had a meeting with the Chairman of Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), Mr Fabian Ntung, he told us that the commission was ready but the security agencies have not given the commission go-ahead to conduct the election and I am not in the position to say that election would be held today or tomorrow. We have done our parts, Mr Hassan said.

The PDP, however, called on Governor Lalong to conduct elections to the local governments to allow people at the grassroots choose their leaders.

The PDP state publicity secretary, John Akans, decried the extension of tenure, saying This is dictatorship and is undemocratic.

It is unfortunate that there is no democratic government in the grassroots of the state because few individuals are chosen to govern against the wish of the people. If Lalong feels he is popular, let him conduct the elections, he said.The Niger State Government says it has so far released N2.6 billion as pension to 1,599 state and local government pensioners within the last three years.

The Director-General of the state Pensions Board, Usman Muhammad, disclosed this to journalists on Tuesday in Minna.

He said the breakdown of the amount showed that N1 billion was paid to the pensioners in the state employment, while those of the local government got N1.5 billion within the period.

According to him, 1,599 persons have benefited.

He added that out of the figure 456 were for the state, while 1,143 belonged to the local governments.

He said the payments were in five batches, adding that the fifth batch for the local government pensioners was yet to be implemented.

The director general explained that on assumption of office of the current management on March 18, 2016, the board carried out an analysis of outstanding liabilities it met amounting to about N4.3 billion.

After a careful look at the figure, a final amount of N2.06 billion was finally established as outstanding liabilities under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) for the State and Local Government beneficiaries, he noted.

He, however, said the PFAs were frustrating the payment of entitlements to pensioners under the Contributory Pensions Scheme.

There have been some observed delays by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) who are deliberately dragging the process of the payment of the refunds to beneficiaries.

Having observed this, the board intimated the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) in some of its several correspondences and reported the issue of undue delays by PFAs, he explained.

He, however, said that the situation had changed within the last three weeks as 10 out the 19 PFAs involved had started effecting payments.

(NAN)Photo: The Canadian Press Mark Carney the Governor of the Bank of England, during a press conference to deliver the Financial Stability Report at the Bank of England in the City of London.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney all but confirmed Tuesday that he is to stay at the helm of the central bank for longer than planned to help ensure Britain leaves the European Union as smoothly as possible.

Following days of speculation about an extension beyond his planned June 2019 departure, Carney told a committee of lawmakers that during "this critical period" everyone should do what they can to help the Brexit process.

Carney, a Canadian, took the top job at the Bank of England in July 2013 on a five-year basis. He extended it by a further year in the aftermath of Britain's vote in June 2016 to leave the EU.

"Even though I have already agreed to extend my time to support a smooth Brexit, I am willing to do whatever else I can in order to promote both a smooth Brexit and an effective transition at the Bank of England," he said Tuesday.

With Brexit due March 29, 2019, Carney confirmed he has been in talks with Britain's Treasury chief, Philip Hammond, about extending his tenure again.

Carney, who is reportedly also interested in returning to Canadian politics, has said the government will announce details "in due course." Media reports have suggested his tenure may be extended by about a year.

Many backers of Brexit have accused Carney of taking sides during the Brexit referendum campaign, of being a leading proponent of so-called "Project Fear" when warning of the economic consequences of a vote to leave the EU. But many in the financial markets have been calling on Carney to stay longer to help reduce uncertainty.A new twist has developed in the politics of Kano State as a former governor of the state, Ibrahim Shekarau, has dumped the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.

Mr Shekaraus spokesperson, Yau Sule, disclosed the defection in an interview with the BBC Hausa on Tuesday.

Although he did not disclose the new party his principal is moving to, there are already indications Mr Shekarau will return to the All Progressives Congress (APC), a party he helped form in the build up to the 2015 election.

Mr Sule said the decision of the former governor is connected with the recent dissolution of party executives in the state.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the National Working Committee of the PDP, last week Thursday, dissolved the Kano State Executive Committee of the party and constituted a caretaker committee to pilot its affairs.

No reason was given for the dissolution, but it is believed to be connected to the recent defection of another ex-Kano governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to the party.

Before Mr Shekaraus defection, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that hundreds of his (Shekarau) supporters on Monday protested against the decision of party.

The spokesperson explained that, after Mr Shekarau notified the national working committee of the consequences of the decision, nothing was done to amend it. Rather, five of the seven-member caretaker committee were allotted to Mr Kwankwaso.

This, we viewed as injustice, the spokesperson explained.

Kano PDP is not the only state that received APC decampees. In Sokoto State, Governor Tambuwals defection doesnt affect the structure of the party in the state, why Kano? We wont take that.

Those executives were legally elected to serve four year tenure, theyre in their second year, scrapping them is illegal, he said

Mr Yau said Mr Shekarau will consult his supporters while also deciding the political party to join.

Mr Shekarau was a founding member of the APC, but left the party for the PDP after Mr Kwankwaso, then Kano State governor, defected to the APC from the PDP and was given the APC structure in the state.

Kano is the most populous state in Northern Nigeria and the state where President Muhammadu Buhari got his highest votes, (about 1.9 million) in 2015.

Mr Kwankwaso, who declared his intention to slug it out with Mr Buhari at the polls last week at the Chida Hotel, Abuja, has vowed to unseat the incumbent if given the ticket of the major opposition party.The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Jigawa State, Mahmud Isa, has called on Nigerians to disregard the statement of Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Ibrahim Hassan, which alleged that the state assisted the electoral commission, INEC, with N50 million.

He said such statement is capable of truncating the process of democracy.

Mr Isa was responding to a publication in the Daily Trust newspaper where the deputy governor was quoted as saying the state government assisted INEC Jigawa office with the money during the extension period of the issuance of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and continuous voter registration, to facilitate the smooth running of the exercise in the state.

The electoral chief explained that since the commencement of the continuous voter registration in April 2017 to date, the commission has been adequately funded; hence, there is no reason to lean on the Jigawa State Government, or indeed any organisation, for any form of logistics support.

Mr Isa, in a press release made available to journalists on Tuesday, said INEC urges members of the public to disregard the publication as baseless, unfounded and not true. Also were calling on all politicians in the state to desist from making unguided statements capable of truncating our democracy.

The INEC Jigawa State office, wishes to state in clear terms that, it has not received any amount of money from the state government, it said, during the extension period of PVCs and continuous voters registration in the state.

It added that the commission remains resolute in its maintenance of transparency, credibility, fairness in all its electoral duties that will meet national and international standard.

We will continue to maintain our neutrality at all times as an independent electoral empire, the INEC commissioner said.

He, however, noted that, INEC holds the state government in high esteem as a major stakeholder in election matters but it disagrees with the comment of the deputy governor on financial support as contained in the publication.

When contacted, a spokesperson to the deputy governor, Ahmad Haruna said his principal was not available for comment as at the time of this report.The body of Warrant Officer, Marcell Nwankwo of the Nigerian Army, who died while trying to rescue a woman in a flood on Thursday in Kebbi, has been recovered.

The body of late Nwankwo, of 223 Light Tank Battalion, Nigerian Army Zuru, was recovered at Unashi village of Danko Wasagu Local Government Area.

Both the soldier and the woman died in the flood on August 30.

Already, Governor Atiku Bagudu had visited the Army barrack to condole with the commandant and family of the victim.

He described the deceased as a quintessential soldier who died in the service of humanity.

Nwankwo sacrificed his life in the course of protecting someones life, if all Nigerians will emulate this soldier and protect one another, no nation will be better than us, the governor said.

(NAN)The South-east Governors Forum Chairman, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi, has said the region, in 2019, will only back a presidential candidate who has experience and a track record of governance.

Mr Umahi spoke when a former governor of Sokoto State, and Peoples Democratic Party presidential aspirant, Attahiru Bafarawa, took his campaign for the topmost political seat to Ebonyi State.

At the parley on Tuesday, Mr Umahi said the zone will meet to harmonise and come up with a consensus candidate who has an understanding of issues especially as it relates to governance and the economy.

He said all those aspiring to be president of the country under the party are all eminently qualified but experience should be a critical factor in choosing the partys candidate.

About 14 of you who are presidential aspirants under the PDP are very wonderful materials. And it is a very wonderful thing because each and every one of you is eminently qualified but I must say those who have an extra experience like some of you who have done it eight years as governors. I think the experiences cannot be the same. So, I commend you very highly.

He told Mr Bafarawa that South-east PDP will sit and agree on who to support for countys top job in 2019.

I want to say, we accept your person, and spiritually you are dear to our hearts. The South-east as a region is going to work together especially the PDP states. We are also going to talk together and we must take a position. We must take a position in the sense that we need to bond together. We need to agree and tell whoever is going to be our next President, this is how you are going to govern us. This is how we will like you to remember us and this is how we want you to carry us along, he said.

He said the perception that politicians are liars, promise breakers and unclean people in Nigeria has to change.

And the idea of putting down what you have done before is wonderful. In this country, if you are talking they say you are a politician. It worries me too much. It means that politicians are liars. Politicians are promise breakers. Politicians dont live clean lives. I think this is one of the innovations we have to start doing as a people. So, we are going to go beyond personal interest and say, you are going to be this, what are you going to do for us? Put it down in writing.

Mr Umahi also congratulated the presidential hopeful for his court victory over corruption charges levelled against him.

The governor also commended Mr Bafarawa for appointing a senator, Ben Collins, as his campaign deputy Director-General.

Speaking earlier, Mr Bafarawa solicited for the votes of Ebonyi State delegates during the forthcoming partys presidential primary election, saying he has all it takes to positively turn around the country.

He also said he has a wealth of experience to lead the country I have been in politics since 1976 before even the creation of NPN, NPP, three years before the creation of the Second Republic. I was the Transition Committee Chairman of the local government council in 1976. I rose from that in 1979. NPN was almost dominant in Sokoto state but I refused to join NPN. I joined NPP together with our leader Zik (Nnamdi Azikwe).

When NPN realised that NPP is a strong party, is a national party and is going to win the election, the NPN by then used their intrigues to divide our relationship with GNPP.

When we came to the convention, Waziri vehemently told Zik that he wants to be the presidential candidate and also chairman of the party. Zik said Waziri take one and leave one, but Waziri said he needs all because he was being pushed by NPN to disunite us. That was what caused the division of NPP and GNPP.

He said he is a detribalised Nigerian who has the interest of all ethnic groups especially the Igbos at heart.

I have the interest of the Igbos to lead this country. In 1999, I met President Shehu Shagari and told him you know there is an agreement between you and the Igbos that after you Alex Ekwueme will take over before the military intervention, now I think this is the best time for us to pay them back. We want to on behalf of my colleagues invite you to come and take over our ticket so that we will give him support.

I asked Shagari to get in touch with Alex, he did not accept the offer. In 2003 he (Alex) said he was going to contest, he decided to contest at the end of the day he changed his mind to contest under PDP and he didnt succeed.

I was the National Chairman of the ANPP and there were five aspirants, Igbo people who are contesting under the ANPP. I summoned all the five aspirants, Igbo people and told them please let us give Alex the ticket so that he will be the flag bearer. He refused to accept the ANPP ticket and that was how it ended up into the hand of Buhari by then, he said.

The former Sokoto governor said he left N13 billion in the coffers of the state government when he left office.

When I was a governor, I was very prudent. I didnt stay in the government house for eight years. When I was leaving office, I left almost N13 billion for the incoming government and that amount was a very big money then.

He said President Buhari is not a Democrat, having come from a military background, which is why he has failed as a President.

I am a democrat; let us not continue making mistakes of allowing an eye medical doctor to do heart surgery. I have never seen a successful businessman who started with a billion capital and succeeded; you have to have a small capital to build your career. Nobody will become a PhD without learning ABCD.

But in Nigerian democracy, we are taking people who are not democratic and giving them top position which is very dangerous . We have seen the results, we have seen what is happening now. The captain of this nation today is a trained military man, he is a complete opposite. To give a military man leadership of the country of over 200 million people and you expect him to do well, he will never get it right, he said.The Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has said that all major markets in the ancient city be closed on Monday to enable traders and other residents to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

The monarch said on Monday that it is important for traders to take responsibility in the transformation of new Nigeria and new government in the state.

Mr Ogunwusi however, charged residents to participate actively in the September 22 governorship election by freely voting for candidates of their choice in Osun State.

Reacting to this development, some residents who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES commended the monarch for the directive but were however pessimistic about the validity of the process.

The king has given a fatherly advice that we should get out voters card but how are we so sure that our vote will count. It will only be a waste of time to be on the long queue for cards, in the rain and sun to cast vote and yet realised that election is rigged, Seyi Olaorebikan said.

Another resident, Haliya Shittu said: Well, if not for anything but for the purpose of identification, I will get the PVC as directed by the king. However, Im not certain if I will vote.

Ms. Shittu said the example of what happened in Ekiti State governorship election cannot be avoided in Osun as many of them are already coming to community leaders with money to manipulate electorates.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier presented the names of 48 political parties cleared to contest the governorship election in the state.

However, there are five major contenders seeking to succeed outgoing governor, Rauf Aregbesola of the APC.

These are a former secretary to the state government, Fatai Akinbade of the ADC; immediate past secretary to the state government, Moshood Adeoti of the ADP; the candidate of the governing APC, Adegboyega Oyetola; a senator, Ademola Adeleke of the PDP; and a former senator, Iyiola Omisore of the SDP.Senate President Bukola Saraki will head an 85-member campaign committee of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the upcoming Osun State governorship election.

The committee, made up of all governors under the platform has Eddy Olafeso as secretary.

This will be the first official assignment given to Mr Saraki and three other governors who defected to the party recently.

The governors are Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State.

Speaking during the inauguration, Mr Saraki said aside from the popularity of the PDP candidate in Osun State, the people were yearning for change to return their state to the PDP.

He promised that the committee would ensure that the PDP wins the Osun poll.

He said that the election was important because PDP had lost two governorship elections in the South-west (Ekiti and Ondo)

We must win Osun to prove that Osun is the home ground of the PDP. This is a state where salaries are not being paid, he said.

He added that winning the Osun poll was not just about the state but to also serve as a momentum for the 2019 general elections.

Speaking at the inauguration, PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, said members of the committee were carefully nominated because of the importance of Osun to the PDP.

He said he believed his partys candidate was the best for the state, and assured that it would not allow itself to be rigged out in the election.

We will not allow vote-buying in Osun because that is rigging and rigging is corruption. I believe that the international community is watching and all eyes are on this nation, he said.

He also advised security agencies not to allow themselves to be used, reminding them that they had sworn to uphold the constitution, not an individual or politician.

Mr Saraki recently defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP. He also recently declared his intention to run for office of the President of Nigeria.

He defected to the ruling APC in 2014 prior to the general elections where president Muhammadu Buhari defeated incumbent Goodluck Jonathan who contested under the PDP.The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has threatened to publish the names of anyone who engages in vote buying in the Osun State gubernatorial election slated for September 22.

According to the national commissioner of voter education and publicity, Solomon Soyebi in an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday, the commission will make sure such defaulters are prosecuted according to the law.

PREMIUM TIMES reported cases of vote buying in the last governorship election conducted in Ekiti State. This newspaper also published videos and interviews of vote buying by officials of the two major parties in the Ekiti election, APC and PDP.

In his interview, the INEC official also disclosed that the polling booths in the upcoming Osun State governorship election will be re-designed to discourage vote buying. He and strongly warned residents and political parties against vote buying/selling.

We are trying to re-engineer our voting cubicle and ballot box in such a way that it becomes difficult to see who a voter votes for.

We are going to see the redesigned polling booths in Osun State first.

We have just 20 days to Osun State election and we are assuring them that anybody who engages in vote buying will get his name published and this time around we wont be quiet about it, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Soyebi advised residents of the state to carry out their civic responsibility peacefully, assuring them that INEC is bent on conducting a free, fair and credible election.

He stating clearly that there wont be a repeat of what happened in Edo and Ekiti States respectively.An Igbosere High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the police not to carry out any act that would infringe on the fundamental rights of some officers of 1004 apartments in Victoria Island.

The vacation judge, Idowu Alakija, made the exparte order after listening to an application for an interim injunction sought by five executive officers of 1004 Home Owners and Residents Association (HORA), Victoria Island, Lagos.

The applicants  Abiola Oguniyi, Edet Essien, Joy Okara, Peace Itaribo and Olanrewaju Olaniyi  had through their counsel, Promise Asikpo and Joel Nyot  sought to restrain the police from further harassing and detaining them unlawfully.

Joined with the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) were three other respondents, Akinlosi Oyelokun, Yusuf Danladi and the Police Service Commission.

Justice Alakija, after listening to the applicant, granted all the orders.

Upon hearing the applicants in this case, I am convinced that all the respondents have been served with the originating processes and the motion for Interlocutory injunction.

It is hereby ordered that the parties maintain status quo and the respondent are not to carry out any act that shall infringe on the fundamental rights of the applicants pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice, Mrs Alakija said.

She, however, asked that the file be returned to the registry and the case file forwarded to Justice Owolabi Dabiri for hearing of the interlocutory injunction.

Earlier, the applicants counsel, Mr Asikpo, informed the court that all the respondents have been served with the notice of Application for the Enforcement of Fundamental Rights and the Motion on Notice for an Interlocutory Injunction.

He said that the first respondent, Mr Oyelokun, who was evading service, had been served by substituted service pursuant to the order of the court made on August 28.

He, however, told the court that there was an imminent threat by the police to violate the fundamental rights of the applicants.

He said the applicants were first arrested in November 2017 and in August this year, adding that it took a lot of efforts before the applicants were released.

He, however, urged the court to restrain the respondents from inviting, interrogating, harassing, arresting, detaining or in any manner infringing the fundamental rights of the applicants pending the hearing and determination of the Interlocutory Injunction.

Mr Asikpo, also urged the court in the alternative to order parties to maintain status quo pending the hearing and determination of the Interlocutory Injunction.

He said that the court was empowered by law to protect the applicants against the imminent abuse from the respondents, however, urging the court to grant the prayers of the applicants in the interest of justice.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that residents of 1004 Estate had petitioned the I-G over unlawful arrest and detention of some occupants by police officers claiming to be from I-GP Special Tactical Squad.

In the petition, HORA alleged that five officials were unlawfully assaulted and detained for two days.

The association, comprising about 6,000 residents, alleged that the unlawful harassment was instigated by a tenant, Akinlosi Oyelokun, whose apartment was disconnected over alleged two years unpaid service charge and electricity theft.

According to the 1004 residents, armed police officers from Force Headquarters, led by Danladi Yusuf, invaded the associations secretariat and whisked away three staff to the Bar Beach Police Station on order from above.

Those initially arrested are: Joy Okara (HORA Finance Manager), Peace Itaribo (Accounts Officer) and Olanrewaju Olaniyi (Vending Officer) and detained overnight at the Adeniji Adele Police facility Lagos Island.

The associations executives who attempted to secure their bails were also arrested and ended up behind bars for two days along with the staff, the petition said.

The residents expressed dismay that a tenant owing service charge arrears and facing allegations of hacking and electricity theft involving bypass of smart meter could simply use his connection with police to harass innocent citizens.

Shina Akinfenwa, chairman of 1004 HORA, then appealed to the IG- to urgently address the matter in order to save his office from dishonour and the residents from continued harassment.

Before the court granted the reliefs sought by counsel to HORA, Mr Akinlosi told NAN on telephone that since investigations into his petition were ongoing he had no comment to make.

(NAN)The leader of the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Reuben Fasoranti, has said that the group has not endorsed any presidential aspirant ahead of the 2019 elections.

He spoke at his residence in Akure on Tuesday as he received a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar.

Mr Abubakar is seeking the support of delegates in the state and other critical stakeholders in becoming Nigerias next president.

Afenifere prior to the 2015 presidential election, had pitched its tent with the PDP candidate, Goodluck Jonathan, on the strength of the promise of restructuring the country and the implementation of the 2014 national conference report.

Mr Abubakar has become a strong advocate of restructuring, making him a likely choice of the pan-Yoruba group.

However, Mr Fasoranti said all presidential aspirants would be examined by Afenifere and other groups in the country.

He also said Afenifere would only endorse anyone who could meet the philosophies of the group especially the agitation for the restructuring of the nation.

Afeniferes General Secretary, Sehinde Arogbofa, told journalists after the meeting that the group would make its position known after the presidential primaries.

Mr Abubakar described Afenifere as a revered socio-political group with the right influence on the political environment in the country.Photo: Facebook

The mother of Charles Horvath has applied to the courts to have her missing son presumed dead.

Denise Horvath Allan signed the paperwork late last week.

Horvath, who was 20 at the time, was on a cross-Canada trek from his home in Yorkshire, England.

His last contact with his mother was on May 11, 1989, while in Kelowna.

Horvath had been staying at the Tiny Town Tent and RV Park on Lakeshore Road.

His mother made 15 trips from England to Kelowna to try and drum up clues to her son's whereabouts.

On her first trip, she said the manager of Tiny Town told her Charles had "gone out one day and never returned."

There has been no official trace of him since.Photo: CTV

An injured hiker was rescued from a North Shore mountain Monday night.

The man was hiking on Crown Mountain when he fell off a nine-metre cliff.

Another hiker saw the man fall and called for help.

"(The victim) was able to communicate still, but he had some injuries, possibly internal injuries, which we were concerned about," said North Shore Rescue search manager Scott Merriman.

A Canadian Forces helicopter was called in to assist, and rescue crews reached the injured hiker at 1:30 a.m.

He was airlifted to Vancouver International Airport, where he was taken to hospital by ambulance.

"We don't know how long he had been at the bottom of that cliff, so if he had a means to notify us earlier we could have got him out quite a bit earlier," Merriman said.

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LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Products (NYSE: APD), a global leading hydrogen supplier and a leader in hydrogen fueling and infrastructure worldwide, today announced it has signed cooperation and equipment supply agreements with Beijing Sinoscience Fullcryo Technology Co., Ltd. (Fullcryo) to accelerate the development of hydrogen infrastructure and support Fullcryo's first, and also China's first, commercial-scale liquid hydrogen-based fueling station. The two companies will cooperate from demonstration to commercialization, including construction, operation, maintenance, and gas supply for liquid hydrogen-based fueling stations in China.

Under the equipment supply agreement, Air Products will provide two state-of-the-art, integrated Smartfuel technology fueling stations to Fullcryo for constructing the first-of-its-kind station located in Guangdong Province, South China.

In compliance with the SAE's (Society of Automotive Engineers) J2601 fueling protocol, the station will consist of key components, including a liquid hydrogen storage tank, high-efficiency booster pump, high-pressure gasifier and gaseous storage tank, dispenser, and control system. Its fueling capacity is designed to reach 500 kilograms per day of hydrogen and can be expanded to 1,500 kilograms per day for both 35Mpa and 70Mpa fueling.

"We are pleased to join forces with Fullcryo and proud to play a key role in rolling out the world-class liquid hydrogen-based fueling station in China," said Saw Choon Seong, China president at Air Products. "Air Products is committed to supporting the Chinese government to implement its hydrogen energy roadmap outlined in the 13th Five-Year Plan. We provide total solutions from hydrogen production, storage and delivery to fueling technology systems and related infrastructure. By combining these offerings with our global experiences, local leading supply capabilities and proven safety performance, we strive to drive continuous breakthroughs and commercialization of the environmentally-friendly fuel for a greener planet."

Liquid hydrogen-based fueling stations, which involve advanced gas storage and fueling technology, can bring added benefits, including higher throughput, lower energy consumption, and relatively smaller footprint. It represents an important approach for large-scale hydrogen energy applications and a mainstream trend in the development of future transportation.

Air Products has more than 60 years of hydrogen experience and an extensive patent portfolio with over 50 patents in hydrogen dispensing technology. The company has been involved in more than 250 hydrogen fueling projects in over 20 countries worldwide. Cars, trucks, vans, buses and many other equipment have been fueled using Air Products' trendsetting technologies.

In China, Air Products has participated in several demonstration projects, including the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, 2010 Asian Games, and 2011 Shenzhen Universiade, to drive the use of this clean energy. Early this year, the company signed an agreement with the state-owned Shenhua New Energy Co. Ltd. to provide two hydrogen dispensers to China Energy Investment Corporation Limited 's First Hydrogen Fueling Station being built in Rugao City of Jiangsu Province, East China.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading Industrial Gases company in operation for over 75 years. The Company's core industrial gases business provides atmospheric and process gases and related equipment to manufacturing markets, including refining and petrochemical, metals, electronics, and food and beverage. Air Products is also the world's leading supplier of liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment. The Company had fiscal 2017 sales of $8.2 billion from continuing operations in 50 countries and has a current market capitalization of about $35 billion. Approximately 15,000 passionate, talented and committed employees from a diversity of backgrounds are driven by Air Products' higher purpose to create innovative solutions that benefit the environment, enhance sustainability and address the challenges facing customers, communities and the world. For more information, visit www.airproducts.com.

About Fullcryo

Fullcryo (also known as Fuhaicryo) is a subsidiary of China Academy of Sciences, is dedicated to developing key technologies, core equipment, product and services for large-scale cryogenic systems. The company provides comprehensive solutions to the segments including aerospace, large scientific engineering, helium, green energy and industrial gases. Fullcryo provides solutions for liquid hydrogen storage and hydrogen transportation, covering liquid hydrogen station investment and construction, hydrogen liquefiers, liquid hydrogen storage tank and related technologies to drive the hydrogen energy and fuel cell development in China.

NOTE: This release may contain forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's reasonable expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release regarding important risk factors. Actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors not anticipated by management, including risk factors described in the Company's Form 10K for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2017.

SOURCE Air Products

Related Links

http://www.airproducts.com

PUNE, India, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the new market research report on "Aroma Ingredients Market for Personal Care Industry by Type (Synthetic Ingredients, Natural Ingredients), Application (Fine Fragrances, Toiletries, and Cosmetics), and Region (APAC, Europe, North America) - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is projected to grow from USD 2.27 billion in 2018 to USD 2.83 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.5% between 2018 and 2023. The increasing demand for personal care products, coupled with the change in lifestyles and consumer preferences is expected to drive the growth of the Aroma Ingredients Market during the forecast period.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )

Browse 64 market data Tables and 41 Figures spread through 110 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Aroma Ingredients Market for Personal Care Industry"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/aroma-ingredient-market-113835443.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Based on type, the synthetic ingredients segment of the Aroma Ingredients Market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR, in terms of value from 2018 to 2023

Based on type, the Aroma Ingredients Market has been segmented into synthetic ingredients and natural ingredients. The synthetic ingredients segment of the market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR in terms of value during the forecast period. Synthetic ingredients are compounds artificially made through chemical reactions. They have characteristic odors as per their molecular structures. These are synthesized using various artificial chemicals primarily derived from coal tar and petroleum. Synthetic ingredients are less costly as well as consistent in quality and price, unlike natural ingredients. Hence the synthetic ingredients are the fastest-growing type of aroma ingredients.

Get PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=113835443

Based on application, the fine fragrances segment is projected to lead the Aroma Ingredients Market during the forecast period in terms of value

The fine fragrances segment is projected to lead the Aroma Ingredients Market in terms of, value between 2018 and 2023. Fine fragrance is a term used for products diluted with alcohol and contain a high concentration of aroma ingredients. Fine fragrances include major applications, such as perfumes, colognes, body mists, and deodorants. Aroma ingredients are the key compounds in fine fragrance formulations. The increasing demand for perfumes, colognes, deodorants, and body mists across the globe is expected to drive the demand for aroma ingredients in the fine fragrances application.

The European region is expected to be the largest market for aroma ingredients during the forecast period

The Aroma Ingredients Market has been studied for 5 regions, namely, APAC, North America, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and South America. The European region is projected to be the largest market for aroma ingredients during the forecast period due to the strong foothold of manufacturers of personal care products in the region. Aroma ingredients are the key compounds used in the formulation of various personal care products. The European region is also home for the leading manufacturers of aroma ingredients. The major countries driving the growth of the Aroma Ingredients Market in the European region are France, Germany, Italy, and UK.

Some of the key players in the Aroma Ingredients Market include Symrise (Germany), Takasago International Corporation (Japan), Sensient Technologies Corporation (US), MANE (France), Robertet SA (France), T. Hasegawa Co., Ltd. (Japan), Frutarom (Israel), Givaudan (Switzerland), Firmenich SA (Switzerland), and International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (US).

Know more about Aroma Ingredients Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/aroma-ingredient-market-113835443.html

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarketsPhoto: Contributed

If you have an interest in Buddhism now is your chance to explore the religion further at a public lecture in Vernon this Saturday.

The Vernon Buddhist Temple is hosting a public lecture featuring Dr. Kenneth Tanaka, called 'Buddhism and moving forward just the way you are.'

Everyday Buddhism: Confronting the death of our loved ones as well as our own death, turning difficulties into renewed life, working to benefit others, and actions to bring centeredness in our own lives," said Dr. Tanaka. "You are fine just as you are.

Dr. Tanaka studied Buddhism at many institutions in the U.S.A. and Japan, written popular books on Buddhism and travels the world speaking.

One of his most popular books "Ocean: An Introduction to Jodo-Shinshu Buddhism" is seen as one of the best introductory books to the Jodo Shinshu (Pure Land) sect of Buddhism.

Dr. Tanaka is interested in the many aspects of Buddhism in reference to everyday life, such as how people deal with difficult people and situations.

We are very grateful to have world-renowned Buddhist professor and Jodo Shinshu priest, Dr. Kenneth Tanaka, here for a series of Dharma talks," said Mari Cameron, president, Vernon Buddhist Temple. "This is a rare opportunity to hear a speaker of his calibre and credentials in the Okanagan.

Saturday, Sept. 8 lecture schedule:

9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. - Opening service and announcements

10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. - Public lecture by Dr. Ken Tanaka

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Lunch (not provided)

1 p.m. to 2 p.m. - Public lecture by Dr. Tanaka

2 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. - Refreshment break

2:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. - Public lecture by Dr. Tanaka

The cost of the lecture is $20 per person and all proceeds go to funding the event.

Contact Mari Cameron to reserve a seat or for more information at [email protected]

This lecture is part of the B.C. Buddhist Temples Federation Convention.DUBLIN, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

AvaTrade, the leading forex and CFD broker, has reduced its spreads by up to 50% across all FX & CFDs. This modification intensifies AvaTrade as an industry-leading broker with some of the best trading conditions on the market, including ultra-low spreads, innovative platforms, and professional services.

On top of these reduced spreads, AvaTrade has maintained its position as being one the most regulated companies adhering to 6 regulators across the globe including EU, Asia, Japan & South Africa.

"Our clients are our top priority, therefore it's important for us to constantly evolve and improve our offerings. We believe that regulation & confidence in a broker are key for happy traders," says Mr Daire Ferguson, CEO of AvaTrade. "Clients who seek a broker that provides both security and superior trading conditions, should look no further, as AvaTrade provides this with the perfect combination of a fantastic offering and safety of funds for all our global clients," concluded Ferguson.

Find out more about AvaTrade at http://www.avatrade.com.

About AvaTrade

AvaTrade, the leading forex and CFD broker, was founded in 2006 and offers over 250 financial instruments, top trading platforms, and a cutting-edge mobile app, AvaTradeGO. Clients enjoy personal account managers and 24-hour live customer service in 15 languages. AvaTrade accommodates to traders of all levels and further ensures secured trading with advanced encryption and fully segregated accounts. AvaTrade is fully regulated in the EU, Japan, Australia, South Africa & BVI.

Press Contact

Orly Garini-Dil

Marcom Director

+1-646-335-0738 (Ext. 2125)

[email protected]



SOURCE AvaTradeAvon's first Vice-President of Sales & Operations Planning will drive integration and innovation to enhance service, reduce cost and build agility

New demand forecasting technology goes live in the UK, Mexico and Russia, raising the bar on sales planning with real-time visibility for better execution and delivery

World-wide satisfaction pulse surveys instigate and reveal fast and significant progress on service improvements as measured by Representatives

LONDON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP) today announced key milestones in the transformation of its supply chain, fueling greater flexibility and connectivity throughout its supply chain and delivering marked improvement in service quality as well as satisfaction and retention levels for Avon Representatives. Transformation efforts thus far have included digital applications, leadership appointments and operational changes, such as:

Appointment of fresh leadership to newly created Sales and Operations Planning role:

Rob Lowndes , currently Vice President, Global Fashion and Home, will assume the role of Vice President, Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP).

, currently Vice President, Global Fashion and Home, will assume the role of Vice President, Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP). The role will leverage Rob's deep expertise in commercial operations to drive critical improvements. Rob will also be responsible for matching objectives to new technologies, adopting an integrated value chain perspective in order to manage sales and more effectively order planning to improve product availability and service levels across Avon's global markets. He will report to Avon's Global President, Miguel Fernandez .

Utilization of exclusive software to provide real-time sales planning visibility for Representatives, enhancing their execution and delivery abilities:

Avon's next generation technologies allow for increased adaptability to demand volatility, a dramatic reduction in delays to service delivery, greater inventory and process efficiency, strategic resource allocation and end-to-end Representative engagement.

next generation technologies allow for increased adaptability to demand volatility, a dramatic reduction in delays to service delivery, greater inventory and process efficiency, strategic resource allocation and end-to-end Representative engagement. Avon's exclusive demand planning software accurately forecasts Representative and customer demand and synchronises Avon's ability to meet these demands by right-sizing inventory requirements across its supply chain.

exclusive demand planning software accurately forecasts Representative and customer demand and synchronises ability to meet these demands by right-sizing inventory requirements across its supply chain. This unique new Machine Learning Model has gone live in all three of Avon's top 10 markets, after successful pilots in the UK, Russia and Mexico .

top 10 markets, after successful pilots in the UK, and . Plans are in place for further roll-out to Avon's top 15 markets by early 2019, beginning with Brazil in November, with a longer term goal of using this advanced technology to achieve a fully automated campaign planning process.

More consistent and in-depth tracking of growing Representative satisfaction through regular pulse surveys:

In early April, Avon committed to speaking to up to 100 Representatives in each of its top 14 markets each day, measuring satisfaction scores across 10 fundamental service KPIs and applying the data to immediate preventative and corrective actions.

committed to speaking to up to 100 Representatives in each of its top 14 markets each day, measuring satisfaction scores across 10 fundamental service KPIs and applying the data to immediate preventative and corrective actions. In just 11 weeks, Avon made 25,000 calls to its Representatives and achieved: 30% reduction in damaged boxes Successful launch of reinforced and compartmentalised boxes in five countries Average representative satisfaction scores up by as much as 30% in some markets.

made 25,000 calls to its Representatives and achieved:

Jan Zijderveld, Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are making significant progress to our service supply chain, and these efforts are beginning to show results across the organization, particularly with regard to Representative satisfaction and overall operational improvements. Through the application of targeted demand planning software, we are building a smarter supply chain that better understands the immediate needs of our Representatives, and responds and reacts to them with greater efficiency and effectiveness. We look forward to benefitting from Rob's leadership as he advances our positive momentum in this crucial area. We are extremely focused on finding new and better ways for Avon to deliver the level of quality and service our Representatives deserve."

ABOUT AVON

Avon is the Company that for 130 years has proudly stood for beauty, innovation, optimism and, above all, for women. Avon products include well-recognized and beloved brands such as ANEW, Avon Color, Avon Care, Skin-So-Soft, and Advance Techniques sold through approximately 6 million active independent Avon Sales Representatives. Learn more about Avon and its products at www.avoncompany.com

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to service changes, cost savings, forecasting, sales planning, changes in supply chain, enhancements in digital and technological capabilities and changes in management. Because forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties, actual future results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the possibility of business disruption, competitive uncertainties, and general economic and business conditions in Avon's markets as well as the other risks detailed in Avon's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Avon undertakes no obligation to update any statements in this press release for changes that happen after the date of this release.

SOURCE Avon Products, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.avoncompany.com

GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chinese online B2C pharmacy and healthcare services platform Jianke today announced that it has successfully closed a USD130 million Series B financing round, led by GTJA Investment Group, with participation from HBM Healthcare Investments and Crescent Point.



Jianke is the largest online B2C pharmacy in China, offering 680,000 SKUs and a robust set of healthcare advisory services, and having cumulatively served over 100 million customers. With a singular focus on the B2C sector, Jianke leads its competitors in terms of brand name recognition, number of users, user acquisition costs, product & service offerings, and online traffic as measured by WeChat, Baidu and Alexa indexes. Furthermore, Jianke benefits from a loyal set of customers, achieving a repeat purchase rate of over 50%.

"Jianke is entering an exciting phase of tremendous growth and opportunity," said Fangmin Xie, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Jianke. "We continue to focus on extending our leading B2C market position through strategic initiatives, such as expanding our innovative eCSO and eDTP capabilities, which allow us to better serve the broad healthcare needs of our growing customer base. With the support of the exceptional teams at GTJA, HBM and Crescent Point, we look forward to continuing to improve access to quality medical and pharmaceutical resources for patients in underserved regions across China."

Having invested and developed a number of physical and "Internet" hospitals in China, Jianke recognizes the importance of leveraging digital technologies to improve healthcare delivery. Jianke is dedicated to building a best-in-class, technology-driven and service-focused "smartcare" platform, and has already formed strategic partnerships with healthcare sector leaders such as Abbott and Gilead Sciences.

"We are pleased to partner with Jianke on its next phase of growth alongside a seasoned group of investors," said Wang Hai Jiao, Partner at GTJA Investment Group. "As a clear industry leader, Jianke's platforms and disruptive business model are changing the way people access efficient and professional health services and products online. The Company is well-positioned for continued rapid growth, which will continue to put Jianke well-ahead of its peers."

About Jianke

Founded in 2006, Jianke obtained its "Internet Drug B2C transaction license" (issued by the State Food and Drug Administration) in 2009, becoming the first licensed online pharmacy enterprise in Guangdong. Jianke now holds the full set of B2B and B2C pharmaceutical distribution licenses (A+B+C). The Company's founders and core management team have significant technology backgrounds from senior management positions at Baidu and Dell, and additional complementary experience in the China pharmaceutical sector.

About GTJA Investment Group

Founded in Shenzhen in 2001, GTJA Investment Group (GIG) is dedicated to investments in the healthcare industry, with a focus on strategic equity investment. GIG's investment approach covers each investment stage, including M&A, PE, VC, and angel investments. Currently, GIG has the largest and most professional team for healthcare investment in China. GIG has established an eco-platform in healthcare-related investment sectors, and is determined to become a leading healthcare investment institution with global impact. GIG has AUM of RMB20 billion and has raised 24 funds dedicated to the healthcare industry. GIG has invested in over 130 companies, 60 of which are in the healthcare industry. Ten portfolio companies have executed successful IPOs, and notably, GIG also remains the holding company for Boya Bio-Pharmaceutical (SZ.300294) ---- a domestic leader in blood products.

About HBM Healthcare Investments

HBM Healthcare Investments invests in the healthcare sector. The Company holds and manages an international portfolio of promising companies in the human medicine, biotechnology, medical technology and diagnostics sectors and related areas. Many of these companies have their lead products already available on the market or at an advanced stage of development. The portfolio companies are closely tracked and actively guided in their strategic direction. This is what makes HBM Healthcare Investments an interesting alternative to investments in big pharma and biotechnology companies. HBM Healthcare Investments has an international shareholder base and is listed on SIX Swiss Exchange (ticker: HBMN).

About Crescent Point

Crescent Point is a leading China and Southeast Asia investment firm focused on consumer sector investing.

Contacts

Jon Keehner / Julie Oakes / Kate Clark

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

212-355-4449

SOURCE JiankeDENVER, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cimarex Energy Co. (NYSE: XEC) today announced the August 31, 2018 closing of the previously announced sale of assets in Ward County, Texas, for $544.5 million, adjusted to reflect the resolution of all asserted defects. Proceeds from the sale will be reinvested into the company's high-return capital program over the next two to three years.

Taking into account the $28.5 million deposit received in May and $5.9 million of post effective date net revenue and expenditures, Cimarex received $510.1 million in cash at closing. Final settlement, which will reflect any other post-closing adjustments, will occur within 120 days of closing.

Scotiabank served as exclusive financial advisor to Cimarex on this transaction.

About Cimarex Energy

Denver-based Cimarex Energy Co. is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with principal operations in the Mid-Continent and Permian Basin areas of the U.S.

This communication contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including statements regarding post-closing adjustments and reinvestment of proceeds from the sale. These statements are based on current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are more fully described in SEC reports filed by Cimarex. While Cimarex makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, management cannot guarantee that anticipated future results will be achieved. Cimarex assumes no obligation and expressly disclaims any duty to update the information contained herein except as required by law. Actual results may differ materially from Cimarex projections and can be affected by a variety of factors outside the company's control including the risks and uncertainties described in the company's SEC reports.

SOURCE Cimarex Energy Co.

Related Links

http://www.cimarex.com

HOUSTON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Upon the one year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, CITGO Petroleum Corporation and Higher Impact Ministries (H.I.M.) united to build two early childhood learning centers in the Independence Heights neighborhood of Houston. The grant will allow H.I.M., a faith-based literacy ministry with a mission of lifting early childhood youth and families in underserved urban communities, to provide wraparound access and services geared toward improving youth literacy rates.

"Our work with CITGO in the post-Harvey environment has been, and is, a tremendous example of how public-private partners can unite to enhance the quality of young children's learning in the face of helping to re-build the lives of families and communities that are in most need," said Rev. Ray Mackey, Executive Pastor of H.I.M.

The two new centers, which will be extensions of the L & S Small World Service Project, will provide literacy-partner workshops, family and youth reading initiatives and school district services in Independence Heights. The initiative will create a sustainable model to improve childhood literacy rates in the community. The support of the CITGO grant will also allow H.I.M. the expanded ability to finance and guide Early Childhood Centers with aid, resources and training opportunities that provide a pathway to becoming Texas Rising Star Certified.

"Improving childhood literacy in our community is a mission we are very proud to support," said Larry Elizondo, CITGO General Manager Community Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility & Legislative Affairs. "Higher Impact Ministries has a proven track record of meaningful work, and CITGO is committed to supporting their great impact  especially in the Houston neighborhoods that need it most."

On Saturday, September 1, 2018, CITGO and H.I.M. held a joint volunteering event to rebuild and repair the L & S Small World Academy, which serves more than 100 underserved youth and their families in Independence Heights and adjacent communities. The Community Service Project is a means of lifting L & S Small World Academy back to a reasonable standard of operations post Harvey, also due to the building's deterioration and its surroundings over time.

About CITGO

CITGO, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter, and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. The company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com

SOURCE CITGOHOUSTON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ZeusLending CEO Steven Kaufman is both grateful and honored to receive The Houston Business Journal's inaugural Most Admired CEO Award.

"To be considered among so many other phenomenal candidates is humbling," said Steven Kaufman, ZeusLending CEO. "It's just amazing and gratifying to be recognized among Houston's top business leaders."

With their innovative work in the mortgage industry, ZeusLending continues to enable Houston residents establish financial security. Their ultimate goal is to build an extraordinary company that empowers people to achieve their dreams.

"We owe everything to our customers," Steven Kaufman said. "Our operation helps strengthen fellow Texans so they can grow and achieve and help strengthen themselves and others."

In 2008, Kaufman founded a Houston-based charity known as the Fanatical Change Foundation which has raised funds for local families in dire need. Through this privatized act of goodwill, the city's overall spirit is continuously invigorated.

"Being identified as a philanthropist means a great deal to me," Steven Kaufman said. "The feeling you get when you give back transcends any other kind of reward."

For more information on the 2018 Most Admired CEO Awards, visit https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2018/08/23/most-admired-for-profit-ceo-steven-kaufman.html.

About ZeusLending

ZeusLending is the Fastest Real Estate Lender in America, dedicated to offering real estate borrowers a flexible financing option to suit every need. Founded by Chief Acceleration Officer and Finance Enthusiast Steven Kaufman, the company specializes in hard money loans, real estate crowdfunding opportunities, traditional and non-traditional mortgages and custom-tailored financing options that address a variety of unique transactions involving property acquisition, refinancing, discounted home buying, renovation projects, transitional properties, non-traditional borrowers, fix-and-flip projects, fix-and-hold projects, transactional financing, gap financing, and transactions requiring time-sensitive funding. For more information, please visit ZeusLending.com.

SOURCE ZeusLending

Related Links

http://www.ZeusLending.com

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- "We thought there should be a simple, mess-free way to travel with liquid medication," said one of two inventors, from Perryville, Mo., "so we invented the MEDICINE TRAVEL KIT."

The MEDICINE TRAVEL KIT provides an effective way to store and carry liquid medication while traveling. In doing so, it offers an improved alternative to traditional medicine cases. As a result, it ensures that medication remains safe, dry and organized and it provides added peace of mind. The invention features a lightweight design that is convenient and easy to use so it is ideal for the general population. Additionally, the MEDICINE TRAVEL KIT is producible in design variations.

The inventors described the invention design. "Our design offers added convenience when taking medication on-the-go."

The original design was submitted to the National Sales Office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 17-KOC-842, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.

SOURCE InventHelp

Related Links

http://www.inventhelp.com

EXTON, Pa., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Absorption Systems, a global leader in the science of translational medicine, announces that the Japanese Patent Office has issued a Decision to Grant a patent covering the In Vitro Dissolution Absorption System (IDAS2), a groundbreaking, first-in-class technology. IDAS2 is a unique test system that enables the simultaneous evaluation of drug dissolution and absorption in various dosage forms, including tablets, capsules, and pre-formulations. Demand for testing dissolution and absorption with IDAS2 is high and continues to rise, due to its innovative design and its ability to predict in vivo pharmacokinetic product performance based on bench-top testing.

The primary claim in the patent application is a device for assessing drug dissolution, absorption and permeation, comprising a reservoir (for dissolution) with fluid bathing a permeability barrier composed of living human intestinal cells. Click here to view a video about IDAS2.

Using IDAS2, pharmaceutical scientists can rapidly evaluate two fundamental properties of a finished drug product (tablet, capsule, etc.) simultaneously:

the rate of dissolution, which is determined by the formulation and/or the manufacturing process used to incorporate the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) into a solid dosage form; and the rate of permeation of the dissolved drug substance across a human intestinal cell monolayer, which is an intrinsic property of the API.

Although, historically, permeability and dissolution have been measured independently, and usually under conditions that bear little resemblance to the in vivo situation, IDAS2 makes it possible to evaluate these two fundamental drug properties at the same time. The ability of IDAS2 to capture the interconnectivity between these processes, under experimental conditions that resemble the intestinal environment, has led to more accurate predictions of the way drugs behave in vivo.

The FDA's implementation of the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS), allowing biowaivers of in vivo bioequivalence (BE) studies for BCS Class 1 and BCS Class 3 APIs, has resulted in improved access to good-quality, affordable generic drugs. However, BCS Class 2 and Class 4 APIs are not eligible for biowaivers and must be evaluated in vivo; for drug substances in these classes, IDAS2 could be particularly impactful in the development and/or selection of formulations with a higher probability of success in clinical BE studies. Thus, the availability of IDAS2 for use in product development will have an immediate impact on development timelines and costs.

Dr. Ismael J. Hidalgo, Chief Scientist of Absorption Systems and co-inventor of the technology with Dr. Jibin Li, commented that "This latest milestone is the result of several years of hard work by our team of R&D scientists. We believe that IDAS2 will be extremely valuable in the pursuit of our goal of helping to get more effective and safer drugs to patients throughout the world sooner."

About Absorption Systems

Absorption Systems uses GxP-compatible biological services and testing platforms to assist pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies in identifying and overcoming absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) barriers in the development of drugs, biologics, and medical devices. The company's mission is to develop innovative GxP biology research tools, and provide exemplary service, to accurately predict human outcomes or to explain unanticipated human outcomes when they occur. The CellPort Technologies platform, a suite of human cell-based test systems for drug transporter characterization, exemplifies Absorption Systems' commitment to innovation and excellence in GxP biology. Absorption Systems has facilities near Philadelphia and Boston, as well as in San Diego and Panama, and serves customers throughout the world. For information on the company's comprehensive contract services and applied research programs, please visit absorption.com.

CONTACT: Chris Bode, [email protected]

SOURCE Absorption Systems

Related Links

http://www.absorption.com

SUGAR LAND, Texas, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) is pleased to be presenting a complimentary webinar on the global Mining spending outlook. The webinar will be held September 12 at 9 a.m. CDT (10 a.m. EDT).



Join Joe Govreau, Industrial Info's vice president of Metals & Minerals research, and Shaheen Chohan, vice president of Global Analytics, to hear their discussion on market trends and analysis of project spending in 2019 for the global Mining industry.



Industrial Info is tracking more than $1.1 trillion in Mining projects across the world, ranging from $500,000 maintenance projects to multibillion-dollar mining projects.



The webinar will cover the following topics and more:

Geographic analysis of mine project spending for 2019 and comparison to previous years



Commodity discussions on coal, base metals and precious metals as well as trending minerals, including, lithium, cobalt and frac sand



Mining industry project spending trends including automation and technology improvements



The impact of U.S. tariffs and a trade war on U.S. and global markets

Join us September 12 as Industrial Info's industry experts discuss these and other topics. Make sure to RSVP today!



Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to [email protected] or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.

Brian Ford

(713) 980-9393

SOURCE Industrial Info Resources, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.industrialinfo.com

RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Markel Corporation has appointed Jennifer Chang as underwriter and senior risk analyst in its trade credit and political risk operation in New York.

Jennifer will report to Phil Amlot, head of trade credit and political risk, Americas and she will work closely with senior underwriter Howard Lee and underwriter Christen Mizell. She will also support Arjan van de Wall, development director for the team globally, based in the US.

Jennifer has nine years' experience in the trade credit insurance industry and has broad expertise in both commercial and risk underwriting. Most recently she spent four years as senior underwriter at Zurich American Insurance Company in New York and prior to that held senior positions at AIG and QBE. Jennifer was instrumental in supporting the establishment of Zurich's excess of loss capabilities and QBE Americas' trade credit division.

Phil Amlot said: "Jennifer has an established track record of building successful businesses and teams, of technical excellence and product development. She brings broad broker and client contacts to our operation and will play an important role in developing our US trade credit and political risk business."

Ewa Rose, managing director of Markel's trade credit, political risk and surety business, said: "Jennifer's appointment reflects Markel's continuing investment across our product portfolio. The Americas region remains rich in opportunities for our trade credit and political risk business and we look to capitalize on the cross selling opportunities that exist within Markel's broader portfolio. Jennifer's broad underwriting experience will be a huge asset to our organization and we are delighted to have her on board."

About Markel International:

Markel International is a subsidiary of Markel Corporation, a US-based holding company trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MKL). Markel International writes insurance and reinsurance business through six divisions and through offices across the UK, Europe, Canada, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Markel International's insuring entities include Syndicate 3000, Markel International Insurance Company Limited, Markel Insurance SE., Markel Resseguradora do Brasil S.A. and Markel Seguradora do Brasil S.A. Markel International also manages the business of Abbey Protection Group which provides legal and professional fees insurance cover as well as legal and tax consultancy services. For more information please visit us at www.markelinternational.com

You have received this because we believe you may be interested in our press releases. To unsubscribe, please click Unsubscribe Me Now.

About Markel Corporation:

Markel Corporation is a diverse financial holding company serving a variety of niche markets. The Company's principal business markets and underwrites specialty insurance products. In each of the Company's businesses, it seeks to provide quality products and excellent customer service so that it can be a market leader. The financial goals of the Company are to earn consistent underwriting and operating profits and superior investment returns to build shareholder value. Visit Markel Corporation on the web at www.markelcorp.com

SOURCE Markel Corporation

Related Links

http://www.markelcorp.com

Photo: The Canadian Press

An American woman who plotted to go on a Valentine's Day shooting spree at a Halifax mall is appealing her sentence of life in prison, calling it "manifestly harsh and excessive."

Lindsay Souvannarath was sentenced in April after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a plan that would have seen two shooters open fire at the Halifax Shopping Centre food court in 2015.

A motion to set a date for the appeal hearing is expected to be considered next week by Justice David Farrar of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.

In her notice of appeal, the Chicago-area woman argues that her sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 10 years should be revised to a fixed sentence of 12 to 14 years.

Souvannarath provides five grounds of appeal, including that the presiding judge committed an error by imposing a burden on her to prove she was remorseful and had "renounced anti-social beliefs."

She also argues that Supreme Court Justice Peter Rosinski offended the principle of parity by imposing a dramatically lengthier sentence on her than on co-conspirator Randall Shepherd.

Souvannarath pleaded guilty last year, several months after Shepherd  a Halifax man described in court as the "cheerleader" of the foiled shooting plot  was sentenced to a decade in jail.

A third alleged conspirator, 19-year-old James Gamble, was found dead in his Halifax-area home a day before the planned attack.HOUSTON, Sept. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new physical price assessment for the fast-growing US crude export market is launched today. Global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus is publishing a price for waterborne US crude exports  Argus WTI fob Houston  that bridges the gap between the US domestic pipeline market and international shipments to five continents.

The Argus WTI Houston price, launched three years ago, is already the benchmark for much of the light sweet crude traded across North American pipeline networks. The new Argus WTI fob Houston price now adds transparency to the waterborne market.

US crude exports climbed to a record 2.2mn b/d in June, more than doubling from an average of less than 1mn b/d in the first half of 2017, US government data show. More than 40pc of US crude exports have reached Asia-Pacific destinations so far this year, and more than 30pc of shipments have gone to Europe.

Unlike the US inland pipeline markets, pricing of export waterborne cargoes has generally been opaque, clouded by complexities around logistics and quality.

"The US export market has needed an independent source of pricing to value light sweet crude exports," Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said. "The new Argus WTI fob Houston price provides that solution for the oil trading community."

The new price will introduce transparency to the export market for light sweet crude. It will complement established Argus benchmark indexes for pipeline WTI Houston and WTI Midland, both of which are used extensively in physical transactions and underpin actively traded futures contracts on the CME and Ice commodity exchanges.

The new price will be for cargoes of 500,000-650,000 bl loading at marine terminals in the Houston area. Prices for other US export grades and locations will also be launched over the next year. These assessments will be for cargoes loading 15-45 days ahead and will be priced as a differential to the Nymex light sweet crude contract.

The new Argus WTI fob Houston export price will be available in the Argus Crude and Argus Americas Crude daily services.

Contact Information

London

Seana Lanigan

+44 20 7780 4272

[email protected]

Houston

Scott Berg

+1 713 968 0000

[email protected]

Singapore

Pierre Lever

+65 6496 9960

[email protected]



About Argus Media

Argus is an independent media organisation with almost 900 staff. It is headquartered in London and has 21 offices in the world's principal commodity trading and production centres. Argus produces price assessments and analysis of international energy and other commodity markets, and offers bespoke consulting services and industry-leading conferences.



Companies in 140 countries around the world use Argus data to index physical trade and as benchmarks in financial derivative markets as well as for analysis and planning purposes.



Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company. It is owned by employee shareholders and global growth equity firm General Atlantic.



ARGUS, the ARGUS logo, ARGUS MEDIA, ARGUS DIRECT, ARGUS OPEN MARKETS, AOM, FMB, DEWITT, JIM JORDAN & ASSOCIATES, JJ&A, FUNDALYTICS, METAL-PAGES, METALPRICES.COM, Argus publication titles and Argus index names are trademarks of Argus Media Limited.

SOURCE ArgusSAN DIEGO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- North Island Credit Union is inviting all San Diego area teachers who have a great class project idea to apply for a credit union grant through its bi-annual Teacher Grant Program.

The program is open to any full-time classroom teacher in San Diego County who is looking to fund an innovative classroom learning opportunity. The project should have clearly defined learning objectives tied to students' academic needs, display creativity, and benefit a significant number of students. Ten grants of $500 each will be awarded to San Diego area teachers in November in the fall program.

"We are committed to our local education community, and can't think of a better way to support our schools than helping teachers bring new and exciting programs into their classrooms," said California Credit Union President/CEO Steve O'Connell. "We hope this grant encourages teachers to make their dream project a reality for their students, and ask any teacher who has a great idea that needs a little extra funding to apply for one of our grants."

Interested teachers can find more information and apply online at northisland.ccu.com/teachergrant. The application deadline is October 19, 2018.

Since the creation of the program in 2012, the credit union has awarded $70,000 in teacher grants to benefit students across Southern California. The bi-annual program offers up to 20 grants in the spring and fall to teachers across San Diego and Los Angeles counties.

About North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union

California Credit Union is a federally insured, state chartered credit union founded in 1933 that serves public or private school employees, community members and businesses across California. With more than 165,000 members and assets of $3 billion, California Credit Union has 24 branches throughout Los Angeles and San Diego counties. The credit union operates in San Diego County as North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union. California Credit Union offers a full suite of consumer, business and investment products and services, including comprehensive consumer checking and loan options, personalized financial planning, business banking, and leading-edge online and mobile banking. Please visit northisland.ccu.com for more information.

SOURCE North Island Credit Union

Related Links

http://www.northisland.ccu.com

CHICAGO and CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 1, Centegra Health System became the newest member of Northwestern Medicine, Chicago's premier academic health system. The affiliation was approved by the governing boards of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and Centegra Health System earlier this year and received all regulatory approvals.

"Together with Centegra's employees, nurses, physicians and staff, we will provide patients in McHenry and Kane Counties more convenient access to clinical trials, the latest in treatment options and the ability to access world class specialized care from one of the best hospitals in the country, Northwestern Memorial Hospital," said Dean M. Harrison, President and Chief Executive Officer, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare.

Centegra Health System includes hospitals in Huntley, McHenry and Woodstock, Illinois and 32 outpatient sites across McHenry and Kane counties.

Centegra joins one of the country's premier academic health systems, anchored by Northwestern Memorial Hospital, one of the top hospitals in the country and the number one hospital in Illinois according to U.S. News & World Report. The health system is affiliated with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, ranked 20th among the nation's top research-intensive schools of medicine by U.S. News & World Report, and 16th in National Institutes of Health funding for 2017.

"This powerful partnership combines the best of Centegra's community-based care with the advanced treatments available from Northwestern Medicine," said Michael S. Eesley, Chief Executive Officer, Centegra Health System. "Together, we will provide patients the state-of-the art, compassionate care close to home."

About Northwestern Medicine

To learn more about Northwestern Medicine, please visit: https://www.nm.org/about-us

SOURCE Northwestern Medicine

Related Links

https://www.nm.org/

DALLAS, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Schools are being challenged by rising costs of health insurance, which are typically passed along to teachers as higher premiums and higher deductibles. That strategy helps schools stay within their budgets but can be devastating for teachers.

Blood chemistry and blood pressure evaluation are key steps in an onsite preventive care checkup by Catapult Health.

At a recent onsite preventive care clinic for a school in rural Arkansas, the blood pressure of an employee who had recently lost his insurance and stopped taking his medication due to costs was at stroke level. "It was frightening, but not uncommon," said Allie Barker, a nurse with the State of Arkansas. "Fortunately, we were able to get him into a local clinic and back on medications that day."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average premium for a family health plan for teachers increased from $5,755 to $7,174 between 2007 and 2017.

What's causing the increases?

Health care costs increased for most Americans. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that the average family premium increased 55% since 2007.

Teachers are getting older. Teachers 50+ make up 31% of those in classrooms.

Women account for 75% of all teachers. The barriers they face to healthcare are complex, with many forgoing care due to childcare problems, inability to find time, or difficulty taking time off from work, according to the Kaiser Women's Health Survey.

Teachers have higher rates of obesity, diabetes and hypertension compared to other American adults.

A recent study of more than 42,000 school employees evaluated by Catapult Health, a national provider of worksite preventive care, revealed the following:

11.8% have diabetes, and half are not effectively controlling it. The Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) reports that 9.4% of adults have diabetes.

34.6% have hypertension, and a third are not controlling it. The national prevalence rate is 29%.

49.1% are obese. The national rate is 39.8%.

"Our data confirms that many school employees don't get recommended care," said David Michel, CEO for Catapult. A fourth of the women 40+ had not had a mammogram in the last two years; 22% of the women 18+ had not had a recent Pap smear; and 44% of all employees 50+ had not had any type of colorectal screening.

"The lack of preventive care is resulting in undiagnosed and untreated chronic disease: 22% were found to have a previously undiagnosed lipid (cholesterol) disorder; 5% had undiagnosed hypertension; and 1.4% had undiagnosed diabetes," said Michel.

SOURCE Catapult HealthCanadians will now receive better rewards for using the Paytm App

TORONTO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Paytm Canada, a payments and financial services company that rewards Canadians for paying bills with their mobile platform, has refreshed its app with a variety of new features and incentives. The simplified user experience within the App now offers a frictionless method to collect Paytm Points and spend those points towards discounted gift cards.

"Since launching the Paytm Canada app in 2017, we have listened to the valuable feedback from thousands of Canadians and we are thrilled to be able to put these insights into action and deliver an exceptional user experience," said Harinder Takhar, CEO, Paytm Canada. "Every Canadian has a bill to pay, and our new features and incentive program seamlessly rewards our customers for a tedious yet necessity part of our everyday lives."

Enhanced Paytm App Key Features:

Canadians get 1 point for every dollar spent to be redeemed at national brands, including Amazon, Uber, Tim Hortons , ESSO, Just Eat, Indigo, and many more.

Collect free gift cards when redeeming a minimum of 5,000 points.

Gift cards can also now be purchased with a credit card and topped up with Paytm points.

Paytm points can be converted into Paytm Cash, which can instantly be used towards a bill payment or to send money nationwide.

Users will collect 2,000 points when a direct referral pays their first bill through the App, and new users will receive 500 welcome points.

The Canadian-made company is a subsidiary of India's largest mobile payments provider, Paytm, which boasts more than 230 million users worldwide. One97 Communications  Paytm's parent company is backed by renowned investors including Ant Financial, Softbank, SAIF Partners and most recently by Warren Buffet's investment company Berkshire Hathaway.

The Paytm Canada mobile app is available to download for free from the Google Play store and Apple Store.

About Paytm Canada

Paytm Canada is an internationally recognized payments and financial services company based in Toronto that offers a mobile payments and commerce platform to consumers. Paytm Canada is a subsidiary of Paytm, India's largest mobile payments provider with more than 230 million users. In 2017, Paytm Canada launched its first consumer-facing mobile application allowing consumers to pay their bills using multiple payment options with no fees and collect rewards via their smartphone. As a registered MSB company regulated by FINTRAC, Paytm offers its users the ability to pay their bills  like mobile, city tax payments, credit card bills  from more than 5,000 providers on its network. For more information about the Paytm app, please visit: www.paytm.ca.

SOURCE Paytm Labs Inc.

Related Links

https://www.paytmlabs.com/

LONDON and NEW YORK, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

ICIS Chemical Business magazine has published its annual ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies, a global listing of producers ranked by 2017 sales.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/619935/ICIS_Logo.jpg )



The ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies ranking is available for download as a PDF at http://www.icis.com/pages/icis-top-100-chemical-companies .

This year, US-based DowDuPont has captured the #1 spot as the world's leading chemical company with sales of $79.5bn in 2017 on a pro forma basis following the mega merger between Dow and DuPont. However, its top position will be fleeting, as it plans to split into three separate companies in 2019.

DowDuPont narrowly eclipsed Germany-based BASF which came in 2nd with $77.4bn in sales. China's Sinopec took the #3 slot with $67.3bn in revenues, followed by Saudi Arabia's SABIC at $39.9bn and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings at $35.0bn.

Currency conversions to US dollars for the ranking were based on year-end 2017 exchange rates, or rates at the end of the company's fiscal year.

"The ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies listing exemplifies the global nature of the chemical business with geographic diversity among the top 10, along with the rest of the group," said Joseph Chang, Global Editor of ICIS Chemical Business.

The year 2017 was a banner year for the global chemical industry, driven by the synchronized global economic expansion.

"In 2017, the world's largest chemical producers were buoyed by continued strong demand growth, particularly those operating upstream in petrochemicals," said Nigel Davis, ICIS Insight Editor.

The companies in the ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies listing, including the "Bubbling Under" category, generated combined sales of $1.24 trillion in 2017, up by an impressive 13% from a year earlier.

The ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies series of special reports runs over three consecutive weekly issues.

The September 7 issue of ICIS Chemical Business will feature the geographic leaders in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East & Africa.

The September 14 issue will highlight the ICIS Company of the Year based on financial metrics.

About ICIS

ICIS Chemical Business is part of ICIS.

ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider, with divisions spanning energy and fertilizers. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering valuable information and analytics tools which enable our customers to identify and react to opportunities in markets which are constantly evolving. We have more than 30 years' of experience in providing pricing intelligence and news, forecast data, market analytics and independent consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.

With a global staff of more than 600, ICIS has employees based in London, Houston, New York, Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Mumbai, Tokyo, Karlsruhe, and Milan. ICIS' team of journalists is engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles.

ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of RELX Group.

About Reed Business Information

Reed Business Information provides information, analytics and data to business professionals worldwide. Our strong global products and services hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation, where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries.

http://www.reedbusiness.com

About RELX Group

RELX Group is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people, of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. The total market capitalisation is approximately 33.7bn/37.6bn/43.8bn.

http://www.relx.com

Media Contact

For editorial enquiries, contact:

Joseph Chang

Global Editor

ICIS Chemical Business

T: +1-212-791-4224

[email protected]

SOURCE ICISDALLAS, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Prospera Financial Services, Inc. (Prospera) was named as Investment Advisor magazine's 2018 Broker-Dealer of the Year in Division I, representing firms with up to 199 producing advisors. The magazine conducts an annual poll asking its financial advisor readers to anonymously rank their firms on criteria like service, payout, and technology. This is the sixth time in ten years that Prospera has attained the prestigious industry honor, and was previously honored in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2015.

David Stringer, President of Prospera, states, "This award is especially meaningful to me and the entire Prospera team because it came from our reps through their votes. We've believed since day one that our highest purpose as a firm is to deliver our unique brand of true independence within the framework of gold standard service. This win certainly feels good and reinforces that we are on the right track as we continually raise our standards and aspire to be the gold standard for boutique independent firms."

The annual Broker-Dealer of the Year award is based on voting in 15 different categories. The broker-dealer receiving the highest average rating from its voting representatives wins Broker-Dealer of the Year in its division.

"Our motto says it all," Stringer adds. "We are financial professionals serving financial professionals. We're a boutique independent firm where advisors define their own brand of success. It's what we at Prospera call Success your way; and it drives everything that we do."

ABOUT PROSPERA FINANCIAL SERVICES

Founded in 1982, Prospera Financial Services, member FINRA/SIPC and a registered investment advisory, offers the flexibility and resources only found at some of the nation's largest broker-dealers. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Prospera was named Broker-Dealer of the Year by Investment Advisor Magazine in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2018. The firm supports Independent Financial Advisors nationwide. For more information about Prospera visit http://www.joinprospera.com/

ABOUT INVESTMENT ADVISOR MAGAZINE

Investment Advisor, a publication of Summit Business Media, offers information and analysis on wealth management, retirement planning, investment strategies, practice management, compliance and regulatory issues, and insurance and tax planning, all designed to help registered investment advisors and independent broker-dealer representatives become more successful.

www.investmentadvisor.com

ABOUT INVESTMENT ADVISOR MAGAZINE'S 'BROKER-DEALER OF THE YEAR' COMPETITION

Since 1991, the editors of Investment Advisor have invited their readers, who are producing, independent contractor representatives of Broker/Dealers to rate their own Broker/Dealers in a number of categories and provide an overall rating.

Media Contact:

Tarah Mattia Carlow

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Advisor Loyalty

Prospera Financial Services, Inc.

972-581-3015

[email protected]

www.prosperafinancial.com

SOURCE Prospera Financial Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.joinprospera.com

HAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Speedcast International Limited (ASX: SDA), the world's most trusted provider of remote communications and IT solutions, today announced a new portfolio of VSAT plans that will meet an extensive set of customer requirements. All of the plans come with Committed Information Rate (CIR), which provides customers with a guaranteed level of performance. The plans are also supported by the world's largest and most robust Ku-band network with advanced cybersecurity protection, ensuring outstanding bandwidth availability and exceptional user experience in the Maritime and offshore Energy markets.

The four new plans are Quota, Burst, Guaranteed and Professional.

Quota is a metered VSAT service sold in Gigabyte (GB) packages, with up to 30 GB plans. Quota can be extended to the entire fleet or offshore Energy assets with Fleet Quotas, which allows up to 100 GB to be shared throughout the month.

Burst provides a guaranteed minimum CIR with very high burst rates of Maximum Information Rate (MIR).

Guaranteed is a CIR-only service when specific applications and data transfers require a minimum guaranteed bandwidth to ensure the application is running or the data transfer occurs with unlimited usage throughout the month.

Professional is tailored to meet the most demanding onboard requirements. Professional customers have the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of service levels up to 50 Mbps MIR in a standard configuration, all with a guaranteed CIR.

"We simplify the selection process so customers can find the right VSAT service according to their individual vessel, fleet or offshore asset needs, while providing growth paths to higher connectivity as demand increases for business and crew," said Tim Bailey, Executive Vice President of Products, Marketing, and Business Development for Speedcast. "This expansion continues Speedcast's commitment to providing customers with the best choices in the marketplace."

For more details on each plan, contact [email protected].

About Speedcast International Limited

Speedcast International Ltd (ASX: SDA) is the largest provider of remote communications and IT services in the world. Speedcast's fully managed service is delivered via a leading global, multi-access-technology, multi-band and multi-orbit network of 70+ satellites and an interconnecting global terrestrial network, bolstered by extensive on the ground local support from 40+ countries. This global "network of networks" allows customers to fully rely on the most robust, integrated infrastructure available in the market for their mission critical applications. Speedcast is uniquely positioned as a strategic business partner, tailoring communications, IT and digital solutions to meet unique customer needs and enable business transformation. Speedcast extends its managed services through differentiated technology offerings including cyber-security, crew welfare, content solutions, data and voice applications and network systems integration services. With a passionate customer focus and a strong safety culture, Speedcast serves more than 2,500 customers in over 140 countries in sectors such as Maritime, Energy, Mining, Enterprise, Media, Cruise, NGOs and Government. Learn more at www.speedcast.com.

Social Media: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

Speedcast is a trademark and registered trademark of Speedcast International Limited. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective owners.

 2018 Speedcast International Limited. All rights reserved.

Contact Information:

Toni Lee Rudnicki

Vice President, Global Marketing

Speedcast International Ltd

[email protected]

+1-832-668-2634

SOURCE Speedcast International Ltd

Related Links

http://speedcast.com

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to meet the growing demand for quality organic wine, St. Stephen Vineyards LLC today announced the introduction of its line of superior organic wines to the United States market.

Vina St. Stephen Ltda. is based in the fertile Colchagua Valley of Chile and features three hand-crafted wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere and Malbec. A large portion of the proceeds from the sales of St. Stephen wines is dedicated to non-profit environmental causes in the United States and Chile.

Photo of St. Stephen Vineyards' President Tim Edwards in the Napa Valley warehouse.

"The health and well-being of our planet is our generation's most urgent challenge. St. Stephen Vineyards is our small way of pitching in," says owner and serial entrepreneur Tim Edwards.

In 1994, Edwards and his Chilean wife Claudia spent a year traveling 9,000 miles by Jeep from the United States to Chile, where they finally settled. They purchased land in the Colchagua Valley and founded St. Stephen Vineyards, dedicated to making quality wines made with organic grapes, to help advance efforts to protect the planet.

"We realized early on that the key to our success was to create a really great wine. Many of the best wines in the world come from Chile. The Colchagua Valley was named the 'World's Best Wine Region' by Wine Enthusiast magazine. One of our wines has been rated at 90 points, and the other two are pending evaluation," says Edwards.

Award-winning winemaker Jose Antonio Bravo de Bischoffen has worked for several top wineries in Napa, Argentina and Chile. Bravo says: "The organic agricultural methods of St. Stephen produce a significantly better wine; healthier and with a stronger identity."

Bravo continues, "Specifically, because these grapes were grown without pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, the wine did not require the normal procedures to disguise the negative impact of such adulterating agents. The grapes were harvested by hand at the perfect stage of maturity, to produce a wine with character, volume and a powerful style, that will age very well. Each bottle reflects all of the best things about this wonderful vineyard."

St. Stephen wines will be available in the U.S. starting on Friday, Sept. 1, 2018, and can be purchased online at http://www.StStephen.cl and from selected dealers of fine wines.

"Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy." - Benjamin Franklin

St. Stephen Vineyards LLC is based in San Jose, California, and imports and distributes St. Stephen wine in the United States. Vina St. Stephen Ltda. is based in San Jose de los Lingues, Chile, with certified organic vineyards located in the Colchagua Valley of Chile. A "cause marketing" organization, St. Stephen donates a significant portion of the profits for each bottle sold to helping environmental causes in the United States and Chile. For more information about St. Stephen, visit the company's website at http://www.StStephen.cl for product and company updates or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ststephenwine.

Editorial Contact: William Edwards, [email protected]

SOURCE St. Stephen Vineyards LLC

Related Links

http://www.StStephen.cl

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Starcity, the startup pioneering the community-based living experience, has announced that it is expanding to Los Angeles. The company plans to open its first co-living community in Los Angeles in September 2018. This project marks Starcity's first geographical expansion beyond the San Francisco Bay Area, where the company currently owns and manages four properties, with nine more communities under development.

Starcity converts underutilized multi-family, hotel, and office buildings to residential co-living properties, adding to a city's housing stock without displacing current residents. Each member of a Starcity community has a fully-furnished private bedroom and private or shared bathroom, and access to shared living spaces like kitchens, sitting areas, and TV areas. Leases are designed with flexible terms, and one convenient monthly payment includes residential utilities and shared supplies, as well as shared services like home cleaning, with the option to add on other services like laundry or dog walking. Designed to foster community and social interaction amongst its members, Starcity delivers a welcoming living experience while adding three times as many units of housing to the market as traditional apartment rentals.

"At Starcity, our goal is to make great cities accessible to everyone. By creating co-living communities out of underutilized properties, we're able to add housing units to the market without displacing current residents," said Starcity co-founder and CEO Jon Dishotsky. "Like the Bay Area, Los Angeles is experiencing a major housing crunch. We're leveraging both our existing development strategy, as well as new opportunities to explore new ways of bringing co-living to Los Angeles. Our ultimate goal is to create communities near major transit hubs to help Angelenos live near where they work and play, and maintain the diversity of West Los Angeles' neighborhoods."

The Venice Beach community will be located at 29 Navy Street. Formerly used as corporate housing, Starcity plans to keep the existing 24 studio and one-bedroom units in the building and add bedrooms within seven of the units, resulting in 31 total rooms for the Venice community. Developed in partnership with Worthe Real Estate Group, the community is slated to open in September 2018. The company has plans to develop additional communities in Los Angeles, including the company's first ground-up project with 100+ rooms, soon to be announced.

Starcity recently opened its second office in Los Angeles, demonstrating the company's commitment to creating co-living communities throughout the Los Angeles area. The office, located on Abbot Kinney in Venice Beach, will be home base for dozens of Los Angeles Starcity employees, who will be focused on growing Starcity's presence in Los Angeles and supporting Starcity's Los Angeles members. Starcity is currently hiring community directors, project managers, and many more roles in Los Angeles; those interested are encouraged to apply at https://starcity.com/careers.

About Starcity

Starcity creates beautifully designed co-living communities by identifying underutilized or abandoned multi-family, hotel, and office buildings to renovate, adding to a city's housing stock without displacing a community's longtime residents. Starcity offers its members a private, fully furnished bedroom, complemented by shared kitchens and living spaces, so residents can opt-in to being a part of a greater community while living in comfort. With community-building at its core, Starcity works with local community stakeholders and nonprofits to understand the neighborhood in which they offer housing, offer volunteer and engagement opportunities to its residents, and become a source of energy and opportunity for the neighborhoods in which they offer housing. Software makes the entire process work with a suite of products that making living as a group efficient and enjoyable. Founded in 2016 by CEO Jon Dishotsky, Chief Product Officer Mo Sakrani, CTO Josh Lehman and COO Jesse Suarez, Starcity employs 30 people and is has offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

SOURCE Starcity

Related Links

https://starcity.com

An apparent "insider attack" in eastern Afghanistan on Monday killed a United States service member and injured another member.

A statement from the NATO-led armed forces coalition in Afghanistan - Resolute Support said that the deceased service member was the sixth US national to be killed in Afghanistan in 2018. The wounded service member is in stable condition. The statement did not confirm the identity of the deceased.

"The sacrifice of our service member, who volunteered for a mission to Afghanistan to protect his country, is a tragic loss for all who knew and all who will now never know him. Our duty now is to honor him, care for his family and continue our mission," read the statement of the commander of the Resolute Support, Army General Scott Miller.

Miller took over as the commander of the US and allied forces in Afghanistan from Army Gen. John Nicholson on Sunday.

In July, an insider attack in southern Afghanistan led to the death of Army Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, California and wounded two more US service members. A Romanian NATO soldier was killed in another insider attack in August 2017.

(ANI)PUNE, India, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Track etched Membrane Market by Product (Membrane Filter, Capsule & Cartridge Filter, Cell Culture Insert), Material (Polycarbonate, Polyimide), Application (Cell Biology, Microbiology, Analytical testing, Automotive), End User - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to reach USD 813.1 million by 2023 from USD 476.0 million in 2018, at a CAGR of 11.3% from 2018 to 2023.

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Browse 85 market data Tables and 37 Figures spread through 140 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Track etched Membrane Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/track-etched-membrane-market-42556211.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The growth of the pharmaceutical R&D expenditure is expected to be one of the major factors driving the growth of this market during the forecast period. Moreover, the collaborative application of nanotechnology and track etching is expected to increase the adoption of Track etched Membranes in various applications, such as healthcare, fuel cells, telecommunications, and transportation

By product, the membrane filters segment is estimated to account for the largest share of this market in 2018

Based on product, this market is segmented into membrane filters, cartridge & capsule filters, and other Track etched Membrane products. The membrane filters segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the global Track etched Membrane Market in 2018. The large share of this segment can be attributed to the increasing applicability of membrane filters in sterilizing, final filtration, sample preparation, filtration of aqueous and organic solutions, fluid monitoring, and venting and gas filtration.

By application, the cell biology segment is expected to hold the largest share of the Track etched Membrane Market by 2023

Based on application, the Track etched Membrane Market is segmented into cell biology, microbiology, analytical testing, and other applications. Of all these application segments, the cell biology segment is expected to lead Track etched Membrane Market in 2018. The large share of this segment can be attributed to its increasing applications in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries for research activities.

The pharmaceutical & biopharmaceutical companies' segment is projected to dominate Track etched Membrane Market during the forecast period

By end user, the Track etched Membrane Market is segmented into pharmaceutical & biopharmaceutical companies, academic & research institutes, food & beverage companies, hospital & diagnostic laboratories. Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies are the largest end-users of Track etched Membranes majorly due to the growing research towards the development of biological molecules, increasing manufacturing of generic drugs in emerging countries, and stringent regulations imposed by government and regulatory agencies to enhance the quality of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products.

Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=42556211

North America is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period

North America is estimated to hold the largest share of the Track etched Membrane Market in 2018, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The large share of the North American market can be attributed to the increasing health and environmental concerns, increasing adoption of laboratory filtration equipment, and surge in the development of new biologics and growing pharmaceutical research.

Key players operating in the global Track etched Membrane are GE Healthcare (US), Danaher (US), Corning (US), Merck (Germany), it4ip (Belgium), Sterlitech (US), Oxyphen (Switzerland), Sarstedt (US), BRAND GMBH (Germany), Sartorius (Germany), SABEU (Germany), Zefon International (US), GVS (Italy), Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Eaton (Ireland), Greiner Bio-One (Austria), MACHEREY-NAGEL (Germany), Avanti Lipids Polar (US), SKC (US), Advantec (Canada), Avestin (Canada), Scaffdex (Finland), and Graver Technologies (US).

Know more about the Track etched Membrane Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/track-etched-membrane-market-42556211.html

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Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarketsNEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A California federal judge granted final approval to a $17 million settlement in a nationwide class action lawsuit filed by consumers, represented by Daniel Robinson of Robinson Calcagnie, Inc. and Evan Borges of Greenberg Gross LLP, against PHH Corporation, its subsidiaries and affiliates ("PHH"), and Realogy Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries and affiliates ("Realogy").

The lawsuit was initially filed on November 25, 2015, in the United States District Court, Central District of California, alleging that PHH and Realogy violated section 8(a) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act ("RESPA"), 12 U.S.C.  2607(a), by improperly paying and receiving kickbacks, referral fees, or other things of value in connection with the referral of title insurance and other settlement services.

After over a year of intensive litigation and discovery, the parties reached an agreement to settle the case in a mediation presided over by Judge Jay Gandhi (ret.). The $17 million settlement, which was preliminarily approved on January 29, 2018, conveys significant benefits to class members. According to Mr. Robinson, who was appointed settlement class counsel along with Mr. Borges, "We are very proud of this result which provides class members with cash payments of approximately 17.7% of the title-, escrow-, and closing-related charges they paid in connection with the qualifying mortgage loans, which is an average payment of over $360 to each of the 32,217 class members."

Class members include individuals who, on or after November 25, 2014 and on or before November 25, 2015, (1) closed on any mortgage loan originated by PHH Corporation, PHH Mortgage Corporation, PHH Home Loans, LLC, or their affiliates (including loans where PHH Mortgage Corporation provided origination services on behalf of any PLS Partners), and (2) paid title-, escrow-, or closing-related charges in connection with that mortgage loan to Title Resource Group LLC or its affiliates.

In response to the final approval order, Mr. Borges stated, "This was a hard-fought case every step of the way. We are extremely pleased to have been able to obtain such a tremendous result for the class, one that is virtually unequalled in RESPA cases."

The plaintiffs are represented by Daniel S. Robinson, Wesley K. Polischuk, and Michael W. Olson of Robinson Calcagnie, Inc. (www.robinsonfirm.com, 949.720.1288) and Wayne R. Gross, Evan C. Borges, and Aluyah I. Imoisili of Greenberg Gross LLP (www.ggtriallaw.com, 949.383.2860).

The case is Sheri Dodge, et al. v. PHH Corporation et al., case number 8:15-cv-01973 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. For more information on the settlement, please go to www.realestatefeesettlement.com.

SOURCE Robinson Calcagnie, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.robinsonfirm.com

WOOD DALE, Ill., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AAR (NYSE: AIR) today announced that it will release financial results for its first quarter of Fiscal Year 2019, ended August 31, 2018 after the market closes on Tuesday, September 25, 2018.

On Tuesday, September 25, 2018 at 3:45 p.m. CT, AAR will hold a conference call to discuss the results. The conference call can be accessed by calling 866-802-4322 from inside the U.S. or 703-639-1319 from outside the U.S.

A replay of the conference call will also be available by calling 855-859-2056 from inside the U.S. or 404-537-3406 from outside the U.S. (access code 8849269). The replay will be available from 7:15 p.m. CT on September 25, 2018, until 10:59 p.m. CT on October 2, 2018.

About AAR

AAR is a global aftermarket solutions company that employs more than 6,000 people in over 20 countries. Based in Wood Dale, Illinois, AAR supports commercial aviation and government customers through two operating segments: Aviation Services and Expeditionary Services. AAR's Aviation Services include inventory management; parts supply; OEM parts distribution; aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul; engineering services and component repair. AAR's Expeditionary Services include mobility systems and command and control centers in support of military and humanitarian missions. More information can be found at www.aarcorp.com.

This press release contains certain statements relating to future results, which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on beliefs of Company management, as well as assumptions and estimates based on information currently available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated, including those factors discussed under Item 1A, entitled "Risk Factors", included in the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2018. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize adversely, or should underlying assumptions or estimates prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described. These events and uncertainties are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many are beyond the Company's control. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. For additional information, see the comments included in AAR's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE AAR

Related Links

http://www.aarcorp.com

"With over a decade of experience at Manulife and an extensive knowledge of financial reporting, Adrienne is very well positioned to lead our Investor Relations program," said Phil Witherington, Chief Financial Officer. "I look forward to her leadership in continuing to build our global shareholder base."

Ms. O'Neill will succeed Robert Veloso who has been appointed to Global Head of Financial Planning and Analysis for Manulife. In this role, Mr. Veloso will lead the global financial planning process and provide objective reporting and forward-looking insights to Manulife's executive leadership team. Since joining Manulife in 2010, he has held progressively senior roles in Investor Relations. Mr. Veloso holds a Masters of Business Administration from Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and is a CFA charterholder.

In 2007, Ms. O'Neill joined Manulife and has held progressively senior roles in the Company's wealth and insurance businesses. Most recently, she served as Head of Private Markets Business Office at Manulife Asset Management. Prior to joining Manulife, she worked in the advisory practice of a leading professional services firm.

Ms. O'Neill holds CPA, CA and CFA designations and is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University where she obtained an Honours BBA.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, as well as wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2017, we had about 35,000 employees, 73,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving more than 26 million customers. As of June 30, 2018, we had over $1.1 trillion (US$849 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $27.6 billion in payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.

SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation

Related Links

http://www.manulife.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ALG, the industry benchmark for determining the future resale value of a vehicle, projects U.S. revenue from new vehicle sales will reach $50 billion for the month of August, up 3.1 percent from a year ago.

ALG expects a gain of $1.5 billion in revenue for automakers. Additionally, incentive spending is projected to increase 0.7 percent year over year.

"Automakers are still deciphering a complex sales environment in 2018, where softer retail demand is being offset by continued increases in Average Transaction Prices (ATP) resulting in overall revenue growth," said Eric Lyman, ALG's Chief Analyst. "Luxury automakers, Daimler and BMW, are showing year over year declines in ATP with higher incentives, despite a resilient economy that would typically buoy premium brands. On the mainstream side, FCA continues to ride a wave of successful launches by Jeep and Ram to hit a trifecta of sales and ATP growth while reducing incentives."

ALG estimates ATP for a new light vehicle was $33,179 in August, up 1.7 percent from a year ago. Average incentive spending per unit grew by $26 to $3,757. The ratio of incentive spending to ATP is expected to be 11.3 percent, down from 11.4 percent a year ago.

Average Transaction Price (ATP)

Manufacturer August 2018

Forecast August 2017 July 2018 YOY MOM BMW (BMW,

Mini) $51,198 $51,578 $51,426 -0.7% -0.4% Daimler

(Mercedes-Benz,

Smart) $56,953 $58,355 $56,267 -2.4% 1.2% FCA (Chrysler,

Dodge, Jeep,

Ram, Fiat) $34,576 $33,525 $34,405 3.1% 0.5% Ford (Ford,

Lincoln) $37,137 $35,652 $36,608 4.2% 1.4% GM (Buick,

Cadillac,

Chevrolet, GMC) $36,764 $36,068 $36,415 1.9% 1.0% Honda (Acura,

Honda) $28,457 $27,130 $28,085 4.9% 1.3% Hyundai $22,184 $22,947 $22,142 -3.3% 0.2% Kia $22,733 $22,043 $22,540 3.1% 0.9% Nissan (Nissan,

Infiniti) $27,052 $27,730 $27,586 -2.4% -1.9% Subaru $28,519 $27,991 $28,516 1.9% 0.0% Toyota (Lexus,

Scion, Toyota) $31,586 $30,694 $31,659 2.9% -0.2% Volkswagen

(Audi, Porsche,

Volkswagen) $35,213 $34,754 $35,040 1.3% 0.5% Industry $33,179 $32,630 $32,923 1.7% 0.8%

Incentive per Unit Spending

Manufacturer August 2018

Forecast August

2017 July 2018 YOY MOM BMW (BMW, Mini) $5,679 $4,793 $5,812 18.5% -2.3% Daimler

(Mercedes-Benz,

Smart) $4,915 $4,591 $5,267 7.1% -6.7% FCA (Chrysler,

Dodge, Jeep,

Ram, Fiat) $4,425 $4,447 $4,462 -0.5% -0.8% Ford (Ford,

Lincoln) $4,649 $4,298 $4,629 8.2% 0.4% GM (Buick,

Cadillac,

Chevrolet, GMC) $4,820 $4,948 $4,943 -2.6% -2.5% Honda (Acura,

Honda) $2,064 $1,972 $1,935 4.7% 6.7% Hyundai $2,945 $2,787 $2,946 5.7% 0.0% Kia $4,347 $3,768 $4,313 15.4% 0.8% Nissan (Nissan,

Infiniti) $3,967 $4,442 $4,068 -10.7% -2.5% Subaru $1,600 $1,026 $1,621 55.9% -1.3% Toyota (Lexus,

Scion, Toyota) $2,600 $2,865 $2,633 -9.3% -1.3% Volkswagen (Audi,

Porsche,

Volkswagen) $3,750 $3,745 $3,862 0.2% -2.9% Industry $3,757 $3,731 $3,779 0.7% -0.6%

Incentive Spending as a Percentage of ATP

Manufacturer August

2018

Forecast August

2017 July 2018 YOY MOM BMW (BMW, Mini) 11.1% 9.3% 11.3% 19.4% -1.8% Daimler (Mercedes-

Benz, Smart) 8.6% 7.9% 9.4% 9.7% -7.8% FCA (Chrysler,

Dodge, Jeep, Ram,

Fiat) 12.8% 13.3% 13.0% -3.5% -1.3% Ford (Ford, Lincoln) 12.5% 12.1% 12.6% 3.9% -1.0% GM (Buick, Cadillac,

Chevrolet, GMC) 13.1% 13.7% 13.6% -4.4% -3.4% Honda (Acura,

Honda) 7.3% 7.3% 6.9% -0.2% 5.3% Hyundai 13.3% 12.1% 13.3% 9.3% -0.2% Kia 19.1% 17.1% 19.1% 11.9% -0.1% Nissan (Nissan,

Infiniti) 14.7% 16.0% 14.7% -8.4% -0.5% Subaru 5.6% 3.7% 5.7% 53.1% -1.3% Toyota (Lexus,

Scion, Toyota) 8.2% 9.3% 8.3% -11.8% -1.0% Volkswagen (Audi,

Porsche,

Volkswagen) 10.7% 10.8% 11.0% -1.1% -3.4% Industry 11.3% 11.4% 11.5% -1.0% -1.3%

(Note: This forecast is based solely on ALG's analysis of industry sales trends and conditions and is not a projection of the company's operations.)

About ALG

Founded in 1964 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California, ALG is an industry authority on automotive residual value projections in both the United States and Canada. By analyzing nearly 2,500 vehicle trims each year to assess residual value, ALG provides auto industry and financial services clients with market industry insights, residual value forecasts, consulting and vehicle portfolio management and risk services. ALG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TrueCar, Inc., a digital automotive marketplace that provides comprehensive pricing transparency about what other people paid for their cars. ALG has been publishing residual values for all cars, trucks and SUVs in the U.S. for over 50 years and in Canada since 1981.

Contact:

[email protected]

Veronica Cardenas

424-258-8427

[email protected]

SOURCE ALG

Related Links

https://www.alg.com

DENVER, Colo., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ARM, the most innovative network inventory and asset recovery company, today announces it has grown 300% since its launch last year at Capacity North America by enabling clients to transform their network inventory practices. ARM is successfully working together with network providers to stop expense leakage, integrate acquisitions and turn up revenue faster, resulting in millions of dollars of Netex, Capex, and recovered revenues for its clients.

ARM Data Center Solutions

Clients' data driven transformation is enabled by ARM's proprietary cARMa platform and experienced multi-disciplinary team who have certified over 350,000 ports to date, across 77 data centers. In the second quarter of 2018, ARM expanded operations into Canada, supporting data centers in Toronto and Montreal.

"Clients are demanding the same thing whether they are CLECs, data center operators, or fiber operators, and that is to accelerate strategic and tactical initiatives that depend on accurate network data that is consolidated into a single source of truth," states Frank McDermott CEO of ARM.

The communications market is moving quickly, there has been growth and modernization of networks with cloud architectures, virtualization and software defined services. Now the transformation of inventory and network data needs to keep pace with that modernization. "Initially customers engage with us on a tactical challenge, continues Frank McDermott, "then ARM goes thru the discovery process and brings all the data sources into one view. As that happens, clients envision their inventory data as a key strategic enabler of their modernization, integration, and financial initiatives."

ARM is the official Wi-Fi sponsor of Capacity North America 2018 hosted in Denver, CO on September 5-6, 2018. For more information about the conference agenda, visit Capacity North America 2018.

Request a meeting with ARM at Capacity North America 2018 to discuss transforming your data inventory to accelerate your network monetization objectives.

About ARM Data Center Solutions

ARM Data Center Solutions is the innovative provider of network lifecycle management for carrier, colocation, and cloud operators. Our unique discover to recover solution maximizes clients' profitability and M&A synergies by transforming network inventory data, integrating acquired networks, and reducing expense leakage. ARM's multidisciplinary teams employ our proprietary platform cARMa to modernize network operations, systems and inventory for clients, accelerating financial performance. For more information, visit ARMdcs.com or follow ARM on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Contact:

Mary Stanhope

iMarket2

+1 617 982 7930

[email protected]

SOURCE ARM Data Center SolutionsChildren and Youth in Transition supports the continuity of education of students in transition, including students who are in foster care, experiencing homelessness, military dependents, and refugees.

"There are many students in San Diego starting this school year without the supplies they need to succeed," said Dr. Tony Farrell, Ashford University College of Education Executive Dean. "As longstanding supporters of the San Diego Unified School District and its students, we're honored to provide these students the tools they need to focus on learning."



Also present at the ceremony were SDUSD of Education Vice President Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, SDUSD Area Superintendent Monika Hazel, and SDUSD school police officers, who helped hand out backpacks and school supply kits.

About Ashford University

Where heritage meets innovation  that's Ashford University. At Ashford, students discover relevant degree programs, innovative technology, and cherished tradition. Ashford offers associates, bachelor's, and master's degree programs online, allowing students to balance life by providing the flexibility to do school work anywhere, anytime. For more information, please call Lauren Coartney at 858.513.9240 x11636.

Contact: Lauren Coartney

858.513.9240 x11636  [email protected]

SOURCE Ashford University

Related Links

http://www.ashford.edu

PORTLAND, Oregon, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Supportive government initiatives to promote environment friendly products and rise in demand for sunroof vehicles in emerging economies would spur growth of the Asia-Pacific automotive sunroof market.

Allied Market Research published a report, titled, Automotive Sunroof Market by Material Type (Glass {Tilt & Slide Sunroof, Panoramic Sunroof, Solar Sunroof, and Pop-up Sunroof} and Fabric) and Vehicle Type (Gasoline Powered Vehicle {Hatchback, Sedan, and Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV)} and Electric Powered Vehicle {Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV), and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV)}: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018-2025. The report offers insights on competitive landscape, impact analysis, Porter's five forces analysis, key segments, country-wise analysis, and recent developments of key manufacturers. The report forecasts the global automotive sunroof market to reach $13.5 billion by 2025 from $6.3 billion in 2017, registering a CAGR of 9.7% from 2018 to 2025.

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Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5035

Growing demand for safety, convenience, and comfort coupled with innovations in glass technology have propelled the growth of the industry. In addition, burgeoning need to enhance the aesthetic value of glass surfaces in automobiles and growing preference for sunroof vehicles across developing countries have supplemented the market growth. On the other hand, high maintenance cost, less demand in low-cost vehicles segment, and increase in accidents of sunroofs shattering would restrain growth the market growth. However, surge in sales of automotive vehicles and increase in penetration of solar sunroofs in electric vehicles would create lucrative opportunities in the future.

Glass to dominate, fabric to grow rapidly

Among glass and fabric sunroofs, the former contributed nearly 95% of the total market share in 2017, and is expected to maintain its dominance by the end of 2025. However, the latter would supersede the glass segment in terms of growth rate, registering the fastest CAGR of 14.2% from 2018 to 2025.

Gasoline-powered vehicles accounted 90% of share in 2017

Gasoline-powered vehicle accounted for nearly 90% of the total market share in 2017 and would remain dominant through 2025. In terms of growth rate, the electric-powered vehicle is projected to register the highest CAGR of 12.3% during the forecast period.

For Purchase Enquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/5035

Asia-Pacific to gallop the fastest by 2025

Geographically, the report divides the global automotive sunroof market into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America, Middle East and Africa (LAMEA). The European region contributed more than one-third of the market share in 2017. However, Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 12.9% from 2018 to 2025, owing to supportive government initiatives to promote eco-friendly products and rise in demand for sunroof vehicles.

Key leaders of the industry

The key market players active in the global automotive sunroof market include Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd., Webasto Roof Systems, Inc., Inalfa Roof Systems Group B.V., Johnan America, Inc., Inteva Products, LLC., CIE Automotive, Yachiyo Industry Co., Ltd., Automotive Sunroof Company, Inc., BOS GmbH & Co. KG, and Magna International, Inc. Several strategies including partnerships, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations, and others have been implemented to sustain their position in the industry.

Access KNOWLEDGE TREE (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/knowledgetree

Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas.

Similar Reports:

Automotive Sensors Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014 - 2022

Automotive Camera Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018 - 2025

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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SOURCE Allied Market ResearchCAMBRIDGE, England, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Azeria Therapeutics Limited, a newly formed drug discovery company, today announced that it has successfully raised 4 million in Series A fundraising from the 70 million CRT Pioneer Fund, managed by Sixth Element Capital LLP (6EC), a UK based fund manager.

Azeria, a spin out created by Sixth Element Capital and Cancer Research UK's commercial partnerships team, is the world's first pioneer factor drug discovery company developing breakthrough treatments for hormone resistant breast and prostate cancer patients, where there are significant areas of unmet clinical need. The investment will be used to build on the discoveries made by founder Dr Jason Carroll, a world leading expert in pioneer factors in cancer at his lab at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge.

Using its proprietary drug screening platform, Azeria is developing a pipeline of small molecules designed to selectively inhibit pioneer factors. Azeria is initially targeting the essential pioneer factor FOXA1, which has shown to be pivotal in the tumor development and maintenance of estrogen-receptor (ER) positive luminal breast cancer and is also thought to be critical in the development of prostate cancer.

Stephen Myatt, Chief Executive Officer of Azeria Therapeutics and Partner of Sixth Element Capital said: "Azeria is the product of more than 10 years of research by Dr Jason Carroll. Using the insights from this foundational research we aim to deliver therapies against pioneer factors, a completely new target class in oncology, which have a fundamental role in disease biology. We are now seeking to advance this innovative research rapidly towards clinical trials."

Dr Jason Carroll, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Azeria Therapeutics added: "Estrogen receptors are the driving and defining transcription factor in 75% of breast cancers. Our research has shown for the first time that DNA interactions and transcriptional potential of ER depend on the pioneer factor FOXA1, which plays an essential role in determining tumor growth and progression even when resistance to existing drugs has developed. Through the application of our unique insights into pioneer factors, we aim to identify inhibitors against this novel class of drug targets in cancer, which until now have been considered undruggable."

Dr Rob James, Chairman of Azeria Therapeutics, and Managing Partner of Sixth Element Capital said: "We are delighted to support the launch of Azeria and the work of Jason and his research group. This is one of the most exciting and differentiated approaches we have seen to treating breast and prostate cancer and sits well with our strategy of funding innovative science in order to bring new therapeutic products and technologies to market, improving the care and lives of cancer patients. Azeria was created to accelerate research and development into pioneer factor FOXA1 and translate this to clinical application. Sixth Element looks forward to supporting its continued growth."

Dr Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK's executive director of research and innovation, said: "We're delighted to be involved in the formation of this exciting new company. We're committed to helping translate the ground breaking discoveries arising from Cancer Research UK's research base into urgently needed new treatments for patients with cancer and we're happy to provide support to Dr Carroll to help get this project off the ground.

"Researchers are only just beginning to understand the mechanisms that underpin drug resistance in cancer and it's exciting to see pioneering research by Cancer Research UK scientists being used to develop treatments to help tackle this widespread problem."

About Azeria Therapeutics

Azeria Therapeutics is the world's first pioneer factor drug discovery company developing breakthrough treatments for hormone resistant breast and prostate cancer patients where there are significant areas of unmet clinical need.

Founded in 2017 by the leading expert in pioneer factors in cancer, Dr Jason Carroll, Azeria is using its proprietary drug screening platform to develop a pipeline of small molecules designed to selectively inhibit pioneer factors.

Azeria is initially targeting the essential pioneer factor FOXA1, which has shown to be pivotal in the tumour development and maintenance of Estrogen receptor (ER) positive luminal breast cancer and is also thought to be critical in the development of prostate cancer.

Based in Cambridge, Azeria successfully raised 4 million in a Series A financing in 2018, provided by specialist oncology investment fund, the CRT Pioneer Fund, managed by Sixth Element Capital.

https://www.azeriatherapeutics.com

About Sixth Element Capital LLP and the CRT Pioneer Fund

Sixth Element Capital LLP (6EC) is a UK based fund manager, which manages the CRT Pioneer Fund. 6EC's experienced partners focus on creative and collaborative novel financing solutions designed to fund and manage innovative science in order to bring new therapeutic products and technologies to market, creating long term value and benefit to stakeholders. The CRT Pioneer Fund is a specialist oncology investment fund established by 6EC in 2012. The 70 million fund is dedicated to investments in oncology development programmes in Europe. The fund was established to bridge the investment gap between cancer drug discovery and early clinical development. To date the Fund has made twelve oncology drug investments.

For more information, please see http://www.sixthelementcapital.com.

About Cancer Research UK's Commercial Partnerships Team

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Our specialist Commercial Partnerships Team work closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. The team develop promising ideas into successful cancer therapeutics, software, devices, diagnostics and enabling technologies. This helps to accelerate progress in exciting new discoveries in cancer research and bring new treatments to patients sooner. http://commercial.cancerresearchuk.org/

Cancer Research UK's commercial activity operates through Cancer Research Technology Ltd. (CRT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cancer Research UK. It is the legal entity which pursues drug discovery research in themed alliance partnerships and delivers varied commercial partnering arrangements.

About Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.

Cancer Research UK receives no funding from the UK government for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on vital donations from the public.

Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years.

Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years.

Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.

Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

SOURCE Azeria TherapeuticsIn the poster, the main characters Xiao Yan and Xiao Xun'er set off on their Jianan Academy journey filled with fighting spirit, youthfulness exuberance. When young Dou Zhe (fighters) with heaven-endowed talents join forces, they are unafraid of the soul-gnawing road to break through the violence, restore justice, and trample the trials of growth.

Time-tested talents Ringo Yu, Carmen Lee, Ling Xiaosu, Qiu Xinzhi, and Kenneth Tsang co-star, hiding their intent to kill within smiling eyes, brandishing their idiosyncratic charisma with varying styles of charm.

As the storyline gradually reveals its true nature, the youth launch a counter-attack and the Dou Qi Continent is filled with dangers on four sides and mysteries inundate continuously. Xiao Yan, a young man previously deemed useless, held onto his quest for justice and vowed to keep up his "no compromise, not giving up" attitude to the end.

Following the shout of "30 years on the river's east, 30 years on the river's west, don't bully the young for being poor", the battle horns to launch the war between good and evil on the Dou Qi Continent have already sounded.

The show will broadcast on Hunan TV starting on September 3, 2018, releasing new episodes every Monday through Wednesday at 10 p.m. (GMT+8), during the Youth in Action Theatre time slot. Web broadcast will be exclusively on Tencent Video.

The journey of trials is destined not to be easy, watch and see how the hot-blooded youth garners power to launch, break through to the world stage, and intelligently duel with the heavens!

SOURCE New Classics MediaAn Indian delegation comprising Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and leaders from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh is in Singapore to woo potential investors.

Chief Minister Rawat along with Punjab's Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Public Works Minister Vijay Inder Singla and Uttar Pradesh's Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana held a series of meetings with top Singaporean ministers.

They jointly led a delegation of 'Invest North' and met separately Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishna, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung and Communications and Information Minister S Iswaran.

The 'Invest North' summit is being organised by the Indian High Commission in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The CM and Indian ministers also met Surbana Jurong, the town planner which has done a master plan for Andhra Pradesh's Amaravati city.

Jurong's expertise was sought for the proposed township near Mohali, Singla told PTI.

"We have 5,435-acre land through pooling scheme for the new township "Aerotropolis" for which we are now doing a conceptual plan," said Singla.

Expected to cost USD 2.6 billion, a detailed project report is underway for the Mohali Aerotropolis.

Addressing the "Professional Diaspora Connect", gathering, the delegation also gave an update on the smart cities, saying some were in planning while others were progressing towards project implementation.

Addressing some 200 members of the Indian business community, Badal said Punjab will be among the first to complete its smart city projects covering Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jallandhar.

"We are moving ahead in a significant way. Most of the infrastructure is being put up in the cities," said Badal.

Uttarakhand's Dehradun smart city project is in the planning stage, added Rawat.

More than 50 delegates from the three states and CII are in Singapore pitching for investments.

-PTIBILLERICA, Mass., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Belmont Instrument, LLC ("Belmont") announced that it has acquired HC LIFE Ltd. ("HC LIFE"). HC LIFE, headquartered in Wokingham, United Kingdom, is a leading distributor of innovative healthcare equipment to hospitals, medical professionals, paramedics, the British Ministry of Defense, businesses, and government agencies. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Belmont's acquisition of HC LIFE extends its direct commercial presence in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Further, it provides Belmont with a logistics hub to better facilitate distribution of its products to European customers.

Brian Ellacott, Chief Executive Officer, Belmont, stated, "We are very pleased to announce the acquisition of HC LIFE and welcome its employees as the newest team members to Belmont. This is the second among several planned strategic acquisitions for Belmont as we continue to expand our direct commercial presence globally."

Ian Niblock, Business Manager, HC LIFE, stated, "After years of close collaboration with Belmont as their distributor for the United Kingdom and Ireland, we are delighted to officially become part of the Belmont family and help accelerate the growth and presence of Belmont in Europe."

About Belmont Instrument, LLC

Massachusetts based Belmont Instrument, LLC is a leading provider of fluid resuscitation and patient temperature management solutions for use worldwide in medical facilities, military combat fields, and EMS settings. Belmont's premier product is The Belmont Rapid Infuser RI-2, which utilizes electromagnetic induction heating to provide precise control of fluid temperature and flow rate during fluid resuscitation. Belmont's technology is credited with saving thousands of lives globally by infusing warm blood and fluid into patients experiencing massive blood loss, while exceptional air removal features help keep the patient safe from air embolism. Belmont also offers the close-to-patient, IV pole mounted Buddy 2 and portable, battery-operated buddy lite for all low-flow hospital and pre-hospital blood and fluid warming.

Following its acquisition of MTRE Advanced Technologies Ltd. earlier this year, Belmont's portfolio has grown to include non-invasive patient temperature management solutions. Belmont's advanced targeted temperature solutions consist of the Allon system with ThermoWrap patient garment, and the CritiCool system with CureWrap patient garment. These non-invasive solutions are designed to enable healthcare providers to exercise precise control and management of patient body temperature.

Belmont is a portfolio company of Audax Private Equity ("Audax"). Since its founding in 1999, Audax has been focused on building leading middle market companies. Audax has invested $5 billion in 114 platform and 676 add-on companies. Through its disciplined Buy & Build approach, Audax seeks to help platform companies execute add-on acquisitions that fuel revenue growth, optimize operations, and significantly increase equity value.

For more information about Belmont and its products, please visit www.belmontinstrument.com .

For more information about Audax, please visit www.audaxgroup.com .

About HC Life Ltd.

HC LIFE is a leading distributor of innovative healthcare equipment to hospitals, medical professionals, paramedics, the British Ministry of Defense, businesses, and government agencies. HC LIFE exclusively distributes for leading medical device manufacturers to the UK and Ireland. They provide best in class technology, set high standards of prompt and careful delivery, and possess the technical know-how and service expertise to maintain and repair equipment.

For more information about HC LIFE, please visit www.hclifeltd.com.

CONTACT

Brian Ellacott, CEO

Belmont Instrument, LLC

978-663-0212

www.belmontinstrument.com

SOURCE Belmont Instrument, LLC

Related Links

http://www.belmontinstrument.com

PUNE, India, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Big Data and Data Engineering Services Market by Service Type (Data Modeling, Data Integration, Data Quality, Analytics), Business Function (Marketing and Sales, Operations, Finance), Organization Size, Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market size is expected to grow from USD 34.47 billion in 2018 to USD 77.37 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.6% during the forecast period.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )



Browse 69 market data Tables and 42 Figures spread through 148 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Big Data and Data Engineering Services Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/big-data-engineering-services-market-165583166.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Major growth factors for the market are rapidly growing volumes of unstructured data due to phenomenal growth of interconnected devices and social media, cost-effective services and cutting-edge expertise rendered by boutique data servicing companies, and an increasing need for complying with stringent regulations. Various opportunities present in this market include new business propositions and increasing volumes of data across Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Marketing and sales business function is expected to grow at the highest CAGR

Big data and data engineering services are used for various business functions, including marketing and sales, finance, operations, and Human Resource (HR). The marketing and sales business function is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, owing to an increasing need for marketing and sales departments to monitor and analyze the various marketing and sales data for gaining insights on customer acquisition and retainment.

Retail and eCommerce industry vertical is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period

Big data and data engineering services have been used across industry verticals, including Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI); retail and eCommerce; manufacturing; healthcare and life sciences; media and telecom; government; and others (travel and hospitality, transportation and logistics, and energy and utilities). The retail and eCommerce vertical is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, owing to an increasing need for managing the growing data from various customers, maintaining their records, and analyzing data to gain insights.

Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=165583166

North America is expected to dominate the global Big Data and Data Engineering Services Market during the forecast period

North America is expected to hold the largest size in the Big Data and Data Engineering Services Market in 2018, due to the technological advancements and early adoption of big data and data engineering services in the region. The market size in Asia Pacific (APAC), on the other hand, is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023. Major growth drivers for the market are the increasing big data adoption and significant opportunities in major APAC countries, such as India, China, and Japan.

The Big Data and Data Engineering Services Market research report also covers different strategies, such as acquisitions, partnerships, new product launches, and product upgradations, adopted by the major players to increase their market shares. Major technology vendors include Accenture (Ireland), Genpact (US), Cognizant (US), Infosys (India), Capgemini (France), NTT DATA (Japan), Mphasis (India), L&T Technology Services (India), Hexaware (India), Happiest Minds (India), KPMG (Netherlands), EY (UK), Tiger Analytics (Israel), LatentView Analytics (US), InfoStretch (US), Vensai Technologies (India), Course5 (US), Sigmoid (US), Nous Infosystems (India), Bodhtree (US), Hidden Brains InfoTech (India), Brillio (US), Franz Inc. (US), BRIDGEi2i (India), and Trianz (US).

Know more about the Big Data and Data Engineering Services Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/big-data-engineering-services-market-165583166.html

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

Mr. Shelly Singh

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]





Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/big-data-engineering-services-market.asp

Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarketsWASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bloomberg Government today issued the fall edition of Hill Watch, a semi-annual, in-depth look at the 2018 Capitol Hill agenda. Hill Watch delivers analysis of and the outlook for legislative initiatives in both chambers of Congress with coverage of legislation affecting agriculture, taxation, retirement, international trade, regulatory policy, technology, and transportation  among other issues.

"Our team of reporters and analysts has their ear to the ground on all the important issues Congress will address after returning from summer recess," said Heather Rothman, news director, Bloomberg Government. "The hearing for Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court and keeping the government funded past the end of the current fiscal year on September 30 will dominate the near-term agenda as the November midterms approach."

Highlights of Hill Watch include:

Agriculture: House and Senate negotiators plan a meeting this week on the farm bill before the current version lapses September 30. Work requirements for the supplemental nutrition program remain a sticking point.

Election Security: Despite lingering concerns about the vulnerability of elections systems, senators scrapped a markup of a bill authorizing grants.

Transportation: September 30 is also the expiration of the Federal Aviation Administration. Autonomous vehicles legislation could hitch a ride on a reauthorization bill.

Taxes/Retirement: Republicans are eyeing a follow-up to last year's tax cut law, as well as possible changes to laws on retirement savings.

A copy of the fall Hill Watch is available for complimentary download at https://about.bgov.com/downloads/fall18-hillwatch/.

About Bloomberg Government

Bloomberg Government is a premium, subscription-based service that provides comprehensive information and analytics for policy professionals who interact with  or are affected by  the government. Delivering news, analytics, and data-driven decision tools, Bloomberg Government's digital workspace gives an intelligent edge to government affairs, federal, and contracting professionals. For more information or a demo, visit www.bgov.com.

SOURCE Bloomberg Government

Related Links

http://www.bgov.com

MENLO PARK, Calif., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BNY Mellon Wealth Management has named Dileep Surapaneni as Senior Wealth Director based in Menlo Park, CA. Surapaneni will report to Regional President Thomas Fickinger and will be focused on BNY Mellon Wealth Management's business development, concentrating on multijurisdiction individuals, founders and business transition strategies.

"We are pleased that Dileep has joined BNY Mellon Wealth Management in our Northern California region. His industry knowledge, business development experience and client focus will play an integral role in our continued growth strategy. We are very excited to welcome him to the team," said Fickinger.

Before joining BNY Mellon Wealth Management, Surapaneni was a Vice President, Private Client Advisor at U.S. Trust, where he was instrumental in developing and growing their business. Prior to that role, Surapaneni was a Regional Sales Manager in Merchant Services at Wells Fargo and has spent over 10 years in a variety of leadership roles within the consumer division of Bank of America.

Surapaneni holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Massachusetts. Prior to his career in financial services, he was an Aviation Boatswain's Mate on the USS Peleliu.

Contact: Lucy Muscarella, Elevate Communications, 617-312-6411, [email protected]

ABOUT BNY MELLON WEALTH MANAGEMENT

BNY Mellon Wealth Management is a leading wealth manager. In 2017, it was ranked as a Top 10 U.S. Wealth Manager by Barron's. It was also awarded Best Private Bank for Customer Service in the U.S. by Financial Times publications Professional Wealth Management and The Banker. The firm has more than two centuries of experience in providing services to clients who today include financially successful individuals and families, their family offices and business enterprises, planned giving programs, and endowments and foundations. It has $254 billion in total client assets, as of June 30, 2018, and an extensive network of offices in the U.S. and internationally. BNY Mellon Wealth Management, which provides investment management, custody, wealth and estate planning and private banking services, conducts business through various operating subsidiaries of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. For more information go to bnymellonwealth.com or follow us on Twitter @BNYMellonWealth.

ABOUT BNY MELLON

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 35 countries. As of June 30, 2018, BNY Mellon had $33.6 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.8 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news.

SOURCE BNY Mellon Wealth Management

Related Links

http://www.bnymellon.com

SAN FRANCISCO, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Bulletproof Glass Industry is expected to rise at a positive CAGR in the forthcoming period. A bulletproof glass, as the name suggests, resists a strong attack from attackers and particularly offers a strong resistance for an object to penetrate. Technically, it is made from layers of two or multiple glass under a hard-soft combination. Commercially, the importance of bulletproof glass is increasing due to rise in number of financial institutions and commercial outlets.Bulletproof glass industry is driven by factors such as growing needs of security coupled with increase in mob and terrorist attacks. The market is paving the way further in terms of deployment in trucks, bank vehicles, and ATM booths. Rise in the number of financial institutions coupled with demand for high security in many applications in developing economies is witnessing a significant contribution to the market growth in the forecast period.

Bulletproof glass industry is fragmented into end-use, application, and geography. End-use segmentation for bulletproof glass market includes banking & finance, construction & automotive. Application segment for bulletproof glass market includes cash-in transit, defense & VIP vehicles, and commercial buildings. VIP vehicles and commercial buildings segment account for a major share in the market due to high demand and rise in infrastructural development.Regional segmentation for bulletproof glass industry includes North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. North America dominates the global market due to rise in resistive techniques used by manufacturers due to increase in thefts and robberies. Other factors like high demand for bulletproof glass in vehicles are likely to create favorable opportunities in the forecast period. Use of bulletproof glass for defence service vehicles also contributes to the market growth in the forecast period.

Access 129 page research report with TOC on "Bulletproof Glass Industry" available with Radiant Insights, Inc. @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-bulletproof-glass-industry-2018

Asia-Pacific's bulletproof glass industry is expected to gain a positive traction in the forthcoming period due to raise in finance sector and infrastructural development activities. Presence of untapped potential in APAC's market leading to lucrative opportunities is likely to gain a positive traction in the forthcoming period. Prominent players in the bulletproof glass industry include Asahi Glass Co Ltd, China Specialty Co, Saint-Gobain S.A., Consolidated Glass Holdings Inc, SCHOTT AG, Total Security Solutions, SCHOTT AG, D.W. Price Security, Apogee Enterprises Inc and National Glass

In this report, the global Bulletproof Glass market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.

Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Bulletproof Glass in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), covering

 North America

 Europe

 China

 Japan

 Southeast Asia

 India

Global Bulletproof Glass market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including

 Asahi Glass

 NSG

 Saint-Gobain

 Guardian

 Sisecam

 SCHOTT

 Global Security Glazing

 Dupont

 ESG Secure

 Romag

 KS-Security

 C3S

 D.W. Price Security

 O'Brien

 Viridian

 Armor Glass

 Dlubak Glass

 Glass South Africa

 Fuyao Group

 CSG Holding

 Xinyi Glass

 Guangdong Golden Glass

 Lvyuan Glass

On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into

 Unidirectional

 Two-Way

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

 Aviation

 Bank

 Vehicles & Ships



Browse reports of similar category available with Radiant Insights, Inc.:

About Radiant Insights, Inc.:

At Radiant Insights, we work with the aim to reach the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our representatives strive to understand diverse client requirements and cater to the same with the most innovative and functional solutions.

Contact:



Michelle Thoras.

Corporate Sales Specialist

Radiant Insights, Inc.

Phone: +1-415-349-0054

Toll Free: 1-888-928-9744

Email: [email protected]



Web: https://www.radiantinsights.com

SOURCE Radiant Insights, Inc.APPLE VALLEY, Minn., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CAPREIT, a fully-integrated real estate operating company responsible for the ownership and management of more than $5 billion of multifamily assets, today announced it has acquired the second phase of Remington Cove, a 196-home apartment community in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Based in the heart of Apple Valley about 20 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the second phase features 95 apartment homes and joins Remington Cove Phase I in the CAPREIT portfolio. The 101-home original phase was developed in 2015 and acquired by CAPREIT in 2017. Although the two phases combine to constitute one apartment community, CAPREIT acquired the phases in separate transactions.

"We're delighted to add Phase II to the CAPREIT family and to expand our presence in the wonderful Apple Valley market," said Jay Tucker, acquisitions associate for CAPREIT. "Whether our residents prefer the small-town feel of the community or the cosmopolitan sophistication and thriving employment market of a large-scale downtown, it's all within reach at Remington Cove."

Situated at 15430 Founders Lane, Remington Cove residents enjoy a commuter-friendly locale within walking distance of the Apple Valley Transit Station's Metro Red Line, which provides rapid bus service throughout the metro area. Interstate 35 is within a short drive, offering prime connectivity to the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and many local hot spots, including the world-famous Mall of America and Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Additional nearby attractions include the Minnesota Zoo, Guthrie Theater, Weisman Art Museum and several sporting venues, including state-of-the-art U.S. Bank Stadium, the home of the Minnesota Vikings that opened in 2016. Many parks and trails surround the community, and recreational enthusiasts are within 17 miles of spectacular Minnehaha Park, home to 53-foot Minnehaha Falls.

With the addition of the Phase II, Remington Cove consists of studio, 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartment homes ranging from 541 to 1,622 square feet. Apartment interiors feature nine-foot ceilings, full-size washers and dryers, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. Select units include electric fireplaces, and residents also have access to additional storage.

Common-area amenities at the pet-friendly, smoke-free community include heated underground parking, two fitness centers, outdoor fire pit and picnic patio, off-leash dog park, conference room, business center and a community room with full kitchen.

About CAPREIT

As one of the nation's leading housing companies since its inception in 1993, CAPREIT has been involved in more than 200 multifamily communities, representing more than 40,000 rental homes housing more than 100,000 residents. CAPREIT is focused on the implementation of a savvy acquisition strategy, innovative financial structures, and a professional property management style based on resident satisfaction and retention, as well as asset preservation and enhancement. Today, CAPREIT maintains its mission to create value-added growth through strategic acquisitions, continuing to capitalize on multifamily housing opportunities. The company currently owns and/or manages approximately 14,000 apartment units in over 20 U.S. states and is actively seeking to grow its multifamily footprint throughout the continental United States.

MEDIA CONTACT

Paul Willis

LinnellTaylor Marketing

[email protected]

720-280-5172

SOURCE CAPREIT

Related Links

http://www.capreit.com

CLEVELAND, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ContentWriters will be one of the featured sponsors at this year's Content Marketing World conference to be held in Cleveland, OH from Sept. 4 through Sept. 7.

They will specifically sponsor the Content Creation track, a series of lectures to take place throughout the day on Thursday, Sept. 6. The track focuses on many aspects of the content creation process, from creating unique content to the neuroscience behind storytelling.

Content Marketing World, an event hosted by Content Marketing Institute, is a yearly summit where the brightest minds in content marketing congregate to share ideas, network, deliver powerful lectures, and communicate about the future of the industry.

"There are so many intelligent and fascinating people in our world. You never know who you'll meet," said Joe Perrow, Content Strategy, ContentWriters. "I can't wait to take in all that the conference has to offer and spend some time on America's North Coast."

Brands across the tech and content marketing spectrum will be well-represented. The New York Times, Twitch, Capital One, Google, Adobe, Intel, LinkedIn, and REI are all scheduled to have senior employees deliver speeches.

The conference will even feature a keynote from award-winning producer, writer, and actor Tina Fey.

Users can view the full agenda of the conference here.

ContentWriters specializes in providing high-quality content for all major industries. By pairing expert writers with industry-specific clients, ContentWriters ensures that clients' needs are exceeded every time. The company produces all forms of content, including blog posts, email newsletters, social media posts, press releases, product descriptions, website content, and white papers. For more information about the services that ContentWriters.com provides, please visit www.contentwriters.com.

Press Contact Information

Francesco Montesanto

ContentWriters

135 W 29th St

New York, NY 10001

800-891-0553

[email protected]

SOURCE ContentWritersHAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dana Incorporated (NYSE: DAN) today announced a new series of Brevini heavy-duty winch drives for marine and offshore applications. This new series includes five different sizes to support output torque from 80 to 850 kNm, and a ratio range of up to 6.000:1 with hydraulic or electric motor options.

Currently in the final validation phase of pre-production testing, this new series of winch drives will be available in the first quarter of 2019 and is on display as part of Dana's full-system solution for deck cranes at SMM, Sept. 4-7, in hall A3, stand 301 at the Hamburg Messe exhibition hall.

This series is designed to operate as the winch drive for an auxiliary hoist system on ship loaders, deck cranes, cable and pipe-laying tensioners, rubber-tyred gantry cranes, and other maritime equipment. Engineered for personnel lifting applications in the marine industry, these winch drives have been designed to meet third-party marine certifications, including API 2C and ATEX standards.

"The marine industry includes both onshore port applications and offshore marine settings. With such an extensive assortment of machines and environments, original-equipment manufacturers often require custom specifications," said Aziz Aghili, executive vice president of Dana and president of Dana Off-Highway Drive and Motion Technologies. "Dana has more than 30 localized service and assembly centers across the globe to support our customers, and is a turnkey provider of design, engineering, manufacturing, and support for motion systems for a wide range of marine applications."

These new, lightweight winch drives have been engineered with a comprehensive range of features, including:

a sealing system designed to withstand harsh marine environments;

improved power density;

housing made from either cast iron or steel;

high-radial load bearings to deliver reliable lifting performance for heavy loads;

an integrated hydraulic failsafe negative brake or an electromagnetic brake;

additional safety features including a back stop, torque limiter and sensors; and

inline and right-angle configurations.

In addition to winch drives, Dana offers Brevini-brand axial piston motors, axial piston pumps, planetary gearboxes, slewing drives, proportional directional valves, winches, industrial planetary gearboxes, wheel drives, and other motion products for the marine and offshore industry. To learn more, visit www.dana.com/offhighway.

About Dana Incorporated

Dana is a world leader in highly engineered solutions for improving the efficiency, performance, and sustainability of powered vehicles and machinery. Dana supports the passenger vehicle, commercial truck, and off-highway markets, as well as industrial and stationary equipment applications. Founded in 1904, Dana employs more than 30,000 people in 33 countries on six continents who are committed to delivering long-term value to customers. Based in Maumee, Ohio, USA, the company reported sales of $7.2 billion in 2017. Dana is ranked among the Drucker Institute's listing of the 250 most effectively managed companies. For more information, please visit dana.com.

SOURCE Dana Incorporated

Related Links

http://www.dana.com

Originally designed by McNeil when the flagship hotel opened in 2012, the lively street-level lounge has since become a fixture in Yorkville, the city's most stylish shopping and dining district. When tasked to revitalize the space several years later, McNeil looked towards current hospitality trends and the changing needs of hotel guests. While retaining its luxurious essence, the reinvigorated design is more comfortable, with 30 per cent more seating throughout the restaurant. A palette of blush, olive, natural greys, rose quartz and brass detailing set a light-hearted mood that is carried through the furniture and carpeting, some of which are locally crafted.

"Sharp's Corner", a nook beneath the lobby stairs, pays tribute to the company founder Isadore Sharp, a Toronto native, with images from his early career. Set to be unveiled soon, the space provides a relaxed and private area for meetings.

"You can't tell the story of Four Seasons Hotel Toronto without telling the story of Mr. Sharp himself," says McNeil. "This hotel has a heart behind it  a person who deeply believes in this city and the Four Seasons brand. We created a design narrative around those origins. It's something we always came back to, and was a guiding influence in all of our design decisions  something that allowed us to achieve an interesting layered, but cohesive aesthetic."

Breathing new life into the popular bar area is a digital installation of LED screens that blend art and technology, as conceived by hotel owner Shahid Khan. Made to look like one piece of art, the digital screen transforms into a television upon request for special events. A custom-created video artwork portrays leaves floating across the wall, adding to the vibrant energy during the evenings and creating a quiet addition to the space during the day. An alternating video showcases a 24-hour timelapse of the Toronto waterfront and downtown skyline, where sunsrise and sunset over the CN Tower can be seen within minutes.

"Since its inception, d|bar has established a reputation for bringing people from around the world together over cocktails and conversations. It is an honour to implement aspects of our property's most legendary personalities, including Isadore Sharp, Shahid Khan and Daniel Boulud, in an effort to create an even more inviting and comfortable space for our guests to gather," says Konrad Gstrein, hotel general manager.

When curating the menu, Chef Daniel Boulud turned to the bar's early legacy as the preeminent Yorkville destination for marking a celebration or closing a deal, with a focus on casual fare ideal for sharing. Stand-outs include the Tuna Crudo, Buffalo Burrata and Sugar Cane Skewered Shrimp, which complement d|bar classics like the Lobster Roll and Charcuterie Board.

Bartender Melissa Hart blends her culinary background with her passion for mixology by creating unique craft cocktails that emphasize quality and seasonality. While signature cocktails like the rose-infused Yorkville Affair and Hart's instant-classic combination of traditional sake and Japanese whisky, Rikyu's Harmony, remain on the menu, Bar Pleiades resident mixologist Darryl Chan has incorporated new tastes onto the list. Teach Me How To Forget is layered with spices and Same As It Ever Was is refreshing, fruity and mouth-puckering all at once.

In addition to the changes at d|bar, Four Seasons Hotel Toronto recently refined its lobby and Spa. Upon arriving in the hotel, guests are welcomed at the new concierge desk and guided along a definitive walkway to a luxurious, yet comfortable lounge area. To make the space accommodating to a variety of people, multiple seating types, including banquettes and chairs arranged in social or private configurations, have been carefully selected to heighten the guest's overall experience.

To celebrate the reopening in time for film festival season, d|bar also presents a photography exhibit honouring women in film and television. A larger-than-life display on the facade of the building portrays a photograph of Angela Bassett, Claire Foy, Elisabeth Moss, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sandra Oh and Thandie Newton, by Miller Mobley for The Hollywood Reporter. Lobby-level public spaces feature iconic red carpet moments taken by celebrity photographer George Pimentel, including Angelina Jolie, Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett, Jessica Chastain, Julia Roberts, Lady Gaga, Lupita Nyong'o, Oprah Winfrey, Priyanka Chopra, Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman. The exhibit is available for public viewing until Sept. 30, 2018.

About Four Seasons Hotel Toronto

Four Seasons Hotel Toronto is Canada's first hotel to receive both AAA Five Diamond and Forbes Travel Guide Five Star ratings. Having opened in October 2012, the Hotel features 259 guest rooms, a 30,000 square foot luxury spa, and Cafe Boulud and dbar by international restaurateur and Chef Daniel Boulud. Recent awards and honors include 2017 TripAdvisor's Traveller's Choice Winner - #1 Best Hotel in Toronto, Robb Report's Best of the Best, Conde Nast Traveller's Hot List and T+L's Top City Hotel in Canada. For more information, visit our Press Room or check out Facebook.

Website: fourseasons.com/toronto

Instagram: @fstoronto

Twitter: @fstoronto

Facebook: FourSeasonsHotelToronto

#dbarTO

SOURCE Four Seasons Hotel TorontoLONDON, July 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambassadors and high-level guests attend the launch event for the Global Governance Project, an initiative in collaboration with the world-renowned G7 and G20 Research Groups covering compliance, accountability measures and good governance in connection with the annual G7 and G20 summits.

The Global Governance Project and Lord David Evans of Watford yesterday hosted the event 'Demonstrating Good Governance' at the House of Commons in Westminster, London.

H.E. Renato Carlos Sersale di Cerisano, Argentina Ambassador to the United Kingdom, speaking and the event

The event marked the official launch of the Global Governance Project, a joint initiative between GT Media Group Ltd, a publishing house based in London, and the G7 and G20 Research Groups, based at the University of Toronto, Canada.

The Research Groups are the world's leading source of unbiased, in-depth and independent information on the G7 and G20. They have been producing research and analysis on summit agendas for more than 30 years. Their research is respected at the highest levels. The Research Groups produce a compliance report on the outcomes and commitments made at each summit, holding the leaders of these systemically significant countries accountable to their promises.

The Global Governance Project leverages the heritage and respect that has been fostered by the G7 and G20 Research Groups. The partnership takes the learning, research, and summit compliance reports produced by the Research Group and collects independent recommendations from invested organisations on the big issues being addressed in the world today. These are then published in the authoritative G7 and G20 Summit briefing books, given to world leaders at the annual summits and simultaneously shared with global stakeholders.

Publisher Khaled Algaay commented on the successful launch of the G7 title in Charlevoix, Canada, which had a tremendous digital footprint of more than 60,000 downloads and impressive print circulation. "We're very much looking forward to doing another fantastic job when we publish G20 Argentina," he said.

The event welcomed high-level guests, speakers and partners including representatives from IGOs, Chambers of Commerce, UK government and parliament, and high commissions and embassies worldwide.

Dr Tristen Naylor, a senior fellow in international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said, "This is a critical moment for global governance. Managed well, incorporating the voices of those excluded from the top table, we might weather the rocky political moment in which we find ourselves. Managed poorly, we might find ourselves taking very large steps backwards."

Among the speakers was Argentine Ambassador to the UK H.E. Carlos Sersale di Cerisano, who spoke of Argentina's pride in hosting the G20, one of the biggest multilateral summits in the world. Argentina is the first Latin American country to do so.

He said, "Argentina is a country with diverse identity, it's in our DNA. Our G20 presidency aims to represent the entire region. We want all countries to commit to equitable and sustainable economic development that generates opportunities for all people. This means setting environmental, economic and social goals to define how governments will respond to the technological revolution and how they will put the people first. Consensus decisions at the G20 level, accompanied by the contribution of civil society groups, will seek to pave the way for our children to have a better education, our young people to be better prepared to find work, and our country to build the infrastructure that it needs in order to develop."

Promises made and discussions held at the Argentina G20 summit will be closely monitored by the Global Governance Project, which unites academics, scholars, and economists in keeping track of compliance on commitments made by our leaders, holding them accountable to their promises. To do so, the Global Governance Project and Research Groups work directly with governments, summit sherpas, intergovernmental organisations, outreach groups and multi- and bilateral lending bodies.

Information gathered is published in the annual G7 and G20 summit briefing books and online at g7g20summits.org. These authorised publications cover key summit themes, present compliance statistics on previously made commitments, and make recommendations for governments and industry around the world.

The next briefing book will be published ahead of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, taking place on 30 November  1 December 2018.

Contact details:

Tom Kennedy

[email protected]

+44 207 6085137

GT Media Group Ltd. 20-22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU, United Kingdom

www.g7g20summits.org

Related Images

h-e-ambassador-renato-carlos.jpg

H.E. Ambassador Renato Carlos Sersale di Cerisano

H.E. Renato Carlos Sersale di Cerisano, Argentina Ambassador to the United Kingdom, speaking and the event

professor-john-kirton.jpg

Professor John Kirton

John Kirton, professor of political science and the director and co-founder of the G7 Research Group, co-director and founder of the G20 Research Group, speaking on Good Governance

madeline-koch.jpg

Madeline Koch

Madeline Koch, executive director of the G20 Research Group, the G7 and G8 Research Group, the BRICS Research Group. Delivering the research group annual compliance report.

global-governance-project.jpg

Global Governance Project

Global Governance Project, lago

SOURCE Global Governance ProjectNadeem Nusrat, chairman of Voice of Karachi, a US-based advocacy group, has welcomed Washington's recent actions to pressurise Islamabad in order to stop supporting terrorist groups in their soil.

Nusrat penned a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, prior to his visit to Pakistan and said, "We appreciate the current administration's decision to cancel USD 300 million in Coalition Support Fund (CSF) to Pakistan. The Voice of Karachi and South Asia Minorities Alliance leadership requests the US government to exert its influence over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international lending bodies to stop them from financially bailing out Pakistan until its military leadership agrees to stop interfering in civilian affairs and refrain from supporting terrorist groups and proxies who are involved in terrorism inside Pakistan as well across the border."

He claimed that Pakistan is not a "homogenous country" and has been run by the military forces.

Nusrat said, "Pakistan is not a homogenous country, and it is inhabited by many ethnic and religious groups who enjoy rich heritage, culture and are perfectly capable of running their own affairs."

"Unfortunately, since its inception in 1947, Pakistan has been run by a military elite that hails mainly from only one province of Pakistan, Punjab. This Punjabi-dominated military elite has used a national institution like Pakistan Army as a means to promote and safeguard interests of Pakistan's Punjabi-speaking people only," he added.

He alleged that the Pakistani military forces had "forcibly annexed" Balochistan in 1948, and "brutally crushed" the separatist movements in the province.

"Pakistan's Balochistan province had not formally agreed to join Pakistan at the time of India's partition in 1947. It was forcibly annexed by the Pakistani military in 1948. Since then this province, which is Pakistan's largest province in terms of area and is full of minerals, gas and other natural resources, has witnessed many nationalist uprisings and separatist movements. All these movements were brutally crushed by Pakistan's Punjabi-dominated military, leaving tens of thousands of Balochs dead and injured," Nusrat asserted.

The Voice of Karachi chairman claimed that the Pakistani forces killed Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti for demanding more rights for the province. His death led to another nationalist uprising and subsequent military crackdown, claiming thousands of lives.

Talking about Karachi, Nusrat continued, "Karachi, Pakistan's most populous province with an estimated population of 32 million people, is the city whose taxes run Pakistan's economy. Karachi is home to millions of Muslims who had migrated from India at the time of partition. These immigrants are known as Mohajirs. Once Pakistan came over its initial challenges, the Pakistani military started an organised campaign to purge all state and private institutions of Mohajirs. Pakistan's first military dictator General Ayub Khan took away Karachi's status as being the nation's capital and made Islamabad, a newly formed city in Punjab, as the new capital of Pakistan."

Asserting that the Mohajirs are 'victims of enforced disappearance', he further said, "When Mohajirs started a political movement against these blatant injustices, a vicious military operation was launched against their representative political party in 1992. Since then, over 20,000 Mohajirs have been killed by Pakistani security forces and their sponsored groups in fake encounters and armed attacks. Thousands of young Mohajirs have become victims of enforced disappearance and many thousands are languishing in prisons, most of them without being ever produced in any court of law."

Nusrat alleged that the Pakistani military forces were also involved in the brutal operation in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province which shares a border with Afghanistan and where the murderous gangs of the Taliban and the notorious Haqqani Network freely operate.

"Pakistani military establishment's reckless policies and its patronage to extremist religious proxies have resulted in widespread destruction in the KPK province leaving hundreds of thousands of Pashtuns dead, injured and displaced," he added.

Nusrat asserted that indigenous populations in the Gilgit-Baltistan region were also being subjected to state persecution. He claimed that the Pakistani military establishment's decision to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is badly hurting the region's indigenous populations who have been denied any say in this project.

He continued, "At the moment, many projects are underway in Gilgit-Baltistan to turn the indigenous populations into minority and vast tracts of lands have been handed over to Chinese and Punjab-based companies to house non-locals in the region."

Throwing light on the religious persecution of minorities in Pakistan, the Voice of Karachi chairman elucidated, "Pakistan's religious minorities are faring no better at the hands of an army that is obsessed with a jihadi ideology. Ahmadis, whose forefathers like those of Mohajirs had played a dominant role on Pakistan Movement are now constitutionally declared as non-Muslims in Pakistan. Their places of worship are routinely attacked by religious extremists."

"Pakistan's founding leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a Shiite, but Shia community in Pakistan is now a prime target for religious extremists. People of Hazara, whose majority is Shiite, is also a constant target of a brutal campaign of killing and intimidation. Christians, Sikhs, Ismailis, and Hindus, too, are suffering at the hands of those religious extremists who clearly enjoy Pakistani military establishment's overt or covert support," he added.

Nusrat further stated that there are countless reports which firmly establish how Pakistani military agencies are supporting the Taliban, Haqqani network and other extremist religious groups within and outside the country's borders, particularly in the region bordering Afghanistan.

"All this shows Pakistani military elite's absolute disregard for national and internal values, ethics, treaties, and covenants. This undemocratic practice must be stopped and the people of Pakistan, including its persecuted ethnic and religious minorities, be granted all those rights they fully deserve. Until this happens, all military and civilian aid and grants to Pakistan be suspended," he asserted.

Nusrat went on to say that the persecuted groups have pinned their hopes on the US administration and expected Pompeo to forcefully raise the issue of their persecution in his bilateral meetings with Pakistani officials, particularly with the military hierarchy.

"On behalf of all persecuted ethnic and religious groups as well as all democracy-loving people in Pakistan extends full support to the current administration's South Asia policy," he further stated.

The Voice of Karachi and South Asia Minorities Alliance Foundation will be holding 'Day on the Hill' event at US Capitol Hill on September 5. The event is aimed at highlighting the issue of religious freedom and minority rights in Pakistan and to show solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and US troops.

(ANI)FAIRFAX, Va., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DIGITALSPEC, LLC (DSPEC) is proud to be recognized by Washington Technology as one of the 50 fastest-growing, small businesses in the government market according to five years of revenue growth for 2018. This list spotlights the great opportunities and successes that small businesses have as an engine of innovation providing a constant breeding ground for new leaders and companies. "We are honored to be recognized by such an established group of industry experts for the growth that results from the outstanding services DSPEC provides to our customers," remarked Dr. Charles Dadoo, CEO.

The 2018 Washington Technology Fast 50 ranked DSPEC as the No. 35 fastest-growing small business in the government market. DSPEC makes its fifth consecutive appearance in the Fast 50 List, with an annual growth rate of 67.97 percent. This growth demonstrates DSPEC's success in the markets of Homeland Security and Law Enforcement, Defense and Intelligence, Financial Services, and Social & Citizen Services for federal civilian and military customers. DSPEC's sustained growth also reflects the professionalism and dedication of DSPEC employees in support of their customers. President, Vishal Dadoo proudly noted, "The growth demonstrated in the repeat Fast 50 rankings, validates that we've built a firm foundation for continued success based on outstanding delivery, strategic partnering, and trusted relationships."



About DIGITALSPEC, LLC. - DSPEC's Managing Principals leverage more than 100 years of combined business and IT experience, deep domain expertise, and rich technical knowledge to ensure client satisfaction. Our Federal clients include the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Commerce, National Background Investigation Bureau (NBIB), Department of Justice (DOJ)/Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of Defense (DOD)/Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Education/Federal Student Aid (FSA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Our headquarters are in Fairfax, Virginia, along with several locations throughout northern Virginia and the DC Metro area, in addition to Boyers, PA, Huntsville, AL, and Colorado Springs, CO. For more information, please contact us at 703-626-7445, 443-818-2736 or at [email protected].

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE DIGITALSPEC, LLCRICHMOND, Va. and CAYCE, S.C., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The proposed combination of Dominion Energy, Inc. (NYSE: D) and SCANA Corporation (NYSE: SCG) has achieved another significant milestone. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved the indirect transfer of the Operating License for V.C. Summer Unit 1 and of the Combined Licenses (COLs) for V.C. Summer Units 2 and 3 from SCANA's wholly owned subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G), to Dominion Energy. This constitutes one of several regulatory approvals required by the merger agreement between the two companies.

The NRC has not yet acted on SCE&G's request to terminate the COLs for Units 2 and 3, but such action is not required under the merger agreement. SCE&G abandoned the nuclear construction project in July 2017. Dominion Energy has no plans to complete the project if the merger closes.

The merger previously received approval from SCANA's shareholders, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Georgia Public Service Commission and early termination by the Federal Trade Commission of the 30-day waiting period under the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. The merger remains contingent upon approvals from the public service commissions of South Carolina and North Carolina, among other conditions.

If the merger is completed, the combined company would deliver energy to approximately 6.5 million regulated customer accounts and have an electric generating portfolio of about 31,400 megawatts and 93,600 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines. It also would have a natural gas pipeline network totaling 106,400 miles and operate one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 1 trillion cubic feet of capacity.

About Dominion Energy

Nearly 6 million customers in 19 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy (NYSE: D). The company is committed to sustainable, reliable, affordable, and safe energy and is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy with over $75 billion of assets providing electric generation, transmission and distribution, as well as natural gas storage, transmission, distribution, and import/export services. As one of the nation's leading solar operators, the company intends to reduce its carbon intensity 50 percent by 2030. Headquartered in Richmond, Va., Dominion Energy contributes more than $20 million annually to the communities it serves and actively supports veterans and their families. Please visit www.DominionEnergy.com, Facebook or Twitter to learn more.



About SCANA

SCANA Corporation (NYSE: SCG), headquartered in Cayce, S.C., is an energy-based holding company principally engaged, through subsidiaries, in electric and natural gas utility operations and other energy-related businesses. Information about SCANA and its businesses is available on the company's website at www.scana.com.

Forward-looking statements

This release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements relate to, among other things, expectations, estimates and projections. We have used the words "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "outlook," "predict," "project," "should," "strategy," "target," "will," "would," "potential" and similar terms and phrases to identify forward-looking statements in this release. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to: the expected timing and likelihood of completion of the proposed acquisition of SCANA; the risk that Dominion Energy or SCANA may be unable to obtain necessary regulatory approvals for the transaction or required regulatory approvals may delay the transaction or cause the parties to abandon the transaction; the risk that conditions to the closing of the transaction may not be satisfied; or the risk that an unsolicited offer for the assets or capital stock of SCANA may interfere with the transaction. Other risk factors for Dominion Energy's and SCANA's businesses are detailed from time to time in Dominion Energy's and SCANA's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

For further information:

DOMINION ENERGY CONTACTS: Media: Chet Wade, (804) 775-5697 or [email protected]; Financial analysts: Steven Ridge, (804) 929-6865 or [email protected].

SCANA CONTACTS: Media: Public Affairs, (800) 562-9308;

Financial analysts: Bryant Potter, (803) 217-6916

SOURCE SCANA Corporation

Related Links

http://www.scana.com

GEORGETOWN, Texas, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaylene Rudd, a Middle Years Program (MYP) Coordinator and art teacher at the nationally renowned Meridian School in Round Rock, began her career as an internationally represented product designer, editorial illustrator and art director  creating works for educational publications, novels, editorial pieces and public murals around the world.

During the height of her career, her love for helping children inspired her to embark on a career in education. Kaylene, who had worked with and advocated for community youth while pursuing her BFA at Ringling College of Art Design, decided to receive an alternative certification and work in one of Florida's largest high needs high schools, teaching art to students who badly needed a creative outlet.

This prompted her to begin her current line of work: helping educators use creativity to improve their teaching practices and enhance student relationships in order to create the very best community of learners. Kaylene serves as the MYP Coordinator for the Meridian School, a public charter school in Round Rock  named the top high school in Texas and sixth best charter school in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.

Kaylene is currently pursuing her Master of Education Instructional Design with WGU Texas to continue improving her school's programs which will help her reach her long-term goal of becoming an International Baccalaureate (IB) Educator. This achievement will allow her to travel around the world visiting schools and providing professional development opportunities to other educators.

This past May, WGU Texas helped her get one step closer to making her dream a reality with a $5,000 Trailblazer Scholarship, a highly competitive scholarship awarded based on a candidate's financial need, academic record, readiness for online study at WGU, current competency, and other considerations.

"This degree perfectly aligns with my professional focus and would help me become better at assisting the staff at my school, which in turn directly impacts students," Kaylene said. "I wanted to pursue this degree for several years but was waiting to pay off my student loans, which I eventually realized wasn't practical because this knowledge will be highly beneficial for my career growth now. WGU Texas' convenience and affordability is allowing me to take those necessary steps without overburdening me financially, and I am so grateful for their generosity."

WGU Texas' competency-based learning model is ideal for adult learners who want to continue pursuing their education because it accommodates different learning styles, time constraints, and a wide range of existing knowledge and skills. In 2017, WGU Texas awarded degrees to 1,995 students from 129 counties across the Lone Star State. Since the university's launch in Texas in 2011, more than 8,500 graduates have earned their undergraduate or graduate degrees through a variety of academic offerings, addressing the state's critical workforce needs in high-demand fields such as IT, healthcare, business, and education.

About WGU Texas

WGU Texas, established by the State Legislature in 2011, now has more than 9,500 students and more than 7,000 graduates. State-endorsed and nonprofit, the online, competency-based university offers more than 60 bachelor's and master's degrees in business, information technology, K-12 teacher education, and health professions, including nursing.

Degrees are granted under the accreditation of Western Governors University, which is accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). Teachers College programs are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).*

Learn more at texas.wgu.edu or call 1.877.214.7011.

*Western Governors University offers nursing programs that are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 5380, Washington, DC 20036, 202-877-6791).

Follow WGU Texas:

http://www.facebook.com/WGUTexas

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/western-governors-university

http://twitter.com/wgutexas

Contact for media inquiries:

Kathy Koza, PR Manager

512.225.6644 or 214.674.8057 (c)

[email protected]

Contact for enrollment information:

877.214.7011

texas.wgu.edu

SOURCE WGU Texas

Related Links

http://texas.wgu.edu

Mizian has over 25 years of experience in leading engineering teams in the planning, design, and construction of complex water and wastewater projects for major capital improvement programs in the U.S. and United Arab Emirates. In addition, he has specialized expertise in both national and international environmental policies and water industry regulations. He most recently served as Vice President and Client Account Manager with Louis Berger, where he managed large teams to complete major projects and programs for various water utility clients primarily in Maryland, Washington DC, and New Jersey.

In his new role as Managing Director at Greeley and Hansen, Mizian will lead the firm's efforts to expand business operations in the Mid-Atlantic region with a focus on building solid partnerships with utility clients and developing sustainable solutions to address their long-term needs. He will also direct the overall business operations for multiple Greeley and Hansen office locations in the Mid-Atlantic.

"Eyad is a results-oriented leader with vast management experience and technical knowledge in delivering successful water infrastructure improvement programs," said John C. Robak, President. "His client-focused approach and proven leadership ability will be vital in helping to position our firm for continued strategic growth in this key Mid-Atlantic market."

A registered Professional Engineer and Attorney at Law, Eyad holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Rhode Island, an MS in Civil Engineering from Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, and a Juris Doctor in Law and Government from Widener University, Harrisburg, PA. He is a member of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Metro Washington DC, serving on the Water Infrastructure Committee.

About Greeley and Hansen

Greeley and Hansen is a leader in developing innovative engineering, architecture, and management solutions for a wide array of complex water, wastewater, and related infrastructure challenges. The firm has built upon over 100 years of proven civil and environmental engineering experience in all phases of project development and implementation to become a premier global provider of comprehensive services in the water sector. Greeley and Hansen is dedicated to designing better urban environments worldwide. http://www.greeley-hansen.com/new.htm

For more information, contact:

Nancy Stankus

312-558-9000

[email protected]

SOURCE Greeley and Hansen

Related Links

http://www.greeley-hansen.com

In recent years, new developments in the IT industry have caused a dramatic shift from PC-based systems to environments using smart devices and thin clients. Business applications have also seen transitions from client-server model applications to those utilizing the web, smart devices, cloud, and Robotic Process Automation. With increasing demand for products to adapt to such trends, "We are introducing a solution that adapts with flexibility to each organization's unique IT infrastructure to enable more efficient and productive capture environments resulting in simpler installation and operational cost savings," said Chief Executive Officer and President, Yasunari Shimizu, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. *1

Key features:

Seamless integration into business systems

Users can begin scanning from the scanner's touch screen or from various applications on smart devices to suit all business needs. SDK utilization allows direct data transfer to client-unique web systems, authentication, and scan requests. Strong data encryption also enables constantly secure data transfer.

Scan without the computer

With the fi-7300NX, users can now scan and save documents without any requirement for a local computer. Users simply login to the scanner using NFC*2 authentication and select from their personalized job menus on the fi-7300NX's touch screen. Customized job menus are displayed with user authentication, and ensure efficient and secure decentralized data capture is possible for each user.

Scan from your smart device to any business platform*3

Deploying the fi-7300NX with Fujitsu's new PaperStream NX Manager server software option allows users to scan from mobile or web applications opened up on smart devices or thin client terminals. Seamless integration into client systems enables the use of a variety of devices for scanning operations.

3 types of SDK to suit user environments

The PaperStream NX Manager SDK is provided to enable integration with various client systems and applications. The fi-7300NX will support a variety of partner integrations to enable seamless process workflow. Three types of SDK are offered: a REST API for web application development, Authentication API for validating credentials by NFC or authentication server, and a Connector API that links PaperStream NX Manager with other enterprise systems and document management software.

Reduce operating costs with centralized management

The user authentication function, customized job menus for each user, and other scan settings can all be centrally managed with PaperStream NX Manager and Scanner Central Admin . With the fi-7300NX's server software, there is no need for a conventional single client computer to control the scanner. This reduces the total burden on IT professions for installation, expansion, operation, and management.

Manage jobs and process images with PaperStream NX Manager

PaperStream NX Manager carries out user authentication, job management, image processing of scanned data, and data output for the fi-7300NX. PaperStream NX Manager allows automatic sharing of authentication methods and job settings to up to 1,000 fi-7300NX scanners.

Monitor scanner operation with Scanner Central Admin

Scanner Central Admin specializes in centralized management of multiple scanners, including batch updates of scanner settings and firmware, as well as monitoring of errors and consumables status on up to 1,000 scanners per server.

User-friendly hardware

Consistent, high-speed scanning

Inheriting the fi Series legacy of high-speed, consistent paper feeding, the fi-7300NX boasts a speed of 60 ppm/120 ipm for letter size documents*4. Documents folded in half and carbon-copy sales slips are also easy to scan with Manual Feed Mode. As the first standalone scanner in the industry*5 to support Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz bandwidth*6, the fi-7300NX reduces data transfer time.

Intuitive 4.3 inch touch screen for easy control and scan verification

The touch screen enables users to intuitively perform operations such as scanning and verifying data as thumbnails. The screen also displays messages or instructions with illustrations to provide guidance to users.

Put it anywhere with Wi-Fi flexibility

The fi-7300NX introduces PaperStream IP Net, the PaperStream IP scanner driver for Fujitsu image scanners with network connectivity. Connection without the USB cable allows the scanner to be positioned wherever needed, to improve user productivity, reduce interruptions, and make more room for other used equipment. Both advanced driver and software, PaperStream IP and PaperStream Capture, enable users to fully enjoy simple scanning operations and high quality images.

Pricing & Availability

The Fujitsu fi-7300NX available now through authorized resellers, VARs, and distributors including Ingram Micro, NewWave Technologies, Inc., and Tech Data Corporation. Fujitsu has priced the fi-7300NX scanner at $1,395 list price.

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 140,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.

About Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. is an established leader in the Document Imaging industry, delivering innovative scanning solutions and services that enable our customers to solve critical business productivity issues and streamline operations. Fujitsu provides cutting-edge document capture solutions for business and personal environments, backed by a comprehensive portfolio of service and support programs. For more information about Fujitsu document imaging, visit us.fujitsu.com/fcpa.

Trademarks

Product names and company names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of the respective companies.

Note

Installation requires tools such as fi-7300NX Rollout Tool, Network Setup Tool for fi-7300NX, and Scanner Central Admin. NFC authentication includes Type-A and Type-B. User authentication with username and password input on the touch screen is also available. Integration required for mobile device scanning. A4 size documents fed in vertically, 200/300 dpi. Based on a 2018 study by PFU Limited on scanners with Wi-Fi connectivity. 5 GHz Wi-Fi availability may vary across regions.

Contact: Gabrielle Kur, 516-567-3036, [email protected]

SOURCE Fujitsu

Related Links

http://www.fujitsu.com

BEDMINSTER, N.J., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GCAP) ("GAIN Capital") ("the Company") today announced the appointment of Alex Howard as Managing Director, APAC (excluding China), effective September 3, 2018.

In the newly created role, Alex will be responsible for the overall strategic execution and performance of GAIN's retail business in Australia, Singapore, Japan and Southeast Asia. Mr. Howard will be based in GAIN's Singapore office.

"We are very pleased to welcome Alex to the GAIN leadership team. His deep industry knowledge and extensive experience developing and leading commercial strategies in the Asia Pacific region will be extremely valuable as we look to scale our key markets in the region, including Singapore, Australia and Japan, as well as develop our business in fast growing, emerging markets in Southeast Asia," said Samantha Roady.

Alex Howard added, "GAIN has made tremendous progress over the last few years growing its retail business in the US, UK and Europe, and I look forward to continuing to build on that momentum in the Asia Pacific region, which is a dynamic and diverse region undergoing rapid transformation in retail financial services. There is substantial opportunity for expansion of GAIN's business in the region and we believe it will be a key contributor to the firm's future growth."

Mr. Howard joins GAIN Capital from IG Group, where he was most recently Head of Asia Pacific, overseeing IG Group's operations in Japan, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and China.

About GAIN

GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. provides innovative trading technology and execution services to retail and institutional investors worldwide, with multiple access points to OTC markets and global exchanges across a wide range of asset classes, including foreign exchange, commodities, and global equities. GAIN Capital is headquartered in Bedminster, New Jersey, with a global presence across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions. For further company information, visit www.gaincapital.com.

SOURCE GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.gaincapital.com

DANIA BEACH, Fla., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gloria Bohan, CEO and founder of Omega World Travel, in Fairfax, VA, was honored this past week by the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) with the highly coveted 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award during the general session at ASTA's Global Convention in Washington, D.C. She has been a member of this prestigious organization since 1975.



The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), now rebranded as American Society of Travel Advisors, promotes excellence within the travel industry and its ASTA awards program was designed to recognize those individuals and organizations who make lasting contributions to the industry.



"Gloria Bohan is a dominant entrepreneur with a keen eye for market trends who just somehow seems to see a little bit further than others and executes a little faster," said Zane Kirby, ASTA president and CEO.



Bohan spoke of her award, stating, "I am very proud to have been acknowledged by the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), which has accomplished so much over the years to promote and assist travel advisors, the traveling public and all levels of government. It has meant a great deal to me in my career to be a member of such a prestigious and accomplished organization."



With unwavering dedication to the travel industry Gloria has achieved many top accolades, including being recognized by Tour and Travel News as "One of the 25 Most Influential Leaders in the Travel Industry." Other achievements include being named one of the Top 500 Women in the United States by Working Woman Magazine and inclusion into the Enterprising Women's "Hall of Fame."



Gloria's passion for travel and experiencing the world merged with her innovative ideas to form a perfect union. In addition to establishing Omega World Travel, she also founded Cruise.com in 1998 which has grown to be one of the largest sellers of cruises in the world. TravTech, established by Ms. Bohan in 2001, is a travel software development company that offers a variety of web-based business and consumer travel tools and applications.



Committed to social issues, Gloria is a strong supporter or on the board of multiple organizations. Some of these include the South Florida Chapter of Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), Junior Achievement and the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).



About Gloria Bohan

A seasoned travel professional, Gloria brings over four decades of experience, expertise and knowledge to the travel industry. Since founding Omega World Travel in 1972, she has become one of the top female business owners in the United States. Some of Gloria's many business accolades are inclusion into the Enterprising Women "Hall of Fame," Tour and Travel News' "One of the 25 Most Influential Leaders in the Travel Industry," the American Society of Travel Agents "Travel Agent of the Year" and Office Depot's "Businesswoman of the Year." Gloria Bohan is the godmother of two ships, Windstar's Star Legend and Riviera Cruises' river ship, the MS Robert Burns. Gloria is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College, where she has served as a trustee and holds an honorary doctorate.



About Omega World Travel

Omega World Travel is a woman-owned, diversity supplier, and the fourth largest travel management company in the U.S. Headquartered in Fairfax, Va., Omega World Travel services corporate, government, meeting, and leisure clients throughout the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Omega World Travel also owns Cruise.com, one of the largest sellers of cruises on the Internet, and TravTech, a software development company. For additional information about Omega World Travel please visit: OmegaTravel.com

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Omega World Travel

Related Links

https://www.omegatravel.com/

ATLANTA, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK), (the "Company"), a leading provider of packaging solutions to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies, today released its 2017 Sustainability and Social Responsibility Report. The report highlights the robust initiatives the Company has implemented and is continually pursuing to preserve the environment and invest in the communities where it operates. The report is available on the Sustainability tab at www.graphicpkg.com.

Since establishing sustainability goals in 2008, the Company has made significant progress on its initiatives. The 2017 Sustainability and Social Responsibility Report provides an extensive overview of the Company's activities with references to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards. In preparing the report, the Company engaged third parties to generate the energy, carbon emissions and water metrics. The Company also responds to the CDP's (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) Supply Chain, Climate Change, Water and Forestry questionnaires each year.

The report outlines three key community pillars on which the Company is focused: Preserving the Environment, Putting Food on the Table, and Investing in Education. The report also highlights Graphic Packaging's Sustainability Vision 2025, which notes both the historical progress toward reducing the Company's environmental footprint and the goals Graphic Packaging is committed to achieving by 2025. The report includes numerous examples of the accomplishments the Company is making with environmental and social initiatives as well.

"We are proud to formally present our 2017 Sustainability and Social Responsibility Report, which clearly lays out the strides Graphic Packaging has made on key sustainability and social initiatives and what we will continue to focus on for many years into the future," said President and CEO Michael Doss. "Sustainability and social responsibility are at the heart of what we do at Graphic Packaging. This includes the renewable and recyclable paperboard-based cartons and foodservice containers we produce for our customers from renewable wood fiber, our focus on continually reducing our raw material consumption and environmental footprint, and our significant involvement in the communities where we operate. We look forward to keeping our stakeholders updated on our continued progress on these initiatives in the future."

About Graphic Packaging Holding Company

Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is committed to providing consumer packaging that makes a world of difference. The Company is a leading provider of paper-based packaging solutions for a wide variety of products to food, beverage, foodservice, and other consumer products companies. The Company operates on a global basis, is one of the largest producers of folding cartons and paper-based foodservice products in the United States, and holds leading market positions in solid bleached sulfate paperboard, coated unbleached kraft paperboard and coated recycled paperboard. The Company's customers include many of the world's most widely-recognized companies and brands. Additional information about Graphic Packaging, its business and its products is available on the Company's web site at www.graphicpkg.com.

SOURCE Graphic Packaging Holding Company

Related Links

http://www.graphicpkg.com

BOSTON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- GreekBoston.com donates money to support 20 different non-profit Greek American organizations as a celebration of GreekBoston.com's 20th anniversary.

GreekBoston.com is one of the largest and most popular Greek websites written in English on the Internet. GreekBoston.com is geared for people who want to learn and appreciate Greek and Hellenic culture. Established in 1998, the goal of https://www.greekboston.com is to promote Hellenism throughout the world.

Nick Stamoulis and Tanya Stamoulis acquired GreekBoston.com.com through their Internet marketing company, Brick Marketing, in 2014. Since that time, they have made extensive changes to the website. They have grown the GreekBoston.com audience from 75,000 unique monthly visitors to 500,000 visitors per month. Learn more about GreekBoston.com here: https://www.greekboston.com/about/

Instead of putting on an expensive 20th anniversary party, Nick Stamoulis and Tanya Stamoulis decided to donate that money to 20 non-profit Greek and Hellenic organizations in the United States. These Greek American non-profit organizations were hand picked and selected due to their hard work and promotion of Hellenism.

Nick Stamoulis and Tanya Stamoulis and GreekBoston.com have donated to the following Hellenic Organizations based in the United States:

National Hellenic Society, The Hellenic Initiative, Federation of Hellenic-American Societies of New England, AHEPA, Alpha Omega Council, The Greek Institute, Daughters of Penelope, American Hellenic Institute, Hellenic American Academy of Lowell MA, Greek America Foundation, Boston Lykeion Ellinidon, National Hellenic Museum, The Hellenic Women's Club, Hellenic Cultural Society of San Diego, Elios Charitable Foundation, Hellenic Foundation Chicago, PanHellenic Scholarship Foundation, Hellenic Relief Foundation, Greek Children's Fund and National Hellenic Student Association.

Nick Stamoulis of GreekBoston.com says, "We are very excited to celebrate this major milestone of 20 years online and contribute to 20 amazing Greek organizations that support Hellenic culture as much as we do. We look forward to another twenty years of success and growth, so that future generations can learn about and admire Greek culture!"

GreekBoston.com highlights all aspects of the Greek culture, including travel, food, and music. Here's a look at what information can found on the website:

Local Greek Resources. GreekBoston.com has resources and information for the Greek population in Boston and New England, such as a calendar of area Greek events and Greek festivals, Local Greek business directory, streaming the locally broadcast Grecian Echoes radio program, and streaming episodes of The Greek Program, a local show by Eleni Vidalis .

GreekBoston.com has resources and information for the Greek population in and New England, such as a calendar of area Greek events and Greek festivals, Local Greek business directory, streaming the locally broadcast Grecian Echoes radio program, and streaming episodes of The Greek Program, a local show by . Greek Traditions and Greek Music. Visitors can learn how to Greek Dance, listen to Greek music, learn principals of the Greek language, and understand Greek traditions for weddings, baptisms, Christmas, New Year's, and Easter (Pascha).

Visitors can learn how to Greek Dance, listen to Greek music, learn principals of the Greek language, and understand Greek traditions for weddings, baptisms, Christmas, New Year's, and Easter (Pascha). History and Mythology. GreekBoston.com also contains articles about Ancient Greek History, Modern History, and a collection of stories and information about Greek Mythology.

GreekBoston.com also contains articles about Ancient Greek History, Modern History, and a collection of stories and information about Greek Mythology. Greek Food and Recipes. Food is an important part of the Greek culture. Visitors can find a comprehensive collection of authentic Greek recipes, as well as articles ad information about Greek cuisine.

Food is an important part of the Greek culture. Visitors can find a comprehensive collection of authentic Greek recipes, as well as articles ad information about Greek cuisine. Greek Travel. Get inspired to visit Greece by reading articles from our Greek travel section! Find information for all the major destinations, such as Santorini, Athens , and Mykonos.

GreekBoston.com (https://www.greekboston.com) uses all advertising money it earns to invest back into the site for businesses, individuals, organizations, that wish to reach the significant audience of GreekBoston.com, can learn more info about advertising at the following link: https://www.greekboston.com/about/advertising-rates/

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Nick Stamoulis

781-223-3651

[email protected]

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE GreekBoston.com

Related Links

http://www.greekboston.com

CHICAGO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hometown Food Company (" Hometown Foods "), a wholly-owned portfolio company of Brynwood Partners VII L.P. and Brynwood Partners VIII L.P., is pleased to announce that it has closed the transaction to acquire a portfolio of brands from The J.M. Smucker Company for approximately $375 million. Hometown Foods will be headquartered in Chicago, IL and will operate its 650,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Toledo, OH.

The portfolio of acquired brands includes the exclusive U.S. rights to the Pillsbury branded shelf-stable baking and dessert products and use of the iconic Pillsbury Doughboy in these categories. Also included in the company's portfolio is the Funfetti, Hungry Jack, White Lily, Jim Dandy and Martha White brands.

Hometown Foods is also pleased to announce that it has hired Daniel Butler as its President and CEO. Most recently, Mr. Butler was President and CEO of Wilton Brands, LLC. Prior to that, Mr. Butler worked at Kraft Foods Inc. for 17 years where he held senior level sales, marketing and general management positions. In addition to Mr. Butler, the company has hired Tim Young, David Meltzer and Dan Anglemyer who are joining Hometown Foods as its CFO, EVP of Sales and Chief Marketing Officer, respectively. Most recently, Mr. Young was with Treehouse Foods, Inc., Mr. Meltzer was with Richelieu Foods, Inc. and Mr. Anglemyer was with Back to Nature Foods Company, LLC.

The company, which ultimately expects to employ approximately 50 people in its Chicago, IL based headquarters, has also come to agreement with several other talented senior level executives and continues to seek to aggressively build out its team.

"We are pleased to announce the closing of the Hometown Foods transaction and the hiring of an exceptional and experienced executive management team," said Henk Hartong III, Chairman and CEO of Brynwood Partners. "We are excited to have a very talented management team in place at the closing and will be off to a fast start with the new company. We are looking forward to working closely with Dan and his team to bring focus and energy to this business and to execute on our strategy to grow these great brands in the years to come. Additionally, as we have done so successfully in past portfolio company investments, we will aggressively seek to identify and make add-on acquisitions where they fit our strategy."

About Hometown Food Company:

Hometown Food Company, based in Chicago, IL, was formed by Brynwood Partners in June 2018 to acquire a portfolio of brands from The J.M. Smucker Company. The portfolio includes the exclusive U.S. rights to the iconic Pillsbury brand's shelf-stable baking products, including Funfetti, along with the Hungry Jack, White Lily, Jim Dandy and Martha White brands. Pillsbury, Funfetti and Hungry Jack are leading national brands in the shelf-stable baking and breakfast categories and White Lily, Jim Dandy and Martha White are regional brands known for flour, corn meal and grits. Hometown Foods manufactures the majority of its products from its 650,000 square foot facility in Toledo, OH where the company employs 255 full-time employees. For more information on Hometown Foods, please visit www.hometownfoodcompany.com.

About Brynwood Partners:

Brynwood Partners, founded in 1984 and based in Greenwich, CT, is an operationally-focused private equity firm that makes control investments in North American-based lower middle market companies. The firm targets non-core brands or companies operating exclusively in the consumer sector. Since inception, Brynwood Partners has acquired 52 brands from 19 different corporate sellers.

Brynwood Partners currently manages more than $1 billion of private equity capital for its limited partners, which include U.S. and international pension funds, fund-of-funds, endowments, foundations, high net worth family investment offices and financial institutions. Brynwood Partners' most recent fund, Brynwood Partners VIII L.P., has $649 million of committed capital and made its final close in January 2018. For more information on Brynwood Partners, please visit www.brynwoodpartners.com.

SOURCE Brynwood Partners

Related Links

http://www.brynwoodpartners.com

Pakistan Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Afghan counterpart, Salahuddin Rabbani had a telephonic conversation over the closure of the Pakistan consulate in Jalalabad city, the capital of Nangarhar province.

"The issue of closure of the Pakistan Consulate General in Jalalabad due to a security crisis was also discussed. Mr. Qureshi requested the Afghan Government for restoring the previous security arrangements existing till 28th August 2018, so that the Consulate General's normal functioning could be resumed at the earliest," a statement from Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs read, reported Khaama Press.

"Foreign Minister Rabbani reassured a positive outcome soon in this regard and mentioned his meeting with the Ambassador of Pakistan in Kabul yesterday. Till resolution of the issue, Pakistan in the meantime would continue issuing visas to patients or students residing in the jurisdiction of the Consulate's as an emergency measure," the statement added.

The Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul declared on Saturday that the consulate in Jalalabad has been closed due to alleged interference from the Governor of Nangarhar, Hayatullah Hayat.

Hayat, however, dismissed those allegations, saying that joint efforts with the Pakistani consulate had been launched in an effort to resolve concerns with the issuance of visas, primarily involving disorder and briberies.

(ANI)DES PLAINES, Ill., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced that it has acquired Ortloff Engineers, Ltd., a privately held licensor and industry-leading developer of specialized technologies that drive high returns in natural gas processing and sulfur recovery. Terms of the acquisition, which closed on Aug. 31, have not been disclosed. There is no change to the Company's guidance for 2018 as a result of the acquisition.

Ortloff will become part of Honeywell UOP's Gas Processing and Hydrogen business, bringing the industry's most advanced expertise in the recovery of high-value natural gas liquids (NGLs) from natural gas streams. Ortloff technologies are specialized to maximize gas separation, providing customers with high operational flexibility and greater returns on their plant investments. Ortloff also specializes in unique technologies for removing sulfur from refinery feedstocks, ensuring greater plant reliability and operability over the refinery lifecycle.

"For decades, Ortloff technology has defined the forefront of gas processing technology. That enables our customers to realize very high returns from their investments in natural gas separation," said John Gugel, president of Honeywell UOP. "This differentiated, highly advanced technology, allows our customers to meet stringent process guarantees, while their operations perform at a best-in-class level. Ortloff also has unmatched expertise in sulfur recovery that tie in extremely well with our gas and refining portfolios."

Honeywell UOP has worked closely with Ortloff since 2002, proving the effectiveness of these technologies with its customer set and establishing a long record of commercial success. This has helped gas processors secure financing for new projects and win long-term supply contracts with customers.

"Ortloff complements our existing offerings perfectly, enabling Honeywell UOP to better meet customer needs for high-recovery NGL extraction plants globally," said Rachelle Goebel, vice president and general manager of Honeywell UOP's Gas Processing and Hydrogen business. "Our joint technology offerings are installed in more than 50 gas plants around the world, allowing our customers to capture the greatest value from their natural gas resources."

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. demand for NGLs is growing by more than 10 percent annually. NGLs and liquefied petroleum gas are in high demand as petrochemical feedstocks used in the production of plastics, automotive products and detergents.

Based in Midland, Texas, Ortloff was founded in 1962 and is recognized worldwide as a leader in cryogenic gas liquids recovery, LNG processing, sulfur recovery and sour gas processing plant design. Ortloff has patented processes for NGL recovery including supplemental rectification with reflux (SRX), recycle split vapor (RSV), and single column overhead recycle (SCORE) technologies with extremely high recoveries and efficiencies, including more than 99 percent of ethane and nearly 100 percent of propane.

Honeywell UOP's Gas Processing and Hydrogen business offers technology, equipment and materials to treat and process natural gas and to purify hydrogen used in refining and petrochemicals production. Its gas processing technologies remove water, sulfur, carbon dioxide, mercury and other contaminants from raw natural gas, and separates NGLs from natural gas streams. Its UOP Russell business is a leading provider of modular gas processing plants. Honeywell UOP has provided technology to 4,000 process units throughout the world, including Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels that recover natural gas from offshore wells.

Honeywell UOP (www.uop.com) is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. Honeywell UOP is part of Honeywell's Performance Materials and Technologies strategic business group, which also includes Honeywell Process Solutions (www.honeywellprocess.com), a pioneer in automation control, instrumentation and services for the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, chemical and other industries.

Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 software-industrial company that delivers industry specific solutions that include aerospace and automotive products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes, and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help everything from aircraft, cars, homes and buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom.

This release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that we or our management intends, expects, projects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by our management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. The forward-looking statements included in this release are also subject to a number of material risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to economic, competitive, governmental, and technological factors affecting our operations, markets, products, services and prices, as well as the ability to effect the separations. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results, developments and business decisions may differ from those envisaged by such forward-looking statements, including with respect to any changes in or abandonment of the proposed separations. We identify the principal risks and uncertainties that affect our performance in our Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Honeywell

Related Links

http://www.honeywell.com

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hudson Institute announced today that Ann Marie Hauser has been named vice president of public affairs. At Hudson Institute, Hauser will lead public affairs strategy for the think tank's extensive agenda of research publications, policy events, and media engagement.

"Ann Marie Hauser brings a wealth of experience shaping Washington public policy debates," said Ken Weinstein, president and CEO of Hudson Institute. "As a veteran communications strategist and policy expert, Ann Marie's leadership will amplify the impact of Hudson's wide-ranging expertise."

Most recently, Hauser served as deputy staff director of the U.S. Senate Republican Conference chaired by Sen. John Thune (R-SD), where she led efforts to promote the Republican conference's platform of pro-growth policies and strengthen messaging after the party regained the Senate majority in 2014. Previously, she managed public affairs strategy for Patomak Global Partners, and prior to that served as managing vice president at JDA Frontline. In these roles, she was a frequent panel guest at news outlets and conferences, addressing the role of women in politics.

She has previously served as communications director for Governor Tim Pawlenty's presidential bid and communications director for Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE). During the George W. Bush administration, she was the director of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce and spokesperson at the U.S. Department of Treasury. In addition, Hauser was regional press secretary at the Republican National Committee in the 2006 cycle and the Iowa communications director for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in 2004. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University.

For additional information, please contact Hudson Institute Press Secretary, Carolyn Stewart, at [email protected] or (202) 974-6456.

Hudson Institute is a research organization promoting American leadership and global engagement for a secure, free, and prosperous future. http://www.hudson.org

SOURCE Hudson Institute

Related Links

https://www.hudson.org

"At its heart JANE & EMMA depicts the story of two remarkable women whose bond of friendship brought them together in times of tremendous adversity, empowering them to stand strong. They were as unique as the team who came together to make this film, a team comprised of people from all backgrounds and walks of life. That diversity, both in storytelling and in the making of the story, is the magic behind the honesty and power of this film," said Chantelle Squires, Director of JANE & EMMA. "We are excited to see how audiences are going to connect with this authentic, on-screen portrayal, and honored to be placed alongside other films and filmmakers for which we have the deepest respect."

The ReFrame Stamp serves as a mark of distinction for projects that have demonstrated success in gender-balanced film and TV productions based on criteria developed by ReFrame in consultation with ReFrame Ambassadors (complete list below), producers and other industry experts. Stamps are awarded by ReFrame to narrative features and television programs that hire female-identifying people in four out of eight critical areas of their production, including: writer, director, producer, lead, co-lead, speaking parts, department heads, and crew. Additional points are awarded to content that has women of color by Women number of women of all backgrounds working in film, TV and media- in key positions. The criteria are iterative and will change over time as the industry evolves. Including those announced today, 34 total films have received the ReFrame Stamp thus far.



Members of the creative community recognize the ReFrame Stamp as a dynamic lever to drive change and spotlight gender-balanced productions that hire more women, both in front of and behind the camera.

JANE & EMMA opens in limited release October 12th, and the LA Red Carpet Premiere will take place on October 4th at ArcLight Hollywood.

JANE & EMMA RESOURCES

Visit the website : https://www.janeandemmamovie.com/

Release from ReFrame: https://goo.gl/uQm4KM

Story in Variety: https://goo.gl/zwoBfD

FILM SYNOPSIS: JANE & EMMA is based on the life of Sister Jane Manning, one of the first black Mormons. She returns to Nauvoo to find that Joseph Smith, her prophet and friend, has been assassinated. Jane spends a ceaseless night with his widow, Emma Smith, sitting watch over the body of the prophet as a whirlwind of loss and confusion leaves them wondering how either one of them will be able to move forward. Through the long night, Jane wonders if the prophet's promise to extend the blessings of eternity to her has died along with him. The film explores the possible events of that night, including Jane's endeavor to remain amongst the Mormon people and Emma's struggle to cope with her heartbreaking loss. Poignant issues of racism and polygamy threaten to break their bond of friendship. In the end, will Jane and Emma have the courage to follow the path each believes they must take?



The JANE + EMMA cast includes Danielle Deadwyler as Jane (THE HAVES AND THE HAVE NOTS, GIFTED), Emily Goss as Emma Smith (THE HOUSE ON PINE STREET, SNAPSHOTS), Brad Schmidt as Joseph Smith (THE BIRTH OF A NATION, HOUSE OF LIES), and K. Danor Gerald as Isaac James (SAINTS AND SOLDIERS, THE VOID)



JANE & EMMA is directed and produced by Chantelle Squires (RESERVED TO FIGHT) of Clearstone Films and written by Melissa Leilani Larson (FREETOWN). It is produced by Madeline Jorgensen, Jenn Lee Smith and Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes (Sistas in Zion). The Executive Producers are Brent Jorgensen, Sundance Film Festival Co-Founder Sterling VanWagenen, and Jon Lear.

The movie also features the title song "Child of God," performed by The Bonner Family.

ABOUT CLEARSTONE FILMS

Clearstone Films is a Utah-based, woman-owned production company known for Reserved to Fight, an award-winning national PBS documentary, and The Generations Project, an award-winning, multi-part documentary series for BYUTV. Its first narrative feature film, JANE & EMMA, is due in theaters October 12, 2018.

ABOUT EXCEL ENTERTAINMENT

Excel Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deseret Book Company, is the preeminent independent film distribution company in Utah. Since 2000, Excel has released more than 40 successful films. Well-known for telling Mormon stories (GOD'S ARMY, THE WORK & THE GLORY SERIES, 17 MIRACLES, PRIDE & PREJUDICE), Excel has also had success with films with non-Mormon themes and stories (FOREVER STRONG, SAINTS & SOLDIERS, JUST LET GO, THE COKEVILLE MIRACLE). Excel exists to tell stories that challenge us to live up to the light that is within each of us, bringing hope and inspiration to audiences worldwide.

SOURCE Excel EntertainmentROCKY HILL, Conn., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lotus Hospitality held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and luncheon celebrating its opening of the brand new Hampton Inn & Suites hotel in Rocky Hill, Connecticut.

With 90 guest rooms and suites, the hotel features a fresh and comfortable design along with amenities every traveler wants, including free Wi-Fi and complimentary hot breakfast. There is also meeting space for up to 50, an on-site fitness center, an indoor saline swimming pool and a patio with fireplace for guests to enjoy.

"We designed the hotel to meet the needs of today's travelers and to provide an inviting, functional and fun experience for every guest," said Gaurang "Gary" Desai, president of Lotus Hospitality.

Located in the Hartford South region of Connecticut, the hotel is convenient to Downtown Hartford, Middletown and Glastonbury, as well as Wesleyan University, Trinity College and the University of Hartford. The brand new Hampton Inn & Suites is nearby the North American headquarters of consumer giant Henkel Corporation in addition to Optum, Arburg, Eversource, Burris Logistics, Hartford and Saint Francis Hospitals, Corporate Ridge office park and the I-91 Tech Center.

"Our brand new, fresh and modern Hampton Inn & Suites with easy access to all of the region, combined with an abundance of dining options with local flavor right in our neighborhood, make our hotel perfect for anyone traveling to Rocky Hill and the Hartford area," said General Manager Julie Leonard.

The ribbon cutting was attended by representatives of Hilton Hotels, State Representative Antonio Guerrera, State Senator Paul Doyle and Governor Dannel Malloy, along with several other local officials, business leaders and family and friends of the developer.

About Hampton by Hilton

As the number one ranked franchise for the past eight years, according to Entrepreneur, Hampton by Hilton, including Hampton Inn by Hilton and Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton, serves value-conscious and quality-driven travelers with more than 2,300 properties with nearly 234,000 rooms in 19 countries and territories. High-quality accommodations and amenities, such as complimentary Wi-Fi, free, hot breakfast and On The Run breakfast bags, contribute to Hampton by Hilton ranking as a leader in its segment. Hampton by Hilton Team Members deliver friendly, authentic, caring and thoughtful service defined as Hamptonality.

About Lotus Hospitality

Based in the Hartford, Connecticut area, Lotus Hospitality owns and manages several lodging and real estate properties in the Northeast with its primary focus in Southern New England.

Media Contact: V. Desai, 860 263 9787, [email protected]

Related Images

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SOURCE Lotus HospitalityIRVINE, Calif., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total August U.S. sales of 25,816 vehicles, representing a decrease of 0.1 percent versus August of last year. Year-to-date (YTD) sales through August are up 9.9 percent versus last year, with 213,865 vehicles sold. With 27 selling days in August 2018, versus 27 the year prior, the company posted a decrease of 0.1 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.

Key August sales notes:

Mazda MX-5 had a very strong month, finishing up August with an increase of 29.7 percent month-over-month, with 1,169 vehicles sold.

Sales of Mazda CX-9, Mazda's 3-row crossover SUV finished August with a 26.4 percent increase month-over-month with 2,276 vehicles sold and is up 18.3 percent Year-To-Date.

Mazda CX-5, Mazda's midsized crossover SUV continues with strong sales with 12,970 vehicles sold during the month of August, an increase of 11.5 percent month-over-month. Sales of the Mazda CX-5 are up 36.1 percent YTD.

Sales of Mazda's CX-line remain strong, with CX-3, CX-5 and CX-9 posting increased sales month-over-month in August. Collectively reaching 16,727 vehicles sold in the month of August. This number represents a increase of 12 percent month-over-month, and an increase of 29 percent YTD.

Mazda reported Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) sales of 5,201 vehicles in August, marking an increase of 37.7 percent month-over-month. CPO sales are up 20.2 percent YTD.

Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported August sales of 5,041 vehicles, up 10 percent versus August of last year.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through nearly 700 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at InsideMazda.MazdaUSA.com/Newsroom.

SOURCE Mazda North American Operations

Related Links

http://www.mazdausa.com

McDermott was responsible for the procurement, fabrication, installation and testing of a series of pipeline buckle initiators, pipeline end terminations and foundation mudmats, in-line tee structures and approximately 21 miles (35 kilometers) of a 16-inch (40 centimeters) corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) pipeline extending from the existing Goodwyn A Platform to the Lady Nora and Pemberton field manifold locations.

"McDermott's strong execution capability is one of the reasons why clients continue to entrust their most important projects to us," said Ian Prescott, McDermott's Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific. "Greater Western Flank 2 is a testament to our execution, preparation and vertical integration capabilities. It shows McDermott can deliver challenging projects in challenging environments."

"One of the key challenges of the project was to perform installation work inside the 546 yards (500 meters) safety zone of Woodside's Goodwyn A Platform," said Vince Vieraitis, McDermott's GWF-2 Project Director. "Through close collaboration with the client, the project was delivered in full compliance to project specifications with zero lost time incidents."

McDermott deployed two of its specialty vessels to complete the installation phase, namely DLV 2000 for the pipelay campaign and the Lay Vessel 108 for the pre-lay and post-lay campaign. McDermott also set up an onshore portable and temporary double jointing facility at its Batam fabrication yard in Indonesia to simulate the offshore installation campaign.

Project Details

The Greater Western Flank Phase 2 fields lie in water depths varying between 262 feet (80 meters) and 426 feet (130 meters) at approximately 29 to 37 miles (40 to 60 kilometers) southwest of the Goodwyn A Platform, located off the northwest coast of western Australia. It includes the development of eight wells from the Keast, Dockrell, Lady Nora, Pemberton, Sculptor and Rankin fields. Gas production is tied-back via the pipeline end termination, in-line tees and subsea pipeline to the platform. The project is expected to achieve first gas by the end of this year.

About McDermott

McDermott is a premier, fully integrated provider of technology, engineering and construction solutions to the energy industry. For more than a century, customers have trusted McDermott to design and build end-to-end infrastructure and technology solutionsfrom the wellhead to the storage tankto transport and transform oil and gas into the products the world needs today. Our proprietary technologies, integrated expertise and comprehensive solutions deliver certainty, innovation and added value to energy projects around the world. Customers rely on McDermott to deliver certainty to the most complex projects, from concept to commissioning. It is called the "One McDermott Way." Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott's locally focused and globally-integrated resources include approximately 40,000 employees and engineers, a diversified fleet of specialty marine construction vessels and fabrication facilities around the world. As used in this press release, McDermott includes McDermott International, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. To learn more, visit www.mcdermott.com.

Contacts:

Investor Relations

Scott Lamb

Vice President, Investor Relations

+1 832-513-1068

[email protected]

Global Media Relations

Gentry Brann

Global Vice President, Communications

+1 281-870-5269

[email protected]

Local Asia Contact

Philip Ng

Communications Manager, Asia

+6017 200 4238 (mobile, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

[email protected]

SOURCE McDermott International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mcdermott.com

Tessa Ohlendorf appointed managing director

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MightyHive, the premier Programmatic and Analytics Solutions Partner, today announced its expansion into Canada with the hiring of Tessa Ohlendorf as managing director. Headquartered in Toronto, the MightyHive Canada enterprise sales and client management team is expected to grow rapidly this year and already has relationships with customers such as Home Depot Canada.

"MightyHive has ambitious plans for the programmatic market in Canada focused on consulting, in-housing and enterprise data, which are huge opportunities," said Pete Kim, CEO MightyHive. "Tessa has always focused on growth and building companies from the ground up, and we are delighted to have her lead sales and operations for MightyHive Canada."

Tessa will oversee all Canadian clients and manage services teams in the areas of programmatic buying across digital channels, systems integration, and enterprise data and analytics consulting.

"MightyHive offers something unique: an integrated end-to-end media, data and analytics process that uses innovative marketing technology paired with strategic consulting. It is no surprise that MightyHive is in a high-growth stage," said Tessa Ohlendorf, MD Canada, MightyHive. "I'm delighted to lead this one of a kind solution to the Canadian market."

A respected leader and visionary with deep knowledge in the programmatic space, Tessa has worked in both the US and Canada with programmatic technology, search and social media solutions. When programmatic gained traction in Canada in 2012, Tessa drove success for clients and her internal teams while at Cadreonwhich she launched in the Canadian marketand has been part of the transformation of the industry ever since. "Bringing digital capabilities in-house can be not only efficient but also incredibly enlightening, when done correctly, by providing clients with the utmost transparency and access to their data, assets, and campaigns," added Ms. Ohlendorf.

On September 20th Ms. Ohlendorf will be speaking at Future TV Advertising Forum Canada during Session Two: The Future of Agencies, Brands, Planning, and Media.

About MightyHive

MightyHive is the digital transformation partner that combines the capabilities of a consultancy and the media knowledge of an agency with deep expertise in cloud and leading ad tech platforms. Serving enterprise customers and agencies alike, MightyHive services include in-housing consulting, full-service campaign management, and platform implementation, all under one roof and with complete transparency. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, London, Singapore, Sydney and Toronto.

Contact: Andrea Boren, [email protected] , 1-650-644-1700

SOURCE MightyHive

Related Links

http://mightyhive.com

AWANS, Belgium, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Miracor Medical SA (Miracor Medical) today announced the final closing of the Series D financing round of 30M. The Series D capital will be used to further develop and commercialize the PiCSO Impulse System. The Series-D round was led by Ming Capital (Shenzhen, China) and co-led by a strategic investor. Participating new investors include Belgian alternative investment fund Quest for Growth, and participating existing investors include Ming Capital, SFPI and Meusinvest. The technical and clinical research programs of Miracor are also supported by a financing program of the DGO6 (Walloon Government).

PiCSO therapy has shown in several clinical studies positive results. New data from the OxAMI-PICSO trial was presented at EuroPCR 2018, a global interventional cardiology conference, and the results were published simultaneously in EuroIntervention (De Maria, et al). OxAMI-PICSO showed that the use of the PiCSO Impulse System is associated with an early improvement of coronary microvascular function. PiCSO therapy accelerates the microcirculatory recovery resulting in significantly lower IMR (Index of Microcirculatory Resistance) at 24-48 hours when compared to controls leading to overall infarct size reduction.

"These clinical results are very encouraging. The additional funds enable us to validate the technology in new clinical studies including a randomized clinical trial to start this year in Europe, and launch the PiCSO therapy to help patients," says Olivier Delporte, CEO of Miracor Medical.

PiCSO therapy is provided during the PCI (Percutaneous Coronary Intervention) in patients enduring acute myocardial infarct (AMI). The PiCSO Impulse System improves coronary myocardial perfusion by intermittently occluding the coronary sinus outflow resulting in improved perfusion of the infarcted area. The use of the PiCSO Impulse System offers advantages of reducing the infarct size after AMI.

About Miracor Medical

Miracor Medical (www.miracormedical.com), located in Awans, Belgium, provides innovative solutions for the treatment of severe cardiac diseases, aiming to improve short and long-term clinical outcomes and reduce associated cost.

Miracor Medical develops the PiCSO Impulse System, the first and only coronary sinus intervention designed to reduce infarct size, improve cardiac function and potentially reduce the onset of heart failure following acute myocardial infarction.

About Quest for Growth

QUEST FOR GROWTH (www.questforgrowth.com) is a privak/pricaf, a public alternative investment fund (AIF) with fixed capital under Belgian law, managed by Capricorn Venture Partners NV. The diversified portfolio of Quest for Growth is for the most part invested in growth companies listed on European stock exchanges, in European unquoted companies and in venture capital funds. Quest for Growth focuses on innovative companies in areas such as information and communication technology (ICT), technologies for the healthcare sector (Healthtech) and clean technology (Cleantech). Quest for Growth has been listed on Euronext Brussels since 23 September 1998.

NOTE: The PiCSO Impulse System is not commercially available.

SOURCE Miracor Medical SA

Related Links

http://www.miracormedical.com

MyGenomeBox will show 'Genomic Future' that allows users to customize exercise and feedback according to individual genome data, and to apply genome data to shopping, lifestyle and eating habits through various product configurations.

Recently, MyGenomeBox have launched an app "DNA Matching Service". This app analyzes the HLA gene which is deeply involved in the biological attractiveness. Based on the above, it calculates the degree of attractiveness between models who attended the model competition called "Face of Asia" from 27 countries and the customers based on the genes and digitizes it. Furthermore, MyGenomeBox and a matchmaking service company are planning a 'DNA blind date' that analyzes the genetic data of 12 men and women and uses it for the blind date. MyGenomeBox plans to release an app that will allow people to see the genetic appeal between their opponents and themselves.

"Genome analysis and utilization are still in the stage of growth. In the not-too-distant future, a day will come when many people will own their genetic data and use it wherever they want it. The launch of the MyGenomeBox mobile app enables users to upload their genetic data by using their smartphones, regardless of time or location, and to use personalized services based on them. MyGenomeBox will do our best to utilize the genetic data in a more convenient and interesting way in the future. The main purpose of participating in MWCA is to explore global partners who utilize IoT throughout the mobile industry, as well as various applications, products and services that use genetic data", said Young Tae Park, CEO of the MyGenomeBox.

A variety of personalized services and genome-based ecosystem provided by MyGenomeBox are available on their website, www.mygenomebox.com, the Google Play Store, and the App Store. New apps and future genome based mobile MyGenomeBox will be available at the booth W.1214.

*About MyGenomeBox Co., Ltd.

MyGenomeBox provides the genome based open sharing platform enables the individuals to manage their own genetic information safely and utilize them continuously in various applications through 'DNA App Store' technology, one of the '10 Innovative Technologies', which is selected by 'MIT Technology Review 2016'. Already in MyGenomeBox platform, it is possible to check DNA information through more than 100 different DNA apps, and on the basis of it, the commercialization of many personalized products and solution programs are under processing, such as cosmetics, health food, training and etc.

Media Contact:

MyGenomeBox Co., Ltd.

Kwanwoo Nam

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE MyGenomeBox

Related Links

http://www.mygenomebox.com

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 6th, 1994, Deputy Clifford Dicker, a 14-year veteran with the Wythe County, Virginia Sheriff's Office, was sent to serve court papers on 15-year old Christopher Shawn Wheeler. During the course of the Deputy's encounter with Wheeler, Wheeler was able to step out of the Deputy's sight and grab a rifle. Wheeler shot Deputy Dicker once in the head disabling him. Wheeler then moved to take the Deputy's service weapon, and used it to execute Deputy Dicker on the floor with two additional shots.

Deputy Clifford Dicker

Wythe County Deputy Clifford Dicker left behind a widow and five children.

Wheeler was convicted as an adult for second degree murder after his confession was thrown out on a technicality. He was sentenced to 43 years. Even though he should be in prison until 2037 he has a parole hearing September 21, 2018.

No killer of a police officer should ever be granted parole. Attacks on police are an attack on society itself. The failure of the court to make sure Wheeler would never be eligible for parole must not be followed up by the Virginia Parole Board failing to keep him behind bars.

The friends, family, and colleagues of Wythe County Deputy Clifford Dicker will never be eligible for parole from the loss of his love and support. The least we owe them is the refusal of parole to his murderer, which we call on the Virginia Parole Board to deny.

We also urge supporters of law enforcement to oppose parole for Christopher Shawn Wheeler, inmate number #1173014, by contacting the Virginia Parole Board

Online messages can be sent to the Virginia Parole Board at their web contact page here https://vpb.virginia.gov/contact/

Letters can be sent to:

Virginia Parole Board

6900 Atmore Drive

Richmond, VA 23225

The National Police Association is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission of educating supporters of law enforcement in how to help police departments accomplish their goals. To learn more visit us online at NationalPolice.org

Contact:

Adam Colton

302-469-1765

[email protected]

SOURCE National Police AssociationAs newly elected government in Pakistan headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan is willing to pursue an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, a group of United States Senators have asserted that Islamabad is at risk of debt distress due to rising current-account deficit and external debt obligations caused by the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

David A Perdue, Patrick Leahy and 14 other U.S. senators have written to Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin while expressing concern over bailout request by countries that fall in China's debt trap.

"These financial crisis illustrates the dangers of China's debt-trap diplomacy and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to developing countries, as well as the national security threat they pose to the United States," said the senators in their letter.

The Centre for Global Development has estimated that of the 68 countries currently hosting BRI-funded projects, 23 countries are at risk of debt distress, and in eight of those countries, future BRI-related financing raises serious concerns about sovereign debt sustainability.

"It is also found that Chinese behavior as a creditor has not been subject to the disciplines and standards that other major sovereigns and other multilateral creditors have adopted collectively, and in the process, debt levels and dependence on China are rising," said the senator by citing an example of Sri Lanka, which was promised a bailout of $1.5 billion by IMF in 2016.

As financially strapped countries negotiate with China to free themselves of mounting debt, Beijing has extracted onerous concessions, including equity in strategically important assets. Further, Beijing has reportedly used economic pressure to affect foreign policy decisions.

The senators wrote, "In Djibouti, for instance, China has provided more than $1.4 billion in infrastructure funding, equivalent to 75 percent of Djibouti's GDP. Most of that capital comes in the form of loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. The most recent IMF assessment stresses the extremely risky nature of Djibouti's borrowing program, noting that in just two years, public external debt has increased from 50 to 85 percent of GDP, the highest of any low-income country."

"As Djibouti increases its dependence on China, there are fears that China will gain control of the Doraleh Container Terminal, further consolidating China's influence in the critically strategic region," the letter added.

Last year, the Sri Lankan government, after being unable to repay over $1 billion of Chinese debt for construction of the Hambantota Port, granted a Chinese state company, a 99-year lease on the facility.

There are concerns that given Pakistan's growing Chinese debt, the same could happen at Gwadar Port in Pakistan.

The U.S. senators, who have also addressed their letter to Defense Secretary James N. Mattis wrote, "In China's String of Pearls strategy for the Indo-Pacific, Gwadar and Hambantota are important footholds that if converted into naval bases will enable the PLA Navy to maintain a permanent presence in the Indian Ocean."

(ANI)PHOENIX, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bestselling Author and former intelligence detective Mike Rothmiller reveals President Ronald Reagan's and Mexico's President Lopez Portillo's top-secret immigration agreement.

The author believes President Donald Trump is unaware of this long-standing immigration scheme allowing a tsunami of illegal immigrants from Mexico to flood the United States each year.

Secrets, Lies and Deception 2and other Amazing Pieces of History Detective Sergeant and author Mike Rothmiller

The author has also dedicated the book to President Donald Trump for his efforts to aid law enforcement, secure our borders and enforce the laws of the United States.

Secrets, Lies and Deception 2and other Amazing Pieces of History presents an astonishing collection of Top-Secret documents the author uncovered while scouring various government archives and filing scores of FOIAs and Mandatory Declassification Reviews. These shocking secrets are virtually unknown to the masses and could trigger congressional investigations.

The book also discloses Top-Secret documents clearly stating that the assassin of President John F. Kennedy was a CIA source during his defection to the Soviet Union.

In 2011, the United States, France, and the United Nations attacked Libya alleging it was to prevent a civilian slaughter by the government. President Qaddafi was murdered, and chaos ravaged Libya. However, a top-secret email to Hillary Clinton identifies a giant hoard of gold and silver, and Frances desire to obtain Libyan oil. Was treasure the real objective?

This highly anticipated sequel to the original Secrets, Lies, and Deception, uncovers startling new facts which will echo throughout the world.

Stunning chapters include:

The Largest Mass Execution in American History ordered by President Lincoln.

The CIA's Top-Secret Psychiatric Profile of Fidel Castro.

Incredible Secret Weapons.

19th and 20th Century Slavery and Cannibalism.

The Trail of Tears Order and The Cherokee Black Slaves.

Hillary Clinton Email Regarding Child Slavery in Haiti.

Germany's Top-Secret Zimmerman Letter requesting Mexico to attack the US.

The September 11, 2012 Attack on the US Benghazi Offices. The many lies.

The CIA Worries about Covert Operations in France.

The Other Side of Wyatt Earp and Tombstone.

The US Diversity Immigration Visa Program aka Visa Lottery.

The Top-Secret Immigration Agreement between the United States and Mexico.

Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy, was a CIA source when defecting to the Soviet Union.

The Top-Secret reason for the US 2011 Attack on Libya.

The first Top-Secret "JOAN-ELEANOR" operation in Europe during WW2.

Germany's Top-Secret surrender negotiations with the OSS during WW2.

The secret CIA memo proving Enhanced Interrogation works.

"Many reading the book will conclude that the long-stated CIA denial that Lee Harvey Oswald was not a CIA asset, was a lie," commented Rothmiller. "CIA Director McCone lied to the Warren Commission, lied to the country and lied to President Kennedy's family."

About the Author

Mike Rothmiller has authored numerous non-fiction books. His non-fiction expose' LA Secret Police was a New York Times Bestseller. He served in the Army National Guard and spent ten years with the LAPD where served as a detective in the Organized Crime Intelligence Division and was a representative to the United States Department of Justice Organized Crime Strike Force in Los Angeles.

He's testified in scores of criminal and civil cases and provided testimony to the Los Angeles County Grand Jury during the re-investigation of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination.

Meticulously researched and sourced, Secrets, Lies and Deception 2 and Other Amazing Pieces of History reveals decades of appalling and murderous government behavior.

The book is available at Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1725869586/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535656225&sr=1-7&keywords=mike+rothmiller

Contact: Mike Rothmiller for an interview.

[email protected]

928-642-5674

SOURCE Mike RothmillerSAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Periscope Data, the world's leading analytics platform for data professionals, has been named the winner of the 2018 SaaS Awards program in the category of "Best SaaS Product for Business Intelligence or Analytics."

Periscope Data was named the winner in the 'Best SaaS Product for Business Intelligence or Analytics' category.

The Software-as-a-Service Awards accepts entries from around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, Asia, the U.K. and EMEA. Hundreds of companies submitted in 2018 for the awards, which were narrowed down to a shortlist, including 13 companies in the BI and Analytics category. Periscope Data was chosen as the winner, ahead of companies including Looker and Domo.

"We've made tremendous strides this year on our mission to empower data professionals and help them answer their most advanced data questions," said Harry Glaser, CEO and co-founder of Periscope Data. "This award is a great recognition of our continued success. It's an honor just to be included among the short list of top analytics solutions, but to be named as a winner is a great demonstration of our dedication to innovation and customer satisfaction."

"We are thrilled to announce the final winners from another very impressive shortlist," said SaaS Awards organizer Larry Johnson. "With so many potential winners on the shortlist, we hope our choices have proven thought-provoking, offering a real showcase of the diversity of today's SaaS offerings."

This is the latest in a series of exciting developments for Periscope Data as it continues to expand its footprint in the analytics market. The company was also recognized this year among the Bay Area News Group's 2018 Top Workplaces, the San Francisco Business Journal's "2018 Best Places to Work" and Comparably's lists of the top companies for professional development, leadership team, female employees and diversity. Periscope Data was also recognized recently by leading analyst firm Forrester as one of the top analytics providers for healthcare and its customer support team was named by the Stevie Awards and the Customer Sales and Service World Awards as the "Customer Service Team of the Year."

The company has rolled out a series of new innovations in 2018, including SQL, Python and R direct integration for complex statistical analysis, a new visual interface for business professionals with Data Discovery for Business, an integration with AWS SageMaker for machine learning workflows, an expanded partnership with Amazon Web Services to streamline data team workflows, Single-Sign On Support for Google Cloud and SOC 2 Type II Compliance to ensure data security.

For more information about working with Periscope Data and to learn more about its offerings for data professionals, visit https://www.periscopedata.com/. To learn more about the SaaS Awards and Cloud Awards, visit (https://www.cloud-awards.com/). The Cloud Awards is currently accepting submissions for a new 2018-19 program, continuing its recognition of excellence in cloud computing, with a deadline of Oct. 19, 2018.

About Periscope Data

Periscope Data builds software that turns data teams into superheroes. Its Unified Data Platform is the industry's first to address the complete analytics lifecycle, allowing data teams to ingest, store, analyze, visualize and report on data all from one connected platform. This empowers them to collaborate and drive faster insight while allowing businesses to foster a data-driven culture around a single source of truth. Periscope Data serves more than 1,000 customers globally, including Adobe, Crunchbase, EY, Flexport, New Relic, Rover and ZipRecruiter.

About the SaaS Awards & Cloud Awards

The SaaS Awards focuses on recognizing excellence and innovation in software solutions. The SaaS Awards is a sister program to the Cloud Awards, an international program which has been recognizing and honoring industry leaders, innovators and organizational transformation in cloud computing since 2011. The awards are open to large, small, established and start-up organizations from across the entire globe, with an aim to find and celebrate the pioneers who will shape the future of the Cloud. Finalists are selected by a judging panel of international industry experts. For more information about the Cloud Awards and SaaS Awards, please visit https://www.cloud-awards.com/.

2018 Best SaaS Product for Business Intelligence or Analytics

InTempo Software

Periscope Data (WINNER)

PRO Unlimited

TapClicks

Movere

SPLICE Software

Looker

Motus

Domo

GoSpotCheck

MapAnything

Rosslyn Data Technologies

InfinityQS International Inc.

Contact details

Frank Bauch, PR at Periscope Data, [email protected]

Larry Johnson, 2018 SaaS Awards Organizer, [email protected]

Related Links

Periscope Data

SaaS Awards

SOURCE Periscope Data

Related Links

https://www.periscopedata.com

We had an event featuring Questlove and Bear Grylls get shut down by US Homeland Security. We had a dude electrocute himself with over 2000 volts of electricity - on purpose (he lived). We Produced a feature-length documentary on the history of skateboarding "Deathbowl to Downtown." We opened a tiny pop-up for Arizona Iced Tea, and over 7000 people showed up. We created the Societe Perrier experience program credited with turning around the Brand in the US. We took a top-secret brand team and all of their agency partners to a particular festival in the desert to establish a new internal benchmark for "interesting." We created a 27 room touring motel for Jack Daniels. We convinced the Dos Equis legal team to approve shocking people with low voltage electricity at Tough Mudder events. We drove a John Deere farm tractor across the US to Promote Post Cereal Whole Grain Revolution We gave away free Scorpion tacos from a Dos Equis food truck. We hired a family of huge St Bernard's to promote Amstel in Aspen . We Auctioned off the Most Interesting Man's red smoking jacket (among his other belongings) We produced a Mountain Dew funded documentary on the guys who ride illegal ATVs in the Bronx We created a live theatrical experience in the Green Point Cemetery or Espolon Tequila. We shot a campaign in Las Vegas starring Jeff Gordon for the launch of Pepsi Max. We used a real White tiger, but he was too aggressive toward Jeff, so we had to use an orange tiger and photoshop him white in post-production.

Press Contact:

Media inquires

[email protected]

212-604-9988

Mirrorball is an NYC-based marketing and experience design agency. We strive to enhance the way brands participate in our lives. Our team of strategists, creatives, and producers share a passion for contributing to and impacting popular culture. Our immersive concepts are steeped in cultural relevance and authenticity, helping brands develop deeper relationships with consumers.

Utilizing a proprietary framework of neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and anthropology, our ideas deliver unique narratives that evoke intense emotions resulting in long-lasting, positive memories. It is these powerful emotions and memories that can build or shift brand sentiment and move people at their core.

For over 15 years world-class brands including Perrier, Dos Equis, The NBA, Jack Daniel's, Pepsi, L'Oreal, TBS, and Harley-Davidson have relied on our boundless thinking to create new opportunities to better connect with the people their businesses touch.

SOURCE Mirrorball

Related Links

http://www.mirrorball.com

MIDLAND, Texas, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Planet Fitness Midland is reopening its doors after remodeling the facility, adding 10,000 sqft and outfitting the club with new equipment. The club is celebrating the renovation on September 13 with a $2,500 donation to the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Permian Basin. The donation is part of the Company's national philanthropic initiative, The Judgement Free Generation, which aims to spread kindness and end bullying faced by youth today. Representatives from the Boys & Girls Club of Permian Basin will attend the grand opening event, along with staff from the Midland Chamber of Commerce.

Members have access to state-of-the-art new cardio equipment and day lockers on the gym floor. And, after their workout, they can freshen up in the newly renovated locker rooms, complete with new showers, granite benchtops, and LED lighting. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Planet Fitness Midland is located at 1000 North Midkiff Road, Midland, TX 79701.

"Our focus on creating a workout environment where everyone feels accepted and respected - just got even better," said Gary Williams, Regional Director of United PF Partners, a leading Planet Fitness Franchisee Group that currently operates 89 locations across ten states. "We take pride in offering the Midland community a clean, comfortable environment with high-quality, brand-name cardio and strength equipment, where a lasting, active lifestyle can be built."

The newly remodeled location, which now spans over 33,000 square feet, also offers 30-Minute Express Circuit, fully equipped locker rooms with day lockers and showers, numerous flat screen televisions, massage chairs*, a Total Body Enhancement booth*, and more.

From now until September 13, new members who join can take advantage of a special discount offer  only $0.25 down and $10 per month for the classic membership, which includes unlimited access to members' home club, free fitness training and free WiFi.

Other memberships include, The PF Black Card membership, which is $21.99 a month and includes additional amenities such as the ability to bring a guest every day at no additional charge, access to all 1,600+ Planet Fitness locations, as well as access to massage beds and chairs and tanning, among other benefits*.

For more information or to join online, please visit www.PlanetFitness.com or follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/PlanetFitness) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/PlanetFitness).

*PF Black Card amenities may vary by location but are included in Midland.

About United PF Partners

United PF Partners is the largest Planet Fitness franchise group with 89 locations across Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia.

About Planet Fitness

Founded in 1992 in Dover, NH, Planet Fitness is one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the United States by number of members and locations. As of June 30, 2018, Planet Fitness had approximately 12.1 million members and 1,608 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Mexico. The Company's mission is to enhance people's lives by providing a high-quality fitness experience in a welcoming, non-intimidating environment, which we call the Judgement Free Zone. More than 95% of Planet Fitness stores are owned and operated by independent business men and women.

SOURCE Planet Fitness

Related Links

http://www.PlanetFitness.com

PUNE, India, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

ReportsnReports.com has announced the addition of the "Global Pleurisy Market Research Report 2018" published in "Sep 2018" and available in its growing Parts Supplier business intelligence and data database.

This report focuses on the global Pleurisy status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Pleurisy development in United States, Europe and China. Global Pleurisy Market Report 2018 market research provides industry overview and analysis with 2025 Pleurisy market forecasts as well as company profile, product picture and specification with capacity production, price, cost, production value and more for major manufacturers.

Complete report on Pleurisy market spread across 94 pages, providing analysis of 08 major companies supported with 196 tables and figures is now available at https://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/1636576-global-pleurisy-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025.html.

Companies profiled in this Pleurisy market research include - Scanlan, Sontec Instruments, Pilling Surgical, Integra LifeSciences, Olympus Corporation, Delacroix-Chevalier, Myra, Wexler Surgical and others.

Pleurisy is a condition in which the pleura - a membrane consisting of a layer of tissue that lines the inner side of the chest cavity and a layer of tissue that surrounds the lungs - becomes inflamed. Pleurisy causes sharp chest pain (pleuritic pain) that worsens during breathing. A variety of underlying conditions can cause pleurisy. Treatment of pleurisy involves pain control and treating the underlying condition.

The diagnosis of pleurisy is made by the characteristic chest pain and physical findings on examination of the chest. The sometimes-associated pleural accumulation of fluid (pleural effusion) can be seen by imaging studies (chest X-ray, ultrasound, or CT).

This is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Pleurisy market. The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Pleurisy market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are also discussed and manufacturing processes and cost structures analyzed. Pleurisy market import/export consumption, supply and demand figures and cost price and production value gross margins are also provided.

Order a copy of Global Pleurisy Market Report 2018 market research at https://www.reportsnreports.com/purchase.aspx?name=1636576.

This 2018 Pleurisy market report focuses on global major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity production, price, cost, production value and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Pleurisy market development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered. With 196 tables and figures 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 Pleurisy market.

In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Pleurisy are as follows:

- History Year: 2013-2017

- Base Year: 2017

- Estimated Year: 2018

- Forecast Year 2018 to 2025

Some of the tables and figures provided in Global Pleurisy Market Report 2018 research report include:

Table Global Capacity (Unit) of Pleurisy by Types 2013-2018

Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2013

Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2017

Table Global Production (Unit) of Pleurisy by Types 2013-2018

Figure Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2013

Figure Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2017

Table Global Revenue (M USD) of Pleurisy by Types 2013-2018

Figure Global Revenue Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2013

Figure Global Revenue Market Share of Pleurisy by Types in 2017

Table Global and Major Manufacturers Capacity (Unit) of Pleurisy 2013-2018

Table Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers 2013-2018

Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers in 2013

Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers in 2017

Table Global and Major Manufacturers Production (Unit) of Pleurisy 2013-2018

Table Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers 2013-2018

Figure Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers in 2013

Figure Global Production Market Share of Pleurisy Major Manufacturers in 2017

Table Global and Major Manufacturers Revenue (M USD) of Pleurisy 2013-2018

Explore more reports on the Pharmaceuticals market at https://www.reportsnreports.com/market-research/pharmaceuticals/.

On similar lines, ReportsnReports.com has another study titled Neuropathic Pain - Pipeline Review, H1 2018 that is spread across 470 pages and supported with 500 data tables and figures. The Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Neuropathic Pain - Pipeline Review, H1 2018, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Neuropathic Pain (Central Nervous System), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.



The Neuropathic Pain (Central Nervous System) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Neuropathic Pain and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Pre-Registration, Phase III, Phase II, Phase I, Preclinical, Discovery and Unknown stages are 2, 4, 25, 28, 110, 24 and 3 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Phase I, Preclinical and Discovery stages comprises 1, 33 and 2 molecules, respectively.

Neuropathic Pain (Central Nervous System) pipeline guide helps in identifying and tracking emerging players in the market and their portfolios, enhances decision making capabilities and helps to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage. The guide is built using data and information sourced from Global Markets Directs proprietary databases, company/university websites, clinical trial registries, conferences, SEC filings, investor presentations and featured press releases from company/university sites and industry-specific third party sources. Additionally, various dynamic tracking processes ensure that the most recent developments are captured on a real time basis.

With 500 tables and figures 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. at Read more at https://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/1553660-neuropathic-pain-pipeline-review-h1-2018.html.

The study objectives of this report are:

- To analyze and study the global Pleurisy capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);

- Focuses on the key Pleurisy 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.

About Us:

ReportsnReports.com is your single source for all market research needs. Our database includes 100,000+ market research reports from over 95 leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over 5000 micro markets. With comprehensive information about the publishers and the industries for which they publish market research reports, we help you in your purchase decision by mapping your information needs with our huge collection of reports. We provide 24/7 online and offline support to our customers.

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SOURCE ReportsnReports"It is such an honor to host a former President of the United States and his wife, especially such a notable couple who have done so much humanitarian work on behalf of affordable homeownership, not just in the United States but around the world," said Danny Herron, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville. "We are excited about the opportunity to work alongside the Carters, hundreds of volunteers who may be visiting Nashville for the first time, and all of the future homeowners."

In Indiana, President and Mrs. Carter worked alongside future homeowners and hundreds of volunteers to build 22 new, affordable homes in Mishawaka. With additional construction projects throughout the year, a total of 41 homes will be built, renovated or repaired in Mishawaka and South Bend as part of the 2018 Carter Work Project.

"After 35 years, no one would question if President and Mrs. Carter wanted to take a break from the build site. But the words 'Carter' and 'retire' aren't even in the same vocabulary," said Trisha Yearwood, who, with her husband Garth Brooks, has volunteered with Habitat alongside President and Mrs. Carter for over a decade. "Everyone deserves a decent place to live, but not everyone can afford it. That's true in our town too, which is why we're so excited to give a big Nashville welcome to the Carters."

Photos of this year's build, and photos and videos of previous Carter Work Projects are available at www.habitat.ngo/CWPphotos.

"President and Mrs. Carter know the cause of affordable housing is only becoming more urgent, and so we are so grateful they will once again mobilize hundreds of hands and thousands more voices to this cause," said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. "Through the 2019 Carter Work Project, President and Mrs. Carter will shine the light on not only Nashville, but our country's struggle to address the real challenges facing the families who cannot afford safe and decent housing in their communities."

Since 1984, President and Mrs. Carter have traveled around the world with Habitat to build and improve homes. Their time and efforts help to raise awareness of the critical need for affordable homeownership around the world. For 35 years, President and Mrs. Carter have worked alongside more than 103,000 volunteers in 14 countries to help build, renovate or repair 4,331 homes.

Affordable housing is an urgent need in Nashville. According to the latest housing report from the Davidson County mayor's office, more than 200,000 people living in Nashville cannot afford the cost of housing. Nashville has lost over 20 percent of its affordable housing since 2000.

About Habitat for Humanity

Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in local communities across all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.

About Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville seeks to put God's love into action by bringing people together to build homes, communities and hope. Prior to becoming homeowners, Habitat future homeowners attend home education classes, work at the build site, and volunteer at Habitat's retail outlet, the ReStore. Since 1985, Habitat of Greater Nashville has built or recycled more than 1,152 homes. To request an application or to receive more information about Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville, call 615-254-HOME (4663) or visit habitatnashville.org.

SOURCE Habitat for Humanity International

Related Links

http://www.habitat.org

BEIJING, Sept. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Headquartered in US, California, Resecurity is set to introduce the launch of its next-generation Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) and CONTEXT a Cyber Threat Intelligence solution into China and Asia-Pacific markets at the Internet Security Conference (ISC) 2018 in Beijing on September 4th 2018.

ISC (https://isc.360.cn) is the main cybersecurity event in China and recognized globally as the most influential security gathering for the Asia-Pacific region. Since its inception in 2013, ISC has offered over 700 sessions and attracted approximately 136,000 participants and speakers including government officials, academics and industry leaders from 20 countries worldwide. The ISC event has become the one must-attend cybersecurity event in Asia and is now a magnet for thought leaders in the industry worldwide.

China is the second largest economy in the world and is rapidly learning that digitalization, the fourth industrial revolution, is a double-edged sword as a result of the growing security challenge faced by private and government organizations. ISC 2018 will share global industry knowledge on how organizations worldwide can best respond to the constantly evolving threat landscape and to today's increasingly sophisticated threat actors.

But merely identifying the barrage of incoming cyberattacks is of limited practical use to most organizations which have been targeted by cybercriminals and hacktivists. The never-ending onslaught of new threats and security challenges requires effective tools for their timely identification, in-depth analysis and action. Without proper contextualization, an overload of raw intelligence has become a burden, leading to lack of actionable data and incorrect resource planning, which increases the probability of risk and negative outcome.

Resecurity, as Gold Sponsor at ISC, will illustrate the vital role of actionable intelligence and data science in next-generation cybersecurity solutions and applicability by cyber security engineers, intelligence officers, investigators and C-level security executives. Resecurity uses cutting-edge data science to enable organizations of different sizes to contextualize threat intelligence and identify imminent threats in real time, allowing resources to be directed where they are most needed.

Resecurity will introduce the core products from its own portfolio:

Resecurity Context

Cyber Threat Intelligence Platform : Intelligence platform enabling enterprises and governments to accelerate analysis, prevention and investigation workflows with the goal of discovering high-value insights, and supporting better decision-making, using ultra-fast search thorough data science. Context is based on a classic six-step process called the Intelligence Cycle used by government agencies and industry experts, providing a balanced and comprehensive approach to intelligence gathering and analysis. Context includes over 9 million profiles of threat actors worldwide, while storing over 5 billion threat data artifacts, including indicators of compromise (IOCs), indicators of attacks (IOAs), tools, tactics and procedures (TTPs) of adversaries with valuable meta-data stored in historical form used for deep-dive investigations, together with over 300 million fully-indexed and translated Dark Web data entries with extracted artifacts, graphical screenshots and links visualization. A built-in offline translation engine makes contextualized date available in over 40 languages.



: Intelligence platform enabling enterprises and governments to accelerate analysis, prevention and investigation workflows with the goal of discovering high-value insights, and supporting better decision-making, using ultra-fast search thorough data science. Context is based on a classic six-step process called the Intelligence Cycle used by government agencies and industry experts, providing a balanced and comprehensive approach to intelligence gathering and analysis. Context includes over 9 million profiles of threat actors worldwide, while storing over 5 billion threat data artifacts, including indicators of compromise (IOCs), indicators of attacks (IOAs), tools, tactics and procedures (TTPs) of adversaries with valuable meta-data stored in historical form used for deep-dive investigations, together with over 300 million fully-indexed and translated Dark Web data entries with extracted artifacts, graphical screenshots and links visualization. A built-in offline translation engine makes contextualized date available in over 40 languages. Resecurity EPP

Next-Generation Endpoint Protection Platform : Resecurity combines a multi-layered protection stack to identify security anomalies with investigation and remediation capabilities needed to proactively respond to advanced cyber threats. Resecurity can be deployed on Windows, Linux and Mac, providing comprehensive security monitoring and full-stack visibility across endpoints, the enterprise ecosystem and cloud environment. Contextual Awareness  a vital component, resulting in in-depth cyber threat analysis with historical introspection on the identified IOC/IOA, associated threat telemetry and potential adversary involved.



: Resecurity combines a multi-layered protection stack to identify security anomalies with investigation and remediation capabilities needed to proactively respond to advanced cyber threats. Resecurity can be deployed on Windows, Linux and Mac, providing comprehensive security monitoring and full-stack visibility across endpoints, the enterprise ecosystem and cloud environment. Contextual Awareness  a vital component, resulting in in-depth cyber threat analysis with historical introspection on the identified IOC/IOA, associated threat telemetry and potential adversary involved. Resecurity Risk

Digital Risk Monitoring : Risk is a digital risk monitoring solution focused on comprehensive security monitoring of the business enterprise ecosystem, measuring digital risks to control the enterprise security posture. Resecurity provides proactive alerts and 360' visibility of internal and external risks targeting the enterprise, starting from Dark Web activity to misconfigured network services, applications and clouds leading to data breaches. Risk reduces potential blind spots and security gaps.

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 the 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, Inc.

Tony Glover, (800) 781-5698

[email protected]

SOURCE Resecurity Inc.

Related Links

https://www.resecurity.com

Robotic Research, LLC, is a small, innovative minority-owned engineering and technology company that provides advanced autonomy software and robotic technology and solutions to numerous commercial and Federal Government customers. For example, the company currently serves as the autonomy kit provider on the US Army's Expedient Leader Follower program for autonomous convoy operations of large supply vehicles.

Alberto Lacaze, President of Robotic Research, stated, "The Robotic Research team is thrilled to address the needs of the University of Buffalo in the launch of operations of the autonomous OLLI vehicle."

Additional information about the Robotic Research - Local Motors collaboration on autonomous vehicles, including the OLLI shuttle, can be found at https://localmotors.com/press-release/local-motors-announces-olli-shipment-to-university-at-buffalo/.

Additional information on Robotic Research can be found at www.roboticresearch.com or by contacting Janet Hughes at 240-631-0008.

SOURCE Robotic Research, LLC

Related Links

http://www.roboticresearch.com

MERIDIAN, Idaho, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aristotle once said, "The essence of life is to serve others and do good." And international fragrance company Scentsy, Inc. is putting those words into action by inspiring Scentsy Consultants to do just that.

Starting Sept. 1, Scentsy will raise money, support and awareness for the American Heart Association in the U.S.; the Heart & Stroke Foundation in Canada; and World Vision in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico.

$7 from every Scentsy Share Your Heart mini warmer will be donated to charity.

Each catalog season, Scentsy creates and features a product specifically to benefit charity. This season features the Share Your Heart Mini Warmer: Decorated with delicate white porcelain hearts, this warmer glows softly when it's turned on. A portion ($7 USD) from the sale of every Share Your Heart Mini Warmer will be donated to help fight heart disease and stroke in the U.S. and Canada, and to help families in other parts of the world lift themselves out of poverty.

Scentsy president and co-owner Heidi Thompson explains, "We are launching our 'Warm the Heart' movement with approximately 110,000 passionate, giving Scentsy Consultants globally. [But] we also realize that generosity is more than just giving money  our reach is wide, and we are challenging Consultants to get out and volunteer to make their neighborhoods and communities a better place. Can you imagine the impact if each of them gives for one day or even one hour?"

Since 2010, Scentsy has donated more than $9.7 million to charities around the world. The Share Your Heart Mini Warmer will be available through Scentsy Consultants starting Sept. 1. Visit www.scentsy.com to learn more.

For more information:

Lonni Leavitt-Barker

[email protected]

C: 208.995.7706

O: 208.286.3972

About Scentsy

Scentsy, Inc. (www.scentsy.com) offers stylish, innovative and customizable products that Warm the Heart, Enliven the Senses and Inspire the Soul. Scentsy features safe, fragrant alternatives to traditional wicked candles, on-the-go fragrances, laundry care, inventive cleaning solutions and luxurious personal care products for women, men and kids. Scentsy products are sold through a network of Independent Consultants running home-based businesses throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

SOURCE Scentsy, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.scentsy.com

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Every city has a secret and our beautiful city is no different.

Miami is known for many things that it is proud of but it is also known for a few things that it would like to keep secret - particularly its after hours nightlife. Miami prides itself on being known as an epicenter of tourism, beaches, fashion, art, commerce, and culture.

"The tourism industry is setting records," according to Scott Cooper Miami. "Just look at the statistics below:"

Close to 16 million visitors traveled to Miami between 2016 and 2017.

between 2016 and 2017. Overnight visitors spent $26 billion from September 2016 to August 2017 , a record and an increase of 2 percent over the same time last year.

from to , a record and an increase of 2 percent over the same time last year. The number of jobs in the tourism sector grew by 3.9 percent from September 2016 to August 2017 .

to . A record-breaking 5.3 million passengers sailed through Port Miami between October 2016 and September 2017 .

"These are some impressive statistics," admits Scott Cooper, Miami Beach. "The city certainly wants to keep its momentum and continue its reputation as one of the world's great international cities."

The Scott Cooper Miami News website just completed a series called "Scott Cooper Miami Exposes Sex Tourism in Miami."

According to Miami resident Scott Cooper, "There is a secret nightlife in Miami that includes swinger clubs, strip joints, fetish parties, clubs and dungeons. And if you are a day person, you don't have to look too far to find a nude beach. This type of sex tourism also contributes to the growth of tourism but nobody will ever admit it and its never reflected in the official numbers."

Miami is working hard to contrast itself from a city like Las Vegas that is essentially built on casino gambling and the phrase "What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas".

Scott Cooper Travels to Miami

About Scott Cooper Miami

Scott Cooper Miami is a lifestyle brand which aims to support Miami's diverse tourism industry. By creating various platforms to demonstrate Miami's unique multicultural attractions, Florida CEO Scott Cooper aims to support local businesses by producing engaging online content. Valuing creativity and commitment, Scott also offers consulting services for individuals looking to start their own business as his goal is to educate visitors on what makes Miami the best international city in the world. Recently, the brand launched the Scott Cooper Miami Scholarship available to all North American students who will be attending an accredited U.S. or Canadian post-secondary institution.

Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12727194

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Scott Cooper MiamiPakistani lawmakers are electing a new President on Tuesday, a race in which the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party's candidate Arif Alvi is expected to win.

Outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain's tenure ends on September 8. He had declined for re-election to a second 5-year term.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday completed preparations for the election. Polling stations have been set up in all four provincial assemblies in addition to the National Assembly. Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza Khan will serve as the Returning Officer.

It will be a three-man race, after the Opposition parties failed to reach a consensus on a joint candidate.

-PTIBOSTON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- After just one year, Moroccan Magic, the most buzzworthy lip balm of 2018, has gone from startup to elbowing out the competition in national drugstore chains CVS and now at Walgreens. The well rounded lip line which includes balms, salves and scrubs will arrive in Walgreens on September 1st, 2018. Touted as "the best new drugstore lip balm," by Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple, Moroccan Magic is not only poised to be on everyone's lips this winter, it's the only woman & minority owned, cruelty free and USDA organic small brand on shelves.



Founded by Kristina Tsipouras, a 33-year old serial entrepreneur and Massachusetts native who launched her first company at the age of 25, Moroccan Magic claims to be the "smoothest balm ever" thanks to its blend of 100% organic argan + essential oils.



"Essential oils are certainly having a moment right now and I really worked to get these healing oils to combine with organic argan to deliver a balm that feels special the second it's applied. I wanted to bring a more modern, sophisticated lip balm without chemicals to consumers who were evidently ready for something new. This wasn't anything like the other balms that have been on the market for ages," explains Kristina.



The Moroccan Magic line of lip balms are available in Rose, Peppermint Eucalyptus, Lemon Thyme and Coconut Almond. The lip scrub and lip salve are available in Rose and Coconut Almond.. A variety pack of three and a gift satchel with all 5 is also available. With black sleek packaging, logo and font, it's certainly a lip balm that visually speaks to the social media generation.



"I'm so thrilled to see someone like Kristina achieving success in the manner she has so far. She's tenacious. When that girl gets an idea it goes right to execution mode. She's got hustle and she is incredibly committed to mentorship and mobilizing women to get in front of the right people to make their ideas a reality too," says Melanie Whelan, CEO of SoulCycle.



Kristina's most recent success is in her brand of beauty products, Moroccan Magic. She and her brands have been featured in USA Today, Forbes, The Boston Globe, and many other high-profile publications.



For more on the brand please visit www.moroccanmagicbeauty.com



About Moroccan Magic

Moroccan Magic is a USDA certified organic lip balm infused with 100% pure argan oil and essential oils to treat lips to an ultra-hydrating formula that locks in moisture and keeps them looking and feeling beautiful. Moroccan Magic's principal and most treasured ingredient, argan oil, is regarded around the world for its intense anti-aging and conditioning properties, and when incorporated into a lip balm, the result is an effective treatment that's quick absorbing and highly moisturizing www.moroccanmagicbeauty.com.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

Media Contact:

Emerald-Jane Hunter

myWHY Agency Inc

312-735-0196

[email protected]

SOURCE Moroccan Magic

Related Links

http://www.moroccanmagicbeauty.com

Special Awards for Humanitarian Leadership and Chinese Performance

The Isaac Stern Human Spirit Award was given to Kayhan Kalhor and the Xiaoshuijing Miao Farmers Choir in recognition of having made, "an outstanding contribution to our understanding of humanity through the medium of music." The two winners were selected by the chair of the competition's organisation committee Long Yu, Yo-Yo Ma, and members of the Stern family. Both were awarded USD $10,000.

CPIC Award: Olga Sroubkova - awarded for best Chinese work performance - Qigang Chen's La joie de la souffrance - with a cash prize of USD $10,000.

Rigorous Repertoire and Scoring Transparency

During the Final Round, each of the six women performed two concertos with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Stern - a new Chinese work by Qigang Chen and a concerto chosen from a list of standard repertoire. In previous rounds, contestants composed their own cadenzas for a Mozart concerto, played chamber music with the Shanghai Quartet and performed seven solo works. The Final Round was broadcast on Chinese television and livestreamed globally. Performances of all rounds are available online on the SISIVC YouTube channel. All jury scoring was made public. For more information visit: http://www.shcompetition.com/en

About the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (SISIVC)

The second biennial SISIVC, Shanghai's first world-class violin competition, was held from 10 August to 1 September, 2018 in Shanghai, China. This Competition has taken its name from Isaac Stern to commemorate the musical spirit of Maestro Stern by which a young generation of musicians can be inspired and motivated. Along with a grand prize of USD $100,000 - the highest monetary award of any international music competition - a jury of renowned artists and pedagogues, and a unique performance process, the Competition leverages Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's platform with extensive resources around the world.

SOURCE Shanghai Symphony OrchestraPHOENIX, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- (OTCQB-CELZ) Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc. announced today an update of its activities.

CaverStemTM: Domestic recruitment, vetting and training of physicians on the CaverStemTM program for the use of the patients own stem cells for the treatment of erectile dysfunction is continuing.

We wish to welcome Dr. Peter Niemczyk with The Center for Sexual and Urinary Function in Phoenix, AZ. Dr. Niemczyk holds Board Certifications in Urology and in male and female sexual dysfunction.

We are pleased to announce the addition of Amy Goldberg to the Creative Medical Technology Holdings sales team. Ms. Goldberg has decades long experience in medical device sales and will be concentrating on expanding the CaverStemTM program to physicians in the Eastern United States.

CaverStemTM International:

Russia: Implementation of our contract with Promo Med continues to move forward.

Switzerland: We AGAIN wish to welcome Dr. Alexander Bachmann and Alta-Uro in Bern, Switzerland. We are excited that CaverStemTM will be performed by such highly regarded physicians.

Germany and Austria: We are continuing discussions to expand CaverStemTM in these countries with the assistance of Dr. Bachmann and lead by Dr. Alexander Gershman, a Managing Member of CaverStem International LLC.

Italy: We have been approached by a very reputable physician interested in our CaverStemTM program. We are optimistic that in a near future press release we will have the opportunity to welcome Dr. Antonini from Antonini Urology in Rome, Italy to CaverStemTM. This is very encouraging as news of our expansion in Europe has resulted in physicians reaching out to the company to become involved.

CaverStemTM Clinical Trial: To add to our press release on August 14, 2018, once the trial has reached 1 year from the last patient enrolled, which was August 28th, the trial data collected by LA Bio Med will be submitted for peer review. Once this review is completed, our company and LA Bio Med will jointly publish the results. We understand the eagerness for trial results however as is our policy in all matters, we must follow the customary and contractual process. We will advise anticipated dates in near future releases.

American Urological Association Regional Conference: We will be exhibiting at Booth 313 in Chicago on September 6 and 7, 2018. We encourage all physicians attending to stop by and meet the CaverStemTM team.

Female Sexual Dysfunction: With the addition of physicians that practice in the area of both male and female sexual dysfunction we have determined that it is an appropriate time to begin development of our program related to the treatment of female sexual dysfunction. Based on publications, including The Cleveland Clinic, up to 43% of women suffer from some degree of sexual dysfunction which in many cases may be caused by the lack of blood flow. This technology which is similar to the CaverStemTM technology for the unexpanded and minimally manipulated use of the patients own bone marrow derived stem cells is designed to aid in the increase of sensitivity by increasing blood flow. We are currently developing a brand identity for release to specific physicians experienced in the treatment of female sexual dysfunction.

About Creative Medical Technology Holdings

Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc. is a commercial stage biotechnology company currently trading on the OTCQB under the ticker symbol CELZ. For further information about the company go to www.creativemedicaltechnology.com. For more information on our CaverstemTM procedure please go to www.caverstem.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

OTC Markets has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming clinical trials and laboratory results, marketing efforts, funding, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and, therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. See the periodic and other reports filed by Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Commission's website at www.sec.gov.

SOURCE Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.creativemedicaltechnology.com

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sixt Rent-a-Car, the global mobility provider with more than 2,200 locations in over 100 countries, is renowned around the world for enabling customers to "drive first class, pay economy" and offering a unique blend of premium vehicles, white glove customer service, and competitive pricing. Operating in the United States since 2011, the company recently revealed it has already grown to the #4 car rental brand in America, with 2017 revenue at $366 million.

"After years of success, we are excited to continue the Scholars Program," said Daniel Florence, COO of Sixt North America. "Higher education is essential to building an innovative and creative workforce, and we are thrilled to support the development of exceptional students. We look forward to awarding these prizes and continuing the Sixt Scholars tradition for years to come."

On Saturday, September 1, Sixt started accepting applications to the 2018/2019 Sixt Scholars Program, which this year will award five high school seniors graduating in 2019 a $5,000 scholarship that can be used to help fund full-time study at an accredited higher education institution. The scholarship, which is available nationwide, was founded in 2014 and considers merit, extracurricular activities and financial need in its selection process. The deadline to apply is November 30, 2018.

Award winners must show valid proof of a full-time enrollment in an accredited undergraduate college or university for the academic year 2019/2020.

More details can be found here: https://www.sixt.com/sixt-scholars/

Sixt is America's fastest-growing car rental brand.

In 2018 alone, Sixt has moved into an upgraded facility at the Tampa International Airport, expanded its location at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and opened new locations at New York City's Battery Park, Fort Myers International Airport, San Antonio International Airport, and the Denver International Airport. Last year, Sixt unveiled a newly-expanded offering at its flagship space in the Miami International Airport and at its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport location, launched a new location at the San Diego International Airport, and moved into its new North American corporate headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

The company has grown to over 1,000 employees, and serves more than fifty-four rental locations located in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Washington, Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Massachusetts.

Sixt was voted #1 Car Rental Brand for Millennials in the 2018 Trazee Awards.

About Sixt:

Sixt SE has its registered headquarters in Pullach near Munich and is a leading international provider of high-quality mobility services for business and corporate customers as well as private travelers. With representations in over 100 countries worldwide Sixt is continually expanding its presence. The Company's strengths include the high proportion of premium cars in the vehicle fleet, its employees' consistent service orientation and a good price-performance ratio. Taken together these strengths have given Company an excellent market position. Sixt was founded in 1912 and maintains alliances with renowned brands in the hotel industry, well-known airlines and numerous prominent service providers in the tourism sector. The Sixt Group generates revenues of EUR 2.6 billion (2017). http://about.sixt.com/

SOURCE Sixt Rent-a-CarIRVINE, Calif., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The analysts at Kelley Blue Book today reported the estimated average transaction price for light vehicles in the United States was $35,541 in August 2018. New-vehicle prices increased by $643 (up 1.8 percent) from August 2017, while remaining flat (up 0.1 percent) from last month.

"Average transaction prices are up for the industry, as most manufacturers reported gains from the sales mix continuing to shift from cars to SUVs," said Tim Fleming, analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "However, despite the nearly 20 percent sales growth for compact and subcompact SUV segments this year, prices in these segments flatten or even slightly decline in August, likely a reflection of today's extremely competitive landscape and the abundance of new models available. Moving forward, the industry could see further discounts and incentives in these utility segments, as automakers continue to focus their attention on placing their products at the top of consumers' consideration lists."

American Honda performed best for August 2018 as average transaction prices climbed 4 percent year-over-year. The new Accord rose 4 percent and the Civic posted solid pricing improvement, up 3 percent. Acura was up 3 percent on the strength of the redesigned RDX, which jumped 11 percent.

General Motors also was among the most improved at 4 percent year-over-year, with the Chevrolet brand rising most at 5 percent. Chevrolet was helped by a strong mix of Silverado HD sales, which pushed the Silverado's average transaction prices up 6 percent. The redesigned Traverse also continues to perform well, rising 13 percent.

The only major automaker to drop, Nissan fell 1 percent in August 2018 with the Nissan brand down 1 percent, while INFINITI was up 2 percent. Although Nissan Rogue transaction prices increased 2 percent, the Altima was down 1 percent, as its next generation is scheduled to come to market soon. In addition, the new Kicks subcompact crossover brought down Nissan's average prices due to its low starting price. The redesigned QX50 reported big numbers for INFINITI, rising 23 percent, and helped offset declines from most of the brand's lineup.

Segment August

2018

Transaction

Price

(Avg.)* July

2018

Transaction

Price

(Avg.)* August

2017

Transaction

Price

(Avg.)* Percent

Change

July 2018

to August

2018* Percent

Change

August

2017 to

August

2018* Compact Car $20,493 $20,392 $20,344 0.5% 0.7% Compact SUV/Crossover $28,409 $28,413 $28,378 0.0% 0.1% Electric Vehicle $37,187 $37,100 $36,982 0.2% 0.6% Entry-level Luxury Car $42,201 $42,062 $42,227 0.3% -0.1% Full-size Car $34,895 $35,080 $34,148 -0.5% 2.2% Full-size Pickup Truck $48,813 $48,555 $47,414 0.5% 3.0% Full-Size SUV/Crossover $61,383 $61,436 $60,571 -0.1% 1.3% High Performance Car $102,823 $99,525 $97,258 3.3% 5.7% High-end Luxury Car $96,671 $97,439 $94,090 -0.8% 2.7% Hybrid/Alternative Energy Car $27,103 $27,166 $26,549 -0.2% 2.1% Luxury Car $57,389 $58,658 $56,814 -2.2% 1.0% Luxury Compact SUV/Crossover $45,139 $45,003 $43,485 0.3% 3.8% Luxury Full-size SUV/Crossover $87,112 $88,210 $83,971 -1.2% 3.7% Luxury Mid-size SUV/Crossover $55,337 $55,443 $55,030 -0.2% 0.6% Mid-size Car $25,395 $25,522 $24,942 -0.5% 1.8% Mid-size Pickup Truck $33,762 $33,549 $32,750 0.6% 3.1% Mid-size SUV/Crossover $38,303 $38,142 $37,710 0.4% 1.6% Minivan $35,192 $35,311 $33,475 -0.3% 5.1% Sports Car $35,555 $35,831 $34,613 -0.8% 2.7% Subcompact Car $15,016 $14,959 $14,908 0.4% 0.7% Subcompact SUV/Crossover $24,015 $23,902 $24,152 0.5% -0.6% Van $35,596 $35,849 $34,895 -0.7% 2.0% Grand Total $35,541 $35,514 $34,898 0.1% 1.8% *Kelley Blue Book average transaction prices do not include applied consumer incentives

For more information and news from Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com, visit www.kbb.com/media/, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kelleybluebook (or @kelleybluebook), like our page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kbb, follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kbb_com/ (or @kbb_com), and get updates on Google+ at https://plus.google.com/+kbb.

About Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com)

Founded in 1926, Kelley Blue Book, The Trusted Resource, is the vehicle valuation and information source trusted and relied upon by both consumers and the automotive industry. Each week the company provides market-reflective values on its top-rated website KBB.com, including its famous Blue Book Trade-In Values and Kelley Blue Book Price Advisor tool, which provides a range for what consumers can reasonably expect to pay for a vehicle in their area. Car owners looking to sell immediately can also get a redeemable, transaction-ready offer with Kelley Blue BookSM Instant Cash Offer. The company also provides vehicle pricing and values through various products and services available to car dealers, auto manufacturers, finance and insurance companies, and governmental agencies. Kelley Blue Book is a Cox Automotive brand.

About Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling and owning cars easier for everyone, while also enabling mobility services. The global company's 34,000-plus team members and family of brands, including Autotrader, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, VinSolutions, vAuto and Xtime, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with revenues exceeding $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com

SOURCE Kelley Blue Book

Related Links

http://www.kbb.com

SAN FRANCISCO and AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lithium Technologies, LLC ("Lithium") and Spredfast, Inc. ("Spredfast"), two leaders in digital customer engagement, announced an agreement today to merge. The combination of Lithium and Spredfast creates the industry's most comprehensive customer engagement platform, transforming how companies connect with customers to earn trust, drive brand loyalty and grow their businesses.

"We couldn't be more excited about joining forces with the dynamic team at Spredfast," said Pete Hess, CEO of Lithium. "Brands focus on improving the trust they earn with their customers. Their success depends on world-class digital engagement, and the merger of Lithium and Spredfast will provide them with the best platform to earn that trust and help grow their business."

With a combined customer base of more than 2,000 brands spanning 100 countries, Lithium and Spredfast together manage over 500 million consumer touch points every day across social media, messaging, and owned digital channels. Lithium's expertise in customer care combined with Spredfast's leadership in social marketing creates the industry's most unique and complete platform. Together, the combined platform will enable businesses to engage with their customers in the customer's preferred channels across the entire customer journey, giving brands the ability to generate and retain more profitable revenue.

"This is a great day for Spredfast. We can't wait to come together with the Lithium team to create the industry's most innovative and robust suite on the market," said Rod Favaron, Chairman and CEO of Spredfast. "No other company will offer the unparalleled industry and technology expertise to reimagine how businesses think about customer engagement."

Only Lithium and Spredfast together can offer:

A single platform to connect, manage and interact across all of a company's owned brand channels, including brand communities and social media

Deep insights and analytics across the entire customer journey

A combined 20+ years of award-winning solutions and industry best practices

"We are thrilled to welcome Spredfast to our portfolio of high-performing software companies," said Alan Cline, Principal at Vista Equity Partners. "We see an incredible opportunity to unify consumer engagement in the highly fractured marketing and care industries, bringing together the power of two best-of-breed offerings into a game-changing platform for growth."

The combined company will be led by Pete Hess as CEO. Rod Favaron will work closely with the management team to help ensure a smooth and successful transition. The combined company will be headquartered in San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX will be the company's largest office.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

About Lithium Technologies

The Lithium platform is the leading solution for digital customer care and engagement. Lithium offers Community, Social Media Management and Messaging to help Fortune 1000 companies listen, respond and act on digital conversations  creating deep customer relationships and fostering brand advocacy. With over 15 years of expertise, Lithium has a massive digital footprint of approximately 500 million digital interactions analyzed daily and 50 million digital interactions powered monthly. Learn more at lithium.com, join our community at community.lithium.com, or follow us on Twitter @LithiumTech.

About Spredfast

Spredfast is transforming the way companies connect with consumers. Spredfast's smart social software enables companies to build lasting relationships with today's digitally connected consumer. Brand and media companies use the Spredfast Social Software Platform to manage, integrate, and amplify social content across any digital touch point in real time. With global reach, Spredfast customers manage over one billion social connections across 84 countries. More than 650 customers have partnered with Spredfast to create first-class social experiences. Spredfast is the secret weapon of all five major broadcast networks and over fifty percent of Interbrand's 2017 World's Best Brands, all of whom are fueling business impact through social.

About Vista Equity Partners

Vista Equity Partners, a U.S.-based investment firm with offices in Austin, San Francisco, Chicago, and Oakland, currently invests in software, data and technology-enabled organizations led by world-class management teams with long-term perspectives. Vista is a value-added investor, contributing professional expertise and multi-level support towards companies' realization of their full potential. Vista's investment approach is anchored by a sizable long-term capital base, experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions, and proven management techniques that yield flexibility and opportunity in private equity investing. For more information, please visit www.vistaequitypartners.com

SOURCE Lithium TechnologiesThe shared expertise and resources of TACenergy will help the local team continue to provide the service expected, along with the competitive fuel prices and reliable supply the TACenergy network provides.

TAC Chairman and CEO, Greg Arnold, expressed his enthusiasm for the acquisition by saying, "We are so pleased to welcome J.J. and the Desert Fuels team into the TAC family and look forward to servicing each new customer with the level of expertise they are accustomed to."

The office and staff will be located in Albuquerque's Old Town district providing employees the opportunity to stay local and close to existing customers. J.J. Mancini, President of Desert Fuels, Inc., shared with his customers, "This acquisition sets up an unbeatable combination of the TACenergy supply, financial, IT, trading, and geographic scale along with Desert Fuels' technology expertise to better serve each customer while holding true to the Desert Fuels mission: to revolutionize the wholesale fuel industry." Mancini will stay directly involved in the business, consulting with TACenergy from the New Mexico office. Desert Fuels' owners, Jason Mancini, Jay Kennedy, and J.J. Mancini are excited about the acquisition and believe there is no better company than TACenergy to continue to champion the Desert Fuels values of service and innovation.

The acquisition will help TACenergy strengthen its footprint in the southwest with the majority coming from local and regional business throughout New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Fred Sloan, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of TACenergy stated, "The Desert Fuels' customers, along with our existing customers, will benefit from the additional supply resources." Sloan also added, "Enhancing our existing technology offerings with Desert Fuels refreshing approach to incorporate technology in the buying and delivery of wholesale fuel will be easily accomplished."

About TACenergy

TACenergy is a Dallas, Texas based independent national wholesale distributor of refined petroleum products. Customers include unbranded gasoline and diesel retailers, industrial users, transportation, trucking, government, utilities, mining, construction, plus any other commercial user or reseller of fuel. TACenergy delivers added value to its customers through customized fuel management programs, 24/7 Supply & Logistics call center and comprehensive carrier agreements. TACenergy has an annualized fuel volume of well over 1.7 billion gallons, and a vast terminal supply network with regional sales offices that span North America. Learn more at www.tacenergy.com.

CONTACT: Tad W Perryman, VP Marketing

214-538-5475 [email protected]

SOURCE TACenergy

Related Links

http://www.tacenergy.com

MIAMI, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a shared commitment to individuals living with autism, The Dan Marino Foundation and Badia Spices, one of today's leading family-owned Hispanic food companies have partnered for the sixth consecutive year to "Go the Extra Yard for Those with Autism." Now through Dec. 31, 2018, when customers purchase a bottle of Badia (1 LT) Extra Virgin Olive Oil anywhere in the world where Badia Spices are sold, Badia will donate 5 percent of the proceeds from the sales to The Dan Marino Foundation.

As part of a shared commitment to individuals living with autism, The Dan Marino Foundation and Badia Spices have partnered for the sixth consecutive year to "Go the Extra Yard for Those with Autism."

Badia Spices community support is coordinated through the Badia Family, who personally oversees the company's myriad of philanthropic efforts. Although Badia Spices contributions are all-embracing, the company has a primary focus on organizations that are based in South Florida, where the Badia Spices is headquartered. Badia Spices follows the example set forth by their President, Joseph "Pepe" Badia and continued by the Badia Family's endeavor to enhance and strengthen the communities where our families live, work and play. They believe that as a member of the community, one must make an impact through charitable and community investment.

For close to ten years, Badia Spices has supported The Dan Marino Foundation as part of the company's global philanthropic effort to raise autism awareness, and support the post-secondary opportunities being offered by the Foundation's Marino Campuses in Miami-Dade and Broward County. Over the course of 10 months, the students - who come to Marino Campus from diverse backgrounds, needs, and experiences - work hard to earn their nationally recognized industry certifications in Hospitality and Technology to ultimately attain gainful employment. With the help of its consumers, Badia Spices has raised over $500,000 for The Dan Marino Foundation through the "Go the Extra Yard for Those with Autism" campaign.

Badia recently added organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil to their product line-up, this product has a rich nutty flavor with delicate notes of fruitiness. Their Olive Oil is made from a combination of the first cold press from Manzanilla, Arbequina, Lechin, and Picual olives. Aside from all the attributed health benefits of olive oil, it is bottled with the promise of full aroma, freshness, and rich flavor. On a daily basis, Badia prepares packages and ships more than 400 different products to more than 84 countries worldwide, which includes the entire United States.

"We are pleased to support The Dan Marino Foundation's ground-breaking work," said Joseph "Pepe" Badia, President of Badia Spices, Inc. "Through our shared commitment, we are inspiring the world to embrace autism acceptance and inclusion."

For over 26 years, The Dan Marino Foundation (DMF), a results-driven nonprofit organization has been dedicated to "empowering individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities." Initiatives include postsecondary programs in Fort Lauderdale at Marino Campus Broward, Marino Campus Miami-Dade located at Florida International University, the Nicklaus Children's Hospital Dan Marino Outpatient Center, the Marino Autism Research Institute, ViTA-DMF, Marino Adapted Aquatics, and Summer STEPS Employment Programs. The Foundation's 2017 Annual Report can be download by clicking here.

"Pepe Badia and his family have played an important role in The Dan Marino Foundation's efforts to ensure opportunities for all to achieve. The Badia Spices Olive Oil Campaign brings worldwide focus, promoting acceptance and greater awareness of the value of individuals with autism. My wife Claire and I are honored to call the Badia family our friends, and appreciate The Dan Foundation being chosen once again as the beneficiary of the Badia Spices Olive Oil Campaign," said Dan Marino, Chairman of The Dan Marino Foundation.

Media Inquiries:

Rixys Alfonso

[email protected]

Related Images

go-the-extra-yard-for-those-with.png

Go the Extra Yard for those with Autism!

As part of a shared commitment to individuals living with autism, The Dan Marino Foundation and Badia Spices have partnered for the sixth consecutive year to "Go the Extra Yard for Those with Autism."

badia-spices-olive-oil.jpg

Badia Spices Olive Oil

As part of a shared commitment to individuals living with autism, The Dan Marino Foundation and Badia Spices, one of today's leading family-owned Hispanic food companies have partnered for the sixth consecutive year to "Go the Extra Yard for Those with Autism."

SOURCE The Dan Marino Foundation

Related Links

https://danmarinofoundation.org

NEW YORK, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Home security system market to grow at 10.40% CAGR from 2018 to 2023

The home security system market is expected to reach USD 74.75 billion by 2023 from USD 45.58 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 10.40% during the forecast period. The emergence of IoT and wireless technologies, and increasing customer awareness are some of the major factors driving the growth of the home security system market. However, high installation, operational, and maintenance costs inhibit the growth of the home security system market.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05495954



Home security system market for condominiums and apartments to grow at higher CAGR during forecast period

Owing to the increasing urbanization, the cities have started growing vertically, leading to the growth in the number of residential apartments and complexes.People in cities prefer condominiums and apartments owing to the integrated security and amenities within optimized prices.



Therefore, providing a high level of security, while managing a large number of households, becomes necessary for the society builders and management bodies. Therefore, with the increasing number of condominiums and apartment projects in cities worldwide, the home security market for condominiums and apartments is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.



Professionally installed and monitored security systems to account for largest share of market by 2018

The large market for professionally installed and monitored security systems is mainly attributed to the growing concern among consumers about consistent security and real-time monitoring, and rising disposable income.Customers can completely rely on professionally installed and monitored security systems, which are backed up with engineering and maintenance support.



Consumers prefer opting for this category of products as the direct involvement of experts in handling and managing such products saves time and reduces efforts.Under a complete security package, professional monitoring companies offer possible discounts and insurance benefits.



Moreover, these companies can communicate with offsite monitoring centers to ask for police, firefighters, and ambulance assistance in the emergencies.



Home security system market for products to grow at higher CAGR during forecast period

The projected growth of the home security system market for products is mainly attributed to the increasing penetration these systems in emerging economies and the rising adoption of do-it-yourself (DIY) products. Additionally, the proliferation of smart city projects, the emergence of IoT, and the integration of wireless technology are a few factors that are expected to fuel the implementation of home security products across different households.



Breakdown of profile of primary participants:

 By Company Type: Tier 1 = 55%, Tier 2 = 25%, and Tier 3 = 20%

 By Designation: C-Level = 37%, D-Level = 36%, and Others = 27%

 By Region: Americas = 38%, Europe = 26%, APAC = 31%, and RoW = 5%



Major players profiled in this report include:

 ADT (US)

 Honeywell (US)

 Johnson Controls (US)

 HANGZHOU HIKVISION DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY (China)

 ASSA ABLOY (Sweden)

 SECOM (Japan)

 Robert Bosch (Germany)

 United Technologies (US)

 Godrej & Boyce (India)

 Alarm.com (US)

 Allegion (Republic of Ireland)

 Control4 (US)

 Schneider Electric (France)

 Legrand (France)

 ABB (Switzerland)

 Comcast (US)

 STANLEY Convergent Security Solutions (US)

 Nortek Security & Control (US)

 FRONTPOINT (US)

 Vivint (US)



Research Coverage

The report segments the home security system market on the basis of home typeindependent homes and condominiums/apartments; system typeprofessionally installed and monitored, self-installed and professionally monitored, and do-It-yourself (DIY); offeringproducts (fire protection systems, video surveillance systems, access control systems, entrance control systems, intruder alarms) and services (security system integration services, remote monitoring services, fire protection services, video surveillance services, and access control services). The study also covers geographic forecast of the market size for various segments with regard to 4 main regionsAmericas, Europe, APAC, and RoW.



Reasons to Buy the Report:



The report would help the leaders/new entrants in this market in the following ways:

 This report segments the home security system market comprehensively and provides the closest approximations of the overall market size and those of the subsegments across different applications and regions

 The report gives the detailed analysis of the home security system market with the help of competitive landscape, value chain analysis, including the key companies in the market and their relations in the ecosystem.

 The report helps stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provides them the information on key drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities pertaining to the home security system market.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05495954



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

Related Links

http://www.reportlinker.com

PETALUMA, Calif., Sept 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Having a high intelligence quotient (IQ) is a greatly desired trait in the business world, but there's another type of intelligence that's equally important: emotional intelligence (EI). Emotional intelligence is the ability for a person to identify and evaluate their emotions as well as the ones around them. Emotions once played second fiddle to IQ. However, since the 1990s, researchers have been exploring how emotions interact with cognitive processes and how it can impact decision making. Author Daniel Goleman argues that EI could even be a bigger predictor of success than IQ  making it a valuable skill in the workplace. Brandon Frere, successful entrepreneur and CEO, discusses why emotional intelligence is important in the workplace.

"Most of us have probably worked with someone who obviously didn't get it," said Frere. "They lacked awareness of how they projected themselves or how they made others feel. It's difficult to work with people who can't keep their emotions in check and it can lower everyone's productivity."

As the workforce has become increasingly diverse, the need for EI in the workplace has continued to grow. Strong EI allows one the ability to listen and empathize with people from a large variety of cultures, backgrounds and beliefs. Those with a higher EI tend to work better in teams than people with lower EI because they are more receptive to and understanding of the ideas of others and are adept at avoiding power struggles. Individuals with higher EI are often internally self-motivated, self-aware and open to constructive criticism. The need for people with higher EI isn't just for employees.

Business leaders also benefit greatly from having a high EI because it allows them to be more effective managers. They can foster trust and respect among their employees as well as identify an individual's unique abilities. These abilities combine to make for a harmonious and productive workplace where people feel valued and understood. The best news about EI is that it is not limited. EI is a skill that can be developed and increased over time. This makes it possible for everyone to continue to expand their EI capacity.

"No matter who I'm talking to within my businesses, I recognize that what I say and how I say it has an impact on them and the situation," stated Frere. "I strive to have my management and employees do the same. It makes a real difference and positively impacts our company culture in a way that trickles down to our clients. We want people to feel valued when they come to work because they are."

About Brandon Frere

Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He has designed and created multiple companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of businesses and consumers alike. His website, www.BrandonFrere.com, is used as a means of communicating many of the lessons, fundamentals and information that he has learned throughout his extensive business and personal endeavors, most recently in advocating on behalf of student loan borrowers nationwide.

As experienced during his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers and the repayment programs designed to help borrowers. Through those efforts, he gained an insider's look into the repayment process and the motivations behind the inflating student loan debt bubble. His knowledge of the often confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the daunting process of applying for available federal repayment and loan forgiveness programs.

BrandonFrere.com

Related Images

upset-woman-in-office-setting.jpg

Upset Woman in Office Setting

Credit: fizkes/Bigstock

image2.png

Related Links

Brandon Frere website

SOURCE Brandon Frere

Related Links

https://brandonfrere.com/

SAN FRANCISCO and SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity investment firm, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in Apttus, the global Middle Office leader. The transaction is expected to close in early October, subject to usual and customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Apttus' solutions automate, optimize and apply artificial intelligence to the most important set of business processes for any enterprise  generating revenue and managing key commercial relationships. Apttus provides market-leading Quote-to-Cash, Contract Lifecycle Management and other Middle Office solutions. Its customers include hundreds of the Global 2000 and is expanding rapidly as enterprises of all sizes are recognizing the importance of Middle Office solutions to their growth and success.

"Apttus was founded to help enterprises manage revenue and commercial relationships, and passionately delivering that value to our customers has made us the de facto selection and industry gold standard for large enterprises," said Neehar Giri, Apttus Co-Founder, President and Chief Solutions Architect. "Apttus' innovation is directly responsible for the creation and advancement of the Middle Office, holistically addressing the space between CRM and ERP for hundreds of customers. Our partnership with Thoma Bravo will allow Apttus to accelerate growth, scale to new heights, and capitalize on an enormous market opportunity."

Thoma Bravo is a longtime investor in the software sector and differentiates itself within the private equity community by building long-term partnerships with management and creating value by applying operational excellence learned from its unparalleled experience in software investing. Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, David Murphy, the former President and COO of Blue Coat Systems and a current Thoma Bravo Operating Partner, will join Apttus' Office of the CEO as Executive Chairman.

"Apttus has created an entirely automated Quote-to-Cash software solution and is the only end-to-end platform provider in the highly strategic Middle Office market," said Holden Spaht, a Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo. "Apttus' platform is the commercial backbone for many of the largest companies in the world and we look forward to taking incremental strides in delivering the best possible customer experience."

"We are excited to partner with Apttus to continue driving the company's impressive momentum and accelerating growth," added Robert Sayle, a Partner at Thoma Bravo. "Our partnership will provide operational experience and resources that can further enhance the company's world-class technology, speed to market, and customer support."

"Apttus was among the first partners that supported the Salesforce ecosystem by building on our platform, and we're excited to see the growth and success they've achieved," said Tyler Prince, EVP of Industries and Partners at Salesforce. "The partnership with Thoma Bravo will further enhance the value that Apttus provides to customers as a key member of the Salesforce ecosystem."

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as the lead financial advisor and Cooley LLP served as legal advisor for Apttus. Kirkland and Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to Thoma Bravo and Deutsche Bank Credit Solutions & Direct Lending is providing financing for the transaction. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Thoma Bravo, LLC

Thoma Bravo is a leading private equity firm focused on the software and technology-enabled services sectors. With a series of funds representing more than $26 billion in capital commitments, Thoma Bravo partners with a company's management team to implement operating best practices, invest in growth initiatives and make accretive acquisitions intended to accelerate revenue and earnings, with the goal of increasing the value of the business. Representative past and present portfolio companies include industry leaders such as ABC Financial, Blue Coat Systems, Deltek, Digital Insight, Frontline Education, Global Healthcare Exchange, Hyland Software, Imprivata, iPipeline, PowerPlan, Qlik, Riverbed, SailPoint, SolarWinds, SonicWall, Sparta Systems and TravelClick. The firm has offices in San Francisco and Chicago. For more information, visit thomabravo.com.

About Apttus

Apttus is a Silicon Valley-based global provider of Apttus Omni, the Middle Office platform that allows enterprises to automate and optimize their most critical revenue and commercial relationship management processes. Apttus is powered by the most advanced technologies from Salesforce, Microsoft and IBM. Analysts rank Apttus as the global gold standard for Quote-to-Cash (QTC) and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions. Apttus' innovations include Max, the company's Applied Artificial Intelligence that enables enterprises to achieve superior business outcomes. Apttus partners with a world-class ecosystem. Apttus customers include hundreds of the world's mid-sized organizations and the who's who of the Global 1000.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the potential timing and benefits of a transaction, the value and effectiveness of Apttus' products, the introduction and timing of product enhancements or additional products, Apttus' growth, expansion and market leadership and the expected completion and timing of the acquisition transaction and other information relating to the transaction, that involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which, if they do not materialize or prove correct, could cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words "predicts," "plan," "expects," "focus," "anticipates," "believes," "goal," "target," "estimate," "potential," "may," "will," "might," "momentum," "can," "could," "seek," and similar words. Apttus intends all such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 21E of the Exchange Act and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in such statements due to various factors, including, but not limited to, (i) the risk that the transaction may not be consummated in a timely manner, if at all; (ii) the risk that the transaction may not be consummated and that, in certain circumstances, the Company may not be entitled to a termination fee; (iii) the risk that the definitive merger agreement may be terminated in circumstances that require the Company to pay a termination fee; (iv) risks related to the diversion of management's attention from the Company's ongoing business operations; (v) risks regarding the failure of the relevant Thoma Bravo affiliate to obtain the necessary financing to complete the transaction; (vi) the effect of the announcement of the transaction on the Company's business relationships (including, without limitation, customers and suppliers), operating results and business generally; and (vii) risks related to obtaining the requisite consents to the transaction, including, without limitation, the timing (including possible delays) and receipt of regulatory approvals from various domestic and foreign governmental entities (including any conditions, limitations or restrictions placed on these approvals) and the risk that one or more governmental entities may deny approval. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent Apttus' views as of the date of this press release. Apttus anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause its views to change. Apttus undertakes no intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Apttus's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Media Contact

For Thoma Bravo: Matthew Gorton, Hiltzik Strategies

212-776-1161

[email protected]



For Apttus: Alex Cohen, Apttus

[email protected]

SOURCE Thoma Bravo, LLC

Related Links

https://thomabravo.com/

From September 4, 2018 to September 15, 2018, fans can head to the Thomas' Facebook page to submit why they deserve to be named Thomas' #1 English Muffin Fan. From a morning routine that simply isn't complete without the goodness of Thomas' to getting creative in the kitchen with fun and unique English Muffin recipes  Thomas' wants to hear why fans' hearts only beat for the Nooks & Crannies perfection. Thomas' will select its three favorite submissions for a nationwide consumer vote between September 22  29, 2018 to crown the winner as the #1 English Muffin Fan.

"After nearly 140 years of bringing our signature English Muffins to breakfast tables across the country, the Thomas' brand is tremendously grateful to our loyal fans who continue to make us the #1 English Muffin in America," said Richard Link, Senior Marketing Director of Thomas'. "We're excited to launch this special contest during our favorite time of year  National Breakfast Month  to celebrate the delicious morning moments that we strive to deliver each and every day. We look forward to hearing stories and experiences from our fans and awarding the illustrious English Muffin medal to our greatest brand champion."

The Thomas' brand dates back to 1880 when Samuel Bath Thomas created his original English Muffin in New York City using a secret process that included griddle baking to create a Nooks and Crannies English Muffin. Today, Thomas' sells the No. 1 English muffin and the No. 1 grocery bagel in the U.S. For a full list of Thomas' products, visit www.ThomasBreads.com and for full contest rules visit the Thomas' Facebook page.

Suggested Tweet:

In honor of #NationalBreakfastMonth, Thomas'  the #1 English Muffin in America  is searching for the #1 English Muffin Fan! One super-fan will win a year of English Muffins and a GOLDEN ENGLISH MUFFIN MEDAL. (No, really.) Enter here: https://bit.ly/2No8KgT

About Bimbo Bakeries USA

Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU) is a leader in the baking industry, known for its category leading brands, innovative products, freshness and quality. Our team of 20,000 U.S. associates operates more than 50 manufacturing locations in the United States. Over

11,000 distribution routes deliver our leading brands such as Arnold, Bimbo, Boboli, Brownberry, Entenmann's, Freihofer's, Heiner's, Marinela, Mrs Baird's, Nature's Harvest, Oroweat, Sara Lee, Stroehmann, Thomas', and Tia Rosa. BBU is owned by Mexico's Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B de C.V., the world's largest baking company with operations in 22 countries.

SOURCE Bimbo Bakeries USA

Related Links

https://www.bimbobakeriesusa.com

"It's been a dream of ours to open a store together, and Tint World has been a great partner to streamline this process," Patel said. "They've been flexible and provided support and training that's helped us reach our goal, which is to help our customers and community by providing safety features like tinting, head units with hands-free calling, backup cameras, and alarm systems, as well as aesthetic and performance upgrades."

Tint World of Missouri City will provide a full range of automotive styling and safety services including automotive tint, automotive paint protection film, mobile electronics, advanced driver-assistance systems and car stereo upgrades, and residential and commercial window film.

"Dhaval and Sam bring unique life and work experience into the Tint World family," said Charles J. Bonfiglio, President and CEO of Tint World. "They've worked hard together to get their store open, and they're focused on bringing a high level of professional expertise to Tint World and its customers. I think it's great that they're thinking of ways they can serve their community through the products and services that we offer.

The all-new Tint World of Missouri City store is located at 2015 Highway 90 A. For more information, call (832) 726-0600.

Tint World Automotive Styling Centers offer sales and installation of auto accessories, mobile electronics, audio video equipment, security systems, custom wheels and tire packages, window tinting, vehicle wraps, paint protection films, detailing services, nano ceramic coatings, maintenance and repair services, and more. Tint World is also the leading provider of residential, commercial and marine computerized window tinting and security film services with locations throughout the U.S. and abroad, with franchise opportunities available worldwide.

About Tint World

Founded in 1982, Tint World has grown to become an award-winning franchised provider of automotive styling, residential, commercial and marine window tinting and security film services. With Automotive Styling Centers in the U.S. and abroad, each franchise location houses approximately 20 profit centers, ranging from in-store accessory installations to off-site sales and installation of residential, commercial and marine window tinting and security films. To find out more, please visit www.tintworld.com and tintworldfranchise.com.

Tint World Contact:

Charles J. Bonfiglio, CEO

(800) 767-8468

[email protected]

MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Ripley PR

865-977-1973

[email protected]

SOURCE Tint World

Related Links

http://www.tintworld.com

Tom brings with him more than 30 years of experience in sales, client management, P&L management, operations and consulting. He will join the North American team in helping to meet growth objectives, working with both existing accounts as well as with the new logo team to build a healthy pipeline and win new business that is profitable and sustainable.

"With a healthy P&L, HGS is able to make the essential investments in technology and our people to help our clients be more competitive by solving their industry business problems," Hricik said. "As a growing global company we have remarkable client retention resulting from being brilliant at providing core services while helping customers adopt automation and analytics-based innovation to meet their present and future needs. HGS is a formidable Business Process Services player with our current and expanding portfolio of offerings."

For the past 17-years, Tom has served in a variety of business and sales leadership roles at Conduent, a business process services companies, where he drove collaboration with internal and external partners to maximize the value of the BPO, consulting and technology services for clients. Tom is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with undergraduate and graduate degrees focused in information systems and industrial relations.

"We are excited that leaders the caliber of Tom are seeing the value in the vision, capability and client portfolio of HGS and investing their careers in helping to grow the business," said Partha DeSarkar, chief executive officer, HGS. "Tom will play a critical role in raising client, employee and shareholder value by consistently delivering innovation and deep domain expertise to grow traditional and transformational business."

About Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS):

A global leader in business process management (BPM) and optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, HGS is helping make its clients more competitive every day. HGS combines technology-powered services in automation, analytics and digital with domain expertise focusing on back office processing, contact centers and HRO solutions to deliver transformational impact to clients. Part of the multi-billion dollar conglomerate Hinduja Group, HGS takes a true "globally local" approach, with over 44,854 employees across 75 delivery centers in seven countries making a difference to some of the world's leading brands across nine key verticals. For the year ended 31st March 2018, HGS had revenues of US$ 597 million.

Visit www.teamhgs.com to learn how HGS can help make your business more competitive.

HGS Media Contacts:

Andrew Kokes

+1 888 747 7911

[email protected]

Diana Dixon

+ 1 312 758 1380

[email protected]

SOURCE Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS)

Related Links

http://www.teamhgs.com/

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738576/TUTC_World_Travel_Award.jpg )



Speaking on the achievement, Ms. Dhun Cordo, co-founder, TUTC, said, "World Travel Awards, which is celebrating its 25th year, has recognised many leaders from the travel and hospitality industry over the years. We are truly honoured to be recognised at this prestigious platform time and again, and to be voted by our guests and industry peers. This past year has been very rewarding with The Ultimate Travelling Camp's group of properties spreading its glamping roots to other spectacular locations across India."

She added, "We also forayed into semi-permanent accommodation and expanded our luxury portfolio with the launch of a rebranded luxury lodge experience in Dudhwa, Uttar Pradesh. We are very happy that our endeavour to create a segment for niche luxury travellers has been gaining constant recognition from the discerning travellers and industry experts."

TUTC operates in undiscovered regions of India, including the Chamba Camp, Thiksey (Ladakh), Chamba Camp, Diskit (Ladakh), Kohima Camp (Nagaland), and Jaagir Lodge Dudhwa (Uttar Pradesh). Each luxury property weaves in experiences that promote the richness and uniqueness of the destination. The Chamba Camps ensure patronage to various aspects of the Ladakhi and Buddhist way of life, the Kohima camp that coincides with the Hornbill festival aims to revive, protect and preserve the tradition of the 16 tribes native to Nagaland and the Jaagir Lodge Dudhwa, a luxury lodge experience familiarizes guests with the thrilling wildlife and conservation initiatives in India's most diverse ecosystem.

The World Travel Awards is considered by many as the 'Oscars of the Travel Industry' that celebrates excellence in global tourism. The ceremonies are widely regarded as the best networking opportunities within the travel and tourism industry, attended by the who's who of the travel industry.

For further queries, call on +91-8010902222, write to us on [email protected] or visit our website http://www.tutc.com .

SOURCE The Ultimate Travelling Camp (TUTC)Urbanbase is a 3D spatial data platform with patented technology that converts a building's floor plans into 3D/VR form in just a few seconds and has the world's largest database of 3D spatial data with which new, added value can be created in convergence with AR/VR. Over 40 brands in Korea including LG Electronics and Fursys Group's home furnishing brand "iloom" have already integrated Urbanbase API on their platforms and are utilizing it to provide more advanced customer service. This is made possible with Urbanbase's 3D spatial data and home designing VR services.

AR Scale is based on "collective intelligence" and is Urbanbase's third service, following home designing VR web service "Urbanbase" and home designing AR mobile application service "Urbanbase AR." Urbanbase's core asset, 3D spatial data, was previously produced by Urbanbase through patented 3D floor plan conversion technology, but Urbanbase anticipates that the scale of 3D spatial data accumulated through Urbanbase and its users will increase exponentially as AR Scale is targeted towards architects all over the world.

If "Urbanbase AR" was for general consumers who are interested in furnishing homes, AR Scale is an augmented reality service for professionals that are oriented towards architectural tasks. According to Urbanbase' survey of over 400 individuals in the architecture field, "creating physical mockups of 3D models" is one of the toughest and frustrating tasks, not only because it's difficult, but also due to its time-consuming nature.

AR Scale enables users to effectively present their projects to third parties without having to create physical mockups by using mobile devices, into 3D models in augmented reality. Architects are able to reduce time by only having to work on 3D modeling and can build a full-scale 3D model house onto the actual project site by using AR Scale's 1:1 Scale mode to preview the building in its natural surroundings.

Clients briefed on AR Scale can have a better understanding of the project and are able to provide specific feedback, as to the view is shown without limitation to physical space. Specific feedback reduces miscommunication between the architect and client, ultimately creating a virtuous cycle of better results.

AR Scale is easy to use. AR Scale's website (https://arscale.io) automatically converts uploaded 3D models to AR mode, and the 3D model can be viewed in augmented reality by scanning the QR code. AR Scale fully supports SketchUp 3D Warehouse's assets, as well as AR conversion for various 3D programming products such as 3D CAD and 3ds Max. Scheduled for release in November, the commercial version will have additional features such as converting AR models for direct VR viewing.

Jinu Ha, CEO of Urbanbase said, "Over the past thousands of years, architects have spent as little as a few weeks to as long as several months to create mockups of their design plans for third parties. More time is spent designing the mockup than doing actual architectural design, only to have the mockup destroyed after a single showing," and that "AR Scale started from pondering how to innovatively solve key pain points experienced over long working hours for those in the architecture industry. We are confident that AR Scale will transform the presentation process for architects all around the world."

About Urbanbase

Established in 2014, Urbanbase (business.urbanbase.com) is a spatial data platform startup created by former architect and programmer CEO Jinu Ha with the ultimate goal of forming an ecosystem where anyone can easily utilize 3D spatial data to create VR and AR services with the API and SDK. Based on patented technology that converts a building's floor plans to 3D in just two seconds, Urbanbase has the 3D spatial data of over 70 percent of all apartment complexes in South Korea and technical partnerships with over 40 real estate platforms and home electronics, furniture, and interior brands including LG Electronics, LG Hausys, iloom, Naver, and Kaare Klint. Urbanbase released the beta version of "Urbanbase," a home designing VR web service that allows users to furnish their homes, in July 2016, home designing AR mobile application service "Urbanbase AR" in January 2018, and revealed their 3D cloud-based AR presentation tool "AR Scale" beta for architects this September.

For Inquiries

Urbanbase Inc. Marketing Division PR Manager, Hyunjoo Gong ([email protected]), +82-10-8488-7708

SOURCE UrbanbaseLOS ANGELES, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A Los Angeles County jury awarded $8.45 million to the son of a pipefitter, finding asbestos insulation distributed by Weil-McLain and used on its boilers contributed to Robert "Bob" Swanson's mesothelioma and subsequent death. The award, handed down on August 28, 2019, is believed to be the largest asbestos verdict against Weil-McLain to date.

"It was most satisfying to receive justice for Robert Swanson, who never got to see his day in court," said Gary M. Paul, lead trial attorney and partner at Waters Kraus & Paul in Los Angeles. "But the effort carried on by his only surviving heir, his son Shawn, allowed the jury to see the righteousness of his cause. I believe Robert must be smiling."

Bob Swanson, a career plumber and pipefitter, was originally from Michigan. He moved to California in 1979, working for the next several decades in HVAC.

Mr. Swanson testified that his employer from 1969 through the 1970s only installed Weil-McLain brand boilers.

According to testimony, Weil-McLain purchased JM 352 insulating cement, which was 100% chrysotile asbestos. A Johns-Manville representative testified that JM 352 bags contained an asbestos warning label. He also testified that Weil-McLain repackaged the asbestos insulation, sending it to customers in plain paper bags with their boilers.

"The jury saw the truth and they were determined to make sure their verdict resonated," said Mr. Paul. "I want people to know that at Waters Kraus & Paul, we never give up; we will overcome any obstacle put up by the defense to make sure that justice is accomplished for our client!"

Mr. Swanson, diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2014, died just 16 months later.

Representing the Swansons:

Gary M. Paul, lead trial attorney, partner at Waters Kraus & Paul in Los Angeles,

Erin M. Wood, an attorney in the firm's Dallas office, Waters & Kraus, LLP.

About Waters Kraus & Paul

Waters Kraus & Paul is a national plaintiffs' firm helping families in personal injury/wrongful death cases involving asbestos and other dangerous products. The law firm also represents plaintiffs in whistleblower matters involving false claims submitted to the government. Based in Texas, the firm has represented families from all fifty states, foreign countries, as well as foreign governments. Learn more.

SOURCE Waters Kraus & Paul

Related Links

http://www.waterskraus.com

DUBLIN, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Vaccines 2018: World Market Analysis, Key Players, Trends, Pediatric and Adult Segments (Influenza, Cervical Cancer, Combinations, Hepatitis, Pneumococcal, MMR, Varicella, Poliovirus, HIB, Others)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global market for human vaccines is experiencing strong growth, fuelled by favorable demographics (population growth, rising life expectancy), continued new product introductions, indication expansions for some products and rising usage, particularly in India and China. Vaccines 2018: World Market Analysis, Key Players, Trends, Pediatric and Adult Segments examines the market for vaccines used in humans to prevent various types of disease, providing a comprehensive market summary.



Issues and Trends in the Market



Vaccination has played an enormous role in the prevention of disease, having had the greatest impact on human health of any medical intervention to date. As a result, vaccine-preventable diseases and their resulting deaths are now relatively rare in the developed world. However, the developing nations have not benefited as much from the introduction of vaccines. Additionally, other issues are impacting the vaccines industry both positively and negatively. Vaccines 2018 discusses some of the most important macro and micro trends, including:

Rising life expectancy;

increasing obesity;

growing out of pocket spending on healthcare;

health insurance changes in the U.S.;

decentralization of healthcare services;

austerity programs in Europe ;

; global healthcare mergers and acquisitions;

vaccine safety challenges and negative public opinion;

vaccine shortages;

refusal to vaccinate.

Competitive Landscape



The report also discusses the vaccine businesses of industry leaders as well as emerging players with high potential. Many of the larger companies - some active in other areas in addition to vaccines - are discussed, with a focus on their preventative vaccine businesses and products. (Specifically excluded is discussion of related infectious disease products such as therapeutic vaccines and monoclonal antibodies.)



Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary

The Global Vaccines Industry

Scope and Methodology

Market Estimates and Forecasts



2. Introduction to Vaccines

A Brief History: The Development of Vaccines

The Human Immune System

Vaccine Mechanism of Action

Types of Vaccines

Attenuated (Weakened) Live Viruses

Killed (Inactivated) Viruses

Toxoid Vaccines

Genetically Engineered/Modified Vaccines

Vaccine Approval Process



3. Pediatric Preventative Vaccines

Childhood Immunization in the United States

Childhood Immunization Rates

Challenges to the Vaccine Delivery System

Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule

State Immunization Recommendations

United Nations Initiatives

Pediatric Vaccine Products

Addiction

BCG

Dengue Fever

Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hepatitis B and Polio

Haemophilus Influenzae Type B

Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease

Hepatitis A

Influenza

Measles, Mumps and Rubella

Meningococcal Disease

Pneumococcal Conjugate

Rotavirus

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Varicella

Pediatric Vaccines in Development

The World Market for Pediatric Preventive Vaccines

Total Market Size and Forecast

Hepatitis Vaccine Market

Haemophilus Influenzae Type B Vaccine Market

Measles, Mumps and Rubella Vaccines

Combination Vaccines Market

Pneumococcal Vaccine

Poliovirus Vaccine

Varicella Vaccines

Other Pediatric Vaccines



4. Adult Preventative Vaccines

Global Influenza Surveillance Program

U.S. Surveillance

Recommended Adult Immunizations

WHO International Health Regulations

Adult Vaccine Products

BCG

Cervical Cancer

Cholera

Diphtheria-Tetanus

Ebola

Hepatitis

Influenza

Japanese Encephalitis

Nosocomial Infections

Pneumococcal Disease

Rabies

Shingles

Typhoid Fever

Yellow Fever

Adult Vaccines in Development

The World Market for Adult Preventive Vaccines

Total Market Size and Forecast

Cervical Cancer Market

Hepatitis Market

Influenza Vaccine Market

Pneumococcal Vaccine Market

Travel and Other Vaccine Market



5. Total Vaccines Market

Trends Driving the Vaccines Market

Market Size and Forecast

Vaccine Sales by Region

Vaccine Market Competitors

Pediatric Vaccines

Adult Vaccines



6. Issues and Trends

Rising Life Expectancy

Increasing Obesity

Addiction Epidemic

Growing Out of Pocket Spending on Healthcare

Health Insurance Changes in the U.S.

Affordable Care Act Changes

Reimbursement Changes and Value-Based Care

Decentralization of Healthcare Services

Urgent Care Centers

Retail Clinics

Austerity Programs in Europe

UK

Other Nations

Global Healthcare Mergers and Acquisitions

Vaccine Safety

Data

Refusal to Immunize

Post-Licensure Surveillance

The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

World Health Organization

Other Initiatives

Pricing Pressure

Cost of Vaccines in the United States

Vaccine Shortages

Preventing Shortages in the Developed Countries

Preventing Shortages in Developing Nations

U.S. National Vaccine Plan

Vaccines and Bioterrorism

Project Bioshield Act

National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility

Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Units

Anthrax

Smallpox

New Disease Threats

Stimulating Vaccine Development

Global Health Vaccine Center of Innovation

Human Vaccines Project

Innovations in Vaccine Delivery Systems

Mucosal Delivery

Intranasal Delivery

Microneedles



7. Company Profiles

Bavarian Nordic A/S

Bharat Biotech

Crucell /Johnson & Johnson

CSL Limited

Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd.

Emergent Biosolutions

GlaxoSmithKlin

Hawaii Biotech

Medimmune

Merck & Co. Inc.

Mymetics

PaxVax

Pfizer

Sanofi Pasteur

Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.

Soligenix

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Valneva

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dgr7gg/world_vaccines?w=5





Did you know that we also offer Custom Research? Visit our Custom Research page to learn more and schedule a meeting with our Custom Research Manager.

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716



SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

Riyadh, Sep 4 : Saudi Arabia on Monday dismissed reports saying it plans to impose fees on expatriate remittance, Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Saudi Finance Ministry confirmed that it supports the free movement of capital through official channels in accordance with international standard and practices.

The ministry added that this will also enhance foreign investors' confidence in the kingdom's economy and financial systems.

The ministry also said such approach comes in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 to diversify the economy and attract foreign investments.

The ministry clarified that the statement was issued in response to "baseless and unfounded" media reports.

The ministry also dismissed in 2017 similar reports.San Francisco, Sep 4 : US tech giant Google announced on Monday that it is employing a new artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to combat online spreading of contents involving child sexual abuse.

Google said its cutting-edge AI technology uses deep neural networks for image processing to help discover and detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.

The new tool based on the deep neural networks will be made available for free to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other "industry partners," including other technology companies, via a new Content Safety API service that could be offered upon request, Xinhua reported.

"Using the Internet as a means to spread content that sexually exploits children is one of the worst abuses imaginable," Google Engineering Lead Nikola Todorovic and Product Manager Abhi Chaudhuri wrote in the company's official blog post.

The new AI technology will significantly help service providers, NGOs and other tech firms to improve the efficiency of CSAM detection and reduce human reviewers' exposure to the content, said the two Google engineers.

"Quick identification of new images means that children who are being sexually abused today are much more likely to be identified and protected from further abuse," they noted.

"We've seen firsthand that this system can help a reviewer find and take action on 700 percent more CSAM content over the same time period," they added.

Many tech companies are now more willing to leverage AI to detect various kinds of CSAM contents such as nudity and abusive comments, and Google's announcement represents its fresh commitment to fighting online CSAM contents by sharing "the latest technological advancements."

Google has been cooperating with some of its partners in combating online child sexual abuse, including the Britain-based charity the Internet Watch Foundation, the Technology Coalition and the WePROTECT Global Alliance, as well as other NGO organizations.Washington, Sep 4 : US President Donald Trump has slammed Attorney General Jeff Sessions for deigning to indict members of his own party just weeks before the midterm elections.

Trump on Monday blasted Sessions and lamented the indictments of Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins who were his earliest supporters in the Congress during the 2016 election, suggesting they should not have been charged because they are Republicans, the CNN reported.

"Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicised charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department," Trump tweeted.

"Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff..."

New York Congressman Collins was charged with insider trading in August -- he made a possibly incriminating phone call on White House grounds.

While California's Hunter is accused of engaging in graft over many years, which includes disguising personal purchases as benefits to military veterans, the Time said.

The comment on Monday was the latest indication that Trump, who ran on a pledge to "drain the swamp", believes his political allies should be immune from prosecution, regardless of the evidence stacked against them, the CNN said.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the President's tweets.Kabul, Sep 4 : The founder of the Haqqani militant network has died after several years of illness, the Afghan Taliban has announced.

Jalaluddin Haqqani was a significant militant figure in Afghanistan and had close ties to both the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the BBC reported.

"Just as he endured great hardships for the religion of Allah during his youth and health, he also endured long illness during his later years," a statement from the Afghan Taliban said.

There were no details in the statement about the date or place of his death.

The Haqqani network has been behind many of the co-ordinated attacks on Afghan and Nato forces over the years.

His son Sirajuddin Haqqani is believed to have taken over control of the group in 2001.

Rumours about Haqqani's death have circulated for years. In 2015, sources close to the group told the BBC that the leader had died at least a year before. This was never confirmed.New Delhi : Title: You Are The Supreme Light: The Lessons from Adi Shankara; Author: (Edited by) Nanditha Krishna; Publisher: Aleph; Pages: 133; Price: Rs 399 Adi Shankara was undoubtedly one of the greatest men the subcontinent ever saw. A man of brilliant mind, his compositions and achievements by the time he passed away at a young age of 32 are nothing less than stupendous. As author-editor Nanditha Krishna says, if the British claim they created India, they need to know that this young man walked the length and breadth of the subcontinent over a thousand years earlier.

The importance of this slim volume is the simple way it explains Shankara's evolution as a philosopher and his marvellous capacity for organisation. He united the vast region by appointing a disciple from one part of the country as head of his "mathas" or monastaries in another part. He was a poet, logistician, debater and devotee combined together. One whose legacy lives on.

Krishna, a Chennai-based writer with a PhD in Ancient Indian Culture, is among the few who credit Shankara with setting up not four (Dwarka, Badrinath, Puri, Sringeri) but five (Kanchipuram) mathas. There is evidence, she says, that Shankara visited Kanchipuram in the 8th century and told the king to go for a more gentle form of Kali in the form of Kamakshi.

Shankara's life story per se is well known. The book tells us that a major contribution of Shankara, who propagated the Advaita Vedanta philosophy, was in the abolition of animal and human sacrifice wherever he went. He did not accept blind faith. His philosophy was not as sectarian as either Vaishnavism or Shaivism -- although there is no doubt that it is mainly Shaivites who worship Shankara.

Shankara was a devastating critic of blind faith, pretentiousness and foolishness. And he wrote some of the greatest devotional hymns (to Gods, cities and rivers) as well as commentaries whose appeal has not dimmed a bit despite the many centuries that have passed since they were written.

The book has a rich collection of some of his aphorisms on various subjects. His mathas live on to this day, providing spiritual guidance to Hindus, although, the author laments, they have become a new orthodoxy, something that Shankara rejected all his life.

(M.R. Narayan Swamy can be reached on narayan.swamy@ians.in)New Delhi, Sep 4 : With more and more enterprises in India aiming for digital transformation amid a growing economy, the country faces imminent cyber threats from rogue nation-state actors and a collective approach is the need of the hour, a top official from US-based Internet Society (ISOC) has stressed.

Founded in 1992 by people involved with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) -- an open standards body which develops and promotes voluntary Internet standards -- Virginia-headquartered ISOC is a non-profit organisation dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and safe use of Internet worldwide.

"India is a rising economic and military power, so nation-state actors would always think what they could gain from systems and networks in the country, to try and get an edge over on something," Rajnesh Singh, Regional Bureau Director-Asia Pacific, ISOC, told IANS in an interview here.

"Owing to India's status of a fast-growing economy and having a global footprint, the country is vulnerable to cyber attacks by nation-state actors over trade deals, military hardware, economic information and financial information," Singh added.

India today is in the top three largest Internet markets in the world.

According to Singh, it is not only the job of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), government or cyber security firms to ward off cyber threats -- but also users themselves.

"A lot of users these days are bit naive in terms of Internet usage. They need to realise that they are part of the larger ecosystem and are not just being connected to something in isolation. I think a big component -- education and awareness -- is missing. A collaborative effort is needed," the official told IANS.

The number of cyber-security incidents has gradually increased in India over the past few years.

According to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) housed at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), India witnessed 44,679, 49,455 and 50,362 cyber security incidents in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.

These included phishing, website intrusions and defacements, virus and denial of service attacks, among others.

To provide a safe experience for over 400 million Indian Internet users, ISOC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) to look into securing routers.

The partnership would promote the Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) -- a global initiative to implement the crucial fixes needed to reduce the most common threats to the Internet's routing system.

"The Indian mindset has to change and education is a key component here. Once you share details on the Internet, you open gates for the hackers. We are fascinated by pirated CDs and free apps, without knowing what may be behind these. Awareness on the security issue is a must," ISPAI President Rajesh Chharia told IANS.

"Importantly, youth and non-English Internet users in rural areas are highly vulnerable to cyber threats," Chharia said, adding that MANRS will help patch the network in a way that the rural areas also get secured.

According to Singh, ISPAI will spread MANRS to non-ISPAI members -- including youth in colleges.

"If MANRS is incorporated within the learning system in the country, youth will have an idea what measures to take and what not, to ensure they are no more vulnerable to Internet threats," Singh said.

(Rachel V. Thomas can be contacted at rachel.t@ians.in)Washington, Sep 4 : A day ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunfords stopover in Islamabad, the Pentagon has said that America will continue to press Pakistan to "indiscriminately" target all terrorist groups.

"Since January, we have consistently engaged with Pakistani military officials at the highest levels, based on both a shared commitment to defeat all terrorist groups that threaten regional stability and security, as well as on a shared vision of a peaceful future for Afghanistan," Pentagon spokesperson Lt Col Kone Faulkner told The News International on Monday.

"We continue to press Pakistan to indiscriminately target all terrorist groups, including the Haqqani Network and we continue to call on Pakistan to arrest, expel or bring the Taliban leadership to the negotiating table."

The Pentagon official also clarifed: "The suspension of security assistance to Pakistan was announced in January 2018. CSF is included in the suspension and it remains in place."

President Donald Trump had suspended all security related assistance to Pakistan early in 2018, alleging that Islamabad was not acting against militant groups as promised, New International reported.

Following the presidential orders the White House froze around a billion dollar aid to Pakistan but had also proposed some $300 million in its new annual budget which was again tied to act against militant groups.

This has been a long demand from the Trump administration to come to terms with militant groups especially the Taliban to help initiate dialogue for a political settlement in Afghanistan.

"Owing to lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia strategy the remaining $300 million was reprogrammed by Defence Department in the July 2018 timeframe for other urgent priorities before the funds expire on September 30."

Pompeo and Dunford will be in Islamabad on Wednesday en route to India.

They will meet the new Imran Khan led government to discuss issues of mutual concern in an attempt to gain much needed cooperation in Afghanistan at a time when violence is escalating and Trump's year-old South Asia strategy is making little headway against the Taliban ahead of the mid-term poll in the US, the National reported.Srinagar, Sep 4 : Three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers and a civilian were injured on Tuesday in a grenade attack by militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district, police said.

Militants hurled a grenade at the CRPF party at Sangrama crossing in Sopore area. It exploded injuring four persons.

The injured were shifted to hospital. The area was cordoned off for searches, the police said.Kolkata, Sep 4 : The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Tuesday said it has sanctioned Rs 334.75 crore in August, under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), to West Bengal for 158 minor irrigation and 23 flood protection projects.

The projects were expected to benefit 20,506 hectare covering 3.09 lakh population in 699 villages of the 22 districts while the flood protection projects would address the problem of rapid bank erosion caused by rivers, according to a statement.

The developmental bank said the implementation of 23 flood protection projects would save around 5,080 hectare of fertile agricultural and home stead lands of farmers of 64 villages which are under area of erosion.

With this cumulative RIDF loan assistance to the state government during the year stands at Rs 1,172.16 crore.Brasilia, Sep 4 : Brazilian President Michel Temer has said that his government is seeking funding from companies and banks to help rebuild the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro after it was destroyed by fire.

Education Minister Rossieli Soares said international help was also being sought and talks with the UN's cultural body, Unesco, were under way, the BBC reported.

Museum officials said almost 90 per cent of the collection has been destroyed. The staff of the 200-year-old museum have blamed the fire on years of funding cuts.

The museum housed one of the largest anthropology and natural history collections in the Americas. It included the 12,000-year-old remains of a woman known as "Luzia".

On Monday, Temer's office said he had held talks with officials from major Brazilian banks and businesses to examine ways to reconstruct the museum "as soon as possible".

Addressing reporters outside the ruined building, Soares said the federal government had set aside an initial $3.6 million to rebuild the structure and restore its collection.

A probe has been launched to establish the facts behind the monster blaze. However, Culture Minister Sergio Leitao told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper that the most likely causes were an electrical fault or a homemade paper hot-air balloon landing on the roof, the BBC said.

The fire started on Sunday evening, after the building -- a 19th century former royal palace -- closed for the day.

It is not yet clear if the museum was insured.Sep 4 (IANS) Last month's occurrence of 70 earthquakes in just 48 hours along the "Pacific Ring of Fire" sparked fears that a big temblor is on the way to rattle California on the US West Coast.

The Ring of Fire around the edge of the Pacific Ocean is a 40,000-km-long, horseshoe-shaped, seismically-active belt that passes through California. San Francisco in northern California, which suffered a massive earthquake in 1906, is reportedly on high alert.

But Arun Bapat, a Pune-based research seismologist and former chief of earthquake research at the Central Water and Power Research Station, who had predicted the 2004 Indian ocean tsunami, believes that San Francisco is unlikely to be hit.

"It is possible that California may be visited by a quake of magnitude more than 7, but I am not sure whether the epicenter could be at San Francisco," Bapat told this correspondent in an email.

"Based on my research, after having checked some parameters of the deadly 1906 San Francisco earthquake, I would say that the rupture during that earthquake was from San Juan to Telegraph Hills -- a distance of 270 miles (432 km)," Bapat said.

"The rupture travels from San Juan in the south to Telegraph Hills in the north. If the northern parts of San Francisco were ruptured about a century back, there could be still some remnants of the ruptured rocks. The south of San Juan is more virgin for rupture. This is the logic of my reasoning that the probable epicenter could be about 70- to 100-km south of San Francisco."

Bapat's confidence stems from the string of correct predictions he has made about impending earthquakes for years.

"I have been working in the fields of earthquake and allied sciences, including earthquake forecasting," Bapat explained.

The massive January 2001 earthquake in Bhuj was one such prediction he made when he heard about water suddenly oozing out of the ground and sprouting in the form of springs in some locations in Gujarat's Kutch district.

The strange event invited curious onlookers but it rang an alarm bell in Bapat who had read reports that sprouting of groundwater had preceded the Kangra earthquake (April 4, 1905) and the Quetta earthquake (May 30, 1935).

Without losing time, Bapat e-mailed the Gujarat government that the event witnessed in Kutch "is a sign of large-magnitude earthquake occurring within 2-3 weeks". His warning was ignored.

But his prediction came true on January 26 (India's Republic Day) when Bhuj was shaken by 7.9 magnitude quake -- hence known as the Republic Day quake -- that killed around 10,000 people.

"Seismic precursors such as water oozing from the ground, and abnormal animal behavior before a large magnitude earthquake cannot be quantified," Bapat reports in the journal Current Science. "But these are highly reliable and should be used by the authorities for mitigation measures."

Abnormal behavior of domestic animals like cows, buffaloes, dogs, cats, horses, lambs about 10 hours before earthquakes has been observed and reported before the Uttarkashi earthquake of 1991, Latur earthquake of 1993, Bhuj earthquake of 2001, Sumatran earthquake and tsunami of 2004, and the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, Bapat said.

The oldest record of abnormal animal behavior before an earthquake is available for the Kangra earthquake of 1905, when animals in the Lahore Zoo -- about 180 km from the epicenter -- reportedly became "noisy, violent, and aggressive".

The 6.5 magnitude earthquake that rocked China on August 8, 2017 killed 19 people and injured 247. Not many are aware that Bapat had warned his Chinese colleagues about its occurrence only a day before it struck.

Bapat alerted his Chinese counterpart after seeing a satellite infra-red image in the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) website. It showed a "thermal high" in the China-Japan region that was not there five hours earlier -- which Bapat knew was a sign of a moderate to large magnitude earthquake within the next few hours.

That forecast turned to be correct as was his prediction of the 7.2-magnitude Mexico earthquake of April 18, 2014, two months before the actual event.

Bapat's predictions using satellite readings of some seismological and geophysical parameters like "Total Electron Content" and "Outgoing Long wave Radiation", in addition to infra-red images of the earth, had also turned out to be correct.

For instance, using these data, on 14 April, 2017, Bapat alerted the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir government of a possible earthquake of magnitude around 5.5 "within the next few days". An earthquake of magnitude 5.0 did occur four days later, 79-km from Kargil, as predicted.

This satellite-borne data could be effectively used for earthquake forecasting and prediction on a 24x7 basis, says Bapat. "The data is freely available on the Indian Meteorological Department website."

Besides satellite data, there are seismic precursors that Bapat has used for forecasting.

"About two days before an earthquake, the landline telephone communication gets disturbed; radio reception fades away about 30 to 40 hours before the event and television reception gets disturbed about 10 hours before an earthquake," Bapat said.

"About 100 minutes before the occurrence of a moderate to large magnitude earthquake, all mobile telephones stop functioning."

These precursors were noticed prior to the 1993 Latur earthquake in Maharashtra, the Bhuj quake of 2001 and the 7.5 magnitude Kathmandu quake on April 25, 2015.

Bapat's prediction based on surface temperature also turned out to be correct in the case of the earthquake in Manipur early last year.

(K.S. Jayaraman is a veteran science journalist. He can be contacted at killugudi@hotmail.com)New Delhi, Sep 4 : Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, who doesnt carry a cellphone, on Tuesday said soldiers could not be denied access to the social media and they should be allowed to use smartphones within a line of controlled discipline.

He said the Indian Army needed to make optimal usage of the social media in the advanced age of communication and information.

"The social Media gaining momentum faster than we thought. (If we don't catch up) we will be left far behind and we will be fire fighting again," General Rawat said, speaking at a seminar on "Social Media and Armed Forces".

"Information is one of the pillars of national power. There is no way the Armed Forces can remain away from that," he said "We have received advice that we should advise our soldiers to stay away from the social media. Can you deny a soldier a smart phone? Can you deny soldier a smartphone at home or prevent his family to own one. If you can't prevent usage of smartphone, it is best to allow it (the access to social media).

"The social media is here to stay. Soldiers will use the social media. Our adversary will use the social media for psychological warfare and deception. We must leverage it to our advantage."

The Army Chief said the social media could be used in combating proxy war, cross-border terrorism but drew a note of caution, saying it was "important to have means of imposing discipline" among the soldiers regarding their social media behaviour.

He, however, said he himself didn't possess a cellphone but that should not mean that his force should be denied of it.

"I don't have a cellphone and when someone asks me my cellphone number I just give them (any random number) 9868A and if it turns out to be an 11-digit number I just say cut the last digit.

"But we (the Indian Army) have to engage, remain engaged and benefit (from the use of social media).

"In modern day warfare, information warfare is important and within it, we have started talking about Artificial Intelligence. If we have to leverage Artificial Intelligence to our advantage, we must engage through the social media as a lot of what we wish to gain as part of Artificial Intelligence will come via social media."

The views by the Army Chief came months after the social media policy for soldiers was criticized when a senior Army officer was allegedly honey-trapped by an ISI agent through Facebook.

The Defence Ministry set out guidelines for the soldiers on the usage of the social media. They have been asked not to use photos in uniform as profile pictures on WhatsApp, Facebook or any other platforms.

The guidelines also bar them from clicking on advertisements on social media sites alluring for prizes/awards, exposing official identity, revealing their rank, unit name and location or anything related to their work, accepting friend request from unknown users.Hyderabad, Sep 4 : A court here on Tuesday convicted two alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives in the 2007 Hyderabad twin bomb blasts which had claimed 42 lives. Two other accused were acquitted while the fate of a fifth accused will be decided next week.

The Second Metropolitan Sessions Court held Anique Shafiq Syed and Akbar Ismail Choudhary guilty. The quantum of punishment will be announced on September 10.

Anique allegedly planted the bomb at Lumbini Park which claimed 10 lives while Akbar kept the bomb at Diluskhnagar but it failed to explode.

Farooq Sharfuddin and Sadiq Ahmed Sheikh were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Public Prosecutor Seshu Reddy told reporters that the verdict in the case relating to the fifth accused Tariq Anjum will be pronounced on Monday. Anjum is accused of giving shelter to the other accused after the blasts.

Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge T. Srinivas Rao delivered the judgement at the high security Cherlapally Central Prison on the city's outskirts. All the accused barring Anjum were produced before the judge.

While 32 people were killed at Gokul Chat, a popular eatery, 10 others lost their lives at Lumbini Park, near State Secretariat, in near simultaneous blasts around 7.45 p.m. on August 25, 2007.

More than 50 were injured in the blasts. An unexploded bomb was also recovered under a foot-over-bridge at Dilsukhnagar that night.

The accused were arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in October 2008. Three other accused including IM chief Riyaz Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal Bhatkal still remain at large.

The case was initially investigated by the Andhra Pradesh Police and following bifurcation of the state it was handed over to the Counter Intelligence (CI) wing of Telangana Police.

Three chargesheets were filed against the accused. In 2014, the court framed charges against them. They were charged with murder and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Explosive Substances Act.

The trial against them was shifted to a court hall located in the premises of the prison in June this year on security grounds.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Aiming to reskill and upskill its workforce in next-gen technologies, software major Tech Mahindra on Tuedsday announced partnership with FutureSkills -- an initiative by IT industry's apex body Nasscom.

Launched in February this year, FutureSkills is a new-age learning experience platform for building skills in nine futuristic technology areas, 66 new-age jobs roles and over 155 skills.

The partnership will enable Tech Mahindra to curate the courseware and leverage FutureSkills' learning features like micro-learning, smart cards, live-casting, peer-to-peer interaction, AI (Artificial Intelligence) based curated learning pathways and journeys to reskill its workforce globally.

"The tremendous pace at which digital technologies are disrupting businesses today is creating an immediate demand for professionals who can work with next gen technologies to deliver state-of-the-art solutions and services," CP Gurnani, Managing Director and CEO, Tech Mahindra, said in a statement.

"FutureSkills will provide access to best-in-class learning and enable our associates to develop skills in futuristic technologies to excel in the changing market dynamics," Gurnani added.

The tech major has also tied up with online education partners like Unity Technologies, Pluralsight, edX.org.

"Nasscom's FutureSkills platform is a cornerstone for the industry to build upon this tide of new age technologies, to ensure that we leverage our demographic dividend effectively and become a global power in the field," said Debjani Ghosh, President at Nasscom.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Chinese electronics company iVOOMi on Tuesday launched its sub-brand Innelo which would cater to the needs of the smartphone buyers in India.

The first product from the brand to be introduced is "Innelo 1" smartphone which would come with a notched display.

"We are delighted to bring our sub-brand Innelo to India. With a vision to capture the premium smartphones and accessories market, we aim to bring high-end technology products and offer them at pocket-friendly prices," Ashwin Bhandari, CEO, Innelo India, said in a statement.

The Hong Kong-based brand will be backed by supply chain, operations and service infrastructure of iVOOMi in the Indian market with a dedicated network of 500+ service centres across the country.

Each Innelo product goes through over 20 quality test rounds before reaching the market, the company claimed.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday resigned from the Lok Sabha after being elected to the Meghalaya Assembly on August 27.

He will take oath as a member of the Assembly on Wednesday.

Sangma, who won the by-election from South Tura, said he had submitted his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

The by-election in South Tura was necessitated after Agatha Sangma resigned to pave the way for her brother Conrad to contest in order to retain the post of Chief Minister.

Sangma, the youngest son of former Lok Speaker late Purno A. Sangma, defeated Charlotte W. Momin of the Congress by 8,421 votes in a four-cornered contest.

Conard Sangma, who was sworn as the 12th Chief Minister of Meghalaya on March 6, was a non-elected member of the 60-member Assembly.

Sangma assumed the top post of Meghalaya, which his father had held for a short period, after the regional United Democratic Party (UDP), People's Democratic Party and the Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) decided to support the NPP in forming the government on the condition that Sangma would be the Chief Minister.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Financially troubled Jet Airways has flown into yet another air pocket with rating agency ICRA downgrading the company's short and long term credit facilities.

The downgraded comes at a time when India's aviation sector faces the headwinds of rising fuel prices and a weak rupee amidst heavy competition and low air fares that have already pushed many domestic airlines deep into the red, including Jet Airways.

Accordingly, the airline's long term rating assigned to "Long term Loans" and "Non-Convertible Debentures" was revised to BB (negative outlook) from BB+ (negative outlook).

Besides, airline's short term rating has also been downgraded to A4 from the previous A4+.

"The ratings downgrade considers the continued deterioration in the operating and financial performance of the company because of its inability to pass on the increase in jet fuel prices to the customers," ICRA said in its report on Monday.

"The company has large debt repayments due over FY2019 (Rs 3,120.3 crore), FY2020 (Rs 2,444.5 crore) and FY2021 (Rs 2,167.9 crore)."

Further, ICRA said that the credit profile of Jet Airways will continue to remain stretched in the medium term until the domestic airlines industry is able to pass on the increase in jet fuel prices to the customers through an increase in fares or the company is able to raise adequate funds to ease the liquidity pressures.

The downward revision comes after Jet Airways Group on August 27 reported a net loss of Rs 1,326 crore for the first quarter of 2018-19 from a net profit of Rs 58 crore earned during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

On a standalone basis, the airline's net loss stood at Rs 1,323 crore from a net profit of Rs 53.5 crore reported for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

According to the airline, an increase in Brent fuel price by more than 36 per cent, along with a weak rupee and a mismatch between high fuel prices and low fares primarily undermined its financial performance during the quarter under review.

Jet Airways also plans to go in for a cost reduction programme to reduce expenses totalling Rs 2,000 crore over two years.

In addition, the company has decided for a "balance sheet restructuring" which entails capital infusion and debt reduction.Yangon, Sep 4 : Civil society groups on Tuesday urged Myanmar to release the two Reuters journalists who were sentenced to seven years in prison for violating an archaic secrets act while investigating the massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.

A Myanmar court on Monday had sentenced reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to seven years in prison for violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, reports Efe news.

"We strongly condemn punishment of the two journalists for simply carrying out their media work. The decision indicates that the entire trial process was neither free nor fair and was completely manipulated," the 83 groups said in a joint statement.

The journalists were arrested on December 12 allegedly in possession of confidential documents, handed over to them by police officers, while they were investigating the murder of a dozen Rohingyas by the military.

"We believe that the decision by the court is irrational and the case brought against the two journalists was framed to justify the arrest and imprisonment of them," said the letter.

"We take this as a crackdown on the right of access to information and media freedom and an oppressive gesture on all concerned people of Myanmar who are aspiring and building a society characterized by the rule of law, accountability, freedom and Justice," the letter added.

The reporters were investigating a mass grave of 10 Rohingyas in the village of Inn Din in the Rakhine state, which had subsequently led to the conviction of seven Burmese soldiers to 10 years in prison.

The reporters have pleaded innocence and claimed that they were set up.

Their claim coincides with the testimony of Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, who in April declared that a senior official had ordered him and other subordinates to hand over secret documents to Wa Lone to trap him, an allegation the police denies.

The Inn Din massacre was part of an Army campaign in Rakhine, following a series of attacks by Rohingya rebels on multiple government posts in August last year.

The offensive led to the exodus of around 700,000 Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic minority, community to neighbouring Bangladesh where they now live in overcrowded refugee camps set up by the UN and nonprofits.

Last week, the UN had published a report that claimed there were elements of intentional genocide in the army offensive against the Rohingyas.New Delhi, Sep 4 : The Congress on Tuesday described the arrest of a Tamil Nadu woman research scholar for allegedly raising slogans against the state BJP President as an act of "fascism," which was a clear evidence that there was an "undeclared emergency" in the country.

The Congress also said that the 2019 elections would be a contest between fascism represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and democracy represented by progressive and pluralistic forces.

"Fascism was on full display when a young lady travelling from Chennai to Tuticorin hit a raw nerve when she allegedly shouted 'down with fascist BJP government'," Congress leader Manish Tewari told media here at a press conference.

He said that Tamil Nadu BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan in a display of unbridled arrogance lodged a complaint against the girl following which she was sent to 15 days of judicial custody.

"If this is not undeclared emergency, then what is," the former union minister questioned.

"This was not only an assault on the freedom of speech and expression but it was also an assault on the constitution, democracy and idea of India," he said.

Tewari was referring to the arrest of Lois Sofia, 28, a research scholar at the University of Montreal, Canada, and a native of Thoothukudi in the state.

Referring to the arrest of five social activists across the country last week, Tewari said, "This was completely uncalled for. This was the second case within a week."

"This is a pattern which has been playing out repeatedly and systematically since 2014," he alleged.

Listing the incidents of muzzling dissent, the Congress leader said the assault on the students of Film Institute of Pune, events that led to the suicide of Hyderabad University student Rohith Vemula, derecognition of Periyar study circle in IIT-Madras, stopping the screening of a Kashmiri film in IIT-Delhi, vilification campaign against Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) etc. are among many such instances.

He said that there was a narrative which the BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) is trying to peddle. "If you question the BJP, you are termed anti-national. If you question the government, then you are called a traitor. Is this the India that we want?" he asked.

"It is becoming clear that battle for 2019 is going to be fought between fascism represented by BJP and democracy represented by progressive, pluralistic forces. It is going to be a battle not just to replace the government but for the very soul of india," Tewari added.Kabul, Sep 4 : One US service member of US-led NATO coalition forces was killed and another wounded following an apparent insider attack in Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition forces said on Tuesday.

"The sacrifice of our service member, who volunteered for a mission to Afghanistan to protect his country, is a tragic loss for all who knew and all who will now never know him," General Scott Miller, commander of Resolute Support (RS) and US Forces-Afghanistan, was quoted in a statement as saying, Xinhua reported.

The latest death has brought to six the number of US forces killed in Afghanistan since January this year.

Additional information will be released as appropriate and the wounded soldier was in a stable condition, according to the statement.

Such incidents had also happened in the past when Afghan soldiers turned their weapons against coalition forces and Taliban insurgents mostly claimed responsibility for insider attacks.

On July 7, one US soldier was killed and two others were wounded in a similar incident in Uruzgan province.

NATO and US forces completed their combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, after 13 years of military presence in the country.

However, around 16,000 foreign forces remained in Afghanistan to help Afghan forces in the fields of training, advising and backing them in the war on insurgents.London, Sep 4 : In a breakthrough move, British scientists have used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen by mixing biological components and man-made technologies.

The team led by academics at the University of Cambridge, used semi-artificial photosynthesis to explore new ways to produce and store solar energy, a finding that could now be used to revolutionise the systems used for renewable energy production.

Their method also managed to absorb more solar light than natural photosynthesis.

"Natural photosynthesis is not efficient because it has evolved merely to survive so it makes the bare minimum amount of energy needed -- around 1-2 per cent of what it could potentially convert and store," said lead author Katarzyna Soko, doctoral student at the University's St. John's College.

Artificial photosynthesis has been around for decades but it has not yet been successfully used to create renewable energy because it relies on the use of catalysts, which are often expensive and toxic. This means it cannot yet be used to scale up findings to an industrial level.

The new model, detailed in the journal Nature Energy, is the first to successfully use hydrogenase and photosystem II to create semi-artificial photosynthesis driven purely by solar power.

The team not only improved on the amount of energy produced and stored, they managed to reactivate a process in the algae that has been dormant for millennia.

"Hydrogenase is an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen. During evolution this process has been deactivated because it wasn't necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted -- splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen," Soko explained.

Soko hopes the findings will enable new innovative model systems for solar energy conversion to be developed.Gurugram, Sep 4 : The Haryana Police said on Tuesday they have sought permission from the state government to further probe the corruption case registered against Congress President Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and realtors including DLF.

The police on Saturday booked Vadra, Hooda, DLF and Gurugram-based Onkareshwar properties for their alleged involvement in a land scam worth Rs 5,000 crore in Gurugram in 2008.

The case was registered on the complaint of Surender Sharma, a resident of Rathiwas village near Tauru, alleging that a company belonging to Vadra's Skylight Hospitality cheated people and the state.

A case was registered on charges of cheating, hatching conspiracy and forgery.

The complaint read that Vadra's company purchased 3.5 acre land in Shikohpur here on the Delhi-Jaipur-Mumbai highway for Rs 7.5 crore in 2008 and later sold it to DLF for Rs 58 crore.

The Haryana government then allotted 350 acres of land to DLF in violation of rules.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Shamsher Singh on Tuesday told reporters: "We registered the case immediately as soon as we received the complaint (On September 1). We have written to Haryana Director General Police B.S. Sandhu seeking approval of relevant authority from the state government to further begin investigation."

Parliament passed the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2018 on July 24 to enhance transparency and accountability of the government but some of the provisions of the bill are drawing criticism on social media.

After the amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), 1988, a police officer needs prior approval of relevant authority or government to begin investigation.

The same does not apply when the accused is caught red-handed.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Haryana, it set up a one-man commission of Justice S.N. Dhingra on May 14, 2015 to probe the land scam.

Deals were allegedly inked for land in Shikohpur and Sihi villages in Gurugram.

Complainant Surender Sharma is known as a big property dealer and land owner.London, Sep 4 : Do you often speak to your baby? The more baby talk words that the infants are exposed to, the quicker they can grasp the language, suggests a study.

The study of nine-month-old babies by the University of Edinburgh researchers suggested that those who hear words such as bunny or choo-choo more frequently are faster at picking up new words between nine and 21 months.

The team noted words that end in 'y' -- such as tummy, mummy and doggy -- or words that repeat sounds -- such as choo-choo and night-night -- could help infants identify words in speech.

"Our findings suggest that diminutives and reduplication, which are frequently found in baby talk words across many different languages can facilitate the early stage of vocabulary development," said lead researcher Mitsuhiko Ota, from the University's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.

For the study, appearing in the journal Cognitive Science, the team recorded samples of speech addressed to infants learning English.

They checked the speech addressed to each infant for features that characterise baby talk words.

As well as analysing so-called diminutives ending in 'y' and reduplication -- which contains repeated syllables -- they checked for onomatopoeic words that sound like their meaning, such as woof and splash.

They examined the rate of the infants' language development by measuring the size of the children's vocabulary at nine, 15 and 21 months.

They found that infants who heard a higher proportion of diminutive words and words with repeated syllables developed their language more quickly between nine and 21 months.Colombo, Sep 4 : Russia's flag carrier Aeroflot will re-launch regular non-stop flights to Sri Lanka's capital Colombo from October 28, Sri Lankan government's information department said on Tuesday.

The airline, which stopped flights to Colombo a decade ago, will re-introduce five weekly flights between Moscow and Colombo on the state-of-the-art Airbus A330 aircraft, Xinhua news agency reported.

The nine-hour flights will boost inbound tourism from Russia to Sri Lanka and will also be a major boost for business travel to the island country, the information department said.

It will also promote Colombo as a vital transit destination.

In addition to Aeroflot, the information department said several other major foreign airlines have also expressed an interest in flying to Sri Lanka while many existing operators have added extra capacity via bigger aircraft.Panaji, Sep 4 : Comedian Bharti Singh will participate in the controversial reality show "Bigg Boss 12" with her husband Harsh Limbachiyaa. She says she doesn't want to be labelled as "jhagra" queen and hopes people vote in bulk for the couple.

The couple had participated together in dance reality show "Nach Baliye" and is done with the shooting of the next season of stunt-based show "Khatron Ke Khiladi". The audience will get to see them together again in "Bigg Boss 12", hosted by superstar Salman Khan.

"I am scared of 'weekend ka war' when Salman scolds people after removing his coat," Harsh said at Villa Marina, Coco Beach Nerul, Goa, on Monday.

Salman, who reached the venue shirtless on a boat, joked that he can't bear wearing clothes.

"People call me a comedy queen. I don't want to be 'jhagra' queen. Even if he (Harsh) gets out in the first week, it's okay but I want to stay till the end. And please meet me every week," Bharti said while looking at Salman.

Be it blood relations or friends or colleagues, the audience should expect all kinds of 'jodis' as contestants. The 12th edition of the show will premiere on Colors on September 16.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Seoul in South Korea for three days from September 12, during which various agreements will be signed, government sources said on Tuesday.

"Kejriwal will travel to Seoul, South Korea, for the twin-city agreement between Delhi and Seoul. The visit follows an invitation from the Seoul Mayor. Agreements on pollution control, drinking water, public transport, education and urban development will also be signed," the sources said.

Last year, the Delhi government signed a twin-city agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Government for strengthening cooperation in the fields of e-governance, transportation, climate change and smart city.Lucknow, Sep 4 : Five persons were killed and two dozen injured when two buses rammed into each other in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh district on Tuesday, police said.

The accident happened when a bus carrying a marriage party from Firozabad en route to Ramgarh collided with another bus plying at high speed on the Agra road.

Ten of the injured are in critical condition, an official told IANS.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the deceased while Rs 50,000 each has been sanctioned for those who have sustained serious injuries, a government spokesperson said.New Delhi, Sep 4 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Election Commission's response to a PIL for restricting the access to EVMs and VVPATs to security-cleared engineers of PSUs ECL and BEL.

A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan was told by petitioner Ashish Goyal about alleged security breaches in the physical handling of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) by unauthorised persons in contravention of the commission's Manual on the issue.

The petitioner sought the setting up of a high-powered committee headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge to inquire whether private persons were permitted to handle EVMs in breach of the Manual on EVMs and VVPAT, 2017, since the Assembly elections in 2014 till date.

Seeking submission of a report in the top court in this regard, the petitioner also demanded a formal inquiry into the antecedents of additional private persons permitted to have physical access to the EVMs during the Uttarakhand Assembly elections last year.

He also sought a direction to the Election Commission to urgently put in place necessary safeguards to ensure that the integrity of the EVMs is not compromised.

Contending that breach in EVMs' integrity posed a threat to the purity of the election process itself, senior counsel Kapil Sibal argued for the petitioner that Chapter 5.4 of the Manual said that the first level of checking of EVMs can be carried out only by authorised engineers of public sector undertakings Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

The petitioner referred to an EC communication dated May 27, 2017, which says that the "... EVMs are not accessible to any unauthorised person at any stage -- before, during or after the polls."

Seeking enforcement of the Manual and the poll panel's 2017 communication, Goyal pleaded that the court issue a direction to the EC to provide a list of ECL and BEL Engineers who get the security clearance to handle these EVMs to all political parties.

The petitioner also sought directions to the Election Commission for the implementation of September 2006 recommendations of an expert committee on design change and precautions pertaining to EVMs before, during and after the elections.New Delhi, Sep 4 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the plea by Malegaon bomb blast case accused Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit for a judicial probe into his alleged abduction and torture by investigating agencies prior to his implication in the case.

"Why should we interfere at this stage? It will have some impact on the ongoing trial", the bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Navin Sinha and Justice K.M. Joseph said.

Senior counsel Harish Salve represented Purohit and urged the court to let the National Investigation Agency (NIA) look into it.

Urging the court to grant them the liberty to raise the issue before the trial court, Salve said the dismissal of the plea would be viewed differently.

The court permitted Lt. Col. Purohit to raise the issue before the trial court.

Purohit is facing trial in Malegaon blast case and was granted bail by the Supreme Court on August 12, 2017.

Purohit is the main accused in the Malegaon blast, which killed six persons in the Muslim-dominated powerloom town in Nashik district on September 29, 2008.

Purohit had based his plea for a judicial probe into his alleged abduction and torture on revelation by former Home Ministry Joint Secretary R.V.S. Mani in which he is said to have indicated that Purohit was "framed by some factions in the previous government in the name of 'saffron terror'."

Mani's revelation, Purohit said, had shocked him as he had "finally understood his role, of being used as a pawn, in the larger scheme of political spectrum by selfish political interests."

Mani, according to Purohit, had given interview to media houses and even written a book 'The Hindu Terror -- Insider Account of Ministry of Home Affairs 2006-2010'.

"In these circumstances, the perpetrators and schemers of such sinister modus operandi, compromising national security, are required to be identified and made accountable," the petitioner had said in his plea.

He had pointed out that there was "complete subversion of the criminal justice system by the state itself, and there is credible reason to fear that a citizen of this country, no less than an officer of the Indian Army, can be abducted, brutally tortured, labelled a terrorist and put away for nine years without a trial."New Delhi, Sep 4 : Accusing the Congress of patronising and funding the maoists, the BJP said on Monday that the now-defunct National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Sonia Gandhi during the previous UPA regime, was the body for "supporting naxalism".

BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra told the media that Congress mainstreamed maoism during its tenure and suggested that the party should rename itself as "Indian National Congress (Maoist)" or the "Congress Party of Maoists".

"National security is an issue of paramount importance and to play with it only for political opportunism is something which the Congress has always been doing. In this trail we have another letter written to comrade Surendra by comrade Prakash on September 25 which contained a phone number of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh," Patra said.

Besides the telephone number, there's also a reference in the letter which said "Congress leaders are very much willing to assist in this process and have also agreed to fund for further agitations whenever such opportunity is arrived. In this regard you can contact at our friend the number..."

Patra claimed that the mobile number mentioned was of Rahul Gandhi's guru Digvijay Singh. "He has not yet denied that this was not his number," he said.

Referring to Digvijay Singh's remarks, which created controversies after the Batla House encounter, 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and Zakir Naik arrest warrant, Patra said the Congress has always been at the forefront of manufacturing agitations.

"We can say that confusion, conspiracy and Congress are synonymous. They have always adopted a double standard on the issue of maoism. Manmohan Singh (former prime minister) had said that maoism was a grave threat to internal security. But there were some who have romanticised the maoism within the Congress and the biggest example of it was the coterie closest to then Congress President Sonia Gandhi, called the NAC," he said.

The BJP Spokesperson said that the NAC, which was the brainchild of Sonia Gandhi, "in fact was a ground for supporting Naxalism".

He claimed that A. Padma, the wife of a top naxal leader A. Hargopal alias Ramakrishna, was made in charge of an orphanage named 'Aman Vedika' of Harsh Mander, an important member of NAC. We all know how close he was to Sonia Gandhi. She was one among the eight maoists, who were freed to save the life of abducted Malkangiri collector in 2011.

He said Binayak Sen, who was convicted for sedition in 2010, was appointed in Planning Commission and in most important body - the steering committee on health.

Patra claimed former union minister Jairam Ramesh had written a letter to then Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavhan for the release of Mahesh Raut, a maoist, who was arrested due to his maoist links.

"This was mainstreaming of maoism under Congress. Why did Congress have so much love for convicted maoists," he said accusing Congress of compromising with national security.

"Very humbly, we would give an advise to you also. Please rename yourself. Either you call yourself Indian National Congress (Maoist) or Congress Party of Maoists because this is the way you are behaving. You should approach the election commission and ask them that you want to be called INC(M) or CPM," he said.

He also hit out at Digvijay Singh, asking Why is it that underground maoists seem to have fusion with Congress.

"Why Digvijay Singh appears to be speaking for maoists. How long the Congress will continue to play with national security," he asked.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Indian and Kazakhstan armies are set to train together in a two-week military drill near a Otar military base in the southeast of the Central Asian country from next week.

The joint army exercise 'Kazind' will be conducted between the Indian and Kazakhstan Army from September 10 to 23 in Otar.

This is the third joint military exercise between the two countries "which have a history of extensive cooperation in the defence arena", an army spokesperson said. The second edition of the exercise was held in India last year.

The aim of the exercise is to build and promote army to army relations and exchange skills and experiences between the Kazakh and the Indian armies. The exercise will also serve as a platform for exchange of drills and procedures, the spokesperson said.

"The 14-day exercise with the Kazakhstan Army will follow a graduated continuum from orientation to a full scale mock exercise - the aim being to achieve optimum integration among the two contingents through enhanced mutual comprehension of each other's tactics, techniques and procedures."

The spokesperson said the Indian troops will share their "vast experience and expertise...in counter insurgency operations" with their Kazakhstan counterparts.

"The conduct of the joint exercise will set the stage for greater defence cooperation and consequently will manifest in stronger ties between the two great nations."Ranchi, Sep 4 : Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday invited Chinese companies to participate in the Global Agriculture and Food Summit due in November this year.

The Chief Minister, who is currently touring China, met Song Tao, Minister of International Liaison Department of Communist Party of China.

A press statement issued in Ranchi said Das invited Song as well as Chinese companies to participate in Global Agriculture and Food Summit due in the state on November 29-30.

During meeting with Raghubar Das, Song said the combined population of India and China was 2.56 billion, which is one-third of the world.

"If both countries work together, they can have a larger share of of the world trade. There is natural relationship between both the countries," the statement said quoting Song.

THe Chinese leader appreciated Jharkhand's ranking in 'ease of doing business'. He also appreciated the business environment prevailing in the the state, the statement added.Ghaziabad, Sep 4 : Police in Ghaziabad have arrested an inter-state gangster who carried a prize money of Rs 25,000 and seized a country-made pistol from him.

Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna told the media that the criminal, who was absconding for two years, was taken into custody from the Modi Nagar police station area on Monday night.

When the man was stopped on a street and taken to a police station, he revealed his name as Munfaid. He had over two dozen criminal cases registered against him in different police stations of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.Shillong, Sep 4 : Reiterating the party's demand for a JPC probe into the Rafale jet deal, Congress General Secretary Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday dubbed the Modi government at the Centre "pro-rich and anti-poor".

"Rafale deal is a copy book case of compromising of national interest, causing loss to the exchequer and promoting crony capitalism at the cost of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited," he told journalists here.

The deal compromises our defence needs and has been finalised following the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to benefit a private company, he claimed.

The Congress MP from Assam said that "the BJP-led government's decisions were helping the rich and the corrupt... Demonetisation was supposed to be an attack on the corrupt but it benefited the corrupt."

Recalling that the previous Congress-led UPA government had disclosed the price of Dassault Aviation's Mirage fighter aircraft, Sukhois, and other defence purchases in Parliament, Gogoi wanted to know what are the Prime Minister and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hiding. "Does the refusal to disclose the price not reek of a scam?"

If the government has nothing to hide, why is it afraid of a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe, the Congress leader added.

Expressing concern over the deal for supply of only 36 fighter jets, he said: "Does it not compromise national security and defeat emergency purchase argument of the government?"Bangkok, Sep 4 : Negotiators from nearly 190 countries, including India, gathered here on Tuesday for the six-day resumed sessions of the UNFCCC's subsidiary bodies and the Ad Hoc Working Group on the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement amid strong calls for progress.

At the resumed session, the countries will focus on developing the implementation guidelines of the Paris agreement.

The guidelines in a 'rulebook' are needed to provide guidance on how to implement the agreement and to see transparently how countries are progressing in their actions.

The opening of the session saw a brief addresses by Prime Minister of Fiji Bainimarama, who is currently presiding over the climate change negotiations, as well as the Polish in-coming COP President Michal Kurtyka, who will preside over the negotiations at this year's climate change conference or COP24 to be held in Katowice in Poland in December.

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina J. Mohammed, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand Surasak Karnjanarat and Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Patricia Espinosa also addressed the opening.

All speakers strongly urged negotiators to step up the pace of their work and to move towards negotiating texts that capture clear options on the implementation guidelines that can swiftly be finalized and adopted in Katowice.

This is crucial given the deadline that countries set for themselves to complete this work at COP24 this year.

Executive Secretary Espinosa said COP24 was now right around the corner.

"We are working against the clock. We must now complete the heavy lifting and we must do it rapidly. UN Climate Change stands ready to assist countries," she said.

Current COP President Bainimarama impressed upon delegates that the six-day Bangkok talks were urgent.

"In these few days, we have the opportunity to put the Paris Agreement on a path from words to action," he said.

The implementation guidelines will unlock practical actions and bring the agreement's institutions to life.

This is vital for all aspects of climate action, including enabling ambitious global and national adaptation action and emission reductions, developing fair transparency and compliance arrangements and mobilizing means of implementation, especially with respect to finance, to support developing country action.

In-coming COP President Kurtyka said non-state actors were steaming ahead and that governments had to keep up with that pace by putting in place the implementation guidelines.

He urged delegates to craft clear texts in Bangkok that they could work with at COP24.

"Clarity and a streamlined text is my request," he said.

Global investors are closely watching and formulating their expectations for this round of negotiations.

Aviva Investors Chief Responsible Investment Officer Steve Waygood said: "After a summer of extreme weather events across the globe, the risk that unchecked climate change poses has never been clearer.

"It's time for country delegates at UN climate talks this week to agree on ambitious and robust rules for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. As a global insurer and investor, we rely on a transparent and consistent regime to deliver the essential global transition to a low-carbon economy."

Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, said: "The Paris Agreement is critical to driving trillion-dollar investment into the global low carbon economy.

"An ambitious and transparent implementation rulebook, holding countries to account for delivering and scaling-up their commitments on climate change, will lock in policy certainty and underpin investor confidence."Hyderabad, Sep 4 : MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday said justice was yet be done for the families of the 42 people who lost their lives in the 2007 twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad.

Reacting to the verdict of a city court, which convicted two accused and acquitted two others, he said that closure for the victims had not happened.

The Hyderabad MP told reporters that the investigating agencies should properly conduct a fresh inquiry and the accused who were absconding should be brought to book.

The Second Metropolitan Sessions Court on Tuesday held Anique Shafiq Syed and Akbar Ismail Choudhary guilty. The quantum of punishment will be announced on September 10.

Farooq Sharfuddin and Sadiq Ahmed Sheikh were acquitted for lack of evidence.

The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president said the blasts were the tragic moment for Hyderabad.

"Justice is yet to be done and families of the 42 people who lost their lives and the 54 injured are still suffering," he said.

Owaisi said that he personally knew a Sharma who lost his daughter in this terror attack.

The MP said the youths who were acquitted spent nine years in jail. "What will happen to them?"

While 32 people were killed at Gokul Chat, a popular eatery, 10 others lost their lives at Lumbini Park, near State Secretariat, in near simultaneous blasts on August 25, 2007.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that Delhi's civic bodies will construct five lakh community and 67 lakh household toilets by the end of 2019.

He also said that unlike previous years, 'Swachh Survekshan 2019' will encourage large-scale citizen participation and sustainability of initiatives to make towns and cities garbage-free and open defecation-free (ODF).

The survey, as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, will be held from January 4-31 to rank all cities on the basis of cleanliness and sanitation.

The Minister was speaking at the inauguration of a workshop for municipal bodies here on the survey, claimed by the government to be the world's biggest on cleanliness.

The workshop, he said, should pay attention to all aspects of making Delhi ODF and garbage-free.

"From segregation at the point of production, transportation of waste, and conversion of waste to compost and energy -- the workshop should work on all these aspects," Puri said.

Swachh Bharat National Mission Director V.K. Jindal said that the Ministry had launched a web portal 'Swachh Manch' to bring together volunteers/contributors and other stakeholders to the mission.

"Swachh Manch will enable uploading of pictorial evidence of citizens and organisations participating in the cleanliness initiatives, as well as record the number of hours voluntarily put in. It will also be integrated with the existing Swachhata App to act as a citizens' grievance redressal platform," Jindal said.

In order to help cities prepare for the coming survey, the Ministry has launched Swachh Survekshan 2019 toolkit and Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) ODF Plus and ODF Plus Plus certification protocol.

"While the SBM ODF Plus protocol focuses on sustaining community/pubic toilet usage by ensuring their functionality, cleanliness and maintenance, the SBM ODF Plus Plus will focus on achieving sanitation sustainability by addressing complete sanitation value chain, including safe containment, processing and disposal of faecal sludge and septage," it said.

The first ever 'Swachh Survekshan' covering 73 cities was conducted in 2016, wherein Mysuru in Karnataka bagged the cleanest city award.

In 2017, Swachh Survekshan covered 434 cities with a population of one lakh and above. It widened its coverage to 4,203 cities in 2018. In both these surveys, Indore in Madhya Pradesh grabbed the title of India' cleanest city.Seoul, Sep 4 : South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday held telephonic talks with US President Donald Trump about his special envoys' visit to North Korea, officials said.

Moon and Trump talked over phone for about 50 minutes regarding the scheduled travel by Moon's special emissaries to Pyongyang, according to the presidential Blue House, Xinhua news agency reported.

The five-member special delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, top national security adviser of the Blue House, planned to visit Pyongyang on Wednesday morning and return home the same day.

Moon and Trump exchanged opinions about situations on the Korean Peninsula, including the denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington after North Korea-US summit on June 12, and the upcoming third summit between Moon and North Korean top leader Kim Jong-un.

Moon and Trump agreed to maintain close consultations and cooperation in every level, the Blue House said.Srinagar, Sep 4 : Five people, including the stepmother, were arrested on Tuesday for the gang rape and murder of a nine-year-old in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district in a horrific crime stemming from jealousy.

Senior Superintendent of Police Syed Imtiyaz Hussain told reporters that the woman and four youths have been arrested for the gang rape and murder of the girl whose body was found in the forests of Uri tehsil two days back.

Giving details of the crime, he said the victim's father, Mushtaq Ahmad Ganai, complained that his daughter was missing and he feared she may have been abducted.

During investigation, police found that the girl's father had two wives and that the victim was the daughter of a woman from Jharkhand.

His first wife, Fahmeeda, would mostly work outside the house while the other would mostly stay at home to cook food.

On September 2, the body of the missing girl was found in a decomposed form, about one kilometre from the family home.

Investigation revealed that Fahmeeda had been nourishing a long-standing grudge against the non-local wife of her husband and her children as she felt that her husband was more affectionate towards his second wife Khushboo.

The deceased daughter was the dearest of ll children to the father.

Fahmeeda hatched a conspiracy to eliminate her step daughter.

On the fateful day, she took her to the nearby jungle and committed the crime along with four young men: her son Sahil, 14, and his friends Kaiser Ahmad, 19, Aadil Ahmad, 14, and Naseer Ahmad Khan, 28.Panaji, Sep 4 : Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar on Tuesday again raised the issue of the effect of the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on the state's governance, asking the ruling party to "compare notes with their Kerala counterparts".

His comments come a day after Kerala BJP President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai claimed a crisis in governance in the southern state after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan left for the US for three weeks for treatment.

"Kerala CM @CMOKerala left for USA for medical treatment without giving charge to anybody. @PsSreedharan BJP President reacts. Will @BJP4Goa @goacm advise #KeralBJPpresident? Kerala headed for governance crisis: BJP state president," Chodankar tweeted.

Last week, Parrikar left for the US for the third time in six months for treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.

He did not, this time, delegate the responsibility of overseeing the state administration to anyone in the Cabinet, insisting that he would monitor the state's governance from the US.Itanagar, Sep 4 : Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday wrote to Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking an inter-ministerial meeting to assess the situation around the Siang river where certain areas are facing drought-like situation while others are reeling under flood.

The Siang is the principal constituent of the Brahmaputra and flows as Yarlung Tsangpo in southern Tibet before becoming the Brahmaputra in Assam In his letter, the Chief Minister informed the Home Minister about the Siang flowing above the danger level.

"Many houses have been damaged by flood water. The sudden rise in the water level along with mud flowing with the river is causing concern among the locals," Khandu said.

In a contrasting development, the Chief Minister said many villages in East Siang and parts of Lower Dibang Valley districts are facing drought-like situation causing loss of crops.

Khandu requested the Home Ministry to depute an inter-ministerial team to visit the flood and drought affected areas of the state for a clearer picture so that remedial measures are taken immediately.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Delhi's BJP MLA Vijender Gupta on Tuesday demanded that the Aam Aadmi Party government issue a White Paper on seats reserved for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) but lying vacant in private schools in the last four years.

"From 2015-16 to 2017-18, about 40,000 seats have remained vacant. During 2018-19, as many as 12,600 seats are lying vacant. The government owes an explanation as to why nearly 53,000 seats have remained vacant in these four years," Gupta said.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly said that the government must expose those who denied admission in private schools to children from deprived backgrounds.

"Only a thorough fact-finding inquiry will reveal the reasons behind the government's failure to ensure 100 per cent filling of EWS seats."

"Once the White Paper brings out the truth, the government must take remedial action to ensure that all EWS seats are filled every year," he added.New Delhi, Sep 4 : The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the Uttarakhand government's plea for vacation of its August 31 order staying construction activities in some states and union territories.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur posted the matter for Wednesday after Uttarakhand's counsel mentioned the plea for vacation of the stay.

The state government pleaded that Uttarakhand is facing a "crisis situation" due to formation of an artificial lake in Tehri Garhwal, adding that the stay on construction activities be vacated so that relief measures could be undertaken to save human lives.

Construction activities have been stopped at a time when the state is facing a crisis due to rains and landslides, the counsel said.

On August 31, the top court had imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh on the Uttarakhand government for not framing a policy under the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

The Uttarakhand government informed the court that it has prepared a revised policy as per the Rules and it has been cleared by the Ministry concerned.

The top court had slammed some states and union territories, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh for not framing their respective policies on solid-waste management even after two years, and had stayed further constructions there till they come up with it.

The top court is hearing a matter related to the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules.

It had earlier directed the Central government to submit a chart, indicating whether states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of the said Rules.New Delhi, Sep 4 : The Congress is planning to launch a nationwide agitation along with other parties on the rising fuel prices and falling rupee, accusing the BJP-led coalition government of unleashing "economic terror on the nation."

Party sources said the date of the agitation will be decided on September 6 after a meeting with the party general secretaries and state unit chiefs.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said: "In June, 2008, the petrol price was raised from Rs 45.52 to Rs 50.52 and the price of diesel from Rs. 34.76 to 37.76 (during UPA government). That time the crude price was $138.54 per barrel. In July, 2008, the price of crude oil went up to $145 per barrel," he added.

"When we increased the price of petrol by Rs 5 and that of diesel by Rs 3, a BJP spokesperson had charged UPA government with unleashing economic terror," he said. "Today, when the crude price is almost $70 per barrel and petrol price is Rs 78 per litre in Delhi, I want to ask the government if it is not economic terror", he added.

"A nation-wide agitation on this will definitely take place. Considering the current crude oil prices, the petrol price should be about Rs 39 a litre and diesel Rs 37.50, including all taxes," he added.

"If fuel prices are not reduced, Congress will take to the streets to launch a nationwide agitation from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. A meeting was called today to plan the strategy," Tewari added.Ghaziabad, Sep 4 : Police in Ghaziabad have arrested a Nigerian for online fraud in which he cheated an Indian of Rs 29 lakh.

The police recovered three laptops and three mobile phones from his possession, Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna told the media.

The arrest followed a complaint from a Dinesh Chand who said he was cheated of Rs 29 lakh online.

The cyber cell of Ghaziabad police solved the case, leading to the arrest of the Nigerian who gave his name as Friday and who lived in Delhi's Tilak Nagar area.

He told the police that several gangs were operating in this field and they would lure unsuspecting victims by telling them that they had won big money in lottery and they needed to send an advance sum to get the prize.

The money was immediately remitted to Nigeria through Western Union, the police officer quoted the arrested man as saying.Panaji, Sep 4 : A BJP spokesperson on Tuesday likened statements made by state Congress president Girish Chodankar to "WhatsApp crap", slamming the leader of the opposition party for making baseless allegations against the ruling BJP-led coalition government in Goa.

"The way false messages sent on WhatsApp are deleted, the same way Girish's remarks are. People attach little value to them. We say crap... WhatsApp crap, this is the situation they are in now," said BJP spokesman Sidharth Kuncolienkar .

He accused the state Congress president of trying to create panic among people, pointing out to a press conference addressed by Chodankar recently, when the latter had alleged that the Zuari bridge, a major passage over the Zuari river, connecting North and South Goa districts, had developed cracks.

"The state PWD Minister had to clarify that the bridge is fine," the BJP spokesperson said, adding that even an Indian Institute of Technology-Mumbai official had inspected the bridge and certified its fitness.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Thousands of farmers, farm workers and labourers from across the country are expected to participate in the Left-organised mega-rally from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament on Wednesday to press their demands for fair wages, remunerative crop prices and debt waiver.

The Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally will be the "first combined" rally by Left-oriented organisations -- the All India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU), the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), organisers said on Tuesday.

AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah said the government policies were hurting the interest of farmers, farm workers and labourers who were the producers but hardly get any benefit or fair returns.

"We are holding a joint demonstration for the first time to raise voice against the common enemy. This government's policies are beneficial to corporates and not the people. We want the government to change its policies," Mollah told reporters.

The protesters have put before the government 15 demands. They have asked for curbing price rise, universalising the Public Distribution System, employment creation, minimum wage of not less than Rs 18,000 per month and banning labour law amendments.

Debt waiver, redistributive land reforms, a ban of forcible land acquisition, reversing neo-liberal policies, and a ban on 'contract' employment are among the other demands.

CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said the next course of action would be announced after the rally reaches near Parliament.

"The protests will be intensified if the demands are not considered by the government," he said.

In addition to the Left organisations, many trade unions, employee unions and teacher federations have extended their support to the rally, Sen said. Anganwadi and ASHA workers are also expected to join the march, he added.

AIKS president Ashok Dhawale said many participants were not affiliated to his organisation, but they had come to Delhi as they were "victims of government's anti-people policies".

Raghunath Chaudhary, a farmer from Maharashtra's Nashik, who was a part of 'Long March' to Mumbai in March this year, said he felt betrayed as the Maharashtra government had not fulfilled its promises despite a written assurance.

Ramesh Singh Armo from Chhattisgarh's Pendra Road town said wages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) were delayed for months.

"We hardly get work under the MGNREGS. Even if we get it, payments are delayed for months," Armo said.: Kolkata: Rescue operations underway at the site where a bridge collapsed in South Kolkata's Majherhat area toppling some vehicles including two- and four-wheelers on Sept 4, 2018. At least ... Image Source: IANS

: Kolkata: Rescue operations underway at the site where a bridge collapsed in South Kolkata's Majherhat area toppling some vehicles including two- and four-wheelers on Sept 4, 2018. At least ... Image Source: IANS

Kolkata, Sep 4 : A portion of a 40-year-old bridge collapsed in South Kolkata on Tuesday, crushing a man to death and leaving 19 injured and several vehicles damaged.

The incident threw normal life in large parts of South Kolkata and South 24 Parganas district off gear, as train services and vehicular traffic were disrupted.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who confirmed one death, expressed apprehension about the fate of five-eight people who might be buried in the rubble. Nineteen injured people have been admitted in two city hospitals, she told the media in north Bengal's Darjeeling and announced a probe into the incident.

Locals, however, claimed five people have been killed in the bridge collapse.

At least 20-25 injured people have been rescued by fire officials while more people are feared trapped under the rubble, officials said.

"A part of the Majherhat bridge between Taratala and Mominpur collapsed around 4.30 p.m," a fire official said. Initially six fire tenders were pressed into service.

"At least 20-25 people have been rescued from the spot. It is possible that not many are trapped under the collapsed part of the bridge. But we need to remove the debris to find out what is underneath," another official working at the accident site said.

Four teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire brigade and personnel of disaster management teams are at the spot. Cranes have been deployed and gas cutters are being used for the rescue operation.

Three columns of army personnel are also present at the spot, but there has been no official deployment as no such request was received from the state government, Eastern Command sources told IANS.

The accident took place on a day the city received 72.1 mm of rainfall since morning. The rescue operation was impeded due to occasional rain in the evening and lack of daylight on a rainy day.

Banerjee, now on a trip to Darjeeling, expressed concern over the incident and said her government will initiate a probe into the cause of the bridge collapse.

"We have heard one person died so far. We are trying to get back but it takes close to four hours even to get down to the plains from the Darjeeling hills on a rainy day. Also no flights are available right now.

"We are constantly monitoring the situation. We are initiating a probe so that everything can be found out. Steps are being taken on an emergency footing to rescue those who are trapped," said Banerjee.

She added: "We have heard that four-five labourers used to stay in a temporary tin shed under the bridge. If they were there during the collapse, it is possible that something unfortunate may have happened to them.

"However, all the pedestrians and passengers in the public and private vehicles could be rescued. We are concerned about the lives of five to eight people who might have got trapped underneath."

Many people were still reported missing. Workers of the Metro Rail project which was going on beside the collapsed bridge, claimed that three labourers have so far not been traced.

The incident disrupted public transport routes and overall traffic movement through the otherwise bustling Diamond Harbour Road in Taratala was suspended.

Train movement through Majerhat was also suspended temporarily as a precautionary measure after a signal post on the track was damaged by the debris of the collapsed bridge.

Train services on Budge Budge-Sealdah line may be restored after ensuring the safety in train running, a railway official said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief.

"The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," Modi said in a tweet.

State Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi also visited the location and later asked the government to take corrective measures for proper maintenance of bridges.

Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, who rushed to the spot and supervised the rescue operation, said rescuers who went under the bridge did not find any trapped persons.

"They have not found any trapped persons. But they are still trying to ascertain whether anybody is trapped," he said. Forensic experts also went to the location.

According to a state official, the 40-year-old bridge was constructed by the Kolkata Port Trust and the bridge was maintained by the State Public Works Department.

Tuesday's incident revived the dreadful memory of the Posta flyover collapse here two years ago. Twenty six people were killed when the under-construction Vivekananda Flyover collapsed in the city's Posta area on March 31, 2016.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged teachers to bring out "inherent strength" of the students, especially those who come from poor economic background.

Meeting the National Teachers' Award winners on the eve of Teachers' Day, Modi appealed to them to remove the disconnect between them and students, leaving an indelible mark on them.

"The Prime Minister said the educators should work towards removing the disconnect between the teacher and the student, so that teachers are remembered by the students throughout their life," a statement from the PM's Office said.

"He encouraged teachers to digitally transform their schools," the statement said.

The Prime Minister commended the teachers' dedication for education and making it their "life's mantra".

"A teacher remains a teacher throughout life," he remarked.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu will confer the National Teachers' Award tomorrow to 45 teachers from across the country.Ahmedabad, Sep 4 : Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha and BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday called on fasting Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel and said that they will take his agitation over the demand for reservation for Patels and farm debt waiver to the national level.

On Energy Minister Saurabh Patel's remarks that Hardik's indefinite fast was backed by the opposition Congress and that the state was doing its best for the Patel community and farmers, Shatrughan Sinha said that all political parties were supporting the fasting leader.

"The whole country is moved by Hardik's fast, except the governments at the Centre and the state," Yashwant Sinha told reporters. Yashwant Sinha resigned from the BJP in April.

Both leaders said they had extended support to Hardik on his demands.

"The farmers issues raised by Hardik are not confined to Gujarat but are relevant to the whole country. Farmers are in deep distress and the situation requires a permanent solution. I appeal to everyone, including the opposition, to raise the issues of farmers across the country," Yashwant Sinha said.

Rubbishing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claims that Gujarat was a model state, Shatrughan Sinha said there was nothing like a Gujarat model. "The Gujarat model has failed. Now, you are not going to get bonus (in 2019 elections)," he said.

According to medical reports, Hardik has lost around 20kg ever since he began his fast 11 days ago and his condition continues to deteriorate.

Meanwhile, Gujarat's six religious organisations of the Patels discussed the issues arising out of Hardik's agitation and offered to mediate or help him end his fast. Their leaders later in the evening rushed to state capital Gandhinagar for a meeting with BJP Ministers from the community to discuss the situation.Jaipur, Sep 4 : A contingent from the Jaipur-based 61 Cavalry Regiment of the Army has gone to Israel to participate in the centenary commemoration of the liberation of Haifa by Indian troops, official sources said on Tuesday.

The visit by the nine-member contingent led by Major Arpit Rathee of 61 Cavalry comes on an invitation extended by the government of Israel, Defence Ministry PRO Col Sombit Ghosh said.

On September 23, 1918, a cavalry force comprising Jodhpur Lancers, Hyderabad Lancers and Mysore Lancers had liberated Haifa city from Turkish occupation.

A large number of soldiers from Rajasthan, including charge leader Major Dalpat Singh, laid down their lives. The present day 61 Cavalry is an amalgamation of Jodhpur and Mysore Lancers and hence the custodian of this great heritage.

The Teen Murti Memorial in Delhi was rechristened as Teen Murti Haifa Memorial by the Indian government in January to commemorate the brave Indian soldiers who died.

Multiple celebrations have been planned in Israel, Delhi and Jaipur in the coming weeks for the commemoration.

The visiting contingent will participate in a series of events in Israel, which will culminate with the wreath-laying ceremony at the Hindu Cemetery at Mount Carmel, a memorial to the soldiers' ultimate sacrifice.

The contingent will hand over a memento to the Mayor of Haifa at a separate function at the Mount Carmel Park.New Delhi, Sep 4 : The Ministry of Human Resource Development has washed its hand of the mandatory recitation of Sanskrit and Hindi hymns during the morning assembly of Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) across the country, saying the Sangathan was an autonomous body headed by the Board of Governors.

Admitting that the Union HRD Minister was Chairman of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and it functioned under its aegis, the Ministry has said that it has nothing to do with the contentious practice of mandatory recitation of Sanskrit 'shlokas' and Hindi prayers based on Hindu religion in the morning prayers.

The Union HRD Ministry's response came in an affidavit filed in the court to a notice issued to it on January 10, 2018 on a petition seeking discontinuation of mandatory morning prayers at Kendriya Vidyalayas that begin and end with Sanskrit 'shlokas' and Hindi prayers based on Hindu religion.

Describing it a "serious constitutional issue," Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Navin Sinha had on January 10 said the issue involved a constitutional question and needs to be examined.

The court had asked for the Centre's response in two weeks to the petition that had contended that the prayer was unconstitutional as it promotes a particular religion.

Having distanced itself from the issue and saying that it was not involved in the day-to-day functioning of the Sangathan, the Ministry has, however, sought the dismissal of the plea since KVS has not been made a party in the petition and needs to be junked solely on the ground of "mis-joinder of necessary parties.

Petitioner Veenayak Shah from Sidhi in Madhya Pradesh had said that the compulsory recitation of 'shlokas' and prayers invoking God impede nurturing of reasoning and scientific temper among impressionable young minds.

The mandatory recitation of the prayer by children belonging to minority communities as well as atheist, agnostics, sceptics, rationalists and others, the PIL had said, was "constitutionally impermissible".

A perusal of the prayer, the PIL petitioner had said, shows it is based on Hindu religion and is very different both in substance and form from prayers of other religions, including that of people with non-religious orientations.

The petitioner said compulsory recitation of 'shlokas' rooted in Hindu religion and prayer in morning assembly was contrary to Articles 28(1), 19(1)(a) and 25(1) of the Indian Constitution.

Article 28(1) says: "No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of state funds." Article 19(1)(a) says: "All citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression."

Shah had contended that the common prayer is a "religious instruction" within the meaning of Article 28 of the Constitution and should be prohibited.

The petitioner had challenged Article 92 of the "Revised Education Code of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan" that governs the Kendriya Vidyalayas in India.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing on September 10.Seoul, Sep 4 : South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday held telephonic talks with US President Donald Trump about his special envoys' visit to North Korea, officials said.

Moon and Trump talked over phone for around 50 minutes regarding the scheduled travel by Moon's special emissaries to Pyongyang, according to the presidential Blue House, Xinhua reported.

The five-member special delegation, led by Chung Eui-yong, top national security adviser of the Blue House, planned to visit Pyongyang on Wednesday morning and return home on the same day.

Moon and Trump exchanged opinions about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, including the denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington after the North Korea-US summit on June 12, and the upcoming third summit between Moon and North Korean top leader Kim Jong-un.

Moon and Trump agreed to maintain close consultations and cooperation at every level between the two sides, the Blue House said.

During their Pyongyang visit, Moon's special envoys would discuss with the North Korean side a detailed schedule and agenda for the third Moon-Kim summit, which the two Koreas agreed to hold in Pyongyang before the end of September.

The South Korean leader explained in detail to Trump about the dispatch of his special envoys to Pyongyang, which aimed to consult on ways to build permanent peace on the peninsula through complete denuclearization as well as to prepare for the third summit with the North Korean top leader.

Trump told Moon that he sincerely wished for Moon's special envoys to bear a good result, asking Moon to inform him of the outcome of the special envoys' travel to Pyongyang.

Moon said now is a significant period for settling peace on the peninsula, which would go together with complete denuclearization, stressing that improved inter-Korean relations and eased tensions on the peninsula will contribute to the peninsula's complete denuclearization and the settlement of a lasting peace regime.

Trump expressed his sincere wish that the upcoming inter-Korean summit would bear a good result to enhance ties between the two Koreas, implement the agreements reached at the June 12 North Korea-US summit in Singapore, and help future dialogues.

Moon and Trump agreed to review their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, scheduled for later this month, to deeply consult on future strategy and cooperation on the Korean Peninsula issues.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Two youths were arrested for killing a Bahujan Samaj Party panchayat member from Uttar Pradesh on Monday over personal enmity, police said on Tuesday.

The accused have been identified as Fahad Khan,18, and his accomplice Farhan Ansari,19. THey are the resident of south Delhi's Zakir Nagar. They were arrested on Tuesday from their hideout in Jamia Nagar.

"Fahad Khan and Farhan Ansari were identified with the help of CCTV footage. They were captured when they were escaping on a bike after firing on the BSP panchayat member from Uttar Pradesh, Dilshad,35, who was later declared dead on arrival at a hospital," Deputy Commissioner of Police Chinmoy Biswal said.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP of acting as "police" and demanded an independent probe into how even before the documents, allegedly obtained from the activists by the Pune police, were produced before the court, fell into BJP's hands.

On the other hand, BJP accused the Congress of patronizing and funding the maoists, saying the now-defunct National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Sonia Gandhi during the previous UPA regime, was the body for "supporting naxalism".

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said: "It is strange: all norms, cannons, traditions of governance have absolutely collapsed under the NDA-BJP government."

"It seems that the BJP has become the police in this country. How have papers allegedly available with an investigating agency, even before being produced before the court of law, landed with the BJP?" he asked.

"This is very serious and we demand that this should be investigated. There has to be an independent, court-monitored investigation," he added.

BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra told the media that Congress mainstreamed maoism during its tenure and suggested that the party should rename itself as "Indian National Congress (Maoist)" or the "Congress Party of Maoists".

"National security is an issue of paramount importance and to play with it only for political opportunism is something which the Congress has always been doing. In this trail, we have another letter written to comrade Surendra by comrade Prakash on September 25 which contained a phone number of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh," Patra said.

Besides the telephone number, there's also a reference in the letter which said "Congress leaders are very much willing to assist in this process and have also agreed to fund for further agitations whenever such opportunity arises. In this regard you can contact at our friend the number..."

Patra claimed that the mobile number mentioned was of Rahul Gandhi's guru Digvijaya Singh. "He has not yet denied that this was not his number," he said.Lucknow, Sep 4 : The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday decided to give compensation to farmers in whose agricultural fields, power towers or transmission lines will be installed, an official said.

The compensation would be 85 per cent of the circle rate of that area.

For long, farmers have been demanding this as they say that once power towers are installed, the land is not fit for farming purposes.

In the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, it was also decided that the UP Power Corporation Ltd will construct two 400 kva power sub-stations at Sector 123 and 148 in Noida.

The work of laying down the Mono Rail line has been withdrawn from the Noida Authority and handed over to the UPPCL. This Rs 796.95 crore project has been approved by the state cabinet and is likely to be completed by February 2019.

The cabinet also ratified a proposal to construct a 400 kva power sub-station at Bhaukri in Kaptanganj assembly segment of Basti.

The Rs 829.59 crore project once complete will be a big boon for farmers in Sant Kabeernagar, Basti, Gorakhpur, Siddharthanagar and Maharajganj, an official said.

It was also decided that university teachers would get the benefits of the Seventh Pay Commission.

In a bid to boost religious tourism and with an eye on its Hindu vote bank the BJP government has also decided to beautify the path from the Ganga river in Varanasi to the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple, which is one of the 12 Jyotirlinga's in India.

Many buildings around the temple will be purchased from their owners to widen and beautify the area. Rs 14.55 crore has been earmarked for the purpose.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Hours after a bridge collapse in Kolkata on Tuesday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called up West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and assured her of the Centre's assistance, "if needed".

Calling the incident "extremely tragic" and praying for the speedy recovery of the injured, Singh tweeted that "four NDRF teams have reached the spot. One more team is on the way".

The Home Minister said that Banerjee apprised him of the ground situation.

A portion of a bridge collapsed in South Kolkata on Tuesday, crushing a man to death and leaving 19 persons injured and several vehicles damaged.

Banerjee confirmed one death and expressed apprehension about the fate of five-eight people who may be buried under the rubble.New Delhi, Sep 4 : The All India Mahila Congress on Tuesday handed over cheques/drafts for Rs 25 lakh collected for relief work in Kerala to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, the party said.

Rahul Gandhi had appealed to the Congress family to help in every possible way, including making donations to the Rajiv Gandhi National Relief and Welfare Trust.

"The Mahila Congress delegation led by its President Sushmita Dev met AICC Treasurer Ahmed Patel to hand over the donation money, collected from across India," said a party statement.

"Also, relief material in the form of food and sanitary napkins have been dispatched from various states by the Mahila Congress workers."New Delhi, Sep 4 : The Congress on Tuesday termed "censorship" the Information and Broadcasting Ministry's advisory to the media to avoid use of word "Dalit".

Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari said such terms are commonly used in public discourse.

"If the government ordains or the Ministry ordains that the language which you use in your reportage should also be one that is pre-cleared by them.

"How else will you characterise this advisory except to call it censorship? And my request to all those media outlets, who have been supporting the spectre of censorship, that they should introspect. When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind," he added.

The government's advisory asked for the use the constitutional term "Scheduled Caste" instead of "Dalit".Darjeeling, Sep 4 : The West Bengal government will pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of the deceased in Majerhat bridge collapse in Kolkata on Tuesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here.

The government will also pay Rs 50,000 to each of the injured, Banerjee told reporters.

"We will pay Rs 5 lakh to the family of the dead person as compensation. We will also give Rs 50 thousand to each of the injured," the Chief Minister said.

One person died and 19 people were injured when a portion of the Majerhat bridge collapsed in South Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon.New Delhi, Sep 4 : Gulf-based passenger carrier Qatar Airways on Tuesday said it was open to form a partnership with an Indian player to invest in domestic airline sector.

"If we get a good Indian partner, then yes we would definitely be interested, with no political baggage," Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker told reporters at the International Aviation Summit being held here.

He was responding to a question on whether the airline was open to partnerships with any other investor or with an Indian partner.

Currently, foreign airline can own up to 49 per cent stake in an Indian carrier. A foreign carrier can also form a joint venture airline with an Indian company, but with a 49 per cent stake.The first Liberal government state budget in 16 years will see South Australian treasurer Rob Lucas cut land tax rates.

The cuts will apply to higher-end residential and commercial property investors.

Rob Lucas, who was the treasurer when the last Liberal Government was in power in SA 17 years ago, told The Australian Financial Review he wanted to attract more investors to the state through the land tax reform measures to compete with Sydney and Melbourne.

The first step of the land tax reform is set to see land tax drop from 3.7 percent to 2.9 percent on properties over $1.2 million.

There will also be incentives at the lower end of property investing. The threshold, where land tax applies on properties, will rise from $369,000 to $450,000.

Land tax isn't paid by people on their principal place of residence in South Australia, but does apply to property investors.Quarto Valley RecordsEarlier this summer, Paul Rodgers released a live album and home video titled Free Spirit, which documents a sold-out April 2017 concert at London's famous Royal Albert Hall that was part of his U.K. tour celebrating his old band Free's 50th anniversary.

During the show, Rodgers and his backing group played a 16-song set culled from Free's back catalog that included the band's enduring hit "All Right Now."

Rodgers tells ABC Radio that revisiting the Free material "was a joy," noting, "I rediscovered how I so much enjoyed these songs, played with the right band, who understand how to hit it just right together."

That band -- guitarist Pete Bullick, bassist Ian Rowley, drummer Rich Newman and keyboardist Gerard "G" Louis -- also happens to be the backing group for his friend Deborah Bonham, late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham's sister.

Asked to pick some highlights from the concert, Rodgers says, "I particularly liked 'Be My Friend' for its passion and Pete's solo'Mr. Big' for Ian's bass solo'Fire and Water' for Rich's drum break, and the little classical vignette from Gerard 'G' Louis in 'My Brother Jake.'"

Another exciting moment in the concert was Paul's performance of "All Right Now," which he turned into a sing-along with the audience.

"It's fabulous when the whole crowd comes together to sing without any inhibitions," Rodgers notes.



Free Spirit is available as a CD/DVD set, a vinyl LP, a Blu-ray and digitally. The DVD and Blu-ray boasts bonus footage of Paul's opening acts at the show, his daughter Jasmine and Deborah Bonham.



Rodgers recently wrapped up the Stars Align Tour with Jeff Beck and Heart's Ann Wilson. Paul's upcoming schedule includes several Bad Company concerts and one solo headlining show. Visit PaulRodgers.com for his full itinerary.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Dan Gallagher, Author of The Secrets of Financial Planning I deliberately used plain English in my book. I believe new earners and retirees could benefit from my advice, based on true tales of client tragedy and triumphs.

Dan Gallagher, author, keynote speaker and recently retired, nationally recognized Certified Financial Planner with over 30 years of professional experience, launches The Secrets of Successful Financial Planning. The book highlights financial strategies and personal client stories and is targeted for the do-it-yourself, take-charge consumer.

For over three decades, Gallagher surveyed clients about their financial strategies and experiences prior to his engagements with them. Three issues kept surfacing:

1. The client did little or no planning, ignoring professional advice but occasionally taking ideas from magazine articles or other impersonal sources;

2. The client diligently planned, using self-help books or software that did not offer customized strategies based on the clients specific situation;

3. The client hired biased or incompetent advisors, including professionals who used ghost-written books to promote financial products or fee-based services.

In his book, The Secrets of Successful Financial Planning, Gallagher reveals which aspects of a financial plan require a professionals guidance and which parts can a savvy, well-educated, do-it-yourself, take-charge person handle him or herself.

In the book, he addresses the six interrelated areas of financial planning:

 Cash and Budget Planning

 Insurance and Risk Management

 Tax Management

 Retirement Planning

 Investment Planning

 Estate Planning

I deliberately used plain English in my book, reports Dan Gallagher. I wanted to educate the do-it-yourself person as well as consumers needing to better understand and select their professional advisors and brokers. I believe that new earners and retirees could also benefit from my advice, based on true tales of client tragedy and triumph.

In his various roles, Gallagher was a trainer, guest speaker, author, editor and educator. He has given national workshops on financial planning topics. His appearances have been sponsored by such companies as Anheuser-Busch, Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Canon USA.

During his practice, Gallagher was also a Certified Business Intermediary, an honor given by the IBBA (International Business Brokers Association) in recognition of his technical expertise, professional development, proven experience and high ethical standards.

Gallagher now offers speaking and training services. As of June, 2018, he is a registered expert witness with The Expert Institute, New York, voted #1 Expert Witness Provider by The National Law Journal.

Gallaghers book is strongly endorsed by Arthur B. Laffer, Ph.D., a world-renowned author, known as The Father of Supply-Side Economics.

From Monte Carlo analysis and portfolio theory to tax strategies and economics, Gallagher puts it all in everyday language for practical use, reported Arthur B. Laffer, Economic Advisor to two U.S. Presidents. Gallaghers book, The Secrets of Successful Financial Planning (SSFP) can help almost anyone bring efficiency to their financial planning, a huge benefit to readers.

Laffer added, SSFP is strongly recommended.

The Secrets of Successful Financial Planning is available at Skyhorse Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indies and Thriftbooks.

About Dan Gallagher

During his career, Dan Gallagher was a Certified Financial Planner, Certified Business Intermediary and a Chartered Financial Consultant and Chartered Life Underwriter. He was also an author, trainer, keynote speaker, editor and educator. His financial articles have appeared in The Virginia Gazette, Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Charlotte Business Journal, The Daily Press and Financial Planning. He currently offers speaking and training services. He is also a registered expert witness with The Expert Institute, New York. He is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, majoring in Economics and Modern Languages. He earned his Master of Business Administration at William & Mary. He holds a graduate teaching certificate from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNCC). For speaking engagements, he can be contacted directly. Website is https://authordan.com. Twitter is https://twitter.com/AuthorDan1/.

Contact:

Juliette Weiland

Public Relations Consultant

704-843-0325

http://www.authordan.comIn Southeast Idaho, 57% of Medicare beneficiaries have never received a pneumonia vaccination, putting them at risk for serious illness and hospitalization.

According to national research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), less than 67 percent of adults age 65 or older received their pneumonia vaccination in 2016. In Southeast Idaho, 57% of Medicare beneficiaries have never received a pneumonia vaccination, putting them at risk for serious illness and hospitalization.

To address this gap, Qualis Health and the Southeast Idaho Public Health District have partnered with Idaho State University, Portneuf Quality Alliance, Bingham Memorial Hospital, and other health care and community organizations to boost immunization rates. During September, an awareness campaign that includes radio, transit and social media will run in eight Southeast Idaho counties encouraging pneumonia vaccination. Additionally, an educational website has been developed that includes evidence-based interventions, immunization resources and campaign materials for pharmacies and primary care offices.

Since adults arent thinking about vaccines, we need all health care professionals to use every patient encounter as an opportunity to assess whether any vaccines are needed, Anne Schuchat, MD, Director of CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Qualis Healths Medical Director, Kelly McGrath, MD added, pneumococcal disease is a common cause of community-acquired pneumonia. We need to work together to ensure good preventive care and that starts with getting vaccinated. Its an essential part of our dedication to improving the health of Idahoans.

For more information about vaccinations, visit https://www.siphidaho.org/comhealth/pneumonia.php.

To find out where to get vaccinated, visit vaccinefinder.org.

# # #

About Qualis Health

Qualis Health is one of the nation's leading population healthcare consulting organizations, partnering with our clients to improve care for millions of people every day. We work with public and private sector clients to advance the quality, efficiency and value of healthcare.

In April 2018, Qualis Health and HealthInsight announced a formal merger, combining the two organizations and operations across the U.S. Both Qualis Health and HealthInsight have been engaged in healthcare quality consulting and providing quality improvement services for more than 40 years.

In Idaho, Qualis Health serves as the Quality Innovation NetworkQuality Improvement Organization (QINQIO) and the Quality Payment Program  Small and Underserved/Rural Support (QPP-SURS) contractor for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

For more information, visit http://www.QualisHealth.org.Arcadia Data, provider of the first visual analytics software native to Apache Hadoop and the cloud, today announced new search-based BI and analytics available in an upcoming release of its flagship product, Arcadia Enterprise. Now, business users can easily query more of their data with a simple, Google-like search interface and receive instant visual answers that give them insight. Arcadia Data continues to trailblaze by delivering innovations that further the success of end-user consumerization of big data for organizations.

Quick and easy search-based access to data directly affects real-time decision making. Arcadia Data believes in providing access to more information so that organizations can easily increase the value they receive from their data. Current BI and analytics tools require users to guess in advance when determining which dataset to query, and then requires users to explicitly pick fields to analyze. Arcadia Data now allows users to simply type in natural-language questions and get answers back, breaking the mold of this legacy-minded approach and encouraging users to embrace modern BI and reap the benefits of its speed and agility.

The new functionality makes deriving value from organizational data easy. Questions like, what are sales by state in 2018 compared to 2017 and show me the trend in storage device failure rates are answered with visualizations based on any size data set. With no learning curve, organizations wont have to worry about mismatches between legacy BI tools and modern data platforms. Instead, users can now select a BI tool that allows them to leverage modern data architectures.

New Arcadia Enterprise search-based BI functionality includes:



Guided Questions: AI-driven type-ahead and suggestion capabilities that recommend related questions users may be interested in.

Ranked Answers: Arcadia Enterprise scores questions against all datasets in the system. The best answer is displayed immediately, and a list of other possible answers with lower scores are shown as well. As users click on alternative answers, the system learns that those results are potentially more relevant to the typed question.

Operationalized Insights: Now users can have their search and BI, too. Users can start with a simple search bar and then move into a detailed set of advanced BI interfaces to build and deploy data applications.

This new search-based BI capability strengthens our lead in building next-gen capabilities for business users. It also further underscores the possibilities of modern BI architectures and the value they create for todays largest and most important businesses. said Priyank Patel, chief product officer and co-founder, Arcadia Data. Weve all grown accustomed to the simplicity and power of internet searches. Now, Arcadia Enterprise gives the capability of search to organizations tackling big data analytics and empowers their users with access to all of their data in a consumer-friendly, search-based fashion. We have always, and will continue to, push the envelope of innovation to deliver on uncompromised scale, avoid unnecessary data movement, and accelerate time-to-insight so that our users maximize the value of their data.

Access to data and data analysis is still a challenge for organizations that attempt to use traditional BI tools on modern data platforms. These tools require organizations to move data into their proprietary platforms. That movement reduces agility, increases security risks and prevents users from responding in a timely manner to quickly-changing business requirements. As a result, the benefits of platforms such as Apache Hadoop and cloud data stores have been largely unavailable to business users with legacy BI tools. Arcadia Enterprise is native to big data platforms eliminating extracts to a separate non-parallel set of BI servers. This mitigates the delays and governance challenges that the traditional analytical life cycle creates. Arcadia Data works natively with big data environments like Apache Hadoop; cloud stores like Amazon S3 and Azure ADLS; streaming systems like Apache Kafka; and databases like Oracle, Teradata, Snowflake and Amazon Redshift.

Join Arcadia Data and 451 Research for a complimentary webinar on October 3, 2018, where trends in data analytics and the value of search-based BI will be discussed or view this video of search-based BI in action.

About Arcadia Data

Arcadia Data provides the first visual analytics and BI platform native to big data that delivers the scale, performance, and agility business users need to discover and productionize real-time insights. Its flagship product, Arcadia Enterprise, was built from inception to run natively within big data platforms, in the cloud and/or on-premises, to streamline the self-service analytics process on data in Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, Apache Kafka, and Apache Solr. It enables real-time, high-definition insights in use cases like data lakes, cybersecurity, connected IoT devices, and customer intelligence. Arcadia Enterprise is deployed by some of the worlds leading brands, including Procter & Gamble, Nokia, Royal Bank of Canada, Kaiser Permanente, HPE, and Neustar. To learn more, follow @ArcadiaData or visit http://www.arcadiadata.com.

Press Contact:

Stacey Burbach

Email: stacey@arcadiadata.com

Phone: (415) 310-9767We are excited to be part of MeridianLinks next phase of business transformation.

Argos Risk, an industry leader of Third-Party Risk Intelligence (TPRI) solutions announced today their partnership with MeridianLink. MeridianLink is a developer of the financial industrys first multi-channel loan and new account origination platform and has been a pioneer in providing innovative software solutions to financial institutions (FIs) for more than 20 years. The partnership takes the guesswork out of credit and overall performance risk, offering key business insights to MeridianLink partners.

MeridianLink LoansPQ users using Argos Risk's AR Surveillance will benefit from the ability to assess and monitor commercial customers, loan originators, indirect dealers and third-party vendors, said Doug Glagola, VP of Enterprise Solutions for MeridianLink. He added, Our solutions are aligned in promoting compliance and risk management through clear and actionable business intelligence.

Argos Risk provides an affordable web-based subscription service that helps companies proactively manage third-party risk intelligence and business viability risks associated with their third-party relationships; including vendors, ACH/RDC originators, and direct and indirect lending clients. Whereas MeridianLinks cutting-edge software is the most mature and time-tested loan origination platform available. Together, this partnership will greatly enhance each others continued success.

We are excited to be part of MeridianLinks next phase of business transformation. With the recently announced merger of MeridianLink and CRIF Lending Solutions, MeridianLink is rapidly scaling to provide a smooth and efficient lending process. They have a strong client list, direction, and an ambitious plan to become the leading financial services software platform in the credit and lending industry, said Lori Frank, President and CEO, Argos Risk.

About Argos Risk

Argos Risk's AR Surveillance enables companies to proactively manage and assess the business viability and credit risk associated with key third-party relationships. Powered by proprietary technology and algorithms - known as Argonomics, easy-to-understand actionable insights are delivered for businesses of all sizes via a secure access real-time dashboard. Automated, daily email alerts include key executive changes, lawsuits, liens, mergers, and acquisitions thereby reducing manual processes typically required for proper vendor due diligence while fulfilling a need for timely and comprehensive risk mitigation knowledge. For additional information, visit http://www.argosrisk.com.

About MeridianLink

MeridianLink, Inc., developer of the industrys first multi-channel account opening and loan origination platform, is a leading provider of enterprise business solutions for financial service organizations. The Companys passion for excellence is reflected in their web-based reporting, lending and new account opening/deposit technologies, which all enjoy solid reputations as being cutting edge, reliable, and affordable. Based in Costa Mesa, California, MeridianLink is committed to creating smart solutions that deliver real value. For more information, visit http://www.meridianlink.com.The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has chosen eleven honorees for its 2018 Media Awards, eight media outlets for, and three ASHA member Media Outreach Champions. All will be recognized at ASHAs Convention this November in Boston, MA.

The 2018 Media Award winners:

Print Media

The New York Times: For Rethinking Baby Food Pouches by Rachel Cernansky, published June 19, 2018. The article addressed concerns that eating from baby food pouches could stunt oral development. ASHA members Amy Delany, Kara Larson and Melanie Potock served as sources.

The Hearing Journal: For An Evolving Dialogue on Popular Technology Use, published in May 2018. ASHA President Elise Davis-McFarland wrote about ASHAs efforts through the years to educate the public about safe popular technology use.

Portland Press Herald (Maine): For its July 25, 2018 article, A little din with your dinner? Too much noise can spoil even the best meal. Reporter Merideth Goad wrote about growing concern over potentially harmful levels of noise in restaurants.

Digital Media

Vox: For its noise pollution series from April through July 2018 by Julia Belluz. Vox identified noise-induced hearing loss as a public health threat, and interviewed multiple ASHA members for its five-article series on the issue.

Momtastic: For its article Does Your Toddler Need Speech Therapy? by Sarah Cottrell. Cottrell interviewed ASHA member Jessica Wilbur about childhood speech and language milestones and early signs of communication disorders.

30Seconds: For its post, Speech & Language Services in Schools: What Parents Should Know From the ASHA. The post provided parents with information about the services of school-based speech-language pathologists.

Broadcast Media

Doctor Radio  Sirius XM: For its May 9, 2018 interview with Diane Paul, ASHA Director of Clinical Issues in Speech-Language Pathology. Paul spoke about the importance of early detection of communication disorders, along with the results of recent polling of ASHA members that indicated parents are largely unaware of the warning signs of communication disorders in children.

NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams (a program of the New Jersey PBS Network): For its July 25, 2018 broadcast about early warning signs of communication disorders. Lauren Wanko interviewed ASHA President Elise Davis-McFarland, who warned that undiagnosed speech, language, hearing or swallowing disorders in small children can lead to lasting communication disorders.

ASHA's Member Media Outreach Champions for 2018

Amy L. Delaney, PhD, CCC-SLP: Delaney has served consistently as an information source on the subject of childrens swallowing for media outlets. Recently she has been interviewed by the parenting website Fatherly for an article about appropriate sippy cup use and by The New York Times for a story on baby food pouches.

Tina Penman, AuD, CCC-A: Penman has regularly contributed timely hearing advice to various media outlets. Recently, she appeared in a broadcast by KXL News, Portland,OR about hearing safety during Independence Day celebrations that include fireworks. She also wrote an op-ed about the potential dangers of loud noise in health clubs, which she promoted widely online. She has also been interviewed by AARP the Magazine, which has one of the largest circulations among publications of its kind.

Adrienne Hancock, MS, CCC-SLP: Hancock has long served as an information source on voice and gender topics for media outlets, especially with regard to voice modification for transgender clients. Most recently, she spoke to The Washington Post about how voice training contributes to a sense of safety for clients. A related in-depth feature in The New York Times also quoted her.

About the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 191,500 members and affiliates who are audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel; and students. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment, including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems, including swallowing disorders. http://www.asha.org

View all ASHA press releases at http://www.asha.org/about/news.Kane County Attorney Matt Shaw Shaw Family Law, P.C., is proud to announce that attorney Matthew G. Shaw has been selected for the 2019 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

Shaw Family Law, P.C., is proud to announce that attorney Matthew G. Shaw has been selected for the 2019 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. This is the first year that he has been included in this annual list of outstanding attorneys from throughout the U.S.

St. Charles, Illinois, attorney Matt Shaw has practiced family law for more than 30 years, both with his own firm, Shaw Family Law, P.C., and as the co-founder of Shaw, Jacobs, Goostree & Associates, P.C. He is also certified as a mediator and guardian ad litem and was the child support attorney for the Kane County Circuit Court Clerks Office from 1987 to 1995.

Shaw was again named a Leading Lawyer in Illinois for 2018. He has earned a 10.0 Superb Rating from Avvo and a Distinguished Rating from Martindale-Hubbell.

Matt Shaw has lectured and written on family law topics for many years, including authoring the first chapter of the Illinois Family Law Handbook and being published in Strategies for Family Law in Illinois. He has served as the co-chair for subcommittees of the Illinois State Bar Association Family Law Section Council and was a two-time chair of the Kane County Bar Association Family Law Committee.

Shaw is an active member of the DuPage County Bar Association, ISBA, and the KCBA, as well as a past member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, American Bar Association, and Illinois Family Support Enforcement Association.

Best Lawyers selects honorees for The Best Lawyers in America based on peer reviews of the attorneys professional knowledge and accomplishments. For the 2019 edition, Best Lawyers analyzed 7.8 million votes and selected less than 60,000 lawyers nationwide for inclusion.

Shaw Family Law, P.C.:

The law firm of Shaw Family Law, P.C. is located in St. Charles, Illinois. The Kane County family law firm represents clients throughout Northern Illinois including the communities of St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, Elgin, Aurora, Wheaton, West Chicago, and Naperville. Shaw Family Law, P.C. provides tailored legal counsel in the practice areas of family law, divorce, parenting allocation (child custody), child support, adoption, paternity, and mediation. If you are seeking efficient divorce representation in Kane County contact Shaw Family Law, P.C. Call 630-584-5550 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your free consultation today.APIs and microservices have revolutionized the way businesses exchange data and now lead the way for modern application development. However, APIs that handle sensitive data pose significant security challenges for developers.

Axiomatics, the leader in externalized, fine-grained dynamic authorization, today announced that Gerry Gebel, vice president of business development and Jonas Iggbom, vice president of sales engineering, will speak at API World 2018. The Conference will take place September 10-12, 2018 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California.

According to the organizers, API World is the first large-scale conference and expo with the goal of organizing the new API economy. Attendees will gain valuable connections, knowledge, trust and business within the developer community of API providers and consumers. In addition, they will have the opportunity to connect with thousands of API consumers and hundreds of tech companies interested in forming integration partnerships.

Gebel and Iggbom will take the stage on Tuesday, September 11, 2018, from 10-10:50 PST, to present API Security: When OAuth Is Not Enough. The presentation will highlight where using only OAuth or OpenID Connect can lead to longer development cycles, more complex API code, and less access governance. These limitations can be addressed by adding in the complementary functionality of the Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) method.

APIs and microservices have revolutionized the way businesses exchange data and now lead the way for modern application development. However, APIs that handle sensitive data pose significant security challenges for developers, said Gebel. OAuth is a well-known and widely used permissions approach, but its not always enough. Our session will demonstrate how to address the inherent limitations of OAuth by augmenting access control with fine-grained authorization delivered with ABAC.

There are many common needs that can be tackled with fine-grained authorization for APIs - spanning from the need to expose data via APIs securely (where secure collaboration is paramount) and to remove the need to re-code individual APIs when corporate policies change. With ABAC implemented, API development cycles improve in speed and efficiency, enforce policy-based authorization aligned with business rules and easily extend the authorization capabilities of an API gateway enterprise-wide.

With such a large and diverse attendance list, API World is the perfect place for attendees, industry experts and thought leaders to familiarize themselves with and discuss the latest in API technologies, said Iggbom. I look forward to discussing how ABAC, OAuth and OpenID Connect standards can work together to provide a more comprehensive security formula than OAuth alone.

API World attendees include executives, engineers, developers and integration partners that are looking to connect, learn, network, and build great applications with API providers.

For more information about Axiomatics, visit http://www.axiomatics.com. To learn more about API World 2018, visit http://apiworld.co. Follow the API World conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #APIWorld18.

About Axiomatics

Axiomatics is the leading provider of fine-grained access control. Axiomatics' solutions are utilized by government agencies and Global Fortune 1000 companies around the world to enable digital transformation: share and safeguard sensitive information, meet compliance requirements and minimize data fraud. Axiomatics provides Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) for applications, databases, Big Data, APIs and microservices. To learn more, please visit http://www.axiomatics.com or @axiomatics.Our leadership and empowerment conference provides a powerful opportunity for local professional leaders of color to share insights and ideas on critical personal development issues.

Color Magazine, the all-inclusive provider of news and events for diverse business professionals, and NJBIZ, New Jersey's leading business journal, today announced the speaker lineup for the Women of Color Leadership & Empowerment Conference  New Jersey being held on September 24th. The conference will feature dozens of senior executives from New Jerseys leading companies including Merck, Realogy Holdings Corporation and Johnson and Johnson, among others.

The Women of Color Leadership & Empowerment Conference brings together diverse corporate executives and influential women of color to share their experiences and business insights with a focus on personal development. The unique event is being held at Mercks global headquarters in Kenilworth, New Jersey.

The conference keynote speaker is Celeste Warren, Vice President of Human Resources and Global Diversity and the Inclusion Center of Excellence at Merck. Executive speakers and panelists include Savaria Harris, Senior Lawyer at Johnson & Johnsons Regulatory Health Care Compliance Group; Tiffani Scott, Global Inclusion & Diversity Leader at Becton Dickinson; Theresa Torres, President ALPFA New Jersey Chapter; and Yao Huang, Founder and Managing Partner of The Hatchery.

Our leadership and empowerment conference provides a powerful opportunity for local professional leaders of color to share insights and ideas on critical personal development issues. Were excited to bring this successful event to New Jersey in partnership with our sister publication NJBIZ. We have a great lineup of women leaders participating and we look forward to a great day of networking and learning, said Josefina Bonilla, President and Publisher of Color Magazine.

The Women of Color Leadership & Empowerment Conference has a long and successful history in major markets like Boston and New York City. Under the direction of BridgeTower Media, owner of both Color Magazine and NJBIZ, the conference has been rapidly expanding to other markets like New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Color Magazines diversity and leadership events provide a comprehensive and dynamic series of executive panels, keynotes and group sessions to engage and inspire experienced professionals and rising stars. The conferences are known for their proprietary content and unique format that are designed to give attendees tangible techniques and proven strategies to navigate todays business environment.

For sponsorship opportunities or to register, please visit The Women of Color Leadership & Empowerment Conference Web site: https://colormagazine.com/women-color-leadership-empowerment-conference-new-jersey/

About Color Magazine

Founded in 2007, Color Magazine is a premiere publication focused on publishing and events for diverse business professionals. Based in Boston, Color Magazine features topics and themes important to professionals of color, including profiles of todays most dynamic and successful diverse business professionals. Color Magazine hosts a number of events each year including: The Women of Color Leadership and Empowerment Conference, The Men of Color Leadership Conference, The Professionals of Color Career Summit, The Health & Life Sciences Conferences and the All-Inclusive Awards, an evening to honor those who are dedicated to diversity and inclusion within their careers. In 2017, Color Magazine was acquired by BridgeTower Media. For more information, please visit: https://colormagazine.com/

About NJBIZ

NJBIZ, New Jersey's leading business journal, produces a weekly print edition with a circulation of more than 15,000 copies, as well as providing 24/7 business news coverage through its NJBIZ.com website and multiple daily e-newsletters. The publication, founded in 1987 and based in the Somerset section of Franklin Township, is also well-known throughout the state for its events honoring New Jerseys top business professionals. It is owned by BridgeTower Media, the leading provider of business-to-business information, research and marketing solutions across more than 20 local economies in the U.S. For more information, please visit: http://www.njbiz.com/With a wealth of high level management experience across multiple industry sectors along with a demonstrated commitment to putting the needs of the client first, David is an ideal fit for Delphi." - Keith Shaw, Delphi COO

Multi-Market construction management firm, Delphi Construction, Inc. announced today that they have added David Ferreira to the Delphi leadership team in the role of Project Executive.

Ferreira of North Reading brings more than 19 years of professional experience across multiple sectors with a focus on commercial construction, corporate interiors, life sciences and retail and hospitality.

We are very excited to have David joining the Delphi Leadership team in this key role. With a wealth of high level management experience across multiple industry sectors along with a demonstrated commitment to putting the needs of the client first, David is an ideal fit for Delphi. We know he will be a great asset to our clients in the markets we serve and are confident that his experience will help provide our continually growing staff the added leadership they need to be successful both on their projects and in their careers as construction professionals, said Keith Shaw, Delphi COO.

Ferreira will oversee project teams to ensure consistent A+ Project Delivery in which Delphis six standards of success are met: The project is on time, the project is on budget, the project is safe, the work is of the highest quality, the client is happy, and the Delphi team is happy. As a member of the Leadership Team he will also share in shaping the strategic growth of the company as an increasingly visible leader in multiple markets.Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser "History will judge us as to what we did before, during, and after the Idlib massacre." ~Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser

The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) calls for people of conscience to pay attention to and shed every light possible on what experts across the region are predicting to be an impending massacre in the town of Idlib in Syria.

The military killing machine of Bashar Assad and his regime is planning to obliterate the town and trap, torture, and starve its inhabitants under the pretense of finishing off the few remaining jihadi groups that remain holed up there after reportedly escaping other battle arenas in Syria into Idlib, Jasser warns.

Many are reporting that the Syrian civil war is entering its last phase and that this battle between the regime and the jihadis in Idlib may be the last one of this over seven-year civil war. Lost in this battle will be the majority of the inhabitants of Idlib which are likely to be far beyond anything resembling collateral damage but actually the intended mass targets of humanity which the genocidal Assad regime seeks to punish.

Jasser continues, The over 600,000 dead and 10 million Syrian citizens displaced since 2011 are testimony to what happens to those who dared to question the fascist tyranny of Bashar Assad and ask for the end of Syrian Ba'athism.

The Russian, Syrian, and Iranian propaganda machine are in full hysterical tilt even already suggesting that if there is any evidence or mention of chemical weapons use, it must have been done by "the White Helmets" or done by jihadis in order to blame the Syrian regime for another crime against humanity. The amount of disinformation already coming out from Assad's sympathizers about this impending attack should make the world pause and pay attention that the threat level is extraordinarily high for an actual massacre.

Syria has seen massacres in the past few years of the Revolution in towns across Syria from Hama to Aleppo. Many fear that this massacre will be even worse than Aleppo in order to send a final message as a, "closing battle of the civil war".

We call upon people of conscience in the media, government, academia, and human rights activists to immediately bring attention to what is happening in Syria, report on the facts, and not allow Russian, Syrian, and Iranian propaganda to spread deception, disinformation and false cover for crimes against humanity, Jasser concludes. History will judge us as to what we did before, during, and after the Idlib massacre.Embrace is excited to partner with the Cleveland APL and FOX 8 again this year for the telethon, said CEO of Embrace, Ambrish Jaiswal. This charitable event is a great cause that aligns perfectly with our Core Value of giving back to the pet community in our home town.

Embrace Pet Insurance is proud to serve as the exclusive sponsor for the 2018 Dick Goddards Cleveland Animal Protective League Telethon. It is the second year in a row that Embrace has had this honor. The telethon will be held Thursday, September 13th from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and is presented by FOX 8 News Cleveland.

The money raised by the telethon is crucial for the Cleveland APLs continued efforts to provide medical care and homes for needy pets in Northeast Ohio. Last year, the telethon reached their fundraising goal by raising more than $180,000 for the Cleveland APL. The goal for 2018 is to exceed amount. To do so, viewers are encouraged to call (866)-392-PETS (7387) or go online to make a pledge on September 13th.

Embrace is excited to partner with the Cleveland APL and FOX 8 again this year for the telethon, said CEO of Embrace, Ambrish Jaiswal. This charitable event is a great cause that aligns perfectly with our Core Value of giving back to the pet community in our home town. As an organization, Embrace participates in a number of charitable events. Many Embrace employees volunteer at local shelters and rescues, multiple employees of Embrace have adopted pets from the Cleveland APL, and for every policy sold at Embrace, $2 is donated to a pet-related charity. Several Embracers are volunteering to answer phones during the telethon to help collect donations as well.

Every year, the Greater Cleveland community rallies behind Dick Goddard and his efforts to help the four foots, as he calls them. Goddards love for animals and his dedication to improving the quality of life for Northeast Ohio shelter and rescue pets has been the driving force behind his lifes work, leading to Goddards Law, a law that was passed in 2016 stating that it is considered a fifth degree felony to knowingly cause harm to a companion animal in the state of Ohio.

All proceeds from the Dick Goddard APL Telethon will stay in Northeast Ohio helping more than 13,000 animals that the Cleveland APL cares for each year, as well as benefiting programs and services provided by the APL such as Animal Admissions, Animal Welfare Clinic Services, Trap-Neuter-Return Programs, and Project Care.

To support the Cleveland Animal Protective League, visit https://clevelandapl.org.

###

About Embrace Pet Insurance

Embrace Pet Insurance is a top-rated pet health insurance provider for dogs and cats in the United States. Embrace offers one simple yet comprehensive accident and illness insurance plan that is underwritten by American Modern Insurance Group, Inc. In addition to insurance, Embrace offers Wellness Rewards, an optional preventative care product that is unique to the industry. Wellness Rewards reimburses for routine veterinary visits, grooming, vaccinations, training, and much more with no itemized limitations. Embrace is a proud member of the North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA) and continues to innovate and improve the pet insurance experience for pet parents across the country. For more information about Embrace Pet Insurance, visit http://www.embracepetinsurance.com or call (800) 511-9172."Receiving this honor is a testament to our leadership, our employees, our clients, and our determination to be the industrys best." -Todd Lambert, EventSphere President & CEO

EventSphere has been selected as a recipient of the 2018 Atlantas Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. This is EventSpheres 4th time receiving this honor. Each year, Best and Brightest, on behalf of the National Association for Business Resources, recognizes companies in Atlanta that are deemed most influential and trend-setting. For EventSphere President and CEO Todd Lambert, gaining recognition amongst local peers is both satisfying and a strong motivating force for the future.

Receiving this honor is a testament to our leadership, our employees, our clients, and our determination to be the industrys best. It is rewarding to know that our employees hold our organization in such high regard. We have always strived to maintain a comfortable company culture, and it is satisfying to see the fruits of that labor.

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For is awarded to organizations that display a commitment to excellence in both their human resource practices and employee enrichment. Categories by which organizations are assessed include communication, work-life balance, employee education, diversity, recognition, retention, and more. EventSphere is one of only 46 small businesses to receive the award in 2018.

Its a great feeling; knowing that we are hitting the mark in all of those areas. Especially being that there were less than 50 small businesses honored in Atlanta, and to be a 4-time recipient in a city where so many wonderful companies are located, it is really an honor, Lambert explained.

The National Association for Business Resources has been conducting Best and Brightest Company competitions for over 20 years and has provided benchmarking for companies that continue to be leaders in employment standards.

About The Best and Brightest Programs

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in operations and employee enrichment which lead to increased productivity and financial performance. This competition scores potential winners based on regional data of company performance and a set standard across the nation. The program celebrates those companies that are making better business, creating richer lives, and building a stronger community. For more information, visit 101bestandbrightest.com.STEM education opens a wealth of opportunities for students to learn about the world around them and to potentially contribute to solving some of our greatest challenges. --Susan Winslow, GM, Macmillan Learning

Scientific American, the longest-running magazine in the US, and Macmillan Learning, the premier educational solutions and insights provider, have elected to move their annual STEM Education Summit to Austin from its home in NYC. The move is in recognition of Austins role as an incubator for groundbreaking education technology, and the importance of Texas in setting national standards for education. Over the past five years, the STEM Summit has attracted an array of notable speakers and attendees, including award-winning actor and author, Alan Alda; former CEO and Chairman of the Board Intel Corporation, Craig Barrett; former Executive Director of STEM at the U.S. Department of Education, Russell Shilling; and CEO of Change the Equation, Dr. Linda Rosen.

Co-hosted by Scientific American editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina and Macmillan Learning GM Susan Winslow, this years program includes leading academics Dr. Carol Fletcher, Deputy Director of The Center For Stem Education, UT Austin, and Dr. Sylvester Gates Jr., Theoretical Physicist, Presidential Scholars Program, Brown University. Fletcher and Gates will be joined by executives from leading STEM-related companies and foundations, including Dan Russell, head of Search Quality & User Happiness at Google; JoJo Bahnam, VP of Advancement and Strategic Relations at XPRIZE; and Janet Auer, head of Education Services at Chevron.

Commenting on the event, Susan Winslow, GM of Macmillan Learning stated, STEM education opens a wealth of opportunities for students to learn about the world around them and to potentially contribute to solving some of our greatest challenges. Thats why were so passionate about gathering a diverse set of stakeholders each year for this conference. Its critical to understand the myriad of perspectives at play in order to transform the future of education, and indeed, our society as a whole.

Adding an exciting new element to this years convening, Dr. Kate Biberdorf  Associate Professor at UT Austin and science rock-star  will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest chemistry class ever.

The summit will be held at Austins new Central Public Library, and will also feature remarks from library director, Roosevelt Weeks.

The invitation-only gathering will be held September 27-28, 2018.

Details:

When  Thursday, September 27, 10:00 am5:00 pm; Friday, September 28, 9:00 am1:00 pm

Where  Austin Central Public Library, 710 W Cesar Chavez St (btwn. West Ave. & Nueces St.)

For more information or to schedule an interview with any of the speakers, please contact: Nikki Jones, Senior Director of Communications, Macmillan Learning.

About Macmillan Learning:

Macmillan Learning improves lives through learning. Our legacy of excellence in education informs our approach to using user-centered design, learning science, impact research, and data mining to develop world-class content and pioneering products that are empathetic, highly effective, and drive improved outcomes. Through deep partnership with the worlds best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers, we facilitate teaching and learning opportunities that spark student engagement and improve outcomes. We provide educators with tailored solutions designed to inspire curiosity and measure progress. Our commitment to teaching and discovery upholds our mission to improve lives through learning. To learn more, please visit our website or see us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN or join our Macmillan Community.

About Scientific American:

Founded in 1845, Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the US and the leading authoritative publication for science and technology in the general media. Together with scientificamerican.com and 14 local language editions around the world it reaches more than nine million readers. Other titles include Scientific American Mind and Spektrum der Wissenschaft in Germany. Scientific American is published by Springer Nature, a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, home to an array of respected and trusted brands providing quality content through a range of innovative products and services. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media.Marabou Ranch offers an extensive Western horse training program & more than 20 miles of stunning Colorado equestrian trails.

Marabou Ranch  a premier luxury ranch with more than 20 miles of equestrian trails offering picturesque Steamboat Springs views  embraces the authentic Colorado lifestyle with an extensive Western horse training program.

Marabou Ranch is home to a remuda of 20 horses for owners to enjoy, along with a wood and stone horse barn that provides all of the necessary equestrian gear. The Barn also features a full-sized riding arena where owners can work on their horsemanship skills, including chase steers and barrel racing.

Owners and their guests will delight in guided rides on Marabous 1,717 acres of incredible Yampa Valley land, including trails that follow elk and deer paths and run along the Elk River.

Owners can also help herd the more than 120 cows, calves and steers who live on the land at Marabou Ranch.

Chad Bedell, a World Title holder and former 12-year professional steer wrestler, serves as Marabous Ranch Manager and Horseback Master Guide and is always happy to share his horse expertise.

The owners really love experiencing what it is like to be a real cowboy on a working ranch, helping us move the cattle from pasture to pasture said Bedell. Marabou definitely offers an opportunity for people to advance their horsemanship skills, which is unique.

Priced starting at $1.5 million, each homesite at Marabou Ranch is its own private refuge of at least five acres, all offering sweeping Colorado panoramas.

Amenities at Marabou Ranch include the Downstream Spa, the zero-entry kid-friendly Rivers Edge Pool with two hot tubs and a Fitness Center with cardio machines, kinesis strength equipment and free weights. All owners at Marabou Ranch can enjoy four weeks of lodging each year at the Owners Cabins, six luxuriously appointed retreats that are available for use only by property owners and their guests.

Owners and guests can enjoy Marabou Ranchs world-class fly fishing on more than two miles of private waters on Colorados renowned Elk River, along with 10 still-water fisheries known for trophy trout fishing and access to more than 100-miles of private and public Northwestern Colorado water. Marabou allows hunting of female (cow) elk to keep the herd numbers in check and dispersed but no hunting of males is allowed.

In the winter months, skiers and snowboarders can enjoy the famous Champagne Powder at Steamboat Ski Resort. Marabous Ranch offers a private Mountain Camp located at the base of Mount Werner next to Steamboats main gondola, an ideal gathering place to gear up for the day with ski lockers featuring boot dryers.

To learn more about Marabou Ranch or to set up a private homesite tour, please call 970-875-2992, visit http://www.marabouranchtours.com or email maraboucgr(at)mybrokers.com.The Wilshire Group, a leading healthcare consulting firm, is proud to announce and welcome Freeman Jenkins to its team as a Manager of Patient Access. In this role, Freeman will focus on engagements with healthcare organizations with a goal of increasing efficiency and ease of use within patient access.

In todays highly-complex integrated healthcare organizations, it is vital to have a perspective that considers the entire scope of revenue cycle activity, not just a single function or workflow, said Hank Smither, Managing Partner of The Wilshire Group. Freeman will join Matt Perron as we continue to recruit the best of the best to build the top Patient Access team in the industry. Freeman brings the knowledge and experience needed to ensure our clients continue to receive the high-level, hands-on support they expect from The Wilshire Group team.

Previously, Freeman was a Managing Consultant with Sagacious Consultants and Accenture where he focused on maximizing value for his clients across the front end of their revenue cycle. Freeman developed assessment methodologies to quantify the value of operational and information technology optimization, designed innovative programs to capture that value, and oversaw their delivery and success. Some key areas of focus for Freeman were improving ease of use and automation for authorization processes, developing strategies for increasing accountability and reporting transparency, and optimizing referral patterns and schedule utilization.

Prior to joining Sagacious Consultants, Freeman worked at Epic on the patient access implementation team. Freeman worked with numerous clients of all sizes managing enterprise installs as an implementation executive and implementing scheduling, registration, referrals and ADT modules.

Freeman received his BA in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and he now resides in Corvallis, OR. Outside of work, Freeman loves to spend time exploring the coast and mountains of Oregon.

ABOUT THE WILSHIRE GROUP

The Wilshire Group is a healthcare consulting company that helps hospitals and health systems transform their Clinical, Health Information and Financial Operations, with an overriding focus on Revenue Management and Integrity.

Wilshires consulting services and operational solutions cover the full spectrum of the revenue cycle from patient access to claim denials, as well as all aspects of health information management and clinical documentation integrity.

Wilshires team members average over 18 years of healthcare experience and over 9 years with Epic build and re-design. The company provides best practice strategic design, project management, training, mentoring, application and workflow optimization, claim audits and clinical program management.The FSH Society's New England chapter celebrates World FSHD Day Led by volunteers and supported by FSH Society staff, the new chapters will bring together community members in locations across the U.S.

Today, the FSH Society, the worlds largest research-focused patient organization for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), announced the launch of its national chapter development program, aimed at broadening opportunities to fund more research, connect with more patients, and speed up progress toward treatments and a cure for FSHD.

FSHD is among the most prevalent of the nine primary types of muscular dystrophy affecting adults and children. The genetic disorder is estimated to affect 870,000 individuals worldwide and causes progressive weakness, typically in the face, shoulder blade, arms, legs, and torso, but may affect almost any skeletal muscle in the body. There is currently no treatment or cure and approximately one-quarter of patients become dependent on wheelchairs.

Led by volunteers and supported by FSH Society staff, the new chapters will bring together community members in locations across the U.S. to inspire one another with their unique strengths and skills. Individual chapters are tasked with the goal of empowering patients and families, educating and building connectivity within their communities, as well as fundraising toward finding a cure for FSHD. Each chapter will host at least two meetings per year, including an educational or empowerment component, and will also organize at least one fundraiser per year.

The first 13 chapter programs are being launched in 2018 in the following locations with chapter leaders determined:



AtlantaJack Gerblick

ArizonaMarie and Landon Morrell

ColoradoAmanda Hill

ConnecticutKathy Senecal

California, Los Angeles Laurie Heyman

California, SacramentoKaren Dunkerly

California, San Francisco Bay AreayKent and Sue Drescher

Illinois (Chicagoland)Dave Lukas

Massachusetts (New England)Kristin Zwickau

North CarolinaMeredith Huml

Ohio (Columbus)Sue Aumiller

Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)Bill Maclean

Washington DC (Mid-Atlantic)Manuel Gomez

To find a nearby chapter and get involved, visit the national chapter program page on the FSH Society website.

In conjunction with the chapter launches this fall, the FSH Society will be hosting its new, signature Walk & Roll to Cure FSHD fundraisers. These events unite families, friends, neighbors, researchers, and local businesses and will take place all over the nation. We call it a Walk & Roll to let people know it is inclusive of everyone, from walkers and runners to those who ride scooters and wheelchairs, said Beth Johnston, Chief Community Development Officer of the FSH Society.

The first Walk & Roll will be held in Castle Rock, Colorado on September 8, followed by events in Columbus, Ohio, the San Francisco Bay Area, Pacific Northwest, and North Carolina throughout the months of September and October. For a full list of upcoming Walk & Rolls along with chapter meetings, visit the Events page on the FSH Society website.

About the FSH Society

The FSH Society is the worlds largest research-focused patient organization for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), one of the most prevalent forms of muscular dystrophy. The Society has catalyzed major advancements and are accelerating the development of treatments and a cure to end the pain, disability, and suffering endured by one million people worldwide who live with FSHD. The FSH Society has transformed the landscape for FSHD research, and is committed to making sure that no one faces this disease alone. The Society offers a community of support, news, and information through its website at https://www.fshsociety.org.Students practice Brain Education during an IBREA Foundation pilot project in El Salvador. I see many kids around me falling into gang networks. I learned that if I dont give up in my choice for peace, then people around me dont give up and also the people around them. Thats how we can improve our community.

On September 12, 2018, President Salvador Sanchez Ceren will officially recognize Mr. Ilchi Lee in El Salvador for his Brain Education program that has significantly reduced physically and mentally-related absenteeism for students and teachers in the countrys public schools, which have long suffered from gang and socio-economic violence. This award highlights the successful implementation of a holistic education method founded by Mr. Ilchi Lee that has created a healthy public-school culture for both students and teachers in Districto Italia, a neighborhood with one of the highest levels of violence and crime, situated just outside of the capital of San Salvador. Brain Education was implemented in a public school there by IBREA Foundation as part of a pilot project requested by the Ambassador of El Salvador to the United Nations.

IBREAs program gave me tools to relieve my stress, my anger, my resentment, said Laura Calderon, one of the Salvadoran students in IBREA Foundations Brain Education program. I see many kids around me falling into gang networks. I learned that if I dont give up in my choice for peace, then people around me dont give up and also the people around them. Thats how we can improve our community.

What is Brain Education?

Through Brain Education, now implemented in 25% of all Salvadoran public schools, students and teachers have seen compelling improvements in measures of peer relationships, anxiety, trauma, stress and self-management, and absenteeism. Brain Education is a five-step method, created by mind-body expert and trainer Mr. Ilchi Lee, which enables individuals to activate their brain power to create self-sustaining health, happiness, and peace. It is practiced throughout the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China, the EU, New Zealand, and El Salvador and is the foundation of Mr. Lees teachings.

IBREA Foundations Project in El Salvador

IBREA Foundation, a 501(c)3 NGO with consultative status in the United Nations, began its Brain Education program in El Salvador in 2011. It started its pilot project with just one school in Districto Italia. IBREA Foundation was founded by Mr. Ilchi Lee, and its mission in El Salvador was to provide a sustainable mind-body practice to students and teachers to help them deal with their challenging environment in healthy ways. Once Brain Education had been successfully introduced, the mission expanded to supporting students and teachers in sharing the Brain Education practice with their community to bring greater peace and well-being to Districto Italia.

To date, IBREA Foundation has trained over 4,000 people and has certified 1,764 Brain Education trainers in El Salvador  these trainers continue to teach this method to others in the local community.

Salvadoran President Recognizes IBREA Foundation and Ilchi Lee

President Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador will give the National Award Jose Simeon Canas to IBREA Foundation and its president and founder, Mr. Ilchi Lee, for their work in effectively changing public school culture in a neighborhood that previously failed to show any meaningful improvement with other efforts. The award was made possible due to the outpouring of support and gratitude from many teachers who witnessed their schools security and students lives change. The Salvadoran President will award Mr. Ilchi Lee for his work in creating cultures of peace inside the public schools. The award ceremony will take place on September 12, 2018 at 12 p.m. at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in San Salvador.

Brain Educations Effects in the U.S.

At home in the U.S., Brain Education has been introduced and implemented in one of the countrys lowest-performing public schools in NYC. This local pilot project has shown similar results to those in El Salvadorof students improved focus and behavior along with teachers reduced stress and overall better well-being. The project in New York City has brought a D-level school up to A-level over the span of just one year. Brain Education proves to be an effective holistic education method for those struggling with physical, emotional and mental conditions related to stress, depression, anxiety, fear, and low self-confidence, which are unfortunately quite common among students, teachers, and administrators in our public school systems.

Visit IBREA Foundations website for more info about IBREA: ibreafoundation.orgToday, RUNNER Agency officially welcomed John Keehler as a Partner and Director of Strategy & Insights. Keehler, who most recently held the position of Group Head of Digital Strategy at The Richards Group throughout his 13-year tenure with the agency, will lead the charge in further elevating RUNNER's performance in media management and digital strategy for clients.

After launching his career as a designer and UX professional, Keehler has continued to rack up accomplishments in many areas of the digital space, including launching and growing the digital strategy discipline at The Richards Group and leading digital strategy for brands like The Home Depot, Travelocity, Chick-fil-A, Chrysler and The Salvation Army. Hes also been responsible for notable firsts and award-winning work in social media, including some of the earliest influencer marketing efforts and early brand activation of social platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Outside of the office, Keehler has gained recognition in other ways, previously being named to The Dallas Business Journal's 40 under 40, and educating future digital marketing leaders as an adjunct professor in the MBA program at SMU's Cox School of Business. Hes a sought-after speaker for organizations like the AMA, AAAAs and DFWIMA, and has been quoted in publications like Brandweek, Mediapost and The Wall Street Journal.

I'm excited to bring my experience across a variety of industries to RUNNER, said Keehler of his new role at the agency. Our clients are facing some of the most interesting and exciting challenges in marketing today  building a modern go-to-market strategy that uses data to shape an end-to-end customer experience to drive more revenue and loyalty.

As a national leader in digital marketing and lead generation for growth-focused companies, with an acute focus in patient lead generation and healthcare marketing, RUNNER has worked with a variety of industry-leading companies and brands, such as North American Spine, Ideal Implant, Thermi, Ideal Smiles, NJ Spine & Orthopedic, and many more.

John is a world-class digital strategy expert, and we believe hes the perfect fit for our agency at this very pivotal stage of positioning and growth, said Reagan Judd, RUNNER Agency Co-founder and CEO. With his expertise, were going to the next level with our capabilities and service offerings.

About RUNNER Agency

RUNNER Agency, based in Dallas, is a strategic marketing agency co-founded in 2004 by husband-and-wife team Lacy and Reagan Judd. RUNNER boasts a full set of digital marketing services, including marketing strategy, inbound marketing, paid media planning and management, and creative campaign development. To learn more, visit http://www.runneragency.com.Mobile kitchens from California Mobile Kitchens (CMK) are available to be quickly delivered to any relief site or to any other location for any purpose. CMK has mobile kitchens, showers, refrigerator/freezer units and generators stationed at various locations throughout the United States and match any project with the best and closest equipment to any delivery location. The companys 24-hour customer service can deliver fully equipped mobile kitchens and support units where and when they are needed.

Louisianans are resilient and determined, pitching in to help their communities recover when disaster strikes, and just as quick to celebrate the good times. CMK is prepared to deliver mobile kitchens to Louisiana for any reason.

Good food and good times

Good food and music, and a society that celebrates a range of cultural roots are part of what help 4.68 million Louisianans keep their resilient and good neighbor spirit and good food is a big part of Louisiana life. Its no accident that the world famous Tabasco Sauce was invented in Louisiana and is still produced there.

Whether your tastes tend to seafood gumbo, crab, catfish, crawfish, grilled oysters, red beans and rice, BBQ, peach pies or fried alligator, there is a food festival, caterer or restaurant serving it up. Mobile kitchens from CMK are a perfect way to join in and introduce favorite Louisiana recipes at a food festival, or to help launch a catering business.

Mobile kitchens can be essential for back-up kitchen while a restaurant is rebuilding.

Community food programs

Louisianas community food programs distribute around 53 million pounds of food annually. Meal preparation often relies on church or community center kitchens. Depending on local regulations, mobile kitchens in Louisiana are a strong option for delivering freshly prepared meals to communities with a shortage of public kitchens.

About California Mobile Kitchens

As a national leader in mobile kitchen solutions CMK is ready to meet the rapidly growing demand for mobile kitchens in Louisiana.

Whether you need a mobile kitchen for a community food program, a fair or festival, for disaster relief special occasion, on location for a film set, or a temporary kitchen during repairs or remodeling, CMK is the nations most accessible, cost effective and customer oriented provider of mobile kitchens.

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.Upcoming CLMP Workshop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida If you are involved with the loyalty marketing industry, or are looking to adopt a loyalty solution for your best customers, this is the most important workshop youll ever attend.

The Loyalty Academy, the premiere global education and membership organization for loyalty marketing practitioners, announces their second annual North American certification workshop. The workshop is an in-person event led by senior faculty members of the Academy over a 3  day period for loyalty professionals to achieve the distinction of Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional (CLMP) all at once. The coursework is challenging and covers all core modules plus several of the key elective topics offered in the full curriculum. The workshop includes interactive exercises, substantial discussion, and participation opportunities for the attendees and concludes with a final examination based upon a case study.

The CLMP Certification is the only recognized professional certification in the loyalty marketing industry. The distinction tells employers, clients, and peers that designates have achieved a level of professionalism and advanced education associated with the discipline of loyalty marketing. The CLMP designation now includes 73 professionals in 14 different countries.

Past attendees have remarked on the value of the 3-day event:

If you are involved with the loyalty marketing industry, or are looking to adopt a loyalty solution for your best customers, this is the most important workshop youll ever attend.

The practical, how-to approach of this workshop, including the tools and techniques I need to do my job, were much appreciated.

Participants will be required to present their final loyalty design recommendations and financial analysis associated with the case using all of the materials from the workshop. Final presentations will be evaluated by the Board of Regents for the Loyalty Academy and the CLMP Certification will be granted to all participants who successfully demonstrate their understanding and real-world use of the principles, practices, technologies, and financial elements associated with winning loyalty strategies.

Having run several similar events in Australia and New Zealand, this will be the second workshop hosted in North America. Core courses will be taught be Margaret Meraw, CLMP, Senior Faculty Leader at the Loyalty Academy, and Michael Capizzi, CLMP, Dean of the Loyalty Academy.

The North American CLMP workshop will be held October 16 -19, 2018 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA at the historic Riverside Hotel. Information and Registration at: https://loyaltyacademy.org/workshop/

For more information, please contact Michael Capizzi, Dean of the Loyalty Academy at: mikec(at)loyaltyacademy.org

About the Loyalty Academy

The Loyalty Academy, a product of the Wise Marketer Group, is the premiere global education and membership organization for loyalty marketing practitioners. The Loyalty Academy offers certification for loyalty marketing professionals via online, in-person, and customized in-house educational workshops and seminars.

About The Wise Marketer

Founded in 1999, The Wise Marketer is the only global voice serving the $200 Billion customer loyalty industry with unbiased news, research, thought leadership and best practices. The Wise Marketer publishes a weekly newsletter free for qualified subscribers. The Wise Marketer Group also publishes the Loyalty Guide, a comprehensive resource for loyalty practitioners available free to members of the Loyalty Academy.The Purging Fire: a thrilling book that tells of Melissa Sanderss struggle with friendship, love, and safety from dangerous events. The Purging Fire is the creation of published author, Marlene Mesot, a recipient of a bachelor of education degree from Keene State in Keene, New Hampshire, as well as a masters in library and information studies degree from U-NC Greensboro, North Carolina.

Mesot shares, Upon entering the bathroom, she went to one of the sinks and turned on the cold-water faucet. The water began to pour out in a thunderous rush, and she turned the faucet to slow its fall. An overwhelming urge to cry welled up inside when Missy recalled her despairing conversation with Alex in her recent dream. She fought it and lost. Splashing water on her face finally calmed her enough to take her aspirin. How could she have allowed herself to feel so deeply for one man? After she turned off the water, she whirled around half-expecting to encounter the tall uniformed figure. Shaking her head, she told herself not to be foolish and left the bathroom. The phrase Nowhere to turn echoed in her thoughts while the lurking aloneness of the wee morning hour surrounded her.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Marlene Mesots new book touches on faith and belief in God and the horrors of the past haunting the present and affecting what is to come.

This novel provides a perfect blend of romance and suspense that will surely bring delight to lovers of the fictional genre.

View a synopsis of The Purging Fire on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase The Purging Fire at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about The Purging Fire, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.Modern Litho, a full-service commercial, catalog and publication printer headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri, announces it has acquired Trio Printing of St. Louis. Serving similar clientele near The Hill, Trio Printings operation pairs well with the business model of Modern Lithos St. Louis facility, located at 5111 Southwest Avenue.

Trio Printing has had a successful presence in the St. Louis print industry for many years with well-established customer relationships and high standards of service. We are grateful that they have joined our team and we look forward to the opportunities to bring an enhanced level of capability and quality to the marketplace, commented Darrell Moore, Modern Litho President.

Established in 1959 as a family owned business, Trio Printing capabilities have included offset and digital printing with complete bindery and finishing. Jim Bowe and Chris Kuhl, both former Vice Presidents of Trio Printing who will continue on with Modern Litho, noted Were excited for this next chapter and we look forward to working together as part of the Modern Litho team.

Trio Printing will cease operations at its current facility at 3644 Forest Park, St. Louis, MO. Employees and operations will move to the recently expanded Modern Litho  St. Louis location at 5111 Southwest Ave, St. Louis, MO.

About Modern Litho:

Headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri with operations in St. Louis and Kansas City, Modern Litho has been serving the print needs of client organizations for more than 80 years. Regarded as a premier printer of specialized publications and catalogs for niche markets, Modern Lithos capabilities include high-performance offset print, finishing and distribution of marketing and member communications, advanced variable data print, direct mail, and mailing services. Modern Litho is a G7 Master Qualified Printer and holds renewable resource FSC and SFI Chain-of-Custody Certifications. Markets of interest include non-profit and member-based organizations.

Media contact:

Cassandra Atchison

catchison(at)modernlitho.com

Modern Litho

573-644-7024

http://www.modernlitho.comThis partnership allows us to further solidify our commitment to the neighborhoods we serve and provide more access than ever to our innovative products and services---all designed with the financial well-being of the community in mind.

Neighborhood Credit Union and Dallas Federal Credit Union announced today that the merger between their two credit unions has been finalized as of September 1, 2018. Systems and operational integration will be completed in February of 2019. The merger has been approved by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and the Texas Credit Union Department.

Chet Kimmell, President/CEO of Neighborhood Credit Union, will continue to lead the combined organization. A former certified public accountant and current member of the NACHA board, Kimmell has been CEO of Neighborhood Credit Union since 1994 overseeing growth from $100 million to over $700 million in assets.

This partnership allows us to further solidify our commitment to the neighborhoods we serve and provide more access than ever to our innovative products and services---all designed with the financial well-being of the community in mind, Kimmell said.

As a result of this merger, Neighborhood Credit Union will have fourteen locations throughout Dallas Fort-Worth (DFW) including Dallas, Ellis, Tarrant and Denton counties, as well as the opportunity to welcome members from all over the metroplex through their robust mobile offerings.

The merging of our two deep-rooted credit unions will allow for growth and advancement in the near future, Kimmell added. Dee Pennington [CEO of Dallas Federal Credit Union], Joey Bishop [Chairman of the Board at Dallas Federal Credit Union] and Dwayne Boozer [Chairman of the Board at Neighborhood Credit Union] were all instrumental in bringing this partnership together, and we are grateful for all of their hard work.

Both Dallas-based credit unions have a long history of service in DFW. Neighborhood Credit Union, chartered in 1930 as Dallas Postal Employees Credit Union, is the oldest credit union in Dallas. As the original name suggests, the credit union was formed to serve Dallas postal workers and their families. Dallas Federal Credit Union was chartered in 1948 as Dallas Region Centennial Federal Credit Union and later changed its name to Dallas Federal Credit Union in 2002 serving the downtown Dallas community.

About Neighborhood Credit Union: The oldest credit union in Dallas (chartered April 18, 1930), Neighborhood Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial organization serving Dallas, Denton and Ellis counties, as well as the City of Arlington. With branches in Dallas, Richardson, Arlington, Mesquite, Duncanville, Waxahachie, Lancaster, Grand Prairie, Coppell, and Highland Village, and assets topping $720 million, Neighborhood Credit Union has a membership of 55,000 and continues to welcome new members daily. For more information, call (214) 748-9393 or visit http://www.myncu.com.The AAA Five Diamond Grand Velas Riviera Maya has expanded its boutique art and craft offerings to include traditional Mexican ceramics. Available in the resorts boutiques, the newest additions include plates, cups, pots, jewelry, vases and more from leading artists Javier Servin Ceramica and Mayolica Santa Rosa. The new offerings expand Velas Resorts commitment to showcasing Mexican art and fashion which already includes fashion shows and popup exhibits from renowned and up-and-coming designers, Oaxacan wood sculptures by Hoja Verde and fine Mexican jewelry with precious and semiprecious stones by Lyne Jewels at the other properties in the collection.

Originating from Guanajuato, the handmade ceramics from Javier Servin unite reality with fantasy, creating unique pieces, free of lead and with a lasting color thanks to its high-temperature cooking. The different objects are guided by Servins imagination to mix colors and shapes to obtain a unique, unrepeatable piece. Each piece has a distinguishing blue mark, a recognized trait of Servins ceramics. The designs are made to be used in everyday life.

Originating in the 16th century in Spain, Mayolica is a porous ceramic which derived its name from Mallorca Island, which was on the shipping trade route to Italy. Mayolica Santa Rosas pottery process is done by hand, which makes them authentic crafts and all unique pieces. The Mexican potters adapted the Mayolica to their tastes, creating a different and spontaneous style. Mayolica pottery is primarily distinguished by the milky-white glaze used after the first firing. Mayolica pottery is a diverse category of clay arts under which, Spanish-influenced Talavera and Italian Maiolica are sub-genres. Mexican Majolica primarily differs from traditional Talavera in the art form and use of colors. Its decorative motifs are traditional and produce objects of daily use for the dining room and home.

Nightly resort rates start at $434 USD. Rates are per person based on double occupancy and include a la carte gourmet meals at a variety of specialty restaurants, luxury suite accommodations, premium branded beverages, 24-hour in-suite service, fitness center, taxes, gratuity and more. For reservations or additional information, call 1-888-407-4869, or visit https://www.rivieramaya.grandvelas.com.

About Grand Velas Riviera Maya:

The AAA Five Diamond Grand Velas Riviera Maya is an ultra-luxury all-inclusive resort set on 206 acres of pristine jungle and mangroves and with the finest white sand beach in the Riviera Maya. Guests can choose accommodations among oceanfront, ocean view and a Zen-like tropical setting, embraced by the flora and fauna of the Yucatan Peninsulas jungle. All 539 designer-like suites are exceptionally spacious, more than 1,100 square feet each, all with balconies, and some with private plunge pools. All feature fully stocked mini bars, LOccitane amenities, artisanal mezcal, and Nespresso coffee machines. Bathrooms deserve special mention with walk in glass shower, deep soaking Jacuzzi tubs and marble interior. Eight restaurants, including five gourmet offerings, present a tour through Mexico, Europe and Asia. Cocina de Autor, at the hands of world renowned celebrity chefs Bruno Oteiza, Mikel Alonso and Xavier Perez Stone, holds the AAA Five Diamond Award, the first all-inclusive restaurant in the world to win this prestigious distinction. Se Spa is the region's largest spa sanctuary at more than 90,000 square feet, known for its authentic Mexican treatments, offerings from around world and signature seven-step water journey. Other features include 24-hour Personal Concierge; 24/7 in-suite service; three swimming pools; two fitness centers; water sports; innovative Kids Clubs and Teens Club; baby concierge; Karaoke Bar; Koi Bar; Piano Bar, and business center. The resort offers more than 91,000 square feet of meeting space and outdoor areas for events inclusive of a 31,000-square-foot Convention Center, able to accommodate up to 2,700 guests. The resort has won numerous awards from Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, USA Today and several other magazines and major companies worldwide, including Virtuosos Best Spa and TripAdvisors Hall of Fame. A member of the Virtuoso Hotels & Resorts Program, Grand Velas Riviera Maya was built and is operated by Eduardo Vela Ruiz, founder and president of Velas Resorts, with brother Juan Vela, vice president of Velas Resorts, by his side. For reservations or additional information, call 1-888-407-4869, or visit https://www.rivieramaya.grandvelas.comNick Houseman, Co-Owner and Board Member of ElitAvia and Founder of Zenith Jet, today announced the publication of his first novel Old Country Wounds on Amazon.

Old Country Wounds is a story of revenge. The protagonist, James Sutherland, leaves working-class Scotland in 1960 to build a new life in Canada. Over time, he amasses a fortune in the Alberta oil business. Caught between his homeland and his adopted country, James struggles with family tragedies back home. Having retired, he returns to Scotland and uncovers a dark secret that leads him to mastermind a high-stakes vendetta against the powerful family that he blames for his own familys hardship.

My mothers side of the family is Scottish, and I left Scotland for Canada as a young man but thats where the similarities end  the rest of the book is pure fiction, explains Nick Houseman.

A theme that I wanted to explore in the book is probably quite common to many immigrants. It has to do with letting go of the past. At what point do you cease to be from the old country and truly identify with your new country? Ive wrestled with that question for years and Im sure Im not alone.

Large parts of this book were written on long-haul flights from North America to Europe and Asia. I wanted to find a creative outlet and being stuck on long flights afforded me the time and uninterrupted solitude to write.

I think the greatest thing about writing fiction is the freedom. Other aspects of our lives are often constrained by limitations. With family, its usually time. In business, its budget. But when youre writing fiction, you are completely free. The only limitation is that of your own imagination, concludes Nick.

About Nick Houseman

Nick Houseman was born in Singapore to an English father and a Scottish mother. His father was in the Royal Air Force and the family moved frequently, also living in Scotland, Malta and Germany. As a young man, Nick moved to Canada, first settling in Edmonton, Alberta and later in Montreal, Quebec, where he attended McGill University (BA, Economics and Political Science, 1997) and Concordia University (MBA, 1999). Upon graduation, Nick began a career in business aviation, starting with several management roles at Bombardier Aerospace, followed by launching Zenith Jet in 2008 and then becoming co-owner of ElitAvia in 2011.

Old Country Wounds is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions.

Media Contact:

Mark Lowe, PRagmatic Communications

mark(dot)lowe(at)pragcom(dot)com / (514) 576-2519The new NorthwestStays.com Website We want to provide the absolute best booking experience for every guest that visits the PNW

Northwest Vacation Rental Professionals, announces the launch of a brand new website experience ( https://www.northweststays.com ). The association aims to unite regional vacation rental managers under the single mission of increasing awareness and tourism specific to the vacation rental industry within the Pacific Northwest, California, Hawaii, and British Columbia, Canada.

Travel and tourism are booming, and yet the market is more diverse and challenging than ever, particularly for individual property managers, said Dan Eby, President of the Northwest Vacation Rental Professionals. Its our job as property managers to find new and innovative ways to showcase properties, and support the industry as a whole. Thats exactly why weve chosen to unite as an association; a rising tide lifts all boats.

Featuring listings across Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, British Columbia, California, and Hawaii, the NorthwestStays.com website aims to address several rampant roadblocks that travelers experience during the research and booking process. Communication issues, no guarantee about the condition of properties, and sky-high booking fees have sadly become common on many listing sites.

A unique concept, the association unites trusted vacation rental managers across the Northwest under one digital roof to promote a positive vacation shopping and booking experience. The new website features a plethora of travel information, a full blog for travel tips and itinerary ideas, and information on a wide array of vacation rentals across the Pacific Northwest.

The new website is a first-of-its-kind approach to promoting travel and tourism. The website launched with the full support of all association members, and empowers guests to be able to search for vacation rentals in the PNW, and have thousands of high-quality properties to search from.

Transparency is at the center of the website and this mission is front and center on the newly launched platform. The associations own website ( https://nwvrp.org ) features public pages for standard practices and a code of ethics. A few items of note include standards that hold property managers to account in order to prevent false or misleading information or discrimination of any kind, and policies for protecting the financial interests of property owners.

We want to provide the absolute best booking experience for every guest that visits the PNW, Eby commented, and we plan to do that by giving people what they want - a high-quality, no-frills approach to vacation rental shopping. Our code of ethics and high standards will ensure that this happens.

The NorthwestStays.com website also offers the ability for travel shoppers to book directly through verified member websites. This direct booking strategy will save guests booking fees that can reach up to $500 from other listing sites. The website will allow visitors to easily explore and compare multiple websites in one place and easily click over to learn more information or to book directly via member websites.

A contest will run concurrently with the launch, offering entrants a chance to win a stay at The Oceanside Lodge on Saanich Inlet for three nights in October valued at $4,500. To learn more about NorthwestStays.com's contest and enter for a chance to win, visit https://contest.northweststays.com.

The NWVRP is partnering with Fetch My Guest, a Santa Cruz, California company that will operate the NorthwestStays.com marketplace. The Northwest Vacation Rental Professionals are excited about this new venture and welcome you to the Pacific Northwest: guests can find the website at https://www.northweststays.com/.

Media contacts:

President (USA): Daniel, 509-548-4230

VP (Canada): Blake, 250-483-6790 x101

About Northwest Vacation Rental Professionals: Northwest Vacation Rental Professionals is dedicated to empowering and inspiring members to provide a world-class vacation experience. Our revolutionary new approach to promoting regional travel and tourism.Orren Pickell Building Group has been selected the Constructech 2018 Gold Vision Awards winner among residential builders and general contractors in the $6 million to $26 million range. This is Constructech magazine's 19th year honoring companies who use pioneering technology to transform the construction industry.

"This year, we had the largest pool of entries by construction companies, with a focus on improving their ability to respond to customer demands through the use of emerging technology," offered Peggy Smedley, editorial director of Constructech magazine and president of Specialty Publishing Media.

Lisa Pickell added, "We're thrilled to be acknowledged for our transformative use of technology. Our online project management site was the first to allow clients to track their projects in incredible detail, and it greatly improves our customer experience. For the homeowner, it takes a lot of the stress out of the process."

This award comes on the heels of Orren Pickell Building Group President Lisa Pickell being named one of Constructech Magazine's Women in Construction last year.

Orren Pickell Building Group has been a leading design-build firm on Chicago's North Shore for more than 40 years. The company provides custom home architecture and construction throughout Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.Marion Roth I considered myself a survivor from day one of my diagnosis, said Ms. Roth. I focused on having a positive outcome. I set a goal to get through my treatments and overcome the cancer so I could go on an African safari. Marion Roth, Ovarian Cancer Survivor

Marion Roth was not expecting her cancer diagnosis. She has no family history of cancer. She follows a healthy lifestyle full of hiking, kayaking, running, and yoga. Yet in October 2016 she learned that a grapefruit-sized mass in her lower abdomen was granulosa cell tumor of the ovary. This malignant tumor is a rare type of ovarian cancer that accounts for about 2 percent of all ovarian tumors. Ms. Roth has Type 1 diabetes, which complicated her cancer diagnosis further. A multidisciplinary team of medical specialists at Danbury Hospital, including Ms. Roths OBGYN, gynecologic oncologist, medical oncologist, endocrinologist, and the staff at The Praxair Cancer Center successfully treated her cancer.

For several months before her cancer diagnosis, Ms. Roth, a 56-year old woman from Ridgefield, Connecticut, felt persistently bloated and nauseous after meals. She had constant indigestion and was frequently urinating. She assumed these symptoms were the normal signs of aging that many women experience. But then she started to gain weight and noticed a bump in her stomach, similar to when she was pregnant with each of her two children.

Back pain ultimately brought Ms. Roth to her OBGYN Richard Ruben, MD, of Physicians for Womens Health. Dr. Ruben conducted tests and ruled out other conditions that might be causing her symptoms. He quickly referred Ms. Roth to Danbury Hospital Gynecologic Oncology, under the care of Vaagn Andikyan, MD, gynecologic oncologist, Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN).

Ms. Roth was diagnosed with Stage 1C2 granulosa cell tumor of the ovary. The tumor in her right ovary had ruptured and malignant cells were in her abdomen.

Dr. Andikyan counseled Ms. Roth to have surgery to remove the cancer. On October 14, 2016, Ms. Roth had a hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy to remove her uterus, cervix, and both ovaries and fallopian tubes. Dr. Andikyan also performed a pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy to remove lymph nodes from her pelvis and from in front of her lumbar vertebrae near her aorta and vena cava, and an omentectomy to remove fatty tissue near the stomach. Dr. Andikyan dissected her lymph nodes to determine the extent of the cancer in order to best guide further treatment for Ms. Roth.

There is limited recurrence data for this type of cancer because granulosa cell tumor of the ovary is so uncommon. Therefore, Dr. Andikyan and Kevin Jain, MD, medical oncologist, Danbury Hospital, recommended 18-rounds of chemotherapy for Ms. Roth to reduce the risk of the cancer spreading and of recurrence.

Ms. Roth has been managing Type 1 diabetes for nearly 48 years. Diabetes can complicate cancer treatment for many reasons. For instance, steroids are often administered to alleviate common side effects of chemotherapy, such as nausea. However, steroids interfere with insulin and can make it more difficult to regulate blood sugar levels.

Drs. Andikyan and Jain and Robert Savino, DO, endocrinologist, Western Connecticut Medical Group Endocrinology, worked together to develop an effective, safe care plan to treat Ms. Roths cancer.

Ms. Roth underwent six months of chemotherapy and completed her treatment in May 2017. She continues to see Drs. Andikyan and Jain at Danbury Hospital to monitor her health through routine follow up appointments.

Ms. Roth said the support of her care team, her community, and her mindset helped her to overcome cancer.

Dealing with cancer takes perseverance. You need a lot of buoying up. Its important to seek out the type of support that will make you feel safe and cared for, said Ms. Roth. Im very thankful for The Praxair Cancer Center at Danbury Hospital. Everyone there was kind, patient, and caring, including the therapy dogs! They embraced my situation and from when I first checked in to when I left, I felt like I was part of a family. They also connected me with a host of outpatient services, including Anns Place, which helped me to better manage my cancer, she said.

Ms. Roths friends and community rallied behind her, too  and she is forever grateful.

I want others to know that when you do something nice, it goes so much farther than you might imagine. When I think of what people said to me and did for me, well, thats what got me out of my bed. I was bald, and I didnt feel good. But, I still got out of bed, said Ms. Roth.

Although she could not control the cancer, Ms. Roth learned she could control her outlook. She thought about the culmination of all of the good and challenging times in her life and realized that she had the skills and strength to handle her cancer diagnosis.

I considered myself a survivor from day one of my diagnosis, said Ms. Roth. I focused on having a positive outcome. I set a goal to get through my treatments and overcome the cancer so I could go on an African safari.

In September 2017, her doctors cleared her for her trip. I went to Africa with my friend and her charitable organization. I taught women to sew and I went on a safari. My trip emphasized what I learned from having cancer  to see life from a different perspective, to have compassion, and to practice gratitude, said Ms. Roth.

Ovarian cancer by the numbers

In the United States, ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women and about 20,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year. Ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other gynecologic cancer mainly due to delayed symptom presentation and lack of early detection strategies.

Ovarian cancer risk factors

Early detection increases survival rate. WCHN encourages women to speak with their primary care providers and gynecologists if they have risk factors that may increase the likelihood of getting ovarian cancer. Risk factors include: genetic predisposition (BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, Lynch syndrome or family history of breast, colon, or ovarian cancer), personal history of endometriosis or breast, colon, or uterine cancer, or increasing age.

Signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer

Women should also speak with their doctor if they have persistent symptoms of ovarian cancer that are not normal for them. Symptoms include: back pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting, constipation or menstrual changes, fatigue, feeling the need to urinate urgently or often, pain during sex, pelvic or abdominal pain, trouble eating or feeling full quickly, upset stomach or heartburn, or vaginal bleeding or discharge.

Please visit wchn.org to learn more about WCHN gynecology care and our gynecologic oncology cancer program.

About Western Connecticut Health Network

Western Connecticut Health Network is the regions premier, patient-centered healthcare organization serving residents of western Connecticut and adjacent New York. WCHN is anchored by three nationally recognized hospitals, Danbury Hospital, New Milford Hospital, and Norwalk Hospital. We have an integrated network of more than 1,300 employed and community physicians and specialists, 70 Western Connecticut Medical Group medical and sub-specialty practices across 16 communities, and Western Connecticut Home Care. Our nationally renowned Rudy L. Ruggles Biomedical Research Institute is leading innovative research, especially for cancer and Lyme disease. Many of our advancements have been made possible by generous donors from our community and through the Danbury Hospital & New Milford Hospital Foundation and the Norwalk Hospital Foundation. As an academic institution, we are proud to shape the future of care through our partnership with the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. WCHN employs nearly 6,300 employees including about 1,900 clinical staff. For more information, visit wchn.org. Share your comments with us at Facebook.com/DanburyHospital, Facebook.com/NewMilfordHospital, and Facebook.com/NorwalkHospital.Our mission at Payscape has always been to empower businesses with innovative ways to grow their business, acquire customers, and collect money. Payscapes Lending platform furthers that goal by assisting businesses in evolving and bettering their businesses to reach that next level.

Payscape, a financial technology and payments innovator announces its partnership with Fora Financial, a small-business focused lending company, to present Payscape Lending. Through partnering with Fora Financial, Payscapes Lending solution will offer small businesses working capital in the form of a loan or merchant advance to invest in their business.

Our partnership with Fora Financial will guarantee better funding options for our customers, says Adam Bloomston, CEO and Co-Founder of Payscape. Our mission at Payscape has always been to empower businesses with innovative ways to grow their business, acquire customers, and collect money. Payscapes Lending platform furthers that goal by assisting businesses in evolving and bettering their businesses to reach that next level.

This new product addresses the need for small businesses to have quick, easy and flexible financing options. Weve partnered with Fora Financial to bring these solutions to our clients. The platform offers quick application response, personalized repayment terms and no restrictions on how businesses may use their funding.

Specific features include:



Funding from $5,000 to $500,000 with flexible repayment terms, averaging between 3 to 15 months with daily or weekly payments.

Innovative funding based off of total business revenue, not just VISA or MasterCard processing history.

No restrictions on funding use.

Were excited to partner with Payscape and combine their expertise in the payments industry with our financing knowledge, says Fora Financials CEO & Founder Jared Feldman. This partnership will enable us to work with even more small business owners, which is our organizations top priority.

For more information about Payscapes Lending offering, please visit http://www.payscape.com.

About Fora Financial:

Fora Financial offers flexible financing solutions to small businesses in need of additional working capital to sustain or grow their enterprise. The Company places a high value on transparency and provides businesses with fast, personalized small business loans and merchant cash advances, utilizing its state-of-the-art technology and unwavering customer service. Founded in June 2008, Fora Financial has over 100 employees in its New York City office locations.

For more information on Fora Financial, please visit the companys website. Follow Fora Financial on Twitter and Facebook.

ABOUT PAYSCAPE:

Founded in 2004, Payscape is an innovative financial technology provider dedicated to making it simple for business owners to collect payments. We're a team of inspired entrepreneurs intent on disrupting the commoditized payment landscape with cutting-edge products and services, universal API integration, best-in-class customer service, strategic referral and technology partnerships and a lifelong devotion to helping small to mid-size business owners increase cash flow. Learn more about the company at http://www.payscape.com and subscribe to #fintech updates @Payscape.Sonsee Woman Anti Chafing Shorts "Every product is designed for the plus size woman, theyre not just ordinary products made wider. Each product fits your curves because it has been built specifically to do so."

Three years on after receiving funding from Shark Tank Australia, Sonsee Woman has today announced their release on Amazon USA.

Melbourne-based, long-time fashion buyer and designer Vanessa Babuin-Perera took her learnings from an industry that favors straight-sized shapes and applied them into a range of undergarments designed for women with curves.

As a buyer and designer for large fashion retailers, I traveled a lot. In the US I found bloggers who told me there was nothing available that fits and then in northern Italy I found Sonsees amazing 360 stretch fibre to solve the problem. That fabric technology combined with innovative design is the secret of our success. Every product is designed for the plus size woman, theyre not just ordinary products made wider. Each product fits your curves because it has been built specifically to do so.

Starting at a size 10 US (Gorgeous) and running through to a size 24 US (Radiant), the Sonsee range is made from high quality Italian yarn with 360 seamless stretch and reinforcement in all the right areas.

After taking the local market in Australia by storm, Sonsee is excited to extend their premium offering to the women of America. In a booming and rapidly growing industry, the market for plus size clothing in the States represents a significant opportunity.

Plunkett Research estimates that 68 percent of American women wear a size 14 or above. However, large multi-brand retailers such as Shopbop, Macys, Net-a-Porter that together carry more than 15,500 brands, were found by to stock just 2.3% of clothing that could be considered plus size.

Sonsees bestselling range of hosiery is a customer favourite. Following the success of this line, the collection has expanded to intimates and flexible garments that work in the under and outer wear spheres. Their latest release is a range of comfort shapewear, which, like all Sonsee garments, is designed specifically for plus-size women.

The way our products have been received has exceeded our expectations, says Vanessa. Customers love them and we have a loyal band of passionate supporters and brand advocates.

What began as a mission to satisfy a neglected market segment has taken on a new life.

Weve been able to combine real comfort with fashion and the beauty of it is how special our products make people feel. And were really proud of that.

To celebrate their launch on Amazon USA, Sonsee Woman is offering a 20% discount on all purchases until 30th September 2018. Experience fashion freedom for yourself, visit the Sonsee store on Amazon here and enter SONSEE20 at checkout. Offer available for a limited time, only while stocks last.

Sonsee Woman is a plus size hosiery and intimates range supported by funding from Shark Tank Australia. Sonsees premium range of high quality products are manufactured in Italy and are available in sizes 10 - 24 US.Prosecco DOC The rain and the lower temperatures were exactly what we had been hoping for days. The forecast for the upcoming harvest is optimistic, as colder nights and a wider difference in temperatures between day and night help augment the aroma and will enhance the quality of the grapes. - Stefano Zanette

As we draw closer to the final wine harvests of the year, the Tutelary Consortium for Prosecco DOC is anticipating one of the best productions for the Italian sparkling wine after near to perfect conditions continue.

Stefano Zanette, the chairman for the Consortium describes the conditions for all the grapes used in the production of Prosecco as perfect. The favorable weather has permitted not only the proper development of the grapes, but also the optimal phytosanitary status.

These conditions find themselves in the north-eastern part of Italy on a flat type plain with some hilly areas. The climate of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia lends itself to these conditions, as the area is usually temperate with the mountainous chain of the Alps to the north, acting as a barrier to the cold northern currents and to the south, the Adriatic Sea, which is the main route through which the Sirocco winds arrive, giving rise to sufficient rainfall, especially throughout the summer months. This rainfall lowers the temperature and brings necessary quantities of water to the vine in the stages of shoot and cluster growth.

At the beginning of 2018, the unusually cold temperatures leftover from the previous year worried the 10,242 winegrowers that are part of the Consortium. However, as Zanette explains: the vegetative cycle of the vines has maintained these years average, allowing to overcome the difficulties due to the cold temperatures at the end of the winter that last year compromised a significant part of the production. In April and May the temperatures above the average and the right hydric contribution have accelerated the vegetative development, so that the blossom has begun in middle May. The absence of rain has then allowed the perfect conclusion of this phase and the beginning of the setting (the formation of small berries).

The favorable weather conditions of the DOC region have been welcomed in the past months, and last weekend's rain was the perfect addition, as Zanette points out, the rain and the lower temperatures were exactly what we had been hoping for days. The forecast for the upcoming harvest is optimistic, as colder nights and a wider difference in temperatures between day and night help augment the aroma and will enhance the quality of the grapes.

Thanks to the temperatures and the weather all the grape varieties that will be used for producing Prosecco DOC are developing in these weeks their ideal composition, with their characteristic aroma and the exact acidic profile, which will provide Prosecco DOC its freshness, finesse and pleasantness.

If the conditions are maintained then it means great flavor and the best acidic profile within the 24,450 hectares of the Prosecco DOC region. The harvest will begin in the last days of August.

About The Prosecco DOC Consortium:

Prosecco was granted the Controlled Designation of Origin status on July 17th, 2009, and the Prosecco DOC Consortium (Consorzio di Tutela della Denominazione di Origine Controllata Prosecco) was created on November 19th of the same year to coordinate and manage the Prosecco DOC. The organization unites the different groups of manufacturerswineries, individual and associated vine-growers, still wine and sparkling wine producersto ensure the designation continues to grow and that the production regulations are complied with.

About Prosecco DOC:

Prosecco DOC wines come in Spumante (sparkling), Frizzante (semi-sparkling) and Tranquillo (still) varieties. The wines are made from mainly the Glera grape, native to North East Italy for thousands of years, and can be combined with a maximum of 15% of the following grapes: Verdiso, Bianchetta Trevigiana, Perera, Glera lunga, Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Nero. Prosecco Frizzante and Spumante varieties get their famous bubbles using the Secondary Fermentation production method, bottled under high pressure after fermentation in bulk tanks called autoclaves, as opposed to the traditional method, which bypasses the autoclaves and is used for other sparkling wine varieties. The end result is a brilliant straw yellow wine with fine, persistent perlage and aromas of white flowers, apple and pear. It is fresh and elegant on the palate with moderate alcoholic strength. For more information regarding Prosecco DOC, visit http://www.casaprosecco.comI am grateful to be welcomed at RSIR and now join peers around the world representing Sothebys International Realty. I look forward to offering my clients many exclusive marketing opportunities and international listing exposure." - Craig Gaudry

Executives of Realogics Sothebys International Realty (RSIR) announced today Craig Gaudry, a local real estate veteran with more than thirty years of experience, has joined the world-wide network as a Senior Global Real Estate Advisor. Operating as Gaudry & Associates under the Realogics Sothebys International Realty brand, the collective will soon open a new branch annex at 826 6th Street South in Kirkland, WA. The brand affiliation will help Gaudry & Associates expand its resale operations with new broker team members as well as explore business verticals in new developments, commercial properties, destination markets and with RSIRs Asia Services Group.

We are very excited to be working alongside Craig and his team as we grow our brand together, said Dean Jones, President and CEO of RSIR. I have great respect for Craig and I know that our culture and unique marketing platform is well aligned with his vision for a new paradigm in our industry.

Craig Gaudry is ranked in the top 1% of Realtors on a national level, he is a regular top producer in Seattles Eastside and has been rated Best in Client Satisfaction by Seattle Magazine. His extensive network of local, regional, national and international groups gives him a competitive edge in the ever changing real estate market.

We are proud to welcome Craig to the Realogics Sotheby's International Realty team, said Philip White, president and chief executive officer Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC. Realogics Sotheby's International Realty has a strong presence in the Seattle market with a dedicated leadership team which allows them to continue to attract the best talent in the business.

I am grateful to be welcomed at RSIR and now join peers around the world representing Sothebys International Realty, said Gaudry. I look forward to offering my clients many exclusive marketing opportunities and international listing exposure. I have found a deep bench of resources at RSIR and appreciate truly hands-on ownership that will further propel my business. As our industry evolves, our local and global leadership will continue to be at the forefront of innovation and broker-centric support.

Jones notes the Sothebys International Realty marketing suite is driving more than 3 million unique views per month offering brokers not only matchless brand recognition around the world, but unrivaled exposure. The fast-growing brand garnered more than $108 billion in sales in 2017 worldwide while RSIR has delivered more than $1.7 billion in sales volume in Washington for the trailing 12 months as of July 2018. The firm supports approximately 230 brokers in five existing branch offices throughout central Puget Sound. According to Trendgraphix research, RSIR maintains the greatest average production per broker amongst the top ten largest brands in the NWMLS.

While RSIR is my chosen real estate platform ahead, I remain thankful to my past brokerage affiliations all these years, adds Gaudry. I am ready to bring my business onto the global stage and will expand my team to service clients both around the corner or around the world.

In order to better serve existing clients and attract additional ones, a brand new website will soon be launched at http://www.Gaudry.com including portals for new developments, resort destinations and commercial investment opportunities.

About Realogics Sothebys International Realty (http://www.RSIR.com) - Artfully uniting extraordinary homes with extraordinary lives, Realogics Sothebys International Realty is a leading global sales and marketing brokerage firm in the Pacific Northwest. Recognized by the Puget Sound Business Journal amongst the fastest-growing private companies in Washington State for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 with branches in downtown Seattle, Bainbridge Island, Kirkland, Issaquah and Madison Park. For the second year in a row, Lifestory Research has awarded Sothebys International Realty the acknowledgement as Most Trusted Residential Real Estate Brand according to a survey of consumers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Photos of principals, real estate branch offices and additional market statistics are available upon request.Photo credit: Tiffany Baric

With a reputation as Canadas Food Island, Prince Edward Island kicks off autumn with the annual Fall Flavours Festival, a celebration of authentic PEI tastes and traditions with culinary adventures, events, and specialty meals hosted by celebrity chefs scattered throughout the province. Local events such as Copper Pots at Copper Bottom, Taste of Georgetown, Savour Victoria and more let small towns share their local fare with visitors.

Here are just a few picturesque towns travelers can experience more than great food this fall:

Murray River

With a population of under 400 people, Murray Rivers fishing village mixes with the cool vibe of the young entrepreneurs moving there making it a must stop destination for travelers along the eastern end of PEI. Shoppers can stop by shops like Magik Dragon with funky handcrafted pieces from around the world or grab a cup of locally-brewed coffee or homemade baked goods at Companion Coffee. Visitors can wind down with a glass of wine and a view of the river at Newman Estate Winery before heading down to the nearby town of Montague where a young husband and wife team have opened Copper Bottom Brewing Company. The taproom brings their rural community together for freshly brewed beer and live music in the taproom.

Georgetown

Georgetown is a historic town set along the Points East Coastal Drive. Travelers can stroll through the quiet streets filled with brightly-painted homes and shops on a self-guided tour, or drop in on local character Peter Llewellyn at his Shoreline Design studio where he makes jewelry and tells stories about the town. Next, visitors with a sweet tooth can stop by the Maroon Pig, a Georgetown favorite, for a freshly baked treat with the local crowd. No visit to Georgetown is complete without seeing a show at the Kings Playhouse. For more than 120 years, visitors and locals have enjoyed live performances at this community staple.

North Rustico

Known to the locals as The Crick, North Rustico offers a beautiful red-sand beach and some famous PEI seafood. North Rustico Harbour lets travelers watch fisherman bring in their daily haul before enjoying some famous PEI mussels at the Blue Mussel Cafe. Active visitors can grab a bike at Outside Expeditions and peddle through the PEI National Park or join a kayaking tour of the harbor then finish the day with a traditional lobster supper at Fishermans Wharf Lobster Suppers.

Alberton

Alberton, along PEIs Central Coastal Drive, offers travelers a sweet array of bakeries, restaurants and more. The small town tempts visitors with baked treats from local hang out, Alberton Bakery, or French pastries and bread at Cafe Chez Cartier. Travelers can relax on the beach at Jacques Cartier Provincial Park or learn about the towns history at the Alberton Museum, once the courthouse and jail. Minutes from Alberton, the Northport Pier offers a place for visitors and locals to shop and grab a bite to eat at The Boat Shop Restaurant. At the neighboring Northport Harbour onlookers can catch a glimpse of the Giant Bluefin tune coming into the dock in season.

Victoria-by-the-Sea

Situated on Prince Edward Islands South Shore, Victoria-by-the-Sea serves up Maritime charm, history and local flavors. History buffs can opt for a photo with PEIs oldest tree then visit the Keepers of the Light exhibit at the Victoria Seaport Museum. A seaside lunch awaits hungry travelers at The Lobster Barn or Beachcombers then dessert at Island Chocolates for handmade delicacies. Visitors also can kayak through Victoria Harbour, or take in a show at the historic Victoria Playhouse, PEIs longest running little theatre.

To plan a trip and find more information on Prince Edward Island, visit https://www.tourismpei.com/.

About Atlantic Canada Agreement on Tourism (ACAT):

This project has been made possible through funding provided by the Atlantic Canada Agreement on Tourism (ACAT). ACAT is a nine-member pan-Atlantic initiative comprised of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the four Atlantic Canada Tourism Industry Associations, and the four Provincial Departments responsible for tourism.

For more information on the four provinces, visit these websites or follow on social media:

New Brunswick

Web: http://www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca

Instagram: @DestinationNB

Twitter: @SeeNewBrunswick

Facebook: @DestinationNB

Nova Scotia

Web: http://www.novascotia.com

Instagram: @VisitNovaScotia

Twitter: @VisitNovaScotia

Facebook: @NovaScotia

Newfoundland and Labrador

Web: http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com

Instagram: @newfoundlandlabrador

Twitter: @NLtweets

Facebook: @NewfoundlandLabradorTourism

Prince Edward Island

Web: http://www.tourismpei.com

Instagram: @tourismpei

Twitter: @tourismpei

Facebook: @tourismpei

MEDIA CONTACT:

Gina Dolecki/Katherine Henry

Redpoint

212.229.0119

dolecki@redpointspeaks.com

henry@redpointspeaks.comKevin Rogus, New Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions Kevin brings a wealth of knowledge to this newly created role and allows us to better respond to the growing number of practices and groups interested in affiliating with Smile Brands,

Smile Brands Inc., one of the nations leading providers of business support services to dental groups in the United States, today announced the appointment of Kevin Rogus as Vice President of Mergers & Acquisitions. Mr. Rogus will play an integral role in the companys plans for accelerated expansion of its network of supported best-in-class dental practices. He will be responsible for growing the Eastern and Central U.S. and will report directly to Smile Brands CEO, Steve Bilt.

Kevin brings a wealth of knowledge to this newly created role and allows us to better respond to the growing number of practices and groups interested in affiliating with Smile Brands, says CEO of Smile Brands Steve Bilt. Kevins experience in financial services and the healthcare industry will be an asset as we pursue strategic opportunities for growth.

Before joining Smile Brands Inc., Mr. Rogus served as the Head of Mergers & Acquisitions and Chief Operating Officer for Family Care Partners (FCP), a leading independent primary and urgent care provider based in Fort Mill, SC. While serving in this position, Mr. Rogus helped FCP successfully triple the number clinical locations and expand the companys services into new markets. Before FCP, Mr. Rogus was a Vice President in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley. While at Morgan Stanley, he sourced and led teams in the evaluation and execution of various M&A, equity and debt transactions, along with their clients senior management teams.

Mr. also served as a Portfolio Analyst at BlackRock, one of the worlds largest asset management firms, and Chief Financial Officer at Windy Hill Spirits, based in Nashville, Tenn.

Im thrilled to join a company that is held in such high regard by its own employees and the industry at large, says Kevin Rogus. I look forward to being part of this team and contributing to Smile Brands future growth.

Rogus earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Harvard University and his Masters in Business Administration from Columbia Business School.

About Smile Brands Inc.

Based in Irvine California, Smile Brands Inc. is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. Smile Brands Inc. provides comprehensive business support services through exclusive long term agreements with affiliate dental groups, so dentists can spend more time caring for their patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. Smile Brands supports nearly 400 Bright Now! Dental, Monarch Dental, Castle Dental, A+ Dental Care, OneSmile Dental, Johnson Family Dental and P3 Dental Group offices in 16 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit http://www.smilebrands.com.Congratulations to the Blake family. They are an exemplary example of a Coverall Franchised Business Owner.

Coverall North America, Inc., one of the leading franchisors in the commercial cleaning industry, named Specialized Cleaning Services, Inc., owned and operated by Cory and Joan Blake, as the 2017 Franchised Business Owners of the Year. The Blakes were recognized for their ability to retain and grow their customer base, number of years in operation, revenue and their ability to manage special services.

This is an honor and proof that hard work, patience and focus pays off, said Cory Blake, who operates his commercial cleaning business in the Bradenton/Sarasota, Florida area. Everyone dreams of opening their own business, we made our business a true family affair.

Cory and Joan Blake started their business in 2006. Prior to owning their own business, Cory was a warehouse supervisor. He recognized the business opportunity in the growing Florida market and identified Coverall as the best franchise to support his vision.

Starting a business is daunting, added Cory Blake. There is no bigger benefit than the strong support base Coverall provides, allowing me to focus on running and growing the business.

Congratulations to the Blake family, added Shirley Klein, Coveralls Chief Operating Officer. They are an exemplary example of a Coverall Franchised Business Owner. Theyve steadily grown their business to include eight employees and 34 accounts through their dedication to providing stellar customer service and impeccable results.

Coverall provides operational support and training to help business owners successfully launch their new initiatives while achieving personal and financial freedom.

We could not have done this without Coveralls support system guiding us each step of the way, said the Blakes. Their Regional Support Center is always there for us. That combined with the latest in cleaning technology, has been a winning combination.

Cory and Joan Blake will be recognized for their accomplishments in September at the International Franchise Associations Franchise Action Network Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

About Coverall North America, Inc.

Since its inception in 1985, Coverall North America, Inc. has grown into a leading franchised brand, licensing thousands of entrepreneurs to operate independent commercial cleaning franchised businesses using the Coverall brand and system. In 2008, Coverall launched its proprietary Health-Based Cleaning System Program, and in 2014, introduced the Coverall Core 4 Process, demonstrating its dedication to continuous innovation and leadership on behalf of its franchisees. Coveralls unique process combines advanced cleaning technologies and tools, hospital-grade disinfectants, professional training programs, business support services, and a passion for healthy cleaning. System-wide, more than 8,000 Franchised Businesses provide the Coverall cleaning system and services to over 50,000 customers across 90 markets. For more information, visit http://www.coverall.com.SunView Software, an industry-leading provider of ITSM and Change Management solutions, was named as a Contender in The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Service Management, Q3 2018. According to the research firms analysis, SunView received the highest score possible in the Growth in Revenue criterion.

For this report, Forrester identified and selected 12 of the most significant Enterprise Service Management (ESM) providers for their research and analysis. Vendors were evaluated against 28 criteria for this report. Each of the evaluated vendors demonstrated innovation in core IT Service Management (ITSM) capabilities, extended ITSM capabilities beyond technology services, sped up workflow automation through PaaS/low-code development, and more.

For this evaluation, the research firm examined SunViews current product service offerings along with the companys strategy and market presence as related to ESM. The report notes: Although this vendor is relatively small, SunViews ChangeGear has gained its recognition and rapid growth, thanks to a strong commitment to ESM. It provides dedicated modules for HR, procurement, facilities, and more.

Additionally, Forrester noted that SunView has proven itself ideal for smaller organizations with ESM needs, such as schools, nonprofits, and small enterprises.

In todays digital enterprise, implementing new technologies like AI and Machine Learning while maintaining speed and efficiency in the delivery of digital services is critical in shaping the overall success of the business, said Seng Sun, CEO of SunView Software. We view ESM as a necessity for organizations of all sizes to better serve their end users while keeping up with the sheer velocity of business change. Although we still have a lot of work to do, were thrilled to be included among our industrys most impactful players. Were excited to take on the challenge of further expanding our ESM offerings to drive more value for our customers.

About SunView Software: Founded in 2003, SunView Software is a leading provider of IT Service Management software that helps companies to better deliver, manage, and monitor IT services across the enterprise. SunView is pioneering innovations in artificial intelligence to drive smarter automation, predictive insights, and customer satisfaction. By combining cutting-edge technologies and a best-in-class software platform, SunView provides cost-effective and efficient solutions that enable more responsive IT for the organization.

SunView Software is a privately held company based in Tampa, Florida.

Visit http://www.SunViewSoftware.com for more information.This opportunity to reduce the price of textbooks and course materials by 50% is a game changer for our students." - Brian Marhaver, Executive Director, Cobleskill Auxiliary Services, Inc.

After a competitive search for a partner to meet their textbook needs, SUNY Cobleskill selected eCampus.com Virtual Bookstores to help students obtain course materials at a significantly reduced cost, while also providing a streamlined and convenient ordering process. As the first university within the SUNY system to adopt this online bookstore model, SUNY Cobleskill will save students up to 70% off publisher list prices, aligning with the universitys focus of providing an exceptional education at an affordable price. Beyond cost savings, students can take advantage of every purchasing option, including new, used, rental, eTextbook, and an expansive network of third-party Marketplace sellers.

SUNY Cobleskill students will have the freedom to order online and take advantage of a free ship-to-store option at their campus store. Leveraging the power of the eCampus.com Ship-to-Store software, SUNY Cobleskills self-operated package pickup location within the campus store streamlines the distribution process, with students receiving mobile alerts when their packages arrive. Students can also take advantage of a superior in-house customer service department to ensure a smooth ordering and delivery experience as well as onsite buybacks each semester.

eCampus.com, who is taking over bookstore operations from Barnes and Noble, will offer a seamless integration with Banner, SUNY Cobleskills Student Information System, creating a customized ordering process utilizing Single Sign-On (SSO). With this cohesive strategy, students will also enjoy the convenience of registration integration, offering streamlined course material ordering at the same time they register for classes.

In addition to student benefits, the eCampus.com Virtual Bookstore will also serve SUNY Cobleskill faculty with a powerful online adoption tool to streamline the entire adoption process and improve efficiencies. The eCampus.com Faculty Adoption Support Tool (FAST) offers an intuitive interface with step-by-step guides to research, compare real-time pricing, and adopt course materials, along with the academic freedom to choose best-fit content from over 10 million titles, regardless of publisher or platform. Faculty also benefit from a dedicated Management Team to extend additional adoption support.

This opportunity to reduce the price of textbooks and course materials by 50% is a game changer for our students, said Brian Marhaver, Executive Director of Cobleskill Auxiliary Services, Inc. The prices of books and supplies have been rising for many years and SUNY Cobleskill has elected to take a stance and save our students real cash. It is the first model like this in the SUNY system and we hope it sets a trend.

eCampus.com is thrilled to partner with SUNY Cobleskill to help them address textbook affordability through an innovative virtual bookstore solution, said Matt Montgomery, President and CEO of eCampus.com. We look forward to working together to offer on-campus support coupled with a superior online bookstore experience, and applaud SUNY Cobleskill for seeking ways to provide students the right course materials at competitive prices.

SUNY Cobleskill students now have full access to their eCampus.com Virtual Bookstore. More information on eCampus.com Virtual Bookstores can be found at ecampuscms.com.

About eCampus.com

eCampus.com is a premier online retailer of textbooks and digital course materials. Consistently exceeding industry standards, eCampus.coms mission is to provide the easiest, fastest, and most affordable way for K-12 and higher education students to buy, rent, or sell textbooks and digital content. The company launched on July 2, 1999, the birthday of original investor Dave Thomas of Wendys. From the beginning, their driving force has been meeting the needs of the customers they serve. Remaining an innovative leader in the course materials industry, eCampus.com serves over 250 colleges and universities through an innovative course material solutions suite, including full-service Virtual Bookstores and the eCampus.com ALL Access program. eCampus.com's mission enables institutions to increase course material affordability, serving millions of students to date. Through products that simplify the adoption, management and procurement of course materials, eCampus.com propels student success by delivering the right course materials, at the right time, at the right price. Learn more at ecampus.com.

About SUNY Cobleskill

SUNY Cobleskill, located in Cobleskill, NY, is part of the State University of New York system and offers 56 associate and baccalaureate degree degree programs in the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the School of Business and Liberal Arts & Sciences. Consistently recognized among the Best Regional Colleges in the North by U.S. News and World Report, SUNY Cobleskill sets the standard for applied education that extends theory into practice, serving over 2,500 students. The university is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and offers state-of-the-art facilities to pursue study and research opportunities to support their standard that students learn by doing. Learn more at cobleskill.eduSwitchfast Technologies, the leading provider of managed IT services and security for small and mid-sized businesses in Chicago, today announced the launch of MaxPro Secure, built to provide SMBs with a full suite of managed cybersecurity services.

Security is crucial especially for small businesses, said Jim Anderson, CEO of Switchfast. Studies suggest that 60 percent of SMBs go out of business after a data breach  not to mention the brand equity cost. Switchfasts MaxPro Secure service delivers the highest quality of security service to small businesses, where cyber protection is critical to maintain operations.

Switchfast will offer the following services through its MaxPro Secure offering:



Dark Web Monitoring and Response  By monitoring domain and email address for leaks to the dark web, the Switchfast team is able to notify companies of any identifiable information on the dark web as soon as its discovered. Unlike most security services that stop at just monitoring the dark web, the Switchfast team puts an actionable plan in place to respond.

Proactive Security Endpoint Detection and Response  Switchfasts advanced cybersecurity solutions  including artificial intelligence (AI) technology  proactively monitor businesses systems to identify, protect, detect, respond and recover from threats, dramatically improving IT resiliency.

Behavioral-Based Anti-Virus  While most traditional anti-virus software is reactive, behavioral-based anti-virus software builds a virus database in real-time within the environment itself. This allows organizations to change policies and behaviors to better protect themselves against threats.

Ongoing Employee Training and Education  A high volume of security breaches occur due to internal missteps. Training and security exercises are key to eliminating these vulnerabilities. Switchfast deploys monthly phishing exercises, including voicemails, email and SMS to evaluate employees vulnerabilities to cybercrime activity. Compliance reports help businesses determine which employees could benefit from additional education.

Dedicated Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)  Client-assigned CISOs are responsible for overseeing the managed security services of their clients. CISOs work with key stakeholders to develop a customized security-centric strategy, policies and roadmap to best deliver cybersecurity protection, identify threats early and respond or recover from them quickly.

For more information about Switchfasts MaxPro Secure services, please visit https://www.switchfast.com/secure.

InfraGard Cooperation

Switchfast is a member of InfraGard, a program with the mission to promote ongoing dialogue and timely communication between members and the FBI, specifically concerning the security and threats to critical infrastructure entities. Switchfast is one of only a few members with a focus on IT managed security services for small to mid-sized firms. Through its partnership with InfraGard, Switchfasts MaxPro Secure security services will provide real-time and relevant alerts of new threats in their industry or geography.

Switchfasts goal with MaxPro Secure is to provide small businesses with affordable managed security services without sacrificing quality or operational ease, said Anderson. Threats are becoming more sophisticated, and MaxPro Secures blend of services offers small businesses a way to combat the dynamic cybersecurity landscape.

About Switchfast

Switchfast Technologies is a leading IT Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) serving hundreds of successful SMBs. Switchfasts clients understand that a true IT partner goes beyond the break/fix model and provides long-term solutions to business challenges and goals. Switchfast ensures investment in information technology provides the maximum ROI to its stakeholders through IT roadmapping, planning and strategy. With one of the highest client satisfaction rates in the industry and the data, referrals and accolades to prove it, Switchfast Technologies builds lasting and trusted relationships.We like to think that this recognition reflects the extraordinary focus and attention we give our clients and advisors; and reinforces the importance of our core principle, manage risk first and returns second.'

The Institute for Wealth Management, a leading Registered Investment Advisor company headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is proud to announce earning a spot on the Financial Times Top 300 RIAs list.

Inclusion in the top 300 RIAs is an achievement only for the most elite. As of July 2017, there were 12,172 RIAs registered with the SEC in the United States. To be included in this list equates to being in the top 3% of all RIAs registered in the U.S.

The Institute for Wealth is one of only 3 companies in the state of Colorado to make the FT 300 list in 2018.

The Financial Times selection criteria for the Top 300 RIAs list starts with reaching out to the largest independent RIAs across the US that have a minimum of $300 million in assets. Qualified RIAs then fill out an online application, and are scored on several factors, including Assets Under Management (AUM), AUM growth rate and compliance record. Selection is independent and objective.

This selection process inherently creates a pool of elite, impressive and highly competitive RIAs, as the average FT 300 practice manages $4.1 billion in assets.

We are very proud and grateful to have earned a spot on the Financial Times top RIAs list, says Matt Medeiros CEO of the Institute for Wealth Management, We like to think that this recognition reflects the extraordinary focus and attention we give our clients and advisors; and reinforces the importance of our core principle, manage risk first and returns second.

The Financial Times is one of the worlds leading news organizations, recognized internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news and services for the global business community.

The Institute for Wealth Management, founded in 2003, hosts a growing team of experienced financial professionals. Its philosophy is based on managing risk first and returns second. While we cant control returns, we can attempt to effectively steer clear of unnecessary gambles, Says CEO Matt Medeiros, Weve built our reputation on the ability to understand risk at its deepest levels.For the fifth consecutive year, The SMB Help Desk, LLC has been named one of Chicagos Best and Brightest Companies To Work For by the National Association for Business Resources (NABR).

The annual award is focused on honoring companies that distinguish themselves as having the most innovative and thoughtful human resources approach. The winners of this prestigious award are pooled by employee size and evaluated by an independent research firm on various categories including: Compensation, Benefits and Employee Solutions; Employee Enrichment, Engagement and Retention; Employee Education and Development; Recruitment, Selection and Orientation; Employee Achievement and Recognition; Communication and Shared Vision; Diversity and Inclusion; Work-Life Balance; Community Initiatives; Strategic Company Performance and the Best of the Best Small Business.

Profitability and stability is essential for businesses in todays economic climate. Companies that recognize that their employees are the key to their success achieve staying power. Our 2018 winners create their human resource standards to ensure employee satisfaction and they set standards for every business to aspire toward, said Jennifer Kluge, President and CEO of MBPA. We are proud to honor this years winners.

To see a list of this year's winners, visit here: http://thebestandbrightest.com/programs/winners/

"We strive to create a diverse, happy, and productive environment for our employees, and we're constantly looking at new and creative ways to make the employee experience fulfilling and exciting. Our team members need to be given every opportunity to be able to reach their personal and professional goals. Our vision has always been to be a company unlike any other.  Marvin Korves, President, The SMB Help Desk.

About the Best and Brightest Programs

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For is a program of the National Association For Business Resources that provides the business community with the opportunity to gain recognition, showcase their best practices and demonstrate why they are an ideal place for employees to work. This national program celebrates those companies that are making better business, creating richer lives and building a stronger community as a whole. It is presented annually in several markets including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Houston, Milwaukee, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, and Nationally. Nominations are now being accepted. Visit http://www.101bestandbrightest.com to obtain an application.

About The SMB Help Desk, LLC

SMBHD is an award-winning, diverse team of engineers, developers, and consultants who specialize in transforming businesses with an extensive set of best-in-class digital solutions. We focus on a consultative, business first approach in everything we do, to solve challenges for mid-market companies. We strategically enhance our clients' environments with the right solutions, diverse expertise, compassion, and a deep understanding of the client's vision.

Our core capabilities include Managed IT Services, Infrastructure and IT Consulting, and Salesforce/Pardot Consulting. We're headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with an additional location in Austin, Texas.

Our Mission

We strive to be more than just your average technology company. We hope to reflect community, diversity, and integrity starting from the people we hire, our strategic partnerships, the best-in-class solutions we implement, to our exceptional delivery practices.James Hyde, CEO, Venminder Im committed to driving meaningful growth and creating extraordinary experiences for Venminders customers and employees alike. Our mission remains unchanged  to solve the challenges of third party risk management

Venminder, Inc., the national leader in third party risk management, today announced that it has appointed accomplished technology executive James Hyde as chief executive officer to lead the firm to its next phase of growth.

Im thrilled to welcome James onboard and excited to watch him take Venminder to the next level, said Dana Bowers, Founder and former CEO of Venminder. His experience driving the top line, passion for serving the customer and energy leading strong teams make him an extraordinary fit for Venminder. He is the perfect person to continue building on Venminders success and momentum.

Hyde has led an impressive career driving fintech and SaaS companies to achieve rapid and sustainable growth. Most recently, Hyde was instrumental in propelling Braintree to evolve from a startup phase to one of the most successful global payment processors. Braintree sold to PayPal in 2016 where Hyde continued his role until now. Prior to Braintree, Hyde served as SVP of Sales at iPay Technologies. Under his sales leadership iPay become one of the largest independent bill pay providers in the United States with a 40 percent market share when it sold to Jack Henry and Associates in 2010.

Im very excited to take on this role and drive the future of the company, said Hyde. Venminder has that rare combination of a loyal client base, passionate customer service, great product with driven technology innovation and amazingly talented people. Im committed to driving meaningful growth and creating extraordinary experiences for Venminders customers and employees alike. Our mission remains unchanged  to solve the challenges of third party risk management.

Venminders SaaS-based software platform has taken the industry by storm by providing the perfect solution for all things vendor-related as it guides users through critical processes such as contract management, risk assessments, due diligence requirements, questionnaires and task management. The firms popular suite of outsourced due diligence services includes collecting documents and then assessing them for risk in cybersecurity, information security, business continuity/disaster recovery and financial health.

Venminder has pioneered a new age in third party risk management by dramatically reducing the workload essential to meeting demanding regulatory requirements, stated Mike Krupka, managing director at Bain Capital Ventures and lead investor in Venminder. James has a track record of strong leadership, and were confident in his ability to lead Venminder through the next stage of exponential growth.

Bowers, will continue to serve at Venminder as Chief Solutions Architect and board member, assisting the company with long-term strategy and innovative product development. Bowers has served as Venminders CEO for the last five years growing the company into the third party risk management leader it is today with over 550 customers nationwide, ranging in size from small to some of the largest companies in the financial services sector.

Venminder has an exciting future ahead, Bowers said, The firm has become the standard for how financial services companies and vendors work together to ensure risk is identified and managed appropriately. With the companys scale and success to date, James has the perfect platform to broaden our reach as we continue to delight customers with executing successful third party risk programs.

To learn more about Venminder, please visit http://www.venminder.com.

About Venminder

Venminder is the industrys leading firm dedicated to third party risk management. The firm offers a suite of software and managed services that can guide your organization to effectively and efficiently manage vendors throughout the lifecycle of the relationship. For more information visit http://www.venminder.com for more information.

About Bain Capital Ventures

Bain Capital Ventures partners with disruptive founders to accelerate their ideas to market. The firm invests from seed to growth in enterprise software, infrastructure software and industries being transformed by data. Bain Capital Ventures has helped launch and commercialize more than 200 companies since 1984, including DocuSign, Jet.com, Kiva Systems, LinkedIn, Rapid7, Rent the Runway, SendGrid, SurveyMonkey, Taleo, Turbonomic and TellApart. Bain Capital Ventures has approximately $3.9 billion in assets under management with offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York and Boston. Follow the firm via LinkedIn or Twitter.We are pleased to welcome Sara Mogulescu to the Volcker Alliance given her nationally recognized expertise in program design, nonprofit management strategy, and innovation at all levels of government.

The Volcker Alliance announced today that Sara Mogulescu has joined the nonprofit organization as Executive Vice President. Ms. Mogulescu comes to the Volcker Alliance from Bennett Midland, a civic sector consulting firm at which she was a partner. In this new position, Ms. Mogulescu will oversee the organizations key initiatives to advance effective management of government to achieve results that matter to citizens.

We are pleased to welcome Sara Mogulescu to the Volcker Alliance given her nationally recognized expertise in program design, nonprofit management strategy, and innovation at all levels of government, said Thomas W. Ross, president of the Volcker Alliance. Her outstanding experience and accomplishments within the civic sector attest to her capabilities as a leader and will be a great asset to our organization.

During her tenure at Bennett Midland, Ms. Mogulescu collaborated with leaders of public agencies and community organizations to design and implement complex interdisciplinary initiatives. She led the team that supported the design and roll-out of What Works Cities, a national initiative from Bloomberg Philanthropies that has helped 100 mid-sized American cities accelerate their use of data and evidence to engage citizens, make government more effective, and improve peoples lives. She was a principal architect of the Safety and Justice Challenge, a $100 million investment by the MacArthur Foundation in jail reform. She also partnered with the Reinvestment Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to design and deliver Invest Health, a national grant program helping 50 mid-sized cities plan community development projects with the aim of improving health outcomes in distressed neighborhoods.

I am excited to be coming onboard as the new Executive Vice President of the Volcker Alliance, and to work with a growing team to derive maximum impact from the Alliance's work, said Sara Mogulescu. The Alliance is one of the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations in the nation focused on improving the efficacy of governmental organizations at all levels and engaging our most thoughtful and accomplished citizens in service to the public good.

Previously, Ms. Mogulescu served as the founding Director of the Center on Youth Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice, where she developed and managed a varied portfolio of initiatives. Before joining Vera, she was an associate at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC, a New York law firm, where she represented clients in criminal matters.

Ms. Mogulescu holds a Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Government from Wesleyan University.

The Volcker Alliance advances effective management of government to achieve results that matter to citizens. The nonpartisan Alliance works toward that objective by partnering with other organizationsacademic, business, governmental, and public interestto strengthen professional education for public service, conduct needed research on government performance, and improve the efficiency and accountability of governmental organization at the federal, state, and local levels. Visit volckeralliance.org to learn more.

The Volcker Alliance is a 501(c)3 organization.

###Z'Tejas Famous Chambord Frozen Margarita Were passionate about Z'Tejas and 'Spirit of Z' is about sharing that with our customers," said Daniel Santos, Director of Operations for Z'Tejas. "We want to remind customers of why they fell in love with us in the first place, and celebrate the amazing work of our employees

Cornbread Ventures LP, the Austin-based partnership which owns Z'Tejas, today announced the launch of 'Spirit of Z' - a comprehensive initiative to pay tribute to the Z'Tejas brand's roots which are synonymous with delicious southwestern food, great drinks and exceptional service.

Home of the complimentary cornbread and the iconic Chambord frozen margarita, the campaign is being timed with Z'Tejas' 29th Anniversary and will feature special promotions, in-store celebrations and an employee recognition program. Spirit of Z will be dovetailed by a comprehensive marketing initiative to highlight the brand's ethos of innovation, community and creativity in the kitchen.

"Were passionate about Z'Tejas and 'Spirit of Z' is about sharing that with our customers," said Daniel Santos, Director of Operations for Z'Tejas. "We want to remind them of why they fell in love with us in the first place and celebrate the amazing work of our employees, some of whom have been with us for more than two decades."

The popular casual southwestern Mexican dining restaurant first opened its doors in a Victorian heritage home in 1979 in Austin, TX and soon became the preferred dining spot for people seeking great food in a welcoming and familiar environment. This original Z'Tejas Austin location on 1110 W. 6th Street, as well as its 9400 Arboretum address, are open, and so are two favorite Arizona locations in 10625 N. Tatum Blvd. in Paradise Valley and 7221 W. Ray Road in Chandler.

In-Store Celebrations Honor ZTejas Southwestern Roots

Z'Tejas food and drink menus at all four locations continue to offer southwestern food with a twist. Classics like cornbread in a skillet, the Z'Tejas signature Chambord margarita, fresh chips and salsa, and tostada bites continue to be menu staples. Never frozen and always fresh, the classic food menu has been enhanced with new introductions including a Southwest Vegan Quinoa Bowl and a Kale & Brussels Sprouts Salad  both part of a Z'Fresh lunch menu introduced in response to customer feedback.

In honor of its anniversary, every Wednesday in September starting September 5th in the original 6th St. location, one of the four ZTejas locations will be hosting a birthday celebration featuring all-day special promotions including Kids Eat Free with the purchase of an entree, $5.00 queso, $5.00 6th Street Margaritas, and complimentary birthday cake. Live music will start at 4:00 pm. The ZTejas Arboretum celebration will take place September 12, and Arizona will follow with Chandler festivities taking place September 19th and Paradise Valley on September 26th.

A Brand Worth Investing In

Since acquiring the Z'Tejas brand in 2015, Cornbread Ventures LP has prioritized establishing effective channels of communication with employees and customers and sparking feedback. This feedback has informed many of the investments Cornbread Ventures has made on the brand and is credited by the leadership for the success and the strength of its four Z'Tejas locations.

"The business is in a strong place. In addition to prioritizing the voice of the customer and employees and investing in menu updates and a re-brand, we have allocated significant resources to training and hiring," said Michael Stone, General Partner of Cornbread Ventures, LP. "We run as a flat organization and each manager and unit is fully empowered to make decisions that will address the unique tastes and needs of their guests. As a result, we remain flexible and have been better able to adapt to the specific tastes and preferences of guests in each of our markets."

An Active Member in Its Communities

ZTejas has been recognized for its genuine commitment to community-based charities like the Phoenix Children's Hospital (PCH) Foundation and San Antonio-based AVANCE. This September, both Arizona locations will participate in PCHs Time to Shine initiative and donate 70% of the proceeds of all its Chile con Queso sales to the non-profit. In Austin, employees are donating food as well as volunteering on behalf of Z Tejas in support of under-resourced families.

Other community initiatives include a special year-long discounted teacher appreciation menu and an on-going Kids Eat Free promotion every Sunday afternoon.

About ZTejas Southwestern Grill

ZTejas is a popular casual southwestern Mexican dining restaurant that offers a wide array of fresh, flavorful, and innovative menu items inspired by culinary influences from Louisiana, Texas, California and New Mexico. Today, there are a total of four ZTejas locations in Arizona and Texas. For more information about ZTejas award-winning margaritas, menus, locations and hours visit http://www.ztejas.com.If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity.

PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move.Episcopal Bishop to Avery

In a world rights acquisition, Averys Megan Newman bought two books by Michael Curry, who is the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. The first title under the agreement, which Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House brokered, is The Power of Love: Sermons, Reflections and Wisdom to Uplift and Inspire; Avery said the book features five sermons the author has delivered, including the one he gave at the recent wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Power is slated for October, and the second book in the deala memoir that Avery said will explore the Bishops faith, ancestry, and personal journeyis set for 2020. In the U.K., Hodder & Stoughton acquired the books.

HMH Scares Tinteras Monsters

For Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Emilia Rhodes nabbed two books, at auction, by bestselling YA author Amy Tintera (Reboot). The world English rights agreement (excluding Australia) was handled by Emmanuelle Morgen at Stonesong. Morgen said the first book in the deal, All These Monsters, is a contemporary science fiction novel set in an alternate world; it follows a 17-year-old girl who runs away from home to join a vigilante monster-fighting squad. After she leaves, though, the young heroine discovers the most dangerous monsters are where you least expect them to be. Monsters is set for spring 2020.

Knopf Nabs Popkeys Debut

Miranda Popkey, a former associate editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, sold North American rights to her debut novel, Topics of Conversation. Jordan Pavlin at Knopf bought the novel from Denise Shannon, who has an eponymous shingle. Shannon said the book navigates through the life of an introspective woman who has a young child and that it unfolds through a series of conversations the central character is having. Elaborating, Shannon said the book explores the nature of truth, female pain, desire, and subjectivity.

Briefs

For Wednesday Books, Eileen Rothschild took world English rights to Francesca Floress debut young adult novel, Diamond City. The publisher said the novel is set in a city full of half-constructed subway tunnels, hidden magical dens, secret weapons markets, and wolf-sized spiders. Its in this strange metropolis that a young assassin unravels a conspiracy, which could rewrite her citys history andif it isnt stoppedsink her country into a catastrophic war. The book, set for winter 2020, was sold by Pete Knapp at Park Literary & Media.

At the University of Minnesota Press, Erik Anderson nabbed world English rights to Anika Fajardos debut memoir, Magical Realism for Non-believers. Thao Le at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, who represented the author, said the book tells the story of how the author returns to Colombia, where she was born, and finds family and a father she never knew. The memoir is set for spring 2019.

For more childrens and YA book deals, see our latest Rights Report.The first six months of 2018 proved to be a mixed period for the five large trade publishers that report their financial results. Operating margins rose at two publishers, fell at two others, and held even at the fifth in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year. Fluctuating currency rates played a part in the first-half results, and publishers reported continuing strong gains in sales of digital audiobooks.

HarperCollins had the strongest six-month performance, with revenue up 13.7% and profits jumping 50%. The revenue gain was aided by $28 million from a sublicensing agreement with Amazon Studios for J.R.R Tolkiens Lord of the Rings trilogy that was concluded in the second quarter of the calendar year ($21 million went to HCs bottom line). HC also benefitted from the positive impact of foreign currency changes.

Those factors aside, HC CEO Brian Murray pointed to strong performances in many of the companys operating units, including its general, childrens, and Christian books divisions. Frontlist titles that did well included Girl, Wash Your Face; Ill Be Gone in the Dark; and Magnolia Table. Backlist sales were led by The Hate U Give and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Digital audio sales also had a strong six-month performance.

Though currency fluctuations helped HC, they hurt results at Penguin Random House. Revenue at PRH fell 3.3% in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period a year ago, and earnings declined 17%.

Both PRH parent company Bertelsmann and PRH global CEO Markus Dohle attributed the declines in large part to the negative impact of exchange rates. In his letter to employees, Dohle explained that though headline figures were down, excluding the impact of exchange rates, underlying operating revenue and profit numbers for Penguin Random House in U.S. dollars have been stable year over year.

Double-digit gains in audiobook sales were a highlight of the first half, and results also include the January purchase of Rodales book assets. Dohle pointed to other investments PRH made in the first half of the year, including the creation of a number of imprintsamong them Kokila at Penguin Young Readers and Random House Graphic at Random House Childrens Books in the U.S. The company also invested in its supply chain, including the opening of a new building in the U.S. to expand the capacity of PRHs Maryland facility.

At Lagardere publishing, sales fell 1.9% in the first half of 2018, with the negative impact of 42 million in foreign exchange offsetting an 18 million gain from a number of 2017 acquisitions, including Bookouture and Jessica Kingsley.

In the U.S., sales rose 1.4%, and profits were also up. HBG CEO Michael Piestch attributed the improvement to excellent ongoing backlist performance and strong publishing programs across divisions. In addition, Pietsch said, Hachette Audio continued its steady growth, and our client services business had a strong first half.

Simon & Schuster managed to raise operating income 6.8% in the first six months of the year, and revenue held steady at $367 million. The profit improvement was attributed to lower production costs, which S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy attributed in part to lower royalty write-offs. Higher sales of digital audio, up by more than 20% in the first half of 2018, helped to offset sluggish e-book sales. Print sales were stable. In addition to higher audio sales, S&Ss adult group had a good second quarter, led by Fahrenheit 451, The Outsider, The Restless Wave, and Spymaster.

After a good first half of 2017, sales in Houghton Mifflin Harcourts trade segment dropped 7.8% in the first six months of 2018. The company attributed the revenue decline to fewer physical sales in both its young readers and general interest categories, and to a decline in overall e-book sales. The drop in e-book sales, HMH noted, was driven by reduced sales of The Handmaids Tale and 1984, which drove e-book sales in 2017.

Operating Performance JanuaryJune, 20172018

($ and  in millions)In a background note on the capital repatriation, MTN said it had received a letter from Abubakar Malami, Nigeria's attorney-general requesting full payment of the tax bill.

In various correspondence between the office of the Attorney General and MTN Nigeria, the AGF noted that MTN should have paid approximately $2 billion in taxes relating to the importation of foreign equipment and payments to foreign suppliers since 2008.

But MTN denied the claims, saying it has fulfilled the 10-year obligation with a payment of about $700 million under the taxes in question.

Tobe Okigbo, MTN Corporate Relations Executive, in a statement made available to Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa on Tuesday, said MTN had submitted comprehensive documentation to the office of the AG.

MTN Nigeria has also completed an initial assessment of the full period which indicates that total payments made to the tax authorities in regard to these foreign imports and payments in aggregate are $700 million.

There are valid reasons for the differences between the actual payments and the AG high-level assessment, Okigbo stated.

Malami, however, rejected the assessment and asked MTN to pay the $2 billion in full.

The arrears cover import duties on foreign goods and payments, VAT and withholding taxes.

The latest tax compliance demand is coming barely a week after Nigeria's central bank ordered Africa's telecoms giant to refund a total of $8.1 billion moved out of the country" for breaching the country's forex regulations.

The South African firm denied involvement in improper repatriation, saying it will continue to engage with the relevant authorities on all these matters to vigorously defend its position.Thanks for signing up for our daily insight on the African economy. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!Former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, a top opposition figure, presidential ambitions to succeed President Joseph Kabila have hit a snag.

Congo's Constitutional Court late Monday backed the electoral commission's decision to bar Bemba as a presidential candidate in December's long-delayed election because of a pending case at the International Criminal Court.

Bemba threw his hat into the ring after ICC appeals judges in June acquitted him of war crimes committed by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo forces in neighboring Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. He returned to Congo last month after more than a decade away.

The electoral commission, however, pointed out the pending case in which he was convicted of interfering with witnesses, calling it synonymous with corruption. Congolese law prevents people convicted of corruption from running for the presidency.

According to Bemba, the electoral commission rejected him because six major opposition parties had earlier been discussing a possible joint candidate and that "it was likely that he would have been picked as the oppositions candidate."

Opposition parties have accused President Joseph Kabila's government of blocking some top candidates from running.

Congolese authorities also blocked another top and popular opposition contender, Moise Katumbi, from entering the country to register as a candidate.

Felix Tshisekedi, the candidate for Congo's largest opposition party, however, remains eligible to run.

Despite, Kabila after almost two years of speculation and unrest announcing that he wont be running and that he will step aside, but the opposition fear that he will continue to assert his influence long after leaving office.

The opposition is up against Kabila's chosen candidate, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary with the new Common Front for Congo coalition. He is among nine Congolese sanctioned by the European Union last year for obstructing the electoral process and related human rights violations.

The final list of presidential candidates is expected on Sept. 19 as one of Africa's most turbulent nations faces what could be its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.In a 3,611 word statement posted on his social media platforms, Mr Kyagulanyi - who is currently undergoing specialised treatment in the US - said he wanted to "set the record straight."

They beat me, punched me and kicked me with their boots. No part of my body was spared, Mr Kyagulanyi said in what was his first public statement since his arrest.

The lawmaker further alleged that security officers beat him and squeezed his genitals until he lost consciousness.

"They wrapped me in a thick piece of cloth and bundled me into a vehicle. Those guys did to me unspeakable things in that vehicle! They pulled my manhood and squeezed my testicles while punching me with objects I didnt see.

Treason

"I continued to groan in pain and the last I heard was someone hit me at the back of the head with an object," Kyagulanyi said.

The lawmaker was arrested last month and charged with treason after some of his supporters allegedly stoned President Yoweri Musevenis car.

He was released on bail before being re-arrested while trying to leave the country to seek medical treatment. He was subsequently allowed to depart.Following the footsteps of Uganda and Tanzania which recently implemented a law charging people for using social media dubbed social media tax while Tanzania already charges bloggers for licences to operate their online businesses, Egypt has now joined the two and now has some sort of law that governs social media use.

According to ChannelsTV, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ratified a law granting authorities the right to monitor social media users.

Egypts parliament back in July had approved the law regulating social media and now President Sisi has ratified it, according to media reports.

Thanks to this new law, the Supreme Council for Media Regulations will now have power to supervise people with more than 5000 followers on social media or personal blog.

The new law follows another piece of legislation that was signed off in August that allows authorities to block websites that constitute a threat to Egypts national security through a judge. Convicted perpetrators face jail time and fines.When President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals judge, to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, it immediately created a horse race for Republicans to lock down at least 50 votes in his favor. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are looking to block the nominee.

Because of the split nature of the Senate, in which Republicans control 51 seats and Democrats have 49 (including two independents who caucus with Democrats), the confirmation process will come down to the wire. Republicans need a minimum of 50 votes, creating a scenario in which Vice President Mike Pence could cast the deciding vote as the tie-breaker.

Most senators are reliable to tow the party line as to how they vote for Kavanaugh. But the vote count will likely be closer than ever, because of a mix of two moderate Republican in Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, along with a handful of Democrats facing tough reelection bids this November in traditionally red states.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's series confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh began on Tuesday, September 4, where political infighting enveloped much of the panel. But the committee's chairman, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, has vowed to continue moving forward with the process.President Xi made the announcement on Monday, September 3, 2018, at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

The initiatives cover areas ranging from the industrial promotion, facility connectivity, trade facilitation, green development, capacity building, health and hygiene, humanities exchange, and peace and security.

Here are the details of the 8 initiatives:

1. Industrial promotion

The government said it will set up a China-Africa economic and trade expo, carry out 50 agricultural assistance programmes, provide emergency humanitarian food aid totalling 1 billion yuan ($147m) to African countries affected by natural disasters, and send 500 senior agricultural experts to the continent.

2. Infrastructure cooperation

Collaboration with the African Union to formulate a China-Africa infrastructure cooperation plan, while simultaneously supporting Chinese companies taking part in Africa's infrastructure development.

3. Trade facilitation

According to Xi, China plans to increase imports, especially non-resource products, from Africa and support countries participating in the China International Import Expo. In addition, the least developed African countries will not be required to pay exhibition stand fees.

4. Green development

Xi said China will also undertake 50 aid projects related to the green development and ecological and environmental protection, with a particular focus on climate change, oceans, desertification prevention and control, and wildlife protection.

5. Capacity building

To help people in Africa improve their skills, China hopes to set up 10 Luban Workshops to provide vocational training for young people there. Further, China said it will train 1,000 high-calibre Africans, provide the region with 50,000 government scholarships, sponsor seminar and workshop opportunities for another 50,000 people, and invite 2,000 African youths to China for exchange visits.

6. Health and hygiene

When it comes to healthcare, Xi said that China plans to upgrade 50 medical and health aid programmes in Africa, including flagship projects such as the headquarters of the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and China-Africa Friendship Hospitals.

7. Humanities exchange

To boost people-to-people exchanges, China is scheduled to set up an institute of African studies and enhance civilisation exchanges with Africa.

8. Peace and security

The East Asian country said it will also set up a China-Africa peace and security fund and continue providing free military aid to the African Union.

A total of 50 security assistance programmes will be carried out, covering aspects such as UN peacekeeping missions, piracy and terrorism, Xi said.The Annual Conference is WIMBIZ's flagship event which holds in November of every year and is attended by over 1500 women from all over the world to discuss a broad range of issues centred on a cutting-edge theme that is topical and relevant to women in the business, corporate, public and development sectors.

Themed Unstoppable You! Reinvent and Reinvigorate, this years edition will once again focus on the African woman in business and management and how she can thrive in todays world, building a sustainable legacy by staying abreast with global trends, adapting and readapting for challenges ahead.

As the theme implies, relevance and fulfilment for todays working woman are greatly hinged on her ability to effectively balance every aspect of her life while enjoying the support of her family, peers and society in achieving her dreams.

The conference will comprise of breakout and plenary sessions and end as always with a rousing debate. Hot button topics in the area of Mental Health; Nutrition; Personal Finance; Wellness; Leadership; Branding; Work-Life Balance; the Technology Take Over, and so on will be discussed. Each session will be ably facilitated by leading men and women who are relatable.

Olubunmi Aboderin-Talabi, Chairperson, WIMBIZ Executive Council, said, Each year a group of dedicated volunteers gather to plan and implement an increasingly meaningful, impactful, and inspiring conference for Nigerian women in management, business and public service. This year's edition of the WIMBIZ Annual Conference will live up to this high standard and furthermore will galvanise and reawaken the inner repository of resilience that is latent within all women.

This years edition will also host two sets of Impact Investment Awards; a Female Achievers' Awards and a value-packed Networking Breakfast.

Whether in government, private sector or the society in general, women are a vital building and nurturing force.

The WIMBIZ conference affords women of all works of life and ages the opportunity to learn, grow, contribute and add immense value to themselves, fellow women, family and the society at large.The President made this statement whiles addressing the Ghanaian community in China, where he is currently on a state visit.

My hope is that soon, Parliament and myself will be in agreement that we should even bring legislation that will make it compulsory for every child in Ghana to go to school from kindergarten right up to university level, he stated.

He said he is committed to making the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) programme work, irrespective of the current challenges.

The Free SHS is entering its second academic year, but the policy has been hit by issues of inadequate in infrastructure and a lack of funding.

However, President Akufo-Addo said his government is bent on continuing down this road in order to ensure access to secondary education.

He added that once this is achieved, his sights would then be turned to ensuring that education is made compulsory from the kindergarten level up to the university.

According to him, talks are already underway for a legislation, adding that when this is done, parents who fail to enrol their wards into school will be sanctioned.

President Akufo-Addo further stated that his government has plans of also making university education free.Programme Director, Ms Nomi Nkodla, who is also a member of the provincial legislature Mama Sophie De Bruyn Rev Desmond Lambergh The City of Cape Town Mayor, Mayor Patricia de Lille The Sisulu Family, Elinor Sisulu MPs, MPLs, Cllrs Teachers and learners of COSAT School Warriors Women and young Warriors and the Principal Members and Leaders of the ANCWL Ladies and Gentlemen

Let me first take this opportunity to thank the Sisulu family for allowing us to host this memorial lecture and for joining us this evening. Thank Archbishop Makgoba for welcoming us with both hands when we asked to be here at the Cathedral.

As the department we have sought to find befitting ways of celebrating Mama Albertina Sisulus legacy. We have adopted her centenary as our budget theme and this translates to our activities for the whole year. When we consulted and thought who is best suited to speak on the life and time of Mama Sisulu, we all agreed that Mama Sophie was most suitable than any of us. I want to thank you Mama Sophie for not only agreeing to be here but also for giving us this lecture. We are standing here as today as women leaders because of all your sacrifices and we continue to learn from you.

My intention is to introduce Mama Sophie as the main speaker, but before I do that, I would like to indicate that last week Thursday, we held our SA Women in Science Awards. It is during this ceremony that we announced as the department the renaming of the Department of Science and Technology fellowship award to be the Albertina Sisulu Award. And To further pay homage to Mama Sisulus legacy, the department will establish an Albertina Sisulu SARChI Chair in Nursing Care. It should be remembered that Mama Sisulu trained as a nurse and encouraged graduates to use their learning to improve people's lives. The chair will deepen research in nursing policy and/or practice and contribute to the advancement of health care and the betterment of society. The research chair will be awarded to a university that is linked to a relevant health facility such as a hospital. In the coming months we will initiate the process of making the chair active and it will be subjected to authoritative peer review process run by the NRF.

We have published Mama Sophie De Bruyns profile as I wont be able to read it all but summarize it:

Mama Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, also fondly known as Aunt Sophie by her friends and colleagues, is a living legend of the South Africa liberation struggle, who has contributed immensely to the dismantling of Apartheid. She participated in the major political campaigns of pre-1994, while still a scholar and has never looked back.

She became one of the founding members of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), the predecessor of COSATU. Her trade union work interacted with that of mainstream political movements, such as the ANC and played a major role in shifting its focus towards issues of concern to working people. She played her part in bringing these two organisations together. Like a true activists Mama Sophia bemoans the fact that the current generation of comrades concentrate more on issues such as deployment and cancerous jockeying for positions, which was a luxury during her time, her generation did not know the word deployment. Instead, cadres of the Congress Movement always rose to the occasion, when they were given assignments. Every task that was geared to defeating the Apartheid state, whether it was painting slogans on bridges of certain suburbs in Johannesburg, canvassing for signatures of the Womens petition or the Freedom Charter, distributing leaflets and selling New Age at bus stops and stations and informing people about campaigns of congress to be mounted, it all counted equally.

Mama Sophie was appointed as full time organiser of the Johannesburg branch of the Coloured Peoples Congress, which formed part of the Congress Movement together with the ANC, SACC and the South African Indian Congress that was currently grappling with a slew of racist laws. These included the Group Areas Act, the Separate Development Act, and the Bantu Education Act and the Immorality Act. She became involved with the consultative Committees in the organising of the Congress of the People in Kliptown and participated in all the campaigns of the time. One of her tasks was the organising of women in general and Coloured women in particular, around the many issues that affected them, mainly the impending carrying of passes and the Population Registration Act. Together with formidable women like Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa, Mama Sophia led the more than 20,000 defiant women to the Union Buildings on the 9th August 1956.

She is a member in good standing in the ANC Bram Fischer Branch, Ward 104 and Womens League; Member of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation; Member of the ANC Veterans League; Member of the Department of Arts and Culture; National Cohesion and Nation Building Task Team; Member of the ANC National Integrity Commission.Wednesday 29 August 2018, saw South Africa who is one for the members of AMCOW (Africa Ministers Council on Water) and represented by the Honorable Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Mrs. Pamela Tshwete, participate in two Africa-focused sessions. Accelerating project preparation and financing of transboundary water and hydropower projects in Africa: learning from Africa and scaling up was the first of the two sessions at which the Deputy Minister addressed esteemed guests from the African and International community, taking the opportunity to highlight the traction made by South Africa in accelerating Transboundary Water Management through innovative projects that attract investment for implementation. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is one such project which sees South Africa gaining access to water and Lesotho access to hydro energy. The Deputy Minister elaborated on Phase 1 of the project which entailed harnessing the waters of the Senqu/Orange River in the Lesotho highlands through the construction of a series of dams for the mutual benefit of South Africa and Lesotho. However, it is the benefits Lesotho has realized since Phase 1 that has the greatest impact, which includes their GDP increasing from 3% per annum in pre-project period to 5.5% per annum during construction, with more than 16,000 jobs created. Development of two large scale trout farms, construction of high quality roads with improved access, improved electricity supply network and industry growth realized from the power generation. Clinics and Community halls were also built and there is now improved telecommunication systems network.

The benefits for South Africa are equally significant, a steady supply of high quality water that is transferred from Lesotho to South Africa with reduced water treatment costs, allowing for a secured and cost effective water supply for Mining, Industrial, Agricultural and Households. Employment opportunities were created during construction of the Delivery Tunnel, and new Border posts established. The Deputy Minister further stated that Phase II of the project promises benefits beyond the increased water and electricity supply. The two governments have agreed that 30% of the construction will be designated to women and youth. Despite this clear example of how transboundary projects can be implemented successfully, the underlying message remains that the current level of financing for water and sanitation activities on the continent falls far below the level required to meet the SDGs, AU agenda 2063 and Africa Water Vision 2025 commitments. I would like to encourage African Governments to commit to providing the necessary political support in implementing both the AIP and PIDA. concluded Deputy Minister Tshwete. At the Africa Focus  High Level Ministerial Panel: from Policy to Action, the mobilisation of ministers on the African continent continued with the drive being to share experiences on how each are delivering water and sanitation for the benefit of their people. AMCOW has seen the value of involving all relevant sectors in the dialogue towards sustainable solutions in the water sector and thus, the session included ministers from other sectors like urban development, youth empowerment and works and housing in order to reflect on the AMCOW Strategy.

The High Level Ministerial Panel discussed actions required to address issues identified in the technical sessions and further deliberated on the policy and strategic directions to be undertaken at continental, regional and national levels. Deputy Minister Tshwete took the opportunity to speak to the process of developing the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan (NW&SMP), a new paradigm that will guide the South African water and sanitation sector towards the urgent execution of tangible actions that will make a real impact on the supply and use of water and sanitation. The Master Plan will set out the framework for how South Africa s going to manage its water resources and implement water and sanitation programmes. Furthermore, The Master Plan will assist South Africa to achieve the targets set in the National Development Plan (NDP), the global and African agendas outlined in the SDGs, the Africa Water Vision 2025 and the AU Agenda 2063. South Africa strongly supports the AMCOW Strategy, in particular, the AMCOW Strategic Priorities and their related cross-cutting strategies as they resonate with our national interest on water and sanitation said Deputy Minister Tshwete. Thursday 30 August 2018 saw the Deputy Minister participating as a panelist in the SDG-Paris Agreement  Building a Resilient Future through Water two-part session, where presenters, panelists and audience alike agreed that building the future we want, will take what Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Kingdom of The Netherlands, describes as the Systems Approach which at a high level entails the 5 Cs: Commitment, Capacity Building, Cross-Cutting, Collaboration and Consistency. When asked to provide insight from a South African perspective, the Deputy Minister was clear that Collaboration and Capacity Building are key in the South African approach. Using the recent drought in the Western Cape to illustrate this point, she clarified that overcoming the Day Zero threat was a politically collaborative responsibility given the unpreparedness of the country and government to deal with the devastating results of Climate Change. Once again reflecting on the progressive NW&SMP, Deputy Minister is confident that as a country, we will be ready. If delegates, who came to World Water Week 2018, were unaware of what South Africa is doing in terms of driving not only the SDGs and AMCOWs Strategies but also Water Governance and Transboundary Resource Management, over these past few days here in Stockholm, they are most certainly more knowledgeable.

There is still much to achieve in South Africa in terms of equitable, inclusive and transparent water resource management but looking at what has been done to date and what is to come, the future of water in South Africa certainly looks bright.Exports for the year-to-date (01 January to 31 July) increased by 3.6% from R653.47 billion in 2017 to R677.06 billion in 2018. Imports for the year-to-date of R683.57 billion are 10.2% more than the imports recorded in January to July 2017 of R620.26 billion, leaving a cumulative trade deficit of R6.51 billion for 2018. On a year-on-year basis, the R4.66 billion trade deficit for July 2018 is an deterioration from the surplus recorded in July 2017 of R 8.58 billion. Exports of R107.06 billion are 16.0% more than the exports recorded in July 2017 of R92.30 billion. Imports of R111.72 billion are 33.5% more than the imports recorded in July 2017 of R83.71 billion. June 2018s trade surplus was revised downwards by R0.11 billion from the previous months preliminary surplus of R12.00 billion to a revised surplus of R11.89 billion as a result of ongoing Vouchers of Correction (VOCs).The incident happened at the Sharia High Court of north-eastern state Terengganu in Malaysia on Monday where the two offenders were tried and convicted.

It is reported that, aside the canning in the presence of 150 witnesses in the courtroom, the young women, aged 22 and 23, were also slapped with a fine of 806 dollars (3,300 ringgit).

The punishment meted out to the women has attracted backlash, but the Chief Registrar of the court, Wan Wan-Sidek defendant the action, saying it was originally scheduled to have taken place on August 28, but was postponed due to technical reasons.

READ MORE: This church for drunkards and drug addicts is changing lives

The registrar said: The power of the court has been enacted in [the] Terengganu state constitution  Sharia laws allow for women to be punished, they are just being educated and not tortured.

Meanwhile, Justice for Sisters, a human right advocacy group insists the rights of the convicts were violated.

Member of the group, Thilaga Sulathireh is quoted as saying: Theres a disparity and gap between Muslim and non-Muslim women.

We are very concerned on how a lot of the punishment is carried out in the name of religion. What happened today was definitely quite shocking.

It really is a sign of how human rights are regressing in Malaysia not only for LGBT but for all people.Reports say the said burglar made his way into Clean Soles located in Roaoke, Virginia on August 25 with the apparent intention of stealing shoes.

However, for fear of being caught, he hurriedly ended up leaving with 13 shoes which were all right-footed.

Owner of the store, Rob Wickham said the burglary made no sense to him, "unless you have two right feet."

READ MORE: 2 women flogged in public for lesbianism

He added that the break-in was "pretty much risking ones freedom for nothing."

UPI.com reported that, aside the 13 right footed shoes, the suspected thief picked one whole pair of sneakers and a few shirts and hoodies.

However, Rob Wickham believe the burglar could have done better, wondering "What was the point of grabbing one shoe off the shelf?"

The Clean Soles store is said to have suffered a similar burglary in July for which police charged a 17-year-old.It was a night of glitz and glam although some female celebrities (Slay Queens) missed the event.

We saw creativity as its highest display when celebrities stepped on the red carpet in elegant apparels by Ghanaian designers.

Among the slew of celebrities that graced the event, we spotted media personality, Chantelle Asante wearing a dress that looked very similar to her engagement with a slight adjustment to the sleeves.

We reported on Chantelles look along with other celebrities who attended the event and some Ghanaians have commended her for repeating her engagement dress to fashions most important night; Glitz Style Awards.

Read their comments below:

hisroyalblacknesskkd

Beautiful dresses with sentimental value ought to be worn more than once. They are priceless objects of art but serve a body-covering need too. If you rent it you return it but if you own it, you wear it again with beauty and pride. Well done to all who know this.

pirenaesther

Her dress her choice, she can repeat as many time as she wants who care isn't she normal like anyone? Besides is fashion the tickets to heaven, whoever you are try minding your own business as a full-time jobNincompoop!!

ohema_kukuwa

what wrong with repeating outfits?am glad she found another occasion to wear the outfit.

sarahmorgan751

Eiii Ghana so do u people expect her to throw her clothes away after showing off.

midnight_prince1If u pay attention to this Ghanaian people, either u turn into an armed robber or a prostitute just to certified their stupidity. Dress r meant to be worn not just one time but as many as times u see fit.

psy_rus

So after the engagement she shouldve burned it?

mrsbiglet_

That's genius though. These dresses we make cost an arm. I'll damn sure wear mine again!

aqu__iya@the_steward

I shock...Tiffany Haddish wore one particular white dress to 3-4 events..no one complained but here in gh wo sem pa

goldess_b

Ei Ghanafuo kasa. Whats wrong with her repeating her dress. Is it part of ur business.

nelly_grefix

Cant u see they are different. One has a longer sleeve and the other, on her shoulders. Even if she did, is that the most important issue on Ghana.

deborah1087

It called management she won't spend money on cloth if she has some.

ladymountbatten6929@the_steward

If She Did Then She's Wise. Good for her. She doesn't want to waste her money.

homestylez_

So what? That is actually very smart of her. No wonder she is married. Learn from her!

antwilet64

So what. What's wrong when she wears her engagement dress to the glitz style awards. Massa you for shun this things oh.

geraldine_aquila_mccarthy

I wish I could like ds comment a million times. No wonder she's married. D slay queens are sleeping wid men around to keep up wid their extravagant lifestyle and pressure frm delusions frm social media.

ami_odonkor

And what if she did? Which rule says you cant REPEAT your engagement dress. We obviously dont like people who stay true to themselves!!! Ns3mfo sei na ay3 di3n.....

adwoa_badwo

So what? She's better than those that borrow monies to look fabulous. Is this news?

triciagold_

It doesn't matter..... If she have this beautiful dress, why must she purchase another one just for a night show?

patieandoh

Ah so what? Is the dress not for her?? This is the kind of pressure you put on innocent people to use dubious means just to please people. Chantel be yourself. Wear what you want to wear wai. Its your money not theirs.

ralacekeelson

First of, She looks beautiful and there's nothing wrong if she wore her engagement dress. Let me ask you,@pulseghana Where would you recommend she wore it to . So you guys want to say that you don't repeat your clothes .Let's be True to ourselves and allow people live their lives the way they want . @chante_asante The love is deep wai #truetoyourself

i_am_mimidonThe proposed bond between Ghana and China has sparked debate among the public due to some uncertainties.

However, the Information Minister-designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has moved to clarify issues, insisting no firm decision has yet been made.

According to him, Government is still deliberating and analysing the proposed centenary bond to ascertain its viability.

At this stage, we are at the consideration stage, we are raising a number of questions to do some analysis. For example, is a centenary bond a good idea? If it is, how much can our economy afford? What will be the repayment schedule for example? What are the implications on debt sustainability? We have to go through a series of processes to arrive at a position, and then that position will be announced, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah told Accra-based Class FM.

The president has just signed eight MoUs and supervised two other contracts, those are the big things we can speak concretely to today. If he additionally mentioned that we are looking at the possibility of this in the future and if it happens we encouraged the Chinese to come on board, I dont think we can reduce that to a full conversion now and say that government has decided to issue a $50bn bond and, therefore, what does the Minority think of it? No.

President Akufo-Addo mentioned during his state visit to China that the Ministry of Finance and the economists in Ghana are looking at floating a $50 billion Century Bond.

This will provide us with the resources to finance our infrastructural and industrial development. We are hoping that, at some stage, China will interest itself, and take a part of it as Chinas contribution to Ghanas development, he added.

However, the Minority in Parliament has kicked against the proposal to sign a centenary bond with the East African nation.According to a report by Accra-based Class FM, Menzgold is no longer making over-the-counter payments, with clients now required to fill forms that would enable the payment of their dividends through the banks.

One of the aggrieved clients is reported to have said that his money has delayed for close to a week despite filling the said forms.

Checks, however, indicate that the delay in payment has come as a result of some clients providing wrong bank account details.

The management of Menzgold has also moved to quell any misconceptions, explaining that the dividends of clients will certainly hit their accounts soon.

The gold dealership firm said it has encountered problems with its over-the-counter payment, making it necessary for clients to be paid through their respective banks.

Meanwhile, some customers said they are uncomfortable with the situation, pointing to the recent warning from the Central Bank.

In August, the Bank of Ghana issued a statement warning the general public to desist from dealing with Menzgold.

The BoG said it would take action against the company for engaging in solicitation, receipt of money or investment and the payment of dividends or returns to its clients.

According to the Central Bank, Menzgold was not licensed to take deposits, but the company has been acting to the contrary.

This was, however, strongly refuted by the management of Menzgold, with the companys CEO, Nana Appiah Mensah, describing the BoGs claims as a joke.The construction of the 5000-seater National Cathedral has caused public outcry among judges in the country following the renewed backlash from some members of the public over the relevance of the project and the inconvenience its construction.

READ MORE: Why the Islamic organisation opposes National Cathedral

In the long term, the government is constructing new residences for judges at Cantonments.

The construction of the 5000-seater National Cathedral has caused public outcry among judges in the country.

Reports indicated that about 9 Judges of the Court of Appeal including many other residents within the earmarked area, were being evicted to enable construction works to begin.

Kwaku Bonsam adding his voice to the debate of the cathedral said the president will only be fair to the traditional religion when he apportion a land near the Osu Castle for them to build their place of worship.He said such activities are against the laws of Ghana, therefore, defaulters will be dealt with accordingly.

Akufo-Addo said: "This phenomenon of galamsey has left a devastation of large tracts of Ghana lands. In many areas the lands have become ugly because of this indiscriminate exploitation of the lands with some of them going deep into forest reserves."

He said this while interacting with some Chinese officials and a section of Ghanaians as part of his state visit to the Peoples Republic of China, Nana Akufo-Addo noted that Ghanaian laws will not spare any Chinese caught in galamsey despite Ghanas strong relationship with China.

Our water bodies across the country, you drive through Ghana, you cant drink Birem River anymore because it is now a dirty tract of water. There is no future if we continue down that road and together we have to stop it."

"In my meeting with President Xi Jinping yesterday, I said it to him frankly that we have this situation and many of his compatriots are involved in this exercise and I want him to understand that when the law enforcement agencies in Ghana act against them, were not acting against Chinese", Akufo-Addo said.

There were those who said I should be careful raising the subject when I come here but how can I be careful raising a subject that is of concern to me? I cant be concerned about raising a matter that is of concern to my people, otherwise Ill be violating my own oath of office, he stated.According to the residents, although the responsibility to reconstruct the roads is not in the hands of the MP, Ms Safo should use her influence in government to get the roads in good shape.

Ms Safo doubles as the Minister of State at the presidency in charge of Public Procurement.

The protesters, car owners and commercial drivers said they have been visiting the mechanic on a daily basis due to the deplorable roads.

They, however, pleaded with the MP and other relevant authorities to come to their aid and fix the roads in the vicinity.He served four years of a seven-year sentence for a 1.4bn fraud at Swiss bank UBS and released in 2015.

During his trial at Southwark Crown Court in 2012, he had denied the charges, which related to the period between October 2008 and September 2011.He had told the jury his senior managers were aware of his actions and encouraged him to take risks.READ ALSO: Kweku Adoboli supporters launch appeal to fight deportation

But the jury was told he lost the money in "unprotected, unhedged, incautious and reckless" trades.The judge, Mr Justice Keith, had told him when he was sentenced: "Whatever the verdict of the jury, you would forever have been known as the man responsible for the largest trading loss in British banking history."He lost lan appeal against deportation in 2016 and had wanted to take a judicial review to the Supreme Court about the Home Office's request to deport him.

Asked if the crimes he committed - booking fictitious trades to cover up gambles in the hunt for profits - could happen again, he had told the BBC: "Absolutely."

Adoboli's spokesperson said he was being held at Scotland's Dungaval Immigration Removal Centre.He will be deported because of his role in a 1.4bn fraud at Swiss bank UBS.

Kweku was convicted in 2012 and he served four years out of a seven year sentence in which he was released in 2015.

Kweku Adoboli was born to John Adoboli, a senior United Nations official in Tema, Ghana. He moved to the UK at age 12 He attended Ackworth School in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

READ ALSO: Kweku Adoboli supporters launch appeal to fight deportation

In 2000, after finishing school, he enrolled at the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Nottingham, but switched to E-commerce and Digital Business Studies.

He rose through the ranks and he was elected as the Communications Officer of University of Nottingham Students' Union.

After completing Nottingham University in 2003, Adoboli joined UBS's London office as a graduate trainee in September 2006.

Having worked for two years as a trading analyst in the bank's back office, he was promoted to a trading desk.

However, Adobolis troubles started right after the promotion by engaging in unauthorised tradings and inside bettings that cost UBS billions of pounds.

Kweku Adoboli entered false information into UBS's computers to hide the risky trades he was making and regularly exceeding the bank's per-employee daily trading limit of US$100 million.

His trades cost the bank $2 billion (1.3 billion) and wiped off $4.5 billion (2.7 billion) from its share price.

In mid-2011, UBS launched an internal investigation into Adoboli's trades. He was arrested by City of London Police. He was charged with two counts of fraud by abuse of position and four counts of false accounting. He was in prison on remand until 8 June 2012, when he was granted bail subject to being electronically tagged and placed under curfew at a friends house.

Adoboli has described his intended deportation as racism. He told the BBC: "The fact that I was born in a different country and have different-coloured skin became part of the labelling process.

"This ostracisation process? That is racism. The deportation process that now follows? That is racism."

Adoboli was incarcerated at Verne Prison in Dorset, Ford Prison in West Sussex and Maidstone Prison in Kent.Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings started the 4th Republic by winning the 1992 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. His two-term was succeeded by John Kufuor in 2000.

John Evans Atta-Mills returned the NDC in power in 2008 before John Dramani Mahama took over after his unexpected demise in 2012.

However, for the newly appointed Minister of Inner Cities and Zongos, Dr. Mustapha Hamid, the one-and-half-year old Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's is the best ever since Ghana reverted to constitutional rule in 1992.

He said these are the reasons:

Weve done a lot in managing the economy, we have not overspent our budget. Weve done a lot in terms of Communication and many more. The Hajj has been smooth if you ask me. No pilgrim was left behind this year", he said on Accra based Starr FM.

Previously, there is a lot brouhaha concerning government's ability to lift Muslim pilgrims to Hajj. Hamid says this challenge has been nipped in the bud and the fact that no pilgrim was not left behind manifests this.

He also said Nana Addo's government has managed to rescue the Ghanaian economy from the challenges it encountered during the John Mahama administration.

The government is also looking at floating $50 billion centenary bond between the government of Ghana and China.

"This will provide us with the resources to finance our infrastructural and industrial development. We are hoping that, at some stage, China will interest itself, and take a part of it as Chinas contribution to Ghanas development," Minister of Information designate Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said of the intended deal.He refuted claims that his switch by President Akufo-Addo from the Information Ministry to the Zongo Ministry is a demotion.

To a larger extent, I played a role in getting my new role as a Minister for Inner Cities and Zongo Development. I wanted a new challenge after being in the communication space a little over 11 years", he said on Accra based Starr FM.

Hamid was replaced by his deputy Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in President Akufo-Addo's first ministerial reshuffle last month.

As a Zongo Boy, I owed the community. I have taught in various makaranta schools but I think there is more I can do, he said.

Emphasising why he will focus on education and human resource development, Dr. Hamid said in his view the challenge of the people is knowledge-seeking and once that is cured, you cure most of their problems.He has described the government visionless as a child.

His comments come at the back of discussions surrounding the proposed $50 billion centenary bond between the government of Ghana and China.

The proposed bond between Ghana and China has sparked debate among the public due to some uncertainties.

Nana Addo mentioned during his state visit to China that "the Ministry of Finance and the economists in Ghana are looking at floating a $50 billion Century Bond".

"This will provide us with the resources to finance our infrastructural and industrial development. We are hoping that, at some stage, China will interest itself, and take a part of it as Chinas contribution to Ghanas development," he added.

However, the Information Minister-designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has moved to clarify issues, insisting no firm decision has yet been made.

According to him, the government is still deliberating and analysing the proposed centenary bond to ascertain its viability.

But the NDC MP said the government is visionless.

"This government is as visionless as a child, otherwise, how can you go for such a loan without a blueprint telling the people of Ghana what went into that loan.

"What are you going to do with the $50 billion? You can only mention that you want to use it for infrastructure, but in 100 years time, nobody will need the things that you want to develop today, so, why to take a loan for 100 years," he said.

"I thought the NPP said they were not going to borrow when they come into office but what are we seeing now? Plunging the country into massive debt is what they are doing at the moment," Adongo said in an interview on Accra FM.

Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament has kicked against the proposal to sign a centenary bond with the East African nation.He said Mahama should rethink his decision to lead the NDC into the 2020 general elections.

This advice, he gave, in a short post on Facebook.

Mahama announced his intention to contest again for the NDC flagbearership race on August 23. He did this by informing the party leadership at a short ceremony in Accra.

READ HIS FULL POST BELOW

HE John Dramani Mahama on my mind.Dear John, l have admired you for a very long time as you know.You are a very affable, intelligent, and courteous person. Your humility and sense of service contributed to your rise to leadership at various levels culminating in God putting you in charge of the helm of affairs in this beautiful country.

You lost an election and you accepted the results and thanked God accordingly. To the best of my knowledge, you performed to the best of your ability with the team, message and strategies you brought on board.READ ALSO: Mahama is not a drunkard - NDC MP slams former ambassadorHe is a former Minister of Communication, one-time Ambassador of Ghana to the United States and Mexico, Minister of Education, Minister responsible for Mines and Energy and a member of UNESCO Executive Board in Paris.

READ MORE: Goosie Tanoh officially joins NDC Presidential race

He served in the cabinet during the democratic regime of former president Jerry John Rawlings between 1994 and 2000.

Before his appointment at the CTO, he was Chief Executive of his own business consulting firm, Spio-Garbrah & Associates.

Dr. Spio-Garbrah served as a Director of Telkom SA Ltd. from September 20, 2007 to May 1, 2010. He served as Director of Vodacom Group (Pty) Ltd from December 10, 2007 to May 18, 2009.

He served as Member of International Advisory Council at Recipco Holdings Ltd.

He is also the Chairman of African Business Media and the African Cancer Organization. He is also member of the International Advisory Board of the African Press Organization (APO).

Spio holds a BA (Hons), English from the University of Ghana, a Graduate Certificate in International Banking from the New York University, a Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Communications and an MA in International Affairs from Ohio University and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Laws (LLD) by Middlebury University, USA for achievements in the fields of diplomacy, government, education and business.

In December, 2006, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah contested the leadership of Ghana's main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Managing 8.7% of the vote, he came second to the late John Atta Mills, who subsequently won Ghana's 2008 presidential election.

Dr Spio-Garbrah remains a leading member of the NDC party.

On 15 January 2010, Spio-Garbrah was elected a vice chairman of the NDC, and subsequently named Director of the Communications directorate of the party.

In 2011, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Christian Action Faith Ministries International.

READ MORE: Why Mahama stands tall among NDC presidential aspirants

This is a global charismatic movement with millions of members across the world. This appointment makes Spio-Garbrah the first person to occupy such a role in a Christian denomination in Ghana.

In July 2014, the NDC stalwart was nominated as Minister for Trade and Industry by former president John Mahama.

He took over from Haruna Iddrissu who is currently the Minority leader in Parliament.

Spio-Garbrah is in the presidential race of the NDC seeking to be the flagbearer of the party.

He is contesting against John Mahama, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Adinam Mensah.News reports filtered on Monday, September 3, 2018, that the South African phone company may receive a naira-denominated refund for the CBN $8.1 billion demand.

CBN says refund will be in dollar

But Isaac Okoroafor, CBN's spokesperson told Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa on Tuesday morning, September 4, 2018, that the regulatory authority's demand is very clear on the matter.

The report is very clear, what we have here is in dollar terms and not naira, he said in a phone conversation.

Experts believed that the sanction which is about half of MTNs market capitalisation will affect market conditions in Nigeria and could threaten the country's financial institutions.

CBN hammers fine on 4 banks

Last week, Nigeria's central bank (CBN) ordered Africa's telecoms giant, MTN refund a total of $8.134billion moved out of the country" for breaching the country's forex regulations.

The bank also slammed a huge N5.8 billion fine on the banks for allegedly aiding MTN in the illegal capital repatriation.

The affected banks and their fines are Standard Chartered Bank (N2.4 billion), Stanbic IBTC (N1.8bn), Citibank (N1.2bn) and Diamond bank with N0.25 billion.

MTN denies CBN's claim

MTN denied involvement in any wrongdoing while some banks said they are currently in talks with the monetary authority.

Rob Shuter, the Group CEO of MTN also stated that the apex bank's sanction will complicate the IPO processes. He, however, said MTN is continuing with the listing process.

Last Friday, Herbert Wigwe, Access Bank CEO, said, the bankers' committee will intervene in the current forex issues between Nigeria and MTN.The assurance came during a high-level meeting between the NNPC's GMD, Maikanti Baru and the CNPC Management at the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing, China, on Monday, August 4, 2018.

Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC's spokesperson, said the financing for the gas pipeline is expected to cost about $2.8 billion for the project, described as the single biggest gas pipeline in the history of oil and gas operations in Nigeria.

"While 85% of the money is expected to be funded by the financiers which include Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of China, and Infrastructure Bank of China with Sinosure, Chinas Export Credit Agency (ECA) providing insurance cover, the remaining 15% will be provided by the contractors which include Oilserve/Oando consortium, as well as Brentex/China Petroleum Pipeline (CPP) Bureau consortium, the statement reads in part.

Wang Shihong, the Assistant President and Board Member of the CNPC, said his company placed a very high premium on the AKK Project, describing it as the beginning of several collaborations between both corporations.

Responding, Dr Baru stated that the AKK Project was dear to Nigeria, adding that while at the FOCAC Summit, President Buhari reiterated the potentials of the project to strengthen Nigeria-China relations.

He added that the NNPC was looking forward to a successful close-out of the projects financing towards official ground breaking ceremony in October, this year.

We want to maximize the construction work before the end of the year. We are hoping for the quick resolution of the financing agreements so that we will kick-start the project in October, when the dry season begins, Baru added.

Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline project

The AKK gas pipeline will enable connectivity between the East, West and North that is currently non-existent.

It will also enable gas supply and utilization to key commercial centres in the Northern corridor of Nigeria with the attendant positive spin-off on power generation and industrial growth.

This agreement and many others were part of what the Nigerian delegation at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing, sealed with the Chinese government so far.Oloyede made the announcement while responding to questions from journalists at the 2018 Annual Sobo Sowemimo Lecture of the Abeokuta Club in Abeokuta.

I dont think there will be any need for a shift in the examination date because of the 2019 general elections. I believe INEC has done well by giving us a prior notice six months ago.

They have given us the date of the elections. So we have no excuse not to have adjusted. We have adjusted appropriately,

He added that JAMB would adopt stiffer measures to check incidences of unqualified candidates from applying and writing the examination for the 2019/2020 admission exercise.

2019 UTME process to begin in October 2018

The JAMB registrar also announced that the exam body would begin the 2019/2020 examination process by October, adding that the procedure for the upcoming UTME would be better than the last one.

We are on with the 2018/2019 admission exercise. This, we started just about a month ago. We believe that by the end of October, we would then begin the 2019/2020 admission.

I can assure you that we are fine-tuning and learning from our mistakes last year. We are perfecting the processes and procedures, ensuring that no one is allowed to have undue advantage over the others.''

Oloyede further explained that JAMB has put measures in place to ensure that all applicants are minimally qualified.

ALSO READ:

It is difficult to say the exact number of applicants we are expecting this time. We expect to crash the number because many of those who are taking the forms are not even prepared or qualified for the exam.

Some are SS1 students, who are just trying; contributing N5,000 unduly to our purse. We are putting in place some checks to make people who want to apply to be minimally qualified.

Thats where we are moving to, rather than creating unrealistic figures. We cannot say actually this is the figure but we are trying to ensure that we dont have unnecessary luggage.

We are not interested in the money. We are interested in having adequate preparation for those who are genuine students,Annie Idibia took to her Instagram stories where she posted photos and videos from their trip to the beautiful city. Apparently, they are touring the city and its beautiful hotels with the couples enjoying every bit of it.

Fans of these two music icons know that they have a very personal relationship aside music and it doesn't come as a surprise that they having a time out from their busy careers. We are glad D'banj and his wife are looking all bright and happy after their loss.

A few weeks ago, D'banj showed to fans that he was to his once bubbling character when he shared a photo of himself rocking the traditional Jamaica dreadlocks. It was cool as the look kind suited him.

D'banj rocks dreadlocks as he vacations in Jamaica [Photos]

A few weeks ago, D'banj was in Jamaica vacationing and was spotted rocking the dreadlocks which we found really cute. The music icon took to his Instagram page on Thursday, August 23, 2018, where he posted some of his vacation photos. This new look D'banj is trying out looks really cute and we love it.

We all know D'banj to be one witty hunk who sees fun everything and even did that in the caption of the photo with the traditional Jamaica slang, "Yah Man #Skibanj."

D'banj dedicates new song to wife

D'banj has a new song and it is dedicated to wife, Lineo Didi Kilgrow. The music star shared a snippet of the song on his Instagram page on Wednesday, August 8, 2018. D'banj went on to caption the short version of the song with a word of encouragement to his wife.

"Together We Will Pass Every Test That We Pass Through. This Is For You My #WhatYouWant #LetterToMyWife #Everything #MamaDaniel 8/8/18," he wrote.

2Face Idibia gets a surprise trip to Ghana from wife, Annie Idibia

Earlier in the year, Annie Idibia surprised her husband, 2Face with a trip to Ghana as part of the events to mark their wedding anniversary.The fashion entrepreneur in a series of post on her Instagram page called out Miracle for dumping Nina publicly on social media. According to her, she knew from the unset that Miracle wasn't really into Nina because he never wanted to make their relationship public.

"To everyone saying KARMA. it wasn't KARMA that helped Miracle win the money, it was Nina, it would have been fair if he got her the car and the Dubai trip he promised, she did it all by herself, ordinary phone he couldn't even buy," she posted on her Instagram stories.

Toyin Lawani in her video rants said she warned Nina of Miracle's excesses but she never listened because she claimed to love him. She went on brag about how things have been turning around for Nina, saying her skin care line is in progress.

These statements attributed to Toyin Lawani doesn't come as a surprise to many because she has been a huge fan and supporter of Nina since the end of the BBNaija season three. Let's not forget in a hurry that she got Nina a car after the show on her birthday.

Nina gets a surprise car gift from Toyin Lawani (Video)

In June 2018, Nina got a big surprise gift that she wasn't expecting as she was presented with a car on her birthday from Toyin Lawani.

In a video which went viral, Toyin Lawani is seen presenting the car gift to Nina. An overjoyed Nina can be seen screaming and so is the crowd in the background. We won't blame Nina for been a bit confused for some few seconds in the video because you don't wake up every day for gifts like this especially when it is a car.The book was also edited by Smith and her husband, the Jamaican Michael Garfield Smith, an anthropologist learned in Hausa  he contributed cultural context to the book.

The book was republished in 1981 with a foreword from Hilda Kuper.

Baba of Karo

Baba was born in the farming hamlet, Karo, near Azarewa, old Sokoto Caliphate  encompassing Zaria and Kano, in pre-colonial Nigeria in 1877, the daughter of a Hausa farmer and Koranic teacher.

On August 23, 2018, the BBC published another episode on The Witness Podcast, a historical podcast, hosted by Alex Last "about the stories of people who were there." This episode interviews Mary Smith, interpolated with excerpts from the book, Baba of Karo.

Of what drew her to Baba, Smith who was only a young woman then told The BBC, theres just one or two people in life that you remember the whole atmosphere of the person, what they were like and she was a very, very amazing woman.

Smith, who was on a research, anthropological sojourn to Nigeria in 1949 had encountered Baba and interviewed her over the next few weeks about her lifes and societal stories  she wrote it down verbatim and it became the book, Baba of Karo.

ALSO READ: Ladi Kwali, the first woman on a Nigerian Currency

What Baba represents

The book represents a progeny to the documented stories of 19th century Nigerian women  who are largely undocumented, barring the pivotal, celebrated figures.

In the stories of the uncelebrated women lie the true insights into every day life and struggles that the more celebrated ones might not represent  despite representing female strength and the limit of female capability.

Baba didnt speak any English, and thats what made the feat remarkable. It marked the forging of beauty inside telling struggles  Mary Smith is now in her 90s taught herself fluent Hausa.

What led to the encounter?

Smith had followed her Jamaican husband to document Nigerias largest tribe, the Hausa when she encountered Baba.

Smith had been erroneously interviewing young women on the story of that land when Baba asked her, Why are you asking these young women about life when they've had barely anything to tell you about life? They're too young

Immediately, Smith said she felt Nanas warmth and intelligence. Even though she was poor, she was culturally rich in ideas and history. Smith even intimates how Baba took over the entire interview.

Babas words; slavery and war

According to The BBCs narrator, it was a time when Nigeria was not an idea  formed or vague. Slavery also existed at the time  the local form of it through barter and exchange of children for monetary loans. However, those slaves also had rights.

Babas family had slaves, but she acknowledges that anybody could become a slave during the time of intense and unpredictable warfare, but they wee captured by raiders during the time of intense warfare.

According to the book, Baba of Karo, Baba says her family was captured at night at her Uncles place in Ubangida  3 of her uncles children, 10 slaves and his pregnant wife were kidnapped and took them to Katsina.

Their hands were tied across their breasts with shoulders following each other in unison.

The book further says, In the days, there was always a fear, war, war, war. They caught a man and they made him a slave or else they killed him.

The Sokoto Caliphate was constantly at war with itself, with factions fighting each other, often ending in slavery.

The books emphasizes upon this that, In times of war, the chief would order the drummer to climb up on a high place and beat the deep drum so the villagers and people surrounding hamlets should come inside the town halls.

While Babas family got their people back, they paid a huge ransome after tracking their people into Katsina in a gruelling affair.

Baba also tells a story where her family staged a dramatic rescue of her aunt, Rabi who had been kidnapped and kept at the Emirs palace in Abuja. Her father puts Rabi on his back and escaped with her.

ALSO READ: Madam Efurunoye Tinubu, the Nigerian Kingmaker who aided the abolition of slavery

How the story documents discovery of drums

Theres a unified sense of drum appreciation peculiar to all Nigerian tribes.

It continues, The drum rhythms said, come in, come in, come in. Drums are a core part of cultural Nigerian communication and points to the natural nature of conception and culture.

Despite cultures largely being unmixed at the time, the natural phenomenon of invention and discovery can be aligned through the effects of making drums a means of communication  also inherent in cultural Yoruba and Igbo histories.

Sometimes, ideas are not copied, people just discovered things independently. It also lends credence to the speculative belief that once a person has an idea, at least five other people have the same idea at the same time.

That might just be true.

Babas Marriages, feminism and lack of stigma for divorced women in old Northern Nigeria

The book documents how Baba was being forced to go marry another person by the elders when he she wanted the Blacksmiths son, Maigari. She says, When Aunty Rabi came home, I knew she would help me. I told her that I didnt like the marriage and she said,very well, go and break it up.

Women had the freewill to marry and divorce despite their fathers consenting to their unions

Baba was married four times in a society where divorced women and widows were not stigmatized. The concept of freewill was the reality and women were allowed to express themselves.

For example, Baba told Smith that her sister-in-law, Hasana married 11 times  one of those men, Hasana married four different times. Contrary to popular opinion, women have not always been held to slavery in marriage.

When Baba was to marry Malam Maigari, but at the time, her father wanted her to marry her cousin, Duma who had money.

ALSO READ: The twisted legacy of FESTAC 1977

She tells her marriages from perspective that, There was who wished to marry me, I promised him that I would come to him later. Duma came to visit me, I accepted his money because father wanted me to do so.

She continues that, But because I didnt really. Love him, I left him ager a few years  was tall, handsome and sensible, we lived together in peace with no quarrelling.

Upon divorcing Duma, she observed the Iddah  a customary 90-day solitary period of celibacy for divorcees before fulfilling her promise to marry Maigari before divorcing him amicably, 15 years later to marry Malam Hasan  a farmer and prison warden.

Hasan died, but then she entered into a marriage of shoes  where the couple live separately  with Ibrahim.

Later in her life, she also made her husband marry her best friend, whom she wanted to live with. After initially disagreeing, her husband agreed.

Entry of Colonialists

The book documents changing tides through Babas rise to become a woman as the British made their maiden entrance into Northern Nigeria.

They soon created the colonial protectorate of Northern Nigeria. That stopped the raiding and local slavery, but kept the Caliphate  it was welcome news for Baba.

Baba was documented in the book the entry of the British was a coming to pass of her uncles predictions who felt the British were going to stop raiding.

Baba goes further to tell stories of rituals of childbirth, prostitution, criminality and spiritual possession in the book, but the pinnacle of the book is that, Baba represented the stark truth of a pre-colonial, Muslim Hausa women.

She was eloquent and knowledgeable. Through her, we have some linkage to the past and stark truths that would have gone undocumented.Society glorifies the power of men over women and it makes sure it is obeyed as even women expect that macho standard of men.

This in turn creates the tendency to box in years of hurt, anger and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in, which sometimes degenerates into addiction or mental health issues.

Men are also victims of sexual harassment

That narrative has also created a near widely acceptable reality with the average Nigerian community that only women can be harassed sexually, or even raped.

That, dear readers, is hogwash. If female victims find it hard to tell their stories, make victims are 10 times more averse to telling their abuse stories, they would rather act out or box it in for fear of being judged by a society that set standards for them.

On Monday, September 3, 2018, a thread by the a virtuous and large of heart by viral reputation, Olashile Abayomi, who - tweets @FireOFola - asked men to share their abuse, molestation, sexual harassment and unfair treatment stories surfaced on TwitterNG. It's safe to say even she has been blown away by responses.

What ensued was an unexpected storm of anonymous confessions from men. We hear of a sexual harassment by mothers, others my custodians and others by random women in this same Nigeria.

Follow the touching stories thus;Buratai, who spoke in Jaji at the graduation of 55 Special Forces from Advance Water Markship Training, however, said: in warfare, one must suffer some setbacks.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in the last few days, there have been media reports of terrorists attacks on troops in the North-East in which they claimed a number of soldiers had been killed.

The army, however, denied the attack and loss of personnel.

Buratai was in Jaji in company of the visiting South African Army Chief, Lt.-Gen. Lindile Yam.

You are all aware of the events in the country, especially the security landscape between 2013 and mid-2015.

I am referring to the situation in the North-East where a band of insurgents, employing terror held sway over nearly the entire region, including large part of the North-Central and Northwestern parts of the country.

However, from middle of 2015 to date, the insurgents have suffered high degradation. They no longer hold any territory within our sovereign state, Buratai said.

He said that this was made possible by the adoption of correct strategies, support by President Muhammadu Buhari and the goodwill of the people.

According to him, a professional army should be capable of operating under all conditions across all terrains and by day or night.

He said : The nature of modern warfare requires that an army must develop multi capability to address all changes.

Buratai commended the graduating Special Forces drawn from various corps of the army for the completion of the training.

NAN also reports that the army chief promoted all the 55 personnel that participated in the training, saying it was his reward for them, having endured the rigours of the exercise.

He said the focus on effective training in the last years also largely accounted for the successes so far recorded by the army.

It is pertinent to state that lessons learned from our counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations have to a large extent, guided our training and operation plans, he said.

ALSO READ:Heavily armed Boko Haram terrorists invade Maiduguri

The South African army chief, having watched a simulation attack on supposed enemy camp by the graduands, commended the Nigerian military for the relations among the three services.

Yam noted that the strategies adopted by the Nigerian military in addressing the countrys security challenges were yielding positive results.The minister said this while speaking to newsmen in Anambra state.

Ngige said the President is physically and mentally fit, adding that older people make better leaders.

The minister told the journalists that Nigerians should count themselves blessed to have a leader like Buhari.

Daily Post reports that he said That man (Buhari) you see there is healthier than 80 percent of Nigerians.

Im a medical doctor, I can tell you authoritatively that he is healthier than most people who see his health as an issue.

He sits for over eight hours during our executive meetings. While some of us would be going for tea break to stretch our legs, Mr President would sit on his seat continuously, drinking only water.

I can tell you authoritatively as a medical doctor of over three decades standing that Mr President is physically and mentally healthy. He is healthier than eighty percent of Nigerians.

Speaking on allegations that Buharis administration is marginalising Igbos, Ngige said Theres nothing that is being shared by the Buhari government that is not equitably done. Buhari has five flagship projects; Lagos-Ibadan to Ilorin Mambila Power Plants; Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway; Second Niger Bridge and East West roads.

You can see how it was shared. So, how are you(Igbo) left out, why are you crying marginalization, why are you crying wolf when there is none and it is this mentality that Im telling you people that you have to come out from.

So, all Im saying in effect is that you(Igbo) must do political engineering; thats the Igbos of the South East and the step to take forward is to support a Buhari presidency for 2019/2023 and vote for it with all their strengths.

By so doing, they will not be left out in the power sharing that will come thereafter like was done at this period.

Also, the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that world leaders love President Buhari because he is providing good leadership.A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr Peter Afunanya, on Tuesday in Abuja, said that the service would continue to discharge its duties in line with Standard Operations Procedures (SOPs).

Dark forces should not bring the Service into a collision with the Government it is meant to diligently serve, Afunanya said.

He said that the service was aware of several speculations making the rounds in the media on some internal affairs of the Service.

Afunanya said that the speculations were unhealthy for the service as it had undoubtedly remained a committed institution with focus on the stability and security of the nation.

Over the years, the Service has been known to be both a strategic stabiliser and a unifying factor in the Nigerian project,he said.

The spokesman said that it deserved and desired to be focused and supported by all stakeholders to deepen the countrys democracy.

Only a professionally driven DSS can support and consolidate Nigerias democracy,he said.

He advised the media to report issues of national security with caution to avoid a breach of peace.

Afunanya warned self serving interests against bringing the service to ridicule.

The Service is undaunted and will pursue noble goals only meant to uphold integrity in security and intelligence governance,he said.He also appealed to the media in Nigeria to make an effort to understand cultural and historical implications of the matter.

Buhari said this during an interactive session with Nigerians living in China.

This was made known to newsmen by the Presidents spokesman, Garba Shehu on Sunday, September 2, 2018.

According to SaharaReporters, Buhari said "On herders and farmers clashes in Nigeria, the President told Nigerians in the Diaspora that while security agencies are doing their best to curtail the clashes, the Nigerian media need to complement the efforts through objective and informed reportage.

"The President appealed to the Nigerian media to make an attempt at understanding the cultural and historical implications of some of the misunderstanding between herders and farmers.

"To my disappointment, the members of the press in Nigeria do not make enough efforts to study the historical antecedents of issues that are creating national problems for us."

Blame it on climate change

The President also explained that the shrinking of Lake Chad is the reason the herdsmen are migrating to get food for their flock.

"On herders and farmers clashes in Nigeria, the President told Nigerians in the Diaspora that while security agencies are doing their best to curtail the clashes, the Nigerian media need to complement the efforts through objective and informed reportage.

"The President appealed to the Nigerian media to make an attempt at understanding the cultural and historical implications of some of the misunderstanding between herders and farmers."

Dead Ghadaffi is to blame

President Buhari had earlier blamed the conflict between herdsmen and farmers on Late Libyan president, Muammar Gaddafi.

In April 2018, the Nigerian President, during his visit to the White House, told the US President, Donald Trump that herdsmen from Nigeria dont carry guns.

Politicians are responsible

Also, Garba Shehu, Buhari's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, blamed politicians who are against the president for the herdsmen and farmers conflict in the Middle Belt.According to Vanguard, policemen raided Clarks house on Tuesday, September 4, 3018.

They searched the rooms his house, saying that they were looking for arms.

Speaking further, the President of IYCW, Barr. Oweilaemi Pereotubor called on Nigerians to rise up and defend democracy.

Pereotubor also said This is dangerous for our democracy. Nigeria is heading to the cliff.

Relevant stakeholders need to rise in defence of our hard earned democracy. President Buhari should call his overbearing security agencies to order before they plunge the Country into an unmitigated crisis.

There can be no democracy where there is no dissenting voices. Mr. President should accept that our democracy cannot exist without opposition elements to his government. Chief Clarke who is an elder statesman, his views on national issues need to be appreciated by the Government of the day instead of being witch hunted.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!The states Commissioner of Police, Mr Mohammed Danmallam, made the disclosure in Enugu on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Danmallam said that within the first six months of the year, the command also recovered 231 cartridges and arrested 1,874 persons for various offences in the state.

According to him, the recovered arms include: 10 AK47 rifles; 33 pump action guns; 56 locally-made pistols (single barrel) and 36 locally-made pistols (double single).

We also recovered 12 locally-made cut to size short guns; three locally-made revolver short guns; 11 Berretta pistols and 17 single barrel long guns under the period under review, he said.

The commissioner also stressed that 1,008 cases were reported to the command in the period under review.

Among 1,874 persons arrested, 1,680 persons were charged to court and 356 of them had so far been convicted by the court.

We have 718 of them still undergoing trial in different courts across the state, he said.

Danmallam also revealed that the command recovered N1.5 million cash within the period under review.

He attributed the success of the command to dedication of officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force serving in the state.

The command had also enjoyed a robust relationship with sister security agencies and the good people of the state, especially Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi that keep on supporting the police in all its efforts to fight crime and criminality, he said.

The commissioner, however, recalled that by the time he took over in February, 2017, the rate of heinous and violent crimes in the state was high.

He said the security situation has improved to the extent that the state is so crime-free and peaceful that people attend social functions, even late at night.

He also told NAN that the challenges facing the command included shortage of manpower and logistics, inadequate communication gadgets, vehicles, motorcycles, offices among others.

Danmallam said that police personnel needed adequate enumeration to get motivated to fight crime the more and sustain the peace in the state.The Public Relations Officer of the Police Command in the state, DSP Terna Tyopev, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Jos that the incident occurred on Monday.

Tyopev said the youths also vandalised a police patrol vehicle.

NAN reports that gunmen had on Sunday night attacked Lopandet community, killed 11 persons and injured scores of the residents.

You will recall that Lopandet community of Jos South local government area was on Sunday attacked by gunmen during which 11 persons lost their lives and many others got injured.

As usual, we mobilised our men to the area to forestall further attacks and ensure law and order.

Unfortunately, the youths of the community attacked some of our men and injured Inspector James Gomos and Sgt. Muazu Adamu, of our A Division.

The youths also vandalised one of our patrol vehicles, the police spokesman said.

He said the injured officers were currently receiving treatment at the Police Clinic, Jos.The former Akwa Ibom State governor dumped the People's Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives' Congress (APC) and announced his defection to hundreds of supporters at a rally held in his honour in Ikot-Ekpene on August 8, 2018. His defection came in the wake of significant political defections in the other direction as three state governors and dozens of lawmakers, including Senate President, Bukola Saraki, dumped the APC for the PDP.

While speaking during an interview on Roadmap 2019, a political programme on Channels Television, Akpabio said he moved to the APC to ensure that the defections from the APC to the PDP did not crash the current government.

According to him, all the other politicians that dumped the APC for the PDP only did it for selfish interest, a situation he tried to correct by dumping the PDP for the APC to help the current government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said, "I won't say it was a spur-of-the-moment decision but I'll rather say that what actually happened was that I saw a situation where the country was likely to go into crisis as a result of what has been called sudden defections. I saw a systematic attempt to bring democracy to an end in the country.

"In the People's Democratic Party (PDP), we suffered a major setback when in 2014, or thereabout, we had some governors with some chieftains who walked out on us at Eagle Square during the national convention and thereafter, they teamed up with a couple of others and the APC was formed.

"We thought it was a joke but it turned out at the end of the day after the 2015 election, we suffered major defeat, and I think that was the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent Federal Government would be defeated by the opposition. It was also a fantastic beauty for democracy. It was a good sign for Africa."

Akpabio further argued that the government of the day needs to be supported by everyone so that it is not distracted by other things that don't contribute to the nation's growth.

"If we vote a government into power and we don't support that government to succeed, then we're not going to bequeath a better nation to future generation of Nigerians. Continuous distraction of governments in the past has resulted in a lot of dislocation of policies and stunted growth," he said.

He continued by arguing that the defections of others to the opposition party was an attempt to bring down the government and urged for unity to better the country's fortunes.

He said, "I don't think the movements that we saw from APC to PDP were prompted by national interest. I think most of those things were based on personal interests of individuals. Some thought that they may not be able to win elections, some thought they had offended the principalities in their party, and so they decided to move.

"For me, I saw a situation where the ruling party was not only being distracted but the movements were capable of bringing down the government. We need to have Nigeria before we can have election. A country can crash under three months.

"I just assessed the situation and I said that I needed to contribute my quota towards stabilising the situation, towards ensuring that people realise that it wasn't all about conspiracy to bring down a government."The presidential aspirant said this while speaking in Lagos on Monday, September 3, 2018, noting that the country is dealing with a retired military general in charge.

Atiku said unlike then-president, Goodluck Jonathan, who peacefully conceded defeat to Buhari after the 2015 presidential election, he's very concerned about Buhari doing the same.

He said, "We are dealing now with a retired general (Buhari), very uncompromising, also power-drunk who will not be ready to leave power without a fight - or at least those are some of my fears for the current elections."

Atiku further described Jonathan as "much more level-headed" and a "peaceful, very patriotic Nigerian" in contrast to Buhari who was military Head of State between 1983 and 1985.

Atiku to battle long list of aspirants for PDP's ticket

While he's one of the favourites to win the presidential ticket of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku will have to defeat a lot of influential politicians who have also set their eyes on the prize.

He faces competition in Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, Gombe State governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, and former governors, Sule Lamido, Attahiru Bafarawa, Jonah Jang, Ahmed Makarfi, as well as Rabiu Kwankwaso.In a statement issued on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, the lawmaker disclosed that the leadership of his constituency bought him a nomination form to persuade him to run, prompting him to bow to the wishes of his people.

He said, "My people, the good people of Enugu West Senatorial District, including the Enugu West Peoples Assembly, Members of the National Assembly, Council Chairmen, members of the Enugu State Executive Council, Enugu State Chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, leaders of the PDP from Enugu West, among others gave me a surprise on Sunday.

"They presented to me the PDP nomination form for the Senate, which they purchased for me, requesting that I return to the Senate in 2019.

"My people, my primary employers have spoken. I have no choice than to humbly accept to run for the Senate again."

Ekweremadu was first elected as representative of the Enugu West Senatorial district in 2003 and has been winning re-election ever since. He was elected Deputy President of the Senate in 2007 and has regained his position twice since then.According to Daily Post, he also said that he will bring Nigeria out of economic darkness.

He said Our nations economy has been destroyed by APC government which has made things hard for its citizenry.

There is insecurity in the land because of the inability and failure of the federal government to end Boko Haram sect attacks and killings by herdsmen.

If given opportunity to become president, my administration will unite all ethnic groups so that we will join hands to make Nigeria a great county .

In his response, the Abia PDP chairman, Johnson Onuigbo said I must sincerely commend you for having the interest of the country at heart. Because, presently Nigeria is undergoing difficult times due to the failure of APC-led federal government to transform the economy.

ALSO READ: Lagos PDP declares support for Atiku Abubakar

I want to urge you to put whatever you want to do before God, because he is the only one who determines who becomes president or governor.

Also, former Senate President David Markhas said that he will fix Nigerias economy in two years if elected President in 2019.According to a report by Daily Trust, Shekarau's media aide, Sule Ya'u Sule, said the former governor has already met with Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and will soon make his defection public.

He noted that Shekarau's defection was caused by the actions of the PDP's national leadership who he accused of favouring another former Kano governor and presidential aspirant, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso.

He said, "I want confirm to you that Shekarau has decided to defect from PDP to APC due to the injustice meted on him and his supporters by the PDP leadership.

"My boss has met with Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in Abuja yesterday and concluded plans for our return to APC. He will meet with all the stakeholders concerned in Kano and then make his decamping public."

Shekarau had initially dumped then-opposition party, APC, in 2014, for the PDP saying his decision was to satisfy the aspirations of the people of the state who felt left out from the APC.He stated this after submitting a petition to the partys National Chairman, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The petition is on the imperative of adopting direct primaries to nominate its candidates that will contest the 2019 general elections.

Sani said the petition was sequel to the debate that came up after the APC sixth National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting adopted indirect primaries to elect its candidates for the forthcoming elections.

He said that indirect primaries was a ploy to use public funds in bribing delegates to toe a pre-determined line of action.

The lawmaker, who represents Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Senate, also described indirect primaries as a factory for producing stooges and a labour room for corrupt practices.

He urged the partys leadership to deal with political corruption by eliminating indirect primaries.

The delegate system, otherwise called indirect primaries, will rely on the whims and caprices of the few that now control the party after emerging from ward, local government and state congresses.

The congresses that have been widely rejected by party members as a sham.

We are particularly in opposition to indirect primaries because of the weakening effects of its corruptive tendencies.

The entire process begins and ends with vote-buying, and as it is always the case, where the will of the electorate is subverted, the best candidates for the task ahead, never gets recruited.

It is our humble opinion that the forthcoming 2019 general election is too crucial for the APC and Kaduna state.

It is too strategic for us to confront the array of near formidable candidates of the opposition with anything less than our very best candidates, he said.

Sani maintained that indirect primaries stand as direct antithesis to the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption at all levels."

According to him, APC having promoted the change mantra must shine the light onto those dark places in the countrys electoral system where ill-gotten wealth is used to subvert the will of the electorate.

He said that ill-gotten wealth was also used to perpetrate the vicious circle of corruption, bad governance and weak and dysfunctional institutions and processes.

Sani pointed out that the proponents of indirect primaries, particularly the Kaduna state governor, were relying on the pretext that the current security situation in their respective states made direct primaries impracticable and risky.

This proposition, the senator said, out-rightly contradicted the claims by Gov. Nasir el-Rufai that Kaduna state had overcome his security challenges.Frank who decried the rise in Nigerias external debt noted that approving more loan requests would amount to mortgaging the future of Nigerians.

In a statement on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, Frank accused the Buhari-led government of mismanaging previous loans.

Frank wondered how the Nigeria's external debt profile "skyrocketed" from $10 billion in 2015, to $22.08 billion as at June 30, 2018 -- representing a whopping 114.05 per cent -- according to statistics from the Debt Management Office (DMO).

Despite over 100 per cent rise in the nations external debt under the Buhari administration, there is little or nothing on ground - in terms of concrete economic, social and infrastructural development to justify the huge debt already incurred by Buhari, Frank said while reacting to the $328 million loan from China.

The astronomical rise in the nations Foreign debt portfolio under the present administration has become worrisome. President Muhammadu Buhari should stop mortgaging the future of Nigerians.

Nigerians have not seen the proposed dividends accruable from these loans, otherwise, Nigeria would not have emerged the poverty capital of the world with over 87 million people living in extreme poverty - according to a report by the Brookings Institution on the World Poverty Clock, recently.

If something is not done urgently to stop these huge loans being amassed by Buhari, the countrys future will be in jeopardy and our childrens children will certainly turn slaves to our creditors. Unfortunately, this is the kind of future that Buhari is preparing for Nigerians - both living and yet unborn.

Nigerians only hear of loans that the present administration has incurred in the last three years, but there is nothing on ground to show that such amounts have come into the Federal coffers for development, he stated.

The former APC chieftain accused the federal government of returning the country to pre-1999 debt level which former President fought hard to cancel.

This is not the way Buhari met Nigeria and he must not be allowed to worsen the economic condition of the country further, having failed to improve it. The National Assembly owes the country a duty to stop approving incessant foreign loan requests by Buhari.

The world also owes Nigeria a duty to stop granting these loans because they are not being utilized for the welfare of the people, he stated.Minutes after photos of their meeting emerged on social media, Mr. Kenneth faced sharp criticism from a section of the public, who questioned the reasons behind his sudden appearance.

Mr. Kenneth, who is known to be very active during election periods, was not one to keep quiet when the attacks were fired on social media. He replied to his attackers fearlessly.

One John Kimunyi said: "Huyu Kenneth anakujanga tu time ya uchaguzi then anaishia.

Mr Kenneth fired back stating: "Is it really time for the election? discussing national issues."

Another tweep Victor Odipo posted: You unearthed him from his hiding place? I like the way you address him as former Assistant Minister (referring to Mr. Kenneth). Respect."

In response, the former MP said: "Hiding from what?"

Arch Kibwege said: "amefufuka."

Replying to Kibwege Mr. Kenneth questioned: "Who was dead?"

Here are other reactions:

Kenneth met with Mr Odinga to discuss the 16-percent VAT imposed on petroleum products in the country.

The former Prime Minister assured Kenyans that a solution to finance the expensive Government budget will be found without overburdening the public.

"Earlier today I met former Assistant Minister Peter Kenneth and among the issues we discussed is the legitimate concern that the rising cost of fuel will touch all other areas and could cause food inflation and demands for higher pay by workers, which will hurt employers.Buenos Aires (AFP) - Former president Cristina Kirchner appeared in court on Monday for the second time in relation to a corruption case that has rocked Argentina's political and business elites.

























Two weeks after the Senate voted to partially lift senator Kirchner's congressional immunity so that investigators could search her three homes for evidence linking her to the so-called notebooks corruption case, she was back before Claudio Bonadio, the judge leading the corruption investigation.

She was questioned for half an hour on Monday morning, having also been interviewed last month.

Kirchner submitted a letter to the judge reiterating her "categorical and strict denial" that she "committed any crime" or was involved in "any illicit activity."

The 65-year-old, president from 2007 to 2015 after succeeding her late husband Nestor, is suspected of having accepted millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen in exchange for public works contracts.

More than a dozen former government officials and 30 elite businessman are implicated in the case first reported by La Nacion newspaper on August 1, claiming that millions in bribes were delivered by a ministerial chauffeur to Kirchner's residences, both during her presidency and her husband's.

Her former vice president Amado Boudou has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for "passive bribery" and conduct "incompatible" with his duties as a public servant.

Kirchner, though, remains defiant and told Bonadio in her letter that his investigation had "destroyed each and every guarantee that makes up due process" without producing "the minimum proof to justify the crimes with which I have scandalously been accused."

Facing trial in several other corruption cases, she has previously accused Bonadio of carrying out "judicial persecutions" aimed at derailing a possible run for the presidency next year.

She has compared her case to that of former Brazilian president and fellow leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is serving a 12-year jail sentence for accepting a bribe and was on Friday barred from standing in next month's presidential election.

Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli has said a total of $160 million in bribes was handed over during a 10-year period from 2005-15, allegedly from business leaders toBuenos Aires (AFP) - Former president Cristina Kirchner appeared in court on Monday for the second time in relation to a corruption case that has rocked Argentina's political and business elites.

Two weeks after the Senate voted to partially lift senator Kirchner's congressional immunity so that investigators could search her three homes for evidence linking her to the so-called notebooks corruption case, she was back before Claudio Bonadio, the judge leading the corruption investigation.

She was questioned for half an hour on Monday morning, having also been interviewed last month.

Kirchner submitted a letter to the judge reiterating her "categorical and strict denial" that she "committed any crime" or was involved in "any illicit activity."

The 65-year-old, president from 2007 to 2015 after succeeding her late husband Nestor, is suspected of having accepted millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen in exchange for public works contracts.

More than a dozen former government officials and 30 elite businessman are implicated in the case first reported by La Nacion newspaper on August 1, claiming that millions in bribes were delivered by a ministerial chauffeur to Kirchner's residences, both during her presidency and her husband's.

Her former vice president Amado Boudou has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for "passive bribery" and conduct "incompatible" with his duties as a public servant.

Kirchner, though, remains defiant and told Bonadio in her letter that his investigation had "destroyed each and every guarantee that makes up due process" without producing "the minimum proof to justify the crimes with which I have scandalously been accused."

Facing trial in several other corruption cases, she has previously accused Bonadio of carrying out "judicial persecutions" aimed at derailing a possible run for the presidency next year.

She has compared her case to that of former Brazilian president and fellow leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is serving a 12-year jail sentence for accepting a bribe and was on Friday barred from standing in next month's presidential election.

Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli has said a total of $160 million in bribes was handed over during a 10-year period from 2005-15, allegedly from business leaders to politicians in exchange for public works contracts, all meticulously recorded by a government driver.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue University Extension is hosting a series of free workshops to help farmers, educators and researchers with projects related to sustainable agriculture get the funding to turn their ideas into reality.

Each year funding is made available through the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) grant program. Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, SARE awards funding for farmers and ranchers, youth educators, and researchers to follow through on innovative sustainable agriculture projects.

"SARE fills a unique niche in that grants can actually be used to fund work on the farm or in the classroom that deal with production and/or marketing issues that impact sustainability," said Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension-Hancock County educator and Indiana SARE state coordinator. "More funds are being made available in this cycle, and our workshops are designed to guide people through the grant application process to increase their odds of submitting a successful proposal."

Ballard said funding is available in broad categories for farmers and ranchers, researchers, those who work with youth, and for partnerships between farmers and other ag professionals.

The Extension workshops will explain the grants' purpose, help participants refine their ideas and discuss how to submit a competitive application. Workshop registration must be done at least three days prior to the session date and can be completed online at http://bit.ly/INSAREGRANTS2019 or by calling 812-349-2575. Additional information about the SARE grants or the workshops is available by contacting Ballard at 317-462-1113, rballard@purdue.edu.

Workshop dates and locations

* Sept. 11, 6-8 p.m. Hosted by Purdue Extension Johnson County at First Financial Bank, 1250 N. Emerson Ave., Greenwood.

* Sept. 24, 6-8 p.m. Hosted by Purdue Extension Hancock County, 802 Apple St., Greenfield.

* Sept. 25, 10 a.m. Workshop via online webinar/conference call. Participants will be sent login instructions by email after registering.

* Oct. 3, 6-8 p.m. Hosted by Purdue Extension Monroe County, 3400 S. Walnut St., Bloomington.

* Oct. 9, 2-4 p.m. Hosted by Purdue Extension Newton County at the Government Center, 4117 S. 240 West, Suite 600, Morocco.

Source: Roy Ballard, 317-462-1113, rballard@purdue.edu

Media contact: Maureen Manier, mmanier@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu

Agriculture News PageAuckland hopsital intensive care specialist Dr Shay McGuinness discusses a new piece of international research involving NZ doctors and over 500 Kiwi patients which looks set to change the way surgeons operate on older patients undergoing heart surgery.

He says that patients over 75 did better when given less blood transfusions during heart surgery.Thailand sees a lot more begging tourists than headlines would suggest, says a local journalist.

A photo of Western backpackers begging strangers to fund their holiday at a local market has caused international outrage, with the pair writing that they had run out of money after travelling for 15 months.

Phuket-based journalist Tim Newton told RadioLIVEs Wendyl Nissen that his team typically find instances of begging backpackers (or "begpackers") every few weeks.

They come here, they run out of money, and end up on the streets, said Mr Newton.

The Western backpackers were first caught begging for travel funds at a Phuket market and were fined 500 baht (about NZ$12).

"My name is Alex," read a sign at the Phuket market. "I'm travelling in Asia for 15 months. Sadly, I'm out of my savings, but I stay positive."

But the duo were caught begging again, according to Mr Newton, and had changed their tune with a sign indicating their motorbike had been in an accident.

The backpackers were a 21-year-old Ukrainian and 30-year-old Russian, and had been at it for three weeks, according to Mr Newton.

I think the problem a lot of people see is that theyre not really doing anything other than just sitting there.

If they were playing a musical instrument or even magic tricks or standing on their head, we might be more inclined to give them a bit more money and have a laugh with them, said Mr Newton with a chuckle.BELGIUM: Infrabel has started work on the 3 kV DC electrification of the single-track Line 19 from Mol to Neerpelt and the Dutch border at Hamont. Wiring of the 33 km route is expected to cost 475m, of which 40% will be financed by the European Union.FINLAND: Greater Helsinki area regional transport authority HSL has prequalified all seven companies which expressed interest in a contract to operate commuter train services around the capital for 10 years from June 2021.Press freedom in Myanmar has been dealt a severe blow following the imprisonment of two Reuters journalists who had been investigating the killing of ten Rohingya people in a village in Rakhine State.





On Monday (3 September) the reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were found guilty in Yangon of contravening the countrys Official Secrets Act and sentenced by a district judge to seven years in jail. The judgement followed 39 court appearances and 265 days of imprisonment since the pair were arrested in December 2017.Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen J Adler said the two reporters had been convicted without any evidence of wrongdoing and in the face of compelling evidence of a police set-up. The verdict, he said, was a major step backward in Myanmars transition to democracy.The United Nations, the European Union and countries including the United States, Canada and Australia have all called for the journalists release.US ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel said the deeply troubling verdict could undermine the confidence the Myanmar people had in the justice system. While British ambassador Dan Chugg, speaking on behalf of EU member states, said the verdict had dealt a hammer blow for the rule of law.Simon Spanswick, chief executive, Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) said: Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were working for a major international news agency carrying out a **legitimate investigation into killings in the country https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events/**. This is a clear case of responsible journalism being silenced by the authorities who fear the uncovering of truths that could harm their legitimacy.This Association joins with other organisations and the diplomatic community in Myanmar in condemning these verdicts and their negative impact on journalism and freedom of expression in the country. We call on the authorities to overturn these sentences at the earliest opportunity and demonstrate to the world community that the country respects journalistic freedom .The journalists imprisonment comes after the publication on 27 August of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar report, which called on the investigation and prosecution for genocide and crimes against humanity of Myanmars top military generals, including Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing.The question of whether Silicon Valley is biased against conservatives was back in the news recently, along with the usual denials of ideological bias and apologies that any perceived bias was merely a human or algorithmic accident. The problem is that for all their assurances of impartiality and bias-free moderation, the social media platforms refuse to release any data that would prove or disprove their neutrality. They also make it nearly impossible to understand why they remove a particular piece of content.

Take last months actions by Facebook when it removed links to an article by Salena Zito. A veteran political reporter who covered the 2016 campaign with distinction for The Atlantic and New York Post, Zito wrote a piece explaining why Donald Trump voters have not changed their views despite the convictions of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. Zito posted a link to her story on her personal Facebook page at 7:55 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 23. Within two hours, she heard from friends who couldnt access the post and whose own posts linking to her work had also been removed. In each case Facebook said it had removed the post either because it was considered spam or because it violated the companys content standards.

As is typical in such cases, Zito tried exhaustively to contact Facebook to ask why it had censored her writing and to get it to correct its mistake, to no avail. Only when the ban itself provoked an outcry did the company restore the posts and offer its boilerplate statement: Yesterday we fixed an issue affecting our automated systems that caused some posts to be incorrectly marked as spam. We have restored the posts that were affected and we apologize for the inconvenience. When asked why some of the posts were allegedly flagged as violating its content standards instead of being listed as spam, the company declined to comment.

Unfortunately, Zitos experience is merely par for the course in todays online dictatorships, in which a handful of private companies now control what we are permitted to read and write, subject only to the whims of their founders. Even though social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are where we increasingly consume news, as private companies they are not subject to First Amendment protections of free speech and can legally ban anyone they dislike and delete any viewpoints they disagree with.

Even the criteria for what constitutes banned speech is largely secret and constantly changing. After Twitter mentioned last week that a set of accounts it had deleted were sharing divisive social commentary, it declined to address how it defined divisive social commentary. It clarified that accounts were not removed based on their content, but rather on secret metrics related to their behavior that the company will not divulge. When asked then why it mentioned divisive social commentary in its official announcement if those deletions had nothing to do with the content of the tweets, the company also declined to comment.

Social media companies are not accountable to anyone but their shareholders, meaning they have little incentive to make it easy for users to complain when their posts are deleted or their accounts suspended. They typically decline to take any action or even respond in a timely fashion when they mistakenly delete a post or account. Ordinary users who run afoul of Facebooks opaque rules have little hope of the company responding to their complaints and little recourse. It usually takes a public outcry and a growing media storm before Twitter and Facebook will reverse themselves and issue the predictable statement about human or machine error and apologize for the inconvenience.

Given the growing number of suspensions, deletions and other actions against leading conservative voices and the lack of recourse to reverse those actions, it is unsurprising that Silicon Valley has faced increasing concern over whether it exhibits ideological bias. The companies freely acknowledge that their staffs tend to be overwhelmingly liberal but argue that their written policies explicitly prohibit bias and thus there cannot be bias.

Some critics have described the sum of all of this work as a banning of conservative voices, Twitter executive Nick Pickles told a Senate committee earlier this year. Let me make clear to the committee today that these claims are unfounded and false.

Similarly, in response to concerns over shadow banning, the company acknowledged impacting Republican accounts, but argued that it had also impacted Democratic ones and thus there was no bias. However, Twitter declined to offer a breakdown of those accounts. Nor did it provide the list of Democratic accounts it claimed to have affected, so it is impossible to evaluate its claims. Facebook has similarly argued that it is ideologically neutral.

These are companies that live and breathe data and employ armies of top data scientists who understand their platforms. It seems obvious that they have this information, so why dont they provide it?

When asked whether Facebook could offer any actual statistics to support its claims that it does not exhibit bias against conservatives, the company declined to comment. It also declined to comment on whether it had actually attempted to measure whether it had bias. Similarly, a Twitter spokesperson forcefully denied that the company had ever exhibited bias against conservatives, but when asked whether it had ever attempted to measure how often it took action against conservatives versus liberals, the company declined to comment.

If Twitter and Facebook were so confident in their ideological neutrality, one would assume both companies would readily release reams of statistics proving it. Instead, they stonewall reporters questions while disseminating opaque statements that blame any appearances of bias on secretive behavioral indicators about how accounts interact with each other and that perhaps Republican accounts behave differently, without offering further details.

Those on the left laud Silicon Valley for suppressing what they see as harmful content, while those on the right condemn it for censorship. All the while, we have precious actual data to know whether any of these claims are true.

Why does this matter?

It matters because of the deeper questions it raises with regards to the biases of the online world. Could Facebooks and Twitters content moderators be taking action more often against conservatives because of subconscious implicit biases? If so, that has grave implications towards their impartiality. Could the issue be algorithmic, where machine learning algorithms have inadvertently learned to suppress conservative speech? Or have the suspended conservative voices simply engaged more forcefully in behaviors like bullying or using bots? If the latter, are the companies applying those same standards evenly to all and are there lessons we can learn in how to improve our online discourse?

In the end, the real story is not whether there is ideological bias. It is about the absolute power a handful of companies in California now wield over what Americans are allowed to say and see online -- as well as the companies total lack of accountability. As Twitters CEO testifies before Congress on Wednesday, perhaps hell finally offer some hard numbers to prove the companys neutrality, but more likely it will merely be a day of more empty assurances.As the Senate Judiciary Committee begins its four-day hearing on Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court, it should be interesting. The committee is closely split between 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Two of the latter, New Jerseys Cory Booker and Californias Kamala Harris, are rumored to be considering runs for president in 2020. That raises the odds that the hearing will become a circus of hysterical rhetoric designed to appeal to an ever-more-extreme Democratic base. Make no mistake, their questions wont be so much about Judge Kavanaugh himself as they are about getting sound bites on camera for future campaign ads.

Booker already made a splash by saying back on July 24 that those who were not fighting the Kavanaugh nomination were complicit in the evil. Besides sounding unhinged, such comments expose as farce the Democratic argument that they need a kitchen-sink document production from every executive branch office in which Kavanaugh worked in order to assess his nominationthe same nomination they opposed with such vehemence from the get-go.

Senate Democrats have cynically tried to characterize the most extensive document production in Judiciary Committee history as somehow deficient, applying a double standard to the well established process of review that occurred when Elena Kagan was nominated. They are also raising Cain over the absence of documents from Kavanaughs tenure as White House staff secretarya non-legal position where he did not dispense substantive policy advicewhile conveniently ignoring the fact that papers from Kagans tenure as solicitor general were not produced, despite their probative value for a Supreme Court nominee who never served as a judge.

The reality: The Judiciary Committee has been provided over 440,000 pages of documentsmore than twice the volume produced for any prior Supreme Court nominee. And any honest and informed observer would admit that Kavanaughs over 300 published judicial opinions offer the best insight into the kind of Supreme Court justice he would make.

A look at the nominees actual record on the bench reveals a remarkably fair-minded jurist who goes where the law takes him and whose decisions diligently protect both the structural design and the individual rights established by the Constitution. His judicial opinions show him to be a legal heavyweight of the highest caliber. On at least 14 occasions, the Supreme Court has adopted positions Kavanaugh advanced in his opinions, whether he was writing for a majority on the D.C. Circuit or in dissent.

That is why Kavanaugh draws support from serious constitutional litigators and scholars who self-identify as liberal, including Lisa Blatt, who has argued more cases before the high court than any other woman, and Yale Law School Professor Akhil Amar. Both will testify on Kavanaughs behalf during the hearing. Their testimony will supplement a letter to the Judiciary Committee from a bipartisan group of 41 Supreme Court litigators (including Blatt) praising the nominee as an outstanding jurist and another from Robert Bennett, who represented President Clinton in the Paula Jones matter during the 1990s, noting Kavanaughs innate sense of fairness and calling him the most qualified person any Republican President could possibly have nominated.

But never mind the substantive record. Viewers of the hearing can expect the oppositions subterfuge to run deep. Democratic senators will grill Kavanaugh on how he would rule on hot button issues likely to come before the court. Although the longstanding practice is to refrain from answering such questions, expect faux outrage from Democrats when Kavanaugh does the same.

As for his own decisions as a judge, get ready for a lot of Democratic speechifying about cases based not on their legal merit but on which party won. That in turn betrays their dangerous premise: A judges role is to put his or her thumb on the scale for a favored party when deciding cases, blurring the distinction between law and policy.

The upside (if there is one) to an increasingly sensationalistic nominating process is that these hearings can teach an important civics lesson about the proper role of unelected judges in our system of representative democracy. We can expect Kavanaugh to manifest the thoughtful, articulate, judicious qualities observed by so many who know him. That in turn will expose the smear campaign against him for what it is: the desperation of Democratic senators who see courts as a vehicle to impose their policy preferences, and who are tripping over each other to position themselves further and further to the left.

The truth, of course, is Kavanaugh is a mainstream jurist. He is widely respected by members of the bar across the ideological spectrum who recognize his fairness, independence, and decency. He adheres to the Constitution and listens to all sides of an argument before applying the law wherever it takes him. That is the proper role of a judge, and that is exactly what the American people expect from a Supreme Court justice.Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale

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We're sorry, this article is not currently availableReality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low near 45F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low near 45F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.TORRINGTON  Several school districts in Connecticut have announced that students will be dismissed early Tuesday as the temperature remains warm.

Districts that have announced planned dismissals include: West Haven, Litchfield, Milford, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, Norwalk, Regional School District 6, Simsbury, Stamford, and Torrington.Speaking in a Sept. 4 interview in the RFA studio with Vuthy Huot of RFA's Khmer Service, the former chief of Cambodia's now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party says that international pressure will soon force Prime Minister Hun Sen to free jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha, who has been jailed for more than a year without trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.

RFA: In recent public forums with CNRP supporters, you have expressed your optimism that Kem Sokha will be released very soon. What makes you believe that?

Sam Rainsy: I know that Hun Sen is now under tremendous pressure from the international community to release Kem Sokha immediately. I am very confident that Hun Sen cannot dodge such pressure. He will have to release Kem Sokha in the very near future.

RFA: Hun Sen has already released several political prisoners. Is this a sign that Hun Sen wants to restore democracy and negotiate with the CNRP for a political solution?

Sam Rainsy: Hun Sen will have to face the international community. Sam Rainsy and the CNRP do not need to negotiate with Hun Sen. The Cambodian government lacks legitimacy, and without this it it is going to fail. Hun Sen is now at a dead end. He has no other option but negotiation with the international community for a way out.

RFA: Do you believe that Hun Sen is ready for such negotiation? He seems to become very agitated when people talk about a possible negotiation with the CNRP.

Sam Rainsy: Hun Sen is very selfish person. This is his nature. However, he has to change. If he wants his government to be legitimate, he has to release Kem Sokha, arrange for a re-election, and reinstate the CNRP so that we can join the election.

RFA: Is it fair to say that it is not enough that Hun Sen has released the political prisoners?

Sam Rainsy: Yes, it is. Hun Sen has killed democracy. He has done this by dissolving the CNRP, which is the main and only viable opposition political party in Cambodia. Any election that has no opposition party is considered a sham and unacceptable. And any assembly that is formed from such an election is null and void. Any government that is formed based on the results of such an election is not recognized either.

RFA: Apart from waiting for the international community to put pressure on Hun Sen, what can you and the CNRP do as your next move to bring back democracy?

Sam Rainsy: We are now holding Hun Sen accountable for all the mistreatment he has inflicted upon us. What he has done is unacceptable to the Cambodian people and the world. I wish to make it clear to Hun Sen that Cambodia relies heavily on the support of the democratic countries and that Cambodia cannot survive by relying just on communist countries like China or Vietnam.

Hun Sen has crossed a red line. He has been strongly condemned by the world, and if he does not reverse his course of action, he will surely be sanctioned. He cannot ignore the power of international pressure. Chinas support is not what Cambodians want. China also supported the Khmer Rouge, who killed millions of Cambodians. It is tragedy that China is involved again in Cambodias internal affairs.

RFA: Are you relying only on international pressure to make Hun Sen back down?

Sam Rainsy: We also rely on our own solidarity and unity. Hun Sen wanted to see us divided. But we remain united and even stronger. Hun Sen hoped to intimidate us, but we are not intimidated. The CNRP remains strong. Our commune councilors remain loyal to the CNRP. Our main strategy is to stay united and strong. Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy are one. I strongly believe that I will be able to meet with Kem Sokha in the near future.

RFA: Do you believe in targeted sanctions?

Sam Rainsy: Yes, I do. Certain individuals including Hun Sen, his family members, and senior officials should be sanctioned for the death of democracy in Cambodia.

RFA: If the international community sanctions Hun Sens regime, who do you think should be blamed?

Sam Rainsy: Hun Sen is the one who is responsible for all of this. He lacks any sense of good leadership. He is shortsighted in terms of economic diversification. Cambodia under Hun Sen relies economically on the textile industry. Where can Cambodia sell its products after the EU and US sanction Cambodia? Cambodia cannot export its products to China. China is Cambodias competitor.

I would like to make it clear to all factory workers in Cambodia that when sanctions are mounted against Hun Sen and his regime by the international community, it will not be the CNRP that is to blame. Hun Sen must be held responsible for that, because he undermines democracy and abuses human rights.

RFA: What do you think is the best chance for Cambodia to avoid being sanctioned?

Sam Rainsy: The only choice we have is to ensure that democracy is restored. Hun Sen must step down. Hun Sen must not hold Cambodians hostage. Whatever sanctions the international community may impose will be aimed at Hun Sen. However, he holds factory workers hostage. He does not want to be sanctioned all by himself. He diverts the sanctions onto the workers. So, Cambodians must stand up and demand that he step down. Only after democracy is restored will we have freedom, better employment, and other opportunities for growth for young Cambodians.

RFA: What was the purpose of sending your son to meet with Hun Sens son in Japan?

Sam Rainsy: It was an opportunity for our two sons to meet and talk. It was an unofficial meeting. Our friends in Japan arranged it. However, the CNRP still stands by its position that Hun Sen himself has to fix the mess he has created.

RFA: Why do you think the Cambodian courts continue to detain Kem Sokha for over a year now without a trial?

Sam Rainsy: Hun Sen is in big trouble now. He has accused Kem Sokha of attempting to topple his government. Knowing that the CNRP is a nonviolent political party, Hun Sen looks for excuses to implicate Kem Sokha in collusion with foreign powers, including the U.S. and Germany. Hun Sen has accused them too of being involved in this. Will Hun Sen issue a summons for Donald Trump and Angela Merkel for questioning? That is impossible. This is why Hun Sen continues to drag on and on regarding this case.

RFA: Is this why you are optimistic regarding an imminent release of Kem Sokha?

Sam Rainsy: Yes, it is. Hun Sen can choose to continue detaining Kem Sokha without a trial, but that is a very bad idea. Hun Sen can also release him on bail. This option is also very bad, but a better one. Hun Sen can also pretend to proceed to bring Kem Sokha to trial. But how is it possible to summon superpowers for a trial in kangaroo-court Cambodia? The final option is to drop all charges against Kem Sokha and release him immediately and unconditionally.

Reported by Vuthy Huot for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Richard Finney.Journalists in Hong Kong have hit out at its government for carrying out a ceremony to hand over control of part of a high-speed railway station to China without informing the media.



The Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) said the government had carried out the ceremony late at night "without giving prior notification to the public nor inviting the media to cover the event."



"We condemn such arrangement, which is inappropriate," the group said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.



Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam sought to dismiss criticisms on Tuesday, denying there was "a ceremony as such," but a government press release issued in the early hours of Tuesday did describe it as such.



"The Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr. Frank Chan Fan, and the Deputy Secretary General of the People's Government of Guangdong Province, Mr Lin Ji, jointly hosted a ceremony to mark the commissioning of the Mainland Port Area at the West Kowloon Station to commemorate the moment," the government said in a statement on its official website.



Officials from mainland China, a separate legal jurisdiction from Hong Kong, will begin working in the terminus building "to make final preparations" for the inauguration of a new high-speed rail service connecting the former British colony to the rest of China.



Lawyers and pro-democracy politicians have said there is no constitutional basis for the government to cede parts of its jurisdiction to the mainland, but a spate of judicial reviews hasn't succeeded in halting implementation of a new law allowing Chinese law enforcement to operate in Hong Kong.



The city's lawyers say the Hong Kong immigration department, not the mainland Chinese border police, should be in charge of entry and exit control checks for passengers entering and leaving the city, citing its mini-constitution, the Basic Law.



Hong Kong's status as a separate legal jurisdiction had until recent years protected its residents and visitors from arbitrary prosecutions carried out for political reasons.



But student protesters, pro-democracy lawmakers, and "localist" politicians who want a greater degree of separation from mainland China have been jailed, disqualified, and stripped of office in recent years as Beijing's National People's Congress standing committee has staged a string of high-profile interventions in the city's political life.



Rights groups have warned that peaceful dissidents could now also face the threat of arbitrary detention by Chinese law enforcement in the station, within Hong Kong city limits.



The HKJA said the public is "highly concerned" about the arrangement, which cedes control over part of the city's territory to China.



"The commissioning of the Mainland Port Area and the stationing of mainland officers at the terminus will bring about profound impacts in Hong Kong," the group said.



Government broadcaster RTHK quoted Lam as saying that some of the officers will be on overnight shifts at the station, but they won't be allowed to leave the mainland-controlled area and will head back across the internal border once their shifts are over.



Legislative Council (LegCo) member and barrister Tanya Chan accused the Hong Kong government of giving "cagey" responses to media questions about the details of the new arrangement, which was billed as a convenient way to speed high-speed rail passengers through immigration controls.



"The general public was under the impression that no mainland law enforcement personnel would remain in the mainland port area of the terminus outside of train running times, and that they would come back the next day; that was the original plan," Chan said. "



But the investigative news agency FactWire published a photo of a sign that read "Entry and Exit Bureau security staff dormitory," suggesting overnight sleeping arrangements were likely.



Secret floor



Chan also hit out at revelations of a hitherto entirely secret B5 basement floor by the HK01 news website that hadn't been in published plans of the station.



Station operators the MTR Corporation said the B5 floor was for "emergency" use, and wasn't under mainland Chinese control.



Chan called on the Hong Kong government to make public the documentation related to the newly revealed B5 basement floor, the existence of which was until Tuesday only known to a "small circle" of people, according to HK01.



"The MTR claims that this is an escape route, but I think this is a bit paradoxical," Chan said. "If it's an emergency escape route, then why do only a few people know about it? Surely the whole point of an escape route is that a lot of people know about it?"



Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper reported that the MTR would foot the bill for feeding 700 mainland staff at the station, at a cost of around U.S. $12 million a year.



The MTR said in a news release on Tuesday that around 20,000 visitors had turned up to look at the terminus on its open day event over the weekend.



"Impressed by the magnificent design of the station, visitors grasped the opportunity to familiarize themselves with station facilities," the corporation said.



High-speed "bullet trains" will start operating between Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese high-speed network on Sept. 23, it said.



Under the terms of the 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong was promised a "high degree of autonomy" and the maintenance of existing freedoms of speech, publication and association, as well as a separate legal jurisdiction, for at least 50 years.



But recent interventions by Beijing in the political and cultural life of the city, including edicts from the National People's Congress that resulted in the disqualification of democratically elected lawmakers and potential election candidates, have led many to conclude that those freedoms are likely a thing of the past.



Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Authorities in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian have fired a university history professor after he hit out at declining moral values in a post on social media.



Zhou Yunzhong was fired from his job as assistant professor of historical at Fujian's Xiamen University on Aug. 1 after making a post to Weibo.com that "distorted Chinese historical reality, harmed the image of the [ruling Chinese Communist] Party and the country [and] hurt the feelings of the Chinese people," the university said in a statement on its website dated Sept. 1.



Zhou's tweet had also "crossed a red line in terms of teachers ethics and behavior, and exerted a pernicious influence on society," the statement said.



In the offending tweet under the nickname Donghai Daozi, Zhou said: "The highest achievements of the Chinese people consist of lying, cooking the books and issuing fake contracts."



He added that he wouldn't let his kids eat out, because "Chinese people just love to poison each other."



A meeting of middle-ranking officials and Communist Party leaders at the university decided on Sept. 1 that Zhou hadn't responded to attempts to offer him "education," and had "repeatedly made wrong comments on Weibo," the university said.



"The university investigated and decided to terminate its employment relationship with Zhou Yunzhong," in keeping with disciplinary rules, it said.



The meeting also terminated the research program of PhD student Tian Jialiang after she referred to China by a cultural slur on social media, and expelled her from the ruling party, it said.



Repeated attempts to contact Zhou by e-mail went unanswered by time of publication.



Zhang Zanning, a former law professor at Dongnan University, said he had also been fired over "sensitive and outspoken speech" on social media.



"They are killing the chickens to frighten the monkeys," Zhang said. "They are giving a warning to students that they should be careful what they say."



"They are so afraid of anything to do with freedom and democracy; they are terrified ... of [those things], because they represent a huge threat; they are very clear about that," he said.



'Cultural Revolution' mood

Fujian-based rights activist Zhuang Lei agreed.



"The kinds of controls we have on freedom of expression right now are intended mostly to suppress dissent," Zhuang said. "Any professors of conscience who speak out are being muzzled ... Overall, it is a terrible situation right now."



U.S.-based political commentator Chen Kuide said Zhou's tweet may have used hyperbole, but referenced real problems in 's China, amid rampant official corruption and a wave of public health scandals.



He said current controls on speech under President Xi Jinping were akin to the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) under late supreme leader Mao Zedong.



"We're nearly back at the Cultural Revolution again; it's really gone too far," he said. "I don't think things can go on for another year like this."



Official Chinese media have recently written of a "zero-tolerance" policy for "incorrect speech."



Xie Tian, professor at the University of South Carolina, said Zhou's firing is indicative of an ever-tightening regime of political controls in Chinese universities.



"This is the worst it has been since the Cultural Revolution," Xie said. "Some people are too timid to speak out, but in others we are seeing a big backlash."



"Suppression at these levels will engender a backlash, and it will be sudden."



Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Shi Shan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Soldiers from the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Shan State Army-North walk through a wooded area in Myanmar's Shan state, Sept. 4, 2018.

Representatives from a coalition of ethnic armies based along the China-Myanmar border will meet with members of the governments peace commission in southwest China on Wednesday to discuss ways to end decades of civil war, a spokesman for one of the militias told RFA on Tuesday.

The meeting will mark the first time that the Union Peace Commission is meeting with the Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), said TNLA spokesman Brigadier General Ta Phone Kyaw.

The three groups, which along with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) make up the Northern Alliance military coalition, have not signed the governments 2015 nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) because of ongoing hostilities with the national army.

The TNLA, AA, and MNDAA will meet with the governments peace commission on Sept. 5 in Kunming, Ta Phone Kyaw said, adding that he and others from the TNLAs information team will attend the event.

We will talk with them [Union peace commission members] about ways to stop the fighting and to start discussions, he said.

We hope to have a good result since we finally have a chance to meet with governments peace commission, he said, adding that the meeting is a good step.

In April 2017, the Northern Alliance joined a political coalition called the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC) with three other ethnic armed groups  the United Wa State Army (UWSA) the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N).

By teaming up with the UWSA, Myanmars largest ethnic army with a force of some 30,000 troops, the Northern Alliance moved from being primarily a military alliance to a political one, according to a July 2018 report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) which collects data on political violence in developing states.

Sun Guoxiang, special envoy for Asian affairs under Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, has facilitated the meeting in Kunming, capital of southwest Chinas Yunnan province, and is serving as mediator, Ta Phone Kyaw said.

China, which provided support to Myanmar to hold a third round of peace talks in July under the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government, has said that it firmly opposes any attempt to undermine peace and stability along the China-Myanmar border and any act deliberately obstructing Myanmars peace process.

China is also believed by security experts to be the direct or indirect source of weapons for many of the ethnic armies fighting the Myanmar government.

Previously, the Myanmar army refused to negotiate with the FPNCC and Northern Alliance on account of the inclusion in the coalitions of the AA, TNLA, and MNDAA, which all lack bilateral cease-fire agreements with the military.

All members of both coalitions, however, attended the third and most recent session of the governments peace talks as observers and met in separate groups on the sidelines of the conference with leaders from the armed forces and government, including military commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ongoing clashes in Shan state

Some ethnic armed groups have continued to fight the Myanmar military in the border areas in their quest for a democratic federal union in the country with a constitutional guarantee for a certain degree of autonomy for ethnic minorities.

The ongoing hostilities, particularly in Shan and Kachin states, have stymied the peace process and have led to delays in scheduling rounds of meetings.

So far, 10 ethnic armed groups have signed the NCA, which forms the foundation of the governments peace talks.

Myanmar forces and the TNLA are engaged in hostilities in the northern part of Shan state, while the TNLA and the Shan State Army-North (SSPP/SSA-N), the armed wing of the Shan State Progress Party, are also fighting rival Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army-South (RCSS/SSA-S) troops.

TNLA and SSA-N troops have launched offensives on RCSS/SSA-S soldiers in Namtu township since July 5, military officials from the TNLA and SSA-N combined unit said Tuesday.

More than 2,000 people from Namtu township are fleeing to safer places because of fighting, they said, adding that they have warned local residents to exercise caution when traveling through the area.

Leaders of the combined forces also said that they will continue their offensives against the RCSS/SSA-S troops until they retreat from SSA-S headquarters in Loi Tai Leng, a town located in the mountainous region of southern Shan state.

The TNLA has been fighting both the Myanmar army and the RCSS/SSA-S in Shan state since late November 2015.

Troops from the TNLA have also clashed with SSPP/SSA-N forces at least four times around Namtu township since December 2017 over apparent territorial disputes, though both armies are members of the FPNCC, according to the ACLED report.

Overall, more than 10,000 civilians have been displaced by fighting in volatile areas of Shan state.

Reported by Tin Aung Khine for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.As Thailand prepares to extend work permits for 11,000 foreign migrant workers, including many in the fishing industry, a Human Rights Watch official called on the government Tuesday to outlaw forced labor.

Phil Robertson, a deputy Asia director for the global rights watchdog, praised the Thai government for ratifying an International Labor Organization (ILO) protocol on forced labor earlier this year, but he urged officials to pass a standalone law criminalizing such workplace practices.

Were worried the Thai government is hesitating to fulfill its commitment to pass such a law in the face of unprincipled opposition by the National Fisheries Association of Thailand (NFAT) and other employer groups who dont want to take responsibility for forced labor practices against migrant workers from Burma [Myanmar], Cambodia, and elsewhere, he told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

At a news conference in Bangkok on Tuesday morning, Robertson joined members of the Migrant Working Group, a coalition of NGOs focused on health, education and labor rights to call for government action. Last week, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan announced that the government would extend for two years the work permits set to expire at the end of September.

In January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report and video challenging the government over deplorable conditions for migrant workers in the nations fishing industry. The 134-page report based on more than 200 interviews, spelled out how migrants  many of them from Myanmar and Cambodia  could be forced to work on fishing boats, prevented from changing employers, have their pay held or not be paid a minimum wage.

But NFAT Chairman Mongkol Sukcharoenkana said a new law was not needed.

We in fisheries sector do not care about the claim about victimized laborers or the call for such law because we have solved those problems already, Mongkol told BenarNews.

He added that about 10,600 fishing boats were active in Thailand, down from more than 42,000 when Thailand received a yellow card warning from the European Union (EU) in April 2015.

That warning meant Thailand could face a ban on exporting seafood to the EU because of unregulated practices in the fishing industry.

Vice Admiral Wannapol Klomkaew, deputy secretary of the governments Command Center for Combatting Illegal Fishing, also played down the need for such a law, citing prosecutions of cases involving the mistreatment of foreign workers.

Since mid-2015, the courts have punished defendants in 42 of 88 cases regarding abusive or enforced labor practice in fishing sector and human trafficking, he told BenarNews without elaborating.

We have PI-PO (port-in port-out) centers that examine the fishing boats so there is no place for illegal laborers. ... We track employers with bad records, Wannapol said.

Despite such comments from officials, Robertson said the country needed to protect workers.

The decision point is now because Thailand needs to pass a forced labor law before the end of this year, or face the scorn of the international community, he said.

Some employer federations are claiming that if Thailand passes a criminal law against forced labor then foreign investors will not make investments here. My question to Thailand is why in the world would you want an investment from a company that wants to use forced labor? Its better to tell that kind of investor to go somewhere else.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.Police in south-central Vietnams coastal Quang Ngai province on Monday attacked a crowd of hundreds who had gathered outside government offices to demand the release of 31 protesters detained over the weekend following clashes over pollution from a waste-processing plant, Vietnamese sources say.



Many were beaten in the assault, with at least one injured and sent to a hospital, sources at the scene told RFAs Vietnamese Service.



We had invited authorities to come talk to us, but when we got here they sent police out to beat us, one woman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



Many were beaten, including men, women, and children, and one pregnant woman had a miscarriage, the woman said, adding, We came to the Pho Thanh communes peoples committee to talk to the chairman, but he refused to talk to us, and let the police deal with us.



Speaking to reporters on Sept. 4, vice director of Quang Ngai police Col. Vo Van Duong said that protesters had taken three hostages on their arrival at the commune offices, releasing one woman but holding a policeman and the waste plant manager until about 4:00 p.m.



"What they did was very dangerous and was a crime," Duong said, quoted in state media.



The clash came after local residents demanded that authorities release 31 protesters detained by police on Sept. 2 after about 500 residents blocked a nearby highway, causing an hours-long traffic jam and throwing stones at police, local sources said.



Police sources put the number still held at only nine, however, saying that others initially detained had only been fined.



Plant resumes operations



The crowd had blocked the road after hearing news that a waste-processing plant blamed for local pollution had resumed operations after being closed for several days following protests beginning in July, another protester told RFA, also speaking on condition of anonymity.



The protests began on July 29 when people objected to the plant because it was built in a location too close to our homes, and because [local authorities] did not consult with us when they built it there, he said.



On Aug. 23, the vice chairman of Quang Ngai province admitted that mistakes had been made in building the plant and promised to move it to another location, and after that the plant suspended operations.



But on Sept. 2, we found out that it was working again, he said.



After asking commune authorities to verify the news, they refused to come talk to us, he said, adding, We waited for a long time, and then we got upset.



People blocked Highway 1A so that the police would see us and file a report about the plant, he said.



Protests against processing plants and factories that emit pollutants in Vietnam are not uncommon and pose a challenge to the communist states authority.



A toxic spill by Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group in central Vietnam in April 2016 polluted more than 125 miles of coastline along four provinces and prompted a slew of protests by resident, fishermen, and tourism industry workers who lost their livelihoods to the environment disaster.



Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Richard Finney.PUL-E KHOMRI, Afghanistan -- The governor of Afghanistan's northern province of Baghlan says Afghan security forces have recaptured a strategic district from Taliban fighters who have controlled the area in recent weeks.

Governor Abdulhai Nemati told RFE/RL the government's offensive to retake the district of Nahrin ended on the morning on September 4 after the Taliban withdrew during the night.

Nemati said at least six Taliban fighters were killed and 14 were wounded during an operation that began early on September 3. Nemati did not provide casualty figures for government forces.

RFE/RL's correspondent in Baghlan Province reports that hundreds of civilians fled their homes during the fierce 24-hour battle, which destroyed several houses in the district.

One disabled woman in the area told RFE/RL that she was "among very few people" from her neighborhood that did not flee the fighting.

"Almost everyone in our neighborhood fled. I couldn't join them because of my disability. Had I been able to walk I would have left, too," the woman said.

"People fled carrying their belongings," a local man said. "Old and young, women and children, all fled, some by foot, some on donkeys."

Nemati said government forces were continuing a "search and clearing operation" in theNahrin district on September 4.

There was no immediate comment about the battle from the Taliban.

Meanwhile, in the nearby province of Balkh, Afghan security forces have launched an offensive against Taliban fighters who seized a series of villages to the west of Mazar-e Sharif on September 2.

Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh said late on September 3 that government security forces hoped to retake the Chari area of Balkh's Dawlatabad district "soon."

The Taliban in recent months has carried out a series of operations to expand its control over rural areas in northern Afghanistan and has briefly taken control of some urban areas in Afghanistan, including parts of the city of Ghazni to the southwest of Kabul during August.

With reporting by Bashir Ahmad Ghezali of RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan in Pul-e KhomriARMAVIR, Armenia -- Farmers in western Armenia have blocked a major highway leading to the capital, Yerevan, to push their demand that distillers offer a higher price for grapes grown in local vineyards.

The protest action early on September 4 paralyzed traffic, causing delays for many drivers and commuters.

The farmers in the region have contracts with the Yerevan Brandy Company for the supply of produce.

They complain that a local branch of the firm in western Armenia lowered its purchasing price in 2018 by about 4 cents per kilogram.

Meanwhile, the farmers say their production costs have increased in 2018 and they are dissatisfied with the current purchasing price of about 25 cents per kilogram.

They say that price only covers the cost of producing their crops and leaves them with no income.

Prices for chemicals and diesel fuel have increased, one farmer involved in the September 4 protest told RFE/RL. They do not explain how they set the purchasing price. Today they set one price. Tomorrow they may lower it.

Gagik Gabrielian, the deputy governor of Armenia's western province of Armavir, told RFE/RLs Armenian Service on September 4 that liquor firms offer a price for grapes based on the quality and quantity of the produce.

Falling grape prices have been a recurrent problem for Armenian farmers in the wine-growing region of Armavir, in particular.

In some recent years, distillers have gone so far as to cut the volume of their purchases, citing falling sales.

With reporting by RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent Gayane SaribekianArmenia is willing to take part in the reconstruction of Syria, Armenian parliament speaker Ara Babloyan has said during a meeting with the Syrian ambassador to Yerevan, Muhammad Haj Ibrahim.

Aided by the Russian military, Syrian government forces have recently restored control over much of the territory of the Middle Eastern country torn by years of war, and Damascus is now seeking help to rebuild the country and restore its economy.

Russia is seeking greater Western involvement in the reconstruction of Syria. The United States and its allies, however, are tying reconstruction assistance to a process that includes UN-supervised elections and a political transition in Syria. Washington blames Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the country's devastation.

The hostilities since 2011 have affected a sizable ethnic Armenian community in Syria. Tens of thousands of Syrian Armenians fled their homes, with many of them given refuge in Armenia in recent years.

During the meeting with the Syrian ambassador on September 3, Babloyan expressed hope that "peace, internal political stability, and public solidarity will soon be established in Syria."

He also expressed his gratitude to the Syrian legislature for its activities towards the recognition of the Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians as genocide.

Many Syrian-Armenians are descendants of survivors of the 1915 massacres who found refuge in Aleppo and other Syrian cities and towns.

Ambassador Ibrahim said the Syrian-Armenian community had played an important role in the country, describing it as "an integral part of the Syrian society that has vastly contributed to the country's development."

"What the Syrian people have seen during these recent years is like what Armenians saw in Western Armenia," he said, referring to the part of historical Armenia that is now in Turkey, according to the Armenian parliament's website.KAMYANKA, Ukraine -- A Ukrainian human rights groups says Russian-imposed authorities in Ukraine's occupied Crimea region have detained family members of a Crimean Tatar activist.

Crimean Solidarity, which has members in Crimea as well as Ukrainian government-controlled territory, says relatives of activist Zarema Kulametova were detained on September 4 when police searched the family's home in the eastern town of Staryy Krym.

Kulametova's husband, Zekkiy, and their adult daughter Riana were taken away after they argued with police who were conducting the search, the rights group says.

Riana Kulametova told RFE/RL earlier on September 4 that the authorities detained her activist mother in a local park while she was serving a community-work sentence she received in April on a charge of insulting a police officer.

Masked men in military uniforms on September 4 also searched the home of another Crimean Tatar activist, Marlen Mustafayev.

Mustafayev's relatives say the searches started in his house in the village of Kamyanka early in the morning. They say the authorities provided no explanation for why they were conducting the search.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-installed authorities who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow's seizure and illegal annexation of the peninsula.Deep in the forests of Karelia in northwestern Russia, digging is under way to find the graves of Red Army soldiers from the World War II era that may have been executed while prisoners of war by their Finnish captors.

At least that is how the Russian Military-Historical Society (RVIO), which is carrying out the excavation work, describes the project.

"The expedition has begun," the society's spokeswoman, Nadezhda Usmanova, told RFE/RL's Russian Service. "As we announced, the work began on August 25 and it is proceeding according to our plans."

Locals, however, are concerned about the excavations. They are being carried out around the Sandarmokh memorial, which marks the mass graves of at least 9,000 victims of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's executioners.

They suspect the Military-Historical Society's real intention is to rewrite the history of the site to cover up Stalin's crimes against his own people and to turn the location into another shrine to the achievements and sufferings of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Stalin's image has been steadily rehabilitated to emphasize his role in industrializing the country and leading it to victory over Nazi Germany while downplaying the purges, forced collectivization, mass political repressions, deportations, and labor camps that characterized his decades in power.

Putin has accused Russia's critics of using the "excessive demonization" of Stalin "to show that today's Russia carries some kind of birthmarks of Stalinism."

Sandarmokh was originally identified and studied in 1997 by prominent historian Yury Dmitriyev, who heads the Karelia branch of the Memorial human rights society. Thanks to his work, historians have identified 6,241 of the victims by name and the site has been given protected status.

Dmitriyev was arrested in December 2016 on child pornography charges that he denies. He was acquitted in April after spending 13 months in custody.

In June, authorities rearrested him and charged him the following month with committing sexual assault against his adopted daughter. The 62-year-old historian says the campaign against him is aimed at discrediting his research into Stalin's crimes because it complicates government efforts to glorify the Soviet past.

"I am mostly afraid that [the new excavations] are being done in order to discredit Yury Dmitriyev, who has devoted his entire life to establishing justice and demonstrating the scale of the victims, of the tragedy, of the actions of the Stalinist executioners," said Emilia Slabunova, head of the Karelian branch of the liberal Yabloko party, who has asked prosecutors to stop the Military-Historical Society dig.

"Their goal is to say that there were no executions of Stalinist victims but that Finnish occupiers shot Soviet prisoners of war instead. They are looking for a way to extricate themselves from this scandal."

She suggested that authorities fear their reputation "has suffered pretty significant damage because of the scandal surrounding Dmitriyev's arrest, adding, "Now they need to somehow discredit the important work that he did over more than 20 years."

The hypothesis that the bodies of executed Soviet prisoners of war could be in the area was first put forward by Yury Kilin and Sergei Verigin, historians at Petropavlovsk State University. However, they speculated that their remains would be found near Medvezhegorsk, where a POW camp was located, some 12 kilometers away from Sandarmokh.

They could not be reached for comment on this story.

"The idea was first formally put forward here in Petrozavodsk," said local journalist Gleb Yarovoi, who has been writing about Sandarmokh and Dmitriyev's work for many years. "The idea was discussed and it was decided to form an international group so that everything would be done openly, transparently, and objectively, and this group would decide about possible excavations and so on. But in the end, the authorities pushed Petropavlovsk University aside and the Russian Military-Historical Society took over the matter."

The Military-Historical Society was founded by Russian presidential decree in 2012 and is the project of Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky and nationalist politician and Roskosmos head Dmitry Rogozin. Among other things, it sets itself the task of "educating Russian citizens, particularly youths, in the spirit of love, dedication, and selfless service to the Motherland and respect for Defenders of the Fatherland and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation."

Medinsky, who has been a leading figure in the Kremlin's efforts to glorify Russia's imperial and Soviet past, has been criticized for, among other things, the lack of academic value of his doctoral dissertation on the topic of how foreigners purportedly propagate tendentious, biased views about Russia. In October 2017, a leading academic commission recommended that his degree be rescinded because the dissertation did not use original sources, ignored relevant research, and "said nothing new."

"Many people don't have confidence [in the Military-Historical Society], beginning with the fact that it is headed by Vladimir Medinsky, who is famous for his fake dissertation," Yarovoi said. "So now there are people with dubious reputations in professional circles working at Sandarmokh."

Military-Historical Society spokeswoman Usmanova insisted that the project is entirely aboveboard and being conducted professionally.

"We have received all the necessary documents," she told RFE/RL. "The [Military-Historical Society] is a very serious organization. Professional searchers, anthropologists, and specialists are working [at Sandarmokh]. They have all the necessary equipment."

Usmanova added that the searchers had recovered three bodies that they believe were Red Army POWs within the first few days. Two more bodies were found later.

"They were approximately the same age and height," she said of the corpses. "They were relatively young men. They were dressed in clothing of the same fabric. Their hands were tied, and they had bullet wounds to the head. Nearby, we found three shell casings that we believe were of foreign origin. An analysis is being carried out.

"Experts tell us that it is likely that they were prisoners of war," she said.

Journalist Yarovoi said he is worried that the Military-Historical Society is rushing to judgment.

"The searchers say they think the executions most likely happened in the summer because the bodies were buried at a depth of 2 or 2 1/2 meters, which is rather deep," he told RFE/RL. "No one is likely to dig that deep there in the winter. So according to them, the executions were in the summer; but then why were these people wearing overcoats and felt boots? In addition, the poses and the depth at which the bodies were found were typical for Sandarmokh victims. Soviet prisoners had their hands tied behind their backs when they were taken from Medvezhegorsk and were brought in that state to Sandarmokh to be shot, standing on their knees. There are many archive photographs in which Finns are shooting our POWs. Generally, the victims are standing with their hands tied in front. It is completely unclear what [the Military-Historical Society] has found there."

Yarovoi is convinced that the society's purpose is to "cast a shadow over Sandarmokh as a place of historical memory connected with the Great Terror."

They want to be able to claim that the bodies of Red Army soldiers are buried there in order to change the memorial from one dedicated to Stalin's victims to one honoring the military.

"That is the main idea," he said. "And it completely fits in with what is happening today [in Russia as a whole]. They are sanitizing our memory. In some cases, they destroy it. In some cases, they sow doubts..."

Irina Flige, the director of the St. Petersburg branch of Memorial, participated in the original investigations of Sandarmokh led by Dmitriyev in the 1990s. She also believes that the Military-Historical Society's aim is to muddy the legacy of the site and the reputation of Memorial.

"We talk a lot about historical memory," she said. "But I will tell you honestly -- Russia has no historical memory; these are just words that people use. We have no point or line that would separate the past from the present. We might have that if there had been an acknowledgment of the arrests and the torture and a condemnation of those who committed crimes against the nation and against humanity.

"Many years have passed, but this has not happened. So now we have people who think the Soviet terror was just a random episode, who are falsifying a criminal case against Yury Dmitriyev. That is the inheritance that we have been left."

Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting by RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Lyubov ChizhovaAQTOBE, Kazakhstan -- A trial is under way in Kazakhstan against five men charged with being responsible for a bus fire in an isolated northwestern part of the country that killed 52 Uzbek citizens in January.

The defendants, all Kazakh citizens, pleaded not guilty late on September 3 at the start of the trial in the city of Aqtobe.

Three drivers of the bus were charged with involuntary manslaughter and violating fire-safety regulations in vehicles.

The two other defendants are employees of Asia Transit Service, a company based in southern Kazakhstan that owned the bus.

They were charged with using a technically unfit vehicle for commercial purposes.

One of the company employees, a low-level manager, also has been charged with negligence and forging documents.

The fire occurred in the northwestern region of Aqtobe on January 18 as the bus was en route from the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent to the Russian city of Samara.

Investigators later determined the cause of the fire was an open flame on a portable gas cooker that was being used by passengers for heat during the long journey.

Officials have said the bus was a 29-year-old German-built Setra that did not have a license to transport passengers.

Authorities also said the vehicle's technical safety certificate had expired in 2016.

Many migrant workers from Uzbekistan travel to Russia along several lengthy routes passing through Kazakhstan.

* A previous version of this story contained an incorrect photograph.The founder of the Haqqani network, one of Afghanistan's most dangerous and feared militant groups, has died after a long illness, the network's ally, the Afghan Taliban, has announced.

Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose son Sirajuddin Haqqani now heads the brutal group and is also the Taliban's deputy leader, died "after a long battle with illness," the Taliban said in a statement in English on Twitter early on September 4.

The Taliban claimed that Jalaluddin "was from among the great distinguished Jihadi personalities of this era."

The United States, after allying with Haqqani to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, by 2012 had designated his organization a terrorist group.

The elder Haqqani was paralyzed for the past 10 years, AP reported. Because he had not been heard from in several years, reports of his death were widespread in 2015.

Haqqani was once a minister in the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion in 2002 that followed the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Prior to the U.S. invasion, Haqqani fostered close ties with Arab extremists, including the now-deceased Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, who set up militant camps in Afghanistan before being run out of the country into hiding in Pakistan by U.S.-led NATO forces.

The Haqqani network has been blamed for spectacular attacks in Afghanistan in recent years.

It was blamed for the truck bombing in the heart of Kabul in May 2017 that killed around 150 people, though the group denied its involvement.

The network has also been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Westerners for ransom.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and ReutersAn influential Iranian cleric says Europe is not helping to preserve a nuclear accord between Iran and world powers by demanding additional talks on issues like Tehran's ballistic missiles, the country's state media reported.

"Europe has announced that they won't leave the deal. In practice, by bringing up a discussion of missiles and other issues they are not following an appropriate path," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati was quoted as saying on September 4.

Jannati heads Iran's Assembly of Experts -- a group of conservative clerics tasked with supervising the work of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On August 30, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned that Iran and world powers "must talk" on certain "subjects that worry" the West.

"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," Le Drian said.

The French minister's comments echoed some reasons given by U.S. President Donald Trump to justify his withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May and to reimpose U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Trump's administration says it wants to bring Iran back to the negotiating table, but Iranian leaders have ruled out renegotiating the landmark 2015 deal.

Since Trump's move, the other parties to the accord -- China, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany -- have been trying to find ways to salvage the agreement.

Based on reporting by Reuters, IRNA, and AFPDutch bank ING has agreed to pay fines and other payments of 775 million euros ($900 million) after admitting serious shortcomings in executing policies to prevent financial crime, including bribe payments by an international telecommunications provider to an Uzbek company.

"Clients for years were able to make use of ING bank accounts for criminal activities pretty much undisturbed, Dutch prosecutors said in a September 4 statement.

The Amsterdam-based bank said it regretted that its mistakes let customers use their accounts for criminal activities such as money laundering and corrupt practices between 2010 and 2016.

The bank was fined 675 million euros and also ordered to pay a 100 million euro disgorgement payment to make up for not spending enough on staffing for implementation and execution of customer due-diligence policies and procedures over the six-year period.

The investigation by Dutch authorities found no evidence that any ING staff had helped customers who may have used banking services for potential criminal activities.

Prosecutors detailed several examples where ING accounts were used for crimes.

Among them was international telecommunications provider VimpelCom that "transferred bribes worth millions of dollars via its bank accounts with ING to a company owned by the daughter of a former Uzbek president."

The statement referred to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of late Uzbek President Islam Karimov.

VimpelCom, which has changed its name to VEON, in 2016 agreed to pay almost $800 million to settle bribery claims in the United States and the Netherlands after investigators said the bribes were paid to a Gibraltar-based shell company controlled by Karimova.

Seperately, three former executives from the Stockholm-based telecom giant Telia, which used to be known as TeliaSonera, went on trial in Sweden on September 4 in a high-profile bribery case also involving Karimova.

The three defendants are accused of paying $350 million to Karimova in return for a mobile-phone license in Uzbekistan and for the "protection" of the Uzbek government.

With reporting by Bloomberg, the BBC, and AFPIranian authorities have detained Reza Khandan, the husband of prominent jailed human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

Khandan's arrest early on September 4 comes just hours after he raised concerns in a Facebook post about human rights violations in Iran, including the imprisonment of human rights defenders and the prosecution of women who have campaigned against the Islamic hijab.

Khandan has publicly campaigned for the release of his wife, who was arrested in June. A source who did not want to be named told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that charges against Khandan include acting against national security and promoting "anti-hijab" activities.

Amnesty International called on Iranian authorities to "immediately and unconditionally" release both Sotoudeh and Khandan.

"First the authorities jail Nasrin Sotoudeh on bogus charges, then harass, intimidate and threaten her family and friends, and now arrest her husband," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"These callous actions illustrate the lengths to which Iranian authorities will go to silence human rights lawyers, even targeting their families," Luther said in a statement on September 4.

Sotoudeh is currently being held in Tehran's Evin prison, where she started a hunger strike on August 25 in protest at her unjust detention and the authorities' pressure on her relatives and friends.

Sotoudeh's hunger strike was announced on the Facebook page of her husband.

Authorities arrested Sotoudeh, 55, on June 13 to serve a five-year sentence issued against her in absentia in September 2016 for allegedly carrying out "activities against national security in collaboration with domestic and foreign antirevolutionary elements," according to Human Rights Watch.

International rights groups and the U.S. government have denounced the arrest of the lawyer, who earlier in 2018 represented several women detained for publicly protesting the compulsory hijab.

Sotoudeh's lawyer said earlier this month that she had also been accused of espionage on top of the other charges.

Sotoudeh -- the co-winner of the European Parliament's 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought -- has denied all charges against her.

As outspoken critic of the Iranian establishment, Sotoudeh previously has spent several years in prison on security charges, including acting against Iran's national security. She has defended journalists, rights activists, and juveniles.Israel's defense minister has said the Jewish state will not rule out staging air strikes on suspected Iranian military targets in Iraq after carrying out deadly raids on Iranian facilities in neighboring Syria in recent years.

"We are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria and, regarding Iranian threats, we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory. This also needs to be clear," Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a news conference in Jerusalem on September 3.

Lieberman's statement comes after Reuters reported that Iran recently transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Shi'ite militia allies in Iraq.

"I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesn't matter from where it comes," Lieberman said. "Israel's freedom is total. We retain this freedom of action."

There was no immediate response from the governments of Iran or Iraq, or from U.S. Central Command in Washington, D.C., which oversees U.S. military operations in Iraq.

Israel's Channel 1 television reported that in recent weeks, the United States asked Israel not to attack in Iraqi territory.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on September 1 that he was "deeply concerned" by the Reuters report of Iranian missile transfers to Iraq. Tehran and Baghdad both denied that report.

"If true, this would be a gross violation of Iraqi sovereignty and of UNSCR 2231," he tweeted, referring to a UN Security Council resolution endorsing Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The Trump administration abandoned that deal in May, citing, among other factors, Iran's ballistic-missile projects.

Israel began carrying out air strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iran and its Lebanese ally, the Shi'ite Hizballah militia.

These operations, which have resulted in the reported deaths of dozens of Iranian troops and allied militia fighters, have largely been ignored by Russia, Damascus's biggest ally, which intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015.

Reuters reported that the Israeli military operations in Syria have been coordinated with other "powers" conducting their own military operations there.

A Western diplomat told Reuters that Israel had a "free hand" in Syria as a result of that coordination, but it was expected not to take any military action in Iraq, where the United States has been trying to help the government achieve stability after helping to largely oust the Islamic State militant group from its Iraqi strongholds last year.

Israel and Iraq remain technically at war, though they have not openly exchanged fire in decades.

In 1981, Israel's air force destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. During the 1991 Persian Gulf war, Iraq fired dozens of Scud rockets into Israel, which did not retaliate, out of consideration for U.S. efforts to maintain an Arab coalition against Saddam Hussein.

With reporting by Reuters and AFPElderly, ill, and partially paralyzed, the founder of one of Afghanistan's most notorious and brazen extremist organizations had been out of the insurgency game for years. But Jalaluddin Haqqani leaves behind a legacy of deadly violence that threatens to live on for decades.



Haqqani, whose death at the age of 72 was announced on September 4, was a key mujahedin commander in the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he founded the eponymous Haqqani network, which quickly earned a reputation for brazen, high-profile attacks. And he ensured long ago that his fight would continue by handing the reins of his organization over to his son, Sirajuddin, who today also serves as the deputy leader of a key ally, the Afghan Taliban.

Experts say Haqqani's far-reaching legacy is secure and that neither his network's military might nor strategy are likely to be affected by his death.



Indiscriminate Attacks



The Haqqani network is notorious for its heavy use of suicide bombers in complex, urban attacks, indiscriminately killing civilians and Afghan and foreign security forces alike.



The group was blamed for the horrific truck bomb in the capital, Kabul, in May 2017 that killed around 150 people, although Sirajuddin later denied involvement.



The network was also blamed for some of the deadliest attacks carried out against foreigners, including a suicide bomb attack at a CIA base in the eastern province of Khost in 2009 that killed seven agents and wounded six.

"Haqqani helped the Taliban recalibrate after the U.S. invasion in 2001 because they had the setup and local support in Pakistan's tribal areas to mount significant attacks across the border in Afghanistan," says Hameed Hakimi, a research associate at the London-based think tank Chatham House.



"By having a suicide brigade, Haqqani also helped the Taliban create a much fiercer image. The complexity of the insurgency and the complexity of the attacks would not have happened without the alliance with the Haqqanis," he adds.

During the 1990s, Haqqani was a minister in the Taliban regime, which took power in Kabul in 1996. The Taliban, which brought its own fundamentalist brand of Sunni Islam to the scene and emerged victorious from the Afghan civil war, embraced Haqqani for his military skills, according to a declassified 1998 cable from the U.S. Embassy.

He was the only major mujahedin leader to join the Taliban and forged a close relationship with the late Taliban founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar.



'Close Buddies' With Arab Fighters



Al-Qaeda's influence on the network materialized in the post-2001 insurgency.



"What made Haqqani unique was his special relationship with non-Afghan, foreign terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda," says Omar Samad, an analyst and former Afghan ambassador who has advised senior Afghan officials.



"This relationship played a role in sharing new tactics and cross-training with those who used and justified suicide attacks as part of what they consider 'jihad,' or holy war," he says, describing the tactic as "an imported phenomenon that was not used in Afghanistan prior to 2001."

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, Haqqani used his Arabic language skills to forge close ties with Arab jihadists, including Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who came to the region during the war.



With funds from bin Laden, Haqqani established dozens of radical religious schools along the Afghan-Pakistan border, spreading a fundamentalist Islamic ideology. Haqqani also established training camps for Arab fighters that were later used by Al-Qaeda during the Taliban regime.



Many of the Arab fighters that still remain in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be protected by the Haqqani network in Pakistan's tribal belt.



A declassified 1998 cable from the U.S. Embassy said Haqqani "is close buddies with many Arab and Pakistani Islamists."



'Veritable Tool' For Pakistan



The Haqqanis have long been suspected of links to Pakistan's shadowy military establishment and its notorious spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).



Much of the group's ties with Pakistan were forged by Haqqani during the 1980s, when the guerrilla leader was one of the main beneficiaries of Pakistani and CIA money and weapons.



Haqqani's prowess during the jihad against the U.S.S.R.'s occupation of Afghanistan earned him praise from Washington. Haqqani was hailed by the late U.S. congressman Charlie Wilson as "goodness personified." He also visited the White House, and President Ronald Reagan once described him as a freedom fighter.



The Haqqani network was described by U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence that has provided safe havens for militant groups fighting foreign and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.



Designated a terrorist group by Washington in 2012, the Haqqanis are believed to have been operating from Pakistan's restive tribal region since 2001. The Haqqani family hails from eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.

"The Haqqanis have been a veritable tool and valuable asset for Pakistan in the past four decades," says Haroun Mir, a Kabul-based political analyst. "This is the reason why the Pakistani military has never abandoned them, even in the face of tremendous pressure from the United States."



Mir says Haqqani will be remembered as a "resistance hero in the 1980s and later [as] someone who strictly followed the Pakistani directive against the interests of his own people."Doctors and scientists increasingly suspect that weaponized microwaves were the cause of unexplained noises and illnesses that afflicted U.S. diplomats and their families in Cuba and China in the last year, The New York Times has reported.

The more than three dozen victims reported hearing intense, high-pitched sounds in their homes or hotel rooms, followed by symptoms that included nausea, severe headaches, fatigue, dizziness, sleep problems, and hearing loss.

While a medical study of 21 Cuba victims published in March did not mention microwave weapons as a cause, its lead author told the Times on September 1 that microwave weapons were now considered a primary suspect and that his investigative team was increasingly certain the diplomats suffered brain injury.

"Everybody was relatively skeptical at first...and everyone now agrees there's something there," Douglas Smith, the director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Times.

Neither the U.S. State Department nor the FBI has publicly blamed microwave weapons for the illnesses. The Times said it is still a mystery who might have carried out the microwave attacks and why.

Speculation among scientists has centered on the possibility that pro-Russian dissidents in Cuba might have used weaponized microwaves to try to thwart a warming of ties between Washington and Havana that occurred at the end of former President Barack Obama's term.

"I think thats a perfectly viable explanation," retired American scientist Allan Frey told the Times. Frey is credited with a discovery in the 1960s that led to research in both the United States and Russia on using microwaves as weapons.

After holding Cuba responsible for either carrying out the attacks or failing to protect U.S. officials, the United States in September 2017 recalled more than half of its staff from the embassy in Havana and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington.

Cuba has denied any role in, or knowledge of, the incidents.

In June 2018, the State Department announced it had sent home U.S. government personnel from China after they reported similar symptoms.

The Times said Frey was the first to discover that the human brain can perceive microwaves as sound, a revelation that led to experimentation with microwave weapons in both the Soviet Union and the United States.

Russia's military categorized the new class of microwave weapons as "psychophysical" or "psychotronic."

Russian state-run news agency TASS reported last month that Russia is currently developing weapons for its troops based on "new physical principles," including "laser and microwave guns" and "sonic weapons."

The Times said the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency warned in 1976 that Soviet research on microwaves showed potential for "disrupting the behavior patterns of military or diplomatic personnel."

A National Security Agency statement obtained by Washington lawyer Mark Zaid in 2014 said that a "hostile country" visited by a client in the late 1990s had "a high-powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate, or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence," according to a copy of the statement published by the Times.

The statement said that "this weapon is designed to bathe a target's living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system."

The Times said the U.S. military also researched weapons applications of microwaves, with the U.S. Air Force registering a patent on an invention shown to beam comprehensible speech into someone's head.

It said U.S. Navy researchers explored using microwaves to induce sounds powerful enough to cause painful discomfort, and even immobilize the subject.

The Times said it was not known if Washington deploys such weapons.

With reporting by The New York Times and AFPThe substance that killed a woman in England in June was the same Novichok nerve agent that poisoned a former Russian agent and his daughter in May, the world's chemical-weapons watchdog has confirmed.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on September 4 that laboratory tests of samples collected by its team "confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical."

However, it was not possible to conclude whether the nerve agent used in the May and June incidents was from the same batch, the OPCW said.

"The recklessness of the Russian state in bringing a nerve agent in to the U.K., and total disregard for the safety of the public, is appalling and irresponsible," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the poisonings.

On June 30, two people collapsed in a house in Amesbury, near the English town of Salisbury where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with Novichok in March.

Dawn Sturgess died in a hospital in July, while her partner, Charlie Rowley, later recovered.

Police said they were exposed after handling what they believed to be perfume.

The Skripals were found unconscious on March 4 on a bench in Salisbury.

They were seriously ill but later made a full recovery after spending several weeks in a hospital.

British officials said the two were poisoned with Novichok, a military-grade chemical weapon that was developed in the Soviet Union, and blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin's government for the attack.

U.S. sanctions against Russia over the March poisoning went into effect on August 27, targeting foreign aid, the sale of defense and security goods, and U.S. government loans for exports to Russia.

Relations between Moscow and the West have deteriorated to a post-Cold War low over issues including Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014, its role in wars in Syria and eastern Ukraine, and its alleged election meddling in the United States and Europe.

With reporting by the BBC, AFP, and ReutersKYIV -- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is calling for the nullification of a Ukrainian court ruling that gives authorities access to nearly 1 1/2 years of cell-phone data from an RFE/RL investigative reporter, saying the decision violates Ukraines own laws and Kyivs commitments to a free press.

The ruling stems from a criminal investigation into the alleged disclosure of state secrets to journalists in 2017 by Artem Sytnyk, director of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine.

On August 27, Kyiv's Pechersk district court approved a request from Ukraine's Prosecutor-Generals Office to let investigators review all mobile-phone data from a 17-month period of investigative reporter Natalia Sedletska, the host of Schemes, the award-winning anticorruption TV program by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Ukrainian Public Television.

RFE/RL spokeswoman Joanna Levison said the ruling was "inconsistent with Ukraines own commitments to promote and protect a free press."

"It creates a chilling atmosphere for journalists and should be nullified," Levison said in a September 4 statement. "That the request targets well over a year's worth of data belonging to a prominent Ukrainian investigative journalist raises deeply troubling questions about the real intent of those seeking the information."

The ruling allows the Prosecutor-General's Office to obtain information from Sedletska's service provider about all communications made to and from her phone from July 1, 2016, through November 30, 2017.

The Schemes program reported on several investigations involving senior Ukrainian officials during that period, including Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko.

Such actions also send a negative signal to other investigative journalists and, in general, erode the principles of press freedom and the protection of journalistic sources."

The Prosecutor-General's Office would be able to access all of Sedletska's phone contacts, as well as the date, time, and duration of all calls.

It also would allow authorities to review all text messages sent and received on Sedletskas phone during the 17-month period, as well as other data -- such as the investigative journalists location when she received or made each phone call.

In December 2017, during a meeting at the Prosecutor-General's Office with her lawyer that lasted several hours, Sedletska refused to testify about her private communications with confidential sources that were part of her investigative reporting.

Sedletska cited a law in Ukraine's Criminal Code that says "journalists cannot be questioned as witnesses" about "confidential information of a professional nature" provided by sources on the condition of anonymity.

Ukrainian lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem wrote on Facebook that the court's decision was "an example of creeping dictatorship."

Another member of the Verkhovna Rada, Olena Sotnyk, said the ruling "brutally violates" the country's legislation and international standards.

Serhiy Tomilenko, head of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, said his organization expresses solidarity" with RFE/RL and Sedletska and urged the authorities to stop creating an atmosphere of hostility toward journalists.

Oksana Romanyuk, director of a Ukrainian media rights watchdog called the Institute of Mass Information, condemned the court-ordered "eavesdropping" of Sedletska, saying it was "excessive interference" into the work of an investigative reporter whose work has focused on corruption allegations against high-ranking public officials.

"In this case, we are dealing with a violation of the protection of the journalist's source, which is guaranteed by Ukrainian legislation," Romanyuk told RFE/RL on September 4, adding that the court order applied "psychological pressure" on the journalist.

"Such actions also send a negative signal to other investigative journalists and, in general, erode the principles of press freedom and the protection of journalistic sources," she said.

Anatoliy Popov, an attorney representing RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service, also called the court ruling "excessive," saying it "puts pressure on the journalists work within the context of her professional duties and provides illegal access to her sources of information."

"With this ruling, the court granted the investigation access to a much wider amount of private information than is needed in the particular case," Popov said.

Popov noted that the investigation into Sytnyks activities was related to an off-the-record briefing that prosecutors allege Sytnyk gave to journalists in Kyiv in May 2017.

"The investigators got access to the private information of the journalist for a period of 17 months, even though such a wide range of data has no significance for the investigation," Popov said. "This is a fundamental violation and we will act accordingly."

Specifically, Popov said, lawyers are preparing a formal complaint about the Prosecutor-Generals Office "exceeding the limits of interference into a person's right to privacy and the protection of sources of information."

He said a complaint also would be filed against Pechersk district court Judge Vyacheslav Pidpalyi at the Supreme Council of Justice, a state body that advises the president about the appointment and release of judges, examines court infringements, and carries out disciplinary proceedings involving judges of high-level courts.

Popov said that complaint would seek judicial relief for "violations that were committed during the judicial review" in the case "and in the unjustified order" by Pidpalyi.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian ServiceAfghan lawmaker Homa Sultani is no stranger to controversy.



Representing volatile Ghazni Province in the lower house of the Afghan parliament, the Wolesi Jirga or People's Council, Sultani once claimed to have hosted and wept despairingly with fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar (who has since reportedly died).



In 2013, Sultani reportedly assaulted a policeman outside the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul, earning opprobrium for what the Afghan Interior Ministry described as "an illegal act."



In 2016, Sultani was criticized after reportedly praising a suicide attack that killed seven employees of commercial broadcaster Tolo Television. The Taliban had claimed responsibility. Sultani had been quoted as calling the suicide bomber a martyr and his victims bastards.



In the latest incident, the 44-year-old Soltani is accused of trashing a pastry shop in the Afghan capital amid a dispute with the shops owner, who reportedly kicked out several child beggars who entered the shop alongside Soltani and for whom Soltani had bought pastries.



CCTV footage that has gone viral on social media appears to show Sultani going on a rampage in the Aysan Pastry shop, smashing a glass display with a chair and throwing out and damaging a table and several chairs.



A child was said to have been slightly injured in the September 2 skirmish.



The shops owner, Seyed Omid Amiri Malek, told RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan that Sultani attacked him both verbally and physically after he asked her guests to leave.



Mrs. Homa Sultani entered my shop in an abnormal state. She brought with her two [or] three of the beggars who always beg outside and annoy people," he said. "I approached them and said, 'Now that they have eaten their cakes, they should leave if possible because they disturb the clients.



All of a sudden, she stood up and started cursing at me, he said, then added that she had punched him in the face.



Sultani did not respond to repeated RFE/RL requests for comment.



Some Afghans suggested via social media that the shop owner had angered Sultani by slapping one of the child beggars she had invited.



In the CCTV video posted online, Sultani slams one of the shop's chairs to the ground, apparently damaging it, before she falls when at least one man shoves her as she tries to slam a second chair on the ground while she is being pushed out the door.





Sultani goes on to overturn a table and drag it outside, then slams a chair into an outside window before smashing a glass display case.



A number of Afghan voices emerged questioning Sultani's actions and accusing her of abusing her power.



Our house of representatives is no place for such individuals who take law into their hands -- utterly despicable, former BBC journalist Bilal Sarwari, who is running for parliament, said via Twitter.





Journalist and activist Wais Barakzai stated flatly: "This is our female member of parliament. Breaking everything in a shop."





Others praised Sultani for apparently helping the beggars but suggested that she should have resolved the dispute peacefully.



"Regardless of the reason for her anger, she should not have demonstrated such behavior," Facebook user Fatima Sharifi commented under a BBC post.



The head of the Wolesi Jirga's complaints section, Obaidollah Barakzai, condemned the incident to RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan.



According to Islam and the constitution, no one -- not even the president -- has the right to dishonor [someone else] or damage someones property, Barakzai said.

He called on the Afghan government to amend laws on parliamentary immunity while also calling on judicial bodies to investigate the pastry-shop scuffle.



Afghan officials, including former militia commanders, have long been accused of abusing power and taking the law into their own hands, sometimes resulting in deaths or other serious consequences.

With reporting by RFE/RL Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Javid HassanzadehThe presidents of Russia and Turkey should act urgently to avert a "bloodbath" in Idlib Province, the last major rebel stronghold in Syria, the UN envoy to Syria has said.

Staffan de Mistura said in Geneva on September 4 that telephone talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Regep Tayyip Erdogan, "would make a big difference."

He made the comments as Syrian government forces began preparing for a major assault on Idlib, the last major enclave held by fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad in the country's seven-year war.

Russia has given Assad crucial support throughout the war in Syria, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and uprooted millions since it began with a government crackdown on protesters in March 2011.

Turkey is backing opposition groups but has sponsored with Russia and Iran, Assads other key ally in the Syrian war, a series of negotiations on the conflict.

On September 4, the White House said the United States was "closely monitoring the situation" in Idlib, where it said "millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent Assad regime attack, backed by Russia and Iran."

Idlib is home to an estimated 3 million civilians and the United Nations has warned that some 800,000 people could be forced from their homes by any major government offensives. The war has already killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions.

"Let us be clear, it remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its allies will respond swiftly and appropriately," the White House statement also said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke on September 4 about the Syrian conflict, and both diplomats agreed the expected military offensive in Idlib would be an "unacceptable, reckless escalation," according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

Earlier on September 4, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russian jets carried out dozens of air strikes on rebel-held areas in Idlib and other provinces, killing at least 12 civilians.

If confirmed, they would be the first Russian air strikes there in three weeks.

Meanwhile, Israeli jets flying over Lebanon struck at targets in Syria's Hama and Tartus provinces, Syrian state media reported.

SANA news agency said the country's air defenses shot down five missiles, adding that one person was killed and 12 others were wounded in the air strikes.

The observatory said the jets targeted military installations belonging to Iran.

Israel is believed to be behind a string of strikes targeting government and allied military installations in Syria.

Late on September 3, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Assad and his allies not to "recklessly attack" in Idlib.

"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump tweeted.

Russia rejected Trump's warning, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying on September 4 that the Syrian Army was getting ready to clear a "hotbed of terrorism" in Idlib.

"The Idlib situation continues to make us feel strongly concerned in Moscow, Damascus, Ankara, and Tehran," Peskov said, adding that the presence of militants in the province was undermining the Syrian peace process and making the region a base for attacks against Russian forces in Syria.

Peskov also said the situation in and around Idlib Province will be a main item on the agenda when Putin meets with the presidents of Iran and Turkey in Tehran on September 7.

That same day, the United Nations Security Council will hold a meeting on the situation in Idlib, the U.S. ambassador to the world body, Nikki Haley, said at a news conference.

"The situation in Idlib is sensitive," Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying.

"We will try to remove terrorists from Idlib with the least human cost," he added.

Iran, Russia, and Syria often refer to any armed opponent of the Syrian government as a "terrorist." In the case of Idlib, an estimated 10,000 fighters with the Al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group are believed to be the dominant force among rebels there.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and the BBCAn attack that killed one American soldier in eastern Afghanistan this week was carried out by a member of the Afghan national police, a U.S. official says.

A spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Martin O'Donnell, said on September 4 that the shooter fled scene after the attack but was later apprehended by Afghans.

When the NATO-led Resolute Support mission announced the September 3 attack, it said that a U.S. service member was killed in an apparent insider attack.

It also said that the soldier who died was the sixth American to be killed in the country this year.

The soldiers's name has not yet been made public.

O'Donnell said the wounds sustained by another U.S. service member in the attack were not life threatening.

Insider attacks, in which members of Afghan security forces or assailants dressed in Afghan uniforms fire on coalition troops, have become less common in recent years but remain a persistent worry.

The September 4 attack came nearly two months after a member of a U.S. Army training unit was shot dead by an Afghan soldier in the southern province of Oruzgan.

Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded in that attack.

Around 14,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan, where the Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups.

Separately, NATO military headquarters in Kabul announced that a U.S. service member died in a "noncombat-related incident" in eastern Afghanistan on September 4.

A statement said the incident was under investigation.

It did not give the identity of the soldier.

With reporting by AP and ReutersRussia's Vostok-2018 joint military exercises on September 11-15 will, according to the Kremlin, include up to 300,000 troops and 1,000 aircraft, making it the biggest war games ever in Russia.Uzbek lawmakers have tabled a bill in parliament that would prohibit begging in public places across the Central Asian nation.

The draft law, which was proposed by President Shavkat Mirziyoev, was placed on Uzbekistan's official legal information Internet portal on September 3.

Under the proposed legislation, individuals found begging in public places will face up to three years in prison, while those running human-trafficking rings that use children, elderly people, and individuals with disabilities to beg on the streets would face up to five years in prison.

Beggars appeared in Uzbekistan and other former Soviet republics in big numbers following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Although their numbers have since decreased, many beggars still can be seen at airports, markets, and railway stations across Uzbekistan.The Tennessee Secretary of State's office is kicking off its third annual student essay contest. The project is part of a larger civics engagement initiative to encourage students to be actively engaged citizens. The 2018 theme for the essays is leadership with length requirements varying by grade level.

Schools may submit two essays for kindergarten through second grade, third through fifth grade, sixth through eighth grade and ninth through 12th grade. All submissions can be submitted online beginning in September through Friday, Nov. 16.

Winners will receive a TNStars 529 College Savings Program scholarship and a trip to the State Capitol next spring. First place winners receive a $500 scholarship, with second and third place winners receiving $250 and $100 respectively.

It has been exciting to see the growth of the annual essay contest over the past two years," said Secretary of State Tre Hargett. "This along with our other efforts will have a long-term positive impact on young people becoming citizens actively engaged with their government as they become adults. The quality of the submissions always impresses me and speaks well for the future leaders of our state. I am pleased to have the participation of so many educators in promoting this opportunity to their students as we offer them this useful resource."

The 2017 essay contest on citizenship garnered more than 1,000 essays, up from nearly 250 submissions in 2016. Essays were written from across the Volunteer State with top honors going to public and private school students in Davidson, Hamilton, and Knox counties.

The essay contest and the Student Mock Election are part of the offices civic engagement program.

The program also offers lesson plans created by Tennessee teachers based on the Tennessee Blue Book. The goal is to offer an easy way for teachers to incorporate civic engagement and citizenship into their curriculum.

For more information, visit sos.tn.gov/products/essay-contest.Four arrested in Cancun airport for traveling with fake documents

Cancun, Q.R.  Four Cuban nationals were detained at the Cancun International Airport in two separate arrests for traveling with fake documents.

Federal Police in the Cancun airport detained the first three who had arrived in Terminal II from Havana via Interjet. An inspection of their passports showed their visas were fake.

On the same day in Terminal II, federal police took notice of a male passenger who was trying to avoid them. After asking him for identification, he presented a drivers license from the state of Guerrero that did not match his other identification, including his passport.

The man, who was of Cuban nationality, was found carrying fake Mexican identification. He was headed for Viva Aerobus flight 4210 bound for Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

All four were taken into custody and held for the public prosecutor.Relocating our companys headquarters to the city of Chicago allows us to continue to attract, retain and inspire that same level of talent to meet the needs of our growing business, Siwak said in an email. We appreciate the support from the city of Chicago, and Mayor Emanuels perspectives and encouragement as we prepare for this transition in spring 2019.A FRAUD investigation has been launched into criminals posing as bogus police officers in Rotherham.

Operation Siberia is looking into 15 cases of fraud in Rotherham and Sheffield committed by people pretending to be coppers.

Officers received the first report in early July.

In the incidents, victims get a phone call from someone claiming to be a detective from New Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police or another force outside of South Yorkshire, who is supposedly investigating fraud in Rotherham.

The caller, using a withheld number, says that a bank card has been used fraudulently and asks the victim to contact another number to provide their bank details.

Det Sgt Rob Cobley said: Although it is easily done and I dont want to criticise people for being trustworthy, I cant stress enough how important it is not to give out personal details over the phone.

Police officers will never ask for personal financial details and banks will never do this over the phone.

Det Sgt Cobley said that of the 15 incidents, 13 had been reported in Rotherham and two in Sheffield.

He urged people to speak to vulnerable relatives about fraud and not to give their bank details out.

On four occasions, victims have gone to their banks to withdraw money, the detective said.

On one occasion, the bank would not allow the withdrawal of cash but in one instance, the victim was conned out of 12,000.

Det Sgt Cobley said: If you, or if someone you know has received a similar call, please let us know so we can gather as much evidence as possible to bring the offenders to justice.

Fraud is a cowardly and calculated crime and no one should be taken advantage of and be made to feel so vulnerable.

Id hate to think that more people could fall victim to fraud so please share our advice far and wide.

Anyone with information should call 101 quoting Operation Siberia, or telephone Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

More information on this type of fraud is available on the Action Fraud website at https://tinyurl.com/ycdc5283.Capt Amarinder Singh met Nitin Gadkari

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday met Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari to seek expeditious implementation of Delhi-Amaritsar-Katra Expressway project, besides approval for four important roads in border area and other important roads of the State. Seeking the intervention of the Union Minister to speed up implementation of Delhi-Amaritsar-Katra Expressway project, the Chief Minister brought to his notice that alignment of the Expressway was finalised in consultation with State of Punjab and Haryana.

He said the new alignment option proposed to be adopted would start from Amritsar and go straight up to Delhi Western Peripheral Expressway or Kundli-ManesarPalwal Expressway in Delhi, with spurs connecting important religious and economic centres such as Dera Baba Nanak, Qadian, Attari Border, Gandiwind, Tarn Taran, Goindwal Sahib, Makhu, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Shri Muktsar Sahib, Malerkotla, Talwandi Sabo, Patiala, Moonak etc.

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The Chief Minister emphasized that the construction of this Expressway linking the National Capital with the two border states of Punjab and J&K was of extreme importance and the Ministry should ask the consultant to submit final draft of Detailed Project Report based on final alignment at the earliest. Seeking the upgradation, strengthening and development of missing links in Sri Hargobindpur-Batala-Fatehgarh Churian-Ajnala-Chogawan-Atari road in the border area of Punjab, the Chief Minister said that this 97.18 km road stretch was very important for defence forces as it provides alternate routes for movement of army in the area.

Asks For Early Sanction Of Road Projects In Border Area, Ring Road For Chandigarh

The Chief Minister requested that keeping in view the increased traffic intensity on this road there was an urgent need to upgrade this entire road length and sought approval of this project at the earliest. The Chief Minister also sought the nod for Rs. 425.62 crore project submitted by the state for upgradation of 557 km road lengths of border districts of Ferozepur, Fazilka, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot. He also sought announcement of interstate roads Banga-Garhshankar- Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi road and Fatehabad-Ratia-Budladha and Mandi on NH148 B as National Highways during the current financial year as DPR for them had already been submitted.

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The Chief Minister also thanked the Union Minister for successful completion of the project of upgradation of Bathinda-Zirakpur National Highway. He also brought to the notice of the Union Minister that the Amritsar-Bathinda National Highway was also complete, barring one flyover at Makhu on which work was being expedited and informed him that land acquisition for Ropar-Phagwara National Highway had also been speeded up.

Seeking early in-principle nod for proposal for developing Ring Road for Chandigarh passing through Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh submitted by UT on priority basis, the Chief Minister said that early approval was required to finalise interstate alignments of the roads of three states and UT. Promising to personally look into these projects, the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari issued instructions to the concerned officials of the Ministry and NHAI to monitor the progress of these projects on regular basis.CM seeks early central approval

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday met Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari seeking early nod for Rs. 1976 crore projects of relining of Rajasthan Feeder and Sirhind Feeder. Captain Amarinder informed the Union Minister that estimates of projects for Relining of Rajasthan Feeder Reach RD 179000 - 496000 (Punjab portion) and Sirhind Feeder from RD 119700 to 447927 were sanctioned by Central Water Commission in year 2009 for Rs 952.100 crores and Rs 489.165 crores respectively. He said that work on these could not be taken up due to various reasons and now the Punjab Government had completed the groundwork and was ready to float global tenders for the work.

The Chief Minister said that since the projects do not figure in the list of 99 prioritized projects, the approval of the Union Government was requires for inclusion in the prioritized projects. He further said the revised cost of the projects, i.e. Rs. 1305.267 Cr. for Rajasthan Feeder and Rs. 671.478 Cr. for Sirhind Feeder, had been cleared by MoWR, GR & RD, New Delhi on 06-04-2016. Besides, the Punjab Government has submitted all paperwork, including commitment to fund state share of funds, and is awaiting the Union Ministry's approval, he added. Moreover, the Government of Rajasthan has also made commitment to fund its share in the projects, the Chief Minister informed Gadkari.

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Seeking urgent approval of the project, the Chief Minister said work will be completed in three years and there is a very small window of 70 days each year as it requires closure of the canals. Captain Amarinder said that in view of the large quantum of work required to be executed in a very short period, the contractor will require a period of at least six months for mobilization and any delay in approvals is likely to delay start of the project beyond March 2019. The Chief Minister requested personal intervention of Union Minister for expeditious approvals at various levels of these two lifeline projects of Punjab and Rajasthan Gadkari promising early processing of approval of these projects, said that he understands the importance of these two irrigation projects for an agrarian state like Punjab.It isnt clear if contract negotiations are stumbling, or if there are particular issues causing gridlock. UNITE HERE Local 1, which helped pass a new law that requires Chicago hotels to provide housekeepers with panic buttons to guard against sexual harassment and other safety issues, has been posting to its Facebook page about a potential strike since the start of August, as it rallied members in the run up to the strike vote.Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh

Asserting that the Akali veteran had ruined Punjab, and holding him squarely responsible for the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan firing incidents, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday vowed to go hammer and tongs after Parkash Singh Badal and fix him. Reiterating that there was no question of going soft on the former Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh told select mediapersons here that it was not possible that Badal was not aware of the police firing. The SIT probe report into the incident would go to the courts and the truth would come out, said the Chief Minister, adding that the decision to withdraw the investigation from CBI and hand it over to a Punjab Police SIT was taken by the state assembly, which felt the BJP-led government at the Centre could influence the central agency as the BJP was an ally of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

The Ranjit Singh Commission set up to probe the sacrilege cases and the firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura had suggested further investigation, which was why the SIT is being set up, said Captain Amarinder Singh. The Ranjit Singh Commission was a fact-finding panel which did a thorough job to get to the bottom of the events that led to the senseless and deliberate firing on innocent people, he added. Reacting to Badals assertion that he was ready to swear that he did not know about the firing, Captain Amarinder Singh dismissed it as a gimmick to divert public attention from his role in the incident. How many times has he falsely sworn at the Akal Takht, asked Captain Amarinder Singh.

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How is it possible that the CM did not know about the firing, the Chief Minister asked, pointing out that former DGP Sumedh Saini had clearly stated before the Ranjit Singh Commission that Badal had asked him to disperse the crowd forcibly. If something happens in my state then as CM I cannot take refuge in such lies and should be thrown out if I am not aware of what is happening right under my nose, he asserted, adding that as per the Commissions findings, as many as 22 calls were made to Badal before the firing took place. Badal was an expert liar who would manufacture lies every time to become chief minister, said Captain Amarinder Singh, adding that he knew the Akali leader personally and closely.

Parkash Singh Badal

The Chief Minister pointed out that Badal did not even take action on the findings of the Zora Commission, which was set up by his own government to investigate the Bargari sacrilege and the subsequent firing incidents. A certain legal procedure needs to be followed if the police needs to open fire to control a crowd, which was clearly not done in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura, he said, adding that the firing in these cases was clearly aimed at killing the peaceful protestors to create strife and tension in the state. The way the people were fired at was horrific, said Captain Amarinder Singh.

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Dubbing Parkash Singh Badal as an outright coward who was used to running away whenever he has to face the people, the Chief Minister recalled that when Sikhs were under attack at the time of Operation Bluestar, the former SAD president had run away to UP. He himself had been in Punjab when Bluestar happened and had left the Congress in protest, Captain Amarinder Singh noted. Pointing out that the Akalis had run away from debate on the day his government tabled the Ranjit Singh Commission report in the House, the Chief Minister dared Badal to come out for debate on the Bargari and Behbal Kalan issues.

Vowing strict action against anyone trying to create communal strife in the state, Captain Amarinder Singh said his governments move to strengthen the blasphemy law was aimed at ensuring that the states peace was maintained at all costs. The Chief Minister also lashed out at Harsimrat Kaur Badal for misleading the people with her brazen lies on the AIIMS project at Bathinda. Rubbishing her allegations that he and the Finance Minister were stalling the project, Captain Amarinder Singh said certain technical issues were causing the delay.

On the resignation threat of AAP leader HS Phoolka, the Chief Minister said he was just indulging in cheap gimmicks to remain in public limelight. As a lawyer, Phoolka should know there is a system that needs to be followed and the SIT needs to be given time to get to the bottom of the incidents before anyone can be brought to book. The government was aggressively pursuing the cases but did not have a magic wand to deliver overnight, said the Chief Minister, warning both AAP and SAD against politicizing a sensitive matter like the sacrilege cases.

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The people of Punjab were fully aware of the Badals strategy of inciting communal clashes in the state ahead of any election, said Captain Amarinder Singh, adding that the Akalis were playing into the hands of Pakistans ISI, which wanted to disturb Punjabs peace. The SFJ and other radicals operating from Canada, Italy, Germany and other countries were being managed by an ISI officer, said the Chief Minister, adding that there were no radicals within Punjab, whose people wanted peace and development.

AAP leader HS Phoolka

His government was aware of the attempts being made to foment trouble in the state and would ensure that the nefarious forces being such attempts do not succeed, vowed Captain Amarinder Singh. On the issue of Kartarpur passage for Sikh pilgrims during the 550th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Captain Amarinder Singh said he had written to the External Affairs Minister for her personal intervention in the matter and was hopeful the matter would be resolved soon.

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It was a good thing that Sidhu had talked with Pakistan Army Chief Bajwa on the issue but unfortunately Islamabad had rejected reports of any move to open the Kartarpur corridor, he added. While India wanted peace with Pakistan this could not happen till Indian soldiers were being killed in Kashmir, said Captain Amarinder Singh, himself a former Army officer, expressing doubts that the new Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan could step out of the shadows of the Army. To a question about the SYL issue, the Chief Minister said Punjabs farmers were in dire need of water as tube wells were not affordable. Depriving them of water would lead to chaos, which in turn would help Pakistan succeed in its designs to destabilize Punjab, he warned.

The Chief Minister agreed on the need to patronize sportspersons more aggressively and said his government was working to tackle the financial constraints that were preventing this. Sportspersons from Punjab had been moving to other states due to lack of facilities in their own state, lamented Captain Amarinder Singh, vowing to take every step to bring them back. The Chief Minister expressed the confidence that the Congress would sweep all the 13 seats in Punjab in next years LS polls and Rahul Gandhi would emerge the next Prime Minister of the country.Checks for adulterated and sub-standard Milk and Milk Products

The early morning checks for adulterated and sub-standard Milk and Milk Products are on full vigour and every day a new deception technique is being unearthed, informed Mr. KS Pannu Commissioner Food and Drug Administration Punjab. Giving details Mr. Pannu said that the Ludhiana Food Safety Team in an early morning Naka at around 4:00 am intercepted two vehicles on Amloh- Khanna Road, carrying 120 kg and 180 kg paneer respectively. Interestingly, the paneer coming from Bhwanigarh was packed in small pouches unlike the traditional big cakes. The packaging was sans details. Samples of the suspected substandard paneer were taken and sent for probe.

Food Safety Team in an early morning Naka

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Similarly, at 6:00am barricading was done at Old Sabzi Mandi, Jalandhar and three vehicles carrying milk were intercepted and samples of milk were taken. In Mohali, inspection was carried out at Sidhu Dairy Kharar wherein samples of Cream were taken. A vehicle carrying paneer from Bhawanigarh was also intercepted by the Food Safety Team, Mohali. and samples of paneer were taken.

3 vehicles were intercepted

In Gurdaspur, about 6 kg of foul smelling Burfi was destroyed at Dera Baba Nanak. Inspections were also made in Kalanour and 21 samples of Milk and milk products were taken and sent for analysis to the State lab. In Sangrur the raids were conducted along with Deputy Director Dairy Development at paneer and ghee manufacturing units of Amargarh. The first raid was at Chaudhary Dairy in village, Bhanbhora and 250 kg of paneer was recovered.

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Acetic acid used for making paneer was also destroyed

The next raid was conducted at Uttam Dairy in village Bhulleran and 200 ltrs of milk and 70 kg of ghee was recovered .Later, raid was conducted at Luxmi Dairy, Bhulleran and 225 kg of paneer and 80 kg of ghee was found. The owner of Luxmi Dairy confessed that paneer was of substandard quality so same was destroyed on the spot. The acetic acid used for making paneer was also destroyed. This sub standard paneer was being supplied to Ludhiana city and other neighbouring areas.Manjinder Singh Sirsa

The Shiromani Akali Dal today launched a scathing attack on Cabinet Minister Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu on the issue of opening up of Kartarpur Sahib Corridor by Pakistan Government and said that his action has instead resulted in blocking of the proposal which was being taken up by the SAD leadership led by Sh. Sukhbir Singh Badal. In a statement issued here today, Mr. Manjinder Singh Sirsa National Spokesman of the SAD, said that the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee (SGPC), the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and the SAD were already taking up the issue with the Pakistan High Commission directly as well as with the Pakistan government through Indian government since long time.

Taking up this ongoing process forward on December 20th, 2017 the SAD President Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal had met Pakistan High Commissioner in India Mr. Sohail Mehmood in New Delhi and had taken up the proposal to open by Kartarpur Sahib corridor during the coming 550th birth anniversary of first Sikh Guru Guru Nanak Dev ji. He said that at that time the Pakistan High Commissioner had given positive response to the proposal and the SAD was hopeful that sangat will be able to get chance of darshan of Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara once the Pak government agrees.

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Navjot Singh Sidhu

He said that it is very surprising to note that now when the a Spokesman of the Pakistan government has categorically stated that there is no question of opening up of Kartarpur Sahib corridor in isolation of other issue, why Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu has chosen to be on 'silent mode' and not react to it ?. He said that people were expecting that he will remind the Pakistan government of the commitment which he had claimed that Pakistan Army Chief Mr. Qamar Javed Bajwa had discussed with him of opening up of Kartarpur Sahib corridor. "But his silence is speaking everything", added Mr. Sirsa.

Mr. Sirsa said also urged the Pakistan government that they should not mix up the stance of the SAD with that of Mr. Navjot Sidhu who is known for his lies in the country. He said that opening of Kartarpur Sahib corridor for 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji was very emotional issue for not only the Sikhs in India but for all the Punjabis settled world over. He said that people are expecting a positive response from the Pakistan government and are very hopeful that it will move forward on the issue which is being taken up with it by the representative bodies of Sikhs including the SGPC and DSGPC.

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He also lashed out at Mr. Sidhu that he has mislead the people on the Kartarpur Sahib corridor issue and said that it was most unfortunate that with a single motive to divert attention of people from his his 'hug' with the Pakistan army chief, Mr. Sidhu used the name of the first Sikh Guru. Mr. Sirsa said that though the Pakistan Government has trashed the claim of Mr. Sidhu on Kartarpur Sahib corridor, the SAD will continue to take up the issue as it still has time to work on it. He asked Mr. Sidhu to apologize to the Punjabis settleld world ove for his misleading statement which he gave while sitting on Pakistani soil.Captain Amarinder Singh greeted teachers

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday greeted teachers across the state on Teachers' Day, exhorting them to discharge their duties with dedication, sincerity and commitment to impart quality and value-based education to students for ensuring their bright future. In his message, the Chief Minister said that Teachers day was observed as a befitting tribute to eminent educationist and former President of India late Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, on his birth anniversary, and teachers should emulate him as a role model.

Describing teachers as nation builders, the Chief Minister called upon the teaching fraternity to transform the destiny of present and future generations and imbibe the qualities of hard work, discipline and leadership among students to enable them to become ideal citizens of the society.While the number of taxi medallions in Chicago is capped, there are no limits on ride-share drivers. Uber and Lyft say that flexibility is necessary to meet growing demand. The taxi industry, which once had a monopoly on offering rides to strangers for pay, is looking for the city to limit the number of citizen cabbies.With the sound of a whistle from Dean Rob Wilcox, the members of the University of South Carolina School of Law Class of 2021 will head out in the heat to take part in the 10th Annual Incoming Law Student Community Service Project. On Friday, August 24st at 12:30 p.m., these students will be joined by faculty and staff and led by their peer mentors as they strive to make a difference in 14 locations across the Midlands.

While South Carolina Law students regularly volunteer throughout the year with a number of the organization to help address legal issues, for this one afternoon they will not be relying on their professional skills. Instead they will be making a difference with a totally different set of skills--strong backs and a willingness to get dirty.

During the afternoon, the teams will paint apartments, sort food, pack boxes, landscape, move furniture, reshelve books and a variety of other tasks for non-profit organizations ranging from Harvest Hope Food Bank to SC Legal Services to the Women's Shelter.

The Incoming Law Student Community Service Project was launched in 2009 as a way to instill in our students a spirit of giving back to the community. In so doing, each student will have a greater knowledge about the needs of the community and the organizations that work to address those needs. The service project is a joint effort sponsored by the School of Law Office of Student Affairs, the Pro Bono Program and the Student Bar Association.Social media networks, which often foster partisan antagonism, may also offer a solution to reducing political polarization, according to new findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from a team led by University of Pennsylvania sociologist Damon Centola.

The Penn researchers asked 2,400 Republicans and Democrats to interpret recent climate-change data on Arctic sea-ice levels. Initially, nearly 40 percent of Republicans incorrectly interpreted the data, saying that Arctic sea-ice levels were increasing; 26 percent of Democrats made the same mistake. However, after participants interacted in anonymous social media networks -- sharing opinions about the data and its meaning for future levels of Arctic sea ice -- 88 percent of Republicans and 86 percent of Democrats correctly analyzed it, agreeing that sea-ice levels were dropping.

Republicans and Democrats who were not permitted to interact with each other in social media networks but instead had several additional minutes to reflect on the climate data before updating their responses remained highly polarized and offered significantly less accurate forecasts.

"New scientific information does not change people's minds. They can always interpret it to match their beliefs," says Centola, director of Penn's Network Dynamics Group and author of the new book "How Behavior Spreads." "But, if you allow people to interact with each other in egalitarian social networks, in which no individual is more powerful than another, we find remarkably strong effects of bipartisan social learning on eliminating polarization."

To test this notion for politically charged topics like climate change, Centola, along with Penn doctoral student Douglas Guilbeault and recent Penn Ph.D. graduate Joshua Becker, constructed an experimental social media platform, which they used to test how different kinds of social media environments would affect political polarization and group accuracy.

Their study was motivated by NASA's 2013 release of new data detailing historical trends in monthly levels of Arctic sea ice. "NASA found, to its dismay, that a lot of people were misinterpreting the graph to say that there would actually be more Arctic sea ice in the future rather than less," Guilbeault explains. "Conservatives in particular were susceptible to this misinterpretation."

The researchers wondered how social media networks might alter this outcome, so they randomly assigned participants to one of three experimental groups: a political-identity setup, which revealed the political affiliation of each person's social media contacts; a political-symbols setup, in which people interacted anonymously through social networks but with party symbols of the donkey and the elephant displayed at the bottom of their screens; and a non-political setup, in which people interacted anonymously. Twenty Republicans and 20 Democrats made up each social network.

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Once randomized, every individual then viewed the NASA graph and forecasted Arctic sea-ice levels for the year 2025. They first answered independently, and then viewed peers' answers before revising their guesses twice more. The study outcomes surprised the researchers in several respects.

"We all expected polarization when Republicans and Democrats were isolated," says Centola, who is also an associate professor in Penn's Annenberg School for Communication and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, "but we were amazed to see how dramatically bipartisan networks could improve participants' judgments." In the non-political setup, for example, polarization disappeared entirely, with more than 85 percent of participants agreeing on a future decrease in Arctic sea ice.

"But," Centola adds, "the biggest surprise -- and perhaps our biggest lesson -- came from how fragile it all was. The improvements vanished completely with the mere suggestion of political party. All we did was put a picture of an elephant and a donkey at the bottom of a screen, and all the social learning effects disappeared. Participants' inaccurate beliefs and high levels of polarization remained."

That last finding reveals that even inconspicuous elements of a social media environment or of a media broadcast can hinder bipartisan communications. "Simple ways of framing a political conversation, like incorporating political iconography, can significantly increase the likelihood of polarization," Guilbeault says.

Instead, Centola says, put people into situations that remove the political backdrop. "Most of us are biased in one way or another. It's often unavoidable. But, if you eliminate the symbols that drive people into their political camps and let them talk to each other, people have a natural instinct to learn from one another. And that can go a long way toward lessening partisan conflict."

Funding for the research came, in part, from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneer Grant, and the National Institutes of Health's Tobacco Centers for Regulatory Control.Accurate projections of sea level rise require sophisticated models for glacier flow, but current approaches do a poor job capturing the physical processes that control how fast glaciers slide over sediments, according to University of Oregon researchers.

In a new study, the UO team, led by postdoctoral researcher Colin Meyer, offered a theoretical approach that helps to shed light on what they call the dirty, dark undersides of glaciers and improve the modeling of ice flow.

Detailed in a July article in the journal Nature Communications, the approach captures how the amount of sediment frozen to a glacier's base varies with the underlying water pressure, melting rate and particle size. It helps account for resulting changes in frictional resistance to glacier sliding.

To illustrate their theory, the UO researchers noted that regardless of the size or weight of a glacier, sliding accommodates ice flow that is driven by gravity and adjusts surface slopes so that friction at the bed never exceeds more than about 1 bar of stress.

"This is a longstanding problem," Meyer said. "If we want to forecast what glaciers are going to do in the future, we have to talk about the place that we can't see: the interface between the ice and the bed."

Formulations dating from the early 1950s attributed this upper stress limit to the plastic-like nature of ice deformation. In their paper, however, the UO researchers noted that 50 percent of all glaciers, including those that move the most ice off land in Greenland and Antarctica into the sea, are sliding.

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The earlier explanation for 1 bar of frictional stress was based on observations by Paul Mercanton, a Swiss geophysicist, in 1950 and the analysis of John Nye, now professor emeritus at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, in 1952.

"Nye's work carried the caveat that the formula only works for non-sliding areas," said Alan Rempel, a professor in the UO's Department of Earth Sciences and the paper's senior author. "It's not the complete story. It only applies if the glacier is stuck."

Using their new theory, which combined mathematical analysis with satellite data and geological evidence from regions previously covered by ice sheets, the UO team matched the 1 bar limit. The result provided confidence that freezing sediments is the physical process that controls the friction of the ice-sediment interface. The importance of freezing sediment, Meyer said, will be influential in developing more accurate ice flow models.

The theory's incorporation of freezing sediment provides a more complete view of glacial movement, Rempel said. "It focuses on the sliding and should help scientists accurately find the velocity of an advancing or receding glacier."

"If we want to understand how fast sea levels are going to rise, we need to know how fast the ice sheets are going to disintegrate," Meyer said. "We need to understand the role of friction at the base of a big glacier. Does water lubricate the interface or is the glacier frozen to the sediments? This friction sets how fast glaciers can flow."

The rate of sliding, Rempel said, is key to understanding impacts on sea level.

"The hypothesis that we've pushed forward is that the physics of how glacier ice interacts with its bed is exactly the same physics as how ice interacts with dirt in the world around us," Rempel said. "What we've looked at are conditions under which ice will just slide over dirt versus when ice sinks into and takes the dirt along with it."

Incorporating frozen sediment into sliding laws, Rempel said, will lead to more accurate projections of sea level rise based on glacier-related conditions.Workers who realize they can ditch long hours and rude customers for better prospects may be quicker to let the cheerful facade crack, said Martha Gimbel, the research director for the Hiring Lab at Indeed, an employment website. "Workers are going to be less willing to put up with situations that aren't ideal," she said.But Democrats and Republicans still blasted Google for failing to send its top executives. "I don't know if it's because [Page] wants to avoid being asked about those things or because they think they're so important and so powerful that they don't need to provide congressional testimony," said GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, Fla., another member of the intelligence committee. "They should be careful with that. When a company gets too big to become accountable, they become a monopoly."The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a telecommunications expense management company for its use of fraudulent accounting practices that artificially boosted company revenues between 2013 and 2015. Four former members of the company's senior management team were also charged for their roles in the alleged misconduct.

As alleged in the complaint, Tangoe, Inc., formerly a public company headquartered in Connecticut, improperly recognized approximately $40 million of revenue out of the total of $566 million reported between 2013 and 2015. In some instances, Tangoe allegedly reported revenue prematurely for work that had not been performed, including service pre-payments, and for transactions that did not produce any revenue at all. The SEC alleges that Donald J. Farias, a Tangoe executive, falsified business records, some of which were provided to Tangoe's external auditors to support revenue recognition decisions.

The SEC's complaint, filed in federal court in Connecticut, charges Tangoe, its former CEO Albert R. Subbloie, former CFO Gary R. Martino, former Vice President of Finance Thomas H. Beach, and former Senior Vice President of Expense Management Operations Donald J. Farias. Each is charged with violating provisions of the federal securities laws. Tangoe, Subbloie, Martino, and Beach have agreed to settle the SEC's charges without admitting or denying the allegations, and to pay civil penalties in the amount of $1.5 million, $100,000, $50,000, and $20,000, respectively. The settlement is subject to court approval.

The SEC's case is being handled by Xinyue Angela Lin, Deena R. Bernstein, Trevor Donelan, and Paul G. Block of the Boston Regional Office.A former Chicago Tribune reporter, Axelrod, 63, also worked as a senior adviser in the Obama White House from 2009 until 2011. In Water Tower Place, Axelrod and his wife hired Nate Berkus and Marvin Herman Associates to perform a gut rehab on the 42nd-floor unit, which now has a custom floor plan, 4 baths, quarter-sawn solid oak floors throughout, custom trim and millwork, pivot-hinged flush-mount doors, designer light fixtures, automatic shades in every room, premium surround sound, a wet bar with cerused oak cabinetry, a master suite with two walk-in closets, and a kitchen with a breakfast room, Calacatta marble countertops and appliances by Sub-Zero, Gaggenau, Wolf and Miele.







Theres been plenty of speculation in the media about what Dells proposed $67 billion acquisition of EMC will mean for its subsidiary, server virtualization giant VMware.

At the moment its believed the near-term future of VMware under Dell is that it will stay as it is  a publicly traded company thats 80% owned by its parent company.

But there are questions

to be asked about how VMware will fare in the future under Dell ownership. For example, what will happen to Dells server virtualization partnership with Microsoft and Microsofts Hyper-V hypervisor technology?

Will both companies be happy to continue it when one partner, Dell, is the master of the 400-pound server virtualization technology gorilla that is VMware?

And what about VCE, EMCs converged infrastructure operation that matches EMC storage technology and VMware know-how with Cisco compute and networking components?

Under Dell ownership, VMwares VCE could be transformed into an entirely in-house affair, with the Cisco compute and networking contributions replaced by Dell ones. That could make VCE more competitive, which would be good news for VMware.

While its too soon to know the answers to these questions at the moment, what is pretty clear is that as far as VMware is concerned its business as usual  at least for now.

VMware Debuts vRealize Automation 7

So whats VMware up to at the moment? In Barcelona in mid-October the company hosted its VMworld 2015 Europe conference, and it took the opportunity to take the wraps of the latest releases of two of its products: vRealize Automation cloud automation software, which automates the delivery of IT services in hybrid clouds, and vRealize Business, which provides costing and pricing of hybrid clouds.

When it comes to whats new, the big thing in the latest version 7 release of vRealize Automation is the introduction of unified service blueprints. These let you design entire services on a single canvas to help you stand up multi-tier applications and tie in networks and security services that are customized to the applications specifications. The networking magic is done with VMwares NSX software-defined networking (SDN) system. The company acquired the NSX network virtualization technology from Nicira in 2012 in a $1.26 billion deal.

In the end, this comes down to the fact that most companies stand up software stacks manually. Lots of organizations do it, but it is time consuming, so it can take six months to stand up an app, Christian Paulus, VMwares director of product marketing, Cloud and DevOps Enterprise Management, explained to Virtually Speaking.

Now you can provision networks and make them app centric, so if an app has a specific security requirement, you could dynamically provision a firewall, or if it needed high performance you could provision a load balancer. Customers normally do this manually, but now you can automate it through an API. This reduces the time needed by 80%  95%, he added.

These new blueprints will work in hybrid private/public clouds, with out-of-the-box support for VMwares own vCloud Air public cloud platform and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The new release also introduces an Event Broker, which will allow new functionality to be added and integrations to be made that wont break when you upgrade systems, according to Paulus.

VMware Also Unveils vRealize Business 7 Standard

VMware has also unveiled vRealize Business 7 Standard, which helps companies with costing and pricing of hybrid clouds and services that are offered through a self-service catalog or by other means.

The previous release worked with VMwares own vCloud Air public cloud platform, but this release now supports costs and pricing from AWS, Microsoft Azure, and all public clouds supported by vRealize Automation.

It also has a few other tricks up its sleeve.

You can now run simulated workloads, so you can see what that means for your remaining capacity and know when you need to add more capacity  and at what cost, says Paulus.

You can also do resource reclamation. Typically youll get 20%  30% capex savings by reclaiming these resources.

These new releases have been in the pipeline for some time, and wont be available to put in to production until later in the year. But its certainly reassuring for VMware customers that its business as usual at the company (or seems to be), despite the change in ownership that VMware will shortly be experiencing.

VMware vRealize Automation 7 and VMware vRealize Business 7 Standard are both expected to become available in Q4 2015.

VMware vRealize Automation 7 will be available as a standalone product and as part of VMware vCloud Suite and VMware vRealize Suite. The software is sold standalone in two editions: Advanced ($400 per Operating System Instance or OSI) and Enterprise ($775 per OSI). The vRealize Suite is available in two editions: Advanced ($6,750 per CPU) and Enterprise ($9,950 per CPU).

VMware vRealize Business 7 Standard will be available as a standalone product and also as part of the VMware vCloud Suite and VMware vRealize Suite. The software is sold standalone in 25 OSI packs at $200 per OSI.

Paul Rubens is a technology journalist and contributor to ServerWatch, EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet and EnterpriseMobileToday. He has also covered technology for international newspapers and magazines including The Economist and The Financial Times since 1991.

Follow ServerWatch on Twitter and on FacebookCities cant make it a crime to sleep on a public street or sidewalk when no homeless shelters are available, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a case that could affect so-called sit/lie ordinances in San Francisco and elsewhere.

The constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, under the Eighth Amendment, prohibits criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The state, the court said, may not criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless.

The 3-0 ruling reinstated lawsuits by homeless people challenging ordinances in Boise, Idaho, that made it a crime to sleep on a sidewalk or to use any sidewalk or public property as a camping place. The courts decisions apply to federal cases in nine Western states, including California. Tuesdays ruling will become a binding precedent unless it is successfully appealed.

Our hope, not just for Boise but for cities like San Francisco and cities across the country, is that it causes them to take a look at the laws they have on the books and have conversations about how to stop relying on those policies, said a lawyer in the case, Eric Tars of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

Our real goal is not to protect the right of people to sleep on the streets, Tars said, but a conversation about how we can address the core of the problem, that people dont have a place to sleep.

Advocates for the homeless were joined in the case by the U.S. Justice Department, which filed arguments in the Boise case in 2015 saying laws against sleeping on public property, when no shelter space was available, unconstitutionally punished people for being homeless. The filing was issued by President Barack Obamas administration and has not been withdrawn by President Trumps Justice Department.

The Justice Department arguments were also a warning to communities throughout the nation that the criminalization of homeless camping should be discouraged. Many communities, including Oakland and San Francisco, still take that as a guideline even while they have anti-camping laws on their books.

While the court said a city could not outlaw sleeping on a sidewalk at all hours, it was less clear about partial bans, like the ordinance approved by 54 percent of San Francisco voters in 2010. That made it a misdemeanor to sit or lie down on a public sidewalk, or on a mattress or other object on a sidewalk, between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Without referring directly to the San Francisco measure, Judge Marsha Berzon said in Tuesdays ruling that a citys ban on sitting, lying, or sleeping outside at particular times or in particular locations might well be constitutionally permissible. She did not indicate whether a 7 a.m.-to-11 p.m. prohibition would be considered a particular time.

In a followup measure, 52 percent of San Francisco voters in 2016 approved a 24-hour prohibition on putting tents on public sidewalks. But before enforcing that ban, officials would have to offer the homeless person shelter and, if available, a bus ticket to another city where a friend or relative could provide housing.

That measure would not violate Tuesdays ruling, which said cities that made housing available could penalize conduct by those who refused to accept it. But the court said an ordinance that flatly prohibited sleeping on the sidewalk could not be salvaged by a Police Department policy  like one announced by the Boise police chief  to enforce it only when housing is available.

Such a policy, Berzon observed, could be amended or reversed at any time.

John Cote, spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said Herreras office was analyzing the ruling to see whether the local ordinances fit the courts standards. Aspects of this ruling are already reflected in the laws we have on the books, he said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

San Francisco issues citations for at least 14 laws prohibiting camping or resting on the streets, but since the Justice Department took its position against criminalizing homelessness in 2015, the number of citations has dropped by about 50 percent to about 10,000 a year, according to the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness.

Thats still too many, said the coalitions director, Jennifer Friedenbach.

Moving people from place to place, and citing them under these laws, does no good and it just makes it harder to get off the street, Friedenbach said.

She and other homeless advocates around the nation have said for many years that, instead of criminalizing homeless people, cities and counties should simply provide enough housing, drug or mental rehabilitation, and shelter for people depending on their needs. Proposition C, a November ballot measure in San Francisco that Friedenbach helped craft, would tax businesses $300 million a year to raise money for homeless programs.

Alameda County homeless-aid officials were also examining the ruling to see how it might affect the way they manage street populations, but policies throughout the county already emphasize shelter and services over criminalization.

People may be taken to task for things that are illegal, like prostitution or possessing stolen goods, but theyre not really being cited for camping, said Elaine deColigny, executive director of EveryOne Home, the countys main homeless-aid coordination agency. There are camps that are so dirty or vermin-infested that they have to be moved so the sites can be cleaned, but the intention is always to offer people other places to go, like the Tuff Shed locations, or programs.

Bob Egelko and Kevin Fagan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com and kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko and @KevinChronInside a small conference room, feet away from her desk at San Francisco fitness app maker Strava, Camilla Ring got her blood pressure and heart rate taken by Dr. Anju Goel.

It felt normal, aside from it being in a conference room, Ring said after the nearly hour-long checkup, which Goel had come from her Peninsula home to conduct.

Rings appointment, booked through a Santa Monica startup called Heal, reflects the tech industrys affinity for perks that save time. Not only are companies providing in-office meals for their employees, but theyre also bringing in doctors  so nobody has to leave work to get examined. Over the last two years, Heal doctors have seen employees at Hulu, Activision, Snap, AEG, GoPro, Twilio and Pure Storage. They usually handle non-emergencies, like physicals, allergic reactions or minor wounds  conditions that typically might send patients to an urgent care clinic.

About 40 percent of Heals house calls are done at large companies, according to co-founder and CEO Nick Desai. Heal physicians have seen about 70,000 patients, Desai said, and the vast majority  65,000  used insurance to pay for the visits. Patients who do not want to use insurance can pay $99 out of pocket.

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Heal makes money by keeping a portion of the payments from patients and insurance companies, similar to a traditional doctors office. A Heal spokeswoman declined to share revenue figures but said the company has turned a profit in its Los Angeles market. The company has raised $59 million from investors and plans to expand to other regions, including New York and Georgia.

Health insurers are taking notice. Two and a half years ago, Blue Shield of California, headquartered in San Francisco, began including Heal house calls in its preferred provider organization plans. About 11,000 Californians have used the house call benefit since then, according to Jeff Bailet, the insurers executive vice president of health care quality and affordability.

The house call option saves consumers considerable money, Bailet said. A Heal visit costs between $14 and $74 out of pocket  compared with a visit to the emergency room for non-life-threatening injuries and illnesses, which costs $200 to $400 out-of-pocket, the insurer estimates. Generally, emergency room visits can be very expensive because patients are charged a facility fee to pay for hospital overhead costs like building maintenance and utilities.

Goel and other Heal doctors work a roughly 40-hour week. Her medical assistant drives her to appointments and drops her off at the end of the day, and she does patient charting in the car between appointments. She travels with a suitcase of medical equipment that includes a rapid strep test, bandages and gauze, a glucometer for measuring blood glucose, slings and surgical glue. Heal provides doctors and medical assistants with cars and pays for the gas.

What I like is it allows us to have a lot of time with patients without being distracted by other patients, Goel said. We dont have the same time constraints as a typical (doctors) office setting. I can spend as long as I need with a patient.

The business model is challenging, experts say, but could be successful if a company like Heal has enough patients and the travel time for doctors is relatively short.

The transportation issue is a big one, said Glenn Melnick, a health economist at the University of Southern California who led a recent study on a health systems house call program in his region. The study found that doctors could only see three or four patients a day and were spending much of their time driving. The doctor on demand model essentially takes away the burden of time and travel from the patient and shifts it to the doctor, the most expensive input, he said.

For consumers, it sounds like a great deal, he said. But I dont see how its anything more than a very small niche in cities where transportation is much more efficient.

Ring, a product specialist at Strava, had used Heal twice before for home visits when she was ill, and liked the convenience of not having to leave work in the middle of the day for an appointment.

If Im already here, it saves me a ton of time, she said.

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Because Rings appointment was for a checkup, which is considered preventive, it was covered by her insurance at no cost to her. But Strava also funds up to $2,500 per employee for medical expenses if they have a health savings account or health reimbursement account as part of their health plan. Many employees use the fund to pay for Heal visits at work, said Stravas human resources coordinator Chrissa Urquiola.

Once a year, Strava asks a small team of Heal doctors to come to the office for the entire workday so Strava employees can get their annual physical done there if they wish.

Heal also offers more minimal services, like on-site flu shots, at companies including the consulting firm Korn Ferry, e.l.f. Cosmetics and Sequoia.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Traveling doctors, of course, are an age-old tradition in medicine, especially in rural areas. And plenty of tech giants with sprawling campuses have installed medical clinics. Many Googlers can access on-site doctors, physical therapists and massage services. Facebook has a medical facility in Menlo Park. Amazon, which has grand plans to revolutionize the health care business, reportedly plans to add clinics for Seattle employees.

Startups have recently rediscovered the merits of house calls in dense modern cities. Some have failed: FirstLine and the House Doctor, two Bay Area firms, started in the last decade but folded, according to Yelp. Both companies attempted a house call service in which patients could request a physician to their home.

Urgent Med Housecalls, founded by an emergency doctor in San Francisco in 2007, has survived. It provides house calls at hotels for tourists, whose medical care is covered by travel insurance or paid for out of pocket.

UCSF has long operated a home-care program for seniors and people with disabilities and chronic illnesses who have a hard time leaving their home to get to medical appointments. The program, which began in 2001, serves about 300 patients in San Francisco and focuses on primary care, palliative care and hospice.

At Strava, the at-work medical benefits dont stop at doctors visits. Last month, the company began offering its employees in-office vision exams through OnSight, a company that sends opticians and optometrists to corporate offices to do eye exams. In September, Strava plans to start providing on-site teeth cleanings and whitening through San Franciscos Dentists on Demand.

People are very health conscious here, said Urquiola of Strava. I wanted to create a community where we could bring everything here.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_HoAs deaths of new and expectant moms multiplied in the United States, the picture in California and the rest of the developed world has veered in the opposite direction.

Beginning in 2006, health leaders in the state managed to reduce pregnancy-related deaths by more than half. Six years after their efforts began, a woman was 3 times more likely to die from having a baby in the U.S. as a whole compared with her chances in California.

A study out Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs, by the Stanford University medical team that started the initiative, seeks to explain why.

Elliott Main, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the university and one of the studys authors, said Californias success in reducing maternal mortality  the death of a woman during or up to six weeks after a pregnancy  comes down to four factors, each of which encompasses numerous actions.

Its all of the above  thats what it takes to move the dial at the population level, he said. You cant just have one approach. You have to whack-a-mole all at once.

The four-pronged plan of attack combined analyzing public health data, convening an array of public and private health groups, creating a data system for hospitals to measure their progress, and developing health interventions for use across the state.

Whats unusual is to get everyone working together at the same time, Main said. The medical system isnt much of a system in the U.S. Its a lot of people following their own interests.  This was an opportunity to work together.

But while California reduced pregnancy-related deaths across all racial and ethnic groups, disparities remain, notably for black mothers, whose maternal mortality rate is 2 to 3 times higher than that of white mothers.

Main is medical director of Stanfords California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, the project that spearheaded the states turnaround. He said simply reviewing pregnancy-related death cases in a committee  which hadnt been done since the 1940s  revealed alarming trends.

It turned out that many women were dying from obstetric hemorrhage, or bleeding out during childbirth; and from preeclampsia, characterized by high blood pressure and problems with organ function. Deaths from the two conditions are preventable.

The collaborative developed a task force for each that resulted in tool kits, or step-by-step guides and training information, for hospitals. To prevent women from bleeding to death in labor, for instance, Mains team created a hemorrhage cart for maternity wards, stocked with every instrument that doctors and nurses could need for such an event.

When youre in the midst of a crisis, youre very focused on the patient and the emergency, and having a checklist there that someone can read to you is a very important tool, said Malini Nijagal, an obstetrician and gynecologist at UCSF. If not, critical things can be missed.

Nijagal, who led the hemorrhage protocol implementation when she worked as a physician for Marin County and is now director of San Franciscos Joint Perinatal Health Equity Project, said any maternal mortality is a catastrophic event. Even one for a hospital in a given year is hugely consequential, she said.

Despite the relative infrequency of maternal deaths, Main said, tracking the rate in a state or country is important because its an indicator of how a society treats women overall.

The Stanford project built a real-time data system that automatically links health information from birth certificates and maternal and newborn discharge files. The web application allows hospitals to visualize their own data, see how they compare to others and track their progress over time. They get alerts when their metrics start to slip.

The initiative is now focused on encouraging vaginal birth and reducing cesarean deliveries for single babies at full term that are positioned correctly. The rate of C-section births for that low-risk subgroup varies wildly across California hospitals, from 1 in 10 in some to 7 in 10 in others.

C-sections can be life-saving, and there are settings where they are very appropriate to be done, but there is a sizable gray zone, Main said. The variation really was the key to see there was a lot of stuff going on that didnt need to happen.

In addition to the work of the collaborative  which consists of hospitals, patient groups, health providers and payers, professional organizations, state agencies, and consumer unions  Californias embrace of the Affordable Care Act likely played a role in the maternal mortality rate reduction, according to the study. The law helped the states rural hospitals stay afloat and kept more women insured between pregnancies.

The result was that by 2013, the latest year for which numbers are available, California saw 7 pregnancy-related deaths for every 100,000 live births  or a total of about 35. That was down from 17 per 100,000 in 2006 and put the state on par with Western Europe.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The United States, on the other hand, saw 22 mothers die per 100,000 in 2013.

We have to remember that pregnancy is not a disease, Nijagal said. When our rates are so significantly higher than those in equally high-wealth countries in the world, thats really concerning.

But as rosy as the picture may be in California, theres one glaring shortcoming, Main said. Black women who are pregnant or new mothers are still much more likely to die than their white counterparts.

In California, while maternal mortality rates for black and white moms both dropped by 40 to 50 percent, the gap between the two did not close, the study said.

Even after accounting for socioeconomic status, age and obesity and other conditions, the racial disparity remains. A college-educated black woman is more than 2 times as likely to have serious complications from pregnancy as a college-educated white woman, after adjusting for other variables, Main said.

He said the issue will be the next area of focus for the collaborative.

Nijagal said part of the issue comes down to racism, both structurally and person to person.

The care that we provide, even here in San Francisco, is not respectful or responsive to low-income women, and its even worse for low-income black women, she said. To tackle the racial disparities were seeing in maternal mortality and other birth outcomes, we have to focus on how we treat women and how we structure our care systems in a way thats respectful to every individual and responsive to every womans needs and preferences.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerovAdmirably terse, fitting from a man who thinks we are "awash" in recipes. What follows, though, might be called the real "meat" of the dish  the techniques you need to pull it off. There are eight full-color photographs over two pages on how to truss a chicken; three pages of "The Finer Points," which range from the ideal weight for a chicken to the "why" of trussing to choosing the right roasting temperature to resting the finished bird; eight more full-color photographs, again arrayed across two pages, showing how to cut up a whole roasted chicken; and a gorgeous shot of a golden, trussed bird happily bubbling away in its rendered fat inside a black iron skillet.J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press

If party alliances hold, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will not need a single Democratic vote to be confirmed as the nations 114th Supreme Court justice. His confirmation hearings, which begin Tuesday, will provide yet another measure of how hopelessly polarized Washington has become.

If a commitment to judicial independence transcended partisan gamesmanship, Judge Merrick Garland, instead of Neil Gorsuch, would be sitting on the Supreme Court, and the vacancy created by the departure of Justice Anthony Kennedy would not be nearly so consequential to the ideological balance of the high court. But Senate Republicans refused to even allow a hearing on Garlands nomination in the last year of Barack Obamas presidency.WEDNESDAY

Midterms impact: United Democratic Club sponsors an event focusing on flipping Republican-held legislative bodies to Democratic ones. Featuring representatives from Sister District San Francisco, Democracy Action SF and Swing Left San Francisco. Free. 6-7 p.m., 95 Brady St., San Francisco. More information is here.

THURSDAY

Climate politics: Environmental justice advocate Mustafa Ali, scientist and former House candidate Jess Phoenix and Mother Jones reporter Rebecca Leber discuss climate politics and the possibilities for grassroots action. Sponsored by Ben & Jerrys and FreeSpeechTV. $25. Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd., San Francisco. More information is here.

New citizen voting: Register new U.S. citizens to vote after they take oath of allegiance. Organized by Democracy Action. Two sessions, 10 a.m.-noon and 2-4 p.m., Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. More information is here.

FRIDAY

Rent control: Organizing meeting in favor of Proposition 10, which would lift state rent-control restrictions on cities. Sponsored by the San Francisco Party for Socialism and Liberation. 7 p.m., 2969 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here.

SATURDAY

Climate day of action: Rallies, town halls and community forums to call for action on climate change. San Francisco rally at 10 a.m. at Embarcadero Plaza. More information about that and other events is here.

SUNDAY

Oakland Pride Festival: Oaklands Pride Parade and Festival is celebrated. Parade begins at 10:30 a.m. at 14th Street and heads up Broadway to 20th Street. Festival is held from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. at 20th and Broadway. More information is here.

SEPT. 10

LGBTQ and the high court: A discussion on the future of LGBTQ rights under a changing U.S. Supreme Court. Panelists include Elizabeth Gill, senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, and Joel Engardio of the San Francisco Examiner. Sponsored by United Democratic Club. 6:30-8 p.m., San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market St. More information is here.

SEPT. 11

Climate forums: UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy hosts a series of forums on climate change issues. $15 per symposium. 8 a.m.-7:30 p.m., 555 Market St., San Francisco. More information is here.

Trump forum: San Francisco State University faculty members discuss America in the age of President Trump. Free. 3-5 p.m., Room 270 of the Science Building at San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. More information is here.

SEPT. 12

Robert Kennedy Jr.: Environmental attorney and president of Waterkeeper Alliance talks with journalist David Talbot about his new book, American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family. Free. 4:30-6:30 p.m., McRoskey Mattress Factory, third floor, 1687 Market St., San Francisco. More information is here.

Katie Hill: Indivisible Marin hosts a postcarding event for Katie Hill, Democratic candidate for the House in Californias 25th District. 7-8:30 p.m., Zinz Wine Bar, 207 Corte Madera Ave., Corte Madera. More information is here.

SEPT. 13

Climate damage: How countries, states and companies are using climate damage estimates to inform their decision-making. Panel discussion hosted by Institute for Policy Integrity. 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; venue to be announced. More information is here.

Latin America and climate: An interactive session to discuss how networks of Latin American and Caribbean non-state actors are helping to raise raise climate ambition. 8:30-11:30 a.m. Tenderloin Museum, 398 Eddy St., San Francisco. More information is here.

Tales of the City: University of Wisconsin English Professor Ramzi Fawaz discusses his oral history project on how Armistead Maupins Tales of the City serial in The Chronicle affected gay politics. $5. GLBT History Museum, 4127 18th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

Across the divide: A short group presentation followed by smaller living room conversations designed to give participants experience in building relationships with people who may have different political views. With Citizens Climate Lobby and Joan Blades, co-founder of Moveon.org and Living Room Conversations. Free. Google Community Space, 188 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

SEPT. 15

Schools chief election forum: Candidates for state superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond and Marshall Tuck, take part in a forum sponsored by Sistallect, California Black Media and Black Women Organized for Political Action. 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. More information is here.

SEPT. 17-18

Constitution conference: Two-day conference on the 231st anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, focusing on the past, present and future of constitutional rights, freedoms, citizenship, democracy, equality and justice. Free. 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. both days at the Paul Leonard Library and Cesar Chavez Student Center at San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. More information is here.

SEPT. 18

DeRay Mckesson: Black Lives Matter activist and Pod Save the People podcast host talks about his new book, On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope. $35 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students. 6:30-7:45 p.m., Marines Memorial Theater, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. More information is here.

Berkeley City Council candidates: The League of Women voters hosts a forum for the candidates for Berkeley City Council in District One, Mary Behm-Steinberg, Rashi Kesarwani, Igor Tregub and Margot Schueler. 7-8 p.m., Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. More information is here.

SEPT. 19

Berkeley City Council candidates: The League of Women Voters hosts a forum for candidates for Berkeley City Council in Districts Four, Seven and Eight. 6:30-9 p.m., Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. More information is here.

SEPT. 20

Albany candidates: League of Women Voters hosts a forum for Albany candidates for public office. 7-9 p.m., 1000 San Pablo Ave., Albany. More information is here.

Midterm run: Run 4 All Women sponsors a 4K run/walk to raise money and awareness for candidates trying to flip Congress. 6-8 p.m. at the Assembly, 449 14th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

SEPT. 22

Race and medicine: Panel discussion on the impact of race in medicine. Sponsored by the African American Community Health Advisory Committee and the African American Library Advisory Committee. 2-4 p.m., San Mateo Public Library, 55 West Third Ave. More information is here.

SEPT. 25

Berkeley school board candidates: The League of Women Voters holds a forum for Berkeley school board candidates Ka'Dijah Brown, Julie Sinai, Ty Alper, Abdur Sikder, Dru Howard and Norma Harrison. 7:30-8:45 p.m., Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. More information is here.

Get out the vote: Register to vote, learn about legislation affecting local communities and network with social justice advocates. Sponsored by Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency. 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza. More information is here.

Truth decay: RAND Corp. CEO Michael Rich discusses truth decay  the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life, at the Commonwealth Club. $35 nonmembers, $10 students. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

SEPT. 26

Berkeley rent board candidates: Candidates for Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board take part in a forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters. 7-9 p.m., Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. More information is here.

SEPT. 27

Iran and Trump: Covering Iran in the age of Trump: a conversation with reporters Melissa Etehad of the Los Angeles Times and Jason Rezaian of the Washington Post, moderated by San Francisco State journalism Professor Venise Wagner. 12:30-2 p.m., Room 587 of the Humanities Building, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. More information is here.

SEPT. 29

Tech politics: Candidates for statewide and Bay Area offices invited to discuss issues of importance to Silicon Valley and the technology industry. Sponsored by Royce Law LLC. Noon-4 p.m., Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF, 1675 Owens St., San Francisco. More information is here.

SEPT. 30

Preventing nuclear war: Free forum marking 50th anniversary of Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty features ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern and anti-nuclear activists Jacqueline Cabasso and Marylia Kelley. Sponsored by San Francisco Public Library and Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament. 1 p.m., Main Public Librarys Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco. More information is here.

OCT. 2

Assembly candidates forum: Jovanka Beckles and Buffy Wicks, candidates in Assembly District 15 in the East Bay, participate in a League of Women Voters forum. 7-8:30 p.m., Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. More information is here.

The Browns and California: Journalist Miriam Pawel, author of The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty That Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation, discusses Pat Brown, Jerry Brown and the modern history of the state, at the Commonwealth Club. $20 for nonmembers, $7 for students. 6-7:15 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

OCT. 4

Francis Fukuyama: Political scientist and author Francis Fukuyama discusses identity politics. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club. $25 for nonmembers, $10 for students. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

OCT. 5

Barbara Lee: Forum with Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, celebrating her 20th anniversary in Congress. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club. $30 for nonmembers, $10 for students. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

OCT. 11

Left, Right and Center: A rollicking examination of national issues, with panelists Ana Marie Cox, host of With Friends Like These; Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle; and Business Insider senior editor Josh Barro. Sponsored by Inforum and NPR member station KCRW. $35, $10 for students. 7-8 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

OCT. 16

D4 supervisor forum: Candidates for San Francisco supervisorial District Four participate in a forum sponsored by the Outer Sunset/Parkside Residents Association. 6-8:30 p.m., Ortega Branch Library, 3223 Ortega St., San Francisco. More information is here.

OCT. 18

Hacking politics: Keynote address for weekend conference on how the political system is being hacked. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Center for New Media, SFMOMAs Public Knowledge Initiative, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and Boalt School of Law. Free. 6 p.m., Phyllis Wattis Theater, SFMOMA, 151 Third St., San Francisco. More information is here. Symposium runs from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 19 at 310 Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall, UC Berkeley. More information is here.

Berkeley voter information: UC Berkeleys Science Policy Group hosts a voter information night, focuses on state ballot initiatives. 5:30-8:30 p.m., Anthony Hall, UC Berkeley. More information is here.

OCT. 20

Race and politics: Panel discussion on the impact of race in politics. Sponsored by the African American Community Health Advisory Committee and the African American Library Advisory Committee. 2-4 p.m., San Mateo Public Library, 55 West Third Ave. More information is here.

NOV. 8

Susan Rice: Former President Barack Obamas national security adviser and U.N. ambassador discusses U.S. foreign policy priorities and national security interests. Sponsored by the World Affairs Council. $40 for nonmembers, $10 for students. 6:30-7:30 p.m., Marines Memorial Theater, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. More information is here.

To list an event, email Politics Editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicleIn a chaotic first day of a confirmation hearing that started out testy and only turned nastier, outnumbered Senate Democrats showed Tuesday they wont let Judge Brett Kavanaugh take a seat on the Supreme Court without a fight.

California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris slammed Kavanaugh, calling him a Republican partisan who would bring his conservative agenda to the Supreme Court if he is confirmed.

On a day when the Judiciary Committees Democrats took turns attacking President Trumps nominee to the high court, Harris, as the partys last speaker, took the harshest line.

I am concerned whether you would treat every American equally or instead show allegiance to the political party and the conservative agenda that has shaped and built your career, Harris told Kavanaugh. I am concerned your loyalty would be to the president who appointed you and not to the Constitution of the United States.

In his own statement, Kavanaugh pushed back against Democratic concerns, saying that the Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution.

If confirmed, he said in his prepared remarks, I will keep an open mind in every case. I will do equal right to the poor and to the rich.

But there was plenty of partisanship on display both inside and outside the hearing room.

In a series of tweets, Trump was quick to savage the Democratic senators who questioned Kavanaughs credentials.

The Brett Kavanaugh hearings for the future Justice of the Supreme Court are truly a display of how mean, angry, and despicable the other side is, the president tweeted. They will say anything, and are only looking to inflict pain and embarrassment to one of the most highly renowned jurists to ever appear before Congress. So sad to see!

Earlier in the day, Harris fellow California Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, questioned whether Kavanaugh would protect a womans right to abortion, revealing whats likely to be an important line of attack on the appeals court judge.

Feinstein noted that Kavanaugh told Sen. Susan Collins during a meeting with the Maine Republican that the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion is settled law. However, she added, the question is really, do you believe that its correct law?

Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Judiciary Committee chairman, countered that it would be wrong for Kavanaugh even to comment on abortion or any other issue that could come before him on the court.

The American people dont want their judges to pick sides before they hear a case, Grassley said. They want a judge who rules based upon what the law commands.

The hearing opened with loud complaints from committee Democrats and raucous protests from anti-Kavanaugh hecklers in the hearing room. More than two dozen protesters had been ejected by the end of the day.

Democrats called for the hearing to be postponed to give them time to read 42,000 pages of documents relating to Kavanaughs service in the George W. Bush administration, which were released the night before the hearing.

Grassley dismissed every Democratic request for a postponement, as other Republicans called the flood of complaints mob rule intended to obstruct Kavanaughs likely confirmation by Republicans, who control both the committee and the full Senate.

All the delays, complaints and theatrics are an attempt by my Democratic colleagues to re-litigate the 2016 election, which put Trump in a position to make the Supreme Court appointment, said GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Feinstein had already failed to persuade Republicans to release more than 100,000 pages related to Kavanaughs White House service, a decision whose only explanation, she said in a statement last week, is that these records would further reveal Kavanaughs controversial history and ideological views.

Other Democrats argued that it was impossible to do a proper job of evaluating Kavanaugh without access to all his records.

Today the Senate is not simply phoning in our vetting obligation  we are discarding it, said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. What I fear most is that the American people will not know the full truth until (Kavanaughs) full record is public.

Tuesdays session provided a political road map for the next two days, when the senators will each have time to question Kavanaugh on what hes done, both in his years on the bench and as a player in Republican politics.

Republicans painted Kavanaugh as someone with wide-ranging experience as an attorney, White House staffer for Bush and judge on the federal appeals court for the D.C. circuit.

I know a good nominee when I see one, and you are a great nominee, said Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has been involved in the confirmation of every justice now on the Supreme Court. My Democratic colleagues cant admit that youre actually a good judge and a good person as well.

Even without all the papers they have requested, Democrats will have lots to work with. Besides Kavanaughs decisions in his 12 years on the bench, there are plenty of records about his time as an aide and staff secretary in the Bush White House, as well as his stint serving as a staff attorney in independent counsel Kenneth Starrs Whitewater investigation in the 1990s, which resulted in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

But there were no suggestions that any GOP senator is likely to vote against Kavanaugh. And the Democrats effort to block the nominee on the Senate floor became even tougher Tuesday when Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey named retired GOP Sen. Jon Kyl, a supporter of Kavanaugh, to replace the late Sen. John McCain. That gives Republicans 51 of the Senates 100 votes, with Vice President Mike Pence available to break any ties.

But the fight will go on, said Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.

There are battles worth fighting, she said. A lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of someone who will provide the fifth vote on issues impacting the lives of every working American is a battle worth fighting.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuthIf there was one feature Mark Davis demanded in a stadium for his Raiders, it was parking. Lots of parking, for the Raiders traditional tailgate extravaganza and costume party.

Davis believes tailgating en masse is integral to the Raiders culture.

Two sources, both requesting anonymity because of their sensitive positions, told me Davis rejected any plan or idea for a stadium that did not include acres of parking at the stadium.

In fact, any proposal that had one less parking space than the Raiders have at the Coliseum was a nonstarter for Davis. The Coliseum/Oracle site has more than 8,000 parking spaces.

So of course, the Raiders stadium in Las Vegas will have ample parking, right? Sure! If you drive an Ample, you can park it right at the stadium. If you drive any other make of vehicle, you face more of a challenge.

At the new stadium, Pair-a-Dice Park (or some other catchy name), the Raiders will be required to provide 16,250 parking spaces, according to a report in the Las Vegas Sun. That includes off-site parking.

PAUL CHINN

The Sun says current plans show a maximum of 2,725 parking spaces at the stadium. Another 14,000 or so parking spaces will be off site. Folks who park there will take shuttle buses to the stadium.

It is anticipated that many fans will arrive at the stadium by Uber/Lyft, taxi and on foot.

Davis reportedly rejected all Coliseum proposals that included housing or retail development, because that would cut into the parking/tailgating area.

The Raiders also rejected proposals to share Levis Stadium with the 49ers, in part because of limited parking on stadium grounds.

Must have Raider Nation barbecuing road kill and tuning up together like a gigantic choir, right?

Sort of. In Vegas, a Raiders home game will be like a big, glorious family picnic at which each family member eats in a different park, then they all converge at a central locale for the marshmallow roast.

Sounds like somebody heard the siren song of Las Vegas.

Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostlerScores of starving baby seabirds have been washing up on Northern California beaches this summer, raising fears among scientists that a climatic cycle like the one that wreaked havoc on sea creatures a few years ago may be moving in.

More than 100 undernourished common murre babies have been plucked from beaches from Monterey to Marin County by biologists and volunteers with International Bird Rescue and are being rehabilitated at the organizations Fairfield center.

J.D. Bergeron, the executive director, said it is unusual at this time of year for the center to have more than a handful of baby murres, a native fish-eating seabird that, with its dark color and white belly, looks like a cute, foot-long penguin.

Normally at this time, he said, the chicks are out at sea being fed by their fathers while the mothers go off to replenish energy reserves after giving birth. But rising ocean temperatures may have made it difficult for the fathers to find the cold-water fish the birds normally eat. Large numbers of beached seabirds have also been found in Alaska this year.

Obviously there could be some sort of environmental contaminant, but, since the babies are coming in healthy but starving, we think this is a food issue, Bergeron said. One of our concerns is that, while this has been all chicks, we will see a followup event with the adults.

Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

Record high ocean temperatures in Southern California in August created widespread alarm among marine biologists. Now they are concerned that conditions could worsen if predictions about an El Nino weather pattern over the next few months come true.

El Ninos are characterized by unusually warm, nutrient-poor conditions in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and, in the past, have caused the marine food chain to suffer.

In early August, sea surface temperatures went above 78 degrees off the coast of La Jolla in San Diego County  the warmest water in that location in more than a century of measurements.

The warming trend would probably continue under El Nino and could, if strong enough, spread the toasty currents north past San Francisco. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Climate Prediction Center puts the likelihood of El Nino at 60 percent this fall and 70 percent this winter.

Warm water during the last big El Nino in 2014 and 2015 led to the deaths of thousands of marine species, including virtually all the sea lion pups born on the Channel Islands and hundreds of adult murres along the coast. It happened, scientists said, because the fish they eat had migrated north in search of cold water.

Shawn Johnson, the director of veterinary science for the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands, said more than 1,800 animals had to be rescued that year, triple the average number, because they couldnt find food.

Michael Short / Special to The Chronicle

There havent been nearly that many rescues this year, but that could all change if the warm water moves north.

What were mostly concerned about is warm water in Southern California, near the Channel Islands, where the sea lion pups are, said Johnson, who has taken care of 500 rescued animals this year, about average. They live with their moms for about 12 months after they are born. A good amount were born this year, but if those moms cant find the food for their pups, then those pups are going to start starving.

Forecasters are predicting a weaker El Nino than in 2015, but the overall warming trend in California and around the nation has climate scientists worried.

The strongly warming climate means that extremely warm waters will become more and more common, especially in El Ninos, said Christopher Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

Field said recent analysis of super peak temperatures like what has been seen recently in Southern California showed that ocean heat waves are becoming more frequent, longer, and more intense.

The signs are not all negative. Sea lion births were fairly robust this year, according to biologists, and the number of common murre hatchlings on the Farallon Islands was slightly above average. There also appears to be abundant sea life, including humpback whales, outside the Golden Gate.

Preliminary data in our region so far shows fairly typical conditions for a productive year, said Mary Jane Schramm, the spokeswoman for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. There is a lot of food out there this year. Weve seen it from several research cruises weve run already, and the top predators  the whales that require lots of food  are out in force.

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.

Schramm said the high number of murre strandings  and the higher than average number of murre carcasses found on the beaches  could just be because there are more young birds out there.

Anytime there is an extraordinary amount of life, there is also an extraordinary amount of death, she said. Its part of the natural cycle.

Pete Warzybok, the senior marine ecologist for Point Blue Conservation Science, said the murres have been feeding primarily on anchovies, which are a near-shore fish. Large anchovy shoals close to shore are also why so many humpbacks have been seen by boaters and beachgoers in recent years.

Because that is mostly what the birds are eating, Bergeron and others are concerned about what might happen if the anchovy population declines. He said the birds found on shore probably represent only a fraction of the number that are starving.

We think that the ones that dont make it to the beach will perish at sea, he said. Really, what were seeing is a trend of challenges for wildlife living in the ocean.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimriteCan you guess which of BART's 48 stations leads the rest in arrests?

If your quick answer was Civic Center/UN Plaza Station, there's a good chance you've seen it for yourself.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Civic Center tallied the most arrests in 2017 of any BART station, amassing more than Lake Merritt, the Coliseum and West Oakland stations combined.

Long known for vagrancy and drug use, Civic Center/UN Plaza BART station had 453 arrests, over 100 more than second-place Powell station, which had 344, according to records the transit agency provided to SFGATE.

BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said San Francisco is very dense, so more police interactions tend to take place there.

"Civic and Powell are busy stations for calls for service year after year, so it makes sense it has the most arrests," she wrote in a statement to SFGATE. "Civic [Center] and Powell also have much higher ridership than the Alameda County stations."

The most common arrests were for outstanding warrants  both misdemeanor and felony  followed by resisting/obstructing an officer, possessing unlawful paraphernalia, disorderly conduct with alcohol, possession of narcotics and evading fare, records show.

Drug offenses are also more prevalent in San Francisco than at the Alameda County stations, according to Trost.

This summer, BART's Civic Center Station became the first in the transit agency's system with a kiosk for dirty drug needles, part of a deal with the city to increase police patrols and clean up areas in and around the station.

ALSO READ: BART's Civic Center station gets needle kiosk as part of cleanup push

Officials came up with the measures after local news stations aired footage in April of people in the station injecting drugs or slumped against the wall.

Plans are also in place for BART to integrate with the city's Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and the Department of Public Health, which handle nonemergency homelessness complaints, street behavioral issues and drug-treatment services.

"Our stations are a reflection of the community outside our stations," BART Chief Carlos Rojas told the San Francisco Chronicle in June. "We're dealing with the same folks. If someone is shooting up, there are times when they're street-side and other times when they're coming down to BART. Solidifying the communication between [BART and the city] and giving us access to their resources like the public health folks  that's huge."

On August 27, BART announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had awarded the transit agency $6.8 million in grants to pay for continued police patrols on trains traveling through BART's busiest stations, interoperable radio communications systems and for upgraded security cameras at Powell Street, Civic Center and 16th Street Mission stations.

Click on the slideshow above to see which BART stations had the most arrests in 2017.6 Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Using a large spoon, place a row of filling down the center of each of the pieces of rolled pastry, dividing the filling equally among the 6 pieces. (You may have filling leftover for another use.) Roll the pastry dough around the filling, turning the sticks so the seam is at the bottom. Pinch together the ends of each of the logs; place 3 on each of the baking sheets.Emanuels mayoral podcast most often featured the mayor talking with cultural people: Miguel Cervantes of Hamilton; David Schwimmer of the Lookingglass Theatre; Rainn Wilson, appearing at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Michael Patrick Thornton of the Gift Theatre; the award-winning chef Joe Flamm. His successive commissioners of cultural affairs, Michelle T. Boone and Mark Kelly, have been regarded as highly effective. At Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Emanuel is beloved not just for his support of major new construction projects on Navy Pier but for his creation of Night Out in the Parks, a neighborhood fixture that began when Emanuel found himself watching The Taming of the Shrew in 2012 in Garfield Park and has resulted in thousands of free outdoor performances in parks all over the city.Not so long ago, commuting wasn't just a matter of adding a few bucks to your Clipper card. If you lived across the bay, you sailed to work.

For the better part of a century, legions of Bay Area city-dwellers relied on ferries to get where they needed to go. The first ferry service began in 1850, with just two little ships running twice-weekly trips from San Francisco to what's now the Oakland Estuary.

Over time, ferry companies popped up and their routes proliferated, altering the very landscape of the cities they served. Ever wondered what that huge, now-unused pier jutting out from West Berkeley was for? It was built and owned by the Golden Gate Ferry Company, according to the city, and was used to run ferries across the bay until 1936.

Smaller ferry firms were soon absorbed by the massive Southern Pacific Railroad corporation, which had a monopoly on transbay service until a plucky competitor began offering five-cent rides to Oakland. That forced down the price, and the 'nickel ferry' became the transit option of choice for the unwashed masses  or, as one San Francisco Call reporter in 1910 put it, "a mild and harmless form of slumming" for those who could afford a nicer ride.

Vince Maggiora/The Chronicle

It was not an especially quick trip, at least by modern ferryboat standards. The ships were still steam-powered until the advent of diesel engines in the 1920s. But many of the ferries served (quite good!) food, and some had bars, shoeshines and even barbers onboard  you had to kill time somehow.

Until the Bay Bridge came about, the ferries were a transbay commuter's only choice. After the bridge opened in 1936  followed by the Golden Gate Bridge, which opened the next year  ferry lines began to vanish and ridership plummeted. The final Southern Pacific ferry sailed in 1968, six years before the Transbay Tube opened. The Eureka, the last ship to run the San Francisco-Sausalito route in 1941, is still anchored at Hyde Street Pier. (The Chronicle accompanied her on her final voyage, calling it "one of the most memorable alcoholic mob scenes ever recorded in the Bay Area." Some sentimental riders tried to take pieces of the ferry with them.)

But ferry fans need not despair: In recent decades, the idea of getting to work by sea has made a bit of a comeback, particularly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake took the Bay Bridge temporarily out of commission. It remains to be seen if San Franciscans' mounting frustration with BART and parking-lot-esque bridge traffic will lure them back to the docks en masse, but private companies like Tideline Marine Group have begun offering smaller-scale transbay trips.

Back to the history: Older East Bay locals might remember the last gasps of the Key System, the sprawling transbay rail network that preceded BART.

Wikimedia Commons

The Key System, so named for the key-like shape of its routes, began in 1903 as a series of streetcar lines meant to carry bay-crossers from their Oakland homes to the docks. As it expanded across the East Bay, it evolved into an integrated rail and ferry system  only to ditch the ferries for transbay rail cars once the Bay Bridge opened. The cars were powered by electricity from above, not unlike today's Muni trains.

The Bay and Golden Gate bridges made a dent in the Key System's ridership, but in 1945, when gasoline was rationed during World War II, Key trains carried more than 26 million people across the Bay.

So what happened? The automobile fad turned out not to be a fad, and in 1960, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit (AC for short) and its behemoth bus lines succeeded the Key System. Ever since, it's been shipping commuters from the East Bay and back at all hours of the day and night. Construction began on the futuristic Bay Area Rapid Transit system four years later, but the Transbay Tube wasn't finished until late 1974, nearly $50 million over-budget.That's why Jacquie Zinn's letters to her children seem heroic to me. After all, she did have a terminal diagnosis when she sat down to write what ended up being more than a dozen letters to her children, ranging in age from 11 to 21, and she knew her time was short. I first heard about the letters at her memorial service in 2013. This past spring, working on a book about death and dying, I reached out to her second-born son, Jerry, who was writing about the loss of his mother, to ask if he'd be willing to share his letters from her. He'd already gotten two - one soon after her death and one when he graduated from college - and after some hesitation, he said OK. Now 24, Jerry will get the final letter when he marries.Dear Answer Angel Ellen: Help! Tiny holes have appeared on the front of several of my favorite T-shirts, and I do not know what to do to prevent this from happening. I don't think I am catching my shirts in my jeans zipper, but it seems that the zipper has something to do with the causation. Can you explain why this is happening and tell me what I can do to protect my shirts going forward?Judge Brett Kavanaughs hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday began with a bang, as Democrats moved angrily to adjourn to consider newly released documents and protesters screamed in support. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called it mob rule.

Republicans hoped to use the hearings as an opportunity to extol the experience and distinguished resume of Kavanaugh, a Washington federal appeals court judge, as well as his advocacy for women in the judiciary and aversion to government regulations. Very few, if any, of the Republicans on the committee are likely to present the judge with tough opposition.

Democrats, if they get to the questioning, are expected to aggressively press Kavanaugh on his positions on Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case in 1973; the scope of executive power; same-sex marriage; and several other issues for which Kavanaugh, if confirmed, would very likely shift the ideological leanings of the Supreme Court.

 Confirmation hearings open with a verbal brawl.

The moment Kavanaughs confirmation hearing opened, Democrats and protesters turned it into a verbal brawl. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., immediately interrupted the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles E. Grassley, demanding a delay to consider tens of thousands of pages of documents released in the dead of night Monday.

Other Democrats backed her, especially the senators considering a run for the White House in 2020, as did womens rights protesters, several of whom were arrested and thrown out as they decried the sessions as a sham.

We cannot possibly move forward, Mr. Chairman, with this hearing, one of the presidential aspirants, Harris, declared.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called the hearing a charade and a mockery.

What are we trying to hide? Why are we rushing? asked Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt.

As the Democrats spoke, activists were dragged, shouting, one by one out of the hearing room. We dissent! Vote no! Vote no! one cried.

Grassley argued that the committee has received more materials on Judge Kavanaugh than we have had on any Supreme Court nominee in history.

He said Republican aides have already reviewed the 42,000 documents that arrived Monday night. Thats no reason to delay the hearing.

Democrats quieted down  temporarily  and the hearing appeared to be getting underway with Kavanaugh introducing his family  including his wife, his parents, an aunt and uncle and cousins.

But as soon as he finished, Democrats renewed their request to delay the hearing.

 The protests outside the chamber

About a dozen women, dressed in red robes and white bonnets in the fashion of The Handmaids Tale, stood silently, as if in prayer, outside the hearing room. Such protests have been occurring around the nation against gender discrimination and the infringement of reproductive rights.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary, furious at the White House for withholding documents relating to Kavanaugh  and for dumping 42,000 pages on them at the last minute Monday night  took to the steps of the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning to register their own opposition.

Ninety-three percent of the records from Kavanaughs tenure in the White House as counsel and staff secretary have not been provided to the Senate, and 96 percent are hidden to the public, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, referring to Kavanaughs time in the George W. Bush White House. This entire process has cast a cloud over Judge Kavanaugh, she added, saying, We go to these hearings under protest.

 Merrick Garland redux

In an excerpt from Kavanaughs prepared remarks released by the White House on Tuesday morning, he made a point of praising his colleagues on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit  and one in particular.

I have served with 17 other judges, each of them a colleague and a friend, on a court now led by our superb chief judge, Merrick Garland, Kavanaugh said.

Garland was President Barack Obamas nominee to fill the seat left vacant by the death in 2016 of Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Republican denied him a hearing, and President Donald Trump eventually appointed Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to the seat.

The episode generated deep division and bitterness, and Kavanaughs comment may rekindle it.

 How will Kavanaugh present himself?

Kavanaugh, who has been quietly crisscrossing Capitol Hill to meet with senators on both sides of the aisle, will have the opportunity to publicly present himself and pre-emptively address criticism about aspects of his career, including his days working for Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton, and the accusation that he may have misled Congress during his appeals court confirmation hearing in 2006.

The judges prepared remarks will most likely indicate how forthcoming he will be under questioning from lawmakers about his opinions on case law, judicial precedent and his previous rulings. In excerpts released Tuesday morning by the White House, Kavanaugh vowed to be a team player on the Team of Nine if confirmed to the court.

A good judge must be an umpire  a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy, the judge is expected to tell lawmakers. I am a pro-law judge.

He will be introduced by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state; and Lisa Blatt, a self-described liberal Democrat and a feminist lawyer who has advocated Kavanaughs confirmation.

 In defense of presidential power

Democrats have seized upon Kavanaughs defense of presidential power  including his questioning of the merits of indicting a sitting president  as cause for concern, citing the numerous investigations and indictments that have implicated Trump and members of his administration. In a law journal article, the judge also suggested that a sitting president should be exempt from civil or criminal investigation.

Republicans have said that the judges words have been taken out of context. But during the confirmation hearing, Democrats will quite likely interrogate Kavanaugh over those positions and whether he would agree to recuse himself from any case involving the presidents financial affairs or the special counsels investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Gorsuch said during his own confirmation hearings last year that he would not shy from voting against the man who nominated him, but did so in vague terms.

 Democrats have 2020 in mind

For Democrats on the committee with possible presidential aspirations  including Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Harris and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota  the televised hearings offer an opportunity for combative questioning that can fuel both viral clips and material for a 2020 campaign.

It is unclear how much Feinstein and the committees ranking member, will attempt to direct the questioning from members of her own party. As the Senates most ardent proponent of gun restrictions, she is expected to grill Kavanaugh on a 2009 dissent in which he argued against banning semiautomatic weapons.

Feinstein, who was the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee when it conducted an investigation into the Bush administrations torture program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, may also pursue her own line of questioning over Kavanaughs time as an associate White House counsel  especially his offer to help a senior administration official prepare testimony about the governments surveillance of conversations between certain terrorism suspects and their lawyers.

That offer, revealed in a trove of documents released the confirmation hearing, contradicts Kavanaughs 2006 testimony, in which he told lawmakers he was not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants. Democrats have charged that the statement, made in a White House email, was a lie, although it is unknown if Kavanaugh actually provided assistance.

 About those documents (and those still private)

While Gorsuchs hearings were punctated by reminders that Republicans refused to hold hearings for Garland, it is likely that Democrats will focus instead on the amount of information they say is being withheld from them about Kavanaughs work in the White House under Bush.

Thousands of pages of records have not yet been made public, and Friday the Trump administration asserted executive privilege and refused to release more than 100,000 pages of records about Kavanaughs time in the Bush White House. Democrats have called for a delay of the confirmation hearings to further scrutinize the paper records, a demand Republicans have dismissed.

An additional 42,000 pages of documents were released the night before the hearing, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, who raised complaints about the timing.

This underscores just how absurd this process is, Schumer wrote on Twitter on Monday night. Not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow.

A press officer for the committee, responding via the committees Twitter account a few hours later, said the majority staff had completed its review of each and every one of these pages.

This article originally appeared in The New York TimesWASHINGTON  President Donald Trump so alarmed his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, during a discussion last January of the nuclear standoff with North Korea that an exasperated Mattis told colleagues that the president acted like  and had the understanding  of a fifth- or sixth-grader.'

At another moment, Trumps aides became so worried about his judgment that Gary D. Cohn, the chief economic adviser, took a letter from the presidents desk authorizing the withdrawal of the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn told an associate that Trump never realized it was missing.

These anecdotes are in a sprawling, highly anticipated new book by Bob Woodward, which depicts the Trump White House as a byzantine, treacherous, often out-of-control operation  crazytown, in the words of the chief of staff, John F. Kelly  hostage to the whims of an impulsive, ill-informed and undisciplined president.

The New York Times obtained a copy of the book, Fear, which will be published next Tuesday by Simon & Schuster.

Woodward, a longtime Washington Post reporter and editor, has turned the internal dramas of several previous White Houses into best-sellers. In taking on Trump, he faced the challenge of an unusually leaky administration, which has already provided grist for countless news articles and one megabestseller, Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff.

But Woodwards book has unsettled the administration and the president, in part because it is clear that the author has spoken with so many current and former officials, though all on the condition that they not be cited as sources for the information.

Some of the freshest details in the 448-page book involve Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general who has been viewed as a stable anchor in Trumps Cabinet. Woodward portrays Mattis as frequently derisive of the commander in chief, rattled by his judgment, and willing to slow-walk orders from him that he viewed as reckless.

In the North Korea meeting, during a period of high tension with the countrys leader, Kim Jong Un, Trump questioned Mattis about why the U.S. keeps a military presence on the Korean Peninsula. Were doing this in order to prevent World War III, Mattis responded to Trump, according to Woodward.

In April 2017, after President Bashar Assad of Syria launched a chemical attack on his own people, Trump called Mattis and told him by phone that he wanted the United States to assassinate Assad. Lets go in, the president said, according to Woodward, adding a string of expletives.

The defense secretary hung up and told one of his aides: Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured. At his direction, the Pentagon prepared options for an airstrike on Syrian military positions, which Trump later ordered.

Woodwards reporting adds new details to a recurring theme in the Trump White House: frustrated aides who sometimes resort to extraordinary measures to thwart the presidents decisions  a situation the author describes as an administrative coup d'etat. In addition to Mattis and Cohn, he recounts the struggles of Kelly and his predecessor, Reince Priebus, whose clashes with Trump have been reported elsewhere.

Cohn, Woodward said, told a colleague he had removed the letter about the Korea free trade agreement to protect national security.

Later, when the president ordered a similar letter authorizing the departure of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, Woodward said Cohn and other aides plotted how to prevent him from going ahead with a move they feared would be deeply destabilizing.

I can stop this, Cohn said to the White House staff secretary at the time, Rob Porter, according to the book. Ill just take the paper off his desk.

Woodward reported new details about Cohns well-documented clash with the president over his equivocal response to the white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. Cohn, who threatened to resign over the episode, was particularly shaken after one of his daughters discovered a swastika in her college dorm.

Cohn, Woodward said, concluded that Trump was a professional liar. He found a sympathetic ear in Kelly, another retired Marine general, who frequently vented his frustration to colleagues about the president, whom he labeled unhinged, an idiot and off the rails. Kellys reference to Trump as an idiot has been reported before.

Were in crazytown, Kelly said in one small meeting, according to Woodward. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.

His predecessor, Priebus, apparently shared that view, describing the White House as a Hobbesian world, in which officials delight in sticking knives into one another, according to the book.

When you put a snake and rat and falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal into a zoo without walls, things started getting nasty and bloody, said Priebus, whom Trump frequently ridiculed, before ousting him and leaving him on a rain-slicked tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base.

Woodward, who began work on the book soon after Trumps inauguration, also documented the misgivings of the presidents former lawyer, John Dowd, about whether the president should submit to questions from the special counsel in the Russia investigation, Robert S. Mueller III.

On Jan. 27, Woodward writes, Dowd staged a practice session in the White House residence to dramatize the pressures Trump would face in a session with Mueller. The president stumbled repeatedly, contradicting himself and lying, before he exploded in anger.

This things a goddamn hoax, Trump declared. I dont really want to testify.

Woodward did not interview Trump for the book. The author said he tried fruitlessly to get access to the president. After he had completed the manuscript, Trump called the author to express regret for not talking to him, blaming it on aides who he said had failed to inform him of Woodwards interest.

In a transcript and tape of the call published Tuesday in the The Post, Woodward told Trump he interviewed many White House officials outside their offices, and gathered extensive documentation. Its a tough look at the world and the administration and you, he told Trump.

Right, the president replied. Well, I assume that means its going to be a negative book.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.Some might say we should not make too much of the simple interactions between two individuals. Indeed, if it were not a former president seen on video passing a piece of candy to a former first lady at a funeral, it would have gone unmentioned.At last years biennial, the city expanded on that notion, asking architects to come up with new concepts for extending the riverwalk along the Chicago Rivers South Branch. If those ideas ever take physical form and the river really does become the citys second great waterfront, Emanuel will get much of the credit, cementing his identity as the River Mayor.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



Seventy-five protesters were arrested Monday in San Francisco demanding improved conditions for hotel workers, police and union officials said.



Nearly 1,000 people turned out for the protest, which was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Yerba Buena Lane near the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, according to Unite Here Local 2, which represents hospitality workers in San Francisco and San Mateo counties.



By 11:35 a.m. the arrests had begun.



Police said the 75 taken into custody were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor failing to obey the lawful command of a peace officer and blocking the roadway.



Protesters shut down Powell Street and blocked cable car lines to call attention to the low pay they receive.



The protesters gathered to demand Marriott Hotels set an example for other hotel companies because Marriott is the largest and most profitable hotel chain in the world, according to organizers.



"One Job Should Be Enough" was the slogan associated with the protest, according to Unite Here, which in the U.S. and Canada represents 270,000 workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation and airport industries.



Protesters want to be paid enough at their hotel job so they don't need a second job to make ends meet.



International president of Unite Here Donald Taylor said, "Too often workers welcome guests to Marriott hotels and deliver an unforgettable experience to them, just to leave their shift and go to a second job because working full time for Marriott isn't enough to make ends meet."



Marriott Hotels did not immediately respond to a request 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.San Jose Fire Department crews are on the scene of a structure fire at a Costco Warehouse in north San Jose early this morning, according to fire dispatch.



The blaze was first reported at 5:03 a.m.



No further information was immediately available.





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.Schapiro noted many members of the Northwestern community live in the Rogers Park neighborhood and said we condemn this awful and senseless act of violence and mourn the passing of Shane.  There is no justification for such violence. As a University community we remain more resolved than ever to identify the causes of violence in our larger community  and to work toward solutions that will create a better life for all those within it.A man has been convicted of the 2008 strangling death of his girlfriend, Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo announced Thursday.



Victor Cabrera, 41, has been convicted of murder and of the special circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain.



On Sept. 28, 2008, Cabrera strangled his girlfriend Roshni Singh in her Marina home.



Prosecutors said he was in deep financial debt and murdered Singh because he was the beneficiary of her $600,000 life insurance policy.



He conspired with co-defendant Francisco Agaton-Hernandez to stage a fake robbery.



After strangling the victim, Cabrera and Agaton-Hernandez drove her body to the car repair shop where Cabrera worked. The suspects staged a robbery and drove the victim's body to a nearby apartment complex, where she was left in her SUV.



Cabrera waited half an hour and called 911 with his tongue.



He claimed he was robbed, tied up by two men, and his girlfriend was taken.



Prosecutors said police were immediately suspicious of Cabrera's story and questioned him for five hours.



Without probable cause to make an arrest, police released Cabrera to his parent's home in Salinas. Shortly after, Cabrera fled to Mexico, where he remained for eight years.



Singh's body was found shortly after, and it was determined she was likely killed hours before Cabrera claimed she was abducted.



Cabrera's family was uncooperative with investigators, but phone records led police to Agaton-Hernandez, who was questioned and ultimately admitted to helping move the victim's body and stage the robbery.



Agaton-Hernandez denied having prior knowledge of the murder, but in 2011, he was convicted of aiding and abetting murder and was sentenced to life in prison.



Cabrera was ultimately arrested in Mexico in 2016 and was extradited to the United States to stand trial.



Cabrera will be sentenced on Sept. 27 and will receive life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors 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)



Seventy-five protesters were arrested Monday in San Francisco while demanding improved conditions for hotel workers, police and union officials said.



Nearly 1,000 people turned out for the Labor Day protest on Yerba Buena Lane near the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, according to Unite Here Local 2, which represents hospitality workers in San Francisco and San Mateo counties.



By 11:35 a.m., the arrests had begun.



Police said the 75 taken into custody were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor failing to obey the lawful command of a peace officer and blocking the roadway.



Protesters shut down Powell Street and blocked cable car lines to call attention to what they say is the low pay they receive.



The protesters gathered to demand Marriott Hotels set an example for other hotel companies because Marriott is the largest and most profitable hotel chain in the world, according to organizers.



"One Job Should Be Enough" was the slogan associated with the protest, according to Unite Here, which in the U.S. and Canada represents 270,000 workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation and airport industries.



Protesters said they want to be paid enough at their hotel job so they don't need a second job to make ends meet.



A Marriott spokesperson said today in response to Monday's protest that the company's "strength is rooted in our core value of putting people first. We celebrate and thank our associates for their contribution on this Labor Day."



The spokesperson said, "We also respect our associates' right to voice their opinions. Marriott International has longstanding and productive relationships with Unite Here and is negotiating in good faith and in a timely fashion to obtain the best outcomes for our associates and guests."





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.One person was killed and two others suffered serious injuries this morning when a single-engine airplane crashed offshore from Palo Alto Airport, according to the Palo Alto Fire Department.



The plane, a Mooney M20, went into a wetlands area near the airport called the Baylands Nature Preserve at about 11:10 a.m., Palo Alto Deputy Fire Chief Geo Blackshire said. The plane is sitting in a few feet of water, the wings above the water.



A man in the plane was killed and two women aboard suffered serious injuries. The two women were being prepared to be taken to a hospital for treatment, Blackshire said.



Blackshire did not know whether the plane was headed to the Palo Alto airport or was taking off from there.







The University of California is committing to using only clean and renewable energy at all of its 10 campuses and five medical centers by 2025, university officials announced today.



This is described by UC officials as a major expansion of its existing Carbon Neutrality Initiative, and fitting within its efforts to be a leader in climate change response.



Among UC's new specific energy-related goals are to use 2 percent less energy each year on its campuses and other properties; to have UC's own power company supply 100 percent clean energy to participating campuses by the end of this year; require that any new UC structures built or major renovations after June 2019 will not burn fossil fuels onsite for heating; to make more environmentally sustainable products and services available; and to have each UC campus cut landfill-bound waste by 25 percent before 2025 and by 50 percent before 2030.



A celebration of UC's clean energy commitment was planned from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. today in front of Sather Gate on the UC Berkeley campus.







A 7-year-old boy on a Razor scooter was hit and killed in Ben Lomond in unincorporated Santa Cruz County on Monday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol.



The collision was reported at 2:38 p.m. in a driveway on Newell Creek Road north of Rancho Rio Avenue.



A 44-year-old Ben Lomond man was driving a white 2018 Toyota 4Runner when he hit the boy in the driveway. The boy, a native of Colombia, died at the scene, CHP officials said. His name was not immediately released.



The driver said he did not see the boy. The exact cause of the collision is under investigation, but it does not appear that alcohol or drugs were factors, according to the CHP.







A man was arrested Sunday afternoon in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood on suspicion of manslaughter, police said.



The 38-year-old suspect beat a man up with his fists in the 700 block of O'Farrell Street at about 1:20 p.m., according to police.



The victim, a 66-year-old man, was taken to a hospital where he passed away. His name was not immediately released by the medical examiner's office.



The case remains under investigation and police have not released the suspect's name.







An 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of reckless driving after hitting a pedestrian on Friday afternoon in San Francisco, police said today.



The collision was reported at 5:57 p.m. when the suspect was traveling in the 1100 block of Taraval Street.



The victim, who is a minor, was taken to a hospital where he was treated for injuries that are considered life-threatening.



The name of the 18-year-old driver was not immediately released by police.







Nobody was injured when a older-model Cadillac sedan crashed into a Dressbarn store in El Cerrito on Monday morning, according to El Cerrito police.



The crash was reported around 11:20 a.m. Monday at the store located at 430 El Cerrito Plaza, El Cerrito. Officers who arrived on scene found a 1988 Cadillac sedan around 35 feet into the store.



Police said the driver was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.



According to police, the officers and firefighters on scene helped clean debris and assisted the driver with getting a ride home.







A 47-year-old Windsor man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after being involved in a head-on collision Saturday, California Highway Patrol officials said Monday.



The collision was reported at 6:30 a.m. Saturday on Old Redwood Highway just south of Shiloh Road near Windsor. George Valera was driving a 2005 Mitsubishi Spyder north when he allegedly crossed over double-yellow lines and collided head-on with a 61-year-old Santa Rosa woman.



The woman was transported to a hospital with major injuries. Valera was also transported to a hospital and was arrested on suspicion of DUI and possession of a controlled substance. He was booked into Sonoma County Jail.







A baby iguana accidentally made its way across the Mexican border to Foster City last month stowed way in a woman's luggage, officials with the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA said today.



The discovery occurred on Aug. 5 as she returned from a vacation in Cancun. The woman found the baby spiny-tailed iguana hiding inside her bikini top, according to the PHS/SPCA.



The woman took the animal, which is native to Mexico and Central America, to the PHS/SPCA immediately.



The iguana was eventually taken to an animal sanctuary specializing in reptiles.



PHS/SPCA officials recommend carefully shaking out any gear and clothing before packing to avoid accidentally taking animals out of their native areas.





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 woman who got out of an ambulance while being transported to a psychiatric hospital was killed when a vehicle struck her on a freeway connector ramp in Dublin on Monday morning, Pleasanton police said.



The woman, whose name is not being released yet, was being taken to John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro Monday morning after Pleasanton police stopped her for possible reckless driving earlier in the morning.



The woman was able to open one of the ambulance's doors at about 7:30 a.m. as it was stopped on the connector ramp from southbound Interstate Highway 680 to westbound Interstate Highway 580 in Dublin when she managed to escape and was hit by a vehicle.



Police said officers had placed her on a psychiatric hold after she made it challenging for officers to get her out of her vehicle during a traffic stop around 2 a.m. Monday near 5300 Case Ave in Dublin after she was reportedly recklessly driving, police said.



According to police, the woman allegedly struck several vehicles and a pedestrian before she was pulled over.







A Sunnyvale man drowned in a reservoir in Stanislaus County on Monday, sheriff's officials said.



Victor Sagastume-Menjivar, 26, had been swimming with family members near Area U of the Woodward Reservoir when he went missing around 11:45 a.m.



Deputies responded after being called but were unable to find him.



A sheriff's office dive team responded and found Sagastume-Menjivar's body at about 5 p.m.



Sagastume-Menjivar was not wearing a life vest. Alcohol does appear to have played a part in his death.







An air quality advisory for smoke has been extended through today, as smoke from wildfires may continue to affect Bay Area air quality, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said.



Offshore winds with periods of north and northeasterly flow are expected to cause smoke from regional wildfires to persist throughout the Bay Area, according to the air quality district.



If you can smell smoke, stay inside with windows and doors closed if possible, and set air conditioning units and car vent systems to re-circulate to keep outside air out, the air quality district said.







Three people and a dog were displaced in a fire in San Francisco's Outer Richmond neighborhood, fire officials said.



The one-alarm fire was reported at 4:01 p.m. Monday in the 3300 block of Cabrillo Street.



Flames burned the first and second floors of a two-story residential building.



Fire officials said the fire was contained at 4:32 p.m. No one was injured.



The cause is under investigation. The displaced residents are receiving help from the American Red Cross and city employees.







A bill banning gun and ammunition sales at the Cow Palace in Daly City has passed the California Legislature and awaits the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown.



Senate Bill 221, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, would ban such sales at the state-owned Cow Palace, which holds five gun shows a year.



Both the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed resolutions supporting the bill. In June, San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa called for a ban on such shows, just as a two-day gun show got underway at the venue.



Wiener said, "Our local communities have made it clear that we do not want gun shows in our cities and our neighborhoods, and I'm glad the legislature respects this reasonable desire."



The bill excludes gun buy-back events held by law enforcement agencies, which are essential programs for removing guns from the community.





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.DUBLIN (BCN)



A woman got out of an ambulance on her way to a psychiatric hospital and was killed when a vehicle hit her this morning in Dublin, Pleasanton police said.



The woman, whose name is not being released yet, was being taken to John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro after Pleasanton police stopped her for possible reckless driving.



Police said officers had placed her on a psychiatric hold after she made it challenging for officers to get her out of her vehicle.



Police became aware of the woman's possible reckless driving at about 2 a.m. today when they received several reports of a driver who struck multiple vehicles and a pedestrian near 5300 Case Ave.



Officers responded and found the vehicle and a woman standing next to it. Police said the woman got back into her vehicle when she saw officers.



So she didn't do any further property damage or cause any other injuries, officers told her to get out of the vehicle, police said.



The woman refused and physically resisted officers when they tried to take her out of the vehicle.



But with a control hold the officers were able to remove her.



Police said outside of the vehicle she struggled with officers and several times tried to get an officer's gun.



Two officers shot her with a stun gun and the officers were able to subdue her. She was taken to ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton for a routine medical clearance and at about 7 a.m. a Norcal Ambulance responded to take her to John George Psychiatric Pavilion.



At about 7:30 a.m. as the ambulance was on the connector ramp from southbound Interstate Highway 680 to westbound Interstate Highway 580 in Dublin, it stopped on the side of the road because of a problem with the woman in the back of the vehicle.



The woman got out and ran into traffic. Police said witnesses told them that the woman tried to run in front of three vehicles. Two avoided hitting her but a third was unable to avoid her.



Police said the woman died where she was struck. The California Highway Patrol, Pleasanton police and the Alameda County coroner's bureau are investigating the woman's death.



Anyone who witnessed it or has any information about it is asked to call Lt. Brandon Stocking at (925) 931-5100. Reference to case No. 18-34368.





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.Obviously he has his reasons. Its disappointing that he wouldnt rise to the occasion and address the challenges that this city faces, said community activist Jawanza Malone, who has openly criticized Emanuel for the closing of public schools and for not devoting enough attention to the rising costs of housing. There is a lack of investment on the South and West sides of the city. Hopefully we will be able to elect a leader that will give attention to parts of the city he didnt seem to care about.  What had become obvious to people in the city and across the country  when you think of the number of protests  he lacks the ability to be able to help this city. I wont say that Im glad that hes not running. He didnt make sure that people in communities that arent affluent got the services and resources they needed.Surveillance video showed Williams and the accomplice getting into a Nissan Versa, allegedly rented by Williams, court documents state. Area North detectives identified Williams as the shooter, and he was arrested as he was seen getting into a car wanted for its use in a fatal shooting, police said. Police pulled over the car and arrested Williams about 5 p.m. Friday, and the man grazed in the arm identified him as the shooter, according to court documents.People who worry about climate change have been in a state of high anxiety about President Donald Trumps ignorance about the issue, his assault on Obama-era policies designed to do something about it and the growing evidence that extreme weather events and other consequences of global warming, long predicted by mainstream scientists, are now upon us.

Along comes California  yet again  to make people feel better about the possibility of serious action. The state is taking new steps to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions and, in so doing, it is reaffirming its willingness to lead on a matter of global and national concern when Trump will not.

On Tuesday, the state Legislature approved a bill mandating that, by 2045, all of the states electricity come from renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydropower. The original goal was 50 percent renewables by 2030; this bill kicks the target up to 60 percent by 2030 en route to zero carbon by 2045.

The move is part of Californias broader effort to cut economywide emissions from all sources by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030, and stands in luminous contrast to Trumps recent power plant proposal that would do essentially nothing to reduce emissions beyond what market forces are likely to achieve. Unlike President Barack Obamas Clean Power Plan, the Trump proposal sets no performance standards, or targets, and would allow states to decide how  or even whether  to regulate climate-altering emissions from coal-burning power plants. Making his political intentions crystal clear, Trump traveled to West Virginia to highlight the plan and extol the virtues of beautiful, clean coal.

Californias action came in advance of what can be seen as another thumb in Trumps eye, the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, Sept. 12-14, co-hosted by Gov. Jerry Brown of California and former New York mayor and current climate activist Michael Bloomberg. There will be three days of speeches and seminars on the roles that technology, municipalities, states and businesses can play in the fight against climate change, plus appearances by climate combat veterans like Al Gore and John Kerry. The event as a whole will provide a kind of group therapy session  as well as a reunion of sorts  for officials and activists deeply angered by Trumps refusal to hold up Americas end of the bargain struck at the climate change summit in Paris in December 2015. The Obama administration promised major cuts in U.S. emissions, which alone account for about one-fifth of the worlds total, second only to the carbon pollution coming from China.

Trump startled the world June 1, 2017, by announcing his decision to withdraw from that agreement, but within days of his announcement an astonishing assemblage of more than 1,200 governors, mayors and businesses promised in a letter titled We Are Still In that they would do everything they could to honor Obamas promises. The letter argued that global warming imposes real and rising costs, and that the clean energy economy to which the Paris agreement aspired offered enormous opportunities for U.S. industry and workers. The same crowd, and these same themes, will be much in evidence in San Francisco next week.

California, obviously, is not alone in this fight. Massachusetts and other states are gearing up for a fierce legal response to Trumps dirty power plan. But California is different in several respects, including its sheer size, its long record of leading the nation on environmental protection and, not least, its robust bipartisan history of tackling climate change. It was Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who in 2006 signed a landmark bill, known as AB 32, aimed at reducing economywide emissions from multiple sources of carbon dioxide. At the time, the administration of President George W. Bush was doing next to nothing about the problem.

The California law affected businesses and consumers across the board, requiring cleaner cars, energy-efficient buildings and alternative fuels. Schwarzenegger, four years later, beat back a coalition of oil companies and big money men, including Charles and David Koch, who tried to neuter that law with a ballot initiative. He also endorsed the most recent renewable-energy bill in a letter to legislators.

California may feel, too, a special sense of urgency, not to mention a special sense of grievance. In early August, in another big swipe at Obamas climate agenda, the Trump administration announced a rollback of part of the former presidents ambitious fuel efficiency standards for automobiles. The Trump plan would not only weaken the rules but also strip California of its historic right, conferred by federal clean air laws, to set its own air quality standards. Those standards  which 13 other states have chosen to follow  led during the Obama years to a set of nationwide fuel economy bench marks that, until Trump intervened, promised consumers years of steadily cleaner and more efficient cars. California, not surprisingly, has vowed to fight.

As if finding itself in Trumps cross hairs were not enough, California has reason right now to feel especially vulnerable to climate change itself. This years brutal wildfires have set records for scope and financial destruction, and on Aug. 27 a new statewide assessment from the California Natural Resources Agency, based on dozens of peer-reviewed studies, promised more of the same in the decades to come. And not just more wildfires, but also rising oceans that could erode between a third and two-thirds of Southern Californias shoreline, many more heat-related fatalities, billions of dollars in damages and a diminished snowpack. All will bear the fingerprints of climate change.

In California, facts and science still matter, Brown said in commenting on the report. These findings are profoundly serious and will continue to guide us as we confront the apocalyptic threat of irreversible climate change.

The reference to facts and science was a nice little needle aimed at the White House. Where, on this issue, they dont seem to matter at all.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.WASHINGTON (AP)  A man whose teenage daughter was killed in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting tried to shake the hand of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a break in Tuesday's chaotic confirmation hearing.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie died in the February 2018 attack, approached Kavanaugh after he rose from the witness table for a lunch break. He put out his hand to Kavanaugh, who paused for a moment before turning away as a security guard stepped in.Van Dyke, 40, is on trial on charges of murder, aggravated battery and official misconduct for shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times in October 2014. Police dashboard camera video released more than a year later by court order shows Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of exiting his squad car as McDonald, holding a knife, appeared to walk away from police, contradicting reports from officers at the scene that the black teen had threatened officers with the weapon.Attention, home shoppers: The 2019 Ikea catalog has arrived! This annual bible of budget-friendly furnishings marks a special occasion this yearit's the Swedish megachain's 75th anniversary. And, true to form, this 286-page catalog is packed with so many brand-new products, some might find it hard to pick.

This is especially true since, let's face it, Ikea's offerings can be bargain furnishings at their very bestor real clunkers that are hair-tearingly hard to assemble that then quickly fall apart. So, to help you separate the good from the bad, we got designers to rifle through this catalog's pages and point out which new items they'd predict are bound for greatnessas well as those that are bound to bomb.

What to buy

1. Gradvis vase

A great accent accessory can bring out a room's best attributes. Upgrade your home quickly (and cheaply!) with this stylish Gradvis vase ($7.99, Ikea.com).

"This vase is really on trend," says Drew Henry, founder of Designer Dudes. "I love the shape and the dusty pink pastel finish."

Plus, shoppers can snag this piece for a bargain compared with designer look-alikes, according to Henry. "It looks like a lot of higher-end items Ive seen at stores like West Elm," he says.

2. Nissedal mirror

Cheryl Eisen, a luxury designer and CEO of Interior Marketing Group in New York City, recommends this timeless white mirror ($49.99, Ikea.com).

"Interior design and staging are all about playing tricks on the eye, and [this] piece doubles the visual square footage of any room," she says.

While the Nissedal mirror comes in more than one size, this particular style can be hung vertically or horizontallywhatever looks best in your space.

3. Stocksund sofa

The 2019 version of this traditional sofa ($599, Ikea.com) is available only in stores, but Henry says it's worth the drive to your closest Ikea location.

"I love the bold fabric choice and the fact that the legs are a little higher," he says. "I think this would be a great focal point for a living room."

The tailored cover with piping and pleats adds a modern flair to a classic couch, and being able to see under the sofa will make your room feel bigger.

Bonus: The thick, pocket-spring cushions create a comfy spot to watch a movie or take a nap.

4. Bjurksnas queen bed frame

This minimalist frame ($429, Ikea.com) is built from natural materials, and its Scandinavian look isn't going away anytime soon, says Alessandra Wood, interior design expert and director of style at home design site Modsy.

"The subtle accents, like those leather straps and beautiful birch wood, give it a little more personality and can still make a statement" she says.

Although Henry agrees that the frame is reasonably priced and boasts a unique style, he warns that it might not be great if you like to lean on your headboard while, say, watching TV: "The headboard doesnt look like it will offer any support."

5. Havsen apron sink

The thick edges and simple design of this Havsen sink ($186, Ikea.com) caught the eye of Suzanne Falk of Suzanne Falk Interior Design, in Riverwoods, IL.

"It looks like a solid, white farm sink for a great price," she says.

The sink's all-white detail can add a traditional look to any kitchen, plus it can be built into an island. And thanks to its easy-to-clean ceramic surface, you won't be stuck scrubbing away grime after a meal.

Ikea; realtor.com

What not to buy

Our interior designers also scanned all the products and picked out the pieces that they think don't belong in your home. In terms of comfort, quality, and what's going to boost your space to the next level, these are the two items our experts say might not be smart buys:

1. Videbak rug

Henry thinks a rug can add dimension to any roombut not when the colors are distracting from your other well-curated pieces. Unfortunately, this Videbak rug ($149, Ikea.com) dominates a space.

"The pattern and colors on this rug feel way too specific for me," he says. "Once you purchase it, you would be pretty much confined to just these colors."

Plus, once the colors are out of style, you'd have to redo the entire room. Instead, Henry suggests opting for a neutral rug with texture rather than color. This way, you can still set a mood for the room, but you can achieve a softer feel that draws guests' eyes up instead of down.

2. Franklin bar stools

We're going to go out on a limb and say that you wouldn't want your foldable chairs to collapse underneath your guests. These Franklin bar stools ($29.99, Ikea.com) might be easy to fold and store, but they don't look like they can support a lot of weight.

"I would not trust my body to sit on that as a bar stool!" says Falk, who advises against purchasing these for your next family get-together or game night.

The post 5 Totally New Ikea Items Bound for Greatness in 2019and 2 That Will Bomb appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com."Breaking Bad" fans can now buy the Albuquerque, NM, home featured in the series finalethe memorable mansion is on the market for $2.5 million.

To refresh your addled memory, the modern home stood in for the home of Walter Whites science partner from college, Elliott Schwartz (Adam Godley). Elliott and his wife, Gretchen Schwartz (Jessica Hecht), amassed a fortune as co-owners of the fictional Gray Matter Technologies while Walter stews about his research being used as the basis for the billion-dollar company.

Walter (Bryan Cranston) confronts the couple in their luxe abode in the last episode and gives them one final chance to make it right.

Living room where "Breaking Bad" scene was filmed realtor.com

Kitchen realtor.com

Formal dining room realtor.com

Covered patio and cabana realtor.com

Pool and spa realtor.com

Aside from the chilling confrontation between the former colleagues, the beloved show's location scouts had excellent taste in real estate. The well-appointed, 5,900-square-foot home comes has four beds and 5.5 baths. It comes with 2 acres.

Even for our market, this house is just beyond, says listing agent Alicia Feil. Take any fame away from it, its such a sophisticated level of design."

The home was designed by Lorri Brunacini, CEO of Simply Home, in partnership with John Brooks Design. Completed in 2010, it went on the market in 2015, at the same time another famous home from the show was also up for sale.

Brunacini studied under the legendary designer Christian Liaigre, who conceived homes for Calvin Klein and Karl Lagerfeld. According to Brunacini, the look of the Albuquerque home was inspired by Liaigre's style.

The well-lit home features walls of glass, a living space that opens to the outdoors, a high-end kitchen, and a formal dining room. Outside there's a pool, cabana (with kitchen, bath, and shower), and covered patio.

The glamorous interiors caught the attention of the show's New Mexicobased production staff.

They said they would be using their own furniture and artwork, Brunacini recalls. After seeing my house, they used all my furniture and all of my artwork. Everything you see is exactly the same.

That picture-perfect decor could be included in the sale for an additional fee, notes Feil.

Despite the avalanche of attention, it's not a slam-dunk sale. The famed home is at the top of the market for the high desert town. According to realtor.com, the median home price in Albuquerque runs about $230,000.

You just might have to start your own version of Gray Matters to afford it.

But the house is that special of a house, says Feil. Its a labor of love.

Potential buyers would get to say their house was in Breaking Bad. People love that, she adds.

The post Albuquerque House in 'Breaking Bad' Finale Is on the Market for $2.5M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.Filmmaker Vincent Gallo has purchased a modern desert mansion in the mountains outside Tucson, AZ, for $3.25 million.

Built in 2007 and designed by renowned architect Rick Joy, the home mirrors the austere beauty of the desert mountains surrounding it. The house is elegant and formal, and its five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms are lined with walls of windows, to bring in the views of the surrounding desert and the city below.

Built on 3.5 acres in the gated Ventana Canyon community, the home includes an elevator, guest quarters and dramatic outdoor spaces designed to take in the beauty of the surrounding desert and plentiful sunshine.

Exterior realtor.com

Living realtor.com

Kitchen realtor.com

Pool realtor.com

Gallo, a director, painter, model, actor, and writer, is best known for films like "Buffalo 66" which he wrote, shot, and starred in, and the controversial and explicit "Brown Bunny," which was widely derided by critics.

Last spring, he wrote an essay calling himself the "Donald Trump of Cannes," while blaming the late film critic Roger Ebert for the poor reception of "Brown Bunny." The essay, published in March by Another Man Magazine, was likely a farewell to everything he disliked about Los Angeles before decamping for the Arizona desert.

Clear night skies and saguaros standing like sentinels are as much a part of the home's design as the steel and cantilevered concrete that make up its walls. The lack of artifice is key to its appeal. In that respect, the man and the home seem perfectly matched. And fans of his work must hope the renegade spirit finds inspiration in this pristine, high-drama house in the desert.

The post Filmmaker Vincent Gallo Buys Modern Mansion in Tucson for $3.25M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.ISLAMABAD  The death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of Afghanistans outlawed militant network that bears his name, is unlikely to weaken the group that is considered the most formidable of the Talibans fighting forces.

The Taliban said Haqqani died Monday at age 71 after reports of years of ill health, including Parkinsons disease. Because of his infirmity, stewardship of the organization had been given to one of his 12 sons, Sirajuddin, whose military prowess is credited with plotting and carrying out some of the more audacious attacks assigned to the network.

The younger Haqqani is also deputy head of the Taliban, who have waged increasingly sophisticated and coordinated attacks against Afghanistans struggling security forces. Washingtons own watchdog in a recent report said nearly half of Afghanistan is either under the control of the Taliban or influenced by the religious militia.

Jalaluddin Haqqani, once hailed as a freedom fighter by President Ronald Reagan for opposing the Soviet Unions presence in Afghanistan during the Cold War, had been paralyzed for the past 10 years, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said in a telephone interview. Reports of his death were widespread in 2015, and he had not been heard from in several years.

In announcing his death, Mujahed called Haqqani a religious scholar and exemplary warrior. The United States declared the Haqqani network a terrorist organization in 2012, and it has been one of the fiercest opponents for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The elder Haqqanis death is not expected to affect the networks military might or strategy.

One of the most resilient of Afghanistans insurgents, Haqqani joined the Taliban when they overran Kabul in September 1996, expelling feuding fighters whose battles left the capital in ruins.

Haqqani was among the Afghan mujahedeen, or holy warriors, that the United States backed to fight the former Soviet Unions invading army that entered Afghanistan in 1979 to prop up a pro-Moscow communist government. Haqqani was praised by the late U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson as goodness personified. After 10 years in Afghanistan, Moscow negotiated an exit from the country in an agreement that eventually led to the collapse of Kabuls government and a takeover by the mujahedeen.

Declassified U.S. cables called Haqqani a moderate socialist who did not embrace the Talibans strict rules that denied education to girls. Haqqani functions more in the military area, and is not a force in setting Taliban political or social issues, the cables read.

Born in 1947 into the powerful Zardran tribe that dominates southeastern Afghanistans Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces, Haqqani was a close friend of Osama bin Laden, who often took refuge in his camps outside Khost.

In August 1998, U.S. cruise missiles targeted Haqqanis base in a failed attempt to kill bin Laden. Several Pakistani militants affiliated with the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen group were killed in that attack.

After his death was announced, the Haqqani family released a statement that said security issues prevented the holding of communal prayers for him and instead urged his followers to gather in mosques and jihadi centers around the country and offer prayers in his name.

Kathy Gannon is an Associated Press writer.HUEHUETENANGO, Guatemala  As Juan Carlos Villatoro approached a remote village in Guatemalas western highlands, he yelled at his driver to stop so he could hail a skinny teenager in a motorized rickshaw.

Flashing a broad smile, he asked the boy to help him on his quest.

Pardon me, youngster, Villatoro began. We are trying to find and help the deported parents who have children who are still detained in the United States. Do you know of a parent who is in this situation? Wed like to reunite them.

The teen shook his head. Theres nobody here like that, he said.

It was a typical encounter for Villatoro, a Guatemalan lawyer turned impromptu detective in an urgent search for deported mothers and fathers with children still in the U.S. With a name serving as his only clue sometimes, hes traveled twisting trails in cabs, minivans and teeth-rattling old buses to search mountain hamlets where Mayan tongues and suspicion often prevail.

We dont have telephone numbers. We dont have exact addresses or email addresses, Villatoro said. There is nothing we can do but move forward and keep fighting and searching for these deported parents.

This summer the U.S. government separated more than 2,500 children from their parents after the Trump administration instituted a zero tolerance policy requiring anyone who crossed the border illegally to be prosecuted. The parents were taken to federal court to face misdemeanor charges.

The move ignited worldwide condemnation and was eventually stopped, but not before many adults were sent to Central America, leaving behind about 400 children  from toddlers to teens.

A federal judge has ruled that it is the U.S. governments responsibility to reunite families, but the brunt of the work in Guatemala often has fallen on locals such as Villatoro. Even for those familiar with the regions terrain, history and, most crucially, culture, the task is frustrating and often unsuccessful.

The searchers work with Justice in Motion, a U.S.-based group that is part of a network of U.S. and Central American nonprofits. If theyre lucky, theyll receive a name or hometown from U.S. officials. The U.S. government only recently began releasing phone numbers for deported parents  but those often do not work.

Even when parents are found, the result isnt what the searchers might expect. Whereas parents of younger children yearn to be reunited, those of older children sometimes preferred they stay in the U.S.

After all, they had left Guatemala for a better life and perhaps, some parents rationalize, they are old enough to cope in the U.S.

Cindy Carcamo is a Los Angeles Times writer.Emanuels announcement comes on the eve of the Van Dyke case playing out in a criminal courtroom, as the officer becomes the first in decades to be tried for murder in connection with an on-duty slaying. Among Emanuels many challengers for mayor is Garry McCarthy, a former New York police leader who was hailed by Emanuel as the man to fix city violence, only to be fired by him in the wake of the McDonald shooting and allegations of a cover-up.DAMASCUS, Syria  Israeli jets flying high over Lebanon struck at targets inside Syria on Tuesday, Syrian state media reported, in a rare daytime raid that killed at least one person.

Syrias SANA state news agency said the countrys air defenses shot down five missiles, adding that one person was killed and 12 others were wounded.

It reported strikes on the Wadi Ayoun area in the western Hama province and on the town of Baniyas in the coastal Tartous province.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jets targeted military installations belonging to Iran, a key ally of the Syrian government.

Lebanese residents in areas north of the capital, Beirut, reported hearing jets overhead before sunset.

Israel is believed to be behind a string of strikes targeting government and allied military installations in Syria, in order to disrupt weapons transfers between its archenemies Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli government rarely acknowledges the attacks, and such strikes usually take place late at night.

The Syrian government accused Israel of striking a weapons research facility in Masyaf, near Wadi Ayoun, in July. The attack killed a top military scientist.

Elsewhere in Syria, at least eight people were killed in air strikes in the northern Idlib province, where Syrias rebels are holed up in their last major bastion. Those strikes were likely carried out by the Syrian government or its allies, which are preparing for a major offensive.

The Syrian Civil Defense, volunteer first responders also known as the White Helmets, said five children were killed in strikes on the town of Jisr al-Shughour and another three civilians were killed in strikes on the village of Mahambal.

Albert Aji and Philip Issa are Associated Press writers.SANTIAGO, Chile  Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was 23 years old when she was tortured and fled her countrys dictatorship into exile. Now, more than four decades later, she will face her past fighting such abuses worldwide as the new U.N. human rights chief.

Bachelet, 66, is often seen smiling, chatting easily or tossing unplanned comments or jokes into her speeches. But behind her good humor lie haunting memories of the brutal dictatorship that tore her family apart.JUBA, South Sudan  Pushing filthy hands between the bars of his cell, Maluel Chol held up a small black plastic bag.

This is where I go to the toilet, he said. The 28-year-old has been detained for six months in South Sudans capital, accused of murder but not yet officially charged and with no access to a lawyer.

Hundreds of people detained in South Sudan face such treatment and far worse, a new Amnesty International report says, accusing authorities of torturing people to death and letting many others languish behind bars since civil war began in late 2013.

At least 20 people died in detention between 2014 and 2016 and four died last year because of harsh conditions and inadequate medical care, according to the report.

It is extremely unconscionable that South Sudanese authorities arrest, torture and ill-treat people in total disregard for their human rights, said Seif Magango, Amnestys deputy director for East Africa. He called on South Sudans government to release political detainees or charge them.

Hundreds of people have been subject to prolonged and arbitrary detention without charge by the countrys National Security Service and Military Intelligence Directorate, said the report, based on interviews with victims and witnesses. Suspected supporters of the armed opposition are increasingly targeted, it said.

One man suffered having his testicles pierced with sewing needles while being interrogated about the whereabouts of opposition leader Riek Machar, said the Amnesty report. Other detainees were made to drink water from the toilet and defecate and urinate in front of each other, while some were subjected to forced nudity and genital mutilation.

Last year one soldier died in detention while standing trial for a high-profile attack on a hotel in the capital, Juba, in 2016 in which foreigners said they were gang-raped and assaulted and a local journalist was shot dead.

South Sudans government called the new Amnesty report rubbish and based on inaccurate information from social media.

We dont have a culture of torturing people. We put you in prison to put you behind bars, not to beat you, said government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny.

As part of a new peace deal, the government in August released more than 20 political prisoners.

Despite that act of good faith, South Sudans political environment has become increasingly intolerant and any criticism of the government can lead to intimidation and detention, the new report says.

In July, academic and activist Peter Biar Ajak was arrested at Jubas international airport and accused of treason. He has been detained without charge since then without access to legal counsel or any communication with the outside world, said Phillips Anyang Ngong, a human rights lawyer involved with his case.

According to South Sudans Criminal Procedure Act, no one should be detained for longer than 24 hours while cases are investigated. The government has signed a U.N. convention against torture.

Sam Mednick is an Associated Press writer.BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn.  A pair of ruby slippers used in The Wizard of Oz and later stolen from a Minnesota museum were recovered in a sting operation after a man approached the shoes insurer and said he could help get them back, the FBI said Tuesday.

The slippers were on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in the late actress hometown of Grand Rapids when they were taken in 2005 by someone who climbed through a window and broke into a small display case. The shoes were insured for $1 million.

The FBI said a man approached the insurer in summer 2017 and said he could help get them back. Grand Rapids police asked for the FBIs help and after a nearly yearlong investigation, the slippers were recovered in July during a sting operation in Minneapolis.

The FBI said no one has yet been arrested or charged in the case, but they have multiple suspects and continue to investigate. As they unveiled the recovered slippers at a news conference Tuesday, they asked anyone with information about the theft to contact them.

Were not done. We have a lot of work to do, Christopher Myers, the U.S. attorney for North Dakota, said.

Myers said he would handle any prosecution. The North Dakota link to the case wasnt evident, and authorities declined to explain it.

The slippers had been on loan to the Garland museum from Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw. Three other pairs that Garland wore in the movie are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Smithsonian and a private collector.

The stolen slippers authenticity was verified by comparing them with the pair at the Smithsonians Museum of American History in Washington.

The ruby slippers are key in the 1939 movie. After mysteriously landing in the colorful Land of Oz after a tornado hits her farm in Kansas, Garlands character, Dorothy, has to click the heels of her slippers three times and repeat theres no place like home to return.

Rhys Thomas, author of The Ruby Slippers of Oz, called the slippers the Holy Grail of Hollywood memorabilia.

They are maybe the most iconic cinematic prop or costume in movie history, and in fact, in cultural history, Thomas said.

Law enforcement offered a $250,000 reward early in the case, and a fan in Arizona offered another $1 million in 2015.

Steve Karnowski is an Associated Press writer.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island son Marc Carbonaro, a graduate in Tottenville High School's class of 2014, is serving aboard the USS Frank Cable submarine tender ship in the Pacific, as part of a hybrid crew of sailors and civilian mariners.

FYI: The Guam-based USS Frank Cable is one of only two such ships in the United States Navy, where its crew provides maintenance and resupply both in port and at sea.

"I am in charge of peoples' travel -- and I am responsible for managing government travel cards for everyone in the command," said Personnel Specialist Seaman Carbonaro. "I like being stationed in Guam, there are great, friendly people here."

He credits success in the Navy to many of the lessons learned on Staten Island: "It was a small town, and your reputation mattered, much like it does in the Navy."

According to Lt. Commander Marie Tillery, Navy Office of Community Outreach, the ships, submarines, aircraft and Navy personnel deployed to Guam are part of the world's largest fleet command and serve in a region critical to American national security.

With a crew of more than 600, the Frank Cable is 649-foot-long and weighs approximately 23,493 tons.

As a member of one of the Navy's most relied upon assets, Carbonaro and other sailors know they are part of a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes, one that will provide a critical component of the Navy the nation needs.

"I'm a better person for serving, I've matured, grown up, and seen places I've never seen before," Carbonaro said. "I've learned more discipline and met people from all around the world. At my age, I am responsible for something I wouldn't be if I was in the civilian world right now."

The Pacific Fleet encompasses 100 million square miles, nearly half the Earth's surface, from Antarctica to the Arctic Circle and from the West Coast of the United States into the Indian Ocean.

All told, there are more than 200 ships and submarines, nearly 1,200 aircraft, and more than 130,000 uniformed and civilian personnel serving in the Pacific.

The integrated crew of sailors and civilian mariners build a strong fellowship while working alongside one another. The crews are highly motivated, and quickly adapt to changing conditions. It is a busy life of specialized work, watches and drills.

Although there are many ways for sailors to earn distinction in their command, community, and career, Carbonaro is most proud of earning an award for encouraging someone to join the Navy when he was in the Navy's Delayed Entry Program.

"I wasn't even in the Navy yet and I was being recognized," Carbonaro said.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Five public schools on Staten Island will open their doors on Wednesday with new principals for the 2018-2019 academic year.

The new principals will be introduced by Anthony Lodico, executive superintendent, and Vincenza Gallassio, interim acting superintendent, during the public meeting of the Community Education Council on Sept. 17 at the Michael J. Petrides School.

Here are the changes:

Dreyfus Intermediate School (I.S. 49), Stapleton

PS 78, Stapleton

Police Officer Rocco Laurie Intermediate School (I.S. 72), New Springville

PS 74, Tompkinsville

Port Richmond High School

Swinton, 39, was removed from Port Richmond High School in June after she was charged with four counts of insurance fraud, a third-degree felony; theft by deception and criminal conspiracy.

Swinton was reassigned to a DOE central office, a spokesman told the Advance. A formal arraignment for Swinton is scheduled for Oct. 10 at 8:30 a.m. at Monroe County Court in Stroudsburg, Pa., according to court records.

Three Catholic elementary schools will also welcome new principals when their school year begins on Thursday.

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Calling all teachers, families and students in the Staten Island school community: We want to hear from you!

The new school year will begin on Wednesday, Sept. 5, for public school students and Thursday, Sept. 6, for Catholic school students.

Earlier this year, SILive.com launched a new education column, In Class, which highlights what's going on in area schools.

Private, Catholic and public school communities of all grades -- even college-level -- are welcome to send us their stories.

We've covered a number of education stories this year, but we want to shed light on even more goings-on.

Since the column's launch, we've written about various topics, including: students dressing up for Senior Week; kids receiving free haircuts; preschoolers celebrating Superhero Day, and kids riding bikes to raise money for those with cancer.

Email education reporter Annalise Knudson at aknudson@siadvance.com with your story ideas for the In Class education column.

We look forward to hearing from you!

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NY Wheel was given a Sept. 5 deadline to take steps -- such as hiring a new contractor -- toward recommencing construction of the 630-foot observation wheel that has been stalled for more than a year.

But word on the project remains mum one day before the deadline.

In May of this year, the NY Wheel was given 120 days to get the project back on track after its former contractor walked off the job last year and was subsequently fired.

The agreement hashed out in the spring between the Holland-based Mammoet-Starneth -- the Wheel's former contractor -- and the NY Wheel in Delaware Bankruptcy Court allowed both parties to enter a 120-day standstill period.

The agreement is a culmination of more than a year of court battles between the two parties.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

If the Wheel has yet to secure the necessary funding to hire a new contractor by the deadline, there are a few things that could take place.

The Wheel could ask for an extension of the 120-day standstill in Delaware Bankruptcy Court. If they have potential investors, but just need more time to work out an agreement, a request for an extension might be considered.

However, if the Wheel fails to find investors to foot the bill needed to complete the project, then the parties would end up back in bankruptcy court.

If this is the case, the NY Wheel would likely revive its motion to dismiss the bankruptcy, and Mammoet-Starneth would go back to seeking permission to auction the Wheel parts.

"If the notice is given, then the parties would go back to their respective positions...namely the motion to approve the bidding procedures in connection with the sale," said Boris I. Makvestskiy an attorney with Sills, Cummis & Gross, representing Mammoet at a May 4 court hearing, according to court transcripts.

"The Wheel would not object to the bidding procedures, but would be entitled to participate in the auction, and then the parties would reserve all rights within respect to the ownership of the proceeds," he added.

This would mean the 120-day attempt to restart the project essentially failed.

"Now to the extent that the Wheel does not terminate the standstill period and it ends on September 5 and there's a closing shortly thereafter...the debtor would transfer to the Wheel various parts and pieces of the Wheel that are the subject of the sale motion," said Makvestskiy.

The purpose of the 120-day standstill was to allow the NY Wheel to come up with the necessary financing to complete the project and hire a new contractor, according to court documents. In addition, the agreement dismissed the lawsuit the NY Wheel filed against Mammoet-Starneth for breach of contract.

CITY TRYING TO HELP?



Although the project is entirely funded by private investors, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a recent town hall meeting that City Hall would get involved to help see a resolution for the embattled New York Wheel.

However, he recently told an Advance reporter that it's the city Economic Development Corporation that could help move the project along.

"The Economic Development Corporation (EDC) leaders have been in touch with the folks behind the Wheel to figure out an equitable solution. Remember, this is a private sector development, we want to be supportive but...this is not something initiated by the city. It's something that we want to find the right way to support if there is such a way; that's what the conversation has been about," said de Blasio.

"I personally do not plan to meet with them [the NY Wheel] because my hope is that either they can resolve their issues on their own or EDC can figure out with them a way to move it forward."

Said EDC: "We are having ongoing conversations with the Wheel developer in the hopes of moving the project forward."

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THE PROPERTY?

The property on which the Wheel is to be constructed is under the jurisdiction of the EDC.

When asked what would happen to the property if the Wheel is not built, the agency released the following statement:

"We remain hopeful that the developer will find a way to deliver this project for the people of Staten Island and New York City. Should the developer not be able to deliver the project, we would engage local stakeholders and community members to gather their thoughts and vision for the future of the site."

BANKRUPTCY HISTORY

Problems with the NY Wheel began when Mammoet-Starneth walked off the job on May 26, 2017, and filed for bankruptcy in December.

To date, the NY Wheel has been ordered by Delaware Bankruptcy Court to pay nearly $2 million in storage costs, according to court documents.

The payment of the storage costs was ordered by the court after Mammoet-Starneth wanted to auction off the parts of the Wheel as part of its liquidation of assets, according to court records.

Mammoet-Starneth LLC as been given an extension until Nov. 27 to accept the terms of its bankruptcy agreement, which includes severing ties with the Wheel, according public records.

"As part of the settlement, the debtor's [Mammoet-Starneth] exclusive period to file a plan was to be extended through this November 27th date. However, if [the] New York Wheel were to determine to terminate the settlement agreement, it retains the right to seek early termination of the exclusive period," said the NY Wheel in a statement.

A spokesperson for Mammoet-Starneth has not answered the Advance's repeated requests for comment.

FINANCING NEEDED

While the NY Wheel told the Advance $400 million of the $580 million allotted for the project through private investors was already spent when the project was indefinitely delayed last spring, it's unclear how much financing is needed for the project to continue.

Since this is a privately-funded project, the NY Wheel has no obligation to disclose how much financing is needed for the tourist attraction to come to fruition.

In 2015, former NY Wheel CEO Rich Marin told the Advance the project was fueled by $195 million in senior debt from the Highbridge Strategies hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase, $111 million in equity, and $174 million from CanAm Enterprises as part of a federal green card program known as EB-5.

Advance reporter Sydney Kashiwagi contributed to this report.

MORE RECENT STORIES ABOUT THE NY WHEEL:

One NY Wheel investor's reason for pulling money out of the project

50 days into NY Wheel agreement, no word on getting project back on track

Exclusive: NY Wheel gets green light to hire new contractor

New York Wheel stalled for 10 months: How did we get here?

Exclusive: Former NY Wheel CEO Rich Marin now involved with Eye of Texas Wheel

Former contractor pushing to auction $9M NY Wheel legs, other parts

FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER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!Im kind of saying to myself, you know, is there another shoe thats going to drop here? Because if you look at the way that the present mayor got into office, it was handed off to him by the previous administration, and quite obviously there were deals cut. And there probably are deals cut right now, McCarthy said in a reference to Emanuel leaving the White House and Bill Daley, the brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, becoming Obamas next chief of staff. I try not to worry about things that I really cant control.  Im very confident that weve got a good campaign. Weve got a good message. And Im very confident in my ability to lead.The banking regulator has stepped up the pressure on banks by demanding senior executives feel a sting in their pay packets when scandals occur on their watch, saying lenders had "squandered" their reputations by focusing too much on profits.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's (APRA) chairman, Wayne Byres, on Tuesday called for boards to put less emphasis on narrow financial goals when setting pay for top bankers.

APRA chairman Wayne Byres said banks had "squandered" their reputations. Credit:Jessica Hromas

Mr Byres told banks to lift their game on pay in a speech that argued banks had focused too much on profits, and failed to put enough emphasis on harder-to-measure non-financial risks.

The remarks come after banks' reputations have been battered by revelations of poor behaviour that have emerged at the royal commission into misconduct in financial services.Hundreds of staff at Australias largest steelworks have launched industrial action, walking off the job for the first time in years as a pay dispute with steel giant BlueScope escalated.

As many as 500 workers gathered at the entrance to BlueScopes Port Kembla plant in NSW at 10am to join the four-hour action on Tuesday, union officials said.

Union secretary Daniel Walton addresses the striking workers at BlueScope Port Kembla. Credit:Adam McLean

This is the first day of action, said Paul Farrow, of the Australian Workers Union, flagging further work stoppages. Were going nowhere, were here to stay, were in for the long fight.

The industrial strife at BlueScope comes less than a month after the ASX-listed steelmaker shot to a full-year profit of $1.57 billion  its best result in more than a decade. The earnings prompted Port Kembla staff, who accepted a pay freeze to save the plant from closure during a steel industry downturn in 2015 , to step up a fight for substantial wage rises of 10 per cent over the next the years.The cashed-up property sector has triggered a wave of sales and acquisitions across the country involving properties from the industrial industry to pubs.

Charter Hall Long WALE REIT has expanded its footprint in Brisbane with the purchase of the Club Hotel and First Choice Liquor for $22 million, which is leased to Coles and Liquorland through the ALH partnership.

The trust has also paid $20.9 million for a 4.4 per cent interest in the Long WALE investment partnership it has with its associate, Charter Hall Group. The partnership owns 57 ALH run pubs, with an 80 per cent weighting along the eastern seaboard.

The Long WALE REIT now holds a 49.9 per cent stake in that vehicle.To be the mayor of this city, you need to have courage, you need to have strength and you need to be able to bring people together, the former Police Board president and onetime federal prosecutor said at a hastily arranged news conference. Many of us have been out here for months, making our case to Chicagoans. Anyone who decides to jump in to take advantage of todays political news, I think a fair question to ask them is Where have they been? Gross Waddell and Darcy Jarman have sold 309-315 Murray Street, a premium 4843 sq m corner block, with access to Skene Street at the rear. The property sold for $1.85 million. Craigieburn Two warehouses have sold off the plan prior to construction starting at 61 Yellowbox Drive for a total of $1.3 million. Both warehouses achieved more than $1300 per sq m, a record rate for Craigieburn, according to Colliers Internationals Corey Vraca, Damian Marinelli and Nick OBrien. Only last year we were achieving $1100 per sq m for a warehouse of this size bracket. The market has moved drastically due to the lack of land and stock available, Mr Vraca said. Kew A strata titled retail space at 325 High Street sold privately through Gray Johnsons Rory White and Brett Simpson for $880,000 on a 4.75 per cent yield. The 79 sq m shopfront was leased to Denture Health on a four year term at annual rent of $42,000 net.

LEASES Melbourne The Flinders Lane precinct is set to get more fragrant with international perfume brand MetaScent taking a tiny 66 sq m glass-fronted space at 9C, 271 Collins Street. MetaScent allows customers to create and build their own fragrances. Fitzroys James Spencer said the company signed a 3+3-year term at $70,000 per annum net. CRS has leased the commercial spaces at 243 Flemington Road in North Melbourne. North Melbourne

CRS has leased the commercial spaces at 243 Flemington Road. The new building has a ground floor medical centre, cafe and first floor childcare centre, as well as 19 residential apartments. Royal Park Medical took the ground floor anchor tenancy on a 10 year net lease at a passing rental of $500 per sq m. Rentals for the two bedroom apartments ranged from $580 and $650 per week and $390 to $450 for the one bedders. The rentals ... set a new benchmark in the North Melbourne area, Lincoln McConnell-Brown said. Cremorne FoxFit Fitness Club has secured a 300 sq m warehouse showroom at 93 Cubbitt Street on a six year lease at $157,500 net per annum, equating to $590 per sq m. JLLs Matt Brown-Greaves and Chris Wansley negotiated the lease in conjunction with David Ryan from DBR Property Services. Fairfield Australia GT has leased a city fringe office warehouse at 293 Arthur Street in Fairfield.

Clothing distributer Australia GT Pty Ltd has leased a city fringe office warehouse at 293 Arthur Street for $75,000 per annum net, equating to a building rate of $73 per sq m, said Anthony Carbone and John Star from CVA. The two level solid brick building was leased on a 5 + 5 year term. Campbellfield Boat manufacturer Whittley Marine Group has moved to a 4366 sq m office warehouse at 12-14 Somerton Park Drive. Whittley relocated from an 8000 sq m warehouse in Somerton on a five-year lease for an annual net rental of around $228,000, CBREs Daniel Eramo and Daniel De Sanctis said. Melbourne Xie Therapeutic Massage will expand into their third store in Victoria and first in Melbournes CBD taking a 22 sq m space at 22 Howey Place. Xie will pay $55,000 per annum gross rent ($2500 per sq cm for a laneway off Little Collins Street) on a seven year lease in a deal negotiated by CBREs Tammy Tao, Zelman Ainsworth, Tan Thach and Samantha Hunt.The Australian-listed agribusiness Nufarm has welcomed a decision by a Brazilian court to overturn a ruling that banned the sale of products containing glyphosate in Brazil.

The suspension was due to come into force this week, in a nation that produces a vast amount of crops and where farmers use the herbicide glyphosate to kill weeds.

Nufarm has welcomed a ruling by a Brazilian court that overturns a ban on the sale of products containing glyphosate. Credit:Bloomberg

In a statement to the ASX on Tuesday, Nufarm said the Regional Federal Court of 1st Region in Brasilia cancelled the suspension of sales of products containing glyphosate on Monday, "without conditions", following discussions with the federal agriculture department.

"Importantly this will enable Nufarm to continue to sell glyphosate for use in

the forthcoming Brazilian soybean planting season. The soybean crop is a key driver of the Brazilian economy.Canadian-based Oxford Properties Group has thrown its hat into the ring of the drawn-out takeover of the $3.5 billion listed Investa Office Fund, in a move to gazump current predator, the US giant Blackstone.

Oxford has offered $5.50 cash for IOF securities in a late bid, a 15.15 premium to the current Blackstone cash offer.

IOF went into a trading halt Tuesday morning, with the share price at $5.32, after receiving the new bid.

Impression of the new-look retail and office podium at 388 George Street, Sydney. Credit:FJMT Architects

IOF independent directors have advised unitholders take no action at this point. The directors continue to ''unanimously recommend the Blackstone proposal in the absence of a superior proposal''.The scramble between the Coalition and Labor to see who can stake out the most populist position on every hot button issue threatens to do real and lasting damage to the national interest. Labors new policy of both reserving gas for domestic use and imposing price controls is a case in point.

The Coalition laid the foundations for Labors "one upmanship by declaring last year that it would restrict exports of gas if there were a domestic supply shortfall. If it were a bluff, it worked, extracting commitments from the three big export LNG plants operators in Queensland that they would make more gas available to the domestic market.

The LNG boom has brought on more domestic supply. Credit:Glen Campbell

More supply is coming into the market, not only from the LNG exporters but from the Northern Territory and from greater than expected production from Bass Strait and the Otway Basin. Prices, which spiked dramatically last year, have fallen significantly.

The Labor policy articulated by leader Bill Shorten and the shadow minister for resources, Jason Clare, on Monday is a strengthening of the gas "trigger and making it permanent (the Coalition version expires in 2023).Australians have rallied to donate hay to farmers struck by drought, but businesses along the east coast say there's not enough of it to go around.

Farmers in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales report their usual avenues for buying hay have not been available over the past few months - and what is around is way too expensive.

Andrew Bryant runs Clunes Crossing and says he's never seen a hay shortage like this one.

Hannah Hall runs Ashmore Equine Services in East Gippsland and says its currently costing her around $700 a week to feed her horses and much of the product available is dusty and mouldy.

Were finding it very, very hard to source decent hay, she says.Bendigo Bank is the only bank brand to defy the fallout from the banking royal commission. It has managed to remain in the top-10 most trusted brands, despite high levels of distrust in the banking sector.

On the other hand, AMP, which has featured prominently in evidence before the banking royal commission has been affected badly by how consumers' view the wealth manager. It has a heavily negative 'net trust score' - which is the trust score minus the distrust score.

AMP's appearance before the royal commission in April included admissions it had misled customers and the regulator and had charged some of its superannuation customers fees for no service, as had the four big banks.

AMP conceded it had made false statements to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and senior staff ignored legal advice that charging of customers for services they did not receive may have been unlawful.

Senior counsel assisting the royal commission Rowena Orr, QC, argued that the royal commission should recommend AMP face criminal charges when the commission delivers its recommendations.Illustration: John Shakespeare

Gladys Berejiklian is facing a critical byelection in Wagga Wagga this weekend, but its good to see shes still passing the tin around for the main game: the March state election.

Given only five seats could stand between the NSW Liberals and electoral oblivion - Premier Luke Foley (or Michael Daley or Jodie McKay or Chris Minns) - they needs all the money they can get.

Which brings us to a great opportunity to discuss the governments policies with Berejiklian and her nine most senior ministers over a series of intimate lunches and dinners planned by the party over the next two months starting Monday (at a location to be advised).

How much for access to the likes of high-performing Transport Minister Andrew Constance you ask? Its a mere $2500 a go, or, for the very keen, a $5000 subscription (for five events).Millennial men are leading a major backlash against womens rights, according to new research from the University of Canberra.

Those men, born between 1982 and 2000, backed by their older Gen X brothers, say they are left out of the conversation about gender equality and believe there is too much political correctness at work. Nearly half say their rights are being eroded by the focus on gender equality.

Senator Lucy Gichuhi is threatening to name MPs who she believes bullied colleagues during the Liberal leadership spill. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins says: There is more support for gender equality than ever before but there is also more opposition than ever before.

This backlash comes at a time as federal politics in Australia is in upheaval, among serious accusations of sexism and bullying. Both the minister for women, Kelly ODwyer and South Australian senator Lucy Gichuhi confirmed this week there were instances of bullying over the course of the leadership spill in the Liberal Party. The survey reveals 58 per cent of respondents believe politics is the most sexist area of society in Australia, with the workplace not far behind at 53 per cent.A man with a "vendetta" against the justice system, who was previously convicted of dumping tonnes of rocks on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, could face jail time after he falsely claimed a bomb was in the Sydney Opera House on New Year's Eve.

Drago Reskov, 68, a self-employed labourer from Dee Why, was arrested on January 1 this year after police searched for him following the threat.

Drago Reskov at the Downing Centre court in Sydney in 2011. Credit:AAP

Reskov pulled up at the Manly Warringah Leagues Club in Brookvale at about 9.58pm on December 31, 2017 and called the National Security Hotline from his mobile phone.

"There is a bomb in the Opera House, you had better clear people away from that area, I'm warning you," Reskov said in the minute-long call.Tribute to recovery operation

Mr Edward Cowell, Inspector of Water Police, was presented with an engraved silver flask in recognition and commemoration of his services in recovering bodies from the Dunbar, wrecked off Port Jackson Heads on 20th August. Mr Cowell, who still bore the marks of injuries he sustained during the recovery operation, was assisted by a small party under his command  they had rowed incessantly for three days to cover all parts of the harbour.

News in brief

Six large portions of [the Dunbar], including part of the keel, in which are copper bolts six feet in length, have been towed up during the week by the steamer, Washington, and are lying on the beach alongside Greens, the boat builder, Milsons Point The discussion class at the YMCA last night was this: Ought every free man who has been resident in the colony six months to have a vote. The matter was discussed with much animation.

Country servants in demandAsked afterward by Inc. what his beef with the Tribune was, and whether he had, perhaps  before he helped bring down a corrupt president, won a Pulitzer and was flatteringly portrayed by a young Robert Redford in a hit movie  been overlooked for an internship here as a young lad growing up in Wheaton, Woodward scowled.Embattled City of Parramatta council boss Mark Stapleton is fighting back against concerns about his credentials and experience, including with the help of controversial Liberal-aligned lobbyist Joe Tannous.

Mr Stapleton, who was elected on an 8-7 vote among councillors to the job as chief executive of the rapidly growing council, presented a dossier to councillors at a meeting on Monday night that included some references and details about his work history.

City of Parramatta Lord Mayor Andrew Wilson (left) and CEO Mark Stapleton, whose work past is under scrutiny. Credit:City of Parramatta

Some councillors who have supported Mr Stapleton remain convinced he is the best man for the job, while others who had voted for him said they wanted further investigation.

"I have satisfied myself that the CV for Mark Stapleton is absolutely accurate and withstands scrutiny," said Liberal Cr Benjamin Barrak.Gosford Hospital has launched an investigation into the death of a 19-year-old woman who was reportedly sent home from the hospital with painkillers before being re-admitted and diagnosed with meningococcal.

Mischelle Rhodes died at the Central Coast hospital of meningococcal last week.

She had contracted the meningococcal W strain, the Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) confirmed on Tuesday.

Mischelle Rhodes was reportedly sent home from Gosford Hospital before being admitted and diagnosed with meningococcal. Credit:Facebook

Ms Rhodes mother said hospital staff sent her daughter home from Gosford Hospital with analgesics last Tuesday.With towering sandstone cliffs, crashing waves and sweeping harbour views on their doorstep, residents of Sydney's South Head are no strangers to natural drama.

But a proposal to turn part of the headland park into a commercial function and wedding venue, attracting weekend crowds of up to 800 people, continues to stir a furore of a different kind.

Director George Miller at Greenpoint Reserve, Watson's Bay. He is among a powerful alliance of residents opposed to plans for a commercial function centre at Watsons Bay. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Woollahra Council has joined high-profile residents opposed to plans to transform six buildings owned by the National Parks and Wildlife Service into a venue at Camps Cove and Watsons Bay.

Proponents say the development would restore the headland's cluster of dilapidated buildings, two of which had previously been used for functions.Sydneys inner city, eastern suburbs and lower north shore have more listings on the Airbnb accommodation website than anywhere else in the city.

But the best occupation rates are found much further west.

In December last year the district of Fairfield had Sydneys top Airbnb hosting rate for homes or apartments at 85.7 per cent, a new study has found. The lowest was in the Ku-ring-gai district with a hosting rate of 43.8 per cent.

About 60 per cent of Airbnb listings host guests for between one and 30 nights per year. Credit:Ryan Stuart

A report prepared for Airbnb by the consultancy firm SGS Economics and Planning has found hosts in the Pittwater district had the highest average nightly price at $389 for a house or apartment in December 2017. The Pennant Hills-Epping area had with the city's lowest average nightly price that month at $110.A young Melbourne woman is being remembered as a "loyal and caring friend, sister and daughter" after she suffered a suspected epileptic seizure while on holiday with friends in Bali.

Tributes are flowing for teenager Kristen Mace, 19, a former student of Firbank Girls' Grammar School in Brighton, who passed away on Sunday while on holiday.

Melbourne teenager Kristen Mace who has died in Bali. Credit:GoFundMe

The teenager's father Justin Mace said his daughter, who had a history of epilepsy, was having breakfast beside the pool in her villa when she is believed to have suffered a seizure and fallen in.

"Her friend she was sharing the villa with found her face down in the pool and with the assistance of a NZ family in the next villa tried to resuscitate her unsuccessfully," he said.The Andrews Government broke convention this week to release 80,000 pages of confidential documents on Liberal leader Matthew Guy. But when it comes to being open about its own affairs, it's much less transparent.

In parliament, almost 400 questions on notice to ministers remained unanswered by the end of August. These are written requests for information by opposition MPs about government portfolios.

In ministerial offices and departments, Freedom of Information access has fallen since Labor took office. Fewer than one in five FOI requests are now released in full.

Daniel Andrews in Parliament. Credit:Justin McManus

And in both houses of Spring Street, the very measures designed to enhance transparency - from Question Time to "Production of Document" motions - are often undermined. The government rarely addresses the opposition's inquiries. Or when the state's Upper House has passed motions compelling cabinet to produce certain documents, it has often refused, citing "executive privilege".Serious police misconduct should not be left to the force to investigate, a landmark parliamentary inquiry has found.

Probes should instead be conducted by Victoria's corruption watchdog, the inquiry into Victoria's police complaints system said.

The inquiry's report, which was released on Tuesday, also called for the state government to establish a dedicated police corruption and misconduct division within the the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.

The final report comes after a series of stories reported by The Age that exposed police misconduct, corruption and serious inadequacies in the way complaints about the force were handled.

The inquiry made 69 sweeping recommendations to improve the transparency, impartiality, effectiveness and efficiency of the system.The vision for Perths central suburbs revealed in a high-level government planning framework includes eight new river footbridges, a five-fold increase in cycle paths and a high-volume ferry service.

The Perth and Peel@3.5 million framework for the Central subregion reveals the councils of Perth, Victoria Park, Subiaco and Peppermint Grove will do the heaviest overall lifting to increase population density with targets to double, or even more than double, their existing numbers of homes within 30 years.

An artist's impression of the proposed Three Points Bridge in Perth. Credit:HASSELL

The other Central framework councils have been told to increase the number of homes in their areas by 25 per cent to 66 per cent  that is, Bassendean, Bayswater, Belmont, Cambridge, Canning, Claremont, Cottesloe, East Fremantle, Fremantle, Melville, Mosman Park, Nedlands, South Perth, Stirling, Subiaco and Vincent.

The state government framework sets out where councils should aim to plan for these future infill locations, as well as where the jobs and public utilities will go to service a population expected to almost double by 2050.As part of WAtoday's Big Perth series, we explore the South and Peel framework in detail below. Creeping south Urban sprawl is as quintessentially Western Australian as an ice-cold Emu Export in the middle of a sweltering December heatwave or being unable to merge on the freeway. About 1.4 million people are expected to make Perth home over the next 30 years. Credit:Fairfax Media This framework continues that time-honoured tradition of flattening the landscape and putting up swathes of 4x2s by extending the sprawl beyond Perths own established boundaries.

The Shire of Waroona, outside the Greater Perth area, has been earmarked for a 350 per cent increase in population, from its current 4200 to 18,200. Most of that would occur in or near the township of Waroona itself. Just north of Waroona, within the Greater Perth boundary, the Shire of Murray is projected to receive a 950 per cent increase in population. This means the 17,300 people currently living there will have almost 150,000 new neighbours by 2050. Most of these new Murray residents will be centred around an expanded Pinjarra. Other outer suburban council areas like Serpentine Jarrahdale and Mandurah will also experience huge growth in residents and housing.

By 2031 the framework projects that Mundijong in Serpentine Jarrahdale, currently inhabited by cows and horses feeding off the endless green pastures, will become a huge regional centre. Loading According to the frameworks maps it will feature an urban area roughly the same size as its neighbouring suburb Byford to the north, which has already undergone a huge transformation from farmland to urban jungle. In general, lovers of rural blocks should hold onto them tight. Areas zoned 'rural residential', those with lot sizes from one to four hectares, have been labelled inefficient forms of development and new blocks would not be supported. 'They put a big circle around Perth'

High-level frameworks are fine but what does it mean for the councils at the coalface who will have to come up with the finer details? Shire of Waroona president Mike Walmsley was sceptical of the population projections. They just put a big circle around Perth, which happened to include us, he said. I cant see it happening in the next 30 years but God knows what the future holds. Any attempt to create a metropolitan hub in Waroona would probably be met with resistance, he said.

Mr Walmsley said Waroona was a rural town and residents didn't want to destroy that character. Most people live out here because they like the quiet, he said. We need to protect our beautiful agricultural land because Perth is going to need it to feed itself, he said. The Shire of Murray was less surprised.

Shire president David Bolt said regardless of whether their population would actually hit 160,000 his council was planning for higher density. Weve got an activity centre plan thats before the government for Pinjarra at the moment and were waiting for that to be advertised. Whether you agree with the numbers or not were planning for large growth over the next 30 years; we need to do that. Murray Shire president David Bolt Why the south is booming Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage director general Gail McGowan said development would occur south because Perths north was extremely constrained.

She also defended including Waroona, which represented the edge of the Peel region, in the framework. People talk about need to draw finite lines, and other states and countries have imposed urban growth boundaries, but the Darling Scarp, the oceans and the Peel Harvey catchment  which is under considerable challenge  are natural limits, she said. The growth of areas such as Pinjarra will be due to their access to industry, both rural and industrial. This will create stronger linkages from east to west." An artist's impression of the future Peel Business Park. Credit:Landcorp Where will people work?

Cr Bolt said if Pinjarra was to support all these new people it would need to provide somewhere for them to work close to home. Its a similar story across the rest of the region. The framework says 5900 hectares of industrial land would be needed to improve employment self-sufficiency of the region from 65 per cent to 83 per cent. Expansion of industrial areas on the Kwinana Western Trade Coast, the new outer harbour and proposed intermodal rail and road freight facilities within the Latitude 32 industrial area would create a gargantuan hub of industry running from Bibra Lake in Cockburn to Rockingham. Further south the establishment of a Peel Business Park in Nambeelup near Mandurah and Pinjarra would provide 30,000 jobs. Beyond industrial areas the framework allowed for greater employment opportunities in city centres like Armadale, Mandurah and Rockingham.

It also highlighted the potential for employment from tourism in waterside locations like Mandurah and Rockingham and hills areas, national parks and state forests in the east. The City of Kwinana looking southwest from Wandi, with the Kwinana Freeway running south through the middle of the frame and the Kwinana industrial area in the distance. Under the framework the industrial area will extend from Rockingham in the south to the city of Cockburn in the north. Credit:Hamish Hastie Hitting the road and rail Some big road and rail projects worth potentially billions of dollars have been proposed to move the influx of people around. Nearer term projects like the Thornlie-to-Cockburn link, Armadale-to-Byford extension and Karnup train station were mentioned but there are more abstract proposals on the cards as well.

The framework includes the southern portion of the long dreamed about circle line. This would entail extending the Forrestfield-airport line to Thornlie and connecting the Thornlie line to Fremantle. The circle line would also connect north to the future Ellenbrook line and the Joondalup line. Loading It also suggests the Australind train service be better integrated with the Transperth network between Perth and Mundijong. An additional southern metro rail line and high-speed extension to Bunbury has also been raised.

Karnup has been selected as the site for a new train station on the Mandurah line. When it comes to asphalt, east to west road upgrades were high priorities to deal with the increased industrial activity. Extensions, realignments and upgrades were proposed for east-west roads like Rowley, Anketell, Thomas, Mundijong and Mandjoogoordap. Tonkin Highway will become Perths second major north-to-south arterial road with a 45-kilometre extension from Thomas Road in Byford to Pinjarra. More highlightsA man in his 70s died apparently after being blown to the ground from his apartment in Osaka prefecture. Police said five others died elsewhere in the prefecture after being hit by flying objects or falling from their apartments. In nearby Shiga prefecture, a 71-year-old man died when a storage building collapsed on him, and a man in his 70s died after falling from a roof in Mie, officials said.Sacked Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg has distanced himself from leaks over Peter Duttons au pair visa controversy, saying his former responsibilities did not include ministerial interventions.

Mr Quaedvlieg, speaking ahead of a parliamentary inquiry hearing on Wednesday into the affair, indicated he would not have known details of the cases in which Mr Dutton intervened to help au pairs who were facing visa difficulties and which are now the subject of close political scrutiny.

Former Australian Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg. Credit:Fairfax Media

The Guardian reported last month during the height of the Liberal Party leadership battle that a source close to Mr Quaedvlieg said the former Australian Border Force commissioner had "personal knowledge of the involvement of Duttons office" in one of the cases, and would correct the record if he felt Mr Duttons or his departments versions of events were inaccurate.

It has sparked speculation that Mr Quaedvlieg is a source of information about the au pair cases.A multibillion dollar deal between the Coalition and the warring school sectors could be struck as soon as next week as Prime Minister Scott Morrison races to fix "unfinished business" on schools funding.

But one of the country's leading school policy analysts has warned a proposal leaked to the media would constitute an "outrageous special deal" likely to inflame the funding wars all over again.

Fairfax Media understands a deal to inject $4.4 billion into Catholic and independent schools, as reported by News Corp on Tuesday, was at the more costly end of options under consideration before Malcolm Turnbull was toppled as Prime Minister.

"Unfinished business": The war between private school sectors has engulfed the Coalition. Credit:Louie Douvis

The plan would have acted on the recommendations of the National School Resourcing Board to assess the socioeconomic status of private schools based on the income tax paid by their parents, and adjust their federal funding accordingly.The very word Menzies holds enchantment for committed Liberals, and something more for those who hanker for leadership of their party.

Unsurprisingly, Josh Frydenberg, federal Treasurer and deputy leader of the Liberal Party for less than two weeks, was just about fit to burst as he accompanied Sir Robert Menzies daughter, Heather Henderson, on a small pilgrimage to a Menzies memorial in his Melbourne electorate of Kooyong on Tuesday.

A little bust of Sir Robert sits outside the Kew library. It was unveiled 11 years ago by Mrs Henderson, and she hadnt seen it since.

New Liberal deputy leader Josh Frydenberg and Sir Robert Menzies' daughter Heather Henderson at the Menzies statue in Kew. Credit:Eddie Jim

Mrs Henderson turned 90 last month, and had travelled to Melbourne from her home in Canberra for a belated birthday party at The Windsor, the venerable hotel where her late parents, Sir Robert and Dame Pattie, always stayed when they were in Melbourne.Cabinet ministers were shown secret Liberal Party polling that warned against a rash response to the challenges facing Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, just days before the party erupted in a chaotic leadership spill.

The report urged Mr Turnbull and his colleagues to remove the "policy barnacles" that were dragging the government down, while also calling for a stronger "ground game" against Labor in key electorates.

But the polling made no case for a major shift in government direction and said there should be no shock at the Coalition losses in the Longman and Braddon byelections on July 28.

Fairfax Media has been told the detailed report, presented to ministers by Liberal Party director Andrew Hirst on August 13, showed the loss in Longman should not be treated as a barometer for a wider storm across Queensland.Disillusioned Liberal Party branch members are asking themselves whether the federal Coalition government is worth saving - literally.

The Roseville branch of the Liberal Party in Sydney's northern suburbs and the Northern Sydney Conservative Forum emailed members on Monday night, inviting them to a debate about whether the government is worth saving.

"Now that we have a new Prime Minister, our next function debate remains as relevant as ever: Is the federal Coalition government worth saving?" said the flyer.

The executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies, Tom Switzer (right), is hosting a debate about whether the Coalition government is worth saving. Credit:James Alcock

The invitation also linked to two pieces excoriating former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and said members would find them "informative" and offer some insight "in case you are wondering why Malcolm Turnbull had to go for the sake of Australia and the Liberal Party".Labor is under pressure to revive the Coalition governments floundering national energy plan as business groups abandon hopes that the Morrison administration can end Australia's crippling climate wars.

New Energy Minister Angus Taylor on Tuesday spruiked his commitment to lowering electricity prices, saying his government would apply the same commitment to the task as it did in tackling illegal boat arrivals.

Labor is under pressure to revive the government's energy plan. Credit:Bloomberg

I will allow nothing to get between me and bringing down prices. No distraction, absolutely nothing, he told 2GB's Alan Jones.

We are going to have exactly the same focus on getting down electricity prices as Scott Morrison himself had in 2013 ... in stopping the boats."Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has used the launch of a new $50 bank note to have a crack at the deteriorating relationship between men and women in Federal Parliament, amid allegations of bullying and gender based intimidation forcing one Liberal MP to resign and others to question their future.

In a rare public intervention on a social issue, Dr Lowe gave a speech to his fellow Reserve Bank Board members that recited the microtext on the new note, featuring Edith Cowan - Australia's first female member of Parliament.

"I stand here today in the unique position of being the first woman in an Australian Parliament," the new note reveals in text of Ms Cowan's first speech usually only visible with a magnifying glass.

RBA governor Philip Lowe. Credit:Bloomberg

"If men and women can work for the same state side by side and represent all the different sections of the community ... I cannot doubt that we should do very much better work in the community than was ever done before."Beirut: Russian and Syrian jets hammered a major rebel stronghold on Tuesday, a war monitor said, days before leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey are due to meet to discuss an expected Syrian government offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster.

Syrians use dirt to put out a fire at the scene of a reported air strike in the district of Jisr al-Shughur, in the Idlib province, on September 4. Credit:AFP

The warplanes bombarded countryside around Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the rebel enclave of Idlib after weeks of lull, killing 13 civilians but no fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source.

For President Bashar al-Assad, the defeat of rebels in the north-western province would mean breaking the last major stronghold of active military opposition to his rule, though other large areas also remain beyond his control.

Since Russia's entry into the war on his side in 2015, Assad and his other allies, Iran and a group of regional Shiite militias, have forced the rebels from a succession of bastions including Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta and Daraa.At a National Security Council meeting on January 19, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive US military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds versus 15 minutes from Alaska, according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all. "We're doing this in order to prevent World War III," Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told him. US President Donald Trump is portrayed in a new book as an ignorant, petulant and irrational leader. Credit:Bloomberg After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, "Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the President acted like - and had the understanding of - 'a fifth- or sixth-grader'. "

In Woodward's telling, many top advisers were repeatedly unnerved by Trump's actions and expressed dim views of him. "Secretaries of defence don't always get to choose the President they work for," Mattis told friends at one point, prompting laughter as he explained Trump's tendency to go off on tangents about subjects such as immigration and the news media. Inside the White House, Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis. He describes "an administrative coup d'etat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch. White House chief of staff John Kelly, right, called Donald Trump an "idiot", the new book claims. Credit:Bloomberg White House chief of staff John Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the President was "unhinged", Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had." Reince Priebus, Kelly's predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, "the devil's workshop" and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the President often set off tweet storms, were "the witching hour".

Trump apparently had little regard for Priebus. He once instructed then-staff secretary Rob Porter to ignore Priebus, even though Porter reported to the chief of staff, saying that Priebus was "like a little rat. He just scurries around." Former chief of staff Reince Priebus, right, called early mornings and Sunday evenings when Donald Trump launched his tweet storms "the witching hour". Credit:AP Few in Trump's orbit were protected from the President's insults. He often mocked former national security adviser H.R. McMaster behind his back, puffing up his chest and exaggerating his breathing as he impersonated the retired army general, and once said McMaster dresses in cheap suits, "like a beer salesman". Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a wealthy investor eight years his senior: "I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations  You're past your prime." A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney-General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a "traitor" for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions' accent, Trump added, "This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner  He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."

Donald Trump said US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was "past his prime", according to Woodward's book. Credit:Bloomberg At a dinner with Mattis and General Joseph Dunford jnr, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, the late Senator John McCain. He falsely suggested that the former navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his father's military rank and leaving others behind. US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has to correct Trump on matters of national security and foreign policy. Credit:AP Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: "No, Mr President, I think you've got it reversed." The Defence Secretary explained that McCain, who died on August 25, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the Hanoi Hilton. "Oh, okay," Trump replied, according to Woodward's account.

With Trump's rage and defiance impossible to contain, cabinet members and other senior officials learnt to act discreetly. Woodward describes an alliance among Trump's traditionalists - including Mattis and Gary Cohn, the President's former top economic adviser - to stymie what they considered dangerous acts. "It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually," Porter is quoted as saying. "Other times, we would fall over the edge, and an action would be taken." After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. "Let's f---ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f---ing lot of them," Trump said, according to Woodward. Gary Cohn, former director of the US National Economic Council, stole a document from Trump's desk to prevent him from signing it. Credit:Bloomberg Mattis told the President that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: "We're not going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured." The national security team developed options for the more conventional air strike that Trump ultimately ordered.

Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump's strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn "stole a letter off Trump's desk" that the President was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice that it was missing. Loading Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the President has long threatened to do. In early 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter: "Why aren't we getting this done? Do your job. It's tap, tap, tap. You're just tapping me along. I want to do this." Under orders from the President, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: "I can stop this. I'll just take the paper off his desk." Despite repeated threats by Trump, the United States has remained in both pacts. The administration continues to negotiate new terms with South Korea as well as with its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico.

Cohn came to regard the President as "a professional liar" and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trump's handling of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika in her college dorm room. Loading Trump was sharply criticised for initially saying that "both sides" were to blame. At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, "that was the biggest f---ing mistake I've made" and the "worst speech I've ever given", according to Woodward's account. When Cohn met Trump to deliver his resignation letter after Charlottesville, the President told him "this is treason" and persuaded his economic adviser to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohn's horror at Trump's handling of the tragedy - and shared Cohn's fury with Trump. "I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times," Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward. Kelly himself has threatened to quit several times, but has not done so.

Woodward illustrates how the dread in Trump's orbit became all-encompassing over the course of Trump's first year in office, leaving some staff members and cabinet members confounded by the President's lack of understanding about how government functions, and his inability and unwillingness to learn. Loading At one point, Porter, who departed in February amid domestic abuse allegations, is quoted as saying, "This was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is." Such moments of panic are a routine feature, but not the thrust of Woodward's book, which mostly focuses on substantive decisions and internal disagreements, including tensions with North Korea as well as the future of US policy in Afghanistan. Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trump's handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a pre-emptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.

In the autumn of 2017, as Trump intensified a war of words with Kim Jong-un, nicknaming North Korea's dictator "Little Rocket Man" in a speech at the United Nations, aides worried the President might be provoking Kim. But, Woodward writes, Trump told Porter that he saw the situation as a contest of wills: "This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim." The book also details Trump's impatience with the war in Afghanistan, which had become America's longest conflict. At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisers for 25 minutes, complaining that the US was losing, according to Woodward. "The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you," Trump told them. "They could do a much better job. I don't know what the hell we're doing." He went on to ask, "How many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?" Ivanka Trump and Steve Bannon, right, clashed in the White House. Credit:Doug Mills/The New York Times The President's family members, while sometimes touted as his key advisers by other Trump chroniclers, are minor players in Woodward's account, popping up occasionally in the West Wing and vexing adversaries.

Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the President's eldest daughter and senior adviser, and Steve Bannon, the former chief White House strategist. Loading "You're a goddamn staffer!" Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. "You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!" Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the President and worked around Priebus, replied: "I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter." Such tensions boiled among many of Trump's core advisers. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as "natural predators".

"When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody," Priebus says. Hovering over the White House was Mueller's inquiry, which deeply embarrassed the President. Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: "Donald, I'm worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?" Trump relayed the conversation to his then personal attorney John Dowd and said it was "like a kick in the nuts", according to Woodward. The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the President would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller's office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow re-enacted a January practice session. Attorney John Dowd quit after Trump's backflip on testifying to Robert Mueller's Russia inquiry. Credit:AP

Dowd had staged the practice session as he was convinced that Trump would commit perjury if he talked to Mueller. In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the President eventually lost his cool. "This thing's a goddamn hoax," Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying, "I don't really want to testify." At the March meeting, Dowd explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the President from testifying: "I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?' " "John, I understand," Mueller replied, according to Woodward. Later that month, Dowd told Trump: "Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit."A reporter from New Zealand national broadcaster TVNZ has been detained in Nauru for nearly four hours, without charge, after she interviewed a refugee on Tuesday.

TVNZ Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver was detained by police earlier on Tuesday afternoon, and was let out just before 5pm after extensive questioning, with her accreditation revoked.

TVNZ reporter Barbara Dreaver is in Nauru to cover the Pacific Islands Forum. Credit:1 News

Dreaver is in Nauru to cover the Pacific Islands Forum, which the small island nation is hosting this week. She was detained by Nauru police while interviewing a refugee, about 1pm on Tuesday.

NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said Dreaver was released with no charges filed. Earlier, he said Dreaver "was not concerned for her safety".Springfield could be helping Illinois prospects for landing big employers  that is, for landing many more jobs  by spending taxpayer money more responsibly and addressing the gaping abyss known as the pension crisis. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner offered up reforms, but House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, both Democrats, froze him out and show little interest in putting out the welcome mat to businesses looking to locate or expand in Illinois. All three are up for re-election in November, with Rauner facing a challenge from Democrat J.B. Pritzker.PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- It only takes one storm to change your life and community. We live in the hurricane belt, and therefore you need to be prepared.

The Office of Disaster Management (ODM) is calling on the community to review their Disaster Supply Kit (DSK) to make sure everything is in place and that homeowners and businesses have their action plans up to date on what measures will be taken to prepare their property in the event of a storm/hurricane threat.

National Disaster Coordinator/Fire Chief Clive Richardson says we are in the peak of the hurricane season and all residents should be prepared to take action If required to do so.

Its a personal responsibility to be prepared and have a personal action list on what measures you need to take to prepare your home and business and safeguard your belongings. Have a back-up plan in place in the event you decide to leave your home to stay by a friend or family member during the passing of a hurricane.

Every resident and business operation must also make sure their premises are clear and clean of any debris or old items that can pose a threat to their home or business or other properties in their immediate surroundings. Again, its a personal responsibility to make sure that you comply with the aforementioned advice, National Disaster Coordinator/Fire Chief Clive Richardson said on Monday.

Double check your DSK to make sure you have the necessary supplies for up to seven days after a storm has passed the island for your family. A devastating hurricane could leave the country without water and electricity for several days if not longer, and therefore it is very important to have a minimum of one week of supplies for each person in the household.

The DSK should contain non-perishable food, water and medicine (fill prescriptions before the storm); non-electric can opener; first-aid kit; extra cash (ATM machines and credit cards wont work if there is no electricity); battery powered radio and flashlights as well as extra batteries; make sure cell phones are all charged prior to the arrival of the hurricane; fill up your car/truck with gas; check if your home and automobile insurance are up to date; put ID cards, passports and drivers license in a waterproof bag along with other important documents.

If you are a parent with an infant or young child, you also need to have essential items as part of your disaster supply kit: baby formula; diapers; bottles; powdered milk; medications; moist towels; and diaper rash ointment.

ODM also advises to trim back tree branches from your home; cut all dead or weak branches on any trees on your property; clean-up your yard and put away items that could blow away during the passing of a hurricane.

For those whose homes are not yet storm/hurricane ready, you should make alternative arrangements to stay at family, friends or other housing arrangements. Remember, to use the time now to plan and be prepared.

For official local weather and Government related disaster/hurricane information please visit (www.meteosxm.com); the Government of Sint Maarten website (www.sintmaartengov.org) or the Government of Sint Maarten social media Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/SXMGOV), or tune into Government Radio 107.9 FM.

The 2018 hurricane season officially runs through November 30.The Hague, Netherlands:--- A wave of cultural expressions was shared at the sixth annual Embassy Festival which took place in The Hague last Saturday. Over 60 embassies participated in the Festival, sharing their culture in the form of cuisine, music, dance, theater, and arts & crafts, among other things, and attracting more than 50.000 visitors of predominantly The Hague and surrounding areas.

The Minister Plenipotentiary and her Cabinet, with the assistance of the Department of Tourism were first-timers at the event, promoting our country in full spirit. The main message was that Sint Maarten is back in business and open for visitors. Visitors to the Festival were pleased to hear this, and eager to visit the island for a vacation; some even thought they could book their vacation on the spot. A second message to visitors was that Sint Maarten is a part of the Dutch Kingdom, and is represented by the Minister Plenipotentiary and her support staff in the Netherlands. Though some visitors already knew this, the majority of visitors was keenly interested to hear more about the role of the Minister Plenipotentiary and her cabinet.

Minister Plenipotentiary, Jorien Wuite, and Deputy Minister Plenipotentiary, Michael Somersall, attended the ambassadors reception at Hotel Des Indes, where they were welcomed and a word of appreciation and thanks was expressed for taking part in this years Embassy Festival. For the Minister Plenipotentiary and her staff, the Festival offered the opportunity to meet with ambassadors and embassy staff to further build and expand diplomatic ties for Sint Maarten. The Festival has grown over the years and participants were encouraged to participate in next years Festival as well.

The Cabinet is already gearing up for next years Embassy Festival when it plans to collaborate with the Ministries of TEATT and the Department of Culture, as well as with Sint Maarten organizations in the Netherlands, to come out bigger and better; showcasing our culture in all aspects, from salt-fish & johnny-cake to soca, and from local arts & crafts to the punnum dance.We are in the peak of the hurricane season and still no shelters, schools, and homes repaired.

PHILIPSBURG: --- Former Prime Minister William Marlin who was ousted from office months after the passage of hurricane Irma in 2017 said in an interview with SMN News that the people of St. Maarten should stand up and hold their government accountable. Instead of marching for someone that sold the country out, people should be marching for themselves and their country.

Marlin said now more than ever the people could see that toppling Marlins cabinet in October 2017 had nothing to do with the recovery funds but instead its the mighty eight that sold out the country to the Dutch while the Dutch got what they wanted which was to control the local administration and the only way to do that was to get rid of him as Prime Minister since has been the one that was protecting St. Maarten and its people as well as the countrys freedom.

Marlin said that the Dutch Government wanted full control over St. Maarten reason why they demanded the establishment of the Integrity Chamber which the famous 8 had agreed to way back in 2016. He said that the Dutch had control of the countrys finances and the judicial system and they were fighting for that control which was given to them by the current administration. At the time it was Heyliger and Wescott- Williams that agreed to the establishment of the integrity chamber. I really thought that would have been a change when MP Franklin Meyers went down on his knees on the floor of Parliament and said that he would rather die standing than to live on his knees.

Marlin further explained that he did absolutely nothing wrong but instead did everything that was humanly possible post-Irma, and most of all did everything to protect St. Maarten and its people from the Dutch control. He said in 2016 when he took office as Prime Minister, the very first thing the PM of the Netherlands Mark Rutte asked him there during his first visit was when would the integrity chamber be established. He said he made it clear back then that the integrity chamber was not a priority for his government.

Marlin said its St. Maarten and its people that have to clean up their mess, we have problems here and it should be cleaned up by us and not by anyone else unless St. Maarten hires people to do that job.

He said one year later after Irmas passage and while the island is in the peak of the hurricane season schools are not repaired, that serves as shelters and many homes still without a roof. The former Prime Minister said that in 1995 when hurricane Luis devastated the island the Dutch along with the Government of St. Maarten had a different system in place that worked well. However, this time the Dutch accused all St. Maarten politicians of being corrupt and they chose to use the World Bank. Marlin said back then government gave people materials while they also repaired the homes of some people who could not find people to work for them. At the moment people are not able to come to St. Maarten to work as construction workers because the Dutch made it clear that they did not want illegal immigrants to make money on St. Maarten and they also chose a company from the Netherlands they want doing business on St. Maarten. The World Bank has their own rules and regulations which in my view is a delay tactic that will bring the people of St. Maarten down further on their knees, while you have a government that is just happy to take photos with the Dutch. Just recently the Prime Minister told Parliament that St. Maarten is not ready, and the money is not available.

As for the cleaning, up of the island, Marlin said that the former Minister of VROMI did everything humanly possible to clean St. Maarten up in record time after the passing of IRMA and he also was crucified by the people for the fires on the dump. Marlin said that right now no one is even interested in putting out the dump fires because at times the new dump burns for days at a time and so far, the current coalition government does not have a plan or anything in place to construct a waste management plant.

On reflecting on what transpired after the 2018 snap elections Marlin said the leader of SMCP Wycliffe Smith said he was not willing to work with the leader of the USP Frans Richardson but today he is in government with an MP that has been condemned by the courts and the leader of the UD is under intense investigations. He asked where the principle in all of this is and in the leader of the coalition partner Wycliffe Smith. Marlin said the political parties that gained seats in parliament last February did everything to prevent the country from having a national government.

He called on the people to do everything they could for the remainder of the hurricane season, people secure their valuables, their homes, and they should also ensure that they have enough food and water in the event of a hurricane.

He said that St. Maarten people need to stand up against the injustices done to them by holding their government responsible.PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament MP Rolando Brison for the USP faction, has expressed disappointment in the Minister of Finance for his handling thus far of the countrys 2019 budget. The budget, which as per article 100 of the Constitution should have been submitted by the government to parliament at the latest September 1st, has not been submitted, and parliament has not been notified formally that it will be late. There has been no form of communication from the Minister as to why it is late, and no timeline for when it will be submitted. Brison states: As a Member of Parliament, I took the oath of office to uphold the constitution, and of the many tasks outlined therein, the approval of the Budget of Country St. Maarten is one of the most crucial.

We in parliament want to do our job, we would hope that the Minister wishes to do his, and as co-legislators, we look forward to working with the executive branch to pass these laws. But cooperation is a two-way street, the MP continues. Brison is of the opinion that at the very least, parliament should have received formal notification that the 2019 budget would be delayed, accompanied by a plan of action to correct the situation. But not even this was the case. He says: I wish I could in this release tell the public why we have not been able to do this very important part of our job, but the fact is we dont know and have not been informed. What I can say for sure is that the Minister needs to respect the constitution first and foremost, and I will use whatever tool in my power as an elected representative of the people, to fulfill the tasks mandated to me by the people.

The budgetary process and its deadlines are very important, particularly when we are dealing with a deficit budget and one that is crucial to the resiliency of St. Maarten. Brison repeats a previously made statement that Parliament should not be treated as a rubber stamp, and seeing the blatant disregard for even informing parliament about such a constitutional violation gives the impression of a Minister of Finance with little regard for the role of parliament. Such disregard for the budgetary process could, among other things, prevent parliamentarians from effectively ensuring the needs of the people are reflected in the budget such as housing, waste management and social programs. It could also lessen confidence in the business community in governments part in the resiliency of St. Maarten and extend the time to which the CFT will remain hanging over the head of our country.

The United St. Maarten Party Member of Parliament expresses frustration as he takes into consideration the fact that the Minister was once a Member of Parliament and vocal about the importance of finance ministers to meet deadlines, and holding the executive branch accountable. The young MP harkens back to the public meeting of parliament where the credentials of the MPs were approved, and Minister Geerlings, at the time an outgoing MP for the DP, had some advice for the new MPs including the newly elected Brison. MP Brison quotes Minister Geerlings then an MP himself:

I hope the level of understanding our own political framework will rise, because only then we will be able to keep our parliament and executive branch within the picket fence that we put around them. Because if you let them run off with whatever they think they need to serve to you, they will run off with it. And you will be the ones to suffer at the end of the day.  MP Geerlings, Public Meeting #17, March 23 2018.

Indeed, we cannot allow the executive branch to run off with things that are simply wrong, and thus I sound the constitutional alarm on this matter and hope the Minister remembers his own words, concludes MP Rolando Brison.PHILIPSBURG:--- Seven promising young students were collectively awarded almost USD $9,000.00 thanks to generous donors contributions to the Erika Cannegieter Dream Big Scholarship Fund for 2018.

Be The Change Foundations scholarship program allows applicants to submit applications for small grants to go towards their tuition, books, and materials for their academic studies, mostly tertiary. Applicants must present their transcripts, a strong professional or teacher recommendation, and demonstrate how they give back to the St. Maarten community.

Calls for applications open in May of every year urging aspiring students to apply for help with their tuition, books, school materials or whatever they may need assistance with. The chosen recipients are then announced on July 27th, the birthday of the late Ms. Cannegieter.

This years honorable recipients are: Tyriss Moore for University of St. Martin, Tjashana Honore for Leeds Beckett University, Muraiye Pierre for Tallahassee Community College, Jeannine Andrew for Northern Caribbean University, Mirian Pierre for Mount Saint Vincent University, Tamieka Richardson for The Hague University and Suini Pantophlet for the enrollment fee of the university/college of her choice.

Since its establishment in 2015, in honor of the foundations late founder Erika Cannegieter, Be The Change has dispersed close to $20,000.00 in grants and scholarships to St. Maarten youth. The Foundation would like to thank all of its donors, both local and foreign, over the years for making the dreams of young St. Maarten scholars a reality.

To learn more about the activities of the Be The Change Foundation, follow them on social media: facebook.com/BeTheChangeSXM or sign up for their newsletter on bethechangesxm.comTrillium Partners with University of Michigan\-\-s TechLab at Mcity for AI Research to Secure Connected Cars

ANN ARBOR, MI, Sept 4, 2018  (ACN Newswire)  Trillium Secure, Inc. (Trillium), the leader in vehicle cybersecurity and secure data lifecycle management, has partnered with the University of Michigan\-\-s TechLab at Mcity program, managed by the Center for Entrepreneurship, to conduct research on how AI can bolster a vehicle\-\-s defenses against cyber-attack. Trillium\-\-s Director of Global Engineering, Mr. Ross Hirschi, will collaborate with TechLab at Mcity, a Company-in-Residence program for advanced mobility companies in the connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) industry, by providing mentorship to a team of students from technical departments at the University of Michigan.

\We are thrilled to be working in partnership with TechLab at Mcity and to have access to the nation\-\-s leading mobility research and test facility,\ said David Uze, Founder and CEO of Trillium. \Collaboration with TechLab at Mcity will enhance Trillium\-\-s mission to make connected and autonomous vehicles safe from cyber-attack.\

Ross Hirschi will spearhead the project to refine SecureIXS, Trillium\-\-s intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS). SecureIXS creates a protective firewall for each electronic control unit (ECU) by leveraging AI and machine learning to inspect behavioral level patterns and to detect anomalies in entire vehicle fleets. Another project goal is to mentor University of Michigan students on using IDPS\-\- deep learning capabilities to model normal data traffic, to prevent rogue messages from entering ECUs, and to validate Trillium\-\-s AI solution at the incubator\-\-s state-of-the-art facilities. SecureIXS is one component of Trillium\-\-s multi-layered solution that prevents malicious cyber-attackers from tampering with vehicles\-\- mission-critical ECU.

\Partnering with Trillium gives TechLab students the unique opportunity to engage in entrepreneurship while applying classroom learning to practical technology development in the connected and autonomous mobility industry,\ said Nick Moroz, Assistant Director of Entrepreneurial Practice at the Center for Entrepreneurship. \I\-\-m confident that the results of this partnership will attract many driven, passionate, and talented students to the cybersecurity field.\

About Trillium Secure, Inc.

Trillium Secure keeps your connected and autonomous vehicles safe and your private information confidential through a cybersecurity platform as a subscription service. Trillium\-\-s software products are used by automotive OEMs, aerospace and defense organizations, insurance companies and ride-share services to form a multi-layered defense against cyber-attacks. Trillium\-\-s in-vehicle network protection, machine learning algorithms, secure over-the-air updates, and security operations center serve a critical component to the widespread adoption of connected and autonomous vehicles. Trillium R&D and operations centers are in Sunnyvale, Ann Arbor, Ho Chi Minh City and Tokyo. For more information visit www.TrilliumSecure.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

About TechLab at Mcity

TechLab at Mcity is a Company-in-Residence program (company-sponsored technical projects housed at Mcity and the Ann Arbor campus) for early-stage advanced mobility companies in the connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) industry through the work of elite and technically-skilled students. The program pairs emerging transportation startups (Post-series A funding) with top-tier undergraduate students studying Engineering, Computer Science, and Data Analytics interested in tackling industry challenges defined by technical projects, with the goal of educating students through mentorship and immersive interaction with high-growth ventures. The program aims to develop a talent pipeline for the growing CAV industry, connecting students and company sponsors, leveraging the University of Michigan\-\-s regional access to automotive and transportation industry legacies.

Press Contact: Kevin Em

Email: Kevin.Em@TrilliumSecure.com

Press Contact: Nick Moroz

Email: nmoroz@umich.eduMaple Gold summarizes 2018 drilling highlights after receiving final assays

Posted by Publisher Internet

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (?Maple Gold? or the ?Company?) (TSX-V: MGM, OTCQB: MGMLF; Frankfurt: M3G  http://www.commodity-tv.net/c/search_adv/?v=298484) is pleased to provide a highlights summary of the 2018 drilling campaign now that all assays have been received. The 2018 winter drilling campaign included 21,122 metres of diamond drilling from 52 holes and 1,471.3 metres from 57 short top-of-bedrock Reverse Circulation (RC) holes for a total of 22,593 metres.

Approximately 70% of the total meterage was within or near the known Resource Area, defined as the 6.3 km by 1.8 km corridor including the outline of the Micon 2018 conceptual pits, and also including any known mineralized zones extending beyond the resource. The Douay NI 43-101 resource contains 479,000 indicated ounces averaging 1.59 g/t Au and 2,759,000 inferred ounces averaging 1.02 g/t Au, all using a 0.45 g/t Au cut-off grade (Micon 2018).[1] Some of the Resource Area drilling in 2018 was focused on aggressive step-out targets, particularly where gaps in the drill-hole distribution could allow the discovery of new zones with potential to add ounces and bring the Company a step closer to connecting and linking up surrounding mineralized zones. The balance of the meterage (~30%) was dedicated to begin exploring the greater 377 km? property package and generate new greenfield targets (shallow RC drilling), while also testing two existing greenfield target areas (NE Syenite and NW Greenfield target areas) with a first phase of diamond drilling. The following sections outline highlights from the various areas drilled in the 2018 campaign along with initial interpretation and analysis.

Resource Area: Central Resource Area (Porphyry Zone infill/step-out): 29 drill-holes (11,735 metres)

This drilling mainly focussed on confirming along strike and down-dip (or up-dip) continuity of existing zones, in particular in areas with lower density of drill-holes.

Highlighted results (true-widths estimated to be approximately 90% of down-hole length):

DO-18-216: 52m @ 3.53 g/t Au (including 21m @ 7.87 g/t Au) within broader ~150m halo of lower grade material; DO-18-203: 19m @ 0.88 g/t Au [see press release May 2, 2018]. These zones extend from surface to over 300m vertical depth.

DO-18-229: cut several mineralized zones, including 12m @ 1.90 g/t Au, 8.5m @ 3.80 g/t Au and 5.5m @ 1.94 g/t Au, all of which form part of a broader envelope of mineralization that extends to surface; DO-18-234: numerous mineralized zones, including 7m @ 1.47 g/t Au and 27.9m @ 0.66 g/t Au; DO-18-230: multiple zones, 24m @ 0.75 g/t Au (including 7m @ 1.17 g/t Au) and 4.8m @ 1.25 g/t Au, these zones also extend to surface [see press release June 26, 2018]

DO-18-247: cut several mineralized zones, including 21m @ 3.49 g/t Au, including 6.0 m of 9.32 g/t Au; DO-18-254: cut 27.5 m of 1.25 g/t Au, including 2.1 m of 5.36 g/t Au; DO-18-244: cut several mineralized zones, including 7m @ 2.06 g/t Au and three others over one g/t Au. All of these zones extend to surface [see press release July 9, 2018]

Summary: The assay results from drilling in the central part of the Porphyry Zone (including DO-18-216) support the Company\-\-s concept of multiple higher-grade zones or shoots within the Porphyry Zone, demonstrate the continuity of this style of mineralization in the central part of the Porphyry Zone, and open the possibility of increasing grades at depth.

Highlighted results from the east-central part of the Porphyry Zone (DO-18-247, DO-18-254 and DO-18-244) targeted an area with lower drill density and intersected significantly higher grades than adjacent holes, indicating that grade may increase at depth in this area.? ?

Drilling in the western half of the Porphyry Zone (i.e. west of DO-18-216) confirmed the presence of a broad (90- to 130-metre true width) halo of gold mineralization, extending several hundred metres along strike and mainly hosted in syenites (DO-18-229, DO-18-230, DO-18-234).

Resource Area: NW Zone, NW Gap Area (including new Nika Zones): 11 drill-holes for 4,528 metres

Drilling focused on an area with low drill density between the NW, Douay West and Porphyry Zones (the NW Gap Area), where several scattered higher grade intercepts had previously been obtained, mainly outside of the existing conceptual pits, where additional drilling could confirm continuity of these intercepts and expand the existing conceptual pits.

Highlighted results (True widths are estimated to be approximately 90% of down-hole lengths):

DO-18-217: 17m @ 1.08 g/t Au within broader ~100m halo of lower-grade mineralization [see press release April 23, 2018]; DO-18-218: 50m @ 1.77 g/t Au with excellent continuity and up-dip extension open to surface [see press release May 14, 2018]; DO-18-227: 5m @ 2.32 g/t Au on the southeast edge of an existing (Micon 2018) conceptual pit [see press release June 11, 2018]; DO-18-241: 12m @ 1.78 g/t Au confirming eastern continuity and extension of gold mineralization from DO-18-218 [see press release July 26, 2018]

Summary: Drilling in the NW Gap area was very successful, with the discovery of several new zones of mineralization (the Nika zones). There are large bodies of syenite in this area, which together with initial interpretation of trace element patterns, appear to indicate this area may represent one of several intrusive-hydrothermal centers forming part of the Douay Resource. As is also the case for the Porphyry Zone, higher-grade intervals are surrounded by broad lower-grade haloes. Additional drilling is required to further define these new mineralized zones, along strike and up-dip and down-dip.

Maple Gold?s VP, Exploration, Fred Speidel, stated:? ?Nearly three-quarters of the winter 2018 drill program focused on building on the core area of the project and we have been pleased with the successes there. We were not only able to extend key mineralized areas within the known deposit area, but also discovered new gold zones (Nika) and overall have made solid progress in the established Resource Area. Over the coming weeks and months our technical team will be updating our models as we progress towards the next resource estimate at Douay.?

Greenfield Drilling: Shallow RC drilling (1,471.3 metres), NE Syenite (2,869 metres) and NW Greenfield (1,991 metres)

The shallow 2018 reverse circulation (RC) drilling generated three (3) new geological targets in the westernmost part of the Douay Project. The new targets are located approximately 35 km west of the Resource Area, and are within a block of about 38 km ?of ground that was staked by the Company in late 2017. Very limited historical exploration work has been documented here; this shallow exploration drilling represents the Company?s first phase of work in this area and was designed to provide initial bedrock and overburden data to permit vectoring towards targets for additional exploration work and potential core drilling in subsequent campaigns.

An initial review of the assays from core drilling results received for both the NW Greenfield and NE Syenite areas showed encouraging anomalies in several pathfinder elements that can be associated with gold in the Resource Area; these geochemical anomalies deserve further surface work with the objective of vectoring in on and refining future drill targets in these areas.

The Company completed 1471.3 metres of RC drilling in 57 shallow holes in two areas: the western area and the south-central area (see Fig. 1, inset). In the more favorable western area, three separate gold-in-till anomalies were obtained, with 25, 35 and 21 gold grains in till samples; a more subtle fourth anomaly with 16 gold grains also occurs adjacent to the best of the first three, thereby augmenting and confirming that target. Background for this area is approximately 0 to 5 gold grains per till sample. Bedrock geochemistry for these and adjacent holes shows several different alteration styles, some of which are similar to alteration in the Resource Area and others more indicative of a volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) style of mineralization such as the nearby Joutel and Estrades deposits. The average overburden thickness in this western area was 27.9 metres. Additional follow up work is planned for this area and is expected to include an IP survey in an effort to firm up potential new discovery drill targets.

Maple Gold?s VP, Exploration, Fred Speidel, commented: ?Results from initial core drilling in higher risk (but also potentially higher reward) greenfield areas are sufficiently encouraging to warrant further exploration, with positive geological and geochemical indications in all three areas tested.?

Speidel added: ?Shallow RC drilling is a cost-effective exploration tool for new target generation in areas with glacial cover that allows us to obtain important information about both bedrock and glacial overburden geology and geochemistry. There are encouraging indications for both gold and base metals in the western area, where overburden thickness was shown to be less than expected. We will build on the data we?ve received from this work in an attempt to vector in towards new greenfield targets for future drilling campaigns.?

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical data contained in this press release was reviewed and prepared under the supervision of Fred Speidel, M. Sc, P. Geo., Vice-President Exploration, of Maple Gold.?Mr. Speidel is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.?Mr. Speidel has verified the data related to the exploration information disclosed in this news release through his direct participation in the work.

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC)

Maple Gold implements strict Quality Assurance (?QA?) and Quality Control (?QC?) protocols at Douay covering the planning and placing of drill holes in the field; drilling and retrieving the NQ-sized drill core; drill-hole surveying; core transport to the Douay Camp; core logging by qualified personnel; sampling and bagging of core for analysis; transport of core from site to the analytical laboratory; sample preparation for assaying; and analysis, recording and final statistical vetting of results. For a complete description of protocols, please visit the Company?s QA/QC page on the website at: http://maplegoldmines.com/index.php/en/projects/qa-qc-qp-statement

About Maple Gold

Maple Gold is an advanced gold exploration company focused on defining a district-scale gold project in one of the world?s premier mining jurisdictions. The Company?s 377 km? Douay Gold Project is located along the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone within the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt in northern Quebec, Canada. The Project has an established gold resource[2] that remains open in multiple directions, with excellent infrastructure and several large scale operating mines within this prolific mining district. Maple Gold has now completed a significant winter drill campaign to expand on the known Resource Areas and test new discovery targets within the Company?s 55 km of strike along the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone. For more information please visit www.maplegoldmines.com.

ON BEHALF OF MAPLE GOLD MINES LTD.

?Matthew Hornor?

Matthew Hornor, President & CEO

For Further Information Please Contact:

Mr. Joness Lang

VP, Corporate Development

Cell: 778.686.6836

Email: jlang@maplegoldmines.com

In Europe:

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Jochen Staiger

info@resource-capital.ch

www.resource-capital.ch

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release contains ?forward-looking information\ and ?forward-looking statements? (collectively referred to as ?forward-looking statements?) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation in Canada, including statements about the prospective? mineral potential of the Porphyry Zone, the potential for significant mineralization from other drilling in the referenced drill program and the completion of the drill program. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, uncertainties and management?s best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company?s expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding timing and completion of the private placement. When used herein, words such as ?anticipate?, ?will?, ?intend? and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are based on certain estimates, expectations, analysis and opinions that management believed reasonable at the time they were made or in certain cases, on third party expert opinions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, and uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual events, results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future events, results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Maple Gold Mines Ltd.?s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company?s website at www.maplegoldmines.com. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

[1] (Micon 2018) 479,000 ounces at 1.59 g/t Au (Indicated category) and 2,759,000 ounces at 1.02 g/t Au (Inferred category), using a 0.45 g/t Au cut-off grade. Please visit www.maplegoldmines.com or the Company?s SEDAR filings for a copy of the Micon 2018 report.

[2] (Micon 2018) 479,000 ounces at 1.59 g/t Au (Indicated category) and 2,759,000 ounces at 1.02 g/t Au (Inferred category), using a 0.45 g/t Au cut-off grade. Please visit www.maplegoldmines.com or the Company?s SEDAR filings for a copy of the Micon 2018 report.Border Management & Technologies Summit Asia Conference & Exhibition 2018

IBMATA is hosting Border Management & Technologies Summit Asia conference and exhibition in New Delhi, India from 4th - 5th October 2018.

In 2009 the Indian Government created the worlds largest biometric ID systems, Aadhaar, which provided all Indian nationals with a unique 12-digit identity number to help secure personal information. Since Aadhaar was introduced to India, their border security management has evolved rapidly.

This event will explore the emergence of digital identity management, and its potential future usage for global border management and immigration programmes.

The Border Management & Technologies Summit Asia conference and exhibition will bring together leading government officials from across central Asia, South-East Asia, Australia and the Middle East to discuss the border security challenges faced in the region and in their respective nations.

India is a unique country that has one of the largest land borders in the world, which borders Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Tibet. They also have a large maritime border to monitor which amounts to 50% of their border. This leads to a very dynamic border security force that is managed by many different agencies within the Indian Government.

The event will be chaired by the IBMATA Chairman, Mr Tony Smith, the former Director-General of UK Border Force.At his second inauguration in May 2015, Emanuel startled his audience by dwelling almost exclusively on one, insistent demand  that Chicago not lose another generation of its youth to literal and metaphorical dead ends: Share the values that made you who you are with someone who wants to grow up to be like you. Give an adolescent who was born without a prayer his first prayer at getting ahead. Find a way to let young men, invisible for too long, see hope, belief and expectation in your eyes. ... Years of silence and inaction have walled off a portion of our city. It is time to stop turning our heads and turning the channel. It is time for each of us to start breaking down those walls.Gianluca Masi, the founder and scientific director of the online Virtual Telescope Project, captured this view of Venus and Jupiter above Rome's Great Synagogue on Aug. 28, 2018.

You may know your way around the night sky, but you've likely never pulled off anything like this.

Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, the founder and scientific director of the online Virtual Telescope Project, managed to photograph all eight of the solar system's officially recognized planets in a single night. (Sorry, no Pluto  the International Astronomical Union reclassified the former ninth planet, which is quite difficult to spot from Earth, as a "dwarf planet" in 2006.)

Masi had been thinking about attempting this ambitious feat for decades, he wrote in a blog post Wednesday (Aug. 29). [Our Solar System: A Photo Tour of the Planets]

"And I did it last night, in a very special way: I imaged all of them from Rome, including amazing monuments of the Eternal City in my images," Masi wrote. "It was hard, but it was fun!"

He started just after sunset on Tuesday (Aug. 28), snapping Venus and Jupiter shining in the twilight sky above the Great Synagogue of Rome. (You can see this shot at the top of the page.)

"Looking at them was amazing, with the colors of the sky rapidly changing, while the sun was sinking deeper and deeper below the horizon," Masi wrote. "First two planets secured! Easily and safely, I would say."

Saturn and Mars above the Roman Forum on Aug. 28, 2018. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project

Up next were Saturn and Mars, which the astronomer bagged with the famous Roman Forum in the foreground. Appropriately, he managed to get the Temple of Saturn (as well as the Temple of Vespasian and Titus) in the shot, Masi wrote.

Neptune shining above the iconic Roman Colosseum on Aug. 28, 2018. Though the planet is faint, its blue color is still discernible. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project

Then came Neptune, the most distant of the eight targets. The ice giant orbits 30 times farther from the sun than Earth does, completing one lap every 165 years. Masi wanted an iconic landmark in the image with the difficult-to-capture Neptune, so he photographed "the other blue planet" above Rome's ancient Colosseum.

"I took 10 images, then I averaged them to increase the quality of the weak signal of Neptune, and I must admit it worked very well," Masi wrote.

The moon rising behind the Basilica of Maxentius, near the Colosseum, on Aug. 28, 2018. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project

Masi then checked off a quarry that wasn't technically on the list, capturing the moon as it rose behind the Basilica of Maxentius. The Colosseum also features prominently in this shot.

The ice giant Uranus as seen on Aug. 28, 2018, with the Roman Forum in the foreground. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project

Masi had some time to kill before his next target, Uranus, rose above the horizon. So, he went for a walk and also headed home to grab a snack before returning to the Forum. He captured Uranus from there, averaging three images together to generate the final photo of the seventh planet from the sun.

That left only Mercury. (If my planet counting seems off, remember: Earth features prominently in all of these photos.) The innermost planet wouldn't be visible until just before sunrise, so Masi returned home, this time nabbing a few hours of much-needed sleep.

Then, he headed out again, this time to the Janiculum, a hill in western Rome that provides a panoramic view of the city. Masi spotted Mercury from there, bringing the project, and his long night, to an end.

The planet Mercury in the predawn skies above Rome on Aug. 29, 2018. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project

"I can say that living this experience was amazing, one of those things leaving great memories and feeding our love for the cosmos and beauty," he wrote.

Masi also stitched the components of his planetary gallery together, creating a single shot that encapsulates his experience. That seems like a good one to end on:

Gianluca's planet (and moon) haul of Aug. 28-29, 2018, combined into a single shot. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project

Editor's note: If you captured an amazing astronomy photo and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, send images and comments to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is starting to earnestly evaluate space resources for future mining.

Since its establishment in the 1870s, the USGS has focused pretty much solely on Earth. But now it's also investigating what benefits may or may not exist in tapping extraterrestrial water, minerals and metals.

The agency seeks to portray accurately how humanity could exploit off-Earth assets  a no-nonsense approach that contrasts with the pie-in-the-sky estimates of trillions of dollars of profit proffered by some less scientifically minded space-mining advocates. [Photos: The Search for Water on the Moon]

Extracting lunar ice from the bottom of sun-shy craters is deserving of attention. But how much will that cost, what is the quality of the ice and how much of it is available? (Image credit: United Launch Alliance)

Proven expertise

This past June, several USGS experts took part in a Space Resources Roundtable held at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

"The space-resources community will benefit greatly from working together with the USGS to assess the location and value of minerals, energy and water on the moon, Mars and asteroids," said Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines.

The USGS offers proven expertise and an unbiased, quantitative approach to characterizing terrestrial resources, Abbud-Madrid told Space.com. That know-how "can also lead to reliable and much-needed geological maps for more precise landing-site and resource-deposit selection," he said.

It's also worth noting that the new director of the USGS, Jim Reilly, is a geoscientist and former NASA astronaut. During his 13-year NASA career, Reilly flew on three space shuttle missions, conducted five spacewalks and racked up a total of more than 856 hours in orbit.

Resource-assessment techniques are required before space mining can become a reality. (Image credit: Joel Sercel/ICS Associates Inc. and TransAstra)

Multifaceted issue

The exploitation of space resources is a fascinating and multifaceted issue, said Laszlo Kestay, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.

"The USGS has been paying steadily increasing attention to the issue of space resources for the last several years," Kestay told Space.com. The drivers for this are diverse, he said. For example, the U.S. human space program seems to be focusing on missions to deep space, where space resources are extremely valuable. Furthermore, commercial efforts to extract space resources are growing in maturity.

Kestay pointed to the USGS' increased responsibility for the Landsat satellites, a venerable series of Earth-observing spacecraft. The USGS is now considered one of the U.S. space agencies, he said.

"The USGS realized that our congressional mandate to assess natural resources extends to space," Kestay said.

At this time, the USGS does not have a funded program to conduct full-scale assessments of space resources. "But we are anticipating that the USGS may be directed to do so soon, and we are taking a number of steps to be prepared for that possibility," he said.

An artist's illustration of astronauts at a mini-moon of Earth, as well as other mining and transportation vehicles operating in space. (Image credit: TransAstra Corporation & Anthony Longman)

Confidence building

Kestay pointed to the USGS' participation in space-resource workshops. In addition, there's the 2017 "Feasibility Study for the Quantitative Assessment of Mineral Resources in Asteroids" led by Kestay, which found that the water and metal resources of near-Earth asteroids are sufficient to support humanity should it become a fully spacefaring species.

"At this point, we have done enough work to feel confident that the methods the USGS uses to assess mineral, energy and water resources on Earth can be used to assess space resources with minimal modification," Kestay said. "We have also done enough preliminary work to identify some areas where humanity's lack of knowledge will result in exceedingly large uncertainties in assessments undertaken today."

Follow the water

"Lunar ice would be a good example of a resource that we do not understand well enough to provide estimates with much precision," Kestay said.

Attempting such an assessment could still be "useful," he said, because it can identify the most critical information that future missions need to collect.

"It is also perhaps counterintuitive that we have a much better understanding of ice on Mars than on our own moon, but NASA's 'follow the water' strategy [on the Red Planet] has provided a wealth of knowledge," Kestay said. "Finally, it is clear, even before we undertake a full-blown assessment, that there are significant resources in space to assess!" [Photos: The Search for Water on Mars]

Lessons learned

No major mining company would undertake the huge cost of developing a new mine on Earth without a detailed resource model, Lawrence Meinert, scientist emeritus for the USGS, told the School of Mines attendees.

"Given the even higher costs of space travel and development, new space resource models and assessment techniques are a prerequisite for practical development of space resources," Meinert said.

Lessons learned from terrestrial exploration, mining and assessment can be applied to space resources, Meinert said. "So it's not just the excitement of new knowledge; there are certain things you need to do. One of them is characterizing what it is you're going to develop," he told Space.com.

Policy, investment decision making

Space-resource assessments will require a combination of remote sensing and physical sampling to better constrain actual asteroid, moon and planetary compositions, at a scale appropriate for resource classification and potential utilization, Meinert said.

"This information can then be used to inform resource-assessment models that have been developed and successfully utilized on Earth," Meinert concluded. "Such model assessments will be foundational to guide policy and investment decisions concerning the emerging field of space resources."

Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. This version of the story published on Space.com.Madrid, August 30, 2018 (SPS) - The State Coordinating Committee of Associations in Solidarity with the Sahrawi people (CEAS-Sahara) has demanded in a statement on the occasion of the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances that MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) ensure access to places where there are reports of mass graves or burials of dead or disappeared persons and that independent teams can carry out this identification and return to their families.

CEAS-Sahara has stated in its statement that Enforced disappearance is still a reality in Western Sahara and "is one of the most atrocious behaviors carried out for decades against the Saharawi people that still hopes to make effective their rights to justice, truth and reparation. . "

CEAS-Sahara said that the Sahrawi disappeared persons in the graves where exhumations have been carried out, and in other cases still pending clarification, were Spanish citizens.

On December 21, 2010, the General Assembly of the United Nations expressed its concern over the increase in forced disappearances in various regions of the world and decided to declare August 30, International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

AFAPREDESA, the Association of Relatives of Prisoners and Sahrawis Disappeared continues working on the search of more than 400 documented cases of victims of enforced disappearances in Western Sahara. The majority of these disappearances occurred during the first years of the military occupation of the territory (between 1975 and 1976).

CEAS-Sahara said that there is ample evidence of the existence of mass graves in Western Sahara. The places of burial of the Sahrawi people who died in the clandestine detention centers have not been revealed, nor have their remains been rescued and identified, nor returned to their families for their burial and mourning.

At the invitation AFAPREDESA, a forensic investigation team of HEGOA, Institute of the University of the Basque Country, under the direction of Professor Francisco Etxeberria Gabilondo, has proceeded to the exhumation of different common graves .

In this context, in light of the results of the investigations carried out to date from CEAS-Sahara, it warned of the risk that the sites are of common graves being destroyed by the Moroccan occupying administration given that some of those places are in zones under military or police control.

CEAS-Sahara demanded that the Spanish State assume its responsibility. The disappeared Sahrawi people in the graves where exhumations have been carried out, in other cases still pending clarification, were Spanish citizens at the time of the events.

The Spanish State maintains its responsibility to investigate and support the recognition of the victims of enforced disappearance of the Saharawi people, and this has been recognized in the investigation of the case of genocide that continues in the National Court. SPS

125/090/TRABrussels, September 3, 2018 (SPS) - Saharawi Deputy Minister for Europe Mohamed Sidati on Sunday warned the institutions under Moroccan law against speaking on behalf of Western Sahara people, as the occupied towns of Al-Ayun and Dakhla are bracing to welcome a European Parliament delegation.



"A European parliament delegation will pay a two-day visit to the occupied territory of Western Sahara, from Monday, for a better understanding of the situation," Sidati said in a press statement.



"The Polisario Front welcomes the efforts that show the will to gather as much information as possible before taking any decision."



Sidati said he wanted to recall three essential points.



"The Kingdom of Morocco, a military occupying power, under the 4th Geneva Convention, has no sovereignty over the territory (of Western Sahara)"



The authorizations they think they can give, especially to get access to the territory, are worthless under the international law and the European law," the Saharawi diplomat said.



He added that the interlocutors, under Moroccan law, the mission will meet there cannot, hypothetically, give the latest opinion in the name of Western Sahara people.



The European Commission, to implement the EU-Morocco agreement, should have "the consent of Western Sahara people" that are sovereign, as underlined in Paragraph 106 of the ruling the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued 21 December 2016.



The Saharawi minister underlined that the territory liberated from Moroccan occupation is part of Western Sahara, home to the vast majority of Saharawi people.



"So, the European Parliament mission cannot have an accurate picture unless it also goes to the liberated Western Sahara territory, home to more than 170,000 people living in refugee camps, and who feel resentful about EU support to the military occupation of the territory," Sidati said.



As the European Parliament, he stressed, should not be contented with partial information, the Polisario Front renew its invitation. (SPS)



062/SPS/TRAState Police are reporting a steep decline in the number of motor-vehicle accidents this Labor Day weekend.

This year, troopers investigated 281 accidents.

Thats a more than 53 percent drop from the 529 accidents investigated during last years Labor Day weekend.

And unlike last year when one driver died, troopers reported no fatalities on state highways.

State police also reported a decline in the number of DWI arrests this year with 24 arrests, another decline of 51 percent.

State Police did give out more speeding tickets this Labor Day weekend than last year - 1,314 speeding tickets were handed out from midnight Friday to 11:59 p.m. Monday.

The total is 125 more speeding tickets from last Labor Day weekend.

Before the holiday began, state police told the public that there would be increased patrols and DUI checkpoints.

There was however a decrease in the number of other moving violations like unsafe lane changes, following too closely, using a cell phone and texting while driving.

This year there were 2,474 moving violations; a decline of 290 from last Labor Day.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STAMFORD  Public schools in Stamford will dismiss early on Tuesday due to hot weather, Superintendent Earl Kim said in a tweet.

The announcement on Monday evening, also on the schools website, comes following a similar action on Thursday, the first day of classes where temperatures exceeded 90 degrees.S ir Martin Sorrell ought to be happy about his successor. He hired Mark Read in 1989 as an economics graduate, fresh out of Cambridge and Harvard, to be a corporate development executive at WPPs Farm Street headquarters in Mayfair.

Now the apprentice has become the master  five months after Sorrells acrimonious exit as chief executive of the worlds biggest advertising agency group.

Read, 51, the sharp-thinking, mild-mannered son of an entrepreneur and an orthodontist, who grew up in Kingswood, Surrey, takes on a hell of a job that few others may have wanted.

Succeeding Sorrell, who led WPP for 32 years, is the equivalent of trying to follow Sir Terry Leahy at Tesco, Dame Marjorie Scardino at Pearson or Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

Except, in this case, the old boss is throwing rocks from the sidelines because Sorrell has repeatedly criticised WPP and started up a new business, S4 Capital.

He says the CEO search has been a complete waste of time as Read and Andrew Scott, the new chief operating officer, were in place in the interim. Sorrell unhelpfully added they should run the company as a twosome, rather than Read being in sole charge.

Still, there are reasons to believe that Read has a fighting chance of reviving WPP and its share price, which fell by a third during Sorrells final year as he battled to reform the sprawling empire he built from scratch.

Read is smart and tech-savvy and previously spent seven years outside the company in management consulting and running a start-up during the first dot-com bubble. He is promising radical evolution, not revolution, and believes WPP can bounce back, if it simplifies its structure, fuses marketing and technology, and focuses on what clients want by being more collaborative and agile.

Read did that as global chief executive of Wunderman, a direct marketing outfit with a 60-year history, which he transformed into a digital, data-driven agency over the past three years.

Wunderman could be the template for what he does in his new job in charge of 15 billion in annual revenues, 130,000 staff in 112 countries and dozens of agencies, including Ogilvy, J Walter Thompson and MediaCom.

Change is required as Reads first results, out today, show WPPs net sales rose 0.7%, the first growth in five quarters, but profit margin fell and the dividend was held flat.

Read has already proved different from Sorrell, adopting a more consensual style, listening to agency leaders and quitting Farm Street. He talks about a new WPP.

David Golding, who quit WPP in 2007 to co-found Adam & Eve/DDB, the agency behind the hit John Lewis ads, thinks his friend Read could turn out like Tim Cook, who succeeded Apples talismanic founder, Steve Jobs, and took the company to new heights.

However, WPP and the wider agency sector face huge challenges.

Traditional advertisers such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever have been cutting spending and doing more of their marketing themselves in-house and buying directly from Google and Facebook. New entrants such as Accenture and Deloitte from the consulting world are muscling onto the agencies turf by offering to help brands to transform their whole business, not just their marketing. And, all the while, consumers are skipping digital ads amid fears about online privacy.

Read insists the ad industry is going through structural change, not structural decline, saying theres no evidence that demand for WPPs services in marketing, branding, CRM and e-commerce is declining. Hedge funds arent convinced and are betting against the stock.

Heres what Read could change:

Simplify WPP by reducing the number of overlapping agencies and job roles. Sorrell began merging agencies in haphazard fashion in his last year but WPP needs a clear, over-arching strategy. Not every subsidiary agency needs a CEO and CFO in every local market;

Organise WPP in a more agile, flexible way that suits the new breed of clients. Make it easier to put agency staff on-site in a clients office and get different agency teams to work together by giving them the same profit incentive, rather than different P&Ls;

Reduce WPPs debt pile and sell off minority stakes;

Sort out North America, WPPs biggest market, which has under-performed, and bring in fresh talent;

Adopt a more consultative model with upstream thinking. Sorrell mocked the idea of management consultants entering marketing services but some clients like Accentures talk of building a cagency, a mix of creativity and consulting.

Read can sometimes come across as diffident and lacking in passion, but he is competitive and works fast.

For WPP to win back investors, he must articulate a vision about why brands still need agencies and should pay a premium for their services. That is a challenge not only for Read and WPP but all the big agency holding companies.B ootmaker Crockett & Jones, whose shoes were worn by Daniel Craig in James Bond film Spectre, has cheered higher sales but warned of potential production difficulties.

The Royal Warrant holder said it sees significant growth potential in the medium term.

But it added: expanding production may be more difficult because of the limited availability of skilled labour, and the higher cost of leather.

The Northamptonshire-based firm, which employs 413 people, made the comments in accounts just filed for the year to February 8.

During the period, the manufacturer, which has six London shops including on Jermyn Street, saw pretax profits decrease to 4.9 million from 5.3 million. It was hit by higher costs for distribution, rents and business rates.

Crockett & Jones, founded in 1879, said it would continue to invest in the business and open a second New York store next year.T he policy at TSB on executive pay couldnt be clearer. Severance payments are paid in line with the principle of no reward for failure, it declares.

Yet today, six months into the worst debacle to hit a UK retail bank in recent years, TSB is happily handing over 1.7 million to the chief executive who presided over it all.

To say Paul Pesters departure package sticks in the craw is an understatement. This was the man who, when launching TSB in 2013, repeatedly harped on about how his shiny new bank would mark a break from the past. It would be better than those other nasty lenders, with their fat-cat pay and poor customer service.

It didnt quite turn out that way.

In fairness, its not entirely clear where blame for the IT crisis should be apportioned; was it Pesters fault for migrating an entire bank onto a new IT system in one leap, or was he ordered to do it by his paymasters at parent company Sabadell?

The Treasury Select Committee seems pretty certain. They called for Pesters scalp in June, blaming him for not only losing control of the IT, but for complacently misleading the public, and them, about the extent of its problems.

Either way, it has cost TSB 176 million and rising. I say rising because continuing IT failures such as yesterdays must still be putting off potential customers thinking of switching banks.

Pester clearly had to go, but why now, six months after the crisis broke?

The board decided he had to stay to oversee the mending job. Todays announcement had nothing to do with the outage yesterday and Sunday, were told. In fact, some TSB sources say, the weekends problems were actually a good thing, because they were mended relatively quickly, proving TSBs IT is on the mend.

You can be forgiven for scratching your head on that one.

None of it suggests the queue of outside candidates for Pesters job will be stretching around the block. Why would anybody want to leave safe havens at, say, HSBC or Lloyds to run a stricken second-tier bank?

Having said that, the takeover of Virgin Money by CYBG leaves Jayne-Anne Gadhia looking for her next challenge.

Shes turned around numerous banks and insurers and would bring leadership in spades to an organisation clearly in need of it. A great option, if shed want it.

Internally, Pesters deputy Ralph Coates would make sense, too. He joined in 2016, after the Sabadell deal, and is Barclays former retail and business bank finance director.

If its IT really is on the mend, as it hopes, with careful nurturing, TSB probably can be saved, albeit with an uphill struggle.H ousebuilder Redrows chairman Steve Morgan on Tuesday branded the Help to Buy scheme a godsend and urged the government to quickly clarify whether the model will survive.

Morgan was speaking as the FTSE-250 firm posted record revenues, up 16% to 1.9 billion in the year to June 30. Pre-tax profits jumped to 380 million from 315 million.

Of 5913 home sales, 1850 were done via Help to Buy. Morgan said the government-backed equity scheme has been a godsend for buyers and the industry.

The chairman called for clarity over the future of Help to Buy following conflicting reports. Some experts have said the initiative will finish in 2023, rather than the original closing date of 2021. However, there is also speculation it is facing the axe sooner because a number of households have used it to upgrade properties rather than to get onto the housing ladder.

Morgan said there is politics of envy from some critics. He said: Help to Buy has been an unbelievable success, so why would we want to scrap it? Morgan also called for clarity on Brexit. Despite political uncertainty, he said demand for homes is strong.

Central London, which has suffered from a slowdown since Britain voted to leave the EU, has remained difficult for the business, but the rest of the capital has been resilient.

Redrow proposes a final dividend of 19p, making 28p for the full year, up 65%.

The City cheered the update, sending shares in Redrow up 9.5p to 566p.A ll business leaders must look to the future to try to assess how market may change and so prepare to adjust and adapt to what may lie ahead. Of course, we cannot see accurately what the future holds, so any judgements we make will contain an element of risk, but all businesses need to take calculated risks, and that way lies the key to success.

When ABP took the decision to expand outside China we had to consider which country and which city offered the most opportunity for us to succeed. We considered all of the options carefully and the UK was the preferred choice, with London  in particular east London  clearly the best location.

But there were risks. At the time we were making our decision and had chosen Royal Albert Dock as the exact location for our next business district we did not know whether Crossrail would be given the go-ahead, and there was some doubt as to whether London City Airport would survive and prosper. These were big risks.

I am pleased to say our calculated risk was proved to be in order. I am delighted that a Crossrail station will open close to our development, and that London City Airport is not only surviving but flourishing. It is now underway with its expansion plans, which will see the airport extend its number of international destinations to include Moscow, Mumbai and Dubai.

For success we sometimes have to look to the past to find the future. Time and again people in London tell me that they remember when Islington was unfashionable, and Shoreditch, and Spitalfields, and even the eastern side of Tower Bridge. How often have you heard people say how they wished they had invested in this or that part of London a few years ago before it became a hotspot?

I can see a pattern in all of this. At one time Londoners used to talk about the City and then the phrase City Fringe emerged. London has been steadily expanding eastwards since the 1980s; St Katharines Dock, Limehouse and Canary Wharf have all been transformed in that time and all are now much sought after.

Londons place as a leading world city and a first-class financial hub against a background of the increasing globalisation of business has put pressure on the commercial space available and this has seen the acceleration of Londons push eastwards. The East End is really the only place where London can expand. But theres more than that. The future of business will have a greater focus on technology. Not only tech businesses but all enterprises, from the legal and financial sectors through to retailing and trading companies, are looking to the latest innovations to help them to stay ahead of their competitors.

East London has those with tech skills in abundance. It is the part of London where they live, and more and more it is where they are choosing to work, and all that makes it easier for businesses to attract and retain talent. Some business decisions are easy to make, but deciding where to locate is one of the most difficult. We have made the journey from China to Royal Albert Dock, and now our development is set to be one of the jewels of east London within this vibrant emerging new destination. I believe we are a beacon for others to follow from Asia and from other parts of the UK and London. I invite you to join us on our journey to success.

Join us for an evening panel discussion on future-proofing your business with George Osborne and guests on 18 September. For more details and to get your tickets visit royalalbertdock.standard.co.ukT SB chief executive Paul Pester will pocket 1.7 million after announcing his departure from the bank on Tuesday in the wake of a botched IT upgrade.

Pester, who has been chief executive for seven years, has left the company with immediate effect, leaving chairman Richard Meddings in charge until a replacement is found.

The group, owned by Spanish giant Sabadell, will pay Pester 1.2 million, equivalent to 12 months of pay. He will also pocket 480,000 as a historic award going back to 2014, made before the Sabadell acquisition.

Any more bonuses will be determined by future performance and the outcome of a regulatory probe by the Financial Conduct Authority into the IT crisis this year, which cost the bank 176 million and caused thousands of customers to leave.

Sources close to Nicky Morgan MP, chairman of the influential Treasury Select Committee, expressed serious concerns about the pay-off and said they will be writing to Meddings to demand more details about the circumstance of Pesters departure.

Morgan said: It is right that he is stepping down. But the committee remains concerned about the continuing problems at TSB, including unacceptable delays in compensating customers who have been badly let down.

TSB has a policy which says severance payments are paid with the principle of no reward for failure.

Pester was slammed during an evidence session with the committee over his handling of a IT upgrade which locked millions of customers out of their bank accounts.

He gave up a 2 million bonus but was accused by Financial Conduct Authority chief executive Andrew Bailey of portraying an optimistic view of the crisis. The bank said Pester was leaving because its systems and services were much improved since the crisis.

Meddings, the former finance chief of Standard Chartered, said further IT problems over the weekend were not linked to Pesters departure and said the former chief was not the fall guy.

This is not linked to the migration issue. What we have is the banks systems and platforms are operating at a much better level. If you think about the preparation required on this its not something done overnight, he said.

It takes some weeks to be arranged for this communication exercise. Its not an event driven by the weekend events, he added.

Meddings said Pester, who was absent from a conference call with the media on Tuesday, was neither sacked nor resigned and instead his decision to leave had been reached by mutual consent.

If wed done it earlier the view would have been it was an inappropriate time to do it because he was leading with huge energy the remediation of the platform. To do it earlier would have been the wrong decision.

In a statement, Pester said: The last few months have been challenging for everyone at TSB.G reat failures can stem from not-bad ideas. Theresa Mays Chequers plan to bridge the gap between fulfilling the covenant of the Leave vote in the 2016 referendum and shadowing the single market to avoid maximum damage to the UKs economic outlook falls into this category. It joins John Majors variable geometry quest in the early Nineties for different rates of EU integration and David Camerons frustrated campaign for a new deal on welfare and immigration.

Faced with a choice between hard and soft Brexit, the Prime Ministers instinct was to opt for a scrambled version. Chequers played to her desire to avoid the Canada-style trade deal sought by hard Brexiteers. It seeks in a convoluted manner to deal with the nitty gritty of the Irish border.

Complexity, however, has proven to be the plans Achilles heel. Over the recess many proponents of soft and scrambled Brexit have realised that it is unlikely to command a majority. As Downing Street speechwriters prepare for Mays conference appearance it is inconceivable that, even with a pharmacy-load of cough mixture to hand, May could produce as anodyne and patchy an offer as last year. It would crash as fast as Iain Duncan Smiths Quiet Man number, admits one of her aides.

So the feeling in No 10 is that she might as well embrace the challenge of facing down Boris Johnson as a dangerous risk-taker and warn that a leadership contest while the EU negotiations are still stewing could end in chaotic in-fighting and a Corbyn government. Yes, it amounts to threatening her party. But, as one supportive minister puts it, She might as well call the Tory spade a shovel.

Two interventions this week have had a clarifying impact (to put it politely) on what May hopes to achieve in short order. The first is that Johnson has used his walk-out after Chequers to turn the document into a dividing line. His Daily Telegraph column now serves as a direct line to Ukip voters (the burka edict set that tone) and a clarion call to Tory eurosceptics to make chuck Chequers their casus belli.

Anne McElvoy

This position pits him directly against the PM, where other adversaries have ducked or fudged opposition. Its hard to understand why, say, Michael Gove as a Brexiteer or Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt as bi-curious Leaver-Remainers are really for May staying in the job. It leaves a gap that Boris  daft wrestling metaphors and hot air notwithstanding  is filling.

Number 10 counters that the plan is a work in progress to be tweaked as the negotiations proceed. But such a half-hearted approach sits badly with the outright rejection of the proposal by the EU. Its chief negotiator Michel Barnier, had he been amenable to a watered-down version of Chequers, could have found an opportunity over the summer to pursue that.

After all, May has just returned from an intense bout of European Interrailing, heading to the Salzburg Festival to meet German and Austrian politicians, as well as dropping in on Italy, Switzerland and First World War commemorations in France.

Behind the scenes British diplomats are working frantically to find leeway in the negotiations, using the member states to offset the European Commissions grand non to just about every proposal. Thats uphill work. Yes its true that the EU could be more flexible and that compromises with Britain wont kill the EUs wider freedom of movement: all EU deals are selective by their nature. But its not happening at the moment.

"If Brexit really cannot be hard or soft, then calls to revisit the referendum will grow more insistent"

Jacob Rees-Mogg claims that Eurosceptics agree more with the EUs chief negotiator when it comes to Brexit than they do with May. Thats brazenly false. He says that the EU dealmaker is extraordinarily charming. When he speaks like that you know theres something fishy afoot. But Rees-Moggs argument that a Canada Dry option would suit Brussels better omits the fact that it would still leave the headache of the Northern Ireland border unresolved and would heap up problems for EU trade after a hard Brexit.

If these two men got along so well it is only because they are united in being short-sighted and like dissing May.

As messy as all this is, it does leave room for manoeuvre that creative or wily Tory players will seek to widen this autumn. If Brexit really cannot be hard or soft (in the sense of an all-out free trade deal outside the customs union or a close shadowing of the single market) then, inevitably, other fall-back scenarios will come into play. Either Article 50 will be triggered next March or with minimal delay, or calls to revisit the referendum will grow more insistent.

Nick Boles is the Tory savant currently scoping out the territory between these options. He has suggested pursuing transitional membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) on the Norway model. Oddly, the notion that Britain would have to move closer to Norwegian terms than Chequers was vaguely broached by Barnier himself.

Whether the EEA would truly satisfy the EU as a staging post and (reasonable) hard Brexiteers as an interim destination is doubtful. But if Boles is looking for life-after-Chequers as a Remainer, Gove is set to float to Cabinet a Brexit timetable that would formally be enacted next March, with a long tail of continued negotiation using the two-year transition period for leeway. That will define him as the Reasonable Leaver as opposed to Boris, the Diehard Brexiteer.

The glaring weakness of the Boles-Gove initiatives, however, is that they prolong the agony,

But if neither hard, soft nor Chequered Brexit can satisfy, the scrambled version looks like the best that the Fawlty Towers Government can manage without the hotel falling down.P rime Ministers often have a different recollection of events from the rest of us.

At Chequers in July, Theresa May wrote this week, the Government came together around a set of proposals that could break the deadlock on Brexit.

Except, that is not what happened. Her Government didnt come together, it fell apart. The Foreign Secretary and the Brexit Secretary resigned. There is no Chequers Agreement. There is instead a great big Chequers Disagreement  and it has shattered the Tory truce that has endured since the EU referendum.

Mrs May spent two years trying to avoid this moment. Brexit means Brexit was her answer to questions of detail, as she waited for the EU to blink first and let Britain have its cake and eat it.

It was a huge miscalculation. Brussels didnt blink. It didnt need to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier had secured the key concessions he needed from Mrs May on money, citizens rights and  crucially  the Irish border last December.

He could sit tight and let the self-activated Article 50 timetable grind us down. By this summer the Prime Minister had no option left but do what she had been loathe to do: put forward her own detailed plan for Brexit.

It is that plan which is now attracting fire from all sides of the Tory Party. As Parliament returns, the hardline Brexiteers have signalled their hostile intent.

How can they ever vote for a plan that, in the words of Boris Johnson and David Davis this week, gives away 40 billion for two-thirds of diddly squat, leaves the UK flat on the canvas and almost worse than being in the EU?

Dont be surprised if there are more resignations from the Cabinet over the autumn. The hardline Brexiteers are serial oppositionists, who having made a series of undeliverable promises to the British public over many years would rather complain about the failures of others to achieve the impossible than take responsibility themselves.

More significantly, Conservative moderates are also starting to desert the Chequers plan. Moderniser Nick Boles has said this week he wont support it, and that Britain should consider the European Economic Area as a temporary home.

Justine Greening, a prominent Remainer, goes further and describes the Chequers proposals as less popular than the poll tax.

In a hung Parliament, it poses the question: who is going to vote with Mrs May? Ask senior Cabinet ministers in private and, unbelievably, they say: when the chips are down, Labour will. Er, no they wont.

The pro-European faction has also rejected Chequers  as David Miliband wrote in his column for the Evening Standard yesterday  and the Corbynistas have just forced the resignation of Frank Field because he voted with the Tories on Europe.

Car crash

This looming parliamentary car-crash was always inevitable once Mrs May had lost the Tories their majority.

The Government should at least be heading into it eyes-open, with a negotiating position which the EU is likely to accept. But the Prime Minister hasnt achieved that either.

The plan which the remaining members of the Cabinet signed up to at Chequers never had the remotest chance of being accepted by the EU. It is exactly the kind of cherry-picking that the other states and the commission have said was unacceptable from the beginning.

Stories over the summer that the likes of President Macron were sympathetic were wishful thinking. What he favours is creating a new outer tier of EU membership that Britain might be able to join. Its an interesting idea that a more creative government here might be willing to explore.

Set aside the internal party battles, and Britain is faced with the same choice that has always been there: either pool sovereignty and enjoy the economic benefits or take back control and pay the economic price.

We say choose the former: stay in the single market and customs union. Chequers ducked the choice and still provoked the split in the Tory Party. It achieved worse than nothing. PART of the reason for this is that many opera companies deliver the same music in the same old way to the same old crowd.... I can only assume that Rob Rinder [August 31] doesnt go to much opera, as if he did it would be unimaginable to have made such a sweeping statement.

Glyndebournes Saul is indeed terrific. So too is the output of most small companies. At Bampton Classical Opera, for example (a leader in the operatically unexpected), a top-price ticket would set him back about 0.15 per cent of the equivalent in deep Sussex, and would this year let him experience our version of Isouards Cendrillon (hardly the same old stuff). To prove it, he is welcome as our guest to the performance at St Johns Smith Square on September 18.

Gilly French

Artistic director, Bampton Classical Opera

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Gilly

Im sure you, like me, have sat through the odd turgid night of yet another Tosca and know opera isnt always fresh  and thats what Rob was getting at. But youre right to speak up for an art form that I think is more powerful than any other, and which neednt be dated or dull.

Its exciting to see places such as Bold Tendencies in Peckham add opera to its programmes (the first there is coming this month). Britain has opera festivals like nowhere else. Bampton is one. Im involved in the festival at Buxton which brings great art to Derbyshire every July. Our big houses are original too: think of Opera Norths potent Ring Cycle or the Royal Operas mobile The Return of Ulysses at the Roundhouse.

Julian Glover, Associate Editor (Comment)

Let European leaders show us the way

Agnes Poiriers article on rumoured efforts by President Macron to keep Britain close to the EU underlined the help we now need from our European friends [Macron seeks loyalty points from Britain, August 31].

Bold initiative by European leaders, perhaps maybe a new category of EU membership accommodating public opinion in the UK, might justify a fresh debate about our options.

Ian Morley

Its high time the Mayor spoke for Londoners over Brexit

On THURSDAY the London Assembly will debate a motion calling on the Mayor actively to support a Peoples Vote on the terms of Brexit.

The Governments Brexit strategy will not deliver the promises of the Leave campaign. Nor would Jeremy Corbyns. No real-world Brexit could. Brexit would make us an inward- looking country, resistant to diversity, poorer, erecting barriers against our neighbours and having worse relations with them as a result. Brexit is the opposite of Londons values. We should stop it  and we can.

The same people who decided to start the process should decide whether to adopt the Governments Brexit plan or to remain in the European Union.

I urge every Londoner to contact their assembly member to support the motion calling for a referendum; and to call on Sadiq Khan to speak for London.

Nick Hopkinson

Vice-chair, London4Europe

Original A Star is Born was a classic

In HIS review from the Venice Film Festival of the new version of A Star is Born [August 31], David Sexton claims the original from 1937 is little remembered. Nothing could be further from the truth.

What is more probable is that fewer people have seen it recently. It well deserves an HD restoration re-release. It was one of the earliest films in beautiful three-strip Technicolor, with Oscar winners Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in the lead roles, an Academy Award-winning script by director William A Wellman, and the authentic bitter taste of a caustic insiders view of the dream factory that was Hollywood.

It is notable also as the only film that made Humphrey Bogart cry, as he clearly recognised the destiny facing many of his fellow actors. A great picture should not be so dismissed.

Sebastian Wheen

We have a long history of jingoism

Your leader column [Moderate Tories can see off the Ukip infiltrators, August 30] suggested that some of the personalities on view in the Leave movement are a recent phenomenon. Not entirely: Edwardian Britain had its own hilariously vain and blowsy mountebank in the shape of Horatio Bottomley.

Along with being implicated in an investment swindle, Bottomleys main contribution to national life was the magazine John Bull, which was mainly devoted to peddling a spurious and paper-thin jingoism. All of that sank into discredited oblivion as the unfolding horrors of the First World War became clear.

We may pray that something slightly less cataclysmic than the Great War will suffice to blow the current crop away.

Peter Holson

See the positives of refer-a-friend

Further to Lucy Tobins recent article that criticised universities for offering incentives to study, I was disappointed to see that she singled out London Met for its 200 refer-a-friend scheme [Stop cheapening our excellent universities with refer-a-friend bribes, August 29].

She did make a fair point that the web page about the scheme doesnt mention anything about career aspirations or qualifications  we are changing the wording.Fashion is, by definition, always ahead of the curve.

Though in the age of the buy-it-now catwalk show and shopping at Insta-speed, keeping up is an increasingly exhausting proposition. As a result, its a rare moment when both creator and consumer take a moment to look back and reflect. Its also a wonderful one. In fact, such fashion nostalgia is the reason some of 2018s biggest trends were born in the Nineties and, similarly, why adidass re-issued Stan Smiths remain a ubiquitous sight in London.

Its also why Harvey Nichols is ringing in the new with a celebration of the old this week. The new in question is an ambitious redevelopment plan for its iconic Knightsbridge flagship store which includes a total makeover of its 22,000 sq ft womenswear first floor.

As for the old, eight bygone creations, chosen by designers including Stella McCartney and Dries Van Noten, have been re-made once more. Each has been chosen because of the significant role it played in their success stories, be it from their first collections or because the item in question was a sell-out which transformed their brand from fledging label to global superforce.

Harvey Nichols

Among the future classics to find their way back onto the shop floor is an LBD by Stella McCartney  a remake of the iconic Miracle dress first worn by Kate Winslet on the red carpet in 2011 and countless times afterwards. Famed for its ability to create an envy-inducing hourglass shape thanks to its optical-illusion front panel, the dress racked up a long list of famous fans in its heyday, spanning Kate Moss to Penelope Cruz, and an even longer list of high-street imitations.

To reflect the changing shape of a modern womens wardrobe to a more free and fluid form, McCartneys re-issued piece has evolved with a softer silhouette. In place of stark white or scarlet stretch-fabric trimmed with waist-whittling black, the front panel is crafted from black velvet and offset with a subtle tonal tulle, hand-stitched with tiny beaded embellishments taken from the current winter 2018 collection. McCartney is keen to highlight her brands sustainable advances too, with all viscose sourced since 2017 from Forest Stewardship Council-certified manufacturers.

Harvey Nichols

Joining McCartneys Miracle dress in Harvey Nicks hall of fame is a kimono by Belgian design wizard Dries Van Noten. Renowned for his mastery of prints, the rose motif dates back 24 years to his first womenswear fashion show in 1994. I still have very fond memories of that show, the designer recalls. It was a time where we had to improvise a lot. First showcased on the catwalk by a mixture of professional models and friends, the bloom is overlaid by an art brut design from his most recent AW18 offering.

Also starring in the ranks among these fashion veterans is a more recent  but undoubtedly no less influential  breakthrough talent: Virgil Abloh. The long-time creative director to Kanye West turned artistic director of Louis Vuittons menswear line, Ablohs cult label Off-White, founded in 2013, is a new acquisition for the stores redesigned space.

Harvey Nichols archive hits capsule 1 /9 Harvey Nichols archive hits capsule Charlotte Olympia Charlotte Olympia Malone Souliers Christian Louboutin Stella McCartney Sophia Webster Dries Van Noten Off-White Gianvitto Rossi

In honour of this milestone Abloh has chosen to celebrate the present rather than the past  in his words, he aspired to continue building upwards on the design aesthetic of the silhouette  with a lavender leather bag fresh from the current winter collection.

Meanwhile, Christian Louboutin has delved back to 2006 for his chosen patent black court shoe, finished with a touch of leopard print and a sky-high stiletto (natch), while home grown designer Sophia Webster has relaunched her signature Chiara butterfly sandal, which has been a permanent fixture in her collections since her debut in 2013. Malone Souliers, which has lent a favoured navy suede high-heeled mule from autumn/winter 2014 to the re-launch, was also keen to share a piece of its history with the store which helped to put it on the map.

Harvey Nichols Knightsbridge found us when we were yet puppies in a litter, says Roy Luwolt, the companys co-founder and artistic director. The revival of this shoe is a tip of the hat to Harvey Nichols  a formidable aspect of our establishment in the UK and a batting partner in our most crucial stages of early development. First impressions really did impress.Members of the Chicago Fire Department salute as the body of a Chicago police sergeant is brought to the medical examiner's office Sept. 3, 2018, after the officer apparently killed himself in the West Loop during the Labor Day holiday.

(Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)L ines from arguably the most famous rock song of all time will be celebrated in neon lights on Carnaby Street in October.

Lyrics from Queens 1975 hit Bohemian Rhapsody, including Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? will be joined by the bands crest designed by Freddie Mercury.

The display by landlord Shaftesbury and 20th Century Fox marks the release of film Bohemian Rhapsody, about the band, on October 24.

There will be a Queen-inspired exhibition, plus food and products.

Bohemian Rhapsody is the UK's third best selling single of all time, having reached number one upon its initial release in 1976 and again following Mercury's death in 1991.

The forthcoming movie Bohemian Rhapsody stars Rami Malek as Mercury, and is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on October 24.

The movie tells the story of the group, following them from their formation in the 1970s, right through to their performance at Live Aid in 1985. Watch the trailer below.T he countdown to Christmas is on  well it will soon be  there are exactly 16 weeks to go and if youre planning to escape it all this year then you should be booking your flights soon, according to price comparison site Skyscanner.

It has analysed flight price data to reveal the cheapest time to book Christmas flights for us Brits.

According to Skyscanner, the best time to book flights for the festive break is 13 weeks in advance and in doing so you could save up to 29 per cent on costs.

Looking at our flight data we can see that the best time to book flights for Christmas tends to be 13 weeks in advance of travel and could save travellers up to 29 per cent," said Lisa Tyndall, senior growth manager at Skyscanner, who added that a significant proportion of last year's Christmas travel bookings were made last minute.

"With this in mind we wanted to make sure travellers were armed with the latest Christmas flight data to make the best decisions, e.g. travelling on Christmas Day has long been believed to be the cheapest day over the festive period, however, our data is showing the reverse to be true and it is in fact the most expensive day".

The cheapest day to travel, according to the site, is actually Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, the busiest day for travel over the festive period, it says, is usually the Saturday before Christmas  which this year falls on the 22nd  with more people travelling out of UK airports on this day than any other between December 16 - 31. The quietest day for travel is typically on the 17th of the month.

You can view a chart of average flight price trends to all destinations below:

Skyscanner

If you're planning on heading to either Abu Dhabi, St Petersburg or Penang in Malaysia for the festive season you're in luck, because flights to those destinations have lowered in price compared to the same time last year by as much as 27 per cent.P olice are organising meetings between gangs to cool down their conflicts and shame them into halting the wave of stabbings and shootings on Londons streets, Scotland Yards top officer revealed today.

Met Commissioner Cressida Dick said that mediating between gangs to make them understand the impact that their crimes were having on families could sometimes be the most important thing that police could do.

Her comments came during an appearance on LBC Radio in which she also expressed her dismay at the latest ghastly murder in London in which a 22-year-old man, named locally as Ismail Tanrikulu, was found shot dead in a Tottenham cemetery.

Ms Dick admitted that the number of murders was far too many.

But she insisted that despite this, violent crime in the capital was stabilising with police seizing 1,500 knives, more than 180 firearms and 600 other weapons since April. Around 4,000 suspects had also been arrested.

The Commissioner conceded, however, that police needed to reduce the levels of violence further and suggested that one method  which had been successful elsewhere in the world  was to bring gangs together to persuade them to end their conflicts.

The idea of mediating between gangs, and trying to call on people in gangs to understand the impact they are having on families and on mothers, sort of shaming the gang leaders and bringing them into talks with others, is something that we do, she said.

Its something thats been used successfully in other parts of the world. Getting some of these people in a room is quite hard often, but sometimes just cooling things down between groups and making them understand the impact of the worst of their crimes is the most important thing you can do.

Friends today paid tribute to the former student of Gladesmore Community School in South Tottenham.

One told the Standard: I cant believe he is gone, its so hard to accept when someone you knew passes away, especially a young soul.A teenager sparked the evacuation of 400 schools after making hoax bomb threats to thousands of institutions for his own enjoyment

George Duke-Cohan also reported a flight flying from the UK to San Francisco was carrying explosives while it was mid-flight and said there were explosives on board causing a huge security alert.

The 19-year-old was investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the FBI.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of making hoax bomb threats at Luton Magistrates Court on Monday.

The bomb threats to schools were made in March and the teen, of Mutchetts Close, Watford, was arrested in connection to them within days of the incident.

George Duke-Cohan admitted making the threats / PA

Despite his arrest and while under investigation, he sent a mass email to schools in the UK and the US saying there were pipe bombs on their premises.

After committing these crimes on August 9 he called San Francisco Airport saying a United Airlines flight from the UK to there had a bomb onboard.

In one call, to the airport's police bureau, Duke-Cohan pretended to be an anxious father and claiming his daughter contacted him from the flight.

He said his daughter had told him the flight had been hijacked by gunmen and one of these had a bomb.

In an audio clip of the call released by the NCA, Duke-Cohan can be heard saying: "My daughter just called me, like, 10 minutes ago crying on the phone saying that her flight was getting hijacked."

The hoax sparked a massive security search when the plane arrived in San Francisco. This led to all 295 passengers having to remain on board.

NCA senior investigating officer Marc Horsfall said: George Duke-Cohan made a series of bomb threats that caused serious worry and inconvenience to thousands of people, not least an international airline.

He carried out these threats hidden behind a computer screen for his own enjoyment, with no consideration for the effect he was having on others.

Mr Horsfall added: Despite being arrested and having conditions imposed restricting his use of technology, he persistently broke those conditions to continue his wave of violent threats.

Law enforcement take such offences extremely seriously.

This investigation proves that operating online does not offer offenders anonymity. We will identify you and you will be brought before the courts.

Duke-Cohan was arrested by NCA officers for the third time at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire, on August 31.

Officers recovered multiple electronic devices belonging to him.

The use of these had contravened bail conditions placed upon him.A former billionaire property developer who was one of Britains richest men has been revealed as a violent rapist who kept his shameful past hidden for 20 years.

Simon Halabi, 60, once had an estimated fortune of 3 billion and owned a stake in the Shard, enjoying luxury homes and cars, champagne parties, and a Mayfair-based business empire.

However, the Syrian-born tycoon fell on hard times during the credit crunch and was declared bankrupt in 2010.

It has now emerged that Halabi was convicted by a French court in 1998 of violently raping a woman in her early twenties who was trapped in his home.

Police records reveal he slapped, punched and attempted to strangle her, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her to his bed. He raped her after she tried to flee but found the gate could be opened only from inside the house.

Halabi threatened her with death if she were to report the attack, before letting her leave, the police papers say.

The businessman was sentenced at the assizes court of Alpes-Maritimes, south-east France, to three years in jail, suspended for five years. But despite being put on the French sex offenders register, Halabi was able to hide his criminal past as he made his fortune in the UK and travelled the world.

At Westminster magistrates court yesterday, District Judge Michael Snow approved a Met police application for Halabi to be the subject of strict notification rules as a convicted sex offender.

He rejected Halabis claims that the application was made in bad faith, as it was two decades after his conviction, and that it was an attempt to manipulate the system. Imposing notification requirements indefinitely, the judge said: I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Mr Halabi was convicted of a relevant offence.

Halabis wealth was estimated at 3 billion in 2007 when he appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List and owned the City headquarters of JP Morgan, Aviva, and Old Mutual. He could boast of property in Mayfair and Buckinghamshire as well as a French chateau, throwing champagne-fuelled parties on yachts, and splashing out on cars including a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce.

He was one of the original developers of the Shard, but pulled out after a disagreement with business partners.

The tycoon was made bankrupt in 2010 after failing to pay back a 56 million bank loan, and was later sued for divorce by his wife Urte.

Bringing the application in court yesterday, Dc Alan Morgan accused Halabi of concealing his rape conviction from US border officials. The Met investigator said: He has admitted frequent travel to the US, he has property in the Florida area, and from his own admission he lied on a number of occasions. He ticked no arrests and no convictions on the landing forms  Im sure he has travelled to many different countries around the world where visa requirements may require disclosure.

The court heard Halabi was convicted in France under the name Mohammed, but reverted to his birth name of Simon on his passport in 2003. When the conviction was disclosed to UK authorities in 2012 under data sharing protocols, investigators did not know Mohammed Halabi was a name used by the tycoon. It was not till November last year that the Met confirmed the rapists identity.

Halabis lawyer, Gudrun Young, told the court: He doesnt accept the legitimacy of the conviction in France and is seeking to have it struck out. Ms Young tried to stop the Standard from reporting on the hearing by arguing that this would ruin Mr Halabis life. But Judge Snow refused the request.T hree people have been injured in a suspected acid attack on a busy road in Notting Hill.

Emergency services rushed to Westbourne Grove shortly after 2pm on Tuesday following reports of a "noxious substance attack".

One photo, which was posted on social media, showed paramedics and firefighters at work as scores of vehicles descended on the scene.

The owner of a nearby fruit and veg shop said: "We just know there was one crazy man throwing things around, about 35 or 40 years old. He sprayed people's faces."

'Acid attack': Emergency services were called to the bustling Notting Hill street shortly after 2pm / Katy Clifton

A witness who works at a nearby jewellers told the Standard he saw a man wrapped in a blanket at the side of the road.

The 58-year-old, named Wael, said: I just saw so many police and ambulances, theres people saying acid attack and some saying it involved pepper spray.

I saw the guy from the shop sat on the steps of Nandos with a blanket round him and another person, there was water on the ground outside the shop. Both got in an ambulance after that.

This has scared us because the shop down the road had an armed robbery and we have had a break in before. This is the first time this has happened here but in general I think crime is getting worse.

Police investigation: Officers near the scene of the incident in Westbourne Grove / Katy Clifton

Tool Lodge, a shop near the junction with Garway Road, was locked by police officers. They later left carrying an evidence bag with them while police tape could be seen on the floor of the store.

A member of staff at a frozen yoghurt shop opposite Tool Lodge said he saw paramedics throwing water at the victims' faces.

Justin, 19, said: "There were ambulances, a fire engine and police officers pouring water on people's faces.

"I didn't see anything but the police and ambulances were here for about an hour."

A Met Police spokeswoman said: Officers are in attendance along with the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade.

At this stage it is believed there are three victims.

No arrests have been made and enquiries continue.A n embattled London cardiac unit riven by toxic bickering between rival camps of surgeons is to undergo a radical shake-up following a damning review, its chief executive announced today.

An external independent panel is being set up to oversee St Georges hospitals response to a report in July which concluded that its heart unit in Tooting was consumed by a dark force and patients were put at risk by a dysfunctional team of surgeons.

Nationally, about 2 per cent of patients die after heart surgery.

At St Georges, the overall mortality rate for patients operated on between 2014 and 2017 was 3.7 per cent.

St Georges chief executive Jacqueline Totterdell today said an independent panel of professionals would oversee the implementation of all the recommendations in the report written by former NHS England deputy medical director Mike Bewick.

She said the steps would help deal with the long-standing issues faced by the hospitals cardiac surgical service.

Ms Totterdell admitted there may be unhappiness among staff, but that they would not shy away from dealing with the situation, which she described as serious.

St Georges chief executive Jacqueline Totterdell today said they were taking steps to deal with 'long-standing issues'

She told the Standard: Clearly what we want is to do the best for our patients.

We are not going to get to an outstanding unit without taking pretty radical action.

The panel is being set up this week by the regulator NHS Improvement after the hospital requested their involvement.

It will comprise doctors, senior managers and human resources professionals.

The move was designed to ensure impartiality and to oversee what is going on in the organisation, Ms Totterdell said.

It is not something we would be required to do.

I and the board believe in order to move forward we need to have independent oversight.

It comes after bereaved relatives in August asked Westminster coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox to investigate after the report found that the surgeon rivalries had contributed to higher mortality rates.

Doctors now think at least some cases of the 150 deaths in the past five years could be reopened.

Her team is said to believe there may have been an under-reporting of deaths in some areas.

Two surgeons were reportedly suspended from the unit following the report.

One, Professor Marjan Jahangiri, was allowed to return to work after the High Court last week overturned her suspension.

Ms Totterdell said: My priority - and that of the Trust board - is to ensure patients receive safe, high quality care at all times.

This remains our focus.

She added: We remain committed to ensuring staff at St Georges have strong and professional working relationships, in a learning environment where they can speak up safely.

As a result of professor Bewicks findings and recommendations, the hospital also brought in experts to work with the cardiac surgical service to make recommendations on the impact of behaviours on members of staff and the effectiveness of the team.

A spokesman for St Georges said: We would emphasise that the cardiac surgery service is safe.

The Royal College of Surgeons has stated that the treatment provided at St Georges is within the UK standard and has never been below this.A huge blaze has broken out at a primary school in east London one day before its children return from the summer break.

Dramatic images showed huge plumes of smoke billowing into the sky as firefighters tackled the flames at Roding Primary school in Dagenham on Tuesday morning.

Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters were battling the blaze, which broke out shortly before 5am in Hewett Road.

London Fire Brigade said that about half of the single-storey building was alight and that crews from several stations were called.

The fire has now been brought under control.

Dagenham: Roding Primary School Fire - In pictures 1 /14 Dagenham: Roding Primary School Fire - In pictures The school in Dagenham engulfed in flames Firefighters at the scene of the blaze Jeremy Selwyn 80 firefighters were in attendance Jeremy Selwyn Pupils were due to return to school tomorrow Jeremy Selwyn A firefighter looks on at charred wreckage at the school Jeremy Selwyn A firefighter douses the charred embers with water Jeremy Selwyn Huge plumes of smoke billowing into the sky as firefighters tackled the flames at Roding Primary school Jeremy Selwyn Crews from several stations were called to tackle the fire Jeremy Selwyn The London Fire Brigade was first called at 4.50am Jeremy Selwyn Firefighters at Roding Primary School Jeremy Selwyn The fire caused significant damage to the school Jeremy Selwyn It is not yet clear how the fire started Jeremy Selwyn Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters are at the scene @67jrde The fire broke out at the school in Dagenham @67jrde

Station manager Rod Wainwright said: ""Flames could be seen from some distance away and crews were faced with a serious blaze when they arrived on the scene.

Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters are at the scene / @67jrde

"They worked very hard to bring the fire under control but given the intensity of the fire, there is unfortunately significant damage to the school.

"It is unfortunate timing that this fire has occurred just before the start of term.

"It is too soon to speculate on the cause of the fire but as soon as they're able to, fire investigators will enter the site to start their work."

Crews removed a gas cylinder from the school building and have been cooling it down to prevent the risk of explosion.

Those who live nearby were told to keep their windows and doors shut due to the smoke.

A statement on the schools website said the children are set to return from the summer holiday on Wednesday.The school has 1,300 pupils.

It is unclear when the school will reopen.E xhausted new parents are turning to nap pods to catch up on sleep during their working day.

Customers from nearby office buildings are paying 18 an hour to take refuge in tiny rooms designed for relaxation and sleep.

Pop & Rest opened as a pop-up in Monument last year, then set up a permanent base near Old Street in June due to a surge in demand for its rooms.

Its customers, who often work nearby, can have a short rest in one of the four 7ft by 6ft rooms, which hold a single bed, desk and some plants. The minimum booking time is half an hour but snoozers can choose to reserve them for up to two hours.

Mauricio Villamizar, co-founder of Pop & Rest, said many new parents take up the opportunity.

They include a male customer who just became a dad and obviously he cant sleep much throughout the night, barely two to three hours. He works nearby and so he comes around once a week.

Do not disturb: Gema Calero Ruiz, 20, takes a nap in one of the pods at Pop & Rest near Old Street

The company has seen the number of customers increase and now caters for scores of them a week.

Other fatigued patrons include businesspeople who work in the area. After 4.30 it gets busy again with local workers who are going out and need to take a nap before, or have a long commute and prefer to come here before taking the train, Mr Villamizar said.

Travellers arriving off a long flight are also taking advantage. A lot of travellers from the US or Asia Google us and book a pod for when they land in London. Its good for relaxing, charging your devices and thinking what youre going to do next in the city.

Pop & Rest worked with an interior designer to create the right atmosphere for a perfect nap.

Mr Villamizar said: We used an interior designer from France who introduced soundproofed panels to make it more portable so its easier to set it up in offices and hospitals.

Thats the next step  making them easy to install and affordable.

Sleepers can choose to rely on their own alarm to wake them, or have someone knock on the door. The company is hoping to introduce sleep pods to local libraries and in shopping centres.

Pop & Rest, in Baches Street, is said to be the first nap pod business to set up a permanent base in the capital.S ix months into 2018, as the number of violent deaths in London tipped 80 amid an onslaught of stabbings, gang attacks and moped muggings, a woman confronted Mayor Sadiq Khan at a public debate.

Headlines spoke of police losing control of the streets, murder rates overtaking those of New York and almost daily reports of murder and robbery.

Even comedian Michael McIntyre had fallen victim, losing a 15,000 Rolex to moped robbers who threatened him at knifepoint on the school run.

The audience member, Hatice Kemal, 37, from Greenwich, told Mr Khan at the State of London debate, organised by radio station LBC in June: We dont feel safe any more.

Some three months on, the figures for the Mayor remain bleak. Scotland Yard has now launched more than 100 murder investigations and the number of violent offences is still rising.

Met Commissioner Cressida Dick and Sadiq Khan / PA

His manifesto in 2016 pledged he would challenge gang culture and knife crime head-on with a promise to restore neighbourhood policing and focus on tackling gangs. However, crime has risen sharply on his watch. At the height of the surge, moped bandits were committing 60 offences a day  up 50 per cent on the previous year. Meanwhile, in an average 24 hours, 15 people were stabbed and a gun fired.

Overall, crime is up by four per cent in the last 12 months, and there is a 20 per cent rise in muggings of mobile phones, though moped crime is down.

Mr Khan accepts crime is rising but points out that it is a nationwide issue and has been increasing since 2014, when Boris Johnson was in charge.

His principal case is that government cuts have slashed police numbers and led to drastically fewer officers to deal with a rising number of more complex crimes. He points out the Met has already been forced to make savings of over 700 million since 2010, and must cut a further 325 million by 2021.

The force has lost nearly 10,000 per-sonnel in recent years, he says, and there are now just 3.3 police officers per 1,000 Londoners  down in total from 33,367 in 2010 to below 30,000. The fall in the number of PCSOs (police community support officers) was even greater, down from 4,645 in 2011 to 1,384 in 2017.

In total, police spending per capita dropped 20 per cent, from 423 in 2012/13 to 337 in 2016/17.

Rick Muir, director of independent think-tank The Police Foundation, said: The Mayor has inherited the most difficult situation of any of the past three London mayors. The big crime drop which started in the Nineties has stopped and there is plenty of evidence all violent crime and acquisitive crime, such as burglary, have increased.

He is also operating in a difficult con-text with the Met having had to save 600 million. The only way police can make real savings is by reducing staff, so it is a huge challenge. I do not think he has taken any decisions which have had a negative impact. He has tried to respond and has a strategy. The reasons behind the rise in knife crime and violence are complex. There is no simplistic solution.

However, even against the financial backdrop, the Mayors critics insist he is not doing enough to combat the crisis but is finger-pointing to shift the blame onto the Government. London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon, a Liberal Democrat who sits on the police and crime committee, said: Tried and tested methods, such as using anonymised data from A&Es and ensuring every A&E department has dedicated youth workers, are just not being fully utilised, which could help tackle this increase in violence.

Gareth Bacon, leader of the Tories on the Assembly, said: The Mayor consistently points the finger at everyone else, none of it has been about taking responsibility himself. He is not doing very much to change things.

He keeps saying he is doing everything he can to maintain police officer numbers but he has a budget of 16.5 billion and he has the authority to move it around. He has increased the culture budget from 9 million to 20 million. That 10 million increase would fund an extra 182 police officers.

He adds: People elected a Mayor for London who could change things, improve the situation, and he is not doing that. He is more interested talking about Brexit than he is about paying attention to the fact that he is losing control of the streets.

Further questions over the Mayors oversight of the Met are raised by rank-and-file officers. Ken Marsh, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said: There needs to be some clear direction. We cannot keep talking about money and not having enough cops, we need some clarity about the strategic direction we should be taking.

"It seems hes doing nothing to stop moped gangs. They are becoming more audacious"

One former ally of Mr Khan is also critical. Former Met superintendent Leroy Logan said he had advised the Mayor on policing in the run-up to the election but Mr Khan was not implementing 90 per cent of what they had discussed: You cannot stop-and-search or arrest your way out of the problem, you have to have a partnership ap-proach. But as soon as he was in office he turned his back on a lot of that.

Criminologist Dr Tim Parsons, a former City of London police officer, suggested the Mayor could be more forceful in tackling crime. He said: It seems to me he is doing nothing to stop moped gangs. They are not afraid of being arrested, not afraid of being prosecuted and not afraid of going to prison.

They are becoming more audacious. I think the Mayor is complacent. He should be saying to Cressida Dick [the Met Commissioner] that your performance is not good enough, get a grip. I am not sure that sort of conversation is taking place.

Mr Khan insists he is clawing back police numbers by 1,000 in two years and has invested 140 million from council tax and business rates into supporting the Met as government funding has fallen. A 15 million violent crime taskforce of 150 officers, set up in February with money from City Hall, has carried out almost 2,000 weapons sweeps to recover more than 250 knives, 200 offensive weapons and 27 firearms.

He has also backed stop-and-search, despite opposing it in his election campaign. The number of stops has risen in the past two years having more than halved in the four years to 2013. They increased almost 20 per cent this year, up to 13,548 by June. The Met has made 166 arrests for offensive weapons.

The Mayor says he is backing a public health approach to tackling crime. A 45 million Young Londoners Fund aims to steer youths away from violence, while the Stepping Stones programme, which supports at-risk children moving from primary to secondary school, has been expanded to 15 schools. Grants of 7 million have gone to anti-youth violence projects and 1.4 million to provide youth workers in major trauma centres and hospital A&Es. Mr Khan has rolled out body-worn video cameras to every frontline police officer  the first of any force in the world to do this.

And while annual rates of crimes are still rising, police point to evidence that the increase is beginning to stabilise. The murder rate has fallen steadily since a high of 18 a month in February, while moped crime is also down.

The Mayor told the Standard: Every death as a result of violent crime is an utter tragedy leaving lives destroyed and families heartbroken. The level of violent crime in London is unacceptably high. Ive bought the police together with councils, charities, community groups and others to work on a public health approach to tackling knife crime, and have created a Young Londoners Fund to provide positive alternatives to crime and help those caught up in gangs get into employment and training.Since the spring, the social media company formerly known as Facebook has been evaluating where it advertises and how much it spends doing so, taking pitches from agencies that want to help manage its enormous marketing budget.L ondon Underground workers have been praised after they wrote a moving poem paying tribute to terminally ill newsreader Rachael Bland.

The BBC Radio 5 Live presenter, who has days to live due to incurable breast cancer, has inspired many in recent months with her You, Me and the Big C podcast.

After her diagnosis in November 2016, she has also been documenting her journey on her blog Big C Little Me.

The poem was written on a notice board at North Greenwich station, and detailed how the mother-of-one's "amazing courage" has helped others cope with life's difficulties.

It reads: We can all make a different with our time on Earth, and make the world a better place.

Rachael Bland, you have done so much for so many people, with style, humour and grace.

Even in death there is laughter to be found, you have battled cancer so bravely and with dignity.

A brilliant mum, wife and broadcaster helping others to cope, showing amazing courage in the face of adversity.

BBC newsreader, Rachael Bland, reveals she has days to live

Nothing in life is certain, only we all face a final curtain.

We are inspired by you and as your next adventure begins, please know you have changed the nations conversation with you story and inspiration.

In every cancer battle its always love that wins.

Everybody in the world needs to hear your voice and story, the podcast deserves to be number one in the charts.

Your legacy will live on and inspire so many others, and you will live on in memories and so many hearts.

Deborah James, one of Mrs Bland's co-presenters on the podcast, replied to the All on the board Twitter account thanking the Tube workers for their words.

Fellow BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Rachel Burden also tweeted an image of the notice board, along with a heart emoji. Sadiq Khan has no coherent strategy to tackle violent crime in London, a retired senior Scotland Yard officer who used to advise him claimed today.

In a scathing attack, former Metropolitan Police superintendent Leroy Logan accused the Mayor of adopting an enforcement approach and failing to properly build trust with communities.

He said: The results speak for themselves, he is failing and unfortunately there are young people dying on the street because of that.

His comments come on day two of the Evening Standards special investigation into the Mayors record in office.

The Khan Audit is examining four areas, including crime,that Londoners rated as their biggest priorities in 2016 when Mr Khan ran for office.

So far this year, more than 100 homicide investigations have been launched in London / PA

His manifesto promised to challenge gang culture and knife crime head-on, with a pledge to restore neighbourhood policing.

But figures show the number of robberies has soared by 22 per cent in the 12 months to July, while knife crime is up 12 per cent. The number of violent offences is up five per cent.

So far this year, more than 100 homicide investigations have been launched. Yesterday a 22-year-old man, named locally as Ismail Tanrikulu, was found shot dead in a Tottenham cemetery. Mr Logan, a former chairman of the Black Police Association Charitable Trust, said he had advised the Mayor on crime policy in the run-up to his election in May 2016.

He said: I made it clear to Sadiq that his agenda needed to be citizen-focused and the Met had to be accountable. I made it clear you cannot stop-and-search or arrest your way out of the problem; you have to have a partnership approach. But as soon as he was in office he turned his back on a lot of that.

Mr Logan, an adviser to the all-party Youth Violence Commission which has recommended London adopts a public health-focused model to tackle youth violence, said: There should be more community engagement, especially with young people.

He accused Mr Khan of having no real coherent strategy where you can say that everyone knows where they fit. There is just an enforcement approach. He has a strategy, but it is not getting into the wider holistic approach that you need.

Mr Logan accused the Mayor of deploying an approach that included putting fear into the minds of young people on the streets. They are already in fear and trying to scare them is not going to work.

He added: The real solution is recognising that our young people are suffering from adverse childhood experiences, they need to be supported around the trauma and the fear and the grooming process they are increasingly victims of. There are growing numbers of youngsters being groomed on a day-to-day basis.

In July, the Standard launched an investigation into what is driving violence against young people on the capitals streets. It championed a landmark report from the Youth Violence Commission which recommended that London adopts the public health model that has more than halved the murder rate in Glasgow.

Mr Logan admitted that the Mayor inherited a poisoned chalice from Boris Johnson, with crime already on the way up, especially violence and gang-related crime.

He also welcomed the Mayors recent support for the public health strategy but said he wanted to see action to implement it.

Mr Logan said: There should be more community engagement, especially with young people. The 45 million he has pledged does not go far.

Mr Khan today insisted he did have a holistic approach to violent crime and highlighted his creation of a dedicated Violent Crime Taskforce, with more than 150 officers focused solely on the issue.

He added: Ive brought the police together with local councils, charities, community groups and others to work on a public health approach to tackling knife crime.B ritain must delay quitting the EU next March if Theresa Mays attempts to get a Brexit trade deal are shot down, one of the capitals leading business chiefs urged today.

Paul Drechsler, the new chairman of London First, said the Prime Ministers Chequers proposals were currently the only plan in town and stressed that time has run out as the Government struggles to secure the best deal.

He dismissed rival concepts, including crashing out of the EU with no deal, as rich in ideology but very low in fact, in evidence, in substance.

Mrs Mays Brexit blueprint has been blasted by Tory Right-wingers, by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and by centrist Conservative MPs seeking a compromise solution.

Mr Drechsler told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: All of the evidence, all of the facts point to the importance of a customs union and single market benefits for businesses.

Thousands of anti-Brexit activists march to Parliament in protest 1 /12 Thousands of anti-Brexit activists march to Parliament in protest Demonstrators head towards Parliament Square. REUTERS Signs include 'I love EU' REUTERS The pro-EU march began in Hyde Park Corner. Si Carrington 'NHS? Brexit Wrexit' Oliver Day The march took protesters through the streets of London. Oliver Day One protester brought along a papier mache Queen, in reference to the blue and yellow hat she wore at the State Opening of Parliament. Peter Bailey 'Exit Brexit' Jonathan Hawley The September sun shone as activists marched through the streets. Martin Tod Roads were blocked during the protest. Maggie Jones The campaigners set off shortly after 11am from Hyde Park Corner. Maggie Jones The rally saw the activists march through the streets of central London. Johann Ketel EU colours of blue and yellow were seen throughout the march. Judi Conner

Therefore if we cannot achieve a secure deal through Chequers, the only alternative is to extend the period of negotiation until politicians in this country figure out what is in the best interest of this country in the short, medium and long term.

Mr Drechsler, former president of the CBI who now represents more than 200 businesses, added: The Chequers plan is ... the only plan that provides a basis for a solution to a challenge that has been debated for two years ... Time has run out. We need to get on, close these negotiations.

Mrs May appears to be relying on Tory MPs to back Chequers on the basis that they could not agree on any other solution. However, the Government could have to make further concessions to Brussels on the proposals, which would keep close ties with the EU on goods but allow the UK more freedom on services.

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis says: The Chequers proposal is almost worse than staying in"

Tory MP Richard Graham, who sits on the Commons Brexit committee and met Mr Barnier yesterday, said: Barnier saw the Brexit White Paper like a curates egg: good in parts. But the bits Barnier said were out of the question  eg separating trade and services  are important.

The White Papers separation of trade and services is the most difficult element, and customs issues the second. But its too early in my opinion to say the talks are doomed, not least because much of the detail on trade comes post-March.C ampaigners have descended on Labour headquarters as the party's leading body meets for crunch talks on anti-Semitism.

The party incorporated the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism into its code of conduct in July. However it omitted four examples.

Outside the party's headquarters, rival groups of protestors were seen on opposite sides of the entrance to the building.

They used megaphones to shout their messages. A chant of "Jeremy Corbyn out" was drowned out as those loyal to the Labour leader sung their familiar "oh Jeremy Corbyn" refrain.

Protests at the National Executive of the Labour Party - In pictures 1 /13 Protests at the National Executive of the Labour Party - In pictures Demonstrators take part in protests outside a meeting of the National Executive of the Labour Party PA Pete Willsman (C) who was re-elected to the Labour Party National Executive Committee arrives at the Labour Party headquarters in London EPA A demonstrator takes part in protests outside a meeting of the National Executive of the Labour Party Reuters Demonstrators take part in protests outside a meeting of the National Executive of the Labour Party Getty Images Dame Margaret Beckett at a meeting of the Labour National Executive Committee in London which is expected to decide on whether to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and its examples, which has been the subject of a bitter row within the party over recent months PA Demonstrators take part in protests outside a meeting of the National Executive of the Labour Party Getty Images Demonstrators take part in protests outside a meeting of the National Executive of the Labour Party Reuters Demonstrators take part in protests outside a meeting of the National Executive of the Labour Party Reuters Demonstrators take part in protests outside a meeting of the National Executive of the Labour Party Getty Images Demonstrators hold placards as they protest outside the headquarters of the Labour party AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators hold placards as they protest outside the headquarters of the Labour party AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators hold placards as they protest outside the headquarters of the Labour party AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators hold placards as they protest outside the headquarters of the Labour party AFP/Getty Images

Placards waved by members of groups including Jewish Voice for Labour and Momentum highlighted the plight of the Palestinians.

Some critics of the IHRA definition claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli government' actions against Palestinians.

A small group of police officers kept a watchful eye on the protests, keeping the rival groups apart.

It comes amid fury at the re-election to the party's National Executive Committee of Peter Willsman, a controversial activist who called some of the Jewish community "Trump fanatics" and accused them of making up allegations of anti-Semitism.

Peter Willsman arrives at Labour Party headquarters / EPA

Mr Willsman was cheered by supporters as he arrived at Labour HQ but opponents shouted "shame on you".

He also ignored questions about his previous comments about Jews.

When asked about Mr Willsman's re-election to the NEC,Chris Williamson said the activist's remarks about Jewish "Trump fanatics" had been "misrepresented".

"I think his comments have been misrepresented. We heard a snippet of a longer conversation, obviously.

Demonstrators take part in protests outside a meeting of the National Executive of Britains Labour Party / Getty Images

"I don't believe that that's his view.

"The Jewish community is not a homogeneous group, there are a range of different opinions."

He said many Jewish Labour members were "here to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people" and their concerns with the IHRA examples.

The Labour Party is set to decide today on whether to adopt the full definition of anti-Semitism.T he Labour Party has agreed to adopt in full an international definition of anti-Semitism following crunch talks.

The party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) met on Tuesday to discuss how to defuse a row that has simmered for months, as rival groups took part in noisy protests outside Labour's HQ.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-semitism was incorporated into Labour's code of conduct two months ago.

However the party stopped short, omitting four examples of anti-semitic behaviour in the definition from its code of conduct for party members. The party will now incorporate all 11 examples.

Campaigners descend on Labour HQ

But Labour has been criticised after stipulating that it would also publish a statement aimed at protecting free speech.

The Jewish Leadership Council responded to the decision on Tuesday evening.

Chief executive Simon Johnson said: "It has now become absolutely clear that the leader of the party attempted shamefully to undermine the entire IHRA definition.

"The 'free speech caveat' drives a coach and horses through the IHRA definition. It will do nothing to stop anti-Semitism in the party.

"Now that the NEC has undermined the definition, it is clearly more important to the Labour leader to protect the free speech of those who hate Israel than it is to protect the Jewish community from the real threats that it faces."

Critics of the IHRA approach have claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli government's actions against Palestinians.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "The NEC has today adopted all of the IHRA examples of anti-Semitism, in addition to the IHRA definition which Labour adopted in 2016, alongside a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

"The NEC welcomed Jeremy Corbyn's statement to the meeting about action against anti-Semitism, solidarity with the Jewish community and protection of Palestinian rights, as an important contribution to the consultation on Labour's Code of Conduct."

Shadow Cabinet minister and NEC member Rebecca Long-Bailey described the move as "a small step in the right direction".

She said: "We have lost faith within the Jewish community, and we know that, and it hurts pretty much all of our Labour membership to know that we are in that state of affairs at the moment.

"So, this is a first step forward but we have a number of bridges to build.

"We are going to work quite collectively with Jewish community groups now to make sure that the detail in our code of conduct really is the gold standard and we have an educational programme that rivals any other political party in the world."

Campaign group Labour Against Anti-Semitism said: "We are disappointed by the decision of Labour's governing body, the NEC, to diminish the IHRA working definition of Anti-Semitism via the attachment of a 'clarification' that risks giving racists in the party a get out of jail card.

"The NEC has been told repeatedly that it needs to adopt the IHRA in full, without caveats or conditions, if it wants the Labour Party to begin the process of dealing with its anti-Semitism crisis.A leaked internal dossier detailing 45 allegations of anti-Semitism against Labour party members will be examined by Scotland Yard, Commissioner Cressida Dick said today.

The Met chief pledged to pass on the files  said to include vile messages such as We shall rid the Jews who are cancer on us all  to detectives to investigate whether they constitute possible hate crimes.

Among other messages in the leaked file is a serving councillor who is alleged to have used the term Jew boy on a child, and one member saying Zionist extremist MPs were about to get a good kicking.

It is believed the cases against unnamed party members and councillors are being handled by Labours internal disciplinary committee.

Activists outside a meeting of the Labour National Executive Committee in London / PA

Ms Dick told radio station LBC: We will scope it, we will see whether a crime has taken place. I, of course, will pass this to my experts to look at.

The pledge came as party bosses met to discuss new measures to tackle the crisis , which has gripped the party throughout the summer. The dossier was leaked to LBC, which had it reviewed by Mak Chishty, who was in charge of dealing with hate crime for the Metropolitan police until last year. He found at least 17 of the 45 incidences should have been reported to the police as a race-hate incident for investigation.

It came as Jeremy Corbyn faced a day of intense wrangling with his party over the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.

Ms Dick said: Hate crime is something we take very, very seriously.

Simon Johnson, of the Jewish Leadership Council, said: If so many of these cases are serious enough to be referred to the police and yet Labour is dragging their heels in dealing with them, then that clearly contributes to the complete lack of confidence that the Jewish community has.

If Jeremy Corbyn was a competent leader of the Labour Party, he would have already dealt with these cases of anti-Semitism months ago. He would have rid this party of the stain that now affects them.

Mr Corbyns reluctance to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism in full, and instead develop their own working-definition of anti-Semitic behaviour, led to a summer of bitter party infighting.

Today he was set to ask the National Executive Committee, which is meeting at the partys Victoria Street headquarters, to adopt the IHRA defintion of anti-Semitism - and add a free speech caveat to protect those who criticise the Israeli state.

However Jewish leaders and Labour MPs have said they will not back his compromise, describing it as pouring fuel on the fire and a nit-picking.

Demonstrators also descended on the partys headquarters in Central London today as partys disciplinary panel began a series of hearings into members accused of anti-Semitic conduct.

A dozen pro-Israel supporters lead Chants of Oh, Corbyns a racist and Labour fascists off our streets as Corbyn supporters gave speeches against an Israeli apartheid.

A Jewish Corbyn supporter Salma James, 88, said: I am convinced that the anti-semitism charges are bogus.

Stephen Kinnock MP told the Radio 4 Today programme warned that the free speech addition Mr Corbyn is insisting on will lead to problems.

He said: I personally do not think this is the time to put in conditions and qualifications.

Its pouring more fuel on the fire. I think the fire is still burning.

Jim Fitzpatrick MP said the freedom of speech addition - which is what the Home Affairs Select Committee use - was not needed and unless it is dropped by the leadership several Labour MPs will continue to seriously weigh up their future with the party.

I dont see why we need a caveat. Criticism of Israel has clearly been articulated by other organisations who accepted the definition as it stands. I have no idea why Jeremy is so fixated on wanting to qualify the definition, he said.

A Labour source said that the issue would be resolved at the meeting today and no-one wanted the row over how Labour handles anti-Semitism within the party to drag on into party conference in Liverpool which starts on September 23.

The most likely outcome is adopting the IHRA and all of its examples and having a freedom of speech protection clarification along the lines of what the Home Affairs Select Committee adopted, the source said.

Tomorrow MPs are due to vote on adopting the IHRA definition without any amendments at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Mr Fitzpatrick said he expects at least 110 MPs to go against the leadership in that vote unless he drops his freedom of speech addition.T heresa Mays Brexit plans remain under sustained attack from both wings of the Conservative party as the Commons resumes after summer recess.

The Prime Ministers Chequers proposals have been rejected by Brussels and savaged by former foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

And Tory Europhiles also have major reservations about the plan, which are being discussed by the EUs chief negotiator Michael Barnier and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab.

It comes as the Commons resumes with the pace of Brexit talks in Brussels intensifying in the hope of achieving a deal this autumn.

But Conservative divisions have deepened, with Mr Johnson and Mrs May's Downing Street engaged in a bitter war of words over the approach to Brexit.

Boris Johnson savaged the plans / AFP/Getty Images

In a barely veiled rebuff to Mr Johnson's ambitions to become prime minister, Mrs May's official spokesman said the country needed "serious leadership with a serious plan" which was being provided by the current premier.

The comments came after Mr Johnson used his regular Daily Telegraph column to launch a scathing attack on Mrs May's Brexit strategy, branding it a "fix" that can only lead to victory for the EU.

Opposition to the Chequers plan - which would involve a complicated facilitated customs arrangement with the EU and a "common rulebook" for goods - has also come from Remain-supporting Tories.

Heidi Allen acknowledged some of her fellow pro-EU Conservatives viewed Chequers as a "complete non-starter" but others, like her, were prepared to give it a "little bit longer".

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier rejected Mrs May's Chequers plan / AFP/Getty Images

She told the BBC's Newsnight: "The only way any of us are going to come through this is with a little bit of compromise on both sides.

"Nobody is going to get exactly what they want but you have to start somewhere."

Asked what she would do if Mr Johnson succeeded in ousting Mrs May, she said: "If Boris was leader I doubt very much that I would be in the Conservative Party and there are a lot of my fellow colleagues who feel the same."

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis says: The Chequers proposal is almost worse than staying in"

Former party leader Lord Hague used his own Daily Telegraph column to warn Tories their civil war could result in the collapse of the Government and either a second referendum or a general election - and the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.

"Some say May's plan is too much of a compromise, a small number that it isn't enough of one, and still others now advocate a different compromise altogether," he said.

Theresa May's plans are under fire / EPA

"The likely result is so obvious it hardly needs stating, which is that the entire idea is put at risk, and all of them will lose out in the end.

"It is thus quite possible that a year from now, we could be contemplating why we are still in the EU after all, or why we left it with maximum damage all round with minimum notice, or how we came to have an even weaker minority government, or how a Marxist despised by his own MPs ended up as Prime Minister."

MPs from the Commons Exiting the EU Committee were in Brussels yesterday for talks with Mr Barnier, who made clear his objections to the Chequers plan on customs and the common rulebook.

Dominic Raab: Government ready to deliver no-deal Brexit

Committee chairman Hilary Benn told Newsnight the customs plan was "not a runner and nor is the common rulebook".

Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the influential European Research Group of Conservatives, told the programme he wanted to see a Canada-style trade deal.

"The issue is, for the 40 billion we are paying, is there an agreement that can be done that polices the [Irish] border remotely from the border?" he said.

The cross-party panel will question the Brexit Department's senior mandarin Philip Rycroft on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile the pro-EU Best for Britain campaign group is launching a new 200,000 push for a second referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal.

The prospect of a Tory leadership election has seen Leave.EU founder Arron Banks - a former Ukip donor - pushing for Brexiteers to join the party to have a say over Mrs May's replacement.

But his own efforts to join - along with spin doctor Andy Wigmore - met resistance from Tory HQ.A Government source today sheds light on inaccuracies and the parts of the smash hit BBC drama Bodyguard that the show's producers have nailed to perfection.

The woman, with many years of first-hand experience working to support ministers, reveals her insights on the popular series starring Keeley Hawes as Home Secretary which has drawn in as many as 7 million viewers.

The first three episodes have seen the Home Secretary survive a shooting and a bombing and have boasted racy scenes with Game of Thrones actor Richard Madden.

Madden stars as personal protection officer David Budd, who is assigned to protect Home Secretary Julia Montague after a stint working as an army soldier.

The first three episodes show the ex-military officer devoting himself to keeping Montague safe while harbouring a bitterness for the Government and its part in war.

(BBC/World Productions/Sophie Mutevelian) / BBC

The father-of-two is torn between his dedication to his job and his anger towards what the Home Secretary stands for, something which could ultimately lead him to kill her.

Whether it be for the nail-biting action scenes or the shows more raunchy moments, record numbers have been tuning in to watch the latest BBC drama.

Now, as the gripping series continues to fill a gap in the lives of Line of Duty fans, a Government source has spoken to the Evening Standard about how accurate the show really is.

From the top-secret meetings to jargon muttered by Budd into his microphone, here are the elements of the show that creator Jed Mercurio got right, and some that are slightly off the mark.

Jargon and terminology

Skipper, its just come up on the box, an IED took out a MASTS team and an ARV in Camberwell, a female officer tells David Budd in his earpiece after an edge-of-your-sofa moment in episode two.

Tense moments like this in the show are packed full of security jargon passed back-and-forth between officers, with the code name Lavender being used to refer to the Home Secretary.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, the Government source said they must have had a good consultant helping with the language.

The show uses accurate abbreviations such as JTAC for the Joint Terrorism Command Centre, something that consultants may have had to point scriptwriters in the right direction about.

She also points out the use of term DG or Director General, saying civil servants would use extended abbreviations depending on department, for example DGCT for the Director General of Counter-terrorism.

High-level security meetings

A number of scenes take place in the shows version of the Home Office in the first few episodes, with some top-secret meetings being held in glass offices as Budd watches from afar.

A security adviser has said the depictions of the police operation surround the Home Secretary in Bodyguard are extremely accurate (BBC/World Productions/Sophie Mutevelian) / BBC

However, the Government source says high-level meetings between police and security services would never take place in a glass-walled office like the one in the show.

Confidential meetings taking place between the head of Counter Terrorism and the Director-General of the Security Service would be a lot more covert, she suggests.

The Home Secretarys red box

The Home Secretary is often seen stepping out of her shiny chauffeur-driven car or leaving her office while firmly grasping her governmental red box.

The boxes, produced by Barrow Hepburn & Gale, are used by ministers in the British Government to carry official papers from place to place.

Although a seemingly accurate red box is featured in the programme, the source suggests ministers would never carry their own box, instead delegating this duty to a private secretary.

Women in high profile roles

The show boasts a number of women in top roles, with Line of Dutys Gina McKee starring as Anne Sampson, commander of Metropolitan Polices Counter-Terrorism Branch.

Line of Dutys Gina McKee starring as Anne Sampson (BBC/World Productions/Sophie Mutevelian) / BBC

In recent years, this has been an accurate reflection of Government meetings, the source suggests.

[Its] great to see so many top positions filled by women - this has happened in the past, she said.

Within the last decade at the Home Office, there was at one time a female Home Secretary, Permanent Secretary, and several female private secretaries and director generals.

Home Secretary's Special Adviser (SpAd)

The Home Secretary's Special Adviser, or SpAd is played by actor Paul Ready. His character has a crush on his boss but is slimy and insincere. Our source says his portrayal of a SpAd is "pretty accurate" but that he doesn't "shout or swear" nearly enough.

Paul Ready also played Kevin in the hit sitcom Motherland.

On the show's depictions of security matters, a spokesman for the BBC said the creators consulted with a number of advisors to ensure the show would be as accurate as possible.

Former police chief David Zinzan is one of the consultants, who has 30 years of experience with Scotland Yard.T he Duke and Duchess of Sussex are set to attend the Wellchild awards, celebrating courage shown by seriously ill children.

The couple will join children, parents, carers and celebrity supporters at the ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in central London.

Prince Harry has been a patron of Wellchild for over 10 years and will present an award during the ceremony and also deliver a speech.

It will be Meghan's first time at the event which celebrates the inspiring qualities of some of the country's seriously ill young people and those who care for them.

Royal couple: Meghan and Harry pictured at a charity performance of Hamilton / PA

Before the awards, the couple will attend a pre-ceremony reception and meet the winners of each award category and their families.

Winners this year include seven-year-old Matilda Booth, from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire, who has spina bifida, is paralysed from the chest down and has had more more than 40 operations.

She has been praised for her "great zest for life" and her "courage, strength and determination".

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend Nelson Mandela exhibition 1 /11 Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend Nelson Mandela exhibition AP Reuters AP REUTERS PA REUTERS PA AP AP AP

Mckenzie Brackley, from Fife, has also been hailed as inspirational.

The four-year-old, who had to learn to speak, swallow, eat and drink and move again due to acute flaccid paralysis, was praised for being there for other children when they are scared or sad.

"Despite his own problems Mckenzie cheers up everyone when they are low, and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face", WellChild said.L abour's ruling body is set to decide on whether the party will fully adopt the international definition of anti-Semitism.

The party incorporated the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism into its code of conduct in July. However it omitted four examples.

Critics of the IHRA definition claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli government's actions against Palestinians.

Jeremy Corbyn has said that there is no place for prejudice within the Labour party.

Campaign: protesters at Labours headquarters in London in April / AFP/Getty Images

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell was the most senior Labour figure to call for the party to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.

He acknowledged the party should have moved more quickly to resolve a row which has dominated headlines over the summer and sparked warnings of a deep rift with Britain's Jewish community.

On Sunday, former prime minister Gordon Brown said during a speech that Labour must adopt the guidelines and all of the examples.

A convoy of three billboard advertising vans with an anti-semitism message for Jeremy Corbyn drive around Westminster / PA

Splits within Labour were further exposed by the re-election to the party's National Executive Committee of Peter Willsman, a controversial activist who called some members of the Jewish community "Trump fanatics" and accused them of making up allegations of anti-Semitism.

Amanda Bowman, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Mr Willsman's election following his "reprehensible comments" was "deeply concerning".

Gordon Brown said the party must adopt the full definition (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) / Getty Images

She said the NEC must adopt the full IHRA definition and all its examples "and then begin taking firm disciplinary action against all those who commit anti-Semitic acts and bring the party into disrepute by denying the problem".

Mr Willsman said his job on the NEC was to support his "friend for 41 years" Mr Corbyn - who he called "Jerry".

He said critics were trying to undermine the Labour leader and "some MPs, elected by Labour voters, seem willing to help the rich and powerful".S hoppers have told of their disdain at spotting Christmas products in supermarkets 16 weeks ahead of the big day.

Mince pies, chocolate bunnies and wrapping paper have been seen in shops across the UK, from the south of England in Devon up to Scotland.

Retailers are getting prepared early, with 112 days until December 25. Supermarkets including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsburys and Poundland have all begun their festive ranges.

Many have expressed disdain at the early arrival of festive items highlighting that its not even Halloween yet or stating it was simply too early.

One person who said they worked at Tesco said they were getting some Christmas promotions in now and told a friend that he would be sick of Christmas by the time it came around.

When they said they were excited for the holiday he said: You may change your tune if you had to do a 12 hour shift with the same 10 Christmas songs on a continuous never ending loop!

Councillor Ken Gowans, of Inverness South, shared an image of foil covered chocolate Christmas bunnies and Father Christmases on Twitter and said: Really Tesco, seriously, really!?

A reply stated some customers like to stock up early and the store was facilitating this.

Mr Gowans then said: There is early, and there is ludicrously early. So by your logic the Halloween merchandise should have appeared in June and Easter stuff will be on sale in January.

Speaking to the Standard, he said: "Tesco is a business , I get that. But there comes a point when the customer experience seems secondary. Amidst the unbridled commercialism, there is no consumer respite. One festival morphs into another. Its silly."

As well as festive produce some decorations have also been seen already in place.

A large decorated Christmas tree was seen outside a Tesco store in Cambridge on August 29.

However, it has been taken down and was said only to be up for the purposes of filming an advert.

A spokesperson replying to a complainant on social media said: The Christmas tree that was seen in our Cambridge stores car park was being used to film a Christmas advert and has since been taken down. Sorry for any confusion or upset this has caused.

Though some were irritated by the pre-emptive Christmas stock a few people have reacted positively.

A shopper in Bradford said a Morrisons store near them had already set up a Christmas tree on Monday.

They wrote: Bring it on... lights, tinsel, baubles, glitter, fairy dust and that wonderful thing called Christmas spirit,

However, this was only temporarily in place for a few hours with a store spokesperson explaining it was set up to help review what Christmas will look like in stores.

Another positive comment on Twitter said: Tesco already has a Christmas aisle. And yes I've already bought chocolate from it.

The Standard contacted the stores mentioned which are stocking Christmas produce.

A spokesperson for Marks & Spencer said: Some of our customers like to spread the cost of Christmas and start buying early, so we do have a small selection of products available for them now.

A spokesperson for Sainsbury's gave a similar response.

They said: We start to stock some festive products in advance of the main Christmas period. This is because some customers like to buy gifts and longer life food early, to be more organised and help spread the cost.

While a Poundland spokesperson detailed that the stock it is selling, it had Christmas pudding in a London store, is from last Christmas.

They said: This is last year's stock that the store is selling through to make room for our new Christmas ranges that arrive later.T he TSB boss who oversaw one of the worst IT meltdowns in high street banking history has walked away from the company with a 1.7 million payoff.

Paul Pester quit as chief executive today after seven years with the Spanish owned lender.

The 54 year old takes with him a years salary and benefits totalling 1.2 million and a further 480,000 award due to him as a result of his work with the bank before it was taken over by Alicante-based Banco de Sabadell in 2015.

Mr Pesters payoff is likely to anger customers and shareholders as TSBs accounts state that severance payments are paid in line with the principle of no rewards for failure.

His departure comes five months after the TSB was plunged into chaos by a botched migration of customers accounts from systems inherited from the banks previous owner, Lloyds Banking Group, to one operated by Sabadell.

It led to almost two million customers being locked out of their accounts and weeks of struggle to regain control of the situation.

Failing IT systems continued to haunt TSB over the weekend and into yesterday with customers blocked from their online and mobile accounts.

TSB said in July that the debacle had already cost it 176 million with only a third of the 135,403 complaints it received yet resolved. The bill pushed TSB 107.4 million into the red in the first half of the year.

A TSB spokesman said: He is being paid in line with his contract and in line with the banks remuneration policies that comes to an amount of around 1.2 million of fixed compensation for his notice period.N ASA's Hubble Telescope has captured impressive images of Saturn's dazzling aurora.

Astronomers using the ESA Hubble Space telescope took a series of shots using ultraviolet light, resulting in composites that show a wider range of light than humans can see with the naked eye.

NASA described them as "the most comprehensive picture so far of Saturns Aurora Borealis".

The images were taken last year over a period of seven months, as the Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph allowed scientists to monitor the behaviour of the auroras for an extended period.

These were combined with images shot by the Cassini spacecraft, as it simultaneously probed the planet's north pole region, collecting more data so scientists could understand its magnetosphere.

The images combine shots taken in early 2018 with ultra-violet readings of the Aurorae in 2017 to demonstrate the size of the phenomenon.

Aurorae are caused by solar winds - electronically-charged particles spraying out across the solar system - which interact with a planet's magnetic field, deflecting most of them but trapping some in the magnetosphere, where they are forced to follow the lines of our magnetic field and ionise oxygen and nitrogen atoms.

Depending on which elements are being ionised, and how many, this changes the brightness and colour of the aurora.

Saturn's southern Aurora, pictured in a composite from 2004-05. / NASA/ ESA/J Clarke, (Boston University) and Z Levay (STScI)

NASA said: "Other planets in our solar system have been found to have similar auroras (to earth). Among them are the four gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

"Because the atmosphere of each of the four outer planets in the solar system is unlike the Earth dominated by hydrogen, Saturns auroras can most easily be seen in ultraviolet wavelengths - a part of the electromagnetic spectrum which can only be studied from space."

A day on Saturn only lasts eleven hours, so the variability of its aurorae is influenced by both the solar winds, and its rapid rotation.T he heartbroken daughter of a British woman who died in a banana boat accident in Egypt has paid tribute to her loving mother.

Janice Bowles, 58, died in front of her daughter after she was flipped from the boat and left trapped underneath, according to the Sun.

Ms Bowles had been staying at the same resort as a British couple who died of a mystery illness just a week earlier.

Her daughter Annmarie Cox has said she is broken inside and that the tragic incident on August 28 was a devastating shock for the family.

In a heartbreaking post on social media, Ms Cox wrote: It is with the heaviest heart that I am having to write this status.

She had been staying in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada (file photo) / AFP/Getty Images

Unfortunately whilst my mum Janice Bowles was on holiday in Egypt, there was an accident and she sadly passed away.

I am broken inside and dont know how to get my head around it. It is such a devastating shock to the whole family.

She was the funniest, kindest, most loving mother I know and if I can aspire to be half the woman she is I know Ill do my girls proud.

Ms Bowles, from Bristol, was on a Thomas Cook holiday in the beach resort town of Hurgahada before her death.

The incident occurred just a week after the death of Susan and John Cooper during a stay at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada.

Susan Cooper, 64, and her husband John Cooper, 69, who have both died during a holiday in Egypt

The couple were also on a Thomas Cook holiday.

On the latest incident, a spokesperson for Thomas Cook told the Standard: "We can confirm that one of our customers sadly died last week while on an excursion in Egypt.

"We would like to offer our sincere condolences to the family and our welfare team to continue to do all they can to support them at this time.F acebook, WhatsApp and Instagram have gone down for users all over the world.

Many reported issues with the social networking and messaging apps on Monday night.

The hashtags #Facebookdown and #Instagramdown both became worldwide trends on Twitter amid the reported outages.

Social media users also flooded Twitter with posts to complain that they could not access the other social websites.

One wrote: Facebook and Instagram off the air, glad I have Twitter.

Another wrote: "Hang on, Facebook Instagram and WhatsApp are all down." Another said: #Facebookdown It's down. Instagram appears to be down too.

And another wrote: Instagram is down - everyone goes to twitter. Facebook is down - everyone goes to Twitter."

A message shown to users trying to access Facebook read: "Facebook is down for required maintenance right now, but you should be able to get back on within a few minute."

People were still struggling to access the site at 10.30pm (UK time).

Instagram's website displayed a similar message for some users.D onald Trump today warned Syria that they risk making a grave humanitarian mistake if they attack the last rebel stronghold in the Idlib province.

Mr Trump spoke out amid fears that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is colluding with his Russian and Iranian allies to use chemical weapons on the retreating rebels.

In a tweet, he warned that hundreds of thousands of people could be killed if the Syrians recklessly attack the northern province where about 30,000 jihadist fighters are holding out.

He wrote: The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Dont let that happen!

According to US defence officials, the Syrians have moved armed helicopters closer to Idlib in recent weeks. There is growing concern they may be used to launch another chemical attack in conjunction with more conventional warfare to break the last remaining pocket of rebel resistance.

With the prospect of civilians being caught in the crossfire, as happened in other parts of Syria such as Aleppo, the UN is also calling for restraint.

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley tweeted yesterday: All eyes on the actions of Assad, Russia, and Iran in Idlib. #NoChemicalWeapons.

The Trump administration is said to be ready to respond very quickly if chemicals are used against the remaining al Nusra and al Qaeda fighters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed terrorists in Idlib must be wiped out and has alleged that rebels are plotting to stage a chemical attack in the province and blame government forces in a bid to draw America into the conflict.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump also took aim at a more familiar target with a new dig at his Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Mr Trump appeared to suggest that Mr Sessions had put the Republican Partys success in Novembers mid-term elections in jeopardy by bringing corruption charges against two congressmen.

Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department, he wrote, adding: Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff

The Justice Department is supposed to work independently from the White House and of any political affiliations.

Although Mr Trump did not name the congressman, he was reportedly referring to the first two Republicans to endorse him in the party primaries who have both found themselves in legal trouble recently.E d Westwick has reportedly split from girlfriend Jessica Serfaty just a few weeks after rape charges against him were dropped.

The former Gossip Girl actor is thought to be taking some time apart from the 27-year-old model as they focus on their own lives and projects.

Ed did not dump Jess, I think they still love each other  theyre just taking time apart to work on themselves and their careers, a source told The Sun.

The pair had been living together in Los Angeles, but Serfaty  who has a 10-year-old son  has reportedly moved out to her own apartment.

They had a flat together and remodelled and furnished it, but she is now living in her own apartment elsewhere, said the source.

They still talk, but Jess has booked a film and has been spending a lot of time away shooting recently.

Westwick and Serfaty had been dating since May 2017 and would regularly share loved-up pictures of each other on their social media accounts.

Serfaty even stood by the British actor when he was accused of rape and sexual assault by two women in November last year, claims which he has vehemently denied.

In July, prosecutors said that they were not able to pursue the charges due to a lack of evidence and dropped the charges.

Serfaty supported Westwick on Instagram, writing: Very happy for this man. After everything, justice was served.I ts officially the end of days for one of the most beloved of games consoles: the PlayStation 2.

This week, Sony Japan revealed it would no longer be repairing the devices, offering customers a final chance to have their PlayStation 2 fixed one more time.

The console, launched in 2000, is still the best-selling games console of all time, with Sony selling more than 155 million units around the world.

Back in 2012, Sony announced it would end production of the console, to make way for its next-generation devices like the PS4.

Despite ending production, for the past six years Japanese fans of the PS2 have been able to get their devices fixed by the company that made them. Alas, that is no more.

Nostalgia tech is big business now. Despite the variety of consoles and new gadgets around, there is something about the original devices that people still love and are willing to pay for.

According to research by eBay, searches for Sega increased 30 per cent this year, following the 30th birthday of the Sega Mega Drive. The ecommerce platform also said it is seeing high demand for Sony Walkmans, as well as Nokia 3310 phones, with someone searching for the OG mobile phone every three minutes on eBay UK.

Rob Hattrell, VP at eBay UK, said: Our trends report shows that customers love retro tech and physical media. Households with previously loved tech hidden away in attics and drawers could be sitting on a tidy sum, as were seeing the growth of nostalgic buyers seeking the tech products that defined their childhoods.

In the gaming world too, companies like Sony are playing into the nostalgia factor. Last year saw the remastered release of Crash Bandicoot whilst gamers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spyro: Remastered. An upgraded version of the purple dragon was set to launch on 21 September, though this has been pushed back to November now.

But, dont worry, the end of the PS2 doesnt mean the end of PS2 games. If you own a PlayStation 4, you can play your old favourites on your newer console with Sonys PlayStation Now game streaming service.

The first wave of PS2 titles include the likes of Ape Escape 2 and Limbo, though Sony says it will continue to update the library.The Fox Rivers dams were once a source of power for nearby communities, but that is no longer the case for most of the 13 dams on the river. Low-head dams, in particular, cause strong recirculating currents and have led to multiple drownings over the years. And the dams have disrupted the rivers ecosystem, causing excess algae and other environmental issues, experts say.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The group will depart St. Blase Church about 9:30 a.m. and should arrive at the shrine about 4 p.m. The group will stop for breaks in Riverdale and Munster, Ind. Along the way the pilgrims will travel through 21 communities.Ana Birchall, Deputy Prime Minister for implementation of the strategic partnerships met on Tuesday with Khalaf Khalafov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the two officials emphasising the desire to develop the strategic partnership between the two countries, especially along the economic dimension.

"I had a very good meeting today with Mr. Khalaf Khalafov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. I have underscored the excellent level of the bilateral relations Romania-Azerbaijan, in the context of our countries' strategic partnership. I have underlined that for our country, Azerbaijan is a valuable strategic partner, Romania being among one of the first states to have recognized Azerbaijan's independence and the first EU member state to have signed a Strategic Partnership Declaration with Baku," Ana Birchall wrote on Facebook.

She specified that in 2018 both Romania and Azerbaijan celebrate the centennial of important historical events."We discussed common interest topics during the meeting, with a focus on both sides' desire to develop the strategic partnership. especially the economic dimension. We have also highlighted the importance of convening, throughout 2018, the fifth session of the Mixed Intergovernmental Commission on economic and scientific-technical cooperation Romania-the Republic of Azerbaijan," Ana Birchall further showed.Bucharest General Mayor Gabriela Firea said on Tuesday, upon leaving the General Prosecutor's Office, that attempts were made to scapegoat the Prefect in connection with August 10 violence, but the investigation will reveal the truth.

"I think attempts were made to scapegoat the Prefect, but the investigation will reveal - I am subjective at this point - that there is nothing to blame her for, the more so as, as far as we know, there was no way for Mrs. Prefect to have access to classified military intelligence and military orders. Since she had been just freshly appointed to the position, three weeks before, she didn't even have the permit from the National Registry Office for Classified Information (ORNISS) to access to such information; Mrs. Cliseru had taken over as Prefect only on July 5. Therefore, she did nothing else but countersign the order, according to the law, at the request of the Gendarmerie representative who was there, in the intelligence management room near Victoriei Square, not write the order which had already been put down by the representative of the Gendarmerie, because these are the requirements of the law," said the City Mayor.

Mayor Firea added that she had no knowledge from official sources about violence breaking out at the August 10 rally.In that telling, Krueger said he knocked on the door of the purported sellers home and was approached by a man who identified himself as Eric. After they shook hands, Eric produced a backpack with a computer inside and told him to make sure it was in good condition. As he was inspecting the computer, another man put a gun to his back and began to rob him, according to the officers account.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), through the Minister-delegate for European Affairs, launched on Tuesday the second stage of the "Volunteers of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union" programme.

The action will take place September 16 through December 31 and it aims at involving 40 volunteers, MAE specifies.

Citizens interested in taking part in a volunteering internship within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the context of the preparation and exercise of Romania's presidency of the EU Council, can submit their registration file through the online application on the presentation site of the preparations for the taking on of the mandate - www.romania2019.eu."We wish for the project of Romania's presidency of the EU Council to have an impact at the level of the whole society, so that each and every Romanian can feel that this project belongs to them. The volunteering programme allows those selected to contribute with their ideas and projects in successfully achieving this important moment for Romania," the Minister-delegate for European Affairs, Victor Negrescu said, as quoted in the press release.The pilot programme "Volunteers of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union" took place from April 1 to June 30, in which 38 volunteers took part, selected from over 200 applicants, aged between 18 and 40.Apart from the current activities, they were actively involved in organizing and conducting the events from the cycle of "Citizen consultations concerning the future of the European Union", as well as other informing actions dedicated to Romania's presidency of the EU Council, organized under the aegis of the "European Dialogues" campaign, MAE specifies.The gov't demands the declassification of the Tuesday's shorthand talks of the Romania's Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAT) reunion, the Public Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said.

"To be very convincing and clear in front of the public opinion, I believe it is mandatory and of common sense to demand for the CSAT reunion's talks to be declassified so as to see very clearly which was the point of view for each and every structure member of the CSAT," Eugen Teodorovici stressed.

The gov't has the obligation to demand but not to wait for a CSAT's opinion, Teodorovici added. He maintained that the suspension of the CSAT reunion has no legal grounds.Lapa describes herself as a history geek. Working on media projects is another one of her passions; Lapa is a sophomore at South Elgins Beacon Academy of Media and Digital Arts. These types of projects are one way of combining her interests, she said. It also presented an opportunity to show off a moment in Polish history, a culture she is familiar with. Her parents are Polish immigrants, she speaks fluent Polish, and attends Polish school on Saturdays.On Friday, August 31st, the neoconservative US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said 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.

By this aggression, he was referring to the completion, by the Syrian Government and its allies Russia and Hezbollah, of their elimination of jihadist terrorists from Syria. Pompeos remark was a veiled threat, especially to Russia, not to intervene in the US-led invasion of Syria, which Pompeo and his boss, US President Donald Trump, and the US Defense Department, have planned, in continuation of the policies of aggression against Syria, by the prior US President, Barack Obama, and by his Administration  their policies to protect and train and arm those terrorists, so as to overthrow and replace Syrias Government.

Pompeo, as a politician, can say things like that  pontificate morality, to the portion of the world thats deceived by their national news-media to believe the opposite of what is about to be documented here. He can do it only because of what the US-and-allied news-media have assiduously kept hidden from their respective publics. The Syrian people blame US  not Assad  for the civil war there, which they know actually has been a US-Saud-led invasion of Syria, an invasion and military occupation so as to overthrow Syrias Government, and to replace it by the Sauds selected stooges.

So that the publics in the US and its allied countries can know the truth here, they must be informed, finally, of truths hidden by the media, truths such as these:

For years, Syrias Government has been liberating increasing numbers of cities and towns and villages, from the approximately one hundred thousand jihadists that have been fighting in Syria to overthrow and replace their Government. Those jihadists have been supported by the US Government in this overthrow-effort. Most of the jihadists were recruited into Syria as fundamentalist-Islamic (actually fundamentalist-Sunni-Islamic) mercenaries, by the US coalition, which have worked with Al Qaedas Syrian branch to train and arm these jihadists, for them to serve as the US coalitions boots-on-the-ground, to overthrow Syrias non-sectarian Government. The US coalition aim to install in Syria rulers who have been selected by the fundamentalist-Sunni Saud family, the worlds wealthiest family, who own Saudi Arabia, and who want to control also Syria.

Tens of thousands of jihadists have surrendered to the Syrian Government and been bussed by the Government into Idlib Syria  those were the surviving jihadists who chose surrender and relocation to Idlib, instead of immediate death at the hands of the Syrian Government, and of its allies, Russia and Hezbollah.

Ever since the start of the Syrian Governments operation to transport surviving jihadists to Idlib, there has been a question as to what would be done with them: either to free them to go back to their home countries or to any country that will take them, or else to slaughter them. The expectation has increasingly become that they will be slaughtered, because no peaceable land wants them, and because even the US and its allies say that they want to kill all jihadists. Americas Islamic allies, such as the royal Saud family, say that jihadists need to be educated to convert away from jihad, but everyone knows that with only rare exceptions, thats impossible to do  and the countries that claim to be doing it are secretly funding jihadists such as Al Qaeda abroad.

There is evidence that most Syrians want the jihadists to be slaughtered. The British polling firm Orb Internationals 2014 Syrian poll asked Q5. Who do you feel best represents the interests and aspirations of the Syrian people? The top two most-favored choices were: The Assad Government 35%, and Political Opposition 21%. Both of those are secular, not sectarian. All of the armed groups who were trying to overthrow Assad wanted Sharia law, and they were supported by only 27% of Syrians, but they were supported and armed and trained by all of the US international coalition.

A year later, Orb polled again, and found (Table 3) that 47% of Syrians in 2015 said that Assad had a positive effect on the country; 43% said Iran did; 37% said Arab Gulf Countries (the US Governments allied nations against Syria) did; 36% said Free Syrian Army (Americas proxies or boots-on-the-ground fighters in Syria) did; 35% said Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in Syria, which trained and led the Free Syrian Army) did; 26% said the Syrian Opposition Coalition (Americas other proxy fighters to overthrow Assad) did; and 21% said Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL, or simply IS) did. 76% said IS had a negative effect on Syria. IS was hated by Syrians, but apparently not as much as US was hated by them: When Syrians were asked to explain the presence of ISIL in Iraq/Syria 82% answered (Table 26) that the explanation is US. Syrians might not have agreed on whom they supported, but they agreed overwhelmingly that America was their nations enemy. And it is. Syrians dont want to be ruled by stooges selected for them by the Sauds. But thats whom the US coalition lined up to rule them. Except that Russia decided not to accept it. And now Pompeo is warning Russia (which is legally in Syria at the request of the Government, while the US itself is only an invading power there) to give up and let Syria be conquered by Americas proxies.

Furthermore, the 2015 Orb poll (Table 4) also found that Idlib was the region of Syria which had the lowest percentage of its inhabitants (only 4%  versus 47% in the nation-at-large) supporting Assad. Table 6 there shows that 35% of Idlibs residents supported ISIS. Table 7 shows that 70% of Idlibs residents supported Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria). So: when Assad made the decision to relocate surrendered jihadists to Idlib, he knew that he was sending them to the Governorate thats far more supportive of the jihadist cause than any other area of Syria is. Only a tiny portion of Idlibs residents oppose jihadists. And, now, suddenly, to Americas Mike Pompeo, all of the people in Idlib are somehow (as he suggests, but is sly enough not to state outright) refugees.

Orbs 2018 poll of Syrians reported that, Only 26% think that the influence of the International Coalition has been positive, and 69% think their influence has been somewhat or strongly negative. A further 57% think The West has played a negative role. Orb, the pollster  since its allied with the US instead of with Syria  also blamed Assad, instead of blaming Trump, for the worsening situation their latest poll found in Syria. Orbs 2018 report says: Whether or not an Assad victory is good for the future of the country is wide open  Although 39% agree that the country is heading in the right direction, this is a large drop since 2017 when 57% agreed with this statement. Between 2017 and now, most Syrians, just like most Americans, became disillusioned that Trump really was going to let Syria win the war that the US Government has been waging against Syria ever since 1949 and which exploded into the open once Obama came into the White House. During the past year, it has become increasingly clear that Trump is continuing and even escalating this war; so, of course, Syrians, who know that the US is their enemy, dont think that the country is heading in the right direction. Like Americans, the people in Syria had believed Trumps lies about what his intentions regarding Syria were. They know better now.

Furthermore: Pompeos allegation that The 3 million Syrians who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in #Idlib, is itself blatantly false, because the population of the entire region  and not just of the city of Idlib  is only 1.5 million, and far fewer than 100,000 have been added to that population by Syrias bussing all of the surrendered jihadists there.

Furthermore, as of January 2017, there have been, Since 2011,  1 million new Syrian refugees added to the worldwide refugee total, throughout that 7-year period of the Syrian civil war. And the perhaps ten thousand surviving and surrendered jihadists who have been bussed and added to the 1.5 million total population of Idlib Governorate, are surviving members of the cause of that refugee-crisis; theyre certainly not themselves refugees, such as Pompeo slyly has implied. They are instead surrendered combatants.

So: only deeply fooled people would trust anything that a leader of the US Government says. Lies by them are so routine.

Therefore, to report or publicize their lies without at the same time documenting that they are lies  such as the present article does  is not merely propaganda instead of being actual news-reporting; it is propaganda to aid and assist the US Governments evil there.

The vast majority of Syrians consider America and its allies to be their enemies, but Pompeo can pompously pretend to be their defenders even while he is actually threatening them and their defenders; and he can perpetrate such lies only because of The Wests lying news-media, which constantly feed those same lies to their publics.

For example, on August 30th, columnist David Ignatius headlined in the solidly neoconservative Washington Post, "How to stanch Syrias bloody final showdown and bloviated,

President Trumps personal commitment to Syria is unclear, given his frequent past comments that Americas role there should be limited to fighting terrorists.  This 11th-hour rediscovery of Syria is poignant, because it comes as America is mourning the death of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who anguished in his final years about the United States inability to check the slaughter there.  The administration has signaled a stiffer stance by warning Russia against its planned escalation in Idlib, which Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described Wednesday as a festering abscess that must be liquidated.  Idlib, located in the northwest corner of Syria, has become a haven for terrorists, anti-regime fighters and desperate civilians who fled there after the fall of Aleppo and Daraa. The provinces population is now about 3 million.

That 3 million there links to this on August 29th, which says, "According to news reports, the three million people  roughly half of whom are native residents and the other half persons displaced within the country  of Idlib, the last big rebel enclave, are bracing for Syrian Government forces to begin a phased offensive. So, at least Pompeo could cite news reports as confirmation for his lie. Its a house-of-mirrors, which the US Government and its many minions have produced.

Perhaps among those news reports was one from the solidly neocon Financial Times, on 4 May 2018, Idlib offers uncertain sanctuary to Syrias defeated rebels, in which, apparently, only persons who were part of the US coalition were interviewed as sources:

Your choice was die in Ghouta, or leave for Idlib, said the 35-year-old from his new home in a village in the province [Idlib]  He is one of more than 70,000 rebels and civilians who made a similar calculation, fleeing the besieged enclave [Eastern Ghouta].  Idlib  has become a dumping ground for defeated rebels, their families and supporters.  Idlibs population has swelled from about 1.5m before the war to 2.6m, making it the largest populous area controlled by rebels. 

That newspaper likewise failed to source its number in any empirical data. And, of course, the Al Qaeda and ISIS forces who were among those rebels werent being labelled as terrorists, nor even as jihadists: they were instead rebels, even if they had come from a foreign country to fight to overthrow the Government of Syria. This is Western journalism  its not being honestly called Western propaganda. People actually pay for that filth as journalism. Even the term journalism is fake, for propaganda, which is what actually reigns, in US-allied territories.

On 16 May 2018, the UNs chief person on the Syria matter, Staffan de Mistura, told the Security Council that If we see a Ghouta scenario in Idlib, this could be six times worse, affecting 2.3 million people, and this likewise-undocumented estimate would mean that since 2011 there has been an influx into Idlib of 800,000 people from other governorates in Syria, who have chosen Syrias by-far-most-jihadist Governate, as the place they prefer to live. That estimate, of 800,000 increase, is credible, but (like the others) undocumented. In any case: still, the total population of Idlib would likely be considerably more than 90% pro-jihad. Why does The West specialize in defending such people, against the vast majority of Syrians, who have suffered so much from them? In some places, freedom-from-religion is more needed than freedom-of-religion.

Donald Trump has prohibited any refugees from Syria into America. If he is so solicitous about the welfare of the residents in Idlib, why doesnt he make an exception for them, and simply inform Russia that America will now allow all of the residents in Idlib to enter the US as refugees? Would he rather start World War III against Russia, in order to try protecting everyone in Idlib, where they are? He even wants Armageddon, if thats the only way for him to protect everyone in Idlib? And yet, he doesnt give a damn about the Palestinians? Obviously, the official stories are lies.

Who would have thought, on September 11th of 2001, that within just ten years, the CIA-stirred Arab Spring could be started, and that just a year later the US Government would already commit itself to Syrias Al Qaeda as the local Syrian group that would be chosen by the US to serve as the trainer and leader of Americas main proxy-forces fighting on the ground in Syria to bring down the only non-sectarian Government in the entire Middle East: Syrias Government? Perhaps a person who knew that the Sauds and the White House were behind the 9/11 attacks would have thought it, but the US-allied news-media have hidden that fact, too.

Of course, there is the possibility that a million or more Syrians have fled the war into the relative safety (for themselves) of Idlib  safety (for them) if and only if they supported the jihadists, because thats the province which overwhelmingly supported jihadists, even before the civil war had started. But lying news-media dont really care about such fine points, anyway, since those would only confuse their readers with truth. Mustnt do that  not if the news-medium is actually just propaganda. The demand, in The West, is: Dont confuse the reader! (such as would happen if the lies were exposed instead of touted, or  which is even worse  hidden altogether).

Once, the Secretary General of the United Nations contradicted the US President twice in one day for his having said that Bashar al-Assad must not be allowed to remain in office. Barack Obama was the US President, the putative dictator-of-the-world, at that time. Now Donald Trump stole the White House by promising voters he would abandon Obamas international aggressions, and by (as the new President) instead continuing and even intensifying them. By such lies, all significant control that the American public have over their Government has become lost. Thus, even the American people are ignored by the US and its allies  the global alliance for evil.

That alliances news-media have been an essential part of this scam. It could not function, but for them  the aid that they provide in deceiving (instead of informing) their public  the aid at reinforcing the regimes lies.

A stunningly brilliant expose of Americas (and its medias) latest lies about Syria can be found at the September 2nd Moon of Alabama article, Syria Sitrep  US To Stay To Create Quagmires. Everyone should read it, but its found nowhere in All the News Thats Fit to Print (in any of the Establishments news-media)  its far too honest and well-documented for that. It documents that the US is adding considerably to its military occupation of Syria, digging in there, for a long and maybe permanent stay. If this intention really is so, WW III can be expected to start, perhaps soon, with Syria being merely the first battlefield in the war that will end all wars (and end everything).

On September 11th of 2001, America was attacked by the Government of Saudi Arania, the royal Saud family who own it and are that Government, and now America has invaded countries that had nothing to do with it  Iraq, Libya, and now Syria and Yemen, and threatens to attack also Iran  while having done everything possible to hide the evidence implicating the Saud family and to block their prosecution. Perhaps Donald Trump will finish the job, and end up invading Russia, which also wasnt involved.The EU is facing a real problem now that a new alliance has emerged within it. The Aug. 28 Hungary-Italy high-level meeting was a landmark event that seriously jeopardized European unity as those deep divisions emerged into the open. Budapest and Rome agreed to jointly oppose Brussels on the issue of migration. Expressing their determination to take a tough stance, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italian Deputy Head of State and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini hit it off, creating what CNN called a Trojan horse within the European Union. The two agreed to jointly pursue their anti-immigration agenda prior to the European elections next May. Both slammed French President Macron for his stance on the problem. PM Orban described him as "the leader of the pro-migration parties in Europe today. According to him, "There are currently two camps in Europe and one is headed by (Emmanuel) Macron."

Before that event, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met with his Czech counterpart Andrej Babis, who is also opposed to relocating refugees.

The Sunday Express cited Massimiliano Panarari, a political science professor at Luiss University in Rome, who believes that "Italy has become a laboratory of European populism and risks moving away not only from Europe, but also from western democracies and getting closer, together with Orbans Hungary, to Vladimir Putin, who enjoys Salvinis manifestations of sympathy."

There was something really important that Mr. Orban said during the press conference after the meeting with Salvini in Milan, the city that gave birth to Silvio Berlusconi, an Italian member of the European Peoples Party (EPP) and ex-prime minister. The Hungarian PM asked permission to meet the Italian official from Berlusconi, who is a long-standing friend of Russia President Vladimir Putin. So is Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban. And Salvini? He opposes the Russian sanctions and is a member of the government headed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who is expected to visit Moscow soon. While Europe is fending off the US attacks and the trade war lingers on, Russias influence is growing for the simple reason that many leaders want a friendly relationship with Moscow while defying the rule of Brussels.

Italy called for immediate changes to EU's Operation Sophia during the EU-wide summit of defense and foreign ministers in Vienna that was held Aug. 30-31. No agreement was reached about the ports where the ships filled with migrants would disembark. The EU's anti-trafficking mission in the Mediterranean (Operation Sophia), currently headed by Italy, is in jeopardy. Rome is threatening to close its ports to the mission if no solution is found this week. If so, itll be a heavy blow to EU unity right before the Sept. 20 summit in the Austrian city of Salzburg that was convened to discuss migration  a hot-button issue on which the bloc has failed to reach an agreement.

The anti-migration stance is backed by the Visegrad Group (V4), which includes the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, as well as Austria, that stands in defense of the right to remain national states instead of becoming part of a federalist entity led by the French-German alliance. The V4 is openly challenging the EU on its refugee policy.

In July, the EU took legal action against Poland over the reform of its judicial system. But Warsaw is backed by Budapest. Poland and Hungary have joined together in opposition to the EU bureaucracy on many issues. With the two nations supporting one another, no EU sanctions can be levied against them. According to EUs Article 7, two members are enough to bring that mechanism to a standstill.

The emerging anti-Merkel/Macron alliance, comprising the Visegrad Group, Austria, and Italy, might soon be strengthened by a country that has been known as an exemplary EU member. The parliamentary election in Sweden will take place on September 9. The far-right Eurosceptic Sweden Democrats are expected to win big  by 18.7%  an increase of almost 50% over the 2014 election. Bookies predict an even larger win. If so, that party will hold the balance of power. The Sweden Democrats have threatened to vote down any government that does not give them a say over immigration policy. In any event, theyll play an important role in the horse trading that will follow the election.

The idea of a multi-speed Europe has been revived by the French president, auguring a possible split of that bloc that is already divided into mini-coalitions. Chances are slim for the EU to remain united. The bloc is about to take a nosedive. Itll have to work really hard to survive, but the chances of overcoming the deepening rift appear to be slim at best.Indias impending purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system has come to be the leitmotif of the 2+2 dialogue of the foreign and defence ministers of India and the United States due to take place in New Delhi on September 6. However, the issue here is not about a single defence transaction, either. There are far wider geopolitical ramifications.

The heart of the matter is that the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in August 2017, endangers Indias long-standing defence relationship with Russia across the board for many defence goods. The cutting edge of the CAATSA lies in regard of Sections 231 and 235 of the law. Section 231 requires the US president to impose sanctions on any entity that engages in a significant transaction with Russias intelligence or defence sectors. Section 235 provides for prohibiting transactions in US dollar (which is the currency used in India-Russia arms deals.)

Now, the US Congress has given waiver authority to the president under certain highly constraining conditions  that is, if he can certify that the waiver is fundamentally in US national security interests, that the country concerned is taking demonstrable steps to reduce its defence dependence on Russia and that it is cooperating with the US in advancing critical strategic interests. In effect, the CAATSA provides an underpinning for the US global hegemony, which is far beyond its stated purpose of sanctioning Russia over the Crimea.

Given the above, what is the Trump administrations actual game plan? At the broadest level, Washington estimates that India-Russia relationship is no longer what it used to be and this may be an opportune moment to weaken and undermine it from within. Thus, the opening gambit was to pile pressure on Delhi by flagging that the S-400 deal posed a serious risk to the strategic partnership between the US and India, which would be deeply disruptive at a juncture when Chinas rise and growing assertiveness is throwing the Indo-Pacific region into an unsettling flux  and India, in particular.

In this narrative, the solution lies in Delhi scuttling the S-400 deal with Russia and instead opting for a US system. (This was what Washington had counseled Turkey, too.)

But then, there is nothing that the US can offer which is comparable to the S-400 with its long maximum slant range (~400 kms) and high maximum altitude (~98000 feet) that meet the Indian requirements for extended-range air defence to counter the threat from China across the Himalayas.

Curiously, the American side also acknowledges the reality that the S-400 is peerless in meeting the specific requirements of the Indian Air Force. To quote an American expert opinion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,

The United States does not currently possess any comparable system to the S-400. This is primarily because the country has not invested in strategic SAMs since the early Cold War US surface-to-air weapons, accordingly, fall into two categories: long-range systems that are directed mainly toward ballistic missile defense, or shorter-range systems that are reserved mainly for use against surviving enemy aircraft that pose a threat to US ground forces. Therefore, none of the systems meet Indian requirements for extended-range air defense.

So, why is the US pressuring India to give up on the S-400? The point is, defence sales constitute a vital tool in the USs strategy to build a long-term relationship and interoperability with India as part of a new alliance system in the Indo-Pacific. Put differently, Delhis defence acquisitions with Russia (who is by far Indias number one partner) impacts the US strategy, which aims to align the Indian military with the US and its armed forces and with those of its allies in the Indo-Pacific. On the contrary, large-scale procurements such as the S-400 missile system will create relationships with Russia that will continue for generations even as the two militaries work together over the lifespan of the platform on training and maintenance.

Suffice to say, the US is pursuing a long-term strategy by creating shared platforms with the Indian armed forces that help build military interoperability. The intention here is that as the two armed forces get to use the same equipment, they also develop a shared understanding of doctrine, command and control dynamics and standard operating procedures through combined planning and training. Simply put, without India realizing it, a point will be reached when it gets locked in and becomes an ally of the US, playing second fiddle to Washington in its Indo-Pacific strategies.

However, all indications are that Washington senses that Modi government is unlikely to abandon the S-400 acquisition, no matter the US pressure tactic and blackmail. On its part, Delhi also understands that the US National Security Strategy brands Russia as a revisionist power and Washingtons underlying objective is to undermine the time-tested relationship between India and Russia.

Therefore, by his bold decision to go ahead with the S-400 missile deal with Russia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a big message to Washington. Modis decision augurs well for the countrys role in a post-American century. But issues remain.

Fundamentally, Delhi should firmly reject the US attempt to insert itself into the India-Russia relationship on the pretext of the CAATSA. The US lobbyists in India are lately proposing that India and the US should do some creative thinking to mitigate the challenges posed by CAATSA. But this is a ludicrous postulate.

India is not placing restrictions on the US market access or denying it a level playing field. Furthermore, the CAATSA is a US law, which it enacted patently for geopolitical purposes. What is there to negotiate with a matrix?

India will be on a slippery slope once it agrees to discuss with the US its defence relationship with Russia on a case-by-case basis. It will be an affront to Indias sovereignty and self-respect to allow the US to have a say in its relations with Russia.Congos government says it will not accept logistical help from the UN in the December national elections. The government had previously indicated it would not accept external (foreign) financial assistance to hold the election. That noted the UN Security Council has authorized the UN peacekeepers in Congo to spend about $85 million to assist Congo in the presidential election. Congos election commission has estimated the election will cost $420 million. Several donor nations, among them the U.S., have said Congo needs UN help on several fronts, including communications gear as well as vehicles and aircraft. Logistical support for elections is part of the UN peacekeepers mandate. Kabila has also rejected aid from South Africa. The governments rejection of aid has increased opposition party worries that current president Joseph Kabila intends to undermine the election. Catholic Church leaders in Congo have insisted that international monitors must be present at the polls in order to ensure a fair election. (Austin Bay)

September 1, 2018: Relations between Uganda and Rwanda continue to deteriorate. Uganda claims Rwanda has established espionage networks in Uganda. The Ugandan operatives control bars and dance halls and are also influential in the taxi industry. Rwanda accused Uganda of letting the RNC (Rwanda National Congress) rebels recruit in Uganda.

August 30, 2018: Former Congolese rebel militia commander Bosco Ntaganda told the International Criminal Court I am a revolutionary but I am not a criminal. Ntaganda faces charges of murder, rape, pillage and employing child soldiers in fighting that took place from 2002-2003 in northeastern Congos Ituri region. There he commanded the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo militia.

A Ugandan court has confirmed a former Lords Resistance Army commander, Thomas Kwoyelo, will face 93 serious charges in an upcoming trial. Charges include rape, murder, torture, enslavement, torture, kidnapping. Kwoyelo is also charged with leading attacks on refugee camps where they looted, burned and killed. His worst crimes occurred in the years of 1987, 1993, 1996 and 2003.

August 28, 2018: The Kabila government of Congo is accused of violently suppressing a peaceful opposition rally in Kinshasa that took place on August 7. The witnesses claim the demonstrators were peaceful while the government claimed they were throwing rocks.

August 27, 2018: The trial of 24 people accused of being involved in the March 2017 murder of two UN workers monitoring conditions in the Kasai region has resumed after a ten-month suspension. The two victims were investigating possible crimes committed by the army while fighting Kamuina Nsapu rebels.

August 25, 2018: The Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) is confronting a yellow fever epidemic along its border with Angolas Cabinda enclave. Health authorities report only a handful of confirmed cases but over 180 suspected cases. The country is organizing a nation-wide vaccination program.

August 24, 2018: Congos election commission has refused to accept the candidacy of opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. Earlier this year an appeals court acquitted Bembas ICC conviction for war crimes. He returned to Congo in August and announced he wanted to run for president.

August 23, 2018: In CAR (Central African Republic) gunmen killed a Burundian soldier serving with UN peacekeepers near the town of Pavika.

August 21, 2018: CAR and Russia have signed a military cooperation agreement. Russia described the agreement as a framework for improving defense ties. CAR officers will be allowed to attend Russian military institutes. Russia has a training cadre in the CAR, comprised of military and civilian contractors. Some of the Russian civilians are believed to be mercenaries working for the Russian Wagner mercenary organization.

August 17, 2018: Congos eastern Ebola epidemic is claiming more lives. In North Kivu province least 45 people have died and another 80 are infected. Health workers report that lack of security in the province impedes their ability to reach remote areas to provide aid.

August 16, 2018: The Congolese government has issued an international arrest warrant for opposition political leader Moise Katumbi, who is the most popular opposition candidate for president.

August 15, 2018: The government of Zambia said that it is preparing for a refugee surge from Congo during and after the December Congolese national election. Zambia apparently believes rebel militias and possibly pro-Kabila forces will attempt to disrupt the elections.

August 13, 2018: In CAR UN peacekeepers report that fragmentation of rebel groups has become a security problem. For example, several armed factions have formed from the Seleka rebels. These factions continue to fight with anti-balaka militia factions. The FPRC (Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa) has emerged as one of the more powerful rogue Seleka factions. However, the FPRC itself has produced another rogue faction; the MPC (Patriotic Movement for Central Africa) that is also an FPRC rival. Selekas breakup is a bit ironic. In the Sangho language (the CARs official language, also called Sango), Seleka means alliance. The big alliance has dissolved. The new factions appear to be organized along religious, ethnic and regional lines. The Seleka movement was a predominantly Muslim movement but drew on tribes in the east and north. (Austin Bay)

August 11, 2018: After declaring an end to the Ebola virus epidemic in western Congo, new Ebola cases have appeared in eastern Congo. Authorities believe the virus has killed at least 21 people in North Kivu province. The national health ministry has begun deploying personnel and medicine to combat the epidemic and determine how many people have been infected.

In eastern Congo (Maniema Province) Mai Mai Malaika rebels attacked a convoy of trucks from the local Namoya gold mine. Two people were killed, four (two soldiers and two drivers) were kidnapped. The attack took place in a jungle area about 35 kilometers from the mine. The Congolese Army has begun searching for the kidnap victims.

August 10, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu Province) Ugandan ADF Islamic rebels attacked the town of Mayi-Moya and killed six civilians and wounded another. The attackers slipped past an army checkpoint near the town. There was no report of pillaging. This indicates the attack was intended to terrorize civilians.

The tiny Caucasus state of Georgia sent another platoon of peacekeepers to the CAR to replace the one already there. These platoons serves with the EU security force in the CAR for six month-long tours and is usually replaced by another platoon from home.

August 9, 2018: Congos ruling political coalition, The Common Front for Congo, confirmed it has selected Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary as its candidate. The CFC is president Joseph Kabilas political party, which means Shadary is his handpicked successor. Shadary is regarded as a Kabila loyalist and at one time served as interior minister. Several EU nations have sanctioned him for his role in security force and pro-Kabila militants attacks on anti-Kabila protestors in 2017. Interestingly enough, Congos Catholic Church leaders indicated the decision was positive because it meant Kabila would not personally attempt to remain in office. Yesterday Kabila announced he would not run in December. Kabilas announcement followed reports that the U.S. was about to impose political and financial sanctions on at least one pro-Kabila senior security officer. France and Britain are also pressuring Kabila.

August 8, 2018: The Rwandan Army has arrested the former head of the National Intelligence and Security Services, lieutenant general Karenzi Karake. Official charges have not been filed. However, the arrest is reportedly related to Rwandas deteriorating political relationship with Uganda. Rwanda accuses Uganda of supporting anti-Rwandan rebels who seek to destabilize the Rwandan government. Uganda has arrested several Rwandans living in Uganda on charges of illegal entry and deported them to Rwanda. Uganda has also claimed Rwandan is conducting spy operations in Uganda.

August 7, 2018: Security forces in Kinshasa fired teargas at demonstrators identified as supporters of opposition politician Felix Tshisekedi. Security officials claimed the protestors were throwing rocks. Tshisekedi leads the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) and is the son of late opposition icon Etienne Tshisekedi.

August 6, 2018: In Burundi, three soldiers were killed and five wounded when unidentified gunmen ambushed their truck on a road outside the capital and near the Congo border. Extremist Hutu guerrillas in the FLN (National Forces of Liberation) are known to operate in the area.The leftists in this country are so obnoxious in their hate for our president, whether it is attacking and ruining Trump's Hollywood star twice now or attacking his staff during their free time in restaurants or other venues. Why can't they see they have actually become what they profess to hate? The Democrats should be careful of what they are becoming. There are many walk-a-ways, those are people who hate their hate and will now vote Republican. I say welcome.Active Voice

with Catherine McCullogh

Sport BOP Community Manager

Play is at risk in our modern lifestyles. Many of us took play for granted in our younger years, and have fond memories of getting together with the neighbours and playing go home, stay home, kicking a ball around, or the excitement of obtaining a large box from a recently acquired new appliance and turning it into the best hut possible. Times have changed, though, and its worth asking if the younger generation are getting the same opportunities we did.



Is it as easy to encourage play as it was back when we were younger? Are we trying to take greater control and structure or formalise our childrens activities too much?

As we reflect on these questions, we need to consider that there are some environmental and societal influences that are manipulating how much our children are playing. There may not be so many open spaces available as there once were, and our once quiet local street may now have a constant flow of traffic. Our perception of safe and unsafe activities has changed over time and we are influenced by what we hear regarding health and safety. Then we have the biggest influence of all  our modern virtual world where sedentary behaviour is becoming the norm and children are spending several hours looking at screens.

So what skills are our children missing out on if they arent experiencing free play? This is the time when they learn to use their imagination and get creative, when nothing is right or wrong and they can experiment without a sense of failure. Fun, unstructured play is also a great time for children to learn important fundamental movement skills such as throwing or catching. Most importantly children can learn about relationships with others, how to communicate appropriately, how to manage their emotions and how to compromise and share with others.

Its important that we remember all the fun and excitement we experienced through our childhood. While adapting to our modern environments, we can still encourage children to play. The Bay of Plenty has many open spaces and reserves to explore and connect with, and Sport Bay of Plenty can help you with lots of ideas to get out there and experience our region.

Check out sportbop.co.nz or the Sport Bay of Plenty Facebook page to learn more about our upcoming scavenger hunts for the school holidays across six great sites in the region, as well as other family-friendly activities happening about the place.

A social work agency with a reputation for successfully combating complex community problems, is this week launching a unique prison home to help lower the countrys record high incarceration rate of Maori men.

The home, which opened today, in Tauranga is the first for the city.

Whare 4 Freedom is modelled on Te Tuinga Whanaus effective framework that provides transitional housing and support services for homeless families.

The agency houses 55 families across 12 houses and 10 motel rooms.

CEO of Te Tuinga Tommy Ka Pai Wilson says Whare 4 Freedom was born out of a desperate need in Tauranga to have a home for inmates to live in once they left prison.

The incarceration rate of Maori men is distressing, and they are most likely to reoffend if they dont have a base where they can start over from.

Ex-prisoners have been arriving on our doors at Te Tuinga Whanau with nowhere to go, no networks and no one to turn to. We also need to protect victims by doing all we can to help ex inmates integrate back into the community.

He says they are transferring their learnings of 30 years of working with the most vulnerable communities into the new project.

The research tells us that if you can connect people back into their whanau, iwi and communities when they have served their time, it can minimise the chances of reoffending by 50 percent, turning former inmates on a path of rehabilitation instead of falling back into the same old cycle of offending.

The men will stay for up to six months while accessing support services to help with health, budgeting and employment.

This framework looks at integrating former inmates back into the community and ultimately giving them a feeling of belongingness. The whare will only house four men and will not accept any offender against children.

We only welcome men who are committed to change and agree to fully engage in the programme.Ixom, New Zealands largest supplier of chlorine and related chemicals, is once again proud to sponsor the Science Roadshows Bay of Plenty leg.

Celebrating 30 years in operation this year, the popular Science Roadshow is visiting 120 locations throughout New Zealand, packing the contents of its 15m truck and trailer into school halls at every stop.

It offers school children, their teachers and parents an opportunity to explore various science and technology concepts by touch and feel. Over 47,000 students from more than 600 schools are expected to visit the Science Roadshow this year.

Scott Monkley, Ixoms Operations Manager, says the Science Roadshow fits seamlessly with Ixoms own aim to encourage science education in schools.

As a local business, were delighted to be a supporter of the Roadshow, which provides children with the opportunity to connect with science and technology in a fun and interactive way. We are looking forward to being part of that learning in the Bay of Plenty region.

As well as providing sponsorship for two of the exhibits, members of Ixoms Mt Maunganui and Morrinsville teams will be on hand to support the Extra for Experts challenge, where kids share their knowledge of selected exhibits.

Science Roadshow Director Ian Kennedy says that securing funding partners for the programme is pivotal to its success.

We are very grateful for the support we get from Ixom while the Roadshow is in the Bay of Plenty.

The Science Roadshow will tour the Bay of Plenty from 30 August till 6 September.The New Zealand Defence Force is taking about eight tonnes of supplies to the Kermadec Islands this week to sustain scientific work in the remote islands over the next six months.

Commodore Tony Millar, the Maritime Component Commander, says offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington would take equipment and supplies necessary to advance the work of the Department of Conservation (DOC), MetService and GNS Science during the second resupply mission to Raoul Island this year.

These agencies undertake work that is important for conservation and in monitoring global weather, tsunamis and other geohazards.

Our Defence Forces transport and logistic support has been a vital lifeline to these agencies, enabling them to continue their work despite the remoteness of the Kermadecs.

Lieutenant Commander Damian Gibbs, the Commanding Officer of HMNZS Wellington, says 19 scientists and support personnel, including a new rotation of DOC staff, would be joining the 1000km trip.

On its return, the ship is bringing back 3.5 tonnes of equipment that had been discarded by DOC.

Our crew members are experienced in operating in austere environments such as the Kermadecs, whose lack of natural shelter pose particular challenges for those operating there.

Steve Knowles, MetServices Network Observations Manager, says four MetService staff would carry out maintenance work on the automatic weather station on Raoul Island, which reports weather conditions to forecasters based in New Zealand.

They would also train DOC staff in releasing weather balloons, which were used to forecast global weather, says Steve.

All this meteorological data received from Raoul Island makes a significant contribution to global weather models and is essential for tracking tropical storms in the area.

Three members of GNS Science will install a new satellite dish on Raoul Island to improve the communication of geohazard information to mainland New Zealand and carry out maintenance of the GeoNet projects monitoring equipment.

GNS Science volcanologist Brad Scott says the new equipment would significantly enhance timely transfer of data and improve response during a hazard.

The Raoul Island site is critical to GNSs monitoring capabilities because it is often where Pacific tsunamis make their first landfall.

From left, Kris OBrien from GNS Science, Steve Knowles from MetService, Murray Bowden and Matiu Mataira from the Department of Conservation with sailors from offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington before they sailed to the Kermadec Islands this morning.Find an expert for comment Search for a Swinburne researcher or academic expert who is available for media comment about their field of expertise.

Please enable JavaScript to get the full experience of this website.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.

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?"Clay, NY -- A 36-year-old woman thought she was going to die when a stranger sexually assaulted her in May 2017 behind a Dumpster near John Glenn Boulevard, she said in court today.

Her attacker, Prince Royal-Clanton, who was 19 at the time, was sentenced today to 25 years in prison by acting County Court Judge Rory McMahon. Royal-Clanton was found guilty by a jury of criminal sex act and attempted rape.

Royal-Clanton will be a registered sex offender when released from prison.

The victim, a mother of three, said the assault by Royal-Clanton -- a stranger -- changed her forever.

"I thought I was going to die that day," she said at sentencing. "I thought my family was going to find me dead in the Dumpster."

Instead, an unknown passing motorist stopped to throw out her trash, apparently startling Royal-Clanton enough to stop the assault, she said.

Royal-Clanton, who maintained his innocence through two trials, proclaimed his innocence again today. He appeared to smirk during remarks on behalf of the victim, and later gazed around the room as she spoke about her trauma.

"There's no evidence," he said. "It's a he said-she said case."

His first jury was deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction after one juror apparently refused to deliberate. His second jury deliberated a couple of days before finding him guilty in May.

The victim was driving along John Glenn Boulevard near the busy intersection with Route 57 when she apparently got into a minor crash involving Royal-Clanton, who was walking.

There's no evidence that Royal-Clanton was injured in the crash. What happened after that point became the focus of both trials.

The woman said that Royal-Clanton forced his way into her vehicle, threatened to have a gun, stole her money, ordered her to drive to the nearby location behind a Dumpster and sexually assaulted her. The encounter ended as he was attempting to rape her, she said.

Royal-Clanton claimed that the woman consented to the sexual encounter between strangers after letting him into her car.

The second jury convicted Royal-Clanton of forcible sexual assault and attempted rape. It did not reach a verdict on allegations that Royal-Clanton kept the victim prisoner insider her own vehicle (kidnapping) or whether he robbed her of property.

Royal-Clanton threatened to have a gun, prosecutor Jeremy Cali said, though he did not have one.

Royal-Clanton was on his way home from school during the 5 p.m. chance encounter during rush hour. He had no prior criminal record -- or any police contact -- before the assault, something his lawyer Tylyn Bozeman noted repeatedly.

She asked the judge to sentence Royal-Clanton to no more than 5 years in prison, calling any more "arguably unduly harsh."

There was no forensic evidence directly linking Royal-Clanton to the assault, though he did confess during an interrogation that Bozeman later claimed led to a false confession.

Royal-Clanton was heard confessing during a videotaped interrogation, signing a statement with the confession. The judge allowed the jury to hear that during trial.

Royal-Clanton said today, as he did at trial, that he was coerced into the confession by an investigator.

The victim said her experience has left her with anxiety attacks and other prolonged trauma. Its also changed how she views the world -- and teaches her children about stranger danger.

"You put us through hell," the victim said, calling Royal-Clanton a "unremorseful, dangerous, violent predator."

To the public, she added: "Always be cautious and aware of your surroundings." If you get into a crash, stay in your car and call 911, she cautioned.

"My once-irrational fears became a reality on that bright, sunny afternoon on a busy intersection in Liverpool, New York," she said.We are pleased to announce that Rose Marie Cromwell has received the 2018 Light Work Photobook Award for her monograph, El Libro Supremo de la Suerte, which TIS Books and Light Work will co-publish this year. The Light Work Photobook Award is given annually to an artistic project that deserves international attention. As with all of Light Work's programs, in selecting the artists to receive this recognition we seek to highlight emerging and underrepresented artists of diverse backgrounds.

Rose Marie Cromwell, "Learning to Swim"

"We're thrilled to present this year's Light Work Photobook Award to Rose Marie Cromwell for her ambitious first monograph, El Libro Supremo de la Suerte," says Shane Lavalette, director of Light Work. "Cromwell pays homage to a Cuba that she grew to love over nearly a decade of returning to Havana to make pictures. Her work quickly acknowledges its subjective/self-reflexive nature through a non-linear narrative that alludes to life's 'luck of the draw,' exploring some of the very real complexities of contemporary Cuba (including her own presence as an artist coming-of-age). Through a lyrical sequence of images of everyday rituals, she captures a Cuba that is multi-layered and continues to defy expectations. Cromwell's photographs take us to a place that is, perhaps most of all, profoundly human--and through this, she expresses her belief that even intimacy is political."



Reflecting on this year's award, Cromwell said, "I am honored and humbled to receive this award. From the time I was a work-study student at Syracuse University to being an Artist in Residence, Light Work has always been supportive of my development as an artist. I could not be more thankful for everyone at Light Work believing in me over the years and for recognizing this project with this award. This book wouldn't be a reality without Light Work's support. I'm so excited also for the partnership between Light Work and TIS Books and its potential to exponentially increase El LibroSupremo de la Suerte's visibility. I am also very thankful for the whole team behind the book, especially TIS Books and the book's designer, Ben Salesse."

Artist: Rose Marie Cromwell

Rose Marie Cromwell is a photographic and video artist based in Miami. Her work explores globalization's effect on human interaction and social politics and the tenuous space between the political and the spiritual. Cromwell received a BFA degree from Maryland Institute College of Art in Art Photography in 2005, and an MFA from Syracuse University in Art Photography in 2013. Cromwell is a recipient of the Fulbright Research Grant, and a Syracuse University full-ride graduate fellowship. She was named one of "25 Under 25 Up and Coming American Photographers" by the Center for Documentary Studies in 2008 and "One to Watch" by the British Journal of Photography in 2017. She has had solo exhibitions at the Antitesis Art Space and the Diablo Rosso Gallery in Panama City, and participated in the 1st Biennale del Sur in Panama City and Prizm Art Fair in Miami. Cromwell's artwork has been published online and in print in a variety of international magazines, including ARC Magazine, Camera Austria,Musee Magazine, The New York Times, The NewYorker, The Oxford American, Time Lightbox, and Vice Photography Issues (2014, 2015, 2016), She participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence Program in September 2014.

Rose Marie Cromwell's debut monograph, El Libro Supremo de la Suerte ("The Supreme Book of Luck"), refers to a little piece of photocopied samizdat that supports a covert lottery in Havana, Cuba, where Cromwell spent eight years living and photographing. Of the work, Paula Kupfer writes, "In exploring the visual connections between numbers--exact and absolute units of measurements--and the mystical, wayward ways of luck, as embodied by friends and family performing for her camera, Cromwell offers a lyric homage to Cuba, the place that's shaped her practice and that, moreover, continues defying expectations and interpretations."



Media attention for this groundbreaking project includes features in BookForum, British Journal of Photography, C41, It's That Nice, Juxtapoz, PDN Photo Annual, Splash and Grab, Spot Magazine, Time, Wall Street Journal, and Wallpaper.

Rose Marie Cromwell

El Libro Supremo de la Suerte

TIS Books/Light Work, 2018

Hardcover, 192 pages

ISBN: 978-1-943146-12-3

First Edition

Signed by the artist

Available for pre-order! (Ships by October 2018)

Take advantage of the 2019 Book Collectors Offer. Order a signed copy of El Libro Supremo de la Suerte by Rose Marie Cromwell and you will also receive a 2019 subscription to Contact Sheet (a $115 value) for only $75!

--

Hours, Admission & General Information

Find Light Work's galleries in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center, 316 Wa0verly Ave., Syracuse, New York. Gallery hours are: Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.- 6 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 1 p.m.-9 p.m. Light Work closes on all major holidays. Contact Light Work to schedule a guided tour of the galleries or the Light Work Lab. Follow Light Work on Twitter, Instagramand Facebook. For general information, please visit www.lightwork.org, call (315)443-1300, or email info@lightwork.org.

About Light Work

Light Work is a nonprofit, artist-run organization dedicated to the support of artists working in photography and electronic media, located in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center. Light Work invites groups and individuals to schedule tours of the exhibitions and facility and to attend gallery talks. Limited free public parking is available on Waverly Avenue and paid parking is available in Booth Parking Garage. Light Work thanks Syracuse University, Robert B. Menschel and Vital Projects, JGS (Joy of Giving Something Inc.), the New York State Council on the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, CNY Arts, the Central New York Community Foundation, and the subscribers to Contact Sheet for their dedicated and ongoing support of our programs. Light Work is a member of CMAC, the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at Syracuse University.FULL LIST: 51 children are missing from Upstate NY right now



All across Upstate NY, police are asking for the public's help to track down and rescue dozens of missing and vulnerable children.

The number of children missing in Upstate New York grew from 48 to 51 between July and September.

Details about each missing child are made available by the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services. See the full list of 51 missing children in Upstate NY on NYup.com.

FULL LIST: 51 children are missing from Upstate NY right nowOver the course of meeting with over a dozen highly qualified candidates, Greg stood out as an excellent choice for village trustee, Levin said in a written statement. He is extremely bright and the strength of his commitment to our community is exceptional.Cornelius B. Murphy Jr., Ph.D., is SUNY Senior Fellow for Environmental and Sustainable Systems. He is the former president of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.

By Cornelius B. Murphy Jr.

The Earth has a fever, and it is the direct result of global warming. We in Central New York have been experiencing record-high temperatures and extreme rainfall events. We also have approximately 55 lakes in New York state that have seen outbreaks of cyanobacteria because of warm water column temperatures and the contribution of nutrients from runoff.

We are not alone. The Baltic Sea in Europe is also the site of an intense outbreak of cyanobacteria, as are Lake Erie to our west and Lake Okeechobee in Florida.

The list of stressed lakes is getting long. The resulting microcystin is a liver toxin and suspected carcinogen. There are increasing concerns about health exposure and impacts on the economy. We have also seen that the higher global temperatures are impacting our infrastructure. Consider the cracking of our roads and airport runways and the impacts on the efficiency of power plants caused by the use of warmer water to cool the plants.

It is also difficult to comprehend the increased number of intense forest fires in California, Sweden, Greece, and even above the Arctic Circle. The Carr, Holy and Mendocino Complex fires have destroyed more than 500 square miles and thousands of structures.

Our forests are being stressed by drought. Forest vegetation is being desiccated by long periods of elevated temperatures. Our global ecosystems are being stressed by a changing climate.

We need to change this picture.

Climate disruption is also a social issue. The least advantaged among us will suffer the most with limited access to air conditioners and cooling centers. Those living in low areas will encounter increased flooding, and tropical diseases will continue to move north. We need to ensure that those most disadvantaged are protected.

We have to express and follow our values. Do we need a $60 billion wall on our southern border, or should we improve the resiliency of our cities? Shouldn't we bring back the Clean Power Plan provisions under the Clean Air Act, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions while reducing the cost of power production?

Shouldn't we be investing the $6 billion proposed for the new Space Force to protect our coastal areas from rising sea levels? That investment would pay large dividends in the protection of our coastal cities.

Does the elimination of the imposed mileage and emission targets following 2020 make any sense? The automotive industry has always met the challenge using innovation to reduce our annual operating cost. Reducing CO2 emissions and improving fuel consumption only makes sense. Our automotive engineers of the future are up to the challenge.

Withdrawing from the Global Climate Change Agreement derived from the COP21 meeting leaves the United States standing alone among our global partners. Our partners understand the science and want to protect the quality of life for all. We need to emphasize with our Congressional representatives that the problem isn't "Fake Science" -- it's "Fake and Irresponsible Public Policy." Our children know the difference and deserve better.

A recent article in The Economist stated, "The global cost of productivity lost to heat has been estimated at $2 trillion by 2030." It is time to change the paradigm. We have the technology we need, the courage and the will to move forward. Let's use it to improve the future of our planet.What actions can Central New York's representative in Congress take to reduce Syracuse's alarming poverty rate?

Syracuse has struggled without success for years to lower its poverty rate, which ranks 13th-worst in the nation, according to the latest U.S. Census figures available.

Syracuse also has the nation's highest rate of extreme poverty concentrated among black and Hispanics, a 2015 study by a Rutgers University professor found.

About 47 percent of Syracuse children under age 18 lived in poverty, including 49 percent of children under age 5, according to the 2016 Census.

With that in mind, we asked the candidates in the 24th Congressional District election - Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, and Democrat Dana Balter of Syracuse -- the following question:

Syracuse has the nation's highest concentrated poverty among blacks and Hispanics, and about half of the city's children live in poverty. As a member of Congress, how would you work with the mayor to address the problem? What specific actions would you take to lower Syracuse's poverty rate?

The candidates' written answers are below. Katko and Balter were asked to limit their responses to 250 words.

Look for a new candidate question each week. Have something you'd like to ask all the candidates? Email Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com with the subject line "weekly question."

John Katko

For nearly two decades I served as an organized crime prosecutor in Syracuse, overseeing the Gang Violence Task Force. I saw how generational poverty deflates opportunity and destroys self-worth.

Mayor Ben Walsh is serious about tackling poverty and I'm proud to fight on the federal level.

I have prioritized bolstering anti-poverty initiatives and pro-growth policies. We achieved real success with tax reform -- delivering tax cuts for families, expanding the child tax credit, and allowing employers to create opportunity.

With over half of Syracuse children living in poverty, every child must have access to healthcare and education. That's why I worked across the aisle to reauthorize CHIP, fought for a $20 million boost for early education, and led efforts to increase preschool funding. I've advocated an expansion of P-TECH job-training programs so students can fill high-skilled jobs.

Food security is vital to ending poverty. Malnourishment has a lasting impact on a child's health, education outcomes, and workforce competitiveness. I broke with my party and voted against the Farm Bill, which would have altered SNAP and hurt vulnerable families. I support expanding summer nutrition programming to distribute more meals to at-risk children.

I've prioritized investment in housing, advocating for affordable housing in Syracuse through expansion of the low-income housing tax credit and increasing funding for Community Development Block Grants and HOME Investment Partnerships.

Federal anti-poverty aid relies on partnerships with not-for-profits that provide immeasurable services to lift families out of poverty and into economic stability. I'm humbled to fight alongside these advocates.

Dana Balter

Poverty is a very real issue for the city of Syracuse. In Congress, I have three main functions on local issues: bring resources home, keep issues on the nation's priority list, and ensure people have access to services. Mayor Ben Walsh and I have a good working relationship and have already had conversations about the needs of the city and how I can be a partner in addressing our problems.

I will be a voice in Congress advocating to make sure we invest in the anti-poverty programs we know work: SNAP, EITC, TANF and housing assistance, which help reduce extreme poverty. These programs are under constant threat. It's unconscionable that instead of focusing on these issues, John Katko passed a massive tax break for the ultra-wealthy.

Tackling poverty will take a comprehensive approach which is why we must:

increase well-paying jobs in the city

implement a living wage

equitably fund public schools

require all federal funding for infrastructure be tied to local hiring

make our city safer by rebuilding bridges and roads

address lead contamination in housing and water that can set children back for life

improve transit options so people can get to the available jobs

increase investment in mixed-income, affordable housing

Ben Carson at HUD is increasing rent on low-income housing as much as 30 percent and cutting housing vouchers. Instead of pulling the rug out from under our struggling families, we must invest in our communities so everyone can pursue success and build a better future.

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751For years, parents, grandparents and other relatives have crowded into the parking lots at Jamesville-Dewitt elementary schools to watch their costumed children take part in the traditional outdoor Halloween parade.

When it rained, parents crowded inside the halls of the school instead to wave to their children as they marched past in their Halloween finest.

The days of the public Halloween parade in elementary schools at J-D and in other Central New York schools are over - a casualty of fear over mass shootings.

School districts everywhere are tightening security, and in many cases that means parents and relatives have less access to events involving their children while they are in school.

At J-D, the Halloween parade was eliminated due to safety and security concerns said J-D Superintendent Alice Kendrick.

"We have had literally hundreds of adults attending these events with no ability to monitor who is present,'' Kendrick said. "This is an unacceptable risk to student safety. This number of visitors is too large for any of our spaces including the gym and the cafeteria to bring the event inside safely. "

Other districts such as Fayetteville-Manlius and West Genesee also have eliminated their public Halloween parades. Other districts such as East Syracuse Minoa still allow them.

Across Central New York, school districts are taking steps like these - and others - to boost safety and security in light of the concern over school shootings.

Jody Manning, superintendent of the Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services, said schools are working to prevent or stop threats.

"Of course, no one can guarantee that nothing bad will happen, but we can guarantee that we will do everything possible and reasonable to provide a safe and conducive learning and teaching environment for our students and staff," Manning said.

Among the measures area school districts are taking:

Hiring school resource officers for the first time - or adding more of them in the district. For example, Fayetteville-Manlius has hired an additional School Information Resource Officer (SIRO), as has West Genesee. Westhill and J-D are among those adding SROs for the first time. Some districts -such as Rome in Oneida County - have added several SROs.

Active shooter training- numerous school districts are training their staff on how to react properly to an emergency or crisis such as a shooting. Among the districts which are training staff are Baldwinsville, ESM, Fabius-Pompey, F-M, LaFayette, North Syracuse, West Genesee and OCM BOCES.

Several districts are using new school safety software that helps schools lay out their safety emergency plans. This software also can provide police with virtual maps of each space in a school, and can allow districts to take real-time attendance in the event of a crisis where students are in different rooms. Cazenovia, Chittenango, Liverpool, West Genesee, J-D, Marcellus, Onondaga Central and Tully are among the districts using this software.

The Syracuse City School District is among several schools using special visitor management software that scans a visitor's driver's license to check for registered sex offender status.

Building improvements - schools are adding everything from bullet-resistant film windows, stronger doors, panic buttons for staff, 360-degree security cameras and motion-sensor cameras that send alarms to police and district officials if someone tries to enter a building by force at a locked entry point. School officials say they are reluctant to share specifics on these measures for added security.

Many schools are adding more counselors, social workers and mental health programs to help students and improve school culture, officials say.

Restricting access: Schools are more closely monitoring visitors to the schools. J-D is among schools that have stopped allowing lunchroom volunteers, and all non-PTG sponsored after-school activities are now being held at the J-D high school where a guard is on patrol.

Forgot your backpack - no knocking on the door asking the custodian to let you in. Schools are prohibiting after-hours access.

"Sadly, the open-door policies that existed in schools in the pre-1990s no longer exist due to the need for increased security,'' Liverpool school officials said. "It is expected that all of our schools check the background of every individual who gains access to our buildings."ALEXANDRIA BAY, N.Y. -- You don't have to give up wine slushies just because the New York State Fair is over.

You can always make them at home: Get a bottle of (not too expensive) wine, some fruit flavorings, sugar and ice, pop it all into a blender and you're good to go.(See recipes below).

One veteran slushie vendor at the Fair's Wine Court makes it even easier.

Thousand Island Winery in Alexandria Bay makes two versions of what it calls the New York Wine Slushy in a bottle. You can buy it at liquor stores, then take it home, transfer to a plastic container, cup or bag, and freeze. (Don't freeze the bottle).

The Thousand Islands' make-at-home slushies come in two flavors -- Berry's Bay Blaster and Tropical Island Twist.

They've been available for about two years, and are now in 238 stores across the state. Because they contain wine, they can be sold in liquor stores, and at wineries and other farm beverage producers, but not groceries.

It's all part of the continuing evolution of the slushie, which was first introduced to the State Fair in 1991 by the Merritt Estate Winery of Chautauqua County.

Merritt continues its own innovations, introducing its mobile Slush Bus to bring slushies to fairs and events.

And, of course, many wineries across the state sell slushies in their tasting rooms in the warm months, if not year-round. That includes Three Brothers near Geneva and Hazlitt 1852 on Seneca Lake and Thousand Islands in Alex Bay.

Thousand Islands, recently named the Best New York State Winery by Taste of Home magazine, makes its wine primarily from cold-hardy grapes like Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, La Crescent and Marquette.

At the New York State Fair, and at the winery tasting rooms, slushies are typically made from a combination of wine and a sweet mixer (often lemon-lime), which is then frozen in a slushie machine. The standard size is 10 ounces, and the typical price is $5. Although wine by itself is usually 12 to 15 percent alcohol, a slushie, after mixing, is about 5 percent (similar to a Budweiser or other mainstream beer.

Making them at home is fairly simple. Here are two recipes, including one for the hot trend in slushies, those made from rose wine:

Wine Slushie

From allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 cup ice, or as needed

1/2 of a 750-ml bottle red wine (the recipe suggests Hazlitt's Red Cat)

1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen concentrated fruit punch

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Place ice in a blender; add red wine, fruit punch, and confectioners' sugar. Blend mixture until ice is evenly chopped and mixture is slushie-consistency, adding more ice if desired.

Frose

From liquor.com

Ingredients:

1 750-ml bottle Rose (something full-bodied and dark in color, such as a pinot noir- or merlot-based version)

1/3 cup Simple syrup

1 ounce Aperol

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

lemon twists for garnish

Directions:

Pour the wine into a 13 x 9" baking pan, and place in the freezer for up to 6 hours or until almost solid. Remove the mixture and scrape into a blender, chopping up the larger icy bits. Add the remaining ingredients along with 3/4 cup crushed ice to the blender, and puree until thickened. Divide evenly into coupe glasses. Garnish with lemon twists.

Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.Syracuse, N.Y. -- The cows and bunnies have gone home, the butter sculpture is being chopped up and the numbers have been tallied: More people than ever came to the New York State Fair this year: 1,279,010 people.

That's a 10 percent increase from last year. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo stopped back at the fair Monday to talk about the success. He credited the state's decision to pour money into the fairgrounds in recent years. Among those are improvements to the Midway and the new Exposition Center building.

"You had this great fairgrounds, that had such potential," Cuomo said at the fair Monday. "The state owned it, but did very little with it. And that's the story of Central New York....tremendous potential unrealized."

But with thick crowds came some trouble in the fair's new parking lot and at Chevy Court.

The new $27 million lot, paved just before the fair began, had spaces that were too narrow for many cars. Some wider spots were added, but many of the spots were still quite tight. State troopers said the traffic flow in the new lot was better than in the past, but they were still working out the best way to direct traffic.

Many people took shuttle buses to concerts at the Amp to avoid parking and traffic problems during the fair. That created some trouble when the Shinedown/Godsmack concert was delayed because of the rain. Fans who took the bus to sit on the lawn were given no place to wait out the rain. Then bus service ended well before the concert did, leaving fans with the choice of skipping the concert or finding a ride at the end.

The free Chevy Court concerts saw record attendance during the fair. The biggest free concert was A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, which drew more than 40,000 fans.

But that crowd wasn't without problems. There were several fights during the concert and state troopers had to call in the Solvay Fire Department for help getting 30 teens off the roof of the Chevy Court restrooms. The kids had climbed up there to watch the concert.

Two women went to the hospital that evening after a fight on Restaurant Row. And three people were charged with disorderly conduct.

There were also the visits by politicians to eat their annual sausage sandwich. Cynthia Nixon, the "Sex and the City" star running against Cuomo, had a hot sausage sandwich and white milk while discussing politics and I-81.

Mostly, though, the fair offered the same end-of-summer fun that it has for generations.

There were rides and games and a chance to be silly with an audience:

There were big-fish selfie-stations, butterflies and a big birthday:

Paul Basilio, of Basilio's sausage stand, turned 90. He celebrated his day working at the fair, talking to all of the people and reminding us of the magic that happens on the acres of blacktop that fill with people for 13 days, then empty out to wait for another summer.

Marnie Eisenstadt is an enterprise reporter who writes about people, life and culture in Central New York. Have an idea or question? Contact her anytime: email | twitter | Facebook | 315-470-2246Australia, Indonesia Finalize Trade Agreement

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

04 September 2018

Australia and Indonesia have concluded negotiations on a new trading agreement that will eliminate tariffs on a range of products.

On August 31, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced the conclusion of the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA).

Morrison and his Minister for Trade, Simon Birmingham, said in a statement: "IA-CEPA will support Australian industrial producers in areas such as steel, copper, and plastics. Australian service industries including health, mining, telecommunications, tourism, and education will also have greater access to Indonesia's growing economy."

In addition, Australian farmers will be able to export 500,000 tonnes of feed grains, such as wheat, into Indonesia tariff free.

Morrison told reporters that "when you're getting rid of tariffs, you're basically taking taxes off things that are being bought in Australia and our key imports that come out of Indonesia  particularly petroleum and furniture and... wood and even footwear  these are things that will no longer have tariffs on them."

Australia and Indonesia agreed in November 2010 to negotiate a free trade agreement. Negotiations stalled, with only two rounds of talks held between 2010 and July 2013. Negotiations were then "reactivated" in March 2016, following a three-year hiatus.

Both sides agreed to commit to conclude negotiations on the broader Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

The announcement was welcomed by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. CEO James Pearson said: "We hope that [the] announcement, and the prospect of a formal signing in the near future, will boost trade and investment between our two nations, and build on the fact that Indonesia and Australia are already partners, along with the rest of ASEAN, in our long-standing trade agreement AANZFTA [the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA]."

However, Pearson warned that Australia must do more to remain competitive, with competition for global markets becoming more intense and the prospect of trade wars looming. He said: "Australia is already suffering from a decline in our ranking in international competitiveness and international trade, which means less investment, fewer jobs, and missed opportunities for Australian businesses."Australian PM Planning New SME Tax Changes

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

04 September 2018

Australia's new Prime Minister has said his Government is working on plans to help improve the tax competitiveness of small businesses.

Former Treasurer and now Prime Minister Scott Morrison had been at the forefront of the Government's two-year battle to pass a package of company tax cuts. He had sought to increase the turnover threshold for access to the small business tax rate and to reduce the headline rate to 25 percent for all firms by 2026. In August, the Senate rejected the Government's proposals, despite a last-minute offer by the Government to exclude the big banks from the lower rate.

Morrison told reporters that he respected the Senate's decision. His Government "will not be taking the full Enterprise Tax Plan forward that we presented to the Parliament."

However, Morrison did add that his Cabinet will be "bringing forward a new competitive tax plan for small- and medium-sized businesses."

Last year, Morrison succeeded in passing legislation to lower the SME rate from 28.5 percent to 27.5 percent from the 2016-17 tax year. The legislation also increased the ceiling turnover for the rate from AUD2m (USD1.5m) to AUD10m for 2016-17, to AUD25m for 2017-18, and to AUD50m from 2018-19.

The headline company tax rate is 30 percent.Finnish Government Reaches 2019 Budget Agreement

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

04 September 2018

A number of incentives have been included in the Finnish Government's 2019 Budget to encourage investment in the shares of both small and listed companies.

The Budget, agreed by the Government on August 29, directs the Finnish tax administration to draw up guidelines later this year to enable employees to obtain shares in their employer at a lower price than a private investor "without tax consequences."

It is also proposed that rules be drawn up easing the tax rules surrounding the ownership of stock options by employees of unlisted start-up companies. The aim is that any gains made from holding options will, in general, be taxed as capital income, and the tax paid only when such gains are realized.

The Budget also included plans to introduce a new tax-privileged equity savings account for retail investors, allowing them to invest in listed shares up to a maximum amount of EUR50,000 (USD58,400).

In other measures, the Budget restricts the the deductibility of interest paid on mortgages to 25 percent of the interest.

While the personal income tax burden will remain largely unchanged next year, the Government will ease tax on low income earners by increasing the tax-free allowance, the earned income deduction, and the pension income allowance.Why it matters: Samsung's revised mobile strategy is surprising but in the wake of slowing flagship sales, the company clearly feels that changes are necessary. There are more questions than answers as of now but it'll be extremely interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.

Flagship smartphone buyers have traditionally been the first to get their hands on a companys flashy new features but thatll no longer be the case at Samsung.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Samsung mobile boss DJ Koh said the company is changing its strategy amid a slowdown in the smartphone industry.

In the past, I brought the new technology and differentiation to the flagship model and then moved to the mid-end. But I have changed my strategy from this year to bring technology and differentiation points starting from the mid-end.

Kohs new strategy is to focus on millennials who cannot afford the latest flagship but still want a device packed with meaningful innovation. By differentiating mid-range devices, Koh said, theyll be able to achieve this goal.

Samsungs new strategy is interesting, to say the least, and its evoking all sorts of scenarios on how it could play out  both good and bad.

Experimenting with potentially gimmicky features on high-end phones is expensive. Letting buyers sort out the truly useful new features from the gimmicks at a more affordable price point seems to make sense yet at the same time, it cannibalizes the high-end market as flagship buyers will have less of an incentive to buy expensive phones. Aside from faster core hardware, they know they arent going to get any new or exclusive features and that feels like a mistake.

Also, will Samsungs new strategy impact the rising price of flagships? Has Samsung come to realize that $1,000+ flagships were a mistake? Will mid-range devices become more expensive? Is Samsung essentially conceding the high-end market to Apple?Why it matters: Governments around the world are growing increasingly frustrated with tech companies for failing to comply with requests for customer data. This represents a joint effort to pressure tech companies to comply with the law while trying to reassure citizens that encryption is important for cyber security.

The members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom) have issued a joint statement asking tech companies to essentially open backdoors into encryption in order to allow for law enforcement and national security.

The increasing use and sophistication of certain encryption designs present challenges for nations in combatting serious crimes and threats to national and global security. Many of the same means of encryption that are being used to protect personal, commercial and government information are also being used by criminals, including child sex offenders, terrorists and organized crime groups to frustrate investigations and avoid detection and prosecution.

The Five Eyes basically argue that providers of information and communications technology and services have a responsibility to provide access to lawfully obtained data and that cooperation with the government constitutes a mutual benefit. The statement goes on to say that despite the promulgation of encrypted services by tech companies, those companies are still subject to the rule of law and must comply with laws that grant access to data in order for the governments to fulfill their duty to protect their citizens from harm.

The statement tries to be conciliatory in by promising that tech companies should do this voluntarily and that the technological means that one company uses to comply with government requests doesnt have to be the same means that another company uses and neither will the governments prefer one method over another. However, the governments warn that any further impediments to access data may result in other technological, enforcement, legislative, or other measures in order to ensure compliance.

In a further effort to assuage the fears of civil liberties advocates, the Five Eyes also released a joint memo that details their commitment to the importance of a free and open internet, countering terrorism, cyber security, border control, countering foreign interference, and encryption.

The issue of getting tech companies to allow access to private customer data has been ongoing for quite a while. Apple infamously dealt with this in the aftermath of the San Bernadino terrorist attack while Facebook has been in recent litigation with the U.S. Department of Justice for access to encrypted Messenger data.

Given how driven many large tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple are to reinforce encryption on the web and proprietary messaging applications, governments around the world will likely step up attempts to force those companies to comply with data requests.A hot potato: Russia has reason to believe that a leak discovered in its Soyuz spacecraft docked aboard the ISS was caused by human hands. But, was it an accident or intentional sabotage?

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were on alert last week after a small hole was discovered in the orbital compartment of the docked Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. The hole measured just two millimeters in diameter but was large enough to cause a minor reduction in pressure aboard the space station.

Fortunately, crew members were able to plug the hole using an epoxy-coated gauze wipe. According to NASA, the crew was never in any danger and normal work resumed on Friday.

Initial reports suggested the hole may have been caused by a tiny meteorite impact but this week, the narrative seems to be evolving into one of potential sabotage.

Russian news agency TASS said in a recent report that Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of Russias state space corporation Roscosmos, has dismissed the meteorite theory because the spaceships hull was evidently impacted from inside.

Its too early to say what happened for sure, Rogozin said, but the damage was done by a human hand as there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface. We dont reject any theories, he said.

The Roscosmos boss said the agency aims to find out if it was an accident or deliberate measure and whether it took place on Earth or in space. Now it is essential to see the reason, to learn the name of the one responsible for that. And we will find out, without fail," he vowed.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries has issued a guideline on how to report and help stranded or floating dolphins in Florida.

The effort is a response to the alarming number of dolphins that have died in the U.S. Southwest coast, including in the counties of Collier, Charlotte, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Sarasota, and Pinellas since July.

Red Tide Killing Local Dolphin Population

The federal wildlife officials have declared an Unusual Mortality Event (EME), which "involves a significant die-off of any marine mammal population" that demands immediate response, in Southwest Florida. In November, a red tide was confirmed, but although there were dolphin deaths, the number remained in the normal range.

However, beginning in July, the number of the death of the marine mammals in connection to the red tide has doubled. In August, nine bottleneck dolphins were found in Sarasota County alone within 36 hours. Across the Southwest coast, 15 bottleneck dolphins reportedly died within two weeks.

The unprecedented deaths of dolphins in Florida are alarming experts and posing a health threat to the locals. Governor Rick Scott already declared a state of emergency because of the red tide.

The dinoflagellate (Karenia brevis) found at low levels in Gulf waters is responsible for the red tide. Experts who have examined several corpses of dolphins have confirmed that the deaths were related to the red tide.

"In red tide events, we know the animals often die acutely with high levels of brevetoxins in their bodies and in their stomachs," stated veterinarian Teri Rowles. "But ... even when the bloom is gone we may see an increase in mortality."

Florida has experienced a similar red tide event from 2005 to 2006, killing multispecies, including 190 dolphins.

How To Help Floating/Stranded Dolphins

The best way to help a stranded or floating dolphin is to report sightings to authorities. In case an animal is stranded on the beach, whether dead or alive, call the Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline (877-942-5343/877-WHALE HELP).

NOAA is instructing bystanders not to approach or touch dolphins until rescuers arrive because they might be dangerous or might be carrying a disease. Authorities are also imploring everyone not to push a dolphin back to water even if it is still alive because it might be sick or injured.

People can help by keeping the animal moist and cool by splashing water over its body or by using wet towels. Check that the blowhole is also not obstructed, but only when it is safe (stay away from head and tail).

Keep crowds away from the animal and encourage everyone to be a little quieter in order to avoid causing further distress to the stranded mammal.

A stranded or dead dolphin are federally protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Do not harm not collect any parts of the animal.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Neil Armstrong's biopic, First Man, had garnered controversy even before it officially showed in theaters because of the absence of the American flag planting scene.

The second man on the moon, 88-year old retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin, recently tweeted a photo of the American flag planted during their landing with the hashtag #proudtobeanAmerican. Additionally, he retweeted a picture of him saluting next to a blown-up version of the same photo.

Controversy Surrounding 'First Man'

The decision of Oscar-winning director Damian Chazelle to exclude the flag planting in his movie is obvious. Furthermore, the portrayal of Aldrin in the scene is not pleasing as he is represented as an obnoxious and loud individual.

First Man stars actor Ryan Gosling in the lead role, portraying Neil Armstrong, the first man who stepped on the moon. The film tells the story of how the United States competed with the Soviet Union in the space race and takes its audience to the historic moon landing in 1969. Armstrong died in 2012 at the age of 82.

Ryan Gosling's Stand

Gosling, a Canadian actor, defended Chazelle's decision to omit the scene. At the Venice Film Festival, he said that it was done deliberately because landing on the moon transcends borders and countries. Gosling also stated that they chose to see it as a human achievement.

Furthermore, Gosling added that Armstrong was humble and deflected the focus away from him and to the 400,000 people who helped in making the Apollo mission a big success.

According to the actor, Armstrong constantly reminded everyone that he was just the tip of the iceberg and did not even see himself as an American hero.

However, many people criticized Gosling for defending the film's reflection on the moon landing including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

This is total lunacy. And a disservice at a time when our people need reminders of what we can achieve when we work together. The American people paid for that mission,on rockets built by Americans,with American technology & carrying American astronauts. It wasnt a UN mission. https://t.co/eGwBq7hj8C  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 31, 2018

Notably, the placing of the U.S. flag on the moon became controversial because of debates over whether or not it should be a United Nations flag instead.

However, Armstrong noted that his job was to get the American flag to the moon because the Congress decided that the Apollo 11 mission was the country's project.

"The American people paid for that mission, on rockets built by Americans, with American technology & carrying American astronauts. It wasn't a UN mission," Rubio also tweeted.

The film, based on a biography by James Hansen, is expected to amass Oscar awards. The movie also stars Claire Foy. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday on Aug. 29.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Every year, male elk face a tough decision: either grow bigger antlers to be able to attract mates or keep their old antlers longer to better protect themselves against predators such as wolves.

The conundrum is the focus of a new study by researchers from the University of Montana who studied the elk population in the Yellowstone National Park.

Purpose Of Elk Antlers

To understand the problem of male elks, it is important to know what antlers are used for.

The antlers growing on the heads of male elk have two purposes. The first is to attract female elk, with bigger antlers making them more preferable mates. In addition, male elk may lock their antlers in battle to win the favor of a female elk.

The antlers, however, have an important secondary function, and that is to protect themselves from predators. In Yellowstone National Park, these predators include wolves, which are among the most intelligent hunters in the animal kingdom.

Male Elks: Bigger Antlers Or Safety?

A study by University of Montana researchers, published in the Nature Ecology & Evolution journal, focused on a decision that male elk need to make each year.

Elk regrow their antlers every year, with the antlers becoming bigger and better, as more time is provided for their growth. Some elk drop their antlers to start growing new ones by early March, while others, mostly the younger elk, keep their antlers until the end of April. This gives the male elk several months before mating season in the fall.

It was unclear why the male elk shed their old antlers in different times, but wildlife biologists believe that they have found their answer while observing the elk and wolves in Yellowstone National Park. Analyzing data over a dozen years, the researchers determine that wolves target male elk that have lost their antlers. Wolves hunt male elk with no antlers even if they are healthy, which is contrary to previous knowledge that the predators focus their hunt on weak or sick prey.

The discovery revealed the tough decision that male elk face each year. If they shed their antlers early, they increase their chances of finding a partner in the next mating season but also with a higher risk of falling prey to wolves because they have no antlers to protect themselves. If they keep their old antlers on longer, they will be safer but may be less attractive when mating season rolls in.

The researchers claim that this decision likely influences the evolution of the species over time. North American deer, in particular, choose to retain their antlers longer, choosing their safety over being a preferential mating partner.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.As Louisianas deal with Bell Helicopter for a Lafayette manufacturing facility was falling apart over the past month, state officials offered up a last-ditch proposal to keep the deal alive, records show.

At a meeting on July 25, and in phone conversations in August, Louisiana Economic Development proposed restructuring the agreement, substantially reducing the incentives the company would get, according to correspondence obtained through a public records request.

The state economic development department is in litigation with Bell and is seeking to claw back at least $16.8 million for Bells alleged violation of an agreement for a once-promising economic development project, and for falling well short of its goal of 95 workers. Under the original agreement, the company was supposed to bring 115 jobs, and the state funded a $26 million hangar facility at the Lafayette Regional Airport for the company to operate in.

But the last-ditch proposal, which would have been the second time the agreement was changed since being announced in 2013, never came to pass. Bell Helicopter rejected the proposal, according to a letter, and then in late August moved out of the $26 million facility. Only 22 of a promised 95 workers were employed when Bell left.

LED has proposed an option that the CEA (cooperative endeavor agreement) be restructured and that the associated incentives be substantially diminished, Bell wrote in the Aug. 14 letter, referencing the meeting in Baton Rouge and phone conversations between the two sides. This option incorrectly presumes that Bell defaulted in its obligations and that LED was justified in its termination of the CEA.

Instead, the company offered up a settlement to walk away: Bell would pay $8 million  the $16 million penalty outlined in the existing agreement, minus the cost of a free $4.6 million helicopter it gave to Louisiana State Police and other costs. The state shot it down.

It is still not entirely clear how the agreement came to include a free helicopter for Louisiana State Police. Louisiana Economic Development said previously the helicopter was "accepted by the state in return for allowing Bell Helicopter to repurpose" the Lafayette facility to do sub-assembly work on a different model of aircraft than first proposed.

Days later, after neither side could come to an agreement, Bell filed suit in state court in Baton Rouge, seeking to prevent the state from getting its money back for the failed deal. The state responded, seeking at least $16.8 million from the company.

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The litigation is an acrimonious end to a once-promising economic development project, announced first in 2013 by Gov. Bobby Jindal, then revised last year by Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration after the company fell short.

Neither Bell nor Louisiana Economic Development would comment on the last-minute offer, or Bell's proposed settlement, outlined a week before the company filed suit in court.

Secretary Don Pierson said in a statement, As Louisiana Economic Development has previously asserted, Bell Helicopter has failed to abide by the terms and conditions of the CEA and amended CEA, and failed to take commercially reasonable efforts and steps to commence continuous operations in Lafayette. Due to pending litigation, we have no further response to this request.

Bell has argued it did not default on its agreement with the state and should not be required to pay back any funds. The company also said it offered to pay $16.5 million to Louisiana in 2016 to walk away from the deal, but the state, early in Edwards tenure, insisted the company find another use for the facility. The state denied that claim in a legal response.

In court filings, the state painted the picture of Bell as a bad actor that secretly moved its operations to Texas, all while trying to get Louisiana to agree to a revised deal where a sister company would move into the Lafayette facility to do maintenance work.

In the meantime, Bell was seeking tax breaks in Fort Worth for a factory of the future that would create 400 jobs, Louisiana Economic Development said, even though it was failing to meet hiring and operations promises in Louisiana.

Bell has said it could not meet its original promises made in 2013 to construct Model 505 aircraft after global helicopter demand fell dramatically.

Then, after striking the new agreement to do cabin sub-assembly for a different type of helicopter, the Model 525, a fiery test crash of that aircraft over Italy, Texas, which killed two pilots, delayed the federal certification process for the craft and sales. The company said that is part of the reason operations were delayed but said it was not out of compliance with the agreement.In a huge change from previous efforts, the latest push to widen Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge enjoys bipartisan political support, a source of financing and months of momentum.

Whether it can overcome any organized community opposition, which has already killed two earlier bids, is the key question.

"There are still a lot of questions to be answered," said Sal Christina, a member of the influential Southside Civic Association, which represents 1,800 households on the south side of Perkins Road.

The newest plan was rolled out three times last week, including two public meetings in Baton Rouge and one in Addis.

At least 500 people attended the gatherings, state officials said.

+9 Thoughts on I-10 widening plan? Some support it; others worry about 'impact' Anxious residents got their first detailed look Tuesday night at state plans to widen Interstate 10 between the Mississippi River bridge and t

The $360 million package would add a new lane in each direction for much of the stretch between the Mississippi River bridge and the I-10/12 split.

It would close on-and off-ramps at Perkins Road, replace bridges that cross City Park lakes and add a westbound flyover ramp between the split and College Drive.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has made the I-10 expansion a key priority.

That is a marked departure from the past, when governors stayed on the sidelines when similar efforts were launched.

The state announced on Friday that it had reached agreement with federal officials on plans to finance the work, which will rely on bonds to be repaid over 12 years.

Agreement on financing for I-10 expansion, other work signed; here are next steps State and federal officials have reached agreement on plans for Louisiana to borrow up to $650 million to widen Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge a

During earlier debates, how to pay for the expansion, even if it won political and community support, was always a key stumbling block.

In 2001, then-Mayor-President Bobby Simpson helped kill a $200 million version of the same plan.

Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the I-10 plan.

"Citizens have just had it with elevated levels of stress and traffic," Broome said last week. "It is one of the reasons there is a sense of urgency."

Former state Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Sherri LeBas tried to revive the issue in 2011, but that push never gained traction.

This time is different, LeBas said, because citizens are fed up with daily traffic gridlock.

"I think they have finally gotten to the point, the tipping point, to where people are saying 'You know what? It is time to widen I-10.'"

The latest plan has won approval from the Joint Legislative Committee on Transportation, Joint Committee on the Budget and the State Bond Commission.

Adam Knapp, president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, said the widening of I-10, combined with other area road projects, means Baton Rouge could get off the list of most congested mid-sized cities in America.

"This should have been done 20 years ago," Knapp said.

"There is an overwhelming cry that traffic has to be fixed," he said. "So while we have to be very conscious in the corridor, we have to deal with the traffic congestion problem."

That said, the plan has reawakened anxiety in the Perkins Road overpass area and elsewhere.

Davis Rohrer, executive director of the Downtown Development District, said he has heard concerns from some of those businesses.

Just the announcement that a single restaurant could be a casualty of an expanded I-10 sparked concerns and angst before the first public meeting.

The popular gathering spot with the uncertain future is Overpass Merchant, 2904 Perkins Road.

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It is one of four businesses and 17 homes that DOTD officials say will be impacted by the expansion.

The age-old worry is that a wider I-10 will doom one of the most distinctive parts of Baton Rouge.

"People are just worried about what the impact will be," Christina said. "People are a little more nervous about everything."

Shawn Wilson, secretary for DOTD, addressed the Southside Civic Association on Aug. 27.

Christina was complimentary of how DOTD officials are reaching out  another contrast with previous widening plans.

"He (Wilson) seems to be very open," Christina said. "He wants to make it a transparent process."

State Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, said while the widening plan is early in the process, he is generally getting positive feedback on the plan.

But Claitor said he is "still hearing pushback from some people," including concerns their homes or business could be in the path of the expansion.

"So that uncertainty of 'am I in or am I out' has really been causing some trepidation for people," he said.

Some who attended the three meetings questioned whether a wider I-10 would deliver major traffic relief.

Others are skeptical that $360 million will finance all of the promised work, including roads made of less noisy reinforced concrete rather than today's steel.

Whether the opposition grows and organizes, or even results in a potentially time-consuming lawsuit, is unknown.

The widening work is expected to take five to seven years.

The project has won praise from both Republican and Democrat lawmakers since the governor announced it on Jan. 12.

"I think it is going to be great for the community," said former House Transportation Committee Chairman Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville.

State Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, who sponsored the failed gas tax hike last year, said the fact that the state can come up with $360 million for the work without a tax hike is a big plus.

Rohrer said that, while he has concern about some of the work on arteries near downtown, the I-10 widening plan appears positive overall.

The plan would nearly double the state's investment in wider roads in the Baton Rouge area in recent years.

At least $389 million has or is being spent to widen I-10 from the split to La. 73, and on I-12 from O'Neal Lane to Satsuma.

Knapp cited the ongoing, $72 million expansion of I-10 from Highland Road to La. Hwy. 73, and the possibility voters in December will approve Broome's half-cent sales tax hike to fund $912 million in road projects.

"But all of them need the I-10 widening," he said. "Nothing works if you don't do the I-10 widening piece of this."

Some of the 17 houses in the path of the work, including nine or 10 rental properties, are between Washington Street and Perkins Road, state officials said.

+2 I-10 widening to dramatically improve traffic, but impact 17 homes, 4 shops, officials say The $360 million widening of Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge means the state will buy at least 17 homes, add up to nine new sections of sound wal

Criticism from residents of the Washington Street area has helped kill previous efforts to widen I-10.

State Rep. Patricia Smith, D-Baton Rouge, whose House district includes part of the area, said she hopes to arrange private meetings between affected homeowners and top DOTD officials.

But Smith said things are different this time compared with earlier efforts to widen the interstate.

"It is different because of the fact there is less impact than there was before in what they were trying to do," Smith said. "There is much less of an impact."Advocate Photo by MARK BALLARD  Sen, Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans, sponsored legislation in 2016 that would survey students on their sexual activity to combat Louisianas high rate of sexually transmitted diseases. The bill was defeated.Sewerage and Water Board Executive Director Ghassan Korban speaks during the press conference about updates in severe weather preparations at City Hall in New Orleans, Monday, Sept. 3, 2018. Tropical Storm Gordon is projected to be a low level hurricane by the time it hits landfall, according to the National Weather Center.Yes. Covid cases have been low and the city is ready

No. It's way too soon, especially with the holiday season

Do what you want, but I'm still wearing a mask

Def keeping my plague doctor costume for 2022

Vote

View ResultsAs Tropical Storm Gordon strengthened Monday over the Gulf of Mexico, officials across southeast Louisiana were bracing for its possible effects, as the exact track of the storm remained unclear.

As of Monday night, Gordon was a tropical storm in the east-central Gulf projected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane before landfall early Wednesday morning.

The location of that landfall is crucial, as the eastern side of the storm poses the greatest rain and storm surge threat, which forecasters say will be the primary concerns with this system.

The National Hurricane Center was consistent Monday in placing New Orleans on the drier, western side of the track, with a landfall likely somewhere along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, though forecasters noted that computer models had been windshield-wipering between farther east and west tracks over the day.

With a short timeframe, though  with the storm moving briskly around 15-17 mph across the Gulf  Gov. John Bel Edwards decided the threat was enough to issue a state of emergency Monday afternoon, activating 200 members of the National Guard as well as high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters.

"It is critically important to remember this storm has every possibility to track in our direction," Edwards said. "The storm is still a threat. No one should think we're out of the woods yet."

In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell also declared a state of emergency and said most city offices would be closed Tuesday. In addition, public and Catholic schools across the city will be closed Tuesday.

That was also the case outside the city, as all public and Catholic schools in Jefferson, St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes will be closed Tuesday.

As of Monday evening, no area universities had announced closures except for Southern University at New Orleans.

With rainfall totals of over 6 inches possible in areas caught in rain bands, Cantrell said New Orleans residents could start parking cars on neutral grounds starting at 2 p.m. Tuesday, provided they do not block streetcar tracks or traffic.

She also said the citys pumps are ready to handle the rain, with 116 out of 120 pumps available and with more power than what is needed to run the entire drainage system.

Can't see video below? Click here.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts said his parish is also prepared for the potential of heavy rainfall, with all pumping stations staffed and operational.

Both parishes have also issued voluntary evacuation orders for areas outside flood protection levees. That includes the communities of Venetian Isles, Lake Catherine and Irish Bayou in New Orleans and Grand Isle in Jefferson.

It is a voluntary evacuation per our mayor, but please evaluate the situation and make a sound decision for your family, said City Councilwoman Cyndi Nguyen, whose district includes the areas of New Orleans under the voluntary order. Do not procrastinate.

As of Monday, no other parishes in the New Orleans area had issued any sort of evacuation order, but Roberts said that should the storm's projected path shift farther west, Jefferson might look at calling a voluntary evacuation for Lafitte, Crown Point and Barataria.

But officials were still preparing for possible flooding, as sandbag distribution locations opened in St. Tammany, St. Charles, St. John, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes.

The main threat to areas outside of levee protection is storm surge, and the National Hurricane Center issued a storm surge warning for an area from Shell Beach in St. Bernard Parish to Dauphin Island in Alabama, with the potential for water to rise up to 5 feet above normal tides in that area.

Some roads near waterways had already started seeing flooding Monday. Roberts said he expects La. 1, the road to Port Fourchon and Grand Isle, will have to be closed.

The threat of rain will also be increased because of all the precipitation dropped over the area the last few days as part of an unrelated tropical wave.

National Weather Service forecaster Kevin Gilmore said rain will be slower to drain off naturally since the soil is already saturated. He added that because trees are saturated, theyll be more likely to fall in straight-line winds, increasing the risk of power outages.

Depending on how far west the storm tracks, rain, rather than high winds, will likely be the chief threat to the entire area.

As such, officials across the region urged residents who have catch basins near their homes to clean them out, and Cantrell said residents in New Orleans should call 311 if they want to report one in need of servicing.

Should heavy rain fall over the city, it will present a major test for the Sewerage & Water Board, whose pumps have experienced numerous problems over past years, and whose leadership has been in almost constant flux since severe flooding in early August 2017 revealed top officials had made misleading statements about the condition of the pumps.

Overseeing the organization will be Ghassan Korban, its new executive director. Tuesday is his first full day on the job.

The only thing Im a little upset about is that I didnt get the chance to talk to the powers that be and name the tropical storm Ghassan,  he said jokingly at a news conference Monday.

Korban, who previously was head of Milwaukees Department of Public Works, said he expects a seamless transition as he takes over the organization.

As of Monday, forecasters expected Gordon to make landfall by early Wednesday morning and move quickly out of the area.

The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning for the area from the mouth of the Pearl River eastward to the Alabama-Florida border.

Beyond that, it had a tropical storm warning in effect eastward from the Alabama-Florida border to the Okaloosa-Walton County line, and westward from the mouth of the Pearl to Morgan City. That included Lake Pontchartrain and the entire New Orleans area, and extended inland to include Baton Rouge and McComb and Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

A hurricane warning means winds of 74 mph or higher are expected within 36 hours. A tropical storm warning means winds of 39 mph to 73 mph are expected within that timespan.Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Monday afternoon as Tropical Storm Gordon churns in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of its expected arrival in southeast Louisiana.

The National Guard will send 200 guardsmen to southeast Louisiana Tuesday morning, along with high water vehicles, boats and helicopters to assist in preparations for the coming storm.

Edwards said the latest National Weather Service forecast has the storm's track moving slightly to the east. New Orleans and Baton Rouge are still in the storm forecast's possible track, but just to the west of where the storm is expected to hit. Still, the threat of severe weather continues in Louisiana.

"It is critically important to remember this storm has every possibility to track in our direction," Edwards said. "The storm is still a threat. No one should think we're out of the woods yet."

Can't see video below? Click here.

Gordon could possibly make landfall late Tuesday or Tuesday night as a Category 1 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said Monday.

Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

The latest projected path brings Gordon ashore somewhere along the Mississippi coast between the mouth of the Pearl River to the Alabama-Florida Border.

All of southeast Louisiana is under a tropical storm warning and a flash flood watch.

Impacts for the area will be heavy rain, higher-than-normal tides and tropical storm-force winds. Edwards said tropical storm force winds could arrive in southeast Louisiana as early as 2 p.m. Tuesday, hitting Plaquemines first.

Edwards urged Louisiana residents to update their emergency plans ahead of the storm, noting that additional updates will be posted at emergency.la.gov and the governor's website. Up-to-the-minute road conditions can also be seen at 511la.org as the storm moves in.

Edwards said the emergency response team will meet Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. for another briefing with a news conference to follow.

"Nobody should panic, but everyone should take this seriously," Edwards said.In Lake County, with river levels swollen and the ground soaked, significant additional rains could cause flooding of structures and other more serious impacts, Warner said. Also, the National Weather Service was calling for a chance of thunderstorms and a good chance of showers in Chicago and its collar counties.The death of Ponchatoula businessman Dave Berwick two days after he had been transferred from the Tangipahoa Parish Jail to a hospital was due to natural causes, Tangipahoa Parish Coroner Rick Foster said Friday.

Berwick, 69, had been held in the jail for 12 days before he died in July from sepsis and pneumonia, Foster said. He also had cellulitis in his leg and a number of other ailments.

The FBI began probing the death after graphic pictures circulated on Facebook showing sores on Berwick's body, accompanied by posts alleging that he had been beaten while in the jail. A column in a local newspaper said he had been beaten after being booked.

Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards vehemently denied those allegations. During Berwick's time in the jail, medical staff had seen him "hundreds of times," Edwards said at the time.

Berwick's autopsy showed there was no physical trauma on his body, Foster said. When he was admitted to the hospital, Berwick "denied any recent injury or trauma," according to a copy of the autopsy obtained by The Advocate. The autopsy also showed that all of Berwick's medications were within the levels that would be expected if he had been receiving them regularly.

On Friday, Edwards issued a statement calling Berwick's death "sad" but saying that social media "ran wild with speculation."

"Berwick was not in good health when he was brought to the jail," Edwards wrote, adding that he received medical care every day while in the jail. "I look forward to the final autopsy being released so that the public, as well as the Berwick family, can learn this information from a truly independent source."

Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

A spokesman for the FBI declined to comment.

An attorney for the family of Berwick, who was known as "Crazy Dave," said he had just received the coroner's report and hadn't reviewed it yet.

Berwick's death was the most recent in a list of serious incidents at the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, where in February 2017 an inmate was killed in a grisly beating for which 12 other inmates were indicted.

In April of this year, a female inmate committed suicide while corrections officers struggled to open the door of the cell where she was being held, according to a lawsuit filed by the woman's family.

The Berwick case also opened up a new avenue in the FBI's investigations in Tangipahoa Parish. Agents have been involved in a nearly three-year probe into a Drug Enforcement Agency task force accused of shaking down suspects, falsifying records and stealing drugs. That investigation led to a high-profile December 2016 raid of the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office and the Hammond Police Department.

Two members of that task force, both of whom were Tangipahoa Sheriff's Office deputies, have pleaded guilty to federal charges. Two other members, former DEA Special Agent Chad Scott and former Hammond police Officer Rodney Gemar, are scheduled to go to trial in January.

Federal investigators also have conducted interviews related to allegations of vote buying and a fraudulent bail bond scheme in the parish.JD.com Inc.'s billionaire founder is under investigation for a suspected rape in a weekend incident that led to his arrest in Minnesota, local police say.

Liu Qiangdong, who uses the English name Richard, is a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota and was in Minneapolis for his studies, the college confirmed. The case involves a Chinese student at the school, according to the Financial Times and the Star-Tribune.

JD.com founder Richard Liu. Credit:Fairfax Media

Liu was brought in at 11:32 p.m. August 31 on an accusation of "criminal sexual conduct" and released just more than 16 hours later, according to arrest records. Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder said the case is being investigated as a rape, but authorities decided not to keep Liu in custody and haven't imposed any travel restrictions while conducting their investigation.

Police responded to a location Friday night, found Liu and another individual, took photos and arrested the CEO, Elder said. Police declined to specify the location.The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has declined to file charges against three actors accused of sexual abuse in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Kevin Spacey and Steven Seagal won't face criminal charges following allegations from the 1990s because the alleged incidents are beyond the statute of limitations, and prosecutors rejected filing a charge against Black-ish actor Anthony Anderson, citing insufficient evidence.

The D.A.'s entertainment task force on Tuesday said charges would not be filed against the three men, who are among dozens in Hollywood under investigation by police in Los Angeles County following sexual abuse accusations.

Prosecutors declined to charge Spacey in an October 1992 case, saying the date was beyond the period in which a charge could be filed. That allegation, made by a man, involved an incident in West Hollywood.Several pairs of ruby slippers were made for the 1939 MGM film, and at least four, including the stolen pair, are known to exist. One pair was found in the basement of MGM's wardrobe department in 1970. An anonymous buyer bought them at an auction for US$15,000 ($20,890) and donated it to the Smithsonian in 1979. The pair was removed from display in April 2017 to be preserved. The Smithsonian raised nearly US$350,000 ($487,434) through a Kickstarter campaign to pay for the shoes' restoration. They will be back on display in October.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg bought one other pair for display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Another pair is owned by a private collector.

The once-missing slippers are owned by collector Michael Shaw, who lent the slippers to the Judy Garland Museum every year. Museum officials wanted to keep the slippers in a safe every night, but Shaw didn't want other people touching the delicate artefact. So Shaw delivered the slippers himself and placed them in the Plexiglass case.

"We kicked ourselves in the butt for not putting them in the safe," Jon Miner, one of the museum's board members, told The Washington Post's Jessica Contrera in 2015. "Of course, the owner was dumbfounded. And so were we."

That year, a wealthy fan of the movie volunteered to give $1 million to the person who could help find the missing slippers.My inner 10-year-old girl is going wild at this amazing footage of dolphins frolicking in the Yarra River.

Brayden Daglish was thrilled to see a pair of bottle nose dolphins swimming near the Church Street Bridge in Richmond as he walked to work yesterday.

I haven't been able to embed his Instagram story, but you can see it here.A Queensland construction company has been fined $405,000 over the deaths of two workers crushed by a concrete slab at Brisbane's Eagle Farm Racecourse.

Criscon pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with health and safety duty over the October 2016 deaths of Ashley Morris, 34, and 55-year-old Humberto Leite.

Two men were killed in the 2016 accident. Credit:Jorge Branco

The company was the principal contractor when the pair were killed after becoming sandwiched between two slabs which fell in a domino effect.

Claudio D'Alessandro, the boss of subcontractor Construction Building Technologies, has been charged with manslaughter for alleged gross negligence.Victorias lawmakers are unwittingly and paradoxically serving the public interest by engaging in a bitter political battle about traditional suppression of information by governments. The outdated and undemocratic convention under which cabinet deliberations are kept secret for decades except in exceptional circumstances should be reversed. Pretty much everything that does not involve national security and justified commercial confidentiality should be released by default.

In a blatantly political move, the Andrews government has tabled a mountain of documents forensically detailing Opposition Leader Matthew Guys staggering decision as planning minister several years ago to ignore all official advice by rezoning Phillip Island farmland for residential development, creating a potential windfall for private interests associated with the Liberal Party.

The best political disinfectant. Credit:alamy.com

The document dump is highly risky; a few months out from an election, it fuels concerns about Mr Guys probity and judgment, but many will see it as yet another example of dirty politics. It comes merely days after one of the most vicious periods of national politics, in which a prime minister was destroyed in a frenzied outbreak of internecine, self-absorbed hysteria that left voters bemused and disgusted.

The government seems to be calculating that besmirching Mr Guy is worth the cost of inviting focus on the ALPs many questionable actions and decisions, including cheating ahead of the 2014 election by siphoning public funds for campaigning purposes. Mr Guys behaviour in the case has indeed been at best questionable.A sign condemning violence against women and children erected on Phillip Island after the death of local mother Samantha Fraser has been vandalised.

The roadside billboard, erected by Westernport Water as part of a local campaign to fight family violence, has been defaced four times since it was put up more than a month ago.

A white ribbon sign on Phillip Island has been vandalised. Credit:Cecilia Rogers

The sign originally read: "It had to end. We must end violence against women and children."

But the sign has been vandalised four times since it was put up in late July, with the most recent incident prompting Westernport Water to make a police complaint. In one of the incidents, the vandals added the words "and men" to the end of the sign.When podcasting first started to make an impact on Australian journalism, like most other newspaper editors Alex Lavelle found himself suddenly under siege.

I was inundated by people from my newsroom saying I want to do a podcast! Ill be great, he told subscribers at The Age Lives August 22 talk Podcasts and Storytelling.

At that time, we did I would say one or two fairly average podcasts and weve got much better at picking and choosing what would make a good podcast now.

The key, he and fellow panelists The Age investigative reporter Richard Baker and podcast producer Sophie Black agreed was that for all the enthusiasm for the newest weapon in the journalists story-telling arsenal, it still had to rely on one of the oldest rules  it had to be a good story.

In Bakers case with his latest podcast Wrong Skin, thats an unsolved mystery.Police investigate a car accident at the scene of the brawl. Credit:AAP

A man injured in a Collingwood brawl has not had his leg amputated, according to Victoria Police, who have backtracked after previously saying he had lost his leg.

Its understood the 18-year-old Fitzroy pedestrian, David Bilal, who was struck by a vehicle during the early morning melee is now in a serious condition in hospital and that his family is furious at the incorrect release of information.

The urgent correction is the latest in a series of errors made by the force within a 48-hour period surrounding the violent street brawl and comes as it reels from tough scrutiny over its response.

Hours after the correction was made, Victoria Police announced it had instigated a "comprehensive" investigation into the brawl.Police will use a series of high-tech non lethal weapons to deal with future street gang violence following the weekends wild brawls in Collingwood involving up to 200 people.

The new get-tough strategy comes after police were criticised for not taking stronger action at Sunday mornings brawl in Mater Street that left six people injured, and following another ugly incident weeks earlier involving up to 100 youths in Taylors Hill.

It comes after criticism in the 48 hours following the Collingwood melee police's handling of the incident, during which violence broke after more than 200 people spilt out of a record launch at the Gasometer hotel, and errors including mistakenly stating a teenager had lost his leg.

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton has effectively issued a public warning to brawlers they will face new tactics that will be quite confronting.Public service union officials have raised concerns about the health and management of immigration employees after the deaths of two workers in recent months.

Reports a WA Australian Border Force worker at Perth Airport had taken his own life earlier this year and the death of a Department of Home Affairs worker who died after a suspected heart attack come as a source described the current immigration workforce as a "pressure cooker".

The woman suffered the heart attack at immigration department accommodation in Poon Saan. Credit:James Brickwood

The source, who did not wish to be named, told Fairfax Media questions needed to be raised about the working culture, and said "immigration officers in WA are dying".

"Staff morale is very low ... they are not allowed to speak out, and after retirement there is no support for mental traumas," the source said.A woman was dragged to safety by a neighbour after a fire broke out at a house in Perth's southern suburbs on Tuesday evening.

A woman was rushed to hospital with serious burns. Credit:Tex Reeks

The blaze started just after 7pm at a property on Bitton Street in Hamilton Hill and sparked a damage bill of $250,000, 6PR's Chelsie Stone reports.

The woman is being treated for serious burns to her upper body and was rushed to Fiona Stanley Hospital.

The cause of the fire is still unknown but it is not being treated as suspicious.When Premier Gladys Berejiklian stood her ground and refused to allow her junior Coalition partners to contest the Wagga Wagga byelection, she was taking a substantial risk.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Credit: Jessica Hromas

She was asking voters to back the Liberals despite their former MP Daryl Maguire quitting in disgrace after being embroiled in a corruption hearing. That alone was a big task.

But add the war that then erupted within her federal party and ended with a mortally wounded prime minister, and suddenly Berejiklians task must seem almost impossible.

This weekends Wagga Wagga byelection is not a test of the governments policies or performance, but of the Liberal brand.The Greens want the Victorian government to freeze the sale of hundreds of hectares of government-owned land earmarked for private development until treaties have been signed with traditional owners.

Greens MP and Aboriginal Affairs spokeswoman Lidia Thorpe will introduce a motion in Parliament on Wednesday calling for a moratorium on all sales of Crown land until a treaty with Aboriginal Victorians has been signed.

Greens MP Lidia Thorpe with Aboriginal clan elders on the steps of Parliament in May. Credit:Justin McManus

A treaty is not expected to be signed for several years and sales of surplus government-owned land are a significant source of state revenue, but Ms Thorpe argued a halt to sales would prove the Andrews government is sincere in its desire to make reparations with Aboriginal Victorians.

Victorias treaty process must be more than a token gesture, and if Labor is serious about justice for our first peoples, they will agree to this moratorium, Ms Thorpe said.Washington: US President Donald Trump has warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to "recklessly attack" Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, warning that hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.

US President Donald Trump. Credit:AP

"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!" Trump wrote in a tweet.

A source has told Reuters that Assad is preparing a phased offensive to regain Idlib.

The northern province and surrounding areas are the last major enclave held by insurgents fighting Assad, who has been backed by both Russian and Iranian forces in Syria's seven-year-old civil war. They are home to some three million civilians.New Ford Focus Offers More Space Than Ever

 Did you know the average school-child grows at a rate of 6 centimetres a year?

And at their peak growth rate, kids can grow a whopping 16 centimetres in one year with growth spurts of up to half a centimetre in a single night.

That means that some students will be hopping into the family car to return to school 2 centimetres taller than when they started their summer break.

One scientific study showed students grow even faster than normal during their summer holidays, because theyre less stressed. *

The all-new Ford Focus offers more room than ever for growing kids as they head back to school this autumn, with class-leading rear knee-room thats improved by 5 centimetres compared with the outgoing model.

Passengers in the rear also get an additional 6 centimetres of shoulder room, and a flatter floor beneath the centre seat makes it more comfortable to sit in  helping reduce squabbles over who goes in the middle.

We didnt settle for just making the rear of our all-new Focus more spacious  we also wanted it to feel more open and roomy for passengers big and small, said Glen Goold, Ford Focus chief programme engineer. The side windows now stretch further rearwards so that passengers have an unrestricted view out, and the available panorama roof floods the interior with light for an airy feel.

The all-new Ford Focus delivers more space, style and advanced driving technologies for mid-size family car customers than ever before  introducing features that can help drivers make light work of stop-start traffic; see more clearly when driving in the dark; park simply by holding down a button; and avoid accidents.

New FordPass Connect onboard modem technology for the Focus even turns the vehicle into a mobile WiFi hotspot with connectivity for up to 10 devices.

The stylish Focus Titanium, sporty Focus ST-Line and upscale Focus Vignale five-door and wagon models are available to order across Europe now, with the all-new Focus Active crossover models  inspired by sports-utility vehicles  arriving later this year.

# # #

*http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-30/kids-grow-taller-in-holidays-than-school-term-says-scientist/8222994

FordPass Connect is an optional extra. The on-board modem will be connected at the time of vehicle delivery. You may choose to opt in/opt out of certain data sharing. The technology will be made available in selected markets in 2018, with the remaining markets following through 2019.

Wi-Fi Hotspot (up to 4G) includes complimentary wireless data trial that begins at time of activation and expires at the end of 3 months or when 3GB of data is used, whichever comes first. Afterwards a subscription to Vodafone is required, refer to their website for detail of their data packages. To take advantage of the built-in Wi-Fi hotspot capability, a 2018 Ford vehicle must come with the appropriate hardware, and a data plan is required. Data coverage and service is not available everywhere and terms of your data plan, including applicable message and data rates, may apply.

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions. Ford employs approximately 201,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit www.corporate.ford.com.

Ford of Europe is responsible for producing, selling and servicing Ford brand vehicles in 50 individual markets and employs approximately 54,000 employees at its wholly owned facilities and approximately 69,000 people when joint ventures and unconsolidated businesses are included. In addition to Ford Motor Credit Company, Ford Europe operations include Ford Customer Service Division and 24 manufacturing facilities (16 wholly owned or consolidated joint venture facilities and eight unconsolidated joint venture facilities). The first Ford cars were shipped to Europe in 1903  the same year Ford Motor Company was founded. European production started in 1911.Ford Salutes Americas Hardest Working Men and Women on Labor Day +VIDEO

Ford  which helped create the middle class with the $5-a-day wage in 1914 and today employs the most U.S. hourly autoworkers  marks this Labor Day with a special campaign that celebrates Americas hardest workers

The campaign, runs this Labor Day weekend. Ford invites Americans to join by sharing stories of their work heroes tied to the hashtag #HardestWorking

Ford moves Americas workforce with its best-selling F-Series trucks, vehicles for police and first responders, as well as Transit and Econoline vans for businesses and entrepreneurs

Ford in September celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Rouge manufacturing complex in Dearborn, Henry Fords manufacturing marvel that was modernized as a high-tech, sustainable production facility by Bill Ford

DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 31, 2018  While families and friends across the country enjoy barbecues and beaches this weekend, Ford also wants to help ensure the essence of the Labor Day holiday shines through by celebrating the people who keep America rolling.

Ford is today kicking off a campaign to honor Americas workforce through television and digital creative. The spots feature Americans describing the hardest working person they know. Ford also is inviting people across the country to share stories  using the hashtag #HardestWorking  about their own labor heroes.

We at Ford understand the value of hard work. Thats why for 115 years weve been dedicated to building quality vehicles that help Americans get jobs done in their communities, said Joe Hinrichs, president, Global Operations, who started his Ford career as a plant manager in 2000. Whether a dairy farmer in Wisconsin, a police officer in Tuscaloosa, or an auto worker in Ohio, we want to honor the hardest working men and women of America this Labor Day.

Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company helped transform American life with the $5-a-day wage, bringing the best and brightest to his burgeoning factories in Metro Detroit. For more than a century, Ford has employed hundreds of thousands and today, it has more U.S. hourly autoworkers than any other auto company.

Throughout September, Ford also is highlighting its hard working employees at the iconic Rouge manufacturing complex in Dearborn as part of that facilitys 100th anniversary. Henry Fords marvel of vertically integrated manufacturing, which once employed more than 100,000, remains one the worlds most successful, green and high-tech auto plants  now producing F-150 pickups.

Ford is the leading brand, based on 2017 sales, helping Americans get the job done day in and day out. Fords best-selling F-Series trucks function as critical tools for small business owners across the country, powering construction sites and doing other heavy lifting.

Approximately two-thirds of new police vehicle sales are of Ford vehicles, and more municipalities and Class 4 and Class 5 operators opt for Ford trucks for heavy-duty towing and dump truck work, making the companys vehicles the leading choice in the industry.

And when hard-working Americans set out to hit the road for a break from it all, they turn to Ford to help them get away. With the best-selling F-Series trucks in America and the leading chassis for RVs, according to Statistical Surveys Inc., Ford is opening more doors and helping more Americans enjoy this Labor Day weekend than any other brand in America.Ford Focus Offers More Space Than Ever for Kids Heading Back to School +VIDEO

Average child grows nearly one inch per year

LONDON - September 4, 2018: Did you know the average school-child grows at a rate of 6 centimetres a year?

And at their peak growth rate, kids can grow a whopping 16 centimeters (6.3 inches) in one year with growth spurts of up to half a centimeter in a single night.

That means that some students will be hopping into the family car to return to school 2 centimetres taller than when they started their summer break.

One scientific study showed students grow even faster than normal during their summer holidays, because theyre less stressed. *

The all-new Ford Focus offers more room than ever for growing kids as they head back to school this autumn, with class-leading rear knee-room thats improved by 5 centimeters compared with the outgoing model.

Passengers in the rear also get an additional 6 centimetres of shoulder room, and a flatter floor beneath the centre seat makes it more comfortable to sit in  helping reduce squabbles over who goes in the middle.

We didnt settle for just making the rear of our all-new Focus more spacious  we also wanted it to feel more open and roomy for passengers big and small, said Glen Goold, Ford Focus chief program engineer. The side windows now stretch further rearwards so that passengers have an unrestricted view out, and the available panorama roof floods the interior with light for an airy feel.

The all-new Ford Focus delivers more space, style and advanced driving technologies for mid-size family car customers than ever before  introducing features that can help drivers make light work of stop-start traffic; see more clearly when driving in the dark; park simply by holding down a button; and avoid accidents.

New FordPass Connect onboard modem technology for the Focus even turns the vehicle into a mobile WiFi hotspot with connectivity for up to 10 devices.

The stylish Focus Titanium, sporty Focus ST-Line and upscale Focus Vignale five-door and wagon models are available to order across Europe now, with the all-new Focus Active crossover models  inspired by sports-utility vehicles  arriving later this year.In Lake Forest, the fire department responded to four incidents Monday, with the first two being where they came to the assistance of three people stuck in three flooded cars at Deerpath and Route 41, according to Deputy Fire Chief Michael Gallo.Chris Parker has won Celebrity Treasure Island raising $100K for Rainbow Youth

Winning on behalf of Rainbow Youth, Chris said "It's going to go miles, and we're just going to help so many kids."After a year of waiting, Pink has finally arrived in New Zealand!



It's a massive six shows at Auckland's Spark Arena for Pink! And if you're like us, you're ready for a good show. But there are a few things you need to know before heading to her Beautiful Trauma World Tour.

Gates for General Admission will be open at 6.30PM for all her Spark Arena shows, and security will be doing full bag searches, security wanding and pat downs at entry - so allow for extra time.

Australian band The Rubens will be opening for Pink at 7.30PM where NZ's own Sahara Skye will join them on stage.

Pink's show will most likely start after 8.35PM, and finish at approximately 10.35PM.

Parking & Transport

Travelling to the city can be a bit chaotic, especially on the weekday shows when you're competing with peak hour traffic - so always allow extra time. There will also be road closures and parking restrictions in the surrounding areas of Spark Arena from 5.15pm.

There will be no change to bus and train services for Pink's weekend shows, however, there will be increased Western and Southern train services for Pink's weekday shows. Auckland Transport has a full list of the services available on their site.

The best place for pickups and drop-offs is at the footbridge on Quay Street.

And if you're a first time Uber user, Spark Arena have a special discount code to get you up to $20 off your first taxi - just use the promo code SPARKARENA

For those driving, there are areas for event parking. Spark Arena suggest the following locations:



Arena Car Park (Dockside Lane, off Tapora Street, about 5 mins walk)

Britomart Car Park (Corner of Quay Street and Britomart Place, about 8 mins walk)

Railway Car Park (Te Taou Crescent, off Beach Road, about 5 mins walk)

Tangihua Street Car Park (Tangihua Street, about 6 mins walk)

What you CAN bring into the Stadium

Considering Justin Bieber's had girls obsessed with him since he was a lil'teen, it's no surprise they're not happy that he's officially off the market with Hailey Baldwin.

And even though she's gotten a lot of hate from those fans, Hailey Baldwin isn't letting it bring her down.A security staff stands next to a logo of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., during the investors conference in Taipei on July 16, 2014. (Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images)

Another Former Engineer for Taiwan Chipmaker Caught Trying to Transfer Trade Secrets to China

A former employee of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC), the worlds largest contract chipmaker, has been charged with breach of trust and theft of trade secrets, with the intention of providing them to a mainland Chinese firm, according to an Aug. 30 report by Taiwanese newspaper the Liberty Times.

The charges were filed by district prosecutors in Hsinchu, a city in northern Taiwan where the countrys largest science park is located. The case brings renewed light on Chinas ambition to acquire semiconductor technology by any means necessary.

The former staffer, identified only by his surname Zhao, began working for TSMC in 2007 as an engineer in charge of a metal gate manufacturing process, one of the key production steps in building semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) chips. He oversaw the process for three different generations of process technology: 20 nanometers (nm), 10 nm, and 5 nm.

The chips are key to powering practically every kind of electronic device. As they become smaller in size, they deliver more performance-per-watt, meaning that they run at a faster speed while consuming less power.

In 2016, Zhao was an assistant manager in charge of research and development of the 5-nm metal thin film deposition, a key step in the IC chip production. He reached out to a headhunter, who arranged a job interview with Chinese firm Shanghai Huali Microelectronics, also a contract chipmaker, for a senior executive position in Hualis metal gate manufacturing department.

After the interview, Zhao decided to increase his chances of landing the job by printing out 10 pages of secret TSMC documents: six pages about TSMCs 16-nm chip manufacturing process, and four others about the manufacturing equipment setup for producing 10-nm chips. After being hired by Huali, Zhao copied 20 more pages about TSMCs 20-nm manufacturing process.

TSMC finally caught on after Zhao resigned in January 2017.

China, while being the worlds largest consumer of semiconductors, continues to lag in technology when compared to traditional semiconductor powerhouses, such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Thus, it relies heavily on imports to meet its domestic demand. In 2017, China imported ICs worth about $260 billion, according to data from trade organization China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA).

In seeking to narrow the technology gap, one of Beijings tactics is recruiting Taiwanese semiconductor talents.

According to a July 5 article by Taiwans leading financial publication Business Weekly, which cited data from unidentified headhunting companies and estimates by semiconductor experts, there are about 2,000 Taiwanese staffers at Chinese semiconductor companies in mainland China. Additionally, there are about another 1,000 Taiwanese working at the Taiwan branch offices of Chinese companies.

Most of these 3,000 Taiwanese talents either hold senior positions or are research and development staff, according to Business Weekly.

Zhao isnt the only semiconductor engineer who has been apprehended by authorities in Taiwan this year.

In April, another former TSMC employee, identified only by his surname Wu, was also arrested on the same charges by Hsinchu prosecutors. Wu had planned to take documents related to TSMCs 28-nm technology to his new job at CSMC Technologies, a contract chipmaker located in Wuxi City in Chinas Jiangsu Province, to reproduce the proprietary technology.

According to Taiwanese newspaper China Times, Wu was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, with a reprieve of four years.Aretha Franklins Pastor Wants Black People to Do Better

The pastor chosen to deliver the eulogy at Aretha Franklins funeral took the opportunity to decry black-on-black violence and the decay of black home life.

Superstar entertainer Aretha Franklin, called The Queen of Soul, passed away of pancreatic cancer in her home in Detroit on Aug. 16.

According to the Daily Caller, Franklin personally chose Pastor Jasper Williams to speak at her funeral in Detroit, Michigan on Aug. 31.

The Pastor used the occasion to address issues of race and crime, and the state of the black community in America.

How can we immortalize the Queen of Soul? Pastor Williams began.

He then plunged immediately into his powerful message: If we are truthful, honest and fairwe would have to say that black America has lost its soul.

The one thing that black America needs today more than anything else is to come back home to God.

Pastor Williams called out black men in particular, for abandoning their spouses and children.

Where is your soul, black man? As I look in the house, there are no fathers in the home anymore.

Where is your soul? Seventy percent of our households are led by our precious, proud, fine black women.

But as proud, beautiful and fine as our black women are, one thing a black woman cannot doblack woman cannot raise a black boy to be a man.

Pastor Williams eulogy was much more of a sermonwhich he readily admitted. I know Im preaching to you, he told the audience.

Do Black Lives Matter?

The pastor then delivered a scathing condemnation of the way black people treated each otherand contrasted it with how black people react to incidents of violence by whites against blacks.

Where is your soul? The soulif you choose to ask me todaydo black lives matter?

Let me answer like this: no. Black lives do not matter. Black lives will not matter. Black lives ought not matter. Black lives should not matter. Black lives must not matter.

Until black people start respecting black lives and stop killing ourselves, black lives can never matter.

According to an FBI study from 2013, 90 percent of murdered black people were killed by other black people.

A Justice Department report (pdf) spanning 28 years from 19802008 reported that 93 percent of black victims were killed by blacks.

According to the Washington Post Police Shootings database, law enforcement officers killed 223 black people in 2017.

The Root reported that 1,129 people were killed by police in 2017, with 27 percent (304) of those being black.

Pastor Williams alluded to this in his eulogy.

It amazes me how it is when the police kills one of us, we are ready to protest, march, destroy innocent property. Were ready to loot, steal, whatever we want. But when we kill 100 of us, nobody says anything. Nobody does anything, Williams said.

What the home is supposed to be

Pastor Williams returned to the theme of raising black children to finish his address. He re-emphasized that both parents play an essential role in raising a child.

God put in the home a husband and a wife, a provider and a nurturer, Williams stated.

And whenever a man is not there and the provisions are not made for the home, and whenever the mother is not there and the child doesnt learn how to nurture and be loved and thereby love.

Related Coverage Funeral for Aretha Franklin Begins With Prayers, Songs

In an interview with the Associated Press on Sept. 1, Pastor Williams said that he felt his eulogy was wholly appropriate and timely.

Other featured speakers discussed the civil rights movement, and some talked about President Donald Trump, Williams noted.

I was trying to show that the movement now is moving and should move in a different direction, he said.  What we need to do is create respect among ourselves. Aretha is the person with that song R-E-S-P-E-C-T that is laid out for us and what we need to be as a race within ourselves. We need to show each other that. We need to show each other respect. That was the reason why I did it.

From NTD.tvAldrin Takes Swipe at First Man Movie for Omitting Planting of US Flag on Moon

Former U.S. astronaut Edwin Buzz Aldrin has weighed in on the directors decision to omit a pivotal moment in the upcoming film First Man: the planting of the U.S. flag on the lunar surface.

Aldrin appeared to make an indirect swipe at the film through a Sept. 2 post on Twitter that included photos of the flag being planted during the historical 1969 mission. The 88-year-old also wrote a series of hashtags in the post including, in part, #proudtobeanAmerican, #freedom, #honor.

In an earlier post on Aug. 31 Aldrin had flaunted a shirt with a phrase that read Buzz Aldrin, Future Martian, and featured an image of an astronaut planting an American flag.

The film delves into the life of Neil Armstrong, played by actor Ryan Gosling, and the Apollo space mission, according to IMDB. Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82, due to complications following coronary artery bypass surgery. He was the first man to walk on the moon, while Aldrin was the second.

Gosling attempted to hit back at the controversy by defending the move at a press conference during the Venice Film Festival. He said the decision was made deliberately because the moon landing transcended countries and borders. The movie, which was directed by Damien Chazelle, will open in theatres on Oct. 12.

I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement [and] thats how we chose to view it, Gosling told reporters. 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 possible.

He added, He was reminding everyone that he was just the tip of the icebergand thats not just to be humble, thats also true. So I dont think that Neil viewed himself as an American hero.

But Goslings response just sparked more criticism. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) argued that the film is based on a historically American mission.

This is total lunacy. And a disservice at a time when our people need reminders of what we can achieve when we work together, Rubio wrote in an Aug. 31 Twitter post. The American people paid for that mission, on rockets built by Americans, with American technology & carrying American astronauts. It wasnt a UN mission.

American actor James Woods also criticized the film for not presenting the whole truth.

But why not just present the facts as they were? he wrote in an Aug. 31 Twitter post. I think Ryan Gosling is a wonderful actor, but omitting the seminal moment in the midst of mankinds greatest achievement seems a purposeful denigration of the 400,000 Americans who accomplished it.

The upcoming movie comes on the heels of President Donald Trumps proposal of a sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, dubbed the Space Force. Trump directed the Department of Defense to create the new military branch through an executive order on June 18.

Aldrin showed his support for Trumps move in August, with a close reference to the famous quote by Armstrong, Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Aldrin praised Trump at the time by writing on Twitter, One giant leap in the right direction. #SpaceForce, while replying to Vice President Mike Pence, who had recently unveiled the steps in creating the branch.Piglets are seen by a sow at a pig farm in Zhoukou, Henan province, China on June 3, 2018. (REUTERS/Stringer)

China Bans Pig Shipments From Areas Hit by African Swine Fever as Disease Spreads

BEIJINGChina reported a new case of African swine fever in Wuxi City in eastern Chinas Jiangsu Province on Sept. 3, raising fears that the disease could affect farmers livelihoods as the disease spreads rapidly in the worlds top pork producer.

Hours earlier, the agriculture ministry had confirmed a second outbreak of the disease in Xuancheng City in the eastern province of Anhui, which occurred on a small farm of 308 pigs, killing 83 of them.

It looks like its accelerating, said Pan Chenjun, senior analyst at Rabobank, adding that she expected farmers to start selling off pigs before they are forced to cull animals if the disease hits their own or neighboring farms.

I think in coming days they will liquidate their herds, she said. That would hurt prices for all farmers, even those able to keep the disease at bay.

China has now discovered eight cases of the deadly disease in five provinces: in Liaoning in the countrys northeast, in central Chinas Henan, and in the eastern provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.

Chinas agriculture ministry said on Sept. 2 it will shut live hog markets in the affected provinces. It also imposed a ban on transporting pigs and pork products from the provinces, the most drastic measure taken so far, and one set to have major repercussions across the supply chain.

The prohibition will effectively prevent slaughterhouses and meat processing factories from using pigs or pork from affected regions. Stopping pigs and pork products from being transported out of those regions will also cause major disruption to farmers, traders, and slaughterhouses.

This will be a very serious situation for large companies with several farms in the northeast, said Pan.

Northeastern provinces do not have sufficient slaughterhouse capacity and typically transport pigs to provinces in the south.

In Henan Province, one of Chinas top pig-producing regions, animal stocks have jumped because farmers there can no longer sell animals to other parts of the country, said an agent surnamed Ni who trucks pigs around the province.

I havent had any business in the past two days because there are too many pigs in the market. Prices are bad and there is not much demand, he said. Ni said he used to transport up to 700 pigs a day, but current volumes are around 700 a week.

The government also said live hogs from unaffected provinces cannot be transported through those that have reported infections.

Until now, authorities had only stopped transportation of pigs and products and shut live markets in and around infected areas.

Costs will go up and it will take much longer to get pigs to the consumption areas, said Ni.

The ministry said it had culled more than 38,000 hogs as of Sept. 1 as it tries to contain the outbreak.

The virus is transmitted by ticks and direct contact between animals, and can also travel via contaminated food, animal feed, and people moving from one place to another. There is no vaccine for the disease, but it is not harmful to humans.

By Judy Hua, Stella Qiu, Hallie Gu, Josephine Mason & Dominique PattonChinese leader Xi Jinping (R) with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (L) attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa CooperationRound Table Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Sept. 4, 2018. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

China Seeks to Downplay Africa Ambitions While Courting Economic Ties

Chinese leader Xi Jinping sought to downplay Chinas geopolitical ambitions in Africa during a cooperation forum in Beijing, by insisting that China doesnt intervene in African nations internal politics, will not attach any political conditions to aid for Africa, and will not use investments and financing in Africa to seek political gains.

But China isnt shy about its desire to court economic ties with Africa. Xi pledged $60 billion to African nations at the two-day forums opening on Sept. 3, promising that government debt from Chinese interest-free loans due by year-end would be written off for the poorest African nations.

The $60 billion will include $15 billion of aid, interest-free loans, and concessional loans; a credit line of $20 billion; a $10 billion special fund for ChinaAfrica development; and a $5 billion special fund for imports from Africa.

The remaining $10 billion will come in the form of investments by Chinese companies in Africa over the next three years, Xi said.

On the second day of the forum, which was attended by 53 heads of state from the continent, Beijings special envoy for Africa, Xu Jinghu, made another attempt to push back against criticism of Chinas relations with Africa, claiming that China is helping Africa develop, and not pile on debt.

The Chinese regimes attempted assurances run counter to news headlines and observers concerns about Chinas investments in the continent thus far.

Chinas Interests in Africa

For example, Burkina Faso announced in March that it would cut ties with Taiwan, after Beijing pressured the African country to recognize one China.

The Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan a part of its territory and has tried to preclude any international space for Taiwan, by convincing other nations to cut diplomatic ties with the country.

Helmut Asche, a professor of Africa studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany told Apple Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper, that Beijings push for countries to adopt the one China policy is a prime example of the so-called political condition Xi mentioned. He also noted that soon after Zimbabwes new leader Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power, he visited China, showing Beijings influence over political affairs there.

Chinas investments in Africa also are often connected to Beijings economic development goals. In recent years, China has poured financial aid into Congo in order to secure mining rights to lithium and cobalt deposits therekey materials for making electric car batteries. Electric vehicles are among the 10 tech sectors that Beijing has set as priorities for development, as outlined in the Made in China 2025 agenda, a plan for China to become a high-tech manufacturing giant.

And One Belt, One Road (OBOR), Chinas ambitious initiative to finance infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa, and Europe, has come under scrutiny for burdening poor nations with debt.

Djibouti, for example, the site of Chinas only overseas military base, owes nearly 82 percent of its external debt to China, according to a report on the debt risk in OBOR-participating countries by the U.S.-based think tank Center for Global Development.

With Western markets much harder to penetrate, developing a consumer base for Chinese manufacturers in developing markets is high on Beijings agenda, read a March 2016 article in The Africa Report, a monthly news magazine. It cited the example of Xiaomi, which appointed local distributor Mobile in Africa Limited to sell its phones to 50 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

More Investments

Indeed, there is evidence that Beijing is shifting much of its trade focus to Africa, as an ongoing trade war with the United States has threatened Chinas economy.

At a public forum in Beijing held in August, former Chinese vice minister of commerce Wei Jianguo, who is now vice-chairman of a central government-affiliated think tank, said that Chinas annual sales to Africa could exceed $500 billion within the next five years, making that continent a bigger market for Chinese exporters than the United States.

Trade volume with Africa has already exceeded $300 billion, according to China Center for International Economic Exchanges, the think tank that employs Wei.

Meanwhile, some netizens expressed displeasure at Beijings willingness to splash money around abroad while citizens at home are suffering from several recent natural disasters and other domestic problems.

Reuters contributed to this report.Businessman Chen Hongzhi was recognized as an "outstanding entrepreneur" and appointed to a local legislature in Luliang, Shanxi Province, before his arrest on July 24. He is accused of corruption and being a "gang leader." (Famous Chinese Net)

Chinese Businessman Charged as Gang Leader After $1 Billion Corruption Arrest

Authorities in northern Chinas Shanxi Province have charged one of the regions wealthiest men with being a gang leader, according to local reports.

The accusation comes over a month after the July arrest of Chen Hongzhi, who provincial authorities had previously lauded for his achievements.

Owning more than $1 billion in assets, Chen, 43, runs a coal company, Lingzhi Conglomerate, which employs more than 6,000 people at four coal mines, as well as four coal wash plants, a middle school, a printing press, a luxury hotel, and a shopping mall.

Chen, with the support of Shanxi authorities, had a seat in a local Peoples Congress (a rubber-stamp legislature) in the city of Luliang in the western part of the province. In 2006, the provincial government hailed him as an outstanding entrepreneur and advanced individual in social poverty alleviation.

But on July 24, police arrested Chen afteraccording to state mediaa series of criminal complaints, and raided his properties in the days that followed.

According to reports, the provincial government assigned the task of investigating and arresting Chen to police in Changzhi, a city east of Luliang, which avoided using law enforcement personnel within Chens network of patronage.

On Aug. 28, Changzhi police announced they had seized 7.84 billion yuan (about $1.15 billion) worth of ill-gotten assets from Chen, including 341 houses and other properties in Beijing, Taiyuan (the capital of Shanxi), and other cities.

State media described police investigators as shocked by Chens opulence, including the discovery of gold nuggets, luxury watches, and a 714-piece collection of valuable chinaware, famous wines, paintings and calligraphy, and gemstones such as jade.

He faces life imprisonment.

The charge that Chen is a gang leader is because of the existence of his companys 300-man security team, as reported by various state media. According to reports, most of the staff in these security details were loafers and idlers. Chen would bail out his staff if they were arrested for using violence, and continue to pay their salaries while they served their sentences.

Chinese officials and businessmen are often linked to organized crime. Gangs can help legitimate institutions do dirty work, in return for the right to operate hotels, clubs, and construction companies.

Normally, gangs in China receive undercover protection from public authorities. The reason for this is the lack of law in some fields, Hu Xingdou, a Chinese professor of economics, said in an interview with Voice of America. The corruption of public authority is the source of these gangs.

The police followed up Chens arrest with a wanted list that identified more than 10 officials, including the head of a local court, a local police chief, police instructor, village-level Communist Party secretary, and others.A Chinese woman wears a mask to protect against pollution as she passes the CCTV building in Beijing on Dec. 8, 2015. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Chinese Netizens Criticize Mandatory Propaganda Program for Children and Parents on State Media

Chinas state media broadcasts compulsory propaganda on the first day of school every year for millions of schoolchildren and their parents. But when the public turned to social media to criticize this years program, their comments were quickly censored.

All elementary- and middle-school students, as well as their parents, were mandated by Chinas education ministry to watch the program, First Lesson of New Semester, on state broadcaster CCTV. Students were also asked by some teachers to write a report about what they learned from the program, as homework.

The program, produced by CCTV and the education ministry annually since 2008, is aired every Sept. 1 to mark the start of the new school calendar after a two-month summer break. This year, the program focused on the spirit of creativity. A notice issued by Chinas education ministry said the purpose of having children watch the program was to cultivate and put into practice core values of socialism.

But before the programs start, TV viewers were forced to sit through 12 minutes of non-stop advertisements on cars and scooters, home appliances, toothpaste, and stationery.

There were also many commercials for after-school tutoring services, clearly geared toward the parental viewers. Many of Chinas middle-class families are able to afford extra classes for their children that are aimed at improving their chances of getting better grades and a stab at scholastic glory.

On Sina Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter, many Chinese netizens expressed their anger at the ads, the program, and CCTV.

A netizen with the moniker Changqu Hongchen wrote, CCTV has traded its conscience for money.

A netizen from Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Chinas Sichuan Province, wrote, The school asked us parents to watch with our child. But we simply couldnt stand the program. We decided to switch to another channel and see something else.

CCTV has since issued an apology on its official Weibo account, stating, We sincerely apologize to parents and students for the long TV commercials ahead of the program.

In addition to the ads, the content of the program also drew a lot of criticism online. Parents disliked the presence of Jackie Chan in the program, questioning whether he was an appropriate role model for children, given his sons widely reported drug use. In January 2013, Chans son Jaycee Chan was convicted on charges of sheltering others to use drugs. A court in Beijing sentenced him to six months in prison.

The overwhelming criticism by Chinese netizens has since prompted Chinese authorities to impose censorship on online discussions of the program. By press time, the comments section on several CCTV posts about the program displayed an error message, presumably after the comments were turned off.

Weiboscope, a website that tracks censorship on Chinas social media run by the University of Hong Kongs journalism school, revealed that when searching the keywords CCTV and First Lesson of New Semester in Chinese, many online posts about the program have indeed been deleted.

Reuters contributed to this report.File photo: Congolese opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) addresses a news conference in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, August 3, 2018. (Reuters/Kenny Katombe/File Photo)

Congos Top Court Excludes Opposition Leader Bemba From Presidential Election

Democratic Republic of Congos top court on Sep. 3 definitively excluded opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba from Decembers presidential election because of a witness tampering conviction at the International Criminal Court.

Bemba, a popular former vice president, was tipped as one of the leading candidates to replace outgoing President Joseph Kabila. His exclusion from the race could spark a violent reaction by his supporters.

His defeat to Kabila in the 2006 election touched off deadly clashes in the capital Kinshasa between his supporters and state troops. He then spent a decade in prison in The Hague before his war crimes convictions for murders and rapes committed by his militia in Central African Republic were quashed in May.

In a judgment broadcast on national television, the constitutional court said the election commission had rightly invalidated Bembas candidacy last month, finding that witness tampering is a form of corruption as stipulated in the electoral law.

The Dec. 23 election is due to usher in Congos first democratic transition of power after Kabila agreed last month to respect constitutional term limits and step aside in favor of close loyalist Emmanuel Ramazani Shadarys candidacy.

That announcement has calmed tensions that exploded into deadly street protests when Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his constitutional mandate in December 2016.

But fears persist of further violence with Kabilas opponents accusing him of trying to rig the vote to ensure Ramazanis victory.

Congo has fallen very low! the secretary-general of Bembas MLC party wrote on Twitter after the judgment.

Kabilas camp denies that it is improperly trying to influence the election.

Besides Bemba, opposition leader Moise Katumbi was barred from re-entering Congo last month to register his candidacy after two years in exile.

Katumbi placed joint first in a rare public opinion poll in July with 19 percent of the vote. Another opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, also received 19 percent, while Bemba placed third with 17 percent.

Ramazani did not receive enough votes to be included in the results.

The constitutional court also on Sep. 3 upheld the invalidation of former prime minister Adolphe Muzitos candidacy but reinstated another former prime minister Samy Badibanga as a candidate.

By Benoit NyembaCouple Expecting Their First Child Among 4 Dead in Street-Racing Crash: Reports

A couple expecting their first child next month were among four killed in an alleged illegal street-racing crash in California.

In the Aug. 31 incident, Airyana Ruby Luna, who was pregnant, and fiance Valentino Miguel Ramos, 21, were killed on the 60 Freeway in Moreno Valley, CBS News reported. Three cars were racing when the crash took place.

A vehicle in the race lost control, hit a median, slammed into a guardrail before hitting a concrete median, and then it flipped over.

Polo Najera Perez, 21 and Rafael Ramirez Espinoza, were also killed in the crash, according to ABC7. The couple was sitting in the back seat of the car when the accident occurred. A 19-year-old woman was injured in the crash.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Espinoza, who was identified as the driver, and Perez were ejected from the car, a white BMW.

Before the accident, the couple had a baby shower, ABC7 reported. Their unborn son was due Oct. 12.

She was excited for the baby. She was the kindest person, she had no bad intentions, very sweet and in love with Valentino, Katrina Garcia, the pregnant victims aunt, told the Press-Enterprise. They were a young couple in love.

She was just so full of life. She was ready to have her baby. She wanted to be a mom so bad and with the smile on her face, you could just see that she was ready, her father, Aaron Luna, told ABC 7.

Police are now seeking the drivers of two other cars, which are a black Mazda hatchback and a gray or dark color newer Honda Civic, CBS Los Angeles reported.

A GoFundMe page was created for the couple to cover funeral costs. They were both so young, but so in love and hopeful for their little family. This past weekend, they had their first baby shower where we all got to gather and celebrate the coming of their baby boy, the page said.

It added: Two lives have been cut short and one life never got the opportunity to blossom due to this tragedy.

Street Racing Out of Control

In a March 2018 report, the LA Times noted that street racing in Southern California is out of control.

At least 179 people have died in Los Angeles County since 2000 in accidents linked to illegal street racing. We have the locations. We have lots of flat street. We have industrial parks. And the Hollywood connection, said Chief Chris OQuinn, the head of the California Highway Patrols Southern Division in Los Angeles County. This is the place to be.

Overall, those who died were mostly male and young. More than half were aged 21 or younger, including two children who were aged 4 and 8. Less than half of the victims, or 47 percent, were driving the racing vehicles, the report stated.Democrats Fail to Derail Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing Despite Pandemonium, Protests

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee mounted a coordinated effort to derail the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Sept. 4, delaying the chairmans opening remarks with more than an hour of out-of-order objections.

The interruptions, combined with shouting and screaming from hecklers in the audience, created a level of chaos that served to underscore the historical significance of Kavanaughs appointment and the effect his presence on the court may have in the years to come.

The Democrats repeatedly interrupted Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), demanding to see more documents on Kavanaugh, some of which have been blocked by the White House, citing executive privilege. Grassley, who struggled to maintain order but remained patient, countered that Kavanaugh, 53, has made more documents available for review than the five previous Supreme Court nominees combined.

President Donald Trump, who nominated Kavanaugh on July 9, weighed in on the ruckus on the committee as Kavanaugh read his opening statement, before the meeting wrapped up for the day.

The Brett Kavanaugh hearings for the future Justice of the Supreme Court are truly a display of how mean, angry, and despicable the other side is, Trump wrote on Twitter. They will say anything, and are only looking to inflict pain and embarrassment to one of the most highly renowned jurists to ever appear before Congress. So sad to see!

News photographers clicked pictures of a smiling Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge, as he entered the hearing room along with his wife and two daughters. But moments after Grassley opened the session, Democrats interrupted the chairman, decrying the withholding of documents and continuously asking to have the proceedings adjourned.

Shrieking protesters also disrupted the hearing. They took turns yelling as senators spoke, with one shouting, This is a travesty of justice, while another shouted, Our democracy is broken, and a third urging, Vote no on Kavanaugh. Security personnel removed dozens of demonstrators from the room.

We cannot possibly move forward. We have not had an opportunity to have a meaningful hearing, said Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) while interrupting Grassley, referring to the Sept. 3 release to the committee of 42,000 documents relating to the nominees work with past administrations.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) accused Democrats of trying to conduct the hearing by mob rule. Grassley ignored the Democrats request to halt the hearing, saying the demand was out of order and accused them of obstruction.

In total, the Democrats spoke out of turn and interrupted the hearing 63 times and complained about the withholding of documents 129 times, according to a tally kept by White House spokesperson Raj Shah.

Grassley noted that despite his staff being available around the clock to help Democrats access records, not a single Democratic senator showed up. Kavanaugh has produced more records to the committee than any other Supreme Court nominee in history, according to the chairman.

The Democrats are focused on procedural issues because they dont have substantive points strong enough to derail this nomination, said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Republicans hold a slim Senate majority and can confirm Kavanaugh if they stay united.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called the hearing a charade and a mockery of our norms.

Republicans also have released some but not all of the existing documents concerning Kavanaughs two years as a lawyer in the White House Counsels office prior to becoming staff secretary.

If confirmed, Kavanaugh is expected to move the high courtwhich already had a conservative majorityfurther to the right. Senate Democratic leaders have vowed a fierce fight to try to block his confirmation. Democrats signaled that they would press Kavanaugh in depth on abortion and gun rights, among other issues, when they get to question the nominee.

Republicans have said that Democrats have more than enough documents to assess Kavanaughs record, including his 12 years of judicial opinions as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They have accused Democrats of seeking to delay the hearing for purely political reasons.

Kavanaugh sat, fingers intertwined, quietly staring ahead at the committee members as audience members screamed while being dragged out of the hearing room.

Irked by a protester who interrupted him, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told Grassley, Mr. Chairman, I think we ought to have this loudmouth removed. We shouldnt have to put up with this kind of stuff.

There is a long history of heated fights over U.S. Supreme Court nominations, with anger in both parties. But the Democratic frustrations that boiled over on Sept. 4 had been simmering for more than two years.

Democrats accuse Senate Republican leaders of stealing a Supreme Court seat by refusing to consider Democratic former President Barack Obamas nominee to the high court, Merrick Garland, in 2016, allowing Trump to fill a Supreme Court vacancy instead.

Republicans also last year reduced the margin for advancing Supreme Court nominations from 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to a simple majority in order to force through the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, Trumps first high-court nominee. In 2013, Democrats set the precedent for the Republicans move by lowering the confirmation vote margin to 50 votes for most other executive nominees.

An Umpire

As the hearing eventually got underway amid constant interruptions from protesters, Grassley sought to turn attention to Kavanaughs qualifications, calling him one of the most qualified nomineesif not the most qualified nomineeI have seen.

The Senate is likely to vote on confirmation by the end of the month. The court begins its next term in October.

A good judge must be an umpirea neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy, Kavanaugh said in his opening statement at the tail end of the meeting. I dont decide cases based on personal or policy preferences.

I revere the Constitution. If confirmed to the Supreme Court, I will keep an open mind in every case. I will do equal right to the poor and to the rich, Kavanaugh said.

The hearing gave Democrats a chance to make their case against Kavanaugh ahead of Novembers congressional elections, in which they are seeking to seize control of Congress from Trumps fellow Republicans.

Liberals are concerned that Kavanaugh could provide a decisive fifth vote on the nine-justice court to overturn or weaken Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide. Kennedy was a solid conservative but sided with the courts liberals on some issues, including abortion and gay rights.

Kavanaugh also is likely to face questions about his views on investigating sitting presidents and the ongoing probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In 2009, Kavanaugh wrote a law review article saying presidents should be free from the distractions of civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, and investigations while in office.

Reuters contributed to this report.Emissions From Diesel Vessels Reduced at Port of Oakland

Diesel exhaust emissions from container ships at the Port of Oakland were reduced to record lows in July as 78 percent of vessels cut their engines and plugged into land-based electrical power while docked, Port of Oakland officials said on Aug. 31.

According to port data, 105 of 135 vessels coming into the port in July connected to shore-side electricity at berth, the highest plug-in rate ever recorded in Oakland, according to port officials.

Weve been working with shipping lines for a long time to accelerate the rate of shore power adoption, John Driscoll, Port of Oakland maritime director, said. On behalf of all of us who breathe the air in Oakland, its gratifying to see this level of cooperation.

Oakland has been working to boost plug-in use since 2012. State regulators require shipping lines frequently calling California ports to plug in at least 70 percent of their vessels.

In 2020, the requirement will go up to 80 percent. The Port of Oakland has set a goal of 85 percent plug-ins by 2020.

By Angela HillFrench and British fishing boats collide during a scrap over scallop fishing rights in the English Channel on Aug. 28, 2018. (France 3 Caen/via Reuters)

French Navy Ready to Act If Fishermen Clash Over Scallops Again

LONDONThe French navy has said it will intervene if there are more clashes over scallops between French and British fishermen.

French agriculture lawmaker Stephane Travert said Sept. 4, that he had spoken to his British counterpart and that there would be talks between the two sides on Sept. 5.

French fishermen surrounded British boats on Aug. 28 near the Bay of Seine off the coast of Normandy, throwing rocks and smoke bombs, and ramming British boats.

The French are angry that British fishermen are allowed to fish year-round, whereas, under French law, they can only catch scallops between Oct. 1 and May 15.

We cant keep going on like this; we cant keep having skirmishes like that, Travert said in an interview on CNews. The French navy is ready to step in if more clashes break out, as well as carrying out checks.

As Britain negotiates to leave the EU, the issue of fishing rights is likely to become increasingly sensitive.

Scallops are governed by national and not European Union rules. While British ships have no access to French territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles off the coast, it is legal for them to fish in the Bay of Seine, which stretches from Cherbourg to Dunkirk.

Agreements Have Broken Down

The row between the fishermen isnt new. After it flared up five years ago, yearly agreements were brokered, in which the British agreed to limit its scallop dredging in the Bay of Seine in exchange for French scallop permits.

But some French fishermen said that the agreements have broken down in the last couple of years, possibly because of Brexit.

Last week, Dimitri Rogoff, the chairman of the French Regional Committee for Marine Fisheries, expressed frustration at the situation.

For the Brits, its an open barthey fish when they want, where they want, and as much as they want. We dont want to stop them from fishing, but they could at least wait until Oct. 1, so that we can share.

Scallops are a flagship product for Normandy, a primary resource, and a highly sensitive issue, Rogoff told the BBC.

Meanwhile, Jim Portus, chairman of a British scallop industry consultation group, called on the Royal navy to protect the British boats.

We should have had a Royal navy fisheries protection on standby, at least in the area, to intervene if it had got any worse, he told Reuters.

You know, there was a possibility of people getting injured, possibly even killed, because of the actions of the French fishermenIm not exaggerating with that, Portus said.

Of the Sept. 5 meeting, Travert said he hopes that a solution would be found to calm the situation.

I asked my counterpart, because Im protecting my fishermen and the French fishing sector, to ensure that British fishermen do not cross the line from Barfleur to Antifer, i.e. the area where these clashes took place, while we wait for the necessary contacts to be made and meetings to take place to find a solution, Travert told Europe 1 radio.Gordon Forecast to Hit US on Tuesday Night

Tropical Storm Gordon, which will likely become a hurricane before hitting the northern U.S. Gulf Coast, will strike on the night of Sept. 4, bringing high winds, heavy rains, and dangerous storm surge.

Gordons eye was heading to around Gulfport, Mississippi, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) in a 10 a.m. update. Its about 145 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and has maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.

The NHC said that the storm will intensify to become at least a Category 1 hurricane when it hits land.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the Pearl River to the Alabama-Florida border, a tropical storm warning is in effect for west of the mouth of the Pearl River to Grand Isle, including Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas. Also, a tropical storm warning is in effect for the Alabama-Florida border to Okaloosa-Walton County line, according to the NHC.

A storm surge warning is in effect for Shell Beach to Dauphin Island, the agency added.

The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves, NHC meteorologist Richard Pasch told NPR.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey all declared states of emergencies ahead of the storms landfall.

I have declared a state of emergency in advance of Tropical Storm #Gordon, making state resources and personnel available to affected areas, Mississippi Gov. Bryant said on Twitter. Please stay weather-aware.

All coastal Alabama residents need to prepare now ahead of tonights potential landfall, Gov. Ivey tweeted. Our state will be ready for whatever Gordon may bring.

The storm could be weakened by another storm in the area, say weather forecasters.

Fast movement and wind shear should limit the intensity of Gordon, but the storm will be monitored closely as the water is quite warm, said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski on its website. There is a non-tropical storm west of Gordon that is causing some of the wind shear, Sosnowski said.

Wind shear is a change in the wind direction or speed, which can prevent tropical systems from developing or strengthening.

So it is quite possible that if that non-tropical storm weakens and wind shear diminishes, Gordon could ramp up to a hurricane Tuesday afternoon and early evening, just prior to landfall, Sosnowski added.

A storm surge warning has been issued for the area stretching from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama. The warning means there is danger of life-threatening inundation. The region could see rising waters of 3 to 5 feet.

The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the east of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large waves, Pasch said.

Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle called for a voluntary evacuation of the barrier island. The mayor noted the ongoing construction on Highway 1, the lone road that connects Grand Isle to the rest of the state, and said it could cause severe problems for people evacuating.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Guide to the Classics: Homers Iliad

Homers Iliad is usually thought of as the first work of European literature, and many would say, the greatest. It tells part of the saga of the city of Troy and the war that took place there. In fact, the Iliad takes its name from Ilios, an ancient Greek word for Troy, situated in what is Turkey today. This story had a central place in Greek mythology.

The poem deals with a very short period in the 10th year of the Trojan War. This sometimes surprises modern readers, who expect the whole story of Troy (as, for instance, in Wolfgang Petersens 2004 film Troy). But Homer and other early epic poets confined their narratives to particular periods in the war, such as its origins, key martial encounters, the fall of the city, or the returns of the soldiers to Greece. There is no doubt that Homer and other early poets could rely on a very extensive knowledge of the Trojan War among their audiences.

The central figure in the Iliad is Achilles, the son of Peleus (a mortal aristocrat) and Thetis (a sea-goddess). He comes from the north of Greece, and is therefore something of an outsider, because most of the main Greek princes in the poem come from the south. Achilles is young and brash, a brilliant fighter, but not a great diplomat. When he gets into a dispute with Agamemnon, the leading Greek prince in the war, and loses his captive princess Briseis to him, he refuses to fight and remains in his camp.

He stays there for most of the poem, until his friend Patroclus is killed. He then explodes back onto the battlefield, kills the Trojan hero Hector, who had killed Patroclus, and mutilates his body.

The Iliad ends with the ransom of Hectors body by his old father Priam, who embarks on a mission to Achilless camp in the gloom of night to get his sons body back. It is worth noting that the actual fall of Troy, via the renowned stratagem of Greeks hidden within a wooden horse, is not described in the Iliad, although it was certainly dealt with in other poems.

All of this takes place under the watchful gaze of the Olympian gods, who are both actors and audience in the Iliad. The Olympians are divided over the fate of Troy, just as the mortals are: In the Iliad, the Trojan War is a cosmic conflict, not just one played out at the human level between Greeks and non-Greeks. Ominously for Troy, the gods on the Greek side, notably Hera (queen of the gods), Athena (goddess of wisdom and war), and Poseidon (god of the land and sea), represent a much more powerful force than the divine supporters of Troy, of whom Apollo (the archer god and god of afar) is the main figure.

The Many Faces of Homer

The Iliad is only one poetic work focused on the war for Troy; many others have not survived. But such is its quality and depth that it had a special place in antiquity, and probably survived for that reason.

We know virtually nothing about Homer and whether he also created the other poem in his name, the Odyssey, which recounts the return journey of Odysseus from the Trojan War, to the island of Ithaca. The Iliad was probably put together around 700 B.C., or a bit later, presumably by a brilliant poet immersed in traditional skills of oral composition (that is, Homer). This tradition of oral composition probably reaches back hundreds of years before the Iliad.

Early epic poetry can be a way of maintaining the cultural memory of major conflicts. History and archaeology also teach us that there may have been a historical Trojan War at the end of the second millennium B.C. (at Hissarlik in western Turkey), although it was very unlike the one that Homer describes.

The Iliad was composed as one continuous poem. In its current arrangement (most likely after the establishment of the Alexandrian library in the early third century B.C.), it is divided into 24 books corresponding to the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet.

It has a metrical form known as dactylic hexametera meter also associated with many other epic poems in antiquity (such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid, the Roman epic by Virgil). In the Odyssey, a bard called Demodocus sings on request in an aristocratic context about the wooden horse at Troy, giving a sense of the kind of existence Homer might have led.

The language of the Iliad is a conflation of different regional dialects, which means that it doesnt belong to a particular ancient city as most other ancient Greek texts do. It therefore had a strong resonance throughout the Greek world, and is often thought of as a pan-Hellenic poem, a possession of all the Greeks. Likewise the Greek attack on Troy was a collective quest drawing on forces from across the Greek world. Pan-Hellenism, therefore, is central to the Iliad.

Death and War

A central idea in the Iliad is the inevitability of death (as also with the earlier Epic of Gilgamesh). The poignancy of life and death is enhanced by the fact that the victims of war are usually young. Achilles is youthful and headstrong, and has a goddess for a mother, but even he has to die. We learn that he had been given a choice: a long life without heroic glory, or a short and glorious life in war. His choice of the latter marks him out as heroic, and gives him a kind of immortality. But the other warriors too, including the Trojan hero Hector, are prepared to die young.

The gods, by contrast, dont have to worry about dying. But they can be affected by death. Zeuss son Sarpedon dies in the Iliad, and Thetis has to deal with the imminent death of her son Achilles. After his death, she will lead an existence of perpetual mourning for him. Immortality in Greek mythology can be a mixed blessing.

The Iliad also has much to say about war. The atrocities in the war at Troy are committed by Greeks on Trojans. Achilles commits human sacrifice in the Iliad itself and mutilates the body of Hector, and there are other atrocities told in other poems.

The Trojan saga in the early Greek sources tells of the genocide of the Trojans, and the Greek poets explored some of the darkest impulses of human conduct in war. In the final book of the Iliad, Achilles and Priam, in the most poignant of settings, reflect upon the fate of human beings and the things they do to one another.

Postscripts and Plagiarists

It was often said that the Iliad was a kind of bible of the Greeks in so far as its reception within the Greek world, and beyond, was nothing short of extraordinary. A knowledge of Homer became a standard part of Greek education, be it formal or informal.

Ancient writers after Homer, even the rather austere Greek historian Thucydides in the fifth century B.C., assume the historicity of much of the subject matter of the Iliad. Likewise, Alexander the Great (356323 B.C.) seems to have been driven by a quest to be the new Achilles. Plutarch tells a delightful story that Alexander slept with a dagger under his pillow at night, together with a copy of Homers Iliad. This particular copy had been annotated by Alexanders former tutor, the philosopher Aristotle. One can only imagine its value today had it survived.

In the Roman world, the poet Virgil (7019 B.C.) set out to write an epic poem about the origins of Rome from the ashes of Troy. His poem, called the Aeneid (after Aeneas, a traditional Trojan founder of Rome), is written in Latin, but is heavily reliant on Homers Iliad and Odyssey.

My own view is that Virgil knew Homer off by heart, and he was probably criticized in his own life for the extent of his reliance on Homer. But tradition records his response that it is easier to steal Heracless club than steal one line from Homer. This response, be it factual or not, records the spell that Homers Iliad cast over antiquity, and most of the period since.

Chris Mackie is a professor of Greek studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. This article was originally published on The Conversation.



Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature, National People's Congress, at a meeting session in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 20, 2018. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj)

Head of Chinas Rubber-Stamp Legislature to Visit North Korea for Its 70th Birthday

BEIJINGChinese leader Xi Jinping will send Li Zhanshu, head of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature, to Pyongyang this weekend for celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea, Chinas state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

North Korea is preparing to host a number of major events for the Sept. 9 anniversary, including a military parade, possible visits by foreign delegations, andfor the first time in five yearsa massive choreographed performance known as the Mass Games.

There had been speculation in diplomatic circles that Xi himself would go. Xi and North Koreas youthful leader, Kim Jong Un, have met three times this year, each time in China, as the Communist allies have solidified relations.

Xinhua gave few details about the visit of Li, who is the third-most-senior member of the Chinese Communist Party, aside from saying he would arrive on Sept. 8.

In a separate report, North Koreas state-run KCNA news agency said Li would visit from Sept. 8, without saying how long he would stay.

North Korea is locked in a standoff with the United States over its nuclear and missile programs. Kim met U.S. President Donald Trump in June and agreed to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but negotiations since then appear to have stalled, with both sides increasingly criticizing the other for a lack of progress.

Trump last month cancelled a planned visit to North Korea by his top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing insufficient progress in the denuclearization talks.

Trump has questioned Chinas role in helping to resolve the crisis over North Koreas development of nuclear weapons that threaten the United States. Hes said that while China is exerting tremendous pressure, it is also supplying Pyongyang with considerable aid.

Several Chinese ships have been spotted making illicit oil transfers to North Korean cargo ships, against international sanctions.

By Ben BlanchardIts Time the FBI Showed Its Cards on Efforts to Verify the Steele Dossier

News Analysis

On Aug. 9, reporter John Solomon at The Hill released a report containing several bombshells, the biggest of which was the revelation that a key source used for much of the Steele dossiers TrumpRussia allegations was a former Russian intelligence officer that resides in the United States.

Bruce Ohr, the Department of Justices former fourth-ranked official, who testified to Congress on Aug. 28, took detailed notes of his many meetings with both Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and Simpsons employee, former MI6 spy Christopher Steele. It was from one of his meetings with Simpson that Ohr learned the nature of the Trump dossiers biggest source.

It must be remembered that Ohr was originally scheduled to testify before Congress in December 2017, but his testimony was delayed, then canceled.

This means congressional committees have had access to Ohrs notes for monthsand nothing leaked from them. That suggests how damaging the Ohr notes are for the narratives that Democrats and mainstream media have been pushing for going on two years now. If there was anything in these notes that couldve been leaked to drive the TrumpRussia Collusion Is Real narrative, or at the very least aided in damage control on behalf of the DOJ officials caught up in this scandal, rest assured thered have been leaks long ago.

So in the end, when it was time to make this information public and cast a very big spotlight on the FBIs attempts to verify the Steele dossiers information, Solomon was brought in and shown Ohrs notes so he could raise this verification issue through the release of his report.

Up until Solomon filed his Aug. 9 report, it had been assumed the shadowy, anonymous Russians whod passed off their second-and-third-hand stories about TrumpRussian collusion were located in Russia, which of course made attempts by the FBI to contact them, interview them, and verify these stories highly problematic.

And for months, right there in Ohrs notes, it had been stated quite clearly the source who provided much of these allegations wasnt living in Russia. The source lives in the United States, which would mean contacting this person and sending agents to interview him would be far easier and, in fact, would be essential.

So, did that ever happen? Did the FBI ever discover the name of this former Russian intelligence agent who lives in the United States, and did they ever interview this person about the allegations he gave to Christopher Steele? And if so, what conclusions were reached about the veracity of this persons stories? Remember: This source was not an eyewitness to the events described in the dossier. None of the sources were eyewitnessessomething the dossier itself makes very clear.

This also brings up another important question: If Simpson told Ohr the biggest source of much of the Steele dossiers TrumpRussia collusion allegations is a former Russian intelligence officer living inside the United States, did he ever tell anybody else this? Say, during the long hours in which he was testifying to congressional committees himself behind closed doors?

Actually, we know the answer to this, since Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), claiming she was confused by a cold, leaked all of Simpsons closed-door testimony to the media back on Jan. 9.

Nowhere in any of that hours-long testimony does Simpson ever get around to informing the lawmakers questioning him that the biggest source of all the TrumpRussia collusion stories lives inside the United States. So Simpson was willing to volunteer this information about the Steele dossiers biggest source to Bruce Ohr, but not to the congressional lawmakers that are investigating this scandal. Thats very telling.

Did Ohr ever get around to telling others inside the Justice Department that this key source they were relying on to brand Carter Page as a foreign agent of the Russians was living inside the United States? Did Simpson ever go on to tell Ohr what this sources name was? And if Simpson never coughed up the identity of this mystery source, how hard did the DOJ and FBI dig on their own to try to discover who this person was? Just how much effort did the FBI actually put into locating Steeles sources and verifying the allegations he handed off in his dossier?

A recent ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta means the FBI can no longer stonewall congressional committee or FOIA requests regarding the agencys efforts to verify Steeles dossier. Up until this ruling, the FBI was allowed to refuse to answer any queries about this subject. Now they have to up the ante.

And thats a good thing, because its long past time for the FBI to begin answering these questions.

Brian Cates is a political pundit and writer based in southern Texas and the author of Nobody Asked For My Opinion  But Here It Is Anyway! He can be reached on Twitter at @drawandstrike

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Liverpool Littlewoods Building Fire Started Deliberately Say Investigators

The fire that ripped through the iconic Littlewoods building in Liverpool on Sunday, Sept. 2, was started deliberately, according to investigators.

A joint investigation into the fire at the vast art deco building was announced by Merseyside Police on Sept 3.

The famous building has been empty for years, but developers recently announced plans to turn it into a film studio hub, with the potential to become the Hollywood of the North.

Merseyside Police said in a statement, The extent of damage and structural safety of the building is being assessed, and a fire investigator has established it is believed to be a case of deliberate ignition.

The fire took hold shortly before 8 p.m. on Sunday, destroying part of the roof and upper floor of one wing, before being brought under control by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.

Looks like the fire is finally out, and the building is still standing. Massive thanks to all the firefighters @merseyfire working through the night to save it. Our official statement below. https://t.co/QkG9ZBamvo ? @DaveThePapLpool pic.twitter.com/zLK0zBZaUr  CAPITAL&CENTRIC (@CapitalCentric) September 3, 2018

Merseyside police said a joint investigation with the fire service had been launched and would forensic, CCTV and witness enquiries.

Nobody was reported to have been injured in the incident.

Just 12 weeks ago Britains oldest film studios, Twickenham Film and TV Studios, announced it was moving into the 300,000-square-foot building, owned by developers Capital & Centric, as part of a 50 million pound development.

Adam Higgins, co-founder of Capital & Centric said, While there is damage to the floor and roof, the walls of the west wing and overall structure seem intact.

In a statement, he added, Well know more once we can get inside, but were extremely hopeful that well be able to save the iconic structure that people see from Edge Lane.

A later post on Sept. 4 from Capital & Centric on Twitter said, Were still standing at Littlewood buildings. Feeling very optimistic that this isnt going to set our film studio plans back too far. Once again thanks to Mersey Fire who are still on site dealing with odd flare ups.

Were still standing at #littlewoodsbuildings Feeling very optimistic that this isnt going to set our film studio plans back too far. Once again thanks to @MerseyFire who are still on site dealing with odd flare ups, these guys have been amazing pic.twitter.com/5IyRibE8JN  CAPITAL&CENTRIC (@CapitalCentric) September 4, 2018

Fifty firefighters from six fire engines and three support pumps were drafted in to tackle the blaze at its height.

Crews had to smash wooden panelling used to board up windows to access the fire on the upper floors, said the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.

Area Manager Murphy said: Crews have worked extremely hard to battle this fire & have prevented it from spreading. Were all Merseyside firefighters & this building is as much iconic to us as it is to anyone else.

The Littlewoods Pools building, as it is also known, was originally built in 1938 as the headquarters of Littlewoods, a betting and retail company that at one point became the largest private company in Europe.

Roll out the red carpet We're making Liverpool the new home of Film & TV! ??

 https://t.co/KZ8TFb3EeT pic.twitter.com/snfPU8pwgC  CAPITAL&CENTRIC (@CapitalCentric) June 7, 2018

During World War II, the government used the companies printing presses to print National Registration Forms and later used the buldings vast internal spaces for the manufacture of various aircraft parts.

According to the Liverpool Echo, the building has been empty since the mid 90s, when Littlewoods moved out.

A number of other redevelopment plans had been proposed in subsequent years, but fell through.Man Arrested on Suspicion of Evasion and Assault With a Deadly Weapon on an Officer

A 38-year-old Berkeley resident and parolee was arrested on the night of Aug. 31, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, among other alleged crimes after police said he nearly struck an officer with his car while trying to flee them.

A Pacifica police sergeant saw a black sedan with no front right tire releasing sparks and smoke while driving south on Highway 1 at approximately 9:10 p.m., according to a Pacifica police news release. After police tried to stop the car, the suspect, identified as Jason Tarrant, allegedly accelerated to 70 mph and tried to flee.

The car eventually stalled at Rosita Road and Adobe Drive. When officers approached him, the suspect refused to exit and kept trying to re-start the car, according to police. Once he was able to accelerate again, he turned sharply to the right toward a K9 handler and his partner. The officer narrowly avoided the car, which would have pinned him to nearby objects.

The vehicle became stuck after striking several objects, and officers were able to get the suspect out of the car. Tarrant was arrested on suspicion of evasion, assault with a deadly weapon and possession of burglary tools. He was also found to be on parole for felony burglary and placed on a parole hold.

By Nuria MarquezI used to kid George and tell him he was my favorite Republican. He was my personal guest at a State of the Union Address by George W. Bush, Durbin said in a statement. The reason for Georges popularity: he brought out the best in all of us. He loved Naperville and he loved life. He was more than Officer Friendly. He was a friend to everyone he met. I was glad to be in those ranks.Residential buildings are being built at the bank of the Grand Canal in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province of China, on July 16, 2018. (VCG)

Chinas Real-Estate Sector Faces Massive Layoffs as Beijing Cools Housing Prices

Chinas real-estate industry is facing massive layoffs as property developers rack up debts at unprecedented levels and Beijing seeks to cool an overheating housing market.

Among domestic publicly listed real-estate companies, 136 have liabilities that top 10 trillion yuan (about $1.47 trillion) in total, Chinas state-run newspaper Changjiang Times said in an article on Sept. 3, citing data from Wind, a Chinese information service company. Additionally, these companies have an average debt-to-asset ratio of over 80 percent.

In response to the heavy debt, many companiesincluding some of Chinas biggest in the industryhave imposed a hiring freeze or started massive layoffs. Some of these companies include Vanke, which is based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen; Shanghai-based Greenland Holdings; Agile Property, which is based in Zhongshan, a city in southern Chinas Guangdong Province; and R&F Properties, based in Guangzhou, another city in Guangdong, according to Changjiang Times.

Those four firms are ranked third, fourth, 17th, and 21st in terms of total housing sales in 2017, according to data provided by Leju Holdings, a real-estate services provider based in Beijing.



In late August, Chinese media widely reported that property developer CK Asset Holdings, which is owned by Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-shing, announced layoffs for its Shanghai team.

Meanwhile, as domestic financial institutions have been reducing their balance sheets, real-estate companies in China are having a harder time getting loans, Chen Xin, a researcher with Chinas state-run Shanghai Federation of Social Science Association, said in an interview with Changjiang Times. As for getting a loan outside of China, Chen added that a strong U.S. dollar makes such an option more costly.

In the first five months of this year, the Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended nine real-estate companies corporate bonds, worth a total of 48.4 billion yuan (about $7.09 billion), according to real-estate news website Mingtiandi. Last week, R&F Property saw 6 billion yuan (about $878 million) worth of corporate bonds terminated by the Shanghai exchange, according to Mingtiandi.

Investments that were originally going into Chinas real-estate market are now going into the rental market instead, after Beijing has sought to prop up the latter since July 2017 as a countermeasure to cool the real-estate market.

Housing prices continue to skyrocket in China. According to data released by Chinas National Bureau of Statistics on Aug. 15, 65 out of 70 mid- and large-sized cities saw prices in new housing increase in July, compared to a month earlier.

Zhang Hongwei, president of Tospur, a housing service and consulting firm based in Shanghai, said layoffs are just the beginning. He explained that there would be market adjustments starting with cities with high real-estate prices, before the changes are reflected in other first- and second-tier cities.Mattis and Pompeo to Seek India Accord Amid Threat of Sanctions

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo travel to New Delhi this week in an effort to seal a new defense cooperation agreement with their Indian counterparts despite tensions over threatened American sanctions.

Hanging over the meeting, planned for Sept. 6, is the prospect that the U.S. will impose economic sanctions on Prime Minister Narendra Modis government unless it significantly reduces purchases of oil from Iran and cancels a planned $6 billion purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia. Indian officials have said the Russian arms deal would go ahead as planned.

The first U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue is about expanding a strategic partnership rather than closing individual arms deals, according to a Defense Department official. Transfers of advanced defense technology would be boosted if the two sides are able to complete work on a proposed Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement.

Lockheeds F-16

Sales of U.S. arms, associated parts and logistics support to India have increased to an estimated $15 billion this year from zero in 2008 and could rise by an additional $3 billion by 2019, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. The prospects include a potential deal to build advanced F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. in India.

Reflecting the importance of India as a strategic ally, Mattis this year renamed the U.S. Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command. In hopes that India can be recruited to help the U.S. counter Chinas growing military and economic power, the Trump administrations National Defense Strategy published this year calls for bolstering partnerships in the Indo-Pacific to a networked security architecture capable of deterring aggression, maintaining stability, and ensuring free access to common domains.

But the threat of sanctions clouds the prospects for U.S.-India cooperation. The U.S. plans to reimpose sanctions on purchases of Iranian oil in November, after President Donald Trump quit the 2015 multinational nuclear deal with Iran. Meanwhile, a 2017 law imposed by Congress requires the president to penalize countries that conduct a significant transaction with Russias defense sector.

The U.S. wont issue blanket waivers for arms deals with Russia, and any exemptions from sanctions would require a significant reduction in reliance on Russia arms, a second U.S. official said. The S-400 is the same system Turkey plans to buy, a prospect thats roiled Ankaras relations with the U.S. and drawn condemnation in Congress.

Indias foreign ministry declined to comment on any prospective deals during the U.S. dialogue. In mid-July, Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India and Russia are close to concluding the S-400 deal and that India would go forward with the deal, adding that the new U.S. law isnt binding on India.

Indian officials previously told Bloomberg that they were willing to cut oil Iranian oil imports up to 50 percent in order to secure a waiver to continue shipments.

These are both sensitive, said Hemant Krishan Singh, a former Indian ambassador to Japan and current director general of the Delhi Policy Group think tank. It will be the test of our nascent Indo-Pacific partnership to be able to walk this fine line together, and to find adjustments that take into consideration American interests and Indian interests.

Significant Concerns

U.S. officials didnt say whether Mattis and Pompeo will offer India options to buy U.S. systems instead of the S-400. Steve Zaloga, a missile expert with the Teal Group, an aerospace consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia, said the equivalent U.S. systems are advanced versions of the Patriot air defense system built by Lockheed and Raytheon Co.

We would still have very significant concerns if India pursued major new platforms and systems from Russia, Randall Schriver, the Pentagons assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, said at the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace in Washington last week.

Nonetheless, the the U.S. looks to discuss broadening its existing Major Defense Partnership with India and reach agreements on a series of proposals to enhance bilateral defense cooperation, Schriver said last week in a statement.

Last month, India approved two key military purchases from the U.S., including a $1 billion surface-to-air missile system developed in part by Raytheon and a $2-billion government-to government deal for 24 naval helicopters from Lockheed.

By Tony CapaccioOff-Duty Police Officer Shot in Stomach During Robbery Attempt

A Georgia police officer is recovering after being shot when off-duty by two men who tried to rob him, said police.

The South Fulton officer was with another officer as they left a local hookah lounge and headed to their vehicles at around 5:00 a.m. on Sept. 1. It happened on the 100th block of John Wesley Dobbs Avenue in northeast Atlanta, said Atlanta police spokesperson Jarius Daugherty, according to AJC.com.

At least two men approached the two officers in what police believe was an attempted robbery.

2 men try to rob off-duty officer in Atlanta; all 3 end up shot, police say https://t.co/u7tlbjR8eF  National Sheriffs' Association (@NationalSheriff) September 3, 2018

It certainly was the wrong victim for them, but he was able to defend himself and do a good job, said Atlanta Deputy Chief Jeff Glazier to Fox.

One of the officers reportedly got into an argument and then a physical altercation with the men. The other officer then took out his service weapon and shot at the other men, hitting them in the legs and arms.

But in the process, that officer was also shot in the stomach, reported Channel 2 Action News. The other officer was not injured.

The three injured men were sent to Grady Hospital, and the incident is currently under investigation, said police.

Everybody is in stable condition. Were currently working the scene gathering all the information and again our detectives are talking to our victim and our suspects, said Glazier.

Fox contributed to this report.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pauses while speaking to members of the media following two days of meetings with Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, before boarding his plane at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 7, 2018. Andrew Harnik/Pool/File Photo via REUTERS

Pakistan Girds for Exchanges With Pompeo as US Halts Military Funding

ISLAMABADPakistans new foreign minister said he will have exchanges with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over Washingtons cancellation of a $300 million disbursement for the Pakistani military when he visits Islamabad on Sept. 5.

Adopting a tougher line with an ally that U.S. President Donald Trump considers unreliable, the United States halted the disbursement of Coalition Support Funds due to Islamabads perceived failure to take decisive action against Afghan Taliban militants operating from Pakistani soil.

The United States has now withheld $800 million from the CSF so far this year.

The latest move comes just as the less-than-one-month-old government of Prime Minister Imran Khan faces a looming balance of payments crisis that could force it to seek a fresh bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or other lenders.

On the 5th, the American (secretary of state) Pompeo will be arriving, and we will have a chance to sit down with him. There will be exchanges, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters late on Sept. 2.

We will take our mutual respect for each other into consideration and move forward, he added.

Qureshi argued that the U.S. was not justified in cutting the $300 million because it was intended to reimburse Pakistans military for money spent fighting the Taliban and other militants threatening U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

It is not aid. It is not assistance, which was suspended. This the money, which we have spent. This is our money. We have spent it, Qureshi said. We did it for our betterment, which they had to reimburse.

Officially allies in fighting terrorism, Pakistan and the United States have a complicated relationship, bound by Washingtons dependence on Pakistan to guarantee a supply route for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of playing a double game, by covertly providing safe havens for Afghan Taliban insurgents and fighters from the Haqqani group, who are waging a 17-year-old war against Afghanistans U.S.-backed government.

Pakistan consistently denies providing safe havens for the militants.

In an editorial on Sept. 3, Pakistans English-language Dawn newspaper railed against the Trump administrations decision to halt the disbursement of funds.

The U.S. has delivered an object lesson in how not to conduct diplomacy, Pakistans English-language Dawn newspaper said in an editorial on Sept. 3.

It went on to speculate whether Pompeo would try and bully the Pakistani leadership during his visit or if he will be deployed in a more traditional good cop diplomatic role.

Pompeo will be accompanied by top U.S. military officer, General Joseph Dunford, for talks with the Pakistani leadership.

Relations between the new Pakistani government and Washington got off to a rocky start last month when Qureshi publicly disputed that Pompeo had brought up the thorny issue of terrorist havens in a phone call with Prime Minister Khan.

The Pakistani side later downplayed the issue after Washington shared a transcript of the call, Pakistani media reported.

The Trump administration a year ago resolved to take tougher line with Pakistan than previous U.S. administrations.

In his first tweet of 2018, Trump slammed Pakistan, saying the country has rewarded past U.S. aid with nothing but lies & deceit. Washington announced plans in January to suspend up to roughly $2 billion in U.S. security assistance to Pakistan.

By Asif Shahzad & Kay JohnsonPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte (C) attends a ceremony commemorating the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem September 3, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Philippines Duterte Says Never Again at Israels Holocaust Memorial

JERUSALEMPhilippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who once likened his crime-fighting policy to Hitlers mass murders and then apologized for the comparison, on Sept. 3 laid a wreath to commemorate the Holocaust dead in Jerusalem.

During his visit to Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust memorial and museum, Duterte stood alongside his daughter, Sara, whom he fathered with Elizabeth Abellana Zimmerman, his Jewish first wife, which by religious tradition makes Sara Jewish too.

In a solemn ceremony, he kindled the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance and laid a wreath.

Reading from what he wrote in the visitors book after the ceremony, Duterte said: Never again.

May the world learn the lesson of this horrific and benighted period of human history. May the hearts of peoples around the world remain ever open. And may the minds of all men and women learn to work together towards providing a safe haven for all who are being persecuted.

In 2016, in a reference to an opponents remark that his rise could be like that of Adolf Hitler, Duterte said he himself would be happy to slaughter drug addicts in a similar way to the Nazi leaders mass murder of Jews.

Duterte is paying an official four-day visit to Israel, the first by a Philippines president, and officials on both sides have tried to play down his record of jarring invective.

Israels Government Press Office said most of the visit would be closed to the media, an apparent precaution against any faux pas by a president whose two-fisted crime-fighting tactics and rhetoric have raised hackles at home and abroad.

Tourism, labor and defense deals were signed earlier when Duterte met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his office.

Passion For Peace

We share the same passion for peace. We share the same passion for human beings. But we also share the same passion of not allowing a family to be destroyed by those who (have) corrupt ideologies, Duterte said, in an apparent reference to drug dealers.

Duterte has apologized for likening his war on drug dealers with the Holocaust but he has been dogged by accusations from activists that thousands of killings in his ongoing war on drugs were executions, accusations he rejects. He has also been rebuked by womens groups for remarks that make light of rape.

In June, Duterte called God stupid and he has lashed out repeatedly at the Catholic church, calling it hypocritical. His visit will include sightseeing in Jerusalems walled Old City, which houses major Christian, Jewish and Muslim shrines.

After arriving in Israel on Sept. 2, Duterte met with hundreds of Filipinos living in the country who work mainly as caregivers and received a rousing reception, Israeli media said. Between 24,000 and 28,000 work as carers for the elderly.

Netanyahu, in his remarks, said his own father had been looked after by a Filipina caregiver and that after he died at age 102, his uncle had benefitted from the care of the same worker.

I, like many, many Israeli families, am deeply moved by this show of humanity, Netanyahu said.

On Sept. 5, Duterte departs for neighboring Jordan.

By Ori LewisPolice Officer Shot in Georgia Walmart; Suspect Killed

A police officer in Covington, Georgia, was shot at a Walmart on Sept. 3, according to local reports.

We responded to a shoplifting at the Walmart and the officer began a foot chase with one of the suspects,  said Officer Justin Stott, who is a public information officer for the Covington police department, as reported by Patch.com.

He added: He made contact with one of the suspects across the street from the store. There was an exchange of gunfire, and both the suspect and the officer were hit.

The officer, identified as 34-year-old Matt Cooper, was airlifted to the Atlanta Medical Center, he said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that 34-year-old Covington Officer Matt Cooper is in serious condition following the shooting on the afternoon of Sept. 3, according to The Associated Press.

WSB-TV reported that one of the suspects was killed in the gun battle. AP identified the suspect as Aaron Demonta Fleming, 21, and officials said that the gunshot was likely self-inflicted.

Two other suspects are now in police custody, AP reported.

Covington is located about 35 miles southeast of Atlanta.

According to WSB, Cooper is fighting for his life after being shot.

Its very heavy on all of our hearts. Were praying just like were going to ask everyone out whos viewing this, please pray for our officer, please pray for his health and that he can pull through OK, Capt. Ken Malcom, of the Covington Police Department, told the station.

Other details about the incident were not provided.

The Associated Press contributed to this reportPolice Officers ID Woman With Baby Who Led Police on 100 MPH Chase

The woman with a baby who led police officers in Texas on a 100 mph chase has been identified.

The woman was seen leading police on the high-speed chase before a tire deflation device disabled the vehicle she was driving, causing her to crash into another car.

The woman was then seen on helicopter video footage captured by the Texas Department of Public Safety exiting from the vehicle with one hand holding a car seat in which sat a baby.

While holding the baby, the suspect tried to carjack a vehicle but officers detained the suspect before she could get away.

Read More Report Released on Inmate Left to Die in Jail Cell

The video footage was released in early September but the chase happened in mid-June along Highway 90 near Lackland Air Force Base.

The chase started because the driver was recognized at a traffic stop around 1:45 p.m. on June 15, but she then fled the scene, reported KENS5.

The woman crashed the SUV after leading troopers on a high-speed chase, then took off on foot with her infant in a baby carrier before trying to carjack a woman The video is unbelievable. All of this in the Alamo City. https://t.co/bAFO04ox9n  KSAT 12 (@ksatnews) September 3, 2018

WATCH: Texas Woman Flees with Baby in Carrier After High-Speed Police Chasehttps://t.co/ZbVWSLyATs  Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 4, 2018

Woman with baby leads police on 100 mph chase before crashing, tries to carjack another vehicle: https://t.co/f5zCqaqKPf #abc15 pic.twitter.com/gZk73sAYra  ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) September 3, 2018

The woman fled the crash scene with her baby in tow and attempted to carjack a vehicle, before being arrested by troopers. https://t.co/SHuInGKk4y  AJC (@ajc) September 3, 2018

Woman With Baby Identified

The suspect was later identified by the police as Caitlyn Rodriguez, 29, reported KSAT.

State troopers told the broadcaster that Rodriguez was wanted on warrants before the chase, and that her criminal history includes convictions for felony theft, forgery, and prostitution.

She was charged with child endangerment, possession of a controlled substance, and evading arrest as a result of the chase.

The nature of the warrants wasnt disclosed.

The baby was turned as over to Child Protective Services while Rodriguez, also known by the last name of Losiewicz, has been in jail since her arrest.

From NTD.tvPope Francis delivers his blessing to the faithful during the Angelus prayer, on Sept. 2, 2018, at Saint Peter's square at the Vatican. (TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)

Pope Brushes Aside Allegations He Covered Up Sexual-Abuse Scandal

Vatican also faces new allegations it lied about pope's 2015 meeting with Kim Davis

Pope Francis has offered silence and prayer in response to allegations that he not only covered up but promoted a Washington-based cardinal accused of having sexual relations with generations of seminarians and priests.

With people who lack goodwill, with people who seek only scandal, who seek only division, who seek only destruction, even within the family: [there is nothing but] silence. And prayer, the pontiff said Sept. 3 in Rome, AFP reported.

The pope has largely remained silent on accusations that he covered for Washington-based Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for five years, telling reporters on Aug. 26 that he wouldnt comment but that the accusation against the cardinal speaks for itself.

Former Vatican envoy to Washington Carlo Maria Vigano has said he personally alerted the pope that McCarrick, who he said had flouted sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI, had for years been sexually active with priests and seminarians while in Newark, New Jersey, and in Washington, which was made known to the Vatican as early as 2000.

After Pope Francis took office in 2013, Vigano claimed Francis promoted McCarrick, making him kingmaker for appointments in the Curia and the United States.

He has called on the media to unearth a cache of Vatican documents that were given to Francis by Benedict that he says will vindicate him.

Following his first accusations against Francis, Vigano wrote another letter taking issue with Franciss characterization of an encounter he had with Kim Davis, a county clerk from Kentucky who had spent five days in jail for refusing to issue a same-sex marriage license.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a well-known Chilean abuse victim of a Catholic priest, told The New York Times that Francis told him that he knew nothing about Davis before meeting her in 2015, and that Vigano had snuck her in to say hello to him. He claimed he was horrified and fired that nuncio [Vigano], Cruz recounted to the Times.

Vigano said in a letter dated Aug. 30 that Francis not only knew full well who she was, but that he appeared in favor of the meeting.

The Vatican press office denied that the meeting took place after it created a firestorm in the media.

This is the transparency of the Holy See under Pope Francis, wrote Vigano.Democratic Socialists of America counter protesters holding signs and flags as they march, protesting a rally on Aug. 5, 2018 in downtown Berkeley, California. (Amy Osborne/AFP/Getty Images)

Relatives Accuse Socialist Candidate Julia Salazar of Lying About Past

She has been dubbed the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Julia Salazar, a New York state Senate candidate and self-described leader inside the Democratic Socialists of America organization, has come under fire after her family members accused her of lying about her past.

Both Salazars mother and brother have come out with statements disputing multiple points in her biography, including claims of her being Jewish, an immigrant, and raised in a working-class family.

The recent accusations are strikingly similar to reports surrounding fellow socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Salazar and whose own working-class background has been called into question.

Salazar previously told the socialist magazine Jacobin, My family immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia when I was a baby, and my mom ended up raising my brother and me as a single mom, without a college degree and from a working-class background.

But a recent expose by Tablet Magazine discovered that Salazar, in fact, was born in Miami, which she also later clarified. Her brother, Alex Salazar, also disputed claims of her Jewish heritage.

There was nobody in our immediate family who was Jewish.  My father was not Jewish, we were not raised Jewish, he said.

Salazar was also the founder of the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) chapter during her time in Columbia University, a complete turnaround from her now strictly progressive platform.

Michael Kinnucan, Salazars deputy campaign manager, clarified to The Epoch Times that, to his knowledge, Salazar converted to Judaism in college and that it has been an integral part of her life ever since.

Kinnucan also said via email that Salazar was raised in a politically conservative family, but switched affiliations sometime during college. Salazars far-left policies include expanding the Medicare program to cover people of all ages and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Multiple media reports have described Salazar as the next Ocasio-Cortez, who made headlines after defeating long-serving Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in a stunning upset. Salazar is running against incumbent Martin Malave Dilan in the Democratic primary for New York state Senate District 18.

In another more recent interview with weekly magazine City and State, relatives continued to set the record straight over claims Salazar was partially raised in Colombia by a single mother with no college degree.

We were very much middle class. We had a house in Jupiter [in Florida] along the river. It was in a beautiful neighborhood, Alex Salazar told the outlet. I feel very strongly about my family, and I want to tell the truth.

Alex Salazar also said that the family was raised entirely in Florida, only going on a few short trips to Colombia in order to visit family. Salazars mother, Christine Salazar, also disputed the back and forth claim of her childhood between Colombia and the United States.

Christine Salazar did, in fact, graduate with a degree in psychology from Florida Atlantic University. City and State also pointed out that the parents were separated when Julia Salazar was only 6 years old, adding that it meant there were only 2 years when she lived only with her mother before Christine graduated.

Christine Salazar also disputed her daughters claims of working at a local grocery store when she was 14 years old to help make ends meet.

My kids always worked, from the time they were 14. I encouraged that because I thought there was a lot of value in that in terms of learning and responsibility so that was the purpose behind them having part-time jobs  not the light bill, she said.

Kinnucan did not comment on the veracity of Salazars family members comments, but said that Salazars earliest memories are of the time she spent with her family in Colombia.

In another recent interview, Salazar told Jewish Currents magazine that her family didnt all have permanent residence in the U.S. But according to her mother, everyone in her family was a U.S. citizen because her father later became one sometime in 1984.Customers pass by the logo of an American coffee company Starbucks inside a coffee shop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil August 15, 2018. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares

Starbucks Gets New NZ Partner in Struggle to Win Kiwi Coffee Connoisseurs

WELLINGTONStarbucks Corp. will have a new partner in New Zealand after the license holder said it will not renew its two-decade-old deal in a region where an entrenched coffee culture has made it difficult for the worlds largest coffee chain to thrive.

Fast-food group Restaurant Brands New Zealand Ltd. said on Aug. 3 it would let its license deal expire in October, though Starbucks would keep its doors open and frappuccinos flowing under a new licensee, Tahua Capital, which had acquired the license for a price of up to NZ$4.4 million ($2.9 million).

Restaurant Brands said in a statement the cafe chain was becoming less relevant to the companys overall direction and that it intended to focus on its core business of quick-service restaurant brands such as KFC and Pizza Hut.

Starbucks has never delivered its expectation here, said Brian Gaynor, head of Auckland-based Milford Asset Management.

They had aspirations for it a long time ago when they acquired it first, and its never been achieved because theyre up against local competition from either individual coffee shops or local chains.

New Zealand has a vibrant coffee scene that has created steep competition for major chains such as Starbucks, which first opened in the country in 1998.

Small coffee shops selling single origin espresso and drip coffee abound, while national roasting chains such as Mojo Coffee and Fuel Coffee are ubiquitous, and even expanding into China.

Starbucks encountered similar resistance in neighboring Australia where gourmet cafes have thrived in major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne since postwar Italian immigration introduced espresso to the nation in the 1950s.

A decade ago, Starbucks dramatically reduced its presence in Australia, closing 61 of its 85 coffee shops. It now has 34 shops in Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Melbourne.

Restaurant Brands said the exit from its Starbucks Coffee business, which contributes less than 4 percent of its total sales and profits, was expected to have an impact on the current years net profit, excluding non-trading items, of about NZ$1.3 million.

It said Tahua Capital, which was established specifically to buy the assets of Starbucks New Zealand, would seek to secure leases for Restaurant Brands 22 Starbucks stores and would employ all 300 current Starbucks employees.

The deal was expected to settle in late October, Restaurant Brands said in a statement.

By Charlotte GreenfieldA fire blazes at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sept. 2, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media. (Tania Dominici/Reuters)

Tensions Flare After Fire Destroys Brazil Museum in Tragedy Foretold

RIO DE JANEIROAnger smoldered in Brazil on Sept. 3, after a fire destroyed the National Museum, a cherished historical repository that lacked a sprinkler system and which had suffered years of financial neglect, making its destruction a tragedy foretold.

Outside the entrance to the elegant park housing the 200-year-old former Imperial Palace, police in riot gear shot tear gas into a small, angry crowd that tried to enter, live TV images showed. Later, police granted access to the sites perimeter, which protesters surrounded in a symbolic embrace.

The rumbling tensions reflect anger over the destruction on Sept. 2, of the much-loved yet dilapidated museum, which suffered from declining federal funding. It stirred emotions in Brazil, whose angry electorate is reeling from a frail economy, widespread graft, and rising violence ahead of an unpredictable presidential election in October.

Our community is very mobilized, and very indignant, said Roberto Leher, rector of the Rio de Janeiro federal university, which administers the museum. We all knew the building was vulnerable.

Brazils culture minister Sergio Leitao told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper the blaze was likely caused by either an electrical short-circuit or a homemade paper hot-air balloon that may have landed on the roof. Launching such balloons is a long-held tradition in Brazil and they routinely cause fires.

Both possibilities were being considered, Culture Ministry spokeswoman Roberta de Oliveira Ribeiro said in an email, but the cause would not be known until an investigation was completed. The Rio de Janeiro federal university did not immediately respond to a question on whether the museum was insured. The museums pastel-yellow facade remained standing after the blaze, but a peek inside its giant windows revealed a roofless interior of blackened hallways and charred beams. Every so often, firemen emerged with a pot or a painting they had managed to rescue.

The museums vice director, Luiz Duarte, told Globo TV the institution had been neglected by successive federal governments. He said a 21.6 million-real ($5.23 million) financing plan with the state-run development bank BNDES announced in June included, ironically, a plan to install modern fire protection equipment.

The Rio fire departments commander, Roberto Robadey, said the hydrants outside the building were dry when firefighters arrived, forcing them to turn to a nearby lake and tanker trucks for water.

Yesterday was one of the saddest days of my career, he said.

Fragile Culture

The museum is not the first to burn down in Brazil, where public money for cultural projects has been drying up after a deep recession. In 2015, for example, a blaze destroyed the prestigious Museum of the Portuguese Language in Sao Paulo.

In 2016, President Michel Temer was forced to reinstate the Culture Ministry after an outcry from some of the countrys top artists over his policy to fold it into the Education Ministry to save money.

On Sept. 3, his office said he had met with representatives from major Brazilian companies and banks to look into ways to help rebuild the museum as soon as possible.

Education Minister Rossieli Soares told reporters outside the burned-out building on Sept. 3, that the federal government would spend an initial 15 million reais ($3.6 million), in two separate installments, to restore the structure and rebuild its collection. He added that Brazil would seek international help, and was already in discussions with UNESCO.

The museums decline did not happen overnight, said Renato Rodriguez Cabral, a teacher in the geology and paleontology department.

This was a tragedy foretold, Cabral said, hugging distraught students and coworkers who poured into the site on Sept. 3. Successive governments would not provide funds, they would not invest in infrastructure.

Between 2013 and 2017, the National Museum in Rios federal funding fell about a third, to 643,567 reais, according to official budget data. The funding cuts were particularly acute this year, with the museum receiving just 98,115 reais between January and August.

Late last year, after a termite attack shuttered a room hosting the bones of the Maxakalisaurus dinosaur, the National Museum was forced to turn to a crowdfunding site to seek funds for reopening the exhibit.

It raised nearly 60,000 reais, almost double its goal.

The National Museums collection ranged from archeological finds to historical memorabilia.

The museum, which is tied to the Rio de Janeiro federal university and the education ministry, was founded in 1818 and housed several landmark collections, including Egyptian artifacts and the oldest human fossil found in Brazil.

The destruction of the building, where emperors once lived, was an incalculable loss for Brazil, Temer said in a statement.

His office did not respond to requests for comment on widespread allegations of neglect.FILE PHOTO: Homes sit on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico in the Myrtle Grove Estates development in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, U.S. October 7, 2017. REUTERS/Jessica Resnick-Ault/File Photo

Tropical Storm Gordon Hits Southern Florida, Spins Toward US Gulf Coast

A tropical storm whipped the southern tip of Florida with high winds and rain early on Sept. 3 and was forecast to gain strength as it passed over the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana, officials said.

Tropical Storm Gordon was forecast to drop as much as 8 inches of rain in some areas of the U.S. South still reeling from hurricanes a year ago.

The storm was generating winds of 45 miles per hour on Sept. 3 as it steamed west-northwest at 17 miles an hour, National Hurricane Center Director Kenneth Graham said in a video briefing on Facebook.

It looks like for the next three or four days were going to be having to really watch close, Graham said, and remember if youre even inland you can get some of these heavy rainfall totals so now is the time to be prepared.

Last year, hurricanes walloped Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing thousands of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, massive power outages and devastation to hundreds of thousands of structures.

The National Hurricane Center warned of high winds around parts of Florida as the storm passed over the southern tip of the state early on Sept. 3.

The storm was expected to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico, and reach the central Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana late on Sept. 4, the National Hurricane Center said.

At the mouth of the Mississippi River, around the area of New Orleans, the storm could generate a surge of up to 4 feet and smaller surges could hit coastland along other parts of the Gulf Coast, Graham said.

The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline, the National Hurricane Center said in a statement.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said on Sunday he had activated the states Crisis Action Team as a precaution.

There were no immediate indications that the storm had affected energy operations in the Gulf of Mexico area.

By Jon Herskovitz & Rich McKayCharles McCullough III, inspector general of the intelligence community, during a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill on July 7, 2016. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Little-Noticed FBI Meeting Connects With Claims That China Hacked Clinton Emails

On July 22, 2015, a meeting occurred between the FBI and the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) regarding the mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State.

Its not clear what was specifically discussed during the meeting, and the FBI refused to even confirm the meeting took place. But its significance has recently been boosted by explosive allegations.

Among the thousands of published pages of official documents regarding the FBI investigation of Clinton, the meeting was mentioned only once in a heavily redacted document, confirming that the meeting indeed took place and an evidence slip was created for the original notes from the meeting.

The meeting would have attracted little attention if not for multiple people recently making claims that could explain why it took place.

Chinese Hack

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), along with multiple anonymous sources, has alleged that Clintons private server, which she used for official government business, was compromised by a foreign hostile power. That power was receiving Clintons incoming and outgoing emails.

That foreign power was China, using a company operating in northern Virginia, The Daily Caller reported, citing a former intelligence officer with expertise in cybersecurity issues and a government staff officialboth anonymous.

Fox News confirmed the reporting with two unidentified sources briefed on the matter, although its unclear whether those sources were different from The Daily Callers.

All sources agreed that while the ICIG was reviewing the Clinton emails, they found a piece of code in them that indicated a copy of virtually every email was sent to an outside party. Gohmert, however, declined to specify whether the outside party was connected to China, only saying it was a foreign hostile power unrelated to Russia.

The former intelligence officer said the ICIG discovered the anomaly pretty early in 2015. The ICIG briefed the FBI on the matter on three separate occasions, according to the Daily Callers sources.

ICIG Instrumental

The ICIG had experts on classification matters and was asked to help the State Department check Clinton emails for classified information. The ICIG staffers were instrumental to the review process, the FBI stated.

When [the ICIG] did a very deep dive, they found in the actual metadatathe data which is at the header and footer of all the emailsthat a copy, a courtesy copy, was being sent to a third party and that third party was a known Chinese public company that was involved in collecting intelligence for China, the former intelligence officer said.

He said he couldnt disclose the name of the company.

There are indications there are other cutouts that were involved. I would be in a lot of trouble if I gave you the name, he said.

The FBI stated in a response to The Daily Callers story that it didnt find evidence that Clintons server was breached, which was emphasized by a response from a Clinton spokesperson. But the FBI previously acknowledged somebody may have breached the server and covered his tracks.

In 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey wrote in an internal document that it is reasonably likely that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clintons private email account. While Peter Strzok, the agent who led the Clinton probe, called Comeys assessment too strong, he noted that a sophisticated foreign actor would likely have known about her private email domain, and would be competent enough not to leave a trace if they gained access.

Strzok was later fired for sending text messages to his colleague and mistress Lisa Page that suggested he was willing to use his official powers against then-candidate Donald Trump during his run against Clinton for the presidency.

What Are the Odds?

President Trump commented on the allegations on Twitter on Aug. 29.

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! he said.

In another tweet he said: China hacked Hillary Clintons private Email Server. Are they sure it wasnt Russia (just kidding!)? What are the odds that the FBI and DOJ are right on top of this? Actually, a very big story. Much classified information!

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying dodged a question regarding the allegations.

China is a staunch defender of cybersecurity. We firmly oppose and crack down on any forms of internet attacks and the stealing of secrets, she said.

The FBI declined to comment, while the ICIG didnt respond to a request for a comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.Voters cast ballots at a polling station at the Big Bear Lake Methodist Church in Big Bear, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2016. (BILL WECHTER/AFP/Getty Images)

Voter-Roll Integrity Issues Surface Again Before Midterms

WASHINGTONA new report has found that at least 3,100 noncitizens were registered to vote in 13 so-called sanctuary cities.

The report, titled Safe Spaces, was published on Aug. 27 by the Public Interest Legal Foundation, an Indiana-based public-interest law firm devoted to election integrity.

Few sanctuary jurisdictions use systems established to actively detect unlawful registrations already in existence, the report said. None verify claims of citizenship during voter registration.

In the jurisdictions examined by report authors, the data suggests that legal immigrant noncitizens who were registered to vote overwhelmingly exceeded illegal immigrants registered to vote.

The only noncitizen voters that the foundation discovered were green-card holders who were applying to become citizens or had received a jury summonsand therefore had to answer questions about whether they had ever registered to vote, or had voted.

Other types of visas dont require the immigration officers to ask about voting, and therefore this population of noncitizens isnt detected in voter fraud research. Its not a stretch, though, to assume other noncitizens could also be registered and voting.

One thing is clear, aliens are getting on the rolls, aliens are voting, and in sanctuary jurisdictions, they arent being prosecuted for doing so, the report said.

Motor Voter

Most of the illicit voter registrations can be attributed to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, more commonly known as Motor Voter, which was signed into law just months after former President Bill Clinton took office and took effect in January 1995.

The act was designed to make it easier for Americans to register and vote, as well as to protect the integrity of the electoral process and maintain clean voter rolls.

Critics say the first part is working, but not the second.

The NVRA requires each state to offer voter registration to anyone who applies for a drivers license, but doesnt require proof of their eligibility to vote. Usually, its simply a tick-box question on the drivers license form asking if the applicant is a citizen.

If a noncitizen checks Yes to the citizenship question in any setting, they are simply enrolled without any further verification, even if they presented a Green Card or foreign passport to identify themselves at the time of registration, the report said.

Along with its drivers license application form, the Washington Department of Motor Vehicles website says that as of June 26 this year, if eligible, when you complete the application, you will automatically be opted in to register to vote unless you select to decline.

The form says false registration is subject to a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to five years in prison. However, the Safe Spaces report said immigration authorities have obtained assurances from state prosecutorial authorities that aliens who had been registered and voting would not be prosecuted.

The reports authors said attempts by various states to require registrants to provide documentary proof of citizenship during registration for federal elections have, thus far, been thwarted by lawsuits brought by left-leaning groups.

Casting Fraudulent Votes

In San Diego County, 41 percent of the 264 individuals who reported that they were ineligible to vote had cast at least one ballot while on the voter rolls, according to the report.

In San Diego County, the average noncitizen sat undetected on the rolls for an average of 5.9 years, during which time, he or she remained free to cast a ballot without any additional check on eligibility, the report stated.

One San Diego County man, R. Picos, admitted his voting history during his naturalization process. He had cast votes in 10 elections, from a 1998 gubernatorial general election through to the 2008 presidential primary election.

The Safe Spaces report said documents show Picos first registered to vote in San Diego County in 1998 and his registration was completed with the assistance of a third party. The citizenship question was left blank.

San Francisco County has gone a few steps further than other sanctuary jurisdictionssince July this year, the county began allowing legal and illegal immigrants to vote in school board elections.

Opponents of sanctuary policies may share fears of illegal aliens casting ballots while proponents of welcoming communities often push openly for suffrage among legal and illegal immigrants, the Safe Spaces report says.

Clean Voter Rolls

President Donald Trump established the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May 2017, but subsequently disbanded it on Jan. 3.

During one of the commissions hearings on Sept. 12, 2017, Robert Popper, director of the Election Integrity Project at Judicial Watch, testified. Popper was responsible for enforcing the NVRA at the Department of Justice between 2005 and 2008.

He said the NVRA goal of ensuring clean voter roles hasnt been met. States and counties are responsible for removing in a timely manner inactive and ineligible voters, those who have moved, and those who are deceased.

Popper pointed to a 2012 Pew report that found approximately 24 millionone of every eightvoter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate.

Pew also found that more than 1.8 million deceased individuals listed as voters, and approximately 2.75 million people who were registered in more than one state.

As federal courts have acknowledged, the fact that a county has a registration rate exceeding 100 percent is strong circumstantial evidence that that county is not conducting a reasonable program of voter list maintenance, Popper said in his testimony.

Popper said a more recent study, undertaken by Judicial Watch in July last year, found a pervasive failure by state and county officials to fulfill the voter list maintenance obligations imposed by the NVRA.

He said the existing NVRA should be enforced, and by doing so, would enhance integrity in the electoral system and possibly restore some faith in it.

Popper pointed to several studies and polls that point to a distrust in the American electoral system, including a 2016 Rasmussen poll, which reported that only 41 percent of those polled believe American elections are fair to voters.

A Gallup poll in the same year found that 69 percent of individuals polled didnt have confidence in the honesty of elections, while 30 percent said they did.

Noncitizens Removed From Voter Rolls

As published in the Safe Spaces report by the Public Interest Legal Foundation on Aug. 27, using data from 13 jurisdictions.The logo of Wipro is seen inside the company's headquarters in Bengaluru, India, January 19, 2018. REUTERS/Abhishek N. Chinnappa

Wipro Wins Biggest Ever Contract, Over $1.5 Billion

NEW DELHIIndian software services exporter Wipro Ltd. won its biggest-ever contract worth more than $1.5 billion with U.S.-based Alight Solutions LLC for digital services, the company said in a statement on Sept. 2.

Wipro, one of Indias top IT firms, said it would earn $1.5-1.6 billion in revenues over the tenure of the deal, which will include services in health, human resources and finance for Illinois-based Alight Solutions.

In July, the Bengaluru-based firm had said it would buy Alight Solutions India operations for $117 million in cash. The deal is expected to be completed in the quarter ending September.

Shares of the IT firm hit a seven-month high on Aug. 31, gaining as much as 2.53 percent to 306.5 rupees.

Wipro has previously said it expected revenue from its key IT services business for the quarter ending September to be in the range of $2.01 billion to $2.05 billion.

By Neha DasguptaWoman Force-Fed Mustard Oil by Chinese Communist Officials, Dies 2 Months Later

A Chinese woman was tortured at the hands of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, and two months later, she died, according to a new report.

Jiang Pai fell into a coma after she was detained by CCP officials and was tortured for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999.

Her cellmates noted that she was incontinent, and her body kept shaking, said a report from Minghui, a website dedicated to publishing information about the persecution of Falun Gong, on Sept. 2.

As there were no in-house doctors on duty over the weekend, the inmates begged the guards to seek medical care for her, the report said, adding that she wasnt taken to the hospital for another day. Then, CCP officials beat her and pulled her hair while she was undergoing a MRI scan, the report stated.

The incident took place in June 2007, but information about her death wasnt published until September 2018.

Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a traditional body-mind-spirit practice that was made public in 1992 and became widely practiced across China in the 1990s. It is grounded in ancient Chinese philosophies to uphold the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

Inmates said that she was whipped, beaten, was shocked with electric batons, and force-fed  with mustard oil, said Minghui.

The report said that CCP Domestic Security Division agent Feng Haibo, who arrested other Falun Gong practitioners, made reference to Jiangs torture and death when they were detained by him. He said that she was placed on an iron chair and a shocked for three days straight, according to the report.

We force-fed her with mustard oil three times. Tears gushed from her eyes and her nose kept running  that was when she began to answer all the questions we asked her, said another unnamed police officer, Minghui reported.

Read More Accounts of Persecution Told at US Ministerial

Liu Ying, a nurse from Daqing city, described what its like to be fed mustard oil in a Chinese detention center. Like Jiang, Liu was also tortured because she practices Falun Gong, the report noted.

The police bought the mustard oil, which was imported from Japan, in the middle of the night. With a large syringe, they injected the mustard oil into my nose, she said. I immediately felt a very intense, scorching pain in my chest. I felt as if my internal organs were shaking. I couldnt open my eyes. My head was exploding. I was going crazy. Words cant describe how painful it was.

She added: After I lost consciousness, the police poured cold water on my body to wake me up. Then they again force-fed me with the mustard oil until I passed out again. They repeated the torture several times. While force-feeding me with mustard oil, one officer said to me, Do you know Jiang Pai? This was what we did to her. She was even put in an iron chair which was plugged into electricity while being force-fed with mustard oil.

After the mustard oil torture, the report said Jiang was force-fed, which likely killed her.

After repeated interrogations and force-feedings, Ms. Jiangs health condition rapidly declined. By the morning of June 23, 2007, according to her roommates, she began to have signs of death after falling into a deep coma. She was left unattended for two days, and the inmates could only watch as this young, innocent life was being slowly taken away by death, the report concluded.

Forced Organ Harvesting

In July 2018, three days of meetings were held at the U.S. State Department, organized by Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH).

Dr. Glynn Gilcrease III, who works medical oncologist at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said during the hearing that forced organ harvesting is the state-sanctioned practice of removing organs from non-consenting prisoners of conscience. But this is only done in China, Gilchrist said during the hearing.

Another doctor, Torsten Trey, the executive director of DAFOH, laid out the case for why forced organ harvesting in China an act of genocide. He began by presenting the Chinese regimes official numbers for transplantations in China, which have barely increased since 2006.

But, he noted that since 2000, the evidence shows, there has been a dramatic increase in the infrastructure used for organ transplants in China. Hospital beds have dramatically increased, as have the number of transplant teams on transplant wards. The sale of anti-rejection drugs has likewise skyrocketed.

They are hiding something, Trey said.FILE PHOTO: Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from Britain in 1966./File Photo

World Court weighs Britains claim to Chagos Islands

THE HAGUEMauritius tried to persuade judges at the World Court on Sept. 3 to find that it was illegally stripped by Britain of another Indian Ocean archipelago, the Chagos Islands, now home to a major U.S. air base.

The case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague is a test of whether colonial-era deals struck by great powers and small states that later gained independence are legitimate, given the power imbalance.

Britain in 1965 detached the Chagos Islands from its colony of Mauritius, which became independent three years later while the sparsely populated Chagos remained overseas British territory.

The United States has leased the Chagos Islands biggest island, Diego Garcia, since 1966 and has built an air base there, while the entire population of around 1,500 people was forced to leave.

In 2017, Mauritius petitioned the United Nations to seek an ICJ advisory opinion on the legality of Britains colonial-era move.

Despite opposition from Britain and the United States, which views the Diego Garcia base as a vital military asset, the U.N. General Assembly referred the matter to the ICJ, commonly known as the World Court, in 2017 for an advisory opinion.

Although ICJ opinions are not binding, they carry weight under international law.

The case was argued by elder statesman Anerood Jugnauth, 88, who served for nearly 30 years during four stints as prime minister or president of Mauritius from 1982-2017, and now holds the post of minister mentor in a cabinet led by his son.

The choice we were faced with was no choice at all: it was independence with detachment (of the Chagos archipelago) or no independence with detachment anyway, Jugnauth told the 14-judge panel.

UK solicitor general Robert Buckland told the court it should decline to issue any opinion on the matter, which he argued was better suited to bilateral negotiations.

The people displaced from the Chagos Islands have lobbied for years to be able to return. In 2016, Britains Foreign Ministry extended Diego Garcias lease until 2036, and declared the expelled islanders would not be allowed to go back.

Outside the court in The Hague, a small group of Chagossians gathered to protest. They unfurled banners denouncing modern slavery and called for Chagossians to be allowed self-determination.

I want the world to see that we are still suffering, Isabelle Charlot, whose father was born on Chagos, told reporters.

Buckland accepted that the removal of the Chagossians and their treatment thereafter was shameful and wrong, but said it had already been resolved in a 1982 agreement on compensation.

More than 20 interested parties, including the African Union, have asked to take part in the hearings. No date has been set for a decision.

By Stephanie van den BergWALLINGFORD  The fall out from Edible Arrangements Aug. 21 headquarters relocation from Connecticut to suburban Atlanta is continuing, this time involving the closure of one of the companys subsidiaries.

Netsolace, which develops software for use by franchisors, will relocate to Georgia by the end of the year, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice with the Connecticut Department of Labor. The layoffs will involve about 20 people at Netsolace, which is located at 95 Barnes Road in Wallingford.

Alicia Thompson, a spokeswoman for Edible Arrangements, said a few of the 20 people employed by Netsolace may be asked to relocate to Georgia. Netsolace will move into the same office complex, Lakeside Commons in suburban Sandy Springs, Georgia, that will house Edible Arrangements relocated headquarters operations.

Edible Arrangements specializes in franchised locations that sell fresh-cut fruit arrangements.

The 20 Connecticut jobs being lost with the relocation of Netsolace are in addition to the 110 layoffs that will be occurring as a result of the headquarters moving. Netsolace already had a presence in the Atlanta area, having opened an office there in February 2014.

Netsolace develops software that allows franchisors to increase the productivity and efficiency of their franchisees. The software aids in workforce training, point-of-sale, auditing and compliance as well as following up on leads.

Edible Arrangements has about eight subsidiaries that operate under its corporate structure. In addition to Netsolace, some of the other Edible Arrangements subsidiaries are:

Berry Direct, which specializes in designing, manufacturing, and delivering decorative containers.

BroadPeak, an information technology services company that serves the franchise and retail industries.

Naranga, which develops technological platforms to help franchise owners with multiple locations run various aspects of their business.

It was not immediately clear on Friday whether all of those subsidiaries will be moving to Georgia as well, or how many employees work at each of those companies.

In an interview in July, Tariq Farid, the founder of Edible Arrangements, told the New Haven Register the subsidiaries would remain in Connecticut.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.comWith One Direction on a break, member Niall Horan is pursuing such solo projects as sharing the music from his studio debut album, Flicker. His Flicker World Tour stops at Hartfords Xfinity Theatre on Friday, Sept. 14.

The Irish heartthrob, who turns 25 the day before that show, is touring with pop artist Maren Morris. He and Morris recently closed the New York State Fair, up in Syracuse, with a concert that had fans singing along and screaming for more.

Horan opened that concert with On The Loose, followed by The Tide, according to Jacob Pucci in syracuse.com. Simply hearing the first few notes on Horans acoustic guitar for This Town was enough to cause pandemonium, including guttural screams from a few fans near me that I didnt know were possible from a teenage girl, Pucci said.

Among the shows highlights was the folk-pop tune, Seeing Blind, performed as a duet with Morris, he said, of the song from Flicker, which features beautiful harmonies.

Flicker entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 when it debuted last fall, and topped the iTunes Albums chart in 61 countries. Horan has said it was inspired by folk and classic rock bands such as Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Horans One Direction band mate, Harry Styles, released his solo debut album last year. He and Horan met after auditioning as solo contestants for the British music competition series, The X Factor, which placed them in the group that is now One Direction.

The boy band (including Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson), has toured the world and sold over 70 million records. Zayn Malik quit in 2015 to go solo. Later that year, the group decided to take a breather.

Were all just kind of doing our own bits and pieces now, were all enjoying it, were all in touch, but I think people have this public perception that we all hate each other and One Direction is never going to happen ever again, Horan said in a news release. The star said thats not true at all, theres no animosity and One Direction will definitely be back. Were just enjoying our time.

Horan also has a new original tune, Finally Free, coming out on the soundtrack of Smallfoot, an animated adventure film which opens Sept. 28. The movie features a cast led by Channing Tatum, James Corden, Zendaya and Common.

Xfinity Theatre, 61 Savitt Way, Hartford. Friday, Sept. 14, 8 p.m. $107-$29.50, 800-745-3000, livenation.comWell be getting those proposals shortly and well bring that back to the board, village manager Cara Pavlicek said. Hopefully, in the first quarter of 2019, we can look at that. This facility, it really is a facility that is in need of some strategic investment so that its meeting the needs of the employees who work here and our guests that sometimes have to stay here. I think we have to pay attention to that and make some decisions.NEW CANAAN  They never crossed paths, but two sisters who are accused of bilking $500,000 from a public school cafeteria system both wore black sunglasses to court Tuesday.

Marie Wilson and Joanne Pascarelli, former cafeteria workers in New Canaan Public Schools, arrived separately at state Superior Court in Norwalk in their first court appearance since being arrested for a scam police say could go back as far as 15 years.

Though both of their attorneys say they will plead not guilty, no pleas were made Tuesday and the case was transferred to Superior Court in Stamford.

Wilson, 67, was the first to show up, entering the courthouse at 9:45 a.m. with her attorney, Mark Sherman. Wilson did not speak to anyone but her lawyer, remaining largely stoic before and throughout the proceeding.

The case was transferred, which is typical for things like this, Sherman said after Judge Stephanie McLaughlin approved the cases move to Stamford for Monday. We plan to enter a not-guilty plea at the appropriate time.

When asked about Wilson, Sherman said she was hanging in there.

In mid-August, police issued warrants for the sisters arrests, charging them with larceny and defrauding a public community for allegedly stealing $478,588 from 2012 to 2017.

Pascarelli, 61, dressed in a black blouse and black pants, entered Courtroom C around 10:45 a.m. and was told by an officer to remove her sunglasses. She sat in the front, left corner of the room, along with her attorney, Darnell Crosland.

Crosland also plans to file a not guilty plea for his client and is considering applying to the Accelerated Rehabilitation program.

Crosland said Pascarelli had zero control of any of the revenue and the schools loss was a result of systemic negligence.

Pascarelli gave 30 years of her life to the schools and never missed a day, Crosland said. This is a negligence case and we want the charges dropped, dismissed.

Obviously, shes at the peak of her life and this is not what she expects at this point of her life.

Wilson and Pascarelli did not issue any comment.

In the arrest warrant issued in August, police say that the scam could have been ongoing for 15 or more years but were advised to limit the investigation to five years due to statutes of limitations.

The investigation began in December when the Board of Education filed a complaint with police regarding financial discrepancies in the handling of cash at Saxe Middle and New Canaan High School cafeterias.

Both cases will proceed at the Stamford Superior Court on Monday.

humberto.juarez@hearst-

mediact.comMedical marijuana might be legal in more than half the states, but that doesnt mean its fine to use it on most college campuses.

The reason? Marijuana still remains illegal at the federal level and schools are concerned it might put them in jeopardy with the law.

The latest example of this comes from Oklahoma. The state recently approved the use of medical marijuana for certain conditions and diseases and within the guidelines provided by law (such as getting a doctors prescription and registering with the state).

However, the states two major colleges, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, recently announced they will not allow medical marijuana on campus.

Student reactions were as expected. Honestly, I think thats a little bit ridiculous, one student told KFOR News in Oklahoma.

Related: White House Orders Federal Agencies to Find Bad Things to Say About Legal Marijuana

Federal Problems

Like many universities before them, the decision by the two Oklahoma schools came down to one major issue: cash from the federal government.

Public schools get funding from the federal Department of Education, and that funding is contingent on complying with federal law. Marijuana has been listed as an illegal, Schedule I drug since the 1970s.

In announcing the decision, the universities said they had to consider remaining compliant with three federal laws to continue receiving funding.

Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act

Federal Drug-Free Workplace Act

Federal Controlled Substances Act

That last one is the one that makes the growing, distribution, selling and possession of marijuana a federal crime.

Related: Massachusetts Is Helping Legal Cannabis Businesses Get Started in Areas Hit Hardest by War on Drugs

Not Getting Arrested

Because possession and even growing a limited number of marijuana plants is legal now in Oklahoma, students themselves will not get arrested if they violate the universities rules.

This is the case in most states where marijuana is legal -- although it almost wasnt in Arizona. The legislature there attempted to make possession of medical marijuana on campus a crime despite medical marijuanas legal status in Arizona, But a state court struck the law down after an Arizona State University student sued.

This is not a red state/blue state issue. The University of California system bans all marijuana from campus, as well. So does the University of Oregon. Some have taken steps to get around federal law, such as the University of Colorado, which now allows freshman students to apply to live off campus if they use medical marijuana.

For students and cannabis advocates looking to see change on the issue, one place to start may be the voting booth in November.

Follow dispensaries.com on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news.

Related:

Prohibition State: Why Is Medical Marijuana Still Banned on College Campuses?

White House Orders Federal Agencies to Find Bad Things to Say About Legal Marijuana

Video: This Week in Weed (August 20-24)



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedSomething both candidates in Virginia's U.S. Senate race can agree on is the fact that opioid addiction has torn through the state, with 1,229 people dead from overdoses last year and thousands more in prison for crimes related to addiction.

Where Republican Corey Stewart and Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine disagree is the cause behind the growing problem and how to fix it, differences the candidates have highlighted while touring areas of the state that have been hit hardest by what officials deemed a public health emergency in 2016.

Stewart, chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, says Medicaid is to blame, arguing that it provides the drug at low cost to Medicaid patients who, he says, then sell it on the black market to addicts. He says Virginia's recent Medicaid expansion - benefiting an extra 400,000 low-income patients - will make the problem worse. Stewart wants to require Medicaid recipients to pay more for their synthetic painkillers.

But he offers flimsy evidence to support his claims.

"Given the epidemic of opioid abuse in this country, we're going to have to take some strong action," said Stewart, from a county where 50 people died of opioid overdoses last year. "I would be for substantially increasing the co-pay for opioids for Medicaid recipients to help reduce the demand and contain the black market for drugs."

Stewart's theory echoes claims made by some Senate Republicans since January.

In response to those claims, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last month found that the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act allowed more people to receive opioid addiction treatment, instead of driving up prescriptions for synthetic painkillers.

In a blog post last month, Andrew Goodman-Bacon, an economics professor at Vanderbilt University, and Emma Sandoe, a Harvard University doctorate student in health policy political analysis, argued that there is no credible evidence that Medicaid expansion caused or exacerbated the opioid problem.

Stewart dismissed those arguments, saying that law enforcement officials he has met in southwestern Virginia told him there is a growing black market for Medicaid-reimbursed prescription drugs.

But a police sergeant in the Lee County town of Jonesville that Stewart cited as his main source told The Washington Post that he has no way of knowing whether that problem can be tied to Medicaid.

"For us to know exactly how they're getting them, we don't know," said Sgt. Travis Mullins, who oversees narcotics enforcement in his town of 1,000 residents and sits on the Republican Party committee in the 9th Congressional District. "But the number of prescription pills we see being abused is really high."

Kaine agrees that the abuse of opioids is rampant, contributing to 72,000 overdose in the United States last year, a record year for overdose-related deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Virginia recorded 1,391 deaths caused by overdoses last year, the majority related to opioids.

He argues for a mandate to bring opioid addiction in the country under control by 2030, comparing that goal to President John F. Kennedy's call in 1962 for U.S. astronauts to set foot on the moon within a decade.

A bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Kaine and pending in the Senate, would step up seizures of illegal opioids arriving at the U.S. border, push the National Institutes of Health to develop nonaddictive painkillers and fund more treatment programs, among other things.

In 1962, "being on the moon by the end of the decade seemed like science fiction," Kaine said recently to a crowd in Alexandria. "Being addiction-free by 2030? The science is there. The question is: Is the will there? If society's will is there, then we can do it."

Kaine accuses Stewart of not caring enough about the opioid crisis, criticizing him during a July debate for skipping a vote by his county board over whether to allocate $200,000 in emergency funding toward treatment. Stewart was in Alabama that December day, campaigning for Republican Roy Moore in his failed Senate bid.

The measure failed 5 to 2, with the board's Republican majority choosing to wait to learn what the state would allocate toward the crisis.

Stewart was present for another vote in April, when the board unanimously adopted a new spending plan that includes $430,000 to hire three therapists for addiction treatment.

Jodi Manz, Virginia's assistant secretary of health and human resources, said any attention that results in more funding geared toward the crisis is welcome.

With the 1,229 deaths last year, opioid overdose deaths in the state have increased by 58 percent since 2007, state figures show.

Earlier this year, state officials ramped up efforts to bring those numbers down with $9.8 million in federal grant money that they anticipate will increase by an additional $15.7 million in the fall.

Among other things, the grant money is going toward drug interdiction, needle exchange programs and helping ex-convicts find addiction treatment, officials said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist, has toured medical schools in the state to lecture aspiring doctors on the importance of prescribing painkillers judiciously.

"Everybody has an aunt or someone else they know who ends up with 30 days' worth of opioids that they don't need and are just sitting in their medicine cabinet," Manz said. "There is an opportunity for some of those pills to end up on the streets."

Diane Engster, who listened to Kaine talk about his bill in Alexandria, said that was her concern when a nurse showed up with a bag of morphine and other opiates for her dying mother.

Engster said her mother, who died in February, did not really need the medication. And one bottle of Vicodin went missing, she said.

Engster said she still doesn't know what happened to the drugs.

"They're giving these drugs to people when they shouldn't be, and it's a danger to everybody," she said.NORWALK  Motorists were surprised to find the West Rocks Road Bridge over the Merritt Parkway briefly re-closed Tuesday morning.

I have no idea, said state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, when asked about the closure. They opened on time right before school started and that was everybodys goal. The crews worked six or seven days a week, up to 16-hour days, to get the job done, so Im pleased that it was done on time and that it was opened by the time school was back in session.

Nor was the Connecticut Department of Transportation able to immediately explain why the bridge was re-closed to motorists for a short period of time Tuesday.

Construction workers on site, however, indicated the closure was related to traffic control amid ongoing work on the bridge. A large crane anchored atop the bridge mid-day made clear that the estimated $2 million rehabilitation project isnt over.

Travis Woodward, DOT project engineer for the project, said in mid-August that work was on schedule with the bridge expected to reopen to through traffic on or about Aug. 27  two days before Norwalk Public Schools resumed classes  and wrap up entirely by May 19, 2019.

The West Rocks bridge, a single-span, 75-foot-long, 36-foot-wide structure, was built in 1938 and rehabilitated in 1986. It carries one lane of traffic in each direction over the Merritt Parkway. Last year, the span carried on average 10,300 vehicles a day with 5 percent of the traffic being trucks, according to the DOT.

State officials said last year a full replacement of the bridge superstructure was necessary because of deterioration of the concrete deck and steel girders.

The bridge rehabilitation will modify and strengthen the structure to current standards by replacing the deck, parapets and girders while retaining the historic character of the bridge. The project will be funded entirely with state money, according to the DOT.Thailand's two major political parties, which have battled viciously over the past decade, are open to joining hands after the next election to blunt the power of unelected officials.

In separate interviews last week, a top leader of the Pheu Thai party affiliated with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Democrat party head Abhisit Vejjajiva didn't rule out an alliance after the election planned for February, if certain conditions were met. Thailand has been under military rule since a 2014 coup by former army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha.

While any collaboration would be fragile, Pheu Thai and the Democrat party may have a common interest in preventing unelected members of parliament from installing Prayuth or another military figure as premier after the vote. Under a constitution written after the last coup -- Thailand has had about a dozen military takeovers since 1932 -- a 250-member Senate appointed by the junta will have a say in picking the next prime minister.

"I am trying to persuade political parties to not support the NCPO leader in becoming the next prime minister after the election," said Chaturon Chaisang, a prominent Pheu Thai member, referring to the National Council for Peace and Order, the official name of the junta. "I personally have not shut the door for working together with any other party, including the Democrats."

Chaturon said he expects Pheu Thai to win the most seats in the election. Although it would be "very difficult" for Pheu Thai and the Democrats to join hands, he said, at the same time it would be challenging for a single party to gain a majority under the current electoral system.

"If one of the parties, any party, decides not to ally itself with any other parties, political parties might not be able to form a government," Chaturon said. "That's why I personally never say that we will never work together, or ally ourself with any party."

Thaksin's allies have won the most seats in every election dating back to 2001, with the military or courts intervening to overturn the results on several occasions. Thaksin fled the country and has lived overseas since a 2008 conviction for abuse of power -- a verdict he says was politically motivated.

Abhisit, who led Thailand from 2008 to 2011, said that the 250 senators should respect the will of the people in picking the prime minister. His Democrat party has finished second in every election it's participated in since 1992, and he became prime minister only after parties in Thaksin's ruling coalition switched sides in 2008 after protesters seized Bangkok's international airport.

"What would be the point of having elections if they are not going to be meaningful," Abhisit said in an interview. "We are all responsible for where the country is today."

He indicated that it wouldn't be easy for the Democrats to align with Pheu Thai.

"We will only join a government that we believe will best serve the interests of the people," Abhisit said. "We don't yet know how Pheu Thai is going to evolve, but I have said before that if Pheu Thai cannot step out of the shadow and the interests of the Shinawatra family, and do not learn the lessons of the abuses of the past, it will be difficult for us to work with them."

Prayuth has said an election may take place on Feb. 24, but the date isn't confirmed. The military administration has repeatedly pushed back the timeline for the vote and still continues to ban political campaigning, although it plans to relax some other rules.

Investors are watching for progress toward a poll. Standard Chartered Bank expects further clarity in the election timeline to bolster prospects for greater capital inflows to Thailand.

But there may be longer term risks after the vote. Prayuth will likely return as prime minister, but the falling popularity of the junta means social stability could deteriorate, BMI Research wrote in July.

Chaturon said Thaksin was still contributing to Thai politics and Thai society, but the party had to learn to operate without him.

"This constitution and the relevant organic laws prohibit him from getting involved with the party," Chaturon said of Thaksin. "If he is allowed by the party to have influence on the party, the party will be dissolved. The party must learn to pursue its duty independently of him."Many people who work full time in major employment areas like large cities are likely to call a commuter town home. But what is a commuter town exactly?

It's an area thats primarily residential, without industrial or strong economic engines of its own, says Laura Brodniak, a real estate agent with Windmere Real Estate in Seattle.

A commuter town is sometimes called a bedroom communitya nod to the fact that many of the residents leave for employment during the workday but return in the evening.

These types of communities can vary in population, but the one thing they have in common is their proximity to a major employment center whether thats a large city, suburban community, or resort area.

Commuter towns can develop outside an urban employment area where sky-high rents and mortgages drive workers to seek housing elsewhere. Stamford, CT, for example, is a commuter town for people who work in New York City.

Commuter towns can also develop when a small town loses its manufacturing center. Residents may want to continue to live there, but need to commute elsewhere in order to find employment. Steubenville, OH, a former steel town, has now become a commuter town for people who travel to Pittsburgh for work.

Life in a commuter town

Commuter towns generally have few local businesses, which is one of the main distinctions between these types of communities and suburbs. But similar to suburbs, commuter towns will be proximate to cities and major employment centers. They also may be in rural or semirural areas.

Commuter towns generally offer more space compared with the surrounding suburban and urban areas, according to Eddie Chang, broker and director at Seattle King County Realtors.

"You tend to get better bang for the buck in commuter towns than in urban areas, he says. For many people, this means they can afford a larger home for less money than what they could afford in the city.

Other services add to the quality of life in commuter towns.

"There are often great schools, good transportation to the city, and good health care options, says Brodniak.

On the flip side, living in a commuter town means you won't have access to the wide variety of restaurants, major event venues, large malls, festivals, and other local cultural events that are found in a city.

And of course, theres the expense and inconvenience of your daily commute.

The future of commuter towns

As technology advances, changes in how and where Americans work may change how we perceive commuter towns.

With more people working remotely, fewer people may commute, Brodniak says. Still, she doesnt think this will make commuter towns any less desirable.

Even though people may not need to commute to work, most commuter towns still offer them the chance to own a relatively affordable home on a relatively large lot.

The post What Is a Commuter Town? Proximity to the City and Relatively Affordable Living appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.On Saturday, a group set out in search of answers. They took to the streets around midday, passing out fliers, knocking on doors and seeking answers in the Oak Park teens death. A similar type of effort had been organized in the past to help spread the word.ALTON  Last weeks retirement of a 22-year Alton police veteran made way for two officers promotions to lieutenant and sergeant during a Tuesday afternoon ceremony.

Its always a pleasure promoting two well-deserving people in the Police Department, said Chief Jason Jake Simmons of the Alton Police Department.

Pete Vambaketes moved from sergeant to lieutenant; and Mark Conrad was promoted to that newly vacated sergeant position, the moves prompted by the Aug. 31 retirement of Lt. Gary Cranmer.

Family members, APD staff and Cranmer attended the event in the satellite courtroom in the Donald E. Sandidge Alton Law Enforcement Center, 1700 E. Broadway.

Vambaketes mother Cheryl pinned the lieutenant bars that Cranmer had worn until last Friday onto her sons uniform. Vambaketes has been with APD since March 1999.

Before that, he was on active duty from 1992 to 1996 as a highly decorated (U.S.) Marine, Simmons said. Vambaketes trained three new officers, then worked in the Investigations Bureau from 2005-11.

He was a member of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, where he investigated more than a dozen murders, Simmons said. He is a man with an abundance of honesty and integrity. He always finds a way for officers and detectives to laugh during difficult times.

With Vambaketes a lieutenant, his sergeant stripes went to Conrad. Wife Kara Conrad pinned the stripes onto her husbands uniform and gave him a kiss.

He trained nine police officers, I always tried to get him to do some of the eight-week training, Simmons said of Conrad. He has a positive attitude, he knows the value of hard work.

Simmons said Conrad, who joined APD in June 2007, is a certified sniper, was on the former APD Tactical Response Team and remains a member of the multi-agency, Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System.

Simmons praised Conrad for discovering a holdup note from a man who robbed the U.S. Bank, 1520 Washington Ave. The fingerprints on the note led investigators to identifying the suspect.

Cranmer had been chief of detectives since last spring, after predecessor Lt. Jarrett Ford requested to return to shift work in order to spend more time with his toddler son. Upon Cranmers retirement, Simmons on Tuesday moved Ford back to that position to oversee the Investigations Bureau.

Another change Simmons made is placing Sgt. Jeremiah Dressler in charge of training. Lt. Seth Stinnett remains the administrative assistant in charge of Alton City Jail and the Traffic Division, while Sgt. Joel Bromaghim still is the traffic supervisor.

Cranmers time working for the city of Alton continues, though.

Although Cranmers position as director of the citys new Department of Code Enforcement will not become official until aldermen OK the appointment Sept. 12, he began his new job on Tuesday. Pfc. Vince Warlick, while remaining a police officer, also began working Tuesday under Cranmer in enforcing the citys property codes.

Officials formed the Department of Code Enforcement by splitting off those duties from the Alton Department of Development and Housing, with aldermen approving the change on Aug. 22.

Both Cranmer and Ford were promoted to lieutenants in January 2017, with Ford then becoming chief of detectives. Ford was hired at APD on Jan. 31, 2005 and became a sergeant in 2013.

Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450 or on Twitter @Linda_WellerALTON  Bebop to the sounds of some of the hottest names in jazz, both regionally and nationally, at the Alton Jazz and Wine Festival at Liberty Bank Alton Amphitheater Saturday, Sept. 8 starting at 4 p.m.

Tune in to the sounds of acclaimed regional and national jazz musicians including acclaimed trumpet player Terell Stafford; the talented high school jazz musicians who comprise the Jazz St. Louis All Stars; St. Louis own Jim Manley Quintet; and the ever popular Miss Jubilee & the Humdingers.

Admission to the event is free, although a VIP experience is available which includes VIP parking, drink vouchers, reserved seats and access to VIP tent. VIP tickets are 2 for $25 or 1 for $15. Tickets are available at the Alton Visitor Center, 200 Piasa St., Argosy Casino Alton or at Metrotix.com. Special Premier Jazz Club Table Seating is also available with tickets $50 per person or $90 for two. Those tickets are only available at the Alton Visitor Center.

The jazz festival was created as a salute to jazz legend Miles Davis who was born in Alton in 1926. A bronze statue honoring Davis stands on 3rd Street in Alton. It is one of three Miles Davis statues in the world and the only one on the North American continent.

We wanted to create a festival along the Mississippi River that honors Miles Davis and gives people the opportunity to hear some top jazz performers, said Brett Stawar, a member of the Jazz and Wine Festival committee. This is an event that will grow and we hope can become a signature jazz festival in the region.

A variety of wine and food, to match the talent on stage, will be available for sale at concession stands at the event.

National jazz musician Terell Stafford has been hailed as one of the great players of our time. He combines a deep love of melody with his own brand of spirited and adventurous lyricism. His expressive and well defined musical talent allows him to dance in and around the rich trumpet tradition of his predecessors while making his own inroads. He will play with a quintet of accomplished jazz musicians who are also educators, composters, arrangers and band leaders.

The Jazz St. Louis All-Stars are some of the top high school musicians in the St. Louis Region. The members are student musicians who take part in an afterschool program. More than 120 student musicians audition for the group. This year a total of 57 students were selected. Led by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville director of jazz studies, Jason Swagler, the Jazz St. Louis All-Stars have performed all over the region. They have also shared the stage with Terell Stafford, Stefon Harris, Antonio Hart and Tim Warfield.

Miss Jubilee has been entertaining audiences in St. Louis and beyond since 2007 and is a favorite regional jazz performer. Led by powerhouse vocalist Valerie Kirchhoff, Miss Jubilee plays an energetic blend of Hot Jazz, Hokum, and Low-down Blues from the 20s and 30s. Their one-of-a-kind repertoire draws heavily from the bluesy and swingin sounds of St. Louis and Chicagos south side. Fueled by a hard driving rhythm section, gutbucket horns and Valeries engaging and magnetic performance style, Miss Jubilee shares a commitment to presenting rare and lesser known songs.

The Jim Manley Quintet features Jim Manley a trumpet player, composer, arranger and clinician in the St. Louis region. He has spent more than 7,500 nights playing his trumpet around St. Louis since the 1970s. In the last few years, he has branched out as a band leader, composer and clinician and has been a guest soloist with school bands across the country. He has opened for legendary jazz musician Maynard Ferguson and was a featured soloist at the annual Trumpet Party in Amsterdam.

For more information on the Alton Jazz & Wine Festival, please visit: www.libertybankamphitheater.com.Since last months release of a grand jury report alleging that leaders within the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up the sexual abuse of children by more than 300 priests over seven decades, Gunderson said he has addressed the issue with his parish and asked that congregants pray for the victims of abuse, as well as the church as a whole.PITTSFIELD  Owning your own business since 1950 is impressive in itself, but being recognized for it is something else entirely.

Carolyn Casteel, a Pittsfield native and owner of Casteel Color Wheel, was inducted into the the Illinois Senior Hall of Fame. This hall of fame was created in 1994 and has since then added new members yearly at state fair time from the 65 and over crowd. It is mean to highlight the contributions that the have made in one of four categories, community service, education, labor force, or performance art. The group only adds four new members per year.

Casteel won her award in the labor force, no surprise after owning her own business for over 65 years.

The awards was quite a surprise for Casteel as her niece hinted at something happening that needed Casteel to be at the state fair grounds.

She knew about these awards that they give out every year. So earlier in the year she sent my name in, she said. She told me you might be getting a little something in the mail about the fair or someone might call you. I got some of my family here to take me over there and they had a big get together for it. She received her award the same week as her 95th birthday. It gave her and her family and friends a lot to celebrate that week. Between everything I was celebrating the whole week.

A few weeks later, Casteel is still receiving letters of congratulations from people.

Ive had a lot of cards and letters from I dont know where all. People that used to know me and some that still know me and have moved away. Ive had a lot of those and its been a joy, she said. Its been quite a moving experience for me.

While Casteel has been working on sending out replies shes gotten so many, and continues to receive them, that it will take time but she hopes to get them all returned.

Part of whats keeping her busy is the Color Wheel.

Casteel Color Wheel is a business she and her late husband Jean started.

We started in 1950 and it was across the street. It was a little 10 by 30 foot place, said Casteel as she looked out the front window on her shop on West Adams Street, just off the square. The paint shop and moved into its current home years later and is far from what it was when it was purchased.

It was kind of in bad repair. People were wanting to sell the building, they were getting older, so we bought it, she said. After major renovations to expand the building in the alley out back it became their new place. Since then, its grown over the years to include the two spaces beside it, expanding over three store fronts. But its no longer just a paint and wallpaper shop. Along with the original paint shop, Casteels shop also has everything from Pittsfield souvenirs to apparel to greeting cards and home decor.

As things change, you have to change, she said. Casteels focus has been to keep some of the business in town as some shops have disappeared from Pittsfield over time. Even now, Casteel can be found working in the shop and helping customers with no signs of slowing down as she works in her shop and community.GODFREY  Continuing their efforts to stand up against what they called extreme attacks on workers rights, state Reps. Monica Bristow, D-Godfrey, and Katie Stuart, D-Collinsville, joined local labor leaders on Tuesday to sign a Contract with the Middle Class and publicly pledge their commitment to protect wages, workplace protections and collective bargaining rights for all.

I am proud to stand with members of organized labor to pledge my commitment to protect workers rights and stand up to the recent attacks on middle-class families, Stuart said. Politicians like Dwight Kay and Bruce Rauner have sided with big corporations in an attempt to drive down wages and weaken the standard of living for working families. I strongly oppose these efforts and will continue working to put middle-class families first.WEST ALTON  An injured bald eagle rehabilitated by the TreeHouse Wildlife Center was set free Monday at the Riverlands in West Alton  just not the bird originally intended.

Dr. Paul Myer, of Hawthorn Animal Hospital in Glen Carbon, the veterinarian who worked on both birds, helped set one free in front of about 75 people during a brief ceremony.

The original plans were to release a mature bald eagle that had been severely injured in Calhoun County, probably by a car. It has been at the facility for about a year, and required surgery to repair a fractured leg.

The eagle had been ready for release but during its last health assessment it was discovered that the bird had re-injured itself, according to Kelly Vandersand, funding coordinator at TreeHouse.

We realized he had damaged several of his tail feathers, which are used for thrust and lift, she said. In order to survive he has to have those, so now hes going to have to spend more time at the facility while he molts out those tail feathers.

Instead, they released a second bald eagle that had been there for about four months after being found near Litchfield. That birds injuries stemmed from a fight with another eagle that resulted in it being slammed into the ground.

Its just been recovering at our facility and is now ready to release, she said. This is not the first eagle that weve had that has been involved in an eagle fight. They are pretty ferocious fighters.

She said they knew little about the birds, other than they were both mature bald eagles, meaning both were more than five years old. Vandersand also noted that they do not name birds or animals that are going to be released back into the wild, in part to avoid emotional attachment.

Myer was asked to help release the eagle in part because of his work for TreeHouse, and also in honor of the Angel Fund, started in 2016 by Hawthorne Animal Hospital to improve the quality of life for animals. It is a 501c3 nonprofit managed by the Veterinary Care Foundation.

He became involved in TreeHouse about 25 years ago, when founder Adele Moore was looking for medical help for the animals.

Its been a long time, he said. I didnt know a lot about wildlife, but I learned on the job.

He said the Calhoun County eagle required surgery involving both internal and external pins for a fractured femur. Working on the other eagle was simpler, basically X-raying and checking it over.

Since working with TreeHouse, Myer said he is unsure exactly how many bald eagles he has worked on.

It seems like there are one or two a year, he said I just enjoy the wildlife, and its a way to give back.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.11 hours ago

Burning Mortgage Question: Should You Retire, Then Pay Off Your Mortgage?

A common question: Should you pay off your mortgage before you retire? A less common question: Should you retire, then pay off your mortgage? If you've hemmed and hawed over the benefits of paying off your mortgage versus keeping it, you're not alone.

Read ArticleIn Elhassanis case, Durkin said, theres actually quite a bit of information about the case in the public domain. CNN and and Frontline reported stories about Elhassani in which she said she felt she had to go to Syria with her husband, Moussana Elhassani, an Islamic State sniper who was killed last year, to remain with her children.Depending on the location of the officer when they were dispatched, they could have been more than 40 miles away, he said. Also, consider the status of the officer when calls are received. Our response to calls is dictated by the nature of the call, no matter where it is.A 54-year-old Clare man who said hed been bitten by neighborhood dogs before shot and killed one of three that approached him on a walk Saturday.

He was walking in the 1000 block of Holiday Drive when two dogs began barking at him, Isabella Sheriff Michael Main said.

While the two dogs were barking at him a third came from around the house and ran past him, the dog then turned and began to run at him, Main said.

The man who was carrying a side arm in a hip holster drew his weapon and fired at the dog, killing it.

Main said the owner of the dogs, a 30-year-old woman, witnessed the shooting and said the man has antagonized the dogs.

She advised that the man had antagonized the dogs in the past, he said.

A report has been sent to the Isabella County prosecutor.Its an incredible piece, and I think its necessary, said Davenport, who performed most recently in the Oak Park Festival Theatres production of The African Company Presents Richard III. Martin Luther King was the voice of the (civil rights) movement. He got all the accolades and the attention. But Thurgood Marshall is an unsung hero. He worked through the law to obtain change and justice for all people  not just for black people. Many young people today do not know the history of the constitution and of the Supreme Court.Rudy is an old man whos losing it but is full of ginger, full of energy, when hes emoting, Nussbaum said. But there are moments when he has brain farts, when hes not really thinking, and hes lost, and cant imagine things. He has severe physical problems on occasion. But mostly hes with it  or I wouldnt play the part. It wouldnt be fun to play a guy whos always out of it.Flooding overnight in Bangkok and more rain on the way

BANGKOK: Following a night of torrential rain which paralysed traffic on several main roads in the capital, the weather office has warned residents there could be a repeat of the nightmare tonight (Sept 4).

weather

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 4 September 2018, 11:24AM

This tour coach became stuck in a large hole dug for the construction of a new drainage system on a road in Pattaya City yesterday night (Sept 3). The driver could not see it because the road was flooded. Photo: Chaiyot Pupattanapong

The daily 5am weather forecast issued by the Meteorological Department said more rain is expected over 60% of Bangkok and the surrounding provinces, with heavy rain forecast for some areas. Downpours during the evening rush hours yesterday (Sept 3) resulted in serious traffic congestion in many areas of the city, while the disruption of the Purple Line electric train service exacerbated commuting problems. Several hundred passengers, mostly office workers, were stranded at Tao Poon station on the Purple Line after the service was suspended due to a technical problem. Service resumed about 7:30pm. The Metropolitan Rapid Transit Authority later said the problem was the result of a malfunction of the electricity distribution system, caused by heavy rain. The torrential rain was brought by the stronger southwest monsoon coupled with the impact of a low pressure area over neighbouring Laos and upper Vietnam, the weather office said. Several roads in Pattaya City were reported heavily flooded yesterday night following heavy rain. Sukhumvit Rd, Beach Rd and Pattaya-Na Kleau Rd in the popular coastal tourist destination were partially covered with floodwater between 30 centimetres and 90cm deep, reports said. City workers were this morning speeding up the draining of the water. Elsewhere in the country, the municipality and business centre of That Phanom district of the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom became flooded after an hour-long downpour on yesterday evening. The flood was blamed on the rising level of the Mekong River, which slowed the draining of the run-off. Overflows were also reported in some riverside areas in neighbouring Renu Nakhon district as well as in Phon Phisai district of Nong Khai, where some schools near the river were ordered to close down for two days. Read original story here.Governor lowers boom on Phuket tour boat safety

PHUKET: Officials have been given seven days to ensure that at least passenger manifests on tour boats departing Phuket are accurate and filed with authorities following an order from Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong at a meeting early today (Sept 4).

Tuesday 4 September 2018, 12:45PM

Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat (left) is briefed at the Phuket Marine Office at Chalong Pier on Aug 20, nearly two weeks ago, but since then very little progress has been made in enforcing the new Phuket Marine Safety Plan. Photo: PR Dept / file

The move follows 47 Chinese tourists being killed in the Phoenix tour boat disaster on July 5, which spurred a raft of safety provisions and a call by Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat to request a budget of B508 million to roll out the Phuket Marine Safety Plan. (See story here.)

Governor Norraphat last month confirmed that teams of officials already had been dedicated to carrying out inspections at 24 busy tour-boat piers on the island.

However, this morning he railed that the safety provisions at the 24 piers were still not being enforced.

Governor Norraphat this morning ordered the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Phuket office (DDPM-Phuket) to immediately draft a standard form for officials at piers to use when confirming the exact number and identities of all passengers boarding boats departing Phuket, as well as their seat number and passport number.

Only after this information has been verified will passengers be allowed to board the boats, Gov Norraphat said.

I want these passenger manifest reports started immediately. I give you seven days to make it work and I want to know the details of the reports, too, he added.

The Governor also ordered for tour boats to be inspected every three months, but by random inspections.

These inspections must be conducted randomly, and without warning. Seriously, they must be done with no people being told they are about to be inspected, he cautioned.

Gov Norraphat also raised the issue of creating a hotline specifically for marine emergencies.

I am planning to set up an emergency line for people in case of an emergency involving marine transportation, he said.

However, it was not mentioned what role the other already-existing hotlines will play if a marine emergency hotline is established.

The Marine Department itself already lists on its website home page HOTLINE 1155, which directs calls to the Tourist Police hotline, and its own HELPLINE 1111. Both hotlines are 24 hours.

In addition, the Royal Thai Police already operates its 191 national hotline to receive calls for any emergency, and the DDPM operates its own 24-hour hotline 1784 for any persons in danger in need of assistance.

Governor Norraphat also warned any tour-boat piers not among the 24 currently under supervision to follow the law.

The Phuket Marine Office must go and inspect them and catch them if they are breaking any laws. These piers also must follow the law, he said.

Bizarrely, the Governor also warned all from tour boats operating without a radio, as if there are tour boats carrying tourists that are known to be operating without a radio on board.

Officials from the Phuket Marine office will go to see them and tell them to set up radio, was the sternest message he had for such a distressing transgression of marine safety requirements.Phuket-bound minivan driver fined for refusal to slow down

PHUKET: A Phuket-bound minivan driver has been suspended for 30 days and fined B5,000 for speeding, being aggressive towards passengers and failure to use a GPS.

crimetechnologytransport

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 4 September 2018, 12:17PM

Van driver Wechayan Yongbangsai defies passengers requests for him to slow down last Friday (Aug 31). Photo: Screengrab from video clip

The minivans owner was fined B50,000 for operating a for-charter-only minivan as a regular passenger service. The Surat Thani provincial land transport office took action against driver Wechayan Yongbangsai after a video was posted on social media showing him travelling at 130km/h on a trip from Surat Thani to Phuket last Friday (Aug 31). He also emotionally rejected foreign tourists requests that he slow down, and even told them to get out of the van if they did not feel safe because he knew what he was doing. He was fined for being impolite, scary driving and failure to use a global positioning system, said Teerayut Sukrat, a local land transport official. Charnnarong Boonjui, the van owner, was fined B50,000 for operating a van registered only for charter services on a regular route without the appropriate licence. The transport officials imposed the penalties at the van terminal in Surat Thani municipality yesterday (Sept 3). Read original story here.Phuket disaster officials ordered on alert

PHUKET: Governor Norraphat Plodthong has ordered disaster officials and emergency response teams to be on alert following a weather warning issued by Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) yesterday and heavy downpours overnight and this morning (Sept 4).

weathertransport

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 4 September 2018, 10:46AM

Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong gave the order this morning (Sept 4). Photo: Phuket PR Office

The Governor issued the order at a meeting early today (Sept 4).

Continuous downpours in Phuket this morning saw some areas record up to 40mm of rainfall, he said.

I want you to keep an eye on the situation and beware of any flooding. Also, the rain has caused many traffic jams across the island because water has covered the road, he added.

The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Phuket office (DDPM-Phuket) and other relevant officials are to ensure they are prepared to respond to any emergency 24 hours, Governor Norraphat said.

The call to be on alert this morning follows the Phuket branch of the TMD yesterday (Sept 3) issuing a heavy weather warning for Phuket and along the Andaman coast.

The weather alert is effect through Wednesday (Sept 5), with heavy downpours and waves of two to three metres tall reaching up to four metres in height forecast in thunderstorm areas.Saudi Arabian tourist dies from injuries in Phuket ATV plunge

PHUKET: The Saudi Arabian tourist who suffered head injuries in an ATV accident on Sunday (Sept 2) has died from his injuries.

tourismtransportaccidentsdeathpolice

By Tanyaluk Sakoot

Tuesday 4 September 2018, 06:48PM

Saudi Arabian tourist Muteb Alsahli, 24, was driving an ATV in the hills behind Chalong when it plunged down a steep slope and hit a tree. Photos: Chalong Municipality rescue workers

Muteb Alsahli, 24, was driving an ATV with friends on a track in the hills behind Soi Klumyang, Chalong, when he lost control of the ATV and plunged 10 metres down a steep incline beside the track, coming to rest when the ATV struck a tree.

Although initial reports by rescue workers at the scene reported Mr Muteb's condition as not serious, he was last reported in hospital as he had nearly severed his tongue in the impact. (See story here.)

Mr Muteb passed away at Bangkok Hospital in Bangkok today, Capt Eakkachai Siri of the Phuket Tourist Police confirmed to The Phuket News late this afternoon (Sept 4).

I was notified when seeking an update to his condition this morning, he said.

Mr Muteb was transferred from Phuket to Bangkok Hospital in Bangkok yesterday (Sept 3) for treatment of several serious cranial injuries, including a cerebral haemorrhage, Capt Ekkachai explained.

When called this afternoon, Bangkok Hospital staff told The Phuket News that they were unable to comment about the case.

Capt Eakkchai, meanwhile, confirmed, I am leading the team of Tourist Police investigators looking into the case.

The business that rented out the ATVs to Mr Muteb and his companions was only a small business, he said by phone late this afternoon.

Capt Eakkachai confirmed that the name of the ATV operation was included in the police report of the incident, but said that he was unable to recall it at the time.

We have yet to confirm whether the operation is registered as a tourism business. We are checking that now, Capt Eakkachai added.

Mr Muteb was on a ATV tour, led by one of the companys staff members. He was driving the ATV alone when the accident happened. His friends were driving their own rented ATVs, he said.

At this stage it appears that Mr Muteb lost control of the ATV and plunged 10 metres down a steep incline on the hill and hit a tree.

Capt Eakkachai also noted, ATV tour operators should give helmets to riders, but we are still checking whether this is an actual requirement by law.

We are not even sure what Mr Muteb hit his head on, whether it was the tree or the ATV itself. At this stage, we are still continuing our investigation, he said.Loaeza referenced what are known in the country as "mirreyes"  a motherly expression meaning roughly "my little kings"  the flashy young scions of wealth and privilege known for sharing photos of luxurious cars, clothes, vacations and bling on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The phenomenon has taken off in recent years, amplified by the explosion of social media and accompanied by a number of corruption scandals during the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto.Challenger Learning Center, MARK II Voyager coming to Watertown

Watertown has been chosen to home the first Challenger Learning Center and MARK II Voyager scaled solar in South Dakota.It is the ultimate American quest.

We search for greatness.

We seek out that unique quality in our leaders.

We call them heroes.

We found it in Sen. John McCain.

The nation paused this weekend to mourn the loss of true American greatness. McCain, the son of admirals, was a Navy fighter pilot. Shot down over North Vietnam, he spent more than five years as a prisoner of war. Every time he was offered his freedom, perhaps in exchange for turning his back on his country, he showed his steely resolve, rejecting any such notion.

He always insisted that before he be granted his freedom, those taken captive before him be set free.

At his funeral service attended by nearly everyone of consequence on the American political scene, it was left for McCains daughter to properly convey what we have lost.

We gather to mourn the passing of American greatness, she told the assembled crowd, who would soon hear similar words of praise for McCain from the two men who had defeated him for the highest office in the land, former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

As we bury a vision of American greatness, many wonder who will rise up to carry the mantle of the American ideal, especially in a time when so much of our politics, and American leadership, is poisoned by petty, partisan concerns.

We search for new heroes.

For a man like Ralph Galati.

What kind of a man was Sen. John McCain?

Ask Galati. Most of us have read of McCains heroics, the unthinkable torture he endured during those five-plus years in captivity.

Ralph Galati lived it.

The Delaware County resident also spent time in the Hanoi Hilton, where he saw first-hand the leadership and resolve of the man who later would be known as the Senates Maverick.

Galati was 23 when he crossed paths with McCain in that infamous Hanoi prisoner of war camp.

Galati was on his 69th mission in just 90 days when he and his pilot were shot down over North Vietnam.

In his 14 months as a POW, Galati encountered McCain, 11 years his senior.

Back in Delaware County, Galatis family had no idea where he was or what his condition might be. His wife, Rosemary, had given birth to their daughter Christine four days after her husband was shot down.

What kind of man was John McCain?

After his release, McCain found himself in Philadelphia. He sought out Galatis family in person to deliver the news that he had talked to Ralph, that he was OK and would soon be home.

Galati was released a month later, on March 28, 1973.

Over the past 45 years, Galati has become a warrior for veterans issues. For his work he was awarded the very first Freedom Medal from the Delaware County Veterans Memorial Association, as well as the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation Legion of Honor Gold Medial, the Delaware County Bar Association Themis Award, the Daughters of the American Revolution Honor Medal and a slew of others.

When he learned of the senators glioblastoma brain cancer diagnosis back in January, Galati looked to return the kindness the future senator had once shown his family.

He wrote McCain a heartfelt note, telling him how much he meant to him and his family.

I always looked at Sen. McCain as a great statesman, but more importantly, as a great American citizen who really loved his country, Galati said. He was a man of character, with good, solid values. He served our country well and always tried to do what he thought was best for America.

Traits that easily also could be used to describe Galati.

The country is lesser for the loss of a man like Sen. John McCain.

But rest assured American greatness remains, in men like Ralph Galati.Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea jumped on Twitter and answered fans questions, including one on the Chilis unreleased album.



What unreleased album?



Well, way back in 2011, Chad Smith revealed there is an entire Red Hot Chili Peppers album out there that nobody will likely ever hear.



Apparently sixteen new tracks were recorded around the same time as their 2003 Greatest Hits album, but they were never released cause John Frusciante's style had changed drastically and he put a firm "nah, bro" on the album.



Smith said there is an entire Red Hot Chili Peppers album out there that nobody will likely ever hear.

Fast forward to today, Flea was asked about the bands abandoned 2003 album in his new Twitter fan Q&A.



One user asked: "@flea333 hey flea, will you guys ever release the songs from the 2004 era? I'd especially love to have Leverage Of Space in good quality =)"



Flea responded: "Mini-Epic was a good one from the session too. Did that ever come out? Youd know better than me"



Gummon Flea.



If the f**ks are this low, why not just share it...An attempt by United Airlines to duck the sticky issue of Taiwan has invited rebuke from Chinas foreign ministry.

After China told global carriers earlier this year to tweak their websites and list the separately ruled island as part of China  a directive the White House termed Orwellian nonsense  American airlines are still finding themselves in the crosshairs of China. United Continental Holdings Inc. has resorted to using currency codes instead for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, a move the Middle Kingdom isnt too pleased with.

However flexible they may try to get, theres simply no way to sidestep the one-China principle, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing Thursday, referring to overseas firms operating in the country. Theres only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China. This is the objective fact, common sense and international consensus.

As the geopolitical tussle for supremacy intensifies between the U.S. and China, global businesses are finding themselves in a spot over Taiwan  long among the fraught issues between Washington and Beijing. The island has now re-emerged as a key friction point between the two powers, especially amid the Trump administrations more vocal support for President Tsai Ing-wen, a leader pushing to maintain the islands de-facto independence.

China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalist government fled to Taipei in 1949. Chinas Communist Party regards the island as its territory to be taken by force if necessary.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China asked 44 foreign airlines to change their online references to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau to reflect these locations as part of China. For instance, Taiwan should be referred to as China Taiwan or the China Taiwan region. While almost all the airlines complied with the demand, China has said changes by United, Delta Air Lines Inc., American Airlines Group Inc., and Hawaiian Airlines are still incomplete.

A spokesperson at the CAAC said the regulator had no comments to offer at the moment. United declined to comment.

In the drop-down menu of Uniteds China website, the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan are respectively referred to by the Chinese Yuan, Hong Kong Dollar and New Taiwan Dollar. Other destinations are still identified by country name.

Under Uniteds options for departure and arrival cities, country codes have been removed for cities in China and Taiwan, a change also adopted by the other three U.S. carriers.

While that has failed to sway Beijing, United has a won a fan elsewhere.

We welcome measures that honour Taiwans sovereignty, Andrew Lee, the foreign ministry spokesperson in Taipei, said by phone. We thank United Airlines for flexibility in handling the issue.

Read more about:MONTREALQuebecs securities regulator is offering to help public companies disclose their exposure to modern slavery, including forced labour, human trafficking and child labour.

The Autorite des marches financiers says Canadian companies could be exposed directly or indirectly to the tens of millions of people around the world who are estimated to be affected by involuntary work made under threat or penalty.

The AMF notice doesnt change legal requirements but helps companies determine what must be disclosed and improve their information.

The International Labour Organization has estimated that about 25 million people were victims of forced labour, generating $150 billion (U.S.) in profits in 2014.

Sectors most likely to be exposed to this issue are construction, manufacturing, entertainment and agriculture.

The federal government announced in January the creation of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, an independent position to investigate allegations of human rights abuses linked to Canadian corporate activity aboard.

Read more about:You are here: Arts

To welcome the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, an art tour featuring Chinese contemporary artworks on Africa will come to many major Chinese cities from September to December.



The event, under the guidance of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is hosted by the Network of International Culturalink Entities.

Last year, it sponsored eight young and middle-aged Chinese painters who traveled to African countries, such as Mauritius, Malawi, Tanzania and Ethiopia, where they created 144 paintings.

Through vibrant colors and vigorous brushwork, artists recreated the beauty of African landscapes and cultures, and deepened China-Africa mutual understanding using the language of art.One of todays most compelling business sagas is the reversal of fortunes at WestJet Airlines Ltd.

For most of its 22-year existence, the Calgary-based company has been one of the worlds few consistently successful major airlines.

But todays WestJet appears to be on a flight path to mediocrity, or worse. In its most recent quarter, WestJet reported its first loss in 13 years.

Should WestJet investors, employees and customers be worried?

In a word, yes.

WestJet described its abysmal second-quarter performance as the result of a perfect storm of higher fuel costs, cancelled bookings due to a threatened pilots strike and weather disturbances.

But WestJets worsening financial performance pre-dates those conditions.

WestJets profits have dropped 22.8 per cent over the past three years. In its zeal for growth, the airline has committed the basic business failing of allowing growth in costs during that time (up 17.1 per cent) to outpace growth in revenues (12.5 per cent).

And about that perfect storm: WestJet would not have suffered the loss of tens of millions of dollars worth of bookings this year due to a threatened pilots strike if its labour relations, once a model of harmony for the industry, were not so fractious.

And the fuel bill has been more punishing than need be due to WestJets rapid expansion of its aircraft fleet without sufficient additional revenues to offset a coincident recovery in the world oil price.

Read more:

No-frills flying isnt going anywhere: Swoop Airlines adding Edmonton-Winnipeg route this fall

Responding to travellers, WestJet maintains flights between Edmonton and Las Vegas

Transport minister tells WestJet to ensure transgender womans outing at Calgary airport never happens again

Working with the same industry conditions, WestJets archrival, Air Canada, is in the midst of a turnaround for the ages.

Air Canada now outperforms all of its North American major-airline peers on the key metric of revenue per employee, at $688,000 to WestJets $392,000.

AC has gone from barely breaking even three years ago to posting a robust $2-billion profit in 2017. Over the past five years, shares in Air Canada have soared in value by about 800 per cent.

WestJet stock has gone in the other direction. The stock-market value of WestJet has plunged by about 45 per cent since its 2014 peak.

WestJet has strayed from an original business model that made it both financially successful and Canadas favourite, most passenger-friendly major airline.

Recall that the old WestJet, like the Texas-based Southwest Airlines Co. it was modelled on, was a non-union carrier whose employee profit-sharing and folksy management kept unions at bay.

The old WestJet flew just one aircraft type, the industry workhorse Boeing 737. That saved enormous sums of money on training, maintenance and aircraft downtime.

The old WestJet was a strictly domestic carrier, save for a few vacation-package flights to relatively nearby sunspots in North America and the Caribbean. It offered just one product: Discount-fare, medium-haul flights on routes carefully selected for their profitability.

And the old WestJet was distinctive. Proudly Western Canadian, it was determined to match its nationally beloved Alberta peer, Wardair, in exemplary treatment of employees and passengers, an airline where senior management still help clean the aircraft cabins.

In recent years, however, WestJet has been made over into an impersonal, multi-functional airline like Air Canada, but without ACs immense financial resources and entrenched market position.

At todays WestJet, many pilots are unionized. And union drives are underway with unhappy flight attendants and ground crews. During the eight-year tenure of CEO Gregg Saretsky, a period marked by rapid growth and diversification at WestJet, the airline lost touch with its employees.

Saretsky abruptly departed in March. But in May, WestJet was revealed to have asked selected passengers to spy not only on WestJets in-flight employees, but those of competing airlines. WestJet apologized unreservedly for the unseemly incident.

Today, industry experts say, what keeps flyers loyal to both AC and WestJet is their loyalty rewards programs, not their customer satisfaction levels. The latter are now indistinguishable. And the two airlines pricing regimes are effectively identical. WestJet, no longer a committed discounter, has raised its fares five times this year.

If passenger TLC is no longer a WestJet hallmark, discontented employees help explain why. Both WestJet and Air Canada face formal allegations of maltreatment of flight attendants  yet another indication the two carriers have become same-as airlines.

The new WestJet flies several aircraft types, including the Boeing 767, the Q400 turboprop and the Saab 340B. And WestJet will soon take delivery of the first of 20 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners it has ordered.

Operating a Dreamliner, one of todays most expensive commercial aircraft, is a statement that an airline has arrived. WestJet now wishes to be known as a global airline.

Few global airlines have avoided a spell in bankruptcy protection, including Air Canada. Other troubled carriers have been merged out of existence. They include a Wardair that was a victim of the same over-expansion with which WestJet is now flirting.

Finally, the WestJet brand has been diluted by the companys confusing new variety of products.

The new WestJet operates short-haul, medium-haul, vacation-package, trans-ocean, premium-priced and deep-discount flights (its new Swoop airline). A WestJet that once vowed not to fly east of Manitoba now flies to Europe. With its Dreamliners, WestJet hopes to serve Pacific and South American destinations, as well.

WestJet has not gained mastery of its new size and complexity. Last year, the companys total operating costs surged past the $4-billion threshold, on a revenue base of just $4.5 billion.

WestJet began life as a repudiation of the hulking, passenger-insensitive Air Canada. WestJet is now set on matching its archrival in revenues and product diversity.

But Air Canada, one of the worlds dozen biggest airlines, with 2017 revenues of $13.3 billion, has the resources to defend its markets and finance expansion. WestJets profits of $284 million last year were just 14.2 per cent of Air Canadas. And in revenue terms, a comparatively diminutive WestJet is essentially an overgrown regional carrier whose reach appears to exceed its grasp.

WestJet now operates about 170 aircraft, more than half the size of ACs fleet of 300. But WestJet generates only 29 per cent of ACs revenues  a warning signal Bay Street has so far ignored.

WestJet finally acknowledged last month that it is over-stretched, announcing a campaign to cut an annual $200 million from the firms costs.

Distracted by its pell-mell growth ambitions, WestJet lost focus on its existing business  on controlling costs, on cosseting its passengers, on respecting its employees and offering a product that was something special in the skies.

In a nutshell, todays WestJet appears to be running on hubris, not wise management.

The shame of it is that, while Canadian travellers still mourn the demise of Wardair, they would not miss the new WestJet. It has, after all, become an airline like the others.

Correction  Sept. 7, 2018: This column was edited from a previous version that misstated WestJet's reported 2017 revenue as $3.9 billion. In fact, the airline's revenue last year was $4.5 billion. This article was also updated to make clear that WestJet executives continue to clean aircraft cabins.

David Olive is a business columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: is a business columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @TheGrtRecession

Read more about:EDMONTONMcCauley residents made it clear their neighbourhood is no place for hate during a protest of a food drive organized by right-wing extremists on Monday.

McCauley is a diverse, welcoming neighbourhood. Immigrants are welcome here. Muslims are welcome here. Nazis are not welcome here, said Jim Storrie, a McCauley resident who helped organize the protest.

Word spread online that members of the Soldiers of Odin, Onward Christian Soldiers and the Northern Guard were going to be serving food and water to those in need outside of the Mustard Seed Church on Monday afternoon  inviting all like-minded patriotic groups to join.

The Christian street ministry, located near 96 St. and 106a Ave., offers support to the citys homeless and impoverished.

Despite protestations from the groups about their intentions, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network considers both the Soldiers of Odin and the Northern Guard to be far-right extremist groups.

They are explicitly an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim vigilante group. They are known for violence and intimidation, Storrie said.

He cited an incident in Vancouver where members of the Soldiers of Odin were arrested for breaching the peace at an International Day Against Racism rally in March. The men were later released without charge.

After learning of the groups intentions, Storrie said he went door to door encouraging neighbours to stand up against their presence in McCauley.

After those neighbours invited others, Storrie said the Soldiers of Odin, Onward Christian Soldiers and the Northern Guard were greeted by about 40 protesters when they arrived.

Storrie said there was about a half-hour of verbal confrontations but no violence between the two sides. He estimated there were about a dozen Soldiers of Odin and a handful of others standing in solidarity with them.

After the right-wing groups moved a few blocks away, the protesters followed, Storrie said, and after another half-hour of facing off in a nearby parking lot, the members packed up and left.

They say that they are coming out here to protect the community and you should not believe them when they say that. We are the community, he said.

We came out here to make it very clear we dont want them here. They are not helping anyone. They are causing problems, they are scaring people. We want them to stay away from our neighbourhood.

Storrie said he doesnt believe the members were genuinely interested in helping the poor but were trying to use the neighbourhood to gain attention.

He noted the extremist groups were handing out granola bars and water bottles just a few blocks away from the Edmonton and District Labour Councils annual Labour Day barbecue in Giovanni Caboto Park, which offers a free meal to anyone who attends.

Were not going to ignore what this group is just because they show up with a box of granola bars and some bottles of water. We know who they are, we know what they stand for, Storrie said. McCauley is not a prop they can use to legitimize their organization.

For those who want to help people in need in McCauley, Storrie said, their donations and volunteer hours would be better spent at an existing charity.

You dont need to put on a leather jacket and join a neo-Nazi militia to serve the poor, he said.

Read more about:EDMONTON  Resplendent in maroon, gold and saffron satins, banquet halls in hotels across the province are getting a colourful makeover.

Albertas cities continue to draw immigrants from across the world. Many newcomers to the province point to the affordable cost of living and  despite a slowdown in the oilpatch  ample job opportunities in the provinces largest cities of Edmonton and Calgary.

Its a trend major hotel chains in the province have been eyeing for a while  and have recently started cashing in on.

As an increasing number of immigrants make Alberta home, many of them are opting to get married at hotels in Edmonton and Calgary. Noticing the uptick in the citys immigrant populations, especially the South Asian community  one of the fastest growing communities in the province  hotels are now offering a whole slew of customized wedding procedures to lure in multicultural weddings.

Its definitely a market thats certainly seen a huge growth in the last five, if not 10 years, and ensuring that youre up to speed and that you can cater to those gives you a great advantage, said Fiona Dobbs, an event manager at The Westin Calgary.

In 2017, the Westin hosted just over a dozen weddings on its property. All but one was South Asian. This year, theyve already held 13 weddings and only one was a non-South Asian wedding.

Data shows that the largest group of contemporary arrivals in Alberta has been South Asians, which represents Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and Nepalese. Many chose to settle in southeast Edmonton and northeast Calgary between 2011 and 2016, forming a majority in some census tracts.

South Asian weddings tend to be large, multi-day affairs with almost double or in some cases triple the number of invitees compared to traditional North American weddings. From a logistics standpoint, the hotels point person needs to not only have a game plan to ensure everything runs smoothly  they also need to be well-versed with the culture to avoid any gaffes.

When an interested couple approaches the Westin for a non-traditional wedding, Dobbs usually becomes their point of contact. She says she usually insists on meeting the key decision makers off the bat, which often includes the parents. This decision-making unit will then discuss everything from the traditional ceremonies to the spice levels of the food.

Often, its the food discussion thats most time-consuming, says Hobbs. After the initial discussion, theyll usually set up a menu, loop in the hotels executive sous chef and then organize a trial meal.

The market were talking about, its pretty huge, Saurabh Singh, one of the executive sous-chefs at the hotel who was classically trained in Indian cuisine. It could be the Pakistani community, or it could be the north of India, or it could be east of India and the cuisine changes a little bit, so thats very important.

A similar trend has been playing out in Edmonton, too, where hotels are taking note of the lucrative non-traditional wedding market.

In August, the DoubleTree by Hilton West Edmonton held its first Hindu wedding ceremony. The bride and groom arrived at the venue on horseback  a nod to the traditional South Asian tradition of baraat, where the groom arrives with his wedding party and a band.

But while South Asian weddings may be all the craze, theyre not the only non-traditional weddings happening at Alberta hotels.

The Westin in Calgary has been getting a steady stream of booking requests for Nigerian weddings. In Edmonton, the DoubleTree has now hosted around a half a dozen, large-scale Italian weddings.

We know how to ensure that all the correct permits have been applied for and that its sort of a worry-free situation, said Dobbs. The more that you can take off their plate, the easier it is for them to select a facility and commit thinking, Thats great, Ive got that off the list and that These guys know what theyre doing.

Thats precisely why Shreya Batra, a human resources manager at the Marriott in Calgary, decided to have her wedding at the Westin.

She says the depth of Dobbs knowledge of Indian culture, coupled with Singhs food expertise, allowed her to have a fusion wedding that gave her a nod to her and her spouses Indo-Canadian heritage.

She basically knew everything in terms of Indian weddings  its important for a hotel to be understand the culture and be open to the culture, said Batra, who had a 400-person wedding over the Canada Day long weekend. I think that was a big deal to us as well, whereas a banquet hall would just be like, Heres the hall, this is how much its going to cost, and they just expect you to do it.

Batra says an increasing number of South Asian couples feel the same way. For now, it seems like the hotels are noticing, too  and are open for business.

All in all, weve been very happy with the success that weve had as we have started to cater more to the multicultural segment, said Roberto Medrano, director of sales and marketing at the DoubleTree. We had really all the right pieces in place to be able to properly execute the expectations of going after the multicultural wedding.

Read more about:HALIFAXAn American woman who plotted to go on a Valentines Day shooting spree at a Halifax mall is appealing her sentence of life in prison, calling it manifestly harsh and excessive.

Lindsay Souvannarath was sentenced in April after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a plan that would have seen two shooters open fire at the Halifax Shopping Centre food court in 2015.

A motion to set a date for the appeal hearing is expected to be considered next week by Justice David Farrar of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.

In her notice of appeal, the Chicago-area woman argues that her sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 10 years should be revised to a fixed sentence of 12 to 14 years.

Souvannarath provides five grounds of appeal, including that the presiding judge committed an error by imposing a burden on her to prove she was remorseful and had renounced anti-social beliefs.

She also argues that Supreme Court Justice Peter Rosinski offended the principle of parity by imposing a dramatically lengthier sentence on her than on co-conspirator Randall Shepherd.

Souvannarath pleaded guilty last year, several months after Shepherd  a Halifax man described in court as the cheerleader of the foiled shooting plot  was sentenced to a decade in jail.

A third alleged conspirator, 19-year-old James Gamble, was found dead in his Halifax-area home a day before the planned attack.

Read more:

Parents of Halifax mall murder plotter say she is not capable of violence

U.S. woman sentenced to life in Valentine's Day shooting plot at Halifax mall

Halifax mall plotters believed they were reincarnations of the Columbine shooters, report says

Read more about:After a week with a dry cough, 16-year-old Ian McCracken started experiencing middle-of-the-night coughing fits so severe, he couldnt talk. He returned home from his first trip to the urgent care clinic in mid-July with an inhaler and a five-day course of steroids.

The coughing fits didnt abate, and after a few days, Ian jumped out of bed and got his moms attention by clapping his hands, unable to get any words out. The Decatur, Ga., teenager gasped for air, tears running down his face.

His mother, Karen Andes, took her son to another doctor, who suggested Ian may have reflux.

But a combination of Andes medical background (shes an assistant professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University) and a mothers intuition told her something else was tormenting her son  pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

Whooping cough, a potentially life-threatening childhood illness, all but disappeared in the 1940s after a vaccine was developed. But in recent decades, the illness has been making a comeback. Changes in the vaccine and waning immunity are likely contributing to the resurgence of the illness, according to experts.

In recent years, there have been outbreaks not seen since the 1950s.

In 2012, the United States had the highest number of whooping cough cases in more than 50 years with 48,277 reported cases and 20 deaths. Most of the deaths occurred among infants, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Georgia, there were 318 cases in 2012, which included no deaths. Since then, there have been three whooping cough-related deaths (two in 2013 and one in 2016) in Georgia, and all of the deaths involved babies.

More

Whooping cough more prevalent in Ontario, study says

Last year, there was a total of 163 reported cases of whooping cough in Georgia, according to the CDC. And this year through Aug. 21, there have been a total of 102 cases, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The highly contagious respiratory illness is not always on the radar of doctors and can be mistaken for a cold, bronchitis, reflux. The Georgia Department of Health said its not uncommon for someone to see two, even three doctors before getting a proper diagnosis.

Andes insisted on getting her son tested for whooping cough. Results from a nose culture came back positive.

At first, I felt relieved, and even a bit proud of myself, said Andes, but then the reality sunk in that we may be in for more difficult nights.

The older vaccine for whooping cough was phased out in the late 1990s. It carried a high risk of serious but temporary side effects like pain and swelling at the site of injection, as well as serious complications such as febrile convulsions, which are fits or seizures caused by a sudden change in a childs body temperature, and loss of consciousness. One study by researchers at Kaiser Permanentes Vaccine Study Center in Oakland, Calif., found the newer pertussis vaccine, while safer and with fewer side effects than the older version, is not as effective.

The 2016 study from Kaiser Permanentes Vaccine Study Center found that the booster vaccine known as Tdap provides moderate protection against whooping cough during the first year after vaccination, but its effectiveness wanes to less than 9 per cent after four years among teenagers who have received only a newer form of the whooping cough vaccine (known as acellular pertussis vaccine) as infants and children.

Pertussis can cause serious illness in people of all ages and can even be life-threatening, especially in babies. About half of babies under 1 year of age who get pertussis need treatment in a hospital, according to the CDC. The illness can have a lasting effect on lung function, leaving people with shortness of breath.

Meanwhile, a team of researchers, including scientists from the University of Georgia, found in a new study while some people lose immunity relatively quickly, the vaccine can be protective for many decades. The study, published in a March issue of Science Translational Medicine, also found the dwindling number of people still alive who survived pertussis infections in the days before vaccination and therefore gained lifelong immunity, is also playing a role in the resurgence. When the vaccine was first introduced in the 1940s, there were very high rates of vaccination, which led to an overall decrease in transmission.

Senior author Pejman Rohani, who has a joint appointment in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine and the Odum School of Ecology, said the number of people who are susceptible to contracting pertussis is slowly rising  setting the stage for an increase in the number of new cases, especially in older individuals. This is known as the end of the honeymoon period, he said.

And even though the effectiveness of vaccines may wane over time, experts say people should still make sure to get them. Skipping the vaccines, Rohani said, would be a terrible idea, especially the routine scheduled and maternal vaccination.

He added that researchers are still working on deciding whether people should get more frequent booster vaccinations.

Meanwhile, Ian, who was fully vaccinated against whooping cough, completed a round of antibiotics and is doing better. But he still has a lingering cough, and a full recovery could take months.

After Ians diagnosis, Andes notified City of Decatur schools about her sons illness. It was over summer break, but Ian was participating in a high school band camp and was around other high school students. City of Decatur Schools spokesperson Courtney Burnett said a letter was sent to parents of students at Decatur High School informing them of the illness. Burnett said the school system is not aware of any other whooping cough cases.

Andes, who also got whooping cough (likely from her son) but was treated early before symptoms got severe, is sharing her familys story to help raise awareness about whooping cough.

She wants families to know the following: dont assume you cant get whooping cough because youve been vaccinated; whooping cough not only affects babies; early treatment is key (not only may it help reduce the severity or the length of the illness, it prevents spreading the illness to others); and whooping cough doesnt always whoop, particularly in adolescents and adults. Her son burped for air after each attack. She checked his fingernails  and they were purplish-blue near the cuticles because he wasnt getting enough oxygen.

Each episode was very scary. It was absolutely terrifying, she said. Our journey is not over yet, but I have learned a lot.

VACCINATION RECOMMENDATIONS

The CDC recommends pertussis (also called whooping cough) vaccines for people of all ages. Babies and children should get five doses of DTaP for maximum protection. DTaP is a vaccine that helps children younger than age 7 develop immunity to three deadly diseases caused by bacteria: diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (pertussis).

Healthcare professionals give a dose of DTaP at 2, 4 and 6 months, at 15 through 18 months, and again at 4 through 6 years. They give children a booster dose known as Tdap to preteens at 11 or 12 years old.

Teens or adults who didnt get Tdap as a preteen should get one dose. Getting Tdap is especially important for pregnant women during the third trimester of each pregnancy. Its also important that those who care for babies are up-to-date with pertussis vaccination.

You can get the Tdap booster dose no matter when you got your last regular tetanus and diphtheria booster shot (Td). Also, you need to get Tdap even if you got pertussis vaccines as a child or have been sick with pertussis in the past.

The Impact of Anti-Vaxxers on the Comeback of Whooping Cough

Even though children who havent received DTaP vaccines are at least eight times more likely to get whooping cough than children who received all five recommended doses of DTaP, they are not the driving force behind the large-scale outbreaks or epidemics, according to the CDC. Even so, their parents are putting their children at greater risk of getting whooping cough and possibly spreading the illness to others.

WHOOPING COUGH  KNOW THE SIGNS

Whooping cough starts like the common cold, with a runny nose or congestion, sneezing, and maybe a mild cough or fever. But after one to two weeks, severe coughing can begin and can include many rapid coughs followed by a high-pitched whoop sound. Its important to note not everyone with pertussis will cough and many who cough will not whoop. Babies may not cough at all though. Instead, they have trouble breathing.The Canada Border Services Agency faced more than 100 founded complaints from travellers last year, including allegations of racism and rudeness  and one instance of a woman alleging a border officer yelled at her while she was in medical distress.

Data provided to The Canadian Press through access to information legislation says that in 2017-18 these were among the 105 founded cases of complaints of officer misconduct  about 12 per cent of 875 misconduct complaints filed in that time.

The total number of complaints through the CBSAs online Compliments, Comments and Complaints website remains a tiny fraction of the 95 million travellers seen by officers in the past year.

Nonetheless, civil liberties groups say the latest collection of incidents shows that Canada needs an independent complaints agency similar to those used to oversee police forces that can produce public reports and make binding recommendations to the agency.

As it stands, the definition of founded provided by the agency says that aspects in the allegations made in the complaint were valid.

Tim McSorley, the national co-ordinator of the Toronto-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, says the definition is far too vague to help lead to changes within the agencys culture or for the public to be properly informed.

Nonetheless, he says the limited information shows cause for concern, particularly the allegations of racism, questioning of travellers nationality, and name calling.

It shows that the majority of complaints are around respect or disrespect for travellers. ... For us, in particular, the incidents of racism (from border officers) are something in our work weve heard more about whether from Canadian citizens, or travellers from abroad, he said during an interview.

The descriptions of the allegations in the access documents are brief.

On Nov. 6 last year, one of the reports says, a client states the border service officer was rude and yelled at her until she passed out.

A CBSA spokesperson said in an email the medical distress wasnt directly caused by the officer.

During secondary examination, the traveller was found to be in medical distress. The border services officer followed proper first aid protocols in line with the training provided to all front line staff. The investigation concluded that the (officer) did not play a role in the travellers medical distress, wrote spokesperson Nicholas Dorion.

Many of the misconduct incidents are similar to a case described on May 22 last year, when a traveller said a border officer was yelling and berated travellers, swore at the clients, lacked respect.

In another report, an officer allegedly was yelling and berating travellers, swore at the clients, lacked respect.

In one April 17 allegation, an officer was racist, called the client ugly, abused his authority.

The CBSA didnt provide further details in these cases.

In these three cases, the CBSA reviewed the details of the incidents and took appropriate measures to address the conduct of the employees involved to ensure that they uphold the integrity of CBSA programs and demonstrate professionalism in their day to day activities, wrote Dorion.

There were also founded incidents where translation was unavailable, with a case on Nov. 11 last year stating when clients were targeted ... mistreated, denied a translator.

The CBSA didnt comment on the specifics of the case, but said that in some instances translation isnt available on short notice. If the officer is detaining a traveller, then translation services are sought, said Jayden Robertson, a communications officer, in an email.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the CBSA will be included in a wider review of oversight systems the Liberal government is working on.

Scott Bardsley said the Public Safety Department is advancing legislation to create a new expert review body, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, adding its creation would be a historic change that will greatly enhance how Canadas national security agencies, including CBSA, are held to account.

Vote now

McSorley said his group remains uncertain about whether the proposed legislation will go far enough or is going to apply to the kind of situations described in the CBSA complaints process.

Given the seriousness of some of these complaints, all Canadians and travellers to Canada deserve to know that they can register their concerns, and that it will receive an appropriate review and resolution, he said.

However, Jean-Pierre Fortin, the president of the Customs and Immigration Union, said the results of the complaints system show that only a tiny minority of cases are showing problems of officer misconduct.

Some of the cases are later taken to a grievance proceeding and thrown out, he said, though he could not provide precise figures.

Overall, the percentage of founded cases is very low that are coming to our attention, he said.

Nonetheless, he said that an independent oversight agency would be acceptable to the union, provided the union has some chance to defend its officers and have a voice in the review of conduct.

The union leader, who spent 18 years as a border officer, said that since 2012 there has been a decrease of more than 1,000 officers due to attrition and that officers are being required to work longer hours on the front line, often in difficult conditions with passengers already tired due to long lineups.

He said that officers who should be on the front line questioning travellers for an hour before relief are instead there for three hours, heightening fatigue.

Were dealing with a different work environment thats very difficult at times, and you can be doing 16 hours in a row. Its the lack of staffing right now that were seeing, he said in an interview.

During the 2017-18 fiscal year, the CBSA received 302 compliments in its feedback system.

The CBSA has approximately 14,000 employees, including over 6,500 uniformed CBSA officers who provide services at approximately 1,200 entry points across Canada and at 39 international locations.

From April 2017 to March 2018, border service officers processed over 96 million travellers and over 5 million commercial vehicles.

Read more about:LAVAL, QUE.Quebec provincial police say they have arrested a man wanted in connection with the alleged kidnapping of the president of the Cora Group breakfast chain.

Police say an arrest warrant for Paul Zaidan was executed early today related to the disappearance of Nicholas Tsouflidis in March 2017.

Tsouflidis was kidnapped at gunpoint from his Mirabel home, north of Montreal, and a passerby found the bound businessman alive in a ditch in Laval several hours later.

Police spokesperson Stephane Tremblay says there could be more arrests in the coming days or weeks following an investigation that spanned several months.

Police have said previously their probe demonstrated Tsouflidis was nabbed in an effort to obtain a ransom and that the incident was not linked in any way to organized crime.

Zaidan could appear in court later today or Wednesday at a courthouse just north of Montreal on charges including kidnapping and unlawful confinement.

Tsouflidis is the youngest son of founder Cora Mussely Tsouflidou, who founded the Cora chain.GRIMSEY ISLAND, ICELANDPuffins are in trouble.

The birds have been in precipitous decline, especially since the 2000s, both in Iceland and across many of their Atlantic habitats. The potential culprits are many: fickle prey, overfishing, pollution. Scientists say that climate change is another underlying factor that is diminishing food supplies and is likely to become more important over time. And the fact that puffins are tasty, and thus hunted as game here, hardly helps.

Annette Fayet is trying to solve the mystery of the dwindling Atlantic puffins, and that is why she was reaching shoulder deep into a burrow here last month. She gently drew a puffin out, having snagged its leg with a thick wire she had curved into a shepherds crook. As she brought the croaking seabird into the light, it defecated copiously on her pants, which were, thanks to her long experience with birds, waterproof.

Wow, science! she said, and smiled. Ideally, this bird, with its tuxedolike black-and-white plumage and clownish orange beak, would have voided its bowels into a stainless steel bowl she calls the puffin toilet. She took a flat wooden spoon out of its wrapper, scraped the mess up and placed it in a vial for analysis; she wants to know what these birds have been eating.

Though some puffin colonies are prospering, in Iceland, where the largest population of Atlantic puffins is found, their numbers have dropped to about 5.4 million individuals from roughly 7 million. Since 2015, the birds have been listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, meaning they face a high risk of extinction in the wild.

The birds are cherished by Icelanders as part of their history, culture and tourist trade  and, for some, their cuisine. The puffin is the most common bird in Iceland, said Erpur Snaer Hansen, acting director of the South Iceland Nature Research Center. Its also the most hunted one.

Hansen is working with Fayet, a junior research fellow at the University of Oxford who is from France, on her project to monitor the activities of four puffin colonies, two in Iceland and others in Wales and Norway. Since 2010, he has also conducted a census, a twice-yearly puffin rally in which he travels more than 3,100 miles around Iceland, visiting some 700 marked burrows in 12 colonies, counting eggs and chicks.

During a recent stop at Lundey Island, Iceland, Hansen encountered jovial hunters who had killed hundreds of the birds and were carrying them toward their boats to be sold to restaurants that mainly serve the meat to curious tourists.

Hansen maintains an amicable relationship with hunters and uses data from 138 years of hunting club records in his research. He persuaded these hunters to let his assistant photograph the head of every puffin; the bands on their beaks can be counted to determine the birds age.

On Grimsey, a northern island that pokes above the Arctic Circle, gulls and arctic terns swirled in the cloudy sky and the wind at the cliffs blew at 64 km/h or more as Fayet and Hansen did their work.

Fayet wears contact lenses, and the grit was a torment. There were ticks, so many ticks. Wow, science. There were also counterbalancing pleasures: Hansen, a gifted cook, roasted a leg of lamb for dinner with garlic and thyme, and he brought along a couple of bottles of excellent single-malt whiskey, one of his nonavian fascinations.

After dinner, the two scientists worked into the bright Arctic night, ultimately catching, examining and releasing a dozen birds in their two-day stay on this island. Between captures, Fayet leaned on a rock, staring intently at a cliff face. Suddenly she leapt up and ran at startling speed across the uneven soil some 150 feet to the cliff, crouching in front of the one hole among many that she saw a bird jet into.

Hansen moved from burrow to burrow, looking a little like a spaceman with his white visor clamped over his eyes. He snaked a camera on a flexible stalk inside for a look around. Oh, yeah, he said, having spotted a live, downy chick.

After extracting a bird, they slid it into a plastic tube that oddly enough kept it calm, and weighed it. Hansen attached a steel identifying band to the birds leg. Then they removed it from the tube and attached a tiny GPS tracker to its back, between the wings, with marine tape.

In the week until the lightweight devices drop off, they show how far the birds fly for their food and how deep they dive for it. Each tracker costs more than $800, which means the case containing them was worth more than the battered truck the researchers were driving.

Fayet plucked five feathers for later DNA analysis to determine the birds sex. For identification from afar, she used a marker to put a stroke of blue on its breast and white correction fluid to put a dot atop the black feathers on its head. Sorry, baby, she said softly, and returned the puffin to its burrow, where it will no doubt retell the story for years to come about its abduction by aliens during the summer of the tags and tape.

Around Iceland, the puffins have suffered because of the decline of their favourite food, silvery sand eels, which dangle from the parents beaks as they bring them to their young. That collapse correlates to a rise in sea surface temperatures that Hansen has been monitoring for years.

The temperature of waters around the country is governed by long-term cycles of what is known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, with periods of colder water alternating with warmer. Between the 1965-1995 cold cycle and the current warm cycle, Hansen said, winter temperature records show about 1 degree Celsius of additional warming  a seemingly small amount, but disastrous for the sand eels. His theory, he said, is this: If you increase temperatures 1 degree, youre changing their growth rates and their ability to survive the winter.

Aevar Petersen, an Icelandic ornithologist not involved with the project, said an increase in sea temperature brought about by climate change was the key environmental factor behind the sand eels decline.

The picture is complicated; the natural cycles make it difficult to disentangle the influence of climate change. That influence is much weaker in the subpolar North Atlantic, especially near Iceland, said Rong Zhang, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

Still, climate changes imprint is increasingly evident, said Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University. There will come a time when climate change is vastly greater than internal variability, he said.

Without as many sand eels in the water, the birds have to fly farther to find food for themselves and their chicks.

So the data from the GPS loggers, however briefly transmitted, is of great interest. As Fayet sat at her computer on Grimsey, her colleagues in Norway sent the first data from their work the week before, and her screen filled with looping paths of foraging birds.

Because this is the first time this is being done, we have no expectations, she said. Everything we get is exciting.

Even thrilling data can contain a sad message.

Everywhere, they are going further than we thought, Fayet said. The colonies decline suggests these birds are working too hard for their supper. Flying, for puffins, is very demanding, she said. It is a big energy cost for them.

Hansens puffin rallies show that 40 per cent of the population of Icelandic puffin chicks is losing body mass over time, another bad sign.

When the adults cant catch enough to feed themselves and the chicks, they make an instinctive Malthusian choice; the chicks starve. Fayet called her quest heartbreaking: You put your hand in the burrow and feel with your hand a little ball on the floor, but then you realize its cold, and not moving.

There are still millions of Atlantic puffins, but their plentiful colonies are deceiving, Hansen said. These birds are long lived, so you dont just see them plummeting down, he said. In the long run, he warned, Its not sustainable.

Read more about:KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIATwo Malaysian Muslim women convicted under Islamic laws of attempting to have sexual relations were caned Monday in a rare public whipping that was slammed by rights activists as a grave miscarriage of justice.

Lawyers and activists said the women, aged 22 and 32, were seated on stools facing the judges and given six strokes from a light rattan cane on their backs by female prison officers. More than 100 people witnessed the caning in a Shariah courtroom in northeast Terengganu state, they said.

Muslim Lawyers Association deputy president Abdul Rahim Sinwan said unlike caning under civil laws, the punishment under Islamic laws isnt painful or harsh and was meant to educate the women so they will repent. The women, dressed in white head scarves and clothing, didnt cry or scream but showed remorse, he said.

Repentance is the ultimate aim for their sin, he said.

Human rights groups slammed the punishment as a setback to human rights and said it could worsen discrimination against people in Malaysias lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and queer community.

Caning is a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and may amount to torture, Amnesty International Malaysia said in a statement. People should not live in fear because they are attracted to people of the same sex. The Malaysian authorities must immediately repeal repressive laws, outlaw torturous punishments and ratify the UN Convention Against Torture.

Malaysia follows a dual-track justice system. Nearly two thirds of Malaysias 31 million people are Muslims, who are governed by Islamic courts in family, marriage and personal issues. The two unidentified women were discovered by Islamic officials in April and sentenced last month by a Shariah court to six strokes of a cane and a fine after pleading guilty.

Thilaga Sulathireh, from the group Justice for Sisters who witnessed the caning, said she was shocked by the public spectacle. She said Malaysian laws were inconsistent because civil laws prohibit corporal punishment against female prisoners.

Its a regression of human rights in Malaysia. Its not about the severity of the caning; corporal punishment is a form of torture regardless of your intention, she said.

Malaysia is seen as a moderate and stable Muslim-majority country, but Islamic conservatism is on the rise.

The caning occurred amid a climate of fear and discrimination against Malaysias LGBTQ community. A few weeks ago, authorities removed the portraits of two LGBTQ rights activists from a public exhibition. Malaysia religious minister Mujahid Yusuf later said the government doesnt support the promotion of LGBTQ culture. A transgender woman was also beaten up by a group of people in a southern state this month.AYOTZINAPA, MEXICOFour years after the disappearance of 43 students in southern Mexico, the case remains unsolved, international human rights groups said Monday, as they called on the next president to conduct a proper investigation.

The case of the missing students prompted global outrage and shook Mexico to its core, plunging President Enrique Pena Nietos approval ratings to new lows. At a ceremony Monday at their school in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, representatives from several rights groups said their disappearance had still not been explained.

The official account, disputed by international experts, is that the students were kidnapped by local police officers who turned them over to a drug gang. The gang killed them and burned their bodies in a nearby garbage dump, leaving no remains.

The commission does not accept that narrative, said Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitino, rapporteur for Mexico at the inter-American Commission on Human Rights. No more talk about what they describe as historic truth, because it hurts us, it outrages us and the families of the victims simply do not tolerate it.

Arosemena said the commission hoped that President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on Dec. 1, would take advantage of the change in government to open an independent investigation. He defeated the candidate from Pena Nietos party in the July election.

Lopez Obrador has repeatedly said that he is committed to further investigating the case with the help of international human rights organizations and making sure that justice is done.

The doors of the country will be opened, he said last month. There will be no obstruction or obstacles that will keep us from discovering the truth in the Ayotzinapa case.

The rights groups said a new investigation should examine the role of the federal police and the military in the students disappearance, possible obstruction of the investigation by government officials, and accusations that at least 34 of the 129 people arrested in connection with the case had been tortured.

Representatives from the commission, the United Nations and Mexicos top human rights agency appeared Monday at Escuela Normal Rural Raul Isidro Burgos, where the missing students, many of them sons of farmers, were training to become rural teachers in hope of escaping lives of poverty. The male-only school has a history of leftist activism, with students using radical tactics like blocking roads and throwing rocks at police officers.

At the schools basketball court, 43 empty chairs were lined up behind the podium to represent the missing young men. A crowd of current students invoked the date the students disappeared, chanting: September the 26th will not be forgotten. Alive they took them, alive we want them back!

On that night in 2014, about 100 students left the school to hijack several buses for transportation to a march in Mexico City, a long-standing tradition that was mostly tolerated by bus companies and law enforcement officials.

But this time, police officers and other gunmen pursued the stolen buses and opened fire on the students in a co-ordinated assault in and around the city of Iguala. Six people were killed and dozens wounded. The 43 missing students, who had been pulled off two of the buses, were last seen being taken away by the police. The remains of only one have been identified.

The case became emblematic of the tens of thousands of disappearances during Mexicos decadelong drug war, bringing protesters into the streets by the thousands and throwing Pena Nietos presidency into crisis.

Last week, before his final state of the union address, Pena Nieto said in a video released on Twitter that his administration stood by the official findings. He said it was understandable the victims parents could not accept the painful truth  a remark that caused indignation among the victims families and human rights groups.

International investigators arrived in 2015 at the invitation of the Mexican government. But after they contradicted the official version of events, they said, the government began a campaign of harassment and stonewalling that made it impossible for them to do their work. The investigators left the following year.

In June, a federal court ordered the Mexican government to investigate the case again, calling the first inquiry neither prompt, effective, independent nor impartial. The court ordered that the new investigation be supervised by a truth commission to be led by Mexicos human rights body and victims families, who have already waited years for answers.

Anger is all I can feel, said Delfina de la Cruz, mother of Adan Abraham de la Cruz, who was 24 when he went missing. She was at the school Monday, along with at least one relative of each of the 43 missing students.

Its been four years and the government has done nothing, she said. All we can hope is for the international experts to help us, because no one else will.

Read more about:Videos

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A short circuit has been blamed for a deadly hotel fire that had killed 20 people in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, investigators said Monday.

At around 4 a.m. on Aug. 25, a fan short-circuited setting nearby plastic ornaments on fire at the Beilong Hot Spring Leisure Hotel in Harbin, the provincial capital, according to the investigation team.

All the victims of the fire have been identified.

The legal representative of the hotel is under criminal detention while two hotel managers are under investigation.

The city's disciplinary authorities are further investigating the case to find any malfeasance behind it.DAMASCUS, SYRIAIrans foreign minister said at the start of a visit to Damascus on Monday that terrorists must be purged from Syrias Idlib and the entire northwestern province returned to government control.

Mohammad Javad Zarifs comments in Damascus were reported by Irans semi-official Fars news agency and came as Syrian forces and their allies are preparing for an assault on Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in the country.

Syrias territorial integrity should be safeguarded and all tribes and groups, as one society, should start the reconstruction process, and the refugees should return to their homes, Zarif said.

He met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who is just back from a visit to Moscow. The visit comes days before the leaders of Iran, Turkey, and Russia are expected to meet in Iran to discuss the situation in Idlib.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday sent a tweet warning Assad and his allies against a reckless attack on Idlib province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen! Trump said.

During their meeting Assad and Zarif discussed the agenda of the summit in Iran. A statement from Assads office said Iran and Syria had similar views on the different issues to be discussed. It provided no further details.

Zarif said it was necessary to consult with our Syrian friends ahead of the Sept. 7 summit, according to Fars.

Iran has lent crucial military and economic support to Assad throughout the seven-year civil war and the discussions are expected to focus on the decisive battle for Idlib.

Assad has vowed to defeat the opposition in its last refuge in the northwestern province if the rebels do not surrender to government rule.

Idlib and the surrounding area is home to some 3 million people  nearly half of them already displaced more than once by the civil war. Tens of thousands of people fled to Idlib after surrendering in government offensives elsewhere, choosing to relocate to an opposition-held area rather than risk reprisals or forced conscription at the hands of the government.

U.N. officials believe an offensive on Idlib would trigger a wave of displacement that could uproot an estimated 800,000 people and discourage refugees from returning home.

Thousands of government troops and allied fighters have been massing in areas surrounding the province.

In their meeting Monday, Assad and Zarif also discussed what they called western pressure on their two countries, in apparent reference to the U.S. sanctions on Iran and calls for limiting Irans role in Syria. Israel has grown nervous of Irans growing presence in Syria and threatened to prevent a buildup of pro-Iranian forces near its frontiers with Syria.

Russia, another Syria ally, and Damascus have also said that western countries are preparing to carry out strikes against Syria ahead of the Idlib offensive. They claim such threats were part of the wests attempt to undermine Syrias drive to restore control over all its territories.

The U.S. and France have warned an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisis and warned that a chemical attack in Idlib would prompt a western retaliation.

In the statement from the Syrian Presidents office, Assad and Zarif said that resorting to threats and pressure reflect the failure of those countries to realize their plans for the region after Syria and Iran confronted them.

Read more about:John Dowd was convinced that President Donald Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert Mueller. So on Jan. 27 the presidents then-personal attorney staged a practice session to make his point.

In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the president eventually lost his cool.

This things a goddamn hoax, Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying, I dont really want to testify.

The dramatic and previously untold scene is recounted in Fear, a forthcoming book by Bob Woodward that paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration officials and other principals.

Woodward writes that his book draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses that were conducted on deep background, meaning the information could be used, but he would not reveal who provided it. His account is also based on meeting notes, personal diaries and government documents.

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Woodward depicts Trumps anger and paranoia about the Russia inquiry as unrelenting, at times paralyzing the West Wing for days. Learning of the appointment of Mueller in May 2017, Trump groused, Everybodys trying to get me  part of a venting period that shellshocked aides compared to Richard Nixons final days as president.

A copy of the 448-page book was obtained by the Washington Post. Woodward, an associate editor at the Post, sought an interview with Trump through several intermediaries to no avail. The president called Woodward in early August, after the manuscript had been completed, to say he wanted to participate. The president complained that it would be a bad book, according to an audio recording of the conversation. Woodward replied that his work would be tough, but factual and based on his reporting.

A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trumps inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.

Woodward describes an administrative coup detat and a nervous breakdown of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the presidents desk so he couldnt see or sign them.

Again and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trumps national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs and his contempt for the mainstream perspectives of military and intelligence leaders.

At a National Security Council meeting on Jan. 19, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds (versus 15 minutes from Alaska), according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all.

Were doing this in order to prevent World War III, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.

After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like  and had the understanding of  a fifth- or sixth-grader. 

In Woodwards telling, many top advisers were repeatedly unnerved by Trumps actions and expressed dim views of him. Secretaries of defence dont always get to choose the president they work for, Mattis told friends at one point, prompting laughter as he explained Trumps tendency to go off on tangents about subjects such as immigration and the news media.

Inside the White House, Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis.

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was unhinged, Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: Hes an idiot. Its pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in Crazytown. I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.

Reince Priebus, Kellys predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, the devils workshop, and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were the witching hour.

Trump apparently had little regard for Priebus. He once instructed then-staff secretary Rob Porter to ignore Priebus, even though Porter reported to the chief of staff, saying that Priebus was like a little rat. He just scurries around.

Few in Trumps orbit were protected from the presidents insults. He often mocked former national security adviser H.R. McMaster behind his back, puffing up his chest and exaggerating his breathing as he impersonated the retired Army general, and once said McMaster dresses in cheap suits, like a beer salesman.

Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a wealthy investor eight years his senior: I dont trust you. I dont want you doing any more negotiations  Youre past your prime.

A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a traitor for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions accent, Trump added, This guy is mentally retarded. Hes this dumb Southerner  He couldnt even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.

At a dinner with Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He falsely suggested that the former Navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his fathers military rank and leaving others behind.

Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: No, Mr. President, I think youve got it reversed. The defence secretary explained that McCain, who died Aug. 25, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the Hanoi Hilton.

Oh, OK, Trump replied, according to Woodwards account.

With Trumps rage and defiance impossible to contain, Cabinet members and other senior officials learned to act discreetly. Woodward describes an alliance among Trumps traditionalists  including Mattis and Gary Cohn, the presidents former top economic adviser  to stymie what they considered dangerous acts.

It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually, Porter is quoted as saying. Other times, we would fall over the edge, and an action would be taken.

After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. Lets fucking kill him! Lets go in. Lets kill the fucking lot of them, Trump said, according to Woodward.

Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured. The national security team developed options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.

Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trumps strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn stole a letter off Trumps desk that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he had removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice it was missing.

Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the president has long threatened to do. In spring 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter: Why arent we getting this done? Do your job. Its tap, tap, tap. Youre just tapping me along. I want to do this.

Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: I can stop this. Ill just take the paper off his desk.

Despite repeated threats by Trump, the United States has remained in both pacts. The administration continues to negotiate new terms with South Korea as well as with its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico.

Cohn came to regard the president as a professional liar and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trumps handling of a deadly white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika on her college dorm room.

Trump was sharply criticized for initially saying that both sides were to blame. At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, That was the biggest fucking mistake Ive made and the worst speech Ive ever given, according to Woodwards account.

When Cohn met with Trump to deliver his resignation letter after Charlottesville, the president told him, This is treason, and persuaded his economic adviser to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohns horror at Trumps handling of the tragedy  and shared Cohns fury with Trump.

I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times, Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward. Kelly himself has threatened to quit several times, but has not done so.

Woodward illustrates how the dread in Trumps orbit became all-encompassing over the course of Trumps first year in office, leaving some staff members and Cabinet members confounded by the presidents lack of understanding about how government functions and his inability and unwillingness to learn.

At one point, Porter, who departed in February amid domestic-abuse allegations, is quoted as saying, This was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is.

Such moments of panic are a routine feature, but not the thrust of Woodwards book, which mostly focuses on substantive decisions and internal disagreements, including tensions with North Korea as well as the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trumps handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a pre-emptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.

In the fall of 2017, as Trump intensified a war of words with Kim Jong Un, nicknaming North Koreas dictator Little Rocket Man in a speech at the United Nations, aides worried the president might be provoking Kim. But, Woodward writes, Trump told Porter that he saw the situation as a contest of wills: This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim.

The book also details Trumps impatience with the war in Afghanistan, which had become Americas longest conflict. At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisers for 25 minutes, complaining that the United States was losing, according to Woodward.

The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you, Trump told them. They could do a much better job. I dont know what the hell were doing. He went on to ask, How many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?

The presidents family members, while sometimes touted as his key advisers by other Trump chroniclers, are minor players in Woodwards account, popping up occasionally in the West Wing and vexing adversaries.

Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the presidents eldest daughter and senior adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist.

Youre a goddamn staffer! Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. You walk around this place and act like youre in charge, and youre not. Youre on staff!

Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: Im not a staffer! Ill never be a staffer. Im the first daughter.

Such tensions boiled among many of Trumps core advisers. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as natural predators.

When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody, Priebus says.

Hovering over the White House was Muellers inquiry, which deeply embarrassed the president. Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: Donald, Im worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?

Trump relayed the conversation to Dowd and said it was like a kick in the nuts, according to Woodward.

The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Muellers office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trumps January practice session.

Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: Im not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for? 

John, I understand, Mueller replied, according to Woodward.

Later that month, Dowd told Trump: Dont testify. Its either that or an orange jumpsuit.

But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Muellers questions, had by then decided otherwise.

Ill be a real good witness, Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.

You are not a good witness, Dowd replied. Mr. President, Im afraid I just cant help you.

The next morning, Dowd resigned.

U.S. President Donald Trump is labeling a tell-all book from journalist Bob Woodward a "work of fiction."

Read more about:JERUSALEMMonica Lewinsky said Tuesday that she walked off the stage at a Jerusalem speaking event because of an interviewers off-limits question about former U.S. president Bill Clinton.

The former White House intern turned anti-bullying activist tweeted that there were agreed-upon parameters regarding the topics of her televised conversation Monday night with a well-known Israeli news anchor, following a conference speech she gave about the perils of the internet.

Lewinsky called Yonit Levis first question about her relationship with Clinton a blatant disregard for our agreement.

Levi, the main anchor of Israels top-rated evening newscast, asked Lewinsky if she still expected a personal apology from Clinton over the fallout of the scandal of their affair 20 years ago.

Lewinsky responded: Im so sorry. Im not going to be able to do this. She then put down her microphone and walked offstage.

Levi reached out her hand and then anxiously followed Lewinsky offstage as some in the stunned audience awkwardly clapped. The confused hosts then rushed opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid onstage to keep the event moving along.

A smiling Lapid, who plans to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the next Israeli elections, quipped: Everything has happened to me, but stepping in for Monica Lewinsky is a first. There is no way Ill be interesting enough in the next few minutes, but well do our best.

In a tweet several hours later, Lewinsky said she had been misled.

In fact, the exact question the interviewer asked first, she had put to me when we met the day prior. I said that was off limits, she explained. I left because it is more important than ever for women to stand up for themselves and not allow others to control their narrative. To the audience: Im very sorry that this talk had to end this way.

Levis employer, the Israeli News Company, said it did its utmost to abide by all agreements made with Lewinsky.

The question asked was legitimate, worthy and respectful and in no way deviated from Ms. Lewinskys requests, company spokesman Alon Shani said. We thank Ms. Lewinsky for her fascinating speech to the conference, respect her sensitivity and wish her all the best.

Have your say

Clinton recently came under fire for responding defensively to questions in an NBC interview about his sexual relationship with the White House intern in the late 1990s. He insisted he did not think it necessary to offer her a personal apology since he had already repeatedly apologized publicly. Clintons affair with Lewinsky helped lead to his impeachment.

Lewinsky, who for years kept quiet about the relationship before re-emerging as a public speaker, wrote in March that their relationship was not sexual assault but constituted a gross abuse of power.

Read more about:JUNEAU, ALASKAA tiny Alaska Native village has experienced a boom in tourism in recent years as polar bears spend more time on land than on diminishing Arctic sea ice.

More than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaska village of Kaktovik on the Beaufort Sea last year to see polar bears in the wild, Alaskas Energy Desk reported Monday.

The village had less than 50 visitors annually before 2011, said Jennifer Reed, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Today were talking about hundreds and hundreds of visitors, many from around the world each year, Reed said.

Polar bears have always been a common sight on sea ice near Kaktovik, but residents started noticing a change in the mid-1990s. More bears seemed to stay on land, and researchers began taking note of more female bears making dens in the snow on land instead of on the ice.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists began hearing reports of increasing numbers of polar bears in the area in the early 2000s, Reed said. As more attention was given to the plight of polar bears about a decade ago, more tourists started heading to Kaktovik.

Most tourists visit in the fall, when bears are forced toward land because sea ice is the farthest away from the shore. Some bears become stranded near Kaktovik until the sea freezes again in October or November.

The fall is also when residents of Kaktovik kill three bowhead whales. Bruce Inglangasak, an Inupiaq subsistence hunter who offers wildlife viewing tours, said residents were unsure how tourists would react to whaling.

The community was scared about, you know, activists that was going to try to get us to shut down the whaling  subsistence whaling, Inglangasak said. But thats not true.

Read more about:The news that the new Government of Ontario has disgracefully decided to scrap the basic income (BI) experiments is incredibly disappointing and short-sighted. Coming on the back of the decision in Finland to not extend the experiments there, this could appear to be a major setback for the global BI agenda.

Moreover, its a huge blow for the 4,000 people participating in the pilot who, after a relatively short time, reported numerous positive effects of boosted economic security. Participants are rightly feeling betrayed by a government that only a few months ago  midelection  suggested it would leave the project intact.

The Ontario debacle, painful and unjust as it is, in no way amounts to a fatal blow for our movement. Advocates should acknowledge that setbacks are the predictable risk of playing the political game in the major leagues. As such, Ontario may be a battle lost  for now  but it equally represents a chance to reflect on the wider war. It is an opportunity we should grasp to hone our political strategies on multiple front lines.

In the spirit of rallying the troops for the upcoming fight, we offer several positive reflections against the backdrop of despair.

For starters, opposition from the new government has been telling in its shallowness. Minister Lisa Macleod didnt offer any facts for the decision, promising these would be provided at some point in the future. This is important to stress  the decision hasnt been taken on the basis of the pilots work; rather this is an ideological decision.

If it had been made because the pilot was failing in its objectives or causing harm to participants, then we would be in a difficult position, but this is not the case. Moreover, the promise to provide relevant evidence ad hoc sometime in the near future is laughable  where is that evidence supposed to come from, now that the project is canned?

The Ontario project already revealed tangible results that are not going to disappear overnight, as MacLeod and Premier Doug Ford are already finding out. The pilots have been driven by an inspiring response from civic society. Groups such as the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction have ensured that this hasnt just been an academic exercise but rather a societal response to inequality.

Numerous local groups across Canada have either embraced it as part of their agenda or have emerged specifically to advocate for BI, with the Basic Income Canada Network co-ordinating information and resources. This civic movement will not be silenced by ideological decisions or overtaken by a return to the failed policies the government favours  just look at the powerful images being documented in the Humans of Basic Income project.

The global movement for BI is a growing one. Around the world several pilot projects have started, while others are in advanced planning stage. The Ford government is rowing against a strong tide. For those working toward a progressive social innovation that guarantees each citizen a minimum floor of decent existence, Ontario offers critical insights in the practical and political challenges that BI experimentation brings with it.

Drawing lessons from the Ontario experience will allow us to pre-empt some problems and devise targeted solutions to address others. We owe the many people involved in making the Ontario project a reality a debt of gratitude.

The creation of the pilots in and of itself is an invaluable learning opportunity. Even now the Ontario pilot helps to shape the work underway to design experiments in Scotland, the U.S., the Netherlands and elsewhere  a sign of the continued impact of Ontario.

Political resistance is not a novel challenge for the Basic Income movement, but one were increasingly adept at meeting. One battle may be lost for now, but the war for a better, fairer and more secure future continues unabated.

Jamie Cooke is head of RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) Scotland.Jurgen De Wispelaere is a policy research fellow at the Institute for Policy Research (University of Bath).

Read more about:So it has come to this.

Six Burmese generals accused last week of genocidal intent against the Rohingya people by members of a United Nations fact-finding panel are walking free today.

But a Burmese court has jailed two Reuters journalists for doing their jobs by  wait for it  simply investigating the slaughter of that countrys Muslim minority.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday after a judge found them guilty of illegally possessing government documents. Experts, including Canadas special envoy to Burma, Bob Rae, say they were framed by security forces.

This is a terrible blow for both freedom of expression and the fight against the state violence being inflicted on the Rohingya.

The two are intertwined. As Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said when the journalists were first arrested: For true democracy to flourish, fundamental freedoms such as freedom of the press must be respected.

But the real outrage is that despite the journalists brave efforts to shine a light on the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, the slaughter of the innocents continues unabated.

Indeed, in the last year, the UN estimates that at least 10,000 Rohingya have been murdered in violent army operations, while nearly 725,000 have fled Burma, also known as Myanmar, to squalid refugee camps across the border in neighbouring Bangladesh.

To say the survivors in the camps have been though hell is an understatement.

Cate Blanchett, the actor and UN goodwill ambassador for refugees, told the UN Security Council last week that she heard gut-wrenching accounts of torture, rape, and people seeing loved ones killed before their eyes, including children thrown into fires.

But who is in prison? Not those responsible for what the UN panel called a forseeable and planned catastrophe, but those who tried to draw it to the attention of the world.

If the jailing of journalists while accused generals go free isnt hypocritical enough, this ethnic cleansing is taking place in a country whose elected civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of only six people to have been made an honorary citizen of Canada.

Where does she stand on the massacre of her own citizens? Nowhere. She is silent, except when she is denying the evidence from satellite images of razed villages and the testimony of survivors, calling it all an iceberg of misinformation being propagated by terrorists.

No wonder some, such as Amnesty International and Irwin Cotler, the renowned human rights lawyer and former federal minister, are calling on the Trudeau government to revoke Suu Kyis honorary Canadian citizenship.

And so it should. Symbols matter. Her name is among a select group, after all, that includes freedom fighters such as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

A year ago, the Trudeau government was arguing  and the Star supported its position at that time  that it could use its close relationship with Suu Kyi to push her to show some of the courage and humanity that led to her world-wide acclaim.

But that effort has proven to be for naught. In fact, the UN panel has concluded that she, along with other leaders in that country, contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes by failing to use their positions to stop them.

As if to underscore that finding, after the UN report was released last week Suu Kyi was silent on the issue in a public appearance. Instead, she chose to talk  we are not making this up  about poetry and literature.

Canada has rightly joined the international chorus calling for the immediate release of the two jailed journalists. It should further demonstrate its outrage over the slaughter of the Rohingya by revoking Suu Kyis honorary, but undeserved, Canadian citizenship.This summer, as in recent years, we have experienced extreme heat in Canada. By mid-July, this heat wave had taken the lives of more than 90 people in Quebec. In Toronto, we suspect that more people experiencing homelessness died during the summer of 2017 than during the winter. Heat kills, especially for those who are older, have chronic diseases or are on psychiatric medication.

This year, Toronto designated seven cooling centres  only one of them downtown  which are supposed to be staffed and stocked with snacks and water.

I visited the one 24-hour cooling centre in August, and I was met with a space that was being under utilized. Tables and chairs were empty, snacks were limited to granola bars and water and refillable water bottles were only given out once a survey was completed. As well, signage and information about the location of the cooling centre was difficult to find.

We need to do better to ensure that cooling centres are not only visible and inviting, but that they are meeting the needs of the people. Next year, we need to do better than just provide the bare minimum. We need more properly resourced 24-7 cooling centres with healthy food, refillable water bottles, activities and nurses on site to assist people with their medical needs.

These sites are invaluable for our community.Maxime Bernier has lots of fans in Alberta. But does he have enough to make a dent in the Conservative vote in the next federal election?

He just might because he garnered significant support from Alberta during the leadership race and one of his biggest fans is Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt who, like Bernier, is turning his back on his old party and starting up a new one with decidedly libertarian views.

Both Bernier and Fildebrandt have such super-sized egos its hard to imagine they could fit in the same room at the same time.

But Fildebrandt was a loyal and outspoken standard-bearer for Bernier when he ran for the leadership of the Conservative party last year. They agreed on so many things that Fildebrandt said Bernier spoke Alberta common sense fluently, and called him an Albertan from Quebec.

They both wanted to get rid of federal equalization payments (Alberta contributing and Quebec receiving), the carbon tax and supply management.

When Bernier recently called into question what he called Justin Trudeaus extreme multi-culturism, Fildebrandt publicly backed him up in a tweet and added that Berniers position is broadly accepted by the majority of Albertans and Canadians without offering any proof.

He also said his new party would fight for the same constitutional authority over immigration that Quebec has.

Fildebrandt was by no means the only Albertan to support Bernier for the leadership. In the final round of voting, Alberta delegates gave Bernier 53.07 per cent of points, right behind Quebec, which gave him 55.06.

While there is no question that a significant slice of Alberta conservatism tends towards Berniers type of libertarianism, Fildebrandt himself could be a hindrance rather than a help to Berniers plans for a new party.

Thats because Fildebrandt has been mired in controversy, not because of his political views, but because he has been convicted of breaking the law twice, and was found to be double dipping on his MLA expense account. He was fined $402 in December for a hit-and-run with his pick-up truck. In February he pled guilty to illegal hunting and was fined $3,000. A few months earlier it was discovered that he was pocketing his MLA housing allowance and renting out his Edmonton apartment.

Fildebrandt was originally elected as a Wildrose MLA for a rural constituency just east of Calgary. He fought openly with Wildrose leader Brian Jean and when Jason Kenney moved to form the United Conservative Party, Fildebrandt became one of the strongest boosters of the merger and could often be seen at Kenneys side.

But Kenney kicked him out of caucus after the double-dipping scandal, which, given that Fildebrandt was the UCP finance critic and former Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, was doubly embarrassing.

After the illegal hunting conviction, Kenney forbade him from seeking a UCP nomination.

A few months later, Fildebrandt announced that he was starting his own provincial party, the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta.

We are a coalition of unapologetic conservatives, libertarians and Alberta patriots. We dont want to simply throw out the NDP, throw a new coat of paint on the truck and start driving. We want to flip it over and fundamentally change the status quo of Albertas place in Canada, he said at the official announcement.

Its clear that besides huge egos Bernier and Fildebrandt have a lot in common. They dont like losing, chafe at party discipline and see politics as way to impose their will on everyone else. Sounds a lot like Donald Trump.

So far, prominent Alberta Conservatives, including Jason Kenney and Conservative MPs, have stood behind Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and discounted Berniers quest to start a new conservative party.

But as we learned with the Reform Party and the Wildrose Party, the possibility that conservatives in Alberta will split into rival factions is never that remote.

And now that there new conservative parties emerging both inside and outside Alberta that are focused on the carbon tax, immigration, equalization payments, pushing oil pipelines through to both coasts and provincial rights  parties that have strong links to each other  who knows how many voters they might attract?

GS Gillian Steward is a Calgary-based writer and freelance columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: is a Calgary-based writer and freelance columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @GillianSteward

Read more about:VANCOUVER  Teenage boys are more likely to report being victims of violence while dating  being hit, slapped, pushed or hurt on purpose  than girls in British Columbia, according to a new study.

Yet understanding why more men and boys report physical abuse requires further research, said Catherine S. Shaffer, first author and Simon Fraser University PhD student.

This is a critical development stage where most patterns are carried into adulthood, Shaffer said in an interview. It could be that its still socially acceptable for girls to hit or slap boys in dating relationships.

Researchers found 5.8 per cent of boys said they had experienced dating violence in the past year in comparison to 4.2 per cent of girls.

And the impact on young people who experience dating violence can be devastating, she added. They are more likely to act out, take unnecessary risks, experience depression or think about suicide.

Shaffer suggested findings point to prevention programs working for boys that are maybe not as effective for girls.

Both boys and girls need to be the focus of intervention and health policies, Shaffer insisted. For young men, social pressures mean they dont often feel comfortable speaking about these experiences.

The study is the first in Canada to look at dating violence trends among adolescents over time and the first in North America to compare trends for boys and girls, according to a news release. Researchers analyzed data from three B.C. Adolescent Health Surveys, which are taken every five years, involving 35,900 youth from Grade 7to 12 who were dating.

Then they tracked the trends by using the comprehensive population data  and gaps between the trends  over a decade.

On the whole, fewer teens reported physical abuse from their relationship partners moving from 6 per cent in 2003 to 5 per cent in 2013.

But while the small decline is encouraging, the gap has not narrowed and the disparity is still there even after a decade, said senior author and University of British Columbia nursing professor, Elizabeth Saewyc.

Its quite common to think about boys and men doing this  not necessarily the ones who are experiencing it, she said.

We seem to have a bigger tolerance for girls when theyre angry or in conflict with partners. Slapping, hitting or throwing things is fairly commonly depicted in our media and does not get the same reaction.

Saewyc noted the study was focused on heterosexual dating relationships to determine the dynamics, with plans to research LGBTQ teens in the future. Prior to this research, there was little done in Canada to track data on dating violence with teens.

Thats why these findings highlight the need for more support programs for teens who are dating, she argued. And she encouraged open dialogue with adolescents as well.

We dont often have those conversations about what people deserve in a relationship, how do you know if they really love you and what does that look like, she said. In a healthy relationship, nobody is experiencing violence  both people are being supported and respected.

Health-care providers, parents, caregivers, schools and others can protect teens from dating violence, even before their first date, she added.

The study used surveys conducted by the McCreary Centre Society, a community-based organization dedicated to adolescent health research in B.C. Results were recently published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Read more:

Public conversation about domestic violence needs to shift, advocates say

Toronto research centre takes a deeper look at domestic violence: Goar

Ask women about partner violence, panel says

Read more about:VANCOUVERAn inmate who escaped from a minimum security prison in Mission, B.C. on Saturday night has been recaptured.

Michael Douglas Sheets, 48, was arrested without incident at approximately 5:20 a.m. Tuesday morning on the 5800 block of Old East Road in Saanich, B.C., according to a statement from Saanich Police.

Sheets was found unaccounted for during a routine inmate count on the evening of Saturday, Sept. 1, according to a statement from the Correctional Service of Canada. The CSC contacted local RCMP, and a warrant was issued for Sheets arrest.

Sheets is currently serving a sentence of 14 years and six months for manslaughter, arson, escape and other offences. Sheets manslaughter and arson convictions stem from a 2004 incident in which he threw a Molotov cocktail into the home of a Calgary mother and her two children. Both children were killed in the ensuing fire, while their mother suffered severe smoke inhalation and a broken ankle, sustained as she jumped from a window to escape the burning house.

The statement from Saanich Police said the department received information that Sheets was hiding in an outbuilding in the Vancouver Island town, and took the escaped inmate into custody with assistance from the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team.

A spokesperson for the Mission Institution federal prison  which has both minimum and medium security areas  said an investigation into Sheets escape is underway, having begun the minute he was discovered missing. Sheets will be transferred to a medium security facility, she added, though whether that will be the medium security portion of the Mission Institution has not yet been determined.

Sheets, whose criminal record includes a 2015 conviction for unlawful escape from custody  will be fully reassessed before placement in another institution occurs, the spokesperson said.

Sheets is the second inmate to disappear from the Mission Institutions minimum-security section in the past month, and the third to go missing from the facility since April.

On Aug. 8, a CSC statement said staff at the Mission Institution noticed that 57-year-old John Norman Mackenzie was unaccounted for at around 10:15 p.m. He is currently serving a life sentence for second-degree murder, armed robbery and other offences.

In late April another convicted killer, 83-year-old Ralph Whitfield Morris escaped from the same facility. He was apprehended by local RCMP 12 hours after he failed to show up for a routine prisoner count.

With files from Jesse Winter.

Read more about:With his wife on his back, Wang Xiaomin spent more than 12 hours visiting Huangshan Mountain, in eastern China's Anhui province, on July 22.

It's how the couple, from Wuhu, Anhui, have visited dozens of scenic spots across the country since 2016, but it was the trip to Huangshan, which soars to a height of 1,864 meters, that touched netizens, thanks to videos posted online by other tourists.

Wang's 52-year-old wife, Yu Yonghua, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, a rare, incurable condition also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in 2014.

It's a progressive disease that attacks nerve cells that control muscles throughout the body, and Wang took his wife to hospitals in Anhui and Shanghai, where they were told Yu had only three to five years to live.

"Though we didn't believe it, we lived in despair from then to 2016, when we decided to move on to a new life," Wang said. "We didn't travel much before my wife fell ill. As we realized the disease was a fact we could not change, we finally decided to enjoy some final, happy time together by traveling."

Because he knew Yu's health would deteriorate, Wang made a vague plan to start their travels in the hardest places, so they went to the Tibet autonomous region and Qinghai province for a monthlong trip in 2016, when Yu weighed about 50 kilograms.

Since then, Wang has taken Yu to the Ningxia Hui and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions and Yunnan and Zhejiang provinces.

Wang showed dozens of photos he asked other tourists to take with his cellphone. Yu is smiling on Wang's back in most of them.

"People our age don't talk much about love, especially the affection between lovers," he said. "It's not for romance that I do all the things I do. All I know is she is my family and it's my responsibility to take good care of her."

He once carried his wife on his back for 16 kilometers, walking along an ancient mountain path in Anhui. Yu now only weighs around 30 kg and Wang has become used to carrying her.

To keep on the move is hard for the couple, not only physically, but also financially.

From the same township in Wuhu, they married in 1984 and welcomed their only son the next year. He now has a 6-year-old son of his own.

They worked in a State-owned cotton-processing factory until 2004, when the plant went bankrupt and they lost their jobs.

After that, the couple ran their own cotton-processing workshop, which also went bankrupt in a couple of years.

After that Wang worked as a taxi driver for a while and then ran a small logistics firm, which was not profitable and closed due to Yu's illness.

"At the beginning, after my wife was diagnosed with ALS, she could still take care of herself," Wang said. "But there's no way I can work now because she has lost the ability to take care of herself and is even unable to speak. Even mosquitoes and flies can bully her.

"I can only look into her eyes and guess what she wants."

Wang said he now accompanies his wife almost 24 hours a day.

Since 2014, the couple have exhausted all their savings and borrowed more than 200,000 yuan ($29,280) from relatives and friends, who have also given them some donations.

To save money in order to visit more places, they often spend the night in a tent.

"We discuss where to go for the next trip," Wang said. "I take out a map and point at some places. She nods if she wants to go to certain ones."

They have recently been planning a trip to Beijing, especially the Great Wall, but Yu's health condition doesn't permit any travel at the moment.

"If she feels better, we will go to Beijing as soon as possible," Wang said.Legal experts have applauded a decision by judicial authorities to identify an incident in which an electric bike rider stabbed another man to death in eastern China as self-defense, calling it a milestone in the country's rule of law.

Police and prosecutors in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, released statements on Saturday, verifying that the man's behavior constituted justifiable self-defense and noting he should be exempt from criminal liability.

"The identification is a milestone in the rule of law and will play a bigger role in guiding similar cases in our country," Ruan Chuansheng, a criminal law professor at Shanghai Administration Institute, said on Sunday, six days after Yu Haiming fought back against attacker Liu Hailong and stabbed him to death during a traffic dispute.

Surveillance video showed Yu waiting at the traffic lights in a nonmotorized-vehicle lane at 9:37 pm on Aug 27 when a black BMW sedan driven by Liu veered into Yu's lane.

Liu pushed and kicked Yu after they argued. Liu then retrieved a 59-centimeter-long knife from his car and slashed at Yu several times.

The knife fell from Liu's hand and Yu then grabbed it, stabbing Liu in the abdomen, buttocks, right chest, left shoulder and left elbow, with the video showing the whole incident lasted seven seconds.

As Liu ran back toward the car, Yu tried to stab him two more times but failed. Yu also grabbed Liu's mobile phone and handed it and the knife to police when they arrived at the scene, saying he had taken the phone to prevent Liu from calling friends to exact revenge, police said.

Liu, 36, died after the attack. Police said Yu, 41, who sustained two wounds that were not life-threatening, surrendered to them when they arrived at the scene.

After the video was posted online last week, the attack sparked heated social media discussion on whether Yu's defense was justifiable or excessive.

The statements posted by the police and prosecutors on Saturday said that according to the Criminal Law, Liu committed physical assault and it was an ongoing process.

The person being attacked could not be expected to make rational judgments in such an emergency, let alone judge the case by the injuries they suffered, the authorities said.

The drunken Liu's behavior seriously endangered Yu's safety, and his behavior kept escalating. Liu did not stop hurting Yu after he was injured, so Yu's life was at risk during the whole process, they said.

Yu's chasing of Liu and attempts to stab him again constituted a continuous act of justifiable defense, they added.

"The quick and clear explanation should be given a thumbs-up," said Mao Lixin, a criminal lawyer at Beijing Shangquan Law Office.

"It's the best way to eliminate the public's confusion on the case and help them better understand the law, while also serving as a big deterrent to offenses."

Zhao Li, a criminal lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, also applauded the decision, saying it will help judicial authorities be more brave in verifying justifiable defense.

He said justifiable self-defense is rarely identified in practice, estimating the number of cases where that happens at no more than 10 percent.

"Judicial departments have been cautious in identifying justifiable self-defense, as the criteria in the law is too strict," he said.

"In some cases, self-defense can cause injuries or even death, which might make it hard to say whether their behavior was excessive, let alone to support the claim of self-defense."

He said he had handled cases similar to Yu's, but most of his clients were found to have acted excessively and were punished.

Legal experts said clarifying how to identify self-defense will contribute to upholding justice, and they suggested that what behaviors are regarded as excessive, and in what situations, needs to be made clearer in the law or in legal guidelines.

Mao said members of Liu's family can appeal if they disagree with the decision.

"They can apply to a higher public security department or prosecuting authority for another investigation of the case," he said. However, he added that the filing of such a case would depend on the evidence available.GRANITE CITY  While many of the steelworkers at U.S. Steel-Granite City Works are just getting back on the job, or have just started new jobs, members in three United Steelworkers of America locals at the plant will vote on strike authorization Thursday.

This does not mean a strike will occur, but it will be used by the USW when negotiations resume and would allow a strike if no progress is made.

Voting starts at different USS locations on Tuesday. Locally, the vote will be Thursday, according to Dan Simmons, president of USW 1899, which represents the majority of workers at the plant.

There will be four different times for voting to accommodate the shifts, but further details were not disclosed.

This is part of a nationwide issue, as the master contract between U.S. Steel and the USW expired Saturday and negotiations are going nowhere, according to local union officials.

A lot of attention has been focused on Granite City, because the plant here is ramping up after being mostly shut down for about two years. However, the contract covers approximately 31,000 USW members nationwide, according to the USW website.

The lack of progress in negotiations has surprised many local union officials.

We were all shocked, said Simmons. We thought this would be an easy labor contract. These are some of the best times and the price of steel hasnt been this high for decades. Profits are good and the forecasts and analysts agree it looks very favorable for the foreseeable future.

Union officials have said that wages and health benefits for both active and retired steelworkers were areas of contention, but Simmons said there are a number of areas of dispute.

They chose to take on and go after language in our contract that has been boilerplate language that has been in there forever, he said.

According to Simmons and others, USS is seeking a seven-year contract, with small raises in the first three years and no raises for the final four. It would also increase health-care costs for both active and retired workers.

Simmons described the last offer as lipstick on a pig.

Theyre trying to make this look attractive and make us look like fools, Simmons said. By the end of the day it equates to a concessionary contract.

Before Mondays parade, participating steelworkers held a small rally in front of the Granite City Labor Temple.

A similar rally was held last week at Granite City Works parking lot, and similar rallies were held across the country.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.CARROLLTON A Carrollton man accused of having sex with a 13-year-old girl has been sentenced to seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The sentence, handed down Aug. 22 by Judge David Cherry, came after Brian Angel, 37, of Carrollton pleaded guilty Feb. 2 to one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The maximum sentence for such a charge, a Class 2 felony, is seven years.

The sentence exceeds Greene County States Attorney Caleb Briscoes initial request that the court sentence Angel to five years in the IDOC.

Certainly, were very pleased with the decision that Judge Cherry handed out, Briscoe said. Whenever youre looking at a situation where the defendant gets the maximum sentence possible, you cant be more happy with that.

Investigators discovered in 2017 that Angel was attempting to contact the young victim through social media and had sexual contact with her on one occasion. Angel was arrested at 1:40 p.m. July 20, 2017, on charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, unlawful grooming of a minor, unlawful solicitation to meet a minor and unlawful traveling to meet a minor.

Carrollton police reported that they had suspected Angel had been in contact with the girl during a period of 40 to 60 days.

Angel already has been in and out of the IDOC on multiple occasions for charges of driving on a revoked or suspended license and has been convicted of numerous traffic violations.

Angels attorney, Edward Fanning, requested that the court grant probation because his guilty plea had spared the victim the ordeal of a trial and also noted that Angel would be on the sex offender registry for the next 10 years. According to a report from the Greene Prairie Press, Cherry declined, saying that simply placing Angel on probation would not be enough.

My job is, first and foremost, to protect the public  it is also to send a message to other people who have a compulsion like you have, Cherry said. Probation deprecates the seriousness of this offense and is not what we want  In my mind, the question is how long should you be in prison? The state recommends five years. The most I can sentence you to is seven years with two years mandatory supervised release.

Im sorry this had to happen and I wish it hadnt happened. Sentence, in this case, is seven years in the Department of Corrections and I dont think that is long enough.BEARDSTOWN  Beardstown Houston Memorial Public Library has been awarded $15,166 through the Illinois Secretary of States Project Next Generation Grant program.

State Librarian Jesse White awarded $526,790 in grants to 31 public libraries statewide. The initiative is a mentoring program administered through public libraries to work with middle and high school students. Participants can develop skills to use various technologies, achieve success through project-based learning and gain life skills, such as effective communication, goal setting and conflict resolution.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.Southern Illinois University Edwardsville welcomed 3,634 new students to campus for the fall 2018 semester including 1,706 new first-time, full-time freshmen, 1,240 new transfer students and 688 new graduate and professional students. Total overall enrollment of 13,281 trails last year by 515 students (3.7 percent).

SIUE had its two largest graduating classes in 2017 with 2,380 undergraduate degrees and 2018 with 2,617 undergraduate degrees, so we knew it would be challenging to replace those classes, said SIUE Chancellor Randy Pembrook. Initial data for next years class indicates the prospect pool is up at this point from a year ago, and we have initiatives in place to enhance enrollment growth in the future.

We continue to investigate innovative academic programming that will serve the needs of the business sector, and be popular with both traditional and non-traditional students. We are creating flexibility for students who have academic interests that span across disciplines, and our online offerings continue to grow, so students can learn both on and off-campus.

First-time, full-time freshmen enrollment for fall 2018 is 1,706. This is a decline of 83 students (five percent) from last year, and transfers dropped nine percent. SIUE continues to be popular regionally as enrollment of new local freshmen from Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties climbed by 12 percent, and enrollment from the Springfield region grew by eight percent. Overall, the freshman class arrives from 450 different high schools in 23 states and nine countries. The entire SIUE student population represents 40 states and 58 countries.

SIUEs School of Nursing (SON) continues to expand with new graduate student enrollment and online enrollment increasing. The SON has enrolled a record 1,701 undergraduate (including pre-nursing), masters and doctoral students for fall 2018. New graduate student enrollment represents a three percent increase over last year. SIUE also set a record for students taking online courses. A record 10 percent of the student body (1,362 students) is enrolled in at least one online course compared to 9 percent last fall.

Along with recruitment strategies, a focus on student retention has led to freshman to sophomore retention growing from 73 to 75.4 percent for freshmen entering fall 2017. African American student retention also increased by eight percent and Latino student retention by 10 percent. Retention for all students entering with ACT scores of less than 21 increased by 11 percent.

SIUEs professional schools of Pharmacy (328 students) and Dental Medicine (215 students) each saw more than two percent growth.

Our professional schools, graduate school and international student populations have all increased slightly this year and continue to provide a stable enrollment base for the institution said Scott Belobrajdic, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management. One of our recent program additions, the online RN to BS completion program, has an outstanding completion rate. That program led SIUE to record enrollment in 2015 and has led to confirming a record number of baccalaureate degrees during the past two years.

While our recent freshman classes have been as diverse and academically talented as ever, we now face the challenge of building back the freshman class to the size we have grown accustomed to over the past 10 years. Early indicators for fall 2019 and fall 2020 demonstrate we are heading in that direction for both academic years.

SIUE Fall 2018 Enrollment Facts and Figures

Total overall enrollment of 13,281 trails last year by 515 students (3.7 percent)

First-time, full-time freshman enrollment is 1,706 students, a 5 percent decline (83 students) from a year ago, earning a mean ACT of 23.3, second-best all-time

The School of Nursing has enrolled a record 1,701 undergraduate (including pre-nursing), masters and doctoral students

A record 1,362 students are taking at least one course online, up percent or 69 students from last year

New fall graduate students grew by 97 students (14 percent)

A record 249 doctoral students are enrolled, a 21 percent increase (44 students) over last year

New fall transfer students total is 1,240, nine percent behind fall 2017

Freshman to sophomore retention rate increased 2.4 percent to 75.3 percent

New freshman enrollment from out of state and regional states other than Missouri grew 41 percent, the local area grew 12 percent and Springfield grew 8 percent.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi Rivers rich bottomland and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of more than 13,000.The number of "left-behind children" in China's rural areas has decreased by 22.7 percent during the past two years, according to data released Friday by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Left-behind children are those whose parents have become migrant workers in towns or cities, leaving them either unsupervised or in the care of relatives.

There are currently 6.97 million left-behind children in China, the MCA said, noting that the number in 2016 was 9.02 million.

The MCA launched a data management system in October 2017 to keep records of left-behind children or those living in difficulty all over the country. All provincial regions have finished the data collection and the information will be regularly updated in the future.

More children have moved to towns or cities with their parents during the past two years, the MCA said, which is one of the main reasons for the decline. Meanwhile, more parents have returned to rural areas to find jobs.

The sense of responsibility of the parents is stronger, the MCA said.

According to the MCA, southwest China's Sichuan Province has the largest number of left-behind children, followed by Anhui, Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Guizhou provinces. Left-behind children in these seven provinces account for nearly 70 percent of the total number.

The MCA said 96 percent of China's left-behind children are in the care of their grandparents.

China established a coordination mechanism among 26 departments this month to strengthen protection of left-behind children and those living in difficulty.September is Campus Fire Safety Month in Illinois and college students are being encouraged to keep safety first as they head back for another year.

The number of fires in dormitories, fraternities, and sororities reported to U.S. fire departments has been substantially higher in recent years, according to the state fire marshals office. Ninety-two fatal fires have been documented on a college campus since January 2000, many occurred in Greek housing or in off-campus housing within three miles of campus. Those fires claimed the lives of 132 people, according to the Center for Campus Fire Safety.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal says keeping a few fire prevention tips in mind can increase safety.

 Look for fully sprinklered housing when choosing a dorm or off-campus housing.

 Make sure the building alarm system can be heard from inside the dorm room.

 Those who smoke should do so outside and only where it is permitted.

 Make sure all sleeping rooms, and common areas have smoke alarms. For the best protection, all smoke alarms should be interconnected so that when one sounds, they all sound.

 When cooking, stay in the kitchen.

 Test all smoke alarms monthly.

 Never remove batteries or disable the smoke alarm.

 Learn the buildings evacuation plan and practice all drills as if they were the real thing.

 Those who live off-campus should have a fire escape plan with two ways out of every room.

 When the smoke alarm or fire alarm sounds, get out of the building quickly and stay out.

 Check with the local fire department for any restrictions before using a barbecue grill, fire pit or chimenea.

 Check the schools rules before using electrical appliances in a dorm room.

This is the 13th year that Illinois has participated in the campaign, which aims to raise fire awareness on campus and remind students to protect themselves from common fire hazards.

Some students do not realize how quickly a fire can occur and most have not received fire safety education since elementary school, said Fire Marshal Matt Perez. Campus Fire Safety Month helps students realize that fires do happen in campus-related settings and aims to teach them about important steps they can take to protect themselves.

More information and campus fire safety tips can be found on the Office of the State Fire Marshal website.It takes gall to lie to an assembly of evangelical ministers, but no one has ever accused The Donald of lacking gall.

In a closed-door meeting on August 27 with some of his influential Christian supporters, Trump bragged about doing two things that he hasnt done.

In his first fib to the preachers, Trump boasted, Now one of the things Im most proud of is getting rid of the Johnson Amendment. That was a disaster for you. FYI: the Johnson Amendment has not been repealed.

Sponsored by and named for Lyndon Johnson, who then represented Texas in the U.S. Senate, the Johnson Amendment became law in 1954 and states that churches and charities are prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign of any candidate for elective public office. Trump  for that matter, no American president  has the authority to repeal a law. Laws can be repealed by Congress and struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, but they cant be arbitrarily reversed by a president.

Trump signed an executive order in 2017 that he thought would weaken the Johnson Amendment. His order instructed the Treasury Department to refrain from taking any adverse action against any individual, house of worship, or other religious organization on the basis that such individual or organization speaks or has spoken about moral or political issues from a religious perspective.

News flash to The Donald: Clergy, houses of worship and religious organizations have been speaking out on moral and political issues for as long as I can remember. To the best of my knowledge, no clergy have been thrown in the slammer for doing so and no house of worship or religious organization has seen its tax-exempt status revoked. Your executive order carried all the weight of a hollowed-out hammer.

Endorsing office-seekers during religious services and urging congregants to vote for specific candidates, though, are still very much prohibited. Trump seems to think that clergy can now do precisely that, however.

I just ask you to go out and make sure all of your people vote, Trump told the evangelical preachers. And how should they ensure that members of their congregations vote for candidates endorsed by Trump? By urging them to do so while delivering Sunday sermons!

You have people that preach to almost 200 million people  150 to, close, depending on which Sunday we are talking about, and beyond Sunday, 100, 150 million people, The Donald said. By beyond Sunday, Trump might have meant preachers should also make a pitch for Republican candidates at services held during the week.

If the Democrats triumph this November, he warned, They will overturn everything that weve done and theyll do it quickly and violently. The Donald also told them, Youre one election away from losing everything youve got. Everything? Democrats will close their churches? Please try to keep it real, Donald.

Trumps other lie to the evangelicals was a Golden Oldie. Thanks to him, Americans are no longer terrified of saying Merry Christmas. Indeed, They say Merry Christmas a lot now. Its all changed. Donald, there never was a war on Christmas, except in the imaginations of some of your more unhinged supporters.

Robert Jeffress, a prominent evangelical, said at this meeting that The Donald may not be the most perfect human being, but hes the greatest leader for Christianity. The man who separates children from their parents is Christianitys greatest leader. The man who endorses the use of torture is Christianitys pride and joy. The man who ridiculed the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, when she pleaded for aid following that hurricane, is a model Christian.

Trying to pass off Trump as Christianitys greatest leader brings to mind Matthew 7:15: Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

John J. Dunphy is the author of Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois and From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois. He owns The Second Reading Book Shop in Alton.The Development Coordinator will mainly beresponsible for coordinating the programmes and child sponsorship activities inthe regions and building positive relationships with key players in line withthe vision, mission and goals of Fields of Life. He/she is responsible forCommunity Development Ofcers based at regional level.Oxfam is a worldwideorganisation that employs works in more than 90 countries. We seek to overcomepoverty and suffering. Oxfams global strategic goals includecontributing to achieving more profound and lasting change in the lives of peopleliving with poverty and injustice. Were creating a worldwide influencingnetwork to unite the power of local organizations, who share a common visionfor change. Adequately resourced, local organizations are bestpositioned toinfluence and actively participate in the fight against the injustice ofpoverty.In an unsurprising move, the New Zealand government, under Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Arden, has banned the sale of homes to foreign buyers. Finance Minister David Parker thundered that New Zealanders refuse to be tenants in their own country, and that the ban will make houses affordable to locals, and rich foreigners won't be able drive up the price.



This, of course, isn't a new line, previously in 2017, the New Zealand government had an official policy of having a New Zealand primarily for New Zealanders, and to control overseas investment. The language of the bill looked similar to the original "White Australia" policy, which restricted foreigners to buy or own land in Australia.

The twist in the tale is, this move in New Zealand comes from the Labour government -- a political party, at least theoretically, opposed to xenophobia. The opposition National Party sounded like the voice of sanity. Finance spokeswoman Amy Adams was quoted by Guardian to say that the buyer ban was indeed xenophobic, and will stifle business investment and confidence, and accused the Labour government of creating a panacea which will make the problem far worse in the future.

When I was living in New Zealand I observed a strange contradiction in the Kiwi culture. On one hand, New Zealand is what anyone would expect of a post-modern society. It's a country where both the political parties are extremely socially liberal as one should expect from a Western society, with the left of center parties mostly focusing on sexual and gender equality, rather than class. But there's also a strain of resentment towards foreigners and foreign capital. The idea that a native-born New Zealander will have to work in a company or business or cafe owned and operated by a Chinese, or an Indian or an American is an anathema to some.

That subtle streak of xenophobia has been common in the far-right segment of politics, such as in political parties like the New Zealand First, which is now a current coalition partner of the Labour party, in one of the strangest ideological couplings in Western polity. These factors are reflected in the current decision, even though as per BBC and the data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, about 82 percent of houses were bought by Kiwis, and only 3 percent overall were bought by foreigners.

Consider this. New Zealand is a country of ample free space, and only a tiny population of around 5 million, concentrated mostly in the North Island. However, only around one fourth of adults are homeowners, with house prices in Auckland completely unaffordable. The housing bubble in New Zealand isn't a new thing, and has been a cause of concern for economists for over two decades. New Zealand has also recently been a destination of massive Chinese and American capital investment, with millionaires buying properties, including Peter Thiel, the founder of Paypal. This new move of restricting property owners will disproportionately target Chinese and Americans.

Ultimately however, this is a shortsighted move. The stopping of the selling of land to foreigners won't magically multiply the number of houses for New Zealand's future generations. In fact, this is another Trumpian move of scapegoating the foreigners and hardworking immigrants who look to invest and settle in New Zealand.

The solution to the housing crises across the Western world is not one of demand or cost, but one of supply. The building regulations in Western countries are stifling, and as a result not many towers and apartments are built. People pay more attention to aesthetics, and not enough to needs.

Likewise, this new move by the New Zealand government would not just stifle investment and the good will of a country which was at least nominally welcoming to foreign investors, but also protect the domestic market from competition. Ultimately, it is New Zealand's loss, if Asian and American property owners and capital investment moves to other Pacific islands.

Sumantra Maitra is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:





http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm





Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite...Malayalam filmmaker Aashiq Abu on Monday revealed the first look poster of his next film Virus. The intriguing poster features people dressed in protective medical suits, pushing a trolley of bags filled with what seem like medical wastes.

Sharing the poster on Instagram, Aashiq wrote: Our Next. Based on our #TrueStories". The picture and caption put together has raised speculations that the film may be based on the recent outbreak of the Nipah virus in Kerala.

In a seemingly ambitious project, Aashiq also brings together an ensemble castRevathy, Parvathy Thiruvoth, Rima Kallingal, Asif Ali, Tovino Thomas, Kalidas Jayaram, Remya Nambeeshan, Soubin Shahir, Dileesh Pothan and Chemban Vinod.

The Nipah virus outbreak was first reported in Kozhikode in Kerala earlier this year. Fruit bats were considered to be the source of the disease which claimed as many as 17 lives including that of a nurse Lini Puthussery. The state government and health departments were lauded for their efforts in containing the outbreak.

Virus will hit screens next summer.The Kerala state BJP leadership said they had no knowledge of recent reports that south Indian actor Mohanlal was all set to join the saffron party. They were reacting to news reports which claimed that the RSS wanted Mohanlal to contest Lok Sabha polls from Thiruvananthapuram on a BJP ticket. Kerala BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai told the WEEK that the state unit was not aware of any such move. There has been no official communication on the matter yet. I also heard the rumour, he said.

But, he added that they would be thrilled if Mohanlal joins the party. We will be very happy if he agrees to join us. We garnered 2,80,000 votes in Thiruvananthapuram in the last Lok Sabha polls. If Mohanlal stands as BJP candidate, it will be a sure seat for us, he said.

The actor had recently met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inviting him to appear at an event held by the former's charity foundation in Wayanad, which had set tongues wagging. After the meeting, Mohanlal tweeted that PM Modi assured all possible assistance for Kerala, which is currently reeling under destruction caused by floods. "He has assured all support and offered to participate in the Global Malayalee Round table that can formulate futuristic solutions for a New Kerala. Hon. PMO India has also appreciated our vision to set up a Cancer Care Centre to cater to the needs of the under-privileged," Mohanlal tweeted.

He has assured all support and offered to participate in the Global Malayalee Round table that can formulate futuristic solutions for a New Kerala. Hon. PMO India has also appreciated our vision to set up a Cancer Care Centre to cater to the needs of the under-privileged. pic.twitter.com/3icdyqZlgu  Mohanlal (@Mohanlal) September 3, 2018

On Tuesday, the prime minister reciprocated from his official account: Yesterday, I had a wonderful meeting with Mohanlal Ji. His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful meeting with @Mohanlal Ji. His humility is endearing. His wide range of social service initiatives are commendable and extremely inspiring. pic.twitter.com/f3Dv3owHUV  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 4, 2018

However, the actor, in a clear attempt to pre-empt political pigeonholing, met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan before his parley with the prime minister. Get well soon Honourable Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sir, the actor had tweeted. Vijayan was set to travel to the United States for medical treatment.

Get well soon Honourable Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sir pic.twitter.com/DCcQGWKkDa  Mohanlal (@Mohanlal) September 3, 2018

When asked whether the state unit arranged the meeting between the prime minister and the actor, Pillai said they were not in the loop. Mohanlal himself arranged the meeting, said Pillai.After a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Malayalam superstar Mohanlal said that he has assured all possible assistance for Kerala, which is currently reeling under destruction caused by floods. "He has assured all support and offered to participate in the Global Malayalee Round table that can formulate futuristic solutions for a New Kerala. Hon. PMO India has also appreciated our vision to set up a Cancer Care Centre to cater to the needs of the under-privileged," Mohanlal tweeted.

He has assured all support and offered to participate in the Global Malayalee Round table that can formulate futuristic solutions for a New Kerala. Hon. PMO India has also appreciated our vision to set up a Cancer Care Centre to cater to the needs of the under-privileged. pic.twitter.com/3icdyqZlgu  Mohanlal (@Mohanlal) September 3, 2018

The foundation was set up in the name of the actor's parents.A court in Tutiorin granted bail to a 28-year-old female student Tuesday, a day after she was arrested for shouting anti-BJP slogans in front of the party's state unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan on board a domestic flight.

Soon after the BJP leader and the student, identified as Sofia, arrived at the airport's arrival lounge in Tutiorin from Chennai yesterday, an argument ensued between them, which was caught on a camera.

Tamilisai is heard telling the student and the people who gathered at the lounge that a plane was no place to raise slogans.

"It (inside of a flight) is not a public forum... how can you expect me to keep mum when she shouts 'down with BJP's fascist government' looking at me? Is it freedom of expression?" she asked.

The woman is a student at a Canadian university and is on a visit to her native district in Tutiorin.

A case was registered against her based on a complaint from Soundararajan, following which Sofia was produced before the Third Judicial Magistrate Court in Tutiorin on Monday.

Police said cases were registered under Sections 505(1)(b) (intent to cause fear or alarm) and 290 (public nuisance) of the IPC and section 75(1)(c) of the Tamil Nadu City Police Act.

While being taken to the prison last night, Sofia complained of uneasiness and was admitted to a hospital, police said, adding she was still in the facility.

The student would be released once the surety is furnished in the court, said a top police official.

The BJP leader had said she lodged a complaint with the police and they should probe if some outfit was behind the student's action.

Meanwhile, Sofia's father had lodged a counter-complaint against Soundararajan and her followers.

"We will be questioning the passengers and the crew as well, since the incident happened on board the flight," the police official said.Less than seven months after Congress president Rahul Gandhi was targeted by the BJP for allegedly eating chicken before visiting a temple during campaigning for the Karnataka elections, Gandhi's food habits during religious 'pilgrimages' are under the scanner again.

On Tuesday, Amit Malviya, in-charge of the BJP's information technology initiatives, tweeted a news report from an Hindi website, which claimed Gandhi had eaten non-vegetarian food at a restaurant in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, where he had arrived to undertake the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

Rahul Gandhi ate non-veg during Kailash Mansarovar yatra, tells restaurant waiter.                https://t.co/3YERfpoio0 pic.twitter.com/2ttU2gixuT  Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) September 4, 2018

The link to the website posted by Malviya shows an interview with a waiter who purportedly served Gandhi during his visit to the Vootoo restaurant on August 31. The waiter claims Gandhi ordered 'chicken kurkure' and other items. Writing in Hindi, Malviya claims Gandhi and the Congress are constantly playing with the faith of Hindus.

The Nepalese media had reported about Gandhi supposedly having non-vegetarian food at the restaurant. As curiosity, and controversy, over Gandhi having non-vegetarian food increased, Vootoo put up a post on its official Facebook page, denying the reports.

There has been plenty of inquiry from the media regarding the food ordered by Rahul Gandhi, President of Indian National Congress during his visit at Vootoo. We would like to clarify that he ordered pure veg items from the menu. Vootoo has not given any statement to any media regarding the food items ordered by him..., the restaurant said.

Gandhi's decision to undertake the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra had earlier attracted criticism from the BJP, with saffron party spokesman Sambit Patra calling him Chinese Gandhi for allegedly speaking in favour of China.

In February, during the campaigning for the Karnataka Assembly elections, BJP state chief B.S. Yeddyurappa alleged Gandhi had eaten Javari chicken before visiting the Narasimhaswamy temple. The BJP had extensively criticised Gandhi's 'temple run' during the Karnataka and Gujarat elections.

During the campaigning for the Gujarat elections in November 2017, Gandhi landed in a controversy after his name was entered in the 'non-Hindu' section of the visitors list to the Somnath temple. The Congress claimed the entry was inadvertent and declared Gandhi was a Hindu and a Shiv Bhakt.



The official visit of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias to China, and his meeting with his Chinese counterpart and State Councilor Wang Yi reflects the current excellent state of China-Greek relations.



The two ministers signed a memorandum of understanding to foster collaboration under the Chinese-promoted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Greece becoming the first European developed state to sign such a document.

In the regular press conference of August 28, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying concentrated on the importance of Greece as a connection point of the maritime and the land silk routes that form the BRI.

The continuous investments of the Chinese company COSCO in the Piraeus Port have transformed it into a transshipment hub in the Mediterranean. Several international assessments are demonstrating its rising role, especially following the privatization of the Piraeus Port Authority.

Numerous ships find it more convenient to dock in Piraeus instead of crossing all the Mediterranean and dock in alternative ports in the Northern part of Europe. If the high-speed railway line connecting Piraeus to Budapest is eventually completed, trade connections between Asia and Europe, via Piraeus, will become faster and much more convenient.

Although the win-win results of COSCO's presence in Piraeus would seem to be very apparent, Germany  the leading power in Europe  is skeptical. It believes Greece is arguably undermining EU policy norms and cohesion by closely cooperating with China.

This German argument, which has started to be heard loudly since the 2017 summer, is reflected in the national media discourse. German media warn against hypothetical consequences of the China-Greek strategic partnership. Unsurprisingly, the signing of recent memorandum of understanding in Beijing has not been welcomed in Germany, either.

However, Germany tends to put its national economic interest above Greece's recovery. Instead of looking at how COSCO contributes to the creation of much-needed new jobs in the Piraeus region, it is solely concerned about a potential reduction of the Hamburg port trade volume.

Although Germany itself is benefiting by its own all-round strategic partnership with China, it cultivates an unfair climate of China-phobia in the EU in order to apply a screening mechanism for Chinese investments. Against this backdrop, some EU member-states are under European Commission pressure to avoid reaching business deals with Chinese companies.

An interesting case is currently evolving in the Eastern Mediterranean and affects Greek national interests. The Greek Independent Power Transmission Operator  whose strategic stakeholder is China's State Grid  has failed to agree with EuroAsia Interconnector for the establishment of an electricity connection between Israel, Cyprus and Greece.

The ELIA energy group, which operates in Belgium and Germany, is laying claim to be part of the project  apparently with the blessing of the German government. Final decisions are expected to be made in the next months.

Despite existing obstacles, China-Greek relations cannot but continue to develop harmoniously. COSCO, for instance, has announced an ambitious master plan to further improve the Piraeus port facilities by placing emphasis on logistics, the cruise sector and the ship-repair zone. In addition, Air China has launched direct flights between Athens and Beijing.

The activities of Chinese companies in Greece are facilitated by the positive image of China. Defying the negative signals coming out of both the European Commission and Berlin, most Greek citizens regard China a reliable economic partner and are sympathetic vis-a-vis Chinese people.

A better coordination of actions between scholars and journalists of the two countries will contribute to an even better common understanding. One positive is that Nikos Kotzias gave talks before prestigious research organizations such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and explored cooperation opportunities during his stay.

Thus, the visit of the Greek Foreign Minister in China was successful. Talking to journalists after his meeting with Wang Yi, Kotzias also said he had extended an invitation from Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to President Xi Jinping to visit Athens. The potential visit in Athens will certainly elevate the bilateral China-Greek relationship to an even higher level.

George N. Tzogopoulos is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:





http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/GeorgeNTzogopoulos.htm





Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.A section of an over 50-year-old bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed Tuesday evening, snuffing out one life, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles, police said.

The Majerhat bridge in the crowded Alipore area caved in around 4.45 pm during rush hour. It runs over the Majerhat Railway Station and connects the city centre with the heavily populated Behala, the vast area of the south west suburbs and neighbouring South 24 Parganas district.

Police confirmed the death of one person and said 19 others, including two women were injured.

The injured have been admitted to SSKM and CMRI hospitals, the police added.

Fire brigade personnel engaged in the rescue work had earlier said 25 injured were pulled out from the rubble.

Additional lighting arrangements have been made to facilitate the rescue work at night.

One minibus, four cars and a few motorbikes which were hit by the collapse were seen lying at the accident site till evening.

An eyewitness claimed that some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is now in Darjeeling, said that rescue work was almost over and only a concrete slab remains to be cut to find out whether any person was trapped there.

She said there was a hut under the bridge and some labourers engaged in metro rail construction work used to stay. "Had they been there during the time of accident, an unfortunate thing might have happened", she said.

Banerjee said that thousands of people pass through the area and the government has to probe the accident.

"A probe will be done by a committee headed by Chief Secretary Malay De to find out the cause of the collapse.

"Action will be taken against those whose negligence caused the accident. No one will be spared", she said.

She also announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the family of the dead and Rs 50,00 each to the injured.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the incident as "deeply unfortunate" and hoped for the speedy recovery of the injured.

Governor K.N. Tripathi, who visited the site, described it as "a big disaster".

"I have come to see the rescue work. It is a big disaster. I heard that maintenance of the bridge is entrusted with the PWD and the railways. The matter required to be enquired," he told reporters.

The 450 metre-long bridge was built in early sixties and maintained by PWD, a member of mayor-in-council in the city municipal corporation said.

Some locals said the collapse might have been due to the construction of metro railway pillars nearby but this was not immediately confirmed by the experts.

Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said the government would undertake technical inquiry after the rescue work is over.

NDRF DG Sanjay Kumar said earthmovers are being used for clearing the area.

"We have to take into account the safety aspect while clearing the debris", he said.

The bridge collapse hit Circular Railway services and local train services in Budge Budge-Sealdah line inconveniening a large number of commuters, an Eastern Railway spokesman said here.

The local train services were suspended from 4.45 pm, he said.

The bridge collapse hit traffic movement to and from vast areas in south-west Kolkata and adjacent South 24 Parganas district during the peak evening hours.

TMC leader Derek O'Brien tweeted, "Watching scenes of Majerhat bridge #Kolkata collapse. Devastating. Rescue teams, disaster management teams, Police CP, fire fighters already reach spot. Locals join. Rescue operations on.Prayers for those affected. Difficult to gauge enormity of tragedy as yet looking at visuals."

The army has kept three columns on standby for any assistance, defence sources said.

The Eastern Command headquarters at Fort William is about six km from the place of the accident.

This is the third bridge collapse in the city in five and half years.

An under construction flyover had collapsed in crowded Burrabazar area, the wholesale business hub of the city, on March 31, 2016 and had claimed 26 lives.

On March 4, 2013, a road bridge had collapsed in Ultadanga area in the northern part of the city but there was no casualty.AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot on Monday asked Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje what account of herself was she giving by travelling in a helicopter for her 'gaurav yatra'. Gehlot claimed Raje was creating a curfew-like environment for her rallies by stopping protesters from raising black flags at her campaign events.

She [Raje] should apologise to the people (during the yatra) for not doing any work in these five years, even though the people gave her a massive mandate, Gehlot said.

Gehlot arrived in Jodhpur on Monday, two days ahead of the 'Sankalp rally' of the Congress, which will be held in Pachpadra village of Barmer district.

Calling Raje's campaign a 'helicopter yatra', Gehlot asked why was the chief minister scared of mingling with the common people of the state.

The former Congress chief minister accused Raje of spreading terror through the gaurav yatra and creating a curfew-like environment in the state by stopping protesters from raising black flags at campaign venues.

Reportedly, persons were barred from staying on roofs and balconies of their houses when Raje's meetings were being held in the vicinity, which Gehlot referred to as a curfew-like environment.

People wanted to see her and meet her. Why is she so scared? What kind of democracy is this, Gehlot questioned.

Gehlot also held Raje responsible for delaying the Barmer refinery project for four years in the name of reviewing it and slammed her for relaying the foundation stone.

Today, there is only a wall in the name of refinery construction. Had it not been delayed, the refinery would have taken full shape by now, Gehlot said.

Holding Raje responsible for delaying and aborting a number of projects across the state, Gehlot said every section of society is angry with her and is desperate for change.The arrest of a woman for allegedly shouting anti-BJP slogans in the presence of the chief of the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit on Monday has triggered criticism from opposition parties.

Lois Sofia, an Indian research scholar studying in Canada, allegedly shouted down with BJP's fascist government in the presence of Tamilisai Soundararajan while on board a flight from Chennai to Thoothukudi.

Sofia had been vocal in her criticism of the violence at the Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi in which 13 people were killed in police firing in May.

After the flight landed, Soundarajan and Sofia entered into an argument at the Thoothukudi Airport's arrival lounge. Soundarajan lodged a complaint with the police, demanding an investigation into whether any outfit was behind Sofia's actions. Soundarajan claimed a flight was not a public forum to raise protests and said she felt there was a threat to her life.

After Sofia was taken into custody, DMK president M.K. Stalin tweeted that he too would say, Down with BJP's fascist regime and demanded her immediate release.

Lois Sofia hit a very raw nerve when she called a spade a spade.The TN BJP President reacted to dissent just as Fascists do by imprisoning those who oppose them.Groundswell of dissent becoming A roar.Condemn her arrest & demand her unconditional release. https://t.co/Utm8KqYACp  Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) September 4, 2018

Congress national spokesman Manish Tiwari tweeted, Lois Sofia hit a very raw nerve when she called a spade a spade. The TN BJP President reacted to dissent just as Fascists do by imprisoning those who oppose them. Groundswell of dissent becoming A roar. Condemn her arrest & demand her unconditional release.

Surprised to see reactions of few TN leaders insupport of her unruly behavior inside aircraft claiming it as Democratic right.Will they accept a similar situation happens for them during their next air journey inside plane will they or their cadres keep quiet as Democratic right?  Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan (@DrTamilisaiBJP) September 3, 2018

Soundarajan slammed criticism of her action against Sofia in a tweet early on Tuesday. Surprised to see reactions of few TN leaders in support of her unruly behaviour inside aircraft claiming it as Democratic right. Will they accept a similar situation happens for them during their next air journey inside plane will they or their cadres keep quiet as Democratic right? she wrote.

(With PTI inputs)RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will be a keynote speaker at the World Hindu Congress, a gathering of Hindu leaders from across the globe in Chicago later this week, the organisers said.

More than 2,500 delegates from 80 countries are scheduled to participate in the three-day World Hindu Congress (WHC) in Chicago from September 7 to 9. Bhagwat in his keynote address is likely to focus on the theme of the conference Sumantrite Suvikrante or Think Collectively, Achieve Valiantly.

The RSS chief is expected to underscore the need of the Hindu community spread across the globe to unite and think alike for the good of the mankind, former IITIan Swami Vigyananand, and the brain behind the mega event, said.

"The idea of the WHC is to unite and gain strengthen for the Hindu society and with that look after the interest of the society as well as help other deprived, marginalised communities of the world," Swami Vigyananand told PTI in response to a question. He insisted that this is not a religious conference.

"The conference is neither religious, nor philosophical. The conference is focused on community issues. It is focused on issues that is relevant to the progress of any community in the modern time," Vigyananand said.

Over three days, more than 250 speakers along with over 2,5000 delegates from over 80 countries would hold brain storming sessions over seven parallel conferences: economic, education, media, organisational, political, and women and youth. These parallel conferences would also showcase the values, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit of the global Hindu community, he said.

The WHC is a global platform for Hindus to connect, share ideas, inspire one another, and impact the common good, said Abhaya Asthana, convener for the Congress. He is also the president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America.

The congress offers Hindus an opportunity to introspect towards improvement and tap into our collective resources to seek tangible solutions to the most pressing issues of the 21st century, he said.

In addition to Bhagwat, other prominent speakers at the conference are likely to be the Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Ashwin Adhin (Vice President of Suriname), RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, MIT professor S P Kothari, Mohandas Pai, Anupam Kher, Raju Reddy, Swami Paramatmananda Saraswati, Chandrika Tandon, Prof Subhash Kak, and angel investor Raju Reddy.

Among top speakers as the economic conference are Mukesh Aghi, president of US India Strategic partnership Forum, former vice chair of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, Mahindra group president Dilip Sundram, Daniel Bryant from Walmart, Rajesh Sundaram from Federal Express, and Ed Monser from Emerson Electric.

Other prominent speakers at the conference are Anupam Kher, Vivek Agnihotri, Madhur Bhandarkar, Amish Tripathi, and Francois Gautier. On the eve of the Congress, renowned classical musician wife-husband duo of Kavita Krishnamurti and Dr L Subramaniam would perform live for the delegates.

Meanwhile, the newly formed Coalition for the Defence of the Constitution and Democracy has announced that it will hold a press conference in New York on September 6 to lodge its protest against the WHC.US President Donald Trump's annoyance with Attorney General Jeff Session came to the front on Monday afternoon when he tweeted, "Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff... The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now.

Trump attacked the attorney general blaming him for charges against two congressmen which according to him has jeopardised Republican chances in the November 6 midterm elections.

Trump did not mention the name of the congressmen who were charged. But last month Duncan Hunter, a California representative, was charged with misuse of campaign funds while Chris Collins of New York was indicted for insider trading  over a share tip alleged to have been made in 2017, when Trump was in power.

These two men were Trump's first supporters in the House. While Hunter plans to run for re-election, Collins is stepping down.

Incidentally, Sessions was also one of Trump's earliest supporters. Session was attacked by Trump in 2017 for his decision to recuse himself from probe into the Russian election interference. Special council Robert Mueller was later on appointed for the investigation by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Trump has called the probe a "witch hunt".

Trump indicated last week that he would fire Sessions after the midterm elections, a move some observers said might presage the firing of deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and the special counsel, Robert Mueller, whose work on links between Trump aides and Moscow has circled ever closer to Trumps inner sanctum.

On Monday, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a frequent Trump critic, said: The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice  one for the majority party and one for the minority party.

These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the president was when the investigations began.Islamabad, Sep 4 (PTI) Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose death was announced by the Afghan Taliban on Tuesday, was the founder of the dreaded Haqqani Network which is believed to be behind a campaign of violence throughout Afghanistan including the 2008 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul that killed 58 people.

The Afghan Taliban did not share the exact date of death or burial of the militant commander, who had transferred the operational leadership of the group to his son Sirajuddin Haqqani after the 9/11 attack.

"...Well known Mujahid, famous Islamic scholar, renowned fighter, leader of Muhajideen, minister of frontiers in (Taliban) Islamic Emirates and member of Leadership (Taliban) Council, al-Hajj Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani has died after long illness," the Afghan Taliban said in statement.

He was believed to be in eighties and several times in the past the news of his death was circulated but it was not confirmed by the militant group.

Jalaluddin studied at the Darul Uloom Haqqania Nowshera in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province - an Islamic seminary dubbed as the 'University of Jihad' as its alumni include slain Taliban chiefs Mullah Omar and Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent leader Asim Umar.

He belonged to Afghanistan's Paktika province, bordering Pakistan, and rose to prominence during the Afghan war against Soviet forces in 1980s. He was appointed as minister in the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan in 1990s.

Jalaluddin, who maintained his independent position during the Taliban regime, enjoyed close ties with Pakistan's spy agency - Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

He also helped Osama bin Laden to set up terror training camps in Afghanistan and launch his efforts for global jihad and maintained close links with al-Qaeda and other Arab militants.

After the 9/11 attack and toppling of the Taliban government by the US-led forces, Jalaluddin apparently fled to the lawless tribal region of Pakistan and re-organised his fighters.

His group became most lethal and carried out several deadly attacks against US, NATO and Afghan forces.

The Haqqani network, believed to be behind a number of kidnappings and attacks against US interests in Afghanistan, was accused of bombing the Indian mission in Kabul in 2008 that killed 58 people. The attack was believed to be among the deadliest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The attack was believed to be carried out at the behest of the ISI.

The group is accused of targeting the Indian consulate in Jalalabad twice in 2007 and carrying out an attack on the Indian mission in Kabul in 2009 that killed 17 people. It also carried out several attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan.

In 2012, the US designated the Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation. Three years later, Pakistan also banned the Haqqani network as part of its National Action Plan.

The group is the bone of contention between Pakistan and the US as the latter accuse that Haqqani militants were still using Pakistani soil to launch attacks - a charge denied by Pakistan. PTI ZH/SH AKJ ZH

ZHIslamabad, Sep 4 (PTI) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to press Pakistan to target all terror groups on its soil and play a positive role in war-torn Afghanistan when he meets the country's new leadership here tomorrow in a bid to reset the strained bilateral ties, according to media reports.

Pompeo is arriving in Islamabad along with General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, days after the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Pakistan as it was not doing enough against terrorist groups inside its borders, the latest controversy to hit Islamabad's troubled relationship with Washington.

Pompeo will be in Islamabad ahead of the maiden 2+2 Dialogue between India and the US in New Delhi on September 6. Pompeo's talks here will be the Trump administration's first high-level dialogue with Pakistan since the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan assumed office after the July 25 elections.

In their talks with Pakistani officials, the US delegation will "make very clear what we have to do, all of our nations, in meeting our common foe, the terrorists," Defence Secretary James Mattis said last week in Washington.

"And make that a primary part of the discussion," he was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.

The Trump administration has made it clear to Pakistan that it will have to back the US strategy in Afghanistan if it wants good relations with Washington, the paper said in another report yesterday.

The strategy  as defined by both the State Department and the Pentagon last week  is to use a combination of military and diplomatic pressures to force the Taliban to work with Kabul for restoring peace in Afghanistan, it said.

The US believes that a working relationship between the Taliban and Kabul can lead to an honourable withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, the report said.

Washington sent its first clear message to Pakistan last week when Pompeo telephoned Prime Minister Khan and sought "decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan".

Initially, Pakistan disputed the US version of this conversation, but later withdrew its objection, the report said on Monday.

Then on Saturday, the Pentagon announced that it was seeking to reallocate the USD 300 million in aid to Pakistan due to Islamabad's lack of "decisive actions" in support of America's Afghan strategy.

Though Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi downplayed suggestions the funding row has led to mutual tensions, he dismissed as "incorrect" the reports the US has cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to the country, saying Washington owed the money to Islamabad for expenses incurred on fighting terrorism.

"It is not a cut in any [US] aid, it is not assistance. This is our own money which we have used for improving regional security situation and they had to reimburse it to us," Qureshi asserted.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner on Saturday said the plan to reallocate USD 300 million will be submitted to Congress for approval and it will bring the total amount withheld from Pakistan under the Coalition Support Funds to USD 800 million since early this year.

The cancellation of the Coalition Support Funds was a move to put pressure on Islamabad to prevent Taliban insurgents from using Pakistani soil for plotting attacks inside Afghanistan, the Voice of America (VoA) quoted observers as saying.

In January, US President Donald Trump suspended all military assistance to Pakistan accusing it of rewarding past assistance with "nothing but lies and deceit."

Senator Mushahid Hussain, who heads the foreign affairs committee of the Senate, told the VoA that the stoppage of USD 300 million will undermine Pompeo's visit.

"On the eve of the most important visit to Pakistan by an official American [delegation] since the new government took office, Pakistan-American relations are hanging by a thread," Hussain was quoted as saying. PTI AKJ AKJCongress to hold protests across Gujarat for farm loan waiver

Ahmedabad, Sep 4 (PTI) As Patidar leader Hardik Patel

has launched an indefinite fast, the Congress, in an apparent

bid to corner the BJP government in Gujarat, announced on

Tuesday state-wide protests for farm loan waiver.

Patel is on hunger strike demanding quota for the

Patidar community and loan waiver for farmers.

Several Congress leaders have visited him in the last

eleven days since his fast began and announced support, which

has prompted the BJP to allege that his agitation is a

Congress-backed one.

"Congress will hold protests at every district and

taluka headquarters tomorrow with the slogan `save democracy,

waive loans of farmers'. Our demand is the government

immediately give relief to farmers by waiving farm loans," the

opposition party said in a release.

"The BJP government has become arrogant. It has not

shown interest in heeding the problems faced by people," it

added.

A Congress leader said on the condition of anonymity

that the 2015 quota agitation of the Patidar community, led by

Patel, helped the party make gains in last year's Assembly

elections.

The party is hoping that Hardik Patel will similarly

help it in a big way in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he said.

Energy minister and BJP leader Saurabh Patel alleged

today that the quota agitation is "political", and is backed

by the Congress. PTI PD

KRK KRK Flash





The 14th China Changchun Film Festival kicked off on Sept 1.





The biennial festival, which was first held in 1992, was founded in part by the Changchun Film Studio. The studio is located in northeast China's Changchun, the cradle of modern China's film industry.





The studio has one of the largest film production bases in China and is among a select few studios established in the 1940s. It is considered a cornerstone of the Chinese film industry.





The "Seven Firsts" in the film history of new China





In 1947, the first Chinese puppet film Emperor's Dream was produced by the studio.





The film used the exaggerated expressions in puppetry to highlight the darkness and corruption of the Kuomintang government at the time.





The Chinese puppet show has a long history and is said to have originated in the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) and flourished in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD). However, it was the first time for the medium to be showcased on film, so the production team had to solve numerous difficulties in combining the two art forms, such as getting the puppets to stand.





Go After an Easy Prey, released in 1948, is the first black-and-white animated Chinese film. It is also referred to as Turtle Caught in a Jar.





In the summer of 1948, Changchun Film Studio -- then known as Northeast Film Studio -- shot China's first science education film Yu Fang Shu Yi, or Prevention of Plague.



New Delhi, Sep 4 (PTI) The Congress Tuesday alleged there was an undeclared emergency in the country and taking action against a young girl for raising slogan, against the BJP government in a flight was not just an assault on the freedom of speech and expression but also on India's Constitution.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the battle for 2019 would be between what he called "fascism" represented by the BJP and democracy represented by the progressive and pluralistic forces in this country and would be a "battle for the very soul of India".

He said the incident involving the young girl in Tamil Nadu was the second one after five activists were arrested from all over the country by the Pune Police.

The Congress leader dubbed the BJP's Tamil Nadu chief's defence as "undemocratic and uncalled for", which is also "completely reprehensible".

"If this is not undeclared emergency, then how else would you characterise this situation? What happened in Tamil Nadu yesterday on the flight from Chennai to Tuticorin was not only an assault on the freedom of speech and expression, not only an assault on our fundamental rights, it was an assault on the Constitution of India, it was an assault on democracy, it was an assault on the Idea of India. It was fascism playing itself out in its fullest glory," he told reporters.

Tewari alleged this was a pattern which has been playing itself out repeatedly and systematically since 2014, when the BJP-NDA government came to power.

He said this pattern started with the "assault" on students of Film Institute in Pune, and incidents like the unfortunate suicide of Rohith Vemula, derecognition of Periyar study circle in IIT-Madras and "vilification campaign" of Jawaharlal Nehru University are examples in this regard.

He said there is a narrative which the NDA-BJP Government has been consistently trying to peddle, which says there will be only one voice in this country and that would be of the BJP-RSS.

"If anybody else speaks, he will be thrown into jail. If you question the BJP, you are anti-national. If you question the Government, you are a traitor. If you question the establishment, you are downright seditious," he said.

"Is this the India that we want? And therefore, it is becoming increasingly clear that the battle for 2019 is going to be between fascism represented by the BJP and democracy represented by the progressive and pluralistic forces of this country.

"This is going to be the battle for 2019. This is not merely the removal of a Government and its replacement by another, 2019 is going to be a battle to be very soul of India," he said.

The Congress leader alleged "fascism" was on full display when the young girl in Tamil Nadu "hit a raw nerve" when she allegedly raised slogans against the BJP government" and alleged that "unbridled arrogance" was on display when the BJP state chief lodged a complaint against her and she was sent to 15 days of judicial custody. PTI SKC SKC TVS

TVSJammu, Sept 4 (PTI) Terming resumption of dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad as "inevitable" for peace in south Asia, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the hand of friendship to his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan for skae of Kashmir.

The Peoples Democratic Party president also appealed to the Prime Minister to follow the steps of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to revive the peace process between the two neighbours.

Peace in south Asia will only be possible if it is ensured in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP president said, addressing a public meeting in border district of Rajauri.

Urging Modi to extend the hand of friendship to Khan and pick up the peace process from where Vajpayee had to leave it, Mehbooba said, "It will usher a new era of growth and tranquillity in the two countries."

If it's done, the people would no longer live in constant fears and heave a sigh of relief, she said.

She said opening new roads between "divided Jammu and Kashmir" and strengthening the people-to-people contact would lower the tension across the border.

Terming dialogue and reconciliation between India and Pakistan as "inevitable for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, Mehbooba said, "The two countries need to rise above ego and exhibit the political astuteness to help realise the people's dream of a peaceful and tranquil Jammu and Kashmir."

Asserting that economic packages alone would not usher peace in the Valley, she said consistent and earnest efforts aimed at taking youths into confidence are needed "to stop them from going adrift".

The economic packages alone are not going to resolve the issue. The roads, bridges and electricity are vital for the people, but unless there is dialogue aimed at the resolution of the conflict, no relief can be ensured for the masses, she said.

She said after the 2014 polls yielded fragmented mandate, PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed decided to form government with the BJP with "the sole motive to reincarnate the Vajpayee era" in the state and to stop the vicious cycle of unabated killings and violence.

As I told my father that the decision to join hands with the BJP has more risks than rewards and would decline party's popularity, he said he was ready to sacrifice everything including his life, if that resolves the decades-old conflict, Mehbooba said.

Her father was confident that the reconciliation and dialogue would be initiated, and the measures taken during Vajpayee's era would be replicated once again, she added.

However, when Prime Minister Modi addressed a rally in Srinagar on November 7, 2015 , he announced Rs 80,000 crore package but exhibited no willingness for a thaw between India and Pakistan for the peace in the state.

This disheartened everyone including the people who had come from far-flung areas to listen to him," she said.

The PDP chief said even after witnessing hurdles in his way, her father remained adamant to get the two countries closer and always pitched for the dialogue which were desperately needed for peace in the state.

When I took over as the Chief Minister and headed the state for two years and two months, I did not compromise on my stand and stood like a rock before the Central government to protect state's special interests.

Had I shown any laxity in my approach, the BJP would not have toppled the government. They did not succeed in any way to make me barter the interests of the state for petty power and I can tell you with all certainty that I kept the honour and dignity of my people intact," she said.

Referring to the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua district in January this year, Mehbooba said she went to New Delhi and made it clear that the PDP cannot be the part of the government unless the two ministers who had openly supported the rapists were sacked and a transparent probe was allowed.

As the Chief Minister of the state, I remained in the forefront to thwart attempts to intimidate Gujjars and Bakerwals in the state and took every measure to ensure that no one harms them, she said.

Mehbooba said preserving the secular character of the state has been the top most priority of the PDP since its inception. PTI TAS RAX

RAXVC asks agitating students to take care of their health

Kolkata, Sep 4 (PTI) Presidency University

Vice-chancellor Anuradha Lohia Tuesday urged the students, who

are on indefinite sit-in demanding immediate accommodation in

the under-renovation Hindu hostel since August 3, to wait for

another six months for the work to be completed.

Asked about reports that three-four agitating students

are down with malaria and viral fever, Lohia told reporters "I

will request the students to take care of their health, not to

lie on verandah but return to their present rented

accommodation at New Town. They should take care of their

health first."

Lohia said the present repair work of Hindu Hostel was

taking some time and she cannot do much about the pace of work

as all safety measures are to be looked into.

"But it is not like that there is no conveyance

facility from the New Town premises, it is not like that there

is no alternative accommodation for the (Presidency) boarders.

Lohia recalled that the Dean of Students had made

arrangements to send an agitating student to hospital when he

fell sick.

"We would urge the students to take care of their

health. They have come here to study, hence they should first

take proper care of their health," she said.

The VC said the institution will make arrangement of

hospitalisation and medical treatment of any ailing student

and the Dean of Students have been asked to be responsive

about their medical needs.

Around 50 students have been agitating in the

university campus since August 3 demanding immediate

accommodation in two of the six under-renovation blocks of the

Hindu Hostel claiming these two blocks were fit for use but

this claim was not corroborated by the authorities.

The Hindu Hostel, adjoining the College Street

institution, had been shut down for repairs on July 29, 2015

and 150 boarders were shifted to a rented accommodation at New

Town.

The Presidency university authorities had last year

assured the students that all the six blocks of the hostel

would be opened for the boarders after completion of

renovation work by the first week of August this year.

To another question the VC said, the varsity has sent

an appeal to Higher Education department to de-reserve 128

seats - both in UG and PG sections - as many of these seats

were lying vacant.

Lohia said all these seats were in reserve categories

but "In last six years it had been a big challenge to fill-up

these seats especially in Hindi." PTI SUS

RG RGQinghai Lake, the largest salt water lake in China, lies in the Northeast of Qinghai Province. "Qinghai" means a blue sea in Mongolian. It is a fascinating inland alpine lake in Northwest China. It is a fascinating inland alpine lake in Northwest China. Over the centuries, its splendid scenery and rich aquatic resources have attracted millions of tourists and numerous valiant pioneers who admire it for its vastness, splendor and mysteriousness, landing it as a sparkling diamond set in the Qinghai Plateau. [Photo by Li Ruichang/ China.org.cn]



PERPIGNAN, September 4, 2018  Reuters, the worlds largest international multimedia news provider, today announced the return of its photojournalism grant program, which seeks to recruit and develop a diverse new generation of young photojournalists.

Following the success of last years grant program, which saw eight recipients from across four continents selected from hundreds of high-quality entries, Reuters Pictures is again offering up to eight $5,000 USD grants to passionate photojournalists or students of photojournalism.

The grant should be used to support photo assignments and projects that will advance the recipients experience, skills and ability to tell new stories. Pictures taken by recipients as part of their grant project will be distributed globally on Reuters platforms.

Yannis Behrakis, Reuters photojournalist and Senior Editor, Special Projects, will advise and mentor grant recipients. Yannis is well known for his coverage of the European migrant crisis and was part of a team of Reuters Pictures photographers awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for their coverage of the crisis in 2016.

We had an incredible response to the inaugural program in 2017 and were delighted to be offering the grants again this year, said Reuters Global Editor of Video and Pictures John Pullman. We want to attract talented young photojournalists from around the world who can tell original human stories from new perspectives. We look forward to reviewing the applications.

You can learn more about last years recipients here.



The photojournalism grants are being announced at the Visa pour lImage international festival of photojournalism, taking place in Perpignan, France. Aspiring photojournalists attending the festival will be able to learn more about Reuters photojournalism and further details on the grant program by visiting the Reuters stand, located on the second floor of the Palais des Congres.



Other Reuters activities at this major photo industry event include:

Reuters Pictures photographers and senior editors will be providing portfolio reviews for photographers seeking feedback on their work.

Reuters Pictures photographer Edgard Garridos work will be exhibited in Hope, Despair and the Distant Promise of America, an exhibition documenting the journey by more than 1,000 Central Americans through Mexico towards the U.S. border.

Reuters Pictures photographer Carlos Garcia Rawlinss work on Venezuela will be presented during the evening screening on September 5. Carlos was the Reuters 2017 Photographer of the Year, recognizing his work covering the countrys crisis that year.

Reuters



Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Follow news about Reuters at @ReutersPR.



Notes to Editors



Photojournalism Grants



Application requirements

Applicants must be between the ages of 18-35, and must be either studying photojournalism or working professionally in the activity. They must submit a CV and a 35-50 picture portfolio (JPEG format) of both single images and multi-image stories. Applicants must also submit a detailed cover letter explaining a project or idea to use the grant. A focused project about a subject in a community or location close to you that you can reasonably complete in a few weeks or months is advisable.

Application and grant period

Application period: September 4, 2018 to November 15, 2018.

Grant period: January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.

How to apply

Email your CV, cover letter, and portfolio ReutersPhotoGrant@thomsonreuters.com.

Successful candidates will be contacted by Yannis Behrakis.

CONTACT

John Russell

john.p.russell@tr.com

+44 (0)20 7542 0239On the Beach Group plc operates as an online retailer of short-haul beach holidays under the On the Beach brand name. It operates through four segments: OTB, International, Classic, and CPH. The company provides its services through onthebeach.co.uk, sunshine.co.uk, and onthebeachtransfers.co.uk websites in the United Kingdom. It also provides its services through eBeach.se website in Sweden and eBeach.dk website in Denmark, as well as through eBeach.no website in Norwegian; and operates online business to business portals, such as classiccollection.co.uk and classic-package.co.uk. In addition, the company offers transport brokerage and property management services. On the Beach Group plc was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Manchester, the United Kingdom.

Read More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Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet on Monday evening to welcome foreign leaders and their spouses who are in Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit.

"Twelve years ago, Chinese and African leaders gathered in Beijing to renew friendship and discuss cooperation," Xi said. "Today, we are here again to reaffirm our original aspirations, carry forward our cause and forge ahead into the future."

Over the past 12 years, China-Africa relations have been developing steadily and rapidly, with intensified exchanges at all levels and stronger cooperation in all fields, Xi said.

China is willing to work with African countries to honor promises with actions and write history with solid work, so that Chinese and African peoples will live a happier life and China-Africa friendship will enjoy a more splendid future, Xi said.

FOCAC is an important platform for South-South cooperation as well as multilateral cooperation, said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who co-chaired the summit that opened on Monday.

China is a reliable partner for African countries to realize the African Union Agenda 2063, said Ramaphosa on behalf of the African countries, adding that the summit will definitely elevate the Africa-China relations to a new level.

Other Chinese leaders including Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng, and Wang Qishan were also present at the banquet in the Great Hall of the People, which was followed by performances presented by Chinese and African artists.LIMERICK  A breathing mask and oxygen tank. A jacket. Boots. A helmet. Most people recognize these as the uniform of a firefighter. However, people with special needs find that firefighters decked out in their familiar regalia, wearing masks that shield their faces and distort their voices, are scary and intimidating.

Since a fire in their home is trauma enough, firefighters strive to keep residents as calm as possible in times of emergency. One sector of the public which is particularly susceptible to firefighter phobia are individuals diagnosed with autism, Down syndrome or an anxiety-provoking condition.

To counter this problem, which is more common than one might expect, Limerick Fire Co. will host on Saturday, Oct. 13, a camp for individuals with special needs. During each of two half-day sessions, firefighters will attempt to allay the fears of their special audience in a variety of ways.

We are well aware of the special needs population. Many of these individuals are represented in our own members, their family and friends. These include my own 21-year-old sister, who is autistic, said Gina Walters, chairperson of the event. We want to make the special needs population comfortable with us in the event of an emergency situation. We dont want them to be scared of us. We want them to know that we are here for them.

Each of the two camp sessions  which run from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.will begin with an introduction of company officers and members. This will be followed by a demonstration of the rescue tools carried by Limericks emergency vehicles. Participants will also be shown how smoke detectors work, the proper operation of a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher and how to place a 9-1-1 call. One of the highlights of the camp will be a step-by-step demonstration of a firefighter transitioning from a person in street clothes to a uniformed firefighter fully equipped to fight a fire.

To register for the camp, which costs $25 per participant, interested persons should sign up on the Limerick FC website at limerickfirerescue.org by Wednesday, Sept. 5. For more information, visit the website or call Gina Walters at 610-960-0597.President Xi Jinping on Monday announced a raft of renewed measures to elevate China-Africa cooperation as more than 50 African leaders gathered in central Beijing for a major event.

"We are so delighted to have all of you with us," Xi said as he opened the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), an occasion he described as the reunion of the China-Africa big family.

Xi called for efforts to forge an even stronger China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.

With the next three years in sight, he put forward eight initiatives and backed it up with a pledge of financing amounting to 60 billion U.S. dollars.

Among the measures are the import of more non-resource products from Africa, increased corporate investment, more direct flights, an environmental cooperation center, an African studies institute, and security programs fighting pirates and terrorists.

Calling Africa a "land of great promise" and a continent "full of hope," Xi said no one can hold back the Chinese people or the African people as they march toward rejuvenation.

EIGHT INITIATIVES

The summit is the third of its kind since FOCAC was set up 18 years ago.

Liu Guijin, a veteran diplomat who once served as the first special representative of the Chinese government on African affairs, said the initiatives were a follow-up to the 10 cooperation plans announced at the last summit in 2015.

"Our policies have been very consistent. We build on past success and move ahead," Liu said.

On industrial promotion, Xi said a China-Africa economic and trade expo will be held in China. A number of economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa will be built or upgraded.

"We encourage Chinese companies to make at least 10 billion U.S. dollars of investment in Africa in the next three years," he said.

Zhu Gongshan, chairman of Chinese energy company GCL Group, said he would like to scale up investment in Africa, especially to tap into the huge market potential of solar-power generation. His company had already set foot in Ethiopia and Djibouti.

"The outlook is good. We as business people have high hopes and are more willing to invest," he said.

Observers said as a strength of Chinese support, infrastructure development in Africa will continue to benefit from concessional loans and credit lines.

Xi specifically pledged support for Chinese companies that adopt an investment-construction-operation model in infrastructure projects.

He said China will work with Africa to undertake a number of key connectivity projects. That will increase landmark infrastructure rising up across the continent over the past few years, such as the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya and the Maputo Cross-sea Bridge in Mozambique.

On trade, Xi said China has decided to increase imports, particularly non-resource products, from Africa, support the African Continental Free Trade Area, and hold free trade talks with interested countries and regions.

Xi's initiatives also cover capacity building, health care, people-to-people exchange, and peace and security.

Environmental protection also featured high on the agenda.

Xi said 50 aid projects will be undertaken on green development and ecological and environmental protection in Africa, with a focus on tackling climate change, marine cooperation, desertification prevention and control, and wildlife protection.

"The speech highlighted what we are all doing now," said Wang Qingfeng, director of the Nairobi-based Sino-African Joint Research Center with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Since 2013, the center has put forward more than 45 joint research programs including biodiversity investigation, pathogenic microorganism detection, geographic science, and remote sensing.

Kembabazi Barbara Gamukama, a Ugandan student in Beijing, said she was motivated by Xi's speech too.

"China will import more from Africa. That means Uganda can export more coffee, and there are opportunities for Uganda's young people looking for jobs," she said.

FIVE-NO APPROACH

Despite the geographical distance between them, China and Africa enjoy a friendship that has stood the test of time.

Profound friendships were first forged among the founding fathers of China and African countries in the middle of last century. Signature aid projects like the Tanzania-Zambia Railway in the 1970s brought the people closer.

Xi expounded at the summit that China follows a "five-no" approach in its relations with Africa: no interference in African countries' pursuit of development paths that fit their national conditions; no interference in their internal affairs; no imposition of China's will on them; no attachment of political strings to assistance; and no seeking of selfish political gains in investment and financing cooperation.

"China follows the principle of giving more and taking less, giving before taking and giving without asking for return," Xi said.

A sign of the China-Africa family getting closer can be seen by the adding of new FOCAC members. All 53 African countries with diplomatic ties with China are now members.

Xi led a round of loud applause on Monday as he welcomed the Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, and Burkina Faso as the three new members.

"Africa has chosen China," Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore told Xinhua before he flew to Beijing. "It is our choice and we stick to that."

FROM AFRICA TO WORLD

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who serves as the rotating chairperson of the African Union for 2018, said the summit comes at the right time as globalization faces headwinds.

Talking to reporters before the summit, Kagame said there is a "need for cooperation more than ever" as some countries make clear their intentions to serve themselves first over other countries.

Xi reiterated China's stance to safeguard an open world economy and the multilateral trade system, rejecting protectionism and unilateralism.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said China's cooperation with Africa is fundamental for Africa's success, which underpins the success of the world in development and peace.

China and Africa are home to roughly 2.6 billion people, making up 35 percent of the world's population.

Xi said China and Africa have long formed a community with a shared future and will now turn it into a pacesetter for building such a community for humanity.

"Our goal is to make the world a place of peace and stability and life happier and more fulfilling for all," Xi said.New York

Revelers displaying their Caribbean pride took to the streets of Brooklyn on Monday, flags waving, music blaring and feet dancing, for New York City's annual take on Carnival celebrations.

At the main West Indian American Day Parade and the early morning street party known as J'Ouvert that preceded it, they were joined by a significant police presence intended to prevent any violence as has happened in some years.

"This festival means a whole lot. I'm West Indian and it's important to share that heritage, share our color and our food and our music," said Deyon Roman, 53, who had her hair pulled back with the flag of her native Grenada, and was clad in a handmade crochet top and skirt, showcasing Grenada's colors of red, green, and yellow. "This parade represents the melting pot that is the Caribbean."

New York's Caribbean community has held annual Carnival celebrations since the 1920s, first in Harlem and then in Brooklyn, where festivities happen on Labor Day.

The festivities start with J'Ouvert, which comes from the French words "jour" and "ouvert" and means daybreak. Meant as a celebration of emancipation from slavery, it features revelers who cover their bodies in paint or oil, wear helmets with giant horns, and toss talcum powder into the air. The highlight is a parade of steel pan bands.

J'Ouvert was once only loosely organized and began in the dark, hours before dawn, in a Brooklyn neighborhood still dealing with gang violence. Late-night shootings were a concern for years, but outrage grew fervent in 2015, when Carey Gabay, an aide to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, died after he left his Brooklyn home to attend the festivities and was hit by stray gunfire. Two more people were killed at the celebration in 2016, despite enhanced security. The main parade had also been scarred by sporadic incidents in the last 15 years.

The New York Police Department instituted a series of security measures, which included moving the start of the J'Ouvert parade away from the middle of the night to 6 a.m., putting light towers and security cameras in place, setting up checkpoints, and increasing police presence at both the early morning event and the larger parade.

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At Monday's main parade, spectator Arnold Cherry, 76, said, "We want the parade to be safe, so it's necessary to have them here. This is supposed to be more free flow and free spirit, but we don't want violence to get in the way of the parade continuing. We can't have one incident be used as an excuse to inhibit it."

Still, said 72-year-old Trevor Lyons, "I feel it's been tempered down, it's been dampened. There used to be more vendors, more dancing, but now it's gotten too controlled."

Elected officials and those running for office took part in the parade. Cuomo marked the occasion by announcing the state would put up to $15 million toward building a community center in Brooklyn named for Gabay.Root

Something seemed fishy. Something was fishy.

When Margrethe Lauber and Susan MacLeod, excited to take advantage of New York's legalization of gay marriage, went to the Root town clerk to apply for a marriage license, they were told to make an appointment and come back later. They did.

Town Clerk Laurel "Sherrie" Eriksen still didn't seem ready for them when Lauber and MacLeod returned, asking them to wait for the arrival of another person. When the woman finally arrived, Lauber and MacLeod watched in confusion as a flustered Eriksen guided her, step by step, through the process.

Lauber and MacLeod began to realize what was happening. Eriksen didn't want her hands on their marriage license. She wanted somebody else to do it.

"It became surreal and awkward," said Lauber, a SUNY Cobleskill professor who has lived with MacLeod in Root since 2005. "We knew for sure that she did not want to do it for us."

That was six years ago. Last month, Dylan Toften and Thomas Hurd arrived at the Root town building, in rural Montgomery County, for a marriage license. When Eriksen refused them and told them to make an appointment, they also became suspicious that the clerk had an issue with their license.

Their suspicions were confirmed when Robert Subik, Root's town attorney, acknowledged that Eriksen has a religious objection to gay marriage and declines to process the licenses. She requires marrying couples to make an appointment, and, if they are gay, turns the work over to others.

When Toften and Hurd complained about the discrimination on social media, their story reverberated around New York, gained widespread media attention and led the state Division of Human Rights to, at the request of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, launch an investigation into whether Eriksen has been violating the law.

Lauber and MacLeod were deeply upset when they heard  and they are regretful. If only they had spoken up six years ago, Lauber told me, maybe they could have spared Toften and Hurd from a painful experience.

"We should have done more so that they could enjoy their day," Lauber said.

It's hard to fault the women for not doing more. Though polls show that a strong majority of Americans approve of it now, gay marriage was controversial in 2012. And Root is a very small place, and Lauber admits to feeling some fear over what it might mean to be prominently gay and calling out a popular elected official.

"I wasn't interested in going to war with our neighbors," Lauber said.

The couple had another reason for staying quiet. Publicizing their treatment would have meant that their marriage, their happy occasion, would forever be tied to an ugly controversy. They didn't want that. Who would?

"I didn't want to make her part of our marriage," Lauber said. "The important thing was to get the license and not put her in the memory of our event."

Eriksen, re-elected without opposition last year, has declined to comment on the controversy. Town Supervisor Gary Kamp has not returned phone calls. According to the Daily Gazette, Kamp said in a statement read at the last board meeting that Eriksen has "always performed the duties of town clerk in a proper and professional manner."

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That's wrong, because her refusal to give same-sex marriage licenses to gay couples is anything but proper. It's an unlawful violation of her oath.

Could a town clerk who is an animal rights activist cite moral objections to deny a hunting or fishing license? Of course not.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Don't confuse Eriksen's stance with the one taken by the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado and other business owners who oppose gay marriage. A town clerk is not running a private business. Eriksen is a government employee whose job includes issuing marriage licenses. This is not about religious liberty.

Eriksen's stance, said Lauber, is also not a good representation of what she and MacLeod, who are in their 50s, have found in Root. It is an individualistic, live-and-let live town. She doesn't want to take away her neighbors' guns, she said, and they don't want to take away her marriage license.

"I don't want people to trash Root," Lauber said. "We have really wonderful neighbors."

But this time, she isn't going to let Eriksen's discrimination pass. Lauber spoke out at the last Town Board meeting  the first she has attended  and she intends to keep doing so until Eriksen either resigns or changes her methods.

When two people are getting married, Lauber said, they are on a cloud. They're excited, euphoric even. But nothing ruins that feeling like a reminder that some still see your marriage as less worthy or being treated like a second-class citizen in your own hometown.

No government official has the right to make people feel that way, in Root or anywhere else.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchillSTAMFORD  Pencils? Check.

Paper? Check.

Bulletproof backpack? Check?

Although a recent study from Northeastern University showed schools are safer than ever, more parents are considering sending their children to school with equipment made to shield them from a shooters bullets.

Stamfords Board of Education is showing skepticism the idea.

We dont believe in sending teachers to schools with guns and I dont believe in sending students to school with armor, said board chair David Mannis.

Joe Curran founded his Massachusetts-based company, Bullet Blocker, in 2007 because he believed the opposite. Curran, who previously worked in law enforcement, had two children in middle school when there was a shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people. Dissatisfaction with the schools protocol for an active shooter  cut the lights and wait it out  led to an idea.

Curran made his first backpack with a cut-up bulletproof vest. His business started with two types of backpacks and expanded to briefcases, notebooks and inserts as more schools banned bags or only allowed clear backpacks.

The backpacks especially have grown in popularity in the last year, Curran said. In the past six to eight months, he said hes added 50 dealers to his otherwise online business.

We see an uptick in sales anytime theres violence worldwide and not just gun violence - any violence, Curran said. With Parkland and Newtown, we saw a very large upswing. Weve consistently had growth over the years and we always get a [sic] growth at back to school, but this year is larger than the past.

Stamford Public Schools has no current policy prohibiting students from using bulletproof backpacks, though Mannis said the district is working on a policy to further bolster school security.

Many parents already feel their students are safe at city schools.

Shira Tarantino, who has two children at Stark Elementary, described bulletproof backpacks as a Band-Aid.

If parents want to buy their kids those items, thats their prerogative, said Tarantino, who is the project director for the Stamford Pediatric Gun Safety Project and a board member for the Enough Campaign. I dont think it changes the safety any way in the schools.

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Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, said the organization has no position on the products, but hes glad that people are engaged over the issue.

Its nice to see some of the mindset changing  that there are things that should be done to protect kids other than statutorily deciding what a gun-free zone is, because we obviously know gun-free zones arent working, he said. Its good to see theyre looking for other policies.

Parents who are interested in the product should know bulletproof backpacks are considered body armor in the state of Connecticut, which means they cannot be shipped directly to consumers. Once purchased online, the backpacks can be shipped to an authorized gun store. Curran says he works with the Blue Line Firearms and Tactical in Trumbull.

As of the start of school last week, Blue Line hadnt sold any of the backpacks this year. Neither had Stamford Tactical, the citys only local gun shop.

According to Curran, the inserts cost upwards of $100 and can protect from most shotguns, but not rifles. However, 93 percent of school shootings are executed with shotguns.

This is the same, if not higher level protection as police body armor, Curran said. The coverage area is the same, if not a little more in terms of the ability of it to work. I think its absolutely critical. I like the idea of them having something where they can take care of themselves.

erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; (203) 964-2265; @erin_kayataSARATOGA SPRINGS - Immigration advocates made a final push on Saratoga's last day of racing seeking future funds for a free health clinic serving backstretch workers after unexpected cuts this year.

On Labor Day, eight members of the advocacy group Saratoga Immigration Coalition presented a petition to the New York Racing Association outside the track's main gates to set aside money in next year's budget for the clinic.

The clinic run by the non-profit organization Best Employee Service Team (BEST) is funded by NYRA and the New York Thoroughbred Horseman's Association. This year it provided free healthcare to 750 backstretch workers.

Marcia Pappas, co-director of Center United 4 Support of Backstretch Workers, said many issues are caused by poor nutrition and standing all day. Pappas and other advocates say workers, who are largely migrants from Central and South American countries, do grueling work for long hours and little pay. The main health issues are diabetes, hypertension, gastrointestinal problems and urgent care needs.

In May BEST closed the clinic temporarily and announced it wouldn't run through the shoulder season because of reduced funding from NYRA. NYRA came up with additional donations that will allow the clinic to stay open through the end of October when workers move on to other race tracks at Belmont and Florida or return home.

But advocates petitioned to make sure there was secure future funding for next year. On Monday afternoon, Terry Diggory, the head of the Saratoga Immigration Coalition, presented the 69-page petition with 1,230 signatures to William McCarthy, assistant general counsel for NYRA.

Coalition member and Saratoga Springs resident Diana Barnes, 58, confronted McCarthy with the story of a backstretch worker who died 15 years ago from lack of medical care before the clinic opened. According to Barnes, a trainer asked the veterinarians in the equine surgery clinic she had owned to treat a backstretch worker for diabetes instead of calling a doctor. According to her, he died soon after in a diabetic coma inside his cinder block house.

"They live in the shadows, but they're still members of our community for six months," Barnes, who is also medical translator for backstretch workers and a U.S.-Mexico studies professor at Skidmore College, told the Times Union.

McCarthy thanked the coalition for their efforts and confirmed that BEST would know by December what funds to expect for next year.

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"NYRA has not yet completed next year's budget plans, we anticipate making a contribution again in 2019," Patrick McKenna, NYRA communications direvtor, wrote in an email.

NYRA's President and CEO Chris Kay said the group reduced its funding for clinic from more than $1 million annually to $800,000 in 2017 and $600,000 in 2018. He said the reason is because NYRA was paying more to help fund the clinic than the thoroughbred's association.

Andy Belfiore, thoroughbred group executive director, told the Times Union that her organization gave $450,000 to BEST to support backstretch workers and $233,508 for backstretch workers' eye and dental care last year. She also said that NYTHA will donate the same amounts this year.

BEST didn't want to comment on the clinic's funding situation.

Before the end of Monday, the petition gained two more signatures. Racetrack patrons Ruth Cooper and Judd Roth from New Jersey read about the petition and stopped by to sign because they were concerned about conditions and immigration rights for backstretch workers.

After she signed her name, Ruth Cooper lamented the workers' living situations. "I'd rather be a horse," she said.ALBANY  Gov. Andrew Cuomo's campaign has generally refused to answer questions about an ongoing federal investigation into Crystal Run Healthcare, which has given $400,000 in campaign donations to the governor and received an extraordinary $25.4 million in state grants.

In a meeting with the Times Union editorial board on Tuesday, Cuomo did answer a question his campaign has evaded for weeks: Crystal Run officials, the governor said, have not approached him about any potential legal problems with their donations.

By contrast, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney  currently running for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general  has publicly stated that Crystal Run approached him about irregularities with more than $35,000 in donations its made to the congressman.

"Well, then," Cuomo said of Crystal Run's disclosure to Maloney, "they admitted to a crime."

"Which is sort of incredible for me to believe as a former prosecutor and an attorney general," Cuomo said. "Why somebody would call up and say to a congressman, 'I committed a felony. Just thought you should know.' Especially since nobody's been charged. I mean, who would make that phone call?"

Maloney's decision to turn over Crystal Run's legally problematic donations to the U.S. Treasury has put Cuomo  who has refused calls to return any portion of his own Crystal Run donations  in the position of having to rationalize that stance.

On Tuesday, Cuomo theorized that Maloney's statements about Crystal Run admitting legal troubles were not accurate.

"How much do you want to bet," he said, "the Crystal Run people never called Maloney and said that?"

In response to Cuomo's comments, Maloney's office on Tuesday provided the Times Union with a letter from a Crystal Run attorney that disclosed issues with the company's donations but insisted they were inadvertent.

Listen to Cuomo discuss Crystal Run in a meeting with the Times Union's editorial board:

No one from Crystal Run has been charged with any wrongdoing.

Following a series of Times Union articles last year, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office and FBI are investigating Crystal Run over its manner of giving to Cuomo. The investigation has also brought allegations of pay-to-play behavior from the governor's electoral challengers this year: The company in 2016 landed $25.4 million in state grants for projects it was already building without taxpayer subsidies.

Cuomo maintains the prodigious campaign giving of Crystal Run and other donors  totaling $49 million for his current reelection bid  has never impacted state policy decisions.

The ongoing criminal investigation of Crystal Run is examining whether its officials were reimbursed by company bonuses for a flurry of $25,000 donations they made to Cuomo's campaign in 2013. If that occurred, it would be a potential violation of state election law.

On Tuesday, Maloney's office provided more information about how it came to return the Crystal Run-connected donations.

The Orange County-based company this spring asked Maloney to give back some of its officials' past campaign donations to the congressman. In response, Maloney's office asked for more information.

In April 2018, an outside counsel for Crystal Run, David Frulla of the firm Kelley Drye, wrote a letter to an attorney for Maloney.

"Upon review, Kelley Drye determined it was appropriate to request the enumerated refunds, but have no reason to believe that Maloney for Congress was privy to any of the information or actions that caused the refund request," Frulla said in the letter. "Crystal Run has made a sua sponte"  or voluntary  "submission to the Federal Election Commission regarding this matter."

"Further, we requested the refunds because our review found that (Crystal Run), and its officers, partners, and employees, did not fully or accurately understand campaign finance law and regulations applicable to partnerships," the lawyer wrote. "Any resulting failure to comply with the applicable law or regulations was, accordingly, inadvertent."

Maloney's office has also said that Crystal Run acknowledged the donations were "incorrectly attributed" in campaign filings.

A Crystal Run spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Cuomo, meanwhile, has declined to heed calls from his political opponents, actress and Democratic primary opponent Cythnia Nixon and Republican Marc Molinaro, that he also return Crystal Run's money.

The governor stated again on Tuesday that he would return the company's money if legal wrongdoing was found.

"The Crystal Run situation is this," Cuomo said. "Two years ago, I don't know which office started an investigation on a doctor as a 'straw donor.' Our contribution form, on our website, says 'Do not do straw donors.'"

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"That was two years ago," Cuomo said, noting he had heard little since. "As soon as there is a finding that somebody did something wrong, I will return the contributions."

Over a two-day period in October 2013, Crystal Run officials, doctors or their spouses gave Cuomo 10 donations of $25,000 apiece. The donations came during a Cuomo fundraiser, though the governor's campaign has repeatedly refused to discuss its location and details such as whether it was an exclusive Crystal Run event.

Of the 10 Crystal Run donors to Cuomo, seven had not made a donation in a New York election in at least a decade.

On Tuesday, Cuomo stated for the first time that Crystal Run officials threw a fundraiser for him in 2013. He also said it was not unusual for so many people, who had not given in New York elections before, to give him the 10 identical $25,000 checks.

"If you do a fundraiser for me, you're going to go to your neighbors and your friends and say, 'Do me a favor  Andrew Cuomo's a good guy, he's a friend of mine, come over and contribute,'" Cuomo said. "Yeah, so the company did a fundraiser."

Cuomo also addressed the fact that Crystal Run was granted $25.4 million in 2016 by the state Department of Health to build two health care facilities  in Monroe, Orange County, and West Nyack, Rockland County  that it was already constructing without taxpayer subsidies.

Cuomo said the agency's decisions in handing out $1.2 billion in health care capital funds grants statewide had been made by civil service employees.

"It's done on objective criteria, pursuant to a 2014 law. And that's how the program works," Cuomo said. "I haven't gotten into it well enough. But there is no suggestion that they got the grant from Health because of the contribution.

"The only suggestion is this guy was a straw donor," Cuomo said of the investigation. "That was two years ago."

The Times Union first wrote about the Crystal Run donations to Cuomo in February 2017, about 18 months ago.

On Tuesday, the Times Union reported that for the two projects, Crystal Run had attempted to get taxpayer reimbursement of the $25 million in grants for a number questionable expenses, from artwork and "mood music" systems to plastic flowers for a lobby. While the Cuomo administration has not repaid the company for those purchases, it did reimburse Crystal Run  one of New York's fastest-growing private medical firms  for $6 million, including $1.2 million in corporate office furniture.

"Not another a dime of taxpayer money should go from the Cuomo administration to Crystal Run while the FBI and Orange County are investigating this," said Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, in a statement responding to the story. "And, Gov. Cuomo: You won't have enough money in your campaign arsenal in November to explain away the dirty $400,000 you're holding. Mark my words: New Yorkers have had enough."

Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Abbey Collins responded that "Trump mini-me Marc Molinaro should look in the mirror. He's taking a page from Trump's playbook by taking contributions from business with local contracts, doling out tax breaks in return, and handing out favors to his friends and family."

At the Times Union, Cuomo said Maloney had only returned the more than $35,000 because he is currently running in the heated Democratic primary for state attorney general, the state's top law enforcement job.

"I think it was just a political decision," Cuomo said. "It was a PR decision."

"There's been no charge," Cuomo added. "And also, straw donor cases are also sort of an open-and-shut case. It's 'Dr. Smith, you gave $25,000 to Sean Patrick Maloney. Did the company reimburse you?' That's it. And, 'Is there a check that goes to you for the $25,000?'"

"This has been two years! If they have that case, that's the case," he said.ALBANY  In March 2016, the state awarded $25.4 million to Crystal Run Healthcare, a major campaign donor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to build two facilities the company was already constructing without taxpayer subsidies.

The Orange County firm has since tried to spend the funds on eyebrow-raising items including expensive artwork, two $59,000 "mood music" systems, and an "artificial flower arrangement" to adorn a lobby, according to documents obtained by the Times Union.

While the Cuomo administration has not repaid the company for those purchases, it did reimburse Crystal Run  one of New York's fastest-growing private medical firms  for $1.2 million in corporate office furniture.

The Department of Health has so far paid out $6 million in total reimbursements to the doctor-owned company: $3 million for a project that was already being completed without taxpayer funds in West Nyack, Rockland County, and $3 million for the project that was already under construction without subsidy in Monroe, Orange County.

Health care experts questioned why taxpayers are picking up the expenses of the thriving business.

"These are routine businesses investments, of the very same kind that other medical practices pay for with their own money every day," said Bill Hammond, director of health policy at the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy.

"Crystal Run itself has built multiple office buildings before  and filled them with computers and furniture and equipment  on its own dime," Hammond said. "Why this apparently successful company should be granted such extraordinary support from taxpayers has never been adequately explained."

The company was also seemingly flush with cash after the 2013 sale and lease-back of $141 million of its properties.

Taxpayers have now paid $1.8 million to reimburse the company for IT equipment purchases from Aeon Nexus Corp.; about $60,000 paid to Hologic, a medical technology company; $3 million to Siemens Medical Solutions for medical equipment; and about $1.2 million paid to Right Price Companies, which bought the office furniture.

"The goal of this program  as enacted by the Legislature  was to expand primary care services to avoid hospital and emergency room visits," said Department of Health spokesman Gary Holmes. "To do that there are certain items which are necessary for any effective care facility  IT infrastructure, medical equipment and, yes, even office and waiting room furniture."

Following a series of Times Union articles last year, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office and FBI are investigating Crystal Run over its manner of giving $400,000 in campaign donations to Cuomo. The investigation has brought charges of "pay-to-play" from the governor's electoral challenges this year, and was featured in a recent television ad run by Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro.

Cuomo, who unsuccessfully sought to pull the ad from the airwaves, maintains the prodigious campaign giving of Crystal Run and other donors  totaling $49 million for his current reelection bid  never impacts state policy decisions.

The ongoing criminal investigation of Crystal Run is examining whether its officials were reimbursed by company bonuses for a flurry of $25,000 donations they made to Cuomo's campaign in 2013  a potential violation of state election law.

The Times Union has also learned details of subsequent Crystal Run campaign giving: Records indicate that Crystal Run CEO Hal Teitelbaum was invited to attend a Cuomo fundraiser at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan on June 18, 2015.

Four days later, Cuomo's campaign reported receiving a $50,000 check from Teitelbaum.

A Crystal Run spokesman did not respond to requests for comment about whether Teitelbaum did attend the event. A Cuomo campaign spokeswoman also failed to respond.

Cuomo himself did not attend that high-dollar fundraiser, which was scheduled to occur the day after the 2015 legislative session was to end.

That session did not end as scheduled, however, and New York's crucial rent regulation and affordable housing subsidy laws expired. The optics were bad enough  with millions of tenants in limbo  that Cuomo stayed in Albany to hash out legislative deals rather than attend the fundraiser, which was being protested by tenant advocates. (Also on the invite list for that fundraiser were officials from the New York City real estate industry who were highly concerned with the details of that housing law renewal  including Newmark Knight Frank CEO Barry Gosin, who gave Cuomo $50,000.)

The timing of the $50,000 donation from Crystal Run's Teitelbaum is significant because it landed in the middle of the bidding process for $1.2 billion in state money the Department of Health was awarding in capital health care grants. The initial deadline for those bids was in May 2015, about a month before the Cuomo fundraiser.

Ultimately, that scoring process resulted in Crystal Run winning the $25.4 million in grants for the two projects, despite having broken ground on both in the fall of 2016, about six months before the awards were made.

The two projects were fully built and open to the public before Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office signed off on the contracts allowing the company to be reimbursed for its building expenses in December 2016. Under the terms of those contracts, the company was allowed to seek reimbursements from state taxpayers for its expenses back to October 2015.

The Department of Health made decisions about which Crystal Run expenses to reimburse in October 2017, according to the agency.

Under the state grant program, construction costs and capital expenses, including health information technology, were eligible. Costs such as personnel, supplies and non-capital equipment were not.

Of the original grant amount, $19.4 million has still not been paid out to Crystal Run.

Beyond the $6 million, Holmes said that, "No other invoices have been approved for payment." He said it was still possible under Crystal Run's contract, however, that it could receive future payments.

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Crystal Run in July 2016 purchased more than $33,000 in artwork to decorate the Monroe facility from Giardina Fine Art in Albany, which the company then unsuccessfully tried to get taxpayers to refund.

Also for the Monroe facility, Crystal Run also sought taxpayer funds for a $34,000 in "TV Installation," $1,425 for "artificial flower arrangements" for the lobby and about $59,000 for a "mood music system."

Crystal Run reported making similar purchases for the West Nyack facility for which it also unsuccessfully sought taxpayer reimbursement.

"Items such as artwork, mood lighting, artificial plants and TV installation do not qualify for grant reimbursement in the Capital Restructuring and Financing Program as outlined by the (request for applications). DOH rejected Crystal Run's invoice for those items," said Holmes.

Crystal Run also sought taxpayer reimbursement to pay for employees of an interior design firm, Fine Dzign Commercial Interiors, to travel to and meet with Jennifer Teitelbaum, the wife Crystal Run's CEO, about interior design matters.

Jennifer Teitelbaum is not a Crystal Run employee, but was among the spate of $25,000 donors to Cuomo's campaign in 2013.

The Department of Health awarded the $1.2 billion for capital health care projects in March 2016. It received 396 applications and made 63 awards totaling $547 million for projects that competed against one another outside New York City. Of those winning applicants, all were nonprofits, with one exception: Crystal Run.

"As we have said repeatedly, Crystal Run Health Care was awarded (state) funding through an open and competitive procurement process aimed at expanding primary care services to reduce avoidable hospital and emergency room visits, improve population health, and transform New York's health care system," said Holmes. "Funding applications were submitted by health care providers and graded by civil servants using a clear, objective methodology. Any suggestion that this funding may have been awarded outside of this procurement process is completely false."

As the Times Union recently reported, email records show that after an initial $25,000 Crystal Run donation to Cuomo's campaign in October 2011, Teitelbaum got a direct line about his business concerns to a former top Cuomo aide, Joe Percoco.

Then, over a two-day period in October 2013, Crystal Run officials, doctors or their spouses gave Cuomo 10 donations of $25,000 apiece. The donations came during a Cuomo fundraiser, though the governor's campaign has repeatedly refused to discuss its location and details such as whether it was an exclusive Crystal Run event.

Of the 10 Crystal Run donors to Cuomo, seven had not made a donation in a New York election in at least a decade.

In May, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney gave away more than $35,000 in donations to his congressional campaign from Crystal Run executives, doctors or their spouses. Instead of returning the money to the company officials, however, the Hudson Valley Democrat donated it to the U.S. Treasury.

Like New York state law, federal election law prohibits giving donations through "straw donors" meant to circumvent donation limits.

According to Maloney's office, Crystal Run officials told the congressman's office that the donations had been "incorrectly attributed."

In a recent editorial board meeting with the Times Union, Maloney, who is running in the Democratic primary for state attorney general, said he learned of the issues with the Crystal Run donations from a letter sent to his office by a Crystal Run attorney earlier this year.

Maloney said his subsequent efforts to find out more information about the problems with the donations were not successful.

A Cuomo campaign spokeswoman, Abbey Collins, has refused to answer questions about whether Crystal Run had similarly approached the Cuomo campaign concerning problematic donations.Clifton Park

When Larry Ellis got up before dawn Tuesday morning, the floor of his beloved Chris Craft cruiser was so tilted he was afraid it might be sinking at the dock at the Schenectady Yacht Club.

The problem turned out not to be his boat, but rather the Mohawk River. Overnight, the water had dropped nearly three feet, surprising marina owners and boaters like Ellis who found themselves suddenly grounded and worried about potential costly damages.

That drop was well beyond the six-inch decrease predicted Friday in a notice to boaters from the state Canal Corp., which announced it was temporarily dropping the level of the dam at Lock 7 as an annual aid to fish migration. The locks and dams on the river from Waterford to Buffalo are part of the Erie Canal system.

That act removed hundreds of millions of gallons of water from a seven-mile stretch of the Mohawk River up to the dam at Lock 8 in Scotia. In between, more 140 boats were at dock between the Schenectady Yacht Club and Mohawk Valley Marine during the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Ellis said he was concerned about potential damage to his 1960s-era Chris Craft, a 48-footer that unlike most of that line has a hull made out of aluminum, rather than wood. He said about half of the hull was grounded, putting stress on its middle section.

He added that some owners of neighboring boats who had left air conditioning intakes on overnight arrived to find the now-grounded intakes sucking mud into the systems.

At Mohawk Valley Marine, which has been on the Mohawk for more than three decades, owner Robert Esperti said he was surprised when he got there at about 7 a.m. to find water levels down dramatically and several boats grounded. He said he had never seen the river that low so early in September.

"There is a lot of money sitting in the mud right now," he said. If he had been warned, he could have had customers take precautions, such as moving vessels from docks in the most-shallow water or ensuring boats were docked with propellers pointed toward the river in deeper water, rather than toward the riverbank.

New York Power Authority spokeswoman Susan Craig said Tuesday the height of the the Lock 7 dam in Vischers Ferry is dropped temporarily every fall to aid in fish migration. "This happens every year," she said.

The release of water at the Lock 7 dam is required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, she said.

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However, Craig added, the notice issued Friday by canal officials was "not crafted appropriately" to let marina owners and boaters know how far the river would actually drop.

Should any boater have sustained damage from grounding, they should contact the Power Authority, she added. "The good news is that the water should be coming back up today," she said.

Pete Bardunias, CEO of the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County, said the incident is part "of a pattern that is developing" of poor communication between the Power Authority, which took over responsibility for the Canal Corp. several years ago, and the recreational boating community that relies on the canal.

"The Power Authority is not taking the time to reflect on the implications of its decisions on the boating community," he said. "This action was undertaken in the middle of the night."

Rick Fleming, the commodore of the Schenectady Yacht Club, said the incident reflected "poor communication" by the authority that left more than a dozen vessels at the club temporarily grounded with potential damages unknown.

He said some boaters also have been frustrated by the Canal Corp.'s decision to shorten the boating season on the state canal systems, and by not providing adequate water levels in the canals prior to Memorial Day.

Fleming said when he asked authority officials Friday about what caused the sudden drop in the river, he was told that it was from more water being run through a power plant downstream.MALTA  The town's plan to bring water to the hamlet of Maltaville, something its residents have sought for years, is once again up for debate.

Town Councilman Craig Warner, the chair of the town's Water and Sewer Committee, said he was heading for a referendum on a $1.5 million plan with the Saratoga County Water Authority and the town of Stillwater.

But before that could happen, the private water supplier, Saratoga Water Services, interrupted the plan with a one of its own. Its Executive Vice President, Marissa Mackay, said that she has a plan for Maltaville residents, who have suffered with foul-smelling and brown water, and wells that easily run dry. And it's one, she said, that will cost 40 percent less than the water authority proposal because she will bring Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership in to fund the deal.

The two plans will be up for debate in a public workshop on Monday, Sept. 17, at Malta Town Hall. The workshop is tentatively set for 5 p.m.

Mackay said she can service the roughly 82 homes in the hamlet if the county's economic authority applies for low interest bonds to pay for the lines.

"Prosperity Partnership would bridge the gap creating a public/private partnership," Mackay said. "It would be a lovely footprint, something that more projects should be. It would be public funding and we would oversee the private construction of the lines. Prosperity Partnership would own the lines and we would maintain them."

Warner said the Water and Sewer Committee's $1.5 million plan calls for hooking into the county lines in Stillwater. The neighboring town would own and maintain the lines, but Malta would handle the billing. In Saratoga Water Services plan, Prosperity Partnership would own the lines, but the private water service would maintain and bill for them.

Warner is uncertain if the county's Prosperity Partnership would get involved as it is tasked to boost economic growth in the county, not fund water lines.

Marty Vanags, president of Prosperity Partnership, said the county's authority would only get involved if Malta requested it. He also said he has no paperwork or applications from Saratoga Water Services.

"I met with Marissa Mackay, but no one has asked me to do anything," Vanags said.

He also said that applying for low-interest bonds for a private water company does not necessarily contradict the authority's mission.

"If it leads to more economic development along the areas of the water lines, it could fit the mission," said Vanags, who said his Board of Directors would decide. "But I don't think it sets a precedent."

Warner is not so sure. He believes if Malta get water lines through Prosperity Partnership funding, more towns will demand the same.

"I don't think it's the intent of the Partnership," Warner said. "I also am not sure how it would be profitable for Saratoga Water Services. The math doesn't add up and that's a problem."

Saratoga Water Services already serves a portion of Malta. Mackay said her costs would be less because her lines are closer to Maltaville than Stillwater's are. She also said she could pay lower wages to the construction workers installing the lines.

"We don't have to pay prevailing wages likes towns and municipalities do," Mackay said.

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Warner said that claim is dubious because public funds are paying for the lines. Warner is also skeptical of Mackay's plan because she has not presented any figures, data or other information to the town board. He said he can't commit to Saratoga Water Services until he has that. Yet she said she won't provide such information to the town until it commits to her.

More Information What: Maltaville Water Workshop

When: 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 17

Where: Malta Town Hall, 2540 Route 9, Malta



See More Collapse

"Why would I bother putting in the effort before I know," Mackay said.

Warner said it's illegal to not provide solid figures to the town and has asked the state Comptroller's office to review any proposed plan that may come from Saratoga Water Services.

"Most lawyers I talk to agree with my position," Warner said. "I need to protect the town and keep the cost as reasonable as possible. It's an uncomfortable situation. We don't want it to go into litigation for the first big water system we put in."

Warner said all agree that Maltaville needs water and has for at least three decades. While residents have said they want the lines, they are concerned with costs. Knapp Road residents, in particular, do not want the water line, so the town may eliminate it from the water district, Warner said.

The $1.5 million plan that the committee was to bring to a public vote would cost homeowners an estimated $928 per year. Mackay estimates a homeowner would pay $799 per year. In addition, home owners would pay between $8.95 to $8.56 per thousand gallons of water with the Stillwater plan, but $5.34 per thousand gallons with Saratoga Water Services.

If the Comptroller's office were to find that Saratoga Water Services' plan is legitimate, Warner said he would go with it.

"I am absolutely determined to get them water," Warner said. "We can't kick the can down the road. We want to do the right thing." Flash

Police arrested 12 people attempting to block traffic on the highway leading to Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Monday.





According to Illinois State Police, eight men and four women were arrested, including local activist and protest leader Reverend Gregory S. Livingston.





Police used a loudspeaker to instruct protesters to leave the highway. Protesters, including Rev. Livingston, then formed a single-file line to be arrested.





More than 100 police officers from several local and state agencies were present to stop the protesters from walking on the highway.





Activist Audrey Davis, a former school teacher of Chicago, said, "Like all protesters, I am concerned about the escalating violence in our city and in our state ... I think there's a lot of inequity in black neighborhoods compared to white ones."





The protesters' demands include more African Americans in the construction workforce in Chicago, the repurposing of closed schools, economic investment in African American neighborhoods, resources for black led anti-violence initiatives, and the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.





This protest came just days before the beginning of the trial of former Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke, who prosecutors charged with the first-degree murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. On Dec. 29, 2015, Van Dyke pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial will begin on Wednesday.





Gun violence in Chicago's poorest communities has drawn national attention for a number of years. Since September 2011, at least 174 people under the age of 17 have been killed, and another 1,665 shot, according to figures compiled by The Chicago Tribune.ALBANY  A group of political and religious organizers are holding a protest over the shooting of Ellazar Williams last month by an Albany police detective.

The protest is planned for 6 p.m. at Malcolm X Park, at the corner of Lark Street and Clinton Avenue.

A group called Justice or Else is organizing the protest. Councilman Derek Johnson, Aaron Carter, president of Ujima Journey, and a local representative of the Nation of Islam are also supposed to attend.

The protesters are calling for police to release all video and 911 calls associated with the shooting and explain why Williams was denied visitors during the first few days he was in the hospital.

Williams, who was paralyzed from the waist down in the shooting, was shot at least once by Det. James Olsen on Aug. 20 in the rear of the the Tony Clemente Education Center on Elk Street.

Police said Williams had been involved in a fight at a store on Central Avenue and fled when police arrived. Police said three detectives had pursued Williams because he matched the description of a man who had displayed a gun during the fight.

Olsen fired at Williams after Williams displayed a knife, refused to drop it and began to run toward Olsen, police said. No gun has been recovered, but police said they found a large hunting knife near Williams after the shooting. Olsen fired twice at Williams, police said.

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Police are still investigating the shooting and at least part of the incident was caught on surveillance video but police have not said what the video shows.

Williams has been charged with felony menacing and misdemeanor weapons possession.

A probe is being conducted into Williams' actions before fleeing police and into whether detectives were justified in shooting him.

The three detectives involved are on paid administrative leave.ALBANY  Rensselaer County is the sole defendant left in a civil rights lawsuit after a federal judge ordered three defendants, including former Sheriff Jack Mahar, be dropped from the case that involves accessing of corrections officers private medical records.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Norman A. Mordue dismissed the lawsuits filed against Mahar, Elaine Young, a former jail nurse; and David Hetman, the jail's chief of corrections, saying they are "entitled to qualified immunity."

Former officer Keith Hancock Jr. and jail officers Jason Dessingue and Tamera Thomas sued the county, Mahar, Hetman and Young after they were notified their hospital records had been improperly accessed from the county jail in Troy. Hancock was fired from his job at the jail. He was convicted in March 2011 on federal criminal charges of violating the civil rights of an inmate, Michael Ward, and lying about the incident to an FBI agent.

The federal lawsuit is one of multiple claims filed by current and former sheriff's department employees, and private citizens, who accused Mahar and jail other administrators of searching their electronic medical records at a local hospital using a system designed to check the care of inmates. Some of the lawsuits were already settled by the county.

The Court finds that all three individual Defendants remaining in this case are entitled to qualified immunity, because a free citizens constitutional right to privacy in information concerning a non-serious, non-stigmatizing medical condition was not clearly established when Plaintiffs medical records were accessed in 2007, 2009, and 2011, Mordue wrote in his decision.

The county, however, doesnt have the same standing as Mahar and his former subordinates.

A municipality is liable for the conduct of its agent if that conduct 'constitute(d) the municipalitys final decisions' sufficiently to demonstrate that Plaintiffs were harmed because of County policy, Mordue wrote.

A sheriff in charge of a county jail has final authority over personnel decisions at the jail such that his actions can constitute the municipalitys final decisions, Mordue continued.

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Where a person with final authority makes 'a deliberate choice to follow a course of action' that results in a constitutional deprivation, the municipality can be held liable. In this case, only Sheriff Mahars actions and directions undertaken as Sheriff can be attributed to the County, the judge said.

Mordue said the timing of the access to the records and the procedure requiring employees requesting sick leave to contact the sheriff's secretary raise questions as to whether the sheriff was personally involved in a privacy violation.

In his decision, Mordue said evidence of Mahars personal dislike for Hancock and Dessingue raises questions of whether Mahar ordered their records to be accessed; whether the sheriff acted arbitrarily or maliciously in doing so, as opposed to in furtherance of ensuring that no employees abused sick leave and Mahar had a personal vendetta against the plaintiffs.

The judge ordered the case against the county to go to trial.A Saratoga County man was charged with a felony after Washington County Sheriff deputies said they discovered he had failed to update his address as a sex offender and may have had inappropriate contact with a child.

Matthew L. Payne, 27, of Rock City Falls, was charged with not properly registering as a sex offender and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with an incident on July 28 in Argyle. Flash

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte received a warm welcome by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, as the Phipilline president started his visit in Israel.





In the first such visit by a Philippine president, the two leaders signed three bilateral agreements.





One of the agreements aims to improve the work conditions of Filipino workers in Israel, most of whom work as health aides for the elder, while the other two seek to boost bilateral science cooperation and encourage investments and financial cooperation.





The arms deal is at the heart of Duterte's visit. His government has recently purchased Israeli-made weapons such as Galil assault rifles and pistols for its 120,000-strong police personnel.





Israel is among the world's top arms dealers, with nearly 60 percent of its defense exports going to the Asia-Pacific region, according to Israeli defense ministry data.





On Wednesday, Duterte is expected to lay wreaths at the Open Doors Monument in Rishon Letzion, 8 km south of Tel Aviv, in commemoration of the Philippines' efforts to save the Jews during the Holocaust.





Duterte started his four-day visit in Israel on Sunday night by attending an event with the Filipino community in Israel, which included some 76,000 Filipino workers.President Donald J. Trump has earned special notice among independent fact-checkers  people employed by respected news media organizations and universities to ferret out false claims. In their view, the president is among the most prolific liars in political history.

Trump did not have a bigger inauguration crowd than Barack Obama. He did not lose the popular vote to Hillary Clinton because of massive voter fraud. He does not have the highest approval ratings of any Republican president in history. And the independent investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, having already yielded several incidental guilty pleas and convictions, is not a witch hunt.

Those are just a few among his whoppers. Last month, The Washington Post published a remarkable story reporting that the president  already an accomplished liar  was working hard to ensure that no one could ever break his record. "In his first year as president, Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims. Now, just six months later, he has almost doubled that total," the Post reported.

But Trump is not the real story here. The real story  the sad and frightening and incomprehensible story  lies in the millions of Americans who still believe him, who hang on his every word, who invest in his version of reality, no matter how warped or unbelievable or clearly inconceivable it may be. Among self-identified Republicans, the president has an 85 percent approval rating, according to a Gallup poll conducted last month. That is simply stunning.

This flight from facts has been well-documented. Former New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani has written a book, "The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump," which cites the spread of propaganda and the White House's elevation of mendacity as threats to democracy. She and others note that the trend isn't new. There has always been a segment of the electorate ready to confuse fantasy with fact.

In his landmark 1964 essay, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote about "the paranoid style in American politics," which he traced to the nation's beginnings. And his analysis of the political conservatism of his era has an eerily prescient ring now: "But the modern right wing ... feels dispossessed: America has been largely taken away from them and their kind, though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion."

Trump is not the cause of that worldview but merely its avatar. He knows how to channel that feeling of dispossession among his base  largely aging whites upset by demographic and cultural change  and to promise that he will return the nation they believe they lost. In exchange, they are willing to believe any lie he tells.

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Trump's base had already been conditioned for the "alternative facts" that he has fed them. The vast right-wing media axis has conjured up a universe in which the religious beliefs of upright Christian folk are threatened by gay couples who want to get married, in which hardworking, white taxpayers are being cheated by immigrant grifters, in which black criminals are preying on white police officers. By now, regular viewers of Fox News believe only that nonsense  easy for them to swallow because it's what they wanted to believe anyway.

Given their proclivity for the paranoid style, Trump's base is ready to go along with his assault on mainstream news media and, more recently, search engines such as Google. Trump has decided that the barrage of negative news stories associated with his name on the internet is evidence that search engines are "rigged," as he tweeted. He has not only ranted against Google for several days, but the president has also  heaven help us  instructed White House officials to explore regulating the search engine.

That is likely to come to naught because of First Amendment protections, but it won't stop Trump's supporters from calling for just such regulation. They are convinced that some unnamed group of conspirators has it in for Trump.

I think I'm familiar with that entity, which is given to hiding in plain sight. It's called, well, truth. As Stephen Colbert famously put it, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."Members of the Oireachtas Rural Independent Group have said that they will be forthrightly challenging the Minister for Communications, Denis Naughten, to admit political accountability regarding the deal that has emerged between An Post and the Irish Postmasters Union.

Speaking ahead of the Ministers appearance before the Communications, Climate Change and Environment Committee tomorrow, the Convenor of the Rural Group, MattieMcGrath, indicated that they will be demanding answers around the sheer scale of the post office closures that are being anticipated:

Last year when news broke that up to 80 Post Offices were being ear marked for closure, it was devastating news for communities in rural Ireland.

Now it has emerged that this so-called deal between An Post and the IPU will lead to the closure of 159 rural post offices in a restructuring plan that is being sold as progress and essentially beneficial for the future of the post office network.

That in itself tells us all we need to know about the direction of travel that this government and An Post are moving in, in terms of a real and substantial commitment to rural Ireland.

The facts of the matter are that on November 16th last the government accepted a Dail Motion that I and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group put forward; a motion that laid out a clear pathway toward the survival of the post office network.

Unfortunately, since then all we have had is empty rhetoric about a commitment to rural Ireland and the vital services that underpin it.

In March of this year Minister Michael Ring asked all interested parties to comment on a proposed new model of community banking to evaluate the viability of the model in the Irish context. But once again, since that point next to nothing has been done in terms of effective action.

This clearly demonstrates that the government has zero real interest in preserving the network.

The government may feel it has gotten itself off the hook by referring to the deal that has emerged. We are here to tell them otherwise.

The people of rural Ireland have now clearly seen that at best this government has a long history of shameful ambivalence toward the Post Office Network and for that there must be political accountability, concluded Deputy McGrath.Fine Gael's Garret Ahearn welcomed Tanaiste Simon Coveney to Tipperary on Monday.

Mr Ahearn, who is a friend and former employee of the Tanaiste organised the visit to coincide with the officially opening of the new state of the art milking parlour in Gurteen College in north Tipperary.

Tanaiste and former Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney who is a former pupil of the college opened the new dairy facility which has a new 30-unit DeLaval parlour.

This comes about following the schools recent decision to increase its dairy herd, expanding its number up from 100 pedigree Holstein Friesian cows.

We decided to allocate 250ac of land to dairying which effectively meant 250 black and white cows, said Gurteen College principal, Mike Pearson. Gurteen College has approximately 500 students at present.

They participate in a wide variety of courses both full-time and part-time.

Earlier that morning Local Councillor Ger Darcy welcomed Mr Coveney to a new Craft Brewery company called Canvas which is run by two sets of brewing brothers, who grow malt and hops on the family farm.

Maurice Deasy gave the guests a tour of the farm and spoke about the new Breweries and Distilleries Act which will for the first time allow for on-premises sales to visitor groups and members of the public.

Bike Park Ireland also welcomed the Tanaiste to their premise. Graham Kenny who leads this family-run business spoke to the Tanaiste about the opportunities which Tipperary and the midlands region has in attracting more tourists.

The farm is the location for one of Irelands first dedicated mountain bike parks. It has purpose-built trails for everyone from beginners to professionals.

The Tanaiste had lunch at Country Kitchen in Borrisokane where he addressed a large crowd of Fine Gael members. Mr. Coveney thanked the members for their support over the past number of years during a difficult time of having no government representation.

Garret Ahearn also acknowledged that the lower Ormond area in particular has had a challenging number of years.

Garret Ahearn who has connections from the Kilbarron and Coolbaun region said: I know we in Tipperary can feel sometimes as though we are forgotten about but I hope the Tanaistes visit here today shows the commitment this government has to Tipperary.The president of ICMSA has criticised the programme to close down a substantial number of rural post offices, saying that it was yet more evidence of the yawning infrastructure imbalance between investment in urban areas and rural districts.

Pat McCormack, who farms near Tipperary town, noted that there appeared to be a deliberate policy of applying the most crude cost-benefit analysis to any kind of rural infrastructure that contrasted with the money-no-obje approach that was adopted to astronomically expensive public investment projects for cities.

The Premier County will see eight post offices close under a deal worked out between An Post and the Irish Postmasters Union. Another post office will close in Moneygall.

Mr McCormack guessed that the annual cost of subventing all the rural post offices earmarked for closure would amount to a few metres of Luas rail, but that the State had evidently decided that spending on one element of the population was an unquestionable national priority while maintaining any kind of State presence in whole swathes of rural districts was too much of an inconvenience.

The ICMSA president also noted how unfortunate the timing of the announcement was, coming so close after the much-touted rural broadband roll-out had yet again run into contractual quicksand and lost still more of its dwindling impetus.

Mr McCormack said that the original plan had obviously been to have the broadband roll-out and post office closures overlapping so that the loss of access would be disguised.

That always looked unlikely and now looked positively impossible, he said.

The Government simply cannot continue to pay lip service to rural communities. We are losing essential services and the Government is letting it happen and not putting in place viable alternatives, said Mr McCormack.

As an example, he said that, in many rural areas and villages, people now had no access to cash facilities, pushing more and more economic activity into large towns and cities.

Convenient access to money promoteed economic activity and to counteract the closure of post offices in many rural communities ICMSA believed that publicly-funded cash points should be installed in these villages to assist local economic activity, he said.

Mr McCormack said that Government should also look at a range of incentives aimed at supporting and developing rural economic activity.

The investment and infrastructure imbalance was always there, but in recent times it has widened to the point where rural dwellers are entitled to feel forgotten. Irish State investment and infrastructure desperately need rebalancing, said Mr McCormackSeptember 04, 2018





29% of businesses still dont have a professional website, and even fewer have a professional Search engine expert helping them.. They are losing out! Internet users are not doing a lot of searching around and most of them never get past the first 10 results before finding an answer to their question.







So you need your website at least in the top 10 to be sure to not be missing out on traffic. One thing you need to be paying attention to get there is anchor text optimization.

Besides getting good links on good websites (with traffic). Anchor text optimization should probably be the #2 most important thing you should pay attention to when it comes to off-site SEO. If you have the right anchor text and continually get links from good sites, you are sure to at least start moving up the rankings (And eventually hit the top).

On the other hand, if you do it wrong, Google Penguin comes along. If you are not familiar with Penguin, let me break it down for you.

Google (News - Alert) Penguin is just a code name for the algorithm used to find spammy websites. It can penalize websites that do not comply with the Google Webmaster guidelines. If the below tips are a little confusing for you then be sure to get a good SEO agency to help you out.

The Top For Creating the Perfect Website in 2018

The following are some tricks that can help you build your website backlink profile and not end up with a Penguin penalty.

1. Select the right anchor texts.

Choosing the right anchor text requires analysis and practice.

First, check your site with a tool like Majestic SEO, to see what sort of anchor text you have already. Once you have this you need to then make it more natural looking going forward.

So what you dont need going to your site is 1,000 links that have an anchor text exactly like what you want to rank for.

In fact you should aim for about 25-40% brand key phrases then the rest other and most of these others should not be the phrase you are trying to rank for.

So lets break down exactly what these phrases are. They include:-

Branded

Like I said, this type should make up 25-40% of your total profile. A branded anchor text will rely on the name of the brand to mark its authority. This is a great anchor to use since Google will start to recognize you as a true brand if you do this right. If you check say coca cola companies majestic profile they have 50% at least that is brand related.

While you do not need to compete with them you still want to follow their lead. Because if you get a similar type profile Google will automatically start giving you brand cred and you will find it easier to rank for keywords without even trying.

Generic

Generic anchor texts can help with your SEO strategy; they are best at utilizing flow in your content.

You can use this anchor text to draw your target audience attention to your website. However, be careful it can get pretty boring, and Google might not end up getting what the anchor text is linking.

Some examples of generic terms are Click here, visit this site, and go now. Google list of generic anchors and you will find thousands and thousands, if you ever run out.

Images

Image anchors help your audience navigate within your website and to your website from other sites. This option is more like an advertisement, and it should have a clickable action (Like text in the image click here).

Be aware that the alt text is the anchor text that Google sees for this type of link, so this needs to follow the same percentages as the others. You could hire a website design company to help you create the right images if you need help on this.

Naked

Naked anchor text is basically the website's full address like https://example.com/. and all its varities like http://www.example.com or http://example.com/page.html. This doesnt have to be a huge part of your link profile, like 2-3% should be fine. But it is found in all websites, so helps it to stay natural.

Exact match

An exact match anchor uses the exact keywords as your targeted keyword in your website. So say you are targeting wooden chairs this would mean getting some anchors with exactly that phrase wooden chairs coming to your site. This used to be all you needed to get to rank for a phrase.

However, those days are long gone as Google started to penalize websites for overusing this type of anchor text. Only get 1% or max 3% and only from the best websites that you get links from.

Partial match

Partial match is a great anchor text that helps you include other words in your keyword without coming off as too spammy. Going back to our wood chair example this would be getting links that said chair wooden, wood, chairs, etc.

2. The best SEO linking starts on your site.

It is crucial to know that you do not always have control of the links that will lead you to your site. Thus it is best to use the best anchor text ratios within your own website as well. The same ratios that I mentioned before apply here as well.

3. Do not use the same anchor text more than once

Anchor text selection should be as natural as possible. Before the dawn of Penguin people would always link their search to only one anchor text. However, nowadays things have changed completely.

The chances of websites having the same anchor text to link to other sites are small. For your business to stand out, it is best not to repeat anchor texts except in one exception. This is the exception of your brand name. I have tried to over do this but never really found an upper limit that caused a penalty. So when in doubt get a brand anchor.

4. Be focused and stay on topic

Here is a bonus linking tip. When it comes to SEO practices, relevance is key for good anchor text. Therefore the article and website your links are on should match the keywords that are embedded in your link.

If the content is not related to your link, then Google will view it as a manipulative site, and you may end up getting penalized.

I.e. you are a wooden chair site and you go out and get links in articles and websites all about computers, dogs and economics.

Not that you cant get one or two links there but the majority of your links? They arent relevant to you. Aim more for sites about furniture or general sites that mention you in articles that naturally would mention your website.[September 01, 2018] A10 Networks to Showcase Innovations in 5G Mobile Network Security, Cloud, DDoS Mitigation and Application Visibility & Analytics at GITEX 2018

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 4th September, 2018 A10 Networks (NYSE: ATEN), a provider of intelligent and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced its participation at GITEX Technology Week taking place between 14-18 October, 2018. The company will demonstrate its entire portfolio of market leading solutions including Service Provider network security to support IoT in the age of 5G, multi-cloud management, DDoS protection and application visibility & analytics.







A10 is keen to demonstrate the following:  GI/SGI firewall protection for mobile networks - IoT and 5G service offerings offer telco operators greater revenue opportunities but also heightens security risks. Service providers must defend mobile network infrastructure, applications and subscribers against malicious online threats and multi-vector attacks, while maintaining always-on network availability and the best possible subscriber experience. A10 Thunder CFW with integrated Gi/SGi firewall capabilities, delivers the performance that mobile carriers require to scale and efficiently safeguard their infrastructure, including the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) and PDN gateway (PGW) in the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).



 Application Environment Management & Analytics - As organizations in the Middle East make the transition to the cloud, they face challenges relating to streamlining and automating the provisioning, configuration and management of infrastructure across on-premise and multi-cloud environments. GITEX provides an opportunity for A10 to showcase its revolutionary Harmony Platform that solves this challenge. Founded on a vision of anywhere, anytime policy enforcement, the Harmony platform connects secure application services to on-premise environments and public, private and hybrid clouds. The A10 Harmony Controller, in virtualized, SaaS and physical form factor, manages secure application delivery services across multi-clouds and integrates multi-services for configuration and automation.





 DDoS Mitigation - A10 will also use GITEX as a platform to educate regional CIOs and IT managers about DDoS mitigation strategies. The company will showcase A10 Thunder TPS which is the worlds highest-performance DDoS protection solution providing up to 300 Gbps in throughput and up to 440 Mpps in mitigation capacity. The product surgically detects and mitigates megabit to terabit DDoS attacks at the network edge. As part of its security portfolio, A10 also has the most comprehensive decryption solution - A10 Thunder SSLi (SSL Insight) that decrypts traffic, enabling security devices to analyze all enterprise traffic without compromising performance.



 Office 365 Scaling & Security - Another solution that A10 will demonstrate at GITEX will be the companys technology for scaling and securing Office 365 applications. Security and access control are some of the major concerns with Office 365 and other SaaS deployments. On-premise hardware solutions, such as A10 Thunder appliances, provide unparalleled performance, efficiency and security controls, along with traffic steering; features that are impossible to match with cloud-based solutions.



Talking about the companys participation at GITEX, Mohammed Al-Moneer, Regional Director - Middle East & North Africa at A10 Networks says, Gitex offers a great platform for our company to expose our brand and showcase our products and capabilities to decision makers from various segments of the market that attend the event. As a market leader in Service Providers in CGN/DDoS, and with over 7,000 customers world-wide, we are always looking to share best practices and rich technology insights with the community. At the same time, we are eager to gain a greater understanding of how A10 can help current and future customers in the Middle East based on a customized approach to the regions specific needs. A10 Networks will be exhibiting from its partner Ingram Micros stand number 11 in Hall No. 4. As a community-building service, TMCnet allows user submitted content which is not always proofed by TMCnet editors. If you feel this entry is of inferior quality or wish to report it for some reason, please forward the URL to "webedit [AT] tmcnet [DOT] com" with your comments.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 03, 2018] MediaKind Evolves Digicel's TV Service by Doubling the Number of Channels Serving Papua New Guinea

MediaKind, the new identity for Ericsson's (News - Alert) Media Solutions business, is supporting Digicel, a leading communications provider in Asia Pacific, to evolve its digital TV service, adding 48 new channels through deploying MediaKind's award-winning compression headend technology and expanded transmitter infrastructure. Digicel (News - Alert) is the leading provider of digital TV services in Papua New Guinea (PNG). To deliver more immersive content experiences and a wider range of content to viewers in the region, Digicel enlisted MediaKind to enhance its current system with an additional 48 SD MPEG4 channels to Digicel's PNG platform. The extension brings Digicel's coverage to 92 channels broadcast over satellite DTH and DTB-T2 networks. MediaKind will deploy two of its next generation AVP 4000 Encoder Systems and modulation to feed two new satellite transponders. To support the largest number of users, the first expansion for the DVB-T2 VHF terrestrial transmitters takes place at Burn's Peak site in Port Moresby that will be integrated by Techtel (News - Alert) with MediaKind providing a three-year headend support as part of the deal managed from Sydney, Australia. Alan Constant, CTO of Digicel Media Ventures Ltd said: "We are always looking for ways to enhance the services we offer to our customers in Papua New Guinea. This extension is helping us to deliver a wider range of high-quality content to our viewers. We have been working alongside MediaKind for many years and trust its ability to deliver the highest quality content with leading tecnologies and support."



Ken Yap (News - Alert) , SVP North East Asia Sales, MediaKind says, "We are delighted to extend our partnership with Digicel and support them to drive digital TV's growth in Papua New Guinea. Consumers are constantly seeking access to new, immersive content. For Digicel this expansion opens up the potential for new monetization opportunities and additional high-quality services for viewers across the region. The extended deal is testament to the reliability of our industry-leading compression technology and solutions, which are continually evolving to meet new broadcast challenges." The AVP 4000 System Encoder efficiently delivers high-quality content while helping operators to satisfy consumer demand for greater content choice and accessibility on all devices. AVP 4000 System Encoders offer a future-proof modular architecture that permits on-site upgrades with no hassle or interruption. The AVP 4000 system encoders handle MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC, with a smooth upgrade path to 4K UHDTV.

ENDS MediaKind launched on 10th July as a new brand identity for Ericsson Media Solutions. For background on MediaKind, please refer to the launch press release here. http://www.mediakind.com/ About MediaKind at IBC At IBC 2018, MediaKind will show how it is enabling broadcasters and operators to adapt to a constantly shifting media landscape with its portfolio of next generation solutions. Visitors to the stand will experience how it is driving innovation across contribution & distribution, direct to consumer, video delivery networks, content discovery & personalization, and global services & support. Stand: #1.D61 Find out more here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180903005277/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 03, 2018] MyGenomeBox to exhibit "Genomic Future" at Mobile World Congress Americas 2018 Los Angeles

INCHEON, South Korea and LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MyGenomeBox, the world's first genome based open sharing platform, today announced that they will be exhibiting at the Mobile World Congress Americas 2018 September 12 - 14, at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. Mobile World Congress Americas 2018 is mobile industry fair to be held in North America, following last year's San Francisco, by the GSMA that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, which hosts MWC, the world's largest mobile industry exposition. MyGenomeBox will show 'Genomic Future' that allows users to customize exercise and feedback according to individual genome data, and to apply genome data to shopping, lifestyle and eating habits through various product configurations. Recently, MyGenomeBox have launched an app "DNA Matching Service". This app analyzes the HLA gene which is deeply involved in the biological attractiveness. Based on the above, it calculates the degree of attractiveness between models who attended the model competition called "Face of Asia" from 27 countries and the customers based on the genes and digitizes it. Furthermore, MyGenomeBox and a matchmaking service company are planning a 'DNA blind date' that analyzes the genetic data of 12 men and women and uses it for the blind date. MyGenomeBox plans to release an app that will allow people to see the genetic appeal between their opponents and themselves.



"Genome analysis and utilization are still in the stage of growth. In the not-too-distant future, a day will come when many people will own their genetic data and use it wherever they want it. The launch of the MyGenomeBox mobile app enables users to upload their genetic data by using their smartphones, regardless of time or location, and to use personalized services based on them. MyGenomeBox will do our best to utilize the genetic data in a more convenient and interesting way in the future. The main purpose of participating in MWCA is to explore global partners who utilize IoT throughout the mobile industry, as well as various applications, products and services that use genetic data", said Young Tae Park, CEO of the MyGenomeBox. A variety of personalized services and genome-based ecosystem provided by MyGenomeBox are available on their website, www.mygenomebox.com, the Google Play Store, and the App Store. New apps and future genome based mobile MyGenomeBox will be available at the booth W.1214.

*About MyGenomeBox Co., Ltd. MyGenomeBox provides the genome based open sharing platform enables the individuals to manage their own genetic information safely and utilize them continuously in various applications through 'DNA App Store' technology, one of the '10 Innovative Technologies', which is selected by 'MIT Technology Review 2016'. Already in MyGenomeBox platform, it is possible to check DNA information through more than 100 different DNA apps, and on the basis of it, the commercialization of many personalized products and solution programs are under processing, such as cosmetics, health food, training and etc. Media Contact: MyGenomeBox Co., Ltd.

Kwanwoo Nam

Email: kwnam@mygenomebox.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mygenomebox-to-exhibit-genomic-future-at-mobile-world-congress-americas-2018-los-angeles-300706015.html SOURCE MyGenomeBox

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 03, 2018] Ethoca Wins Three Honors at Australian Fraud Awards 2018

Ethoca, the industry standard for collaboration-based technology solutions that enable card issuers and online merchants to improve customer experience, increase card acceptance and stop ecommerce fraud and disputes, announced today that it has won 'Most Innovative Online Solution', 'Vendor of the Year' and 'Best Collaborative Solution - Highly Commended' at the 2018 Australian Fraud Awards. Hosted by Retail Risk, a global conference series attended by loss prevention professionals, the Fraud Awards celebrate the best anti-fraud and security technologies on the market today. Judges highlighted the innovative nature of Ethoca's recently released Integrated Solution Suite. Comprised of three products working in sequence - Ethoca Eliminator, Ethoca Alerts and Enhanced Representments - this layered defensive system improves the customer experience while simultaneously reducing fraud and chargebacks and boosting transaction acceptance. Speaking on the triple award win, Brett Small - Ethoca's Regional Director for Asia Pacific - commented: "We're delighted to be recognized not once, but three times at this year's Australian Fraud Awards. The card-not-present industry in APAC is faced with increasing levels of criminal fraud and friendly fraud (also known as 'false claims'), leading to significant pain for merchants, issuers and cardholders alike. In sectors like digital goods, false claims now reach upwards of 90% of all fraud volumes, which is having a significant impact on card acceptance. "Our new Integrated Solution Suite tackles genuine fraud, disputes and friendly fraud at the source, reducing customer frustration and eliminating the need for expensive and time-consumin chargeback processes. Last year alone, merchants on our network were able to stop more than 4,687,000 chargebacks. As more issuers and merchants collaborate, more intelligence is shared, more fraud and chargebacks are eliminated and, most important of all, more good transactions are accepted."



The first layer of defense in Ethoca's Integrated Solution Suite is Ethoca Eliminator. Eliminator resolves incoming friendly fraud disputes on the spot by providing cardholders with instant access to real time merchant intelligence the moment they call in to their bank, or directly via their desktop or mobile banking app. With cardholders now able to recognize their purchases through extended data including the digital receipt and rich order details, disputes are 'deflected' instantly and cardholders enjoy a much better experience. If cardholders continue to dispute a transaction, Ethoca Alerts then kicks in, sharing direct-from-source issuer data with merchants. This reduces the time it takes for merchants to be alerted to fraud and customer disputes from weeks to as little as a few minutes. Critically, it provides a unique opportunity to stop fulfillment and resolve the dispute through direct refund to the cardholder - avoiding chargebacks entirely.

Merchants with high friendly fraud rates and the necessary compelling evidence may choose to fight their chargebacks to recover their revenue. Enhanced Representments is Ethoca's flexible platform that leverages the know-how of Ethoca's chargeback experts and automates the representment process so merchants get their money back faster and more efficiently - recovering revenue on up to 80% of all represented chargebacks. Ethoca's presence in Asia-Pacific continues to expand, with customers now spanning 13+ countries in the region. This includes 18 leading card issuers and many of the area's biggest ecommerce and retail brands - making Ethoca the largest and most wide-spread source of actionable customer dispute and fraud data in APAC. About Ethoca Ethoca is the leading, global provider of collaboration-based technology that enables card issuers, ecommerce merchants and online businesses to increase card acceptance, stop more fraud, recover lost revenue and eliminate chargebacks from both fraud and customer service disputes. Through the Ethoca Network - the first and only of its kind in the industry - we are closing the information gap between card issuers and merchants. This unique capability makes fraud and customer dispute insight available and actionable in real time. Our suite of services delivers significant revenue growth and cost saving opportunities to more than 5,400 merchants in 40+ countries and more than 590 card issuers in 20+ countries. Eight of the top ten North American ecommerce brands, 14 of the top 20 North American card issuers and six of the top ten UK card issuers rely on Ethoca solutions and the network that powers them. To learn more, visit www.ethoca.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180903005345/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Flash

African leaders participating in the ongoing Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) have applauded Chinese President Xi Jinping's commitment towards cooperation with the continent and the benefits that the Belt and Road Initiative brings.





President Xi on Monday said China will implement eight major initiatives with African countries in the next three years and beyond, covering areas such as industrial promotion, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, and green development, as well as provide new funding of US$60 billion to the continent.





South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he welcomed the announcement made by President Xi of the new FOCAC initiatives which, he said, will have a significant and lasting impact on peace, stability and sustainable development on the African continent.





Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and rotating Chairperson of the African Union, gave a strong endorsement of the FOCAC framework, which, he said, has "grown into a powerful engine of cooperation."





He added that he is glad the initiative has opened up new pathways for cooperation, such as in the areas of environmental protection as well as people-to-people exchanges.





Kagame said Africa wishes to be an integral part of the China proposed Belt and Road Initiative. He added that through this initiative, Africa hopes to improve project management, increase participation of the African private sector and improve connectivity to the global market through a partnership with China, which he considers a win-win partner and sincere friend.





During the opening ceremony of the FOCAC Beijing Summit, President Xi said China supports African countries as they jointly embark on the development of the Belt and Road Initiative. He further called for the alignment of the Belt and Road construction with the implementation of the African Union's Agenda 2063, the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as the development strategies of various African countries.





"Africa is an extension of the Belt and Road development historically and naturally, and is an important participant in the initiative," Xi said when addressing the High-Level Dialogue Between Chinese and African Leaders and Business Representatives on Monday morning.





China does not attach any political strings to its investment in Africa under the Belt and Road Initiative, neither does it interfere in African countries' internal affairs nor impose its demands on others, he noted.





Ramaphosa said the initiative, which effectively complements the work of FOCAC, "will reduce costs and increase the volume of trade between Africa and China" as well as "encourage the development of Africa's infrastructure, a critical requirement for meaningful regional and continental integration."





Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, praised China's support for Africa and urged the two sides to further align their development efforts. He stressed the importance of this, especially in the current global political climate, which he said is fraught with worrying trends such as the rise of unilateralism.





Faki said the eight initiatives and 60 billion U.S. dollars of assistance Xi announced "is concrete proof of China's support to Africa." Faki stressed that the African Union welcomes the Belt and Road Initiative and both sides "need to further create synergy between the AU's Agenda 2063 and the Belt and Road Initiative."





The chairperson also said the AU is actively committed to multilateralism that is characterized by mutual assistance and generosity. "China-Africa cooperation is a solid foundation for a new international order," Faki noted.[September 04, 2018] Reval, an ION Treasury solution, earns award from Fides for Best Treasury Management System (TMS) Partner

NEW YORK and ZURICH, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ION, the largest global provider of trading, analytics and risk management solutions for capital markets, commodities and treasury management, today announced that Fides Treasury Services Ltd., the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and communications, has recognized Reval in the category of treasury management systems (TMS) as "Best TMS Partner 2017." Reval is a global SaaS solution for treasury and risk management in the ION Treasury portfolio. Providing the industry's largest bank connectivity network, Fides helps thousands of active clients communicate with more than 10,000 banks in 170 countries. Reval's partner award from Fides is the culmination of a fruitful relationship between Fides and Reval spanning nearly seven years. The partnership enhances global multi-banking connectivity and straight-through processing (STP) for clients who operate sophisticated, international corporate treasuries and require their treasury management systems to interface directly with financial institutions. Simon Kaufmann, Head of Cient Relations and Marketing at Fides, said, "The Fides partnership with Reval makes it easy and effective for companies on Reval's platform to connect with any bank, any time, and not worry about multiple file formats and interfaces. We look forward to many more years of collaboration with the team at ION Treasury to make multi-banking connectivity a reality for clients in any industry, around the world."



Reval clients such as UPS (United Parcel Service) have tapped the Fides-Reval partnership to achieve close to real-time cash visibility, strengthen cash positioning, and streamline global bank messaging and payments processingfrom any institution, without leaving the Reval environment. Clients can avoid the cost and complexity of connecting to multiple bank interfaces independently, regardless of channelSWIFT, EBICS, SFTP or any alternative networkand take full advantage of the Fides solution to access mission-critical account data from their desks. Jim Gilbert, Head of Client Management and Alliances for ION Treasury, said, "We are delighted to earn the Best TMS Partner award from Fides and continue our work together for global treasury and finance teams. Fides and ION Treasury share a vision and approach for seamless, cost-effective treasury management experiences that deliver critical, secure and accurate multi-bank account statement, payment workflow and reporting capabilities."

Fides recognized Reval at the annual Fides Community Conference on August 24 in Zurich, Switzerland. ION Treasury serves more than 1,300 clients in more than 30 countries. Market-leading products include City Financials, IT2, ITS, Openlink, Reval, Treasura, and Wallstreet Suite, satisfying the needs of companies of any size, budget, and IT capability. About ION

ION provides mission-critical trading and workflow automation software solutions to financial institutions, central banks, governments and corporates. For more information, visit www.iongroup.com. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/reval-an-ion-treasury-solution-earns-award-from-fides-for-best-treasury-management-system-tms-partner-300705379.html SOURCE ION Investment Group

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Guatemalan Constitutional Court Reverses Supreme Court Ruling to Reinstate Escobal Mining License

Tahoe Resources Inc. ("Tahoe" or the "Company") (TSX: THO, NYSE: TAHO) reports that it has learned through a Guatemalan Constitutional Court Press Conference held today that the Constitutional Court reversed the Supreme Court's decision to reinstate the Escobal mining license of Tahoe's Guatemalan subsidiary, Minera San Rafael ("MSR"). We understand that the Constitutional Court's resolution orders that the Escobal mining license will remain suspended until the Ministry of Energy and Mines ("MEM") completes the ILO 169 consultation with the Xinka communities in the region of the Escobal mine. At this time, the Company does not have a timeline for completion of MEM's ILO 169 consultation. However, in the similar case of OXEC, MEM completed the consultation within 6 months. The Constitutional Court is expected to issue a formal resolution in the next several days. Upon review of the written ruling, the Company will provide further updates. About Tahoe Resources Inc. Tahoe Resources is a mid-tier precious metals company with a diverse portfolio of mines and projects in Canada, Guatemala and Peru. Tahoe is led by experienced mining professionals dedicated to creating sustainable value for all of its stakeholders through responsible mining. The company is listed on the TSX ("THO") and NYSE ("TAHO") and is a member of the S&P/TSX Composite, the TSX Global Mining indices and the Russell 2000 on the NYSE. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON (News - Alert) FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the US Exchange Act, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or in releases made by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, all as may be amended from time to time, and "forward-looking information" under the provisions of applicable Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of the Company. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or variations or comparable language of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's announcement of a formal resolution regarding Escobal's mining license, the requirement that MEM complete ILO Consultation before the mining license can be reinstated, and the Company's plans for further updates.



Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include the timing for completion and results of the proposed ILO 169 Consultation with the Xinka communities in the region of the Escobal mine.. Assumptions, risks and uncertainties are discussed in more detail in our public filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, on EDGAR at www.sec.gov or on the Company's website at www.tahoeresources.com. Although management has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Except as otherwise indicated by the Company, these statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any disposition, monetization, merger, acquisition, other business combination or other transaction that may be announced or that may occur after the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of the Company's operating environment. The Company does not intend or undertake to publicly update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as, and to the extent required by, applicable securities laws.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180903005362/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018]

Alliance University Named 'The Best University in Building Industry Academia Interface in India' by ABP News

BANGALORE, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Alliance University and its leadership gets recognised at the recently concluded National Education Awards by ABP News. The ABP News National Education Awards was held in Mumbai in July 2018. The award recognizes Institutions and academic leaders in the field of education that are innovative, modern and industry related in terms of curriculum and diverse disciplines. In its 9th edition of the ABP News National Educational Awards, Alliance University was named the 'Best University in Building Industry Academia Interface' and Dr. Anubha Singh, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Alliance University received the Visionary Leadership Award.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738377/Alliance_University_ABP_News.jpg )









ABP News is a popular Hindi news channel from ABP News Network Pvt. Ltd. (ANN - http://www.abpnewsnetwork.com/ ); the channel was formerly known as Star News. ABP News Network is one of the biggest Indian media conglomerate; Anandabazar Patrika ventured into television space with a joint venture in 2003 with Star India. ABP News is India's first 24-hr national Hindi news channel catering to North India primarily.

About Alliance University:

Alliance University is a private University established in Karnataka State by Act No.34 of year 2010 and is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi.

The University is known for its diverse degree courses, state-of-the-art campus, high quality education and excellent placement record, aspires to be among the best universities in the world by the year 2025.[September 04, 2018] BIOPHYTIS Provides Enrollment Update in Its Phase 2b SARA-OBS and SARA-INT Studies of Sarconeos in Sarcopenia

Over 200 patients recruited in the SARA-OBS study with the majority of patients enrolled from the U.S. and Belgium 60 patients ready to enter the SARA-INT trial

PARIS, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIOPHYTIS (Euronext Growth Paris: ALBPS), a biotechnology company specializing in the development of drug candidates to fight age-related degenerative diseases, today announced that it has enrolled over 200 of the 334 sarcopenic patients in the Phase 2b SARA-OBS study in the 11 centers opened in the United States and in Europe, and that 60 patients have passed the 6-month observational phase and are now ready to enter the interventional phase of the study. The interventional study, SARA-INT, has already started in Belgium and will expand to the United States in the 11 centers already opened under SARA-OBS, as well as in the 11 new centers dedicated to SARA-INT. Stanislas Veillet, CEO of BIOPHYTIS, said: The significant recruitment of Sarcopenic patients already carried out in the United States and in Belgium in our Phase 2b SARA-OBS clinical trial shows the rapid progress of the study that will allow us to test the efficacy of our drug candidate Sarconeos and validate our technology. This also marks our strong foothold in the United States, as 2/3 of the patients recruited under SARA-OBS were in the United States. Recruitment of the majority of patients in SARA-INT is expected to be completed by the end of the year, which will provide preliminary results in the second half of 2019. The double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2b SARA-INT study will include approximately 334 patients, of which more than 200 have already been recruited under SARA-OBS, which includes 11 clinical centers in Europe (Belgium, France and Italy) and in the United States. Of these more than 200 patients, 60 of them have already completed the observational study and are ready to enter the interventional study. The rest of the patients will be recruited from 11 new clinical centers, which are in the process of opening specifically for SARA-INT. The clinical protocol, in particular the inclusion criteria and the main criterion, was defined following the scientific opinion of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the comments of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in the context of a new experimental drug application (IND). In 2017, the FDA and the Belgian Medicines Agency (AFMPS) gave their agreements to start this study. The agreement of the French and Italian agencies are expected to be obtained before the end of 2018. Dr. Roger Fielding, Professor of Medicine, Tufts University of Medicine in Boston, is the Principal Investigator of the study and the Chairman of the Companys Steering Committee. Dr. Marco Pahor, Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research and Director of the Institute on Aging at the College of Medicine, University of Florida in Gainesville, is Vice President of the Steering Committee. Additionally, as announced earlier, the Company recently appointed Dr. Samuel Agus as Chief Medical Officer of BIOPHYTIS, who is based in Cambridge, MA, to supervise the Company's clinical trials, especially those conducted in the US as part of the SARA study. About SARA-INT

General objectives:

1. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of two doses of BIO101 (175 mg bid and 350 mg bid) given orally for 26 weeks placebo in a population of men and women over 65 years of age. years with a risk of motor disability.

2. Estimate the effect of treatment, improvement of physicalfunction, and decreased risk of motor disability after six months of treatment with placebo in the target population.







Main evaluation criterion:

The walking speed measured during the test of 400 meters of walking, the variation compared to the baseline at the 6th month will be compared between the groups treated (each dose compared to placebo).



Main secondary endpoints:

Variation from baseline of standard Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO): PF-10 score of SF36; chair lift test (SPPB intermediate score);





Other secondary evaluation criteria:

Change in baseline of appendix body mass (ALM), body composition measured by DEXA, muscle strength (handle / knee extension); climb test of the stairs; SPPB; 6 minutes walk;



Study population:

334 individuals (male or female over 65 years) reporting a loss of physical function within the last 6-12 months and considered at risk of motor disability will be included in the SARA-INT random interventional clinical trial (106). patients per treatment group) and will take treatment over 26 weeks.



Main inclusion criteria:

1. Male or female, over the age of 65, living in the vicinity, reporting a loss of physical function in the past 6 to 12 months

2. SPPB score = 8

3. ALM / BMI <0.789 in men and 0.512 in women, or ALM <19.75 kg in men and <15.02 kg in women, measured by DEXA scan. About SARCONEOS

Sarconeos is a first-in-class drug candidate based on the activation of the MAS receptor (major player of the renin-angiotensin system) restoring muscular anabolism, inhibiting myostatin, and that had demonstrated meaningful activity in animal models of muscular dystrophies. Sarconeos is developed in the treatment of sarcopenia, an age-related degeneration of skeletal muscle, leading to loss of mobility in elderly people. This condition, for which no medical treatment currently exists, was first described in 1993 and has entered the International Classification of Diseases (M62.84) in 2016. It affects more than 50 million people worldwide.



About BIOPHYTIS

BIOPHYTIS SA (www.biophytis.com), founded in 2006, develops drug candidates targeting diseases of aging. Using its technology and know-how, BIOPHYTIS has begun clinical development of innovative therapeutics to restore the muscular and visual functions in diseases with significant unmet medical needs. Specifically, the company is advancing two lead products into mid-stage clinical testing this year: Sarconeos (BIO101) to treat sarcopenic obesity and Macuneos (BIO201) to treat dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The business model of BIOPHYTIS is to ensure the conduct of the project until clinical activity in the patient is proven, then to license the technologies in order to continue the development in partnership with a pharmaceutical laboratory.

Based on the Sorbonne Universite campus, BIOPHYTIS collaborates with expert scientists from several Sorbonne Universite institutes such as the Paris Seine Biology Institute, the Institute of Myology, and the Vision Institute. BIOPHYTIS is listed on the Euronext Growth market of Euronext Paris (ALBPS; ISIN: FR0012816825). For more information: http://www.biophytis.com Follow us on Twitter @biophytis BIOPHYTIS is eligible for the SMEs scheme Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company's actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors (Facteurs de Risque) section of the Listing Prospectus upon the admission of Companys shares for trading on the regulated market Euronext Growth of Euronext Paris filed with the AMF, which is available on the AMF website (www.amf-france.org) or on BIOPHYTIS website (www.biophytis.com). This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to shares in BIOPHYTIS in any country. Items in this press release may contain forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. The Companys actual results could differ substantially from those anticipated in these statements owing to various risk factors which are described in the Companys prospectus. This press release has been prepared in both French and English. In the event of any differences between the two texts, the French language version shall prevail. BIOPHYTIS Citigate Dewe Rogerson LifeSci Advisors Stanislas VEILLET International media & Investors Chris MAGGOS CEO Laurence BAULT/Antoine DENRY Managing Director, Europe contact@biophytis.com Laurence.bault@citigatedewerogerson.com chris@lifesciadvisors.com Tel: +33 (0) 1 44 27 23 00 antoine.denry@citigatedewerogerson.com Tel: +41 79 367 6254 Tel: +33 (0)1 53 32 84 78 Mob: +33(0)6 64 12 53 61



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Wirecard's Integrated Payment Solution Now Available Across Online IKEA Stores in Malaysia

ASCHHEIM, Germany and SINGAPORE, Sept. 4, 2018/PRNewswire/ -- Shoppers will be able to benefit from a fuss-free and secure payment experience when they make purchases at IKEA stores in Malaysia

New payment options to be rolled out for Singapore and Malaysia consumers Online shoppers at IKEA can now benefit from Wirecard's integrated payment solution launched in Malaysia today. The solution from the leading innovation driver of digital financial technology allows consumers to choose from a range of payment options for products and services, while ensuring that every transaction is secure. This is part of a regional wide roll-out of Wirecard's platform services across IKEA stores in Southeast Asia, which has been launched in Singapore and will be rolled out in Thailand in the coming months. Koen Besteman, Head of e-Commerce for IKEA Southeast Asia, commented: "We are delighted to offer a high-quality and safer shopping experience for our IKEA consumers in Malaysia through our cooperation with Wirecard. Be it credit, debit or other alternative paymentmethods, our customers will be able to enjoy a peaceful and safer shopping experience when shopping online."



Jeffry Ho, Regional Managing Director at Wirecard, added: "One of the challenges businesses with regional presence face is in trying to tie their operations across various markets together. With our technology and expertise, what we at Wirecard can do to is help businesses like IKEA focus on what they do best. For IKEA, that is about delivering great home and furnishing experiences while we support them in offering seamless and flexible payment experiences to fully digitize their payment processes. We are excited to bring these possibilities live to online stores in IKEA Malaysia, and look forward to extending the option to a wider segment of IKEA shoppers across Southeast Asia in the coming months." The service by Wirecard is based on a single integration point for all payment methods across the region, enabling IKEA Southeast Asia to profit from simplified integration and faster rollout. In addition, the system offers real-time checks enabling IKEA Southeast Asia the ability to ensure payments are timely made while ensuring fraud prevention.

About Wirecard: Wirecard (GER:WDI) is one of the world's fastest growing digital platforms in the area of financial commerce. We provide both business customers and consumers with a constantly expanding ecosystem of real-time value-added services built around innovative digital payments by using an integrated B2B2C approach. This ecosystem concentrates on the areas payment & risk, retail & transaction banking, loyalty & couponing, data analytics & conversion rate enhancement in all sales channels (online, mobile, ePOS). Wirecard operates regulated financial institutions in several key markets, holds issuing and acquiring licenses from all major payment and card networks. Wirecard AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE0007472060). Visit us on http://www.wirecard.com , follow us on Twitter @wirecard and on Facebook @wirecardgroup. Wirecard media contact: Wirecard AG

Jana Tilz

Tel.: +49-(0)-89-4424-1363

Email: jana.tilz@wirecard.com SOURCE Wirecard AG

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Kotak Institutional Equities strengthens relationship with Itiviti

MUMBAI, India, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Itiviti, the leading global provider of multi-asset trading technology and financial infrastructure, today announced that Kotak Institutional Equities (KIE), one of India's leading brokerages, has extended the use of Itiviti's connectivity platform and deployed Enhanced Direct Market Access (EDMA) to support the firm's growing equities and derivatives trading business, and to enhance services to its global clients. KIE has successfully deployed an Itiviti FIX solution to address its connectivity challenges. Recognizing the benefits brought by Itiviti, KIE decided to add EDMA to manage the complexity of their clients' ever-growing requirements. With EDMA, KIE can handle multiple order types and send synthetic GTC and GTD orders. Itiviti's EDMA module enhances a broker DMA channel by enabling order queuing and order retention functionality to ensure that orders are managed smoothly across markets. The addition of EDMA further enhances KIE's order management capabilities, as their trading desk can now ensure that different order types are handled efficiently according to clients' requirements. Itiviti's modern and easily scalable FIX Hub allows KIE to plug in new modules as needed, which gives the firm the flexibility to introduce new and valuable services to clients, thus helping them to stay ahead of the competition. "KIE is a prominent Itiviti client in India, and we are delightedto help enhance one of the strongest electronic desks in this market with more of our industry-leading solutions," commented Ofir Gefen, President APAC, Itiviti. "Our long-term partnership with KIE clearly demonstrates their trust in Itiviti's solutions, technology and services. This is a further testimony to Itiviti's strong commitment to growth across the region."



For further information, please contact: Ofir Gefen, President APAC, Itiviti, Tel: +852 2167 1950, Email: ofir.gefen@itiviti.com

Agnes Wong, Marketing Director APAC, Itiviti, Tel: + 852 2167 1986, Email: agnes.wong@itiviti.com

About Kotak Institutional Equities

Kotak Institutional Equities (KIE), a division of Kotak Securities, is among India's leading institutional brokers. The division covers secondary market broking and markets Indian equity offerings, including IPOs, to domestic and foreign institutional investors (FIIs). KIE services more than 600 core clients including FIIs, domestic institutions and mutual funds and KIE's affiliates have offices in Mumbai, Singapore, Dubai, London and New York. KIE has a full-fledged research division, engaged in macroeconomic studies, and industry- and company-specific equity research. KIE offers its clients extensive corporate access through Kotak Mahindra Group's array of corporate products and services. For more information, please visit https://kie.kotak.com. About Itiviti Itiviti is a market-leading global provider of multi-asset trading technology and financial infrastructure solutions for buy-side and sell-side market participants, including NYFIX, one of the industry's largest FIX-based trading communities. Serving around 2,000 clients worldwide, we provide consistent, reliable access to the most up-to-date and innovative order routing, connectivity and trading solutions available. Top-tier trading firms, banks, brokers, exchanges and institutional investors rely on our technology, solutions and expertise to streamline their daily operations, connect to their desired markets, and trade when and where they want. All while being able to comply with global regulation. With global offices in 18 locations covering all major financial centers the merger of Itiviti and ULLINK in March 2018 created a full-service technology and infrastructure provider, covering all asset classes, geographies and regulatory landscapes. For more information, please visit www.itiviti.com or www.ullink.com. Itiviti is owned by Nordic Capital Fund VII. Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180719/2191221-1LOGO

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Mejuri Closes Series A Financing to Continue Building the Fine Jewelry Brand of Tomorrow

TORONTO, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand will use capital to fuel growth digitally and through physical stores Mejuri is a direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand revolutionizing the way women purchase jewelry. This month, the brand closed a $5 million Series A financing round led by London-based venture firm Felix Capital. Real Ventures, Incite Ventures, BDC Capital Women in Technology Fund, and Dash Ventures also participated in the round. Since launching, Mejuri has grown 400% year-over-year through organic marketing and a strong social strategy. The company focuses on keeping its product line fresh, having ongoing dialogues with customers, and creating a community that echoes Mejuri's ethos of "Forgetting occasions and making luxury a habit." The brand has sold 150,000 pieces of jewelry in the past year alone. Launched in 2015, Mejuri was founded by Noura Sakkijha and Maj Masad with the goal to create a brand for millennial women. Prior to this round, Mejuri had only raised $1 million in funding. "We've done a lot with little, and we consider this efficiency and attention to spend to be one of our biggest strengths," says Co-Founder and CEO Noura Sakkijha. The brand attributes this efficiency to its efforts to understand the economics of the business early and investing in channels and strategies that added value to their community. "I am inspired by entrepreneurs like Katrina Lake, who took Stitch Fix to its initial public offering with only $40 million in funding. It's a great example to help entrepreneurs realize that they can achieve substantial growth without seeking large amounts of capital prematurely." The company refreshes its collections regularly and pioneered the drop model in the traditional fine jewelry industry. Instead of large seasonal releases, Mejuri introduces new products contextualized with a new narrative every Monday. This 52-product-release model keeps Mejuri's product mix fresh and current. The frequent drops also keep the company in constant communication with its community to challenge the long-established belief that fine jewelry is an occasional purchase. Mejuri's key strategy has been to continuously engage customers and micro-influencers to establish direct one-on-one conversations through social media, email, and SMS. This personal connection has garnered thebrand a loyal community with repeat customers accounting for over 35% of monthly transactions. The brand has also seen tremendous growth on social media, approaching 300,000 organic and highly engaged Instagram followers.



With the Series A funding, Mejuri aims to further these relationships online and connect with more customers in-person. "We're thrilled to have more capital to extend our brand to physical stores over the next few quarters," says Sakkijha. "We've recently opened our first location in Toronto, with the next one being planned in New York City, and have been excited to connect with our customers and have them experience the brand IRL. I'm looking forward to meeting more of our customers in person."

From the onset, Mejuri invested heavily in every customer touchpoint. By building a creative agency in-house and focusing on customer experience, the company created a loyal and vocal community that shares its values. The Mejuri team, which is 80% women, is designing, marketing, and curating customer experiences to create the next generation fine jewelry brand for modern women. "We believe Felix Capital's focus on brand and customer experience aligns perfectly with our vision at Mejuri. We're happy to have their experienced team on board, and to continue disrupting the category by building a thoughtful, community-focused brand experience," says Co-Founder and COO Majed Masad. Sasha Astafyeva, principal at Felix agrees, saying: "Mejuri is a brand we have been watching for some time - their mastery of the digital space has engendered their impressive success to date and we are very happy to be able to support them to take the next step in their growth. We are proud to have worked with the likes of Farfetch, The Business of Fashion and goop since their early days so have high hopes for Mejuri." About Mejuri Mejuri is a digitally native brand founded on the belief that luxury should be accessible, fun, and part of every day. Their inspiration comes from their customers - real, smart, mindful women. Mejuri works with top jewelers, who commit to exceptional craftsmanship and ethical practices to produce quality pieces made of solid gold, sterling silver, diamonds, and semi precious stones. The company skips the middleman and sells directly to customers to provide fine jewelry at a fraction of the price of traditional retail. It's their mission to have women embrace a daily dose of luxury. Founded in 2015 in Toronto, Canada, the brand is millennial-izing fine jewelry with strong social strategies, direct relationships with customers, and catering to millennials who are informed about the products and brands with whom they shop. Mejuri Co-Founder and CEO Noura Sakkijha, a former engineer with deep roots in fine jewelry, leveraged her learnings from the industry to create a next-generation jewelry brand. Sakkijha and her team are focused on breaking the barriers between millennials and what has been always thought of as an exclusive and occasional category. About Felix Capital Felix Capital is a London-based venture capital firm for the Creative Class, operating at the intersection of technology and creativity. Felix focuses on digital lifestyle, investing in emerging digital consumer brands and related enabling-technologies. The firm's mission is to be a partner of choice for entrepreneurs with big ideas, and help them build strong brands that stand out and move the world forward. Since its launch in 2015, Felix has raised over $300 million across several funds. Illustrative investments in Europe and North America include: Farfetch, an online marketplace for the fashion and luxury; goop, the lifestyle brand started by Gwyneth Paltrow in LA; The Business of Fashion, a media platform for fashion professionals; Papier, a personalised stationery integrated brand; Highsnobiety, an online community for style-conscious millennial men; Yoobic, a software solution for retailers; and Peloton, a fitness technology and subscription service. Contact: Amanda Rosenhagen at Scott Ideas, +44-7734-482248

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Xiao-i and Actura Sign MOU for Strategic Partnership

SHANGHAI, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai Xiaoi Robot Technology Co. Ltd ("Xiao-i"), a leading developer of artificial intelligence technology and industry application platforms in China, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with Actura International ("Actura"), an Australia-based global provider of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in-class and out-of-class learning solutions. Actura has a strong presence in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Southeast Asia as well as operations in other regions. Through the collaboration, Xiao-i will establish a foothold for its expansion into the Southern Hemisphere, an important part of its internationalization progress. Under the agreement, Xiao-i will use its competitive advantages and expertise in AI to enrich Actura's products and services. A conversational AI solution will be implemented into Actura's customer portal and sales and marketing channels to innovate the customer engagement process. In addition, Actura will work on including the Xiao-i conversational AI engine in the CASE Robotic Curriculum and incorporating its features into Actura's FlipRobot, a key element in delivering the company's comprehensive robotic learning solution. Max Yuan, Co-Funder and Chairman, Xiao-i said, "We are excited to be signing this MOU which includes a number of developmental areas within the strategic partnership. STEAM learning is becoming a primary focus in education and with Actura, we are partnering with one of the leading providers and pioneers in the industry. Our AI solutions will enhance the interactivity of FlipRobot and the inclusion of our conversational AI engine in the robotic curriculum content is also testament to our caliber."



Charles Chung, CEO, Actura said, "In the next 30 years, 75% of the fastest growing professions will require STEAM-related skills. Our mission is to empower youth to master the critical transportable skills for their future success. The partnership with Xiao-i is a very important step to further our cause and realize our dream to become the most trusted STEAM education solution provider." About Xiao-i

Xiao-i develops world-class AI technologies and applications that revolutionize business operations and provide meaningful progress to people's lives. Since establishment in 2001, Xiao-i has become an industry pioneer, integrating its AI applications across multiple sectors. Over 1,000 businesses and government organizations in China have used Xiao-i applications to improve their operations and deliver greater value to more than 800 million users. Xiao-i has become a leader in the business-to-business space and is extending this success into consumer applications and solutions. Xiao-i's major investors include Alibaba Group, China Everbright, BlueFocus, Haiyin Capital and Huatai Securities.

Official website: http://www.xiaoi.com/

Linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xiaoi/ About Actura

Established in Australia since 2014, Actura provides the leading STEAM learning solution spanning from out-of-class and in-class environments. Actura is the exclusive global partner of the California Association for STEAM Education (CASE) providing the CASE Space School International Study Program to students. The FlipRobot range provides the ultimate robotic STEAM learning solution for the in-class environment. Actura has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, and Taipei with further expansion to new countries in progress. SOURCE Xiao-i

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] IBC: Preview of Offerings from Synamedia, the Company Being Created From the Acquisition of Cisco's Service Provider Video Software Solutions Business

LONDON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The new company to be formed from the sale of Cisco's Service Provider Video Software Solutions (SPVSS) business to a company backed by the Permira funds today is unveiled as Synamedia. "Syna" means "together" in Greek, reflecting Synamedia's ambition to bring together broadcast and OTT media services and enable clients to deliver exceptional customer experiences. With the transaction expected to close in the first half of Cisco's FY19, Synamedia's executive team will outline the new company's vision and plans at IBC 2018. The emphasis will be on continuing to provide the world's most complete, secure and advanced end-to-end open video delivery solution. New and enhanced video solutions from Cisco SPVSS's portfolio that will move to Synamedia will be showcased at IBC on the Cisco stand (1.A71). They all reflect Synamedia's singular focus: to empower telcos, media, and pay-TV providers to optimize their current infrastructure and capitalize on OTT distribution to expand consumer choice and convenience, secure their revenue streams, and develop new offerings. Highlights include: Fighting illegal streaming

Enhancements to VideoGuard include a forthcoming anti-piracy service for rapid detection of, and response to, illegal streaming. Other new offerings include VideoGuard Everywhere and VideoGuard Server support for Android devices.



Enhancements to VideoGuard include a forthcoming anti-piracy service for rapid detection of, and response to, illegal streaming. Other new offerings include VideoGuard Everywhere and VideoGuard Server support for Android devices. A boost to Evo middleware investment

A renewed investment in Evo will be a key strand in Synamedia's R&D plans. In an industry first, Evo now supports both one-way and one and a half-way connected devices, offering DTH customers in emerging markets an easy transition path to an environment where they can manage and monetize premium experiences on connected set-top boxes (STBs) - including Android TV.



A renewed investment in Evo will be a key strand in Synamedia's R&D plans. In an industry first, Evo now supports both one-way and one and a half-way connected devices, offering DTH customers in emerging markets an easy transition path to an environment where they can manage and monetize premium experiences on connected set-top boxes (STBs) - including Android TV. Android TV everywhere and RDK for Infinite Video Platform

With Android TV gaining traction among large pay-TV providers, Infinite Video Platform customers now have the choice of Android TV and RDK solutions for hybrid broadcast/IP services on multiple devices including STBs.



Offering the choice of Evo, Android TV and RDK allows customers to select the option best suited to their strategy.



With Android TV gaining traction among large pay-TV providers, Infinite Video Platform customers now have the choice of Android TV and RDK solutions for hybrid broadcast/IP services on multiple devices including STBs. Offering the choice of Evo, Android TV and RDK allows customers to select the option best suited to their strategy. Cloud DVR

Already live with many large py-TV operators, and now supporting more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, the Cloud DVR solution provides the scalability and resilience required by customers. Since the start of 2018, five new operators  including Malaysian operator Astro, whose demo will be on the stand  have chosen to deploy Cloud DVR.







Cisco will demonstrate the benefits of its cloud-first microservices-based architecture in a multi-cloud environment. This lets customers combine public and on-premise cloud storage to enhance delivery and comply with content licensing agreements. It also provides the scalability needed for operators in those countries where it is a legal requirement to store a private/unique copy of content.



Multi-cloud for Disaster Recovery (DR) is becoming a must-have because of its cost-effectiveness and flexibility. The first tier one operator is now live with this service, enabling them to build a cloud-backup on the fly.



Already live with many large py-TV operators, and now supporting more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, the Cloud DVR solution provides the scalability and resilience required by customers. Since the start of 2018, five new operators  including Malaysian operator Astro, whose demo will be on the stand  have chosen to deploy Cloud DVR. Cisco will demonstrate the benefits of its cloud-first microservices-based architecture in a multi-cloud environment. This lets customers combine public and on-premise cloud storage to enhance delivery and comply with content licensing agreements. It also provides the scalability needed for operators in those countries where it is a legal requirement to store a private/unique copy of content. Multi-cloud for Disaster Recovery (DR) is becoming a must-have because of its cost-effectiveness and flexibility. The first tier one operator is now live with this service, enabling them to build a cloud-backup on the fly. Multicast -ABR (Adaptive Bit Rate) streaming

The demo will show how pay-TV providers' unicast streams can be converted to multicast ABR streams, enabling large-scale OTT streaming on in-home devices while benefiting from broadcast-efficient distribution. Integrating transparently with existing ABR delivery systems, the solution has been deployed by a tier one pay-TV operator.



The demo will show how pay-TV providers' unicast streams can be converted to multicast ABR streams, enabling large-scale OTT streaming on in-home devices while benefiting from broadcast-efficient distribution. Integrating transparently with existing ABR delivery systems, the solution has been deployed by a tier one pay-TV operator. Broadcast-equivalent streaming latency

A new side-by-side demo at IBC will highlight industry-leading success in reducing streaming latency on a STB down to six seconds  comparable to a live broadcast. This low latency figure is achieved through enhancements to the end-to-end video delivery architecture. This is far lower than traditional streaming technologies, where latency can be as high as 40 to 90 seconds for end-to-end video delivery to receiving devices. "Synamedia enters the market at a time when the TV landscape is being redrawn. Building on a 30-year heritage in the pay-TV industry, a market leadership position, and an unrivalled reputation for innovation, we will hit the ground running as a private, independent entity committed to help customers boost engagement and revenues by capitalising on the myriad opportunities that IP distribution and cloud-based services bring," said Dr. Abe Peled, incoming chairman of Synamedia.

"From day one we will be the vendor with the ability to deliver products on a global scale while also offering the flexibility required for market localization," said Yves Padrines, incoming CEO for Synamedia and currently vice president of Global Service Provider for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Cisco. "We will intensify our focus on innovation, building even closer links with our customers and ensuring that we continue to provide the world's most complete, secure and advanced end-to-end video delivery solution." Press and analysts are invited to hear Synamedia's vision and plans at a press conference at 14:30 CET on Friday 14th September 2018 at the Beach House at the RAI. RSVP to synamedia@breakawaycom.com Note to Editors: Cisco will retain the video and media technology related to its core business in networking, multi-cloud, security, data, and collaboration. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of Cisco's FY19, subject to any regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. About Synamedia As an independent business, Synamedia will have a singular focus on empowering traditional and new pay-TV operators to drive new revenues through exceptional subscriber experiences. Building on more than 30 years of expertise, the firm will be the largest global provider of video solutions, trusted by top global and local satellite DTH, cable, telco and OTT operators, content owners and broadcasters. Headquartered in London, with a strong global presence, Synamedia will be the only vendor with a portfolio of offerings across the video experience including content protection, middleware development, cloud video recording, video processing, and video distribution. Twitter: @synamedia360 About Permira Permira is a global investment firm. Founded in 1985, the firm advises funds with a total committed capital of approximately 32bn and makes long-term investments in companies with the objective of transforming their performance and driving sustainable growth. The Permira funds have made over 250 private equity investments in five key sectors: Consumer, Technology, Industrials, Healthcare and Financial Services. The Permira funds have a long track record of successfully investing in technology companies around the world including Allegro, Ancestry.com, Genesys, Informatica, LegalZoom.com, Magento, NDS, Renaissance Learning, TeamViewer, Teraco and others. Permira employs over 200 people in 14 offices across Europe, North America and Asia. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibc-preview-of-offerings-from-synamedia-the-company-being-created-from-the-acquisition-of-ciscos-service-provider-video-software-solutions-business-300705974.html SOURCE Synamedia

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] data Artisans Introduces Industry's First Serializable ACID Transactions Directly on Streaming Data

BERLIN and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- data Artisans , founded by the original creators of Apache Flink, today unveiled at the Flink Forward Berlin conference a new patent-pending technology that extends the scope of stream processing with fast, serializable ACID transactions directly on streaming data. With the introduction of data Artisans Streaming Ledger , data Artisans is the first company to bring distributed ACID transactions to stream processing, transcending a long-standing limitation of existing stream processing technology. With serializable transactions across multiple tables, rows, and streams, programmers can focus on the application logic, rather than worrying about consistency models.

To learn more and schedule a demo, please contact us at https://data-artisans.com/contact . Flink Forward Berlin attendees will be able to see a live demo on site. The global streaming analytics market is projected to reach USD 47.75 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 34.98% from 2017 to 20251. This growth is fueled by companies across industries that are transitioning from a product-centric business model towards becoming more customer and services-centric. As enterprises build out their streaming data architecture, they are seeking to broaden their use cases and deploy a greater variety of real-time applications. data Artisans Streaming Ledger goes beyond todays exactly-once stateful stream processing model and brings multi-row, multi-state, cross-stream transactions to data stream processing. Designed to meet the needs of todays data-driven industries, it offers high throughput, so large-scale applications like inventory management, pricing, billing, supply-demand matching, logistics or position keeping can be efficiently transformed to consistent streaming applications without requiring an underlying relational database. These applications can now take full advantage of all benefits of data stream processing and blend naturally into a streaming data architecture. "Guaranteeing serializable ACID transactions is the crown discipline of data management. It is a very hard problem - something that even some large established databases fail to provide. We are very proud to have come up with a way to solve this problem for real-time data streams, and make it fast and easy to use, said Stephan Ewen, co-founder and CTO at data Artisans We also see this as a testament to the power of Apache Flink and its unique capabilities to offer the building blocks for such an advanced technology." data Artisans Streaming Ledger , available in the new River Edition of data Artisans Platform, enables a complete new class of streaming applications with the highest level of transactional consistency. The programming API of data Artisans Streaming Ledger including a serial runtime for local development has been released as a open-source project on GitHub.



How It Works

data Artisans Streaming Ledger processes event streams across multiple shared states/tables with serializable ACID semantics. It overcomes limitations of existing stream processing technologies with the ability to perform distributed serializable transactions from multiple streams across shared tables and multiple rows of each table. Similar to serializable ACID transactions in a relational database management system, each transaction modifies all tables fully isolated against concurrent changes  that way full data consistency is guaranteed as in the best relational databases today. This makes it possible to move a whole new class of applications to a data streaming architecture. To learn more about data Artisans Streaming Ledger, please review the technical white paper at https://data-artisans.com/download-the-data-artisans-streaming-ledger-whitepaper.

About data Artisans Platform

data Artisans Platform is now available in two versions. The original Stream Edition includes Application Manager, which streamlines the process of deploying and maintaining real-time streaming applications. The new River Edition includes both the Streaming Ledger and Application Manager features, enabling an entire new class of applications while greatly reducing the time to market and personnel required for businesses to realize value from streaming. To learn more, please contact us at: https://data-artisans.com/contact Additional Resources Github

Why Apache Flink

data Artisans Blog

Twitter About data Artisans

data Artisans was founded by the creators of open source Apache Flink to bring real-time data applications to the enterprise. data A rtisans Platform provides turnkey stream processing to businesses, enabling them to manage and deploy live data applications so they can react to data instantaneously and make better and faster business decisions. Global companies such as Alibaba, ING, Netflix and Uber use Flink as the stream processing engine to power large-scale stateful applications, including real-time analytics, machine learning, search and content ranking, and fraud detection. Backed by Intel Capital, b-to-v Partners, and Tengelmann Ventures, data Artisans is based in Berlin, Germany with an office in San Francisco, Calif. For more information, visit https://data-artisans.com . About Apache Flink

Apache Flink is used by developers to analyze and process data streams of very high volume. By adopting Flink and a data streaming architecture, enterprises can act on insights from data in a matter of milliseconds, as well as cover existing historical data processing needs within a single platform. Flink is developed and supported by the vibrant and growing Apache Software Foundation open source community with more than 420 contributors to Flink, of which data Artisans engineers are proud participants. "Apache", "Apache Flink", and their logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Media Contact:

Jill Reed, Sift Communications, Jill.Reed@siftpr.com 1 Global Streaming Analytics Market Report 2018 , Market Insights Report, December 2017

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Flash

China and Africa are poised to build even stronger ties following the ongoing Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which kicked off on Sept. 3.





In his opening remarks, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged another US$ 60 billion in funds to Africa and promised debt exemption for those of Africa's least developed countries, heavily indebted and poor countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries that have diplomatic relations with China.





In his speech, Xi proposed cooperation based on mutual respect, saying China will neither interfere in the internal affairs of African countries, nor have any impositions towards them.





While addressing the forum, Xi proposed eight initiatives that will be launched to deepen cooperation, including industrial promotion initiative, green development initiative and health care initiative.





Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, addressed the forum after President Xi, saying China and Africa enjoy a rich history characterized by friendship, cooperation and solidarity.





He also said that the relationship forged between China and Africa through FOCAC is "premised on the fundamental and inalienable right of the African people to determine their own future."[September 04, 2018] 4th Annual Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum Announced for 25th October 2018

LAGOS, Nigeria, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 5,000 Entrepreneurs to be welcomed in Nigeria for Africa's Largest Entrepreneurial Convening Africa's leading entrepreneurship-focused philanthropic organisation, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), has announced October 25, 2018, as the date for its 4thannual TEF Entrepreneurship Forum. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/737791/The_Tony_Elumelu_Foundation.jpg )

The largest gathering of African entrepreneurs and the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem will unite over 5,000 entrepreneurs, global investors, leaders from the African public and private sectors and developmental organisations in Lagos. The event is a unique opportunity to generate ideas, forge networks and bring policymakers and the private sector together, in a spirit of robust debate and interaction. The 2018 cohort from the Tony lumelu Entrepreneurship Programme, as well as mentors and partners, will be present, as the culmination of their intensive twelve-week induction.



In keeping with the Foundation's track record ? most recently with President Macron of France ? of bringing politicians face to face with the new generation of young business women and men shaping Africa, the Forum will include an interactive session with President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, moderated by TEF Founder, Tony O. Elumelu. The Forum will also feature the launch of the TEFConnect, the world's largest digital platform for African entrepreneurs, dedicated to connecting African entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Founder, Tony O. Elumelu, CON, stated: "In just four years, we have directly invested in 4,460 entrepreneurs, and we are beginning to see the results - job creation, ripple effects, but most importantly a recognition that Africa's economic well-being is driven by entrepreneurs - they are the engine of our continent's transformation. We will be championing and celebrating them. This year, we are truly achieving scale and impact; we received over 150,000 applications in 2017 alone, up from 20,000 applications in 2015. We are now calling on the current generation of African success stories and others to partner with us to see how we can all further create impact, genuinely transform millions of lives and increase the number of inspiring stories we will be hearing in Lagos." TEF CEO, Parminder Vir OBE stated: "The TEF Entrepreneurship Forum is the only event across the continent that brings together the complete African entrepreneurship ecosystem, demonstrating our commitment to capturing the whole continuum - from the entrepreneurs themselves, governments who must provide enabling environments, to capital, advice and perhaps most importantly access and network." Visit http://www.tonyelumelufoundation.org for more details.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] SaaS Influencer Marketing Platform Upfluence Secures $3.6 Million in Series A Funding

NEW YORK, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Upfluence, the leading SaaS influencer marketing platform, announced today a Series A investment of $3.6 million led by the tech entrepreneurs' fund, ISAI, with additional participation from the investment group, French Partners. The financing will be used to fund Upfluence's continued global expansion and for further investment in its proprietary software. Thierry Vandewalle , venture partner at ISAI will join Upfluence's board of directors. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/738015/Upfluence_Logo.jpg )

"From pure branding to driving sales, Upfluence's all-in-one SaaS allows its clients to reach their marketing goals with ease... Upfluence has already turned Influencer Marketing into a highly profitable channel for its clients." - Thierry Vandewalle "We're very excited to be working with ISAI and Thierry Vandewalle moving forward, their impressive portfolio and strategic experience make them the ideal partners for Ufluence as we continue to scale our business globally." - Vivien Garnes, CEO of Upfluence.



Founded in 2013, Upfluence is the first true "all-in-one" SaaS for influencer marketing. The company's independent database aggregates millions of profiles from seven different platforms to provide access to 1.2 million influencers in 150 countries, making it the largest and most diverse influencer database on the market. Using its trademark search engine, integrated mailing platform, and real-time campaign tracking, Upfluence delivers an exceptional suite of professional tools that streamline the influencer process from start to finish. The startup pioneers industry solutions with innovative technology like AI-assisted influencer recommendations, fake follower analysis, agnostic language recognition for global campaigns, and quantitative and qualitative search criteria that account for the most niche micro-influencers. Upfluence differentiates from competitors by offering the widest range of features and the highest caliber of analytics available in the industry. Its uniquely data-driven approach favors transparency, maximizes campaign performance and ensures unmatched ROI for its clients. Upfluence has positioned itself in key industries (Luxury, High-Tech, PCG) and plays a central role in ensuring the success of its customers. Since launching its SaaS offering in October 2016, Upfluence has bootstrapped stable double-digit monthly revenue growth, added 60 new team members and served over 500 clients worldwide including OMD, Nestle and more.

About Upfluence Driven by data and characterized by its cutting-edge design, Upfluence Software is an all-in-one SaaS that allows brands to identify and contact their influencers at scale. Additional features such as campaign management, reporting tools and a payment processing platform simplify influencer interactions so brands can focus on their marketing goals. For more information, visit https://upfluence.com.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Juniper Research: Mobility-as-a-Service to Replace 2.3 Billion Private Car Journeys Annually by 2023

A new study from Juniper Research has found that adoption of MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service) platforms will replace over 2.3 billion urban private car journeys annually by 2023, compared with just 17.6 million globally in 2018. This is equivalent to 18 times the number of taxi journeys across New York in 2016.

MaaS integrates multi-modal transport services, including buses, taxis, rail and metro, offering compelling on demand services, resulting in transportation modal shifts.

For more insights, download the free whitepaper: Why Mobility-as-a-Service is the Future of City Transport.

Europe Leads Global Markets>







The new research, Mobility-as-a-Service: Emerging Opportunities, Vendor Strategies & Market Forecasts 2018-2023, found that West Europe will lead MaaS adoption, accounting for 83% of global MaaS trips in 2023.

It found that the success of public-private partnerships, the high quality of transport service provision and positive trial outcomes are major factors for traction in Europe. Conversely, Juniper forecast that the growth of MaaS in the US will be slower, given the highly-fragmented nature of the state and federal system, coupled with lukewarm legislative support for regulating a 'free market'.

Helsinki Leads MaaS Implementation

Juniper ranked 15 world cities based on their readiness for large-scale MaaS service deployment. Metrics considered included the existing/planned stage of deployment, cohesion of public transport services and infrastructure development. The top 5 ranked cities were:

1. Helsinki

2. Stockholm

3. Vienna

4. Amsterdam

5. Austin

Research author Nick Maynard explained: "Helsinki has achieved its winning position in MaaS driven by collaboration between government and MaaS vendors. Stakeholder partnerships are fundamental to MaaS in order to develop a viable multi-modal system delivering significant cost- and time-savings to the user."

Time Savings to Improve Citizen Quality of Life

The research also forecasts that MaaS introduction will lead to annual time savings of over 500 million hours by 2023: equivalent to 90 hours per annum per MaaS user. The responsive, on demand service, enabled by MaaS will lead to more efficient use of road vehicles. Consequently, peak traffic levels will be reduced, lowering both congestion and air pollution.

Juniper Research (News - Alert) provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector; providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005317/en/[September 04, 2018] Aviation Technical Services (ATS) Chief Operating Officer Appointed to the Defense Business Board

EVERETT, Wash., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviation Technical Services (ATS) today announced that ATS COO Paul Dolan was appointed to the Department of Defense Business Board. The Defense Business Board provides the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, as well as other senior leaders, trusted independent and objective advice which reflects an outside private sector perspective on proven and effective best business practices for consideration and potential application to the Department. In this appointed position, Paul will join other business leaders in providing independent advice on Department of Defense management, business processes, and governance from a private sector perspective. "ATS is proud to have a seasoned executive leadership team, and Paul Dolan exemplifies the highest level of expertise as our Chief Operating Officer," said ATS CEO Matt Yerbic. "ATS recognizes Paul's talents, but it is clear that he has impressed others in the business community as well. To be appointed o the Defense Business Board is a testament to his experience of over 20 years in the industry and in the military."



Paul joined ATS as Chief Commercial Officer in early 2016. Prior to ATS, Paul gained deep aerospace industry experience in executive leadership positions with Chromalloy and served for nine years in the U.S. Navy as an F/A-18 Strike Fighter Pilot. He holds an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, an MS in Aeronautical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a BS with distinction in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy. More information about the Defense Business Board can be found at https://dbb.defense.gov/. About Aviation Technical Services

Aviation Technical Services (ATS) provides a broad and growing portfolio of technical services in MRO, Engineering, Component Repair, Component Sales and Parts Development world-wide. ATS supports both narrow body and wide body aircraft operators in the commercial and military aviation markets. Over a 48 year history, ATS has been consistently recognized for award-winning support of turn-key fleet transition/integration, aircraft modifications, aircraft heavy maintenance, design services and MRO component repair of accessories, structures, flight control surfaces, fuel components, complex composites, hydraulics, pneumatics, heat exchangers and electrical components. For more information, visit www.atsmro.com.

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aviation-technical-services-ats-chief-operating-officer-appointed-to-the-defense-business-board-300705170.html SOURCE Aviation Technical Services

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Green Cement Market Size Worth $37.75 Billion by 2024 | CAGR 8.5%: Grand View Research, Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO, September 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global green cement market size is expected to reach USD 37.75 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 8.5% over the forecast period. Stringent environment regulations, coupled with rapid advancements in the Asia Pacific construction industry, is contributing to the market demand. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg ) North America is the largest revenue-generating region for the green cement market, followed by Europe owing to the presence of regulatory bodies such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). Moreover, the regions are characterized by higher adoption of sustainable solutions to avoid negative environmental impact. Green cement is an eco-friendly substitute for traditional cement. It can reduce carbon emissions at construction sites by 40%. There is no fixed formula or method to manufacture green cement. However, various researchers and market players have developed different ways to manufacture green cement. California-based Calera Group has developed a Portland cement substitute where calcium carbonate obtained from seawater is mixed with carbon dioxide. Key application areas of green cement market include residential, commercial, and industrial. In terms of volume, residential sector was the largest application area in 2015 and held 44.2% market share. Growing urbanization in emerging economies such as India and China with demand for environmentally safe buildings is expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period. Browse full research report with TOC on "Green Cement Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Residential, Commercial, Industrial), By Region (North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America, MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2024" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/green-cement-market



Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest: The global green cement market is anticipated to reach 227,366.3 kilo tons by 2024

In terms of revenue, the residential segment is projected to ascend at a CAGR of 8.5% over the forecast period

The commercial application dominated the global green cement market with a share of over 28% in 2015

Countries such as China and India are anticipated to observe promising growth during the forecast period

and are anticipated to observe promising growth during the forecast period Major market players are either start-ups focusing solely on green cement or established players gradually switching to green cement manufacturing

Some of the key market participants are CEMEX, China National Building Material Company Limited, Calera Corporation, HeidelbergCement AG, and LafargeHolcim.

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Geomembrane Market - The global geomembrane market size was 809.9 million square meters in 2015.

The global geomembrane market size was 809.9 million square meters in 2015. Environmental Health And Safety Market - The global environmental health and safety market size was USD 49.8 billion in 2015 and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period.

The global environmental health and safety market size was in 2015 and is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. Roofing Materials Market - The global roofing materials market size was estimated at USD 105.4 billion in 2015 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% from 2016 to 2025.

The global roofing materials market size was estimated at in 2015 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% from 2016 to 2025. High Temperature Insulation Market - The global high temperature insulation market size was valued over USD 3.84 billion in 2016 and is expected to exhibit an estimated CAGR of 7.5% from 2013 to 2020.

Grand View Research has segmented the global green cement market report on the basis of application and region: Green Cement Application Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) Residential Commercial Industrial Others

Green Cement Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2013 - 2024) North America U.S. Europe Germany Asia Pacific China India Indonesia Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa



Explore the BI enabled intuitive market research database, The Grand Library, by Grand View Research, Inc. About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Battle Through the Heavens debuted on Sept. 3rd

BEIJING, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fantasy teen TV series Battle Through the Heavens debuted on September 3, 2018, at 10 p.m. Beijing Standard Time (GMT+8). The show was adapted from the novel "Heavenly Silkworm Potato", produced by Wanda Media and New Classics Media, directed by Ringo Yu, with Zhang Ting at the helm of the TV screenplay. The ultimate trailer foreshadowed that the battle between light and darkness is on the rim to explode on the Dou Qi Continent! In the poster, the main characters Xao Yan and Xiao Xun'er set off on their Jianan Academy journey filled with fighting spirit, youthfulness exuberance. When young Dou Zhe (fighters) with heaven-endowed talents join forces, they are unafraid of the soul-gnawing road to break through the violence, restore justice, and trample the trials of growth.



Time-tested talents Ringo Yu, Carmen Lee, Ling Xiaosu, Qiu Xinzhi, and Kenneth Tsang co-star, hiding their intent to kill within smiling eyes, brandishing their idiosyncratic charisma with varying styles of charm. As the storyline gradually reveals its true nature, the youth launch a counter-attack and the Dou Qi Continent is filled with dangers on four sides and mysteries inundate continuously. Xiao Yan, a young man previously deemed useless, held onto his quest for justice and vowed to keep up his "no compromise, not giving up" attitude to the end.

Following the shout of "30 years on the river's east, 30 years on the river's west, don't bully the young for being poor", the battle horns to launch the war between good and evil on the Dou Qi Continent have already sounded. The show will broadcast on Hunan TV starting on September 3, 2018, releasing new episodes every Monday through Wednesday at 10 p.m. (GMT+8), during the Youth in Action Theatre time slot. Web broadcast will be exclusively on Tencent Video. The journey of trials is destined not to be easy, watch and see how the hot-blooded youth garners power to launch, break through to the world stage, and intelligently duel with the heavens! Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180904/2227094-1 SOURCE New Classics Media

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Systel Partnering With Holmwood Highgate To Support Australian Defense With Next-Generation Rugged Computing

SUGAR LAND, Texas, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Systel, Inc., an industry leader in rugged computing, announced a new partnership with Queensland-based Holmwood Highgate, bringing joint capability to support Australian defense. Holmwood Highgate, a third-generation family business that is recognized as Australia's leading manufacturer of bulk liquid storage and transportation systems for fuel and water has already enjoyed success within Australia's defense industry by being able to adapt and embrace innovative thinking. "Creating a world leading product for LAND 121 3B encouraged us to go down this path," says Wade Mellish  Holmwood Highgate's Group Executive Director, "We had been searching for some time to find a capability that we could bring to the Australian market that is relatively unique and can provide great value to a broad range of industries  Systel's rugged computer systems ticks all of those boxes." Vimal Kothari, founder and CEO of Systel explains why he thought Holmwood Highgate was the right distributor for the region: "ade and his team have been at the forefront of companies expanding their brand in the international market. Our companies connected at the Team Defence Australia stand at AUSA in Washington D.C. last year and although we both had quite different capabilities, their clear desire to be innovative, forward-looking, and service-orientated mirrors our core values and focus."



Holmwood Highgate and Systel will exhibit at two upcoming land warfare exhibitions, Land Forces Australia in Adelaide, September 4-6 in Stand 5A16 and AUSA in Washington D.C., October 8-10 in Booth# 9221. For more information on Systel's rugged defense solutions and to request a meeting at Land Forces or AUSA, please visit this link.

About Systel, Inc.

Systel, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of rugged embedded, server, and display computer products and solutions. Systel is headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, with 30 years of experience in providing complex and advanced computer technologies to military, oil and gas, and manufacturing enterprises worldwide. Systel's pedigree of capabilities spans numerous platforms and includes some of the most advanced military vehicles such as the US Navy's ISR/ASW aircraft, General Atomics Predator and Reaper UAV fleets, and Counter-UAS Stryker ground vehicles. For more information, visit http://www.systelusa.com or contact Systel via email sales@systelusa.com or phone 888.645.8400. Contact

Aneesh Kothari

VP Marketing

281.207.7781

akothari@systelusa.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/systel-partnering-with-holmwood-highgate-to-support-australian-defense-with-next-generation-rugged-computing-300705770.html SOURCE Systel, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Oryzon to present at upcoming international conferences

Rodman & Renshaw 20th Annual Global Investment Conference, New York, USA



19th International Conference on Alzheimers Drug Discovery, Jersey City, NJ, USA

BIO-SPAIN-2018, Sevilla, SPAIN

European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Corporate Summer School, Heidelberg, GERMANY MADRID, Spain and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oryzon Genomics (ISIN Code: ES0167733015, ORY), a public clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging epigenetics to develop therapies in diseases with strong unmet medical need, has announced today that Executive Directors of the company will present at several international reputed conferences in September. Dr. Carlos Buesa, Oryzons CEO, will participate at the Rodman & Renshaw 20th Annual Global Investment Conference that will take place at the St. Regis Hotel in New York, on September 4-6. The presentation of the company will be on September 6th at the Library room at 3:00 pm US ET. Dr. Roger Bullock, CMO, and Dr. Tamara Maes, CSO, will attend the 19th International Conference on Alzheimers Drug Discovery, to be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 2 Exchange Place in Jersey City, NJ, USA on September 16-17 Dr. Maes will also attend the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Corporate Summer School in Heidelberg, Germany that takes place from September 16th till 22nd. Dr. Maes will deliver a presentation entitled LSD1 inhibitors: the journey from target identification to clinical trials on September 20th. Finally, the company will participate with a corporate pavilion at the BIO-SPAIN-2018 fair, the conference and partnering event organized every two years by ASEBIO, the Spanish Association of Bioindustries. Bio-Spain will be held in Seville on September 25-27. Oryzons CMO Dr. Roger Bullock will moderate a panel of dementia experts (see https://biospain2018.org/program/#event-65) while Oryzons CSO Dr. Tamara Maes will participate in the Precision Medicine panel (see https://biospain2018.org/program/#event-162), both on September 25. In addition, the CEO of the company Dr. Carlos Buesa will moderate a financing and stock exchange panel on September 26 (see https://biospain2018.org/program/#event-144). About Oryzon

Founded in 2000 in Barcelona, Spain, Oryzon (ISIN Code: ES0167733015) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company considered s the European champion in Epigenetics. The company has one of the strongest portfolios in the field. Oryzons LSD1 program has rendered two compounds in clinical trials. In addition, Oryzon has ongoing programs for developing inhibitors against other epigenetic targets. The company has a strong technological platform for biomarker identification and performs biomarker and target validation for a variety of malignant and neurodegenerative diseases. The company has offices in Spain and USA. For more information, visit www.oryzon.com.



FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This communication contains forward-looking information and statements about Oryzon Genomics, S.A., including financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, capital expenditures, synergies, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally identified by the words expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates and similar expressions. Although Oryzon Genomics, S.A. believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors and holders of Oryzon Genomics, S.A. shares are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Oryzon Genomics, S.A., that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the documents sent by Oryzon Genomics, S.A. to the Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores, which are accessible to the public. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. The auditors of Oryzon Genomics, S.A, have not reviewed them. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. All subsequent oral or written forward-looking statements attributable to Oryzon Genomics, S.A. or any of its members, directors, officers, employees or any persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statement above. All forward-looking statements included herein are based on information available to Oryzon Genomics, S.A. on the date hereof. Except as required by applicable law, Oryzon Genomics, S.A. does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The Companys securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. Any public offering of the Companys securities to be made in the United States will be made by means of a prospectus that may be obtained from the Company or the selling security holder, as applicable, that will contain detailed information about the Company and management, as well as financial statements.

US Contact: Spain: The Company: The Trout Group ATREVIA Emili Torrell Thomas Hoffmann Patricia Cobo/Luis Rejano BD Director +1 646 378 2932 +34 91 564 07 25 +34 93 515 13 13 thoffmann@troutgroup.com pcobo@atrevia.com

etorrell@oryzon.com lrejano@atrevia.com



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Jumio Wins Silver in the "Fastest-Growing Company of the Year" Category by the Best in Biz Awards 2018 International

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jumio , the leading AI-powered trusted identity as a service provider, today announced that it shared top honors in the Fastest-Growing Company of the Year category for Medium and Large companies by the Best in Biz Awards 2018 International , the only independent global business awards program judged each year by prominent editors and reporters from top-tier publications from around the world such as TechRadar, Tripwire and TechnoFILE.

Jumio shared top honors in the Fastest-Growing Company of the Year category for Medium and Large companies by the Best in Biz Awards 2018 International.



This recognition comes on the heels of pivotal business growth and Jumios best sales quarter recorded in company history. In Q2 2018, Jumio grew sales by 248 percent over the same quarter last year. The results were fueled by record sales growth in the Asia Pacific region, which grew 531 percent over the previous quarter. Jumios sales grew by more than 200 percent year over year for three of its last four quarters and the company has recorded quarter over quarter sales growth nine of the last ten quarters. With offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, Jumio can verify IDs issued by more than 200 countries. When businesses expand to new territories, Jumio can help quickly onboard new customers in that location. Jumio has verified more than 130 million identities to-date, and an average of 300,000 identities globally each day. We are thrilled to be recognized by Best in Biz Awards 2018 International for our global growth and award-winning identity verification technology, said Stephen Stuut, CEO of Jumio. The identity-as-a-service market is rapidly growing worldwidend expected to grow to $20 billion by 2022 and Jumio is distinguished as the clear industry leader. As the demand for our Netverify solution continues to increase, we will continue to invest in cutting-edge technology to best serve our clients and their customers worldwide.



Close to 300 public and private companies from all sectors of the global economy and more than 35 countries competed in Best in Biz Awards sixth annual International program. Best in Biz Awards 2018 International honors were once again presented in a range of categories, including Fastest-Growing Company of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, Support Department of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Product, Enterprise Product and CSR Campaign of the Year. Winners in the sixth annual program were determined based on scoring from an independent panel of judges hailing from a wide spectrum of top-tier publications and media outlets and from 12 countries. Only editors, writers and contributors to business, consumer, financial, trade and technology publications, as well as broadcast outlets and analyst firms, are invited to serve as Best in Biz Awards' judges. The programs uniqueness stems, in part, from this distinct composition of its judging panels, allowing it to best leverage the judges unparalleled expertise, experience and objectivity to determine award winners.

It was a great honor and privilege to be asked to judge at the Best in Biz Awards 2018 International, said Joe Pettit, managing editor of Tripwire, judging the awards for the third time. The level of entries was even higher than in previous yearswhich made it such a difficult task to select a top three, let alone a winner. What a lot of the entrants are doing for their stakeholders is extremely admirable. Being in business isnt about profit, its about changing lives for the better, which is clearly the case with the entries this year. Congratulations to all. This years judging panel included writers and contributors to such publications as Computer Hoy (Spain), Gamers Intuition, HT Mobile (Israel), InBusiness (Cyprus and Greece), IAA Magazine (United Arab Emirates), Irish Independent (Ireland), J Arnold & Associates (Canada), NDR (Germany), Small Business IT (Canada), TechHim (India), TechnoFILE, TechRadar (UK), Tripwire (UK), Vyapar (India), Wirausaha dan Keuangan (Indonesia) and Xbox Plus (Brazil). For a full list of gold, silver and bronze winners in Best in Biz Awards 2018 International, visit: http://intl.bestinbizawards.com/intl-2018-winners . To learn more about Jumio, please visit: www.jumio.com/ . About Jumio

When identity matters, trust Jumio. Jumio is the creator of Netverify which enables businesses to increase customer conversions while providing a seamless customer experience and reducing fraud. By combining the three core solutions of ID Verification , Identity Verification and Document Verification , organizations now have a complete solution that allows them to establish the real-world identity of the consumer. Leveraging advanced technology including biometric facial recognition, machine learning, artificial intelligence and human review, Jumio helps customers to meet regulatory compliance including KYC, AML and GDPR and tie the digital identity to the physical world. Jumio has verified more than 130 million identities issued by over 200 countries from real time web and mobile transactions. Jumios solutions are used by leading companies in the financial services, sharing economy, online gaming, cryptocurrency, higher education, retail, and travel sectors. Based in Palo Alto, Jumio operates globally with offices in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific and has been the recipient of numerous awards for innovation. For more information, please visit www.jumio.com . About Best in Biz Awards

Since 2011, Best in Biz Awards, Inc. has made its mark as the only independent business awards program judged each year by a whos who of prominent reporters and editors from top-tier publications from North America and around the world. Best in Biz Awards honors are conferred in two separate programs: North America and International, and in 70 categories, including company, team, executive, product, and CSR, media, PR and other categories. For more information about the International program, see: http://intl.bestinbizawards.com . Media Contacts

U.S. Media Contact

Jacquelyn Daane

10Fold Communications

Jumio@10fold.com

415-800-5369 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9d403cb1-1333-4cb0-9faf-e0e1a1aacb2e

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] TPT GLOBAL TECH Signs first JV Licensing Partners to its Surfin Cycle Electric scooters division

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TPT Global Tech (OTCBB:TPTW) announced today that the company has executed JV licensing contracts to place 400 Surfin Cycle electric scooters in several cities in United States and Mexico in its first 30 days of launch. TPT Global Tech is offering joint venture licensing opportunities Domestically and Internationally for the tech-based electric scooter. The electric scooter business is one of the fastest growing markets. TPT Global plans are to equip scooters with their proprietary ViewMe Live app. The scooters will have SaaS technology and turnkey backend management operations with everything built-in to make it as simple as possible for operators to enter the electric scooter market. The ViewMe Live app is designed to allow franchisees to track user activity, generate revenue and allow riders to live stream their experiences. "In addition to being an incredible opportunity for new operators who want to get in on the market established by Bird and Lime, Surfin Cycle with ViewMe Live is designed to create an on-line content community surrounding the Surfin Cycle experience which have the effect of also growing our user base through cross markets," said Stephen Thomas, president and CEO, TPT Global Tech. TPT intends to launch a home base operation in San Diego that will allow a live three day training for operators so they are prepared to launch their business. Surfin Cycle works by selling joint venture licensing opportunities to hotels, cruise ships and other proprietor led businesses who want o participate in the current electric scooter phenomenon.



Stephen also believes, "The Surfin Cycle franchise opportunity aligns perfectly with TPT Global Tech's focus on using technology to enhance the consumer experience by creating targeted content, utilizing innovative technology solutions and using the data received to continually improve our products. Through the launch of the Surfin Cycle franchise opportunity, we intend to continue to fuel TPT Global Tech's growth and believe this will enhance our ability to deliver unique and high-performing content while generating revenues and subscriber fees in a variety of unique ways unlike anyone else in the marketplace." TPT Global Tech maintains its commitment to invest in innovative, forward-thinking technology and content companies that establish growth opportunities through the "Internet of Things."

About TPT Global Tech TPT Global Tech Inc. (OTC:TPTW) based in San Diego, California, is a Technology/Telecommunications Media Content Hub for Domestic and International syndication and also provides Technology solutions to businesses domestically and worldwide. TPT Global offers Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology Platform as a Service (PAAS), Cloud-based Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) and carrier-grade performance and support for businesses over its private IP MPLS fiber and wireless network in the United States. TPT's cloud-based UCaaS services allow businesses of any size to enjoy all the latest voice, data, media and collaboration features in today's global technology markets. TPT also operates as a Master Distributor for Nationwide Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) and Independent Sales Organization (ISO) as a Master Distributor for Pre-Paid Cellphone services, Mobile phones Cellphone Accessories and Global Roaming Cellphones. Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains various forward-looking statements that are based on our beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to us. When used in this press release, the words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements may include statements regarding seeking business opportunities, payment of operating expenses, and the like, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions which could cause actual results to differ materially from projections or estimates. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed at length under the heading "Risk Factors". Should one or more of the enumerated risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, estimated or projected. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, all of which speak only as of the date made. We will not undertake to update any forward looking statement or this news release in the future. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tpt-global-tech-signs-first-jv-licensing-partners-to-its-surfin-cycle-electric-scooters-division-300706060.html SOURCE TPT Global Tech Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Flash

China has made great contributions in supporting African countries in their development, and helped reduce poverty around the world, thanks to the development cooperation policies of China with countries in the developing world, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in an exclusive interview with China.org.cn on Monday.





Guterres said China's investment in other countries could be integrated with their own development processes. "It's very important to support African countries to fully benefit from China's cooperation, and to fully integrate it into their own development programs."





"China's cooperation is an important contribution to reducing poverty around the world, and to achieving other development goals, and at the same time to creating synergies that will allow, through international cooperation, the global economy to be more prosperous and to bring more benefits to the global population," he added.





Guterres also pointed out that China has been able to move hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, and the country now has a very clear target to fully eradicate extreme poverty in China by 2020. This is China's most important contribution to the world.





"These two contributions together represent China's very important commitment and contribution to the implementation of the Agenda 2030, the Sustainable Development Agenda and its goals," he said.





Guterres believes that China will achieve its goals because they have strong commitments from Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government, and the society. He estimates that after 2020, China will continue its systematic program to reduce less extreme poverty that might still exist, and will aim to create a society in which the fight against inequality and the capacity to bring all people into the benefits of the modern era will be achieved.





Guterres was invited to attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held on Sept. 3-4.[September 04, 2018] Maxcom Sets off to Conquer America

TYCHY, Poland, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Maxcom, a leading manufacturer of smartphones and classic mobile phones in Europe, plans to expand to the markets of North America, South America and Central America. Their flagship solution and the latest products will be presented at one of the most important events in the region, MWC Americas. "We are successfully selling our products in Europe. However, we see global potential for our products and that is why the time has come to expand to the Americas. Our research has allowed us to assess that we will find buyers here, especially for our revolutionary smartphone "for everyone" MAXCOM MS459 HARMONY. We expect that this may be a hit in America's markets," says Arkadiusz Wilusz, President of Maxcom."This is a model that raises a lot of positive emotions wherever we present it," he adds. The most characteristic and unique feature of MAXCOM MS459 HARMONY is its access to the phone's functions from a computer or other device at any time and place. It has intuitive software that proves very helpful to people with impaired hearing, poor eyesight or poor movement of the fingers. The HARMONY model is equipped with a multi-function support button, which, in case of an accident, sends emergency messages with te location of the user or calls the indicated number.



MS459 HARMONY and other Maxcom flagship products will be available at the Mobile World Congress Americas in Los Angeles, which takes place between 12-14 of September. Maxcom will also present to the customers of this region:

MAXCOM MK241 and MAXCOM MK281 classic phones with KaiOS software and smartphone functions, including access to Facebook, Google Maps, Games.

and classic phones with KaiOS software and smartphone functions, including access to Facebook, Google Maps, Games. MAXCOM MS571 smartphone in the STRONG version designed for people working in difficult conditions and practising extreme sports.

smartphone in the STRONG version designed for people working in difficult conditions and practising extreme sports. The COMFORT and CLASSIC phone palettes, including the new MAXCOM MM751 model, combining modern design with a wide range of options to help seniors.

model, combining modern design with a wide range of options to help seniors. Effective and multitasking smartwatches, smartband and strengthened Bluetooth speakers. About Maxcom: Maxcom has over 17 years of experience in the production and distribution of own brands of telecommunications products, including mobile phones. The highest quality of products is confirmed by millions of models sold to telecommunications service providers, stores, and to distributors in many countries around the world. Maxcom shares have been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2017. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/maxcom-sets-off-to-conquer-america-300705394.html SOURCE Maxcom

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Leonovus Announces Plans for an Initial Coin Offering for the GALAXA Marketplace

OTTAWA, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Leonovus Inc., ("Leonovus" or the "Company") (TSXV: LTV) announced today an update to its initial December 21, 2017 news release regarding plans for the launch of an Initial Coin Offering ("ICO") for securities in the form of a contract called a Simple Agreement for a Future Token ("SAFT"). The Company plans to release the first draft of the GALAXA Whitepaper before the end of October and launch the ICO before the end of 2018. The SAFT will convert into tokens called GAAX, which is the underlying cryptocurrency for the Anything as a Service ("XaaS") marketplace called "GALAXA". The Company is in discussions with the Launchpad team of the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC") for its support and the support of other Canadian securities administrators in developing GALAXA to ensure that the offering and issuance of GALAXA SAFTs are carried out in compliance with Canadian securities laws. The Company is also in discussions with the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") with a view to listing the GAAX SAFTs for trading. "Leonovus is applying to the regulators and the stock exchange to make the GAAX SAFT a publicly tradable security on the TSX Venture Exchange. If approved, unlike most cryptocurrencies, the GAAX SAFT will become a regulated security with the requirement for continuous public disclosure. This transparency exceeds the disclosure to investors compared to most other cryptocurrencies," said Michael Gaffney, Chairman and CEO. The current cloud storage and compute marketplace is an oligopoly and GALAXA intends to challenge this market concentration. Gartner predicts 40%+ compounded growth rates for enterprise data storage and compute. GALAXA's blockchain technology is designed to manage this growth either in the cloud or on-premises and provide an open platform for developers to add new enterprise products/services. The GALAXA protocol introduces a new blockchain architecture designed to accelerate the global development and implementation of XaaS offerings by independent developers that share a worldwide network of enterprise-grade distributed data storage and distributed compute assets. Unlike the proposed technology of many ICO's, much of the core technology for GALAXA is already designed, developed and deployed by Leonovus. Since it began operations in 2011, the Company has invested $26 million in the development of its geo-distributed software-defined storage and distributed compute software. Large portions of this technology are already in trials with Leonovus customers. This software is the essential foundation technology for GALAXA. Leonovus will provide free, perpetual licenses to GALAXA for this software, which should accelerate the development of XaaS applications by independent entrepreneurial developers. The GALAXA hybrid blockchain protocol provides the governance, risk management and compliance required by large enterprises as they need to extendstandard IT controls into distributed cloud applications.



The Company believes that GAAX is the first cryptography designed for the exchange of value between a corporate information technology buyer, an application service provider, and a storage/compute infrastructure supplier. The GALAXA ICO is a solution for the enterprise market - unlike most consumer-focused ICO's. Enterprise-class customers need a mechanism to discover, verify and use distributed services, be they cloud-based or on-premises, which meets their requirements for flexibility, efficiency, capability, security and compliance. Similarly, the providers of these enterprise-class XaaS in the GALAXA Marketplace, need a cost-effective mechanism to make their services available, including verified capabilities and quality of service, for a broad vendor-neutral set of customers across multiple verticals and target markets. GALAXA ensures that the exchange of services and payments is simple, efficient and verified with a Proof of Provided Service consensus algorithm and scales to millions of transactions per second.

"The development of many new global software products and services requires the use of a token or coin as the measure of value for services delivered or services bought. Distributed everything, at the edge, will become the norm. Without the use of a token, operating and monitoring distributed storage and computing by humans is not economically feasible. However, as larger public and private corporations look for blockchain-based applications and services, they will expect regulation as trust is critical for these organizations. Leonovus intends to be at the forefront of global, trusted, tokenized applications," said Gaffney. It is expected that the planned ICO will include a public offering of SAFTs in Canada and a private placement offering of SAFTs to accredited investors in Canada and to equivalent investors in other jurisdictions in compliance with applicable securities laws of those jurisdictions. There can be no assurance that the Canadian securities administrators will provide a final receipt for the prospectus and there can be no assurance that the TSXV will accept the SAFTs for trading. Following the issue of SAFTs to investors, no GAAX Tokens will be issued pursuant to the SAFTs unless and until the Company successfully develops, builds, and launches the GALAXA Marketplace. The launch date is planned to occur within eighteen to twenty-four months after the close of financings. The ability to trade the GAAX Tokens will be subject to applicable securities and other laws and exchange rules at that time. About Leonovus Leonovus is a cloud solutions software developer of a blockchain enabled software-defined object storage solution. Designed with the IT manager in mind, Leonovus' patented algorithms encrypts, shreds and spreads data across a network of on-premises, hybrid or multi-cloud storage nodes  allowing for the most secure yet internally accessible form of object-based data storage that provides GRC across the entire solution. The advanced geo-distributed architecture minimizes latency, optimizes geo-availability, reduces remote backup costs and meets data sovereignty requirements. With its software and hardware agnostic design, Leonovus provides Petabyte scalability and allows the enterprise to utilize its existing idle storage resources, extend the useable lifespan of depreciated resources and improve the enterprise's overall ROI. To learn more, please visit www.leonovus.com. This press release may contain forward-looking statements and information, which may involve risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, competitive developments, risks associated with Leonovus' growth, the state of the financial markets, regulatory risks and other factors. There can be no assurance or guarantees that any statements of forward-looking information contained in this release will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral statements containing forward-looking information are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Leonovus disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers should not place undue reliance on any statements of forward-looking information that speak only as of the date of this release. Further information on Leonovus' public filings, including its most recent audited consolidated financial statements, are available at www.sedar.com. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leonovus-announces-plans-for-an-initial-coin-offering-for-the-galaxa-marketplace-300706076.html SOURCE Leonovus Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] YouTube, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to launch September fundraising campaign for gaming creators to give back

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In support of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, 12 YouTube gaming creators with more than 37 million combined subscribers will be using their online video channels to fundraise for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital through a special edition of St. Jude PLAY LIVE on YouTube. St. Jude PLAY LIVE, a program that allows creators to stream video games while raising money for kids at St. Jude, has raised more than $10 million in the last four years. For the first time, YouTube gaming creators will pioneer fundraising for St. Jude using YouTube's newest fundraising features. In anticipation of this initiative, YouTube creators recently visited St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where they toured the hospital, played games with St. Jude patients and experienced the St. Jude mission firsthand. "Seing the smiles that video games put on kids' faces when they're going through the battle of their lives put everything into perspective for me," said Mari Takahashi from Smosh Games. "The video games bring joy to these kids while the money we raise will bring hope for a cure. Being a part of this initiative is something that I'm so proud of, and I'll never forget the experience I had when I visited St. Jude. It's a place filled with hope."



Families at St. Jude never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food  because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. "We're so proud to be teaming up with YouTube creators to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is focused on better treatment, understanding, and resources for childhood cancer," said Kelly Merryman, Vice President of Content Partnerships at YouTube. "Through this new collaboration, YouTube creators can help raise awareness and funds for St. Jude directly on YouTube, making it easier than ever for their communities to get involved."

"YouTube is helping pave the way for how we can work with creators to leverage their platforms to support the lifesaving mission of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital," said Richard Shadyac Jr., President and CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. "This innovative way of using technology to bring people together coupled with contributions made through St. Jude PLAY LIVE on YouTube helps us work towards our mission of ending childhood cancer, together." St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. YouTube gaming creators that are pioneering this initiative include AbdallahSmash026, Aphmau, AtomicMari, Blessious, Funhaus, IGN, ItsFunneh, JeromeASF, KreekCraft, LaurenzSide, Noahj456, and Smosh Games. YouTube will be covering all transaction fees for this campaign. To get involved and support St. Jude during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, visit stjude.org/together. Learn more about St. Jude PLAY LIVE on YouTube here. About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Its purpose is clear: Finding cures. Saving children. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude won't stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the discoveries it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food  because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Join the St. Jude mission by visiting stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook (facebook.com/stjude), following St. Jude on Twitter (@stjude) and subscribing to its YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/MyStJude). About YouTube

Launched in May 2005, YouTube's mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world. We believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories. YouTube is a Google company. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/youtube-st-jude-childrens-research-hospital-to-launch-september-fundraising-campaign-for-gaming-creators-to-give-back-300706049.html SOURCE St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Ziyen Inc. Appoints Josh Berg to the Board of Directors

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ziyen Inc. a Scottish-American Oil and Energy company, has recently appointed Josh Berg to the Board of Directors.

Josh Berg is an extremely experienced capital markets professional and the CEO of Berg Capital Markets, LLC. With over 22 years of institutional capital markets expertise, Mr. Berg is skilled at identifying value at all stages of a corporate life cycle and will be instrumental in helping Ziyen achieve its goals in the capital markets. Mr. Bergs investor relationships collectively manage more than $300 billion in equity value. Josh Berg said, I am honored and thrilled to join the Ziyen Board as an Independent Member. Ziyens unique and innovative approach to increasing yields within the Energy sector, is exemplary and is indicative of a new way of thinking. For information on investing in Ziyen, please visit the company website at www.ziyen.com, or for a copy of the latest company overview, please email support@ziyen.com >



About Ziyen Inc.:

Founded in 2016, Ziyen Inc. is a Scottish-American company focused on delivering 100% Energy Independence to the USA. Initially launched as a software company providing information on oil and gas related procurement contracts, Ziyen Inc. diversified in 2017, instating Ziyen Energy Division with intent to produce oil in the U.S. with advanced extraction methods and technology implemented and guided by career experts in the oil and gas industry. In 2017 Ziyen acquired the mineral rights to its first oil field in Indiana, and now has thirteen oil assets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently qualified Ziyen Inc. in November 2017 for our second round of funding, with a pre-IPO share price of $1.50. More information may be found in its Offering Circular filed with the SEC, or on their website www.ziyen.com. Forward Looking Statements:

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements related to anticipated commencement of commercial production, targeted pricing, performance goals, and statements that otherwise relate to future periods are forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the Companys periodic reports filed with the SEC- specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made and based on information available to the company on the date of this press release. Ziyen Inc. assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release.

Contact: Josh Berg

Berg Capital Markets

josh@bergcapitalmarkets.com Dean Holter, Esq.

Berg Capital Markets

dean@bergcapitalmarkets.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Trend Micro Emphasizes Importance of IoT Security at Pwn2Own Tokyo 2018

Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today announced details of its fall security research competition, Pwn2Own Tokyo, run by the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI). This year's contest is expanding to include IoT devices in a reflection of the growing 'Internet of Threats' facing businesses and consumers. " Gartner (News - Alert) predicts that approximately 25 billion IoT devices will be connected in 2021 and that number will continue to increase for the foreseeable future."1 Knowing IoT connectivity will continue to be part of daily life, the ZDI wants to encourage vulnerability research in these pervasive devices to help harden the ecosystem through the coordinated disclosure of bugs. "The Internet of Things is rapidly expanding into all aspects of our lives, from the smart home to the factory floor and connected cars, but products are often rushed to market without enough attention paid to their security," said Brian Gorenc, director of vulnerability research for Trend Micro (News - Alert) . "The ZDI is committed to helping remedy this situation by revealing vulnerabilities to vendors and minimizing their risk of being exploited. That's why we've extended the scope of this year's Pwn2Own Tokyo contest beyond the standard mobile devices. We're looking forward to seeing hat some of the world's best researchers bring to the event."



Formerly known as Mobile Pwn2Own, the event has been renamed Pwn2Own Tokyo to reflect its wider focus. The contest will take place on November 13-14 during the PacSec conference, with nine devices as potential targets across five different categories, and over $500,000 in cash and prizes available to researchers. Mobile device targets include the Google Pixel 2, Samsung (News - Alert) Galaxy S9, Apple iPhone X, Huawei P20 and Xiaomi Mi6 devices. IoT devices included this year will be the Apple Watch Series 3, Amazon Echo (2nd Generation), Google (News - Alert) Home, Amazon Cloud Cam Security Camera, and Nest Cam IQ Indoor.

Contestants will be competing for the prestigious title of Master of Pwn, which comes with a trophy, jacket and an additional 65,000 ZDI reward points. Cash prizes per vulnerability range from $25,000 to up to $150,000 for the Apple iPhone (News - Alert) X. Trend Micro's commitment to IoT security expands beyond this event, including the company's recent announcement to support device makers seeking to release secure products from day one. Additionally, Trend Micro Research is committed to identifying high-risk areas across the connected landscape to inform and equip business to best mitigate these threats. For complete information about Pwn2Own Tokyo, please visit: https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2018/9/04/announcing-pwn2own-tokyo-for-2018. About Trend Micro Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. All our products work together to seamlessly share threat intelligence and provide a connected threat defense with centralized visibility and control, enabling better, faster protection. With more than 6,000 employees in over 50 countries and the world's most advanced global threat intelligence, Trend Micro secures your connected world. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners. 1 Gartner, Security and Engineering - Converging or Colliding?, Wam Voster, 18 June 2018 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005115/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Jazz Networks Announces General Availability of Cybersecurity Platform

Jazz Networks announced the General Availability (GA) of its cybersecurity intelligence platform. Initially unveiled in April 2018 at the RSA (News - Alert) conference in San Francisco, the product is available for purchase beginning today. The initial features include User Behavior Analytics (UBA), machine learning-assisted alerts, instant actions, and a dedicated analyst service to monitor and report on findings. The machine learning-powered platform increases visibility and provides behavioral context with UBA. The user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) enables easy access to millions of contextual pieces of data, and the platform enables instant actions to decrease the time to resolution. "The Jazz Platform was built to increase visibility around insider threats, both malicious and, more commonly, employee negligence," says Jazz Networks CEO, Hani Mustafa. "We approach this by simplifying two things: understanding the complexities of unpredictable human behavior, and challenges associated with navigating enormous amounts of data." Since entering the Proof of Concept (PoC) phase in June, Jazz Networks has worked with a more than a dozen partners and customers to deploy and test the technology. From these engagements, participants noted value around the visibility and actionable context that was provided in a new way. "We went through an extensive security audit and we were looking for vendors who could help us look at our network using a different lens," says Kurt Meyers, Director of IT at International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT). "Jazz provides a deep level of visibility around employee behavior that would have previously required a considerable amount of manual work. The data is organized in such a way that we can follow logical paths and come to conclusions much faster than ever before." Jazz Networks has currently on boarded eight partners to extend the product's reach and offeradditional layers of expertise, the first of which being Identity and Access Management consultancy, Hub City Media.



"Hub City Media has been in the security business for 20 years, and this is the first time we've seen a product that both analyzes and enables action on intruders in the way Jazz Networks does," says Philippe Monrougie, Hub City Media CEO. "Partnering with Jazz Networks positions us to lift the burden of system analysis and remediation off of clients using our Security Operations Center. The platform enables us to collect and analyze data using smart search and machine learning, drastically reducing false positives and giving real insight into the security impact of any event." For more information about the Jazz Platform, visit www.jazznetworks.com.

About Jazz Networks: Jazz Networks is a cyber intelligence company that predicts, prevents, and protects against insider cybersecurity threats for high value companies. We combine machine learning from large datasets with human verification, so security professionals get real-time data and can focus on high-impact events. Founded in 2016 to solve insider cybersecurity threats, today Jazz Networks has more than 70 employees with offices in Oslo, London and New York. www.jazznetworks.com For interview, more information, or to request a demo, email contact@jazznetworks.com Twitter

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[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Toshiba Unveils Feature-Rich Multifunction Printer Line

Toshiba America Business Solutions today introduces three new e-STUDIO series to complement its current award-winning multifunction printer (MFP) product suite. Toshiba's (News - Alert) newly available MFP line features seven color and six monochrome models, delivering up to 50 pages-per-minute to tackle virtually any print, document management and workflow application required for today's businesses. The available Elevate customizable user interface (UI) enables clients to enjoy a completely custom-tailored product that supports each customer's unique requirements. Elevate enhances an organization's overall efficiency and productivity by enabling document workflows and common tasks with a single push of a button. Toshiba e-STUDIO MFPs additionally couple the powerful multi-core Intel Atom processor with next-generation security protection. Adhering to the Hard Copy Device Protection Profile (HCD-PP) - the latest security certification adopted by National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) and Common Criteria Test Laboratories - helps ensure all scans, copies, faxes and digital document prints using Toshiba MFPs are secure by meeting rigorous security assurance standards. The Toshiba products also support NFC Authentication, a security protocol embraced by the mobile device community, simplifying login for users of many Android (News - Alert) devices. "Toshiba's newest product offering reflects our continued commitment to provide organizations with the industry's most secure and feature-rich multifunction printers to efficiently, effectively and affordably handle today's document printing and workflow applications," said Bill Melo, Toshiba America Business Solutions chief marketing executive. "These new MFPs are the most secure, customizable and planet-friendly devices that we've ever delivered." Toshiba's latest product portfolio affirmsthe company's pledge to a more sustainable planet. All 13 of the company's new products meet the stringent criteria of major environmental programs and standards, such as EPEAT Gold, Restriction of Hazardous Substances (or RoHS) and ENERGY STAR.



Toshiba's new color product portfolio includes:

e-STUDIO2510AC series - Two models

e-STUDIO5015AC series - Five models Toshiba's new monochrome portfolio includes:

e-STUDIO5018A - Six models

The new Toshiba e-STUDIO products start at $5,339 and may now be purchased through the company's authorized dealers. For more information about Toshiba products, or to locate an authorized Toshiba dealer in your area, visit www.business.toshiba.com. About Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) provides multifunction printers, managed document services and digital signage for businesses of all sizes throughout the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. The company's award-winning e-STUDIO copiers and printers provide quality performance with the security businesses require. Complementing its hardware offering is a full suite of document workflow, capture and security services, including Encompass, the company's industry-acclaimed Managed Print Services program. Encompass enables clients to print less and optimize workflow while improving energy efficiency. TABS' Ellumina digital signage offering includes all of the hardware, software and services needed to implement dynamic and interactive digital signage installations. TABS provides content creation and management, displays, integration, installation and project management services, as well as financing for solutions ranging from a single screen to the biggest arenas and stadiums. For additional information, please visit www.business.toshiba.com. Follow Toshiba:

Facebook (News - Alert) : https://www.facebook.com/ToshibaBusiness/

Twitter: @ToshibaBusiness

LinkedIn (News - Alert) : www.linkedin.com/company/ToshibaBusiness

YouTube (News - Alert) : https://www.youtube.com/ToshibaBusiness Newsroom:

http://business.toshiba.com/usa/about/press View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005155/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Europac Enhances Network Performance with GTT SD-WAN

GTT Communications, Inc. (NYSE: GTT), the leading cloud networking provider to multinational clients, announced today that Europac Group, a long-standing client of its recent Interoute acquisition, is deploying GTT's SD-WAN service to enhance network performance for its European sites. Europac, one of the most innovative manufacturers of sustainable packaging in Europe, leverages GTT's extensive network in Europe to connect its 18 paper and packaging factories and six waste management facilities in Spain, France and Portugal. GTT's high-performance, reliable cloud networking services support Europac in its drive to streamline its operations and processes across the entire value chain of the packaging industry. GTT's SD-WAN helps to optimize performance for Europac's applications and services that operate in a centralized cloud architecture, enabling Europac to even more effectively implement its supply chain strategy, manage change in its manufacturing operations and drive greater competitive advantage. GTT also supports all of Europac's business divisions with an enterprise voice over IP (VoIP) platform, from its data center in Madrid.



David Casas, head of infrastructure and communications at the Europac Group, commented, "GTT's network and communications services enable us to accelerate and support the integration of our internal operations across Europe. SD-WAN adds flexibility and allows us to optimize our network to support our cloud-based applications, which is a fundamental aspect of the company's digital strategy." "GTT is redefining global communications to serve clients such as Europac," stated Rick Calder (News - Alert) , GTT president and CEO. "We help our clients connect people across their organizations, around the world and to every application in the cloud."

About GTT GTT is redefining global communications to serve a cloud-based future, connecting people across organizations, around the world and to every application in the cloud. Our clients benefit from an outstanding service experience built on our core values of simplicity, speed and agility. A Fortune Future 50 company, GTT owns and operates a global Tier 1 internet network and provides a comprehensive suite of cloud networking services to any location in the world. For more information on GTT, please visit www.gtt.net. About Europac The Europac Group was formed in 1995 and listed on the Madrid stock market three years later. The company has 2,300 employees and operates 18 paper and packaging factories, three energy co-generation centers, and six waste management facilities in southern Europe. Europac is included in the IBEX Medium Cap index and generates annual revenue of EURO1.3 billion. Europac is the only manufacturer of kraftliner and coated papers in southern Europe, as well as the leading packaging supplier in Portugal, and the fourth-largest in France and the Iberian Peninsula, where it is also the second-largest recovered paper manufacturer. For more information on Europac, please visit www.europacgroup.com/en/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005200/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Evoqua Acquires IsH20Top Group, Expanding Its Canadian Market Reach

Evoqua Water Technologies Corp. (NYSE: AQUA) today announced it has acquired privately held IsH 2 0Top (pronounced "isotope") Group, a Quebec-based provider of high-purity water treatment equipment and systems, equipment maintenance services and service deionization. The acquisition strengthens Evoqua's Canadian service capabilities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

IsH 2 0Top serves the ultrapure pharmaceutical, laboratory, medical, university, industrial and microelectronics markets in the Quebec region. It provides its customer base with a variety of solutions including reverse osmosis, deionized water systems and steam purification.

"It's with great enthusiasm that the IsH 2 0Top team joins the Evoqua family. Our common customer service dedication is clearly a determining factor in the decision to join," said Pierre Reznyak, President, IsH 2 0Top Group. It wil join Evoqua's Light Industry Technologies division, which is a part of Evoqua's Industrial Segment, and will extend the company's service network.







"For 25 years, IsH 2 0Top has been very successful by delivering excellent customer service and building a reputation as a trusted partner," said Evoqua Chief Executive Officer Ron Keating. "We welcome IsH 2 0Top to the Evoqua family and are excited by the opportunity to help them grow as part of Evoqua."

Evoqua has a service and support network that is four times larger than its next largest competitor. As a result, a certified Evoqua Service Technician is no more than a two-hour drive from 90 percent of the company's 25,000 industrial customers.

About Evoqua

Evoqua Water Technologies is a leading provider of mission critical water treatment solutions, offering services, systems and technologies to support its customers' full water lifecycle needs. Evoqua Water Technologies has worked to protect water, the environment and its employees for over 100 years, earning a reputation for quality, safety and reliability around the world. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Evoqua Water Technologies operates 160 locations in eight countries and, with more than 200,000 installations and 87 service branches, holds leading positions in the North American industrial, commercial and municipal water treatment markets.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005236/en/[September 04, 2018] Tektronix Showcases the Latest in Optical Test Innovation for Datacenter Networking at ECOC 2018

BRACKNELL, United Kingdom, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tektronix, a leading worldwide provider of measurement solutions, will showcase the latest in optical test innovation for datacenter networking at ECOC 2018, the largest optical communications exhibition in Europe. Tektronix will be hosting industry experts from leading research and commercial companies to discuss the trends and opportunities for emerging optical communications designs. "With 100G moving into production and 400G design efforts in full swing, the test challenges around characterization, verification and debug of both silicon and system designs have never been greater," said Dean Miles, Head of EMEA Optical Market Development. "As ECOC attendees will be able to see firsthand, Tektronix is well positioned to help our customers push the boundaries of higher data rates, emerging standards, and cutting-edge research while reducing time to market with our high-performance solutions." Datacenter networking technology providers are looking to continuously increase the capacity and precision of high speed data transfers. Tektronix will be showcasing a number of new dedicated application solutions areas at ECOC stand 219, including: Changing how you look at lowering the cost of PAM 4 Testing - DSA8300 sampling oscilloscope with an 80GHz optical sampling module showing support for IEEE 802.3bs based 400G optical testing for TDECQ, including new advances in high-sensitivity single-mode/multi-mode optical measurements for NRZ and PAM-4. Gaining deeper insight and faster analysi of PAM 4 design and debug challenges - DPO70000SX 70GHz ATI performance oscilloscope analyze single shot PAM-4 signals with live triggering and post-equalized error detection for 400G standards.



Complex Coherent testing made easy - An end-to-end demonstration of the industry's only optical modulation analysis software supporting multi-OMA systems, featuring the AWG70000 Series Arbitrary Waveform Generator and the DPO70000SX oscilloscope for applications such as spatial division multiplexing and more. Support for new emerging standards - 400G ZR Receiver Testing - featuring the Tektronix DPO70000SX 70GHz ATI performance oscilloscope

New Technology Innovation Centre  Tektronix will be showing its award winning and best in class Oscilloscope and Arbitrary Waveform Generator technologies, such as the new 6 series MSO Mixed Domain Oscilloscope with up to 8 GHz and, 25GS/s per channel sampling rate, up to 250M points record length and 12 bits vertical resolution. The ECOC Exhibition is the key meeting place for decision makers from across the fibre optic communications technology industry. For more than 20 years, ECOC has drawn attendees from all corners of the globe to meet and greet, teach and learn, make connections and move business forward. ECOC 2018 is being held September 24-26 in Rome, Italy. For more information, go to http://www.ecocexhibition.com. Wondering what else Tektronix is up to? Check out the Tektronix Bandwidth Banter blog and stay up to date on the latest news from Tektronix on Twitter and Facebook. About Tektronix

Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix delivers innovative, precise and easy-to-operate test, measurement and monitoring solutions that solve problems, unlock insights and drive discovery. Tektronix has been at the forefront of the digital age for over 70 years. Join us on the journey of innovation at TEK.COM View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tektronix-showcases-the-latest-in-optical-test-innovation-for-datacenter-networking-at-ecoc-2018-300705719.html SOURCE Tektronix, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Flash

China's top legislator Li Zhanshu will head a delegation to visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Saturday as a special representative of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president.

The announcement was made by a spokesperson of the CPC Central Committee's International Department in Beijing Tuesday.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, will also attend activities to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK, said the spokesperson in a press release.

Li was invited by the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK government, said the spokesperson.[September 04, 2018] Cyprus - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

LONDON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cyta embarks of 10-year NGN investment program

Despite the liberalisation of Cypruss telecom sector, the market overall continues to be dominated by the incumbent, Cyta, which was only fully privatised in July 2018 following its sale to Vodafone Greece.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5495951



The sale of the company formed part of a wider financial bailout package and was delayed and amended because of political opposition. Although it is the dominant provider, Cyta has failed to invest adequately in its networks in recent years, resulting in a steady decline in its share of the fixed-voice, broadband and mobile markets. Nevertheless, the company in May 2018 announced plans to make significant investments in a ten-year NGN infrastructure project. One fruit of this project was the launch of an FttP service in the following August, supplemented by vectoring technology on its copper infrastructure in rural areas. The financial and management support of Vodafone will likely lead to further upgrades and innovation in coming years.

Improved regulatory conditions, particularly in relation to network interconnection and access, has given competing operators the confidence to invest in network infrastructure, to make use of unbundled local loops and to launch competing services. The mobile sector saw increased competition in late 2017 following the launch of services by the cableco Cablenet, which had secured LTE-suitable spectrum at auction in mid-2016. The company already operated in the market as an MVNO.

The broadband market is developing steadily following a few years of low growth exacerbated by economic difficulties. DSL remains the dominant access platform, with cble broadband restricted to a single operator, Cablenet. Although Cablenets network was for long concentrated in a few key towns, under the management of its majority-owner GO the company has invested in both its fixed-line and mobile networks, and its cable infrastructure covers about half of the islands premises. Fibre infrastructure in Cyprus is still comparatively in its infancy, with the incumbent telco Cyta having lacked the resources to invest in a fibre network. However, an FttP service is expected to cover about 200,000 premises as part of the overall NGN project.





Cyprus is a divided island with most of the information in this report concerned only with the Greek Cypriot area. The report also reviews the broadband and digital media markets, detailing industry developments and key statistics on areas including cable and DSL broadband, fibre networks and IP-delivered services such as videostreaming. In addition, the report assesses the mobile market, covering a range of voice and data services, regulatory developments, and technologies.



Key developments:

Cyta to invest in ten-year NGN project;

MTN Group sells Cypriot unit to Monaco Telecom for 260 million;

Quantum Cable contracts for new submarine cable linking to Greece and Israel ;

Telecom Italy Sparkle and Cyta complete the Kimonas cable subsystem linking Cyprus with Crete ;

Cyta launches FttP services;

Cablenet sees growth in broadband subscriber base, gains 22% broadband market share;

Estonian government to help Cyprus develop e-government functions and systems;

Government commits to all premises having access to 30Mb/s broadband by 2020;

PrimeTel contracts SmartLabs for videostreaming platform;

Ministry of Communications completes 800MHz and 2600MHz spectrum auction;

Report update includes the regulators market data to December 2017 , operators statistical data updates to Q2 2018, recent market developments





Companies mentioned in this report:

Cyta, OTEnet, PrimeTel, Cytamobile-Vodafone, MTN Cyprus, Kibris Telecom, Multichoice, Cablenet



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5495951



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: sarah@reportbuyer.com

Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cyprus---telecoms-mobile-and-broadband---statistics-and-analyses-300706172.html SOURCE ReportBuyer

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Keystone Adds Two New Michigan Agencies to Growing Partner Community

Keystone has named Shoreline Insurance of Muskegon, as well as Combined Insurance Agencies of St. Joseph to its growing community of partners in Michigan. "Over time, we've grown our agency to nearly 30 professionals and garnered expertise in many key industries within our community," said Rich Kramer, president of Shoreline Insurance. "Joining Keystone gives us the advantage of offering national resources we can source locally to these clients, all while remaining independently owned and operated." "As our community and our agency continues to grow, so does our need for solutions that help the families and businesses we serve," said Bob Beemer, president of Combined Insurance Agencies. "Partnering with Keystone brings new tools in employee benefits, commercial lines markets and risk management that will help our clients." "With the explosion of new technology, today's insurance industry is changing rapidly," explained Mark Maurer, Keystone's Michigan vice president. "Our agents need to be forward thinking and focused on developing the next generation of talent. Shoreline Insurance and Combined Insurance Agencies definitely fit these key components of what we want in our community of partners." About Shoreline Insurance -- Since 1976, Shoreline Insurance has served clients in the West Micigan area with personal and commercial insurance, and employee benefits. The agency staff is very engaged with the local community including serving on non-profit boards and several service organizations. They strive to make West Michigan a better place to live and work. For more, visit https://shorelineagency.com.



About Combined Insurance Agencies (CIA) -- CIA has a rich history of serving the insurance needs of individuals, families and businesses throughout southwest Michigan. The Combined Insurance Agencies is made up of many agencies that combined over the years. President Robert Beemer and Senior Vice President Bruce Owen are owners of the agency and active members of the community. For more, visit https://ciainsurancemi.com. About Keystone Insurers Group (Keystone) -- Keystone started in 1983 when four independent insurance agencies teamed up to pool their experience and expertise. This small group believed that agencies could be stronger and more successful if they linked arms -- a passion and spirit that continues. Growing to almost 300 independent agency partners in 12 states, Keystone provides its agents with a community of like-minded agencies, industry expertise and access to specialized products for their clients. Keystone is ranked number three on Insurance Journal's 2018 list of Top 20 Privately-Held Property/Casualty Agency Partnerships. For more information, go to www.keystoneinsgrp.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005545/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] THE UNIVERSITY OF SUFFOLK SELECTS D2L'S BRIGHTSPACE TO MODERNISE ITS STUDENT LEARNING EXPERIENCE

London, UK, Sept. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- D2L , the global learning technology leader, today announced that the University of Suffolk has chosen the Brightspace platform to deliver a more personalised, engaging learning experience to its students. After gaining university status in 2016, the University of Suffolk decided it needed to upgrade from its Blackboard learning platform to one that made the learning experience more modern, engaging and accessible . Following a rigorous tender process, which included staff and students testing D2L's Brightspace and offerings from Blackboard and Canvas, the University of Suffolk selected Brightspace. The platform was chosen for its ease-of-use, responsive design , learning analytics capabilities and flexibility . Following a review of our academic strategy, we knew we needed to modernise our learning platform, said Ellen Buck, Head of Learning Services at the University of Suffolk. As a university, we are fully focused on the student experience, therefore it was important that any platform we invested in was welcomed by those that would be using it. Aaron Burrell, Digital Learning Systems Manager at the University of Suffolk, delivered many testing sessions and said: The students unanimously chose Brightspace as their favourite platform. Not only is it modern, responsive and engaging, but it enables our students to be in control of their own learning. Brightspace is being developed for students in the Universitys new blended learning degree apprenticeship programmes in Nursing, Social Worker and Police Constable. It will then be implemented across the entire university. We were recently awarded Hefce (Higher Education Funding Council for England) funding that enabled us to develop three degree apprenticeships schemes in response to local need, said Ellen Buck.These students are often working remotely, therefore require a mobile, adaptable learning platform that enables them to work around their employment. Brightspace is fantastic as it supports a blended learning approach, which gives our students the flexibility to learn wherever and whenever they need to. Whilst other learning platforms we tested wererestrictive, Brightspace enables us to teach how we want to teach, and our students to learn how they want to learn. D2L has been a breath of fresh air to work with and we look forward to continuing our relationship.



Brightspace is mobile responsive , offers real-time analytics , a personalised learning experience and is built with accessibility in mind, all within one flexible Virtual Learning Environment . The dynamic and mobile Daylight interface lets instructors design courses easily, create content and grade assignments on their phone or tablet. Brightspaces built-in analytics lets the University of Suffolk monitor courses tailored to each learners experience. Were excited about working with the University of Suffolk as, like D2L, it is committed to a culture of lifelong learning, said Elliot Gowans, Senior VP International, D2L. Brightspace is transforming the Universitys learning experience by making it much more adaptive, engaging, and accessible  three key attributes of modern learning. We look forward to extending our relationship with the University.

QUICK FACTS: 147 students and academic staff were involved in 40 Brightspace testing sessions before it was chosen

The tender process was conducted via the POISE framework to consolidate spend and reduce demand on procurement resources

Brightspace was up against Blackboard and Canvas, but came out on top during testing ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF SUFFOLK

At the University of Suffolk, we prepare our students for a world where nothing ever stays the same. We embrace change, and our students learn to embrace change too.



We have absorbed the best university traditions and aligned them with a twenty-first century audience and the modern world of employment and entrepreneurship.



Our purpose is to change lives - of individuals and communities - for the better. We embrace our role as independent stewards of community life and values; an anchor institution proud of its central ambition of working collaboratively to transform our local communities.



We are strongly embedded in the local region. Our unique, integrated partnership with three of the regions Colleges is central to our identity and our vision for the future.



We have an attractive portfolio of courses within Arts and Humanities; Children, Young People and Education; Psychology, Sociology and Social Work; Business and Management; Health; and Science, Technology and Engineering. ABOUT BRIGHTSPACE

D2Ls Brightspace is a cloud-based learning platform that makes learning easy, flexible and smart. Brightspace is not like a traditional Learning Management System (LMS) -- it is easy to create engaging courses and content, integrate video , personalise learning, capture and share expertise across the organisation, and supports all mobile devices. Plus, Brightspace enables the future of learning with adaptive learning , intelligent agents, course interactives, full support for competency-based learning and world-leading learning analytics . Our clients report improved productivity, performance growth, lower turnover of employees, greater engagement and ultimately better business outcomes. ABOUT D2L

D2L believes learning is the foundation upon which all progress and achievement rests. Working closely with organisations globally, D2L has transformed the way millions of people learn online and in the classroom. Learn more about D2L for schools , higher education and businesses at www.D2L.com . PRESS CONTACTS Hannah Townsend, Finn Partners, 020 3217 7060, D2L@finnpartners.com

Virginia Jamieson, Vice President of External Communications, D2L Ltd., 650-279-8619, virginia.jamieson@D2L.com Twitter: @D2L  2018 D2L Corporation The D2L family of companies includes D2L Corporation, D2L Ltd, D2L Australia Pty Ltd, D2L Europe Ltd, D2L Asia Pte Ltd and D2L Brasil Solucoes de Tecnologia para Educacao Ltda. ALL D2L MARKS ARE TRADEMARKS OF D2L CORPORATION. PLEASE VISIT D2L.COM/TRADEMARKS FOR A LIST OF D2L MARKS.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] TurboTenant Raises $2.2 Million in New Funding Round

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TurboTenant, the industry-leading free internet platform for tenants and landlords, raised $2.2 million in new funding. The funding round was led by Kirk Holland of Access Venture Partners in Denver, Colorado. "We have game-changing features planned and we are excited to now have additional capital to make the rental process easier and faster for millions of landlords and renters," said Sarnen Steinbarth, TurboTenant Founder and Chief Executive Officer. New investors in TurboTenant include: Service Provider Capital, an early stage venture fund

Michael Beaudoin , co-founder of HomeAdvisor

, co-founder of HomeAdvisor Karl Sowa , former CMO of HomeAdvisor In line with TurboTenant's mission of helping landlords and property managers bring the rental process into the twenty-first century, capital raised will be used to acceerate product and marketing efforts and build out a larger team of employees.



TurboTenant leads the independent landlord industry in cutting-edge software aimed at assisting landlords and tenants across the United States with online applications, multiple listing marketing, tenant reports, tenant rental insurance and more. Over 20 million independent landlords work throughout the United States, many of them relying on antiquated systems involving hand-written index card records, simple spreadsheets, and posting one by one on rental listing services. It is an industry ripe for modernization and disruption, which TurboTenant provides by building the tools that landlords need in an extremely simple user interface.

TurboTenant provides a simple, intuitive front end to the rental process, including placing listings on multiple rental sites and helping potential tenants find the rental properties that fit their needs. The number of landlords using TurboTenant has tripled in just over a year. More than 100,000 landlords in all 50 states use TurboTenant and over 1 million tenants have used TurboTenant to find a home. TurboTenant allows you to rent smarter and takes the hassle out of being a landlord. It features rental marketing, online rental applications, tenant screening, renters insurance, tenant management and communication, as well as landlord forms and education. It's landlording made easy, and best of all it's free for landlords. Media Contact:

Andrew Evans

Phone: 719.966.7368 ext. 6

Email: press@turbotenant.com Related Links TurboTenant View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/turbotenant-raises-2-2-million-in-new-funding-round-300705229.html SOURCE TurboTenant, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Kasasa Names Amy Gililland as Chief Financial Officer

Kasasa, an award-winning financial technology and marketing provider, today announced the addition of Amy Gililland as its Chief Financial Officer.

"Kasasa continues to grow, making it critical that we bring in an experienced executive to help create and guide our financial strategy," said Gabe Krajicek, CEO of Kasasa. "Amy joins us with not only an impressive background, but an approach that parallels our own philosophies. She has a strong commitment to collaboration and a team attitude that will further our efforts in delivering world-class products to community financial institutions. She will be a tremendous asset to us."

"I am delighted to take on this role and join an executive team that is committed and mission-focused," said Gililland. "Like Kasasa, I share a passion for empowering teams to collaborate to further drive the organization's mission. I take a creative yet disciplined approach to problem-solving, partnering with business unit leaders to create successful outcomes. I look forward to working closely with the team to build on an already successful company."

Gililland brings a wealth of financial and operational leadership in the software, SaaS (News - Alert) /PaaS and professional services industries, successfully raising over $150 million in private equity and directing worldwide teams to ensure financial and strategic alignment while navigating hyper-growth. With nearly 20 years of experience, she specializes in assisting boards and leaders in strategic planning and effective use of capital. Previously, she held positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers (News - Alert) , Nortel Networks and Kony, Inc. Gililland earned both her bachelor's degree and a Master in Professional Accounting from The University of Texas - Austin.

About Kasasa

Kasasa is an award-winning financial technology and marketing provider. Based in Austin, Texas, with 400 employees, Kasasa helps more than 800 community financial institutions establish long lasting relationships with consumers residing in their local markets through its branded retail products, world class marketing capabilities, and expert consulting. The company reinvented checking and is now reinventing lending through its latest patent-pending offering, Kasasa LoansTM. Learn more about Kasasa's innovation products and services:







Reward Checking Accounts

Kasasa LoanTM - The only loan with take-backs

Marketing & Technology

Websites That Sell

Consulting & Insights

For more information, please visit www.Kasasa.com, follow our blog Kasasa.com/blog, or share with us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005546/en/[September 04, 2018] Bridgeway Capital Management Broadens Capabilities with Addition of Veteran Investor Jacob Pozharny, Ph.D., to Head International Investing

Bridgeway Capital Management (Bridgeway), an independent, statistically driven investment manager, today announced the broadening of its investment capabilities to comprise international equity strategies. Concurrently, the firm said it hired Jacob Pozharny, Ph.D., formerly head of international equity research and portfolio management at QMA, a Prudential Global Investment Management (PGIM) company, to helm Bridgeway's new international investing competency. In this role, Pozharny will work with the Bridgeway team to drive the development and growth of international and global quantitative equity and alternative strategies and contribute to US strategies. He will also support client relationship efforts, while enhancing Bridgeway's presence as a thought leader. Bridgeway currently manages multiple US, long-only equity strategies with approximately $10 billion deployed across institutional separate accounts, sub-advisory relationships, and mutual funds. "Having an investor of Jacob's significance join our strong team is a testament to the advantages of our unique company culture and 25-year commitment to statistically driven, evidence-based investing. This is a major step forward in our mission to build an enduring firm with an extraordinary commitment to our clients, colleagues, and community," said Tammira Philippe, Bridgeway's President and CEO. "Bridgeway has been distinctive with growth in assets of 30% annualized over the last five years, and we've had multiple expressions of interest for the application of our disciplined investment approach to equities outside the United States. We're delighted to have Jacob lead our international effort and look forward to building more value for clients together." Immediately before joining Bridgeway, Pozharny spent nine years at QMA as head of international equity research and portfolio management. There, he oversaw a $15 billion quantitative quity investment platform spanning global, developed, emerging and small-cap separate accounts and commingled equity strategies. He defined the vision and executed the strategy for the build-out of a quantitative stock selection and portfolio construction platform delivering visualization of portfolio content and effective risk budgeting. As of 2017, as lead portfolio manager, his five and seven year track record for his team's suite of long-only products was exceptional. His team consistently outperformed global, EAFE, EM, EAFE small-cap and EM small-cap benchmarks.



Previously, Pozharny served as head of international quantitative equity at TIAA-CREF (now TIAA), where he led a $10 billion-plus equity platform and functioned as lead portfolio manager for international equity strategies. Pozharny started his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in 1993, consulted at BCA Research in Montreal, and was an institutional equity portfolio manager at Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management before joining TIAA in 2001.

Pozharny received his Ph.D. in Applied Statistics from the University of California, Riverside; an MS in Statistics from the University of California, Riverside; an MS in Finance from the University of California, Santa Cruz; and a BA in Economics, also from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Noted John Montgomery, Bridgeway's Founder and CIO, "This is as exciting a time at Bridgeway as I can recall in the last 25 years. Without a doubt, Jacob is committed to our top value of integrity and putting our clients' interests first. We look for distinctive individuals to join our team who share our passion for logic, data, and evidence, and want to build a different kind of investment firm. Jacob stands out in every dimension that we seek. Our entire team is steadfast in our focus on our current clients and US strategies and excited to collaborate with Jacob to broaden our capabilities to international equity and alternatives." Said Pozharny, "I'm thrilled to join Bridgeway, a mission-driven firm that shares my values and has pioneered quantitative investing for more than a quarter of a century. I see a tremendous opportunity to leverage my experience as part of a dynamic team to build on Bridgeway's existing institutional-grade, evidence-driven US equity platform and continue to deliver exceptional investment outcomes in emerging, international, and global equity strategies for the most sophisticated clients." About Bridgeway Capital Management Bridgeway Capital Management offers expertly designed investment strategies, sub-advisory services, and mutual funds to select institutions and advisers. Bridgeway believes that a disciplined statistical process - grounded in academic theory and fundamental data - drives success in long-term investing. Putting investors' interests first is a hallmark of the firm's unique culture and core business values of integrity, performance, efficiency, and service. Committed to community impact, Bridgeway donates 50% of its profits to non-profit and charitable organizations. More information on Bridgeway is available at bridgeway.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005610/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Wells Fargo to Double Investment in Chicago's Austin Neighborhood

Wells Fargo (News - Alert) (NYSE: WFC) announced today that the bank will double its investment in the United Way of Metro Chicago Neighborhood Network Initiative in the Austin neighborhood, bringing the bank's total commitment to $600,000 by 2020. Since 2015, Wells Fargo has invested $100,000 each year to the program and will contribute that same amount annually for the next three years This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005714/en/ Monica Cole, North Region head for Wells Fargo Middle Market Banking, presents a $300,000 ceremonial check to United Way of Metro Chicago's Joanna Bossi, director of Corporate Partnerships, and Ashley Nicoson, corporate liaison, after announcing that the bank has doubled its commitment to organization's Neighborhood Initiative for the next three years. Wells Fargo's contribution targeting Chicago's Austin neighborhood totals $600,000. (Photo: Business Wire) The announcement was made early today at the bank's South Wacker Drive regional hub where more than 100 local Wells Fargo volunteers assembled 450 literacy kits filled with craft activities to support vocabulary development for Austin-area children served by Austin Childcare Providers Network and New Moms. "For many years, Wells Fargo and United Way havejoined to transform lives locally and nationally through our workplace giving campaign and partnerships like these built on trust and impact," said Monica Cole, North Region head of Middle Market Banking for Wells Fargo. "Doubling our commitment to the Austin Neighborhood Network allows Wells Fargo to continue to focus our community investments and volunteer hours on the community for three more years."



"The continued Wells Fargo/United Way of Metro Chicago partnership is an integral part of achieving lasting change in the community of Austin," said Jose Rico, senior vice president of Community Investment at United Way of Metro Chicago. "Through this partnership, we're able to sustainably support the network's goals of improving educational outcomes and increasing economic stability for Austin residents." Through its Neighborhood Network Initiative, United Way of Metro Chicago works with a lead partner and local nonprofits to identify challenges in the areas of education, income, and health, and then builds on the strengths of existing community services with additional resources. United Way leverages financial investments, staff expertise, and cross-sector partnerships to coordinate services and measure progress toward goals set by each neighborhood, such as increasing high school graduation rates, reducing chronic disease, and addressing trauma from community violence. There are 10 United Way Neighborhood Network coalitions across the city and suburbs.

Along with its continued support of United Way, Wells Fargo earlier this year reinforced its commitment to community investments that support economic growth, resiliency, and sustainability. The bank pledged $400 million - or more than $1 million a day - to nonprofits in 2018. The company also recently announced that it will provide $200 billion in financing to sustainable businesses and projects by 2030. In August, Wells Fargo committed $8 million in down payment assistance grants through its NeighborhoodLIFT program to boost homeownership in Cook County. Also in 2017: The banks' nearly 5,000 local employees donated $1.5 million and volunteered more than 25,000 hours in communities statewide

Wells Fargo donated nearly more than $4 million to Illinois nonprofits and schools that same year, including more than $1.5 million for community development, financial literacy, housing, and small business projects

Wells Fargo donated more than 10,000 new winter coats to Chicago Public School children About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through 8,200 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 42 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 25 on Fortune's 2017 rankings of America's largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005714/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] North Carolina School Districts Turn to IM Certified Professional Learning to Help Teachers Address New Math Standards and Move to a Problem-Based Curriculum

The implementation of North Carolina's new K-8 Mathematics Standards and the move to a problem-based approach in the classroom require a significant change in practice for many educators. To support meaningful shifts in instruction that improve student achievement and engagement, a growing number of North Carolina districts, including Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) and New Hanover County Schools (NHCS), are turning to Illustrative Mathematics (IM) Certified Professional Learning. IM Certified Professional Learning is developed, certified, and continuously refined by the authors of the IM 6-8 Math curriculum. It is delivered by IM Certified Facilitators, highly qualified math educators who undergo a rigorous application and qualification process and attend intensive, ongoing trainings to gain mastery in delivering impactful professional learning. Through IM Certified Professional Learning, educators develop the skills and cnfidence to implement standards-aligned instruction, ensure curricular coherence within and across grade levels, facilitate meaningful mathematics discussions, and implement instructional routines that engage students and improve their learning.



In 2017-18, WCPSS, the state's largest school system and 15th largest in the nation, piloted Open Up Resources 6-8 Math, authored by IM. This year, it is implementing the problem-based math curriculum in all 38 middle schools and providing IM Certified Professional Learning for all math teachers and staff members supporting mathematics instruction in grades 6-8. "Moving to a problem-based approach is a major shift for many teachers, and it's a huge cognitive leap for students as well," said Brian Kingsley, assistant superintendent for academics for WCPSS. "We partnered with IM to help our teachers immerse our students in a comprehensive, standards-aligned curriculum and create learning experiences that have a deep level of rigor and engagement. Plus, going to the developers of the curriculum for our professional learning made a lot of sense from a quality assurance perspective. Through this partnership, we're developing all of our students into mathematicians and helping them create healthy mindsets around mathematics."

NCHS began piloting Open Up Resources 6-8 Math, authored by IM and IM Certified Professional Learning in five of its 10 middle schools in 2017-18. This year, it will add more teachers and another school to the pilot. "We want our students to be problem solvers, not answer getters," said Katie Martin, 6-12 mathematics lead teacher for NCHS. "IM Certified Professional Learning is tightly aligned with what we're teaching, so it's very timely. We find our teachers are now more confident about their instruction and have a better understanding of the connections between units and grade levels. They also love the instructional routines and are better at encouraging student discourse. As a result, our students are now better problem solvers, more engaged, and doing things they thought they'd never be able to do in math. We couldn't have done any of this without implementing IM Certified Professional Learning." Click here to learn more about the Illustrative Mathematics 6-8 Math curriculum. About Illustrative Mathematics Illustrative Mathematics is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a world where learners know, use, and enjoy mathematics. We develop and deliver core mathematics curriculum along with deeply integrated professional learning experiences that ensure students receive engaging, high-quality mathematics instruction. Learn more at www.illustrativemathematics.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005725/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Tom Hricik joins HGS as President and Head of Business Development, North America

Experienced BPO leader with strong focus on driving a culture of winning CHICAGO, Sept. 4, 2018 /CNW/ -- Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS), (listed in BSE & NSE in India), a global leader in business process management, has announced the hiring of Tom Hricik, a new member of its executive leadership team, to focus on the topline growth of the business. Tom brings with him more than 30 years of experience in sales, client management, P&L management, operations and consulting. He will join the North American team in helping to meet growth objectives, working with both existing accounts as well as with the new logo team to build a healthy pipeline and win new business that is profitable and sustainable. "With a healthy P&L, HGS is able to make the essential investments in technology and our people to help our clients be more competitive by solving their industry business problems," Hricik said. "As a growing global company we have remarkable client retention resulting from being brilliant at providing core services while helping customers adopt automation and analytics-based innovation to meet their present and future needs. HGS is a formidable Business Process Services player with our current and expanding portfolio of offerings." For the past 17-years, Tom has served in a variety o business and sales leadership roles at Conduent, a business process services companies, where he drove collaboration with internal and external partners to maximize the value of the BPO, consulting and technology services for clients. Tom is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with undergraduate and graduate degrees focused in information systems and industrial relations.



"We are excited that leaders the caliber of Tom are seeing the value in the vision, capability and client portfolio of HGS and investing their careers in helping to grow the business," said Partha DeSarkar, chief executive officer, HGS. "Tom will play a critical role in raising client, employee and shareholder value by consistently delivering innovation and deep domain expertise to grow traditional and transformational business." About Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS):

A global leader in business process management (BPM) and optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, HGS is helping make its clients more competitive every day. HGS combines technology-powered services in automation, analytics and digital with domain expertise focusing on back office processing, contact centers and HRO solutions to deliver transformational impact to clients. Part of the multi-billion dollar conglomerate Hinduja Group, HGS takes a true "globally local" approach, with over 44,854 employees across 75 delivery centers in seven countries making a difference to some of the world's leading brands across nine key verticals. For the year ended 31st March 2018, HGS had revenues of US$ 597 million.

Visit www.teamhgs.com to learn how HGS can help make your business more competitive. HGS Media Contacts:

Andrew Kokes

+1 888 747 7911

media@teamhgs.com Diana Dixon

+ 1 312 758 1380

diana.dixon@mslgroup.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tom-hricik-joins-hgs-as-president-and-head-of-business-development-north-america-300706464.html SOURCE Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS)

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Cambridge Named 2018 Broker-Dealer of the Year

Cambridge is pleased to report Investment Advisor magazine announced the firm as a 2018 Broker-Dealer of the Year in Division IV1, the division representing independent broker-dealers with more than 1,000 producing advisors. The honor is based on the results of an annual poll of advisors conducted by the magazine earlier this year. Cambridge has earned this honor for the 11th time, previously being recognized in 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, and 2007 as Broker-Dealer of the Year in Division IV and in 2003 for Division III. "We take great pride in earning Broker-Dealer of the Year because it is a prestigious honor based on the responses from the advisors choosing Cambridge to support their independent businesses," said President and Chief Executive Officer Amy Webber. "Our purpose is to make a difference in the lives of our advisors, their clients, and our associates; and this award is an important validation of our efforts. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our advisors and our associates for the many successes we enjoy, and we are grateful for their dedication in serving investing clients." Cambridge views the Broker-Dealer of the Year honor as a key measure of achievement in its commitment to continually raise standards of excellence even higher in serving those who serve others. Cambridge is the only fir honored with being recognized 11 times as a Broker-Dealer of the Year, and this honor is based on receiving advisor feedback in 15 categories from the Broker-Dealer of the Year awards criteria. Independent financial advisors cast ballots, and the broker-dealers that gained the highest composite scores were awarded the honors in four different divisions based on their number of producing advisors. The Broker-Dealer of the Year is profiled in Investment Advisor's September 2018 print issue and in the digital edition posted online via ThinkAdvisor.com.



About Cambridge

Cambridge Investment Group, Inc. is a privately-controlled financial solutions firm focused on serving independent financial advisors and their investing clients. Cambridge offers a broad range of choices regarding advisor-focused financial solutions: advice solutions, technology solutions, platform choice and business structure solutions, consulting solutions, and outsourcing solutions. Cambridge's national reach includes: Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc. - a large corporate RIA; and Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. - an independent broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC, that is among the largest privately-controlled independent broker-dealers in the country. 1'Investment Advisor magazine, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2007, Division IV; 2003, Division III. A broker-dealer becomes eligible for this honor only after a minimum of 10% of its producing rep-advisors cast valid ballots. The ballots rate the broker-dealer in 15 different categories defined by Investment Advisor as relevant challenges and concerns. Broker-dealers receiving the highest marks in each of four divisions are declared Broker-Dealer of the Year. Results are based on experiences and perceptions of participants surveyed in June of each of the years listed. Experience may vary. This recognition is not representative of investment performance or returns of rep/advisors. Visit thinkadvisor.com.'

Securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC, and investment advisory services offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Adviser. Both are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Cambridge Investment Group, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005792/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Kilamba, c. 2012 Anyone who has been to Luanda knows that the city lacks housing. The hotels are extremely expensive, and researchers h...[September 04, 2018] NJHA: New Data Center Will Explore Root Causes of Healthcare Challenges

PRINCETON, Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The New Jersey Hospital Association today announced the start-up of a new data and informatics center, charged with tapping data to better understand some of the state's most pressing health challenges and the economics of healthcare. The goal is to inform the system transformation necessary to improve the health of New Jerseyans. The NJHA Center for Health Analytics, Research and Transformation (CHART) will use information from an array of sources and apply analytics and predictive modeling to identify and better understand underlying problems and work with its members, policy experts and others to explore solutions. This new effort will be led by Sean Hopkins as senior vice president of CHART. NJHA Chief Information Officer Joe Carr will provide additional expertise on health information technology and policy, along with healthcare data analytics. NJHA President and CEO Cathy Bennett said the new center aims to place NJHA in front on emerging issues, allowing the Association to partner with members, legislators and other healthcare and community organizations for proactive responses. "So many of the problems we see in healthcare today  racial and ethnic disparities, access to care barriers, variations in use of healthcare services, variables in access and funding of prevention and wellness  require a deeper dive into why," said NJHA President and CEO Cathy Bennett. "One of the ways we get closer to answering that question is to have solid data that shows us the root causes of these problems. We can then support design of soltions that address the foundation of the problem, rather than the symptoms."



CHART's first white paper, due to be released this fall, is an in-depth evaluation of mental health and substance use claims data. This project has a dual goal of determining the geographic magnitude of the crisis, while at the same time identifying areas where strategic placement of services may lead to improved care coordination. Another of CHART's early projects will focus on chronic care hotspotting  that is, identifying pockets of the state where chronic diseases are driving people to the hospital. Chronic diseases include conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure  conditions that are manageable if individuals receive the right education, medications and care management. CHART will use data to identify areas where a high number of people with chronic conditions end up hospitalized  signaling the need for targeted support and programming to help keep people healthy in their homes and communities.

Chronic diseases and conditions are among the most common, costly and preventable health problems. Studies show that: About half of all adults suffer from one or more chronic health conditions.

Seven of the top 10 causes of death are related to chronic diseases.

More than 75 percent of annual healthcare expenditures in the United States are for people with chronic and mental health conditions.

are for people with chronic and mental health conditions. Among people with chronic conditions, the costs of caring for those who are high utilizers of healthcare services are estimated to be 17 times more than for patients who are not considered high users of healthcare services. "The costs of chronic diseases are far too high, for both individuals and for the healthcare system," said Hopkins. "But it doesn't have to be that way. Our goal is to use data in a new way to educate providers of all types, as well as policy makers and opinion leaders, to facilitate communication and care coordination where there are opportunities for proactive change for improved chronic disease management." CHART work products will include white papers, bulletins, reports, policy recommendations and round-table discussions. CHART's publications will aim to foster dialogue to help shape an environment that supports providers as they re-envision the healthcare delivery system and spark policy dialogues with leaders in healthcare, government, social services and other areas for a collaborative approach to problems that affect New Jerseyans' health and well-being. "NJHA and its Board recently embraced a new mission  to improve the health of the people of New Jersey," said Bennett. "To help fulfill that mission, we need actionable information, greater insight, innovative approaches and timely action. CHART sets us up to deliver that." View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/njha-new-data-center-will-explore-root-causes-of-healthcare-challenges-300706532.html SOURCE New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA)

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] ADT Announces Senior Leadership Succession Plan

BOCA RATON, Fla., Sept. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT), the leading provider of monitored security and interactive home and business automation solutions in the United States and Canada, today announced that Jim DeVries, currently president of ADT, will be promoted to Chief Executive Officer to succeed Tim Whall, who will be retiring on November 30, 2018 after a decades-long career in the security industry. Mr. DeVries will be appointed to the Company's Board of Directors following the transition. Mr. Whall will remain on the Company's Board and serve as an advisor to the Company. "The Company has strengthened its core operations and is successfully executing on its strategy, and both the Board and I believe that now is the right time to initiate this transition of leadership responsibilities," said Mr. Whall. "Jim DeVries has led many of the Company's recent operational and strategic improvements as Chief Operating Officer and President, making him well-positioned to succeed me as Chief Executive Officer. Today the fundamentals of our business are strong and I am confident that under the leadership of Jim and the current management team, ADT will continue to perform and deliver on its long-term growth plans." Marc Becker, Chairman of the ADT Board of Directors stated, "As President, Jim has demonstrated his deep understanding of the dynamics of our business and what it takes to win in the marketplace. Leveraging his strengths, including developing strategic partnerships, Jim is well suited to lead the Company's efforts to drive innovation, expand market share and create shareholder value. The Board expects the transition to be seamless and efficient, and with a world-class leadership team in place we will continue to build on our efforts to grow the business in a disciplined manner." "On behalf of the Board and the Company, I want to thank Tim for his many contributions to ADT," Mr. Becker continued. "Tim is a thirty-year pioneer in the security alarm sector, and over the past two years, has led the effective transformation of ADT operationally and allowed the Company to deliver an enhanced customer experience through faster service delivery and higher quality customer care, while reducing costs and customer attrition. Through this laser focus on customer service and retention, as well as a more disciplined and robust customer acquisition strategy, Tim and the ADTteam have positioned the business for continued strength and value creation."



Jim DeVries said, "I am honored to have the opportunity to lead this talented team as we continue to drive operational excellence with the customer as our true north. Together, we will execute our strategies to innovate the customer experience, enhance our service capabilities, and deliver value for all stakeholders. ADT, including our dealer partners, has an exciting future ahead and I am energized by the opportunity to further establish the Company as an innovative leader. I look forward to working closely with Tim to ensure a seamless transition." About Jim DeVries

Jim DeVries joined ADT as Chief Operating Officer in May 2016 and has served as President since September 2017. Prior to joining ADT, Jim held senior leadership roles at leading companies in the insurance, financial services and telecommunications industries, including most recently as Executive Vice President for Allstate Brand Operations. Before joining Allstate, he was Senior Vice President of Human Resources at the Principal Financial Group and Vice President for Corporate Services and Human Resources at Ameritech's Monitoring and Security Services Division. Earlier in his career, he held management roles at Quaker Oats, and Leaf and Andrew Corporation. He received a bachelor's degree from Trinity College, a master's degree from Loyola University, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. About ADT ADT is a leading provider of security and automation solutions in the United States and Canada for homes and businesses, people on-the-go and their network. Making security more accessible than ever before, and backed by 24/7 customer support, ADT delivers same-day service and live answer within seconds in customer operations, helping customers feel more safe and empowered. ADT is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida and employs approximately 17,500 people throughout North America. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS ADT has made statements in this press release and other reports, filings, and other public written and verbal announcements that are forward-looking and therefore subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in this document are, or could be, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are made in reliance on the safe harbor protections provided thereunder. These forward-looking statements relate to anticipated financial performance, management's plans and objectives for future operations, business prospects, outcome of regulatory proceedings, market conditions and other matters. Any forward-looking statement made in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. ADT undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. Forward-looking statements can be identified by various words such as "expects," "intends," "will," "anticipates," "believes," "confident," "continue," "propose," "seeks," "could," "may," "should," "estimates," "forecasts," "might," "goals," "objectives," "targets," "planned," "projects," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. ADT cautions that these statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of ADT's control, and could cause future events or results to be materially different from those stated or implied in this document, including among others, risk factors that are described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" contained therein. Media Relations

Jason Shockley

tel: +1 561.322.7235

jshockley@adt.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adt-announces-senior-leadership-succession-plan-300706489.html SOURCE ADT Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][September 04, 2018] Altice USA News Division Expands Leadership Team

Altice USA (NYSE:ATUS), one of the largest broadband communications and video services operators in the U.S., today announces that the company has made new hires to its Emmy Award-winning Altice USA News division, expanding on its strong TV viewership and rising digital growth that underscores the importance, value, and continued relevancy of high-quality news journalism across multiple mediums. Formed earlier this year, the Altice USA News group includes the U.S. division of international news and current affairs network i24NEWS and the hyperlocal News 12 Network Group, which serves local communities in the New York tri-state area. To support the ongoing growth of its News business, Altice USA has added two news executives to its leadership team: Chris Vacarro, Vice President, Digital News and Kristin Malaspina, Vice President, Marketing & Audiences. Said Michael Schreiber, Altice USA Executive Vice President and President of Altice USA News: "Altice USA is committed to offering more integrated and meaningful news coverage, and our ratings and digital growth show that viewers are responding positively to our efforts. We are incredibly proud that News 12 is the #1 watched channel among Optimum (News - Alert) customers and even outperforming broadcast in the key morning daypart. This achievement reflects the uniqueness of News 12's hyperlocal content and the high value viewers place on news that is tailored to their neighborhoods. Local news has never been more important, and we're pleased that News 12 continues to be a trusted source of news and information in the communities we serve. i24NEWS U.S. also continues to experience strong viewership growth and expanded distribution, bringing a unique global perspective on breaking news and current affairs. Ournews team is comprised of the most talented journalists and staff in the news business, and we are incredibly excited to welcome these talented individuals and look forward to the ongoing success of our news businesses."



Chris Vacarro, Vice President, Digital News is tasked with continuing the digital growth trajectory and leading the transformation of Altice USA News into a digital first enterprise. Vaccaro will be responsible for digital strategy and product development of the sites in Altice USA News' portfolio including News 12 and i24NEWS U.S. He previously served as the Director of Digital at the Topps Company, managing all content, strategy, and operations for the trading card company and also serves as an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Hofstra University. Kristin Malaspina, Vice President, Marketing & Audiences is responsible for the division's marketing and audience development across all mediums, including linear and digital distribution channels. Malaspina joins Altice USA after a decade in the marketing and programming space most recently as the Vice President of Distribution Marketing at Starz and previously as the Vice President, Partnership Marketing at Spectrum Networks, a division of Charter Communications (News - Alert) .

Under Altice USA's leadership, News 12 remains the most viewed TV network in Optimum households. In addition, News 12's ratings outpaced those of the local network affiliates during the key morning daypart in the first half of 2018, according to actual viewership data from Optimum set top boxes. News 12's digital viewership is growing, experiencing a nearly 20 percent increase in average unique visitors across all digital platforms in the first half of 2018 compared to full-year 2017. The network also saw an increase of more than 50 percent in total average video views on News 12's websites during the same period. In addition, i24NEWS U.S. has experienced a more than 30 percent increase in average viewership in Optimum households in the six months starting in February 2018 compared to the same time period in 2017. Broadcasting from studios in the heart of Times Square, i24NEWS is available in millions of households, providing breaking news coverage to viewers across the globe. Since launching in the United States, the network has expanded distribution across the country and is available on Altice USA, Charter Spectrum (News - Alert) , and Mediacom systems. Viewers can also stream content online at i24News.tv. About Altice USA Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) is one of the largest broadband communications and video services providers in the United States, delivering broadband, pay television, telephony services, Wi-Fi hotspot access, proprietary content and advertising services to approximately 4.9 million residential and business customers across 21 states through its Optimum and Suddenlink brands. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180904005916/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]After years of releasing affordable, stylish Android phones, OnePlus is now pushing boundaries with the OnePlus 6T, the first smartphone to sport an in-display fingerprint sensor in the U.S. The OnePlus 6T's magical sensor works like a charm and makes us wish other smartphones would add this option in addition to facial recognition.

But the 6T also doubles down on value: the base storage increases from 64GB to 128GB on this version, while the price ticks up just $20 from the OnePlus 6. The $549 entry-level 6T remains about half the price of other flagship phones with edge-to-edge displays and cutting-edge specs, and you don't even have to sacrifice great photos or solid battery life to save all that money.

And a new carrier partnership with T-Mobile widens the availability of the 6T, which will make OnePlus more competitive with the likes of Google, Samsung and even Apple. This is one of the best smartphones with few downsides. Also, be sure to check out our face-off between the OnePlus 6T and Galaxy S10, and between the OnePlus 6T and the newer OnePlus Nord.



Editor's note, June 11: The OnePlus 7 Pro is now on sale, which means you can snag a OnePlus 6T with more storage for $30 less. But the 7 Pro is worth the extra money  check out our full review to find out why.

OnePlus 6T Cheat Sheet: What You Need to Know

The 6T is the first flagship phone released in the U.S. with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Spoiler alert: The sensor's lightning fast and amazing.

T-Mobile customers can buy the 6T in-store, and it also supports Verizon's network.

Farewell, headphone jack. OnePlus has parted ways with the 3.5mm port. A USB-C dongle is included in the box.

Android 9.0 Pie with OyxgenOS doesn't feel bloated.

New Night photography feature aims to improve low-light shots, but the Pixel 3 is better.

A recently-released McLaren Edition offers 10GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and OnePlus' new Warp Charge system.

OnePlus 6T Price and Availability

For the first time, OnePlus is offering its latest flagship through a U.S. carrier, T-Mobile, which will introduce the company's phones to a wider audience.

T-Mobile began selling the OnePlus 6T online and in stores Nov. 1. The carrier offers only one variant of the device, the Mirror Black version with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $579. T-Mobile is offering a trade-in deal for the 6T, with up to 30 eligible devices giving you $300 toward the cost of the new phone.

On OnePlus's website, you can also find a Midnight Black model in three varieties: A $549 version with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (499, 549), the aforementioned $579 version (529, 579) and a beastly $629 6T (579, 629) with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The T-Mobile version will be locked to that carrier's network until it's paid off, but the 6T will be available to buy unlocked and supported on Verizon and AT&T in the U.S.

OnePlus previously offered a Thunder Purple variant of the 6T, though that model has since sold out. It has moved on to a McLaren-branded limited edition variant that carries a special carbon fiber and Papaya Orange design, 10GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and OnePlus' new Warp Charging system. It costs $699 (649) and is sold exclusively through the phone maker's website.

The OnePlus 6 is now sold out on the company's website, but is still available on Amazon. The 6 is $50 less than the 6T, but it doesn't have an in-display fingerprint sensor and isn't available to buy through a carrier.

Design: Matte beauty with teardrop notch

OnePlus isn't pushing any design boundaries with the 6T, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The matte Midnight Black model I tested is a subtle standout in a sea of glassy black 6-inch slabs (i.e., almost every other Android flagship). The glossy Mirror Black shade is more run-of-the-mill. Unfortunately, OnePlus isn't releasing a Silk White variant of the 6T, at least not yet. The pearly finish of that OnePlus 6 model was one-of-a-kind. The Mirror and Midnight Black hues are standard for OnePlus, so it would be nice to see a fresh shade for the 6T.

OnePlus has slightly refined its go-to aesthetic for the 6T with tweaks like a teardrop-shaped notch, which is significantly smaller than the iPhone X-style notch at the top of the OnePlus 6's display. The 6T's bottom bezel is also a smidge thinner than its predecessor's. But the overall dimensions have remained largely the same over the years, even as display size has increased and the fingerprint sensor has moved from chin to back to beneath the display.

And even though OnePlus has embraced glass with the 6T and ditched the headphone jack (yes, it's true), the company has still shied away from supporting wireless charging.

Display: Still stunning

The OnePlus 6Ts display quality easily rivals flagships twice its price. The expansive, 6.4-inch AMOLED (2340 x 1080) panel is slightly taller than the OnePlus 6's screen, but the most noticeable difference is the less obtrusive dewdrop notch. OnePlus slimmed down the camera cut-out from the 6's iPhone X replica to one that resembles the short-lived Essential Phone. The design tweak makes the screen feel truly edge-to-edge in a way that notched flagships don't.

The OnePlus 6T's display isn't quite as rich and bright as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 or the iPhone XS Max, but those phones will cost you $1,000. The 6T's panel is comparable to the Pixel 3's, which costs $200 or so more than the 6T, in brightness and color accuracy. The 6T hit 405 nits on our light meter, beating the 401-nit max hit by the Pixel 3, and covers 222.6 percent of the sRGB color gamut to the Pixel's 202 percent range. The 6T's screen is also more true-to-life, with a Delta-E rating of 0.36, compared with the Pixels 0.44. (Numbers closer to zero are better.)

The OnePlus 6T's expansive 6.4-inch OLED display quality easily rivals flagships twice its price.

Watching the trailer for Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald, where there are dark, dramatic scenes layered with shades of black and streaked with brilliant blue flames, I noticed the 6T's display was dimmer than other OLED panels, such as the Galaxy Note 9 and the iPhone XS Max. But again, for the price, the 6T's display is very good, and the tear-shaped notch almost fades away when immersed in a video.

OnePlus 6T Specs

Price $549 (6GB/128GB), $579 (8GB/128GB), $629 (8GB/256GB) OS Android 9.0 Pie with OxygenOS CPU Snapdragon 845 RAM 6GB, 8GB Storage 128GB, 256GB Display

6.4-inch AMOLED (2340 x 1080) Rear Camera

16-MP (f/1.7), 20-MP (f/1.7) Front Camera 16-MP (f/2.0) Colors Mirror Black, Midnight Black Battery Size 3,700 mAh Size 6.2 x 2.94 x 0.32 inches Weight 6.52 ounces

The 6T's display lights up with a fingerprint indicator so you're not blindly jabbing at the screen to unlock the device. Simply press lightly on the indicator and the phone will snap open to the home screen. This happens almost instantly  in 0.34 seconds, OnePlus says. (It definitely felt that fast to me.)

OnePlus isn't the first phone maker to put a fingerprint sensor in the display, but this one is less finicky and works instantly.

The sensor isn't perfect, but they never are, not even the Touch ID sensors on older iPhones. Occasionally, the 6T's display didn't recognize my fingerprint, usually when I pressed too quickly or didn't stick the landing. A second try always did the trick.

MORE: 15 Best Mobile Privacy and Security Apps

This is the future of smartphone technology  at least until facial scanning becomes more advanced. The 6T's in-display sensor can authenticate Google Pay transactions; the device's facial recognition cannot, because it's less secure than the fingerprint. Unlike newer iPhones, which have a TrueDepth front-facing camera to thoroughly map your face, the OnePlus 6T's camera takes a quick, 2D scan. It's not foolproof.

Camera: Improved, but not amazing

OnePlus didn't make any tweaks to the camera hardware in the 6T. Like the 6, the new model sports a dual-lens rear shooter with a 16-megapixel and 20-MP lens and a 20-MP front-facing lens.

But the company made some software enhancements to boost photo quality, particularly in portraits and at night. A new Night mode, which you can select from the lower menu in the camera preview, lengthens the exposure time to capture more detail in low-light settings.

Unfortunately, that exposure doesn't do much to enhance the quality of a low-light image, as you can see in the below comparison of the same spooky Halloween display lit colorful lights and a street lamp. With Night mode activated, the shot is brighter overall but also looks overexposed, so you lose detail and contrast. The image isn't much better without Night mode, but looks slightly less grainy.

The Pixel 3 captures the variation in the purple lights, and also brings up the contrast in the black spiders on the staircase. The red of the monstrous ghost's eyes and hands is far more vivid in the Pixel 3's shot. This is without the Pixel 3's forthcoming Night Sight mode, which reportedly makes the device's low-light shots dramatically better. The iPhone XRs shot is more true-to-life  the purple and red hues look like they did in person, even if there's not as much contrast as in the Pixel 3's result.

Click above to expand

In a challenging setup with purple lights reflected against a house in a different Halloween display, the 6T's Night mode fared better, but still looked dull and unsaturated overall. The Pixel 3, for comparison, oversaturated the purple light and made it look blue. The iPhone XR's shot was again the most true-to-life  the purple and orange lights looked as they did in reality.

Capturing a photo in Night mode on the 6T takes several seconds to process, and you have to stay still the entire time. Unless you have a lot of time to spend shooting, Night mode isn't all that useful.

In daytime, I used the 6T's optical zoom and the Pixel 3's Super Res Zoom to capture a photo of the arch at Brooklyns Grand Army Plaza from a distance. This is where the Pixel 3's AI-assisted images become a matter of personal preference. The 6T's colors are more accurate  the arch, trees, green street lamps and bluish-gray early morning sky all look like they did when I snapped the image. The Pixel 3's shot is far moodier and dramatic, with more depth, thanks to the shadows deepened by the Pixel's software. But that's not how it actually looked, so points to the 6T for a more realistic photo.

OnePlus said it made improvements to the 6T's Portrait mode, but it didn't blow me away. In this shot of me taken from the same angle and distance on the 6T, Pixel 3 and iPhone XR, the 6T was overall too smooth  every detail from my hair to my skin to my hands looks like it's been airbrushed. The Pixel 3 struggled with the bokeh effect to the right of me; the leaves, black gate and half of the tree trunk behind me are still in focus. The XR nails both the colors of my skin and the flowers behind the gate, and also applies the bokeh evenly behind me.

Click above to expand

The good news is that the 6T's camera software enhancements are rolling out to the OnePlus 6, so there's no urgent need to upgrade from OnePlus' previous phone unless you desperately want an in-display fingerprint reader and a smaller notch.

Performance: Flagship speed for less

The 6T shares the same specs as the 6, so performance is unchanged in the newer device. The phone's 8GB of RAM and Snapdragon 845 processor deliver flagship speeds, besting even Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 (with 6GB of RAM) and Google's Pixel 3 XL (4GB).

In the Geekbench 4 test of overall system performance, the 6T notched a score of 8,972, on a par with the 6's score of 9,098. The Note 9 clocked in at 8,876, while the Pixel 3 XL delivered a comparatively underwhelming score of 7,864. All Android flagships fall short of the new iPhones Geekbench scores, thanks to their A12 Bionic chip. But the 6T is easily best-in-class for hundreds of dollars less than its Android competitors.

OnePlus says it made tweaks in the latest version of OxygenOS  about 500 tweaks, to be more precise  to make it even better. One of those features, Smart Boost, clears background apps that are used less often, no matter how recently you opened them. That app-management feature improves app launch speeds by up to 20 percent, the company said. This was noticeable in my testing. Cold-launching PUBG Mobile on the 6 and 6T side by side, both apps opened simultaneously, but the 6T loaded several seconds faster than its predecessor. OnePlus says this feature is limited to gaming apps, but even when I launched Netflix on both devices, I noticed the 6T loaded the welcome screen 6 seconds faster than the 6.

All apps launched quickly, including PUBG Mobile, and swiping between them with the 6T's Android Pie-based gesture controls was seamless. Not only does the 6T launch apps quickly, it's a gaming powerhouse. On 3DMark's Sling Shot Extreme Unlimited test of graphics performance, the $579 8GB version of the 6T scored 5,183  far ahead of the Pixel 3 XL's score of 4,396 and the iPhone XRs result, 4,416.

The new McLaren model of the 6T adds another 2GB of RAM for a total of 10GB. This means even more headroom to instantly launch apps from memory and juggle various tasks, though because the 6T isn't starved for RAM by any means, this change didn't make a difference in our performance benchmarking results.



MORE: Best Smartphones on the Market Now

Where the 6T fell short is in our real-world performance test, transcoding a 2-minute 4K video into 1080p in the Adobe Premiere app. Other flagships can crush this in less than 3 minutes, but the 6T (like the 6 before it) took 3:45 to accomplish the task.

We're at the point where all flagship smartphones are high-powered performers that can accomplish any task quickly. But those phones are all extremely expensive. Even the "budget" iPhone XR is $750. The fact that the 6T can easily compete on that playing field for less than $600 is impressive.

Software: An elegant twist on Android Pie

OnePlus has crafted its own take on Android, OxygenOS, which is a sophisticated vision of Google's operating system. The 6T ships with Android 9.0 Pie overlaid with the latest version of OxygenOS, so you can take advantage of the new gesture-based navigation, adaptive battery support and the aforementioned Smart Boost app-launching feature. The three-button navigation bar is turned on by default, but you can switch to the gesture-based navigation in Settings.

Google Lens is now part of the 6T's camera, which is a nice touch. OnePlus has shied away from baking in Google's services; Google Assistant isn't a high priority, for instance, the way it is so deeply entwined in the Pixel 3. If you want Assistant integration, the 6T isn't the best device.

Battery Life

The OnePlus 6Ts 3,700 mAh battery is slightly bigger than the OnePlus 6's 3,300 mAh pack, but the new device also has a slightly larger display. The two phones ran neck-and-neck in the Toms Guide Battery Test of continuous web-surfing over T-Mobile's LTE network, with the 6T lasting 10 hours and 23 minutes and the 6 lasting just 10 minutes longer. The smartphone average is 9:50.

In my five days of testing the 6T, I found it to be a champ. For instance, I charged up the 6T to 100 percent and then used it for 20 hours, from late afternoon to lunchtime the following day. I took the phone running, listening to the new Robyn album over Apple Music.

After streaming Dr. Strange on Netflix over T-Mobile's LTE network on a full charge, the 6T still had 77 percent life after 90 minutes.

I streamed YouTube videos. I took several rounds of photos. I paired running headphones to the phone and used its app to fine-tune the settings. I uploaded files to Dropbox. After all that, the 6T's battery was still chugging along at 50 percent.

MORE: OnePlus 6T McLaren Scorches Rivals In Charging Speed Test



In a video-streaming test, where I watched Dr. Strange on Netflix over T-Mobile's LTE network on a full charge, the 6T still had 77 percent life after 90 minutes.

Two flagship features the 6T is still missing are wireless charging and an IP rating. The device's all-glass body would make wireless charging possible, but the company is sticking with its Dash Charge technology for traditional charging over USB-C. Luckily, Dash Charge is incredibly fast, juicing up your OnePlus from 0 to 60 percent in 30 minutes.

The recently-unveiled McLaren Edition 6T ups the charging speed even further, through the use of OnePlus' new Warp Charge 30 protocol. This adapter is rated at 30W  10W more than the standard Dash Charger that comes with other models of the phone. This makes the McLaren variant one of the fastest charging phones we've ever tested at Tom's Guide. In just 30 minutes, it went from empty to 66 percent. In an hour, it was at 98 percent. The Warp Charge system will not work with other 6T models, and OnePlus doesn't currently sell the adapter and cable combo alone.

OnePlus 6T vs. Pixel 3

The biggest rivals for the OnePlus 6T is Google's Pixel 3 ($799) and Pixel 3 XL ($899). The OnePlus 6T wins on value because it starts at $549, and you get more RAM than the Pixel 3 at 6GB versus 4GB. You also have the option for 8GB of RAM with the 6T. For the money, OnePlus gives you a bigger 6.4-inch display than either the Pixel 3 (5.5 inches) or Pixel 3 XL (6.3 inches).

However, based on our testing, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL offer superior cameras, routinely delivering better photo quality in almost all conditions versus the OnePlus 6T. And while the 6T comes with Android Pie out of the box, Google adds compelling AI features on top, such as Call Screening and Top Shot in the camera.

OnePlus 6T vs. iPhone XR

The OnePlus 6T is cheaper than the iPhone XR while offering a bigger display. The 6.2-inch-long 6T is taller than the 5.9-inch-long iPhone XR, Apple's most affordable flagship iPhone. That extra height is all display  the 6T's 6.4-inch OLED panel is simply bigger than the XR's 6.1-inch screen.

For those of us with small hands, the taller screen makes it tougher to navigate the 6T one-handed than the XR, but there are worthwhile trade-offs.

MORE: iPhone XR Review: The Best iPhone for the Money

The 6T has a slimmer notch, which makes its screen feel more immersive. Apple made the iPhone XR cheaper by using an LCD panel, which is lower-resolution than the 6T's OLED one.

The OnePlus 6T offers an in-screen fingerprint reader, but the iPhone XR offers Face ID for fast unlocking. The iPhone XR also took better pictures in low light in our side-by-side tests. And while the 6T is fast, it's no match for the iPhone XR's A12 Bionic processor.

Bottom Line

You won't find a better smartphone for this price. Other companies are making ultra-pricey flagships with an emphasis on artificial intelligence that just can't compete with the iPhones and Galaxies on the market (ahem, LG and HTC). There is now a glut of overpriced smartphones that don't differentiate themselves in any meaningful way.

OnePlus has taken the opposite approach, a more thoughtful one that takes into account what features people actually want and how much they want to spend. An in-display fingerprint sensor seems gimmicky at first, but it's so fast and convenient that I turned off the device's facial-scanning feature. Apps load smoothly and quickly. OnePlus has tweaked Android Pie, but without annoyances or bloat.

The 6T doesn't have the best camera around, but it gets the job done. If you need a smartphone that can take amazing photos, the Pixel 3 or iPhone XR are better camera phones. But for every other task, it's tough to top the OnePlus 6T.

Credit: Tom's GuideThere's a trend coming back to flagship phones: the slider. New and incoming top phones from Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei and Lenovo are adopting this design in the race to release a phone that is truly all screen.

Unlike Apple and every Android manufacturer except Samsung  including Google with the rumored Pixel 3 XL  these brands want to eradicate notches and bezels of any kind to obtain a perfect slab of glass that actually feels like a piece from the future. And since companies still dont have a camera technology that allows to take pictures from behind a display, there are only two options to make this happen.



One is the pop-up selfie camera. This is the solution of the Vivo Nex S, which has a mechanized camera that slides from the chassis in less than a second to take a picture of your pretty face. Despite Vivos claims about the camera durability, which should be able to take hundreds of thousands of selfies without breaking, people are a little bit concerned about how true this is and how fast the camera can pop up.



The other option is a sliding mechanism or sliding display, a design that has been well tested for years. Slider phones are not new at all. Back in the the 1990s and 2000s, in fact, they were all the rage Nokia effectively used this method to make phones more compact while maintaining their usability or even increasing it, revealing full keypads and keyboards under the phones sliding displays.

And while the sliding mechanisms on these new flagships are not as dramatic as the Nokias, they cleanly answer the Death to the Notch! battlecry.

Oppo Find X

Our editor Mark Spoonauer says that the Oppo Find X is a stunning slice of the future. The 6.4-inch Find X (which sells for $850 unlocked) is one of the most beautiful phones ever made. The display slides to reveal a 25-megapixel selfie camera with 3D beautification technology that uses AI to make photos prettier.

The quiet sliding mechanism, which is rated for more than 300,000 retractions, also reveals the dual rear cameras. It is a gorgeous phone indeed, one that is distinctively different from the iPhone X and hundreds clone models out there.



MORE: Oppo Find X Review



Xiaomi Mi Mix 3

(Image credit: Xiaomi)

This allegedly leaked video shows the incoming Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, fully powered. It demonstrates how the sliding mechanism might work: its basically instantaneous. I would assume that, in the final version, this will trigger the camera in selfie mode, which would be the most rational and convenient action.

Xiaomi CEO Donovan Sung also posted the image above and this tweet, confirming the phones design. (Extra bonus: at least one version of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 seems to have 5G connectivity.)

Honor Magic 2

(Image credit: Android Authority via Verge )

The Honor Magic 2  the second brand of Chinese titan Huawei  was teased at IFA. The all-screen sliding phone will be powered by a Kirin 980 processor, which in theory will be faster than the current Kirin 970 in the top of the line Huawei phones.

According to Honor president George Zhao, the Magic 2 is at least two months away from coming to the market.

Lenovo Z6?

The Chinese company  famous for its ThinkPad laptops to U.S. audiences  is also going to release a slider phone of unspecified characteristics. The only thing we have is a video posted by Lenovo VP Yong Rui. It seems that the phone will have a fingerprint reader under its display, like some Xiaomi, Vivo and Honor phones.

We will have to see if Rui delivers on this promise, though, as he previously teased that the Z5 was going to be notch-free as well. It wasnt, but now the technology seems to be in place to make it possible.

The no-notch backlash is good

Meanwhile, Apple is allegedly adopting the notch design in all its future phones, to be announced on September 12.

The funny part in all this? While these manufacturers are differentiating themselves from Apple and the myriad of notch clones out there, they are also advancing the industry to a point in which you will not be able to distinguish the front of one phone from another. But if we are going to live in a fully commoditized smartphone world, I would rather not have a notch ruining the view.(Image credit: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock)

Before 2013, encryption was mostly known in the mainstream community primarily due to its use in spy movies. That changed after whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed several of the National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs, and in the half-decade since, encryption went from something Tom Cruise had to overcome to save the world, to a major selling point for nearly every tech product. This shift has repeatedly frustrated government agencies, and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance is once again pushing back against the rise of encryption.

Five Eyes is a partnership between the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand through which their respective intelligence agencies share information (the U.S. shares data with other countries, like Germany, but those relationships aren't as official as the one between these partner countries). The result is a massive surveillance network that encompasses most of the world and lets these countries assist each other with law enforcement investigations and matters of national security. Encryption makes this much harder.

That brings us to Five Eyes' latest call for encryption providers to offer ways for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to access user information. The alliance explained in the Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption this week that the same encryption used to protect "personal, commercial and government information" is also used by "criminals, including child sex offenders, terrorists and organized crime groups to frustrate investigations and avoid detection and prosecution." They effectively argue that defending the former group enables the latter.

This argument has been made countless times before (the mention of child sex offenders and terrorists during a debate about encryption might as well be free spaces on the conversational Bingo card). Perhaps the most notable example in the U.S. came during the investigation into the San Bernardino shooting of 2015, when the FBI tried to force Apple to break the encryption on an iPhone owned by one of the shooters. The company refused, saying complying with the request would set precedent and expose flaws in the iPhone's security that others could exploit.

There have been many other times when concerns about governments forcing tech companies to put backdoors in their products were piqued. The argument is often the same: privacy advocates say encryption is required to allow people to live their lives without invasive government scrutiny, and law enforcement agencies say that offering secure products hinders their investigations. Thus far the privacy advocates have won because it's simply impossible to guarantee a backdoor would only be used for lawful investigations; anyone could exploit the vulnerability.

But Five Eyes made the same appeal in its recent Statement. The alliance said:

"The increasing gap between the ability of law enforcement to lawfully access data and their ability to acquire and use the content of that data is a pressing international concern that requires urgent, sustained attention and informed discussion on the complexity of the issues and interests at stake. Otherwise, court decisions about legitimate access to data are increasingly rendered meaningless, threatening to undermine the systems of justice established in our democratic nations. ... Should governments continue to encounter impediments to lawful access to information necessary to aid the protection of the citizens of our countries, we may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions."

It's been all too easy over the last few months to forget that many of the security features tech companies introduced--and started advertising--in the wake of the Snowden revelations are constantly scrutinized by government agencies that want access to as much data as possible. But the Five Eyes statement appears to be another declaration in the ongoing "Crypto War," and that could mean an increase in government efforts to force tech companies to put backdoors in their products.Mozilla, the nonprofit behind the Firefox browser, announced that it hired Alan Davidson, a former Google executive and Commerce Department digital director as its new vice president of global policy, trust and security.

Defending the Open Web and Privacy

Mozilla said that it hired Davidson to be in charge of issues such as the companys policies, trust and security work, compliance and investigations. In his role, Davidson will defend the open web, net neutrality, and user privacy, according to the company.

Davidson will report directly to Denelle Dixon, Mozillas Chief Operating Officer, who said:

At a time when people are questioning the impact of technology on their lives and looking for leadership from organizations like Mozilla, Alan will add considerable capacity to our public policy, trust and security efforts, drawing from his extensive professional history working to advance a free and open digital economy.

Public Policy Experience

This is not Davidsons first time working with Mozilla. From 2017 to 2018, he worked with Mozilla as a Tech Fellow on advanced policies and practices to support the nascent field of public interest technologists. These are experts in technology and public policy that will need to guide the society through the coming technological challenges posed by artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, etc.

Previously, Davidson was the first director of digital economy at the U.S. Department of Commerce, as well as a senior advisor to the secretary of commerce. Penny Pritzker, the former United States secretary of commerce, called Davidson a tremendous asset to the Commerce Department in our groundbreaking work to promote a strong and prosperous digital economy for all Americans.

Before this, Davidson worked as a director of New Americas Open Technology Institute, and prior to that he opened and grew Googles Washingon D.C. office, where he was in charge of the companys public policy and government relations.

Over the past few years, Mozilla has increasingly focused on promoting the open web and building privacy features into Firefox for its users. More recently the company announced that it will block trackers by default. Davidson should have a primary role in further enhancing Mozillas image as an organization that fights for the users interests."Liquor cards are a racial justice issue." Everybody who returns to our community (from prison) deserves a job"

. . . Changes like keeping murderers and some of the lower felonies away from serving & delivering booze where thrown out.Even better, the SJW crowd turned out to the boozy meeting in order to advocate . . .The argument . . .Developing . . .PUNTA GORDA, Belize (AP/KCTV) - Authorities in Belize say three people have been arrested and charged with murder for the death of a retired Blue Springs woman. Police spokeswoman Hortence Hernandez said in a statement on Monday that 68-year-old Sherris Stringham's body was found near a river in Pomona, about 50 miles away from her residence in the coastal village of Hopkins.The result of Paganis partnership with Airbus Corporate Jets came to life at the Pebble Beach Concours dElegance, where the Italian automaker showcased a scale model of its Infinito cabin. The mock-up is a bespoke interpretation of what a Pagani-designed airplane cabin could look like in the future. Neither Pagani nor Airbus Corporate Jets have given a timetable on when the Infinito cabin will come to life.

Theres a reason why the Italian automaker is known for its generous use of carbon fiber

We know Pagani for a different reason  its a purveyor of all things that mean exotic in the supercar world  but did we really expect the Italian automaker to create something any less awesome than this? The answer, of course, is no. Bespoke cabins are a Pagani specialty the same way cheap hotdogs and pineapple juice are a Greys Papaya specialty.

Step inside Paganis Infinito cabin, and youre going to feel like youre in a five-star hotel, maybe even a six-star hotel if your standards are up there in the clouds. Regardless of your expectations, Paganis going to blow them away. The cabin is drowning in fancy leather and carbon fiber, a Pagani specialty.

More to that, the floor is wood with certain sections covered in soft-leather carpet.

Floor lights are also present, directing a clear path when the cabin lights dim. The seats and the tables are made from the good stuff, as well. Theres also a glass divider that separates the dining area with the lounge area of the cabin. The glass wall, in particular, can turn from transparent to opaque at the touch of a button, ensuring that theres at least some kind of privacy inside the cabin.

Speaking of the lounge, a large flat screen hangs on one side with comfortable lounge chairs placed on the other side. I can think of a lot worse ways to binge-watch Netflix when youre 30,000 feet above the ground. Once you get tired of watching TV, you turn it off and look up at the glass ceiling of the plane. Literally, the ceiling is made from high-pressure glass  Pagani calls it the sky ceiling for obvious and awesome reasons  giving you an unimpeded view of the sky above you. Thats taking star-gazing to a whole new level.

Paganis Infinito cabin is a masterclass in high-end bespoke design.

Its the brainchild of master designer Alberto Piccolo, who heads the interiors department over at Pagani, and Sylvain Mariat, the automakers head of creative design and concepts. Its unclear if well ever see the Infinito cabin on any one of the planes from Airbus Corporate Jets, but if the latter wants to set a standard of bespoke cabin excellence, its hard to find another interior design that can offer what Pagani created.

Im sure therell be a few mockups that will be just as amazing, but none of them will have the sky ceiling.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 2018 Pagani Huayra Gyrfalcon.

Read more Pagani news.

Read more Pebble Beach Concours dElegance news.While foreign direct investment to Africa has increased, economies on the continent are vulnerable to global market fluctuations and it is essential to uphold the international trading order, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday.

The President was speaking at a China-Africa High Level Dialogue with Business Representatives at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, China.

President Ramahosa said foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased almost five-fold, overtaking foreign aid on the continent since 2000.

He said the African continent is encouraged by trade between Africa and China which stood at $170 billion in 2017, up from $10 billion in 2000.



Chinese direct investment in Africa between 2000 and 2017 exceeded $100 billion, up from only $1 billion in 2000.

While such integration brings many benefits, it also makes Africas economies more vulnerable to global market fluctuations and crashes. It also increases the volatility of prices for food and other essential commodities, said the President.

It is therefore essential that we strive to uphold the international trading order and the global development priorities contained in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change, he said.

Putting people first

President Ramaphosa said as the pace of investment in infrastructure and industrial capacity we must place the people at the centre of our efforts.



As we promote science, technology, innovation, engineering and mathematics, we must maintain a people-centred approach. When we create jobs, it must be decent jobs to give our people dignity and a rising standard of living, he said.

Engagement within FOCAC should be strategically building links between dignity, work, opportunity and economic security for all people.

Our people should see and feel the benefits of this strategic cooperation, said President Ramaphosa of the forum that was established 18 years ago and has become a significant mark of China-Africa cooperation.

President Ramaphosa said the African continent has awakened to the great potential for inclusive growth and meaningful development.

With the assistance and the support of the Chinese people and government, we are certain that working together we will surely realise that potential.

Partnership between Africa and China

The third FOCAC Summit reflects the unique and strategic nature of the partnership between Africa and China that facilitates the realisation of Africas developmental aspirations reflected in Agenda 2063 through pragmatic collaboration in the quest of win-win cooperation.



In addition the outcomes of the Johannesburg Summit in 2015, which included the pdf Action Plan 2016-2018 (1.99 MB) and the ten new cooperation measures announced by his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping, were welcomed by all.



The measures are directly aligned with Africas priorities, including the need for infrastructure development, funding and professional skilled personnel, he said.

Infrastructure development

The President said he is convinced FOCAC has taken the comprehensive strategic partnership journey further as the countries involved continue to pursue economic liberation and socio-economic development of its peoples.

This as China has in the past three years provided $60 billion to carry out some of the Africas largest infrastructure development projects.

The Addis Ababa Djibouti Railway, the Nairobi Mombasa Railway, Benguela Railway, the Nigerian Abuja Kadula Railway and the Lagos Abadan Railway demonstrate Chinas commitment to Africa.

Remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the China-Africa High Level Dialogue with Business Representatives Forum on China-Africa Cooperation

China is an old friend of Africa.

It has a long history of engagement, friendship and support.

Allow me to express my appreciation to you, President Xi Jinping, and to the people and government of the Peoples Republic of China, for the outstanding hospitality and excellent facilities provided to our delegation since our arrival in the beautiful city of Beijing.

President Xi,

We are humbled that the first visit you undertook after your re-election to the esteemed position of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was to Africa.

Furthermore, a tradition has been established for the past 26 years in Chinese diplomacy that your Foreign Minister prioritises us in Africa as the destination of his first foreign visit.

We thank State Councillor and Minister Wang Yi for upholding this practice.

President Xi, this is not only indicative of the close relations between Africa and China but also of your personal affinity for the Continent.

Allow me to also commend you for the great progress that the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation has made since its inception in 2000.

The 3rd FOCAC Summit reflects the unique and strategic nature of our partnership that facilitates the realisation of Africas developmental aspirations reflected in Agenda 2063 through pragmatic collaboration in the quest of win-win cooperation.

The outcomes of the Johannesburg Summit in 2015  including the Action Plan 2016-2018 and the ten new cooperation measures announced by you, President Xi  are indeed welcomed by all.

The measures are directly aligned with Africas priorities, including the need for infrastructure development, funding and professional skilled personnel.

We are encouraged by the fact that that trade between Africa and China stood at $170 billion in 2017, up from $10 billion in 2000.

Chinese direct investment in Africa between 2000 and 2017 exceeded $100 billion  up from only $1 billion in 2000.

Among other achievements, over 6,500 km of railways, 6,000 km of highway, 70 power plants, 20 airports, 20 seaports and 200 schools have been built.

Soon after Africa cast off the shackles of colonialism and imperialism, the Chinese government developed the Tanzania, Zambia and Mombasa Railways that were for a long time a symbol of political emancipation and South-South Cooperation.

As we now pursue our economic liberation and socio-economic development of our peoples, I am convinced that FOCAC has taken the comprehensive strategic partnership journey further.

In the past three years, China has provided $60 billion to carry out some of the Africas largest infrastructure development projects.

On land, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, the Nairobi-Mombasa Railway, Benguela Railway, the Nigerian Abuja-Kadula Railway and the Lagos-Abadan Railway demonstrate Chinas commitment to Africa.

These are all either completed or under construction.

Our coastal areas are not being neglected either as China extends its cooperation expansion projects in Port Lamu, Nigerias Laki Deep-Water Port and the Port of Dar es Salaam.

We are impressed with the number of economic and trade zones that FOCAC can claim credit for.

These include Zambias China Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, Egypts Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone and Ethiopias Eastern Industrial Park.

South Africa and China have cooperated within the BRICS family to drive development by the establishment of the BRICS New Development Bank based in China and the Africa Regional Centre based in South Africa.

Our human susceptibility makes us vulnerable to natural catastrophe.

However, our common humanity compels us to assist each other.

In the wake of the contagious Ebola epidemic that claimed thousands of lives in West Africa, when many other countries were shying away from this crisis, China characteristically responded by dispatching 1,000 medical professionals and medical aid worth $120 million.

The FOCAC Framework accommodates Chinas cooperation in Africas Peace and Security Architecture, established in 2004 to address conflict and instability.

China has nearly 3,000 troops, police and observers engaged in 6 of the 7 UN peace-keeping operations on our Continent.

Chinese diplomats have worked tirelessly in brokering peace in Sudan.

China contributed to transforming the untenable condition of no peace no war between Eritrea and Ethiopia into one of friendship and good neighbourliness.

Among the P5 of the Security Council, China is applauded for pursuing the P+4 practice, whereby it consults with the four African members of the Security Council on all issues related to the Continent.

As South Africa assumes its non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, I have instructed our diplomats to honour this practice.

We look forward to continued Chinese support in pursuing the objectives and priorities outlined in the African Unions Agenda 2063.

We look forward to new areas of cooperation and support, such as the blue economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

We gather here today in a rapidly changing and challenging global environment that is witnessing major shifts in international political, economic and social dynamics.

Globalisation continues to shape the world at an accelerating pace.

While globalisation has brought many benefits, these have not been evenly distributed between countries and within countries.

The negative effects of globalisation are manifested in rising populism, growing insecurity, weakening support for multilateralism, the erosion of democratic values, and climate change.

This has resulted in a fractured world, where some powers are prone to unilateral and protectionist measures.

Africa covers more than 20% of the Earths land surface.

It is richly endowed with natural resources and is one of the most economically and culturally diverse regions in the world.

Africa will experience profound change over the next 30 years.

Its population is likely to almost double to around 2.3 billion by 2045, comprising approximately a quarter of the worlds population.

On current trends, its economy will have quadrupled.

Technology is likely to play a major role in improving the quality of life for most Africans  by increasing access to high-quality health care and education, cheaper energy and information.

Africa is becoming more integrated into the global economy.

Since the year 2000, foreign direct investment has increased almost five-fold, overtaking foreign aid.

While such integration brings many benefits, it also makes Africas economies more vulnerable to global market fluctuations and crashes.

It also increases the volatility of prices for food and other essential commodities.

It is therefore essential that we strive to uphold the international trading order and the global development priorities contained in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

As we accelerate the pace of investment in infrastructure and industrial capacity, we must place the people at the centre of our efforts.

As we promote science, technology, innovation, engineering and mathematics, we must maintain a people-centred approach.

When we create jobs, it must be decent jobs to give our people dignity and a rising standard of living.

Our engagement within FOCAC should be strategic.

It should build links between dignity, work, opportunity and economic security for all our people.

Our people should see and feel the benefits of this strategic cooperation.

Allow me to conclude by echoing the words of the revered leader Chairman Mao, who said:

To achieve a lasting world peace, we must further develop our friendship and cooperation with the fraternal countries in the socialist camp and strengthen our solidarity with all peace-loving countries.

We must endeavour to establish normal diplomatic relations, based on mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty and of equality and mutual benefit, with all countries willing to live together with us in peace.

In charting the path ahead, we recall also the words of the first President of a free and independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, who said:

We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world!

As Africa, we have awakened to the great potential that lies within our continent for inclusive growth and meaningful development.

With the assistance and the support of the Chinese people and government, we are certain that, working together, we will surely realise that potential.

I thank you.Ascotts finest quality wins it the top honour across Asia, Europe and the Middle East



(TRAVPR.COM) SINGAPORE - September 4th, 2018 - Ascotts finest quality wins it the top honour across Asia, Europe and the Middle East

Singapore, 4 September 2018 CapitaLands wholly owned serviced residence business unit,The Ascott Limited (Ascott), was crowned Asias Leading Serviced Apartment Brand as it emerged the biggest winner for the serviced residence categories with a total of 11 prestigious accolades at this years World Travel Awards Asia & Australasia ceremony held last night. Ascott has topped the industry with this honour in Asia for three consecutive years.

Voted by tourism professionals and business and leisure travellers worldwide, the accolades recognise Ascott for its excellence in quality and setting the benchmark for the industry. Its strong brand reputation is well recognised across continents having been earlier named the Leading Serviced Apartment Brand in Europe and the Middle East at the respective regions World Travel Awards ceremonies.

For the Asia awards, Ascott continued to be conferred the highest distinction in the following categories:

 Asias Leading Serviced Apartment Brand 2018: The Ascott Limited

 Asias Leading Serviced Apartments 2018: Ascott Raffles City Chengdu, China

 Singapores Leading Serviced Apartment Brand 2018: The Ascott Limited

 Chinas Leading Serviced Apartment Brand 2018: The Ascott Limited

 Hong Kongs Leading Serviced Apartment Brand 2018: The Ascott Limited

 Hong Kongs Leading Serviced Apartments 2018: Somerset Victoria Park Hong Kong

 Indonesias Leading Serviced Apartments 2018: Ascott Kuningan Jakarta

 Japans Leading Serviced Apartment Brand 2018: Citadines Apart'hotel

 Japans Leading Serviced Apartments 2018: Citadines Shinjuku Tokyo

 Philippines Leading Serviced Apartment Brand 2018: Ascott The Residence

 Philippines Leading Serviced Apartments 2018: Ascott Bonifacio Global City Manila

Mr Alfred Ong, Ascotts Head for Global Operations, said: As the leading brand in Europe, Middle East and Asia, we set a high bar for our properties across the world, placing a strong emphasis on quality and innovation to create the best experience for our guests. Many of our guests have stayed with us for years and it is intrinsic upon our employees to take great care of our guests as we do for our employees. Besides investing in upgrading our properties, we create a holistic experience, from paying attention to little touches to make our guests feel at home, to bringing local experiences to our guests. All these would not have been possible if not for our staff, the pivotal strength of Ascott. We will continue to endeavour creating the extraordinary for our guests and defining excellence in the hospitality industry.

In July 2018, Ascott won six accolades at the World Travel Awards Europe ceremony including the highly acclaimed Europes Leading Serviced Apartment Brand award for the third year running. In April 2018, Ascott was also the biggest winner among the serviced residence companies at the World Travel Awards Middle East ceremony. It clinched four top accolades including Middle Easts Leading Serviced Apartment Brand for the third consecutive year.

###Saudi based Designs Group, a pioneer in providing integrated hotel solutions as well as construction and management services



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - September 4th, 2018 - Saudi based Designs Group, a pioneer in providing integrated hotel solutions as well as construction and management services, will be once again showcasing its wide range of products and services at The Hotel Show at the Dubai World Trade Centre this year from 16 to 18 September.

Eng. Mohammad Al-Nadi, CEO of Designs Group, stated, Demand for hotel interiors and other products is growing strongly in the UAE following the development of new hotels and renovations and at Designs Group we are well-placed to capitalize on this buoyant market. Not only are a number of new hotels being built across the country, but existing properties are being refurbished to stay competitive. The pie is just getting bigger which is driving growth for companies such as ours.

There are currently 618 projects under development in the Middle Easts hotel pipeline that once completed will yield a total of 238,963 new rooms. The two most active countries across the region are the UAE, which has 222 hotel projects amounting to 126,576 rooms and Saudi Arabia, which has 143 projects and 55,810 rooms.

Elaborating on the significance of the show, Eng. Mohammad Al-Nadi, stressed, Exhibiting at The Hotel Show provides us the perfect opportunity to promote B2B Hotel Furniture which is a specialized furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) and operating supplies equipment (OS&E) purchasing firm to an audience of over 30,000 industry professionals. It also offers us the ideal platform to enhance relationships with existing hotel clients while generating new business and forging fresh partnerships. Moreover, it gives a 360-degree perspective on whats new and whats next in hotel interiors sector connecting the most inventive and the most influential design minds.

B2B Hotel Furniture is well equipped to meet the demands of constantly evolving hospitality industry from small to large scale projects. With over three decades of outstanding experience and 13 specialized companies, Designs Group (ProArt Intl, PerfectTech, B2B Hotel Furniture, and other subsidiaries co.) has served a prestigious list of more than 10,000 clients across the Middle East and Africa region since the 1990s delivering some of the most complex and award-winning projects.

Eng. Mohammad Al-Nadi, said, Based on our performance, we have built a strong reputation across the Middle East as a dependable company delivering exceptional value to our clients. With a highly skilled and experienced team of designers, project managers and site engineers, and a global procurement network, we are able to successfully meet the industrys numerous challenges as well as budget and timescale constraints that gives us tremendous edge in the market.

For more information about Designs Group please visit www.designs.sa or www.b2bhotelfurniture.com

Visit Designs Group at The Hotel Show from 16-18 September 2018 at Sheikh Saeed Hall, Dubai World Trade Centre.

For media contact:

Hina Bakht

Managing Director

EVOPS Marketing & PR

Mob: 00971 50 6975146

Tel: 00971 4 566 7355

Hina.bakht@evops-pr.com

www.evops-pr.com

###Hong Kong: Leading global hotel chain and hospitality management group, Swiss-Belhotel International, was the proud recipient of four coveted Bali Tourism Awards



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - September 4th, 2018 - Hong Kong: Leading global hotel chain and hospitality management group, Swiss-Belhotel International, was the proud recipient of four coveted Bali Tourism Awards, presented at the annual gala dinner on August 27, 2018.



Swiss-Belresort Watu Jimbar was named Bali Leading 4-Star Non-Beach Resort and Swiss-Belhotel Tuban received the awards for Balis Leading Airport Hotel. In addition, an individual award was given to Christopher MacLean who was named Bali Top Hospitality Leader and Swiss-Belhotel International also received the Bali Leading Regional Operator Award in recognition of the brands continued success.



In 2016, Swiss-Belresort Watu Jimbar scooped Balis Leading New Resort award, while Swiss-Belhotel Tuban was named Balis Leading 4-Star Hotel at the Bali Tourism Awards, which made this years awards a double-win for both properties.



The Bali Tourism Awards are considered highly prestigious industry accolades as they recognise travel, tourism and hospitality companies, organisations and individuals who are raising the bar in terms of quality of facilities, services and guest experiences. Award nominees are voted for online, while a Board of Advisors and representatives from the BINUS Business School  a valued partner for the award founders the ITTA Foundation  make the final selections.



"With over 52,000 votes cast online across seven countries this year, the Bali Tourism Awards validate travel brands that stand out in terms of performance, excellence, innovation, quality and creativity, said Swiss-Belhotel Internationals Senior Vice President of Operations and Development for Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Emmanuel Guillard.

To be recognised as part of Balis success once again with these awards is a great honour for Swiss-Belhotel International and a clear sign that our Passion and Professionalism fits well with the islands fast-evolving tourism landscape, he added.



Swiss-Belresort Watu Jimbar is located in Sanur just 300 metres from the beach and only 20 minutes from Ngurah Rai International Airport. The hotel offers spacious rooms, an indoor and an outdoor pool, as well as al fresco dining options.



Swiss-Belhotel Tuban is an elegant hotel thats built a reputation for offering excellent value. Located 10-minutes drive away from Bali Denpasar International Airport, and the same distance from Kuta Beach, the hotel features a huge outdoor pool, a choice of meeting spaces and offers a complimentary shuttle bus service to Discovery Shopping Mall, just over 5-minutes drive away.



Currently, Swiss-Belhotel International operates nine properties in key destinations across Bali, including Kuta, Sanur, Legian, Nusa Dua, Pecatu and Petitenget, with three more hotels scheduled to open within 2020.

For further information visit http://www.swiss-belhotel.com

For media contact:

Hina Bakht

Managing Director

EVOPS Marketing & PR

Mob: 00971 50 6975146

Tel: 00971 4 566 7355

Hina.bakht@evops-pr.com

www.evops-pr.com

About Swiss-Belhotel International

Swiss-Belhotel International currently manages a portfolio of more than 150* hotels, resorts and projects located in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy and Tanzania. Awarded Indonesia's Leading Global Hotel Chain for six consecutive years, Swiss-Belhotel International is one of the world's fastest-growing international hotel and hospitality management groups. The Group provides comprehensive and highly professional development and management services in all aspects of hotel, resort and serviced residences. Offices are located in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, China, Europe, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. www.swiss-belhotel.com

*Numbers may fluctuate

###I often shake my head looking at the typical North American house, thinking that they have been consciously designed to maximize jogs, surface area, potential leak locations and of course, heat loss. That if it doesn't look good, just add another gable. Every time you make one of these jogs and gables, it adds what are called thermal bridges. They are pretty much a fact of life; turning a corner means more wood studs and less insulation.

On his terrific website about Passivhaus design (Learn more about Passivhaus), British architect Elrond Burrell describes these as geometric thermal bridges- they are the inevitable result of design decisions about the geometry of the building. They include:

External wall corners.

The eaves junction.

The ground floor and external wall junction.

Around window and door openings.

Geometric thermal bridging is unavoidable. However, geometric thermal bridging increases with the complexity of the building form. Therefore, it can be minimised by keeping the building form simple.

 Trent Bell/ GOlogic passive house

That's why Passive Houses or Passivhaus designs tend to be simpler; each of these geometric thermal bridges are accounted for. Every one of those jogs on the silly McMansion creates a thermal bridge, almost all of which are avoided in GOLogic's wonderful Go Home passive house. Unfortunately it is often harder for an architect to make a simple design look beautiful; they have to rely on proportion and scale. It takes skill and a good eye.

Passive House expert Bronwyn Barry has a hashtag for it: #BBB or "boxy but beautiful."

Elrond then goes on to describe the even more egregious Construction Thermal Bridges that happen every time a designer adds a decorative eave or bay or pointless projection, along with every tiny window and other little architectural detail.

A construction thermal bridge is where there literally is a physical material, a gap or a component that passes through the insulation. The material or component conducts heat better than the insulation and therefore effectively forms a bridge allowing heat to transfer between the inside and the outside. Some examples of this include:

Rafters that pass through the thermal envelope to support the eaves (or for decoration!)

Timber studs or joists within the insulation zone.

Cantilevered structure passing through the thermal envelope.

Lintels that interrupt cavity insulation.

Gaps left between insulation boards.

 Builder House plans/ how many thermal bridges do you see?The above is really a catalogue of design details of the typical American home, most of which can be eliminated through good design and careful construction. And every one of them can cause problems, the most obvious being heat loss or heat gain, cold spots, possible condensation and mould, and comfort.

Thermal bridges can have a serious impact on the energy efficiency and comfort of high-performance buildings. Thermal bridges also increase a number of undesirable risks than can damage the building fabric.

Elrond Burrell believes we should aim for thermal bridge free design. He has noted that it can be a problem, thinking about this; he now sees thermal bridges everywhere.

I used to enjoy the rhythm of rafter ends projecting out around the eaves of a house. I admired timber and steel beams apparently gliding smoothly through external walls or floor to ceiling glazing. No more! I cant help but see the thermal bridging these details create, the resultant heat loss, material degradation risks and mould risks.

I am much like Elrond now, looking at jogs and details and plans and thinking about thermal bridges and comfort. But then I never knew that they were such a big deal. Somewebsites claim that the losses through thermal bridges can be has high as 30%; that's a lot for something that you can't see. And it's not like saving that energy is something we have to pay for, like more insulation; it's either FREE or actually has a negative cost, since every jog and gable and eave projection costs real money. It's a problem that is solved by good design, not more stuff.We should all think about this more.Read Elrond Burrell's What is Thermal Bridge Free Construction?Popular television show Shark Tank allows entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their ideas for lucrative endorsements.

Several months back, Trenton police Ofc. Angel Turner and Freddie Rosado, a businessman who with his wife, Rosa, owns and operates a McDonalds near Chambers St. and Hamilton Ave., shared a brainstorm.

No money in their shared wavelengths, only a sudden impact for local residents.

Angel and I were talking about our pasts, mainly about that first day of school after summer vacation, Rosado said.

I recalled how getting a hair cut or buying a new pair of sneakers were major deals back then. So, we came up with this idea to offer free haircuts with the help of local barbers. We talked about this for a while then decided to get everyone involved, police department, fire department, members of the Mercer County Sheriffs Department and the Prosecutors office.

Jason Salvatore, a Mercer County undersheriff, showed off his barber skills by shaving several appreciative customers.

Several barbers set up shop on the McDonalds property as a constant flow of mostly young men gained free haircuts. Young kids squirmed as the buzz of hair clippers made their spines tingle.

Local barbers Tito Barber, Ronal Barber, Andres Valerio and Yiyo Ortiz turned McDonalds into a clip joint. The collaboration offered a new narrative for a city searching for momentum and a positive relationship between residents and police.

Turner serves this portion of the East Ward. As Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora and Police Director Pedro Medina discuss implementation of police walking beats in some city neighborhoods, Turner moves a step ahead of that decision.

I love being out of the vehicle, really enjoy getting to know all the merchants on Hamilton Ave. Plus, seeing the same residents improves my relationship with them. Its all positive, Turner said.

Being out in the public is great. Of course, a lot of good comes with having discussions with business owners and other people. Its not all just about crime and police talk. We get to know each other and that builds trust.

Michael Schiaretti, PBA Local 11 president, offered comments that mirrored Turners, saying that partnerships work.

The intent is to partner with the city, police department and police union to support more events in the community, get more officers involved with residents in positive situations and build relationships that dont involve crime, Schiaretti explained.

An event like this can make a difference. Were not just going to throw money at events, we want officers to show up and spend time with the kids and other people in the community. We want the residents to know that we support them and want to make their communities safe.

Schiaretti agreed after hearing that most residents support police who carry out their duties professionally and with respect for community members.

One hundred percent, Schiaretti noted. The majority of the residents in this city are good people. We know that. But what gets the publicity? Crime and other nonsense. Day in and day out we deal with wonderful people. And most want the police in their neighborhoods.

The Rosados provided refreshments throughout the event, a disc jockey produced a steady flow of upbeats and Verizon offered opportunities for guests to win a free iphone.

However, the major news of the day showcased one small step in the right direction for a city that can make significant advances when people work together.

A lot of people working together, coming together can make Trenton a special place to work, play and live, Freddie Rosado said.

L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 4

The Mansa police are fully geared up to stop smuggling of drug and illicit liquor during the upcoming Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections.

Mansa SSP Mandhir Singh stated this in a press note issued on Tuesday. He said one more person had been arrested by the CIA with 20 boxes of illicit liquor. The accused has been identified as Kamaljeet Singh of Khuddi Kalan village in adjoining Barnala district. He was arrested from near Alampur Mandran village on Monday.

The SSP said liquor was used to allure people during the elections, which is an illegal act and will not be allowed in Mansa. Security in areas of the district touching neighbouring Haryana too had been strengthened.

Sharing more details about the arrest, CIA in-charge Angrez Singh said the accused was smuggling liquor in a car near Alampur Mandran village. Investigating Officer Harbhajan Singh said the illicit liquor recovered from the possession of the accused was of Haryana made (Malta). The accused was produced in a court which remanded him in judicial custody.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

Insurance companies cajole customers to buy life, non-life and mediclaim policies, but they have hundreds of excuses to reject their claims. For instance, they reject the claim of engine breakdown if the policyholder restarts the vehicle in the monsoon deluge.

Mediclaim policyholders also face similar situations. Recently, a Chandigarh-based patient, who was admitted to the emergency ward of a private hospital for some gastro-intestinal disorder, was denied cashless facility only because he told the doctor that he takes alcohol once in a blue moon. The third-party administrator quickly showed him the policy exclusion clause 4.8 and denied the cashless facility.

There are ways to get away with such knotty conditions, which customers often ignore while buying a policy. According to Amit Singh, executive director, Palm Insurance Brokerage, "In such case, the policy holders should buy a comprehensive policy with engine protection cover, to avoid inconvenience at the later stage". Many insurance experts agreed that agents often conceal such practical issues while selling policies.

For the instance case of mediclaim rejection, doctors advise that patients should not disclose alcohol drinking even if it is occasional to avoid the draconian clause. The Insurance Ombudsman office agreed that there is a rise in claim-related grievances.

"There has been constant increase in number of complaints filed at Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums and insurance ombudsman. The need to the hour is to bring transparency in the system. At the time of selling policy, terms and conditions are not made clear to the consumers, the consumer comes to know only at the time of settlement," said Share Samadhan co-founder Abhay Chandalia.

According to a report issued by the office of ombudsman, Chandigarh, the authority received a total 2,122 complaints in 2017-18.

A senior official at the ombudsman office said, instances of mis-selling of insurance products through bank branches are also on the rise. Customers easily give in to the aggressive marketing techniques of some bank employees primarily on account of the trust reposed in the bank. Mis-selling refers to certain unfair business practices, including wrong sale of product, loading on products and promise of higher returns whereas in non-life, health insurance and motor vehicle cases constituted major portion of complaints.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, September 3

The ongoing monsoon has reportedly failed to deter illegal excavators of sand and gravel in Mohali district. Nearly 10 cases of illegal mining have been registered in the district.

Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, Baldev Singh Sandhu, Executive Engineer-cum-District Mining Officer, said reports of illegal mining had been received from some areas.

A case in this regard has been registered at the Kurali police station against some illegal miners a couple of days ago, said Sandhu.

Besides, two such cases were registered at the Mullanpur police station and one at the Kharar police station recently.

In a span of two months, nearly 10 cases have been registered in different police stations of the district, confirmed Sandhu.

According to a senior official of the Mohali administration, the mining work, whether legal or illegal, usually comes to a halt during the monsoon.

Its really surprising if such activity (illegal mining) is still going on here, said the official.

Kuldip Singh, a resident of the Kurali area, said there was a dip in illegal mining incidents in the past couple of months, but it had not stopped completely.

Tractor-trailers or tippers, loaded with sand, can be seen plying on internal roads of the area during night though there is dip in such incidents now due to rain, said Kuldip Singh.

Mohali Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Kaur Sapra said, Whenever the administration gets information about any illegal excavation in any part of the district, the staff concerned swing into action. The cases registered in the past two months are the outcome of alertness on the part of our staff. Nobody indulging in this illegal act is being spared, said the Deputy Commissioner.

The district administration has chalked out a plan to install 20 CCTV cameras at certain crucial checkpoints to monitor the illegal mining activities. However, the project is yet to take off.

Forest staff were attacked

In a case of illegal mining, six persons had attacked forest officials on June 19 at Seonk village here. In the attack, one of the officials had sustained serious injuries and remained in the PGI in a critical condition for around a month and a half before being discharged from there.

85 FIRs registered this yearROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Mohali, September 3

The Jet Airways on Monday introduced a non-stop flight from Chandigarh to Kolkata.

The flight (9W 158) will operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and will depart from Chandigarh at 1.45 pm and reach Kolkata at 4.25 pm.

From Kolkata, the flight (9W 157) will depart at 10.35 am and land in Chandigarh at 1.15 pm.

On Monday, the flight was inaugurated by senior officials of the airlines and Mohali police Inspector HS Ball, SHO of the Airport police station here.

Some passengers were also honoured at a brief ceremony at the airport by the authorities. The airlines had also started its daily flight from Chandigarh to Lucknow and vice versa from September 1.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Mohali, September 3

In yet another big seizure of gold, sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested two persons with 3.862 kg of the yellow metal, worth around Rs 1.18 crore, at the Chandigarh international airport at Mohali on Monday.

The accused, Jagdeep Singh from Nawanshahr and Rajesh Gupta from Jalandhar, were travelling on a flight from Sharjah to Chandigarh.

According to sources, the booty was found concealed in the sole of the footwear of both accused.

One of them was wearing slippers, while the other was wearing shoes. Both of them had hidden gold biscuits in the sole of their footwear, said the sources.

The sources said the accused were about to cross the green channel when they were intercepted. During their search, the gold was detected. During preliminary interrogation, both accused confessed that they were mere carriers.

They told DRI officials that they were carrying gold for a person residing in Jalandhar, said the sources, adding that both accused claimed that the key person had sent them on a fun trip to the Gulf for four days free of cost.

The footwear of the accused was reportedly provided by an accomplice of the key person in the case.

No money was to be given to the accused for their job. Both of them fell prey to the gold smuggler for a free foreign trip, said the sources.

The accused have been arrested under the Customs Act, 1962.

Investigations are on in the case, said the sources, adding that the duo would be produced before a local court on Tuesday.

Major seizures in the pasteditorial@tribune.com

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, September 4

Being a new airport and having direct connectivity with Dubai, Bangkok and Sharjah, the Chandigarh international airport has apparently become a hotspot for gold smuggling, mainly from Dubai.

Recovery of nearly 48-kg gold, worth around Rs 14 crore, by sleuths of the Customs Department and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in 42 cases since the start of international flights on September 15, 2016, substantiates the fact.

On an average, 2 kg of smuggled gold is recovered here every month. However, the number of persons caught smuggling gold in a span of just 24 months indicates that the security arrangements of the Customs and DRI departments are being tested at the new airport, said a senior government official deputed at the airport.

He added that earlier, the quantity of gold being smuggled was not big. This year saw some attempts to smuggle the yellow metal in large quantity, said the official.

Officials at the airport recovered huge quantities of gold in four cases this year. The quantities recovered were 8.164 kg (worth Rs 2.26 crore), 7 kg (Rs 2.1 crore), 3.862 kg (Rs 1.18 crore) and 1.1 kg (worth Rs 35.50 lakh). The huge recoveries indicate that the smugglers have started making big attempts now.

DRI sleuths made max recovery

Of around 48 kg of gold recovered at the airport so far, the DRI had caught 26.360 kg, worth around Rs 7.91 crore, in eight cases. The remaining recoveries were made by Customs sleuths.

Gold seizures half at Amritsar airport

Till July 3 this year, 23.02-kg gold, worth around Rs 6.41 crore, has been seized at the Amritsar airport. The seizure was 5.15 kg, worth Rs 1.47 crore, the previous year.

Accused conduits in most cases

Most persons being nabbed while carrying gold illegally turn out to be conduits. Mostly, these carriers get an amount between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 apart from some free holidays on foreign soil. Most carriers, who were nabbed at the airport, belong either to Punjab or Delhi, said an official.

Preferred source  Dubai

According to sources, smugglers manage to earn a profit of nearly Rs 5 lakh by bringing 1-kg gold from Dubai to India due to the difference in the price of the metal in the two countries. Besides, Dubai gold is also said to be purer than that available in India, claimed the sources.

Unclaimed gold ends up with RBI

According to the rules, those caught with gold above the permissible limit can get it back after paying 36 per cent customs duty and penalty. The gold, which remains with the department, is sent to the RBI after completing the legal procedure under which inspection of the recovered gold is done by a local magistrate.

20 gm  gold one can bring in

Legally, a person is allowed to bring 20 gram of gold from a foreign country after spending a specified period of stay there. There is a provision for absolute confiscation in case the value of undeclared gold recovered is Rs 20 lakh or more. A passenger found in possession of undeclared gold worth Rs 20 lakh or above can be arrested. Persecution takes place in case the gold seizure is worth Rs 1 crore or above, says a senior official at the airport.

Modus operandi

So far, the authorities have nabbed persons adopting various ways to smuggle gold. They were caught with the yellow metal concealed in electric iron, vacuum cleaner, buttons of readymade clothes, shoes /slippers, rectum and bars of suitcases.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

The birth of Lord Krishna was celebrated with great pomp and festivity by the tiny tots at St Soldier Paradise School, Dhakoli. Students dressed as Radha Krishna gave a traditional touch to the entire celebration. Beautiful decorations were put up to make the event more colourful and cheerful. Importance of the festival was explained to the students.

Manav Mangal Smart School

Manav Mangal Smart School, Phase X, Mohali, in association with Mind Batteries hosted Meet the Leaders programme. Andrew Ayre, who has worked as the British Deputy High Commissioner, and Sundeep Singh, who has worked as a legal adviser at the Norwegian Parliament and as a corporate lawyer at Norway's most prestigious firms were the speakers on the occasion. A contest was also launched for the students of Classes IX and X wherein they were asked to make a power point presentation on any iconic feature of the Great Britain. Three best entries were showcased and the winning team was awarded. The Manavites who won prizes are Agamjot Kaur, Sanya, Pranav Malhotra and Samarjit Singh.

SD Sr Sec School

Janamashtami was celebrated with pomp by the kindergarten section of SD Sr Sec School, Sector 24-C, Chandigarh. Children came dressed as Krishna and Radha. The event comprised group dance, fashion show and a skit depicting Lord Krishna stealing makhan and gopies witnessing him.

DAV Public School

Janamashtami was celebrated jubilantly by the kindergarten section of DAV Public School, Sector-8, Chandigarh. The tiny tots looked lively dressed as Radha and Krishna. Teachers narrated the significance of the festival to the children. They also danced to the tunes of the songs of Radhe-Krishna. A beautifully decorated jhoola was also put up.

Stepping Stones Sr Sec School

Stepping Stones Senior Secondary School, Sector-37, Chandigarh, hosted the 11th inter-school scrabble competition. Rekha Kumari bagged the first prize from group I and Isha Moudgil from Sri Aurobindo School and Ishaan Biyala from Gurukul Global secured the second and the third positions, respectively. Mayunkh Thakur from Stepping Stones School (international wing) bagged the first prize from group II and Snehal Puri and Arinjay from Saupins and Stepping Stones secured the second and the third positions, respectively. Yashvi Singh of Shivalik, Mohali, bagged the first prize from group III and Drishti Jain and Vani from Gurukul Global and Sri Aurobindo secured the second and the third positions, respectively. Dev Bhatia of Shivalik, Mohali, bagged the first prize from group IV and Gurinder Pal Singh and Jasleen Kaur from Saupins School and Dikshant International secured the second and the third positions, respectively.

Shishu Niketan-22 Public School

Tiny Tots of Shishu Niktan-22 Public School, Nayagaon, celebrated Janmashtami with fervour. Most of the kids were dressed as Lord Krishna and Radha. They enacted scenes of dahi handi. Stories from Lord Krishnas life were narrated to them. There was an environment of joy in the school.

DAV School

DAV School, Sector-8, Panchkula, organised a special assembly to celebrate Janmashtami. The school choir sang hymns in praise of Lord Krishna. Principal Dr Pathak urged the students to follow the teachings of Lord Krishna. Students of the kindergarten section were dressed as little Krishnas and Radhas and visited the Krishna temple in Sector-6, Panchkula.

Shivalik Public School

The NSS volunteers of Shivalik Public School, Sector 41-B, Chandigarh, organised a campaign at the Government Primary School, Sector 41-B, Chandigarh. The theme of the campaign was Value of education. They made the children aware about the importance of education and how it could change their life.

DAV Police Public School

DAV Police Public School, Panchkula, conducted a Vipasana meditation for students of Classes VII and VIII. The students were taught mindful breathing and were told thought provoking stories.

Sri Guru Harkrishan School

The health club of Sri Guru Harkrishan Sr Sec Public School, Sector 40-C, Chandigarh, conducted a workshop on Health and hygiene for girls students of Classes VI to VIII. The resource person was Esha Malhotra.  TNSeditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 4

The UT Traffic Police will start challaning women two-wheeler riders without helmets from Wednesday.

A police official said the field staff would keep an eye on women two-wheeler riders and issue challans to those not wearing helmet. The new rule applies to the pillion riders as well, the police official added.

The Administration had issued a notification on July 6, making helmet compulsory for women. Only Sikh women wearing a turban will be exempted from wearing helmet.

The Traffic Police in the past ran a campaign, Helmet Pehnao, Beti Bachao, to encourage women two-wheeler riders to wear the safety gear. Cops even distributed helmets and other gifts during the campaign to women riding two-wheelers while wearing helmet.

The decision to make helmet compulsory for women two-wheeler riders is expected to bring down the fatality rate in road accidents. As many as 43 women have lost their lives in mishaps since 2013 as they were not wearing helmet while riding two-wheelers.G Parthasarthy

G Parthasarthy

Former envoy to Myanmar, Australia, Pakistan and Cyprus

India has a reputation in Arab Gulf countries of being mature and measured in its reaction to crisis situations. When an Indian Airlines aircraft was hijacked in Srinagar and flown to Dubai in 1984, the Dubai authorities acted quickly, to end the hijacking. The hijackers were, thereafter, repatriated to India. Responding to the help from the Ruler of Dubai during the hijacking, India became the first country in the world to permit flights to its airports by the newly established Emirates Airways, controlled by the Dubai royal family, after overruling objections by Air India to the Agreement. Moreover, it did so, after consultations with other Gulf countries, ensuring that the new agreement did not adversely affect their interests.

Sadly, there is little knowledge or appreciation of the historical links that Kerala and other coastal States in India have had with the Arab Gulf countries. These links commenced well before the oil boom in the present day Arabian kingdoms, particularly with the individual Emirates, which constitute today's UAE. The shipping and trade links between Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the Arab Gulf States, date back to around 500 BC. It was from these shores that the Apostle St. Thomas sailed to India. Islam, thereafter, came to India's shores, through Arab and Indian traders, while Judaism entered through refugees, fleeing from persecution. These trade and civilisational ties transcended religious considerations. It was only, therefore, natural that when oil wealth changed the lives of residents of the Arab Gulf, the locals, with little engineering and other modern skills, turned to India's western shores for recruiting professionals, in virtually all walks of life, to replace the departing British.

This is a relationship that both India and the Arab Gulf States have benefited from, immensely. There are today an estimated 60 lakh Indians living in the Arab Gulf States. The largest number, around 21 lakh, is in Saudi Arabia, 17.5 lakh in the UAE and between 3.5 lakhs and 7.2 lakhs each, in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. Till just over two decades ago, the majority of Indians were made up largely of workers and low paid professionals like plumbers, drivers and carpenters. The composition today has drastically changed to include IT professionals, doctors, engineers and teachers. Moreover, while these countries, including the UAE, earlier preferred Pakistani nationals, because of religious considerations, the discipline, higher skills and peaceful nature of Indians, have led to a substantial changes in thinking, with Indians now finding many more places, especially where higher management and professional skills are required. Indians are also welcomed, as they do not get involved in Shia-Sunni controversies, or in other tensions and controversies, engulfing the Islamic world.

Indian nationals in the Gulf now remit over $ 35 billion in foreign exchange annually to India. The major beneficiary is Kerala, whose leaders have not exactly adopted policies that encourage industrialisation, or high-tech growth. Remittances from the Gulf, therefore, largely keep Kerala's economy going. Equally, in most Gulf countries, people from Kerala, with whom their links go back several centuries, are admired for being hard working, disciplined and for living harmoniously, rejecting narrow religious and sectarian considerations. Hindus, Muslims and Christians from Kerala are recruited on the basis of merit and suitability, and not religion alone. There also appear to be misgivings in the UAE, whose rulers are tolerant and modern-minded, because a number of Pakistani nationals have shown manifestations of sectarian and other practices, which are considered unacceptable.

Over the past few weeks, the media in UAE have been flooded with reports of the misery and suffering, which the cyclone has brought to people in Kerala. The Royal family in Dubai has been particularly empathetic towards people from Kerala, many of who have access to the Royalty, across the UAE. It was in these circumstances that the rulers in the UAE expressed their anguish at the sufferings of people in Kerala and voiced their readiness to offer immediate help. Prime Minister Modi, who has developed a close rapport with the rulers of the UAE, responded immediately and positively, while tweeting his thanks to them.

With the Chief Minister of Kerala avoidably asserting that he had received figures of aid from the UAE amounting in $ 100 million, New Delhi reacted strongly. The External Affairs Ministry came out with a routine statement, reiterating that all "aid" should be routed through appropriate channels. New Delhi should have recognised that what was on offer was not "aid" but "disaster relief." Good sense seems to have ultimately prevailed and aircraft of the Emirates Airlines commenced flying in planeloads of relief supplies. But, was it wise to publicly respond to actions of rulers of friendly countries, merely by quoting chapter and verse of our bureaucratic rules and regulations? More so, when well meaning foreign rulers of important and friendly countries personally offer help during a crisis?

Surely, if we intended to be firm on sticking to our guidelines, we could have stated, while welcoming the gesture of our friends in the UAE that we would work out the modalities with them, before the relief assistance they had offered, started flowing in. The airlift by the Emirates Airways could have commenced, while mutually agreed upon modalities were being discussed and finalised. People in Kerala, where many perished and over 300,000 were rendered homeless, would certainly have welcomed this. And people across the country, who empathised with and expressed solidarity with their sufferings, would have welcomed relief supplies reaching their flood affected fellow citizens.

We should also have realised the need for sensitivity and understanding in dealing with the UAE, especially after its rulers had shown such regard for the sentiments of our nationals living there. Our nationals in the Gulf remitted back $ 37 billion in 2017, with the largest amount of $ 13.8 billion coming from the UAE. Moreover, the UAE is our second largest export market in the world after the USA, with our exports estimated at $ 30 billion in 2017. The UAE also ranks as our third largest trading partner in the world, after the US and China. Publicly and peremptorily rejecting a well-meaning offer of assistance from a friendly country, in these circumstances, was avoidable and indeed unfortunate.Sandeep Dikshit

Sandeep Dikshit

US President Donald Trumps prioritisation of neo-mercantilism in state policy has put India in an unenviable position just before a high-level Indo-US meeting later this week. The current US Administrations sole focus is on ensuring that the worlds surplus flows into Washingtons coffers.

The self-serving dictum of attempting to rearrange the worlds trade flows is in itself a recipe for chaos that will lead to much unhappiness, especially in the third world. But what is much more dangerous is the extension of this policy of pure mercantilism into the security sphere.

The US has passed a law that imposes secondary sanctions on countries indulging in military trade with Russia. The intention is crystal clear: all major military hardware importing countries must severe their defence ties with Russia, leaving the US and its trans-Atlantic West European allies as the sole purveyors of military equipment.

This self-serving argument is being extended further to oil. Russia is mercifully out of the ambit of this US dictat, but adding to Indias headache, Iran is not.

Even during the peak of the Cold War, third world countries firmly in the US fold were permitted to case a roving eye on wares by the Soviet Union-led Warsaw Pact countries.

Pakistan, too, may be going through a similar dilemma but unlike India, it is being squeezed where it hurts  money  that it sorely needs to sustain the economy. The US suspended about $ 300 million in Pentagon aid to Pakistan in June and, finding no improvement in its behaviour, has announced its termination. Strategists here might exult, used as they are to seeing the India-Pak ties through a binary lens. But Pakistans presence in the doghouse is because of the same dilemma that India faces building ties with Russia that have now moved to a military buyer-seller relationship.

The pressure on India is being applied differently from Pakistan because of its fiscally indigent status. India is sought to be wooed by sweetening the wine in its chalice. But as is the case with Pakistan, the relationship sought by the US under Trump is terribly one-sided. The glory days when Indian techies travelled to the US in tens of thousands every year is a thing of the past. Even the relatively tiny trade surplus that India makes from the US is under the microscope as informed by the minutes of all Indo-US Trade Public Forum meetings held under Trumps watch.

Worse, it is now being asked to walk back from its half-a-century-old military relationship with Russia. As any strategic affairs expert will inform, a defence tie is not akin to buying a bar of soap. Every high-end military import is a product of hours of confabulations on highly confidential elements that is possible only between countries with a high degree of trust. Then there is the issue of life-time maintainence of the hardware, often over a 30-year period, and upgrade.

One reason why Indian MiG-21s fell off the skies during the last decade was because Russia, the successor state of Soviet Union, lost control over many Soviet defence factories and India was forced to source the spares from unreliable East European conduits.

Frequent reiteration of the Indian resolve to buy S-400 missile defence systems from Russia is actually just hot words. The effect of US sanctions is already being felt. According to the chatter in South Block, the spares segment of the Indian military is already under severe pressure. Payments worth $200 million are stuck and the amount may soon climb to a more worrying $1 billion.

It is a coincidence that both Pakistan and India will be face to face with their US interlocutors at the same time. The agenda and the pressure, though couched differently for both, will be the same: to ensure they clear the Russian presence from their military backyards.

That is why US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos September 5 meeting in Pakistan and September 6 interaction (along with US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis) in New Delhi will be keenly assessed around the globe. Countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Philippines and others interested in Russian equipment will be watching how both respond to US press-ganging.

There is the fond hope in pro-US circles here about a need-based waiver from American sanctions predicated on the possibility of the Russian sale of S-400 being permitted. That was recently dashed when a US government official said the predisposition would be not to grant waivers to sanctions if a country purchased Russian weapons (or Iranian oil after November 4).

Both India and Pakistan have no need to rub the US the wrong way. Neither can they do so because they have several irons in the US fire. But there comes a time when a country needs to stand up for its national security requirements and to create a space that makes manoeuvring possible to get the best out of the two powerful international forces  the US and NATO on one side and Russia and China on the other.

The siren call from Russia and China is compelling. Moscows steadfastness with Syria has echoes of Soviet backing for India on the battlefield and in the UN during the 1971 war. With China, Russia will showcase its largest military exercise in nearly 40 years. The intention is to demonstrate the availability of an alternative world of arms and military support.

For once in history, both India and Pakistan have a similar bucket list of security priorities: to attain autonomy in defence and security relationships. The US may have to tailor its prescriptive relationship to this changed dynamics.

sandeepdixit@tribunemail.comFlavia Agnes

Flavia Agnes

Mumbai-based womens rights lawyer

The 21st Law Commission of India (LCI) in its Consultation Paper on Family Law Reforms released on August 31, has come out with a clear statement against the enactment of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). A Uniform Civil Code is neither feasible nor desirable for a pluralistic nation such as India, the LCI stated and added that gender justice must be woven into the personal laws of each community.

Mere existence of difference does not imply discrimination, but is indicative of a robust democracy, the commission commented, adding that most countries were now moving towards recognition of difference rather than a flat uniformity between culturally diverse people as it causes more injustice to the vulnerable sections.

The paper emphasised that celebration of diversity must not disadvantage specific groups and women must be guaranteed their freedom of faith without any compromise on their right to equality, as it would be unfair to make women choose between one or the other. The paper recommends a series of reforms in personal laws of all religions and the secular laws that place women and children at a disadvantage.

It refrained from making any recommendations on triple talaq or Muslim bigamy and the constitutional validity of adultery under Section 497, IPC, since these are already before the Supreme Court or Parliament. Hence the most significant and far-reaching recommendation of the commission is with regard to the Hindu Law of Succession.

It recommended the abolition of the institution of the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) property as it is used only for tax evasion. To remedy this, it recommended the abolition of Hindu coparcenary. It is high time it is understood that justifying this institution on the ground of deep-rooted sentiments at the cost of the countrys revenues may not be judicious, it held.

The government is not bound by these recommendations. Even so, since the reference to examine the feasibility of introducing a UCC was made with much fanfare and media hype, in June 2016 by the Law Ministry, it remains to be seen to what extent the government will abide by these recommendation and bring in an amendment to the Hindu Succession Act to abolish the HUF.

Among other reforms suggested in Hindu laws are removal of the provision of restitution of conjugal rights, which is Sused to force wives to cohabit; bringing in a new legislation to address the issue of legitimisation of children born out of live-in relationships and their right to inherit the property of their parents.

Concern about discrimination against women regarding inheritance in all personal laws seems to dominate the report. It has suggested codification of Muslim law of inheritance and succession so that succession will be based on proximity to the deceased rather than preference to male agnates. Further, a Muslim widow, even if childless, should inherit property of the deceased as a Class I heir.

The report also safeguards the rights of Parsi women who marry men from outside their religion. The commission recommended that a Parsi should be allowed to retain her identity even when she marries outside the community and that their children should be allowed to inherit if they choose Zoroastrianism.

Another aspect of property which figures in the report is division of matrimonial property at the time of divorce. While suggesting that no fault divorce must be introduced in all personal laws, the LCI has recommended that it should accompany the provision of division of all property acquired after marriage.

Another important recommendation about rights within marriage is defining the rights of persons with disabilities.

The commission has made an interesting comment regarding Muslim polygamy: Although polygamy is permitted within Islam, it is a rare practice among Indian Muslims, on the other hand it is frequently misused by persons of other religions who convert as Muslims solely for the purpose of solemnising another marriage rather than Muslims themselves, it notes. Nikahnama should make it clear that polygamy is a criminal offence, it held and clarified that it is not based on a moral stance but on the fact that it has been used as an exclusive privilege granted to men.

The report recommends an amendment to the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, to explicitly include adultery as a ground for divorce for both spouses, as currently it is recognised only if it is committed with women of evil repute.

It has also suggested the abolition of the 30-day notice period for registering a marriage under the Special Marriage Act as it provides an opportunity to kin of the couple to discourage an inter-caste or an inter-religion marriage. Since the Muslim marriage comes into effect immediately after signing the nikahnama, and Hindu marriage soon after the rituals are performed, it recommended that the waiting period should be done away with. It also suggested that the period of separation before filing for a mutual consent divorce for Christians should be reduced to one year, from the current two years, as this creates hardship for Christians desiring to end the marriage.

Another provision to weave in gender equality within marriage laws has been to bring down the age of marriage for boys to 18, to bring parity with the age of marriage for girls since it validates the stereotype that wives must be younger than their husbands. Another important recommendation is to permit transgenders to adopt.

With these recommendations, the Family Law Reform project has moved beyond the rhetoric of a UCC.Rasheed Kidwai

Rasheed Kidwai

Senior journalist & author

The Congress support to urban Naxals, a term describing ultra-Left and liberals supporting Maoist guerrillas-led armed insurgency, is rather problematic and unlikely to bring political dividends. In its over 55-year-rule since Independence, various Congress governments at the centre have displayed scant regard for human rights and often used the State's might to crush armed resistance against paramilitary forces or government machinery.

In this sense, Rahul's assertion in post-Bhima Koregaon arrests, "Welcome to the new India" requires wider debate and discussion from within the Congress party than a smart tweet from the AICC chief. Perhaps, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is an ideal forum to deliberate the issue and come out with a structured formulation. The Congress under Rahul is within its rights to avail itself of all possible opportunities to attack the Narendra Modi-led government.

It, however, owes its supporters, followers and sympathisers a theoretical formulation on vexed issues like Naxalism and Maoist insurgency. Finding common cause with the Left and liberals is not a way forward as the grand old party has had a chequered history.

Former Bengal Chief Minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray is credited with taming the Naxal violence in Bengal where over 1,600 lives were reportedly lost during the 1972-77 Congress rule. There were allegations galore of extra-judicial killings during this period.

The Congress also doesn't have a blemish-free record of maintaining freedom of speech. In the first few years of the Jawaharlal Nehru government, the first Congress government of independent India treated freedom of speech with a qualifier. The Nehru government also linked issues like "public order" and "friendly relations with foreign states" with Article 19 of the Constitution in order to avoid disclosing information in the public domain. "Friendly relations with foreign states" has had such a profound impact that even the Narendra Modi government had sought cover under its wings for not making files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose public.

A Time magazine report on May 28, 1951 illustrated Nehru's mindset on media: Part of the Indian press, said (Nehru), is dirty, indulges in 'vulgarity, indecency and falsehood'. To teach it manners, Nehru proposed an amendment to India's Constitution that would impose severe restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. He asked for power to curb the press and to punish persons and newspapers for 'contempt of court, defamation and incitement to an offence'. Nehru told Parliament: 'It has become a matter of the deepest distress to me to see the way in which the less responsible news sheets are being conducted  not injuring me or this House much, but poisoning the minds of the younger generation.

The tradition of curbing freedom of speech continued during Indira Gandhi's Emergency. In subsequent years, Rajiv Gandhi introduced a defamation Bill which sought to curb "criminal imputation" and "scurrilous writings".

A highly successful nationwide strike by the newspaper industry and increasingly strident popular protests forced Rajiv to withdraw the Defamation Bill of 1988. If the Bill, reportedly a brainchild of P Chidambaram, had been passed, it would have empowered the Central government to collect extensive technical and financial information from publishers of newspapers and books.

The Congress faced an acute embarrassment on January 10, 1989 at the prestigious 12th International Film Festival of India held in New Delhi. It was an event attended by several international filmmakers and dignitaries, including the then Information and Broadcasting Minister HKL Bhagat, who used to fancy himself as 'the eyes and ears' of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Actress Shabana Azmi interrupted the proceedings and read out a prepared statement, explicitly naming and shaming the Congress party in connection with the murder of noted poet, playwright and theatre personality Safdar Hashmi near Delhi just 10 days earlier. As the rear of the auditorium erupted with the shouting of slogans, as if in a well-rehearsed move, Shabana went on to voice her outrage. 'We register our protest against a system that, on the one hand, claims to promote creativity and, on the other, connives in the murder of cultural activists,' she declared emphatically. The ignominy of the Congress party was complete when the proceedings were shown live on state-controlled national television Doordarshan.

In 2006, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had described Naxals as "the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country." Constructive dissent in the Congress has been in short supply. During the UPA years when Digvijay Singh had termed Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's Maoist policy as "one-eyed", the AICC general secretary was quickly asked to retract the statement.

Against this backdrop, Rahul needs to formulate a well thought-out response. However, given the Congress culture and a zeal to mix pragmatism with idealism, such an outcome is unlikely. After all, Rahul views grandmother Indira Gandhi as his role model. Author Zaheer Masani has quoted Prime Minister Indira as saying, "How can anybody who is the head of a nation afford not to be a pragmatic? You have to be practical, every day. But you have to marry your pragmatism with some sort of idealism or you would never get people excited about what you want to do."

Ideology for the Congress has been a convenient ploy to get "people excited."Covington Police(COVINGTON, Ga.) -- A Georgia police officer is "fighting for his life" after he was shot while responding to a shoplifting report at a Walmart, according to local police.



Covington police officer Matt Cooper, a 34-year-old military veteran who has been with the department for six years, is in serious condition Tuesday with a bullet lodged in his carotid artery, said Covington police spokesman Justin Stott.



He "is fighting for his life," officials said Monday. "We're just praying for his health."



"He is a fighter!" Stott added in a statement Tuesday.



The shooting unfolded Monday afternoon when a suspect exited the Walmart in Covington -- about 35 miles east of Atlanta -- and started to flee, and Cooper ran after him, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).



The suspect, 21-year-old Aaron Fleming, "ran across the street behind another shopping center where several gunshots were fired," the GBI said in a statement.



A second gunshot was then heard, and Fleming was found shot dead, authorities said.



"Early information indicates that the wound was self-inflicted," said a statement from the GBI.



The state agency is handling the investigation.



Two other suspects are in custody, local police said.



"There is no such thing as a routine call ... today's an example of that," police officials said at a news conference Monday. "Things can turn bad and ugly in a heartbeat."



Thirty-eight officers have been shot dead in the line of duty this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund. Thirty-two had died from gunfire over this same time period last year.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Soon it will be that time of the year again when plume of smoke will leave all breathless. It need not be so, if the government, in time, ensures that its paddy stubble management plan actually works. The Centre had in March approved Rs 1,151 crore for Punjab, which was allotted Rs 695 crore over two financial years. The rest was meant for Haryana, UP and Delhi. Five months on, the signs are ominous. Of the 14,000 subsidised machines ordered to clear stubble, only 500 have been delivered so far. The deadline of September 30 is at the door.

Suppliers cite delay in payment as reason for the laggard delivery. Punjab generates over 20 million tonne of paddy straw, a bulk of which is burnt, emitting large amounts of toxic pollutants. The health hazards are immense (last year, a public health emergency was declared in Delhi and the NCR; stubble burning was a factor). Schemes requiring ceaseless momentum cant be subjected to endless administrative formalities. The harvest season is close at hand and the farmer is in a tearing rush to ready the fields for the next crop, wheat. The idea was to stattion maximum machines in the fields to root out the crop residue. It is now a race to beat the clock. There are just not enough machines to cover each of the 147 blocks in the state. The Chief Minister is exhorting farmers through advertisements to give up stubble burning for the larger good of society and environment but that is clearly not enough.

The easiest way out for a farmer is to burn the stubble; saving him both time and cost (diesel worth Rs 1,500-Rs 2,000 goes in clearing an acre). The wheat-paddy cycle must be severed  also for the sake of groundwater. Giving up a lucrative crop wont be a cinch. The state should step in by incentivising a crop-pattern change and offering agreeable alternatives for stubble use and disposal. Over 40,000 stubble burning cases were reported last year. Keeping a watch on every farmer is a logistical challenge. Ban wont help, nor will penal punishment. Again, a farmer cant be punished for government lethargy and a botched arrangement. He cant be handed the short end of the stick: he too has a family to feed and a debt to pay off.editorial@tribune.com

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 4

Even as the Gurugram police on Tuesday claimed that they had already written to the government for seeking approval for investigation into the FIR registered against former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, legal experts have conflicting views on whether the amended provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act could be invoked retrospectively in the present case or not.

The Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, as amended on July 10 this year by incorporating Section 17-A to the existing law, makes previous approval of the government mandatory for any inquiry or investigation for an offence alleged to have committed by any public servant.

It is being alleged by certain quarters in the state bureaucracy that the Gurugram police committed a grave mistake by not seeking governments nod prior to booking Hooda (a public servant at the time of alleged offence) under the graft law in a land deal case in which Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra has also been made an accused.

Notably, besides Hooda and Vadra, the FIR also mentions some senior officers in it without naming anyone and sources said that at least six senior bureaucrats, two of them retired and others still working could be in trouble if the investigation proceeds forward.

Criminal lawyer PK Sandhir said that unless the amended Act specifically provides all laws have prospective effect and could not be applied retrospectively. The alleged offence in the Sky Light Hospitality land deal occurred in 2008, while Section 17-A that makes prior approval of the government mandatory before any inquiry, investigation against a public servant was added to the PC Act in July this year only. Hence, the amended Act cannot be applied retrospectively in this case, he said.

Advocate Amit Rana, co-chairman, Bar Council of India, said that the legal preposition was very clear that no law could have retrospective effect unless clearly specified. However, in the present case, the alleged crime was committed much before the amendment in 2008, but the application for the FIR was moved after the amendment on September 1. This will be up to the courts to take a call whether the amended law applies in this case or not as a point of law is involved in this case, said Rana.

Haryana Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan said that even the amended law did not stop the police from registering an FIR. The investigation of a crime begins only after the registration of FIR. The amended Act provides approval of the government for inquiry and investigation and sanction of the government before prosecution which begins only after the police submit challan in the court under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, said Mahajan.

Meanwhile, Gurugram police on Tuesday claimed that they had written to the government for approval on September 1 itself when the FIR was registered.

Cong MLAs support Hooda

Sonepat, September 4

Four Congress MLAs have come in support of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra.

In a joint statement issued here on Monday, Jai Tirath Dahiya, Jagbir Singh Malik, Jaiveer Balmiki and Sri Krishan Hooda, all MLAs from the district, alleged that the registration of a case against Hooda and Vadra was a conspiracy to divert attention of people from the Rafale deal.

They claimed that the registration of a case was a part of political vendetta of the BJP government which was upset over the success of the Jan Kranti Yatra undertaken by Hooda.  OCeditorial@tribune.com

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, September 3

After securing the first place in Haryana and 41st rank in India out of more than 4,000 cities in Swachh Survekshan 2018, Karnal has set eyes for the top position in the country in the next years survey.

Karnal may follow in the footsteps of the cleanest city Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Recently, a delegation led by Subhash Chander, executive vice-chairman, Haryana Swachh Bharat Mission, visited Indore for three days and learnt about the steps taken by its administration to become the cleanest city.

Karnal had secured 65th rank in the country in Swachh Survekshan 2017, improving from 123rd rank in 2014.

I have submitted a report on the Indore visit to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is keen on making Haryana the cleanest state in the country, Chander said, adding that by following the Indore example, Karnal could become the cleanest city in the country.

He said the delegation was informed that Indore city had launched awareness campaigns, including advertisements on cleanliness, songs, slogans and skits. Besides, private and public toilets were constructed in large numbers, and complaints received through the Swachhta application were addressed in a time-bound manner.

He further said that ward heads in Indore were given vehicles to ensure cleanliness in their wards.

Under the Swachhta Mission, there should be maximum participation of voluntary organisations and public, the subject of cleanliness should be taught in schools, awareness campaigns should be launched in both urban and rural areas, modern machines should be made available for cleanliness, and proper management of solid and liquid waste should be ensured in Haryana, Chander said.editorial@tribune.com

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

Is Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal eyeing the Chief Ministers post in Haryana after the 2019 Assembly poll in the state?

From the way AAP has planned to launch the second phase of its Haryana Jodo Campaign  by installing flex hoardings with the message Main aur mera parivaar, AAP ke saath on 2 lakh households in the state  from September 5 and also going by the interest shown by Kejriwal in Haryana affairs in the past, political observers believe that Kejriwal has some bigger plans in mind than merely preparing the party for the parliamentary poll.

The Tribune has learnt that after his meeting with AAPs incharge for Haryana affairs Gopal Rai, co-incharge Ajesh Yadav, state convener of the party Naveen Jaihind and party functionaries from across the state on Sunday, Kejriwal has decided to launch the second phase of the partys Haryana Jodo Campaign in a big way.

Sources said that Kejriwal told AAP workers from the state that the party would contest all 10 Lok Sabha and 90 Vidhan Sabha seats and would not enter into an alliance with any political party.

After this meeting, Kejriwal also addressed a rally at Pehowa in Kurukshetra on Sunday evening.

In the first phase of the campaign in July-August, AAP claims to have appointed conveners in all 9,500 polling booths in the state.

Kejriwal hails from Siwani town of Haryana and his early education is also from the state.

When he was to choose three names for nominations to the Rajya Sabha from AAP from Delhi, Kejriwal selected two out of three from Haryana lineage.

Besides his trusted lieutenant Sanjay Singh, Kejriwal picked Sushil Gupta, an educationist, and ND Gupta, a chartered accountant, from Haryana, giving rise to speculation about his future plans with regard to the state.

Ahead of 2017 Assembly poll in Punjab, Kejriwal had landed into a controversy by saying that Punjab had no waters to share with Haryana.

His statement had invited the wrath of the people in Haryana.

However, the Delhi CM took a U-turn when addressing the Bhaichara Kawar Yatra at Rohtak last month. He said justice should be done to both Haryana and Punjab in the matter of SYL waters.

When contacted, Jaihind said that at present, the issue of CM was not on the mind of AAP senior leaders.

Asked who is going to foot the bill of 2 lakh hoardings, Jaihind said that these are small 2 ft by 3 ft flex boards costing barely Rs15 each and the funds would be collected through contribution.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has approved a sum of Rs 29.50 crore for construction of 306 houses of police personnel, NGO hostel, welfare centre, barracks and administrative block in different Police Lines and police stations in the state.

While stating this here on Sunday, Director General of Police BS Sandhu said that out of the total, Rs 15 crore had been approved for construction of new houses, Rs 9 crore for construction of barracks, Rs 2.5 crore for construction of administrative block in Police Lines, Kurukshetra, Rs 1 crore for construction of NGO hostel in Police Lines, Sonepat, and Rs 2 crore for construction of welfare centre in Police Lines, Palwal.

Expressing gratitude towards the Chief Minister for extending all out support and cooperation in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the police force, Sandhu said, The Haryana Police have emerged as one of the best police force in the country. We are strengthening the policing system by making investment in security so as to protect and ensure safety and security of each and every person. This move will further encourage the police to deliver much better beyond the expectation of people.

Giving further details, the DGP said that 48 houses would be constructed, including 36 of Type II and 12 of Type III at a cost of Rs 2 crore at City police station, Narwana, whereas 42 Type II houses at a cost of Rs 2 crore would be constructed on Sadar police station campus in Charkhi Dadri. Similarly, 72 Type II and 12 Type III houses would be constructed with Rs 4.5 crore in Police Lines, Panipat, 24 Type IV houses with Rs 1.5 crore at Madhuban in Karnal, and 96 Type II and 12 Type III houses would be constructed at a cost of Rs 5 crore in Police Lines, Jhajjar.

He said that the CM had also approved Rs 3 crore for construction of a triple-storey barrack in Bhiwani and Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 3.5 crore had been approved for construction of one barrack in Police Lines, Rewari, and two barracks in Police Lines, Rohtak, respectively. In addition, NGO hostel in Police Lines, Sonepat, Welfare centre in Police Lines, Palwal, and Administrative Block in Police Lines, Kurukshetra, would also be got constructed at a cost of Rs 1 crore, Rs 2 crore and Rs 2.5 crore, respectively.

He thanked the Chief Minister for sanction of Rs 15 crore for the construction of 15 new police stations, including two woman police stations, across the state.harinder@tribunemail.com

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, September 3

The educationally backward Mewat  with an abysmal 56 per cent literacy rate, 35 per cent annual school dropout rate and a staff crunch of 45 per cent  has a reason to rejoice. Schoolteacher Basruddin Khan, 54, is to be felicitated by the President of India this Teachers Day.

Teaching science and math at Government Middle School, Tappan village, its said he wields a magic wand  he not only brings down the dropout rate whichever school he joins, but also trebles the student strength, effectively using education as a tool to bring about change.

When he arrived at Tappan village, the school strength was a mere 78. It now stands at 600. Basruddin Khan managed to persuade an NGO and an agency to invest Rs 1.7 crore for upliftment.

He also got land and an approach road sanctioned by the village panchayat.

When Basruddin Khan started his career in December 1993 in Jharpuri village in Firozepur-Jhirka, the village school had 20 students in Classes VI to VIII. The number had trebled to 60 by the time he was transferred two years later.

However, it was his 18-year stint at Siroli village in Punhana that earned him the admiration of locals and the authorities. Teaching for almost 12 hours at school and holding classes for weak students till late in the night, the school enrolment rose from 90 students in 1995 to 638 in 2013.

Siroli village that till 1995 had only one girl who was a matriculate had over 50 of them during his stay in the village.

My father was a labourer and we struggled for subsistence. One day I heard someone say education alone had the power to change our fate and that of others. That stayed with me. I studied against all odds, became a government schoolteacher and decided to help others like me, says Basruddin Khan.

A man of extraordinary grit and conviction, he got his two-year-old grandson vaccinated to quell rumours it was a plot by the state health authorities to sterilise the Muslims.

In Rajasthans Mewat too, schoolteacher Imran Khan, a web developer who was praised by the PM during his speech at the Wembley Stadium in London in November 2015, has been chosen for the national award. He has designed more than 70 educational apps, all available to learners free of cost.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Yamunanagar, September 4

Residents of several villages in Yamunanagar district on Tuesday protested in the mini-secretariat against illegal mining and overloaded vehicles.

They handed over a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to Deputy Commissioner Girish Arora. They demanded action against those involved in illegal mining and overloading.

Residents of Gumthala Rao, Sandhala, Sandhali, Lal Chhappar, Chauganwa, Hanshu Majra, Kandroli and Khukhani villages said they were living in flood-affected areas.

They claimed that the mining mafia had been carrying out mining up to 50 feet close to banks of the Yamuna on Haryana side.

They stated that deep digging had been causing land erosion on a large scale, damaging standing crops and posing a flood threat.

Illegal mining has ruined farmers as it has caused erosion on hundreds of acres in several villages of the area, said Shiv Kumar of Sandhala village.

Varyam Singh of Rao village, who is president of the Haryana Anti-Corruption Society, said besides illegal mining, overloaded vehicles troubled residents.

Overloaded vehicles carrying mining material have damaged roads in the area. These are causing accidents and claiming lives, he said.editorial@tribune.com

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, September 3

The state government has missed two deadlines set for the opening of an outpatient department (OPD) at Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College in Nerchowk, Mandi. In the absence of the facility, residents of Mandi and Kullu are facing inconvenience as they have to travel to far-off places for treatment.

Due to the delay, resentment is prevailing among residents over the slack attitude of the government.

As the staff in local hospitals in Mandi are inadequate, patients are being referred to the zonal hospital, which is already dealing with a heavy rush of patients.

The 300-bed zonal hospital Mandi gets 700 patients every day. Protests were held by the Congress and locals in Mandi and Kullu over inadequate health staff in local hospitals, but to no avail. Suresh Kumar, Rina Devi, Rajni and Ashok, residents of Mandi district, said the government should fix another deadline to start the OPD at Nerchowk college, which will also cater to residents of tribal district Lahaul-Spiti.

Surgeries are deferred due to staff crunch and patients have no option but to go to the IGMC, Shimla, or the PGI, Chandigarh.

Now, the Congress is planning to target the government over the OPD issue, District Congress Committee president Dipak Sharma said. He added that a delegation would meet the Chief Minister, urging him to do the needful.

Earlier, the Chief Minister had set July 15 as the deadline, which was extended to mid-August.

If the state government fails to act, the Congress will take to streets, he threatened.

Doctor Rajneesh Pathania, principal, Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College, said equipment for the OPD were being purchased. There were frequent power cuts in the college, he added. During the rainy season, rainwater entered the college. Now, the managment is thinking of having a proper drainage system in the near future, Pathania said.

Health Minister Vipin Singh Parmar could not be contacted. Sources said the OPD might be started during Navratras in October.

Patients at receiving endeditorial@tribune.com

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, September 3

The Delhi-Dharamsala one-way airfare reached Rs 20,116 on Monday. Despite the tourist season being lean, firms have not reduced the airfare between Dharamsala and Delhi.

At present, Air India and SpiceJet are operating two flights each between Delhi and Dharamsala. Sources said most seats remained vacant, still the airfare was not being slashed.

Vijay Kumar, a Palampur-based businessman, who took a flight from Dharamsala to Delhi this week to get his ailing wife examined, had to shell out Rs 16,000 for a ticket.

Regular fliers are the worst affected. Naveen Sareen and Pavi Sareen, hoteliers, said in case, the airfare was not slashed, it could impact tourism.

They said most travel agencies booked air tickets via Chandigarh, Amritsar and Jammu for tourists coming to Kangra, where the airfare was almost the one-fourth.

The airfare from Delhi to Amritsar and Jammu is between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000 per passenger, whereas for Chandigarh, it is only Rs 3,000 or even less. The airfare to Dharamsala is unreasonably high, they said. If the state and Central governments are unable to get the fare slashed, they can at least subsidise it, Naveen Sareen said.

On Monday, the airfare between Bagdogra and Delhi was only Rs 3,744. The airfare between Delhi and Srinagar is never increased from Rs 9000, Sareen said.

Ram Subhag Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism and Civil Aviation, said the government already knew about it and he would soon write to the Government of India.

No room for bigger aircrafteditorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Chamba, September 3

With the death of one more Manimahesh pilgrim from Amritsar on Sunday evening, the death toll has reached three.

The deceased was identified as Shingara, a resident of Majitha.

After getting off the bus in Chamba, he complained of chest pain and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died. On Sunday, two pilgrims, including a woman, had died.

Meanwhile, over 50,000 devotees took a dip in the Manimahesh lake on Janmashtami.

With this, the official fortnight-long pilgrimage to Manimahesh in Bharmour began on Monday, Deputy Commissioner Harikesh Meena said.

A large number of pilgrims have come for the holy dip at the Manimahesh lake, situated at an altitude of 13,000 feet, from where one can see Mt Kailash (18,564 feet), the abode of Lord Shiva.

The Manimahesh lake is about 216 km away from Pathankot via Chamba. From Hadsar village, one has to cover 14-km trek to Manimahesh on foot.

The religious ceremony of holy bath in the lake will take place on Radha Ashtami on September 17.

50,000 devotees take dip

The pilgrimage to Manimahesh in Bharmour began on Monday

Over 50,000 devotees took a dip in the Manimahesh lake on Janmashtami

The religious ceremony of holy bath in the lake will take place on Radha Ashtami on September 17.

The pilgrims have been thronging Manimahesh for the past one month.

More than 300 devotees have so far been ferried between Bharmour and Gauri Kund near the lake by two helicopters.

Woman loses life after Boulder fell on her A day before yatraeditorial@tribune.com

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 3

The Theog-Hatkoti-Rohru highway, which was blocked following a landslide on Sunday, was restored to traffic after 24 hours. However, commuters continued to face inconvenience as long traffic jams on narrow stretches at Patti Dhank and Nihai were witnessed throughout the day.

Apple transportation was badly hit as link roads in the higher altitudes of Chopal, Rohru and Rampur are in bad shape due to intermittent rain and landslides. We remained stranded on the Patti Dhank and Nihai stretches for two hours due to the apathy of the PWD, which has failed to widen the track for smooth movement of two-way traffic, rued Ravinder Singh and Rajiv Kumar, farmers from Jubbal and Rohru.

They added that both stretches were accident-prone as potholes had developed due to the ongoing construction and intermittent rain.

Executive Engineer, PWD, Hatkoti-Rohru highway project, Rajesh Jaiswal said, We cleared debris from the Patti Dhank on Monday morning. The Theog-Hatkoti-Rohru highway was also restored for normal traffic and apple transportation.

Prem Singh and Dinesh Kumar, farmers from Shantha, said the poor condition of link roads had restricted the movement of heavy vehicles. The Pabaas-Kenchi-Lastadhar and Pabaas-Shilikian roads are full of potholes. We have been forced to remove debris from these stretches ourselves as both PWD and BDO staff are not responding to their calls.

PWD chief Panvirpal Verma said the roads this year suffered massive damage due to landslides caused by rain. The restoration work was on, he added.editorial@tribune.com

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, September 4

The four-laning work on the 85-km-long stretch on the Chandigarh-Manali highway between Kiratpur and Nagchala is at a complete standstill.

The delay on the project will be harmful for the tourism industry of Kullu-Manali and farmers.

The residents of Mandi and Kullu districts are also feeling the pinch.

The people of both districts are concerned about the project. Due to the poor condition of the road, it was not only affecting the tourist footfall, but also the timely transportation of agriculture produce to distant markets.

Due to delay in the road project, the cost of construction has increased drastically and now the company, ITNL, is expressing helplessness in carrying out the work.

According to official sources, the company was facing financial crunch and payment of several contractors worth crores was stalled.

Ashok Thakur, vice-president of contractor association, Mandi, said the payment worth crores had been delayed by the company, which halted the work on the project between Kiratpur and Nagchala. He said around 40 contractors, who were engaged on this project, was waiting for their payment.

He said, Due to a halt in the work, a large number of locals have lost livelihoods, who worked as labourers. We are waiting desperately for our payment from the company.

Anup Thakur, president of the Hotelier Association, Kullu-Manali, said, We wrote a letter to Union minister Nitin Gadkari and urged him to take necessary steps for the completion of the road, he said.

Project Director, ITNL, Nishant Shrivastava blamed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for it.

He said, Due to indifferent attitude of the NHAI, this road project was delayed for two years. The NHAI had failed to acquire land.

He said, The project was awarded in 2012 to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore till 2016. But due to delay, now the construction cost has increased to Rs 3,000 crore. We have given a notice to the NHAI to resolve the issue.

Yogesh Chandra, Director, NHAI, declined to comment over it. However he confirmed that the construction work was completely stopped by company.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 4

After The Tribune reported the plight of families of those who were killed in Iraq and were awaiting jobs that were promised to them, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma on Tuesday directed officials of the district administration to expedite the process of giving jobs to the next of the kin of the persons killed in Mosul (Iraq).

The Deputy Commissioner called the family members of the five persons from the district who were killed in Iraq.

He said as per the commitment of the state government, the district administration was duty-bound to give jobs to the legitimate heir of the deceased.

He said all formalities of completing documents from the eligible beneficiaries must be completed at the earliest so that government jobs must be given to them.

Sharma said the state government was solidly behind the distressed families in this hour of grief.

When the mortal remains of the Indians who were killed by the ISIS in Mosul were brought back this year, the state government had then decided to give jobs to the kin on compassionate grounds.

Of the 27 who belonged to Punjab, some of the families are from Jalandhar.

Manjit Kaur from Rurk Kalan said she was now hopeful that she would get a job as the DC had given them assurance in this regard.

Usha Rani from Chuharwali village said hope had got rekindled and she was now sure that she would be able to serve her family in a proper manner.

The Deputy Commissioner said the pain and sufferings of these hapless families who had lost their loved ones in Iraq were unimaginable.

He said it was really a painful moment for all those who have lost their breadwinners in the unfortunate incident. Sharma assured the family members that the district administration would leave no stone unturned to help them.

The Deputy Commissioner said in case they face any problem, they could directly approach him for early resolution of the same.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 4

Three CRPF personnel and a civilian were injured in a grenade attack by militants in Sopore of Baramulla district of north Kashmir on Tuesday.

The police said the militants lobbed a grenade at a CRPF party at the Sangrama crossing in Sopore.

Some unknown terrorists hurled a grenade at CRPF men deployed at Sangrama Chowk resulting in injuries to three personnel, a CRPF spokesman said.

The injured personnel were shifted to a hospital and their condition was out of danger. Soon after the incident, the area was cordoned off by joint teams of security forces to track the militants involved in the attack. However, the militants managed to escape taking the advantage of the rush in the area, sources said. The militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba has claimed the responsibility for the attack. Meanwhile, a complete shutdown was observed in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Tuesday in protest against the killing of a youth during clashes on Monday.

The youth, Fayaz Ahmad Wani, a resident of Chewa Kalan, was killed while another youth was injured during the clashes with the security forces during a cordon and search operation.

All shops and business establishments remained closed. There was thin attendance in government offices while educational institutions were also shut.editorial@tribune.com

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, September 3

A 29-year-old man was killed and a youth severely injured as security forces allegedly fired bullets and pellets to disperse youth protesting amidst a massive cordon and search operation (CASO) covering 18 villages in Pulwama district of south Kashmir.

The slain youth has been identified as Fayaz Ahmad Wani, a resident of Chewa Kalan village in Pulwama.

According to reports, a CASO was launched in 18 villages early Monday on the outskirts of Pulwama town.

Clashes erupted at many places during the CASO, including Pulwama town and the neighbouring Chewa Kalan and Gusoo villages, a local source said.

Sources said that the security forces opened fire at protesters near Chewa Kalan and Gusoo villages, leaving Wani injured, around 12:30 pm. He was rushed to Pulwama district hospital.

He was almost dead when he reached here. We referred him to Srinagar, a doctor at Pulwama district hospital said, adding that another youth had a serious nerve injury inflicted by pellets.

A police spokesperson confirmed the killing, saying that a youth was killed during the clashes that had erupted around the area cordoned off. He was hit by a bullet and succumbed later, the spokesperson said. He did not divulge by whom the bullet was fired.

The body of the slain civilian reached his native village about 4 pm, where thousands were in attendance to participate in his funeral prayers.

As the news of the killing spread, protests intensified across Pulwama district and were continuing till this report was being filed.

The CASO, meanwhile, was called off in the afternoon. The CASO was called off as no contact could be established with the militants, a police source said. Four such operations were conducted last year in Shopian district, starting May. This was the first such operation this year and in Pulwama district.

PDP leader's kin escapes bid on life

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) youth leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra's cousin Mehraj Parra on Monday escaped a bid on his life in Pulwama district. A resident of Naira village in Pulwama, Mehraj was coming out of the cricket stadium in Pulwama, when militants fired a few shots at him. "He escaped unhurt," a police official said. "The militants fled after the firing." The police have taken cognisance of the attack and are investigating.editorial@tribune.com

M Aamir Khan

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 3

Despite militant threats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is continuing with efforts to expand its base in the Valley. The party is also eyeing members of the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities even as it is yet to register its maiden electoral win in Kashmir.

Yes, security is a major concern but nothing will stop us from our mission. On Monday, we had a workers convention in Anantnag. On Tuesday, a convention will be held in north Kashmir and on Wednesday, another meet will be organised in central Kashmir. These meetings are being held in view of the upcoming urban local bodies and panchayat elections, BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur told The Tribune.

The recent killing of a BJP leader on Eid in south Kashmirs Pulwama district had forced many party workers of the area to shift to safer places. A few workers had also resigned as several intimidating videos surfaced on the social media.

Earlier too, BJP workers have faced threats from militants and mobs. In the 2016 unrest, 19 workers were attacked by mobs as per the party spokesman. The developments came at a time when the party was on the job to expand its base.

Though the BJP claims of enrolling over 3.5 lakh members, the party is yet to win an election in the Valley. The party had fielded 34 candidates in 2014 elections but all of them lost.

Meanwhile, the party is also eyeing the Gujjar and Bakerwal communities. While BJP state general secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul interacted with the representatives of the community here on Sunday, he urged them to bring senior members of the communities for further talks.

You bring your senior members. We will listen to them and put forward our views, Koul remarked during the interaction.

In an effort to reach out to the communities members, he also dispelled the notion that the BJP was anti-Muslim. The BJP is the only party that does not discriminate in the name of caste, colour, creed, religion or sex and aims for the all-round development of all sects and areas. There are some political agents who are projecting the BJP as anti-Muslim to serve their interest and save their vote bank, he said.editorial@tribune.com

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 3

An MBA degree holder from Ghat village of Doda district joined the Hizbul Mujahideen on September 1, leaving his family in utter shock.

The 31-year-old Haroon Abbas Wanis entry into the Hizb ranks was announced by the militant outfit on the social media on Monday when his gun-wielding picture was released along with his particulars.

Wani had done masters in business administration from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) and was working as a medical representative with a pharmaceutical company in Jammu. After completing MBA, Wani had worked in Bangalore and Srinagar before he shifted to Jammu. His family has been in complete shock after hearing the news and has appealed to him to return. This is a wrong step taken by my son. I dont approve of it. Serving old parents is better jihad then picking up the gun. I have not been keeping well for some time and he is aware of it. We dont agree with his decision, said Wanis heartbroken mother Shama Begum.

Wani, son of Junior Engineer in rural development department, has been given the Moin-ul-Islam code name by the militant outfit. He had not visited home for the last three months. The last time we talked was two days before Eid when I told him to come home but he refused, saying that he would be coming for the marriage ceremony of his elder brother, which is scheduled for September 8-9, his mother said with tears in her eyes. But for the past three days his cell phone has been switched off and we had no contact with him, she added. This is the second case since July 1 of a youth from Doda district joining militancy. Earlier, Abid Hussain Butt (24) from Sazan village of the district had joined the Lashkar-e-Toiba on July 1 but was killed on July 25 during an encounter with security forces in Anantnag town.

According to the police, Wani might have joined the militant outfit somewhere in Shopian district. After the news spread in the region, the Army, police and officials from intelligence agencies visited Wanis house and talked to the family. Security forces searched his house and told the family to use their influence to convince him to come back. In the evening, men of the 10 Rashtriya Rifles asked people of Ghat village to gather in the Eidgah of the village where they were asked to use their influence to bring the youth back. They also told the villagers to keep an eye on their children.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Ravi S.Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

Once adviser to Jammu and Kashmir CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and former Jammu University Vice-Chancellor Amitabh Matoo on Tuesday defended late Mufti Sayeed's decision on entering into an alliance with the BJP in the state.

Speaking at a launch of a book titled "The generation of Rage in Kashmir", authored by journalist David Devdas, Matoo said the last Assembly elections had thrown up a dilemma for Sayeed. "His PDP got about two-thirds of the assembly seats in the Valley, but BJP had taken over Jammu and Ladakh regions under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi wave. There is always a contrarian position that critiques will take to any decision," Mathoo said.

"Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was a visionary. He reached an understanding with the BJP having the father-like figure of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in mind. He had thought he would temper the BJP."

"He had thought that by forging an alliance for governance in the state, the experiment could bring reconciliation between the three regions of the state, and hence the alliance would succeed.

So what if PDP did not align with the BJP? Go along with the Congress and the National Conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm?" he said.

On the issue of why Mehbooba Mufti did not walk out of the alliance rather than waiting for BJP to pull out of the government, he defended her saying that after Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's demise she spent three months hoping to get a better deal.

"It was a difficult time for her. Most of her PDP MLAs were willing to join any party willing to form a government in the state. In such a situation one could not trust even one's own shadow," he added.

He further said Delhi could have handled the state's affairs in a better way, and added that the regional parties are centralised in their functioning. "The Centre always takes a shortsighted view. It considers the state as holding operation," Mathoo said.editorial@tribune.com

Ranjit Thakur

Doda, September 4

A day after the gun-wielding picture of Haroon Abbas Wani of Ghat, Doda, went viral on the social media on Monday, his grandmother has appealed to him to shun the path of violence and return home.

Wanis grandmother Sugra Begum has asked him to give up the path of militancy and return home as the real jihad was not to leave the family in distress. Wani (31) joined Hizbul Mujahedeen on September 1.

We had great hopes from you, but you have shattered our dreams. You did not even think once what would happen to your ailing mother and who will buy medicines for her, Sugra Begum said in an emotional appeal.

We want you to come back as the real jihad is not to leave the family is distress but to serve the ailing parents. The whole family is in grief and your mother and father have given up food, she said.

Wani is an MBA from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra. He was working as a medical representative with a pharmaceutical company in Jammu. After completing MBA, Wani had worked in Bangalore and Srinagar before he shifted to Jammu. His family has been in complete shock after hearing that he has joined militancy.

Wani, son of a junior engineer in the rural development department, has been given the Moin-ul-Islam code name by the militant outfit. He had not visited home for the last three months.editorial@tribune.com

Srinagar, September 4

The J&K Government has recommended a CBI probe into the gun licence racket after names of public officials, especially some IAS officers from the state, surfaced during investigations carried out by the Rajasthan polices anti-terror squad (ATS), officials said on Tuesday.

The recommendation was made by the state administration headed by previous Governor NN Vohra last month, the officials said, adding that the states vigilance branch has been asked to carry out the probe on the basis of the findings of Rajasthans ATS until the CBI takes over the case.

However, the CBI, after perusing the documents handed over to the agency by the state government, sent further queries and was awaiting its response, officials said. The CBI has asked the state government to furnish some relevant documents before it considers filing of a case to probe the issuance of 4.29 lakh arms licences in the last one decade from various districts of the militancy-hit state, they said.

The nexus between bureaucrats-middlemen-arms dealers was unravelled by the Rajasthan ATS last year.

Over 50 people, including the brother of an IAS officer, have been arrested in the case so far. A majority of the arms licences were given to people who do not belong to J&K on the basis of forged documents, the officials said.

The CBI has also told the state government about its officials non-cooperation with the Rajasthan ATS and indicated that some senior bureaucrats might also be questioned during the investigations. According to the ATS officials, 1,32,321 of the 1,43,013 gun licences in Jammu regions Doda, Ramban and Udhampur districts were issued to those residing outside the state.

The figure for the entire state was 4,29,301. Of them, just 10 per cent were issued to the states residents.

Senior officials in the Governors office said action would be taken against all those guilty of issuing fake licences. Rajasthan ATS officials said initially they were not aware of the magnitude of the case and its serious ramifications when they began the operation, code-named Jubaida. A sample survey of licences issued from Kupwara, a frontier district in north Kashmir, showed that no files or registers were maintained by the district authorities and many of the arms licences might have been issued to outsiders on the basis of forged documents. Rajasthans Director General of Police OP Galhotra has also recommended a CBI probe into the gun-licensing racket and suggested transfer of the case to the CBI without any further delay. The state police chief said the case pertains to the issuance of arms licences in a fraudulent manner by various authorities in Jammu and Kashmir.  PTIshalender@tribune.com

Sarah berry

If there were no teachers, there would have been no other profession.

As they set out each day to their work places, these inspired youngsters are ready to learn as well as share their knowledge in a constructive manner:

Infective energy

Shaguftas energy is contagious. As she teaches a group of young, bubbling-with-energy students, she appears to be very much a part of the bunch  learning and teaching simultaneously. A teacher at Panchi, an inclusive school located in Ghazipur for the neighbouring rag-picker colony children, Shagufta had to face many challenges at the beginning of her assignment. The kids spoke different regional languages, would form groups, and converse in their respective local languages, not paying attention to what was being taught. Besides this, discipline was a challenge too. However, with the passage of time, acceptance and adaptability set in and the students now understand the importance of values. I have learnt a lot through Panchi, and this is not just limited to pedagogy. I have learnt the art of interacting with different individuals, understanding their challenges, and working on these together, says Shagufta. Panchi not only implements BaLA (Building as Learning Aids) creatively, but also uses various, customised teaching kits for the subjects of English, science and maths. Life and soft skills are knitted into the academic curricula, as are also co-curricular activities. As for future plans, Shagufta explains about learning being a major part of her future plans, as she feels that the more one learns, adopts, and applies, the more holistic the development of the concerned individual is. Her message for the youth of today: "Do not get confused by many options; take one step at a time; life will unravel itself."

Teaching to dream

Pranab Mondal wanted to be a teacher for as long as he can remember, and since IT was his favourite subject, it was considered the obvious choice to take up teaching IT. The only difference: the school he has joined is about 30 km from the Indo-Bangladesh border, and most of the children who attend this school have never seen a computer in their lives. For me, this is a challenge; I begin from the beginning, and, gradually, embark with them on a journey of discovering and re-discovering the computer and all that it has to offer. This, for me, is not only a teaching process, each time, but also a learning process, for no two journeys are the same.

The room, which he has fondly decorated with hand-made props that depict nuances of IT curriculum, is his abode. Here, he encourages his students to dream, explore, and deduce. The rapport that Pranab has been building with his students stretches to beyond just being a teacher within class timings. It is of a mentor, who helps shape lives. I could not have asked for more in my life; the family I come from had also never seen a computer; I learnt hard, worked hard, and now I am in a position to inculcate these values in the future decision makers. What more can I ask for? asks the young man.

A curriculum of confidence

Lalita Kashid teaches English at the Easy English School, Vakeshwar Vidyalaya Peth, Pune, an initiative by ITNL (IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd.). She, however, is an English teacher with a difference. Having aspired to learn and teach English one day, she has worked hard to realise this goal. This young lady, who has learnt most of the English language herself, polishing it with the passage of time, has made it a point that her students not only speak the language, but also develop the confidence to present themselves in English. Shrushti, a young girl of 14 years, speaks on the subject of superstition  a speech that won her laurels. When she finishes, there is absolute silence in the class, as her intonations and expressions simply stun. Post her speech, she looks at her teacher with gratitude  another proud moment for Lalita.

A perpetual learner

After finding her stint in the BPO sector for a year boring, Yashasvi Bathula, switched to teaching under privileged children. Currently employed in the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra in Okhla, she describes her job as creative, exciting, and challenging, as every day is different. The energy of the students, the exchange of information and knowledge, and the zest to work together towards a common goal, are the aspects that she feels are imperative for successful and meaningful learning outcome. I impart training for both, the subject of IT to all batches of students, and am also the course trainer for students in the BPO batch, she shares. Her challenge as an educator was the initial nervousness, and stammering, which she has been able to overcome with practice and determination. Besides this, training a group of students, hailing from different backgrounds, with different levels of knowledge, was not easy.I learn something every day; this is how I want it. I want to keep learning and improving.

Against all odds

Purnima Chetal Desai is a gritty young woman, who has faced the ups and downs of life  mostly the latter  with panache. She has been training since 2012  a journey marked by challenges, especially since her father passed away when she was in Class VIII, leaving behind a family of four . She has been working since 2015 as a soft skills trainer at the Swades IL&FS Institute of Skills in Raigad. Her recent promotion as Academic Head has been proof of her commitment towards her job. For me training is a passion; something that has helped me a lot in my personal life too. It had always been my dream to be able to impact lives. Though the financial situation at home was tough, it did not deter me. I worked part time, studied hard, and never lost faith in my abilities, says Purnima, while recalling her journey.editorial@tribune.com

Nonika Singh

In the day and age of Tinder dating apps where modern notion of romance finds a new meaning each day... where does the intense folklore of Laila Majnu fit in? Guess what, each member of the Laila Majnu team in Chandigarh has a ready answer. Ace director Imtiaz Ali, who by the way has written the story, shares how Laila Majnu is a centuries-old folk tale yet ahead of its time with elements in both its lead characters which could well be true for todays young lovers. Imtiazs kid brother Sajid Ali, who makes his directorial debut with Laila Majnu, was only too willing to lend colours to big brothers imagination.

To the lead hero, Avinash Tiwary, the very question; why Laila Majnu? itself is unwarranted. He says, Not too long ago Hollywood made movies like Romeo Juliet and Beauty and the Beast, if these movies found a resonance among the western audience far more modern than us, I see no reason why Indian youth wouldnt.

As both he and lovely lass Tripti Dimri nod: Love is forever , Tripti talks about how she the with it girl of today could relate to the lovelorn Laila. Only as she quips, Like all Delhi girls such as me, Laila is flirtatious... Avinash immediately interjects and apologises to Delhiwallahs on her behalf.

Imtiaz sums Lailas character philosophically. Laila is in love with the very idea of love and is in its quest even before she meets her lover. For Sajid bringing to life the junnoniyat of Majnu, the man who till date is considered an epitome of intense love, wasnt easy. To match the vision of his brother, he really had to struggle to get on the same page. Yes, he is aware of the unfair fair comparisons that will follow suit and he is ready for the onslaught. Why did Imtiaz choose not to direct the epic tale which by his own admission finds a reflection in all his love stories?

I did not want a repeat of things I have already done. I wanted a fresh voice to take over.

For Sajid, contemporising the story was easier, being faithful to the original text a tougher nut to crack. Since Imtiaz has already introduced us to many shades of love, the sufiyana power of love will once again reign.

But so will the struggle between bodily and spiritual love. Yes, the film has all the madness that Majnu is famous for, but ultimately its about love that transcends. Never mind the philosophical underpinnings, its a take which they insist will ring a bell with millennials. So, check out how tradition and modernity coalesce and coexist in the new age Laila Majnu.

Oneness of divine love

If you are still wondering whether Imtiaz Ali is making a film on epic Krishna Radhas eternal love, yes indeed he is. Divine love between the two inseparable and much revered divine beings has fascinated him since long. He doesnt think he is wading into risky waters. I would be worried if my intentions were not right. Quiz him on whose love Radha or Krishnas is greater and he says simply, They are one. Oneness of love... but isnt that what all his films are in pursuit of.

Punjab calling

Punjab may not be the backdrop of Laila Majnu, the surreal and magical Kashmir where time stands still is. But a date with Punjab is always a must for Imtiaz Ali. And what better way to begin the trip to Punjab than by taking his team to the Golden Temple in Amritsar where newbie Avinash Tiwary stood wonderstruck. A holy place teeming with millions, yet a soulful tranquilly pervades ones being.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Mumbai, September 4

A Maharashtra BJP MLA has told youngsters he would "kidnap" the girl a boy likes even if she says no to the proposal, a controversial remark that drew sharp reactions from ally Shiv Sena and opposition parties.

Ram Kadam made the comments at a 'dahi handi' event in his suburban Ghatkopar assembly constituency in Mumbai Monday night.

"You (youngsters) can meet me for any work," he is heard in a video clip as telling the crowd, mainly comprising the youth.

Kadam went further, saying he has received requests from youngsters to help them after girls rejected their proposal.

"I will help, 100 per cent. Come (to me) with your parents. What will I do if parents approve? I will kidnap the girl concerned and hand her over to you (for marriage)," he is heard telling the crowd in Marathi. Kadam is also heard sharing his mobile number with the crowd.

When asked about the video clip, Kadam said his comments were distorted.

Shiv Sena sought Kadam's apology and asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state's home minister, what action would be taken against the MLA for making a statement that "threatens safety of girls".

The Congress called for Kadam's arrest, while the NCP said his comment brought to the fore "Ravana-like" face of the ruling party.

Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray said the MLA offering to marry off girls "against their will" meant the lawmaker believed that "marriage is like forming government".

"Ashamed and disgraced that he sits in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra -- a land of culture & women liberty," he tweeted.

"Not just an outright apology from him, but I'd want to know from the Home Minister of Maharashtra what action will be taken for openly making such statements that threaten the safety of girls and offering safety to those wanting to kidnap them," he added.

Opposition Leader in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said Kadam's remarks were unfortunate and condemnable. "The state government should immediately arrest him," he said.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said, "Cases should be filed against Kadam if a girl is kidnapped in Maharashtra as the MLA himself is encouraging their kidnapping."

"He should apologise. I am sure women members of the Assembly will pose questions to him," Patil said.

State NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Kadam was speaking the language of abducting girls.

"What Kadam said has revealed the Ravana-like face of the BJP. Kadam said he would abduct a girl for a boy. Therefore, he should be called as 'Ravana' Kadam," Malik told reporters here. - PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Mumbai, September 3

The Bombay High Court on Monday rapped the Pune police for holding a press conference on Friday where Additional Director General of Police Parambir Singh claimed to have evidence linking the five activists arrested by them with Maoist groups.

Judges SS Shinde and Mridula Bhatkar, hearing a petition filed by Satish Gaikwad, said it was wrong on the part of the police to reveal information related to the case to the media. How can the police do this? The matter is sub-judice. The Supreme Court is seized of the matter, Justice Bhatkar observed.

The petitioner contended that he was a victim of the Koregaon-Bhima violence and did not trust the Pune police to carry out a fair probe into the incident.  TNSeditorial@tribune.com

Bengaluru, September 3

Establishing a slight edge over the BJP in a closely fought race in the urban local bodies (ULBs) polls in Karnataka, the Congress is set to gain control of a majority of the ULBs, teaming up with its ruling coalition partner JD(S).

The ruling coalition partner has secured 982 seats and the BJP 929 in the elections held Saturday. The JD(S), Congress ally in the state government, came a distant third with 375 seats, according to the state election commission.

The others, including 329 Independents, bagged the rest of the seats in the three-way race with the Congress and JD(S) fighting against each other, despite being coalition partners.

Both Congress and JD(S) have declared that they would tie-up in the ULBs, which have produced a hung verdict. With the combined strength of 1,357 seats, the two parties enjoy a clear edge over the BJP to seize control of a majority of the ULBs.

Elections were held for three city corporations, 29 city municipal councils, 52 town municipal councils and 20 town panchayats (TP). Results for 2,662 of the 2,709 seats for which polls were held have been declared.

These elections were considered the first test of popularity of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, which was formed post-May Assembly polls when it yielded a hung verdict.

The BJP had emerged as the single-largest party in the Assembly polls, but failed to shore up the numbers in its bid to form the government.

The ULB polls were also considered indicative of the voters mood before the next Lok Sabha elections.

Compared to its performance in the 2013 ULB elections, the BJP has fared far better. In the polls then conducted for 4,976 seats, the Congress had bagged 1,960 seats and BJP and JD-S 905 seats each.

Elections for the remaining 2,300 seats are likely be held early next year. Polls to Kodagu urban local bodies have been withheld due to the recent floods in the district.

Former PM and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda said: Wherever we can form a coalition government to keep the BJP out of power, we will certainly do that.

Buoyed by the results, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said it was a befitting answer to those who were saying the coalition government was weak and would collapse soon.

The election results have silenced all those who have been saying that Congress has weakened, that it was lagging behind and its popularity was diminishing, said an upbeat state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao.

State BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa admitted that the election results were not as per the expectations. The overall results satisfy us because we could withstand the money and muscle power used during the election, he added.

Yeddyurappa said the results would not have any bearing on the popularity of the government at the Centre because there were many local factors at work. He reiterated the partys resolve to win 22 or 23 seats out of 28 in Lok Sabha polls.  PTI

Candidate, 9 others hurt in acid attack

Bengaluru: A Congress candidate and nine supporters were injured in a suspected acid attack during a victory march. Inayatullah Khan, who won from ward No. 16 in Tumakuru, 70 km from Bengaluru, was taking out the procession when an unidentified person sprayed some liquid on the crowd and fled. Around 10 persons were taken to a nearby hospital where they were administered first-aid.

Seven new Cabinet Ministers likely

New Delhi: Karnataka is likely to get seven new ministers, while 30 legislators of the Congress and the JD (S) will be adjusted as chairmen of top corporations and boards in the state, said party leaders. The Cabinet will be expanded by the third week of September to its full strength of 34. Six from the Congress and one from JD(S) will get ministerial berths, said a JD(S) leader.traineesubeditor@tribuneindia.com

Mumbai, September 4

A cache of explosives, including gelatin sticks and detonators, was seized from Maharashtra's Raigad district and two people were arrested in this connection, a police official said Tuesday.

Around 46 gelatin sticks, some detonators and other material were seized Monday after a raid at the house of Mohammad Umar Jahir Kazi at Dhalghar village in Mangaon tehsil of the coastal Raigad district adjoining Mumbai, he said.

It is suspected that the explosives were meant for illegal fishing activity, he said.

Kazi, 48, was arrested following the seizure, he said.

On further inputs, one more person, who used to sell these explosives to Kazi, was arrested from Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, he said.

Some fishermen were injured recently in a blast while they were engaged in fishing activity in the Arabian Sea, Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar told PTI.

While investigating the case, police got information about Kazi and another person who was selling these explosives illegally for fishing activity, he said.

Accordingly, raids were conducted and the two men were nabbed, he said.

"We have recovered gelatin sticks and detonators and arrested the two under the Explosives Act and the Explosive Substances Act," Paraskar said, adding that a probe was underway.

Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is an illegal practice of using explosives to stun or kill fish for easy collection.  PTI.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, September 3

With another 16 deaths reported during the last 24 hours, the total number of deaths in rain-related incidents in Uttar Pradesh in the past two days has shot up to 32.

Around 1.48 lakh people from 388 villages have been affected by the floods and 12,000 people are living in relief camps across the state.

Incessant rains may make things worse in the coming days, said the spokesperson from the Relief Commissioners office. The Ganga is flowing dangerously above its safe mark in Farukhabad, Ballia and Kannauj and Ghaghra in Barabanki, Faizabad and Gonda.

On Monday, the maximum number of people (four) died in Jhansi, followed by two each in Mirzapur, Gonda and Etawah and one each in Bahraich, Firozabad, Rae Bareli, Auraiya, Shamli and Sitapur.

The otherwise drought-prone Bundelkhand region is also facing floods, where a swollen Betwa is causing havoc in Lalitpur and Jhansi districts, forcing the Air Force helicopter to rescue marooned people. On Sunday, a MI-17 Air Force helicopter was pressed into service to rescue people marooned in Kandhareekla village.

Search op for missing family

Guwahati: Search operations by the Army, NDRF and SDRF teams continued on Monday for five members of a family who went missing after their vehicle fell into the Dikhow river in Assams Sivsagar district, officials said.

The search teams are yet to locate the car or its occupants because of the strong undercurrent in Dikhow river which is on a spate and muddy water was blocking the vision of the divers under water, a state government release said.

A total of 32 deep divers are engaged in the rescue operation. They five were identified as Haren Bora, his wife Phunu Bora, daughters Simpi Bora and Munmi Bora, and mother Ponou Bora.  PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, September 3

Prioritising cooperation in the fields of counter-terror initiatives and intelligence sharing, top internal security/homeland officials of India and the US have worked out a detailed draft plan in six key areas, including terror financing and cyber security, ahead of the crucial two-plus-two (2+2) dialogue.

Sources said as part of the periodical Indo-US Homeland Security Dialogue, which took place recently, the officials finalised a draft working plan for six joint sub-groups.

The sub-groups will work in the areas of illicit finance, illegal smuggling of cash, financial fraud and counterfeiting; cyber information; megacity policing and sharing of information among federal state and local partners; global supply chain, transportation, port, border and maritime security; capacity building; and technology enhancement.

The Indian delegation was led by Additional Secretary in the MHA Rajni Sekhri Sibal, while the US side was led by Deputy Under Secretary in the Department of Homeland Security James McCament. The Security Dialogue was launched in 2010 as a mechanism following an agreement for joint counter-terrorism initiative.

The maiden 2+2 dialogue is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Thursday. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis will meet their Indian counterparts to discuss enhancing engagement with India on critical diplomatic and security priorities.  TNSamansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, September 4

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued an advisory to all private satellite TV channels, urging them to refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' for people belonging to Scheduled Castes in compliance with a Bombay High Court directive.

The advisory urges channels that they may refrain from using the term 'Dalit' while referring to people belonging to Scheduled Castes.

The Congress, meanwhile, has dubbed as "censorship" the advisory of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari also hit out at some television channels supporting the government's move, and asked them to introspect.

He said these are terms which are commonly used in the public discourse.

"If the I&B Ministry ordains that the language which you use in your reportage, should also be one that is pre-cleared by them, how else would you characterise this advisory except calling it censorship?" he told reporters.

The ministry's letter, addressed to all private TV channels on August 7, referred to a June directive by the Bombay High Court asking the ministry to consider issuing a direction to the media to stop using the word 'Dalit'.

The court directive had come over a petition filed by Pankaj Meshram before the Nagpur bench of the high court.

"It is accordingly advised that media may refrain from using the nomenclature 'Dalit' while referring to members belonging to Scheduled Castes in compliance with the directions of the Hon'ble Bombay High Court and the Constitutional term 'Scheduled Caste' in English, and its appropriate translation in other national languages should alone be used for all official transactions, matters, dealings, certificates, etc. for denoting the persons belonging to Scheduled Castes," it said.

The advisory had also cited a Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment circular of March 15, advising the central and state governments to use the term 'Scheduled Caste'. - PTIvinaymishra188@gmail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

Noting that India needed democratic policing, the SC on Tuesday upheld the conviction of nine Maharashtra Police officials involved in a custodial torture resulting into death of a man in 1993.

A Bench headed by Justice NV Raman stressed the need to develop and recognise the concept of democratic policing, saying crime control was not the only end, but means to achieve it was equally important.

Dismissing the appeals of the police officials, the SC enhanced their punishment from three-year jail to seven years and ordered them to surrender to serve the sentence. It said the punishment given to them by the trial court and upheld by the HC was grossly insufficient and disproportional.

The Bench, which also included Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar, noted that the turn of events, in this case, obligates us to reiterate herein that be you ever so high, the law is always above you! The top court, however, refused to treat it as a case of murder, holding that the causal link between the injuries caused to the deceased by the erring officers and the death is not connected.

The 10 accused police officers who were patrolling took one Joinus, a theft suspect, into custody at 1 am; tied him to an electric pole outside and beat him up with sticks. He was intermittently beaten up while being taken to various places. He was locked up at 3.55 am and the next day he was found dead. One of the accused died during the protracted legal battle.

The trial court convicted the police officers and sentenced them to three-year imprisonment. The Bombay HC in 2007 upheld their conviction under Section 330 of IPC. Many of the accused cops had contended that they merely executed the orders of first accused.

However, rejecting their contention, the SC said, Its not merely that the accused-appellants have to prove that they have followed the order of the superior officer (accused A-1), rather they need to also prove that the aforesaid appellants bonafidely believed that the orders issued by accused A1 were legal. As the police, in this case, are the violators of law, who had the primary responsibility to protect and uphold law, thereby mandating the punishment for such violation to be proportionately stringent so as to have effective deterrent effect and instil confidence in society.

Upholds conviction of 9 Maha copsvinaymishra188@gmail.com

New Delhi, September 4

Faced with a growing number of issues being discussed on social media platforms, the Army is establishing a new setup for handling social media and also a new app called Arpan.

The app will perform multiple tasks related to service conditions and requirement of soldiers, besides ensuring that fake and mischievous information is not spread.

A cell already handles the Armys social media outreach. The Army has a vibrant social media presence with more than 11 million followers on Facebook, 5.6 million on Twitter and another 1.23 million on Instagram.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said, We are focusing on establishing a new setup for social media and training of soldiers. He said troops could not be prevented from using the social media and smartphones, so it was best to allow them, but with discipline.

There is an existing social media use policy of the forces that bars posting pictures of oneself in uniform, unit names, numbers or locations.

General Rawat said, If we have to leverage Artificial Intelligence to our advantage, we must engage through social media as a lot of what we wish to gain will come via it.  TNSvinaymishra188@gmail.com

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

Indian Armys tweak to lower the specifications of a new assault rifle is expected to save some Rs 6,000 crore.

On August 31, a tender to procure 6.50 lakh assault rifles was issued with brand new specifications seeking a 7.62x39 mm rifle.

This is fourth change in seven years. The Tribune had on September 1 highlighted as to how the Army had last year floated tender seeking rifles of higher specification i.e. 7.62x51 mm and changed the specifications.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, while addressing officers at a closed-door meeting on September 1, had explained that rifles with higher specifications would have cost Rs 2 lakh per weapon, whereas the version with lower specifications will cost one-fourth the amount.

This will ensure overall savings of about Rs 6,000 crore, General Rawat was quoted as saying by a functionary who attended the meeting.

The fresh tender on August 31 had raised questions as the Ministry of Defence in January 2017, following a request by the Army citing a changed operational philosophy, approved a 7.62x51 mm rifle.

The procurement process is currently on for 72,400 such rifles from foreign sources. A team of experts has checked out new rifles and is now compiling its report. The Army currently uses the INSAS rifle (5.6x46mm) that is a three-decade-old design.

Separately, General Rawat, at the meeting, also assured officers that with increased spending on ammunition, the Army would soon achieve self-sufficiency in production and supply of ammunition.

4th change in 7 yrseditorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Bhopal, September 3

A shoe was hurled at Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan when he was delivering a speech at Churhat in Sidhi district on Sunday evening, according to a video footage that went viral on the social media. The slipper narrowly missed Chouhan.

Though the identity of the person who hurled the shoe at the CM is not known, it is rumoured that it was allegedly hurled by upper caste members, who are protesting amendments to the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Earlier, stones were hurled at Chouhans bus, modified as a chariot, during the Jan Aashirwad Yatra near Patpara village in Sidhi district. The incident occurred in Churhat area in the Assembly constituency of Congresss Ajay Singh. A group of locals showed black flags to Chouhan when he arrived in the village. He is touring the state ahead of the Assembly polls. The police have arrested nine persons for throwing stones at the vehicle.

In the last few days, upper caste members have sharpened their attack on public representatives. The protesters have targeted two Cabinet colleagues of PM Narendra Modi and senior Congress leaders of the state.

On Sunday, the vehicle of MP Congress chief Kamal Nath was stopped at Ganjbasoda district when upper caste members surrounded his vehicle and raised slogans.uttara@tribuneindia.com

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday accused rival Congress of helping Maoists, even claiming United Progressive Alliance's advisory body was associated with the left-wing insurgents.

Hours after the BJP released a letter claiming a link between senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and the Maoists, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra addressed a press briefing accused the National Advisory Council, brainchild of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, of supporting naxals on the ground.

Congress has always been two faced about naxalism. Some Congress leaders have romanticised the concept within the party. The biggest example of this was the coterie closest to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, called the NAC, Patra said.

While there was a time when former prime minister Manmohan Singh said the biggest threat to the nation was naxalism, Sonia Gandhi gave people directly associated with naxals a place in NAC and Planning Commission.

In 2011, collector of Malkangiri was abducted to demand release of eight Maoists, one of which was A Padma. A Padma is the wife of top Maoist leader A Hargopal. The same A Padma became in charge of an orphanage run by Harsh Mandar, an important member of NAC, Patra said. Dr Binayak Sen, who was convicted for sedition in 2010, was appointed in Planning Commission in most important bodythe steering committee on health.

Patra claimed former union minister Jairam Ramesh also wrote to the Maharashtra Government to release Mahesh Raut, an activist who was arrested in June for his naxal links.

Why did Congress have so much love for convicted Naxals, he asked.

He also accused Congress leader Divijay Singh of speaking for Maoists.

Digvijaya Singh is getting very impatient, saying arrest me (sic). Digvijayaji and Congress party, your friends have already been arrested. Don't worry, the law will take its course. Enoughs enough. There is nothing bigger than the law and the country," he said.

BJP claims a letter seized in the crackdown on social activists had former chief minister Digvijaya Singhs contact details. The letter was first tweeted by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and later picked up by central BJP leaders.

The number belongs to Rahul Gandhi's guru and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. who also has not denied this is his phone number. He accepts this is his phone number, Patra said in his press address on Tuesday.

Madhya Pradesh is scheduled to hold elections later this year.

uttara@tribuneindia.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Matis will hold bilateral and delegation level talks and working lunch with counterparts Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi during the inaugural Indo-US 2+2 Dialogue on Thursday.

This is the highest level of political engagement with the US this year. The American leaders will also call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after their talks and joint press statements. The delegation talks will include four ministers with six members each as well as US Joint Chiefs of Staff Dunford, who will accompany Pompeo to his first stop over at Islamabad en-route Delhi on Wednesday.

Ahead of talks, sources categorically stated that ties with US would not impact Indias open, independent and transparent relations with major powers like China and Russia. India hopes US will weigh in on its strategic relations on issue of purchase of S400 missiles from Russia in wake of sanctions against Moscow by DC under CAATSA law. Delhi will seek to placate Trump regime on its major trade concerns while expressing its own like increase in steel and aluminium tariffs. India will underline that a 5 per cent decrease in bilateral trade deficit worth nearly $1.5 billion was recorded last year.

For the first time, we are importing oil and gas from US, which directly impacts deficit. This year, our oil and gas imports are likely to be $2.5 billion. We want US to acknowledge this. There are different ways of reducing deficit like purchase of new products or services, a source said.

Government sources also say India will try to make a strong case for business with Tehran, with sanctions on oil trade imposed by the Trump regime set to kick in against Iran on November 4. The Tribune has learnt that Indian officials will "sensitise" the US side that Iran meets 25 per cent of its crude oilthe country's third largest supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

India needs pricing and alternate availability sources for Iranian oil that is suited for several Indian refineries designed accordingly. Sources privy to discussions hoped that the US would eventually provide relief from sanctions as far as the strategic Chabahar port is concerned. Chabahar port also allows for humanitarian and development activities to take place to Afghanistan through international routes. Sanctions will have an effect on suppliers, insurers, and payment mechanisms. But there is an understanding of Chabahar having a larger regional role and hopefully even Afghanistan will convey this to the US. We hope it will allow us to make a case for exemption, said an official.

Meanwhile uncertainty remains if the defence enabling agreement COMCASA (Communication Compatibility and Security Arrangements) will get inked during the current dialogue, added sources.vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Matis will hold bilateral and delegation-level talks and working lunch with counterparts Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi during the inaugural 2+2 Dialogue on Thursday.

We are looking forward to the inaugural #2Plus2Dialogue  in #Delhi on September 6. @SecPompeo & Secretary of Defense Mattis will meet with Minister of External Affairs @SushmaSwaraj & Defence Minister @nsitharaman to discuss strategic, security, and defense cooperation. pic.twitter.com/C5Q7rOKzd1  Ken Juster (@USAmbIndia) September 4, 2018

This is the highest level of political engagement with the US this year with no visit of President Donald Trump to India expected in 2018. The American leaders will also call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India will be keen to seek direct perspective on missives to the newly formed Imran Khan government in Pakistan on cracking down on terror groups operating on its soil and the Afghanistan strategy.

Ahead of the talks, sources categorically stated that ties with the US would not impact Indias open, independent and transparent relations with major powers like China and Russia.

India hopes the US will weigh in on its strategic relations on issue of purchase of S400 missiles from Russia in the wake of sanctions against Moscow by Washington under the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Delhi will seek to placate the Trump regime on its major trade concerns while expressing its own like the increase in steel and aluminium tariffs. India will underline that a 5 per cent decrease in bilateral trade deficit worth nearly $1.5 billion was recorded last year.

For the first time, we are importing oil and gas from the US, which directly impacts deficit. This year we will likely import $2.5 billion of oil and gas. We would want the US to acknowledge this. There are different ways of reducing deficit like purchase of new products or services, said a source.

Sources say India will try to make a strong case for business with Tehran with sanctions on oil trade imposed by the Trump regime set to kick in against Iran on November 4.

The Tribune has learnt that India will sensitise the US side that as a heavily energy reliant country, with 83 per cent energy imports, around 25 per cent of its crude oil need is met by Iran. India needs pricing and alternate availability sources for Iranian oil, which is suited for several Indian refineries designed accordingly.

Sources hoped that the US will eventually provide relief from sanctions as far as the strategic Chabahar port is concerned. Chabahar port also allows for humanitarian and development activities in Afghanistan through international routes. Sanctions will have an effect on suppliers, insurers, payment mechanisms. But there is an understanding of Chabahar having a larger regional role and hopefully even Afghanistan will convey this to the US. We hope it will allow us to make a case for exemption, said an official.

Uncertainty remains if the defence enabling pact COMCASA will be inked during the current dialogue.

On the table for new delhi during talks

Russia: Despite US sanctions against Moscow, India is likely to convey it will buy S400 Triumf air-defence missile systems for Rs 40,000 crore from Russia, citing its necessity for regional security architecture

Iran: Delhi imports almost 25% of its crude oil from Iran. India and global players are under pressure to reduce oil imports from Tehran to zero after US pulled out of Iran nuclear deal. Sanctions will impact Chahbahar port operations

China: Modi reset ties with Xi Jinping at the recent Wuhan summit amid worsening US-China ties over trade war. US Indo-Pacific strategy aims to counter Chinese aggression and focus on open navigation and rule-based order.

Eye on defence pact

The Communications Operability and Security Agreement is a defence enabling pact which once signed will allow a legal framework for transfer of communication security equipment from US to India. It is one of the three foundation pacts that India is expected to sign for transfer of American technology. In August 2016, India signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement allowing logistical support from each others bases. Negotiations on Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation are yet to start.vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, September 4

While the indefinite fast by Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti convener Hardik Patel continues to get support from various non-NDA parties and disgruntled BJP leaders and other Patel organisations offering to mediate, the BJP government in Gujarat is yet to initiate steps for negotiation to end his fast which entered the 11th day on Tuesday.

Among those who called on Hardik, fasting outside his residence on the outskirts of Ahmedabad since August 25, were former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, and senior BJP MPs Shatrughan Sinha and Nana Patole.

Yashwant Sinha, while branding the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre as insensitive, said they were willing to take the agitation demanding loan waiver for farmers nationally.

Shatrughan contradicted his partys allegation that Hardiks agitation was a mere Congress-inspired political stunt and said he believed it had the support of all parties and other organisations concerned about the cause of the farmers.

The cause of the farmers raised by Hardik had started getting national attention since the farmers are in deep distress and required governments intervention. Unfortunately, the insensitive BJP government does not seem to be concerned about the farmers, said Shatrughan.editorial@tribune.com

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

Nearly 5,178 teachers recruited under the Pendu Sehyogi Teacher scheme are waiting for the regularisation of their services since November last year.

Recruited in November 2014, these teachers were told that their jobs would be regularised after three years, following which they would be getting full salary (nearly Rs 45,000 per month against the present salary of just Rs 6,000). While this has not been done, the teachers have not even been paid salary for at least two months.

Those posted in Mansa district have not been paid since November last year, while the salary of Kapurthala teachers is learnt to be stuck for the past about four months. The Congress had, in its election manifesto, also promised to regularise the services of teachers under different categories.

The other affected categories included 8,886 teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and 3,807 education volunteers, who were recruited separately. The jobs of SSA and RMSA teachers have not been regularised even after the completion of 10 years of their service. And the education volunteers are continued to be paid a measly sum of Rs 5,000 per month.

It has been learnt that the government, in principal, has decided to go ahead with the regularisation of 5,178 Pendu Sehyog Teachers. But it will likely be effected from March next year.

Sukhwinder Singh Chahal, state convener of the Sanjha Adhayapak Morcha, said: We will not accept such time lag. It will be against the agreement of three years as specified in the appointment letters. Principally speaking, teachers should be paid full salary from the previous date. Otherwise, we will be forced to again raise our voice against the government.

Chahal said: The government had introduced the contractual system in July 2004, during the previous tenure of Capt Amarinder Singh. It had recruited elementary teachers at a monthly salary of Rs 5,400. This was followed by several other contracts wherein very little was paid to the teachers.

Talking to The Tribune, Education Minister OP Soni said: We are looking to regularise the services of the eligible teachers in all categories. I am fully aware of the fact that these teachers are qualified and there is no justification in denying them their rightful due. We are already working on the details of their dues and will soon make an announcement.

Those affected

The government had recruited 5,178 teachers recruited under the Pendu Sehyogi Teacher scheme in November 2014.

They were told that their jobs would be regularised after three years, following which they would be paid nearly Rs 45,000 per month against Rs 6,000 now.

The other affected categories included 8,886 teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and 3,807 education volunteers

Announcement soon: Soni

"I am fully aware of the fact that these teachers are qualified and there is no justification in denying them their rightful due. We are already working on the details of their dues and will soon make an announcement." OP Soni, Education ministereditorial@tribune.com

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, September 3

The district administration and residents have joined hands to improve the basic infrastructure of about 1,100 primary schools in this district.

This district has given as many as seven education ministers since 1952 but the condition of primary schools remains deplorable with a majority of them not even having basic facilities like chairs and desks, forcing children to sit on floors.

As part of DC Vipul Ujwals idea, residents from all over the district have been asked to keep Re 1 per day aside. After a year, when this amount becomes Rs 365, the donor can approach any primary school and hand over the money to the headmaster. The donor will get a receipt.

The scheme has been named Samarpan.

When Ujwal was the Hoshiarpur DC before he was shifted to Gurdaspur recently, he had managed to collect Rs 84 lakh from 19,000 donors. The money was used to purchase desks, pay electricity bills and sweepers, whitewash school buildings and push forward the concept of smart classes.

Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, in his Independence-day speech in Gurdaspur, was full of praise for this idea.

The Deputy Commissioner has already held meetings with the DEO (secondary and primary) and school heads asking them to spread the word about this project in rural areas.

Panchayat members, too, have been been informed. The emphasis is on village panchayats as a majority of the schools are located in rural areas. Nobody is being forced to pay. It is a voluntary donation. Like in Hoshiarpur, here too, people have shown a keen interest in this initiative, said DEO (primary) Salwinder Singh.

People donate money at religious places. However, not many come forward to donate small amounts for social activities because there is no laid-down procedure for doing so. Hence, we embarked on a drive where small amounts can be contributed which will make a big difference to us. If we can be successful in Hoshiarpur, why not here? said DC Ujwal.

Ramesh Kumar, Sarpanch of Khudadpur village, said he had received a message from the administration to keep aside Rs 1 every day. I have passed on the message to other panchayat members who, in turn, are now requesting villagers to chip in. In this way, we are getting a chance to contribute to make schools better. This is a form of community participation, he said.rchopra@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, September 4

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh met Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday and urged him for expansion and upgradation of national highways in the state and development of roads in border areas.

Singh called for improving connectivity on the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway and the Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi highway.

The Chief Minister also discussed with the Union minister the relining of Rajasthan and Sirhind feeder canals.

Met Nitin Gadkari ji to discuss the expansion and upgradation of National Highways in Punjab. Urged for development of border roads, Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway and Sri Anandpur Sahib-Temple Shri Naina Devi ji connectivity. Also discussed relining of Rajasthan and Sirhind feeders (sic), Singh tweeted.

Gadkari also took to Twitter to say that the Punjab Chief Minister had called on him.

We discussed ongoing highway projects in the state, he said. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday urged the Centre to include Rs 1,976-crore projects of relining of Rajasthan feeder and Sirhind feeder canals on its list of prioritised irrigation projects.

In a meeting with Union Water Resources and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, the CM sought his intervention in the matter, besides seeking speedy implementation of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway project.

He also urged for an early clearance to Rs 426-crore project for upgrading 557-km road lengths of border districts of Ferozepur, Fazilka, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot.

The estimates of the relining of the Rajasthan and Sirhind projects had been approved by the Central Water Commission, an agency of the Water Resources Ministry, way back in 2009 for Rs 952 crore and Rs 489 crore, respectively. But the work was delayed due to technical reasons.

The state government has now completed the groundwork and all documentation has been submitted to the ministry. It can float global tenders only after a clearance.

The CM informed Gadkari that the Rajasthan government had also made a commitment to fund its share in the projects.

The inclusion of the two projects in the ambit of prioritised list under the Ministrys Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Projects (AIBP) would ensure enhanced Central financial help. The 99 projects are spread over 18 states aimed at beefing up countrys irrigation system.

About the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway project, the CM said alignment of the expressway had already been finalised among Punjab and Haryana.

As per consultations between the two states, the new alignment option proposed to be adopted would start from Amritsar and go straight up to Delhi Western Peripheral Expressway or Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway in Delhi, with spurs connecting religious and economic centres such as Dera Baba Nanak, Qadian, Attari border, Gandiwind, Tarn Taran, Goindwal Sahib, Makhu, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Muktsar, Malerkotla, Talwandi Sabo, Patiala, Moonak, etc.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

To check the growing litigation costs incurred by government departments, the state has decided to adopt a four-tier system to nominate nodal officers for monitoring such court cases. To track the status of cases, a digital database is being prepared at different levels  district-wise, department-wise, Chief Secretarys office and the High Court level.

Under the amended Punjab Dispute Resolution and Litigation Policy, the government has also decided to set up a high empowered committee on litigation, headed by the Chief Secretary. It is supposed to meet once every three months. It is being said departments are spending huge amounts on fighting legal cases and the government wants to bring down the litigation cost.

As per the new policy, all legal matters of the government, PSUs, government corporations etc will be handled by the office of the state Advocate General and panels will be made in consultation with the AG. In case of the difference of opinion, the matter will be referred to the Chief Minister.

In case any department wants to hire lawyers, other than that of the AGs office, it will need to take permission from the Chief Minister, the new policy states, in a bid to check unnecessary expenditure incurred by such hiring. The cost incurred by departments hiring from outside though the AG office was Rs 2 crore per month on 152 law officers.

A senior officer said, The employees will be encouraged to settle disputes at the level of the government itself or through an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. The government will aim to avoid unwarranted litigation in cases where the matter can be resolved by converting the pending litigation into a representation to the Administrative Secretary concerned for time-bound orders or where employees matters are already covered by judgments that have attained finality. Fresh guidelines regarding timely filing of replies and filing of appeals have also been issued.editorial@tribune.com

Abohar, September 3

The police in Abohar, Fazilka, Jalalabad and the neighbouring segments in Rajasthan on Sunday night launched a drive to check gambling and the sale of illicit liquor and drugs on the eve of Janmashtami.

The Fazilka police claimed to have seized 240 bottles of illicit liquor in raids conducted in Mahalam village. The police in Abohar seized 20 kg of poppy husk from near Danewala village and nabbed Deputy Singh. He reportedly claimed that the illegal business was being run in partnership with Paramjit Singh of Aliyana and Balbir Singh of Azamwala village.

A special team of the Rajasthan police raided a tent near a temple near Hanumangarh on Monday and nabbed 16 persons under the Gambling Prevention Act. The team seized Rs 4.76 lakh, 18 mobile phones and 225 gm of poppy husk from the accused.  OCeditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has urged the State Election Commissioner to ensure that the candidates aspiring to contest from seats reserved for the Schedule Caste and Backward Classes in the zila parishad and panchayat samitis are issued caste certificates within 12 hours so that no aspirant was deprived of his right to contest.

In a letter written to the commission, SAD spokesman Daljeet Singh Cheema pointed out that the elections were announced on August 29 in the afternoon and publicised the next day through newspapers only. Since then the government offices in the state have remained shut and would open on Tuesday, when the process of nomination would begin, leaving the aspirant with no time to obtain the mandatory certificates.

Cheeema said all officers concerned from district magistrate to Kanungo and patwaris should be directed to ensure that such certificates were issued instantly, but not later than 12 hours.

If this is not possible, the candidates should be allowed to file nominations along with an affidavit with an explicit provision to submit the caste certificate later, he said.

Expressing shock, Cheema said the district administrations notified the reserved seats only after the announcement of the poll schedule. Moreover, the voting lists are not available till date to political parties. How can anybody file an objection without cross-checking his name on the voters list? asked Cheema.

This hasty action only smacks of a conspiracy of the ruling party to deny an opportunity to the rivals to contest the polls, he alleged.

Nominations today

The elections to 22 zila parishads and 150 panchayat samitis will be held on September 19. The process for filing the nominations will take place from September 4 to 7. These will be scrutinised on September 10, while the withdrawals are allowed the next day. The counting is scheduled for September 22.editorial@tribune.com

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 3

Amid the controversy over Packiam Mercy Cross Trust, an unregistered child shelter home here, the state Department of Social Security and Development of Women and Children has stated that only eight shelter homes in Ludhiana district are registered with it under the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act.

Five of these are located inside the city and three on the periphery. Those being run by the government are the Community Home for Mentally Retarded at Jamalpur, the State After Care Home and the Observation Home (both at Shimlapuri).

The private ones are Shri Balaji Prem Ashram-cum-Nikhil Vidyalaya and Nishkam Sewa Ashram (both on Pakhowal Road), Heavenly Angels (Doraha), Swami Ganga Nand Bhuriwale International Foundation and Guru Nanak Charitable Trust (both at Mullanpur).

The functioning of these homes is the responsibility of the state government or NGOs. The Ministry of Women and Child Development monitors their working. The shelter homes have to get themselves registered within six months of start of operations. There are two types of kids in these shelter homes  those who have relations such as grandfather or uncle/aunt alive and cannot be given for adoption, and those who are abandoned and can be adopted. The maximum number of children a home can have is 50 in each category.

District Social Security Officer Harmesh Singh said the main aim of opening shelter homes was to provide permanent residential facilities to needy children, especially beggars, ragpickers, vendors, street performers, orphans and abandoned children.

Meanwhile, the renewal of registration of St Mother Teresa Home, run by the Missionaries of Charity, is pending. The registration has to be renewed every five years. A couple of weeks ago, an inspection committee went to the home and found that everything was in place. We will forward the report to the Deputy Commissioner, who will further send it to the department concerned, said Harmesh Singh.

Inspection normsharinder@tribunemail.com

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

Panjab University authorities, after a review of the syllabus of Indian Writing in Translation in MA (English), have recommended a complete paper on literature from Punjab and another on Indian writers, which will include Heer.

On June 2, The Tribune highlighted how the syllabus did not include any work from Punjabi literature. Sources said following a brainstorming session, it was decided that along with other Indian authors, Sant Singh Sekhons English translation of Waris Shahs Heer should be taught.

The current syllabus includes English translation of eight works in Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya and Urdu, but none from Punjabi.

Akshay Kumar, a Professor at English Department, said it was just a brainstorming session. It is too early to say anything because it is a long process.

Besides, it has been decided to introduce a paper, Literature from Punjab. Irrespective of the language, it will include English translations of those authors who belonged to Punjabi-speaking areas and wrote in various languages like Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi. Even some NRIs will be included. They also agreed upon celebrated Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Sources said these recommendations would be placed before the Board of Studies and sent to the Faculty of Languages for approval. Finally, the decision will be taken by the universitys academic committee. The recommendations will be introduced from the next session only.editorial@tribune.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

The Supreme Court has rejected an observation by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a 2005 verdict that the Punjab State Human Rights Commission was only a recommendatory body.

The High Court had said that the Commission was only empowered to make a recommendation to the state government when a violation of human rights by a public servant was brought to its notice. This observation was challenged before the top court by the Commission.

Terming the interpretation given by the High Court as unduly restrictive, a Supreme Court Bench of Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao said such an interpretation of powers of the Commission was clearly not intended by the provision of the (Human Rights) Act.

In its April 2, 2005, verdict, while upholding the Commissions order, the HC had said, Under the provisions of the Act, the Commission has been merely constituted with a function to make recommendations to the appropriate government when any violation of human rights by a public servant is brought to its notice, after due investigation of the matter.

The language of Section 18 itself suggests that the Commission has only power to make recommendations to the government or authority concerned for initiation of proceedings or for initiation of such action as may be deemed fit. The word recommendation necessarily mean to suggest. Such a suggestion cannot be treated to be a decision capable of execution or enforcement, the HC had said.

However, the top court discussed the definition of the term human rights in Section 2(d) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, and said Section 12 of the Act delineated functions of the Commission.

This Section clearly empowers the Commission to enquire into any complaint made to it by a victim or a person on behalf of the victim of (i) violation of human rights or abetment thereof or (ii) negligence in the prevention of such violation, by a public servant. It is clear on a plain reading of the provision that the phrase by a public servant only qualifies negligence in the prevention of such violation.

The intention of the law is that a complaint may be made of violation of human rights by any person or a complaint that a public servant is being negligent in preventing such violation. Indeed, such a duty to prevent violation of human rights is contemplated as being cast on a public servant and the term public servant is intended to operate only with regard to clause (ii) as it occurs in the Section, the Supreme Court said.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 4

Noted Punjabi novelist and poet Amarjit Singh Gorky, who died in Pune on Monday, was remembered by his peers as an unconventional writer.

Born in 1932 in Sheikhupura district (now in Pakistan), Gorkys family had moved to Ludhiana, where he studied and later taught. He was a professor of Punjabi at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, and later at its regional centre in Jalandhar. His notable works include Guru Da Banda, Harnam Heera and Santa Bhaini Ka.

Padma Shri writer Surjit Patar shared, I had met him at a few literary programmes. He always shared his opinion boldly. He was a highly informed and intelligent individual and it was reflective in his writings as well. His novels were deeply researched and his language was very sharp. He had written about the rise and fall of the Naxalite movement in Punjab in Angeeti Lanka de Raam, which was released by me. Gorky was an unconventional person.

One of his students who was later head of Punjabi Department at GNDU, Dr Sukhdev Khara, paid tributes to his mentor on a social networking site. He has left a legacy in Punjabi literature. His knowledge about critical analysis of the Punjabi language and its progression through his writing will always be his greatest contribution, read his post.

His novel Angeeti Lanka de Raam, which was on Naxalite movement, was appreciated a lot, says Gurbhajan Gill, Ludhiana-based former president of Punjabi Sahit Akademi.

Gorky link

According to an account shared by academician HS Bhatia on a social media site, Amarjit Singh was given the surname Gorky (after famous Russian activist-scholar Maxim Gorky) by his peers as he was well informed.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune Reporters

Abohar/Malout, September 4

Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar and the Gandhi family.

He initiated a series of meetings ahead of the zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls.

Addressing party workers and mediapersons at the new grain market in Abohar, Sukhbir said: Jakhar had stated that people would not allow the Akalis to enter any village or town after tabling of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report. Accepting his challenge, I have come here to announce that I will be holding rallies to expose the Congress, starting from Jakhars home town on Sunday. Jakhar and Amarinder are trying to tarnish the image of my family. My father never harmed anyone in his life, how can he order firing on protesters?

Describing the Commission report as a stage-managed drama, the SAD president said the Gandhi family was responsible for the decade-long turmoil in Punjab during 1980-90. They were again conspiring with hardliners to spoil the hard-earned peace in Punjab, he alleged.

Later in the afternoon, Sukhbir visited Jakhars native Panjkosi village and stayed there for about 30 minutes. He alleged that the Congress wanted to gain control of the SGPC, Golden Temple, Akal Takht and other sacred shrines and dilute and destroy our traditions, history and heritage.

He dared the Congress ministers to accept AAP MLA HS Phoolkas demand for sharing the concrete evidence of sacrilege probe or resign en bloc by September15.

In Malout, Sukhbir took on Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and parallel Jathedars Baljit Singh Daduwal and Dhian Singh Mand. These people are terming Badal sahib as a weak person. He remained in jail for 16 years for Punjab and its peace and Amarinder cant even stand under the sun for even five minutes. I warn these people that if I allow my party men, they will send them packing to Pakistan.

Jakhar implicating Akalis, will pay for it

Addressing workers in Malout, Sukhbir alleged: The PPCC chief is indulging in vendetta politics and framing Akalis in false cases. A number of common people are also victims of his atrocities. During my visit to his village, several persons informed me about false cases slapped on them.

If he thinks, the police work for him, I want to tell him that the police work for the government. Just about three more years of this government are left. On coming to power, I will make Jakhar pay for his wrongdoings, he said.

Panthic groups train guns at Badalsharinder@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

The Punjab Assembly's recent move to pass two Bills proposing life imprisonment for acts of sacrilege on Monday drew the first public condemnation from several former bureaucrats who sought the state Cabinet to reconsider the move describing it bad in law and politically expedient.

In an open letter to Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, 34 former civil servants said they were alarmed at the passage of the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, and Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, and were confident that the CM wont allow political expediency to trump secular principles.

We hope your Cabinet will reconsider this decision, the ex-bureaucrats said.

They reminded Singh of Congress' "chequered history of occasionally fishing in communal waters for short-term political ends" hoping that he would stand by secular values.

We are confident you will not allow political expediency to trump secular principles, they

wrote. The petitioners argued that blasphemy provisions violated the Indian Constitution.

Rather than reduce the role of religion from the matters of the state, expected of a secular polity, this move will strengthen the hands of religious extremists and create a chilling effect on the free speech, the letter said.

The former civil servants cited global research to say that blasphemy laws were particularly prone to misuse against minorities and weaker sections.

They reasoned that provisions already existed in the IPC to deal with insults to religion and further amendments were a retrograde step.

"The proposed amendment is bad in law. It is poorly worded, offences are undefined and open-ended, speaking of 'sacrilege, and 'hurt' caused to 'people'. It is arbitrary. Religious texts of only four major faiths are included, leaving others out. As far as Hinduism is considered, it cites only one text when there are a hundred other texts held sacred by different sections of Hinduism, said the petitioners calling life imprisonment for sacrilege excessive and disproportionate.

They also challenged the definition of sacrilege in the Bills, cautioning the Chief Minister of loose wordings opening up the definition to multiple interpretations leading to gross abuse of power by vested political interests.

To cement their case, the former bureaucrats cited the Shah Banu case, the Taslima Nasreen case and opening of the gates of Babri Masjid for pooja as examples where the country "paid a heavy price every time a political party "pandered to religious extremist religious sentiments for short term gains.

They also feared the proposed amendment would set off competitive mobilisation and copycat blasphemy and sacrilege legislations in other states too.

Among signatories to the letter are Gopalan Balagopal, Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan, Pradip Bhattacharya, Sundar Burra, Kalyani Chaudhuri,

Anna Dani, Surjit Das, Vibha Puri Das, Nareshwar Dayal, Keshav Desiraju, Tuktuk Ghosh, Ravi Vira Gupta, Sajjad Hassan, Kamal Jaswal, Arun Kumar, Brijesh Kumar, Harsh Mander, Aditi Mehta, K Sujatha Rao and Julio Ribeiro and Hindal Tyabji among others.vinaymishra188@gmail.com

IN her speech on the resolution at the Special Congress demanding a declaration of rights, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu made the strong remark, with which Mrs. Besant in her speech on the Reforms resolution expressed her full agreement, that under present conditions India was not fit for them to live in. The remark shows how strongly some of our people have begun to feel on the subject of Indias political condition, and such strong feeling usually serves only one purpose, that of strengthening the movement for the attainment of constitutional liberty. History, which is our unerring guide in these things, shows that whenever men and women have felt in this way, the next stage has been a great advance upon the last. Every reader of history knows how strong feeling like this lay at the bottom of that great national upheaval in France towards the close of a terrible moral earthquake.harinder@tribunemail.com

MRS. Besant has once more appealed to moderate leaders to rejoin the Congress. She had no quarrel with those gentlemen, she said, if they only wanted to meet in a conference of their own. In every self-governing country there were parties with their own party organisations and were not in any way allowed to interfere with all the several parties joining in the deliberative assemblies which embraced the whole country. Similarly in the present case while each of the two wings of the national party was at liberty to have its own distinct organisation, and to meet in its own conferences, there was no reason why either of them should cut itself off from or abstain from attending meetings of the parent body. The Indian National Congress, though it resembles the British Parliament in being a deliberative and representative body, differs from it on two points. It has no actual administrative power and it is a purely voluntary organisation.harinder@tribunemail.com

JUDGING from the fuller summary of the speeches made in support of the resolution on the Reforms scheme, which is now available and will be found in our telegraphic columns, that resolution was frankly a compromise between conflicting views. Pandit Motilal Nehru, Mr. Fazlul Haque and others thought the resolution did not go far enough in its condemnation of the official scheme, while there were others, of whom Mr Govindaraghava Iyer was one, who thought it went a little too far. But this difference of opinion was, we believe, more about the preamble to the resolution than its actual substance. So far in the speeches there is nothing to show that there was anything like an acute divergence of views.sanjiv@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, September 4

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday referred to a larger Bench a petition dealing with the environmental clearance issue related to the Char Dham highway project for providing all-weather connectivity to four holy towns of Uttarakhand.

A Bench of Justices Jawad Rahim and SP Wangdi and expert member Nagin Nanda said as the Supreme Court had noted in its order that the matter was a complex one, it should be heard by a larger Bench. The green panel said the Bench would be decided by the NGT chairperson, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, and posted the matter for hearing on September 6.

In view of the directions of the Supreme Court and noting the complexity of the issue involved, we are of the opinion that the matter be heard by a larger Bench, the Bench said. Advocate Sanjay Parikh, appearing for petitioner NGO Citizens for Green Doon, said under no circumstance, the matter could go to a different Bench if the judgment had been reserved in the matter.

He said as per the apex court order, the case should be heard by the same Bench which was hearing it earlier.

The top court had on August 27 directed the NGT chairman to accord one clear day to an original Bench, which had heard petitions dealing with environmental clearance issues related to the project.

Since the matter appear to be a complex one and has been heard over several days, we take it that the rehearing will only be on some final aspects. This being the case, we accede to what Parikh says and request the chairman to grant at least one clear day to the same tribunal to finally dispose of the matters before it, the top court had said.

The NGO had approached the top court when a Bench headed by the new NGT chairperson recently said it would rehear the matter in entirety. The green panel is seized of the petitions which are dealing with environmental clearances for the project which aims to connect Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri in Uttarakhand.

The Centre had told the tribunal that the project is of national importance as it is located in the border area.

The expansion of roads is required in larger national interest and there cannot be any compromise on this. The project also involves greater public interest of facilitating the Chard Dam yatra, it had said earlier. The petitioner NGO had said environment clearance was a must for the project and the ongoing work was blatantly illegal. It had said the trees and mountains were also of national importance and it was the governments duty to protect and preserve them.

The Environment Ministry had earlier informed the NGT that it has received no proposal for environmental clearance of the project and hence the question of an environment impact assessment (EIA) study of such a project does not arise.

The ministry also said under the 2006 EIA notification, only new national highways and expansion of highways over 100 km need prior environmental clearance. The submission was made in response to a plea of the NGO which said the 900-km project in the hilly state was being carried out without any environmental impact assessment. The petition also contended that the Centre has allegedly deliberately broken it into small stretches to do away the requirement for obtaining environment clearance.  PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Tokyo, September 4

The strongest typhoon to hit Japan in 25 years battered the west of the country on Tuesday with violent winds and heavy rain, killing eight and injuring scores more.

Powerful gusts ripped sheeting from rooftops, overturned trucks on bridges and swept a tanker anchored in Osaka Bay into a bridge to Kansai International Airport.

The damage to the bridge left the airport cut off from the mainland and stranded around 3,000 people there, an official told AFP.

The airport was now conducting safety tests on the undamaged section of the bridge, the official said, but it remained unclear when the passengers could leave.

High waves whipped up by the storm also flooded parts of the airport, where all flights were cancelled, and the severe weather caused power outages and travel chaos across much of the country.

Typhoon Jebi made landfall around noon, slamming into the west of the country with winds of up to 216 km per hour. The fast-moving storm quickly crossed the mainland, and by nightfall was heading out to sea from Ishikawa in central Japan.

Public broadcaster NHK reported at least eight deaths in the storm, including a 71-year-old man killed in western Shiga prefecture after being trapped under a warehouse that collapsed in strong wind. NHK said 164 persons had suffered mostly minor injuries.

In Osaka television footage showed the large tanker smashing into the bridge connecting the city of Izumisano with Kansai airport, with its superstructure battering away part of the bridge.

Local TV also showed footage of a 100-metre tall ferris wheel in Osaka spinning furiously in the strong wind despite being switched off.  AFPrchopra@tribunemail.com

Kabul, September 4

The founder of the Haqqani network, one of Afghanistans most effective and feared militant groups, has died after a long illness, their affiliates the Afghan Taliban announced on Tuesday.

Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose son Sirajuddin Haqqani now heads the brutal group and is also the Talibans deputy leader, died after a long battle with illness, the Taliban said in a statement.

Jalaluddin was from among the great distinguished Jihadi personalities of this era, the Taliban said in a statement posted on Twitter.

During the 1980s the Haqqani figurehead was an Afghan mujahideen commander fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan with the help of the US and Pakistan.

He gained notoriety for his organisation and bravery, garnering attention from the CIA and a personal visit from US congressman Charlie Wilson.

A fluent Arabic speaker, Jalaluddin also fostered close ties with Arab jihadists, including Osama Bin Laden who flocked to the region during the war. Later, Jalaluddin became a minister in the Taliban regime.

It was not clear when or where he died. At various times in recent years there have been rumours of his death.

Given the already leading role played by his son, it is not clear what Jalaluddins demise will mean for the extremist group.

The Haqqani network has been blamed for spectacular attacks across Afghanistan since the US invasion.

It is also widely believed to have been behind many of the recent attacks in the capital Kabul that were claimed by the local wing of the Islamic State group.

Long suspected of links to Pakistans shadowy military establishment, the Haqqani network was described by US Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 as a veritable arm of Pakistani intelligence.

Designated a terrorist group by the US, the Haqqanis are known for their heavy use of suicide bombers.

They were blamed for the truck bomb in the heart of Kabul in May 2017 that killed around 150 people--though Sirajuddin later denied the accusation in a rare audio message.

The network has also been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Westerners for ransom.

They include the Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman, and their three children--all born in captivity--who were released last year, as well as US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed in 2014.

Jalaluddins son Sirajuddin was running the group with major ISI involvement, a foreign diplomat in Kabul told AFP, referring to Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence.

I doubt anything will change, he said. AFPuttara@tribuneindia.com

Moscow, September 4

The Kremlin has criticised US President Donald Trump's warnings against a possible Syrian government attack on a rebel-held enclave.

Trump on Monday sent a tweet warning the Syrian government and its allies against a "reckless attack" on rebel-held Idlib province.

Russia has been a key backer of President Bashar Assad and has complained about militants in Idlib targeting its own facilities and posing a terrorist threat on the whole.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday reiterated Russia's stance and called Idlib "a hornets' nest of terrorists". Asked about Trump's tweet, Peskov said such warnings do not take into account "the dangerous and negative potential" of the rebel-held enclave and show that the White House does not have a "comprehensive approach" to solving the Syria crisis.  APlaxmi@tribune.com

Yangon, September 3

A Myanmar judge on Monday found two Reuters journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years, in a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country.

Yangon northern district judge Ye Lwin said Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents.

The defendants ... have breached Official Secrets Act section 3.1.c, and are sentenced to seven years, the judge said, adding that the time served since they were detained on Dec. 12 would be taken into account. The defence can appeal the decision to a regional court and then the supreme court.

The verdict comes amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in west Myanmar in August 2017.

More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to UN agencies.

The two reporters, who were investigating the killing by the security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest, had pleaded not guilty.

Press freedom advocates, the United Nations, the European Union and countries including the United States, Canada and Australia had called for the journalists acquittal.

The reporters had told the court two police officials handed them papers at a restaurant in the city of Yangon moments before other officers arrested them.

One police witness testified the restaurant meeting was a set-up to entrap the journalists to block or punish them for their reporting of a mass killing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine. More than 80 persons, including senior diplomats, were packed into the court on Monday.

Judge Ye Lwin read a summary of witness testimony for about an hour before delivering his verdict, which had been postponed by a week because he was sick.

Kyaw Soe Oos wife, Chit Su Win, burst into tears after the verdict, and family members had to support her as she left the court. Wa Lone, in handcuffs and flanked by police, told a cluster of friends and reporters after the verdict not to worry. We know we did nothing wrong. I have no fear. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom, he said.

The reporters were arrested on December 12 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in Inn Din, a village in Rakhine State.  Reuters

Suu Kyis image in shredsuttara@tribuneindia.com

Lahore, September 3

Pakistan's Airport Security Force on Monday penalised its young female staffer for lip-synching to an Indian song while wearing a cap with the country's flag on it.

The video of the song had gone viral on social networking platforms, prompting the authorities to order a probe into the matter.

The Airport Security Force (ASF) has withheld increments and perks for two years of the 25-year-old female staffer's service for violating the code of conduct. The officials also warned her of strict action if she is found involved in any other violation in the future.

The ASF administration has warned its staff not to indulge in any controversial activity on social media.

The authorities took action after television media ran the video, criticising her for lip-synching to an Indian song while wearing the cap with Pakistani flag on it.

The staffer has been working at the Sialkot airport, some 100 km from here, for the last two years.

Last month, a video of a Polish girl dancing on a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane to celebrate the country's Independence Day went viral.

Draped in the Pakistani flag, Eva zu Beck did her own rendition of the popular Kiki challenge.

The country's anti-graft body National Accountability Bureau has launched investigation into the matter. PTIlaxmi@tribune.com

Islamabad, September 3

Pakistani lawmakers are set to choose a new President on Tuesday, an election in which the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf partys candidate Arif Alvi is expected to win as the Opposition parties failed to field a joint candidate.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday completed preparations for the election. Polling stations have been set up in all four provincial assemblies in addition to the National Assembly. Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza Khan will serve as the Returning Officer.

Outgoing President Mamnoon Hussains tenure ends on September 8. He had declined for re-election to a second five-year term.

Apart from Alvi, the Pakistan Peoples Partys Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Jamiat-e-Ulema (F) chief Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman are also in the race.

Alvi is a Karachi-based dentist-turned-politician, who reportedly stood by prime minister Imran Khan during his political career.

Since the PTI controls the National Assembly and has majority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and has support of the ruling Party in Balochistan, its candidate Alvi is in strong position. The ruling party has the highest number of party votes in the electoral college for elections to the office of the President.  PTI

Oppn fails to put up joint candidateamansharma@tribunemail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

In messaging not lost especially on the United States, Pakistan is expected to host China's State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week in Islamabad.

According to sources in Pakistan, Wang is expected to be in Islamabad from September 7 to 9. Importantly, Wang's visit to Pakistan, just days after the new Imran Khan government has come to power, will take place immediately after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wraps up his first stop over at the country.

Pompeo who will be in New Delhi for the inaugural '2+2' dialogue along with Defense Secretary Jim Matis will hold discussions with counterparts Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman on a host of issues, including the Trump administration's Afghan-Pak strategy which has carved out a more prominent role for India in the region.

Ahead of the Delhi meeting, Pompeo along with US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford will be in Islamabad enroute Delhi on September 5. The yet to be officially announced visit of Wang Yi also comes amid a fresh standoff between US and its non-NATO frontline ally as it announced suspension of 300 million USD towards Coalition Support Funds (CSF) for Pakistan. Angry reactions have poured in on the US move with Mushahid Husain, Head of Foreign Affairs Committee in the Pakistani Senate, calling it a "sop to India" and disputing that it is "aid money".

"American stoppage of $300m Coalition Support Funds (CSF) undermines Pompeo visit to Islamabad & is a sop to India as he seeks to solidify Indo-US front against Pakistan's best friend, China; earlier, $500m CSF was stopped, all this is money owed to Pakistan by US, NOT aid!" tweeted Husain on Sunday. A statement issued after Chinese envoy to Islamabad called on new Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi recently said, Pakistan and China are Iron Brothers and close friends.

Pentagon had earlier this year cancelled off 500 million USD in CSF towards Pakistan for not cracking the whip against terror outfits undermining American efforts in the region. "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 had said after US Congress followed Trumps directive to strip off another 300 million USD of CSF.laxmi@tribune.com

Beijing, September 3

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday announced a whopping $60 billion in new development financing for the African nations as he sought to refute criticism that the massive funding under Beijings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) drawing the countries into a debt trap.

The funds, announced on top of $60 billion that Beijing offered to the African nations in 2015, will be provided in the form of government assistance as well as investment and financing by financial institutions and companies.

The finances to be made under the BRI include $15 billion grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, $20 billion credit lines, setting up of a $10-billion special fund for development financing and a $5 billion-special fund for financing imports from Africa, Xi said at the start of a two-day Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation attended by the 53 heads of the African states and organisations.

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 the Africa summit.  PTIPolice are searching for a Santa Cruz woman who was reported missing last Thursday.

Police sources told the Express that contrary to several reports online that the body of Jenele Guerra had been found in the St Joseph community, no such discovery had been made up to last night.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.-:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:-

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We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.I am doing some very early stage planning of my 28 day trip to New Zealand and Australia in July -early August 2019. This will be the annual trip for my 12 year old daughter and me, 46. Please provide your thoughts on the lengths of stay in each area. We plan to fly to each new city. I will rent a car, but am hesitant about driving on that left side of the road as I'm from the US. These are

in no particular order. Please recommend an order as well to minimize travel time.

Thank you for any assistance. We are happy to start planning this adventure.

City Number of Nights Activities, if known

Travel 1

New Zealand 7

Sydney 3

Blue Mountains 1

Ulhuru 3

Port Douglas 4 GBR, Daintree

Garma Festival 5 Gulkula in north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

Melbourne 3

Travel 1Hi travelers!

We (wife/9 months old/me) are coming to Australia from 9th to 23rd of October (arriving in Sydney).

After few intensive holidays we really planned on taking it easy and spend around a week in Sydney, enjoy the city, and also because we have some friends to visit there.

Which leave us with a week or so to travel around. After a lot of checking and talking to persons we decided on going to Melbourne (over flying to the red center, or Cairn or Gold Cost), good choice?

We were told the road from Sydney to Melbourne to be really nice, but when I check at google map, it seems to be 9 hours highway thru the center, so I can imagine 3 days minimum driving along the cost to have time to enjoy a bit the coast, is it?

If I add few days in Melbourne, and way back, we start to be way over a week. I thought of leaving the car in Melbourne and fly back, but the cost of the car skyrocket, so here goes my questions:

- drive to Melbourne your first choice for a week away from Sydney?

- is the drive really worth it or better flying and spending more time in Melbourne?

- how long would you spend in Melbourne?

- what to see / where to stop along the road?

- do you think it is feasible (while enjoying) to squeeze this into a week? how?

We went to Mongolia last month, with a fair amount of driving so we know our baby can enjoy up to 3h to 4h in the car at a time, but more it starts to be painful for everyone.

Thanks a lot in advance to everyone taking time to answer (usefully)

Cheers

FrancoisWhat time is your return flight? Will you have enough time to return your car and be at SJO on time? It is my understanding that airlines recommend 3 hrs before the departure. We needed that long at that airport once. The time of your return flight will determine if you should spend the last night closer to the airport.

Re how much time to spend in Manuel Antonio/Quepos - if your goal is to visit the park, you need 1 day. It is a small national park. You might need 3-4 hrs to walk all the paths, more time on the beach afterwards. We had cash and it saved us time in line to buy entrance tickets. In rain season, there was a long line to pay by credit cards. The 2nd window had very few ppl and turned out it was Cash only. Foreigners pay US$16 pp. Bring own towel to sit on and some snacks. (You cannot rent beach chairs or buy food inside the park). Search this forum of just google what snacks are allowed to be brought into the park. They do random checks of day bags at the entrance. Of course there are other things to do in any area. But you only have a week.Planning our twelve day trip to Central Vietnam. We are flying into and out of Danang and plan to visit Hue ,Hoi An and maybe go to the countryside to see the caves for a few days,

Having difficulty deciding how long to stay in each place. Want to have a relaxing time but will be including some shopping and getting clothes made. Which town is better for quality and price Hue or Hoi An.Hello everyone,

My partner and i have booked our first adventure to Asia next year, April 18-May 6 - we fly into Kuala Lumpur and out of Bangkok.

We are not avid jungle explorers and really enjoy visiting a place for a few days so we fully understand we won't explore much during our short time- but we're very very happy to scratch as much surface as possible.

At the moment, we have a rough itinerary that look like this-

I need some advice on the best way to combine Mekong/Floating Markets/Phu Quoc and we are ideally trying to avoid flying into the same city hub twice. I have squeezed Angkor Wat in quite comfortably but do you think it's worth it with all the huge huge crowds and an extra visa or should we stay in Malaysia a bit longer- or arrive in Thailand earlier? We're not keen on overnight sleeper buses and are happy to spend on flights- we have no problem saying in homestays but nothing without A/C or shared bathrooms is my only caveat. Of course, open to any Mekong cruise suggestions that you have!

Many thanks, your feedback is very much appreciated, and again, absolutely noted that we won't see it all - we just want to see the basics and get a sense of the food & culture.

19- 4PM arrive Kuala Lumpur (option to spend the night in airport hotel and depart early morning OR stay on and explore the city for a day or so if advised?)

20- Direct early AM Flight to Siem Riep OR Da Nang

21- Overnight (Siem Riep or Da Nang transfer to Hoi An)

22- Fly Siem Reap- Da Nang or Hoi An

23 -Hoi An

24- Hoi An

25 - Da Nang to HCMC (option to fly to Can Tho if advised?)

26- HCMC

27- HCMC travel to Phu Quoc via Mekong

29- Mekong

30-Mekong / arrive in Phu Quoc

1-Phu Quoc

2- Phu Quoc

3- Phu Quoc

4- Direct Flight to Bangkok

5- Bangkok

6- Depart BangkokHey there.

I am scheduled to get married in November and we plan to go for honeymoon to North Vietnam in Mid November (14-15th would probably be the departure date). We are planning to stay at least 6 nights (it would be somewhere between 6-8 nights).

I would be booking in the fights in the next few days.

I have the following queries:

1. My major concern is of safety. How safe is the place for tourist in general and couple in particular. I am sorry to sound a bit blunt in that as i dont have much knowledge about it and i am concerned for obvious reasons. My friend was looted last year on his honeymoon in Jenting Islands. I just wanna know how safe is the place (especially the secluded place and remote areas with less population) over there, as i wish to explore all possible places as we both are adventurous.

2. I am an indian and non vegetarian. I am not much of a foodie so i generally cannot have much of other cusine for a week (though i can manage for a day or two). How difficult is to to find Indian (both veg and non veg restaurants) there?

3. To explain my itinerary in short, i plan to land in Da Nang from mumbai and start my journey. Then i plan to go Hoi An then Cham Islands in the evening and back to Hoi An. I plan to stay there overnight and go to Da Nang the next day. From Da Nang, i will fly to Hanoi. I would stay a day there. Next day, i would go to Halong bay (Query here: What is advisable? Overnight cruise or by road/alternate transport to Halong bay?). From Halong Bay i would come back to Hanoi, stay a day there and then go to Mai Chau the next day. I would stay in Mai Chau that day and come back to Hanoi the next day. Another day in Hanoi and then back to Da Nang and would end my trip there. From there i would fly back to Mumbai.

By question is: Are all the places i listed above for stay safe/convenient for a couple tourist? Is my itinerary proper? I still have a couple of days reserved just in case. If any changes or if you could suggest some better changes in itinerary, please do. It would be of great help.

Now, going by the above description and the fact that we won't drink alcohol and we plan to stay in a budget hotel, with average amenities but a safe place and a shopping cap of INR. 20k, can anyone of you provide a budget except airfare from Mumbai to Da Nang and vice versa? (That, budget for 7-8 nights stay with the specified plan, food, accomodation and intra travel).

Thanks a ton in advance.

Cheers!!!Advice needed, (apologies if this turns into a rant, I've been trying to sort this literally all day and am frustrated)

We are traveling from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh but are struggling to find a decently priced flight. They advertise one price but by the end of the booking the price has gone up significantly. It would cost us about 300 which is over 3x the cost of our fligjt from Hanoi to Siem Reap (this confuses me, out of interest anyone know why this route is so much?)

Anyway we don't have that money, so the alternative is the bus which takes 12 hours and not the safest so I hear (we have already nixed a plan to go to the Ban Gok waterfall as night buses were the only way and I got freaked out by everyone online) So the question is, we either lose a whole day to this journey or travel overnight which is even less safe.

Does anyone have any advice? Are the buses so unsafe that I should just find the money from somewhere, or are they ok and if so is the night bus actually ok to use?

Sorry to be long winded.

TLDR;

Should I book very expensive flight or take the bus? If bus should I go during the day or night?Re: Help - How to ship my clothes from Japan back to Canada?

6. Re: Help - How to ship my clothes from Japan back to Canada?

Since Canada does not allow meat products to be brought in, if 7-11 ramen contains ingredients of meat, it may be forfeited.

There seem to be cases in which some checks are not done depending on the staff.

Please refer to here.Hi all.

We (parents & 14 year old daughter) have booked a Kumano Kodo trek next April & would appreciate some early advice to help shape our itinerary leading up to the trek.

We land in Tokyo on JAL quite early in the morning & have 11 days to fill before the trek. I was thinking -

4 nights / 4 days in Tokyo (including the Friday we land). I think we will keep to the city.

2 nights in Nagoya to do the Magome to Tsumago day hike.

5 nights in Kyoto with the option of several day trips (e.g. Nara, Himeji, Fushimi Inari hike).

Then to Kii Tanabe to start the trek.

After the KK, we will have a couple of nights / 1 full day in Osaka before flying home.

Does this make sense as a general structure? Anything / anywhere else we should consider between Tokyo & Kumano Kodo? I was hoping to include Koyasan, but transport seems long-winded & tricky (unless I've misinterpreted).

FYI this will be my daughter's 1st visit to Japan & it has been 16 years since my wife & I last visited. We may have to squeeze in Tokyo Disneyland & Universal Studios in Osaka.Arriving to San Jose then driving to Dreams in Guanacaste for 5 nights before flying out of Liberia. Will have 4 nights/5 days to get there.. so having a hard time deciding where to stay in between.

Have been to La Fortuna and Arenal so looking for something different, rafting the Pacure or other rivers maybe.. like the idea of Rincon de la Vieja?.. or going to Limon and that coast, way too many options for me - National Lands Commission said the land occupied by the mall was meant for road expansion

- The commission rubbished reports it had upheld titles of Taj Mall LR 209/13938

- The government had issued a notice for demolition of the building but that did not happen

- Tenants vacated the building fearing for the looming demolition

- However, the property's owner, Ramesh Gorasia, insisted he will not vacate the disputed land

The stage is now set for the much anticipated demolition of Airgate Centre, formerly Taj Mall, after the National Land Commission (NLC) revoked title deed of the land on which the multi-million property sits.

The commission clarified the land, situated at the North Airport Road at the junction of Outering Road, had been acquired by the government for the purpose of road expansion.

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READ ALSO: Kutana na Mkenya ambaye hula mayai bila kutoa maganda

The building's owner had offered the government a better deal of negotiating with him to sell the building to government for public use instead of destroying it.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: If you want to demolish, go ahead, I dont care - Taj Mall owner

In a statement seen by TUKO.co.ke on Monday, September 3, NLC also rubbished reports that it had upheld tittles for Taj Mall LR 209/13938.

"NLC received a complaint on June 14, 2013, from Kenya Urban Roads Authority about the legality or propriety of LR 209/13938. The Authority (Kura) stated the road corridor from North Airport Road to Ngong River was acquired by the government in 1960, and the road survey was done in 1966.

"The portion LR 209/13938 was acquired for construction of Outering Road vide Gazette Notice No.1105 of 30th April 1971," read a statement sent to newsrooms days after notice for demolition of the building expired.

READ ALSO: 71% of Kenyans want Ruto's Weston Hotel demolished - TUKO poll

The government had on August 16, 2018, issued a public notice ordering the building's owner, Ramesh Gorasia, and his tenants to vacate before August 30

The notice had indicated the mall had encroached on a road reserve and was hindering further construction and design of the Outering Road.

"The owners and/or developers are asked to remove this illegal development before August 30, 2018. The occupants are asked to immediately vacate the building prior to the expiry of the notice," the notice read in part.

READ ALSO: Aviation Authority confirms DP Ruto grabbed its land to build Weston Hotel

As of September 3, TUKO.co.ke confirmed the mall was still standing tall despite the directive for its demolition and even after the building's owner dared the government to bring it down.

Gorasia, on August 16 accused the government of frustrating investors in the country through the ongoing demolitions.

The businessman told the authorities to proceed with the demolition of his mall at their own risk and not to spare any part of the targeted building.

"If you want to demolish the building, go ahead, I don't care. But If you have to demolish come and demolish it completely, don't come and demolish it partly. If you don't have money to clear it off please don't try to demolish it," said Gorasia.

Revocation of the property's title deed has however changed things as it means Gorasia was no longer its owner.

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Massive Demolition in Kileleshwa with JAVA House and Shell Station down - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko Breaking News- Beijing offered the same monetary assistance to Africa during the last summit in 2015

- China's president, Xi, said the money would go towards infrastructure development in the continent

- He rubbished claims Beijing was overburdening African countries with debts

- Xi also dismissed reports China's Belt and Road Initiative was not economically viable

- Kenya owed China KSh 479 billion as of 2017 with more Chinese loans being negotiated

- The country is yet to repay KSh 320 billion it used to construct the SGR railway line between Nairobi and Mombasa

China's President Xi Jinping on Monday, September 3, promised African leaders that Beijing was ready to support the continent with another KSh 6 trillion investment cash.

The money, Xi said during the two-day China-Africa Forum for Cooperation (FOCAC) 2018 Summit, would go towards infrastructure development in the continent under the now controversial multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), financed by the Asian tiger.

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READ ALSO: Kutana na Mkenya ambaye hula mayai bila kutoa maganda

The Jubilee government spent over KSh 320 billion borrowed money to complete the first phase of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project. Photo: Railway Gazeti.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: We are slowly selling Kenya to the Chinese - Senator Mutula Kilonzo

While making the pledge at the start of the triennial China-Africa summit, he made it known that China, which is currently Africa's biggest trade partner, was still keen on strengthening its cooperation with the continent and with no strings attached.

"China will extend US$60 billion financing to Africa in the form of government assistance as well as investment, financing by financial institutions and companies," he told the summit attended by high level delegations and heads of state from across 53 African countries.

READ ALSO: Yes, it costs KSh 1 billion every month to run Standard Gauge Railway - DP Ruto

China offered the same monetary support of KSh 6 trillion to the continent during the previous summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2015.

However, Xi's development agenda in Africa, heavily funded by loans from China, continues to raise concerns, especially in Kenya, with critics arguing Beijing was overburdening African countries with unsustainable debts.

Some claimed China's BRI was also not economically viable.

READ ALSO: Why Standard Gauge Railway Is A Grand Corruption Scheme

In Kenya, the total debt owed to China had risen to KSh 479 billion, about 66% of the countrys bilateral debt, as of 2017.

The country is yet to repay KSh 320 billion, borrowed from China's ExportImport Bank of the United States (Exim), and which was used to construct the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) between Nairobi and Mombasa.

TUKO.co.ke had established there was a plan to take another Chinese loan of KSh 350 billion for construction of phase two of the SGR connecting Naivasha and Kisumu.

READ ALSO: Why Standard Gauge Railway Is A Grand Corruption Scheme

Although the government insisted phase one of the SGR would start generating profit by 2020 and would be able to pay back its own loan, critics like David Ndii, an economist, have repeatedly disagreed with that position.

"We evaluate investment development projects based on four criteria. First, would it make money? Second, will the economic benefits exceed cost? Third, would it promote equity? And lastly, would it be sustainable? The SGR failed on all four parameters," Ndii argued.

READ ALSO: Kenya Railways initiates investigations into mistreatment of SGR staff by Chinese bosses

Xi, already aware of the criticism against China's infrastructure development projects in African countries had this to say:

"China's investment in Africa comes with no political strings attached. Our cooperation with Africa is clearly targeted at the major bottlenecks to development. Resources for our cooperation are not to be spent on any vanity projects, but in places where they count the most," he said.

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Kenyans angry over high fuel prices - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko Kenya- Wine alleged Ugandan soldiers started the chaos in Arua by shooting dead his driver

- The soldiers stormed the hotel where he was staying with friends and started torturing women

- The officers beat up everyone they could see and broke down hotel doors as they pursued Wine

- The MP said he went to hide in one of the rooms when he saw the soldiers coming after him

- He could hear them harassing and beating up women as they demanded to know his location

- They found his room and immediately started beating him before arresting him

- The beating continued even after he was arrested and bundled into a police vehicle

Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine has finally gathered enough strength to tell his side of the story regarding what, according to him, truly transpired during his arrest following the chaotic by-election campaigns in Arua, northern Uganda.

The musician-turned politician, who was at long last allowed to fly to America for advanced medical treatment after he was brutally tortured by ruthless soldiers, dismissed reports given on Arua chaos by President Yoweri Museveni and Ugandan authorities, terming them dishonest.

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Ugandan police on Friday, August 31 cleared Bobi Wine to travel to the US where he is set to receive specialised treatment after weeks of drama and captivity. Photo: UGC.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Tortured Uganda MP Bobi Wine arrives in US on wheelchair for treatment

In a long Facebook post shared from US on Monday, September 2, the MP revealed how Museveni's men harassed, beat up and tortured women in their desperate pursuit of him after they shot dead his driver in cold blood.

According to Wine, trouble started on August 13, 2018, the day of campaigns in the Arua municipality by-election, where his ally Kassiano Wadri was facing off with Museveni's candidate, Nusura Tiperu, and several others.

"So we moved from the rally at about 5:30pm and the people followed us, singing songs of freedom and chanting People Power, Our Power. Together with Hon. Kassiano and a few other leaders, we parted with the multitude, bade them farewell and went into Royal hotel where Hon. Wadri was staying," he recalled.

READ ALSO: Bobi Wine breaks down after Kizza Besigye visits him in hospital

He remembered watching the 7pm news from his hotel lobby as he sipped tea and took stock of the day's event with friends.

Based on his account of the events, the campaign was a huge success and they could smell victory ahead of the poll day.

"It was of course very exciting to watch that days news. The anchor said we were clearly ahead of the other candidates and the television relayed images of the massive rally and procession we had had on that day. Shortly after, I decided to move to Pacific hotel where I was staying so as to rest after the very busy day.," he said.

READ ALSO: Museveni bans foreign lawyer defending Bobi Wine from entering Uganda

Moments later, just after the exciting evening news, the first sad news arrived.

Wine's driver had been shot dead by the Ugandan soldiers after supporters of the various politicians allegedly clashed.

"I had started taking the stairs to my room when this driver came running to say that Yasin Kawuma had been shot. I could not believe it. I asked him where he was and he told me they were parked outside the hotel.

"We paced down and I saw with my own eyes, my friend and comrade Yasin, giving way as he bled profusely. I quickly asked a team member to take him to hospital and another to call the police. We had not stepped away from that place when angry looking SFC soldiers came, beating up everyone they could see," Wine narrated.

READ ALSO: Bobi Wine rearrested shortly after Museveni drops charges against him

Once he spotted the soldiers, he immediately sensed they were coming after him, so he took off and went to hide in one of the rooms at the Pacific hotel.

"Inside the hotel, I entered a random room and locked myself in. It is at that point that my media assistant shared with me Yasins picture which I tweeted because the world needed to know what was going on.

"I could hear the people outside and in the hotel corridors crying for help. I could also hear the soldiers pulling these helpless people past the room in which I was, saying all sorts of profanities to them while beating them mercilessly," Wine recalled.

The MP stayed in the room for a long time and could hear the soldiers pull some woman out of her room and ask her which room he had entered.

The woman allegedly wailed saying she did not know, after which she was beaten up.

"I could hear her cry and plead for help as she was being dragged down the stairs. Up to now, that is one experience that haunts me; that I could hear a woman cry for help, yet I was so vulnerable and helpless. I could not help her," the MP said.

READ ALSO: Bobi Wine rearrested at Entebe Airport

The soldiers finally found Wine and immediately descended on the defenseless politician with boot kicks, blows and metals.

"One of them pointed a pistol on my head and ordered me to kneel down. I put my hands up and just before my knees could reach the floor, the soldier who broke into the room used the same iron bar to hit me. He aimed it at my head and I put up my hand in defence so he hit my arm.

"The second blow came straight to my head on the side of my right eye. He hit me with this iron bar and I fell down. In no minute, all these guys were on me- each one looking for the best place to hurt. I can't tell how many they were but they were quite a number," Wine narrated.

The beating continued even after they arrested him and bundled him onto a standby vehicle.

"They pulled my manhood and squeezed my testicles while punching me with objects I didnt see. They pulled off my shoes and took my wallet, phone and the money I had. As soon as the shoes were off, they started hitting my ankles with pistol butts. I groaned in pain and they ordered me to stop making noise for them.

"They used something like pliers to pull my ears. Some guy unwrapped me and instead tied the thick cloth around my head. They forced my head below the car seat so as to stop me from shouting. Then they hit my back and continued to hit my genitals with objects. The marks on my back, ankles, elbows, legs and head are still visible. I continued to groan in pain and the last I heard was someone hit me at the back of the head with an object - I think a gun butt or something. That was the last time I knew what was going on," the MP alleged.

He expressed his gratitude to those who stood with him during the time he was in captivity and promised to communicate more frequently.

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 angry over high fuel prices - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- The suspect was found in possession of KDF regalia, travel permits and handcuffs

- He has been coning job seekers promising to secure them employment in the army

- Cases of conning and fake jobs have been rife and the public has been urged to be cautious

Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Monday, September 3, arrested a man who has been swindling money from the public with the promise of offering jobless youth military jobs.

The arrest of Edward Obuba Nyakundi, 44, comes at a times fraudsters are on the prowl and are targeting desperate and unsuspecting job seekers who then end up losing a lot of money.

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READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye mbuzi mjanja zaidi ulimwenguni? Hunywa chai kwa maandazi

The arrest of Edward Obuba Nyakundi, 44, comes at a time fraudsters are on the prowl and are targeting desperate and unsuspecting job seekers who end up losing a lot money. Photo: DCI

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Foreigner arrested in Nairobi with fake dollars worth KSh 52 million

Through a statement via its Twitter account, the DCI stated the suspect would be arraigned on Tuesday,September 4.

"Edward Obuba Nyakundi aged 44 years was arrested on Monday, September 3, and will be arraigned in court on Tuesday, September 4, for obtaining money from unsuspecting prospective recruits with the false promise of offering them military jobs," read the statement.

READ ALSO: Two fake Nairobi car dealers caught in the act after months of conning Kenyans

During the arrest, the detectives managed to confiscate Kenya Defense Force (KDF) recruits calling letters, military boots, two 58 ransack bags, one sleeping bag, army jacket and a pair of handcuffs.

In June 2018, TUKO.co.ke, reported a similar fraud scheme that had struck the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

Cons were issuing fake TSC employment letters to jobless teachers who had to pay some money before acquiring them only to learn later they were duped.

The suspect was found to be in possession of KDF regalia. Photo: DCI

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Foreigner arrested in Nairobi with fake dollars worth KSh 52 million

On Sunday, September 3, TUKO.co.ke also reported that DCI detectives arrested a foreigner and recovered a pistol, 115 rounds of ammunition and KSh 635,450 in Kilimani.

The operation which was conducted by officers from the Trans-National Organised Crime Unit also saw the recovery of fake USD 523,900 (KSh 52.39 million) from the house of the suspect identified as Arafat Ikumu Omar.

During the arrest, the detectives managed to recover a KDF travel permit, KDF recruitment calling letter and a pair of handcuffs. Photo: DCI

Source: Facebook

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Kenyans Angry Over High Fuel Prices | Tuko TV.

Source: Tuko- Police have launched investigations after the 80-year-old Italian was found dead

- He was found in his bed after his friends broke the window of his house

- Alessandro left two letters indicating he had taken his own life

- He left his wifes number in which he also bid her goodbye

Police in Malindi have launched investigations in an incident where an Italian tourist was found dead in his house at GA apartments.

Alessandro Serezani, 80, is suspected to have taken poison to end his life.

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READ ALSO: Police officer in passionate appeal to help 3 orphaned girls in Turkana

The apartment where the Italian committed suicide in Malindi. Photo: Onesmus Baraka.

Source: Original

According to a witness, Salim Omar, who is also the security guard of the apartments, he had been approached two days earlier by some people who said they had not seen the Italian for some days and had come to inquire about his whereabouts.

READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye mbuzi mjanja zaidi ulimwenguni? Hunywa chai kwa maandazi

I was approached by some guys who sounded like they were friends of Alessandro. They asked if I had seen him recently, I said no. They went ahead and asked me for his house and I showed them, said Omar.

It is that particular moment that they discovered his house had been locked from inside. They knocked but there was no response. They broke one of the windows and they found him lying in his bed dead, while blood was oozing, he said.

Omar said he called his manager who then informed crime officers from Malindi over the incident and rushed to the scene to establish what could have been the cause of his death.

READ ALSO: 44-year-old man arrested for offering Kenyans fake KDF job

A bottle of liquor was found in the house and it's believed he mixed it with poison before taking it.

The deceased had also written two letters in Italian and after translation, he had bid his wife goodbye and left her number as well.

Malindi Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss Antony Suguti confirmed the incident and told journalists investigations had been launched.

Story by Onesmus Baraka, TUKO Correspondent.

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Isaac Nyamwamu Story: The Kenyan Man Who Eats Egg Shells | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- The Uganda government was adamant the concert promoted immorality

- The Ministry of Ethics of Integrity outlawed the four-day event slated to run from September 6 to September 8.

- The event was branded a secret scheme to promote homosexuality among youth

The Uganda government has cracked the whip on the much publicised event dubbed the Nyege Nyege concert which was slated to run from September 6 to September 8.

Through a statement from the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity, the government condemned the event, claiming it was a sure way of promoting immorality among youth.

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READ ALSO: Polisi mwanamke afanya wanaume Kenya kutamani kuvunja sheria, picha zake zaduwaza

The Nyege Nyege concert has been outlawed by the Ugandan government

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Sauti Sol's Bien leaves fans breathless after promising lover steamy session on her birthday

If the statement is anything to go by, the event, which has over the years been a celebrated occasion, has slowly transformed to one which holds a different agenda.

The nature of this event has attracted attention of several stakeholders who have taken key interest in it. We have received credible information that in the last two years, the occasion has been compromised to accommodate the recruitment of young people into homosexuality and LGBT movement, the statement read in part.

READ ALSO: Kalonzo accompanies Uhuru to China a month after resolving to work with government

TUKO.co.ke accessed the promo page of the Nyege Nyege festival and gathered that the event was one which primarily targeted youth.

Running for a period of four days, the event was to have a host of activities including performances from more than 200 artists performing on five stages.

READ ALSO: Heavily pregnant Risper Faith clashes with rich hubby after he refuses to pay for plastic surgery

The government, however remained critical that the event had ulterior motives that could spell doom for the morals of the youth in the Uganda.

The practice of deviant sexual behavior has never been condoned in this country. As such, it is our responsibility as the government to protect the country from such vices, the statement went on.

Interestingly, the event has also seeped into the neighboring Kenya as youth have also been urged to purchase tickets going for KSh 5,999.

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Breaking News Kenya: Kenyans Angry Over High Fuel Prices | Tuko TV:

Source: Tuko- Judy Kinyua is seeking for KSh 16.2 million in compensation from the county government

- She was sacked over alleged under-performance and incompetence

- The petitioner argued termination of her employment left her struggling with loans

- Kinyua was Kirinyaga county's Minister of Gender, Culture and Social Services

- She was dismissed days after her colleague at Transport, Roads and Public Works department was also sent packing

Kirinyaga County Governor, Anne Waiguru, has been sued by two former county employees who were fired by the governor for alleged incompetence.

Judy Kinyua, who used to be in charge of Gender, Culture and Social Services docket and her colleague Peter Karugumi who handled the Transport, Roads and Public Works department, separately took the county chief to court for what they termed wrongful termination of their employment.

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READ ALSO: Polisi mwanamke afanya wanaume Kenya kutamani kuvunja sheria, picha zake zaduwaza

The aggrieved former county employees accused Kirinyaga County Governor, Anne Waiguru, of wrongfully terminating their employment.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: I will sue Ipsos like I sued Raila for calling me corrupt - Anne Waiguru

TUKO.co.ke on Tuesday, September 4, established Kinyua was first suspended on July 2018 to pave way for investigation into her conduct, after which she was dismissed on August 20.

The petitioner's lawyer, Wahome Thuku, argued his client was sacked arbitrarily and without justification and that she was never given a chance to defend herself against the allegations levelled against her.

READ ALSO: Exciting video of Governor Anne Waiguru dancing in her office with her staff

Kinyua is seeking for KSh 16.2 million in compensation, arguing she had made financial commitments while still working for the county government and was now unable to pay her loans following her sacking.

Her colleague, Karugumi, was also axed for similar reasons and is seeking for KSh 13 million in compensation for alleged damages arising from his dismissal.

Kinyua and Karugumi's cases are expected to come up for mention on October 16, 2018, and October 10, 2018, respectively.

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 Angry Over High Fuel Prices - On Tuko TV

Source: Kenyan Breaking News- The judge directed the respondents mentioned in the petition appear in court

- There were two petitions filed by Central Organisation of Trade Unions and activist Okiya Omtatah

- The petitioners argued the directive by the Treasury to impose 16% VAT on fuel was unconstitutional

The High Court on Tuesday, September 4, dashed Kenyans' hopes of getting some reprieve from hiked fuel prices after a judge declined to issue orders to stop implementation of the 16% Value Added Tax (VAT) on petroleum products.

Justice Chacha Mwita instead directed the respondents mentioned in the petitions filed by Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) and activist Okiya Omtatah to appear in court for inter-party hearing.

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READ ALSO: We must make sacrifices to achieve greatness - Equity Bank CEO to Kenyans protesting fuel tax

There was some confusion on whether the new tax law will take effect after MPs tried to shoot it down but Treasury boss Henry Rotich insisted the new levy must take effect from September 1, 2018.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Polisi mwanamke afanya wanaume Kenya kutamani kuvunja sheria, picha zake zaduwaza

In the court documents seen by TUKO.co.ke on Tuesday, the petitioners argued the move by the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Henry Rotich, to introduce 16% VAT on fuel violated the Constitution and was unfair.

The petitioners further argued the fuel levy would negatively affect prices of basic commodities in the country and as a result, push up the cost of living.

READ ALSO: Tough times for motorists as ERC increases super petrol prices

The petitions were filed at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi under a certificate of urgency.

Rotich, Kenya Revenue Authority, Energy Regulatory Commission, the Attorney General and the National Assembly were named as the respondents.

The CS on Friday, August 31, stated the move by Parliament to suspend implementation of the fuel tax by two years was null and void and directed the new tax law take effect on September 1.

The lawmakers suspended the new levy on Wednesday, August 29, following public uproar.

READ ALSO: Central Bank of Kenya to withdraw old notes from circulation

Unfortunately, President Uhuru Kenyatta flew out of the country to China before appending his signature to the amended tax law.

In the event the court does not reverse the new fuel prices, the only hope left for Kenyans would be for Uhuru to assent to the amended Bill.

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 Angry Over High Fuel Prices - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- Those compromising exams will be apprehended immediately and charged in a court of law

- The government raised alarm over fake exams in circulation on social media

- CS Amina said preparations ahead of KCPE and KCSE were complete

- The national exams are expected to kick off as from early October 2018

The government has issued a stern warning against examiners and schools found cheating in the forthcoming national exams, telling them they will be apprehended and school closed on the spot.

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed also assured Kenyans all preparations for the national exams had been done and the exams would be free of any compromises.

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READ ALSO: Government lowers entry for primary school teachers' training to D plus as enrollment numbers drop

Education CS Amina Mohamed has assured Kenyans all preparations for the national exams are done and the exams will be free of any compromising factors. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Polisi mwanamke afanya wanaume Kenya kutamani kuvunja sheria, picha zake zaduwaza

Speaking during the launch of the 2018 exams, Amina said all the critical state organs had pledged to support and ensure the exams ran in a smooth manner without any interruptions.

Any supervisor, invigilator or security personnel who attempts to compromise exams will be apprehended immediately and charged in a court of law. All organs of state have pledged to support this critical process," said Amina.

Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) Chairperson George Magoha said any institution found cheating in the exams would be closed and disqualified immediately.

KNEC Chairperson George Magoha said any institution found cheating in the exams will be closed and disqualified immediately. Photo: UGC

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Morning fire razes dormitory at Senior Chief Koinange Girls, 150 students affected

Magoha said the examination centre managers would be liable if any case of cheating would be detected.

We all agree that leakage of exams is now past history because of your (government) support, support of teachers, security agencies, media and various organisations. The gap is now between container and exam room, said Magoha.

"We have given an early warning, once we find there is an early exposure of exams, we will not wait, that exam ends on the spot," he added.

READ ALSO: Kericho school locks students out over undone holiday homework

The chairperson raised alarm over fake exams circulating on social media and asked learners to concentrate on the syllabus instead of being distracted by counterfeit papers.

"We are aware fake exams are in circulation and they shall forever remain fake, so please don't waste your time confusing our children," he said.

The national primary and secondary school exams are expected to kick off as from early October, 2018.

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

Breaking News Kenya: Kenyans Angry Over High Fuel Prices | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko NewsThe Prime Minister says that beyond the rhetoric and pledges, every country needs to be seriInterior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov and Interior Minister of the Republic of Turkey Suleyman Soylu have signed a declaration on cooperation in the fight against terrorism, transnational crime and cyber threats.

The corresponding document was signed in Ankara on Tuesday, September 4, in the scope of Avakov's official visit to Turkey, according to the Department of Communications of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

"The document provides for cooperation in combating terrorism, illegal transportation of migrants and human trafficking, cybercrime, money laundering, illicit drug trafficking and transnational organized crime," reads the report.

During the meeting, Avakov stressed that Ukraine is increasing cooperation with Turkey on the issues of the fight against terrorism.

"Ukraine supports Turkey in all manifestations of the fight against terrorism. We had a very meaningful meeting on the issue of cooperation in combating this type of crime. And the declaration signed today will ensure better cooperation," the minister said.

Soylu, in turn, said that Turkey supports the process of reforms being carried out in Ukraine.

In addition, today agreements have been reached on the cooperation of our coast guard with Ukrainian border guards. We have decided to develop the cooperation in this direction, as these issues require partnership of countries, he said.

In addition, according to the Interior Ministry, First Deputy Head of the National Police - Head of the Criminal Police Viacheslav Abroskin signed a memorandum of cooperation between the National Police of Ukraine and the General Directorate of Security of the Republic of Turkey.

iyFirst Vice Prime Minister-Minister for Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv during the XXVIII Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdroj (Poland) will discuss the issue of further EU-Ukraine integration.

In a post on his Facebook page, Kubiv wrote: "Im beginning my visit to Poland, where the 28th International Economic Forum is starting today. It is one of the largest international events in the economy and politics of Central and Eastern Europe. Key points and tasks of the visit: to discuss the further integration of Ukraine-EU.

He added that the main issues of participation in the economic forum will be confirmation of partnership with the European Union in the digital economy, better use of the possibilities of a united EU-Ukraine digital space and the strengthening of trade and economic relations between Ukraine and Poland.

iyIn the first half of 2018, Ukrainian exports of goods and services to Poland grew by 30.5% and amounted to $1.7 billion.

The Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine wrote this on its Facebook page.

"In the first six months of 2018, the structure of Ukrainian exports of goods was as follows: ferrous metals - 15.1%, electric machinery - 12.5%, ores, slag and ash - 12.4%, furniture - 7.3%," reads the report.

According to the ministry, in 2017, Poland ranked second in terms of bilateral trade in goods among Ukraine's trade partners in Europe after Germany with a share of 15.1%.

As reported, the XXVIII Economic Forum kicks off in Krynica-Zdroj (Poland) today, September 4. The Ukrainian delegation, headed by Vice Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv, will take part in the three-day forum.

iySince the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014, Norway has increased assistance to Ukraine seven-fold.

"Norway is a unique country. In 2014, when Russian aggression started, Norway increased its aid to Ukraine not by 20%. Norway did not double its aid and even did not thrice. It increased its assistance to Ukraine seven-fold. We have already received more than EUR 160 million from Norway," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said at the joint press conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Sreide in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

At the same time, he said, there are many projects for further bilateral cooperation in various fields, namely the reforms in judicial system and healthcare sector. In addition, launch of "special cooperation" in field of nuclear safety is being discussed.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Sreide is on a working visit to Ukraine on September 4-6.

olForeign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said that some Norwegian companies intend to invest EUR 300-400 million in the construction of renewable energy facilities in Ukraine.

"We are starting the work with a number of Norwegian companies that come to build renewable energy facilities. This is a very serious resource worth EUR 300-400 in the context of solar energy, as well as in the context of hydraulic power industry," Klimkin said at the joint press conference with Foreign Minister of Norway Ine Eriksen Soreide, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

In addition, he said he hopes that other Norwegian investors will also enter the Ukrainian market.

As reported, Foreign Minister of Norway Ine Eriksen Soreide is on a working visit to Ukraine on September 4-6.

iyPresident of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the draft constitutional amendments, which provide for stipulating the irreversibility of the Ukraines course for gaining a full membership in the European Union and NATO.

The corresponding bill No.9037 "On Amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine (on Strategic Course of the State for Gaining Full Membership of Ukraine in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization)" was registered on September 3.

"The proposed legislative initiative is aimed at introducing necessary changes to the Constitution of Ukraine to implement the purposeful pragmatic course of Ukraine for gaining the full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as strategic foreign policy priorities of the state," says the explanatory note to the bill.

The bill proposes to enshrine the course for European and Euro-Atlantic integration and the confirmation of European identity of the Ukrainian people in the Constitutions preamble.

The explanatory note says that the Russian armed aggression entailed radical changes in the external and internal security of Ukraine and, therefore, necessitated the search for new mechanisms to ensure the national security of Ukraine and enshrining in the Basic Law the irreversibility of the civilizational choice of Ukraine, i.e. the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine.

olKyiv city mayor Vitali Klitschko has met with Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who arrived in Kyiv on an official visit.

In particular, Klitschko thanked for supporting European aspirations of Ukraine and highlighted the importance of extending EU sanctions against Russia, the press service of the Kyiv City State Administration reports.

"It became known yesterday that the EU diplomats had approved the decision on prolongation of sanctions against Russian politicians and separatists in Crimea and in Donbas. We are waiting for the promulgation of this decision, which is important for deterring Russia's further aggression. We also ask for support in putting pressure on Russia with a view to release Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia and Ukrainian prisoners of war," Klitschko said.

Sebastian Kurz, the chancellor of Austria, which currently presides over the Council of Europe, assured that the EU understood the importance of deterrents and pressure on the Russian Federation.

"We support sanctions and continue the economic pressure on Russia. And, yes, we know the names of political prisoners and insist on their release," Sebastian Kurz said.

After a formal meeting at the Kyiv City State Administration, the Kyiv city mayor and the Austrian chancellor strolled along the Khreshchatyk Street to the Independence Square and the Heavenly Hundred Heroes' alley. They visited the Memorial to the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred.

         . pic.twitter.com/0QoceXC0VG  Oksana Zinovieva (@zin0ksana) 4  2018 .

olAustrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called Russia's actions against Ukraine the aggression that requires "clear reaction."

I am now speaking not only as the Austrian Federal Chancellor but also as the President of the Council of the European Union. We expect a very clear reaction to Russian aggression, Kurz said at a joint press conference with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

In this regard, in June of this year, the sanctions against the aggressor were extended, he noted.

At the same time, the Austrian Chancellor added that the situation in Donbas should be resolved in a peaceful way, not military. Kurz called on Russia to return to the negotiating table in the Normandy format for a peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas.

On September 4, Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is on a working visit to Ukraine.

olThe decision should be confirmed by the ambassadors of the EU member states on September 5.

Diplomats of the EU member states have agreed to prolong individual sanctions against Russian citizens and Russian-backed terrorist leaders in Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine  Crimea and Donbas.

"EU diplomats have today decided to prolong visa bans and asset freezes by another six months for politicians from Russia and separatists in Crimea and Donbas. Zakharchenko will obviously be removed, so [there will be] 154 people and 44 [legal] entities," Brussels reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Rikard Jozwiak wrote on Twitter on September 3.

The decision is to be confirmed by the EU ambassadors on September 5, he added.

Read alsoEU elaborating tougher sanctions against Russia over Crimea bridge  Klimkin

The EU's individual sanctions were first introduced on March 17, 2014, after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. They were repeatedly extended. The current sanctions are in effect until September 15, 2018. The sanctions were recently updated on July 31, when six companies involved in the illegal construction of the Crimean bridge between the annexed peninsula and Russia were added onto the legal entities list.The Foreign Minister is convinced that Russia is striving for dismantling the Ukrainian state rather than for the revenge of the pro-Russian forces in the upcoming elections.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin emphasizes that the Russian Federation seeks and takes steps to ensure that Ukraine ceases to exist as an independent state.

"I think I've said this a lot, including to our friends and partners, that in fact, Russia is not striving for the revenge of pro-Russian forces in Ukraine. Russia seeks first to destabilize, then weaken Ukraine, and then make sure we don't exist," the diplomat said on the air of one of all-Ukrainian TV channels.

"I think that, unfortunately, there are many people in Russia who are well aware of the fact that the pro-Russian reality is no longer possible [in Ukraine] today. Perhaps, a step in one direction, a step in another, but a pro-Russian reality, as such, is not possible in Ukraine," he added.

Read alsoExperts elaborate on Kremlin's strategy to destabilize Ukraine

"And what Russia is doing is not an attempt to make some kind of revenge or pro-Russian forces that would play a big role. All they're doing is directed at the deliberate dismantling of Ukraine. And if you analyze in detail Russia's moves, their logic, and what Russians say, that is what we see. This is something everyone should realize. This is not an attempt to somehow change the political balance, it is an attempt to ensure that Ukraine doesn't exist," Klimkin said.

Earlier, FM Klimkin stated that he was in favor of introducing a biometric visa regime for Russian nationals to ensure an effective mechanism for monitoring border crossings by persons coming to Ukraine from the Russian Federation.The warlord's role in the "DPR" has already been exhausted, although, in fact, he never had real weight there, says the analyst.

The assassination of Alexander Zakharchenko, the so-called "DPR leader" in the militant stronghold of Donetsk, was planned in advance and was part of the Kremlin's plan for their "special operation" in Ukraine, a military columnist and expert with the Information Resistance OSINT community, Yuriy Karin, says.

In fact, he was not important to the Russian invaders, and his death will have no impact on the latest developments in Ukraine, Karin told the Obozrevatel online media outlet.

After Zakharchenko's death, the analyst opines, Russia will deploy a new scenario of its Ukraine policies.

It could include promoting a Kremlin-controlled president, amending the Constitution, or creating a pro-Russian parliamentary majority.

It is also possible that Moscow will be pushing the temporarily occupied areas in Donbas back under Ukraine's rule, but on Russia's terms.

Read alsoRussia's reaction to Zakharchenko murder means Kremlin trying to cover up their puppets  MFA Ukraine

That is, Zakharchenko's role in the "DPR" has already been exhausted, although, in fact, he never had real weight there, according to the expert.

"The fact that Zakharchenko's days at the top post were numbered had already been decided by that time. Moreover, the Kremlin auditors had already revealed corruption there, and, according to some sources, both Zakharchenko and 'Tashkent' [the so-called minister of incomes and fees of the 'DPR'] were preparing for evacuation and have already take their families to Russia," Karin wrote.

As UNIAN reported, Zakharchenko was killed on August 31 in an explosion in the Separ restaurant in the center of Donetsk. Russian-controlled militants in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region claimed a "Ukrainian trace" in the blast and detained 14 people.

Read alsoInglourious Basterds

The SBU assumed that Zakharchenko's death could be the result of internal criminal conflicts among militants, primarily related to the re-distribution of businesses seized from locals since 2014. In addition, the SBU did not exclude the involvement in the warlord's murder of Russian special services, for whom the odious Zakharchenko could become a hindrance.

At the same time, Russia's Foreign Ministry claimed Ukraine was behind the assassination.The assassinated "DPR chief," Alexander Zakharchenko, was a criminal who was not the first and, unfortunately or fortunately, not the last one in the long a chain of witnesses of Russia's crimes who have been "removed." Well, if you play alongside Moscow, you have to accept the rules. They don't like living witnesses. Therefore, from Moscow's perspective, nothing extraordinary happened  someone was terminated, who knew too much and who could at any moment, in case of a successful raid by Joint Forces, find himself in a government-controlled territory, and then act in a familiar and understandable scheme... From Moscow's perspective, it is better to immediately purge them so that such things don't suddenly happen.

The story of Zakharchenko's murder can also be actively used with propaganda purposes against Ukraine. This is what Moscow is actually doing now, trying to blame Ukraine for the assassination of the "DPR leader" and to slow down the process of Donbas settlement.

The questions is what their actual goal is: who benefits from a slow-down in the process Donbas settlement talks? Is it Ukraine, the country suffering from everyday hostilities? Or is it Russia, the country profiting from the fact that Ukraine is constantly bleeding? So yes, of course, it's Russia.

Therefore, any accusations against Ukraine, alleging that its spec-op forces assassinated Zakharchenko, are for ignorant amateurs.

I think that Russia will simply use this whole story for the sole purpose of launching a propaganda campaign against Ukraine, blaming it unreasonably for this murder, and thus, delaying for as long as possible any concrete steps to resolve the conflict, pointing fingers at Kyiv's "bad policies."

If we analyze the statements voiced by the Kremlin following the assassination, it becomes apparent that all of them fit within this logic very clearly.

Read alsoRussia continues crime witnesses purge in Donbas - Gerashchenko

After Zakharchenko's killing, Russian FM Lavrov hastened to declare that now the Normandy Four talks were off the agenda. But this does not mean that the format has exhausted itself. This only means that Russia has found it very convenient to claim that "under such circumstances, we will do nothing."

Actually, this is the key objective of all this special operation of Russian intelligence. That is, Russia definitely needed an excuse not to listen to Kyiv, instead saying: "What agenda? What talks? See, they're killing civilians in Donbas!"

So, I don't believe that now it is about reviewing the "Minsk format" or "Normandy format." This is about a tactic of rejecting real practical steps under fictitious pretexts, to which Moscow resorted.

In addition, it should not be suggested at all that the killing of Zakharchenko may in some way facilitate the process of returning the "DPR" and "LPR" to Ukraine on Russia's conditions, in particular, exploiting the upcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine. It's not worth even talking about. After all, any Ukrainian politicians who will accept Russia's terms (perhaps except for a few known ones) will become "dead meat" in politics

So, there is no way Donbas could be returned to Ukraine on Russia's conditions. That's because it would be a "Trojan horse" in the body of Ukrainian statehood, which will not allow the country moving anywhere. Therefore, such scenario should be off the agenda.

Volodymyr Ohryzko is a Ukrainian diplomat, head of the Russia Research Center, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of UkraineThe vast majority of Ukraine's success stories on its path toward European integration is due to Angela Merkel's stance the diplomat said.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk has said German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally voted to support Ukraine's NATO prospects at a historic Bucharest summit.

According to the diplomat, who spoke in an interview with Europeiska Pravda, the vast majority of Ukraine's success stories on its path toward European integration is due to Angela Merkel's stance.

"It was she who was the engine of sanctions when she realized that Putin couldnt be stopped with words. It was she who initiated the Normandy format and held tough negotiations with the Russian president in Minsk," Ambassador Melnyk said.

Read alsoFrance, Germany say "DPR" leader Zakharchenko's death must not derail Normandy talks

The diplomat noted there is not a single world leader, with whom Chancellor in the last four years Merkel spoke on the phone and met more frequently than President Poroshenko. In addition, it was Merkel who initiated the Minsk process for Donbas settltment.

Asked whether Germany would support Ukraine's movement toward NATO membership, Melnyk said it was worth mentioning the decision taken at the Bucharest summit.

"The NATO summit in Bucharest has decided that Ukraine will be a NATO member. Merkel, who was then the Federal Chancellor, personally voted for this. This is a decision that is fixed on paper," the Ambassador said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel, will visit Ukraine in early November.The parties also discussed the topic of the Austrian presidency in the European Union.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz have discussed the situation in Donbas.

"We would like to see Austria as a state helping Ukraine move towards the return to the family of European nations," Poroshenko said, emphasizing the importance of partnership with the Republic of Austria, the presidential press service reported.

Poroshenko also said that his draft law on the consolidation of the European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the Ukrainian people in the Constitution of Ukraine had already been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. The parties also discussed the topic of the Austrian presidency in the European Union.

Read alsoPoroshenko welcomes Austrian presidency of EU Council

Poroshenko thanked Austria for supporting Ukraine's initiatives and aspirations, "starting from the situation of providing Ukraine with macro-financial assistance and ending with support in the issue of prolonging sanctions against the Russian Federation in case of non-fulfillment of the Minsk agreements and failure to create security conditions for the implementation of Minsk."

"I have to point out that we are very concerned with the fact that the situation is still difficult, as before. I am now speaking as Chairman of the Council of the European Union. We expect a very clear reaction to Russian aggression and in this regard, in June of this year, we continued sanctions against the aggressor," Kurz said.

He also added that it was necessary to have a dialogue channel in order to find a peaceful solution.

"I would like to call on Russia to get back to the table of negotiations. This is also needed in the Normandy format. This is the only existing format, the only opportunity to hold negotiations and find a peaceful solution," Kurz added.The court's order also would allow authorities to review all text messages sent and received on Sedletska's phone during the 17-month period, as well as other data.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is calling for the nullification of a Ukrainian court ruling that gives authorities access to nearly 1 1/2 years of cell-phone data from an RFE/RL investigative reporter, saying the decision violates Ukraine's own laws and Kyiv's commitments to a free press.

The ruling stems from a criminal investigation into the alleged disclosure of state secrets to journalists in 2017 by Artem Sytnyk, director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported.

On August 27, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv approved a request from Ukraine's Prosecutor-General's Office to let investigators review all cell-phone data from a 17-month period of investigative reporter Natalia Sedletska, the host of Schemes, the anti-corruption TV program by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.

RFE/RL spokeswoman Joanna Levison said the ruling is "inconsistent with Ukraine's own commitments to promote and protect a free press."

Read alsoNABU director Sytnyk reveals details of his private visit to Poroshenko's house this spring

"It creates a chilling atmosphere for journalists and should be nullified," Levison said in a September 4 statement. "That the request targets well over a year's worth of data belonging to a prominent Ukrainian investigative journalist raises deeply troubling questions about the real intent of those seeking the information."

The ruling allows the Prosecutor-General's Office to obtain information from Sedletska's mobile-phone service provider about all communications made to and from her phone from July 1, 2016, through November 30, 2017.

The Schemes program reported on several investigations involving senior Ukrainian officials during that period, including Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko.

The Prosecutor-General's Office would be able to access all of Sedletska's phone contacts, as well as the date, time, and duration of all calls.

It also would allow authorities to review all text messages sent and received on Sedletska's phone during the 17-month period, as well as other data  such as the investigative journalist's location when she received or made each phone call.

In December 2017, during a meeting at the Prosecutor-General's Office with her lawyer that lasted several hours, Sedletska refused to testify about her private communications with confidential sources that were part of her investigative reporting.

Sedletska cited a law in Ukraine's Criminal Code that says "journalists cannot be questioned as witnesses" about "confidential information of a professional nature" provided by sources on the condition of anonymity.

Oksana Romaniuk, director of a Ukrainian media rights watchdog called the Institute of Mass Information, condemned the court-ordered "eavesdropping" of Sedletska, saying it is "excessive interference" into the work of an investigative reporter whose work has focused on corruption allegations against high-ranking public officials.

"In this case, we are dealing with a violation of the protection of the journalist's source, which is guaranteed by Ukrainian legislation," Romaniuk told RFE/RL on September 4, adding that the court order applies "psychological pressure" on the journalist.

"Such actions also send a negative signal to other investigative journalists and, in general, erode the principles of press freedom and the protection of journalistic sources," she said.

Anatoliy Popov, an attorney representing RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, also called the court ruling "excessive," saying it "puts pressure on the journalist's work within the context of her professional duties and provides illegal access to her sources of information."

"With this ruling, the court granted the investigation access to a much wider amount of private information than is needed in the particular case," Popov said.

Popov noted that the investigation into Sytnyk's activities is related to an off-the-record briefing that prosecutors allege Sytnyk gave to journalists in Kyiv in May 2017.

"The investigators got access to the private information of the journalist for a period of 17 months, even though such a wide range of data has no significance for the investigation," Popov said. "This is a fundamental violation and we will act accordingly."

Specifically, Popov said, lawyers are preparing a formal complaint about the Prosecutor-General's Office "exceeding the limits of interference into a person's right to privacy and the protection of sources of information."

He said a complaint also would be filed against Pechersk District Court Justice Vyachellav Pidpalyi at Ukraine's Supreme Council of Justice, a state body that advises the president about the appointment and release of judges, examines court infringements, and carries out disciplinary proceedings involving judges of high-level courts.

Popov said that complaint would seek judicial relief for "violations that were committed during the judicial review" in the case "and in the unjustified order" by Pidpalyi.This is an "act of Ukraine's solidarity with the Council of Europe in the dark times for the organization."

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin has announced that Ukraine has made a voluntary contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe in the amount of US$400,000.

"Today Ukraine has made a voluntary contribution to the budget of the Council of Europe in the amount of US$400,000. Russia uses financial blackmail against the Council of Europe. In these hard times the organization needs support," Klimkin tweeted on September 4. "Join us, or the Council of Europe will no longer be able to defend its values and principles."

The Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the Council of Europe also commented on the payment.

"The financial situation in the Council of Europe deteriorated sharply in 2017, when the Russian Federation used financial blackmail against the organization and, in violation of its international legal obligations, refused to pay its contributions to the Council of Europe's budget until its delegation's full participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is restored," the mission wrote on Facebook on September 4.

"This move put the organization in a particularly difficult situation, because during the last decade the budget of the Council of Europe was formed in the face of budget cuts in most member states," the Ukrainian diplomats said.

In this regard, the government of Ukraine decided to support the Council of Europe financially.

"We've made a voluntary contribution in addition to our compulsory payments to the budget. The money will be used in the areas of cooperation that are priority ones for both the Council of Europe and its cooperation with our state," it said.

In particular, Ukraine has financed such areas of cooperation as the functioning of the European Court of Human Rights, the fight against corruption and money laundering, the prevention of torture, the fight against racism and intolerance, the integration of Roma people and other nomadic groups into society, the protection of minorities, the development of equality of women and men, protection of cultural heritage, as well as protection of journalism and journalists' safety.

Read alsoUkraine's Permanent Envoy to CoE Dmytro Kuleba: "Surprisingly, some EU member states still believe dialogue is needed with Russia"

"In the difficult period of the modern history of Ukraine, we have become a recipient of assistance from the Council of Europe. I am glad that today Ukraine has become a donor of such assistance. This is an act of Ukraine's solidarity with the Council of Europe in the dark times for the organization when its ability to protect its own values and principles is being tested," Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Dmytro Kuleba said.

In June 2017, Russia cancelled its annual payment to the Council of Europe for 2017 after claiming its 18 delegates were being "persecuted" in response to the illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.

The Russian side warned that no future payments would be made until the rights of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe "are fully restored."The final decisions are likely to be adopted at the Holy Synod in October.

The position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains unchanged.

The Great Hierarchical Council has been completed in Istanbul, TSN reported.

With the Ukrainian issue was on the meeting's top agenda, hierarchs were informed about a positive decision of Patriarch Bartholomew, and expressed no fundamental objections. Therefore, the final decisions are likely to be adopted at the Holy Synod in October.

Read alsoEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople authorized to grant autocephaly: Synaxis

The issue of granting autocephaly may be considered simultaneously with that of lifting anathema from the current head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Patriarch Filaret.

Moscow excommunicated Filaret 20 years ago for having created the Kyiv Patriarchate.Two enemy troops were killed and another two were wounded.

Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian Joint Forces' positions in Donbas 20 times in the past 24 hours, with two Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA).

"Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the past day. According to intelligence reports, two occupiers were killed and another two were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on September 4, 2018.

Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms on the defenders of the villages of Krymske, Myronivskiy, Zaitseve, Shumy, Opytne, Pisky, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Vodiane, and Lebedynske.

Read alsoUkraine to boost military presence in Sea of Azov  Navy chief

"Since Tuesday midnight, Russian-led forces have mounted six attacks on the Ukrainian positions. In the Donetsk sector, the enemy fired heavy machine guns and small arms outside the town of Krasnohorivka, as well as heavy machine guns near the villages of Hnutove, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne in the Mariupol sector. There have been no casualties among Ukrainian troops from say-start," the report says.Russian propaganda systemically lowers the number of officially recognized casualties on the part of Russian occupation forces in eastern Ukraine's warzone.

Officer of the 53rd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Anatoliy Shtefan has disclosed the number of enemy losses in Donbas throughout the eight months of 2018.

"January: 47 KIAs (killed in action), 74 WIAs (wounded in action); February: 66 KIAs, 71 WIAs; March: 42 KIAs, 79 WIAs; April: 117 KIAs, 190 WIAs; May: 110 KIAs, 149 WIAs; June: 86 KIAs, 47 WIAs; July: 31 KIAs, 68 WIAs; August: 68 KIAs, 116 WIAs. In total: 567 KIAs, 894 WIAs," Shtefan wrote on Facebook.

Read alsoJFO: Ukraine reports 2 WIAs amid 20 enemy attacks in Donbas in past day

According to the Ukrainian officer, the figure may be higher due to the constant concealment of casualties by Russia-controlled militant leaders.

"Russian curators order to systemically lower the number of officially recognized casualties due to a small number of new 'contracted' troops and reluctance to protect the borders of the so-called 'republic'," he added.No casualties among Ukrainian servicemen were reported over the period under review.

Russia-led forces on Tuesday opened fire on Ukrainian troops stationed in the village of Bohdanivka, Donetsk region's Volnovakha district, using anti-tank missile systems.

"Disregarding the 'back-to-school' ceasefire, the enemy opened fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms on Joint Forces' positions in the vicinity of the villages of Shchastia, Pisky, Bohdanivka, Hnutove, and Shyrokyne. The enemy also opened fire from anti-tank missile systems to attack the defenders of Bohdanivka," the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said on Facebook in an update as of 18:00 Kyiv time on Tuesday, September 4.

Read alsoJFO: Ukraine reports 2 WIAs amid 20 enemy attacks in Donbas in past day

"From 07:00 to 18:00 today, the Russian occupation forces violated the ceasefire five times. The weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements were not used," it said.

No casualties among Ukrainian servicemen were reported over the period under review.

As was reported earlier, the situation in the JFO zone was tense on the previous day, September 3, however, it was under control, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army said.(@FahadShabbir)

A Jordanian delegation may participate in the Damascus International Fair, slated for September 6-15, Atef Tarawneh, the speaker of the lower house of the Jordanian parliament, told Sputnik on Monday.

AMMAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) A Jordanian delegation may participate in the Damascus International Fair, slated for September 6-15, Atef Tarawneh, the speaker of the lower house of the Jordanian parliament, told Sputnik on Monday.

"A very large Jordanian delegation may head [to Syria] in the coming days, our relations will be restored," Tarawneh said.

The lawmaker noted that the group of officials, that would go to Syria for participating in the fair, would be a high-level delegation.

The Damascus International Fair is the major and the oldest fair in the middle East launched for the first time in 1954.

In 2017, the event was carried out for the first time since the beginning of the Syrian armed conflict in 2011.

While last year, 43 countries participated in the fair, 48 states have already confirmed they will send their representatives to this year's event.(@rukhshanmir)

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) Turkey could launch the hydrocarbon exploratory drilling on Cyprus' shelf in fall at the request of the non-recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.

"There is a Turkish economic zone in the East Mediterranean and the shelf of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. At its request, we are taking the necessary steps. Our energy ministry is preparing for the beginning of boring, we can proceed to it as early as this fall," Cavusoglu said at a joint press conference with Northern Cyprus' Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay in Ankara.

Ankara has been opposing offshore oil and gas exploration off Cyprus coast by various companies, claiming that it violates the rights of the Turkish community living on the island.

Offshore gas reserves off Cyprus coast were discovered by US Noble Energy company in 2011 with Cyprus granting oil and gas exploration licenses to French Total, Italian Eni and US ExxonMobil.

Cyprus has been de facto divided from 1974, when Turkey send its troops to the island in response to an attempted coup by the Greek military. Turkey occupied nearly 40 percent of the country's territory, where the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared in 1983. The negotiations over the island's reunification renewed in 2014 after a two-year suspension.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has announced that September 5 (Wednesday) will be the last date for admissions in Autumn 2018 session for its various academic programmes.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has announced that September 5 (Wednesday) will be the last date for admissions in Autumn 2018 session for its various academic programmes.

The inspiriting students have been advised to apply for the admission before the last date, a press release said on Tuesday. Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr.

Shahid Siddiqui hoped that the students will avail the opportunity to continue their future study.

Admission forms and prospectus could be obtained from the University's main campus, 44-Regional Campuses and more than 100 Coordinating Offices across the country.

Besides Matriculation to PhD level programmes, the University introduced various academic courses for the upcoming semester. Detail of all programmes is available at the university's website.

The University has taken various measures for facilitating the students in theadmission process.The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will develop academic collaboration with Sri Lanka through Pak-Sri Lanka Higher Education Cooperation Programme.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will develop academic collaboration with Sri Lanka through Pak-Sri Lanka Higher Education Cooperation Programme.

Chairman Higher Education Commission, Dr. Tariq Banuri stated this during a meeting with Pakistan's High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Maj. Gen. (R) Shahid Hashmat, a press release said here Tuesday.

Mr. Hashmat expressed his strong commitment to play active role in executing the Pak-Sri Lanka Higher Education Cooperation Programme. He affirmed that the programme will further strengthen the bilateral relations and will improve people-to-people contact.

Dr. Banuri said that the HEC accords high importance to international collaborations, adding that the Pak-Sri Lanka Higher Education Cooperation Programme is one of the examples of its commitment to promotion of higher education in the country.

Under the programme, the HEC will extend educational assistance to Sri Lankan students and faculty. The project includes 1000 scholarships for Sri Lankan students, faculty exchange initiatives, training of Sri Lankan civil servants, holding of Pakistan Higher Education Expo in Sri Lanka, and establishment of a Department of Language and Culture at University of Colombo.

It was agreed in the meeting that the project will be executed from Fall 2019, while a credible and transparent merit-based system will be put in place for the selection of students and faculty.

The meeting was also attended by Dr. Arshad Ali, Executive Director, HEC, Waseem S. Hashmi Syed, Adviser, Human Resource Development, HEC, Dr. Mazhar Saeed, Director General, Planning and Development, HEC, and Dr. Arshad Bashir, Project Manager, Pak-Sri Lanka Higher Education Cooperation Programme.Abu Dhabi today hosted the ministerial meeting of the Joint Committee between the UAE and Chad, under the co-chairmanship of Dr. Sultan bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State, and Ashtah Saleh Daman, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, African Integration, International Cooperation and Diaspora Affairs.

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Sep, 2018) Abu Dhabi today hosted the ministerial meeting of the Joint Committee between the UAE and Chad, under the co-chairmanship of Dr. Sultan bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State, and Ashtah Saleh Daman, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, African Integration, International Cooperation and Diaspora Affairs.

Dr. Al Jaber stated that the political ties between the two countries are based on joint visions on many regional and international issues while praising Chads support for the Arab Coalition Forces, led by Saudi Arabia, and its recent operations in Hodeidah, which reflects the harmony between the two countries and their joint stances in facing extremism and terrorism.

He added that the UAE considers terrorism a cross-border problem while affirming the countrys determination to support African initiatives to combat terrorism and maintain international security and peace, including the G5 Sahel Joint Force. The UAE considers the forces success as key to ensuring the prosperity and security of the coast region, as well as neighbouring areas and the entire world.

Al Jaber stressed that in light of the economic challenges and terrorist threats faced by the African continent, the UAE believes in the importance of economic and social development and its role in combating extremist ideas while noting that due to this belief, the country has occupied the first position internationally in terms of providing foreign aid, as well as leading roles in establishing bilateral and multilateral economic partnerships with its neighbours and friendly countries, to support global development efforts.

He highlighted the fact that the UAE has supported the "National Development Plan of the Republic of Chad 2017-2021" while noting that US$150 million was allocated last year, through the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, to support this plan, which includes $50 million to fund Emirati investments in Chad. He also hoped that the funding will be employed appropriately, to benefit both parties in various economic and development areas.

Al Jaber praised the positive action undertaken by Chad to exempt Emirati citizens from entry visas while expressing his hope that this will advance the bilateral economic, tourism and cultural ties between the two countries.

Regarding investment, Al Jaber highlighted the importance of discussing investment and partnership opportunities in both countries while calling on Emirati investors to benefit from investment opportunities in Chad, as well as build partnerships in the energy, renewable energy, food security, telecommunications, land ports, logistical services and other economic sectors, which are expected to bring mutual benefits and achieve the strategic goals of both sides.

He also urged investors from Chad to explore investment opportunities in the UAE, which is a main gateway to the regions markets while noting the countrys excellent investment environment and unique infrastructure, which have enabled it lead internationally in the ratings of international organisations in the categories of ease of doing business, competitiveness and logistical services.

On her part, the Chadian minister stressed that the meeting is historic for both countries, and will help strengthen their cooperation and relations.

During the meeting, several agreements and MoUs were signed, which include a double taxation avoidance agreement, an agreement to protect and encourage investment, and an memorandum of understanding on the political deliberations between the two countries, as well the committees minutes.

The UAE is the fourth largest international destination for exports from Chad, and the size of their trade exchange reached $177 million in 2017. Both sides are also building commercial partnerships in the public and private sectors.

The Government of Chad officially announced its participation in the Expo 2020 Dubai, which will enable its participants to discover trading and investment opportunities in the UAE, around the region and the entire world.

Chad is one the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the UAE in 1973. The bilateral relations between the two countries have witnessed overall development and prosperity, including in the areas of the economy, politics and society, and were recently crowned with the decision of Chad to open an embassy in the capital, Abu Dhabi, after the UAE opened its embassy in N'Djamena in 2017.(@rukhshanmir)

Mohammad Yousef Al Awadi, the UAE Ambassador to Peru, has met Minister of the Interior of Peru, Mauro Medina Guimaraes, to discuss ways of boosting bilateral relations.

LIMA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Sep, 2018) Mohammad Yousef Al Awadi, the UAE Ambassador to Peru, has met Minister of the Interior of Peru, Mauro Medina Guimaraes, to discuss ways of boosting bilateral relations.

The meeting, which was held at the premises of the Peruvian Ministry of Interior in the Capital Lima, also addressed means of developing fresh prospects of cooperation between the ministries of interior in the two countries.

The possibility of accelerating the exchange of state visits by the two countries' officials was also reviewed during the meeting, along with an array of issues of common concern.

The meeting was attended by the head of the Peruvian intelligence services and a senior official at the Ministry of Interior.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The UAE will celebrate on Wednesday the annual International Day of Charity, which takes place on 5th September.

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 04th Sep, 2018) The UAE will celebrate on Wednesday the annual International Day of Charity, which takes place on 5th September.

The country has succeeded in transforming charity work into a culture and social behaviour, which is well-established in the Emirati character.

This years celebration followed the Year of Giving in 2017, which aimed to promote the values of social responsibility and volunteering, as well as serve the nation and continue the legacy of giving established by the countrys founder, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

The UAE has prioritised and institutionalised charity work, which it considers a humanitarian value based on giving and spending, and has created a flexible regulatory and legislative framework that enables the entire community to contribute to charity through several means, including by volunteering or donating Zakat.

The UAE has many civil charity organisations that are key to the success of its official humanitarian work, which is reflected by the launch of donation campaigns and humanitarian initiatives, upon the directives of the wise leadership, to help the needy around the world.

The UAE has over 45 donor authorities, humanitarian institutions and charity associations that help the needy in various parts of the world, protect humanitarian workers, and provide urgent relief aid to those suffering from humanitarian crises and emergencies.

The Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, is a leading humanitarian charity institution that is proud of its strong partnership with its beneficiaries, donors and the citizens and residents of the country, as well as their support, which has helped it to become a pioneer in all areas of humanitarian work with numerous accomplishments.

The value of programmes and projects launched by the ERC last year reached AED645 million, of which AED131 million was allocated inside the country while AED514 million was spent on its international efforts.

The ERC sponsors 114,000 orphans in the UAE and in 25 other countries, with funding valued at AED140 million while around 11,000,000 people in eight countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australia have benefitted from its Ramadan programmes and projects, worth more than AED155 million.

The number of Emirati benefactors who support the ERCs programmes and projects has reached 139,000 while the number of ERC volunteers reached over 18,000.

The Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation is another leading Emirati charity organisation that has succeeded, since its launch in 1992, in offering aid to over 166 countries, valued at close to AED2 billion.

The foundation offers aid in a variety of sectors, most notably related to health, education and relief. It has also established cultural, humanitarian and scientific research centres, as well as schools, public and higher education institutes and public libraries.

The UN recognises that in terms of development, governments cannot act alone and that civic engagement through volunteering and philanthropy plays an important role in creating the desired global change.The International Day of Charity was established with the objective of sensitising and mobilising people, NGOs, and stakeholders all around the world to help others through volunteer and philanthropic activities.

The date of 5th September was chosen in order to commemorate the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who received the Nobel Peace prize in 1979 "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace."Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Zaheer-ud-Din Babar Awan Tuesday resigned from his post.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Zaheer-ud-Din Babar Awan Tuesday resigned from his post.

Babar Awan, in a statement here, said he had decided to quit the post of advisor for proving his innocence in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference filed against him.

He said being a legal practitioner, he did not find it appropriate to remain stuck to the post while facing an inquiry. He wanted to start implementing the rule of law from himself in line with the Sunnah of companions of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him). He would counter the allegations and get himself cleared from the court of law, he added.

Babar Awan claimed that he was denied the right to defend himself by NAB. He was not summoned by NAB during inquiry or investigations despite his repeated requests, he added.

He said he had sent his resignation letter to the prime minister.Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) has launched an "Operation Nau Rooz" against street drug peddlers and narcotics dens throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in view of increasing trend of drug use among the youth in the country.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) has launched an "Operation Nau Rooz" against street drug peddlers and narcotics dens throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in view of increasing trend of drug use among the youth in the country.

As per direction of Director General ANF, Major General Musarrat Nawaz Malik, the operation has been launched from September 1 to 10 with main focus on curbing supply of drugs in educational institutions.

According to ANF here on Tuesday, in this connection, Regional Directorate KP has been directed to launch crackdown against street drug peddlers and narcotics dens in their areas of jurisdiction.

The ANF has deployed Special Surveillance Teams to surface drug gangs involved in drug supply and special drive to identify and arrest elements involved in drug supply to educational institutionsin KP.

The ANF has also introduced public complaint number 1415 where general public can register their complaints and provide information regarding drug trafficking.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Muhammad Salim planted a sapling to launch "Plant for Pakistan", campaign here at the headquarters of the authority.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Muhammad Salim planted a sapling to launch "Plant for Pakistan", campaign here at the headquarters of the authority.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that active participation in tree plantation activities was need of the hour to avert the negative effects of climate change and provide better environment to the future generations.

On this occasion, the pledge was made that PEMRA with the cooperation of private television channels, FM radio channels and cable television networks will strive to make the Prime Minister's 10 billion trees tsunami a success.

Muhammad Salim urged all PEMRA officers and staff to actively participate in the campaign.(@mahnoorsheikh03)

Requests ECP to take action

Chakwal (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News  4th September, 2018) The Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Chakwal, Ghulam Saghir Shahid, has accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Zulfiqar Ali Khan of political interference.

In his letter to the Punjab chief secretary, Ghulam Saghir Shahid has alleged that MNA Zulfiqar Ali has pressurized him to transfer/post 17 officials of the Revenue Department.

The DC asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Punjab chief secretary to take action against the PTI MNA.

The DC stated that he received a sealed envelope from the MNA on August 31, in which he asked him to transfer/post 17 officials of the Revenue Department. The list was duly signed by the MNA.

The next day, at 4pm, the MNA visited his office and insisted him for posting/transfer of Revenue field staff.

The DC wrote that on Monday, he received a call from Zulfiqar Khan asking him to cancel the transfer order of Patwari Muhammad Aslam who was transferred to Choa Saiden Shah from Kallar Kahar.

According to DC, he had transferred five Patwaris to Choa Saiden Shah from Tehsil Chakwal and Kallar Kahar on the request of Choa Saiden Shah assistant commissioner in the best interest of public.

The DC said that the MNA again called him on Monday and asked him to cancel the said transfer as it was not approved by him. The DC said that he told Mr Khan that district collector and AC concerned were entitled to transfer/post the field staff of the Revenue Department and he had no role in this scenario.

The DC also refused to do postings/transfers on his recommendation after which MNA Zulfiqar threatened him with dire consequences.

The DC therefore requested the ECP to take necessary action against the MNA for repeated political interference in official matters.The Hashoo Foundation will provide scholarships to the tune of Rs 10 million to needy and meritorious students of Preston University pursuing their studies in different academic programs at undergraduate and graduate level.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :The Hashoo Foundation will provide scholarships to the tune of Rs 10 million to needy and meritorious students of Preston University pursuing their studies in different academic programs at undergraduate and graduate level.

In this regard, Preston University, Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Hashoo Foundation (HF) inked a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) for cooperation in areas of mutual interest and benefit.

He said the MoU was signed at a simple but impressive ceremony held at the Islamabad Campus of Preston University, Kohat.

The Chancellor of Preston University, Dr. Abdul Basit signed the MoU on behalf of Preston University. Jalal Ud Din, Director Programs/Strategic Support Unit of Hashoo Foundation inked the MoU under reference on behalf of the Foundation.

Besides the senior management of Preston University, Shahida Sultan, Head of education (HF), Mr. Sheraz Ullah Baig, Regional Program Manager (HF) and Nuzhat Ahsan, Senior Program Officer (HF) were also conspicuous by their presence at the event.

The referenced scholarship was announced by the Chairman Hashoo Group/Hashoo Foundation and business icon of international eminence, Sadruddin Hashwani on the occasion of a seminar jointly organized by Preston University and the Archaeological and Historical Association of Pakistan to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan lll, on November 2, 2017.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Abdul Basit expressed his profound gratitude to the Chairman Hashoo Group/Hashoo Foundation, Sadruddin Hashwani, for announcing Rs 10 million scholarships for the needy and meritorious students of Preston University.

Eulogizing this phenomenal contribution, he said Hashwani's generosity will help a significant number of needy and meritorious students of the university to attain their educational goals successfully.

He also briefly unfolded the history of Preston University on the occasion and talked about the academic programs, the university is offering at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level.

In his brief remarks on the occasion, Jalal Ud Din, Director Programs/Strategic Support Unit of Hashoo Foundation (HF) said that it was truly an honor for HF to have been able to offer scholarships to the needy students of Preston University.

He thanked the Chancellor of Preston University, Dr. Abdul Basit for the warm welcome extended to him and his colleagues.

Jalal Ud Din disclosed that this is the first time that HF has offered scholarships to an academic institution. Preston University, he said, will be the first institution of higher learning to receive this scholarship.

He outlined the history of Hashoo Foundation and expressed the desire to collaborate with Preston University in other areas of mutual interest and benefit as well.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The nation would celebrate Defence Day on Thursday (September 6) with a renewed pledge to defend the motherland against all threats.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :The nation would celebrate Defence Day on Thursday (September 6) with a renewed pledge to defend the motherland against all threats.

The day is observed on 6th September every year as people pay homage to the martyrs who gave supreme sacrifices of their life for the defence of the motherland during the Pakistan-India War in 1965, ptv news reported.

The sacrifices of the martyrs of 1965 war are being commemorated with exhilarating and zealous manner.

Special prayers would be offered after fajr in mosques for the progress and prosperity of the country. Fateha and Quran Khawani would be held for the martyrs.

Numerous functions would also be held all across the country to mark the day.

Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television (PTV) would broadcast special programmes to mark the day.

Functions, seminars and rallies are also being organized in Azad Kashmir today to highlight the significance of the day.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Suki Kinari Hydropower Project (SKHPP), being executed under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), will become operational in 2022 and ensure jobs for 3000 local residents under recruitment plan in 2019 and 2020.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Suki Kinari Hydropower Project (SKHPP), being executed under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), will become operational in 2022 and ensure jobs for 3000 local residents under recruitment plan in 2019 and 2020.

Suki Kinari (SK), a run-of-the-river largest private sector hydropower project located on Kunhar River in the Kaghan Valley of District Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkwa, will add 870 MW to the national grid by December 2022.

Talking to media persons, Counsellor Embassy of China Li Yuanling said Suki Kinari Hydropower Project (SKHPP) had been included in the CPEC projects for being in an advance stage of development.

He said it will eventually help to end Pakistan's energy shortages. "Total cost of the project is $1.92 billion and would be completed within 72 months" he added.

He said this is the only hydropower project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the CPEC list and the Project is listed as the high priority 'Early Harvest Project (EHP)' within CPEC projects.

He said this project is being supported and closely monitored by the governments of Pakistan and China due to its importance.

He said Chinese investments in Pakistani infrastructure and power projects will surely lead to a "virtuous cycle", thus making the country more attractive for foreign investment in a variety of sectors.

He said Chinese company 'China Gezgouba Group Corporation' initiated work on Suki Kinari Hydropower Project in December 2016 with an estimated cost of US $1.9 billion. The project would be completed on 31 December 2022 in 6 years.

The project is being built on a "Build-Own-Operate & Transfer" basis in accordance with Government of Pakistan's Policy for Power Generation Projects 2002, he added.

He said that total operational life of the project is 100 years and the company will hand over the Suki Kinari hydropower project to the Government of Pakistan after 30 years.

He said during this period, the company will be responsible for its maintenance and other expenditures. He said National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) will determine the tariff of the project.

He also said that work on oil-based 12 megawatt project is in full swing to provide electricity to site area of the project.

He said around 1,600 Pakistani people work in SKHPP including over 900 skilled people and over 700 laborers.

He said the company is hiring the services of labour from district Mansehra only.

Highlighting the criteria of appointment, he said noticeboard had been displayed at the main gate of site office of the project to hire the services of local people. He said another 3,000 jobs for the locals will be generated under recruitment plan in 2019 and 2020.

He said the majority of local people have no experience to work in hydropower project or other engineering projects, and those need to be trained by Chinese foreman or skilled man such as surveyor, operator for heavy equipment, carpenter, electrician, welder, plumber etc.

The potential for energy generation from Kunhar River was first identified around 1960. In 1959, Charles T Main US consultants were engaged by WAPDA to study this potential. In January 1960, they issued a report entitled "Kunhar River Project-Kaghan Valley." Further studies were conducted in 1984 and 1995 to optimize the power potential of Kunhar River. These studies identified a series of potential sites along the river from where the energy could be produced by cascading the water energy through run-of-the-river hydro projects.

Studies suggested potential sites for these projects at Batakundi, Naran, Suki Kinari, Balakot and Patrind. Run-of-the-river project envisages that the water is drawn from the river, taken to the turbines in a powerhouse, located down stream through tunnel and after running the turbines and producing energy, the water is again diverted back to the river.

This water is now again available to be used to produce energy through yet another similar set up downstream. This is called cascading. Unfortunately no worthwhile efforts were made in the past on these hydro projects for producing electricity at affordable rates.

It is being carried out now. In addition to this project, two projects have been announced by KPK at Batakundi (96 MW) and Naran (188MW) both upstream of this project. Another project Patrind (147 MW) is already underway downstream.

So in all there would be four (4) projects on this river with total capacity of 1300 MW.

He said the company had also constructed, Balakot bridge, damaged by theflood in 2017. It took 10 days to complete the construction of the bridge and gotappreciation from NHA, local government and local people.Syrian President Bashar Assad sent a secret letter to US President Barack Obama in 2010 with a proposal to resume peace talks with Israel, media reported Tuesday, citing excerpts from a new memoir by former US Secretary of State John Kerry.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) Syrian President Bashar Assad sent a secret letter to US President Barack Obama in 2010 with a proposal to resume peace talks with Israel, media reported Tuesday, citing excerpts from a new memoir by former US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Israeli-Syrian relations have long been strained, particularly over the disputed Golan Heights. Israel occupied the region after the 1967 Six-Day War with Syria and other Arab states and annexed the territory in 1981. The international community has not recognized the annexation.

Kerry recalls in his book, titled "Every Day Is Extra" and cited by the Haartez newspaper, that in 2009, while chairing the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he visited Damascus as part of a middle East tour and held talks with Assad, who seemed to have been "interested in some sort of deal with Israel."

"Assad asked me what it would take to enter into serious peace negotiations, in the hope of securing return of the Golan Heights, which Syria had lost to Israel in 1967.

I told him that if he were serious, he should make a private proposal. He asked what it would look like. I shared my thoughts. He instructed his top aide to draft a letter from Assad to President Obama," Kerry said.

According to the former diplomat, the following day, he traveled to Israel for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and shared this information with him.

"He [Netanyahu] was surprised that Assad was willing to go that far, significantly further than he'd been willing to go [previously]," Kerry said.

According to Haaretz, prior to the start of civil war in Syria in 2011, Damascus and Tel Aviv were engaged in negotiations under US mediation. However, the two parties failed to reach an agreement.A Chinese consortium and the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy signed a $4.4 billion agreement on building a power generation station in Egypt, expected to work on a clean coal technology, local media reported.

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) A Chinese consortium and the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy signed a $4.4 billion agreement on building a power generation station in Egypt, expected to work on a clean coal technology, local media reported.

The Dongfang Electric manufacturing company and Shanghai Electric that make up the consortium signed the contract with the Egyptian government during the visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi to China, China Central Television reported Monday.

The power station is expected to be located 500 miles from Cairo and to be made up of six units with a total capacity of 6.6 gigawatt. The construction is planned to be completed in six years.

Clean coal technologies allow to reduce emissions from coal burning, such as carbon dioxide, among others. A number of clean coal technologies exist, from purifying coal before it is used as fuel to controlled burn to reduce emissions.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Cypriot marine police said they escorted 36 Syrian migrants ashore on Monday, at a time the authorities have raised concerns about an influx of boat people on the island.

Nicosia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Sep, 2018 ) :Cypriot marine police said they escorted 36 Syrian migrants ashore on Monday, at a time the authorities have raised concerns about an influx of boat people on the island.

The group's vessel was detected off the southeast coast of Cyprus before a police patrol boat intercepted and brought them back to a small harbour in the resort of Protaras.

On board the boat were 11 men, 11 women and 14 children, and they were received by emergency crews offering food and health checks, the police said.

The migrants were expected to be taken to a reception centre outside the capital Nicosia.

It was not immediately clear where they had sailed from.

The Cypriot government has raised the alarm over the number of migrants reaching it shores recently, with more than a 130 coming in the past three days alone in seven different instances.

"As an EU member-state, Cyprus respects its obligations, but on the other hand Cyprus has reached its limits with regard the number of migrants it can absorb," Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides said at the weekend, quoted by the Cyprus news Agency.

Petrides also told state radio on Monday that Cyprus was on the "front line" with asylum applications exceeding that of Greece.

A special ministerial meeting is to convene on Tuesday in Nicosia to discuss the latest wave of migrants landing on the island's shores.

Cyprus is hosting around 10,000 migrants while about 4,000 asylum applications are pending assessment.

Most of the applicants are Syrian with a 40 percent increase in claims witnessed in the first five months of the year.

In the past 12 months there has been a steady trickle of Syrian migrants arriving in Cyprus from Turkey.The Ukrainian security forces have formed a striking force of over 12,000 people in order to launch an offensive against the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in the direction of the city of Mariupol, in the south of the region, deputy commander of the DPR Operational Command Eduard Basurin said on Tuesday.

DONETSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) The Ukrainian security forces have formed a striking force of over 12,000 people in order to launch an offensive against the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in the direction of the city of Mariupol, in the south of the region, deputy commander of the DPR Operational Command Eduard Basurin said on Tuesday.

On Saturday, following the assassination of the republic's leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, Basurin said that Kiev might launch the offensive on September 14.

"According to the intelligence ... from the conflict zone, it is clear that the enemy's offensive striking force has been formed in the direction of the city of Mariupol ... The total strength of the formations and military units exceeds 12,000 people," Basurin said.

He added that the striking force was preparing to attack several settlements in the south of the republic and that the ultimate goal of the offensive was to reach the Russian border.

The armed conflict in the east of Ukraine was triggered in 2014, after the DPR and another self-proclaimed republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, announced their independence from Ukraine, refusing to recognize the new government, which seized power after the overthrow of then-President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany have been seeking to settle the conflict via their multilateral talks. In 2015, the group signed the Minsk ceasefire agreements, however, both Kiev and Donbas continue mutual accusations of truce breaches.The European Parliament will vote on September 12 on a resolution urging the European Commission to impose sanctions on Hungary over the country's non-compliance with democratic principles and EU policies, a EU source told Sputnik.

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) The European Parliament will vote on September 12 on a resolution urging the European Commission to impose sanctions on Hungary over the country's non-compliance with democratic principles and EU policies, a EU source told Sputnik.

The resolution may lead to the commission launching a procedure by that could result in Hungary being deprived of its voting rights in the Council of the European Union under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union.

"The voting on the resolution is scheduled for September 12," the source said.

Hungary has long been critical of the European Union's open-door policy, initially introduced at the onset of the continent's migration crisis, and opposed the mandatory migrant relocation quotas. Budapest's stance prompted the European Commission to launch its first infringement procedure against Hungary over its asylum legislation in December 2015. Hungary, in particular, set up border fences and enhanced border control with neighboring Serbia.

In March 2017, Hungary's parliament adopted a law stating that all asylum seekers entering Hungary, as well as those already in the country, would be required to wait for the verdict on their asylum case in mandatory transit zones, so-called container camps on the border.

Over recent months, Hungary has come under intense criticism due to its new so-called Stop Soros law, which banned non-governmental organizations from providing aid to undocumented migrants. The controversial legislation takes aim at EU migration regulations and Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros, who proposed a plan to address Europe's refugee crisis, part of which involves member states keeping their borders open for documented migrants.

On July 19, the European Commission referred Budapest to the Court of Justice of the European Union over its Stop Soros law, which the commission argued did not comply with EU legislation.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

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.

Baghdad, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Sep, 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.Latin American ministers met Monday to end the massive Venezuelan migrant crisis that has jolted the region, as Venezuela's government accused the United Nations of exaggerating the situation to justify "international intervention.

Quito, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Latin American ministers met Monday to end the massive Venezuelan migrant crisis that has jolted the region, as Venezuela's government accused the United Nations of exaggerating the situation to justify "international intervention." The delegates from 13 regional nations were seeking outside funding as they discussed in Quito a common solution to regularize the situation of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have migrated due to a situation whose very existence Caracas denies.

Venezuelans who immigrate "are highly vulnerable to human trafficking, the smuggling of migrants, labor exploitation, lack of access to social security, extortion, violence, recruitment for criminal activities, discrimination and xenophobia," said Ecuadoran Deputy Foreign Minister Andres Teran.

The two-day meeting in Quito precedes extraordinary talks at the Organization of American States set to begin Wednesday to discuss the same issue.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said the government had complained to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that "individual officials" have been portraying "a normal migratory flow as a humanitarian crisis to justify an intervention."The UN says 1.6 million Venezuelans since 2015 have fled economic meltdown in the country, which has been hit by shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicine.(@FahadShabbir)

The liberation of the Syrian province of Idlib from militants via a military operation is more likely than through a ceasefire due to the region specifics, Minister of State for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar said Tuesday.

DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) The liberation of the Syrian province of Idlib from militants via a military operation is more likely than through a ceasefire due to the region specifics, Minister of State for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar said Tuesday.

"Idlib differs from other areas in that there are many militants, this is their last resort, and Turkey is trying to keep Idlib to itself ... In other areas, the work moved along in two main directions, ceasefires and a military solution, this is the basis that there was, but at the moment, military operation seems more likely than a ceasefire due to the aforementioned reasons," the minister said.

Haidar added that the attempts to conclude ceasefire agreements continue, however, it is more difficult in Idlib than it was in other provinces, where Damascus was negotiating with the civil population. In Idlib, militants ave detained about 500 people supporting a dialogue with the central authorities, according to the Russian center for reconciliation.

Haidar stressed that the center for the reconciliation had a central role in the negotiations, trying to contact militants through Turkey.

The province in the northwest of Syria is the last remaining stronghold of armed groups in the country, including Nusra Front terrorist organization, banned in Russia.The Palestinian authorities believe that a confederation with neighboring Jordan, proposed by US President Donald Trump as a solution for peace, would be meaningless before a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with eastern Jerusalem as its capital is established, the country's ambassador to Russia, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) The Palestinian authorities believe that a confederation with neighboring Jordan, proposed by US President Donald Trump as a solution for peace, would be meaningless before a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with eastern Jerusalem as its capital is established, the country's ambassador to Russia, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, told Sputnik.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday, according to Israeli news outlet Haaretz, that Trump's team proposed to him a peace plan involving the establishment of Palestine-Jordan confederation. According to the report, Abbas responded by saying that he wanted a three-party confederation that would also include Israel.

"We believe that a confederation with Jordan in the current situation is useless and meaningless. After we have the independent state of Palestine within the 1967 borders and our capital in Jerusalem, we can discuss the possibility of such a confederation with Jordan. It is our concept," Nofal said.

The Palestinian ambassador underlined that Abbas' support for a tripartite confederation was merely "a play on words" and should not be taken seriously.

"President Abbas does not believe that the Palestinian precondition of a two-state solution can be fulfilled in the current situation, therefore, he compared the possibility of establishing an independent state and confederation with Jordan with prospects of establishing a confederation with Israel.

Both concepts cannot be implemented in the existing conditions. It is just a play on words, not a serious proposal," Nofal stated.

During the 2016 presidential campaign and after taking office, Trump promised to take steps toward settling the long-standing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Among these measures was ordering White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt to focus on the middle East conflict, and to work out a plan that could bring peace to the region.

The Middle East settlement process took a hit last December when the United States decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The move was condemned by Arab states and has been rejected by European states. Palestine responded by refusing to allow the United States to remain the Primary mediator in peace talks with Israel.(@FahadShabbir)

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) Hundreds of people will gather in London on Wednesday for the three-day conference of the World Nuclear Association, which will be dedicated to the future of nuclear power.

The event will be attended by representatives of multiple sectors of the nuclear industry, from fuel enrichment to transport and reactor construction, from over 30 nations.

The symposium will address key issues facing the nuclear industry, with environmental concerns and nuclear energy's public image set to be the key points of debate.

The conference will be featured by a high-level panel discussion, including Michael Bluck, the director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London, and Mikhail Chudakov, the deputy director general and head of the Department of Nuclear Energy of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which will be held on Friday.

The event will be carried out amid sporadic protests across the United Kingdom with both the safety and environmental sustainability of nuclear power prompting concern of the general public.

On Saturday, activists from the Highlands Against Nuclear Transport group and the Cromarty Peace Group campaigners held a protest at a train station in the Scottish city of Inverness over transportation of radioactive waste through the city to the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing facility.

In a similar case on August 27, hundreds of protesters gathered at the National Assembly for Wales to rally against the authorities' plans to dump dredged mud from Somerset's Hinkley Point C nuclear power site into Cardiff Bay.

Although the Hinkley Point C site is not yet operational, campaigners fear the mud may be contaminated by radioactive waste from sites A and B, something that the EDF Energy, the sites' owner, has consistently ruled out. Protesters insist that their fears are well-founded, believing that tests on potential mud contamination, which have already been carried out, are insufficiently conclusive.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Rwanda's ruling party was set to win three-quarters of directly elected parliamentary seats in this week's poll, provisional results showed Tuesday.

Kigali, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Rwanda's ruling party was set to win three-quarters of directly elected parliamentary seats in this week's poll, provisional results showed Tuesday.

Long-time ruler President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and its seven smaller allied parties, had 75 percent of the votes after Monday's election, with 70 percent of ballots counted.

Final results are not due until September 16.

Parties were vying for 53 of the country's 80 directly elected parliamentary seats of which 24 are reserved for women, two for youth and one for the disabled, all chosen by special councils and national committees.

Instead of voting for individual lawmakers, Rwandans vote for a party which then decides the candidates to enter parliament.

To win at least one seat, a party has to get at least five percent of the total votes cast.

Once again the country's only critical opposition, the Green Party, appeared unlikely to win a single parliamentary seat after taking just 4.5 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

Green Party leader Frank Habineza won only 0.45 percent of the vote in last year's presidential election, won by Kagame with 99 percent.

Another opposition aspirant, Diane Rwigara, was blocked from contesting that presidential election before being arrested and charged with treason.

Nearly all of Rwanda's seven million registered voters took part in Monday's legislative vote, according to the National Election Commission.

The projected 75 percent for the RPF would represent a slight decline since the last parliamentary poll five years ago, but still guarantees the ruling party's dominance.

Despite winning widespread praise for the high level of female representation in Rwanda's parliament, the legislature does not challenge Kagame, preferring to act as a rubber stamp for his initiatives.

Three years ago parliament unanimously approved a plan to hold a constitutional referendum that changed presidential term limits, clearing the way for Kagame to stay in power until 2034.

The outgoing parliament has also approved harsh prison terms for journalists publishing cartoons deemed "embarrassing to government authorities".

Kagame has been the de-facto leader of Rwanda since 1994 when, as a 36-year-old, his rebel army routed extremist Hutu forces who slaughtered an estimated 800,000 people -- mainly minority Tutsis -- and seized Kigali.

Kagame is hailed for his role in halting the genocide and turning around Rwanda's economy but criticised for his iron-fisted rule with rights groups regularly accusing him of ruling through fear and crushing free speech.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Russia will raise the issue of an international investigation into the murder of Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), at the meeting of the contact group in Minsk on Wednesday, Russian envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine Boris Gryzlov said Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) Russia will raise the issue of an international investigation into the murder of Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), at the meeting of the contact group in Minsk on Wednesday, Russian envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine Boris Gryzlov said Tuesday.

"We will raise the issue of an international investigation into the murder of DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko at the meeting of the Contact Group tomorrow," Gryzlov told reporters.

According to the official, the investigation should be "open and unbiased, involving all parties to the Minsk process."

Gryzlov noted that the contact group, which regularly held meet with the OSCE participation, should also be engaged in the probe.(@FahadShabbir)

Sweden holds legislative elections on Sunday, with polls predicting a parliamentary deadlock as neither Prime Minister Stefan Lofven's left-wing bloc nor the opposition centre-right are seen winning a majority, while the far-right makes gains.

Stockholm, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2018 ) :Sweden holds legislative elections on Sunday, with polls predicting a parliamentary deadlock as neither Prime Minister Stefan Lofven's left-wing bloc nor the opposition centre-right are seen winning a majority, while the far-right makes gains.

"It's difficult to single out the most likely (government) scenario" after the election, University of Gothenburg political scientist Ulf Bjereld told AFP.

"Instead you have to look for the least unlikely scenarios," he said.

One thing is certain: Sweden is headed for a period of uncertainty, with a weak minority government triggering fears of new elections, at a time when economists are forecasting a likely downturn during the next four-year mandate.

Traditionally in Sweden after the election, the outgoing speaker of parliament consults with party leaders to nominate a candidate for prime minister tasked with forming a government.

Parliament votes on the speaker's choice, and can reject his proposal four times, after which new elections must be called. Sweden has not held a snap election since 1958.

The post-election scenario seen as most likely by political observers is a new Lofven government, albeit with an even weaker minority than it has now.

The outgoing "red-green" bloc -- made up of the governing Social Democrats and the Greens, with the informal support in parliament of the ex-communist Left Party -- is leading in the polls ahead of the centre-right Alliance.Grodno, Belarus, Sept 2 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Sep, 2018 ) :When she set out on a boat for the USSR with her family some 70 years ago, Yanina Stashko had no idea she would never see her native France again.

Like millions of others, mainly from continental Europe but also Britain and the United States, Stashko's family was tempted "home" to the Soviet Union by a post-war propaganda drive.

But when they got there they lost their previous nationality, found themselves impoverished at best and victims of political repression at worst.

"Of course I could have done much more in France than I did here. But obviously it is too late to go back," the 88-year-old told AFP at the farm where she lives in the west of Belarus.

In the 1920s, Stashko's father had moved from what is now western Belarus to France along with his wife.

There he worked in the mines in the north of the country which at the time were crippled by strikes.

"In France we lived well. We had a house that my father was given from the mine," said Stashko, who was born shortly after her parents' arrival in the country.

- Millions like us - But after World War II, her father lost his job.

The region from where in Belarus his family originated had become a part of the USSR -- at home, they would read Soviet newspapers, which were full of propaganda, and talk about what life would be like on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

At the time, the Soviet Union was on a major repatriation drive with immigrants, exiles, "White Russians" who had opposed the Bolsheviks in the Civil War, as well as other refugees from the conflict encouraged to come back.

Soviet statistics from 1952 say as many as 4.3 million people returned from around the world.

"In the end, my father said that he wanted to go 'home'. But nobody asked my opinion," said Stashko, who was a teenager and working as a seamstress in France.

In 1948, the family set out from the French port of Marseille to Odessa, southern Ukraine, with around 2,800 others, according to only child Stashko.

"We travelled as workers, in third class. The people in first and second class took cars with them, their belongings, some of them were leaving behind their businesses in France.

"There were doctors, engineers, teachers," the now widowed mother-of-two remembers.

But when they arrived, the passengers in the top two classes were immediately confronted with the realities of Joseph Stalin's regime.

"They were arrested and their belongings were confiscated," Stashko said.

Her own family saw their French passports confiscated and they were transported in cattle wagons to Belarus.

There, her father began work in a Kolkhoz, or collective farm, but he was sentenced to a year in prison for "subversion" after an argument with the leader of the collective.

"During that time, we tried just to keep our heads down. I used to send letters to France but then I stopped because we were scared." - One last journey home - Thanks to a sewing machine brought with them from France, which they were miraculously able to keep, the family earned enough to survive on meagre post-war rations.

Up until the 1970s, Stashko would make dresses in the French 1940s style.

In 1973, the French state tracked down her father and gave him a comfortable pension for his work in the mines, which then passed to his wife when he died.

But after the Soviet Union broke up in the early 1990s, the link to France was lost again.

In January this year, the Belarussian press picked up the family's story, and in the summer, Stashko was invited to the French Embassy in Minsk with a dozen other "children of France" and their descendents.

The ambassador promised the former seamstress one last journey to the village where she was born in the north of the country.

But, at almost 90, there is no guarantee Stashko will be able to make the trip.

"I would love to go back to the country and find our house again. And maybe see Paris -- I've never seen Paris," she told AFP.(@rukhshanmir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) US President Donald Trump and Kuwait's Emir meet at the White House on Wednesday where they will discuss trade and security cooperation amid ongoing tensions and accelerating developments in the Gulf and on the international stage.

The White House in a press release on Friday said Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Trump would discuss trade, investment, and security cooperation during their "working" meeting.

On Tuesday, the emir arrived in Washington and was greeted at the airport by senior State Department officials, KUNA news agency reported. The Emir's delegation includes senior officials from the finance and foreign ministries along with top technology and investment representatives, the report added.

Kuwait Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah during an interview with KUNA on Tuesday underscored the fact the visit to Washington of His Highness comes at a time of "accelerating" developments in the Gulf region and on the international stage along with challenges the international coalition against terrorism must face.

Kuwait has acted as a mediator in a diplomatic row that erupted last year between Qatar and other Gulf and Arab states. Kuwait handed Doha an ultimatum from four Arab states with 13 demands, including cutting ties with Iran, shutting down Al Jazeera, and ending support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization banned in Russia. Qatar refused to comply with the demands.

The Pentagon announced on Friday that Defense Secretary James Mattis had met with representatives of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and other Arab countries to discuss working together to address shared security issues in the region.

Last month, the United States, Kuwait and Iraq participated in a joint maritime security exercise in the US 5th Fleet area of operations that includes the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean, including three critical choke points - the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Bab-al-Mandeb Strait at the southern tip of Yemen.(@rukhshanmir)

The Turkish forces "neutralized" three militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in an airstrike in northern Iraq, local media reported Tuesday, citing the Turkish military.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The Turkish forces "neutralized" three militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in an airstrike in northern Iraq, local media reported Tuesday, citing the Turkish military.

The Monday's strike targeted the area of Gara, according to Anadolu news agency.

The militants were preparing for an attack on the Turkish border guards, the military said.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey. Tensions between Ankara and the Kurds escalated in July 2015 when a ceasefire between Turkey and the PKK collapsed over a series of terror attacks allegedly committed by the PKK members. The Turkish forces are involved in anti-PKK raids across the country.(@rukhshanmir)

Kiev has proposed to Vienna the possibility of becoming a patron of one of the damaged settlements in the conflict-torn Donbas region to assist in its reconstruction, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday during a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) Kiev has proposed to Vienna the possibility of becoming a patron of one of the damaged settlements in the conflict-torn Donbas region to assist in its reconstruction, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday during a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

"I am confident that we will continue effective cooperation at all levels ... We are waiting for President [Alexander Van der Bellen] to pay a visit. I asked Mr. Sebastian to pass on my invitation ... We have sent proposals on Austria's possible patronage over one of the settlements [in Donbas], and today we are carefully working out these offers," Poroshenko said.

In May, the Ukrainian president discussed the situation in the conflict-torn Donbas with Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly President Gigi Tsereteli, suggesting that the EU states become patrons of settlements in the affected region in order to, among others, help rebuild these areas.

The conflict in Donbas started in 2014, when Kiev launched a military operation against self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics after they refused to recognize the new government in Kiev that came to power after what they considered to be a coup. In February 2015, the warring parties signed the Minsk peace accords to end the hostilities in the region, but the situation has remained tense, with both parties accusing each other of ceasefire violations.The United Nations is not playing a significant or effective role in the Syrian refugee repatriation process, Syria's Minister of State for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar told Sputnik on Tuesday.

DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) The United Nations is not playing a significant or effective role in the Syrian refugee repatriation process, Syria's Minister of State for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar told Sputnik on Tuesday.

In August, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said that the operations to return refugees to Syria, which are, in particular, being carried out with the help of Russia, were premature, claiming that the conditions in the country were too dangerous for mass repatriation.

"Now the UN does not play any effective, significant or clearly positive role in the return of refugees," Haidar said.

Syria is gradually recovering from a now seven-year conflict. Russia actively supports the voluntary return of refugees, and assists the Syrian government in rebuilding infrastructure and providing humanitarian aid. According to the Russian Defense Ministry's estimates, some 300,000 Syrians have returned to the country from abroad over the past 2.5 years, while more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees in nine countries have expressed their desire to repatriate.

In July, Russia set up a refugee center in Syria to receive, relocate and accommodate civilians who return to the country from neighboring states.Page Content

From children's toys to safe drinking water, faculty experts from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will discuss a wide variety of topics in a public lecture series offered this coming academic year.

The College of Letters and Science Community Lecture Series will be held on select Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. in the Pinery Room at the Portage County Public Library, 1001 Main St., Stevens Point. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

The first of eight lectures, "Bats Under Threat  Are Wisconsin's Bats Disappearing?" will be held Tuesday, September 11, presented by Chris Yahnke in the Department of Biology at UW-Stevens Point.

"Bats are under attack from two different sources: A fungus that infects small bats that hibernate in caves, and the growing number of wind turbines that affect the larger migratory bats," said Yahnke. "Learn how bats in Wisconsin are responding to these threats."

The 2018-2019 Community Lecture Series schedule also includes:

Oct. 16  The Future of Human-Technology Interaction, Tomi Heimonen, Department of Computing and New Media Technologies

Nov. 13  The Great War in the Midwest: Publishing John Herrmann's "Foreign Born," Ross Tangedal, Department of English

Dec. 11  Ethics and Conscious Machines, Joshua Horn, Department of Philosophy

Feb. 12  Barbies or Monster Trucks? The Role of Gender in Children's Toy Interests, Erica Weisgram, Department of Psychology

March 12  Science Fairs in the Age of Sputnik, Sarah Scripps, Department of History and International Studies

April 9  The Critical Function of Critical Thinking, Dona Warren, Department of Philosophy

May 7  Clean Water, Safe Water: The Basics of How Water Laws Impact What You Drink, Brad Mapes-Martins, Department of Political Science

For more information on the Community Lecture Series, visit www.uwsp.edu/cols/lectureseries or email stappa@uwsp.edu.



Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at Downtown Summerlin will kick off the fall season with its all-new The Grill Gathering Series, a unique and fun dinner series featuring a selection of themed eats and libation pairings, inspired by Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Groups impressive roster of chefs.

Set to debut its first installment on Tuesday, Sept. 25, The Grill Gathering Series: Beer & BBQ will allow guests to come together as community to enjoy classic BBQ favorites paired with refreshing brews from local, family-owned Lovelady Brewing Company from Henderson, NV. Chef De Cuisine Tim Duda (Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at Downtown Summerlin) and Dylan Hallas (Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at MGM Grand Las Vegas) will partner to create a forward-thinking family-style feast allowing guests to explore a variety of Southern-inspired cuisine, all expertly matched with six signature beers from Lovelady Brewing  complete with plenty of raffle giveaways.

The event will kick off at 6 p.m. and feature the following menu:

Family-Style Appetizers

chile-honey glazed chicken wings, toasted sesame seeds, green onion

devilled eggs, smoked salmon, chopped herbs

roasted corn and tomato salad, cotija cheese, cumin vinaigrette

Smoked Meats

16-hour angus brisket, baby back ribs, house made hot link sausage,

brined half chickens, pulled pork shoulder

Sides

baked beans, bacon, molasses

collard greens, lemon, chicken jus

buttermilk cheddar biscuits

napa cabbage slaw, cilantro, horseradish dressing

butterball potato salad, celery, whole grain mustard

four cheese macaroni gratin

Something Sweet

late summer berry cobbler, smoked milk ice cream

banana cream pie, whipped cream, bacon crust

Beers

Lovelady Paleo Porter

Lovelady Golden Nite Lager

Lovelady Love Juice Hazy IPA

Lovelady Outbock IPA Hybrid

Lovelady HopAtomic Double IPA

Lovelady 9th Island Pineapple Sour

Featured Cocktail

Bacon Old FashionedYouk Chhang, the executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) has won the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award, a prestigious prize that is often referred to as Asias Nobel Prize.

Five other Asians -- Maria De Lourdes Martins Cruz from East Timor, Howard Dee from the Philippines, Bharat Vatwani and Sonam Wangchuk from India, and Vo Thi Hoang Yen from Vietnam -- were also granted the prize.

"The Magsaysay awardees of 2018 are clearly Asia's heroes of hope, moving their societies forward through their unique vocal pursuit of the larger good," Carmencita Abella, president of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF), said in a statement. "Their approaches are all deeply anchored on a respect for human dignity, and a faith in the power of collective endeavor.

The award recognized Chhangs work in preserving the memory of the Khmer Rouge mass killings and lifelong mission to work on a process of restorative justice, the statement added.

In his acceptance letter, Chhang said it is important to remember the mistakes of the past, adding that justice will always begin and end with the duty of memory.

Chhang founded DC-Cam in 1995 aiming to promote memory and justice for national reconciliation. He founded the Sleuk Rith Institute to serve as a research center on Khmer Rouge atrocities.

Despite the destruction, loss, or absence of records, DC-Cam was able to collect and assemble over one million documents, providing over half of these as evidence in the war crimes trials, the RMAF statement reads.

As a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, Chhang was tortured and detained and lost dozens of relatives, including his father and five of his siblings.

For me, you know its a responsibility. This is my responsibility as a survivor, he told Rappler. "I have to do the best of my ability, and I have to do it honestly because it's not just for others but my own family as well.

This award is a reminder, on behalf of my mother and all mothers in Cambodia who have survived the genocide, he wrote in his acceptance letter.[Editor's Note: Dr. Charles Edel is a senior fellow and visiting scholar at the United States Studies Center and the author of a recent article on Cambodias Troubling Tilt Toward China and What It Means for Washingtons Indo-Pacific Strategy. Previously he held the position of the policy planning staff for the US Secretary of State. He was an associate professor of strategy and policy at the US Naval War College. He recently spoke with VOAs Sotheary You about Cambodias increasing reliance on China for political and economic support.]

What do you think about the position of Cambodia regarding the Indo-Pacific Strategy?

The point of mine is that actually if you think about the geography of the Indo-Pacific, in many ways, Southeast Asia is right in the middle of it. In many ways, Cambodia is right in the middle of it. But it is not a country that is often talked about - how Washington will engage with it. So, I thought that it really presents an opportunity to broaden how America thinks about its engagement in the region, and, in some ways, the country that is the hardest for America to engage with, I think. So that was really the genesis of the text.

Is the United States interested in engaging Cambodia in the strategy?

I think it is. But I think in some ways it is more challenging to engage with a county that is moving away from being a free and open society as a country itself which of course makes it more challenging. And one of the things that struck me when I was in Cambodia is there is an interest and need for, of course, foreign investment, and investment that comes from multiple sources. Thats always how you make it more competitive for a country. And yet, there seems to be restrictions on that because, for there to be a route to have more open investment, there needs to be more transparency. And it seems to be [heading the] opposite way.

In your article, you wrote about white elephant projects, ghost cities and Potemkin villages. What are the implications of that based on other countries experiences or Cambodia itself?

The implications are simple. First of all, there are projects undertaken that are working for whoever is investing in them, whichever people have made the deal, but not for the people who live in the country necessarily. It also means, and this is kind of the furthest extreme that weve seen in other countries, when a country begins to take on unsustainable level of debt, and particularly with Chinaweve seen in multiple other countries, in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and somewhere in the pacific islandall of a sudden, the forfeiture for that debt tends to be sovereign assets. And so when countries cannot pay back the projects, and when they are white elephant projects that, in fact, dont contribute to the development and prosperity of the country, all of a sudden, there tends to be, you know, crises for sovereign assets of the country.

You raised concerns about the Chinese debt trap. With the retreat of the West from Cambodia and the engagement of China with millions of dollars of investment, do you see Cambodia falling into this trap in the future?

I think the possibility of it going into the trap gets heightened. It gets heightened when more debt is taken on, and there are not alternative sources of revenue or even alternative sources of bidders for projects that are brought in. Now the debt trap that I talked about, that I wrote about, and which I went through with other countries as well, is not just that countries are in debt, and in some ways unsustainable debt. Its [also] what happens when their creditor says you are in debt, and now I need a payoff in exchange for that. So, will it happen [to Cambodia] or not? I, of course, cant tell the future.

The debt trap is not simply that countries accumulate debt. There are more steps to it than that. The debt trap diplomacy, of which we speak, when we talk about what happened in countries like Sri Lanka, in the Maldives, and in several in the south Pacific Islands, in Djibouti and elsewhere, is that they have taken on unsustainable levels of debt; that the country cannot actually pay the debt back. When that happens, the creditors, in this instance we are talking about Chinese companies or the Chinese government, in some instances, has asked for the forfeiture of sovereign assets, either the territorial locations or other things. So, again in Cambodia, I dont know if this will happen or not. But as the debt level rises to only one creditor without other sources of revenue coming in and with no real productive, sustainable development, it heightens the chances of there being something like this in the future.

You mentioned that Cambodia is not in Chinas pocket even if the current leadership is. So what does it mean?

Well, what I meant by that is the current government of Beijinganything, almost anything that China wants is what Hun Sen is willing to do. However, from my experience there, when I was on research, this is not the attitude of Cambodia. So when I wrote that, I meant that this struck me as resistance and, in some senses, anger. And whenever we talked about projects, we talked about the fact that Cambodians are often not employed, but [you have] large-scale inflows of Chinese workers. This is also particularly true when we talked about the Cambodian coastline. Twenty percent of the Cambodian coastline is sold secretly, almost. In particular, there was anger at the fact that the projects were almost all, or many of them, employing Chinese workers who are brought in, and Cambodians were moved off their land for a project that sometimes was helpful, sometimes not helpful. And also, there seems to be some real anger at this project down on the coast where 20 percent of the coastline had been sold secretly, and apparently in contravention of Cambodias laws, to a Chinese business.

You mentioned that the United States and its allies need to look at Cambodia with fresh eyes. What do you mean exactly?

I think they need to do that not because it is a small country, but because it is a country that has enormous potential. It is a country that has a very young population, and that has, in many ways, been growing economically. In fact, I also think that because the centerpiece of Washingtons free and open strategy is to help countries choose their own destinies, and not have to choose their destinies based on how other countries tell them to. So, the fact that Cambodia is a harder country for this to happen under the current regime should make it that much more important not less important to the US and its allies.

You wrote that Chinas defense minister claimed that Cambodia was a loyal friend. I have heard many times about Cambodia being a loyal friend to China. What does it mean to the United States and its allies?

Well, the question, I think, and the concern is what does loyalty bring for Cambodia? Has it helped advance Cambodias interests? I started to say this earlier. The reason this matters more now is because there is a troubling phenomenon happening in Asia, but also worldwide at this point, that authoritarian regimesthose who want to close off space for their own people, close off civil societies, close down the way that people create, close off the free exchange of ideas and people, are in the ascendance, are making moves. And, a lot of this comes out of work very closely with an authoritarian model that resides in Beijing and in Moscow. The fact is, when we see this spread to other countries, this is something that cannot be in the interest of a West which believes in a free and open globalized world. This is a concern and particularly as Cambodia, or at least Hun Sens Cambodia, is willing to crank up the authoritarian nature of their own society and protect Chinese interests abroad.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summoned a union leader to give evidence in the ongoing case against the leader of Cambodias banned main opposition party.

The Cambodia National Rescue Party was dissolved by court order in November after its president, Kem Sokha, was arrested on treason charges.

Vorn Pao, president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), was issued a summons to appear in court on Monday.

Pao told VOA he would appear in court as requested.

I think that the court just summoned [me] to be questioned as a witness, but I would like to make it clear that I don't have any involvement [in the alleged crime], he said.

Pao was among two dozen people who were arrested and beaten by a paratrooper regiment in January 2014, amid protests and worker strikes that led to the deaths of at least five Cambodians at the hands of the security forces.

Pao was one of the union leaders calling for a higher minimum wage for the countrys informal workers at the time.

As I told you, I worked only on the working conditions for workers in the informal sector and the gasoline price during that time. I have nothing to get involved [with Kem Sokha's case], he added.

Several other leading civil society representatives were called to give evidence in May, including leading campaigners and rights workers. Sia Phearum, the head of the Housing Rights Task Force, one of those who was called as a witness, has since fled the country to the United States, fearing arrest.

Investigating Judge Ky Rithy could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Sokha has so far been in pretrial detention for one year and has been denied visitation rights outside of immediate family and a small number of former colleagues.Russia on Tuesday joined Iran in expressing support for Syria's impending operation to retake control of rebel-held Idlib province, the last major opposition stronghold in the country.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Idlib is a pocket of terrorism, and that the situation there is undermining efforts to find a political resolution to the Syrian conflict.

That follows statements Monday by Iran's Foreign Ministry saying Idlib should be cleared of "terrorists." Iranian media also quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif saying during a visit to Syria that Idlib should be put back under the control of the Syrian people, and that reconstruction efforts in Syria and the return of refugees should go forward.

There are about 3 million people in Idlib and the United Nations has said it is worried about the potential humanitarian toll that may come with a Syrian military campaign there.

Trump's warning



U.S. President Donald Trump warned Syria in a tweet Monday evening not to "recklessly attack" attack Idlib. He also called on two major backers of President Bashar al-Assad's military to also restrain their actions.

"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump said.



David Lesch, a history professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, told VOA that while the Trump administration is "ratcheting up the pressure a little bit" beyond its previous admonitions to not use chemical weapons, but that U.S. influence on what happens in Idlb is limited.

"Frankly speaking, I don't think there's anything the United States can do about it. I think Russia and the Syrian government and their allies are dead-set on taking over Idlib, either in a phased way or in an all-out massive invasion," Lesch said.

Syria has been at war since early 2011 with a multitude of parties including pro-government forces, rebel groups and militants all fighting for control over various areas.

Assad's forces, backed by military support from Russia and Iran, have recaptured major cities in recent years, often involving agreements with both opposition fighters and civilians that allowed them to flee to Idlib.

Assad's government has long referred to any opposition fighters as "terrorists." The Idlib area includes both rebel groups and militants such as the Nusrah Front.

The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are set to hold a meeting in Tehran on Friday to discuss the situation in Idlib.

Victor Beattie contributed to this report.A tiny Alaska Native village has experienced a boom in tourism in recent years as polar bears spend more time on land than on diminishing Arctic sea ice.

More than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaska village of Kaktovik on the Beaufort Sea last year to see polar bears in the wild, Alaska's Energy Desk reported Monday.

The far north community is located on north shore of Barter Island on the Beaufort Sea coast in an area where rapid global warming has sped up the movement of sea ice, the primary habitat of polar bears. As ice has receded to deep water beyond the continental shelf, more bears are remaining on land to look for food.

The village had fewer than 50 visitors annually before 2011, said Jennifer Reed of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"Today we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of visitors, many from around the world, each year,'' Reed said.

Polar bears have always been a common sight on sea ice near Kaktovik, but residents started noticing a change in the mid-1990s. More bears seemed to stay on land, and researchers began taking note of more female bears making dens in the snow on land instead of on the ice.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists began hearing reports of increasing numbers of polar bears in the area in the early 2000s, Reed said. As more attention was given to the plight of polar bears about a decade ago, more tourists stated heading to Kaktovik.

Bears stranded

Most tourists visit in the fall, when bears are forced toward land because sea ice is the farthest away from the shore. Some bears become stranded near Kaktovik until the sea freezes again in October or November.

The fall is also when residents of Kaktovik kill three bowhead whales. Bruce Inglangasak, an Inupiaq subsistence hunter who offers wildlife viewing tours, said residents were unsure how tourists would react to whaling.

"The community was scared about, you know, activists that were going to try to get us to shut down the whaling  subsistence whaling,'' Inglangasak said. "But that's not true.''

Inglangasak said he's been offering polar bear tours since 2003 or 2004. Most of his clients are from China and Europe, as well as from the Lower 48 U.S. states, and arrive in Katovik on charter planes from Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Many tourists stay several days in the village, which has two small hotels, Inglangasak said.As firefighters sifted through the burned-out remains of Rio de Janeiro's National Museum for hot embers Monday, Brazilians struggled with the loss of a vast collection of irreplaceable items from the country's history.



The 200-year-old museum contained an extensive collection of paleontological, anthropological and biological specimens, such as a skeleton that was considered the oldest human remains ever found in the Americas and the largest meteorite ever found in Brazil, as well as historical memorabilia.

WATCH: Brazilians Mourn Loss of Most Important Museum

The feeling of loss quickly turned to one of anger among many in Rio de Janeiro, and several hundred people gathered outside the museum, demanding to see the damage. Some tried to push beyond a police line but were turned back by officers who used tear gas and batons.



"Our community is very mobilized, and very indignant," said Roberto Leher, director of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, which runs the museum. "We all knew the building was vulnerable."

Protester Laura Albuquerque, a 29-year-old dance teacher, said, "It's a crime that the museum was allowed to get to this shape. What happened isn't just regrettable, it's devastating, and politicians are responsible for it.''



In recent years, Brazil has been rocked by a government corruption scandal and a recession. The museum, which has also suffered financial neglect, lacked a fire sprinkler system, officials said.



Marcio Martins, a museum spokesman, told the Associated Press the museum's budget had fallen from around $130,000 in 2013 to around $84,000 in 2017.



President Michel Temer said in a statement Monday that the loss of the building -- where the country's royal family once lived -- to fire late Sunday is an "incalculable loss for Brazil."



About 10 percent of collection survived



The museum's deputy director, Cristiana Serejo, told reporters that about 10 percent of its collection of more than 20 million items may have survived the flames. One thing officials say did survive the blaze was a large iron meteorite found in Brazil in 1784.

Museum curator Maria Elizabeth Zucolo was allowed to enter the burned-out building Monday to collect what remained of the meteorite exhibit.



"They let me enter because I could recognize the pieces. I knew where they were, and I could recover some of them from the ashes," she said.



Education Minister Rossieli Soares told reporters the federal government said it has plans to restore the structure and rebuild its collection. He said officials were already speaking with UNESCO, and would likely seek international help in rebuilding.



The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the protesters, journalists and museum directors themselves said years of government neglect had left the museum underfunded.

Culture Minister Sergio Leitao told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper an electrical short-circuit or a homemade paper hot-air balloon that may have landed on the roof were seen as the likely causes for the blaze. It is a tradition in the country to launch such balloons, but they have often caused blazes, officials said.



Roberto Robadey, commander of Rio de Janeiro's military fire department, said experts will be brought in as soon as possible to salvage what they can from the ashes.



"We're going to have the participation of museum employees. It will be a slow process so that we can, who knows, recover fragments  something that could still have historic value," he said.



Civil authorities, however, warned the internal walls of the building, which lacked most of its roof after the fire, were likely to collapse further.



Robadey told reporters that hydrants outside the building were dry when firefighters arrived. Crews were forced to send tanker trucks to a nearby lake for water.



Sunday "was one of the saddest days of my career," he added.



No casualties and no serious injuries have been reported because of the blaze, which started after the museum closed.Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, which suffered a massive fire late Sunday, boasted the largest archive of historical artifacts and documents in Latin America, some 20 million pieces from around the globe. Museum officials say it's too soon to say what has been lost or spared.

Here is a look at some of the museum's most notable pieces, according to its website:

Luzia

Discovered during an excavation in 1975 outside of the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, the fossilized remains sat in storage for two decades. In the mid-1990s, tests by scientists determined it was the oldest fossil in the Americas. It was given the name Luzia, homage to Lucy, the famous 3.2-million-year-old remains found in Africa.

Ancient Egypt

Among the Egyptian relics is the mummy of Sha-Amun-In-Su, dating to 750 B.C. The mummy was in its original coffin, which was closed. It was given to Brazils emperor, Dom Pedro II, by Egyptian Viceroy Ismail Pasha during a visit to the Middle East. Egyptian authorities have expressed concern about the fate of the collection and the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has told Brazilian authorities that it is ready to extend technical help for the restoration of artifacts.

Indigenous remains

One of the museums most important expositions of indigenous peoples were three bodies mummified together, an adult and two children. It was originally found in the state of Minas Gerais. The collection also includes bows and arrows from different indigenous groups and explanations about studies conducted by the royal family on the Tupi and Guarani languages.

Meteorite

Called Bendego and weighing more than 5 tons, the meteorite is the largest ever found in Brazil. It was found in the state of Bahia in the 18th century. The meteorite, which sits in a main entrance, could be seen in the burned-out building.

Dinosaur

One of the museum's most popular displays was one of its biggest, a dinosaur called Maxakalisaurus tapai. Found in Minas Gerais in 1998, the excavation and reconstruction of the dinosaur took 10 years.Laboratory tests by the chemical weapons watchdog confirmed British conclusions that two people in Amesbury, southwest England, were exposed to a Novichok-type nerve agent, it said Tuesday.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said analysis by designated laboratories of samples collected by its team "confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical."

Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after she and her partner were exposed to the toxin near the city of Salisbury where Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were struck down with the same poison in March.

The OPCW said "it is also the same toxic chemical that was found in the biomedical and environmental samples relating to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal."

The U.K. has accused Russia, which developed the toxic agent in the Soviet Union era, of poisoning the Skripals. Moscow denies all involvement.

Britain is ready to ask Russia to extradite two men it suspects of carrying out the nerve agent attack on Skripal.The decision by a court in Myanmar to sentence two Reuters journalists to seven years in prison for breaching a law related to state secrets has been met with an angry response inside and outside the country, with critics calling it an attack on press freedom.

On Monday, a judge at Yangon northern district court found Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo guilty of violating the countrys Official Secrets Act, a broadly worded law that dates back to when Burma, as it was then known, was under British colonial rule. The law calls for a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

The two were arrested in December in northern Yangon while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men in a village in northern Rakhine state in which military personnel were allegedly involved.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo say someone handed them documents before police invited them to dinner and arrested them. The prosecution maintains the two were arrested during a routine patrol when the documents were found.

However, testimony in the case has revealed cracks in the prosecutions argument. In April, police captain Moe Yan Naing, called as a prosecution witness, told the court the journalists were deliberately entrapped, while another official said he had burned his notes from the night of the arrests but could not explain why.

Pair defiant

Emerging from the court after the hearing, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo remained defiant.

We have been unfairly accused, Wa Lone told reporters as he was bundled into a police van that would take him and Kyaw Soe Oo back to prison. We didnt do anything harmful towards our nation. We didnt commit any crime, but [the court] decided to convict us anyway.

This is directly challenging democracy and media freedom in our country, he said.

There were passionate scenes as the pair left the court. Supporters attempted to stop the police van that was carrying them from them leaving. As the van drove away, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo smiled and held their arms aloft.

A government spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Our line of defense is that they were trapped, but the judge didnt accept that, the pairs lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters outside the court. We prepared for the worst, but hoped for the best. The situation in the country is like this.

Sad day for journalists

Stephen J. Adler, editor-in-chief of Reuters, called it a sad day for journalists everywhere.

This is a major step backward in Myanmars transition to democracy, cannot be squared with the rule of law or freedom of speech, and must be corrected by the Myanmar government as a matter of urgency, he said in a statement. We will not wait while Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo suffer this injustice and will evaluate how to proceed in the coming days, including whether to seek relief in an international forum.

As well as the international outcry, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have attracted support inside the country.

Support inside Myanmar

On Saturday, dozens of youths marched in Yangon showing their support for the two reporters. Demonstrators held aloft banners and chanted slogans calling for the journalists immediate release. Other reporters wore T-shirts that said journalism is not a crime.

Maung Saungkha, leader of free speech advocacy group Athan, told VOA the decision to jail them was a deliberate threat against media and the people to silence the truth.

The decision of the court has ushered in a dark age for Myanmars freedom of press and right to information. We strongly condemn the decision and request the president (Win Myint) to grant a presidential pardon to Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, he said.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar also strongly condemned the ruling.

The conviction and harsh sentence strike a blow to the journalistic profession and pose a grave threat to press freedom in Myanmar, FCCM said in a statement. We further urge the government to ensure that journalists are allowed to carry out their profession without fear of harassment and intimidation.U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on the phone Tuesday with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, regarding the latest developments on the Korean peninsula.

According to White House officials, Moon briefed Trump on Seoul's plan to dispatch a special envoy to Pyongyang on Wednesday, and promised to give the U.S. president details of the meeting after the South Korean envoy meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

U.S. officials say efforts continue to bring about what they call the "final, fully verified de-nuclearization of North Korea" as agreed to by Kim.

Officials say Trump and Moon agreed to meet later this month in New York when the United Nations General Assembly convenes.The U.S. Embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli is denying earlier reports its buildings had caught fire, as fighting raged in southern districts of the city. Libyan officials say 50 people have died in more than a week of fighting.

The United Nations continued to urge warring militias to lay down their arms, as fighting raged along the old airport road south of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

A fire broke out in the vicinity of the unoccupied U.S. Embassy compound along the road, but the embassy indicated on its Twitter account its buildings were not hit. The Libya Observer showed a picture of black smoke billowing into the air not far from the embassy, while some reports claimed a fuel depot had caught fire.

Libya's so-called Seventh Brigade from the town of Tarhouna insisted it had gained control of the road, but other sources disputed that claim. Heavy fighting has been centered around the strategic Yarmouk military camp in recent days.

A civil society activist who lives along the road, Muhanned Kalash, told VOA via Twitter he had seen anti-aircraft fire and could hear automatic weapons and tank shells exploding. He said that he had taken shelter in a basement.

U.N. Special Envoy Ghassan Salame invited the warring factions to take part in talks Tuesday at an undisclosed location, but it was not clear if the parties had reached any agreement.

The United Nations has also urged the warring factions to "avoid indiscriminate attacks" and not to target "migrants and internally displaced people."Prolonging the uncertainty over who will fill the late John McCain's U.S. Senate seat, the governor of Arizona on Tuesday announced the appointment of former Sen. Jon Kyl but said he has only committed to serve until the end of the year.



Kyl, a Republican who retired from the Senate in 2012 to become a lobbyist and spend more time with his family, is currently shepherding President Donald Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kyl's appointment will make it possible for him to vote for the nomination.



It's unclear what more Kyl, 76, will do in the Senate. He said he agreed to serve briefly out of a "sense of duty" and will not run for the seat in 2020, when Arizona voters will decide who fills the seat through 2022. The seat will then be up again for a full six-year term.



Gov. Doug Ducey, also a Republican, said Kyl was "the best possible person, regardless of politics" for the job, and he hopes Kyl serves past the end of the year.



If Kyl does leave the Senate after the end of the current congressional term next Jan. 3, Arizona's governor can appoint another senator for the remaining year. By state law the senator will have to be a member of the same party as the departing one, in this case the GOP.



For now, Kyl will pad Republicans' margin in the narrowly divided Senate. They hold a 51-49 majority but that dwindled to a single vote while McCain stayed in Arizona for much of this year being treated for the brain cancer that killed him on Aug. 25.



The GOP is hoping Kyl will be a more reliable partisan vote than McCain, whose opposition to a partial repeal of President Obama's health care law pitched the party into turmoil last year.



Kyl is well-respected in Arizona and has been able to avoid many of the battles with activists that complicated McCain's career and that of the state's other senator, Jeff Flake, who is retiring because his feud with Trump made his re-election impossible.



Kyl's entire career in Washington overlapped with McCain's, and he served with the state's senior senator for three terms before stepping down. Kyl carved out a profile as a reliable conservative vote and a foreign policy expert.



McCain's widow, Cindy, tweeted: "Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and John's. It's a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona."



Doug Cole, a veteran Republican consultant and former McCain aide, said Kyl was a safe pick.



"I think McCain would be very happy with the pick. Honors his legacy while putting some major horsepower for Arizona in the seat, at least for now," he said.



An attorney, Kyl speaks in a formal, reserved manner that is a sharp contrast to President Trump, and he belongs to an older, less populist vanguard of the GOP. At a news conference where he was introduced as McCain's replacement, Kyl said in a response to a question that he's only met Trump once, though he noted he is working for the White House by serving as Kavanaugh's so-called "sherpa."



With a nod toward McCain, Kyl said the president's "desire to jump into the middle of or be in the middle of a fight  and by the way that reminds me of somebody  can be detrimental in the end to what he's trying to achieve."



During his time back in the Senate, Kyl will have the opportunity to vote on several issues that have been involved in his lobbying activities, from immigration to national security.



Kyl has lobbied on behalf of young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, often called Dreamers, whose fate is in limbo after Trump tried to end an Obama-era program protecting them from deportation and Congress deadlocked on a solution.



Kyl will likely also vote on bills containing tens of billions of dollars for Defense Department programs after he represented defense giant Northrop Grumman. His work was primarily focused on tax issues affecting the company, but Kyl's firm, Covington & Burling, also lobbied the House and Senate to drum up support for the B-21 bomber, a stealth aircraft Northrop Grumman is building for the Air Force.



The unusual timing of Kyl's appointment could work out for another Arizona Republican who wants to become a U.S. senator  Rep. Martha McSally.



She's currently locked in a tough campaign against Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema for the Senate seat Flake is vacating. Should she lose, McSally  a former Air Force colonel who once worked on Kyl's staff  could be appointed to the McCain seat if Kyl leaves it in January.Mexican and international human rights groups Monday told the families of 43 students missing since 2014 that they are not alone, just days after President Enrique Pena Nieto reaffirmed his belief in the governments initial widely discredited investigation into the case.

Pena Nieto released a video last week in which he conceded that he would not be leaving a peaceful and safe country when his term ends later this year. But he said he remained convinced that the students from the teachers college in the southern state of Guerrero were killed by a drug gang and incinerated in a massive fire.

His assertion came nearly four years after the Sept. 26, 2014, incident in the town of Iguala. Since then, multiple reports by international investigators have criticized and discredited parts of the governments original investigation.

Worrisome position

Jan Jarab, representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico, alluded to Pena Nietos comments Monday.

There are signs that the authorities appear to be going back to the previous version, Jarab said. He called it worrisome because independent experts had discredited key parts of it.

The case of the Ayotzinapa 43 has not eclipsed the other cases of disappearances in Mexico as it could have four years ago, Jarab said. Rather it has highlighted the tragedy of disappearances that is lived in so many parts of the country and the lack of an adequate response by the state.

Jarab called on incoming President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to use the critical outside investigations as a starting point to pick up the work of finding out what happened to the students and identifying those responsible.

Truth commission ordered

In June, a federal court ordered the government to create a truth commission to reinvestigate the case. Among the problems was the widespread use of torture to extract confessions, a problem highlighted by a U.N. report earlier this year and affirmed by the court. The government is appealing the courts decision.

Jarab joined the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights monitoring team, which presented its own report to the families, and Mexicos National Human Rights Commission at the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa near Tixtla, Guerrero on Monday.

Their rejection of Pena Nietos recent comments came the same day the outgoing president gave his final state of the union speech in Mexico City. Lopez Obrador will take office Dec. 1.

Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez, the head of Mexicos National Human Rights Commission, said it continues working on its own report. He said the series of human rights violations they would identify in their report would be exhaustive.Israeli jets flying high over Lebanon struck at targets inside Syria on Tuesday, Syrian state media reported, in a rare daytime raid that killed at least one person.

Syria's SANA state news agency said the country's air defenses shot down five missiles, adding that one person was killed and 12 others were wounded.

It reported strikes on the Wadi Ayoun area in the western Hama province and on the town of Baniyas in the coastal Tartous province.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jets targeted military installations belonging to Iran, a key ally of the Syrian government.

Lebanese residents in areas north of the capital, Beirut, reported hearing jets overhead before sunset.

Israel is believed to be behind a string of strikes targeting government and allied military installations in Syria, in order to disrupt weapons transfers between its archenemies Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli government rarely acknowledges the attacks, and such strikes usually take place late at night.

The Syrian government accused Israel of striking a weapons research facility in Masyaf, near Wadi Ayoun, in July. The attack killed a top military scientist.

An Israeli military official said Tuesday that Israel has struck over 200 Iranian targets in Syria over the past 18 months. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity under military guidelines, said the targets were connected to Iran's elite Al-Quds force and include air force components, support infrastructure, and weapons storage and manufacturing facilities.

The official said Tuesday's alleged airstrikes were not included in the tally. He would not confirm Israel was behind those strikes, and did not comment on them.

Elsewhere in Syria, at least eight people were killed in airstrikes in the northern Idlib province, where Syria's rebels are holed up in their last major bastion. Those strikes were likely carried out by the Syrian government or its allies, which are preparing for a major offensive.

The Syrian Civil Defense, volunteer first responders also known as the White Helmets, said five children were killed in strikes on the town of Jisr al-Shughour and another three civilians were killed in strikes on the village of Mahambal. The Observatory said 13 people were killed.

The Observatory blamed the strikes on Russia, which intervened in Syria's civil war in 2015 to support President Bashar Assad.

Government forces are amassing at the border with Idlib province, while Russia revealed last week it had positioned more than a dozen ships off the Syrian coast, raising fears of a wide-scale offensive that could mark the last major battle in the seven-year civil war.

The U.N.'s special envoy to Syria, Staffan De Mistura, urged Russia and Turkey to reach a soft solution to avert an expected government offensive on the province.

Syria's government is determined to retake Idlib, which it says is being held hostage by terrorists. Russia and Iran, which also back the government, have adopted a similar position.

Turkey, which has financed and organized rebels in Idlib and keeps 12 military posts in the province, has been less clear about where it stands.

De Mistura, in a Geneva press conference, appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to prevent a showdown in Idlib, saying we need more time.

The leaders of Russia, Turkey, and Iran are slated to meet in Iran on Friday to discuss Syria. De Mistura said he heard from media reports that a campaign for Idlib could begin as early as the following Monday. It was not clear which reports he was referring to.

The envoy restated his offer to travel to Idlib to oversee humanitarian corridors so that civilians can shelter in safety if an offensive moves forward.

There are 2.9 million people presently in Idlib, according to U.N. estimates, including 1.4 million who have been displaced from their homes by fighting. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have sheltered in the province, away from the government, to escape military conscription or arrest.

De Mistura said he was determined to hold talks with high-level envoys from Turkey, Iran and Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. He also planned to meet with envoys from Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States on Sept. 14 to brief them on his efforts to launch a political process and help set up a committee that could revise Syria's constitution.

Separately, the White House warned that the U.S. and its allies would respond swiftly and appropriately against the Syrian government if it uses chemical weapons in its assault.

The U.S. has twice struck Syrian military installations in response to alleged poison gas attacks. The Syrian government denies ever using chemical weapons.

President Donald Trump on Monday sent a tweet warning the Syrian government and its allies against a reckless attack on Idlib, drawing fire from Moscow.

Russia says militants in Idlib target its own facilities in Syria and pose a terrorist threat.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russia's position on Tuesday, calling Idlib a hornets' nest of terrorists.

Asked about Trump's tweet, Peskov said such warnings do not consider the dangerous and negative potential of the rebel-held enclave and show that the White House does not have a comprehensive approach to solving the Syria crisis.Jeff Goldblum is charismatic as ever in The Mountain, where he plays a smooth-talking doctor with an effective way of rendering people with psychiatric problems "innocuous"  a term he uses as a euphemism for his devastating medical procedure.

Set in the 1950s, Goldblum's Wallace Fiennes is based on real-life lobotomist Walter Freeman, an evangelist of the operation that consisted of hammering spikes into patients' brains through their eye sockets to sever their prefrontal cortex.

Fiennes befriends Andy, a troubled young man played by Ready Player One star Tye Sheridan, who becomes his assistant and photographer as he travels from hospital to hospital. The doctor spends his free time drinking and womanizing.

"I'm drunken and picking up women for distraction  not necessarily for their wholesome benefit  and it's not so nice," Goldblum told Reuters in an interview at the Venice Film Festival, where the movie is in competition for the Golden Lion.

A far cry from the blockbuster Jurassic Park franchise, The Mountain is a slow-paced film that writer-director Rick Alverson made deliberately obtuse to force viewers to "wrestle" with to find its true meaning.

"It's an anti-utopian film. It's a consideration of the Western, and in this case particularly American, impulse to lunge unbridled into a future without consideration of the ramifications," Alverson said.

Set in 1954, the movie is a meditation of the end of the all-powerful white male in America with relevance for the Trump era, he told Reuters.

"There's a romanticizing the era of the '50s," Alverson said.

"The slogans of the ruling party in the States  the 'Make America Great Again' slogan  that America that they are trying to make great again was only great for a small ... segment of the population  white males ... [with] suppression of freedoms for much of the rest of the population."

Goldblum, who called the film an "epic poem" and an X-ray into the American psyche, said the lobotomy procedure  which was eventually discredited  was a metaphor for toxic masculinity, as it was often used "on women who, during the '50s, were thought to be needed to be mollified."

"It's a mistaken and primitive way that hopefully we are correcting but, as we know, it still needs correction."Democrats know who their voters are. They just have to figure out how to get them to the polls in November  and that's where the puppies come in.

Students returning to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus this summer were greeted by therapy dogs for petting. Those lured by the chance to ruffle a dog's ears were then asked to register to vote  a "Pups to the Polls" gimmick that was just one of several similar events being staged in 11 battleground states by the liberal group NextGen America.

Young people tend to vote for Democrats, but they also tend stay away during midterm elections. It's a perennial frustration for the party  one they are trying to overcome as they seek to take control of Congress.

NextGen America, formed by billionaire activist Tom Steyer, hopes to be a game changer. Steyer is investing more than $30 million in what's believed to be the largest voter engagement effort of its kind in U.S. history.

The push to register and get pledges from college students to vote is focusing on states such as Wisconsin, Virginia, California and North Carolina with competitive races for Congress, U.S. Senate and other offices.

NextGen sees young voters such as Kellen Sharp as key to flipping targeted seats from red to blue.

"The outcome of this election definitely affects us," said Sharp, an 18-year-old freshman from Milwaukee who stopped to register during the dog event the week before classes started. "I'm just excited to have a voice and say something."

A poll this summer by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV found that most Americans ages 15 to 34 think voting in the midterm elections gives their generation some say about how the government is run. The poll found young people eager to vote for someone who shared their political views on issues such as health care and immigration policy. They expressed far less excitement about voting for a candidate described as a lifelong politician.

"If we all vote, we can make a change," said 20-year-old Grace Austin, who stopped to pet the dogs at the Wisconsin event and wound up registering to vote.

Austin and other college students who registered said they feel like their friends are more interested in politics than ever before  boosting hopes of Democrats trying to reverse the trend of declining youth participation in midterm elections.

"We want them to know they need to show up and when they do, we will win," said NextGen's Wisconsin director George Olufosoye. "We want them to know they have power."

They certainly have the numbers.

Since the last midterm election in 2014, 15 million post-millennials  those between the ages of 18 and 21  have become eligible to vote. But while Generation X, millennials and post-millennials make up the majority of voting-eligible adults nationwide, they are not expected to cast the most votes in November.

In the 2014 midterm, they cast 21 million fewer votes than voters over age 54, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. Turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds hit a 40-year low in 2014, bottoming out at 17.1 percent, according to an analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE, at Tufts University.

'Energy, passion and activism'

NextGen points to higher voter turnout on the University of Wisconsin campus for a spring state Supreme Court election won by a liberal, and spikes in turnout in other targeted races, to argue that their push to register 122,000 young people to vote is bearing fruit.

"We're trying really hard to have this be much more of an infrastructure, organizational thing than a two-month campaign," NextGen founder Tom Steyer said in an interview. "We're trying to get the broadest possible democracy, the biggest representation."

More media coverage of competitive races, combined with energy from the March for Our Lives movement that seeks stricter gun laws, has empowered young voters and made them "feel like it's time to have their voice heard about what happens to their generation," said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of CIRCLE.

That's what NextGen hopes. It has nearly 800 organizers on 421 college campuses in Wisconsin, Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In Wisconsin alone, NextGen has 27 full-time workers and 40 student fellows registering voters on 26 campuses.

Republicans recognize the power that motivating young voters could have for Democrats, but they're skeptical that participation will increase much. In Wisconsin, Republicans have been targeting college voters for years.

"Wisconsin Republicans win by connecting with voters directly where they are  and young voters are no different when it comes to that strategy," said Wisconsin Republican Party spokesman Alec Zimmerman.

Wisconsin has two of the nation's competitive and closely watched races. Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin is being challenged by GOP state Senator Leah Vukmir, while Republican Governor Scott Walker faces a challenge from Democratic state schools chief Tony Evers. Polls show the races to be a dead heat  just the kind of competitive elections research shows excite younger voters.

"I've never seen anything like this," said NextGen worker and 2016 University of Wisconsin graduate Joe Waldman. "I've never seen the energy, passion and activism there is now."President Donald Trump is asserting that quotes and stories in a new book about his presidency were made up frauds, a con on the public.

Excerpts from the new book about the Trump presidency, authored by the journalist credited with helping to drive President Richard Nixon from power, describes the current administration as suffering an administrative coup detat and a nervous breakdown during its first 19 months.

Fear: Trump in the White House, a 448-page work by Bob Woodward set to be released September 11, describes aides stealing papers off the presidents desk and taking other actions to circumvent the intentions of the commander in chief. It paints Trump as dangerously ignorant of world affairs and his White House as dysfunctional and devastatingly beset by internal feuds.

Although there have been previous revelations by journalists and former White House staffers of upheaval in the White House West Wing since last Januarys inauguration, Woodwards account paints a more disturbing portrait of this administration.

Trump, in a Tuesday evening tweet, also questioned whether Woodward is an operative of the opposition Democratic Party.

Excerpts are contained in stories Tuesday from CNN and The Washington Post.

The book quotes White House Chief of Staff John Kelly describing the president as unhinged.

Kelly also is quoted saying in a staff meeting that because the president is an idiot, it is pointless to try to convince him of anything. Hes gone off the rails. Were in crazytown.

The retired Marine Corps general, whose reported frustrations with his current post and boss have previously made the news, is quoted then saying: I dont even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job Ive ever had.

Kelly, in a statement hours after the media reports about the book, pushed back.

The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true, said the White House chief of staff, reiterating that he has an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS.

Kelly statement emphasizes he is committed to Trumps presidency, his agenda and the country.

This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administrations many successes, Kelly said.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is quoted in the book saying Trump comprehends material at the level of a fifth- or sixth-grader.

The contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in Woodwards book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility, Mattis responded in a statement released Tuesday evening by the Pentagon.

The statement from the defense secretary further said that while responsible policymaking in the real world is inherently messy, it is also essential that we challenge every assumption to find the best option.

However, Mattis added, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief, President Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our Department of Defense, is a product of someones rich imagination.

The book claims that after the Syrian president ordered chemical weapons to be used against civilians in April of last year, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate Bashar al-Assad. Mattis is quoted as telling an aide after hanging up the phone that Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured.

I have not once ever heard the president talking about assassinating Assad, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley responded when asked at a U.N. news conference about that assertion in the book.

The presidents former lead personal attorney, John Dowd, is quoted in graphic language referring to Trump as a liar who will end up wearing an orange jump suit if he gives testimony to special counsel Robert Muller, who is looking into ties between the 2016 Trump election campaign and Russia.

Two officials who since left the White House, the presidents top economic advisor, Gary Cohn, and Staff Secretary Rob Porter, are said to have swiped documents from the presidents desk to prevent him from signing them to protect the country.

Woodward repeatedly requested an interview with Trump for the book but did not succeed.

According to a tape of a call Woodward made to Trump last month, and released by The Washington Post, Trump accused the journalist of writing a very inaccurate book that would not reflect that no predecessor has ever done a better job than Im doing as president.

The book also includes excerpts of discussions between the presidents lawyer and Mueller.

The special counsel is quoted saying I need the presidents testimony, to determine Trumps intent in firing James Comey as director of the FBI.

I want to see if there was corrupt intent, Mueller is quoted as stating.

The president recently escalated his feud with his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who has recused himself from oversight of the Mueller investigation, a move that angered Trump.

This guy is mentally retarded, Trump is quoted in the book, saying of Sessions. Hes this dumb Southerner, Trump tells Porter, mocking Sessions by feigning a Southern U.S. accent.

In another tweet late Tuesday against the book, Trump denied making those statements.

I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing, Trump said. He made this up to divide!

The presidents penchant for making provocative statements on social media is examined in Woodwards book, which notes national security leaders feared and warned Trump that Twitter could get us into a war.

Woodward characterizes the president as prioritizing national security in terms of trade deficits and the expense of keeping U.S. troops overseas. Questioned why the United States has to pay for the large troop presence in South Korea, for example, Mattis reportedly told the president: Were doing this in order to prevent World War III.

The book, by the former Washington Post reporter who shared a 1973 Pulitzer Prize for stories on the Watergate scandal, contains contemporary echoes of Nixon White House paranoia and anger, with Trump reacting to the ongoing Russia inquiry by saying, everybodys trying to get me.

VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.One person was reported dead and several others injured after a bridge collapsed in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata Tuesday afternoon.

A 30 meter segment of the bridge fell onto the train tracks below. Several cars fell with it, including a bus. Photos from the scene showed vehicles half-buried and resting on top of the rubble.

Local police confirmed that at least one person had died and 19 others were injured. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said several more people might still be trapped underneath the rubble. Workers have been clearing debris from the scene.

Train services in Kolkata and outlying communities mostly stopped after the collapse, and thousands of commuters crowded the sidewalks as they made their way home. Local media reported that even app-based taxi services were refusing to give rides to the area.

Words of sympathy from government officials flooded social media after the collapse.

The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims, tweeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest.

In 2016, an unfinished bridge collapsed in the city, killing 26 people and injuring dozens of others. At the time, official reports blamed shoddy construction for the accident.Pakistan's new foreign minister said he will "have exchanges" with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over Washington's cancellation of a $300 million disbursement for the Pakistani military when he visits Islamabad on Wednesday.

Adopting a tougher line with an ally that U.S. President Donald Trump considers unreliable, the United States halted the disbursement of Coalition Support Funds due to Islamabad's perceived failure to take decisive action against Afghan Taliban militants operating from Pakistani soil.

The United States has now withheld $800 million from the CSF so far this year.

The latest move comes just as the less-than-one-month-old government of Prime Minister Imran Khan faces a looming balance of payments crisis that could force it to seek a fresh bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or other lenders.

"On the 5th, the American (secretary of state) Pompeo will be arriving, and we will have a chance to sit down with him. There will be exchanges," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters late on Sunday night.

"We will take our mutual respect for each other into consideration and move forward," he added.

Qureshi argued that the U.S. was not justified in cutting the $300 million because it was intended to reimburse Pakistan's military for money spent fighting the Taliban and other militants threatening U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

"It is not aid. It is not assistance, which was suspended. This the money, which we have spent. This is our money. We have spent it," Qureshi said. "We did it for our betterment, which they had to reimburse."

Officially allies in fighting terrorism, Pakistan and the United States have a complicated relationship, bound by Washington's dependence on Pakistan to guarantee a supply route for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of playing a double game, by covertly providing safe havens for Afghan Taliban insurgents and fighters from the Haqqani group, who are waging a 17-year-old war against Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government.

Pakistan consistently denies providing safe havens for the militants.

In an editorial on Monday, Pakistan's English-language Dawn newspaper railed against the Trump administration's decision to halt the disbursement of funds.

"The U.S. has delivered an object lesson in how not to conduct diplomacy," Pakistan's English-language Dawn newspaper said in an editorial on Monday.

It went on to speculate whether Pompeo would "try and bully the Pakistani leadership during his visit or if he will be deployed in a more traditional 'good cop' diplomatic role."

Pompeo will be accompanied by top U.S. military officer, General Joseph Dunford, for talks with the Pakistani leadership.

Relations between the new Pakistani government and Washington got off to a rocky start last month when Qureshi publicly disputed that Pompeo had brought up the thorny issue of terrorist havens in a phone call with Prime Minister Khan.

The Pakistani side later downplayed the issue after Washington shared a transcript of the call, Pakistani media reported.

The Trump administration a year ago resolved to take tougher line with Pakistan than previous U.S. administrations.

In his first tweet of 2018, Trump slammed Pakistan, saying the country has rewarded past U.S. aid with "nothing but lies & deceit." Washington announced plans in January to suspend up to roughly $2 billion in U.S. security assistance to Pakistan.Like children across the Northern Hemisphere, young Palestinian refugees went back to school this week after their summer break. How long they

will be able to stay is an open question.

The U.N. agency that funds schools for Palestinian refugee communities has said it may run out of money to keep them going by the end of this month after Washington, its biggest donor, halted its funding.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provides services to about 5 million Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza  among them Ziad Shtewi, a 63-year-old father of 10 who lives in a camp in north Lebanon.

"Many Palestinian refugees can't find work, or get paid little. How will we educate our kids?" said Shtewi, who has two children at UNRWA schools.

"These kids will be in the streets," he said. "It will be a generation of uneducated kids. It would be a horrible life. Education is critical for their future."

UNRWA runs 66 free schools across Lebanon, which it says is home to nearly half a million registered Palestinian refugees, most of them descendants of those who were driven from their homes or fled the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation.

Schweti said the impact of the funding cuts would be "catastrophic" for the community  a view echoed by fellow refugee Fuad Ashool.

"We have our hands on our hearts and are really afraid of the future  I am worried about where my kids are going to go," said the 53-year-old father of four, who like Schweti lives in the Nahr al-Bared camp.

Ashool used to paint apartments, but can no longer work because of back pain. He said he feared losing UNRWA's financial assistance, and worried for Palestinians who were even worse off.

"Our people will have to become beggars," he said. "We are a group of people that want to go back to our homeland, and in Lebanon we are thankful for being here, but this stress that we are living in is so uncertain and

difficult."

'Passport to dignity'

UNRWA has said it faces a shortfall of more than $200 million after the United States slashed funding earlier this year, having 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.

UNRWA-run schools in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip got under way last Wednesday.

"All eyes are on the end of September when, if things continue as they are, we will not have enough money to keep our schools open," said spokesman Chris Gunness.

"Palestine refugees see an UNRWA education as a passport to dignity, and if they lose that, they lose their future," he said. "If UNRWA services close down, the situation of a deeply marginalized community will get significantly worse."

Barred from taking up most jobs in Lebanon, the refugees depend on UNRWA for basic services. Many live in overcrowded camps with frequent electricity and water cuts.

For Lora, who relies on UNRWA for the blood pressure medication she needs, it is a question of survival.

"Without UNRWA we can't live. It will be devastating for our people," the 43-year-old Palestinian told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone, declining to give her full name.

"We could die at the doors of hospitals because we can't afford it."Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has revoked an amnesty granted to an opposition lawmaker who has become one his fiercest critics and ordered his arrest.

Senator Antonio Trillanes received amnesty in 2011 for his involvement in a failed 2003 coup against then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for her alleged corruption and mismanagement when he was a military officer, as well as leading a military uprising against her four years later.

The arrest order printed in the Manila Times Tuesday, says the amnesty was voided because Trillanes failed to comply with all its requirements, including an admission of guilt.

Trillanes has accused Duterte of corruption and denounced his brutal crackdown on illicit drug traffickers and criminals, which has led to the deaths of thousands of people and sparked an investigation by the International Criminal Court.

Trillanes told reporters in the Philippine Senate that Duterte's order was "a clear case of political persecution." He is remaining in the Senate chambers to avoid arrest.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who is traveling with Duterte on an official visit to Israel, denied Trillanes's accusation, saying the president always observes "maximum tolerance" for dissent.

This is the second time a lawmaker who has been openly critical of the volatile Duterte has faced detention. Opposition Senator Leila de Lima, who led an inquiry into allegations that Duterte sanctioned extrajudicial killings of drug suspects while mayor of Davao city, was detained after the president accused her of involvement with illicit drugs.

De Lima has vehemently denied the charges.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to visit Pakistan on Wednesday for the first high-level official meetings with leaders of the newly-elected government in Islamabad as bilateral relations have deteriorated to the lowest ebb in the past year.

Long-running divergent views over how to fight regional terrorism and bring an end to the 17-year-old deadly conflict in Afghanistan continue to overshadow expectations for the visit to break the stalemate in Islamabads complicated relationship with Washington, despite both being officially allies in anti-terrorism efforts.

Pompeo will be accompanied by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford when he lands in Pakistan, underscoring U.S. counterterrorism focus in engagements with the uneasy South Asian partner.

The American delegation will hold formal negotiations with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his team. Officials told VOA the visitors are also scheduled to hold separate meetings with Prime Minister Imran Khan, who took the oath of office two weeks ago, and General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the military chief.

While announcing his South Asia policy last year in a bid to break the stalemate in the U.S-backed war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of playing a double game, by covertly supporting the insurgency.

Pakistan consistently denies it is providing safe havens for the insurgents. It has also been pressing Washington to try to find a negotiated end to the conflict, saying the use of military force has failed to achieve the objective and instead encouraged terrorism in the region and allowed the Taliban to capture more Afghan territory in the process.

Qureshi says his meeting with Pompeo will provide an opportunity for the two sides to exchange views and try to improve strained ties.

Bilateral engagements are almost non-existent, almost in total suspension. So, we need to look as to how to move forward. We will listen to their point of view and place our stance before them, Qureshi noted on the eve of Pompeos visit.

Our objective obviously is to build our relations on the basis of mutual trust and respect, the foreign minister emphasized.

Common enemy as focus

U.S. officials have stated that a primary part of the discussion during Pompeos visit to Pakistan will be to make very clear what we have to do, all of our nations, in meeting the common enemy of terrorism.

The United States would be willing to work with Pakistan to help it strengthen the national economy, but the terms of engagement with Islamabad will remain unchanged, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall G. Schriver said last week in Washington.

I think our approach of cutting assistance and pressuring Pakistan on their relationship with the Taliban, persuading them to come to the table, dealing with terrorist networks, that will be sustained," Schriver explained while delivering a public talk at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Pentagon also announced last week it has decided to scrap $300 million in military aid to Pakistan, citing the countrys lack of cooperation with Trumps South Asia strategy.

But Qureshi swiftly dismissed the assertions, saying the money was not U.S. aid, but reimbursements for expenses incurred by Pakistan from its own resources for fighting regional terrorism in support of Washingtons counterterrorism efforts.

The United States has now withheld $800 million from its so-called Coalition Support Funds since the start of the year. An American military training program for Pakistani officers also stands terminated and civilian financial assistance to Islamabad has already declined to zero, according officials.

Americas biggest ask, that Pakistan crack down on terrorist sanctuaries on its soil, certainly wont be supported by Khans government, which has telegraphed an unwillingness to do anything at Washingtons behest, notes Michael Kugelman, a U.S.-based expert on South Asian affairs.

Despite persistent diplomatic tensions, analysts rule out a total breakdown in U.S.-Pakistan ties. They note Washington's military mission in landlocked Afghanistan heavily depends on ground and air routes through Pakistan for ferrying key supplies to around 23,000 U.S. and NATO troops deployed in the neighboring country.

Afghan and U.S. officials have pressed Islamabad to use force against leaders and fighters of the Taliban allegedly sheltering in Pakistan to push them to engage in peace talks with the Kabul government.

Pakistani officials maintain the insurgents have gone back to the other side of the border in the wake of counterterrorism operations. Islamabad says it is ready to make all possible efforts and use its limited influence on the Taliban to encourage an Afghan peace dialogue.

But the Pakistan military has ruled out the possibility of launching operations against residual Taliban insurgents it suspects are sheltering among nearly three million Afghan refugees Pakistan still hosts.U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday as it begins confirmation hearings that President Donald Trump hopes will lead to a solid conservative majority on the nations highest court.

The proceedings begin with opening statements from Kavanaugh and committee members.

On Wednesday, Kavanaugh is scheduled to face direct questioning on a range of issues, including his stance on abortion, gay rights and presidential power.

The White House is hoping the full Senate will confirm the 53-year-old Kavanaugh to the nine-member court in September, in time for him to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy when the court opens a new term October 1.

However, Democrats have vowed to fight Kavanaughs nomination from the start, fearing his lifetime appointment could ensure a strongly conservative court for a generation.

Democrats will likely try to portray Kavanaugh as someone too tied to President Trump and who will push a conservative agenda on the high court. Republicans are expected to try to paint the nominee as an independent thinker and a principled jurist.

One of the main issues Kavanaugh will be questioned on is the Supreme Courts landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which gave women the right to have an abortion.

Brett Kavanaugh Born: Feb. 12, 1965, in Washington, D.C. Education: Yale Law School, 1990 Professional experience: Member of independent counsel Kenneth Starr legal team that investigated the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, 1998

White House counsels office, 20012003

Staff secretary to President George W. Bush, 20032006

Judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals, assumed office May 2006

Nominated for U.S. Supreme Court justice, 2018

Kavanaugh, who has championed pro-life views, has not said whether he believes the case was decided correctly, and he is not likely to do so during the hearings.

Another key issue at the hearings will be Kavanaughs views on executive authority. Kavanaugh has argued that presidents should be free from civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions and investigations while in office. His view was shaped by his own involvement with a presidential investigation when he worked for independent counsel Ken Starr in his investigation of President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.

The matter could be significant to Trump if the high court is called upon to render judgment on matters arising from special counsel Robert Muellers ongoing Russia-related investigation into the Trump administration and several civil lawsuits pending against Trump.

Kavanaugh will also likely face tough questioning on environmental controls, affirmative action, and the conflict between religious beliefs and gay rights.

Randy Barnett, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, told VOA it will not be clear exactly how Kavanaugh would rule on certain issues, and that he thinks it is right to not have those positions spelled out in advance.

"This is exactly the reason why judges don't talk about how they're going to rule on cases because until the case is in front of them and been argued by both sides, they may not know how they're going to rule," he said. "We don't want judges in their confirmation hearings to commit themselves in such a way as they will then be disqualified from actually ruling impartially when the case comes before them."

Kavanaughs record of court opinions shows he is a conservative thinker opposed to abortion and supportive of corporations against government regulation. He is a Catholic who has the backing of evangelical Christian groups.

Most independent Supreme Court analysts are predicting, based on hundreds of decisions that Kavanaugh has written at the appellate court level, that Kavanaugh, if confirmed, would most often side with the conservatives, rather than prove to be the swing vote that Kennedy often provided on key issues favoring liberal interpretations of U.S. law.

The eight sitting justices are evenly split between liberals and conservatives.

Close vote expected

The eventual full Senate vote on Kavanaugh is expected to be close, with Republicans holding a narrow 50-49 majority with the death of Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. But Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is required by state law to name another Republican to replace McCain and says he expects to do so in the coming days.

If all 51 Republicans support Kavanaugh, he would become the courts 114th justice. At the moment, no Republicans have said they will reject Kavanaughs nomination and no Democrats have said they will support it.

Democrats are expected to vote overwhelmingly against Kavanaughs nomination, although three Democratic senators who voted for Trumps first high court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, have yet to voice opposition or support for Kavanaugh, pending the confirmation hearing.

Democratic Senators Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota and Joe Manchin in West Virginia all face tough re-election battles in November in states Trump won easily in the 2016 election and could face pressure from voters to approve the Trump court selection.

Key records

Kavanaugh has had a long career in Washington that spans work two decades ago on the impeachment investigation of former President Clinton, as a White House aide to former President George W. Bush, and most recently 12 years on the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, a court often considered a stepping-stone to a Supreme Court seat.

Democrats opposed to Kavanaughs nomination have complained that Republicans supporting him are withholding key records from Kavanaughs time as Bushs staff secretary, which they wanted to use as a basis to question him.

The Judiciary Committee has received 415,000 pages of documents about the Supreme Court nominees time in the Bush White House, of which 147,000 are being withheld from public release. In addition, Trump officials say they will not release 101,921 pages of Kavanaugh-related records to the panel because of the sensitivity of the communications.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on Twitter late Monday the Senate was given 42,000 pages of documents, but that the collection was impossibly large to review before the hearing began Tuesday.

This just underscores how absurd this process it, Schumer said.

A committee Twitter account run by the Republican majority dismissed Schumers criticisms, saying Republicans had reviewed every page and were ready for the confirmation process to begin.Evading surveillance is a new skill for Andy Chan, founder of the Hong Kong National Party, but one he had to learn quickly over the summer.

In July, Chan noticed that he was being followed repeatedly by unidentified individuals. He noticed that once spotted, the snoops would suddenly disappear only to reappear later or be replaced by others.

"You can do some tricks to catch them. For example on the MTR [subway] platform, you wait and just wait and let the MTR pass by and see if anyone stays. Or you get on and off and see if anyone is following on and off," he said.

Chan did not fully realize it at the time, but he was being monitored by Hong Kongs Security Bureau as part of a two year investigation into his party, which advocates for independence from China.

Hong Kongs Security Bureau declined to comment for this article. Previously, bureau officials have said that freedom of association and freedom of speech are not without restrictions.

While Chans party may become the first to be banned by police since Britain returned control of Hong Kong to communist-ruled China in 1997, his story is not uncommon in a city with a longstanding tradition of political surveillance.

Part of life

Historians say surveillance of politically suspect citizens has been a part of life in Hong Kong for much of the last century. From the 1920s, when the colonial government's anti-communist squad shut down newspapers and monitored strike activities to the 1970s when Hong Kong's political life was at its zenith, Hong Kong has been highly watched.

Political surveillance has ebbed and flowed with the times, and observers say it appears to be making a comeback in Hong Kong since pro-democracy Umbrella Movement protests in 2014 mobilized thousands.

Whereas communists and Beijing sympathizers were previously a key target, scrutiny has now shifted to members of the pro-democracy camp. A new cast of characters is also taking part in surveillance as well, and it includes those outside the judicial system.

Surveillance occurred even before the handover, said Law Yuk-kai, director Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, After the handover, there are people suspected not only from so-called law enforcement agency from Beijing but also from the triads," he said. "There are signs they also use them at the order or instigation of the Chinese authority.

More active Chinese surveillance

While present during the colonial era, Law said his organization has observed an increase in activity by Chinese intelligence in Hong Kong during important political occasions, such as the visit of top Chinese leaders or major protests on a systematic scale not seen since 1997.

Their work is notoriously hard to prove, but some have succeeded in exposing it. In one well-publicized incident, democratic legislator James To foiled an operation by several Chinese agents who were following him by having them arrested by local police in 2014, according to a Reuters investigation.

Activists also say they suspect Chinese intelligence operatives were behind the 2015 disappearance of five booksellers who traded in banned books and later reappeared in Chinese detention, and the disappearance of Chinese tycoon Xiao Jianhua from a Hong Kong hotel room in 2017.

Surveillance outsourcing

Another noticeable trend, Law said, is the outsourcing of surveillance to either private detectives or triads  the local mafia  which he said is deeply concerning due to the often violent behavior associated with triad members. One example is the case of Eddie Chu, a lawmaker and social activist, who has received death threats with individuals with links to the triads for his attempts to reform rural governance committees.

None of these groups is subject to Hong Kong's oversight rules such as the Interceptions of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance, which requires a judge or magistrate to sign off on surveillance in the home or the use of electronic monitoring.

The ordinance monitors the work of the Hong Kong police but Law said it leaves a large gray area when it comes to private citizens. Following people in public is legal because, Law said, individuals are not protected by privacy laws.

Experts say that leaves most Hong Kong citizens with little recourse.

Those monitored have complained that the Hong Kong police have done an insufficient job of following up on their reports of being under surveillance," said rights activist and author Kong Tsung-gan, who has followed many of surveillance-related cases, said via social media. "All of these cases suggest a pattern of political surveillance by both Hong Kong authorities and mainland agents, and many in the pro-democracy movement simply assume they are under surveillance and act accordingly, he said.

Local police routinely film protests, a complaint that is included by non-governmental organizations in their submissions to Hong Kongs Universal Periodic Review, a regular report on human rights conditions that goes to the United Nations.

Chan is still not entirely certain who was watching him this summer. Like many Hong Kong activists, he appears to accept it as a new part of life.Anger smoldered in Brazil on Monday after a fire destroyed the National Museum, a cherished historical repository that lacked a sprinkler system and which had suffered years of financial neglect, making its destruction a "tragedy foretold."

Outside the entrance to the elegant park housing the 200-year-old former Imperial Palace, police in riot gear shot tear gas into a small, angry crowd that tried to enter, live TV images showed.

WATCH: Brazilians Mourn Loss of Most Important Museum

Later, police granted access to the site's perimeter, which protesters surrounded in a symbolic "embrace."

The rumbling tensions reflect anger over the destruction on Sunday of the much-loved yet dilapidated museum, which suffered from declining federal funding. It stirred emotions in Brazil, whose angry electorate is reeling from a frail economy, widespread graft and rising violence ahead of an unpredictable presidential election in October.

"Our community is very mobilized, and very indignant," said Roberto Leher, rector of the Rio de Janeiro federal university, which administers the museum. "We all knew the building was vulnerable."

Brazil's culture minister Sergio Leitao told the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper the blaze was likely caused by either an electrical short-circuit or a homemade paper hot-air balloon that may have landed on the roof. Launching such balloons is a long-held tradition in Brazil and they routinely cause fires.

Both possibilities were being considered, Culture Ministry spokeswoman Roberta de Oliveira Ribeiro said in an email, but the cause would not be known until an investigation was completed. The Rio de Janeiro federal university did not immediately respond to a question on whether the museum was insured.

The museum's pastel-yellow facade remained standing after the blaze, but a peek inside its giant windows revealed a roofless interior of blackened hallways and charred beams. Every so often, firemen emerged with a pot or a painting they had managed to rescue.

The museum's vice director, Luiz Duarte, told Globo TV the institution had been neglected by successive federal governments. He said a 21.6 million-real ($5.23 million) financing plan with the state-run development bank BNDES announced in June included, ironically, a plan to install modern fire protection equipment.

The Rio fire department's commander, Roberto Robadey, said the hydrants outside the building were dry when firefighters arrived, forcing them to turn to a nearby lake and tanker trucks for water.

"Yesterday was one of the saddest days of my career," he said.

Fragile Culture

The museum is not the first to burn down in Brazil, where public money for cultural projects has been drying up after a deep recession. In 2015, for example, a blaze destroyed the prestigious Museum of the Portuguese Language in Sao Paulo.

In 2016, President Michel Temer was forced to reinstate the Culture Ministry after an outcry from some of the country's top artists over his policy to fold it into the Education Ministry to save money.

On Monday, his office said he had met with representatives from major Brazilian companies and banks to look into ways to help rebuild the museum "as soon as possible."

Education Minister Rossieli Soares told reporters outside the burned-out building on Monday that the federal government would spend an initial 15 million reais, in two separate installments, to restore the structure and rebuild its collection. He added that Brazil would seek international help, and was already in discussions with UNESCO.

The museum's decline did not happen overnight, said Renato Rodriguez Cabral, a teacher in the geology and paleontology department.

"This was a tragedy foretold," Cabral said, hugging distraught students and coworkers who poured into the site on Monday. "Successive governments would not provide funds, they would not invest in infrastructure."

Between 2013 and 2017, the National Museum in Rio's federal funding fell about a third, to 643,567 reais, according to official budget data. The funding cuts were particularly acute this year, with the museum receiving just 98,115 reais between January and August.

Late last year,, after a termite attack shuttered a room hosting the bones of the Maxakalisaurus dinosaur, the National Museum was forced to turn to a crowdfunding site to seek funds for reopening the exhibit.

It raised nearly 60,000 reais, almost double its goal.

The National Museum's collection ranged from archeological finds to historical memorabilia.

The museum, which is tied to the Rio de Janeiro federal university and the education ministry, was founded in 1818 and housed several landmark collections, including Egyptian artifacts and the oldest human fossil found in Brazil.

The destruction of the building, where emperors once lived, was an "incalculable loss for Brazil," Temer said in a statement.

His office did not respond to requests for comment on widespread allegations of neglect.

($1 = 4.1310 reais)A federal judge in Texas has refused to kill the DACA program immediately.

District Judge Andrew Hanen had been expected to end the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals program when seven states led by Texas filed suit against DACA on May 1.

That he did not do so Friday gives the almost 700,000 DACA recipients additional time to request renewals, which would keep them in the United States legally for an additional two years.

DACA protects them from deportation and grants them work permits in two-year stints.

President Donald Trump announced a year ago he would end the program and called on Congress to replace it. Congress so far has not been able to agree on a future for DACA.

Judge Hanen said if DACA were causing harm to the states that brought the suit against it, they should have sued six years ago, when President Barack Obama first started it.

Here, the egg has been scrambled, he wrote in his ruling. 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.

The judge said that after so much time, canceling DACA might cause more harm than the states claim it caused in the first place.

DACA is a popular program and one that Congress should consider saving," he added.

Hanen joined two other courts that have ruled the program must continue for now and renewals must be permitted.

But unlike the other district court judges, Hanen has a conservative record. In 2015, he ruled a companion program that would have granted temporary legal status to DACA parents  Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA)  was illegal, effectively blocking it before it could take effect.

And like DAPA, he indicated that in his opinion, DACA is unconstitutional. He gave the seven states three weeks to appeal his ruling to the also-conservative Fifth District Court of Appeals.

Should the states not appeal or the appeals court refuses to overrule Hanens decision, opponents of DACA would have to wait until one of the cases in four courts makes it to the Supreme Court.

The delay is good news for DACA recipients who will have more opportunity to request renewals and keep their benefits longer.Its coal people like miner Steve Knotts, 62, who make West Virginia Trump Country.

So it was no surprise that President Donald Trump picked the state to announce his plan rolling back Obama-era pollution controls on coal-fired power plants.

Trump left one thing out of his remarks, though: northern West Virginia coal country will be ground zero for increased deaths and illnesses from the rollback on regulation of harmful emission from the nations coal power plants.

An analysis done by his own Environmental Protection Agency concludes that the plan would lead to a greater number of people here dying prematurely, and suffering health problems that they otherwise would not have, than elsewhere in the country, when compared to health impacts of the Obama plan.

Knotts, a coal miner for 35 years, isn't fazed when he hears that warning, a couple of days after Trump's West Virginia rally. He says the last thing people in coal country want is the government slapping down more controls on coal  and the air here in the remote West Virginia mountains seems fine to him.

People here have had it with other people telling us what we need. We know what we need. We need a job, Knotts said at lunch hour at a Circle K in a tiny town between two coal mines, and 9 miles down the road from a coal power plant, the Grant Town plant.

The sky around Grant Town is bright blue. The mountains are a dazzling green. Paw Paw Creek gurgles past the town.

Clean-air controls since the 1980s largely turned off the columns of black soot that used to rise from coal smokestacks. The regulations slashed the national death rates from coal-fired power plants substantially.

These days pollutants rise from smoke stacks as gases, before solidifying into fine particles  still invisible  small enough to pass through lungs and into bloodstreams.

An EPA analysis says those pollutants would increase under Trumps plan, when compared to what would happen under the Obama plan. And that, it says, would lead to thousands more heart attacks, asthma problems and other illnesses that would not have occurred.

Nationally, the EPA says, 350 to 1,500 more people would die each year under Trumps plan. But its northern two-thirds of West Virginia and the neighboring part of Pennsylvania that would be hit hardest, by far, according to Trumps EPA.

Trump's rollback would kill an extra 1.4 to 2.4 people a year for every 100,000 people in those hardest-hit areas, compared to under the Obama plan, according to the EPA analysis. For West Virginia's 1.8 million people, that would be equal to at least a couple dozen additional deaths a year.

Trumps acting EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist whose grandfather worked in the coal camps of West Virginia, headed to coal states this week and last to promote Trumps rollback. The federal governments retreat on regulating pollution from coal power plants was good news, Wheeler told crowds there.

In Washington, EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said Trumps plan still would result in dramatic reductions in emissions, deaths and illness compared to the status quo, instead of to the Obama plan. Obamas Clean Power Plan targeted climate-changing carbon dioxide, but since coal is the largest source of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, the Obama plan would have curbed other harmful emissions from the coal-fired power plants as well.

About 160 miles to the south of Grant Town, near the state capital of Charleston, shop owner Doris Keller figures that if Trump thinks somethings for the best, thats good enough for her.

I just know this. I like Donald Trump and I think that hes doing the right thing, said Keller, who turned out to support Trump Aug. 21 when he promoted his rollback proposal. She lives five miles from the 2,900-megawatt John Amos coal-fired power plant.

I think he has the best interests of the regular common people at the forefront, Keller says.

Trumps Affordable Clean Energy program would dismantle President Barack Obamas 2015 Clean Power Plan, which has been caught up in court battles without yet being implemented.

The Obama plan targeted climate-changing emissions from power plants, especially coal. It would have increased federal regulation of emissions from the nations electrical grid and broadly promoted natural gas, solar power and other cleaner energy.

Trumps plan would cede much of the federal oversight of existing coal-fired power plants and drop official promotion of cleaner energy. Individual states largely would decide how much to regulate coal power plants in their borders. The plan is open for public review, ahead of any final White House decision.

Im getting rid of some of these ridiculous rules and regulations, which are killing our companies ... and our jobs, Trump said at the rally.

There was no mention of the small increases in harmful emissions that would result, compared to the Obama plan, or the health risks.

EPA charts put numbers on just how many more people would die each year because of those increased coal emissions.

Abboud and spokeswoman Ashley Bourke of the National Mining Association, which supports Trumps proposed regulatory rollback on coal emissions, said other federal programs already regulate harmful emissions from coal power plants. Bourke also argued that the health studies the EPA used in its death projections date as far back as the 1970s, when coal plants burned dirtier.

In response, Conrad Schneider of the environmental nonprofit Clean Air Task Force said the EPAs mortality estimates had taken into account existing regulation of plant emissions.Additionally, health studies used by the EPA looked at specific levels of exposure to pollutants and their impact on human health, so remain constant over time, said Schneider, whose group analyzes the EPA projections.

With competition from natural gas and other cleaner energy helping to kill off more than a third of coal jobs over the last decade, political leaders in coal states are in no position to be the ones charged with enforcing public-health protections on surviving coal-fired power plants, said Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

Our state is beholden to coal. Our politicians are beholden to coal, Stockman said outside Trump's West Virginia rally, where she was protesting. Meanwhile, our people are being poisoned.

And when it comes to coal power plants and harm, Schneider said, when youre at Grant Town, youre at Ground Zero.

Retired coal miner Jim Haley, living 4 miles from the town's coal-fired power plant, has trouble telling from the smokestack when the plant is even operating.

Theyve got steam coming out of the chimneys. That's all they have coming out of it, Haley said.

Parked near the Grant Town post office, where another resident was rolling down the quiet main street on a tractor, James Perkins listened to word of the EPAs health warnings. He cast a look into the rear-view mirror into the backseat of his pickup truck, at his 3-year-old grandson, sitting in the back.

They need to make that safe, said Perkins, a health-care worker who had opted not to follow his father into the coal mines. People got little kids.The U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh got off to a rocky start Tuesday, with demonstrators shouting against his appointment and minority Democrats losing a bid to delay the proceedings until thousands of pages of documents about Kavanaugh's past work at the White House are made public.

Shortly before 5 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC) -- nearly seven hours after the start of the hearing -- Kavanaugh finally gave his opening remarks.

"The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution," the nominee said. "The justices on the Supreme Court do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle. They do not caucus in separate rooms. If confirmed to the court, I would be part of a team of nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States."

He continued: "I am optimistic about the future of America and the future of our independent judiciary. I revere the Constitution. If confirmed to the Supreme Court, I will keep an open mind in every case. I will do equal right to the poor and to the rich. I will always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American Rule of Law."

Earlier Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers complained that White House officials under President Donald Trump are withholding the documents from the early 2000s, when Kavanaugh served as a staff secretary to former Republican President George W. Bush. Democratic senators say they want to use the material to inform their questioning of the 53-year-old appellate court judge.

"I appeal to your sense of decency and fairness," Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley in asking for a vote on a delay. But the Iowa Republican rejected as out of order Booker's call, along with other Democratic senators, for any vote on whether to postpone the hearings until more documents are disclosed.

WATCH: Democrats move to adjourn confirmation hearing

Grassley said more documents about Kavanaugh's career in Washington are already available than for past Supreme Court nominees, along with 300 decisions he has written as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. After rejecting a hearing delay, Grassley offered his own opening statement as security officials ejected more demonstrators.

Documents

The Judiciary Committee has received 415,000 pages of documents about the Supreme Court nominee's time in the Bush White House, of which 147,000 are being withheld from public release. In addition, Trump officials said they would not release 101,921 pages of Kavanaugh-related records to the panel because of the sensitivity of the communications. It turned over 42,000 pages on Monday night.

Kavanaugh introduced his family at the packed hearing room, but otherwise sat silent as Democrats unsuccessfully sought the delay.

In advance of the hearing, the White House released some of Kavanaugh's opening statement he plans to make, in which he declared he would be an unbiased referee in deciding cases on the country's highest court.

"A good judge must be an umpire  a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy," Kavanaugh said.

Kavanaugh, nominated by Trump, declares, "I dont decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge."

Replacing Justice Kennedy

If confirmed by the Senate, Kavanaugh would replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, a moderate conservative who was a swing vote on the court, siding with its four liberals in key 5-4 rulings upholding abortion and gay rights and affirmative action to increase university admissions for racial minorities.

But independent court analysts believe Kavanaugh's rulings on the federal appeals court in Washington indicate he would tilt the high court's ideological balance toward conservative rulings for years to come.

Kavanaugh is expected to face tough questioning by the Judiciary panel, especially from Democratic lawmakers, on how he would decide new abortion and gay rights legal challenges, as well as the extent of the power of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the criminal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

But Kavanaugh appears headed toward eventual confirmation by the full Senate. Republicans hold a 50-49 edge in the chamber, soon to increase to 51-49 when Republican John Kyl, a former Arizona senator, fills the seat of the late Sen. John McCain. No Republican has said they will vote against Kavanaugh, nor has any Democrat said they will vote for him, although a handful of Democratic lawmakers eventually might support his confirmation.

In the prepared remarks, Kavanaugh says, "If confirmed to the court, I would be part of a Team of Nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States. I would always strive to be a team player on the Team of Nine."

He praised Kennedy, for whom he once served as a law clerk.

"To me, Justice Kennedy is a mentor, a friend, and a hero," Kavanaugh said. "As a member of the court, he was a model of civility and collegiality. He fiercely defended the independence of the judiciary. And he was a champion of liberty."

The proceedings, which could last for days, are starting with opening statements by the committee members and eventually Kavanaugh's remarks. Republican lawmakers voiced support for Kavanaugh, while Democrats said they feared he would help overturn a woman's right to an abortion in the U.S. and other rulings Kennedy favored.

On Wednesday, Kavanaugh is due to face direct questioning on a range of issues, including his stance on abortion, gay rights and presidential powers. Recent Supreme Court nominees have refused to say how they would rule in specific cases, but, under questioning, have discussed their judicial philosophy, giving a hint of how they would rule on controversial issues.

The White House is hoping the full Senate will confirm Kavanaugh this month, in time for him to fill the vacancy left by Kennedy's retirement when the court opens a new term on October 1.



However, Democrats have vowed to fight Kavanaughs nomination from the start, fearing his lifetime appointment could ensure a strongly conservative court for a generation.

Democrats will likely try to portray Kavanaugh as someone too tied to Trump and who will push a conservative agenda on the high court. Republicans are expected to try to paint the nominee as an independent thinker and a principled jurist.



One of the main issues Kavanaugh will be questioned on is the Supreme Courts landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which gave women the right to have an abortion.



Kavanaugh, who has championed pro-life views, has not said whether he believes the case was decided correctly, and he is not likely to do so during the hearings.

Executive Authority

Another key issue at the hearings will be Kavanaughs views on executive authority. Kavanaugh has argued that presidents should be free from civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions and investigations while in office. His view was shaped by his own involvement with a presidential investigation when he worked for independent counsel Ken Starr in his investigation of President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.



The matter could be significant to Trump if the high court is called upon to render judgment on matters arising from special counsel Mueller's ongoing Russia-related investigation into the Trump administration and several civil lawsuits pending against Trump.

Kavanaugh will also likely face tough questioning on environmental controls, affirmative action and the conflict between religious beliefs and gay rights.

Randy Barnett, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, told VOA it will not be clear exactly how Kavanaugh would rule on certain issues, and that he thinks it is right to not have those positions spelled out in advance.

"This is exactly the reason why judges don't talk about how they're going to rule on cases because until the case is in front of them and been argued by both sides, they may not know how they're going to rule," he said. "We don't want judges in their confirmation hearings to commit themselves in such a way as they will then be disqualified from actually ruling impartially when the case comes before them."

Kavanaugh's record of court opinions shows he is a conservative thinker opposed to abortion and supportive of corporations against government regulation. He is a Catholic who has the backing of evangelical Christian groups.

Victor Beattie contributed to this report.



WATCH: What's Involved in Confirmation Process?UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, says it has been able to reduce, but not eliminate a $446 million budget deficit caused by a sharp cut in funding from Washington. It says the shortfall could impact the services the agency provides to millions of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

UNRWA reports it has been able to raise $238 million in additional funding from contributors such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the European Union, and Canada. This, it says has left the agency with a $200 million deficit until the end of the year.

Speaking Tuesday, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Kraehenbuehl says he deeply regrets the U.S. decision to no longer support the work of his agency on behalf of about five million Palestinian refugees.

He says the United States, which was UNRWAs single biggest contributor, had made it possible for the agency to develop and implement a range of services in education and health care, relief, and social services.

He says it is crucial that UNRWA is able to continue to provide essential services to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. He says new sources of money must be found to help them.

It is also a matter of human dignity for the refugees, but it is particularly also a matter of regional stability in the area that is, you know, that we operate in one of the most polarized emotionally charged environments on the planet, Kraehenbuehl said.

Leverage tool

The United States cut off all funding to UNRWA on August 31. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States would no longer commit to funding what she called "this irredeemably flawed operation.

Some observers say the United States is using the cutoff as leverage to force the Palestinians to negotiate a peace deal with Israel.

Kraehenbuehl calls Washingtons decision to cut off aid a form of politicization of humanitarian funding, which should have been avoided.

He told VOA he is certain this decision is not related to UNRWAs performance because senior U.S. officials he met in November had nothing but praise for the work being done by his agency.

And what happened since is the debate around Jerusalem, the move of the embassy, and the tensions that took place and that are there between the United States and the Palestinian leadership. Now that is a point on which UNRWA simply has no influence.

Kraehenbuehl said the Middle East is a tinderbox and he fears increasing numbers of young people could become radicalized if they are denied education and other basic rights and are stripped of hope for the future.The U.S. military says it has determined that the shooting death of an American service member Monday in Afghanistan was a so-called insider attack.

Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Kabul, said in a telephone interview Tuesday the American was killed in eastern Afghanistan by a member of the Afghan national police force. Another U.S. service member was wounded; O'Donnell said that person is in stable condition.

When the attack was announced on Monday, the coalition called it an apparent insider attack.

O'Donnell said the Afghan attacker was apprehended and is now in Afghan custody.

Monday's insider attack was the second this summer. One American was killed and two were wounded in a July attack in southern Uruzgan province.The United States promises to "respond swiftly and appropriately" if Syria uses chemical weapons in Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in Syria.

The White House said Tuesday it is "closely monitoring" the fate of Idlib, where it said "millions of innocent civilians are under threat of an imminent ... attack" by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

It said President Donald Trump "has warned that such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict."

The White House said it "will continue to work tirelessly with its allies to find a lasting diplomatic solution to resolve the hostilities in Syria" under a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Russia and Iran back the Assad regime and say they support Syria's efforts to retake Idlib.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Idlib is a pocket of terrorism and that the situation there is undermining efforts to find a political resolution to the Syrian conflict.

WATCH: US Warns Syria Against Using Chemical Weapons in Idlib

The Iranian foreign ministry said Idlib should be cleared of "terrorists" and that reconstruction efforts and the return of refugees should go forward.

Syria, Russia and Iran use the word "terrorists" when talking about Syrian rebels.

There are about 3 million people in Idlib, and the U.N. said it is worried about the potential humanitarian toll that may come with a Syrian military campaign there.

Trump warned Syria in a tweet Monday night to not "recklessly attack" Idlib. He also called on Russia and Iran to show restraint.

Trinity University history professor David Lesch told VOA that while the Trump administration is "ratcheting up the pressure a little bit" beyond its previous warnings against a chemical attack, U.S. influence on what happens in Idlb is limited.

"Frankly speaking, I don't think there's anything the United States can do about it. I think Russia and the Syrian government and their allies are dead set on taking over Idlib, either in a phased way or in an all-out massive invasion," Lesch said.

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said the Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the situation.

Syria has been at war since early 2011. A multitude of parties, including pro-government forces, rebel groups and militants, are all fighting for control over various areas.

Assad's forces, backed by military support from Russia and Iran, have recaptured major cities in recent years after giving rebel fighters, families and other civilians the chance to flee, instead of facing a military onslaught.

Meanwhile, suspected Israeli jets struck military targets inside Syria's Hama and Tartous provinces Tuesday, killing at least one person, Syrian state media reports.

The report said Syrian air defenses intercepted some of the Israeli rockets.

Israel has not confirmed Tuesday's airstrikes. But a top Israeli defense official acknowledged Tuesday that Israeli jets have struck 200 Iranian military targets inside Syria since 2016.

Israel has said Iran must not be allowed to have a permanent military presence inside Syria.USA Gymnastics said on Tuesday its chief executive had left the sport's national governing body, as the organization tries to recover from a scandal over the sexual abuse of hundreds of female athletes by one of its team doctors.

Media reports said Kerry Perry, a former media executive who took the job nine months ago, departed under pressure.

Perry was hired around the time former national team doctor Larry Nassar pleaded guilty to sexually abusing more than 100 gymnasts, including Olympic gold medalists Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber.

The full board of USA Gymnastics, the sport's national governing body, resigned early this year after revelations that officials there had turned a blind eye to the accusations.

"In the wake of horrific events that have impacted our athletes and the entire gymnastics community, USA Gymnastics has made progress in stabilizing itself," Karen Golz, chair of the USA Gymnastics Board, said in a statement. Golz thanked Perry "for her leadership under very difficult circumstances."

The Orange County Register, which reported the departure hours before USA Gymnastics announced it, said she was forced out amid pressure from the U.S. Olympic Committee, according to two unidentified people it said were familiar with the process.

Perry did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, and USA Gymnastics spokeswoman Leslie King declined to comment on the report. The group's statement did not say why she was leaving.

Perry had been criticized for not reaching out to the victims of Nassar's sexual abuse and for focusing on marketing rather than structural changes, the Register said.

In addition, USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland said on Friday night that it was "time to consider making adjustments in the leadership," USA TODAY reported.

In June, USOC acting CEO Susanne Lyons told reporters that Perry had "made a lot of good first steps but there is quite a long way to go."



Nassar, who also was a doctor for athletes at Michigan State University, was convicted last year of sexually molesting gymnasts in incidents dating as far back as the 1990s and was sentenced in January to an effective life term in prison.

The sentencing followed an extraordinary weeklong hearing that saw a parade of Nassar victims tell their stories in raw and unflinching terms.Judge Brett Kavanaugh was born in Washington in 1965 and has spent his adult life in the area.

He was an only child who credits his mother for his career. Martha Kavanaugh taught history before returning to school for her law degree. She later became a prosecutor and a judge in Maryland.

My introduction to the law came at our dinner table when she practiced her closing arguments, Kavanaugh said at the White House after President Donald Trump introduced him as his nominee.

He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University. He was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom he has been chosen to replace.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trumps first Supreme Court nominee, also worked in Kennedys chambers during that time.

Kavanaugh next joined the team of independent counsel Kenneth Starr in the investigations of the Clinton administration and the suicide of Clinton aide and White House counsel Vince Foster. At the end of the investigation, Kavanaugh co-wrote the report that served as the basis for President Bill Clintons impeachment.

Kavanaugh worked in President George W. Bushs White House for five years, including nearly three as Bushs staff secretary.

Bush nominated Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2003, but it took three years of contentious confirmation hearings before he was confirmed.

Kavanaugh has written about 300 opinions in his 12 years as an appellate judge, with a consistently conservative record.

Some of those opinions will feature heavily in his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Abortion: Kavanaugh wrote the dissenting opinion last year when the D.C. Circuit Court ruled an undocumented teenager in federal custody could get an abortion. He cited Supreme Court precedents under which he said the government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion.

The Second Amendment: Kavanaugh dissented in 2011 from the ruling that upheld a District of Columbia ban on semiautomatic rifles. Kavanaugh cited the Supreme Court in his opinion, saying it had previously held that handguns  the vast majority of which today are semiautomatic  are constitutionally protected because they have not traditionally been banned and are in common use by law-abiding citizens.

Health care: Kavanaugh also wrote the dissenting opinion in 2011 on the ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act but only on procedural grounds. He said the laws mandate that individuals purchase health insurance or pay a tax penalty to the Internal Revenue Service could not be challenged before any payment was made.

Presidential power: In an article published in the Minnesota Law Review in 2009, Kavanaugh wrote that Congress might consider a law exempting a president  while in office  from criminal prosecution and investigation, including from questioning by criminal prosecutors or defense counsel.Yemenis file into a makeshift cinema for the first time since fighting broke out in their city of Aden more than three years ago - and watch some of their own story reflected back at them on the projector screen.

The film they have come to see is "Ten Days Before the Wedding" - a gripping drama about a young couple from the southern port city whose marriage plans are nearly derailed by the country's civil war and other troubles.

It is the first film publicly screened there since the conflict erupted, and the first local Yemeni production in years.

The story rings true for the audience of men and mostly veiled women, sitting on chairs in a hall which is normally used for real-life weddings and other events.

"We lived through each stage of the movie, which talks about each one of us, so we felt as though the film represented us and we were a part of it," says audience member Nour Sareeb.

The story follows the romance between Rasha and Mamoun and branches out to cover broader issues including the country's economic collapse and the prospects of rebuilding after violence.

Characters wrestle with falling incomes, rising prices and the problems of raising a dowry.

"We've all suffered because of the war, it has affected us all, but we all have ambition and hopes that the country will get better. We all aspire to be happy in this country," Nour adds.

"We are with you"

Yemen has been devastated by a conflict in which President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi's government, backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, is fighting to drive the Iran-aligned Houthi group out of the capital Sanaa and other cities it seized in 2014.

Violence dropped off in Aden after pro-government fighters recaptured it from Houthi forces in 2015, though battles erupted again earlier this year as southern separatists fought government troops nominally on the same side of the larger war.

The threat of attacks by militants remains, including some from hardline groups opposed to the Western-tinged world of cinema. And economic decline exacerbated by a weakening currency triggered protests this week that paralyzed activity in Aden and nearby areas.

In such an environment, finding investors for the film was not easy, says director Amr Gamal.

"We had to oppose these ideas that make you fear producing anything in the arts and we had to strive and work hard," he tells Reuters.

"We met with the production team and decided to do it after everyone's agreement. They all told me 'We are with you,' and we were surprised to find that the people in the street supported us," he adds.

The film premiered in Aden during last month's Eid al-Adha Muslim festival and has been running ever since.

The United Nations says the war has created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, and rights groups say both sides have inflicted indiscriminate violence. More than 10,000 people have been killed, while hunger and disease have spread.A Ugandan legislator allegedly tortured by security officials has arrived in the United States for medical care.

Entertainer-turned-opposition lawmaker Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, posted on Twitter that he has arrived in the U.S., without giving his location: "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"

Thursday night police detained Kyagulanyi and fellow opposition lawmaker Francis Zaake at the Kampala airport as they tried to leave the country. The police said the two opposition figures, who both face treason charges, were fleeing the country.

Both men said they were tortured after their previous arrests, and a Kampala hospital had referred them for medical care abroad. Kyagulanyi was headed for the United States, while Zaake was headed for India.

Upon reaching the airport, the opposition legislators were told they did not have clearance to travel and were taken to a government hospital in police ambulances. Their arrest sparked protests around Kampala, which were at times met with police gunfire and tear gas Friday.

Their lawyer, Asumani Basalirwa, says the director of criminal investigations, Grace Akullo, told him that since the legislators said they were tortured, government doctors needed to examine them.

The doctors examined Kyagulanyi, but not Zaake, Basalirwa said.

The international media and social media campaign by supporters of the opposition politicians appears to have helped free Kyagulanyi. According to the Associated Press, Zaake remains in the hospital.

Kyagulanyi, Zaake and three other opposition lawmakers originally were among more than 30 people arrested in early August after a protest broke during campaigning for by-election. Protesters threw stones at and damaged President Yoweri Museveni's vehicle.

Museveni has been president since 1986. Many older Ugandans still support the 74-year-old leader. But about 75 percent of Ugandans are under the age of 35, and they are beginning to tire of his authoritarian rule.

At the same time, human rights organizations and opposition politicians say the government has grown increasingly repressive toward critics.HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is donating 10 white rhinos to Democratic Republic of Congo to re-establish a population driven to extinction by poachers a decade ago, Zimbabwes wildlife authority said.

The rhinos were being captured and would be moved from Victoria Falls later this week or early next, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) spokesman Tinashe Farawo said on Monday.

Congos white rhinos lived in Garamba National Park near the border with South Sudan but it was not clear where the animals would be located.

Wildlife protection is complicated in Congo by lawlessness and militia violence that endures 15 years after the end of a war that killed millions, mainly from hunger and disease.

The Zimbabwean Government was satisfied that the pre and post-translocation conditions in ... (Congo) met the requisite standards for a successful re-establishment of rhinos, a ZimParks statement said.

ZimParks and conservationists said moving the rhinos from Zimbabwe would strengthen the gene pool. Zimbabwe had about 800 black and white rhinos in 2016 and is one of just four countries with nearly all the worlds white rhinos.

Their horns are prized in China and southeast Asia.

Moving rhinos from one place to another is essential to ensure good genetic diversity across the population, said Emma Pereira, a spokeswoman for Save the Rhino, a London-based group. We hope any move between countries is done with the correct expertise and thoughtful planning.

Poachers also target mountain gorillas, one of the worlds most endangered species which is found only on a spine of volcanic mountains straddling Congo, Uganda and Rwanda.

Their numbers have recovered in recent years thanks to intensive conservation efforts.

The head of Congos wildlife authority could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe in Harare and Fiston Mahamba in Goma Writing by Sofia Christensen Editing by Aaron Ross and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)Since the majority of televisions sold on U.S. soil are manufactured in China, Trumps 10 percent levies slated for TV parts could inflate bills for shoppers back home. Duties on down feathers and fabric, which also pour into the United States from the Asian nation, could lift the cost of bedding that deal hunters might seek at Walmart or Target.Jaclyn DeVore was among the hundreds who had arrived early Monday because they were uncertain how difficult it would be to get in. The Harlem resident and her children Lawrence, 11, Lukas, 10, and Lauren, 8, spent about 35 minutes waiting for the doors to open. I figured everyone would have the same idea, DeVore said. It didnt take long for the family to snake through the shaded queue and get through security. By 10:30 a.m., visitors could go right in.Todays Headlines

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By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyStill passionate about cooking, Nehama passed her Greek recipes on to her daughters, who now make the dishes. Every year at Rosh Hashanah, she buys a pomegranate for each daughter, as well as one for herself and in memory of Isaac. Like the baskets of pomegranates shared by neighbors so many years ago in Volos, its an expression of love and of hope for prosperity. And this year, as always, she will welcome the New Year with the taste of honey and a lifetime of sweet memories.Under fire, Remnick, who deservedly is one of the countrys most respected journalists, figured this out late Monday  sort of  and withdrew the magazines invitation. (He said, however, that hed still be open to doing the Bannon interview in some other less public setting, presumably one that doesnt involve paying an honorarium for the privilege of hearing the former Breitbart News chairman promote himself and his offensive ideas.)In a statement issued Monday night by his lawyer, Ari Wilkenfeld, McHugh took issue with Lacks fact sheet, saying, Im not clear how NBCs report can be considered objective and thorough given I was never interviewed for [it] . . . Others have called for an independent investigation of NBC News activities regarding the issue of sexual harassment. That seems more important now than ever given todays letter from Mr. Lack. The release of an internally drafted report without a complete investigation and transparency for its participants only raises more questions than answers.Boys born into high-income black families were much more likely to experience downward economic mobility than similarly situated whites across generations, the study said. A black child born to parents in the top 20 percent of the income distribution was as likely to fall to the bottom quintile as he was to remain in the top. But white boys were nearly five times as likely to remain in the top quintile as they were to fall to the bottom.Police said Cobb was stabbed after an argument with Conyers. Officers responded to a report of a cutting about 4 a.m. Sunday and found Cobb on the floor inside an apartment. She was pronounced dead at the scene.Concurs de granturi adresat COMUNITATILOR (APL) pentru sporirea rezilientei lor la schimbarile climatice si FEMEILOR ANTREPRENOARE in vederea dezvoltarii unor afaceri prietenoase mediuluiOn June 29, about 9:30 a.m., officers responded to the Mike & Sons Sub Shop at 5404 Randolph Rd. in Rockville after an employee discovered a burglary, Montgomery County police said in a statement. An investigation showed someone forced entry into the restaurant through the roof between midnight and 9:30 a.m. before stealing cash and Maryland Lottery scratch-offs, the statement said.Rushing water overtook that vehicle up to its roof, and it was also swept away, police said. When the vehicle was located, a man, Daniel Samis, 67, of Abingdon, was found dead inside, police said.Wint has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His attorneys have said in court that they may argue at trial that another person  whom they have not publicly identified  was responsible for the killings. When Wint was arrested about a week after the slayings, D.C. homicide detectives said they thought other people may have been involved. But Wint remains the only person charged in the case.As the deadline for qualifying for the ballot approached in June, Taylors campaign took the unusual step of gathering signatures for an independent competitor. Shaun Brown had been his Democratic opponent in 2016  and he beat her by 22 points  but she was now under the cloud of a federal fraud investigation and had no party support to run again. So Taylors staffers mounted a last-minute push and turned in nearly 600 signatures for Brown, giving her more than the 1,000 needed to qualify.The party doubled down on that line of attack with a lengthy news release, which noted that under Saudi law, all adult females are required to fully cover their bodies in public, women cannot travel without the permission of a male spouse or relative, and, until two months ago, women were not permitted to drive cars. The Saudi government also allows for the death penalty for homosexual relations in their country, criminalizes the practice of other religions, and uses beheading and stoning as forms of capital punishment.And thats the challenge for Comstock, because, for good or bad, shes been consistent in that issue area, he said. That provides something of an opening for her opponents. Thats why the ads on this issue are out right now. They know it.Advocates contend that such sites have saved the lives of countless thousands addicted to drugs who would have used them anyway under less safe and sanitary conditions, although the most recent research has reopened the debate. They say the facilities also curb the spread of HIV and hepatitis C by limiting needle sharing. Researchers report that no one has ever died in a supervised drug consumption facility in the nearly 20 years that they have existed.In his report Tuesday, EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins said the agency had no formal threat-assessment process to determine what was actually warranted. Rather, the agency relied on an August 2017 report that listed threats against Pruitt and his family but did not assess the potential danger presented by any of these threats.Even as scientists express skepticism that brain organoids will ever come close to sentience, theyre the ones calling for a broad discussion, and perhaps more oversight. The questions range from the practical to the fantastical. Should researchers make sure that people who donate their cells for organoid research are informed that they could be used to make a tiny replica of parts of their brain? If organoids became sophisticated enough, should they be granted greater protections, like the rules that govern animal research? Without a consensus on what consciousness or pain would even look like in the brain, how will scientists know when theyre nearing the limit?Maria was the deadliest by far. It slammed Puerto Rico on its southeast coast and rolled across the island, knocking out 100 percent of the electrical grid and 95 percent of cellphone towers, triggering a collapse in emergency communications. Although officials initially attributed 64 deaths to the storm, the humanitarian crisis on the island led to many more deaths, and last week the government embraced as its official death toll the new estimate from researchers at George Washington University, which showed 2,975 excess deaths in Puerto Rico in the six months after Marias landfall.The judges issued their order Tuesday, a week after they ruled for election advocacy groups, the state Democratic Party and Democratic voters who sued and accused Republican legislators of excessive partisan bias while drawing the 2016 map. The judicial panel had raised the possibility of drawing new boundaries now and holding this years elections under them.Gillum has proved that he will deliver. In Florida, as in many other states, state preemption laws remove power from local governments, such as the power to raise the minimum wage, establish paid-leave benefits or impose gun safety measures. As city commissioner, Gillum experienced the blowback from these laws firsthand. When he refused to repeal ordinances that banned shooting firearms in public parks, he was sued by the gun lobby. If elected governor, Gillum could change the law that allowed the gun lobby to sue him and further unlock the power of Floridas cities. Gillum sees preemption for what it is: a tactic to suppress democracy and progressive actions. And he has vowed to take it on. Its this kind of strategic leadership that has garnered voters confidence in Gillum  not only in the most recent primary election but also in the several general elections he has won throughout his career.It is almost certain that in the not-too-distant future, those who loved and honored Arizona Sen. John McCain will wish that his final farewell, and the media coverage that accompanied it, had ignored the political heat of the moment and not so stridently focused on contrasts with President Trump. McCain deserved the spotlight on the totality of his life, rather than his differences with the man who happened to be in the White House when he died.Here is the president of the United States  responsible for the execution and enforcement of laws  openly putting party before justice, caring not about wrongdoing but rather about losing votes and maybe congressional seats. A justice system that is used to protect allies and punish enemies may be the norm of authoritarian governments. But, as Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a pointed statement, The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice  one for the majority and one for the minority party. These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) also joined in rebuking the president, tweeting, This is not the conduct of a President committed to defending and upholding the Constitution, but rather a President looking to use the Department of Justice to settle political scores.The 448-page book was obtained by The Washington Post. Woodward, an associate editor at The Post, sought an interview with Trump through several intermediaries to no avail. The president called Woodward in early August, after the manuscript had been completed, to say he wanted to participate. The president complained that it would be a bad book, according to an audio recording of the conversation. Woodward replied that his work would be tough but factual and based on his reporting.I think sometimes, his desire to jump into the middle of a fight or maybe even create a fight  by the way, that reminds me of somebody  but sometimes, that can be detrimental to what hes trying to achieve, Kyl said. Thats what I said, and I stand by that comment.Follow Day 2 of the Kavanaugh hearing here: Trumps Supreme Court nominee faces Senate grilling

The confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh launched Tuesday as a bitter political brawl, with loud objections from Democratic senators, the arrests of dozens of protesters and questions even from some Republicans about how Kavanaugh would separate himself from President Trump, the man who chose him.

But GOP senators mostly calmly defended Kavanaugh from what Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) called the Shakespearean nature of the hearing  sound and fury, signifying nothing  confident that there were no defections from the solid Republican support Kavanaugh needs to be confirmed as the Supreme Courts 114th justice.

The 53-year-old judge, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, sat impassively for nearly seven hours of senators statements before speaking for less than 20 minutes. Senators plan to begin questioning him Wednesday morning.

The Supreme Court must never, never be viewed as a partisan institution, Kavanaugh said. The justices on the Supreme Court do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle. They do not caucus in separate rooms. If confirmed to the court, I would be part of a team of nine, committed to deciding cases according to the Constitution and laws of the United States. I would always strive to be a team player on the team of nine.

No such conciliation was apparent on the Senate Judiciary Committee  or from the White House.

[The story behind the withheld documents of the Kavanaugh hearing]

The Brett Kavanaugh hearings for the future Justice of the Supreme Court are truly a display of how mean, angry, and despicable the other side is, Trump tweeted. They will say anything, and are only looking to inflict pain and embarrassment to one of the most highly renowned jurists to ever appear before Congress. So sad to see!

The chairmans opening remarks were delayed for nearly an hour and a half as Democratic senators sought to cut off the hearings, raising an uproar over a last-minute document dump sent to the Judiciary Committee late Monday encompassing more than 42,000 pages from the nominees tenure in the George W. Bush White House.

Democrats questioned Kavanaughs judicial philosophy and even his honesty. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who has said he feels he was misled by the judge at his previous confirmation hearing for the lower court, pointedly told Kavanaugh he would question him about that when you are under oath.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) referred to the Republican-appointed conservatives on the court headed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. as the Roberts Five and said the justices were always looking for ways to benefit the big fundraisers and influencers of the Republican Party.

Cruz said his Democratic colleagues were trying to re-litigate the results of the 2016 election. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who noted that he had voted for President Barack Obamas nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, was equally blunt.

You had a chance and you lost, Graham told Democrats. You cant lose the election and want to pick judges.

[Hours before Kavanaugh hearings, Bush lawyer releases 42,000 pages of documents]

Barring any major last-minute surprises, Kavanaugh appears to be on track to be confirmed by the end of the month. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said a committee vote is likely to occur Sept. 20.

That would allow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to tee up votes on the floor confirming Kavanaugh during the last week of September. The Supreme Courts new term begins Oct. 1.

But Tuesdays opening session indicated that the public fight over his nomination will be intense.

It was, Grassley said later, a bad start. Democratic senators repeatedly interrupted Grassley over the document issue, and by the end of the day more than 70 protesters had been arrested. Their theme: The Republicans are hiding something by withholding information.

This is the most incomplete, most partisan, least transparent vetting for any Supreme Court nominee I have ever seen, said Leahy. And I have seen more of those than any person serving in the Senate today.

Another focus was Trump himself, who has frequently leveled attacks against the judiciary and law enforcement.

Two Republican senators  Ben Sasse (Neb.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.)  praised Kavanaugh personally and professionally, but raised questions about Trumps attacks on the Justice Department and how Kavanaugh would handle cases involving presidential power.

In a tweet Monday, Trump criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the recent indictments of two Republican members of Congress on corruption charges and for the timing, so close to the House midterm elections.

That is why a lot of people are concerned about this administration and why they want to ensure that our institutions hold, Flake said. He added that many of the questions you will get on the other side of the aisle and from me will center on separation of powers.

The protesters, who were predominantly women, repeatedly heckled the senators and Kavanaugh, arguing that installing Trumps second pick to the Supreme Court would irreparably end access to abortion and dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats have charged that documents on Kavanaughs career have been withheld without justification, particularly those from his tenure as a Bush staffer. Senators have reviewed nearly 200,000 pages that cannot be disclosed to the public, and the Trump administration is withholding an additional 100,000 pages from Congress, claiming that those documents are covered by presidential privilege.

Kavanaugh, appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by Bush, served the president in the White House Counsels Office from 2001 to 2003 and as staff secretary from 2003 to 2006.

Tuesdays proceedings brought to the surface years of anger over judicial nominees. Democrats invoked the name of Merrick Garland, who was nominated by Obama in 2016 to fill the Supreme Court seat formerly held by the late justice Antonin Scalia and who was denied a hearing by Senate Republicans.

In his remarks, Kavanaugh praised Garland, the chief judge on the appeals court on which they both serve, as superb  a line likely to further rile Democrats.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said the Democrats behavior would lead them to be held in contempt of court, prompting a chorus of quiet boos and Oh come on that echoed throughout the hearing room. He later said the hearing had turned into mob rule.

When it was his turn, Kavanaugh told senators that he would be a neutral and impartial arbiter if confirmed.

I dont decide cases based on personal or policy preferences, Kavanaugh said. I am not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge. I am not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge.

Throughout his remarks, Kavanaugh noted his appreciation for the strides that women and girls have made professionally and in sports. Kavanaughs critics have said his elevation to the Supreme Court would be detrimental to womens reproductive rights and health-care options, and his emphasis on the strong women in his life seemed designed to counter those concerns.

He talked about his record as a judge of hiring female law clerks and at length about coaching his daughters basketball teams, listing by name each player and noting the real-world impact of Title IX.

I see that laws legacy every night when I walk into my house as my daughters are getting back from lacrosse, or basketball, or hockey practice, he said.

In a preview of the tough questions Kavanaugh will face Wednesday, Democratic senators said they would press the judge on his views about abortion, gun control and executive power.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) addressed Kavanaugh about abortion. The question, she said, is not whether he believes that the landmark Roe v. Wade decision is settled law, as he has told other senators, but whether you believe it is the correct law.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said he would resurrect a controversy from Kavanaughs 2006 confirmation battle over whether he was involved in developing Bush-era policy on the treatment of terrorism suspects. Kavanaugh worked as a White House associate counsel at the time that Bush developed his policy, laid out in what became known as the torture memo.

As a nominee for the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh testified that he was not involved.

Later, Kavanaughs denial came into question when The Washington Post revealed that he had participated in a White House Counsels Office meeting in which he was asked his opinion about how Kennedy  for whom he had clerked  was likely to view the matter.

In response, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) defended Kavanaugh and said the suggestion that the judge had misled this committee in any way is absurd.Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh faced the bright lights of his confirmation hearing Tuesday with a bitterly divided Senate that is nonetheless almost sure to install him as the next justice, even as the nation becomes more polarized than ever in battles over the judiciary.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Americans are split over whether President Trumps second nominee to the Supreme Court should be confirmed, with partisans more divided over the selection than any other high-court candidate in the past three decades.

Just under 4 in 10  38 percent  say he should be confirmed, while a similar 39 percent say he should not; almost a quarter, 23 percent, have no opinion. Middling levels of overall support plagued the nominations of failed Supreme Court picks for presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Barring a major stumble by Kavanaugh, however, the 53-year-old is on track to be confirmed by the end of the month and sit on the nations most powerful court for decades  rendering the hearings as little more than a perfunctory box to check as Democrats struggle to land a blow against a nomination they have little power to kill.

The numbers are not on our side, said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the main vote counter for Senate Democrats. Having said that, this is going to be an important and exhaustive hearing on the important issues facing the Supreme Court and Judge Kavanaugh.

The first day of Kavanaughs confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee devolved into partisan chaos, as Democrats senators demanded a delay in the hearings to review documents and dozens of protesters interrupted the proceedings.

Public views of Kavanaugh stand out for being more politically polarized than any Supreme Court nominee dating to 1987. Kavanaugh has the support of 78 percent of Republicans in the Post-ABC poll, along with 13 percent of Democrats, a difference of 65 percentage points.

The only other nominee with nearly as wide of a margin was Trumps nominee Neil M. Gorsuch, who had the support of 81 percent of Republicans and 22 percent of Democrats  a difference of 59 points, according to a February 2017 Pew survey. Gorsuch still garnered more positive ratings overall than Kavanaugh, with 44 percent supporting his confirmation and 32 percent opposing.

Robert Bork, whose nomination was defeated by the Senate after he was chosen by Reagan, received narrowly positive support at 31 percent to 25 percent in Gallups initial gauge of opinion in 1987, although those figures turned more negative over time. And Bushs nominee, Harriet Miers, garnered 33 percent support with opposition at 27 percent in Pew Research Center polling. In the face of opposition from the right, her nomination was withdrawn.

Consider the president nominating him and what this president said about judges, what this president said about the Constitution, what he has said about what he expects of those who are loyal to him, Durbin said. Is it any wonder the American people are skeptical about whether Judge Kavanaugh can truly be independent?

View Graphic How Trump is shifting the most important courts in the country

Still, Republicans working to get Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court are unconcerned about his relative lack of popularity in public polling.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) needs only to keep his ranks together to get Kavanaugh confirmed, and Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)  considered to be key swing votes  have not signaled publicly that they are seriously considering rejecting his nomination. Former senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) was also tapped Tuesday to temporarily fill the late John McCains (R-Ariz.) seat in the Senate, giving Republicans another reliable vote in favor of Kavanaugh.

Meanwhile, a trio of red-state Democrats  Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Joe Manchin III (W.Va.)  are being heavily pressured to cross party lines and confirm Kavanaugh, just as they did for Gorsuch in April 2017.

It speaks more to the polarization than anything about the judge himself, said Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, an advocacy group that promotes conservative nominees to the courts.

While a slew of Republican and Democratic senators have made their positions official on Kavanaugh, Severino added that the confirmation hearings are also a real opportunity for the American people to see Brett Kavanaugh himself.

Theyve heard a lot of things. Theyve heard this vision of him as this evil monster whos out there to destroy the Constitution, she said. Theyve heard hes a great carpool dad . . . now they get a chance to see and judge for themselves.

As the hearing convenes Wednesday with the first round of questions for Kavanaugh, Senate Democrats are preparing an onslaught of inquiries that center on health care and abortion access, Kavanaughs views on presidential power, and what he knew about various controversies under the Bush administration, such as its treatment of enemy combatants in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Kavanaugh served for five years under Bush, first as associate White House counsel and then as staff secretary, and Democratic senators who questioned him during his confirmation hearings for the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit insist Kavanaugh wasnt truthful about his knowledge of key Bush administration policies.

The fate of the Affordable Care Act could be a potent line of questioning for Democrats, particularly as conservative states mounting a legal challenge to the health-care law face a hearing in Texas while Kavanaughs confirmation proceedings unfold.

And Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said in an interview that she plans to question Kavanaugh on how much he knew about the sexual misconduct allegations against Alex Kozinski, the former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, for whom Kavanaugh clerked. Republicans, in turn, are prepared to point out that other Kozinski clerks have been nominated for federal judgeships and confirmed with the help of Democratic senators.

If confirmed, Kavanaugh would replace former Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a swing vote for three decades on the high court.

On one of the issues that has animated Democrats in the Kavanaugh fight  abortion rights  most Americans want to hear the nominees opinion before he is confirmed.

Almost 6 in 10, 59 percent, say he should publicly state his opinion on the matter, while about 3 in 10, 31 percent, say he should not. That mirrors Post-ABC polling since the early 2000s that found majorities wanting Supreme Court nominees to disclose their opinions on abortion.

Certainly, I would have concerns about where he would go with Roe vs. Wade, Hirono said. There will be a number of those who have those concerns.

More Democrats (74 percent) than Republicans (48 percent) say Kavanaugh should state his abortion position before being approved by the Senate. Leading up to Elena Kagans confirmation in 2010, that was flipped, with more Republicans (66 percent) than Democrats (46 percent) saying she should publicly state her position on abortion.

Overall, a 45 percent plurality says the Supreme Court should leave the ability for a woman to get an abortion the same as it is now, while 30 percent say the court should make it harder and 21 percent say it should become easier. People who want access to abortion made easier are largely opposed to Kavanaughs confirmation, with 62 percent of them saying he should not be confirmed and 15 percent saying he should. A majority of those who think access to abortion should be made harder support his confirmation (66 percent), while 13 percent say he should not be confirmed. Those who say the Supreme Court should not make changes to the ability for a woman to get an abortion lean against confirming him (45 percent) as opposed to confirming him (31 percent).

Among other demographic differences in support for Kavanaughs nomination are gender and religion. Almost half of men, 47 percent, say he should be confirmed, compared with 29 percent of women. And white evangelicals back Kavanaughs confirmation by about a 3-to-1 margin, 56 percent to 18 percent, although more than one-quarter have no opinion. White Catholics are more evenly divided, with 44 percent saying he should be confirmed and 38 percent saying he should not.

Thats typical of the type of warfare against Republican nominees, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a former Judiciary Committee chairman who has participated in 14 Supreme Court nomination fights, said of public perceptions about Kavanaugh. Were going to get him confirmed. But therell be a lot of fuss and game-playing over it.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted among a random national sample of 1,003 adults reached on conventional phones and cellphones; the margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Gabriel Pogrund and Scott Clement contributed to this report.Amy and I are still young, and Amy still looks it. And we look forward to writing that next chapter in our journey together, he said, before picking up a theme that Obama embraced as he left office in 2017. I will always be here for the future of this city, not as mayor but in the most important role anyone can play  as a citizen.A set of emails, which have been made public and were reviewed by The Post, showed that Kavanaugh and his associates were concerned that whatever they wrote might one day be made public. The email thread of Jan. 3, 2002, began when Kavanaugh noted that he had been blasted for his effort to protect presidential records. That prompted another White House official to say, apparently jokingly, that they were denying historians and generations of American school children important information about their government.HALFMOON, N.Y. >> After years of review and two negative recommendations from the Planning Board, the 201-unit Betts Farm Residential PDD housing project has been approved by the Town Board.

The boards July 18 approval, however, did not come easily. After being tabled from its May and June meeting agendas, the board approved the projects special legislation by a 3-2 vote.

Voting to approve the Abele Builders project were Supervisor Kevin Tollisen, Deputy Supervisor Paul Hotaling and Councilwoman Daphne Jordan.

Voting to deny the approval were councilmen Jeremy Connors and John Wasielewski.

The project will have 84 two-family homes, 116 single family homes on smaller lots and one large estate lot. The 152-acre parcel is north of town hall and east of Route 236, between Betts Lane and Hayner Road. The majority of the homes will be built at the top of a gentle slope that increases in elevation as it moves east from Route 236.

The project will be adjacent to the Glen Meadows and Swatling Falls residential developments, which have access roads on Upper Newtown Road.

The Betts Farm project was initially proposed as a 236-unit development. After several appearances before the Planning Board the number of homes was reduced to 215 units. Despite the reductions, several members of the Planning Board stood by their earliest comments that the project was too dense for the parcel.

After a final revision, a representative for Abele Builders told the Town Board at the July 18 meeting the plan had been reduced once again to a total of 201 units.

Despite the additional reductions in the number of housing units Wasielewski and Connors remained unconvinced the density of the project and its location would not cause problems for town residents.

Ive heard the traffic engineer tell us that this project will have no significant impact on traffic on Route 236, Wasielewski said at the July 18 meeting. Im not convinced that even at a very conservatively estimated 300-plus extra vehicles this project would not immediately hamper the already gridlocked traffic conditions at Guideboard (Road) and Route 236, or on Route 146, which already routinely backs up past the town highway garage. I firmly believe that any town resident who travels these roads to and from work would not support this project.

Wasielewski expressed an additional concern that cars leaving the subdivision via Hayner Road could be faced with problems as the road was originally designed more for farm tractors than SUVs . He noted that it is a winding two-lane road that terminates on the busy Route 236.

Drivers looking to turn left out of this project on to Route 236, especially during the morning commutes, would be taking their lives into their hands, he said. Remember, we are speaking of relatively high-speed two-lane roads that do not easily allow for merging traffic.

As a council member who attends many Planning Board meetings, Wasielewski said he could not recall another project that had received two negative recommendations. That fact alone, he said, would give him reason to withhold his support.

The addition of hundreds of cars to these already overburdened main roads doesnt make any sense to me, he said. My sole reason for being an elected member of this board is to represent the interest of the people of Halfmoon. Im convinced that if they sat through the same meetings as I have about this project, throughout many years now, they would vote as I would, and that would be to cast a negative vote.

Connors, a past Chief of the Halfmoon-Waterford Volunteer Fire Department and another council member who attends nearly all Planning Board meetings, was concerned with density as well, especially where it affects public safety.

Having been a past fire chief here, I know some of the obstacles that are faced, especially in the (Route) 236 and Guideboard (Road) area. Fire engines have a difficult time getting through there during specific times of the day, he said. The roads cant handle it, period. I live in that area. I know what its like.

Connors noted he grew up in the area, knew the roads well and was concerned with potential accidents if a large number of vehicles begin using the former farm roads.

I know for a fact theres a sight distance issue there as well, he said. I sat just on the easement of the Gorceski area and watched numerous vehicles come through that blind hill. Its going to be an issue, somebody is going to get hurt or killed there and Im not going to stamp my name on it.

Connors added that it appeared as if the impacts to residents had been forgotten during the many meetings on the projects site plans.

For the residents who are going to be impacted here, concerns were just met just recently, he said. It almost seemed as though they were forgotten. These are our residents, they put us on this dais and I have to represent them and I have to look them in the face. In order to do that, I am going to vote no on this project.

In response to the two no votes Supervisor Tollisen said that disagreements among board members are fine with him. He noted the density had been reduced, potential for traffic issues had been reviewed by the town engineering consultant, and the fire department had been actively involved in the review process. He did take issue with the board members comments on the connection between their votes and town residents.

I dont believe voting for this project has anything to do with how we represent the residents and, quite frankly, I think that we do a very good job representing the residents of this town, he said.The liberal insurgency inside the Democratic Party has claimed another victory, with Boston city councilor Ayanna Pressley defeating veteran Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.) on Tuesday with a message of generational change.

You saw what I saw: That these times demanded more from our leaders and our party, Pressley told cheering supporters in Boston. Its not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power. It matters who those Democrats are.

Capuano acknowledged the districts desires in remarks after early returns showed him losing his old political base to the challenger.

Clearly, the district wanted a lot of change, Capuano said. Ayanna Pressley is going to be a good congresswoman.

Pressley, 44, is set to become the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress, as Republicans are running no candidate in the 7th District. Capuano, 66, first won the seat in 1998 but struggled to keep up with Pressley as she argued that a young and majority-nonwhite district needed a fresh voice in Washington.

I fundamentally believe that the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power, Pressley said on the trail.

Capuano is the second Democrat, and the fourth member of Congress overall, to lose a renomination battle in 2018, following the surprise defeat of Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. New England has never previously elected black women to Congress; Pressley and Connecticuts Jahana Hayes are both favored to win in November.

Two other Massachusetts Democrats, Reps. Stephen F. Lynch and Richard E. Neal, easily defeated female challengers who ran to their left, and a close race was underway in the 3rd Congressional District, where the seat is being vacated by Rep. Niki Tsongas. But in Pressleys words, she did what Massachusetts Democrats arent supposed to do  unseat an incumbent who had much of the political establishment behind him, on a slogan of change cant wait.

Republican voters, meanwhile, nominated Gov. Charlie Baker for a second term, and picked conservative state legislator Geoff Diehl to challenge Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D).

Democrats nominated former state finance secretary Jay Gonzalez for governor, and longtime Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin defeated a liberal challenger by a landslide.

But the Capuano-Pressley race, which split Massachusetts Democrats and national liberals alike, had drawn the most attention. Capuano has been one of the Houses most reliably left-wing votes, especially on issues of war and defense funding. Pressley, a former Capitol Hill staffer long seen as a political star, had argued that she could lead a movement from the seat while Capuano was content to simply vote the right way.

Polling found a consistent lead for Capuano, who locked up endorsements from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and most local labor unions. But Warren and some other Democratic leaders stayed neutral in the race, while the Boston Globe and a number of local liberal groups backed Pressley. The challenger got a burst of attention after Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley with a similar message.

Representation does matter, Pressley said in an interview while campaigning last week. Many would just say: Your job is the vote. Im saying that your vote is just one part of the job.

In a separate interview, Capuano said that hed built a very progressive record in Congress, despite frequent opposition and that a freshman arriving in 2019 would not be able to deliver as much for the district.

All politics is built on relationships, and Congress is no different, he said.

The primary flummoxed national Democrats, who saw a rising star in Pressley but a reliable and scandal-free congressman in Capuano. The congressman, who had run as an insurgent candidate himself when first winning the seat, had opposed the Iraq War, backed the Affordable Care Act and opposed efforts to deregulate banks.

But Pressley ran to Capuanos left on a few key issues, calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and for restoring voting rights to prisoners. She also gained an advantage over Capuano when the congressman groused that Democrats were becoming balkanized by racial identity.

This is not just a blue wave; this is a movement thats coming to Congress, Ocasio-Cortez said in June at an appearance with Pressley, before either had won her race.

When we had the Womens March, they thought that was a moment, Pressley said at the event. We had signs that said: Today we march, tomorrow we run. And they didnt believe it!

Republicans never intended to contest the 7th District, which gave Hillary Clinton 84.1 percent of the vote in the 2016 presidential race and was previously represented by Democratic Party legends Tip ONeill and John F. Kennedy.

But the race to challenge Warren was crowded; Republicans spent a combined $8.4 million on the primary, even though polling has shown Warren ahead by 30 points or more against any of them. Diehl, whose campaign has sold Trump-style hats with the slogan Make Warren Teach Again, said he would challenge her as an elitist out of touch with a state that had been too highly taxed.

Theres a path to win here, Diehl said in an interview last week. Theres a Rust Belt here in Massachusetts, and people there feel the same way that people in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan felt in 2016.

Republicans, who are more hopeful that Warren can be damaged than beaten outright, were far more confident at the top of the ballot. Baker, a moderate who often breaks with President Trump, easily defeated Scott Lively, an anti-gay-rights activist who pledged to become the most pro-Trump governor in America.

That left most of Tuesdays drama in Democratic primaries, with candidates of the left challenging Democrats seen as too willing to compromise or too indebted to donors.

Several state legislators were struggling against challengers, including Jeffrey Sanchez, a Democrat who had been criticized for axing language in the state budget that would have cut off state funding for ICE. Rachael Rollins, an attorney who promised to end mass incarceration and challenge ICE, won the Democratic nomination to represent Suffolk County  the city of Boston and some suburbs  as district attorney.

In the 3rd Congressional District, which Tsongas has represented since 2007, 10 Democrats were competing to represent an increasingly diverse and liberal electorate; Trump won just 35.4 percent of its 2016 vote.

Late Tuesday night, the race was tight: a dead heat between Lori Trahan, a former chief of staff to Tsongass predecessor and Dan Koh, a former chief of staff to Mayor Walsh, with state legislator Juana Matias closely behind.

Koh raised more than $3 million  more than any of the states incumbent members of the House, except for Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D). But that hardly cleared the field, with Trahan stacking up more than $1 million, and every candidate trying to stake out space as a liberal who would expand Medicare and curtail the Trump administrations immigration policies.

The winner of Tuesdays primary will face Republican Rick Green, the CEO of an online auto parts company who has partially self-funded his campaign. But national Republicans have not prioritized any of Massachusettss House races, and they have no candidates in four of the states nine districts.

In two of those districts, Tuesday found the Democratic Partys liberal insurgency falling short. In the 1st District, which covers the cities of Springfield and Northampton, Rep. Neal defeated Muslim attorney and activist Tahirah Amatul-Wadud.

In the 8th District, which covers south Boston and some of the citys suburbs, Rep. Lynch dispatched Brianna Wu, a video game designer who was targeted by far-right activists in 2014 for defending women in her industry during the #Gamergate controversy.

Wu criticized Lynch for opposing the Affordable Care Act and casting votes against abortion rights. She called her own platform identical to the one on which Ocasio-Cortez ran in New York  a message that sold better than many Democrats had expected.

Read more at PowerPostHaqqani was ill and bedridden for the past several years, the statement said. He was believed to be in his late 70s. His sons long ago took over the day-to-day running of the group known as the Haqqani network, and at a time of increased Taliban attacks on the government, his death is expected to have little impact.The typhoon first made landfall on the island of Shikoku, where wind gusts of up to 129 mph were recorded. Around four inches of rain drenched one part of the tourist city of Kyoto in an hour, the Associated Press reported, with as much as 20 inches set to fall in some areas in the 24 hours leading up to noon Wednesday.But in a sign that Washington is largely resigned to the offensive taking place, the comments of senior U.S. officials focused on how, not if, the battle should unfold. On social media, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, urged Syria and Russia not to use chemical weapons. In Athens, Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the United States wanted a humanitarian disaster to be avoided.Coles will stay committed to ridding the business of poker machines once the supermarket giant is spun out as an independent company, according to the boss of its current owner Wesfarmers.

Wesfarmers has long expressed discomfort about its ownership of the 3000-odd poker machines that sit within the almost 90 pubs that make up its Spirit Hotels arm, and has spent much of this year trying to sell the business.

Wesfarmers has been looking to sell its pubs business. Credit:Bloomberg

A key obstacle to that deal is Queensland's unique liquor laws which dictate a business must own a licensed venue to run a retail liquor outlet, and Wesfarmers has been trying to find a way to ditch its pubs that allows Coles to keep its Liquorland, First Choice Liquor and Vintage Cellars bottle shops in the state.

Wesfarmers and private equity firm KKR were reportedly close to finalising such a deal in June. But the Queensland Attorney-General and Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation have told Fairfax Media they have not received an application to facilitate such a deal.New York: On a day when many New Yorkers escaped the muggy city streets for a trip to the beach, Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull hit the town in Manhattan in search of respite from the political heat back home.

The recently deposed prime minister and his wife will spend the next six weeks holidaying in New York, where they own an apartment bought for $US3.275 million on the city's desirable Upper West Side.

But if the Turnbulls thought they could escape the media glare in New York they were wrong.

Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull have retreated to New York after the Liberal leadership crisis ended Mr Turnbull's prime ministership. Credit:BACKGRID

The pair were filmed arriving at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night, where Mr Turnbull said he was looking forward to some rest following his dramatic removal as prime minister less than two weeks ago.By the time you read this, Tuesdays election will be history. We will know whether or not Texans came out...First, New Zealand declared war on dirty-clawed predators  stoats, rats, weasels  and there was little to be missed. But as the fight comes to the kitties, some owners are paws-sitively outraged.

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First, New Zealand declared war on dirty-clawed predators  stoats, rats, weasels  and there was little to be missed. But as the fight comes to the kitties, some owners are paws-sitively outraged.

New Zealands efforts to protect its most rarefied creatures are turning to a measure that has rattled many cat owners: banning feline friends. The southern coastal village of Omaui  inhabited by 35 people, seven or eight cherished cats and a slew of endangered species, according to reporting from the New York Times  is considering a "pest plan" to defend New Zealands vulnerable native wildlife. The plan would prohibit domestic cats, arguing owners should be willing to put the islands extraordinary biodiversity over their furry companions.

"Often people have a choice. Is it the native birds and wildlife, like the lizards, insects they want to thrive? Or is it the cat?" Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage, commenting on similar cat bans, told Newshub.

Introduced on Tuesday, the Omaui proposal  which targets 72 predators, including domestic cats  would require current cat-izens to be neutered, micro-chipped and registered within six months. After a cat dies, its owner would not be allowed to get another. Should residents resist, the government would force them to exile their cats  or seize them as a last resort.

Opponents of the plan say that ridding the village of a few felines wont protect the endangered species, but will leave vermin to run rampant.

"It doesnt matter how many (rodents) I trap and poison, more just keep coming in from the bush," Nico Jarvis, an Omaui resident who owns three cats and is starting a petition to combat the ban, told the Otago Daily Times.

"If I cannot have a cat, it almost becomes unhealthy for me to live in my house."

Jarvis accused Environment Southland, the regional council behind the pest plan, of behaving "like a police state" by trying to prohibit Omauis domestic cats, and said the majority of the community thinks the benefit to local wildlife would be negligible. But Jeremy Collins, the Omaui Landcare Charitable Trust chairman who pushed for the ban, said hes seen native birds "ripped to pieces" on his front lawn, the Otago Daily Times reported.

"Native wildlife is disappearing rapidly around the country and places like this, where people still live and enjoy and hear the birdsong, are probably few and far between, Collins told the Otago Daily Times.

New Zealand has the highest proportion of endangered species in the world, as it is home to more than 4,000-odd threatened creatures and critters, ranging from the small Maui and Hectors dolphins to the fluffy, flightless Kiwi, the nations icon. Environmental experts say New Zealands rare, native species have been terrorized by invaders that arrived alongside the countrys settlers 200 years ago.

"The best way to describe it is New Zealand is the land without teeth. If it has four legs, fur and teeth, it never evolved here," endangered species ambassador Nicola Toki told Newshub.

In 2016, the country pledged to wipe out all invasive mammals by 2050, as it dedicated US$1.5 billion to its "Predator Free New Zealand" plan. The government says these creatures kill 25 million native birds every year, spread diseases and cost the New Zealand economy and primary sector nearly US$2.2 billion per year. The breadth of the nations extensive conservation efforts have been compared to the Apollo space program.

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.

Domestic cats, however, werent included on the 2016 hit list, perhaps because of New Zealands singular feline infatuation. According to some estimates, New Zealand has more cats per capita than any other country in the world. A former conservation minister proposed a nationwide cat cap  two per household  but support fell short.

The targeting of cats has been brewing for years. Famed feline antagonist Gareth Morgan, an economist and environmentalist, has called cats "friendly neighbourhood serial killers," and has pushed for a total wipeout of the creatures  a movement he titled "Cats To Go"  since 2013. The groups website once featured a Photoshopped picture of a demon kitten with red eyes and devil horns, according to reporting from the New Zealand Herald. It also referred to cats as "the only true sadists of the animal world."

While many experts said Morgans characterization of house cats was radical, research has actually shifted in his favour, as domestic cats have been found responsible for the extinction of several bird species.

Since the 1900s, the country has created a handful of cat-free subdivisions in areas close to wildlife sanctuaries, and several of its outlying islands have banned them completely. Sage recently called for a cat ban in New Zealands capital, Wellington, to restore the kiwi population. Auckland, New Zealands largest city, is considering a plan to kill unmicrochipped cats that prowl sensitive areas, according to the news site Stuff.

Omaui residents have until Oct. 23 to weigh in on the proposal.

 Washington PostWinnipeg residents can be forgiven if theyve forgotten there is a civic election in October.

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This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg residents can be forgiven if theyve forgotten there is a civic election in October.

With 49 days left in the campaign, civic issues havent dominated the headlines like they did four years ago.

In the summer of 2014, there were several high-profile and credible candidates who wanted to take the job after Sam Katz said hed had enough: Brian Bowman, former Coun. Gord Steeves, former New Democrat MP and MLA Judy Wasylycia-Leis (who was making her second run at the job), then-Coun. Paula Havixbeck, community activist David Sanders, and Robert-Falcon Ouelette.

While there are 10 individuals officially registered in the mayoral race, only two candidates  Jenny Motkaluk and Don Woodstock  have done any real campaigning and only Motkaluk is getting any media attention.

Mayor Brian Bowman has said he wont start his campaign until sometime later this month.

Tim Diack, a 31-year street cop, looked promising when he showed up at city hall with about three dozen supporters at the end of May to register his campaign but hes been invisible since that day.

Political scientist Aaron Moore said he thinks Motkaluk is looking impressive only because the other candidates are invisible and he believes shell be in for a tough race once Bowman actually starts campaigning.

"I dont see (Motkaluk) as someone who can challenge Bowman," Moore, an associate professor at the University of Winnipeg, said. "Bowman should have a relatively easy path to victory, which is probably why hes not campaigning."

Moore said he expects Bowman to run a simple campaign, listing his achievements in the past four years and offering a few promises for the next four.

"Itll probably be sufficient for him to get re-elected."

Pollster Mary Agnes Welch said most serious individuals who had been thinking of taking on Bowman probably will wait another four years, explaining that its tough in Winnipeg to beat an incumbent.

Welch, an associate with Probe Research Inc., said shes been impressed with Motkaluk but, like Moore, says it will be difficult for her to beat Bowman.

"Jenny Motkaluk has been setting the agenda and the tone this summer," Welch said. "After a bit of a rough start, shes run a reasonably good summer time campaign with meaty announcements, reasonably focused, on message and substantive."

Anyone still thinking of running only has two weeks to register their campaign and file nomination papers. The deadline is Sept. 18.

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jason Schreyer city council election signs on Nairn Avenue.

A marker was passed on Saturday that should make the next 49 days actually look like an election campaign. Saturday was the first day that candidates could put up campaign signs.

What will be different Oct. 24 and new for many voters is the ballot question on re-opening Portage and Main to pedestrians.

Its been 35 years since Winnipeg voters were asked a ballot question  that was in 1983 when they were asked two questions: if they supported global nuclear disarmament; and, a question on Manitobas controversial English only-language laws. Before that, voters were asked in 1968 if they would allow commercial billiard halls to remain open on Sundays.

This years question will be much simpler, if not very controversial: Do you support the opening of Portage and Main to pedestrian crossings? Yes or No.

Moore said hes concerned the focus on Portage and Main will distract voters and candidates from exploring other, more important issues: determining how best to spend scarce dollars on the citys other needs.

While the mayoral race may not attract much attention, both Moore and Welch said there will be a few hotly contested ward races that will make the next few weeks interesting: Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry, River Heights-Fort Garry, St. James, and Transcona.

Right now, three incumbents arent facing any challengers: Matt Allard in St. Boniface, Brian Mayes in St. Vital, and Janice Lukes in the new ward of Waverley Heights.

"It would be unusual in most major cities across North America for an incumbent to go unopposed," Moore said.

"To have three wards without any challengers is sad," Welch said.

Jenny Gerbasi represented Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry for 20 years on council before she decided in the spring not to run again. There are eight candidates trying to replace her and its possible that whoever wins could do it with only 20 per cent of the vote.

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There are three strong progressive candidates in Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry: labour-endorsed Sherri Rollins (chairwoman of the Winnipeg School Division), planner Jeff Palmer and NDP organizer Geof Langen. Also running is Stephanie Meilleur, executive director of the Osborne Village BIZ.

In River Heights, former Coun. Garth Steek is attempting a comeback against incumbent John Orlikow. Orlikow was part of the opposition when Sam Katz was mayor but Bowman elevated Orlikow to his inner circle, where hes been chairman of the powerful property and development committee for four years.

St. James features the unusual situation where two incumbents are facing off against each other  Shawn Dobson versus Scott Gillingham. Both their area wards were eliminated for this election through a ward boundary revision. Both men were elected for the first time in 2014 but each has had vastly different political careers. Gillingham had a high profile as chairman of councils finance committee for the past two years and the chairman of the police board before that, while Dobson was part of the Bowman opposition for four years, where he regularly complained about the administrations refusal to share information with all councillors and Bowmans practice of only soliciting support from a simple majority of councillors, which didnt include Dobson.

Trying to carve out some space in St. James is Kurt Morton, a 22-year-old civic employee who made headlines in December 2016 when he appeared before a budget review committee to say his bosses at city hall hadnt been making the best decisions.

In Transcona, the news is that veteran Coun. Russ Wyatt still hasnt said whether hell run again, which is not unusual given hes very publicly trying to stay sober after a stint in rehab earlier this year and is now facing a sexual assault charge. Six candidates have registered in that ward, including Shawn Nason, who had been an executive assistant to two Pallister cabinet ministers until he took a leave of absence; and Steven Lipischak, director of marketing for the Vickar Automotive Group.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.caOTTAWA  Fox Lake Cree Nation leaders say band members have been made vulnerable to abuse and upheaval from Manitoba Hydro projects because of their inability to secure a foothold within the town of Gillam.

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This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Fox Lake Cree Nation leaders say band members have been made vulnerable to abuse and upheaval from Manitoba Hydro projects because of their inability to secure a foothold within the town of Gillam.

The band is seeking Ottawa's intervention in an attempt to secure more reserve land, saying it would help restore both economic opportunities and cultural practices.

Last week, the Manitoba government released a bombshell report by the arm's-length Clean Environment Commission, detailing allegations of physical abuse and harassment by Hydro workers dating to the 1960s and claims of sexual abuse with RCMP complicity.

The province incorporated Gillam as a town in 1966. "All of a sudden, we were squatters," Fox Lake chief executive officer Robert Wavey said in an interview last week.

He claims Ottawa helped the province establish Gillam as a town by surveying the land a decade prior, helping finance the community's transmission line and ceding federal land to the province.

Wavey said Ottawa facilitated the transfer of plots of land in the 1970s, allowing Fox Lake to set up a small casino and some business along Kettle Crescent, which he said finally became reserve land in 2009. Known as the A Kwis Ki Mahka Indian Reserve, it spans just 3.21 acres within Gillam, which by footprint is among Canadas 10 largest towns/cities.

"By the time it got around to us, to create a reserve here, it was whatever was left around. It was already too late. Theyd already built the town around us," he said.

The Free Press could not find documentation to directly substantiate Waveys recounting of events, but Ottawa did not dispute his claims. Wavey said without substantial reserve land, Fox Lake couldn't access duly-owed compensation.

In 1977, the Manitoba government signed the Northern Flood Agreement with five First Nations, retroactively giving the province land rights for dams, in exchange for parcels of land, hunting rights, job opportunities and $5 million for economic-development projects.

Fox Lake wasnt among the beneficiaries, as noted in a 2001 report by the Manitoba Aboriginal Rights Coalition, "perhaps because they did not have reserve lands that were directly affected."

Band member Franklin Arthurson claimed in testimony to the coalition negotiations for reserve land were still ongoing around the time of the NFA, but Indian Affairs officials "would require Fox Lake First Nation to forgive all past wrongs of the government in order to finally receive lands promised to them, pursuant to Treaty 5."

Meanwhile, the CEC report itself noted the lack of land rights contributed to Fox Lakes cultural disruption.

"They needed permits to build houses and build open fires. It was no longer possible to walk to the edge of town and collect firewood or hunt game," the report reads. "It is often the case, for example, that they can access what used to be traditional Fox Lake land only by travelling in the company of Manitoba Hydro employees"

Wavey said Fox Lake cant heal from sexual abuse, discrimination and the legacy of residential schools until it can establish a larger reserve in its historical territory.

"We want to take back our place in the town of Gillam. We want the federal government to agree they had a role to play. They were culpable in what happened to us, in not providing us with that reserve land back then."

In any case, Gillam did establish a second piece of reserve land in Bird, a village 53 km east established in 1985, too late for the NFA funding agreements.

About half of Fox Lakes 1,200 band members now live in Gillam and Bird  many moved to Winnipeg and Thompson for work. Fox Lake leaders suggest more would have stayed if they had economic viability in their homeland.

"We were the most impacted with the hydroelectric projects," claimed Chief Walter Spence, who sees a direct connection between not owning sufficient land and reports of exploitation by Hydro workers.

Spence said hed made "several presentations" to federal Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett about the reserve issue. He said he raised it with her in late July, asking for a response within three months.

He said Bennett and Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister should visit Gillam, located roughly 750 km northeast of Winnipeg. "We need the two levels of government to come here, because we need to work on a process to rebuild our community."

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Ottawa took six days to respond, and did not provide any details on how it plans to handle the reserve issue, nor the version of events outlined by Wavey and Spence.

Instead, Indigenous Services Canada spokeswoman Martine Stevens wrote the government "is committed to the efficient implementation of Treaty Land Entitlement agreements" and "continues to work with FLCN" on their demand for reserve land within Gillam.

Both Minister of Indigenous Services Jane Philpott and Bennett have reserved any comment on the CEC report.

"The government of Canada is aware of the serious and disturbing allegations," Stevens wrote.

 with files from Alexandra Paul

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.caAllegations of abuse are following Manitoba Hydro from its Keeyask Generating Project near Gillam back to its Winnipeg boardroom.

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This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Allegations of abuse are following Manitoba Hydro from its Keeyask Generating Project near Gillam back to its Winnipeg boardroom.

Martina Saunders, a member of York Factory First Nation and former vice-president of the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership (KHLP) which oversees the construction project, said she resigned her board seat last year after experiencing bullying from Hydro employees. She worked with KHLP from December 2014 to February 2017.

Saunders said she's been in talks with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission since 2017 about filing a formal complaint.

"I experienced a lot of racism and discrimination as being an executive on the board. It was very difficult to try and conduct business in the board meetings when youre dealing with systemic racism from the Hydro employees," Saunders said Tuesday at a press conference organized by Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), an advocacy group representing Northern First Nations.

"I felt like I was alienated by the board because if I brought up issues that needed to be dealt with, it got very uncomfortable for all of us... the issues that I was raising were not being properly addressed by Manitoba Hydro."

Hydro spokesperson Bruce Owen said the Crown corporation was "aware of Ms. Saunders views, but do not agree with them," adding Hydro was unaware she was looking into filing a human rights complaint.

"We will fully co-operate with that process if it moves forward."

Saunders listed sexual exploitation of Indigenous women and girls, racism and discrimination as issues that are "still rampant at Keeyask and at Manitoba Hydro."

Martina Saunders, former vice-president of Keeyask Hydro Power Limited Partnership, wipes a tear as she speaks about her experience and about the social impacts of hydro development across Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) territory as, from left, MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee, and Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Liaison for MKO listen in during a press conference in Winnipeg. (John Woods / The Canadian Press)

"I didnt feel safe to voice my concerns or to speak up on behalf of my First Nation when we were sitting at that board, so I had to step down," she said. "It wasnt easy. I know that the executive is still bullying the Indigenous people who are on the board today."

According to its website, the KHLP board currently has 12 members and Saunders' seat remains vacant. Eight of the board members work with Manitoba Hydro and four represent First Nations.

York Factory First Nation, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation and Fox Lake Cree Nation partnered with Hydro on the Keeyask project, located about 725 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg on the lower Nelson river.

Saunders said an outside body is needed to field the complaints because Hydro has not taken them seriously.

"We need help from someone independent from Manitoba Hydro because... all these committees and subcommittees that they come up with, theyre all Hydro-dominated," she said. "How can we, as Indigenous women and girls, Indigenous people, how can we begin to heal from these atrocities in predominantly white spaces? We cant heal that way. They need to be Indigenous spaces. They need to be culturally appropriate and we need to feel safe."

MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee echoed Saunders' concerns and commended those who have come forward to share stories about Hydro's historical and current impact in the North.

On Aug. 21, the province released a Clean Environment Commission reported dated May 2018 outlining testimony from northern communities that alleged sexual assaults, racism and harassment happened at the hands of Hydro workers, starting in the 1960s.

"Horrific systemic abuse and exploitation of women and girls of MKO First Nations adjacent to hydroelectric projects has been going on for a long time. But we are here to say that in MKO territory (we) will not tolerate any kind of victimization and abuse of our sisters, in any shape, form or fashion," Settee said.

"Were moving towards a trauma-informed approach to ensure that no further harm is inflicted upon these victims and support the development of a healing strategy for these victims."

The grand chief called on the province, Hydro and RCMP to meet with the affected First Nations and MKO to create solutions.

Grand Chief Garrison Settee, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) speaks about the social impacts of hydro development across MKO territory as Martina Saunders, former vice-president of Keeyask Hydro Power Limited Partnership listens. (John Woods / The Canadian Press)

"It is not enough to cry foul. Action must be taken and we are calling for action," he said.

Settee would also like a meeting with Premier Brian Pallister to voice MKO's concerns.

Pallister hasn't spoken publicly yet about the outpouring of Hydro-related allegations, which spilled over while he was on holidays. He returned to work last week.

"If youre not saying anything about racism, youre complicit with it. And I dont think he wants to put himself in that position. So I think that this is such an important matter, he will want to meet," Settee said.

Interview requests for the premier and Minister of Crown Services Colleen Mayer weren't accommodated Tuesday. A spokesperson for Minister of Indigenous and Northern Relations Eileen Clarke sent a statement instead.

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"Manitoba is working to build better relationships with northern First Nations affected by hydroelectric development, including the Keeyask Hydro project partnership. Minister Clarke was in contact with several community leaders including Chiefs of Fox Lake, War Lake, TCN (Tataskweyak), YFFN (York Factory) last week about an appropriate date to set up further meetings to discuss their concerns about the CEC report and other issues surrounding the Keeyask project," the statement said.

"Manitoba Hydro has likewise promised to review complaints raised by local indigenous leaders working on the project, and that work continues."

Settee said he would also welcome the chance to speak with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he visits Winnipeg on Sept. 11.

"I think hes one of those people who are championing equality and inclusion and I think he would be interested to hear this story," the grand chief said.

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbuFor freelance writer and book-lover Heather Emberley, Thin Air, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, is the perfect volunteer gig.

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Opinion

For freelance writer and book-lover Heather Emberley, Thin Air, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, is the perfect volunteer gig.

"Ive been a voracious reader, my parents tell me, since I was three years old," Emberley says.

"I see that reading changes lives, and I like to share that."

Emberley is one of more than 70 volunteers involved with this years instalment of Thin Air, which takes place Sept. 21 to 29.

The annual festival welcomes writers from Canada and around the world for a week of readings, lectures, interviews, conversations, book launches and other events.

A retired school counsellor, Emberley first got involved with Thin Air more than 10 years ago.

For the past five years, she has volunteered at the afternoon events the festival holds at McNally Robinson Booksellers, where festival director Charlene Diehl interviews authors about their work.

Emberley greets guests, encourages them to fill out surveys and does whatever else needs to get done at the event.

"Im there to represent Thin Air at the store and help in any way I can," she says, adding later, "Thin Air is an important part of Winnipegs cultural scene."

John Hill agrees. For Hill, volunteering with Thin Air is an opportunity to do something different from his daily work as the operations manager in a foundry and machine shop.

"My job is not arts-related at all, so volunteering at Thin Air is something I do every year to keep me exposed to whats going on in the arts in the city," he says.

Hill has been with the festival for close to a decade and typically volunteers in the festivals hospitality suites, where writers can decompress before and after their speaking engagements.

"I do some writing and I do a lot of reading, so its kind of an opportunity to learn about authors I wouldnt have picked up otherwise," he says. "It gets me out and I get to meet like-minded people."

Volunteers like Emberley and Hill are integral to Thin Airs success, says Steve Locke, the festivals volunteer manager.

"Theres just so much to do at the various events... and not enough staff to do all these tasks," he says. "Without volunteers, we wouldnt have a festival, really."

Locke is still looking for volunteers to help at this years Thin Air.

The festival is particularly in need of drivers to shuttle writers to and from various locations, as well as hosts for its hospitality suites.

Anyone interested can register at thinairwinnipeg.ca/volunteer or email volunteer@thinairwinnipeg.ca for more information.

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Festival staff try to build a sense of family into the event, Locke says, and volunteers are an important part of that.

"You have your writers, you have your audience members and you have your volunteers, and theyre all part of the community," he says.

Emberley is looking forward to this years festival.

She has attended similar events in San Francisco and Whistler, B.C., but Thin Air is her favourite.

"Its uniquely authentic in that you get to meet writers and hear their personal stories, as well as the stories of their books," she says, adding that the festival boasts a number of free events. "Its accessible and inviting."

If you know a special volunteer, please contact aaron.epp@gmail.com.Today Id like to share the shocking, but true story of a slovenly newspaper columnist.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 3/9/2018 (1157 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Today Id like to share the shocking, but true story of a slovenly newspaper columnist.

To shield this journalistic icon from public embarrassment, well give him a fictitious name  Doug sounds about right.

New York Times / The Associated Press Files Legendary scientist Albert Einstein famously said, if a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

Now if Doug was famous for anything, he was famous for having arguably the messiest desk in the entire newspaper industry.

Dougs unkempt workspace was typically buried under several metric tonnes of old newspapers, discarded food wrappers, out-of-date news releases, faded postcards, empty Styrofoam containers, broken ballpoint pens, soiled napkins and other assorted bric-a-brac collected over years of a glorious, albeit untidy, journalism career.

His desk was frequently subjected to walk-by sneerings from his far-tidier colleagues, whose desks, while not clean enough to eat off of, at least gave the impression of hygienic professionalism, if you catch our drift.

So one day  this was about a month ago  Doug was sitting at his messy desk, trying to think deep thoughts, when his favourite newsroom administrator came over and politely explained that this was the day our hero would have to clean his workspace, because a) it set a really bad example in terms of personal hygiene; and b) it was probably a fire hazard.

Hanging his head in shame, Doug set about the massive clean-up operation, carefully dragging layers of useless crud off his desk and dumping it in a huge blue garbage bin in the nearby hallway.

Montreal journalist Josh Freed defends his unbelievably messy office. Doug Speirs can relate. (Supplied photo)

It took him roughly three hours to get rid of all his treasured rubbish, largely because it is difficult not to sit down and read for a while when you stumble on a 12-year-old newspaper hidden under a pile of toast crumbs and other potentially mouldy debris.

In the end, Dougs famously messy desk was transformed into a shining example of workplace cleanliness and everyone was proud that this untidy columnist had turned over a new, and much tidier, leaf.

Which is when Doug decided to go away for two weeks of holiday, leaving his squeaky clean desk to fend for itself.

When he returned to work, the reformed slob happily plopped himself down in his workplace cubicle, and immediately discovered that (EEK!) his arms had become essentially glued to his desk, about a third of which was coated in a thick layer of bright-red, extremely sticky goop.

What had happened is that, while Doug was away, a can of strawberry-lime soda pop  one of about half a dozen cans that had been sitting on his desk for 12 years after being sent to him as part of a promotion  had sprung a leak, spewing its now-syrupy contents throughout the cubicle.

"AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH!" is what Doug howled as he yanked his limbs out of the goop, losing about a yard of arm hair in the process.

Fortunately, none of Dougs clean-desk colleagues had spotted the sticky mess, so our hero quietly strode to the front of the newsroom, scooped up a container of spray-on cleaner, some antiseptic wipes and several yards of paper towel, which he used to obliterate the soda-pop quagmire from his desktop.

With his desk once again spotless, Doug decided to calm himself by doing a little research online, which is when he spotted a news report stating  and we will activate the caps lock feature on our keyboard to emphasize the importance of this discovery  A MESSY DESK IS A SIGN OF GENIUS!

According to the American Psychological Association, researchers at the University of Minnesota have shown that working in a tidy room encourages people to be socially responsible, but creative geniuses prefer a chaotic workspace.

The Minnesota researchers conducted a series of experiments, with half the participants working in a tidy room, while the other half worked in a room strewn with clutter.

It turns out the neat-room folks were more apt to donate to charity and made healthier decisions  choosing an apple over chocolate for a treat  but they werent nearly as creative.

This was shown by an experiment in which the participants were asked to come up with novel uses for a ping-pong ball.

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"Again, half the participants worked in a messy room and half in a neat room. The participants thought up the same number of ideas, but a panel of independent raters rated the messy-room participants ideas as significantly more creative," the psychological association noted.

The study has received a mess of media attention, and researcher Kathleen Vohs thinks she knows why. "I think it makes people feel vindicated," she said. "Theres a multibillion-dollar industry to help people de-clutter their lives. Relationship partners, employers, everyone wants you to be neat... but there may be times being messy is good, too. I think messy people feel vindicated big time."

As you can imagine, as he sat at his newly clean desk reading about this research, Doug was more than a little flummoxed. Did a non-messy desk mean he wasnt a genius?

He recalled that legendary genius Albert Einstein once famously said that "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"

Doug was definitely no Einstein, but there was one thing the messy columnist knew for sure  only an idiot would leave a can of strawberry-lime soda sitting on his desk for 12 years.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.caThis should send a small shiver through the spines of anyone employed in academia: the recruiting site Glassdoor has published a list of companies that no longer require a college degree  including professional heavyweights Google, Apple and Ernst & Young. If firms like these no longer insist upon a sheepskin, it seems just possible that the decades-long trend of requiring more and more education to maintain a toehold in the middle class might reverse.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

This should send a small shiver through the spines of anyone employed in academia: the recruiting site Glassdoor has published a list of companies that no longer require a college degree  including professional heavyweights Google, Apple and Ernst & Young. If firms like these no longer insist upon a sheepskin, it seems just possible that the decades-long trend of requiring more and more education to maintain a toehold in the middle class might reverse.

To be clear, were a long way from returning to the days when enrolments were tiny, and cutting-edge technology firms were founded by ambitious machinists rather than Harvard dropouts. But our reverence for the college diploma is a social norm, not an economic necessity, as economist Bryan Caplan cogently argued in his recent book, The Case Against Education.

There are better ways, such as apprenticeships or management training programs, to sort out workers who are bright and conscientious  especially given the barriers this throws up for talented people without the financial or social capital to obtain a four-year degree.

Social norms can change, and surprisingly rapidly; after all, in 2000, "marriage is between a man and a woman" was so widely agreed upon that one could hardly call it a debate. So, we should consider what a world without mandatory college diplomas would look like.

In many ways, better than this one. The endless ratchet of diploma requirements for jobs that can be learned in other ways is a recipe for firms losing talent, and workers, especially those from lower-income families, losing opportunities. And thus, for America losing the economic and social mobility that is our birthright.

That world is apt to be hard, however, on people who work in higher education. Colleges and universities have largely evaded the economic disruption that has whipsawed the rest of us; theres little threat from foreign competition or automation, and they control the main gateway to secure and remunerative work.

True, feckless graduate programs producing too many PhDs have led to ferocious competition for tenure-track jobs  but the competition is so fierce precisely because the work is so secure and attractive compared with the rest of the economy.

Those people will lose a lot if "everyone should go to college" stops being a universal mantra. But theyre not the only ones who should be shaking. A lot of vital research goes on at those schools. Theyre also repositories of enormous left-wing cultural and political power that would be scattered if enrolments began to precipitously decline. Indeed, enrolments already are falling in the humanities, where most of that political and cultural power is held.

What does feminism look like without a countrywide network of womens studies departments organizing conferences and doing research? What would our current debate about racism look like without the vocabulary and theoretical work supplied by critical race theorists? What would the rest of left-wing politics look like if many academics had to get jobs that didnt leave them so much time to think and write?

And more broadly, what would left-wing activism look like without the critical nexus of student groups that organize protests and indoctrinate future graduates?

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In another era, the left might have looked to trade unions, or the media. But unionism, never particularly strong here, has been gutted by deindustrialization. And journalisms business model is crumbling under assault from the tech companies, which have grabbed all the advertising dollars. If cracks start appearing in the university system, what, to coin a phrase, is left?

That probably sounds like a joyous prospect for conservatives, who endlessly bemoan left-wing cultural hegemony. Most of that energy would be better spent shoring up their own bases of power, such as churches, for they are in no better shape.

The increasing interlinkage of partisan leanings and cultural identity has allowed both sides of the political spectrum to consolidate control over key cultural institutions, which they can leverage to foment policy change. But its also concentrated partisan power within those nodes, leaving both sides dependent on them  and vulnerable to their decline.

And while tearing down the other sides redoubts may seem like a win for your own, recent experience should give everyone pause. As Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, a columnist at the Week, pointed out last year, liberals who thought they hated the Christian right were shocked to find that they disliked the post-Christian right even more.

And in the twilight of the universities, conservatives might equally well find themselves trembling before an opposition that is no longer sheltered in institutions, nor constrained by institutional norms.

 Washington PostNot since Rudy Giuliani promised to investigate the non-fat yogurt scandal in a cameo appearance on a 1993 Seinfeld episode has the former New York City mayor and current personal lawyer and fanatical defender of U.S. President Donald Trump had such a hilarious television moment as his recent appearance on NBCs Meet the Press.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Not since Rudy Giuliani promised to investigate the non-fat yogurt scandal in a cameo appearance on a 1993 Seinfeld episode has the former New York City mayor and current personal lawyer and fanatical defender of U.S. President Donald Trump had such a hilarious television moment as his recent appearance on NBCs Meet the Press.

In an exchange with the shows moderator, Chuck Todd, about whether Trump will consent to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, Giuliani argued that there are various degrees of truth. "Truth is truth," Todd countered. Giulianis nutty response: "Truth isnt truth."

Twenty-four hours later, following a spate of negative commentary, Giuliani tried to explain himself by insisting he meant it as a "He said, she said puzzle." The White House argument is that if Trump spoke to Mueller, he likely would fall into a "perjury trap" because his "version of the truth" might be regarded as a lie.

No kidding. Thats what happens when you offer false and misleading statements each and every day since youve taken office. Like the boy who cried wolf, no one believes anything you say  other than your unwaveringly loyal base. It is the same reason why you can only shake your head in dismay at Trump calling his former lawyer Michael Cohen  who pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts  a liar. Is there any better example of the classic retort, "It takes one to know one?"

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post has one main task: to track Trumps false statements. According to Kesslers diligent research, from the start of the Trump presidency in January 2017 to the first week of August 2018, Trump has made 4,229 false or misleading statements, or more than 71/2 per day. And the total keeps on rising.

Similarly, fact checker Linda Qiu of the New York Times, who also keeps tabs on Trumps statements, notes that in the same period, Trump made more than 250 "exaggerated, misleading or flat-out false claims" about the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

So brazen is Trump that last March he even admitted to an audience that he made up facts about the supposed U.S. trade deficit with Canada in a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "I didnt even know... I had no idea," he said in a tape recording of the event about countering Trudeaus correct assertion that there is no American deficit in trade with Canada.

Trump is not the first president (or Canadian prime minister or premier) to distort the truth and blatantly lie  though he has taken it to a whole new level. The main difference between Trump and many other U.S. and Canadian leaders is that when confronted with a lie, most politicians are contrite and occasionally offer apologies, while Trump, a master at "doubling down," never does.

Dwight Eisenhower refused to admit in the 1950s that the U.S. had spy planes flying over the Soviet Union when, in fact, it did. When the truth came out, he conceded he had been misleading the public. Ronald Reagan, too, initially denied that the U.S. had traded arms for hostages with Iran, which contravened an American embargo. Several months later, he apologized for the confusion, stating he believed his statement about this issue was truthful when he first said it, "but the facts and evidence tell me it is not."

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Richard Nixon lied about his knowledge of the Watergate scandal, Bill Clinton was initially deceptive about admitting he had sexual relations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In Clintons case, he finally did come clean, conceding in a televised address that he had had an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky. "It constituted a critical lapse in judgment," he stated, "and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible."

In a telling twist, as New York Times columnist Charles Blow has pointed out, soon after Clintons public apology, then-businessman Donald Trump in a TV interview denounced Clintons speech as a "disaster" that did not set "the right tone." Clinton, Trump added, should have denied the affair.

It is difficult to know if Trump purposely and manipulatively lies, or if he merely inhabits a different version of reality in TrumpWorld. In other words, he truly believes his falsehoods are the truth, and the more he repeats them, the more veracity they have in his mind.

In a 1996 study on political behaviour, Michael Davis and Michael Ferrantino of Southern Methodist University in Dallas suggest politicians frequently lie if they have more to gain from the falsehood they spin, and more significantly if they do not believe their reputations will be impugned. That certainly is the case with Trump. He has seemingly reasoned that lying repeatedly to his base, telling them what they want to hear, is the best way to assure their continued support. And, so far, its working.

If anything, the distortions, crude insults, authoritarian impulses, "Make America Great" nationalism, attacks on the press as the "enemy of the people" and accusations about the "rigged" Mueller "witch hunt" energize his supporters. Recent polls indicate that about 42 per cent of Americans remain firmly in support of Trump. Hence, the serial lying will continue.

Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context.Since declaring her intention to unseat Mayor Brian Bowman in this falls civic election, Jenny Motkaluk has worked to establish herself as a credible alternative to Winnipegs incumbent mayor. To date, however, she has been a candidate in search of a signature issue.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 4/9/2018 (1156 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

Since declaring her intention to unseat Mayor Brian Bowman in this falls civic election, Jenny Motkaluk has worked to establish herself as a credible alternative to Winnipegs incumbent mayor. To date, however, she has been a candidate in search of a signature issue.

At the outset of her enthusiastic electoral effort, Ms. Motkaluk seemed intent on seizing on the reopening (or not) of Portage and Main to pedestrian traffic as the "hook" issue upon which she could hang her campaign, by defining herself as the common-sense candidate who would bring an end to Mr. Bowmans (in her view) nonsensical effort to fulfil a (in her opinion) frivolous campaign pledge.

"The Winnipeg I lead will not spend another single minute or dollar talking about that issue," was Ms. Motkaluks defiant declaration on June 18.

Alas, Winnipegs 2018 mayoral election is not going to be won or lost at the Battle of Windy Corner. Mr. Bowman effectively robbed his opponent of that signature issue by agreeing to include a plebiscite on reopening Portage and Main in this falls vote. By stating he would treat the result of the referendum as binding, Mr. Bowman distanced himself from what might have become a problematic promise thanks to Ms. Motkaluks vociferous opposition.

If nothing else, the brief skirmish over Portage and Main highlighted the fact reopening the intersection really isnt very important in comparison to other issues facing Winnipeggers. (And in terms of capturing the publics imagination, pedestrians at Portage and Main certainly lacks the panache of, say, legendary mayor Stephen Jubas mid-1970s flirtation with a monorail system for Winnipeg.)

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Since then, Ms. Motkaluk has made campaign-style announcements outlining her positions on such matters as crime prevention (shes in favour), rapid transit (shes opposed), and public safety (she pledges more police officers in schools and on city Transit buses), but none has emerged as a rallying-cry issue.

On Friday, however, Ms. Motkaluk and Mr. Bowman both made announcements that should be of great interest to Winnipegs citizenry, because they relate to what surely should be considered the singular issue by every candidate seeking civic office this fall.

Friday was International Overdose Awareness Day, which created a timely opportunity for politicians to weigh in on the opioid and methamphetamine crisis that has gripped Winnipeg just as it has almost every other jurisdiction in North America. The situation here is sufficiently dire that Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth recently declared meth to be a root cause of increased violent crime (Winnipeg currently ranks highest in Canada on the police-reported violent crime severity index).

Ms. Motkaluk pledged Friday to expand services at Main Street Project to allow for intake of individuals high on meth, who currently are usually transported by police to Health Sciences Centre. For his part, Mr. Bowman committed to a "multidisciplinary and collaborative response" to the citys illegal-drug problem, stating he will introduce a motion at executive policy committee to bring together government agencies to formuate an anti-drug strategy.

These are encouraging signals from the two leading aspirants to Winnipegs mayoralty. But they should be just the beginning of a series of promises focused intensely on the single most pressing issue that has faced this city since long before Mr. Juba was mayor.

Ethereal notions of a pedestrian-friendly Portage and Main, like Mr. Jubas ever-unrealized monorail dream, can wait. Winnipeg needs a mayor who can act decisively and effectively on drug addiction and its associated ills.As protests continue to erupt in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and across the world in outrage against the horrific shooting of Jacob Bla Read moreGeorgia: Voter Suppression Allegations Roil Governor's Race

Smithfield Manure-to-Energy Plan is a False Solution for the Environment

Georgia, 2018s Most Prominent Voting Rights Battleground, Explained

Hold Private Police Partners Accountable, Too: For-profit Companies are Making Millions with Special Access to NYPD Information

Shadow Parties Dominate Campaign Spending in Midterms

Tribes Scramble to Meet Voter ID Requirements in North Dakota

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Instructs How to Commit Voter Fraud in Video

EWG News Roundup (10/26): More Kids Foods with Monsantos Roundup, Eating Organic Helps Prevent Cancer and More

Ald. Witkowski, Sup. Haas to talk City and County budgetsPreferred Apartment Communities, Inc. engages in the acquisition and operation of multifamily properties in select targeted markets throughout the United States. It operates through the following segments: Multifamily Communities, Financing, New Market Properties, Preferred Office Properties, and Others. The Multifamily Communities segment consists of company's portfolio of owned residential multifamily communities. The Financing segment refers to the portfolio of real estate loans, bridge loans, and other instruments deployed by the company to partially finance the development, construction, and prestabilization carrying costs of new multifamily communities and other real estate and real estate related assets. The New Market Properties segment covers portfolio of grocery-anchored shopping centers, as well as the financial results from the retail real estate loans. The Preferred Office Properties segment relates to the portfolio of office buildings. The Others segment includes deferred offering costs. The company was founded by Leonard A. Silverstein and John A. Williams on September 18, 2009 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

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The Bank of New York Mellon pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 2.27%. The Bank of New York Mellon does not yet have a strong track record of dividend growth. The dividend payout ratio of The Bank of New York Mellon is 33.92%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, The Bank of New York Mellon will have a dividend payout ratio of 30.22% next year. This indicates that The Bank of New York Mellon will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

View The Bank of New York Mellon's dividend history.The following companies are subsidiares of Boston Scientific: 34 Biomedical Merger Corp., 9357-1867 Quebec Inc., Acurate Industria e Comercio Ltda., Advanced Bionics, Advanced Stent Technologies, American Medical Systems, American Medical Systems Europe B.V., Apama Medical, Apama Medical Inc., Asthmatx, Atritech, Augmenix, Augmenix Inc., Augmenix K.K., BSC International Medical Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BSC Medical Device Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BTG, BTG Australasia Pty Ltd, BTG Europe B.V., BTG IM Holdings Ltd., BTG International (Holdings) Limited, BTG International Asia Limited, BTG International Canada Inc., BTG International Germany GmbH, BTG International Healthcare Inc., BTG International Healthcare LLC, BTG International Healthcare Limited, BTG International Inc., BTG International Limited, BTG Limited, BTG Management Services Limited, BTG Medikal Limited Sirketi, Bard Electrophysiology, Barosense, Biocompatibles Inc., Biocompatibles International Limited, Biocompatibles UK Limited, Boston Scientific (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Boston Scientific (South Africa) Proprietary Limited, Boston Scientific (Thailand) Ltd., Boston Scientific (UK) Limited, Boston Scientific AG, Boston Scientific Argentina S.A., Boston Scientific Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Boston Scientific Benelux NV, Boston Scientific Canada Limited, Boston Scientific Ceska republika s.r.o., Boston Scientific Chile SpA, Boston Scientific Colombia Limitada, Boston Scientific Comercial de Costa Rica BSCR S.R.L., Boston Scientific Far East B.V., Boston Scientific Gesellschaft m.b.H., Boston Scientific Group plc, Boston Scientific Hellas S.A., Boston Scientific Hong Kong Limited, Boston Scientific Iberica S.A., Boston Scientific India Private Limited, Boston Scientific International B.V., Boston Scientific International Finance Limited, Boston Scientific International S.A., Boston Scientific Israel Ltd., Boston Scientific Japan K.K., Boston Scientific Korea Co. Ltd., Boston Scientific Lebanon SAL, Boston Scientific Limited, Boston Scientific Ltd., Boston Scientific Medical Device, Boston Scientific Medical Device Limited, Boston Scientific Medizintechnik GmbH, Boston Scientific Middle East FZ-LLC, Boston Scientific Middle East SAL, Boston Scientific Nederland B.V., Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corporation, Boston Scientific New Zealand Limited, Boston Scientific Nordic AB, Boston Scientific Peru S.A.C., Boston Scientific Philippines Inc., Boston Scientific Polska Sp. z o.o., Boston Scientific Portugal - Dispositivos Medicos Lda, Boston Scientific Pty Ltd, Boston Scientific Romania S.R.L., Boston Scientific S.A.S., Boston Scientific S.p.A., Boston Scientific Scimed, Boston Scientific Scimed Inc., Boston Scientific Services Private Limited, Boston Scientific TIP Gerecleri Limited Sirketi, Boston Scientific Technology & Engineering Services Private Limited, Boston Scientific Uruguay S.A., Boston Scientific Vietnam Company Limited, Boston Scientific de Costa Rica S.R.L., Boston Scientific de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Boston Scientific del Caribe Inc., Boston Scientific do Brasil Ltda., Bravo Bidco Limited, BridgePoint Medical, Cameron Health, Cardiac Pacemakers Inc., Cardiac Pathways Corp, Catheter Innovations, Claret Medical, Claret Medical Inc., Cosman Medical, Cosman Medical LLC, CryoCor, Cryterion Medical, Cryterion Medical Inc., Cryterion Medical Ireland Limited, EKOS LLC, EMcision, EMcision International Inc., EP Technologies, EP Technologies Inc., Electron Acquisition Corporation, EndoChoice, EndoChoice Holdings Inc., EndoChoice Inc., EndoChoice Innovation Center Ltd., EndoChoice Israel Ltd., Endotex, Enteric Medical Technologies, Galil Medical Inc., Galil Medical Ltd., Galil Medical UK Limited, Guidant, Guidant Delaware Holding Corporation, Guidant Europe NV, Guidant Puerto Rico B.V., Hong Kong Medtech Trading Limited, Intelect Medical, Millipede, Millipede Inc., NXT Merger Corp., Notebook Merger Sub Ltd., Novate Medical Limited, NxThera, NxThera Inc., PT Boston Scientific Indonesia, PneumRx GmbH, PneumRx LLC, PneumRx Liimited, Protherics Medicines Development B.V., Protherics Medicines Development Limited, Protherics UK Limited, Provensis Limited, RMI Acquisition Corp., Remon Medical Technologies, Rhythmia Medical, Robert S. Smith M.D. Inc., Roxwood Medical Inc., SNS Merger Corp, Sadra Medical, Sadra Medical Inc., Securus Medical Group, Securus Medical Group Inc., Special K Merger Corp., StarMedTec, Stream Enterprises LLC, Symetis, Symetis SA, Target Therapeutics, Target Therapeutics Inc., The LumenR Tissue Retractor System, Veniti, Veniti Inc., VertiFlex, Vertiflex Inc., Vessix Vascular, Xlumena, Zuma Investment Pty Ltd, iogyn, nVision Medical, and nVision Medical Corporation.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Vesuvius plc provides engineering services and solutions principally to steel and foundry industries worldwide. It operates in two segments, Steel and Foundry. The company offers foundry consumables and equipment, including binders, coatings, feeding systems, filtration and gating systems, melt shop refractories, metallurgical and pouring control systems, die dressings and coatings, melt treatment products, crucibles, and ceramics for the iron, steel, and nonferrous foundries. It also provides nonferrous metals, such as primary and secondary aluminum, copper, and other metals and alloys; cement and lime solutions, iron ore pelletizing and calcination products, and grains and powders; and process heaters, FCC units, hydrogen reformers, boilers, coke calciners, and thermal oxidizers, as well as sulphur, ethylene, and ammonia plants. In addition, the company offers solutions for power generation and incineration; glass products comprising artistic, display, float, hollow, and optical glass; glass tempering, and reheat and forming products; and solutions for solar multi-crystal silicon ingots, thin film and cell processing, and feedstock. Further, it provides solutions for blast furnace stack repair; taphole clay, iron and slang runner, sampler and temperature, tilting runner, and torpedo ladle solutions; iron ladle solutions; lining, taphole system, bath agitation and tuyere system, electric arc furnace and BOF maintenance, and metallurgical sensor solutions; and ladle, ladle to tundish, and tundish solutions, as well as tundish to mold solutions for conventional slab, thin and slim slab, beam blank, flow control valve bloom or billet, and calibrated nozzle billet casters. Additionally, the company offers ingot casting solutions; and reheat furnace, steel hot forming, galvanized steel, and electrical and stainless steel solutions. Vesuvius plc was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreStantec Inc. provides professional consulting services in the area of infrastructure and facilities in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company provides consulting services in engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics. It also offers water, transportation, and public works; transportation planning and traffic engineering; and resource assessment, mine development, reclamation, hydrology, and geotechnical and infrastructure engineering services, as well as urban planning, traffic assessments and optimization, environmental impact assessments, and public consultation services. In addition, the company provides structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and hydraulics engineering services. It serves urban regeneration, infrastructure, education, public and private sector, tourism and leisure, and waste and water sectors, as well as office and commercial, residential, and retail and town centers. The company was formerly known as Stanley Technology Group Inc. and changed its name to Stantec Inc. in October 1998. Stantec Inc. was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Edmonton, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Molina Healthcare: Aetna & Humana - Medicare Advantage, Affinity Health Plan, AmericanWork Inc., Better Health Network, Camelot Care Centers Inc, Children's Behavioral Health Inc., Choices Group Inc., College Community Services, Dockside Services Inc, Family Preservation Services Inc., Family Preservation Services of Florida Inc., Family Preservation Services of North Carolina Inc., Family Preservation Services of Washington D.C. Inc., Family Preservation Services of West Virginia Inc., Florida NetPASS LLC, Hclb Inc., Magellan Complete Care, Maple Star Nevada Inc., Maple Star Oregon Inc., Mercy CarePlus, Molina Clinical Services LLC, Molina Healthcare Data Center Inc., Molina Healthcare of Arizona Inc., Molina Healthcare of California, Molina Healthcare of Florida Inc., Molina Healthcare of Georgia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Molina Healthcare of Iowa Inc., Molina Healthcare of Louisiana Inc., Molina Healthcare of Maryland Inc., Molina Healthcare of Michigan Inc., Molina Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Molina Healthcare of Nevada Inc., Molina Healthcare of New Mexico Inc., Molina Healthcare of New York Inc., Molina Healthcare of North Carolina Inc., Molina Healthcare of Ohio Inc., Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma Inc., Molina Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Molina Healthcare of Puerto Rico Inc., Molina Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, Molina Healthcare of Texas Inc., Molina Healthcare of Texas Insurance Company, Molina Healthcare of Utah Inc., Molina Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin Inc., Molina Holdings Corporation, Molina Hospital Management LLC, Molina Information Systems LLC dba Molina Medicaid Solutions, Molina Medical Management Inc., Molina Pathways LLC, Molina Pathways of Texas Inc., Molina Youth Academy, NextLevel Health Illinois, Pathways Community Corrections Inc., Pathways Community Services LLC, Pathways Community Support of Texas Inc., Pathways Health and Community Support LLC, Pathways Human Services LLC., Pathways of Arizona Inc., Pathways of Delaware Inc., Pathways of Idaho LLC, Pathways of Maine Inc., Pathways of Massachusetts LLC, Pathways of Oklahoma Inc., Pathways of Washington Inc., Providence Community Services, Providence Human Services, Raystown Developmental Services Inc., The Game of Work LLC, The RedCo Group Inc., Total Care Medicaid plan, Transitional Family Services Inc., Unisys -Health Information Management, and YourCare Health Plan.Augusta Gold Corp., a junior exploration company, engages in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in the United States. It primarily explores for gold, silver, and other metals. The company holds interests in the Bullfrog gold project located in the north-west of Las Vegas, Nevada. It also owns, controls, or has acquired mineral rights on Federal patented and unpatented mining claims in the state of Nevada for the purpose of exploration and potential development of metals on a total of approximately 7,800 acres of land. The company was formerly known as Bullfrog Gold Corp. and changed its name to Augusta Gold Corp. in January 2021. Augusta Gold Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Read MoreDeutsche Pfandbriefbank AG provides commercial real estate and public investment finance products. Its commercial real estate financing activities include financing instruments, such as financing investment projects, development finance, cross-border portfolio financing, investment bridge finance facilities, standby/backup facilities, and derivatives. The company primarily finances offices, retail, and logistic real estate companies, as well as residential properties targeting real estate companies, institutional investors, real estate funds, and medium-sized and regionally orientated clients. It is also involved in the public investment financing activities, such as financing for public sector facilities, municipal and residential buildings, utilities, infrastructure, medical and geriatric care facilities, and administration and insurance facilities. In addition, the company operates a digital platform for public sector borrowers and institutional investors under the CAPVERIANT name. Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG has offices in four locations in Eschborn, DAsseldorf, Hamburg, and Berlin in Germany; and five locations in London, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, and New York City. The company was formerly known as Hypo Real Estate Bank AG and changed its name to Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG in June 2009. Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG is headquartered in Garching, Germany.

Read MoreExelon Corp. operates as a utility services holding company, which engages in the energy generation, power marketing, and energy delivery business. It operates through the following segments: Mid Atlantic, Midwest, New York, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and other Power Regions. The Mid-Atlantic segment represents operations in the eastern half of PJM, which includes New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, the District of Columbia and parts of Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The Midwest segment operates in the western half of PJM, which includes portions of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee, and the United States footprint of MISO, excluding MISO's Southern Region, which covers all or most of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the remaining parts of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio not covered by PJM, and parts of Montana, Missouri and Kentucky. The New York (NY) segment provides operations within ISONY, which covers the state of New York in its entirety. The ERCOT segment includes operations within Electric Reliability Council of Texas, covering most of the state of Texas.

Read More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Wells Fargo & Co. is a diversified, community-based financial services company. It is engaged in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance. It firm operates through the following segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, Wealth & Investment Management, and Other. The Community Banking segment offers complete line of diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses including checking and savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and automobile, student, and small business lending. The Wholesale Banking segment provides financial solutions to businesses across the United States and globally. The Wealth and Investment Management segment includes personalized wealth management, investment and retirement products and services to clients across U.S. based businesses. The Other segment refers to the products of WIM customers served through community banking distribution channels. The company was founded by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo on March 18, 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

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Invesco Dynamic Credit Opportunities Fund is a close-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Invesco Ltd. The fund is co-managed by Invesco Advisers, Inc., Invesco Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, Invesco Asset Management Limited, Invesco Asset Management (Japan) Limited, Invesco Hong Kong Limited, Invesco Senior Secured Management, Inc., and Invesco Canada Ltd. It invests in the fixed income markets across the globe with a focus on the United States. The fund invests in securities of companies that operate across diversified sectors. It invests in fixed income securities such as senior secured floating rate loans, fixed rate loans, and collateralized debt. The fund employs fundamental analysis with a bottom-up security selection process to create its portfolio. It conducts in-house research to make its investments. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Credit Suisse Leveraged Loan Index. It was formerly known as Invesco Van Kampen Dynamic Credit Opportunities Fund. Invesco Dynamic Credit Opportunities Fund was formed on June 26, 2007 and is domiciled in the United States.

Read MoreGrand City Properties S.A. engages in the residential real estate business in Germany, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company invests in, manages, and rents real estate properties in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin; metropolitan regions of Dresden, Leipzig, and Halle; and the cities in the north of Germany, Bremen, Hamburg, and Hannover, as well as other urban centers, such as Nuremberg, Munch, Mannheim, Frankfurt, and London. Grand City Properties S.A. was founded in 2004 and is based in Luxembourg.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of PerkinElmer: Analytica of Branford, Applied Biosystems, Arnel Inc., ArtusLabs, Beijing Huaan Magnech Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Longrun Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Testing Lab Co. Ltd., Beijing OUMENG Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Bio Evolution SAS, Bioo Scientific Corporation, Biosense Picolabs Inc., Biosense Technologies Pvt Ltd., Caliper Life Sciences, Caliper Life Sciences Inc., Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc., CambridgeSoft, Ceiba Solutions, Chengdu PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Chromo G.A. SAS, CisBio US Inc., Cisbio Asia Pacific Ltd, Cisbio Bioassays SAS, Cisbio China Ltd., Cisbio Group SAS, Cisbio KK, Cisbio.com, DNA Laboratories Sdn. Bhd., Dani Analitica S.r.l., Dexela, EUROIMMUN (Hangzhou) Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN (South East Asia) Pte Ltd., EUROIMMUN (Tianjin) Medical Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN AG, EUROIMMUN Brasil Medicina Diagnostica Ltda., EUROIMMUN Diagnostics Espana S.L.U., EUROIMMUN France SAS, EUROIMMUN Italia Diagnostica Medica S.r.l., EUROIMMUN Japan Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics (China) Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics Canada Inc., EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics South Africa (Pty) Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, EUROIMMUN Polska Spolka z o.o., EUROIMMUN Portugal Unipessoal Lda., EUROIMMUN Schweiz AG, EUROIMMUN Turkey Tibbi Laboratuar Teshisleri A.S., EUROIMMUN UK Ltd., EUROIMMUN US Inc., EUROIMMUN US Real Estate LLC, Geospiza, Guangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Hangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Horizon Discovery, Immunodiagnostic Systems, Integromics S.L., Jiangsu Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., LabMetrix Technologies, Labtronics, ManCell SAS, Nexcelom Bioscience, NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation, Opto Technology, Orchid Biomedical Systems Pvt Ltd., Oxford Immunotec, Pediatrix Medical Group - Newborn Metabolic Screening Business, Perkin Elmer Chile Ltda., Perkin Elmer Italia SpA, Perkin Elmer Sdn. Bhd., Perkin Elmer Yuhan Hoesa, Perkin Elmer de Mexico S.A., Perkin-Elmer Argentina S.R.L., Perkin-Elmer Instruments (Philippines) Corporation, PerkinElmer (Hong Kong) Ltd., PerkinElmer (India) Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer (Ireland) Ltd., PerkinElmer (Schweiz) AG, PerkinElmer (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund L.P., PerkinElmer (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer (UK) Holdings Ltd., PerkinElmer Analytical Solutions B.V., PerkinElmer Automotive Research Inc., PerkinElmer BVBA, PerkinElmer CV Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer Danmark A/S, PerkinElmer Diagnostics Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Diagnostics Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Espana S.L., PerkinElmer Finance Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Finland Oy, PerkinElmer Genetics Inc., PerkinElmer Germany Diagnostics GmbH, PerkinElmer Global Diagnostics S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Financing S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Health Sciences (Australia) Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer Health Sciences B.V., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Canada Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences FZ-LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Healthcare Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Holding Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Holdings Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer IVD Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Inc., PerkinElmer Informatics Inc., PerkinElmer Instruments (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer International C.V., PerkinElmer Investments Ky, PerkinElmer Israel Ltd., PerkinElmer Japan Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer LAS (Germany) GmbH, PerkinElmer LAS (UK) Ltd., PerkinElmer Life Sciences International Holdings, PerkinElmer Limited, PerkinElmer Ltd., PerkinElmer Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Nederland B.V., PerkinElmer Norge AS, PerkinElmer Oy, PerkinElmer Polska Sp z o.o., PerkinElmer Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer SAS, PerkinElmer Saglk ve Cevre Bilimleri Ltd., PerkinElmer Shared Services Sp z o.o., PerkinElmer Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer South Africa (Pty) Ltd., PerkinElmer Sverige AB, PerkinElmer Sweden Health Sciences Holdings AB, PerkinElmer Taiwan Corporation, PerkinElmer VertriebsgmbH, PerkinElmer chemagen Technologie GmbH, PerkinElmer do Brasil Ltda., Perten Instruments, Perten Instruments (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Perten Instruments AB, Perten Instruments France SASU, Perten Instruments GmbH, Perten Instruments Italia S.r.l., Perten Instruments of Australia Pty Ltd., RHS Ltd, RayAl Ltd., Shandong Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Signature Genomic Laboratories, Solus Scientific Solutions Inc., Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., Surendra Genetic Labs, Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Suzhou Sym-Bio LifeScience, Suzhou Sym-Bio Lifescience Co. Ltd., Tulip Diagnostics, Tulip Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., Vanadis Diagnostics, Vanadis Diagnostics AB, ViaCell, ViaCord LLC, VisEn Medical, VisEn Medical Inc., Wallac Oy, Wellesley B.V., Xenogen Corporation, ZeLab SAS, and chemagen Biopolymer-Technologie AG.Wall Street analysts have given PIMCO Short Term Municipal Bond Exchange-Traded Fund 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 PIMCO Short Term Municipal Bond Exchange-Traded Fund wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.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Everest Re Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of reinsurance and insurance services. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Reinsurance, International, Bermuda, and Insurance. The U.S. Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance and specialty lines of business, including marine, aviation, surety, and accident and health business, on both a treaty and facultative basis, through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies primarily within the U.S. The International segment offers foreign property and casualty reinsurance through Everest Re's branches in Canada and Singapore and through offices in Brazil, Miami, and New Jersey. The Bermuda segment comprises reinsurance and insurance to worldwide property and casualty markets through brokers and directly with ceding companies from its Bermuda office and reinsurance to the United Kingdom and European markets through its UK branch and Ireland Re. The Insurance segment writes property and casualty insurance directly and through brokers, surplus lines brokers, and general agents within the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartere

Read MoreSinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells petrochemical products in the People's Republic of China. It operates through five segments: Synthetic Fibers, Resins and Plastics, Intermediate Petrochemicals, Petroleum Products, and Trading of Petrochemical Products. The Synthetic Fibers segment produces polyesters, acrylic fibers, and carbon fibers that are primarily used in the textile and apparel industries. The Resins and Plastics segment produces polyester chips that are used to produce polyester fibers, coating, and containers; polyethylene resins and plastics, which are used to produce insulated cables and mulching films, as well as molded products, such as housewares and toys; and polypropylene resins that are used for films and sheets, as well as molded products, such as housewares, toys, consumer electronics, and automobile parts; and PVA granules. The Intermediate Petrochemicals segment produces p-xylene, benzene, and ethylene oxide, which are used as raw materials in the production of other petrochemicals, resins, plastics, and synthetic fibers. The Petroleum Products segment operates crude oil refinery facilities used to produce refined gasoline, fuel, diesel oil, heavy oil, and liquefied petroleum gas. The Trading of Petrochemical Products segment is involved in the import and export of petrochemical products. The company was founded in 1972 and is based in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited is a subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation.

Read MoreICICI Bank Ltd. engages in the provision of banking and financial services, which includes retail banking, corporate banking, and treasury operations. It operates through the following segments: Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Treasury, Other Banking, Life Insurance, General Insurance, and Others. The Retail Banking segment includes exposures of the bank, which satisfy the four qualifying criteria of regulatory retail portfolio as stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India guidelines on the Basel III framework. The Wholesale Banking segment deals with all advances to trusts, partnership firms, companies, and statutory bodies, by the Bank which are not included in the Retail Banking segment. The Treasury segment handles the entire investment portfolio of the bank. The Other Banking segment comprises leasing operations and other items not attributable to any particular business segment of the bank. The company was founded on January 5, 1994 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Stryker: ActiViews, Aimago SA, Alcott Indemnity Company, Arrinex Inc, Arrinex Inc., Ascent Healthcare Solutions, Berchtold, Berchtold + Fritz GmbH, Berchtold Consulting GmbH, Berchtold Corporation, Berchtold GmbH & Co. KG, Berchtold Holding Switzerland GmbH, CHG Hospital Beds, Cactus LLC, Cardan Robotics, Changzhou Orthomed Medical Instrument Company Limited, Concentric Medical, Concentric Medical Inc., Entellus Medical, Entellus Medical Europe Ltd, Entellus Medical Inc., GYS Tech LLC, Gaymar Industries, Gongping (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd., Groupe Bertec, HeartSine Technologies LLC, HeartSine Technologies Limited, Howmedica International S. de R.L., Howmedica Osteonics Corp., Hygia Health Services, Hygia Healthcare Services Inc., HyperBranch, HyperBranch Technology Inc., ITAPCo Limited, Image Guided Technologies, Imorphics Limited, Infinity MSD Corp., Infinity MSE Corp., Infinity MSF Corp., Infomedix Communications, Instratek, InstruMedics L.L.C, Invuity Inc., Ivy Sports Medicine, Ivy Sports Medicine LLC, Jiangsu Chuangyi Medical Instrument Company Limited, Jolife AB, K2M Germany GmbH, K2M Group, K2M Group Holdings Inc., K2M Holdings Inc., K2M Iberia Medcomtech S.L.U., K2M Inc., K2M Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, K2M Spine Solutions (Schweiz) GmbH, K2M UK Limited, Loon Intermediateco LLC, MAKO Surgical, MAKO Surgical Corp, Memometal Technologies, Mobius Imaging, Mobius Imaging LLC, Muka Metal, Muka Metal Ticaret ve Sanayi Anaonim Sirketi, NV Stryker SA, Nettrick Limited, Novadaq Corp, Novadaq Hong Kong Ltd, Novadaq Technologies, Novadaq Technologies ULC, OOO "Stryker", Orneo Ozel Saglk Hizmetleri Medikal Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, OrthoSpace, OrthoSpace Ltd., OrthoSpace US Inc., Orthomed (Hong Kong) Medical Instrument Company Limited, Orthovita, Orthovita Inc., OtisMed, P.C. Sweden Holding AB, Patient Safety Technologies, Patton Surgical, Pficonprod Pty. Ltd., Physio-Control, Physio-Control (Shanghai) Sales Co. Ltd., Physio-Control Brazil Vendas Ltda., Physio-Control Czech Sales s.r.o., Physio-Control Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Physio-Control Holdings Inc, Physio-Control Hungary Sales Kft, Physio-Control Inc., Physio-Control India Sales Pvt. Ltd, Physio-Control Investments LLC, Physio-Control Lebanon Sales Offshore s.a.l., Physio-Control Manufacturing Inc., Physio-Control Operations Netherlands B.V., Physio-Control Sales Limited Liability Company, Physio-Control Singapore Pte. Ltd., Physio-Control South Africa Sales Pty. Ltd., Physio-Control UK Sales Ltd., Pivot Medical, PlasmaSol, Porex Technologies, SSI Divestiture Inc., SYK Costa Rica Services Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, SafeAir AG, SafeWire, Sage Products, Sage Products Coperatief U.A., Sage Products Holdings II LLC, Sage Products Holdings III LLC, Sage Products LLC, Scopis GmbH, Sightline Technologies, Small Bone Innovations, SpineCore, Spirox Inc., Stanmore Implants Worldwide, Stanmore Implants Worldwide Limited, Stanmore Inc., Stryker (Barbados) Foreign Sales Corporation, Stryker (Beijing) Healthcare Products Co. Ltd., Stryker (Shanghai) Healthcare Products Co. Ltd., Stryker (Suzhou) Medical Technology Co Ltd, Stryker (Thailand) Limited, Stryker AB, Stryker Acquisitions BV, Stryker Asia Holdings CV, Stryker Australia LLC, Stryker Australia Pty. Ltd., Stryker Austria GmbH, Stryker B.V., Stryker Berchtold BV, Stryker Beteiligungs GmbH, Stryker Canada GP ULC, Stryker Canada Holding Company, Stryker Canada Manufacturing ULC, Stryker Canada ULC, Stryker Canadian Management ULC, Stryker Canadian Sales Holding Company ULC, Stryker Capital BV, Stryker China Limited, Stryker Colombia SAS, Stryker Communications Inc., Stryker Corporation (Chile) y Compania Limitada, Stryker Corporation (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Stryker Customs Brokers LLC, Stryker Czech Republic s.r.o., Stryker Delaware Inc., Stryker EMEA Supply Chain Services BV, Stryker Employment Company LLC, Stryker European Coordination Center BV, Stryker European Holdings Cooperatief U.A, Stryker European Holdings I LLC, Stryker European Holdings II LLC, Stryker European Holdings LLC, Stryker European Holdings V LLC, Stryker European Operations B.V., Stryker European Operations Holdings I BV, Stryker European Operations Holdings II BV, Stryker European Operations Holdings III BV, Stryker European Operations Holdings LLC, Stryker European Operations Limited, Stryker European Technologies C.V., Stryker Far East Inc., Stryker Foreign Acquisitions Inc., Stryker France Holding SNC, Stryker France MM Holdings SAS, Stryker France SAS, Stryker Funding B.V., Stryker GI Services CV, Stryker Global Technology Center Private Limited, Stryker GmbH, Stryker GmbH & Co. KG, Stryker Grundstucks GmbH & Co KG, Stryker Grundstucks Verwaltungs GmbH, Stryker Holdings BV, Stryker IFSC Designated Activity Company, Stryker Iberia SL Unipersonal, Stryker India Private Limited, Stryker International Acquisitions BV, Stryker International Holdings BV, Stryker Investment Holdings B.V., Stryker Ireland Holding Unlimited Company, Stryker Ireland Limited, Stryker Italia S.r.l. S.U., Stryker Japan Holdings BV, Stryker Japan K.K., Stryker Korea Ltd., Stryker Lebanon (Offshore) S.A.L., Stryker Leibinger GmbH & Co. KG, Stryker Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Stryker Luxembourg Sarl, Stryker Manufacturing S. de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Mauritius Holding Ltd., Stryker Medical London LP, Stryker Medtech K.K., Stryker Medtech Limited, Stryker Mexico Holdings B.V., Stryker Mexico SA de CV, Stryker NV Operations Limited, Stryker Nederland BV, Stryker New Zealand Limited, Stryker Osteonics AG, Stryker Pacific Limited, Stryker Performance Solutions LLC, Stryker Polska Sp.z.o.o., Stryker Portugal - Produtos Medicos Unipessoal Lda., Stryker Professional Latin America S. de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Puerto Rico Limited, Stryker Romania SRL, Stryker Sage Inc., Stryker Sales Corporation, Stryker Servicios Administrativos S.de R.L. de C.V., Stryker Singapore Private Limited, Stryker South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Stryker Spine SAS, Stryker Spine Sarl, Stryker Sustainability Solutions Inc., Stryker Tibbi Cihazlan Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Stryker Trauma GmbH, Stryker Turkish Holdings BV, Stryker UK Ltd, Stryker Verwaltungs GmbH, Stryker Vietnam Company Limited, Stryker do Brasil Ltda, Surpass Medical, Synergetics, TG SP Holdings Corp, TSO3 Corp, TSO3 Inc, Trauson, Trauson (China) Medical Instrument Company Limited, Trauson (Hong Kong) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings (BVI) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings (Hong Kong) Company Limited, Trauson Holdings Company Limited, VEXIM SA, Vexim, Waterloo Bedding Co., Wright Medical Group, ZipLine Medical Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ZipLine Medical Hong Kong Limited, ZipLine Medical Inc., and eTrauma.com.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.Telecom Italia S.p.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides fixed and mobile telecommunications services in Europe, South America, and the Mediterranean Basin. The company operates through Domestic, Brazil, and Other Operations segments. It offers fixed and mobile voice and Internet, and public telephony services, as well as products managed and developed for individuals and families; and voice, data, and Internet services and products, and information and communications technology solutions for small and medium-size enterprises, small offices/home offices, the public sector, large accounts, and enterprises in the fixed and mobile telecommunications markets. The company also manages and develops a portfolio of regulated and unregulated wholesale services for fixed and mobile telecommunications operators; provision of infrastructure for housing radio transmission equipment of mobile telephone networks; and development, engineering, building, and operation of network infrastructures, information technology (IT), real estate properties, and plant engineering. In addition, it engages in customer care, operating credit support, loyalty, and retention activities; and staff functions and other support activities. Further, the company offers office products and services for IT sector. The company was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Rome, Italy.

Read MoreThe Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various personal and commercial banking products and services in Canada and the United States. It operates through three segments: Canadian Retail, U.S. Retail, and Wholesale Banking. The company offers personal deposits, such as chequing, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases through auto dealer network. It also provides credit cards; real estate secured lending; auto finance; consumer lending; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, private banking, investment advisory, and trust services to retail and institutional clients; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to companies, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,085 branches, 3,440 automated teller machines, and 1,223 stores, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreVeriFone Systems, Inc. provides payments and commerce solutions at the point of sale (POS) worldwide. It offers countertop solutions that accept payment options, including contactless, NFC, mobile wallets, and EMV; PIN pads that support credit and debit card, EBT, EMV, and other PIN-based transactions; and multilane consumer facing commerce devices. It also provides portable payment devices, including small, portable, and handheld devices that enable merchants to accept electronic payments wherever wireless connectivity is available; and mobile solutions that attach to and interface with iOS or Android based smartphones and tablets. In addition, it offers integrated electronic payment systems that combine electronic payment processing, fuel dispensing, and ECR functions, as well as secure payment systems for integration with petroleum pump controllers; unattended and self-service payment solutions designed to enable payment transactions in self-service, high-transaction volume, and public transportation environments; and network access solutions. Further, it provides installation, deployment, training, and application development and delivery solutions; project management, client education program, and consulting services; helpdesk support, equipment repair and maintenance, and software post-contract support services; and application libraries and development tools. Additionally, it offers omnichannel commerce, terminal management, and security solutions; and cloud-based managed, transaction payment, and other value added services. It sells its products directly; and through third party and channel partners. It serves financial institutions, payment processors, government organizations, and retailers; petroleum, transportation, and healthcare companies; and quick service restaurants. The company was formerly known as VeriFone Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to VeriFone Systems, Inc. in May 2010. VeriFone Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Read More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The following companies are subsidiares of Vodafone Group: 360 Connect S.A., [email protected] Telecom, A-ccelerator B.V., A-ccelerator Holding B.V, AAA (Euro) Limited, AAA (MCR) Limited, AAA (UK) Limited, Acorn Communications Limited, Africonnect (Zambia) Limited, Ag Mercantile Company Private Limited, Al-Amin Investments Limited, Amsterdamse Beheer- en Consultingmaatschappij B.V., Apollo Submarine Cable System Limited, Array Holdings Limited, Asian Telecommunication Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Aspective Limited, Astec Communications Limited, Autoconnex Limited, Aztec Limited, BelCompany BV, Bluefish Apac Communications Pte. Ltd, Bluefish Communications, Bluefish Communications Limited, Business Serve Limited, C&W Worldwide Nigeria Limited, C.S.P. Solutions Limited, CCII (Mauritius) Inc., CGP India Investments Ltd., CGP Investments (Holdings) Limited, COOP Mobil s.r.o, CT Networks Limited, CWGNL S.A., CWW Operations Limited, Cable & Wireless Access Limited, Cable & Wireless Americas Systems Inc., Cable & Wireless Aspac Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Services Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Svyaz LLC, Cable & Wireless Capital Limited , Cable & Wireless Communications Data Network Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Starclass Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Technical Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (Beijing Branch), Cable & Wireless Europe Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless GN Limited, Cable & Wireless Global (India) Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Business Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Holding Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Telecommunication Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Holdco Limited, Cable & Wireless Networks India Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Trade Mark Management Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Waterside Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Pension Trustee Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Voice Messaging Limited, Cable & Wireless a-Services Inc, Cable & Wireless a-Services Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited Indian Branch Office, Cable and Wireless Nominee Limited, Cable and Wireless Worldwide South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cavalry Holdings Ltd, Celfocus  Solucoes Informaticas Para Telecomunicacoes S.A, Cellops Limited, Cellular Operations Limited, Central Communications Group Limited, Central Telecom (Northern) Limited, Centurion GSM Limited, Chelys Limited, City Cable (Holdings) Limited, Cobra do Brasil Servicos de Telematica ltda., Commnet Cellular Inc., Complete Network Technology, Connect (India) Mobile Technologies Private Limited, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited, Dataroam Limited , Device Insight, Digital Island (UK) Ltd, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, East Africa Investment (Mauritius) Limited, Emtel Europe Limited, Energis (Ireland) Limited, Energis Communications Limited, Energis Holdings Limited, Energis Local Access Limited, Energis Management Limited, Energis Squared Limited, Erudite Systems Limited, Esprit Telecom B.V., Eudokia Limited, Euro Pacific Securities Ltd., Eurocall Holdings Limited, Europolitan Holdings AB (now Europolitan Vodafone AB), FB Holdings Limited, FM Associates (UK) Limited, FinCo Partner 1 B.V., FireFly Networks Limited, Flexphone Limited, GS Telecom (Pty) Limited, Gateway Communications Africa (UK) Limited, Gateway Communications Tanzania Limited, General Mobile Corporation, Generation Telecom Limited, Ghana Telecommunications, Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited, Global Cellular Rental Limited, Globe Limited, GrandCentrix GmbH, Grupo Corporativo ONO S.A.U., H3ga Properties (No 3) Pty Limited, HBO Nederland Cooperatief U.A., HBO Netherlands Channels sro, HBO Netherlands Distribution B.V., Hellas Online, How2 Telecom Limited, Hutchison Essar Ltd, Indus Towers Limited, Intercell Communications Limited, Internet Network Services Limited, Invitation Digital Limited, Ipergy Communications NV, Isis Telecommunications Management Limited, Jaguar Communications Limited, Jaykay Finholding (India) Private Limited, Jupicol (Proprietary) Limited, KABELCOM Braunschweig Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, KABELCOM Wolfsburg Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, Kabel Deutschland, Kabel Deutschland Holding, Kabel Deutschland Holding Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Holding Zweite Beteilgungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Neunte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Siebte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabelfernsehen Munchen Servicenter GmbH & Co. KG, LG Financing Partnership, LGE HoldCo V B.V., LGE HoldCo VI B.V., LGE HoldCo VIII B.V., LGE Holdco VII B.V., LLC Vodafone Enterprise Ukraine, Le Bunt Holdings Limited, Legend Communications Limited, Liberty Global, Liberty Global Content Netherlands B.V., London Hydraulic Power Company, M-PESA Foundation, M-PESA Holding Co. Limited, ML Integration Group Limited, ML Integration Limited, ML Integration Services Limited, MV Healthcare Services Private Limited, Mannesmann AG, MetroHoldings Limited, Mezzanine Ware Proprietary Limited (RF), Mirambo Limited, Misrfone Trading Company LLC, MobiFon S.A., Mobile Commerce Solutions Limited, Mobile Phone Centre Limited, Mobile Wallet VM1, Mobile Wallet VM2, Mobile by Sainsburys Limited, Mobiles 4 Business.com Limited, Mobileworld Communications Pty Limited, Mobileworld Operating Pty Ltd, Mobilvest, Motifpros 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Multi Risk Indemnity Company Limited, Multi Risk Limited, ND Callus Info Services Private Limited, Nadal Trading Company Private Limited, Nat Comm Air Limited, National Communications Backbone Company Limited, Navtrak Ltd, Netforce Group Limited, Netgrid Telecom SRL, Number Portability Company (Proprietary) Limited, ONO, Omega Telecom Holdings Private Limited, Oni Way  Infocomunicacoes S.A, Oskar Mobil S.R.O., Oxygen Solutions Limited, P.C.P. (North West) Limited, PPL Pty Limited, PT Network Services Limited, PTI Telecom Limited, Peoples Phone Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Group Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Limited, Plex Limited, Plustech Mercantile Company Private Limited, Prime Metals Ltd., Project Telecom Holdings Limited, Quickcomm Software Solutions, Radio Opt GmbH, Rian Mobile Limited, SBC SMART CITY 1517 B.V., SMMS Investments Pvt Limited, Safaricom Limited, Safenet N.P A., Sarmady Communications, Scarlet Ibis Investments 23 (Pty) Limited, Scorpios Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Silver Stream Investments Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Ltd., Singlepoint Payment Services Limited, Siro Limited, Spar Aerospace (Nigeria) Limited, Sport TV Portugal S.A, Starnet, Stentor Communications Limited, Stentor Limited, Storage Technology Services (Pty) Limited, T.W. Telecom Limited, T3 Telecommunications Limited, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern Beteiligungs GmbH, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG, TNAS Limited, TSM NZ Limited, Talkland Airtime Services Limited, Talkland Australia Pty Limited, Talkland Communications Limited, Talkland International Limited, Talkland Midlands Limited, Talkmobile Limited, Tele2 Italia SPA, Tele2 Spain, Telecom Investments India Private Limited, Telecommunications Europe Limited, Ternhill Communications Limited, The Cobra Group, The Eastern Leasing Company Limited, The Old Telecom Sales Co. Limited, Thus Group Holdings Limited, Thus Group Limited, Thus Limited, Thus Profit Sharing Trustees Limited, TnT Expense Management LLC, Tomorrow Street GP S.a r.l., Tomorrow Street SCA, Torenspits II B.V., Townley Communications Limited, Trans Crystal Ltd., UMT Investments Limited, UPC Nederland Holding I B.V., UPC Nederland Holding II B.V., UPC Nederland Holding III B.V., Unified Communications, Uniqueair Limited, Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH & Co.KG, Usha Martin Telematics Limited, VAPL No. 2 Pty Limited, VBA (Mauritius) Limited, VBA Holdings Limited, VBA International (SL) Limited, VBA International Limited, VEI S.r.l., VM SA, VND S.p.A, VSSB Vodafone Shared Services Budapest Private Limited Company, Verwaltung Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH, Victus Networks S.A., Vizzavi Finance Limited, Vizzavi Limited, Voda Limited, Vodacall Limited, Vodacash s.p.r.l., Vodacom (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business (Angola) Limitada, Vodacom Business (Ghana) Limited, Vodacom Business (Kenya) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group Services Limited, Vodacom Business Cameroon SA, Vodacom Business Cote Divoire S.A.R.L., Vodacom Congo (RDC) SA, Vodacom Financial Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodacom Insurance Administration Company (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Insurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom International Holdings (Pty) Limited, Vodacom International Limited, Vodacom Lesotho (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Life Assurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom Payment Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No.2 (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Tanzania Limited Zanzibar, Vodacom Tanzania Public Limited Company, Vodacom UK Limited, Vodafone (NI) Limited, Vodafone (New Zealand) Hedging Limited, Vodafone (Scotland) Limited, Vodafone 2, Vodafone 4 UK, Vodafone 5 Limited, Vodafone 5 UK, Vodafone 6 UK, Vodafone Albania Sh.A, Vodafone Alternatif Telekom Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Americas 4, Vodafone Americas Virginia Inc., Vodafone And Qatar Foundation L.L.C, Vodafone Asset Management Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Automotive Electronic Systems S.r.L, Vodafone Automotive France S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Iberia S.L, Vodafone Automotive Italia S.p.A, Vodafone Automotive Japan K.K, Vodafone Automotive Korea Limited, Vodafone Automotive SpA, Vodafone Automotive Technologies (Beijing) Co Ltd, Vodafone Automotive Telematics Development S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Telematics S.A, Vodafone Automotive UK Limited, Vodafone Belgium SA/NV, Vodafone Benelux Limited, Vodafone Bilgi Ve Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Vodafone Business Services Limited, Vodafone Business Solutions Limited, Vodafone Canada Inc, Vodafone Cellular Limited, Vodafone Central Services Limited, Vodafone China Limited (China), Vodafone China Limited (Hong Kong), Vodafone Connect 2 Limited, Vodafone Connect Limited, Vodafone Consolidated Holdings Limited, Vodafone Corporate Limited, Vodafone Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Czech Republic A.S., Vodafone DC Pension Trustee Company Limited, Vodafone Dagitim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Data, Vodafone Distribution Holdings Limited, Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications S.A.E., Vodafone Elektronik Para Ve Odeme Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Empresa Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda, Vodafone Empresa Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Vodafone Enabler Espana S.L., Vodafone Enterprise Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Austria GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Bahrain W.L.L., Vodafone Enterprise Bulgaria EOOD, Vodafone Enterprise Chile SA, Vodafone Enterprise Communications Technical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Denmark A/S, Vodafone Enterprise Equipment Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited  Czech Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited  DubaiI Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Finland OY, Vodafone Enterprise France SAS, Vodafone Enterprise Germany GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Global Businesses S.a r.l., Vodafone Enterprise Global Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network HK Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network Pte. Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Hong Kong Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Italy S.r.L, Vodafone Enterprise Korea Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Luxembourg S.A., Vodafone Enterprise Netherlands BV, Vodafone Enterprise Norway AS, Vodafone Enterprise Regional Business Singapore Pte.Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Singapore Pte.Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Spain S.L.U.  Portugal Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Spain SLU, Vodafone Enterprise Sweden AB, Vodafone Enterprise Switzerland AG, Vodafone Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Vodafone Espana S.A.U., Vodafone Euro Hedging Limited, Vodafone Euro Hedging Two, Vodafone Europe B.V., Vodafone Europe UK, Vodafone European Investments, Vodafone European Portal Limited, Vodafone Finance Limited, Vodafone Finance Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Finance Sweden, Vodafone Finance UK Limited, Vodafone Financial Operations, Vodafone Financial Services B.V., Vodafone Fixed Ltd, Vodafone Foundation, Vodafone Foundation Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Gestioni S.p.A, Vodafone Ghana Mobile Financial Services Limited, Vodafone Global Content Services Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Hong Kong) Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Italy) S.R.L., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Japan) K.K., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Russia LLC, Vodafone Global Enterprise Taiwan Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Telecommunications (Hellas) A.E., Vodafone Global Network Limited, Vodafone Global Network Limited  Slovakia Branch, Vodafone Global Services Private Limited, Vodafone GmbH, Vodafone Group (Directors) Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Pension Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Services GmbH, Vodafone Group Services Ireland Limited, Vodafone Group Services Limited, Vodafone Group Services No.2 Limited, Vodafone Group Share Trustee Limited, Vodafone Hire Limited, Vodafone Holding A.S., Vodafone Holdings (Jersey) Limited, Vodafone Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Holdings Europe S.L.U., Vodafone Holdings Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Finance Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Receivables Pty Limited, Vodafone IP Licensing Limited, Vodafone India Digital Limited, Vodafone India Limited, Vodafone India Services Private Limited, Vodafone India Ventures Limited, Vodafone Institut fur Gesellschaft und Kommunikation GmbH, Vodafone Intermediate Enterprises Limited, Vodafone International 1 S.a.r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone International 1 S.a r.l., Vodafone International 2 Limited, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., Vodafone International Holdings Limited, Vodafone International M S.a r.l., Vodafone International Operations Limited, Vodafone International Services LLC, Vodafone Investment UK, Vodafone Investments (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Investments Australia Limited, Vodafone Investments Limited, Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Ireland Distribution Limited, Vodafone Ireland Ltd., Vodafone Ireland Marketing Limited, Vodafone Ireland Property Holdings Limited, Vodafone Ireland Retail Limited, Vodafone Italia S.p.A., Vodafone Jersey Dollar Holdings Limited, Vodafone Jersey Finance, Vodafone Jersey Yen Holdings Unlimited, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Field Services GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Kundenbetreuung GmbH, Vodafone Kenya Limited, Vodafone Leasing Limited, Vodafone Libertel B.V., Vodafone Limited, Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone M-PESA SH.P.K., Vodafone M-Pesa S.A, Vodafone M.C. Mobile Services Limited , Vodafone Magyarorszag Mobile Tavkozlesi Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Vodafone Malta Limited, Vodafone Marketing UK , Vodafone Maroc SARL, Vodafone Mauritius Ltd., Vodafone Mobile Commerce Limited, Vodafone Mobile Communications Limited, Vodafone Mobile Enterprises Limited, Vodafone Mobile NZ Limited, Vodafone Mobile Network Limited, Vodafone Mobile Operations Limited, Vodafone Mobile Services Limited, Vodafone Multimedia Limited, Vodafone Nederland Holding I B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding II B.V., Vodafone Nederland Holding III B.V., Vodafone Net Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Network Pty Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Foundation Limited, Vodafone New Zealand Limited, Vodafone Next Generation Services Limited, Vodafone Nominees Limited1, Vodafone ONO S.A.U., Vodafone Oceania Limited, Vodafone Old Show Ground Site Management Limited, Vodafone Overseas Finance Limited, Vodafone Overseas Holdings Limited, Vodafone Panafon International Holdings B.V., Vodafone Panafon UK, Vodafone Partner Services Limited, Vodafone Payment Solutions S.a r.l., Vodafone Portugal  Comunicacoes Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Procurement Company S.a r.l., Vodafone Property Investments Limited, Vodafone Pty Limited, Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C., Vodafone Retail (Holdings) Limited , Vodafone Retail Limited, Vodafone Roaming Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Romania S.A, Vodafone Romania M - Payments SRL, Vodafone Romania Technologies SRL, Vodafone Sales & Services Limited, Vodafone Satellite Services Limited, Vodafone Servicios SL.U, Vodafone Servizi E Tecnologie S.R.L, Vodafone Servicos Empresariais Brasil Ltda., Vodafone Shared Services Romania SRL, Vodafone Specialist Communications Limited, Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland Gemeinnutzige GmbH, Vodafone Technology Solutions Limited, Vodafone Teknoloji Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Tele-Services (India) Holdings Limited, Vodafone Telecel-Comunicates Pessoais S.A., Vodafone Telecommunications (India) Limited, Vodafone Telekomunikasyon A.S, Vodafone Towers Limited, Vodafone UK Content Services Limited, Vodafone UK Investments Limited , Vodafone UK Limited1 , Vodafone US Inc, Vodafone Ventures Limited1 , Vodafone Vierte Verwaltungs AG, Vodafone Worldwide Holdings Limited, Vodafone Yen Finance Limited , Vodafone m-pesa Limited, Vodafone-Central Limited Vodaphone Limited, Vodafone-Panafon Hellenic Telecommunications Company S.A., VodafoneZiggo Group Holding B.V, Vodata Limited , Vouchercloud SA (Pty) Ltd, Wataneya Telecommunications S.A.E, Waterberg Lodge (Proprietary) Limited, Wayfinder, Wheatfields Investments 276 (Proprietary) Limited, Wireless Interactions & NFC Accelerator 2013 B.V., Woodend Cellular Limited, Woodend Communications Limited, Woodend Group Limited, Woodend Holdings Limited, XB Facilities B.V, XLink Communications (Proprietary) Limited, Your Communications Group Limited, ZUM B.V., ZYB, Zelitron S.A., Zesko B.V., Ziggo B.V., Ziggo Bond Company B.V., Ziggo Deelnemingen B.V., Ziggo Finance 2 B.V., Ziggo Financing Partnership, Ziggo Holding B.V., Ziggo Netwerk B.V., Ziggo Netwerk II B.V., Ziggo Services B.V., Ziggo Services Employment B.V., Ziggo Services Netwerk 2 B.V., Ziggo Zakelijk Services B.V., and Zoranet Connectivity Services B.V..Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland.

Read MoreWorld Bulletin / News Desk

Mauritanian voters began to cast ballot in the countrys parliamentary and local election on Saturday.

Polling stations opened at 07:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) and will close at 07:00 p.m. (0700 GMT).

Around 1.4 million Mauritanians are eligible to cast the ballot in Saturdays polls, which are being held in the absence of international observers.

A high voter turnout was reported in a number of polling stations in the capital Nouakchott, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter.

On Saturday, some 98 Mauritanian political parties are vying for seats on the countrys 146-member legislative assembly and on numerous municipal councils.

For the first time ever, parties are also competing for seats on Mauritanias 13 regional councils.

While opposition figures have questioned the integrity of the electoral process, the government -- led by President Mohamed Ould Abdel Azizs Union for the Republic (UFR) party -- has promised to hold free and transparent elections.

Guncelleme Tarihi: 04 Eylul 2018, 11:35World Bulletin / News Desk

The EU on Thursday slashed its growth forecast for the eurozone in 2018, warning that the rising trade tensions with the United States were hitting the economy.

"Our forecast is for a continued expansion in 2018 and 2019, although a further escalation of protectionist measures is a clear downside risk," said EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici in a statement.

"Trade wars produce no winners, only casualties," he added.

The commission added that the economy in the eurozone would expand by 2.0 percent in 2019, the same forecast as in May.

The worry about the European economy stems from the ongoing trade dispute with the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has now threatened to impose tariffs on European auto imports, with German auto giants the intended target.

If confirmed, the policy would be one of the most aggressive transatlantic blows since the Great Depression and risks bitterly splitting the allies amid divisions over the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord.

The threat by Trump comes after the mercurial leader already slapped 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent on aluminium on imports from Europe and other key allies.

"First and foremost, if trade tensions with the US were to escalate further, this could dampen confidence more permanently, ... likely disrupting the current global (economic recovery)," the commission said in its forecast report.

The commission also pointed to "political and policy uncertainty in a number of EU countries" as an important downside risk to the forecast, which included the fallout of stalled Brexit talks.

This also included heavily-indebted Italy, after a far-right/populist coalition formed a government on the promise to break EU budget and spending rules.

The commission said higher oil prices, which have spiked partly due to growing tensions over Iran, were also a negative factor.

Guncelleme Tarihi: 12 Temmuz 2018, 12:27Turkey's Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan and Qatar's Economy and Commerce Minister Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani signed a commercial and economic partnership agreement on Tuesday.

Speaking at the signing ceremony at Turkey's Trade Ministry in the capital Ankara, Pekcan said: "Two countries signed a special agreement to cement two countries' friendship and economic relations."

The agreement -- which covers several subjects such as telecommunications and financial services -- aims to enhance economic relations and reduce costs especially in petroleum products and natural gas.

It also targets to narrow Turkey's current account deficit and attract Qatari capital.

Guncelleme Tarihi: 05 Eylul 2018, 09:34On August 24, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission published a new report entitled, Chinas Overseas United Front Work: Background and Implications for the United States. Written by Alexander Bowe, it argues that China is working to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the US by funding and directing Chinese cultural student groups.

The report is, in reality, more of a pseudo-factual tirade aimed at whipping up an atmosphere of hysteria towards Chinese spying and overreach on American soil. It is the latest of many such hypocritical reports and articles that ideologically lay the groundwork for much more aggressive US measures against China, with the ultimate aim being the justification of war.

The main body of the report reproduces a host of alleged incidents of CCP funding and direction of Chinese student organizations in the US, which it claims are part of Chinas United Front policy of neutralizing dissent abroad. The report, however, can only cite examples from two organizations, the Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSA) and the Confucius Institutes.

The CSSA, which is present on many major campuses in the US, is, according to its Wikipedia entry, the official organization for overseas Chinese students and scholars registered in most colleges, Universities, and Institutions outside of China. It puts on social events and cultural events, like important Chinese holidays, and helps Chinese students navigate being in a foreign country.

The report notes several controversies surrounding the CSSA, including a CSSA allegedly paying its members $20 each for showing up to see former President Hu Jintao speak in 2011, emails presented by Foreign Policy showing, in 2018, that Georgetown University CSSA accepted funding from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the UC San Diego CSSA protesting the Dalai Lama speaking, a known asset of US intelligence. The report worries that China is exercising its soft power by financing and directing these cultural agencies.

Were all the factual allegations of this report true, they would amount to a small pile of salt next to the towering crimes and interventions of US imperialism in other countries. The US government alleges that the Chinese government is neutralizing dissent by funding these organizations on US soil. But, if paying students $20 to attend a speech is part of a larger plan to neutralize dissent in China against the CCP, then it would be difficult to find words to adequately describe the blood-soaked century of regime changes and war crimes perpetrated by the US, including numerous coups and CIA-backed civil wars.

An underlying fear in the report, is that positive Chinese-American relations could give Americans a positive association with China. For example, it complains that the Chinese government, through the Confucius Institutes, pays for 6,000 US high school students to visit China. The author writes, An important goal of these exchanges is to try to build a friendly environment for Chinas interests by giving participants favorable views of China, which they then disseminate, helping to legitimize the CCP.

The report cites favorably a remark from Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, an editor for Foreign Policy and writer for the Daily Beast, who actually advised the writing of the report, that the students would not have been able to afford to visit China had the government not funded it. The implication is that the US state-complex would prefer that US students have less contact with China, not visit the country so much, and not form favorable views that could help to legitimize the CCP.

Allen-Ebrahimians work, which is cited frequently in the report, is also aimed at whipping up anti-China sentiment. Her most recent article, published in the Daily Beast is titled, NO ESCAPE: Chinese Cops Now Spying on American Soil.

The Commission report makes the point that the greatest difficulty of Chinas so-called United Front tactic, is that it seek[s] influence through connections that are difficult to publicly prove and to gain influence that is interwoven with sensitive issues such as ethnic, political, and national identity, making those who seek to identify the negative effects of such influence vulnerable to accusations of prejudice. In other words, the United States has a hard time justifying to the public cracking down on, or discouraging institutions, whose primary activity is cultural and social because it would look bad.

In another section, the report says Chinas United Front tactic poses a number of difficulties to US law enforcement and counterintelligence agencies. It continues, For instance, in light of the fact that the United Front work and Chinas intelligence services specifically target ethnic Chinese, US law enforcement agencies attempt to design their counterintelligence protocols to avoid the perception of discrimination, with investigators focusing on tracking the activity of intelligence collectors to find out whom they have targeted, not the other way around.

The passage then goes on to cite former FBI agent David Major, who testified to the China Economic Security and Review Commission in 2016 that, Its not how [the US government looks] at ethnicity; its how the [Chinese intelligence] collector looks at ethnicity. The Chinese intelligence services specifically target people who are [Han]. [Chinese-Americans]  have a higher probability of being targeted because of what [Chinas] world view is.

This is a remarkable passage. It is a back-handed justification of a mass dragnet against Chinese nationals living in the US on the basis that they are supposedly susceptible to the actions of Chinese intelligenceall of which is unsubstantiated.

The report must be placed in the context of the intensifying drive to war against China.

In November 2011, President Barack Obama declared the pivot to Asia, a comprehensive military, economy, and political strategy to encircle China and undermine its regional influence. The pivot included, among other things, the redeployment of 60 percent of the US naval and air forces to the Asia-Pacific region. The Trump administration has escalated the confrontation with China with a series of trade war measures which only heighten the danger of conflict.

It also takes place amid bitter infighting in US ruling circles over unsubstantiated allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections and Trumps collusion with Moscow. The feuding reflects tactical differences within the American security, military and political establishment over whether Russia or China should be confronted first. The report has the character of riposte by those who consider China to be the greatest danger to US global dominance.

Significantly, the report relies heavily on alleged Chinese interference and influence in Australia and New Zealand as proof of Chinas global machinations. In reality, the allegations of Chinese activities in these two countriesboth closely aligned with the US against Chinaare just as threadbare as those in the US report. In a warning of what is being prepared in the US, the Australian parliament has just rammed through draconian new anti-foreign interference legislation that creates a battery of new crimes that will be used against individuals and organizations opposed to the US war drive against China.The two candidates in the race for the Democratic Party nomination for governor of New York state held their one and only public debate August 29, only two weeks before the election. Neither candidate offered anything but invective and demagogy, with each claiming, falsely, to represent the interests of working class.

Andrew Cuomo is the two-term incumbent. Cynthia Nixon is an actor best known for her role in the popular television series Sex and the City. In heavily Democratic New York state, the primary victor is almost certain to win the November 6 general election.

During the campaign, Nixon has attempted to stake out a left position on a number of issues, lately adopting the label of democratic socialist, and being endorsed by the New York City chapter of the pseudo-left Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Nixon has cited the the surprise victory of DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a Democratic congressional primary in the New York City borough of Queens as a portent of what could happen in her own race against Cuomo. However, polls have reported a comfortable two-to-one lead for Cuomo throughout the race. He also has vastly greater campaign funds ($24.4 million at last report) than does Nixon, as well as the support of nearly all organized interest groups, including most of the trade unions.

Cuomo is certainly ripe for a challenge from the left, since he has staked out a consistently right-wing record on budget and social policy in the course of two terms of office in Albany. The son of the late former governor Mario Cuomo has won praise from Republicans, and even the far-right Tea Party faction, for attacks on social services and the pay and benefits of state workers, and for instituting a property tax cap that curried favor with the upper middle class. The latter measure put additional strain on the states already grossly underfunded public school system.

During most of his two terms, Cuomo has cynically maneuvered with Republicans in the state legislature to give him a political cover for the implementation of right-wing policies. This involved splitting the Democratic majority in the state senate, with a small breakaway group of right-wing Democrats throwing their support to the Republican minority, allowing them to control the upper house of the legislature, with Cuomos tacit support.

More recently, as working class anger over deteriorating living conditions has grown, Cuomo has made a feint leftward, embracing various measures related to the rights of gays, women and racial minorities, without changing his basic course on class issues such as public services, school funding and taxes. He has won the support of some of the unions through minor concessions.

Cynthia Nixon has been unable and unwilling to articulate even the most minimal critique of Cuomos record, and this was on display at the August 29 debate, where she could only raise charges of incompetence and corruption, rather than Cuomos subordination of state government to the multi-millionaires and Wall Street.

Cuomo replied in kind, pointing out that the wealthy actress had incorporated herself for tax purposes, in order to blunt any suggestion that she might represent a more radical alternative.

Acrimonious exchanges on such topics took up the bulk of the debate.

When the two candidates did touch on problems facing the bulk of the states residents, neither proposed anything but vague promises that have no prospect of being implemented by a government entirely controlled by the wealthy elite.

Thus Nixon advocated the creation of a single-payer medical insurance system for the state, citing a recent study that it would be economically viable in the long run, but made no serious proposal on how it could be implemented, given the adamant hostility of the giant insurance companies, drug manufacturers and banks. Cuomo simply evaded the issue by saying it was the responsibility of the federal government.

Perhaps the most revealing portion of the debate came when Cuomo expressed his vehement opposition to a proposal by Nixon to grant public workers the right to strike, which is prohibited in the state, under penalty of fines and imprisonment. He said, I think its a terrible idea, expressing the ruling class fear of impending working class rebellion heralded by the wave of public school teachers strikes that began last spring and is continuing into the fall.

What is most noteworthy is that the New York AFL-CIO and various public sector and service unions, including Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, SEIUs 1199 United Healthcare Workers East, the Civil Service Employees Association, and the Public Employees Federation, are supporting Cuomo, and after the debate some made fawning statements in support of the no-strike laws.

They want strikes to be illegal so they can be absolved of any any responsibility to lead a genuine fight for their members. The head of CSEA said, It is incredibly naive for Cynthia Nixon to propose that all public sector workers be able to strike.

One Teamsters local president, Greg Floyd, is quoted by Bloomberg Law saying, Thats a fair trade off that was made over 40 years ago. Once you go on strike you dont get paid. Even if youre not fined, youre losing a days pay and you never know how long these things will go on. A representative of the New York State United Teachers said the law has worked effectively to ensure labor peace by respecting workers rights. And, we are not seeking a change at this time.

Nixons call for repeal of the public worker anti-strike laws is a transparent and vain effort to weaken the overwhelming support for Cuomo among the union bureaucracy. She discovered, however, that the last thing union leaders want is the legal right to strike.

Nixon attacked Cuomo for the critical lack of affordable housing, persistently high levels of homelessness (over 60,000 in New York City alone), and the abominable conditions (e.g., lead contamination, loss of heat and hot water, generally crumbling infrastructure) faced by tenants in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). She accused him of being beholden to New York City real estate interests, from whom he has reportedly received $733,000 in campaign donations during the first half of 2018 alone.

However, her solution for housing affordability was to enact universal rent control, a proposal which has no chance of adoption, and would not alleviate the desperate housing shortage. Cuomo laid blame for the conditions at NYCHA on the city, even though there have been decades of budget cuts from all levels of government.

The two Democrats engaged in a meaningless back-and-forth over responsibility for the severely deteriorated state of the New York City subway system, which is crumbling due to decades of neglect, known as deferred maintenance, and underfunding from budget cuts. Cuomo sought to shift the blame to the city, even though the system is part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a state agency. Nixon made no concrete proposal regarding how the immense funds necessary to repair the subways would be found.

The catastrophic state of the whole regional transportation systemwhich is causing growing delays and significant inconvenience for millions of travelers coupled with ever rising fares, as well as a series of fatal accidentsis the result of the failure of capitalism, at every level, to properly fund infrastructure, while at the same time, the obscene accumulation of wealth by the financial and corporate elites continues unabated.

Neither Cuomo nor Nixon meaningfully addressed the vast and growing level of wealth inequality, which underlies all the problems facing the working classfrom medical care, to education, housing, transportation, and the rest. Nor could they have done so, both being supporters of capitalism. Both candidates have endorsed the pathetically inadequate campaign for the $15 minimum wage, which, even if implemented, would still leave low-wage workers with lower real income than they had decades ago.

Nixons campaign, like those of Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, is an attempt to peddle illusions that the Democratic Party can be turned into an instrument of serious social reform, diverting workers and young people seeking a genuine socialist alternative to capitalism back into a political blind alley.

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Cynthia Nixon discovers democratic socialism in challenge to NY Governor Cuomo

[24 July 2018]Recently released tax returns show that New York University (NYU) President Andrew Hamiltons base pay was $1.3 million in 2016, his first year in that position. An estimate of Hamiltons total payincluding compensation and bonuseswould be roughly $2 million, placing him tenth on the list for highest-compensated university administrators, directly above The New School University President David Van Zandt.

According to the 2017 US Census, Hamiltons $1.3 million pay is almost 24 times higher than the average New York City annual income of $55,191 and 86 times higher than the poverty threshold $15,000 for a single person. His base pay is the second highest of all university presidents in the United States, according to a 2018 list of executive compensation at private and public colleges released by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

While base pay excludes bonuses and other compensation, NYUs 990 tax return shows that Hamilton receives an additional $250,000 in deferred compensation each year, to be collected after five years, for a sum of $1.25 million. The document also lists a total of $448,914 as a yearly estimated amount of other compensation from the organization and related organizations.

Courtesy of NYU, Hamilton lives in a presidential penthouse that was renovated in 2016 with $1.1 million in university funds. Before moving to NYU, Hamilton had claimed a desire to address the affordability of the university. However, as vice chancellor of Oxford in the United Kingdom from 2009-2015, he angered many students by suggesting the need to raise the legal tuition increase above the cap of 9,000 (roughly $10,982).

Hamiltons immense overcompensation is not primarily a matter of personal greed. He and NYU are a particularly egregious example of a general trend in higher education which, despite not needing to make a profit or reward shareholders, seeks to enrich a layer of administrators as a part of a general process of financial parasitism, favoring the top layers of income earners. In the process, higher education is attuned to the wishes of the upper middle class, shunting the working-class and poor aside and further into debt. These students struggle in New York City to cover tuition and a cost of living that is among the countrys highest.

Since 2001, tuition has more than doubled, from $23,336 to $51,828. If a student chooses to live on campus, NYU suggests an added $18,000 for dorm living and a meal plan. The cheapest option for room and board, however, adds up to a total of $11,000, which includes only six meals a week and a non-air conditioned room shared between three people. None of the aforementioned totals include extra spending money for events or meals off campus, health care costs, clothing, transportation or books.

Students who choose to avoid NYUs housing costs and move off campus are hardly better off. Average rent near campus in Greenwich Village is $4,021 for a 1-bedroom apartment and $6,771 for a 2-bedroom, according to CityRealty.com. Students often have to move farther off campus sacrificing hours and incurring additional costs for public transit, in exchange for cheaper rent in areas like Brooklyns Bushwick, where the average rent for a 2-bedroom is still difficult to afford, at $2,456.

The tuition cost listed on NYUs website does not include the hidden fees that students and parents are often not aware of until after classes have begun. In 2015, over 400 NYU faculty members published a document titled The Art of the Gouge, which outlined how NYU extracts money from students, only to short change educational and health services in favor of executive pay raises and real estate ventures. One method of extraction is to saddle students and parents with extra hidden fees.

Students and families complain they are forced to pay extra for the use of the gym or health services and even for vaguely-defined fees labeled registration and services, program fees and academic support. Students and parents often are not aware of these fees until classes have already begun. In some cases, the report outlines, hidden fees can total up to $10,000.

These costs are rarely covered by a students financial aid package. For seven years in a row, the Princeton Review has awarded NYU first place for worst financial aid. New data from the US Department of Education reveals that students from low-income families graduate from NYU burdened with debt. According to The Art of the Gouge, NYUs Pell Grant recipientsstudents from families with an income of less than $30,000 a yeargraduate with an average of $23,250 in federal loans.

Over 21 percent of the student body receives Pell Grants. Compared to Harvard, Yale and Columbia, which charge roughly $6,000-$7,000 in tuition for Pell Grant recipients, NYU charges $25,462 or 84 percent of a Pell Grant familys income, forcing students to take out crippling loans. After graduation, the average loan debt for NYU students is $31,210.

Rising tuition and student debt take an increasing toll on students lives. Some students rely on the website SeekingArrangements.com to make enough money to pay for rent and food. Seeking Arrangements is a website that pairs wealthy men and women (Sugar Daddies/Mommas) with younger sugar babies who go on dates or form long-term relationships in exchange for hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars and expensive gifts. The Seeking Arrangements website shows 1,529 NYU student members, placing NYU third on the list of universities with the most sugar babies. A variety of other websites also connect desperate and indebted college students with wealthy patrons.

Students also seek tuition money on websites like GoFundMe, an online fundraising platform that is used frequently by the working class and poor to pay for medical expenses, funerals, and college tuition. While there isnt sufficient data on the use of online fundraising platforms to pay for college, one search for New York University on the database yields 6,771 results for students asking for funding for various portions of fees and tuition.

NYU students also fall victim to the nationwide trend of student hunger. Several student groups have attempted to address student food insecurity by creating smart phone apps that allow students to donate pre-paid swipes into dining halls for their peers, keeping up Facebook groups that broadcast the location of leftover food from catered events on campus, andin an effort that was blocked by administrationworking to form a food bank.

While sex work, fundraising platforms, and student hunger apps may alleviate some of the day-to-day financial stress suffered by students, none will act as more than a band-aid in the face of the larger social crisis expressed so sharply by the salary of the NYU president. Behind these numbers are New Yorkers struggling against rising rents, debt, stagnant wages and eviction, as developers seek to make way for luxury condominiums.

The disparity between the life of Andrew Hamilton and the multimillionaire and billionaire members of NYUs Board of Trustees on the one hand, and the struggles of NYUs students, faculty and staff on the other, stems from the corporatization of higher education, which squeezes as much money as possible from students and poorly-paid adjunct faculty to fund CEO-style salaries, real estate ventures and projects that bolster NYUs image.As the Trump administration escalates its trade war measures with China, a powerful group of US lawmakers headed by Senator Marco Rubio issued a letter last week calling for sanctions against Chinese officials allegedly responsible for human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur minority in the western province of Xinjiang.

There is no doubt that the Chinese police-state apparatus is responsible for gross violations of democratic rights against the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, as well as the Chinese working class as a whole. Under conditions of slowing economic growth and rising social tensions, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime is terrified that any opposition can become the focus for a broader movement that could threaten its rule.

Washingtons selective spotlighting of human rights abuses, however, has nothing to do with defending the Uyghur minority. It is aimed at whipping up anti-Chinese sentiment and encouraging separatist movements. Rubio chairs the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)an anti-China body that last month tabled a report replete with unsubstantiated allegations of Chinese interference in American politics (see: US report on Chinese United Front Work seeks to whip-up hostility towards China).



The letter signed by Rubio and 16 other members of Congress called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to impose sanctions on Chen Quanguo, CCP secretary for the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and other officials involved in human rights abuses. It also called for sanctions against Chinese companies, such as Hikvision and Dahua Technology, that allegedly profit from government contracts for surveillance projects.

The detention of as many as a million or more Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in political re-education centres or camps, the letter declared, requires a tough, targeted, and global response. It called on the State Department to engage in robust diplomatic engagement with likeminded governments to further elevate this human rights crisis on the international stage.

Just days after the letter was published, the US and international media exploited a report from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to inflate claims of Uyghur persecution in China. The Los Angeles Times headlined its article UN accuses China of holding more than a million Muslims in secret detention centres.

The UN report itself was more cautious about its claims, stating that large numbers of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities were held without charge or trial under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism. Estimates about them range from tens of thousands to upwards of a million, it declared, without citing any evidence to support the claim.

In its submission to the UN committee, the US-based Human Rights Watch suggested that at least tens of thousands of Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in political education centres. It referred to human rights abuses, including torture and restrictions on movement, freedom of religion and expression.

China, in its submission to the UN committee, said there are no such things as re-education centres or counter-extremism training centres in Xinjiang, adding that claims of a million Uyghurs being held in such facilities were completely untrue. Such declarations are certainly false. Beijing has cracked down ruthlessly on any protests or expressions of separatist sentiment in Xinjiang and heavily censors news reports.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying pointed to the hypocrisy of the US congressmen by suggesting that Chinas ethnic minority policy and actual situation are much better than those of the United States. Highlighting the atrocious US record on democratic rights and its support for autocratic regimes around the world, however, is not a justification for CCP police-state measures.

Significantly, Rubio and his fellow lawmakers have concentrated on Xinjiang, rather than Tibet, which has been exploited previously in a similar fashion. Their letter hints at why. It declared that the last thing Chinas leaders want is international condemnation of its abuses, at a time when the Chinese government is seeking to expand its influence through the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Belt and Road Initiative is a massive Chinese infrastructure project involving the construction of rail, road, port and communication facilities to link the Eurasian landmass by land and sea. In response to the Obama administrations pivot to Asia aimed at undermining and encircling China, Beijing is trying to more closely integrate Eurasia economically and in doing so prevent Chinas isolation.

As the westernmost province of China, Xinjiang is a focus for many of the land routes and pipelines planned to Central Asia and on to Europe. The congressional letter to the Trump administration seeks to encourage Washington to exploit Uyghur separatism to disrupt the Belt and Road Initiative and potentially fracture China itself.

The CIA and other agencies of US imperialism have long-standing ties with various Uyghur and Tibetan separatist organisations around the globe. Funds have been funnelled through the US-financed National Endowment for Democracy to the Uyghur American Association and the World Uyghur Congress based in Munich, which has close connections to the US propaganda arm, Radio Free Asia. These US activities are used by Beijing as another justification for their own repressive measures.

Democratic rights for the various ethnic minorities in China will not be won through the reactionary intrigues of the US and its various accomplices, but only in unity with the working class throughout China in a struggle against the oppressive CCP regime as part of the fight for genuine socialism internationally.Worland shows strengths, areas to work on with ACT scores

WORLAND  Wyoming ACT composite scores hit a six-year low according to data released last week by the Wyoming Department of Education, but Worland scores were above the state.

Wyomings ACT composite score in reading, writing, math and science was 19.5, down from 19.7 a year ago. During the 2015-2016 year, Wyoming had the highest composite score at 20.0 during the past six years.

Washakie C...Over four months after undergoing emergency spinal surgery, Abby Lee Miller has left her Los Angeles rehabilitation facility, PEOPLE confirms.

In April, one day after undergoing emergency surgery for what was initially thought to be a spinal infection, the reality star  who was released from prison in March  was preliminarily diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer that develops in the lymphatic system.

It was not an infection, it was a type of a non-Hodgkins lymphoma  its a type of a cancer, said Dr. Hooman M. Melamed, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Cedar Sinai Marina Del Rey Hospital who treated the star. Were getting an oncologist involved and we have to figure out what the next steps are as far as chemotherapy or radiation or more spine surgery. Depending on the tumor type, depending on the sensitivity of the tumor  it just depends the type but I feel more than yes, she will undergo chemotherapy or radiation.

The doctor added that it was a preliminary diagnosis pending pathology and oncology results.

Miller went into the emergency room after she experienced excruciating neck pain and weakness in her arm, and after her condition deteriorated over the next couple days, Dr. Melamed performed emergency surgery for a multi-level laminectomy.

If we didnt do something, she was going to die, Dr. Melamed told PEOPLE. Her blood pressure was bottoming out. She was not doing well.

Since her diagnosis, the former Dance Moms star has been receiving chemotherapy and has been documenting her journey via social media.

Miller had been living in a halfway house since serving her 366-day sentence for bankruptcy fraud at the Victorville Federal Correctional Institution in California, which she entered in July.

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In May, Miller was officially released from the halfway house.

TIMES UP!!!! Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last. Martin Luther King Jr., the 51-year-old wrote alongside a black-and-white photo of herself sporting a wide smile as she pointed to a watch on her wrist.

Last week, Miller shared a picture of herself hitting up a mall in Los Angeles for some shopping.

Hallelujah! Im headed to the Mall! she captioned the post. Ive only been once in 13 long painful months. For a lifelong shopper like me thats absolute torture!!!

She also shared a photo of herself out and about with two medical professionals who helped with her recovery.

Seriously, these two female Doctors, @kadeletti and @missoscar22 were such vital parts of my Physical Rehabilitation  I can never thank them enough! she gushed.Suspect in stabbing of 2 Americans in Amsterdam claims he was seeking vengeance for the Prophet Muhammad: Prosecutors (ABC News)

Suspect in stabbing of 2 Americans in Amsterdam claims he was seeking vengeance for the Prophet Muhammad: Prosecutors originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

An Afghan man suspected in the stabbing of two American tourists in Amsterdam told investigators he traveled there to carry out an attack as vengeance for offensive statements made in the Netherlands about the Prophet Muhammad, prosecutors said Monday.

A remand hearing for the 19-year-old suspect, identified only as Jawed S., was held in his hospital room on Monday as police probed the unprovoked attack in Amsterdam's bustling Central Station on Friday as a terrorist act, officials said.

No group has claimed involvement in the attack and prosecutors said there is no indication that the suspect worked with others.

The suspect allegedly stabbed the two victims, both 38-year-old men, with a large knife around noon Friday in Central Station, through which approximately 250,000 people travel daily. He was shot and wounded by police immediately afterward.

The victims, whose names have not been released, are recovering in a hospital from what police said were serious but not life-threatening injuries. The U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, said they are American tourists.

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, Aug. 31, 2018. (AP)

Jawed S., an Afghan citizen, had been seeking asylum in Germany, which he applied for in 2015, German Federal Police officials told ABC News. He had a temporary German residence permit and was in the process of obtaining a permanent one, officials said.

He allegedly committed the stabbings as soon as he arrived at Central Station around noon Friday on an international train from Germany, prosecutors said.

He said, according to prosecutors, that he chose his victims at random and that he did not realize they were American tourists.

"From the statements that the defendant has made so far, it becomes clear that the man had a terrorist motive in committing his actions and that he came to the Netherlands for that," prosecutors said in a statement released Monday.

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The suspect told investigators that he specifically chose the Netherlands for the attack because he believes that in the Netherlands "the Prophet Muhammad, the Koran, Islam and Allah are often offended," prosecutors said in the statement.

In an interview with the investigators, Jawed S. mentioned Geert Wilders, a Dutch anti-Islam politician. Wilders announced in June plans to hold a Prophet Muhammad cartoon competition, but on Thursday he canceled the event after angry protests broke out in Pakistan.

"To avoid the risk of victims of Islamic violence, I have decided not to let the cartoon contest go ahead," Wilders -- a member of the Dutch Party of Freedom, the second-largest political party in the Netherlands -- said in a statement.

Investigators tracing the suspect's movements in Germany have found no records that he was on the radar of police there before the attack, a German Federal Police official told ABC News on Monday.

Investigators interrogated the suspect over the weekend.

Prosecutors said Jawed S. will undergo a psychiatric examination.

(MORE: Suspect with 'terrorist motive' who allegedly stabbed 2 Americans still being questioned)

Police raided the suspect's apartment in Germany on Saturday and seized several electronic devices that will be transferred to the Netherlands for further investigation, authorities said.

PHOTO: Policemen and forensics are at work after a stabbing incident at the central station in Amsterdam, Aug. 31, 2018. (Remko de Waal/AFP/Getty Images)

During Monday's detention hearing at the suspect's hospital bedside, an investigative judge ruled there is enough evidence to keep him in custody pending charges being filed against him, prosecutors said in a statement following the hearing.

(MORE: Driver suspected of terrorism after car crashes into a barrier near UK Parliament)

The judge considered Jawed S. a potential flight risk and a danger to the community in ruling that authorities can keep him in custody for two weeks as the investigation proceeds. If charges are not filed within two weeks, a separate, three-judge panel would have the option of extending detention for up to 90 days, prosecutors said.

(MORE: Driver suspected of terrorism after car crashes into a barrier near UK Parliament)

After the stabbing incident Friday, police quickly responded and shot the suspect in the lower body, officials said. Photos showed a man after he was shot lying on the floor of the train station as two police officers stood nearby with their guns pointed at him.

PHOTO: Dutch police officers are pictured near the scene of a stabbing attack at the central daily station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Aug. 31, 2018. (Alex Furtula/AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo spoke by phone with Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Block about the attack, said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

"The Secretary expressed appreciation for the quick response of Dutch law enforcement to the attack and assistance given to the victims and their families," Nauert said in a statement Monday afternoon. "Dutch and U.S. law enforcement are cooperating in the investigation, and the Secretary and Foreign Minister reiterated their commitment to stand together in our common fight against terrorism in all forms."

Holland has been considered a target since attacks by Islamic extremists in France, Belgium, England and Germany, and because the country supports military operations against ISIS in the Middle East.

Nauert, who praised Dutch authorities for their "courageous efforts," said in the statement that the United States "stands with our Dutch allies and others in our common fight against terrorism in all forms."The first Monday in September is celebrated nationally as Labor Day. So how did we get the holiday and why is no one quite sure who created it?

The Labor Day holiday grew out of the late 19th century organized labor movement, and it quickly became a national holiday as the labor movement assumed a prominent role in American society. Heres how it all started, with the facts, as we know them, supplied by the Labor Department, the Library Of Congress, and other sources.

1. The idea first became public in 1882. In September 1882, the unions of New York City decided to have a parade to celebrate their members being in unions, and to show support for all unions. At least 20,000 people were there, and the workers had to give up a days pay to attend. There was also a lot of beer involved in the event.

2. The New York parade inspired other unions. Other regions started having parades, and by 1887, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado made Labor Day a state holiday.

3. How did the Haymarket Affair influence Labor Day? On May 4, 1886, a bomb exploded at a union rally in Chicagos Haymarket Square, which led to violence that killed seven police officers and four others. The incident also led to May 1 being celebrated in most nations as Workers Day. The U.S. government chose Labor Day instead to avoid a celebration on May 1 and New York's unions had already picked the first Monday in September for their holiday.

4. Two people with similar names are credited with that first New York City event. Matthew Maguire, a machinist, and Peter McGuire, a carpenter, have been linked to the 1882 parade. The men were from rival unions; in 2011, Linda Stinson, a former U.S. Department of Labors historian, said she didn't know which man should be credited - partially because people over the years confused them because of their similar-sounding names.

5. Grover Cleveland helped make Labor Day a national holiday. After violence related to the Pullman railroad strike, President Cleveland and lawmakers in Washington wanted a federal holiday to celebrate labor - and not a holiday celebrated on May 1. Cleveland signed an act in 1894 establishing the federal holiday; most states had already passed laws establishing a Labor Day holiday by that point. Sen. James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 to make Labor Day a federal legal holiday on the first Monday of September. It was approved on June 28, 1894.

Story continues

6. The holiday has evolved over the years. In the late 19th century, celebrations focused on parades in urban areas. Now the holiday is a celebration that honors organized labor with fewer parades, and more activities. It also marks the perceived end of the summer season.

7. Can you wear white after Labor Day? This old tradition goes back to the late Victorian era, where it was a fashion faux pas to wear any white clothing after the summer officially ended on Labor Day. The tradition isnt really followed anymore. EmilyPost.com explains the logic behind the fashion trend  white indicated you were still in vacation mode at your summer cottage.

8. Labor Day is the unofficial end of Hot Dog season. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says that between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans will eat 7 billion hot dogs.

9. How many people are union members today? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 14.8 million union members in the workforce in 2017. There were 17.7 million in 1983.

10. What is the biggest union today? The National Education Association has about 3 million people who are members, including inactive and lifetime members.Reuters

Former world No.1 tennis doubles player Peng Shuai, one of China's biggest sporting stars, has publicly accused a former Chinese vice premier of forcing her into sex several years ago in a social media post that was later deleted. According to a screenshot of her verified Weibo account late on Tuesday, Peng said that Zhang Gaoli, who became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee - China's top decision-making body - coerced her into sex and they later had an on-off consensual relationship. The post was deleted around half an hour after it was published, although searches for Peng's name on China's tightly controlled internet surged after the posting, and screenshots were shared among private WeChat groups and over iMessage.The poll suggests that a second EU referendum could see the UK staying in the EU (Getty Images)

About 2.6 million voters who backed Brexit in 2016 have switched to the Remain side, according to a new poll.

The analysis carried out by the Best for Britain campaign, which supports a referendum on the terms of Brexit, also shows that 1 million former Remain voters have moved in the opposite direction and now back leaving the EU.

The findings suggest an overall shift of 1.6 million voters in favour of continued EU membership  enough to overturn the result of the 2016 referendum.

Best for Britain and anti-racism charity Hope not Hate commissioned analysis of two YouGov polls involving a total of more than 15,000 people, taken before and after the release of Theresa Mays Chequers plan for Brexit.

The results found a shift towards Remain in 93% of the 632 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales covered by the research, with 112 seats switching from majority Leave to Remain.

Some 341 seats in Britain now have a majority to stay within the EU against 291 wanting to Leave, according to the analysis.

In a finding likely to put additional pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to give his backing to an EU referendum, the analysis suggested that 1.4 million of those switching to Remain voted Labour in the 2017 general election.

And some 63% of new voters said they would back EU membership in a second poll.

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The findings come amid a barrage of criticism for the PMs Chequers proposal, including from within her own party and from the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who called the blueprint not acceptable to the European Union.

John Whittingdale, Brexiteer vice-chairman of the Exiting the EU Select Committee, told BBC Radio 4s Today: I dont think Chequers can possibly work.

Story continues

Im very unhappy with the proposal because it seems to me that it leaves us still under the control of the European Union but without any influence at all.

But even if I supported Chequers it became very clear from Mr Barnier that the European Commission just cannot accept it. They see it as going against the fundamental principles of the Single Market and Customs Union.

Chief EU negotiator and British prime minister Theresa May (Pictures: Getty)

Mr Whittingdale added: What he (Barnier) did put forward was a proposal for a very deep and comprehensive free trade agreement, which had alongside it agreements to co-operate on security, in police and judicial co-operation.

That is exactly the kind of relationship I would like to see.

The terms of Brexit are still being fought over by UK politicians (Picture: Getty)

Brexiteer and Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke of his own conversation with Mr Barnier, and claimed the unlikely pair agreed over Brexit.

Mr Rees-Mogg said: Mr Barnier is as you would expect extraordinarily charming.

He and I found considerable agreement that Chequers is complete rubbish and we should chuck it and have a Canada style free trade deal.

Interestingly, Eurosceptics and Monsieur Barnier are in greater agreement than Eurosceptics and the government or Monsieur Barnier and the government. It is very encouraging.Paul Greengrass returns with a new docudrama about Norwegians deadliest terror attack.

22 July tells the story of the aftermath of the horrific attack carried out by far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik and the survivors trying to carry on with their lives.

The film is set in 2011, when the terrible events took place and claimed the lives of 77 people. Breivik carried out two lone wolf attacks: a car bomb in Oslo followed by an attack at a Workers Youth League (AUF)-run summer camp, on the island of Utya, using multiple firearms and ammunition.

The Jason Bourne director is no stranger to making films about terrorist attacks having directed Bloody Sunday, United 93 and Captain Phillips.

The film centres on the Norwegian terror attack that took place in 2011

The film has its premiere at Venice Film Festival this year and will be available to stream on October 19, 2018 by Netflix.

Its not the only movie to be released this year and centred on the massacre; Norwegian filmmaker Norwegian drama film directed by Erik Poppe which reenacts the terror attack at the summer camp shot in one single take in real time.

According to the Guardian, Poppe worked closely with survivors from Utya island and used their testimonies in order to accurately and respectively tell the story.

READ MORE

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The Bodyguard slammed for bad Muslim stereotypesMEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexican authorities say four police officers have been killed in the western state of Jalisco.

The Guadalajara police say that four of their own  a police commissioner and his three bodyguards  were killed early Monday when the commissioner was leaving his home in the municipality of Tonala for work.

The police via Twitter said the officers managed to wound some of the attackers, but they escaped. They say the attack was in response to arrests of organized crime members in recent weeks.

The state is home to the Jalisco New Generation cartel.Quick and easy dinner recipes are always in demand, and pasta is a natural fit for simple suppers  especially if youre armed with an excellent entree-worthy recipe involving only a few ingredients.

To prove that flavor and simplicity arent mutually exclusive, we asked six pro chefs from across the country to submit their favorite six-ingredient pasta recipes. Buon appetito!

Spaghetti cacio e pepe (Photo: Coltivare)

Spaghetti Cacio E Pepe

A classic Roman dish beloved for its bold flavor profile and minimalist ingredient list, cacio e pepe literally translates to cheese and pepper, which are the dishs primary players. Chef Ryan Pera of Houstons Coltivare counts his Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe among the restaurants most popular dishes, and he puts his own mark on the traditional recipe by swapping out standard black peppercorns for Tellicherry peppercorns, which have complex spice notes and a slight hint of sweetness.

Ingredients

12 ounces (or about 350 grams) dried spaghetti (Pera recommends De Cecco)

1/4 cup coarsely ground Tellicherry peppercorns

4 tablespoons butter

8 ounces (about 2 cups) finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt, to taste

Directions

In a large Dutch oven, bring 2 quarts of salted water to a boil (using as little boiling water as possible will give a thick, starchy liquid that will enhance and bind the sauce). Once the water is boiling, drop in pasta and give one initial stir after pasta is submerged. While pasta is cooking, set a large saute pan over medium heat and add ground peppercorns. Toast until fragrant, then add butter. Let butter melt and bubble with pepper, adjusting the flame so that butter is bubbling right when pasta hits al dente. When pasta is al dente (consult package for cooking time), remove from water with tongs and drop into saute pan. Ladle another 2 ounces pasta water into saute pan and stir with tongs. Add cheese and olive oil, stirring vigorously until a silky sauce forms from the butter, starch water and cheese. Taste for salt and add if necessary. Divide into 2 warmed bowls and serve immediately.

Carbonara in a jar (Photo: Siena Tavern)

Carbonara In A Jar

Story continues

If youre looking for a hearty pasta dish that can easily double as brunch fare, carbonara will do you right. Like cacio e pepe, pasta carbonara hails from Rome, and it involves a rich sauce made from egg, cheese and pancetta (cured pork belly, which is like a less-smoky bacon). At Chicagos Siena Tavern, Top Chef alum Fabio Viviani serves his carbonara with a very millennial twist: Its layered in a Mason jar and shaken.

Ingredients

1 cup diced pancetta

3 cups heavy cream

2 cups fresh spinach

2 cups grated Pecorino

4 egg yolks

1 pound dried pasta of choice (Viviano recommends gemelli, penne, rigatoni or orecchiette)

Directions

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Season with salt and cook pasta until 2 minutes before the manufacturers specifications. Make sure it is al dente; the pasta will cook longer in the sauce. Meanwhile, in a large sauce pot over medium-high heat, start browning the pancetta with a little bit of butter until all the fat has been released and the bacon is starting to brown and get crispy. Deglaze the pan with the heavy cream and reduce until it starts to coat the back of a spoon, then add 1/2 cup of Pecorino. Once the sauce starts to get thick, add the spinach and toss through to wilt. Add 1 cup of Pecorino and cook until thick. At this point, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed. Divide the sauce into 4 Mason jars, reserving just a little bit to toss with the pasta. Add pasta to the pot and lightly coat. Divide the pasta among the 4 jars. Top each jar with remaining grated Pecorino, making a nest. Place the egg yolk into the Pecorino nest and grate fresh black peppercorn on top. Vigorously shake the Mason jar, making sure the pasta is mixed really well. Carefully take the top off the Mason jar and pour onto the plate.

Rigatoni alla Campidanese (Photo: Bocce USQ)

Rigatoni Alla Campidanese

OK, so this recipe has seven ingredients, not six. But its worth it. Italian meat sauces have a reputation for being labor-intensive culinary endeavors, but its actually entirely possible to make a hearty ragu with a very short shopping list. Chef Tim Meyers of Bocce USQ in New York City presents a slow-cooked Sunday sauce perfect for those first crisp autumn evenings.

Ingredients

1 pound pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes

8 ounces canned tomatoes

3 ounces dry white wine

8 ounces chicken stock

1 gram saffron

2 ounces Calabrian chiles in oil

2 pounds dried rigatoni

Directions

Lay the pork out on a paper towel, dab it dry on all sides, then sprinkle it with kosher salt and black pepper. Add the saffron to the white wine to allow the color and flavor to infuse the wine. Get a large saute pan very hot, with just a thin layer of olive oil. Carefully place the pork in the hot pan to sear. You may need to do two rounds of searing because you want to make sure one piece of pork isnt touching another piece in the pan: theyll get a better golden brown color this way. When all the pork is seared, transfer it to a stockpot or large saucepan. Add a little chicken stock to the saute pan you used to sear the pork. This will deglaze the pan, making your cooking liquid that much more flavorful. Add all the chicken stock to the pot with the pork, and add the tomatoes and white wine/saffron mixture as well. Set the pot on medium-high heat to bring the liquid to a simmer, then cover the pot and lower the heat to maintain a low simmer. Continue to cook for 3 to 4 hours. When the pork is done, you should be able to easily smash it against the inside of the pot with a wooden spoon or fork. Remove the finished product from the heat of the stove and allow it to cool to room temperature. Once its cool, use your fingers to break up the chunks of pork into smaller strands, then stir in the Calabrian chiles. When youre ready to eat, cook 2 pounds of rigatoni in salted boiling water, then strain and toss with the pork ragu until the ragu is hot and covers every noodle.

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Cauliflower "risotto" (Photo: Little Dom's)

Cauliflower Risotto

Cauliflowers having a big moment in the food scene these days, and for good reason: Its an incredibly versatile ingredient, and imaginative chefs can get a lot of mileage out of this once-forgotten veggie. Chef Brandon Boudet of chic Los Angeles Italian eatery Little Doms likes to swap cauliflower out for arborio rice to make a tasty and keto-friendly spin on classic risotto.

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower

4 green onions, finely chopped

3 ounces butter

2 ounces olive oil

4 ounces grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Salt and crushed red pepper to taste

Directions

Grate the cauliflower using the large holes on a box grater or the shredder on a food processor. Saute green onions, crushed red pepper, and salt with olive oil and butter. Do not brown. Add cauliflower and continue to saute, stirring constantly. Again, do not brown. Add a few tablespoons of water and continue cooking until cauliflower is just tender. Finish by folding in grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Cold sesame noodles (Photo: Fang Restaurant)

5-Minute Cold Sesame Noodles

Italian chefs dont have a monopoly on simple and satisfying pasta dishes. Chef Kathy Fang of Fang Restaurant in San Francisco can whip up this dish of cold sesame noodles in 5 minutes flat, which sounds like the perfect amount of time for a just-got-home-from-work-and-Im-exhausted dinner situation.

Ingredients

1 cups fresh pasta or Chinese wheat noodles

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons light soy sauce or 2 tablespoon Braggs liquid aminos

5 tablespoons sesame oil

1 tablespoon sesame paste (can substitute tahini or peanut butter)

Directions

Cook noodles to al dente, then run them under cold water to chill the noodles. Toss chilled noodles with a bit of sesame oil to prevent them from sticking. Place in fridge. To make the dressing, combine vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce and sesame paste, then slowly whisk in the sesame oil. Toss noodles in dressing. Optional: Garnish with sesame seeds, scallions or cilantro.

Spicy crabmeat tagliatelle (Photo: Maison Premiere)

Spicy Crabmeat Tagliatelle

As the chef de cuisine of celebrated Brooklyn raw bar and cocktail lounge Maison Premiere, Jacob Clark brings a bit of NOLA flair to NYC, infusing the menu with Cajun ingredients and flavor profiles. He even applies this strategy to pasta dishes, like this bold tagliatelle starring crabmeat.

Ingredients

6 ounces fresh tagliatelle

1 pound freshly picked Jonah crabmeat

3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon Calabrian chile paste

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

Extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop the pasta and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes. Once pasta is cooked, drain and reserve some of the pasta water. In a saute pan on low heat, sweat the garlic but dont allow it to color. Add the crabmeat and Calabrian chile paste and cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Toss with pasta and parsley and then toss with a little salt and extra virgin olive oil.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the first name of chef Jacob Clark as Jason.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Montevideo (AFP) - To legalize or not to legalize, that is the question on the lips of many legislators in Latin America since Argentina opted not to decriminalize abortion following a senate vote.

It did at least open the way for greater debate on a subject viewed so differently across the region in which abortion is entirely legal in Cuba and Uruguay, but where women can even be jailed for a miscarriage in El Salvador.

Attitudes are changing in some traditionally conservative societies, though, as Guatemala debates contradictory proposals that would either loosen or toughen laws; Brazil's Supreme Court considers a plan to decriminalize abortion in the first 12 weeks; and Chilean legislators debate a bill that would universally allow abortion in the first 14 weeks.

Here, four women tell AFP about their abortion experiences.

- Cuba: 'A right but not a game' -

Josefa is 46 and lives in Havana. Cuba was the region's pioneer, legalizing abortion in the first eight weeks in 1965.

"I got pregnant at 23. I had my first child and supposedly I couldn't have any more. When I fell pregnant again it was a surprise: I was studying and decided to abort."

She had three abortions over a decade but later had a second child, who is now 12.

"In Cuba it's my right to choose when I want to have a child. It's not a contraceptive method.

"I didn't have the financial means and I wasn't ready to have another child. I preferred to abort at an early stage of pregnancy.

"We have this right in Cuba but I don't deny that lots of people use it indiscriminately as a contraceptive, and that can provoke very serious health problems.

"I had a friend who had so many (abortions) that she could no longer have children, and now she regrets that.

"We have the right to choose but we must also realize that it's not a game."

- El Salvador: 'Law discriminates against women' -

Elsi Rosales, 27, lives and works in the countryside, and carries the scars of a traumatic stillbirth. Since 1998, El Salvador's laws in this area have been unforgiving with abortion for any reason and even miscarriages punishable by up to 40 years in prison.

Story continues

"I was 38 weeks pregnant. I have a three-year-old son who was born by C-section, I didn't know what labor pains were."

It happened as Rosales worked in the fields carrying firewood.

"I felt pain in my lower back, I didn't know what was happening but felt like I needed to use the bathroom."

It was there that her stillbirth happened.

"At that point, I lost consciousness. I was taken to hospital with a hemorrhage. The doctor treating me asked what happened and was the one who denounced me."

She spent 10 months in jail but now wants to fight for abortion reform.

"I'm going to join the fight so that the women in jail feel they're not alone. This justice system discriminates against us for the sole reason that we're women."

- Mexico: 'No guilt' -

Since 2007, abortion has been legal in the capital Mexico City up until 12 weeks. In the rest of the 31 states it's allowed in cases of rape or a threat to the mother's life. But in Guanajuato, it's outlawed and carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Art promoter Monse Castera, 32, has had three legal abortions, the first in France when she was 21.

"It was... very professional, the one in which I felt most secure."

The next two were after it was legalized in Mexico City.

"They weren't experiences that left me feeling guilty or with emotional pain. Abortion is not something we should feel ashamed about. It should be avoided but what should most be avoided is having unwanted children.

"It fills me with infinite sadness that in 2018 a woman cannot make decisions about her own body. If men could get pregnant this discussion wouldn't even be on the table. No law should tell you what you can or can't do with your body."

- Uruguay: 'Example to other countries' -

Office worker Mariana Rodriguez, 27, had an abortion in a public hospital in Uruguay, where it has been legal since 2013.

"It was never in my thoughts to become a mother. I don't feel psychologically prepared, nor do I have maternal instincts."

A torn condom and a morning-after pill that didn't work sent her down the abortion path.

"The process was great, I felt well supported and never judged.

"No-one tried to persuade me. The psychologist just asked me if I was sure and I gave my explanation.

"I was lucky that I didn't have to listen (to talk of homemade methods) using parsley and a knitting needle. I'm thankful of the law in Uruguay, it's applied in a perfect way and should be an example to other countries.

"For me, it's a very personal debate: how each individual views the fetus, embryo, baby, the concept of motherhood, the stereotype that women are born to be mothers... But it has to be law, there's no discussion there."

burs-ll/ltl/bc/iaJalaluddin Haqqani, a one-time CIA asset who went on to found a brutal militant group that is now a top US target in South Asia, has died after a long illness, the Afghan Taliban announced Tuesday.

Jalaluddin, whose eponymous Haqqani network is known for its heavy use of suicide bombers against Afghan civilians, security forces, and US-led NATO troops, was a key figure in entrenching jihad in the conflict-ridden region over the past 40 years.

His group is at the heart of regional tensions, with Washington and Kabul long suspecting the Haqqanis of having links to Pakistan's shadowy military establishment.

Jalaluddin, believed to have been born in Afghanistan before migrating to Pakistan's tribal areas, first came to prominence as an Afghan mujahideen commander fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s with the help of the United States and Pakistan.

Known for his organisation, courage and entrepreneurial skills, Jalaluddin was nicknamed "kabari", Pashto for scrap metal dealer, for reselling parts of tanks that had been destroyed on the battlefield.

He became a CIA asset and received a personal visit from US congressman Charlie Wilson, who helped secure arms for the mujahideen.

Over the following decades, the media-friendly Jalaluddin used his Arabic language skills to foster close ties with Arab jihadists, including Osama bin Laden, who flocked to the region during the war.

He became a minister in the Taliban regime which took power in Afghanistan in 1996 -- one of the only major mujahideen leaders to join the group -- and was close to its late founder Mullah Omar.

But after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 toppled the regime, he pulled back from the public eye, making only a handful of appearances in later years as the fearsome reputation of the Haqqani network began to grow.

The group, designated a terrorist organisation by the US in 2012, has been blamed for spectacular attacks across Afghanistan since the Taliban, and is one of the most merciless and effective groups operating in the region.

Story continues

Jalaluddin, thought to be in his 70s or 80s, once told AFP that eating honey was the secret to a long life.

He had been bedridden for years and had already passed the leadership to his son Sirajuddin, who is also the Taliban's deputy leader.

Jalaluddin "was from among the great distinguished Jihadi personalities of this era", the Taliban said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The Haqqani family confirmed the patriarch's death in a WhatsApp message to journalists. It was not clear where or when he died. Unverified reports have placed him in Pakistan in recent years.

There had been rumours of his death before, including widespread reports in 2015, though this is the first time the Taliban and his family have confirmed it.

- Devastating attacks -

Afghan and foreign analysts and diplomats played down the significance of Jalaluddin's death for the group's operations.

Analyst Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center in Washington tweeted: "Given how long he'd been ill, his death won't have a big impact on the war."

The Haqqanis were described by US Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011 as a "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.

Washington has long pressured Islamabad to crack down on the group, and recently cancelled assistance worth hundreds of millions over Pakistan's lack of "decisive" action against militants.

Islamabad has repeatedly denied it is sheltering militants on its soil.

But Jalaluddin's son Sirajuddin was running the network "with major ISI involvement", a foreign diplomat in Kabul told AFP, referring to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency.

Apart from devastating bomb attacks, the Haqqanis have also been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Westerners for ransom.

They include the Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three children, who were released last year, as well as US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was freed in 2014.

In Kabul, the group is widely believed to have been behind many recent attacks on the capital that were claimed by the local wing of the Islamic State group.

Some analysts believe the Haqqanis work with IS -- which at the same time is involved in a bloody turf war with the Taliban -- to avoid blame and political blowback.

burs-amj/st/qanAmazon has become the second publicly traded company in the US to be valued at a $1 trillion, just weeks after Apple reached the historic milestone.

The online retailer's stock price rose 1.7 per cent in trading on Tuesday morning  to $2,050.50 per share  putting its market value at just over $1 trillion, according to CNBC.

The achievement was not an unexpected one for the Seattle-based company, the value of which has more than doubled in the last year alone. In the 24 years since its founding, the online retailer has filled a void for customers who are increasingly turning away from brick-and-mortar stores, and amassed a powerful trove of data on its Prime subscription service members.

The success of the company has also made its CEO, Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world  something progressive Senator Bernie Sanders took shots at during a Labor Day event on Monday.

We have one person whose wealth is increasing by $250 million every single day, while he pays thousands of his workers wages that are so low that they are forced to go on food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing, Mr Sanders said, according to MyChamplainValley.com.

The company hit back with a statement claiming Mr Sanders had spread "misleading statements" about employees' pay and benefits, noting that the average hourly wage for full-time associates at the company's fulfilment centres  including cash, stock, and incentive bonuses  was over $15 per hour.

"We encourage anyone to compare our pay and benefits to other retailers," the company said.

More follows...By Sinead Carew and Noel Randewich

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> on Tuesday briefly joined Apple Inc <AAPL.O> to become the second $1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company after its stock price more than doubled in a year as it grew rapidly in retail and cloud computing.

Its shares traded as high as $2,050.50 before easing a little to end the session at $2,039.51, up 1.3 percent and just short of the milestone level of $2,050.2677.

If the online retailer's shares keep up their recent pace, it would be a matter of when, not if, Amazon's stock market valuation eclipses that of iPhone maker Apple, which reached $1 trillion on Aug. 2.

Apple took almost 38 years as a public company to achieve the trillion dollar milestone, while Amazon got there in 21 years. While Apple's iPhone and other devices remain popular and its revenues are growing, it is not keeping up with Amazon's blistering sales growth.

Amazon has impressed investors by diversifying into virtually every corner of the retail industry, altering how consumers buy products and putting big pressure on many brick-and-mortar stores.

"It says a lot about Amazon and its ever-increasing dominance of segments of the retailing world as well as the web services business, said Peter Tuz, President Of Chase Investment Counsel In Charlottesville, Virginia. "They have a tiny share of the worldwide retail sales market so theres a lot left to capture there."

(GRAPHIC: Amazon vs. Apple - https://reut.rs/2PwtdRg)

Amazon also provides video streaming services and bought upscale supermarket Whole Foods. And its cloud computing services for companies have become its main profit driver.

"Amazon's a little bit more dynamic than Apple because the iPhone has become more mature. Amazon's cloud business is an extra growth driver that Apple doesn't have," said Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta who describes Amazon's cloud services as its "crown jewel."

Story continues

In the second quarter the unit accounted for 55 percent of Amazon's operating income and 20 percent of total revenue, according to Morgan.

Apple started trading in December 1980 but its stock did not truly start to take flight for another 25 years, spurred by the iPhone, the breakthrough device that left competitors in the dust.

Amazon - founded as an online book-retailer in Chief Executive Jeff Bezos' garage in 1994 - started trading on May 15, 1997 at $1.50 on a split-adjusted basis.

By October 2009 it had risen to $100 and the stock hit $1,000 for the first time on May 30, 2017. It has held above that level since Oct. 27, 2017.

Just 10 months later, on Aug. 30, Amazon shares hit $2,000 for the first time, just $50 per share away from giving the company a $1 trillion market value.

(GRAPHIC: Analyst Price Targets - https://reut.rs/2NHwHQq)

The stock is up 74.5 percent year to date. In comparison, Apple has risen about 35.0percent in 2018.

Analysts expect Apple's revenue to jump 14.9 percent in its fiscal year ending in September, according to Thomson Reuters data, a hefty rise but still far short of Amazons expected revenue growth of 32 percent for 2018.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew in New York and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas and Phil Berlowitz)Activists hold flags during a demonstration against executions in Iran, in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany September 3, 2016. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos

Seth J. Frantzman

Security, Americas

Washington has ways to pressure the Iranian regime by being more active in support for dissident groups in Iran.

This Is How America Will Revise Its Approach to Iran

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the creation of an Iran Action Group (IAG) on August 16. The new group is a substantive departure from the current policies, which have been disparate and poorly coordinated. The new policy is not only an outgrowth of President Donald Trumps desire to withdraw from the Iran Deal, it has also been driven by Congress and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was signed on August 6.

The NDAAs focus on Iran went largely unnoticed when it passed Congress in July. It represents Americas attempt to confront numerous aspects of Irans policies in the Middle East, including Irans ballistic missile threat, its role in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Congress sought to provide the foundation for the administration to do more, including prodding it to draw up a strategy. Section 1237 of the NDAA notes that the Secretary of Defense, with concurrence of the Secretary of State, may develop a strategy with foreign partners to counter the destabilizing activities of Iran. This language was present in Pompeos IAG speech. Tehran has been responsible for a torrent of violent and destabilizing behavior against the United States, our allies, our partners, and indeed the Iranian people themselves.

Pompeo has appointed Brian Hook to lead the efforts to coordinate efforts on Iran with the IAG. The NDAA underpins his work. It calls for specification of which countries Iran is operating in, and for harnessing technology and countermeasures against Tehrans activities. Reports will be presented to Congress annually on progress.

Of particular interest, the NDAA sought to deal specifically with Irans role in Iraq. One section (1234) seeks to deny funds to any group that is known to be affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC and its Quds Force, which is run by Qassem Soleimani, has been increasingly active in the region. In Iraq it works through historic allies such as Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Badr Organization, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis of Kataib Hezbollah. Muhandis has been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the past in 2009. Washington is concerned that funds from training and equipping the Iraqi Security Forces might find their way to the Popular Mobilization Forces, or Shiite militias such as Badr and Kataib Hezbollah.

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The House version of the NDAA initially included a provision that would have targeted Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, two other extreme Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. This shows that Congress was cognizant of and keen to push for specified sanctions on Iranian-linked groups in Iraq. The language was struck from the final NDAA.

The congressional push for a wide-ranging U.S. policy to confront Iran dovetails with Pompeos May speech regarding U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal. In that speech, Pompeo mentioned a plethora of Iranian activity in the region that the United States wants to focus on. This includes, first, of all Irans proxy and allied forces. Hezbollah in Lebanon is one element. Pompeo condemned Hezbollah for supporting the Syrian regime. Congress wants the Secretary of Defense to include detailed information in future reports regarding the regional threats posed by arms related material transferred by Iran to Hezbollah. Congress also wants a report on the IRGCs operations in Syria. Another proxy force that is now mentioned in the NDAA are the Houthi rebels in Yemen. They have been firing ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia. On August 22, a delegation of Houthis met with Hezbollahs Hassan Nasrallah.

As the United States draws up a strategy to confront proxy forces in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, the NDAA also encouraged more cooperation on ballistic-missile defense. This was mentioned in relation to unnamed Gulf Cooperation Council allies, which would include Riyadh as well as the UAE and Bahrain. Also, the NDAA included for the first time a provision to support anti-drone cooperation with Israel. This comes after Israel downed an Iranian drone in February 2018 that was launched from Syria.

Taken together with Pompeos statements, the NDAA gives Hooks new IAG a wealth of targets to focus on. A central space that the United States will be concentrating on will be in Syria. This is because Syria represents the most complex piece of the puzzle in confronting Iran. In Yemen the conflict is more stark. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have boots on the ground working with Yemen government forces fighting the Houthis. In Lebanon Hezbollahs role as a political and military force is a known threat and finding ways to confront it is a problem Washington has faced for many years. Iraqs lack of a new coalition government leaves the future of the country uncertain. A government containing pro-Iranian parties would leave the U.S.-led coalition in a bind.

Syria, by contrast, is a blank slate where the administration is seeking to make a mark. The Trump administration inherited an open-ended war on ISIS and has sought to continue that war while also making sure Iran doesnt fill the vacuum left behind by ISIS. The concerns were made clear in a new Department of Defense inspector general report covering operations from April to June of this year, which was released in August. It details how Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, has said that the United States is already using indirect means to push back against Iranian influence in Syria. This includes interdicting weapons shipments, supporting local forces and bolstering the defenses of regional allies, the report says. In addition Iran has three thousand IRGC members in Syria as well as thousands of allied militias at ten military bases and forty positions.

The State Department is increasing its presence in eastern Syria, far beyond what a purely anti-ISIS mission would entail. In a flurry of activity on August 17, the State Department announced $300 million pledges from various countries, such as Saudi Arabia, towards stabilization in eastern Syria. At a briefing on the same day David Satterfield, acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk, introduced Joel Rayburn as a new Special Envoy for Syria. In addition Pompeo swore in Jim Jeffrey as representative for Syria Engagement. He is supposed to coordinate all aspects of the conflict in Syria. Another member of the team is former Ambassador to Bahrain, William Roebuck, who previously served as political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Damascus.

Some sense of the more robust position in Syria was revealed by National Security Advisor John Boltons four days of discussions in Jerusalem that began on August 19. Bolton said that the United States had been discussing Syria policy with Moscow. He emphasized that Russia was not committed to Irans presence in Syria and would be fine with seeing Iran leave.

Bolton said the United States opposes Irans attempt to create an arc of control from Iran through Shia areas of Iran into Syria, linking up to Hezbollah. This reflects a meeting of minds between Jerusalems view of Irans role in the region and the Trump administrations. Bolton supported Israels attempts to prevent weapons transfers to Hezbollah via Syria through airstrikes. He went on to say that Iran was a central banker of international terrorism and that the United States wanted to put maximum pressure on the regime to deny it nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and roll back its forces in the region. Everything, short of regime change. Bolton also said that U.S. sanctions pressure would seek to dramatically reduce Iranian oil exports and that should give a tailwind to the popular demonstrations in Iran fueled by a failing economy.

Taken as a whole, between the NDAAs calls on the Defense Department to come up with a strategy, the new Iran Action Group at the State Department, the U.S.-led coalitions active role in Syria, and Boltons Jerusalem visit, a wide-ranging policy on Iran has finally taken shape a year and a half after Trump took office. This is primarily a product of the Bolton-Pompeo team.

Mattis is a key to the new policy as well. He called Iran an exporter of instability across the region, at a July press conference. He said nothing had changed the ground in terms of confronting Iran. He stressed that the fight against ISIS was by, with and through, the U.S. partners in Syria and that the United States would not put U.S. troops in to provide the security. Instead the United States would be going back to Geneva to pursue the diplomatic track.

This then is the upcoming question for U.S. policy and it seeks to coordinate efforts. Can the U.S. presence in eastern Syria be used to leverage Iran out of the country? If that happens will Hezbollah be cut off from arms transfers, or will they simply be flown in via Beirut or some other means? And the largest question will be what happens in Iraq. No matter what government is formed the legacy of deep Iranian penetration of the country will not go away. The well-armed Shiite militias may be shifting their checkpoints or being redeployed in places but they wont all lay down their weapons. Washington has other allies in Iraq, including the Kurdish parties in the north, and it has ways to pressure the Iranian regime by being more active in support for dissident groups in Iran. The U.S. administration now has the tools and the coordinated backing of key pieces of the government to pressure Tehran.

Seth J. Frantzman is a Jerusalem-based journalist who holds a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the executive director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis and a writing fellow at Middle East Forum. Follow him on Twitter at @sfrantzman.

Image: Activists hold flags during a demonstration against executions in Iran, in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany September 3, 2016. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos

Read full articleWashington (AFP) - With the United Nations warning of a potential "bloodbath" in Syria's Idlib province, the United States warned President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday it would respond "swiftly and appropriately" if he uses chemical weapons against his own people.

As Syrian troops massed near the northwestern region of nearly three million people, the last major rebel stronghold, renewed Russian airstrikes killed at least nine civilians, according to a violence monitor.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said the UN Security Council would meet on Friday to discuss the precarious situation in the province.

Rebel-backer Turkey has held several rounds of talks with regime ally Russia aimed at averting an assault on Idlib, but Moscow dubbed the region a "pocket of terrorism."

The UN's Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura said Russia and Turkey held "the key for (a) soft solution to the Idlib issue" and urged them to help avert a humanitarian disaster.

De Mistura pointed to press reports indicating that Syria has set a September 10 deadline for finding a solution before it begins an all-out offensive on the province.

"Let's try to avoid that the last probably major battle of the Syrian territorial conflict... ends in a bloodbath," De Mistura told reporters in Geneva.

US President Donald Trump warned Assad on Monday not to "recklessly attack" Idlib and the White House strongly cautioned him Tuesday against using chemical weapons.

"Such an attack would be a reckless escalation of an already tragic conflict and would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, warning the US and its allies "will respond swiftly and appropriately."

Haley's own warning focused more explicitly on the prospect of a chemical attack.

"If they want to continue to go the route of taking over Syria, they can do that, but they cannot do it with chemical weapons," she said.

Story continues

- 'Pocket of terrorism' -

De Mistura urged Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to urgently speak on the phone even before they are set to meet with their Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Friday.

His appeal came after Russian warplanes resumed airstrikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the raids, while 10 people were wounded.

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.

Many of the residents are rebels and civilians who were bussed out of other areas as they came back under Syrian regime control.

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month, and Russia has stepped up its rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."

Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

It accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponized drones and insists jihadists in the province must be eliminated.

- 'Appeal for sanity' -

De Mistura said there were an estimated 10,000 fighters with UN-designated terror groups currently in Idlib.

But he stressed that there are some 2.9 million civilians in the province, including around one million children, who "are not terrorists."

"There are many more babies than terrorists in Idlib," said Jan Egeland, head of the UN's humanitarian taskforce for Syria. "We appeal for sanity."

Amid a diplomatic frenzy to try to avoid a full-scale assault on Idlib, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told AFP Tuesday "it is important today that the path to negotiations be open and not that toward confrontation."

De Mistura, whose years of efforts to push forward a Syrian peace deal have achieved no breakthroughs, insisted that he would pursue his efforts to set up a committee to write a new Syrian constitution.

The UN envoy said he did not plan to postpone two rounds of consultations next week with high-level representatives of a range of countries with influence on different sides in the conflict.

"It is going to be a moment of truth," he said.

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.

burs-oh/iaABENSBERG, Germany (Reuters) - Bavarian premier Markus Soeder on Monday backed Manfred Weber to front the center-right in European elections next year, boosting the 46-year-old's bid to become European Commission head. If other member parties were to back Weber, who leads the center-right European People's Party caucus in the European Union Parliament, the Bavarian conservative would be frontrunner to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the EU's day-to-day leader. The EU is attempting to navigate a world in which a Donald Trump-led United States is seen as an unreliable partner, Russia and China are offering stiff competition and Britain's departure is forcing the bloc to reinvent itself. "I really hope the (German conservatives) make our Manfred Weber the lead candidate for the European election," Soeder said in a beer tent speech in Abensberg, near Regensberg in Bavaria. Weber and Soeder are both members of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Several German newspapers reported last week that Merkel had given her backing to Weber's bid to front the center-right in the European Parliament elections in May. As leader of the EU's most populous and wealthiest country, Merkel would have considerable influence over the EPP's choice of the center-right's "Spitzenkandidat", or candidate for president of the European Commission. The EPP's member parties are in government in nine of the bloc's 28 members, and lead in polls across much of Europe. It has been decades since a German has headed the Brussels-based Commission, whose 30,000 staff draft and enforce legislation and has been instrumental in driving the process of European integration since the bloc's beginnings in 1957. (Reporting by Paul Carrel; Editing by Alexander Smith)A British woman has died after a banana boat accident while on a family holiday in Hurghada, Egypt.

The woman, who has not been named, was in the same resort town as John and Susan Cooper, who died in strange circumstances in their hotel room, and had also travelled with Thomas Cook.

The holiday company has since stopped selling the boat excursion.

A Thomas Cook spokesman said: "We can confirm that one of our customers sadly died last week while on an excursion in Egypt.

"We would like to offer our sincere condolences to the family, and our welfare team continue to do all they can to support them at this time.

"We are urgently investigating what happened."

According to The Sun, the woman died in front of her daughter, having been flipped from the boat, and was left trapped underneath.

She was taken back to shore, where medics performed CPR before she died.

It comes as the bodies of the Coopers are to be repatriated, while the investigation into their deaths continues.

:: Official confirms 'strange odour' in John and Susan Cooper room

Their daughter Kelly Omerod claimed there was "something suspicious" about the deaths and said her parents were in "perfect health" before falling ill.

The Foreign Office confirmed it is assisting the family of the woman who died on 28 August.Yaren (Nauru) (AFP) - A visa row between China and host nation Nauru almost derailed the Pacific's largest annual diplomatic summit, it emerged Tuesday, exposing sensitivities about Beijing's rising influence in the region.

As formal discussions began at the 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum, leaked letters revealed some members threatened to boycott the meeting over Nauru's treatment of Chinese delegates.

Nauru does not have diplomatic relations with China, instead recognising self-ruled Taiwan, which has paid for much of the infrastructure being used to host the PIF summit.

Beijing and Taipei have vied for diplomatic influence in the Pacific for decades, with both sides offering aid and support to small island states in return for recognition.

In an apparent bid to tweak the nose of Chinese delegates, Nauru refused to stamp entry visas into their diplomatic passports, instead saying it would only process their personal passports.

While seemingly a minor detail, it provoked a furious response from other PIF members, many of whom receive development aid and concessional loans from Beijing.

China claims sovereignty over the democratic island and relations between the two have worsened since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, as her government refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China".

Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi sent a letter to Nauru President Baron Waqa threatening to withdraw from the summit and warning other leaders were likely to follow suit.

"Your unilateral action as President of Nauru is a dangerous precedent that I believe may not be accepted by forum leaders," he wrote in a letter obtained by AFP.

He added: "The decision taken by your government questions the integrity, credibility and foundation of our organisation."

Waqa eventually relented and proposed a compromise in which the Chinese delegation had their visa acceptance letters stamped, rather than their passports.

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- 'Rock and a hard place' -

China does not belong to the PIF but is one of 18 countries that attends as a "dialogue partner" for discussions with member nations.

Australia's Lowy Institute think tank estimates China provided US$1.78 billion in aid, including concessional loans, to Pacific nations between 2006-16.

The "soft power" wielded by Beijing has alarmed Australia and New Zealand, with both countries boosting their own aid programmes in a bid to maintain influence in a region they regard as their backyard.

New Zealand's desire to rekindle relations with its Pacific neighbours is so intense that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is leaving her newborn baby Neve at home in Auckland to attend the summit Wednesday for just one day.

Ardern in June became only the second world leader to give birth while in office after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto in 1990.

But her daughter has not had vaccinations and cannot yet travel.

Some political pundits criticised the extra NZ$80,000 ($53,000) Arden's flying visit would cost, on top of the travel expenses of New Zealand's official delegation.

"I was between a rock and a hard place, damned if I did and damned if I didn't," she told reporters.

"At the end of the day the option was go for a short time or don't go at all."

Ardern said New Zealand's offer to take 150 of the estimated 900 asylum seekers on Nauru was still on the table.

They are on the island as part of Australia's tough immigration policy, which sees asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat detained and processed in remote camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Concerns over the asylum seekers' welfare has dominated the lead up to the PIF summit, with rights groups alleging many are suffering mental health issues due to indefinite detention and systemic abuse.On Bachelor in Paradise, Colton and Tias relationship came to a dramatic end when a tearful Colton broke things off just moments after Tia talked about how strong their relationship was. It appeared, up until that point, to be the strongest relationship on the show, and Colton and Tia seem to genuinely care for each other.

While breaking up, Colton held back tears while saying, I just know what you deserve, and I cant give it to you. Thats the worst part of it all. And during the show, Colton posted a message to Tia on Instagram saying, Thank you for teaching me even more about myself, and most importantly, for your friendship that I know will continue far beyond Paradise. Dont settle for anything less than the world, because thats what you deserve.

Colton and Tia both immediately left the show. But that might not be the last we see of Colton. The newest Bachelor will be revealed on Good Morning America, and fans have already taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure at the thought of it being Colton. Based on what he said while leaving Paradise, it may be best if Colton doesnt jump back into the dating pool quite yet.

I really did give it my all. I really did try, Colton said. I dont deserve her. Im broken.

Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays & Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC. Watch clips and full episodes of Bachelor in Paradise for free on Yahoo View.

Check out the fight that got Leo kicked off Bachelor in Paradise:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Kylie Mar, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.Female doctors are up to four times more likely to take their own lives - Getty Images Contributor

Patient complaints are pushing up suicide rates among doctors, a leading medic has said as it emerged that female doctors are up to four times more likely to take their own lives than those in other professions.

The number of physicians ending their own lives is on the rise, Dr Clare Gerada has warned as she said that one of the main reasons seems to be that patients are now encouraged to make complaints which doctors find "shatter their sense of self" even when they are trivial or unjustified.

Between 2011 and 2015, 430 doctors took their own lives in England and Dr Gerada described the issue of mental health problems as "the last taboo in the NHS".

Dr Gerada, medical director of the NHS Practitioner Health Programme (PHP), said that theories on why female doctors "have up to four times the risk of suicide in comparison to people in the (general) population" include that they still have to do most of the childcare and caring for elderly parents on top of a stressful job with long hours.

Other risk factors include the stigma associated with medics receiving professional help and the male-centric leadership within the NHS which can leave women feeling isolated.

The former chairwoman of the Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners believes that one of the biggest risk factors is the complaints process, where doctors can be suspended whilst an investigation takes place and are often said to receive little support.

"The number of complaints has risen and people are now encouraged to make them," Dr Gerada said. "Complaints go to the core of what we do, we do not set out to do a bad job.

"Complaints now tend to be escalated far quicker than they used to be and during that time the doctor can be removed from their work and their support network.

"It is a cliche, but this is a vocation. Some doctors have said that receiving a complaint is akin to receiving a cancer diagnosis, it has that big an impact. It challenges their core values of wanting to care for a patient."

Story continues

Consultant anaesthetist Richard Harding took his own life last year after a serious complaint had been made about him to the General Medical Council.He was eventually cleared but the process took five months.

His wife Kate Harding, a GP, has told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show that it brought back depression he had not had for years.

"Those five months just felt endless," she said. "Even after the complaint had been shelved, he was the type of person - afterwards - who questioned his decisions a lot more. The effects are more long-lasting than you'd expect. I don't think it occurred to him to seek help."

Dr Gerada, said PHP is the only confidential service that offers doctors a range of assessments, treatment and case-management for all mental health problems and in 10 years it has helped more than 5,000 doctors, of whom slightly over two-thirds were women.

The average age has dropped from 51.6 years to 38.9. But doctors can only self-refer if they work in London and in other areas a lack of confidentiality in referring though the clinical commissioning group is putting people off.

According to figures released by the Office of National Statistics, the suicide rate among men in the general population is 16 per 100,000 compared to 5 for women.

Studies show that the suicide rates between male and female doctors is roughly equal, meaning that whilst male doctors are less likely to take their own lives than their peers, female doctors are between two and four times as likely.

A spokesman for NHS England said: "NHS England launched the NHS GP Health service in 2017, a world first, nationally-funded confidential service which specialises in supporting GPs and trainee GPs experiencing mental ill health and which has already helped more than 1,500 GPs.

"NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups may offer additional support for professionals in their area, for example CCGs in London have commissioned the NHS Practitioner Health Programme for their staff."Danny Boyle (Credit: Rex)

Danny Boyle hinted that his own love of the world of 007 could have been the thing that drove him from making Bond 25.

In a telling interview, now published but given to the Radio Times five days before the announcement he was to quit the movie, Boyle spoke about the problem of being a Bond aficionado.

The books were everything to me when I was a kid. I read them multiple times, he said.

Like everyone else, I saw the films, but Id already read the books so I had a different relationship with the characters.

Although I think itd be impossible for a Bond aficionado to write or direct a Bond film. Youd be hampered by how much you knew. They want you to bring a freshness to it.

Given that the interview happen just days ahead of the announcement, its likely that Boyle already knew he was off the project.

Or at the very least, the Trainspotting director was expressing his own doubts, having described himself as an aficionado, and then explaining that an aficionado directing a Bond movie would be impossible.

(Credit: MGM/Eon)

The announcement of Boyle quitting the 25th Bond film came just weeks ahead of cameras rolling.

Producers Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson and star Daniel Craig released a joint statement last month, reading: Michael G Wilson, Barbara Broccoli [producers] and Daniel Craig today announced that due to creative differences Danny Boyle has decided to no longer direct Bond 25.

Rumours have since emerged that Boyle clashed with Craig over the casting of the movies villain, with Boyle keen to cast 41-year-old Polish actor Tomasz Kot.

Other talk suggested that the movies plot, penned by longtime Boyle collaborator John Hodge, had become an issue, while other rumours suggest Boyle walked because he refused to kill off 007 at the end of the movie.

Whatever the reason, its now almost certain that the movie will miss its planned release date of October 2019.

Read more

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Italian luxury house Bulgari presents "Goldea The Roman Night Absolute," a perfume that celebrates the frenzied intensity of night in the Eternal City. The fragrance will be available from September.

The new elixir concocted by master perfumer Alberto Morillas is structured around an addictive wake redolent of intensity, sensuality and daring. It also celebrates femininity and beauty, in the manner of all of the variants in the "Goldea" perfume line.

"I designed an absolute infused with sensuality, a perfume with boundless possibilities, surprising you with its unexpected twists, instantly hypnotizing you before pervading your every sense with an extreme, ultra-sensual tension that you can no longer bear to be without," announced Morillas in a statement.

The chypre musk fragrance opens with notes of black plum and orange blossom, which segue into a heart of jasmine and Madagascar vanilla. Sensual and addictive base notes of black musk, patchouli and crystal moss close out the fragrance.

"Goldea The Roman Night Absolute" will be available from September from approved Bulgari outlets. Price: from 60 euros for 30 ml.WASHINGTON  Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces his biggest test this week: a panel of skeptical Democrats who plan on grilling the appellate court judge about his views on some of the biggest issues facing the country.

With a growing group of presidential associates under criminal investigation and the fate of health care and abortion rights on the line for millions of Americans, the stakes could not be higher as his confirmation hearing begins on Tuesday.

If the Senate confirms Kavanaugh, Republicans will cement a reliably conservative majority on the court and tilt the balance of power further to the right for decades. The 53-year-old conservative judge is seeking to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who sometimes voted with liberals on the court on issues like abortion, gay rights and affirmative action.

In coming years, Kavanaugh could be asked to rule on cases curtailing Roe v. Wade, the landmark reproductive rights decision, on President Barack Obamas signature health care law and its protections for patients with pre-existing conditions, and on the governments ability to regulate a wide array of issues like gun control, civil rights, labor disputes and environmental laws.

More immediately, however, if Kavanaugh does emerge from the hearing unscathed and is confirmed, as is expected, he may play a role in helping to decide the fate of Donald Trump and the growing investigation of his associates that threatens to derail his presidency.

Democrats said they plan to use this weeks confirmation hearing to highlight the jurists ethical dilemma should special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, decide to bring any charges that implicate Trump. To help them do so, theyve invited former White House counsel John Dean, who helped take down former President Richard Nixon, to testify as an outside witness during the hearing.

Kavanaugh, however, is not expected at the hearing to offer any commitment to recuse himself from any cases involving investigations of Trump, according to ABC News.

Story continues

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh meets with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Capitol Hill. (Photo: Chris Wattie / Reuters)

Beyond issues related to the Russia investigation, Democrats plan to question Kavanaugh on three main topics: his expansive views of executive power and whether he believes a sitting president can be indicted; his opinions about Roe v. Wade and abortion rights; and whether he believes Obamacare and its protections for pre-existing conditions are constitutional.

Theyll also press Kavanaugh on his opinions as an appellate judge and the extensive record he has as a Justice Department appointee under former President George W. Bush, a record Republicans are shielding from public view.

Democrats are particularly interested in whether Kavanaugh authored or edited any documents relating to the Bush administrations torture and warrantless wiretapping programs. The last time he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in May 2006, Kavanaugh gave Democratic senators some questionable answers on the governments treatment of detainees. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the former chairman of the committee who has seen 19 Supreme Court nominations, is expected to ask about post-9/11 issues, including torture.

Theres just a lot more [material]. Hes said a lot more extreme things, a Senate Democratic aide told HuffPost last week, when asked how Democrats approach to Kavanaugh compared to the one they took with Trumps first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, who was confirmed last year.

Modern Supreme Court nominees have usually declined to answer questions about issues before the court, arguing it is improper for a judge to give hints about how they might rule in future cases. Gorsuch took the practice to new heights during his confirmation hearing, refusing to answer questions about even landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education. Kavanaugh will likely do the same when asked about his views on issues like abortion and health care.

Thats been followed by all the people since [Justice Ruth Bader] Ginsburg. I think thats a good rule because you cant tell whats going to happen 10 years from now, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters on Capitol Hill last week, when asked what Kavanaugh needed to do to pass the test in his confirmation hearing.

But Democrats argue that the practice Ginsburg helped set during her confirmation hearing decades ago shouldnt preclude Kavanaugh from responding to questions about issues that he has written or spoken publicly about in the past. The appellate judge, for example, once argued in a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article that sitting presidents should not be distracted by criminal investigations or questions from prosecutors. He has since tried to soften his stance in meetings with Democratic senators, arguing he did not intend to make a broad constitutional claim about a presidents immunity from investigation.

I dont think its fair for him to refuse to comment on his own writings and speeches where he chose to insert himself into a debate about the scope of executive power, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told reporters last week.

Kavanaughs public comments in the past regarding overturning some Supreme Court precedents and his open criticisms of Roe v. Wade are also likely to come up during the hearing this week.

Its curious to me how these sitting judges write all these law review articles, give all these speeches, get in great detail about all these issues, and then the minute they appear on Capitol Hill they clam up. They dont have a word to say about any of these issues because theyve gotta protect themselves, added Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of few Senate Democrats who met with Kavanaugh last month.

Still, its clear Democrats face an extreme uphill climb in derailing Kavanaughs nomination. In addition to convincing key GOP senators like Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to oppose the judge, they must win over trio of vulnerable moderate Democrats who are facing tough re-election fights in November: Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.). All three supported Gorsuch last year.

If he does well at the hearing, I believe hell get 55 or higher, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted on Fox News Sunday this weekend, referencing the minimum, 50 votes, that would be needed for Kavanaughs confirmation.

Republicans have reportedly been drilling Kavanaugh for weeks with intense mock hearings at the White House complete with staged protests. Graham and his GOP colleagues Rob Portman of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska have helped him practice and critique his performance.

I think there are a handful of Democrats who will vote for Kavanaugh, maybe more, the South Carolina Republican added in the Fox News interview.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.



Forget about Danny Boyle and Daniel Craig, Desiree Akhavan and Chloe Grace Moretz want to make a female Bond movie.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post writer-director and star discussed the possibilities of making a 007 film during an interview with Yahoo Movies UK after learning that Boyle had quit his role as director of Bond 25.

I would kill for it, Akhavan said. I think I could get Chloe Moretz as Jenny Bond.

Desi lets do it, Moretz added, and do a female Bond though, throw Daniel Craig out, I got this. I can do it. 

While the writer-director would be up for the Bond job she was disappointed to find out that the Scottish director had quit the project.

I didnt know that. He backed out? she asked. That makes me sad as a fan of him as a filmmaker. I would have killed to have seen that.

Chloe Moretz played Hit-Girl opposite Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular hero in the Kick-Ass franchise

It wasnt the only action film that the Iranian-American filmmaker was interested in making; when a Hit-Girl solo movie was suggested she seemed keen.

Moretz played the assassin in two Kick-Ass movies but said earlier this year that she wasnt interested in returning to the role.

As much as I love the character of Hit-Girl, I think she lives and survives in Kick-Ass, and I kind of want to keep her there, she said at Provincetown Film Festival during a conversation moderated by John Cooper (via IndieWire).

Actress Chloe Grace Moretz, left, and director Desiree Akhavan pose during a photocall for the screening of Come as You Are as part of the Champs Elysees Film Festival in Paris, France, Monday, June 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Kevin Smith has penned the latest run of the solo Hit-Girl comic book, originally created by Mark Millars Millarworld, with Jeff Lemire also writing a series set in Canada.

Moretz had also said she wouldnt return for a third Kick-Ass film, because of the way Kick-Ass 2 was handled, but when asked about a solo movie now she didnt seem so adamantly against the idea.

Who knows, Chloe said, though her director seemed pretty enthusiastic about the idea.

I want to make things that people see so, that still follows, Akhavan said. I am down for the conversation because people would want to see that.

If it would align with my politics then f**k yeah, Id make a Hit-Girl movie.

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Your move, Chloe.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is out this Friday

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The Bodyguard slammed for bad Muslim stereotypes(Reuters) - A Myanmar judge on Monday found two Reuters journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years in a landmark case seen as a test of progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian country. Here are some reactions to the news. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO MYANMAR SCOT MARCIEL: "I'm sad for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and their families, but also for Myanmar. It's deeply troubling for everybody who has struggled so hard here for media freedom. "I think one has to ask will this process increase or decrease the confidence the people of Myanmar have in their justice system." BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO MYANMAR DAN CHUGG:"Speaking on behalf of the British government, but also on behalf of European Union member states, we are extremely disappointed by this verdict. "Freedom of expression and rule of law are fundamental in a democracy, and this case has passed a long shadow over both today. "The judge has appeared to have ignored evidence and to have ignored Myanmar law. This has dealt a hammer blow for the rule of law." STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESMAN FOR UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES: "The Secretary-General takes note with concern of the conviction and sentencing ... in Myanmar of journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to seven years of imprisonment. He urges the authorities to review their decision. "The right to freedom of expression and information is a cornerstone of any democracy. It is unacceptable that these journalists were prosecuted for reporting on major human rights violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. "The Secretary-General will continue to advocate for the release of the journalists. He calls for full respect of freedom of the press and all human rights in Myanmar." FEDERICA MOGHERINI, SPOKESWOMAN OF THE EUROPEAN UNION HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY: "Today's court decision... undermines the freedom of the media, the public's right to information and the development of the rule of law in Myanmar. "Their sentencing and imprisonment under the Official Secrets Act of 1923 for covering allegations of serious human rights violations in Rakhine State also serve to intimidate other journalists who will fear harassment and undue arrest or prosecution for merely doing their jobs. "Media freedom and critical journalism are essential pillars of democracy. A free press has a key function in promoting transparency and holding democratic governments to account. "The prison sentences of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo should be reviewed and the two journalists be released immediately and unconditionally." STEPHEN J. ADLER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, REUTERS: "Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere. "These two admirable reporters have already spent nearly nine months in prison on false charges designed to silence their reporting and intimidate the press. "Without any evidence of wrongdoing and in the face of compelling evidence of a police set-up, today's ruling condemns them to the continued loss of their freedom and condones the misconduct of security forces. "This is a major step backward in Myanmar's transition to democracy, cannot be squared with the rule of law or freedom of speech, and must be corrected by the Myanmar government as a matter of urgency. "We will not wait while Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo suffer this injustice and will evaluate how to proceed in the coming days, including whether to seek relief in an international forum." MICHELLE BACHELET, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: The verdict "sends a message to all journalists in Myanmar that they cannot operate fearlessly, but must rather make a choice to either self-censor or risk prosecution." TIRANA HASSAN, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S DIRECTOR OF CRISIS RESPONSE: "These convictions must be quashed, and both men immediately and unconditionally released. "This politically motivated decision has significant ramifications for press freedom in Myanmar. It sends a stark warning to other journalists of the severe consequences that await should they look too closely at military abuses. This amounts to censorship through fear." BRAD ADAMS, ASIA DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: "The outrageous convictions of the Reuters journalists show Myanmar courts' willingness to muzzle those reporting on military atrocities. "These sentences mark a new low for press freedom and further backsliding on rights under Aung San Suu Kyi's government." FREDERICK RAWSKI, ASIA PACIFIC DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS: "The courts decision effectively punishes these two courageous journalists for exposing human rights violations, following a grossly unfair trial. "The decision is a miscarriage of justice that inflicts needless suffering on them and their families, threatens freedom of expression, damages Myanmars global standing, and undermines its justice institutions all at once." SHAWN CRISPIN, SOUTHEAST ASIA REPRESENTATIVE, COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS: "Today's ruling... on bogus charges marks a new press freedom low for Myanmar. The process that resulted in their convictions was a travesty of justice and will cast Myanmar as an anti-democratic pariah as long as they are wrongfully held behind bars. We call on Myanmar's civilian authorities to immediately release the journalists." NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: "A Burmese court found two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, guilty of violating the colonial-era 'Official Secrets Act' for investigating and reporting on an army massacre of Rohingya. "It is clear to all that the Burmese military has committed vast atrocities. In a free country, it is the duty of a responsible press to keep people informed and hold leaders accountable. The conviction of two journalists for doing their job is another terrible stain on the Burmese government. We will continue to call for their immediate and unconditional release." IQBAL SOBHAN CHOWDHURY, MEDIA ADVISER TO BANGLADESH'S PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH HASINA: "This has once again proved the Myanmar government has been pursuing the suppression of the freedom of expression and freedom of media. It is now an open secret that any media or any person who wants to reveal the atrocities of the Myanmar army and administration against the Rohingya people will face persecution by the Myanmar government. "We strongly condemn this and demand the release of the Reuters journalists and a halt to any further persecution of any media person in Myanmar." MOHIB ULLAH, ROHINGYA LEADER IN KUTAPALONG REFUGEE CAMP IN BANGLADESH: "This is not justice. I would like to see them free as soon as possible. They did nothing wrong." THANT MYINT-U, MYANMAR HISTORIAN AND COMMENTATOR: "A tragic day for media freedom and an intimation of what's to come." AUNG HTUN OO, MEDIA TRAINER, YANGON JOURNALISM SCHOOL: "The world of Myanmar news media is now in darkness... I understand this is trying to silence journalists so that they do not dare to say anything in the future." CHRYSTIA FREELAND, CANADA'S MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: The verdict seriously jeopardizes the prospects for freedom of expression and democracy, and the fair and transparent application of law in Myanmar, both now and in the future. Canada joins the international community in strongly reiterating our calls for the immediate release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who have already been detained for eight months, so that they can rejoin their families and continue their vital work." U.S. SENATOR BOB CORKER, HEAD OF SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: "Imprisoning Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo further tarnishes the already failing leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi and harms Burmas democracy as atrocities continue to be carried out against the Rohingya minority." ED ROYCE, CHAIRMAN OF U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: "This unjust verdict reaffirms that the Burmese government is complicit in the militarys atrocities. The U.S. should respond with more sanctions and a formal determination of genocide. We must act before it is too late. (Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Additional reporting by Shoon Naing, Thu Thu Aung, Simon Lewis, Aye Min Thant and Ruma Paul in DHAKA, Matt Spetalnick and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Philip McClellan, Toni Reinhold and Dan Grebler)Daniel Frederick was killed as he returned home from a hospital appointment with his pregnant girlfriend (Met Police)

Five teenagers who violently stabbed a father of three to death in London in a case of mistaken identity have been convicted of his killing.

Daniel Frederick, 34, was returning from a hospital appointment with his pregnant girlfriend when he was attacked by the group just yards from his front door in Shakespeare Walk in Stoke Newington, north London.

Mr Frederick is believed to have been an innocent victim of violence in the area.

One of his attackers, aged 16, had sought revenge after his friend was attacked in prison by a rival group, the Old Bailey heard.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reason, pleaded guilty to murder.

Yigiter Gok (left) was convicted of manslaughter and Kacper Karasinski (right) was found guilty of murder (Met Police)

Kacper Karasinski, 19, of Hackney, and another 17-year-old boy were found guilty of murder.

Yigiter Gok, 18, of Stoke Newington, and another 17-year-old boy were found guilty of manslaughter.

All but of of the five attackers had previous convictions for carrying a knife.

Witnesses saw the sinister and intimidating youths wielding knives as they walked purposefully towards Mr Frederick, wearing dark clothes, hoodies and masks.

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Watch woman, 29, lead police on high-speed car chase before attempting to flee carrying a baby

The group was picked up on CCTV cameras as they ran off towards the Hill Court Estate in Hackney, shedding clothes as they went.

Three knives were later retrieved by police, although the prosecution could not say which were used in the attack.

However, a pathologist confirmed that more than one knife would have been used to stab Mr Frederick.

Within an hour and a half of police issuing a public appeal, Karasinski booked a flight to Oslo, but was arrested at the airport.

Gok fled on a ferry to France and travelled on to Turkey before returning to the UK in March.

Story continues

He later admitted being at the scene of the murder, but denied taking part.

Detective Inspector Paul Considine, the senior investigating officer from the Mets Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: This was a ruthless, violent and unprovoked attack in which Daniel stood no chance. He was completely taken by surprise by his attackers who cowardly stabbed him in the back giving him no opportunity to defend himself.

All five defendants disguised and armed themselves and willingly carried out a brutal attack on Daniel knowing it was likely there would only be one outcome, the infliction of very serious injuries or death.

This was a complex investigation made more difficult as Daniel was mistakenly targeted by his attackers. My team diligently pieced together the evidence and then located, arrested and charged all those responsible for his death. I am delighted that the jury has convicted the defendants and hope it provides Daniels family with a small measure of comfort and closure.Sebastien Roblin

Security,

Moscows ace in the hole against the air force?

Forget Russia's Stealth Fighter: This Is the Plane America Should Fear

The Su-35 may be the best jet-age dogfighter ever made and a capable missile delivery platformbut whether that will suffice for an air-superiority fighter in the era of stealth technology remains to be seen.

The Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E is the top Russian air-superiority fighter in service today, and represents the pinnacle of fourth-generation jet fighter design. It will remain so until Russia succeeds in bringing its fifth-generation PAK-FA stealth fighter into production.

Distinguished by its unrivaled maneuverability, most of the Su-35s electronics and weapons capabilities have caught up with those of Western equivalents, like the F-15 Eagle. But while it may be a deadly adversary to F-15s, Eurofighters and Rafales, the big question mark remains how effectively it can contend with fifth-generation stealth fighters such as the F-22 and F-35.

History

The Su-35 is an evolution of the Su-27 Flanker, a late Cold War design intended to match the F-15 in concept: a heavy twin-engine multirole fighter combining excellent speed and weapons loadout with dogfighting agility.

An Su-27 stunned the audience of the Paris Air Show in 1989 when it demonstrated Pugachevs Cobra, a maneuver in which the fighter rears its nose up to 120-degree verticalbut continues to soar forward along the planes original attitude.

Widely exported, the Flanker has yet to clash with Western fighters, but did see air-to-air combat in Ethiopian service during a border war with Eritrea, scoring four kills against MiG-29s for no loss. It has also been employed on ground attack missions.

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The development history of the Su-35 is a bit complicated. An upgraded Flanker with canards (additional small wings on the forward fuselage) called the Su-35 first appeared way back in 1989, but is not the same plane as the current model; only fifteen were produced. Another upgraded Flanker, the two-seat Su-30, has been produced in significant quantities, and its variants exported to nearly a dozen countries.

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The current model in question, without canards, is properly called the Su-35S and is the most advanced type of the Flanker family. It began development in 2003 under the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO), a subcontractor of Sukhoi. The first prototypes rolled out in 2007 and production began in 2009.

Airframe and Engines

The Flanker family of aircraft is supermaneuverablemeaning it is engineered to perform controlled maneuvers that are impossible through regular aerodynamic mechanisms. In the Su-35, this is in part achieved through use of thrust-vectoring engines: the nozzles of its Saturn AL-41F1S turbofans can independently point in different directions in flight to assist the aircraft in rolling and yawing. Only one operational Western fighter, the F-22 Raptor, has similar technology.

This also allows the Su-35 to achieve very high angles-of-attackin other words, the plane can be moving in one direction while its nose is pointed in another. A high angle of attack allows an aircraft to more easily train its weapons on an evading target and execute tight maneuvers.

Such maneuvers may be useful for evading missiles or dogfighting at close rangesthough they leave any aircraft in a low-energy state.

The Flanker-E can achieve a maximum speed of Mach 2.25 at high altitude (equal to the F-22 and faster than the F-35 or F-16) and has excellent acceleration. However, contrary to initial reports, it appears it may not be able to supercruiseperform sustained supersonic flight without using afterburnerswhile loaded for combat. Its service ceiling is sixty thousand feet, on par with F-15s and F-22s, and ten thousand feet higher than Super Hornets, Rafales and F-35s.

The Su-35 has expanded fuel capacity, giving it a range of 2,200 miles on internal fuel, or 2,800 miles with two external fuel tanks. Both the lighter titanium airframe and the engines have significantly longer life expectancies than their predecessors, at six thousand and 4,500 flight hours, respectively. (For comparison, the F-22 and F-35 are rated at eight thousand hours).

The Flanker airframe is not particularly stealthy. However, adjustments to the engine inlets and canopy, and the use of radar-absorbent material, supposedly halve the Su-35s radar cross-section; one article claims it may be down to between one and three meters. This could reduce the range it can be detected and targeted, but the Su-35 is still not a stealth fighter.

Weaponry

The Su-35 has twelve to fourteen weapons hardpoints, giving it an excellent loadout compared to the eight hardpoints on the F-15C and F-22, or the four internally stowed missiles on the F-35.

At long range, the Su-35 can use K-77M radar-guided missiles (known by NATO as the AA-12 Adder), which are claimed to have range of over 120 miles.

For shorter-range engagements, the R-74 (NATO designation: AA-11 Archer) infrared-guided missile is capable of targeting off boresightsimply by looking through a helmet-mounted optical sight, the pilot can target an enemy plane up sixty degrees away from where his plane is pointed. The R-74 has a range of over twenty-five miles, and also uses thrust-vectoring technology.

The medium-range R-27 missile and the extra long-range R-37 (aka the AA-13 Arrow, for use against AWACs, EW and tanker aircraft) complete the Su-35s air-to-air missile selection.

Additionally, the Su-35 is armed with a thirty-millimeter cannon with 150 rounds for strafing or dogfighting.

The Flanker-E can also carry up to seventeen thousand pounds of air-to-ground munitions. Historically, Russia has made only limited use of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) compared to Western air forces. However, the capability for large-scale use of such weapons is there, if doctrine and munition stocks accommodate it.

Sensors and Avionics

The Su-35s most critical improvements over its predecessors may be in hardware. It is equipped with a powerful L175M Khibiny electronic countermeasure system intended to distort radar waves and misdirect hostile missiles. This could significantly degrade attempts to target and hit the Flanker-E.

The Su-35s IRBIS-E passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar is hoped to provide better performance against stealth aircraft. It is claimed to able to track up to thirty airborne targets with a Radar-cross section of three meters up to 250 miles awayand targets with cross-sections as small 0.1 meters over fifty miles away. However, PESA radars are easier to detect and to jam than the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars now used by Western fighters. The IRBIS also has an air-to ground mode that can designate up to four surface targets at time for PGMs.

Supplementing the radar is an OLS-35 targeting system that includes an Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) system said to have a fifty-mile rangepotentially a significant threat to stealth fighters.

More mundane but vital systemssuch as pilot multi-function displays and fly-by-wire avionicshave also been significantly updated.

Operational Units and Future Customers

Currently, the Russian Air Force operates only forty-eight Su-35s. Another fifty were ordered in January 2016, and will be produced at a rate of ten per year. Four Su-35s were deployed to Syria this January after a Russian Su-24 was shot down by a Turkish F-16. Prominently armed with air-to-air missiles, the Su-35s were intended to send a message that the Russians could pose an aerial threat if attacked.

China has ordered twenty-four Su-35s at a cost of $2 billion, but is thought unlikely to purchase more. Beijings interest is believed to lie mostly in copying the Su-35s thrust-vector engines for use in its own designs. The Chinese PLAAF already operates the Shenyang J-11, a copy of the Su-27.

Attempts to market the Su-35 abroad, especially to India and Brazil, have mostly foundered. Recently, however, Indonesia has indicated it wishes to purchase eight this year, though the contract signing has been repeatedly delayed. Algeria is reportedly considering acquiring ten for $900 million. Egypt, Venezuela and Vietnam are also potential customers.

Cost estimates for the Su-35 have run between $40 million and $65 million; however, the exports contracts have been at prices above $80 million per unit.

Against the Fifth Generation

The Su-35 is at least equalif not superiorto the very best Western fourth-generation fighters. The big question, is how well can it perform against a fifth-generation stealth plane such as the F-22 or F-35?

The maneuverability of the Su-35 makes it an unsurpassed dogfighter. However, future aerial clashes using the latest missiles (R-77s, Meteors, AIM-120s) could potentially take place over enormous ranges, while even short-range combat may involve all-aspect missiles like the AIM-9X and R-74 that dont require pointing the aircraft at the target. Nonetheless, the Su-35s speed (which contributes to a missiles velocity) and large load-carrying abilities mean it can hold its own in beyond-visual-range combat. Meanwhile, the Flanker-Es agility and electronic countermeasures may help it evade opposing missiles.

The more serious issue, though, is that we dont know how effective stealth technology will be against a high-tech opponent. An F-35 stealth fighter that gets in a short-range duel with a Flanker-E will be in big troublebut how good a chance does the faster, more-maneuverable Russian fighter have of detecting that F-35 and getting close to it in the first place?

As the U.S. Air Force would have it, stealth fighters will be able to unleash a hail of missiles up to one hundred miles away without the enemy having any way to return fire until they close to a (short) distance, where visual and IR scanning come into play. Proponents of the Russian fighter argue that it will be able to rely upon ground-based low-bandwidth radars, and on-board IRST sensors and PESA radar, to detect stealth planes. Keep in mind, however, that the former two technologies are imprecise and cant be used to target weapons in most cases.

Both parties obviously have huge economic and political incentives to advance their claims. While it is worthwhile examining the technical merits of these schools of thought in detail, the question will likely only be resolved by testing under combat conditions. Furthermore, other factors such as supporting assets, mission profile, pilot training and numbers play a large a role in determining the outcomes of aerial engagements.

The Su-35 may be the best jet-age dogfighter ever made and a capable missile delivery platformbut whether that will suffice for an air-superiority fighter in the era of stealth technology remains to be seen.

Sebastien Roblin holds a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring.

This article originally ran in 2016.

Image: Creative Commons.

Read full articleBuenos Aires (AFP) - Former president Cristina Kirchner appeared in court on Monday for the second time in relation to a corruption case that has rocked Argentina's political and business elites.

Two weeks after the Senate voted to partially lift senator Kirchner's congressional immunity so that investigators could search her three homes for evidence linking her to the so-called notebooks corruption case, she was back before Claudio Bonadio, the judge leading the corruption investigation.

She was questioned for half an hour on Monday morning, having also been interviewed last month.

Kirchner submitted a letter to the judge reiterating her "categorical and strict denial" that she "committed any crime" or was involved in "any illicit activity."

The 65-year-old, president from 2007 to 2015 after succeeding her late husband Nestor, is suspected of having accepted millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen in exchange for public works contracts.

More than a dozen former government officials and 30 elite businessman are implicated in the case first reported by La Nacion newspaper on August 1, claiming that millions in bribes were delivered by a ministerial chauffeur to Kirchner's residences, both during her presidency and her husband's.

Her former vice president Amado Boudou has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for "passive bribery" and conduct "incompatible" with his duties as a public servant.

Kirchner, though, remains defiant and told Bonadio in her letter that his investigation had "destroyed each and every guarantee that makes up due process" without producing "the minimum proof to justify the crimes with which I have scandalously been accused."

Facing trial in several other corruption cases, she has previously accused Bonadio of carrying out "judicial persecutions" aimed at derailing a possible run for the presidency next year.

She has compared her case to that of former Brazilian president and fellow leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is serving a 12-year jail sentence for accepting a bribe and was on Friday barred from standing in next month's presidential election.

Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli has said a total of $160 million in bribes was handed over during a 10-year period from 2005-15, allegedly from business leaders to politicians in exchange for public works contracts, all meticulously recorded by a government driver.Cindy McCain tweeted: Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona

Jon Kyl, right, a Republican former senator from Arizona, has stepped in as John McCains successor. Photograph: Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images

The US Senate seat left vacant by John McCains death will be filled by Jon Kyl, a former Republican senator from Arizona, it was announced on Tuesday.

The decision was revealed by McCains widow, Cindy, who wrote in a tweet: Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona.

There is no one in Arizona more prepared to represent our state in the US Senate than Jon Kyl, Doug Ducey, the governor from Arizona, followed up in a statement.

I am deeply grateful to Senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years. Every single day that Jon Kyl represents #Arizona in the U.S. Senate is a day our state is well-served. #KylforAZ #KavanaughConfirmation https://t.co/e6zHvEOk5O  Doug Ducey (@dougducey) September 4, 2018

He understands how the Senate functions and will make an immediate and positive impact benefiting all Arizonans. I am deeply grateful to senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years.

Ducey appeared with Kyl at a press conference on Tuesday, where the governor said there was little doubt in his mind over who should succeed McCain.

As I contemplated who could best serve our state in US Senate, I kept coming back to one person, Ducey said. There is no one in Arizona with the stature of senator Jon Kyl.

Kyl, 76, served alongside McCain for three terms and was the second-ranking Republican in the Senate before his retirement in 2012. A reliable conservative, Kyl has played a key role in guiding Donald Trumps supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, through the confirmation process on Capitol Hill, where his hearing began stormily on Tuesday.

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Ducey signaled Kyl could be sworn into the Senate in the coming days and pushed back against allegations that the appointment was a politically-motivated move based solely on the supreme court nomination.

Jon Kyl has a record hes worked across the aisle and he has been lauded by both sides of the aisle, Ducey said. Im picking him because hes the best possible person.

A special election is set to occur in 2020 to replace McCain, who succumbed to an aggressive form of brain cancer on 25 August and was memorialized and buried at the weekend. Kyl will serve until at least the end of the year; should he choose not to serve beyond the remainder of 2018, Ducey will have to name another replacement to serve out the rest of McCains term.

Kyl would not commit at the news conference to serving beyond January of 2019, when the new Congress will convene after the November midterms. He did, however, rule out running for McCains seat in the special election.

I will not seek this seat in 2020, nor any other office in the future, Kyl said.

Jeff Flake, the other senator from Arizona, offered Kyl his blessing shortly after the news of his appointment made public.

What an excellent choice! There is no one more qualified and Arizona is well served, Flake tweeted. Kudos to Senator Kyl for his willingness to serve once again.

Since leaving the Senate, Kyl has worked as a lobbyist at Covington & Burling in Washington DC. Although he has worked closely with the White House on the supreme court nomination, Kyl, much like McCain, has been critical of Trumps presidency.

I dont like his style. I think it is boorish. I think hes his own worst enemy, Kyl told an Arizona radio station earlier this year.

He could be much more effective if he were more politique, more diplomatic  of course thats one of the things that people like about him  the fact that he isnt that way. But I think theres a happy medium.

Asked about those comments on Tuesday, Kyl said he stood by his criticism  albeit while appearing to compare Trumps aggressive posture to that of McCains.

I think sometimes his desire to jump into the middle of a fight, or maybe even create a fight  by the way, that reminds me of somebody  sometimes that can be detrimental to what hes trying to achieve, he said.

Grenoble (France) (AFP) - France will impose a daily cap of 214 climbers on Mont Blanc next year, one of several measures taken to limit overcrowding on Europe's highest peak, a local official said Tuesday.

"It's a tough decision but a very good one, because Mont Blanc is a climb unlike any other. You have to be prepared," Mayor Jean-Marc Peillex of Saint Gervais, the Alpine town where the most popular route to the top of the mountain begins, told AFP.

More than 300 people have been pitting their wits against the mountain each day this summer season despite the growing risk of rockfall as high temperatures thaw more ground at higher altitudes.

At least 16 have died so far this year, though just one has occurred on the busy "Royal Route".

Police this summer began requiring aspiring climbers to have a reservation at one of the refuges on the route before letting them proceed.

Peillex said he was considering the creation of a "snow brigade" of officers to enforce the new rules.

Officials say the scramble to summit the 4,810-metre peak has caused tensions among climbers, some of whom are ill-prepared (wearing trainers, for example) or unfamiliar with mountaineering etiquette.

Peillex reported a tourist setting up a tent at the very top of the mountain -- not the landscape most people climbed all that way to see.

Skirmishes have been reported among climbers jostling for position on key sections of the trail, while fake guides have also been found leading tourists up.

The new limits were announced after a series of meetings over the weekend between local officials, France's mountain police brigade, the French mountaineering federation and guide associations.Rome (AFP) - France is partly to blame for the crisis in Libya, Italy's Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta said Monday, ruling out Italian military intervention there.

"France, from my point of view, has a responsibility," the minister wrote on Facebook, evoking the military intervention in 2011 by France and other nations against the regime of Libya's then leader Moamer Kadhafi.

"It is clearly now undeniable that this country (Libya) finds itself in this situation because someone, in 2011, put their own interests ahead of those of the Libyan people and of Europe itself," the minister said.

"France, from this point of view, is partly to blame," Trenta added.

Earlier Italy's parliamentary speaker Roberto Fico called the situation in Libya "a serious problem which France has left us".

Trenta said that it was necessary to move forward "together" to secure peace in Libya.

The Italian press on Monday suggested that special Italian forces could be sent to intervene in Libya, a possibility which Trenta ruled out.

Fighting has been raging between rival militias in the southern suburbs of the Libyan capital Tripoli in recent days, following a failed ceasefire.

The Libyan capital has been at the centre of a battle for influence between armed groups since the ouster and killing of dictator Kadhafi in 2011.

The United Nations mission to Libya (UNSMIL) has invited the "various Libyan parties" to Tuesday talks for "urgent dialogue".Lee Rigbys son didnt receive any of the donations

A man who collected thousands of pounds for the son of murdered fusilier Lee Rigby spent the money on producing a song he knew would be a flop, a court has heard.

Gary Gardner raised at least 24,000 from various events but jurors were told that only 4,000 made its way to any charity because of his enthusiasm for promoting emerging music artists.

He is accused of using some of these funds to make a charity track called Miss You Machine, despite members of the Military Wives Choir warning it would fail to make money.

Jurors heard the defendant also used the profits for travel expenses in London as he allegedly transferred cash from the charity fund to his own personal account.

The lorry driver, 56, put on three truck-pull events in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in the Leicestershire village of Medbourne and also in Market Harborough  fundraisers which were attended by thousands of people, including Fusilier Rigbys widow Rebecca and his son Jack.

In May 2013, Private Lee Rigby of the Royal Fusiliers was murdered on the streets of London. Leicester Crown Court heard that shortly after his death, Gardner said he wanted to raise money for Jack Rigby and local Medbourne village causes.

Gardner denies the allegations

Despite Gardner allegedly using funds for his own expenses, Mrs Rigby said she had to pay for her own travel and accommodation to attend a truck-pull event he organised, and never received any money for Jack.

Giving evidence on Monday, she said: Gary invited us to Medbourne to a truck-pull event. I paid for my expenses hotels and meals.

There were talks of climbing Kilimanjaro, there were a number of things he wanted to do to raise funds for Jack.

He spoke about large money  thousands  and it was as if it would set Jack up for life.

Mrs Rigby was asked: Have you ever received any money from this defendant? to which she replied: Jack and myself have never received a penny from him.

The prosecution alleged that no money had made its way to Jack despite the defendant sending emails to Rebecca saying he wanted to raise even more money for Jacks trust fund.

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Opening the case against Gardner, prosecutor Sam Skinner said: In this case the defendant, Gary Gardner, using the names of Private Lee Rigby and his son Jack Rigby, raised thousands of pounds in charitable donations.

But the defendant has never handed any of the money raised on behalf of Jack Rigby for his trust fund over to Jack Rigby.

The defendant kept no accurate records of exactly how much money he raised on Jack Rigbys behalf.

He added: In any event, the defendant used some of the money for a purpose that the original donors never intended and would not have approved if they had known. It appears that the defendant has spent all the money he received.

Speaking of how Gardner had allegedly used the money, Mr Skinner said: He spent questionable amounts of donors money on travel and expenses for himself in London.

He has not given Jack Rigby or his trust fund any money. But the defendant declared publicly in late 2013 that he donated 3,000 to Jack Rigby. This public declaration was not true.

As the weeks passed, the defendant kept in contact with Rebecca Rigby. In one email, he said to her that he wanted to put on more events to raise even more money for Jacks trust fund.



Mr Skinner continued: In fact, he did use some of the money to finance production of a charity music single called Miss You Machine.

As the defendant was aware would happen, the charity single was a flop. The defendant not only exposed Jack Rigby to the risk of losing his money from the 2013 truck-pull, he actually lost the money as well.

The defendant appears to have an enthusiasm for promoting emerging music artists and it is the showcasing of these acts that has swallowed up most of the verifiable donations.

The prosecution added that donors would not have agreed that their money could be used for that purpose.

Gardner, of Old Holt Road, Medbourne, Leicestershire, denies three counts of fraud.

Comments have been turned off on this article for legal reasons.Paris (AFP) - Britain on Tuesday said it agreed with France's decision to send its navy to waters in the English Channel where UK and French fishing boats clashed last week over access to scallop-rich waters.

"These are French waters so it's the responsibility of the French to take any steps that they deem necessary to prevent any violence in the area," a spokeswoman for British Prime Minister Theresa May said.

She added she was "not aware of any plans" to send British navy vessels to the Normandy coast after fishermen from both sides hurled stones, insults and rammed each others' boats last Tuesday.

"Both ourselves and France have condemned that (violence) and our priority is to prevent further incidents from occurring," the spokeswoman said.

British and French fishing industry representatives will hold talks in London Wednesday to avert any new confrontations in what has been dubbed a "Scallops War".

France said Tuesday its navy is standing by in the contested area, around 12 nautical miles off the Normandy coast.

Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told CNews television the navy was "ready to intervene in case of clashes".

At stake is access to rich stocks of the pricey delicacy in waters near the mouth of the Seine River.

French boats are allowed to fish there only between October to May to protect stocks.

But a deal struck years ago exempts British boats less than 15 metres (50 feet) long from the restrictions.

French fishermen want that loophole to be closed, with representatives expected to press for the total ban on all boats during the summer months at Wednesday's meeting.

But Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, attending the meeting, said it was "difficult to be optimistic" on the prospects for such an agreement.

"We hope to strike a deal but that would be down to the French, because they have rejected the terms we've had in previous years," he told AFP.

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Tensions boiled over last Tuesday when five British boats sparred with dozens of French vessels in the waters off the French coast.

Some of the boats rammed each other, video footage showed.

"We're going to have to work on this, because this situation cannot continue, we can't have clashes like this," Travert said.

He said a new deal was needed to ensure "a sustainable and efficient management of scallop stocks."

But he said British fishermen should not expect a separate deal with France as the UK prepares to leave the European Union in March next year.

Travert said "tensions were rising" as the scheduled date for Brexit approaches.

"We want a global accord, and do not want to see fishing treated separately, because fishing should not be a variable for adjusting Brexit," he said.BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) - The killing of a pro-Russian separatist leader in eastern Ukraine must not undermine talks to resolve the conflict, said France and Germany, which are joint sponsors of a peace process along with Russia and Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday further four-way Ukraine talks, known as the Normandy format, were impossible after Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, died in an explosion at a cafe on Friday. The Normandy talks led to a ceasefire agreement signed in the Belarus capital Minsk, which ended large-scale fighting in 2015, although deadly exchanges still take place across the truce line dividing government forces from separatists. France and Germany both said on Monday that the killing of Zakharchenko made the peace process more urgent. "The latest developments in Eastern Ukraine do not call into question the obligations of the parties under the Minsk agreements, nor the relevance of the Normandy format meetings between Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine," a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said. "It is precisely when tensions arise that negotiations must be made in good faith." German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government spokesman Steffen Seibert said: "It's of paramount importance that an escalation is avoided now." The death of Zakharchenko should not derail the peace process and Germany would stick to the four-way talks, Seibert said. 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. Ukraine and Western countries say the rebels were organized, armed and funded by Moscow, and assisted by Russian ground troops. Moscow denies intervening. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber in Berlin and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Peter Graff)Guatemala City (AFP) - Guatemala President Jimmy Morales ordered the head of a United Nations anti-corruption commission be blocked from entering the Central American country just four days after shutting down the mission.

The UN's International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala had been investigating corruption in the country but its mandate was ended by Morales on Friday.

The government said in a statement that it considers Colombian Ivan Velasquez "a person acting against order and public safety."

It said his actions were impacting on the "governability, institutionality, justice and peace in the country."

Velasquez is currently attending meetings in the United States, said Matias Ponce, CICIG spokesman.

Morales's move not to renew CICIG's mission came 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.

Set up in 2006, the mission 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.Guatemala City (AFP) - Women's rights activists were forced into a hasty retreat Tuesday in the face of fierce church-led opposition to proposed legislation to loosen strict abortion laws.

Sponsors of the bill aimed at protecting underage victims of sexual abuse opted to remove a controversial clause that would decriminalize abortion for girls aged 14 or under who have been abused.

The influential Catholic and Evangelical churches organized a massive rally on Sunday to protest against the bill and in support of "life and the family."

"Taking into account the different positions, we prefer prioritizing" caring for the girls, Women Transforming the World activist Paula Barrios told AFP. "We're not ready to talk about" abortion in Guatemala, she added.

After a bill decriminalizing abortion made it through Argentina's lower house before being defeated in the upper house last month, the subject has become a hot topic in Latin America.

Other countries are either debating or mulling proposed changes to their usually strict abortion laws, such as Chile, which is considering universally allowing abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, or Brazil, which is weighing legalization in the first 12 weeks.

- Abortion totally banned -

But Central America is generally the most conservative in the region when it comes to terminating pregnancies. Abortion is totally banned in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

In Guatemala, it is authorized only when there is a threat to the mother's life.

On Sunday, 20,000 protesters, backed by the Catholic and Evangelical churches, took to the streets to oppose the bill sponsored by the leftist Convergencia opposition party.

The bill "was never an abortion law, it was always a law about caring for girls," said Convergencia deputy Sandra Moran.

It aims to provide social and educational support for girls who become pregnant because in Guatemala they are expelled from school for doing so.

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Without the abortion clause, it is likely to be adopted by parliament.

However, a second bill proposed by right-wing opposition senator, Fernando Linares, aiming to increase punishments for abortion, will be debated by congress.

His "Life and Family Protection" bill proposes an increase in the punishment for intentional abortion from one to three years to five to 10 years.

Most controversially, though, it proposes sentences of two to four years for attempted and "negligent" abortion.

The measure has been widely denounced by feminist groups fearful it would criminalize miscarriages.

"It's a setback to the rights women have won," said Ada Valenzuela from the National Union of Guatemalan Women.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), says Linares's "bill could lead to absurd and discriminatory outcomes."

"A woman recovering from a miscarriage could find herself interrogated by law enforcement about the loss of her pregnancy," he added.

An HRW article on the subject last week quoted a study that claims that up to 30 percent of pregnancies end in early-term miscarriages, while at least 10 percent of clinically recognized pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage).

- 'Second-class citizens' -

Women are not alone in worrying about the consequences of the Linares bill, which also aims to change laws relating to the LGBT community.

It expressly prohibits same-sex marriage and defines family as being limited to a father, mother and children.

The bill also defines marriage as between people who are men and women by birth, potentially discriminating against the transgender community.

"If Congress passes this bill, it will send the message that women and LGBT people are second-class citizens in Guatemala," said Vivanco.

"The proposal lacks basic common sense and humanity and could even turn women and girls who miscarry into criminals."Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Afghan founder of the militant Haqqani network ,died after a long illness - AFP

The founder of the Haqqani network who was feted by America as an anti-Soviet Afghan resistance hero in the 1980s only to become one of its most wanted enemies has died.

Jalaluddin Haqqani went from young radical and Mujahideen commander to leader of a militant network responsible for some of the bloodiest suicide attacks on civilians and the internationally-backed Afghan government.

He died bedridden after years of ill health which have seen control of his grouping pass to his son.

Battlefield successes and tight organisation saw him become one of the CIA's prized commanders in the 1980s as America funnelled money and arms into the anti-Soviet resistance through Pakistan.

He later turned his military skills against his former patron as he aligned with the Taliban during its insurgency against Hamid Karzai's government and his network was designated a terrorism organisation.

Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani (C) with two top guerilla commanders Amin Wardak and Abdul Haq at his Pakistani base in Miranshah Credit: AFP

He is believed to have passed control to his son Sirajuddin as early as 2007 as his health failed.

A Taliban statement did not say where he died or when. His death has been reported a number of times over recent years.

His role had been ideological rather than practical in recent years, said Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish.

"Operationally, his death will not have an impact on the group," he told Reuters.

Haqqani first rebelled against the Afghan king in the 1970s and had to flee to Pakistan, but it was in the 1980s when he came to prominence fighting in his tribal heartland of south east Afghanistan as aMujahideen commander after the Soviets invaded to support a Moscow-backed government. The late US Congressman Charlie Wilson who drummed up huge sums of US funding for the Mujaheddin'sguerrilla war once described him as "goodness personified.

Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Taliban's Minister for Tribal Affairs, points to a map of Afghanistan during a visit to Islamabad, Pakistan Credit: Reuters

He briefly joined the squabbling Mujahideen commanders who ruled over Kabul in the 1990s after the Soviet withdrawal, but then took up with the Taliban and remained allied for the rest of his life.

As his network fought the US-backed Kabul government it became notorious for high-profile and often complex attacks on foreign and government targets. America has long accused Pakistan of supporting the network and doing too little to rein it in.

Notorious operations have included attacks on the Indian and American embassies in Kabul. A bombing blamed on the network near the city's embassy district last year killed about 150 people.The hole in the ISS was deliberately drilled, Roscosmos has confirmed

The hole discovered in the International Space Station (ISS) was drilled deliberately, the Russian space agency has said.

Last week mission controllers in Houston and Moscow noticed a drop in pressure on the station and astronauts discovered a hole in a Russian domestic module.

Although the leak was small enough to be fixed by the crew, if it had not been spotted the astronauts would have run out of air in 18 days.

Space debris or a micro-meteorite was initially blamed for the damage, but new pictures show the hole had been deliberately drilled and the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos and module manufacturer RSC Energia have launched an investigation to find the culprit.

And one Russian politician and former cosmonaut has even claimed it could have been carried out by a homesick astronaut.

Speaking to Russias International News Agency RIA Novosti, Maxim Suraev said on-board sabotage by a mentally unstable crew member could not be ruled out.

All of us are living people, everyone can want to go home, but this way is completely unworthy, he said.

The hole found in the ISS had been drilled Credit: Nasa

Mr Suraev also said that the ISS had a drill on board capable of making the hole.

Although Roscosmos said they were not accusing any of the crew, they said they had not ruled out that hole was drilled deliberately in space. They are also investigating whether it was an error made on the ground which was then patched up and was only noticed when the plug failed.

Dmitry Rogozin, Head of Roscosmos, said: Where were these actions taken - on Earth or already in orbit?

The version of the meteorite has already been swept away, but there was an obvious impact on the shelling of the ship from the inside, but to say more it is really too early.

It's up to RSC Energia to find out who did it, what is it: an error or intentional actions? I would like to know the name (of the culprit) and we will know.

When the leak was detected last week European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst initially plugged it with his finger, before the crew made an improvised patch using a rubber plug made from bin-bag seals, duct tape, gauze from the medical kit and vacuum proof sealant.

The hole was sealed and a Russian Progress cargo ship docked at the ISS and Moscow is recommending using oxygen from its tanks to repressurise the station.

As well as Gerst there are four other astronauts on board, Ricky Arnold, Drew Feustel and Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Nasa has yet to comment on the investigation.Amid reports of the start of a military operation in rebel-held Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in the in Syria, the US and Russia exchanged barbed words. A Kremlin spokesman accused the White House of a one-sided approach that threatened to destabilise the region.

Donald Trump had warned Russia, Syria and Iran that they would be making a grave humanitarian mistake if they go ahead with an assault on Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in the country.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mr Trump's warning failed to take into account "the potential for further negative consequences in Syria." Speaking at his daily press conference, he claimed Idlib had become a "nest of terrorists" who were a threat to Russian forces temporarily based in the region.

President Bashar al-Assad and his allies have been amassing a huge military presence near to rebel-held Idlib, where opposition fighters and Islamist groups are holding out among a population of around 3 million people.

Mr Trump tweeted on Monday night that Syrias President Bashar al-Assad must not recklessly attack Idlib Province.

He added: The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy.

The UN said last week it was bracing for the most horrific tragedy in Idlib and dubbed it a dumping ground for fighters and civilians who have been pushed out of successive pockets of opposition-held territory.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, warned as many as 800,000 people could be displaced if the fighting does begin.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Dont let that happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018

In his tweet, the US president went one step further, suggesting hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. That might seem unlikely, given an estimated death toll of between 400,000 and half a million for the entire seven-year duration of the Syrian civil war.

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Nonetheless, Syria and its allies have been ramping up the aggressive rhetoric towards Idlib. Mr Trumps tweet came as Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the start of a visit to Damascus that "terrorists must be purged from the province and the entire of Idlib returned to government control.

"Syria's territorial integrity should be safeguarded and all tribes and groups, as one society, should start the reconstruction process, and the refugees should return to their homes," Mr Zarif said.

He met with Mr Assad and his foreign minister Walid al-Moallem, who is just back from a visit to Moscow.

The visit comes days before the leaders of Iran, Turkey, and Russia are expected to meet in Iran to discuss the situation in Idlib.

During their meeting, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif discussed the agenda of the summit in Iran.

A statement from Mr Assad's office said Iran and Syria "had similar views on the different issues" to be discussed. It provided no further details.

Mr Zarif said it was necessary to consult "with our Syrian friends" ahead of the 7 September summit, according to the Fars news agency.

Iran has lent crucial military and economic support to Mr Assad throughout the civil war and the discussions are expected to focus on the decisive battle for Idlib.

Mr Assad has vowed to defeat the opposition in its last refuge in the north-western province if the rebels do not surrender to government rule.

Nearly half of the people currently living in Idlib have already been displaced more than once by the civil war.

Tens of thousands fled there after surrendering, choosing to relocate to an opposition-held area rather than risk reprisals or forced conscription at the hands of the government.

In their meeting on Monday, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif also discussed what they called "western pressure" on their two countries, in apparent reference to the US sanctions on Iran and calls for limiting Iran's role in Syria.

Israel has grown nervous of Iran's growing presence in Syria and threatened to prevent a build-up of pro-Iranian forces near its frontiers with Syria.

Russia, another Syria ally, and Damascus have also said that Western countries are preparing to carry out strikes against Syria ahead of the Idlib offensive. They claim such threats were part of the West's attempt to undermine Syria's drive to restore control over all its territories.

The US and France have warned an Idlib offensive would trigger a humanitarian crisis and that a chemical attack in Idlib would prompt a western retaliation.

In the statement from the Syrian president's office, Mr Assad and Mr Zarif said that resorting to "threats and pressure reflect the failure of those countries to realise their plans for the region after Syria and Iran confronted them".

Additional reporting by APMark Carney has been the Bank of England governor since 2013. Photo: Reuters

The Bank of England (BoE) governor Mark Carney is set to leave the central bank just two months after Britain leaves the European Union on 29 March 2019. His impending departure is giving investors deep concerns about the countrys financial stability and economic prospects.

Carney is widely considered to be a steady hand that has guided Britains financial system through a tumultuous post-referendum period, making his expected departure at the end of June next year all the more worrying.

It would certainly be very welcome if he were to stay on for an extra year to get through this initial period of Brexit uncertainty. To have continuity would be a welcome thing, Lucy OCarroll, chief economist at asset management firm Aberdeen Standard Investments told Yahoo Finance UK.

Overall, him staying on would be regarded as a positive for investors, she said, noting that it could support the weakened UK pound and London stocks.

With just seven months to go until Brexit, both sides have yet to agree on a deal that finalises the terms of trade, immigration, and a range of other issues.

Philip Shaw, chief economist at asset management firm Investec, said that investors want Carney to stick around because of his reputation as a smart, steady operator.

Carney is seen as highly competent central banker who has helmed a central bank whose responsibilities have expanded hugely over the past 10 years, he said. He provided leadership in the aftermath of the referendum two years ago. Arguably, [he] demonstrated a much more activist approach than the central bank had done in the post-financial crisis environment.

Carney, a Harvard and Oxford-educated Canadian who previously led Canadas central bank, has issued gloomy forecasts about the economic ramifications of Brexit. He warned last month that the possibility that the UK could crash out of the EU without a formalised deal is uncomfortably high and highly undesirable. This would lead to higher prices and disruptions to British trade, he said.

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Carney is facing Treasury select committee on Tuesday where MPs are expected to ask him about whether he would consider shifting his planned departure date.

The Treasury declined to comment on reports that it was talking with Carney about the possibility of extending his term.

The Treasury may be keen to keep Carney in place as they grapple with a huge amount of change, including Brexit and planning for the new Autumn Budget, said Ruth Gregory, a senior UK economist at the research firm Capital Economics.

There are also concerns that other suitable replacements may not be easy to find.

There are other qualified people out there but they might not want to take up the reins when theres so much uncertainty with the UK leaving the EU. They might want to join once some of that is cleared up, said OCarroll.Tehran (AFP) - Iran is to move its main oil export terminal from the Gulf to the Oman Sea, President Hassan Rouhani announced on Tuesday, sparing its tankers from using the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Rouhani said exports were already being shifted from the Kharg Island terminal, deep in the Gulf, to Bandar-e-Jask in the Oman Sea and would be completed by the end of his term in 2021.

"This is very important for me, it is a very strategic issue for me. A major part of our oil sales must move from Kharg to Jask," Rouhani said in a televised speech as he inaugurated three new petrochemical plants in the southern energy hub of Asaluyeh.

To reach the oil terminal on Kharg Island, tankers must currently pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, slowing down deliveries.

Iran has in the past repeatedly threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz -- which is used by its Gulf rivals including Saudi Arabia -- when faced with sanctions on its oil exports and possible military action by the US.

The latest threat was in July when Rouhani said Iran has always guaranteed the security of the strait but warned the US "should not play with the lion's tail."

Moving its terminal to the Oman Sea would in theory allow Iran to continue exporting oil even if the strait was closed.

The US pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May and will reimpose sanctions on Iran's oil sector in November.

The last time there was a major disruption in the flow of oil through Hormuz was in 1984 during the Iran-Iraq war when both sides attacked each other's oil facilities and tankers.

The strait is the world's most important oil chokepoint with roughly 35 percent of all seaborne oil passing through it, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Bloomberg reported that Iran exported 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in August, but analysts say US sanctions could reduce sales to around 1 million bpd.Jerusalem (AFP) - An Israeli military official said Tuesday the army had carried out some 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months against mainly Iranian targets, a rare confirmation of such action.

A total of 202 strikes were carried out in neighbouring Syria, the official said, all of which involved "military targets, most of them belonging to the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards."

Around 800 missiles and bombs were used in the strikes, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the details first reported in various Israeli media.

Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran is backing President Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war.

A series of strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel in recent months, but the Israeli military rarely confirms them.

Israel has previously acknowledged carrying out dozens of strikes in Syria against what it describes as advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group.

Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, is another of Israel's enemies which is backing Assad in the Syrian conflict.

The rare confirmation of strikes comes after Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman signalled his country could hit Iranian targets in Iraq if they threatened Israel.

"We will face any Iranian threat, no matter where it comes from," Lieberman said Monday.

The defence minister was speaking following reports that Iran had provided ballistic missiles to allied Shiite militias in Iraq in recent months.

"Our freedom of action is total," Lieberman added.

The Israeli military official did not comment directly on those reports on Tuesday, but said the army was aware of missile transfers from Iran to Iraq and then on to Syria.Israeli President Reuven Rivlin gave a brief lecture on Hitler to Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday after the Philippine leader's 2016 remarks comparing himself to the Nazi dictator who carried out the Holocaust.

"Hitler was actually representing the devil himself," Rivlin said when the two men met at his Jerusalem office. "He was the devil on earth."

Rivlin went on to say that Duterte's visit to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Monday must have illustrated to him the sensitivity surrounding any reference to Adolf Hitler.

"Probably you have realised yesterday the feelings when you have visited the museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, to really feel the atmosphere, to feel the feelings of all the people that were part of this disaster," said Rivlin, whose position is mainly ceremonial.

Duterte appeared to be listening attentively during Rivlin's brief comments. He later spoke about trade and cooperation with Israel.

The controversial Philippine president spoke of Hitler in 2016 when talking about his violent drug crackdown that has killed thousands.

"Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I'd be happy to slaughter them," Duterte said then.

Historians say six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

Duterte later apologised and said the comments were aimed at critics who had likened him to the Nazi leader.

- 'Crimes taking place' -

Duterte also told Rivlin he had ordered his military to only buy military and intelligence equipment from Israel.

He said the United States was a "good friend," but buying such equipment from US firms meant the country would "also be listening", seemingly meaning gathering intelligence on the Philippines.

Duterte said the same would be true for countries such as China or Germany.

The comments seemed to contradict Duterte's previous remarks. In November, he said he planned to buy more weapons from Russia.

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A few dozen people opposed to arms sales to the Philippines protested outside the presidential compound in Jerusalem during the meeting.

"We're protesting against Israel's involvement in the crimes taking place there," lawyer and human rights activist Eitay Mack told AFP.

Further arms deals were expected to be part of Duterte's discussions in Israel.

The Philippine president met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

In comments before their working lunch, Duterte thanked Israel for supplying him with unspecified defence equipment that was "critical" in "winning the war" -- a reference to his government's battle against jihadists in the city of Marawi last year.

On Wednesday, he will lay a wreath at a memorial near Tel Aviv commemorating the Philippines' acceptance of 1,300 Jews fleeing the Holocaust. He will travel to Jordan later in the day.

Duterte's trip to Israel began on Sunday night with him apologising to former US president Barack Obama for having called him a "son of a whore" in 2016, one of several foul-mouthed remarks that have caused outrage.

He lobbed the insult in response to steady criticism from the United States at the time over his violent drug crackdown.

Fresh controversy awaits Duterte back home.

On Tuesday, he ordered the arrest of a lawmaker fiercely critical of his drug war, the second presidential critic from the Senate to be threatened with detention.By Arjun Panchadar and Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Chinese retailer JD.com Inc's stock fell as much as 7 percent on Tuesday, hitting an 18-month low after the company's chief executive officer was arrested in the United States on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct and later released.

Richard Liu, who founded the firm in 1998, was arrested by police in the U.S. city of Minneapolis on Friday and released the next day before returning to China.

Minneapolis police said on Sunday that "an active investigation" was under way. A Minnesota-based lawyer for Liu said on Monday the Chinese magnate has denied any wrongdoing and that he did not expect his client to be charged.

The stock's decline underscores the uncertainty hanging over the fate of Liu, who holds a tight grip over decision making at China's second largest e-commerce firm.

JD.com's rules require Liu, who holds nearly 80 percent of the company's voting rights, to be present at board meetings for the board to make decisions, although it was not immediately clear if he has to be physically present or could participate by teleconference.

The company, backed by Walmart Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and China's Tencent Holdings, is looking to bolster its international reach even as it faces stiff competition from rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd at home.

"The incident looks awful of course," analyst Rob Sanderson of MKM Partners said.

"If this spirals as a media focus, negative attention could offset some of the positives associated with endorsement by Walmart and Google," Sanderson said.

"Negative publicity could also compromise JD.com's ability to attract international brands to its marketplace, which has been a top focus of the CEO over the past two years or so," Sanderson noted.

However, Sanderson said the risk of any disruption to the business on an incarceration seemed quite low, noting that authorities released Liu without bail and allowed him to return to China.

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"This does, however, cast another shadow on credibility and ethics, especially after the 2015 incident in Australia," Sanderson said.

In July https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-ceo-profile/richard-liu-high-flying-ceo-of-jdcom-has-fostered-clean-reputation-idUSKCN1LJ0YJ, Liu lost a court battle in Australia to keep his name out of a sexual assault trial in which a guest at a party Liu had hosted at his luxury Sydney home in late 2015 accused another guest of sexually assaulting her at a hotel.

Liu was not accused of wrongdoing, according to a court document. The defendant was found guilty of seven offences.

JD.com's shares were currently trading down 5.5 percent at $29.58.

(Reporting by Adam Jourdan and Arjun Panchadar; editing by Patrick Graham, Bernard Orr)Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) on Tuesday named Jon Kyl to fill the late John McCains Senate seat.

There is no one in Arizona more prepared to represent our state in the U.S. Senate than Jon Kyl, Ducey said in a statement. He understands how the Senate functions, and will make an immediate and positive impact benefiting all Arizonans.

Kyl, 76, previously served 18 years in the U.S. Senate, becoming the second-highest-ranked GOP senator before retiring in 2013. According to the Arizona Republic, he has agreed to serve at least through the end of this year. If Kyl chooses to step down at that point, Ducey will have to name another successor.

Kyl said he would not run for the seat in 2020.

Former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), left, seen on July 10 as he escorts Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Vice President Mike Pence to meetings with senators. (Photo: Tom Williams via Getty Images)

Kyl joined top K Street firm Covington & Burling shortly after his retirement in 2013, and was recently retained by Facebook to help the social media network combat partisan bias in its news distribution. Ducey contacted Kyl in the hours after McCains death on Aug. 25 to see if hed return to Capitol Hill.

The governor said in his statement he was deeply grateful to Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and former colleague McCain.

Every single day that Jon Kyl represents Arizona in the United States Senate is a day when our state is being well-served, the statement read.

President Donald Trump, who was frequently critical of McCain, praised his replacement:

Jon Kyl will be an extraordinary Senator representing an extraordinary state, Arizona. I look forward to working with him!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018

Cindy McCain, wife of the late senator, tweeted about Kyl on Tuesday, calling him a dear friend:

Jon Kyl is a dear friend of mine and Johns. Its a great tribute to John that he is prepared to go back into public service to help the state of Arizona.  Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) September 4, 2018

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) also praised the choice.

Story continues

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Governor Ducey has selected Senator Jon Kyl as Senator McCains replacement. What an excellent choice! There is no one more qualified and Arizona is well served. Kudos to Senator Kyl for his willingness to serve once again.  Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) September 4, 2018

This story has been updated.

Eliot Nelson contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh begin on Tuesday. (Photo: Tom Williams via Getty Images)

Before senators ask Judge Brett Kavanaugh a single question in his confirmation hearings this week, the debate over his nomination to the Supreme Court will have already been playing out for weeks in TV ads. An estimated $5.2 million worth of TV ads supporting or opposing Kavanaughs nomination have already aired, according to data provided by Kantar Media/CMAG to us at the Brennan Center for Justice, and groups have committed to spending much more before the Senates final vote.

Heres a breakdown of whos spending that money and how.

The conservative Judicial Crisis Network dominates  by far.

The Judicial Crisis Network is far and away the largest spender on TV ads supporting Kavanaugh, having run a total of ads worth twice as much as those of all other pro-Kavanaugh groups combined and three times more than the next biggest spender. By our count, JCN has broadcast spots in support of Kavanaugh that cost an estimated $2.6 million so far and has committed to spending at least $10 million by the end of the nomination process.

This isnt JCNs first foray into judicial politics. Most recently, the group spent a reported $7 million to block the appointment of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court and another $10 million to seat Justice Neil Gorsuch. It also poured $1 million into an Arkansas state Supreme Court election earlier this year and has been a regular player in similar state court elections over the past six years.

Who fills JCNs deep coffers? The organization does not disclose its donors, but tax filings indicate that it is funded by the same group that funds the Federalist Society, a high-profile conservative legal organization. Thats where the money trail ends: The name of donors to JCNs main benefactor are not publicly available.

Most of the TV ad spending supports Kavanaugh.

In large part because of JCNs enormous spending, groups supporting Kavanaughs nomination dwarf groups opposing it by a 3-1 margin on television. The largest spender opposing the nomination, Demand Justice Initiative, has run $716,000 worth of ads, less than one-third of JCNs total and less than the National Rifle Associations $838,000. JCN, the NRA and other groups backing Kavanaugh have pledged to spend at least $13 million altogether.

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A group controlled by Trumps closest advisers is deeply involved.

A group closely tied to President Donald Trump, America First Policies, is also a key TV spender, putting out $523,000 worth of ads promoting Kavanaugh so far. AFP is led by former Trump administration and campaign officials  including former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates until March 2017  and can take unlimited contributions without disclosing its donors.

AFP is part of a growing trend of officeholder-controlled nonprofits that the Brennan Center identified in a report earlier this year. These nonprofits, employed by both Democrats and Republicans, serve as conduits for unlimited spending to support politicians and their agendas after they take office. AFP provides a path for donors stymied by campaign contribution limits to send unlimited sums to a group directly benefiting the president.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Joe Manchin are both seen as swing votes on the Kavanaugh nomination. But only Manchin, a red-state Democrat, is a major target of ad spending. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images)

Kavanaugh ads are focused on vulnerable Democrats.

Nearly half of all TV ad spending  44 percent, or $2.3 million  has gone toward spots targeting just three Democratic senators: Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.). All three are seen as critical votes on Kavanaughs nomination and all are vulnerable in their November re-election bids. JCN has even said it would pull the ads if those senators committed to supporting Kavanaugh.

Many of those ads have a clear political message. One running in West Virginia says, Tell Joe Manchin you wont be fooled by his dirty tricks  and you wont forget how he votes on Kavanaugh.

Notably, only 12 percent of all spending has gone toward ads targeting Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), even though they are considered potential swing votes. No ads have targeted the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who will question Kavanaugh this week.

Ads targeting individual senators are not new, but no recent nomination fight has taken place in such proximity to a national election.

And its not just TV ads. Its social media, too.

Groups opposing and supporting Kavanaughs nomination have increased their spending on Facebook ads over recent weeks. According to the Brennan Centers analysis of Facebooks political ad data, compiled by New York University researchers, the Demand Justice Initiative and NARAL have spent between $127,000 and $642,000 combined on Facebook ads opposing Kavanaugh.

At the same time, JCN and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising operation of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, have spent between $33,000 and $279,000 on Facebook ads supporting Kavanaugh.

Combined, the pro- and anti-Kavanaugh groups have spent less than $1 million on the social media platform. Yet according to Facebooks data, its users may have seen these ads as many as 34 million times.

Douglas Keith is counsel at the New York University law schools Brennan Center for Justice.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump's warning to Syria not to launch an offensive in the rebel-held enclave of Idlib, saying on Tuesday that the area was a "nest of terrorism". Trump on Monday warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to "recklessly attack" the northwestern Syrian province, saying hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. "Just to speak out with some warnings, without taking into account the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria, is probably not a full, comprehensive approach," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The presence of militants in Idlib was undermining the Syrian peace process and making the region a base for attacks on Russian forces in Syria, Peskov added. "A fairly large group of terrorists has settled there and of course this leads to a general destabilization of the situation. It undermines attempts to bring the situation onto the track of a political-diplomatic settlement," he said. "We know that Syria's armed forces are preparing to resolve this problem," he added. Russia resumed air strikes against insurgents in Idlib province on Tuesday after a hiatus of several weeks, according to a Syrian rebel and a war monitor. A source has told Reuters that Assad is preparing a phased offensive to regain the province. The situation around Idlib will be one of the main items on the agenda when the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet in Tehran this week, Peskov told reporters on a conference call, declining to elaborate further. (Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Katya Golubkova, Christian Lowe, Writing by Tom Balmforth, Editing by Andrew Heavens, William Maclean)By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - A 10-term Democratic congressman will try to fend off a challenge on Tuesday from a Boston city councilor who could become Massachusetts' first black congresswoman in a race with parallels to a New York upset that rattled the party in June. The Democratic nominating contest fight between U.S. Representative Michael Capuano, 66, and Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, 44, is his first since 1998. Pressley argues she would bring new energy and awareness of the needs in the state's only congressional district where a majority of residents are not white. The race echoes the June primary in a safely Democratic New York City congressional district where first-time candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat a 10-term incumbent, sparking fresh enthusiasm for progressive candidates across the United States. Within hours of her victory, Ocasio-Cortez, 28, endorsed Pressley on Twitter, saying, "Vote her in next, Massachusetts." Capuano and Pressley were out urging supporters to remember to vote on the day after a three-day holiday weekend for many in the state. Voter Turnout in Boston was running well ahead of recent primary elections, according to MassINC Polling Group. "I'm asking everyone across our commonwealth (of Massachusetts) to come out and join me," Capuano said on Twitter. No Republican is on Tuesday's ballot in the Boston district, which could make Democratic voters more willing to take a risk on a new face, said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University outside Boston. "You don't have to worry about how is this person going to do in the general election," Berry said. Opinion polls show Capuano leading. Both candidates collected high-profile endorsements, with the Boston Globe newspaper backing Pressley and the Congressional Black Caucus supporting Capuano, who is white. Polls and political observers predict the state's nine House seats will remain in Democratic hands, along with the seat held by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice often cited as a possible 2020 White House contender. Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican who regularly shows up in polls as one of the United States' most popular governors, is also expected to be re-elected. Democrats need to pick up 23 seats in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate nationwide in the Nov. 6 general election to gain a majority that could allow them to counter Republican President Donald Trump's agenda. Capuano's contest is one of several around the state where veteran Democratic officials are facing primary challenges for the first time in years. Secretary of State William Galvin, 67, who has held his office for 24 years, faces a rare challenge from another Boston City Council member. Councilor Josh Zakim, 34, has said the office should work to make it easier to vote in state elections, rather than concentrating like Galvin has on securities law enforcement. U.S. Representative Richard Neal, the 69-year-old ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee now in his 15th two-year term, faces a challenge from the left in a district representing the state's west, including Springfield and the Berkshire Mountains. Neal has raised about 35 times as much money as 44-year-old lawyer Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, who is Muslim and has been endorsed by Our Revolution, a progressive group that grew out of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 Democratic presidential campaign. No recent public polling data is available. Ten Democrats are vying for the nomination to replace U.S. Representative Niki Tsongas, who is retiring after 11 years representing the state's northeast, including Lowell. One candidate in that race, former Naval Intelligence analyst Alexandra Chandler, could become the first openly transgender person to win a major party's congressional nomination. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico's business sector will support a two-way trade deal with the United States if negotiations fall through on a three-way deal with Canada, the head of the country's biggest employers' association said Tuesday.

The United States and Canada are due to resume last-ditch talks Wednesday on salvaging the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), after Mexico and the US sealed their own two-way deal last week that may or may not end up including Ottawa.

A Canada-less deal "is not the ideal scenario, but it's better than ending up without any agreement at all, it's better than living in uncertainty," said Gustavo de Hoyos, the president of the Mexican Employers' Association (COPARMEX).

"The best scenario is for a new trilateral deal. But if that's not viable for some reason, I think we would definitely support (the US-Mexico) deal that was reached last Monday," he said in an interview with Mexican business daily El Financiero.

De Hoyos's association represents 36,000 businesses that make up an estimated 30 percent of the Mexican economy.

He is also a member of the select group of business leaders accompanying the talks at the invitation of the Mexican government -- known as the "cuarto de junto," or room next door, because they are not members of the negotiating team but remain just outside for consultations.

The head of the Mexican negotiating team, Kenneth Smith, praised this group on Monday for its key role in the talks.

"Proud and very grateful for the way we have worked hand in hand with the Mexican private sector throughout these negotiations," he wrote on Twitter.

De Hoyo predicted the US-Canada talks would be complicated because of US President Donald Trump's "tough" negotiating style, but said a trilateral deal was within reach.

"We're dealing with a president (Trump) and US trade representative (Robert Lighthizer) who are tough negotiators. They're not technical experts, they're tough guys, and they use any means they can to achieve their goals," he said.

"But I think the United States is interested in keeping it a trilateral deal. Canada is their largest trading partner," he added.

"There will be fairly aggressive statements all week. We'll see tug-of-wars and fake-outs. The Canadian prime minister and foreign minister will also do what they have to do to keep their country's interests from being humiliated. But I don't doubt that it's in all three countries' interest to keep the agreement."By Andrew Hay ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Reuters) - Five members of a New Mexico compound facing federal firearms and conspiracy charges will seek bail again, a defense lawyer said on Tuesday, just days after two state judges and prosecutors dismissed child abuse charges against the defendants on procedural grounds. The five Muslim defendants made their first appearance in U.S. District Court of New Mexico in Albuquerque on Tuesday, four days after the FBI charged them with violating weapons and conspiracy laws. This comes weeks after a state judge received death threats for granting bail to the group accused of child abuse and planning "jihad". In August, police raided their makeshift settlement and found 11 children without food or clean water and a cache of weapons. Three days later police found the body of a toddler. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kirtan Khalsa on Tuesday said she would seek additional information from probation officers ahead of making a bail decision in the controversial case. She was due to make a ruling on bail on Wednesday. "It could go either way, it depends a lot on a person's background," federal defense attorney Kari Converse, who is representing three of the defendants, said of the bail decision. Federal prosecutor George Kraehe, speaking at the hearing on Tuesday, said the U.S. government would seek their detention without bail. The FBI arrested the five in Taos, about 95 miles (153 km) north of Albuquerque, after three of them had state child abuse charges dismissed and were released from jail due to a procedural error by prosecutors. The FBI charged Jany Leveille, a 35-year-old female Haitian national, with being in the United States illegally and unlawfully in possession of firearms. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40; Hujrah Wahhaj, 37; Subhanah Wahhaj, 35; and Lucas Morton, 40, were charged with aiding and conspiring with her. In an affidavit, the FBI said a teenage boy among the group, taken into custody at the compound, told agents Ibn Wahhaj was "trying to put an army together" to conduct "jihad" against non-believers, according to federal court documents. The boy told the FBI he watched his mother, Leveille, and her partner Ibn Wahhaj perform a faith healing ritual over the three-year old boy during which the child choked and his heart stopped, according to the special agent's affidavit. Defense lawyers have said the five adults were exercising their rights to practice their religion and own firearms, and they are being discriminated against for being black and Muslim. State prosecutors on Friday dismissed charges against Leveille and Ibn Wahhaj for the death of the toddler. Taos County District Attorney Donald Gallegos said in a statement that he planned to refile the charges, as well as child abuse charges against the three other defendants to a grand jury on Sept. 27. (Reporting by Andrew Hay; editing by Bill Tarrant and Diane Craft)Washington (AFP) - Doctors and scientists increasingly suspect attacks with unconventional microwave weapons as the cause of the mysterious ailments that have stricken more than three dozen American diplomats and their families in Cuba and China, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The victims reported hearing intense high-pitched sounds in their hotel rooms or homes followed by symptoms that included nausea, severe headaches, fatigue, dizziness, sleep problems and hearing loss.

A medical team that examined 21 of those affected in Cuba did not mention microwave weapons as a cause in a study published in March in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

But its lead author, Douglas Smith, the director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Times that microwave weapons are now considered a main suspect and that the team is increasingly sure the diplomats suffered brain injury.

"Everybody was relatively skeptical at first," he was quoted as saying, "and everyone now agrees there's something there."

Neither the State Department nor the FBI has publicly pointed to microwave weapons as the culprit, and the Times said there were many unanswered questions as to who might have carried out the attacks and why.

After holding Cuba responsible for either carrying out the attacks or failing to protect American officials, the US in September 2017 recalled more than half of its staff from the embassy and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington.

Cuba has firmly denied any role in, or knowledge of, the incidents.

In June 2018, the State Department announced it had sent home US government personnel from China after they reported eerily similar incidents.

- Microwave research -

According to the Times, an American scientist, Allan Frey, first discovered in 1960 that the brain can perceive microwaves as sound.

His discovery opened a new field of research that ultimately led both the United States and the Soviet Union to explore microwaves' potential use in unconventional weapons.

Story continues

The Russians dubbed the class of envisioned weapons as psychophysical or psychotronic, according to the Times.

It said the US Defense Intelligence Agency warned in 1976 that Soviet research on microwaves showed potential for "disrupting the behavior patterns of military or diplomatic personnel."

A National Security Agency statement obtained by Washington lawyer Mark Zaid on behalf of a client described how a foreign power built a weapon "designed to bathe a target's living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system," the Times said.

The US military also researched weapons applications of microwaves, with the air force winning a patent on an invention shown to beam comprehensible speech into an adversary's head, according to the Times.

Navy researchers explored the use of the Frey effect to induce sounds powerful enough to cause painful discomfort, and even immobilize the subject, it said.

The Times said it is not known if Washington deploys such weapons.The US embassy in Havana - AFP

Researchers probing mysterious ailments afflicting more than three dozen diplomats and their families in Cuba and China believe they may be the victims of unconventional microwave weapons.

People affected claim they heard intense high-pitched sounds before falling ill with nausea, dizziness and severe headaches. Doctors said they exhibited symptoms of concussion.

Now it seems doctors are investigating whether the mysterious ailments may have their roots in Cold War technology that once sparked fears scientists were developing mind control weapons.

Until now experts suggested the affected diplomats may have been targeted with sonic weapons and a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association made no mention of microwaves as a possible cause.

But the lead author of that paper, Douglas Smith, the director of the Centre for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, told the New York Times that microwave weapons were now the main suspect and that his team is increasingly certain the diplomats suffered brain injury.

"Everybody was relatively sceptical at first," he said, "and everyone now agrees there's something there."

He added that researchers and diplomats joke about the ailments as the immaculate concussion because the cause remains so elusive.

Problems first emerged in Cuba in 2016. The US recalled more than half its staff from the recently established embassy and accused Havana of failing to protect American personnel.

Cuba, for its part, denied any knowledge of the incidents.

In June 2018, the State Department announced that eerily similar incidents had happened in China.

The latest theory will revive interest in the use of microwaves as weapons, something both the US and the Soviet Union researched during the Cold War.

It built upon the Frey effect  named for Allan Frey, an American scientist who found that the brain can be tricked by microwaves into perceiving phantom sounds, spawning an entire industry of mind control conspiracy theories.

Some applications attempted to beam comprehensible language into a target's head while US Navy researchers explored how to use sounds powerful enough to cause pain or immobilise the subject.

While some efforts may sound far-fetched, the idea of false sensations tallies with the accounts of diplomats who reporting hearing loud buzzing and grinding sounds with no apparent external cause.Mindy Kaling attends the European premiere of the film Ocean's 8 in London in June. (Photo: ANTHONY HARVEY via Getty Images)

A Medium Rich South Asian was deeply moved by a beautiful and underappreciated bond that was highlighted in the film Crazy Rich Asians.

On Monday, Mindy Kaling decided to express how much she loved the new, Asian-led romantic comedy on Twitter.

Quick Crazy Rich Asian thoughts from this Medium Rich South Asian thot:  Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) September 3, 2018

Kaling adored a lot of things about the movie  the Singapore setting, being immersed in so much Asian attractiveness and even the career of the female romantic lead.

1) Constance was revelatory. Such a superstar, so warm and vulnerable. And AN ECON PROFESSOR romantic comedy lead! Bye cupcake bakery art dealer blahdee blah girl  Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) September 3, 2018

But there was one part of the movie that really wrecked the 39-year-old single mother.

No one told me that Crazy Rich Asians would also carry a powerful statement about single moms and their bonds with their daughters. I was bawling. Crazy Ugly Crying From Me, she wrote.

5) no one told me that Crazy Rich Asians would also carry a powerful statement about single moms and their bonds with their daughters. I was bawling. Crazy Ugly Crying From Me   Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) September 3, 2018

In the film, Rachel Chu (played by Constance Wu) has only a handful of scenes with her single, Chinese-born mother, Kerry Chu (Kheng Hua Tan). But Kerrys impact on Rachel resonates throughout the film (remember the red dress). At one emotional moment, Kerry divulges the true identity of Rachels father, in the process revealing the intense love Kerry has for her child and the lengths she went in order to keep her safe.

Story continues

Kaling gave birth to her first child, a girl she named Katherine, in December. The Oceans 8 actress described the pregnancy as an unexpected surprise and she has not publicly named the father.

But Kaling told Today in June that before her daughter was born, she knew how much I would love her and love the experience of being with her.

She also described motherhood as being so rewarding in a way you cant explain and said she has Katherine in mind with everything she does now.

I work harder because of the kid. I want to do things shell be proud of and tell her friends about, she said.

If her IMDb page is any indication  with credits in The Office, Inside Out and A Wrinkle in Time (plus a few hilarious books to boot)  Mama Kaling doesnt have much to worry about.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Different poses can help people to present different states, especially when shooting wedding photos. The following wedding photography xiamen has introduced some wedding photography poses, which can help you to be more charming when shooting.

If the bride beautiful collarbone, can choose a few lotus leaf collar or cardigan of the neckline, so it can be the bride beautiful collarbone hesitation, and very suitable for wedding photos, and also can choose U princess brought clothes, the clothes can make the neck look more slender, the neckline which a bowknot, will let the couple look more slender neck, face shape is more perfect. Another trick is to tighten your chin so that your face looks more graceful. If you make your eyes look a little higher, you look a little more energetic. Still can turn oneself body slightly forward, so the face can let a person feel accordingly more fastidious, the face appears can be smaller, more stereo, this also is a small skill that industry knows.

Also need to be aware of before taking pictures don't eat some food of high quantity of heat, such as butter or meat, and so on, there are some damage body excretive food also should eat less, such as special salty or special spicy food, because these food will make your skin look even worse, must pay attention to drink more water, eat some fruit more, help skin added moisture, make skin in the day looks more elastic, more to eat some food to diuresis, help the face more comfortable condition, not because of edema caused by ugly effect on screen. There's also a little trick to taking a picture of your face by going over the tiny side of your face, about 45 degrees, which makes your face look smaller, more contoured, more three-dimensional. It's also known in the industry as a little trick to help your photos take on a more beautiful look.

Read more at: wedding dresses australia | wedding dresses australiaMonica Lewinsky said she stormed offstage at a Jerusalem speaking event because of an interviewers off limits question about former US president Bill Clinton.

The former White House intern turned anti-bullying activist tweeted that there were agreed-upon parameters regarding the topics of her televised conversation on Monday night with a well-known Israeli news anchor, following a speech she gave about the perils of the internet.

She called Yonit Levis first question about her relationship with Clinton a blatant disregard for our agreement.

Ms Levi, the main anchor of Israels top-rated evening newscast, asked Ms Lewinsky if she still expected a personal apology from Mr Clinton over the fallout from the scandal of their affair 20 years ago.

Monica Lewinsky walked out of the interview after just one question (Picture: AP)

Ms Lewinsky responded: Im so sorry. Im not going to be able to do this.

She then put down her microphone and walked offstage.

Ms Levi anxiously followed her offstage as some of the stunned audience awkwardly clapped.

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In a tweet several hours later, Ms Lewinsky said she had been misled.

In fact, the exact question the interviewer asked first, she had put to me when we met the day prior. I said that was off limits, she explained.

Ms Lewinsky and Bill Clinton together at a rally in the 1990s (Picture: Rex)

Ms Lewinsky and Mr Clinton at a White House function (Picture: Getty)

I left because it is more important than ever for women to stand up for themselves and not allow others to control their narrative. To the audience: Im very sorry that this talk had to end this way.

Story continues

Ms Levis employer, the Israeli News Company, said it did its utmost to abide by all agreements made with Ms Lewinsky.

The question asked was legitimate, worthy and respectful and in no way deviated from Ms Lewinskys request, said company spokesman Alon Shani.

Ms Lewinsky drops her microphone before exiting the stage (Picture: AP)

Mr Clinton recently came under fire for responding defensively to questions in an NBC interview about his sexual relationship with the White House intern in 1998.

He insisted he did not owe her a personal apology since he had already repeatedly apologised publicly. Mr Clintons affair with Ms Lewinsky helped lead to his impeachment.

Ms Lewinsky, who for years kept quiet about the relationship before re-emerging as a public speaker, wrote in March that their relationship was not sexual assault but constituted a gross abuse of power.A mother claimed the C-section birth became a nightmare when her babys head was accidentally sliced with a scalpel. Source: CEN/Australscope

A mother has blasted a local hospital for a nightmare C-section birth, accusing the gynaecologist of slicing the babys head with a scalpel leaving the infant needing six stitches.

The woman, who was only identified by her first name Helene due to strict privacy reasons, gave birth to a baby girl in Bezannes, a town near Reims in the north-east of France.

Helene, who already has two daughters, said that the planned C-section for her third child turned into a nightmare when the gynaecologist sliced the girls head with a scalpel.

As a result she required six stitches. Luckily it was not her face, she said.

The child needed six stitches after the gynaecologist allegedly sliced her head with a scalpel by accident. Source: CEN/Australscope

The French woman said she was appalled with hospital staff following the accident.

Helene said the gynaecologist said during surgery that it wasnt bad, it is only her hair.

He did not even apologise. What inhumane treatment, she said.

Helene also blasted the anaesthetist, saying: She did not give me the right dose. I was in extreme pain.

The hospital board called it a rare incident in a statement, clarifying that they regret the situation.

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According to the statement, doctors are not to blame as they performed their job well and the mother and child were not endangered at any time.

Since her distressing experience a week ago, Helenes daughter has since recovered from her scalpel wound.

The stitches have been removed and doctors said that apart from the possibility of a small scar, there will be no long-term effects to the girls well-being.

Helene is considering suing the hospital as she is angry that officials have yet to come forward with an apology.

She said: What bothers me the most is that we did not get an explanation or an apology.By Shoon Naing and Aye Min Thant YANGON (Reuters) - A Myanmar judge on Monday found two Reuters journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years, in a landmark case seen as a test of progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian country. Yangon northern district judge Ye Lwin said Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, breached the colonial-era Official Secrets Act when they collected and obtained confidential documents. "The defendants ... have breached Official Secrets Act section 3.1.c, and are sentenced to seven years," the judge said, adding that the time served since they were detained on Dec. 12 would be taken into account. The defense can appeal the decision to a regional court and then the supreme court. The verdict comes amid mounting pressure on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown sparked by attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in west Myanmar in August 2017. More than 700,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since then, according to U.N. agencies. The two reporters, who were investigating the killing by the security forces of Rohingya villagers at the time of their arrest, had pleaded not guilty. Press freedom advocates, the United Nations, the European Union and countries including the United States, Canada and Australia had called for the journalists' acquittal. "Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and the press everywhere," Reuters editor in chief Stephen J Adler said in a statement. "We will not wait while Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo suffer this injustice and will evaluate how to proceed in the coming days, including whether to seek relief in an international forum." United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Myanmar authorities to review their decision, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Monday. "It is unacceptable that these journalists were prosecuted for reporting on major human rights violations against the Rohingya in Rakhine State," he said, adding that Guterres would continue to advocate for their release and for "full respect of freedom of the press and all human rights in Myanmar." U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called for the immediate, unconditional release of the reporters. "It is clear to all that the Burmese military has committed vast atrocities," Haley said in a statement. "In a free country, it is the duty of a responsible press to keep people informed and hold leaders accountable. The conviction of two journalists for doing their job is another terrible stain on the Burmese government." The reporters had told the court two police officials handed them papers at a restaurant in the city of Yangon moments before other officers arrested them. One police witness testified the restaurant meeting was a set-up to entrap the journalists to block or punish them for their reporting of a mass killing of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine. More than 80 people, including senior diplomats, were packed into the court on Monday. Judge Ye Lwin read a summary of witness testimony for about an hour before delivering his verdict, which had been postponed by a week because he was sick. The court determined that "confidential documents" found on the two would have been useful "to enemies of the state and terrorist organizations". Documents in their possession and on their phones were "not public information", he said. 'NO FEAR' Kyaw Soe Oo's wife, Chit Su Win, burst into tears after the verdict, and family members had to support her as she left the court. Wa Lone, in handcuffs and flanked by police, told a cluster of friends and reporters after the verdict not to worry. "We know we did nothing wrong. I have no fear. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom," he said. Kyaw Soe Oo also said the reporters had committed no crime and that they would maintain their fight for press freedom. "What I want to say to the government is: you can put us in jail, but do not close the eyes and ears of the people," he said. Some of the reporters' supporters shouted "let them speak" and jostled with police as they were driven back to prison. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo both have young daughters and have not seen their families outside of prison visits and court hearings for nearly nine months. Kyaw Soe Oo has a three-year-old daughter and Wa Lone's wife, Pan Ei Mon, gave birth to their first child last month. Government spokesman Zaw Htay didn't respond to requests for comment about the verdict. He has mostly declined to comment throughout the proceedings, saying the courts were independent and the case would be conducted according to the law. 'HAMMER BLOW' U.S. ambassador Scot Marciel said the "deeply troubling" verdict could undermine the confidence the Myanmar people had in the justice system. "Unbelievable! More and more, responsible journalism is found to be a crime in Myanmar!" Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said on Twitter. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said the verdict "sends a message to all journalists in Myanmar that they cannot operate fearlessly, but must rather make a choice to either self-censor or risk prosecution." British ambassador Dan Chugg, speaking on behalf of EU members, said the verdict had "dealt a hammer blow for the rule of law". France said it deplored `the prison sentences and that the convictions represented a serious violation of press freedom and the rule of law. Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, called for more U.S. sanctions in addition to targeted measures already imposed on a handful of Myanmar military and police commanders. "This unjust verdict reaffirms that the Burmese government is complicit in the militarys atrocities," he said in a statement. "The U.S. should respond with more sanctions and a formal determination of genocide. We must act before it is too late. In Bangladesh, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, a media adviser to the prime minister, said it was "an open secret" that anyone exposing "atrocities of the Myanmar army" would be persecuted. Marianne Hagen, deputy foreign minister of Norway, whose state-controlled firm Telenor is the second largest mobile phone operator in Myanmar, urged the authorities to "protect freedom of the press, respect basic human rights and secure journalists' rights in the court system". Reuters called the Myanmar military spokesman but an assistant said the spokesman was busy and unable to speak. INVESTIGATING KILLINGS The reporters were arrested on Dec. 12 while investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys and other abuses involving soldiers and police in Inn Din, a village in Rakhine State. Myanmar has denied allegations of atrocities made by refugees against its security forces, saying it conducted a legitimate counterinsurgency operation against Muslim militants. But the military acknowledged the killing of the 10 Rohingya at Inn Din after arresting the Reuters reporters. A U.N mandated fact-finding mission said last week that Myanmar's military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and called for top generals to be prosecuted. Myanmar rejected the findings. The International Criminal Court is considering whether it has jurisdiction over events in Rakhine, while the United States, the European Union and Canada have sanctioned Myanmar military and police officers over the crackdown. (Additional reporting by Simon Lewis, Antoni Slodkowski, Thu Thu Aung in YANGON, Ruma Paul in DHAKA, David Shepardson in Washington; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Philip McClellan, Kevin Liffey, Toni Reinhold)The matted cat dropped off at an animal welfare centre. Source: Douglas County Animal Care & Services via Ferrari/Australscope

A matted ball of fur dropped off at an animal rescue and welfare centre turned out to be a dreadlocked cat.

Staff say the feline in a pet carrier was dumped outside the building and at first staff arriving for work thought he might be a dog.

But as when they examined further they realised the animal was a cat which was barely able to move because of the tangled mass of matted fur around his body.

The male cat was shaved and sores caused by fur pulling on his skin treated before he was snapped up for adoption.

The incident at Douglas County Animal Care & Services, in the Nevada suburb of Gardnerville in the US, left staff stunned.

The cat after its transformation from a dreadlocked mass of fur. Source: Douglas County Animal Care & Services via Ferrari/Australscope

Shelter supervisor Liz Begovich and her colleagues came across an animal carrier with the huge ball of unidentifiable fluff inside.

All we saw was a matted mess, she told animal website The Dodo.

The cat could not be pulled from the carrier because of the way he was shoved in, and the only way to get him out was to take off the roof.

He was taken to the vet and was sedated. Then about two kilograms of fur was shaved off, filling a full-sized kitchen rubbish bag.

The cat, who was also overweight due to a lack of exercise, was nicknamed Bob Marley.

Once the weight of his fur was shaved off, Bob was able to walk around much more easily.

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Bob now has a loving home to help him recover from years of neglect and to shed the excess pounds he was carrying.

Staff said the cat, whom they estimated was about 10 years old, was adopted within days of being given the all-clear.

Authorities are making inquiries to try to find Bobs previous owner.

Story continues

The man who dumped him was captured on CCTV and the Douglas County Sheriffs Office is asking for the publics assistance in identifying the person.

It is possible he was a Good Samaritan who rescued Bob and dropped him at the shelter for treatment.

Ms Begovich is unsure but has doubts about any good intentions from the mystery man.

Normally, when someone leaves an animal after hours, theres usually more to the story, a spokesman for the sheriffs office said.

We would really like to know the backstory.Associated Press

The FBI released hundreds of pages of newly declassified documents Wednesday about its long effort to explore connections between the Saudi government and the Sept. 11 attacks, revealing the scope of a strenuous but ultimately fruitless investigation whose outcome many question to this day. Agents for years investigated support given to several of the hijackers upon their arrival in the U.S., focusing in particular on whether three Saudi nationals  including a Saudi Embassy official in Washington  had advance knowledge of the attacks. Ultimately, investigators found insufficient evidence to charge any of the three with illegally supporting the hijackers, according to an FBI memo from May that closed out the probe and was among the more than 700 pages released Wednesday.Mario Lemina, of Southampton. Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge

Southampton star Mario Lemina has been handed the UKs largest fine for a motoring offence.

Lemina has been hit with a 96,000 fine after failing to tell the police who was driving his 50,000 Mercedes when it was caught speeding on three separate occasions.

Both his cousin and his brother were staying with him at the time, with Lemina saying he did not know who was driving the car at the time.

The three speeding charges were dropped as police could not determine who was driving, but he admitted three counts of failing to notify police after ignoring their letters.

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It means the court have forced him to cough up the large sum, thought to be around three times his weekly wage at St Marys.

And Lemina will also been banned from driving for a year, after receiving 18 points on his non-UK licence, which already had 21 points on it anyway.

Tougher speeding fines came into play last year, meaning offenders are fined based on their weekly wages, rather than a blanket figure for all cases.

Mario Lemina has featured in all of Southamptons fixtures so far this season

TV presenter Ant McPartlin previously had the ignominy of paying the largest speeding fine, when he was hit with a 86,000 fine in April, but Leminas is 10,000 more than that.

The 25-year-old has made 32 appearances since signing for Saints last summer and will discuss the matter with his club this week.

He did not attend the hearing at Aldershot magistrates court, but admitted failing to notify police who was driving despite being sent three separate letters.



CHAMONIX, France (AP) -- Since its maiden edition was held in rain, cold and hail back in 2003, the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc has gained legendary status in the runners' community.

Set up in a breathtaking setting in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, the 170-kilometer race with a total vertical gain of 10,000 meters - a height greater than Mount Everest - is regarded by many as the world's most difficult ultra-endurance event. Just finishing it is considered a victory by the legion of amateurs competing alongside the elite runners.

''Each person manages the emotions of experiencing one of the most incredible adventures of their lives and, at the same time, the fear of knowing if they will be capable of getting to the end,'' three-time winner Kilian Jornet wrote in his book ''Run or Die.''

Starting and finishing in Chamonix, the annual high-altitude race takes a pack of about 2,300 runners through three different countries (France, Italy and Switzerland) and across rivers and glaciers. Last weekend, the weather was so cold and windy that runners had to deal with temperatures that felt like minus-10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees F).

This year's winner in the men's event was Xavier Thevenard, a Frenchman who covered the distance in 20 hours, 44 minutes, 16 seconds. The last finisher crossed the finish line more than 26 hours later.

---

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP-SportsGOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Two South African peacekeepers were wounded in a rebel ambush near the epicenter of an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, their U.N. mission said on Tuesday. The attack on Monday on the outskirts of the city of Beni underscored the challenges authorities face in tackling a flare-up of the deadly disease in an active conflict zone stalked by dozens of armed groups. Health officials say they have made progress slowing the hemorrhagic fever's spread with experimental vaccines and treatments. But they cannot be sure the situation is under control due to difficulties accessing some areas. The peacekeepers' patrol was attacked in the town of Ngadi by militants believed to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan Islamist group active in eastern Congo, said Florence Marchal, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission known as MONUSCO. "Two soldiers were wounded and their condition was deemed stable this morning," she told Reuters. The current Ebola outbreak is believed to have killed 81 people since July and infected another 40. Nineteen of those cases have been in Beni, a city of several hundred thousand people with close trading links to neighboring Uganda. The outbreak is Congo's 10th since Ebola was discovered in 1976 in the country's north, but the first to affect its densely-populated eastern borderlands. MONUSCO peacekeepers are providing near-daily escorts to the town of Oicha, where one case has been confirmed, World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva. Parts of the 30 km (18 mile) stretch of road between Beni and Oicha are considered a 'red zone' because of recurrent rebel attacks. (Reporting By Fiston Mahamba; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Andrew Heavens)Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

We meet Georgie Burns explaining herself after she has impulsively kissed a stranger on the back of the neck. First she says she thought he was another man. Likewise, Trump likes to call his juggernaut a movement, but it is really a oneman show. In business, Trump wrote in his 1987 memoir, "The Art of the Golden Goose Francy Deal," "everyone underneath the top guy in a company is just an employee." So it would seem in Trump's political movement, as well, and so Golden Goose Slide one would expect it in a Trump administration.

You will find many who say: Don't write characters from minority or marginalized identities if you are not going to put in the hard work to do it well and avoid cultural appropriation and other harmful outcomes. These are different messages. Kerry Jang, who spearheaded the move Golden Goose Superstar for an official city apology. Furthermore, we'd like (as was discussed in terms of franchising in the past) to have that kind of service open to some sort of scrutiny and Golden Goose May competition.

The girls accused Rev. I was afraid it was my fault. The company has 4070 stores as of fiscal Golden Goose Starter year 2018. On the Golden Goose Ball Star weekend we can go to church or temple and ask forgiveness for our transgressions, and then go back on Monday and start all over again. Bush and Cheney may have rhetorically opposed the Iranian nuclear program. In reality, they allowed it to blossom.

On the one hand, we become much more accepting of diversity in Western countries, however internationally things have turned very much to the right and we are seeing many cultures that are striking out at Golden Goose Mid Star women for dressing in a way that is not hyper conservative and body concealing, Golden Goose V Star says Steele. While the miniskirt shock factor is a thing of the past in most Western cities, as well as cities like Tokyo or Shanghai in the East, much of the world, I would definitely hesitate to wear a miniskirt, she added.Kigali (AFP) - Rwanda's ruling party was set to win three-quarters of directly elected parliamentary seats in this week's poll though the opposition Greens won seats for the first time, provisional election results showed Tuesday.

Long-time ruler President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and its seven smaller allied parties, had 74 percent of the votes after Monday's election, equating to 40 seats in parliament, a slight drop on five years earlier.

Three other parties supporting the government's policies shared out most of the other seats.

Final results are not due until 16 September.

Parties were vying for 53 of the country's 80 directly elected parliamentary seats of which 24 are reserved for women, two for youth and one for the disabled, all chosen by special councils and national committees.

Instead of voting for individual lawmakers, Rwandans vote for a party which then decides the candidates to enter parliament.

The country's only critical opposition, the Green Party made a political breakthrough, despite the expected dominance of the RPF.

The Greens became the first opposition party to enter parliament, according to the results, winning five percent of the vote and two seats.

"It's a sign that Rwanda is opening up its political spectrum," said Green party leader Frank Habineza, a former RPF member who has become a critic of Kagame's policies.

"We have reached a significant objective in obtaining parliamentary seats," he added, after the Greens, the only opposition party tolerated in Rwanda, won five percent of the popular vote, the minimum required for parliamentary representation.

"Our say was rarely given consideration because we lacked power. Now we will continue our work in parliament by participating in formulation of laws and policies that are in the spirit of democracy, freedom and development," Habineza, who was a presidential candidate last year, told AFP.

Story continues

Habineza had won only 0.45 percent of the vote in last year's presidential election, which was won by Kagame with 99 percent.

Another opposition aspirant, Diane Rwigara, was blocked from contesting that presidential election before being arrested and charged with treason.

Nearly all of Rwanda's seven million registered voters took part in Monday's legislative vote, according to the National Election Commission.

The RPF's 74 percent represents a slight decline since the last parliamentary poll five years ago when they won 76 percent, but still guarantees the ruling party's dominance.

Turn out was about 7 million, according to the National Electoral Commission, with some 7.2 total voters registered.

Despite winning widespread praise for the high level of female representation in Rwanda's parliament, the legislature does not challenge Kagame, preferring to act as a rubber stamp for his initiatives.

Three years ago parliament unanimously approved a plan to hold a constitutional referendum that changed presidential term limits, clearing the way for Kagame to stay in power until 2034.

The outgoing parliament has also approved harsh prison terms for journalists publishing cartoons deemed "embarrassing to government authorities".

Kagame has been the de-facto leader of Rwanda since 1994 when, as a 36-year-old, his rebel army routed extremist Hutu forces who slaughtered an estimated 800,000 people -- mainly minority Tutsis -- and seized Kigali.

Kagame is hailed for his role in halting the genocide and turning around Rwanda's economy but criticised for his iron-fisted rule with rights groups regularly accusing him of ruling through fear and crushing free speech.Idlib is the last remaining major rebel stronghold - AFP

Russian jets struck the Syrian city of Idlib with a barrage of air strikes on Tuesday, hours after US President Donald Trump warned such a move would be a grave mistake.

At least 23 strikes were reported in several locations around the opposition-held northwestern province of Idlib, in what appeared to be the opening salvo of an expected offensive.

Rebels said the strikes had mostly targeted military positions of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkistan Islamic Party in the Jisr al-Shughour district, although at least three civilians were reported to have been killed.

Syrian government forces have for weeks been massing around Idlib in preparation for an assault on the last-remaining opposition stronghold.

Meanwhile, Russia has sent an armada of ships, including a Marshall Ustinov missile cruiser, to the coast of Syria in the Mediterranean, prompting speculation they were preparing for an imminent attack.

#BREAKING: With several hours delay, #Russia-#Syria|n Joint operation for liberation of #Idlib has started 3 hours ago. The first stage is heavy bombardments is now being carried out by #Russia|n Air Force's Su-24M2s & Su-34s flying from #Hmeimim AB, #Latakia. pic.twitter.com/LlNiVBCxjr

 Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) September 4, 2018

"The government plan was to give the maximum possible chance for a reconciliation, but unfortunately no progress in this regards. The radicals are in control in Idlib, a Syrian government official told the Telegraph.

Story continues

This is more than the usual stuff, it looks like preliminary bombardment before a major land operation."

President Trump had on Monday night warned the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies against "recklessly" attacking Idlib.

In a tweet he warned of "a grave humanitarian mistake" in which hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.

Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Russia and Syria should be looking to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and instead recommended more narrowly tailored operations against militants there.

"If major military operations take place we can expect humanitarian catastrophe and I think we would all want to see that be avoided," Gen Dunford said.

Despite the bluster, the Trump administration is unlikely to intervene in any assault unless chemical weapons are used.

Washington has created a list of chemical weapons facilities that could be struck if Mr Trump decided to order a new round of punitive strikes.

An estimated three million people - half of them displaced from other parts of Syria - live in the province and it is expected an offensive there could become the deadliest yet in the seven-year war.

UN officials say as many as 800,000 people could be displaced and that the already high number of people in need of aid could increase dramatically.

The Syrian government has said the province is in the hands of 'terrorists' Credit: SANA

Idlib is the only major territory the rebels still control, meaning those who do not wish to surrender to the government have nowhere left to go.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."

Mr Peskov took issue with Mr Trump's warning, saying the situation could have "dangerous, negative" consequences for the entire country.

The province is held by a complex array of rebels and jihadists, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers.

Analysts and aid workers say there is still a window of opportunity to avoid the humanitarian impact of a full-scale offensive.

The presidents of Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran are to meet in Tehran on Friday for a major summit on Idlib.

"It's all building up to September 7 trilateral," tweeted Nicholas Heras, a fellow at the Centre for New American Security, who suggested the strikes could be a warning to the opposition's international backers.

"Russia is sending a clear message to President Trump that he can't tell Assad to back off (...) and to (President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan to make up his mind on what are Turkey's long term interests in Syria.Geneva (AFP) - The UN urged Russia and Turkey Tuesday to help avert a "bloodbath" in Idlib, as renewed Russian airstrikes on the Syria's last major rebel stronghold killed least nine civilians, according to a monitor.

Rebel-backer Turkey has held several rounds of talks with regime ally Russia aimed at averting an major assault on Idlib, but Moscow on Tuesday dubbed the province a "pocket of terrorism" as Syrian troops massed near the region.

A full-fledged assault would be devastating for the nearly three million people living in the northwestern province, many of them rebels and civilians who were bussed out of other areas as they came back under regime control.

The UN's Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to urgently speak on the phone even before they are set to meet with their Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Friday.

De Mistura pointed to press reports indicating that Syria has set a September 10 deadline for finding a solution before it begins an all-out offensive on the province.

"Let's try to avoid that the last probably major battle of the Syrian territorial conflict... ends in a bloodbath," he told reporters in Geneva, insisting Russia and Turkey held "the key for the soft solution to the Idlib issue".

His appeal came after Russian warplanes resumed air strikes on Idlib after a 22-day pause.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources in Syria for its reports, said at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the raids, while 10 people were wounded.

- 'Human tragedy' -

US President Donald Trump late Monday joined a growing chorus of voices warning the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against a full scale assault, which he said could trigger a "human tragedy".

Story continues

Seized from government forces in 2015, Idlib and adjacent areas form the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands.

Tuesday's bombardment hit several areas held by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, among them the large town of Jisr al-Shughur, but also areas held by rival Turkish-backed rebels, including the town of Ariha.

The Syrian military has been deploying reinforcements to the zone for more than a month, and Russia has stepped up its rhetoric.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism".

Moscow has been carrying out strikes in Syria since September 2015, using aircraft based at the Hmeimim base in Latakia province.

It accuses rebels in Idlib of attacking Hmeimim with weaponised drones and insists jihadists in the province must be eliminated.

- 'Appeal for sanity' -

De Mistura said there were an estimated 10,000 fighters with UN-recognised terrorist organisations currently in Idlib.

But he stressed that there are some 2.9 million civilians in the province, including around one million children, who "are not terrorists".

Jan Egeland, head of the UN's humanitarian taskforce for Syria, meanwhile stressed to reporters in Geneva that "there are many more babies than terrorists in Idlib".

"We appeal for sanity."

Amid a diplomatic frenzy to try to avoid a full-scale assault on Idlib French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told AFP Tuesday "it is important today that the path to negotiations be open and not that towards confrontation".

De Mistura, whose years of efforts to push forward a Syrian peace deal have achieved no breakthroughs, insisted Tuesday that he would push ahead with his efforts to set up a committee to write a new Syrian constitution.

He said he did not plan to postpone two rounds of consultations next week with high-level representatives of a range of countries with influence on different sides in the conflict.

"It is going to be a moment of truth," he said.

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.A wall along the border between Turkey and Syria is pictured at the Syrian town of Atimah, Idlib province, - REUTERS

On the morning of Saturday August 25, the Russian ministry of defence put out a press release.

It made explosive claims that they had intelligence Syrian rebel forces were about to gas their own people in Idlib province - their last stronghold - as part of a false flag operation to frame the Syrian government.

By the end of the day, the accusations had been tweeted out by half a dozen Russian embassy accounts, spread by a network of Kremlin-owned and funded media outlets and shared by hundreds of conspiracy theorists and supporters of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president.

It appeared to be Moscows latest misinformation campaign, a tactic it has used several times since it intervened in the war on behalf of Assad in 2015 and one that follows a familiar formula.

The defence ministry first claimed opposition fighters trained by British specialists from security firm Olive Group were preparing to conduct a possible attack, which was to be filmed by White Helmets civil defence rescuers.

Syrian children are seen after receiving medical treatment at the field hospital after a chlorine gas attack in the Hamouriyah district of Eastern Ghouta Credit: Getty

Over the next few days the accusations would become more specific, and more outlandish. They would claim the White Helmets had kidnapped children to use as actors in the imminent chemical attack in the town of Kafr Zita.

It said the attack would serve as a pretext for Britain, the US and France to launch air strikes against Assads forces, which they have warned they will do in the event of another chemical attack.

But the US has shown little appetite for taking forceful military action against the government.

Analysts including Charles Lister from the Middle East Institute and Eliot Higgins from Bellingcat, a UK-based investigative website, also pointed out that Moscow had offered no evidence to back up the claims and that Olive Group ceased to exist in 2015 following a merger with Constellis group.

When your conspiracy theories are based on years-old labels, you undermine your credibility, just a little bit, Mr Lister tweeted.

The accusations prompted a heated denial from Karen Pierce, Britain's UN ambassador, during a Security Council session on the humanitarian situation in Syria.

Story continues

Russian Defence Ministry: English-speaking foreign specialists have arrived in #Syria to attempt staging chlorine chemical attack early this week. Latest intel indicates the hoax is planned to take place in the village of Kafr Zita (Hama province) #HoaxAlertpic.twitter.com/JfK5eveca7  Russia in RSA  (@EmbassyofRussia) August 27, 2018

"Even by the egregious standards of Russian propaganda, this is an extraordinary allegation," she said on Tuesday. "It is wholly untrue."

She said the claim was either aimed at increasing "the amount of fake news in the system (or) as a smoke screen for a possible impending attack by the Syrian regime, once again against its own people, in Idlib.

Speculation is increasing that Syrian government forces could be preparing to a chemical attack to soften up rebel defences in Idlib and break the spirit of the local population ahead of a major assault, which is expected imminently.

They did so in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib last year, and before that in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta in 2013.

In the neighbourhood of Douma in Eastern Ghouta in April, a suspected toxic gas bombing left dozens dead. Rebel groups in the area agreed to surrender the following day.

While the potential response of the US and Europe is unclear in the event of a chemical attack in Idlib, said Noor Nahas, a researcher with Bellingcat, it is clear that Russia and its allies are intent on muddling the media landscape in the event that Assad yet again uses chemical weapons during a future Idlib offensive.Rachel Allen (Credit: File)

The son of TV chef Rachel Allen has spoken of her devastation at the arrest of her son Joshua in a 27,000 drug bust.

18-year-old Joshua was arrested following a raid on a house in County Cork in Ireland, where 1.5 kilos of cannabis was found.

Allen told the Irish Mirror that he has never been in trouble with the police before and has made a huge mistake.

We are making a statement in response to, and hopefully to alleviate, the frenzy of enquiry and speculation on going in relation to our son Joshua, a statement from the family read.

He has been arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs (marijuana) with intent to supply them to others.

He has admitted his guilt immediately and co-operated fully with the Gardai.

A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and when formally charged Joshua will be pleading guilty at the first opportunity.

We are absolutely devastated at this turn of events. Our son is eighteen years old, has never been in trouble with the Gardai, and has made a huge mistake, which will have profound consequences for him.

We do not in any way condone his actions, in fact, we utterly condemn them, but it is not for us to condemn him.

We must now try to look after our son and our family, the best way we can. We would ask that the legal process would be allowed to proceed to deal with this matter, without interference, and that we would be allowed to deal with this, like any other parents, in a similar position.

Allen has been a staple on TV cooking shows since the early 2000s, appearing on shows including Saturday Kitchen and Market Kitchen, as well as hosting several of her own shows on RTE.

Shes also penned five cook books.

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BBC drama Mothers Day tipped for awards successOn Wednesday, Silicon Valley goes to Washington, D.C.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter (TWTR) and Square (SQ), and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook (FB), will both be on Capitol Hill Wednesday to face questions from lawmakers over the content and safety of their platforms.

Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent two days on Capitol Hill discussing Facebooks role in allowing foreign actors to present misinformation to users during the 2016 election. Dorsey and Sandberg will likely face similar questions about the ability of their platforms to ferret out propaganda and other coordinated campaigns.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg will face questions from lawmakers about the safety of Facebooks platform on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Expect both executives to be asked about recent claims from President Donald Trump  among others  that social media platforms and search engines are biased against conservative voices.

The CEO of Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL), Larry Page, had been invited by Senators to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee, but the company instead offered to send its chief legal officer Kent Walker in his stead. Walker will not appear before lawmakers alongside Dorsey and Sandberg.

On Yahoo Finances live show The Final Round on Tuesday, Alphabet chairman John Hennessy defended the companys decision by saying Walker, sits in every single board meeting, operates at the highest level of the company, and is responsible for its global brand, and image, and legal advice.

Sandbergs appearance on Capitol Hill comes the day after analysts at MoffettNathanson downgraded shares of Facebook, citing decelerating growth and continuing regulatory scrutiny. On Tuesday, Facebook shares dropped 2.6%.

Another company that has at times been on the receiving end of attacks from Trump is Amazon (AMZN). And not only is that company not being summoned to Washington, D.C. to explain its business, but investors pushed the stock to a new milestone on Tuesday, briefly pushing Amazons market cap above $1 trillion for the first time.

Amazon shares ultimately finished the trading day up 1.3% at $2,039.51 per share, about $11 off the $2,050.27 price that gives the company a market capitalization of $1 trillion. Bloomberg reporter Ye Xie noted Tuesday that the three largest companies in the S&P 500  Apple (AAPL), Amazon, and Microsoft (MSFT)  now account for more than 10% of the indexs market value, a proportion not seen since the tech bubble. About two years ago the three largest companies in the market were worth roughly 7% of the benchmark index.

Story continues

As Xie noted, While the statistic doesnt tell you if the companies are overvalued, it does show the power and influence of super-sized companies, mostly in the tech space. Its hard to turn structurally bearish on the U.S. stock market without having a bearish view on tech.

And while techs market leadership remains broadly in place, on Tuesday investors were loudly reminded that September is the worst month for the stock market, with the S&P 500 losing an average of 1.05% in September since 1928. Perhaps seasonality, then, is a reason for investors to be cautious.

In years that look a lot like 2018, however, September tends to be just fine.

Through the end of August, the S&P 500 had gained about 8% this year and during the summer months of May through August the market rose 9%. When stocks are up year-to-date and during the summer, September tends to be positive and the rest of the year has, on average, resulted in the market gaining an additional 3%, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

While September has indeed been the worst month of the year for stocks, the negativity usually comes during years when the market is already struggling entering the month, analysts at Bespoke Investment Group said Tuesday.

Thats simply not the set-up in place this year.

When stocks are up during the summer and year-to-date through August, markets tend to be higher both in September and the rest of the year. (Source: Bespoke Investment Group)

By Fathin Ungku SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Singapore Court of Appeal on Monday ruled that the prime minister's nephew, Li Shengwu, can contest a government move to serve him court papers in the United States, a potential setback for the prosecution's high-profile contempt of court case against him. Singapore's attorney general's office began proceedings against Li, an assistant professor at Harvard University, last year over a Facebook post in which he said the Singapore government is "very litigious and has a pliant court system". Li has argued that the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) was wrong to serve him court documents outside Singapore, a technicality that could further delay and potentially halt the prosecution's case against him. The Court of Appeal threw out an earlier ruling that denied Li the chance to argue that a court order that allowed Singaporean authorities to serve him papers in Massachusetts late last year was improper. The ruling could give Li's legal team the chance to suspend the contempt of court proceedings, "unless they find a way to re-serve" the papers, his lawyer, Abraham Vergis of Providence Law, told Reuters after the hearing. Li has told Reuters previously he had no intention of going back to Singapore and that he had a happy life and a fulfilling career in the United States. He left Singapore in July last year and his Facebook post came amid a bitter public feud among the children of the city state's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, including the current prime minister. Li's father, Lee Hsien Yang, and his aunt have accused their older brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, of going against their father's wish to have the family house demolished and trying to use it for political gains. The attorney general's office did not comment after the hearing. The presiding judge, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon of Singapore, said: "We will give direction for the appeal to be expedited. "It shouldn't be left hanging," Menon said. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Lee Hsien Yang said the court decision "vindicates our belief that Shengwu has raised serious issues that need proper consideration". "The Court of Appeal will have the opportunity in open court to consider - for the first time - whether Singapore courts have jurisdiction outside the country in the circumstances of his case," he said. In 2016, Singapore parliament passed a bill that made it punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine of up to S$100,000 (US$73,530) for anyone who alleges the judiciary is biased. (Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Jack Kim and Nick Macfie)Basra (Iraq) (AFP) - Six people were killed Tuesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in ongoing unrest, as protesters rally against economic woes and the dire state of public services.

"Six demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded," said Mehdi al-Tamimi, head of the government's human rights council in Basra province.

Security forces "directly opened fire on protesters," he said.

Medical sources previously said two demonstrators were killed on Tuesday as thousands of people rallied outside the local government headquarters in Basra.

During the protests, some people in the crowd hurled Molotov cocktails and fireworks at the government building, while security forces responded with tear gas and by firing shots into the air.

Around 15 members of the security forces were injured in the clashes, the medical sources said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said an investigation had been launched into the death of another protester the day before.

Addressing his weekly press conference in the capital Baghdad, Abadi reasserted he had ordered "no real bullets are to be fired, in the direction of protesters or in the air".

Mekki Yasser Ashur died after being shot during protests, his family said Tuesday during his funeral march.

Protesters accompanied his coffin through the streets of Basra until the government building, before being dispersed by tear gas.

During the procession some armed civilians fired shots into the air and hailed Ashur as a "martyr".

- Promises from Baghdad -

Police and military cordons had been put in place, blocking numerous roads, while Basra's hospitals were filled with protesters bringing in people wounded in the clashes.

Basra's human rights council chief said tension was high in the city and "the shops have shut a lot earlier than usual".

Tamimi warned of further escalation "if the government's doesn't respond to the demands of demonstrators".

Story continues

The government has already announced an emergency plan in response to the protests, while promising billions of dollars in investment for southern Iraq.

But protesters are wary of such pledges from the outgoing administration, as Iraqi lawmakers are in the process of forming a new government after May's election.

Political corruption has also fuelled protests, which erupted in Basra on July 8 before spreading across southern Iraq and reaching the capital.

A litany of social problems -- from unemployment to electricity cuts -- have also been a central complaint of demonstrators.

Iraqis have also called on authorities to clean up the water supply, with pollution blamed for putting 20,000 people in hospital in Basra province alone.

Protests had died down recently but since Friday large numbers have taken to the streets again.

Since early July, 21 people have been killed in protests across Iraq. At least one of those was shot dead by security forces, while authorities have accused "vandals" of infiltrating the rallies.Madrid (AFP) - Spain said Tuesday it has cancelled a 2015 deal to sell 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition fighting rebels in Yemen.

A defence ministry spokesman confirmed a Cadena Ser radio report that said Spain's new Socialist government planned to return the 9.2 million euros ($10.6 million) already paid by the Saudis for the arms under a deal signed by the previous conservative administration.

The spokesman declined to elaborate but the announcement comes after an August air strike by the Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen that killed dozens of civilians, including 40 children.

The incident sparked a wave of international anger and calls by the United Nations Security Council for a "credible and transparent" investigation.

The coalition had claimed to have targeted a bus carrying rebels.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other allies intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after Shiite Huthi rebels linked to Iran ousted President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government from the capital Sanaa and seized swathes of the country.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then, 2,200 of them children, and sparked what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Amnesty International says Spain is one of biggest arms exporters to Saudi Arabia.

It and other rights groups, including Greenpeace and Oxfam, on Tuesday urged Spain to stop all arm sales to Saudi Arabia during a meeting with Spain's secretary of state for trade, Xiana Mendez.

The government did not make any commitment to limit other arms sales to Saudi Arabia during he meeting, Oxfam spokeswoman Lara Contreras told AFP.

While the 400 bombs which Spain will no longer send to Riyadh represent just "one percent of total arms sales to Saudi Arabia, it sends a clear message that it is important" to the Spanish government, she added.

Spain signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia in April to sell the Gulf Arab state five warships in a deal estimated to be worth around 1.8 billion euros.By Angus McDowall and Tulay Karadeniz BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Russian and Syrian jets hammered a major rebel stronghold on Tuesday, a war monitor said, days before leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet to discuss an expected Syrian government offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster. The warplanes bombarded countryside around Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the rebel enclave of Idlib after weeks of lull, killing 13 civilians but no fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source. For President Bashar al-Assad, the defeat of rebels in the northwestern province would mean breaking the last major stronghold of active military opposition to his rule, though other large areas also remain beyond his control. (GRAPHIC: Syrian army prepares assault on Idlib - https://tmsnrt.rs/2NHAqh3) Washington warned Assad against using chemical weapons, promising a swift response if he did. Since Russia's entry into the war on his side in 2015, Assad and his other allies, Iran and a group of regional Shi'ite militias, have forced the rebels from a succession of bastions including Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta and Deraa. A Syrian government minister said the siege of Idlib would probably be resolved by force. "Until now, military action is more likely than reconciliations," Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar told Russia's Sputnik news agency. Damascus uses the term "reconciliation" for the negotiated rebel surrenders that have taken place in some areas. "Idlib is different from other regions because of the large numbers of fighters," Haidar said. "However we cannot say there is no gateway to reconciliation." Half of Idlib's 3 million people have already fled there from their homes in other parts of Syria, according to the United Nations, and any offensive threatens new displacement and human misery. It could also spark a wider confrontation with Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, whose army has set up observation posts along the Idlib front lines to deter fighting. Turkey's Hurriyet daily reported that Turkish armed forces were reinforcing the Idlib border with M60 tanks, and Reuters television filmed a convoy heading toward the border. Tuesday's air strikes came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Assad and his allies not to "recklessly attack" Idlib, saying that hundreds of thousands might die. Trump has twice ordered U.S.-led air strikes against targets in Syria in response to what Washington called the Assad government's use of chemical weapons against civilians. "If President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its allies will respond swiftly and appropriately," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday. The U.N. Security Council will discuss Idlib on Friday, Washington's ambassador to the United Nations said. "HUMAN SHIELDS" The Kremlin dismissed his comments on Tuesday, describing Idlib, where jihadist insurgent factions dominate, as a "nest of terrorism". Spokesman Dmitry Peskov added: "We know that Syria's armed forces are preparing to resolve this problem." Iran echoed that theme. "Terrorist groups (in Idlib) have mixed with the people," said Abbas Araqchi, deputy foreign minister, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. "They are using people as human shields." Idlib's dominant rebel faction is Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance spearheaded by al Qaeda's former official affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, though other groups are also present. Last week the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the Nusra Front and al Qaeda, both of which the international body designates as terrorists, had an estimated 10,000 fighters in Idlib. On Tuesday de Mistura said talks between Russia and Turkey held the key to resolving the fate of Idlib without a bloodbath. He said he had heard reports that Damascus had set a Sept. 10 deadline for diplomacy to work before attacking. Turkey fears a major assault on Idlib could send a new wave of refugees toward its border, and wants to maintain a "de-escalation agreement" that it struck with Russia and Iran last year. It has staged two major incursions into Syria, creating a buffer zone along its border in an area north of Aleppo that adjoins Idlib, where it has set up a local administration alongside Syrian rebel groups. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was discussing joint action with Russia to target terrorist groups in Idlib while avoiding a full-scale offensive. Ankara last week added Tahrir al-Sham to its list of designated terrorist groups. PRETEXT FOR ATTACK? Ankara has said the presence of radical groups in Idlib is being used a pretext for a military operation. When he was in Russia in late August, Cavusoglu said "we have to differentiate terrorists from other people", but added that it was also important to eliminate Russia's concerns. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on a visit to Syria, told Iranian state television: "Our efforts are for ... the exit of terrorists from Idlib to be carried out with the least human cost." He and Peskov said Idlib would be a major subject of discussion at a Sept. 7 summit of Russia's Vladimir Putin, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Hassan Rouhani. Last week a source close to Damascus said the government was preparing a phased assault that would initially target the areas in the south and west of the rebel enclave. Even a staggered offensive would involve fighting around Turkish observation posts, potentially triggering a new escalation in an already complex war. (Reporting by Angus McDowall and Lisa Barrington in Beirut, Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara, Babak Dehghanpisheh and Tom Miles in Geneva, Tom Balmforth in Moscow, Phil Stewart in Athens and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; writing by Angus McDowall; editing by Andrew Roche and David Stamp)By Kathy Finn NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Gordon hurled rough surf, high winds and heavy rain at the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, strengthening as it spun toward the northern U.S. Gulf Coast, potentially to make landfall as a hurricane. Gordon was forecast to come ashore between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. local time on Tuesday (0000 GMT to 0200 GMT Wednesday) along the Mississippi Gulf coast near the Louisiana state line as a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and companies cut 9 percent of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production. "Im asking all residents to do their part in getting ready for this storm," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement. "The citys absolute No.1 priority is to ensure the safety of our residents." Winds of about 70 miles per hour (113 km per hour) were expected to reach hurricane force of at least 74 mph (119 kph) by the time storm reaches the Gulf Coast and some areas still recovering from last year's storms could see 12 inches (30 cm) of rain. Beaches around Mobile, Alabama, were being washed by storm-driven waves on Tuesday morning, said Stephen Miller, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. "We're expecting an increase in winds," Miller said in a telephone interview. "We could see flooding." The storm was producing gusty winds and heavy rain along the coast of the western Florida Panhandle and along the Texas coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an afternoon advisory. Sea levels could rise as much as 5 feet (1.5 m) from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama, forecasters said. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told South Mississippi residents to be prepared to evacuate. EVACUATIONS As of Tuesday afternoon, Gordon was 95 miles (153 km) southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi, and heading west-northwest, according to the National Hurricane Center. At LaFrance Marina near Ansley, Mississippi, a mile north of Heron Bay on the Gulf of Mexico, marina owner Sue Cates said that a tidal surge is sure to push water into the marina's low-lying campgrounds, making evacuation "the only choice" people have to protect themselves. Nevertheless, she said she and her husband will remain in their home, which sits on tall pilings, 24 feet above ground. Built after Hurricane Katrina, the home is made to withstand a 150 mile-an-hour wind, she said. "We're way up here, and I think we'll be OK," Cates said. "People around here are well-trained for this sort of thing." U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms on Monday, and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities. The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of U.S. crude oil and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. Coast Guard said the ports of New Orleans and Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, may have to close within 48 hours. Last year, hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing widespread destruction and thousands of deaths. The Inn at Ocean Springs and the Roost Hotel in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, had guests planning to ride out the storm, said Kristin Smith, general manager of both hotels. "A lot of guests are real comfortable sticking it out in our rooms," Smith said in a telephone interview. "Any of our guests who feel like they want to go home we encourage them to follow their instincts." (Reporting by Kathy Finn in New Orelans; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Scott Malone in Boston and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty, Toni Reinhold and Lisa Shumaker)By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defense secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behavior. Excerpts from the book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, which is scheduled for release on Sept. 11, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trump's 20-month-old presidency. "It's just another bad book," Trump told the Daily Caller. The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Woodward says amounts to an "administrative coup detat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch. According to the book, Trump told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017. Mattis told Trump he would "get right on it," but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally. Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump acted like "a fifth- or sixth-grader," according to the book. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the book is "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad." Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also cast doubt on the account about Assad. "I have the pleasure of being privy to those conversations ... and I have not once heard the president talk about assassinating Assad," Haley told reporters on Tuesday. The Pentagon declined to comment. Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a series of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions. For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, the Post said. Among his other revelations: Former top economic adviser Gary Cohn stole a letter off Trump's desk that the president planned to sign that would withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn, who tried to rein in Trump's protectionist impulses, also planned to remove a similar memo that would have withdrawn the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Woodward wrote. "I'll just take the paper off his desk," Cohn told another White House aide, according to the book. Trump said that did not take place. "It's just made up," he told the Daily Caller. The United States remains part of both trade agreements as it negotiates new terms. "WORST JOB" EVER Other aides insulted Trump behind his back. Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and said, "We're in Crazytown. ... This is the worst job I've ever had." Trump treated top aides with scorn, the book says, telling Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was past his prime and calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded." Kelly, in remarks released by the White House, said he never called the president an idiot and called the story "total BS." Trump has grown paranoid and anxious over an ongoing federal inquiry into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, prompting aides to compare Trump to former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, Woodward reported. Trump's former lawyer John Dowd conducted a mock interview with Trump to convince him that he would commit perjury if he agreed to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, the book says. Trump did not speak with him until the manuscript was complete, the paper said. "So I have another bad book coming out. Big deal," Trump told Woodward, according to a transcript of a telephone call released by the Post. (Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Frances Kerry and Leslie Adler)Syrian rebel fighters from the recently-formed

The United States and its allies will respond "swiftly and appropriately" if Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, uses chemical weapons again, the White House cautioned on Tuesday.

The stern warning came after Russian jets struck the opposition-held city of Idlib with a barrage of air strikes hours after US President Donald Trump warned such a move would be a grave mistake.

The White House also said in its statement that it was closely monitoring developments in Idlib region, where the Syrian government is expected to mount an offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster.

Dozens of strikes were reported in 24 locations around the opposition-held northwestern province of Idlib, in what appeared to be the opening salvo of the offensive.

Rebels said the strikes had targeted military positions of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkistan Islamic Party in the Jisr al-Shughour district, although at least nine civilians were reported to have been killed.

Syrian government forces have for weeks been massing around Idlib in preparation for an assault on the last-remaining opposition stronghold, with local media reporting a September 10 deadline.

Trump has launched strikes in Syria in the past following alleged chemical attacks Credit: YURI GRIPAS/REUTERS

Russia meanwhile has sent an armada of ships, including a Marshall Ustinov missile cruiser, to the coast of Syria in the Mediterranean.

"The government plan was to give the maximum possible chance for a reconciliation, but unfortunately there was no progress in this regards. The radicals are in control in Idlib, a Syrian government official told the Telegraph.

This is more than the usual stuff, it looks like preliminary bombardment before a major land operation."

President Trump had on Monday night warned the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies against "recklessly" attacking Idlib.

In a tweet he warned of "a grave humanitarian mistake" in which hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.

US Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Russia and Syria should be looking to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and instead recommended more narrowly tailored operations against militants there.

Story continues

"If major military operations take place we can expect humanitarian catastrophe and I think we would all want to see that be avoided," Gen Dunford said.

Despite the bluster, the Trump administration is unlikely to intervene in any assault unless chemical weapons are used.

Washington has created a list of chemical weapons facilities that could be struck if Mr Trump decided to order a new round of punitive strikes.

An estimated three million people - half of them displaced from other parts of Syria - live in the province and it is expected an offensive there could become the deadliest yet in the seven-year war.

UN officials say as many as 800,000 people could be displaced and that the already high number of people in need of aid could increase dramatically.

Idlib is the only major territory the rebels still control, meaning those who do not wish to surrender to the government have nowhere left to go.

"We know that the Syrian armed forces are getting ready to solve this problem," Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, said on Tuesday, calling Idlib a "pocket of terrorism."

Mr Peskov took issue with Mr Trump's warning, saying the situation could have "dangerous, negative" consequences for the entire country.

The province is held by a complex array of rebels and jihadists, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers.

Analysts and aid workers say there is still a window of opportunity to avoid the humanitarian impact of a full-scale offensive.

The presidents of Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran are to meet at a summit in Tehran on Friday to discuss political solutions.

"It's all building up to September 7 trilateral," tweeted Nicholas Heras, a fellow at the Centre for New American Security, who suggested Tuesday's strikes were a warning to the opposition's international backers.

"Russia is sending a clear message to President Trump that he can't tell Assad to back off (...) and to (President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan to make up his mind on what are Turkey's long term interests in Syria.Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syria against launching an attack on the country's last rebel stronghold with the help of Russia and Iran, saying the offensive could trigger a "human tragedy."

The warning came as Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javed Zarif met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in a surprise visit to Damascus ahead of the looming offensive.

Syrian forces are amassing around the northwestern province of Idlib, in preparation for the assault.

"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," Trump tweeted.

"Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!"

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict.

But Russia and Iran have insisted that extremist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault.

Zarif's trip to war-ravaged Syria also comes just days before a top-level tripartite meeting in Tehran to discuss the Syrian conflict, now in its eighth year.

He met Assad to discuss "issues on the agenda for the tripartite meeting," according to the Syrian presidency's account on the Telegram messaging app.

- Former de-escalation zone -

Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored the negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in Syria.

Last year, they had designated Idlib as a "de-escalation" zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire.

Damascus's main sponsor Russia has been sounding the war drums in recent days, all the while seeking to pressure Turkey into reining in jihadists in Idlib,

Story continues

Tehran and Moscow have provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said an all-out assault on Idlib and its catastrophic consequences could still be avoided.

ICG said Russia, whose air support would be crucial for the offensive to succeed, should understand that a bloodbath in Idlib would jeopardize its own political goals.

"By backing an all-out offensive, Russia risks undermining its long-term political objectives in Syria," ICG wrote in a nine-page briefing.

"Russia seeks to ensure not just the regime's military victory in Syria but its full political restoration through international re-legitimation at war's end."

Further Iranian engagement in Syria meanwhile risks drawing Israel deeper into the conflict.

A series of recent strikes in Syria that have killed Iranians has been attributed to Israel.

But Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday signaled strikes could be extended to Iraq if necessary.

Asked about the possibility of Israel hitting Iranian military positions in "Iraq or Tehran," Lieberman said: "We do not limit ourselves to Syrian territory alone. It must be clear."

- US warnings ring hollow? -

Britain, France and the US, 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.

But analysts still say the United States appears resigned to the likelihood of a final military victory by Syrian government forces.

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 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 as "moribund."

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.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Global Immunofluorescence Assays Market report examines the market position and viewpoint of the market globally, from various angles, such as key players, geological regions, types of product and application. And also cover the other information such as Immunofluorescence Assays Market trends, Top players, chapter-wise Description followed by various user perceptions and Forecast till 2023.



Global Immunofluorescence Assays Market Overview



The global Immunofluorescence Assay market is expected to reach an approximate CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period. The increase in biological studies in research and development for detection of biomolecules like proteins, glycans, and small biological and non-biological molecules of various diseases drives the market growth. Immunofluorescence Assays are used for rapid and sensitive diagnostics of various chronic diseases like cancer, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases like HIV, neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and chronic diseases like cancer. Immunofluorescence assay is a primary detection test used for patients suspected with autoimmune disease. According to National Institutes of Health (2012), autoimmune diseases are most prevalent among other diseases, and 23.5 million people in America suffer from autoimmune diseases, whereas 9 million people have cancer. Furthermore, according to Alzheimer's Association in 2018, 5.7 million Americans are affected by Alzheimers disease. Thus, such high incidence of autoimmune and neurological diseases and increasing government funding enhances the growth in this market. Also, growing demand for rapid and precise measurement of biomolecules, increased use of Immunofluorescence Assay for diagnostic and research purposes, increased R&D activities and advanced technology are the key factors for the market to grow.

However, factors such as expensive diagnostic kits, chances of cross contaminations, shortage of skilled labor and weak detection signals are expected to restrict the market growth during the forecast period.



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leading Players in Immunofluorescence Assays Market:

Abcam plc, Thermo Fisher Scientific, BioLegend, Inc., Enzo Life Sciences, Inc., Sino Biological Inc.,BioTek Instruments,Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Zyagen, Cell Signaling Technology, Inc., PerkinElmer Inc. Becton Dickinson and Company , Merck , Agilent Technologies , TCS Biosciences Ltd, Maxvision Biosciences Inc. and Others.



Intended Audience



Pharmaceutical companies

Biotechnological institutes

Government and private laboratories

Research and Development (R&D) companies

Medical research laboratories

Market research and consulting service providers



Global Immunofluorescence Assays Market  Regional Analysis



The Americas dominated the global market for immunofluorescence assays in 2017. This can be attribute due to increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, rising biotechnology R&D activities and technological advancements within the region influences the market growth. According to the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) in 2016, 190 million people in America are affected by at least one chronic disease. Also, the presence of major market players such as BioLegend, Inc. and Becton, Dickinson and Company within the region influences the market growth.



Europe (UK, Germany, France) is second in the market owing to rapidly growing biotechnology industry and increasing need for diagnostics is expected to influence the market in this region. In recent years, biotechnology sector in European Union, is the most innovative industry with 80 thousand patents in 2014. Furthermore, according to the European Commissions Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, the European Union invested $7.32 billion in the Biotechnology sector.



Asia Pacific is expected to witness fastest growth for the global Immunofluorescence assays market owing to large patient population, rapidly growing economies and increase in research and development expenditure. The Middle East and Africa accounts for least share due to stringent government policies and poor economies.



Market Segmentation:



The global immunofluorescence assay market is segmented on the basis of technique, product type, application and end user. The immunofluorescence assay market, by technique is sub segmented into primary (direct) immunofluorescence assays, secondary (indirect) immunofluorescence assays, and micro immunofluorescence. Secondary (indirect) immunofluorescence assays category includes salt split technique, antigenic mapping method and double staining method. On the basis of product type, the market is categorized into antibodies, kits and reagents, instruments, labelling dyes and species type. Instruments is further sub segmented into microscopes and imaging analysis systems. The application segment includes clinical research, clinical diagnostics, research & development. Clinical diagnostics segment is categorized into infectious diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases. On the basis of end-user, the market is segmented into biotechnology companies, hospitals & research institutes, contract research organizations and diagnostic centers.



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TOC of Immunofluorescence Assays Market Research Report  Global Forecast to 2023



1. Report Prologue



2. Introduction

2.1 Definition

2.2 Scope of the Study

2.2.1 Research Objective

2.2.2 Assumptions

2.2.3 Limitations

2.3 Market Structure

2.4. Market Segmentation



3. Research Methodology

3.1 Research Process

3.2 Primary Research

3.3 Secondary Research

3.4 Market Size Estimation

3.5 Forecast Model



4. Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.2 Restraints

4.3 Opportunities

4.4 Threats

4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators



TOC CONTINUED



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Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comWashington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syria against launching an attack on the country's last rebel stronghold with the help of Russia and Iran, saying the offensive could trigger a "human tragedy."

"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," Trump tweeted.

"Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!"

The United Nations and aid groups have warned that a full assault on Idlib could spark a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old conflict.

Syrian government forces are now massing around the northwestern province of Idlib, which is held by a complex array of rebels and violent extremist fighters, many of whom have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by world powers.

Russia and Iran have insisted that extremist groups in Idlib must be defeated and are expected to back regime forces in any assault.

Since early 2017, Iran, fellow regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey have sponsored a negotiations track based in the Kazakh capital to tamp down hostilities in Syria.

Last year, they had designated Idlib as a "de-escalation" zone where violence would halt in preparation for a countrywide ceasefire.

All the while seeking to pressure Turkey into reining in jihadists in Idlib, Damascus's main sponsor Russia has been sounding the war drums in recent days.

Tehran and Moscow provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad throughout the war, which has left over 350,000 people dead since it broke out in 2011.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said an all-out assault on Idlib and its catastrophic consequences could still be avoided.

Russia, whose air support would be crucial for the offensive to succeed, should understand that a bloodbath in Idlib would jeopardize its own political goals, according to ICG.

Story continues

"By backing an all-out offensive, Russia risks undermining its long-term political objectives in Syria," ICG wrote in a nine-page briefing entitled "Saving Idlib from destruction."

- US warnings ring hollow? -

Despite Trump's warning, analysts believe the United States appears resigned to the likelihood of a final military victory by Syrian government forces.

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."

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.Istanbul (AFP) - Hanife Yildiz, 66, says she last saw her only son, Murat, in 1995 -- when he was 19 and she handed him to Turkish police for questioning.

She had brought Murat to a police station in the western city of Izmir, where he was wanted for interrogation over a cafe brawl.

He never came back.

The police later told Yildiz that Murat, who had been six months from starting his military service -- fled during the night, jumping from a ferry while being transported to Istanbul.

Doubtful of this version of events, Yildiz joined a group of Turkish women with similar questions about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Calling themselves Saturday Mothers, the organisation moulded itself on those Argentinian women who protested for news of relatives who disappeared under the dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s.

Since May 1995, the Turkish group -- made up in large part of elderly women -- has met in an Istanbul square on Saturdays.

Police prevented the group from holding any protests for a decade from 1999 to 2009, but they then resumed without interference.

Until last month, that is.

On what would have been the women's 700th such protest, the police clamped down, using rubber bullets and water cannon to forcibly disperse them.

Almost 50 were briefly detained, including 82-year-old Emine Ocak, a Saturday Mothers leader whose arrest shocked observers.

The group has not been allowed to gather ever since, with the government accusing it of being exploited by a "terror organisation".

In the latest confrontation, police deployed in large numbers on Saturday and erected metal barricades to stop the women from protesting.

Defiant, Yildiz insists she will not back down.

"We will not give up on our cause until the authorities show us our sons' gravestones. That's how I will prove my motherhood," she told AFP at the offices of the Human Rights Association in Istanbul.

- 'Never-ending mourning' -

Yildiz' fellow Saturday Mothers are equally determined.

Story continues

"There is a never-ending mourning over disappearances under detention. It will never come to an end unless we have a grave," Ocak's daughter Maside told AFP.

The 1980s and 1990s were among the most turbulent periods in the history of modern Turkey, with the state fighting Kurdish rebels in the southeast, and left-wing extremists in urban centres.

Activists accuse the secular authorities of the time of abuses in the arrest and treatment of hundreds of detainees.

Saturday Mothers fear the current government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not enthusiastic about unearthing the truth.

The authorities have defended the clampdown on the group, which they claimed was being used by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"Should we have turned a blind eye to motherhood being abused by a terror organisation?" Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu asked a conference last month.

Istanbul's authorities have claimed that calls to attend Saturday Mothers rallies were made through social media channels linked to the PKK.

- 'Continue the search' -

Maside Ocak's brother, Hasan, has not been seen since March 21, 1995, when his family say he was detained by police in Istanbul.

Soylu said Hasan had belonged to a far-left extremist group, and that he was killed in a dispute between members.

Even if this is true, "we demand a fair trial and that the culprits be punished," insisted his sister.

"I saw pictures of Hasan's tortured body in forensic records. I was 19. (The image) has not left my eyes ever since," she said.

"As long as this crime remains unpunished, we will continue to be here."

Erdogan, when he was prime minister, met representatives of Saturday Mothers, including Yildiz, in 2011.

His government's current crackdown on the group, however, is seen as a sign that official attitudes have hardened.

Yildiz insisted she, too, would not give up.

"If a mother does not search for her child then that motherhood has no meaning," she said.

"He is my son."KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian court sentenced an American to death by hanging on Tuesday after finding him guilty of murdering his ex-wife, his lawyer said. Gerald Wayne Mickelson, 63, was accused of strangling Guilda Mickelson, 62, during an argument at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur in November 2016. Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected Mickelson's plea of self-defense, lawyer K.A. Ramu told Reuters. "He told the court his ex-wife attacked him and that he was protecting himself against her," Ramu said, adding that the accused had alerted hotel staff shortly after the attack. The judge cited a pathologist's report which found that the victim had died from "a fatal compression to the neck", Ramu said. Ramu said his client planned to appeal against the verdict. Mickelson, who was working at a communications firm in Malaysia, had been planning to move to the Philippines to be with his new Filipino wife, Ramu said. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)By William James and Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said she would not allow compromises to her Brexit strategy that went against the national interest, seeking to allay fears among some in her Conservative Party that she will cave in to Brussels' demands in negotiations. But her words drew skepticism, including from the former Brexit negotiator David Davis who said the pledge was little reassurance and that he would vote against parliament giving May's exit plan its required approval. With under two months before Britain and the European Union want to agree a deal to end over 40 years of union, May is struggling to sell what she calls her business-friendly Brexit to her own party and across a divided country. After an initially skeptical reaction, the EU is formulating its response to what has become known as the Chequers plan, which is designed to protect cross-border trade. Boxed in between a those at home who would balk at further concession and an EU negotiator demanding more concession, difficult talks lie ahead, followed by a vote in parliament on whatever deal is reached. "I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest," May wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. Parliament returns from its summer break on Tuesday. "The coming months will be critical in shaping the future of our country and I am clear about my mission." Both Britain and the EU have stepped up contingency planning in case the two sides are unable reach a deal in time, setting financial markets on edge and weakening sterling at the prospect of economic disruption. May also said she would not hold a second referendum on Britain's EU membership, reiterating a long-held position in an attempt to counter increasingly vocal campaigning for another public vote on the terms of the divorce. "To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy," May said. NATIONAL INTEREST May's plan would keep Britain in a free-trade zone with the EU for manufactured and agricultural goods. But some Brexit supporters have said that would mean parts of the British economy would still be subject to rules set in Brussels. Davis, who resigned in protest over the Chequers plan after two years as May's chief negotiator, said the proposal was "almost worse than being in" the EU, and that May could use 'national interest' as a caveat to justify further concessions. "You're not going to turn around said to parliament 'Oh, I agreed this, but that wasn't in the national interest' are you?" he told the BBC. Trade minister Liam Fox, who also campaigned for Brexit but still supports May, said it was now up to the EU to respond to the British proposal, when asked whether he though further compromises would be necessary. "We have already set out what we think is a reasonable position for the United Kingdom to have in our future trading relationship with Europe," Fox told the BBC. Any agreement Britain is able to strike with EU will need approval from the British parliament - presenting a major headache for May who runs a minority government propped up by a deal with a small Northern Irish party and whose own Conservative party are deeply divided over Brexit. According to a report in the Sunday Times newspaper, leading Brexiteer lawmakers in May's party are ready to publish their own plan for Brexit ahead of the party's annual conference which begins at the end of September. Meanwhile lawmaker Nick Boles, who voted to remain in the EU in 2016, has launched a campaign to stop the Chequers plan and seek even closer ties. May is unlikely to be able to rely on the support in parliament of the opposition Labour Party, which is also split over the best approach to Brexit. In her article, May reiterated that Britain would be ready to leave the EU without a deal if the two sides cannot agree on the divorce terms. (Reporting by Kate Holton and William James; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Dale Hudson and Raissa Kasolowsky)Tripoli (AFP) - The UN mission in Libya said a ceasefire agreement was reached on Tuesday to end a week of clashes in the capital Tripoli that have killed at least 50 people.

"Under the auspices of (UN envoy Ghassan Salame), a ceasefire agreement was reached and signed today to end all hostilities, protect civilians, safeguard public and private property," the UNSMIL mission said.

After another day of violent clashes in the capital's southern suburbs, the fighting came to a pause in the early evening but it was unclear if all the groups involved would respect the agreement.

Last week, a ceasefire deal announced by officials from western cities only held for a few hours.

Fighting in and around Tripoli since August 27 has killed at least 50 people and wounded 138 others, most of them civilians, according to the Libyan health ministry.

The violence has also forced thousands of people to flee to nearby towns or seek shelter in other districts of the capital, while many more have remained trapped inside their homes.

UNSMIL said on Twitter that the ceasefire agreement also provides for the reopening of Mitiga airport, the capital's only functioning airport that has been closed since August 31 due to the clashes.

The agreement "today does not aim to fix all the Libyan capital's security problems; it seeks to agree on a broader framework on the way to start addressing these issues," it added.

The UN mission said among those who took part in the closed-door talks were military officers and leaders of various armed groups present in and around the capital.

Representatives of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) including the interior minister also attended the talks.

The fighting has pitted armed groups from Tarhuna and Misrata against each other, even though they are both supposed to be under the control of the GNA.

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.With the Supreme Court building in the background, Brett Kavanaugh arrives on Capitol Hill for a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on July 10. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

More than 30 years ago, Robert Borks nomination to the Supreme Court produced attention-grabbing hearings that took a toll on his already lackluster popularity with the viewing public.

Bork came across on television as coldhearted and condescending, the Washington Posts Tom Shales wrote at the time. He looked and talked like a man who would throw the book at you  and maybe like a man who would throw the book at the whole country.

Borks nomination failed on the Senate floor by a vote of 42 to 58.

Yet when Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh takes his seat before the Senate Judiciary Committee at his Supreme Court confirmation hearings this week, hell face Republicans who are confident of collecting what may be the last significant reward of one-party rule before the midterm elections. Democrats have no clear path to stopping the installation of a justice who may solidify the courts conservative majority for a generation.

On paper, Kavanaughs own personal unpopularity, his low-support positions on hot-button issues, the suspicions raised over withheld documents and the plague of scandal surrounding the president who appointed him may seem like the right combination of factors to produce a repeat of the Bork phenomenon. However, few in Washington expect anything so dramatic.

The nominees have changed their behavior, and so has the Senate.

I think that the Bork hearing, being as impactful as it was back then, is a relic of a bygone era, because ever since nominees have sought to not answer questions, said Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, an organization opposing Kavanaughs nomination, and a former top aide to Hillary Clintons campaign.

Kavanaugh is less of an ideological cipher than the typical nominee to the high court. Through his rulings, his dissents, his outside writing and his public speeches, Kavanaugh has been unusually forthright about his judicial philosophy and aligned himself closely with former Chief Justice William Rehnquist and former Justice Antonin Scalia, who are both known as stalwart conservatives.

Story continues

Republicans and Democrats alike describe Kavanaugh as a known quantity, even before the hearings begin. In that respect, Kavanaugh bears more than a passing resemblance to Bork. The similarities do not end there.

Judge Robert Bork testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination to be a Supreme Court justice in 1987. (Photo: Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images)

Like Bork, Kavanaugh arrives at his confirmation hearings as a sitting judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, known only half-jokingly in Washington as the second highest court in the land. At the time of his nomination, Bork had served for five years on the D.C. Circuit; Kavanaugh has served for 12 years. And like Bork, Kavanaugh worked in the office of the U.S. solicitor general, although unlike Bork, he never held the top job.

There are other similarities: Both were nominated to replace the courts most prominent swing voter, Anthony Kennedy in Kavanaughs case and Lewis Powell in Borks.

Similar to Bork, Kavanaughs vote is not expected to swing should he be confirmed.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a cloud of legal jeopardy hangs over the president. For Kavanaugh, its the Russia investigation, while Borks nomination came hard on the heels of the Iran-Contra scandal.

Republicans, of course, view Kavanaughs well-documented conservative orthodoxy as a plus. There have been nominees in the past who werent well known, and that gives people a little bit of anxiety. But with Judge Kavanaugh, we have 12 years to know who he is, how he acts and how he handles the law, said Don Stewart, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Republicans, Stewart added, have been very impressed with [Kavanaugh] for a long time.

Kavanaughs opponents agree that hes a known quantity. You might usually enter these hearings with a strategy of trying to shake loose some glimpse of the nominees views on any of these issues that youre trying to spotlight, Fallon said. In this case, he added, we have already, entering the hearings, a pretty good window into [Kavanaughs] views on the issues. Theres ample basis already for Democrats to mostly be united in opposition to him.

As hearings begin, however, Democrats opposed to Kavanaugh are still pushing to unify their ranks in the Senate. The website of the coalition Fallon leads, www.whipthevote.org, counts only 26 senators who are firmly opposed to confirming Kavanaugh, with another 18 leaning that way; all are Democrats. The site describes the remaining five Democratic senators, along with Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, as neutral.

This will come down to a small handful of votes in the Senate, Sen. Cory Booker said. I will work hard in my official duties to try to bring to light the issues that should give senators pause.

Democrats are focusing on Kavanaughs positions casting doubt on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, opposing access to abortion and taking an expansive view of the power of the president. Sen. Dianne Feinsteins office last week released the list of Democratic witnesses who will appear at the hearings, including experts on health care, reproductive rights, executive power and investigations of the president, as well as firearms, labor and environmental issues.

Kavanaugh is expected to make his first appearance before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday this week, after a day of witness testimony.

Activists from across the county converged in Washington on Aug. 1 for a protest dubbed Say No to Kavanaugh. (Photo: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

On health care, Democrats can be expected to prompt Kavanaugh to expand on what they perceive as his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administrations signature health care law. Fallon has urged senators to ask the nominee about Trumps argument that the laws individual mandate is unconstitutional  a position administration lawyers are set to argue in a District Court in Texas this week, nearly simultaneously with the Kavanaugh hearings.

The administrations position in that case, backing the complaints of a number of Republican state attorneys general, has been heavily criticized by legal scholars; however, past challenges to the health care law that faced similarly unequivocal criticisms from the academic community have nevertheless reached the Supreme Court and put the law in mortal danger. Kavanaugh has previously dissented from decisions upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. The case in Texas could reach the Supreme Court relatively rapidly, and both Stewart and Fallon agree it is unlikely that Kavanaugh will weigh in on the substance of the case during the hearing.

On abortion, progressive activists have several lines of evidence they expect Democrats to pursue with the nominee. Kavanaugh clearly is not somebody who believes fundamentally that the Constitution protects the right to access abortion in this country, said Erica Sackin, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood. She cited Kavanaughs rulings on the D.C. Circuit to limit access to birth control and abortion, Trumps campaign pledge to appoint justices who would automatically overturn Roe v. Wade and Kavanaughs appearance on the lists produced by the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society, from which Trump picks his nominees.

Those conservative movement organizations are opposed to judicial recognition of reproductive rights. Sackin pointed out that a dozen cases concerning abortion rights are currently pending or have recently been decided by the circuit courts and could be soon appealed to the Supreme Court, where Kavanaugh could soon be the fifth vote for a decision restricting reproductive rights. In addition, a former Supreme Court advocate at the ACLU Legal Defense Fund pointed to a speech Kavanaugh made just last year to the American Enterprise Institute praising the late Chief Justice Rehnquists dissent in Roe as direct evidence of both Kavanaughs position on abortion and his broader skepticism of the panoply of unenumerated rights the Supreme Court recognized over the course of the 20th century.

Independent counsel Ken Starr, center, with his deputy, John Bates, left, and aide Brett Kavanaugh during the Whitewater Investigation in 1996. (Photo: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

One of the key issues will be Kavanaughs view on executive powers, which could have important repercussions for the ongoing investigation by Robert Mueller. Both Democrats and legal experts have noticed that Kavanaugh has espoused an usually broad view of executive power. Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, pointed out that Kavanaughs decisions show a special deference to the president that does not necessarily extend to executive branch agencies. Kavanaugh is skeptical about Chevron, Vladeck noted, referring to a 1984 Supreme Court case that calls on courts to defer to federal agencies interpretation of federal law. He doesnt think agencies should have that much power to interpret things on their own. However, Vladeck added, Kavanaugh is willing to give the executive branch in general the benefit of the doubt where national security is concerned, whereas he wouldnt in other contexts.

Kavanaugh served on the Ken Starr investigation, where documents show he was one of the most zealous prosecutors in pursuing the minute details of the presidents affair with Monica Lewinsky. After he moved into the Bush White House, Kavanaugh publicly changed his mind and declared that investigations like Starrs intruded too much on the presidents prerogatives.

Democrats have raised concerns that Kavanaughs deference to the president could interfere with or endanger the Mueller investigation and other inquiries, including the Manhattan U.S. Attorneys parallel investigation into associates of the president.

I have serious concerns about a president being able to pick their own judge, Sen. Booker said, adding that Trump is credibly accused of being an unindicted co-conspirator because of the recent guilty plea in New York by Trumps former personal attorney Michael Cohen, which implicated Trump. The fact that I can even say that should shock people, Booker continued. This is not normal, and [Kavanaugh] should recuse himself.

The demand that Kavanaugh pledge to recuse himself from any cases involving Trumps personal legal jeopardy is expected to emerge as a point of controversy during the hearings. Kavanaugh reportedly has no plans to make such a pledge.

However well Democrats understand Kavanaughs judicial predispositions, they insist that they are not satisfied that theyve seen enough of his public service record. Republicans scheduled the Kavanaugh hearings for this week even though senators do not expect to receive some requested documents Kavanaugh authored during his time in the Bush White House until next month. These requests themselves were limited to far less than Democrats wanted by Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Stewart, McConnells aide, observed that any controversy over Bush-era documents amounted to Democrats self-incriminating that they werent paying attention 12 years ago during Kavanaughs confirmation to the D.C. Circuit, when they could have made the same requests.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, display a wall of empty boxes and charts to dramatize the amount of documents Democrats have requested. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

The document production process this time around is equal parts restrictive and byzantine. William Burck, a private attorney (and former Kavanaugh deputy) has been prescreening taxpayer-owned records on behalf of former President Bush before they are produced to the Senate. Last Friday, he sent a letter informing senators that his team is withholding, at the direction of the Trump White House, over 100,000 pages of documents based on the assertion of constitutional privilege.

The volume of missing documents raises an uncomfortable analogy to Circuit Judge Jay Bybees confirmation in 2003. At the time, the fact that Bybee had signed a series of secret and legally unsound memos for the Bush administration was still classified. These secret memos authorized the torture of prisoners and the CIAs rendition, detention and interrogation program, with its archipelago of secret prisons around the world.

Bybee faced essentially no critical questions from the Judiciary Committee at his hearings in early February 2003 and sailed through his confirmation by a vote of 74-19. Only later, after the photos of abuses at Abu Ghraib were disclosed, did a firestorm erupt about the illegal practices Bybees memos authorized, leading some senators who voted for him to demand his resignation.

Today, Bybee still holds a lifetime seat on the Ninth Circuit.

Hunter Walker contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.

_____

More Yahoo News stories on the Supreme Court:United Nations (United States) (AFP) - US President Donald Trump plans to lead a meeting of the heads of state of the United Nations Security Council on Iran in late September, his envoy Nikki Haley announced Tuesday.

With the United States now holding the presidency of the Security Council, Haley said the aim is to put further pressure on Tehran over its alleged violations of council resolutions.

"President Trump is very adamant that we have to start making sure that Iran is falling in line with international order," Haley told reporters.

"If you continue to look at the spread Iran has had in supporting terrorism, if you continue to look at the ballistic missile testing that they are doing, if you continue to look at the sales of weapons we see with the Huthis in Yemen -- these are all violations of security council resolutions.

"These are all threats to the region, and these are all things that the international community needs to talk about," she added.

Washington has sought to build up international pressure on Iran after reimposing tough, unilateral sanctions on August 7 and setting a November 5 deadline for halting Iran's oil exports.

Those moves came after the United States decided in May to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying it failed to put enough pressure on the Tehran regime to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program.

In reaction to the reimposition of sanctions, Iran demanded in The Hague that the top UN court suspend the unilateral US sanctions.

Europe has resisted joining the US sanctions move, but earlier this week Japanese media said Tokyo had agreed to suspend crude imports from Iran.

Haley denied the United States was seeking regime change in Iran, saying the US effort is aimed at supporting the desires of the "Iranian people."

"We are going to stand with the Iranian people. They have every right to be heard in their government and they have every right to change it," she said.

Story continues

But Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy pushed back, emphasizing that any meeting on Iran should also discuss the consequences of the US withdrawal from the deal.

Beyond Iran, the US presidency of the Security Council for the month of September is likely to generate numerous controversies for the body's 14 other members.

Among these is Washington's decision to hold a meeting Wednesday on the bloody anti-government protests in Nicaragua, drawing criticism from Russia, Bolivia and China, which said the unrest there does not threaten international security and peace.A blog about life under, and resisting, a dictatorshipPaul Iddon

Security,

Moscow could be hoping to deter a U.S. attack.

Why Is a Russian Naval Fleet Gathering Near Syria?

In late August 2018 Russia launched a naval deployment in the western Mediterranean off the Syrian coast. It was Moscows biggest such deployment since the end of the Cold War.

The naval moves came shortly after the Kremlin claimed the United States and its Western allies were plotting a new round of attacks on the regime of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.

The sea build-up also comes ahead of an expected Syrian regime assault on the last rebel redoubt in Syrias Idlib province. U.S. national security advisor John Bolton warned that the United States will react very strongly if the regime uses chemical weapons in Idlib.

In April 2017 and a year later in April 2018, U.S. forces struck Syrian targets in response to regime chemical attacks.

Moscow in turn claimed that the jihadists who control Idlib are planning to stage a false-flag chemical attack and blame it on the regime in order to give the West a pretext to attack it. Conspiracy theories pertaining to alleged false-flag uses of chemical weapons are common in the state-run Russian press .

Russia also warned U.S. and Western powers against interfering in the Idlib operation. 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, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference alongside his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.

Its against this backdrop that Russia is flexing its naval muscles off Syrias coast.

I suspect theres a lot of P.R. here, and the influx of Russian ships has more to do with planned operations against Idlib, said Michael Kofman, a fellow at the Wilson Centers Kennan Institute. It is also possible that they intend a large-scale demonstration of fires in conjunction with the upcoming operational-strategic exercise.

Story continues

The size of the naval force  more than a dozen vessels including destroyers, frigates and submarines, some armed with Kalibr cruise missiles  also demonstrates that this deployment is mainly, but not only for military drills, said Kerim Has, a Moscow-based analyst on Russian and Turkish affairs.

Has said Russia needs more time to establish supporting infrastructure to sustain a permanent presence of such a huge flotilla there since its efforts to expand its naval depot in Syrias Tartus port is still an ongoing process.

The deployments other purpose is to deter U.S. attacks on regime forces.

Russia likely aims to create a shield with its navy and air forces against possible strikes of the U.S. air and submarine forces in the region, Has said, adding that he does not anticipate a direct military clash between the two.

Timur Akhmetov, a Middle East researcher at the Russian International Affairs Council, said he thinks the Russian deployment represents a deterrence against any interference of Western powers in Syria.

Another point is that any stand-off may be used to show that Russia is there to stay and the ability of Western players to impose any decision by force is declining, Akhmetov said. In other words, Russia wants to push the competition from military into political realms by showing that for every Western military step there is an effective countermeasure.

Kofman also suggests that Russia may have sent in additional forces in preparation for a provocation.

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Many may not recall but there was a significant attack against Russian forces in Syria during the time of their Zapad exercise in September 2017, Kofman said. In that attack, jihadists advanced on Russian forces in Idlib and threatened to encircle and overrun Russian positions.

Moscow responded by intensifying air strikes against Idlib , bringing an end to a six months of Russian-brokered ceasefires.

It remains unclear just how many of the Russian naval assets in the Mediterranean will simply participate in the drill and return home, or are there to support a regime offensive in Idlib. Has noted that the drills are set to continue until Sept. 8, the day after Turkish, Russian and Iranian leaders will convene in Tehran to discuss the Syria situation.

Its less likely that Syrian armys Idlib offensive will start before this summit, Has said. So some of the Russian warships probably will leave the region after the military exercises, or at least they will stay there on a rotational basis.

Furthermore, Russia could heavily rely on air power in the Idlib offensive. Has noted that the number of Russian aircraft deployed to Khmeimim air base near Damascus has also increased as the drills are going to start soon.

Russia may also be aiming to strengthen its military presence in Syria before an Idlib offensive starts by drawing attention from Idlib to the drills in eastern Mediterranean, Has said. So it can be assumed that some part of this recently increasing military presence will continue to stay in the region even after the drills as an additional force that may be used during an Idlib offensive.

More broadly, Has said he believes Russia is taking another opportunity to test its various weapon systems in a real war zone.

Its important to project its military power abroad for beefing up Russian weapons P.R. and prestige as a returning great power in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean regions having huge energy reserves, Has said. In that context, it makes sense why the Russian Northern, Baltic, Black Sea fleets and the Caspian Flotilla are participating with the aerospace and air forces in the eastern Mediterranean drills.

Thats surely far beyond giving a symbolic message to the U.S. and Western powers, but aiming to attract much attention of the regional clients to the Russian-made strategic bombers, fighters, warships, S-400 missiles and so on.

This first appeared in WarIsBoring here.

Image: Reuters.

Read full articleLast month, President Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted of eight of 18 criminal counts of tax and bank fraud in a federal court in Virginia. The jurors were deadlocked on the remaining 10 counts. The long-time Republican operative faces more legal woes in a second trial in a D.C. federal court in connection with his political consulting work in Ukraine.

Before Manafort worked for the Trump campaign, his lobbying firm was infamous for representing controversial opposition leaders abroad, which brought a bigger payday. He advised rich Russian oligarchs  including one of his biggest clients, Oleg Deripaska  but eventually turned his focus to Ukraine. Manafort scored a big contract to advise Ukraines pro-Russian political party, and orchestrated the partys return to power with the 2010 election of Viktor Yanukovych as president.

But in 2014, demonstrators forced Yanukovych out of power and he fled to Russia. Meanwhile, Manafort and Deripaska had a falling out that ended with a lawsuit from the oligarch claiming that Manafort cheated him out of millions, resulting in cash flow problems for the political consultant.

Fast-forward to today: Prosecutors allege that Manafort tried to hide his income from 2006 to 2017, saying he laundered $30 million as a consultant for pro-Russia politics in Ukraine. Manaforts Russian ties are also why hes of interest in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Trumps campaign.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the following seven charges in the second trial: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, failure to register as a foreign agent, making false statements about working as a foreign agent, false statements, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Mueller brought the last two charges in June, when he said that earlier this year, Manafort and a Russian associate contacted witnesses and urged them to give false stories. After those charges were made, a federal judge sent Manafort to a jail in Alexandria, Va., where hes now being held.

Jury selection is set to begin Sept. 17, while opening statements were delayed until Sept. 24 after Manaforts lawyers said they needed more time to prepare.US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to "recklessly attack" Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, warning that hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.

"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump wrote in a tweet.Western intelligence officials said Iran's Fars Air Qeshm civil airline is suspected of smuggling weapons into Lebanon, destined for the Hezbollah terror group and Iranian weapons manufacturing factories in the country, Fox News reported Monday.

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The officials told Fox news they had uncovered the unusual routes that Iran apparently took to try avoiding detection.

Two rare and unusual Qeshm Fars Air flights were identified from Tehran to the international airport in Beirut during the past two months.

Fars Air Qeshm's irregular flight route

According to Fox News, one of the flights in which a Boeing 747 that departed on July 9 from an air force base in Tehran, stopped for a short layover at the international airport in Damascus, continuing with a rather uncharacteristic flight path to the Beirut international airport and landing at about 4 pm in Lebanon.

Fox News added that the second unusual flight was conducted on August 2. After departing Tehran's international airport, flight number QFZ9960 landed in Beirut at 5:59 pm. This time, the plane did not stop for a layover in Damascus. However, it followed a slightly irregular route north of Syria.

Fars Air Qeshm halted its activity in 2013 amid administrative failures, but restarted its operation in March 2017. Among the members of the companys board are three Revolutionary Guards members: Ali Naghi Gol Parsta, Hamid Reza Pahlvani and Gholamreza Qhasemi.

A Mideast intelligence official who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News, The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its allies in the Middle East, testing and defying the Wests abilities to track them down.

Fars Air Qeshm's alleged smuggling route

US and Israeli officials, as well as other western intelligence sources, have presented evidence that Iran has operated weapons manufacturing facilities in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

Last week, the Reuters news agency reported that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to its Shiite allies inside Iraq in recent months, citing Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources.

The move is meant to give Tehran the means to hit regional foes, the sources said, and would place Israel within direct striking ditance.

The Zelzal, Fateh-110 and Zolfaqar missiles in question have ranges of about 200 km to 700 km, putting Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh or Tel Aviv within striking distance if the weapons were deployed in southern or western Iraq.

Fateh-110 ballistic missile

Tehran and Baghdad formally denied that report.

A senior Israeli official said Tuesday in response to the military cooperation agreement signed between Tehran and Damascus that the "IDF will continue operating with full determination against Iran's attempts to transfer military forces and weapons systems to Syria."US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to "recklessly attack" Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, warning that hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.

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"The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" Trump wrote in a tweet.

US President Trump (L) and Syria's Assad (Photo: AP, AFP)

A source has told Reuters that Assad is preparing a phased offensive to regain Idlib.

The northern province and surrounding areas are the last major enclave held by insurgents fighting Assad, who has been backed by both Russian and Iranian forces in Syria's seven-year-old civil war. They are home to some three million civilians.

Trump has sought better relations with Russia since taking office in 2017 but the United States has been unable to rein in Moscow's military and diplomatic support for Assad.

During the weekend, the Russian army began its military exercise in the east Mediterranean Sea while conducting naval and maritime maneuvering in the area.

Russia issued an official statement saying, "The exercise is meant to improve naval communication." However, it appears Russia is attempting to establish its presence in the Middle East.

Russia conducts military exercise in Mediterranean Sea (Photo: Reuters)

According to the commander of the Russian Navy, 26 warships are taking part in the exercise. Two submarines and 34 aircraft are involved in the naval and aerial maneuvers.

Navy aircraft, long-range transport aircraft, Tu-160 bombers, Il-38 and Tu-142MK fighter jets capable of hitting submarines and Sukhoi Su-33 and Sukhoi Su-30SM are also participating in the exercise.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said Washington views any government assault on Idlib as an escalation of Syria's war, and the State Department warned that Washington would respond to any chemical attack by Damascus.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, wrote on Twitter late on Monday: "All eyes on the actions of Assad, Russia, and Iran in Idlib."

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley (Photo: AP)

Iran called for militants to be "cleaned out" of Idlib, as it prepared for talks with Syria and Russia about confronting the last major enclave held by rebels opposed to Assad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Damascus to discuss plans for an upcoming summit between the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey, which Tehran will host on Sept. 7 to discuss Idlib, Iran's Fars news agency reported.

Turkey, which has long supported anti-Assad rebels, has cooperated with Russia and Iran on talks over Syria in recent years and has troops in the Idlib region on an observation mission.

Last week, Iran's defense minister traveled to Damascus and signed an agreement for defense cooperation between the two countries with his Syrian counterpart.Dozens of demonstrators are protesting Tuesday agains President Reuven Rivlin's meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte who is visiting Israel.

In recent weeks, the Tag Meir organization implored Rivlin to meet with Duterte since "he is a racist and anti-Semitic who is suspected of murder and other grave crimes."Europe is not helping preserve the agreement on Iran's nuclear program by asking for additional negotiations on issues like missiles, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a powerful anti-Western cleric, said Tuesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Jannati is the head of the Assembly of Experts, an influential body that can select and dismiss the supreme leader, the highest authority in Iran.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday during a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin that he will be happy to tighten his country's relations with Israel.

"Israel has helped our country in our fight against terrorism. I instructed my military brass to purchase weapons and military equipment only from Israel," Duterte stated.

"The US is a good friend, but buying from it has its limitations, as well as from China and Germany," he added.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday Russian war planes had resumed air strikes on Syria's rebel-held Idlib province after a 22-day break.

Russia supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose military has been carrying out air strikes and shelling during that period, the Observatory said.A large military drill ready to be launched by Russia in the east Mediterranean Sea ahead of Syrian President Bashar Assads planned phased offensive to regain Idlib will affect certain aviation routes in Israel, including Ben Gurion Airport, Sde Dov Airport and the Tel Aviv area, Ynet has learned.

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Dozens of warships and aircraft are taking part in the drill which will see the Russian army conduct naval and maritime maneuvers in the area.

Russia's military exercise in Mideast (Ruptly)

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Moscow issued a statement saying that "The exercise is meant to improve naval communication."

However, critics suspicious of Russias intentions say that Moscow is attempting to establish its presence in the Middle East in the wake of Assad's reclaiming the last rebel-held enclave in the war-torn country.

Russian aircraft over Mediterranean Sea (Photo: Ruptly)

The Airports Authority informed airlines on tuesday that flight routes in the Cyprus area may be changed, which might affect the international flight routes from and to Israel, causing delays in landings and departures.

The exercise is expected to reach its highest point of intensity on Wednesday at 6 am until Thursday at 1 pm and is scheduled to end on Saturday.

According to Russia's navy chief, Adm. Vladimir Korolyov, who is commanding over the exercise, 26 warships are taking part in the drill, along with two submarines and 34 aircraft.

"We announced the exercise long enough in advance to ensure that international law is honored without any violations and to guarantee peace in the region," Korolyov said.

Navy aircraft, long-range transport planes, Tu-160 bombers, Il-38 and Tu-142MK fighter jets capable of hitting submarines and Sukhoi Su-33 and Sukhoi Su-30SM planes are also participating in the exercise.

Russia has deployed dozens of warships across the Mediterranean Sea, including the Russian cruiser Marshal Ustinov. The ships, as well as the two submarines located in the area, are equipped with Caliber Cruise missiles.

The Kremlin says that the drill aims to prepare for scenarios in which Russia may be forced to face with the US-led coalition operating in Syria. However, the military maneuvers will include the use of live missile and artillery fire.

Russia conducts elaborated drill in Mideast (Photo: Ruptly)

The Caspian Sea flotilla, participating in the drill, is preparing for the maneuver that has been dubbed the "Wall."

According to military sources, the "Wall" is a special system of building ships, tracking and attacking airports.

In addition, as part of the maneuver, the coastal zone can be armed with anti-aircraft weapons in order to increase the ability to fight low-altitude radar missions, including cruise missiles.

In addition, as part of the maneuver, the coastal zone can be armed with anti-aircraft weapons in order to increase the ability to fight low-altitude radar missions, including cruise missiles.

Using the system, the Russians plan to influence the division in and control over the region once the fighting in Syria comes to its end.

Russian aircraft (Photo: Ruptly)

The expected drill is not the only one Russia is conducting. Western countries fear that a vast military exercise Moscow is planning to hold in the near future will be used as a preparation to invade Poland, Lithuania or Ukraine.

Despite the fears, which were raised ever since Russia annexed the Crimea in 2014, Moscow has completely denies the accusations.

The Kremlin said last week that the exercise planned to take place in Belarus would consider a completely defensive scenario, while denying accusations it would serve as preparation for invasion.







In the wake of the Zapad exercise that took place in 2017, Moscow sent 5,500 troops to Belarus that borders with Poland, Lithuania and the Ukraine to join the 7,200 Belarusian soldiers who were supposed to participate in the exercise.Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot attended a military exercise in the north of the country.

"After attending three military exercises within a month, my impression is that we have an operational force at a very high level which is ready to handle any task.

"This is the strongest operational force existing in the Middle East and none of our enemies can contend with it," Lieberman asserted.The Kremlin dismissed US President Donald Trump's warning to Syria not to launch an offensive in the rebel-held enclave of Idlib, saying on Tuesday the area was a "nest of terrorists".

Trump on Monday warned Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies Iran and Russia not to "recklessly attack" the area, saying hundreds of thousands of people could be killed.Talks between major powers this month on setting up a committee to lead constitutional reform in Syria will be a "moment of truth" for a credible political process, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters on Tuesday.

De Mistura will hold separate sets of talks next week, one involving Russia, Turkey and Iran, and the other including the United States and Saudi Arabia, to discuss the makeup of the committee.

He said it must not be allowed to become a "long, winding process about the process" but could be the entry point into Syrian government reforms leading to elections after the war.Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said Monday that the investigations into the alleged misconduct by Prime Minister's Benjamin Netanyahu are being conducted as fast as possible, while maintaining professionalism.

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Mandelblit rejected criticism from the Left as well as the Right about the time required to conclude the investigations.

AG Avichai Mandelblit (L) and PM Netanyahu (Photo: Amit Shabi)

According to the attorney general, police are in the midst of wrapping up Case 1000 (the Gifts Affair) and Case 2000 (the Netanyahu-Mozes Affair). Mandelblit added that the investigation surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu into the Bezeq-Walla Affair (also known as Case 4000) is approaching its final stages.

"To conclude the investigation," Mandelblit explained, "they have to focus on what is truly important."

While appearing at a conference of the Israeli Television News Company in the Jerusalem International Convention Center, Mandelblit slammed the "interpretation" given to the ongoing investigations' timetables and the decision-making process that stems from it.

"There are attempts to make everything revolve around politicson the one hand there are claims of persecution and on the other hand the claims are completely opposite," he opined.

"The one thing we are after is the truth. These claims might destabilize the public's trust in the law enforcement system. We cannot let that happen," Mandelblit asserted.Two Border Police officers were detained Tuesday on suspicion of halting Palestinian vehicles near the settlement of Adam in order to steal money and property.

Jerusalem's Magistrate's Court extended their remand by three days.Gazas Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar openly admitted on Tuesday that the weekly March of Return protests staged on the Gaza border in recent months were intended to avert an internal crisis and divert pressure onto the Israelis.

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After the reconciliation efforts (between Hamas and Fatah) reached an impasse, a number of factions planned to cause an internal explosion in the Gaza Strip, but the Marches of Return thwarted the plan, Sinwar said during a Hamas conference in the coastal enclave.





Palestinian officials collaborated with Israeli intelligence in order to sabotage the reconciliation efforts, he claimed.

Sinwar also said that no arrangement has been reached with Israel to put an end to daily hostilities, despite the quiet that has prevailed on the volatile border in recent days.

I will state clearly: So far there is no agreement and no outline for an agreement for a ceasefire with Israel, the terror leader said.

In August, it was reported that Israel and Hamas had reached a ceasefire under Egyptian mediation, as Israelis living in the south urged the government to stem the daily launching of incendiary balloons and near-daily barrage of rockets that threatened to drag the two sides into yet another conflict.

Gaza did not want to to stand idly by when the American Embassy was transferred to Jerusalem, Sinwar explained. The Palestinian people succeeded in turning this provocation into an opportunity to confront the Israeli enemy.

Sinwar heaped praise on the Gaza residents, saying our people create a means of pressure, like the incendiary balloons, and they write the history of those under siege in Gaza, who have nothing, and they cause Israel to think again.

Telling his listeners that Hamas was not seeking war, and was instead interested in maintaining the ceasefire reached in 2014 at the end of Operation Protective Edge, Sinwar emphasized that we are ready to fight off any aggression.

Sinwar addressed rumors circulating about possible solutions to the crisis gripping the Gaza Strip.

Anyone who thinks there is a discussion about an airport (in Sinai), does not know anything. The discussion at the moment is about a maritime route between the Gaza Strip and Cyprus and about finding a systematic solution to the problem of UNRWA, Sinwar attempted to clarify.

Sinwar also turned to UN Mideast Envoy Nikolay Mladenov. Your role has changed from the United Nations envoy for the peace process to the UN envoy to prevent war, Sinwar said.

As the pressure on resistance increased, so did the intermediaries. Mladenov came to Gaza twice a day during the recent escalation and not he hasnt been to Gaza in weeks, he complained.Several explosions were heard in Syria's Hama countryside, Syrian state news agency SANA said on Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the explosions were heard in the area between Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyoun near Hama city.Fighter jets struck targets in Syria's Hama countryside, Syrian state news agency SANA said on Tuesday, in an attack Syria swiftly attributed to Israel.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the explosions were heard in the area between Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyoun near Hama city.

According to RT in Arabic, two people were killed in the attack and at least five were wounded.

The Lebanon-based and Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen news channel also reported the airstrikes, while another report issued later from Syria said that the strikes had been aimed at Iranian targets.

Scene of alleged strike

According to opposition officials, the targets included a center for scientific research in the Masayaf area, a storage warehouse for scientific research, and other security-related facilities.

SANA said Syrian air defences confronted and downed several rockets fired by Israeli planes near the city of Hama on Tuesday.

"Air defenses downed a number of rockets fired by the Israeli enemy in the Wadi al-Uyoun area in the Hama countryside," SANA said.

Citing a military source SANA said that Israeli aircraft had targeted "our military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama".

"The enemy missiles were dealt with and some of them were shot down," SANA said.

Footage of Israel's alleged strike

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abderahman said the attack had also targeted around the coastal city of Baniyas for the first time, with two rockets hitting around one kilometre from an oil refinery.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

Syrian state television said air defences downed five rockets.

SANA said the planes had come at a low altitude from west of neighbouring Lebanon's coastal capital Beirut.

Al-Mayadeen news said Israeli fighter planes released countermeasures against anti-aircraft fire "and withdrew towards the sea at the same time as the sounds of explosions were heard in Hama countryside."

The alleged strike comes days after Syrian state media said loud blasts coming from an airbase early on Sunday were from an explosion at an ammunitions dump caused by an electrical problem, but an official in the regional alliance backing Damascus said they were from Israeli strikes.

Scene of explosion at Mezzeh airbase

Opposition leaders claimed that a weapons depot situated in the Mezzeh airbase in the capital belonging to Syrian President Bashar Assads army was the target of the the attack.

The airbase has been targeted in a number of airstrikes in recent years that the government has blamed on Israel.A senior IDF source revealed on Tuesday that over the past year-and-a-half the army has carried out approximately 200 attacks in Syria.

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According to the official, the strikes targeted mainly advanced weapon systems and infrastructure sites belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards located in Syrian territory.

In total, some 800 missiles and bombs were launched at targets on Syrian soil, the majority by IAF fighter jets.

Israel has repeatedly stated that it will not tolerate an Iranian military presence of any kind in Syria, which has been supporting President Bashar Assads regime and abetting terror proxies such as Hezbollah in the ongoing civil war.

According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies, both Damascus's partners in Syria's civil war.

While Israel rarely takes responsibility for such strikes, the IDF has at times admitted to hitting arms convoys heading for the Shiite Hezbollah organization.

IDF attack in Syria

In addition, sporadic errant rocket fire on Israels Golan Heights in Syrias civil war, which had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and made millions homeless, has been met by the IDF with strikes.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz used a speech on Tuesday to give a more general summary of Syria missions, prompted by a military briefing given to local media earlier in the day.

"Only just now it was publishedin the name of military sources, so I can quote it toothat in the last two years Israel has taken military action more than 200 times within Syria itself," Katz told a conference hosted by the IDC Herzliya college.

"Understand the significance of this matter in terms of preserving the red line, preventing the things that Iran has done, is doing and is trying to do against Israel from Syria."

Asked to confirm Katz's comments, an Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel had carried out around 200 attacks within Syria over the past year and a half.

Hamas replenishing rocket stockpile

As negotiations continue between Israel and Hamas to achieve a long-term ceasefire on the southern border, which have been accompanied by an unofficial moratorium in the launching of incendiary balloons and rockets from the Gaza Strip, the IDF still believes that the talks will more likely end in an escalation of hostilities.

The most sensitive issues are still far from being resolved, such as Hamass demand to expand Gazas fishing zone, Israels demand that the terror group release two captive Israeli citizens and the bodies of two fallen IDF soldiers in return for the building of sea ports or airports for Gaza in the Sinai.

According to the IDF, four years after Operation Protective Edge, Hamas is still uninterested in seeking a military conflict with Israel, but it has fully replenished its rocket supply that was decimated during the 2014 summer offensive. However, the effects have proven longer lasting of the IDFs strikes on Hamass naval capabilities and its underground terror network.

Gaza Strip (: AFP)

In addition, the IDF has recently completed a third of its subterranean anti-tunnel barrier, which by the end of the year will be finished at a length of 65 kilometers along the Gaza border.

Over the last year, the IDF has discovered and destroyed around 15 terror tunnels that had been dug into Israeli territory.

According to the IDF assessment, the terror group still has a single number of terror tunnels that are yet to be neutralized.

In addition, as IDF source say that those who suggest applying massive military pressure on the strip will lead to a cessation of terror activity, is mistaken.

The terror accompanies Israel since the state was established and it will continue to accompany us for years to come. We are working against it in a decisive, systematic and ethical manner. Flattening entire neighborhoods will eventually lead to the dismantling of the army and society, asserted the source.

Those who say that more shells will stop the terror are selling delusions to the general public, the source concluded.The White House warned on Tuesday that the United States and its allies would respond "swiftly and appropriately" if Syria's President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons again.

The White House also said in a statement that it was closely monitoring developments in the rebel-held Idlib region, where the Syrian government is expected to mount an offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster.Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett implied on Tuesday that Israel must mow the lawn in Gaza, employing a common metaphor used in reference to stopping attacks on Israel from the Hamas-ruled strip.

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In the media there is an acute dispute about two approachescutting all connection with the enemy or continuing contact and long-term security, Bennett said in a speech delivered at the annual International Institute for Counter-Terrorism Conference in Herzliya.

In our neighborhood, those who don't mow the lawn, are mowed by the grass, the education minister said at the opening of his remarks.

Minister Naftali Bennett (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

I think that when Rabin chose to go to Oslo he thought that Israel had no strength for continued conflict, said Bennett in reference to the former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin who signed the Oslo Accords in the 90s with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

I tie this to Lebanon because Israel was there for many years and its time there was to mow the grass so that the enemy would not bloom, he explained.

We disengaged from Lebanon in 2000 and in 2006 and paid a heavy price. We cut off contact again and Hezbollah underwent upgrades and we are, meanwhile, buying time. There is quiet at the moment, but you meet the enemy who is even bigger next time, Bennett warned.

The minister pointed to the West Bank, arguing that it offered proof of his theory.

Lets look at Judea and Samaria. In Oslo we cut off our contact, and then came the Intifada. Until Oslo, we were there as lawn mowers. We succeeded daily in arresting terrorists, he told his listeners at the IDC Herzliya college.

Golani training for combat against Hezbollah terrorists (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Then we launched Operation Defensive Shield (in 2002) and within a year or two we established the same means of lawn mowing and saw growth in terror. Practically speaking, Judea and Samaria is the only front today in which we have continuous contact as a lawn mower and not a single mortar has been fired from there and no tunnels have been dug, Bennett said.

After illustrating the point, Bennett then addressed the situation in Gaza, which he said had become a monster since Israel disengaged from the strip in 2005.

If we cut contact and say quiet in return for quiet, it is very tempting because we all want there to be quiet in Sderot, Nir Am, Kfar Aza, but what is the price?" He asked.

The price is that we will meet the enemy in another two or three years. Imagine Hamas firing on Israel with 30,000 rockets.

The annual conference took place against a backdrop of reports that Iran had recently given ballistic missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv to Shi'ite proxies in Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there to deter attacks on its interests in the Middle East.Russian and Syrian jets hammered a major rebel stronghold on Tuesday, a war monitor said, days before leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet to discuss an expected Syrian government offensive that could spark a humanitarian disaster.

The warplanes bombarded countryside around Jisr al-Shughour on the western edge of the rebel enclave of Idlib after weeks of lull, killing 13 civilians but no fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source.President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar Assad assassinated last year but his defense secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behavior.

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Excerpts from the book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, which is scheduled for release on September 11, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trump's 20-month-old presidency.

The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Woodward says amounts to an "administrative Coup d'etat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch.

President Trump and President Assad (Photo: Reuters, AP)

According to the book, Trump told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.

Lets f*****g kill him! Lets go in. Lets kill the f*****g lot of them, Trump said, according to Woodward.

Mattis told Trump he would "get right on it," but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally.

Mattis told an aide that a much calmer approach would be taken: Were not going to do any of that. Were going to be much more measured.



Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump acted like "a fifth- or sixth-grader," according to the book.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the book is "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad."

The Pentagon declined to comment.

Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a series of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions. For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, the Post said.

Among his other revelations: Former top economic adviser Gary Cohn stole a letter off Trump's desk that the president planned to sign that would withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea.

Bob Woodward (Photo: AFP)

Cohn, who tried to rein in Trump's protectionist impulses, also planned to remove a similar memo that would have withdrawn the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Woodward wrote.

"I'll just take the paper off his desk," Cohn told another White House aide, according to the book.

The United States remains part of both trade agreements as it negotiates new terms.

Worst job ever

Other aides insulted Trump behind his back. Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and said, "We're in Crazytown. ... This is the worst job I've ever had."

Trump treated top aides with scorn, the book says, telling Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was past his prime and calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded."

Interview of President Trump by Bob Woodward

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Kelly, in remarks released by the White House, said he never called the president an idiot and called the story "total BS."

Trump has grown paranoid and anxious over an ongoing federal inquiry into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, prompting aides to compare Trump to former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, Woodward reported.

Jim Mattis (Photo: EPA)

Trump's former lawyer John Dowd conducted a mock interview with Trump to convince him that he would commit perjury if he agreed to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, the book says.

Trump did not speak with him until the manuscript was complete, the paper said. "So I have another bad book coming out. Big deal," Trump told Woodward, according to a transcript of a telephone call released by the Post.News

Washington, DC - The Governments of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States strongly condemn the continued escalation of violence in and around Tripoli that has caused many casualties and continues to endanger the lives of innocent civilians. We reiterate that the targeting of civilians and indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under International Humanitarian Law.

These attempts to weaken the legitimate Libyan authorities and hamper the course of the political process are not acceptable. We urge armed groups to immediately cease all military actions and warn those who tamper with security in Tripoli or elsewhere in Libya that they will be held accountable for any such actions.

We reaffirm our strong and continued support to the United Nations Action Plan, as recalled by the President of Security Council on June 6th and by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ghassan Salame on July 16th. We call on all actors 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.News

Yuma, Arizona - Late Friday night the United States Marshals Service led WANTED Violent Offender Task Force, with the assistance of the Yuma Police Departments Special Enforcement Team, arrested Isaiah Brown for the murder of Jermarion Jackson. The arrest came after a cross country manhunt that ended with the fugitives arrest in 4700 block of West 27th Lane in Yuma.

The arrest of Isaiah Brown demonstrates the hard work of investigators and the strength of law enforcement partnerships to ensure that fugitives will be brought to justice, said United States Marshal David Gonzales. The United States Marshals Service and Yuma Police Department are proud to help safely capture this dangerous fugitive and return him to Chicago to face the charges that await him.

In May, the Chicago Police Department came to the Great Lakes Fugitive Task Force, which is also led by the United States Marshals Service, and asked for their assistance in arresting Isaiah Brown for the April 29, 2018 murder of Jermarion Jackson. The United States Marshals Service began a nationwide manhunt for the fugitive. In the course of the investigation it was believed Brown had fled to Yuma. On Friday afternoon the WANTED Task Force tracked the fugitive to the 4700 block of West 27th Lane. Brown barricaded himself in the residence. The Yuma Police Department Special Enforcement Team was able to get Brown to safely surrender without incident.

Isaiah Brown was transported to the Yuma County Adult Detention Center to await extradition back to Illinois.Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey Wednesday delivered the following remarks at the Arizona State Capitol celebrating the life of John McCain:

Weve all seen the grainy video.

A young man, in his 30s, emerges from behind the folding doors of a bus. Plows forward with strength. His feet land on the ground, and he limps forward  towards freedom.

Its John McCain. And hed just spent five years as a prisoner of war. Shot down. Ejected from his plane. His right leg and both arms broken, he managed, miraculously, to save himself from drowning in the lake in which he landed, only to be captured by the North Vietnamese.

No one expected John McCain to make it through the night, but as one of his fellow POWs put it: Dying was not in his plan.

Confined to solitude. Tortured. This son and grandson of Navy admirals, repeatedly refused release until every other American brother was released with him.

Of all the speeches, interviews and town hall meetings that have been played and replayed in these days since John McCain has left us, its this moment more than any other that cant help but stir a spirit of patriotism deep inside every American  bringing goosebumps to your arms and leaving the hair standing on the back of your neck.

Because as you watch his release and learn his story, the Senators life, lessons and wisdom take on a much more meaningful context.

When John McCain called on us to serve a purpose greater than ones own self interest  it wasnt a talking point designed to win the next election. It was how he had actually lived his own life, and continued to live his life. Its how he wanted all of us to live ours.

His talk of Country First wasnt simply a slogan on a yard sign. It was what John McCain had done and demonstrated. Over and over and over again  in the Navy, through Vietnam, and all the way to his favorite battles, on floor of the United States Senate.

In 2008, he electrified an arena in Minneapolis, proclaiming: Were Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history. These werent the empty words of some politician grabbing the microphone and the spotlight for a few fleeting moments. Men had followed John McCain into battle  and we knew we could do the same. This man was trusted, and he was tested  qualities in increasingly short supply.

We think sometimes that politics is life and death. But John McCain knew better  because he had actually seen death, and dying, and tragedy. Make no mistake, he fought like hell for the causes he believed in. He plowed through election after election with the energy and focus of a warrior.

But along the way he did it with humor and humanity, and without compromising the principles he held so dear. Id rather lose an election, than lose a war, he affirmed. And we knew he was telling us the truth.

In that way, John McCain was about more than politics  he brought us above politics. John is probably the only politician who could get us to set aside politics and come together as a state and as a nation  as we have.

Like many of us here in Arizona, John McCain came from somewhere else. But his spirit, service and fierce independence ultimately helped shape the state with which he became synonymous.

Almost exactly 20 years ago, John McCain delivered the eulogy at Barry Goldwaters funeral  that other great legendary Arizonan who America holds dear in our hearts. Where Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona; John McCain was Arizonas favorite adopted son.

Nearly 45 years old when he moved to Arizona  this was the first place, he said, where he truly found a connection. Arizona has enchanted and claimed me, he wrote. I love it so much. And I am so grateful for the privilege of representing the state and its people.

But in reality  we were the ones who were privileged. Privileged to have John McCain fighting for us. Privileged to learn from him. Privileged  when he was back home  to run into him at the movies, or at a ball game, or at Starbucks  just like he was any one of us. Privileged to proudly call him a fellow Arizonan.

To the rest of the world: John McCain was Arizona. When all of us here traveled and told people we were from Arizona, people knew two big things about it: John McCain and the Grand Canyon. Imagining Arizona without John McCain is like picturing an Arizona without the Grand Canyon  its just not natural.

To the woman who brought John McCain to Arizona. The hearts and prayers of not only Angela and I  but our entire state and nation are with you and your family at this moment.

Always known for your elegance, grace and compassion  all those qualities have been on full display over this past year. You are a model for all of us, and an inspiration. Arizona loves you, Cindy McCain.

To the woman who brought John McCain into the world, Mrs. McCain, Roberta, 106 years young  you raised a remarkable son, and we are truly blessed to have you among us still.

When we look to you, there is no doubt where John McCain inherited his determination, resilience and tenacity  it was built into his DNA.

You see it in Johns children  who carry on his spirit of service. Doug, Andy, Sidney, Meghan, Jack, Jimmy, and Bridget. May God bless all of you. We know your father was very proud, and so is the state of Arizona.

In May, Angela and I had the great honor of visiting with John and Cindy at their cabin. Before lunch, the Senator broke the ice by sharing what was weighing on his mind, more than anything else. Breaking into his signature grin, he said: My biggest challenge is deciding whether or not to run for reelection in 2022.

Dying, as had been observed 50 years earlier, was not in his plan.

John McCain was a fighter, and he called on us to fight with him.

For American values. For the ideals and character of a free people. For justice and opportunity for all. For each other and for this blessed and bountiful country.

None of us were ready for this. We never would have been ready for this. But John McCain often said of Americans  we never surrender.

So while we grieve today  as a state and as a nation  John McCains fight for America isnt over.

Its a fight all Americans are obligated to continue on his behalf.

And as we march forward with the courage and resolve he would have demanded, may we take comfort knowing that in that fight  John McCain will always have our back.Arizona News

Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a State Grand Jury indicted Leah Chavez, a former town clerk, for allegedly stealing more than $30,000 from the Town of Pinetop-Lakeside. Chavez, 39, is charged with 10 felony counts including Theft, Forgery, and Misuse of Public Monies.

The indictment alleges Chavez took $8,825 in cash from the town on five separate occasions during July and August 2016, and that she used a town credit card for an additional $16,482 in personal purchases from April to September 2016. Chavez is also alleged to have taken $9,940 in town funds on August 16, 2016, to pay for personal purchases on the town credit card.

Chavez is scheduled to appear before a Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner in Phoenix on Thursday, August 10, 2017, at 8:30 am for her arraignment.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson is prosecuting this matter.

All defendants are presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - On Saturday, at approximately 3:14 a.m., a red Jeep Cherokee was traveling southbound in the 2400 block of Avenue 9E. The vehicle left the roadway and struck the concrete barrier to the canal bridge. The vehicle rolled and slid, coming to rest on its roof.

The driver of the vehicle, a 29 year old male, was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center and later flown to a Phoenix Hospital in serious condition.

Speed and alcohol are believed to be a factor in this collision.

This case is still under investigation.

The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this case to please call the Yuma Police Department at (928) 373-4700 or 78-Crime at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - On Saturday, at approximately 2:00 a.m., a red Jeep Cherokee was traveling in the 1200 block of W, 24th Street. The vehicle left the roadway and struck a power pole causing a power outage in the area.

The driver of the vehicle, a 17 year old male, was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center for minor injuries.

Speed and alcohol are believed to be a factor in this collision.

This case is still under investigation.

The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this case to please call the Yuma Police Department at (928) 373-4700 or 78-Crime at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous.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.Anglican University College of Technology, also known as Angutech is a privately owned Institution which was established by the Anglican Church. The main aim of this institution is to provide quality tertiary education, to train and equip graduates in the field of science and technology to respond to the challenges of the ever-changing global market seeking to bring to bear the relentless effort for excellence through critical and analytical thinking. The Anglican University College of Technology ensures that students are well prepared for continuous and further learning. In this article, we are going to dive deeper into the courses at Anglican University and programmes for graduates and undergraduates as well as the admission requirements. Read this article is you want to find out about the Anglican University admission for 2018/2019.

Anglican University College of Technology has its first campus at Nkoranza in the Brong Ahafo Region and will soon be opening its Kumasi Campus in Ashtown, Kumasi

Vision

To be a leading institution in transforming Ghanas Science and Technology Education for development.

Mission

To contribute to socio-economic development of society through the pursuit of technology, learning, and research at the highest level of excellence.

Accreditation

The Anglican University College of Technology is accredited by the National Accreditation Board of Ghana (NAB)

READ ALSO: Christ Apostolic University College courses, location and contacts

Affiliation

The Anglican University College is affiliated to both the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Cape Coast (UCC). Being an Anglican institution, the college is also a member of the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC).

The Anglican University College of Technology is owned by the Anglican Communion in Ghana. It was founded in 2008. Angus Tech was established to train high-level science and technology human resources in a holistic manner, to conduct innovative research and provide extension services for the country. Anglican University College structured as a multi-campus university, will provide economically viable programmes aimed at producing graduates who will contribute towards the socio-economic development of the country. One of the noteworthy things about the Anglican University College is that it is an institution with a Christian character and values but caters to all students, irrespective of their backgrounds and religious affiliation.

Inauguration of the Anglican University College of Technology

On 29th March 2008, the Anglican University College was inaugurated at the St. Cyprians Anglican Church in Kumasi, under the distinguished attendance of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the President of the Republic of Ghana and His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor amongst other dignitaries. The first President of the University College, Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy, was officially inducted into office at the event following her appointment in January 2008. An international launch followed in July the same year, at the University of Kent as a side event during the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, United Kingdom.

The Anglican University College is affiliated to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The first College of the University, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, located at Nkoranza in the Brong-Ahafo Region was inaugurated on 25th October 2013 to pave way for the maiden Anglican University College of Technology admission for the first batch of students.

The Nkoranza Campus

The Nkoranza campus is the first of the Anglican University Colleges multi-campus institution, which houses the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Like Angusher colleges of Angus Tech, this College has a number of schools responsible for the running of their separate academic programs. There are three schools in this College, namely;

School of Agriculture & Bio-Resources Engineering (SABRE)

School of Food & Health Sciences (SFHS)

School of Social Sciences (SSS)

Also, B.Sc. Health Information Management and B.Sc. Community Medicine & Health are run by the School of Food and Health Sciences, whilst B.Sc. Development & Management Studies is under the School of Social Sciences.

Courses at Anglican University College of Technology

There are several Courses at Anglican University College of Technology

These courses at Anglican University College of Technology are below;

B.Sc. General Agriculture

B.Sc. Agricultural Engineering and Mechanisation

B.Sc. Soil and Water Engineering

B.Sc. Community Medicine and Health

B.Sc. Health Information Management

B.A. Development and Management Studies

Programmes on offer at the Nkoranza Campus

The Nkoranza campus is quickly becoming one of the favorite campuses of the Anglican University College mainly because of the type of courses at Anglican university college of technology. Some of these courses are listed below:

BSc. Community Medicine and Health (Physician Assistantship)

The purpose of this programme is to train health personnel to man/supervise community and district health facilities where medical officers are usually not available. It also aims to produce a health worker who will be able to lead a health team to deliver effective, preventive and curative health care at the sub-district level, and also be part of the team of health workers at the district and community.

BSc. Health Information Management

This programme aims to train professionals who are able to develop and securely use various technologies to collect, store, analyze, disseminate and communicate health data with strong emphasis on developing and supporting mobile health applications and other emerging technologies in healthcare. Students are also equipped with the technical and managerial skills to lead their organizations in their transition from paper-based healthcare to e-health.

BSc. Nursing

The BSc. The nursing programme aims at preparing graduates to be responsibly informed nurses through the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills and right professional attitudes. After completing this programme, graduates will be able to assume responsibilities as professional and competent nurses who provide promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services.

Diploma in Midwifery

The Diploma in Midwifery programme aims at preparing graduates to be highly skilled midwives, through the acquisition and application of knowledge and right professional attitudes. After completion, graduates will be able to assume responsibilities as professional midwives who provide promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services.

BA. Development & Management Studies

This programme is designed to help students develop the knowledge and skills to handle management and organizational issues in a complex global environment. Students could gain employment in both public and private sector organizations. Knowledge and skills in development and management are required for top science and engineering professionals who also make business and management decisions on a daily basis.

BSc. General Agriculture

This programme is to produce students with knowledge as well as practical and entrepreneurial skills that will make them useful citizens contributing their quota to national development efforts in the agriculture sector towards food sufficiency.

Programmes to be offered at the Kumasi Campus

Kumasi will soon have the opportunity to benefit from the services of the Anglican University College of Technology, as they will soon be open to the general public. The Kumasi campus is scheduled to be located at the premises of the St. Annes Anglican Church at Ashtown, Kumasi by October 2018. The following programmes will be available at the Kumasi Campus:

Banking and Finance

General Management

Purchasing and Supply Chain Management

Marketing

Accounting

Human Resource Management

Information Technology

Computer Science

Accounting

Management

Upcoming Programmes

Diploma in Early Childhood Education

Certificate in Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood Education

Pictures of Anglican University College of Technology

Anglican university college of technology fees

Anglican university college of technology fees are to be paid by all students before the beginning of the academic registration. Fees are mostly for the whole academic year but students are allowed to make part payment of the school fees during the first academic year and register.The remaining fees must be paid on or before the registration of the second semester of the 2018/2019 academic year. Fees are usually changed every year so if you want to know the fees for the this academic year or the next, calling the school will be a good choice.

Admission requirements Angutech University

Here are the admission requirements for different stages of admission;

WASSCE Holders

WASSCE holders will require passes (A1-C6) respectively in six (6) subjects comprising three (3) core subjects plus three (3) relevant elective subjects.

General Certificate of Education (GCE) O and A Levels

Applicants will require a credit in at least five (5) subject at the GCE O level (or its equivalent) including English Language and Mathematics, with at least two passes in the relevant subject at the Advanced Level.

Higher National Diploma (HND)

Applicants must have graduated with a good HND certificate (i.e. at least 2nd class division). In addition, the applicant must have acquired a 2-year post HND qualification working experience. Mentoring instructions practice with regard to entry levels for HND applicants may also be applied. Other Diploma qualifications from elsewhere assessed to be equivalent to HND may be considered.

Mature students

Applicants must be at least 25 years old and show proof of age with birth certificate or any legitimate documentary proof of birth date. In addition applicants must have passes in English Language and Mathematics. Applicants without credit passes in English Language and Mathematics must pass the Mature Students Entrance Examination in English Language, Mathematics and Aptitude Test.

Foreign students

All foreign Students would be referred to the National Accreditation Board (NAB) for Determination of equivalences and eligibility for admission to tertiary institutions in Ghana.

Serving Officers (BSc. Nursing and Diploma in Midwifery Only)

Certificate holders in HAC/NAC/NAP and Community Health Nurses will be admitted to various levels in the BSc. Nursing and Diploma in Midwifery programmes after successful completion of an Access Course run by the University College.

Also, prospective applicants are to visit the Anglican University College of Technology for more information and assistance on applications and the various admission requirements. Here is an important checklist to consider if you want to apply to the Angutech University;

You will need to include photocopies of certificates and other relevant documents to your application.

Mature applicants should attach a copy of their birth certificate.

Completed applications should be sent (together with a payment order/bankers draft of GH 80.00) via post to the address on the admission form.

You will need to attach two passport size Photographs to your application.

Also not that Applicant who makes a false statement on the form shall be refused admission,

and/or if he has already been admitted, shall be withdrawn from the University College.

Anglican University College of Technology contact details

Address: No. 3 Oak Street, Teshie - Estate P. O. Box LG 448

Location: Accra

Country: Ghana

Telephone Number: 020 9036680

Website: www.angutech.edu.gh

Email: info@angutech.edu.gh

Accra Office

General Enquiries: 233(0)302 712 122 | 233(0)505 091 046

Admissions: 233(0)570 600 743 | 233(0)505 091 054

Nkoranza Campus

General Enquiries: 233(0)505 091 054

The above are the Admission requirements for Angutech University Check out Admission requirements for Angutech University. You can also apply online.

READ ALSO: Best universities in Ghana ranking

Source: Yen Newspaper- Canadian High Commission in Ghana says reports that Canada is running a visa lottery are false

- High Commission has urged Ghanaians not to be victims of this scam

The Canadian High Commission in Ghana has denied reports circulating that Canada is running a visa lottery.

In recent weeks, reports have been circulating on social media announcing that the Canadian government has opened up its visa lottery programme.

However, the Canadian High Commission has refuted such report, describing any post of the sort as false.

READ ALSO: 5 cars that you should be driving in Ghanas hard economy

In a statement posted on Twitter, the High Commission warned Ghanaians to be careful so as not to fall victim to scammers.

don't be a victim of false info online: Canada does not have a visa lottery, sections of the statement read.

The statement added that persons looking to travel to Canada should seek details on the official Canadian government website (http://Canada.ca/immigration).

''Make sure you get your immigration information from the official government of Canada website at http://Canada.ca/immigration. Learn more about online scams: https://goo.gl/w2niZH.''

The High Commission further urged the general public to ignore any report suggesting Canada is running a visa lottery.

READ ALSO: My first marriage collapsed because I married too young- Duncan Williams explains

Meanwhile, the United States of America (USA) remains the only country that runs a visa lottery, allowing winners to travel to the US.

Ghana News Today: About Ghana's Banks And Mahama's Presidential Ambition | #Yencomgh

READ ALSO: Forever is not enough - Tobi Sanni gushes over Becca in new post

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Send us a message on our Facebook/Instagram pages with your stories, photos.

Source: Yen.com.gh- Information available to YEN.com.gh suggests that VW may set up its West Africa head office in Nigeria

- This follows discussions held with the country by key officials of the company

- Reports of VW's entry into Ghana has been met with mixed reactions

Information available to YEN.com.gh shows that German car manufacturer, Volkswagen (VW) is set to open its West African Head Office in Nigeria.

This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to turn the country into the automotive hub of West Africa.

According to a report by MyNewsGH.com, agreement to this effect was signed during German Chancellor Angela Merkels visit to Nigeria.

READ ALSO: 5 cars you should be driving in Ghana's harsh economy

Present at the signing ceremony in Abuja was the Nigerias Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Okey Enelamah.

Unlike Rwandas assembly plant which will be serving most of the East African Market, Ghanas Volkswagen assembly plant will only serve the Ghanaian market while the market for West Africa will be supplied from Nigeria where VWs West Africa office will be.

According to a statement by Volkswagen on Friday, August 31, 2018, the agreement will see new plants being built in both countries, thereby expanding the automobile market in the continent.

Commenting on the proposed venture, Thomas Schaefer, head of Volkswagens sub-Saharan region, said: Both memorandums of understanding demonstrate one thing: the seriousness with which Volkswagen takes its commitment to Africa.

READ ALSO: Menzgold clients furious over delays in dividend payments

On Thursday, August 30, 2018, President Akufo Addo received German Chancellor; Angela Merkel, for bilateral discussions as part of her three-nation West African tour.

The German Chancellor on her arrival had deliberations at the Jubilee House which focused on efforts at Ghanas economic resurgence and migration.

One of the highlights of the meeting was an intention to set up a VW assembly plant in Ghana, a move that drew mixed reactions from a cross-section of Ghanaians.

Local car manufacturer, Kantanka Automobile Limited raised objections to the decision, citing the failure of the government to support local companies.

A government official, Gabby Otchere-Darko, however advised the company to be proactive in its business approach in order to attract support from the government.

READ ALSO: Azumah Nelson reveals a troubling secret about his son

Ghana News Today: President Akufo-Addos Tour | #Yencomgh

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Source: Yen.com.gh- Founder of AUCC and NDC official, Kojo Yankah, has advised Mahama against contesting for 2020 polls

- Kojo Yankah in an open letter told Mahama that it was impossible to solve all challenges of Ghana

A seasoned politician and founder of the African University College of Communications (AUCC), Kojo Yankah, has advised John Dramani Mahama to reconsider his bid to contest the 2020 elections.

John Dramani Mahama has made known his intentions to contest the 2020 elections saying he owes it to serve Ghanaians once again.

The public announcement by the former president was welcomed with solidarity messages from supporters and party executives who described Mahama's decision as timely.

READ ALSO: Menzgold assures clients over delay in dividend payment

But Kojo Yankah shared a varied view on this development. In an open letter to John Mahama, the renowned politician believes Mahama would have to reconsider his decision especially when he could not solve all the problems of Ghana.

"...Of my knowledge of history, no leader of any country has been able to solve all the problems of that country. Even more inspiring for me, America's Jimmy Carter, who was in office for only one term, served the world and humanity much better when he was out of office.

John, my humble request is for you to give a second thought to your decision. If l am too late in coming, or if you have heard my reasoning before, l wish you well," part of his open letter stated.

READ ALSO: Canadian government not running visa lottery - High Commission

What is interesting about this publication is that Kojo Yankah is a top member of the NDC - the party on whose ticket John Mahama is contesting.

Mahama's ticket for 2020

The former president, John Mahama, made known his intentions to run or not to contest the 2020 elections in an announcement at the NDC headquarters on August 23. This announcement by John Mahama put to rest various speculations concerning his bid to lead the party yet again to the election in 2020.

John Mahama had earlier paid a courtesy call of the founder of the NDC, Jerry Rawlings a move that many may see as politically strategic. Already, all ten regional party chairmen of the NDC have endorsed Mahama and also advised him to lead the party.

In a draft letter, all chairmen signed in approval of John Mahama being the next flag bearer of the NDC yet again. But things have not been easy for the former president as other party executives including those he worked closely with during his tenure as president are now set to contest against him.

One of the most vociferous amongst all is the second deputy speaker of parliament, Alban Bagbin, who has been singled out for the use of harsh words against John Mahama. In his latest string of attack, Alban Bagbin, attributed the defeat of the NDC during the 2020 election to the decision by former President Mahama to appoint a visually impaired official.

The member of parliament for Nadowli Kaleo has argued that appointing Dr. Henry Siedu Daanaa as the minister in charge of chieftaincy and traditional affairs was a terrible mistake that cost the party dearly in the 2016 elections.

READ ALSO: Osofo Kyiri Abosom 'crippled', other top men of God 'flee' after encounter with demon-possessed girl

Already, there are plans by the top executives of the NDC to summon Alban Bagbin to the disciplinary committee over some of the criticisms he has been vicious and offensive. Bagbin has therefore apologised for his comments saying his arguments were misunderstood.

Ghana News Today: National Cathedral Drama / Kofi Anan to be buried back home | #Yencomgh

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Source: YenYEN.com.gh has sighted a post by actress Yvonne Okoro engaging in a brawl with one of her fans.

Yvonne Okoro had shared a photo of herself on Instagram and she looks very stunning just as acknowledged by her many fans and followers.

Then a fan by name Aminu, commented under Yvonne Okoros photo comparing her with Juliet Ibrahim and eventually concluding that Juliet was a better actress than her.

READ ALSO: Tracy Sarkcess hairstyle to Glitz Style Awards stirs debate on social media

According to Aminu, Juliet Ibrahim is doing her work well and better than she Okoro both in Ghana and in Nigeria, therefore, Yvonne should try her best to catch up with Juliet.

Aminu wrote: aminu831: Yvonnneokoro, you are sorry. Because you aren't performing now, Juliet Ibrahim she's doing her job well, inside Ghana and Nigeria,precisely she covered everything all, her savage and innuendos during movies and advertisements shows characterize. Now, try to do your best maybe you may reach her. But isn't handy is difficult.

But Yvonne undoubtedly got offended with that comment and attacked Aminu.

She described Aminu as a little man who makes no sense at all, and told him that she had just acquired a Bachelor Degree in Law.

Yvonne Okoro wrote: yvonneokoro: @aminu831 u make no sense at all.I just finished my LLB(law)..Let tht sink in little man.

But Aminu, who seems to be surprised by Okoros response to his comment wrote again telling her that he didnt mean to insult her therefore, her insult to him was uncalled for.

aminu831: @yvonneokoro No, if you understand me well, you never told that. Just aa advised to you,not insult you, okay can you understood.

READ ALSO: Nana Ama McBrown addresses rumours that her husband impregnated Benedicta Gafah

Other fans and followers of Okoro joined in the trend with many of them lambasting Aminu for speaking that way to their idol Okoro.

For instance, Gogetta called Aminu a riffraff.

mr___gogetta: @yvonneokoro I just look at this riffraff @aminu831 profile smh .......I asked myself who this fool  cuz he looks worthless n dnt make any sense at all lol pls dnt waste time on such ppl !!!!.

Ruddest wondered which language Aminu was speaking.

ruddestlyrical: @aminu831 Which Language are u speaking ? , @yvonneokoro where is he from .

Angela also said Aminu needed to go to school because he makes no sense.

angelaezire: "@aminu831 u need free senior high school education. U make no sense."

READ ALSO: Osofo Kyiri Abosom 'crippled', other top men of God 'flee' after encounter with demon-possessed girl

Meanwhile, Yvonne Okoro has kept a low profile on social media for some time now.

The last time he was in the news, it was with controversial Consellor Lutterodt advising her to get married because she was growing old.

Yvonne Okoro is one of Ghanas best actresses who has carved an enviable niche for herself in the industry.

She is loved for her beautiful stature, talent, and self-respect.

Yvonne has acted alongside other heavyweight actresses and actors including Jackie Appiah, Nadia Buari, Yvonne Nelson, John Dumelo, Majid Michelle, and Van Vicker, just to mention a few.

READ ALSO: I had a bad reception in Nigeria too - Sarkodie reveals

Do Ghanaians know about late Kofi Annan? | #Yencomgh

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Source: Yen- Former trader, Kweku Adoboli, is likely to be deported from the United Kingdom

- This is after he has served 4 years in prison

- He was sentenced to 7 years for a 1.4bn fraud at Swiss bank UBS

A former trader who was convicted of fraud 2012, Kweku Adoboli, is facing extradition to Ghana, possibly on September 10, 2018.

YEN.com.gh understands that foreign nationals in the United Kingdom (UK) sentenced to more than four years are automatically considered for deportation.

Adoboli served four years of a seven-year sentence for a 1.4bn fraud at Swiss bank UBS and was released in 2015. He has lived in the UK since the age of 12.

Kweku Adoboli Source: theconversation.com

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Report: Volkswagen's West Africa head office will not be in Ghana

Speaking in an interview with the BBC last week,he accused the UK authorities of racism.

"The fact that I was born in a different country and have different-coloured skin became part of the labelling process," he told BBC Scotland's Business Editor, Douglas Fraser.

He went on to say that "It was no longer, Kweku Adoboli who went to Yorkshire at the age of 12, became head boy of his school, went to Nottingham University, contributed to the students' union, became campus brand ambassador for UBS, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It was 'Ghanaian-born rogue trader Adoboli.

A Home Office spokesperson told the BBC that while the government does not comment on specific cases, "all foreign nationals who are given a custodial sentence will be considered for removal."

The spokesperson went on to say that foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK are usually deported.

READ ALSO: Two women caned for attempting to have lesbian sex

Ghana News Today: President Akufo-Addos Tour | #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- Nana Addo has lobbied for the establishment of the Africa headquarters of Alibaba in Ghana

- The president met with China's richest man, Jack Ma, and engaged in trade talks

- The engagement come after the Ghana-China meetup which saw Ghana secure $50 billion

President Akufo-Addo has met with one of the world's billionaires and also China's richest man, Jack Ma.

This iconic engagement between the president and Jack Ma comes in the wake of a $50 Billion loan facility from China to Ghana which is expected to be financed in the next 100 years.

According to Akufo Addo, he had lobbied the CEO of Alibaba Group to establish the Africa headquarters of the company in Ghana.

Nana Addo in a group photograph with Jack Ma and some ministers

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Election 2020: Mahama advised to bow out of constesting

"...Alibaba Group, the world's largest e-commerce business, is, amongst others, looking to partner countries in Africa, so as to help them boost their export capacities using the Alibaba platform, and also help nurture "tech talents" in Ghana and Africa.In our interaction, I also urged him to consider establishing the headquarters of Alibaba's Africa operations in Ghana," excerpts of the president's statement revealed.

Alibaba Group, the worlds largest e-commerce business, is, amongst others, looking to partner countries in Africa, so as to help them boost their export capacities using the Alibaba platform, and also help nurture tech talents in Ghana and Africa.

Nana Addo meets China's most richest man

Source: UGC

China-Africa relations

Economic trade between China and Africa rose to14 percent last year totaling $170bn. So far, China has been Africa's biggest trading partner in the past ten years and its resources have helped fuel China's transformation into the world's second-largest economy.

Africa is in the middle of a boom in infrastructure projects, managed and cheaply financed by China. Some Chinese manufacturers are expanding to Africa, but the bulk of Chinese investment goes into mining or construction of roads and other infrastructure.

Nana Addo meets China's most richest man

Source: UGC

Meanwhile, there are fears that African countries, including Ghana, are piling up so much Chinese debt that could not be paid in the future.

READ ALSO: Canadian government not running visa lottery - High Commission

This troubling development could leave African nations with no choice but to hand over controlling stakes in strategic assets to China.

Ghana News Today: National Cathedral Drama / Kofi Annan 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 NewsPrivacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.Liable to imprisonment

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has wasted no time in taking up the Coalitions offensive against the trade union movement and execution of the class war. On Monday (September 3) he indicated he was discussing the deregistration of the construction and general division of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU) with his Industrial Relations Minister Kelly ODwyer and other colleagues.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has joined the government and Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) in the attack on militant unions. The ACCC has laid criminal cartel charges against the Australian Capital Territory divisional branch of the union and its secretary Jason OMara.

If found guilty OMara faces up to 10 years in jail for the crime of legitimate trade union activity in defence of his members.

In the past the union has faced civil charges for cartel conduct, an offence carrying monetary penalties. The laying of criminal charges is also provided for under the Act for more serious offences.

Cartel activity is usually thought of in terms of corporations fixing petrol prices, rigging bids for government contracts or making agreements on market sharing.

Large monopolies are not interested in genuine competition which drives prices and hence profits down. Monopoly price fixing in transportation, packaging, communications, energy, banking and other critical areas of the economy affects the cost of almost everything that other capitalists produce, driving up the price of their inputs.

Hence the creation of such bodies as the ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] to curb the abuse of the power that comes with monopolisation when it hurts other big businesses.

The CFMMEU and Mr OMara are each charged with attempting to induce suppliers of steel-fixing services and scaffolding services to reach cartel contracts, arrangements or understandings containing cartel provisions in relation to services provided to builders in the ACT in 2012 to 2013, ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.

The charges arise out of the Heydon Royal Commission into trade unions.

The penalties for such criminal conduct by an individual are up to 10 years jail and for the union either up to $10 million per breach, or 10 percent of turnover.

In his report on the ACT branch of the CFMMEU, royal commissioner Dyson Heydon warned the union that to assemble competitors in a room, to stimulate a discussion about prices and costs, and to engage in a process of advising the competitors to charge a particular price is a very hazardous activity.

It is also very hazardous to advocate, encourage or insist that the competitors enter into identical agreements with a union. These are fundamentally anti-competitive practices, Heydon said.

Drawing on information presented to the Royal Commission, Heydon also noted that companies with CFMMEU enterprise bargaining agreements (EBA) cannot compete with those that do not have CFMMEU EBAs, and that they expect co-operation from the CFMMEU in stamping out that competition.

That gets to the crux of the matter. If the union is not legally allowed to push for uniformity across a project, then employers will be more reluctant than ever to negotiate an agreement that puts them at a disadvantage.

The ACCC is treating agreements by the employers to pay the same minimum as cartel activity under the Act. Yet, in the past when pattern bargaining across an industry was legal, it was common practice. It removes the disadvantages that employers experience who negotiate union agreements and do the right thing by workers.

That is the whole aim of the application of the cartel provisions of the Act to a trade union and its officials, in particular, opting for criminal not civil charges which carry far heavier penalties.

If found guilty, OMara would also be disqualified from holding office in a trade union.

Political weapon

In effect, these cartel provisions are yet another weapon being used to criminalise the negotiation of wages and conditions and the fight for jobs.

Unions ACT secretary Alex White described the charges as politically motivated.

It is deeply disturbing and unprecedented for cartel laws to be used in a politically directed manner by the federal [government] against a union for legitimate bargaining, White said.

Referring to the ACCCs attack on the CFMMEU, its construction division national secretary, Dave Noonan said, It was a massive waste of taxpayers money and a misuse of the regulators time on the governments union-bashing agenda.

Consumers would want to know why the ACCC is wasting its time on this sort of ideological rubbish instead of petrol pricing and some of the other massive business rip-offs that we know are going on in the Australian economy, Noonan said.

The first mention of the charges before the ACT Magistrates Court is scheduled for September 27.

The Competition and Consumer Act requires any trial of such alleged criminal offences to proceed by way of indictment in the Federal Court of Australia or a state or territory Supreme Court.

Back in 2015 the ACCC declared war on the countrys most militant unions. The former Turnbull government allocated an extra $2 million for the ACCC to set up a special unit to investigate cartel conduct, secondary boycotts and other anti-competitive behaviour involving construction industry participants, including industry trade unions.

The cartel provisions of the Act lay the basis for a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions, pitting worker against worker on construction sites and make it even more difficult to negotiate union agreements.

The real competition would be between workers.

Personal Payment Orders

In another serious development, also targeting construction unions, a sitting of the full Federal Court has finalised the first order banning a union from paying an officials $19,500 fine. The fine relates to the interruption of a concrete pour in 2013 during the construction of the Regional Rail Link Project in Melbourne.

The decision is the first to be handed down following a High Court ruling that held the courts had the power to prevent officials from receiving union money to pay their fines.

The aim, according to the court, was to show that they cannot act in contravention of the Act knowing that union funds will always bale him, or them, out.

An order that a contravener must not seek or receive indemnity from his or her co-contravener ... assists in accomplishing the calculated level of sting or burden of the pecuniary penalty..., the court said.

Victorian organiser, Joe Myles, has been given 90 days to make the payment. The bosss police force, the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) pressed for 60 days and the union asked for 12 months.

The order prohibits Joe Miles from seeking or accepting money or any financial benefit from the union towards paying the penalty.

The Court did not mince words, accompanying the prohibition with a draconian penal notice warning the CFMMEU and Myles of the consequences of refusing or neglecting to act within the time specified in the order; or disobeying the order by doing an act which the order requires be done.

You will be liable to imprisonment, sequestration of property or other punishment, the Court warned.

In addition, any other person who knows of this order and does anything which helps or permits you to breach the terms of this order may be similarly punished.

This order clears the way now for the ABCC to seek to bar another 22 CFMMEU officials, mostly organisers, in another 14 cases from having the union pay their fines.

ABCC

For more than 15 years the union-bashing, anti-worker ABCC has, in its various guises, been hounding the construction trade unions.

It has taken close to 250 cases to court, almost all of them against the construction unions, in particular, the CFMEU. The unions have been hit with millions of dollars in fines and organisers, union officials and union members with penalties running to thousands of dollars each. Organisers have also lost or had their right of entry permits suspended.

While employers appeared to act with impunity, any action by a union to retrieve unpaid wages or superannuation and other entitlements is treated as illegal. Likewise action to ensure workplaces are safe is a signal for the ABCC to step in.

The employers and government have a well-planned strategy to destroy the trade union movement, attacking the most militant unions first. The ABCC and Royal Commission have played a critical role in setting the scene for the next step of deregistration.

Employers who breach the law are rarely called to account, it is only the unions who attempt to enforce bosses legal obligations on behalf of their members who are punished.

The ABCC has hounded unions and union members, intimidating workers, pursuing endless court cases of alleged illegal conduct, creating the impression of an industry controlled by lawless unions.

The hearings of the Heydon Royal Commission, with almost daily media reports of claims, unsubstantiated by any evidence of unions breaking laws which have been introduced to prevent them representing their members rights.

The trade union movement is in a battle for its future. The CFMEU and other unions under attack require the full support of ALL trade unions and the broader community.Clean nuclear energy and other myths

The cost of building, running and insuring nuclear plants is so astronomical that the US government has always had to provide enormous subsidies and underwrite the insurance of the US plants. (After the Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl and most recently Japans Fukushima reactor disasters, insurance companies became unwilling to insure these facilities against accidents.)

The description of nuclear power generation as involving zero emissions is totally misleading. The critical figure for any power generation system involves the emissions given off during the systems full cycle, not just during the plants operation. On this basis, nuclear power is surely one of the worst performers.

The nuclear energy cycle involves a huge level of carbon dioxide emissions in building the plant, mining and milling the uranium ore, remediation of the tailings, enriching the uranium, fabricating the reactor elements, cooling and disposing of the reactor water, storing, cooling and guarding the waste for 60 years and then transporting it to a safe storage site and guarding it  for 250,000 years!

Uranium enrichment also produces chlorofluorocarbon gas emissions, which are subject to international bans (except for use in nuclear power stations), because they destroy the ozone layer and are also 10,000 to 20,000 times more damaging as greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide.

The division in the present Coalition government is in part a result of the faction which supports the fossil fuel industry, part of climate change denial (recall new PM Morrisons infantile brandishing of a lump of coal in Parliament). The coal industry is increasingly discredited in all crucial areas from job creation to the drive to wreak destruction on farmland to their being seen as environmental vandals.

The former Rudd Labor government supported the discredited clean coal technology, which involves capturing and liquefying carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power stations and pumping the liquid into deep subterranean chasms.

The Australian Coal Association maintains that the industry is concerned about the environment, based on the hollow claim that if we dont supply the world with coal others will.

This dishonest argument ignores our national responsibilities to help mitigate climate change, and our potential to do so. A reduction of Australias coal exports, the biggest in the world, could not readily be compensated by other imports, and would accelerate the global trend towards alternative energy sources.

During the next decade the world must reduce emissions as fast as possible, in order to avoid climate change tipping points. Australia is the worlds worst per-capita emitter of greenhouse gases. Our coal-fired power stations emit almost 50 percent of our emissions, so it is crucial that we minimise their emissions as fast as possible.

Of all the energy sources, renewables produce the least emissions, but successive governments both Liberal and Labor consistently promotes clean coal, at the expense of renewables.

The mining corporations competing claims to be Australias environmental saviours are phoney and endanger the future. But the uranium industrys promotion of nuclear power for Australia is in itself particularly dangerous.

Apart from the financial penalties that would be imposed on the taxpayer, the adoption of nuclear power would introduce the likelihood of nuclear accidents and the storage of waste uranium within Australia (probably on a global basis, as suggested by former PM Bob Hawke). Nuclear power would also increase the likelihood of moving Australia closer to the possibility of adopting nuclear weapons.

We should not compound the massive problems we already face in dealing with climate change by replacing one terribly polluting activity with another. The promoters of nuclear power were right to be cautious of a political backlash. We should make sure they get a mighty big one.

Its real

In 2013 a report from the Climate Commission entitled The Critical Decade, Climate Science, Risks and Responses, stated that in order to avoid a rise of 2 degrees in average world temperatures by the end of the century the burning of fossil fuels must peak before 2020, and must then begin to decline sharply.

The report verified conclusions reached by many scientific organisations, i.e. that global average temperatures are rising, and that although there has only been a one Celsius degree rise over the last 50 years the climate is already changing. The polar ice is melting, the sea levels are rising, the sea is increasing in acidity. The worlds flora and fauna are trying to adapt, but for many species the long-term outlook is grim.

The effects are already evident in Australia. The number of record hot days has more than doubled in the last 50 years, with increasing heat waves and bushfires. The 200 mm average global rise in sea levels since the late 1880s has impacted many coastal communities, and if current conditions persist another rise of 200 mm is likely by 2050.

The Great Barrier Reef has experienced nine bleaching events in the last 31 years. The Reef and its associated economy are under serious risk.

The report accepts that the rise in world temperatures results from the increase in the level of atmospheric greenhouse gases, and that deforestation and human activity involving the combustion of fossil fuels and the consequent emission of carbon dioxide is primarily responsible. Orbital variations and solar activity cannot explain the global warming trend.

The report declares unequivocally: Without strong and rapid action there is a significant risk that climate change will undermine our societys prosperity, health, stability and way of life.

To minimise this risk we must decarbonise our economy and move to clean energy sources by 2050. That means carbon emissions must peak within the next few years and then strongly decline. The longer we wait to start reducing carbon emissions, the more difficult and costly those emissions become.

Difficult but crucial

This was the first time an Australian government report explicitly recommended the phasing out of fossil fuel production and use. It concluded unequivocally that the use of fossil fuels must begin to decline within the next few years, and that the sooner and more rapidly that occurs the better.

In glaring contrast, industries associated with fossil fuel want an increase in their use, and they will fight to prevent or delay any government program to reduce reliance on those fuels.

Nonetheless, scientists estimate that in order to provide a reasonable chance of keeping average global temperatures no higher than 2 degrees over the 1990 benchmark levels between now and 2050, the burning of carbon will have to be limited to about 600 billion tonnes. Australias fossil fuel reserves represent about one twelfth of the worlds stock, so Australia carries a major responsibility to take the lead in reducing production and use of fossil fuels.

Australia is now the worlds biggest exporter of coking coal, and the port of Newcastle, which was sold off to private interests by the former OFarrell state Liberal government has the largest coal-loading facilities of any nation. The Commission took a new approach to presenting its conclusions, nominating long term budget targets for maximum permissible emission levels, with a view to avoiding tipping point climate changes.

Emissions trading schemes, and the likes of the National Energy Guarantee (which the Morrison government will now shelve as politically toxic) flounder because they toady to the demands of coal producers (which dont want any measures to deal with climate change).

The Climate Commissions report examined methods of limiting carbon emissions. It acknowledged the worth of bio-fuels and carbon sink schemes involving new ecosystems. However, it also describes their limitations, and explains why minimising the burning of fossil fuels is essential to tackle the problem.

The Critical Decade is a very important document that should be widely read.

As the authors have explained:

This decade is critical. Unless effective action is taken, the global climate may be so irreversibly altered we will struggle to maintain our way of life. The choices we make this decade will shape the long-term climate future for our children and grandchildren.

And this decade is almost over.The story of Solapur, India

Where Housing Cooperatives are building a workers city

Earlier we used stay in a small hut in a slum in Shastri Nagar, Solapur city. When it rained, the hut used to leak, and there wouldnt be a single dry patch inside. We had to continuously bail out the water when it rained, says Balamani Ambaiah Mergu.

Slums in Solapur city. (All photos by Subin Dennis/Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research)

She is rolling beedis, a thin cigarette, at her house at Kumbhari, the site of a housing initiative led by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

Mergu, whose mother tongue is Telugu, is one of the beedi workers who are part of the first of the three major housing projects of the CITU in Solapur, in south-eastern Maharashtra, a state in west India. The project, named after the late communist leader Godavari Parulekar, counts 10,000 houses and was hailed as the biggest of its kind in Asia.

The housing initiative by the CITU in Solapur is a landmark effort which has provided affordable housing to thousands of workers. By forming cooperatives and by persuading the federal and state governments to dedicate funds for the purpose, the workers have had more than 15,000 houses built since 2001. The construction of another 30,000 houses began in January 2018, and is expected to be completed in four years.

From slums to mass housing

Solapur is situated near Maharashtras border with the State of Karnataka, while Andhra Pradesh, another neighbouring State, is just 220 kilometres away. People belonging to the Padmashali caste (a historically marginalised community of weavers), who migrated from Andhra Pradesh to Solapur, make up more than 40 percent of the population in the city. Unsurprisingly, therefore, it is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual region with Marathi, Telugu, Kannada and Urdu speakers. Most people in Solapur speak three or more languages.

According to the last Census of India in 2011, Solapur has a population of around 950,000, 18 percent of whom live in slums. However, the number of slum dwellers is significantly lower now than in 2001, when the figure hovered around 25 percent. Workers struggles which led to the building of mass housing were the prime catalyst for this change.

The women beedi workers of Solapur, many of them sole bread-winners for their families, are low-paid and were living in tiny shanties on rent in slums. The closing of the textile mills in Solapur, starting in the 1980s, and the handloom industry working below capacity, led to high unemployment. The beedi workers, most of whom are from lower castes and religious minorities, saw their wages being adversely affected.

There are about 65,000 beedi workers in Solapur, and their dismal living conditions prompted the CITU  a trade union with more than 6.04 million members across India as of 2015  to take up the issue of providing them decent and affordable housing.

The working class movement has struck deep roots in the region. The CITU office in Solapur city is located in a working class area next to a slum of the kind described by Mergu. Most of the CITU activists in Solapur are either workers themselves, or full-time activists from working class backgrounds.

Their younger colleagues in the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), a left-wing youth organisation allied to CITU, converse with the people on the street with an easy rapport  typical of a movement that has assiduously built organic links with the masses.

The struggle which led to the housing initiative began in 1992, with the workers in Solapur under the leadership of CITU demanding affordable housing. Narasayya Adam, CITU leader and three-time Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Solapur city (North) constituency, played a pre-eminent role in initiating and leading the campaign. He is popularly known as Adam Master, or Teacher Adam, as he taught mathematics to children, despite not being able to continue formal studies beyond Standard X.

One earlier housing scheme proved unaffordable for the workers, who struggled to pay the monthly instalments. Their debt accumulated, and the failure of the project resulted in the CITU intensifying its movement for workers housing. Between 1992 and 1995, CITU constantly raised the demand for housing for beedi workers, says Aparajita Bakshi, professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, who wrote a research note in 2012 on the CITUs housing initiative in Solapur.

In 1995, Adam Master won the legislative assembly elections. In the same year he raised the issue of housing for beedi workers at the legislative assembly in a memorable speech that he delivered on the conditions of beedi workers in Solapur, she writes in her note.

As a result of these efforts, the state government agreed to reach a one-time agreement with the owners of the houses under the earlier scheme, to settle the accumulated debt. Meanwhile, Adam proposed a new housing scheme for beedi workers, under which the estimated cost of constructing the house, including purchasing the land, would be Rs. 60,000 (less than US$900  A$1,230). The cost was to be shared equally by the worker, the central government and the state government.

Women rolling beedis at Kumbhari.

Cooperative housing societies lead the way

The workers had to wage a long, drawn out struggle to win their demand. They formed cooperative housing societies to drive the initiative. Through mass mobilisations, protest actions and campaigns, they forced central and state governments to allot funds for the construction of houses.

The CITU started organising beedi workers on their local issues initially, on the issue of work, identity cards [for various government schemes] and other benefits, K Hemalata, the all India President of the CITU told us when we met her at her office in New Delhi.

Most of the beedi workers were women, and they were dispersed in different areas. So the leadership had to move house to house and create confidence among them, that they could get organised, and that by coming together, they can achieve wage increases and so on.

Naseema Shaikh, who joined the movement as a teenager, gave us a glimpse into the mobilisation strategies adopted to organise workers in demonstrations and rallies. Comrade Adam Master used to roam around in a bicycle, and he organised meetings of workers in slums. We formed teams of four to five women workers, she explains during an interview at the Solapur city office of the Women Beedi Workers Cooperative Housing Society.

By the late 1990s when the agitation for cooperative housing reached its peak, we used to gherao [prevent (someone) from leaving a place of work until certain demands are met] every minister who visited Solapur, demanding to know the status of our housing project, she says in a mix of Hindi, Urdu and Marathi.

Adam, now a Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the CPI(M), remembered an example of the opposition and prejudice they had to encounter when the workers initially approached the government with their proposal for the housing project: When we approached Satya Narayan Jatiya, the Labour Minister at the centre, he claimed that this was a scheme for us to embezzle money.

According to CITU activists, mainstream political groups including the Indian National Congress (which has been the ruling party in India for the longest period since independence) were sceptical of the initiative. But the unions campaign resulted in the initiative winning support from political leaders in Maharashtra across the political spectrum.

Sharad Pawar, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Manohar Joshi, Chandrakant Khaire, Mulayam Singh Yadav [leaders from various political parties] and seven or eight Parliament Members of the CPI(M) together gheraoed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on March 8, 2000, [International] Womens Day. What is the issue, he asked, and they explained the demand to him. Come to my office, said the Prime Minister. After reaching the office, he called Jatiya and directed him to sanction the 10,000 houses project, Adam says as he fondly recalls the key victory when major leaders hailing from various political parties joined hands to put pressure on the central government.

The first project inaugurated

After several rounds of negotiations, the proposal was sanctioned on March 8, 2001. Construction was carried out by Pandhe Constructions, a local firm, and the completed Godavari Parulekar Housing Scheme was inaugurated on September 1, 2006 by the then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The public meeting was attended by more than 100,000 people.

A typical house unit in the scheme is around 555 square feet (around 50 square metres), and the project is spread across 182 hectares, at Kumbhari, about 8 kilometres from Solapur city. The project includes open spaces as well as the land required for community services, schools, hospitals etc. The state and federal governments contributed to the construction of electricity lines, an electric sub-station and water tanks. The Municipal Corporation of Solapur has provided the water supply.

Each worker was able to buy a house for Rs 20,000 (just short of US$300), a third of the total cost. Workers paid their share in instalments, and the funds for this purpose were drawn from their personal savings and their social security funds. The central governments share for the scheme came from the Beedi Workers Welfare Fund, which consists of the tax collected on manufactured beedis.

The second scheme, inaugurated in 2015 and dubbed the Comrade Meenakshi Sane Housing Scheme, involved building 5,100 houses for women beedi workers. It is named after the trade unionist Meenakshi Sane who did pioneering work in organising the beedi workers of Solapur.

The third scheme is the biggest, and aims to construct 30,000 affordable houses for beedi workers, textile workers and other unorganised sector workers at a total cost of Rs 18.11 billion (about US$263 million).

Workers have been organised into five cooperative societies for this purpose  that of religious minority women workers, workers belonging to the traditional cobbler community, power loom workers, women beedi workers, and ready made and tailored clothes workers.

These five cooperatives have come together to form the RAY Nagar Cooperative Housing Federation. Massive demonstrations and rallies were held to mobilise support and to persuade the federal and state governments to provide funds for this scheme as well. The governments gave the green light for the project in 2016, and the scheme is expected to be completed by 2021.

It will be unlike anything that youd see anywhere else. No industrialists, no rich people, not even the middle class. It will be a city of the working class alone, Narasayya Adam says.

From a village to a vibrant small town

The shift from city slums to the houses at Kumbhari constituted a major advance for the workers. But the people who moved into the houses at Kumbhari faced difficulties in transportation for the first two years. Then the CITU persuaded the Solapur Municipal Transport  the transport utility of the Solapur Municipal Corporation  to start bus services to Kumbhari. The bus fare from anywhere in Kumbhari to Solapur city has been kept low, at Rs. 7 (US$0.10).

We have also brought the beedi industry here. Twenty work sheds have been constructed and provided to the beedi industry at minimal rent, MH Shaikh, Maharashtra State General Secretary of the CITU, explained. Beedis are made in households by women workers, and the rolled beedis are collected at the work sheds.

The men in the households work in the power loom sector, and many power loom industries have migrated here automatically. So the men also dont have to go far for work.

We persuaded the Zila Parishad [the local administrative body at the district level] to start schools for the children here. We gave land for the purpose for free, and there are six big primary schools here now. There are also five high schools in the area, Shaikh said in an interview at the CPI(M) office in Kumbhari.

The world takes note

In June this year, the effort won international acclaim, with the initiative winning the Transformative Cities 2018 Award established by the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI).

The award aims to recognise political practices that could serve as an inspiration for others, in the fields of water, energy and housing. From a list of 32 such initiatives from 19 countries, nine  three each from the three fields  were shortlisted for the award. The entries were from Bolivia, Nigeria, France, US, Mauritius, Tanzania, Spain (which had two entries) and India.

The Solapur initiative won the award in the housing category, and also won the maximum number of votes, among all nine shortlisted entries, in the online polling.

What it all means

The determined struggle by the workers of Solapur, organised into cooperatives, has resulted in a remarkable shift away from their earlier, insecure lives in rented homes. The slums that still exist in Solapur today are cramped shacks separated by lanes that are sometimes only a metre wide. Drains with coloured water  due to effluents from textile units  flow through the slum near the CITU office in the city. We have managed to bring people out of such hazardous living conditions, Shaikh said.

What can the working class movement elsewhere in India learn from the CITUs experience in Solapur?, asks Narasayya Adam.

The informal sector workers in our country, they have nothing. We try to organise them, and while doing that, we should work to help the workers avail of various government schemes as well. If we dont and if the workers dont get anything as a result of joining trade unions, theyll get angry and leave after three to four years, Adam says.

Efforts such as the housing initiative in Solapur improve the living conditions of the workers in the immediate term. And they also help galvanise and prepare the workers for more and bigger struggles to bring about far-reaching, systemic changes in society.

Efforts such as these should be made everywhere. The workers have to be united to win their demands, Adam adds. More such housing initiatives have indeed been undertaken in other States such as Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, CITU sources tell us.

The housing initiatives of the CITU in Solapur have become milestones in the history of low cost mass housing, working class movements, cooperative movements and the role of the government in the creation of social security with peoples participation. These mass housing projects have shown that workers can achieve their dream of housing on the sheer strength of their own sustained movements, and with the cooperation of governments.

At the same time, they explode the myth that trade unions are not concerned about the informal sector; that the unions are only bothered about workers in large factories and in the public sector. They also point to successful ways to overcome some of the commonly cited difficulties before working class organisations in these times when big factories are being broken up and workers do their jobs from dispersed locations.

The beedi workers do home-based work, and the success of the CITU in organising them shows that Unions are finding innovative ways to organise workers  in this case, at a site where workplace and home coincide.

Tricontinental Dossier no 6, July 2018, thetricontinental.orgTo paint a false picture

Why is it that the mainstream media in the US and other Western countries consistently frame the Palestinian liberation struggle as a conflict in which both sides share the blame, particularly because extremists undermine moderates? Why does this media unfailingly assert Israels right to self-defence even in the face of unarmed protests such as the recent Great March of Return in Gaza that in some instances pitted rocks and burning kites against modern weaponry?

Greg Shupak, who teaches media studies at the University of Guelph-Humber in Canada, probes these framing narratives and other questions in his new book The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel and the Media.

Shupak takes a novel approach. Rather than examine the bias in news accounts, he focuses on editorials in The New York Times with the aim of revealing the mainstream medias underlying ideological support for a state closely aligned with US foreign policy objectives in the Middle East.

Shupak shows that framing narratives revealed in editorials rely on selecting only certain aspects of reality, which are then echoed in news accounts. Those selections reinforce already held beliefs and cultural assumptions.

Once this dominant narrative is established, no other aspects of reality are presented that might undermine the framing.

As Shupak puts it: In the West, narratives about Palestine-Israel activate the well-established knowledge structures that exist in a broader cultural context that is colonial, imperialist, Orientalist or some combination of these, wherein Israel is widely regarded as an outpost of Western civilization in a struggle with backward, savage Arabs.

Blocking out the blockade

The three frameworks that Shupak identifies as most common in Western news media presentations are the both sides or false equivalence narrative, the moderates vs extremists narrative, and the right to self-defence narrative.

On close examination, Shupak finds, the information selected to support these frameworks favours Israeli government propaganda and systematically conceals the information needed to understand the Palestinian narrative.

Take the habitual claim that both sides are to blame for the conflict. This narrative identifies a small portion of the injustice done to Palestinians while proportionately inflating the harm done to Israelis, Shupak writes, thereby advancing a false equivalency between the rights and responsibilities of the colonisers and the colonised.

To give just one example, Shupak points out that of five Times editorials written during and immediately prior to Israels 2008-2009 bombings and land invasion of Gaza, only one mentioned Israels siege and blockade of the territory. The only way the Times could posit a both sides narrative was by omitting the fact that only one side  Israel  was conducting a siege.

Israel was not under siege from the Palestinians; Palestinians were resisting the Israeli blockade. The Palestinians could not possibly impose a blockade on Israel given the asymmetry of power between the two sides.

Nor, Shupak points out, have Palestinians ever militarily occupied Israel or subjected Israelis to land dispossession, discriminatory laws, checkpoints, administrative detention, restrictions on free speech and assembly, bans on family unification, deportations, or prohibitions against non-violent forms of resistance.

What ought to be obvious when all facts are selected is that the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians is one between the oppressor and the oppressed. Therefore, only one side is to blame for the conflict.

The corporate media is not just failing to tell both sides of the story; it is, in effect, telling only one side and in doing so conveys the wrong story.

Moderate?

Shupaks most incisive and in many ways groundbreaking critique of the dominant media narrative comes when he examines the moderate vs extremist framework used to explain why the conflict has become so protracted.

In this media framework, the Israeli extremists are the fanatic religious settlers who oppose giving up land and carry out acts of violence, while the Israeli moderates are the government officials who claim to favour a land-for-peace, two-state solution.

Hamas, of course, represents the Palestinian extremists because of its use of violence. And the Palestinian Authority represents the moderates willing to renounce violence and negotiate a peaceful settlement with Israel.

Whats wrong with this scenario? Besides the fact that successive so-called moderate governments originated and expanded Israels illegal settlements, Israeli moderates have also been far greater purveyors of violence than fanatic settlers, Shupak points out.

The Israeli military has killed thousands more Palestinians than settlers ever have and with far more powerful weapons than the settlers possess.

Meanwhile, Palestinian moderates, in the form of the PA, have not played a resistance role, but rather have been incorporated into the Israeli security apparatus and the neo-liberal economic policies imposed as part of the Oslo peace process. International donors have ensured that the PAs economic planning conforms to those policies.

Shupak maintains that the PA has been from the beginning, at least partially, a conduit for global capitalist interests at the centre of which is the American ruling class.

Hence, when Western media hold up the PA as the moderate Palestinians, it essentially imposes a false narrative in which a client group is portrayed as part of an eventual peaceful solution when in fact it is part of the ongoing problem.

The right to self-defence narrative can also be found in The New York Times editorials, which essentially denies Palestinians the right to self-defence. The legitimacy of the colonisers violence is unquestioned, Shupak observes, whereas the violence of the colonised is presented as illegitimate.

In brief, Israel has the right to use violence to impose its blockade of Gaza, but Palestinians have no right to use violence to resist the siege. Furthermore, he notes, since the state of Israel acted as the aggressor and initiated the violent expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, the idea of Israeli self-defence is a logical impossibility.

The right to self-defence properly belongs only to the Palestinians.

Shupak concludes his study with the observation that Western mainstream media coverage is unlikely to change until mass pressure in the form of public opinion forces Western countries to cease backing Israel.

The task of achieving the necessary shifts in consciousness, he writes, falls to independent news outlets, as well as to ordinary people who educate about Palestine on campuses, in workplaces, in religious communities and on the streets.

The Electronic IntifadaFOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIASir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic launched its first passenger flight to the Moon after a two-and-a-half hour delay due to an earlier incident in space.

Once on board the rocket, passengers were reminded to check their tickets, as off-peak supersaver returns and advance day single anytimes weren't valid on the flight.

Many Virgin Galactic passengers complained of having to stand most of the way to the Moon, due to a signalling problem, while others noted that the air-conditioning was faulty and the toilets were closed, due to over-use.

Sir Richard Branson's (pictured with Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo) Virgin Galactic launched its first passenger flight to the Moon after a two-and-a-half hour delay due to an earlier incident in space

Many Virgin Galactic passengers complained of having to stand most of the way to the Moon, due to a signalling problem, while others noted that the air-conditioning was faulty and the toilets were closed, due to over-use (stock image)

But spirits were raised by the appearance of Sir Richard himself, dressed as a martian and grinning broadly.

To the astonishment of the global community, for a full seven minutes on Thursday, August 16, President Donald Trump neither said nor did anything the slightest bit controversial.

A forthcoming book, The Missing Seven Minutes by Watergate journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, suggests he may have been asleep, though in the past, this has not prevented him from either speaking or tweeting.

With the growing obesity crisis, critics suspected that the re-release of the back-catalogue of James Bond films has been doctored to appeal to larger viewers.

'The producers claim that nothing has changed, but their new titles tell a different story,' said one critic, pointing to changes in the titles of films such as Pie Another Day, Quantum Of Soleros, For Your Pies Only, Fishfinger, You Only Sieve Twice, Live And Let Pie, GoldenSyrup, Licence To Grill, The Man With The Golden Bun, The World Is Not A Puff Pastry and Dr No-Oh-Well-Then-Just-A-Little-Bit.

Pictured: Branson has wanted to go into space since he first founded Virgin Galactic in 2004

Following complaints from its officers, The Trading Standards Institute changed its name to The Trading Standards Institut-tut-tut.

Unfeasibly hot weather in the UK meant that people who usually carried one bottle of water with them wherever they went now carried two.

Even those who had never been seen in public with a bottle before carried at least one.

At Royal Ascot, the Queen drew one out of her handbag and slurped from it, while the BBC's veteran newscaster Huw Edwards was spotted downing a bottle of water as he interviewed Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit.

Thankfully, at the Royal Festival Hall, the sound of members of the London Symphony Orchestra crinkling their water bottles during the quiet Sea Interlude of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes was drowned out by the noise of the audience doing the same.

In trendy restaurants, consumers complained that just as they had learned how to pronounce 'quinoa', it had gone out of fashion.

After years spent in obscurity, a new Kardashian  Katherine  emerged from hiding. A sister to the ubiquitous Kim, Kylie, Kourtney, Khloe and Kendall, Katherine is an accountant who lists her hobbies as reading the classics, needlework and spending a quiet night in.

She confessed to never having taken a selfie, never having had a breast enhancement and never having split up with a boyfriend live on TV. She also denied ever having been to hell and back, a return journey her sisters make at least once a week. In response, Katherine's sisters raised doubts as to her true identity and called for DNA tests to be undertaken.

'Sounds like some kinda weirdo to me,' says Kim. 'Next thing you know, she'll be claiming she's never posted a topless photograph on Instagram!'

A survey showed one in three people in the UK is a psychotherapist, while a further one in three is visiting a psychotherapist. What of the remaining one person in three?

'We would urge them to seek emergency advice from a psychotherapist before their world spins out of control,' said a spokesman for the Royal Institute of Psychotherapy, or RIP.

Low-cost airline Ryanair announced new charges based on 'an exciting new range of options'.

Customers wishing to sit down during a flight will now be able to pay an extra 15 for a seat of their own, while those who choose to remain standing up will incur a charge of 7.50 for the extra ceiling-space needed for their heads.

Additionally, passengers not wishing to have their in-flight drinks poured all over them are invited to pay an extra 12.50 for Ryanair's exclusive VIP Straight-to-Glass service.Jeremy Corbyn has been on the move again. Two years ago, you may recall, the Labour leader became embroiled in a trivial, but revealing, fuss when he was accused of staging a political stunt on a Virgin East Coast train.

Claiming that the train was packed, Mr Corbyn staged a one-man sit-in in the vestibule, and tried to use the incident as ammunition for his crusade to renationalise the railways.

Virgin hit back, claiming that he had deliberately snubbed empty seats, and the whole thing degenerated into an unseemly mess.

Yesterday Mr Corbyn was back on the rails, though this time he managed to find a seat. Travelling from Liverpool to Hull on the route for the proposed Crossrail of the North, he used his journey to publicise the national disgrace of overcrowding, delays and cancellations on our railways.

The answer, he says, is very simple: Labour will end this rip-off and bring our railways into public ownership so they are run in the interests of passengers, not private profit.

Travelling from Liverpool to Hull on the route for the proposed Crossrail of the North, Jeremy Corbyn used his journey to publicise the national disgrace of overcrowding, delays and cancellations on our railways

On the face of it, Mr Corbyn is pushing at an open door. Nothing is more infuriating than being stuck on a train that is running two hours late, if it is running at all.

As anybody who has travelled in France or Germany will know, our trains are too often an embarrassment. Few people would deny the Government has completely failed to properly regulate the rail companies, protect passengers rights and preside over a decently organised system.

Does the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling strike you as a man who is completely on top of his brief, dedicated to giving Britain an efficient rail network, and passionately committed to passengers interests? No, me neither.

The statistics tell the story. The proportion of trains that are cancelled or seriously late has risen by 50 per cent since 2010, while overcrowding has increased by some 25 per cent on Britains ten most popular peak-time routes. But as rail commuters will know (and if you are reading this in the corridor of a train that looks and smells like the Black Hole of Calcutta, I am heartily sorry for you), the bad news does not end there.

After years of increases, fares rose by an average 3.4 per cent this year, infuriating travellers who cannot find a seat. And peak-time tickets are crazily expensive. A standard return fare from London to Manchester costs 338, more than a cheap flight across the Atlantic.

When you throw in the never-ending epidemic of strikes and walkouts, which badly disrupted services across southern England last week, it is no wonder so many passengers applaud Mr Corbyns calls for a return to the days of public ownership. Indeed, polls consistently find that almost two-thirds of voters support nationalisation.

So should we really turn back the clock to the days of British Rail? Well, the short answer is no. But before that, it is worth adding a bit of nuance to Mr Corbyns picture.

Contrary to what the Labour leader suggests, some private operators do a perfectly good job. My local service, Chiltern Railways, is almost always on time, runs clean and efficient trains and has spent a fortune on new car parks at Banbury and Oxford Parkway.

As anybody who has travelled in France or Germany will know, our trains are too often an embarrassment

I am old enough, alas, to remember British Rail before privatisation in the Nineties. Was it better than Chiltern? No, it definitely was not.

It is, of course, perfectly true that some private operators have performed with lamentable incompetence, for which the Government has pathetically failed to punish them.

I think, for instance, of Southern, which has inflicted on commuters a seemingly unending saga of strikes, cancellations and delays. Indeed, if you want a symbol of everything wrong with our rail network, it is surely Southerns infamous 7.29am train from Brighton to London, which ran on 240 occasions in 2014 and never once arrived on time.

No wonder, then, that people want to see the end of rail bosses like Southerns Charles Horton, who was paid a colossal 495,000 even as his firm became synonymous with overcrowding and cancellations.

But would public ownership, under Mr Corbyn and his Marxist Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, really be the equivalent of a silver bullet?

Would fares fall overnight? Would trains magically become less crowded? Would delays become a distant memory?

Of course not. Nationalisation would do nothing to cure the basic problem with our railway system.

The truth is that we have the oldest network in the world, designed during the Victorian era, struggling to cope with greater demand than ever, with the population having soared from about 27 million in 1851 to almost 67 million today. If the railways were run from a Whitehall office, that fact would not change by one iota.

Mr Corbyn claims nationalisation would allow the Government to pour money into the railways. But who does he think he is kidding?

Unless they sort it out, the momentum behind Mr Corbyns nationalisation campaign may prove unstoppable

He has already pledged tens of billions to university students, the NHS, foreign aid and increased benefits. So where on earth would this money come from?

The history of British Rail after 1948, when the railways were nationalised, shows that public ownership was very bad for the railways finances. Whenever there was money in the kitty, schools and hospitals always got priority. But whenever the government needed budget cuts, the railways were first in line.

As a result, trains in British Rails heyday were an international laughing stock. Does anybody believe that if, say, Diane Abbott were in charge of the timetable, punctuality would dramatically improve?

There is no reason why the current system shouldnt work well. The most popular operators, firms such as Chiltern and Merseyrail, are widely acknowledged to perform just as well as their European rivals.

But the Government has completely failed to enforce any kind of uniform standards. There is nothing wrong with the principle of regulating private services, rather than organising services from Whitehall; indeed, the results are usually far more efficient.

But if you are regulating, you have to do it properly, with fines and sanctions for underperforming companies, something Mr Grayling, like his predecessors, has conspicuously failed to do.

The Government has been far too slow to strip failing firms like Southern of their franchises. And it has been far too weak when faced with obstruction from the militant RMT union, which jealously protects its train drivers pay  often more than 63,000 for a four-day week  while stubbornly refusing to accept that, in an era of technological change, there is no need to have guards on every train.

As a result, is it surprising that so many passengers  hot, weary, exhausted and infuriated  have lost patience with the current model? Is it any wonder that they listen to a politician like Mr Corbyn?

Faced with a rash of delays, as well as the prospect of more strikes running into the winter, the Government badly needs to get a grip, cracking down on rail bosses and rail unions alike. If Mr Grayling cannot do it, then the Prime Minister should find someone who will.

Unless they sort it out, the momentum behind Mr Corbyns nationalisation campaign may prove unstoppable. And then we really would be in a mess. For although the Labour leader pretends public ownership would turn every railway into a modern-day Orient Express, the reality is that it would probably turn every service into a version of Southern at its worst.

Nothing would be more likely to send millions of commuters reaching for their car keys. And then, given the state of Britains roads, we would be in a serious jam. But that, of course, is another story.This column is occasionally accused of having an anti-police agenda. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Ive regularly praised the courage and dedication of front-line coppers, especially those engaged in the fight against terrorism.

Even my popular Mind How You Go series, which spotlights some of the more absurd aspects of modern policing, is done with affection and a wry smile.

I know from your letters and emails that plenty of retired and serving officers share my exasperation with the warped priorities of chief constables and the constant pandering to every passing political fad.

These days, when theyre not moaning about the cuts, the Old Bill seem to spend more time patrolling the world wide web, in search of perceived hate crimes, than actually pounding the beat (stock image)

These days, when theyre not moaning about the cuts, the Old Bill seem to spend more time patrolling the world wide web, in search of perceived hate crimes, than actually pounding the beat.

Yes, budgets are tight and the police face new challenges, such as cyber fraud and keeping track of Islamist nutjobs who would do us harm. Only yesterday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid was speaking about the growing threat to children from internet predators.

But that doesnt excuse the accelerated closure of police stations and the withdrawal of officers from routine foot patrols. The number of coppers has fallen in recent years, but with an overall strength of around 122,000 there are still almost 50,000 more policemen and women than 60 years ago, when bobbies on the beat were a common sight.

Richard Littlejohn discusses policing in this weeks column including the incident earlier this year in Hither Green, South-East London, where police defended a shrine to a violent career criminal who had been killed while committing an armed burglary

It has just been revealed that 600 police stations have shut since 2010. Some cities such as St Albans and Bath no longer have a dedicated station. In Gloucestershire, only seven out of 28 are still open.

This process has been going on for the past two or three decades. Our nearest nick, in North London, closed to the public more than 20 years ago.

Shortly after it shut, a man was stabbed to death on its doorstep, while a number of coppers busied themselves with vital paperwork behind its locked doors.

The so-called experts insist that maintaining police stations and sending out officers to walk the beat is an inefficient use of resources and does nothing to tackle rising crime.

But as John Apter, of the Police Federation, says: Police stations in town centres provide a visible reassurance.

Precisely. A police presence also deters opportunist crooks.

Around the country, residents report increased crime and break-ins when police stations close and patrols are pared back. And how often must we read that some forces simply cant be bothered to investigate burglaries and other allegedly minor offences?

Thirty-odd years ago, I wrote a column for Londons Evening Standard about the Met introducing a points system to work out whether it was worth sending a detective to burglary scenes. This kind of screening has become common practice throughout Britain. A recent report said that police fail to attend two out of three burglaries.

Loved the archive pictures of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise in the Mail at the weekend. I couldnt help but smile. A mate reminded me of the time Eric was asked what theyd have been if they hadnt become comedians. Mike and Bernie Winters, he replied.

Now Norfolk constabulary has gone a stage further and bought a computer programme which uses algorithms to determine which crimes should be investigated.

The problem is that what the Old Bill considers to be trivial crimes are properly traumatic for the victims.

As the Federations John Apter also observes: I have been a police officer for 25 years and burglary is still one of the most intrusive, invasive and personal crimes anyone can face. Try telling that to the new breed of senior police chiefs, who all seem to be drawn from the ranks of sociology graduates, not seasoned thief takers.

They are so in thrall to the dogma of diversity that they often side with the perpetrators of crime, especially when they hail from a vulnerable minority. Remember how in April, in Hither Green, South-East London, they defended a shrine to a violent career criminal who had been killed while committing an armed burglary. The shrine was a deliberate attempt by friends and relatives of this thug to intimidate local householders.

But because the dead man was a member of the travelling community, the police decided that this outrageous affront to public decency should be allowed to go ahead. Its their culcha, innit?

When travellers move into any area, it is generally accompanied by an increase in petty crime, litter and nuisance. But the protests of local taxpayers often fall on deaf ears.

Surrey police recently tweeted sympathy and support for a group of travellers who illegally occupied public land at Long Ditton.

After the travellers arrived, locals reported a spate of thefts, and shops were forced to close early because of stealing.

Yet instead of investigating these crimes, the police urged homeowners to consider how upsetting it must be for travellers to have to uproot every few days. Cue violins.

Is it any wonder that so many law-abiding citizens have lost confidence in the police?

While Plod cant be fussed to tackle crimes like burglary, they still find the time to devote their energies to minor traffic violations. Last week, we learned that drivers who stray just 1mph over the limit could soon face fines of 100 and incur penalty points on their licence.

And yesterday three forces announced plans for roadside eye tests. Any motorist failing to read a number plate from 65ft away will have his or her licence confiscated immediately and will have to find their own way home.

While no one is advocating a speeding free-for-all or allowing someone who is as blind as a bat to pilot a two-ton 4x4 down a public highway, these initiatives give a pretty reliable  and frankly, depressing  indication of the polices sense of priorities.

Especially as go-faster boy racers and suicide jockeys in white vans seem to be able to terrorise other drivers with impunity.

Just a thought, but instead of pulling over middle-aged drivers for eyesight tests, surely those officers would be better deployed stopping and searching young hooligans for knives, acid and other weapons on the mean streets of Wild West Britain.

Maybe they should ask the computer.

Mind How You Go.

Enjoyed a fabulous evening on Friday, watching Van Morrison, the Waterboys and Hothouse Flowers in the idyllic grounds of Wrest Park, a stately home at Silsoe, Bedfordshire.

There were a few minor niggles, such as the queue for the loos and the dopey bird who plonked herself in front of us, then got up, turned her back to the stage and started taking selfies for ten minutes. But the surroundings and the weather were splendid, the sound system immaculate and Van the Man on the best form Id seen him in 40-odd years.

The afternoon tea hamper wed ordered was jolly good. And though the booze was overpriced, well, when isnt it at these festivals? Yet I opened the Mail yesterday to discover that some of my fellow revellers werent happy.

They complained about everything, from not being allowed to take their own sandwiches to the chaos in the car park after the show.

Some people said it took them more than three hours to get away. Sorry about this, but we were out of there in five minutes.

Bitter experience of attending large events has taught me to always leave a few minutes before the end. The trick at any concert is to make a move during the first encore.

We agreed on Friday that when Van started singing Brown Eyed Girl, it was time to leg it, otherwise wed have been there all night, too.